ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

Session 115 - The Oak King's Court

Leon's band of misfits took a well-deserved rest before pressing on through the blighted forest.

At length they arrived at the 'court' - nothing more than a clearing in the forest, where the boughs of trees formed themselves into mock walls, arches and buttresses. But the blight had spread even here - mounds of stinking mulch were littered throughout the clearing. At its centre, a beautiful elven noblewoman wept over the body of a wemic - slain by thousands of tiny bites.

As they spoke to this tearful woman, the unit heard stomping footsteps and crashing through the trees. When they wondered aloud at this, the woman said:

"The Rowan King has senses intruders and comes to deal with them, in accordance with the wishes of his master, Tatzel."

The Huldregaarl growled a warning just moments before the woman metamorphosed into a swarm of chittering insects and attacked the party. The stinking mounds around her rose up at he command, taking vaguely humanoid forms, thoguh giant in size. These mounds seem to draw power from the maelstrom of butterflies in the skies above them, and their blows crackled with electrical power.

These were tough, dangerous opponents, but the newly formed group of warriors found they worked very well together and dispatched their foes with clinical efficiency: Redcoat tore huge chunks off the shambling mounds, while Nbed's sword bit deep with every strike. Etiotek chittered warnings that allowed the group to coordinate their attacks and used magical pheromones to heal their wounds. The Huldregaarl fought swarm against swarm, aided by the tempestuous blasts of Ascodel who was able to defend his allies from the hardest blows.

Though this fight was hard, they were soon victorious, but had only moments to catch their breath before the Oak King arrived:

Etiotek's quest was in vain: the Oak King had been corrupted along with the forest around him. The huge treant was blackened, maddened and twisted, lashing out at them with root and branch. Riding the 'waves' the Oak King formed in the earth itself were half-a-dozen giggling quicklings who darted to and fro, lashing out at the adventurers with their sharp knives.

This was another hard fight: the quicklings were also corrupt and rose from the dead when slain, while the Oak King was hugely powerful. But at length they wore the King down and dispatched him, whereupon the Huldregaarl wrapped its limbs around his body like a parasitic creeper and sapped his dying strength.

With that strength came wisdom (more of which next week).

Session 116

When the Huldregaarl drained the primal power of the blighted Oak King, it also gained some of his knowledge and memories. They assaulted the Huldregaarl's mind in a jumble which caused the creature to jolt and shake. His companions realised something was afoot and, in seeking to aid it, helped the creature to make sense of what it had learned. Etiotek then interpreted for the group:

The Huldregaarl confirmed what they already knew - that the blight had spread across the entire upper dreaming all and once and fully formed: that the landscape had changed instantaneously, although everyone felt they had a dim memory of its gradual spread. Leon and the other magic-users agreed that the level of power required to make this happen was unimaginable.

Gradually, other facts emerged - news that had reached the Oak King before the blight finally overcame him: The Birch Queen's Fair had been burned to the ground by her sister Jenny Greenteeth; The Rowan King was dead, his armies destroyed or defected to the new power - bugbears and ogres had gone to join the dark fey at the Palace of the River King; that Palace was now the seat of power for Tatzel and his allies - a host of dark fey vampires.

The group decided to travel to the Birch Queen's Fair. Once again, Ascodel summoned giant eagles to take them there. The Fair had indeed been razed. Charred bodies were scattered everywhere. They made camp while they poked about among the ashes. Shuffling footsteps told them of the approach of the Lizardman Minister, whom they had last encountered at the River King's Palace. He had traveled here to warn the Birch Queen of the approaching danger, but had arrived too late.

Leon talked with him, to mine what knowledge he could, telling him everything about his experiences - from the strange sense of deja vu to the sudden shifts in time and place. When he was in full possession of all the facts, the minister suggested that the dragon's possession of the crystal tesseract (stolen from unit B some months ago) might account for these effects, for the idol was attuned to the plan of time. And the jade leviathan, while conferring great stealth upon the wielder, also had the power to corrupt (which is why Leon had always been wary of using it).

