Struggle and Strife- A scarred lands storyhour

[Lars Frehse]

Father Figure part 2 (of 3)

The lodge itself was wedged between a small forest and the riverbank. It was rather small, only ten by ten foot, and in front of it, there was a small garden for herbs and vegetables. On one of the walls stood a little external fireplace with a kettle hanging over it. Obviously the hut was too small to accommodate such luxury as an oven.

As they walked up to it, they saw that the door was barred from the outside with a wooden plank and the garden seemed abandoned. Ben sat down, and seeing that the plants looked as if the last time they had gotten water must have been during the last rainshower a week ago, he started to take care of them, getting water from the river. After a short debate whether or not to enter, Jan decided to take the risk and invade the woman’s privacy.

He entered the hut. There were two beds, the smaller one probably being for the son, a wooden chest with a lock and boards on the wall. A quick inspection revealed that the earthen pots on the boards had flour, salt and dried vegetables in them. Except for the bed and the chest, everything in here was self made by crafty yet unprofessional hands. Jan walked around the hut, and checked the ashes of the fireplace. It looked as if there hadn’t been a fire in a while.

Ben and Jan decided that since it looked as if neither mother nor son had been to the hut in while, it would be good to get the other ones. So, Jan went back to the Inn and Ben took care of the garden and the flowers, in case the woman would return.

Torn the half orc didn’t wait for an invitation, once he arrived at the hut. Expertly he opened the lock of the chest with his locksmith tools and found, to their mutual surprise, beautiful dresses. Some of them were obviously tailored to arouse and all of them were well crafted from expensive materials, which made them look out of place in this poor hut. How was this woman able to afford such dresses when she had to beg for a cup of flour?

Again, they decided to split. Jan and his brother Niklas would talk to the innkeeper, while the others would go to Hayworth’s burial.

Jan found the innkeeper preparing lunch:” Good man, may I ask you some questions again?”

”Yes, yes, go ahead!”.

”We went to Sara Lanka’s hut today, but it looks as if she wouldn’t have been there for a while. She must have been gone since the last rain at least.”.

Vasili looked genuinely worried: “Oh, dear. I hope nothing happened to her. But now that you mention it, yes, it has been a while since I saw her for the last time.”.

“What surprised us is that she had some beautiful dresses in a chest. We think they are worth many gold pieces.”.

”Are you sure? She is such a poor woman… Also, she can’t go to the village’s merchant… That is mysterious.”.

Niklas asked the next question:” Do you know how the father of her child is?”

“I don’t know. Some passing trader, I think. You know, I started giving food and other things to her, when I saw her selling her body for a few copper pieces to one of my guests. Poor thing. Then, four years ago, she got pregnant. So, I think that it was probably somebody who passed through and gave her a few coins in exchange for hollow pleasures…

“Please don’t mention this to any one, but secretly I worship Madriel. As a businessman, it would kill me if too many people would find out, since being compassionate and caring can be considered a weakness that some may want to exploit. Anyway, I tried to do my best to help her, and three years ago, when she gave birth, I gave her food and other things necessary to survive. But no fancy dresses. I sure hope nothing bad happened to her.”.

“Could you tell us who is the eldest man or woman here, who knows all the gossip and knows about Sara”, Jan inquired.

“Well, there is my mother in law, old Jule. You can talk to her.”

And after he memorized the way to her house, he went to her place and Niklas went to the cemetary, just in time to join the ceremony.

As the casket was set into the earth, the priest held a sermon. The lord of the village, the innkeeper and his family and the heroes were there and spoke their condolensces to the widow, who took her horses and rode away to Burok Torn right afterwards.

When they were alone, Niklas asked the priest what he knew about Sara.

“The witch? Well, she lives upriver with a little boy, as far as I know.”

”And you never contacted her on your own account?”

The fat priest got agitated: “Why should I? It is my duty to offer spiritual counseling to those who come to me. I am not here to convert anyone. After all, I am serving all gods here.”.

“I see. And she never came to you?”, Niklas asked.

