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Session 65 Jonyn |
Lochfell's Secret part one (modified version of D&D adventure) |
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Marcus resumes his university teaching, and is disappointed to learn that in his absence Mendy Bader has been appointed Assistant Dean of the Faculty of History. He begins to consider changing his teaching emphasis to the Faculty of Rhetoric, where his linguistic skills and firsthand knowledge of ancient Qemor are highly valued. Marcus also learns that his father visited while he was away, looking for his diary, and apparently got along with with Mendy. Lady Mara has already returned to Elmet, where the Goblins have already begun to campaign following a mild winter. Eadric and Jonyn have an eventful six-week voyage back to Teran, as their ship is accosted by Crusader pirates near the entrance to the Sea of Lament. They play the primary role in driving off the pirates, assisted by a fellow traveller, a kattar who fights barehanded. During the following weeks, they become well-acquainted with Oulis Ac-na-Vodin, who is travelling to the distant south to perform great feats of courage as part of his quest for enlightenment. When they arrive in Teran, Jonyn invites Oulis to approach Lady Brenna and enter her service. Oulis accepts Jonyn's invitation, meets with Lady Brenna's approval, and enters her service. Eadric leaves almost immediately for Vestad, where he has some personal business to deal with. Marcus learns that Lady Mara has been mentioned in dispatches for her valour in holding a bridge with only two fellow knights against a Goblin warband. Lady Brenna sends the remainder of his adventurers to collect the missing reliquary of Saint Isolda of Rhosdann, as she's learned that the monastery of Amalfi has employed Mendy Bader and her associates to find the saint's gilded skull and thigh-bone. Saint Isolda's reliquary was lost when the Tralline monastery of Rhosdann (on Karlig Island, southwest of Dirkholme) was devastated by an earthquake. Lady Brenna directs her adventurers to teleport directly to Wesland, and thus gain a lead on Mendy's group, who left on horseback two days earlier. In Wesland they are to find Captain Karla Roodsdottir and take passage on The Faithful Lady to Karlig Island. Brenna's adventurers do so, though Karla is disappointed that Eadric is absent, and reach Karlig Island with a lead of perhaps two days. At Karlig Island, they go to the village of Lochfell, which is closest to the ruins of Rhosdann monastery. Leaving Adar behind, Brenna's adventurers row ashore while The Faithful Lady stays out in deeper waters. The villagers are suspicious, as their dead are not remaining in the grave, plus something in the water attacks fishing boats and kills people who walk alone or in pairs on the beaches. That afternoon, there is a hue and cry, as a man has been taken from a beach in front of his wife. Jonyn and Marcus calm the woman down, and she explains how her husband was seized and carried into the water by a terrible scaled lobster-man. The lobster-man carried her husband off towards Taylor's Rock, a local landmark in the bay that's close to shore. Brenna's adventurers use magic to move freely through the water towards Taylor's Rock, where they spot a polished helmet bobbing on the water's surface. Oulis goes forward to investigate, and discovers that the helmet is sticky and attached to a sticky strand. Before he can free himself, the lobster-man attacks. The creature speaks in a shuddering whisper, calls itself the Chuul, and works in tandem with a well-trained squid. As the tide of battle turns against the Chuul, the squid flees, pursued by Oulis. Oulis follows it back to the Chuul's lair before killing it, while the Chuul dies fighting the others. Brenna's adventurers regroup at the Chuul's layer, which contains the sometimes-eaten corpses of the missing fishing crews and beachcombers. They also find a gilded thighbone in a tunnel beneath a hole in the roof. The thighbone appears to have trapped a jet-black large boar with mighty tusks, clawed feet, and glowing red eyes in a cavern at the end of the tunnel. The creature pleads to be freed, but prevaricates about what it will do once it's free. Entering the chamber gives Jonyn, Oulis and Marcus a brief flash of nightmarish fear, though all three overcome it instantly. The creature attacks without hesitation, and is quickly felled. They attempt to set the body on fire, much to Taliriana's disgust, but don't have enough flammable materials to cremate it. Late Winter to Mid Spring 1397 AUC |
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Session 66 Jonyn |
Lochfell's Secret part two (modified version of D&D adventure) |
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Having explored all of the Chuul's lair, Brenna's adventurers climb up into the hole in the roof through which the gilded thighbone fell. Taliriana continues to keep her distance from Marcus even after he places the thighbone in his haversack, where she can't see it. The hole in the roof is actually the end of a steep but managable spiral tunnel that ends in a chamber with partially-worked walls. Marcus easily finds a cunningly-concealed door in one of the worked walls. Behind the door is another partially-worked chamber with three exits and a wide groove in the floor running from one exit to a second exit. Brenna's adventurers carefully enter the chamber, and are almost immediately confronted by two rough wooden statues of antlered men that run into the chamber. The statues lack facial features, but are covered with runes and swirls that seem to leak blood. While the statues are quickly destroyed, the noise of battle seems to rouse other defenders. Mist begins to flood into the chamber though one of the exits. Through the mist strides a tall man in a black robe, little more than skin and bones, accompanied