The Scarred Lands: Shadows Over Shelzar
Seyrn Lerramir
First Post
I must say, Nightfall -- I think you will be duly pleased.
*sly grin*
*prods Tuerny to finish*
*sly grin*
*prods Tuerny to finish*
Just so you know I revised the latter part of the group's conversation with Sazeer. I forgot a particularly important question on the part of Geb. 
Here is the most up-to-date entry:
By the time they arrived at the Grand Temple Rautho was sweating. The furs that covered his body, though they were fine, were ill suited to this sweltering climate. He wondered idly if it was about time for him to go pick up the set of clothes he had purchased.
The Grand Temple itself was an immense structure, though it only barely exceeded the size of the Temple of Enkili. The interior was dirty and singed from the smoke of countless little fires emerging from the brothels, taverns, and brothels that lined either side of the great hall, built to cater to the needs of the faithful, even if the faithful, particularly those of the lawful gods, did not want their needs met in this way.
For their part, Geb, Izala, Rautho, and Seryn ignored the temptations found within the Grand Temple, instead going straight to the portion of the building devoted to Madriel. The interior of this section was spotlessly clean, in a stark contrast to the main, entry-level Temple areas, and benefited from a large stained glass window that illuminated the entry area of the temple with multi-colored rays of sunlight. A large, marble statue of Madriel in her glorious winged, spear in hand form dominated the center of the entry area. At its base sat a young acolyte who appeared to be busy cleaning the layer of dust.
After a few minutes of waiting a young, golden haired priest dressed in white robes emerged from one of the side chambers.
“Greetings,” he said, “Welcome to the temple of Madriel. Are you here to make a donation?”
The group looked at each other warily for a moment before Rautho broke into a grin. “Of course I would wish to invoke the blessing of she who battles against disease,” he stated while thinking of the fact they were about to visit a plague victim.
While Rautho, and Geb, took care of his donation and prayer to Madriel, Seryn questioned the priest as to the location of the Hospice of Madriel. The priest offered to lead them to its entrance, and within a few minutes the group found itself at a set of stairs that appeared to lead deeper into the bowels of the temple.
They descended with some trepidation, thoughts of the demise of the Company of the Sevenfold Swords thick in the back of their minds. At the bottom of the steps a plain-looking women in a white robe greeted them. After a quick explanation that they were here to see Altho the Unrepentant, the woman led them down a hallway with a line of cells. Once they arrived at what the woman said was Altho’s cell, Geb asked her, “So has anyone else come to see him?”
The woman thought a moment than said, “Yes, a few days ago a quartet of individuals came to see them. They were a rough looking bunch and the man who spoke for them, I assume he was their leader, was rather surly. Rude for that matter, too.”
The group just looked at each other silently for a moment as the woman opened the door. She then proceeded to step aside and wave them in. “If you need anything I will just be a little ways down the hall,” she stated simply before walking away.
The group filed into the small room, adorned only by a dresser and the bed upon which a man leaned upon his shoulder staring intently at the intruders into his personal space. From what little could be seen of him, a blanket covered most of him, the man appeared to have been ravaged by some sort of virulent disease. Ugly pockmarks covered his face and arms, and his eyes appeared watery and unfocused.
Geb walked over next to him and looked down at him, “Are you Altho the Unrepentant?”
The man smiled back with a set of unhealthy looking, yellow teeth, “That I am.”
“We are here on behalf of Sazeer Meeka and have some questions, what can ya tell us about the Kan Thet expedition?” inquired Geb further
“Ah yes, the Kan Thet expedition….”, mad gales of laughter suddenly emerged from Altho’s mouth disquieting everyone in the room, “yes, Kan Thet. We were out there exploring some ruins in search of asaathi relics, Sazeer,” some giggles, “hired us to go get the Sworn Book of Chern. We got into their ok. Fought some pestilites, but the ruin itself wasn’t much of a problem. We grabbed the book and thought that we could make an easy getaway, you know a bit of a hit and run to add to the money we were getting from the relics. But that was before the spirits of the plague emerged. Infected half the group with disease. We still thought that we could make it…but on our way out the pestilites came back…this time with their queen!”
Altho stopped for a moment, overcome by his laughter. The group just stared at him uncertainty, feeling uneasy in the presence of someone who was so obviously dominated by insanity.
