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[ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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<blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 6159944" data-attributes="member: 79141"><p><strong>SUBPLOT SYNOPSIS</strong></p><p></p><p>At the start of the campaign, Rumdoom is a member of a an eschatologist cell with a secret: they believe that a dwarven hero known as the Avatar of the End will reclaim the lost Stone of Not and thereby… well, opinion is divided on that. Maybe he will bring about the end of the world, maybe he will prevent a ‘false ending’. </p><p> </p><p> The cell members are: Rumdoom, brought in by Khoomrung Morkanstall to get him ‘back on his feet’ after the death of his betrothed; Khoomrung himself, an avuncular dwarven politician, easily led; Khaled Valchek the leader of the cell and prominent industrialist; Thered Kharngraft, a zealous eschatologist from Drakr; Thangir Kharngraft, his all-but-mute brother. The Kharngraft brothers are both undertakers – a prominent position in dwarven society. (The cell was invented by Rumdoom’s player when asked to design his contacts.)</p><p> </p><p> As a result of recent tragic events – in particular the loss of his wife who was with child when she died – Rumdoom is obsessed with good endings, or at any rate, avoiding bad ones.</p><p> </p><p> At the climax of <em>Island at the Axis of the World</em>, Rumdoom goes toe-to-toe with eladrin dreadnought Asrabey Varal in defence of his fallen comrades. Convinced his time has finally come, Rumdoom suddenly finds himself manifesting the <em>icy end of the earth</em>. This incredible power enables him to fell Varal, but greatly disturbs Rumdoom. Back in Flint he hits the bottle once again and begins to keep his eschatologist friends at arm’s length.</p><p> </p><p> During the buffer adventure, <em>the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh</em>, the unit discovers that a tribe of lizardmen are buying firearms from a group of smugglers. Leon adopts Rahu-Ketu a pseudodragon pet belonging to a lizardwoman shaman, and the group frees a merfolk scout from the bilges. </p><p> </p><p> Following the events of <em>Dying Skyseer</em>, Rumdoom’s alcoholism worsens. Encouraged by Khoomrung he demonstrates his new power to the rest of the cell (breaking a rib in the process). They are amazed. Khaled Valchek persuades Rumdoom to take part in a series of fundraising demonstrations in which he is flogged with a cat-o-ninetails until he manifests the <em>Icy End</em>. But it doesn’t take long before Rumdoom realises that Khaled is more interested in drumming up interest in his own business ventures (using eschatology as a front). Despite this, Rumdoom accepts Khaled’s offer of lodging in his mansion on North Shore, and Valchek reveals more about his plans to expand Black Star Mining beyond Risur and claims to have the support of the King.</p><p> </p><p> At this point, Oolsholeel, the merfolk scout they rescued from the smugglers’ ship, arrives in Flint with a request from the town council of Saltmarsh to help oust a local tribe of lizardmen who have transgressed their boundaries and attacked local shipping. (Buffer adventure <em>Danger at Dunwater</em>.) These boundaries had been set by the fey, and so Oolsholeel, and a fey lord would accompany them on their mission. The fey lord in question is a belligerent pixie named Azure Lord Blackthorn.</p><p> </p><p> Carnage ensues at the lizard man lair, making negotiations with the lizardmen difficult, once an impasse is eventually reached. It is during the early stages of this raid that the party find the Jade Idol, which radiates a disturbing power. The lizardman chief is a modernizer, counselled by a wise and and elderly minister. It emerges that the lizardmen have been ousted from their coastal home by sahuagin, who now send raiding parties into the swamp. The sahuagin are in pursuit of a Risuri man whose balloon crash-landed in the swamp, and now languishes in the lizardman prison:</p><p> </p><p> Silas Fennac tells the unit that he is an associate of Black Star Mining, and was prospecting far to the south. Incredibly, he was able to make contact with the ‘Deep Ones’, mysterious masters of the sahuagin and was allowed to visit their underwater city. There, he strayed into areas he was not intended to see and learned that the Deep Ones were preparing for an invasion. So he stole the Jade Idol and fled, with the sahuagin in pursuit.