Week One



RQ Pavis Campaign Log

This is the campaign log of our current RQ Pavis campaign. The campaign is played on a weekly basis and involves three PCs – Karim Temris, a Zebra Rider from the Old Pavic Temris Family; Shan Agar, a Bison Riding Ancestor Worshipping shaman from a Pavic nomad family and Flargle, a Rhino Riding Storm Bull from a dispossessed rhino rider family newly arrived in Pavis.

The Chronicles are still rough and ready. I have written a lot of it from memory, as I haven’t always kept detailed notes of what happened week by week, but I have managed to catch up to where we are. They are very rough and unpolished and will probably stay that way. I haven’t put in game weeks or campaign dates as yet but hope to put in some dates later on. This isn’t a retelling of the campaign as a story or some great work of literary art. It is simply a quick chronicle to help the players remember events in the campaign, to give me a feel of where the campaign is going and has gone and to give other people an idea of what has happened in the campaign.

I have kept most of the scenarios and will be writing them up properly at some point so they can appear on the RQ Pavis website. I won’t be doing this at the moment as it is still a live campaign and some of the scenarios are still unresolved and it would spoil player’s enjoyment if they could read the scenarios online. As I use more and more published scenarios, this will become less of a problem.

The First Pavis Chronicles

Seaseason

Flargle and Karim were watching the arrival of an important Lunar nobleman from far away in the Lunar Empire. Everyone was talking about him, “He tried to kill the Red Emperor and was banished to Prax”, “He stole something important from the Red Emperor and had to flee in disgrace” and “He lost a fortune in the Lunar Empire and has come to Prax to make a new fortune”.

Suddenly there was a shout and a merchant came running up to them. “Boy,” he said to Karim, “some thieves have stolen the zebras that you sometimes mind for me. I’ll pay you well if you get them back for me.” After a bit of discussion, Karim and Flargle chased the thieves, running in the direction they had fled. They chased them through the crowds and back streets of Pavis when a young tough barged into Flargle. “Watch where you’re going, idiot” he said. But Flargle recognised him as a fellow Rhino Rider and started talking to him, asking him where he could buy a rhino. “Well, I happen to be selling my rhino soon as I want to join the Sun Dome mercenaries as part of their new Light Brigade, so I need to buy a set of armour.” he replied. Chatting away, he led them to some nearby stables where he showed them a fine example of a rhino, in good condition, not many miles on the hoof. After a bit of haggling, they agreed on a price of 2000L, as Flargle was a good bargainer, and he made a 100L down payment immediately.

They set off again, trying to find the thieves and realised they were heading towards the Rubble. Although they had been to the Rubble before, they had never been without an escort, but this didn’t stop them. They bribed a guard to let them through without the proper paperwork and tried to follow the tracks left by the thieves, but there were so many zebra tracks around, it was too confusing. They headed towards the Zebra Pens, as that was the probable destination. As they neared the Zebra Pens, a group of young men surrounded them and the leader approached with a sneer on his face. “A bit far from home, lads” he said. “I couldn’t tell your stench from the rest of the zebra smell”. They had seen him before and knew that these were the Fine Fellows, a rival street gang from Pavis. As the Fine Fellows pulled out their rapiers and daggers, Flargle and Karim turned and ran straight for the zebra pens. When they reached the gate, they explained that they were being chased by the Fine Fellows and asked for help. The guard knew Karim’s family and told them to wait a minute, disappearing inside. Just as the Fine Fellows reached them, the gate opened and they all ran inside. “Hah, we’ve got you now” said their leader, and then he looked around and saw twenty or so zebra warriors surrounding them and the gates being locked behind them. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on us,” he said, “or I’ll tell my Dad on you.” The zebra riders laughed and told Karim to take their weapons. They let the Fine Fellows go after covering them in zebra dung.

Karim asked the guards whether they had seen any zebras come in within the last half an hour or so. When told no, they were a little confused and looked around. They saw the zebras tied to a fence outside the zebra pens, with three young men sharing a meal beside them. The young men each had a blue star embroidered on their backs and were laughing and joking. Karim sneaked up behind the zebras as Flargle engaged the men in conversation, asking who they were and had they been in Pavis long. He wove an extremely clever story to keep them occupied as Karim untied the zebras. With a “whoop”, Karim leapt onto a zebra and rode off. As he passed Flargle, he slowed down for Flargle to jump on a zebra, but Flargle was not used to riding zebras and had a lot of difficulty controlling his mount. Karim rode off and Flargle rode around and around until the Lone Stars, as they called themselves, almost caught up to him, then he kicked the zebra in the sides and was off. Laughing, they reached the gates and were allowed through by their friendly guard, but Flargle found a throwing star stuck in his side as he suddenly felt very ill and almost passed out. Karim took him to the merchant who asked a healer to cure the poison on the throwing star.

The merchant was very grateful and rewarded them handsomely for their service. “I have need of a few good men, I’ll bring some work your way as caravan guards, bodyguards and what not.” he said, letting him know he was known as Starchaser. Flargle paid off another 500L of his rhino and spent some time feeding and taking care of it.

Flargle and Karim were joined by Shan Agar, a childhood friend and fellow Firemaker, as Starchaser offered them some work. “All I need you to do is to take a wagon and some bison to Sun Dome, give them to a merchant there and bring back the wagon and merchandise that he will load on to the wagon. Pay is 10L per day, each, and the trip will probably take two days there, two days back and a day in Sun Dome.”

They set off and met some High Llama Riders on the road. “Halt! Whoever passes through our territory must pay a toll of one herd beast per traveller”, said the leader. “Preposterous!” they replied and haggled him down to one herd beast for the whole caravan. “But only if you can beat me in a joust”, said Flargle, and as he was a rhino rider without a rhino, the High Llama leader agreed. Flargle mounted a bison and sped towards his opponent, having cast Bladesharp on his lance and Mobility on his bison. The High Llama rider’s lance glanced across Flargle’s shield, but Flargle pierced his chest with his lance and dashed him to the ground, coughing up blood. His fellow braves picked him up and they rode off in search of a healer.

Come nightfall, they were too far from Garhound to make it comfortably, so they set up camp. Shan Agar was on watch, mounted on her bison, when the bison started bellowing. She looked over and saw some figures within the small herd and the herd start moving. She cast a fiery Disruption that hit one of the thieves square in the chest and took him down. Karim and Flargle woke up and rushed to Shan Agar’s aid. Karim fired an arrow at one of the figures and leapt upon his zebra. Some more trollkin, for that is what they were, rushed towards them, letting loose a flurry of sling bolts, injuring Karim’s zebra and making him jump off. Shan agar charged the trollkin and trampled them underfoot, charging again and again until she had killed three of them. Karim fought off his single trollkin, being fairly evenly matched. The mother troll attacked Flargle and fought him for a while, almost crippling his arm and leg, until Shan Agar charged her down with her bison. “Stop, I have a ransom” the troll said, but Flargle killed her outright. The trollkin fighting Karim escaped and ran into the darkness, even with the arrow that Karim fired after it.

They tried to perform First aid on each other and the zebra, with limited success, so Flargle was stuck riding the wagon.

They set off again, heading towards the healers at Garhound, when they came upon a caravan that had been attacked by Sable Riders. They saw two Sable Riders dragging a woman to their sables, so Shan Agar charged them down as Karim fired off two arrows, missing everyone. Shan Agar trampled one sable rider, but the other let the woman go, leapt upon his sable and raced away. The woman thanked them for helping her and started to check her guards to see how they were. She tried to heal a rhino rider and his rhino, but the others were already dead. She then healed Flargle and Karim’s zebra.

She thanked them profusely and told them she had been travelling to Sun Dome when these Sable Riders attacked them. She, Srana Goldheart, was visiting some friends in Sun County and they would reward them well for escorting her safely to Sun Dome. After a while, it emerged that she was the daughter of the leading Light Son of Pavis and was 16 years old.

The party then checked the Sable Riders and found that 4 of them were still alive, so they strapped them to their sables and took them as prisoners. As they reached Garhound, they met some Morocanth and they sold the sables and their riders at a substantial mark down, as the sable riders were from a clan camped within a day’s ride. In Garhound, they had their wounds healed and settled down to rest. Karim had a pleasant surprise when Srana visited him at night and they spent a few hours together. Srana’s rhino rider said that his mount wouldn’t make it to Sun Dome and needed to rest, so he would be staying behind.

In the morning, they went to Sun Dome and met Flargle’s rhino-rider friend who was heading to Sun Dome to join the mercenaries. Flargle agreed to pay him the remainder of his money at Sun Dome and would take the rhino when he returned to Pavis.

They made it to Sun Dome, where they met a strange-looking baboon, painted yellow, who offered to guard their beasts for them while they were in the Temple. They contacted Srana’s friends and returned her to them, gaining a handsome reward in the process. Finally, they finished their business, made all the necessary trades and started to leave. Then, Honest John, the rhino-trader, came along, pursued by a Templar official, dressed in gold, berating him for being slow and not having his armour yet. He asked Flargle for the rest of his money and left, joining a group of Rhino Riders, which left soon afterwards.

The party then stayed overnight in the town around the Temple and returned to Pavis in the morning. They met a group of Rhino Riders on the way, led by someone riding Flargle’s rhino. When challenged, he said it was his rhino and it had been kept in Pavis while he was there on business. It turned out that Honest John was a conman who sold other people’s rhinos. They reached Pavis, went to the authorities and made a complaint. The authorities said that there were 10 others who had made the same complaint and that there was a warrant out for Honest John, Dead or Alive, for 1000L.

The party found Starchaser and returned his goods to him, for which they were again rewarded.

Flargle was most upset and led the party on a chase along the River of Cradles, across Prax, through the Eiritha Hills and towards Tourney Altar. They managed to catch up with them on the approach to Tourney Altar, where they concocted a cunning plan – to reach the Altar before them, challenge Honest John to a duel and regain their goods. With great haste, they overtook the rhino riders and rode into Tourney Altar half a day ahead of them.

When the rhino riders approached, Flargle challenged Honest John to a duel, calling him a cheat and a thief. Fortunately, Honest John was looking for someone to fight and readily took up the challenge, even though Flargle insisted they fought on foot and not rhino to rhino. They met in the Tourney Arena and Honest John immediately took Flargle down with a vicious strike to the stomach. As he saluted the crowd, Flargle healed himself up and took to his feet, attacking Honest John. To the sound of boos, Flargle circled around honest John until his spells wore off, waiting to attack him, so Honest John started to wind his crossbow, at which Flargle attacked him, dealing him several blows and finally chopping off his head.

They took Honest John’s head to the Lunar soldiers and claimed the reward, only to be told to return to Pavis. They joined a group of Storm Bulls, went to the Block, stayed a week for training and the Storm Bull Holy Day, then they joined a caravan heading to Pavis. On the way, they found a slaughtered Lunar patrol, so Shan Agar summoned their spirits and found out they had been attacked by the same rhino riders. They found a warrant for Honest John’s arrest and continued on their way.

In Pavis, they went to the Lunar HQ and surrendered the warrant, picking up the reward. On their way back, Sparky Jack met them and set things alight around them as he berated them for abandoning the Firemakers. He explained that the Rowdy Boys had killed three Firemakers in an ambush and had taken a lot of their territory. He wanted to burn down some of their houses, but was persuaded to wait until the Yelmalio High Holy Day, so as to not make things seem suspicious.

Srana asked the party to escort her to Yelmalio Hill, for which she was prepared to pay them 1000L each. She said her family was opposed to her going and that she needed an independent escort. They set off the next day, made it to Yelmalio Hill without incident, and Srana found a grave marked with a yellow headstone. She sat and wept at the grave for a couple of hours, explaining that this was her first love who had been killed on an expedition with her brother and their friends.

They slept on Yelmalio Hill and arose in the morning to see an elf waiting for them. He politely asked them what they had been doing and when they were leaving, as he could not guarantee them their safety when after he left. The party said they were returning to New Pavis and had been visiting a grave. He offered them passage through The Garden for 1000L each, which they declined.

The party then returned to New Pavis, meeting a dragonewt and some newtling slaves on the way, but refused to pay their tax. They met Saran Goldspear, Srana's brother, who accused them of kidnapping her. He demanded her return and took her from them. As they tried to follow, the Yelmalians split into two groups, one rode away quickly and the other tried to block the party's way.

Karim rode after Srana, chasing her until they reached the Real City, where the Yelmalians turned around to charge him, but he fled to the Real City and asked for refuge.

Flargle and Shan Agar tried to ride past the Yelmalians, but they grabbed hold of Shan Agar's bridle. Flragl rode off as they tried to manhandle her to their horses, telling her to come to Oldtown for some fun. After a while, Flargle rode into them and allowed her to escape. They rode to Mani's Fort to ask for help, but were politely turned away. They made their way back to New Pavis but were waylaid by some Lunar soldiers who asked for their papers. As they had accompanied Srana, they had no documents and were arrested and thrown into the gaol for the night.

