And off we go!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Ok, next post. To keep this a bit shorter, I'll try to skip some of the subplot details..

 

The night of the Wall of Death, Lamoniak had hooked up with Sir Baraharch, who it turns out is also an exile from his land and they got drunk together and took turn singing sad songs.

 

That night, Aquila found the man in the brown robe again, chased him and inexplicably lost him in a dead-end street. He also noticed a woman apparently spying on some of the other players but decided to leave her to chase Brown-robe. By the time he got back she was gone.

 

Also that night, Castor and the other priests at the temple tried to cast divination spells to work out what was going on with the murders and came up blank. However, Castor found out that there is a secure cupboard in one room of the temple which hold books - he thinks he has found the forbidden library - it's actually where the cult's documents are stored but he is right about one thing - it's also where their magic books are. In the end the priests decided to send a message to the capital to ask for help from an inquisitor.

 

The next day dawned bright and sunny. The players decided to rest a bit and eventually turned up for the intelligence contest. This is a traditional drinking game that Shiplords play - they take turns at asking riddles or composing poems, which the others then have to complete. All those apart from the one who answers correctly first drink a mug of ale. Once they have drunk their Con/2 in ales they have to start making Con rolls to keep the ale down. Every pint of ale reduces the CON roll by one. Last man standing is the winner and the prize is ... a giant barrel of ale (which is traditionally shared with the audience). There's not much to say here - I had prepared a list of medieval riddles, most of which sounded slightly obscene. Khastz did surprisingly well, guessing quite a lot of riddles - but also got drunk pretty fast, since he also guessed many wrong. After a while (several hours actually) we ran out of riddles and had lost the urge to make up new ones and the characters who were still sitting upright just settled down to drink each other unconscious. Khastz had puked all over himself and collapsed, Lamoniak was snoring on the table and Khelsen was snoring under it. So it came to a contest between Vathmar, sir Barharach and Corylyon. No-one could match sir Barharach though (he has life support: immunity to alcohol, 14-, meaning on a 14- I simply ignored the effect of that drink) and he celebrated his victory by broaching the giant cask of ale and having a drink before handing it over to the crowd.

 

The others were carried to the temple portico and left to sleep in the sun While he was there an armiger came up to Lamoniak and threw a purse down at him saying that if he was smart, he'd take the purse and leave town. Lamoniak opened it and it was full of silver coins and his ripped-up letter. That made him so angry that he threw it away. Several of the non-drunk characters met with Agrestis (Lord Sorghall's Jester) and offered him some bribes if he would help them or stop helping Mhyrryn. He pretended to be sympathetic, mocked them slightly, promised extravagant help and left intending to do nothing he had promised

 

By sundown, the party was already getting pretty wild, since it had started with strong ale in mid-afternoon. Some of the players went drinking with the indefatigable but by now thoroughly inebriated sir Barharach, some went home to recover. Those who were out and about, got involved in another brawl (a small one this time) between exiles from Sillith, some of whom hate Lord Sorghall (the new lord) and some of whom are sucking up to him in the hopes of getting their old lands back (Fat chance!). Lord Raus turned up to restore order and the characters noticed he had a dishy-looking blonde with him - who was the woman Aquila had spotted on the rooftops some evenings previously, who seems to be some sort of adventurer.

 

Eventually they stumbled back to bed, on the way, encountering Jaarst Daro with a young woman. They tried to follow him but he noticed and parted ways with the woman, going into a nearby tavern.

 

Next day: the Pain Contest!

[Fitz]

Re: And off we go!

 

You can bet that the instant you post the write-up, I'm going to sneak in in the dead of night, nick it, file off the serial numbers, inflict it on my hapless players, and then give them all your email address so that they can send their whining, grizzling and moaning to you direct

[Lumbering Ox]

Re: And off we go!

 

.... Talk about lumbering! ...

 

Yes? Someone call me?

 

It seems you have found a group on non power gamers. Lucky you.

[Frenchman]

Re: And off we go!

 

It seems you have found a group on non power gamers. Lucky you.

Hear, here. It's taken me a long time to put together a semi-stable group of not-very-munchkiny players, and damn was it hard.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Actually, I have one power-gamer - the one who plays the two-sword fighting armiger. She's a hard-core d20 player, part of our d20 group and the one who comes up with stuff like "Can I use the "kill anything" feat from Dragon 1233? I have a copy here, etc, etc" OTOH, she learns the rules, buys the books, etc, and anyway, I'm not averse to having one combat monster in the party.

