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

[gideonpepys]

Session 109a - Redcoat

Leon's 'dream' had shifted in the disorienting way that time and space in the upper Dreaming were wont to do. Gone were the Rowan King's circle, and the glorious sunshine. All around them were ogres, bugbears and giants squatting around camp fires, sharpening their weapons, arguing and eating.


Surrounded by potential enemies, Ascodel provided the means for them to escape the army camp: he used his magical powers to make Leon invisible before taking to the air and flying high enough to go unnoticed against the broiling, bruised black sky.

Beneath him the camp unfolded in all directions save one, where a road through rough terrain led to a forest. He headed in that direction and Leon followed, tiptoeing past bugbears and ogres who were dividing up spoils and congratulating themselves in elvish. (Leon's command of the language was insufficient to make much sense of the snippets he overheard.)

They reached the edge the camp and took the road, though it was not empty: some distance from the clustered tents there was a pit. Nearby several bugbear scouts were throwing dice for a prize - some red cloth that two were now tugging and pulling at argumentatively. Not far from them, a dire wolf tore meat off a giant humanoid corpse. Other bugbears, uncomfortably squeezed into spiked plate - their thick fur poking out through every gap - were using long pikes to prod and torment a growling creature in the pit, egged on by a grotesque parody of a creature that took a second glance to fathom:

It looked very much like a centaur - a piebald centaur in fact - but where a human torso should have been there was a bugbear torso instead, wearing a bronze helmet and breastplate very similar to that of the Rowan King.

The creature in the pit turned out to be a large bear, chained to a twenty-foot high metal pole. When Leon drew closer he realised that the bear was swearing vociferously at his captors and that he had seen this creature before: It was Redcoat, a mercenary who had accompanied Dantes and his satyrs on their incursion into Llanjyr. Enraged and badly wounded, Redcoat was hurling filthy insults and tugging furiously at the immense chain. When he saw him, Leon felt the same sense of déjà vu that he had when he saw Ascodel.

Leon decided to act, and knocked one bugbear into the pit. At once, Ascodel descended and used lightning magic to yank more the bugbears into the pit too. With his enemies now in reach, Redcoat did not waste time worrying about who these newcomers were, he simply bit the helmeted head off one bugbear and threw his newly acquired and deadly weapon at a second, killing it too. Redcoat daubed himself in bugbear blood and declared, "Now I am wearing my red coat again!"

The grotesque 'centaur' cried for aid, drawing the bugbear scouts and the dire wolf into the fight. With a mere gesture, Ascodel threw the bugbears into the air like rag dolls, each one landing in a crippled heap many yards away. But the centaur and the dire wolf proved much more durable, and it took a while for Leon and his new allies to defeat them.

At length, when the fight was over, Leon teleported to the top of the metal pole and broke the chain holding Redcoat. At once, Redcoat leaped out of the pit and reclaimed his real red coat, which the bugbear scouts had been squabbling over. It was a magical gift from the Birch Queen and warded him from harm.

There was little time for lengthy explanations. Though he had been tricked by Leon and his friends in the past, and had spoken against them during their 'trial' before the River King, Redcoat was grateful to be freed and was concerned with much more serious matters. The smell of satyr blood was in the air, and the bear was worried for his friends: he had been tricked from their side by the promise of mead and woken up chained in this pit. When Leon said that he was looking for Dantes, Redcoat said that he could track him from here. But first, he scoured the bugbear corpses for booze and drank all that he could find for he had become hoarse with cursing.

While he did so Leon and Ascodel looked about them too. Ascodel was sorry to discover that the giant corpse the wolf had been feasting on was Eogan the firbolg. Leon saw that all of the creatures here - the wolf, the bugbears and the 'centaur' showed signs of mutation: discoloured flesh; vestigial appendages growing in the wrong place; weeping sores. Leon also confirmed that the centaur was wearing the Rowan King's armour, and possibly his hind quarters too.

By now Redcoat had finished his drink and he set off at a lope along a trail into the woods, with the others following as best they could.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 109b - Nbed

The trail led through trees that had been blackened, twisted and mutated. There wasn't time to inspect the foliage closely and still keep up with Redcoat, but even in passing it was evident that something was very wrong here. Frills of tendrils clung to gnarled branches, leaves were slick with a foul-smelling substance.

It wasn't long before they came to a clearing. In the centre stood a towering tree bearing many huge and wicked-looking thorns. Upon many of these thorns the bodies of satyrs had been cruelly skewered. Piles of bodies lay beneath the tree, covered with sticky webs. Moving among them was a fat-bodied birdlike creature with four long, spindly legs and vestigial wings. Leon thought that it must be some kind of demon. It chose one corpse, picked it up and impaled it on the tree. Only when the satyr let out a final groan was it evident he had not been dead to begin with.

