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Campaign Diary of Abernathy's Company (runs 41-50) (1829) Tuesday, April 8 - (run 41 begins) Early in the morning the Company pays another ship to wait on standby, and then sets up to wait by the ship on which they expect Tor to be smuggled out. Sure enough, a wagon pulls up to the dock by the ship, accompanied by a priestess of Corilayna. (Corilayna, by the way, is called the Goddess of Gamblers, Mistress of Thieves, Lady Luck, the Puppeteer, the Hand of Fate, and the Shepherd of Fortune.) Some dock workers begin to unload crates of onions. (The crates are big enough that they could hold a person, though not too comfily.) As they do in many such situations, the party instigates chaos. First, a Hold Person spell freezes the dock workers in their tracks and another freezes the Priestess of Corilayna. Some of the party, aided by Beans of Strength, begin to unload crates from the wagon. Realizing that his plan is going awry, one of the kidnappers tries to drive the wagon away, but a bean-enhanced Ernie grabs the reins of the horses and drags the wagon to a halt, and then the kidnapper is knocked from the wagon. Guards begin to converge on the wagon and Kay distracts them by pretending to be ill. And then someone (probably the halfling, who hadn’t shown himself) pops an Eversmoking Bottle, and things really get chaotic. The Priestess of Corilayna is pushed into the harbor and doesn’t resurface. In the thick clouds of smoke, Morningstar is able to contact Tor via Telepathy and the Company frees him from his crate. Under cover of the smoke the party flees with Tor down to the waiting ship and tells the Captain they need to leave immediately… but Flicker hasn’t made the rendezvous. Just when they start to think they should go back after him, he arrives dragging one of the onion crates from the wagon. They load it on the ship, and off they go. In the Crate, along with some onions, are all of Tor’s stolen belongings. Flicker is suddenly very popular. Late that night, the ship puts in at Tal Hae, and the party reports
in to Abernathy. He tells them that an Eye of Moirel has "come to light,"
somewhere in the Norlin Hills on Nahalm, between Hafast and Hae Norl. (It
seems that Abernathy and his associates have some long-range way of detecting
flare-ups of Wild Magic. It’s probably not Abernathy himself, though, who
detests (and even fears) Wild Magic, considering it Anathema to proper wizardry.)
Wednesday, April 9 - The Company hires a ship to take them to the coast of Nahalm near the Norlin Hills. Thursday, April 10 - The ship drops the party off in the morning, and they spend the day marching inland toward the hills. After an evening rest, they continue on overnight, eager to make good time. Friday, April 11 - The Company spends the day climbing up into the steep Norlin Hills. In the afternoon they see a small keep high atop a hill some distance off; since it’s the only sign of habitation they’ve seen, they decide to make for it. Along the way they encounter a large mountain cat who watches them briefly from a ledge above the trail before climbing up and out of sight. As the sun begins to set the party finishes the climb up to the keep; they find a trail that is separated from the keep’s closed drawbridge by a deep ravine. With no better way to get in, the party ferries themselves over the high walls and into a courtyard, using the flying carpet. As the first group is dropped off and the carpet returns to pick up the second, a number of animated skeletons, crusted over in places with a greenish crystal, shamble out of the dusk shadows and attack! (run 42 begins) Kay draws her sword and goes to swing…but instead she feels her magical Boots of Levitation (found in Manzanill’s lair) suddenly become very tight, and then she begins an extremely graceful pirouette. Unable to stop herself, she begins to dance around the melee, unable to attack or defend, while fighting rages around her. The party manages to kill the skeletons, but Kay is knocked unconscious while dancing. They revive her, but she’s very weak. In the failing light, the party quickly searches the keep. It appears that the place has been looted several times over, and only useless junk remains. They do find strange holes in both the floor and the ceiling of the keep’s main hall. Upon further scrutiny, they find that something seems to have blasted its way out of a hidden compartment in an upper story, down through the ceiling of the hall beneath, and through the hall’s floor to someplace underground. There is a staircase leading into a basement level in one of the keep’s side buildings, so they descend. The keep’s basement appears to be a crypt; there are several chambers with long-dead bodies in them. And in one of the further-in chambers, a particularly large skeleton lifts itself of off a slab. Like the ones above, it is rimed over with greenish crystal, but this one then extends large crystal blades past the ends of its bony hands. As an encore it animates several of the nearby skeletons, and all of them attack the Company! A few rounds into the battle, it becomes clear that the lead skeleton is healing itself somehow. Guessing that the Eye of Moirel is in the skull, the party starts aiming more for the head, and finally they succeed in knocking the head mostly off its bony shoulders. Before the head snaps off at the neck and falls to the floor, it swivels around to face Ernie, and says in a rasping voice: "Ernest, how nice to see you again." Then it tilts to face Kibi: "Bimson, my regards to your Grandfather." Then it dies. They are not surprised to find an Eye of Moirel embedded in the back of the skull. The Company finds a box of treasure in a secret compartment beneath the slab on which the Eye skeleton had lain. In addition to some coins and gems, it contains a Heal Scroll and a magical block of wood that turns out to be a Folding Boat. Wounded but victorious, the Company heads back up to the surface of the keep – and as they emerge, battered and spent from the battle below, Sagiro and three Sharshun come around a corner about 30 yards away. Immediately, Ernie, Kay, Kibi and Morningstar hop aboard Burning Sky, and Sagiro and his company look on with dismay as the Carpet ferries half the party, along with the Eye, over the high wall of the keep and out of sight. When Ernie comes back for the rest of the party, one of the Sharshun casts Hold Person to disable Tor, Ernie and Flicker. Dranko attempts to leap down on the attackers from a rooftop, but stumbles, and then surrenders when the other party members are threatened. (run 43 begins) The Sharshun secure the Held party members, while the remaining three land outside the keep and begin to make their way down the mountain. Kay, already weakened, stumbles, falls