Wherein the company is confronted by a trapped djinn…
After the scouts reported no activity in Dulihiban, only the “glass statues,” the company entered the city to see what they could find.
They encountered a (not-glass) man calling himself al-Nur, sultan of this city, who asked for assistance releasing his “friend” from the treasury.
At the treasury, in a ruined tower of the city palace, the man revealed himself to be a djinn and prevented the company from leaving the chamber, cloaking them in magical darkness and provoking them to attack. Aramis was accidentally stabbed by Ismir in the darkness. Thorondil accused the sultan of being a bad host, and after a more-pleasant parley, agreed to free him from his prison, a man-sized crystal like those encountered in Yaqut min Alraml, in exchange for their release. After doing so, the tower collapsed.
At camp, Thorondil relented, and used Smil-Blam on Gestlin, though it turned him instead into a turtle.
The company traveled on to the Citadel of Ten-Thousand Pearls, to the border of the lands of Zat al-Dawahi, where they were stopped by a flash of bright light…
Post-battle, Ammerah tended the injured, with Gestlin’s help, while the caravan survivors prepared shelter from the incoming sandstorm.
All present sheltered in tents as the sandstorm arrived; the unconscious and/or injured were dragged inside. During the storm, all were affected magically:
Aramis’ left arm turned to copper
Brumrumli’s beard and hair are enveloped in flames that don’t burn
Haruki grew 5 inches taller
Ismir seemed unaffected, though he was unconscious from his wounds
Thorondil’s wing-harness disappeared, but the wings became permanent
Of the other survivors: One turned to sand, one killed by plants growing out of him, one grew 5 inches shorter, one grew 10 years younger, one’s tongue became that of a serpent
In the morning, the survivor with the serpent’s tongue, believing himself cursed by Allah, had gone into the desert to die. Thorondil and Gestlin flew to find him, but were unable to save him from a buried, giant desert creature (AKA Deserthulhu).
The company traveled to Dulihiban with the remaining caravaners and their dozen-or-so camels, hoping to purchase some of the camels there for their own use.
Dulihiban was found by Thorondil to be deserted, but Ismir entered and found the population turned to glass.
Wherein the company is reunited, and sets out to find Finn…
A few days after the collapse of Yaqut min Alraml, the company is still looking for survivors while evading occasional Yuan-Ti ambushes.
With a bright flash, Haruki, Aramis, Ismir, and Gestlin the Unpredictable appear, displacing Lan-Fan back to Defiant; Gestlin is transformed into a talking goat in the process. Gestlin is informed of the company’s fate, and believing Finn still lives, is determined to travel to the Citadel of Ten-Thousand Pearls to speak with the djinn, Zat al-Dawahi, Mistress of Misfortunes, regarding Finn’s potential rescue.
Aramis narrowly dodges a crossbow bolt from a hidden shooter
Thorondil refuses to wield Smil-Blam to restore Gestlin’s proper form; too dangerous.
Zistral, and the Leashed-One rescued by the company, part ways to be with their people.
The company, along with Ammerah (under Ismir’s careful protection) and Zyanra, sets out across the desert, a trip expected to take over a month, while the other Fa’iel head to the Cave of Winds to rejoin their tribe.
The company experiences many “strange events” during their travels, including a dragon, Vermithor Rex, who mistakenly eats one of the company’s pack-camels, thinking it a stray. Ismir pulls a magic spear from the dragon’s side.
Several days in, just across the border into the Djinn Lands, the company hears the din of battle ahead, and encounters a local caravan beset by centaurs, likely the forces of Atah Keth, and decide to charge to the rescue…
Player Notes:
Due to an unexpected internet outage, we ended the session mid-fight, to be continued next week.
Aramis de Sauvons is the last remaining fighting-man in Proximo’s caravan, inbound to Castle Defiant, bringing many freed slaves from the Djinn Lands.
The Defiant scouting party finds the caravan under attack by Gnollish thugs, believed to be under Kardswann’s orders to slay them all. The Gnolls are defeated and scattered, at the cost of several of the freed-slaves, and Proximo himself; Ismir is also injured.
Aramis is gifted a ring by a dying friend, one of the freed-slaves who was felled.