Redcoat let out a cry of rage and the infernal bird noticed the intruders. With a grating squawk, charged towards them, flapping its useless wings. They attacked it and found that its legs were as hard as iron, but its body was beyond the easy reach of their weapons. It grabbed Redcoat with one fore-claw, dragged him back to the tree and thrust him onto a thorn. Ascodel's magic protected the bear from the worst of this and from his new vantage, Redcoat was able to swipe at the thing's fat body. When he wounded it, noxious black vapour began to escape, poisoning those who came close. Ascodel toppled the bird with more storm magic and they redoubled their attacks while it struggled to right itself.

At that moment, four black fey appeared at the edge of the clearing. Leon had spotted a few of them as he stole through the army camp. But these elves of night moved with a strange gait, like hungry beasts, not the graceful elves they were. Behind them, two more figures materialized on top of a low rise, seeming to form from black clouds that had emerged from the forest: One was a a black fey woman, beautiful and proud; the other was a tall and menacing satyr in full plate armour, bearing a heavy shield and a curved red sword.

"Nbed, my love, these mortals are hounding our poor shrike. Put a stop to it, would you, please?"

"With pleasure, mistress Thania," Nbed responded. In an instant, Nbed was alongside Leon, having leapt a huge distance in a single bound. But instead of striking the tiefling, he stared deep into his eyes and said, "I am Nbed and I am hungry. You shall be my food." Disturbingly, Leon experienced deja vu once again and the strong feeling that Nbed had been, or would be, an ally.

"Stop playing with them!" Thania scolded. Nbed struck out with his red sword, wounding Leon, who teleported away. So Nbed leaped again, and attacked Redcoat instead, feinting before he struck the bear, and driving his sword home very deeply. The bear roared in agony and staggered back, feeling his life-force drained by the crimson metal.

Leon, Ascodel and Redcoat kept up their attacks on the shrike, hoping to rid themselves of at least one dangerous foe. Their effort was hampered when Thania ordered the rest of her warriors to attack, and then wove a magical enchantment over Ascodel, who lowered his sword and did not resist as she approached and reached out to bite him. She was a vampire! Leon realised that it might be possible to reason with Nbed if they could free him from her domination, but that was easier said than done: Nbed was fast, heavily armoured and extremely dangerous. Redcoat was already reeling from his blows.

Though the shrike was dead, the fight went from bad to worse. Ascodel tried to shrug off the vampire's influence, but she was able to sway him repeatedly, and when Redcoat fell to one of Nbed's terrible blows, Leon turned and fled into the trees, seeking to recover from his own deep wounds before it was too late.

Thania gave a cry like the call of a huntress, and Leon thought he could hear the sounds of pursuit.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 110 - Etiotek and the Huldregarl

Ascodel managed to shrug off the domination of Thania the black fey vampire, but fearing its resumption he was forced to leave the dying Redcoat behind and take to the skies. Thania ordered Nbed to pursue Leon while she assumed the form of a cloud of bats and chased after Ascodel.

Leon found the blighted forest difficult to negotiate: there was no clear path and one needed only so much as brush the oily, black leaves and be coated with a nasty, necrotic substance that burned the skin. To keep moving, he did his best to spot a clear space through the gnarled branches before feystepping into it, repeating the process as swiftly as he could in order to make headway sufficient to avoid the pursuit he could already hear was gaining on him. When he misjudged a step, however, he found himself covered in more of the nasty, acidic goo.

Nbed had little or no trouble negotiating the terrain - he climbed easily through the treetops, moving gracefully and athletically despite his heavy plate armour. Leon did his best to hide, and almost gave Nbed the slip, but there were other, lesser vampires in the woods, answering Thania's call and they were coming from the other direction. When they spotted Leon pressed as close as he dared to a sticky tree trunk, they sent up a piercing cry and triangulated on him, along with Nbed. With them, pouring through the forest without hindrance, was a roiling swarm of oily black beetles.

Meanwhile, Ascodel and Thania were engaged in an aerial dogfight. She could not attack him in bat form, but overtook him, shifted back to her humanoid form and fell towards him, lashing out with her claws. Ascodel responded by flying away, whereupon Thania polymorphed into bats once again and gave chase. Ascodel descended back into the clearing and braced himself, intending to attack as soon as Thania transformed, to prevent her from gaining control of him again.

By now the vampire spawn were upon Leon. They raked him with their claws and, already badly wounded, he feared for his life. Then the oily mass of beetles joined them, belching itself over Leon and the vampires, biting each with a hundred mandibles, with a noise like ocean waves pounding against a beach of shells. Leon was staggered and fell to his knees, but the vampires, save for Nbed, were all slain. Strangely, Leon now experienced the same sense of deja vu he had on meeting Ascodel, Redcoat and Nbed.