They asked the Minister if he wanted to travel with them but he declined - they would be safer without him, and he without them, he said. His greatest ability was to travel unnoticed 'if a little slowly'. If he traveled with them they would have to worry about keeping him safe. So they set off for the Palace of the River King, on the backs of summoned eagles.

From a distance they could see that the Palace had changed. The beautiful, bright, white architecture had been twisted into strange organic forms, though the outer walls retained their integrity. An army was decamped on the plain beside the river, and the spidery black forms of vampiric black fey crawled over the battlements. Ascodel and Nbed set off to scout - Nbed taking gaseous form; Ascodel using a spell to make himself invisible. They entered the Palace through an upper window and found the interior to be almost cave-like, with a series of chambers and interconnecting tunnels. Many of the chambers were resting places for the vampires. Other areas were guarded by mutated dragonborn and were sealed by black glass doors.

Nbed saw Thania, his erstwhile mistress, moving around the Palace, clearly in a position of some authority. When the coast was clear, he adopted her form and bluffed his way past the dragonborn, finding himself in a chamber which crackling with the energy of five swirling portals, linked to a central dais upon which stood an object so brightly lit that Nbed could not scrutinize it for long.

Standing around the dais were several figures: Jenny Greenteeth, the hag who once served as the River King's debt collector; Ambertain the Black, a dark fey warlock who Nbed could see at once was now a vampire (he gestured at 'Thania' to wait and not disturb this gathering); three more hags - one with blue skin, and with the stink of the swamp about her; another wearing black plate armour and a huge greatsword; a third hooded and cloaked and dripping salt water; and a beautiful eladrin woman.

Nbed suddenly remembered that it had been Ambertain who led the fey that had slaughtered his kinsmen. His fingers twitched but he controlled his desire to lash out and tried to listen to their words.

Before he could hear much of import, the black glass door behind him scraped open and he turned to find himself face to face with Thania!

Session 117a - The Search for Malthusius

Some weeks ago I wrote "more about which next week..." in reference to the fleet that was building in Shale, in preparation for a potential war with Danor. Then I forgot about it. Well, here's the gist:

Having returned from the village in the hills where Malthusius' reincarnation was murdered, the unit A was contacted by Korrigan who wanted to know what was happening. They told him, and he told them that he was on his way to Shale to meet with the King, and petition him to allow Korrigan to replace Roland Stanfield as Governor of Flint (or at the very least hold elections in which Korrigan might oppose the incumbent governor). He told them to cool their heels in Shale for a day or two, and in the meantime hook up with Sly Marbo who was in Shale with the coalescing fleet.

Marbo was operating to root out any untrustworthy elements who might be seeking to forward Duchess Ethelyn of Shale's agenda, or maintain Risur's close alliance with the fey at the expense of King Aodhan's drive for modernization. He wasn't enjoying the role. When Korrigan's next message arrived, Sly was only too eager to help out. The sending informed the unit of two diva incarnations in recent days in feasible radius from Shale. Neither was in the direction of the Congregation of Adelbrand, the clergy sect that the unit had investigated. One was on an island close to the Yerasol Archepelago where Risur maintained a small naval base and a trading town; the other in the middle of the 'breadbasket of Risur' - the fertile farmlands to the west of Slate.

"Find the the blue guy, boys," said Korrigan. "We never leave a man behind."

The unit was torn. They felt they had a strong lead in knowing that - at some point in the future - Malthusius would reincarnate as a member of the Congregation. This gave them a head-start on whoever was tracking down his immediate incarnations. (How long would they go on for? Perhaps just until rediscovering his memories and personality had become unfeasible.) With two incarnations and the Congregation as distinct possibilities, the unit needed to split three ways, but Matunaaga was unhappy at the idea of sending anyone off alone. So they recruited Sly Marbo who commissioned an RHC boat to take him to the island (a boat skippered by none other than the obnoxious half-orc Happy Harry who, some time ago, had declined the unit's offer of membership on the basis that they ran with a tiefling).