In the morning, they went before the court and explained that they were accompanying Srana Goldheart to Yelmalio Hill, she had their papers and they had been separated by her brother. A messenger was sent to her house to verify the story, but a servant returned saying that Srana had not been out of her house that day and that she was unavailable for interview. The judge was furious that they had tried to drag her name into their sordid affairs and fined them severely. When they said they could not pay, he sentenced Flargle and Shan Agar to two weeks military service at the Seven Mothers' Temple.

They spent a few days on guard duty, then they were given a mission to return a magical ring stolen from a Deezola Priestess a while ago. A Lunar patrol had been ambushed by troll raiders and the priestess had been killed and her ring stolen.

They were given directions as to where to go and Lunar pass allowing them into the Rubble. Rather than going to the Garden, through Hippogriff Gate, they hired some newtlings and went along the river by boat. They were met by nomads, trolls and ogres, who tried to draw their boat to shore, but they overcame all their problems. Finally, they beached upstream of Troll Bridge and came ashore. They travelled through the troll ruins until they reached their target, a ruined villa, covered in red ivy.

As they observed the villa, they saw a troll inside walking around and talking. Flargle and Karim shot the troll through the window and Shan Agar burst through the door, catching the trolls by surprise. Shan Agar fought a female troll and Karim shot a trollkin. The female troll asked for ransom, but Shan Agar killed her without pity. The trollkin asked for help and told them where to find the treasure, then they tied it up and set the house alight, leaving the area.

They ran through the troll area, as the alarm was raised, avoiding all pursuit, hiding in the rubble, until they reached the banks of the river. Some trolls from Troll Bridge ran after them but the party escaped them and crossed the river on the newtling boat, escaping to the Garden, where they spent the night, waiting for the troll pursuit to die down.

Whilst in the Garden, they were taken to a special grove where Honoured Guests could stay. There were a couple of Yelmalians and a couple of Earth cultists there. They asked a few questions about some arrows they had taken from the trolls, one was a Yelmalian item and the other was an Aldryami item. The elves took great delight in showing them all the different trees and plants they had in this section of the Garden.

In the morning, they decided to set off to New Pavis and Oakman Longstem, the elf who had met them here and at Yelmalio Hill, offered to escort them with a squad of elven soldiers. They walked around the walls and past the other side of the Garden, where they saw a group of trolls lurking in the woods. “”Ignore them,” Longstem said, “they are just Argan Argari trading in secret.” As they passed, three trolls split off and followed them to New Pavis.

At the gate, the party signed the appropriate forms and declared their spoils, having decided not to hide anything. As they walked through the streets, they saw the trolls bribing the gate guards and looking through the register of declared items. Karim went to the Yelmalio Temple so that the trolls would not follow him, the rest went to the Seven Mothers Temple, where they gave up the Deezola Ring. The officer thanked them, gave them two days off and told them to report back for one more mission that would complete their penal service.

The party then tried to find out what their treasure was worth. They went to various temples and markets and realised a nominal value of 12,000L for the lot! They split up the treasure using a Nominal Value system, where each of the items was assigned a nominal value and people were assigned an equal share of the treasure, but any items counted as their nominal value. So, Shan Albar took a Countermagic matrix, nominal value 3000L and just over 1000L in cash. Karim took the arrows and just over 3000L cash and Flargle took over 4000L cash, which settled his debts to Karim and Storm Bull and also enabled him to buy a Death Rune from one of Shan Albar’s family. Shan Albar bought some magic and Karim decided to save up for a breeding War Zebra, so that he could start a herd of his own.

After a couple of days rest, having avoided Sparky Jack, Shan Albar and Flargle went back to the Seven Mothers Temple to complete their duties and were given an assignment to bring to book as many of a certain rhino-riding bandit gang as possible. They were given a week to carry out their assignment. Of course, the rhino-riding bandits were none other than the Light Brigade, Honest John’s companions. The party were not pleased about this, as they thought they were nowhere near strong enough to take even one of the Light Brigade out. They discussed their options and discarded them, one by one.

The party staked out the compound where the Rhino Riders were based and saw that they went out on patrol in the morning and returned in the evening. They decided to make an attack after the patrols had gone out. Karim sneaked up to the compound wall and peeked through a crack, seeing a man with iron armour. The rest of the party staged a diversion to attract the patrolling guards, whom they then attacked while Karim shot the ironclad one with arrows. He managed to slay the leader, but he disappeared, presumably through Divine Intervention. The PCs managed to kill the guards, but were surprised by one of the patrols returning early. One rhino rider charged the PCs, who dodged out of the way and let the rhino fall down one of the sinkholes. The other was quickly dispatched by a combination of missiles and close quarter weapons.

They searched the compound and found that nobody was there, but they did find a trapdoor covering a ladder leading down. Flargle went first, followed by Shan Agar, then Karim. They found a complex beneath built with fairly good masonry. When they searched this, they found some zombies, who they dispatched. Then they found a pack of wolves, but they shut these behind a door. Shan Agar saw the ghost of a tall, powerfully muscled man with a horned helmet who beckoned to her and walked away further into the complex. They found a suit of armour on a stand and some weapons and money, which they took. Then the vampires turned up. One of them was an old man, the other a young, buxom woman. The PCs tried to fight, Karim hightailed it up the ladder out of harm’s way and Flargle took the brunt of the vampires’ attacks. He was knocked down, but Shan Agar helped him and fought the male off. The female was killed by Karim’s arrows and the party fled.

They returned to New Pavis with their loot and the rhino, which Flargle kept. On the way, they met the Fine Fellows, who they scattered with a combined rhino and bison charge. They told the Lunars what had happened and they sent a patrol to investigate.

After a few days, the patrol returned with some artefacts and claimed to have found the long-lost tomb of one of Pavis’s companions. The horned man that Shan Agar had seen and ignored was actually the ghost of Hrothmir, Pavis’ bodyguard, whose tomb had been lost since the nomad occupation. An Irrippi Ontor sage, newly arrived from the Empire, had accompanied the patrol, and had found the tomb of Hrothmir and recovered his artefacts. They gave them to the Seven Mothers Temple who set up a subcult to Hrothmir inside their Temple. Cyrillius Harmonius wore Hrothmir's Helm on the next Pavis Holy Day and entered the Pavis Temple to set up a shrine to Hrothmir. He is the High Priest of Hrothmir and only lets Lunars or Lunar sympathisers into the cult.

Fireseason

In the meantime, the Yelmalian High Holy day approached. The PCs met with Sparky Jack and the rest of the Firemakers and decided on a plan. They would go to the Fine Fellows’ headquarters, break in, douse it with oil, send in some of Sparky Jack’s salamanders and watch the fireworks. Things went perfectly to plan, Flargle and Shan Agar broke in and left oil everywhere, then they sent in the salamanders and barricaded the doors. Karim broke one of the nearby water pumps, stopping the locals putting out the fire. Flargle and Shan Agar escaped the avenging Lunar and Solar patrols when they were surrounded by smoke and a voice ordered them into a drain. They followed the voice and it led to a man dressed in soft grey leathers who moved almost without sound. He led them through some drains and tunnels and they came up in a bar, where they were given a change of clothing and a meal and drink. His name was Max Greycowl, as they later found out, and they thought he was perhaps a thief. Then a Lunar patrol came into the bar and routinely questioned everyone there, giving the PCs an alibi as everyone swore the bar was closed and they were having a private party and had been there for hours. Karim was questioned by the Lunars and said he was merely passing, had clearly done nothing wrong and witnesses had seen him just standing nearby. He managed to get off, but was under suspicion.

The Lunars officially disbanded the Firemakers, exiled Sparky Jack and his brother from Pavis and are keeping an eye on the PCs. They were not punished for this because Shan Agar and Flargle had alibis, Karim was of a good family and had been seen doing nothing and the Lunars were still grateful for the uncovering of Hrothmir’s Tomb. But, the PCs were being watched to see if they caused more trouble.

The Fine Fellows had been devastated. They lost half their members and the bodies could not be found as Sparky Jack had used Cremate Dead on them. They swore revenge on the Firemakers.

The Lunars wanted to get rid of the PCs as they had become a nuisance. The Pavis Cult blamed the PCs for giving the Lunars control of Hrothmir’s Cult and refused to hire them. In fact, the Fine Fellows, Solars, Lunars and Pavis Cult had put out warnings that the Firemakers, in particular the PCs, should not be hired for jobs. So, work and money soon dried up and their normal contacts disappeared. The vampire who survived their attack has sworn revenge. His name is Night Fang (Those were his Hell Pits) and he has lost face, lost his Headquarters and lost one of his companions. He is not a happy chappie at all.

Soon afterwards, the PCs were in a tavern, when a well-dressed handsome young man came over to them and loudly bought them a drink. "I want to shake your hands." he said, "Thanks to you, I've become noticed in the cult of Pavis and have received Hrothmir's Blessing. I'm to become an initiate of Pavis on the next Holy Day when Hrothmir enters Pavis' Temple again." He was a handsome and charming man, portly with a large, twirly moustache. When the PCs asked about him, they found out that he is an Irrippi Ontor Sage, recently arrived in Pavis to make his fortune and to uncover the secrets of Pavis. He was on the patrol to Hrothmir’s Tomb.

Starchaser came to them and asked them to help him as he needed caravan guards to help him on a trip around Pavis. This was a little unusual as he was an Issaries Garzeen merchant and they normally stayed put, but he “had to get out of Pavis for a while”. He wanted to make a grand tour of Pavis, dealing with the natives and making contacts and was prepared to pay a ridiculous price for guards. The PCs agreed and they set off.

While travelling through Prax, a number of things happened.

Near Sun Dome they were met by Srana Goldheart’s brother who swore that he would get them, but they laughed at him. When they were camped outside Sun Dome, they were attacked by Goldheart and his mates, but Shan Agar cast mighty magics and zapped them as Flargle hit some of them and Karim fired arrows towards them. They killed all of Goldheart’s band but left him alone. When the Templars came to investigate, Starchaser complained bitterly that they had been attacked and what was the use of paying for a Sun Dome Permit if brigands could attack them at the Sun Dome itself? He kicked up such a fuss that Goldheart was severely chastised for his actions, improving his opinion of the PCs no end.

They got on a boat and travelled down the River of Cradles. They were attacked by a Cliff Toad in the Bog in Sun County, but Shan Agar dived beneath the water and killed it, taking some of its skin as a trophy. They reached the Grantlands and saw the outline of a fort with some mercenaries and builders nearby. This was going to be a fort and town, they were told, for Duke Raus, the capital of RoneGrant. Starchaser did some trading and hoped to get some of the supply contracts.

They reached Corflu and did some trading with the Etyries merchants there. Starchaser came back very excited and said they needed to go to Sog’s Ruins where he needed to do something, but was very vague as to what needed doing.

On the way across Prax, they saw a huge storm approaching and tried to hide, but the Storm seemed to home in one them. Some Zombies jumped out and started to attack them and Starchaser said it was the Eternal Battle and Flee For Your Lives! They fought the zombies and Flargle fought a giant broo who ran him though, almost killing him, but Storm Bull answered his prayers and brought him back. They killed the broo and the Eternal Battle left them alone.

A little later, Flargle’s rhino burst in the night and they followed some tracks leading away from it, having healed the rhino and ensured it wouldn’t die. They met a group of Rhino Broo who had met a small brooling. The Rhino Broo Band was fairly large and the party thought this was unusual. So, they attacked them, found out the brooling was very powerful magically and managed to kill it and a couple of shamans. Then some Rhino Broo peltasts appeared, threw javelins straight through Flargle and Shan Agar, prompting them to run back to the camp and away.

One night, they heard shouting nearby and went to see what was happening. They saw a naked woman running through the chaparral, armed with a spear, a shield and a bow. She fired her bow several times, taking down a target each time in a hail of arrows, but the PCs could see that it was only a matter of time before the pursuing Orlanthi would catch her. Shan Agar didn’t like the idea of an Orlanthi band capturing a young, pretty naked woman, so she attacked the Orlanthi,. Followed by Karim and Flargle. A hail of missile fire from Karim, some fiery magic from Shan Agar and some deft swordplay from Flarge either finished off the Orlanthi or drove the rest away. The woman thanked them and said that her name was Ta'ma Silverbow and she was a Yelornan on her Unicorn Quest. She had already fought off some broos and trolls, but the Orlanthi were too much for her. She said her unicorn was fairly close and she would return with it and reward them for their help, but in any case, she owed them a favour. A few nights later, she returned mounted on a unicorn and gave each of the PCs a couple of Multimissile charms. She invited them to the Pavis Yelornan Temple where they would be treated as friends. Then she left.