</p><p> </p><p> While the rest of the unit is tasked with slaying a dangerous crocodile that has plagued the tribe – in reparation for the number of warriors they have slain – Leon has a private audience with the elderly minister who greets the pseudodragon Rahu Ketu with great affection and claims to have raised and trained her. The minister asks Leon to take the Jade Idol and study it, but exacts a promise from him, on their shared pact with the fey entity Avagdu, that he will return it to the minister having done so. The minister reveals that he is wary of the idol and does not have the arcane knowledge to fully understand its purpose.</p><p> </p><p> When they have dealt with the crocodile, the unit negotiates for Fennac’s release and escorts him back to Flint, having promised to return and help the tribe drive away the sahuagin. Azure Lord Blackthorn departs in disgust, unhappy at the unit’s decision to parley with the ‘savages’.</p><p> </p><p> Back in Flint, the unit is joined by expert on the Deep Ones, Karl Krauss, whose eccentric reputation precedes him. Many years ago, he escaped imprisonment at their hands (and now believes that they control the upper echelons of Risur). He predicts that where the sahuagin go, the Deep Ones will not be far behind and agrees to accompany them on their mission.</p><p> </p><p> Rumdoom takes part in more fundraisers (during which his <em>Icy End </em>manifestation is shown to be even more powerful). At one such meeting he encounters Hildegaard and Harn, a wealthy dwarven maiden and her father. Silas Fennac takes up residence in Valchek’s mansion, and Black Star Mining begins to lobby for action to be taken against the Sea Devil menace: His influence is such that a naval task force is put together to drive out the sahuagin once their strength and numbers have been established.</p><p> </p><p> Leon learns that the idol is extremely powerful, and grants amazing powers of stealth and ease of passage to the wielder. But there is something seductive, even addictive, about its power.</p><p> </p><p> Oolsholeel returns to Flint with the rituals needed to operate underwater, while Valchek supplies the group with a fast ship. Along with Krauss, seven marines from Saltmarsh, and an equal number of lizardman warriors, the group sets off to reconnoitre. (Buffer adventure <em>the Final Enemy</em>.)</p><p> </p><p> They find that the lizardman lair has been hugely altered and a great gathering of forces is underway. Fighting their way in, with Krauss acting as guide, the strike-force eventually comes face-to-face with one of the sahuagin’s masters – a Deep One (or aboleth). It reveals that it has caused Krauss to lead them here, and that Krauss has been dominated by the Deep Ones since his long captivity. It says that they have no plans to invade, but have come in pursuit of Fennac and ‘what he stole’. The unit assumes it means the idol, but the aboleth dismisses that as a ‘mere toy’: they want Fennac’s notebook (which contains all of their secrets). It says they will leave if both Fennac and the notebook are returned to them. Overwhelmed, Krauss shoots himself in the head (though it later transpires that he has merely cauterized the part of his brain which the aboleth have used to dominate him).</p><p> </p><p> Some of the group are held as collateral, while others teleport back to Flint and use the idol to steal Fennac’s notebook, leaving a note from the Kell Guild demanding ransom for its return. Fennac panics – the journal is his meal-ticket – and begs Rumdoom to accompany him to a meeting with the thieves, whereupon the unit kidnaps him and take him back through the teleportation portal. A screaming, pleading Fennac is handed over to the aboleth along with his notes, but before anything else can happen, a massive naval bombardment of the sahuagin lair begins. Having not heard from the unit, Valchek has given orders to destroy the sahuagin!</p><p> </p><p> By the skin of their teeth, the strike-force escapes the devastation and returns on foot to the lizardman lair. There they are horrified to find that the tribe has been overwhelmed and captured by a group of Black Star Mining mercenaries led by Azure Lord Blackthorn. They are looking for the Jade Idol (which remains in Leon’s possession, a fact he does not reveal). The lizardman minister is nowhere to be found.</p><p> </p><p> Livid with Valchek, Rumdoom refuses to help him against the Kell Guild (whom Valchek believes are responsible for Fennac’s disappearance). He leaves Valchek’s mansion, and will have nothing further to do with him. Valchek swiftly replaces him with half a dozen ‘avatars of the end’ who have been discovered throughout Risur. Rumdoom’s manifestations are far from unique, it turns out. Valchek’s publicity campaign rides on the success of the action against the sahuagin, and despite the loss of Fennac and his journal, the public of Flint (and Slate) are soon appraised of the threat the Deep Ones pose. During one furious exchange with Rumdoom, who has to explain his own failure to guard Fennac, Valchek reveals that opening up trade routes through the Cold Claw Sea is not his sole motive for assaulting the Deep Ones: Fennac’s lost journal confirmed that the Deep Ones have the Stone of Not, and use it to power their underwater citadel.