Struggle and Strife- A scarred lands storyhour

[Lars Frehse]

Thank you for the bump!
Anc, a horserat is much stronger then a horse. It can attack with it's claws and bite and it can use the pin feat. Those five rats can overcome any low level opposition... Incidentally, when the druid released those horserats, I was glad to see how the player of the Paladin played out his character's low intelligence score...
Anyway, tomorrow I will go into my honeymoon and my wife and me will spend two weeks in Bulgaria. So, since we will swim in the black sea and go sightseeing. This is good, but it means no updates from me in the next two week.
I want to post one small part today, though. When I come back, I will update my storyhour accordingly, so that it is up to date prior to the next session.

In the meantime, my players told me they intended to put their characters online. As soon as they are done making a small website, they will post the link here.

But now I am off to writing the next part, and I will definetly post it before I start packing.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Before I post the next actual update, I would like to say a word about it's origin.

The first half of the chapter is based on The Trembling Hill by John Tynes.

It is a small adventure that was published in The Campaign Magazine, a d20 magazine by Corsair Publishing.
It was also published in "En Route", a sourcebook by Atlas Games.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Free your mind part 1

Free your mind

It was a pleasant summerday as the adventurers left Lave. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and there were enough small streams and lakes along the way to refresh from the heat. In the evenings, they stayed in small inns along the road to Mullis Town and enjoyed Veshian songs, food and hospitality.

After a few days, they had covered about half the way between Lave and Mullis Town, and their horses got nervous and the more the men pressed their steeds to ride on, the more they balked. Clearly, they didn’t want to ride the road any further.

So, the heroes dismounted, and now they noticed a faint vibration in the ground. It almost felt like something was humming in the earth. And after looking around for a while, they noticed something even more peculiar: The air around them was distorted.

The distortion looked like heatwaves on a hot day on a road, but there was a pattern to the flimmering air. It looked as if a giant net made of air was covering everything in sight.

Torn climbed up a tree, and looking at the “net” from above, he saw that it seemed to have the form of a vast, circular spiderweb. And the center of it seemed to be further along the road in the direction they were heading to.

After getting back to his friends, he told them about what he had seen. There was a short discussion whether they should circle around the strange phenomenom or go to the center to investigate it further. After all, no one of them had ever heard of anything like it, and it was on the way, anyway. On the other hand, it could also mean danger, here in the sparely populated hilllands of northern Vesh.

They debated for a while, as their mounts were nervously waiting for their masters’ decision, and eventually, curiosity got the better of them, and they left all their mounts but the apparently fearless horserat, behind.

After two hours, as the sun was setting, they reached the source of the vibration and the net. By now, they could actually hear the buzz. There was a great quarter mile furrow in the earth that ran from a grassy field to a house sized hill of disturbed earth. The hill was visibly vibrating and at the point where the furrow reached the hill, there was a small rectangular opening.

Trepat looked around and noticed that the shimmering net formed a funnel whose curves were folding directly into the mouth of the cave. He pointed it out to the others and Niklas drily commented:”Maybe that is a trap for curios people.”.

Torn shrugged and climbed down the furrow towards the entrance:”Well, if it is, then it is really a success.”.

The others followed him, and then they entered the cave through the small opening.

Once inside, they all noticed that something was definetly wrong in there.The air was much thicker in there than it was outside, making it difficult to breathe. And once they had adjusted to the air, they all noticed, that the three strange corridors, that were leading ahead and to the left and right were much longer then they could possibly be. They were longer then the small hill they were in was big.

The ceiling was ten foot high and there was a layer of greenish mist partially obscuring the floor about a foot of the ground. The walls were azure, uneven and slightly soft to the touch.

Ben pulled out his knive, and cut into the wall, which to their mutual surprise started “bleeding” grenish blood right away. Then, just as Jan was about to lay his healing hand on the “wound”, it closed again, leaving no scars behind.

Puzzled they looked at each other, as they heard a cow mooing. The sound was seemingly coming from all three corridors.

Ben was disturbed:” Let’s get out of here again!”. And with that, he turned to leave through the hatch again.

Jan held him back:” Let us look around a bit first. After all, nothing bad has happened to us yet.”

“Yes, and there will only be something bad happening if we stay long enough for it to occur in the first place!”, Ben answered, but he stayed nonetheless.

