Blood of Orlanth - actual play and questions [spoilers]
- Thread starter Deleriad
- Start date
Deleriad said:
In RQ3/Third Age Glorantha, a troll with Greatsword/Fireblade is not unusual.
Cragspider's Great Trolls used Greatswords and Amanstan (Zorak Zoran's subcult of Fire Powers) grants Fireblade.
In Second Age Glorantha, however, I don't know whether Cragspider has performed her HeroQuest to create Great Trolls. My gut feeling is that she has, so Great Trolls with Greatswords and Fireblade would be rare but could start moving out of her realm.
Deleriad
Mongoose
soltakss said:
I would say that even in 3rd age it is unusual. if a troll has fire magic or uses a greatsword it's due to a highly specific set of circumstances. It's certainly not normal. Those circumstances exist but are not common therefore there has to be a reason why a specific troll might use a Firebladed Greatsword. None of the reasons I can come up with seem to exist in Blood which is why i was surprised. Given that the author knows his Glorantha (Gareth's history of Jrustela is in my opinion one of the finest and most evocative pieces of Gloranthan writing around) therefore there's either meant to be a reason which has got lost in Mongoose's chaotic editing process or something went wrong.
Deleriad
Mongoose
ThatGuy said:
Good to know. I think I mentioned elsewhere that Aslander's player is the only one with any previous RQ experience and even he had played primarily in a non-Gloranthan homebrew. The rest are all D&D players or, in the case of Cormalin's player, completely new to roleplaying.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Wildday Movement
Arriving just north of Malton in the outskirts of the old spider woods. The wind is whipping around making landing impossible so they are descend rope ladders while the mule descends into its own private hell.
A couple of hours after Dawn, arrive at Malton. It's the first time in two years that they've been here and much has changed. EWF banners fly over the gate and the mayor's house. Wyrmfriend troops huddle in groups, wrapped tight against the biting wind and several locals bear dragon tattoos. Much remains the same though. They meet with Mayor Easy. He's now mayor in name only but offers them a good breakfast and what information he knows. The main strength of the army is down south at Jintul where a bridge has been built. A road from Jintul leads to the Fifth Claw Camp. Malton is no longer as important a market town. The military governor is based in Jintul so Easy gets to look after Malton as long as he doesn't cause any problems. If they wish to travel to Jintul he can recommend a good boatman.
.
After this, Keldo and Jotisan head for the Thirsty Wind. Keldo starts telling stories of derring do while Jotisan sits back and judges the mood of the crowd.
Larad and Cormalin head to the market. And manage to track down the boatman. Boatman says that they need to leave now to have any chance of getting down river to Jintul today.
So they had back to the inn. Keldo is in full flow. They talk with Jotisan. They agree that Jotisan will take over from Keldo and try to spread sedition by inspiring the locals to act. Keldo and Larad will take the raft half way down river then travel overland to pick up the new road from Jintul to the 5th camp. Cormalin will stay here in Malton with Jotisan. They will meet back at the intended pick-up point in 4 days.
So, midday comes and they are leaving the inn. The call to prayers has just ended and now Jotisan is feeling worried. Something is terribly wrong. All of them feel it but for Jotisan it is almost painful. Some sort of doom is gathering. Then the wind just stops. Completely.
-----------------
Malton was the central locale for the original campaign but since then they've been moving further south, partly because various EWFers would like a word or two.
Arriving just north of Malton in the outskirts of the old spider woods. The wind is whipping around making landing impossible so they are descend rope ladders while the mule descends into its own private hell.
A couple of hours after Dawn, arrive at Malton. It's the first time in two years that they've been here and much has changed. EWF banners fly over the gate and the mayor's house. Wyrmfriend troops huddle in groups, wrapped tight against the biting wind and several locals bear dragon tattoos. Much remains the same though. They meet with Mayor Easy. He's now mayor in name only but offers them a good breakfast and what information he knows. The main strength of the army is down south at Jintul where a bridge has been built. A road from Jintul leads to the Fifth Claw Camp. Malton is no longer as important a market town. The military governor is based in Jintul so Easy gets to look after Malton as long as he doesn't cause any problems. If they wish to travel to Jintul he can recommend a good boatman.
