And off we go!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Here's another adventure update:

 

The players split up on leaving the Hermit's place. Aquila and Gen sneak up to the top of Bald Man to survey the surrounding countryside, while the others lead the qurrocks and Silas around by the track clockwise. An interesting feature of the otherwise completely smooth dome of Bald Man was a little rain-filled depression right in the center, perfectly round, and carved with old worn symbols and concentric circles (they sketch a copy of the pattern, and learn later that this is the point where the Smiler used to tie his airship - according to local legend). From the top of the mountain they can see the city and a couple of villages - one of these has a temple on a village green, backing up against the forest - just like in Khatz' vision.

 

Meanwhile the rest of the party journey on without incident, cheerfully ignoring the meaningful sword flashes and qurrock horn honks from the heights above them. But then they cross a river, and bobbing in the water under the bridge is something white... the body of an older woman in a shift. They examine the body but can find no sign that she was murdered. She has been in the river a day or two, but the players work out from the lack of bruising that she had in fact been dead when put there.

 

Aquila and Gen catch up with the the rest while they are stopped. They wrap the body in a cloak and load it onto a qurrock, then carry on towards the village with the temple, and are there by nightfall. It was indeed the same temple that Khatz had seen in his vision from the Samadrian sword. A group of villagers and the senile old headman meet them. When the PCs tell them about the found body they say it couldn't be one of their people as everyone was present and accounted for. They send for the priest while the players question them about other visitors. Half a dozen travelling priests had stayed at the temple the night before and talked to the village priest (who is from Theyre, and not much trusted by the locals). The visitors paid with foreign silver sails, and the players swap one of these for a local coin.

 

 

 

When the priest Vesos turns up Castor tries to mindread him, to which he reacts extremely badly. When the threatened riot had been calmed Vesos and his hunchbacked assistant carry the body away to the temple. There it is unwrapped - and the priest and the hunchback go white in shock. It WAS a woman from the village, but she had died three days ago and been buried!

 

Khatz, Lamoniak and Aquila herd the villagers away to the hall to explain to them and keep them out of the way while the rest interrogate Vesos. The hunchback lays the body in the crypt - the one from Khatz' vision - then Khelsen takes him to inspect the grave, which has apparently not been disturbed. The hunchback confesses that he buried the casket but threw the body into the river. Khelsen asks him 'Why?' - upon which the hunchback hits him in the chest with his spade, and tries to flee. But he doesn't get far; Khelsen fells him and then interrogates him at swordpoint, to the priest's distress. He says that none of this is the hunchback's fault, and explains:

 

His Samadrian visitors had wanted to talk to this woman, who had died in her sleep after a long illness the day before they arrived. Or rather, they wanted to talk to anyone who had known a former villager called Drass. What the priest and players don’t know is that in fact, they turned up the night before, slipped into her house with the intent of interrogating her quietly. The old lady, awakening to find several robed and hooded men in her house, promptly had a heart attack and died. It wasn’t until the next day that they found no-one else could tell them what they wanted to know. The only two villagers left alive who had known Drass were the senile headman and this woman Draga, Drass' sister. Having no one live and sane to question the Samadrians asked to spend an hour alone with Draga's body in the crypt - which Vesos allowed, telling the hunchback to bury her empty coffin during the family's funeral service. The Samadrians apparently did not learn what they wanted from Draga's body, as one of them looked 'kind of irritated' afterwards.

 

 

 

Aquila is fetched back from the village hall, and Khatz and Lamoniak entertain the villagers further while the rest of the group question Vesos closely. The Samadrian priests had talked to him about philosophy and stuff, and given him a book in exchange for the time with Draga's body (Vesos, an educated priest exiled to a small rural village is pretty desperate for cultured conversation and new books). It is fetched from his room, and Bellona and Aquila ransack the room for other forbidden goods, coming up with another book written in a foreign language. This proves to be a book on philosophy from Hellenwelch, and not harmful. The gift book (written in Ostragaian) from the Samadrians is another matter. The title is 'Various Philosophies of the New Gods', and its content is deeply heretical!

 

When the hunchback is questioned he confirms Vesos' story. He didn't bury Draga's body as the priest instructed him after the Samadrians had finished with her, because it was night and he was scared - there were strange noises out in the forest "like fingernails inside his skull". He had swung at Khelsen and fled because he was afraid of what would happen to him if the villagers found out that he had dumped the body in the stream.

 

 

What Vesos tells the PCs about Drass is this: he moved to the city (Theyre) and became an artist, a stonecarver. He died rather young, and was sent back here for burial. The priest looks up in the temple register to find where his grave is - in the south corner, and the burial was paid for by his sister Draga. A couple of PCs go have a quick look at Drass' grave, and it has been recently disturbed. The hunchback confesses again - the Samadrians gave him a silver piece to borrow his shovel. He didn't dare watch what they did. One priest especially was very scary, and heavily cloaked. Vesos also heals Khelsen of the big hole his hunchbacked assistant made in his chest.

 

After the long meeting in the village hall, Aquilla, Khatz and Lamoniak question the headman about Drass. The headman is in one of his lucid spells and he remembers Drass - he reckons he'd always said Drass would come to no good - he chased girls all the time and messed around with carving wooden things, like whistles. He can't remember if there is anything of his work left in the village. Lamoniak arranges to inspect Draga's house with the headman's daughter in the morning - Aquila checks it out immediately. A slightly run-down place, he can get in easily via the unlocked back door. The house is messy and old inside; Aquila finds no diary but he does find a packet of letters tied with a ribbon, which he pockets.

 

Castor inspects the Samadrian's heretical gift book more closely. It speculates openly on whether the number of New Gods is fixed, or if it should perhaps be expanded! Castor confiscates it at once. In the center of the book are two pages stuck together - something that Vesos hadn't noticed, since he hadn't had time to read the book right through. Castor pries them apart with a dagger, revealing a picture of flying crows. Then the pictures begin to fly in a circle on the paper and then begin to move and fly off the page! They circle inside the temple, cawing madly, while the characters try to slash at them, and then pass insubstantially out through the glass windows. Bellona runs after them, but they vanish behind the temple. Castor is certain that this is black Shadow magic, as was used in the marketplace at Houndsgar.

 

Khatz takes the book off to the quiet of the priest's room to try and get a vision from it. He sees a large and rich temple interior full of ornate stained glass and fancy statues, but the statue of the Smiler is missing its head! The next thing is the rest hear a bang and a yell, and Khatz comes running out saying that the book exploded into smoke in his hands. But he does remember the pattern of the stained glass and sketches it, and the priests recognise this as being from a temple of the Sage.

 

Next they examine the letters that Aquila has acquired. They are from Drass to his sister Draga, short and simple. They cover a period of some years with long gaps between them and the first two or three were clearly written by a scribe. He says that he has found work in a temple at Theyre as a stonecutter and that his prospects are good. By the third letter he has been promoted to sculptor; the High Priest likes his work, and he does small statues and the like. In his last two letters he is a journeyman and has been commissioned to do 'special artwork' by a merchant. He has met a girl and is hoping his last commission will let him ask her father for her hand.

 

The last thing they examine is the crypt. The wall behind the stone laying-out table has a round stone set into it, and it sounds hollow when knocked. Aquila and all the rest try hard to make it do something, but can't find a mechanism. The priest noticed it a long time ago, and thinks that the temple's founder might be buried in there. They then get some rest, hoping to make an early start in the morning.

 

Fortunately they set watches, for in the night Khatz and Gen hear a glutinous scratching at the back of the temple. Before they can investigate, a booming knocking comes from outside the crypt door. The guards wake everybody then run outside to investigate - and are met by the sight of a horde of decomposing animated corpses in the graveyard trying to beat their way into the crypt. The crypt doors crash violently open, and five of the corpses lurch down into the crypt to meet Bellona, Aquilla, Khelsen and Castor, while five turn and attack Khatz and Gen, who have been joined by Lamoniak, in the graveyard. The PCs are stunned by horror at the sight and stench, and for a while the corpses get the better of them in the ensuing battle. Especially since their bodies continue animated even after their heads are cut off, and hands still clutch and limbs still thrash when severed from the trunk....

 

Alas, the PCs neglected to secure the back door of the temple to the priest's quarters, and four of them get in by that way and fall upon the priest, who is sitting in bed, wonder5ing what the hell is going on. On hearing his screams Khelsen and Castor race upstairs to save him, Castor attacking the corpses with his “searing hands” spell so that the stench of singed decaying flesh fills the night...

 

We ended there for the night

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

And the next session...

 

The walking corpses in the graveyard and the crypt having been messily disposed of, the fight moves into the temple itself. There they try to save the priest Vesos, but it is already too late. The remaining very persistent walking corpses turn on them, and among other assaults seize Khatz by an arm and a leg, and then bite him in the neck. The priest's last action, apart from screaming and being torn to pieces, was to sound the temple gong to awaken the villagers. They are just now stirring - and to demonstrate what is happening, Khelsen grabs an animated corpse and throws it out into the street. It obligingly shambles to its feet and goes for the villagers. In their panic it is easy for the players to spread the message that they need to check all the houses and make sure everybody is safe. While armed villagers are doing that, Bellona kills the last corpse, and Lamoniak explains to the headman and the villagers what has happened - laying the blame on the Samadrians and their book, and incidentally also on their own priest.

 

Khelsen tidily lays out all the newly dead bodies and their heads, 14 in all. The priest is laid out on the altar in the crypt. The villagers who see the carnage in the temple react with shock, horror and vomiting. Most of them barricade themselves in the village hall for the night, though a few brave men come with the PCs to see if the hunchback is still alive. But his hut at the edge of the graveyard is deserted; the door has been torn off its hinges, the window kicked out of its frame, and the hunchback is gone (he went out the window, when the zombies tried tearing down his door and lit out for distant parts, figuring (correctly) that he’d probably get the blame from the villagers for anything that went wrong). Next the players convince the viallgers to let them examine the cemetery to make sure all the zombies have been disposed of and that there are no more lurking under the earth. The ‘coincidentally” choose to dig up Drass' grave. The soil has clearly been disturbed recently, and the coffin likewise. Drass' bones are there, but a large roundish piece has been torn in the gravecloth, at about the level of his hips. Aquila takes an extra little snippet from the edge of the hole (the PCs think there mioght have been something written on the cloth), and the players fill the grave back in. In fact the gravecloth has been torn by the weight of something heavy, which had lain on top of Drass’ body and tore the cloth as the body (and the cloth) rotted. This thing is now in the possession of the Samadrians

 

The villagers decide next morning to burn all the dead bodies, including the priest *just to be sure*. While they are doing this at some distance from the village two of the PCs and a local hunter try to track the hunchback. The village smith has been telling everybody that the hunchback is responsible for the horrors of the night (he never did trust him – everyone knows hunchbacks are bad luck, etc, etc), and they hope to catch the hunchback before the lynch mob does. But even though his tracks lead back towards the stream, they find no trace of him and give up after two miles. The PCs try to convince the villagers to leave him alone if he returns.

 

Castor goes through the dead priest's books and papers and burns all the unorthodox ones. Lamoniak and Aquila inspect Draga's house by daylight, and notice some carved picture frames. They appropriate one, thinking it may have been carved by Drass. On reading his letters again the following questions occur to them: Did Drass carve the head of the headless Smiler statue that Khatz' saw in his vision? And was Drass murdered, and if so, what for?

 

GM’s note – yes, Drass was murdered (though it has nothing to do with the players or the current game: and he took a secret with him to the grave. I didn’t expect the players to work this out so quickly though….

 

The players tell the villagers as much as they need to know before leaving - they want the PCs to ask the temple in Theyre to send them a new priest, quickly. They also get them to take a written message of the nights' events to the Hermit back on the mountain. They have already sent word to the local lord.

 

The PCs travel on, and stay that night at an inn where their quarry the Samadrian merchants also stayed, but they paid with local coins. No sign of the hunchback. The next morning they arrive at the city of Theyre! With its fortified walls, castle, grand houses, great temples, lighthouse and relaxed gate guards, who refer them to the captain of the guard if they want to find out about other new arrivals. But first they clean up a bit at an inn, and follow Khatz in search of another cousin. This one lives in a narrow townhouse in a disreputable harbour quarter. The players have to stable their mounts at an inn, and when the innkeeper hears Cousin Dmitri's name he insists on cash in advance!

 

A woman opens the door in response to their beating oin it – the players think she is Cousin Dmitri's wife (actually she’s a slattern from a nearby tavern) says he'll be back that evening, so they go straight to the Grand Marketplace Temple. This turns out to be the one in Khatz' vision, although the statue of the Smiler still has its head on. Actually, thinking back, they realize it must have had its head on in the vision too, or Khatz couldn't have identified it - but he had the distinct impression that it was headless! They get the head priest (a member of the cult of the Laughing God) to see the them immediately when the characters mention black sorcery and heresy. Castor starts to tell their story. Then the Laughing God priest calls some colleagues to join them, and they all listen intently for a while, until one says 'This is an interesting coincidence - there was a horrific murder here last night!' An old priestess of the Crone is brought in; it was she who prepared the body for burial. It had been ripped up and roughly bitten and clawed. Later she allows that the marks were blunt enough to have been made by human fingers. An augury was cast to determine the cause of death, but no one could understand the answer - no name was obtained, the murderer was both in and not in the town, and the last thing the victim (a draper) saw was uncertain (they cast a spell which reveals on the eyes of a dead person, the last thing they saw), since the murder occurred late at night and he had been at a tavern.