and tumbles many yards down the mountainside. By the time the other two reach her, she is unconscious and near death, but they revive her. Then they hear someone else coming up the mountain toward them. They fear more Sharshun, but it turns out to be Elnimon, the Elf who was one of the bidders on the Cyclops in Minok. Morningstar activates Dismay (becoming enshrouded in shadow and flame) and moves atop a boulder, to challenge Elnimon as "The Guardian of the Eye." They learn that Elnimon is indeed there seeking the Eye, but is not working with the Sharshun. Morningstar drops the illusion, and Elnimon agrees to assist the party. With Kay in her weak state, the four of them go into hiding in a cave-like rock formation to wait until morning. Back up at the keep, the Sharshun have been arguing with Sagiro in their own tongue, probably about how to get the Eye back, and what to do with the prisoners. It’s clear that Sagiro is getting the better of the dispute. Saturday, April 12 (Day of St. Kemmi - Pikon) - As the sun rises, and there is still no sign of the remaining party members arriving to rescue their friends, Sagiro and one of the Sharshun lower the drawbridge, and the two of them head down the mountain side in pursuit. Meanwhile, Tor and Dranko talk it up with the two Sharshun left to guard them (or at least with the more social one). They learn that Sagiro is in charge of this particular operation, but that the Sharshun aren’t happy with the arrangement. As Sagiro and the Sharshun near the place where the party members are hiding, they call out for him to come no closer. Sagiro informs them that while has no particular wish to harm any of the Company, he will do so if that’s what it takes to get the Eye. When the party tells him they won’t give it up, he tells them he’ll have to go back to the keep, and come back with proof that he’ll take extreme measures to extort the party. But he didn’t reckon with Elnimon. A blast of lightning from the Elf, Magic Missiles from Kibi, and a Gust of Wind from Kay combine to kill the Sharshun, and knock Sagiro down the side of the mountain and into the swift mountain river. His body is not recovered. The outside-the-keep contingent then plans and executes a successful assault on the remaining two Sharshun, highlighted by a Call Lightning spell from Morningstar, combined with a generated storm from one of Kay’s magical arrows. (The arrow was a one-shot magic item that created a localized thunderstorm when shot into the air. This was a great piece of combined tactics, using it with the Call Lightning spell.) One of the remaining two Sharshun is killed, and the other is allowed to take a dagger (though he is divested of his other valuables) and flee. The party leaves Longtooth Keep (which a certain party member wants to rename "Castle Blackhope") and heads to the nearby town of Hafast to get some real rest. Sunday, April 13 - The Company pays a barge to take them to Hae Kalkas, with plans to head from there to Kibi’s nearby home village of Eggemoggin. They decide to pay a visit to Richter at the Sage’s Consortium, but find that that many months ago he went insane and has since been committed to a private asylum. The asylum is an awful place; while the party is not allowed in, they can hear the terrible shrieks from inside. Richter is brought before the party, whom he recognizes as those who caused his mind to break, and he starts screaming. In a fit of altruism and guilt, the party decides to use the Heal scroll obtained at Longtooth to restore Richter to health. He doesn’t have any memory of what he had been studying, so after a discussion with some other sages at the Consortium they set him up back at there as a botany specialist, with orders that his old notes not be shown to him for at least two years. They leave some money for him as well, to help him get a good clean start. Monday, April 14 - (run 44 begins) Travel to Eggemoggin Tuesday, April 15 - En route to the dwarven village of Eggemoggin the party meets a caravan of ore wagons as they move along the mountain road. Dranko’s presence nearly causes an inter-racial incident, but Kibi steps in. Wednesday, April 16 - Travel to Eggemoggin Thursday, April 17 - The Company arrives in Eggemoggin. There is more trouble with Dranko due to the history of orcish raids in the village, but thankfully there’s no violence. Dranko decides to try the inn, the "Orcs’ Grave" by Flagon Thundermug -- and survives! Actually, reports are that the orcs seem to have withdrawn unusually far into the mountains, and there have been no incursions for weeks. Remarkably, the party notices that a large gold band sits on a mantelpiece in the Bimson home, a ring that looks the twin of the ring found on the Wilburforce statue in Dingman’s Ferry! It doesn’t detect as magical. Kibi’s mother claims the ring was found with her in the ruins of her village. (Kibi’s mom, Gela Dun-Bim, was found by her now-husband, Kibi’s father Bim. She was the only survivor from an orcish raid on her village.) Friday, April 18 - Memory Read spells cast on Kibi’s mom (with her consent, of course) have mixed results; they seem to confirm her discovery by her husband, but an attempt to share her memory about the first time she saw the ring fails. Clearly something odd is going on. In the early afternoon the party departs Eggemoggin, bound for Hae Kalkas, with plans to head home to Tal Hae via Kynder Hold. Saturday, April 19 - Sunday, April 20 - Travel to Hae Kalkas Monday, April 21 (Day of Fortune - Corilayna) - After a a quick stop in Hae Kalkas they continue on to Kynder Hold. Tuesday, April 22 - Thursday, April 24 (4/23 - Lambing Week - Yondalla) - Travel to Kynder Hold Friday, April 25 - After a week of land and sea travel, they arrive safely in Tal Hae. Saturday, April 26 - Thursday, May 29 (4/27 - Spring Tourney - Werthis) (5/7 - Night of the Shield - Ell) - The party trains. During this time, everyone in the company (even Kibi!) competes in the Spring Tourney of Werthis. Tor advances several rounds this time, but loses to the eventual winner, a powerful Stormknight named Sorent Redhilt. Apparently this Tourney is also to determine which Stormknight will get to compete in a bigger tourney in Sand’s Edge, the winners of which will be allowed to fulfill a particular Werthan prophecy. According to the prophecy, three Stormknights will kill a creature called a Ventifact Colossus. On the 15th of May there is a grand procession of the Stormknights, as they march with Sorent down to the docks. Thee procession is halted briefly by a trio of Utholites who step out into the road, but there is no violent conflict. The Utholites calmly warn the Werthans not to take their current course of action, the Werthians tell them to get out of the road, and the Utholites leave. Dranko