 

As for the rest, it's been surprisingly easy as most of them are fantasy/scifi geeks, but not prior gamers. So it's easy to sell them ideas like "It's like you're in ...insert situation from fantasy book/film here..." they tend to think in fantasy tropes rather than the powergaming tropes.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, next update - I'm starting to run overlapping sessions together here to try and get up to date....

 

The next morning Gen (the Qurrock-breeder's son) got up early and went for a ride around the city walls with Castor - he had thought that perhaps there had been more murders than suspected (in earlier adventures they had been trying to dig up dirt on Sorghall and had heard vague rumours from some sailors that there had been a rash of murders on the island of Sillith before they left to come here. The details are vague, but Gen is convinced that someone or something evil has come over on Sorghall's ship).

 

He was right about the murders anyway, as they found a body in the stream weighted down with a couple of rocks - they only found it because one arm had washed free and was flopping about in the current. This time, before the called the watch, they carefully checked the area and were able to establish that the young woman had walked the stream with another person, then they flattened some grass and bled all over the place, before one person walked tothe stream and away back to the town - they lost his tracks on the road, but the soft earth by the stream showed them he was big, and wore boots with a strap around the instep: typical sailor's footwear.

 

When the guard was called, they pointed this out and then went with them to the Temple, where the body was identified as a girl who worked at a tavern. A few queries later showed that she supplemented her income by going out with men and got the names and descriptions of the men who had been seen with her. The authorities called out the militia, and basically rounded up all the men who weren't members of the nobility or their retinue and brought them to the market square. The priestesses cast a divination and got nothing, so everyone was let go again.

 

However, Castor the priest used his "mind-reading spell on Jaarst Daro who was under suspcion because he was big, and wore boots with a strap around the instep - and also because he had been at the tavern where the grl worked the night before. He also got nothing - not even surface thoughts - which was pretty strange. So he went to the temple, discussed the issue with the priests and they decided to call him in for a talk.

 

And then they folded. Jaarst Daro is a smart guy and a cool cookie - they asked him questions, and he answered them, with a plausible excuse for every accusation. Despite the fact that he has some sort of cult medallion around his neck, they accepted his explanation that his immunity to detection type spells was due to a magical charm cast by his granny (I kid you not!) and despite Castor's increasingly hysterical demands that he be arrested, they had to let him go, since the only reason to arrest him was that "We can't tell if he's lying!" Since Castor has let slip he's a member of the Church militant and they have a reputation as fanatics and paranoiacs, they weren't going to arrest someone for multiple murders just on his suspicions - especially not a contestant in the sacred ritual when it is known that Castor is spending his spare time hanging out with three other contestants.

 

Meanwhile, however, the rest of the group was being interrogated about the murders and what they had been doing at the time by a savage-looking woman who was armed to the teeth. Turns out she's an adventurer who has been put on the job by the temple and after the session with Castor, the temple decides she will be assigned full time to tracking Jaarst Daro and seeing what he's doing.

 

Aquila meanwhile has been out snooping around town. He finds brown robes again, and this time watches him for a while. It seems he is not spying on Lord Sorghall but lord Sorghall's servants - when he attempts to confront brown robes, the man takes off and somehow loses Aquila again on the wharves.

 

What with that and some other running about buying gear, the time for the Pain Contest approaches. In this one, the contestants have to show their toughness by holding an iron pot filled with boiling water, and red-hot stones from a big fire are added to the pot, increasing the weight and keeping it hot. Basically, the players make a roll against the average of CON+STR, plus ED, which goes down by one for each rock added. As the contest wears on, one by one the contestants groan, scream and drop their pots. Lamoniak drops out fairly soon, but makes an EGO roll to at least put his pot down rather than dropping it. Myrryhn Calmstorm gets help as usual - Agrestis, hidden in the crowd in the market square where the event is held takes advantage of a fake fight started by some Samadrian soldiers on the opposite side of the square and uses his sleight of hand spell to replace the hot water carried to Myrryhn's pot with cold water from a bucket. It doesn't help him - he fumbles his pot and drops it after a while as the water heats up with fresh, red-hot stones. Vathmar has a CON of 30 for endurance-type things due to his magical gift, and loses his pot simply due to bad rolls. In the end, it's Carylyon, who has a bonus due to his "true grit" ability, Khelsen due to his huge STR and that annoying Khastz, who despite the lack of any obvious advantages, rolled hot dice all the way through, who are left holding their pots. Vathmar, enraged and disbelieving that anyone could beat him (this was supposed to be "his" event and he bet everything he had on it!) calls cheat and the three winners have to be tested with a truth spell. Once it is shown that they did not cheat, Khelsen turns around and punches Vathmar in the face. The guards swarm in to prevent a fight and Vathmar storms off (he's got a giant-sized grudge against Khelsen, though). Finally the priestesses offer healing and soothing salves for the contestant's burns.

