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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
In Hextor's Name (Completed 22 Oct 2004)
- Thread starter Capellan
- Start date
Capellan
Explorer
Kull's 11th Report - Part 2
I gave the creature my name and explained my purpose. It knew of Quoitine, but did not know where it could be found, except within the elemental plane of earth. However, there were other matters on which it was able to give me more useful information.
First, I should explain that the wizard Gamist had told me that the reason he believed the substance could be found in this area was because an adventurer named Swain had found some there, about ten years before. I asked the creature if it had heard of this man, and it replied that it had: the folk from the village by the sea sometimes spoke of him, though it had not paid much attention to what they said.
I bade the creature tell me how to reach this village, which it did, and then asked what it might know of the other settlements in the peninsula. It said that the Lord Gwebli was 'a good, but troubled man', and that it felt there was something amiss in Penrhys Castle, though it could not say more than this.
From the tales of the locals, I knew that the Hero's Marker had rested in this place for many decades, so I asked the creature if it remembered the time before the land had been consumed by the marsh. It said that it did, and was even able to tell something of what occurred:
According to the creature, several hundred years ago some of the 'little people' - by which I believe it means humans - became followers of a 'great and powerful wyrm' (doubtless a dragon of some kind). The wyrm sought to control the area, while the humans did its bidding. The creature remembered that the wyrm's servants came from the sea, and had a great fleet of ships. The 'land small folk' fought these people, and set up watch-posts along the coast.
Clearly, these watch-posts were the ruins that I have been exploring. From the old documents I have found, these places were built to protect against marauding pirates, and were from the same period as the creature spoke of.
The creature also said that when the land-dwellers came to build their most powerful fortress, they called upon it for help. It said this building - which it called 'the Beacon' lay north-east of where we currently stood, near the coast. I marked this on my map, for I intend to visit this place as soon as is possible.
Though now in ruins, the watch-posts I have explored offer a strong foundation for the building of new and powerful defences for this land, and I asked if the creature would agree to help in their reconstruction. It said that it would, in exchange for a boon - such as a small portion of any quoitine I might find. These seemed fair terms, and I agreed to them immediately.
Finally, I asked of the wolf beside the cairn, and the creature replied that it had destroyed the beast, when the wolf attempted to disturb the resting place of Belanere, an ancient hero it had once served.
The creature's words were slow and halting, and questioning it took several hours. By the time I was finished, the late was fading, so I determined that we would camp where we were for the night, and travel on in the morning. During the course of the night, we heard wolves howling in the distance, but they did not approach the hill, no doubt due to the fate of the last of them that did.
When dawn arrived, I decided not to continue to Penrhys Castle, as I had originally planned, but to seek out Lord Gwebli, and learn what it was that troubled him. From the creature's words, it seemed this man was the most senior noble of the region, and it would be a sound tactic to win his gratitude, in case the quoitine proved to be on his land. It would be less trouble to have his cooperation in its removal, than to take the substance by force.
I gave the creature my name and explained my purpose. It knew of Quoitine, but did not know where it could be found, except within the elemental plane of earth. However, there were other matters on which it was able to give me more useful information.
First, I should explain that the wizard Gamist had told me that the reason he believed the substance could be found in this area was because an adventurer named Swain had found some there, about ten years before. I asked the creature if it had heard of this man, and it replied that it had: the folk from the village by the sea sometimes spoke of him, though it had not paid much attention to what they said.
I bade the creature tell me how to reach this village, which it did, and then asked what it might know of the other settlements in the peninsula. It said that the Lord Gwebli was 'a good, but troubled man', and that it felt there was something amiss in Penrhys Castle, though it could not say more than this.
From the tales of the locals, I knew that the Hero's Marker had rested in this place for many decades, so I asked the creature if it remembered the time before the land had been consumed by the marsh. It said that it did, and was even able to tell something of what occurred:
According to the creature, several hundred years ago some of the 'little people' - by which I believe it means humans - became followers of a 'great and powerful wyrm' (doubtless a dragon of some kind). The wyrm sought to control the area, while the humans did its bidding. The creature remembered that the wyrm's servants came from the sea, and had a great fleet of ships. The 'land small folk' fought these people, and set up watch-posts along the coast.
Clearly, these watch-posts were the ruins that I have been exploring. From the old documents I have found, these places were built to protect against marauding pirates, and were from the same period as the creature spoke of.
The creature also said that when the land-dwellers came to build their most powerful fortress, they called upon it for help. It said this building - which it called 'the Beacon' lay north-east of where we currently stood, near the coast. I marked this on my map, for I intend to visit this place as soon as is possible.