“The queen had some sort of strange effect on her followers. They were tougher, more organized, more competent than before. They took down half the company before we were able to fight our way free. We lost people who had been with us since Mithril… The rest of us died when we got back to the city. The book was the cause of this…THE BOOK!!!!!!”
After Altho calmed down some, Geb spoke up, “What can you tell us about the book, did you look inside it?”
Altho laughed again, “No that was the job of the wizard and the cleric. They were the ones who had joy of examining the interior of that accursed tome. They were the ones who did it. Now they are dead!” More insane laughter emerged with frequent mutterings about death.
Seryn decided to proceed now, “What was in the book?”
Altho smirked back, “Why should I tell you?”
Seryn shrugged back, “Why not?”
Altho giggled, “Because I don’t care.”
Seryn scowled at that and Rautho came over and slowly lifted him up, growling and staring angrily into his eyes “Tell us what you know!”
Altho cackled back with an insane glimmer in his eyes, “Are you trying to scare me? Look at my eyes. Do you see fear there? No. There is no fear there. I have been to the depths of the Swamps of Kan Thet. I have watched my companions die one by one to the foul plagues and evil that ravage that place. I have no fear left. I welcome death to myself, and the world with open arms.”
Rautho tossed him back onto the bed. “There is nothing we can get from him. He is a godless madman. I will be waiting outside,” he stated furiously and began striding from the room.
He was stopped just before leaving as Altho broke into hysterical laughter again, “You shouldn’t open the book, it can do bad, bad things to you. Things like THIS!” With that he pulled off the bottom of his blanket revealing that one of his legs was completely gone and the end was wrapped in bandages.
Rautho snorted in disgust a this display and walked out.
For her part, Izala moved to the back of the room and began to cough, attempting to mask the sound of bells that emerged whenever she attempted to make individuals more easily influenced by those around them. She failed. Luckily, noone appeared to notice her activity.
Seryn asked in a soothing voice, with a smile on her face, “Will you please tell me what was in the book?”
Altho smiled back, “Of course. I did not look at it on my own. That was for the wizard and cleric to do. What they told me was enough, though. It seems it was a book of arcane spells favored by servants of Chern. They said….they said its name was the Sworn Book of Chern. In the back of the book was the work’s crowning glory. A True Ritual of great power called Call Upon the Hand of Chern. Infects everyone within a mile with multiple diseases, each more virulent and deadly than the last. Hmm…Why do you question me about the book? Can’t Sazeer find this out for himself? Why must he send people to continually badger me about the contents? TELL ME WHY!”
Seryn recoiled at this, “The book was stolen...a few days ago. Someone took it from Sazeer’s warehouse.”
“Stolen? The Sworn Book of Chern was stolen in Shelzar?” Altho began to laugh madly again. “Do you have any idea the devastation this could cause? Do you have any idea of what it can do the city? We are doomed. We are all going to die a twisting, painful death as the power of Chern consumers our bodies from the inside out.”
Geb winced at this. “We will stop this from happening. Who were those people who came and questioned you about this book?”
Altho ignored him. “Giving me your sword,” he said to Geb as he reached over at him. When Geb refused, he howled to Seryn, “Give me one of your daggers then!” They stepped away from him bringing the weapons outside of his reach.
“Why won’t you give me your weapons?” he wept.
After a moment Seryn whispered softly to him, “If you will tell us what we need to know I swear upon my goddess Drendari, I will give you what you desire.”
Geb looked at her with an expression of slight disgust at this but said nothing.
Altho smiled back at her in responses and said, “What….what do you wish to know?”
Geb cleared his throat and, with a nod, Seryn agreed to let him answer this question, “Who were the people who came to visit you, what do you know about them?”
Altho laughed at this, grabbing his belly and rolling around in his bed, “Sazeer sent them to ask about the book! They were you, you…yes you were sent out the book. So those people must be you!”
Geb glowered at this, his patience wearing thin, “No they weren’t us. We have never been here before. Who were they what did they say?”
Altho smirked, “There were four of them, two men and two women. Their leader was rather mean, almost as much as you. They called him Eothan.”
Seryn interrupted, “Was one of the girls young?”
Altho smiled back, “Yes, she couldn’t have been older than nineteen or twenty.”
Geb and Seryn exchanged looks and Geb motioned for her and Izala to move over to the corner of the room. They began to whisper to each other.
“You aren’t really going to give him a dagger are you?” said Geb gruffly.