</p><p> </p><p> Despite this strained relationship, the unit decide that it would be in their best interests to link Black Star Mining up with the Family and between them they plan a hit on Lorcan Kell (who responds violently to all of Valchek’s demands, making no attempt to deny his involvement in Fennac’s kidnapping).</p><p> </p><p> During <em>Digging for Lies</em>, another alien menace raises its ugly head. Unbeknownst to the players, the Deep Ones are inimical to the gidim, and the monstrous kraken-hydra that attacks the RNS Impossible at the end of the <em>Snatchers in the Night</em> encounter is in fact under aboleth control. Due to Leon’s possession of the Jade Idol, as soon as the group enters the waters near the sunken seal, the aboleth know they are there. When they come to investigate they sense the presence of a gidim and unleash the sea monster to sink the ship and kill it. Only Rumdoom’s heroic action, sacrificing himself to defeat the kraken-hydra, allows the unit to escape.</p><p> </p><p> The team chases Sijhen back to Flint. An RHC audit sees the unit’s possession of the Jade Idol revealed, creating animosity between them and Khaled Valchek (who has contacts in the RHC). The idol is taken off them, and Valchek sues for its possession (but before it can be handed over Leon steals it back, during the chaos caused by Sijhen at RHC HQ). </p><p> </p><p> At Rumdoom’s funeral Uru overhears Khoomrung talking sadly about Rumdoom, and how he had never known what really happened to his sweetheart Moraga. While Rumdoom was away at war, Valchek had made his move, for he had always coveted the fair dwarf maiden. When Rumdoom returned, and she chose him over Valchek, Valchek became enraged. He invited Moraga to his home and forced himself upon her. Moraga feared what would happen if she told Rumdoom, and over the next few months, her spirit broken, she pined away and died. Rumdoom had never known the truth of why she sickened so, and always believed that the child she carried when she died was his... (At this point the character of Valchek spilled over into pantomime villain. I am trying to think of a motivation for Khoomrung to have lied about this.) They also learn that Valchek is building a huge mercenary fleet to sail south and deal with the Deep One menace. </p><p> </p><p> During the last act of <em>Digging for </em>Lies, Krazy Krauss is killed by the Thing from Beyond. Only then do the rest of the team visit his compound in Parity Lake and realise the true extent of his paranoia. He has a ‘conspiracy chart’ pinned to his wall which includes the King, Governor Stanfield, Lady Saxby and <em>them</em>! Under a tarpaulin they find a huge machine he was working on, but cannot work out what it is. </p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile, a joint Black Star Mining / Family hit squad, including Azure Lord Blackthorn and a very reluctant Khoomrung Morkanstall, make their move on Lorcan Kell. They are subject to a double-cross and are defeated hand-to-hand by Kell himself. Kell blinds Khoomrung, and cuts off his hands and tongue, and sends him back to Valchek with a pair of pixie wings in a bag around his neck.</p><p> </p><p>Between <em>Digging for Lies</em> and <em>Always on Time</em>, the unit cross over into the Dreaming. (Buffer adventure <em>the Wrath of the River King</em>.) To leave they need to secure the help of Tatzel, a green dragon who has survived the death of his brethren in Ber. Tatzel reveals that <em>he </em>was the lizardman minister Leon dealt with, in polymorphed form, and demands the return both of Rahu Ketu <em>and </em>the Jade Idol in return for his help. With great reluctance, and in accordance with the terms of his pact oath, Leon agrees.</p><p> </p><p> Rumdoom is waiting for the unit when they leave the Dreaming, with a tale of being washed up on the shore of Ber, bereft of weapons and armour. He is a changed dwarf: gone is his fear of water, his manic-depression and alcoholism. Instead, he has an evangelical gleam in his eye and unexplained aquatic powers (which, oddly, no one bothers to question). Rumdoom visits Heward Sechim, and persuades him to fund a small meeting house in Bosum Strand which he hopes to build into an eschatologist group to rival that of Khaled Valchek, to whom Heward Sechim is strongly opposed. Two of his first devotees are the dwarf maiden Hildegaard and her wealthy father Harn. They have parted ways with Valchek already, and are overjoyed to see Rumdoom hs returned safe and well. To replace his lost arms and armour, Harn gifts Rumdoom with three family heirlooms: a shield, a hammer and a suit of armour, intricately etched with ancient Drakran runes.