 

The priests take the PCs story very seriously and are impressed by the heretical book, which Khatz had secreted in his backpack (Castor is angry Khatz lied about destroying it, but calms down when the other players tell him they needed it for evidence). They do check what the PCs say with the priestess of the Butterfly Girl back in Hounsgar (using a magical spell to communicate), however. They tell the players that the Smiler and five other statues were replaced after a fire about 20 years ago. In the morning the temple's records will be searched for anything they can reveal about Drass and his death. Unfortunately, the High Priest who commissioned the Smiler statue is now dead of old age. The priests send a message to the captain of the guard for records of all parties which might be the Samadrians, and that the gates are to be watched tomorrow to stop them leaving.

 

Not only do the priests take the PCs seriously, they even feed them. Which is a good thing, since the players had sent Aquila back to Cousin Dmitri's saying they couldn't make it for dinner.... and he doesn't come back for several hours. The players are puzzled as to why people are generally being nice to them and haven’t twigged that unlike most groups of PCs, they have two upper class citizens, a priest and a guy dressed and acting like a minor noble with them, and apart from one person who generally look and acts like a bodyguard, no-one is wearing armour, the players are generally polite and have good social skills - acting, persuasion, conversation, etc. If most PCs acted like this, they would find life a lot easier

 

When Aquila does reappear (he was lost in the dark, strange city streets, not murdered) he reports that although there was light in Cousin Dmitri's house, no one answered his knock. The priests let him make a close visual examination of the Smiler statue, and even scrape a tiny flake of paint off the back of its neck, but there is only stone underneath, and he can't find anything strange about it. Nevertheless the players offer to guard it overnight, and the priests have camp beds brought in for them. They will let the PCs stay in the pilgrim's rooms in future - the temple will feed them, and the temple washerwomen will even do their laundry.

 

Nothing happens in the night, but at dawn a guardsman comes for a Crone priestess with the news of another murder! The victim (a baker) is brought to the temple, and Castor and Aquila go examine the body. Bellona and Gen visit the scene of the crime; a back alley in a nice neighbourhood not far from the temple, and in a different direction to the previous nights' murder. There is a great deal of blood on a house wall - from beating a head against it? The stones of the alley are scraped in a couple of places, as if something heavy had struck them. A kitchen boy found the already-cold body before dawn, and a maid in the house thought she heard thumps outside during the night, hard enough to rattle the cup on her shelf. The Crone priestess' reports the following: the face has been smashed in, there are black bruises on the back of the neck from bring gripped by a very strong but human hand (or a walking corpse, or an animated statue!), and the neck is broken.

 

GM’s note: surprise again. It *was* an animated statue – but I didn’t suspect them to work it out so fast: I didn’t mention anything related to that so far.

 

The captain of the guard turns up shortly afterwards, and takes down the PCs description of the Samadrians to circulate among the city guard - and of Sir Baharach and Vathmar, since the players would like to see them again too. Ships from Samadria or Sillith in port will not be allowed to leave without inspection. They move their qurrocks and the Horse to a closer stable.

 

From the temple records the PCs learn that the Smiler statue was Drass' project. He had gained his apprenticeship through the High Priest Agira, who was impressed by the work Drass did in his free time. It was Agira who wanted him to do the Smiler's face. They direct the players’ enquiries to a wealthy master in the Fancy Carvers guild who worked with Drass when both were apprentices. He says that Drass was quiet but impulsive, always doing unexpected things, and a devotee of the Laughing God. He had strong fat fingers and his work was very good. He became a journeyman on a commission from a silversmith that earned him a fat purse. That was just before he was murdered, and the purse was not found on his body. Drass had claimed that he had a girl, and he talked about her a lot, but the carver knew no more than that. Strangely, Drass never mentioned her name. The PCs suspect that it might have been a daughter of the silversmith, Drass' last employer, so they head for the Silversmith's Market....

 

They’re on a roll here – Drass was having an affair (romantic, not physical) with the silversmith’s daughter – but again, I *really* didn’t expect them to guess this so fast.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

been too busy to up date this for a while....

 

Anyway... In the Silversmith's Market they find the house of master smith Teor, Drass' last patron. It's an impressive 3 storey building and the top floor has a whole wall of large windows overhanging the street. Aquilla and Khelsen watch the mews out back while the rest of them are shown into a richly appointed office. Master smith Teor eventually remembers Drass as a 'country boy' - the statue Drass made for Teor's money was his gift to the temple to help it rebuild after the fire. They get no more out of him, but find him shifty and suspect him of knowing a great deal more than he's saying.

 

They check back at the temple for updates: the library clerk is still searching the records for anything on Drass' death, and precisely which statue it was that master smith Teor paid for and which was Drass' journeyman project. They speculate about Drass' murder (he was stabbed in the throat from the front) being a professional job, and intend to ask the old priestess of the Crone who prepared his body about it; she's still living in the temple almshouses. They would also like a writ of authority from the High Priest to act on behalf of the temple and/or the city watch, but polite red tape gets in the way of this (the temple is prepared to accept their bona fides, since one of them is a noble and one a priest and the temple in Houndsgar vouches for them – but there’s a limit to how far they will go)

 

Teor's servant boy had shown them to the house of a guildmaster of the Fancy Carvers Guild. On their return they are received warily but are eventually taken to the master mason out back, where he is superintending the assembly of a column. He remembers Drass and how he died very well - and says that Drass' old master Mordic died not so long after Drass, falling off a scaffold at the temple shortly before it was finished. In his capacity as a guildmaster he tells them that the guild would only have records of work that Drass did while under his old master. The journeyman project should have been recorded, and there may even be a picture of it! But he wants to check out their credentials at the temple before letting them look at guild records. They take him to the temple straight away where his reservations are satisfied, and he invites them to dinner - they can look at the records then.

 

While Katz unsuccessfully tries meditating on the Smiler statue to see if he can get a lue from his magical gift, the rest of them borrow a temple acolyte to accompany them to the captain of the watch for this ward, where they try again to get a writ. But they are referred further up the tree to the lord of the city. Their request to see the report on Drass' murder is also unsuccessful – the guard don't keep records going that far back!

 

At dinner with the master mason later that evening he produces a large black book of guild records. A parchment has been inserted in it, recording the minutes of a meeting approving Drass' journeyman project, commissioned and paid for (600sp) by silversmith Teor. There's a picture of it too, and it's like nothing any of them have ever seen before. A crouching man-beast with hooved feet like the Horse. Very lifelike and rather disturbing. They would very much like to know where it is now and ply him with questions, but the mason doesn’t know. Back at the temple they describe it to the library priest and ask him if it is anywhere in the temple - and he is positive he has not seen it. But he knows what it is: a mythological creature associated with the Smiler, called a satyr. This creature was the Smiler's emissary to the Forest Man, at the Place of the Compact (now the White City), when the New Gods were fighting him for domination of the island. So far so good.

 

Lacking further amusements this night they keep watch on silversmith Teor's house, and in the 2nd watch Bellona and Khelsen hear female screams. They run in that direction, meeting two torch-bearing guardsmen. More guards are summoned with whistles and they search the neighbourhood. Kelsen hears running feet down a small alley, and when he and Bellona charge in, something crashes intentionally and hard into them. Bellona gets one sword-stroke in as it rushes by, and her sword clangs as if on stone. They see a great shape leap up a house wall, cling a moment, then scuttle up the facade and onto the roof. It vanishes to the sound of heavily crunching tiles. The guards run after it around the block, while Bellona, using her magical gift, runs up the wall and across the rooftops after the creature, and finds that it has leapt down into the next courtyard, with an exit to the street - it is gone. But it left two impressive hoof-shaped holes in the hardpacked earth! Kelsen checks the courtyard, finding no bodies, but there is a house with lights on from whence the screams came. A woman says that 'something' nearly pulled open the shutters and was trying to get in. She screamed, and it glared and leered at her with a hideous expression - evil, with horrible eyes. Then it fled.

 

The rest of the night passes peacefully, and when daylight comes they inspect the very deep hoofprints – whatever made them was clearly very heavy. A local servant is charged with keeping people away so they can show them to the Smiler priest. Aquila tracks the creature across the rooftops, and Gen down the next alley, but when it reaches a cobbled street the tracks vanish.

 

Lammoniak, Khatz and Khelsen go to call on silversmith Teor's daughter, now married to another silversmith and mistress of a considerable household, living just round the corner from her father's house. Mistress Seri remembers Drass very well, saying that he 'had poetry in his soul'. She also remembers the satyr statue and describes it clearly; horns, monster legs and tail. She believes it should be still in the large temple, as it was carved there while the temple was closed for repairs. The players interrogate her for a while and become certain she was was Drass' secret girlfriend but she denies knowing what her father might have thought of their relationship, or anything about his death – saying 'It was twenty years ago, and I married someone else'. But by the time the party leaves she is twisting up her embroidery in distress.

 

When they take the senior priest of the Smiler to see the hoofprints in the alley he is very impressed, but unconvinced that the creature that made them is the murderer. But he does know where Drass' satyr statue is, and takes them up a stair in the belfry and out onto the walkway around the temple dome to see it - it's a gargoyle! And it bears a scratch on one shoulder from Bellona's sword! It also possibly has dust or mud on its feet, and definitely has nitre on its head, which is a different colour and age to the rest of the piece.... as if it were a statue without its head... Aquila is confident that he could climb down from this point safely, and, assuming that the statue comes to life, it could too. So they convince the priest to have the satyr chained to its neighbour-gargoyle overnight, and for them to keep watch on it. They loan chains from the friendly master mason who helps them attach them - a bolted loop around its neck, and the chain around the neighbouring minotaur's legs – the mason is intrigued by all of this. They decide may also want to loan a hammer and stone chisel from him at a later point....

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

and the next couple of sessions....

 

To fill in time before nightfall they go with a novice priest (and the Horse, to make their best impression) to ask the captain of the watch for extra guards around the temple tonight. Alas, it is a different captain to the one they met before; there is one for each ward of the city. After hearing their story (and hearing that they are staying in and working with the temple) this captain reluctantly agrees to their request, and will even let them have a net if they come back here at the evening bell. They then hie down to the harbour armoury and chandler to equip themselves with ropes for the net, a climbing rope, and a galley oar-sized club for Kelsen. From the Smiler’s priest they borrow two lanterns to stand either side of the satyr and two candles to stick on the temple dome above it, so they can see what it is up to. They cannot, unfortunately, get hold of tar, alchemists fire or whistles such as the guards have, though they spend some time running around trying.

 

As darkness falls they light the lamps and wait: Aquila and Bellona on the temple dome walkway, Khelsen with Lamoniak on Silas in the temple back alley with the net spread waiting, Gen and Katz holding their qurrocks in the market square where they can see the lighted roof. They wait some more - and as it grows completely dark, the satyr reaches out unnoticed and grabs an inattentive Aquilla! It tosses him effortlessly towards the library roof 6m below - but he grabs the minotaur gargoyle in passing and doesn't fall.

 

The satyr then tries to climb down from its perch towards the market square, but stops short because of the chain. Bellona yells to Khelsen and Lamoniak where it is going, and then strikes the statue with her sword. But the blow just glances off, and the creature glares at her. Then it jumps out into space, holding on to its collar. It hits the temple wall and the weight of its fall pulls the minotaur gargoyle completely out of its socket - with Aquilla still clinging to it!

 

But he makes his breakfall and acrobatics rolls lands without harm on the library roof – then starts sliding towards the edge - and just manages to grab the gutter and hang on! The minotaur gargoyle crashes into the roof right where he landed a second ago and goes straight through to the ground floor – shattering and freeing the chain in the process. The satyr jumps off the temple facade and drops freely to the ground. The temple is wide awake by this point having had a half ton of stone dropped through their roof. Gen and Khatz scramble onto their qurrocks and prepare to give chase or flee. Lamoniak comes racing round the corner of the temple, followed by Khelsen and the net, and they all surround the satyr briefly - it just glares at them and bolts!

 

The riders race after it (madly honking qurrock horns, the net trailing after them), heading downhill, along a dark street, through a small square - then they lose it. But nearby screams put them back on its track; they follow them and find a man in a nightshirt with two guardsmen, indicating that it went 'thatta way'. Meanwhile Bellona is tailing the creature over the rooftops, but the only possible witnesses (interviewed through an open dormer window) have seen nothing – they simply heard something trying their shutters. They hear a distant thump, and race in that direction - it's heading towards Silversmith Square! Some guards come running up and are suspicious of all this noise but Lamoniak makes a marvelous speech and a presence roll and then Lamoniak orders the guards to check all doors in that quarter, and they do so. The PCs themselves check the houses of silversmith Teor and his daughter for signs of forced entry, but nothing seems to be amiss. Then Lamoniak wakes their friend the master mason to put him on the alert, but he seems inexplicably reluctant to come out gargoyle hunting with them – and not terribly happy to be woken in the middle of the night.

 

Frustrated and gargoyleless they return to the temple. There is no longer any question that the priests believe their story - the gargoyle's socket is empty after all, and its neighbour is lying in a thousand pieces all over the floor of the library. They find that the satyr didn't break its chain but unscrewed the loop around its neck while crouched in the square, which means it can use its stone fingers very dextrously. Katz scries the bolt that it dropped to try and find out where it is now, and gets an image of a hanging sign painted with a seamonster.

