Olympus RPG Blog

Wherein the Expedition Begins a Campaign to Retake Castle Defiant…

After many difficult days of travel, the grand expedition now stands before the ruins of Castle Defiant. The celebratory mood of the smallfolk wanes somewhat when they are not allowed to rush forward to these ruins, but are rather redirected to the crumbling remains of Galentown where they are instructed to raise tents while the soldiers work on scouting out the environs and erect defensive fortifications. These are the Orclands, after all.

While this transpires, Finn will lead a small team of explorers (also known as his fellow PCs) to scout out the castle ruins to ensure that there are no troubles or foul beasts waiting in ambush. Only after he gives the all clear will the expedition look toward entering the castle and working on rebuilding it. Eager to prove himself, Finn accepts this task.

The explorers first do a wide sweep of the ruined castle with an eye toward verifying that there isn’t an inconveniently placed tribe of orcs on the other side, although both Haruki and Ilanna are barely able to conceal their impatience and desire to just get on with the poking around in the ruins. Zistral notes many tracks in the area, many of which he is unable to identify but appear to be large and relatively humanoid. Thankfully, there do not appear to be any lurking orcs waiting in ambush – or, if there are, the explorers failed to notice them – so they press on into the castle ruins themselves.

As expected, they find the interior of the castle to be a complete mess. Weeds from a once pristine garden have overgrown everything and it is clear that nature has started to reclaim this place. There are skeletal remains of fallen defenders everywhere, including within the castle’s well. While looking around, Arn notices movement on the upper levels and discreetly advises Finn who then passes word to the others. They look around for a way to reach these levels. Despite finding two sets of stairs, several of the explorers – Ilanna, Thorondil, and Yusuf – opt the climb up a broken wall while the rest plan to ascend stairs (particularly since Zistral is a Centaur and they suck at climbing.)

Haruki and Zistral head up the stairs first, but as they do, they disturb some sort of strange-looking slimy moss that begins to crawl toward Haruki’s legs and up his boot which the centaur notices. The two promptly retreat back down the stairs upon noting just how extensive this slime is, coughing as spores are kicked up. Above them, Ilanna and Thorondil investigate the very loud noises of the two moving down the stairs, and Ilanna recognizes the moss as ‘slime mold,’ a dangerous flesh-eating thing that puts its victims to sleep via the spores. The elves usually burn it out. Rather than risk this at the moment, the four on the lower level decide to take the other set of stairs up, despite them being much narrower which makes for more difficult going for the larger members of the team.

Upstairs, the two groups begin to converge with Ilanna in the vanguard. They enter a large room where several of them sense another presence but press forward. As Ilanna rounds a corner, she surprises a waiting creature she recognizes as a troll and springs back out of its reach; the beast pursues and strikes, but Ilanna dodges so well that the creatures lumbers past her. She then wheels around and shoots the troll squarely in the back of the head; her arrow strikes the beast’s brain and it falls. Thorn’dil has had a ringside seat to this and the others scramble to investigate the noise but find Ilanna leaning upon her bow and looking thoroughly pleased with herself. She calmly advises them that the creature will regenerate and will need to be decapitated, which Thorn’dil starts doing.

And then, another troll rushes from concealment and charges Yusuf! A fierce melee ensues with the three heavy fighters of the group – Haruki, Yusuf and Zistral – bashing away at the troll. Badly injured, the troll begins to retreat but the three pursue and Haruki finally lunges forward to smash its head to paste with his tetsubo.

While investigating this upper level, the great size of both Haruki and Zistral results in them falling through the already weakened floor; at first, it seems as though Haruki might be able to hold on and Zistral might be able to escape this fate, but the centaur’s attempts to help his ally results in both tumbling down. While looking for a way to aid them, Ilanna briefly catches sight of a bizarre-looking thing near where the two are and recognizes it as an Elder Thing, a sphere of madness. She advises Finn who hesitates for a moment – the logical course of action is for those on the upper level to head for the stairs and navigate down – and in this moment of hesitation, both Thorn’dil and Yusuf chose to begin climbing down. Thus, the decision is made and the three remaining upstairs – Arn, Finn and Ilanna – must climb down. Finn, being a terrible climber, takes an extraordinarily long amount of time to get down and is very pleased that he managed to do so … until Arn slips and falls on top of his fellow mage. Ilanna gets down with no trouble.

In a darkened room slightly apart from the others, Thorn’dil and Yusuf look around. The elf briefly imbues his sword with fire and, in that brief moment, both see the madness sphere lurking nearby.

And then, the fire goes out, leaving them alone in the dark…

Player Notes:

• Per GM, the original plan was not for a “dungeon crawl” but we all had so much fun with this that he adjusted his plan on the fly and now we’re crawling the dungeon. And ending the session right before the madness sphere attacked was perfect timing…
• Finn has Unluckiness and Haruki is a Klutz, so having Finn climb down with Haruki helping him was a recipe for disaster. Still, Finn made his Climb check by 0 (after taking 30x normal to get the +5 for this) … so of course, Arn failed his roll. As Finn’s player, I thought it was appropriate to invoke Unluckiness here and have Arn fall onto Finn … and the GM agreed.
• Ilanna gained the bonus CP for this session after her awesome crit to the brain of the first troll. She dropped it in a single 1-second round while the three heavy fighters – Haruki, Yusuf, Zistral – took forever (like 5 or 6 seconds) to beat down the second troll.

Wherein a Great River is Crossed and a Fierce Beast is Fought…

Having crossed the desert, the great caravan now faces their next obstacle: crossing the River Kashk, which is very high due to the melting snows from winter. While the engineers debate over whether a ferry or a bridge is best, scouts are sent out to ensure the camp’s safety, especially considering the discovery of the Vasar corpses some days earlier. Zistral opts to swim the river and reconnoiter the western bank where he soon comes across a long-abandoned elvish camp but finds little else of note. To the north goes Ilanna, where she finds old game trails and what seems to be orc spoor, also long abandoned, while Thor’ndil heads south, finding little of note save signs of beasts.

At the campsite, the engineers continue their dispute regarding the river crossing but it is eventually decided that a bridge is the best option and work is promptly begun. As work progresses, Yusuf finds time to romance a young woman in the caravan at the expense of his actual duties, but is discovered doing so by a furious Ser Malfoy who drags him before Finn and demands punishment. The knight wishes five lashes at first, then increases this to ten when Yusuf mouths off to him, but Finn prevaricates and suggests a permanent latrine duty for Yusuf as well as promising to address this personally; Malfoy is displeased at the decision, no doubt thinking that Finn is being too lenient, but accepts the judgment. When he storms away, Finn then gives Yusuf a very stern talking to about duty and responsibility, two things that the gladiator has not had much experience in.

The construction of the bridge is fraught with delays and issues, with the various engineers continuing to bicker and dispute how things should progress (which definitely does not bode well for the rebuilding of Castle Defiant!) As it turned out, the bridge was not seated correctly and, as a result, was constantly being flooded once the first of the wagons began to cross. Several days pass before the convoy begins crossing and, as a precaution, a rope line is stretched across the river some distance down from the bridge for anyone unfortunate enough to be swept off into the water.

As the last of the wagons are crossing, the bridge suddenly shivers and shimmies – Finn, who is in the middle of the bridge and trying to keep everyone moving, shouts for an engineer to explain what just happened, but the would-be builder – Paedrag Parcell – has barely had time to reach the younger Sardock’s side to reassure him about the bridge’s structural integrity when a great beast erupts from the water and seizes the poor man! Mayhem ensues as the many tentacled beast begins laying about wildly, smashing apart wood pylons and trying to seize more tasty, tasty long pig.

Panic erupts among the three wagons still on the bridge with horses suddenly insane with terror and thus incapable of forward momentum. Finn, being an unlucky sort, scrambles out of the way of an immediate tentacle attack, while several of his companions – Arn, Ilanna and Zistral – are momentarily stunned by fright, while the others charge toward the danger. A fierce skirmish takes place with the beast flailing about while the more martial of the adventurers lay about with their weapons, intent on severing or crippling any tentacles they can reach. Thor’ndil gets one wagon clear of the bridge while Ilanna, who is on the opposite side of the bridge, moves to relocate to get a clear shot. In this chaos, the beast submerges for a brief time, giving the adventures long seconds to rush others of the smallfolk to safety.