From the midst of the swarm of beetles a small, bright green figure emerged, flying on diaphanous wings. Only a foot long, it looked like a cross between a man, an insect and a leaf; or an insect-man trying to look like a leaf; or a leafy man trying to look like an insect. In its forearms it clutched a tiny black bow, and an excited chittering issued from it (or from a few feet away from it), clearly audible above the noise of the beetles. Leon, who was instinctively raising his hands to lash out as best he could with some spell or other, realised that the strange chittering was directed at him and instead of attacking the black beetle mass, launched a spell against Nbed.

Although he could not intellectually comprehend the noises the diminutive green creature was making, they coalesced in his mind to form a clear understanding. It was warning him not to harm 'the Huldregarl', that it was a forest spirit enraged by the blight, and it would cease attacking any who it deemed no ally of the vampires.

Leon tried to respond, but Nbed was upon him and with a final thrust of his subtle, red blade, dispatched his quarry. The last thing Leon saw as he fell, was the beetle-wave form of the Huldregarl crashing over him to envelope Nbed.

To his surprise, Leon awoke just seconds later, with a lively tune playing in his ear. Not a tune from some man-made instrument, but a rhythm like that produced by a cicada, interwoven with artistic intent and arcane potency. Before he knew it he was back on his feet, thanks to his new-found ally: it had recognised his Mark of Passage and his fey blade and had aided him despite his devilish appearance. It said that its name was Etiotek Ekiokiet, or something that sounded very like it.

At once, Leon told the newcomer(s) that Nbed must be kept alive. He felt sure that the satyr could be freed from whatever malign influence Thania had exerted if she could be defeated or driven off. The little green sprite did its best to communicate this to the Huldregarl which was even now dashing itself against Nbed's armour and shield and knocking the satyr lord backwards. At length, Nbed fell unconscious and the three unlikely allies dashed through the forest to the clearing where they found an exhausted Ascodel who had managed to see off Thania. She had reverted to a thin mist and drifted away over the treetops.

Sadly, this was all too late for poor Redcoat, who had died of the injuries Nbed had inflicted upon him. Ascodel raised his sword when the Huldregarl entered the clearing, but Leon gestured for him to lower it. At once, the Huldregarl coalesced into another form entirely - a humanoid form of gnarled, oily branches like the rest of the forest: a twisted, blighted dryad with a shock of twigs for hair. Its arms were long enough for it to stalk on them like a great ape and it now approached Redcoat and pawed at him. There was a moment of silence before a green vapour emerged from the body of the Huldregarl and, while visibly draining the forest spirit, curled itself about Redcoat and infused him with life. The bear's eyes opened and everyone stood in silence for a time.

In the strangely intelligible chittering that formed his language, Etiotek told them that the Huldregarl was a mystery. The creature was a forest spirit from the furthest depths of the Upper Dreaming, driven from seclusion by the blight. It had attacked Etiotek too, when their paths first crossed, but Etiotek had managed to calm the creature with his 'music' and they had been traveling together ever since. The Huldregarl's motives were unclear, save that it attacked vampires, black fey and goblinoids on sight. For his part, Etiotek Ekiokiet declared himself to be the bravest and boldest of the reclusive twykmen who inhabited a great tree in the heart of the forest. When the blight first emerged, he was chosen by the elders to travel to the Oak King's Court. The Oak King was the guardian of the forest, Etiotek maintained, and would be able to tell them what to do.

At that moment Nbed entered the clearing. He was saved from Redcoat's wrath only by the form he chose to wear when he emerged from the forest: an elven warrior. The others blinked at him, confused, but when Nbed caught sight of the piles of dead and dying satyrs he abandoned the pretense of his illusory form and fell to his knees with a cry. Here were all of his subjects - all of the satyrs of the Upper Dreaming, who he had called to him to march under his banner and had been cruelly tricked and betrayed.

Ogres, dire wolves and a hill giant werewolf were now approaching from the army camp in the distance. Any outstanding question as to who was on who's side was answered when as a body, Ascodel, Leon, Redcoat, Nbed, Etiotek and the Huldregarl, attacked and slew these foes in short order.

There was need to make haste before more enemies arrived. They examined the heaps of satyrs and found that many were still alive. Some had died from wounds inflicted by black fey blades and quarrels; others from suffocation at the bottom of the pile. All were suffering from a slow and agonizing poison that disabled them and for which it seemed there was no remedy. Among the dead Leon found Dantes, and Ascodel found Drust, his other firbolg companion.

