Welcome to the Halmae (updated 2/27/07)

[spyscribe]

(Hey all, this is likely the last update until next week, so another long one. Hope no one minds too much. )

Part the One Hundred Fourteenth
In which: a little night music goes a long way.

“Do you hear that?” Eva whispers.

In the darkness, she can just make out Anvil’s nod. “Riders approaching?”

“No,” Eva’s voice barely carries over the rhythmic throb floating through the darkness, “it’s…” and then, Eva realizes what the sound is. “Holy crap, they’re drumming.”

Anvil’s voice rumbles in the dark. “Where is it coming from?”

###

Kiara jerks awake with a start. Someone has a hand across her mouth. Someone is whispering for her to be quiet. She is about to call out to Annika over their empathic link when she realizes that “someone” is Eva.

“What is it?” she whispers.

“Shh… I’ll tell you outside.”

Outside the tent Kiara’s keen ears easily pick up the faint sound of drumming in the otherwise silent valley.

“How long has it been going on?” she asks.

“About twenty minutes,” Anvil replies.

“Is it getting closer?”

Eva shakes her head. “It doesn’t seem to be. We think it’s coming from the town. Can you fly over and check it out?”

Kiara’s eyes light up almost visibly in the darkness. “Sure!”

“Whatever’s going on, keep your distance,” Eva cautions her. “And don’t let anyone see you.”

Kiara nods. “Don’t worry. I’m really good at not letting anyone see me. This one time, I was in Noran and—”

“Perhaps,” Anvil breaks in, “this story would be better left for another time.”

Kiara ducks her head guiltily. “Right. I better go before Annika wakes up.” She flashes a quick grin and then leaps into the air, shifting into swallow form on the way up and then flying off into the darkness.

Eva and Anvil sit, watching for Kiara’s return and listening to the drums in the distance.

###

Kiara swoops in towards the town, the sound of the drumming growing louder in her ears, filling the air around her until it seems as thought she is flying through the sound itself. It is a strange and powerful rhythm, ulike any other she has heard before. Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

As Kiara gets closer, she spots movement below: groups of people bearing torches, moving through the streets of Bountiful. There are four or five bands of thirty or forty people each, and they wander, seemingly at random, about the town. Two groups make their way through the fields outside the walls. Fortunately, neither moves in the direction of the party.

Kiara observes them for a moment. She knows she should probably turn back. But darn it, she hasn’t really learned anything new yet. Are these drummers really people, or are they skeletons? Or are they the people that made the skeletons. And why are they drumming?

So many unanswered questions…

Kiara swoops in closer.

Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

She flies low, over the wall and into the town. Careful to flit from shadow to shadow, she follows the sound of the drumming, boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba. As the sound gets louder, she finds a secluded windowsill to perch on ahead of one of the groups and waits, watching.

The group turns the corner.

They are skeletons, one and all. Some carry torches. Others carry drums and pound out the driving beat, as they and their fellows… dance. It is a capering dance, jumping, stomping, and waving hands, and it is made all the more eerie by the utter silence with which the dancers perform it. The only sound is the stomp of feet, the clack of bones, and the pulse of the beat. Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

The beat pounds in Kiara’s head. Despite herself, she finds one of her feet tapping the rhythm. So powerful. So beautiful. She begins hopping back and forth, from one leg to the next, her best imitation of the skeletal dance she suddenly wishes she could join.

Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

Without even thinking, Kiara flits off the windowsill and down towards the dancing skeletons. She bobs and wheels and dives with abandon, performing in the air what these skeletons can only do on the ground.

The skeletons continue their dance. And Kiara dances with them.

Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

They make their way through the streets, through the town, dancing, stomping, waving. Soon, they are crossing the bridge over the river. Other groups of skeletons join with theirs, all the dancers converging on the Keep as the drumming pounds harder and harder.

The gates of the Keep are wide open, and the skeletons dance their way into the darkness beyond.

Oh, goody! Kiara thinks. Now I’ll get to see what’s in the Keep. Won’t Annika be proud!

And the tiny swallow flies forward, flitting to the beat of the drums.

Boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba…

###

Annika sleeps fitfully. She is not sure how long her dreams have been filled with dancing and drumming and a strange urge to give into the pulsing boom-ba-boom-boom-ba-boom-ba of the beat. She wants to resist, and she wants to dance, and she is resisting, but she is dancing, and she’s worried, but she’s serene…

And then she wakes up, a horrible feeling in her head.

And she screams.

###

Anvil and Eva had just begun to wonder if Kiara was all right when a shout from Annika’s tent abruptly answers their questions.

“NOOOOOOO!”

Quickly followed by a slightly disoriented remainder of the party, they burst into Annika’s tent to find the wizard sitting up in her bed-roll, clutching her own arms in a white-knuckle grip. Her terrified eyes look past the party, focused on something far away.

“Kiara, no!… don’t listen to it… please don’t listen! Focus on my voice. Focus on my voice! Come back, sweetie! Come back!”

###

Kiara dances and whirls, caught up in beat, no other thoughts in her mind as she nears the gates of the Keep.

And then, ever so faintly, there is a tugging on her mind.

She tries to shrug it off, but it is persistent. Insistent. A small voice, whispering quietly against the lure of the drums. There is something familiar about it. Something she should know. Something she should recognize.

She stops flitting about and listens. She focuses, trying to figure out why that voice is so familiar…

And all of a sudden the whispers become screams.

With a jolt, Kiara blinks and looks around. She’s scant feet away from the entrance to the Keep. Dozens of hideous skeletons caper to their insidious beat around her, passing through the dark gates that she herself had nearly entered.

Kiara looks down. The skeleton beneath her rattles and clacks his way into the keep. As he disappears into the shadows, she notes that she appears to have pooped on his head.

Holy crap.

###

Annika releases her death grip on her own arms. Her frantic cries turn gentle. “Okay. It’s okay sweetie… you did well. Come on back. Come on, it’s okay… It’s okay…”

Annika’s breathing slowly returns to normal. She blinks several times and eventually seems to register that the rest of the party has crowded into the tent.

Lira slips an arm around her shoulders. Although Annika is outwardly much calmer, Lira can feel her trembling. “What happened?” she asks gently.

“I’m not sure… I just know that she wasn’t… I almost lost her.” She takes another deep breath. “It’s okay now. She’s on her way back.”

A few minutes later, Kiara arrives. She flies straight into Annika’s arms and snuggles there for a good twenty minutes, refusing even to change out of swallow form. Finally, she calms down enough to shift and to tell the others what happened.

###

“They didn’t seem to mind that I was there, they didn’t even seem to notice. And so I went with them, going from house to house, all through the town until finally we started going over one of the bridges to the other side of the city, where the keep is.”

Kiara bites her lip, wraps her arms more tightly around Annika’s waist. Annika smoothes her hair reassuringly.

“I was able to jolt her out of whatever it was, and then she came back,” the wizard finishes.

Lira has used a prestidigitation to heat water for tea, and the adventurers sit quietly, sipping from their tin mugs. Eva avoids looking over at Annika, sure that the other woman is not pleased with her. Fortunately, Annika is more relieved that Kiara is safe than upset that she was in danger in the first place.

Benedic and Reyu come back from their scouting mission about then and relate what they have found. “There’s no sign of actual living humans or livestock anywhere in the valley,” Reyu reports.

Benedic adds, “It’s eerie. They’re all going out their daily lives, right? Just as though they were still living. Skeletal milkmaids milk skeletal cows, then bring empty pails to their skeletal mothers who pour nothing into their churns and proceeded to not churn it into butter.”

“I think it would have been eerier if they had made it into butter,” Eva puts in.

Reyu is also clearly quite troubled. “As it started getting dark, all the skeleton people got into their beds, pulled up the covers, and just… lay there.”

“Did they sleep?” Thatch asks.

“I… do not know. There was no way to tell.”

Kiara shudders. “At least they weren’t dancing.”

“It’s okay,” Annika reassures her. “We don’t have to go back to the town. We’ll just go directly to the tower.”

