RangerWickett
Legend
Well, he ain't wrong.
ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Quite. I've got the soundtrack picked out and everything:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6OtF7daIPM
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 53, Part Two - Rock the Kasbah
The discordant shouts swelled to a crescendo, hands moved towards weapons. Suddenly a booming voice rose above the din, calling for the squabbling to stop. When they realised it was Rock, everyone did so. The dissolute adventurer stood, with a little help. He was distraught to find the fey brought to the brink of disaster for love of him. “I’m not worth it,” he said. “Even I’m not worth it.”
On coming to realise that there was a whole camp of tired, injured soldiers on the lawn outside, Rock turned to the unit and said, “What’s say we go about this our usual way – for old time’s sake?” Rock proposed an impromptu open air concert designed to uplift the two factions and heal their wounds. Once accepted, this suggestion took on a momentum of its own, and the nobles were swept up in the excitement, despite themselves.
Rock’s appearance caused great excitement – soldiers from both camps cheered to see him still alive, and crowded around to get a closer look. Uru’s many ghost hands worked busily to provide a podium from which he could be seen. Leon took out his Wayfarer’s Lamp and infused it with oil from the demi-plane Bard – inspiring performers and affecting their audience with the same elevated spirit. Rock opened with his most famous song, I Had a Threeway, which had been taken up as a drinking and marching song by warriors on both sides. For the first time in their adventures together, Gupta cast aside her wholly professional and restrained façade, and threw herself into a performance in support of Rock, a performance comprised of vocals, the beat of her mother’s rabana, and wild eladrin dancing inspired by the song of Vekesh. Rock cleverly altered the lyrics of his songs as they went, weaving calls to unity and appeals for brotherhood into his line-up of hits, including An RHC Hero, 18 Mile, and 99 Problems (But a Lich Ain’t One).
While the concert played on, the rest of the unit made preparations. They returned to speak with Copperhat who said that the Voice of Rot had the power to send them back to the Waking, as the fey titans existed within both realms, and could send their minions to and fro at will, and could also banish intruders. But Korrigan and Co weren’t happy at the thought of approaching the wicked serpent cap-in-hand. Beshela suggested that they try to rouse She Who Writhes, and put their faith in her own good relations with the ill-tempered kraken. But the process of finding and waking her could take many days.
Just then, unexpected help arrived: fruit of the seed sown by Larena’s suggestion that Olazdor send for help on the matter, after he confessed he could not send the unit home himself. Two geriatric and disturbingly flirtatious pixie librarians arrived from the Hall of Accumulated Wisdom. These sisters, Alba and Zanel, demanded that Furg return a book he had stolen from their collection – the Book of Kelland. When Furg said he had given it to Leon, Alba and Zanel took the opportunity to flit about the new courtier, shrieking in excitement and exposing their undergarments ‘accidentally’. They said he could keep the book if he paid an overdue fine, but when they told him what form the fine took, Leon offered to give back the book. The two ladies giggled, commended his fine morals, and told him he would need it: Within were the words the daughter of Kelland used to anger the Voice of Rot. The unit could use this knowledge to provoke the titan – enough, perhaps, to earn his banishment. A risky strategy!
Uru now spoke up. From as far back as his youth on Axis Island, Uru had harboured an ambition – more of a pipe-dream – that he would one day slay the Voice of Rot, whose dominance and perversion of the sanctity of death Uru detested (with a fervour equalled only by his contempt for the Obscurati’s use of witch-oil). Familiar with the old legend, Uru knew of the fabled Sword of the Black Needles, and wondered if that could be used to defeat the titan.
Alba and Zanel cleared up his misapprehension – the sword had been thrown down by King Dukain, and could only be used to re-instigate the battle they once fought. Even the greatest warriors could not hope to win against a fey titan! But if the sword could be found and taken up, the unit could immediately surrender. By the terms of the titan’s ancient pact with Risur, it would be forced to banish them. The only down-side was that the titan would then be free to move beyond his current domain and claim more territory. Korrigan wasn’t happy at the sound of that! Was it really that urgent, that they should take such a great risk?
While this conversation was taking place, Leon went to get Sly Marbo and Andrei. They were still holed up in the Warrens – a region inhabited by Sly Marbo’s people. By now, Marbo was back on his feet, but still stiff. With them was a visitor – a satyr minstrel named Dantes - an old friend of the unit, and a Vekeshi Mystic. (When Leon had last seen him, he was dead – impaled on a barbed tree by Nbed. Yet another sign that his quest to eradicate the Dreaming Blight had never happened.) Dantes had come with a message for the Waking. The Vekeshi in the Dreaming wanted to know which side of this conflict they should be fighting on, if any. But they did not have the means to send a message now communication and travel between the realms had ceased. He was pleased to hear about the uneasy truce. Dantes knew the unit had been travelling with Kasvarina, and shared with them the news that Kasvarina was last seen in Ushanti where she appeared ‘a couple of weeks ago’. She left pretty quickly in the company of two other mystics – Jaques and Helandra.
Two weeks? That must mean time was passing much more quickly in the Waking. All the more reason for them to get a move on!
Just as they prepared to leave, a ruddy, buxom woman appeared with a throng of children around her. Sixty-five to be precise. “Oh no you don’t, Sly Marbo!” she said. “Fool me once…” Sly gave a sorry shrug and said that he ought to remain behind for now, and so Leon left with Andrei.
