Snowedunder
Mongoose
Oi, we are a well oiled machine!
Blood of Orlanth - actual play and questions [spoilers]
- Thread starter Deleriad
- Start date
Snowedunder
Mongoose
I wasn't but I keep getting the new post alerts.
Some better combat tactics are something I've been having a think about for the last couple of sessions.
More effective use of ranged weaponry is a must!
Aslander is fairly smart for a Orlanthi and has a good grasp of the fundementals of battle strategy, he just excited about killing this with a big axe sometimes.
Once had an Agamori in a game who went round with a tower shield and heavy cestus. He would cast Dmg boosting 10 on the cestus!
Anyway don't want to derail the thread. I've already forgotten everything I read. :wink:
Some better combat tactics are something I've been having a think about for the last couple of sessions.
More effective use of ranged weaponry is a must!
Aslander is fairly smart for a Orlanthi and has a good grasp of the fundementals of battle strategy, he just excited about killing this with a big axe sometimes.
Once had an Agamori in a game who went round with a tower shield and heavy cestus. He would cast Dmg boosting 10 on the cestus!
Anyway don't want to derail the thread. I've already forgotten everything I read. :wink:
Deleriad
Mongoose
Going to switch to doing this in diary form as it'll break some longer segments down. Also we only get to play once every two weeks or so at most.
Freezeday Truth Week (day 50) - towards Thunder River
Weather: light snow no wind. Morning dawns around -10C. It's cold. Brass monkeys are wailing and the player characters set off for Thunder River. It's normally a long day's travel and the last major outpost in the Howling River tula. With the cold and icy paths though their progress was slow. None of them are experts at surviving in the wild, and camping outdoors in this weather would be suicidal so they beg shelter in a cottar's barn towards the end of the day. Larad has call to comment several times on just how warm his winter cloak is. Larad likes his cloak.
For reasons unknown Keldo was hit on the back of the neck by spouts of water from the river three times. Nobody else was targeted and there seemed to be no ramifications - other than annoyance - so they did their best to focus. They're all painfully aware that the sorcerer is mounted and probably gaining on them with every hour. At least Keldo knows the road to Thunder River so, if the sorcerer is a stranger, they may get lucky.
Freezeday Truth Week (day 50) - towards Thunder River
Weather: light snow no wind. Morning dawns around -10C. It's cold. Brass monkeys are wailing and the player characters set off for Thunder River. It's normally a long day's travel and the last major outpost in the Howling River tula. With the cold and icy paths though their progress was slow. None of them are experts at surviving in the wild, and camping outdoors in this weather would be suicidal so they beg shelter in a cottar's barn towards the end of the day. Larad has call to comment several times on just how warm his winter cloak is. Larad likes his cloak.
For reasons unknown Keldo was hit on the back of the neck by spouts of water from the river three times. Nobody else was targeted and there seemed to be no ramifications - other than annoyance - so they did their best to focus. They're all painfully aware that the sorcerer is mounted and probably gaining on them with every hour. At least Keldo knows the road to Thunder River so, if the sorcerer is a stranger, they may get lucky.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Aslander is being piloted by Chris (aka Snowedunder). Chris is the only RQ veteran in the group having played RQ3 for many years and occasionally still doing so. Aslander was rolled-up before he joined the original campaign pre-dating Blood of Orlanth (Against the Spider Cult). He was then modified to fit the house rules.
Cormalin is being driven by James. I believe this is James''s first experience of any sort of rpging. James had played in a one-off scenario featuring God Learners and baby giant in Prax and enjoyed the strangeness of it enough to sign up for Blood. Cormalin was created by me in response to what James was looking for.
Griffith Arad is piloted by 'little' Chris. Chris played in the first session of Against the Spider Cult with a pre-gen. It was his first time playing any sort of RQ and he rolled up Griffith for the next session so he could play a tomb-raiding scholarly type.
Keldo Mollon is driven by Doug and was a pre-gen for AtSC. Doug heard about the first session and joined in from the second one on, playing Keldo. This was also his first ever RQ and he liked Keldo enough to want to keep him.
Larad was another pre-gen for AtSC and is driven by Ioan. Also new to RQ, Ioan joined the first session and has stuck with the same character ever since.
Cormalin is being driven by James. I believe this is James''s first experience of any sort of rpging. James had played in a one-off scenario featuring God Learners and baby giant in Prax and enjoyed the strangeness of it enough to sign up for Blood. Cormalin was created by me in response to what James was looking for.
Griffith Arad is piloted by 'little' Chris. Chris played in the first session of Against the Spider Cult with a pre-gen. It was his first time playing any sort of RQ and he rolled up Griffith for the next session so he could play a tomb-raiding scholarly type.
Keldo Mollon is driven by Doug and was a pre-gen for AtSC. Doug heard about the first session and joined in from the second one on, playing Keldo. This was also his first ever RQ and he liked Keldo enough to want to keep him.
Larad was another pre-gen for AtSC and is driven by Ioan. Also new to RQ, Ioan joined the first session and has stuck with the same character ever since.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Waterday Truth Week (day 51)
Our party arrive in Thunder Bridge in late afternoon. The town appears to have been hit even harder by the two year winter than the rest of the Howling Wolf Lands. The characters notice though that the place is very busy and the reason soon becomes clear: the locals are planning a big raid on the clan below the cliff and able-bodied men are being mustered from the outskirts.
As it's late in the day there isn't much to be done but to be presented to the lord - Donal Longtalker - and meet some of the local dignitaries. Much to their dismay, though, they discover that passage down the "Stair" from Thunder River Fort has been closed. This also meant that they didn't want anyone leaving until after the raid.
The local priest - Rangor Bless Plough - a priest of Barntar Orlanthsson (the farmer's god) said that a stranger on horseback had arrived at Thunder Bridge Fort two days ago. He looked exhausted and Rangor was suspicious of him so Rangor refused to let him pass. He doesn't know what happened to him but a couple of locals mentioned seeing him heading east through the forest where it is possible to get down the cliff. The route is probably impossible on horseback and likely to take a day or two. The party decide to send Cormalin tracking through the woods to ensure that the sorcerer doesn't double-back and are confident that they can gain access down the Stair the next day so they arrange to meet in Sunvale in 2 days time.
It soon turns out that Rangor is trying to argue against the raid as he believes that the clan should trust in faith and themselves rather than raiding the neighbours. As Rangor clearly has great influence among the common folk a meeting has been called for the following day.
In the meantime, that evening Keldo finds himself approached by Daven Longsword, the lord's son, arguing in favour of the raid while Aslander is approached by Rangor who finds that they share a common belief that the clans should stick together in the face of the threat from the EWF. Keldo's not entirely comfortable with politics so he and Davem raid some of the lord's stash of beer instead. Larad and Griffith travel to Thunder Fort to see for themselves one of the wonders of Heortland: statues of Humakt and Issaries carved out of the cliff face either side of the river as it thunders seventy feet to the lands below. Both see the treacherous "stair" snaking its way up the cliff face.
As there's not much else to be done and the night is bitterly cold once again, they bed down in visitor quarters after a meagre meal and some sour ale.
Our party arrive in Thunder Bridge in late afternoon. The town appears to have been hit even harder by the two year winter than the rest of the Howling Wolf Lands. The characters notice though that the place is very busy and the reason soon becomes clear: the locals are planning a big raid on the clan below the cliff and able-bodied men are being mustered from the outskirts.
As it's late in the day there isn't much to be done but to be presented to the lord - Donal Longtalker - and meet some of the local dignitaries. Much to their dismay, though, they discover that passage down the "Stair" from Thunder River Fort has been closed. This also meant that they didn't want anyone leaving until after the raid.
The local priest - Rangor Bless Plough - a priest of Barntar Orlanthsson (the farmer's god) said that a stranger on horseback had arrived at Thunder Bridge Fort two days ago. He looked exhausted and Rangor was suspicious of him so Rangor refused to let him pass. He doesn't know what happened to him but a couple of locals mentioned seeing him heading east through the forest where it is possible to get down the cliff. The route is probably impossible on horseback and likely to take a day or two. The party decide to send Cormalin tracking through the woods to ensure that the sorcerer doesn't double-back and are confident that they can gain access down the Stair the next day so they arrange to meet in Sunvale in 2 days time.
It soon turns out that Rangor is trying to argue against the raid as he believes that the clan should trust in faith and themselves rather than raiding the neighbours. As Rangor clearly has great influence among the common folk a meeting has been called for the following day.
In the meantime, that evening Keldo finds himself approached by Daven Longsword, the lord's son, arguing in favour of the raid while Aslander is approached by Rangor who finds that they share a common belief that the clans should stick together in the face of the threat from the EWF. Keldo's not entirely comfortable with politics so he and Davem raid some of the lord's stash of beer instead. Larad and Griffith travel to Thunder Fort to see for themselves one of the wonders of Heortland: statues of Humakt and Issaries carved out of the cliff face either side of the river as it thunders seventy feet to the lands below. Both see the treacherous "stair" snaking its way up the cliff face.
As there's not much else to be done and the night is bitterly cold once again, they bed down in visitor quarters after a meagre meal and some sour ale.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Clayday Truth Week (day 52)
After the clan meeting due later today, the PCs hope to be able to resume their pursuit of the sorcerer. They've been very circumspect about mentioning him or their relationship to Orlgard so far and plan to keep it that way. Things don't go as planned though.
The locals gather at Thunder Bridge Fort and both Aslander and Keldo are called upon to speak as well as Daven and Rangor. It is clear that Donal intends to rule in favour of a raid if at all possible and, on the whole, the audience seems to favour a raid. There is much description of the "weak", "fat", Laughing River clan who are having an easier winter, who have many cows but refuse to trade. If they won't trade, Daven says, then we have to take. As the meeting drags on, Rangor works himself up into a greater and greater fury as he sees the way things are going.
Aslander is happy to speak against the raid and focusing on the EWF but Keldo finds himself in a tricky spot. Keldo has been revealing himself to be unusually nuanced for an Urox follower and much though a good raid stirs his blood he cans ee it causing problems later on if they need help from the Laughing River clan in finding the sorcerer. He falls back in the end on the old Uroxi standby of chaos. Keldo has convinced himself that they are chasing a chaos sorcerer - that explains the broos at least - and that there is nothing more important than defeating chaos. Admittedly pretty much everyone in the world thinks that chaos has already been defeated with just little pockets of it left, but Keldo isn't so sure. So Keldo, much to Daven's astonishment, mostly argues against the raid.
Still, these are outsiders with no obvious status so their words carry little weight. What brings everything screeching to a halt is the arrival of the EWF. Or, at least, three EWF missionaries. The warning horn is blown, Donal halts proceedings and the missionaries are announced.
They are a motley bunch. One is an androgynous, hairless, modestly clothed wo/man introducing him/herself as Yalish of the Dawn. S/he is accompanied by a gruff mercenary with a magnificent moustache and some sort of bright purple demon who is, it seems, called Lok. Lok appears to be only slightly larger than Growling Jake's moustache.
Yalish causes consternation by claiming to be able to break the effects of the winter. Much shouting and pushing ensues until Donal restores order and demands that they be heard them out. Yalish casts a spell which brings a wave of warmth and causes flowers to grow in the stones of the wall. This is almost too much for Rangor who is now apoplectic with rage and is only narrowly restraining himself from braining the priest/ess. Seeing that this can't end well, Donal calls a halt to proceedings and declares that the priests should cast their magic tomorrow morning and the truth would be determined then.
So the day ends with our heroes stuck in Thunder Bridge. Larad and Keldo go off hunting with Daven all night for a giant boar which might help power Rangor's magic while muttering that this would be the ideal job for Cormalin. They return tired and empty-handed and Keldo gets another splashing from the river.
Meanwhile Aslander is talking with Yalish's mercenary bodyguard while trying not attack him with his axe. "Growling" Jake has been working for Yalish for a while and was pretty cagey. He does mention that he and she (it appears that Yalish is mostly a she) had met with the General of the EWF army on the banks of the Marzeel. This general - who he describes as "not human" and stinking of rotten eggs - is presumably the mysterious figure known as Telektios the Ashbringer. Jake also mentions On the general's lieutenants, an Orlanthi woman called Maralis who apparently is designing the plans for taking control of the Solthi River region.
Telektios told them to take Lok (the purple imp) because it knew the area. Maralis told them to try to influence the locals through magic. Jake clearly doesn't rate the idea, mostly regarding Aslander and co as "hairy-assed barbarians." Jake is from the far more civilised lands of Esrola. He claims that the Laughing River clan are not exactly all that friendly. When Aslander asks about Maralis, Jake replied that he thought she was from Solthmouth originally and seems to prefer making treaties than outright war where possible.
Just after the conversation, Lok turns up. Taunting Aslander, it gives him back a coin that it has just stolen from him. Aslander just about controls the urge to blatt it until Lok calls him "dragonslayer" and disappears into the night. For a purple imp, it can hide remarkably well.
---------------------------------------
NOTES
As this session unfolded, the players really began to feel the lack of a character with good social, communicational and political skills. The previous mini-campaign had been a blood & thunder swords-&-sorcery affair with a lot of combat. This section of the campaign onwards, however, requires a lot of politicking and ability to lie and spot lies. My house rules have insight and disguise as basic skills but none of the PCs have much more than base skills in them. I tend to run things old style so I players make rolls to get unambiguous information rather than them as players having to guess based on what I say.
So far the scenario seems nicely paced. This session is giving them a feel for the dynamics and tensions in Orlanthi society without having to sit back and listen to me explain stuff. It helps that the NPCs are also interesting. Rangor has become a far more fire-&-brimstone figure than the book states and I used a mental image of Pete Postelthwaite when playing him. Growling Jake allowed for a comedy growling accent but, more importantly, put a human and somewhat likeable face on the enemy. As the next sessions unfold, the players will be starting to confront the consequences of combat and some difficult moral choices.
After the clan meeting due later today, the PCs hope to be able to resume their pursuit of the sorcerer. They've been very circumspect about mentioning him or their relationship to Orlgard so far and plan to keep it that way. Things don't go as planned though.
The locals gather at Thunder Bridge Fort and both Aslander and Keldo are called upon to speak as well as Daven and Rangor. It is clear that Donal intends to rule in favour of a raid if at all possible and, on the whole, the audience seems to favour a raid. There is much description of the "weak", "fat", Laughing River clan who are having an easier winter, who have many cows but refuse to trade. If they won't trade, Daven says, then we have to take. As the meeting drags on, Rangor works himself up into a greater and greater fury as he sees the way things are going.
