War on the Border: Part 1May 17, 1934 - John Kirowan sat in his usual position, his chin resting on his strong, slim hands as he examined the curious volume I had brought him. A clock ticked in the background, the minute hand clicking inexorably toward an auspicious moment all hope desired but nervous reality made unlikely. As my friend examined the book, his face expressionless yet his eyes gleaming with critical interest, the sound of the clock seemed to me to be the echoing beat of some distant war drum reaching to me from the depths of time.
Kirowan pushed himself up and away from the desk. 'I know you have read that strange black book of Von Junzt, the German eccentric whose Dusseldorf edition was published in 1839, and that his Nameless Cults details the historical blind-spot we call the Hyborian Age,' said he.
I nodded, anxious and fearful. He continued his sagacious thoughts, saying, 'In that so-called Black Book, we have a translation of a Nemedian scholar's history of a great king of that undreamed of era. We had thought this to be the sole source of knowledge remaining to us. You have found a most fabulous treasure. In this book, which tells of a time when Von Junzt's Conan was king, confirming the existence of that renowned hero, tells of other adventures of other heroes.'
'So, you can translate the curious dialect in that ancient book?' I asked. He nodded. 'I can, and I have read it. Gather 'round and let me tell you about the strange adventures of another group of Hyborian age stalwarts during the Age of Conan the King....'
War on the Border: Part 1Nava - Shemite Soldier (F), Barbara Darlage
Zetara - Borderer from the Tauran (F), Chris Bradley
Odovacar - Aesir Barbarian (M), Craig Pekar
Cordara de Oto - Zingaran Noble (M), Allen Myers
The governor of Conawaga sent forth a mercenary unit of a hundred men into the Pictish Wilderness to destroy a roaming band of Alligator Picts led by Chief Chogan and Sakokaeah the Shaman. The Alligator tribe is a ferocious tribe of Picts that excels in ambush tactics and guerilla warfare. In addition to ferocious war-paint, they use painful means to raise permanent scars and marks across their body, in addition to having alligator teeth woven into their thick tresses. The shaman is noted for his stylised alligator war-mask, and the chief dresses in the skin of an alligator. The Picts slaughtered the unit, leaving four people alive. Nava the Shemite (Barb) and Zetara of Tauran (Chris) hid while Odovacar the Aesir (Craig) and Cordara de Oto (Allen) ran. At one point, Odovacar stopped running, turned and faced the oncoming Picts. While Cordara, a Zingaran noble, shot arrows into the Picts, Odovacar stood his ground and swung his sword, killing Picts to the left and to the right. Sakokaeah cursed the Aesir warrior as Chogan stunned and captured the Zingaran. The Aesir charged Sakokaeah and was captured.
In the dark, in the night, Nava and Zetara tracked the Picts to their war village and found them about to sacrifice the Zingaran and the Aesir to their dark gods in some horrible ceremony. The booming drums echoed through the night as the Picts danced around in the deep shadows cast by their crackling bon-fire. Sakokaeah was set to turn the pair into subservient were-wolves or were-alligators to send against the Aquilonians. Nava and Zetara snuck into the village and attacked. They fought hard, killing many Picts. Cordara was scalped and left for dead, but Odovacar was freed as Sakokaeah escaped the slaughter, running into the night, into the dark.
Note: Combat really went smoothly, and the magic worked well. Everyone had a blast!
Odovacar - Aesir Barbarian (M), Craig Pekar
Valerian Emilius - Bossonian Soldier (M), Bob Probst
Zetara - Borderer from the Tauran (F), Chris Bradley
Nava - Shemite Soldier (F), Craig Pekar
Alone and completely lost, Odovacar the Aesir wandered in the Pictish Wilderness in a feeble attempt to track Sakokaeah the Shaman of the Alligator tribe. Still cursed by ill-fortune, the burly Aesir had utterly lost his way in the woods. Nava the Shemite had returned to Fort Gakonthie on the Conawagan border to bring aid. She took with her the body of Cordara de Oto, the scalped Zingaran noble whom she took for dead. At the fort, he was revived. Still, Odovacar cursed his luck. Lost as he was, how could others find him to aid him? Fortunately, and perhaps this signaled a break in the bad luck plaguing him since that damnable shaman cursed him, he was found by a Bossonian soldier from the fort.
