Session 32

RUMOURS OF WAR

Sunstrong 15 - Thistleburn 5, 4433
10 days passed during the session
2 subjective days passed in your most recent trip into the Forest of Dreams

Characters:

Gorr, ranger 5
Daqqa-Jin, barbarian 4
Robert the Unconstitutional, fighter 5
Eric Withakay, cleric 5
Salzige Brauen, necromancer 2
Lord Fesgate, fighter 4 (NPC)

Smuggling

The group headed out of the Forest of Dreams, ready to sell their ill-gotten gains in Viridistan. The Night Wolf Inn was as normal: some red-skinned Altanians and pale, fiercely painted Amazons were drinking in the tavern. Salzige attempted to interact with the warrior-women but was rebuffed, amidst the jeers of the eastern barbarians.

On the way back to Viridistan, a great traffic jam of farmers, merchants & travellers had formed outside the Great Wall. Daqqa-Jin went up to the gate and learned that due to a distant war, Emperor Seheitt was instituting new taxes. 

The party split up. Gorr, Fesgate and Salzige remained in the Forest of Dreams for a few days. Fesgate still had a broken leg, and Gorr's sanity was beginning to fray after many battles with the undead! Robert and Daqqa-Jin went through the gate on foot and proceeded into Viridistan.

In the Emerald City, everyone was talking about THE WAR! It was clear that news of the disaster on the sacred mountain [Session 18] had finally reached the general populace. Many rumours swirled. The most significiant: Shah Kijdawr is stretched thin and has few troops available to counter this new threat. Everyone is waiting for the Emperor to step in and send one of the Vasthosts north, but so far this has not happened.

Prices are up! Metal ores, lumber, wine & other goods have increased in price, leading to overall higher cost of living. Temples are sending priests & magic to help deal with the threat, increasing prices for religious services, spellcasting, scrolls, etc.

At Seven Visions, mistress Zvezdana Ozi had news. If the group wanted, she could call in that favour and put them in touch with some 'scary characters' who would be happy to buy some of the strange magical items they had recovered a few sessions ago. They decided to table this for now, and worked out a plan to smuggle their treasure into town.

The party brought their treasure to Targnol port [last seen in Session 2] where they contacted a shady character named Tilki who put them in the hold of a logging boat with a nice bribe to the captain. When they got to Viridistan they were picked up in a small dinghy and brought into town by one of the boat-people, a strange folk who live their whole lives in connected networks of boats & rafts on the waters of the Nereus Firth. This got them into the heart of town and past the guards at the Great Wall, for a simple 10% cut to their patron, Zvezdana.

She identified some of the group's items (including a robe of eyes, sweet) and they did a few errands in town & caught up on the news. Patchey, the proprietor of the Dragon's Eye Inn, gave them a letter that arrived a few days prior, which said only:

Meet me at the Green Lion statue at mid-day this week. The pelagic argosy sights land.

Knowing this was their Inquisition contact, Daqqa-Jin and Robert went to the meeting by the Green Lion, an ancient statue in the middle of a wide plaza by the sea. A shifty viridian who called himself Bolivar greeted them. He wanted to know what they had discovered about the Night Wolf Inn, but Daqqa-Jin didn't tell him anything he really liked. Some haggling (and subtle or not-so-subtle insinuations) followed. Bolivar said if they could give him something really useful about the Inn Master, or the overall agenda of the Guild, he could maybe see about helping them with a special gate pass to bypass the tax-collectors at the Great Wall.

Return to the Moonlit Zone

The group caught up with Rain in the Night Wolf Inn's smoking room. They saw a strange enigma - the animal heads on the walls animated and chanted in an unknown language. 

The elven bard explained the workings of the magical Four Winds Bar and the command words to activate it. She once owned one of these rare & powerful magic items, but traded it many years ago for her magical mandolin. The finding of this item seemed a respectable achievement. Rain listened with interest to the group's plans for the future and offered advice about the Inn's cellars.

Back in the Forest of Dreams, the group progressed further into the Moonlit Zone. They passed through the ruins of an old town now overgrown with trees. They passed by an old structure decorated with the sign of a red cross and two snakes, only glancing inside briefly. 

Coming to a clearing littered with buildings, they were spotted by a group of tall humanoids with the heads of snarling jackals & black eyes, covered in silvery fur. Battle was joined! The humanoids charged while a few of their fellows fired bows from cover.

Justin: "Just call me Michael Vick!"
DM: *laughs in horror*
Chris: "Not exactly, you didn't cast charm on them and make them fight each other!"

It didn't take long for the group to defeat their foes, with the last two jackal-men casting themselves on the group's mercy.  