 

While that's going on the nobles andtheir retinues arestanding around on the temple steps chatting about the contest and Sir Baharach comes up to Lamoniak and says he thinks he's a fine guy and gives him a valuable necklace, saying it was an heirloom and he doesn't want it to be broken. he then heads for the temple steps and Lamoniak notices 1) Sir Baharach has a shortsword hidden under his cloak and 2) he's heading straight for Sorghall, whose guards are temporarily distracted by a raging argument with the watch and several local armigers over the earlier fight. With only seconds to act, he scoots round in front of Sir Baharach and partly by distracting him, partly by getting in the way and partly by drawing attention to the two of them by loud buffoonery stops Sir Baharach from reaching Sorghall before his guards notice and get close to him. At that point Sir Baharach storms off (note: the players don't know it but Sir Baharach also hate heretic sorcerors and there have been plenty of rumours floating about - mostly started by the players - that Sorghall-associated dark sorcery is behind the murders. That convinced Sir Baharach that killing him would redeem his tarnished honour and even though he'd certainly be killed, that's preferrable to endless exile).

 

The players then spend some time spying on Jaarst Daro, get bored when he does nothing unusual, and by visiting the spots where he has been seen, confirm that Brown robe (or Obi-wan, as they are calling him) seems more interested in Samadrians outside Sorghall's immediate circle. They spend the rest of the time getting ready for the big climax (no pun intended) of the festival when the harvest maiden chooses her groom, the following day.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, the last day of the festival dawns. The players get themselves all poshed up and before the ritual starts go looking for Jaarst Daro again. When they find him down by the docks they decide half the group will watch him and the other half raid his room at the inn. They get inside, ransack theplace and find - hidden under the rest of his clothes - a very bllodstained shirt. There's some debate, but in the end they hotfoot it off to the temple, where a quick divination reveals that yes, the blood belongs to one of the murdered girls. The temple priestesses however refuse to have Jaarst Daro arrested - he can be arrested the moment it finishes, but he must be allowed to finish, since outside interference is unacceptable. OTOH, he mustn't be allowed to win. The player contestants are tasked with stopping him from winning, while the rest are tasked with stopping Okalla Wayblue from finding out and killing him - at least until after the contests.

 

Meanwhile the town is getting ready for the main event - it's another attempt to woo the ladies but this time, people get bonuses to their rolls depending on how they diod in the contests. It's a similar contest as the first one, except that it turns out Sir Baharach has disappeared: Khastz makes a good show and Lamoniak wins the crowds with a poem about how he is glad to be in exile so he can meet the harvest queen etc, Jaarst Daro attempts a little covert hypnotism and Corylyon gets a big response by singing an old traditional ballad - one that annoys the Samadrians, which some locals feel is a bonus. Vathmar bores the ladies with tales of his daring deeds, while Promidor does his best but comes off as too formal. But the winner is Mhyrryhn, the Samadrian agent, who not only has an amusing, slightly smutty story, but has practiced it to perfection with a bard as a drama coach *and* has a Charisma spell secretly cast on him. But that proves his undoing - Castor who has the same spell himself and KS: analyse magic - realises was going on and accuses him of cheating. Mhyrryhn is uanble to wiggle out of it and is disqualified, leaving Corylyon and Lamoniak tied for first place - so they have to fight with swords. At the first clash of blades Lamoniak drops to his knees and says that he has been conquered by true love. The crowd goes wild and Corylyon and Melisande are swept up by the crowd and carried around at shoulder height, while Vathmar storms off. The Harvest queen's maids take turn kissing the likeable contestants - and some of the good looking male sin the general vicinity while the locals break out the musical instruments and drinks.

 

In all the confusion, the players nearly miss the fact that Jaarst Daro is heading for his inn - he has realised that something is up, when he noticed his stuff had been interfered with. The players (and Okalla Wayblue) put the inn under surveillance but Jaarst Daro's not so stupid. He climbed out his window onto the roof and attempted to make his escape over the roofs of the nearby houses. There's a deal of climbing falling and racing around (mostly obscured by falling darkness and the huge party now kicking off in the square) and Jaarst Daro makes it to the cirty gate, sees the guards are alerted (the temple told them to watch for him specifically) and heads up the steps onto the city wall.

