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

Session 65, Part Three - Ignan & Sh%*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1q3LAnPEcw

The Ash Wolf had one of his cubs lead the unit to his lair – a mossy cave beside a river bank many miles from Bole. It was hidden in dense forest and there was no sign that such large creatures had come and gone (nor did the cave seem big enough for them to sleep in). Outside lay the slain cub – on its side, smoke still pouring out of various wounds. They quickly established that these wounds had been inflicted by very hot obsidian blades, but attempts at further divination failed. The cub who had guided them said that his brother had not been slain here, and they asked him to take them to the spot where he had been found. They were led through a patchwork of burning, burnt and unburned forest until them came to a clearing, where Uriel used the Spirit Medium abilities of his prior incarnations to establish what had happened.

But the powers wouldn’t work. There was an absence not dissimilar to the effect of the Stone of Not. Leon determined that a wish spell had been used! Together, he and Uriel worked to overcome this powerful magic, whereupon Uriel saw that the wolf had been slain by otherworldly creatures of myth and legend – fire salamanders from the plane of Jiese! When they travelled in the direction the salamanders had taken, and left the area that had been ‘cleaned’ by the wish, Uru was able to pick up the salamanders’ trail. The smouldering wolf, too, could now smell them.

“Intruders!” it growled. They sent the pup back with a message for the Ash Wolf. They would investigate and bring the wolf-slayers to justice (which, Rumdoom pointed out, exceeded the terms of their agreement).

After many, many miles, they came to an area where the trees were almost entirely consumed by fire, but still burned with an unnatural intensity. Once again, this appeared to have been caused by a wish spell! Gupta recognised the rough area from maps she had studied before coming to Bole: they were nearing the ‘layer cake ruin’ mentioned by Barnaby Krist. Uru ranged ahead on Little Jack, and passed over a defensive line of plated fire worms (which Gupta also recognised as thoqua). Leon opened up dimension doors to bypass them, and the unit came to the ziggurat.

What at first they took for a trick of the light, turned out to be true on closer examination: the whole structure had been turned to solid brass! A couple of falchion-wielding salamanders guarded the entrance. Uru slipped passed them. The ziggurat was incredibly hot, but the endure elements ritual Uru had used in the forest protected him (and the others). Within, he found more salamanders, talking loudly in a grating tongue. To the left and right, walls of fire blazed menacingly.

Uriel could communicate with Uru’s ghost-children telepathically. At his request they did their best to relay the salamanders’ words, which Uriel did not recognise, but recited out loud in case anyone else understood them. Gupta thought the tongue was Ignan, but could not decipher it. Korrigan decided to approach the salamanders directly.

With the rest of the unit a few paces behind him, he called out to the guards and demanded to know what they were doing here in Lanjyr. The salamanders scoffed and exchanged a few unintelligible words before one responded by hurling an obsidian dagger at Korrigan. He absorbed the blow, and fired the energy back at the salamanders. They were outraged and slithered into combat.

Uru emerged from hiding, killed one of the salamanders in the entrance chamber, and disappeared again. Leon teleported to the top of the steps, then down inside, where he cursed one of the remaining salamanders. The other attacked, but as soon as it struck him, he vanished.

Up top, Gupta had deciphered enough of their language to ask a simple question, “He move?” which brought one of the creatures to a confused standstill. They felled both of the outer guards in short order and – acting on earlier instructions – Rumdoom’s entourage rushed forward and hammered railroad spikes into their heads, to avoid them reviving thanks to the Blood of Ostea.

The unit swept inside and dispatched all but one of the salamanders in there too. Korrigan gave specific instructions, but had to loudly reiterate his order to keep one salamander alive for questioning, such was the enthusiasm of the entourage to trepan every fallen foe.

Leon quickly established that the walls of fire were also the result of a wish spell.

The captive salamander was reluctant to talk. It clearly viewed them as little better than animals and its responses were abusive and brutish. With permission, Uru used Korrigan’s cursed tea-pot to ‘teaboard’ the salamander – drowning it in cursed tea for each unhelpful response. While it gargled and spluttered in protest, a female form stepped through one of the fire walls.