When the beast reappears, it does so squarely under the now rickety bridge and the fight continues with half of the adventurers attacking and the other half desperately trying to get people to safety. One of the wagons is lost, with its pair of horses so panicked that they go over the side into the water, but no more civilians are lost as they are hurried away from the source of conflict. Finn abandons his attempts to calm the horses and shouts for the driver to abandon his wagon and flee, then stays alongside the man to protect him; Haruki simply seizes the man’s terrified wife who is clinging to the back of a wagon and forcibly carries her to safety. Seeing that Finn has not succeeded in calming the horses, Ilanna races forward and springs atop a panicking horse which she spurs forward, directing it and its partner (plus the attached wagon) across to safety. Noting that Arn still seems stunned from fear, Yusuf charges toward him and bellows at him to snap out of it.

Again, the beast emerges from the water and the fight resumes with Yusuf and Zistral attacking first and often. Finn also pitches in with his naginata as he retreats alongside Mister Thatcher who he is escorting to safety. Arn, now recovered, hurls a fireball at the beast. Meanwhile, Haruki is still evacuating children from the last wagon as he’s faster than their mother. Having sustained severe damage, the river beast sinks back beneath the water and moves again … but Zistral is having none of that and springs off the bridge to drive his spear deep into the creature. Both vanish in the river and all goes silent for a long time. Those on the now badly swaying bridge hurry to get the last of the civilians (and wagons) to the other side while trying to brace for another attack. Long moments pass and, just as Zistral is presumed lost, he emerges from from the river, gasping and swearing that the creature is not dead. Unwilling to stay this close to the river, Ser Dane orders the caravan to move away and conveniently, Zistral knows of a nearby elven camp. As the caravan sets out, behind them, the damaged bridge collapses entirely.

On the caravan presses,with Ilanna and Zistral leading the way.Throughout this time, they feel as if they are being carefully watched and followed, though they find no one. Some days before they reach Defiant, as they are traveling across the plains, Ilanna and Zistral observe an orc scouting party in the far distance that retreats as soon as the pair are sighted. They do not necessarily feel that these orcs are related to the sensation of being watched earlier.

The expedition reaches Castle Defiant without further incident and there is a great celebration as they stand there, looking at the ruins that are intended to be their home.

In a postscript “after credits” cutscene, the pale-skinned orc who was leading the scouting party enters a barbaric-looking hut wrought of wood and pelts and announces to his shadowy, hooded master that “fires burn at Castle Defiant.” The ‘camera’ sort of zooms in on the shadowy figure and reveals only his sinister eyes…

Player Notes:

• Viewed dispassionately, we actually didn’t get a whole lot accomplished this session. There was some pre-bridge scouting along with bridge setup/construction and then the bridge fight which really ate up most of the actual session. Well, that and the GM getting it set up because it was a spur-of-the-moment change to his original plan.
• Second session in a row where the technical difficulties were minor enough to be counted as insignificant. We did have a big period of dead time (~:27 minutes) where the GM spun up the improv bridge encounter, but that doesn’t count.
• The GM had one of the players – Herodian – make a roll for the bridge construction and the result was an 18. This led the GM to rejiggering his plan in the middle of the session – evidently, he’d intended for us to fight some elves but thought better of it – which led to the “river kraken” fight. There was some confusion about the nature of that die roll: Herodian thought it was a ”universe reaction roll”” where the GM was thinking a skill check for the engineers.
• Feste, Yusuf’s player, used the stern talking to by Finn as a reason to start buying off Selfish. As Finn’s player, I was totally unprepared for the bit with Malfoy – in my gaming experience, I’ve never seen one PC be responsible for the whipping of another and figured that Finn is still wide-eyed and naive enough to seek alternate options. If we were playing in 1700s on a ship, a flogging would have been his first option though. Still, I am interested to see if this situation recurs because if it does, Finn will likely have no choice but to order the flogging … how will Yusuf react to that, I wonder…
• Herodian earned a bonus CP at the conclusion of the session for Zistral’s dive into the water. Some of us halfway suspected he wasn’t going to make it considering how rough the “water kraken” was.

Wherein Blood is Shed at an Oasis…

Ilanna Hawkeye and Zistral stand their ground in the face of the lizardmen who back off, before then flanking wide to get a proper visual of the main caravan. Realizing that there’s not much they can do to stop the lizardmen short of engaging them, the two scouts return to the main group to advise Ser Dane of this situation. At Finn’s recommendation, word is quickly passed along the ranks of the convoy with further instructions to close up the formation; he also suggests (which his father charges him with overseeing) that the children of the convoy be moved to the center of the caravan where they can be more easily defended should an attack take place. Within minutes, the entire convoy can see the four lizardmen ranging along the caravan’s sides which naturally causes some panic amongst those not armed; Arn is forced to calm down many of the smallfolk in his area (facing the lizardmen) who react fearfully at the sight of the dreaded creatures but he is rather successful at this. The lizardmen follow the column for some time, then break away to the south. That evening when camp is set up, it is done so to maximize line-of-sight to limit any potential lizard ninja attacks and, as a result, few of the expedition rest well for the night. Some, like Haruki, get no sleep at all because they remained awake the entire time. Campfires are noted in the distance as well, which is troubling.

Upon setting out in the morning, it is quickly noted that the same four lizardmen are following the column once more which the expert desert-men among the formation admit is a very bad sign. These lizardmen will trail behind them each of the remaining days, staying just out of engagement range, and with camps set up in the evening.

Some miserably long and hot days later, they reach the oasis but again, Finn urges restraint rather than everyone just rushing forward and leads a small group consisting of Arn, Haruki, Thor’ndil, and Yusuf to ensure that there is not a trap waiting for them. What they find instead is even worse: the water is spoiled! There are a handful of dead creatures scattered around which Arn and Yusuf notice first, and Finn utilizes a flow of Water and Spirit to determine that, as feared, drinking from the spring could be potentially lethal. The team discuss their options and Finn makes the decision to relate this newfound information to his father, along with a suggestion that he (Finn) utilize his spell-weaving to purify any of the water they do get. It is further decided that they wil replenish their water here and, once Finn purifies what is obtained, only the animals will drink of the cleansed water with the remaining water spread out among the people. Finn later addresses the convoy to advise them of the situation – as someone not particularly comfortable with addressing large groups of people, he doesn’t do too terribly though it definitely does not go over as well as he would like.

Late that evening, Arn is on duty and notes that the lizardmen campfires have been extinguished! Realizing that this might hint at an impending attack, he seeks out Finn to wake him; the younger Sardock listens, then goes immediately to advise his father and Ser Rodham who listen without expression. The elder Sardock does not allow Rodham to immediately begin issuing orders and instead asks Finn what he would recommend as a training tool. Finn awkwardly makes his suggestions and is pleased when Ser Rodham agrees on all points before offering a few minor adjustments. All of the warriors are alerted and instructed to get kitted up for a potential fight.

Several hours later, Thor’ndil notices strange movement near the herd animals and alerts Haruki before stealthing forward to investigate; the big Sahudi then informs Arn, Finn and Yusuf before following. Just as Thor’ndil sneaks forward, he catches sight of lizardmen ninjas who simultaneously detect him. This group of ninjas are moving in a pretty professional manner and, as the five adventurers draw closer, there is a sudden cry of alarm on the other side of the camp. Finn realizes immediately that the other attack is likely a distraction while this is the main thrust but by then, the fight is on! Haruki and Thor’ndil engage first, with the former smashing about with his great tetsubo, smashing bones when he connects, while the latter dances about in a very elfy manner that is quite effective. Unaware of exactly what’s going on due to the darkness, Yusuf charges toward the noises, then locates some lizardmen and rushes to engage them while Arn and Finn, who is greatly frustrated at the lack of team cooperation, pursue. During the fight, Yusuf is badly injured but stays upright which is more than can be said for most of the lizardmen as five of the seven are felled with two escaping.