 

Since the last trace they had of the satyr was towards Silversmith Square they suspect master smith Teor of being involved somehow. When they share their suspicions with the Smiler priest HE suggests that Teor's house be searched - but the other priests are aghast and they decide against this. One of the priests can detect magic, and they return with him and a keen priest of the Horned Man to Silversmith Square. Here the magic-detecting priest picks up something magic from Teor's house, but it's not very large, and he reckons it might just be a household charm. They send Aquilla up onto the roof to check the house and since the satyr is connected with Samadrians the rest then go and search the area of town where the foreigners are to be found, down by the docks. Then the magic-detecting priest picks up some very strong magic - active and unclean, possibly like sorcery - from back up the hill in the direction of the temple. But when they get to the probable location, a middle class residential street with tailor shops, he can't detect anything else, and they can't find any tracks or other signs. But in a side alley they find a shutter hanging open at ground level, splintered and with claw marks in the wood. They wake the sleepers inside who are all safe and had no idea that their shutter had been forced. On the roof above this apartment there are dislodged tiles. Again they return to the temple, where they meet up with Aquilla. He has been in and out of Teor's house - and found that ALL the shutters on the top floor windows had been forced open! He souvenired an impressively bent bolt. Is the satyr looking for something or someone - Drass' murderer, or his former sweetheart? They check Seri's house once more, but all is quiet and intact.

 

GM’s note – the Gargoyle is in fact looking for Drass’ old sweetheart – and also revenge for his murder, so the players have basically worked out what is going on – the question is can they stop it in time?

 

Lamoniak and the Smiler’s priest go up to the temple roof - and the statue is back in place! The magic that the detecting priest felt could well have been it turning back to stone again. At least its hands aren't stained with blood. The priest of the Smiler recognises the seamonster sign from Khatz' vision as the sign for the Kraken tavern, which they also check out, but it has not been disturbed. They spend the rest of the night and the early morning fast asleep.

 

Next morning at their urging the temple summons silversmith Teor for an interview, under a discreet truth spell. He denies all connection with Samadrians and living statues, and dismisses any question of his daughter having liked Drass or him having anything to do with Drass' murder. On the last two points at least he is not telling the truth, the truthspell priest informs us. They go to Seri's house to ask her to the temple for a similar interview, and after being initially refused admittance she agrees to come. The same discreet truth spell is applied. Seri tells them that her father would surely have disapproved of her and Drass' relationship, but that he never gave any indication he was aware of it. They used to meet when she took lunches to the workers at the temple. Drass loved his work and was happy to make the satyr; he knew what the creature was from mythology but designed it himself. Seri used to sleep on the top floor of Teor's house when she was a girl - where all the shutters had been forced open last night. Drass had given her a little silver ring, the mention of which causes them great excitement. Bellona and a priestess take a message from Seri for her maid to bring it to the temple in its box under escort - but it proves to be completely without magic. All Seri's answers were truthful, according to the truthspell priest. They thank her nicely and let her go.

 

The friendly master mason comes to visit them, and they ask him where he went after helping them chain the satyr gargoyle up last night. They are not surprised to hear he went to the Kraken tavern, which Katz saw in his vision off the collar bolt. They loan a hammer and chisel from the mason, with which to hamstring the satyr - if the priests let them!

 

Then they go out for more questioning around the quarter. At the site of the first murder an old woman points out the spot, and on the wall above it are great claw marks scraping down from the roofs, where the creature 'abseiled' down. Next they visit Caius, Drass' former fellow journeyman, and ask him about Drass' personal effects that he packed up and sent back to the village. There were a few clothes, some tools - and a head that Drass had carved. Of a faun, a model for the satyr gargoyle on the temple roof. Illumination dawns! This model head was almost certainly buried in Drass' grave, thereby getting covered in nitre, and was recently stolen from his grave by the Samadrians, to be sorcerously switched with the original head of the temple's gargoyle. The only thing they don't know is Why - what was their purpose?

 

GM’s note: the head sorceror of the cult is doing a favour for his patron – the statue could tell them “a secret only the stones know”

 

They explain all this to the Smiler’s priest, but he is still dubious about letting them remove his gargoyle's head. Until they describe to him again the inconvenience and embarrassment of having a murdering gargoyle associated with his cult running about the city. Then they are allowed to take Caius up to the roof, where he chisels all the grave-head off the statue, and Khelsen catches it in a net. The head is locked in a box (for later copying) and stored in the crypt. That evening they net the headless statue in place and Bellona, Gen and Kelsen keep watch over it until past full dark. The others watch the box containing the head. Nothing Happens.

 

After a very peaceful night (even Aquilla found nothing of interest on his nocturnal wanderings) a guardsman comes looking for them - there is someone at the guardhouse whom they might like to talk to. Down in the guardhouse cellar they find the captain, some guards, and a roughed up-looking townsman. This individual was dobbed in to the city guard for suddenly having too much money, and they have learned that he sneaked a party of attention-shy Samadrians out of the city two nights ago. He had received a purse of silver (which he has already spent) for sailing them about a little way up the coast to a bay on the far side of a headland, where they met a man with a beard. Where they went after that he does not know, but there is a farmhouse up on the headland, and a road a little way inland.

 

The cultists have escaped!

[Manic Typist]

Re: And off we go!

 

What ever happened with that dude who was waiting on the other side of the bridge with a drawn sword?

 

You put it at the end of one post... and I don't see mention of it later.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

What ever happened with that dude who was waiting on the other side of the bridge with a drawn sword?

 

You put it at the end of one post... and I don't see mention of it later.

 

Damn! You're right - there's a whole session post missing! I'll have to dig back into my notes and see if I wrote it up and forgot to post, or forgot to write it up.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, some serious thread necromancy - finally got the notes written up from the last few months of play:

 

First the sessions I forgot to post before:

 

The players left the village of Doorn and crossed the ridge at the far side of the forested valley. The country on the other side was high and barren, a plateau in the mountains. Down the first ridge was a stream in a gorge spanned by a stone bridge, but their way across was blocked by an armiger who informed them 'You shall not pass!'

 

After some negotiation Bellona fought him in single combat with the armiger first removing most of his armour to make a fairer combat. After several feints and blocks, struck him with a first swift blow. At that point, the armiger yielded and he became much more friendly. Over a cup of wine in his tent he told them that his name was Sir Donatus Guarch, and since his lord had died he was walking the earth, or at least Ostragaya, to hone his fighting skills. But apart from a party of 6-8 merchants and their qurrocks two days previously (the Samadrians!), he had seen precious few armigers to challenge - he was impressed when they explained why (the fact that the monster had blocked most through traffic), and what the players had done about it.

 

Since this road was likely to be quiet for some time Donatus decided to travel with players, and immediately packed up his tent. They set off for the north coast, back the way he had come across the treeless plateau. From the last clear ridge they could see the Bald Man of Lossach in the distance, with what might have been a large port city at its feet. At last they crossed below the treeline, and camped in the forest that night.

 

The next day, when Gen innocently stepped off the path to shoot a fat pigeon perched in a tree, he was grabbed - by another tree! Which promptly tried to strangle him. A mighty battle ensued, during which the tree proved resistant to huge amounts of damage, but more than capable of dealing them out, especially to Khelsen, who got picked up, beaten on the ground and then thrown into the undergrowth. It only dropped its prey in order to sweep away a fire that Khatz and Donatus had started by its roots, by which time Gen was thoroughly unconscious. They grabbed him and retreated out of range, vowing to come back and take revenge … ummm … later. A little further down the road, and after Gen came round again, they met a merchant and his bodyguard, who told the party that there was an inn ahead that they should reach just about nightfall. They did, and it was an extremely well fortified place, being the fore-building of an old castle that had fallen down ages ago, now converted into an inn. Ther party spent some time digging around in the ruins to see if they could find anything, but found only a dank, mossy cellar. So they had a decent dinner, a hot bath, and slept peacefully and in comfort. The inn turned out not to be haunted, and neither was the ruined tower that they poked about in the next morning.

 

They confirmed with the innkeeper that they were still on the tracks of the Samadrians, now apparently traveling disguised as a flock of priests. They paid for their lodgings with Samadrian silver sails. Around midday the party stopped in a village for lunch and news, and after asking around, found that the Samadrians had left via the north gate. The group tailed them to a split in the road; the tracks apparently went towards Theyre Town, but the party decided to turn west to try and find the hermit before they did. A flash of sunlight on a large stained glass window guided them up the Bald Man of Lossach to a fortified temple built on a point on the far side of a ravine. There was a deal of skulking about to see if any Samadrians were there, but eventually Aquila and Gen scouted out the temple and found the hermit out back peacefully digging in his garden. He was a friendly chap who had formerly hunted Shadow cultists together with Kyris (the man who had given them the magic gifts), and he was very concerned to hear they were active again. He gave the players a bit of background - devotees carry out apparently bizarre or irrelevant tasks as ordered by their patrons (demons) - but he had no idea what precisely this bunch of Samadrians were up to right now, nor how to stop them. Only that it would probably be a very good idea.

 

The hermit also liberally dealt out healing magic and the characters slept in the guest rooms that night - although Silas and the qurrocks had to stay in the ravine by the weir, guarded by Gen, as the path up to the temple was too steep and narrow for them to climb

 

I'll edit and post the rest over the next few days to bring us near up to date.

 

cheers, Mark

[teh bunneh]

Re: And off we go!

 

Yay! It's back!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

What they do after learning that the Samadrian cultists have escaped from Tyre

 

Gen and Lamoniak rush off and get supplies and eventually anage to get a letter of support for their mission from the temple. Khelsan, Castor and Aquila also get supplies, then persuade the city guard to release the bribe-taking, wanted-heretic-aiding fisherman so he can sail them up the coast (that takes a bit of persuasion). Khatz and Bellona get Khatz' cousin to find out where the Samadrians were staying, for which Khatz has to bribe Cousin Dmitri, that will take a day or so. Lamoniak on the Horse Silas and Gen on qurrockback will move fastest so they head up the coast road towards the village of Salterton, to find the cove where the Samadrians landed and to try and track them from there. They leave some personal item in their room for Khatz, take Khelsan's qurrock with them, and leave trailsigns along the way so they can be followed. After hard riding they find the beach by mid-afternoon.

 

Khatz and Bellona meet Cousin Dmitri and his floozy Mirelda in a tavern. 'People' had told Cousin Dmitri that the Samadrians had been trying to buy passage out of the harbour for a few days and has found out where they were staying. They search the Samadrians' room and question the chambermaid, but find and learn nothing. The innkeeper says that the Samadrians were fairly cheerful and had talked of going home. He overheard a phrase that stuck in his memory because it was odd: "The secret that only stone knows". The players wonder if it’s “stone” or “Stone”? The Samadrians had also said they needed a boat and they had a ship to catch. That stresses the players out when they realize their target may have already been picked up! Khatz and Bellona set out on qurrockback that evening, with supplies from the temple and something of Khelsan's carefully wrapped in Khatz' pocket, just in case. They plan to sleep on the road if they cannot catch up to the rest of the group.

 

At the cove near Salterton Gen and Lamoniak find signs that a bunch of people without qurrocks climbed up the bank from the beach, but they soon loose the trail. They find a camp site – maybe the Samadrian's in the trees just off the road. They climb the hill behind it out of curiosity, and discover some low ruined walls on the ridge running towards the headland - which is crowned by an old stone tower rising out of the woods. Before evening a small boat sails into the cove bearing Khelsan, Castor and Aquila. They have the gargoyle head with them. Together they cautiously check out the tower on top of the headland overlooking the cove. It has a crumbling stone wall, a half-fallen iron gate, and a largely overgrown path through trees that were once a garden and find the tower rises from a small manor house. Someone was here only a few days ago, but not as many as six. The manor house itself is derelict. The qurrocks, Horse and Khelsan wait outside - the rest of the group sneaks inside. There are cobwebs, dust and - footprints! Lamoniak guards the entrance while Castor, Aquila and Gen sneak upstairs. The footprints trail back and forth on the mezzanine; they follow them towards the right where the floor is solid, checking out the rooms. The first door is shut. When opened the room is empty, but something glitters in the fireplace. They leave it, and check the 2nd and 3rd rooms - nothing but some mouldy furniture. As they move on, the passage floor gives way, and Gen nearly falls through! They retreat to the ground floor and try the passage back towards the tower, opening all doors to try and let some light into the passage. They pass a dining room, another room, and the door to a yard, then open the door to a stone-flagged kitchen with a rickety wooden stair climbing the interior of the tower to the 2nd floor. They investigate the fireplace, and a giant centipede comes scuttling out of the chimney, bites Gen, and scuttles away before they can kill it. But the bite doesn't seem to be poisonous.