This was Liesi, an efreet. She spoke to them telepathically and said that she had been a captive of the salamander sultan, Kuyler, for hundreds of years and sought their help in winning her freedom. Though she would be forced by her master to oppose them if they pressed further into the ziggurat, she pleaded with them to do so nonetheless, and gave them a detailed account of the scant forces at the sultan’s disposal. Just a handful of salamanders remained, she said. Many more lay beyond the portal to Jiese (which had somehow opened here during the Great Eclipse) but they were too far away to be of assistance. Kuyler had brought only a small expeditionary force, and was satisfied to merely burn this new word for now, while he lazily toyed with the prospect of invasion. Liesi warned them that there were human captives in pit to the west, and many fire walls between them and the sultan. “The only tactic Kuyler will use is to threaten these captives if you threaten him. Otherwise, he is quite stupid.”

They thanked her for her advice, and she left before Kuyler could notice she was gone.

They headed west to rescue the captives.

End of Session

Okay, that's a weird frikkin' song.

Also, teaboarding is *horrific*! Holy cripes.

RangerWickett said:

Okay, that's a weird frikkin' song.

Click to expand...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was a very weird guy. (Or at least, he pretended to be.)

RangerWickett said:

Also, teaboarding is *horrific*! Holy cripes.

Click to expand...

Yes. It was all the more horrific when accompanied with gargling sound effects. Sound effects also accompanied the trepanning too.

It's also worth noting that if anyone was in love with that salamander, they would now have fallen out of love with it, thanks to the effects of the cursed tea.

Session 66, Part One - Reconciliation

• Heading west, Uru assassinated the salamander guarding the prisoners. He checked the double doors behind him. They were very hot; hotter, even, than the rest of this unbearably hot brass furnace.
• Once the others had gathered around ready to strike, Uru had his ghost children open the doors. There was a wall of fire right on the other side and it blasted out into the corridor. The others leapt back out of harm’s way. Uru slipped through and arrived on the other side: a huge chamber like the one he remembered from the Ziggurat of Apet, but without the rainbow bridges: everything was turned to brass. The was a huge thirty foot pit at the bottom of which he could see Risuri prisoners.
• On the far side was another salamander, preparing to strike any intruders with a quiver of obsidian javellins. Uru shot it, but it did not die. Leon dispelled the wall, then created a dimension door on the far side. Rumdoom jumped through it and fell flat on his face again! Korrigan stepped through, swiped at the salamander and manoeuvred it into the pit where it perished. Sadly, it struck and injured a handful of the prisoners when it fell.
• Uriel shaped a magical ladder for the able-bodied. Leon created more portals to help the rest. After they had been provided with healing, and reassured that they were now safe, the unit had Rumdoom’s retinue guide them to the surface.
• Beyond another firewall, they found a map room. Sultan Kuyler had placed firegem figurines on shelves throughout the room, presumably for use in conducting an invasion campaign. Uriel took the figures, then they retraced their steps and pressed on through the ziggurat dispelling firewalls as they went. As these walls were created with wish spells, this was difficult, draining work.
• After a while, they found a spot where Liesi had been order to stand. She had taken the precaution of closing her eyes, and telepathically explained that this was in order to sidestep Kuyler’s order to warn him of any intruders she saw.
• Beyond Liesi, they took down another firewall. Harsh laughter could be heard from the west. Uru headed east, where Uriel said he could expect to find a portal chamber. Sure enough, there it was: a portal to Jiese – radiating even more heat than the firewalls. It was guarded by two salamander dervishes.
• Unnoticed, Uru slipped away and headed west. The source of laughter turned out to be Kuyler and three of his viziers. They were having great fun. Kulyer had had himself magically shrunk to human size, and now sat in a human (or, rather, orc-sized) ‘throne’, swigging from Liesi’s magical bottle.
• Uriel asked if Korrigan felt obligated to talk first. “Not necessarily obligated,” said Korrigan. “It’s just the way I like to do things.” At that, he strode off, entered the throne room and politely challenged Kuyler. He explained that he was the King of Risur and that Kuyler was intruding on his territory. The salamanders responded with even more laughter and Kuyler gave a shout for Liesi. She sprang into action, flying towards her master, but Uriel was prepared for her. He used the powerful Staff of the Hierophant to hold her fast in mid-air. “We’ve got about thirty seconds!” he warned.
• Uru shot a web over Kuyler’s mouth. He struggled to remove it, while his viziers shot at Uru with ruby beams. They missed. Once he had freed himself from the webbing, Kuyler entered combat. Even in his reduced state, he was very dangerous, wielding an incandescent magical halberd and supported by a variety of contingent wishes. But the unit worked well together. Rumdoom dropped the viziers one by one; Gupta took on tiger form. The two dervishes from the portal room responded to the noise. Leon created an illusory firewall – which wasn’t the best choice, but did at least prevent them from attacking at range.
• They focused fire on Kuyler and Gupta dropped him with her powerful claws before Liesi finally won free of Uriel’s magic.
• Korrigan demanded that the dervishes surrender. When they refused, they were dispatched, though one was kept alive to take a warning back to Jiese.
• Wresting the efreet bottle from Kulyer, they asked Liesi if she could close the portal. She told them that one of Kuyler’s contingent wishes prevented her from granting a wish to whoever won or stole the bottle, but that this magic would lapse in a month or so.
• Grateful to her for her aid, they simply handed her the bottle. Liesi was overjoyed and, free to act as she chose for the first time in an aeon, she closed the portal for them before they all headed outside.
• There, Liesi looked up at the heavens and said she would find somewhere to live ‘up there’. “Send us a postcard,” said Korrigan. “Best wishes,” said Uru. Then she bid them farewell and vanished.
• Korrigan buried the entrance to the ziggurat in stone, using his rites of rulership.
• The Ash Wolf and his pack waited for them at the edge of ever-burning forest. The Ash Wolf said he owed them two boons: one for taking vengeance against the salamanders; one for helping him see the error of his ways. For the first boon, he offered to aid Risur in battle at some point during the next year. He could fight anywhere, even outside Risur, but would be stronger on Risuri soil, and at his strongest in the forests. For the second boon, he offered to tell any one of the unit how to find the perfect wife and lover. The others deferred to Korrigan who thought he might be just about ready to get back in the dating game. The Ash Wolf told him to ‘travel to the far side of Av and speak with the ghost woman there; you will know the mate she brings you’. Korrigan thanked the Ash Wolf and then pressed the titan to confirm that he would now withdraw his pack and resume his slumbers. The Ash Wolf agreed.

