Caravan to Ein Arris - adapted for a fantasy setting

[SolemnGolem]

Session 4 - The Handover - 2024-06-19

Karhan and Kira, a cruel separation

JWW arranged with Yongerul and the Polebi riders for four orders: "Head" (attack the specific person JWW indicates with a light), "Horse" (get close and cripple the horses to take captives), "Fly" (shoot arrows to miss and intimidate), and "Open" (use deadly force to kill hostiles as quickly as possible).

Aya lay in wait at the copse with Ferrvarro and four other Polebi horsemen, holding a small light to allow the bird to find them.

The handoff had two competing strategies: 1) Katsaya was eager for the Polebi and the PCs to secure Kira first, and then massacre Karhan and his entire gang to a man; 2) Irdri of the Jointry wanted to secure Kira and then bloddlessly resolve the standoff. Halmaran's orders had been to trade $5000 for Kira, but any money the PCs kept from spending would be split half to the PCs and half to the caravan.

As it turned out, Karhan was clearly out of his league. He came with six horses, carrying himself, a captive Kira (who had evidently outstayed her welcome in his gang), and two axemen and two bow-women. He looked at the chest of $5000 and sent his men to count it, then gave Kira to JWW.

While he and his men were debating how to carry the money, Aya and her horsemen (with Ferrvarro) crept up from the south to corner Karhan's men from behind. JWW finally gave the shout of "Horse" to the Polebi bowmen, indicating they should aim to kill the enemy mounts.

JWW secured the chest, and then tried (unsuccessfully) to Shatter the saddle strap for Karhan's horse. Aya successfully cast Lightning and sent a bolt flying between the ranks of the panicked bandits, blinding most of them briefly. Karhan and his axemen tried to escape, but their horses were cut down by the Polebi. His bowwomen ran into Aya, who sent up a sheet of flame coordinating with Irdri, who used the metallic bird to drop an oil flask right in front of the fleeing riders. JWW took Karhan into custody.

Portraits of Karhan and Kira, in the PCs' protection.

Young and Witless

The Polebi let the underlings go, but Karhan was tied and arrested for delivery to Halmaran. The likely plan was for Halmaran to deliver him as a bargaining chip to whichever Windrush tribe had most grievances or responsibility for him. Karhan seemed to be an amiable and harmless enough person - less the type of bandit to hurt somebody and more like the type of bandit to appropriate things that aren't his.

Kira turned out to be a flighty girl of whimsical and arbitrary tastes. Initially amazed by JWW's (unsuccessful) Wither Limb spell, she was flat-out adoring of Aya's flame spells and wanted to learn magic just by watching her. Aya reported to Katsaya (through her messaging cloth) that Kira was safe, and the mission was a success.

Back at Gabreftrut, Yongerul the leader of the Polebi invited Aya to share a beer, and told her that Katsaya was pleased with the outcome, and the Windrush had helped a courier make their way down. The courier would arrive the following morning and deliver important items to Aya and JWW.

JWW penned a complete report of the Black Stone to Prof. Chronotis before going to bed. He was the last one asleep that night.

The Day of the New Moon

It turns out, the courier was Kylerean, a Blue Robes Wizard whom Aya knew from the Thaumatorikon. He brought a packet of documents for Aya, showing that the Red Wizards of the Forge (dwarves) and the Purple Wizards of the Guild (artificers) had combined their analysis. They determined that she was carrying a necklace of Fire Elemental Summoning (which also came with a 10 ER single-use reservoir, needing further enchantment to replenish). He also had a number of spells that she could learn at a later date.

Kylerean also had a packet for JWW, which were mostly reports from Prof. Chronotis, and a spell, Sense Minds, which would allow him to detect mental perturbations in spacetime. JWW tried to learn this spell, but could not muster the focus necessary.

Magical Studies

Aya attempted to teach Kira the basics of magic, which required her to teach Kira the basics of meditation. Despite three attempts and use of Aya's Luck advantage, Kira could not be quieted and found this exercise boring and lame and old.

JWW meanwhile burned a card of Prof. Chronotis and found the wizened old man very talkative. He had read JWW's latest report, and made a few adjustments to a spell, Control Gate, which he encouraged JWW to cast at the anomalies valley at midnight on this evening, the night of the Black Moon.

Kylerean and Irdri

Aya saw Kylerean helping out with Jointry business while he was down in Gabreftrut. Irdri informed the PCs that the Jointry was very happy with the bloodless way in which they had handled Karhan's gang, and as a result, the Jointry was happy to let Irdri continue serving them, along with his mechanical bird. Irdri also informed them that Father Lantos at the Jointry wanted to give them a gift. They went to the Jointry and found Lantos offered them a bit of ear jewelry, which would help the Jointry know where they were, and (when they twist the jewel) could record sound. They accepted the gifts.