Though now in ruins, the watch-posts I have explored offer a strong foundation for the building of new and powerful defences for this land, and I asked if the creature would agree to help in their reconstruction. It said that it would, in exchange for a boon - such as a small portion of any quoitine I might find. These seemed fair terms, and I agreed to them immediately.
Finally, I asked of the wolf beside the cairn, and the creature replied that it had destroyed the beast, when the wolf attempted to disturb the resting place of Belanere, an ancient hero it had once served.
The creature's words were slow and halting, and questioning it took several hours. By the time I was finished, the late was fading, so I determined that we would camp where we were for the night, and travel on in the morning. During the course of the night, we heard wolves howling in the distance, but they did not approach the hill, no doubt due to the fate of the last of them that did.
When dawn arrived, I decided not to continue to Penrhys Castle, as I had originally planned, but to seek out Lord Gwebli, and learn what it was that troubled him. From the creature's words, it seemed this man was the most senior noble of the region, and it would be a sound tactic to win his gratitude, in case the quoitine proved to be on his land. It would be less trouble to have his cooperation in its removal, than to take the substance by force.
Capellan
Explorer
Kull's 11th Report - Part 3
In the event, it proved that the Lord Gwebli's problems were with a pack of wargs, which had been attacking the herds and flocks of his people for several months. He had led an expedition to destroy the creatures, but several had escaped the battle, and his own losses had been heavy. Three men had died, and only two of his hunting dogs survived, leaving him without the necessary forces to find and slay the last of the beasts.
From the journey to his castle, it was clear that the lord and his people were impoverished, and could offer little reward for undertaking this task, nor resistance should I determine to take the quoitine. However, it seemed that the man might have information that would assist me in my task, so I agreed to destroy the creatures for him.
This was duly accomplished the next day. Trackers had located the wargs' lair some days before, and the lord simply lacked the means to destroy them. I had no such lack, and the four remaining beasts were swiftly destroyed. They had not all been mere wargs - at least one was a larger beast, with pure white fur and the ability to breathe a blast of frost and cold - but a combination of fire and strength of arms was more than sufficient for the task.
Once the beasts were destroyed, the villagers burnt the corpses - an action which seemed to distress Gnorric, and was therefore probably a wise thing to do - and the lord gave a feast in honour of the victory. During the festivities, we agreed that in the morning, he would provide me with a guide to lead the way to the village by the sea.
The journey took most of the day, ad I arrived in the village near dusk. It was a poor-looking place, too small even for an inn, and with only the barest of subsistence farming in evidence. Women were in the fields, spreading seaweed in an effort to enrich the earth.
I located the mayor and bid him tell me of Swain, the man who had previously found the quoitine. According to the mayor, these events were many years in the past, but what little he could remember was that Swain was an adventurer who fought a monster in the hills. The man was not able to kill the beast, which had murdered several villagers, but he was able to injure it badly enough that it stopped coming out of its lair. Every year, Swain would return and try to defeat the beast, but without success. He did, however, keep the beast from attacking anyone else. Then one year, Swain went to fight the creature and did not return.
That the man could speak such utter nonsense and yet so obviously believe it would astonish me, had I not experienced the wilful ignorance of the folk of Saltmarsh for so many months. What warrior would return time and again to face a foe he could not defeat, without ever seeking reinforcement, seemed ludicrous to me. Knowing as I did that Swain had brought quoitine from these parts for many years, I began to wonder if the 'monster' of which he spoke was simply a fiction, designed to keep the curious away from the source of his wealth, but further questions to the mayor indicated that those few villagers who had tried to explore the area since Swain's apparent death had not returned. Evidently there was somehting dangerous there, though whether this was a creature, or Swain himself, was yet to be seen.
In the morning, I set out for the hill where the monster was reputed to lair. The place was windy and exposed, too inhospitable for even the scrabbly farming of these parts.
Atop the hill was an indentation in the ground, which proved to be the mouth of a tunnel, leading down into a cave of sparkling stone. I instructed Dargrim and Ulfgar to examine it, and both reported it to be like no stone they had ever seen.
As Ulfgar completed his inspection, however, a face appeared in the rock, and then an arm swept out, batting him across the cave with little effort. The dwarf's armour - he is one of the few of my assistants who properly equips himself for combat - absorbed much of the force of the blow, and he did not seem hurt, though it took a few moments for him to regain his feet.