Session 66, Part Two - Ride Out And Meet Them

• Back in Bole, Shaiaila Lundquist gave them reluctant props for handling the Ash Wolf, but was very unhappy that their ranger guides had been killed. “They had families, you know.” She told them that her officers, whom she had dispatched to Favela to arrest Katlin Eisner, reported that she was under arrest and that they had stayed on in Favela to oversee matters there. All families with children had already been evacuated. “That still leaves many children who have already disappeared,” said Korrigan, who decided that dealing with Granny Allswell would be their next mission.
• Quratulain needed a refit. Korrigan used his healing hands to remove the affliction on her armour, but it had already been so badly damaged that it was now to brittle to function properly. Alden Wondermaker was only too happy to oblige – but it would take him a couple of days to arrive, as he had a surprise in store for Uru (having put into practice something they had theorised about months ago). They needed time to rest and prepare anyway.
• Uriel took advantage of the clear skies over Bole, and attempted a Skyseer vision, wondering if such a thing was even possible, given the astrological changes. He sought guidance on the matter of how to handle Granny Allswell. This is what he saw:
  In a haunted house, two mice try to attack a snake, and are killed. The house has hollow walls. Chiselling the brickwork reveals more snakes. The snakes are pregnant and give birth to human children. Sacrificing the children to a pot-bellied pig chained to a post in the kitchen causes the spirits to depart and the house is no longer haunted.