Redcoat could smell more bugbears and ogres approaching. They could stay here and fight wave upon wave if they chose to. But that would not solve the problem of the blight or bring them any closer to vengeance upon the culprits. Unwilling to leave his fellow satyrs in their sorry condition, Nbed made a point of slaying every one of those still living, with each death compounding the curse he swore on Thania and rest of those responsible. When he was done, and was covered from head to toe in the blood of his fallen people, the group departed, spirited over the treetops by Ascodel, in the direction of the Oak King's Court.

 

[gideonpepys]

When it became clear that the Zeitgeist adventure path was not going to be published at a faster rate I decided to create a secondary campaign featuring a roster of unusual characters that set out to exploit the rules in a way which I don’t allow in a regular campaign. (Feat and power choices usually have to be developed along with the story unless they are of the most dull and passive variety.) Most of the players are more interested in roleplaying than character creation, so with only one exception they simply outlined a concept and I created their new dude for them.

Having gamed with the same players for a very long time I decided to try something new: introducing the characters one at a time Seven Samurai style. I have done this before, but only in a single session, not spread over several sessions with each newcomer getting in the chance to shine in their debut encounter. This was particularly important because these are level 11 fourth edition characters and it would be overwhelming and confusing to have all five of them explore their raft of new powers at once. The players were all very patient and enjoyed watching the others flesh out their characters for the first time. In any case they were all sworn to secrecy so no-one had any idea who/what the others were playing.

So, you’ve read the sessions in which the party was gathered, now here’s the roster:

Leon – Okay, so he’s not new. For those who don’t know or can’t remember, Leon is a resourceful tiefling Unseen Warlock. He was once a Danoran General – a war criminal, in fact – but ended up in the body of the very tiefling who tried to assassinate him. He was also a member of the Obscurati, but this side-quest has little or nothing to do with the main campaign, so his newly reacquired Ob ring does not weigh so heavy on his finger right now. Leon is at the centre of some very strange occurrences, not least of which is the fact that he will be taking part in two strands of the campaign at the same time.

Ascodel – a pompous bralani shielding swordmage and Herald of the Great Hunt. Ascodel is two levels higher than the others. He’s over a thousand years old, after all. He has the windrider paragon path, the windlord theme, mark of storm, resounding thunder, and a lightning blade. He’s also a reskinned stormsoul genasi. Ascodel has numerous flight powers and the ability to use mass flight as a ritual outside combat. So his verbal bluster is matched by the sturm und drang of his powers.

Redcoat – a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed talking bear with a taste for mead. He’s a reskinned bugbear barbarian with the ‘bear warrior’ paragon path. (One of the features of this path says ‘you look like a bear when raging’. Ho ho.) When I told the group we’d be generating fey-oriented characters, one of them said straight away, “Can I be that talking bear we met in the Dreaming?” How could I refuse? Redcoat is dangerous but swingy, with lots of damage dice to roll. All of his magic items are reskinned so horned helm becomes bear rush and iron armbands of power become ursine ferocity. Just for fun.

Nbed – a satyr blackguard vampire noble. Yes, you read that right. This guy is ridiculous. Always the epitome of satyrhood, embracing the lusty and bestial nature of his kind, Nbed was (well, is) a brutal warrior and lord of all satyrs. Arrogant and cocksure, he was easily seduced by the bad guys and ended up in thrall to black fey vampires, so he started out as a villain. Of all the crazy builds in this party this is probably the most consistently dangerous: the blackguard’s dark menace, coupled with the vampire lord’s beguiler feature and a subtle blade mean that this guy does d10+29 damage if he has combat advantage and THP. “That’s optimization, not roleplaying!” I hear you cry. But this guy is roleplaying being a very, very dangerous son-of-a-bitch. Worked out very nicely when he killed Redcoat in their first brush.

The Huldregarl – a deranged forest spirit, afflicted by the blight, the Huldregarl can only be kept in check by its tiny friend Etiotek. The Huldregarl manifests as a huge swarm of oily black beetles, but when calm takes the form of a treelike humanoid with feminine traits. (‘Reskinned wilden swarm druid’ just doesn’t do this thing justice.) The Huldregarl has difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe, but has time goes by the party will discover it to be a repository of healing lore capable, even, of bringing the dead back to life. (Raise dead is houseruled out of the game in my campaign. Here, it is houseruled back in.) The Huldregarl is represented by a Dreamblade miniature called a beetleback mass. I bet when they were producing that no one ever thought it would be used for a PC. The Huldregarl was the most fun to develop. Its INT and CHA are only 6 and it cannot speak. It communicates through scents which only Etiotek can interpret.