In the immediate wake of the battle, Finn finds a place to throw up, as this was his very first ‘life-or-death’ fight; Haruki commisserates and is reminded of his first fight as well. Finn will then utilize a minor healing weave on Yusuf, though the former gladiator is still quite badly injured.

This victory is big as the lizardmen were considered something of a boogeyman and seeing so many of them felled with no resulting allied deaths results in a great morale boost among the convoy. Ser Rodham does not hesitate to execute the captured lizardmen which momentarily surprises Finn, even as he acknowledges the mercy in doing so. Scouts follow the fleeing survivors and determine that they are unlikely to make a second attempt; this strike clearly cost them more than they were expecting them to.

Many days pass as the convoy continues its westward march under the unrelenting sun. Ancient abandoned elves ruins are passed, leaving the more adventuresome among the caravan wishing they had more time (and water) to explore. Sandstorms strike and no one likes them at all but there are no losses and the terrain gradually transforms into plains as they emerge from the desert which pleases everyone. To Arn’s relief, mana begins to reappear, sporadically at first but then normally (which to someone from Caithness feels intensely powerful.) Behind them, strung along the route of their convoy are the corpses of livestock that fell and were left behind because Ser Dane was more focussed on getting the suffering smallfolk out of the desert than saving the animals. After so many days of unrelenting sand, seeing green grass and trees is a wonderful thing. Onward they push for several more days until they reach the banks of the River Kashk to everyone’s great relief.

But not all of the news is good as a small, long abandoned campsite is found that holds the corpses of feral Vasar…

Player Notes:

• Missing Herodian and Melissa for this session so we discovered that the GM and those two resolved exactly what happened to their characters after the rest of us logged out the previous session.
• Surprisingly free of technical issues for a change.
• Fantasy Grounds was being particularly insane for this session. We saw, by my count, at least six natural 18s, three of which were rolled by one player (me!) in a short span of time.
• Speaking of those crit fails, it’s a good thing we have “Plot Points” in this game, otherwise Finn would died early on due to a critical failure on a Path of Energy roll. According to RPM rules, a crit fail using that Path results in 4d burn damage, which put him at negative hp … and on fire, then he passed out attempting to ‘stop drop and roll’ and took additional “OMFG, I’m on fire” damage (think it was 3d-3?) while the other PCs were failing on DX checks to try and put him out (which brought to mind the Three Stooges – “I throw this water on him to stop the fire!” “Well, it turns out to be lamp oil so …”), which took Finn past his first death check threshold … which I promptly failed by 1. Needless to say, I was very irked – this wasn’t even in combat! – until I was reminded that we had Plot Points. So I burned all of mine (see what I did there?) to reroll that PoE check and not suddenly explode into fire. Am already looking into possible options about how to avoid doing that again …
• As was to be expected, the darkness penalties really played havoc with us and made the fight drag out for a long time.

Wherein A Grand Expedition Sets Out From Caithness…

It is spring, 2035, and an expedition to reclaim Castle Defiant has been organized. This expedition will be led by Ser Dane Sardock and must first cross the Great Desert, which is no easy task thanks to both the harsh climate and the presence of many aggressive tribes of lizardmen. His intended plan is to strike out from Bordertown, then cut across the narrowest portion of the Desert as he knows many of the smallfolk who are simply unprepared for the difficulty inherent in a desert crossing. To serve as his war captain, he has enlisted the aid of his close friend, Ser Rodham Malfoy, who will command the seventeen soldiers who are to help protect the smallfolk. He shall also be taking his second son, Finn, while leaving his firstborn and heir to rule over his lands while he is away.

From Wallace, the expedition heads south to Bordertown where they gather and prepare for the arduous journey upon the morrow. To the frustration of the expedition leadership, they do not set out until near midday. The centaur, Zistral, is declared to be the head scout and, along with the archer, Ilanna Hawkeye, he will be setting the route. Based mostly on Zistral’s recommendation, they will move during the day – this he believes poses the least threat, despite the high chance of lizardmen encounter. Strict water rationing is to be put into place but no one expects the smallfolk to really listen, at least on the first day. Upon breaking up this first meeting, Ser Dane takes his son, Finn, to a dinner with the Bordertown mayor; this quickly becomes excruciatingly uncomfortable for poor Finn when the mayor introduces his daughter and then starts hinting at a possible marriage. It does not help that Ser Dane seems to enjoy his son’s discomfort and plays along. Nothing is decided, of course, and Finn remains fairly noncommittal throughout.

Upon the morrow, the expedition sets out from Bordertown after a brief announcement from Ser Rodham to the smallfolk; in this short speech, he announces the strict water rationing and warns them harshly that attempts to replenish their water ahead of schedule will be flatly refused. Their first destination will be the salt mine that serves as the primary source of income for Bordertown; the road to this mine is patrolled fairly frequently and is thus expected to be safe. Unlike the previous day, the expedition mostly sets out on time.

It is very hot and many of the expedition are simply unprepared for just how hot. Finn utilizes a weave that drastically improves his temperature tolerance, but that does not help with regards to water so he begins making mental plans to obtain more water via magic; he makes sure to tease Arn for being able to actually weave his spells in the no mana zone. Arn and Thorondil have been tasked to walk with the water wagons and are forced to turn back several smallfolk during the day who have already finished their water rations for the day. Ser Rodham intervenes briefly when Thorondil is not quite as convincing as he would like and the hulking knight’s simple presence makes the smallfolk glumly back down. Throughout the trip, Haruki also spends time moving through the convoy and does what he can to make the children present smile and laugh despite the difficult trip.

The expedition arrives at the salt mine and discover it to be even more inhospitable than the part of the desert they’ve already travelled through; the terrain appears almost white from all of the salt dust. Ser Dane orders camp to be set up as far from the actual mine as possible as many of the miners are known to be prisoners and he does want to mix the groups. Once camp is set up, the second half of water rations are handed out. Arn and Thorondil note that the married soldiers tend to sneak bits of their water rations to their families, which is against Ser Rodham’s instructions; neither of the men reveal this, though Arn is torn between his sense of honesty and his code of honor. During the water replenishment, Finn gets permission from his father to utilize his spell-weaving to refill at least one of the now empty water barrels; it isn’t much, only about 40 gallons, and it takes an hour to do this, but it is something. That evening, another ‘brain trust’ gathering takes place in which it is debated whether they should instead move during the night as opposed to the day, but it is decided to continue moving during the day because the benefits outweigh the difficulties. Also, late that evening, Thorondil seeks out the salt mine’s water tower to climb.

In the morning, the various characters get up to carry out their assigned tasks. Arn and Thorondil are still on water protection/hand out detail, while Haruki and Yusuf circle amongst the camp, hoping to encourage the smallfolk to pick up the pace. One such family is definitely lagging behind so, while Haruki attempts to talk sense into the irritated and unenthusiastic children, Yusuf bellows an order for the family to pick up the damned pace! The family jump to obey but are not particularly happy with the former gladiator for being singled out as lagging behind. During this, Finn moves through the camp, offering suggestions and recommendations and instructions about how to pick up the pace; demonstrating some clear leadership in this, he draws an approving look from his father but, being a delusional sort, probably misinterprets this.

Into the deeper desert the expedition goes where they find the terrain is even more unforgiving. The heat is unrelenting and there is no longer a road to follow. Ilanna and Zistral are at the vanguard of the convoy as befitting scouts and, around midday, catch sight of a quartet of armed lizardmen atop strange-looking beasts of burden. There is a tense stand-off as the two groups stare at one another, with Zistral side-stepping as appropriate to ensure that the lizardmen never quite have a clear route to the convoy. After some time, the lizardmen clearly grow frustrated with this and instead, begin advancing on the two scouts which Zistral knows is a very bad sign…

Player Notes:

• Recap by Rigil Kent.
• Spent a long, long time just trying to iron out Feste’s Fantasy Grounds and TeamSpeak problems. Computers very clearly hate him – I’d be willing to bet that in the sessions he’s played with us, easily 75% or more of them have included him having some sort of technical difficulty.
• Looking at things objectively, we actually didn’t get a lot done, but that’s almost to be expected when you start a brand new campaign with brand new characters, not to mention doing a long desert crossing.
• Four of the seven players represent the children of five of the previous Banestorm characters. Not bad for a ‘Next Generation’ thing – could be five of the seven if I (Rigil) can talk the GM into revealing a Secret that Ser Dane is actually Ilanna’s dad. 😛
• Yes, I know that “Ser” is the wrong way to spell it but that’s how it was done in the Game of Thrones books and I rather liked that affection, so I went with it.
• Herodian and Melissa are scheduled to be absent next week, which is ironic considering where we left off.

