After a week of Lugh's herbal remedies and the Ogren's own natural regenerative powers, Mitu begins to rouse from his coma.
A Koba illusionist has some fun with Val and Rin, before being chased away by Lugh's wolf.
Many pilgrims are met on the path, going up and coming down. Among them are several ruddy-cloaked wanderers from Sashmir, a quintet of blue-robed men who serve at the Sea Lord's Necropolis, and a familiar looking Ogren (seen at the start of the path buying supplies almost two weeks prior) journeying with a kuzani (Both of whom, Val notices, pour over some maps in the hope of finding something off the path between the Central and the fourth Pilgrim's Outposts).
With Mitu awake, healed, and generally healthy, the party makes good time, reaching the Central Pilgrim's Outpost in only a day and a half. They avail themselves of the Hot Spring, resting, relaxing, and recouperating. Three dark cloaked men -- two human, and one the strange little Koba (Bolvik the Mighty!) -- wave Lugh and Soreiss to their table. The three of them are Scions of Phantasm, members of an ancient order of Illusion crafters. One of them reveals himself to be none other that Drenwirth of Malron, the strange Wine Merchant met in Larka City who disappeared (and was suspected dead or captured by the Company) before a company attack. He explain that they are themselves in hiding but hope to locate an ancient treasure -- or would do so, had their maps not been stolen by and Ogren and a Kuzani not four days prior...
After pleasantries are exchanged, and the trio reveal that they plan to spend their winter in the Necropolis of Nekarnus, Lugh returns outside to find the other PCs sparring in a nearby clearing. Soreiss remains chatting with the illusionists, even as Lugh decides to make some additional dinner outside, making a small camp just up the road (where several other pilgrims have had the same idea). Lugh purchases several vegetables from a local vendor, and starts cooking a stew. Lugh chats with other pilgrims, and soon the stew becomes a community effort, with nearly two dozen pilgrims and outpost staff in attendance. The other PCs rejoin Lugh at the cooking pot, and a camping party lasts through most of the night, ending a few hours before dawn.
At dawn, the sound of hoofbeats is heard moving up the path toward them all. The PCs and the remaining pilgrims awaken to see three Riders on their Horses. They bear the livery of Amundus, wearing heavy armor and wielding lances and large war axe's. They call for the path to be cleared, and Soreiss adds urgency to the request by shouting for everyone to do as they ask.
The riders seem to recognize Soreiss, referring to him by the name of his old life: "Lord Nur, Prince Amundus offers you his greetings and wishes you a good journey" they say to him, before resuming their business quickly up the steep road of the Violet Path.
An couple hours later, the PCs break camp and head out. In the mid afternoon, as the path winds its way into the valley between two hills, the PCs find a disturbing sight -- several camps of armed, armored men bearing the colors of the Red Sun Trading Company set atop the two hills. The party waits in the path, spotted even as they watch the soldiers on the hills, as Soreiss teleports back to the Central Pilgrim's Outpost to ask about these men. The pathguards know of the camps, saying they've been there for several weeks and have given travellers no trouble. Soreiss returns to the party with his news.
However, the party is still uneasy, especially with Slip's history with the Red Sun. They push forward along the path, but their concerns are soon confirmed. The earth seems to churn beneath their feet, rocky spears erupting around them all to cage them in. Mitu knock the rocks asunder even as new spears of rock burst upward to maintain the cage. Three men stride down the path toward the PCs, looking at Slip as they address the party as a whole: "We mean your group no trouble, however, you appear to have something that belongs to us..."
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Chapter 13: Session 10
Characters are still travelling up the Violet Path amidst a series of strange and sudden storms. More than one person makes out the shape of a massive, copper colored bird resting amidst the stormclouds.
Several miles south of the second Pilgrim's Oupost, they are ambushed. Finding a wounded man on the pathside, the PCs rush to help him. However, while the man is not a willing or active participant in the plan of ambush, he has been marked as a target for a series of spell attacks that leave most of the party caught in an explosive, fiery assault. Defense Magics hold and the party remains relatively unhurt, when Soreiss and Slip both sense the sudden flare of another spell being cast.