Andrei was keen to impress upon Korrigan the renewed urgency of the situation, and equally eager to risk just about anything to get back to the Waking. The final deciding factor came in the unlikely shape of Mista Nyves who said he was raised in the High Bayou and knew exactly where they could find the Sword of the Black Needles: in a temple to the Voice of Rot in the foothills of the Needles themselves. With this final piece of the puzzle in place, their decision was made. The only problem now was getting there. Even using the Webway would take days.
Thisraldion solved the matter by way of thanking them for their successful investigation: he summoned the Great Hunt (in the form of their Herald, Ascodel, who appeared on the lawn in a flash of lightning), and commanded them to take the unit south to confront the Voice of Rot. “Huzzah!” cried Ascodel, “A bold adventure! We will return in force once that fox has been tracked down!” Thisraldion explained that there was no longer any need to pursue the fox and Ascodel bowed low.
A short while later, the unit was mounting up on magical steeds, amidst cheers and strewn garlands. Each of them had been given fine jewellery and priceless robes, crowns and chests full of gems and precious metals. They were now rich beyond their wildest dreams, and could safely retire if mere riches were their only interest. But for now they all agreed that they should get back to saving the world.
The discordant shouts swelled to a crescendo, hands moved towards weapons. Suddenly a booming voice rose above the din, calling for the squabbling to stop. When they realised it was Rock, everyone did so. The dissolute adventurer stood, with a little help. He was distraught to find the fey brought to the brink of disaster for love of him. “I’m not worth it,” he said. “Even I’m not worth it.”
On coming to realise that there was a whole camp of tired, injured soldiers on the lawn outside, Rock turned to the unit and said, “What’s say we go about this our usual way – for old time’s sake?” Rock proposed an impromptu open air concert designed to uplift the two factions and heal their wounds. Once accepted, this suggestion took on a momentum of its own, and the nobles were swept up in the excitement, despite themselves.
Rock’s appearance caused great excitement – soldiers from both camps cheered to see him still alive, and crowded around to get a closer look. Uru’s many ghost hands worked busily to provide a podium from which he could be seen. Leon took out his Wayfarer’s Lamp and infused it with oil from the demi-plane Bard – inspiring performers and affecting their audience with the same elevated spirit. Rock opened with his most famous song, I Had a Threeway, which had been taken up as a drinking and marching song by warriors on both sides. For the first time in their adventures together, Gupta cast aside her wholly professional and restrained façade, and threw herself into a performance in support of Rock, a performance comprised of vocals, the beat of her mother’s rabana, and wild eladrin dancing inspired by the song of Vekesh. Rock cleverly altered the lyrics of his songs as they went, weaving calls to unity and appeals for brotherhood into his line-up of hits, including An RHC Hero, 18 Mile, and 99 Problems (But a Lich Ain’t One).
While the concert played on, the rest of the unit made preparations. They returned to speak with Copperhat who said that the Voice of Rot had the power to send them back to the Waking, as the fey titans existed within both realms, and could send their minions to and fro at will, and could also banish intruders. But Korrigan and Co weren’t happy at the thought of approaching the wicked serpent cap-in-hand. Beshela suggested that they try to rouse She Who Writhes, and put their faith in her own good relations with the ill-tempered kraken. But the process of finding and waking her could take many days.
Just then, unexpected help arrived: fruit of the seed sown by Larena’s suggestion that Olazdor send for help on the matter, after he confessed he could not send the unit home himself. Two geriatric and disturbingly flirtatious pixie librarians arrived from the Hall of Accumulated Wisdom. These sisters, Alba and Zanel, demanded that Furg return a book he had stolen from their collection – the Book of Kelland. When Furg said he had given it to Leon, Alba and Zanel took the opportunity to flit about the new courtier, shrieking in excitement and exposing their undergarments ‘accidentally’. They said he could keep the book if he paid an overdue fine, but when they told him what form the fine took, Leon offered to give back the book. The two ladies giggled, commended his fine morals, and told him he would need it: Within were the words the daughter of Kelland used to anger the Voice of Rot. The unit could use this knowledge to provoke the titan – enough, perhaps, to earn his banishment. A risky strategy!
Uru now spoke up. From as far back as his youth on Axis Island, Uru had harboured an ambition – more of a pipe-dream – that he would one day slay the Voice of Rot, whose dominance and perversion of the sanctity of death Uru detested (with a fervour equalled only by his contempt for the Obscurati’s use of witch-oil). Familiar with the old legend, Uru knew of the fabled Sword of the Black Needles, and wondered if that could be used to defeat the titan.
Alba and Zanel cleared up his misapprehension – the sword had been thrown down by King Dukain, and could only be used to re-instigate the battle they once fought. Even the greatest warriors could not hope to win against a fey titan! But if the sword could be found and taken up, the unit could immediately surrender. By the terms of the titan’s ancient pact with Risur, it would be forced to banish them. The only down-side was that the titan would then be free to move beyond his current domain and claim more territory. Korrigan wasn’t happy at the sound of that! Was it really that urgent, that they should take such a great risk?
While this conversation was taking place, Leon went to get Sly Marbo and Andrei. They were still holed up in the Warrens – a region inhabited by Sly Marbo’s people. By now, Marbo was back on his feet, but still stiff. With them was a visitor – a satyr minstrel named Dantes - an old friend of the unit, and a Vekeshi Mystic. (When Leon had last seen him, he was dead – impaled on a barbed tree by Nbed. Yet another sign that his quest to eradicate the Dreaming Blight had never happened.) Dantes had come with a message for the Waking. The Vekeshi in the Dreaming wanted to know which side of this conflict they should be fighting on, if any. But they did not have the means to send a message now communication and travel between the realms had ceased. He was pleased to hear about the uneasy truce. Dantes knew the unit had been travelling with Kasvarina, and shared with them the news that Kasvarina was last seen in Ushanti where she appeared ‘a couple of weeks ago’. She left pretty quickly in the company of two other mystics – Jaques and Helandra.