.
After this, Keldo and Jotisan head for the Thirsty Wind. Keldo starts telling stories of derring do while Jotisan sits back and judges the mood of the crowd.
Larad and Cormalin head to the market. And manage to track down the boatman. Boatman says that they need to leave now to have any chance of getting down river to Jintul today.
So they had back to the inn. Keldo is in full flow. They talk with Jotisan. They agree that Jotisan will take over from Keldo and try to spread sedition by inspiring the locals to act. Keldo and Larad will take the raft half way down river then travel overland to pick up the new road from Jintul to the 5th camp. Cormalin will stay here in Malton with Jotisan. They will meet back at the intended pick-up point in 4 days.
So, midday comes and they are leaving the inn. The call to prayers has just ended and now Jotisan is feeling worried. Something is terribly wrong. All of them feel it but for Jotisan it is almost painful. Some sort of doom is gathering. Then the wind just stops. Completely.
-----------------
Malton was the central locale for the original campaign but since then they've been moving further south, partly because various EWFers would like a word or two.
Deleriad
Mongoose
This is how a dragon lives
She who is without eyes, looks.
She who is without mouth, speaks.
She who is without hands carries the future.
Behind them, the nightmare sorcerer, Delecti, walks and even Telektios is wary.
This is how the end begins
He turns restlessly then wakes in a cold sweat. He can’t quite hear the regular tick of a machine but he knows there’s something there.
In her study, Rsadi writes. Her fingers stained, her eyes red rimmed with tiredness. No sound except quill on papyrus and the hum of the wind on the Hawk Exultant’s stays.
There’s a storm coming. All along the Solthi, the Orlanthi can feel it. The air is charged, the dragons are in retreat and Maralis is travelling north. Orlgard laughs for the first time in 2 years. This is a time for free men! This is a wolf time!
---------------------
I periodically circulated teasers about what might be going on elsewhere. One issue with the campaign is that PCs can sometimes struggle to meet major, interesting NPCs and also struggle to get a big picture. These snippets are meant to tease without informing much. This one was circulated before the last session.
She who is without eyes, looks.
She who is without mouth, speaks.
She who is without hands carries the future.
Behind them, the nightmare sorcerer, Delecti, walks and even Telektios is wary.
This is how the end begins
He turns restlessly then wakes in a cold sweat. He can’t quite hear the regular tick of a machine but he knows there’s something there.
In her study, Rsadi writes. Her fingers stained, her eyes red rimmed with tiredness. No sound except quill on papyrus and the hum of the wind on the Hawk Exultant’s stays.
There’s a storm coming. All along the Solthi, the Orlanthi can feel it. The air is charged, the dragons are in retreat and Maralis is travelling north. Orlgard laughs for the first time in 2 years. This is a time for free men! This is a wolf time!
---------------------
I periodically circulated teasers about what might be going on elsewhere. One issue with the campaign is that PCs can sometimes struggle to meet major, interesting NPCs and also struggle to get a big picture. These snippets are meant to tease without informing much. This one was circulated before the last session.
Snowedunder
Mongoose
Ello ex-Aslander here for some player perspective feedback.
BoO is a great campaign to play in. The gradual escelation to epic level events is a lot of fun to take part in.
One of things I find frustrating though on the player side is the number is small snippets of information thrown at the PC group who have very little intel to piece it all together. As Bruce has already said, you end up knowing a little about a lot of things, nothing about how they all relate and following on from that, no idea how to make an impact or influence events. While a certain amount of this helps create that "epic things are afoot" feeling and that we're all swept up in it, at other times it made it very frustrating as the PCs are ineffectual.