 

It's getting dark; they give up on the manor house and go on to Salterton on the far side of the headland, marking trees on the way to show Khatz and Bellona where they went. Salterton is a large village on the cliff top with some big stone houses climbing up the ridge away from the coast. It smells of drying fish and salt, and wreckers. The inn is down by the cliff overlooking the little harbour. They stable the qurrocks and Horse in the shed of the warehouse beside the inn, and over dinner question the innkeeper about the tower on the headland. He tells us: it was the house of an alchemist years ago, and now there is _something there_, or it is haunted. Locals come to the inn for the evening and they learn more. Sometimes shrieks and screams can be heard from the house. A tinker sheltering there for the night hanged himself. Some panels in the walls sound hollow. A villager when young went down into the darkness of the cellar, heard screaming, and a grey figure with long nails and glowing eyes chased him out! The alchemist bought the house from the old lord of the village (who moved to Tyre), and restored and extended it. How did the alchemist die? No one seems to know – or even if he is dead – just that he hasn’t been seen in a very long time. In return they ask about the Samadrians, but nobody has seen them.

 

The next morning Gen’s centipede bite has led to a badly inflamed leg, so he limps up to the temple where there is a priestess of The Woman of Tides, using the letter from the temple in Theyre Town to get a discount on healing. She says that if they want to know about the ruins on the ridge behind the cove, they should ask Hunter Evard who lives at the end of the village. When Gen hobbles back to the inn, Bellona and Khatz have arrived.

 

They all return to the beach where the Samadrians landed, and near their old campfire they find some 'human remains' (or human waste if you like ). But Khatz inexplicably refuses to use his scrying on them!

 

In the end they go back to the manor house on the headland. While the others explore further Gen lights a little fire on the stone floor of the entrance hall. Khatz investigates the glittery thing in the fireplace of the first room; it is a sparkly white rock, the size of a marble. While he is poking around in the hearth a spider as big as a watermelon drops out of the chimney - misses him! and flees back up the chimney again. When they open the next creaking door they hear a moaning noise, and thumping - but the room is empty! Khatz thumps the floor with his staff, which goes right through it, and the moaning sounds again. It's coming from behind the last door in the passage, which is locked. Bellona kicks it open - and there is a man lying tied up under the window. The floor partially collapses as Khatz approaches but he doesn't fall, and manages to get to the stranger and release him.

 

All congregate by the fire in the entrance hall to hear his story. The stranger says his name is Ned, and he claims he is heading south to find work. He tried to stay here last night (after they had visited the house), and was exploring down the corridor towards the kitchen when something hit him on the head, and he woke up where they found him some hours ago. He saw nothing.

 

Aquila and Gen stay downstairs to keep an eye on Ned, while the others continue exploring upstairs. Down the passage to the left of the mezzanine there is a fancy bedroom with a wardrobe full of mould, which gives Khatz a good faceful of spores when he opens it (it’s not dangerous, but some mild panic ensues). All there is inside is one old boot and a shabby old cloak. The 2nd bedroom has a bedframe, and centipede tracks in the dust. Down the back corridor over the kitchen passage they find a bedroom with a slashed-open mattress and a splintered chest. The clothes inside have rotted, but underneath there is a collection of papers! Some pages crumble when touched, but the pages in the center hold together, and it is carefully wrapped and stored in a backpack. Khatz shakes the chest - it appears to have a false bottom! On prying it open he finds: a leather pouch with 6 gold coins (over 100 years old from the Shiplord's name on them), and a scroll sealed with wax, bearing the monogram EBC and a skull painted on it. Bellona ties this up to prevent it opening accidentally!

 

The 2nd room down the passage is a storeroom with shelves and broken chairs; also a new traveller's sack. This contains clothes and personal effects, including a belt with a dagger and a brass vial. On questioning, Ned says that the sack and contents are his, and that the vial contains liniment. It does – but the players miss the false bottom, which contains poison – Ned is not what he seems….

 

Past the storeroom the hall turns to a landing and the stairs down to the kitchen, which also continue further up the tower, but in a very decrepit condition. They all gather in the entrance hall again, and try to decipher the papers found in the splintered chest. They appear to be correspondence and possibly legal papers, from the alchemist to his agents about buying and restoring this house and moving his belongings up here from Theyre Town.

 

It is now evening. They look around outside the tower, which has no windows under 6 meters above ground. Khatz and Ned gather firewood to build a good fire before the entrance to the cellar, which smells 'like a large beast has been pissing in the corners'. Ned is nervous about staying another night, but does anyway since they are, and there might be treasure... Khatz and Khelsan sleep inside the entrance hall on either side of the door, the rest of them outside. Aquila sets a tripwire across the door. Watches are set: Lamoniak, Bellona, Gen, Aquila, Castor - but nothing happens outside. However, _inside_ the hall, Khatz suddenly jerks awake, at a touch on his face! He rolls to one side and looks up - and a thing like a broad wet cloak lands all over him. He grabs his knife and slashes free, getting covered in a wet and stinging substance. He scrambles for the fountain outside, and throws himself in. On the way he trips over Aquila's tripwire and wakes Khelsan, who sees _something_ scuttling back up the wall above Khatz' bedding roll, leaving a wet mark behind it. The drips that it leaves behind smell bitter, and dry invisible.

 

There is much running about in the dark. What actually happened is that Ned sneaked quietly off when he was “on watch” soaked a cloth in his poison, tied a string to it and tossed it in through a window so he cold drop it on Khatz’s face while staying out of sight. Unfortunately for him the touch woke Khatz – in the confusion (and the dark) Ned sneaks back to the rest of the group, pretending he never left.

 

The next day Khatz' skin is pink and inflamed, but not seriously damaged. Bellona makes a heroic effort and runs up the walls to the top of the tower, since they don’t trust the staircase. The top floor is stone, and it was formerly roofed with wood. She can see the beach where the Samadrians landed, Salterton, and Theyre Town in the distance. There is a door set into the low stone parapet, to a small cupboard. It is covered with moss, but can be opened. Inside is a metal box with a ring on top - a dark lantern, which can be used for signalling ships at sea. With it is a sheet of leather marked with symbols and hatch marks (I II III); both are newish. A matching cupboard on the opposite side of the roof is empty. She takes both items.

 

Back in the hall of the manor house there is no trace of Khatz' assailant from last night. He and Bellona venture down into the cellar, and while still on the stairs hear the faint sounds of little running feet and childish giggling (a triggered illusion, designed to draw investigators away from the cellar). The noises stop as they peer into the cellar with torches. Khatz drops firewood to the floor and a bloodcurdling scream terrifies everyone within earshot! (Another illusion, though the players don’t know that). Then Lamoniak goes all the way down and starts poking around. Khatz lights a bonfire, keeping the ends of the branches clear of the fire, so they can be used as torches if needed. When the wood is well ablaze he throws burning branches into the corners, to spread light. The rest of them cautiously come down to look. Under the stairs Lamoniak finds two large empty wooden crates. There is a fireplace at one end of the cellar that lies directly beneath that in the kitchen. While they have firewood at hand, they light a fire in the kitchen fireplace, just in case any centipedes get bright ideas and decide to join them (they have heard the centipedes moving in the flues…). There are shelves around the walls of the cellar, holding a few strange shaped bottles. Was this a wine cellar? The growing firelight reveals a shape lying in the middle of the floor - a body! When Lamoniak investigates, it proves to be the body of an armiger, which has been down here for some months or more. His sword and shield are still lying beside him; the device on the shield is a Hippocampus. Lamoniak turns the body over - and a huge maggot drops out of it, wriggles, contracts itself, and springs at Khatz – it’s a corpse worm that burrows into the body of its prey! Khatz slices it in half and kills it with one swift blow. They take the armiger's body upstairs to the kitchen on the lid of one of the wooden crates - and find that Castor is missing!

 

They search for Castor, outside and within the house. Lamoniak goes down to the road to see if he's there. When they come to the 2nd floor room where they found Ned, the door is shut again. When opened, there is Castor, lying unconscious beneath the window! Khatz retrieves and revives him, and Gen treats him for two knocks on the head. They congregate outside in the sunlight to hear what happened to him. He was gathering firewood from the main hall, when he was hit on the head from behind, and somehow carried up to the 2nd floor. His gold medallion is gone! At once Khatz, Bellona, Lamoniak, Ned and Khelsan charge off to the storage room... where Castor's medallion is recovered. Ned took advantage of the giggling illusion to whack Castor from nbehind and stick him where he himself was tied up in the hopes of convincing the group the house was haunted – it works. Lamoniak challenges the ghost-thief, and childish giggling answers him. When they return to the kitchen, the body of the armiger is gone, and the lid of the crate it was lying on. It's not in the cellar either. There is only one scrape-mark heading from the stain the body left on the kitchen floor towards the cellar, but the characters are not sure whether they could have made that.

 

Khatz scries the leather sheet of signalling instructions or sighting records, and sees a small cosy stone room or cave with a bed and a sea chest. Aquila examines the walls round the base of the tower and the cellar walls for concealed doors, guarded by Bellona and Gen. He finds something on the wall beside the cellar fireplace - and a pair of glowing hands, a giant hag-face, and a bloodcurdling scream burst from the wall, pass straight through Aquila, and vanish into the opposite wall! They scream too. Then they call the others (minus Castor), and Aquila identifies an unusual stone, the only stone block in a wall built of cobbles. Marking a tomb? When pressed, the stone slides aside to reveal a latch! Gen and Lamoniak go to fetch Castor. Ned follows, and tells them that Aquila said they should 'investigate the stone doorstep of the main hall' - which doesn't make sense, as it's miles away from the cellar and kitchen fireplaces! (He’s hoping to lure them away for a quick stab with his poisoned dagger). Suspicious, Gen returns to the cellar, Ned on his heels. Lamoniak and Castor follow them, quietly. On the cellar stairs Ned tries to stab Gen, who yells a warning, and then Ned knees him in the groin. Khatz wrestles Ned off Gen, and Lamoniak hits Ned as he flees. Deciding the game is up, the varmint heads out the kitchen window - gets stuck, and is captured!

 

He caves at that point, and promises to 'tell all' if they don't kill him and give him a 24 hours' head start to get away. Khatz, anticipating some sort of deal being struck, had already jumped on his qurrock and ridden off before this collective promise was given, so he didn’t have to give his word. Ned explains he sometimes works for the smugglers, carrying packages to his contact in in Salterton and so on. He is a pro and never looks in the packages, nor has he ever been in the house before. This time he was hired by his contact (who had heard the players in the inn talking about going to the house) to get rid of them or at all costs to keep them out of the cellar. He admits he is responsible for some, but not all, of the goings-on in the house. He knows nothing about the armiger's corpse in the cellar. He did attack Castor, and points out that he could have killed him, but didn't. This does not endear him to the players. When the players show no sign of killing him, he leaps to his feet and flees again - Gen sees him off the property and along the road to Theyre Town, but doesn’t try to stop him. Now they become concerned as to where Khatz has got to: Gen cannot track which way he went, and Lamoniak searching about on Horseback cannot spot him.

 

Khatz has headed to Salterton and found the local armiger, and he tells her everything. She says will support them if they are working with the city guard but first wants to see their writ from the temple in Theyre Town. Khatz promises to bring her it before the day is over. The rest of the group is very relieved when he turns up again after an hour or so.

 

And then they go down into the cellar, leaving Castor outside to guard the qurrocks. Aquila checks and unlatches the stone door, Bellona pivots it open. There is a veritable warehouse on the other side. Crates and boxes stacked all over the place, twelve beds lined up neatly along the opposite wall, and an opening at the left end of the room. And there is a LIT lantern on the table in the center of the room - and a wooden crate lid with the rotting body of an armiger lying on the floor. They sneak in. Through the opening at left is a door nailed shut and signposted 'Danger!', and a door to the left again, through which is the cosy stone chamber that Khatz saw when scrying the signal parchment. They search the sea chest, finding lamp oil, candles, tinder and another signal sheet, and replace everything but the lamp oil. At the right hand end of the room Aquila discovers a wooden door painted to look like stone. They open it with a faint click; it is dark inside, but with the lantern Khatz makes out stairs going down to the left into darkness. He can see a faint light at the bottom and starts down the stairs - then he is struck by an arrow, and charges!

 

Gen grabs the dead armiger's shield, and Khelsan grabs his crate lid. Lamoniak sprints for the door, his Horse, and the beach, intending to stop anyone fleeing by a secret entrance. Already at the bottom of the stairs having run past a side passage into a cavern and into a second cavern, Khatz attacks one of the archers, stunning him with his first blow. A villain further back in the cavern tries to cast magic on him. A third man fires an arrow and hits the incoming Bellona. As Gen is moving rather more cautiously past the entrance to the first cavern, twin giants loom up out of the gloom, and Gen abruptly decides to join Khatz and Bellona. On hearing the clamor of battle Lamoniak changes his mind about Horse, and comes charging back. From behind Khelsan, who is running down the stairs, Aquila throws daggers into the giants lumbering after Gen. In the second cavern Khatz is hit by a searing light from the spellcaster, and is blinded. Gen gets in front of him, first hitting the third smuggler and then backstabbing a giant - which comes apart into sticks and cloth! Khelsan and Lamoniak pile into the fray, Khelsan charging a giant with his crate lid. When Khatz can see again he also attacks the giant, and Lamoniak strikes its head off. It too disintegrates (both giants were illusions covering some animated broomsticks). Bellona leaps on the last fleeing warrior, stabbing him through the stomach and killing him. Gen races after the spellcaster, who seems certain to get away. Then Aquila, who has come around frm behind, through the first cavern, nails the spellcaster with a throwing knife, which slows him down enough for Bellona to catch him and run him through. The spellcaster collapses, bleeding to death. But Gen manages to bandage his wounds well enough to keep him alive for interrogation.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

They explore the caverns beneath the alchemist's mansion where they defeated the archers and the sorcerer, taking the latter and one of his henchmen captive. At sea level a large curving cave opens out to the sea, with a ship's boat tied up above the waterline and barrels and sea chests stored high and dry. The chests are packed with quivers of arrows in wood shavings, 20 x 20 arrows per chest - smuggled WMD! Other chests contain blankets, and the barrels contain salt fish. All these are provisions for an army, so the characters help themselves, also to the bows dropped by the smugglers.