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Portals and Closure

4 June 2014

Lord-Commander McDonald of the Templars explained to Dane that, although he was charged with the Heroes’ incarceration for their alleged treason, he was willing, for the sake of honor, to allow them to leave Cardiel and never return, after which they would not be pursued. Bishop Zabka joined the conversation, having barged past the other Heroes in the courtyard, ignorant of their sidelong glances; he was furious at the Lord-Commander for having not imprisoned the Heroes, and angrily demanded they be immediately seized, but the Lord-Commander would have none of it. Auqui stood silent. Dane responded, saying he would need to confer with his fellows, and left the hall to do so. Dane returned shortly thereafter to inform them that they had agreed to leave, and the Lord-Commander dismissed them to be on their way, in spite of Zabka’s continued complaints.

The Heroes now free, of course, had no intention of leaving without their Lord Wallace, and remained convinced he was being held here at the Templars’s fortress. They stopped a short distance down the road and hid themselves behind the rocks there, and began casting spells: they tried again, without success, to detect the presence of Lord Wallace, though they knew that the Templars employed spells to block magical scrying; Brother Mendel weaved a spell to remotely map the fortress, in and out, and then cast an illusion of it so the others could review it—they could still find no sign of Lord Wallace, though there were some dark spaces in Brother Mendel’s map where he could be held; and finally, suspecting their Lord might be in the Otherworld, Brother Mendel cast a weave to detect portals, and found that there was indeed some manner of portal in the fortress chapel—this would be their objective. The Heroes continued back to their ship, which they then sailed some distance, out of sight, where they could row ashore after nightfall and enter the fortress, hopefully unseen.

Gestlin cast a Walk on Air spell upon all of them, so they could scale the wall quickly, and teleported some randomly-encountered wildlife into various points within the keep to distract the guards. The Heroes crept unchallenged into the chapel, but there they encountered a Templar emerging from a hallway, accompanied by Auqui. To their shock, Auqui apologized to his fellow Templar before killing him, and swore at his former fellow Heroes that they had spoiled his plans. As Gabriel fought within himself to stay his blade, Auqui said they would find the portal key with Zabka, but they must hurry now, to find him in the north tower. Then Auqui left as quickly as he had arrived.

The courtyard was still a scene of chaos, which allowed the Heroes to slip amongst the shadows, unseen, to the north tower, and they entered, killing a couple of the Bishop’s guards as they climbed up the tower to Zabka’s chamber. As they burst into the room, Zabka threatened to drop the key—a golden crucifix on a chain—out of the tower window, but Dane loosed a well-placed arrow that nailed Zabka’s hand to the window-frame. Gabriel took the key and passed it back to the casters. Zabka would not reveal how to use the key, no matter the threat, so Gestlin cast a Sleep spell upon him, and Magnifico cast a Mind Search, against which the sleeping Zabka could not defend; Magnifico informed the otherswhat he had found out. The Heroes left the chamber, but looked back to find Gabriel had stabbed his long-time, much-hated enemy, to his death; Rainald hoisted the dead Bishop and unceremoniously flung him out of the window, to fall impaled on a pike far below.

The Heroes took advantage of the new distraction in the courtyard, the discovery of Zabka’s body, to slip back over to the chapel, again unnoticed. There they held the key aloft and said the words, and a portal appeared behind the altar. They all took a deep breath, and one by one, they passed over the threshold.

Beyond the portal, they found an immense hall like nothing they had ever before witnessed, and cautiously, they moved forward. They saw a handful of beings—some human, some indescribable creatures—held motionless, almost lifeless, behind some sort of magical field. At the far end of the hall, they found Lord Wallace in such a field, and moved toward him to see how he might be freed. Just then, three being entered the hall: they appeared to each of them as their gods; Rainald saw them as Odin, Thor, and Loki, and he fell to his knees to worship them; many of the others saw the Christ, flanked by the archangels, Gabriel and Michael. However, not all were convinced these “gods” were truly divine, and challenged their identity. When Rainald asked “Odin” where the warriors’ feast was, the god motioned back to the hall, and Rainald beheld a great feast, and went to join it, and to find his long-dead brother and father. But the unconvinced Gestlin cast a Dispel upon the being before him, and for some, the illusion failed. The Heroes attacked, Gabriel stabbing “Christ” through the heart with his family blade, which drew forth no blood, nor seemed to affect the creature in any way—Dane, intent upon Lord Wallace at the time, saw the stab wound appear upon their Lord, and called out what he had witnessed to the others. The strange, tentacle-faced creatures fell upon the Heroes then, with unimaginable speed, and they could scarcely defend themselves. Then Brother Mendel dispelled the magic that held Lord Wallace, and seeing that he no longer suffered the wounds of the creatures, the Heroes loosed themselves upon them, not caring about the other captives, and after much effort, slew them. The gods defeated, and Lord Wallace freed, some searched the area and found hundreds more captives, similarly frozen with magic. Brother Mendel called back the spirit of one of the slain creatures and demanded to know how many of their kind were here—it responded, “We are legion.” Fearing revenge, the Heroes quickly gathered up Lord Wallace, and the heads of the slain creatures, and fled back through the portal.

Upon their return to the Templar chapel, the Heroes summoned the Templars, and their Lord-Commander, to show them what they had found. The Lord-Commander was astonished, and vowed that the Templars would fight a crusade to cleanse this other world of these creatures, when they had studied it sufficiently. In the meantime, the Lord-Commander “requested” the Heroes stay under guard for the night while he sorted out the matter here, and the Heroes agreed. During the night, Auqui visited them (though he avoided Gabriel) and explained that he had been on a long mission to find and rescue Lord Wallace himself, though he had found his place with the Templars in the process, and planned to stay with them regardless. In the morning, the Heroes were summoned to the Lord-Commander’s hall, where he pronounced them innocent of any crime, and sent them on their way in peace, to return Lord Wallace home to Caithness, their quest now complete.

The End

Notes

• Due to a number of factors, I ended up combining three sessions into one report, once again, and very late indeed; play was delayed several times due to scheduling issues, so these sessions were spread over a month or so. My writing of this report occurred some weeks after the fact due to…reasons?…and as such, I didn’t go into as much detail as it probably deserved, but it needed to get done, one way or another
• Though the GM originally described the god-creatures as something more “indescribable,” post-session discussion morphed them into the Ood (from Doctor Who), and it stuck. Out of character, the GM told us what was really going on: the creatures had come to create a new “Christ” on Yrth, complete with a virgin birth, the result of which had been introduced in the very first session of this campaign (which predated its current GM, along with any regular record of the happenings); through the sacrifice of this being, they would be able to enter the Yrth dimension and conquer it (whatever that actually meant). It was also suggested they had visited Earth before that, roughly 2000 years ago…
• There were Vasa amongst the stasis-held creatures in the alien hall
• Gestlin, Gabriel and Merasiël remained behind; Gestlin to join the anti-slavery faction in Tredroy and fight with them, while Gabriel and Merasiël traveled together to who-knows-where, likely to cross some more names off Merasiël’s kill-list. The rest returned to Caithness with Lord Wallace, all having lands and/or families there
• It was decided to retire this campaign and the characters, but after much discussion, we decided to continue it instead with the “next generation,” the children of the Heroes of Book II, in Book III. Keep an eye out here for details on what happened in the years between, and the beginning of the next campaign

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Liberty and Arrest

3 June 2014

As the early-morning sun began to appear, Gestlin triggered his magical, winged harness, and flew back to the Gleaming Endeavor, to guide the ship to a secluded part of the river nearest the safe-house. After some time had passed, the rest of the Heroes left on foot, to the agreed-upon place on the river, taking along Bashir, still-weak from his many tortures in prison. Yet later, as Dane kept watch on the river while the others concealed themselves nearby, he spotted their ship as it approached, and signaled to Gestlin. The Heroes then quietly got themselves aboard, and sailed back across the rover to the pier where they had agreed to deliver Bashir to the anti-slavers.