• Two days later, Alden Wondermaker arrived, in ‘gentleman’ form. With him was a whole team of mechanics, who proceeded to unload the parts of a huge construct that took up four separate train cars. This was Wondermaker’s Titan Buster – a piloted steamsuit designed to be able to penetrate the defences of a fey titan. Uru helped to put it together and familiarised himself with the controls. He christened it Big Jack. Kai made him promise to give him a ride. Big Jack was incredibly strong and tough, could issue blasts of steam at range, cover a huge distances without refuelling, and was armed with a fey-foe hammer and a titanbiter axe. Uru had been worried about his ability to contribute to combat against a titan (as finding weak spots on a target that size wasn’t easy); but now his worries were over.
• Wondermaker supplied Quratulain with new armour. (He had several sets.) This one was augmented with fire resistance and charms to prevent polymorph or any other spells that would alter the armour’s intrinsic nature. Quratulain thanked him and he said it was “my pleasure, but do try to be more careful this time”. Quratulain got the impression that he was more concerned for her than the armour.
• Word came from the west. The rampaging Father of Thunder had taken a sudden, alarmingly direct turn towards Bole. Korrigan decided to change targets and headed east to meet him. On the way, they came across rumours of a ‘band of armoured elven warriors’ bivouacked in field where the forest met the plains. They investigated and were greeted as they approached by friendly hounds who recognised their scent. The Great Hunt was here! They were welcomed enthusiastically by Riffian who told them of the Hunt’s plans to wrangle as many of the Father of Thunder’s offspring as they could, for use as steeds. He showed them some they had captured already –less than a month old and already big enough to be ridden. Riffian’s advice for getting close enough to subdue the titan (who was surrounded by a mile-wide herd) was to ride in disguised under bison hides, while he and his men distracted the herd. It would take a day or two to capture, skin and cure enough hides, if the unit helped the hunt to do so.
• Uru began to think about ways to get Big Jack into combat.
• Uriel spent another night under the stars and received the following vision about the Father of Thunder:

The head of a statue is deaf and blind. It cannot be reasoned with. The statue blocks a path to an orchard, but will not move aside for the hungry travellers. They take hammers to it. This is very hard work, but when one leg is all but broken, the head springs to life and steps aside. Then it resumes its place, blocking the path. Travellers coming in the other direction brew cider and offer it to the statue. The statue accepts the offering, but still won’t step aside. So the travellers push it and, drunk, it topples over, out of their way.

Session 66, Part Three – Unfinished Business

Researches conducted throughout their time in Bole enabled Uriel to identify at first just four of the remaining five planes: there was Jiese, of course, still in place as the plane of fire with a Cunning aspect; Illocus, the new plane of time with an Expression aspect, causing arguments to build and cascade over time – this plane forming a ring around Fourmyle; Mojang was an unlikely plane of life with Craft and Artifice aspects and a faintly purple surface (which Uriel felt sure he had once caught a glimpse of during a schism on Axis Island); and Perlocus, a plane of air with a heavy Speech aspect, causing words to carry more weight. It was only later that Uriel would finally identify the lingering energies of Av and come to the conclusion that, although no longer visible as part of the ‘solar system’ (for want of a better term), the erstwhile plane of life was still linked to Lanjyr, though now as the plane of death. It would take further, more involved research to find out where Av had gone.

Meanwhile, Rumdoom received news from his supporters in Flint. They had activated the aboleth communication device, and reattuned the Linked Portal with their counterparts in Trekhom, but were waiting for Rumdoom to return before taking further action. Korrigan only found out about this when he noticed Rumdoom brooding in preparation for their departure from Bole to deal with the Father of Thunder. Rumdoom had not shared his predicament, as he did not want to abandon the unit in such a desperate hour. Once he was encouraged to open up, Korrigan cut him loose – he could not expect Rumdoom to abandon the opportunity to rescue his wife (by either contacting the aboleth or pursuing Grandis Kamanov). Rumdoom considered his position for a while, and whether to turn down Korrigan’s offer, still unhappy at the idea of abandoning the unit, but in the end decided to return to Flint and do whatever he could to help Hildegaard.

Session 67, Part One – Party Animal

Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNcmGjNW6c


Please bless our land, o Father,
Give rains and summers warm.
Grant much in fall, o Father
And bless with every horn.
Please bless our herds, o Father,
That they may graze our fields.
Please bless our home, o Father,
And bless our evening meal.
- Prayer to the Father of Thunder

The Father of Thunder stood fifty feet tall at the shoulder, with horns jutting and curling and curving out of his back and head and shoulders in myriad odd angles. His mere presence sired children in female herd animals – horses, cows, sheep, and more – and those children possessed supernatural speed, might, and resilience. Harvested grains he set his gaze upon fermented into alcoholic silage. Massive herds surrounded him and followed him wherever he went. The huge, horned beast loved nothing more than getting drunk and tromping across the countryside in a constant celebration.

His bacchanalia was ruining Risur’s ability to grow crops and raise livestock, not to mention he occasionally stampeded through towns, crushing buildings under his hooves. Until now he had stayed in the sparsley populated regions of the Weftlands, but now he was headed towards Bole, tempted by its whisky distilleries and breweries.

