Flynn's World of Samardan - Sword and Planet Action in an Exotic World (Updated 6/11)

[Stormwynd]

Looking for a couple more players in Austin

Just a reminder: We are still looking for a couple more players to fill out the gaming table, so let Flynn or I know if you are in the Austin area and find yourself interested in the game after reading some of these posts!

 

[Stormwynd]

Session Summary: Knights of Anderwan

by Jason 'Flynn' Kemp

As the aftermath of the battle on the ship's main deck settled, the Earthmen began moving about. Naturally, they began with their comrades in arms, stopping Kurukuja the Axe from bleeding out, but unfortunately discovering that both Baganaba's and Sargeant Bryce Taggart's injuries were too extensive. After a moment of silent prayer, the three remaining Earthmen joined the native Anderwani in taking the rest of the ship and looting the bodies of their fallen foes. Jonas took a particular interest in Master Arunblad Grasin's dikres (crystalline pistol), and secured it quickly.

Below decks, the majority of the mercenaries and slavers were slaughtered, although a handful surrendered and were taken as prisoners. The three Earthmen found several large bags of silver in Master Grasin's cabin, as well as several scrolls and a crystal they believed would power the dikres, if only they could figure out how to replace the dead crystal currently in the crystalline weapon.

Over the next few days, the three Earthmen began to organize the island. They checked on Sulpesh, and helped the two villages to begin communicating. With the assistance of the three liberators, the island began to unify in their shared experience against the slavers of House Grasin. Over the course of the next week, the band learned more of the mysterious world upon which they'd found themselves. In many areas on Samardan, secretive societies, sisterhoods and martial orders were considered a part of a civilized way of life. Baganaba's rose-like tattoos indicated that she belonged to one such order on Vasha, though none knew which one it might be.

Sen Mayan recovered rapidly under Father Daniel's care, and spoke of his hopes to travel aboard the disanadar to the Southern Kingdoms of Haklasa, where ruins of the Nekrani might contain antiquities that might grant a return of his supernatural powers to the pock-faced Mystic of Krang. Sen Mayan held Aidan in high esteem for the sailor's rescuing him from the cage of the slavers, and often referred to him as the Mystic's personal champion.

The villagers of both Anderwan and Sulpesh felt similar esteem for the three visitors, and so offered them the position of Jeni (knights, singular jen) of the island as a tribute to their great service. The island prepared for a celebration of their heroes. Alas, it would seem that Fate, or perhaps another force, had plans for the Earthmen.

The sadathapir, the crimson bird-beast that watched over them as they all arrived on Samardan, appeared to them all as a group and spoke to them for the first time through some form of mental telepathy. In it's self-important urgency, the sadathapir informed the Earthmen that they had been recruited by the Mebani for purposes beyond their understanding, and they were ordered to prepare for their next mission, which was to destroy House Grasin so that the islanders would not suffer the wrath of the kelshan slavers. Truly before the band could respond, they were whisked away in a flash of crimson light.

Sitting up from their transition, the Earthmen looked about to find themselves atop a tall cliff overlooking a broad blue bay. As they gathered their bearings, the Earthmen spied two patagroli (rock apes) preparing to attack a band of guards and their young lordly charge. Even as Father Daniel raised his voice in alarm, the beasts attacked. The patrol began to die as their young lord fled, and the earthmen sprang into action.

The nimble Jonas, in trying to jump and tumble down the slope, hit a loose rock and fell headlong down the mountainside before he caught himself on the lip of a lower trail. Meanwhile, Father Daniel and Aidan charged one of the patagroli, beating on it to draw its attentions from the guards that fell like scythed wheat. Through a furious exchange of blows, the two Earthmen nearly dropped the patagrol, before both fell into unconsciousness from the savagery of their own wounds.

As his friends fought one of the rock apes above, Jonas gave the other a merry chase up and down the trails, occasionally loosing arrows into the beast his comrades fought. In the end, Jonas wounded the first beast enough to send it fleeing back up the cliff and into the forests above. The second beast took after his wounded brother, leaving Jonas behind to rush to his brother's aid. A well-placed final arrow dropped the wounded beast, so the patagrol still standing drug his brother's body back into the woods.

As Jonas rushed to aid his companions as they continued to bleed, the young lord had reached the base of the cliff and apparently ordered his people to start rowing across the broad bay back to the city. Grumbling to himself about the selfishness of the youth, Jonas helped bring the others to conciousness, and the three survivors slowly made their way to the base of the cliff. The ragtag band walked along the beach as the sun rose and they grew more fatigued.

About midday, the three found a small cave to hide in. Looking within, they found evidence that the cave had been used for secret meetings, and began to search through the sand for anything that could aid them. Finding a hidden cache of food, they ate their fill and rested through the heat of the afternoon, eventually drifting off to sleep.

Awakened by a strange scuttling sound, the band was startled to see a monstrous sea scorpion the size of a domestic cat entering into the cave. As the others drew weapons and retreated from the narrow entrance, Father Daniel drew forth a dagger and quickly dispatched the monstrosity with a single well-placed throw. Grumpily, the three Earthmen gathered themselves and their belongings. Moving out of the cave and into the cool dusk, the band prepared to move on, hoping to round the bay and enter the city before the end of the night...