Rumdoom and Uru headed into the fertile plains, taking the wondrous carriage figurine. Matunaaga and Conquo sailed on the Roscommon to the far east of Flint and then headed into the interior and the Anthras Mts on foot. Matunaaga did not know how friendly the Congregation would be and considered they might be hostile towards a 10-foot tall fey golem. He left Conquo to follow and outstripped him by several days. The approach to the monastery was vertiginous. The monks were distrustful at first but, despite his charmless exterior, Matunaaga was eventually able to win them over by demonstrating a kinship with their ascetic tradition. By the time Conquo arrived (causing some consternation among the Congregation) Matunaaga was ready to leave, with a promise from the abbot to inform him if word of any deva incarnation at a Congregation monastery was to reach them. (It was unlikely, he explained, as there were no women allowed, but he had contacted the half-dozen far flung retreats they maintained around Llanjyr and explained the urgency of the situation.)

Sly Marbo and Happy Harry arrived on the island and found that the deva who had incarnated there was not connected to Malthusius.

Uru and Rumdoom arrived at a ranch where a large funeral was in process. The neighbouring ranchers were overwhelmed with sorrow and anger: A deva child had been born to the daughter of a wealthy farmer, an occasion interpreted by the local druid as auspicious. Only a day later a man arrived from Slate - a man in a stove-pipe hat, accompanied by a sparkling female sprite. He tried to persuade (and eventually intimidate) the family to hand the child over. They refused and the man went away.

That night near neighbours heard sounds of gunfire, and came to the ranch to find that everyone had been killed: the family of seven, their five ranch hands and the deva baby.

Session 117b - The Coven

While waiting for Nbed to return, Leon experienced another strange effect of Upper Dreaming: Suddenly it felt as if he were Nbed, experiencing the dream through his eyes.

When he caught sight of the six figures gathered around the plinth, the noise of the opened portals seemed to fade, and he could hear what they were saying to one another:

"While Tatzel possesses the Jade Leviathan, the Blight will spread," said Ambertain the Black.

Jenny Greenteeth nodded, pleased by this report. "Weary Enid, what have you to report?" she asked, turning to the cowled, dripping hag.

"The tyrant draws a greater power to him," Enid responded, in a voice like the gurgles of a drowned corpse. "Tatzel is no match for him as yet. I will keep an eye on proceedings and respond accordingly." She departed through a portal.

Jenny Greenteeth nooded. "Blue Meg, Gorago: we have located to more idols. You must depart at once. The timing of your arrival is exact. Meg - you must await retrieval and ambush those responsible. Gorago: the vault will be breached already, and you must find the idol before it is lost to robbers."

The hulking, armoured hag and the one with blue skin both nodded and made for different portals, which opened to receive them. Glimpses of a jungle could be seen beyond one; the deck of a storm-tossed ship beyond the other.

"We will return to the Mother's hut and leave matters in your hands," said Jenny Greenteeth to Ambertain.

"You intend to persist with the indoctrination of this child?"

"I have used this method before. It is a simple matter to take a mortal child, raise it in isolation and influence its outlook in such a way that it will serve as the ideal exponent of our will. This time, however, I have chosen the child much more carefully, and our plan is much more subtle than a mere incursion."

"But we don't have that kind of time! Events are months from fruition; a year at most!"

Jenny Greenteeth smiled. "There are places I know where hours pass like seconds and the Great Mother's house has many doors."

"She grants you free access?" asked Ambertain sceptically.

"Nothing is ever free. But the Mother will tender many favours for the chance to conrol a world."

It was at this point that Nbed/Leon sense a presence behind him, and turned to see Thania enter the room.

Simultaneously, the eladrin woman who had stood with her back to them since there arrival turned and said, "He's here."

Session 118a - The Weaver

Two things happened at once when Leon/Nbed became aware of Thania's presence behind him.

Nbed's disguise melted away and Thania immediately responded by placing him under domination. Leon sensed this immediately returned to his meditating body with a gasp.

The others were gathered around him, concerned. Leon had been narrating the course of events as they had befallen Nbed. They watched in astonishment as he leapt to his feet, said something about 'opening a portal', gestured towards empty air, leapt through and disappeared!


