the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

The three of them manage to find their way through the trees and back to the old road again, and within an hour or so are back in the village. They request a chat with Dyson who is happy to oblige. The kindly old scholar explains that his old friend Henwen lives in the mausoleum now -"her mind was destroyed by one of the awful creatures that we fought in our simple adventuring days, and she just babbles to herself in imbecility." He says. "So sad. It is just good fortune that the ghostly horseman keeps away from that gravesite, since I’ve not been able to convince her to seek safety here in the village. Well, what safety there is, anyway".

Trajan reassures them that they are going to do what they can to tackle the barrow and see to this ghost which is terrorising them (but he doesn’t reveal his suspicions about Tully’s lies).

Lysander, Dala and Arylin remain behind in the village to protect and reassure villagers, while Anne-Marie, Trajan and K’tan head out to the barrow.
DMs note: An old friend was visiting from Germany and took over the playing of the NPC K’tan, so you’ll see a little more action from him for a while. It was only his third game of 3rd edition, and his first go at a caster, but he took to it with much aplomb

Getting their bearings better, they head off directly towards the barrow. At the edge of the thickest part of the forest Anne-Marie narrowly avoids setting off a snare which would have catapulted her skywards, but the expected hail of arrows never materialises.

In early morning they reach the huge barrow once more. Entering the small chamber with the alcove, and performing a detailed search of the walls reveals three secret doors, each activated by switches hidden in the carvings. They select one at random and the wall slides downwards, revealing a dark and damp passage. K’tan lights up his lantern, and Trajan leads the way cautiously through the narrow passage and up to the T junction.

All is silent as the grave.

As he reaches the T Junction a hideous undead figure leaps around the corner, alerted by the lantern light; as its claws rake his chest a chilling cold steals into his soul...

 

[paulewaug]

darn pesky work!

Wow Two updates!!
Check it out!

I hope Trajan sticks with it! Does he read the boards much?
I'd say he is well liked.


Yeah I have been reading/lurking for a while,
Kyri Chronicles was one of my first Story Hours that got me hooked!
I had just been putting off registering for a while and ended up waiting until the boards found their permanent home from when they were moving around and testing things.
I had more read time then and actually thought I'd be able to keep a Story of my own updated...Hah...

Nice description of the negative energy/drain BTW
I always find your S.H. inspiring!
Ok so enough smoke blowing here!
back to our regularly scheduled Sailing!

 

[Plane Sailing]

I hope Trajan sticks with it! Does he read the boards much?
I'd say he is well liked.

None of my players read these boards (although the player of Dala knows about them). I'd love to encourage them to read and contribute, but all have lots of RealLife(tm) that sucks up their internet time.

If you saw the storyhours from the beginning, the player of Trajan started off with Graculous (fighter) and Blodwyn (priestess), then took Crail forward for quite a while before pressing on with Trajan - his most successful character yet. I really like the way the player is taking this character - probably the most thoughtful and good-minded character I've seen him play.

Yeah I have been reading/lurking for a while,
Kyri Chronicles was one of my first Story Hours that got me hooked!

Hey, you wouldn't believe how encouraging that is! I remember in the early days I just kept plugging on through sheer bloody-mindedness The new boards showing views as well as replies was tremendously encouraging, as at least everyone else knew that their work was being looked at!

I'll try to get the next installment up quickly too (playing again on Sunday, and I'm quite a way behind still!)

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Backing off quickly and bringing his guard up, Trajan attempts to fend off the creature while Anne-Marie behind starts backing up too. The charnel stench from the creature is awful. K’tan gathers his power and launches an amplified concussion at the creature but in the darkness his aim is appalling and he strikes Anne-Marie right in the back of the head! With a couple more ineffectual swings at the creature they retreat out of the narrow corridor and into the chamber - but the wight backs off, refusing to follow towards the daylight it retreats back around its corner.

Shaken up by the encounter, the party discuss their options. They wait for a couple of hours to allow Anne-Marie to recover from the nasty blow she took. In compensation, K’tan decides to try out a new power which he is getting to grips with - and he places an inertial barrier on each of his companions.

“Don’t worry” he says. “It will be difficult for the wights to hurt you now”.

Once more they activate the secret door, and this time Trajan glides careful forward, scimitar poised. At the T-junction he bursts around the corner and catches the wight completely flat-footed! With one smooth, focussed motion he brings his bastard scimitar around in an overhead cut and pauses with the tip of the blade at ground level - and the two halves of the wight collapse separately on the floor. The steps he has been taking along the path to Sword Saint are really starting to take off… his old master will be pleased!