“No. Apart from that, if I would have ever had evidence that she really is a servant of Mormo, I would have had to inform the mainchuch anyway. I am not strong enough to battle the agents of the Titans, and this would be a job for an Inquisitor, anyway.”.

Niklas nodded. His master too had once been an Inquisitor: “Hmmm. And is she local?”

“Yes. She was born here, as far as I know. I only came here six years ago, and by that time, her parents had been long dead.”.

Niklas thanked him and went to look at the modest tombstone of the Lankas, Sara’s parents.

In the meantime, Jan sat in the dining room of the inkeeper’s mother in law, and listened to her endless ranting on the wickedness of Sara Lanka, her devilspawn, as she called little Sasou and on how the newly arrived half orc in town would certainly steal everything, commit murder and molest defenseless old women like herself. (Even though she didn’t seem to object to the prospect of being molested quite as much as she should.). She then continued to tell Jan, who tried to stay polite, just how she wanted the witch to die: First on the wheel, and then the witch should be burnt in a way that she wouldn’t suffocate first. Hours later the sun went down and he was able to go back to the inn.

There, Ben had exciting news for them:” I know who bought the dresses. I bribed the trader in town, and he told me that he sold those arousing fancy dresses to the priest!”

Now, Jan remembered something: “Well, the old woman I talked to was quite mad, but she did say that she likes to take long walks at night. I think she is just snooping around. Anyway, she told me that she has seen Sara sneak into the priest’s house at night at several occasions.”.

Trepat said: “Well, if he had an affair with her, and it was his son, maybe he killed them… Probably a love affair with a witch wouldn’t reflect too well with him. And the little boy is dead and is indeed a ghost now… But why is he here in the inn?”

“We should confront him in the morning”, Torn offered. “Tonight, I will keep an eye on the priest. ”.

Torn left the Inn, and the others prepared for another night watch. Maybe they could contact the spirit of the little boy this time.

As Torn entered the church, the priest welcomed him and then went into meditation for an hour. Afterwards, he went into his little room and stayed there all night, for all Torn could tell.

The moon rised, and again, the ghost appeared. Now Niklas, Trepat and Jan saw the ghost, too. But again, the boy ignored them and walked through the wall. In the next room, which was empty, he turned around and went through the rooms until he reached the stairway, ignoring a sleeping half elven couple on the way.

The men followed him through the empty rooms. They opened the door to the half elves who slept soundly and then followed the ghost downstairs. There, he walked through the door of the Innkeepers sleeping room, from where they heard loud snoring.

Niklas opened the door silently, and saw the Innkeeper and his wife sleeping. They were both snoring in concert. The boy now walked up to the bed, lifted the blanket and cuddled himself against the obese shape of Vasili Petorn.

All of a sudden, the snoring stopped. Beads of sweat appeared on the Innkeeper’s paling face , and his breath was irregular. Ben shouted :”Wake up!”, and man and wife did wake up with a confused look on their face.

The ghost of the boy in turn, now jumped on the floor, and stomped with his little right foot, obviously angry. With a gesture of his hand, he made a plate, a heavy book and a mug that stood at the nighttable, flew at Ben and Niklas, who stood in the door. The mug hit Niklas square on the head, creating a bleeding wound on his forehead, as the two of them charged into the room.


… to be continued

 

[Lars Frehse]

I hope I will be able to finish this chapter by tonight. After all, tomorrow we will play again, which means that a new chapter is coming up.
Again, I want to thank you guys for all your encouraging comments.

And now back to the soccer game, and then back to writing.

 

[Calaveth]

Good work, as usual.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Fatherfigure (part 3 of 3)

Niklas ushered the Petorns out of bed, and Ben enchanted the monk’s fists, so that they took on a green glow. The ghost was still angry, and with his next gesture, he toppled over the large cupboard, which crashed on Niklas.

Niklas now turned around, and tried to punch the ghost, but his fists, even though they were enchanted, pushed through him. Ben used his divine magic to cure Niklas’s wound, as the boy turned around, and left through a wall.

They ran outside, but the ghost was nowwhere to be found.

The Petorns were up and about now and cooked a big pot of tea for them and the young men. After he had eaten some bread, Vasili said: “One thing is for sure. That was little Sasou.”