Aslander is happy to speak against the raid and focusing on the EWF but Keldo finds himself in a tricky spot. Keldo has been revealing himself to be unusually nuanced for an Urox follower and much though a good raid stirs his blood he cans ee it causing problems later on if they need help from the Laughing River clan in finding the sorcerer. He falls back in the end on the old Uroxi standby of chaos. Keldo has convinced himself that they are chasing a chaos sorcerer - that explains the broos at least - and that there is nothing more important than defeating chaos. Admittedly pretty much everyone in the world thinks that chaos has already been defeated with just little pockets of it left, but Keldo isn't so sure. So Keldo, much to Daven's astonishment, mostly argues against the raid.
Still, these are outsiders with no obvious status so their words carry little weight. What brings everything screeching to a halt is the arrival of the EWF. Or, at least, three EWF missionaries. The warning horn is blown, Donal halts proceedings and the missionaries are announced.
They are a motley bunch. One is an androgynous, hairless, modestly clothed wo/man introducing him/herself as Yalish of the Dawn. S/he is accompanied by a gruff mercenary with a magnificent moustache and some sort of bright purple demon who is, it seems, called Lok. Lok appears to be only slightly larger than Growling Jake's moustache.
Yalish causes consternation by claiming to be able to break the effects of the winter. Much shouting and pushing ensues until Donal restores order and demands that they be heard them out. Yalish casts a spell which brings a wave of warmth and causes flowers to grow in the stones of the wall. This is almost too much for Rangor who is now apoplectic with rage and is only narrowly restraining himself from braining the priest/ess. Seeing that this can't end well, Donal calls a halt to proceedings and declares that the priests should cast their magic tomorrow morning and the truth would be determined then.
So the day ends with our heroes stuck in Thunder Bridge. Larad and Keldo go off hunting with Daven all night for a giant boar which might help power Rangor's magic while muttering that this would be the ideal job for Cormalin. They return tired and empty-handed and Keldo gets another splashing from the river.
Meanwhile Aslander is talking with Yalish's mercenary bodyguard while trying not attack him with his axe. "Growling" Jake has been working for Yalish for a while and was pretty cagey. He does mention that he and she (it appears that Yalish is mostly a she) had met with the General of the EWF army on the banks of the Marzeel. This general - who he describes as "not human" and stinking of rotten eggs - is presumably the mysterious figure known as Telektios the Ashbringer. Jake also mentions On the general's lieutenants, an Orlanthi woman called Maralis who apparently is designing the plans for taking control of the Solthi River region.
Telektios told them to take Lok (the purple imp) because it knew the area. Maralis told them to try to influence the locals through magic. Jake clearly doesn't rate the idea, mostly regarding Aslander and co as "hairy-assed barbarians." Jake is from the far more civilised lands of Esrola. He claims that the Laughing River clan are not exactly all that friendly. When Aslander asks about Maralis, Jake replied that he thought she was from Solthmouth originally and seems to prefer making treaties than outright war where possible.
Just after the conversation, Lok turns up. Taunting Aslander, it gives him back a coin that it has just stolen from him. Aslander just about controls the urge to blatt it until Lok calls him "dragonslayer" and disappears into the night. For a purple imp, it can hide remarkably well.
---------------------------------------
NOTES
As this session unfolded, the players really began to feel the lack of a character with good social, communicational and political skills. The previous mini-campaign had been a blood & thunder swords-&-sorcery affair with a lot of combat. This section of the campaign onwards, however, requires a lot of politicking and ability to lie and spot lies. My house rules have insight and disguise as basic skills but none of the PCs have much more than base skills in them. I tend to run things old style so I players make rolls to get unambiguous information rather than them as players having to guess based on what I say.
So far the scenario seems nicely paced. This session is giving them a feel for the dynamics and tensions in Orlanthi society without having to sit back and listen to me explain stuff. It helps that the NPCs are also interesting. Rangor has become a far more fire-&-brimstone figure than the book states and I used a mental image of Pete Postelthwaite when playing him. Growling Jake allowed for a comedy growling accent but, more importantly, put a human and somewhat likeable face on the enemy. As the next sessions unfold, the players will be starting to confront the consequences of combat and some difficult moral choices.
Inspector Zero
Mongoose
These are great updates Deleriad and having read the scenario but not played it with my group yet it's really interesting to see how your crowd have found it.
Pete Postlethwaite? The likeable, honest, hard-working servant of others a la "Brassed Off" or the scheming, prehensile shitbag from "Sharpe"?
I'm interested also in your thoughts about the last section of BoO when the war starts. I've read it a few times and I'm not convinced I really understand it and how the possible events tie together. As it stands it looks as if the GM could manipulate the story pretty heavily. I assume you've read this and have a clear view about how it'll play?
Appreciate that some of your players read these threads so you might be limited about what you can write here.
Pete Postlethwaite? The likeable, honest, hard-working servant of others a la "Brassed Off" or the scheming, prehensile shitbag from "Sharpe"?
I'm interested also in your thoughts about the last section of BoO when the war starts. I've read it a few times and I'm not convinced I really understand it and how the possible events tie together. As it stands it looks as if the GM could manipulate the story pretty heavily. I assume you've read this and have a clear view about how it'll play?
Appreciate that some of your players read these threads so you might be limited about what you can write here.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Actually a mixture of personal appearance (very big nose, large adam's apple, looking vaguely like a plough) crossed with his role in Romeo and Juliet.Inspector Zero said:
Inspector Zero said:
I'm treating it as fairly sandboxy, i.e. the players should take the lead in suggesting what they do next. As a GM I have notes on possible timelines for NPCs which will change as they get more information and depending on PC actions. I've not sat down and tried to plot out what would happen if the PCs weren't there. If I did so I might get wedded to some sort of expected future and try to railroad the PCs in that direction.
In actual play we've just reached the start of the rebellion. The starting position for the war is not one that would be obvious from reading the campaign notes but follows logically from the players' actions. The rebellion is in both a better and worse shape than might be expected.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Windsday dawns, the locals assemble and the priests attempt to prove who has the strongest god. Larad and Keldo are both suffering a level of fatigue from the night's futile hunt. Keldo has mixed it up with a hangover on the basis that that feels more normal.
Rangor, somewhat to his own surprise manages to cast Bless Crops on the barren ground. His rage seems to have channelled itself into a direct link to Barntar and the spell has an effect far beyond what would normally be expected. Calmly,Yalish brings warmth over the blessed ground an soon flowers are growing in the gently steaming earth. Yalish claims that this shows how Barntar and the dragon are one and the same. Donal has the look of someone seeing his hope for a raid dying as the cottars look on in amazement.
Fate, however, intervenes. Rangor has had enough of this blasphemy and takes a swing at Yalish with his staff of office. Growling Jake is paying too much attention to the guards and doesn't spot the danger. Yalish is surprised, backing out of the way and losing composure. She lets loose with the full force of the dragon; Rangor dies before he hits the floor.
There's one of those pregnant pauses that seem to last a lifetime but last only the length of a heartbeat. Then the riot starts. The EWFers don't stand a chance though Lok is last seen scarpering over a wall with a very irate Aslander chasing but failing to catch up. Donal, realising that guests have been murdered under his protection and seeing that his people have their blood up calls for a raid. There is cheering, shouting and much clashing of weapons. 20 men and the outsiders will travel down the stairs and return with cattle, blood and glory.
Unseen in all this, Rangor's acolyte goes to his side. To his amazement, Rangor stirs, seemingly revived by the warm earth. It's too late to stop the raid though.
So, the raiders set out and to liberate cattle. The raiding party is in a wild mood. heading for a farmstead just three miles from the Stair they quickly realise that they have been seen and a group of a dozen warriors have drawn up at the farmstead. People on both sides are hungry and scared. Normally one side would back down but not this time. The farmstead is raided.
For a while the attackers pull their blows. Griffith provides missile cover with his crossbow while the players charge the main gate, keeping the main defenders occupied while half of the rest rustle the cattle. It's an old technique and always works. One defender is killed and there are several serious injuries on both sides.
The raiders return with 6 cattle and plans for a good meal while our heroes recover their patient mule and press on to the south. They find an abandoned cottage to shelter in for the night but now they are strangers in another clan's lands, were present when a man was killed and fear that the sorcerer may have travelled beyond their reach. It's a dark night.
----------------------
Notes.
The "magic duel" between Yalish and Rangor was a touch problematic due to lack of Rangor having anything more effective than a large staff. I think the author may have slipped into D&Dism. At the same time, it's not entirely clear how Yalish's spirit works and what exactly her magical background is as she doesn't belong to any of the EWF Dragon cults so I made her an acolyte of Storm Dragon - explaining the access to Lightning.
I really didn't expect Rangor to make his roll but the player rolling for him rolled a critical so the dice spoke. Sadly Yalish also criticalled her lightning attack. Luckily for him, another player criticalled Rangor's Pact roll when he called for Divine Intervention. Barntar decided to save a much humbled Rangor.
The raid on the farmstead was a relative cake walk made memorable when Larad tried to find a way not to kill an opponent. Not exactly normal Humakti behaviour but I let him spend a Hero Point to turn what would be a major injury into a minor one. The PCs then started pulling blows. Running a combat where you are actually hoping not to kill the enemy made for a good dynamic and brought home the complexity of the situation. They didn't want to be responsible for more were-geld and knew they would have to travel through this land. They had also been arguing for inter-clan alliances yet this raid was their best way to get after the sorcerer without losing face at Thunder Bridge.
Thunder Bridge was the first in series of sessions designed to focus on the cultural impact of the players' actions and to show them how they influenced and were influenced by wider society. Various threads were started there too; some the players already know of such as the river's interest in Keldo while others have yet to be revealed.
It was also the first instance where the descriptions of NPCs and their activities don't mesh with what their stat blocks say they can do. I generally try to avoid GM fiat which meant revisioning the magic duel and also rebuilding Yalish and Rangor pretty much from scratch, especially with the new pact system for Divine Magic in play.
Rangor, somewhat to his own surprise manages to cast Bless Crops on the barren ground. His rage seems to have channelled itself into a direct link to Barntar and the spell has an effect far beyond what would normally be expected. Calmly,Yalish brings warmth over the blessed ground an soon flowers are growing in the gently steaming earth. Yalish claims that this shows how Barntar and the dragon are one and the same. Donal has the look of someone seeing his hope for a raid dying as the cottars look on in amazement.
Fate, however, intervenes. Rangor has had enough of this blasphemy and takes a swing at Yalish with his staff of office. Growling Jake is paying too much attention to the guards and doesn't spot the danger. Yalish is surprised, backing out of the way and losing composure. She lets loose with the full force of the dragon; Rangor dies before he hits the floor.
There's one of those pregnant pauses that seem to last a lifetime but last only the length of a heartbeat. Then the riot starts. The EWFers don't stand a chance though Lok is last seen scarpering over a wall with a very irate Aslander chasing but failing to catch up. Donal, realising that guests have been murdered under his protection and seeing that his people have their blood up calls for a raid. There is cheering, shouting and much clashing of weapons. 20 men and the outsiders will travel down the stairs and return with cattle, blood and glory.
Unseen in all this, Rangor's acolyte goes to his side. To his amazement, Rangor stirs, seemingly revived by the warm earth. It's too late to stop the raid though.
So, the raiders set out and to liberate cattle. The raiding party is in a wild mood. heading for a farmstead just three miles from the Stair they quickly realise that they have been seen and a group of a dozen warriors have drawn up at the farmstead. People on both sides are hungry and scared. Normally one side would back down but not this time. The farmstead is raided.
For a while the attackers pull their blows. Griffith provides missile cover with his crossbow while the players charge the main gate, keeping the main defenders occupied while half of the rest rustle the cattle. It's an old technique and always works. One defender is killed and there are several serious injuries on both sides.
The raiders return with 6 cattle and plans for a good meal while our heroes recover their patient mule and press on to the south. They find an abandoned cottage to shelter in for the night but now they are strangers in another clan's lands, were present when a man was killed and fear that the sorcerer may have travelled beyond their reach. It's a dark night.
----------------------
Notes.
The "magic duel" between Yalish and Rangor was a touch problematic due to lack of Rangor having anything more effective than a large staff. I think the author may have slipped into D&Dism. At the same time, it's not entirely clear how Yalish's spirit works and what exactly her magical background is as she doesn't belong to any of the EWF Dragon cults so I made her an acolyte of Storm Dragon - explaining the access to Lightning.
I really didn't expect Rangor to make his roll but the player rolling for him rolled a critical so the dice spoke. Sadly Yalish also criticalled her lightning attack. Luckily for him, another player criticalled Rangor's Pact roll when he called for Divine Intervention. Barntar decided to save a much humbled Rangor.
The raid on the farmstead was a relative cake walk made memorable when Larad tried to find a way not to kill an opponent. Not exactly normal Humakti behaviour but I let him spend a Hero Point to turn what would be a major injury into a minor one. The PCs then started pulling blows. Running a combat where you are actually hoping not to kill the enemy made for a good dynamic and brought home the complexity of the situation. They didn't want to be responsible for more were-geld and knew they would have to travel through this land. They had also been arguing for inter-clan alliances yet this raid was their best way to get after the sorcerer without losing face at Thunder Bridge.
Thunder Bridge was the first in series of sessions designed to focus on the cultural impact of the players' actions and to show them how they influenced and were influenced by wider society. Various threads were started there too; some the players already know of such as the river's interest in Keldo while others have yet to be revealed.
It was also the first instance where the descriptions of NPCs and their activities don't mesh with what their stat blocks say they can do. I generally try to avoid GM fiat which meant revisioning the magic duel and also rebuilding Yalish and Rangor pretty much from scratch, especially with the new pact system for Divine Magic in play.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Previously in the Blood of Orlanth
A man flees south stumbling through snow-bound forests, slipping down steep hills and into icy brooks, a non-descript bowl clutched in his hands.
Voice Over while he flees.
Orlgard: "The bowl must be found. The clan is weak and divided. I don't know if I can my hold my people together if its loss is uncovered."
Donal Longspeaker: "The people are hungry and cold and desperate."
Grandmother Hickory: “It will be swallowed by the sea. Nine men shall have it.”
Cut
Yalish and her companions arriving. "The dragon is not your enemy. Look!" She gestures with dragon magic and flowers spring from a wall, warmth spreads. Hope spreads on people's faces.
Rangor is preaching: "Cleave to your faith. The wyrm friends lie. They would turn the seasons upside down to trick you."
Cut
Aslander and a mercenary are talking. Jake says "I've met the general. It wasn't human. I could see smoke and, gods, the stench."
Keldo standing by the banks of the river, "show me a sign."
Griffith with Rangor - "We must unite against the dragon armies. They're our real enemy"
Larad standing in front of the great statue of Humakt while Daven is shouting "for glory!"
Cormalin tracking through the forests sees the dying figure of a lamed horse and puts it out of its misery. "You will pay for that, sorcerer."
Cut
Donal is speaking "let the gods decide!" Yalish and Rangor square off. Rangor summons up power from the depths of his face and the ice on the field cracks. Yalish starts to spread warmth and Rangor swings his staff, he misses, she retaliates and slays him with a bolt of lightning.