Two weeks? That must mean time was passing much more quickly in the Waking. All the more reason for them to get a move on!
Just as they prepared to leave, a ruddy, buxom woman appeared with a throng of children around her. Sixty-five to be precise. “Oh no you don’t, Sly Marbo!” she said. “Fool me once…” Sly gave a sorry shrug and said that he ought to remain behind for now, and so Leon left with Andrei.
Andrei was keen to impress upon Korrigan the renewed urgency of the situation, and equally eager to risk just about anything to get back to the Waking. The final deciding factor came in the unlikely shape of Mista Nyves who said he was raised in the High Bayou and knew exactly where they could find the Sword of the Black Needles: in a temple to the Voice of Rot in the foothills of the Needles themselves. With this final piece of the puzzle in place, their decision was made. The only problem now was getting there. Even using the Webway would take days.
Thisraldion solved the matter by way of thanking them for their successful investigation: he summoned the Great Hunt (in the form of their Herald, Ascodel, who appeared on the lawn in a flash of lightning), and commanded them to take the unit south to confront the Voice of Rot. “Huzzah!” cried Ascodel, “A bold adventure! We will return in force once that fox has been tracked down!” Thisraldion explained that there was no longer any need to pursue the fox and Ascodel bowed low.
A short while later, the unit was mounting up on magical steeds, amidst cheers and strewn garlands. Each of them had been given fine jewellery and priceless robes, crowns and chests full of gems and precious metals. They were now rich beyond their wildest dreams, and could safely retire if mere riches were their only interest. But for now they all agreed that they should get back to saving the world.
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RangerWickett
Legend
I'm curious how the party took the route to Rot? Did it feel railroady?
And thanks again for coming up with the title of Rock's song.
And thanks again for coming up with the title of Rock's song.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
No more than other than other vital quests would do. ("Take this ring to Mordor? isn't that a bit... railroady?") And I hope a little bit less so because I introduced the possibility of waking She Who Writhes first, before Alba and Zanel arrived so they always had a choice. Also, the information about the Sword of the Black Needles came from Uru - who said he wanted to find it during character generation! (Oh, and the location of the sword came from Mista Nyves, who the players really like, for some mad reason.)
Did I? Which one?
Oh, by the way - perhaps you can help clarify something for me? (Yet again!) Is it the case that - during the assassination attempt on King Aodhan - it is only necessary for the occupants of the palace to move roughly 200 feet, and they will escape? (Or knock out a couple of the lanterns?) That doesn't seem too hard, unless I'm missing something.
RangerWickett
Legend
Maybe I got you crossed with Ajar. One of the GMs invented "I Had a Threeway."
And yeah, you can escape by leaving the palace, but nobody knows that, so people will stay in the safety of the building. Aodhan won't want to leave while his people are in danger, though he could be convinced.
And yeah, you can escape by leaving the palace, but nobody knows that, so people will stay in the safety of the building. Aodhan won't want to leave while his people are in danger, though he could be convinced.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
That's what I thought.
Okay. That makes sense. Thanks!
I'm excited but trepidatious about the next few sessions, wondering how things will turn out. (Still have part three of session 53 to go, though. I'll post that in the next couple of days.)
RangerWickett
Legend
Speaking of soundtracks, I'm running a Pathfinder campaign with four paladin PCs, called Smite Evil. This is the overture, from the show Human Target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ceCFKLp26w
Bear McCreary has a great sound, so a few times I've found tracks by him for various shows he's scored and tried to envision cool scenes where I could use them as soundtrack. Human Target had a villain who was sort of the mirror image of the main character, and he had a theme that was an inversion of the show's main theme. So I'm using this (and a few other tracks with the same leitmotif) whenever a particular anti-theist villain shows up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWG70VP1jXg
And, as mind-numbingly bad as The Cloverfield Paradox was as a movie, the music is intense. This is probably going to be used somewhere in or near the campaign's ultimate climax. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pHImXZlc3A
Bear McCreary has a great sound, so a few times I've found tracks by him for various shows he's scored and tried to envision cool scenes where I could use them as soundtrack. Human Target had a villain who was sort of the mirror image of the main character, and he had a theme that was an inversion of the show's main theme. So I'm using this (and a few other tracks with the same leitmotif) whenever a particular anti-theist villain shows up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWG70VP1jXg
And, as mind-numbingly bad as The Cloverfield Paradox was as a movie, the music is intense. This is probably going to be used somewhere in or near the campaign's ultimate climax. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pHImXZlc3A
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 53, Part Three - The Sword in the Stump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2tNVwzdxaI
The twelve-hour ride to the High Bayou passed in a blur of grandiose music played by the Great Hunt’s trumpeters (which magically had full orchestral accompaniment). The sun set, and the riders brought forth torches.
Knowing that he had fought alongside Leon before (even if he didn’t know that he had, and even if ‘before’ was not strictly speaking the right word) Korrigan road alongside Ascodel and addressed him as leader of the Hunt. Ascodel politely demurred and directed Korrigan to Riffian – a plate-armoured figure with a stag-horned helm, and bullet-hole in his breastplate just over the heart. Riffian greeted Korrigan with a “Huzzah!” just as loud and enthusiastic as Ascodel’s and said it was his honour to accompany them on such a grandiose quest.