follows one of them to her house, but doesn’t learn anything of importance from her. (run 45 begins) Also during the training period the Undermen come to Dranko with a mission for the "Oracle Gang." It seems that the mages’ guild in Calnis has come into the possession of an exotic creature, but doesn’t have the facilities to examine it since much of their Guild Hall is still being rebuilt after the Gnoll-and-Kobold raid. They are willing to sell the creature to the Tal Hae guild, but both parties want to avoid paying the inevitable taxes, which are especially high due to the tense situation in Calnis. The Tal Hae mages’ guild has hired the Undermen to assist them, and the Undermen in turn are asking the Oracle Gang to retrieve the creature without paying customs. Friday, May 30 - (Artichoke Day - Yondalla) - The Company starts out for Calnis, where they will pick up the "exotic creature." The first day’s journey is uneventful and rainy, and that night they stay in a small roadside shelter. As the party is preparing for sleep, a severed head falls into the shelter through the smoke hole. Two more heads soon follow it. They look cadaverous, but are also animate, and from their ragged neck stumps they fire out thin but tough strings with barbed bone hooks on the end. Ewwww! Using the hooks, they pull themselves up toward a victim’s head, where they expel clouds of noxious gas. Double ewwwww! The party begins fighting them. They hack two of them to bits, and trap the third beneath a Weighty-Chested cookpot. Flicker goes outside to scout, to find out where the heads came from, but as soon as he exits the shelter, he lets out a shout which ends rather abruptly. When others go outside to check on Flicker, they are immediately attacked by the Sharshun Hasek (the one who offered a huge amount of money for their Eye of Moirel near the Greatwood). He fights well and with little energy expended on talk or explanation; certainly no offers of 300,000 gold pieces! Unfortunately for him it seems that the heads didn’t weaken the party as much as he had hoped, and the battle starts going against him. Rather than surrender or fight to the death, he vanishes, apparently having Teleported. The party quickly searches the surrounding area, using Ala (Morningstar’s befriended raven). Ala discovers a horse fleeing up the road, but when the some of the party catches up to the horse with Burning Sky, they discover that it’s only a horse with no rider. Rather than chase Hasek into the wilderness, they return to the shelter. There are signs that someone had come upon the scene, checked out the cookpot, and fled quickly. The party catches up to him on the road back to Tal Hae, but he’s just a traveler, scared silly by the thumping coming from under the pot. Saturday, June 1 - (run 46 begins) Travel to Calnis. Sunday, June 2 - The Company arrives in Calnis in the early evening. Due to the increasing threat of humanoid invasion, security is tight. Weapons must be peace-bonded, curfew is at 9:00, and each person must purchase city papers for a gold piece. There is also a mage there who casts Detect Magic on the party, but, perhaps knowing something of the party’s errand, he doesn’t tell the guards that the party is anything out of the ordinary. There is a slight unpleasant odor that seems to be permeating the air of the city. The party goes immediately to the Calnis mages’ guild (which is in the midst of significant reconstruction and repair), and is soon introduced to a short human mage named Theodore. They give him the password supplied by the Undermen of Tal Hae ("We understand you’re having pet problems.") and are admitted into the guild house. The bad smell gets a bit worse. Theodore leads the party through the guild house to a room in the basement, and stops at a door. He gives each person in the party some blue liquid to smear on their upper lips, to help lessen the effects of the smell. He opens the door, and the stink is powerful, blue liquid or no. In a shallow depression in the corner of the room sits a large metal box, with a hinged lid that is latched closed. Theo uses a stick to open the latches and lift the lid… and then the smell gets really bad. A stalk pops up from inside the box, a stalk with two eyes on it. It is followed by two nasty tentacles, which whip around harmlessly. After a few seconds, Theo beats the protruding bits with the stick until they withdraw inside the box, and then he closes the box. He informs the party that the creature (name unknown) has been growing since they received it, and while it eats anything, it seems to prefer garbage and refuse. It is one of three such beasts that has been seen in the city in recent days. The Company leaves the creature (to which they assign various names like "stench beast," "witherstench," and "wiggling stinker") for a time and goes back to the inn to plan. En route they are called over by a beggar claiming a need for help. When they get close however, the beggar turns out to be a member of the Calnis thieves’ guild, and he tells the party that a number of other thieves have them covered with bows. A nearby city guard is clearly more afraid of the thieves’ guild than he is interested in justice, and with alacrity he wanders away at the thief’s request. The thieves claim to know that the Tal Hae Undermen are operating on their turf, and want a piece of the action. Rather than fight against the thieves, the party pays them off, a sum of several hundred gold pieces. Later the party goes back to get the witherstench, and under cover of darkness, a few party members fly it out over the walls of Calnis on Burning Sky . Monday, June 3 - The next morning the second half of the party meets them, and the first half flies (invisibly) back into the city, and then exits normally. During its morning feeding the witherstench somewhat resists going fully back into its box, but by attacking it with real weapons the party convinces it to behave. The Company heads back to Tal Hae, towing the beast on the flying carpet. Tuesday, June 4 - Travel to Tal Hae Wednesday, June 5 - The Company arrives at Tal Hae, and takes the Wiggling Stinker immediately to the mages’ guild, happy to finally be rid of it. Then they return to the Greenhouse, where they make a truly shocking discovery. Eddings is there to greet the party as usual. What is less usual is that his eyes are missing from their sockets, and in their places are the two Eyes of Moirel! The edges of the sockets are rimed over with colored crystal, one purple, the other green. They speak through Eddings using his voice, each one glowing (either purple or green) while it is the one "talking." They talk back and forth for a time about the Ventifact Colossus, and the different dooms that are prophesied if the Colossus is killed or not killed. Each