Resume of game on 13-2-94
Game date: Storm 34, 1620.
Dramatis Personae: Kyrolan (Richard) absent; Pan (Charlie), Toni (Alan), Viran (Rupert), Marcus (Lynne) present.
Details
Waking by the side of the marsh, the players released a carrier pigeon to tell Sir Julius they were on their way to Meltwater Lake with Thunderhoof to sort out the raiders and then set off through the forest towards the lake.
Comment: not only does the Rathorelan forest feel more 'magical' and 'alive' than the Empire, it is also considerably colder for some reason. Snow lies quite thickly. Luckily you're wearing Rathorelan furs - except Pan.
Encounters were few and far between. But near the end of the day, the PCs were surprised by a dozen warriors of the Wolf Tribe who had lain in hiding for them. The tribesmen didn't attack, but looked threatening and demanded that the PCs either turn back, fight or pay a toll. After consulting with Thunderhoof the PCs decided on a toll.
Typical Wolf Person male: generally smaller than the Rathori (i.e. normal size), rangier, hair a slightly lighter shade of brown than the Bear Tribes'. Prominent teeth; wear their hair long, in a ponytail; skin as dark as the players' farmers'. Aggressive attitudes. Several carried small drums and some unusual object the PCs wouldn't recognise - a tube wrapped in twine? Unusual armour in some indefinable way, some made of bear fur. They seem to particularly dislike Lunars.
As the PCs couldn't pay a toll on the spot they agreed to supply a good sword in the not too distant future... Thunderhoof giving the Wolf People his word... which seemed to be accepted.
Sweet Dreams are Made of This (not!)
That night there was a bit of light relief when a scorpion crawled into Pan's bedroll... but far more worrying were the dreams later that night.
Each player had a simultaneous nightmare, except Pan; he was on guard, and saw something that may or may not have been a hallucination...
Marcus dreamt that a wolf was prowling round the camp, intending to kill the PCs, and that though he knew he was dreaming he couldn't wake up.
Viran dreamt that the camp was being observed by something which snuck in, and decapitated him with a garotte. Then it drove his head (still aware) onto a rock, split his skull open and ate his brains. When he awoke, he had stigmata on his neck and forehead.
A large spidery? thing paralysed Toni, dragged him out of the camp, webbed him up a tree and injected a parasite into him. He only realised he was dreaming when he woke up, but he woke up up a tree a quarter mile from the camp...
As far as he could figure out, Pan never fell asleep. Nevertheless he saw a man in the camp, smiling, eating from a basket and beckoning him over. Pan couldn't wake the others. When he approached the man (noting Toni was absent) the man offered him something from the basket. Looking in, Pan saw Viran's head, split open, with the brains half-gone...
Everyone woke simultaneously, screaming.
The man had disappeared and so had Toni, though Toni found the others quickly by following their shouts.
Marcus checked all around the camp for wolf spoor - there was none.
The players trudged on next day. There was some difficulty ploughing through an area of especially heavy snowfall. Smelling woodsmoke, someone scaled a tree to scout ahead. A line of fire was approaching the PCs, apparently being driven by some tribesmen. The players assumed they were under some kind of attack until they realised the nomads were just burning off underbrush to trap game and clear grazing space for deer - these were Wolf People, again, but they were too busy to bother the PCs.
The PCs were delayed a couple of hours by a snowstorm later. But they finally reached the edge of Meltwater Lake at the end of the day. It was frozen over. They camped by it, within the treeline, for night 5.
The next morning Thunderhoof smashed a hole in the ice and slapped the water below. After a few minutes, a lizardlike creature almost the size of a man poked its head through the hole! It talked with Thunderhoof a while, then got its leader which told him where the raiders probably were - but only once it had been told the PCs were Lunars. (Why?)
The party approached the barbarians' camp cautiously. It consisted of a single hut with a half-finished canoe and two nomads outside. Marcus and Toni snuck through the woods in a flanking maneuvre whilst the others approached openly alomg the lake shore. The barbarians assembled to meet the approaching centaur. There were 7 of them (plus one in reserve in the hut, it transpired later). A woman in Carmanian costume came out of the hut and was brutally punched back inside.