As they approached the docks, the Heroes remained vigilant for new threats. They spied Aurelius before them—glad at the ship’s arrival—emerging from a nearby street, accompanied by two other men who kept watch over him. But as the ship was moored, the Heroes then also spied two sinister-looking fellows headed toward Aurelius from down the docks, and on a nearby roof, a shadowy figure that leveled a crossbow in his direction. Gabriel leapt from the ship to the dock and sprinted toward Aurelius to intercept the assassins. Gestlin Teleported Merasiël to the roof beside the crossbow-wielding shadow, and then also Rainald, to Aurelius. The lifeless body of the crossbowman slid off the roof to the street below, startling passers-by; they witnessed no sign of his killer, who bounded down to the street in another place. Meanwhile, Aurelius’ bodyguards were surprised, and attacked Rainald, who paid them no mind, but loudly challenged the two assassins as they approached, who fled before him.

The Heroes bade Aurelius quickly come aboard, lest there be more enemies about, and he did so. He embraced Bashir there, happy to see that he yet lived, and was now safe. He was to be taken through the city to a friendly merchant who would spirit him away out of the city; the Heroes believed his bodyguards would not be enough and volunteered to escort them to the merchant, and Aurelius was happy to accept their offer. As they navigated the winding, narrow streets of Tredroy, they spotted the same pair of assassins seen at the docks trailing behind them. Dane ducked into a nearby alley and led one of the assassins away, and circled back to the others; meanwhile, Rainald turned back to confront the one that remained, but the assassin fled before him again, and did not return. They continued to the merchant’s house, and Aurelius said his goodbyes to Bashir as they left him there, and the Heroes returned to the ship with Aurelius. As midday approached, Aurelius spoke of his promise to learn the whereabouts of Lord Wallace, and said that he would make inquiries of his contacts in the city on their behalf. Again the Heroes offered to escort him, and again he accepted their escort. They spent much of the day following him here and there through the city as he spoke discreetly with this-or-that stranger, and they later found themselves at a villa just outside of town, the home of a merchant who had agreed to speak to them.

As they all entered the courtyard and began to take their ease, however, a score or more Templar soldiers stepped out of hiding there, fully surrounding the Heroes, and demanded they lay down their arms and surrender themselves, saying that they were to be arrested for treason against the King, to be taken before the Lord Commander of the Templars. The merchant apologized, declaring he had been given no choice but to allow them, and hurried away to his chambers. Aurelius stood aghast, for he trusted the Templars as long-time aides to his cause, just as he had come to trust the Heroes for the same. As the Heroes stood back-to-back in the center of the courtyard, Gestlin, at length, brazenly challenged the Templars’ authority to arrest them, and declared the Heroes’ collective innocence, but their would-be captors were deaf to his argument, and continued to expect their surrender. Seeing that Gabriel had murder in his eyes for his hated enemies, the Templars, and also that Merasiël and Rainald were loathe to lay down their arms, Magnifico saw no alternative to battle, but began to dance. Aurelius wisely fled the courtyard to join the merchant.

Crossbow bolts were loosed upon Magnifico as he began his insidious display, but Merasiël threw herself in front of him, taking one herself that would surely have struck him, though he was still struck by another. Fighting through the pain, Magnifico continued, and many of the enemy that surrounded them succumbed to the magically-induced confusion; some stood fast, stupefied, while others saw disturbing visions. Then Magnifico gave in to his wounds, and collapsed.

As the dance had begun to take effect, Gabriel sprang forth from his place and engaged one among the ring of Templars, and found his opponent’s magically-enhanced defenses difficult to penetrate. Rainald held fast in his place to defend his side of the Heroes’ formation. Dane loosed arrow upon arrow, sometimes getting past the enemies’ shields to strike home. Gestlin threw up a Wall of Force to shield his side of the formation, and when Brother Mendel had cast a healing spell upon Merasiël, Gestlin teleported her to a far room adjoining the courtyard, where they had previously spotted more Templars, kneeling in apparent prayer, no doubt maintaining magical protections on the rest—in seconds, she slew the four she found there. After having healed Merasiël, Brother Mendel then turned to Magnifico, to heal and awaken him, and Magnifico got to his feet. At the same time, the Templars that were still capable held their position, loosing bolts from their crossbows, and upon a command from their leader, they began casting a Flash spell in unison—upon the spell’s completion, the sudden brightness flash-blinded the Heroes, excepting Gabriel and Merasiël who were outside the circle at the time. The Heroes continued to resist. Gestlin threw an Explosive Fireball through the formation at the opposite side of the Templars’ ring, but it went errant, nearly scorching Magnifico instead. Then the Templar leader gave another command, and his troops began casting another spell in unison, this time, Distant Blow—those wielding crossbows dropped them and drew their swords—and afterward, they began to magically strike at the Heroes as if there were no distance between them and their targets. Rainald charged forward from his place and, with a war cry, brought down his hammer upon one of the enemy still standing dazed, who fell. Gestlin cast a Darkness spell about their formation to conceal them, and Rainald fell back into it, daring the Templars before him to follow. The Templars on Gestlin’s side of the formation could not press through his magical barrier, but instead used their Distant Blow spells against the Heroes. The Templars on Magnifico’s side of the formation strode forward into the darkness, and continued their attack, while Magnifico hurled jarring insult after jarring insult, causing some to stop momentarily in stunned bemusement, while Brother Mendel disarmed them of their swords with his quarterstaff. Gabriel had finally felled one of the Templars when he was set upon by another, and then two others began also to strike him with their Distant Blow spells, though they could scarcely touch him still for his tumbling about. Merasiël had emerged from the side-room and set upon the Templar leader from behind with such a fury, and after some struggle, she buried her blades in each of his eyes in turn. Rainald slew another Templar that foolishly charged into the darkness near to him, and upon seeing Gabriel’s distress, charged forth again to engage some of his friend’s attackers. Another Templar that charged into the darkness before Dane was brought down by Gestlin’s Tanglefoot spell, and Dane loosed an arrow or two into his head for it, before Gestlin set him ablaze with a Fireball.

Then, as suddenly as it all had begun, a cry of “Parley!” rang out, as the second-in-command of the Templars called for truce. Dane answered, and called out to his fellows for calm, such that they ceased fighting. Several of the Templars’ number had been lost, including their leader, and the second-in-command offered that the Heroes should leave them to tend to their wounded, rather than press the matter. The Heroes agreed, and offered in return that the Templars should send a messenger to the Gleaming Endeavor if their Lord Commander wished to meet with them in peace, in a safe place. The Templar agreed that it would be so, and commanded his troops to allow them to leave the villa.

Aurelius went with the Heroes back to their ship, vexed and conflicted over which side he should favor, but his new friends assured him that their side was just. Aboard the ship, having pulled away from the docks to ensure none could easily board them, they all discussed what they might do, as they waited. Aurelius wished to go back into town to discover the Templars’ motives for himself; knowing the assassins might still lie in wait for him, Gabriel offered to escort him wherever he needed to go, and so the two left the ship. Some time later, as evening approached, a messenger for the Templars called out to them from the docks, and said that the Lord Commander would speak to them in the morning at their stronghold, though he would speak to Dane alone, and the boy awaited there for a response; Dane told the lad to tell his master that it would be so. Afterward, there was talk amongst the Heroes of magically listening to Dane’s conversation with the Lord Commander, but Dane dismissed it, for honor’s sake, preferring that they should wait outside for him. Gabriel returned to the ship later, having left Aurelius at place of safety, having encountered no assassins.

Lord Commander

Auqui

In the morning, the Gleaming Endeavor was unmoored and sailed downriver to a place just outside the city, before the Templar stronghold, an impressive fortress set upon a hill in the desert. The Heroes disembarked, and after some time walking (Gabriel riding atop Cometes, who was glad of some exercise), together approached the gates, fully armed. The gates were opened for them, welcoming, and they saw within a large formation of Templars, as if greeting some foreign dignitaries. A boy approached and offered to take Gabriel’s horse to water and feed him, and Gabriel accepted. The Heroes made their way through the formation and approached the entrance to the keep, where they would wait, as Dane went inside to meet with their enemy.

