KidCthulhu's Scarred Land story hour

[Iron Chef BBQ]

Children of the Stone

Each member of the party swallows a small stone. As the stone slips down their throats they feel their bodies stiffen. They feel the solid cool hands of the stone creatures pull them into the rock wall of the cave. They can’t hear anything. Their only feeling is a strange sliding sensation. Even the dwarves, generally at ease underground, are disconcerted. There is no way to track time. Deke tries to count in his head, but can’t concentrate. After an age or an instant, light appears. They are all blinded by the dim interior of a small cave.

Mirabelle is lying in a heap on the floor, breathing, but unconscious. Thomas can’t wake her. Finally, she jolts awake. “Is it over?” she stammers, “All those claws gripping at me.” Thomas notices that her eyes have changed color from blue to brown. Mirabelle realizes that a part of her was torn away by the rock, the part of her that would have drawn her, like the rest of her family, into madness and evil.

She steps aside to perform a service to Ankili in thanks. When she is finished, she asks each member of the party to roll two six-sided dice. Lucre and Deke roll well and she places 2 stripes of oil on their faces. Borin bets on his roll, but loses a gold piece. Ankili does not see fit to smile on him at this moment. Gemma rolls best and is offered a drink from the bowl of sacred wine. She glows briefly. Mirabelle announces that Gemma has been blest with the gift to change her luck once by calling on Ankili. (Gemma may reroll one die in the future.)

Mirabelle bows to the stone creatures who in turn take of their heads and touch them to the ground in salute. They tell the party they may stay here the rest of the night, and then they disappear silently into the walls of the cave.

Mirabelle looks outside and gets her bearings. They still have about 8 hours journey before they are safe. The party gets some much needed sleep.

The next day they step outside the cave onto a ledge about the width of a sidewalk. Everyone except Deke ties themselves together, and they begin walking. Morgaine is chattering away and distracts Marja by asking her to look at something. Marja stumbles, loses her balance and falls into Kel who in turn stumbles into Borin. All three fall. Morgaine sits down quickly and pulls on the rope, apologizing profusely the whole while. Gemma pulls from the other side and the three manage to regain their footing.

After several hours of downward travel they reach the bottom of the mountain and find themselves in a canyon with a huge stone blocking their way. This is Ankili’s thinking stone where he is supposed to have sat and contemplated his creation, the land around them. Using ropes, skill and luck the party manages to get every member over. They continue on another 3 hours down gentle slopes. Only about an hour to go, and they’ll be clear of this place.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

A Comrade Falls

They come upon a field scattered with large boulders 10 to 20 feet high. Deke and Morgaine hear a slow grinding noise. Deke climbs to the top of a boulder and scans the area looking for movement, but doesn’t see anything. Kelly detects magic, but senses no illusion. They begin to weave between the rocks. Suddenly Morgaine identifies the source of the sound. “Stop! The rocks are rumbling!” They all jump away as every boulder and stone rolls and scrapes around landing in a new position creating a new configuration. The party ups the pace to get through the last of Ankili’s jokes.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightening hits the party, and the air fills with mist. They hear a voice, “You’ll never make it out of the canyon alive.” Gemma fires a gust of wind arrow at the ground in front of her, and the mist begins to boil away. Morgaine hears a woman’s voice taunting, “Here dwarfy, dwarfy.” She tells Lucre who yells, “We pulled your son’s wishbone to see who got a wish!”

Marja begins casting haste on herself and Borin. Kel casts protection from evil. Borin feels his muscles begin to freeze solid, but with sheer strength, he shakes it off. Marja hastes Lucre and makes him invisible. Kalina gets ready to cast fairy fire as soon as she has a direction on Ma when Morgaine yells, “Look out, the rocks!” Once again the party braces and tumbles as the boulders rearrange themselves.

Thomas is caught under a rock with two broken legs. Mirabelle is crushed between a boulder and the canyon wall. She is barely breathing. Lucre rushes in and heals Thomas and gives him a potion for Mirabelle.