Etiotek Ekiokiet – is a reskinned pixie cunning bard, which again does no justice to the concept. Though roughly humanoid, Etiotek is bright green, and could easily be confused with either an insect or a plant. His wings are like bee’s wings and unfold from two plates on his back and he communicates in staccato noises and scents. Despite rarely having left the deep forest home of his people, Etiotek is nevertheless a repository for all of the lore they have gathered over the centuries. He is only two years old and will probably only live for two or three more. He fights with barbed stingers projected from an array of quills on his forearms and legs.

The sequential introduction took three sessions and went very well indeed. The players made the most of their dramatic entrances and roleplayed to the hilt: Ascodel barked his demands at the riverking; Redcoat spluttered obscene oaths at his tormentors; Nbed stroked the faces of the other players before he attacked them; the Huldregarl did not speak at all and when Etiotek spoke one of the other players produced the bizarre chittering sound (a talent he revealed when Etiotek’s mode of speech was described). The dice also helped: having Nbed actually kill Redcoat - who could then be raised by the Huldregarl (an ability I expected would not see play for months, if at all) added to the melodrama and provides some roleplaying hooks for all three.

Having gathered the group together, we’re putting them ice for a few weeks and heading back to the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan to see what Unit B are getting up to.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 111 - The First Tier

Once again we are back with Unit B - Orum, Throgmorton, Ludo, Wil and Brajham - as they explore the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan:

This week the unit B declined an invitation to play the ancient ball game of pelota; investigated a chamber full of mummified cats and many doors; revealed a crawlspace accessed by a secret door behind an altar and the trapped antechamber beyond; found themselves teleported back to the gas-filled chamber of murals.

Having trudged back to the trapped antechamber they passed through successfully to reveal a huge replica of an ancient city, where they uncovered a horrible child sacrifice made to consecrate the chamber, much treasure and an evil priest who had been interred there thousands of years before and now took the form of Brajham's dead brother. Having all-but bested him, they agreed to allow him to crawl back into his coffin and then sealed him within the chamber once more. Heading back to the chamber of cats they disturbed a previously petrified werejaguar, slaying him for his pains, and then found another secret door in the mouth of a giant mural of a tiger's face. Here they discovered a long corridor containing an intimidating pit trap, so they took another door. This led to a chamber that at first glance contained nothing but ancient dust, but dust that swirled into the form of Olman's going about their daily routine - a glimpse of the past that fascinated both Orum and Brajham.

The next chamber was huge and irregular and contained heaps of rubble and trash. There were several doors. On a hunch they examined one and found that it did indeed lead to the long corridor with the pit trap, as they suspected. While they were congratulating themselves on their canny dungeoneering skills, something stirred in the trash behind them...

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 112 - Upstairs, downstairs

A giant amphisbaena hidden in the mounds of rubble attacked the group, paralysing Brajham and Throgmorton. The remaining three adventurers struggled to fend it off, but it was dangerous, able to attack two of them at once with its poisonous bites. Orum noticed a figure heading down the corridor with the pit trap, rappelling over the bars. He was relieved to discover that it was Ffenwig the bugbear scout, who must have followed their path through the dungeon! Ffenwig arrived just in time to help them defeat the the two-headed snake.


In turned out that Ffenwig and the two dwarven porters had escaped the tribe of lizard men, who were now gathering atop the ziggurat. Wardrums were drawing more warriors to the site, so it was imperative that the unit make haste. While the lizard men were occupied elsewhere, Ffenwig and the dwarves had found a rumble-choked access point and cleared it. (This was the same spot the unit had found, but had been unable to clear due to the poison gas.) Ffenwig had simply followed their trail through the dungeon.

Unable to do anything for Throgmorton or Brajham for the time being, Orum created a floating disc for his partner, while Ludo used his psionic skills to create a wheelbarrow for Brajham. Of the many doors in this strangely shaped room, they chose the one which led down a switchback passage to a staircase. Here they found and disabled a trap (which would have subjected them to the steaming breath of a mechanical dragon) before ascending. They were now on the second tier. Here, Throgmorton's innate resistence to poison allowed him to shrug off the amphisbaena's paralysing venom and he got to his feet and resumed his duties. Brajham was transferred to Orum's floating bier where he was lain face down, giving his sore arse room to breath as the wound was beginning to suppurate.

Ffenwig was scouting by this point and was not taking as much care has the dwarves had been. When he found a trap he simply triggered it and hoped to avoid serious damage. Fooling around with a skull on top of a pile of 'free gold' he revealed a colony of yellow mold disguised by an illusion. Having survived this hazard, and with a couple of secret doors now discovered Ffenwig prompted an attack by a mirror-bound Olman spirit (which he duly dispatched) and set off a portcullis trap by interfering with a jade mask. All the while his allies were shouting, 'leave it alone; it's a trap'.