At ‘dawn’, while the Father of Thunder snoozed at the epicentre of his gigantic herd, the unit and the Great Hunt carefully picked their way through the slumbering lesser beasts towards him, each of them disguised with a cured bison skin. Leon augmented their disguise with an illusion of movement elsewhere in the herd to obscure their evident, purposeful triangulation.

They hoped to come within striking distance of the titan – who formed an immense, spikey hummock against the horizon – a horizon limned, not by the light of Vona but by the slightly-less-black smear of the Gyre. But Uriel, perhaps a little too impatient, and not versed in the ways of stealth (not one of this prior incarnations had been deft in this regard) pressed his mount forward just a little too quickly, causing the herd about him to stir.

At once, the gigantic bison-gazelle-rhinoceros twitched an ear, raised his head, gave a snort, and heaved himself upright. He called down a poorly aimed lightning bolt in their general direction, which missed but spooked their horses and the herd. The Father of Thunder was spooked too, and turned to flee. The unit spurred their horses at once, to cover the distance before the titan hit his full stride; a path cleared for each one of them by members of the Great Hunt, with Riffian riding just ahead of Korrigan. Now that the titan was awake, Korrigan felt a familiar surge of power, as the Rites of Rulership granted him the strength to oppose the titan.

But he was determined to try to speak to the titan first and, having been borne closer by his steed, took to the air to fly alongside the titan’s massive head. His fly speed wasn’t fast enough, and he began to fall away at once. Gupta sought to slow the titan down, and got half-way through a Question, when a bolt of lightning struck her in response and cut her off mid-sentence. Korrigan yelled his diplomatic words in the titan’s ear. Its eye rolled towards him and it snorted in defiance, kicking out at those who had drawn closest – winding Uriel and sending Gupta flying off her horse to land in the herd –and trying to gore Korrigan with a sideways sweep of its horns. He avoided the blow but, empowered by the ancient rites of Risur, took hold of the titan and tried to wrestle him down. The Father of Thunder proved too strong to ground, but Korrigan slowed him long enough for the others to catch up.

Quratulain rode under the titan and calculated all she could about him; she sought to learn what motivated his rampage, but found it was nothing as noble as vengeance – only booze and females! She drew her pistols and took steady aim at the titan’s enormous balls.

Wielding the Book of Kelland, Leon tried to talk to the titan too, and he was also cut off by a lightning bolt. It shot wide, as Leon was protected by the Book of Kelland: if he did not attack, then the titan could not attack him. “No time to talk,” said the titan. “I’m having too much fun!” Then the Father of Thunder bucked and threw Korrigan off. Korrigan fell along his back and grabbed on close to his rear end.

As the herd rumbled over her, the sorely injured Gupta shivered and shook and was suddenly whole again (thanks to her old friend Wolfgang); Uriel used his druidic powers to summon a great swarm of flies to beset the titan; Leon teleported himself and Gupta back onto their horses; Gupta used Fourmyle Jaunting to bring herself even close to the titan and gain insights as to how best to harm him. Then Uriel rode alongside her and plucked her up telekinetically to ride on his horse behind him.

As the Father of Thunder rumbled forward, his herd parted before an enormous humanoid figure that appeared up ahead, striding to intercept the titan on legs so huge it could ignore the herd around it. This was Uru, in Big Jack, hurling messenger wind abuse at the others for screwing up their approach. As he drew closer to the titan, though, he realised that his plan to knock it over with his fey-foe hammer was rather ambitious: Gigantic though it was, the titan-buster was, nonetheless, dwarfed by the titan who charged gamely on and crashed into it full force, picking the steam-suit up and carrying it along on its horns. Big Jack then struck the titan an enormous blow, slicing through his hide with his titan-biter axe.

First blood!

Until now, Leon had relied on the protection of the Book of Kelland, but now he joined the fray with a curse which slowed the titan down again. He was repaid with a lightning bolt that struck true this time, and caused his tiefling curse to burn the titan in return.

While one version of Korrigan clung on, another appeared in mid-air, flying free, and ordered Quratulain to fire. She did so, unloading her armour-piercing bullets into titan’s testicles. Incredibly, Korrigan found that his Rites of Rulership extended to attacks he ordained, allowing Quratulain to match the titan as he might have done.

The Father of Thunder roared in agony and outrage. He used Big Jack as a kind of brake mechanism, ramming him into the earth and performing a sudden volte-face, his hooves carving grooves in the earth and a swathe through his herd. Now at a stand-still he unleashed a furious bellow that shook Big Jack, Gupta and Quratulain and blew the two women off their feet, to be trampled by the herd.

Uru struggled with levers and buttons, and caused the steam suit to clamber clumsily to its feet. Uriel once again rescued Gupta and placed her on the back of his horse. Then he shouted encouragement to Uru, who yanked another lever and struck again, hacking at the titan’s foreleg.

Quratulain stood and planted her feet to avoid being knocked down again. Her armour was strong enough to protect her from being trampled, but she could still be bowled over. Leon saw the problem and teleported her onto his horse. Then he laid an even more terrible curse on the Father of Thunder, and was subject to another lightning strike. Now Leon was badly hurt, but Korrigan (the newcomer, flying through the air) granted him some healing.

The Father of Thunder then gored Big Jack yet again. By now, pistons were popping and gears were screaming and Uru was concerned for his new toy. Having knocked away his nearest threat, the titan wheeled again, turning back the way he faced before, and lashed out with a hoof at Leon and Quratulain. Leon was hit, but Quratulain ducked and returned fire, to devastating effect:

With an almighty roar, the Father of Thunder tripped and fell, and the impact ripped the earth apart, causing fissures and chasms to open up in all directions, as far as the eye could see. Herd animals leapt over or plunged into them, screaming. The unit and the Great Hunt struggled to remain mounted and steer their mounts away from peril, or goad them over.

Now the titan was down, Big Jack attacked him again and again. Lightning struck and, even at centre of the construct, Uru found himself rattled and injured.

Leon could sense that the titan had freed himself from his curse, so he laid on another, aided by Gupta’s timely advice.

The original Korrigan, who had been clinging onto the titan, now did all he could to hold him down, and succeeded! The titan struggled desperately to get up, but could not break free of the king’s grip. Quratulain fired again, and the Father of Thunder bellowed in anger, causing an almighty tornado to form around him. Intense winds picked up what remained of his herd, and bleating cows begin to spiral through the air. Quratulain and Leon were sucked into the centre of the storm and thrown up and out to spin uncontrollably. Big Jack was unaffected; both Korrigans vanished; Gupta clung to the saddle behind Uriel; Uriel invoked righteous might through the Staff of the Hierophant and he too held firm.

Freed from the grip of the king, the Father of Thunder took the opportunity to stand once again and fled across the shattered terrain of the weftlands.

I love PCs who try talking to their enemies. Honestly I do. But every once in a while, an enemy should be able to shut them up by hitting them with a god d-mned bolt of lightning.

Session 67, Part Two – Bibulous! Miraculous! Lubricious!

When Korrigan reappeared he was sorely disappointed to see the almost vanquished titan disappearing off into the distance: if he hadn’t had to vanish, he might have been able to keep the titan pinned down! By now Uru had taken off after him, pushing his construct into the ‘red line’ on its pressure indicator, and easily leaping over the chasms created by the titan’s fall. He had done so at the urging of Uriel, who said he had a plan. “Keep him moving, and steer him towards that gorge we saw earlier.”

The gorge in question was the inevitable route for the Father of Thunder and his herd, if it headed towards Bole by the easiest route. The unit had considered ambushing him there, but decided the terrain was too tight. Uriel now declared his intention to invoke a mad plan to get the fey titan drunk, as his skyseer vision, all the ancient texts (and the Book of Kelland) suggested.

Uru had already had this idea earlier, only for it to be dismissed, and now testily questioned what had changed. What had changed was Uriel’s level of preparedness - not desperation exactly, but a willingness to make a substantial sacrifice* to obtain what they needed: epic amounts of booze! (Lack of which was the deciding factor when they dismissed the plan earlier.)

“You plan to fight him all over again?” asked Riffian, astonished – reminding the unit that the titan’s wounds would heal quickly. Indeed they did, but there was no point trying to catch the titan before this happened. They put their faith in Uriel, and Uriel put his faith in Triegenes…

Leon teleported them to the gorge, where Korrigan raised a dam across the river, causing a great lake to form quickly. Uriel channelled his incarnation Cardinal Tadeo, and fervently prayed to Triegenes for a miracle: to turn the gathering waters of the Delve into strong beer, with a hoppy aroma delicious enough to draw the titan.