“I have to. I made an oath upon my goddess. You know as well as I do that if I break it then Drendari won’t look very kindly upon me,” she hissed back. “Its simple the two of you leave the room and say that he has grabbed a dagger from me and gone crazy. I will deal with the rest.”
Geb sighed, “You win,” and proceeded to leave the room. Izala followed.
Seryn moved quickly over to the bed. “Here is the dagger I promised you,” she said before taking a quick step back.
Altho grinned at her for a moment before taking the dagger and driving it into his throat. Seryn couldn’t help but gasp at the scene, as blood flowed from the grisly wound.
Within moments the priestess who had been waiting outside, followed by Rautho and Izala, rushed back in the room.
The priestess looked around and said, softly, “What happened?”
Seryn looked over at Altho’s macabre grin and looked downcast. “He took the dagger from me and drove it into his throat. He said something about the horrors of the disease being too much for him.”
The priestess nodded sadly, “Would you like for me to send you information on his funeral?”
Seryn did, and gave the priestess directions to her house, before leading the other two out of the chamber.
Geb looked kind of shocked to see them walking out of the room on their own free will.
“I thought we would be led away from here in irons,” he whispered in conspiratorial tones. Seryn just smiled.
The group slowly made its way outside of the Grand Temple, contemplating the dire scene that had unfolded before them and the information that they had gained from it.
Once outside they agreed that they needed to find out more information specifically about where Eothan and his comrades might have gone. Geb and Izala were going to investigate the tenements, Seryn was going to tap into her traditional information channels, and Rautho was going to ask around the Grand Temple. In addition Rautho decided it was about time to pick up his freshly tailored clothes. When they were done they would meet back at Seryn’s house.
The group each pursued their individual tasks, seeking to pull every bit of information they could from their sources. They each encountered failure after failure. The only one with any success at all was Rautho, who not only discovered that, while in one of the Grand Temple’s taverns, that a man fitting Eothan’s description had said something about meeting back at the warehouse, but also was able to pick up his new clothes.
The night ended with disappointment on all fronts as the group returned to Seryn’s house to ponder what the next step was in preventing the evil found in the Sworn Book of Chern from devouring the people of Shelzar.
Here is the most up-to-date entry:
By the time they arrived at the Grand Temple Rautho was sweating. The furs that covered his body, though they were fine, were ill suited to this sweltering climate. He wondered idly if it was about time for him to go pick up the set of clothes he had purchased.
The Grand Temple itself was an immense structure, though it only barely exceeded the size of the Temple of Enkili. The interior was dirty and singed from the smoke of countless little fires emerging from the brothels, taverns, and brothels that lined either side of the great hall, built to cater to the needs of the faithful, even if the faithful, particularly those of the lawful gods, did not want their needs met in this way.
For their part, Geb, Izala, Rautho, and Seryn ignored the temptations found within the Grand Temple, instead going straight to the portion of the building devoted to Madriel. The interior of this section was spotlessly clean, in a stark contrast to the main, entry-level Temple areas, and benefited from a large stained glass window that illuminated the entry area of the temple with multi-colored rays of sunlight. A large, marble statue of Madriel in her glorious winged, spear in hand form dominated the center of the entry area. At its base sat a young acolyte who appeared to be busy cleaning the layer of dust.
After a few minutes of waiting a young, golden haired priest dressed in white robes emerged from one of the side chambers.
“Greetings,” he said, “Welcome to the temple of Madriel. Are you here to make a donation?”
The group looked at each other warily for a moment before Rautho broke into a grin. “Of course I would wish to invoke the blessing of she who battles against disease,” he stated while thinking of the fact they were about to visit a plague victim.
While Rautho, and Geb, took care of his donation and prayer to Madriel, Seryn questioned the priest as to the location of the Hospice of Madriel. The priest offered to lead them to its entrance, and within a few minutes the group found itself at a set of stairs that appeared to lead deeper into the bowels of the temple.
They descended with some trepidation, thoughts of the demise of the Company of the Sevenfold Swords thick in the back of their minds. At the bottom of the steps a plain-looking women in a white robe greeted them. After a quick explanation that they were here to see Altho the Unrepentant, the woman led them down a hallway with a line of cells. Once they arrived at what the woman said was Altho’s cell, Geb asked her, “So has anyone else come to see him?”
The woman thought a moment than said, “Yes, a few days ago a quartet of individuals came to see them. They were a rough looking bunch and the man who spoke for them, I assume he was their leader, was rather surly. Rude for that matter, too.”
The group just looked at each other silently for a moment as the woman opened the door. She then proceeded to step aside and wave them in. “If you need anything I will just be a little ways down the hall,” she stated simply before walking away.
The group filed into the small room, adorned only by a dresser and the bed upon which a man leaned upon his shoulder staring intently at the intruders into his personal space. From what little could be seen of him, a blanket covered most of him, the man appeared to have been ravaged by some sort of virulent disease. Ugly pockmarks covered his face and arms, and his eyes appeared watery and unfocused.
Geb walked over next to him and looked down at him, “Are you Altho the Unrepentant?”
The man smiled back with a set of unhealthy looking, yellow teeth, “That I am.”
“We are here on behalf of Sazeer Meeka and have some questions, what can ya tell us about the Kan Thet expedition?” inquired Geb further
“Ah yes, the Kan Thet expedition….”, mad gales of laughter suddenly emerged from Altho’s mouth disquieting everyone in the room, “yes, Kan Thet. We were out there exploring some ruins in search of asaathi relics, Sazeer,” some giggles, “hired us to go get the Sworn Book of Chern. We got into their ok. Fought some pestilites, but the ruin itself wasn’t much of a problem. We grabbed the book and thought that we could make an easy getaway, you know a bit of a hit and run to add to the money we were getting from the relics. But that was before the spirits of the plague emerged. Infected half the group with disease. We still thought that we could make it…but on our way out the pestilites came back…this time with their queen!”
Altho stopped for a moment, overcome by his laughter. The group just stared at him uncertainty, feeling uneasy in the presence of someone who was so obviously dominated by insanity.
“The queen had some sort of strange effect on her followers. They were tougher, more organized, more competent than before. They took down half the company before we were able to fight our way free. We lost people who had been with us since Mithril… The rest of us died when we got back to the city. The book was the cause of this…THE BOOK!!!!!!”
After Altho calmed down some, Geb spoke up, “What can you tell us about the book, did you look inside it?”
Altho laughed again, “No that was the job of the wizard and the cleric. They were the ones who had joy of examining the interior of that accursed tome. They were the ones who did it. Now they are dead!” More insane laughter emerged with frequent mutterings about death.
Seryn decided to proceed now, “What was in the book?”
Altho smirked back, “Why should I tell you?”
Seryn shrugged back, “Why not?”
Altho giggled, “Because I don’t care.”
Seryn scowled at that and Rautho came over and slowly lifted him up, growling and staring angrily into his eyes “Tell us what you know!”
Altho cackled back with an insane glimmer in his eyes, “Are you trying to scare me? Look at my eyes. Do you see fear there? No. There is no fear there. I have been to the depths of the Swamps of Kan Thet. I have watched my companions die one by one to the foul plagues and evil that ravage that place. I have no fear left. I welcome death to myself, and the world with open arms.”
Rautho tossed him back onto the bed. “There is nothing we can get from him. He is a godless madman. I will be waiting outside,” he stated furiously and began striding from the room.
He was stopped just before leaving as Altho broke into hysterical laughter again, “You shouldn’t open the book, it can do bad, bad things to you. Things like THIS!” With that he pulled off the bottom of his blanket revealing that one of his legs was completely gone and the end was wrapped in bandages.
Rautho snorted in disgust a this display and walked out.
For her part, Izala moved to the back of the room and began to cough, attempting to mask the sound of bells that emerged whenever she attempted to make individuals more easily influenced by those around them. She failed. Luckily, noone appeared to notice her activity.
Seryn asked in a soothing voice, with a smile on her face, “Will you please tell me what was in the book?”
Altho smiled back, “Of course. I did not look at it on my own. That was for the wizard and cleric to do. What they told me was enough, though. It seems it was a book of arcane spells favored by servants of Chern. They said….they said its name was the Sworn Book of Chern. In the back of the book was the work’s crowning glory. A True Ritual of great power called Call Upon the Hand of Chern. Infects everyone within a mile with multiple diseases, each more virulent and deadly than the last. Hmm…Why do you question me about the book? Can’t Sazeer find this out for himself? Why must he send people to continually badger me about the contents? TELL ME WHY!”
Seryn recoiled at this, “The book was stolen...a few days ago. Someone took it from Sazeer’s warehouse.”
