Game start date: Storm 3, 1620
Details
The game started with the PCs in Harandash, the capital of Bindle. Because this was Richard's last game, we abstracted the sojourn here into 'you have a fairly quiet time'.
No remunerative employment was to be found travelling back to Genest, so the PCs walked ( see map ) - a 10 day trip. The trip was enlivened slightly by Marcus' new pet, a mangy old wolf he had rescued from the Arena and which he released back to the wild across the river from Thule.
The major event on the way back, of course, was when the PCs passed through Harmony and Pan stayed there with His Intended, Myra. The others went on to Genest to bring back Pan's family: The roads north of Aquapor seemed strangely quiet, although the PCs did see one large soldier patrol and a travelling circus.
When they got to Genest, the West Bindle Trading Co. heard the Red Death was in Stonebow, nearby - so they had to wait 2 days in quarantine outside the village before being allowed to their homes. Thus they had prime ringside seats when the circus reached Genest.
One Wedding and Two Dragon Snails
Immediately they were cleared, they turned back to Harmony with Pan's family on 2 carts. This journey proved very exciting, because they came across their first ever fight with a chaos monster!
Noticing two large boulders in the river, Toni decided to jump on these 'stepping stones'. However, when he jumped (and fell in the river) they started moving - they were in fact two Dragonsnails! Luckily the PCs had seen one in the Arena tour so they didn't suffer large SAN losses. Whilst Viran drove a cart off, the others (being mainly militiamen sworn to protect the area) attempted to exterminate these beasties. It took 11 rounds, a long fight partly because one had 30% defense (PCs are about 45% to hit), partly because DNsnails have thick skins. (Rupert: in the above fight Viran lost 1 SAN, & got a POW tick from healing an unconcious PC but failed that.)
Most of the party hurried on to the wedding but Marcus and Kyrolan backtracked to find where they came from. The slime trail led at least a kilometer into the Rathorelan forest, so they abandoned that, and returned to burn the bodies, though Kyrolan kept the heads (in a barrel of salt). (If they're anything like slugs, that may be a mistake.) When they threw one body to the fire, it went up like a torch, badly burning Marcus who threw himself into the wintry stream to save himself. However, when the fire burnt down the pair found 3W worth of gold dust in its ashes!
The wedding went well, though Pan's father was convinced Myra was a Loose Woman and Not Good Enough for his son. After a day of gruesome excess the newly betrothed couple retired to their wedding bed for a sordid night of passion...
Everyone returned to Genest the next day, Pan taking his new wife with him. The 2-3 day journey was enlivened by Pan & Myra's noisy performances every night.
A day or two after returning to Genest the PCs set off to seek their fortunes in the Ruins they'd spotted a few months ago in the Rathorelan forest. The trip there only took half a day and was quiet except for a mysterious naked man who wore paint and had very dilated pupils. He was acting oddly and avoided the PCs.
Comment: I should have mentioned that as soon as you entered the forest, it seemed much colder and there was more snow on the trees & ground.
As usual, the forest felt more 'alive' than the farmland they had left. But this feeling of magic and mystery disappeared when they entered the clearing around the ruins, replaced by a feeling of 'deadness' - worse than simply leaving Rathorela and re-entering the Empire.
The ruins seemed very creepy & quiet.
The PCs decided to cache their bulkier equipment in the SE corner but were interrupted by two trees which attacked them! Legging it over a pile of rubble they seemed safe.
Heading for the SW Tower they were attacked by a gnome which almost broke Toni's legs. (Rupert: on this trip, Viran got ticks on various skills and successfully increased in Scimitar Attack, Dagger Attack, Tracking & Spot Hidden.) The SW tower seemed to be empty. From the top, evidence of tracks or some such were visible near the keep [the inhabitants dragging logs in from the forest to the rotting woodpile behind the keep]. Stashing equipment on the roof, the PCs headed for the Central Keep.
The front door seemed ajar, and in the vestibule the PCs could see charred mouldy skeletons. Eventually Kyrolan stepped inside - whoomph! A blast of flame engulfed him and he lost 3 CON. The players decided to try round the back, where the wall was broken down and perhaps the defenses weren't working.
Climbing over the rubble at the back, the players were cautious about approaching the exotic fungi they found in profusion. One huge specimen, for example, emitted choking clouds of spores whenever they came near.
