Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Aphonion Tales: Adventures in the Spice Lands and the War in Hanal, a tween and teen D&D game (edited notes, posts Tuesdays, most recent 3/7/23)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8355486" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 17 (January 3, 2021)</p><p></p><p>12 Ghast (cont’d)</p><p>They discuss options: ignore it; tell the Hanalian government; charge the altar with an axe; investigate the area further; or tell the Inquisition. Over Elyn’s strenuous objections, they decide to have Noah charge the altar with his axe.</p><p></p><p>Noah rages, then charges the altar. He gets a 19 on a Wisdom save: a misty figure of an elf appears and says, “no, no, no, no…” but he rushes through it anyway and reaches the altar. He gets a 1 on his attack roll, and his axe twists from his hand and flies into the woods. He’s standing, unarmed in front of the altar, and there’s a mist surrounding him. He gets a 15 on a Constitution save, and he stops moving entirely.</p><p></p><p>Noah can feel something rummaging around in his brain. “Hmmm. What can I do with this if I take it over. It’s very limited.</p><p></p><p>“I can kill lots of people.</p><p></p><p>“Unfortunately, you’re incapable of travelling to Canberry and destroying the artifact that they intend to use against me. Are you capable of conquering this plane of existence? No, let me see…</p><p></p><p>“I could raise a dread horde, and conquer a 100 cities…”</p><p></p><p>Elyn rushes forward. She approaches Noah, and then she makes her Constitution save as she escapes the mist. Elyn grabs Noah and tries to drag him away.</p><p></p><p>As she drags him out of the mist, he starts to move again and there is a hideous howl coming out of the altar and they are hurled through the air. They take 17 points of damage each as they land.</p><p></p><p>Noah finds that his mind has come back to itself.</p><p></p><p>Noah recovers his axe. He notices that there are some more figures moving around out beyond the area. It looks to be another emaciated figure like the one that tried to kidnap Iados. Noah calls out, “Hello there. If you tell me everything you know about this cult, maybe you can leave with both your legs.”</p><p></p><p>The emaciated figure, with one hand that looks more like a tree branch than a hand, charges him. He claws at Noah with his bizarre looking hand. He does 6 points of damage, and Noah needs to make a Con check, but comfortably passes as a wave of hunger and weakness passes over him.</p><p></p><p>“You serious, buddy?” says Noah, who can now see that his teeth are sharper than human normal. Noah grabs him by the throat. “So then. Maybe I pegged you wrong as being part of a crazy cult. I’m now probably going to take off one of your fingers as part of this…”</p><p></p><p>A little voice says from nearby: “They don’t speak anymore, the few that survive.”</p><p></p><p>“Do they understand anything?”</p><p></p><p>“Fear, hunger, a desire to destroy.” A less than a foot tall figure in brown and green comes out.</p><p></p><p>“Are you a fey?”</p><p></p><p>“I am! You recognize me? Whimsey be praised.”</p><p></p><p>“You follow Whimsey?”</p><p></p><p>“Many of the fey do.”</p><p></p><p>“We tried to destroy the altar.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh, stay away from that thing. It will kill you or possess you. Most of the humans in the village died when the Light of Eiru bombarded the village from above. Eventually, he’ll grow roots into your hand if you keep holding him.”</p><p></p><p>Noah chops the prisoner to death—he reverts to normal humanity as he dies, and seems to look at him with thanks as he dies.</p><p></p><p>“My tribe is all but dead. This cult is everywhere, everywhere. I can’t quite figure out what happened with the Queen-Empress—I think I should know, but I can’t put my mind on it.”</p><p></p><p>Noah signals the rest of the group over.</p><p></p><p>Iados and the faerie begin having a pillow fight of sorts.</p><p></p><p>The faerie then summons a feather cannon by casting a spell—it’s more of a mortar than a cannon. Ravokris lights the fuse on the mortar, and a huge shower of brightly colored feathers come down on all of them.</p><p></p><p>They hear a sound in the distance—Rooor, rooor, like horns. The fey says, “We must move, we must move. They’re coming! There are eight more coming, that’s too many. I can cover our tracks, but we must move quickly.”</p><p></p><p>They escape, with the fey casting Pass without Trace.</p><p></p><p>“What were those?”</p><p></p><p>“Those were the villagers that survived outside the village. They were already hunting. And now some of them have become war beasts.”</p><p></p><p>They head eastwards, with the fey riding in Ravokris’s pack.</p><p></p><p>They’re in their standard marching order, Noah, Ravokris, Iados, and Elyn. They pass near another farming village, but it seems to still be a regular village, with no altar to evil gods or the like.</p><p></p><p>They move through the woods for the rest of the day before camping for the night.</p><p></p><p>The night passes peacefully.</p><p></p><p>13 Ghast</p><p>Day passes uneventfully.</p><p></p><p>14 Ghast</p><p>They hear the tramping of feet and the jingling of harnesses. A large body of troops—more than 100—in green surcoats over plate breastplates, walks nearby.</p><p></p><p>“Who do you swear allegiance to?”</p><p></p><p>“The Green, the Green.”</p><p></p><p>“And?”</p><p></p><p>“And the Queen-Empress.”</p><p></p><p>“Excellent, excellent. Be careful. If you seek to reach Bratveld, it is behind lines controlled by the Inquisition. The Strom of Bratveld is fallen—he was taken by the Inquisition, with insufficient troops, and treated as a heretic.”</p><p></p><p>Noah’s family knew the Strom of Bratveld. They were social acquaintances of his family.</p><p></p><p>“If you are civilians, they will let you in, but do not show weapons to Inquisition troops. They have gone mad, utterly mad. We do not know why they are here. But we are patrolling against further advances. If they advance, the general has substantial forces to repulse them, and we have a special weapon. I am sorry, young sir, if any members of your family fell.”</p><p></p><p>“If the Inquisition forces are numerous enough, wouldn’t that mean that you would face too much danger. Perhaps we could work on behalf of the general to find out what the Inquisition is doing.”</p><p></p><p>“You offer to spy for us? We accept your offer, may the Great God of Darkness protect you. Here, take this token.” He hands Noah a small chip of green crystal. “It will allow you to send us a 25 word message.”</p><p></p><p>They march on. About a mile past the Hanalian lines, several men dressed head to toe in black step out of the trees—literally.</p><p></p><p>“In the name of the Holy Inquisition of Paranswarm and on behalf of the Inquisitor General, what is your purpose here?”</p><p></p><p>“We are here to meet with the Inquisitor General on a diplomatic mission. We’re interested in understanding what the Inquisition is about. We hope we can defuse fears about that.”</p><p></p><p>All of them but one step back into trees. “I will escort you to the Inquisitor General’s encampment.”</p><p></p><p>He leads the way.</p><p></p><p>There are various flags above the encampment—unrelieved black, and black with lightning bolts on it. After a bit, an adjunct comes back. “The Inquisitor General will see you. I suggest your companions remain here and be fed by the servants unless one of them has particular information of value.”</p><p></p><p>Noah is taken to a pavilion, in which there are maps laid out on tables with various markers on them. A person, clearly at least a knight, is looking at the map. Noah can see various stromates listed, including his family’s.</p><p></p><p>“I am Noah, I am the na-Strom of Arundall. Many years ago I was kidnapped, and I had much of my memory wiped. I have returned to find the country in such dire straits.”</p><p></p><p>“In war, you mean.”</p><p></p><p>“In war, indeed. The people are scared of the Inquisition. As much as they know, it is that enough of them are no longer faithful, or that there is some fault of the faction that the Inquisition opposes. I desire to know the truth of this situation, because I think that if handled poorly, this could be more than just an internal war, but if handled well could be ended quickly and victoriously.”</p><p></p><p>“My good young lord, there is no question of the faith of the overwhelming majority of the people of Hanal. But I have been assured by the Protector and Defender of the Faith, that much of the chivalry here and the Queen-Empress are heretical, and that some have formed an alliance with something so abominable that it has no name in our annals.”</p><p></p><p>Noah describes the burnt out village.</p><p></p><p>“There are two men-of-war—one of Singing Leaves, and one of the House of Aufaulgautharim, that are circling and bombarding the heriticus of the worst nature.”</p><p></p><p>“But if your mission opposes the Queen-Empress, then why have you not allied with one of the factions?”