At Sog’s Ruins, Starchaser asked them to go into the ruin, find the old Temple/Palace, perform some ritualised tasks and get him a Water Necklace that will help him in his future dealings with River Folk and Newtlings. He knows about the temple and the rituals because an expert from Pavis, called Mr Hurbi, sold him an old scroll that described the ritual. He said that Sog’s Ruin isn’t dangerous but has a bad reputation because of the God Learners who used to live there. The PCs asked for danger money and got it, to their surprise. They went into the ruins, fought some zombies and a gorp, waded through the water, tried to find the Blue Sea Rose to give to a water nymph in the Palace, fought and defeated some shark-armour wearing guards, gave the Sea hag a gift, gave the Water Nymph a Blue Sea Rose, spoke to a toady man who spoke for the Green King, a man dressed in ancient aluminium armour and carrying a trident, turtle-shell shield and conch helmet who never spoke, and passed the Tests of Bravery, Strength and Skill. Each of the PCs decided to take the Tests and get a Necklace. Flargle faced a shark, wrestled a hag and found a necklace hidden beneath a lobster pot. Shan Agar faced an undine, fought a spirit and found the necklace in the lobster pot. Karim faced some watery monster, made love to the water nymph and found the necklace hidden in a lobster pot. Flargle gave his necklace to Starchaser, Shan Agar and Karim kept theirs.

At Monkey Ruins, an old baboon came out to meet them, he was wearing an expensive Lunar dress, clearly imported from the Empire, and carried a fan and mirror. He went up to each member of the party, looked into the mirror, then hit them with the fan as “don’t you know it isn’t polite to stare at a lady”. A baboon spirit attacked each of them, but Shan Agar defeated hers and the others in Spirit Combat. She bound the other two spirits, but hers disappeared. The baboon in the dress simply walked off, talking to himself.

At Cam’s Well, they saw some morokanth and other nomads, but these were all very well behaved towards the Oasis Folk. They saw a group of nomad youths being tainted by some Oasis youths. When they got closer, they could see the Oasis Folk challenging them to put their hands in the Earth to see if they were beloved of the Earth “We are not ssscared by the Earth, we welcome itsss touch”. One of the nomads put his hands in a hole and is bitten by a snake, he rolled around in agony and died. The other nomad refused to follow, to much laughter. Then they saw Karim and challenged him. Karim put his hand in the hole, but found no snake, so the Oasis Folk said that the Earth neither loves nor hates him.

On the way to Knight Fort, they came across a chain of Oasis Folk, dressed in strange robes, walking in single file, chained together at the neck and wrists. They are chanting in Oasis Tongue. When the PCs come close, they could see that the Oasis Folk were blindfolded and asleep, with open eyes painted on the blindfolds. Some nomads attack the Oasis Folk and they are cut to pieces, except for one who reaches down, picks up a sword and fights the nomads off. It is clear that he will be defeated, so the PCs help him out and kill the other nomads. They grab him and wake him up and he is surprised that he is here, as he has just gone to sleep at home and had a “funny dream”. He has no idea how he got there or who the others are. He drops the sword in horror, as he is just a farmer from one of the Oases in the Wastes. His name is Molak. The PCs healed up the surviving Oases Folk and they give similar stories, they went to sleep and woke up here after a funny dream, they are from different Oases and did not know each other. The PCs invite them to travel with Starchaser’s caravan until they reach a place more convenient to set off for home.

At Knight Fort, they did some trading and went on their way.

Between Knight Fort and Barbarian Town, they were ambushed by a group of Rhino Riders, the remnants of the group they had fought in the Rubble. They managed to drive them off and flee.

At Barbarian Town, some people asked to join their caravan. One was a Sartarite going to Pavis to join his cousin, one of Starbrow’s rebels. The man’s name is Zee-Ram, his cousin is Tee-Ram. Once he found out the PC’s names, he asks if they are the same Vampire Slayers who found Hrothmir’s Tomb? If so, their fame has even spread to Sartar. At Hender’s Ruins, they saw some bodies nailed to trees, moaning and squirming in pain. As they came closer, the bodies came off the tree and attacked them – they were zombies – but the PCs defeated them. They looked around and found some tracks leading to a ruined building. Beneath the building they found a shaft and explored the complex below where they found some vampires dressed in black, which they killed. Some more vampires attacked them and they were only saved by Zee-Ram and his heavy crossbow and Starchaser and some traded magic. They fled Hender’s Ruins and proceeded towards Moonbroth.

On the way to Moonbroth, they set up camp and Shan Agar was awakened by loud drumming. She saw ghostly figures approach as the drumming became louder. A Broo Spirit entered the camp and went towards Molak, the Oasis Man. A Horned figure stood by and prevented Shan Agar from intervening. The Broo attacked the sleeping Molak in spirit combat and Shan Agar woke him up and cast Spirit Shield on him. Eventually, a spirit dressed in archaic armour entered the camp and stood beside Molak, driving the Broo off. Then all was silent and the spirits had gone. Shan Agar noticed that Molak had changed and had become a Shaman, without any training. She decided that the time was right for her to become a shaman and decided to begin preparations.

At Moonbroth, they were sent by Starchaser to deliver some goods to an Etyries merchant. The merchant thanked them and offered them the chance to stay the night, eat his food, drink his drink and sample some of his slavegirls and slaveboys, which the PCs did. In the morning, the merchant had left instructions asking them to pick up some goods for Starchaser. This they did, but one of the merchant’s servants gave them a letter to pass to Starchaser, which Karim took. At the caravan, Karim gave Starchaser the letter only for him to drop it in horror as it contained a piece of Hyena Skin! The PCs went back to the Etyries Merchant and found out that the servant was simply a guest and had just left. Pretty quickly, they followed and saw him heading towards a sable Rider patrol, so they ambushed him, killed him and killed the Sable Riders in revenge.

Earthseason

Starchaser made plans to head back to Pavis as he needed to find a Desert Tracker and pass the skin to them. They set off and a day past Dwarf Knoll they were ambushed by a number of black clad vampires at night who shot holes in their water skins. The PCs drove them off, then left the caravan behind while they made it to Pavis on half the remaining water. Shan Agar drank no water and ate no food, as she began her Shamanic Ordeal. They tried to find a Desert Tracker but failed, leaving Karim in Pavis while Shan Agar and Flargle went back to take water to the rest of the caravan. Karim eventually found a Desert Tracker who agreed to help them, but would not take the Skin, as Starchaser must have been destined to receive it.

Starchaser began to arrange a caravan into the wastes. Ta'ma Silverbow and the Desert Tracker agreed to accompany the caravan. Shan Agar went off into Prax to complete her shamanic ordeal, guarded by Karim and Flargle. She overcame the old woman who carried the cries of the stillborn and took a Phoenix as her Fetch. They set off into the Wastes in search of the Oasis of Singing Trees. Molak offered to accompany the party as he is from Small Oasis and knows some of the surrounding area. He also dreamt of the Oasis where the Trees Sing.

At Where the Rock Speaks, the Rock told them how to find the Singing Trees Oasis and said it was beneath Two-Barb’s Lair. They passed through Waha and the Hyena Brothers, Deep Purple Rock and reached Sunset Oasis. On their travels, they met a vampire dressed in black who said they had crossed his master, the Vampire in Hender’s Ruins, but that Night Fang had claimed them as his own. He could not attack them but would be back to cause them problems. At Sunset Oasis, they met a blood drenched Rausa/Evening Star chieftain who claimed that Vampires never bothered her Oasis. They travelled to Hidden Vale and met a wizened elf who had a house carved from the stone of the valley containing dried plants of many different varieties, many of which had been lost. He asked them to remember him to the Elves in Pavis as Pavis himself had sent him here to carry out his work, but had never recalled him.

At White Lion Oasis, they saw the Oasis Folk dressed as if for battle and the White Lion itself appeared and said that a Thanatari Broo came every season on his Holy Day and fought him, taking his powers each time. The PCs agreed to help him and stayed to fight the Chaos horde. A giant broo, some scorpionmen and ogres attacked. Shan Agar and Flargle fought the Broo, Karim shot the scorpionmen and the Oasis Folk fought the ogres. After a long fight, they managed to defeat the Ginat Broo and break the Staff he was holding, the staff had a horned skull on top that bit the white lion and Oasis Folk, but when the staff was broken, the skull changed to a copper skull of an ancient Oasis Folk leader. He claimed to be one of Tada’s sons and had Lion killing magic that he taught to the PCs. Shan Agar gained magic from both the White Lion and the Lion Slayer, as she had helped both of them. She promised to return the skull to Sleeping City in Tada’s High Tumulus.

They set off to find the Singing Trees Oasis and each of the PCs had a dream. They each saw a jackal-headed giant who put an obstacle in their way. Then a massive sandstorm blew up and remained for over a week while their water spoiled in their skins. After a week, their ancestors appeared and tried to guide them to safety, even though venturing out into the sandstorm meant almost certain death. They followed the spirits and came to a cave, within which was a naked man with a Hyena’s head sitting behind a campfire. They went into the cave, but had lost members of their party – only Shan Agar, Karim, Flargle and Molak remained. The Hyena Spirit showed them the magical hyena skin and taught them the difference between Hyenas that had the Skin of Genert and cleansed Hyenas that were no longer tainted. They rode out the storm and he told them to follow a dried up river bed to the White Palm Oasis where White Palm Woman would guide them to the Singing Trees Oasis.

They set off after the storm had subsided and followed the dry river bed. They heard some yapping and growling and followed the noise where they saw a tree surrounded by hyenas being attacked by broos. They killed the broos and approached the tree, but the Hyenas kept them at bay. Then they saw the tree was bone dry and parched and that a dam kept water from it. They destroyed the dam using Shan Agar’s gnome and the waters flooded the river bed until they reached the tree whereupon they vanished. The tree burst into leaf and fruits and nuts appeared on its branches and it started to move. Wherever it went, the ground sprouted into life and the plants lasted for a couple of days. It said something in Aldryami and dropped a nut into each of the PCs’ hands, this was a magical nut that acted as one of Flamal’s spells once. Then the tree wandered off into the Wastes.

When they reached White Palm Oasis, they were invited in as guests for the wedding that was to take place in the morning. The chieftain’s son was to marry his intended. They saw that he had a tattoo of a black Palm on his palm and his bride-to-be had a White Palm on her palm. Surely this is the White Palm Woman. She offered to help them a few days after the wedding, but that night there was a commotion and the woman had been kidnapped. After much investigation, the PCs determined that a local Jackal Headed Demon had kidnapped her to bring misfortune on the White Palm Oasis. They also found a secret Atyar shrine hidden in the Oasis and that the headman’s heir’s twin brother knew of the shrine and had been torturing the woman’s bodyguard to try and find out where she was. The younger twin had disappeared and the PCs went to follow him. They reached an old ruined amphitheatre with a statue of a Jackal Headed Giant at its centre. While there, Shan Agar drew her sword and had to fight a warrior dressed in archaic armour in front of a baying crowd. She defeated her foe and appeared with the rest of the PCs as if nothing had happened, except that she had some archaic armour on her bison.

They moved the Jackal Headed Statue and descended deep within an old Green Age Ruined Temple. It was clearly a temple dedicated to the Generti, but the head of the idol had been removed and a jackal’s head had been put in its place. They searched the complex and found several zombies and mummies that they killed, an oracle who answered one question about the earth truthfully, a giant skull with an open mouth containing a copper key that bit off any limbs that were placed into it and replaced them with copper limbs. Flargle gained two copper arms, Shan Agar did a trapeze act and gained two copper legs, Karim took his cat by the tail, threw it in and got a copper cat with a normal tail, then he turned it around and got a copper cat with a copper tail, then he stuck both arms and both legs in. So, the copper limbed party then found a room below containing the woman chained to a post and the headman’s second son hiding behind the curtains. They knocked him out and bound him. The copper key opened the locks and they set off to leave, but the Jackal Headed Giant appeared and attacked them. Flargle was the first to fall as a club smashed his chest, then Shan Agar had her arm broken, then the Woman moved forward to heal them and the giant backed off. They realised that it couldn’t come near her, so they kept her between them and the giant and made their escape. Soon after they passed through the Oracle’s room, it collapsed, trapping the giant.

When they reached the White Palm Oases, the wedding took place and White Palm Woman took them to the Singing Trees Oasis, after giving Karim a red healing gem. There, they went to Caarith’s Shrine and delivered the Hyena Skin to her. She congratulated them and said that they had done well. Karim joined the cult of Carrith, as was his right for completing the journey and the priestess said that he now had the right to take the Hyena Skin to the Growing Ground. So, they set off again, this time deep beneath the earth. They travelled through many passages, through ruined and ancient earth temples. They faced Two-Barb and broke his barbs. They found the Growing Ground and threw the Hyena Skin into the vat of putrid flesh being sewn together by earth nymphs. They left and headed back to the surface. The ground changed and became a stamped earth passage and stairway. As they climbed the stairs, a couple of masked men dressed in black ran past them, attacking Flargle on the way as he tried to stop them. They were so relieved that these were not vampires that they let them run past. Finally, they came to a great doorway and looking through they saw a Paradise, a Great Garden full of growth and happiness. They passed through the doorway and found themselves in a temple made of stamped earth. A few moments later, a group of heavy crossbow-wielding soldiers came through the door and told them to drop their weapons or die.