Description of the raiders: Their leader was a man with cruel, bright eyes who reminded Pan unnervingly of the man he saw eating Viran's brain in his dream. This fellow seemed to have no respect for Thunderhoof, and though the PCs couldn't follow the conversation in Rathorelan, they could tell he was deriding the centaur and stirring up the other nomads. He ordered food to be served to the visitors - at least he conformed to the Rathorelan hospitality customs. But after the PCs had eaten a few mouthfuls of the stuff, they suddenly realised the food seemed to be a writhing mass of worms, mould and maggots. Several of the raiders seemed to be outside the Rathorelan norm somehow. The most spectacularly unique was one with a Mohican haircut and clean shaven face. One had a misshapen right arm - the first left-handed human the PCs had met. Because he hid his arm behind a shield, it took a while to realise what jarred (weapon on the wrong side). One had a scimitar and broadsword, the latter with a curious metal guard around the hilt; he never spoke.
Suddenly, the leader attacked Thunderhoof and the two sides fell upon each other.
The fight lasted 10 rounds or so. Thunderhoof engaged their leader and two others, leaving 5 versus the 5 PCs. There were some worrying moments, such as when Pan's SAN suddenly dropped from about 85 to 42 or so. Viran had to neck a healing potion he'd been given by his aunt in Harandash and was saving for a rainy day. Marcus started with arrows, after climbing atop the hut, but realised these had little effect on armoured men, disappeared inside it through the roof, and later emerged with his 2 handed axe instead.
By the end of the fight the PCs had killed all but 3: one had run off, one surrendered and one was captured (i.e. couldn't fight any longer). But as the players went round healing themselves, they realised the awful truth - Toni was dead, he'd bled to death in the last few rounds just before help could get to him. (Marcus had tried to reach him but couldn't get past the last barbarian.)
The PCs were in shock at this. They discussed the chance of him coming back. But the centaur said there were no shamen with that kind of power in the area - they were all off at the winter hunting grounds. The PCs decided to get the loot and set off home immediately.
The woman mysteriously was no longer inside the hut but had run off during the fight. She was tracked down by Marcus who seemed to find her easily. She was in shock, and wouldn't speak or allow herself to be touched.
The PCs set off home, Thunderhoof carrying Toni's body. The fastest route home was downriver, so the centaur travelled down his side and the PCs down the Lunar side, with the two prisoners and the woman - they figured Thunderhoof might get a bad reception if he was seen carrying the body of a Lunar citizen.
As they crossed the river at the edge of the lake, they came to the ruins of a village. Here the PCs were attacked by three broo. This was just a couple of hours after their previous scrap and they were low on magic. Two broo looked particularly nasty. The other went down quickly, but it took a while to deal with these ones. Viran had to keep changing weapons - dagger couldn't get through their armour, so he switched to scimitar; then he couldn't hit them because of their 30% defense... As usual, Pan had been assigned the hardest to start with, fumbled, got taken negative in the head, and was saved only by his excessive exoskeletal layer. The PCs acted intelligently, concentrating all their attacks on one until it went down then all turning to the last. The last broo was finally killed - but it DI'd successfully and had to be put down a second time. So far, no-one felt ill, but then they don't know what to look for.
The party hurried south to Genest. They were about half way to Newfaith when they were intercepted by a half dozen soldiers who demanded to know what they were up to. It seemed that all the soldiers in the area had been sent in to exterminate Malians (broo) responsible for the Red Death in Stonebow, etc. They assumed that the PCs were something to do with the chaots, because the entire area has been under quarantine for years, and escorted the West Bindle Trading Company to a camp of 40 or so soldiers to be interrogated by their officer. He, however, had received a memo that some local militia were sorting out some raiders in the vicinity (Lunar efficiency), and allowed them to leave - detailing two soldiers as escort.
The soldiers took the PCs south to the edge of a marsh and the party was rafted over to Newfaith by a squad of sappers stationed by the bog. The players asked to stay overnight at Newfaith and were allowed to stay in the Visitors' House, a log cabin affair which is a bit like a comfortable prison - barred from outside each night so that outsiders staying overnight don't sneak out and Corrupt the Faithful, pinch things or cause any other trouble. The Newfaithers didn't approve of the woman staying there with the PCs (scandalous!) and took her elsewhere to be tended to by wimminfolk.
Newfaith - pocket description: The people here are ultra-Puritans or Amish in nature. They dress in black (or, on festive occasions, with a bit of white for contrast). They have a semi-communal lifestyle where they don't use money for internal transactions and look after their infirm even if not related. They go to prayer twice a day. They have a very isolationist, even paranoid view of the world and believe only they are truly Saved. They have some kind of monotheistic religion worshipping the One True God (or Goddess) who has no need of a name: an extension of the Carmanian Invisible God, perhaps. They may not trust outsiders but they are hospitable those who ask for shelter overnight are fed and provided with baths and clean beds. They are quite prudish. The village is ringed by a stockade which looks much newer than the houses.