Jan walked into one of the corridors and the others followed him, guarding his back. As he came to a part of the corridor with an opening to the right and left, he looked into the right doorway.

Behind the doorway, there was a huge chamber that looked like the inside of a collosal gibbering mouther. It was piled high with mounds of shifting, mewling, protoplasmic flesh that was constantly spawning and collapsing eyes, tendrils and mouths while small ripples of lighting rippled over it’s surface.

Jan tried to hide his surprise, and greeted the mass of flesh, but whatever it was, it seemed to be oblivious of him. As his friends closed in to stare at the strange thing, Jan turned around. The room behind the other doorway was almost empty except for five transparent spheres of about mansize that were floating in the air.

He turned around again and saw Torn poking his head around the doorway. After he had pulled his head back, the half-orc said:” Whatever this thing in there is, the hall it is in should cross the corridor we are in. Apart from that, it is higher then the hill we are in…”.

Trepat cast a spell and added:” The weirdest thing is that it is not even magical.”

Now, Jan poked his head in as well:” Neither is it evil.”.

Ben seemed to be ready to leave:” But it sure as hell is spooky in here.”

Torn turned around and went into the beginning of the opposite corridor, there he looked right, and to his surprise, he looked into the same room that his friends were looking into the room with the shifting flesh as well. Now, he even saw his friends in an opposite doorway, talking about what to do next. He turned around to look into the corridor again, and there they were, too!

Having decided, that the “doorways” were in fact most likely portals to separate structures somewhere, he turned around. And there, in a room that looked like an alchemist’s labatory, he saw a cow floating in the air. It was mooing dreamily, and around it, there were five five feet tall, naked humanoids with grey skin and big jetblack eyes.

 

[Nightfall]

Sweet! Thanks for update Lars! I certainly hope you and your wife have a nice time on the Black Sea! Anyway I'm glad you used the Trembling Hill. It's one of my favorites.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Hi!
I found a little Internetcafe here in Bulgaria and just wanted to wave hello from my honeymoon!

 

[Nightfall]

Hi Lars! We miss you! Well your Story Hour at least!

 

[Lars Frehse]

Cautiously, Jan stepped into the room and slowly waved his hand: “Greetings! We come to you in peace.”.

Now, the creatures turned around to face the Paladin. They appeared puzzled but calm and after a short while, they started mewling to each other. Having made contact, Jan smiled at them, showing them his empty hands. But the grey humanoids seemed to be unimpressed and after they had apparently finished their conversation, they turned away from the human intruder and returned to examining the floating cow.

Jan turned to his friends, who were now crowding the entrance and looking into the room: “It doesn’t look like they would exactly mind us being here.”.

Ben rolled his eyes: “They are not exactly welcoming us either. I will wait outside. This place is just wrong.”.

Torn nodded:”Alright. I want to explore some more.”.

And so Ben and Trepat left the cave while the others went on to explore it further.

Outside, the elf and the halfling saw that they weren’t alone anymore: Up on the edge of the furrow, they saw three ratmen in the dying light of dusk. Each of the slitheren was wearing a simple long robe and the only weapons they seemed to be carrying were mansized staffs. They seemed to be blind, and they were radiating an air of peace.

The middle one of them nodded slowly and then spoke to them with a strong and serene voice:” Please, don’t be afraid. One of you serves Denev, so we hope you understand. We are the Unseeing- Slitheren of the brood of Golthain.”.

Ben raised his hand in peace:”We mean you no harm either.”.

“Good then. My name is Warken and these are my fellows Shugen and Sisimia. We have come here because whatever has created this mound was made by neither titan nor god. If you don’t mind, we would like to take a closer look.”.

Trepat nodded in agreement and Ben said:” This is my friend Trepat and my name is Ben. There are three more friends of us in the structure right now, but they are reasonable as well, so you don’t have to fear them, either.”.

As the ratmen went down into the ditch, a shadowraven materialized out of nowhere and landed on the shoulder of the leader of the ratmen. It looked like the one that had mysteriously helped the heroes against the Sargons back in the Kelder mountains.

After the Unseeing had climbed down and were now facing the two friends on the ground of the ditch, Trepat adressed Warken:” We once encountered one of these ravens before, and he helped us when we were in dire trouble. So, I wonder whether there is any special connection between your people and the shadowravens.”.