The Bossonian, Valerian Emilius, could not find the trail the Aesir claimed he was following, and he convinced the barbarian to return with him to the fort. They found a sizable creek and walked along it, trusting it to lead them to Thunder River. Along the way, they encountered a Hawk village. They decided to turn back and go around, but when they turned around, there stood a Pict from the Hawk tribe. The Pict was in hunting paint, and carried a few game animals with him. Valerian made peaceful signs toward the Pict, and the Pict asked if he were there to trade. Valerian said he was, and, after discovering the Pict had seen sign of the passage of the Alligator shaman, negotiated a deal where the Pict would track the shaman for them. The Pict agreed, but said that as their tribe was not at war with the Alligator, he could not help fight the shaman. Valerian said that was fine, and they followed the Hawk back into the dark depths of the Pictish Wilderness.
Unbeknownst to them (but knownst to the gamesmaster), Sakokaeah the Shaman had been picked up by Panther picts. He negotiated with Phaidon the Panther chief and Thayendanegea the Panther shaman to help him capture the Aesir and Shemite that had escaped. Phaidon allowed the Alligator to command four of his Panther braves. Sakokaeah was disappointed but took the four Panthers to hunt for his troublesome prey.
During the night, a viper snuck into the bed roll of the Bossonian soldier for warmth, and, in the morning as Valerian rose, attacked. The snake was killed and eaten for breakfast.
Later in the day, the Picts found Valerian, Odovacar and the Hawk Pict. Sakokaeah ordered an attack as he stayed in the background. The four Panther Picts ran and howled like demons. Odovacar, sorely pressed, battled savagely, hemmed in and hampered by the trees and undergrowth. The Hawk tried, but was taken down with savage wounds as the Bossonian plied his arrows, sending them thumping into the chests of the Panthers. Sakokaeah cursed as Odovacar took down one Pict and the Bossonian took out the other three. Only the Hawk guide was hurt. The shaman slid into the thick underbrush and vanished.
Night was rushing upon them, so the Aesir and the Bossonian decided to rest for the night and care for their fallen guide, hoping to nurse him back into useful service. Sakokaeah summoned a badger and sent it into their camp. The strange, white badger wounded the Bossonian, who had taken off his armour for the night before it was killed. They saw the shaman in the darkness, a curious, ghostly glow around him. They ran through the woods, hampered by undergrowth and unable to fully charge. At a creek, a summoned alligator, ghostly white in colour, launched out of the water and nearly slew the Aesir. The Bossonian fired arrows at the shaman, who ran forward to curse the Bossonian. The alligator left the Aesir for dead and attacked Valerian. After quite a battle, involving much defensive fighting, arrow shooting and teeth gnashing, the alligator finally brought down the Bossonian as well.
The Bossonian and the Aesir awoke, naked and tied to stakes, to the argument of the Panther shaman and the Alligator shaman. Sakokaeah wanted to sacrifice the pair for his own ends, but Thayendanegea the Panther shaman would hear none of it, claiming the Alligator was in Panther territory now. Chief Phaidon sat on his stool and observed, one hand calmly stroking his pet panther. Darkness still enveloped the land, and the drummers in the dark pounded their powerful ritual drums in the deep of the night.
Chilled by the sound of the horrible, echoing drums, the Panther village was being approached by three others: The Hawk guide, Nava the Shemite, and Zetara of the Tauran. The trio climbed massive trees overlooking the fire-lit village. Passing over a massive constrictor snake hanging in the great tree, Nava got into a position where she was concealed, but could see the arguing shamans. She waited as the others got into position. Using stolen Alligator arrows, they drew their bows and fired.