The PCs had an uneventful day's travel the next day to Genest, after an initial delay because Marcus was dragged off to the Newfaith shrine to be 'Purified through Prayer' by some zealots he asked questions of. However, they gave him up as a 'Lost Soul'.
On returning to Genest the PCs were greeted as returning heroes. However, Toni's family were aghast that they had lost a second son (and everyone knows they've got an unmarried daughter who's pregnant). The PCs got Thunderhoof from the far side of the river and Sir Julius from Reventon and a trial was held of the prisoners.
Sir Julius ruled that the two captives were to be sold as slaves and the monies raised would be used to compensate the raided farms for damages, and Toni's family for loss of a son. (It became common knowledge, too, that he promised a pension to Toni's family after Toni died on militia business.) However, although the standard Lunar sentence for killing an arresting officer was death in various interesting ways, he could not sentence Toni's killer (one of the prisoners) to this because that 'crime' had been committed outside the Empire. He could only prosecute them for their raid and kidnapping and mistreatment of the woman. The two captives were then quickly spirited away to Reventon before a mob could lynch them.
Thunderhoof seemed satisfied that the sentences were just and promised to spread the result among the forest folk. Sir J invited him back to Reventon to stay at his house (stables!) overnight, and they departed together.
Calendar for the above :
Some strange anachronous events now occur as the following adventure was played out before the Barbarian Raiders Hunt... thus Toni appears to be still alive! It is placed here for narrative effect ... the ramifications of Toni not being present etc. were taken into account afterwards in a reverse polarity effect Cap'n Kirk would've been proud of. Hopefully it should all sort itself out by Game Memo 9!
Three weeks after first entering the ruins the PCs were back. This time they tried the route where the white scuttly things had been first.
Ignoring a crucified Elf body, they looked in the room where they thought the clacky noises had been before. It seemed to be a giant beetle / fungus breeding hatchery. They shut the door quick.
Next, they tried a door they'd ignored before. Inside was a statue of a 'lizardman'. It moved! It came after them and followed them outside. It breathed fire, threw rocks which burst into 4 simultaneous firearrows, tried to chop PCs into pieces with its serrated sword and generally was really nasty. Kyrolan climbed to the 1st floor of the keep & tried rolling rocks on it, but missed each time. It played Hide and Seek with Pan round a circuit of masonry and seriously injured Toni. But it couldn't move as quickly as a human and eventually gave up, returning to its room. Perhaps the Keep was Too Hard, theorised the players.
They moved on to another building. This had two runes unfamiliar to the PCs above the door:
"Aha!" said Alan (the late Toni) knowingly. "You don't see that outside of Cults of Terror!" "What cult is it?" asked the other players. "Some kind of chaos ice demon", said Alan knowingly. At this point I felt compelled to make him do a Cult Lore roll, which he made... suddenly his tune changed. "Um... You can't go in there," said Toni. "Why not?" asked Marcus, trying to push past him. "Because it's a shrine to um... Lodril." "So?" "Er, um, ..., I'm in Lodril," said Toni. The volume level increased again at this revelation but, the other players decided that as they didn't intend any mischief if it was a Lodril temple, they could go in, and they pushed past Toni.
The two-storey structure had been partially destroyed by fire long ago. The upper floor and outer shrine were open to the sky because their roofs had fallen in. Nothing happened as the players entered the outer shrine, now overgrown by vegetation. They looked around at the ancient mosaics and central altar, and noticed there was no snow on the floor - the ground here was slightly warm, particularly at the far side. Obviously a good place to kip down for the night, they figured, though Toni fretted at this.
They began looking in other rooms. They tried the one on the far side of the outer shrine. A fire blazed in a hearth! Kyrolan boldy entered, despite Toni's objections, so Toni followed to keep an eye on him (because he suspected this was the inner shrine). But no sooner had Kyrolan entered than he began feeling uncomfortably hot. He had time to notice the golden brazier in the corner, then began feeling really uncomfortable. Toni was fine but the others were treated to the sight of Kyrolan running out of the door, shouting "Ow! I'm on fire!", and straight out of the temple's main door to roll in the snow.
Marcus had entered the inner shrine about the time Kyrolan ran out, and felt no heat. "What was he on about?" he said and examined his surroundings. He too noticed the golden brazier (filled with glowing coals), but first examined the fire where he thought he'd seen a movement. There was indeed something moving there, a lizard the size of a large child happily roasting in the hearth. It moved again - out of the fireplace and towards Marcus. It was very hot, so he backed off. Realising it might trap him at the back of the room, he dodged out of the door. Everyone was worried about Toni, still in the room, but it ignored him and returned to the fire. Toni scrutinised the brazier and spotted a glowing snake in it. He decided to leave.