 

[Stormwynd]

Character Backstory: Father Daniel Karamalegos

by Michael Ceranko

The sun cast hues of deep indigo and gold as it set far to the east of the Loma Mountains, making the horizon a beacon of beauty in the high jungle air. The village of Sumbaria was quiet, awaiting the coming bloodbath of the armed slavers. Father Daniel Karamalegos eyes burned in the hot air as he searched the jungle treeline for raiders. The cries weeping women echoed from the cellar of the monastery, speaking in the native speak of the local tribes. His mouth tasted of dust.

He charged a round into the bolt- action rifle and rested his shoulder on the edge of the window. He smiled to himself. After all the battles with Berbers in the deserts of Morocco as a Legion Estranger he was going to meet his end in Sierra Leone. He would die a newly ordained Orthodox priest defending orphans in an abandoned monastery. He wondered if the Hierophant would frown upon him losing his life defending Animists.

After fighting so many wars, he had wanted an end to the killing, a place to find peace. The end of the world seemed like a good place to find it, the deep mountain jungles of Sierra Leone. It was, until they found diamonds here. Then came the bankers and their mercenaries, and the slavers. Men with money who would rather use slaves than pay men an honest wage. Such was life in Africa. They had shot Father Juno in the face point blank, just two weeks before for feeding runaway slaves. And they had abducted the Swedish nurse Anna, and returned her headless, naked corpse to the village in a wheelbarrow. Daniel was hunting in the valley when they attacked, heard the gunshots and saw the plumes of smoke.

Daniel had bought his rifles at the market the day after, breaking his vow never to bear arms again. He had planned to lead them across the mountains to Freetown, to ask French troops for help. But the trails were rife with slavers, and now his village was full of refugee’s fleeing their pursuers. They hid amidst the mud brick huts, armed with only machetes and clubs. The mercenaries would have rifle’s he knew, it was a lost cause, but there was no way out so a last stand was the only option. He wanted to be back in Mykinos, crab fishing with his father and brothers, watching the sunset in the sapphire ocean. That life had bored him. So he had looked for adventure in North Africa with the foreign Legion, like so many others all they found was misery in the sand defending useless outposts in the desert. There was nothing romantic about it.

Work as a medic had suited him, he could always find a job healing people and curing ills in the black corners of the world. First, there was the Sudan; where he met Father Juno and Anna. Khartoum was not a safe place for Orthodox Christians, even if they were curing disease. South Africa was much safer, although Father Juno desired to return to Sierra Leone where he had grown up. He had hoped to bring Orthodoxy to the natives and teach French and English. Rebuilding the ruined monastery had been his lifelong dream. The mercenaries had destroyed that dream. And Father Juno, and Anna.

And here he was; a dead man on borrowed time. Waiting for death like waiting for a train to arrive.

Ambogo was sitting on the floor loading his second rifle; the boy was twelve and spoke four languages. He had slept under father Daniel’s cot for months.

The boy had wandered into the village half dead bleeding from a dozen machete wounds. Ambogo’s left ear had been hacked off and his teeth shattered, but he had survived and looked to Daniel as a father figure. He even helped the younger children learn English. Daniel liked him for his wide-eyed enthusiasm for life and his amazing intelligence. Quick witted and funny, he made the days go by much easier in the harshness of the jungle.

“I wish you’d listen to me and get into the cellar. They will be on us any minute.” Daniel muttered.

Ambogo frowned.

“Who would reload for you father? Besides, I have no wish to die around crying women. I would rather fight.” He smiled his broken tooth grin. The boy patted the black Machete next to him on the ground.

“You should have fled into the jungle. You could have escaped. Like I told you.”

Ambogo finished reloading and placed the rifle against the wall.

“Maybe you should go downstairs with the women Ambogo, all you do is keep whining.”
Ambogo looked disturbingly calm.

“I couldn’t leave them. Besides the Gunmen would follow us. We don’t really have a choice there is only one way out of this valley.”

Daniel saw the gunmen come through the trees moving fast in a line. He aimed his rifle and took the first one in the throat. The others scattered, running for the cover of the mud brick huts. He heard the screams of fighting and gunshots. Daniel winged another in the chest as the man came around the side of the window. Ambogo handed him his second rifle and began his reload.

Bullets shattered the bricks around his window; five men were making a charge for the monastery door. They carried bloody Machetes. Daniel fired through the door and heard a scream and the thud of a body. The women were screaming bloody murder in the cellar. A gunman Climbed through the window and Ambogo sliced his hand in half as the man perched on the windowsill, he dropped his rifle and grabbed his hand screaming. Daniel put a round in his head and stopped his screaming.

The door crashed open, men swarmed in swords flailing. Ambogo dropped one with the dead man’s rifle. Daniel aimed backing up trying to avoid their rush. He got one round off before they were on him. One grabbed his arm. He felt a pop in his head and he lost control of his body. Blood flowed into his eyes and the ground came up and hammered him. He smiled as he saw the cross on the wall of the ceiling. It seemed Christ was looking down at him from the cross. How can you let this happen? He wondered. He watched Ambogo run to the back of the room. The boy gave a brave stand off before the blade of a machete caught him across the side of the neck.