</p><p></p><p>“We are trying to reach the Cov of Bormark. But we can’t concentrate our army—they have a pound and a half of bonedust, which they obtained from another heretical group in another land. So we need to keep our forces dispersed, and we have not been able to link up with Bormark yet. It is a very difficult thing. We can allow the elven strikes, because we cannot stop them, and that is understood. But open support from the forces of Light would turn some of the faithful of Paranswarm against us.”</p><p></p><p>“I have heard from an ally, close to nature, that there is some sort of enchantment involving the Queen-Empress.”</p><p></p><p>“I must admit, I cannot hold onto what you just said. But the Protector of the Faith has instructed us, and we must obey. And the hereticus… I do not even understand the evil that they are.”</p><p></p><p>“But to the uncorrupted villages, this seems like a plot to join one of the factions. From the other perspective, if the Inquisition backs anyone faction, it risks a faith schism.”</p><p></p><p>“I cannot deny the accuracy of your words. However, I can tell you that we have been instructed that additional troops are reluctantly being committed by the Holy See, and we have licensed diabolists preparing to summon squads of bearded devils.”</p><p></p><p>“Is there any way myself and my allies can serve in your pursuit of serving Paranswarm, by identifying the true state of faith of the Queen-Empress and some of her nobility?”</p><p></p><p>“I am a military commander. We have not found anything that can shake the faith of the people in the Queen-Empress’s camp. It is noteworthy that both of the major covs who have turned against her were not in the country at the time of the succession. You might try to join your family and ask them to not take up arms against us. Any who take up arms against the Inquisition… must be dealt with firmly.</p><p></p><p>“Between the two, they destroyed 13 villages that built these altars. You must not approach any of the blasted areas.”</p><p></p><p>“What worries me,” says Noah, “is how quickly that has spread.”</p><p></p><p>“We believe that there is some sort of influence being spread and we find it impossible to insert agents.”</p><p></p><p>Noah meets up with the rest of the group. “This might seem crazy… but I think we need to get Glordiadel and his faith involved in this. Surely if Paranswarm’s Holy See were capable of understanding some form of offness with the Queen-Empress, then the high officials of Glordiadel would surely be able to detect it as well. Now, I understand that the risk involved in this is massive. Glordiadel is a god of compassion, but not necessarily of action.”</p><p>[End Session 17]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8355486, member: 7030144"] Session 17 (January 3, 2021) 12 Ghast (cont’d) They discuss options: ignore it; tell the Hanalian government; charge the altar with an axe; investigate the area further; or tell the Inquisition. Over Elyn’s strenuous objections, they decide to have Noah charge the altar with his axe. Noah rages, then charges the altar. He gets a 19 on a Wisdom save: a misty figure of an elf appears and says, “no, no, no, no…” but he rushes through it anyway and reaches the altar. He gets a 1 on his attack roll, and his axe twists from his hand and flies into the woods. He’s standing, unarmed in front of the altar, and there’s a mist surrounding him. He gets a 15 on a Constitution save, and he stops moving entirely. Noah can feel something rummaging around in his brain. “Hmmm. What can I do with this if I take it over. It’s very limited. “I can kill lots of people. “Unfortunately, you’re incapable of travelling to Canberry and destroying the artifact that they intend to use against me. Are you capable of conquering this plane of existence? No, let me see… “I could raise a dread horde, and conquer a 100 cities…” Elyn rushes forward. She approaches Noah, and then she makes her Constitution save as she escapes the mist. Elyn grabs Noah and tries to drag him away. As she drags him out of the mist, he starts to move again and there is a hideous howl coming out of the altar and they are hurled through the air. They take 17 points of damage each as they land. Noah finds that his mind has come back to itself. Noah recovers his axe. He notices that there are some more figures moving around out beyond the area. It looks to be another emaciated figure like the one that tried to kidnap Iados. Noah calls