Warken seemed to be genuinely puzzled:” This is the first time I hear of a shadowraven interfering on behalf of divine folk… This is odd…

“But let me answer your question. As you may know, Golthain was filled with compassion for all living beings. To him it didn’t matter whether those beings were “monsters”, animals, Titanspawn or divine folks. When he created beings, or relied on creatures as his ears and eyes, he infused those creatures with that compassion and understanding. That is why shadowravens, which he created, and we, the unseeing, who he had used as his ears, are infused with the same spirit.

“Tok, the one who sits on my shoulder right now, is my familiar. He serves as my eyes, so to speak.”.


Meanwhile, in the mound, Jan, Niklas and Torn had moved further along the corridor. There, they saw a large cave in which there were thousands and thousands of small orbs floating on the ceiling. In each of them, there were gray ones like the ones they had encountered before, but smaller. All of them were about one foot tall and seemed to be sleeping.

After some debate, the friends turned around, and found themselves looking into the chamber with the seven spheres into which they had already peeked from the opposite corridor.

More confused then ever, they walked further down the corridor and turned into a long chamber with a long glass tube, ten feet in diameter and fifty feet in length that floated unsupported in the middle of the room. Each end was capped with a morass of slightly damp, pulsing material that looked more than a little alive. The tube pulsed with a strange light and again, the three decided to be cautious lest they end like the proverbial curious cat.

They turned around and entered another hall. This one, though, contained some familiar things,although in unfamiliar surroundings.

In this hall there were dozens of transparent spheres like the ones they had seen everywhere in this hill. Yet these spheres were filled with all kinds of creatures. Some of them were familiar, of some they had heard and others were completey unknown.

Among the creatures they knew were two orks, a spider eyed goblin, a giant ant, a blade beast and many more. There was also a dwarf wearing leather armor floating ten feet over them.

After a little talk, they decided to get the others and try to free the dwarf. They went back into the corridor just as Trepat and Ben entered the hill with the three ratmen.

“Don’t worry, they are Golthain’s brood!”, said Trepat and his three friends down the corridor relaxed.

The three ratmen, though, suddenly lost their calm and got agitated.

“Do you think it is him?”, one of them asked, and another answered:” But this can’t be. It had been far away from here.”.

Warken quieted his two fellows and said to them:” Best if I ask him.”.

He turned to Jan, who, like his friends, was wondering what this frantic exchange had been all about: “Greetings, good Paladin. Tell me, how did you get into posession of this small amulet you are wearing?”

“My mother had it before me and she wanted me to have it when I am grown up.”.

“I see. And where do you come from?”

“Oreirover, a small village in western Durrover. But why do you ask?”.

Warken was visibly moved:” Because I was there when you were born and I was the one who crafted the amulet you are wearing right now.”

 

[Ancalagon]

Now that is a twist I did not see coming...

If I was them though, I would SO be geting the hell out of there...

Ancalagon

 

[Lars Frehse]

Free your mind part 3

Jan was speechless, and Warken continued:" I would love to tell you more, and I am ready to answer all your questions, but I would like to examine this hill here first. Something tells me we should hurry.".

The Paladin nodded in agreement:" Yes, you are right. We should focus on this place for now". And with that, Jan summoned all his discipline to calm his racing mind and concentrate on what was up ahead.

Even though the ratmen were blind, they seemed to compensate their lack of sight with other, supernatural senses, for they moved around with the confidence of seeing creatures. The Unseeing examined everything with an air of calm curiosity and then walked into the room with the many suspended creatures. There, the adventurers were debating what to do in order to free the dwarf. Entering the risk that the dwarf could get hurt, Niklas threw a dagger at the sphere in which he was hovering, but it bounced back, not leaving a scratch in the sphere.

Warken, who had "watched" the dagger falling to the ground, turned his blind face to Niklas and asked:" Do you want to free that one up there?"

"Yes."

"Let me try, then"

The Unseeing gestured while uttering some arcane words and a thin, green ray sprang from his finger towards the sphere. Immediately, the sphere disappeared, and the dwarf, who was still unconcious, crashed fifteen feet to the mist covered bottom of the cave. Except for Trepat, all of them surrounded the dwarf in order to see how he was doing. The elf was the only one who had recognized the sheer magical power Warken was wielding, which was far beyond anything Trepat had witnessed so far, and he curiously studied the calm leader of the slitheren.