His eyes dimmed and he found himself in a gray mist. He saw a pinprick of light; it began swirling in front of him. He felt lighter than air and he seemed to shoot up toward the light, moving faster and faster. He was going to heaven he thought, as he woke up.

 

[Stormwynd]

Session Summary: Entering Iskatesh

by Jason 'Flynn' Kemp

The Earthmen emerged from their cave of seclusion to discover that the beach was awash with sea scorpion packs during the early hours of the evening. Keeping a swift pace, the three warriors moved between and around the aquatic arachnids for over an hour before they were finally free of the chitinous hordes.

As the moons rose overhead, the Earthmen worked their way further west and north along the shore of the bay, towards the river that flowed from the forests of the mainland. Closing on the river's mouth, they came upon the Border Tower of the Gran Iskagwach. After a brief period of introductions, the Earthmen made friends with the night captain, and were taken in under a story of being shipwrecked. While at the tower, they learned much about Iskatesh, House Grasin, and Queen Lobiyeba's love for the gladiatorial games. The small band also met the namiran (tiger-man), Captain Asad of the Tower, whom they later learned was of House Anid. At the end of their stay, Captain Asad asked the group to deliver a missive to his brother Besigi at the Room of the Blue Drang (a drang is a feral draconic beast scarcely larger than a man), and allowed them to travel with the soldiers returning back to the city via boat.

As the boat rowed in, the three visitors got to observe the grandeur of the Imperial City of Iskatesh, seeing the smaller arenas (called the "Little Battles" by the locals) in the outlying areas and the Grand Colliseum more centrally located just north of the slave yard district.

After arriving at the docks, the Earthmen left the seedy wharf district and entered the merchant district, where they left their military friends from the tower. The group separated to pick up supplies and get the lay of the land. While Father Daniel never found the shop of Mariba of the Silks, a seamstress recommended to him by the soldiers of the border tower, he did make arrangements with Gunin Talado, a tailor with obvious feminine affectations and an interest in foreign men, to provide a very fancy noble's outfit within the next few days. Daniel then left the merchant district to peddle his healing skills in the slums of Iskatesh for room and board. The couple, Premorado and Nanoba ne Iskatesh, that took the priest in tried to drug him in order to sell him to the arena's "recruitment drive," but failed to account for the priest's stout constitution. Once he realized what had happened, he tied the couple up, latched the door of the hovel and slept off the poison.

As Father Daniel tended to the sick in the slums, Aidan earned some silver as a tumbler and entertainer in the entertainment quarter of the merchant district. After collecting his earnings, Aidan returned to their agreed meeting place, only to find that the other two Earthmen had not returned. After waiting a bit, he left to find a place of his own for the night. As he walked about, a young lad lured Aidan into an alleyway, whereupon a press gang jumped the sailor, beating him down with saps and mancatchers. Aidan almost escaped, only to fall to a lucky sap strike as he fled his pursuers.

Waking the next morning, Aidan found himself once again in a cage filled with other humans, this time one on wheels. Fortunately, Jonas was also among those captured in this cage, so the two stayed close and waited for what lay ahead. As the cage wound its way into the slaveyard district, Aidan was awash with his first sightings of a number of different races of this new world: chardirani (four-armed men), farani (rat-men), ganani (cat-men), saduni (monkey-men), lobani (wolf-men) and the diversity continued. As he watched, men of all races were being forced out of cages and pushed through the slaver's dens, to be stripped, branded and then sold to the highest bidder. Kelshani slave masters supervised the operation, whipping those that hesitated. Those that fought back were either slain or beaten into submission to be sent off to the arena for gladiatorial training.

As Aidan and Jonas watched how the slavers treated those captured by the press gangs, Father Daniel was busy seeking to free them, having learned of their fate from a soldier that had seen them being wheeled off. After trying to work with the local authorities, Daniel then set out to find Besigi, the brother of Captain Asad. When he found the Room of the Blue Drang back near the docks, Daniel presented the missive from Asad of the Tower to his brother Besigi the Blue Drang. The massive tiger-man read his brother's missive, then listened to Daniel's tale of the conquest of Master Arunblad Grasin. When Daniel presented Arunblad's signet ring, he gained an ally from Pansanu Besigi. In exchange for the ring, and thus the opportunity to provoke Kulin (or Count) Arunmas Grasin into a duel, Besigi offered to save Daniel's friends from the slave block.

As the bright white sun rose overhead, the cage moved forward in the slaveyards, and Aidan and Jonas were pushed from their cage along with the other captives. Stripped and then branded with the mark of House Grasin, the captives were split into groups of four to be placed on the slave block for sale. Jonas and Aidan remained together, and were put before the crowd along with two other umani. Aidan spied Daniel with a tiger-man, who sent a representative to bid on them. After a brief period of escalation, the four were sold to Besigi for a mere 325 silver. Upon their delivery, the four former slaves were immediately released, and the group retired to the Room of the Blue Drang to plot the downfall of House Grasin...