At the far end of the massive hall sat a grizzled, older man, behind a desk, flanked by Auqui, in his Templars’ garb. Auqui met Dane’s gaze, and nodded in recognition, though he said nothing. The old man offered Dane a chair, and some wine, which Dane accepted. And the old man revealed that he was McDonald, Lord Commander of the Templars, and began to speak his mind…

Notes

• Due to some short content, and a big multi-session combat, I have combined the last three sessions into one report; these three sessions were spaced out over more than a month, as we had scheduling difficulties that prevented us from having all players in attendance, which was needed for the fight.
• As soon as we got to the villa, before the Templars were revealed, we were all already quoting The Empire Strikes Back, “They arrived right before you did. I’m sorry.” The GM was a bit disappointed—he intended to spring that on us himself 😛
• Due to a lot of factors that would take a whole blog-post or two on their own to explain, the fight was taking a really long time to get through—could have gone on for at least another session, and maybe more—and was becoming an unbearable slog, so we all decided to cut it off, resulting in the “parley”; the GM confessed that the ending of the campaign, which is nigh upon us, has changed a little as a result

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Prison-Cells and Safe-Houses

1 June 2014

The Heroes left the well-to-do inn, and Aurelius, and hasted straightaway for their ship, which departed for the far bank of the River Lorian and the Hazi quarter of Tredroy. As they sailed, they girded themselves for battle. Now evening, Gestlin took wing once again to spy out the city’s prison where Bashir, the captured abolitionist, was said to be held; using the Heroes’ magic ring that allowed one to see in darkness, he observed the movement of the guards for some time, and returned to tell the others that it was guarded by but a few. A half-bell later, the Gleaming Endeavor arrived in a secluded part of the Hazi quarter, and was secured to the dock. The captain was soon called forth to speak with the dockmaster at his office, and Magnifico and Gestlin went with him; through their translation, Captain Finn explained that he was here for trade, and expected to be no more than a day or two. Satisfied with the captain’s story, the dockmaster told him of their laws concerning the comings and goings of foreigners, and gave him white arm-bands to be worn by those who would enter the city, and released him back to his affairs.

The Heroes would not be allowed to carry their weapons openly, so all gave their weapons for Rainald to carry, and Brother Mendel cast an illusory disguise upon him, such that he appeared to be a (large) Hazi man carrying a bundle of sticks. So they entered the city, following the directions Aurelius had given them to one of the abolitionist safe-houses in the city nearest to the prison. They walked for many bells, for it was a long way through such a large city, patrolled here and there by the city watch, and they kept to the shadows and byways as they could. Even so, a pair of watchmen spotted Gestlin in the open, and demanded to know what he was up to. As Gestlin attempted to explain himself in their language, Magnifico stepped out of hiding (surprising the watchmen) and explained that this, his brother, was simple, and they were on their way back from the Mages’ Guild, but had lost their way. Gestlin tried to play the simpleton, but the watchmen were somehow not convinced by his performance. When one of the guards attempted to take Gestlin’s staff, Gestlin Blinked away; the use of magic caused the watchmen to become hostile, and draw their swords. Magnifico tried to calm them, or at least, draw their attention away from the stealthy approach of Gabriel from behind; as one of the watchmen began to strike at Gestlin, Gabriel slew the other, and then the first. The bodies were placed so they would appear to have slain each other over some grievance of coin; as they did so, a boy emerged in the upper window of a nearby residence, and Gestlin cast Sleep upon him, lest he cry out.

They continued, and arrived at the safe-house after midnight, and the master of the house allowed them to enter upon utterance of the pass-phrase given them by Aurelius. Dane, Gabriel and Merasiël left immediately to spy out the prison again, and found it still to be as Gestlin had reported before, guarded behind the gate by but one. Being the fleetest of foot, Gabriel ran back to the safe-house and fetched the others to the prison; during this time, Dane and Merasiël observed a number of armed men enter the prison to replace the same number who were leaving, all with a soldierly look about them—mercenaries, from the nearby guild.

Later, when the Heroes were all assembled nearby, Gabriel and Merasiël scaled the prison’s courtyard wall, as Dane watched, bow ready, from a nearby vantage; the two crept ’round the building and were upon the lone guard before he could cry out, killing him quickly, before opening the gate to allow the others in. The Heroes then positioned themselves at the prison’s only entrance and found it un-barred, so they crept into the barbican, to another heavy door having a barred window. At first, Gestlin attempted to Teleport the heavy door away, but his spell failed. Then Brother Mendel followed with a spell-weave to teleport them all into the room behind the door, but his spell only sent Gabriel and Rainald. The two guards on the other side, playing at dice, were surprised to find the two before them; Rainald quickly turned to un-bar the door and open it to the others, while Gabriel vaulted the tables and chairs to meet the guards as they drew their swords, followed soon by Merasiël through the now-open door. The guards were slain quickly and without mercy, but not before they could cry out. In the hall beyond, upon the walls, were lined a score of numbered, metal hooks, each bearing a set of keys; the Heroes collected them all, and began searching the rooms to the right and left, cells, finding some occupied, but none occupied by Bashir. Next they went upstairs, to a long hall lined with cells, and again, did not find Bashir.

Then, as they began to enter a large common room, Gabriel spotted a guard hiding ’round a far corner, and leapt forward to engage him, finding another there; Rainald sped toward the opposite corner, finding another two, while the rest followed. Merasiël joined Gabriel, and they slew one of the guards; Rainald was supported by Brother Mendel, who disarmed one of the guards with his staff. Then an unseen enemy shouted, and six mercenaries charged forth from side rooms and flanked the Heroes: Dane vaulted over a tub of water in the center of the room and loosed an arrow at one; Gestlin set one’s cloak ablaze; Magnifico was greatly wounded by one’s spear, but unleashed a magical satire that confused many of the mercenaries, causing them to hallucinate, such that they fought other imagined enemies besides the Heroes. Though the mercenaries were skilled warriors, they fell anyway, one by one, until none remained: disarmed by Brother Mendel’s staff; set aflame by Gestlin’s magic; throat slashed to the bone by Merasiël’s blade; skull smashed by a mighty swing of Rainald’s hammer; shot through the eye by Dane’s bow; run through the heart by Gabriel’s family sword.

The upstairs cleared of enemy, the Heroes found their way downstairs to the basement below, and found a number of rooms there, guarded, containing more prisoners, in chains, having been tortured in various ways. Rainald loudly commanded one guard to sit, who was greatly afraid, before Magnifico enthralled him, such that he became as an old friend to them. Within, they found Bashir hung by chains from the ceiling, and they released him, and Brother Mendel healed his wounds. The Heroes thought to release all the prisoners to cause chaos in which they might escape, but decided against it, lest they release truly evil men upon innocents. Instead, they took up Bashir and crept as quickly as they could out of the prison, and made their way back to the safe-house.

Notes

• So, another two-session combo report; I’m still not intending this to be a permanent change in procedure, it’s just the way things have worked out lately
• Apparently, according to the maps in the old 3e Tredroy book, that city is freaking huge; it ended up being several miles walking to the safe-house, and took most of the night. Even the river is huge: the Blueshoal is about 5-6 miles wide, and the Lorian is only a little smaller
• The dice were fairly hostile on the first session; Gestlin nearly crit-failed the teleporting of the door. The dice were schizophrenic on the second session; there were a number of critical failures and critical successes during the fight
• The second session started with the keys, and was dominated by one big fight—didn’t accomplish much, but it was still fun; the mercenaries were clearly not mooks, and were intended to be a bit tougher, but we’re expecting things to get tougher as the campaign inches toward its end

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Seekers and Strangers

1 June 2014

The Gleaming Endeavor berthed at the Cardien city quarter, the more familiar culture to the Heroes—though its cosmopolitan nature was unlike any place most had seen before. They discussed how they should find the Templars, and parted their company. Gestlin, Brother Mendel, Magnifico—and Merasiël, for protection—went to the Mages’ Guild Hall to see what they could find there, and returned more knowledgeable about its membership requirements but little else. Rainald, Dane and Gabriel went to the city square to see what notices might be posted there, and hear of any local rumors, and returned having learned nothing of use. Back at the ship, it was decided that Brother Mendel would cast a Seeker spell to locate Lord Wallace, but as before, the spell revealed nothing—perhaps concealed by a magical ward, as they had encountered before. Then it was decided that Magnifico would cast the same spell, instead to locate Auqui, who would certainly be with the Templars. Through a ritual casting, all that were present lent their energy to the spell, and Magnifico saw a vision of Auqui on a ship, on a river he believed to be the Blueshoal—though the ship was not within the city, and he could not say whether it was coming or going. Confident of the vision, the Heroes decided that some should search the river by air in each direction to find the ship bearing their enemy, while those that remained in the city would keep watch for the ship atop one of the many long bridges that spanned the river.