 

Lamoniak catches him there but alas his attack is blocked and he gets a staff in the chest that send him tumbling 10 metres down the stone steps and into the street. That buys enough time for the rest to arrive. Half of them head for the gate to cut off any attempt escape and the rest head up the stairs. Jaarst Daro decides to make a break for it. He goes over the wall and lands on the grass outside, but still sprains his ankle in the fall, allowing the players and some guards to catch up. He puts up a brief and very spirited defence but is successively: run down by Gen on the horse, stabbed in the stomach by Bellona and as he falls, unconscious to the ground Okalla Wayblue charges up and sinks her battleaxe into his groin (ignoring cries of "no, we want him alive!")

 

As Jaarst Daro expires, smoke begins to pour from his mouth and nose, forming a vaguely humanoid shape then drifts off into the gathering dark. (GM's note - all this murdering is because Jaarst Daro was possessed by a Gherent - a dark spirit, which if it can't get human lifeforce, slowly devours its host. It had forced Jaarst to enter the contest since if it won, it could have killed and "eaten" a woman who, even if temporarily was assuming the aspect of one of the Goddesses - giving it a major "fix" of magical power).

 

The players are a bit upset by this unexplained death scene so cart the body back to the temple, where shortly after it is announced from the steps that the murderer has been caught, just adding to the party feeling. The players join the celebrations - as best they can - Lamoniak, seriously wounded, is carried to the temple where he gets some help, but is beyond much that the healers can do. Some of the others are troubled by the smoke thing and spend some time talking with the priests. They took a letaher amulet off Jaarst's body and discover that it's actually a cover for a silver amulet with a strange symbol on it. After chatting with the priests, they find out something about Gherents, which just disturbs them even more.

Competition-related festivities go on all night. Corylyan and Melisande retire to a room at an inn, and stay there pretty much for the next few days.

 

The next day Bellona & Aquilla interview the Samadrian sailors again, who are getting ready to leave and find out that one of their number jumped ship as soon as they arrived in Houndsgar. Later we find out that the missing sailor had seen the body of the murdered girl back in Sillith, had returned to his ship white and shaken, and a crewmate claims he was then wearing a leather amulet round his neck, when he had never worn one before. The players assume (correctly) it is the same amulet as Jas Daro wore, and that the sailor was taken over by the evil spirit.

 

The players test the silver amulet found inside Jaarst Daro's leather amulet, and find that it blocks all scrying spells if worn! One of the priests speculates that the Gherent might be looking for a new host - which makes the players think of Sir Baharach, who left town the day before - presumably all alone and depressed. The priest says the spirit might be trapped if the host was drowned so that it couldn't leave the body; otherwise he can't tell us much. There are only two priests on our island who might know more than him, and they couldn't tell us much either. The head priestess casts a divination but can't detect any specific enemies within a few miles of the town, and the priestess of the Crone has no way to locate the sailor's (presumed dead) body.

 

The players assume that that missing sailor met Jaarst Daro on the main road within a few hours of his leaving town (since Jaarst Daro arrived in town before sunset of the same day), and the spirit transferred to Jaarst Daro. They work out that possibly it was because Jaarst Daro was going to enter the contest – and they realize that had the spirit won and got a share in the Goddess' power it would have been a very bad thing indeed

Bellona, Gen & Khatsz try to trace the missing sailor and Sir Baharach along the main road: Bellona gets a riding lesson as they search for 6 hours at foot speed, then Bellona & Khatsz return to town while Gen continues for home.

Aquilla activates some contacts to try to find out about the S-like symbol on Jaarst Daro's amulet.

 

A few days pass. Lamoniak heals up, Castor studies, Gen gets back from the family farm with an extra qurrock in tow which Bellona can buy if she wants once it's properly trained.. Then, Khelsan hears shouts of 'Fire!' while at market, and arrives back at the harbour to find his ship ablaze. It sinks shortly thereafter. Many witnesses attest that Vathmar set it alight with two pots of alchemist fire and then fled town; a bronze Klinthan dagger is stuck in the wharf. Kelsan immediately puts a 620 sp bounty on Vathmar's head. And buys a sheath for the dagger. The crime is reported and there are plenty of witneses, so when, at the trial the next day, Vathmar does not show, the bounty is increased to 800 sp by the alchemist whom he stole the alchemist fire from, and a judgement is made Vathmar will be declared outlaw after 3 days - then he's up for a legal revenge killing!