Mitu grabs the stunned and injured man and, clutching him tightly in his grasp, hurls the both of them down the steep cliffside. Mitu slides down the rock and rubble strewn hillside just in time as a half-score mystic bolts streak past the stunned members of the party, and down the cliffside after the Ogren and his charge. Most of the bolts strike true and Mitu's body goes limp, crashing into the trees and brush, disappearing hundreds of feet below.
Everyone sees the tall robed figure standing atop the nearby bluff several hundred yards away. Simply reacting, Val, Slip, Rin, and the wolf all charge across the field of scrub and spindly trees toward the base of the bluff itself. Soreiss, however, opens a portal to the topside, and along with Lugh, they translocate near the caster...
...And find a half dozen crossbowmen armed with baneglass tipped bolts aiming right at them. The crossbowmen fire, but still Lugh and Soreiss's defenses hold true, absorbing the brunt of the attacks. The crossbowmen move into two ranks of three men, interposing themselves between the PCs and the Wizard -- an Usho mage of some measure of power -- and draw their melee weapons. A few minor spells are traded between Soreiss and the other wizard, (who almost mentally compels Lugh to leap off the bluff) and Lugh fires a few arrows into the mix before the melee troops close the distance.
Soreiss ignores them, and ports once more to move past them and stand next to the other wizard, delivering a surprisingly vicious strike with his darkblade. Lugh's own attacks -- a final ranged shot past the soldiers to the wizard's midsection, and his warwood melee strikes -- aid the battle in a small amount, though Lugh is being beaten back, knocked around by heavy melee attacks that do little real damage except to potentially daze or stun him.
With Soreiss's furious assault, the Usho seems taken aback, especially when he is unable to complete a spell after a particularly nasty blow from Soreiss's Darkblade. Soreiss is unwilling to ask for quarter -- even though the Usho is actually a more skilled caster than he -- and increases his aggression.
After taking several wounds, the Usho decides to retreat. He uses a nasty spell which not only teleports him from the field of battle, but expels a wave of concussive force that splits and sunders the flesh of a whole rank of the Usho's soldiers, but is unable to penetrate the defensive barrier triggered by Soreiss's warding stone.
With the Usho wizard gone, and only three tired and beleagered soldiers remaining, Lugh and Soreiss finish off the remainder -- taking one alive as a prisoner. Rin arrives first atop the bluff as the fight is ending, his arms replaced by feathered owl-wings. Slip and Val both struggle to climb the hillside, and there is little need when Soreiss opens a gate to port all of the party (except Mitu, who remains missing after his long, unconscious slide) up to the bluff, where they interrogate their prisoner, a soldier with a missing hand.
The Usho wizard, they are told, was hired by a man named The Blade, who is himself a Spellsword well placed in The Company. The Usho, however, is an unaligned mercenary, hired because The Blade suspected he could not remain anonymous and undetected in an encounter with the PCs. The prisoner knows little else, except that the pay was outstanding, enough to furnish them all with glass weapons.
Realizing they have gotten what they can from this man, the PCs bind the prisoner and begin instead to search for Mitu. It takes Lugh's Wolf howling to summon the other wolves in the region to find Mitu quickly. The massive Ogren is sprawled unconscious and battered, the once-injured old man quite dead, but still gripped in one of Mitu's arms. Lugh does his best to tend Mitu, but realizes the Ogren is in a deep coma. The PCs do what they can to stablilize him, and Soreiss ports everyone back to the Violet Path itself.
The PCs flag down a Pathguard and with his aid, deal with the captured mercenary soldier and drag Mitu uphill several miles to the Second Pilgrim's Outpost, where a camp is set, and Mitu's battered body is left to recover. Lugh experiments with herbs to help speed the Ogren's recovery, but knows it may still take at least a week or longer for Mitu to regain consciousness.
During this time, Rin tells the party what he knows of The Blade, and of his own colorful past as a former Company Elite, revealing his arcane fleshmark to everyone (though it had already been detected by Soreiss).