eye has a different interpretation. Then both eyes speak in unison about “traveling nowhere,” and where their “brother” can be found. And then the Eyes fall out of Eddings’ head and drop to the floor, inert. The poor butler gives out a cry of pain and keels over. (Remarkably, Eddings retains his sight afterward, even though he has no eyeballs (his sockets are now smooth depressions.) What’s more, he Detects Magic at will, and no longer needs to sleep.) Thursday, June 6 - (run 47 begins) The Company decides that they want to go to Sand’s Edge to check things out for themselves. They book a ship, but it won’t leave until the 11th, so they decide to relax in Tal Hae for a bit. Kibi pays a mage at the Guild to identify some of the party’s magic items, and Dranko goes to visit some sages about the prophecies concerning the Ventifact Colossus. (He is rooked by a disreputable sage named Zezel, who takes payment in advance and gives no information that is not generally known. Dranko plots revenge.) Ernie is asked by the Temple of Yondalla to be the head cook at this year’s Summerfest. Friday, June 7 - Saturday, June 8 - They wait for the ship to sail. Sunday, June 9 - At noon on this day, the sun begins to go dim. There is an eclipse for a few minutes, during which there is moderate (but not too widespread) panic in the streets of Tal Hae. A mob forms, thinking that the "evil Church of Ell" is performing some ritual to blot out the sun, and heads there to inflict some mindless group violence. Dranko goes to try to stop them, and also picks many of their pockets. The sun comes back out soon enough, and there are no obvious lasting effects. Monday, June 10 - (Calipa’s Eve - Ell) Around midday several guards are seen running down the street past the Greenhouse. Then a couple more run past. When someone pokes their head out the door to ask what’s going on, the guards report that they are going to help fight a group of bugmonkeys that has come up from beneath Gohgan’s shop! The party runs to assist. When they arrive on the scene they find that a group of city guardsmen has the situation under control; a number of bugmonkeys have been killed, and it doesn’t look like any are left alive. That’s when a large black-armored knight comes out of Gohgan’s shop. It’s over 7’ tall, and the face beneath its black helm is rotten, cadaverous. It shrugs off initial attacks by the guard, and then bellows for Alander to come down from his tower. The party doesn’t know who Alander is, but they assume the Knight is talking about Abernathy’s tower. The party instructs one of the nearby guardsmen to run to the Greenhouse, and tell the butler there to get in touch with Abernathy. The guard looks skeptical for a moment, but then his eyes open wide, and he says: "you’re Tillerson’s group, aren’t you. Ok, I’m off!" The Black Knight uses a huge sword in battle, and casts a large Fireball (which roasts a number of guards) and many Walls of Ice. When the party moves to engage him, the Knight utters a powerful magic word which leaves Tor stunned. But the party, combined with some stalwart guardsmen who stay to fight, manage to wound the Knight badly. It begins then to stride down the street, when Abernathy suddenly appears about 100 feet away. "Please keep it occupied for a moment," he requests, and then he takes out a scroll and starts reading. The party manages to slow it down enough, giving Abernathy enough time to summon a great many-headed dragon-like beast. The beast has little trouble defeating the wounded Knight and ends up ripping it in half. Then Abernathy dismisses the beast, and disappears himself, presumably back to his tower. Dranko goes into to Gohgan’s and makes the grim discovery that the rug merchant has been slain by the Knight. The party goes below to examine the sub-basement areas. They find that the Black Knight must have been what was kept in the walled-up room with the round glass seals; all of the seals have been broken and are lying in a pile of rubble. The Black Knight then reached the ceiling of the chapel by making ramps out of Walls of Ice, and from there it was an easy matter for him to reach the surface. Poor Gohgan never had a chance. Tuesday, June 11 - (Festival of Arrival; Day of Bounty - Pikon; Calipa’s Eve - Ell) (run 48 begins) The Company leaves Tal Hae by ship, en route to Sand’s Edge. By this time they have formed a fairly solid but terrifying hypothesis. Here are their clues: · The Werthans are going to fight a "Ventifact Colossus" – some sort of giant – in a city on the edge of a great desert. · In the church of Brechen at Seablade Point – defiled by the Fire God worshipper – there was a bit of prophecy that "…a venic giant will again walk the earth, and three sons of Werthis will lay it low" · According to an old scroll (penned by a Romus the Mad) found in the Hae Charagan Vault, "The Venic Giant will begin to wake when the sun o’er head dost wink at the city of Ganit Tuvith, on the edge of a great bowl of dust." (some spelling corrected) Romus goes on to write in terror of a Turtle Army that will destroy the kingdom. Perhaps not so coincidentally, there has just been an eclipse. · The Eyes of Moirel, speaking through Eddings, had referred to the Ventifact Colossus as the "Great Sand Turtle," and that it would be fighting the Stormknights. · When they were out in the desert itself (The Mouth of Nahalm), camped upon one of the great islands (floating in the sand), the whole island had moved beneath them From this, they have decided that the Ventifact Colossus, a.k.a. the Venic Giant, is a giant tortoise that lives in the desert. Of course, if that’s so, the creature would be unimaginably huge – those rocks in the desert are between 50 and 100 yards in diameter. It could be a tortoise the size of a football field! Wednesday, June 12 - At noon the Company arrives at Sand’s Edge. There is a long line of people at the gate; apparently word has spread that the Stormknights of Werthis are going to fight some sort of giant, and there’s sure to be spectacle galore! Oh boy! Once inside the city proper, the party makes arrangements at a local inn (the Falling Sands). Then they go to visit the Church of Werthis, but the gates to the church are sealed, and no one is being admitted. Still determined to warn someone, they go to the Church of Delioch, where Dranko tries to tell them about the true nature of the Ventifact Colossus. The priest to whom Dranko tells the tale, Brother Nolman, clearly doesn’t believe Dranko’s story. At the Temple of Ell, the priestesses there are less skeptical, but still won’t take any immediate action. Thinking that the someone might be watching the Church of Werthis, the party does some rooftop scouting, and Dranko spots a man crouching on a different rooftop, keeping an eye on the