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The Runic Storyhour: An Oriental Adventure in The Dream
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<blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 7615" data-attributes="member: 67"><p>Session 4, part 2</p><p></p><p>They come.</p><p></p><p>We light the wall of carts. The dark stream black fur and legs halts before the fire, watching, their many black eyes reflecting the fire. Then, some of the spiders advance into the flames and are killed. Others leap over, onto the spears. We are throwing the ceramic jars of liquid fire at the creatures. We are firing burning crossbow bolts into them. Always, we are retreating. The spiders keep coming. Some are as small as dogs, some as large as horses. Soon, we can retreat no more, and the sea of people attempting to flee the city swallows us. We are carried to the south, but find ourselves in a clump of the Guards. Night Softly Calls is with us. Strong Dwarf Stands still has the body of Swift Serpent Strikes with him.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: hey, it was a valiant attempt at defense, but with that many spiders, what are ya gonna do?</em></p><p></p><p>People are dying around us, their bodies becoming paving stones for the spiders’ path. Three spiders as large as horses are visible to the south, over the heads of the hundred or so people surrounding us. To the north, a colossal spider appears. It is easily the size of a small building. And it has an egg sac on its back. We are truly terrified.</p><p></p><p>The guards break and run, but Night Softly Calls charges forward to attack the spider with her three-section-staff. She never makes it. The beast leaps forward and clips her body into two unequal parts long before she is close enough to strike. There should be a reality shift. What I am praying for is a wall of water to sweep the city clean and drown the spiders. The Dreamer is not listening. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I would relate the reality shifts, but after a certain point you just lose count. I have no memory of what happened when Night Softly Calls died.</em></p><p></p><p>"Throw another priest on the fire!" one of the dwarves shouts, as they advance to do battle with the lesser spiders. I have no idea what he means. Perhaps it is some barbaric war cry.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: actually, I said that. It’s a lyric from a Black Sabbath song. It helped set the mood, I thought.</em></p><p></p><p>We rush southward with our swords and spears; we throw lanterns and burning matter. None of us is crazy enough to rush the enormous spider. The guards who have not fled are falling. But they are also killing the smaller spiders. More are coming. We battle as the Mother-spider moves on to another part of the city. The smaller ones keep coming. When the Mother-spider returns, we retreat to the east, the direction from which we entered this city.</p><p></p><p>We find our way blocked by long houses and narrow alleys. The buildings are covered in spiders, and filled with them. We have no choice; we must press on. There is a five-foot alley that we must get through. To the great pleasure of the dwarves, we can see a sewer opening on the far side (they have plans to enter it and escape the city through tunnels). To the great horror of the halfling and I, there is a steady stream of very large spiders crawling from it and jumping to the buildings.</p><p></p><p>We agree to run for the opening. We cannot find passage in the streets. Every roof-top has its sentinels; many thousands of eyes watch us, and we run through the narrow ally toward the sewers. We are caught in the webs. And we lose precious time cutting each other out, hacking away till arms and weapons are freed. The colossal spider has returned, and has leapt to the top of a nearby building…and then to the adjacent one. Finally we are free, and the dwarves rush forward to hack away at the steady stream of spiders coming from the sewer. Fighting Man Dances and I are not far behind. We wish to get away from the buildings as soon as possible.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: you would too, if you couldn’t see the buildings for the giant spiders crawling all over and through them.</em></p><p></p><p>The dwarves, in great madness or great bravery, I cannot decide which, have leapt onto the backs of nearby spiders and are hacking away with their great axes. The halfling swings his tai chi sword bravely (it is like a greatsword in his hands), but when we kill one spider, another takes its place, and looming, advancing toward us on the roof-tops, always we feel the gaze of the colossal matriarch, bearing a clutch of eggs on her back, surveying the work of her silent army.</p><p></p><p>At least the spiders are no longer coming from the sewer. They are not infinite in numbers, after all, it seems.</p><p></p><p>In every direction the city is now burning. We cannot retreat, we cannot stay above and yet to go under is to be trapped in darkness, facing our enemies. Suddenly, I realize that somewhere back in the chaotic crowd, we have lost Swift's body and that we will never see him again. We will never even be able to give him a proper funeral. This is a great blow to our honor.</p><p></p><p>In the sewers, the dwarves report that they see thick webbing blocking the way in either direction, east and west. How the spiders moved through it is a mystery.