After spending the night in a cell, they were visited by Max Greycowl who explained that a pair of assassins had killed the High priest of Mani’s Clan, for that’s where they were, and his Yelmalian guest and bodyguards. They had escaped to the Earth Temple and had disappeared through the Green Door that opened to the Hero Plane on Holy Day ceremonies. They thought the PCs were involved, but couldn’t work out how. After much discussion and dealing, they agreed that the PCs had probably just finished a quest, were not actively involved in the assassination, but they had opened the Green Door, allowing the assassins to escape and had not stopped the assassins. So, they were probably guilty by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Max had brokered a deal and had arranged for them to be sentenced to a year’s mercenary service in the Sun Dome Militia. The Pavis Cult had been trying to get some spies into the Sun Dome for a while and this is a perfect opportunity. Srana Goldheart had pulled some strings and arranged for them to be posted with her uncle in the Men of Gold. In the meantime, they would try and find Starchaser, the Desert Tracker and Ta'ma Silverbow in order to verify their story. Indeed, if they were found innocent of the charges, they could be released early from their service and rewarded for their arrest.

The Sun County Chronicles

Before they set off, Shan Agar learned a spell from her family temple, bound a spirit for Flargle and did some shamany stuff. The PCs were escorted by a Lunar soldier across the Long Dry where a broo appeared beneath Karim's zebra, cut its leg off and tried to run away. Flargle attacked it immediately, chopping an arm off. The arm turned to a gorp and grew back. So, Flargle chopped away at it for a while, cutting the same arm and a leg off and making three nice gorps for Karim to play with. Shan Agar disrupted a gorp, cast Fireblade on

Karim's sword and tried to disrupt another, but its POW of 4 repulsed the mighty shaman. In the end, they killed the broo, which turned to slime, and killed the gorps. Flargle wasn't called Flargle Gorp-Maker, which is probably just as well for a Storm Buller.

They billeted overnight in the stables at Daybreak where the Crow Eaters Militia are based, but were warned in no uncertain terms not to talk to the other militia and not to contaminate them.

The next evening, they arrived at Rory's Well and were billeted in a converted farmhouse. The commander put you all in a single room, away from the others. They met the commander, his second in command and the other militia members. He gave a speech saying how the Men of Gold had the dregs of Sun Domer Society, the criminals, insubordinates, perverts and, worst of all, outsiders. This meant that its officers had to be of the highest quality, which is why the Count had personally chosen him to command. He clearly was not very happy with the situation.

Haloric Longfarm, his second in command, turns out to be Srana Goldheart's cousin and she has asked him to look after them. Yelanda Goldenlocks, a Yelmalian Acolyte in the same squad, is also Srana's cousin, but has refused to help them as she has the Geas "Never Talk to or help non Light Cultists".

In the morning, Haloric gave out Squad/Patrol assignments and said that, unusually, the patrols will not be rotated, but he has been assigned a permanent patrol. This is because Jaspar Yello, the commander, does not want to serve with certain militiamen.

Haloric's Squad consists of:

Karim, Flargle, Shan Agar, Mello Yello, Yelanda Goldenlocks, Sarshan

Yarallo (their Lunar escort) and Peltas Longarm, a petty crook.

They set off on patrol and met a man who immediately claimed Sanctuary, giving the patrol leader a letter allowing him to travel to Sun Dome and calling on the militia patrol as an escort. The patrol took him to the Sun Dome, meeting a Sable Rider patrol, on the way, but Karim and the man hid in a wadi while the rest of the patrol met with the Sable Riders. It turned out quite handy to have the PCs with the

patrol, as the Sun Domers could sit there and not say anything to the outsiders while the PCs did some talking. The sable riders left and the patrol went to Sun Dome. The Count saw them, let the Tarshite claim Sanctuary and questioned the patrol leader as to how the PCs were doing. He seemed happy enough with the response.

On the way back, they met a man who was being attacked by nomads, killed the nomads, but let one go because the man said it was "just what they do". The man was called Rod, or "Hot Rod" as he liked to be called, he was a trader come to Sun County to look for business opportunities, as they seem like such friendly folk here. The patrol escorted Rod to Rory's Well.

Next week, they spent some time getting to know the town of Rory's Well, since the other half was out of patrol. About halfway through the week, someone came in and said he had seen a cart on the road containing bales, one of which had split, and he saw that it contained hazia. He recognised it because he had seen the militia burning hazia in the Town Square. Haloric decided to go after the cart immediately as he would expect it to be unloaded onto beasts within a couple of hours. They set off and saw the cart about an hour later with several Praxian herd beasts nearby and the riders loading bales onto their beasts.

The militia circled round the cart, preparing to ambush. The PCs and Mello Yello took one side, the Yelmalians took the other. At a prearranged signal, they fired at the nomads and farmers, volleying using Multimissiled arrows. Most of the riders went down before a Darkwall appeared around them. Flargle charged forward on his rhino as Shan Agar used her Phoenix Fetch as a lookout to direct arrow fire into the covered area. Several more fell before the dust was whipped up into a whirlwind, hiding them. Flargle rode through the nomads as they split, scattering in all directions. The PCs and Militia gave chase through the barley. Some were caught, some escaped, but the zebra riders just disappeared. Shan Agar was chasing a zebra rider when she lost his trail. She looked around and saw a figure sitting on a wall, whittling a stick. She asked him where the zebra rider had gone, and the man told her he had vanished into thin air. He also beckoned her over and said to look as he had something interesting that would be advantageous for her to see. He showed her a small statue of an ugly man, mostly buried in the ground, but its huge phallus was visible. "Rub it and spend some magical energy" he said, so she did so very gingerly and surrounding her appeared a new field full of hazia, laid over the normal field. "Hot" Rod, for it was he, explained that the statue was a Genert statue and controlled access to one of Prax's Hidden Fields, a magical area of extended fertility that was extremely rare.

Shan Agar showed the statue to Haloric and he was very pleased. Clearly this was an important find as it would double the farm's yield and contained a considerable amount of hazia. He set the PCs the task of watching it that night as the hazia was about ready for harvest and he wanted to see who would come to harvest the crop. He didn’t want to bother Jaspar Yello with this as he was sure his Half-File could manage the siatuation.

That night, a number of farmers came with oxen, circled around the Hidden Field and disappeared into it. Just before dawn, they appeared again with laden oxen and went off in a different direction. The PCs followed as the oxen circled around and retrod their tracks, branching off into a small stream. Karim followed the tracks, wise to their tricks, and they followed the oxen along the stream, along a dirt track and to a small farmstead. As they looked around the farmstead, Karim realised that it had recently been renamed and had probably been taken over by new tenants. Flargle felt uneasy in the area and thought there was Chaos beneath the stead. They returned to Rory's Well and told Haloric what they had discovered. He hatched a plan for his Half-File to ambush the farmers in the Hidden Field, take the oxen to the farmstead and raid it. Once again, there was no need to involve Jaspar as he was sure that two weapon masters, a bowmaster and the PCs would be enough to take a few farmers.

They went deep into the Krarsht Shrine, found a dry river bed, followed it and met a sobbing river spirit who told them of her brother who had disappeared. Shan Agar promised to help her, or maybe not, and tried to bind her as only a selfish shaman would. They went along a few tunnels, found a wall with a Thanatari Mad Head Ghost bound to it, defeated the ghost and broke the wall down, revealing a damned up river. Fortunately, Shan Agar and Karim had persuaded it not to hurt them once he was released. They followed the passage where the river used to flow and found a feeding pit, there were several tunnels off this and found a couple of Krarshtids and a Lhankor Mhy Acolyte who you freed. He spoke about a Circlet that his father had seen in a vision, he had come to the farmstead to find it but was captured by the Krarshti who imprisoned him for some reason. They found a temple to Krarsht, burned down the altarsheet and killed a priest who used poisoned multimissiled Arbalest Bolts against Flargle and Shan Agar to great effect.

 

The Copper Skull they had started moaning one day and the moaning and shouting became louder and louder until is almost deafened the party. They decided to go to Tada's High Tumulus and return the skull to its homeland. Hot Rod came to the Militia HQ and asked for the use of the militiamen for a few days, but was denied abruptly. So, he gave the PCs a list of potential Hazia smugglers and details of where they could find smuggled Hazia. When asked how he had got the information, he smiled and said that he was very observant. One of the names was a merchant in Pavis and the PCs were given permission to search for him. As they were going to Pavis, Jaspar said they might as well escort Hot Rod's cart, as he had requested. The militia made a few raids on some of the names on the list and uncovered a number of Hazia smugglers.

They travelled to Garhound, following an encounter with broos, and escorted the caravan to Pavis. On the way, they were met by some of Shan Agar’s family who said that Karim’s family had asked them to meet the PCs so as not to raise suspicion.

 

They went to Pavis and spent a week training, making charms and learning skills. Karim went off with his family to do some secret underhand dealings.

 

Shan Agar summoned a POW Spirit for Flargle which went off the scale, so Flargle now glows to any shaman within 10 miles.

 

Karim bargained his family down to accepting 10,000L for the priceless heirloom and they ran away giggling to themselves.

 

The PCs left Pavis on the way to Tada’s High Tumulus, meeting a friendly group of trollkin playing a skipping game with a rope they found stretched across the road. They hid when they heard the party coming, so the PCs butchered the whole lot of them. A little later, a troll hunter peppered the party with slingshots, but Karim sorted him out, and a shaman attacked with a couple of spirits, but Shan Agar sorted them out. Flargle and Karim peppered her with arbalest-bolts and crossbow-bolts. They asked for ransom and gave the PCs a Guild Note for 10,000L.

 

The party reached Tada’s High Tumulus and went to the temple of the Skull where they found a duck who they insulted to such an extent that he refused to help and vanished. Karim the Tracker followed the duck into a Temple where they negotiated with the Skull, who asked you several times to “Prove Your Worth!” They got through the Immovable Stone, crossed the Deadly Earth, found the Hidden Shaman and awakened him. Then they trooped out through a formerly hidden door and found yourselves in the Erithia Hills, near some old ruins.

 

The party went into the ruins and found themselves in a ruined city, covered in dust, that nobody had visited in aeons. After some searching, they found some duck footprints and followed them. The tracks went underground and the party followed, before Karim Keen-Eye saw a problem ahead and uncovered an unsafe area of the floor leading to a long-buried tomb.

 

After much discussion, some of the PCs went down into the tomb and opened the sarcophagus, where they found some dust, some copper armour, a copper sword and a belt. They each pulled out some of the items, and were scratched on the finger, but only Shan Agar’s bled into the dust. The dust immediately started to change form and started turning into a human form. They all panicked and decided to attack it, Flargle presented his Death Runes and forced her back, Shan Agar was going to hit it with her magical sword, but used a torch instead, only for the torch to crumble into dust, Karim Dead-Eye fired at her from a safe distance. Flargle cast Protection and Bladesharp on everyone and hit the woman with the copper sword, losing a point of POW in the process, but making her turn into smoke which drifted away. Shan Agar attacked her in Spirit Combat and held on to her for a while, until she reformed and embraced her. Flargle went in for the kill, so she tossed Shan Agar aside and reached for Flargle, touching his leg and hurting him, draining some of his MPs. Eventually, the PCs managed to kill the vampire and embarked on a Caarith Magic Road HeroQuest to return to Pavis.

In Pavis the party decided to investigate the alleged Hazia smuggler and went to his house. They found out that he was a Tarshite who had links with the Etyries cult and had been in Pavis for about a year or so and had a warehouse in Manside. They found the warehouse empty except for a little girl who they spoke to. She was the merchant's ten-year old daughter and she had told you that her father was in New Pavis for a festival. His last caravan left around a week ago, but is very slow. It is heading for Alda Chur along the road. The PCs followed the caravan, caught up with it and called on the caravaneers to surrender and step aside which they reluctantly did. They spotted some chaotic guards and things kicked off. When they searched the oxen they found Hazia hidden inside the carcasses. Around 30 of the oxen were stuffed zombies. Having dispatched the chaos/undead they arrested all those who did not flee. Return in good order to Pavis to applause.

 

Next they headed back south only to find an area around a small village plagued by Mallia. There was a corpse in an irrigation ditch with runes of Death and Darkness branded into its skull. They reported back to the garrison and called it a night. Having reported back to Rory's Well we were granted autonomy due to our recent successes and began the process of dredging the waterways for bodies.

Dark Season

 

The original 12 penal unit split to 3 groups of 4 and Mello Yello was assigned to the PCs' group, forming the "irregulars", a semi-independent group. Quartering the irrigated fields the PCs found another body along with 2 broo and that mysterious child they had encountered earlier. The broo were true to form but she is far more than she appears and escaped, "riding a wave".

After killing two broos and driving off the 6 year old girl, the party searched the whole area for bodies and found about 10 in total, all naked with runes of Death and Darkness branded into their foreheads and all containing disease spirits.

 

They investigated further and asked a lot of pertinent questions in Daybreak and found that the girl had been seen around a few times. One chappie, in his early forties, said that he had seen her but thought he was seeing things "as it couldn't have been her". On further questioning, he said that there was a girl, the daughter of the local Earth Witch, and about 20 years ago, one of the young men in the village complained that the Witch, a young pretty woman called Maria, had given him an unusual disease. All the young men of the village paid her a visit to "teach her a lesson" and she succumbed to their lessons and died. Her 6 year old daughter Muriah, watched them in their task. He wouldn't be drawn on what the "lesson" entailed, except to say that she was a very pretty woman. Nor would he be drawn on who else was involved. His attitude was "You know what these witches are like, they need teaching a lesson with their strange ways, not like good Ernaldan women" which really endeared him to Shan Agar.

