Session #4 – “Delirium Tremens” (part 1 of 4) (1)
“Timotheus! Are you all right?” Telémahkos called into the building while giving the pit a wide berth. He was still on horseback, and leaned forward to get a look into what was going on in the building. “There is some sort of strange yellow powder out here, and Markos has leapt into the pit!”
Timotheus and Bleys had Chok’tem penned in a corner made by Sir Quintus’ cage and the stone wall behind it. Laarus of Ra left the bleeding lizardfolk he had just defeated and calling to
Ra, stepped behind Timotheus and healed some of the tall veteran’s wounds.
“No! Victoria! Stay out!” Telémahkos was heard to say as he rode his horse through the gap in the wall. The militant of Anhur had leapt off her horse and into the uncovered pit as well. A sweet smell rose out from within it. Victoria’s horse snorted and turned, and began to walk slowly towards the pit as well.
“Bines my companionssss woundssss and I will sssee to yoursss,” Chok’tem hissed to Bleys, looking right at the watch-mage. The lizardman put away his weapons and raised his hands, looking as if he wanted to step by them. “And keep everyonessss away from pit…”
Seeing that the lizardfolk no longer wanted to fight (there was another that withdrew from melee, waiting tensely in the corner), Timotheus gave Chok’tem room to pass, heading to the gap in the wall to talk to Telémahkos who was keeping a safe distance from the pit. “What the hell is going on?”
“Can you bind, boy?” Bleys looked to Valerius the squire, and pointed to the lizardman bleeding out nearby. Valerius nodded and in a moment the two of them were doing their best to stabilize the reptilian foe. Luckily, Bleys the Aubergine always carried a healing kit, even if lizardfolk physiology was alien to him.
With a muted scream, Argos, Victoria’s warhorse followed her blindly into the pit, the equine’s face covered in the yellow pollen. There was a loud crunch from below. The scream stopped.
“Oh no!” Timotheus said. The tall warrior stepped towards the pit, but Telémahkos leaned over and stopped him. “Victoria is in there, too, but you have to stay away from it, or you’ll be affected, too.” From his perch atop the horse he could see green creeping vines clinging to the side of the pit. There were some sort of large leaves as well, but he did not get a good glimpse, and it was too deep to see Markos or Victoria; only Argos’ flailing legs.
Chok’tem leapt into the pit, as the other conscious lizardfolk stood at its edge. There was another blast of the yellow pollen from below, but the lizardmen did not seem concerned. (2)
Laarus of Ra was crouched over another of the lizardmen, binding its wounds frantically. He looked up at the pit through the gap in the wall and called to anyone who would listen, “What did he mean help them? What is happening down there?”
“Jusssss sssstay back!” Chok’tem called out as he hefted something from the pit towards his companion. “Help my people…”
“You know, if we’re not supposed to kill them anymore, and uh… actually help them, then…” Telémahkos looked down at Timotheus from his horse as the latter led the former’s mount away from the building. Telie’s eyes shifted back and forth guiltily, and his shoulders were hunched. He pointed across the rubble-strewn courtyard of the ruined keep. “Then, uh… that one over there wasn’t looking too good after I ran him down…” He was referring to Klock’chtok. “Maybe we should go hide the body…?” He added in a whisper.
Timotheus shook his head in utter disbelief of the sudden turn in the situation. “Go!” He sent Telémahkos riding across the courtyard to see to the lizardman, as he grabbed his own horse, which was wandering nervously nearby. “Laarus!” He called to the priest of Ra. “There is another over here that is gravely injured!” And he rode in that direction as well.
Timotheus arrived in time to see Telémahkos leap back startled as he let go of Klock’chtok’s leg. When he had pulled at the motionless lizardman to drag the body off, it had turned and moaned and a new gout of fresh green blood exploded from its wounds. “Oops!” Tim leapt off his horse and the two of them began to tear their cloaks and togas to bind the dying thing’s wounds.
“Laarus!” Timotheus called again. “This one is going to die without a touch of Ra’s blessing!”
“I assume you’ll help me if it seeks revenge on me, right?” Telémahkos asked nervously, his shaking hands covered in viscous green.
Laarus was still binding the lizardman on his own when he saw Markos being pulled away from the pit by one of Chok’tem’s companions.