All heads turn as there is a scream of fury and the sound of an invisible battle axe swinging though the air and making contact. Morgaine gasps as she sees a huge wound appear in Borin’s chest. Deke feels a dampness as he is spattered with Borin’s blood, but he also sees the spatters fall on an invisible form. He moves in to flank, but misses. Borin calls to Marja for invisibility. She pulls out a scroll as she runs to him and casts dispell magic in his direction. Borin loses his haste, but Ma appears. Borin rages at the sight of her and swings his battle axe and hits.

Kalina spots Pa and casts Salamar’s quiet contemplation. He makes a comment to his wife on the uselessness of violence and wanders away muttering to himself.

Morgaine casts Melf’s acid arrow at Ma, but misses and hits Borin instead. Lucre jumps between Borin and Ma in an attempt to draw her attack. “He kinda made a squeaking noise as he died,” he taunts her as he attacks. She pushes him aside to get at Borin, and Lucre hits her again. Ma raises her battle axe, and with a wild scream brings it down hard across Borin’s chest slicing through his neck. The dwarf falls forward, dead. For a moment no one moves. They seem frozen in time until they are suddenly roused by Marja’s scream. Two ice knives fly from her hands, and one sinks solidly into Ma’s chest before melting into the air. Deke pounces for a sneak attack and delivers the final blow. Ma falls to the ground dead beside the body of Borin.

Marja and Lucre rush in and pull the two bodies apart. Both are crying, Lucre quietly and Marja in huge sobs. Morgaine, filled with guilt that her acid arrow contributed to Borin’s fall, wonders if he might not be dead. Of course, the older and wiser of the party know there is no doubt. Gemma takes pity on the poor young mage and lays a gentle hand on her arm. She silently nods no.

Mirabelle and Thomas, fully healed, but badly shaken, come forward. “Oh Ma, why, why?” Mirabelle cries.

Marja is resolute. She is taking Borin’s body to the nearest temple of Ankili she can find. She has some choice words for the god of “practical jokes.” The party silently heads out of the field of boulders toward the nearest town.

 

[Piratecat]

So. Very. Dead. Without Borin, we felt more than a little bit naked.

KidCthulhu, in a stunnign display of rat-bastardyness, simulated the rolling boulders by putting real rocks on the battlemap. Then she'd roll the suckers over on top of our miniatures. Ouchie.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

Borin's return

When last we left our intrepid band of adventurers they were solemnly transporting Borin’s body to town. They arrive in a small city and ask directions to the nearest temple of Ankili. Unfortunately, this town only has one temple, a pantheon to all the gods. They enter and lay Borin’s body at the base of the temple of Ankili. Lucre is adamant that they take the body to the statue of Goran, god of the dwarfs, but Marja ignores him. She steps up to the statue and starts chastising the statue in an angry tone, tears streaming down her face. “How could you do this to him! You chose him as your own with your tricks and pranks! You led him into your own land! He defended your cleric, and you let him die at the hands of your enemies!” The others back away to let her finish her tirade in private. Lucre asks a cleric to direct him to the altar of Goran, but is informed that there is no such altar. Lucre scowls and approaches the central altar, kneels and prays first with an apology that this pantheon has snubbed the most noble of the gods and second with a prayer for his fallen cousin.

When all prayers are said the group heads silently to an inn. They get rooms and head to a pub for a bite to eat and to drown their sorrows in pints of ale. Drinking ale seems to be the only thing that Marja and Lucre ever seem to agree on. They arrive at the bar to hear a young lad telling a story. There is a band of travelers newly arrived at the gates of town. They have an elven woman who is dressed as a cleric bound in ropes. She’s screaming and thrashing like she’s insane. The group is heading for the pub.

Indeed, the travelers appear shortly with the young woman in tow. She’s howling questions at the group, who are they, what are they doing to her. She sees Lucre across the room. “Cousin Lucre,” she calls. “Tells these nincompoops to let me go! Marja, Deke, tell these idiots that I am Borin!”

 

[KidCthulhu]

So. Very. Dead. Without Borin, we felt more than a little bit naked.

KidCthulhu, in a stunnign display of rat-bastardyness, simulated the rolling boulders by putting real rocks on the battlemap. Then she'd roll the suckers over on top of our miniatures. Ouchie.

Ah, the death of Borin. And the rolling rocks. Two of the finest moments in my short DMing career. This DMing thing is fun!

 

[(contact)]

So. Very. Dead. Without Borin, we felt more than a little bit naked.