The combined parties return to Defiant to find a giant raven speaking with Gestlin the Unpredictable in the courtyard. The master-wizard is here to find Finn Sardock, who is not present, having been lost to the sands of the Djinn Lands—though only Haruki has any idea of this, from a dream.
Gestlin discusses with the PCs, deciding the symbol from Haruki’s dream is a symbol of a djinn, and suddenly casts a great spell…
Wherein the Warband Fails, a City is Destroyed, and Two of Their Number Are Lost…
Standing before the gates of the temple, the warband advance with Finn in the lead. Standing over a bound Sheikh Al’Dafar ibn Al’Hadir, the yuan-ti mistress finishes her ritual and opens her eyes to look at Finn … before plunging the knife into the sheikh’s chest. There is a brilliant, blinding flash.
Blinking the spots out of their vision, the warband realize to their shock that Arn and Finn have transported into crystalline prisons. Thorn takes lead immediately and jumps over the remains of the shattered drawbridge, intent on rescuing his friend, Finn; Zyanra and Lan-Fan follow him. A moment later, yuan-ti warriors boil out of concealment and charge Brum and Zistral.
Arn and Finn find themselves in an area overflowing with mana. Impossibly, Lashiel is also here. The yuan-ti mistress is there as well, but more importantly is a female djinn who orders her servant to deal with Finn while she handles the other two. Magical duels ensue.
As Thorn and company scramble into the temple, they note that the two appear to be suspended within their crystal prisons; Arn especially seems to be withering away. The three split up to get Arn, Finn and the yuan-ti female out of the crystals, but must deal with flying serpents that swarm toward them. Behind them, Brum and Zistral ferociously hold the line; the dwarf is grievously injured during the fight but clings to consciousness and fights on. To Lan-Fan, Thorn and Zyanra, the two seem to be moving in slow motion which implies wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey shenanigans.
Inside their Dreamscape, Arn and Finn fight on, though the latter is able to piece together that this is an illusion, with the djinn leeching energy from them. He shouts this out, which enrages the djinn who hurls a spell that causes Finn to collapse in utter agony. The djinn closes in on Arn but Lash grabs him and takes him over the side of the platform hanging over the abyss; she apologizes to him. She did not know what was happening until too late; the only way for him to survive is to join her in the Ring. He agrees and his soul becomes one with her.
Outside, Thorn has extracted Finn from his crystalline prison – Master Sardock emerges screaming before he passes out – but when Lan-Fan pulls Arn free, he is dead. Zyanra pulls the yuan-ti female free and the sinister creature snaps awake, bellowing that they’ve ‘killed us all.’ At this, Zyanra retorts with “No. Only you.” before plunging her spear into the yuan-ti’s back. Around them, the temple begins tremble and shake. Carrying his unconscious friend, Thorn springs down from Finn’s prison, allowing his new magical wings to slow his descent.
Using a flying carpet, Rashid joins Brum and Zistral just as the others emerge from the temple. Finn slowly regains consciousness and is about to re-enter the temple to find Arn’s body … but abruptly freezes when he realizes what he’s looking at. Turning to the others, he shouts out that this is a localized Banestorm. And they need to run!
A desperate attempt to get clear ensues, with most of the warband easily outdistancing the maelstrom. Only Brum and Finn lag behind, being the slowest of the company, and to the dwarf’s horror, Lord Finn is swallowed by the Banestorm.
The city itself is destroyed as the warband and the surviving Fa’iel narrowly escape, leaving behind only shattered debris and broken buildings, and in shock, the warband stare at the destruction. Brum limps out of the ash and smoke with the grim news to his comrades and the desperate Lady Ammerah: their lord has been lost.
Player Notes:
CommJunkee finalized his insanely long run as GM for this adventure arc and holy cow, we ran really, really long. As I told CJ later, I think we should have ended the session before the final chase and then picked up the next week with it because, due to the lateness of the hour, I think too many of us were starting to vapor-lock during the chase.