Bellona, Aquilla & Khatsz go round town asking about the S-like symbol, ending with a Samadrian priest of the Horned Man out in the Samadrian soldier's camp as they are packing up to leave. No one knows anything.

 

While visiting Lamoniak, Aquilla gets the lock on the temple library cabinet open.... and discovers that far from being the “black libraryâ€, it’s where the temple keeps it’s accounts and attendance rolls.

 

The players decide to go hunting even though lamoniak is still very weak - for the sailor, to find out what happened to him; for Sir Baharach, to make sure he's all right; for the evil spirit, to make sure it's not; and for Vathmar, to take his head. They start collecting get provisions; Khelsan buys a *very* sturdy qurrock. While at the market they spot Obi Wan, hiding behind a stall and watching something/one! They send Aquilla to hold his attention as they try sneak up on him, and find he is watching instead a group of 4 Samadrians - the same 4 who provided cover for the old woman/jester/spellcaster at the joust. When they invite Obi Wan to a nice chat over tea and cakes at the temple he is hostile and suspicious and the players who are being very low key and non-threatening are just winning him over when another Samadrian comes out of the inn door - Khatsz recognises him as one of those who were tampering with the contest beer. The Samadrian and Obi Wan look at each other and go 'You!!'

Everyone draws their sword.... and that’s where we are up to now.

 

cheers, Mark

[Frenchman]

Re: And off we go!

 

Wow! Great cliffhanger. I'm eatin' this up.

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: And off we go!

 

As a bit of backup, I am also going to bait some of the characters - they will be offered a magic gift by a dying man. Knowing players, few will be able to turn down a neato-kewl magic power for free. Of course, once accepted, they will also get a geas

cheers, Mark

 

You always were a bastard for that sort of thing!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, most recent update:

 

Kyris (the man the players have been calling Obi-Wan) and Slethyr (a Black hand cultist) see and recognize each other. They are too close for safe use of magic, so they draw their blades. The cultist calls out “The man who has been spying on us – he’s over here!”

 

Bellona and Khatz (for whatever reason) draw their blades and rush Slethyr – but it’s too far for them to get a blow in. Kyris moves more slowly towards Slethyr and holds himself ready.

 

Gen charges off to try and get behind the other cultists on the other side of the market, who come running. Aquila fades behind a market stall, looking for an unattended back to stick a dagger into. Khelsen the merchant, who has recently acquired a really big sword, draws it and makes a run at one of the cultists

 

There is a flurry of blows exchanged in the doorway as none of the opponents there manage to land a significant blow on the other. Kyris is unable to get in close because of the other two in his way, so he charges the other cultists, stabbing one with his shortsword, and dropping him to the ground. A third cultist attacks Khelsen and wounds him slightly, stunning him, but drawing only a little blood through his heavy furs.

 

The other cultists pause and one of them makes a mystic gesture and dark oily smoke bursts from his robes, covering the centre of the market square and hiding them from sight. Despite that Kyris and his opponent grapple and continue to stab each other. Khelsen is struck over the head and knocked unconscious, while Gen charges into the smoke flailing about with his sword. The various merchants who had fled to a safe distance to watch the swordfight and the two temple guards who had run up to intervene all backed up, but to no avail: to the sound of chanting, the smoke continued to spread wider and wider.

 

Miraculously unscathed, Bellona and Khatz’s opponent dropped his sword and dodged into the darkness, while in the darkness, there were various screams and alarums as people searched for allies and foes, ran into market stalls, briefly clashed blades and so on. Bellona was able to track one group by following their sounds but lost them at the edge of the market and when, after some time, the smoke dispersed, all that was left was a dead cultist, thoroughly stabbed by Kyris and Kyris himself, also wounded but more seriously, with a spreading black mark that looked like a severe burn on his arm.

 

Recognising the spell he had been hit with (the dreaded Black hand that gives the cult its name) and realizing that he had only moments to live Kyris called the players over (all except for Gen who had gone running off to the gate in pursuit of cultists, Lamoniak, who was still in bed at the temple and Castor, who was in the temple with him) and explained that the people he was watching were evil cultists who had come to Ostragya on some dark mission and that they were going to the Bald Man of Lossach – he offered powerful magic gifts to those who would avenge his death. The players quickly agreed and accepted a magical gift in exchange for the Geas of avenging him on the cultists.

 

Khatz got “The hound inescapable” – a clairvoyant detect spell. If he has something beloinging to his target, he can sense that person’s destination.