Several miles south of the second Pilgrim's Oupost, they are ambushed. Finding a wounded man on the pathside, the PCs rush to help him. However, while the man is not a willing or active participant in the plan of ambush, he has been marked as a target for a series of spell attacks that leave most of the party caught in an explosive, fiery assault. Defense Magics hold and the party remains relatively unhurt, when Soreiss and Slip both sense the sudden flare of another spell being cast.
Mitu grabs the stunned and injured man and, clutching him tightly in his grasp, hurls the both of them down the steep cliffside. Mitu slides down the rock and rubble strewn hillside just in time as a half-score mystic bolts streak past the stunned members of the party, and down the cliffside after the Ogren and his charge. Most of the bolts strike true and Mitu's body goes limp, crashing into the trees and brush, disappearing hundreds of feet below.
Everyone sees the tall robed figure standing atop the nearby bluff several hundred yards away. Simply reacting, Val, Slip, Rin, and the wolf all charge across the field of scrub and spindly trees toward the base of the bluff itself. Soreiss, however, opens a portal to the topside, and along with Lugh, they translocate near the caster...
...And find a half dozen crossbowmen armed with baneglass tipped bolts aiming right at them. The crossbowmen fire, but still Lugh and Soreiss's defenses hold true, absorbing the brunt of the attacks. The crossbowmen move into two ranks of three men, interposing themselves between the PCs and the Wizard -- an Usho mage of some measure of power -- and draw their melee weapons. A few minor spells are traded between Soreiss and the other wizard, (who almost mentally compels Lugh to leap off the bluff) and Lugh fires a few arrows into the mix before the melee troops close the distance.
Soreiss ignores them, and ports once more to move past them and stand next to the other wizard, delivering a surprisingly vicious strike with his darkblade. Lugh's own attacks -- a final ranged shot past the soldiers to the wizard's midsection, and his warwood melee strikes -- aid the battle in a small amount, though Lugh is being beaten back, knocked around by heavy melee attacks that do little real damage except to potentially daze or stun him.
With Soreiss's furious assault, the Usho seems taken aback, especially when he is unable to complete a spell after a particularly nasty blow from Soreiss's Darkblade. Soreiss is unwilling to ask for quarter -- even though the Usho is actually a more skilled caster than he -- and increases his aggression.
After taking several wounds, the Usho decides to retreat. He uses a nasty spell which not only teleports him from the field of battle, but expels a wave of concussive force that splits and sunders the flesh of a whole rank of the Usho's soldiers, but is unable to penetrate the defensive barrier triggered by Soreiss's warding stone.
With the Usho wizard gone, and only three tired and beleagered soldiers remaining, Lugh and Soreiss finish off the remainder -- taking one alive as a prisoner. Rin arrives first atop the bluff as the fight is ending, his arms replaced by feathered owl-wings. Slip and Val both struggle to climb the hillside, and there is little need when Soreiss opens a gate to port all of the party (except Mitu, who remains missing after his long, unconscious slide) up to the bluff, where they interrogate their prisoner, a soldier with a missing hand.
The Usho wizard, they are told, was hired by a man named The Blade, who is himself a Spellsword well placed in The Company. The Usho, however, is an unaligned mercenary, hired because The Blade suspected he could not remain anonymous and undetected in an encounter with the PCs. The prisoner knows little else, except that the pay was outstanding, enough to furnish them all with glass weapons.
Realizing they have gotten what they can from this man, the PCs bind the prisoner and begin instead to search for Mitu. It takes Lugh's Wolf howling to summon the other wolves in the region to find Mitu quickly. The massive Ogren is sprawled unconscious and battered, the once-injured old man quite dead, but still gripped in one of Mitu's arms. Lugh does his best to tend Mitu, but realizes the Ogren is in a deep coma. The PCs do what they can to stablilize him, and Soreiss ports everyone back to the Violet Path itself.
The PCs flag down a Pathguard and with his aid, deal with the captured mercenary soldier and drag Mitu uphill several miles to the Second Pilgrim's Outpost, where a camp is set, and Mitu's battered body is left to recover. Lugh experiments with herbs to help speed the Ogren's recovery, but knows it may still take at least a week or longer for Mitu to regain consciousness.
