Episode I: Ye Olde Adventurers' Tavern Goes to Hell
The Characters
Ingolf Egilson -A dashing, silver-tongued Ljosalfar (elf) of indeterminate means and skills, played by Keith Martin (Bard 1/Rogue 2)
Aoelif Snorrisdottir -A proud, if headstrong, female fianna, also a Ljosalfar, played by Jess Hanna (Ranger 1/Fianna 2)
Zaccara -A somewhat unkempt and brusque man-at-arms, played by Jon Hanna (Fighter 3)
Martaine - A devout servant of the human god Logos, played by Sean Holland (Rogue 1/Templar 2)
Nicasia Xerecian - The best-armed prospective nun anyone's ever met, played by Laura Holland (Rogue 1/Sorcerer 2)
Theodorus Commenos Alexius - A well-educated and well-spoken noble wizard played by Steve McDonald (Noble 1/Wizard 2)
Time Elapsed: 3/13/495 A.I. (Anno Imperialus)
Setting
The characters first met on the road towards the border town of Tavia, when all were forced to take the same detour around a washed-out bridge and through a small village along the way. The village was large enough to sport two inns, the signs of the White Bull and the Red Bull, but the White Bull was so popular and busy that the footsore travelers were forced to seek accommodation in the much less appealing Red. The sign outside featured a large red bull forcing himself sexually upon a white bull, and the common room was inhabited only by a drunken, aged elf woman, apparently sleeping off her excess of ale - in the excesses of her ale!
Summary
Albacorabraxamas, the gnomish innkeeper, provided hot if somewhat suspect provender, and the characters sat together as far from the snoring and smelly elf woman as the could. As the future party members were getting to know one another, the innkeeper revealed the source of his feud with the owner of the White Bull (the were brothers, and he felt he had been cheated out of his inheritance) and complained loudly that the dwarves he was expecting had not arrived. Soon after, the besotted elf awoke and began pressing her company upon Martaine, offering to tell his fortune. He declined, but Aoelif accepted, and was told by the old woman that she would soon face "Great danger but also great rewards." Ingolf noticed that this was suspiciously like the fortune she had apparently foretold the innkeeper, and so he also paid a silver to discover that he would soon face "A time of trial, followed by great wealth." Ingolf declined the old hag's offer to "earn back his silver" and managed to suppress his gag reflex. Soon enough, nearly the entire group had been informed that they were to face "great tribulation followed by a vast treasure," or words very much to that effect, and they all began to dismiss the old woman as a fraud. In the meanwhile, Aoelif and Nicasia became interested in the slipshod construction of the inn, and noticed that what they had at first taken to be wooden beams were, in many cases, carven stone plinths of the sort sometimes seen in old druidic sites.
About that time several things happened. Aoelif began reading the runic fragments on the stones, and the somewhat smelly but definitely ugly human fighter Zaccara came through the door, bellowing for ale and dinner. Aoelif was able to piece together bits of warnings and a name from the now broken standing stones - Svear the Beautiful. Nicasia and the wizard also noticed the runes on the stones, but could make little of them.
The elvish crone descended on Zaccara almost at once, and his fortune was (not surprisingly) revealed to be striking similar to our own. She made him the same offer she'd made the rest of us, to earn his silver back, but the seemingly hard-up newcomer agreed. At about that moment, Aoelif gave a startled cry from the back of the room, and the old woman vanished, or faded, and her seeming ghostly form told Zaccara that if he could manage to lay her to rest, she wouldn't be forced to kill him, whereupon the entire inn dropped through the earth and came to a crashing halt somewhere below. Needless to say, the characters were more than a little bit surprised by this turn of events.
The group quickly concluded that the inn had been built atop some ancient cave or crypt, the roof of which had finally given way under the weight of the inn. A quick survey of the situation revealed that a falling plinth had crushed the hapless Albacorabraxamas, and that the kitchen was on fire. Some small space was available outside the inn's rapidly collapsing walls, and so the group moved out of the building. Then Aoelif quickly related what she'd learned from reading the fragments of the runes still visible on the ancient stonework: the inn had been built on top of the barrow of none less than Svear the Beautiful, a particularly horrible and evil servant of Balor, as well known for his penchant for rape as for his great ugliness.