The Pictish village was galvanised into instant action, and the Panther shaman saw the Alligator fletching on the arrows and accused Sakokaeah of treachery. Phaidon ordered the Alligator shaman captured, and Sakokaeah was wrestled into a nearby hut as arrows thudded into the Pictish chief. The chief, still living but sorely wounded, also disappeared into a hut as well-placed arrows cut the bonds holding the hands of Odovacar and Valerian. Valerian did not waste time. He ran to a hut, climbed up it in a single, powerful bound, and then leapt up to a low-hanging branch, pulling himself into the canopy of the great trees. Odovacar set the hut wherein the shaman had vanished on fire, and the shaman pair ran out, escorted by Panther braves. Zetara of the Tauran shot an arrow into the back of Sakokaeah's head, killing him instantly. Odovacar was freed of his ill-fortune, for even he knew of the rule of impermanence, and he ran for an outer wall and escaped over it.
Thayendanegea the Panther shaman summoned a white panther and gave it the loincloth of the Aesir and the clothes of the Bossonian so the escaped sacrifices could be trapped. The party decided to get out of the area and, in the dark, in the night, they ran through the Pictish wilderness. They barely escaped quicksand in one of the small bogs in the area, and splashed through alligator infested creeks as the bulls croaked in the blackness that enveloped all. After an arduous escape and frightening run through the wilderness, they reached a Hawk village where they found an uncomfortable haven for the night.
The following day, the party was escorted by the Hawks back to their fort. The fort re-outfitted the party, and asked them to travel along the road to another fort and escort the paymaster to their fort.
Odovacar - Aesir Barbarian (M), Craig Pekar
Valerian Emilius - Bossonian Soldier (M), Bob Probst
Zetara - Borderer from the Tauran (F), Chris Bradley
Cordara de Oto - Zingaran Noble (M), Allen Myers
Cordara de Oto, Odovacar the Aesir, Zetara and Valerian Emilius were escorting the Paymaster and his chest of pay toward Fort Gakonthie on the Conawagan border when the drumming first echoed out past the nearby Thunder River. The throbbing pound of the huge Pictish war drums frightened the thirty-two soldiers that marched along with the pay-chest. Suddenly, the Picts rushed out of the dense underbrush and began their slaughter. Cordara tried to run into the woods, but he was knocked insensate by the axe of a Pict. Valerian also took to the woods and began shooting Picts as fast as he could, but the dense foliage caused more than one shot to miss.
The Hawk chief took the paymaster down and stole the heavy chest. He and another Pict ran it into the woods as the other Picts likewise attempted to flee away. The chest was handed to a pair of runners (fleet-footed Hawks with the run and endurance feats) as the remaining Picts battled the pursuing soldiers. The battle was fierce, and the thirty two soldiers were whittled down to a mere dozen. Cordara and the paymaster were both stabilized and awakened as the force regrouped. Odovacar the Aesir and Zetara the borderer decided to track the Picts with the chest as Valerian and Cordara arranged the dozen soldiers into a defensible camp.
Four miles away, Odovacar and Zetara were seen by a Pictish scout, who called the alarm. Fleeing as fast as they could through the dense forest, the Picts were closing around them. Zetara, knowing she did not have to run faster than the Picts, but only faster than Odovacar, chugged along as fast as she could. The armoured barbarian, however, was slower and the Picts finally caught up to him as he fell into one of the numerous creeks that criss-cross the frontier. They fell upon him and slaughtered him in the water before picking up the trail of Zetara again.
The Picts attacked the soldiers after Zetara rejoined them, and were brutally rebuffed by the soldiers. The Picts melted back into the forest. The drums restarted as night fell around them... Boom...Boom... Boom... Boom, boom... A fog rolled in with vile, misty tendrils that portended doom. As the drums echoed around them, soldiers started to vanish into the gloom and mist. A man could be talking to a soldier, when suddenly that soldier would be pulled into the brush and slain... his attacker unseen in the mist.