out, “Hello there. If you tell me everything you know about this cult, maybe you can leave with both your legs.” The emaciated figure, with one hand that looks more like a tree branch than a hand, charges him. He claws at Noah with his bizarre looking hand. He does 6 points of damage, and Noah needs to make a Con check, but comfortably passes as a wave of hunger and weakness passes over him. “You serious, buddy?” says Noah, who can now see that his teeth are sharper than human normal. Noah grabs him by the throat. “So then. Maybe I pegged you wrong as being part of a crazy cult. I’m now probably going to take off one of your fingers as part of this…” A little voice says from nearby: “They don’t speak anymore, the few that survive.” “Do they understand anything?” “Fear, hunger, a desire to destroy.” A less than a foot tall figure in brown and green comes out. “Are you a fey?” “I am! You recognize me? Whimsey be praised.” “You follow Whimsey?” “Many of the fey do.” “We tried to destroy the altar.” “Oh, stay away from that thing. It will kill you or possess you. Most of the humans in the village died when the Light of Eiru bombarded the village from above. Eventually, he’ll grow roots into your hand if you keep holding him.” Noah chops the prisoner to death—he reverts to normal humanity as he dies, and seems to look at him with thanks as he dies. “My tribe is all but dead. This cult is everywhere, everywhere. I can’t quite figure out what happened with the Queen-Empress—I think I should know, but I can’t put my mind on it.” Noah signals the rest of the group over. Iados and the faerie begin having a pillow fight of sorts. The faerie then summons a feather cannon by casting a spell—it’s more of a mortar than a cannon. Ravokris lights the fuse on the mortar, and a huge shower of brightly colored feathers come down on all of them. They hear a sound in the distance—Rooor, rooor, like horns. The fey says, “We must move, we must move. They’re coming! There are eight more coming, that’s too many. I can cover our tracks, but we must move quickly.” They escape, with the fey casting Pass without Trace. “What were those?” “Those were the villagers that survived outside the village. They were already hunting. And now some of them have become war beasts.” They head eastwards, with the fey riding in Ravokris’s pack. They’re in their standard marching order, Noah, Ravokris, Iados, and Elyn. They pass near another farming village, but it seems to still be a regular village, with no altar to evil gods or the like. They move through the woods for the rest of the day before camping for the night. The night passes peacefully. 13 Ghast Day passes uneventfully. 14 Ghast They hear the tramping of feet and the jingling of harnesses. A large body of troops—more than 100—in green surcoats over plate breastplates, walks nearby. “Who do you swear allegiance to?” “The Green, the Green.” “And?” “And the Queen-Empress.” “Excellent, excellent. Be careful. If you seek to reach Bratveld, it is behind lines controlled by the Inquisition. The Strom of Bratveld is fallen—he was taken by the Inquisition, with insufficient troops, and treated as a heretic.” Noah’s family knew the Strom of Bratveld. They were social acquaintances of his family. “If you are civilians, they will let you in, but do not show weapons to Inquisition troops. They have gone mad, utterly mad. We do not know why they are here. But we are patrolling against further advances. If they advance, the general has substantial forces to repulse them, and we have a special weapon. I am sorry, young sir, if any members of your family fell.” “If the Inquisition forces are numerous enough, wouldn’t that mean that you would face too much danger. Perhaps we could work on behalf of the general to find out what the Inquisition is doing.” “You offer to spy for us? We accept your offer, may the Great God of Darkness protect you. Here, take this token.” He hands Noah a small chip of green crystal. “It will allow you to send us a 25 word message.” They march on. About a mile past the Hanalian lines, several men dressed head to toe in black step out of the trees—literally. “In the name of the Holy Inquisition of Paranswarm and on behalf of the Inquisitor General, what is your purpose here?” “We are here to meet with the Inquisitor General on a diplomatic mission. We’re interested in understanding what the Inquisition is about. We hope we can defuse fears about that.” All of them but one step back into trees. “I will escort you to the Inquisitor General’s