 

They questioned the locals and the Earth Witch in Rory's Well and found out that Maria had come to Daybreak about 6 years before she died, with a babe in arms, to take over from the old Earth Witch who hadn't named a successor when she died. She had been a bit of a wanton woman, leading many of the young men astray, and had made herself unpopular with the local women. When the men paid her a visit and taught her a lesson, the women basically said that she got what she deserved. Muriah came to the Earth Witches for justice but they turned her away. She then took her mother's forelock and went away, saying "If you won't help, I'll find someone who will". The forelock was a common thing amongst Sun County Earth Witches, who grew a lock of hair on their foreheads wherein lies much of their power.

 

The Earth Witch agreed to try and summon the dead Maria to persuade her to talk to her daughter, but nothing appeared, despite Shan Agar and Molak's help. They concluded that Maria was with her daughter, somehow, perhaps bound into the lock of hair.

 

They mobilised the milita of Rory's Well, Chomorro and Helmbold and searched the area for broos. Reports came in of broos behaving strangely. One farmer found a broo molesting his cattle and ran into his house to fetch a spear, but when he returned, the broo was moving from cow to cow, ignoring him and impregnating as many as possible. They concluded that this was unusual behaviour, especially as a broo had just jumped Shan Agar's bison in combat, which was also unusual.

 

The girl, who had black hair and dark eyes, unlike locals, had been seen in various locations. The PCs managed to find one of the men who was Haloric Longfarm's father's friend and who gave them an up to date list of where the young men of the village now lived. The only correlation was Daybreak and near the Bog. The PCs first saw the girl near the Bog, where she ran away from some broos and hid in a patch of dense thorns, and sightings of her spread from there all the way to the south of Daybreak. She has recently been sighted in or near the Bog. Also, there have been sightings of gangs of broos in the Bog and nearby, behaving unusually and in larger numbers than before. Normally, there are 20 broos in the Bog, but they estimate there are over 100 at the moment.

 

Stormseason

Flargle wanted to send word to the Block, but the authorities are not keen on a Storm Bull Rampage through Sun County. Shan Agar suggested a massed attack on the Bog using militia and Templars, but the Templars had been called to Pavis, in response to a Lunar request. Newtling scouts in the Bog reported that there are four fairly dry islands where humans could live, so if Muriah was there she would be on one of the islands. If Sun County staged an attack on the islands, it would have to be by boat as herd beasts would get stuck in the marsh and be a liability. Newtling reed boats are the best bet for this kind of job.

 

Flargle become an Acolyte of Storm Bull - A Storm Bullock. Shan Agar was thinking of becoming an Acolyte of Daka Fal, but decided to wait a while as being a shaman was enough for her.

 

They spent some time working out how to prepare for the attack on the broos. Some made charms, some did nothing. When it came to the attack, the party had a blitzkrieg style raid planned, where all the boats would hit one island, then another than another until all were destroyed.

 

Everyone set off in little boats, taking different routes for speed and also to avoid detection. The PCs' boat came to a channel which would soon be joined by another channel, with a whirlpool in the middle of the two channels. The newtlings said not to worry as they could steer around it, but it might be a bit choppy. As they steered around the whirlpool, Flargle sensed something chaotic ahead and Shan Agar saw a wave rising out of the water behind them. As the newtlings steered towards the shore, they saw an immense wave rise above their heads and come crashing down upon the boat, with an immense wave of what looked like pulsating goo rising up in front of you. As they crashed down, the PCs all jumped towards the bank, with Karim just making the bank but falling back into the water. The two waves hit and everyone blacked out, waking up on the banks of a river.

 

The PCs woke up in turn, first Flargle, then Shan Agar, then Karim. When they looked around, they saw that they were all naked and there was a group of baboons nearby looking at some things. Shan Agar woke up Mello Yello and together they confronted the baboons as they started to leave. Shan Agar asked about your equipment and they denied all knowledge of it. Then Shan Agar called on her Inner Baboon, declared herself a Shaman of Daka Fal and intimidated the troupe, with Mello’s help. They fawned over her, saying they didn’t know these belonged to the Baboon Queen and returned all their items. They said that they came here every so often from the Wastes and quickly left to avoid the soldiers who came every evening to search the area.

 

Shan Agar tried to use her shamanic senses to contact the river spirits and find out where they were. She felt that she was in the Corflu Delta and felt a sharp pain in her right hand, which she steadfastly ignored. Karim used his Find Sun Dome Temple spell to try and triangulate but his calculations didn’t make sense. Shan Agar tried again and received a vision of a gorp and undine smashing their boat and the whirlpool expanding and swallowing them up, with a watery man and woman dragging them down and carrying them to Corflu. She worked out that the man and woman were the rivers they helped beneath Rabbit Hat Farm. They were definitely in Corflu, though. They were met by what looked like a humanoid gorp, a man with gorplike limbs, head and body. Flargle thought it was chaotic and they killed it fairly easily, although it kept asking for help. When it died the PCs all lost a point of POW.

 

After a bit of wandering around, they determined that you were probably in the Corflu Delta and started to head back up the Zola Fel, when the PCs saw a boat coming containing soldiers. They got out accompanied by an Irrippi Ontor cultist and started methodically searching the area with poles that they stuck into the mud. The PCs recognised the Irrippi Ontor cultists as the chappie who retrieved the Hrothmir items from the Big Rubble and was instrumental in refounding the Hrothmir subcult, a chap by the name of Piers Bolde. So, they called out to him and had a quick chat. He claimed not to recognise them at first, then asked why Shan Agar was wearing Hrothmir’s Belt, even though it was under her armour – perhaps he could sense its presence. He said he was searching the delta for lost ruins, as his new post was that of Imperial Surveyor. He offered to take the party back to Corflu to help them get back to Sun County.

 

The party eventually found out that they had tattoos of runes on their right palms. The runes were Water, Movement and Harmony. When they defeated Gorpman, you lost a point of POW and gained a “random” rune. Karim got Water, spent a HeroPoint and got Harmony, Shan Agar got Water and Flargle and Mello Yello copied her.

 

They went to Corflu and spoke to the Anilla/Blue Moon priestess who said their markings were a sign of favour from the waters and that they should spread the Lunar philosophy of harmony via the waters. The party wanted a second opinion, but the soldiers wanted to keep them there, in a nice secure hotel room, free of charge, but Karim pulled a fast one on them, invoking diplomatic immunity and other such nonsense to get out.

 

The PCs went to the Zola Fel cultists and asked about the markings. They said they clearly come from Zola Fel but other than that they weren’t sure. They went away and did some divining and returned with the answer that the PCs had been chosen as the new River Voices, powerful heroes allied with the Cleansed One subcult, who died out in the early ages. He suggested they travel to Pavis, where the High Priestess of the cult could help you understand what the runes meant. He also said that every time they helped clear the Zola Fel of danger, another power of the runes would be activated. He said that a boat would be arranged for them to travel to Pavis, but it would take a couple of days to arrange.

 

In the meantime, they could relax. Then there was a ceremony dedicating the River Voices to the waters, when a mudshark swam through the participants, almost disrupting it. The newtling priest said that the mudsharks were causing problems and it would be a great help if the River Voices cleared them from the Zola Fel. Off they went, to find its lair. The newtling advised them to swim underwater, find the mudshark lair, defeat the mudsharks and leave. “Pah!” said Shan Agar, “we’re not doing that!” and summoned a gnome to drill down into the lair, making a huge hole and shooting the poor mudsharks like fish in a barrel. As they went in to finish them off, they saw that one of the walls was made of stone and, upon closer inspection, found that it consisted of a giant stone head. Maybe this is what Piers Bolde was searching for. You also found a mysterious globe/sphere that glowed brightly once cleaned and seemed to hover in position. It had strange writing all around it. You took the sphere with you and left. You each lost 1 POW and Karim gained the Movement Rune and everyone else gained the Water Rune. Shan Agar looked down at her hand and examined the Water, Movement and Harmony Runes and said “Water and Harmony, I wonder what the middle rune is?”

 

In Corflu, they met up with Piers Bolde and worked out a deal whereby they showed him where the stone head was and he agreed to initiate anyone in the party into the Hrothmir cult. When the PCs showed him the location, he gave them a letter of introduction to the High Priest of Hrothmir.

 

They set off in a medium newtling red boat, with two newtling bargemen and an old acolyte called “Grandpa”. Grandpa said he saw Dorasor come to found New Pavis as a child and helped him along Zola Fel. He also said that he remembered stories about how the River Voices guided the Giant Cradles down Zola Fel before they were raided by the God Learners and early Pavisites. The PCs travelled for a day, stopped, spread the word of the River Voices, travelled another day and met a small boy who asked them to help his talking otter friend. Apparently, something nasty had got into his den and Mr Otter couldn’t get in. If he was kept away, then all the otters in the area would go with him. When the River Voices agreed to help, he whistled and a huge otter, four times the size of a normal one appeared and chattered to the boy. “Mr Otter says the burning thing is in his den and you can take any treasure he has collected as a reward for clearing it out”, the boy said. They couldn’t use the gnome to dig into the den as Mr Otter wanted his den intact. So, some of them swam into the den, fearing fighting underwater until Mr Otter pointed out that the inside of an otter’s den was always dry. Mr Otter gave each of the swimmers a kiss that allowed them to hold their breath for a long time, upon which Shan Agar saw that its POW was around 50 and you deduced that he was some kind of wyter, local ancestral being or whatever. They swam in and saw a bloated gorp the size of a house, not moving. It was a milky white and seemed to be full of small globes. A flurry of multimissiles and firearrows later and it was no more, but it burst, revealing hundreds of small gorplings which they dutifully killed off as they weren’t ready to be born and were not properly developed. Mr Otter gave the party his treasure, which consisted of a number of shiny things, a few beads and a couple of magic items, one black pendant with a Silence 1 matrix and one golden shield boss with a Lantern matrix.

 

The boy took the River Voices back to his village where you spread the word of the River Voices and feasted.

They carried on upriver and saw a signal fire indicating distress. Grandpa said that it would be churlish to ignore such a request, so they left the boat with the newtlings and Grandpa and set off on dry land. The party entered a valley that was very warm and dry, unusual as this was now Stormseason and it should be cold and wet. They all felt a bit strange and sick, hot and thirsty. They came to a stead where a woman was crying and said that broos had taken her daughter and son and that her husband and brother had gone after them. The party ran on, expertly following the tracks, and came across a bloodied, mangled corpse of a young boy. A bit further on, you saw a Sun Domer injured on the track. At the same time, Karim saw a chicken broo in some caves ahead and ducked down to fire at it. Flargle was hit by a Sneeze spell and was out of things completely. Everyone charged in headlong and fought some broos, but kept being hit by Befuddles/Sneezes until most of you were out of action, even Mello Yello was caught, despite being an NPC. The Yelmalian crawled up the

track and dispelled the spell on Flargle, allowing him to defeat the incredible Bouncing Cliff Toad Broo who was using his Broo Fu to beat him up.

Licking their wounds, they went back to the stead where they were cleaned up and cared for by the steadwife's sister, who seemed to be very quiet, almost as if she was hiding something. After some kind words from Shan Agar and the ever-rampant Karim, she opened up and said that she was an Acolyte of Zola Fel here on religious duty. This spot was where Zola Fel was hidden in the Darkness as a lump of Ice. Yamsur the Splendid came to free her and burned the Ice away, but his fire was so hot that he burned Zola Fel away as well, so ever since

no rain has fallen here, no river has flowed here, no water can survive here and Zola Fel's magic does not work here. The Yelmalians of this stead have a religious duty to bring back Zola Fel and have lived here for years. She came with her sister, who married the Yelmalian, and serves as Zola Fel's representative here, but it is

killing her. "Well, we are River Voices and have come to help you" they said, to which her borther-in-law tied her up and started beating her. When they tried to stop him, he claimed his right as head of household, asked them to prove their claim to be River Voices, dragged the hearth across the room and opened up a hidden pit

of water. He threw the bound woman into the water and said "Let Zola Fel judge her!" The PCs looked on horrified as she started to struggle and sink. They all joined hands and invoked Zola Fel as River Voices. They tried to cast Float, Breathe Water, Summon Naiad and Purify Water. The water became clear, the woman stopped struggling and started to relax, she floated to the surface followed by a beautiful water spirit. "My father Zola Fel has charged me to come here and be Zola Fel's representative in this valley," she said, "so (whatever her name is, I forget) can leave, her service is over." The Yelmalian was so shocked, as Zola Fel's magic had never worked here before, that he agreed. The party left the following morning, with the acolyte as the River Voices' first convert/follower.