“I can do nothing for this one,” Bleys announced, standing away from the dying lizardman he and Valerius were working on. “Timotheus cut him too deep.” (3)
Unbidden, Valerius Tarchon crawled over to give what aid he could to Laarus, while Bleys hurried over to check on Markos. The tanned head and neck of the former sailor was covered in fine mucus filled with yellow spores. He shivered and jerked and his eyes fluttered open and closed. “
Perceptio veneris” Bleys cast his cantrip to reassure himself that yes, Markos indeed poisoned.
Moments later, Victoria was pulled out by Chok’tem and the other lizardman. She too had the spore-filled mucus about her head and was suffering some kind of palsy and stupor. Markos sat up and wiped the stuff from his face, coughing and shaking his head. He looked at his hands and saw the mucus all over them, and wondered at it for a moment.
“It was like a dream,” he said to Bleys. “The leaf with yellow frills enveloped my head and then blackness… peace…”
Laarus and Valerius succeeded in staunching the wounds of the lizardman they were working on and discovered the one Bleys abandoned was still alive and went to work on that one. Out in the courtyard, Telémahkos and Timotheus bickered and stopped and started again, but it was no use. Klock’chtok shuddered and died.
In the ruined building, Laarus and Valerius succeeded in saving the other dying lizardman.
“I am glad everyone finally came to their senses,” Markos announced with an air of self-satisfaction that turned to sorrow when he saw that Klock’chtok was dead.
Telémahkos moved away as Chok’tem approached.
“I… I am sorry your friend died,” Timotheus said awkwardly.
“Klock’chtok…” Chok’tem kneeled beside his dead companion and lifted its head onto his lap with affection. He looked right into the dead lizardfolk’s eyes. “You were my clutch-brother, born of my brood…” Markos translated the words quietly for the others. And then suddenly, Chok’tem took a huge bloody bite from the side of Klock’chtok’s neck, and choked down the huge hunk of flesh.
“Isis!” Timotheus swore and leapt back, while Telémahkos who had crept forward again, curious as to what was going on, turned his head and heaved up his trail rations.
Chok’tem grabbed Klock’chtok’s corpse by the leg and dragged the corpse across the courtyard with disregard for any respect for the dead. Klock’chtok had ceased to be a friend or companion to Chok’tem. He was now simply meat.
Victoria Ostrander had lost her senses. She had been under the effect of the ‘yellow musk plant’ much longer than Markos, and babbled incoherently to herself, and was fascinated by shiny things. Bleys and Timotheus helped to get her out of her armor, and took turns keeping her out of trouble. She was like as an adult-sized child, and a slow child at that. (4)
”Ha! Frog talk!” she laughed and pointed at Chok’tem when the lizardman spoke.
“How long will she be like this?” Bleys asked.
“Dependsss,” the lizardman replied. “Two or four days.” He held up two and then four of his gray-clawed fingers.
“I am sorry that this foolishness led to the death of your companion,” Bleys said to the lizardman leader.
“He is gone and his sssspirit will go back into the tribe even assss hissss former flessssh will feed the broodlingssss,” the lizardmasn explained. “It wasss our own fault to trussst the humansss…”
“And what is this ‘Shannis effect’?” the watch-mage asked.
“Heh, drugs…” Timotheus said derisively when he heard Chok’tem explain that
Shannis was a drug made from the pollen of the yellow musk plant and a local mushroom spore. He pulled out his steel flask of foul spirits and took a long swig, offering some to his companions. Sir Quintus was still weeping, huddled in a ball in a corner of the makeshift cage.
“Sir Quintus… Are you ready to talk?” Markos asked. “How shall you have us handle this to avoid scandal?”
“You must wait the time…” Chok’tem said. “His mind will come and go…”
“No… I can talk… I…” Sir Quintus Gosprey coughed and turned around to sit with his back to the wall. His face was sallow, and his eyes narrow slits of bleary red. “Is Valerius here?”
“No, we sent him to see to the horses,” Bleys said.
“Good… I do not want him to see me like this… I don’t not want him to know…”
“I think it may be too late for that, but nevertheless he is not here now,” Timotheus said.
The knight let out a weak sob and was silent for a long moment.
“The time must be waited,” Chok’tem said. “Hissss reassson will come and go…”
Markos shook his head, looking over the cowering knight, the unconscious lizardfolk, and then his injured companions. “This is so typical of what happens when…” He stopped himself.
“Typical of what?” Timotheus asked. “When what?”
Markos looked hesitant to continue, but now everyone was looking at him.