Bellona got “Vertical Charge” allowing her to run on vertical surfaces as though they were flat

Khelsan got “Frog on a lilypad” allowing him to run on water (or other liquids) and

Aquila got “Disguise” which allows him to alter his facial features.

 

At this point, the guard rushed up, but held off when Kyris informed him that he had killed the dead man, and that he was swearing the players to avenge his death at the hands of the others (vengeance is a serious social obligation, so the guards let him finish). But the interruption did mean he didn’t get to finish telling them about the cultists before he expired in an agonising fashion from the effects of The Black Hand.

 

At that point the players were hustled off to see the Constable and (possibly) be tried for murder. In the end however, Kyris’ testimony, together with that of several eyewitnesses, plus the fact that the players had pretty much unbloodied weapons got them off. They were accused of breach of the peace but their previous service during the festival got them out of any serious trouble, especially when they stated that they were leaving as soon as they could.

 

Gen got back from chasing the rest of the cultists. He could not catch them since they were mounted and he was on foot but from a hilltop, he had been able to see them hightailing it down the road towards Kasshert.

 

They spent the rest of the day working out what to do, getting mounts and trying out their new powers (these require a skill roll, which most of the players don’t have, so they are pretty unreliable for now, defaulting to 8-)

 

The players thought the Bald Man of Lossach was a person at first but they have area knowledge and were able to work out it was a place (a mountain, in fact) and were also able to find out by asking around that there is a famous shrine there. They have decided that that is their next goal. Talking with the old inquisitor/priest, they have been able to work out also that The Cult of the Black Hand, worship a being called the Lord of Smoke and in addition that the thing that possessed Jaarst Daro comes from the same cult, firmly fixing the blame for the murders on the cult.

 

Now they are all fired up to go and visit some vengeance on these cultists and plan to set out early the next day!

 

Cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

And carrying on from last time:

 

After collecting Lamoniak's chain-shirt from the armoury with some little problems (he didn't have enough cash to pay for it and had to resort to pressing the local lord to chip in), the players set off on foot, taking the road into the hills heading more or less north. They stopped for lunch at Khastz' father's manor house where Khastz scored a qurrock and gear (his father was delighted that his "useless" younger son was finally doing something with his life: a magic gift and a revenge quest? Just what a young armiger should be doing!), and overnighted at Gen's father's farm where Gen scored a big bag of qurrock nuts and practical stuff for camping out. The players now have 4 qurrocks and 1 Horse. And Khelsan traded happily all the while.

 

Travel went peacefully, and at the end of the 2nd day they stayed overnight at the last of the farms in the foothills. This is as far inland as any of the characters have ever been before, so from here on in, it's unknown territory. Deeper into the hills on the 3rd day they came to a fork in the track, one branch of which was blocked by crossed spears. Local legend has it that there was a village down that way where Something Bad Happened a long time ago, and nobody goes there, ever. But the Samadrians' qurrock tracks led that way, so the players did too, with Aquila and Gen scouting ahead. By nightfall they reached a large and isolated ruined house built into the side of a hill. Qurrock tracks and ung and the cold ashes of a fire showed that the Samadrians had stayed here the previous night so they did too (after much farting about for fear of ambushes). Despite their best efforts no one came to attack them, nor were they disturbed by monsters or supernatural visitations in the night.

 

The journey on the 4th day brought them to the ruined village where Something Bad Happened, a large and formerly prosperous settlement in a narrow valley, with a big watermill and its own temple. But there was something weird about the village. All the ground and the walls of the houses were absolutely devoid of plant and animal life - at least until up by the roofs, where normal moss and weeds took hold. And the soil smelled acidic, like vinegar. They entered very cautiously.

 

All went well til they rounded the first corner, and saw the multilated corpse of a qurrock lying in the street. It looked as if the side lying uppermost had been shaved or razed off by an enormous file, and its throat had been cut. Just as they made up their minds to leave as fast as possible there came a rustling noise from a house between them and the exit - and a fearsome monster slithered out into the street.

 

It was shaped like a long slug, though leathery-skinned rather than slimy, and it had wriggling cillia all along the sides of it's body - also, it moved as fast as a snake. But the front end had no head. Instead there was a large mass of pink and horrible stinging grabbing tentacles mounted on a telescoping neck. There was a mad rush for other the end of the street. Khastz tried to mount his qurrock, but fell off as the qurrocks fled shrieking in panic. The players formed a rough line to hold the street part from Castor who ran safe distance backwards and Aquila (who scrambled up onto a nearby roof that hadn't fallen in), and the worm slithered forwards and attacked them!