While they travelled, Uru spoke with Mista Nyves, and offered him the chance to accompany the unit back to the Waking. Nyves was horrified at the thought, so Uru offered to knight him instead, and make him an emissary of the Unheard Court, here in the Dreaming. (Nyves was about to respond that he had never heard of the Unheard Court, but decided against it, in case it made him sound stupid.) The gesture was sufficient to cause a guilty clicking of Mista Nyves’ pedipalps, whereupon he confessed that he had been spying on them for Copperhat all along. That is, until Copperhat was revealed as the culprit. Now Nyves felt very much ashamed. (This of course begged the question of why Copperhat had shown up at the palace if he knew he was going to be accused…)
The last hour of the journey was spent galloping through the High Bayou, since the magical steeds could run across the bog water. Giant spiders and crocodiles tried to ambush the group, but the Great Hunt tore through them and pressed onward with barely a pause to shout huzzah. Distant drums thrummed faintly beneath the patter of drizzle, and dim red eyes watched from the foliage. Occasionally an ettercap scuttled out of their path. Sometimes they sat completely still, only turning their heads atop husked, decayed bodies to watch the Hunt as it passed.
Fey hounds guided the group higher and higher across hills and peaks shrouded in webs and choked with marsh plants. When they eventually lost the path, Mista Nyves was able to redirect them. Spires of stone rose up amid berms of spider webs. The peaks ascended rapidly and roughly, such that even the Great Hunt’s horses could not climb them. From afar the tallest ridge seemed insurmountable, but something in the shape of the tree canopy suggested a stone structure there.
Ascodel brought the riders to a halt and explained that they could go no farther. Riffian offered a last bit of advice. “Each fey titan has a weakness,” he said. “The Father of Thunder is a drunkard. The Ash Wolf is protective of other wolves. And the Voice of Rot can be tricked into talking when it could be fighting.” Riffian promised his knights would defend the unit’s flank from any of the Voice of Rot’s worshippers, but his oaths forbade him from fighting a fey titan. He seemed incredibly forlorn about this.
As they followed Mista Nyves through the swamp, Uru heard ghostly howls, chittering, and other animal noises that the other unit members could not hear, for the Voice of Rot controlled the dead beasts of his High Bayou. A few voices spoke among this chatter as well, crying for help. Through Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, Uru asked them who they were. The spirits said that they were scouts in the service of the Unseen Court, tasked with watching in case the fey titan was active. But the Voice of Rot had his ettercap minions slay them, and now their bodies were under the titan’s command, and their souls could not find a way to leave their rotting corpses. Uru was reminded of how much he hated the Voice of Rot, and tried to communicate a fraction of this to Quratulain who he thought might not know enough to spur her on. Quratulain said she would make up her own mind when she saw the titan.
Their path through the swamp was eased by uru’s water walking ritual. At last they climbed over a final berm of webs and arrived at the foot of a huge stone spire – streaked with rain and occluded by dense foliage. Immense carvings along the cliffs and on moss-covered standing stones showed that the natives of the swamp worshipped the Voice of Rot here. Mista Nyves had led them to a canyon of sorts, cut into the side of the peak. A massive and ancient stone staircase ascended up the middle of the canyon to the top of the spire, but thick webs had grown across it, creating tiers of dammed pools.
From a pool close by where the unit stood, the water stirred. Immense, ponderous coils rose up from amid the trees. A withered, antlered skull thirty feet across swayed and dripped as it pulled free of the swamp. Unlike the last time they saw it, though its body was still certainly that of a serpent, its skull was that of some other beast. A single eye glared out of one socket, dull and gray. Then the eye lit up and locked on them. “Speak,” said the Voice of Rot, in a voice like gravel and peat. “Speak, agents of King Kelland. And do not deceive, for I know when a lie is told.”
Wielding the Book of Kelland, Leon demanded to know the whereabouts of the Sword of Dukain, that they might take it up and challenge him. The Voice of Rot gave the air a sniff.
“Ah, now I know you. Jenny promised you would bring the star-child here. You shall not have the sword. Give the child to me and you shall be allowed to live.”
“Rot in hell!” said Korrigan. And all hell broke loose.
From all sides, gangs of ettercap exosketeons rose up out of the swamp to grapple the unit. “Hold them still,” the Voice of Rot breathed as it surged towards them, filling the air with its abominable stench. Korrigan planted his feet and prepared to defend Kai.
Whispers came to Uru and told him where he could find the sword. He ghost-stepped though the wall of webs onto the lowest step. Two huge, fungal elf-knights uncurled like rotting hermit crabs and stomped towards him. Gupta and Quratulain dashed for the same wall, while Andrei surged up and over it effortlessly, landing on the lowest step beside Uru.
Leon quickly opened a wormhole – one end beside him, the other at the top of the first wall of webs. Then he shouted to the serpent, hoping to distract it (and get it to monologue): “Oh Voice of Rot, do you fear to talk? Tell us, since you have us trapped, what you plan to do with us.”
Instead of attacking, the Voice rose up and crowed, “When I learned of your presence in the Dreaming, my whole plot to distract the Unseen Court became secondary to luring you here. I care not for the rest of you, only for the child that Jenny promised me. Hand him over. You should be proud that your offspring is a key to my grand scheme! Give him to me and you may go where you please.” The cold light of its eye illuminated Korrigan as he prepared to fend off the dead ettercaps.