by a small winged demon wearing a female form in tight leather straps. The skeletal man's magic almost kills Oulis instantly, but Jonyn overpowers him while Marcus kills the winged demon with his holy sword. The skeletal man has barely fallen when another man arrives. The newest arrival wears a suit of full plate and carries two battle flails. He seems to be made out of the body parts of Mercanians, part-Mercanians and Humans, sewn together and then empowered by arcane magic. The armoured man uses magic that revitalises the skeletal man and weakens the adventurers, then closes for battle while the skeletal man wraps himself in darkness and disappears. Brenna's adventurers eventually manage to damage the armoured man sufficiently that the magic binding his parts together falters, then dissipates. They have barely healed themselves when they hear an approaching wail. When the skeletal man appears for a second time in the same exit, Talos immediately strikes him with a burst of blinding light. However, this doesn't stop the skeletal man completing his arcane magic and uttering a piercing wail that kills Talos instantly, brings Taliriana close to death, seriously wounds Marcus, and weakens Jonyn. This time, however, Oulis is not affected by the Necromancer, and with his help Jonyn strikes the Necromancer down for the second and final time while Marcus saves Taliriana's life. After Jonyn drives off a group of zombies that lumber towards them down a corridor, Brenna's adventurers decide to withdraw and regroup. Taliriana uses the last of her magic to take Jonynand Talos' body back to The Faithful Lady, while Marcus uses a magic scroll to take himself, Oulis and the gilded thighbone back to the ship. However, the magic goes awry, and Marcus and Oulis end up outside a village with a strikingly-similar layout in the jungles of Warang, a kingdom on the peninsula of Minj. The local kattar direct them to their temple, where the high priestess, Nur Rahayu, trades them a magic scroll that will take them back to The Faithful Lady for Marcus' jar of magic salve that reverses transformation into a stone statue. On hearing of their recent loss, she also tells them she could trade them a magic scroll that will restore Talos fully to life, if they could help the local Kattar women with a problem they've been having with two of their Elven gods. Marcus and Oulis promise to get back in touch with her, and use her magic scroll to return to The Faithful Lady before Taliriana can finish searching for them in her magic mirror. Mid Spring 1397 AUC |
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Session 67 Jonyn/Mar |
Trouble Comes In Pairs |
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Talos' body is laid out in the brig, with the gilded thighbone on his chest to stop him rising as an undead monster. After they rest for the night, Brenna's adventurers go to the village to tell them about the creatures they battled, the Chuul's lair, and the Necromancer. Then, Taliriana returns them to the chamber in the Necromancer's lair. They spend the morning exploring the Necromancer's lair, destroying the rest of the zombies as well as a carnivorous plant that attacks them in a chamber full of plants, mold and fungi. They find a chamber that contains signs of life, including a dusty but full ashtray and an empty chamber pot, plus an exit to the bottom of a disused well. The top of the well is close to the ruins of Rhosdann monastery. Taliriana can't actually walk into the ruins, so the others begin to explore. They stop when Taliriana points out that there is a second ship in the harbour. Anxious that Mendy may have arrived to steal "his" gilded thighbone, Marcus has Taliriana return all four of them to The Faithful Lady. There, Marcus' worst fears are realised: Mendy and her companions are visiting, and Karla has allowed one of them into the room with Talos' body! He sends Oulis to make sure that the man doens't steal the thighbone. Oulis pays close attention to Sturt Tarrin, who seems more interested in paying his respects to Talos and making sure there are coins on his eyes so that he can pay for the ferry to the underworld, as any pagan would want. Marcus and Mendy politely snipe at each other, and she antagonises him by noting that she obtained permission to absent herself from her teaching commitments to carry out this archaeological investigation. Mendy's other companions, Lady Anna Colombari and a man named Bretwald who casts no shadow, spend most of their time watching the show. In time, all four return to their own ship, Foambreaker, which is apparently captained by one of Karla's cousins, Baldin. Marcus is very unhappy that Karla allowed them aboard The Faithful Lady, a decision which she defends as courteous and one which didn't lead to any theft or loss. Brenna's adventurers keep watch on Foambreaker, while Marcus and Jonyn go to Lochfell to warn them about their rivals. While in Lochfell, Foambreaker hoists sail and leaves. Convinced this means the others have found the gilded skull, Marcus (and Jonyn) rush back to The Faithful Lady, then return to the monastery ruins to search for the skull. In time, Marcus finds a mostly-buried chamber that he can see through a crack in the wall. Inside the chamber the dust is disturbed, and there is a large gap in the dust where a reliquary-sized box may have rested on the ground. Marcus is convinced the rivals have used magic to locate the skull, enter the room, and return to their ship with the reliquary, and is disconsolate. The next day, The Faithful Lady begins to sail back to Wesland. Talor begins to decompose, and they pack his body in a box filled with salt, then place the gilded thighbone on top of the box. Partway through the journey, Brenna's adventurers decide to return to the temple in Warang and find out more about Nur Rahayu's problem with the local gods. It turns out that two of the