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Resume of game on 4-6-95
Summary
The PCs travelled to Northmarch with Praxos Periledes, on the trail of an amulet which they suspect protected the old Baron from the spirit Unuk-Halai. Passing through Cleftwood, an old Karmanos / Erath shrine was found, which yielded some interesting magic crystals of unknown purpose. In Erew, another tiny abandoned village, an Erath shrine was found inside an ancient hollow Yew tree. But the most impressive shrine was found in the village of Alliswood, which was untouched by Unuk-Halai's attacks probably because it doubles as a large Trickster temple. It was difficult enough for the friendly PCs to get in!
Details
Ammerdale and Pan returned to Genest via Arin House, where they filled in The Magister on the Newtling situation and the vampires that they'd just seen in Northmarch. They stayed overnight, and met a mysterious and intense man called Mel; he was reading Tales Of Old Karmania in the library (see Stories...). "We wrote that!" they cried modestly. He was impressed and questioned them closely, but they got uneasy when he seemed to know too much about what's going on in the area. He was coy about his cult(s) - "about 7" was all he'd say. Seemed likeable, though.
Marcus heard from Praxos, who was passing through Genest, that the old Baron of Northmarch used to have an amulet, which was lost when the barony fell into anarchy. The amulet had been handed down from ancient times. From its description, Marcus deduced that it was used to protect the Baron from the influences of Unuk-Halai, who seems strongest in Northmarch. He suggested to Praxos that they travel to the shrine the PCs recently discovered behind the Ice Waterfall where he suspected it might lie hidden. (Marcus' intention is for Praxos to wear it ... then even if Antigonus Periledes kills him, it will probably end up being worn by The Baron!)
The other PCs were recruited and the five PCs, Praxos, and Praxos' new hired minion Jer (a mercenary from down Harandash way) set off to this shrine. (The other PCs might deduce from all this that Marcus has told Praxos something about Erath / Unuk-Halai.)
Everyone travelled back to The Magister's to beg a bed en route. Perhaps the PCs would have been pushing their peasanty luck here, but having a possible Baron-to-be with you opens doors!
Whilst there, they came across Mort the moody magician mooching around the estate (he taught several of them a spell in exchange for a magic amulet some time ago). He said he'd sold / gambled / lost / had been forcibly relieved of the amulet.
Trundling into Northmarch the next day, everyone followed Praxos' lead and ran away from a giant slug roaming the woods. At lunchtime, hearing someone stomping in their direction, all hid [ as this adventure went on, it became a running jest with Praxos that he was always ready to run or hide. "That's right," he grinned, "I've been a professional soldier!"] and observed a bald man in a habit walk into the clearing. This was a Brother Aros, who invited himself to lunch, and who made the Mad Preacher of Newfaith seem a paragon of tolerance and reasonableness. He claimed to be a religious hermit, but the party had doubts - "probably been expelled from his order" they thought. Eventually he was so aggravating, Marcus felt compelled to put the boot in and Aros crawled off into the forest shouting about their impiety and that Retribution would surely follow.
Cleftwood is the place where the army crucified a load of Malian Broo last year, and the PCs avoided the centre where the rotting remains still hung. But a faint trail was noticed leading out of the village, and it seemed to have been trod by an unshod human foot lately (albeit missing a toe).
The party followed the trail to a wee shrine in a hollow a few hundred yards south. This is a well-built, stone walled shrine in good condition considering it's been abandoned for 20+ years. The runes above the entrance are Death/Mobility/Stasis and Harmony/Truth/Fertility.
There was a skylight, which Marcus clambered up to, but couldn't enter through - there seemed to be an invisible glass (?) in it. The great oak doors proved to be unlocked, though, and Ammerdale walked in only to be Disrupted. Realising this was probably an automatic defensive enchantment, Marcus walked in trying to think of the runes above the entrance, but got zapped too. Indeed only Gelert seemed immune to the effects.
Inside, there were two statues: - the central statue (plinth runes Death/Mobility/Stasis) is a bearded man wearing a crown and sword, holding a dove in one hand and in his other, the hand of the female statue: - a very pregnant female, carved from red rock and holding what might be a mirror (plinth runes Harmony/Truth/Fertility) which was taken to be Erath; - and a cylindrical alter of strange design, with a slot in the top.
