The Slave and Her Sovereign

[darkbard]

CHANVATI opens his mind to his former mentor, removing all impediments to that most intimate of connections, the marriage of two minds into one. A flood of images.

<<The journey through the petrified forest and mud sinks. Weird drumming. Eerie chants. Acrid odor of blood. The climb through the Breathless Chimney. The impossible, oily moat. Secret stairway. Mud baths.

Pa’avu’s ritualistic descent and immersion. The Spirit Serpent and the trial at the Gate. Chanvati’s transcending of Planes, a loophole in liminal space. Cascade of light, a swirling power tapestry. Is that something watching? Aspects of Vezzuvu battled and defeated. Stoneroot. A meteorite of Caiphon. Emanations. Echoes.

The Serpent’s fury. Its suspicions and fears. Conjecture. A complex interplay of Ritualistic Psionics. An entity expelled. Breach sealed. Promise made.>>

Mirage Moonstar breaks the mindlink. Chanvati suffers an intense, momentary loss, the identity with another dissipating, evanescent, fleeting.

He sighs, a bit forlornly. “That has you up to speed on matters here, Bon Shri.* Have you any news of the state of affairs in Bantouk? My family and business enterprises? Any whispered rumors of stirrings among the Empress’s inner circle, perhaps regarding a group calling itself the 2nd Nation?”

*(Respectfully) Elder Sister in Elvish

---

Chanvati makes a Primary Skill Arcana check to mindlink with Mirage Moonstar and share the full details of their journey to Stoneroot’s Perch, into the Spirit Realm, and the startling revelations about a possible planar breach and incursions from The Far Realm, r(17) +12 = 29 vs 15 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

1) On Ibhea and the Slave Girl: We'll leave it right there (at 5 Successes) as a cliffhanger and resolve later.

2) Recruit Mirage Moonstar to Seal the Breach: You can have 2 Successes for that last, nearly double DC move. There isn't any conflict left there. She is recruited and will journey to the ritualist chamber to analyze and seal the breach.

2a) XP & LOOT: 200/2 = 100 xp apiece and 60 gold.

3) We'll cut right to the ritual chamber. You already defeated the journey challenge prior so you've earned the eliding of it. So you're there at the ritual chamber. Now.

---

Mirage Moonstar fixates on a point in space that looks entirely unremarkable in contrast with all the others. She unshoulders her kit, opens it on the floor, and pulls out various and sundry implements, reagents, and paraphernalia; talisman, vial of quicksilver, tongs, travelling crucible, and a decanter containing who-knows-what.

As drums bellow in the background, she doesn't even look up but says stoically with her face buried in the technical demands before her: "They will come. I mustn't be disturbed from my labors. I entrust you with this task."

Two mutated goliath trackers with equally mutated hounds-on-chain pour into the ritual chamber just as Vezzuvu's minions did prior. Behind them are a pair of drummers, heralding the hunt. The drums stop abruptly and the wet, revolting sound of a mutated jaw snarling picks up where the drums left off. A jolt from a tracker signals to the beast to quiet.

The Cult of the Iron Gorgon are outfitted for war but they pause long enough to take measure of what is happening here. A scowl settles over their faces as they regard Moonstar's toils. In severely broken Common, one of the hunters says "Not your place. We claim for Star. You go now with life or we take it from you."

---

Figure out what you want to do here. Regardless, you must keep Mirage Moonstar uninterrupted. If she takes 56 damage, the ritual is spoiled and her material components lost. The Cult of the Iron Gorgon will take up lair in Stoneroot's Ritual Chamber and summon foul horrors to besiege The Spirit Realm and Material World alike.


If you with to attempt to Stall The Cult via parley, it will be a difficult Skill Challenge with high stakes:

* C3, Level +4 (so level 9 DCs) w/ the typical usages of Advantages. They want war. They are here to protect their patron's interests no matter the cost. And Moonstar needs a lot of time to complete these efforts.

* Failure 1 = Encounter Budget for Wave 1 & 2 increases by 2 Minions each. Failure 2 = Moonstar takes 14 damage due to distraction. Failure 3 = Encounter Budget for Wave 3 increases by 1 Standard and we cut to combat.

* Success = You stall them long enough for Moonstar to effect her rituals and resolve the breech. The Cult members leave the chamber to report back to their master (and receive their punishment). We then go to an Escape the Mountains chase Skill Challenge.

* If you want to go this route, make your initial move at Medium DC.


Otherwise, if you want to escalate straight to combat:

* 3 Waves of increasing difficulty.

