the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

You said it, brother! It is a real case of adding insult to injury (or should that be injury to injury?)

More storyhour now!

Interlude

The days pass. The party heal and recover. In a well-attended Asuran ceremony on holyday the power of Asura is called upon and wisdom returns to Dala’s brow and the horror of losing his form to the chaos beast fades away.

Trajan is filled with a different kind of horror though. His close relationship with Asura has been lost. The aura of grace that has surrounded him for years has faded, and his prayers seem empty. He knows that he is responsible for the loss of life amongst the Trapp family, he had a responsibility to destroy an evil magical item and he stepped aside and tried to pass that responsibility on to others – and it led to their deaths. Time weighs heavily on him, and he resolves to go and visit his old master, back above his home village of Dragons End.

Trajan and Anne-Marie leave early, so that they can make the detour together. Arilyn and Dala will meet them later at Bellhold, in the Bell & Clapper inn. They receive a warm welcome at the inn in Dragons End, and nobody now refers to Trajan as the lanky boy who was always off with the old hermit. Trajan doesn’t feel like banter though, and they soon set off up the hillsides to his masters old place. He’ll know what to do, how things can be set right.

Eventually they reach the old shack on the hillside. There was the sound of chopping wood from the other side, but as they circle the yard they don’t see anyone – until they both become aware of an elderly man standing just behind them and with a knife at each of their necks.

“clumsy fools, and slow as ever. I despair of your Trajan, really I do”.

Released, they turn to face the wrinkled old man. Trajan hangs his head and explains the story, his failure as he sees it, in the matter of the chimes and the loss of the family. The hermit agrees. It was stupid, bad and dishonourable. In the old days the only appropriate response was to commit ritual suicide.
Trajan attempts to say that things are different nowadays, and that other responses might work, but his master turns away from him coldly.

“Have you learnt nothing from my teaching? Is my old order truly doomed to die with me?”

He stalks back into his house and shuts the door. For long minutes Trajan stares at the door, wrestling with his thoughts, then he shrugs off Anne-Maries comforting hand, and kneels before the door.

“Master” he calls out.

The door opens, and the hermit looks down on him.

“Master, will you be my second?” Trajan asks. The hermit nods, draws a knife and stands behind him.

Trajan draws his scimitar, holds it up praying, then reverses it to place the point just below his sternum.

“Stop! Stop!” cries Anne-Marie, “You must stop, you can’t do this, you mustn’t!”

The hermit glances across at her. “Why should he stop short of atonement?”

“Because”, whispers Anne-Marie, “because… I love him”.

Trajan gasps, distracted. Anne-Marie kneels down before him, moving the sword out of the way. “After I sought happiness with someone else in Bridlerest to no avail, I realised that the happiness I truly seek lies before me here – you are the one I love, Trajan. Live for me…”

The hermit gazes on them. “hmmm. Unorthodox, but I’ve seen stranger workings of Asura. Trajan, your atonement is not yet complete, but I feel that the light of Asura will once more shine on your brow. Anyhow, you’ve got to go now. I’m supposed to be a hermit, and it doesn’t do to have too many people around me. Go now. Go!”

Trajan gets up, bows to his master and he and Anne-Marie set off arm in arm down the hillside to their horses and on to Bellhold. He doesn’t have his relationship with Asura back yet – but it seems that another relationship is blossoming that he hadn’t suspected.

To be continued tomorrow, travelling up into the mountains and eventually meeting more undead than you can shake a stick at!

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

The Echo in the Wind

The current party roster is as follows:

Trajan 2nd Fighter/5th Jazumai/2nd Sword Saint
Anne-Marie 6th Fighter/2nd Monk
Dala 8th Sorcerer
Arilyn 7th Wizard

The people of Bellhold are delighted to see their heroes again, and wine and dine them royally. They even show them a commemorative statue which has been put up in the town square with representations of Lysander, Trajan, M’ir, K’tan, Dala and Syl. The company raise their flagons in remembrance of friends who have moved on to other things, or died in the service of good.

Many local people know of Stooks Climb, but nobody has been up that way to the Aeolian College in more than a year. Rumour has it that a giant has set up camp near the climb and exacts heavy tolls – or worse – from those who want to use it.

The company set out next morning to Stooks Climb, regretfully leaving their horses in the care of the inn at Bellhold. While still a long way from the passage, Awk is sent flying ahead to scout out the area. He returns with news of a large Hill giant, camped up by the second bend of Stooks Climb. He has a large pile of rocks and he is staring out towards all the approaches, waiting for anyone to approach. The weather is getting very windy, and Awk doesn’t think he’ll be able to fly in it for much longer.

A plan is made. Dala and Trajan are made invisible, Arilyn will watch from 500ft away, within range of her static bolts. Anne-Marie will creep up to the bottom of the climb while Dala and Trajan fly up and position themselves above the giant.

The attack is launched by surprise, but the giant is much tougher than expected, and it gets to unleash a full attack against Anne-Marie, seriously wounding her before it is finally cut down. Trajan calls upon the power of Asura to heal Anne-Marie, and she gasps back to consciousness. Investigating the giants sack reveals grisly human remains. At least this is one less menace to local society. It doesn’t look as if there has been many travellers passing either way recently here…

The brace themselves against the increasingly cold wind and start the long struggle up Stooks Climb. It is steep and unfriendly, taking hours to walk up, and the sun is dipping down to the horizon when they come out to the broad valley which leads up to the town of Moradins Call.

As they approach the gatehouse, their attention is drawn to a pair of small flying creatures which are dancing and weaving around the towers, and emitting bolts of lightning. Suddenly the creatures notice the party, and more specifically notice Zeph, and wing their way like arrows towards the little elemental, spearing him with electrical blasts. At about the same time, four orcish rangers erupt from cover just feet away from the adventurers and charge into the attack, raging with their greataxes swinging!

The battle is short and furious; the orcs don’t last long even though they were experienced hunters amongst their people, and the juvenile arrowhawks don’t last long against magic missiles. Arilyn recalls that they are creatures from the elemental plane of air, and Zeph mentions that they are sworn enemies of his kind. Arilyn thinks it is strange that elemental creatures of that type might be found here, out on the mountains. There must have been a portal somewhere which they slipped through...

 

[Shockwave]

The attack is launched by surprise, but the giant is much tougher than expected, and it gets to unleash a full attack against Anne-Marie, seriously wounding her before it is finally cut down.

How could you miss out one of Zeph's crowning achievements? You forgot his heroic slam flyby powered up with a shocking grasp spell. A daring and damn risky manoeuvre on the familiars part, good job he's a fast little ball of cloud and that the giant missed.

 

[Plane Sailing]

What can I say? It was a long time ago and I couldn't remember many of the details of the fight... If I can get some more feedback from you and the others I'll edit it in though, after all - Zeph's heroism deserves some commemoration, eh?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Oh dear...

Major character death occurred last night... I'm about 2 runs behind in the writeups here, but one of these guys isn't going to make it through the campaign

(no spoilers, Shockwave!)

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

As they reach the gate they are greeted by the guards who let them in and thank them for handling the menaces outside. They are particularly grateful that the orcish scouting party had been detected and stopped, as they were always a big problem in the spring time.

The wind has grown stronger and louder, coming in cold gusts down from the mountain peaks. As the company walk along the main street in the direction of the Aeolian College sounds of singing and laughter come from all of the houses which they walk past. They stop in at a tavern and find it crowded with men and women, apparently all taking it in turns to put on a performance of song or music, which is joined in with good humour by everyone. The quality of the music is good, and the atmosphere is welcoming. Anne-Marie is reminded of growing up on the Sword Coast where impromptu guitar sessions were common, and takes a turn with the musicians herself, drawing interest from her rousing ballad of the sea so far away.

Seated near a window shutter, Arilyn suddenly jumps – the sound of the wind changed suddenly for a moment, from a whooshing sound to a sudden roar, like a great beast, then back to it’s normal howling, It was a disturbing and unusual sound, not what she is used to hearing on the wind. It seems to be coming from further into the town, up where the College is supposed to be. Over the next fifteen minutes the strange roaring sound intrudes into the wind more and more often, and she encourages the others to press on directly towards the College; they wrap up against the wind and waving goodbye to new friend press on up the road.