Aslander's demise came from my boredom. No-one else seemed to realise that rushing to save a village thats already to late to save, with no time to build defences against an overwhelming enemy force was a waste of time. But we didn't have any concrete info to convince the rest of the part that trying to protect sunvale wouldn't achieve anything. And in the absence of any other obvious course of action, off we go to certain death.
I don't know how Sunvale would have turned out if Aslander hadn't decided to aim for the trunk rather than the branch. I imagine we would have lost a lot of troops, Donald, perhaps a PC (we did that anyway!) and would have been forced to retreat back to Thunderbridge with tail between legs.
BoO is a great campaign to play in. The gradual escelation to epic level events is a lot of fun to take part in.
One of things I find frustrating though on the player side is the number is small snippets of information thrown at the PC group who have very little intel to piece it all together. As Bruce has already said, you end up knowing a little about a lot of things, nothing about how they all relate and following on from that, no idea how to make an impact or influence events. While a certain amount of this helps create that "epic things are afoot" feeling and that we're all swept up in it, at other times it made it very frustrating as the PCs are ineffectual.
Aslander's demise came from my boredom. No-one else seemed to realise that rushing to save a village thats already to late to save, with no time to build defences against an overwhelming enemy force was a waste of time. But we didn't have any concrete info to convince the rest of the part that trying to protect sunvale wouldn't achieve anything. And in the absence of any other obvious course of action, off we go to certain death.
I don't know how Sunvale would have turned out if Aslander hadn't decided to aim for the trunk rather than the branch. I imagine we would have lost a lot of troops, Donald, perhaps a PC (we did that anyway!) and would have been forced to retreat back to Thunderbridge with tail between legs.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Snowedunder said:
There is definitely an awkward transition from the linear action along the river to the more free-form war and with the previous campaign tending to have pretty obvious signposts for what to do next, I do think there was a struggle to adapt.
Part of it was not knowing how to get information and part of it was thinking that you must do something. The latter is a very Orlanthi way of trusting in action to make things right. However, heading off to places on partial information is usually a good way to get in over your head.
Very similar kind of thing happened last night in the 3rd Pavis Rises session. Working with bits and pieces of information you wandered into the liar of something very nasty with no weapons, no armour and one of you suffering from being poisoned. The only reason you were safe from a TPK was that one of you had gone off with the barmaid for nookie. The rest of you were basically one percentile roll from never coming back.
Oh and not to mention the airship...
It would be interesting to hear from any readers of this thread about which events they took part in when playing/running BoO.
Khamulcalle
Mongoose
Hi Sir!
would it be possible to take part of your notes?
I would love to kickoff a great MRQ II campaign, and
this looks really cool.
/Khamul
would it be possible to take part of your notes?
I would love to kickoff a great MRQ II campaign, and
this looks really cool.
/Khamul
Deleriad
Mongoose
Khamulcalle said:Hi Sir!
would it be possible to take part of your notes?
I would love to kickoff a great MRQ II campaign, and
this looks really cool.
/Khamul
You're welcome to use whatever you like from this write-up. I'm busy with Pavis Rises at the moment but do plan to upload the next instalment over the weekend.
My wiki has some other details too.
Khamulcalle
Mongoose
Thanks!
Deleriad
Mongoose
Sadly I'm not going to be able to finish this in the same detail I started it so I will summarize what happened in the war in this post and then the heroquest in the next one.
A potted summary of what happened next
The PCs divided. Jotisan and Cormalin went to Jintul to spy out troop deployments while Larad and Keldo headed to the 5th Claw Camp via Granny Hickory's house. while at Granny's place they were attacked by another flying undead horror but defeated it easily. Granny's house had been ransacked and there was no sign of her but they did find an old piece of parchment written a language they didn't recognise. From there they spied out the 5th claw camp and saw a lot of new forces. They also saw various bodies in gibbets, one of them being Aslander. They decided that they could do nothing for him.