There seemed to be two ways into the ruins: they tried the first, a corridor exposed to the elements by the collapse of the walls. The players tried each door they came to. Most were rotting, or swollen and stuck. A patch of mushrooms crackled loudly as they were stepped on. One door led into what seemed to be a nightmarish butchers' shop, complete with a human corpse hanging from a hook (Rupert: Viran lost 2 SAN, and another 1 SAN later). Pan tried the door to one of the towers. A wailing wind sprang up in the tower and it seemed to him Something was rushing down the central spiral stairs. After the other players screamed for him to do so, Pan shut the door just before something flung itself against it and cursed and gibbered at him from Beyond.
Bottling out - er, strategically withdrawing - the players tried the other entrance to the keep. This led, first, to a room with disturbing 'clacky' noises coming from it, and secondly to various doors. The PCs found that whenever they approached one door, they lost control of an arm, which would begin jerking and spasming for several minutes. Naturally they decided there was something worth having behind there so, once he'd recovered, Toni had a rope tied round him and charged at the door to knock it open. The door flew open and he landed in a heap in a dark room, for this time it was his leg that had decided to go independent. He could just make out some large white shapes chittering and moving towards him so he shouted, 'pull me out!' As he was pulled out another limb began doing the Watusi and something sticky landed on him, described by the DM as 'like Pratzim'. Suddenly, the players became very excited and decided it was time to leave - this unfamiliar spasming spell and the suspicion of Krarshtkids raised the pulse rate and volume level of everyone remarkably.
A fight ensued, which turned out to be an extremely realistic affair - a dark, narrow corridor with confused, panicked militiamen unsure whether to run or help their friends. Contradictory commands rang out and all the time more and more of the sticky stuff glued people up. Kyrolan was gobbed in the face and could have suffocated if an airway had not been opened by some lucky rolls. The white things seemed to have respectably tough skin and took about 10 rounds to slice, squash, Disrupt, bite and punch to death. Toni did a triple fumble, criticaling Pan in the leg with a punch, doing a maximum damage punch to Kyrolan and blocking his own vision. One Thing escaped.
Licking their wounds, the West Bindle Trading Company decided they were too weak to continue and returned to Genest, where they did ticks for a week. Their plan was to wait 3 weeks, i.e. until Kyrolan's CON was OK, and then return!
However, their rest cure was interrupted after a week by Sir Julius, who requested that they go find out what was going on with the Rathorelans. Some had raided a few farms near Genest, and carried off a woman! The PCs are known to be Hard Barbarian Liquidators, wise in the ways of the forest ("It's a Tree") and Sir J doesn't want to launch a reprisal raid with the militia against the wrong clan, because he knows that they operate independently. Sir J had to stay in Genest because there's something up in the area - lots of troops are maneuvering in the area and some Blue Moon cultists are skulking around with some Danfive Xarons and Deezola followers, but no-one knows why.
A week after returning from the ruins, the PCs and Rufus Riddle were summoned to Sir Julius. (Rufus refused to come, but Grampa Riddle came instead.) He explained that 3 farms near Genest had been raided by at least half a dozen Rathorelans! They had carried off food, some small livestock, and a woman. The standard response to border raids by the Empire is a punitive retaliatory attack, but Sir J realised that the nomads have no overall chief, and a return raid would probably just attack a different group and escalate the trouble. Normally, he would go out himself to see what was going on, but he had to stay in his fief to interface with some Army / Blue Moon / Deezola cultists doing maneuvers in the area. Therefore, he wondered if the PCs would go and scout out the problem and telll him what was really going on. Were these rogue forest folk or the start of a wave of raiders?
The PCs are the obvious choice of his Militiamen, having subtlety (!), woods craft, contacts among the Tribesmen and knowledge of the area. Marcus and the Riddles, of course, aren't militiamen, but he hoped they would aid this effort. The PCs readily volunteered to go. Grampa said he'd try and find out what was going on independently. They were surprised that the Riddles might have knowledge of Rathorela, and questioned Grampa about this, but he just laughed.
The group set off to find the nearest nomads they know of, the Burnt Tree Clan. But when they reached their campsite, it had been abandoned for some weeks. Well, they're nomads, thought the PCs: let's try the next clan. But the Hollow Tree clan had left their campsite too.