Jan knelt down in order to heal the damage the fall had done to the dwarf, as he, in turn, groaned and slowly regained his conciousness. He was just getting up, as the wall to their right started to move. It quickly grew two mansized boils which transformed into green, amorphous creatures, with several tentacles, on which they now moved menacingly towards the group. At the same time, two grey ones came out of the entranceway. Both were carrying small metallic objects in their hands, and they seemed to be upset about the recent liberation of the dwarf.

Torn raised his axe, and one of the greys activated his metallic object. A small ray shot forth, and the entire head of his greataxe was transformed into gold. Even though it was nice to look at, it was now completely useless in a battle, so the halforc lowered it again while taking a step backwards.

The amorphous creatures where now threatening the intruders with their tentacles and the other grey one transformed Trepat's bow into silver. Seeing no other alternative, the divine folks and the Slitheren ran out of the cave.

Outside, the trembling got even stronger then before, and all of them ran down the ditch, away from the hill. Just as they had reached the end of it, the hill exploded and a housesized triangular disc appeared. It flew up and hovered a few yards over the ground for a few seconds and then shot off, disappearing into the nightsky.

When the little shining dot had completely disappeared, Trepat was the first one to break the silence: "You remember the slarecian structure we found in the Kelder mountains? There, on the moving picture in the big hall, there was a small dot moving from one planet to another. Maybe that was it.".

Warken kept his head raised to the sky as he said:" Travellers between the planets, you mean? That would make sense. After all, these visitors were neither titanspawn nor divine folk..."

The adventurers nodded and remained silent. After all, the day had been full of surprises. The flying object and the strange, peaceful slitheren were so stunning, that they had completely forgotten about the dwarf they had rescued. He in turn, now adressed them:" I think I have to offer you my thanks.".

Niklas was the first to react:"Yes, sure. Nevermind.".

"Still I wonder what a champion of Corean has to do with some Slitheren."

"Oh, don't mind them. They are of the brood of Golthain and peaceful", answered Ben.

"Yeah, whatever, anyway, where am I?"

"We are halfway between Lave and Mullistown.".

"What, you mean we are in bleeding Vesh?".

Jan answered:"Yes, where did you think you were?".

"When those grey ones picked me up, I was in the Ukrudan desert. You gotta know: I am a freelancing adventurer, and I was exploring some ruins in that desert. I like working alone, and a dwarf can be really alone in that desert. Anyway, I had been in the middle of nowhere, marching through the night, because during the day, it is too bloody hot to move, as there was this light over me. And, before I could do anything, I was stunned and those freaks had picked me up!".

The dwarf stopped in his narration, and noticing that they didn't even know his name, Niklas introduced his friends and himself. Then, he asked how much time had passed since then and and what had happened on board of the strange vessel:" Oh, my name's Grom by the way. I dunno how long they kept me up there... But I remember that they examined me... I definetly remembered that they stuck things up my ass... Those freaks... Come to think of it, that seemed to be the only thing they were interested in: Sticking long metallic objects up my hairy ass!".

Ben asked him what he planned to do now, and Grom told them that he wanted to get back to the desert as fast as possible. So, after a short goodbye, he walked southwards towards Lave, where he wanted to take a ship.

The heroes were now alone with the slitheren who invited them to spend the night in their lair with them, so that they could tell them about Jan and his mother there. They thanked their newfound friends and, after examining the crater, where they found a few tiny diamonds which seemed to have been left behind by the flying object, they picked up their animals, and followed the slitheren to a small grove in a nearby wood.

There were some small huts and tents and about a hundred of the unseeing who curiosly moved their heads towards the visitors. Everything here radiated peace and calm and even the heroes' steeds were now loosing the anxiety the vessel's vibrations had instilled in them.

 

[Ancalagon]

probing, bwahaha!!!

ahem

Wow, that "gold ray" is quite nifty. A great axe weights 20 pounds. Now, let's supose the head weight half that (10 pounds).... 10 pounds of gold = 500 gp! bling bling!

Ancalagon