As he did so, the face disappeared into the stone, reappearing several feet to one side. From there, it vanished and moved again, emerging in swift succession in over a dozen places. And then it spoke, telling us that we must leave, or be destroyed.
The Windholme Peninsula has far too many talking rocks.
In the event, it proved that the Lord Gwebli's problems were with a pack of wargs, which had been attacking the herds and flocks of his people for several months. He had led an expedition to destroy the creatures, but several had escaped the battle, and his own losses had been heavy. Three men had died, and only two of his hunting dogs survived, leaving him without the necessary forces to find and slay the last of the beasts.
From the journey to his castle, it was clear that the lord and his people were impoverished, and could offer little reward for undertaking this task, nor resistance should I determine to take the quoitine. However, it seemed that the man might have information that would assist me in my task, so I agreed to destroy the creatures for him.
This was duly accomplished the next day. Trackers had located the wargs' lair some days before, and the lord simply lacked the means to destroy them. I had no such lack, and the four remaining beasts were swiftly destroyed. They had not all been mere wargs - at least one was a larger beast, with pure white fur and the ability to breathe a blast of frost and cold - but a combination of fire and strength of arms was more than sufficient for the task.
Once the beasts were destroyed, the villagers burnt the corpses - an action which seemed to distress Gnorric, and was therefore probably a wise thing to do - and the lord gave a feast in honour of the victory. During the festivities, we agreed that in the morning, he would provide me with a guide to lead the way to the village by the sea.
The journey took most of the day, ad I arrived in the village near dusk. It was a poor-looking place, too small even for an inn, and with only the barest of subsistence farming in evidence. Women were in the fields, spreading seaweed in an effort to enrich the earth.
I located the mayor and bid him tell me of Swain, the man who had previously found the quoitine. According to the mayor, these events were many years in the past, but what little he could remember was that Swain was an adventurer who fought a monster in the hills. The man was not able to kill the beast, which had murdered several villagers, but he was able to injure it badly enough that it stopped coming out of its lair. Every year, Swain would return and try to defeat the beast, but without success. He did, however, keep the beast from attacking anyone else. Then one year, Swain went to fight the creature and did not return.
That the man could speak such utter nonsense and yet so obviously believe it would astonish me, had I not experienced the wilful ignorance of the folk of Saltmarsh for so many months. What warrior would return time and again to face a foe he could not defeat, without ever seeking reinforcement, seemed ludicrous to me. Knowing as I did that Swain had brought quoitine from these parts for many years, I began to wonder if the 'monster' of which he spoke was simply a fiction, designed to keep the curious away from the source of his wealth, but further questions to the mayor indicated that those few villagers who had tried to explore the area since Swain's apparent death had not returned. Evidently there was somehting dangerous there, though whether this was a creature, or Swain himself, was yet to be seen.
In the morning, I set out for the hill where the monster was reputed to lair. The place was windy and exposed, too inhospitable for even the scrabbly farming of these parts.
Atop the hill was an indentation in the ground, which proved to be the mouth of a tunnel, leading down into a cave of sparkling stone. I instructed Dargrim and Ulfgar to examine it, and both reported it to be like no stone they had ever seen.
As Ulfgar completed his inspection, however, a face appeared in the rock, and then an arm swept out, batting him across the cave with little effort. The dwarf's armour - he is one of the few of my assistants who properly equips himself for combat - absorbed much of the force of the blow, and he did not seem hurt, though it took a few moments for him to regain his feet.
As he did so, the face disappeared into the stone, reappearing several feet to one side. From there, it vanished and moved again, emerging in swift succession in over a dozen places. And then it spoke, telling us that we must leave, or be destroyed.
The Windholme Peninsula has far too many talking rocks.
Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
You get nuthin' but trouble from talkin' rocks, that is what I've always said. 
arwink
Clockwork Golem
I don't know - the first talking rock was kind of pleasant, as talking rocks go. Cheerful, willing to offer information, and generally smarter than most of the folks we ended up speaking with around Windholm. Focused too, really knew what he was doing with his life. Salt of the earth type 
I mean, sure, there was the need to make a Reflex Save to avoid falling off him every time we woke him up and have a chat, but apart from that...
I mean, sure, there was the need to make a Reflex Save to avoid falling off him every time we woke him up and have a chat, but apart from that...
Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
Tallarn said:You get nuthin' but trouble from talkin' rocks, that is what I've always said.
Whatever do you mean? If Kull could find a bunch of (much smaller) talking rocks, he could sell them to the fad-crazed masses at 5gp apiece!
-z
