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Aphonion Tales: Ravenskrag and the Shadowline, a preteen D&D game (lightly edited notes, COMPLETED on 1/20/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8473053" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 32 (July 10, 2021)</p><p></p><p>10 Ghast</p><p>They have 7 more days of travel to get to Ravenskrag. The next several days of travel pass uneventfully.</p><p></p><p>15 Ghast</p><p>In the morning, Merreep notices a bright light, near to the ground, slowly coming closer. It’s in the west, so clearly not the Sun, and not a fire. Runor detects magic, but it’s too far away to register. It is getting closer though, at a speed close to a slow walk.</p><p></p><p>Merreep stays forward and tries to get a better look, while Ulgorio ducks off into some cover and Bartix heads forward. Aleep hides behind a mule, just in case.</p><p></p><p>Merreep and Bartix finally can tell that a creature that looks like an emaciated young child, with a blue flame burning in the left side of its chest, surrounded by a nimbus of bright light. It continues floating forward. The child spreads its arms out, and the nimbus of light grows so strong that they can barely look at it. It declares, in some way that they can understand even though it’s not using their language, “Embrace the Light of Sytry!” It floats a little farther up.</p><p></p><p>Both Merreep and Bartix look down so that they aren’t blinded. Ashaltir seems uncomfortable about this figure and positions herself to keep as many people as possible in her aura of protection. Merreep quietly says, “Hello?”</p><p></p><p>Runor can see that the blue flame is pulsing and growing stronger with each pulse.</p><p></p><p>He calls out, “What is that blue flame? And who do you serve?”</p><p></p><p>It clearly hears him, but can’t see him. “I am the Brilliant Child of Sytry, and the blue flame is the light of His servant, who reaches out to embrace the world!” There is a sudden bright flash of light.</p><p></p><p>Both Merreep and Bartix feel a tug in their minds pass over them, but they resist it.</p><p></p><p>The leaves on the trees turn translucent, and various small animals fall out of the trees, stunned. Runor could see that the flash came from the blue flame.</p><p></p><p>Bartix calls out, “Why are you here? What are you doing here?”</p><p></p><p>“I have been summoned to this cold, dark place, and sent out to do my master’s bidding, to convert more to follow the Ruler of Golden Purity.”</p><p></p><p>“You should go to a more populous area, then.”</p><p></p><p>“I am heading as fast as I can towards Westhaven. But I cannot travel very fast… perhaps you know where there’s a cart that I could take?”</p><p></p><p>“We might be able to.”</p><p></p><p>“But you’re traveling in the wrong direction.”</p><p></p><p>“Maybe you could buy a mule from us—here’s the head of the caravan.”</p><p></p><p>Merreep adds, “There might be a way we could help you.”</p><p></p><p>“I carry a small amount of silver. I could pay to speed me on my mission of conversion.”</p><p></p><p>Aleep calls out, “What was that flash of light?”</p><p></p><p>“My passion for the Lord Sytry and the Blue Star.”</p><p></p><p>The caravan master says, “So you wish to purchase one of my mules?”</p><p></p><p>“I will return it to you when your caravan returns. Would 10 silver be enough?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, that would be fine.” The caravan master is clearly terrified.</p><p></p><p>They bring up one of the spare mules, and he heads off on the mule.</p><p></p><p>The money he paid with has a lingering sense of magic from him, although no actual magic on them. They appear to be pure silver, with a strange seven-pointed star and the number 1 on both faces.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 16</p><p>The rest of the journey is completely uneventful, and they arrive on the evening of Ghast 16. The caravan master pays them out: 135 silver each.</p><p></p><p>They have no problem finding the inn where they left Clawclawbite. The innkeeper bustles out immediately. “Ah! I thought you were dead. I had no idea what I was going to do with the beast in a little bit. He’s been pining for you.”</p><p></p><p>“Can we see our owlbear?”</p><p></p><p>“Of course, right this way. We set him up in the end stall, and gave him a post to sharpen his beak on.”</p><p></p><p>Clawclawbite rushes over to the edge of his stall, smelling the group carefully and then loudly letting out a contented sigh.</p><p></p><p>“Are you taking him back?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, we are.”</p><p></p><p>The group discusses what to do next, and they decide to head back to their lands to check out the area they have been granted. It will take them about 17 days to travel back, since.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 17</p><p>They depart back towards their lands.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 18</p><p>The Sapphire and Violet Moons are both spectacular, full and high in the sky. Despite a strange sense of being watched and laughed at, the night passes uneventfully. Despite the fact that they would have expected to overtake the Brilliant Child, they do not see it at all.