When Ammerdale, Marcus and Pan (who had finally braved the one-off Disrupts to enter) neared it, another spell hit them: they felt like they were moving through treacle, and fell over. This took several minutes to wear off.
The PCs searched the place and found some moth-eaten formal robes: an Ermine one, a red one with Harmony/Truth/Fertility embroidered in copper thread, and some dirty white ones. These were left in the shrine. Up in the rafters, a small box was discovered by "monkey" Marcus: it appered to be a "trick" box, no lock but some kind of hidden trick to open it. No-one can open it except Gelert, who didn't think there was any trick at all: it just seems to fall open in his hands. Inside were 5 shiny pebbles (see Loot ). They were put back in the box which is being carried by someone other than Gelert for now.
Leaving the shrine, the party passed by and examined a nearby cliff wall. This was riddled with caves, most seemingly originally sealed-up: now all but two have been re-opened. The caves are far enough up the cliff to need a ladder for access. The re-opening was perhaps by robbers; piles of stones and bricks lie at the bottom of the cliff, covered with several years' vegetation.
Marcus climbed up the cliff to a lower cave. Heaving himself over the remains of a brick wall in the entrance, he could see it was roughly hewn out of the rock, not a natural cave, and low enough that he had to bend double to traverse it. There was a nasty smell of ... rotting meat?
He shuffled along, but then heard two voices speaking in Carmanian:
Marcus was struck by a sudden SAN loss and backed out hurriedly. Due to his vocal cords unaccountably seizing up, he could only gesture to the others, but they got the idea and Ran Away.
It was suggested that maybe the reason the Pregnant Erath Shrine was still active and not destroyed was the proximity of those Tunnel Things.
The PCs stayed the night in the woods, by a huge obelisk with a raised platform which seemed to be an open-air Karmanos shrine (Death/Mobility/Stasis). Worryingly, there were human-looking bones nearby and brown stains on the obelisk, indicating a sacrifice within the last year? Vampires? Black Karmans? Tunnel Things? Telmori? School dinner ladies? ... ?
However, the night passed without event.
Erew was never more than a tiny hamlet. and the PCs almost passed through without noticing it. However Marcus and Gelert did notice a thousand-year-old Yew tree, Erath's Yew, which gives the place its name.
"Monkey" Marcus, remembering another old Yew he had once seen, climbed quickly up the tree and inside! Inside the Yew, which was hollow, he found a small red statue of Erath still untouched by looters.
Marcus related this to the others quietly... but suggested that they
leave it undisturbed for now.
The PCs moved on to Alliswood. The PCs had passed this way once before, trailing some vampires at night(!), but somehow never noticed the large pyramid just outside the village. This time they saw it and investigated.
It seemed to have three walls, one stone, one brick and one wood. (The PCs didn't appreciate my initial comments about this being an incongrously difficult structure to build at first, until they realised the scale.)
The runes on the door were Stasis/Disorder/Truth/Light. The PCs entered.....
They had a choice of 3 directions:
The "well" opened out into a Great Hall. This large triangular hall had "superglue" enchantments scattered hither and yon, and several PCs got stuck on these.
A worrying gigantic web in one corner was left well alone, despite the enticing smell of corn grits and fresh bread coming from it. Something inside registered when Praxos tried a Detect Magic, but it moved and looked dangerous.
The Detect Magic also highlighted the areas which had "superglue" enchantments; and one of the thousands of beer bottles littering the floor glowed too...(see Loot).
Bright glows also came from behind silken curtains in the other two corners. Behind one curtain was a statue of a squat, ugly fellow with a leering grin and the runes Stasis/Disorder on the plinth. This was left alone. Behind the other curtain was a pair of statues, carved from red rock: Erath (presumably) and the ugly bloke again. The runes here were Disorder/Truth/Light, and the statues were suspended upside-down from the ceiling. The Erath statue was active and accepted worship.
There were two other things of note in this shrine. One was the extensive collection of garden gnomes. But more importantly, the remains of a man bearing stigmata on his arm ( Disorder/Illusion/Lune) were hanging cocooned from the ceiling. It seemed an agent of Unuk-Halai's had been found trying to damage part of this temple.....
Predictions for next game: PCs get lost in Northmarch?; Meet remnants of the vampiric force ?; Squabbles sharing loot?
A dodgy haul this time: