Another Runic Story Hour: Kingdoms of Kalamar in The Dream

[Rune]

The Characters in Session 2:

Hrunting (Commoner2/Barbarian1) is an old, blind Fhokki man, who has a tendency to display intense flashes of fury and senility. Despite senility and blindness, Hrunting has a remarkable ability to hear damn near everything and is really very intimidating with his spiked scale armor and his massive scythe.

Dakken Hruntingsson (Cleric of the Battle Rager1) is the son of Hrunting. He has been sent by his church to partake in glorious battle and has brought his father along. Dakken compliments his massive battle axe with an equally massive war mace and spikes on his armor.

Faerbast Gozer (Expert1/Rogue1) is a foul-mouthed little gnome who hails from the high seas, as he tells it. A cabin-boy to a ship recently lost in a wager, the little gnome has found himself unemployed and somewhat unemployable. He wears an eyepatch over his left eye for stylistic purposes and a hook over his right hand, for the same reason. In battle, he is quick to drop the hook, which is fastened to his sleeve by a leather strap, and flip up the eyepatch, creating an amusing image of a child playing "pretend."

Voice of the Forest (Elf Warrior1/Ranger1) is, like all elves, little more in appearance than a walking twig. She has bronzed (and tattooed) skin and unkempt black hair, interwoven with feathers, leaves, beads, and bones. A graceful fluidity of motion brings to mind that of a cat, as do the elven cat-eyes that shine eerily in the dark. Voice of the Forest can speak, but no one in the party knows her language, so communication is limited to gestures and imitations of sound.

Las'Parida Heran (Aristocrat1/Sorceror1) was once a member of the Kalamaran lower aristocracy until a rivalry with another house forced her into a life of hiding on the run nearly a decade ago. Since that time, Las'Parida has developed an interest in alchemy that has coincided with an awakening of sorcery in her middle-aged blood. She is a sharp-witted thinker and has the dubious honor of being the only member of the party with any degree of literacy--and that is only in the High Kalamaran tongue.

 

[Rune]

Session 2

The trio of mercenaries creeps forward through the gloomy shadows that skitter away from Dakken's torchlight and the inhuman scream echoes off of the walls around them, crawling through the cells and spaces in the complex and washing around the party, distorting and multiplying. The group advances warily, weapons freed of constraints and muscles tense; they are expecting trouble.

A rattling sound joins the shrieking and, as the party twists around the corner, they can see the pale green cat-eyes of an elf, brilliant in the dim torchlight. The elf shakes the iron bars of its prison cell violently, but is unable to budge them--not surprisingly; the elf looks like a walking twig. She (if it is, indeed, female, as it appears) strains against the bars with the graceful toned muscles of a mountain cat, taut beneath bronzed skin laced with intricate tattoos. Her dark hair is wild; it is interwoven with leaves, feathers, bones, and beads.

Her speech consists of chirps and clicks; no one can make any sense of it. Nevertheless, Faerbast steps up to the iron lock and begins to prod at it with a set of lock-picks, all the while trading insults with the "Old Man," who has embarked on a retelling of a childhood trauma--the one that resulted in the loss of his sight--that involved the sacking of his family's keep by ice giants.

"No, father, I don't remember that. You were six," Dakken gently reminds him for the first time that day, as he draws crude figures in the dust of the floor, in an effort to communicate with the bewildered twig-person.

The elf clearly has something to say; she keeps gesturing wildly about something, presumably related to the gnome's lock-picks. In frustration, she points at Hrunting and imitates an oft-repeated phrase: "Old Man."

When the sense of shock in the area subsides, the iron lock clicks and the door swings open. At that precise moment, Dakken catches sight of something glistening in his torchlight, just out of reach in the hallway floor. It is the key to the locked cell, as the elf's annoyed gestures seem to confirm; presumably, one of the guards dropped it as they fled from the island.