To Leon in his dreamlike state it all seemed perfectly real. He thought the others were with him, until he arrived in the interior of a tiny smoke-filled hut, where he found the blind old crone he had encountered in the hilltop village in Shale, sitting cross-legged before a complex loom. This time he saw that she had many arms and was weaving an intricate pattern.


The crone told him he had arrived at a point where he needed to make another choice. The first choice had already made: he had altered the timeline of events in which he had been killed in combat with Lavanya and she herself had fallen to the rest of the unit. Instead, he had chosen to renegotiate with her, and when presented with the likely outcome she had surrendered. (What, then, was she doing alongside Jenny Greenteeth and her coven? The Weaver could not say. Leon guessed that it would be pointless to ask who she was herself.) This was the first favour the Weaver had spoken of in Shale.

The choice he now had to make was whether to pursue this path or return to Lanjyr, where he comrades Matunaaga, Uru and Rumdoom now needed him. Leon was stumped. To choose either path felt like a squalid abandonment of the other. Sensing his ambivalence the Weaver offered him a second favour: she could weave two threads together and enable him to follow both paths; to be in two places at once. Leon thought hard, wondered what the cost might be. The Weaver admitted that he might be pursuing her agenda in pursuing his own. Leon agreed.


At once he appeared in the portal chamber where the coven had met.

At once he appeared in Lanjyr, just at the right moment...

Session 118b - Spawn Swarm

Ascodel summoned four eagles. News of their presence had clearly spread to the bugbear troops mustered by the river, as they began to fan out in search of them. When they eagles came, they flew over their heads, close to the main 'trunk' of the weird, organic palace.

By turns they flew, leapt or teleported through the nearest window into one of the many chambers were vampire spawn slumbered nests of white stone. Ascodel knew the way and they followed him towards the black glass doors beyond which they hoped to find Nbed and Leon.

In the largest hallway before the doors, where the floor sloped sharply to their left, they met with resistance. Black fey vampires responded to their presence in their droves - dozens of them. Undead ogres came too, from their guard posts by the bridge. Thania arrived, and ordered the dragonborn guards to withdraw, while she and her new ally Nbed, dealt with the intruders. Her confidence was unnerving. Redcoat charged but ended up sliding down the smooth white slope, taking out several vampires as he went.

This time, the adventurers knew that Thania's demise would free Nbed. They focused their attacks on her, while the Huldregarl kept the vampire swarm at bay. Etiotek used a spell to banish her for a moment, and Ascodel and Redcoat were close by when she reappeared.

She was dispatched in short order, and fled again in gaseous form, whereupon Nbed collapsed. They could not wake him, and instead pursued Thania to her open stone nest and slew her permanently as her form coalesced. Hopefully, Nbed was now permanently freed. But he did not stir as yet and they had no time to wait: Redcoat broke through the black glass doors and into the chamber of portals.

There they found Leon, face-to-face with a beautiful eladrin woman. He was distracted momentarily by their arrival and Lavanya turned and fled through one of the portals. Leon gave chase, yelling over his shoulder:

"Ambertain the Black escaped upstairs! You'll find the dragon up there!"

Session 118c -Cryptic Conversation

Once again, Leon confronted Lavanya. Once again, their conversation raised more questions than it answered. Lavanya's responses were enigmatic and puzzled Leon greatly.

He found, thereafter, that he would have only a dim and confusing memory of what was said and that subsequent events would contradict what she had told him.

When his allies arrived in the portal chamber and Lavanya sought to flee, Leon could not help but pursue her.

Session 119 - Tatzel

There was no time to lose: the hordes of bugbears and ogres encamped outside the palace were beginning to enter in response to the disturbance inside. Nbed was back on his feet and fought his way through stray vampire spawn to join the others in the portal chamber.

They dared not linger to explore the area, but sought instead a way to chase down Ambertain and confront Tatzel. There was a second exit from the chamber, with another black glass door. They were difficult to break and when Redcoat took down one, he found another just behind it.

Nbed dimly remembered that he had been to this place when dominated and thought that the portal chamber connected to spiral stairs via a corridor barred by five such doors. It would be impossible to break them all down in time. There was another way to reach the stairs, but it was guarded by dragonborn and the hallways between there and here were now swarming with vampires, bugbears and ogres.