Now, if the ghost was really little Sasou, what had happened to the boy? They debated what to do next, and came to a conclusion: They would not tell the priest about what they had found out just yet. Instead, they would ask him to come over next night in order to attempt to use his powers against the undead. Then, they would see how Sasou would react when he saw who was supposedly his father.
That seemed like a logical reason for the boy to attach to fat men: He wanted to be with his father. And from what they had seen, they gathered, that the boy wasn’t even acting in order to take revenge. It much more looked like he needed a father to cuddle with and forget his loneliness… Only that this unnatural sadness and desperation was enough to kill a mortal man who was in contact with it for too long.

The next morning, Ben and Niklas went to the church and told the priest that they would like to have him in the inn at night. Krofek agreed and so they went back to the inn, leaving Torn behind in order to keep an eye on the church.

Around noon, some of them were just having lunch, a farmer walked into the inn and said to the Innkeeper:” Vasili, do you have any idea where the priest is? He sure ain’t in his church!”.

Right away they jumped up and ran to Torn, who sat in front of the church, eating bread with sausage and drinking wine. He told them he saw a farmer going in and out of the church, but no priest.

They went into the church and looked for a secret passage, but found none. But a quick search revealed, that there was an empty wallsafe- Krofak seemed to have taken the church’s money. Next, they walked around the church to his house, which they found locked. After Torn had opened the door they searched the house. It looked as if noone had been in there for at least a week. And really, now they remembered that for some unknown reason, the priest had always slept in the church itself.

In the basement, Trepat noticed that some of the pressed earth that the floor was made of seemed a little bit disturbed, as if someone had dug a hole and then tried to made the evidence disappear without quite succeeding. Fearing the worst, Torn grabbed the coal shovel and started digging. Soon, his shovel hit resistance, and he unearthed the body of a woman with six hands and a little boy with unruly hair.

Now, they ran back to the church, where Ben gave the priest’s robes to his dog who was supposed to pick up the scent. For a short wile, the dog was unable to pick up a trail. Just as it looked as if they would have to rely on other means to find the murderer, Trepat and Torn noticed how the statue of Belsameth, the slayer goddess, turned her head towards the dog. She gazed at the dog for a moment and then returned to her original position.

The beast’s eyes flared up and he picked up the trail. Now, fueled with the instincts of Belsameth, he had the senses of a bloodhound. He was heading down the road back south and Trepat and Niklas ran ahead in order to get horses from the lord’s mansion. Once on horse, they rode south, down the road, the dog running ahead with his nose close to the ground.

Then, as they had a part that led through a wood, they caught up with the killer. He was still half a mile ahead, as he seemingly completely disappeared. They galloped ahead, and as they reached the part of the road where they had last seen him, the dog turned right into the wood.

After a while, they reached a small stream, and now, at last, the dog lost the trail. After just a few words, two groups were made. Trepat and Jan went upstream and the others downstream.

He had just walked a few hundred yards, as Trepat saw a shape in a tree, about a hundred feet in the woods. He walked on, silently signaling Jan that he had seen the priest, and sent his speaking raven to the others.

The raven told them to catch up with it’s master, and soon the group was back together, but at the same time, Tore Krofak had understood that he was discovered. He cast a spell, and all of a sudden, all around the men, the air was filled with glitter dust. Jan and Torn were able to close their eyes in time, but the others were blinded by the sparkling dust.

Now, the fat killer jumped down the tree, as Torn and Jan charged into the woods. Here, the half orc was much faster, since his armor was lighter, and so he soon caught up with the priest, who turned around and shot balls of energy at Torn. The half orc was hit hard, but he was too tough to stop now, he ran after the man, hitting him with his mace.

Now, the fake priest ean further into the woods, but Torn kept close behind and Jan was closing in.

By now, the effect of the glitter dust had worn of, and Ben cast an entangle spell into the area from which he heard the noise. All, Paladin, Rogue and killer were caught by the grasping plants, and Torn finished him with his mace.