“Stolen? The Sworn Book of Chern was stolen in Shelzar?” Altho began to laugh madly again. “Do you have any idea the devastation this could cause? Do you have any idea of what it can do the city? We are doomed. We are all going to die a twisting, painful death as the power of Chern consumers our bodies from the inside out.”
Geb winced at this. “We will stop this from happening. Who were those people who came and questioned you about this book?”
Altho ignored him. “Giving me your sword,” he said to Geb as he reached over at him. When Geb refused, he howled to Seryn, “Give me one of your daggers then!” They stepped away from him bringing the weapons outside of his reach.
“Why won’t you give me your weapons?” he wept.
After a moment Seryn whispered softly to him, “If you will tell us what we need to know I swear upon my goddess Drendari, I will give you what you desire.”
Geb looked at her with an expression of slight disgust at this but said nothing.
Altho smiled back at her in responses and said, “What….what do you wish to know?”
Geb cleared his throat and, with a nod, Seryn agreed to let him answer this question, “Who were the people who came to visit you, what do you know about them?”
Altho laughed at this, grabbing his belly and rolling around in his bed, “Sazeer sent them to ask about the book! They were you, you…yes you were sent out the book. So those people must be you!”
Geb glowered at this, his patience wearing thin, “No they weren’t us. We have never been here before. Who were they what did they say?”
Altho smirked, “There were four of them, two men and two women. Their leader was rather mean, almost as much as you. They called him Eothan.”
Seryn interrupted, “Was one of the girls young?”
Altho smiled back, “Yes, she couldn’t have been older than nineteen or twenty.”
Geb and Seryn exchanged looks and Geb motioned for her and Izala to move over to the corner of the room. They began to whisper to each other.
“You aren’t really going to give him a dagger are you?” said Geb gruffly.
“I have to. I made an oath upon my goddess. You know as well as I do that if I break it then Drendari won’t look very kindly upon me,” she hissed back. “Its simple the two of you leave the room and say that he has grabbed a dagger from me and gone crazy. I will deal with the rest.”
Geb sighed, “You win,” and proceeded to leave the room. Izala followed.
Seryn moved quickly over to the bed. “Here is the dagger I promised you,” she said before taking a quick step back.
Altho grinned at her for a moment before taking the dagger and driving it into his throat. Seryn couldn’t help but gasp at the scene, as blood flowed from the grisly wound.
Within moments the priestess who had been waiting outside, followed by Rautho and Izala, rushed back in the room.
The priestess looked around and said, softly, “What happened?”
Seryn looked over at Altho’s macabre grin and looked downcast. “He took the dagger from me and drove it into his throat. He said something about the horrors of the disease being too much for him.”
The priestess nodded sadly, “Would you like for me to send you information on his funeral?”
Seryn did, and gave the priestess directions to her house, before leading the other two out of the chamber.
Geb looked kind of shocked to see them walking out of the room on their own free will.
“I thought we would be led away from here in irons,” he whispered in conspiratorial tones. Seryn just smiled.
The group slowly made its way outside of the Grand Temple, contemplating the dire scene that had unfolded before them and the information that they had gained from it.
Once outside they agreed that they needed to find out more information specifically about where Eothan and his comrades might have gone. Geb and Izala were going to investigate the tenements, Seryn was going to tap into her traditional information channels, and Rautho was going to ask around the Grand Temple. In addition Rautho decided it was about time to pick up his freshly tailored clothes. When they were done they would meet back at Seryn’s house.
The group each pursued their individual tasks, seeking to pull every bit of information they could from their sources. They each encountered failure after failure. The only one with any success at all was Rautho, who not only discovered that, while in one of the Grand Temple’s taverns, that a man fitting Eothan’s description had said something about meeting back at the warehouse, but also was able to pick up his new clothes.
The night ended with disappointment on all fronts as the group returned to Seryn’s house to ponder what the next step was in preventing the evil found in the Sworn Book of Chern from devouring the people of Shelzar.
Last edited:
Ruined
Explorer
Actually I'm very wordy. Everybody had one solo session, which was chock full of narration and background material. Then we started playing and I pulled them all together. It's made it interesting, and I think it helped since they each had time to identify with their character. Not that I intend to stop anytime soon, but the next campaign I run, I think I'll take the same approach.
btw, I just sent you a response email (finally).
btw, I just sent you a response email (finally).
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