Unfortunately, the next morning the party is forced to reassess their options.

 

[Pyske]

(Hey all, this is likely the last update until next week, so another long one. Hope no one minds too much. )
[...]
Unfortunately, the next morning the party is forced to reassess their options.

Auugghh!! Evil, cliffhangery, bad... evilness!

 

[KidCthulhu]

Benedic adds, “It’s eerie. They’re all going out their daily lives, right? Just as though they were still living. Skeletal milkmaids milk skeletal cows, then bring empty pails to their skeletal mothers who pour nothing into their churns and proceeded to not churn it into butter.”

Aren't they churning into NOT butter? As in "Boy, I Sure Can Believe it's Not Butter TM"?

 

[Angcuru]

Aren't they churning into NOT butter? As in "Boy, I Sure Can Believe it's Not Butter TM"?

Also known as Thin Air TM.

 

[doghead]

Fajitas. Some time ago I yanked your gods for my pbp game. One of the characters, a devote follower of Kettenek (although not part of any sect per say, he was closest to the Pillars, or Justicars in thinking) has died. The players have asked what the appropriate rites are. I told them I would get back to them on that.

Have you dealt with this area? I reread the descriptions of the four gods and the sects, but nothing sprung out at me. I'm tending to lean towards cremation rather than burial, but haven't really had time to think it through. I thought I would ask you.

BTW, we had a cleric of the Lady (a Handmaiden) at one time. But only for about half a dozen posts however. Pity, I though it would have been very interesting.

thotd

 

[Trahnesi]

I'm not Fajitas, but I do remember one aspect of Kettenek burial customs we have been informed of. I remember them at one point needing to burn the bodies of the people they were traveling with in order to ensure that they did not rise again (I don't remember where this happened, but I'm somehow remembering it associated with the time they spent fighting the ogre druidess.) When they cremated the bodies, they then burried them out of respect for the local beliefs which held burial to be very important. It makes sense that followers of Kettenek would be in favor of burial - Kettenek's element is earth, after all.

 

[Fajitas]

Fajitas. Some time ago I yanked your gods for my pbp game. One of the characters, a devote follower of Kettenek (although not part of any sect per say, he was closest to the Pillars, or Justicars in thinking) has died. The players have asked what the appropriate rites are. I told them I would get back to them on that.

In general, I believe that burial is the proper custom, not just for Kettenites, but for everyone. Kettenek is, after all, the Lord of the Dead. Bodies should properly be interred in his element.

Burning of bodies has been known to happen, particularly if there's reason to worry that they might rise again. But, as Trahnesi says, it would then be appropriate to bury the ashes.

In an interesting development note, I did briefly consider the idea that the means of disposing of a body varied by the various religious orders: Kettenites were buried, Alirrians were disposed of at sea, Ehktians were cremated, and Sedellans were... um... put in a high place and left to either decompose. Or be eaten by buzzards. Or something.

This last one is largely why the idea fell apart, tho' it has since come to my attention that there are, in fact, cultures (Native American, I think, but don't quote me on that) that dispose of bodies by placing them in trees to decompose or be eaten. This led to some discussion that elven burial rituals might vary with the season, but I don't believe this has ever come up canonically.

Is your pbp archived somewhere? I'd love to see what you've done with my gods. I'm so thrilled they're working out for you.

 

[doghead]

So burial seems to be the final element. It makes sense, with Kettenek's element being earth. However, in a world where it is possible for the dead to be brought back, I would think something to prevent that eventuallity would be part of the funeral rites. Does burial in consecrated ground prevent the bodies from being raised? I wonder how small villages manage. Not all would have a cleric of Kettenek (a Guardian?) to hand. Perhaps they would have to call upon one to come from the nearest town large enough to have one.

The pbp is being played out on ENWorld. Its called 'nameless', and there are links to it the character thread in my sig. I reworked to game to convert it to a classless system, and at the same time, incorporated your gods. So the v2 OOC thread and the third ic threads are the relevent ones.