Temple. (Dranko: "I look around for a rooftop that will give me the best discreet view of the front of the Temple of Werthis." Me: "Ok, you spot a likely looking building across the street." Dranko: "Great! I pick a rooftop that has a great discreet view of that rooftop, and look down.") Invisibly, Dranko performs his usual sort of interrogation and learns that the man is a member of a local thieves guild, curious about the large number of people who seem to be carrying similar quarterstaves, and who appear to be themselves checking out the Church of Werthis. This man has also overheard the name of "Clockman" used, but doesn’t know its significance. Armed with this knowledge, the party starts looking for someone carrying one of these staves, and soon finds one – it’s a man who is a member of the church of Uthol Inga. They break into his room at an inn called the Mule, and take his staff and gray Utholite vest. Morningstar visits the temple of Ell again, and this time convinces the High Priestess there to apply her personal seal to a warning letter to the Werthians. Then the party goes back to the Church of Werthis, and with clever use of the Telepathy spell, convince a Werthian inside to come out and receive the letter. Thursday, June 13 - The Company decides to just go ahead and kidnap the Utholite who they robbed the night before. Dranko hauls him up to a rooftop for an interrogation. The man doesn’t reveal much, but the party does confirm that he’s an Utholite, that he is not privy to the master plan of the Watchers, and that his contact is Clockman. The party goes to visit Clockman, (a clockmaker – surprise!) sending Ernie in to look at clocks, while Flicker hangs out invisibly. Morningstar’s Mind Read reveals that there are several more people in a closed office in the back of the shop, so the party doesn’t try anything overt. Instead, Flicker watches invisibly as a "customer" walks into the shop a few minutes later, a customer who flashes a hand-sign to Clockman. Clockman politely asks Ernie to leave, but Flicker stays. Clockman then gives his customer an address, and an order to "stand and wait." The customer departs. The party talks it over, and decides to go to the address mentioned by Clockman. They find there a carpenter’s shop, and a carpenter who is apparently giving out the Utholite staves. Kay goes in, and tries to get a staff; when the carpenter looks puzzled, she flashes the sign that Flicker saw at Clockman’s. While the carpenter seems skeptical about her presentation of the sign, and even asks her from what "branch" she comes from, he eventually goes into a back room and gives Kay a staff. He gives her a warning that her branch should be more disciplined (she had said "Tal Hae"), and Kay leaves. The party talks it over some more, and decides they still need more information. They plan on having Kay approach another staff-carrier, wounded, and plead for help and information. (Dranko punches her in the face to simulate the wounded part.) Kay then finds a woman carrying an Utholite staff, and implements the plan, begging for aid. The woman looks Kay over, looks around (the rest of the party is hiding out of sight nearby), and tells Kay to follow her. She leads Kay down into an alley, and then, without warning or provocation, launches a vicious attack on Kay with her quarterstaff. She is very skilled, and things look grim for Kay, but then the rest of the party shows up and the Utholite woman is quickly subdued. The party takes her back to the Temple of Ell, to be kept prisoner and perhaps interrogated. That evening, the party goes back to Clockman’s, hoping to find more information. They discover that the shop has been closed indefinitely, but while the rest of the party waits down the street a ways, Dranko and Flicker head to the roof to break in. They aren’t up there long, however, when a group of city guardsmen rounds the street corner and heads right for them. Dranko and Flicker manage to escape off the back of the building (without having gotten inside), as some of the guards approach the shop, and others speak to the rest of the party. While the party begs ignorance of the affair (claiming they saw no one near the shop), the searching guards find signs that two people had been on the roof recently, and had escaped. One of them, they say, was a child. The party figures that someone had to have alerted the guards almost immediately after they showed up at Clockman’s, for the guards to have gotten there so fast. The Utholites are clearly on to them. Friday, June 14 - (run 49 begins) The party is summoned early to the Temple of Ell. The priestesses there have interrogated the Utholite prisoner (none too gently either, it seems) and are going to let her go, but they wanted to let the party talk to her before her release. From the Ellish priestesses, and from the woman herself (named Hawke) the party learns several things: · The Utholites are gathering an army in Sand’s Edge, to fight the Werthans if and when the Stormknights attempt to kill the Ventifact Colossus. · There is probably another (backup) plan, to which Hawke is not privy. · the staff which Kay was carrying had a mark carved near its base -- the mark of a spy. That is why Hawke attacked Kay. The carpenter must have realized right away that Kay was an imposter, and given her a "booby-trapped" staff that would be recognized by others. · Hawke is a more-powerful-than-average Utholite. · the Utholites have their own versions of the two prophecies spoken by the Eyes of Moirel, and they clearly are following the "turtle must live" version. · While the Utholites have heard of the Burning God, they cannot find much about them because of the Masking. (They don’t know about the Masking specifically, but they know something odd is going on.) After divulging this much information, Hawke is let free. The party spends the rest of the day "turtle trolling." They fly out over the desert on the flying carpet, and Morningstar casts some Mind Read and Telepathy spells on some of the giant rocks. None have a discernible mind. They land the carpet on the rock which hosted the Gargoyle dig, but the place is abandoned save for some broken digging equipment and debris. Saturday, June 15 - Having done all they can, the Company waits for the inevitable… Sunday, June 16 - In the late morning, people start to gather in the town square, where some ceremonial rigmarole is planned before the Giant is due to show up. By this time, most people in Sand’s Edge seem convinced that the Ventifact Colossus is a Storm Giant, and they eagerly await its demise at the hands of the three Stormknights. The town square fills, and then four Stormknights step out onto the balcony, followed by the Lord Governor of Sand’s Edge. One of the Stormknights (the High Stormknight Dalesandro) begins