Dakken flings the key down the hallway in anger, but the spry little gnome is quick to retrieve it and add it to a growing collection of miscellaneous keys.

The shrieking stops.

Hrunting is rambling on about flowers, but his rambling is not as random as it appears. The smell of flowers does linger upon the air. Around a bend in the corridor, they see why. Through an open door, a storeroom displays a burst open crate of strange dark pink flowers. A slumbering middle-aged woman, obviously Kalamaran, lies across the flowers, halfway inside the crate.

Faerbast runs up to the flowers and begins to sniff them, in an effort to identify them. He is interrupted by unconsciousness. The twig-person pulls the gnome from the flowers and he comes to in a few seconds. The woman is then pulled from the flowers; it is several moments before she regains consciousness. In the meantime, the elf equips itself with some exotic swords, an unusually designed shortbow, and some odd studded leather armor that is in the room. As the armor is a perfect fit, it is a safe bet that this is the elf's own equipment, confiscated upon incarceration. Even the arrows in the pelt-quiver are of an unusual design; one wonders how they could ever ride the air.

The party regrets reviving the Kalamaran woman, Las'Parida Heran, almost immediately. She is snappish and irritable, quick-tempered and volatile. Even so, they continue on their mission, ignoring, all the while, her bickering and complaints in the Merchant's Tongue. She particularly objects to the gnome's foul language. Fortunately, she cannot speak a word of Fhokki and can make no sense of Hrunting's ramblings, nor can she make sense of the twig-person's random refrain of "Old Man."

The party pushes on and the shrieking starts up again, this time quite near. Its source is soon evident; in a cell littered with bleached bones, two massive fungal entities scream at the intruders. Again, Faerbast is the first to advance and reaches out to touch one of the fungal masses. When it shrinks away from his outstretched hand, he revises his strategy and retreats from the area.

The Dream twists as sorcery rips through it; a streak of crimson light arcs into the nearer fungus and the dream rips it apart, showering the room with spores, each screaming tiny, individual, little shrieks that quickly fade away. The two Fhokki take up the attack; the blind man's scythe tears through the fungi as the war mace of the clerical initiate pulverizes the resulting fragments. The two make quite an impressive fighting team and the fungi are soon silenced.

When the shrieking has been cut off, a new sound can be heard: the faint sounds of some young animals yelping. Further investigation reveals another storeroom of some sort, this one with a closed door on the other side, in which a ripped bag of dried food lies in the floor, its contents spilled and cleared away from a cage in the center of the room by the inhabitants of that cage--four bear-cubs, with winged forearms and the heads of owls. Multiple heads of owls. Only one of the creatures has but a single head; two each have two and the other has three!

Dakken wrests Las'Parida's spear from her grasp and begins to thrust it inside the cage, in an effort to kill the abominations, but they manage to writhe out of the way of the piercing blade.

Hrunting takes a more direct approach and swings his scythe at the cage, but succeeds only in destroying the latch and freeing the creatures, which rush to the spilled food and out of the room as quickly as they are capable.

In the meantime, Faerbast continues down the hallway, followed by the elf.

As the owl-bear-cub-creatures rush out of the room, Dakken manages to get a good swing in with his axe and cuts through the single-headed beast, leaving it dying on the floor as he gives chase to the others, which run down the snaking hallway toward the entrance.

Las'Parida retrieves her spear and quickly runs down the corridor after the gnome and the elf, leaving the old man to fumble blindly after his son.

Then, mortality catches up with the wounded cub in the storeroom and The Dream reacts; the walls crumble and the hallway twists away from reality--it twists around so that its floor is sometimes above and sometimes below where it should be, but gravity consistently adheres to the floor. Most unnerving, however, is the realization that, despite the fact that they have been walking away from each other, the two split sections of the party run into each other at the entrance to the prisons.