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 23</p><p>This night, the Ruby Moon and the Sapphire Moon are both full. Conjunctions involving the Ruby Moon are known to weaken the forces of good and strengthen the forces of evil while they take place.</p><p></p><p>While Merreep, Ulgorio, and Ashaltir are on watch, Ulgorio notices that there is something very odd about a tree near the camp. He heads over to investigate. The tree has a thick vine, maybe a foot in diameter, wrapped around the tree. Except suddenly, a humanoid head comes whipping around on that stalk—apparently it was more of a tail or snake.</p><p></p><p>It looks at him with contempt. “Mortal, why should I spare you?”</p><p></p><p>“Well, there’s no real reason to kill me.”</p><p></p><p>“That’s original. I don’t get to come to this plane very often, and where do I manifest? Out in the middle of nowhere, where there’s usually no one to find. And yet here you are, and here I am, and your people are all over there. Do you know what I am?”</p><p></p><p>“No, I do not.”</p><p></p><p>“I am a dark naga. You say that you have no reason to kill you, and I can find no fault in that statement. Amuse me.”</p><p></p><p>Ulgorio casts speak with animals and persuades a squirrel to dance, as if its life depended on it.</p><p></p><p>Merreep notices and approaches. “Hi.”</p><p></p><p>The dark naga looks at her. “I will ask you the same question I asked him. Why should I not kill you?”</p><p></p><p>“It would be useless.”</p><p></p><p>“You are an unusual group. Usually when I catch someone, they talk about their small children, their mates, or their miserable lives. But you tell me that it would be useless.”</p><p></p><p>“I just don’t see what you would get out of it.”</p><p></p><p>“Disturbingly rational. I hope the whole world does not become as rational. Very well. Amuse me.”</p><p></p><p>Ulgorio now starts playing his favorite Godzilla song.</p><p></p><p>She focuses. “I have a feeling that what you are singing relates to a very large relative of mine…”</p><p></p><p>They are still entertaining the naga when the next watch awakens.</p><p></p><p>Aleep hides in the underbrush and casts Protection from Evil on himself. Runor detects evil, and finds that it is evil. Amused, but definitely evil.</p><p></p><p>They entertain the dark naga all night, and as the moons begin to set, it rouses itself. “I must return to my home plane. I will be back in this glade soon.” With a shimmer, it is replaced with a normal vine.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 24</p><p>Ulgorio and Merreep are utterly exhausted, but they still try to press on as much as they can the next day to get far away from that grove by the next night.</p><p></p><p>When they make camp that night, the same two moons are still full. Runor hears howling off in the woods. The owlbear sits up and makes growling noises in the distance of the growls. From outside the range of the fire, they see five sets of eyes surrounding the camp, about 2 feet off the ground.</p><p></p><p>Aleep builds the fire up, and the creatures move farther back. They are five enormous, shaggy wolves, with a strange glow to their eyes. Eventually, around midnight, the eyes gradually, one pair at a time, vanish from the edge of the firelight. Some distance away, the group hears a horrible bellow, and then silence.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 25</p><p>They pass through a small town. They hear that one of the cows on a nearby farm was utterly mangled the previous night.</p><p></p><p>Ghast 30</p><p>That night, the Silver and the Violet Moons are full—a positive conjunction, unlike the Ruby conjunctions.</p><p></p><p>A small, brilliantly dressed figure glides into their camp. “Hail and well met, large folk.”</p><p></p><p>“Greetings to you as well.”</p><p></p><p>“It is a great pleasure to be here on a night like this when my Lady is great in power, along with the greatest of the moons. Hmm. Skeletal horses. I don’t know that my Lady would approve of that.” The fey sprinkles a large amount of dust on the skeletal horses. One of them regrows flesh and life, to its considerable disbelief. The other one reshapes itself into a huge living eagle. “There. Much better. I thought that it was really an eagle. You might need to teach it how to fly. I’m not sure it knows how—it used to be a horse. What else should I do? Would you like some bread enchanted?”</p><p></p><p>“No, thank you,” says Merreep.</p><p></p><p>“I’m always nervous when I do that. Sometimes they change into a giant crocodile. You can’t reason with a giant crocodile.”</p><p></p><p>“You can’t reason with any crocodile!”</p><p></p><p>“Soon the moon will be passing. I must find others to bless with the magic of Whimsey.”</p><p></p><p>Ghast 31</p><p>That night, in the wee hours of the morning, Bartix sees a hand with a bowl reach over the edge of the stew pot, dip into the stewpot, and go out the other side. He walks up and looks over the top of the kettle at a small ratty looking person in ragged clothes eating a bowl of their stew.</p><p></p><p>“Why are you eating our stuff?”</p><p></p><p>“Umm, hi, everyone. Well, you all ate, and I was sampling your cuisine to tell you how wonderfully cooked.”</p><p></p><p>“Would you like to join us?” asks Merreep.</p><p></p><p>“As in join you for more delicious stew? Or join you as you go into the city? Or are you not going into the city and join you going somewhere else?”</p><p></p><p>“The first one.