encampment.” He leads the way. There are various flags above the encampment—unrelieved black, and black with lightning bolts on it. After a bit, an adjunct comes back. “The Inquisitor General will see you. I suggest your companions remain here and be fed by the servants unless one of them has particular information of value.” Noah is taken to a pavilion, in which there are maps laid out on tables with various markers on them. A person, clearly at least a knight, is looking at the map. Noah can see various stromates listed, including his family’s. “I am Noah, I am the na-Strom of Arundall. Many years ago I was kidnapped, and I had much of my memory wiped. I have returned to find the country in such dire straits.” “In war, you mean.” “In war, indeed. The people are scared of the Inquisition. As much as they know, it is that enough of them are no longer faithful, or that there is some fault of the faction that the Inquisition opposes. I desire to know the truth of this situation, because I think that if handled poorly, this could be more than just an internal war, but if handled well could be ended quickly and victoriously.” “My good young lord, there is no question of the faith of the overwhelming majority of the people of Hanal. But I have been assured by the Protector and Defender of the Faith, that much of the chivalry here and the Queen-Empress are heretical, and that some have formed an alliance with something so abominable that it has no name in our annals.” Noah describes the burnt out village. “There are two men-of-war—one of Singing Leaves, and one of the House of Aufaulgautharim, that are circling and bombarding the heriticus of the worst nature.” “But if your mission opposes the Queen-Empress, then why have you not allied with one of the factions?” “We are trying to reach the Cov of Bormark. But we can’t concentrate our army—they have a pound and a half of bonedust, which they obtained from another heretical group in another land. So we need to keep our forces dispersed, and we have not been able to link up with Bormark yet. It is a very difficult thing. We can allow the elven strikes, because we cannot stop them, and that is understood. But open support from the forces of Light would turn some of the faithful of Paranswarm against us.” “I have heard from an ally, close to nature, that there is some sort of enchantment involving the Queen-Empress.” “I must admit, I cannot hold onto what you just said. But the Protector of the Faith has instructed us, and we must obey. And the hereticus… I do not even understand the evil that they are.” “But to the uncorrupted villages, this seems like a plot to join one of the factions. From the other perspective, if the Inquisition backs anyone faction, it risks a faith schism.” “I cannot deny the accuracy of your words. However, I can tell you that we have been instructed that additional troops are reluctantly being committed by the Holy See, and we have licensed diabolists preparing to summon squads of bearded devils.” “Is there any way myself and my allies can serve in your pursuit of serving Paranswarm, by identifying the true state of faith of the Queen-Empress and some of her nobility?” “I am a military commander. We have not found anything that can shake the faith of the people in the Queen-Empress’s camp. It is noteworthy that both of the major covs who have turned against her were not in the country at the time of the succession. You might try to join your family and ask them to not take up arms against us. Any who take up arms against the Inquisition… must be dealt with firmly. “Between the two, they destroyed 13 villages that built these altars. You must not approach any of the blasted areas.” “What worries me,” says Noah, “is how quickly that has spread.” “We believe that there is some sort of influence being spread and we find it impossible to insert agents.” Noah meets up with the rest of the group. “This might seem crazy… but I think we need to get Glordiadel and his faith involved in this. Surely if Paranswarm’s Holy See were capable of understanding some form of offness with the Queen-Empress, then the high officials of Glordiadel would surely be able to detect it as well. Now, I understand that the risk involved in this is massive. Glordiadel is a god of compassion, but not necessarily of action.” [End Session 17] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Aphonion Tales: Adventures in the Spice Lands and the War in Hanal, a tween and teen D&D game (edited notes, posts Tuesdays, most recent 3/7/23)
Top