Auqui

Zabka

Gestlin, via his magical winged harness, and Dane and Magnifico, atop the dragons Primus and Secundus, sprang from the deck of the Gleaming Endeavor and swept quickly to the West, up-river. The three flew just over the trees at some distance beside the river, and scanned ahead for the Templars’ ship; as they reached a distance upriver, with no sign of their quarry, they wheeled about and searched likewise downriver, to the East. Then, at great distance, they spied the ship bearing Auqui and the Templars, as Magnifico had seen in his vision, and immediately turned back toward Tredroy to relay their findings, though Dane’s Eagle Vision clearly showed that Auqui, atop the deck of the enemy ship, had spotted them as well, and also the presence of another familiar visage, that of the Heroes’ foe from long ago, Bishop Zabka.

Meanwhile, the sudden flight of dragons leaving the Heroes’ ship had greatly disheartened those nearby at the docks, some of whom went and fetched the city guard. A troop of guardsmen arrived at the wharf soon afterward and demanded those aboard the Gleaming Endeavor stand forth, unarmed, and answer for the disturbance. Merasiël and Gabriel were loathe to leave behind their weapons, and instead hid themselves in the ship’s hold, while the rest did as bidden. The captain of the guard did not allow Brother Mendel to speak before he sent a few of his men aboard the ship to search it for any others; though expertly hidden beneath an Elvish Hunters’ Cloak, Merasiël was stumbled upon by chance by one of the men, and she stood and surrendered herself without apology, and was brought above to the deck. Brother Mendel explained that this Elvish woman is an ambassador for the Elvish peoples, and should not be treated so; Merasiël took his cue to act the part of the aloof aristocrat, and reluctantly agreed to leave her blades at the ship. The guard-captain apologized for his rudeness and declared that he must escort them all to his superior to sort out the matter there, and the Heroes followed without further resistance. At the headquarters, the guard-commander heard the Heroes’ explanation, and did not seem fully convinced of the truth until they produced their letters given them by Aamir Al-Rahmani inviting them to perform in Tredroy on his behalf; the commander then released the Heroes back to their ship, admonishing them to keep the dragons locked away except under his escort, and informing them that he would post guards at the docks for their (whose?) protection.

Upon the Heroes’ return to the docks, they readied themselves to go to the East Bridge and watch for the arrival of the Templars’ ship, when the dragons returned. Once again assembled (and the dragons locked away), the Heroes shared their findings. Suddenly a new commotion was raised amongst the folk at the docks, as a trio of slaves attempted to reach their freedom by running from the Al-Wazifi side of the river, across the miles-long bridge, to the Cardien side; the Cardiens cheered the runners on, but their Wazifi pursuers shot at them with arrows. One of the slaves was left of his fellows as he was struck by an arrow in the leg, and fell over the side of the bridge, clinging to the rail lest he should fall into the river from such a height. Without pausing, Gestlin took wing and hastened to the man’s aid, diving into the river after the man had fallen and was struck again, and laying hold of him there, Teleported him to safety aboard the ship, where Brother Mendel healed him. Then the Wazifis gave up their pursuit, and the other two slaves came to find their fellow at the ship; Brother Mendel bade them tarry a moment, and weaved a spell to remove their slave-brands, and gave them some money, and the former-slaves were greatly thankful.

Aurelius

Just then, a well-dressed stranger approached the ship and, in fluent Arabic, asked to speak with the former-slaves, and also in Anglish told the Heroes of his great admiration regarding their intervention on the slaves’ behalf, and wished to speak with them as well. He introduced himself as Aurelius, and the Heroes invited him aboard their ship to speak privately. Therein, he explained that he was a member of an abolitionist group in Tredroy who might be glad of the sort of help the Heroes had so demonstrated. Upon inquiry, he revealed that he had interacted with both Auqui on some occasions, as the Templars were of great help to the abolitionists here, and Zabka, though less frequently. The Heroes were eager to help in exchange for information from his network regarding the missing Lord Wallace, and he agreed, and arranged that they should discuss the matter later in the evening, at supper at a well-to-do inn in the city. Aurelius asked many details of the former-slaves, of their former captivity, and wrote them down. Then he bid the Heroes many thanks, and went on his way.

The Heroes kept an eye toward the river for the Templar ship as they prepared themselves to go to the inn. Not long after, Dane, in the ship’s tops, spotted Auqui’s ship approaching, Auqui himself glaring in their direction as they passed by; it continued upriver and turned South up the River Lorian, out of sight. Gestlin called upon Smil-Blam and made himself invisible, and took wing to pursue them, and observed them as they berthed at the Southern edge of the city, disembarking there and entering the city by waiting coaches. Then Gestlin returned and told the others what he had seen, though any action would have to wait, as their appointed hour approached.

Now evening, the Heroes went together to the inn, except Merasiël and Gestlin who would remain behind at the ship. Their patents of nobility were recognized by the dock-guards and they were allowed to enter the city under arms, though some were frowned upon at the upper-class inn, for the Heroes were loathe to leave behind their armor, for memory of the Elvish assassins at such an occasion over a decade past. They were met inside by Aurelius, and taken to a private room to dine with him, while he set forth the details of the mission he would ask of them: they must rescue one of the abolitionists’ members operating on the Al-Haz side of the river who had been caught by the authorities there, and was to be publicly beheaded within the week; the man’s family had been secreted away by his fellows and were safe from reprisal. The Heroes agreed to do the thing, though they would make their plans elsewhere, lest they be overheard. Just then, Brother Mendel spied a shadow under the closed door, no doubt, of someone listening thereat, and he quietly alerted the others to it. Gabriel sped to the door to open it, but the spy had fled through the crowd in the common room, passing coin to a stranger to delay his pursuers on his way out. Gabriel evaded the intended distractor with a sharp word of warning and quickly followed the spy out of the inn, catching him up outside just as the spy had whispered to two others waiting nearby, who then fled into the alleys in different directions. As Dane was catching him up, Gabriel confronted the spy, who upon seeing the dragon-marks on Gabriel’s arms, was greatly cowed, and begged for his life, though he dared not reveal his employer. Not wishing to shed blood in plain sight of the passers-by, Gabriel instead ushered the spy back inside the inn to the private room where the Heroes supped, and sat him down there. Then Magnifico cast Mind Search upon the spy, and learned that he was, as some had suspected, employed by the Assassins’ Guild, tasked to locate and murder the captured abolitionist’s family, as well as Aurelius himself. Aurelius was surprised to hear this, and feared for his life. The Heroes knew they must act quickly, for the spy’s fellows that had escaped would certainly tell of their rescue plans.

Notes

• Again, I have combined two sessions in one recap. This was not planned, just a product of the current situation, and I don’t intend to continue—but then I didn’t intend it in the first place. The second session was shortened by technical issues, so we didn’t accomplish much.
• Gabriel’s player was absent for the first session; Merasiël’s and Gestlin’s players were absent for the second
• Bishop Zabka was introduced to the campaign at the very beginning, before the current GM took it over from the previous GM, and has been featured in Gabriel’s side-stories as a villain, and mentor to his wayward apprentice, Auqui
• We were a bit surprised to hear from Aurelius that the Templars have actually been helpful here in Tredroy, and not thought villains, as we knew them to be
• It was fortunate for the city guards searching the ship’s hold that Gabriel’s player was not available, for they would certainly have perished at his hands for their discovery of Merasiël in hiding—and fortunate for the PCs that the resulting diplomatic incident did not occur
• The PCs got jumped by Elvish assassins at a dinner in Harkwood before the war, and it was one of the more embarrassing non-victories we’ve suffered; we’re very (understandably) paranoid about similar situations now. The GM made laid out a tactical map for this dinner, the very same map as before, undoubtedly to play against our expectations—well played, sir 😛
• Gabriel (finally) managed a very successful Intimidation attempt against the spy, but we didn’t want to torture a confession out of him in the street—but with Magnifico, he need not speak at all for us to get the info, so we agreed to “Feed him to the Clown”—the horror!