Kylerean told them that three months ago, the oldest Purple Robes wizard had died, and been interred in the Hall of Repose at the Thaumatorikon. Apparently, at some point after that, a perpetrator attempted to steal several artifacts and several spells. The theft had just been discovered, and the thief was still at large, but further information was not possible. Kylerean finally told them a bit of insider gossip: apparently, some of the colleges had been intentionally leaking papers of spells initially slated for pulping, on the hopes that by sending them out to the peripheries, magic-sensitives could notice them, reconstruct them, and learn spells from them - providing the Thaumatorikon with more fresh recruits and reducing nepotism within the institution's ranks.

[SolemnGolem]

Tales of the Vrengar

Aya discussed the ancient ruins where she found Mirroire, and asked Kylerean about the Yemeluspa. They agreed that the ruins must have pre-dated Yemeluspa rule. Kylerean came from the Rustlemoor tribes (of the northeast, towards the sea) and he had studied another fallen empire. This empire, the Vrengar, were said to be entirely foreign, arriving by ocean and destroying the floating city of Hypermorea, then razing and conquering Kepilsater. They reigned for several centuries, until an event they called the Blood Moon Conjunction, which wiped them out fairly suddenly. Their descendants scattered east, where they were enslaved by the humans at the waterways and made to work on the farms, mockingly called "Sal'Vrengar" (Slave Ruler Warriors). The Yemeluspa theocracy continued their slavery, until the Union overthrew the Yemeluspa and freed the Sal'Vrengar. Finally, the Union relocated the Sal'Vrengar south, to rejoin their ancient ancestral colleagues here, at the land of Kiel'Nurn (and their united race called Kiln'Urn, for "Half-Orcs").

Polebi Riders, again

Aya discussed the Celia investigation, and Kylerean suggested that she could talk to the Polebi Windrush riders. Aya realized she'd never mentioned this investigation to them, so they saddled up and rode out in the afternoon to talk to Yongerul. She recommended they talk to Urgrudon, a younger man, who told them that he'd met Celia a few times and always found her polite and professional, but her replacement struck him as "off" somehow, so he didn't hang around. He suggested two tiny thorpes: Ambleden and Rokulbie, where somebody with a lot of local scrip might pay to gamble.

Halmaran

The caravan leader planned to stop at the ridgeline right before the karst territory, and attend a small wedding to bring tribal gifts. Now with Karhan captive, this could be tricky, so Aya and JWW will do it instead. Then the PCs will go overland to Kiel'Nurn while the caravan stays with the river.

Back to the Anomalous Valley

Aya, JWW, and Kylerean rode forth to get to the anomalous valley before dark, and once they got there, Aya could make out the Yemeluspa shouts. JWW waited until midnight, and then cast the spell to open the gate successfully. In it, he glimpsed a multitude of his own parallel selves, all experiencing some transcendent moment of victory - JWW with his sword held high and bloody; JWW securing an artifact from a case; JWW receiving a treasure from an elder as reward; JWW raising the knife just in time to skewer the assailant as the incoming blade passes harmlessly by his cheek. The mental cascade effect opened his mind to far greater magical powers (Magery 3 achieved).

Then he saw a dimensional vision: an infinite plane above, and an infinite plane below, stretching outward in a horizon, with uncountable silvery watching entities at the edge. Gathered around and superimposed on him, his numerous own mirror selves, all casting spells. One had mastered Sense Mind in another lifetime, and JWW Meditated to see a shadow of that self's experience:

He was on a ridiculous disclike vessel floating down a shadowy brilliant plane of medium, with several other shadowy figures anxiously in the same vessel. Downstream, they saw another strange disclike vessel with two larger silhouettes and one small squat thing. The squat thing leapt off and disappeared beneath the plane of the medium. The two discs passed by each other, and each occupant seemed to stare at the other vessel as they passed, then parted.

JWW realized with a start that this was the other viewpoint of the dream he'd had about a week before, with him and Aya sitting on a lilypad with a frog (which jumped ship very quickly) and then passed by another lilypad with shadowy occupants watching them closely.

Emptying the Gate

JWW came to, stunned, to find something big and heavy hit him in the back: the planet. He'd fallen over backwards after Kylerean had pulled him out of the way.

Once the gate opened, it vomited out about twenty desiccated men, all wearing Yemeluspa armor and livery, and all mummified dry husks. They spilled out and shattered across the grassy fields, disgorging equipment and gear that had the vacuum-seared stench of ozone.