</p><p></p><p>Drunk Dwarf Snores wants to take a final jar of liquid fire and cast it down into the tunnel, to the east. The halfling insists that this will only smoke out the spiders that may still be down there. They would come back, and be very angry. None of us believes we could outrun the spiders in the tunnel. We decide to chop away the webbing with our blades. Above, fire is advancing behind us and webs entangle the passageway that will hopefully be our escape, but we plunge downward.</p><p></p><p>Throughout the tunnel, we hear scuttling. And then silence. All the dying has reached the Dreamer and a great earthquake rattles the city. Wind sweeps through the tunnel. Stone and debris pour down upon us. Strong Dwarf Stands is knocked unconscious (he took a very fierce blow when he leapt on the back of a live spider. His brother was more clever. The spider that he jumped on was already dead). His loyal brother drags him forward toward a pinpoint of light, as the halfling and I hack away the thick webbing. Our progress is slow. And there it is: the opening is up ahead. It leads us out of the side of a hill, some great distance from the city. A pool of sewage lies blow us and over the ridge, we can see the death of the Silver City.</p><p></p><p>And that, my friends, was some five years past, but as I write this it is as if I am standing there again, marveling at a circle of sky appearing at the end of the dark tunnel, leading into the sweetest night that we ever knew, for we had survived. And this is the story of how the Silver City came to be destroyed by its own Governor.</p><p></p><p><em>--Ocean Deeply Sleeps</em></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>End of Act I</strong></p><p></p><p><em>DM notes: notable moments--perhaps the most notable moment was the introduction of the miniatures. I'll leave it up to my players to enlighten you on the matter, but I think that the reaction was pretty favorable.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Ocean Deeply Sleeps is coming off as a deep thinker, not only in the story hour, but at the table, as well. And her player always brings the <strong>best</strong> snacks! Smoked salmon dip, this time!</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Fighting Man Dances is proving to be more of a leader every week. Go, little one!</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Drunk Dwarf Snores is the human-given name of the new character of the former player of Chameleon. He's a dwarf. A very uncharismatic dwarf. Who apparently snores very loudly. He's a fighter, not a barbarian, but he's still barbaric.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Strong Dwarf Stands is the human-given name of the new character of the former player of Swift. He's a dwarf. A very uncharismatic dwarf. The antics of the two dwarven brothers had all of us cracking up at the table, but killed any kind of horror mood that I was aiming at. Oh well.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I don't think one of my players will appreciate it when I <strong>really</strong> get into horror, if he didn't like the pace of this one. I won't tell you which player I'm talking about.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rune, post: 7615, member: 67"] Session 4, part 2 They come. We light the wall of carts. The dark stream black fur and legs halts before the fire, watching, their many black eyes reflecting the fire. Then, some of the spiders advance into the flames and are killed. Others leap over, onto the spears. We are throwing the ceramic jars of liquid fire at the creatures. We are firing burning crossbow bolts into them. Always, we are retreating. The spiders keep coming. Some are as small as dogs, some as large as horses. Soon, we can retreat no more, and the sea of people attempting to flee the city swallows us. We are carried to the south, but find ourselves in a clump of the Guards. Night Softly Calls is with us. Strong Dwarf Stands still has the body of Swift Serpent Strikes with him. [i]DM note: hey, it was a valiant attempt at defense, but with that many spiders, what are ya gonna do?[/i] People are dying around us, their bodies becoming paving stones for the spiders’ path. Three spiders as large as horses are visible to the south, over the heads of the hundred or so people surrounding us. To the north, a colossal spider appears. It is easily the size of a small building. And it has an egg sac on its back. We are truly terrified. The guards break and run, but Night Softly Calls charges forward to attack the spider with her three-section-staff. She never makes it. The beast leaps forward and clips her body into two unequal parts long before she is close enough to strike. There should be a reality shift. What I am praying for is a wall of water to sweep the city clean and drown the spiders. The Dreamer is not listening. [i]DM note: I would relate the reality shifts, but after a certain point you just lose count. I have no memory of what happened when Night Softly Calls died.[/i] "Throw another priest on the fire!" one of the dwarves shouts, as they advance to do battle with the lesser spiders. I have no idea what he means. Perhaps it is some barbaric war cry. [i]DM note: actually, I said that. It’s a lyric from a Black Sabbath song. It helped set the mood, I thought.