gods, Zuhail and Mehran, are overly amorous towards the young unmarried women. This wouldn't be a great problem except they are fickle, as the gods always are, and do not marry the women, who then can't find suitable husbands because nobody wants to offend poweful gods. Zuhail is famous for his tremendous strength, while Mehran is famous for his mastery of wrestling. Brenna's adventurers agree to talk with the two gods in exchange for the magic scroll that will restore Talos plus the right to map four-fifths of the temple complex and all the catacombs. They go out to the god's favourite bathing place to wait for them. Taliriana's presence brings almost instant results, as the two gods arrive on a cloud after less than half an hour of waiting. They are both interested in Taliriana, trying to bargain with Marcus and Oulis for her while Jonyn waits patiently for someone to speak in a language he can understand. Marcus finds it difficult to distract them from Taliriana, but eventually does so. He also manages to get Mehran to speak in a way that Jonyn can understand. Zuhail and Mehran seem focussed on tests of stength and skill. Oulis manages to avoid being grappled by Mehran, but cannot hold onto Mehran, who refuses to teach him his secret technique. Zuhail challenges Jonyn to exchange three axeblows with him, and offers to let Jonyn strike him three times before Zuhail starts to strike him, but Jonyn refuses. In the end, they grow bored with the discussion, but Marcus has made a promising start on getting them to agree to his preferred solution to the problem, which is getting Zuhail and Mehran to publicly promise that they will not punish or harm anyone who married one of their past lovers. Mid Spring 1397 AUC |
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Session 68 Jonyn |
Black Rain (modified version of D&D adventure) |
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Brenna's adventurers spend several days at the temple in Warang, as Marcus gradually wears down the gods' resistance and persuades them to make the promise. After they do, Nur Rahayu grudgingly gives the adventurers the magic scroll. Taliriana returns to The Faithful Lady and collects Adar and the box with Talos in it, and they unpack him. Taliriana refuses to read the scroll because she knows nothing of necromancy, so Marcus invokes the magic and restores Talos to life with a kiss. Everyone is relieved that Talos seems unchanged by his second death. Brenna's adventurers begin to map the catacombs, as Marcus has already mapped the four-fifths of the temple complex he is allowed to enter over the preceding days. One day, while they are returning from the catacombs, there is a great disturbance outside. When they approach the exit to the catacombs, they can see a red barrier encasing the temple complex, inside which an oily black rain is falling, and can hear the sounds of battle and death. Oulis rushes ahead, and finds the main entrance to the temple complex guarded by a many-headed hydra. The hydra stops eating the dead and dying kattar to attack Oulis. Oulis easily avoids being bitten, but cannot avoid the fiery breath of the hydra, and falls as the others arrive. The others defeat the hydra and revive Oulis, then approach the temple compound, where they can still hear the sounds of a massacre. Three large, naked lion-men confront them outside the main doors. While the lion-men find it difficult to hurt Brenna's adventurers with their claws, the adventurers find it difficult to stop them healing themselves with magic while the fight rages. Eventually, however, the lion-men suffer too much damage too quickly, and are killed. Brenna's adventurers continue into the main part of the temple, the secret chambers of worship that Marcus wasn't allowed to map. They find the way to the holy altar blocked by an invisible barrier, behind which a gaunt kattar warrior towers over Nur Rahayu as she cowers on the steps before the altar. The warrior wears a splended breastplate and is armed with two iron rods. Taliriana transports everyone except Adar past the invisible barrier to engage the warrior, who is reinforced by half a dozen lion-men in an adjacent chamber. Meanwhile, Adar is confronted by the largest and grandest of all the lion-men, who battles Adar by himself while two other lion-men look on and shout encouragements. The kattar warrior slowly loses the battle, but is healed again and again by the lion-men, who are willing to risk their own lives to aid the kattar. Eventually, the lion-men aiding the kattar warrior dwindle in number, and the leader of the lion-men stops fighting Adar and leaves to find a way to enter the main chamber. The kattar warrior retreats towards a door that was hidden behind a large curtain, but is killed before he can reach another group of lion-men. This group are led by a bat-winged kattar woman armed with a bow. She uses a rope to snatch up the warrior's two iron rods, and promises "Tikiri" that she won't leave him. However, she then uses magic to flee Brenna's adventurers, leaving the kattar's body behind. With the warrior's death, the black rain stops falling and the red barrier disappears. The leader of the lion-men battles Jonyn briefly, but announces that they are too evenly matched and calls it a draw when he starts to lose, successfully fleeing with the handful of surviving lion-men. The adventurers question Nur Rahayu about what the kattar warrior wanted, but receive only a sketchy explanation of how Tikiri sought revenge for being slighted years ago. While searching the kattar's corpse, Marcus finds letters from Nur Rahayu to Tikiri in which she spurns his affections. Brenna's adventurers help the surviving priests and priestesses save the wounded and cremate the dead, and prepare to ransom Tikiri's possessions back to his wealthy and noble family. Marcus returns the letters to Nur Rahayu. Mid to Late Spring 1397 AUC |