As the main street opens into a small square, the can see the impressive frontage of the Aeolian College built into the cliff face to their right – and standing in front of it is the huge figure of an ettin, lumbering back and forth and with rocks in its hands. It spots them and starts throwing with deadly accuracy. After initially ducking back behind the corner of the street, Trajan and Anne-Marie run forward to attack while Dala and Arilyn provide spell support. The sound on the wind is now clearly audible to all of them – a disturbing song coming from within the College. No lyrics can be discerned but the melodies and vibrations seem to be disturbing.

The fight with the ettin proves to be short and brutal. It was a zombie, and that thankfully made it much slower and less resilient than the foe would otherwise have been. Behind it are 8ft tall stone doors, which appear barred from the inside. After they have tried opening the doors a small slit in one door opens, and a bitter, feminine melodic voice says “Oh, thank you for saving us. Please, come in!”.

The hear the sound of the door being unbarred, and as they push the doors open the horrible sound of the song pours out over them. The song is hideous and yet beautiful: discordant, full of pain and loss and suffering, yet full of longing. It seems to be calling something to it, something horrible...

 

[Schmoe]

Good stuff! I can't wait to hear what lies within the old college.

Regarding the switch to 3e, I think it's definitely true that encounters remain deadly throughout a character's lifetime. That's one of the things that keeps the game fun, though, is that the players never need to feel like they aren't challenged. In my campaign, at the game table I keep remarking on how tough the party is and how they always seem to come through at the end, but when it comes time to design the encounters, I always find myself having to scale back to avoid an almost certain TPK. So yeah, while the PC's are definitely tough, challenging them is still no challenge at all.

Who knows, maybe this changes at certain power-levels (my PC's are about 1 level above yours), but I doubt it.

Hey, I just thought of something. Considering that your party and mine are about the same level, if you want to share notes sometime on some cool encounters, I'd be more than happy to.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Who knows, maybe this changes at certain power-levels (my PC's are about 1 level above yours), but I doubt it.

Hey, I just thought of something. Considering that your party and mine are about the same level, if you want to share notes sometime on some cool encounters, I'd be more than happy to.

I don't think that Piratecat has had many fatalities despite horrific odds against his players, so perhaps at 16th+ level it becomes less of an issue... It'll take a while before we get there though!

I'd love to share notes on some cool encounters - would it be worth opening a thread in the "plots" forum?

Next installment coming up later tonight BTW!

Cheers, and thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Plane Sailing]

As Trajan and Anne-Marie enter the room two young women who have been hideously deformed into undead wights leap at them, clawing with broken fingernails. They seem to be bolstered by the unearthly song ringing through the hall, and before they are struck down their talons have struck a deep chill into Trajan’s heart, weakening his health slightly.

The proceed down the corridor into the great hall, which has many side passages leading off to dormitories and classrooms. The great hall itself is lined with trophies, banners, plaques and old instruments, while benches and tables are set out across the floor. Dala gestures and spits a few words and an explosion of webbing coats one side of the hall, sealing all the doors there closed as a precaution. The sound is clearly coming from the closed door to the main auditorium, which is thrumming with the powerful beat of the hideous, cacophonic music.

Trajan thrusts the door open, and his eyes gaze on a horrible sight. Students and teachers stand against the wall of this circular 50ft diameter room. All have been turned into wights, and all are playing instruments or singing with melodic, evil voices, amplified by the astounding acoustics of the auditorium. Standing in mid-air just below the 40ft ceiling, poised in the air is a dwarven wight, conducting his evil choir with a black baton. He turns as they enter.

“Good evening! My name is Thorsted. Have you come to appreciate my choir?”

“No” says Trajan, whose sensitivity to evil is raising all the hairs on his neck. “We have come to stop you”

“Pity” growls Thorsted in a deep bass voice, and as the horrible song reaches a crescendo he waves his baton down at Trajan and the others and barks a command – and at the musically correct moment a thunderbolt of electricity streams out from the baton bathing Trajan and the others in its power. They leap for safety, Dala touches Trajan and whispers “Fly” and Trajan leaps up into the sky to take the fight to the dwarven wight.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The dwarfs gleaming black chainmail deflects some of Trajan’s blow, and it strikes back at Trajan with a clawed, chill hand and then backflips 10ft away and down from Trajan, landing again on the air as though it were solid ground.

The choir continues singing, and the sense of longing, the sense of calling grows stronger and stronger. Dala casts Spider Climb and peeks round the top of the door, and starts summoning a celestial ape while looking to find a target. Anne-Marie dances into the room to attack one of the musicians directly and summons Padfoot to also attack the singing wights.