Surprised that a foe which had caused them such trouble early on could be dispatched so quickly, the party form up and start winding their way through a tricky maze of passages. After 10 minutes they stumble across another wight, but its claws cannot penetrate the inertial barrier, despite striking magical sparks with each blow. Its chilling touch is also blocked, thank Asura!

They proceed on a little further, before Anne-Marie sounds a note of warning.

“I can hear something” she says. “a deep rumbling sound”

“I can see the ground trembling slightly” K’tan responds

to be continued...

 

[Plane Sailing]

There is a sudden shower of dirt and pebbles as a huge humanoid figure erupts out of the earthen floor, much like a sounding whale. Gem-like eyes flash and a huge fist of rock swings around in a punishing arc and catches K’tan with a fierce blow. Trajan reacts quickly, but his scimitar glances off its rocky surface, the force of his blow completely absorbed by the elementals inorganic body.

“Run for it!” Anne Marie cries, and the party charge headlong deeper into the maze of tunnels.

They quickly outdistance the elemental, but at a crucial junction they take a wrong turning, and fetch up against a dead end! Scurrying back to the junction they arrive just to see the elemental step out of an earthen wall, at the end of its shortcut.

Anne-Marie steps into one side of the fork and attempts to taunt the creature while fighting with all the defensive skill she can muster. Trajan maintains his position in the other branch of the fork to defend K’tan. The elemental lazily reaches out and lands a two-fisted attack on Trajan, rocking him back on his feet. Mentally he gives thanks to Asura for the Inertial barrier spell K’tan placed on him earlier, which robs the attacks of much of their power.

Trajan calls upon Asura for divine might, and holding his bastard scimitar in a two-handed grip he chops away at the elemental. Meanwhile K’tan starts pouring his power into triggered concussions which he mentally hurls at the beast, each one of which knocks stones out of its head and shoulders.

The elemental takes time to land a crippling blow on Anne-Marie before switching its attention back to Trajan, but the Jazumai’s stand continues and at last a final blast from K’tan fells the creature, which collapses into a mass of stones and dirt.

Bruised and sore, Trajan does his best to bind up the wounds that people have received, then calls upon the healing power of Asura, which flows through his hands and lifts both their spirits.

“That inertial barrier saved my life” Trajan says to K’tan. “Can I have another one?”

“Sorry. Not enough power” replies the laconic Cadlanian. “Invisibility?”.

Trajan nods, and his two companions see him fade from view.

They set off deeper into the maxe, Trajan invisibly leading the way, and relying upon the light source of his comrades behind him. Rounding a corner he sees another wight, crouching in wait. Stepping forward and with a shout to focus his concentration he sweeps his scimitar up in a lightning fast blow which cleaves the surprised undead in two before it can move. Visible again, he taps the bones and rags with his feet.

“Not too shabby”, Anne-Marie says as they come into view.

“Invisibility again?” asks K’tan

Trajan nods. Then they press on deeper into the barrow.

 

[paulewaug]

ooohhhh excellent

I esp. like the offers of "Invisibility?" and "Invisibility again?"
the dialogue just seemed funny to me!

Trajan is quite the Wight killer!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Trajan is quite the Wight killer!

It was funny (to me), since the first encounter with a Wight was a desparate retreating battle where everyone was getting flustered and hurt.

Then there was the encounter with inertial barrier up and the wight couldn't hurt him.

Then there is a whole series of invisible surpirse-round demolitions of wights... the change in attitude amongst the players was interesting to watch!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Winding deeper and deeper the circular dirt tunnels seem to coil more and more tightly back and forth, indicating that they are nearing the centre of the barrow. A deep pit is easily crossed thanks to Anne-Marie’s stupendous leaping ability. A couple more wights are summarily destroyed by Trajan, although K’tan can no longer continue making him invisible.

Finally there is a long, steep, coiling path that leads them downwards for several minutes - and opens into a chamber containing a large sarcophagus, and many dark niches around the walls. As they cautiously enter, an apparition arises from the sarcophagus.

“Why do you disturb Saithnar’s rest?” it demands in a commanding voice.

“Sire”, answers Trajan, “We mean no disrespect, but we are on a quest for a terrified village”

“Good.” Rumbles Saithnar. “Men of honour should defend the helpless. It has always been thus”.

Trajan presses on with his line of questioning. “The villagers are under siege by elvish archers, aided by a fearsome ghostly horseman… some thought the horseman might be based at your barrow…”

“It is a fool who misjudges the nobility of elves” Saithnar replies. “Although rarely seen by the end of the days of my life, they have always been upright and true, defenders of the just and opposers of that which is evil. I know of no horseman”.