a speech, and introduces the Prophesied Three: Sorent Redhilt, Faskel Giantbane, and Velown Thunderstick. Then he goes on about how the Giant is coming, and how these three will kill it… and his speech is interrupted by a hail of darts which come flying out of the crowd toward the balcony. However, the darts all bounce off of a glowing blue shield around the people there, which had been invisible before. (Perhaps the party’s warning convinced them to take this kind of precaution… who knows?) Although no one is pierced by the darts, one of the people in the crowd dies soon after she picks one up off the ground, as they are coated with an extremely virulent contact poison. The guards on the walls scan the crowd, but no one seems to have seen who threw the darts. The speech continues, with the Lord Governor assuring the people that many soldiers stand ready to fight the Giant, should something go wrong with the Werthian prophecy. And then, as the city official continues to drone on, the first tremor is felt. At first, the Governor only pauses, and then continues. But as more tremors follow, and shouts start sounding faintly through the city, everyone turns to face the desert. Some of the Company immediately get on the carpet and fly out toward the Mouth of Nahalm, and their fears are confirmed. One of the huge rocks has moved to the edge of the "Grayte Bowl o’ Dust," and is heaving its great bulk up out of it, and onto the land. The Ventifact Colossus, which does, in fact, resemble a huge turtle, lumbers toward the city. The creature is truly massive – the body is almost 300 feet in diameter, and the head alone is 80’ long and 60’ high. The "rock island" is a mound of hardened sand that has mixed with secretions from the turtle’s shell over the years, to form a massive covering. Gallons of sand stream off of the turtle’s back as it walks, and its huge feet leave enormous craters in the ground as it slowly walks toward Sand’s Edge. The crowd disperses from the square, some (the foolish) eager to get a closer look, but most intent on fleeing the approaching Colossus. And the party members on the carpet now see that, from many abandoned buildings and little-used streets near the edge of town, hundreds of Utholites armed with staves are pouring out, and taking up a march in front of the turtle. As the Colossus reaches the edge of town, an army of Stormknights issues out of the temple and rushes forward to meet the Utholites; a fierce battle is joined. Above the battle, Ernie manages to spot Sorent Redhilt and the other two prophesied Werthians, having a conference behind the rearmost lines of the Stormknight ranks. (One can only assume that they’re wondering just how in Werthis’ name they’re going to defeat a creature that enormous.) Tor uses the magic mirror to get their attention, and using Morningstar as a telepathy link for two-way communication, then asks if he can render assistance. The Stormknights have another hurried conference, and then ask if the party can get the three of them to the head of the Colossus. Ernie lands the carpet, unloads Tor and Morningstar, loads the three Stormknights on , and flies over the battle toward the turtle. Meanwhile, on the ground, the battle line continues to move forward just ahead of the Colossus. Everyone in the party save Ernie (who’s on the carpet) fights alongside the Stormknights, and the fight is fairly even. Fortunately, the Utholites are using staves, while the Werthians are using largely bows, maces and bladed weapons. But as the battle moves back, the turtle moves forward, and with each step, huge pieces of the city – homes, shops, warehouses, parks – are smashed to flinders. Ernie, who has had plenty of practice piloting Burning Sky by now, performs some harrowing feats of aerobatics around and beneath the body of the Colossus. Up close, the Colossus is even more unimaginably huge, and it seems impossible that any effort will be able to stop its plodding march. But Ernie manages to maneuver the carpet (With Sorent, Faskel and Velown clinging for dear life) over the great head of the beast. The three Stormknights attempt to disembark. Sorent loses his balance, bounces off and then slides down the side of the head, and falls nearly 100 feet into the depression left by a foreleg. The other two manage land safely atop the turtle’s head. Ernie goes down to try to rescue Sorent, but the Stormknight’s body is too large and heavy for Ernie to lift onto the carpet, and Ernie barely escapes as a massive hind leg stomps into the depression, doubtless crushing Sorent to paste. Meanwhile, Velown has climbed onto the underside of a huge rock-like formation of crusted sand over one of the turtle’s eyes. She tries to hang on and stab at its eyeball, but the Colossus opens its eye wide, and then blinks down, crushing her in its huge eyelid. Her lifeless body plummets to the ground. The final Stormknight, Faskel, realizes what he has to do. He takes some deep breaths, and then plunges into one of the beast’s huge nostrils. Still the turtle marches on. In the fight below, both sides have suffered massive attrition. Of the hundreds of soldiers on each side, only handfuls still battle. But after more minutes go by, and the Colossus nears the center of the city, it stops, briefly, and twitches. Then it takes a few more steps… and stops again. Parts of it seemed paralyzed. It starts to slow down. It staggers. It eyes glaze over. And then it falls. The massive body collapses, and the ground shakes as it hits. The head falls a few seconds later, smashing down into, and entirely filling, the town square. Ernie tries to crawl up the nostril to rescue Faskel Giantbane, but the smell is so strong that he is forced to turn back. Dranko tries, and with his strong constitution has better luck. He follows a hacked-out tunnel through the vile nasal passages, and eventually finds that Faskel had hacked his way to the creature’s brain, and sliced most of it into chunks. He also finds Faskel, who has died of suffocation. Dranko hauls the body out into the open air. (run 50 begins) For the rest of the day, some of the party helps the city guard keep rioting to a minimum, while the rest assist the many people wounded during the turtle onslaught. Actually, the people wounded are mostly Werthans from the battle; most of the damage done by the turtle was structural, since people generally had time to get out of the way. Dranko goes to find Brother Nolman, and gives him a good dose of "I told you so," but Nolman remains unimpressed. While he admits Dranko was right about the Giant, he maintains that if he had to do it over again, he still wouldn’t believe such an unlikely story from Dranko. Later in the day, a Stormknight approaches the Company and invites them to a ceremony being held that evening