The general opinion is that it is time to leave, but there is one more door to be opened, first. And it is jammed. Dakken pounds on it with his heavy mace, but it does not budge. Oddly, its acoustics are phenomenal. The Fhokki's assault on the door produces a sound not unlike a large war-drum. Continued musical enlightenment is cut short, however, when the door bursts open in a hail of wooden splinters and thousands of...bunnies...hop out of a hideously pink room and flee from the scene (occasionally tripping one of the party-members in the process).

One single, small cage lies in fragments in the center of the room. Odd. The faintest trace of an uncomfortably overwhelming feeling of ugency lingers in the room, even after it has escaped with the swarm of bunnies. A concept has been left behind, as if it has been shared by a strange hive mind collective of the rabbits and has left its mark on the hideous walls. Late.

Whatever this could mean is beyond the comprehension of the party, but it certainly feels very important.

Hrunting breaks the tense silence: "There's enough food for the whole village for a month running around in here. Do you remember when the food ran out and we had to eat the neighbor's son?"

"No, father, that never happened," comes Dakken's patient response.

Now it is time for the group to return to the ballroom, above. The Kalamaran woman seems to be very fascinated with the sigils in the marble floor; but the marble model holds more interest for those who have already been here. A hole has been carved into the side of the ship, and it is displayed at an angle that clearly represents the act of sinking into the ocean.

Humanoid shadows pass by the doorway and the gnome slips forward to investigate. Outside, he can see the vague outline of a cub passing through the foliage as he reaches toward the broken door in an effort to pull it closed. He abandons the attempt when he sees something move out of the corner of his eye and returns to the center of the massive room.

Faerbast reports, "I saw the owl-bears."

Hrunting asks how they could have gotten up here and Faerbast, flustered, replies, "They have heads. More than one. They're magic," by way of explanation.

Dakken suggests that the group searches outside of the mansion for the owners of the elusive humanoid shadows, but the gnome objects, recalling the wise words of one of his relatives, which espoused the philosophy that one need not pursue troubles, for "troubles will find you."

Hrunting is confused. "Did you say bubbles will bind you?"

In the end, the group does scout out the perimeter of the mansion, as well as the surrounding woods, but finds nothing. Ultimately, they take shelter in the building and slumber, in shifts, until shortly before dawn.

744 YND, 16 Siege-hold, Pelsday.
Currently, a sunny, autumn day in the Season of Colors

In the morning, the group catches the first garbage barge sent to the island and discovers, to their dismay, that its course is not a direct one. The massive heap of floating refuse travels from one island to the next, on unknown business.

The group takes the opportunity to discuss their how they should report to Guard Captain Wiuxiu, unsure if their efforts have been worthwhile.

Their reverie is broken when the barge suffers a forceful hit. And another. The crew is rushing to the side of the barge and pointing into the waters at a dark form racing beneath the waves away from the barge. Abruptly, it turns and heads toward the garbage barge, once again.

The barge rocks tremendously as the dark shape slams into it, but all is still relatively stable until the tentacles start to creep up over the side.

 

[drunkadelic]

Just giving Rune an obligatory <bump>.

Actually, I'd also like to say that I'm working on putting up our PCs in the rogues gallery. For those that didn't know, I play Dakken in this game. Hope to see you all soon. (hehehe weekend game.... )

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Nice

Couple questions... does Hrunting's character play that way, or is that writer's embellishment? I like the idea of role-playing a senile old man. Very different from the norm.

Also... how about the twiggy elf? Does the player speak with the other players... or role-play the language barrier. That could make for some interesting gaming sessions!

I like it... keep it coming!

 

[Rune]

I ran Hrunting in session 1, because the player couldn't make it, but in session 2, that is the way the player ran him. I did not embellish; in fact, I toned down the antics of Hrunting and Faerbast, in particular.

The player of the elf did role-play the language barrier well. Throughout the game, he kept repeating the phrase, "Old Man." It was great! I was personally having a lot of fun with it; I'm pretty infamous for playing mute characters (by which, I mean that I've done so twice), so I have some familiarity with the issue.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Congrats on having good roleplayers, and for having the ability to spin their talents into an entertaining tale. Keep up the good work!

 

[Rune]

I'll be sure to pass the praise along! I'm working on typing up sessions 3 & 4, right now, though!

 

[Rune]

Session 3

As the sleek shape of the aquatic attacker surfaces, ten tentacles slide up the side of the barge, grasping for the crewmen and successfully dragging three under the waves, from which they never resurface.

Six more crewmen run to pick up harpoons and hurl them at the monstrosity, but their efforts are futile. They cannot hit the creature. Our brave mercenaries are quick to react to the threat and spring into action.

The elf quickly draws back her shortbow and lodges an arrow in one of the tentacles; a feat that she duplicates a few seconds later. Taking a cue from the elf, Las'Parida sends a light crossbow bolt arcing out to sea and retreats to the center of the barge to begin the workings of a spell. In a characteristically bold, but foolish gambit, Faerbast drops his hook and cracks his whip at the creature in a futile effort to hold it at bay, shouting, "Down, foul beast!"

Dakken hefts his mighty axe, praying for the divine divine blessing of Falkker. He issuccessful in suppressing the resulting reality shift and The Dream does not react. Hrunting works himself into a blind rage as he bellows out, "I hope yer hungry, boy. We're havin' octapussy fer dinner, tonight!" and swings his mighty scythe over the edge of the barge, connecting with nothing.

The creature jets away again, for a brief moment, then returns to slam into the barge once again. This time, the tentacles grasp at the side of the boat, but cannot find enough purchase to capsize the vessel.

The crewmen pull back their harpoons and launch them again, but they are still ineffective. The Kalamaran woman casts her spell; a ray of frosty magic shoots from her outstretched hands, but it slips through the writhing knot of tentacles and hits nothing. The Dream reacts to the casting by layering the deck of the garbage barge with a slick sheet of ice.

In order to keep his balance, the gnomish seaman wraps his whip around one of the spikes on Dakken's armor. The massive warrior-priest gives the whip a great tug and sends the poor wee one skidding beneath the Fhokki's legs, toward the edge of the barge, and out to sea. Despite his experience as a cabin boy, the little gnome cannot swim; he clings to his whip with a fervor that is uncanny in one so young...ish-looking. This creates the impression that Dakken is fishing, using the gnome as bait. The gnome's hook only helps to foster the illusion.

The Fhokki's raging father puts an end to all of the festivities by lodging his scythe in the vital organs of the sea monster, which slowly slides off of the end of the blade and drops into the depths of the Reanaarian Bay, alive, but unconscious.

Guard Captain Wiuxiu is waiting for the mercenaries at the docks as they arrive. He seems somewhat distressed to see that the party has acquired two additional members, but quickly puts on a cheerful, if somewhat expectant, face. He muses as the group relates their findings and is downright disgruntled when Las'Parida tells him, in no uncertain terms, that she will need to see a copy of the contract he presents to her translated in High Kalamaran before she, or the elf, will sign it. He informs her regretfully that she will have to wait; the translation will not be available for a few days, as a translator will have to be procured. She assents.

The group heads to the inn that is to serve as their base of operations (and supports a rather decent ale-house, incidentally) and notes that the a red-headed halfling takes up most of the common room with his bawdy, brave, and highly improbable tales of personal glory and accomplishment. At a table across the room, a large group of halflings studiously ignores the braggart. Despite their efforts to avoid notice, the halfling spots the group and bounces forth to ply them childishly with questions about their own exploits, as he is certain that such a rugged collection of armed folk simply must be great adventurers. Hrunting informs the halfling of an exploit with the short fellow's mother.

Things go downhill from there.

The annoying little peck begins to sing a ditty about bravado and glory; the sheer irritation of the half-sized bard emboldens the party and strengthens their will, which, unfortunately for the would-be scop, is directed against the peck.