 

Higher up in the cavern complex is another large cave, full of much more of the same. A heavy chain runs up into the roof, attached to a spidery grey hairy vicious monster, which is lying in a hammock over the door and which falls on Gen, when he walks in.

 

An exciting fight ensues, since, while not armed, it has pointy teeth, is very nimble and it is much faster than the characters (SPD5!), but eventually it is killed. Khelsen skins it, and the rest dress their wounds. The many chests in this cave contain fine patterned fabric, brandy, and more dried fish, arrows and blankets.

 

On searching the prisoners, they find that the sorcerer has a flashy gold ring, local gold coins, keys, dice of the Smiler and a goods manifest. The listed items match what they can find in the caves, except for a "special stone", which is nowhere to be seen. Aquila, Khelsan and Bellona row the prisoners to Salterton - through an illusion of a rockslide that hides the cave entrance - while Khatz and Gen go up to the qurrocks. But instead they find Castor face-down behind the fountain with a lump the size of an egg on his head (again!), and all the qurrocks are GONE! The players put the blame (correctly) on the now-vanished Ned, who came skulking back to steal a mount and decided to take all 6 so they couldn’t chase him. Khatz, Castor and Gen head straight to Salterton, but Ned and the stolen qurrocks went in the opposite direction, towards Theyre Town. Lamoniak sets off to try and catch him (Ned didn’t dare touch the horse, since he had no idea what kind of a monster it was) but he lacks tracking skills.

 

When the prisoners are brought through Salterton to the temple and lock-up, no one recognises them (or at least admits it). The local armiger does recognise the shield belonging to the body in the cellar, however; it belonged to an armiger from Theyre Town who worked for the lord of Salterton, and who had disappeared without a trace about 3 months ago. She also tells us that there had once been a cave at the cliff foot below the alchemist's house, but that it was closed off by a rockfall some years ago. She’s surprised to find out that it was an illusory rockfall, as it turns out

 

They find out from the archer they took prisoner that the smuggler's local contact in town is a merchant called Alys (He’s actually the guy who hired Ned, but the players forgot to press him on that point) and that the sorceror (called Sanbalet) is their boss. They and the armiger pay Alys a visit; when she accuses him of smuggling and the characters describe what they found, he looks guilty and doesn't deny it, but claims that he only ever bought brandy and other good things, not arrows. He says also that Ned was his go-between for contact with the smugglers, Ned not being a local; his contact with Ned was limited and he last saw him 4 days ago. A door from the back of Alys' house gives on to a narrow inobvious path down to the harbour. Alys is not jailed, being a well-known local but the armiger takes his cashbox, account books and keys. On searching his place (which takes them some hours) all the party find are two unlisted kegs of apple brandy, but a list of debtors reveals that most of the townspeople owe him money.

 

They realise at this point that the keys found on Sanbalet probably open his sea chest, or its secret bottom, or something equally good back in the smugglers' caves, that the good people of Salterton will undoubtedly soon be trying to loot. A little belatedly, they tell the locals the story of the monster that still remains to protect the alchemist's treasure, the mother of the one they killed...

 

After that, the interrogation of the prisoners begins. The henchman smuggler, Aton from Theyre Town, sings at once, but he doesn't know much about what goes on. Stuff comes in, stuff goes out, he shifts it. Their latest goods have been cloth, brandy and quivers of arrows; often he has no idea what is in the boxes, and he has never heard of a special stone. Some of their wares come from Theyre Town, hidden under fish on a fishing boat, other come on “the big ship”. The smuggler's ship is called Sea Ghost; a 'rough guy' is the captain. It was a smuggler from that ship, Godsroth, who shot the seahorse-shield armiger, after Sanbalet had blinded him by magic. When the ship last departed three days ago, they smuggled six priests with them - Sanbalet had known they were coming to Salterton. They seemed quite happy, as if they were glad to be going home. The party also find out that the grey spidery monster that they killed was from Samadria, or off a ship from there. They send an account of this adventure to the temple in Theyre Town by pigeon post, and equip Lamoniak with samples as proof of their story and send him to Theyre Town to give a report to the lord of the city and the temple. On the way he checks a little way down two side roads. No qurrocks, and no Ned, and the people he asks haven't seen a man leading four qurrocks. He arrives in Theyre Town at twilight and goes straight to the temple, where the senior priest sends him to the captain of the guard, but he must wait until morning for an interview.

 

cheers, Mark

[teh bunneh]

Re: And off we go!

 

Ah, the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. A classic!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Ah' date=' [i']the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh[/i]. A classic!

 

Yep. And just the thing for a GM crushed by too many demands on non-gaming time

 

I'm recycling a modded version of "Temple of the reptile god" in the current sessions, which has caused me vast amusement so far: last session (which will get posted eventually) the party confronted the evil sorceress (actually a Leanne Sidhe) in her lair - and then spent the entire evening roleplaying a witty conversation with her, before retiring in some confusion amid whispered arguments.

 

Gen: "She's enchanted the villagers! Now she's enchanted Lamoniak and Khatz! She's a sorceress! Attack her!"

Bellona and others : "We don't know that - actually we haven't seen her do anything. Sure, Lamoniak is acting weird, but then, he always does. And nobody seems to be getting hurt - they all like her. Maybe she's just genuinely nice."

 

Of course, they haven't found the pit of bones which is all that's left of the town's kiddies, yet

 

Meanwhile, under the influence of the charm, Lamoniak has decided he'll give up adventuring and become an artist. He's just rented a nice atelier....

 

cheers, Mark

[teh bunneh]

Re: And off we go!

 

An atelier right over the charnel pit?

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

An atelier right over the charnel pit?

 

Not yet. The rest of the players have decided (next session, we last played the day before yesterday) to "cure" him by seeking the help of the nearby sorceress. She demands .... uh ... certain services from comely young men seeking her help (Khatz is COM 18, IIRC). Only trouble is, she looks more or less like a bipedal toad when not wearing her illusion (see the Clark Ashton Smith story "The Mother of Toads") for details:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/143/mother-of-toads

 

I plan on having a few severely traumatised players before this one is over

 

cheers, Mark

[teh bunneh]

Re: And off we go!

 

You are a bad, bad man.

 

I fully approve!

[L. Marcus]

Re: And off we go!

 

Trauma is the seasoning of life.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

After ransacking the merchant’s house, Khelsen and Bellona go to interrogate Sanbalet and find to their horror that his cell is empty, though apparently undisturbed. Fortunaely for them, they are not so easily fooled and check his cell minutely – he’s actually still there. He had tried to escape by turning invisible in his cell, but Aquila searches it and finds him. He is wearing the garb of a magic user-priest of the Smiler cult, the trickster god, and by his accent comes from this island, Ostragaya. He says that the captain of the smuggler's ship is called Balar, and Sanbalet says he doesn't know if it is ever coming back here. He claims he knows nothing of any Samadrians, but according to Castor (who’s using his truth spell in the background) he *does* know that the ship *is* coming back some time within the next 2-3 weeks. He also works out that Sanbalet really didn't know anything about the Samadrians or about cultists, but is worried about something to do with the smuggling that he didn't want the players to find out.

 

Kris - the local armiger - gives up in disgust, and the party goes out for dinner with her, sitting on the balcony of the inn for privacy. The inn is packed tonight and everyone is cheerful - they've just taken down the town's moneylender, Alys, which at the very least means no payments for a while. Over dinner Castor points out that if the ship is coming back, they have the smuggler's code sheet with the moon-phase symbols and lamp signals, and that they can hopefully manage to lure the smugglers in to the coast where they can - theoretically - catch them. They decide to try interrogating the smuggler Aton again tomorrow. Aquilla and Gen stand guard over the cells that night, but all is quiet.

 

In the morning they peer through the grating into Sanbalet's cell and see his body in the same position as the night before. They open the doors - he is dead, and sitting in a wide pool of blood! Apparently, he sharpened his belt buckle and cut his own throat. Could there have been outside influence?? But when they inspect it properly, the body proves to be an illusion. Aquila is reasonably sure that no one had come past him, and so he searches the cell again. When he pokes a sword-point up into a corner of the cell, Sanbalet appears and blinds everybody with a flash of light! Bellona atttacks, as she can fight blind, but Sanbalet slips by her. In the corridor outside, he grabs a dagger off Aquila’s belt, but though blinded, Aquila grabs his robe and draws a dagger of his own. The two of them grapple and stab each other with daggers before Khelsen comes up stuns Sanbalet by hitting him with the hilt of his dagger. They drag him back into the cell, leaking blood in all directions, where he really does die, to their disappointment. They find no evil cultic symbols or tattoos on his body, but Bellona keeps his belt buckle as a souvenir.

 

In Theyre Town, Lamoniak sees the guard captain for a second breakfast, and tells the whole story. He gets to repeat it that afternoon to the lord's steward/magician/tax auditor, a wrinkly old guy with a hat and a staff called Kehan. It is arranged that they set out for Salterton at once; the guards on the city gate salute Kehan with deference as they pass through. Kehan has a good qurrock and rides well, and on the journey back he listens well, but gives very little away in return.

 

Back in Salterton they try interrogating the smuggler Aton again, and learn that the Sea Ghost is a caravelle or cog. He claims that 'one of the guys in Theyre Town ' must have put the Samadrians on to the smugglers, but he knows no names. The Samadrians did mention a 'castle' and 'home', Sillith and 'a town in the south' as being their destinations - the town must be Houndsgard, where they are probably changing ship.

 

They send pigeons to Theyre Town with a message be sent on to Houndsgard to arrest both the crew of the Sea Ghost and the Samadrians.

 

Aton also speaks of an unusual order for weapons, from a lord in the eastern part of Ostragaya, which explains the crates of arrows. Smuggling is a hanging offence, but that goes double for smuggling weapons. Strangely Aton says the order was from a lord, who could presumably buy them openly, so the players are puzzled as to why he is using smugglers. The arrows come from Theyre Town, where they think somebody may be stealing them from the city armoury! There were too many for one trip, thus the crates left in the cave. Kris the armiger tells them that the only city with a lord down the eastern coast between here and Houndsgard is Darkwall, a mining town with a castle, three days' sail away. She thinks that the lord may have been arming up because of the Gyres, a family of bandits and dispossessed ex-armigers called 'the Lords of the Hills', who could potentially be rebels.

 

Lamoniak and Kehan, who calls himself 'an emissary' arrive after dark and leave their animals at the inn before finding them at the armiger's house. She doesn't recognise Kehan, but his warrant is in order. Kehan questions the party and they repeat their story. He agrees with their interpretation of the code sheet, that the signal is dependant on phase of the moon to avoid duplicating of the code by outsiders.

 

That night Khatz meditates over a handful of their qurrocks' feathers in a quiet spot in the forest, attempting to track them and Ned. He sees Ned - and their qurrocks! - on the way to a village, on a mound in the mountains with open country all around, which from his description might be Doorn. They send a message there by pigeon that morning, bearing Kehar's stamp, to arrest Ned and return the qurrocks safely to Gen's father's farm. In return they promise to take the smuggler's ship for the armiger Kris.

 

Also that day they return to the alchemist's mansion, to clean up the house so the town militia can watch there for the smuggler's ship while they rest. The dead bodies in the caves are starting to smell, and are consigned to the sea. They break apart the boards over the door marked 'Danger' in the cellar. The door is not trapped, and it opens to reveal a dingy room to the left, away from the sea, which contains broken furniture and human bones. The latter promptly stand up and shamble towards them! A hard battle ensues, with Khatz falling nobly in combat several times and the rest of them getting generally beaten. At last they retreat back out the door and bar it with a rope so only one skeleton can get at them at a time... Then they pick them off one by one. Inside the room Aquila locates a hollow spot on one wall, and Khelsen smashes open a heavy wooden door, to reveal an alchemist's laboratory - with the alchemist still inside!

 

The room is full of collapsed lab equipment and shelves of glassware. There is a crowded work table, and behind it a fine large chair containing the alchemist's skeleton, which does not stand up and shamble towards them. They remove its skull just in case. There are papers scattered everywhere, books, recipes, lists of chemical ingredients. Under the dust and mess on the table are shiny things - a golden candlestick and candle (also gold), five golden discs, a heavy golden skull, a golden rose and a golden apple. There is something magic in the skeleton's hand - an ovoid black stone - and something else on the table. Aquila opens a secret drawer in the table and finds the alchemist's leather and brass bound spellbook. Castor takes care of this, while Bellona takes the black stone, and Khatz carries off other books and scrolls. In short, they take everything of value, including an anonymous silver ring from the alchemist's bony hand.

 

Then they return to Salterton for a few days of well-earned rest.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Gen gives the alchemist's gold candlestick to the temple for healing magic for everyone, as much as they can take. Khatz still being a walking pincushion, he takes lodgings with full board and sick care at the inn, and doesn't leave his bed for a week.