The Huldregarl then noticed that the shadowy, vaulted ceiling of the chamber was not complete - it was formed from two overlapping plates and gave free access to the upper reaches of the twisted palace - a gaping hole large enough for a dragon to reach the portal chamber, but hidden from plain sight by the gloom. They made their way up in their various fashions and found themselves in an area of marmoreal white stone even more tortuously twisted than elsewhere, like the interior of a cavern carved by fast-flowing water.

They could hear Ambertain addressing Tatzel in draconic. None of them could speak the language, but he was clearly cajoling, goading, beckoning the dragon, who seemed reluctant to show himself. Instead, their intrusion was met by dragonborn warriors, wizards, and archers, kobold slingers and shaman. All were mutated and twisted, their scales (once of varying hues) blackened and slick, with prehensile tendrils and vestigial limbs where they needn't ought to have been. A hard fight ensued, during which Ambertain appeared and cast mind-affecting spells before retreating when Tatzel's minions began to falter. But by the time the last dragonborn fell, the adventurers were bloodied and exhausted.

At last, Ambertain's exhortations drew Tatzel into the fray. The dragon was now wholly corrupted, surrounded by a cloud of fog, within which it could move freely, as if disappearing and reappearing completely. The creature lashed out with its bite and claws and beset the intruders with mad visions. Ambertain kept to the fringes of the fight and hurled more mind-affecting spells.

When they got close, they could see that Tatzel was behaving more like a deranged wild animal than a noble dragon tyrant, seeming almost fearful of those he attacked. The dragon was muttering and mumbling to himself, and clutching something jealously to his chest with one foreclaw, a fact that limited him from full combat effectiveness. Nonetheless, the party realised that there was no way they could hope to defeat it, given how hard the last fight had been.

Nbed peeled away from the fight and launched himself at Ambertain, who gave a loud, long laugh and declared himself to be the 'vampire master; master even to Thania, who commanded you' then he sought to dominate Nbed as she had done. But Nbed had had enough - and what's more, he now remembered the treachery of Ambertain - how it was the black fey warlock who had ambushed the satyr warband Nbed had summoned and slain them all. He struck the arrogant vampire down, much to Ambertain's surprise.

The Huldregarl told Etiotek - the only one of the group who could understand the wave-like hissing produced by the creature - that Tatzel was suffering from the same malady that once afflicted the Huldregarl. The Oak King, too, had been maddened by the blight in this way, and the Huldregarl now remembered that it was Etiotek's song which had soothed him. While Redcoat went toe-to-toe with the dragon and kept it at bay, Etiotek began rubbing his legs and wing-case together to produce that same chirruping tune. Much to everyone's astonishment, the look of wildness left the dragon's eyes and it broke off combat with Redcoat. The whirling mists dissipated and dragon crouched, panting and wary, some distance away, still clutching one claw close to its chest in a calcified, arthritic claw.

Session 120 - A Stitch in Time

• Wary of Ambertain's continued threat, Nbed left to find his resting place.
• Leon reappeared just as the fight with Tatzel ended, and helped the others calm the dragon down and communicate with it. With a sigh of relief the corrupted dragon relinquished the jade idol which it had clutched to its chest to fiercely.
• It was attuned to the element of water, but had the trait of pollution, not mystery (the trait which dominated Mavisha). The adventurers tossed the thing about like a hot potato and decided that they should take it in turns to keep the thing.
• The blight had done its evil work on the dragon. In a last ditch attempt to save the creature, the Huldregarl performed a healing ritual that sent scarab beetles swarming across the corrupted beast, leeching it of the influence of the blight. Sadly, it was more than the dragon's weakened frame could bear and it wheezed a final few breaths:
• Tatzel was able to speak rationally in his last few moments. The dragon chastised himself for being tricked into cheating leon out of the idol. He said he had been put up to it by Jenny Greenteeth who had promise it would bring him great power. Indeed it did, but at a huge cost. Jenny Greenteeth and her allies knew something about a 'great change' coming to the world of Lanjyr. In response, they tried to secure some golden icons by taking part in (and perhaps encouraging?) Duchess Ethelyn of Shale's invasion of Axis Island, but they did not find the icons they sought before they were thrown out. When that failed, they turned their attention to the idols, which were even more ancient still. But the idols do not possess as much power as the coven thought they might, and now - to ensure they are able to capitalise on the 'great change' - Jenny Greenteeth has taken a mortal child captive - a child she says has the capacity to access and control the very planes themselves. The more idols she has in her possession, the worse things will be; and the more completely she controls the child... who knows?