Mayhem ensues, focus on Donal looking stricken, the PCs with warring emotions (apart from Aslander who is cheerily cleaning his 'sword.')
Donal shouting "We raid! We take what they won't offer. Violence is always an option."
Cut
The paddock smoulders, a dead body is retrieved. Someone says "this will mean war" and our heroes continue their journey. Sadder, maybe wiser.
A man flees south stumbling through snow-bound forests, slipping down steep hills and into icy brooks, a non-descript bowl clutched in his hands.
Voice Over while he flees.
Orlgard: "The bowl must be found. The clan is weak and divided. I don't know if I can my hold my people together if its loss is uncovered."
Donal Longspeaker: "The people are hungry and cold and desperate."
Grandmother Hickory: “It will be swallowed by the sea. Nine men shall have it.”
Cut
Yalish and her companions arriving. "The dragon is not your enemy. Look!" She gestures with dragon magic and flowers spring from a wall, warmth spreads. Hope spreads on people's faces.
Rangor is preaching: "Cleave to your faith. The wyrm friends lie. They would turn the seasons upside down to trick you."
Cut
Aslander and a mercenary are talking. Jake says "I've met the general. It wasn't human. I could see smoke and, gods, the stench."
Keldo standing by the banks of the river, "show me a sign."
Griffith with Rangor - "We must unite against the dragon armies. They're our real enemy"
Larad standing in front of the great statue of Humakt while Daven is shouting "for glory!"
Cormalin tracking through the forests sees the dying figure of a lamed horse and puts it out of its misery. "You will pay for that, sorcerer."
Cut
Donal is speaking "let the gods decide!" Yalish and Rangor square off. Rangor summons up power from the depths of his face and the ice on the field cracks. Yalish starts to spread warmth and Rangor swings his staff, he misses, she retaliates and slays him with a bolt of lightning.
Mayhem ensues, focus on Donal looking stricken, the PCs with warring emotions (apart from Aslander who is cheerily cleaning his 'sword.')
Donal shouting "We raid! We take what they won't offer. Violence is always an option."
Cut
The paddock smoulders, a dead body is retrieved. Someone says "this will mean war" and our heroes continue their journey. Sadder, maybe wiser.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Fireday Truth Week (day 54) - Along the Laughing River III
It dawns windy and warmer than of late, not much below zero. After a hard night in a cold ruin and our heroes are tired and hungry. After some debate they decide to head straight for Sunvale and Thandor's Hall. They were due to meet Cormalin there yesterday but are now behind schedule after the events at Thunder Bridge. Although there was a risk of someone associating them with the raid they decide that it is important to present themselves directly to Thandor rather than trying to pass through covertly and looking even more suspicious if they areuncovered. Giffith, however, heads back to the Stair to their back-up meeting point with the intent of heading to Deepwell via Sunvale, possibly on a boat if they don't otherwise meet up.
Arriving in Sunvale mid-afternoon, they are challenged by a fairly traditionalist looking Orlanthi named Hendrik. As they walk into town they notice the amount of Draconic imagery and a large, imposing temple to Orlanth and Ernalda, The Dragons. The prevalence of Draconism and the fact that they are now in lands which might not treat them as friendly is making them wary.
They manage to meet Cormalin who tells them he is pretty sure that the sorcerer has made for Sunvale. Also says that he had left his horse behind when it became lame. There is, indeed, a distinct possibility that he is still in Sunvale though Cormalin had been laying low and has heard no rumours.
The lord of Sunvale, Thandor Goldenhair (aka ManySons), receives them late in the day and proceeds to quiz them about their travels and reasons for coming through Sunvale. The party felt the lack of Griffith's conversational skills acutely and told him they were chasing a sorcerer who was consorting with chaos. Two Dragon Friends (a warrior and a priestess) who are present take interest in this and Thandor cuts the audience short by inviting the strangers to dinner. It is not lost on the party that Sunvale seems to be surviving the winter better than settlements above the stair.
After their first decent meal in weeks, Thandor cuts to the point. Dajai, a Lieutenant of the Fifth Claw has uncovered evidence that there is a traitor in Sunvale. The Lady Vygota, a Wyrm friend prophetess, has seen that Thandor's enemies are close by him and he can trust no one. Dajai believes that the traitor is Hendrik but Thandor merely laugh off such accusations about his old friend. Dajai then shows them a letter from "Arkat" that he has intercepted.
Larad being a Humakti is unable to hide his surprise at this development but no one seemed to notice. Dajai claims that Hendrik either is "Arkat" or is working for him. Thandor is sceptical but asks the outsiders to investigate for him. After all, if there is a traitor present he's sure that he can't trust anyone and the outsiders have no connections here. The party is willing to help on the premise that maybe it'll get them in his good books, maybe help find the sorcerer and maybe give them some bargaining power should their role in the raid come to Thandor's attention.
On leaving the council, Aslander notices that someone has been listening at the door. Perhaps Dajai's fears are not unfounded.
Later that evening they head to one of the local inns where they find Hendrik and some youths welll into their cups. There is much more drinking and shared conversations about the need to keep to the old ways. On leaving the inn, Aslander again sees evidence that they are being watched.
-------------------
I actually made a mistake in running this by having Hendrik present at the meal. It was one of those sudden moments where you lose track. Although it still makes some sense - as it shows that Thandor is clearly still prepared to listen to a representative of the old ways - it makes Thandor appear more open minded than he would prefer.
Also, I'm not sure if the players picked it up, but he's basically using them as patsies. He figures that the chance of a bunch of Howling Wolves finding out anything to do with a conspiracy is zero but it buys him some time. He is so focused on his own issues that he is paying zero attention to the issue of this chaos sorcerer or the priestess's strange pronouncements of treasure.
He did hear about the raid but he's sworn the messenger to silence "while he plots revenge." When the players turn up it seems unlikely to him that they had nothing to do with it. Right now, however, he can't afford any sort of ruckus. He figures though, if things get bad, by delaying the characters a little while he may have hostages or, even, fall-guys if someone needs blood.
Before this session began I told the players that their characters were in the greatest danger they have been in to date. Having to walk into a chieftain's hall unarmed and unarmoured should be a scary thing. I am holding open through out this the potential for Thandor to order these people either captured or killed.
It dawns windy and warmer than of late, not much below zero. After a hard night in a cold ruin and our heroes are tired and hungry. After some debate they decide to head straight for Sunvale and Thandor's Hall. They were due to meet Cormalin there yesterday but are now behind schedule after the events at Thunder Bridge. Although there was a risk of someone associating them with the raid they decide that it is important to present themselves directly to Thandor rather than trying to pass through covertly and looking even more suspicious if they areuncovered. Giffith, however, heads back to the Stair to their back-up meeting point with the intent of heading to Deepwell via Sunvale, possibly on a boat if they don't otherwise meet up.
Arriving in Sunvale mid-afternoon, they are challenged by a fairly traditionalist looking Orlanthi named Hendrik. As they walk into town they notice the amount of Draconic imagery and a large, imposing temple to Orlanth and Ernalda, The Dragons. The prevalence of Draconism and the fact that they are now in lands which might not treat them as friendly is making them wary.
They manage to meet Cormalin who tells them he is pretty sure that the sorcerer has made for Sunvale. Also says that he had left his horse behind when it became lame. There is, indeed, a distinct possibility that he is still in Sunvale though Cormalin had been laying low and has heard no rumours.
The lord of Sunvale, Thandor Goldenhair (aka ManySons), receives them late in the day and proceeds to quiz them about their travels and reasons for coming through Sunvale. The party felt the lack of Griffith's conversational skills acutely and told him they were chasing a sorcerer who was consorting with chaos. Two Dragon Friends (a warrior and a priestess) who are present take interest in this and Thandor cuts the audience short by inviting the strangers to dinner. It is not lost on the party that Sunvale seems to be surviving the winter better than settlements above the stair.
After their first decent meal in weeks, Thandor cuts to the point. Dajai, a Lieutenant of the Fifth Claw has uncovered evidence that there is a traitor in Sunvale. The Lady Vygota, a Wyrm friend prophetess, has seen that Thandor's enemies are close by him and he can trust no one. Dajai believes that the traitor is Hendrik but Thandor merely laugh off such accusations about his old friend. Dajai then shows them a letter from "Arkat" that he has intercepted.
Larad being a Humakti is unable to hide his surprise at this development but no one seemed to notice. Dajai claims that Hendrik either is "Arkat" or is working for him. Thandor is sceptical but asks the outsiders to investigate for him. After all, if there is a traitor present he's sure that he can't trust anyone and the outsiders have no connections here. The party is willing to help on the premise that maybe it'll get them in his good books, maybe help find the sorcerer and maybe give them some bargaining power should their role in the raid come to Thandor's attention.
On leaving the council, Aslander notices that someone has been listening at the door. Perhaps Dajai's fears are not unfounded.
Later that evening they head to one of the local inns where they find Hendrik and some youths welll into their cups. There is much more drinking and shared conversations about the need to keep to the old ways. On leaving the inn, Aslander again sees evidence that they are being watched.
-------------------
I actually made a mistake in running this by having Hendrik present at the meal. It was one of those sudden moments where you lose track. Although it still makes some sense - as it shows that Thandor is clearly still prepared to listen to a representative of the old ways - it makes Thandor appear more open minded than he would prefer.
Also, I'm not sure if the players picked it up, but he's basically using them as patsies. He figures that the chance of a bunch of Howling Wolves finding out anything to do with a conspiracy is zero but it buys him some time. He is so focused on his own issues that he is paying zero attention to the issue of this chaos sorcerer or the priestess's strange pronouncements of treasure.
He did hear about the raid but he's sworn the messenger to silence "while he plots revenge." When the players turn up it seems unlikely to him that they had nothing to do with it. Right now, however, he can't afford any sort of ruckus. He figures though, if things get bad, by delaying the characters a little while he may have hostages or, even, fall-guys if someone needs blood.
Before this session began I told the players that their characters were in the greatest danger they have been in to date. Having to walk into a chieftain's hall unarmed and unarmoured should be a scary thing. I am holding open through out this the potential for Thandor to order these people either captured or killed.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Wildday Truth Week (day 55 - aka Exposition Day...) - broken into two parts due to the length
The day dawns relatively warm (i.e. only freezing) but somewhat windy, an echo of Storm Season to come perhaps. Larad watches Dajai drilling EWF recruits in a dragon dance at dawn and begins to realise the threat carried by what seem simple moves.
Aslander and Larad then travel to the Dragon Temple to talk with the Lady Vygota about the traitor and her prophecy of the "unknowable treasure". Cormalin was tasked with following behind to attempt to spot anyone who might be following them. Aslander, naturally, doesn''t enter leaving Larad to talk with her. Her "charisma" is undeniable and Larad finds himself down on his knees reluctantly praying with her as she invokes dragon magic.
Again Nine Men are mentioned but this time more is revealed. The nine had become one and were no longer men. Unsuprisingly, this confuses Larad. Vygota also mentions a man called Colmar who had been staying at the town for a few days. She thinks he might either have, or know about, the treasure that is coming.
Meanwhile, Keldo is off to the river to commune with whatever it is that is paying interest to him. At this point Keldo hits the mother-lode. He sees a vision of man dipping a bowl into the river, drinking from it and pouring it over himself. Realising that the bowl is the relic they're seeking and the man must be the sorcerer he looks closer; the man's features look so familiar. Almost enraged by his inability to make sense of this familiarity he suddenly sees himself back in the water temple*, Griffith being drowned, and, crucially, a small weaselly man throwing fire magic that scorched a pillar before running off with one look back. The thief, the god-learner thief. Jezat the red. It was him. The sorcerer they had been chasing. The scorch marks to Orlrgard's armour were the same as left by that thief's magic.
Keldo's blood runs cold. If the God Learners get hold of this relic, who knows what they could do. Griffith had previously said something about the services in Sky End Stead being unusual and unusually gory and bloody with quite an emphasis on Orlanth's passion as he fought dragons. And The Howling Wolves had often been known for powerful and unusual healing magics.
What if this bowl had been touched by the blood of Orlanth somehow and what could the God Learners do with such a treasure?
Keldo hurries back to tell his companions what he has seen and to take advice. Aslander and Keldo go to talk with Hendrik, Larad to find out about Colmar while Cormalin carries on with stake-out duties.
Hendrik is not overly forthcoming, simply making his hatred for the EWF clear while drilling youths in the traditional way; lots of thumping each other either wooden swords instead of this fancy Dragon posing business. The matter ends when one of Thandor's servants comes to summons Hendrik. Keldo follows along but is dismissed by Thandor who wishes to discuss matters with Hendrik.
Colmar turned out to be a trader from the Snow Alynx clan who is trying to trade gold for wheat to no avail. He is convinced that Thandor is hoarding goods for his own use.
Cormalin then notices that the servant who had summoned Hendrik is heading off to Hendrik's house. Cormalin follows but all the servant does is peer in the window then leave again. Cormalin follows this servant back to his own hovel.
The day was drawing to its end and they are all thoroughly confused right now. Someone is probably a god-learner but they don't know who.
-------------------
The water temple refers to a previous scenario. Aslander's initiation had been interrupted by a call to fight chaos from a freshwater elf with a very long name. After much fun and games they ended up in a collapsing temple, half-way down the footprint, facing evil, nazi, sorry Gold-Learner relic stealers. One of them, a red thief called Jezat got away....
The day dawns relatively warm (i.e. only freezing) but somewhat windy, an echo of Storm Season to come perhaps. Larad watches Dajai drilling EWF recruits in a dragon dance at dawn and begins to realise the threat carried by what seem simple moves.
Aslander and Larad then travel to the Dragon Temple to talk with the Lady Vygota about the traitor and her prophecy of the "unknowable treasure". Cormalin was tasked with following behind to attempt to spot anyone who might be following them. Aslander, naturally, doesn''t enter leaving Larad to talk with her. Her "charisma" is undeniable and Larad finds himself down on his knees reluctantly praying with her as she invokes dragon magic.
Again Nine Men are mentioned but this time more is revealed. The nine had become one and were no longer men. Unsuprisingly, this confuses Larad. Vygota also mentions a man called Colmar who had been staying at the town for a few days. She thinks he might either have, or know about, the treasure that is coming.
Meanwhile, Keldo is off to the river to commune with whatever it is that is paying interest to him. At this point Keldo hits the mother-lode. He sees a vision of man dipping a bowl into the river, drinking from it and pouring it over himself. Realising that the bowl is the relic they're seeking and the man must be the sorcerer he looks closer; the man's features look so familiar. Almost enraged by his inability to make sense of this familiarity he suddenly sees himself back in the water temple*, Griffith being drowned, and, crucially, a small weaselly man throwing fire magic that scorched a pillar before running off with one look back. The thief, the god-learner thief. Jezat the red. It was him. The sorcerer they had been chasing. The scorch marks to Orlrgard's armour were the same as left by that thief's magic.