Cormalin and Jotisan didn't make much progress though Cormalin kept wandering into Wyrmfriend temples and listening to what they had to say. He appeared to be seeking something but didn't know what. Eventually they headed back to Malton where Jotisan explored the old wind temple out of town. In among all this what they didn't know was that Hara had sent a message to her superior, Viskinos, telling him to look out for 4 old ways traditionalists who were going to try to cause trouble. However the PCs simply went underground and didn't get involved meaning that Viskinos never found them. At the end of the week the Ebenriss came back for them.
On the Ebenriss, Larad noticed scorch marks much like the undead breath weapons of the flying horrors. Cormalin ended up striking up a bond with Erid. Especially when he started, drunkenly, mentioning that he thought Cadamil might be channelling some sort of demon. Cormalin has seen *something* looking out of Cadamil's eyes more than once now.
On returning they learn that the Solthi river valley was ravaged by a fireball. Over the coming days they learn that it was the culmination of a ritual by Delecti towards the "first breath" of the great dragon. The Orlanthi are disheartened and the PCs think back to the weeping spirit they met over a year ago claiming it's "all ashes. The ashbringer is coming." Maralis is relieved to see Larad back. She had worried that he might have been caught in the fireball.
Put on the back foot and appalled by the number of new troops, Maralis makes plans. Androfin does finally move though and sends 12 score men under the command of Harp The Dragonkiller. Rsadi also comes through for the God Learners with more weapons and a promise of mercenaries. The PCs are becoming suspicious but Cormalin asks Rsadi if she can explain the dragon breath. Rsadi says she can cast a spell that will "look through his eyes and see what he saw." madly CORMALIN LETS RSADI CAST THE SPELL ON HIM. Afterwards she sighs and says it didn't tell a lot.
Then KELDO COMES TO SEE RSADI AND ASKS HER FOR ADVICE. She says she could cast magic but Keldo refuses. So she makes a nice cup of tea and asks him questions. WHEN HE LEAVES KELDO DOESN'T NOTICE JUST HOW LONG HAS PASSED. Meanwhile Rsadi dances a happy jig of joy while noone's looking.
The PCs head back to Deepwell, concerned about the cave paintings and also concerned because Cadamil is there with a score of mercenaries helping to defend the town. This, they think, is not good. Cormalin has an encounter with an alynx and spends a lot of time spying on Cadamil. In the meantime they spend some time trying to find out where fords are on the river leading to the battle of the crossings. A tailed priest dragonewt, a dozen warriors and 3 score EWF find a crossing point. The biggest dinosaur they have seen yet simply wades into the water and proceeds to lie down, forming a makeshift damn. The PCs and 2 score Orlanthi warriors and commoners try and hold them off but once the warrior dragonewts start running along the back of the dinosaur they realise the gig is up. The surviving Orlanthi rout though the PCs and some warriors fight a delaying action through the woods.
Elsewhere, the EWF is pressing hard but the Orlanthi with the help of Harp and Rsadi are giving some ground but not a lot. The PCs are involved in various activities which come to a head towards the end of the season in Deepwell. It turns out that Cadamil had gained access to the caves. The PCs are appalled. Then the mercenary commander informs them that he is leaving because he's no longer being paid. The Orlanthi don't have enough money and get all righteously outraged. As the Ebenriss prepares to leave a couple of days later, the PCs are tricked back onto it.
This is Erid's betrayal. He has seen too much. He knows the PCs are wanted and feels that Cormalin is ready to convert to the EWF. As soon as they are on the ship, they realise they've walked right into a trap. Cormalin has a very strange meal with Erid. The others are locked up with no weapons and armour. Keldo falls asleep and then wakes in a panic, dreaming of Rsadi looking through his eyes. He's been having strange portents. His response? Kick the door open and charge out. Larad and Jotisan scramble to keep up. The air pirate outside the door is literally knocked onto his back (he fumbled) and a difficult fight below decks starts. Erid has just told Cormalin not to worry about Cadamil anymore because he's dead when they hear sounds of battle. The fight spreads and Yarlech starts to cut his way into the below decks. Erid flips out and heads for the wheel house to start tipping the ship around crazily. There is much hanging on, fighting, spending of Hero Points and just too late they get to the wheelhouse. Erid has locked the controls and is drooling blood from this freshly split tongue. Yarlech cuts him in half but can't right the ship in time. Then impact. Yarlech's actions means the ship hits and bounces then ploughs along the ground. The PCs make a lot of Resilience rolls, spend every last Hero Point and are amazed to crawl out of the wreckage still alive. Albeit with more broken bones than they can count and not so much crawling as dragging.