“Typical of… uh, when those in power… um… decide they want to play,” he finally replied nervously, but his words gained more surety as he spoke. “Usually others pay for their fun…”
“Well…” Timotheus began, but he was interrupted by the croak of Sir Quinuts’ voice. “He is right… This is all my fault…”
The knight sat up again and looked at the young nobles outside his cage and shuddered.
“You broke your promisssss!” Chok’tok pointed a clawed finger accusingly at Sir Quintus, hissing.
“When I first…” Sir Quintus looked up suddenly and looked around wide-eyed. “Is Valerius here?”
“No, he is out tending the horses,” Timotheus replied.
“His reason is addled by the Shannis, or lack thereof,” Bleys said. “He has asked that and I have told him already…”
“I just want to be sure…” Sir Quintus’ voice was raw whisper. “I don’t want him to know…”
“Perhaps you should let him come listen,” Markos said, his tone still disapproving. “Right now he is operating under the false notion of what it is to be a knight.”
“No, he has the right notion… It is my actions that are wrong,” the knight said.
“Absolutely!” Timotheus said, frowning. “Most knights aren’t… A lot of knights… uh… not
every knight fails to…”
“Just let him explain…” Laarus said.
“If you keep talking like that you are going to make me sick!” The knight’s demeanor changed as a sudden anger came over him. He stared at Markos with real hatred, gritting his teeth.
“So?” Markos replied with a smirk.
“Maybe we should wait to talk about this when he is better…” Timotheus said, but as quickly as it came, the anger was gone and Sir Quintus finally continued.
“When I first sought out the Shannis it was because of its numbing properties… I suffered terrible wounds to my legs and back in the
Battle of the Burning Rift that ailed me long after that battle was done… And in seeking it out I discovered the smuggling operation, and justified my more and more frequent returns for the stuff by telling myself I was gaining their trust in order to discover their real leaders and bring down the organization…”
Quintus swallowed hard and looked around again before continuing.
“I… I collected the pollen of the plant from Chok’tem and his people and provided it to the brigands who paid me in the refined product,” Quintus continued. “I wanted to gain their trust and discover where else it was sold… What else it might be used for…”
“Did it work?” Timotheus asked.
“The addiction came on too strongly and quickly,” Quintus replied. “All I know is that the men you call ‘the brigands’ are led by a man named MacHaven, and once I heard him mention a connection in… I think it was Tribunisport… named Connduel.”
Telémahkos looked at Timotheus when Tribunisport was mentioned.
Sir Quintus Gosprey began to cough, and then rolling over on to his hands and knees vomited again as his whole body shuddered. The signers of the charter of Schiereiland moved out of the building to get away from the smell and give the man some privacy to fight off the addiction.
“Do you mind if we camp here in the keep while we wait for him to recover?” Bleys asked Chok’tem
“Has the bloodlust left you humans?” Chok’tem asked.
“I never had any…” Bleys the Aubergine replied, but he looked to the others. “We’re done fighting… Am I correct?”
Everyone nodded or grunted their assent and the group proceeded to make camp in the clearest portion of the courtyard they could find, away from any crumbling walls. Laarus of Ra and Bleys the Aubergine pitched a tent, as Timotheus got some coin from Telémahkos to go pay off Tavius and send him back to town. No one wanted him catching wind of the knight’s state.
“Why don’t you pay him yourself?” Telémahkos asked his cousin.
“I don’t have any money!” Tim complained. He pulled his empty coin pouch from his belt and shook it upside-down in front of his cousin’s face. “I’ve got nothing!”
Telémahkos sighed and handed over two silver coins.
They had Valerius watch over Victoria while the others made camp. They also asked that Chok’tem retrieve the Militant of Anhur’s gear from her dead horse and he complied, covering the pit back up when he was done.
Timotheus returned telling Telémahkos that Tavius wanted a tip as well.
“I’ll handle this…” Telémahkos said, annoyed. He walked out to the muddy field where the guide still waited.
“Off with you!” Telie said to Tavius. “You have made enough profit off of this endeavor… More money than you make in nearly a month’s time…”
“Heh. Awright… Okay,” Tavius smirked and began to get his pony ready for the trip back. “Tell everyone I said good-bye and if you ever need another swamp guide you know where I live and, uh… you know, I hope none of your friends ever find out about your little… uh… delay tactics… It’d be unfortunate…” He winked.
“Yes, and it would be unfortunate for you to end up in the swamp, lifeless,” Telémahkos replied with casual menace.