Keldo's blood runs cold. If the God Learners get hold of this relic, who knows what they could do. Griffith had previously said something about the services in Sky End Stead being unusual and unusually gory and bloody with quite an emphasis on Orlanth's passion as he fought dragons. And The Howling Wolves had often been known for powerful and unusual healing magics.
What if this bowl had been touched by the blood of Orlanth somehow and what could the God Learners do with such a treasure?
Keldo hurries back to tell his companions what he has seen and to take advice. Aslander and Keldo go to talk with Hendrik, Larad to find out about Colmar while Cormalin carries on with stake-out duties.
Hendrik is not overly forthcoming, simply making his hatred for the EWF clear while drilling youths in the traditional way; lots of thumping each other either wooden swords instead of this fancy Dragon posing business. The matter ends when one of Thandor's servants comes to summons Hendrik. Keldo follows along but is dismissed by Thandor who wishes to discuss matters with Hendrik.
Colmar turned out to be a trader from the Snow Alynx clan who is trying to trade gold for wheat to no avail. He is convinced that Thandor is hoarding goods for his own use.
Cormalin then notices that the servant who had summoned Hendrik is heading off to Hendrik's house. Cormalin follows but all the servant does is peer in the window then leave again. Cormalin follows this servant back to his own hovel.
The day was drawing to its end and they are all thoroughly confused right now. Someone is probably a god-learner but they don't know who.
-------------------
The water temple refers to a previous scenario. Aslander's initiation had been interrupted by a call to fight chaos from a freshwater elf with a very long name. After much fun and games they ended up in a collapsing temple, half-way down the footprint, facing evil, nazi, sorry Gold-Learner relic stealers. One of them, a red thief called Jezat got away....
Deleriad
Mongoose
Continued...
The plan is to get Hendrik and Colmar together at the inn on the basis that they can talk about trade and old ways while the rest of the party did some breaking and entering. Despite the beer, however, once they get them together, Hendrik is remarkably unwilling to talk about much and Colmar shows signs of starting to distrust Keldo. He feels that he is being set up for something but is not sure what. (Basically he made a good insight roll while Hendrik knows that he can't give anything away.)
Meanwhile, Larad breaks into Hendrik's hut without much difficulty but there's no sign of anything incriminating. Unwilling to trust to surface appearances he calls upon the truth in Humakt and tries to see the hut as it really is. I.e. in game terms he made a Runecasting (Truth) roll and spent a Hero Point. What he gets out of it is a cryptic clue. The truth is hiding a lie. So Hendrik is exactly what he claims but that truth hides something else.
As Larad is breaking and entering, Cormalin is following on stake-out duty and sees this servant, again, watching Hendrik's hut. Realising that he has to do something he chases him through the village but loses him after a series of opposed Athletics rolls; after all the servant knows the territory, it's dark and he has a head start. Taking a gamble, Cormalin heads back to the servant's hut. After a short delay, it appears the servant had taken a scenic route in order not to lead his follower straight to his hut, he turns up and Cormalin jumps on him.
Pinning him to the ground with a good grapple (one of only two combat rolls in the whole scenario) he tries to extract some answers but the man refuses. With a further attack Cormalin twists the servant's arm back so far it breaks (critical damage to the right arm). Cormalin has no tolerance for subtlety so goes straight for pain. The pain works.
It appears that Tholos (for that is his name) is an agent of the God Learners who had met with the sorcerer (who he named as Jezat) on Windsday morning and hid him in the cellars beneath Thandor's Hall. Cormalin had not been present when the party previously met Jezat but Tholos's story rings true. Yesterday morning, Tholos helped smuggle Jezat out aboard raft in a beer barrel using sorcery to stay alive. Breathe Beer is a spell with limited but extremely popular uses. It did explain some rather cryptic comments from Vygota earlier.
After a little more, literal, arm twisting, Tholos reveals that he told Jezat about Lady Vygota's prophecy of the unknowable treasure and also about an "Arkat" letter he had overheard about. Apparently Dajai suspected Hendrick of planning a rebellion. Tholos was under instructions to report any signs of Orlanthi rebellion to his contact.
Jezat was alarmed about this development. He told Tholos to see if he could find out more about the Arkat letter and find out whether he was really behind it. Also he was very worried about Vygota and her prophecy. He told Tholos it was imperative that she was silenced and suggested that, given Hendrik's hostility to the EWF, that Tholos might be able to frame Hendrik for the deed.
Tholos is due to meet his regular contact, Cadamil, in two weeks and istherefore up against a deadline. Jezat meanwhile needed to leave in a hurry so Tholos arranged it. What Cormalin missed was that Tholos was as surprised by everything as everyone else. As he is scared of the God Leaners (and well paid) he hasn't bolted but he is caught between trying to extract more money or fleeing. He certainly didn't expect to see Jezat and has his suspicions of Jezat's actions.
Cormalin does notice a a scrap of papyrus on a small table with writing on it. Gathering this up and dragging Tholos off for healing before he meets up with the rest of the party.
Elsewhere, Aslander is trying to break into Colmar's rooms at an inn but the merchant is a wily and somewhat paranoid customer with a good complement of locks while Aslander is no thief. After a rather frustrating series of events he heads to the inn. Hendrik has left to attend to business and Colmar is looking for an excuse for an exit. At this point Colmar signals and the party confer while Colmar slips out the back door, unnoticed.
The upshot of this is that they need to get after the sorcerer as quickly as possible and have unearthed a God Learner traitor. They don't understand how it fits together but decide to head straight for Thandor's Hall where they rouse Thandor who is less than happy about having his meeting with Lady Vygota interrupted. He dismisses her and invites the party in to hear what they have to say. Ensuring of course that they are disarmed and out of armour. Unseen by the party (good sleight beating perception rolls) he signals his staff to "lock down" the hall. Quietly, armed and armoured guards start to fill the place.
At this point Dajai turns up - clearly Thandor's Hall has more then one disloyal servant. The guards have no orders to keep him out yet. Shortly afterwards Hendrik arrives too. He arrived ahead of Thandor's summons, temporarily confusing Thandor, causing Thandor to play for time. After a some stilted conversation, Hendrik gets the idea.
The characters are unaware of the undercurrents though Aslander starts to become uncomfortable about the number of armed guards around. He suspects that they may be in a complex EWF trap. But then he always thinks that.
Meanwhile though we enter Miss Marple land. Larad offers to use his Humakti Truth magic to interrogate Tholos and Thandor agrees. Tholos answers questions truthfully. Yes he works for the God Learners (but only for money, not because he believes in it) and no he's not Arkat nor does he work for Arkat.
The note that Cormalin found in Tholos's hut is revealed and Thandor reads it aloud; it sounds only slightly like the other note. It is some sort of forgery. The characters know it sounds wrong but don't manage to put 2+2 together in time to figure out why Thandor is suspicious.
Tholos starts to admit that he was going to frame Hendrik as the leader of this rebellion. Thandor by now has heard enough and reaches for his axe to deal with this gods-foresaken traitor. His hall's honour has been besmirched and a servant deals with sorcerers. Thandor will take justice into his own hands. All of he unarmoured, unweaponed heroes are aware that Thandor has an axe and two armed guards and there are more armed guards in the corridor. Dajai is reaching for his bound, ceremonial klanth. Thandor had insisted that although the Klanth was a religious obligation that it be bound and strapped.
Tholos, very alarmed now, starts to say that he knows "the truth" but Thandor steps forward to deal instant judgement.
At this point Keldo steps into the way and says "I want to hear the truth." Thandor is enraged and orders Keldo to stand down. The guards start drawing weapons, Larad keeps his sword to Tholos (he was using it as a focus for his Oath of Ordeal spell). Cormalin and Aslander are poised to act even without weapons. Aslander is keeping an eye on Dajai; some say that an unarmed Wyrm Friend is more dangerous than an armed one. In a split-second that feels like a lifetime, Keldo has to make a decision. He stands his ground.
The world turns on its spike, Thandor steps back. Says, suddenly and shockingly.
"Guards, kill the wyrm friend." The guards hesitate for a second, double checking that they heard correctly. Aslander needs no second invitation and grabs for Dajai. Dajai doesn't react quickly enough and within a short time he is dead. No amount of martial arts is good enough against a dog pile of armed warriors. (I didn't run the fight, it was getting late and it was only going to go one way.)
Thandor turns to Hendrik. Find the "Lady Vygota and end her." Hendrik nods, grim, and leaves. The Lady was right, Thandor dined with enemies. What she didn't know was that Thandor regarded her as one of his enemies, and she'll not live to see this "unknowable treasure."
Finally Thando turns to Larad, standing with his sword at Tholos's throat. Thandor stares straight into Larad's eyes and says, simply, "kill the traitor." Larad looks deep into himself and into Thandor's words then kills Tholos before he can plead for his life (ok he had been doing a lot of pleading, whimpering and hoping to sneak out while no one was looking). Larad may have taken the decision quickly, but it was not an easy one.
After all that, Thandor realises that he owes his guests an explanation and shows them a note he has received from "Arkat." He believes an uprising is planned and Sunvale will have to feed an army. For that reason he cannot trade his surplus away. He has been preparing for weeks but when Dajai and the prophetess turned up he worried that his preparations would be discovered. He maintained his cover story as a pragmatic leader while having Hendrik emphasising his antipathy to the EWF. Hendrick was his shield.
And then you meddling kids turned up.
Now Thandor has had to move more quickly than he anticipated but what's done is done and he'll be judged for guest-murder in Orlanth's Hall. Now, he doesn't know what exactly the sorcerer's role in all this is but clearly the artifact has to be retrieved as Orlgard needs to remain strong for the storm ahead. Thandor will arrange for a boat downriver. The beer barrels were meant for Deepwell so that's the obvious place to look first.
Meanwhile Thandor must put off his fine clothes because war is coming and it is time for his mail shirt. He only hopes war is coming soon because news of these events will travel quickly.
---------------------------------------------
This was very much the hinge point for the campaign; from now on they know who they're chasing and they realise that the Arkat conspiracy must spread far. They don't yet know how, if at all, these events are related but they realise that what the God Learners could do with this bowl don't bear thinking about. They also now know exactly when Jezat left Sunvale and realise they have a chance of catching him before he gets to the coast.
I also got the impression that this session really brought the world to life for the players. They're starting to see the complex, individual responses of the people in the world to the great empires around them.
The plan is to get Hendrik and Colmar together at the inn on the basis that they can talk about trade and old ways while the rest of the party did some breaking and entering. Despite the beer, however, once they get them together, Hendrik is remarkably unwilling to talk about much and Colmar shows signs of starting to distrust Keldo. He feels that he is being set up for something but is not sure what. (Basically he made a good insight roll while Hendrik knows that he can't give anything away.)
Meanwhile, Larad breaks into Hendrik's hut without much difficulty but there's no sign of anything incriminating. Unwilling to trust to surface appearances he calls upon the truth in Humakt and tries to see the hut as it really is. I.e. in game terms he made a Runecasting (Truth) roll and spent a Hero Point. What he gets out of it is a cryptic clue. The truth is hiding a lie. So Hendrik is exactly what he claims but that truth hides something else.
As Larad is breaking and entering, Cormalin is following on stake-out duty and sees this servant, again, watching Hendrik's hut. Realising that he has to do something he chases him through the village but loses him after a series of opposed Athletics rolls; after all the servant knows the territory, it's dark and he has a head start. Taking a gamble, Cormalin heads back to the servant's hut. After a short delay, it appears the servant had taken a scenic route in order not to lead his follower straight to his hut, he turns up and Cormalin jumps on him.
Pinning him to the ground with a good grapple (one of only two combat rolls in the whole scenario) he tries to extract some answers but the man refuses. With a further attack Cormalin twists the servant's arm back so far it breaks (critical damage to the right arm). Cormalin has no tolerance for subtlety so goes straight for pain. The pain works.
It appears that Tholos (for that is his name) is an agent of the God Learners who had met with the sorcerer (who he named as Jezat) on Windsday morning and hid him in the cellars beneath Thandor's Hall. Cormalin had not been present when the party previously met Jezat but Tholos's story rings true. Yesterday morning, Tholos helped smuggle Jezat out aboard raft in a beer barrel using sorcery to stay alive. Breathe Beer is a spell with limited but extremely popular uses. It did explain some rather cryptic comments from Vygota earlier.
After a little more, literal, arm twisting, Tholos reveals that he told Jezat about Lady Vygota's prophecy of the unknowable treasure and also about an "Arkat" letter he had overheard about. Apparently Dajai suspected Hendrick of planning a rebellion. Tholos was under instructions to report any signs of Orlanthi rebellion to his contact.
Jezat was alarmed about this development. He told Tholos to see if he could find out more about the Arkat letter and find out whether he was really behind it. Also he was very worried about Vygota and her prophecy. He told Tholos it was imperative that she was silenced and suggested that, given Hendrik's hostility to the EWF, that Tholos might be able to frame Hendrik for the deed.
Tholos is due to meet his regular contact, Cadamil, in two weeks and istherefore up against a deadline. Jezat meanwhile needed to leave in a hurry so Tholos arranged it. What Cormalin missed was that Tholos was as surprised by everything as everyone else. As he is scared of the God Leaners (and well paid) he hasn't bolted but he is caught between trying to extract more money or fleeing. He certainly didn't expect to see Jezat and has his suspicions of Jezat's actions.
Cormalin does notice a a scrap of papyrus on a small table with writing on it. Gathering this up and dragging Tholos off for healing before he meets up with the rest of the party.
Elsewhere, Aslander is trying to break into Colmar's rooms at an inn but the merchant is a wily and somewhat paranoid customer with a good complement of locks while Aslander is no thief. After a rather frustrating series of events he heads to the inn. Hendrik has left to attend to business and Colmar is looking for an excuse for an exit. At this point Colmar signals and the party confer while Colmar slips out the back door, unnoticed.
The upshot of this is that they need to get after the sorcerer as quickly as possible and have unearthed a God Learner traitor. They don't understand how it fits together but decide to head straight for Thandor's Hall where they rouse Thandor who is less than happy about having his meeting with Lady Vygota interrupted. He dismisses her and invites the party in to hear what they have to say. Ensuring of course that they are disarmed and out of armour. Unseen by the party (good sleight beating perception rolls) he signals his staff to "lock down" the hall. Quietly, armed and armoured guards start to fill the place.
At this point Dajai turns up - clearly Thandor's Hall has more then one disloyal servant. The guards have no orders to keep him out yet. Shortly afterwards Hendrik arrives too. He arrived ahead of Thandor's summons, temporarily confusing Thandor, causing Thandor to play for time. After a some stilted conversation, Hendrik gets the idea.
The characters are unaware of the undercurrents though Aslander starts to become uncomfortable about the number of armed guards around. He suspects that they may be in a complex EWF trap. But then he always thinks that.