During this time, Rin tells the party what he knows of The Blade, and of his own colorful past as a former Company Elite, revealing his arcane fleshmark to everyone (though it had already been detected by Soreiss).
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Chapter 13: Session 09
The "Last Exit Inn" is a large, sprawling building set a tthe edge of the Violet Path. It furnishes nearly forty rooms, a large tavern and eatery, and full service stables capable of handling long term affairs. Easily the largest structure in the district of Hrullgaard, and standing as it does at the very edge of the city walls, a sizable marketplace has grown around it, featuring livestock sales, water vendors, general suppliers, smiths, cobblers, and most importantly, money changers only too willing to take good coin in exchange for Pilgrim's Tokens.
The story of the Violet Path, they say, is a simple one:
All of this was learned by Lugh, and relayed to the party. They travel up the path, they find a wounded man stumbling down the hill. He has a magical arrow embedded in his back, and speaks of a bandit attack north, up the path, which wounded him and likely killed his two companions. Mitu and Valkar rush to find out what happened, sprinting uphill for over two hours. They find little sign of an attack at first, though eventually some evidence of a covered scuffle is unearthed -- followefd by a dismembered body stuffed into a hollow beneath a tree. Of the other body, there is no sign.
However, a pitched battle ensues when scouting up into the brush forest along a ridge, several archer/sentries are spotted. The exchange leaves Valkar impaled by an impossibly sharp arrow, while Mitu scrambles about, knowing folks from trees. Mitu does his best to heal Valkar, and end up hurting himself in the process. However, the pair pushes further upward, hoping to crest the ridge. While Valkar sneaks along the flank, Mitu approaches directly, drawing their attack. Valkar picks off a few of the Bandits while Mitu charges over the ridge. When Valkar puts an arrow through the forehead of the Bandit commander, the others flee from Mitu's unchecked fury. In the bandit camp, they find the bound corpse of the final traveller -- appearing that the brigands did not realize he was bleeding so strongly from an arterial wound. They also find a small locked chest buried in the dirt beneath the bandit leader's bedroll.
Mitu sets the camp aflame, and he and Val return to the others, carrying the two corpses and a living prisoner. En route, they encounter Slip and Soreiss, who have been pushing uphill in the hope of finding the two big men, who had been missing for so long. Eventually, all of the party reassemble at nightfall along the pathside. Soreiss opens the chest, and finds a hefty sum of money within, as well as a weak potion, and a note -- indicating that this was supposed to be a kidnapping or possibly a forced recovery. The prisoner remains unconscious, so Mitu and Lugh hope to find some of the Pathguard of the Violet Path and inform them about bandits and the attacks. Indeed, they find a guard who insists that bandits would be an impossibility on the path, since it is so often patrolled it would have been noticed. However, he suspects private mercenaries undertaking some kind of nefarious agenda. He gets directions, and after returning down hill with the corpses, rides with several guards up the path, ostensibly toward the burned out brigand camp.
The prisoner confirms that this was indeed a kidnapping/recovery, with the commander hired by some guy who sounds suspiciously like Athis Hel of Hel's Clan. However, he knows nothing else. When the Pathguard return down the hill, he is turned over to them and the party resumes their travels up the Violet Path.
Late afternoon, they reach the first Pilgrim's Outpost, an archway of towers with many tents pitched around a large, log walled hostel building. All costs are paid for by a pilgrim's token, and still more questionable traditions of the Path are revealed. To avoid stayng overlong, the party opts to head up the road a ways to make camp away from the outpost (where a strange man is rousted from the bushes, but little more occurs).
The next day's travel elicits complaint from Soreiss, who's boots are not quite fit for walking in such a rocky terrain. By the afternoon, they stop and make camp... however, that night, strange sounds are heard echoing aroudn the hills.
Late night, the party has had enough of the strange, pained howls that come infrequently but are so loud and resonant that they wake a few folks out of a dead sleep. Opting to investigate when they realize it is not the cry of an animal, they head toward a strange assemblage of carrion birds perched and overlooking a valley. A couple miles into the hills off the path, they reach the valley, and within it is a troubling sight.