Uriel must have earned Triegene’s favour, as the transformation worked! Before them stretched a vast lake of booze. (Luckily, Rumdoom wasn’t present to make a dent in it before the titan arrived.)

And arrive he did. Uru reported a sudden change of tack, and before long, the Father of Thunder was dipping his head eagerly into the foaming surface. The unit and the Great Hunt kept their distance. Uriel moved from one ally to the next, bestowing upon them the healing powers of another incarnation, Tadeas, enabling them to fight the titan for a second time in one day. Uru stopped chasing and worked on fixing up his battered construct, and generating enough power for one last assault. He had plenty of time to do so: once the Father of Thunder had satisfied himself that the coast was clear, he began to drink, and did not stop until the beer thinned to clear water. This took well over an hour!

Then he raised his head, stumbled back and bellowed, “Down in one!”

The cry was prescient, for at that moment, Big Jack stomped through his herd and struck him with his fey-foe hammer – a blow well-placed and hard enough to topple the drunken titan onto his side.

Then the others were on him. Korrigan, rejuvenated, grabbed the titan by his horns and held him down in a grip so firm he could not rise – too disoriented by the lake of booze to co-ordinate himself.

Meanwhile, Big Jack, Quratulain and Uriel – who now channelled Jannick, the dragonslayer – whaled on the felled bovine until he cried out in submission:

“Enough! You party poopers! If you weren’t enjoying yourselves, why didn’t you just say so?”

Having defeated the titan, they might have simply insisted he return to his slumber - walk out into the wilderness, pull a hillside over himself, and grumpily take a nap for a few centuries. But they decided to try and barter with him, as this has worked so well with the Ash Wolf. Like a rowdy neighbour, he agreed to temper his parties and stay away from farmland (particularly farmland marked in the appropriate way, with fey sigils and lightning bolts). He demanded monthly offerings of alcohol – several hundred gallons at least.

There were corn druids all over the weftlands. The king would ordain the formation of a new druidic circle dedicated to satisfying the Father of Thunder’s thirst. (Perhaps they could call it ‘The Big Round’?)

Pushing his luck, the titan asked to have sex with Gupta and Quratulain, promising them mighty children.

Everyone looked at Gupta to see if she was amenable. She shook her head and said that the titan was not her type. “He stinks of beer.” (No one bothered to check if Quratulain was up for it. She remained silent, but her fingers twitched as if reaching for her guns.)

It was left to Leon to dissuade the titan. Gupta took Leon aside to offer Leon ‘very specific advice as to what I will do to you if the negotiation fails’…

On behalf of the ladies present, Leon politely declined to meet this second request, and then demanded to know what the Father of Thunder offered in return for his freedom.

First, he promised to ride into battle to defend the weftlands against any invasion. Second, he would use his storms and his manure to bless the crops of Risur. For the next year, everyone who ate from those crops would be blessed with enhanced vigour and health – a very useful boon in the event of a potential war.

Finally, he would grant one of the king’s retinue ‘unmatched virility, with facial hair to match’. Gupta accepted this boon as compensation for the earlier affront, figuring at least one of her forms would benefit from the facial hair. (Later, she discovered that a welcome corollary of this boon was the ability to strike those who offended her with a lightning bolt, much like the Father of Thunder had done, albeit only once a day.)

With the agreement made, they returned to Bole. (As they went, Uriel began to wonder if it really was Triegenes who had answered his prayer, or if the power hadn’t come from within. …)

End of Session

*4XP! Sufficient to pay for one permanent character advancement.


DM’s Notes

If anyone is interested, I based the voice of the Father of Thunder on Bert, Maria Bamford’s pug in the sitcom Lady Dynamite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wP5u533DmA

Also – we didn’t actually play out the second combat in full, we just narrated it. Once the titan had had his effective level reduced, victory was a foregone conclusion (as the unit had almost won when he was at full strength). Thanks to the Blood of Ostea, character death was out of the question, so it seemed like an unnecessary slog to run the second fight once the group had established a firm plan (and worked out how to get themselves back to full health too). It still felt satisfying, because it wasn't hand-waved and everyone got to pitch in ideas as to how their character would contribute.

PS. @RangerWickett - What happens to the Great Hunt now? Do they show up again?

I don't think we use the Great Hunt after this point. I considered having them show up mind controlled in the first scene of adventure 13, but I didn't have a good idea for it.

Maybe we could have presented them as allies to do something in Flint in that adventure.