 

So they attacked back. Bellona and Khastz waded in with swords, quickly developing an effective system of dodge-and-whack (the player who runs Bellona is a hard-core D20 junkie and thinks more tactically than the other players, who are by and large noobs: with her coaching they might actually turn into an effective team). Lamoniak charged past on on his horse, opening a huge gash down the creature's middle. Then the wriggling cilia along its side puffed out a cloud of acetic acid, and everyone nearby was temporarily blinded! Aquila up on the roof was out of range and hurled slates down on it, slashing its neck. Gen fell back and slung sling bullets into the bunch of tentacles, and Khelsan leaped in to deal it a mighty blow - only to be seized and suckered by the grasping tentacle head, and slammed to the ground and into walls as if he were a toy. But the players were not deterred and slashed wildly on, until Khelsan, who was still (barely) conscious, drove his sword into it with two hands from beneath and separated the tentacles and himself from the rest of the worm. Then it fled, but the players pursued it, stabbing, and its death throes brought two houses crashing down in ruins!

 

Once the tentacle clump was pulled off Kelsan he proved to be

unharmed apart from multiple little puncture points (the players don't know at this point that he has been poisoned - but more of that next session), and the half-blinded armigers soon recovered their sight. Now they are discussing whether to leave the village at once, or to investigate the strange-looking "well" in the small square in front of the temple from which the worm may have come. They are also considering skinning a section of the creature and getting the hide tanned, as it might make very tough leather for armour - most of the sword strokes did little damage to the creature.

 

Monster notes - the creature was an automaton, so took no stun, although it did lose powers (first the acid puffing, from Lamoniak's charge, then it's major sensory organ from a slate embeded in its upper body and finally the stretching from Khelsen's mighty blow). It had 5 def, which shouldn't have turned most blows, but due to low dice roling, did Most importantly, the creature had 20 BOD, and is currently at 0 - after thrashing about and bringing the house down on itself, it is lying still (it's lost its ability to sense prey and is no longer being attacked and it's about as smart as a slug) and regenerating. If the players leave it alone, it'll be up and about again in a couple of days

 

The Samadrians, meanwhile are riding fast for the north coast, where they plan some more dark sorcery....

 

cheers, Mark

[Fitz]

Re: And off we go!

 

"...where Gen scored a big bag of qurrock nuts..." -- poor qurrocks! As Lord Weird Slough Feg once said, "small the cut but exceeding greivous".

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

"...where Gen scored a big bag of qurrock nuts..." -- poor qurrocks! As Lord Weird Slough Feg once said' date=' "small the cut but exceeding greivous".[/quote']

 

Yeah, but with a little salt... mmmm. Good

[Thag13]

Re: And off we go!

 

I just stumbled across this thread.

 

Its a great Read!!!!

 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful Storyline. I promise I won't use any of it for my stories.

 

 

:rolleyes:

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Thanks for the kind words - but actually we're just getting started: all the real fun stuff is yet to come!

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

And to the few who might be interested, the first series of adventures and NPCs are now posted for general use:

 

http://www.rpglibrary.org/settings/gothick_empires/

 

under "adventures" - duh!

 

cheers, Mark

[Fitz]

Re: And off we go!

 

All of the links to rpglibrary.org from "The Buried God" scenario return 404 (page not found) errors.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Sorry about that - I missed some of the updated files.

 

All worky now.

 

cheers, Mark

[Fitz]

Re: And off we go!

 

Hrrrmm..... still getting rpglibrary's 404 message, plus they're only showing one new link added in the last two weeks, and it's not yours.

 

[edit] Aha! Found the problem -- you've missed out a folder name in the href from the "Burried God" adventure page. It should be http://www.rpglibrary.org/settings/gothick_empires/adventures/the%20buried%20god/advent1/1_adventmenu.htm (missed out /advent1/ )

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Hrrrmm..... still getting rpglibrary's 404 message, plus they're only showing one new link added in the last two weeks, and it's not yours.