The portcullis trap presaged the arrival of a couatl who manifested above an altar and threatened the group, until Ludo massaged its ego and it agreed to reward them in return for their help. The couatl said it was bound to remain in the shrine while two aberrant prisoners remained in situ. If the unit could kill these creatures, the couatl would be free and very grateful. It added that, while it could not reveal the precise location of the 'star beings', one could be found on the first tier (which they had already left) and the other somewhere on this, the second level.


Orum's detailed map showed several areas of the first tier that remained unexplored, so the group decided to tackle them first and retraced their path back down to the huge, strangely shaped room full of rubble where they had fought the two-headed serpent. They headed north from here and came to a sunken room where a huge plant monster guarded the way, quivering and jibbering in a bad-tempered fashion. (See attached clip, from 3:53 until Uncle's exit*) Though strange and unique this creature was not strictly aberrant, so the unit retreated and made their way to the chamber of mummified cats where another door led to a T junction. They went east along a winding passage which eventually brought them to the far side of the sunken room where the huge plant monster was still quivering and jibbering.


Back they went, until eventually they came to a very strange chamber, where the walls were covered in flayed human skins and the air was filled with smoke. The smoke came from a pit of coals in which the statue of an ogre mage stood. Its mouth was large enough to swallow a horse, and within curled a sleeping panther which ignored the intruders. They returned the favour and inspected a well on the other side of the room. It was filled with red light which, when disturbed (by Ffenwig, natch) sent a beam of red light up through a flue which presumably allowed the smoke to escape outside.

The party was looking for secret doors when the ogre mage attacked them. They realised later that it must have entered the room in gaseous form, disguised by the smoke. It declared itself to be 'Xipe' and boasted that it would feast on their remains. The panther was Xipe's companion and joined in the fight. At length, Xipe was forced to flee (back up the flue in gaseous form), leaving the adventurers to unceremoniously gang up on his pet and kick it to death on the floor of the chamber.


*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xz3CIiIess&safe=active

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 113 - Sharp Exit

Following the gaseous flight of Xipe the Oni and the defeat of his feline pet, careful consultation of Orum's map of the shrine revealed one more area on the first tier that was yet to be explored (assuming no secret doors were left to be discovered which, given the dwarves' knack for finding them, was not that likely). The unit duly headed back to the section of passageways close to where they climbed up from the lower chambers and found a long, wide, vaulted hall filled with statues of strange apelike creature.

Throgmorton examined an arch on the way into the hall and, finding Olman hieroglyphs, left Orum to examine them while he and Ffenwig pressed on into the chamber, covered by Wil, Brajham and Ludo. As they neared the centre of the hall, a large spherical creature with a crown of eye-stalks descended from the gloom of the vaulted ceiling. It bore a great central eye which suppressed magic use. Babbling incoherently it immediately attacked them with magical eye rays, the first of which petrified poor Wil. Surely this must be one of the aberrant creatures the couatl had asked them to deal with?

But it was dangerous. Each of its eye-stalks firing a different magical ray that could freeze, terrify, scour, paralyze... If they had had to kill this monster the fight might have gone badly, but Orum realised the hieroglyphs on the archway were wards. He also realised that he could understand snippets of what the creature was saying from his study of the language of the far realms of deep space. The creature was complaining about how long it had been trapped here and how boring it was having to fight these intruders. First Ludo disabled the hieroglyphs, then Orum tried to communicate with the aberrant thing, offering it the opportunity to leave. Negotiations did not go well at first and the fight continued, but despite the creature's continuing aggression, the unit lowered their weapons and stepped back. Eventually it accepted their offer and drifted towards the exit, whereupon it crumbled to dust! When Orum re-examined the hieroglyphs it turned that not only had they trapped the aberrant in this chamber, they had also sustained it for thousands of years. Among its ashes Brajham found two rings which he fitted to his staff.

Unable to think of any means of helping Wil, they left him where he was.

Back upstairs, the unit retraced their steps to a previously unexplored secret door. Beyond they found a room with variously coloured mirrors and a basin full of golden liquid. They explored fully, poking their noses into everything as good adventurers should, and were variously drowned, healed, beckoned, frightened and attacked by an albino ochre jelly. Then they found a secret door.

Behind the door was a short, narrow but twisting corridor that emerged in a diamond-shaped room containing an altar that resembled an octopus or squid with a ruby embedded in its forehead. Ludo investigated and then invited Throgmorton and Ffenwig to help him try to move the altar. Brajham and Orum noticed their friends were behaving strangely - intent on moving the altar and encouraging them to help despite the obvious futility. They retreated from the room and decided to act before their friends noticed they were on to them, hurling magic at the altar and destroying it, which caused the others to be released from their possession.