They went along the river and went through a bog. They saw some eyes watching them and Shan Agar thought it was a Cliff Toad, so they detroyed it with a volley of missiles. Always after some loot, Shan Agar stripped to her undies and dove into the water, swam down and saw that it was a smooth giant frog rather than a knobbly cliff toad. She asked Grandpa and he was shocked, saying it was a Traskar, an intelligent creature and a worshipper of Zola Fel and that no good would come of this. They brought it to the surface and talked

about taking it to a healer to be resurrected, when Grandpa looked a bit shifty. When asked directly, he said that he had a Resurrect matrix for emergency use. Shan Agar insisted that they used it and they brought back the Traskar. Shan Agar apologised for mistakenly attacking it, but it swore at them and told them to go away before

jumping into the water.

On the journey upriver, Karim managed to strengthen the ties between their new companion and the River Voices, several times, in fact.

They came to a big black bluff where they could see some children watching them from the top of the cliff. An Agimori stood with his arm raised and asked for their help. "One of those is dead and another hurt" he adi, taking them around the bluff to a calm pool where they found a newtling with burns and another that was dead.

They jumped into the water and killed another Breeder Gorp. They didn't bother resurrecting the Newtling, so didn't get another power awakened from the Runes.

As they entered Sun County, they were met by the militia in a boat. The Half File Leader was very arrogant and called them "deserters" for abandoning the rest in the attack on the broos. He wanted to confiscate all their goods and send them back to Sun Dome to stand trial, but the weight of righteous indignation that hit him was

enough to persuade him to let them go. Later on, a couple of militiamen told them about a giant gorp that was at Harpoon. Before they went to see the gorp, they decided to visit a local shrine and speak to the naiad there. They managed to find a still, clear pool full of peace and tranquility and entered it in their boat. They saw

something in the middle of the pool and Flargle sensed some chaos there. They tried to triangulate the chaos, but Flargle fumbled and said that a bush was chaotic, whereupon they all fired Firearrows into the bush, setting it alight. Immediately, there was a change in the atmosphere and it felt very hostile, the waters became dark and

choppy and it became difficult to control the boat. Shan Agar summoned her undine to calm the waters, but it swam away under someone else's control. They could see that there was a ring of gorp in the middle of the pool. After much faffing about and indecision, they decided to go closer and try to see what was going on. Shan Agar could see a ring of gorp with rings of spirits inside and outside the ring, some holding the waters back and others holding the gorp back, which completely confused them. They tried to pour water into the middle of the ring, to try and raise the level higher than the gorp and built a reed pipe that actually worked! When they tried to use it, they found that when the water hit the gorp, it seemed to burn it. Cue a sudden change of plan as they tried to flood the gorp with the water of the pool. The Acolyte used her Raise Flood spell to try and flood out the gorp, but some chaotic spirits raised their hands to protect the gorp. Flargle kept pouring waterv onto the gorp, Shan Agar fought some spirits that attacked her from the ring and Karim fired Firearrow after Firearrow into the ring of gorp, hoping to make a hole. Mello Yello took over from Flargle on hopepipe duty and Flargle used Firearrows to help Karim and together they popped a couple of gorp, made a big enough hole in the ring that the whole things collapsed. At the bottom of the pool, they saw a woman bound up and obviously in distress. After about ten minutes of discussion, Flargle reluctantly dived in and cut her bonds and together they rose to the surface and above on a waterspout, in a tight embrace. She thanked them and said that she was Kinope, daughter of Zola Fel and Priestess-Nymph of this pool. Kinope told them that the High priestess of Zola Fel had died, on the same day that the PCs were transported to Corflu. She allowed the party to take some of the water from the pool as it was Holy Water and that Holy Water affected gorp in the same way that it did vampires. They left for Harpoon.

At Harpoon, they faffed about a fair bit, completely ignoring the big command tent in the middle and tried to speak with various flunkeys. Eventually, they spoke to the leaders there and said they had fought

gorp such as the giant gorp and said that it was bout to burst open and spawn hundreds of smaller gorp. "Nonsense," came the reply, "gorp don't do that!" They managed to convince them that they knew what

they were doing and got together a mass of archers, spearman, river poeple and Harpooners. Sparky Jack showed up with a cheery "Hello Boys!" with two Agimori Shaman in tow. They burned an area of

grassland near the river and summoned an enormous and very hot salamander. The archers shot, Yelmalians on barges attacked with Firebladed spears, the harpoon struck with a bolt full of Holy Water, the great salamander hit the gorp in the middle and it exploded. The archers and water folk attacked the small gorp in the water and

together they got most of them.

Then they went to Pavis. They spoke to the priest in charge of the Hrothmir Cult who said that he would love to initiate the River Voices intot he cult, if that's what they wanted. The Newtling High Priest of Zola Fel thanked them for the work they had done and said that Divinations to Zola Fel had revealed that the threat was not

over and that the giant gorp was not the source of the problems. They searched the waters and found that gorp had only really appeared south of Ogre Island. So, they didn't bother with any research and didn't bother trying to make contacts amongst the people of Pavis and went straight for Ogre Island. They anchored the boat just offshore and searched the island "in daylight, at night". So, they wanted to arrive just before dawn. They started at the southern tip of Ogre Island and searched the ruins there, finding only a gorp with a pretty sparkly skin and a Dragonsnail that had cunningly climbed a wall and almost gobbled Shan Agar up. They managed to deal with the gorp, using Firearrows, and the Dragonsnail. Then they heard an explosion offshore and saw a mass of gorp in the water. They asked Grandpa what had happened and he said there was a huge column of water that was filled with gorp. Someone had the bright idea of searching for tunnels that would connect with the gorp geyser and they found a hidden tunnel. Karim reckoned that there were footprints of heavy boots leading out and back again, probably a few hours old. They went below ground and Flargle was struck by a crossbow bolt that was poisoned, but Karim helped suck the poison out and he was barely hurt. A bit further and they came to a very strong door that Flargle managed to open at the first attempt. The resulting tunnel was very long and straight and headed towards Devil's Playground, so they followed it. They were sure that they had crossed under the river and were heading beneath dry gorund. Suddenly, a figure in armour appeared, fired a crossbow, felling Flargle and ducked back into an alcove. Flargle healed himself and ran on, but was trapped by a

falling net. Karim ran after him, bow in hand, followed by Shan Agar, who untangled Flargle. There was nobody in the alcove and Flargle stopped feeling uneasy, but there were fressh tracks of boots heading

along the tunnel, so they arranged the net above the alcove so that it would fall on anyone coming through a secret door. Following the tracks, they came to another door which Flarge Lock-Picker again opened, despite feeling very uneasy about the area. They went through the door with a Lightwall providing cover when they were met by five ogres with heavy crossbows who fired through the lightwall and hit most people, but Flargle had cast Protection on everyone and they all survived. The ogres dropped their crossbows and drew sword and

shield, entering a Humakti formation and advanced. It soon became clear that they had Protection and Bladesharp cast as they cut through the PCs' armour and blocked the PCs' damage. Flargle went down to a cunning hit that almost cut his arm off, but he hasn't been affected by poison - yet. Shan Agar, Flargle and Mello Yello are fighting and Karim is hanging back looking to run away, as normal. Combat was bloody, with Shan Agar taking down an Ogre, then Mello Yello fell, slashed in the chest. Flargle succeeded in Demoralising

all 5 which took the pressure off a bit. However, Shan Agar's Gnome opened up a pit just after Flargle had sensed chaos behind him. The gnome broke the legs of 5 Ogres and as the PCs moved in for the kill, the invisible Rune Lord appeared and said "Ok, that's enough, then, my men have a ransom of 5000L each and I have a ransom of 10,000L in Guild-notarised notes", which he duly produced. There was a momentary

pause as the players worked out how much they would get, as Mello Yello gasped "That's nearly ten thousand split 4 ways!" subtlety staking his claim to the dosh. A very brief discussion ensued that took the form "Shan Agar says take the money, Karim would say take the money, Mello Yello says take the money and the Storm Buller says Money! Money! Money!". To be fair, Paul did roll to see if Flargle would want to take the ogres on, but he rolled 96 and half expected the rest of the party to train their crossbows on him, if they had any.

So, they let the ogres go and returned to Pavis for healing. They set a newtling watch on the geyser to see how often it erupted and took a week off for rest and recuperation.

Shan Agar, Mello Yello and Flargle joined the Hrothmir Cult and Shan Agar learned the spell Strength of Hrothmir that gives +1 STR and +1 CON per point. The main Cult Requirement is that members can be called upon to act as bodyguards for Pavic/Lunar dignitaries. Their cult Spirit of Retribution means that apostates' bodyguards don;t trust them, so they are liable to be left alone at a critical point as the bodyguards go outside for a patrol or a quick fag, and "there had better not be anyone left here when we get back".

Finally, they went back to the geyser that erupts between 1 and 10 hours apart, but short intervals relate to small bursts, so they waited for a good, big one. They went swimming into what seemed like a krarsht tunnel, into an air hole. 6 Swimming rolls later they reached a cave, but Mello Yello had to use a Breath Water spell as he fumbled one of his rolls. From there, they took a natural passage rather than a Krarsht one, and took 4 Swim Rolls, a Squeeze then 6 Swim Rolls to reach a cave containing a Dragonsnail. Melly Yello got stuck in the Squeeze, courtesy of another fumble, but rolled DEXx1 to get out. Shan Agar took the Dragonsnail's head off with a huge Multispell, only for the other head to pop up looking surprised. "What, nobody said they had two heads!" she cried, frantically winding up her crossbow. Flargle demoralised it and it turned and fled, at Move 1, but Shan Agar took the other head off with a flurry of Multimissiles.

They went through several caverns and squeezes until they came to a large cavern that appeared to have been carved out of the surrounding rock. Inside the cavern was a pool with gorp and gorp on the floor, walls and ceilings. The River Voices summoned Zola Fel and Kinope, flushing a lot of the gorps away. Shan Agar summoned her salamander and went hovering, killing all the gorp she could find. Karim shot at the gorp with his magical Firebow. Flargle went into the water to kill the chaos beast he could sense there and a horde of little Manlings ran out to attack the rest of the party. Every blow struck on them caused weapons to be damaged as the manlings had acidic bodies. Flargle attacked the Gorpthing in the water and killed it in a single blow. Shan Agar's salamander helped kill the manlings as did the rest of the party.

 

As Flargle was swimming in the black water, he sensed some chaos further down and felt a current flowing past him towards the chaos, but the water was not actually flowing. When he went closer, he saw flashes of visions:

1. The Earth in Pain

2. A Giant Clawed Hand

3. A Black Barge

4. A Huge Eye

5. A Blood-Red Crystal the size of a room

 

The room had eyes carved into the wall everywhere the party looked. When Shan Agar investigated, she saw a huge eye looking at her. When Shan Agar moved into the water, she saw the same visions that Flargle did. When she concentrated all her spirity stuff on the source of the water, she saw a great eye full of tears.

They roped each other together and Flargle went swimming into the hole. He felt a jolt and found himself in a tunnel, waist deep in water with the rope disappearing behind him. He gave the rope a tug and out popped Shan Agar. Not wanting to feel lonely, they tugged the rope and out popped Mello Yello and Karim (unless Karim wanted to be left alone .....)

 

The tunnel seemed to be similar to a Krarshtkid tunnel in that it was clearly formed by something moving through it, but it was 3m wide, had red flecks all the way down it and wasn't as smooth as a krarshtkid tunnel. In one direction was a load of muck full of wriggling red worms that Shan Agar's Healing Spirit thought contained disease. Flargle didn't sense any chaos here, no, not a bit .....

 

They slowly moved through the tunnel and reached the end, but with a 15m sheer chimney upwards. Mello Yello climbed up, being the best climber, and the rest followed haltingly after. Since everyone was low on magic points they didn't use their Runes a lot, which made the rolls a lot harder.

 

At the top of the climb was a cave with a tunnel leading into the cave, a glassy wall on the north side and loads of red flecks everywhere. Behind the wall were humanoid figures that seemed, on closer inspection, to be very, very slowly moving. Flargle tried to sense chaos and found the only chaotic thing was the skeleton on the floor. Skeleton? What skeleton? The large one with a skull with two huge, intricate horns winding their way around the head. They poked it, they sensed it, they tried all kinds of things with it, the bones all turned into dust except for the skull. They all had to overcome its POW to avoid something, which they all did. Shan Agar toyed with putting the skull on as a helmet, until Flargle said it was chaotic, at which she went back on the idea a bit. In the end, Flargle chopped it in half and the chaos went away. So, they put it in their backpacks and looked at the wall.

 

Shan Agar tried to sense what was behind the wall and got a feeling of ancient earth spirits. They tried chipping away at it, but found that it would take ages. So they left it. After a while working out what had happened, they thought that whatever made the tunnel had wriggled its way around here and then shot downwards.