Faint imbalance and daemonic magics are detected from the massive figure stooped on the ground, surrounded by a pile of bones, feathers, and feces. As they near, the figure -- an Ogren even larger than Mitu, and bearing scarred symbols similar to his own all over his naked body -- responds to them. He seems to recognize Mitu, speaking to him in Dematic. This Ogren is a former Demon Ogre, complete, yet now free of his master, the Daemok Lord of Wrath. He has bound himself with cold iron spikes driven deep in to the ground, and a large hook though his arm. He claims to seek a natural death to honor life and death, and to act as sacrifice and symbol of reverence to the old gods. He stands defiant to his Daemok master, refusing to live or die by the path of war. Though the party does not quite understand his self-imposed imprisonment, they agree to leave him be -- however, in the process of talking with this being, Mitu learns something of his past, including the name of his mother, Braena of Jillenghast -- and his own name, Dien'hadief'do (the excretion on the pile of bones). Rin senses faint spirit magic from the cold iron spikes, but the Ogren claims to know nothing of shamanism. However, he offers the spikes as a gift if, when the PCs return down the hill, he is dead.
Believing there is nothing more they can do for this troubled Ogren, the party returns to the Violet Path, and press on with the rising sun.
The story of the Violet Path, they say, is a simple one:
When the Gods departed Gallus at the end of the Fourth Cycle, they left behind many priests and orders. The clergy of the pentad -- Woed, Nekarnus, Darun, Para/Korma, and Sh'kael -- travelled together up into the hills of this wild northland. Stripped of their priestly gifts, they had only the wizardly talents of the Grand Magus of Nekarnus (his powers, they say, severely reduced by the waning of his Lord), which were used to guide them, supposedly, by a purple light that glowed upon the stones. Legend holds that they travelled on foot at a rate of approximately 25 miles per day upward, deep into the Hills of Hrul. When they stopped each night, a priest would leave a symbol of his god to mark their place of rest. The spots are themselves holy, and the Pilgrim's Outposts line the path all the way up the Violet Path -- one for each of the five stops before the priests split in the hills at the current site of Darun's Necropolis.
Having arrived atop the highest hill (a small mountain, in truth), the priests found a dehydrated old hermit, his skin sun-darkened and split, and hobbling, his feet bloodied and raw from walking among the rocky hills. The priest of Darun insisted that with death's god in exile, life must be honored. Compassionately, he offered his heavy sandals to the old hermit so that he may walk, and offered an arm upon which the old man might find some support. The hermit spoke of a nearby spring, and the need for water. After being helped along, the priest of Darun wished to wait with the man to make sure he was healthy enough to survive.
The Grand Magus of Nekarnus was the first to voice his discontent, insisting they had still a long path to walk to reach the heart of the hills, with no time for a crippled old man. The Heirophant of Para was the next to object, insisting that he must move to follow the sun's course before nightfall. Restless too was the high priest of Sh'kael, desperate to travel north to the shores of the Northern Sea. The wizened Archcanon of Woed, though, chastened his fellows for their lack of concern, supporting the priest of Darun's decision to aid the old man. An arguement ensued, but it was the old hermit who spoke last, breaking the troublesome quarrelling. He said that four great springs can be found in the hills, each in a different direction. Thus, since their paths lead in such different directions, each priest might find his way by dowsing along the water flows from here, atop the mountain. Scoffing, the preist of Nekarnus was first to leave, almost immediately -- but using his magic, he dowsed the promised path westward, deep into the hills. Impatient, the Heirophant of Para also travelled westward, hoping to remain beneath the sun's light as long as possible, but was shown how to dowse by the silent Priestlord of Korma, who walked with Para's cleric. Sh'kael's man lingered for a time, but he could feel the pull of the sea to the north, and followed the flow of water he could sense beneath him. The Archcanon of Woed and the Priest of Darun remained with the old man overnight, until after the sunrise, the Archcanon admitted that he, too, must leave. His reason, though, gave a smile to all of their faces -- he hoped to travel the furthest from the wizard priest of Nekarnus, so as not to listen to the man's complaints ever again in his lifetime. To this end, he travelled east, holding a forked stick that pointed the way. Darun's priest and the old hermit remained atop the mountaintop, becoming friends and working the rough, rocky ground in hopes of fostering plants and a garden.