To be honest, I haven't done anything particularly interesting with the gods so far. Appart from the brief appearance of the cleric of the Lady, we had only one religious character (who died), and the group has been away from civilisation for most of the time. I'm not a great forward planner. I have a rough outline of what is going on, but I tend to just make things up as I go, and hope no one notices (Seonaid, you didn't hear that from me OK?).

Anyway, please feel free to read through the the game. If you have some thoughts, I would more than love to hear them. On thing I miss with pbp is having people to bounce ideas off.

thotd.

 

[Fajitas]

So burial seems to be the final element. It makes sense, with Kettenek's element being earth. However, in a world where it is possible for the dead to be brought back, I would think something to prevent that eventuallity would be part of the funeral rites.

It is worth noting that raising the dead is not an abomination to Kettenek (not according to any of the mainstream Churches, anyway). The thinking is that if someone comes back from the dead, it's because Kettenek was willing to let them return (even if the raising is done by a cleric of one of the other gods, it's assumed that it can only be done with Kettenek's blessing).

In most places in the Halmae, this isn't a big issue. In a low magic world, most people don't have access to spells that can raise people.

The only problem with people coming back from the dead is when they do it as undead.

 

[spyscribe]

Part the One-Hundred Fifteenth
In which: the party plays d20 frogger.

“There are no other bridges, at all? Anywhere?”

Kiara shakes her head. “There’s a spot not far from here where the river gets narrow though. You can swim across there.”

Lira and Eva exchange skeptical glances. “Swim?”

###

The party arrives at the banks of the river, and discovers that Kiara is obviously using “narrow” as a relative term. The river is at least fifteen feet wide, with a quick current flowing quickly between steep banks.

Lira shakes her head. “No.”

Thatch, down the bank and testing the water with one leg, calls back up. “It’s okay. You can make it.”

“I really can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t swim.”

“You can’t swim?”

Lira shakes her head. “I don’t need to.”

“But,” the young fighter is understandably a bit confused, “you travel on boats, what if you fell off?”

“Someone would jump in and get me.”

“What if they didn’t?”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t?”

“Umm…”

“See?”

As it happens, Lira is not the only non-swimmer among the party. In fact, with the exception of Thatch, and Reyu, no one in the party has any swimming skills to speak of. There is a brief discussion of rope bridges, or jumping, or the carrying capacity of a fully-laden swallow, but eventually the party is forced to admit that with all of them, plus their armor and equipment, they are going to have to find a more substantial bridge than anything they can construct. And that means going through the skeleton-filled town.

###

The party’s plan is relatively simple. Although the skeletons have never shows signs of hostility (except when under threat of imminent turning or other attack), the party would rather not take chances while passing through a walled city filled with undead. Anvil and Lira each prepare as many hide from undead spells as they can, although as Lira’s will only cover one person for ten minutes and Anvil’s will cover up to five for fifty, Lira is standing by largely for emergency measures.

Since there are eight members of the party, Anvil casts on the party in two groups, knowing that if any party member so much as brushes one of the skeletons on their trip through the town, the spell will fail for everyone else covered under the same casting. This way, if that happens, half of the party should remain invisible to the town’s residents.

“Remember,” Anvil tells the others, “to the skeletons we will be completely invisible. That means that they won’t be able to see to get our of our way.”

“But, we’ll still be able to see each other, right?” Eva asks.

“Unless you are secretly undead, yes.”

The rest of the party members stoop and stare at him.

“Umm… right.”

###

The other choice to be made concerns the party’s travel route.

The most direct path through the town and across the river also takes the party through the town’s the most densely populated areas, increasing the party’s risk of coming into contact with one of the skeletons, which would cause their hide from undead spell to fail.

However, if the party sticks to the perimeter of the town where fewer skeletons seem to travel, the spell’s duration will almost certainly expire before they can safely reach the exit on the far side of the walls—negating the advantage of the longer route.

Also, Eva points out that the faster they try to move through any given section of the city, the more likely they are to bump into someone and lose their spell. Although hurrying along a longer path is probably a bit less risky than moving carefully through a densely populated area, it’s by no means risk-free. No one in the party is in a particular hurry to find out what a town full of skeletons will do when a group of living travelers suddenly appears in their midst.