At some point during the grating performance, a goblin bumps into the party. Before the two Fhokki warriors can strike its inherently evil form from the face of Tellene, the goblin frantically rattles on about something in Reanaarese. Hrunting knows the language, but does not comment. The goblin switches to a broken Merchant's Tongue. Apparently, he sells shoes.

His assistant (employer) sits at the bar, tossing back drink after drink after drink. He is a tall man with a rigid back and drooping white mustaches, but his shoulders sag under the weight of the world.

Las'Parida gives the goblin a substantial amount of money to have the two shoe-merchants make a decent pair of shoes for the bare-footed gnome.

The gnome approaches the forlorn man with the goblin and is given an address, but he cannot read it. It is written in Reanaarese, so not even Las'Parida can read it. In frustration, the man simply tells Faerbast to meet his goblin in this common room the following morning.

Soon, after they have washed up, it is time for the mercenaries to report to the Guard Station for a full debriefing and receive the orders for their next mission. Las'Parida accompanies them, out of sheer suspicion, the awed elf in tow.

When they are in sight of the Guard House, a man climbing the steps just before the door sprouts an arrow from his back, which instantly explodes in a burst of fire--a burst that is not accompanied by a reaction from the dream, although the death of the man certainly is; the marble of the stairs, on which his crispy corpse has fallen, cracks under his weight and crumbles.

Out of the corner of her eye, Las'Parida spots a lizard-like humanoid running away along the rooftops. The senile old blind man confirms that he certainly heard someone up there, as well.

In the commotion that follows, Guard Captain Wiuxiu spirits the party away to a different part of the building; he has something to speak to them about in private. As he walks, he explains that the Guard House was once the private home of a moderately powerful wizard. The reason for this seemingly random exposition becomes evident in moments; Guard Captain Wiuxiu has led the group to an upside-down stairway, leading from the solid marble ceiling to the solid floor before them.

"We'll be going up there."

A strange cube with a keyhole rests on the banister. It is divided into squares, each with varying colors. "This is an impossible puzzle," explains the Guard Captain. "Fortunately, I have a...I have...a...key?" Here, words fail him; the Guard Captain has apparently misplaced his keys.

"Let me get that for you," squeaks the little gnome, as he produces his collection of keys. Attached to the collection are the keys of the Guard Captain, who angrily snatches them back and inserts one odd-looking one into the keyhole in the cube. He turns the key.

Click. Whir. Click, click, whir, click, whir, click, whir, whir, click, CLICK.

The little cube's squares spin and slide around, clicking into place and shifting out of place faster than the eye can follow. In a few seconds, the cube is reformed, each face a solid color, and the marble ceiling has opened up above the stairs, which have twisted around to be properly aligned with gravity. The Dream reacts to the powerful use of magic by causing a minor earthquake. A guard comes running up, shouting, "For the love of The Dreamer, don't do that...oh, Guard Captain, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was you!" before scurrying off again.

The group ascends the spiral staircase, the gnome sheepishly bringing up the rear.

When they have entered the room above the Guard House, the marble floor closes up again, which causes Guard Captain Wiuxiu a moment of grief. "Why did that floor close up?"

Dakken smites Faerbast mightily and the little puzzle-cube (once again chaotically arranged) skitters across the room, to be quickly snatched up by Wiuxiu. "You fool! You've doomed us all! We're trapped!"

Shortly, however, the Guard Captain has regained his composure and gets down to business. The marble ship found on the island has particularly interested him; just recently a massive warship being built by the town (for raiding purposes) was sunk, prior to completion. Guard Captain Wiuxiu wants his mercenaries to follow any possible leads to find out who was responsible. He is prepared to offer them some supplies to aid them in their efforts. The party start rattling off lists: an alchemical lab, a whalebone, a ship, a...what's that thing on the end of your chain? A "clock?" We'll take one of those, as well.