 

Gen also returns belatedly to the alchemist's house to search for Sanbalet's book of magic and the large bag of silver he received from the Samadrians, but the villagers already have ransacked the place! Even the panelling has been torn off the walls in some rooms to search for the treasures supposedly hidden behind them. The villagers have also taken Sanbalet's sea chest, though Gen does find a loose flagstone, that lifts to reveal only a few traces of red and blue wax. A leather wine bottle bearing a lightning bolt symbol lying in the corner of the room has been slit open, and as its neck carries traces of the same sort of wax, so they conclude that the flagstone hid a stash of smuggled spirits.

 

Lamoniak has a friendly chat with Aton the smuggler - he wants a henchman, and if Aton helps them take the Sea Ghost and works for Lamoniak, the armiger Kris won't have him sent to the galleys. Aton starts earning his keep by telling them more about the Sea Ghost: it is a 1-masted cog, and only a small crew (about 4) is the minimum needed to sail it, though there are more crew on it at the moment. They have just enough people who can sail a ship: Kelsan, Bellona, Aton and Katz.

 

Castor inspects the alchemist's books. One is on alchemy, and could possibly teach him how to make a Philosopher's Stone. It also contains a fake Midas spell, to give objects the appearance of gold (they hastily inspect their looted treasures, but they seem to be genuine).

 

They devise a cunning plan! Aquila will use his Disguise gift to alter his appearance to look like Sanbalet - he gets to work studying the dead magic user's features, and they have his rather bloodstained clothes cleaned and repaired. Aquila/Sanbalet will row out to the Sea Ghost with Khatz and Aton as smugglers, taking with them Lamoniak playing an eccentric lordling eloping with the fair Lady Bellona, who is willing to pay well in gold to be shipped beyond the reach of her father. Gen will be transported in an arrow crate to be hauled up onto the Sea Ghost, much the safest way for everyone, since he’s afraid of deep water so is not much use in the boat. Khelsen will be making a pincer manouvre in a fishing boat from Salterton, as he cannot fit into the smuggler's row boat with the rest of them . Just before they go out to the Sea Ghost, Castor will cast the fake Midas spell on a handful of copper coins; Lamoniak will fumble and drop these on deck as distraction for the crew and a signal for them to attack.

 

Nine days go by. They move into the alchemist's house, and set a villager to watch on the tower for the Sea Ghost. When the light of the ship is spotted at the dark of the moon they send the return signal, apparently correctly, since the ship drops anchor and waits for them to approach. They row out and manage to get abourd without too much trouble. After a little tense conversation with Captain Balar, who is getting increasingly suspicious, Lamoniak scatters his well-displayed gold coins, half the smuggler crew dive for them, and the characters launch their attack! A swashbuckling fight ensues! Among many dramatic moments, Bellona strikes Captain Balar a mighty blow in the chest, which knocks him through the railing and overboard. He is wearing chainmail, and sinks at once. An archer in the crows nest shoots at them, and as the fight winds down Khatz goes scrambling up the ratlines to get him, at which the archer takes fright and dives into the sea. Khelsen and Aton immediately row after him, but in the darkness he escapes by swimming.

 

They anchor the ship, since it was drifting towards the cliffs, and examine their prize. The ship had been crewed by eight, of whom they had killed seven, including the captain (GM’s note: he is wearing a water-breathing charm on a cord around his neck, so is not in fact dead, but the players don’t know that). They search the late Captain Balar's cabin. Both the bunk and the desk are on gimbals, and the cabin also contains a bearskin rug, another chair and a lantern. In the sea chest they find a sextant, some bottles of good wine, clothes, a leather pouch with several hundred silver coins (some Samadrian ones among them) and a few gold coins, a logbook and the captain's rutter (a list of landmarks rather than a map). There are letters - including several from three different wives, all under the impression that they are the one and only Mrs Balar, in Theyre Tpwn, Houndsgard and a village - and two interesting ones, the first unsigned and requesting arrows, the second signed Blackwall and instructing the captain to cancel the arrows and send musical instruments instead. Is this a forgery or a cover-up? A false bottom in the sea chest reveals a second captain's log with interesting notes such as 'box of arrows' (underlined) and 'passengers discharged at Houndsgard – the players work out this is probably the Samadrians. These passengers paid 1200 silvers for their passage (which is a lot!); about a half of this is still in the leather pouch. Aquila searches the cabin and under the hollow box bed finds a space down into the hold where there must be a false wall. This mini-hold contains a box of arrows, and smells of many humans packed into too small a space. There are shreds of ripped cloth caught on the rough timbers, which Khatz gathers carefully for future analysis.

 

In the prow of the ship is the mate's cabin with two hammocks, a portable iron stove, a little table on gimbals, wooden chairs, boots and lanterns, and a bowl of fruit. From the bodies of the smugglers they get knives, shortswords and 40 silvers. At dawn Aton rows Lamoniak and Gen to shore where Gen borrows a qurrock and they scour the coast in opposite directions, trying to find where the escaped smuggler got ashore and catch him - but without success.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Khatz attempts to locate the escaped swimming smuggler using his magical scrying gift on some items he left behind (his bow), and sees that he is heading for a narrow alley in a dark, narrow city. After discussion about where this could be they decide it _might_ be in Darkwall, according to a local who has visited the place, as it is built against a cliff. After some debate they spend a couple of days becoming familiar with their new ship and then take the Sea Ghost down to Blackwall, Gen throwing up all the way.

 

Darkwall is a ways inland up a river which drains the swamp that largely blocks access to the castle and town from the west, and shifting sandbars make it necessary to take on a pilot. They wait at the mouth of the river, and eventually someone notices them and paddles out in a coracle. His name is Brill, and when they get him to talk, he tells them stories of strange and unnatural goings-on in and around Darkwall. For example: last year a fisherman was found on the edge of the swamp, flayed and nailed to a raft. Local conclusion: THEY were trying to make him look like THEM (the players have difficulty information out of Brill, who doesn’t exactly trust them, and has a thick local accent to boot). And years ago a merchant's boy visited the comely and ageless witch or fortuneteller who lives at the edge of the swamp the swamp made the mistake of staying overnight. He claims he saw THEM come out of the swamp and bargain with the witch for men's skins so that THEY can walk abroad, for THEY had no skins of their own. The players quickly grasped the idea that THEY and THEM should be understood as inhuman creatures that live in the swamp. Now, Brill tells us, the boy drinks.

 

Lamoniak's new henchman Anton says he has heard of these things without skins from his mother. It's an old story, and they do lure people off the path and into swamps, etc.

 

They dock at Darkwall, which has a cheerful and welcoming atmosphere similar to Innsmouth. It lies in a bay of the river, climbing against high black cliffs, and well-defended at the upstream end of the harbour by a sturdy fort. A bridge with a drawbridge crosses the river to grazing meadows and woods on the far side, beyond which lies the celebrated swamp.

 

They ask after visiting Samadrians of the innkeeper, Brill's brother and find out that a ship has been in port with a half dozen merchants on board, surely their Samadrians. Leaving Bellona and Castor to guard the Sea Ghost they approach the fort, and begin to get some surprises. The guards on the gate do not react with surprise to the Horse Silas. They barely pay attention to the party; they are too busy discussing philosophy! And when the players make their usual fuss about having to leave their swords, they let them take them in! At the next pair of guards, however, only Lamoniak may keep his sword; the rest of them must disarm. Silas is led off to the stables, this time with proper amazement and awe.

 

They are shown into the solar at the top of the keep, a square stone room hung with banners, furnished with old but good wooden furniture, and decorated with a nice assortment of weapons. Here Lord Thorn of Darkwall is busily at work. He is a big friendly man in his 50's with a look of having spent much time in outdoor pursuits. The only notable things about him are a gold chain that he wears beneath his shirt, and a gold ring. He greets them heartily and immediately asks if any of them can help him - with writing poetry. He's quite serious. His desk is covered with papers, all of them well written-over. Khatz volunteers, and Thorn takes to him as a fellow artistic spirit. The next few minutes are spent deep in consideration of Thorn's latest piece, a flowing and visionary work of poetry.

 

This all seems so improbable that they ask cautious questions. Thorn is generally oblivious to their raised eyebrows, though occasionally he gets a _vague_ look on his face. The Lord of Darkwall tells them that he gets his inspiration from dreams, and his favourite themes are clearly dark and gothic. He explains that he used to do everything _but_ poetry, things like war and hunting, and that he only started writing poetry about a week ago. Now it is all he wants to do, and he is actually very good at it. He can't give them a reason for the abrupt change in lifestyle. Aquila spots an ornate gold inkwell on Thorn's desk and enquires. It came from 'a bunch of merchants who came through town' a week or so ago, and was more precisely purchased off a ship's captain, the late Captain Balar who used to own the Sea Ghost. Thorn also really wants to learn to play music: it was he who wrote the letter found in Balar's cabin requesting musical instruments. They ask him about the swamp, and he acknowledges that there are 'fae' in there, and that people sometimes go missing. Recently there have been a couple from the town... and perhaps a couple from the road through the swamp as well.

 

Thorn invites them to a private feast that night! Or rather, he invites Khatz, if Khatz will set Thorn's latest work to music and perform some of his own compositions. The rest of them are welcome too, as an afterthought. Khatz goes back to the inn to get composing, and Aquila has a quiet chat over a few beers with a couple of miners whom he spotted fishing from the dock. They work in Darkwall (the cliff behind the town) which is a silver mine. But the mine supervisor is at home painting, so these two are off work. After a bit of hedging they produce the local gossip that 'something funny' is happening in Darkwall. People disappear one day and come back _different_ or mad. Like Lord Thorn. They warn Aquila to 'be careful' in the town, without giving a reason. Lamoniak presents himself to the harbourmaster (and innkeeper) as the new captain of the Sea Ghost. He learns that the late Captain Balar traded in general goods and occasionally took passengers. On his visit before last - on the way south to Houndsgard - Balar stayed two days and his passengers never left the boat. But a large box was delivered to the castle without the harbourmaster inspecting it (he doesn’t expect goods going to the castle – they are Lord Thorn’s property, after all) and it was returned empty - arrows?

 

Aquila and Lamoniak rejoin the rest of the group and they are given a guided tour of the town by a castle flunky. Despite his embarrassment and best efforts they see some interesting sights. The blacksmith is making something out of wood in his back yard, a sculpture of a lovely young woman. When they opffer him some work, he stops just long enough to sharpen Aquila's sword, then gets back to work. He has no idea why he has suddenly started carving wood - he just suddenly felt like it a couple of weeks ago, and had to 'get it out of his head', it being the sculpture. They hear a female singer in a third storey room singing beautifully in a language none of them recognise. They make their way to the main street and find the merchant's boy who stayed with the witch of the swamp. That was many years ago, and he is now a merchant himself. But he still remembers that night very clearly and says that the fey creatures he saw were 'half-man, half-monster, and all skinless'. His name for that sort of creature is Nuckelavee, though he’s not sure if this is singular or plural. During their chat with the merchant their guide admits that 'something is wrong' in the town. Both guide and merchant are astonished to hear that Lord Thorn is writing poetry. According to their guide, Thorn had until recently been quite worried about the situation here; he had dismissed some soldiers of the garrison because he didn't trust them, and he seemed to be fearing an attack on the town. Then a week ago he 'went funny' and took the dismissed soldiers back into his service - the philosophers they met at the gate to the keep. Kelsan and Aquila ask questions about the witch in the swamp. She often orders fancy goods from the merchant: sugared plums, gold necklaces, etc, and pays with gold or with favours such as fortune telling. The merchant has a boy who delivers the goods to her, but the boy was chosen for his distinct lack of comeliness, so he doesn't expect any problems. Khelsan and Aquila notice that the merchant has a fancy-work brass casting for sale, a lovely little statuette of a mermaid. He wants 20 silvers for it, but it is really high quality and would be worth far more in the city. It was made by a former miner who lives at the upper end of the town, who has recently developed an interest in making jewelry. For some reason the merchant looks shifty as he tells them this.

 

The other merchant on the main street whom Khelsan and Aquila enquire after had left his shop and gone out that morning, a break from routine that his neighbours found rather unusual. Khelsan and Aquila head up the town to look for the maker of the statuette, appropriately named Art. They find his humble house on one of the highest streets, near the gate at the top end of town. In the main room the table is covered with plaster, ores, wax and other tools of his occupation, and enamels which his wife is working with. Art is an excitable, voluble chap who needs little encouragement to babble enthusiastically about his art. He has only been making things for a couple of months, but he is already producing masterpieces. He says he started with simple brooches, and the inspiration just comes to him in dreams. At the moment he is working on a statuette of a serpent woman. He is looking rather pale and scrawny, so Khelsan gives him two silver pieces!

 

Khatz finishes putting Lord Thorn's poem to music. Then he composes his own poem about a king who was induced to spare the life of a marauding dragon with the gift of an enchanted harp, which bewitched him so that he neglected the safety of his kingdom, allowing the dragon to maraud in peace. Khatz tries it out on a couple of villagers in the inn, and one points out 'That's an allegory, in't it?'. His friend's shocked reaction shows how deeply suspicious the people of Darkwall are of this strange outbreak of culture in their midst.

