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Curse of Darkness VIII - The Wild Hunt
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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5963155" data-attributes="member: 6669384"><p>Seburn saw no help in sight. Hern was taking his time now, stalking his prey carefully. Gone was the smile, the joy of the hunt. Now he was angry, for the prey had turned on him, slain his horse and burned a field to foul the scent trail with smoke. But the Sluagh didn’t need a scent trail now, and neither did he. The trail was as clear as a road, the drops of blood pointing the way. </p><p> </p><p> Seburn made a dash for a low stone wall, hoping to gain some cover. He vaulted it easily, and dodged among the trees as best he could trying to deny the hunter a clear shot.</p><p> </p><p> The end came as a surprise. He was running, heading back towards the canal, and then suddenly he was facing a tree, unable to move, a long solid cedar shaft pinning him in place. He knew he should be dead, for the arrow had entered near the center of his back and come completely through his ribs, but the dead cannot truly die. </p><p> </p><p> “Well run, my hound.”, came the words of praise, directed not at the pack, but at Seburn. “May all your hunts be as good, now and forever more.”, Hern whispered softly as he claimed his prize.</p><p> *** </p><p> “They’ll have us soon.”, Marcus said, hearing the pack in the distance. They had had a good run, stretching the chase out for miles and hours while the pack struggled to find their trail. He sagged back against a low stone wall in exhaustion.</p><p> </p><p> “I’ll try to lead them off.”, Penn said. “I’ll double back, circle, cut across my own trail. You hide, maybe they’ll miss you.”</p><p> </p><p> “No. There are enough that they’ll just split and pursue us both.”, Marcus whispered, defeat in his voice. “I’m sorry I got us into this.”</p><p> </p><p> “Not your fault. You couldn’t leave him behind any more than I could leave you behind. And we almost made it.”, the Bard laughed ruefully. “Less than an hour til sunrise. If there was a tree we could climb it and hide out until then. Or a burrow, we could go to ground, hope to wait them out.”</p><p> </p><p> “Go to ground?”, asked Marcus, his face brightening. “We’re going to make it. Go, lay a trail, confuse them, then get back here. “</p><p> </p><p> Pen did as instructed, spreading the last of his foul stench through the area as best he could in the short time his spell had left. He circled, crossed, turned and cut for the few minutes before his transformation ended, then staggered back to his friend.</p><p> </p><p> “They’ll be here in less than a minute.”, he advised. “Whatever you have, it better be good.”</p><p> </p><p> “Oh, it’s more than good. This is the gift of Gaia, and it will last for over an hour.”, he explained, and began his spell. Taking the Bard’s hand, he lead him to the wall, and they stepped inside it together. From outside, there was just a stone wall and nothing else.</p><p> *** </p><p> Slowly Iggy raised his head to look around. The city was in turmoil and fires dotted the horizon where random bolts of lightning had scored on dry roves. People wandered about the plaza, their faces a mixture of exhaustion and shock. </p><p> </p><p> Slowly, carefully he extricated himself from his hiding place, taking great pains to stay quiet and draw no attention to himself. He’d had no real part in the madness of the night, but neither the guard nor the people of the city would bother with minor details like that, they’d simply see an outlander and tear him to pieces. He muttered a simple spell, straightened up, and a slender child, a girl of perhaps ten years with straight black hair and a tear streaked face stood where he had been a moment before. He carefully twisted his legs slightly, bringing his knees together so he’d run like a girl, then “she” went dashing off, looking as lost, exhausted and shocked as everyone else.</p><p> *** </p><p> “What of the night?”, Sylus asked as he finally emerged from the iron enclosure, his new friend at his side.</p><p> </p><p> “Madness.”, came the simple reply from an acolyte. “The spirits of great hunters strode the streets seeking prey, and the green horseman rode the sky firing lightning from his bow. Parts of the city are burning, and there are riots in the eastern quarter. Soldiers from the palace guard the inner wards, and we are tending to the injured as best we can.”</p><p> </p><p> “I am a healer of sorts.”, Sylus replied. “May I help?”</p><p> *** </p><p> Imagina sat rocking back and forth slowly, tears of grief still sliding down her cheeks as she cradled Seburn’s head in her lap. Dawn had come without awakening for her friend. He was gone. </p><p> </p><p> She looked up for about the tenth time at the sound of people approaching, ready to hide once more. But this time it was Penn and Marcus, looking filthy, torn and exhausted. She waved to them, happy that they at least had survived.