After a few more misadventures they make it back to Sunvale. They hear that the rest of the EWF is besieging Thunder Bridge where Maralis has been rallying the troops, so, exhausted though they are, they head there. They have to detour past the army and spot the big dinosaur from down river. They also know that some of the army is moving through the Troll Woods to the east. They can see what the plan is. Cormalin takes them back up the steep forest trail he followed Jezat down all those weeks ago. They make it to Thunder bridge by nightfall. They are challenged but identify themselves. It's raining buckets and they're covered in mud and down to their final fatigue level. As they enter the stockade, alarums are sounded. There's confusion and shouting and soon it becomes clear.
Maralis has been poisoned and her healer stabbed to death. The Orlanthi are without their general and the next morning the EWF will attack from two directions as well as from the air. All, it seems, is lost...
A potted summary of what happened next
The PCs divided. Jotisan and Cormalin went to Jintul to spy out troop deployments while Larad and Keldo headed to the 5th Claw Camp via Granny Hickory's house. while at Granny's place they were attacked by another flying undead horror but defeated it easily. Granny's house had been ransacked and there was no sign of her but they did find an old piece of parchment written a language they didn't recognise. From there they spied out the 5th claw camp and saw a lot of new forces. They also saw various bodies in gibbets, one of them being Aslander. They decided that they could do nothing for him.
Cormalin and Jotisan didn't make much progress though Cormalin kept wandering into Wyrmfriend temples and listening to what they had to say. He appeared to be seeking something but didn't know what. Eventually they headed back to Malton where Jotisan explored the old wind temple out of town. In among all this what they didn't know was that Hara had sent a message to her superior, Viskinos, telling him to look out for 4 old ways traditionalists who were going to try to cause trouble. However the PCs simply went underground and didn't get involved meaning that Viskinos never found them. At the end of the week the Ebenriss came back for them.
On the Ebenriss, Larad noticed scorch marks much like the undead breath weapons of the flying horrors. Cormalin ended up striking up a bond with Erid. Especially when he started, drunkenly, mentioning that he thought Cadamil might be channelling some sort of demon. Cormalin has seen *something* looking out of Cadamil's eyes more than once now.
On returning they learn that the Solthi river valley was ravaged by a fireball. Over the coming days they learn that it was the culmination of a ritual by Delecti towards the "first breath" of the great dragon. The Orlanthi are disheartened and the PCs think back to the weeping spirit they met over a year ago claiming it's "all ashes. The ashbringer is coming." Maralis is relieved to see Larad back. She had worried that he might have been caught in the fireball.
Put on the back foot and appalled by the number of new troops, Maralis makes plans. Androfin does finally move though and sends 12 score men under the command of Harp The Dragonkiller. Rsadi also comes through for the God Learners with more weapons and a promise of mercenaries. The PCs are becoming suspicious but Cormalin asks Rsadi if she can explain the dragon breath. Rsadi says she can cast a spell that will "look through his eyes and see what he saw." madly CORMALIN LETS RSADI CAST THE SPELL ON HIM. Afterwards she sighs and says it didn't tell a lot.
Then KELDO COMES TO SEE RSADI AND ASKS HER FOR ADVICE. She says she could cast magic but Keldo refuses. So she makes a nice cup of tea and asks him questions. WHEN HE LEAVES KELDO DOESN'T NOTICE JUST HOW LONG HAS PASSED. Meanwhile Rsadi dances a happy jig of joy while noone's looking.