[/i] We rush southward with our swords and spears; we throw lanterns and burning matter. None of us is crazy enough to rush the enormous spider. The guards who have not fled are falling. But they are also killing the smaller spiders. More are coming. We battle as the Mother-spider moves on to another part of the city. The smaller ones keep coming. When the Mother-spider returns, we retreat to the east, the direction from which we entered this city. We find our way blocked by long houses and narrow alleys. The buildings are covered in spiders, and filled with them. We have no choice; we must press on. There is a five-foot alley that we must get through. To the great pleasure of the dwarves, we can see a sewer opening on the far side (they have plans to enter it and escape the city through tunnels). To the great horror of the halfling and I, there is a steady stream of very large spiders crawling from it and jumping to the buildings. We agree to run for the opening. We cannot find passage in the streets. Every roof-top has its sentinels; many thousands of eyes watch us, and we run through the narrow ally toward the sewers. We are caught in the webs. And we lose precious time cutting each other out, hacking away till arms and weapons are freed. The colossal spider has returned, and has leapt to the top of a nearby building…and then to the adjacent one. Finally we are free, and the dwarves rush forward to hack away at the steady stream of spiders coming from the sewer. Fighting Man Dances and I are not far behind. We wish to get away from the buildings as soon as possible. [i]DM note: you would too, if you couldn’t see the buildings for the giant spiders crawling all over and through them.[/i] The dwarves, in great madness or great bravery, I cannot decide which, have leapt onto the backs of nearby spiders and are hacking away with their great axes. The halfling swings his tai chi sword bravely (it is like a greatsword in his hands), but when we kill one spider, another takes its place, and looming, advancing toward us on the roof-tops, always we feel the gaze of the colossal matriarch, bearing a clutch of eggs on her back, surveying the work of her silent army. At least the spiders are no longer coming from the sewer. They are not infinite in numbers, after all, it seems. In every direction the city is now burning. We cannot retreat, we cannot stay above and yet to go under is to be trapped in darkness, facing our enemies. Suddenly, I realize that somewhere back in the chaotic crowd, we have lost Swift's body and that we will never see him again. We will never even be able to give him a proper funeral. This is a great blow to our honor. In the sewers, the dwarves report that they see thick webbing blocking the way in either direction, east and west. How the spiders moved through it is a mystery. Drunk Dwarf Snores wants to take a final jar of liquid fire and cast it down into the tunnel, to the east. The halfling insists that this will only smoke out the spiders that may still be down there. They would come back, and be very angry. None of us believes we could outrun the spiders in the tunnel. We decide to chop away the webbing with our blades. Above, fire is advancing behind us and webs entangle the passageway that will hopefully be our escape, but we plunge downward. Throughout the tunnel, we hear scuttling. And then silence. All the dying has reached the Dreamer and a great earthquake rattles the city. Wind sweeps through the tunnel. Stone and debris pour down upon us. Strong Dwarf Stands is knocked unconscious (he took a very fierce blow when he leapt on the back of a live spider. His brother was more clever. The spider that he jumped on was already dead). His loyal brother drags him forward toward a pinpoint of light, as the halfling and I hack away the thick webbing. Our progress is slow. And there it is: the opening is up ahead. It leads us out of the side of a hill, some great distance from the city. A pool of sewage lies blow us and over the ridge, we can see the death of the Silver City. And that, my friends, was some five years past, but as I write this it is as if I am standing there again, marveling at a circle of sky appearing at the end of the dark tunnel, leading into the sweetest night that we ever knew, for we had survived. And this is the story of how the Silver City came to be destroyed by its own Governor. [i]--Ocean Deeply Sleeps[/i] [b]End of Act I[/b] [i]DM notes: notable moments--perhaps the most notable moment was the introduction of the miniatures. I'll leave it up to my players to enlighten you on the matter, but I think that the reaction was pretty favorable. Ocean Deeply Sleeps is coming off as a deep thinker, not only in the story hour, but at the table, as well. And her player always brings the [b]best[/b] snacks! Smoked salmon dip, this time! Fighting Man Dances is proving to be more of a leader every week. Go, little one! Drunk Dwarf Snores is the human-given name of the new character of the former player of Chameleon. He's a dwarf. A very uncharismatic dwarf. Who apparently snores very loudly. He's a fighter, not a barbarian, but he's still barbaric. Strong Dwarf Stands is the human-given name of the new character of the former player of Swift. He's a dwarf. A very uncharismatic dwarf. The antics of the two dwarven brothers had all of us cracking up at the table, but killed any kind of horror mood that I was aiming at. Oh well. I don't think one of my players will appreciate it when I [b]really[/b] get into horror, if he didn't like the pace of this one. I won't tell you which player I'm talking about.[/i] [/QUOTE]
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