In short time, all of the clergy found their way, and each in his manner, deemed the site of their bubbling spring to be a worthy place to remain. They made their camps, and each buried the holy symbols of his god beneath the rocky earth. The gods had been lain to rest -- asleep, dead, or simply missing was unknown even to them -- their symbols planted so that perhaps something new might grow. In time, the lesser priests and flocks of faithful headed into the Hills of Hrul, finding their leaders and brethren, and helping to build the great necropoli. In time, the way of their travel became marked by the purple flame of Nekarnus' flock, coloring the worn path that pilgrims still walk today. The hills took a new name, the Hills of Necropoli, and the sprawling fields beneath the foothills, the wide harbor, and the scattered huts and villages that housed many refugees from the great wars became known as Hrulgaard, those who stand in the shadows of Hrul.
As an act of reverence, and to honor the gods, Pilgrim's tokens that reflect the old symbols of the pentad are left at each Necropolis. Often at the five Pilgrim's Outposts, token are left, much as the priests themselves had done to mark their passage.
All of this was learned by Lugh, and relayed to the party. They travel up the path, they find a wounded man stumbling down the hill. He has a magical arrow embedded in his back, and speaks of a bandit attack north, up the path, which wounded him and likely killed his two companions. Mitu and Valkar rush to find out what happened, sprinting uphill for over two hours. They find little sign of an attack at first, though eventually some evidence of a covered scuffle is unearthed -- followefd by a dismembered body stuffed into a hollow beneath a tree. Of the other body, there is no sign.
However, a pitched battle ensues when scouting up into the brush forest along a ridge, several archer/sentries are spotted. The exchange leaves Valkar impaled by an impossibly sharp arrow, while Mitu scrambles about, knowing folks from trees. Mitu does his best to heal Valkar, and end up hurting himself in the process. However, the pair pushes further upward, hoping to crest the ridge. While Valkar sneaks along the flank, Mitu approaches directly, drawing their attack. Valkar picks off a few of the Bandits while Mitu charges over the ridge. When Valkar puts an arrow through the forehead of the Bandit commander, the others flee from Mitu's unchecked fury. In the bandit camp, they find the bound corpse of the final traveller -- appearing that the brigands did not realize he was bleeding so strongly from an arterial wound. They also find a small locked chest buried in the dirt beneath the bandit leader's bedroll.
Mitu sets the camp aflame, and he and Val return to the others, carrying the two corpses and a living prisoner. En route, they encounter Slip and Soreiss, who have been pushing uphill in the hope of finding the two big men, who had been missing for so long. Eventually, all of the party reassemble at nightfall along the pathside. Soreiss opens the chest, and finds a hefty sum of money within, as well as a weak potion, and a note -- indicating that this was supposed to be a kidnapping or possibly a forced recovery. The prisoner remains unconscious, so Mitu and Lugh hope to find some of the Pathguard of the Violet Path and inform them about bandits and the attacks. Indeed, they find a guard who insists that bandits would be an impossibility on the path, since it is so often patrolled it would have been noticed. However, he suspects private mercenaries undertaking some kind of nefarious agenda. He gets directions, and after returning down hill with the corpses, rides with several guards up the path, ostensibly toward the burned out brigand camp.
The prisoner confirms that this was indeed a kidnapping/recovery, with the commander hired by some guy who sounds suspiciously like Athis Hel of Hel's Clan. However, he knows nothing else. When the Pathguard return down the hill, he is turned over to them and the party resumes their travels up the Violet Path.
Late afternoon, they reach the first Pilgrim's Outpost, an archway of towers with many tents pitched around a large, log walled hostel building. All costs are paid for by a pilgrim's token, and still more questionable traditions of the Path are revealed. To avoid stayng overlong, the party opts to head up the road a ways to make camp away from the outpost (where a strange man is rousted from the bushes, but little more occurs).