</p><p> </p><p> The pair staggered in and collapsed in the small clearing, looking like they needed sleep even more than she did.</p><p> </p><p> “Marcus saved us.”, Penn said simply. “He found a hiding place even the shadow hounds couldn’t ferret out.”</p><p> </p><p> “Tell me tonight, when you wake up.”, the enchantress said. “Here, take a drink.”, she encouraged, passing them Seburn’s tiny flask. “I’ll keep watch.” They slipped off in seconds, and a few minutes later her own exhaustion caught up with her as well.</p><p> </p><p> And so they slept, all three, leaving the dead Barbarian to stand watch.</p><p> *** </p><p> Iggy came down the stairs, having slipped unseen into his room through a window. He feigned a yawn, as if just waking, and grumbled about all the yelling in the night.</p><p> </p><p> A small cadre of guards stood at near attention in the common room, their armor showing them to be not simply the city watch but palace guards. All eyes and weapons were fixed on the Gnome as he stood frozen on the stair.</p><p> </p><p> “Come down here, now, Korobukuru. Tell me where you were last night?”, the commander demanded.</p><p> </p><p> “Well”, Iggy began as he chose his strategy. “I went with my friends to the hearing, but couldn’t get past the crowd. Then the really tall guy came and blew his horn. Things got crazy so I ran, and got back here.”, he said, carefully choosing which version of the truth would best fit the occasion.</p><p> </p><p> “The Magistrate ordered the arrest of all involved.”, the commander informed him, glowering down at the Gnome in his best threatening manner.</p><p> </p><p> Iggy cowered back in fear, sputtering, “But I wasn’t involved. I got scared and ran. I nearly got trampled! “, hoping his performance was convincing. The way he read the commander, the man needed to be in charge, which meant that Gnomes like himself had better let the man think he had scared them.</p><p> </p><p> The man straightened up smugly. “Such a coward. Are all outlanders as soft as you are?”</p><p> </p><p> “Well, I’m just a teamster on the caravan. Not my job to fight, if’n you see what I mean. I’m sure there’s harder men than me around.”</p><p> </p><p> “Well, we’re looking for them.”, the captain emphasized. “The slick tongued demon, the red haired madman, the dark skinned woman, the bald warrior priest and the driver with the horse hoof scar on his face. Where are they?”</p><p> </p><p> “I don’t know.”, Iggy said, shaking with mock fear. “You arrested them all last night and I haven’t seen them since I ran from the plaza. “</p><p> </p><p> “Bah, this one is a fool as well as a coward.”, the commander shouted, the room itself as his audience. “Keep him here until the Magistrate gives the caravan permission to leave. Then make sure he leaves town with it. And arrest any of the others who show their faces.” Then he marched out, taking half the guard with him.</p><p> *** </p><p> It was after sunset when Penn came wafting in on silent wings. A thin blade slid between the shutters on his room, and he carefully lifted the bar and stepped inside.</p><p> </p><p> He moved quickly and quietly once within, gathering his things and stowing them in his pack. He listened carefully at the door before slipping out and entering the next room, using the key that Marcus had given him. The first thing he did was unbar the window, so he could escape quickly if the need arose, then he packed up his friend’s things as well.</p><p> </p><p> He saved Seburn’s room for last. They had decided to see if there was a way to take his body home to his family, and his wealth had always been important to him. Leaving it behind just seemed wrong.</p><p> </p><p> Then he left, a dark shadow against a dark sky, away and gone.</p><p> *** </p><p> They were on the road for a week before they sighted the freight barge that bore the caravan. They had known of Carralon’s plan to sell his horses and wagons to the military and finish his trip to the sea by barge, and had stayed by the river to intercept him in transit.</p><p> </p><p> He and the rest waved to them and signaled that they’d wait for them at the next portage point.</p><p> ******* </p><p> Out of character, the Meld into Stone trick saved our bacon. Penn could have flown away if he wasn’t exhausted from running all night, but abandoning Marcus isn’t in his nature.</p><p> </p><p> Mr. R chose to have Sylus sit out the hunt scene, and the Blind Bard ran Iggy. Iggy’s main thing is hiding, and he’s not one to put himself at risk for someone else. Unless he’s being paid, of course. His Hide check is something like a +23, so when he decides to find a hole and pull it in after him, he’s pretty much gone.