Bowing, Trajan says “We mean no offence, and fear we have been misdirected here. With your leave we will depart and seek to unravel this mystery further”.

As they start to back out of the room the ghostly figure bids them to hold for a moment.

“While serving the forces of good in this land you may borrow some of my treasures which supported me in my tasks here. Open the lid and take my rapier and my circlet, for they will aid you”.

As the apparition watches they remove the lid, Anne-Marie takes the frost-rimed rapier and Trajan picks up the circlet, and feels his confidence and authority grow as he places it across his brow.

“We vow to return these treasures to you when our quest is done” they say in turn. Is that a smile that crosses the face of Saithnar?

“One of my wives will show you out” he says, and a wight dressed in rags that might have once been a fine dress shuffles forward, and motions for them to follow.

After a further half-hour of twisting passages, a secret door is opened into the barrows first chamber. While the wife of Saithnar retreats back into the barrow tunnels, the adventurers step bleary -eyed and exhausted out into the twilight, and prepare a camp fire for the night.

Then they hear someone singing to the sound of a Lute…


to be continued.

 

[Plane Sailing]

To their astonishment, they see the man known as Cuckoo picking his way through the brush which surrounds the barrow.

“Excuse me gentlemen” the reedy voice enquires “Might I camp with you for the night?”

“Come into the light, where we can see you” Anne-Marie demands.

Sure enough, it is the lanky, balding minstrel which they met in the village.

“What are you doing out in the woods at this hour?” Trajan enquires. “Don’t you fear the horseman?”

“Ah” says Cuckoo, “I was out seeking my muse, inspiration for song and time ran away from me… as did my sense of direction!” He chuckles lightly. “Your campfire?”

“Well, you may stay with us the night then” says Trajan.

Meanwhile, K’tan is eyeing the minstrel up. He whispers to Trajan “He looks remarkably well fed compared to the rest of the villagers, don’t you think? In fact Dyson and Tully looked quite well fed too, didn’t they? How come all the villagers are starving and these retired adventurers are not, hmmm?”

By common consent watches are shared that night, Trajan keeping his watch with Cuckoo, and on him, despite the odd lullaby coming from the minstrels lute.

Come morning, they decide to set off to the Red Horse, another one of the local landmarks. Cuckoo counsels against it, recommending that they return to the village with the latest news from the dweller in the barrow - but he soon acquiesces to the desires of the rest of the party. However, they have covered less than a quarter of the distance to the Red Horse when disaster strikes!

One of the trees which they are walking past suddenly wrenches itself free from the soil and swings around towards them, its branches swinging in punishing arcs which just miss Anne-Marie and Cuckoo.

Trajan draws his weapon and starts chopping at the bark of the tree, Anne-Marie deduces that her rapier is not likely to penetrate the trees wood and so fights defensively and attempting to draw attacks her way. K’tan starts launching concussions at the horrifically mobile tree, and the air resonates with the voiceless shouts of his power manifesting.

Cuckoo backs off, attempting to start a rousing war-chant to inspire his comrades, but the tree takes two great strides past Anne-Marie and Trajan to strike at him again, putting him off his music.

As suddenly as the attack had started, it is over. The tree appears to be rooted once more, although badly blasted by the mages power and with chunks hewn out by Trajan. The strange spirit which had animated the tree seems to have fled.

Cuckoo is all in a fluster, and keeps mumbling about getting back to the village, that he should never have come out here. The other three confer quickly and decide that it would make sense to return to the village and get Cuckoo safely home. It certainly seemed that the tree life around here has something against him, and if they can get him safely back within the stone circle they should be free to continue their investigations.

Changing bearing, they strike off through the thicker woodland towards the village. After a couple of hours walking they take a break for lunch before setting off once more so they can reach the village before sundown.

Then they hear them.

Hoofbeats.

Coming from behind them, the hoofbeats grow louder.

Drumming, drumming, DRUMMING!

With a scream of fear Cuckoo charges off into the woods on their left, and Anne-Marie runs screaming off into the woods on their right. Trajan’s resolute aura enables K’Tan to stand his ground alongside the Jaxumai - as a ghostly horseman manifests, charging through the trees towards them!

 

[Old One]

Good Stuff!

Alex,

I have just gotten caught up...I didn't realize how far behind I was. How are you managing the transition from lower-middle to upper-middle power? It seems like you are throwing pretty tough encounters at them now.

Also, did you ever have "The Talk" with Lysander's player? If so, how did it go?

Thanks,

Old One