at the Church of Werthis. Upon arrival, each of the Company is outfitted with a simple Werthan outfit, and then led into the main hall of the Church. The place is already mostly full of Stormknights, many of whom are wounded. The High Stormknight Dalesandro leads the service, which starts with a progression of the coffins of the prophesied three. Then he goes into a speech about the glory of Werthis and the fulfillment of the prophecy. And then he calls the Company up to the front of the hall, and praises them for their help in bringing about the death of the Ventifact Colossus. He makes Ernie an honorary Stormknight, and gives all the Company gifts for their aid: each party member gets a jeweled necklace with the symbol of Werthis upon it. Flicker, Morningstar, Dranko and Kibi get magical pins which grant resistance to poison. Kay gets magical bracers which increase skill at archery. Tor gets a magical Sheath of the Crusader (effects unspecified; he later discovers it helps prevent fumbles). And Ernie is given a shortsword named Beryn Sur, the Dancing Blade. After the ceremony, Dalesandro speaks in private to the party, asking how they knew about the Ventifact Colossus. The party tells him about the bit of prophecy found in Seablade point, and that they know of both version of the prophecy, but not too much else. Dalesandro seems content. Back at the Falling Sands, the innkeep is most upset; it seems a metal box in their rooms had started smoking, and the inn was evacuated until someone broke into their rooms and discovered the source of the smoke. It is the box Abernathy uses to send messages, and there is a note inside of it, which reads: "Some powerful magic is manifesting at the place of Brechen’s defilement…much more potent than last time. It bears immediate investigation, and of course retrieval if possible. Use caution! - O" That night, Morningstar leaves a dream-message with Abernathy, to see if the smoke was the Archmage’s doing, or something else. (It turns out that it was; Ozilinsh did it to catch the party’s attention, to make sure they checked the magical box and read the note.) Monday, June 17 - Figuring that they need to make all haste to Seablade Point, the Company looks to find a ship. Fortunately, many captains are willing to leave Sand’s Edge right about now, and it’s not difficult finding almost immediate (albeit expensive) passage as far as Feslin. On the way to the docks that morning, the party notes that they are being followed by a street urchin. Morningstar casts a Mind Read just to be safe, and discovers that the child has no mind! Other than that, the kid seems fairly normal, but not having time to deal with him, the party drops him in a nearby rain barrel and continues on to their waiting ship. They reach the dock and board the ship, but just before it leaves, the child runs up to the ship and talks briefly with one of the sailors untying the ship. Then the ship gets underway. Kay questions the sailor, and learns that the kid just wanted to know where their ship was going. The ship arrives in Feslin that night, and the party immediately goes looking for a navigator to help them use their magical boat-in-a-box, since it’s doubtful that they’ll soon find a ship willing to make the long voyage to Seablade Point. They go visit the Feslin harbormaster, who recommends an acquaintance (later learned to be his cousin) named Makel: "A fine navigator, if you can keep him away from the liquor." The party finds Makel in a dockside tavern, completely drunk. A Mind Read from Morningstar gives her the impression that he’s probably good at what he does, when he’s sober. They negotiate with him for his services (not easy given his state), and agree to hire him only if agrees to come with them immediately to their ship. Tor and Ernie fly on the carpet to a piece of shoreline a ways outside of the town, so that Makel won’t see them unfolding the boat. The rest of the party leads Makel the long way around, through the center of town and toward the main gate. As they walk, the notice that they are being followed by the sailor from ship who had talked with the strangely mindless kid back at Sand’s Edge. When the party turns to confront him, the sailor bolts and runs down the street. Morningstar hits him with a Hold Person just as he gets to the doorway of a crowded tavern, and as the party approaches, hands from inside the place pull him in. When the party reaches the tavern, they find a small crowd around the now-paralytic man; Dranko convinces them that the man is very sick, and needs to be taken to the Temple of Delioch right away. The party takes him, turns him invisible, and carries him discreetly out of town. Eventually he becomes un-held and un-invisibled, and the party questions him thoroughly. He has no memory of following them; in fact, the last thing he remembers is talking to some kid just before leaving Sand’s Edge. He doesn’t recall any of the voyage to Feslin. The party gives him some money for his trouble, and continues on with Makel to the boat (now unfolded). Makel is drunk enough that he falls overboard, and Dranko grabs a rope and jumps in after him. Unfortunately, the rope wasn’t attached to anything. Even more unfortunately, Dranko can’t swim, but Tor (grabbing a secured rope) jumps in and rescues him. They all spend the night on the ship. Tuesday, June 18 - The party sets out for Seablade point. Makel is a likable fellow when sober; he’s amazed by the crew of unseen servants, but takes it fairly well in stride. He proves a competent navigator, though he wants to start drinking almost from the moment he wakes up. (Kibi casts a cantrip which makes water taste like good ale, and that mollifies Makel for a while.) When Makel notes that there’s no name on the ship, the party gets into an argument over whether it should be the "Sea Floam," or "Burning Sail." They let Makel decide, and he chooses "Burning Sail." Wednesday, June 19 - Ship travel to Seablade Point. Thursday, June 20 - The Burning Sail reaches Seablade Point in the late afternoon. They land near some cliffs some ways outside of town, and ferry everyone to shore with the flying carpet. Then Ernie flies back, folds up the boat, picks it up, and returns. Makel is once again amazed. The party heads into town, and discovers that it has been abandoned, though not more than a few days; in one house, there is moldy but recognizable food on the table. Even the Olde Keg is empty. The party then heads north of town, into the woods where the Gartine Arch stands. Even in the failing light, the arch is easy to see, as it’s glowing a slowly-pulsing red-orange. Directly beneath the arch, the air glows a faint orange. No one seems to be around. As the party watches, the translucent orange light beneath the arch becomes a brighter opaque