With a strike on mother’s rabana, Gupta swapped places with him. Then, even as the ettercaps closed in on her, she blithely offered her sincere compliments to the Voice of Rot, remarking on his evident cleverness. (It was difficult to maintain her composure in the foul miasma that surrounded its rotting head.)
Up on the steps, Uru leapt upon Little Jack and buzzed towards a fallen tree, where he could now see the glow of a sword hilt through the swamp gas and murk. He made a beeline towards it, weaving to avoid arrows fired from the trees to either side. Dark fey archers were hidden there. Uru landed and placed a hand on the sword. As soon as he did so, the ‘stump’ in which it was planted lurched to its feet. It was an undead treant, blackened with rot! Uru let go of the sword, took to the air and examined the treant for weaknesses. He saw that it would be tough for him to harm it with the kinds of weapons he had.
Summoning all his strength, Andrei slammed into one of the fungal monstrosities that bore down on him, lifted it off the ground, and carried it up the steps!
Dozens of ettercap grasped and clawed at Korrigan and Quratulain. Korrigan unleashed an Urimshock into the swamp and sucked them beneath the water in a mini-tsunami.
Quratulain cleared a huge space around her, striking blow after blow. Once done, she drew her guns and prepared to aid Gupta. Korrigan took to the air and launched himself towards the treant in support of Uru.
When the ettercaps grabbed at him, Leon sidestepped through the wormhole he had created and continued his chat with the Voice of Rot. He asked the serpent what it thought of the Obscurati – what it knew of their machinations; if it feared or approved of them. The Voice answered, “Their petty schemes are as nothing compared to mine. Be grateful you are able to play such a large part in it.” Then it surged forward in pursuit of Kai and Korrigan, ignoring the water and the walls of webs.
Gupta didn’t wait for Quratulain. Even as the ettercaps grabbed her, she invoked the icon of Apet and placed herself in the high branches of a twisted tree, overlooking the lowest steps. The steps were now crawling with ettercaps, and the second elf knight stomped in pursuit of Andrei. Both this, and the knight he was carrying emitted clouds of disorienting poison spores, but the unit was able to shrug them off unhindered. Fed up of his burden, Andrei simply pitched the elf knight off the steps into the deep pool below.
Korrigan reached the treant and landed a telling blow with his Holy Avenger. Uru saw an opportunity in the charred scar Korrigan had caused in its bark. He anointed a shuriken with ghostrot and took careful aim. The treant lashed out at both of them, but missed, as did the arrows of the dark fey.
Leon once again called out to the Voice of Rot, but the titan was tired of talking: “I think you should be quiet for a while,” it said, and Leon felt his arm begin to twitch. A long time ago, Leon had had his arm severed, then stitched back on by Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Some time later, during their first encounter with the Voice of Rot, Leon had lain close to death. For its own amusement, the titan had animated his arm and conducted a conversation with it. (Later, it would awaken at night and get up to all sorts of unmentionable business, to Leon’s horror, and his girlfiend’s delight.) Now it took control of his arm again, and forced him to strangle himself with it! Leon fought off his own arm, then teleported up the steps, still struggling to restrain it. He arrived just as the Voice of Rot swept in, mouth agape – easily capable of swallowing Uru, Korrigan, Kai and Leon.
Were it not for the Book of Kelland. Leon, as bearer of the tome, could not be harmed by a titan whom he had not sought to harm himself. The Voice of Rot came to a sudden halt, mouth agape, as if jammed open by an invisible stick. It made a frustrated gargling noise, then recoiled and began to mutter incantations, to deal with the matter in another way.
From her vantage in the tree, having studied the Voice of Rot carefully, Gupta Asked the Question: “Have you grown tired of your own Voice?” The creature was silent and still, pondering this matter, to its own surprise.
This gave Uru the chance he needed to fire his poisoned shuriken into the treant’s smouldering wound. The shuriken bit deep and the poison – though it would not ordinarily have harmed an undead creature such as this – was augmented by the power of Uru’s ghostly entourage. With a subsonic moan, the blackwood treant fell. As it did so, Uru flew forward, pulled out the sword and raised it in surrender.
“I realise now this is not the confrontation I thought it was,” said the Voice of Rot, contemplatively. “That will come later. Enough of this. Begone!”
End of Session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2tNVwzdxaI
The twelve-hour ride to the High Bayou passed in a blur of grandiose music played by the Great Hunt’s trumpeters (which magically had full orchestral accompaniment). The sun set, and the riders brought forth torches.
Knowing that he had fought alongside Leon before (even if he didn’t know that he had, and even if ‘before’ was not strictly speaking the right word) Korrigan road alongside Ascodel and addressed him as leader of the Hunt. Ascodel politely demurred and directed Korrigan to Riffian – a plate-armoured figure with a stag-horned helm, and bullet-hole in his breastplate just over the heart. Riffian greeted Korrigan with a “Huzzah!” just as loud and enthusiastic as Ascodel’s and said it was his honour to accompany them on such a grandiose quest.
While they travelled, Uru spoke with Mista Nyves, and offered him the chance to accompany the unit back to the Waking. Nyves was horrified at the thought, so Uru offered to knight him instead, and make him an emissary of the Unheard Court, here in the Dreaming. (Nyves was about to respond that he had never heard of the Unheard Court, but decided against it, in case it made him sound stupid.) The gesture was sufficient to cause a guilty clicking of Mista Nyves’ pedipalps, whereupon he confessed that he had been spying on them for Copperhat all along. That is, until Copperhat was revealed as the culprit. Now Nyves felt very much ashamed. (This of course begged the question of why Copperhat had shown up at the palace if he knew he was going to be accused…)
The last hour of the journey was spent galloping through the High Bayou, since the magical steeds could run across the bog water. Giant spiders and crocodiles tried to ambush the group, but the Great Hunt tore through them and pressed onward with barely a pause to shout huzzah. Distant drums thrummed faintly beneath the patter of drizzle, and dim red eyes watched from the foliage. Occasionally an ettercap scuttled out of their path. Sometimes they sat completely still, only turning their heads atop husked, decayed bodies to watch the Hunt as it passed.