Aya, JWW, and Kylerean all set about investigating and searching. Aya immediately found a magical helm (just the circlet was magical) worn by the apparent commander. They also found a magical compass and a magical firestarter. Aya also found a letter on the body: the Yemeluspa Prince ordered a patrol to uncover an old overland road across the valley and into the clay pits. On the back, the soldier had written a few other orders: kill all Cat-Folk of the fallen desert empire they meet, scout out good places for watch tower installation, etc.

They were debating whether to go further uphill and try to open the gates at the other anomalies, when Aya felt a little tugging at her ankle. Mirroire, the tiny cat, showed up. But how? The town was an hour's ride back east. Perhaps the kitten had hitched a ride on a horse unseen. Mirroire meowed at the three mages plaintively and trotted back towards Gabreftrut.

This eventually decided the issue: JWW took a few grisly trophies (scorched armor, tarnished metals, dismembered body parts all for legitimate research purposes), and the party mounted up and rode back to Gabreftrut. Mirroire disappeared on the way, although all three mages agreed that they had seen the cat, which was more than could be said for Ferrvarro.

The Circlet

Aya found that the circlet contained an easily-removable gem, and had the inscription "Knowledge is power" on the inside. She put it on, and she experienced the memories of Nyrkki Satosil (Paladin Centurion) Vahva Karhu:

Interviewing goatherds about the anomalies. Hunting down and executing a Perras'hi family, then tying weights to drown the kittens in the river. Arriving at the valley and taking a knee to pray to the Wardkeeper (Portinvartija) to protect them. Dispatching a patrol. Report of lost patrol. Send another patrol, which also fails to return. Collect the remaining men, approach a hovering black void with a gauntlet bobbing out. Grab the gauntlet. Popped like a cork into darkest void; silvery entities watching at the edge, not malevolent so much as vigilant - with the tacit knowledge that they could close the distances instantly and cleave any threat they needed to. No breath, lungs rupturing inside. Roaring sound that fades to agonized buzzing tone as both eardrums burst, then eyes burst, then tongue bloats in the mouth as blood boils dry...

Kylerean rode up to her and she returned to the present, a bit shaken. He handed her a bag with three more gems inside it. He'd found this while she and JWW had been pondering whether to return.

The three of them made it back and prepared to set out with the Caravan to the meeting at the ridgeline.

END OF SESSION 4

[SolemnGolem]

Session 5 - Strakes and the Captive - 2024-07-04

Halmaran's plan was to send his lieutenant, Tsorvettar, ahead with a gift of five fine horses for the Turund Tribe (of the Windrush confederation). However, the awkwardness of Karhan's capture meant that Halmaran himself could not make a personal appearance. But Tsorvettar and the PCs went ahead. They found a tidy encampment and several tribes already there, but waiting for a few days on a couple of stragglers.

Hunting Down The Kidnapper

Aya and JWW were still hunting down the bandit who'd captured Celia Arbel, the Union moneychanger. They'd previously found that a gambling man had emerged about a week ago and either blown or won lots of money in various rural areas. They had also learned from the friendly Polebi Riders that a gambler had recently been seen in two locations: Vashtar Hill and at Pell Lake.

They made their way with Kylerean, Ferrvarro, and Irdri to Pell Lake, which was a very distant occasional settlement up in the karst area and leading to the edge of the desert. There, a small group of folks took shelter under an open-canvas shelter from the noonday sun, with a brackish water watering hole and horses and camels resting. Buckets and cloths were draped near the watering holes to trap condensed purewater.

JWW approached the womenfolk with his bags full of trinkets, and found one old woman - Sara - who had been sunburned. Handing her a salve, he asked about the gambler-kidnapper. This inquiry led to her husband - Kalim - and then eventually to a young firebrand man named Rosha. JWW learned that the gambler still made his rounds here, and that Rosha had lost a lot of money to him. Although the gambler didn't come into the camp too regularly, he did come to the pool to retrieve his waterflasks some days. Rosha gave JWW a name, too: Jeeti.

A young child gladly showed JWW the way to the watering hole, and JWW saw that Jeeti had vessels marked with a red two-legged dragon.

JWW scoped the place out and decided upon a good hiding place, then came back to Aya at the tiny waystation. Aya, meanwhile, had picked up a few yummy recipes from Sara at the kitchen (chicken in crepes with eggs and sugar spices). Finally, they all set out together close to nightfall, knowing that over the cold night, the buckets would fill with condensed water and their prey, Jeeti, might drop by.