Andricus wanted to retire his character, Arn, so he could play a different one down the road, so the GM arranged that with him. We were not expecting Finn to get sucked into the maelstrom during the chase though and since Banestorm III is (frustratingly to me sometimes) “The Finn Sardock Show,” that complicates matters somewhat. Even more irritating to me is that this sets up a perfect storm for me to run an adventure arc with this characters (e.g. “The Search for Spock … er … Sardock”) which my Muse has already sort of started toying with. In the event that happens (which … dammit … it probably will down the road), I do not think we’re quite done with the djinn lands yet…
After the fact, Gigermann realized he’d screwed up during the chase as Thorondil has a Sense of Duty to Finn and would not have left him behind. We discussed afterward and sort of decided that Finn’s shout to run was unconsciously utilizing magic to make it more of a compulsion. This works with the magical maelstrom happening right there and the mana level fluctuating wildly.
This coming Saturday, 16 March, we’re finishing the GURPS: Shadowrun game we played on 2 March and, presumably, I pick up with our Action! game the week after. Unless, of course, the Shadowrun game goes long again.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline.
We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.
With the yuan-ti fallen, the warband takes a momentary breather, thus allowing Finn an opportunity to replenish his prepared rituals. At the same time, they learn that Sheikh Al’Dafar ibn Al’Hadir has been taken to the main temple by the yuan-ti mistress.
Observing a horde of flying serpents on approach, the warband takes to the air aboard some magical carpets (though Zistral must stay on the ground since he is too large.) Immediately, the pursuing serpents – led by a flying yuan-ti who acts as their beast-master – set to pursue the three groups.
The chase takes the warband over the city, though Thorondil and Zyanra fall behind somewhat and then wipeout atop the bridge leading to the temple. They then find themselves facing off against the yuan-ti beast-master in a fierce battle that leaves Thorn grievously wounded but the serpent man dead.
The rest of the warband reach the door of the temple and obliterate the last of the flying serpents pursuing them.
And then, an implosion of raw magic rips the mana from the city. The ceremony is clearly nearing a conclusion…
Player Notes:
CommJunkee continued as GM for this adventure arc. Originally, Herodian was expecting to be a couple of hours late, but that didn’t happen.
We had a retcon from the end of the previous session: Thorn’s cat-girlfriend, Zyanra, was not taken with the sheikh but was instead one of those rescued.
Most of this session was the Chase, but we closed out with the two quick skirmishes…
Not sure if we’re going to have a game on 2 March – CommJunkee has a family obligation that he can’t evade. We’re discussing the possibility of a one-shot.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline. Evidently, I’ve been providing the wrong Twitch address on these although Ronnke’s page simulcast with ours so…
We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.
Wherein the Warband Slay More Yuan-Ti, Brumrumli nearly dies, and Some Fa’iel are Rescued…
With Brumrumli and Zistral covering a stairwell leading up, the rest of the warband spread out to clear out the rest of this level. Upon discovering a prison filled with Fa’iel, Thorn sets to unlocking their cells while Arn watches his back.
At the top of the stairs, yuan-ti send a barrel rolling down; it smashes against the wall at the bottom and explodes, leaving a swath of burning pitch to block off the stairs. Zistral is trapped on the other side of this mess and his terror of fire kicks him, forcing him to retreat. Brum and Lan-Fan also retreat, but do so toward the rest of the warband where they join up with Finn who is rushing to investigate the abrupt and unexpected explosion.
Another pair of yuan-ti appear from another stairwell that Thorn had discovered earlier during his recon and loose some poorly aimed arrows at Brum, Finn and Lan-Fan before quickly retreating. Brum and Finn opt to quickly pursue, hoping the catch them before they can reproduce the barrel trick, then Lan-Fan chooses to follow after a few moments.
Reaching the stairs, Brum charges up, surefooted and confident, leaving behind young Finn; the dwarf bounds onto the upper landing and, almost at once, finds himself in a hot fight. He prevents one yuan-ti from rolling another explosive barrel down the stairs that Finn is slowly ascending, then quickly finds himself blocking arrows; upon seeing the barrel and the lit fuse smoldering away, Finn pulls water out of the air and drenches the barrel, snuffing out the fuse.
The fierce fight on the landing quickly turns bloody. Lan-Fan springs up the stairs to join the melee and, upon seeing the number of the enemy, Finn uses the Horn of Defiant to alert the rest of the warband to their peril before surging up and lending his own minimal combat abilities. Brum, bloodied and with a shattered shield, clings to consciousness despite his grievous wounds, and continues to fight on.