</p><p> </p><p> At the beginning of <em>Always on Time</em>, the unit is aided by merfolk during a naval battle. The merfolk know of the Risuri plan to launch a mercenary fleet against the Deep Ones. They fear that this would be the equivalent of stirring up a hornets’ nest, and plead with the unit to intercede if possible (in return for their help disposing of the enemy vessels and their crew). The unit is only too happy to agree, though they are doubtful of their ability to help.</p><p> </p><p> Later in the adventure, Rumdoom gets to meet Vlendham Heid, who has heard of Rumdoom and is fascinated by his manifestations. Through Vlendham, Rumdoom promises to aid half-orc businessman Damata Griento to avoid a bad ending. Rumdoom goes up against the Family and defeats them single-handed, cementing his private conviction that he cannot be killed. One survivor of the encounter – a dwarven clergy priest named Azon the Stoneforger – recognises the runes on Rumdoom’s blood-spattered armour. He tells Rumdoom that he is an adherent of eschatology too, and also well-versed in runic lore. But Rumdoom does not have time for lessons now – he needs to catch up with the others in Vendricce! And so Azon agrees to travel to Flint, arriving shortly after the group’s return.</p><p> </p><p> Having been intercepted by a merfolk ambassador on their way home, the group is now determined to prevent the launch of the mercenary fleet. This forms the basis of their current buffer adventure. They have discovered that the fleet is partly funded by Pemberton Industries and has the tacit backing of the Risuri government. </p><p> </p><p> Working with Azon, Rumdoom has learned all he can about runic lore. He also learned about the ancient runepriests who once guarded the fabled Stone of Not, which disappeared following a cataclysmic tidal wave thousands of years ago. Putting the clues together, they realise that the Deep Ones must have been responsible!</p><p> </p><p> This brings us more or less up to date. The most recent developments are as follows:</p><p> </p><p> Rumschatology has grown in popularity. Khoomrung Morkanstall has been rescued from the home Valchek has placed him in and a fundraising campaign is underway to restore him. Azon has succeeded in drawing Thered and Thangir away from Black Star Mining, along with Kvartiy Gobartiy. Rumdoom has learned the ways of the runepriest, and has also begun to investigate the compound of Krazy Krauss, fascinated by his connection to the aboleth.</p><p> </p><p> Finally, Leon has discovered a revolting cult in the swamps near Pine Island, centred around an ancient cave, and a poor plaster copy of the Jade Idol.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gideonpepys, post: 6159944, member: 79141"] [b]SUBPLOT SYNOPSIS[/b] At the start of the campaign, Rumdoom is a member of a an eschatologist cell with a secret: they believe that a dwarven hero known as the Avatar of the End will reclaim the lost Stone of Not and thereby… well, opinion is divided on that. Maybe he will bring about the end of the world, maybe he will prevent a ‘false ending’. The cell members are: Rumdoom, brought in by Khoomrung Morkanstall to get him ‘back on his feet’ after the death of his betrothed; Khoomrung himself, an avuncular dwarven politician, easily led; Khaled Valchek the leader of the cell and prominent industrialist; Thered Kharngraft, a zealous eschatologist from Drakr; Thangir Kharngraft, his all-but-mute brother. The Kharngraft brothers are both undertakers – a prominent position in dwarven society. (The cell was invented by Rumdoom’s player when asked to design his contacts.) As a result of recent tragic events – in particular the loss of his wife who was with child when she died – Rumdoom is obsessed with good endings, or at any rate, avoiding bad ones. At the climax of [I]Island at the Axis of the World[/I], Rumdoom goes toe-to-toe with eladrin dreadnought Asrabey Varal in defence of his fallen comrades. Convinced his time has finally come, Rumdoom suddenly finds himself manifesting the [I]icy end of the earth[/I]. This incredible power enables him to fell Varal, but greatly disturbs Rumdoom. Back in Flint he hits the bottle once again and begins to keep his eschatologist friends at arm’s length. During the buffer adventure, [I]the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh[/I], the unit discovers that a tribe of lizardmen are buying firearms from a group of smugglers. Leon adopts Rahu-Ketu a pseudodragon pet belonging to a lizardwoman shaman, and the group frees a merfolk scout from the bilges. Following the events of [I]Dying Skyseer[/I], Rumdoom’s alcoholism worsens. Encouraged by Khoomrung he demonstrates his new power to the rest of the cell (breaking a rib in the process). They are