* You can use 1 of your 2 Companion Characters per Wave, but not both. You can pick which one you want per wave after you see the dynamics of the enemy force.

* Short Rest after each wave. Milestone after Wave 1 and 3.

* As above, you have to prevent Moonstar from taking 56 damage or the rituals are disrupted (Loss Con).

---

Let me know by either making a move or vignette an initial interaction and go to combat (I'll get first map up in that case).

 

[Nephis]

We're choosing the SC rather than immediate combat, subject to change with the outcome of the roll.

---

PA’AVU calmly steps forward, sword in hand but blade resting on the chamber’s floor. The goliath stares at the skin of the intruders, lesions oozing iron-colored crystals visible on their arms and faces. These scabs remind her of similar marks – not quite so virulent – suffered by some of her clansfolk after coming into contact with a fouled water source. They had been scouting ahead for the clan’s seasonal move without much success. These pustules look far worse than those.

“R’giz’rod’nki*,” she addresses them, trying to draw their attention to her and away from the others, “how long have you suffered those lez’ja**? They look painful: maybe we can help you.”

At first the diseased goliaths stare fixedly at Moonstar at work; then one seems to register the language being spoken, and the focus of his dull, cloudy eyes slowly rises to meet Pa’avu’s gaze. “It is the price we pay to the Z’vez’da***,” he mumbles in Giantish.

Hearing the slur of his speech while witnessing muscle-twitches in both goliaths and their two hounds, Pa’avu puts together her observations and realizes that they are all afflicted with a sickness, possibly curable, that accounts for their mutation and behavior.

* literally “regional kinsmen/kinswomen” (nongendered) in Giantish, used to address goliath unknown to oneself.
** lesions in Giantish
***Star in Giantish

---

* Secondary Skill Perception check to note the visible lesions on arms and faces of goliaths and hounds, plus slurred speech and muscles twitches: r(4) +12 + 2 (w/in 10 sq of Chanvati) = 18 vs 12 Easy DC, gaining a +2 bonus to

* Primary Skill Heal check to analyze health of these goliaths and hounds and what afflicts them: r(15) + 8 + 2 (bonus) = 25 vs. 17 Moderate DC Success

 

[Manbearcat]

1 Successes (2 Hard DC Available)/0 Failures/2 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available

---

Caught off guard by the display of seemingly genuine curiosity and empathy, the bands' arms holding hound-leashes and drum-mallets go relaxed and slack. The hounds, picking up on their alpha's posture changes, relax in kind.

The male hunter who Pa'avu began parley with, massive and green-hued contrasted with his hunt-mate's relative diminutive side and customary grey, continues in Giantish:

"The purple star fell from the great void above to give us gifts of sight. We are imbued with prowess beyond our other kinsfolk. The price for this is great..."

He looks at the female huntress next to him who suddenly takes on a forlorn look and absent-mindedly touches a tattoo on her forearm that is a classic, metaphorical expression of a lost child in Goliath culture. He then looks back at you and continues:

"...but the rewards are greater."

He telekinetically pulls a piece of kindling from your camp cache leftover from your prior site. It accelerates through the air to him, he catches it, and it spontaneously combusts at the end.

The forlorn huntress next to him looks up, follows the action with her eyes, and breaks into a large, deeply asymmetrical due to the wrath her mutation has wrought upon her face, smile at the show. With profound effort due to her mandibular deformation she says; "You should take the blessing of the purple star." Looking up and with an excited, rather deranged look in her eyes; "You will."

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[darkbard]

CHANVATI watches impatiently as Pa'avu speaks with the mutants in their native, inscrutable tongue. Immediate hostilities are forestalled, that much he intuits. Then he feels a probing thought reach out to him, that of his slave.

<<Gosb'tar, they are infected by the Herald of Caiphon. They wish to expose me to its influence! What do we do?>>

<<Peace, Sahtree. I will show these twisted brutes they have no control here, over you or anything else!>> he returns.

"Hold, half-giants!" Chanvati calls out, his voice resonating and echoing against the chamber walls. "You misunderstand. Your 'kin' here is not free to come and go as she pleases, to pay homage to a rock fallen from the sky or otherwise. For she belongs to me and bows to my will and sufferance. You would do well to follow in her stead, to bow to a superior force!"

The Psion projects his final word into their very minds. <<Kneel!>>

---

Chanvati uses Send Thoughts (Encounter Power) to obtain the necessary information from Pa'avu on the details of her interchange with the mutants for a +2 bonus to his Primary Skill Intimidate check, r(7) +8 +2 = 17 vs 17 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

2 Successes (2 Hard DC Available)/0 Failures/2 Secondary Skills Available/2 Advantages Available

---

The drummers, conditioned to follow the stern words of chain-of-command, reflexively kneel at the display of impassioned authority. The mutant canines instinctively sense the change in mood and look to their masters for guidance.