</p><p> </p><p> I’d hoped that Pen’s trick of “Think you can find that?”, would throw the clue to the Blind Bard to have him let Seburn “find” Iggy’s boots of Striding and Springing. No such luck, but it made no real difference in the end. </p><p> </p><p> If Tinker had just stayed in the air he could have flown over the second group of Sluagh. They had Shadow Walk, and half the group that was after him had shifted over to get ahead of him. They hadn’t known where he was, but once they knew his direction they could jump past and work their way back.</p><p> </p><p> I worked out a set of pursuit rules that was based on skill checks and randomly generated obstacles. He always had several choices at any juncture and never got a dead end. The pursuers had to face the same challenges, plus the tracking roll, so he was encouraged to pick challenges that a man could do better than a hound. Climbing a ladder would be an easy example.</p><p> </p><p> With Fly, though, he could beat any Climb, Jump or Balance check out there. His first real mistake was deciding to weave back and forth across that canal. That limits him to double moves, when he could be doing quads. As a pseudo-dead type, he had no CON score and could never get exhausted. He could sprint forever, and with wings (and a flight speed of 50) he could outrun the hounds. They had the same base speed but had to contend with rough terrain and other obstacles that he could bypass.</p><p> </p><p> His second mistake was locking himself into the waterway. Even that was survivable if he’d pressed ahead and just passed by the second group of hounds. They couldn’t smell him underwater, his scent wasn’t one they knew in the new form, so he could have made it. At a quad move of 160, though, he was leaving a wake like a torpedo, and was relatively easy to spot from the air, so when he doubled back he was doomed.</p><p> </p><p> We all agreed that Mr. M’s Call Lightning at random into the city was bordering on a “dark side point”. We rolled percentile for each shot, since he wasn’t really aiming, with him trying to avoid high numbers.</p><p> </p><p> Out of all his shots, two were below 50%, and one was in the mid nineties. The low shots hit empty space, streets or things that wouldn’t be harmed. The 96 hit a person, someone out there who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, being a low level commoner, the guy died, regardless of what he might roll on his Save. The other strikes hit buildings and the like, damaging roofs and starting fires.</p><p> </p><p> The Sluagh are based on Shadow Mastiff, and their bay or growl calls for a DC 18 Will save from everyone within 300 feet. Fail and you’re Panicked, which means either run in mindless fear or be paralyzed with terror. And with 30 of them roaming through the city looking for the escapees, they pretty much turned the city into a rolling disaster area.</p><p> </p><p> Needless to say, the authorities are extremely pissed, and we need to skip the country as quickly and as quietly as possible.</p><p> </p><p> I may chronicle more of our adventures, if you like.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 5963155, member: 6669384"] Seburn saw no help in sight. Hern was taking his time now, stalking his prey carefully. Gone was the smile, the joy of the hunt. Now he was angry, for the prey had turned on him, slain his horse and burned a field to foul the scent trail with smoke. But the Sluagh didn’t need a scent trail now, and neither did he. The trail was as clear as a road, the drops of blood pointing the way. Seburn made a dash for a low stone wall, hoping to gain some cover. He vaulted it easily, and dodged among the trees as best he could trying to deny the hunter a clear shot. The end came as a surprise. He was running, heading back towards the canal, and then suddenly he was facing a tree, unable to move, a long solid cedar shaft pinning him in place. He knew he should be dead, for the arrow had entered near the center of his back and come completely through his ribs, but the dead cannot truly die. “Well run, my hound.”, came the words of praise, directed not at the pack, but at Seburn. “May all your hunts be as good, now and forever more.”, Hern whispered softly as he claimed his prize. *** “They’ll have us soon.”, Marcus said, hearing the pack in the distance. They had had a good run, stretching the chase out for miles and hours while the pack struggled to find their trail. He sagged back against a low stone wall in exhaustion. “I’ll try to lead them off.”, Penn said. “I’ll double back, circle, cut across my own trail. You hide, maybe they’ll miss you.” “No. There are enough that they’ll just split and pursue us both.”, Marcus whispered, defeat in his voice. “I’m sorry I got us into this.” “Not your fault. You couldn’t leave him behind any more than I could leave you behind. And we almost made it.”, the Bard laughed ruefully. “Less than an hour til sunrise. If there was a tree we could climb it and hide out until then. Or a burrow, we could go to ground, hope to wait them out.” “Go to ground?”, asked Marcus, his face brightening. “We’re going to make