Ludo felt sure that the psionic being that resided within the altar (and had dominated the three who had touched it) had been slain in the process. It was clearly aberrant in nature, so they hoped they had done what the couatl had asked of them and returned to parley with the creature.

The couatl appeared as soon as they entered its chamber. It confirmed that the aberrant creatures it had been bound to guard were now dead and granted all of the officers a boon. Ludo received an extra-special blessing and the couatl vanished, leaving a small turquoise idol on the dais where it had stood - one of the planar idols the unit had been looking for.

Glad to have achieved their goal, and deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, they immediately decided to head straight for the exit Ffenwig and the dwarven porters had created rather than explore the rest of the ziggurat. Bravely ran away, away. When danger reared its ugly head, they bravely turned their tails and fled, stopping only to apply the unguent of remove affliction (which they had only just remembered they were carrying) to the petrified form of Doctor Stanmore.


They used the trap near the miniature city to transport themselves to the mural hall, thereby avoiding a lot of the poison gas. When they arrived at the excavated area they found the porters waiting for them but as they left, Throgmorton thought he saw a large figure moving in the jungle canopy, though it disappeared when he glanced in its direction. Xipe the oni, perhaps?


They began to pick their way through the jungle toward the teleportation stone when the drums began to beat. They heard distant noises - reptilian cries and thrashing through the undergrowth - and made haste for fear of pursuit. But when they arrived in the clearing where the ancient stone stood, they had been beaten to it: Xipe the oni barred their way, along with a hag and her crocodile pets.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 114a - Last Stand

One by one Unit B stumbled from the jungle into the clearing where the standing stone could be found. Ffenwig was in the lead, so she was first to realise that their path was blocked by Xipe, two huge river crocodiles and a hideous hag. Ffenwig drew a pistol and fired at Xipe who responded with a freezing blast, while the hag caused the foliage around Ffenwig to grow and twist, lacerating the bugbear with sharp thorns and holding her in place. Brajham and Wil were next into the clearing, followed closely by Ludo, and all launched magical attacks at the hag and the oni.

Xipe boasted that he had correctly predicted the path their flight would take and the hag (whom Xipe referred to as Blue Meg) demanded that they hand over the serpent idol. When they refused she launched more withering magical attacks and sent her crocodiles into the fray. These creatures were clearly magical in nature, shrugging off the unit's initial attacks alarmingly, but when an attack finally got through they turned out to be easily disposed of.

At last, Orum and Throgmorton staggered into the clearing. Orum was supporting his old friend who was struggling for breath. He called for help as he lay Throgmorton gently down. Wil broke off from the fight to check the ailing dwarf, conscious that he could hear sounds of gaining pursuit in the jungle - the lizardmen who had gathered on the ziggurat were approaching as fast as they could. Deespite the approaching danger, Wil knelt down beside Throgmorton and examined him for long enough to realise that the dwarf was having a heart attack, which age, the amphisbaena venom, and their dash through the hot jungle had doubtless conspired to cause . Unable to do anything to reverse the condition, Wil could only hope that Throgmorton hung on long enough for them to fight their way free - the lizardmen were upon them now, and had to be fought off in waves:

First were the fast-moving greenscale hunters; then one or two shaman casting simple spells; but the real danger came in the form of blackscales - huge, tough brutes wielding enormous clubs.

By now, Xipe had been driven off. They knew he was somewhere up in the canopy waiting to regenerate enough to return to the fray. Blue Meg had succumbed to Wil's sleep spell and had been quickly dispatched by Ffenwig. So the fight was with the blackscales now, and it was going badly.

Brajham was finding it difficult to cope, but his mind finally buckled when he realised what Blue Meg had done. Her final act had been to whisper something into an opaque white stone and now a spiralling portal was slowly forming at the edge of the clearing. Brajham had seen such a portal before, only then it had been at its fullest, forming a maelstrom that stripped the leaves off the trees and tore words from mouths before they could be uttered. The only thing that hinted this slowly growing effect could become such a force was the word the hag had whispered: "Tatzel". She had summoned the corrupt, fugitive dragon from the Dreaming to claim another icon. Screaming at the others to follow suit and to flee or hide, Brajham dashed into the jungle, where he cowered, unable to move.

Wil, Ffenwig and Ludo were badly injured. Throgmorton lay softly moaning, his lips turning blue. Orum took a blow to the head from the last remaining blackscale and fell still.

Then Xipe appeared.

The portal had almost reached a functional size.

Wil was out of healing potions.

The oni cried out a welcome, over the noise of the portal: "Mighty Tatzel, I am Xipe, an ally of your fallen servant Blue Meg. I have kept these foolish creatures here to answer for their malfeasance. One of them bears the idol you seek. Come forth and take it at your leisure!"