amazed. Khaled Valchek persuades Rumdoom to take part in a series of fundraising demonstrations in which he is flogged with a cat-o-ninetails until he manifests the [I]Icy End[/I]. But it doesn’t take long before Rumdoom realises that Khaled is more interested in drumming up interest in his own business ventures (using eschatology as a front). Despite this, Rumdoom accepts Khaled’s offer of lodging in his mansion on North Shore, and Valchek reveals more about his plans to expand Black Star Mining beyond Risur and claims to have the support of the King. At this point, Oolsholeel, the merfolk scout they rescued from the smugglers’ ship, arrives in Flint with a request from the town council of Saltmarsh to help oust a local tribe of lizardmen who have transgressed their boundaries and attacked local shipping. (Buffer adventure [I]Danger at Dunwater[/I].) These boundaries had been set by the fey, and so Oolsholeel, and a fey lord would accompany them on their mission. The fey lord in question is a belligerent pixie named Azure Lord Blackthorn. Carnage ensues at the lizard man lair, making negotiations with the lizardmen difficult, once an impasse is eventually reached. It is during the early stages of this raid that the party find the Jade Idol, which radiates a disturbing power. The lizardman chief is a modernizer, counselled by a wise and and elderly minister. It emerges that the lizardmen have been ousted from their coastal home by sahuagin, who now send raiding parties into the swamp. The sahuagin are in pursuit of a Risuri man whose balloon crash-landed in the swamp, and now languishes in the lizardman prison: Silas Fennac tells the unit that he is an associate of Black Star Mining, and was prospecting far to the south. Incredibly, he was able to make contact with the ‘Deep Ones’, mysterious masters of the sahuagin and was allowed to visit their underwater city. There, he strayed into areas he was not intended to see and learned that the Deep Ones were preparing for an invasion. So he stole the Jade Idol and fled, with the sahuagin in pursuit. While the rest of the unit is tasked with slaying a dangerous crocodile that has plagued the tribe – in reparation for the number of warriors they have slain – Leon has a private audience with the elderly minister who greets the pseudodragon Rahu Ketu with great affection and claims to have raised and trained her. The minister asks Leon to take the Jade Idol and study it, but exacts a promise from him, on their shared pact with the fey entity Avagdu, that he will return it to the minister having done so. The minister reveals that he is wary of the idol and does not have the arcane knowledge to fully understand its purpose. When they have dealt with the crocodile, the unit negotiates for Fennac’s release and escorts him back to Flint, having promised to return and help the tribe drive away the sahuagin. Azure Lord Blackthorn departs in disgust, unhappy at the unit’s decision to parley with the ‘savages’. Back in Flint, the unit is joined by expert on the Deep Ones, Karl Krauss, whose eccentric reputation precedes him. Many years ago, he escaped imprisonment at their hands (and now believes that they control the upper echelons of Risur). He predicts that where the sahuagin go, the Deep Ones will not be far behind and agrees to accompany them on their mission. Rumdoom takes part in more fundraisers (during which his [I]Icy End [/I]manifestation is shown to be even more powerful). At one such meeting he encounters Hildegaard and Harn, a wealthy dwarven maiden and her father. Silas Fennac takes up residence in Valchek’s mansion, and Black Star Mining begins to lobby for action to be taken against the Sea Devil menace: His influence is such that a naval task force is put together to drive out the sahuagin once their strength and numbers have been established. Leon learns that the idol is extremely powerful, and grants amazing powers of stealth and ease of passage to the wielder. But there is something seductive, even addictive, about its power. Oolsholeel returns to Flint with the rituals needed to operate underwater, while Valchek supplies the group with a fast ship. Along with Krauss, seven marines from Saltmarsh, and an equal number of lizardman warriors, the group sets off to reconnoitre. (Buffer adventure [I]the Final Enemy[/I].) They find that the lizardman lair has been hugely altered and a great gathering of forces is underway. Fighting their way in, with Krauss acting as guide, the strike-force eventually comes face-to-face with one of the sahuagin’s masters – a Deep One (or aboleth). It reveals that it has caused Krauss to lead them here, and that Krauss has been dominated by the Deep Ones since his long captivity. It says that they have no plans to invade, but have come in pursuit of Fennac and ‘what he