Without Borin, you're hosed. Game over. Where do Scarred Lands adventurers go when they're ready to retire? Is there some kind of Titan's footprint cum assisted living community for the feebleminded?

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

Rats!

The group quickly realizes that this elf is indeed Borin. Ugh! Lucre is a little creeped out and Marja's only solice is that Borin isn't prettier than she is. Well, they decide to head out to Vesh to the temple of Ankili to try to figure out what is going on.

On the way to Vesh our adventurers pass through some lovely countryside, clearly farm and grazing land. As they trek through beautiful rolling hills of green pastures and split-rail fences, they occasionally see a pile of bones, usually cattle, stripped clean and drying white in the sun.

As they come around a bend in the road Morgaine, with her keep hearing, detects the sound of gnawing or chomping. Very strange. Not so strange once they round the bend. Before them is a gruesome sight. A heard of cattle is clustered closely together at the far side of a fenced in paddock. They are clearly distressed and are pushing against the rails in an effort to break free. At the near end of the paddock, near the road where our travels are passing, lies a large steer, and his hind quarters are covered with RATS!

These are no ordinary rats. They are the size of small dogs, with white pointy teeth. They are gnawing with a vengeance on the poor beast, cleaning every scrap of flesh from the bone. The most disturbing thing is that the animal is still alive. Their bite seems to have some sort of a numbing affect, for while the steer tries to move his front legs to stand up and get away, he is not howling in pain.

Deke quickly suggests that they should move on before these rats detect them standing there gaping when his keen eyes pick up another figure some distance from the steer. This is the body of a young boy, probably the herder of this flock. He had apparently bravely rushed in to save his cattle when the rats brought him down. He is also being attacked by a hoard of the creatures, and seems to be unconscious.

Our band leaps into action. Individually the rats are easy pickings, and one by one the party picks them off. Fang, in particular, enjoys the fight. “It’s like chasing rabbits," he says to Kalina. “Or cats,” he adds eyeing Morgaine’s familiar.

Gemma and Kel heal the poor boy who is grateful for his rescue. “I thought I was a goner. When I felt the first bite and felt my leg go numb, I said a prayer to the gods to grant me a brave death.” The lad takes the party home to his parents where he tells the heroic story. Clearly this boy has bardic talent. After all, he was unconscious for most of the fighting. His parents are grateful and ask the party to stay to share their evening meal.

Over delicious beef stew and hearty ale our band hears a story of woe. This area is plagued by those rat creatures. Usually they are nothing more than a nuisance. There is a barbarian who lives in a cave in the low mountains who has taken upon himself the protection of this area and its people. He is called Gorog, and always seemed to take great pleasure in single-handedly wiping out whole hoards of the creatures and dispelling any bandits that might try to prey upon these roads. Lately, however, no one has seen him. They thought that perhaps he was dead until a young girl from the area spotted him picking daisies along the riverbank.

Picking daisies! A barbarian! This doesn’t sound right. The party decides to spend the night under the hospitality of this family and go to see this barbarian in the morning. It sounds like Ankili might have his hand in here, too. The lad promises to show them where Gorog’s cave is, but not until his mother has fed them a hearty breakfast of cured ham and eggs. Sounds too good to be true. For the first time in a long time, the entire party sleeps well.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

How Gorog Got His Rage Back, pt 1

In the morning well fed and rested, our merry band of adventurers heads to the cave of the barbarian, Gorog. They approach cautiously. This might be a trap or he might be under a spell. No to the first, yes to the second. They are met by what Borin thought was a pitiful sight: a Barbarian giant stood in the middle of his cave. Was he dressed in animal skins with club in hand? Was he growling or scratching himself? Was he drinking ale and spilling it down his beard? No! He was wearing a little lacy apron and holding a feather duster. “Morning” He growled. “You just can’t imagine how hard it is to keep a cave neat and clean.” Then he sat down on the ground in a heap, put his head in his hands and looked very glum.