 

While Khelsan and Aquila are tracking down art and artists, Gen and Lamoniak return to the castle and ask to speak to the Lord's steward. He has gone to the temple in the town, so they follow him there and invite themselves into the inner room where he is talking to the priests of the Horned Man and the Laughing God. The steward is a brusque older man who is not the least bit contaminated or artistic. After Lamoniak has presented their credentials, including their dealings with the supernatural, expressed their interest in the strange happenings in Darkwall, and offered their services should they be considered useful, the steward instructs the priests to 'show them the body!'. In a back chamber is the body of a very old man - but all the Darkwallers swear that he is only about forty. They tell them that the deceased had become obsessed by morbid poetry and had been getting sicker for several months. There is a small wound in the side of his neck, and the corpse is sunken and pallid, as if all his blood has been drained away. The steward and the priests tell them everything they know about this mysterious phenomenon. It started only a few months ago with the miners, and now a third of the town is affected. When pressed, they admit that while they don’t know of it, their Lord might have gone into the mines. The steward is in truth deeply shaken by the change in Lord Thorn, formerly a bold and warlike man well suited to defending a rich mining town from the enemies and things beyond its gates. The steward has taken his own steps to combat this strange menace without quite knowing what he is fighting - he has sent the Lord's son to stay at a distant outpost, and he won't be allowed back until this is over, whatever this is. The players express an interest in visiting the mines, so the priests identify a sane miner whom they can interview at the temple tomorrow. On the other hand, all these questions have aroused some suspicions - the priests warn them that they are not keen to let the Church Militant loose in Darkwall. A few years ago the town burned some Church Militant members for trying to kill a harmless old madman who had wandered into town.

 

Nothing more can be done that night; they return to the castle with the steward. Before the feast Gen slips down to the kitchens and cadges some bunches of garlic from a kitchen boy, sharing it out among the party. The feast is a small and intimate gathering; only the castle inhabitants and the characters. While they eat they are entertained by three women dancing in a graceful and sinuous manner, a style none of them has seen before. The players note a definite theme of women and snakes is emerging. Lord Thorn is deeply moved by Khatz' performance of his poem, but Khatz' allegory on an enchantment that interferes with good government goes right over his head. Some of the castle's other inhabitants react with suspicion, and the steward scowls at Khatz. They sleep that night protected by garlic hanging at all the windows of their rooms.

 

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

The characters pass a peaceful night, and after breakfast return to the temple where the priest introduces them to a non-artistic miner, Duras. His brother has been spouting poetry for the last two months, and when pressed, Duras lays the blame on 'the fairy folk'. He tells them about the mine, and is proud of its long history without serious accidents, due to proper knowledge of the stone being worked and skilled traditional techniques. But now there is *carving* going on down there, which Duras feels is nonsense and “not right”.

 

Duras fetches lamps, candles and rope, and leads them through the mine to the area of the carvings, which involves a fair bit of climbing. The mine is well provided with light and air shafts, a bit of comfort to Bellona, who is feeling rather oppressed (having claustrophobia, she had to keep making EGO rolls). They made their way beside a former stream bed, the stream having worn its path a long way further down, and eventually climb down through a series of such former watercourses, cut sinuously through the rock by the stream. All this time they can hear the tapping of stone chisels and hammers at work. At the lowest level the stream is still flowing through a wide cave, disappearing into a tunnel mouth as the roof approaches the floor again. The sound of a waterfall echoes back up this tunnel.

 

In this cave are some 12 miners, all engaged in carving the walls. At their approach they pause in their work, somewhat unwillingly, to talk about it. The pattern they are making is sinuous, and they explain that it is 'a frame, to guide the eye, or tell a story'. What the center of the design will be they have not yet decided, though they reckon it should be finished in a couple of weeks. According to Duras there is carving other places in the mine, but it is more in the way of doodles for fun and grotesques, not this refined and slightly unsettling artistry. The players speculate that the miners are making a shrine, but this seems too esoteric for any cult that they know of, even the Woman of Tides, aka the Keeper of Secrets. The miners say they are working here in the most distant part of the mine because the stone is so perfect to carve, dark and smooth from ages of water. They feel that the darkness down here adds something too. But they get all evasive when they ask them if they really want their sons to be carving sinuous patterns in a cave instead of mining to support their families. They can't say who first started the carving either; several claim that honour. And their inspiration comes from dreams of wonderful things, 'palaces made of words', unwordly and vivid scenes. This is not what they are carving, but they just had to try and bring some of what they were feeling to life.

 

As they talk there, Gen notices a very faint sweetish smell, possibly with a rotten undertone, and possibly coming from the cave the stream runs into. The others don't notice anything apart from fish-oil lamps and semi-washed miner. The miners tell them that it is dangerous to follow the stream further into the tunnel; there is too much water and the stream disappears suddenly into a sinkhole, the waterfall that they can hear. But Duras says that there is _not_ too much water and it's possibly to walk in the stream if careful; after the sinkhole the former streambed is smooth and dry. He has been down there himself.

 

So Gen volunteers to go along the stream and have a look. Khelsan will hold the end of a rope tied around Gen; the miners volunteer to help, but they politely decline. Gen puts on a candle-headband and sidles along the very smooth streambed for 20 or 30 metres to near the sinkhole - which is where he notices a very obvious and sturdy plank laid horizontally on iron spikes hammered into the wall of the tunnel... bridging the dangerous stretch over the sinkhole so it is easy to get to the other side. Here a perfumed scent is quite noticeable coming from further down the passage, while a faint rotten undertone is just noticeable. At this point Gen decides to turn back – and when trying to turn around, promptly falls off the plank and is washed down the sinkhole! But the sinkhole is not deep and he lands on something crunchy and pointy with the waterfall rushing all around him. When Khelsan feels the tug on the rope he hauls Gen back up the streambed again, rather bruised and breathless, coughing up the water he had inhaled. And smelling of something rotting and organic. Is it just miner lunch and waste products, or is it something else?? Could it be blowing back up a second sinkhole from further down the stream?

 

They leave the mine, and once back outside they pay Duras: 20 sp for lunch, candle-headbands, ropes, lanterns, spikes, hammers - everything that they need to go caving - and his services as guide tonight. They go back to the castle and tell the steward of the castle that they are going to investigate the deeper secrets of the mine, but he is barely interested. In the late evening they unload their loose valuables on their ship and put on armour. Duras leads them back down to the carving gallery - the rotten smell is not noticeable this time. Khelsan hammers a spike into the floor to tie their rope to, and Lamoniak heads down the tunnel first.

 

When Lamoniak gets to the far side of the sinkhole, he can see a light ahead! It is a flickering light source from around a bend in the tunnel. He puts out his candle and eases further along the tunnel - now he can hear voices! He signals all this to Khelsan, who is next, and advances as quietly as he can. Now there is a distinct smell of perfumed lamp oil, and when Lamoniak peers around the bend he can see a couple of chests and carpets, and a few cushions on a rug. By then the group have all made it over the sinkhole and advance en masse. Aquila notices another cave off to the left - and there is a miner standing guard in it! The miner says when noticed, "I told you they'd come back".

 

Stepping forward into the furnished cave Lamoniak can now see six miners, all armed with hammers or similar. (They are all ready, having heard the spike being driven into stone, even over the rush of the water). The leader asks him suspiciously "What do you want here?" Lamoniak boldly replies that he wanted to see 'true carving'. Then a woman's voice from further ahead says 'If you're truly a lover of art, come forward.' And Lamoniak does, while extolling the qualities of the carving he has seen and asserting his conviction that there must be more and better hidden deeper in the mine (with a 23 PRE and lots of points sunk into conversation, he can be very convincing when he wants). The female speaker is an elegantly dressed young woman of bewitching beauty, reclining on the cushions. The miners are still hostile, but the young woman seems greatly charmed by Lamoniak, and he by her. After a cultivated exchange of pleasantries and compliments Lamoniak is sitting on the carpet at her feet. Bellona positions herself some distance behind him as his bodyguard, and fearing to look the woman in the face, keeps her eyes fixed on the carpet – and her ears open. But the rest of the party stay back, not daring to face this kind of threat, even though Lamoniak calls them to join him. Only Khatz does so, and he too throws himself at the woman's dainty little feet. Bellona, strangely enough, is unaffected.

 

The cavern where the woman – who calls herself the Lady Arran - resides contains a variety of material comforts, lit by candles, although the far end of it is dark. In a very few minutes Lamoniak is convinced that the Lady Arran is a woman of peerless beauty and irresistible charm. She frankly admits that the outbreak of culture and art in Darkwall is due to her presence, but is that really so bad? Although Lamoniak and Katz agree eagerly that it is not, Bellona points out crushingly that with the soldiers debating philosophy instead of doing their duty, the town now cannot defend itself from attack by hill bandits. Lady Arran's soothing reply is that 'the first outburst of culture can be overwhelming', but she is sure the initial intensity will soon subside and all will return to normal. From here the evening proceeds like a soirée. Khatz declaims a poem of his own composition and a miner is requested to bring wine for the lady's guests. For a brief time Lamoniak comes to his senses (made his Ego roll) and realises that there is something distinctly uncanny about this enchanting woman hiding underground and meddling with the minds of Darkwall's citizenry. He leaps to his feet, proposing an 'acrobat poem' and trying to draw his flauberge – but before he can manage that, some strange compulsion overcomes his intention! The Lady Arran seems startled that he has acted thus. Nevertheless, while Khatz makes flowery toasts to the lady's beauty, Lamoniak – suspecting poison in the wine, tries to spill it all by balancing the bottles on each other, and contrives instead to balance three wine bottles on top of each other! (rolled a “3” on his non-exstent performance skill)

 

Out in the tunnel the rest of them are losing patience. Khelsan takes the initiative and headbutts the miner who was standing guard in the side passage, knocking him out. But before a great fight can break out Lady Arran calls out 'please don't hurt him!’. The miners obey her and restrain their attacks, as do Khatz and Lamoniak, who is once again overwhelmed by the lady's charm and cultivation. And the rest of them are most reluctant to attack non-aggressive opponents. Before an awkward silence blights the evening Bellona proposes that they call it a night and withdraw, and the Lady Arran agrees. When Lamoniak courteously bids her farewell she kisses him lightly on the neck...

So they return safely to the carving gallery, where Duras is still waiting nervously, and thence back to the ship, where they spend an unexpectedly peaceful night.

 

In the morning Khatz seems to be his old self and to consider that perhaps he acted rather over-effusively in the presence of the Lady Arran. Lamoniak does not (failing his breakout rolls one after the other), and is still full of the lady's praises. He had vivid melancholy dreams last night, of the sand-covered ruins of an ancient city in a desolate endless plain, and when the players notice a drop of blood on his usually spotless collar, he claims he has cut his neck while shaving this morning. Gen gets both of them to draw pictures of the Lady Arran's face - Lamoniak's is by far the better work - but other than being very lovely there is nothing unusual about her face or eyes.

The characters proceed to the steward of the castle and give their report, letting Lamoniak run on at length about the enchanting lady living in the mine. They give every indication that they believe he is mad, but he is vexingly convincing in espousing the Lady Arran's charm and benevolence. Using Magic, Castor confirms that Lamoniak is telling the truth (as he sees it) and is not compelled by magic (as Castor sees it) (GM’s note: having achieved the requisite mind control the “Lady Arran” has chosen to make Lamoniak think his actions are all his own idea – hence his increasingly odd justifications). Even when Khatz tells his tale of being utterly bewitched by the lady and then realising how irrational this was, he does not give a true impression of how sorcerous and dangerous the rest of them found her. They tell their side of the story, desperately, but the steward doesn't know what to think: or more what to do. He’s convinced that something nasty is in the mine, but fears that if he sends soldiers into the mine, they will simply be charmed too. Their options seem to be making an unprovoked attack on a charming, beautiful and peaceable (if slightly eccentric) woman - or letting the entire town of Darkwater sink under her strange artistic influence and hope that it is ultimately as benign (and perhaps as profitable) as she had implied.

 

Their last thought is that they should visit the witch in the swamp, on the grounds that one beautiful magical woman should know how to deal with another. It is then that they recall the merchant's words about the witch from his overnight visit 15 years ago - 'I _thought_ she was comely.'

 

Lamoniak's plans are quite different. This very day he rents a house in the town. It has a large first floor room which he proposes to use as an atelier where Darkwall artists can display their works, and where those works can be marketed to a larger world, which will undoubtedly be profoundly impressed by their quality and pay well to acquire them.

 

The next day, the cut on his neck has still not healed, and continues to bleed weakly…..

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

OK, months ago I bought a new hard drive and reformatted the old one - forgetting that I hadn't backed up the player's story and adventures 2-6 (tears hair).