 

They left the room and went along the tunnel, found a small room filled with rubble and then found a large room in the shape of a cube, filled with pillars. There were three statues near the wall, two of women praying and one of a man praying but in extreme pain. Shan Agar was convinced that these were the lost Agari, the other half of her clan that they had lost contact with, even though they were wearing archaic clothing and didn't have Agari markings. There was a raised dais in the centre of the room and several small pale humanoid things with big ears and big noses came out and asked who they were. "Have you come to help us?" they asked. "Have you come to kill the broo?" "Will you kill the worm?" Flargle showed them the broo skull chopped in half and they picked it up and paraded it around the room shouting "Yippee! They've killed the broo!". Shan Agar looked to see if they were spirits. "No, but there's a spirit on the raised area". So they spent 5 minutes trying to stand on each others' shoulders at a distance trying to see what the spirit was and complaining bitterly when they couldn't. Eventually, Shan Agar asked who the spirit was and was told "I was a nurse, I looked after the king and queen's babies until the broo came with his worm. Their love forced the worm back away from the babies, but then I heard the king and queen die. Have you come to kill the broo? Will you help kill the worm? Have you seen my babies? Baroshi is the youngest and he is beautiful with golden hair and skin like copper. He got up on his little legs and toddled after the worm, but I've not seen him since. Do you know where they are? You're not nice after all, are you? I think you're helping the broos! Get out of my room!" Then Shan Agar climbed up onto the platform and saw a cradle rocking in the centre. A kindly middle-aged woman appeared and asked "Who are you? Have you come to help us? Have you come to kill the broo? Will you help us against the worm? Have you seen my babies?" Then she picked Shan Agar up and put her in the rocking cradle and said "No, that won't do, you're the wrong size, you're not my baby!" after a bit of coaxing, she said "If you find my babies, promise to bring them here, but if you see Baroshi, you must say 'Excuse me, August Sir, I have come to bring you home' and he will come with you."

 

They found a couple of rooms, one contained a statue of what was possibly a Babeester Gori and seemed quite defensible, so everyone took turns getting some sleep and resting for 12 hours. The statue seemed

to move overnight, but nobody saw it move. Shan Agar and Mello Yello went to sleep first, but had no dreams following a smart-alec comment from Craig saying "We'll go to sleep and have some dreams, then". Oh, no he didn't! Flargle and Karim had some dreams though, and saw people in the room going about their normal business, when a mass of worms burst through the wall and devoured some of the people. The Babeester Gor woman took her axe and went to attack the worms but turned to stone. When Shan Agar finished her watch, she

decided to go to sleep again and to dream to contact Molak (The Sleeping Shaman!). They had a conversation about the temple and its inhabitants but nothing really came of it. When they woke up, they found an extra sleeping roll with one very surprised shaman inside as Molak again woke up in a strange place.

One room contained a 3.5 metre tall iron statue of a woman wearing a crown, but her face, chest and abdomen had been torn out. The room was full of soft moaning, as if of someone in pain. The worm tunnel veered away here as if it had been forced out.

Another room contained a statue of a girl, made from wood with a tarnished silver veneer. Her head was a rose and she had patterns and leaves etched on her skin. She held a copper mirror but her right arm and leg had been severed. You heard a soft voice crying, asking for help and saying that she was the daughter of Veralz and

Eroni (???). Shan Agar and Molak both gave her 2 POW to help her soul recover from its wound. This made her spirit stronger but didn't cure the wound.

Another room contained two statues of men dressed identically seemingly engrossed in conversation. You could make out some very faint words, but only recognised one "Baroshi". However, when you searched the room you found part of the wall that seemed loose. Flargle tried his Mechanisms but failed - obviously Paul ahs to roll it himself - but both Shan Agar and Karim succeeded and the wall pivoted open to reveal a room full of dust and a statue of a boy, 1.5 metres tall, with a golden barley head and golden skin. He carried a shield with a picture of a horned demon scratched into it and a crackling piece of obsidian that everyone knew instinctively

not to touch. They thought this was Baroshi and said "Excuse me, August Sir, but I have come to take you home", but nothing happened. They tried the phrase in Earthtongue and tried mixing the words up

a bit but still nothing. So, they picked him up and took him back to Nurse, who put him in the cradle. One flash of light later and a golden-haired boy leapt from the cradle with a shout. Nurse cheered and all the little humanoid people ran into the room cheering and shouting.

A gigantic spirit walked into the room armed with a flaming sword and introduced himself as a sword of Humakt who had guarded King Veralz and had stood guard over the temple since it was destroyed. He explained that Veralz had led the local earth spirits against a chaos invasion and they had collapsed the earth, killing much of the army but damaging the temple. King Veralz then went on a spiritual journey in his sleep, seeking allies and tools to help his fight against chaos, but an enemy led a giant worm into the temple and

started to kill everyone. Veralz and the Queen went to fight the worm but were killed. When Veralz died, all his people turned to stone.

Baroshi thanked the party and said "All that is ours is yours". The Veralzi, which is what the pale humanoids called themselves, then went away and brought lots of little packages to the PCs, piling them up in front of them.

The PCs also found a small jetty with a black barge guarded by two strange looking statues. As they went up to the barge, they got the impression that you could sacrifice for a one-point divine spell Call Barge, that would be reusable, but this was a one-chance thing, sacrifice now or never again. On the barge was a brass whistle and a

broken slimy green stone head of a newtling, but bigger than life-size. Blowing the whistle gives a Pilot Barge skill of 25% + Magic Bonus, while you blow the whistle. The barge cannot be sunk while in water underground. People with Call Barge can use it to summon the barge to where the caster is, as long as the caster is underground near water. Also, for a point of POW, the person blowing the whistle can move the barge to any underground stream, river, lake or sea where the person has been previously.

The Veralzi warn the PCs not to go to the surface as there are nasty gorpy things and scorpy things there. Morak decided to stay for a while and learn the secrets of the Earth.

After a lot of faffing about, they decided to leave by the upwards route, faffed about a bit, found a tunnel which led into a dead end that seemed like the rear of a secret door with a smidgeon of chaos behind it. After a bit of faffing about, they opened the door and went through to find a room with a pool and a large pile of leaves, so being good Firemakers, they set fire to the pile of leaves because it was chaotic. There was a load of acrid smoke and some popping sounds and the leaves burned down, leaving a clutch of scorpionman eggs which the party all smashed gleefully. They carried along the tunnel and came to a set of caves, one of which held 5 prisoners, all tied to the wall and naked. There was a dragonewt, a male elf, a female human priestess of Chalana Arroy, a female human farmer’s daughter who hates Lunars and a female adventuress/fighter from the Holy Country. The most important question that Flargle had was “What’s their APP?”. When questioned, they said they were captured individually, when travelling nearby and were taken to the caves where they had been held prisoner for a few days. There were some broos, but the broos had been kept away from them, which was odd as that meant that their fate was worse than being broo-toys. Shan Agar kept asking them which part of the Rubble they came from, and they kept saying silly things like “Sartar” or “The Stinking Forest” and kept talking about somewhere called “The Hollow” which confused Shan Agar completely. The PCs freed them and tried to find a few scraps of clothing for them, but the male members of the party didn’t seem too bothered about finding clothes for the females ….. There was an empty guardroom nearby and another cave that contained something chained to a wall. Flargle didn’t see the basilisk, even though he spent a hero point trying to see something, and didn’t hear it, although he felt uneasy, so it was a bit of a shock when it Glared at him and knocked him dead. Fortunately, he used a Hero Point and used his Death Runes/Storm Bull presence to bolster his defending POW and survived. Then Flargle and Shan Agar, after a bit of faffing about, charged the basilisk and spent several rounds trying to hack bits off it as it kept glaring and biting. It did get a 01 when overcoming Shan Agar’s POW, but they said the roll was cocked – I ask you! Eventually, Shan Agar hit the basilisk and chopped a leg off, only to find that its blood damaged her sword, so that was enough of that. They backed off and pummelled it with crossbow bolts, although it kept roaring at them. Then they saw a stick-like figure with gaping eyes and mouth floating towards them and Shan Agar fought and bound the Spirit of Disease. When they went to where it had come from, Nightingale shouted “Mallia Temple! Mallia Temple!” for some reason. Around the corner, they found a Mallia Temple, of all things, with some Disease Spirits and three broo. Flargle took one out with a crossbow, another spat at Shan Agar and they charged.

 

That’s where we left it. Four River Voices, an Oasis Folk Shaman, three naked women, a naked elf and a naked dragonewt taking on a Mallia Temple with chaos coming from behind them and somebody sounding a horn. Where will it end up? Somewhere bad, that’s for certain. Wait until next round when they have to make CON rolls or start to vomit because of the stench. Or wait until they get infected by disease. Or wait until the Broo Rune Lord-Priest-Shaman-Ninja comes to get them. Or the ogres or scorpionmen or the other broos, or …..

 

The party faced three broos, one of which had been knocked over last time. They met them in hand-to-hand and quickly finished them off. Well, they would have done if you hadn’t insisted on hitting the same location over and over and over again.

 

Then a group of 5 broos came into the fray. The front 3 acted as a shield to keep the PCs from the back two, who were a Disease Master and his bodyguard. The Disease master cast Dispel Magic to knock down their Protection spells, which seemed to bother the PCs for some reason, but I don’t know why. Some of them turned to face the new threat, but Karim kept pumping arrow after arrow into the left leg of a disabled broo, trying to make sure it was dead and not coming back. The Disease Master cast a few spells, including one at Mello Yello which failed to overcome his miserable POW. Shan Agar, Flargle and Mello Yello fought the three new broos while Karim hid in the corner pumping arrows into the dying broo. Then he managed to hit another location and the broo departed. He turned the Composite Bow of Leg-Hitting against the Disease Master and took his arm out, by aiming to ignore armour. I’ll have to remember that one for next time. The Disease Master’s allied spirit cast Demoralise at Karim and halved his chance of being dangerous, but Flargle cast Fanaticism, good Stormbuller that he is, and countered that. Karim then took a few more potshots at the Disease Master and knocked him over. Yippee!

 

Then a horde of scorpionmen with multimissiled slingshots came charging in, slinging at the PCs and causing a bit of damage. Flargle spent a Hero Point to avoid a critical and so did Karim, I think. Shan Agar, Flargle and Mello Yello finished off the three broo and turned to face the Disease Master, but he called on the spirits of the Temple to defend him and they rose up to fight. The scorpionmen had by now charged into combat and were at the point where next round they will be able to stick their poisoned tails into you all and pump the PCs full of scorpy love-juice. They killed the Broo Disease Master and then worked their way along the line of scorpionmen, or rather Flargle worked his way along the scorpionmen while the rest of them took legs off and parried/dodged like hell.

A group of Ogres came in and started to form up into some kind of formation. An Ogre Rune Lord approached from another area accompanied by the most Ogrey looking Ogre you had ever seen and by a chaos demon on a chain. He released the chain and they all attacked the party, but the PCs managed to survive the attack of the Ogre Ancestral Spirit and the Chaos Demon, cutting them in two in the process, and cut the Ogre Runelord down in his prime. The last thing the Ogre Runelord did in the session was to call on someone called “Cacodemon” and ask for help. Cacodemon rocked up only to be sliced and diced by a desperate group of PCs. The ogres ran off and the PCs slowly pursued them. They came to a large cave with a giant holding a big club and looking mean. The PCs decided to parley with him and he offered to show them the way out if they paid him. They did and he showed them a tunnel leading upwards. In they all went, only to hear the sound of a large boulder being rolled across the cave mouth and they were trapped, all except Karim who managed to slip through the gap before it closed and hid. After a while, they decided to try and move the rock, but only moved it a little. The elf slipped through the gap and all they heard was a scream and some munching noises. After a couple of hours, Karim returned and said the giant had gone, accompanied by the ogres. They pushed the boulder aside and left the caves, disappointed because the giant had taken away all his treasure.

The party went to Alda Chur and joined a caravan back to Pavis where they rested. It was now nearly Sacred time and they needed some rest and recuperation. At Pavis, they were greeted by the Zola Fel cultists who thought they had been killed by the Gorp. The Sun Domers allowed them to spend some time with their families and they tried to relax for a while.

About 10 days before Sacred Time, Haloric Goodfarm came to se you and asked for your help. A Lunar Tax Collector had gone missing from Sun Dome. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this chap was Jaxarte Whydred, a nephew of Sor Eel and it was important that they get him back.

The PCs left and went to Sun Dome. The Sun Domers wanted to stop Mello Yello entering but Shan Agar insisted he was on official business so they let him through but warned that the party was responsible for his actions because "we don't want a repeat of last time". When pressed, Mello Yello mentioned something about a racehorse, the Count, something about animals being without saddles are fair game. He also offered bribes of 100 Wheels to the guards, because they put in good words with the Priests concerning his application to become a Yelmalian. They started searching Sun Dome for Jaxarte and found out that the he was last seen leaving the East gate of Sun Dome. They then went on a wide circuit along a couple of rivers to a couple of villages and found out that the Census Officials had been to the towns and had returned several days ago. They worked out that he returned to Sun Dome, then slipped out alone at night and went somewhere else. Since the only real strange thing on the route was the Old Sun Dome Temple, they went there to have a look. Shan Agar, or Flargle, found some tracks and saw they went to the area. Shan Agar asked the River Spirit who told him that a man had passed that way a few days ago and had gone into the old ruin. She talked about the River Voices as traitors and bad people who betrayed the rivers. She also talked about the Hunter who left Old Sun Dome but couldn't cross the river.

The PCs camped outside the Old Sun Dome and managed to open the bronze doors sealing the temple, but their attempt was overheard by someone who ran to the gateway just after they passed through and closed the door. The PCs started searching the Old Sun Dome Temple and saw that the barracks was ruined but had collapsed over the river, giving an easy way to cross it if necessary.