Unit B braced themselves for a final stand, unwilling to give up another powerful artifact to the dragon, knowing that this would be a fight they could not hope to win.

We will draw a discreet veil over the outcome for the time being, as other matters beckon...

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 114b - Blue Murder

Leon had just departed for the Dreaming. Uru, Conquo, Matunaaga and Rumdoom pressed on to the hilltop village where they hoped to find the reincarnation of Malthusius.

The folk here were hostile to outsiders and steeped in the Old Faith. The elders insisted that Conquo remain on the outskirts and the local children came nervously to investigate. Uru stayed with him in his guise as a small, dark-skinned child and played with the children.

Rumdoom and Matunaaga spoke to the village elders and were told that no deva reincarnation had occurred.

But the children told Uru a different story: A middle-aged woman had recently fallen pregnant and given birth to a blue-skinned baby. It had grown to their size in just a few days, but before it could reach adolescence a dark man and a bright pixie arrived from Shale and the baby disappeared.

Uru turned their tale into a rhyme which he sang in the village square at the top of his voice, bringing the elders and the rest of the unit out to hear. A woman marched to the front of the gathering and threw a bag of silver into the dirt, castigating the elders for their greed. Then Uru frightened the superstitious villagers by reverting to his true form and extracted the following reluctant confession:

The man from Shale had told the villagers that the baby was the reincarnation of a traitor responsible for the carnage in Flint (news of which traders had brought to even this far-flung region). He told them that they should put the child on trial in accordance with Risuri law and displayed documents to the effect that he was authorized to conduct such a trial. He said that if the child was found guilty they would be rewarded for bringing a member of the Obscurati to justice. A trial was duly held, the child was found guilty and then drowned. Each of the village elders was paid 30 silver pieces for their aid, including the deva's 'mother' (the woman who had thrown down her silver in disgust).

Unable to think of a suitable punishment for this shocking crime, the unit merely extracted a description of the stranger from Shale: He wore smart, modern clothes and a stove-pipe hat; he bore a pistol and a pocket-watch which he consulted very often. The sprite was female and very colourful but did not speak to anyone but the man. Something about this description rang a very dim and distant bell. (See follow-up email). Unfortunately, none of the villagers could remember being given a name - or rather, they remembered being given it, it was on the tips of their tongues, but no, it was gone.


Uru daubed a fey curse on the door of each household, and they left the village behind.

In Shale they witnessed feverish preparations for any forthcoming conflict with Danor. (More of which next week.) They wondered how it would be possible for them to find Malthusius now. Governor Stanfield had said that the more time elapsed - and the more incarnations elapsed - the harder it was to access the memories and personality of a deva's former life. Malthusius' arm was lifeless and inert and provided no further clues.


Then Xabria remembered something that happened in the clergy vault on Odiem when the unit was facing off against Gene, the corrupted Godhand. Golden mirrors had summoned simulacra of the unit, but Malthusius' had not been identical. Rather it had been more youthful figure dressed in esoteric robes. At the time Malthusius had assumed it to be a past life incarnation he had yet to learn about. But when he investigated further and completed the timeline of his former lives, no such figure was featured.

Could it be that this was an incarnation from Malthusius' future?

Xambria immediately took the description of his robes to the only clergy church in Shale, and learned that they were worn by members of the Congregation of Adelbrand - a reclusive clergy sect devoted to introspection and prayer that maintained just half a dozen monasteries in some of the most remote parts of the world. There was only one in Risur, located in the Western Anthras Mountains, though the precise location was not rendered on any map.

They sent a message to Stover Delft and received replies from both Stover and Marshal Korrigan...

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 114c - Approaching the Oak King's Court

Leon and his newly-formed band of misfits - Ascodel, Redcoat, Nbed, Etiotek and the Huldregaarl - were flying over the gnarled and blighted canopy of the Dreaming analogue of the Cloudwood, courtesy of ritual peformed by Ascodel. Somewhere in the heart of the forest lay the shifting court of the Oak King - a great treant who protected the forest from harm. Eiotek had been sent by his people to petition the Oak King for help against the blight, which had been slowly encroaching upon their mother tree.

But since his departure, the blight's progress had been horribly rapid and there was now no region free from its effects. Hopefully the Oak King could provide some advice as to how they might counter or reverse it.

Ahead lay their destination - Etiotek was sure of it. But swirling over the treetops surrounding the court was a roiling black maelstrom. At first it looked like a cloud, but as they approached its fringes, the group began to flinch and bat away the biting insects which formed this mass. They were necrotic butterflies, gathered in their millions, and Ascodel was forced to take the group beneath the trees to avoid entering the cloud.

They continued towards the Oak King's Court on foot.