“Well, you know…” Tavius mounted his pony and turned it. “Sometimes that kind of risk is just part of the job…” He did not appear intimidated by the very thinly veiled threat.
Back at the camp, Telémahkos said to the others, “It seems that Tavius might choose to repay our generosity by spreading ugly rumors…”
“Did you give him a tip?” Timotheus asked.
“I gave him nothing,” Telémahkos replied. “He had had enough.”
“Yeah, but those rumors are the reason why you always tip the help,” Timotheus smiled.
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An hour or so later, Bleys the Aubergine sought out Chok’tem once again, asking what Sir Quintus had promised him in exchange for gathering the pollen.
“That he would sssspeak to Lord Sssswann about my tribe,” Chok’tem said. “To give him our messsssage…”
“And what is your tribe called?”
“C’tobe’flau’ka,” Chok’tem replied. “But the humansss have tazen to cauzzing us the Goldenstraw Lizsssardfolk.”
“And what was this message?”
“We had to flee our lands to the far sssouth,” Chok’tem explained, as Markos and Timotheus walked over to join the conversation. “But we knew these were human landsss and did not want to cause conflict. We ozzered to pledge our ssspearsss to Lord Ssswann and to pay tribute in return for protection… ssso that we may not need leaze our landsss again.”
“And what was the response? Did he relay the message?” Bleys asked.
The lizardman shook his head in an exaggerated way that was clearly an imitation of human gestures. “He ssssaid that Lord would need much convinssing… He kept sssaying, ‘more zime’, but he broke promise… He never asked…”
“Where is the rest of your tribe now?” Bleys asked.
Chok’tem would not reply.
“I assume your tribe is more than these four,” Bleys said, and Chok’tem nodded again in his exaggerated way.
“That is none of our business,” Timotheus said.
“Of course, it is our business,” Bleys replied, curtly. The watch-mage turned back to the lizardman. “Why do you not recognize the
Thrician Racial Convenant?”
“Our former landsss are not in what the humansss call Thrissssia,” Chok’tem replied. “Far south. Past
the rift…”
“The Disputed Territories,” Timotheus said.
“We travel there… Perhaps one of your tribe would be willing to serve as a guide…” Markos suggested.
“And break more promisessss? No!” Chok’tem barked.
“I have broken no promise,” Markos replied.
“I think Lord Swann would be agreeable to such an arrangement,” Bleys said.
“Are you sure?” Timotheus asked.
“To have a tribe of lizardmen to pay your tribute and fight for you… Would this not be a great boon to his House?” Bleys reasoned.
“I agree with you, but I do not think everyone is so open-minded and rational,” Timotheus explained.
Markos continued his futile negotiations with the incredulous Chok’tem, as the others listened on, equally so. Laarus of Ra and Telémahkos had come over as well, but growing bored of the talk stepped away from the building.
“What do you think? If we bring this knight back to Lord Swann we might garner valuable support,” Telémahkos said to the priest.
“Yes, as Swann and Wetherwax are allied, it may even help in discovering more of the pirate plot you spoke of,” Laarus said. “Though I do wish you could say more about it…”
“Well…” Telémahkos looked around to make sure none of his companions were close enough to hear as he lowered his voice. “Would you be willing to overlook the involvement of one of these so-called ‘pirates’ if he were an aid to us in foiling the plot?”
“I would be willing to not seek prosecution if he seemed sincerely willing to redeem himself and give productive aid to our cause,” Laarus said.
“You see this information came to me from someone who is concerned that her brother may do something wrong, but he has not actually done anything wrong yet… And if we can get him to help us and turn away from that life, no one needs to know…” Telémahkos explained.
Laarus of Ra nodded. “As a priest I value truth, but as a noble I understand about discretion…”
Telémahkos told the young priest of Ra about Vanthus Vanderboren and his misguided involvement with smugglers as they made their way back to the camp to await the others.
to be continued. . .
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Notes:
(1) Session #4 was played on Sunday, March 4th (aka GM’s Day!)
(2) Lizardfolk are immune to effect of yellow musk creeper pollen.
(3) Bleys and Valerius worked on the lizardfolk for 5 rounds, but failed the healing check to stabilize it. (
Click here for info on Aquerra’s rules for death & dying), and
here to see how the heal skill works in Aquerra games.
(4) Victoria lost 7 points of intelligence total, dropping her to a 3.