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh, I would very much like that. Where are you going?”</p><p></p><p>Aleep says, “Aleep and friends are cavalieri. We have been given lands.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh, that will make Old Thurston very happy. He was caretaker for the old knight who was there, and he was never replaced. He’ll be very happy. But be careful, he’s really old. You going to rebuild the tower and everything?”</p><p></p><p>“Tower?”</p><p></p><p>“There used to be a tower, before I was born. They protected the people and everything. And then the tower fell down, and the knight disappeared, and the dead started walking around. I think I will join you then, if your worshipfulnesses are okay with that.”</p><p>[End session 32]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8473053, member: 7030144"] Session 32 (July 10, 2021) 10 Ghast They have 7 more days of travel to get to Ravenskrag. The next several days of travel pass uneventfully. 15 Ghast In the morning, Merreep notices a bright light, near to the ground, slowly coming closer. It’s in the west, so clearly not the Sun, and not a fire. Runor detects magic, but it’s too far away to register. It is getting closer though, at a speed close to a slow walk. Merreep stays forward and tries to get a better look, while Ulgorio ducks off into some cover and Bartix heads forward. Aleep hides behind a mule, just in case. Merreep and Bartix finally can tell that a creature that looks like an emaciated young child, with a blue flame burning in the left side of its chest, surrounded by a nimbus of bright light. It continues floating forward. The child spreads its arms out, and the nimbus of light grows so strong that they can barely look at it. It declares, in some way that they can understand even though it’s not using their language, “Embrace the Light of Sytry!” It floats a little farther up. Both Merreep and Bartix look down so that they aren’t blinded. Ashaltir seems uncomfortable about this figure and positions herself to keep as many people as possible in her aura of protection. Merreep quietly says, “Hello?” Runor can see that the blue flame is pulsing and growing stronger with each pulse. He calls out, “What is that blue flame? And who do you serve?” It clearly hears him, but can’t see him. “I am the Brilliant Child of Sytry, and the blue flame is the light of His servant, who reaches out to embrace the world!” There is a sudden bright flash of light. Both Merreep and Bartix feel a tug in their minds pass over them, but they resist it. The leaves on the trees turn translucent, and various small animals fall out of the trees, stunned. Runor could see that the flash came from the blue flame. Bartix calls out, “Why are you here? What are you doing here?” “I have been summoned to this cold, dark place, and sent out to do my master’s bidding, to convert more to follow the Ruler of Golden Purity.” “You should go to a more populous area, then.” “I am heading as fast as I can towards Westhaven. But I cannot travel very fast… perhaps you know where there’s a cart that I could take?” “We might be able to.” “But you’re traveling in the wrong direction.” “Maybe you could buy a mule from us—here’s the head of the caravan.” Merreep adds, “There might be a way we could help you.” “I carry a small amount of silver. I could pay to speed me on my mission of conversion.” Aleep calls out, “What was that flash of light?” “My passion for the Lord Sytry and the Blue Star.” The caravan master says, “So you wish to purchase one of my mules?” “I will return it to you when your caravan returns. Would 10 silver be enough?” “Yes, that would be fine.” The caravan master is clearly terrified. They bring up one of the spare mules, and he heads off on the mule. The money he paid with has a lingering sense of magic from him, although no actual magic on them. They appear to be pure silver, with a strange seven-pointed star and the number 1 on both faces. Ghast 16 The rest of the journey is completely uneventful, and they arrive on the evening of Ghast 16. The caravan master pays them out: 135 silver each. They have no problem finding the inn where they left Clawclawbite. The innkeeper bustles out immediately. “Ah! I thought you were dead. I had no idea what I was going to do with the beast in a little bit. He’s been pining for you.” “Can we see our owlbear?” “Of course, right this way. We set him up in the end stall, and gave him a post to sharpen his beak on.” Clawclawbite rushes over to the edge of his stall, smelling the group carefully and then loudly letting out a contented sigh. “Are you taking him back?” “Yes, we are.” The group discusses what to do next, and they decide to head back to their lands to check out the area they have been granted. It will take them about 17 days to travel back, since. Ghast 17 They depart back towards their lands. Ghast 18 The Sapphire and Violet Moons are both spectacular, full and high in the sky. Despite a strange sense of being watched and laughed at, the night passes uneventfully. Despite the fact that they would have expected to overtake the Brilliant Child, they do not see it at all. Ghast 23 This night, the Ruby Moon and the Sapphire Moon are both full. Conjunctions involving the Ruby Moon are known to weaken the forces of good and strengthen the forces of evil while they take