Meanwhile though we enter Miss Marple land. Larad offers to use his Humakti Truth magic to interrogate Tholos and Thandor agrees. Tholos answers questions truthfully. Yes he works for the God Learners (but only for money, not because he believes in it) and no he's not Arkat nor does he work for Arkat.
The note that Cormalin found in Tholos's hut is revealed and Thandor reads it aloud; it sounds only slightly like the other note. It is some sort of forgery. The characters know it sounds wrong but don't manage to put 2+2 together in time to figure out why Thandor is suspicious.
Tholos starts to admit that he was going to frame Hendrik as the leader of this rebellion. Thandor by now has heard enough and reaches for his axe to deal with this gods-foresaken traitor. His hall's honour has been besmirched and a servant deals with sorcerers. Thandor will take justice into his own hands. All of he unarmoured, unweaponed heroes are aware that Thandor has an axe and two armed guards and there are more armed guards in the corridor. Dajai is reaching for his bound, ceremonial klanth. Thandor had insisted that although the Klanth was a religious obligation that it be bound and strapped.
Tholos, very alarmed now, starts to say that he knows "the truth" but Thandor steps forward to deal instant judgement.
At this point Keldo steps into the way and says "I want to hear the truth." Thandor is enraged and orders Keldo to stand down. The guards start drawing weapons, Larad keeps his sword to Tholos (he was using it as a focus for his Oath of Ordeal spell). Cormalin and Aslander are poised to act even without weapons. Aslander is keeping an eye on Dajai; some say that an unarmed Wyrm Friend is more dangerous than an armed one. In a split-second that feels like a lifetime, Keldo has to make a decision. He stands his ground.
The world turns on its spike, Thandor steps back. Says, suddenly and shockingly.
"Guards, kill the wyrm friend." The guards hesitate for a second, double checking that they heard correctly. Aslander needs no second invitation and grabs for Dajai. Dajai doesn't react quickly enough and within a short time he is dead. No amount of martial arts is good enough against a dog pile of armed warriors. (I didn't run the fight, it was getting late and it was only going to go one way.)
Thandor turns to Hendrik. Find the "Lady Vygota and end her." Hendrik nods, grim, and leaves. The Lady was right, Thandor dined with enemies. What she didn't know was that Thandor regarded her as one of his enemies, and she'll not live to see this "unknowable treasure."
Finally Thando turns to Larad, standing with his sword at Tholos's throat. Thandor stares straight into Larad's eyes and says, simply, "kill the traitor." Larad looks deep into himself and into Thandor's words then kills Tholos before he can plead for his life (ok he had been doing a lot of pleading, whimpering and hoping to sneak out while no one was looking). Larad may have taken the decision quickly, but it was not an easy one.
After all that, Thandor realises that he owes his guests an explanation and shows them a note he has received from "Arkat." He believes an uprising is planned and Sunvale will have to feed an army. For that reason he cannot trade his surplus away. He has been preparing for weeks but when Dajai and the prophetess turned up he worried that his preparations would be discovered. He maintained his cover story as a pragmatic leader while having Hendrik emphasising his antipathy to the EWF. Hendrick was his shield.
And then you meddling kids turned up.
Now Thandor has had to move more quickly than he anticipated but what's done is done and he'll be judged for guest-murder in Orlanth's Hall. Now, he doesn't know what exactly the sorcerer's role in all this is but clearly the artifact has to be retrieved as Orlgard needs to remain strong for the storm ahead. Thandor will arrange for a boat downriver. The beer barrels were meant for Deepwell so that's the obvious place to look first.
Meanwhile Thandor must put off his fine clothes because war is coming and it is time for his mail shirt. He only hopes war is coming soon because news of these events will travel quickly.
---------------------------------------------
This was very much the hinge point for the campaign; from now on they know who they're chasing and they realise that the Arkat conspiracy must spread far. They don't yet know how, if at all, these events are related but they realise that what the God Learners could do with this bowl don't bear thinking about. They also now know exactly when Jezat left Sunvale and realise they have a chance of catching him before he gets to the coast.
I also got the impression that this session really brought the world to life for the players. They're starting to see the complex, individual responses of the people in the world to the great empires around them.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Previously…
Voice Over: “A unknowable treasure is coming”
Viewed from beneath the water, Jezat dips a plain bowl into the river and drinks from it.
Cut to Thandor Goldenhair greeting the party expansively “Welcome to Sunvale”
Shots of the town. The people are better fed, some crops are still growing. And dragon worshippers walk openly in the streets, the dragonewt rune tattooed on their foreheads.
A voice off camera saying “He refuses to trade. He hoards it all to himself while true Orlanthi starve in the hills.”
A servant – Tholos – ushers the party into a meeting with Thandor. A magnificent dinner is set.
Then Lady Vygota speaks. “You dine with your enemies, Thandor.” Camera pans around the table. Dajai the Wyrmfriend and Hendrik the orlanthi glare at each other.
Cut to Dajai leading wyrmfriends in the welcoming dawn dance, to Hendrik drilling Orlanthi youths, to a shadowed figure trailing Aslander, unnoticed. Thandor speaking
“There is a conspiracy afoot and I need outsiders to unmask the traitor.”
Keldo looking into the river. “Jezat! A God Learner has the cup.” Griffith speaking – “there’s no knowing what he could do to the myths if he learns how to use it. It holds the blood of Orlanth.”
Lady Vygota kneeling Larad in front of her – “pray with me. … Nine have become one.”
Aslander and Keldo breaking into a house at night, watched. They see the watcher, Cormalin chases, backtracks and cuts him off. Pins him to the ground, twists his arm back until it breaks, noisily.
“We’ve found the God Learner.”
Tholos dragged before Thandor. Dajai and Hendrik also there. Larad with his sword to Tholos’ neck. Tholos pleading for his life. “I helped Jezat escape. He used sorcery to hide in a beer barrel. He told me to frame Hendrik and assassinate Lady Vygota.” Thandor motions to his guards, takes his axe from the wall. Tholos panicked “I’ll tell you everything just let me..” Thandor moves forward, “I have heard enough, he deserves the fate all traitors suffer.” Keldo stops him. “Stand aside Uroxi.”
A beat. For a moment the world stops, events balance, poised perfectly. Thandor makes a decision. “Guards, kill him. Kill Dajai.”
A stunned silence. Dajai, weaponless tries to escape but is pinned, held and killed. “Hendrik, find Lady Vygota and do what must be done.”
Later, Thandor shows the note from “Arkat” to the party. There is a rebellion coming and this Arkat will lead it. Sunvale is to feed an army. I’ve been laying in provisions, keeping my profile low, letting Hendrik take the attention. But with Vygota’s prophecies and your arrival, my hand has been forced. My Orlanth forgive us for what we have done here today. I fear my soul will be judged harshly in his hall.”
“You must find this sorcerer. Retrieve the relic. If the sorcerers, or even worse, the wyrm friends find it they will use it against us.”
In the cold pre-dawn, a boatman casts away in barge, the party (plus mule) onboard. “Last day of the Dark my lads. Storm Season tomorrow. Could get a little choppy.” Fade to black as he laughs.
Voice Over: “A unknowable treasure is coming”
Viewed from beneath the water, Jezat dips a plain bowl into the river and drinks from it.
Cut to Thandor Goldenhair greeting the party expansively “Welcome to Sunvale”
Shots of the town. The people are better fed, some crops are still growing. And dragon worshippers walk openly in the streets, the dragonewt rune tattooed on their foreheads.
A voice off camera saying “He refuses to trade. He hoards it all to himself while true Orlanthi starve in the hills.”
A servant – Tholos – ushers the party into a meeting with Thandor. A magnificent dinner is set.
Then Lady Vygota speaks. “You dine with your enemies, Thandor.” Camera pans around the table. Dajai the Wyrmfriend and Hendrik the orlanthi glare at each other.
Cut to Dajai leading wyrmfriends in the welcoming dawn dance, to Hendrik drilling Orlanthi youths, to a shadowed figure trailing Aslander, unnoticed. Thandor speaking
“There is a conspiracy afoot and I need outsiders to unmask the traitor.”
Keldo looking into the river. “Jezat! A God Learner has the cup.” Griffith speaking – “there’s no knowing what he could do to the myths if he learns how to use it. It holds the blood of Orlanth.”
Lady Vygota kneeling Larad in front of her – “pray with me. … Nine have become one.”
Aslander and Keldo breaking into a house at night, watched. They see the watcher, Cormalin chases, backtracks and cuts him off. Pins him to the ground, twists his arm back until it breaks, noisily.
“We’ve found the God Learner.”
Tholos dragged before Thandor. Dajai and Hendrik also there. Larad with his sword to Tholos’ neck. Tholos pleading for his life. “I helped Jezat escape. He used sorcery to hide in a beer barrel. He told me to frame Hendrik and assassinate Lady Vygota.” Thandor motions to his guards, takes his axe from the wall. Tholos panicked “I’ll tell you everything just let me..” Thandor moves forward, “I have heard enough, he deserves the fate all traitors suffer.” Keldo stops him. “Stand aside Uroxi.”
A beat. For a moment the world stops, events balance, poised perfectly. Thandor makes a decision. “Guards, kill him. Kill Dajai.”
A stunned silence. Dajai, weaponless tries to escape but is pinned, held and killed. “Hendrik, find Lady Vygota and do what must be done.”
Later, Thandor shows the note from “Arkat” to the party. There is a rebellion coming and this Arkat will lead it. Sunvale is to feed an army. I’ve been laying in provisions, keeping my profile low, letting Hendrik take the attention. But with Vygota’s prophecies and your arrival, my hand has been forced. My Orlanth forgive us for what we have done here today. I fear my soul will be judged harshly in his hall.”
“You must find this sorcerer. Retrieve the relic. If the sorcerers, or even worse, the wyrm friends find it they will use it against us.”
In the cold pre-dawn, a boatman casts away in barge, the party (plus mule) onboard. “Last day of the Dark my lads. Storm Season tomorrow. Could get a little choppy.” Fade to black as he laughs.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Godday Truth Week - on the boat
It's a cold, crisp day. There is a still a deep frost across the land that hasn't worn off. It's also Larad's day of silence. As they travel down the Solthi river, the increasing EWF influence becomes apparent. They see cottars with dragonewt runes on their forhead, patrols in EWF military outfits, houses with dragon symbbols. For Aslander in particular this is both depressing and enraging. Clearly not everyone has embraced this way, but many have.
It's mid-morning and a storm explodes from out of nowhere. The players grab for the raft's gunnels and the boatman struggles to keep it from being swamped as the river surges. Clearly pre-occupied by failing their athletics rolls none of them with Air/Storm affinities feel the warning surge of power and at first they don't notice the visions in the sky.
Then a giant, ghostly hawk is spotted fleeing from a dragon. As it twists and turns the dragon follows it, snapping at it and breathing fire yet never quite able to reach it. Unnoticed by the Dragon a figure floats down on the wind above it. The figure is Orlanth, fully armoured, his winter helm hiding his features and his dragon-slaying sword held poised. Orlanth lands on the dragon's back, lightly, gracefully making his way along the spine until suddenly the dragon feels him. Twisting and turning it tries to snap at him but can't reach. Victoriously, Orlanth plunges the sword deep between the dragon's shoulder blades. Screaming, the dragon falls out of the air but at the last moment its head spirals round, flame burns Orlanth and teeth rake him. Then the god and the dragon are falling out of the sky to earth behind the mountains.
As quickly as it blows up, the storm ends yet all could feel changes. Many of those watching felt a deeper integration with their runes. Larad and Aslander felt charged with Death. Keldo felt the raw emotion of the beast inside him. Griffith embraced the truth inside himself. Only Cormalin felt unchanged by this.(1)
After a chance to recover their wits, the party carries on down-river with a very freaked out boatman and somewhat blase mule; it's seen worse. Just a few miles outside Deepwell they discover an abandoned raft. One man lies dead on it and several barrels are broken. The storm surge looked to have teased the raft out of some heavily wooded riverside where it had been lodged. Getting the boatman to bring them as close as possible, it quickly becomes apparent that this must be the raft that Jezat had stowed away on.
One barrel seems to have exploded from the inside and the dead man looks to have been killed with Fire magic. A few minutes later, Griffith spots a dead duck sprawled in some weeds. On further investigation it appears that the duck has also been killed by fire magic. At this point Cormalin spots movement(2) just beyond the dead duck so Griffith starts to investigate. At that moment, however, an EWF patrol is spotted nearby.
Wary, the party starts to prepare themselves and sure enough the patrol soon spots them. There are four of them and they are just as wary of the strangers as the party is of them. Keldo explains that the two deaths are nothing to do with them, honest guv. One of the regular soldiers then recognises the barrels as property of Sunvale and says that they must be part of the missing missing shipment. The party start to explain about chasing a sorcerer but their explanations (both as players and as characters with failed influence tests) are tending to make the soldiers more suspicious.
The officer - Merulyes - decides it's a good time to commune with the dragon. He's young, idealistic and naive. As he does so one the soldiers begins to get very suspicious of the way that Aslander is fingering his axe and glaring so temperatures rise as the soldier makes a pointed comment about hairy-assed northerners. Another soldier has seen Griffith plus crossbow lurking in the reeds and calls for him to come out.
Seeing the officer meditate and being insulted by the solider is the final straw for the boiling Aslander. In a fit of anger he leaps at the officer meaning to push him into the water. Merulyes manages to keep his footing and the two began to grapple on the edge of the boat. Weapons are drawn and then Keldo gives up on diplomacy (which is not his strong point) and brings his axe down on the back of Merulye's head. The officer falls overboard unconscious and a savage fight ensues. The patrol are outnumbered and even though the characters are unarmoured they are able to make superior numbers count and all of the EWF were dispatched.
Leaving none alive seems the wisest course.
--------------------------------
(1) The storm sequence was moved and modified from the book to take account of Jezat's actions. Basically I figure it's triggered by Jezat's encounter with the worm. I also don't like the idea of a bunch of physical runes lying around creating an MMO style upgrade so, instead, it becomes primarily a spiritual foreshadowing. Deepwell is, after all, where the characters will first encounter the deeper myths.
(2) It was a fumble... In general, the players hardly succeeded at a single test. I really hadn't expected a fight. I was figuring on something like a Dr Who style opening where the characters are found at a murder scene and must prove their innocence. The fight will have repercussions.
It's a cold, crisp day. There is a still a deep frost across the land that hasn't worn off. It's also Larad's day of silence. As they travel down the Solthi river, the increasing EWF influence becomes apparent. They see cottars with dragonewt runes on their forhead, patrols in EWF military outfits, houses with dragon symbbols. For Aslander in particular this is both depressing and enraging. Clearly not everyone has embraced this way, but many have.