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Freedom and Commerce

18 May 2014

Continued… As the two pirate vessels began to separate themselves from the Gleaming Endeavor, without hesitation, Gabriel leapt across to the deck of the nearest ship, followed by Merasiël, then Dane; Rainald instead found a loop of rope and cast it across to catch the anchor-post of the enemy ship, and using all his strength, held the ship fast, such that they could not escape. Two sword-wielding pirates charged across the deck to meet Gabriel but immediately fell to his blade; the two enemy that remained above-decks were wizards, and they each cast Water Jet to sweep the Heroes from the deck, but they avoided the attack. Then, one of the enemy wizards cast an Ice Slick upon the deck, and Gabriel and Merasiël, already charging, kept their footing and slid toward their enemy upon the ice. Dane loosed a captured meteoric arrow, which, to the great surprise of the wizard it struck, was not deflected by his defensive spell, just before he fell to Merasiël’s thrown blade. At the same time, Magnifico flew close by atop Primus; now panicked, the remaining enemy wizard cast a magical Fog to cover his escape, as he dove over the side of the ship into the ocean, never to be seen again.

Below-decks, the ship’s slave-master surrendered himself, and the Heroes released the slaves from their bonds. Magnifico cast Mind Search upon the slave-master, and discovered that he had indeed seen Lord Wallace, as these very pirates had captured him and taken him to Sa’Azraq, though they knew not who he was; Magnifico also discovered from him a flag-signal that the pirates use to signify a “protected” vessel. The Heroes siezed what they could from the enemy ship, and after much deliberation, Dane reluctantly gave the order that it should be sunk—too much trouble for a small crew in such a hurry to keep it—and take the former-slaves aboard the Gleaming Endeavor to be delivered to their freedom as opportunity could be found; the slave-master was released in the pirate-vessel’s boat and pointed north, to fend for himself.

The Gleaming Endeavor sailed for a day to the northern shore of the Sa’Azraq Straits, to Megalan lands. As they sailed, Brother Mendel cast a weave-spell to remove the slave-brands from each of the former-slaves’ arms. The Megalans were put ashore at a fishing village, and given a share of the monies and supplies recovered, and were wished a good journey home. Then the ship sailed south another day to Sa’Azraq, a renowned trade-city on the Wazifi side of the Straits. Within the walled city’s harbor, Captain Finn refused to dock, fearful of ill-treatment of Christians here, but instead anchored the ship out in the harbor. The Wazifi former-slaves were taken ashore by the ship’s boat and released, with a share of the recovered goods, as the Megalans had been, and wished well on their way.

It was decided that they should send a small, non-threatening team ashore to (initially) gain permission to dock; Magnifico, Gestlin, Brother Mendel, and Dane volunteered. Their boat was met at the docks by some curious guards; Magnifico, speaking Arabic, assured the guards they were no threat, and they allowed the Heroes to pass, though Dane was made to leave his arms in the boat. They entered the city to find out what they could; it was not like Bannock, a mixture of Christian and Islamic cultures, but solely Muslim, a marvel the less-traveled among the Heroes had never seen. As they traveled, Gestlin spilled a great number of a vendor’s fish upon the ground, and angered the vendor greatly, though he clumsily attempted to clean up the mess he continued to make. The guard arrived to attend to the ruckus, and Gestlin was made to pay the vendor two gold coins for his loss. The four continued to the slave-market, hoping to find someone in charge there that might tell them of Lord Wallace. They observed the market for some time, and noticed a strange fellow purchasing slaves—he treated his purchases with unusual kindness, and spirited them away immediately afterward. The Heroes decided to follow this man, and he arrived at a small Christian chapel in a poor district. The Heroes knocked on the chapel door and introduced themselves to the man, a priest, and were invited inside. The priest told them of his mission to free what slaves he could, one by one, and of the “abolitionist” movement operating in secret within the city. When asked, the priest recalled having seen Lord Wallace here a year ago, though he knew not who he was, only that he was “important” and fetched a high price at the slave-market. He agreed to contact his fellow abolitionists, and to send them to tell the Heroes what they might know of whom it was that had purchased Lord Wallace. Then, with the priest’s blessing, the Heroes returned to the ship.

Meanwhile, as those that had remained behind at the ship passed the hours in waiting, they noticed a familiar ship some distance down the docks—the very pirate galley that had escaped the Heroes’ retribution. They took no action against it, but observed it carefully, lest they raise an alarm.

As the evening sun lowered, some time after those that had gone ashore had returned and told of what they had seen in the city, a boat approached the Gleaming Endeavor, bearing two men who called after Brother Mendel. They were the abolitionists sent by the priest, and were welcomed aboard. After ensuring there were no spies aboard, the men said that a year past, Lord Wallace had been sold here to the Templars, through an intermediary, for Templars are not tolerated in this country; this intermediary was a merchant named Jaffa who lived in the city—the men described where he could be found. Satisfied, the men were sent on their way, and the Heroes planned amongst themselves how they might cause this merchant to tell them what he knows.

In the darkest hours of the morning, Gabriel, Merasiël and Magnifico slipped into the waters of the harbor and quietly swam to a secluded area of the docks, where no guards were. As they donned their clothes and weapons in a nearby alley, [redacted]. Then they crept through the darkened streets to the house of Jaffa, avoiding the night-watchmen. Gabriel climbed to the open window of the upper story of the house while Merasiël picked the lock to the front door, and they all entered the house and made their way to the merchant’s bedroom. There, Magnifico performed a Mind Search spell as the man slept, and learned that Lord Wallace had been sold to a hooded Templar he knew only as “Adi,” and was taken into the desert to the South under an armed company, provisioned for a long journey. Upon hearing the name, Gabriel knew that the hooded Templar was Auqui, his former protege and sworn enemy. The three then crept back out of the house as they came, arousing no one, and made their way back to the docks, and the ship, without incident.

The Gleaming Endeavor left with the next tide and made her best speed to Hadaton, a journey of three days. Before, the Heroes had been expecting to spend some time in Hadaton, but knowing the Templars had crossed the desert on foot, no doubt, to Tredroy, they now had no cause to tarry, and so they provisioned the ship and continued up the Blueshoal River to Tredroy. Six days at-sail against the river current brought the Gleaming Endeavor to the massive city of Tredroy, a magnificent sight to behold for those that had not before experienced it. The ship was docked, and the Heroes immediately set about their business of locating the Templars and Lord Wallace.

Notes

• It was decided to end session 6.26 in prose, so we worked out the details on the forums between sessions and wrapped it up “officially” here; that wrap-up only covers the fight above-decks
• Everyone really wanted to keep the captured ship somehow, even if just to sell it at the nearest port, but we didn’t have near enough crew to cover both vessels (there were only two “sailors” amongst the slaves) and still make good time
• As the swim-team was gearing up in the alley, they were approached by a talking dog (voiced by Gestlin’s player) asking for food or whatnot—the result of Magnifico’s Weirdness Magnet. It said “woof” at a passing night-watchman. Then a strange blue box materialized nearby, with a rhythmic screeching noise, and a man with a colorful scarf poked his head out and called the dog inside, before the box disappeared again. The PCs swore never to speak of this again—hence the “redaction.” 😛
• It’s noteworthy that the sneak-team managed to get the info from Jaffa, not only without killing anyone, but entirely without being discovered at all
• The PCs long-awaited arrival at Tredroy signals the ultimate climax of the campaign; but a handful of sessions remain. Whether or not the same characters continue in a new campaign to come is still being settled