Hearing the Horn, Zistral fights through his fear of fire and charges through the blaze to ascend the first set of stairs so as to hit the yuan-ti from behind. In moments, he too is hard-pressed and one of snake-men half-severs one of his legs. Thorn, abandoning his attempts to pick locks, and Arn charge forward and join the fight long moments later.
In the end, the yuan-ti fall, leaving behind a seriously battered warband. Luckily, Finn is able to heal the worst of their injuries, including Zistral’s near crippled leg.
Player Notes:
CommJunkee continued as GM for this adventure arc. Loki was out but Andricus played Lan-fan for the fight.
As with the previous one, the session was dominated by combat as we continued what amounted to a good old fashioned dungeon crawl. This was a brutal fight, with Brum coming very close to death, Zistral nearly losing a leg, and Lan-Fan also nearly going down.
From the rescued Fa’iel, the warband learned that the lead yuan-ti has absconded with Sheikh Al’Dafar ibn Al’Hadir and Zyanra, evidently intent on using them to fuel terrible blood rituals.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline. Evidently, I’ve been providing the wrong Twitch address on these although Ronnke’s page simulcast with ours so…
We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.
With a loud, angry hiss, the yuan-ti anathema surges forward to attack. Arn unleashes a jet of flame against the creature as Brum and Zistral engage it with their weapons while Finn briefly blinds it with a magical flash before hurling an explosive lightning at a different yuan-ti. Against this onslaught, the anathema falls and Arn drops a force dome around the corpse, just in time to ensure the collapsing mass of serpents can’t escape; he then flame jets the lot of them.
At the same, Thorondil continues his pursuit of the escaping yuan-ti abomination, aided by the approaching Lan-Fan who is returning from informing the Fa’iel about the ziggurat temple. The two rejoin the warband just in time to see the anathema be destroyed.
Up the stairs the warband go where they quickly encounter another group of yuan-ti warriors. A fierce fight ensues with the band splitting into two groups to act against individual threats but the end result is the same: the enemy fall before the warband.
In the distance, the alert gong continues to ring…
Player Notes:
CommJunkee continued as GM for this adventure arc. We began a little later than expected due to technical difficulties.
The session was dominated by combat as we continued what amounted to a good old fashioned dungeon crawl.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline. Evidently, I’ve been providing the wrong Twitch address on these although Ronnke’s page simulcast with ours so…
We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.
Wherein the Warband Enter the Yuan-Ti Temple and Blood is Shed…
Deep within Yaqut min Alraml, the warband has discovered a ziggurat temple occupied by yuan-ti. Recognizing that the rest of the Fa’iel need to know of this danger, Finn Sardock sends Lan-Fan back to the camp to inform Rashid of their location and intention.
After she heads out, the rest turn to seeking entrance to the ziggurat and quickly locate a secret door that they use to sneak in.
A quick skirmish with a handful of yuan-ti ends with the warband split into two distinct groups. One of those groups – Brumrumli and Zistral – encounter a pair of extraordinarily beautiful and very charming women who attempt to convince them to remain behind; fortunately, their duty propels them onward, though they both promise to return quickly.
The warband continues forward, eventually reaching a throne room of sorts which contains more yuan-ti, including a champion of sorts who attempts to draw them into an ambush. Opting to spring this ambush entirely, the warband attacks, with Thorn startling the champion by darting around him and hamstringing him while his companions cut through the other yuan-ti with relative ease. Bellowing his fury, the champion smashes some sort of vial at his side which causes an acidic cloud to envelop him.
As the acid cloud grows, Arn drops a weather dome over it in an attempt to prevent it from extending and then, as the last of the other yuan-ti fall, the warband can hide ominous hissing from within the dome.
And then, the warband discover that the yuan-ti champion has transformed into an even greater beast that surges forward to attack!
Player Notes:
CommJunkee continued as GM for this adventure arc. Loki was out for this session due to other obligations.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline. Evidently, I’ve been providing the wrong Twitch address on these although Ronnke’s page simulcast with ours so…
We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.