Jackal-man: "We surrender! No kill!"
John: "This isn't a no-kill shelter..."

Chris: "I'll fire at the fleeing archer." *volley of arrows hit, the jackal-man dies*
Justin: "Gorr's arrows sent that one to a farm upstate!"

The group interrogated the survivors, learning a handful of details about the region and the name of their master, a moon-man named Kucmalôg.

Other Things That Happened

Gorr rested in the Forest of Dreams in the boughs of Grandfather Tree for a subjective 5 months! [recovering 5 fear points in this time] The wise tree spoke of many obscure & ancient things through the sighing of branches and the whistling of the wind. The ranger can't remember much, but perhaps in time this lore will come back to him...

Gorr is still suffering from madness at this time - he is capable of fighting at a distance with a bow but if things get too stressful or monsters/strangers get too close, I will have to make a roll to see if he loses his composure!

Salzige has been learning spells! The stone idol of a winged, monkey-like humanoid speaks to him in his dreams. After a few weeks, he awoke feverishly one morning and transcribed the spell chill touch into his spellbook. A few days later, he had terrible nightmares. Although he could not afterwards recall them, he was so shaken that for two days, even ordinary tasks were quite difficult [if he had been adventuring some penalties would have applied]

Monsters Defeated:

10 white gnolls - 8 killed, 2 surrendered (470 xp)

Treasure Found:

none

Treasure Turned In:

giant gold statue of Ahmon-Ibor
2x purple gemstone eyes (Robert kept these)
2x crimson incense (Eric kept for tithing)
silver grave trinket
silver plate set
2x silver scimitars
9x jewelry from Tannoch crypts (Gorr kept a red cross medal, Daqqa-Jin kept a gold chain)
glass-fronted scroll case (magic scrolls inside were kept)
scroll of sanctuary

Money Awarded:

Young Joe Spruce: 801 sp 

Cost of Living:

[I didn't want to spend time calculating this during the session. I will remind each of you next time]

Gorr: 235 sp
Daqqa-Jin: 97 sp
Eric: 163 sp
Robert: 168 sp
Salzige: 40 sp
Cassia: 11 sp
Xénos: 27 sp
Joe Spruce: (already deducted above)

Experience Totals:

Daqqa-Jin has reached level 4!
Robert the Swift has reached level 5!
Young Joe Spruce has reached level 3!

Session 21

DEATH IN THE GARDENS
Warmshade 16-18, 4433

Characters:

Gorr, Ranger 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 4
Suba-Jin the Three-Handed, cleric of Hextor 4
Eric Withakay, Cleric of Solaris 4
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

The Mansion

The group entered Dimorites Mansion though huge granite doors. Inside they found a huge chapel to 137 Undivided - the entire Imperial pantheon. Lamps and censers remained perpetually lit, filling the room with faint light and spicy smells. A huge painting of the 11 gods graced the ceiling. A great stone hand stood at the back, in front of another painting of a terrible battle: Viridian armies with wizards & demons fought against armies of Tharbrians and the Invincible Overlord's troops. A two-headed, tentacled demon towered over the scene.

There were ten pillars in the room, each carved with a hand making a peculiar sign:
a closed fist, palm foreward
middle finger
the horns

full hand palm-out

bottom 2 fingers folded, facing down

index finger pointing up
thumb & index in a circle, backhanded
V for victory
thumb across palm, outwards

thumb tucked in, backhand

Suba-Jin tried to touch them in an order that might correspond to the gods on the ceiling mural. After the first four (V, fist, bottom 2 fingers folded, horns) the censers emitted a purple gas which sapped the group's strength! He tried again, touching another four (thumb & index circle, pointing, thumb across palm out, thumb tucked in backhand), but it drew the same mists and he fled the room. 

The group moved on. The other chapel door was locked so they walked along the porch, looking for other entrances.

In a small garden clearing beside the porch, they spotted several makeshift graves but decided not to investigate. The next clearing held a few dead bodies that looked like Dushan's Dervishes. Their armour & weapons lay scattered around. Robert & Eric went down to search the bodies when Eric began acting strangely, yelling that he was "sinking" and frantically pulling off his chainmail. While Robert puzzled over this, a shambling plant creature emerged from the undergrowth!

Its initial attack caught Eric unprepared. The plant slapped him with a tendril, enveloping his face in a cloud of pollen. He began to choke as he fled. Lord Fesgate and Robert fought it up-close while a barrage of missile attacks from Gorr and Suba-Jin ended it. After a slow poison spell, Eric's breathing wasn't getting any worse, but it wasn't getting better either. He could barely stand.