The next day's travel elicits complaint from Soreiss, who's boots are not quite fit for walking in such a rocky terrain. By the afternoon, they stop and make camp... however, that night, strange sounds are heard echoing aroudn the hills.
Late night, the party has had enough of the strange, pained howls that come infrequently but are so loud and resonant that they wake a few folks out of a dead sleep. Opting to investigate when they realize it is not the cry of an animal, they head toward a strange assemblage of carrion birds perched and overlooking a valley. A couple miles into the hills off the path, they reach the valley, and within it is a troubling sight.
Faint imbalance and daemonic magics are detected from the massive figure stooped on the ground, surrounded by a pile of bones, feathers, and feces. As they near, the figure -- an Ogren even larger than Mitu, and bearing scarred symbols similar to his own all over his naked body -- responds to them. He seems to recognize Mitu, speaking to him in Dematic. This Ogren is a former Demon Ogre, complete, yet now free of his master, the Daemok Lord of Wrath. He has bound himself with cold iron spikes driven deep in to the ground, and a large hook though his arm. He claims to seek a natural death to honor life and death, and to act as sacrifice and symbol of reverence to the old gods. He stands defiant to his Daemok master, refusing to live or die by the path of war. Though the party does not quite understand his self-imposed imprisonment, they agree to leave him be -- however, in the process of talking with this being, Mitu learns something of his past, including the name of his mother, Braena of Jillenghast -- and his own name, Dien'hadief'do (the excretion on the pile of bones). Rin senses faint spirit magic from the cold iron spikes, but the Ogren claims to know nothing of shamanism. However, he offers the spikes as a gift if, when the PCs return down the hill, he is dead.
Believing there is nothing more they can do for this troubled Ogren, the party returns to the Violet Path, and press on with the rising sun.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Chapter 13: Session 08
The PCs try travelling through the streets of Hrulgaard by night, and find themselves being watch, then followed by a horde of children who remain perpetually at the shadowed periphery of the ring of light cast by Lugh's druidstaff. However, at time, their eyes can be seen -- oily and black, and wide open. Mitu moves toward the children, lunging to grab one. The child almost disintegrates in his hand, withering and rupturing as bugs and wormlike grubs erupt from the sagging, sacklike skin and propel themselves up onto Mitu's outstretched arm. The bugs bite and burrow into the Ogren's flesh, and almost as suddenly, Mitu collapses, spasming. He is dying, but luckily his abnormally strong physiology withstands the assault. The bugs inside him die, but Mitu is far from alright. Escaping death, he remains in a coma for the better part of a day...
The party opts to spend future evenings in Larka City while travelling the central avenue through Hrulgaard by day. However, strangeness abounds...
Rin collapses as he and Lugh speak with Gorvalyk and Tarsus. Around the city, various shouts and screams accompany the action. Each would later report the same image: the face of a man, pale, his skin drawn and slightly gaunt, but not unnaturally so; long black hair streaked white in places, bird skulls braided in to it; dark eyes, flat like a moonless night. The face of Cabot Darkhollow.
Almost immediately after, those in Larka City see a golden light that resembles the sun, except for it arising from far south... the golden light spreads, bleeding out along the horizon until a massive, golden bird is seen streaking through the sky, racing north. It is, they surmise correctly, the Phoenix of Light trying to make its way to Minulex...
The party figures they know a good place to test their theory, and Soreiss opens a portal to the transit Tower by the boneshores. Outside, they can see the light approaching from the south, and the descent, just south of their actual position. They encounter Athis Hel and his animist companion, the blind woman with mastery over trees. He claims to have been watching the tower through a burning campfire, hoping the PCs might arrive. Together, they all decide to find the convocation of the Phoenixes... but immediately a wizened old woman steps from the forest. She is stooped slightly under the weight of a sword strapped across her back. Her name is Liera, and she claims to know the Phoenixes quite well, warning that their meeting is not for the likes of the party, or even for herself. The mortal mind cannot fathom what she calls "the song", the truth of their speech, which she says could damage their minds. In short order, it is revealed that she is the Talmoril, the chosen of Mevonn the Steel Phoenix, and essentially the central mortal figure among the Phoenix Cults.