Fey hounds guided the group higher and higher across hills and peaks shrouded in webs and choked with marsh plants. When they eventually lost the path, Mista Nyves was able to redirect them. Spires of stone rose up amid berms of spider webs. The peaks ascended rapidly and roughly, such that even the Great Hunt’s horses could not climb them. From afar the tallest ridge seemed insurmountable, but something in the shape of the tree canopy suggested a stone structure there.
Ascodel brought the riders to a halt and explained that they could go no farther. Riffian offered a last bit of advice. “Each fey titan has a weakness,” he said. “The Father of Thunder is a drunkard. The Ash Wolf is protective of other wolves. And the Voice of Rot can be tricked into talking when it could be fighting.” Riffian promised his knights would defend the unit’s flank from any of the Voice of Rot’s worshippers, but his oaths forbade him from fighting a fey titan. He seemed incredibly forlorn about this.
As they followed Mista Nyves through the swamp, Uru heard ghostly howls, chittering, and other animal noises that the other unit members could not hear, for the Voice of Rot controlled the dead beasts of his High Bayou. A few voices spoke among this chatter as well, crying for help. Through Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, Uru asked them who they were. The spirits said that they were scouts in the service of the Unseen Court, tasked with watching in case the fey titan was active. But the Voice of Rot had his ettercap minions slay them, and now their bodies were under the titan’s command, and their souls could not find a way to leave their rotting corpses. Uru was reminded of how much he hated the Voice of Rot, and tried to communicate a fraction of this to Quratulain who he thought might not know enough to spur her on. Quratulain said she would make up her own mind when she saw the titan.
Their path through the swamp was eased by uru’s water walking ritual. At last they climbed over a final berm of webs and arrived at the foot of a huge stone spire – streaked with rain and occluded by dense foliage. Immense carvings along the cliffs and on moss-covered standing stones showed that the natives of the swamp worshipped the Voice of Rot here. Mista Nyves had led them to a canyon of sorts, cut into the side of the peak. A massive and ancient stone staircase ascended up the middle of the canyon to the top of the spire, but thick webs had grown across it, creating tiers of dammed pools.
From a pool close by where the unit stood, the water stirred. Immense, ponderous coils rose up from amid the trees. A withered, antlered skull thirty feet across swayed and dripped as it pulled free of the swamp. Unlike the last time they saw it, though its body was still certainly that of a serpent, its skull was that of some other beast. A single eye glared out of one socket, dull and gray. Then the eye lit up and locked on them. “Speak,” said the Voice of Rot, in a voice like gravel and peat. “Speak, agents of King Kelland. And do not deceive, for I know when a lie is told.”
Wielding the Book of Kelland, Leon demanded to know the whereabouts of the Sword of Dukain, that they might take it up and challenge him. The Voice of Rot gave the air a sniff.
“Ah, now I know you. Jenny promised you would bring the star-child here. You shall not have the sword. Give the child to me and you shall be allowed to live.”
“Rot in hell!” said Korrigan. And all hell broke loose.
From all sides, gangs of ettercap exosketeons rose up out of the swamp to grapple the unit. “Hold them still,” the Voice of Rot breathed as it surged towards them, filling the air with its abominable stench. Korrigan planted his feet and prepared to defend Kai.
Whispers came to Uru and told him where he could find the sword. He ghost-stepped though the wall of webs onto the lowest step. Two huge, fungal elf-knights uncurled like rotting hermit crabs and stomped towards him. Gupta and Quratulain dashed for the same wall, while Andrei surged up and over it effortlessly, landing on the lowest step beside Uru.
Leon quickly opened a wormhole – one end beside him, the other at the top of the first wall of webs. Then he shouted to the serpent, hoping to distract it (and get it to monologue): “Oh Voice of Rot, do you fear to talk? Tell us, since you have us trapped, what you plan to do with us.”
Instead of attacking, the Voice rose up and crowed, “When I learned of your presence in the Dreaming, my whole plot to distract the Unseen Court became secondary to luring you here. I care not for the rest of you, only for the child that Jenny promised me. Hand him over. You should be proud that your offspring is a key to my grand scheme! Give him to me and you may go where you please.” The cold light of its eye illuminated Korrigan as he prepared to fend off the dead ettercaps.
With a strike on mother’s rabana, Gupta swapped places with him. Then, even as the ettercaps closed in on her, she blithely offered her sincere compliments to the Voice of Rot, remarking on his evident cleverness. (It was difficult to maintain her composure in the foul miasma that surrounded its rotting head.)
Up on the steps, Uru leapt upon Little Jack and buzzed towards a fallen tree, where he could now see the glow of a sword hilt through the swamp gas and murk. He made a beeline towards it, weaving to avoid arrows fired from the trees to either side. Dark fey archers were hidden there. Uru landed and placed a hand on the sword. As soon as he did so, the ‘stump’ in which it was planted lurched to its feet. It was an undead treant, blackened with rot! Uru let go of the sword, took to the air and examined the treant for weaknesses. He saw that it would be tough for him to harm it with the kinds of weapons he had.