stole’. The unit assumes it means the idol, but the aboleth dismisses that as a ‘mere toy’: they want Fennac’s notebook (which contains all of their secrets). It says they will leave if both Fennac and the notebook are returned to them. Overwhelmed, Krauss shoots himself in the head (though it later transpires that he has merely cauterized the part of his brain which the aboleth have used to dominate him). Some of the group are held as collateral, while others teleport back to Flint and use the idol to steal Fennac’s notebook, leaving a note from the Kell Guild demanding ransom for its return. Fennac panics – the journal is his meal-ticket – and begs Rumdoom to accompany him to a meeting with the thieves, whereupon the unit kidnaps him and take him back through the teleportation portal. A screaming, pleading Fennac is handed over to the aboleth along with his notes, but before anything else can happen, a massive naval bombardment of the sahuagin lair begins. Having not heard from the unit, Valchek has given orders to destroy the sahuagin! By the skin of their teeth, the strike-force escapes the devastation and returns on foot to the lizardman lair. There they are horrified to find that the tribe has been overwhelmed and captured by a group of Black Star Mining mercenaries led by Azure Lord Blackthorn. They are looking for the Jade Idol (which remains in Leon’s possession, a fact he does not reveal). The lizardman minister is nowhere to be found. Livid with Valchek, Rumdoom refuses to help him against the Kell Guild (whom Valchek believes are responsible for Fennac’s disappearance). He leaves Valchek’s mansion, and will have nothing further to do with him. Valchek swiftly replaces him with half a dozen ‘avatars of the end’ who have been discovered throughout Risur. Rumdoom’s manifestations are far from unique, it turns out. Valchek’s publicity campaign rides on the success of the action against the sahuagin, and despite the loss of Fennac and his journal, the public of Flint (and Slate) are soon appraised of the threat the Deep Ones pose. During one furious exchange with Rumdoom, who has to explain his own failure to guard Fennac, Valchek reveals that opening up trade routes through the Cold Claw Sea is not his sole motive for assaulting the Deep Ones: Fennac’s lost journal confirmed that the Deep Ones have the Stone of Not, and use it to power their underwater citadel. Despite this strained relationship, the unit decide that it would be in their best interests to link Black Star Mining up with the Family and between them they plan a hit on Lorcan Kell (who responds violently to all of Valchek’s demands, making no attempt to deny his involvement in Fennac’s kidnapping). During [I]Digging for Lies[/I], another alien menace raises its ugly head. Unbeknownst to the players, the Deep Ones are inimical to the gidim, and the monstrous kraken-hydra that attacks the RNS Impossible at the end of the [I]Snatchers in the Night[/I] encounter is in fact under aboleth control. Due to Leon’s possession of the Jade Idol, as soon as the group enters the waters near the sunken seal, the aboleth know they are there. When they come to investigate they sense the presence of a gidim and unleash the sea monster to sink the ship and kill it. Only Rumdoom’s heroic action, sacrificing himself to defeat the kraken-hydra, allows the unit to escape. The team chases Sijhen back to Flint. An RHC audit sees the unit’s possession of the Jade Idol revealed, creating animosity between them and Khaled Valchek (who has contacts in the RHC). The idol is taken off them, and Valchek sues for its possession (but before it can be handed over Leon steals it back, during the chaos caused by Sijhen at RHC HQ). At Rumdoom’s funeral Uru overhears Khoomrung talking sadly about Rumdoom, and how he had never known what really happened to his sweetheart Moraga. While Rumdoom was away at war, Valchek had made his move, for he had always coveted the fair dwarf maiden. When Rumdoom returned, and she chose him over Valchek, Valchek became enraged. He invited Moraga to his home and forced himself upon her. Moraga feared what would happen if she told Rumdoom, and over the next few months, her spirit broken, she pined away and died. Rumdoom had never known the truth of why she sickened so, and always believed that the child she carried when she died was his... (At this point the character of Valchek spilled over into pantomime villain. I am trying to think of a motivation for Khoomrung to have lied about this.) They also learn that Valchek is building a huge mercenary fleet to sail south and deal with the Deep One menace. During the last act of [I]Digging for [/I]Lies, Krazy Krauss is killed by the Thing from Beyond. Only then do the rest of the team visit his compound in Parity Lake and realise the true