Ingolf remembered songs about confirming his horrible nature. Svear was an incredibly ugly ljosalfar that joined with Balor early in the High King's reign. As Aoelif reported Svear was known for kidnapping young elf women and doing horrible things to them, but as one of Balor's chief's, little could be done to stop him. The story goes that when his eye roamed to the daughters of the Cimbri queen Bodiciea, she proposed a marriage in order to save her daughters -- or so she thought. On their wedding night, Svear drugged Bodiciea and raped her daughters anyway. Bodiciea managed to escape, raised an army of her kinsman and sacked Svear's castle.
Speculation that the group was within the barrow itself was more or less confirmed by the sudden appearance of a number of skeletal warriors, all bedecked in bronze and steel harness of many years gone by. These warriors were quickly dealt with, most being taken care of by the mighty arm of Zaccara and the twin swords of Aoelif - especially after it was revealed that the "nun" carried a sword and the nobleman possessed a powerful wand of Magic Missles! The group agreed to seek to leave the place as soon as possible. A passage was found on the far side of the inn that, after a short distance, led to a second branching passage. Talk of immediately seeking the exit was set aside when it was pointed out that the ghost promised death if she was not properly laid to rest.
About this point, by the nobleman discovered a skull set deep into a niche in the wall. It began to talk and quickly revealed that this was, indeed, the barrow of Svear himself. The skull went on at length about Svear's great hoard of treasure and magic spear, as well as his "wives" and where all of these things might be found. He also related that Svear himself, in shadow-form, was still lingering about, seeking release from his imprisonment. Release that could only be gained if a certain mystical condition was met: he needed the hair, freely given, of three elven princesses in order to pass on to the final rest. Not far from this spot, the party discovers the locked cells which contained Svear's "wives" - ghoulish creatures, twelve in all. As the group prepared to destroy these monsters, the door to Svear's final resting place itself swung open, to reveal mounds of treasure as well as the rotten corpse and enchanted spear of the fiend himself. Finally, the ghostly hag, no longer haggish but young and beautiful, reappeared, and revealed that she was the daughter of Bodiciea, the elven woman who had finally overthrown Svear and imprisoned his spirit. She pleads once more with the company to disinter her bones, which were resting uncomfortably beneath his coffin, and properly bury them.
"Here! I was here all along, my mother never found my bones beneath the tomb Svear had built for himself. In her anger she cursed my murderer's spirit to be forever locked in this room until three golden tresses from three Faerie princesses were laid at his feet -- something she knew would never happen. She did not know I lay under this stone. My mother ended up damning both our spirits! Free me free me now!"
When the group demurred, she became very wroth, and moved to attack them, but Martaine through the power of his faith was able to drive her away. Finally a plan was concocted to deal first with the shade of Svear, and then his ghoulish wives. As the plan was put into action, however, the doors to the various cells sprung open and Svear himself arose to do battle. The party found itself caught between 12 hungry and insane ghouls and the potent shade of Svear. Before weapons could be raised, the shade spoke, offering the same deal that the skull had promised: return with the tresses, freely given, of three elven princesses, so that he might pass fully into death, and he would relinquish both his treasures and his enchanted arms, as well as the bones of Bodiciea's daughter. Ultimately a deal was struck: the group agreed to his terms, and the fianna swore on the bones of Finn to return, though it grieved her to do so. In return Svear offered up the bones of Bodiciea's daughter on the spot. After this parley the group quickly were able to find the exit, and returned to the village to see the smoke and fires of the burning inn building still rising from the pit into which it had sunk. All agreed to travel on together for the time being, and began making plans to journey on to Tavia.
Notable Quotes
"You'll pay me to sleep with you?" - Zaccara to the crone (Jon)
"Okay, that cover's blown…" - Nicasia, the woman who claimed to be headed for the nunnery, as she draws a hidden sword (Laura)
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