It's mid-morning and a storm explodes from out of nowhere. The players grab for the raft's gunnels and the boatman struggles to keep it from being swamped as the river surges. Clearly pre-occupied by failing their athletics rolls none of them with Air/Storm affinities feel the warning surge of power and at first they don't notice the visions in the sky.
Then a giant, ghostly hawk is spotted fleeing from a dragon. As it twists and turns the dragon follows it, snapping at it and breathing fire yet never quite able to reach it. Unnoticed by the Dragon a figure floats down on the wind above it. The figure is Orlanth, fully armoured, his winter helm hiding his features and his dragon-slaying sword held poised. Orlanth lands on the dragon's back, lightly, gracefully making his way along the spine until suddenly the dragon feels him. Twisting and turning it tries to snap at him but can't reach. Victoriously, Orlanth plunges the sword deep between the dragon's shoulder blades. Screaming, the dragon falls out of the air but at the last moment its head spirals round, flame burns Orlanth and teeth rake him. Then the god and the dragon are falling out of the sky to earth behind the mountains.
As quickly as it blows up, the storm ends yet all could feel changes. Many of those watching felt a deeper integration with their runes. Larad and Aslander felt charged with Death. Keldo felt the raw emotion of the beast inside him. Griffith embraced the truth inside himself. Only Cormalin felt unchanged by this.(1)
After a chance to recover their wits, the party carries on down-river with a very freaked out boatman and somewhat blase mule; it's seen worse. Just a few miles outside Deepwell they discover an abandoned raft. One man lies dead on it and several barrels are broken. The storm surge looked to have teased the raft out of some heavily wooded riverside where it had been lodged. Getting the boatman to bring them as close as possible, it quickly becomes apparent that this must be the raft that Jezat had stowed away on.
One barrel seems to have exploded from the inside and the dead man looks to have been killed with Fire magic. A few minutes later, Griffith spots a dead duck sprawled in some weeds. On further investigation it appears that the duck has also been killed by fire magic. At this point Cormalin spots movement(2) just beyond the dead duck so Griffith starts to investigate. At that moment, however, an EWF patrol is spotted nearby.
Wary, the party starts to prepare themselves and sure enough the patrol soon spots them. There are four of them and they are just as wary of the strangers as the party is of them. Keldo explains that the two deaths are nothing to do with them, honest guv. One of the regular soldiers then recognises the barrels as property of Sunvale and says that they must be part of the missing missing shipment. The party start to explain about chasing a sorcerer but their explanations (both as players and as characters with failed influence tests) are tending to make the soldiers more suspicious.
The officer - Merulyes - decides it's a good time to commune with the dragon. He's young, idealistic and naive. As he does so one the soldiers begins to get very suspicious of the way that Aslander is fingering his axe and glaring so temperatures rise as the soldier makes a pointed comment about hairy-assed northerners. Another soldier has seen Griffith plus crossbow lurking in the reeds and calls for him to come out.
Seeing the officer meditate and being insulted by the solider is the final straw for the boiling Aslander. In a fit of anger he leaps at the officer meaning to push him into the water. Merulyes manages to keep his footing and the two began to grapple on the edge of the boat. Weapons are drawn and then Keldo gives up on diplomacy (which is not his strong point) and brings his axe down on the back of Merulye's head. The officer falls overboard unconscious and a savage fight ensues. The patrol are outnumbered and even though the characters are unarmoured they are able to make superior numbers count and all of the EWF were dispatched.
Leaving none alive seems the wisest course.
--------------------------------
(1) The storm sequence was moved and modified from the book to take account of Jezat's actions. Basically I figure it's triggered by Jezat's encounter with the worm. I also don't like the idea of a bunch of physical runes lying around creating an MMO style upgrade so, instead, it becomes primarily a spiritual foreshadowing. Deepwell is, after all, where the characters will first encounter the deeper myths.
(2) It was a fumble... In general, the players hardly succeeded at a single test. I really hadn't expected a fight. I was figuring on something like a Dr Who style opening where the characters are found at a murder scene and must prove their innocence. The fight will have repercussions.
Deleriad
Mongoose
The rather worried boatman is sent back up river with a command not to speak of this, while the party takes the road to Deepwell, hoping to track down the sorcerer.
Deepwell is clearly deep in the influence of the EWF, and as they approach they notice a Thunderer in a compound, so Aslander is banished to the back. As usual they are met by town guards who take them to the local lord - Brandig the Bold. Though still affecting the trappings of a traditional Orlanthi, Brandig has a dragon tattoo on his left hand and seems comfortable with the EWF.
Aslander's hostility does not go unnoticed but Brandig has more important concerns. This evening the annual initiation at the Caves of the Worm That Ate The World is due. Supplies from Sunvale (i.e. barrels of beer) have not arrived, there has been some sort of mysterious and mythic storm and now this party is here claiming to be on the trail of a sorcerer who has been "spreading chaos in the north." The party also elects to mention seeing broken barrels upriver. All in all, Brandig is more wary of the strangers bringing chaos than some unbelievable chaos sorcerer.
In the middle of this conference, Vastyr The Bright, a priest so holy that his very shadow burns the ground, turns up and berates Brandig for going ahead with this archaic ritual. The charismatic Wyrm Friend has misjudged Brandig this time though. Perhaps the strange sights in the sky or unusual combination of circumstances has rekindled some of the yearning for the old ways in Brandig as he rather affrontedly points out that although he cannot gainsay the power of the dragons, all men have the right to their traditions.
In among this Griffith tries to make friends with Vastyr but is given short shift. Vastyr has little time for the trivial archives of the grey scribes.
At this point, the party claims that the sorcerer may well have gone to ground around here and one of the guards admits to a strange incident before dawn when he fell almost as if spell-bound into some sort of sleep while he was guarding the entrance to the caves of the worm. At the time he felt unsure about what happened but nothing seemed to have changed and with all the precautions for the ritual, running around trying to track down the missing shipment and so on, a lot of the thane's guards are a bit short on sleep.
The upshot of this is that the strangers hint that this sorcerer might be in the caves. Vastyr has foolishly stomped off and Brandig does not want to send kids into the cave if there really is a dangerous sorcerer lurking down there. On the other hand, the caves have been ritually cleansed so sending anyone down there if there isn't a sorcerer would break the ritual and prevent the initiation.
At this point Cormalin volunteers to be initiated and Brandig seeing a solution allows his friends to accompany him as his companions. It's a bit non-standard but Brandig's no theologian and it seems reasonable to him. He does warn them that initiates take no weapons bar symbolic clothing and items. However there's nothing to say the companions can't spend the night armed to the teeth.
Having a few hours to kill the party sets out for some repairs and information gathering. Griffith heads to the temple and starts making notes about the draconised versions of the Orlanthi gods. Cormalin goes looking for repairs to his spear but finds that everyone is too busy preparing for the night's festivities so ends up in a local inn with the still silent Larad. Keldo communes with the river and sees an odd sight: three figures, a large, burly man, an elderly cloaked woman reminding him of Grandmother Hickory and a third shape that he couldn't see. He sees a vision of them as they would be seen looking up from the river. Puzzled by this he catches up with Aslander. The two of them then spend time trying to get a feel for how the town regard the EWF. Although Vastyr is thought to be arrogant the townsfolk were fairly accepting of the changes with an odd few being distinctly enthusiastic.
Back in the inn, Cormalin and Larad end up talking (listening in Larad's case) with Aelric, son of Aeldred the Fat, "King" of the Laughing River. Aelric had been staying at Sunvale but moved to Deepwell because he likes old myths and there are lots to collect here. He also mentions his sister - Maralis - the same Maralis who is at the head of the EWF army in Heortland. Talks about her hanging out with a Humakti when she was younger and implies that there was a big bust up between Maralis and her father over the Humakti that led to Maralis leaving to join the EWF.
Conversations are cut short when the party are summoned to another audience with Brandig. Bodies and broken beer barrels have been found upriver and he wants to know what the outsiders know. They rather unconvincingly try to lay the blame on the sorcerer. Two of the soldiers are from Deepwell and there is commotion in the town as their widows are being consoled. Brandig dismisses the party curtly. It is clear that he suspects some sort of involvement but right now he doesn't actually seem to suspect the outsiders. He leaves to prepare for the ritual ahead.
The preparations are further interrupted when one of the townsfolk takes old, mad Hengveld seriously and checks out his claim to have seen the devil sneaking out of widow Molly's house. Sure enough, Molly is dead, stabbed in the back and her meagre provisions have been pilfered. There is a bit of a mass decamping to Molly's house on the edge of town, party included. A little later, high-ranking Wyrm-friend, Galana, arrives at the scene and clearly suspects the characters of involvement.
There isn't much they can do to investigate as Galana has "important NPC" written all over her and the party realise that they're probably only a misstep or two more away from being locked up.
Despite the murders, visions and lack of fresh beer, on the other side of the river, the town gathers. Beer is drunk, meats roasted, fires lit and feet stamped. Dark Season is ending and soon the wind will blow. Tonight the old ways feel strong and, somehow, closer than they have for a while. The talk of the town is of visions in the skies, of murders and rumours that the worm that eats the world has awoken fully for the first time in living memory. Tonight could be a very special night.
-------------------------------------------
The PCs have spent most of this scenario being just a bad roll or idea away from being arrested. Their approach to the town meant that they ended up missing various key pieces of information, and meant that they were in a lot more danger than otherwise.
They were also suitably contrite when faced with the widows of two men they had killed earlier. If there wasn't so much going on and the forces at Deepwell weren't poised in such a way, one of the NPCs would have confronted them. As it was, they spent most of the session in the eye of the storm.
There's some confusion about Aelric in the book and appendices with stats and references not matching up so he became a slightly useless scholar who largely provides an info dump about Maralis and the myths of Deepwell.
Deepwell is clearly deep in the influence of the EWF, and as they approach they notice a Thunderer in a compound, so Aslander is banished to the back. As usual they are met by town guards who take them to the local lord - Brandig the Bold. Though still affecting the trappings of a traditional Orlanthi, Brandig has a dragon tattoo on his left hand and seems comfortable with the EWF.
Aslander's hostility does not go unnoticed but Brandig has more important concerns. This evening the annual initiation at the Caves of the Worm That Ate The World is due. Supplies from Sunvale (i.e. barrels of beer) have not arrived, there has been some sort of mysterious and mythic storm and now this party is here claiming to be on the trail of a sorcerer who has been "spreading chaos in the north." The party also elects to mention seeing broken barrels upriver. All in all, Brandig is more wary of the strangers bringing chaos than some unbelievable chaos sorcerer.
In the middle of this conference, Vastyr The Bright, a priest so holy that his very shadow burns the ground, turns up and berates Brandig for going ahead with this archaic ritual. The charismatic Wyrm Friend has misjudged Brandig this time though. Perhaps the strange sights in the sky or unusual combination of circumstances has rekindled some of the yearning for the old ways in Brandig as he rather affrontedly points out that although he cannot gainsay the power of the dragons, all men have the right to their traditions.
In among this Griffith tries to make friends with Vastyr but is given short shift. Vastyr has little time for the trivial archives of the grey scribes.
At this point, the party claims that the sorcerer may well have gone to ground around here and one of the guards admits to a strange incident before dawn when he fell almost as if spell-bound into some sort of sleep while he was guarding the entrance to the caves of the worm. At the time he felt unsure about what happened but nothing seemed to have changed and with all the precautions for the ritual, running around trying to track down the missing shipment and so on, a lot of the thane's guards are a bit short on sleep.
The upshot of this is that the strangers hint that this sorcerer might be in the caves. Vastyr has foolishly stomped off and Brandig does not want to send kids into the cave if there really is a dangerous sorcerer lurking down there. On the other hand, the caves have been ritually cleansed so sending anyone down there if there isn't a sorcerer would break the ritual and prevent the initiation.
At this point Cormalin volunteers to be initiated and Brandig seeing a solution allows his friends to accompany him as his companions. It's a bit non-standard but Brandig's no theologian and it seems reasonable to him. He does warn them that initiates take no weapons bar symbolic clothing and items. However there's nothing to say the companions can't spend the night armed to the teeth.
Having a few hours to kill the party sets out for some repairs and information gathering. Griffith heads to the temple and starts making notes about the draconised versions of the Orlanthi gods. Cormalin goes looking for repairs to his spear but finds that everyone is too busy preparing for the night's festivities so ends up in a local inn with the still silent Larad. Keldo communes with the river and sees an odd sight: three figures, a large, burly man, an elderly cloaked woman reminding him of Grandmother Hickory and a third shape that he couldn't see. He sees a vision of them as they would be seen looking up from the river. Puzzled by this he catches up with Aslander. The two of them then spend time trying to get a feel for how the town regard the EWF. Although Vastyr is thought to be arrogant the townsfolk were fairly accepting of the changes with an odd few being distinctly enthusiastic.
Back in the inn, Cormalin and Larad end up talking (listening in Larad's case) with Aelric, son of Aeldred the Fat, "King" of the Laughing River. Aelric had been staying at Sunvale but moved to Deepwell because he likes old myths and there are lots to collect here. He also mentions his sister - Maralis - the same Maralis who is at the head of the EWF army in Heortland. Talks about her hanging out with a Humakti when she was younger and implies that there was a big bust up between Maralis and her father over the Humakti that led to Maralis leaving to join the EWF.
Conversations are cut short when the party are summoned to another audience with Brandig. Bodies and broken beer barrels have been found upriver and he wants to know what the outsiders know. They rather unconvincingly try to lay the blame on the sorcerer. Two of the soldiers are from Deepwell and there is commotion in the town as their widows are being consoled. Brandig dismisses the party curtly. It is clear that he suspects some sort of involvement but right now he doesn't actually seem to suspect the outsiders. He leaves to prepare for the ritual ahead.
The preparations are further interrupted when one of the townsfolk takes old, mad Hengveld seriously and checks out his claim to have seen the devil sneaking out of widow Molly's house. Sure enough, Molly is dead, stabbed in the back and her meagre provisions have been pilfered. There is a bit of a mass decamping to Molly's house on the edge of town, party included. A little later, high-ranking Wyrm-friend, Galana, arrives at the scene and clearly suspects the characters of involvement.
There isn't much they can do to investigate as Galana has "important NPC" written all over her and the party realise that they're probably only a misstep or two more away from being locked up.
Despite the murders, visions and lack of fresh beer, on the other side of the river, the town gathers. Beer is drunk, meats roasted, fires lit and feet stamped. Dark Season is ending and soon the wind will blow. Tonight the old ways feel strong and, somehow, closer than they have for a while. The talk of the town is of visions in the skies, of murders and rumours that the worm that eats the world has awoken fully for the first time in living memory. Tonight could be a very special night.
-------------------------------------------
The PCs have spent most of this scenario being just a bad roll or idea away from being arrested. Their approach to the town meant that they ended up missing various key pieces of information, and meant that they were in a lot more danger than otherwise.