extent of his paranoia. He has a ‘conspiracy chart’ pinned to his wall which includes the King, Governor Stanfield, Lady Saxby and [I]them[/I]! Under a tarpaulin they find a huge machine he was working on, but cannot work out what it is. Meanwhile, a joint Black Star Mining / Family hit squad, including Azure Lord Blackthorn and a very reluctant Khoomrung Morkanstall, make their move on Lorcan Kell. They are subject to a double-cross and are defeated hand-to-hand by Kell himself. Kell blinds Khoomrung, and cuts off his hands and tongue, and sends him back to Valchek with a pair of pixie wings in a bag around his neck. Between [I]Digging for Lies[/I] and [I]Always on Time[/I], the unit cross over into the Dreaming. (Buffer adventure [I]the Wrath of the River King[/I].) To leave they need to secure the help of Tatzel, a green dragon who has survived the death of his brethren in Ber. Tatzel reveals that [I]he [/I]was the lizardman minister Leon dealt with, in polymorphed form, and demands the return both of Rahu Ketu [I]and [/I]the Jade Idol in return for his help. With great reluctance, and in accordance with the terms of his pact oath, Leon agrees. Rumdoom is waiting for the unit when they leave the Dreaming, with a tale of being washed up on the shore of Ber, bereft of weapons and armour. He is a changed dwarf: gone is his fear of water, his manic-depression and alcoholism. Instead, he has an evangelical gleam in his eye and unexplained aquatic powers (which, oddly, no one bothers to question). Rumdoom visits Heward Sechim, and persuades him to fund a small meeting house in Bosum Strand which he hopes to build into an eschatologist group to rival that of Khaled Valchek, to whom Heward Sechim is strongly opposed. Two of his first devotees are the dwarf maiden Hildegaard and her wealthy father Harn. They have parted ways with Valchek already, and are overjoyed to see Rumdoom hs returned safe and well. To replace his lost arms and armour, Harn gifts Rumdoom with three family heirlooms: a shield, a hammer and a suit of armour, intricately etched with ancient Drakran runes. At the beginning of [I]Always on Time[/I], the unit is aided by merfolk during a naval battle. The merfolk know of the Risuri plan to launch a mercenary fleet against the Deep Ones. They fear that this would be the equivalent of stirring up a hornets’ nest, and plead with the unit to intercede if possible (in return for their help disposing of the enemy vessels and their crew). The unit is only too happy to agree, though they are doubtful of their ability to help. Later in the adventure, Rumdoom gets to meet Vlendham Heid, who has heard of Rumdoom and is fascinated by his manifestations. Through Vlendham, Rumdoom promises to aid half-orc businessman Damata Griento to avoid a bad ending. Rumdoom goes up against the Family and defeats them single-handed, cementing his private conviction that he cannot be killed. One survivor of the encounter – a dwarven clergy priest named Azon the Stoneforger – recognises the runes on Rumdoom’s blood-spattered armour. He tells Rumdoom that he is an adherent of eschatology too, and also well-versed in runic lore. But Rumdoom does not have time for lessons now – he needs to catch up with the others in Vendricce! And so Azon agrees to travel to Flint, arriving shortly after the group’s return. Having been intercepted by a merfolk ambassador on their way home, the group is now determined to prevent the launch of the mercenary fleet. This forms the basis of their current buffer adventure. They have discovered that the fleet is partly funded by Pemberton Industries and has the tacit backing of the Risuri government. Working with Azon, Rumdoom has learned all he can about runic lore. He also learned about the ancient runepriests who once guarded the fabled Stone of Not, which disappeared following a cataclysmic tidal wave thousands of years ago. Putting the clues together, they realise that the Deep Ones must have been responsible! This brings us more or less up to date. The most recent developments are as follows: Rumschatology has grown in popularity. Khoomrung Morkanstall has been rescued from the home Valchek has placed him in and a fundraising campaign is underway to restore him. Azon has succeeded in drawing Thered and Thangir away from Black Star Mining, along with Kvartiy Gobartiy. Rumdoom has learned the ways of the runepriest, and has also begun to investigate the compound of Krazy Krauss, fascinated by his connection to the aboleth. Finally, Leon has discovered a revolting cult in the swamps near Pine Island, centred around an ancient cave, and a poor plaster copy of the Jade Idol. [/QUOTE]
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[ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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