orange for a split-second, and then returns to translucency. This happens a few times while they stand around. Someone throws a rock through the arch, but nothing unusual happens. The party then heads up to the church of Brechen on the cliff. They tell Makel that it’s probably dangerous to come with them, but (creeped out by the abandoned town) he opts to remain with the group. The church seems to be empty as well -- there’s no sign of Hodge, and his office is cleared out. But the altar has been moved aside with two large wooden poles, and a staircase leads down beneath the building. The party descends. The stairway spirals down almost a hundred feet, and empties out into a medium-sized natural cavern. It has two exits leading to hallways, and its only feature is a wide, red stone basin filled with a slightly greasy liquid. As the party looks around the cavern, two haggard figures come staggering down one of connecting hallways; the party recognizes one of them as an inhabitant of the town. They have swords in their hands, but aren’t threatening; rather, their expressions are tired and vacant, and they don’t talk. They do look at Tor a bit strangely, and one shakes his head slowly at him. Down that hallway, they discover a row of dorms, or barracks, in which many other Seablade Pointers are sleeping, or standing around zombie-like. The party takes the second hallway, and that one leads into a wide man-made chamber, at the far end of which is a huge red rock throne at the top of a short flight of steps. There are two large statues of the Burning God flanking the throne. As soon as the party enters the room, all of them are either drawn irresistibly toward the throne, or dazed by its presence. Only Tor doesn’t feel the compulsion – he feels instead a terrible dread of sitting in it. Eventually enough party members snap out of it to drag the rest back out of the room, away from the compelling throne. Tor wrestles with his conscience about sitting on the throne. He is utterly repulsed by the idea, but it now occurs to him that this is the throne he promised to sit in for the resurrection of Mrs. Horn, and not the Baronial Throne of Forquelle as he expected. He prays to Brechen for guidance, but gets none. In the end, he overcomes his fear, goes into the shrine and sits in the throne. As he sits there, he first is given the knowledge that Brechen now accounts his debt for Mrs. Horn’s life paid; he has done as the Gods required. And then he finds himself suddenly transported to a wide and featureless plain, still sitting on the throne. He is wearing a simple outfit of black and orange. In front of him is a tall man, similarly dressed, who looks something like his father. The man thanks Tor for arriving, and asks Tor for the use of his body. He claims that an invasion is about to begin, and that according to an important prophecy he should "be in his own blood" to lead his army of Burning God worshippers. If he is, they are prophesied to conquer the Kingdom of Charagan quickly – within a year. Otherwise, the war will be long and difficult (though according to him, the forces of the Burning God will be victorious either way). And young Tor, a.k.a. Darien Firemount, should be quite willing to give up his physical body to his ancestor, King Davarian Firemount, for the good of their people. Of course Tor refuses to yield up his body for Davarian, who becomes outraged. He claims that there’s no time to argue; he’ll just have to take Tor’s body by force. And then the man concentrates for a moment, and is suddenly armed with a sword and shield, and fully armored. He advances on the unarmed and unarmored Tor. Meanwhile, back at the entrance to the throne room, Morningstar feels an odd sensation in her mind, as if there is a disturbance in Ava Dormo. (Unusual, given that she’s wide awake…) And as Tor seems to be in some kind of trance himself, Morningstar instantly drops to sleep (a handy skill), enters Ava Dormo, and finds that the strange flat plain in which Tor has found himself actually exists in the Dreaming. She cannot reach it directly, but hovers above it, able to observe but not interact physically. It’s as if she’s a three-dimensional being able only to observe the goings-on of a two-dimensional universe. Tor cannot hear her, but she can hear Tor, as he yells "I could use some help here!" Morningstar tries to give herself her armor and weapons, as she has become used to doing during her training with the Avatar, but it doesn’t seem to work in this strange aspect of the Dreamscape. But she is able to cause a sword and shield to appear for Tor, and this lets him stand up to his ancestor in battle. As the fight goes on, she continues to assist Tor, sometimes making his weapon more "solid," sometimes removing his opponent’s weapon, and even managing to successfully cast healing spells. A horde of the townspeople has marched down the narrow hall between the cavern and the throne room, and have the party trapped . One of them lobs a vial at them from the back of the throng, and it erupts into flames when it hits. Some in the party are burned, but the townsfolk seem to be immune. Kay gulps down a Potion of Fire Resistance, eats a Bean of Strength, and wades into the mass of townsfolk. The party also manages to bar the progress of the throng with an magically Enlarged gartine plank. (They keep a plank or two in the Bag of Holding.) One of the townsfolk manages to get past the plank and the party members, and runs into the throne room towards Tor, who is still sitting motionless on the throne. Makel runs after him, and tackles the man before he can reach Tor. They roll around, there’s a crunch, and flames erupt around them both. Makel rolls away, trying to put himself out. Meanwhile, one of the fiery cats the party fought last time appears from behind the crowd of townsfolk and moves forward to attack, but the party, led by Kay, manages to kill it. When its vaporous body disperses, the dead body of Hodge is discovered, wearing a bright red cloak. In Ava Dormo Tor and his ancestor continue to trade blows, but Morningstar’s intervention makes the difference, and Tor is victorious. Upon killing Davarian Firemount, Tor finds himself back in the throne room, his body covered with the wounds he received in the battle. The surviving townsfolk have fallen unconscious with Tor’s victory. While the rest of the party rests, Dranko goes back up to the surface, and flies the carpet out to the gartine arch in the nearby woods. From a distance through the trees, he can see a large group of people moving about in the failing daylight. And about when he sees them, they see him, and whoever "they" are looses a volley of crossbow bolts at him. He escapes back to the church on the carpet, and rejoins the party below in the Burning God shrine. |