Summoning all his strength, Andrei slammed into one of the fungal monstrosities that bore down on him, lifted it off the ground, and carried it up the steps!
Dozens of ettercap grasped and clawed at Korrigan and Quratulain. Korrigan unleashed an Urimshock into the swamp and sucked them beneath the water in a mini-tsunami.
Quratulain cleared a huge space around her, striking blow after blow. Once done, she drew her guns and prepared to aid Gupta. Korrigan took to the air and launched himself towards the treant in support of Uru.
When the ettercaps grabbed at him, Leon sidestepped through the wormhole he had created and continued his chat with the Voice of Rot. He asked the serpent what it thought of the Obscurati – what it knew of their machinations; if it feared or approved of them. The Voice answered, “Their petty schemes are as nothing compared to mine. Be grateful you are able to play such a large part in it.” Then it surged forward in pursuit of Kai and Korrigan, ignoring the water and the walls of webs.
Gupta didn’t wait for Quratulain. Even as the ettercaps grabbed her, she invoked the icon of Apet and placed herself in the high branches of a twisted tree, overlooking the lowest steps. The steps were now crawling with ettercaps, and the second elf knight stomped in pursuit of Andrei. Both this, and the knight he was carrying emitted clouds of disorienting poison spores, but the unit was able to shrug them off unhindered. Fed up of his burden, Andrei simply pitched the elf knight off the steps into the deep pool below.
Korrigan reached the treant and landed a telling blow with his Holy Avenger. Uru saw an opportunity in the charred scar Korrigan had caused in its bark. He anointed a shuriken with ghostrot and took careful aim. The treant lashed out at both of them, but missed, as did the arrows of the dark fey.
Leon once again called out to the Voice of Rot, but the titan was tired of talking: “I think you should be quiet for a while,” it said, and Leon felt his arm begin to twitch. A long time ago, Leon had had his arm severed, then stitched back on by Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Some time later, during their first encounter with the Voice of Rot, Leon had lain close to death. For its own amusement, the titan had animated his arm and conducted a conversation with it. (Later, it would awaken at night and get up to all sorts of unmentionable business, to Leon’s horror, and his girlfiend’s delight.) Now it took control of his arm again, and forced him to strangle himself with it! Leon fought off his own arm, then teleported up the steps, still struggling to restrain it. He arrived just as the Voice of Rot swept in, mouth agape – easily capable of swallowing Uru, Korrigan, Kai and Leon.
Were it not for the Book of Kelland. Leon, as bearer of the tome, could not be harmed by a titan whom he had not sought to harm himself. The Voice of Rot came to a sudden halt, mouth agape, as if jammed open by an invisible stick. It made a frustrated gargling noise, then recoiled and began to mutter incantations, to deal with the matter in another way.
From her vantage in the tree, having studied the Voice of Rot carefully, Gupta Asked the Question: “Have you grown tired of your own Voice?” The creature was silent and still, pondering this matter, to its own surprise.
This gave Uru the chance he needed to fire his poisoned shuriken into the treant’s smouldering wound. The shuriken bit deep and the poison – though it would not ordinarily have harmed an undead creature such as this – was augmented by the power of Uru’s ghostly entourage. With a subsonic moan, the blackwood treant fell. As it did so, Uru flew forward, pulled out the sword and raised it in surrender.
“I realise now this is not the confrontation I thought it was,” said the Voice of Rot, contemplatively. “That will come later. Enough of this. Begone!”
End of Session
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 54, Part One - Back to Life (Back to Reality) Back to the here and now, yeah.
The unit found themselves back in the Waking, in the High Bayou, many hundreds of miles from anywhere. It turned out that the Voice of Rot had banished all their allies along with them, including the Great Hunt and a bewildered Mista Nyves.
At once, they shot off two sendings: one to Torfeld Palace to warn King Aodhan of the ‘shadow’ Thisraldion spoke of; another to Stover Delft to warn him about Stanfield, and tell him that the Ob now had control of Borne.
Their initial plan was to make haste for Flint and confront the Governor. Andrei felt sure that Stanfield must know where to find Isobel: he had been there when Andrei was abducted and forced to serve Nicodemus (along with the governor’s two henchmen, Festoon and the man in the stove-pipe hat, who he now knew had also kidnapped Isobel).
The Great Hunt said they needed to rest, and Riffian insisted that they must present themselves to the King of Risur to apologise for this accidental intrusion. But the unit decided that they needed to move at once: they had been in the Dreaming for almost a month! Better to arrive exhausted than too late. The Great Hunt could make their own way to Slate in due course, while they headed for Flint at once.
Leon tried teleportation, but as he suspected it would not work. The waves that had previously disrupted it were now overwhelming, rippling back through time from some cataclysmic event in the future. Uru discovered that it was too hard to access the Bleak Gate and shadow walk, so they would have to use phantom steeds. Leon focused very hard on the ritual, to ensure their steeds were as swift as those of the Hunt.
While he performed the summoning, two replies arrives to their sendings. They were identical: “Everything is in order here. The king has relocated to Shale for safety. Your orders are to proceed to Shale at once.” These replies were not encoded, as they had previously arranged. Korrigan felt certain they were false, which meant the Ob was already tracking them.