The group introduces themselves and through questioning learns that Gorog is most unhappy. Several weeks ago he was out and about in these lands, looking for rats to smash when he spotted a hag named Borkata in the distance. She’s a strange creature, thought to be a witch, who keeps to herself in the high hills. She was waving her arms at him so he thought she was in trouble. He headed over to her, but then she ran away. A strange feeling came over him. He didn’t want to smash those poor little rats anymore. He didn’t want to smash anything anymore. He headed back to his cave and cried. At first he tried to fight the feeling. Maybe if he hit something, this new feeling would go away. He tried, but felt so badly afterwards that he hadn’t hit anything again since. He tried to accept his new way of life. He’d even picked flowers to put in his cave, but he just felt worse than ever.

The party promises to try to help Gorog if he will tell them all he knows about the hag and will take them to her cave. Gorog, the friendly barbarian, agrees and leads the party to the opening of a small cave in a dark and shadowing clearing. Morgaine sends Taylor, her cat, ahead to scout. Taylor reports that there is a big metal thing in the ceiling of the cave, and the place smells like Borin’s socks. She can hear snoring inside.

An invisible Borin decides to go check things out. Lucre and Kel approach as well with Kel’s armor clanking all the way covering up Borin’s approach. Lucre sees a lever on the outside of the cave that seems to operate a portcullis. Suddenly it drops over the mouth of the cave. The party hears a moan of pain and sees a small pool of blood. The portcullis dropped right onto the invisible Borin! Lucre moves forward and pulls the lever, which sets off a trap that sends a guillotine-like blade swinging down hitting him. It also raises the portcullis. So far, the party isn’t off to a great start.

With all this noise, the snoring has stopped. Marja takes the opportunity to haste herself and Lucre just before an Ogre comes barreling out of the cave. The beast is struck by a Melf’s acid arrow and then in a double attack Lucre slices the ogre’s belly and sticks his blade up its nose. Yuck! Out of the cave comes ogre number two accompanied by a troll. Kel quickly dispatches the ogre with a spiritual long sword. With the combined attacks from an ice knife, a flaming sphere, a fire elemental named Floyd and several raging attacks, the troll falls. The party rushes into the cave.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

How Gorog Got His Rage Back pt 2

The cave opens up to reveal a black cauldron surrounded by smelly candles. On the wall are three frames. Two appear empty. The third contains a portrait of Gorog.

Lucre feels sharp claws scrape against him. He turns to see a 9-foot tall ugly woman, naked from the waist up with wrinkled, sagging breasts. Lucre strikes at her breasts, hits and falls backwards releasing himself from her grasp. The others move in to strike.

Deke helps Lucre to his feet and each of them happen to glance into one of the empty frames. Deke jumps up and begins to howl, foaming at the mouth. “I’m raging!” he yells. “Let me at the bitch.”

The hag’s frog tongue springs out and wraps around Lucre’s neck. Marja calls to Morgaine in Elven to cast dispell which is successful in getting rid of 4 spells. Lucre moves back and begins to wave his hands in the air and mumble. “How about 3 magic missiles in the face for you!” he yells as he throws air at the hag. Being hasted, he tries to cast again. “Gees, Marja it always works when you do it?” Lucre is puzzled.

Deke howls and jumps onto the hag’s back, stabbing her repeatedly. He criticals with his rapier. Clearly Deke was meant to be a barbarian filtcher. Marja notices that she’s healing as fast as they can attack her and calls to the group to double their efforts. Borin obliges by chopping off her left leg. Kel rushes in and chops of the right, and Lucre hollars, “Eat fireball, Bitch!” And then as he hurls air he yells, “BOOM!” for good measure. Kalina rolls her eyes and sets the hag on fire killing her just as her skin was beginning to knit.

Borin moves to the frames and breaks all three mirror portraits. Deke and Lucre return to normal. Presumably Gorog has too. Gemma moves to the back of the cave and brutally destroys an altar to Mormo. The party emerges from the cave into glorious sunlight.

Gorog greets them, howling with pleasure. He can’t wait to smash something. He eyes up Borin’s battle-axe. He can’t believe such a dainty elf wields such a weapon. He offers to roll dice for it. Borin agrees. After all, rolling dice is Ankili’s game. Borin loses by one, but Gorog doesn’t have the heart to take the axe. He asks instead for a kiss “from the pretty lady.” And why not, Marja is in great humor. Borin is back amoung them (albeit with a strange body), and she’s got many a day’s fodder for ribbing Lucre about why his “spells” didn’t work.

 

[Sialia]

(bump)