Suddenly the mist lifted (Cordara's player used a fate point to lift the fog) and the Picts melted away again into the darkness, into the night. The drums continued to pound, signaling doom and death to all that could hear them. Suddenly the Picts rushed them, slew a few soldiers, then retreated... the wait continued. Again the Picts rushed, killed, and retreated. More waiting as the drumming continued, unabated and constant. Valerian was taken (Valerian's player used a Fate point to be captured instead of scalped). Cordara, Zetara and the Paymaster (now played by the doomed Odovacar's player) climbed trees as the last of the soldiers were slain. In a tree, sleepless and terrified, they waited, but the Picts did not come again that night. In the morning, the heads of all the soldiers, including Odovacar the Aesir, were found at the base of their tree, an ominous warning of how close the Picts had come to them.
In the Hawk village, Valerian found himself tied naked to a stake. In the village was a Hyborian! This Hyborian, none other than the Schohiran commander recently arrived in the Conawagan Fort Gakonthie, was discussing a treacherous bargain with the Hawk chiefs. In exchange for the paychest, the renegade Hyborian commander would give Fort Gakonthie to the Picts, allowing them to reclaim a former sacred site. The Picts were not to harm any Hyborians marked with a blue armband, however, and to lead them to a system of caves where a mystical relic lies after the slaughter of the fort. Valerian knew he had to warn the fort.
In the meantime, the Zingaran noble and the paymaster travelled to a nearby farm for rest, as both were sorely wounded. Zetara and the last soldier went into the Pictish wilderness to rescue Valerian, for his head was not among those assembled at the bottom of the tree he had spent the night in. Sloppy Pictish scouts (I was suddenly besieged by the worst Listen and Spot rolls ever) enabled the pair to close in on the village. Bare-breasted Pictish women worked in the fields and mended huts and baskets as men went about their daily routines. Climbing a tree, Zetara the Tauranian managed to move through the green canopy over the village to a position above Valerian. She lowered a noose out of the tree and secured it around Valerian's neck. She pulled him up (which freed him, as his hands were secured to the post through a nail in the top) into the tree, unseen by the Picts (again with the horrible Listen and Spot rolls!). They climbed back through the dense canopy and were well on their way by the time the Picts noticed.
The Picts pursued, but soon lost the trail. Rejoining Cordara the Zingaran and the paymaster, they made their way quickly to the Fort. Unfortunately the commander had made it there before them. Blue-banded guards manned the walls, and the rest of the troops were assembling for a drill detail outside the Fort! Led by Cordara and Valerian, they burst in on the officer's quarters and confronted the commander in front of the Fort Captain. The troops were all given blue arm bands and put on the walls, and the Pictish attack on the fort was short and fruitless. Valerian, Cordara, Zetara and the paymaster were all deemed heroes and the treacherous Schohiran renegade and his men were court-martialed.
Emilius - Borderer from the Tauran (M), Craig Pekar
Zetara - Borderer from the Tauran (F), Chris Bradley
Cordara de Oto - Zingaran Noble (M), Allen Myers
Nava - Shemite Soldier (F), Barbara Darlage
Cordara de Oto, Nava the Shemite, Zetara and Emilius the Borderer were...
John Kirowan paused in his reading of the curious manuscript. 'The rest of this section seems to be in a different tongue than the prior sections. I cannot read it at this time.' He seemed quite disappointed. 'Ah, but this next section appears to be, once again, translatable.'
(Vincent's Note: As we were playtesting a scenario, we can't share the synopsis of the game at this time. Sorry. Come visit next week for another addition to the adventure log.)
Emilius - Borderer from the Tauran (M), Craig Pekar
Zetara - Borderer from the Tauran (F), Chris Bradley
Cordara de Oto - Zingaran Noble (M), Allen Myers
Valerian Emilius - Bossonian Soldier (M), Bob Probst
Cordara de Oto, Valerian Emilius, Zetara and Emilius the Borderer were...
John Kirowan paused again in his reading of the curious manuscript. 'The rest of this section seems to be in a different tongue than even the prior section! I can make out the word 'Otokenha', but I do not know what it means. As for the rest, I cannot read it at this time.' He seemed quite disappointed.
(Vincent's Note: As we were playtesting a scenario, we can't share the synopsis of the game at this time. Sorry. Come visit next week for another addition to the adventure log.)
World of Conan (Revisionary) Map | Westermarck Map (Detail) | Map of the Hyborian Age (Complete with misspellings)