The PCs head back to Deepwell, concerned about the cave paintings and also concerned because Cadamil is there with a score of mercenaries helping to defend the town. This, they think, is not good. Cormalin has an encounter with an alynx and spends a lot of time spying on Cadamil. In the meantime they spend some time trying to find out where fords are on the river leading to the battle of the crossings. A tailed priest dragonewt, a dozen warriors and 3 score EWF find a crossing point. The biggest dinosaur they have seen yet simply wades into the water and proceeds to lie down, forming a makeshift damn. The PCs and 2 score Orlanthi warriors and commoners try and hold them off but once the warrior dragonewts start running along the back of the dinosaur they realise the gig is up. The surviving Orlanthi rout though the PCs and some warriors fight a delaying action through the woods.
Elsewhere, the EWF is pressing hard but the Orlanthi with the help of Harp and Rsadi are giving some ground but not a lot. The PCs are involved in various activities which come to a head towards the end of the season in Deepwell. It turns out that Cadamil had gained access to the caves. The PCs are appalled. Then the mercenary commander informs them that he is leaving because he's no longer being paid. The Orlanthi don't have enough money and get all righteously outraged. As the Ebenriss prepares to leave a couple of days later, the PCs are tricked back onto it.
This is Erid's betrayal. He has seen too much. He knows the PCs are wanted and feels that Cormalin is ready to convert to the EWF. As soon as they are on the ship, they realise they've walked right into a trap. Cormalin has a very strange meal with Erid. The others are locked up with no weapons and armour. Keldo falls asleep and then wakes in a panic, dreaming of Rsadi looking through his eyes. He's been having strange portents. His response? Kick the door open and charge out. Larad and Jotisan scramble to keep up. The air pirate outside the door is literally knocked onto his back (he fumbled) and a difficult fight below decks starts. Erid has just told Cormalin not to worry about Cadamil anymore because he's dead when they hear sounds of battle. The fight spreads and Yarlech starts to cut his way into the below decks. Erid flips out and heads for the wheel house to start tipping the ship around crazily. There is much hanging on, fighting, spending of Hero Points and just too late they get to the wheelhouse. Erid has locked the controls and is drooling blood from this freshly split tongue. Yarlech cuts him in half but can't right the ship in time. Then impact. Yarlech's actions means the ship hits and bounces then ploughs along the ground. The PCs make a lot of Resilience rolls, spend every last Hero Point and are amazed to crawl out of the wreckage still alive. Albeit with more broken bones than they can count and not so much crawling as dragging.
After a few more misadventures they make it back to Sunvale. They hear that the rest of the EWF is besieging Thunder Bridge where Maralis has been rallying the troops, so, exhausted though they are, they head there. They have to detour past the army and spot the big dinosaur from down river. They also know that some of the army is moving through the Troll Woods to the east. They can see what the plan is. Cormalin takes them back up the steep forest trail he followed Jezat down all those weeks ago. They make it to Thunder bridge by nightfall. They are challenged but identify themselves. It's raining buckets and they're covered in mud and down to their final fatigue level. As they enter the stockade, alarums are sounded. There's confusion and shouting and soon it becomes clear.
Maralis has been poisoned and her healer stabbed to death. The Orlanthi are without their general and the next morning the EWF will attack from two directions as well as from the air. All, it seems, is lost...
Deleriad
Mongoose
Just a very basic summary.
With the near death of Maralis at Thunder Bridge the Orlanthi are thrown into despair until Orlgard rediscovers his faith. He believes the HeroQuest of Orlanth Martyred can restore her to health and strike back at the EWF. They cannot spare any men for the defence of Thunder Bridge but Maralis's closest allies are here right now. So the PCs and Maralis get strapped on the back of Wyverns and fly through the night to the shrine. As morning breaks the community is roused and the quest begun.
The PCs are a little conflicted. Larad is assured that Maralis is not dead but will die without aid. To an extend Orlgard has already invoked the quest so Maralis now lies between life and death. Both Cormalin and Keldo are worried for other reasons. They were both initiated into the mysteries of the cult, especially Keldo, but both of them have a nagging feeling that Rsadi has done something. They keep quiet though. The quest starts and then just as the world fades, Telektios comes screaming in.