They were also suitably contrite when faced with the widows of two men they had killed earlier. If there wasn't so much going on and the forces at Deepwell weren't poised in such a way, one of the NPCs would have confronted them. As it was, they spent most of the session in the eye of the storm.
There's some confusion about Aelric in the book and appendices with stats and references not matching up so he became a slightly useless scholar who largely provides an info dump about Maralis and the myths of Deepwell.
Deleriad
Mongoose
Three very nervous youths and Cormalin undergo the initiation ritual speech, with the rest of the PCs getting their lines fed to them. The rope is let down and they climb into the depths. The caves are pitch black but after a while a certain amount of luminescence allows everyone to make out the basic outlines of images carved into the walls and various passages branching off. The lack of light makes it difficult to determine the content so. as no sorcerer has yet jumped out and attacked them, they begin to do what player characters do, explore.
The first surprise comes after a while when a quavery voice asks who's there. After some hesitation the heroes identify themselves and the voice claims to be that of an Ernalda Priestess called Dagunda. One of the initiates knows her name and explains that she disappeared ages ago. Dagunda, recognising friendly voices Dagunda says she was driven out by Vastyr Brightshadow and has been hiding in the caves ever since then.
She's been living there for over a year now, relying on friends among the guards to bring her some food and also using some magic (what she doesn't explain) to stay alive. Dagunda is blind, has been since birth, so she doesn't mind the dark.
More pertinently, she also reveals that a stranger entered the caves this morning. She heard him scrabbling around and then thinks he lit a torch after quite a struggle; Dagunda could smell it. She could tell he wasn't local and could feel the presence of powerful magic. He seemed to be very interested in the carvings. Eventually her curiousity got the better of her and she approached him. At that point he attacked her with sorcery but he couldn't see well and his magic was quite weak so she was able to hide away and came to no harm.
However, when he cast his spell there was some sort of flare up; she could see it with her other eye. The combination of sorcery, the mythic power of the caves & the magical item he bore has awoken the dragon spirit. Dagunda has heard legends of the wyrm wakening in the past but she never thought to be there when it happened again. The characters quickly realise that this must have happened at the same time as they saw the battle between Orlanth and the dragon.
There was a battle, she heard the sorcerer running and cursing and then the sound of him plunging into the water. After that she heard nothing and she thinks he must have drowned.
Naturally the party investigate the river running through the caves only to be attacked themselves by Eskal'aleel, the memory of the dragon. It calls them murderers and takes a particular dislike to Aslander. Flowing through the caves it repeatedly circles, breathing some sort of mystical flame while biting and clawing. Being a spirit the party don't have any very good defences against it. Dagunda comes to the rescue by casting Spirit Bane on Larad and Keldo's weapons. Cormalin casts Ironhand and attacks the dragon barehanded. Larad is the one who finally dispels the spirit. Cormalin, however, was seen by the initiates attacking the dragon with his bare hands ends and they think he must have been the one that killed the worm that eats the world. Soon they will refer to him as Cormalin DragonSlayer.
In among the chaos, Griffith tries to get down the river flowing through the caves and almost drowns. He is, however, able to ascertain that Jezat must have gone that way as he's sure he can sense a way to follow the river out of the caves. The rest of the night passes uneventfully as the party nervously keeps watch.
As daylight breaks, they emerge from the caves, realising that they were close behind Jezat but have lost some time again. They are tired and cold but need to get on the move. They also want to avoid any more meetings with Vastyr and outrun any evidence that they were behind the killing of the EWF patrol. So, they hire a boatman from a local who is fairly tradiitonalist though he does have a brother who's into all that dragon stuff and keeps trying to recruit him so he can get onto the next stage. Ignoring the boatman's constant litany of complaints and questions about whether Cormalin really did kill a dragon with his bare hands, they set out down river.
-----------------------
I made several mistakes running this part of the session. Some of it came down to the fact that I never really found Dagunda as a character and had no great idea about what to do with the three local initiates. With the whole party and several NPCs down there, the caves felt crowded. I had also decided that light was taboo but that made examining the carvings difficult for obvious reasons then there wasn't time at the end of the session to give the players time to examine them.
Griffith's player's actions also threw me. Basically he should pretty much have ended up with Griffith being drowned and I tried to flag that as heavily as possible. The player didn't take the hint though and ended up burning a bunch of hero points to stay alive.
The other thing that was noteworthy was that the players never twigged that they could try talking to the dragon so immediately resorted to violence. All in all, Deepwell should have been a chance for the players to engage with the deeper mythology but it didn't really pan out that way. I was pleased to be able to come up with an explanation for the "storm interlude" that fitted in with the events of the day while not just being a random power-up event as it is in the book.
The first surprise comes after a while when a quavery voice asks who's there. After some hesitation the heroes identify themselves and the voice claims to be that of an Ernalda Priestess called Dagunda. One of the initiates knows her name and explains that she disappeared ages ago. Dagunda, recognising friendly voices Dagunda says she was driven out by Vastyr Brightshadow and has been hiding in the caves ever since then.
She's been living there for over a year now, relying on friends among the guards to bring her some food and also using some magic (what she doesn't explain) to stay alive. Dagunda is blind, has been since birth, so she doesn't mind the dark.
More pertinently, she also reveals that a stranger entered the caves this morning. She heard him scrabbling around and then thinks he lit a torch after quite a struggle; Dagunda could smell it. She could tell he wasn't local and could feel the presence of powerful magic. He seemed to be very interested in the carvings. Eventually her curiousity got the better of her and she approached him. At that point he attacked her with sorcery but he couldn't see well and his magic was quite weak so she was able to hide away and came to no harm.
However, when he cast his spell there was some sort of flare up; she could see it with her other eye. The combination of sorcery, the mythic power of the caves & the magical item he bore has awoken the dragon spirit. Dagunda has heard legends of the wyrm wakening in the past but she never thought to be there when it happened again. The characters quickly realise that this must have happened at the same time as they saw the battle between Orlanth and the dragon.
There was a battle, she heard the sorcerer running and cursing and then the sound of him plunging into the water. After that she heard nothing and she thinks he must have drowned.
Naturally the party investigate the river running through the caves only to be attacked themselves by Eskal'aleel, the memory of the dragon. It calls them murderers and takes a particular dislike to Aslander. Flowing through the caves it repeatedly circles, breathing some sort of mystical flame while biting and clawing. Being a spirit the party don't have any very good defences against it. Dagunda comes to the rescue by casting Spirit Bane on Larad and Keldo's weapons. Cormalin casts Ironhand and attacks the dragon barehanded. Larad is the one who finally dispels the spirit. Cormalin, however, was seen by the initiates attacking the dragon with his bare hands ends and they think he must have been the one that killed the worm that eats the world. Soon they will refer to him as Cormalin DragonSlayer.
In among the chaos, Griffith tries to get down the river flowing through the caves and almost drowns. He is, however, able to ascertain that Jezat must have gone that way as he's sure he can sense a way to follow the river out of the caves. The rest of the night passes uneventfully as the party nervously keeps watch.
As daylight breaks, they emerge from the caves, realising that they were close behind Jezat but have lost some time again. They are tired and cold but need to get on the move. They also want to avoid any more meetings with Vastyr and outrun any evidence that they were behind the killing of the EWF patrol. So, they hire a boatman from a local who is fairly tradiitonalist though he does have a brother who's into all that dragon stuff and keeps trying to recruit him so he can get onto the next stage. Ignoring the boatman's constant litany of complaints and questions about whether Cormalin really did kill a dragon with his bare hands, they set out down river.
-----------------------
I made several mistakes running this part of the session. Some of it came down to the fact that I never really found Dagunda as a character and had no great idea about what to do with the three local initiates. With the whole party and several NPCs down there, the caves felt crowded. I had also decided that light was taboo but that made examining the carvings difficult for obvious reasons then there wasn't time at the end of the session to give the players time to examine them.
Griffith's player's actions also threw me. Basically he should pretty much have ended up with Griffith being drowned and I tried to flag that as heavily as possible. The player didn't take the hint though and ended up burning a bunch of hero points to stay alive.
The other thing that was noteworthy was that the players never twigged that they could try talking to the dragon so immediately resorted to violence. All in all, Deepwell should have been a chance for the players to engage with the deeper mythology but it didn't really pan out that way. I was pleased to be able to come up with an explanation for the "storm interlude" that fitted in with the events of the day while not just being a random power-up event as it is in the book.
Deleriad
Mongoose
A few miles downstream from Deepwell they come across a strange sight. Some sort of undead, flying, probably firebreathing, batwinged lizard thing appears to have attacked Jezat and been, mostly, burned to death at a sight by the riverbank. They can tell it's undead when Larad suddenly screams, leaps forward and starts to smash it around with his sword. About 15 minutes later, when he's finally finished they burn the remaining parts. They have time to notice, however, that it appears to have been stitched together in ways they've seen before. This was Delecti's work.
There were signs of Jezat having been injured and probably escaped on foot. On the boat, a naked woman laughs rather too sensually then jumps off the boat. The boatman by now is pretty freaked.
Late that afternoon they arrive in Noryar for an audience with Hordred Wyrmhand. They had learned about him from the boatman. At the meeting they discover he is in great good humour because there's been a rapprochment between his brother Aeldred and his favourite niece, Maralis. It seems she has arrived in Solthmouth with an EWF fleet of a score or so warships. Apparently she has healed the rift with her father and he is going to sign a treaty with the EWF. Hordred is in great spirits so although he does lightly quiz the characters about the situation up north and the rumours coming out of Sunvale he's not that focused. Also at the audience is an elderly healer, Faeltris, a very grim WyrmFriend military officer, Seran "The Laugher," and an Orlanthi woman called Asrela who says little other than when she is lightly teased by Hordred. As always, the characters stick to their evolving story of a chaos sorcerer though now they're able to claim he's a God-Learner which is usually a good way to gain EWF aid. They figure they're on safer ground with Draconised Orlanthi if they can stick to a common enemy. Hordred is concerned but not overly so and merely reminds the characters to keep the peace and to enjoy the good times. He's heard there'll be a party in Solthmouth to celebate the treaty and he is going to be arranging one here too. In the spirit of universal peace and harmony, he takes the chance to demonstrate his fresh, new wyrm hand; he's very proud of it. Aslander spends the demonstration thinking impure thoughts.
Back at the inn, there's always an inn, the characters are relaxing while quizzing the locals. Their evening is interrupted by a kid who says his master wants to see them. After a little distrust, it turns out that he wants them to take a secret passage behind the bar. The barman affects not to notice all this so they make their way through a cramped tunnel. The come out the other end into a basement where they meet a woman who soon reveals herself to be Asrela. She is planning a rebellion, has messages from an "Arkat" and wants the characters to recruite a mercenary band. She promises to use her network to find the sorcerer in return. The characters are more than happy to help, only pausing when she tells them never to call the mercenaries "ducks". They are durulz and the leader of the band, Dhrek, is particularly sensitive about this.
The night passes uneventfully for all of them except Aslander who wakes up twice during the night, both times in the middle of some sort of adrenalin rush. It ain't easy being an insomniac dragonslayer.
Waterday Disorder Week
Early morning and all of the merry party bar Griffith, who is interested in discovering more about the caves in Deepwell and gets smuggled into a Lankhor Myh shrine just outside Noryar, head off to see the ducks. Being the paranoid types they take a circuitous route to the money stash - 20 Gold Ducats - and then off to Billhook Farm. Travelling back up river, and arriving there by mid-morning they are struck again by just how thoroughly Noryar has gone to the Wyrm Side. The ducks, however, are suspicious, obstreperous, bad-tempered and, as no-one pointed in a fowl mood. They have no desire to worship dragons, storm gods, invisible gods or any god, come to that, who doesn't pay in cold, hard cash.
The farm consists of a couple of acres of land enclosed by a low wooden fence. Low by human standards that is. After much to-ing and fro-ing at the gatehouse while one rather young looking duck kept a crossbow trained on them at all times, the party finally manage to persuade the gate-duck that yes they do have money and yes they do want to hire their illustrious commander. So, it is with much sniggering that they travel down the path to the main farm buildings past the duck pond and to meet with Dhrek and his magician Kakaleel.
Initially Dhrek takes them for fools and asks for a ludicrous retainer when the party mentions they wish to hire his services in a rebellion against the EWF. Larad has had some experience in the mercenary life though and does his best to be a grim Humakti. Lacking anyone with social skills to negotiate, the party eventually manage to hire the ducks by promising them pretty much everything they want. Dhrek does mention that they are currently short-handed so he's offering them a "discount." They don't ask him more about this, and the remaining activities are cut short when the ducks sound the alert. Dhrek considers whether the idiots are smarter than they look and have double-crossed him but the party are blissfully unaware of this and the two hidden arrow holes in the adjoining wall. His hand is forced when one of the ducks comes breathlessly in shouting "It's Seran! And he has dinos!"
Swearing fowlly, Dhrek jumps to his feet, stands down the hidden cross-bow ducks and tells the party to come with him. "Rebellion starting early?" The party know nothing so decide to keep stum and follow Dhrek to the gate house. Kakaleel starts to prepare spells, his drooping, palsied face energised by his love of magic.
A tense stand-off ensues. Seran accuses of Dhrek of finally going too far: he knows they are harbouring criminals and consorting with Asrela to perform treachery. It's clear that Seran and Dhrek have some sort of mutual amnity and Dhrek appears to be spoiling for a fight too. After all, they have a gatehouse, ducks with crossbows and a sturdy fence. At that point, one of the watch ducks shouts "thunderer!" and the equation changes.
Spells are cast, crossbow quarrels loosed, Seran doesn't laugh and then a Thunderer comes charging through the gates as if they are made of plywood and chaos breaks loose. Several ducks and the party rush to hold the gap. Aslander swings wildly at the thunderer as it trundles by. Dhrek though has seen this kind of thing before, chomping on his imaginary cigar he rolls to one side, slashes up with his bastard sword and attempts to hamstring the thunderer with a precise attack. His attack had no great effect but Aslander saw what he was trying to do and and got focused, holding his next swing until the last second in an attempt to find a weak spot.
Back at the gate, one of the smarter than average ducks has finally spotted the dino's controller and takes him out with a crossbow quarrel. The thunderer, which had previously been ordered to head back towards the gate and smash more things is now free to focus its rage on the annoying mammal with the heavy sharp thing. A couple of regular ducks try to help Aslander but one gets impaled and the other squashed.
Meanwhile Seran sends in his best troops with kite shields and spears to push through the gate. The area is a mess of ducks, spears and blood. The new troops are good with shields and neither the party nor the ducks can damage them. However they are just about holding the area when another alert is called: Renders are flanking.