Meanwhile, Gupta used Nicodemus’ Obscurati ring to learn his whereabouts: he was in Cherage, in a host body. She used the same technique on Stanfield – he was in Flint, preparing a ritual. This galvanised them still further – but Gupta then remembered that the ritual would not work unless the king was killed; that their ‘new age’ could not come into effect in Risur unless he was removed. Curious, she decided to try to locate Catherine Romana (whose body was missing when her faction was killed on Mutravir). She was in Slate, still very much alive!
In the end, they decided that defending the King was their priority, but they would not wait for the Great Hunt. When the steeds were summoned, they mounted up, only for Riffian to declare that the hunt would not be left behind. If the unit could keep going despite their long journey and battle with a titan, so could they!
The journey to Slate was arduous, and passed in a blur – from midnight to midday. Dawn was beautiful, and the landscape fabulous, particularly the birdseye view of the rooftops of Slate as they swept in over the river and alighted on the South Lawn. (Passing over the perimeter fence, Uru noticed ‘Tinker Coils’ augmenting the defensive line – clearly Alden Wondermaker’s researches had been a success.)
A troop of palace guards ran out to surround them, led by the Green Knight, Dame Jillian. She demanded identification and grilled them on their purpose here, and their means of arrival. When she was satisfied she instructed some guards to lead the hunt to the palace stables. Riffian thanked her loudly, and asked Ascodel to herald their arrival to the king. Korrigan also requested an audience. Dame Jillian said the king was preparing to officiate at a wedding, and the ceremony was due to begin in just over half an hour. But she would take them to him and see if he had time to speak with them. As they went, she mentioned that Asrabey Varal was at court – residing in the chambers of the Archdruid. The Archdruid had departed to organise the funeral of the Royal Skyseer who had taken his own life that morning. “Couldn’t see a future after tonight,” she said with a casual sniff. Gupta and Quratulain peeled away to look into this matter; Leon enquired after Harkover Lee, and together with Uru went to speak with him. Andrei hung about in the foyer, as unobtrusively as possible.
The unit found themselves back in the Waking, in the High Bayou, many hundreds of miles from anywhere. It turned out that the Voice of Rot had banished all their allies along with them, including the Great Hunt and a bewildered Mista Nyves.
At once, they shot off two sendings: one to Torfeld Palace to warn King Aodhan of the ‘shadow’ Thisraldion spoke of; another to Stover Delft to warn him about Stanfield, and tell him that the Ob now had control of Borne.
Their initial plan was to make haste for Flint and confront the Governor. Andrei felt sure that Stanfield must know where to find Isobel: he had been there when Andrei was abducted and forced to serve Nicodemus (along with the governor’s two henchmen, Festoon and the man in the stove-pipe hat, who he now knew had also kidnapped Isobel).
The Great Hunt said they needed to rest, and Riffian insisted that they must present themselves to the King of Risur to apologise for this accidental intrusion. But the unit decided that they needed to move at once: they had been in the Dreaming for almost a month! Better to arrive exhausted than too late. The Great Hunt could make their own way to Slate in due course, while they headed for Flint at once.
Leon tried teleportation, but as he suspected it would not work. The waves that had previously disrupted it were now overwhelming, rippling back through time from some cataclysmic event in the future. Uru discovered that it was too hard to access the Bleak Gate and shadow walk, so they would have to use phantom steeds. Leon focused very hard on the ritual, to ensure their steeds were as swift as those of the Hunt.
While he performed the summoning, two replies arrives to their sendings. They were identical: “Everything is in order here. The king has relocated to Shale for safety. Your orders are to proceed to Shale at once.” These replies were not encoded, as they had previously arranged. Korrigan felt certain they were false, which meant the Ob was already tracking them.
Meanwhile, Gupta used Nicodemus’ Obscurati ring to learn his whereabouts: he was in Cherage, in a host body. She used the same technique on Stanfield – he was in Flint, preparing a ritual. This galvanised them still further – but Gupta then remembered that the ritual would not work unless the king was killed; that their ‘new age’ could not come into effect in Risur unless he was removed. Curious, she decided to try to locate Catherine Romana (whose body was missing when her faction was killed on Mutravir). She was in Slate, still very much alive!
In the end, they decided that defending the King was their priority, but they would not wait for the Great Hunt. When the steeds were summoned, they mounted up, only for Riffian to declare that the hunt would not be left behind. If the unit could keep going despite their long journey and battle with a titan, so could they!
The journey to Slate was arduous, and passed in a blur – from midnight to midday. Dawn was beautiful, and the landscape fabulous, particularly the birdseye view of the rooftops of Slate as they swept in over the river and alighted on the South Lawn. (Passing over the perimeter fence, Uru noticed ‘Tinker Coils’ augmenting the defensive line – clearly Alden Wondermaker’s researches had been a success.)
A troop of palace guards ran out to surround them, led by the Green Knight, Dame Jillian. She demanded identification and grilled them on their purpose here, and their means of arrival. When she was satisfied she instructed some guards to lead the hunt to the palace stables. Riffian thanked her loudly, and asked Ascodel to herald their arrival to the king. Korrigan also requested an audience. Dame Jillian said the king was preparing to officiate at a wedding, and the ceremony was due to begin in just over half an hour. But she would take them to him and see if he had time to speak with them. As they went, she mentioned that Asrabey Varal was at court – residing in the chambers of the Archdruid. The Archdruid had departed to organise the funeral of the Royal Skyseer who had taken his own life that morning. “Couldn’t see a future after tonight,” she said with a casual sniff. Gupta and Quratulain peeled away to look into this matter; Leon enquired after Harkover Lee, and together with Uru went to speak with him. Andrei hung about in the foyer, as unobtrusively as possible.
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