The PCs searched awhile, then tried looking for campfire smoke. Spotting a small smoke trail, they headed for it and found a badly hidden solo tent: from the craftsmanship of the camp, they figured it was Kiol's. They waited for him until he showed up. He was pleased to see them. "Oh, yes," he said, "all the clans leave the area at this time of year and go off to the winter hunting grounds." He wasn't prepared to say where these were - a religious tabu. But he also said there were a few renegades like himself, some of whom were a bit aggressive - he tended to avoid them.
Kiol mentioned a group down by Mirror Lake, he said, naming one as Tiral Stonehurler - a fellow with a crossbow and flute. The PCs recalled seeing him once and set off to visit them. On the way, they came across a strange trap: a sapling bent completely over by the side of a path. They avoided it. And then they spotted a raccoon up a tree. Considering shooting it for lunch, Marcus said "Hallo, Mr. Raccoon" - and it talked back! "You'd better not be pointing that thing at me," it said in Rathorelan.
The PCs conversed with the racoon a while, and explained their problem. It said that it had seen a group of perhaps 8 - 10 nomads, all male, in raiding gear, a few miles northeast in the last few days; they had a strangely clad woman with them and were heading northish. The raiding season was over, he added, and these must be particularly nasty sorts to be continuing - perhaps they were Wolf People. He suggested they go talk to the Centaurs, leaders of the forest religion, as the regular tribesmen were all elsewhere. The PC's gave him some food for his help and turned around to head for the centaurs (Marcus knows where they live).
Heading for the centaurs, the PC's were ambushed by two scorpionmen! This was the first time they'd met such critters and they didn't know the tricks to use - how scorpionmen have an extra attack from their sting each round, their legs are non-vital locations, etc. Viran got hit by a swinging log trap, too.
But the Goddess smiled upon them and they overcame the followers of the Dark Path, and got: 8 clacks, 4L, an amber gem, 2 stings and two scrolls. One is a map in an unknown language, the other is a document in another unknown language.
Eventually the PCs reached the area where the centaurs live. They found about 8 in a glade, including Sianette - the large female who made the harp of bone. (See Game Memo 6 - Marcus mentioned, by the way, that he'd sorted that out- in a solo adventure.)
The leader was a truly gigantic beast: A size 35, black stallion called Thunderhoof. He greeted the travellers effusively. He was very concerned to hear of their problem: he considers himself in charge of a large area of the forest, and was glad the Empire had decided to find out what had happened instead of striking out blindly. He sent Sianette off to ask the Forest where these men were. She returned saying they were near Meltwater Lake.
Thunderhoof immediately donned his war gear and told the PCs to come with him to the lake, where "we'll deal with this matter in a manner that seems fit. Seems to me they need to repay your folk for this - perhaps one of them should be taken as a slave."
Thunderhoof: A long wild "mane' of black hair and a huge black beard, normally naked, a black horse-body and a deeply tanned human part. A deep voice. Size 35, Strength 24, dextrous, devastatingly handsome. Weaponry: bow, mace and shield. The dominant stallion of his herd, his manner is extremely direct. His folk are lusty, emotional creatures and though he is very intelligent, his preferred mode of conduct is not to dissemble but state flatly what he wants / believes / will not allow. He is full of the joy of life. He seems to have infinite vanity and confidence in his own abilities and never seems to hesitate in a decision; he considers himself the Spirits' gift to his mares, also fancies human women and horses, respects those he considers honourable (even Lunars) and assumes he will be obeyed by any forest dweller he meets, though he does not throw his weight about. It never seems to occur to him that these raiders might disobey his decisions, or that he might have trouble making them do what he wants. Mind you, when you're size 35 and have cuirboille / metal armour over your thick skin, this may be justified. (The metal armour is relatively crude work by Lunar standards, but is obviously worth a fortune by Rathorelan ones. It must have been made specially for him by someone.)
As they tramped round the marsh, the PCs saw a patch of forest opposite that had been destroyed by fire. And a stupendously tall tree, perhaps 500-1000 feet high. (Of a type we'd call a giant redwood, only larger.) Questioned about this, Thunderhoof said that Ernalda had once rested there. Another interesting thing was the evidence of beavers in the vicinity - the first time the PCs have seen beaver lodges and dams.
What next?: Wreak retribution on the raiders; recover; return to the ruins?
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