place. While Merreep, Ulgorio, and Ashaltir are on watch, Ulgorio notices that there is something very odd about a tree near the camp. He heads over to investigate. The tree has a thick vine, maybe a foot in diameter, wrapped around the tree. Except suddenly, a humanoid head comes whipping around on that stalk—apparently it was more of a tail or snake. It looks at him with contempt. “Mortal, why should I spare you?” “Well, there’s no real reason to kill me.” “That’s original. I don’t get to come to this plane very often, and where do I manifest? Out in the middle of nowhere, where there’s usually no one to find. And yet here you are, and here I am, and your people are all over there. Do you know what I am?” “No, I do not.” “I am a dark naga. You say that you have no reason to kill you, and I can find no fault in that statement. Amuse me.” Ulgorio casts speak with animals and persuades a squirrel to dance, as if its life depended on it. Merreep notices and approaches. “Hi.” The dark naga looks at her. “I will ask you the same question I asked him. Why should I not kill you?” “It would be useless.” “You are an unusual group. Usually when I catch someone, they talk about their small children, their mates, or their miserable lives. But you tell me that it would be useless.” “I just don’t see what you would get out of it.” “Disturbingly rational. I hope the whole world does not become as rational. Very well. Amuse me.” Ulgorio now starts playing his favorite Godzilla song. She focuses. “I have a feeling that what you are singing relates to a very large relative of mine…” They are still entertaining the naga when the next watch awakens. Aleep hides in the underbrush and casts Protection from Evil on himself. Runor detects evil, and finds that it is evil. Amused, but definitely evil. They entertain the dark naga all night, and as the moons begin to set, it rouses itself. “I must return to my home plane. I will be back in this glade soon.” With a shimmer, it is replaced with a normal vine. Ghast 24 Ulgorio and Merreep are utterly exhausted, but they still try to press on as much as they can the next day to get far away from that grove by the next night. When they make camp that night, the same two moons are still full. Runor hears howling off in the woods. The owlbear sits up and makes growling noises in the distance of the growls. From outside the range of the fire, they see five sets of eyes surrounding the camp, about 2 feet off the ground. Aleep builds the fire up, and the creatures move farther back. They are five enormous, shaggy wolves, with a strange glow to their eyes. Eventually, around midnight, the eyes gradually, one pair at a time, vanish from the edge of the firelight. Some distance away, the group hears a horrible bellow, and then silence. Ghast 25 They pass through a small town. They hear that one of the cows on a nearby farm was utterly mangled the previous night. Ghast 30 That night, the Silver and the Violet Moons are full—a positive conjunction, unlike the Ruby conjunctions. A small, brilliantly dressed figure glides into their camp. “Hail and well met, large folk.” “Greetings to you as well.” “It is a great pleasure to be here on a night like this when my Lady is great in power, along with the greatest of the moons. Hmm. Skeletal horses. I don’t know that my Lady would approve of that.” The fey sprinkles a large amount of dust on the skeletal horses. One of them regrows flesh and life, to its considerable disbelief. The other one reshapes itself into a huge living eagle. “There. Much better. I thought that it was really an eagle. You might need to teach it how to fly. I’m not sure it knows how—it used to be a horse. What else should I do? Would you like some bread enchanted?” “No, thank you,” says Merreep. “I’m always nervous when I do that. Sometimes they change into a giant crocodile. You can’t reason with a giant crocodile.” “You can’t reason with any crocodile!” “Soon the moon will be passing. I must find others to bless with the magic of Whimsey.” Ghast 31 That night, in the wee hours of the morning, Bartix sees a hand with a bowl reach over the edge of the stew pot, dip into the stewpot, and go out the other side. He walks up and looks over the top of the kettle at a small ratty looking person in ragged clothes eating a bowl of their stew. “Why are you eating our stuff?” “Umm, hi, everyone. Well, you all ate, and I was sampling your cuisine to tell you how wonderfully cooked.” “Would you like to join us?” asks Merreep. “As in join you for more delicious stew? Or join you as you go into the city? Or are you not going into the city and join you going somewhere else?” “The first one.” “Oh, I would very much like that. Where are you going?” Aleep says, “Aleep and friends are cavalieri. We have been given lands.” “Oh, that will make Old Thurston very happy. He was caretaker for the old knight who was there, and he was never replaced. He’ll be very happy. But be careful, he’s really old. You going to rebuild the tower and everything?” “Tower?” “There used to be a tower, before I was born. They protected the people and everything. And then the tower fell down, and the knight disappeared, and the dead started walking around. I think I will join you then, if your worshipfulnesses are okay with that.” [End session 32] [/QUOTE]
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