The group retreated to the pavilion with the magical fountain (from last session). There they found a pair of giant butterflies who guarded their favourite hangout jealously. The butterflies were destroyed by a wave of missile attacks and a burning hands spell (Suba-Jin's gift from his patron god Hextor) but not before a cloud of glittering pollen had poisoned everyone seriously. The group was in rough shape!

Drinking from the magic fountain didn't cure Eric, but it did slow two of the other party members. There was nothing for it, and the group tried to get out so they could have Eric's condition cured. They hustled out of the gardens, barely pausing to speak with a giant talking worm with a fucked-up voice that called itself Germander.

They dragged Eric through the tunnels under the streets and back to Sesto's work crew. Seeing the dire state the group was in, Sesto lent them a few of his wheelbarrows and agreed to meet them later at the Dragon's Eye. They ran through the streets of Cliffside, hoping against hope... but it wasn't to be. Eric was dead before they reached the district gates.

(In all the confusion, the group forgot about ME! the piglet. Where did he end up?)

Back In The City

Eric Withakay was dead. They decided to visit the battle-dome of Hextor, to see if Suba-Jin could arrange to have him raised to life again. They were granted an audience with Maral Saqqaf, one of the higher-ranked priests in the temple. He said this thing was possible, but only Patriarch Dumitrescu could accomplish it. To command the Patriarch's time, a sizeable sacrifice was required: 7,500 silver pieces' worth!

The group asked for a few days to get the money together. Robert, Suba-Jin and Lord Fesgate headed to the Night Wolf Inn to retrieve some treasure.

While that was happening, Gorr took care of Eric's body - mainly by having several big tattoos commissioned in the rest of the group's likenesses! He also spoke to Sesto who came to stay at the Dragon's Eye Inn that night. The stonemason wanted 10% of the party's take going forward as a finder's fee & for helping them past the guards. Gorr gave him 50 silver and he seemed happy with it. 

[Chris, remind me how much Gorr wants to spend on the tattoos. It's going to cost 70-120 coins depending on the tattoo's workmanship. You pick how good they should be: dockside sailor quality will be brass coins, okay bazaar-grade is copper, good quality costs silver, top-tier gold]

At the Night Wolf Inn, the group spoke with the affable concierge James Everbleed. He was sad to hear about Eric's passing but hoped they could bring him back. Suba-Jin asked about the strange demon they had seen in the painting earlier, but he didn't know anything about it. Lord Fesgate joined the guild, got the black wolf tattoo and felt pretty good about it. 

The trio stayed in Room IV: Restful Seas. A small wooden cabana rested on a wooden raft, beached on a grey sandbar amidst an endless turquoise ocean. Copper & blue clouds drifted in a burning pink sky. Hammocks were strung between the palm trees. On the bedside table, Suba-Jin found a strange item. After some fiddling, it produced a deafening BANG! and a hole in a nearby palm tree. After this display, he took it for his own:

With this odd item and thousands of coins in hand, the trio prepared to leave. On their way out, James told them to make a point of returning on Midsummer's Day, almost two months from now. The Inn was going to have a garden party and all guild members, as well as interested non-members, were invited.

Back in Viridistan, the group spent 7,500 silver on holy oils, incense, candles, fatted calves & other sacrificial items for the church of Hextor. With everything prepared, the steely-eyed Patriarch Dumitrescu made his appearance, a hale man in his '50s. After much pomp, he cast the fearsome magick and Eric rose to life.

The group helped Eric walk back to the Dragon's Eye and ran into an aristocrat, lost in side-streets. Suba-Jin and Robert offered to escort him back to Hightown. After a run-in with some injured city guards that Suba-Jin helped with some cure magic, they delivered the man (Theodosio by name) to his family's estate. By way of thanks, he gave them his gold-capped walking stick, and the pair resolved to split the money from it two ways.

Back at the Dragon's Eye, the proprietor "Patchey" had a letter for the group written in a careful elven hand:

"Friends,

I hope your recent adventures haven't been too taxing. My sources have reported a great disaster in the Starrcrag Mountains and I can't help but fear for you. Surely you succeeded in retrieving the items asked for? If so please leave a message with the barkeep. I will send further instructions.

-Lothos"

Roughly 2 days passed during this session.