In the end, the party elects to split the difference. They go a bit out of their way in order to skirt the main marketplace, but do decide to risk traveling through the thick of one of the residential areas, hoping that the time saved will not be negated by losing their spell prematurely.

###

The party approaches along the main road into town. About five minutes before they reach the gates, Anvil stops to cast hide from undead.

The party members walk down the center of the road, single-file. Kiara sticks to Annika’s side like glue, clearly not pleased with their travel plans. Lira takes the opportunity to cast cat’s grace on some of the less… reflexively skilled party members.

Eva realizes she is holding her breath as they approach the main entrance to the town. She is good at sneaking, at getting into places she shouldn’t be. It runs contrary to every stealthy instinct she has to sneak into a town by walking in through the main gate in the middle of the day.

The party passes between the two skeletons dressed in Sovereign style armor standing watch on either side of the road. The guards don’t move.

Well, Eva thinks, that’s two down.

The party quickly sees that they have arrived in one of the more affluent areas of the town. The skeletons walking here wear tattered clothing—as have all the others—but it is clear that these clothes were once of good quality.

What’s strangest is how normal everything is… except for the fact that the town is populated entirely by animated skeletons. Lira is forced to make a quick stop as a small child’s skeleton dashes across the street. It stops a few feet past her, and turns to look back at where a mother skeleton is standing on her front stoop, holding a yellow scarf. She clacks her teeth rapidly, and the child reluctantly returns, allowing its neck to be wrapped in the bright—albeit dingy—cloth, and the mother skeleton sends the child off on its way again with an affectionate pat on the back.

Quickly, the party has reached the edge of the city’s main square. The market-place bustles with activity, all overseen by samurai skeletons standing guard around the perimeter.

On the near side of the market the party watches as a skeleton merchant stands behind a display of battered, oblong pieces of leather. A customer examines the “merchandise” for sale, and after some good natured teeth-clacking, selects two pieces sitting side-by-side.

“What are those… things?” Reyu asks.

Eva shrugs. “Shoes? They’re almost the right shape, and he’s selling them in pairs.”

The customer pulls a few coins from a misshapen belt-pouch and drops them into the waiting palm of the merchant. The coins ring briefly against the bleached bones of the merchant’s hand before slipping through, and joining the carpet of coins that covers the entire area.

The merchant takes no notice of the loss and merely proceeds to tuck his hand into his own purse, as though depositing the coins there.

As the party stands watching the market transaction, Anvil does not notice the skeleton heading right for him until it brushes his shoulder. The skeleton stops, as though startled not to have noticed Anvil, Benedic, Kiara, and Annika standing there earlier. Then, he tips his hat to Anvil, and clacks his teeth briefly.

Anvil blinks. “May Kettenek’s Justice be upon you,” he replies.

The skeleton clacks his teeth again, and goes on about his business.

“Did you understand him?” Kiara demands.

Anvil shakes his head. “No.”

Anvil quickly re-casts hide from undead on the four visible party members. The skeletons pay little attention.

“We’ve got to be careful,” Lira points out. “There’s a lot of the city to get through yet.”

“The problem with being hidden,” Eva remarks, “is that the skeletons can’t see to avoid us.” Kiara giggles.

Thatch points in the direction of the town’s temple. “There seem to be fewer of them over there.”

It’s true. The skeletons do seem to be steering clear of the city’s temple, which is odd given that they are Sovereigns and in all other respects appear to be going about their daily business.

The temple spire dominates this side of the city, and as the party draws closer to the building, they see that in contrast to the rest of the town which has merely fallen into disrepair, the temple has been deliberately vandalized. Windows have been smashed and then boarded up, and Lira notices that all Kettenite symbols on the exterior have been scratched out.

“It’s more than vandalism,” she tells the group, “This building has been defiled.”

“Why?” Kiara asks.

Lira just shrugs. “Maybe—”

But whatever it might be is abruptly interrupted by the clatter of a swarm of skeleton children running straight for the party.