Thorsted catches sight of Dala’s conjuring and catches him with another blast from the lightning wand he was using as a baton, spoiling the spell. Trajan continues to trade blows with him, but can’t manage to pull off a full attack on the dwarf as he tumbles through the air.

Dala moves more fully behind cover and works again to summon a celestial ape which he sends in to start attacking wights alongside Anne-Marie. They don’t fight back, and they each are able to down one and start on another, but there is a clear sense that the horrendous song is building to a conclusion, and there is an awesome rumbling coming from deep within the earth beneath their feet, and a tangible chill starts to fill the air. Thorsted takes a moment to gloat and Trajan seizes the opportunity and with a mighty blow removes the dwarven wights head.

The sudden silence is deafening as all the remaining wights stop their song, dazed by the death of their creator. “Quick” shouts Arilyn, “leave now”. Trajan flies straight out, and Anne-Marie backs out summoning Padfoot. The celestial gorilla remains in place and is suddenly swarmed by five wights which rapidly drain it of all life. As the other wights start to surge towards the auditorium exit, Trajan cries out “Turn, in the name of Asura!” and channels divine power through the holy symbol he carries. A few turn back, the remainder press on. Again he cries out “Turn!” and all but the last two flee from him… but now the wights which had finished off the gorilla seek new flesh to tear, so Dala casts a web across the inside of the auditorium to seal it off.

As the heroes back into the grand hall they can see the wights tearing their way through the webs, and soon the ones that had been turned join the throng… There are still a dozen of the foul creatures and Trajan and Anne-Marie have both already been weakened by the chill touch of the undead. Magic missiles and static bolts are cast into the wights, dropping a couple of them but suddenly they are through the webs and charging into the room. Dala polymorphs himself into a gargoyle, recovering some much needed health and taking to the air to get out of their reach. Padfoot leaps once more into the attack and draws off some of the creatures while Anne-Marie and Trajan fight a desperate defensive retreat, aware that a solid blow from any of the wights could easily finish either of them off. One wight is downed, and another one, but a couple are moving up round the flank. Arilyn flees out the main door, hotly followed by Dala. Padfoot is down, his energy drained away and he returns to his figurine form. Trajan is struck again and both he and Anne-Marie tumble away from their attackers and race down the entrance hallway, bursting out into the evening air.

Dala has been waiting, and once more summons webs to fill the corridor, delaying the remaining wights who start fighting their way through these webs. Trajan and Anne-Marie stand back from the doorway, side by side and with their bows drawn fire arrow after arrow through the webs and into the wights, felling one, and then another. The last remaining wight just manages to break free of the webs and charges into their midst in one final attempt to bring them down, but the heroes manage to cut it down without receiving any more serious harm.

The cold night wind howls around them, the lights burn behind the shutters of the houses down the way and a faint sound of wholesome singing can be heard from the rest of the town. It seems like normality has returned to Moradin’s Call, and whatever fearsome creature was being summoned from the depths has returned to its subterranean haunts. Their look round at each others haggard faces, Anne-Marie and Trajan are particularly white of complexion and hollow cheeked, having lost much of their vitality to the undead foe. By Asura’s grace the price had not been higher.

One strange thing that they all notice – the potions which they had been carrying with them have all be spoiled, becoming rancid and useless. I wonder why that was?

They return into the hall, back into the main auditorium and start hauling the bodies out so that they can be burnt in the night air. From Thorsted’s body they recover the enchanted black chainmail shirt which Trajan dons (+2 chainmail of invulnerability), a magical cloak which strongly enhances ones personality and self esteem is given to Dala and it opens new gates to his magical power (Cloak of Charisma +4), along with the boots of air walking which the dwarf was using. Arilyn takes the lightning wand and Anne-Marie the magical gauntlets which the dwarf was wearing (gauntlets of arrow snaring).

During their search they find two teachers and five young students who had managed to hide in a music storeroom during the initial attack when all their colleagues were transformed into wights. They are relieved and full of praise for the party who have saved them, although distraught at the doom of their friends. They vow to spread the word of this victory while attempting to rebuild their College and its reputation.


(next: meeting the dwarves, and the Door in the Air)