Ptolus: Midwood - "The Dark Waters of Moss Pond"

[Gnome Quixote]

Did Tock take part in that adventure? I don't remember what he did.

This was the second adventure, the one that was supposed to be merely an epilogue to the first, and wound up surprising us (including Whiz, I suspect). Tock spent most of it back in town at the Cat & Fiddle, I believe.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This was the second adventure, the one that was supposed to be merely an epilogue to the first, and wound up surprising us (including Whiz, I suspect). Tock spent most of it back in town at the Cat & Fiddle, I believe.

Until the epilogue of the epilogue.

 

[Emus Graymullet]

I overcompensate a bit in the next adventure (along with the players surprising me by dividing their forces), with dramatic results.

I've gone back and reread those results numerous times. I'm looking forward to seeing them transcribed here!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And yes, we do eventually hear the hymn, "The Pantsing of Mithra," and it does indeed include a pie fight.

I want the ruined magocracy of Kem in my campaign to have a lot of the flavor of Stygia in Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, so I added REH-inspired versions of Mithra and Set in my version of Praemal.

Here are the versions of each god in my campaign:

Mithra

Mithra, the god of soldiers, is often pictured as a tall man with wide-set, piercing eyes, curly hair and a patriarchal beard. He is most popular in Uraq and regions bordering the Southern Sea, but his worship has spread throughout the soldiers of the Tarsisian Empire, much to the annoyance of the Church of Lothian.

Mithra takes no living sacrifices, although the temple does take extensive tithes in money and services. According to Mithraic belief, each person is called to a virtuous life. It is the obligation of each individual to follow the tenets of the faith of Mithra, which include truthfulness, honor and trustworthiness. In Mithra’s tenets, telling a lie or betraying a friend are mortal sins.

Mithra is an ancient enemy of the serpent-god, Set. He often works through mortals in his battles with Set.

----

One of the gods of Praemal.

He is Lawful Neutral, although many of his worshippers are Lawful Good. His symbol and favored weapon is the battleaxe. His domains are Law, War, Strength and Sun.

Priests of Mithra must abstain from all alcohol and mind-altering drugs and remain celibate and are expected to tithe one-quarter of their income to the church. Lawful Good priests of Mithra often qualify for the Vow of Abstinence and Vow of Celibacy feats from the Book of Exalted Deeds.

Set

One of the gods of ancient Uraq, Father Set is a dark and sinister deity associated with darkness, serpents, magic and death. Strange cults in the Sea Kingdoms, Uraq, Kem and the Distant South exist to this day.

He appears as a jackal-headed man with scaled skin and he advocates conquering the world with an empire in his name.

His temples are always filled with snakes of all sorts.

He is the enemy of Mithra and their followers continue the conflict in the mortal realm.

----

One of the gods of Praemal.

Set is Neutral Evil and his domains are Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil, Knowledge and Strength. His symbol is the coiled cobra and his favored weapons are the staff, spear and poisoned weapons.

His priests normally carry a staff with one head carved to resemble a cobra's head.

Many of his worshippers cover all or part of their bodies in snake tattoos. He counts groups of assassins among his worshippers.

And no, neither of those is historically accurate nor attempts to be.

 

[Gnome Quixote]

Heh. I knew it had been referenced a few times throughout the campaign, but I didn't realize how far back 'The Pantsing of Mithra' actually went. I love how little throwaway references like that keep coming to the fore later on.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Some of these elements that baffled Bufer and company in their first adventure are only becoming clear a year later, with continuing revelations about the politics of the Green Mountain Kobolds and, soon, some more information about the culture that created Fibber's Cairn from another set of ruins originally created by the same ancients.

 

[Gnome Quixote]

Emmerson's reference to "Onward, Onward, Brave Soldiers"--and his awful, off-key singing of it--is another throwaway line that gets picked up on and turned into a running joke throughout the campaign:

Onward, Onward, Brave Soldiers

A traditional Lothian hymn, with over 37 non-repeating verses, Onward, Onward Brave Soldiers is at least somewhat familiar to most residents of Midwood, even if they've never heard the entire composition, or if they hope they'll never have to.

Soldiers of the Baron's army are expected to know the entire song, though not through any edict: it's just a hazing tradition passed down from one generation of soldiers to the next. The song's steady, easy rythm makes it a standard on long marches and during the completion of other mind-numbing tasks. In some divisions, it is known colloquially as "The Peeling Song."

For a party that only includes one bard, we wind up being an extremely musical bunch.

 

[Trench]

heh. We have a list of Tock's songs also, but many of them are.. shall we say... ribald.

 

[Tock Chandler]

heh. We have a list of Tock's songs also, but many of them are.. shall we say... ribald.

Well only if you're THINKING that way. "Winking eye of brown" isn't dirty!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Let's just say Eric's grandma would object to some of them. There will be the subtlest of edits as needed to reflect ENWorld posting policies.

Oh, and as much as I know people enjoy such things, I will be skimming over most of the haggling with Therurt that follows the group's return to the village, leaving in only an incident that sets the adventurers on their next (complete surprise to the DM) adventure and, ultimately, turns the campaign pretty dramatically, with ramifications that are still going on a year later and are unlikely to ever stop echoing.

Simple (and arguably unnecessary, in this case) greed on the part of Renraw causes a pebble to roll down the mountainside and causes an avalanche.