I won't repeat the quest structure here in total. Cormalin talked with Yinkin. The fight to prevent the portal being closed was difficult, especially for Keldo who never quite mastered the art of flying and swinging his axe at the same time. The stations were completed correctly though the rescue of Orlanth's body nearly went badly wrong and then the big fight at the end. Cormalin managed to persuade Yinkin to attack the dragon and Keldo practised the epic art of standing in front of a charging dragon with nothing but a very big axe and a whole lot of attitude. Telektios was slain and the heroplane faded. Rsadi's agents were foiled and Maralis returned to health.
As word spread, the EWF retreated, thrown into disarray and the Orlanthi took heart. Sacred Time drew to a close and a the scent of spring was in the air. Larad and Maralis married for a year (the scandal of a Humakti marrying a Vingan caused gossip among some of the real conservatives but Larad has always been more drawn to Truth than Death) and great celebrations ensued. Truly it was a great time to be a true follower of the storm.
But, for every glad day, clouds will loom. Somewhere out there is Rsadi. Grandmother Hickory is still captive and Delecti knows their names. There are questions still unanswered but those will have to wait.
Coming up next for the PCs: Keldo's Last Stand and Pavis Rises.
I won't be posting APs of these as it takes more time than I have but I will be posting about them on my wiki from time: mostly for the players.
Hope people enjoyed this. Shame I couldn't finish it in a detailed form. It was some of the best fun I've had GMing. Kudos to Gareth Hanrahan for a seriously fab bit of work.
With the near death of Maralis at Thunder Bridge the Orlanthi are thrown into despair until Orlgard rediscovers his faith. He believes the HeroQuest of Orlanth Martyred can restore her to health and strike back at the EWF. They cannot spare any men for the defence of Thunder Bridge but Maralis's closest allies are here right now. So the PCs and Maralis get strapped on the back of Wyverns and fly through the night to the shrine. As morning breaks the community is roused and the quest begun.
The PCs are a little conflicted. Larad is assured that Maralis is not dead but will die without aid. To an extend Orlgard has already invoked the quest so Maralis now lies between life and death. Both Cormalin and Keldo are worried for other reasons. They were both initiated into the mysteries of the cult, especially Keldo, but both of them have a nagging feeling that Rsadi has done something. They keep quiet though. The quest starts and then just as the world fades, Telektios comes screaming in.
I won't repeat the quest structure here in total. Cormalin talked with Yinkin. The fight to prevent the portal being closed was difficult, especially for Keldo who never quite mastered the art of flying and swinging his axe at the same time. The stations were completed correctly though the rescue of Orlanth's body nearly went badly wrong and then the big fight at the end. Cormalin managed to persuade Yinkin to attack the dragon and Keldo practised the epic art of standing in front of a charging dragon with nothing but a very big axe and a whole lot of attitude. Telektios was slain and the heroplane faded. Rsadi's agents were foiled and Maralis returned to health.
As word spread, the EWF retreated, thrown into disarray and the Orlanthi took heart. Sacred Time drew to a close and a the scent of spring was in the air. Larad and Maralis married for a year (the scandal of a Humakti marrying a Vingan caused gossip among some of the real conservatives but Larad has always been more drawn to Truth than Death) and great celebrations ensued. Truly it was a great time to be a true follower of the storm.
But, for every glad day, clouds will loom. Somewhere out there is Rsadi. Grandmother Hickory is still captive and Delecti knows their names. There are questions still unanswered but those will have to wait.
Coming up next for the PCs: Keldo's Last Stand and Pavis Rises.
I won't be posting APs of these as it takes more time than I have but I will be posting about them on my wiki from time: mostly for the players.
Hope people enjoyed this. Shame I couldn't finish it in a detailed form. It was some of the best fun I've had GMing. Kudos to Gareth Hanrahan for a seriously fab bit of work.