The players looked around, but found little else of interest on this floor. It seemed to have been thoroughly sacked at some time in the distant past. Going upstairs, they found that the upper rooms had been accessed via a wooden balcony around the central hall. However, it had rotted away. They checked out one or two rooms by climbing over the roofless interconnecting walls, and decided there was nothing there.
Going downstairs, they found the stairs led to a corridor ending in
a weird misty "heat haze" that they couldn't see through. Toni
was persuaded to walk into it. He found that though it looked odd, and
he got a bit disoriented in it, after a few paces the air cleared and he
was in another underground corridor. He called back that it was OK. Marcus
ventured forth... and found himself in a different corridor, with a bronze
portcullis and a heavy bronze door beyond him. On the door were the runes:
I don't like the look of this, thought Marcus, and called: "Toni! Where are you?" Toni could hear Marcus clearly, and so could the other PCs on the stairs. Each described their surroundings. Marcus stepped back through the haze to rejoin the group on the stairs - and found himself next to Toni! A little experimentation showed that stepping through the mist seemed to land you randomly in either the stairwell, the 'locked' corridor or the straightforward corridor. The players decided to check out the unguarded one. It led to three doors. Their locks were corroded and the doors fell open to reveal three large cellars. Two had held food, long since rotted. One still held many bottles of wine, but as the players stepped inside a loud siren noise began and Marcus was disrupted. The players withdrew in confusion, the wailing noise seeming ready to carry on forever.
Before kipping down for the night, it was decided to check out the large square building opposite the Lodril temple. The players cautiously entered the front door, feeling reassured by the familiar Earth rune above it. It was dark in there: and beyond the vestibule, they could hear chanting!
Peeking past the door it was all dark. A quick flash of torchlight showed a small, black, naked woman leading several even smaller disgusting, lumpy humanoids in some kind of service. She seemed to have noticed the players, but didn't interrupt the service. The players stepped back to the entrance hall.
A few minutes later she and her followers came out to meet the newcomers. They certainly didn't seem aggressive, standing there naked, but these bulbous, dark-skinned little pod people still looked revolting.
The 'woman' was pretty weird herself - Size 7, PA 17, Age perhaps early 20s, and black-skinned! She greeted the players in Rathorelan and asked them their names, business here etc. She was very open about herself and her friends. It seemed she was a Black Dryad and these were something called Dark Elves. Their main goddess was Meevorala, but they worshipped Ernalda at this Earth temple sometimes.
They didn't believe the PCs came from over the river at first - they thought it was blocked by an impassable barrier. They were glad, though, that the players' tribe wasn't associated with the local ones, because the locals had been deceived by the Green and Brown elves into attacking them and they would like to have allies, or at least trading partners.
They said that they lived in the central keep of these ruins and that the other day someone had come and trashed the ground level of their home and killed some of their pets - did the players know anything about that? (Over-emphatic denials from PCs.)
The Black Dryad invited the players back t oherr home as guests. Suspicion suppressed by her (apparent?) innocence and candour, the players wonderingly accepted. She and the dark elves led them straight into the heart of their stronghold and offered them various refreshments - rotted meat, cold mushroom stew, stuffed mushrooms, an odd beer, Breadstool in slime sauce etc. The internal decor of the underground elven stronghold seemed to have a Decayed motif. The air was warm, humid, and rich with fetid odours. The rising damp had met the descending dry rot. [In Rupert's parlance: in need of some care and repair, but basically sound (don't step on that floorboard).] Large white insects scuttled about.
Marcus had heard of Dark Elves from the normal elves: that they were an evil race, intent on spreading decay and disease through the forest. He questioned Kimosa, the black dryad, on this; she said that it was all a matter of perspective - that the Dark Elves were cautious about not overdoing the spread of rots, rusts, moulds etc; but that if the other elves had their way, the whole forest would turn into a giant, regimented garden which suited a few powerful elves and no-one else. Dark elf and Green / Brown fought on sight, because it had to be assumed you did unto the other before they did unto you.
Marcus was careful to give the impression that the PCs tribe was another Rathorelan clan, a bit xenophobic who would likely react hostilely to anyone they though a bit strange and possibly threatening. He tried to discourage the dryad from visiting Carmania, realising that fields of single crops are particularly vulnerable to parasites. He made sure the other PCs understood this and that it was a bad idea for an unknown potential enemy to know too much of the Empire.
What next?: more doings in the ruins with the black dryad and dark elves
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