it. Go, lay a trail, confuse them, then get back here. “ Pen did as instructed, spreading the last of his foul stench through the area as best he could in the short time his spell had left. He circled, crossed, turned and cut for the few minutes before his transformation ended, then staggered back to his friend. “They’ll be here in less than a minute.”, he advised. “Whatever you have, it better be good.” “Oh, it’s more than good. This is the gift of Gaia, and it will last for over an hour.”, he explained, and began his spell. Taking the Bard’s hand, he lead him to the wall, and they stepped inside it together. From outside, there was just a stone wall and nothing else. *** Slowly Iggy raised his head to look around. The city was in turmoil and fires dotted the horizon where random bolts of lightning had scored on dry roves. People wandered about the plaza, their faces a mixture of exhaustion and shock. Slowly, carefully he extricated himself from his hiding place, taking great pains to stay quiet and draw no attention to himself. He’d had no real part in the madness of the night, but neither the guard nor the people of the city would bother with minor details like that, they’d simply see an outlander and tear him to pieces. He muttered a simple spell, straightened up, and a slender child, a girl of perhaps ten years with straight black hair and a tear streaked face stood where he had been a moment before. He carefully twisted his legs slightly, bringing his knees together so he’d run like a girl, then “she” went dashing off, looking as lost, exhausted and shocked as everyone else. *** “What of the night?”, Sylus asked as he finally emerged from the iron enclosure, his new friend at his side. “Madness.”, came the simple reply from an acolyte. “The spirits of great hunters strode the streets seeking prey, and the green horseman rode the sky firing lightning from his bow. Parts of the city are burning, and there are riots in the eastern quarter. Soldiers from the palace guard the inner wards, and we are tending to the injured as best we can.” “I am a healer of sorts.”, Sylus replied. “May I help?” *** Imagina sat rocking back and forth slowly, tears of grief still sliding down her cheeks as she cradled Seburn’s head in her lap. Dawn had come without awakening for her friend. He was gone. She looked up for about the tenth time at the sound of people approaching, ready to hide once more. But this time it was Penn and Marcus, looking filthy, torn and exhausted. She waved to them, happy that they at least had survived. The pair staggered in and collapsed in the small clearing, looking like they needed sleep even more than she did. “Marcus saved us.”, Penn said simply. “He found a hiding place even the shadow hounds couldn’t ferret out.” “Tell me tonight, when you wake up.”, the enchantress said. “Here, take a drink.”, she encouraged, passing them Seburn’s tiny flask. “I’ll keep watch.” They slipped off in seconds, and a few minutes later her own exhaustion caught up with her as well. And so they slept, all three, leaving the dead Barbarian to stand watch. *** Iggy came down the stairs, having slipped unseen into his room through a window. He feigned a yawn, as if just waking, and grumbled about all the yelling in the night. A small cadre of guards stood at near attention in the common room, their armor showing them to be not simply the city watch but palace guards. All eyes and weapons were fixed on the Gnome as he stood frozen on the stair. “Come down here, now, Korobukuru. Tell me where you were last night?”, the commander demanded. “Well”, Iggy began as he chose his strategy. “I went with my friends to the hearing, but couldn’t get past the crowd. Then the really tall guy came and blew his horn. Things got crazy so I ran, and got back here.”, he said, carefully choosing which version of the truth would best fit the occasion. “The Magistrate ordered the arrest of all involved.”, the commander informed him, glowering down at the Gnome in his best threatening manner. Iggy cowered back in fear, sputtering, “But I wasn’t involved. I got scared and ran. I nearly got trampled! “, hoping his performance was convincing. The way he read the commander, the man needed to be in charge, which meant that Gnomes like himself had better let the man think he had scared them. The man straightened up smugly. “Such a coward. Are all outlanders as soft as you are?” “Well, I’m just a teamster on the caravan. Not my job to fight, if’n you see what I mean. I’m sure there’s harder men than me around.” “Well, we’re looking for them.”, the captain emphasized. “The slick tongued demon, the red haired madman, the dark skinned woman, the bald warrior priest and the driver with the horse hoof scar on his face. Where are they?” “I don’t know.”, Iggy said, shaking with mock fear. “You arrested them all last night and I haven’t seen them since I ran from the plaza. “ “Bah, this one is a fool as well as a coward.”, the