The large goliath hunter, still beaming from his showy telekinesis and pyromancy, looks intensely at the <puny> human through the flame at the end of the tender he holds. He draws out the moment for a long time before he speaks, first to the cowed drummers behind him in Giant-tongue but without taking his eyes from the Psion; "Ut'rah ublecht."

Surely some epithet akin to "rise cowards" as the two drummers immediately and sheepishly carry out just such a command.

Then to Chanvati; "Words make no power. This <holding out the object of his display> make power. Can you make power?" Insofar as a mutated goliath who doesn't speak the Common tongue can project incredulity, this one does.

---

"Make power", project power, or otherwise answer this one's incredulity with some kind of show of force or prowess. HARD DC.

 

[darkbard]

Pa'avu's brow furrows at her gosb'tar's words, and her gaze redirects away from the scene. "He may bluster and rant of his own superiority," she thinks, "but one day he will realize our partnership. I am no man's slave. I choose to serve!"

Meanwhile, as the Goliath drummers scramble to their feet, CHANVATI narrows his eyes at the hunter grasping the charred remains of kindling in his meaty fist.

"You wish me to make power?" he asks calmly. "I shall make POWER!" he finishes in a thunderous shout, jutting one fist out in the direction of the lead Goliath. In an explosion of telekinetic force, the hunter is seized as if in a mighty hand's grasp, flung through the air and across the chamber, and crashes into the opposite wall, struggling, immobilized there.

"You see now? This is my power!"

---

We're wagering an Advantage here (sort of in advance, since there's no roll) for two Successes, and Chanvati wields Living Missile Daily Power for an autosuccess (x2).

 

[Manbearcat]

4 Successes (1 Hard DC Available)/0 Failures/2 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available

If this escalates to combat, we'll put this Hunter (H1 - Standard) at 1/4 HP down to start.

---

The Hunter is flung from his feet and across the ritual chamber, his hound's leash ripped from his grasp. The eyes of all of the mutated goliath's companions along with those of their canines follow his arc until he is deposited soundly on the earthen floor.

The now-free hound immediately reacts with ferocity to protect his master. Barks and snarls erupt and rebound violently off the walls and ceiling of the chamber. You can both feel Hazard's hackles raise. Every signal of an impending clash is on full display by the two loyal dogs.

Hazard's hind legs uncoil as he prepares to explosively pounce!

---

What are you guys doing to deal with this? MEDIUM DC

 

[Nephis]

PA'AVU quickly bites out “stop!” in both the common tongue and in Giantish. She then makes a sharp barking alpha-growl at the diseased hound, staring directly into its eyes and causing it to lie down in submission (if only for the moment). Laying her hand on her own Hound’s head, she murmurs, “easy, my H’z’lahto, easy!” She then meets the angry gaze of the male goliath still lying in a heap against the wall for a moment.

Understanding the nature of goliaths and of humans and of unnecessary male power-play in both cultures, she continues watching the goliath as she speaks to Chanvati, being as deliberate in her choice of words as she was in her lupine vocabulary. “Gosb’tar,” she pronounces slowly and calmly in her deep gravelly voice (using the name she has chosen for him, a Giantish word connoting respect for a favored elder but a term very clearly not implying ownership, not the word a slave would ever use to address one's owner - even if the merchant-prince remains unaware), “you have made your point, I think, perhaps more so than necessary here.”

---

* Primary Skill Nature check to calm everyone down (dogs, human, goliaths – the females of her party don’t seem involved) and to stop escalation: r(9) + 9 = 18 vs. 17 Moderate DC = Success

 

[Manbearcat]

5 Successes (1 Hard DC Available)/0 Failures/2 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available

---

With the dogs’ hostilities ceased, the hunter picks himself up and, under a fading tremble of anger, warily moves forward to pick up the dropped leash of his now-docile hound.

Quiet and the soft murmurs of ritual incantation momentarily haunts the cave. But not for long. Percussive rhythm in the distance subtly finds its noisy way down the winding stair. The drummers present look for instruction.

“Answer them. Tell them we require reinforcement here,” the pair of hunters eerily speak in unison via the Giant tongue and with the same tonality.

The pair of drummers raise their mallets skyward…

---

HARD DC to forestall the instruction-following, downward strike of the drummers.