 

[edit] Aha! Found the problem -- you've missed out a folder name in the href from the "Burried God" adventure page. It should be http://www.rpglibrary.org/settings/gothick_empires/adventures/the%20buried%20god/advent1/1_adventmenu.htm (missed out /advent1/ )

 

Yeah, that *was* the problem - but I corrected the link and it works fine for me from both home and work. It may be your browser is loading the cached copy - if it isn't working, drop me a line.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

The players inspected the temple before leaving the Village of the Worm, and Khatz spotted a mosaic of a knight fighting a giant worm just like the one they had just “killed”. In the background of the picture was a comet - such a thing hasn't been seen in the skies for decades. Unfortunately the players realized they hadn't killed their worm good enough, because faint sounds of movement were heard coming from its death-site, and when they investigated, the huge body had slithered away towards the river and vanished. They argued about whether to chase it and finish it off, but instead added it to their growing “to do” list and got the hell out of there.

 

All that day they climbed up out of the river valley along the overgrown road, seeing nothing of interest, apart from the occasional qurrock track from the Samadrians ahead of them. In the late afternoon, they came above the tree-line and approached the crest of the hills, and Lamoniak and Gen went ahead to scout. In the forested valley on the far side of the highest ridge they could see a plume of smoke, and further up the ridge, a grey stone building rather like an inn, built against a rocky outcrop. On the way back down Gen was attacked by a giant snake (about python-sized), but both got away mostly unharmed. So Aquila went to investigate the stone building. There was only a bad-tempered old priestess inside, praying for a dead peasant. From her comments the players assumed that the Samadrians had killed him (in fact, it was a lone adventurer who is travelling the same road – they players know he is there, but have assumed it is Sir Baharach). The bad-tempered priestess had nothing against them staying the night, so they did, and tried to keep out of her way. All through the previous day, Kelsan's tentacle-holes had been getting infected, or poisoned, or both, and by this evening he was very ill with fever. So Gen ground up one of the (rapidly softening) storm apples in a cup of herb tea and forced it down him. They kept watch, and in the last watch (Gen's) Khelsan's fever broke (he hadn’t been able to sleep well), and he woke up in time to see the priestess bewitching Gen, hissing 'Murderers! Husband-slayers! You armigers are all the same!’ Then she bit Gen with her poisonous fangs, started turning herself into a giant snake, and all hell broke loose. Several of the players, tired by their long day’s walk, slept peacefully through the first couple of phases of screaming and combat (PER rolls of 16 and 17!) Once awake everyone attacked the snake-priestess, but she fought back and slithered up into the rafters where she lashed her tail around and did them considerable damage. She also spat sticky webs, and glued Gen to the floor. Khatz and Bellona climbed up after the snake, and after a mighty battle, Khatz spitted it to a beam with his sword through its mouth as it attempted to bite him. At which point it gradually turned back into a spitted old priestess, pinned to the beam with a sword through her head.

 

The characters all collapsed to the floor and inspected their injuries. Gen recovered from poisoning after a few minutes; Khatz had been more severely bitten but he recovered in a few hours. It was now getting light but raining heavily, so they decided to stay there the whole day. Khelsan took the bodies of the priestess and her husband outside, beheaded them, and cast the heads and bodies down the mountainside in opposite directions. Later in the day Gen and Aquila hunted and brought back a pair of partridges for a stew. That night was peaceful. They left early the next morning and made as good time as they could down through the forested valley after the Samadrians. There were tracks to tiny villages after a while, traces of woodsmoke on the air, and they met two woodcutters. Khatz did his best to terrify them, before deciding that they were, after all, only woodcutters, and Khelsan traded them their loads of carving wood for a bag of salt. Before nightfall they reached the village of Doorn; about 100 houses and a tower abandoned by the lord when traffic on the road to the cursed village dried up. They bought fresh supplies and Khelsan traded salt for cloth. That evening their colourful tales of adventure were the number one attraction at the brewer's house, and they slept the night in the abandoned tower - peacefully. (Not without checking it out carefully first, though).

 

The next day, they headed for the high mountains and evening has crossed the crest. On the other side they could see the north coast of Ostragya, off in the distance the peak of the Bald Man of Lossach and immediately in front of them a deep ravine crossed by a bridge. On the other side, an armoured man was waiting, with drawn sword….

 

cheers, Mark

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: And off we go!

 

that sounded fun Mark. Shades of Usagi in that scenario perhaps?

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

that sounded fun Mark. Shades of Usagi in that scenario perhaps?

 

Yes indeedy.

 

cheers, Mark

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: And off we go!

 

I used pretty much the same story in a Segnoku session (original aye?). A good little filler!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, I have been lax in updating this, although play has proceeded. To fill in, until I get around to writing some more, here are the dramatis personae

Aquila

Belllona

Castor

Gen

Khatz

Khelsen

and - of course - Lamoniak

 

cheers, Mark