 

I've finally gotten around to writing some up from my notes, but it'll take me a while to catch up - there's many pages of notes

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

The PCs decide the next day to go visit the witch. They visit the merchant who stayed with her as a boy to get directions and buy a basket of the goodies she is supposed to like. They then set off over the river bridge and along the coast road, which runs inland of the swamp. By late afternoon, they reach a cromlech where the road splits and find an old iron post hammered into the crossroads. The main road runs eastwards, a smaller trail heads south into the hills and a faint trail leads downhill towards the swamp. The players scout the place out and Gen finds that it looks like people have been dancing round the cromlech, though not recently: everyone finds this disturbing, for some reason. Eventually they head down the faint trail, quickly coming to a largish, low cosy-looking house with a thatch roof and white plastered walls. It has a wicker fence and curious gate that forces you to turn sideway to get through it. There’s a brass bell on a post next to it which the players ring and suddenly an old woman’s voice speaks out of the air to them asking what they want. Khatz replies that they want a countercharm and that they bring delicacies. They are invited inside where they are met by a young, comely woman who introduces herself as the old witch’s apprentice. It was she who spoke to them at the gate - she shows them how she can make her voice sound like an old lady’s by speaking through an enchanted brass ring. The witch is currently away gathering special herbs in the heart of the swamp and will be back in a few days: but she is willing to help the PCs if she can. Inside, the house is neatly polished and cleaned, with lots of sun through the broad low windows - not at all what the players expected.

 

She takes the food and wine the players give her to the kitchen and then comes back and casts a spell on Lamoniak – who is still protesting that he’s not charmed and that hopefully, this will finally convince the other PCs that he’s perfectly all right! However the young witch tells the others he’s under a charm. She will break it for them in exchange for the gifts they brought. The young witch says they are welcome to wander about and stay the night but not to go outside at night – which is fast approaching. Also they should refrain fro looking out the windows after darkness if they want to sleep well.

 

The PCs eat a hearty meal and after the meal, the young witch retires into the workroom. After about an hour she comes out, kisses Lamoniak on the back of the next then jumps away as he goes into a cursing fit, realizing at last that he has been charmed. After some discussion, the PCs ask her about protection against charm spells and she allows that she can make such things but that it will take a couple of days and that she would welcome the PCs company – she says she hasn’t seen anyone but the old witch for 2 years. After some haggling, the apprentice agrees to make two charms – one for 40 sp and the second for Khatz for free. She seems to have taken a liking to him and drops some pretty broad hints about where he could sleep if he likes. In the end, the PCs sleep where they can fin space – Khatz and the apprentice in the old witch’s bedroom, which has a big comfy bed. Gen walks into the kitchen and finds a small hunched hairy figure cleaning up (a brownie) – after that he flees and sleeps in the stables, where he discovers there is “something” in the rafters: he doesn’t get much sleep.

 

The next day he finds out it is “probably just a pooka” which doesn’t make him feel happier. The apprentice works all day in the workshop while most of the PCs lounge about in the sun, talking. They find the backyard fence has similar “walk-sideways” gate and a glass bell. Gen and Lamoniak ride the horse back to town to fetch another basket of goodies and more wine Talking to the merchant in town, he is worried – the lad who does his deliveries has disappeared. In fact, the merchant says, the streets seem to have very few children. Gen and Lamoniak immediately rush to the temple, talk with the high priest and then go to the castle and meet with the castle chamberlain. They decide to check what’s going on, and go into town and visit several families. They soon learn that many families are keeping their children indoors “because something’s not right” - but other families (those with parents who have suddenly become “artistic”) have no children in the house. They give vague explanations – “Oh they’re probably out playing” or “They’re probably fishing” etc. Some of the children concerned are quite young so this seems implausible, but the parents don’t seem worried by the children’s absence. The PC and the steward are very worried, though. On the way back, Gen notices that Lamoniak’s small neck wound has still not healed. They get back – with some anxiety – just on nightfall and while they talk with the witch’s apprentice about the fey folk of the swamp a real feast is whipped up by the things in the kitchen. They ask her about the missing children and the young witch seems upset – she says it might be a Leanne Sidhe – a kind of fey, but that she and the fay had made a deal to leave the town alone. She advises the PCs to get some cold iron and gives them the charms she has made – necklaces of woven flowers and herbs. She and Khatz retire, the rest bed down in the main room by the fire.

 

GMs note: Khatz didn’t tell the other PCs about this, but he wakes up in the morning to find himself sharing a bed with a raddled, fat old woman who bears more than a passing resemblance to a giant toad. She cackles and tells him she’s been well paid for her work, but that it’s exhausting keeping her glamour on especially while – as she puts it – “distracted”. She invites him to stay longer if he likes and that she can give him a drink to take the memory away, but Khatz flees the bedroom in horror and the party is soon up and on the road.

 

Back in town, they meet with the chamberlain who has had men searching the town in the meantime. There is no doubt that children are missing and he is now prepared to help the players however he can – without asking Lord Thorn. They lay plans. The Chamberlain calls up all the guards he considers “reliable” and arranges them to block off entrance to the mine from early next morning so no miners go in. The players will then enter the mine and deal with whatever’s in there. The chamberlain also manages to provide several sheafs of arrows with cold iron heads, reserved for “special targets”. The players gather their equipment and prepare as best they could and stay the night in Lamoniak’s house. Early the next morning before it’s fully light, they go to the minehead where a wall of soldiers is keeping the miners out. The miners are unhappy but make no effort to push through. Guided by Duras the miner, the players light lanterns and head into the dark and forbidding mine.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

The PCs penetrate into the mine which is even darker and creepier with no miners working there. They reach the carving cave which is dark and silent and then pause. Aquila slips forward and stealthily feels his way forward through the darkness. He sees a light and soon, a miner on guard with a heavy hammer, but coming on them out of the darkness, managed to take him out before he can make much noise. Lamoniak and Khatz lead the charge into the cavern beyond wearing their witch-charms, followed by Gen and Belllona. They are met by two more miners who are swiftly cut down, but Gen, looking into a shadowed cleft in the rock, looks straight into the Lady Arran’s eyes and is swiftly charmed. A quiet whisper from her and he leads the others away from the spot, while she darts away. A miner who was guarding her also runs out to cover her retreat. Khelsen however spots her and charges in and strikes her a mighty blow. His blow throws her back against the wall and she collapses. Lamoniak engages the last miner and somewhat to his surprise, the man sinuously dodges his attack and in return strikes him in the face sending him reeling back stunned. An instant later Lamoniak is seized, hoisted over the miner’s head and hurled at Khatz. They both go down. The form of the fallen lady Arran shimmers – and turns back into a dying miner. The players realize the only miner still up is actually the Lady Arran, hidden by a magical disguise. Bellona tries to intercept her but at an arcane gesture her clothes start to writhe, her chainmail tries to strangle her and her swords twist in her hands like snakes. This slows the lady Arran down enough for Castor to grapple her and Khelsen strikes her another mighty blow while Gen shakes off his enchantment with an effort of will. The “lady” suddenly shimmers and turns into a creature half scaly woman and half giant snake, with draconic wings: Castor recoils and the creature screeches “Why are you persecuting me?” before launching itself into the air. It flies over Castor’s head, just barely scraping the cavern roof and disappears into the darkness, back into the mines. The PCs give chase but soon break off the pursuit realizing that they cannot catch it. They search the cavern, bind the wounds of the surviving miners and carry the dead and wounded back to the surface. When they arrive they find the crowd milling about and soon find out that the creature flew out of the minehead, but that as it came out into the sun gave a terrible screech, looked at though it burst into rainbow coloured flames and then few or dropped out of sight behind the houses. The Chamberlain has led a squad of soldiers in pursuit and the PCs rush off in support. The miners taken from the cavern are carted off to the temple – they do not seem to be charmed any more. After a couple of hours the players admit defeat: they cannot find the monster and word has gotten out that there is a monster loose in the city. They have a meeting at the castle, where the Chamberlain tells them that the Lord Thorn does not seem to be any different. He’s at his wit’s end and asks the players to find and kill the creature. During the discussion, the PCs note that Lamoniak’s neck wound has finally stopped bleeding, which they take as a good sign. At that point, some guards turn up to say that many townspeople have come up to the castle – it seems that quite a lot of families are missing children, and the parents – some of them now apparently uncharmed – are frantic. The players mention the smelly sinkhole in the mines and the chamberlain quickly goes off to get together a search party of soldiers and miners to check it out. The players go to the big inn by the docks to get something to eat and drink and as soon as they enter – it’s packed – people cry out to know what going on. Khatz tell sthe whole story in dramatic fashion and asks if the monster was cut out of the rock in the mine – but no one knows. The story of the missing children comes up and the PCs try to persuade the crowd to bring all the children to the market square so that those missing can be identified – there’s some debate over this. When the players ask about strangers, the crowd turns ugly and two traveling peddlers narrowly escape a lynching before order is restored and people found who can vouch for them.

 

At that point the soldiers and miners turn up with sandbags and equipment. Everyone goes back into the mine and after searching fruitlessly through the monster’s caverns, they sandbag the stream to divert it and lower Aquila on a rope into the sinkhole. After a minute or two he comes up with a small child’s skull. He says there are others down there and perhaps some other large bones – caught in a narrow gap. He guesses anything smaller washed through – now the water is not flowing, there is an evil smell coming up out of the hole. Grimly the miners retrieve the bones and then the PCs and the soldiers carry away several large chests and some fine carpets from the creature’s cave. They finally emerge and show the bones to the chamberlain (who calls a general assembly) and to the locals who are deeply shocked, with several women breaking down. While that’s going on the PCs go to the temple. The priestess of the Crying Woman, the local healer has turned up (she’s been away on a circuit of outlying villages the last couple of weeks). This causes some suspicion which requires several rounds of divinatory spells to sort out and ensure that everybody present is, in fact, human. Then they go about getting the chests (which are beautiful and were apparently made by a local carpenter – the man whose body they earlier saw) open. After checking for traps and secret doors, Aquila gets them open and they are found to contain beautiful jewellery and clothes – for both men and women, plus scrolls. Some of them have poetry, some are written in a language no-one can read, although the priest of the Black Man identifies it as being the script of the northern continent far away across the Great Shallows. Also in the chest they find a hairbrush with several radiant hairs in it. Khatz uses his magic gift “the Hound Inescapable” to scry these and sees a dark, dank cellar with chests and boxes. They hasten back to the castle. First they check the castle cellars, but find nothing. Half the weary soldiers go house to house searching cellars, but find nothing as nightfall approaches. The other half also go house to house checking on missing children: it seems that some of the townsfolk are still charmed and the disturbing discovery is made that in houses with missing children, many of the women are pregnant. The chamberlain orders a curfew. Tonight only the PCs and guard will be on the street – no-one is to be alone - and they will be ordered to kill anyone else they see. While the guard searches cellars the PCs go to the carpenter’s house where he was found dead. The place is a mess. They search the cellar and find nothing, then go upstairs. In one bedroom the shutters are still open and in the bed in that room, they find several small iridescent scales. The PCs shudder at the thought of the thing slithering in through the window, curling up in the carpenter’s bed and sucking his blood. They find his journal, which recorded journeys into the nearby forests to get specific types of wood. Did he meet the creature there? There are many strange things in the deep woods (GM’s note: that is what happened. The creature, a Leanne Sidhe – also called a lamia – charmed him and he opened his window to it. Typically a lamia drains the victim’s blood while he or she sleeps and may also consort with them in illusionary form. This gives the victim wild dreams and awakes a fervid creativity but eventually kills them. This particular lamia had another plan. Instead of draining its victim to death, it consorted with multiple victims, keeping them alive for longer, sating its life hunger on the children, and hoping to stay in the town and feed for a long time).

 

The players go back to Lamoniak’s house to rest before the night and to re-equip. They suddenly realize that this house also has a cellar – which hasn’t been searched. They haul up the trapdoor in the kitchen and Khatz confirms that this is the place of his vision. The PCs slowly enter the cellar and find a young man hiding behind a box. He comes out, with his hands up saying that he didn’t know why he was here – he just had a strong compulsion to come here. As the party encircle him Castor uses his mind reading spell and shouts “He’s not a human!” Khatz and Bellona attack, hacking into him and the “man” disintegrates into a roughly shaped figure of mud, which collapses. At the same time, Gen feels a sword prick his back and a voice hisses “Draw back or he dies – if you attack I’ll run him through”. The party draws around but not too close and the monster tries to parley with them swearing to leave and never come back if they will let it out, now that the sun is sinking. When they refuse guessing (correctly) that it would simply go elsewhere to prey on people, the creature tries to bargain saying that it is ancient and wise, that it knows what they seek – 6 Samadrians bent on finding an ancient ruined city in the far south and that it will tell them what they need to know if they let it go. Several people in the party seem to be considering thisoffer so Gen shouts “Remember the children!” and tries to run away. The monster thrusts its sword right through his back and out his chest, despite his light armour and he goes down in a spray of blood. Castor tries to staunch his wound and is attacked by the monster, but Bellona gets a solid cut to its head and another blow slices its forearm off. The monster screams, the sound being so intense that Castor and Khatz are stunned, but the Monster is also stunned and in a flash Bellona takes one sword in both hands and slices its head off. Instantly the creature turns to stone, looking like an old and much battered statute, and then it shatters into chunks. Khelsen scoops up the dying Gen and they sprint to the temple where the high priestess is able to heal him just before he expires. Everyone is relieved but both Khatz and Lamoniak also feel a deep sense of loss – and the artistic talents they had begun to show vanish: they find that neither of them can sketch worth a damn anymore.

 

They are not the only ones. As several of the PCs head to the castle through the twilit streets to inform the Chamberlain what has happened, they hear sobbing and lamentation from several houses that they pass.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: And off we go!

 

I love these write-ups! So glad that you can post them again. Rep forthcoming when I've spread it around some more.

[Manic Typist]

Re: And off we go!

 

My God what a game! What a group! Excellent!