• "I survived the slaughter of the dragon tyrants, and lived for a very long time in my peaceful grove. With the blessing of the fey I became influential once again, and held the key for dreamers to leave the Dreaming. But now I think I understnad the curse of my forefathers: that of over-wheening pride. I was promised greater power and for that I betrayed those who had granted me sanctuary for so long. My reward is to fade from this world." The last of his kind? (asked Redcoat.) As a green dragon, Tatzel could not resist one final piece of mischief, directed at Leon. "Except of course for my tamed kin. One of whom you have already met." Then the dragon expired.
• After grabbing any magic items they could find, the group descended to the portal chamber where, instead of finidng a horde of hostile bugbears, vampires and ogres, they found a cowed and subdued army pledging their loyalty to Nbed!
• Nbed was not about to let this opportunity slide. Aware that his erstwhile allies had bigger (or at least other) fish to fry, he diplomatically suggested that they leave the upper Dreaming in pursuit of Jenny Greenteeth and her cronies, leaving the palace to him.
• A summons could be heard from one of the portals - Blue Meg was calling Tatzel to her side. Investigating the nrightly glowing artefact on the central plinth which appeared to control each portal, the group discovered both the Crystal Tesseract (which Unit B had lost to Tatzel) and the Amethyst Ouroboros, which had been used to lock the tesseract in an hourglass shape. These two icons (according to the Thinker) controlled space and time, creating portals that travelled through four dimensions. They wanted to take them but had to leave them in place in order to use the portals, opening one into the jungle hoping to surprise Blue Meg.
• Instead, they surprised Xipe, the Oni, halfway through a sycophantic welcome speech. Rather than the dragon tyrant Xipe had been expecting, he was met by very bad-tempered talking bear who killed him on the spot.
• In the clearing beyond, the group found Unit B - Orum, Ffenwig were unconscious, Throgmorton was dead and Brajham was hiding in the undergrowth.
• Etiotek and leon healed Orum and Ffenwig. Brajham's mental breakdown was somewhat emeliorated by the presence of Ascodel, Herald of the Hunt. And the Huldregarl swarmed over Throgmorton and restarted the old dwarf's heart.
• After much discussion, the decision was made to separate once again: Unit B would pursue Gorago the armoured hag and try to prevent her from taking possession of another idol. Leon, Ascodel, Redcoat, Etiotek and the Huldregarl (jokingly referred to as Unit D) would go after Jenny Greenteeth.
• Following his conversation with the mysterious Weaver - and with Lavanya - Leon first used a portal to travel to the spot in time and place where Unit A had fought Lavanya on top of the golem Borne. This portal had been opened earlier by Lavanya. Leon appeared before the rest of the Unit arrived and gave Lavanya's simulacrum a message from her original self to surrender to the unit. (She had switched herself out some time earlier, before Nbed had appeared in the portal chamber.)
• Everyone watched in confusion, but Leon could not explain what was going on only that this was something he needed to do, or he and Rumdoom would die. (He what not be drawn on what transpired between him and Lavanya when he chased her into another portal earlier on.)
• When Leon was finished, Unit B followed Gorago into a storm-tossed sea.
• 'Unit D' entered a strange demi-plane with no stars, an overcast sky and a largely featureless marsh extending in all directions. Some distance away stood a compound formed of a low, circular wooden fence, decorated with humanoid skulls. At the centre of this compound, with smoke curling from its chimney, stood a small wooden hut that rested atop a pair of giant chicken legs.

Always good to see Baba Yaga hanging around.