Monsters Defeated:

2 giant butterflies
1 ambulatory spore-plant

Treasure Gained:

gold-tipped walking stick

**LAST 3 SESSIONS SUMMARY**

Treasure Traded In:

5 gems: 4 small assorted & 1 larger spinel (530 sp total)
1 electrum crescent (250 sp)
gold-tipped walking stick (320 sp - Robert & Suba-Jin split it)
Suba-Jin couldn't find anyone who wanted to buy his monster trophies

Loot & Cost of Living:

Gorr:  -29 sp
Eric:  -5 sp
Suba-Jin:  178 sp
Robert:  170 sp
Meep:  -31 sp
Young Joe Spruce:  10 sp

Experience:

Session 16

TO THE SACRED MOUNTAIN

1-14 Warmshade, 4433

Characters:

Gorr, Ranger 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 3
Suba-Jin, Cleric of Hextor 4
Eric Withakay, Cleric of Solaris 4
Regetus Rex, Illusionist 2
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

A Mysterious Missive

At the Veterans' Association, Robert the Swift received a strange letter. The one-armed barman and inveterate gossip Primoz said that "some knife-ear" had brought it the night before. The rest of the group, staying at The Dragon's Eye Inn (a local hot-spot) were handed a similar letter by the tough-looking proprietor, Patchey. 

It read thusly:

*****

Comrades,

I hope this missive finds you well, and the adventuring life hasn’t left you worse for wear. My thanks for your show of support during my testing. I hope you understand that I had no time for socializing. Indeed, my admission to the Gloaming Tower has opened up such paths of arcane knowledge that I am unable to pursue an opportunity that came my way recently.

A new colleague at the Tower is obsessed with some ancient once-lost treasure. She just heard a rumour from the Starrcrag Mountains, and is hiring mercenaries to search for some ancient relic or other. Knowing my adventuring past, she offered me a place in the expedition. Instead I pass this information on to you.

What I know is this:

The village of Mishell is between the Starrcrag Mountains and the Missing Memory Marshes. It can be reached in about two weeks if you take a boat upriver. The rumour comes from a man named Tjaard, a mountaineer of some kind. Find him, learn what he knows and claim the items.

The treasure itself is two pieces: The first is a large oil painting. The second is an item depicted in the painting itself. She didn’t elaborate on this point.

She is planning to send at least one group of mercenaries to claim this prize. I would advise swiftness if you intend to win it for yourself.

My colleague is completely obsessed. I get the distinct impression that recovering just one item or the other would be insufficient for her purposes. I will pay your group four thousand silver for the recovery of the painting and the other item, whatever it turns out to be. I will contact you six weeks from now in the same manner as today, and I hope to hear happy news.

Ever Yours,
Lothos

*****

After some debate the group decided a trip to the mountains was more agreeable than venturing into the undercity to breathe in more poison gas. Before leaving town, Regetus Rex borrowed some money from his friends to pay off his debts to a street vendor. While way too drunk he had spent 200 silver pieces on exotic stuffed birds, which now adorned his room at the Dragon's Eye.

They paid for passage up the River Leander through the Elsenwood on a grain barge staffed by sullen Ghinoran workers. The river was crowded with boats to & from the capital carrying all manner of trade goods. The Imperial Navy kept the major shipping routes safe, and the river trip was mostly boring. They stopped in Caer Cadwen, the ancient fortress turned provincial capital, but didn't get into any trouble.

Finally disembarking in the village of Smale, they took horses through the hills and avoided the marshes. They were rumoured to be prowled by an enormous electric eel which destroyed boats and fried the passengers with its lightning.

The hills had an agreeable, summery climate after the relentless heat of Viridistan. Gradually the weather got cooler as they approached the Starrcrag Mountains until they found Mishell in the foothills. The peaks above were covered in snow, but in the valleys were vineyards tended by dwarves, the source of the wine which was the village's only export.

Mishell was small, built by & for the dwarves. The party posted up in the cramped, smoky, low-ceilinged tavern. They met the publican Rollo and spoke to him for a while, bought a round for the locals and waited. Tjaard showed up at the end of the day. He turned out to be a dwarf who did odd jobs, working for the loggers or miners up in the mountains or, rarely, as a guide for travellers who came to the region.

Tjaard said that a few months ago, he had been separated from his friends in a storm on the mountain and wandered into a ruined fort. Inside he found a painting on the wall that showed him holding a golden cup. Filled with superstitious dread, he had run all the way down the mountain, barely making it back alive. Nobody believed his story, but some weeks later an elf had come to town and seemed very interested in the tale. He hadn't thought about it much since then.

He was willing to lead the party to the fort, but a storm was brewing on the mountaintop. The group decided to leave first thing in the morning, hoping to get up & down before the storm got really bad. They paid Tjaard to guide them up the mountain and set out. The sky was overcast and it got painfully cold quickly. Most of the party had never seen snow in their lives, and they were all thankful for the winter gear they brought with them. 