Ultimately, the Guard Captain says he'll see about procuring the items on the list and once again unlocks the puzzle. The floor opens, but the staircase does not twist around to meet them. It will be dangerous, but it looks like they will have to slide down the underside of the spiral stairs. After the gnome and Dakken both slide off of the edge, the rest of the group and the Guard Captain carefully descend safely.

Then, Guard Captain Wiuxiu sends them out into the town of Loona.

Las'Parida takes Faerbast and the elf with her to the markets to get the gnome a pet parrot, while Dakken leads his father to the local temple of the Way of the Berserk.

The only merchant in town with the elusive, exotic bird is a conniving little man, who justifies his exorbitant pricing methods by having many kids to feed. Las'Parida will have none of it: "I am quite sure that are a wonderful father. I am also quite sure that your children would greatly appreciate it if their wonderful father returned to them tonight without an additional hole magically introduced to his posterior!"

The merchant timidly agrees, and reduces the price of the parrot by half.

In the meantime, the Sentinel of Unbridled Rage smiles down upon the Way of the Berserk, as Hrunting and Dakken spar in its halls with Brothers in Blood. Dakken combats a Brother, whose red sash is laden with axe-marks. As they trade blows with massive wooden swords and axes, Dakken plies the man for information.

"So...crack...what can you...ungh...tell me about the lizardfolk around...crunch...here?"

"I...thwack...have heard that their has been an increase in...thud, crack, thud, smack...sightings of them of late. I'd love...crunch, crack, whoosh...to crack some of their...crack...heads, personally."

"I'll come and...huh...get you when we...thwack...get ready to go do it!"

"Ya know? They say that man that...ha, thwack, crack, huh...got killed today was that old...take that...fallen paladin with the goblin...argh...that makes shoes, now. Makes you...crunch...wonder why anyone would want to...crack...assassinate him, don't it?"

The party spends the next couple of days considering just that.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Another good post. Keep it up

 

[Rune]

The Characters in Session 4:

Hrunting (Commoner2/Barbarian1) is an old, blind Fhokki man, who has a tendency to display intense flashes of fury and senility. Despite senility and blindness, Hrunting has a remarkable ability to hear damn near everything and is really very intimidating with his spiked scale armor and his massive scythe.

Dakken Hruntingsson (Cleric of the Battle Rager1/Barbarian1) is the son of Hrunting. He has been sent by his church to partake in glorious battle and has brought his father along. Dakken compliments his massive battle axe with an equally massive war mace and spikes on his armor.

Faerbast Gozer (Expert1/Rogue1) is a foul-mouthed little gnome who hails from the high seas, as he tells it. A cabin-boy to a ship recently lost in a wager, the little gnome has found himself unemployed and somewhat unemployable. He wears an eyepatch over his left eye for stylistic purposes and a hook over his right hand, for the same reason. In battle, he is quick to drop the hook, which is fastened to his sleeve by a leather strap, and flip up the eyepatch, creating an amusing image of a child playing "pretend."

Voice of the Forest (Elf Warrior1/Ranger1) is, like all elves, little more in appearance than a walking twig. She has bronzed (and tattooed) skin and unkempt black hair, interwoven with feathers, leaves, beads, and bones. A graceful fluidity of motion brings to mind that of a cat, as do the elven cat-eyes that shine eerily in the dark. Voice of the Forest can speak, but no one in the party knows her language, so communication is limited to gestures and imitations of sound.

Las'Parida Heran (Aristocrat1/Sorceror1) was once a member of the Kalamaran lower aristocracy until a rivalry with another house forced her into a life of hiding on the run nearly a decade ago. Since that time, Las'Parida has developed an interest in alchemy that has coincided with an awakening of sorcery in her middle-aged blood. She is a sharp-witted thinker and has the dubious honor of being the only member of the party with any degree of literacy--and that is only in the High Kalamaran tongue.