commander shouted, the room itself as his audience. “Keep him here until the Magistrate gives the caravan permission to leave. Then make sure he leaves town with it. And arrest any of the others who show their faces.” Then he marched out, taking half the guard with him. *** It was after sunset when Penn came wafting in on silent wings. A thin blade slid between the shutters on his room, and he carefully lifted the bar and stepped inside. He moved quickly and quietly once within, gathering his things and stowing them in his pack. He listened carefully at the door before slipping out and entering the next room, using the key that Marcus had given him. The first thing he did was unbar the window, so he could escape quickly if the need arose, then he packed up his friend’s things as well. He saved Seburn’s room for last. They had decided to see if there was a way to take his body home to his family, and his wealth had always been important to him. Leaving it behind just seemed wrong. Then he left, a dark shadow against a dark sky, away and gone. *** They were on the road for a week before they sighted the freight barge that bore the caravan. They had known of Carralon’s plan to sell his horses and wagons to the military and finish his trip to the sea by barge, and had stayed by the river to intercept him in transit. He and the rest waved to them and signaled that they’d wait for them at the next portage point. ******* Out of character, the Meld into Stone trick saved our bacon. Penn could have flown away if he wasn’t exhausted from running all night, but abandoning Marcus isn’t in his nature. Mr. R chose to have Sylus sit out the hunt scene, and the Blind Bard ran Iggy. Iggy’s main thing is hiding, and he’s not one to put himself at risk for someone else. Unless he’s being paid, of course. His Hide check is something like a +23, so when he decides to find a hole and pull it in after him, he’s pretty much gone. I’d hoped that Pen’s trick of “Think you can find that?”, would throw the clue to the Blind Bard to have him let Seburn “find” Iggy’s boots of Striding and Springing. No such luck, but it made no real difference in the end. If Tinker had just stayed in the air he could have flown over the second group of Sluagh. They had Shadow Walk, and half the group that was after him had shifted over to get ahead of him. They hadn’t known where he was, but once they knew his direction they could jump past and work their way back. I worked out a set of pursuit rules that was based on skill checks and randomly generated obstacles. He always had several choices at any juncture and never got a dead end. The pursuers had to face the same challenges, plus the tracking roll, so he was encouraged to pick challenges that a man could do better than a hound. Climbing a ladder would be an easy example. With Fly, though, he could beat any Climb, Jump or Balance check out there. His first real mistake was deciding to weave back and forth across that canal. That limits him to double moves, when he could be doing quads. As a pseudo-dead type, he had no CON score and could never get exhausted. He could sprint forever, and with wings (and a flight speed of 50) he could outrun the hounds. They had the same base speed but had to contend with rough terrain and other obstacles that he could bypass. His second mistake was locking himself into the waterway. Even that was survivable if he’d pressed ahead and just passed by the second group of hounds. They couldn’t smell him underwater, his scent wasn’t one they knew in the new form, so he could have made it. At a quad move of 160, though, he was leaving a wake like a torpedo, and was relatively easy to spot from the air, so when he doubled back he was doomed. We all agreed that Mr. M’s Call Lightning at random into the city was bordering on a “dark side point”. We rolled percentile for each shot, since he wasn’t really aiming, with him trying to avoid high numbers. Out of all his shots, two were below 50%, and one was in the mid nineties. The low shots hit empty space, streets or things that wouldn’t be harmed. The 96 hit a person, someone out there who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, being a low level commoner, the guy died, regardless of what he might roll on his Save. The other strikes hit buildings and the like, damaging roofs and starting fires. The Sluagh are based on Shadow Mastiff, and their bay or growl calls for a DC 18 Will save from everyone within 300 feet. Fail and you’re Panicked, which means either run in mindless fear or be paralyzed with terror. And with 30 of them roaming through the city looking for the escapees, they pretty much turned the city into a rolling disaster area. Needless to say, the authorities are extremely pissed, and we need to skip the country as quickly and as quietly as possible. I may chronicle more of our adventures, if you like. [/QUOTE]
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