She waits with the party until a spectacular light show to the south indicates that the various Phoenixes are departing. She too gets up to walk back into the trees, but informs the party that someone wishes to speak with them.
Indeed, a short while later, Minulex -- in the guise of Min the Storyteller -- steps into the clearing. He talks, confirming Cabot's reformation, and revealing that the Phoenixes have little more than questions about Cabot and their strategy of dealing with them. The central concern of the Phoenixes is discerning if Cabot is in fact the Darkweaver himself, incarnating, or if he is something similar to, but different than a Phoenix. Essentially, is Cabot their brother, or their Father, returned. They are assuming the former...
The party returns home... Mitu awakens... Rin starts feeling better, only to realize that he seems to have lost his shamanic powers. Owl seems to have fled from him. The timetable for activity must now be rushed, and the PCs realize that every moment is critical. After a series of discussions in Larka City, the party comes upon a plan. The next day, Soreiss flies to the start of the lantern path, the true beginning of the Violet Path, and marks it as a translocation point. The following morning, they plan on reappearing there, and walking the Violet Path.
And at least, after a day has passed, Rin seems to regain his powers -- Owl has returned to him.
The party opts to spend future evenings in Larka City while travelling the central avenue through Hrulgaard by day. However, strangeness abounds...
Rin collapses as he and Lugh speak with Gorvalyk and Tarsus. Around the city, various shouts and screams accompany the action. Each would later report the same image: the face of a man, pale, his skin drawn and slightly gaunt, but not unnaturally so; long black hair streaked white in places, bird skulls braided in to it; dark eyes, flat like a moonless night. The face of Cabot Darkhollow.
Almost immediately after, those in Larka City see a golden light that resembles the sun, except for it arising from far south... the golden light spreads, bleeding out along the horizon until a massive, golden bird is seen streaking through the sky, racing north. It is, they surmise correctly, the Phoenix of Light trying to make its way to Minulex...
The party figures they know a good place to test their theory, and Soreiss opens a portal to the transit Tower by the boneshores. Outside, they can see the light approaching from the south, and the descent, just south of their actual position. They encounter Athis Hel and his animist companion, the blind woman with mastery over trees. He claims to have been watching the tower through a burning campfire, hoping the PCs might arrive. Together, they all decide to find the convocation of the Phoenixes... but immediately a wizened old woman steps from the forest. She is stooped slightly under the weight of a sword strapped across her back. Her name is Liera, and she claims to know the Phoenixes quite well, warning that their meeting is not for the likes of the party, or even for herself. The mortal mind cannot fathom what she calls "the song", the truth of their speech, which she says could damage their minds. In short order, it is revealed that she is the Talmoril, the chosen of Mevonn the Steel Phoenix, and essentially the central mortal figure among the Phoenix Cults.
She waits with the party until a spectacular light show to the south indicates that the various Phoenixes are departing. She too gets up to walk back into the trees, but informs the party that someone wishes to speak with them.
Indeed, a short while later, Minulex -- in the guise of Min the Storyteller -- steps into the clearing. He talks, confirming Cabot's reformation, and revealing that the Phoenixes have little more than questions about Cabot and their strategy of dealing with them. The central concern of the Phoenixes is discerning if Cabot is in fact the Darkweaver himself, incarnating, or if he is something similar to, but different than a Phoenix. Essentially, is Cabot their brother, or their Father, returned. They are assuming the former...
The party returns home... Mitu awakens... Rin starts feeling better, only to realize that he seems to have lost his shamanic powers. Owl seems to have fled from him. The timetable for activity must now be rushed, and the PCs realize that every moment is critical. After a series of discussions in Larka City, the party comes upon a plan. The next day, Soreiss flies to the start of the lantern path, the true beginning of the Violet Path, and marks it as a translocation point. The following morning, they plan on reappearing there, and walking the Violet Path.
And at least, after a day has passed, Rin seems to regain his powers -- Owl has returned to him.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)