Halfway up the group came upon a gruesome scene in the deep snow. A small camp of loggers had been attacked. Each man was slain by animal bites or gored by horns, and their hearts ripped from their chests! There were plenty of signs of battle and bloodstains, but no tracks leading away. Tjaard was distraught - these dwarves & men were all known to him. The group helped themselves to a few bits of gear and progressed up the mountain. 

The snow began to fall faster & heavier.

The Fort

At the mountain's summit, on a plateau of jagged rocks & snow lay the old fortress. Once three floors or higher, it was barely more than one story now, its ceiling all fallen in. It looked like a round pillbox with snowdrifts piled up around it. Tjaard left them there, heading back down the mountain to seek shelter from the worsening storm and await their return. He was too afraid to enter a second time.

Inside the fort, the group found a great deal of strangeness. The walls were covered in archaic runic script that no-one had ever seen before. Soft harp music emanated from somewhere.

A vast pit covered in a rusted metal grate yawned in the center of the hall. The bottom was too far down to see.

The preserved head of a deer was mounted on one wall. Rex took the eyes, which were glass spheres filled with cold blue liquid. 

An old grandfather clock was still ticking, although its time was inaccurate. Suba-Jin tried messing with the hands by turning them forward an hour and vanished from everyone's sight! One hour later he reappeared, not realizing what had happened - as if he had been sent forward through time.

An old mirror rested against one wall, it seemed to function normally to Suba-Jin and nobody else messed with it.

Rex opened an enormous book on a lectern. It was inscribed in varying inks, varying handwriting. It was a list of names & dates. The latest entries were from a few hundred years ago, and the names were recognizable. The last name written down was Kayin Davtyan - 6 Blackmoon 4265 BCCC. Other names logged in the book around that time are familiar-sounding, from all over the Empire.

Towards the end of the book, it uses the common calendar beginning around the year 4000. Before that were groups of years named after people: Vincachius 1-30, Carpathia 1-49, Arnolliac 1-3, Carnithrax 1-80, etc. Turning to the beginning of the book, Rex found a strange calendar system which began at 0 and counted up to 5000 at least! What could it mean? The book obviously held many more secrets, but it was too heavy to carry so the group left it where it was for now.

[DM's note -- Year 0 BCCC is the official creation date of the world by most religions (ie. 4400 years ago). I added more detail here than I described during the session, because I didn't want to look it up in the middle of the game. Good researching, Nick!]

They found a harp, the source of the strange music. Nobody was playing it, the music simply emanated from it.

In the same room was the painting they sought. It showed the whole party standing in a small room before a crude stone altar adorned with skulls. Suba-Jin and Eric were holding fist-sized spheres of glowing glass, while Robert was in the center drinking from an ornate golden cup. A grey skeletal statue loomed over them, and light shone down from above. Two doorways could be seen in the background, leading into darkness. 

They removed the 6'x4' painting from its frame and rolled it up.

In three glass display cases they found an old book, a golden mask and a rusty bronze axe. They all showed as magical, so the cases were smashed & looted. In the same room was a heavy stone trapdoor in the floor. They left it alone for the moment.

On the upper floors they found a room of strange torture devices and some dormitories. These were investigated and a crude wooden mask was found, filled with real human teeth. The thing was ugly and smelled bad, but they kept it.

One room on the upper floor was inaccessible except by rope. Gorr snuck up to take a look, and found a flock of sleeping creatures. Hideous hybrids with the heads of stags and the bodies of huge birds - Perytons! One creature was larger than the other and looked different. Where a stag's rack of antlers would be, this demon had a strange organic candelabra with seven black candles, each burning with a supernatural green flame.

A plan of attack was devised, and the group assaulted the perytons from both sides. Rex's colour spray spells were used to devastating effect. The party sustained a few injuries but killed all four of the perytons. The candelabra-headed one was a tougher opponent, and seemed almost impossible to injure. When a few of its candles were knocked off its head it decided to cut and run, flying out of a hole in the ceiling and into the blizzard. During the battle, Robert found the rusty axe quite useful - it seemed to be especially powerful against the blinded creatures.

The lumberjacks' missing hearts were found here - sizzling on a fire in the center of the room! Rex threw snow onto it to bank down the heat, and the hearts were tossed outside into the snow. Underneath the group found a few gems, which they pocketed.

With the beasts slain, the party considered their next move. The snow outside fell heavier and heavier, and there seemed no way to go except - down!

*****

Monsters:

4 Perytons (980 xp)

Treasure:

old book
serene golden mask
ugly wooden mask
rusted magical axe
3 greenish-black candles
1 smoky quartz
1 emerald
mysterious painting