Vicious, I-can't-believe-they-not-velociraptors are easily jumping the fence and coming in from the side. One duck is almost clawed in half but the Renders are clearly out of the Pathetic Sharks school of nasty things and quickly go down under the varied weapons of our heroes. Dhrek is now at the gate and Kakaleel is making his way towards him, trying to use his magic in support. Kakaleel is having a bad day, nothing is working but his old nest mate has rallied the troops at the gate house while Aslander has fun with the Thunderer. Larad & Keldo have finally got sorted towards the front. Keldo's axe being the only thing that makes any sort of dent on the attackers and Larad doing his best to prevent them from getting flanked.
Seran seeing that this fight is bogging down takes the initiative. A final wave of skirmishers are sent to climb the fences, drawing some of the defenders away. Then, looking every inch the hero in his mind, he charges on his war-horse, scattering the defenders and bursting through the line. Several defenders take a swing at the horse which receives a few nasty gashes but Seran is able to block the worst with his klanth.
Turning his horse sharply (good riding roll...) he is able to run down Kakaleel and kills him outright. "Pate" he shouts, without laughing at his own joke. At about this time a bloodied and bruised Aslander is sinking his axe blade deep into the thunderer's neck as it sinks to its knees. Cormalin, Keldo and Larad are outnumbered but holding. Hearing Kakaleel's death squak, Dhrek runs back to face Seran who has ridden down another duck and turning back for more. Dhrek's a tough cookie however. Turning away from Seran's attack he is able to bring down the flagging horse and Seran falls badly. After that it's just a matter of time, Aslander is nearby and Seran is all show and anger but not a whole lot of ability. He can't hold off both of them. Some of the skirmishers try to get to him but are intercepted by Cormalin and a couple of novice ducks. When they see their commander fall, the rest lose heart and start to flee.
Dhrek is merciless. He has every last one followed and killed. He doesn't want word of this getting back for as long as possible. He's lost some good ducks, including his nest mate and best healer. There are several injuries to deal with and the matter of the people who brought all this to his door. There's also something else going on that he's keeping to himself. And so a meeting. It's midday now. Dhrek suspects that Hordred will be amenable to calling it quits as Seran was liked by none and that he ought to be able to screw a fair amount of gold out of Asrela over this. He also recognises that Aslander stood with him and showed great bravery while the rest held the gate post with courage. He asks them what they plan to do next, they say they want to head down river to Solthmouth. Dhrek decides that getting them out of his feathers is no bad thing and lets them go. A duck is assigned to raft them down the river and Dhrek turns back to mourn to his nest mate.
Normally it's a bit less than a day to Solthmouth and the Solthi's running fast and high. There are however rapids about 5 miles outside of Solthmouth and it'll be dark by the time they reach them. The duck refuses to go white water rafting with a bunch of humans and a mule in the dark so they moor in a small village for the night. This time Aslander gets a decent nights sleep.
------------------
This was their first *big* fight with the EWF. I had dutifully drawn out the farm complex on a battle map but, of course, they never left the gatehouse area. It was also a huge test of their ability as players to make smart choices and use the combat system properly because I wasn't going to pull my punches. (This was under MRQ1 btw). I did wonder how they were going to handle the thunderer. I do have my own heavily hopuse-ruled version of RQ1 combat - who didn't? - and had previously intended to disallow precise attacks to bypass armour. At the last minute I decided that there was a need for it so Dhrek demonstrated it and the players took the hint.
The renders were useless. This was because of the RQ1 result of successful parry vs failed natural weapons attack and the renders inability to roll low. Keldo and his great axe made short work of them.
The battle was close but it was always clear from the GM viewpoint that they had the upper hand. I've been giving out IRs and HPs by the session rather than by the story so that the players can upgrade their characters quite quickly and it's starting to make a noticeable impact to me.
One area they are still weak on though is any sort of social skill for their characters. The only with such skills, Griffith, is run by a player who is having to miss a lot of sessions for a variety or reasons. This means that they get fewer chances to uncover anything beneath by the surface. This was particularly true at Billhook farm. They never thought to ask why Dhrek was short-handed and why he didn't seem overly concerned about how much he could earn from them. They had also heard from Asrela that morning that there were no reports of a sorcerer in Noryar so she was widening the search. A little more insight and they might have put two and two together.
You see, Jezat was in a quantum state at this point. If on first arrival they had pushed the issue they might have discovered that Jezat was still there but first they had to figure out he might be and then discover how to persuade the ducks to give him up. As they did none of that, Jezat resolved his quantum state to being on a raft with 3 ducks on the way to Solthmouth. Jezat has promised the ducks a share in his profits so Dhrek has sent three of his best down river with him and, once more, Jezat slips through their hands. This time without them even knowing it...
There were signs of Jezat having been injured and probably escaped on foot. On the boat, a naked woman laughs rather too sensually then jumps off the boat. The boatman by now is pretty freaked.
Late that afternoon they arrive in Noryar for an audience with Hordred Wyrmhand. They had learned about him from the boatman. At the meeting they discover he is in great good humour because there's been a rapprochment between his brother Aeldred and his favourite niece, Maralis. It seems she has arrived in Solthmouth with an EWF fleet of a score or so warships. Apparently she has healed the rift with her father and he is going to sign a treaty with the EWF. Hordred is in great spirits so although he does lightly quiz the characters about the situation up north and the rumours coming out of Sunvale he's not that focused. Also at the audience is an elderly healer, Faeltris, a very grim WyrmFriend military officer, Seran "The Laugher," and an Orlanthi woman called Asrela who says little other than when she is lightly teased by Hordred. As always, the characters stick to their evolving story of a chaos sorcerer though now they're able to claim he's a God-Learner which is usually a good way to gain EWF aid. They figure they're on safer ground with Draconised Orlanthi if they can stick to a common enemy. Hordred is concerned but not overly so and merely reminds the characters to keep the peace and to enjoy the good times. He's heard there'll be a party in Solthmouth to celebate the treaty and he is going to be arranging one here too. In the spirit of universal peace and harmony, he takes the chance to demonstrate his fresh, new wyrm hand; he's very proud of it. Aslander spends the demonstration thinking impure thoughts.
Back at the inn, there's always an inn, the characters are relaxing while quizzing the locals. Their evening is interrupted by a kid who says his master wants to see them. After a little distrust, it turns out that he wants them to take a secret passage behind the bar. The barman affects not to notice all this so they make their way through a cramped tunnel. The come out the other end into a basement where they meet a woman who soon reveals herself to be Asrela. She is planning a rebellion, has messages from an "Arkat" and wants the characters to recruite a mercenary band. She promises to use her network to find the sorcerer in return. The characters are more than happy to help, only pausing when she tells them never to call the mercenaries "ducks". They are durulz and the leader of the band, Dhrek, is particularly sensitive about this.
The night passes uneventfully for all of them except Aslander who wakes up twice during the night, both times in the middle of some sort of adrenalin rush. It ain't easy being an insomniac dragonslayer.
Waterday Disorder Week
Early morning and all of the merry party bar Griffith, who is interested in discovering more about the caves in Deepwell and gets smuggled into a Lankhor Myh shrine just outside Noryar, head off to see the ducks. Being the paranoid types they take a circuitous route to the money stash - 20 Gold Ducats - and then off to Billhook Farm. Travelling back up river, and arriving there by mid-morning they are struck again by just how thoroughly Noryar has gone to the Wyrm Side. The ducks, however, are suspicious, obstreperous, bad-tempered and, as no-one pointed in a fowl mood. They have no desire to worship dragons, storm gods, invisible gods or any god, come to that, who doesn't pay in cold, hard cash.
The farm consists of a couple of acres of land enclosed by a low wooden fence. Low by human standards that is. After much to-ing and fro-ing at the gatehouse while one rather young looking duck kept a crossbow trained on them at all times, the party finally manage to persuade the gate-duck that yes they do have money and yes they do want to hire their illustrious commander. So, it is with much sniggering that they travel down the path to the main farm buildings past the duck pond and to meet with Dhrek and his magician Kakaleel.
Initially Dhrek takes them for fools and asks for a ludicrous retainer when the party mentions they wish to hire his services in a rebellion against the EWF. Larad has had some experience in the mercenary life though and does his best to be a grim Humakti. Lacking anyone with social skills to negotiate, the party eventually manage to hire the ducks by promising them pretty much everything they want. Dhrek does mention that they are currently short-handed so he's offering them a "discount." They don't ask him more about this, and the remaining activities are cut short when the ducks sound the alert. Dhrek considers whether the idiots are smarter than they look and have double-crossed him but the party are blissfully unaware of this and the two hidden arrow holes in the adjoining wall. His hand is forced when one of the ducks comes breathlessly in shouting "It's Seran! And he has dinos!"
Swearing fowlly, Dhrek jumps to his feet, stands down the hidden cross-bow ducks and tells the party to come with him. "Rebellion starting early?" The party know nothing so decide to keep stum and follow Dhrek to the gate house. Kakaleel starts to prepare spells, his drooping, palsied face energised by his love of magic.
A tense stand-off ensues. Seran accuses of Dhrek of finally going too far: he knows they are harbouring criminals and consorting with Asrela to perform treachery. It's clear that Seran and Dhrek have some sort of mutual amnity and Dhrek appears to be spoiling for a fight too. After all, they have a gatehouse, ducks with crossbows and a sturdy fence. At that point, one of the watch ducks shouts "thunderer!" and the equation changes.
Spells are cast, crossbow quarrels loosed, Seran doesn't laugh and then a Thunderer comes charging through the gates as if they are made of plywood and chaos breaks loose. Several ducks and the party rush to hold the gap. Aslander swings wildly at the thunderer as it trundles by. Dhrek though has seen this kind of thing before, chomping on his imaginary cigar he rolls to one side, slashes up with his bastard sword and attempts to hamstring the thunderer with a precise attack. His attack had no great effect but Aslander saw what he was trying to do and and got focused, holding his next swing until the last second in an attempt to find a weak spot.
Back at the gate, one of the smarter than average ducks has finally spotted the dino's controller and takes him out with a crossbow quarrel. The thunderer, which had previously been ordered to head back towards the gate and smash more things is now free to focus its rage on the annoying mammal with the heavy sharp thing. A couple of regular ducks try to help Aslander but one gets impaled and the other squashed.
Meanwhile Seran sends in his best troops with kite shields and spears to push through the gate. The area is a mess of ducks, spears and blood. The new troops are good with shields and neither the party nor the ducks can damage them. However they are just about holding the area when another alert is called: Renders are flanking.
Vicious, I-can't-believe-they-not-velociraptors are easily jumping the fence and coming in from the side. One duck is almost clawed in half but the Renders are clearly out of the Pathetic Sharks school of nasty things and quickly go down under the varied weapons of our heroes. Dhrek is now at the gate and Kakaleel is making his way towards him, trying to use his magic in support. Kakaleel is having a bad day, nothing is working but his old nest mate has rallied the troops at the gate house while Aslander has fun with the Thunderer. Larad & Keldo have finally got sorted towards the front. Keldo's axe being the only thing that makes any sort of dent on the attackers and Larad doing his best to prevent them from getting flanked.
Seran seeing that this fight is bogging down takes the initiative. A final wave of skirmishers are sent to climb the fences, drawing some of the defenders away. Then, looking every inch the hero in his mind, he charges on his war-horse, scattering the defenders and bursting through the line. Several defenders take a swing at the horse which receives a few nasty gashes but Seran is able to block the worst with his klanth.
Turning his horse sharply (good riding roll...) he is able to run down Kakaleel and kills him outright. "Pate" he shouts, without laughing at his own joke. At about this time a bloodied and bruised Aslander is sinking his axe blade deep into the thunderer's neck as it sinks to its knees. Cormalin, Keldo and Larad are outnumbered but holding. Hearing Kakaleel's death squak, Dhrek runs back to face Seran who has ridden down another duck and turning back for more. Dhrek's a tough cookie however. Turning away from Seran's attack he is able to bring down the flagging horse and Seran falls badly. After that it's just a matter of time, Aslander is nearby and Seran is all show and anger but not a whole lot of ability. He can't hold off both of them. Some of the skirmishers try to get to him but are intercepted by Cormalin and a couple of novice ducks. When they see their commander fall, the rest lose heart and start to flee.
Dhrek is merciless. He has every last one followed and killed. He doesn't want word of this getting back for as long as possible. He's lost some good ducks, including his nest mate and best healer. There are several injuries to deal with and the matter of the people who brought all this to his door. There's also something else going on that he's keeping to himself. And so a meeting. It's midday now. Dhrek suspects that Hordred will be amenable to calling it quits as Seran was liked by none and that he ought to be able to screw a fair amount of gold out of Asrela over this. He also recognises that Aslander stood with him and showed great bravery while the rest held the gate post with courage. He asks them what they plan to do next, they say they want to head down river to Solthmouth. Dhrek decides that getting them out of his feathers is no bad thing and lets them go. A duck is assigned to raft them down the river and Dhrek turns back to mourn to his nest mate.
Normally it's a bit less than a day to Solthmouth and the Solthi's running fast and high. There are however rapids about 5 miles outside of Solthmouth and it'll be dark by the time they reach them. The duck refuses to go white water rafting with a bunch of humans and a mule in the dark so they moor in a small village for the night. This time Aslander gets a decent nights sleep.
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This was their first *big* fight with the EWF. I had dutifully drawn out the farm complex on a battle map but, of course, they never left the gatehouse area. It was also a huge test of their ability as players to make smart choices and use the combat system properly because I wasn't going to pull my punches. (This was under MRQ1 btw). I did wonder how they were going to handle the thunderer. I do have my own heavily hopuse-ruled version of RQ1 combat - who didn't? - and had previously intended to disallow precise attacks to bypass armour. At the last minute I decided that there was a need for it so Dhrek demonstrated it and the players took the hint.
The renders were useless. This was because of the RQ1 result of successful parry vs failed natural weapons attack and the renders inability to roll low. Keldo and his great axe made short work of them.
The battle was close but it was always clear from the GM viewpoint that they had the upper hand. I've been giving out IRs and HPs by the session rather than by the story so that the players can upgrade their characters quite quickly and it's starting to make a noticeable impact to me.
One area they are still weak on though is any sort of social skill for their characters. The only with such skills, Griffith, is run by a player who is having to miss a lot of sessions for a variety or reasons. This means that they get fewer chances to uncover anything beneath by the surface. This was particularly true at Billhook farm. They never thought to ask why Dhrek was short-handed and why he didn't seem overly concerned about how much he could earn from them. They had also heard from Asrela that morning that there were no reports of a sorcerer in Noryar so she was widening the search. A little more insight and they might have put two and two together.
You see, Jezat was in a quantum state at this point. If on first arrival they had pushed the issue they might have discovered that Jezat was still there but first they had to figure out he might be and then discover how to persuade the ducks to give him up. As they did none of that, Jezat resolved his quantum state to being on a raft with 3 ducks on the way to Solthmouth. Jezat has promised the ducks a share in his profits so Dhrek has sent three of his best down river with him and, once more, Jezat slips through their hands. This time without them even knowing it...