The party explored the Sun Dome Temple, found some tracks of a small child-like figure, followed them and found a hooded fugure sleeping in a corner, who turned out to be a trollkin who kept out of the Hunter's way because he was quick and the Hunter was slow.

He offered to take the party to the Hunter by the Quick Way, went to a brass door and slipped through it. The PCs couldn't follow and he said it was easy, all they needed to do was dance through the shadows. Shan Agar tried using a Darkness Rune to folow him but all she saw was that the trollkin was a powerful force of darkness. When the trollkin went through the door, they heard a muffled shouting and he said that the man inside always chased him away.

Then he offered to take them the hard way and took you to a staircase and slipped through a small crack. Once again, the PCs couldn't follow and he berated them for being stupid "just like all the others".

The trollkin offered to take them to the Hunter but they declined, so he offered to show them the dragons, but wouldn't be drawn on what the dragons were.

They asked about the man they were looking for and he said that the man had come a couple of days ago, but he was stupid and the Hunter had him. So, they folowed the trollkin into a cellar area where there was a large rubbish heap, full of bones and scraps of armour, clothing and rubbish. They heard a voice asking for help, started to clear the rubbish away and Flargle sensed chaos nearby as they were attacked by a number of skeletons hiding in the rubbish. The skeletons had no effect, except for the one that criticalled Flargle in the abdomen :-) Breathing in the dust coming from their smashed location made Flargle cough and slowed him down by 1 SR.

After they cleared the rubbish, they found a loose flagstone covering a hidden pit with a red robe on a pile and a man chained to the wall. "Don't hurt me" he cried, until he realised they were here to rescue him, then he demanded to be released ASAP. They found a sack beneath the robe, the robe crumpled to dust when touched and they also found a lead box that sensed as chaotic. Everyone tried to open the box, including Mello Yello, but when everyone was in the pit, someone moved the flagstone across the hole. The PCs grabbed the flagstone and pushed it back, using Shan Agar's incredible Strength to great advantage. Flargle jumped up and pushed a vampire out of the way, hacking at it with his anti-vampire sword, then the rest of the River Voices climbed or jumped up and attacked the vampire, cutting it badly and making it turn to mist. It floated towards a crack in the floor but Flargle threw a flask of Holy Water at the crack, stopping the vampire from fleeing. Then the River Voices joined hands and summoned Zola Fel, flooding it and destroying the vampire. The waters then disappeared down the crack in the floor.

After you killed the vampire, a bright light filled the room and a voice told you that to get the blessing of Yelmalio they had to free the Hero, the High Priest and his son. They managed to work out who the High Priest, his son and the Hero were. Mello Yello mentioned "Chariot-Man", "Book-Man" and "Song-Man" and Karim knew about "Yamsur the Splendid" and "Solinthur the Poet", Yamsur being the head of the Sun Dome army that was eaten in the Dragonkill. After dithering about whether to go to the Sun Dome library or to go to Pavis, Karim asked where the Library was in the Old Sun Dome Temple and they worked out that it was the bricked up/barred area that the Trollkin kept being chased out of. Then someone said "Book-Man! Library!" and off they went to investigate. After a bit of prodding and messing, someone worked a stone loose from the wall (with a critical Masonry roll - Pavis would have been proud) and they saw a ghostly figure fussing around. After a conversation with him they worked out that:

(a) He was as mad as a hatter, or senile, or both

(b) He was the son of the High Priest

(c) Yamsur was "No brother of mine, no sir" and "No son of my father"

(d) He didn't know where the High Priest was

Mello Yello managed to worm his way into the library whereupon the Librarian showed himself to be a wraith and attacked him. The Librarian attacked Mello Yello, failing to destroy his INT, and the rest of the party pulled him out. Shan Agar sent her fetch in and tried to engage it in Spirit Combat, but couldn’t connect with the wraith, for some reason. Shan Agar and Karim Temris debated the usefulness of shooting it with Multimissiles, but they were fire-based and they didn’t want to burn the library down. Eventually, they pulled more of the stones away until someone made a Masonry roll and then they thought it was safe to proceed. Karim asked the librarian to open the door for them, but he couldn’t physically do it. Shan Agar asked to come in, but was told he couldn’t because she didn’t have a pass. Then she asked for a pass and the librarian said “Sure, come on in and I’ll give you a pass”, so she came in and the librarian snarled “You can’t come in without a pass” and went to attack her. She pulled out her Water Amulet and said “Here’s my pass”, backed up with a fistful of runes, to which the librarian paused, looked at the pass, looked at his desk. Looked at the pass again and said “That’s not a pass!”, so Shan Agar ran to the desk and picked up a stamp, stamped her hand and calmed the librarian down.

In the library were a load of very old and fragile books, a desk and chair with a corpse sat at the desk, slumped over with its hands clasping a book. Shan Agar asked about Yamsur and the librarian said they wouldn’t find any books about him in this library, but that his journal mentioned him. He also said that he was feeling tired when he had been reading the journal, but then fell asleep and now he couldn’t open the journal up. A light came on in Shan Agar’s head and she asked if the corpse and the librarian looked similar as she realised that the librarian was the ghost/wraith of the corpse. She moved the corpse to get at the book and it fell to pieces, causing the librarian to fade away, at which point the library was filled with a magical bright light and a sense of calm and peace.

The journal itself didn’t have any useful information and was full of rambling rants on how great the librarian was, how cowardly Yamsur was and how Yamsur had been plotting against the Count with his father and that Yelm’s Fiery Breath came from below to destroy the temple and the priests. The PCs took the most salvageable books, a dragon amulet and a gold lamp and left. They decided to return to Pavis and then come back another time if necessary.

When they reached the door through which they had come in to the Temple, they found their beasts had gone. Someone had led them away with a golden lasso. They tracked them down to the nearby guardhouse and were met by an old man in militia uniform carrying a spear. He said he had confiscated the beasts and that they had to go to the Sun Dome Temple to be tried for entering a forbidden place where the Count would listen to the arguments, weigh things up, call on the Justice and Light of Yelm to guide him and then hang them in the morning. Karim, however, persuaded him that they were militiamen and not Yelmalio cultists and so could legally enter the Old Sun Dome. So, he said the Jaxarte should be taken to the Sun Dome Temple where the Count would listen to the arguments and, well you get the picture. Jaxarte was volunteered to speak to the old man in private to try and persuade him to let him have his horse back and after a brief conversation he returned with the horse and said “Off to the Sun Dome, lads” and they set off for Pavis.

In Pavis, they reported back to Haloric Longfarm and went to the Lunar Court where Sor Eeel thanked them for rescuing his nephew and said that they could tell the Count to “Go and Whistle” if he wanted Jaxarte returned for trial. They had a meal in the Lunar Court and met Jaxarte’s friends. They also saw Piers Bolde, the Irrippi Ontor Cultist who had rescued Hrothmir’s remains from the Vampire’s Hellpits in the rubble. Jaxarte and Piers had a rushed conversation which Shan Agar’s mouse heard the tail end of. “And there’s a whole library of ancient books just ready for the taking …” he said.

The PCs cut a deal with the Temris Clan to store most of the books in the Clan Library as long as the PCs could have access to them when required. Shan Agar then sold the Light Manual, a Manual on Yelmalian Battle Tactics, to the Argan Argar cult. Karim was not involved in this transaction, no, not at all. Among the books recovered were a Manual on Yelmalian Lore, a Codex of Deeds and Land Grants in Sun County, a History of Arinsor the First Count, a Firespeech Dictionary and a Manual for the Training of Griffins. The golden lamp had a magic spirit with Ignite and Extinguish that could cast its spells on the lamp when commanded to in Firespeech. The dragon amulet was magical but Lhankhor Mhy couldn’t work out what it did or what its properties were. Shan Agar asked whether the Temris Clan would sponsor Mello Yello as a Yelmalio Cultist, but Karim wouldn’t actively support the idea.

Sacred Time

The Yelmalian High Priest in Pavis questioned Mello Yello and found no reason why he couldn't become a Lay Member of Yelmalio, especially considering the immense gift (200W) he had just given to the cult. Sacred Time came and went without incident and the PCs were relaxed and happy.

Sea Season

The party found out that the Irrippi Ontor temple in Pavis had prepared a HeroQuest but their party was ambushed by Storm Bull HeroQuestors during the Quest and they returned empty handed. As they were preparing for their final week in Pavis before the last Season of Militia Duty you noticed that the Irrippi Ontor corral was full of sables and mules and a number of guards were preparing for an expedition into Prax.

Karim cut a deal with Fleeter Nemm, one of the Daughters (Priests) of Pavis to bring him the books from the library in the Old Sun Dome Temple. Flargle traded a FireShield spell for a Guided Teleport and they bought a nice big chest, big enough to hold all the books and small enough for Flargle to be able to carry.

They set off and went to the Old Sun Dome without incident. Mello Yello stayed behind with the beasts as he could no longer enter Old Sun Dome, being a Lay Member of Yelmalio. Karim warned him a number of times that he mustn't eat the zebras or the other beasts.

Karim, Flargle and Shan Agar went to the Old Sun Dome on foot and noticed that there were Militia guardsmen stationed around the temple in such a way that each guard could see the guards to either side of him. Karim persuaded them that their File Leader had some new orders for them and they should report to Mello Yello for further instructions, leaving the party to relieve them.

Karim and Shan Agar set up on either side of Flargle and waited for a few minutes while Karim tried to cast Mindspeech on Flargle. Eventually the spell went off and Flargle climbed over the wall with his chest, went to the library, took his armour off and slipped through the hole in the wall. He collected as many books as he could, put them in the chest, got dressed again and lifted the chest when Karim saw some Sable Riders coming over the nearby rise followed by some Irrippi Ontor Cultists in a cart. Flargle used his Guided Teleport to go to the Air Temple in Pavis and then went to the Pavis Temple but was stopped by a Lunar patrol, but he used his wit and quick thinking and persuaded them that he was on official Sun Dome Militia business and was let alone. At the Pavis Temple Fleeter Nemm gave him 1,000L for the Guided Teleport expenses and 10,000L for the books, sight unseen.

Meanwhile, the Sun Dome Militia had moved to talk to the Sable Riders and the party used this as an excuse to slip away. As they went, they saw the Sable Riders round up the milita at scimitar point. They headed straight back to Pavis and arrived a couple of days later.

After perhaps half a day as they were getting ready to return to Sun County for their final Season's duty, they saw some Sable Riders riding at full speed, charge through the gates and went straight to the Irrippi Ontor Temple. Then they saw Piers Bolde riding a Sable through the gates and he went straight to the Lunar HeadQuarters. After a few minutes, all the Irrippi Ontor Priests and Acolytes left their temple and ran tot he Lunar HeadQuarters. Karim followed and hung around in a corner trying to work out what was happening.

Piers Bolde was speaking to Sor Eeel who shouted something about "Again!" and "What were you thinking of?" and "What dragon?". They were talking about dragons and rifts and cosmic tears. They mentioned mountains dripping with blood, a flaming chariot, dragonewt ghosts and a red, brown and gold dragon the likes of which they had never seen before. Then they started a discussion about dragons, gates, rifts and all sorts of arcane things. Karim used a Hero Point to sacrifice for Memorise Message and recorded as much of the conversation as he could before the spell ran out of tape. He went back to Fleeter Nemm and reported back everything he had heard. They searched their archives, as did the Temris Clan, and found out that the Dragon matched a description of one of the True Dragons from the time of the EWF, a dragon that hadn't been seen since.

It transpired from several intelligence forays and interviews that Piers Bolde and Jaxarte Whydred had gone to the Sun Dome Temple, rounded up the milita and entered the temple in search of the library. When they found it bare, they explored the rest of the buildings and found a vault beneath the temple that contained a rift in space through which they could see a flaming chariot, a gigantic red, green and golden dragon, a mountain dripping with blood and the signs of a great battle. Surrounding the rift were a number of ghostly dragonewts who were chanting something draconic. Jaxarte said it was just an illusion and marched to the rift, but the dragon ate him as he approached.

This has angered Sor Eeel for several reasons:

1. His idiot nephew has got into trouble again.

2. The Lunars have broken the Armistice Agreement by entering a site that was specifically denied to them under the terms of the Amistice Agreement.

3. His nephew has been eaten by a dragon.

4. The goal of the mission (retrieving the lost library) has not been achieved.

The PCs all chickened out of a dragon hunt and went up the Zola Fel on a HeroQuest. Mello Yello agreed to accompany them as he was a River Voice, but he said that if the Yelmalians neded his help he would have to go back. The party prepared themselves and learned some spells. They decided to leave their riding beasts behind to show their loyalty to Zola Fel, and because they wouldn’t fit on the barge and nobody thought of hiring another boat to follow on behind.

After a lot of faffing about, they set off and made it up to Bullford without incident. Then they went to the first fork in the river and spoke to the River Naiad there who said that she protected the Plains of Prax against troll attacks, except when the trolls paid to cross her or were too strong to cross or had a good reason to cross.

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