With him, they found a ring, which, as they later found out, made the true alignment of it’s bearer undetectable, a book of arcane spells and the church’s treasure. Not even Torn wanted to keep that one, though. Bringing down the wrath of the gods upon yourself wasn’t a wise decision in a world, in which the gods took such active interest in the lives of mortals.

They went back to Weddafurt with the body and explained everything to the lord. After giving them yet another paper that was worth goods at the local trader place, he thanked them thoroughly, and asked Ben and Jan, whether they could bury the dead and take care of the church for as long as the village waited for replacement.

They agreed and stayed in the village for two wonderfully uneventful weeks, until one crisp morning, Ilena Lohberg, a dwarven priestess of Madriel, arrived, and they were free to go. Among good cheer and waving they sat of to brave the Kelder mountains, which towered majestically in front of them.

But now, that our heroes are off to new adventures, let me remain here in Weddafurt for a short while. I would like to shed some light on the mysterious events that led to the appearance of the ghost in the first place.

Tore Krofak, priest of Hedrada, had been dead for six years already. He had been killed by an illusionist who wanted to take the comfy position of a village priest, since he had considered it wise to diappear for a while. He himself had gotten into trouble with an organization called “the scaled ones”. So he got rid of the priest and assumed his role. He used his arcane tricks to make a good impression, and occasionaly, he used potions and salves to perform “miracle healings”. Apart from that, he did his duties as well as he could, in order to keep the gods of his back, as he put it.

Then, two years later, he started an affair with Sara, who by the way, had never been a real witch. Sasou was born and they maintained their relationship for three more years. Then, one night, Sara made an ultimatum: Either he would marry her, or she would show the villagers that he was a sham.

“Tore” was in a fix- if he said yes, then the villagers would probably not support him and he would have to leave. But by now, he had gotten to feel rather comfortable in his position. If he said no, then his only option would have been to get the inquisition, who would surely have found out that he was not what he claimed to be.

So, he killed both of them. He smashed the head of his lover and suffocated his son, showing that men can be as cruel as titans.

But it wasn’t over then. One week later, the spirit of his son appeared, and the father fled to the church, knowing that undead can not enter sacred ground. So, the ghost searched, desperately, and went to the place where he sensed a lot of man. There, he found Hayworth the merchant, who resembled his father, and embraced him two nights in a row, killing him in the process.

And the rest you know already. At the end, he made himself invisible as he feared confronting the ghost of his son.

And now, you ask me, who I am? Well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, really.
But let me say this much: I, like you are doing as well, am having an eye on the young heroes. And like some of you surely do, I too believe that they will play an important role in the fate of Ghelspad in the future. But for now, I prefer to stay in the shadow, and just watch…

 

[Nightfall]

Perhaps it's the mighty sage of the Scarred Lands, Yugman? Btw LOVE this stuff Lars! Great stuff! A wizard impersonating a village priest, good stuff!

 

[KidCthulhu]

I was so upset when Yugman started taking on the "sage of the Scarred Lands" role. I like the campaign world, and it needs an Elminster clone like it needs Spelljamming hippos.

Nice work, Lars. I was going to do something similar to this in my campaign, and you beat me to it, dang you.

 

[Nightfall]

Well he's a sage, but unlike Elminster, he won't butt in unless it's something that affect him personally. Besides he's CN. That means he's got his own agenda no matter what.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Nightfall, the funny thing is that in a mail to Kid Cthulu, I used the same defense of Yugman: He is a sage and he is CN. That puts him into an alltogether different league then Elminster.

 

[KidCthulhu]

I know he's not E. It's just when I see a sage get increasingly quoted in the reference materials, my Elminster alarm goes off. I'll be the first to admit that I have something of a bee in my bonnet about Elminster, however. I just hate that cult of personality thing, and hope it doesn't happen to Yugman.

 

[Lars Frehse]

KC, I see. You see, I have always been an Earthdawn fan, and what I liked most about the Earthdawn sourcebooks was that they were all written from the point of view of the Earthdawn universe.
So, naturally, I like elements like that in the Scarred Lands sourcebooks as well. It makes reading those books much more fun when they read as an account of an individual. You know, some of the Realms material always reminded me of the CIA world fact book, and like it, it was basically boring reading material.