They caught him shortly before dawn, when the sky was rosy in the east. JWW cast Shape Earth on the sandstone ledge he was hiding on, which overlooked the water hole nearest Jeeti's "drake" marked buckets. The ensuing sandslide pinned Jeeti down, and they dug his face out so he could breathe and answer questions. He filled them in a bit on the operations of the Strakes:

• The old man is Caleb Strake, leader of the group. His son is Vorjek Strake.
• Vorjek is by far the more dangerous of the two, having become quite scary and uncontrollable.
• Vorjek ordered the capture of the moneychanger, because "the wizard" wanted to earn greater Union currency and had a few things he wanted to buy with Union Frex.
• This bandit (Jalabi Tefar, "JT" or "Jeeti") was the only person who spoke Union Common, Windrush, Perras'hi, and Kiln'Urn well enough to carry out the defrauding work under guise of Union moneychanger, visiting groups of all four language speakers around the area.
• Celia Arbel was left in a ruined fortress some 2 hours' ride into the desert. Jalabi Tefar had seen her tied up and imprisoned in the lowest level of an increasingly-sand-covered fort, where the only access to her room was a hole through the ceiling. At least two guards were there at all times.
• The Strake leadership could not seem to agree on what to do with her, now that the Union had assuredly noticed her kidnapping. Jeeti was reasonably confident that she was in stable health one week ago, when he last saw her during a water run.

The PCs went to the fort with Kylerean and Ferrvarro.

Freeing Celia

After two hours' ride, and a few ungagged consultations with their captive Jeeti, they found the fortress. They made out two guards inside, but unclear whether there were more. Aya and Kylerean approached from the main gate (a hole in the wall) and pretended to be lost government census takers. JWW and Ferrvarro approached the fort at ground level and prowled around that level looking for any sign of a captive.

Ferrvarro's superior sense of smell picked up a smell of an unwashed, mistreated captive at a certain corner. JWW cast Shape Earth to clear away the sand near a wall, and then again to Jenga-move a single sandstone block from the wall without collapsing the whole thing. Then Ferrvarro went inside, nearly tripping over Celia Arbel in the darkness and eliciting a squeak of alarm.

They found that her feet had been bound and pummeled, in an effort to extract information. Unable to climb or walk, she needed help to escape. JWW cast Apportation to lift her gently up to the exit tunnel, and then set her down outside. Ferrvarro and JWW secured her, and then JWW cast Call to alert his steed.

Out front, Aya and Kylerean had succeeded in playing the part of thirsty exhausted lost government employees, and the hesitant fort guards had thrown down two skins of water, which they shared. Kylerean intimated that he might be able to produce a water weapon if situations required it. They also got a vague direction to go to "Stonewall" and a gesture for "three". Perhaps this was another Strake hideout?

Aya heard the familiar loud whistle from JWW, calling to his horse, and she and Kylerean made a show of thanking the castle guards, then put down the waterskins and rode away. As they rode, they became aware that they were being followed. They turned their horses towards the more forested slopes closer towards civilization, and eventually lost their pursuers. Ferrvarro, watching from a vantage point, saw this.

They all regathered at Pell Lake.

Celia Arbel was dehydrated and malnourished, but apart from her feet bruising, she was all right. Aya's cast of Major Healing put her in much better health. She told the PCs that Jeeti had indeed come into her Union Frex exchange booth while she was at one of the outlying settlements, and then had attacked her as she went to retrieve some bonds for him. They had moved her around several different locations, and it sounded like the main leader of the group did not want her as a prisoner. The son seemed more adamant to keep her. There was a wizard, too, who seemed to outrank both the Strake people, but Celia never saw him and only heard of him in passing. The wizard seemed to be the main mover in her capture. She understood that the gang had put up one of their imposters to go around in her clothing and defraud the local citizens.

At one point, she had managed to escape, cutting her bonds over a few days by using a shard of metal. She ran out into the desert at night, hoping to get away and find birds to lead her to water by daylight. Much to her surprise, some of Vorjek Strake's riders rode out in the middle of the night and rounded her up very quickly, coming to her directly.

The PCs turned Jeeti over to Irdri as a prisoner for arrest and intake by the Jointry and the Union. JWW also sent back a chest of the old Yemeluspa vacuum-scorched armor to Gabreftrut with Irdri.

They went back to the ridgeline settlement of Erami as the wedding got underway.

[SolemnGolem]

A Tribal Wedding at Erami

The groom, Borchulun of the Turund tribe, was marrying Mailantra (also of the Turund tribe, and coincidentally his aunt - although she was only seven years older than him). Aya had compiled a nice illuminated manuscript of a scroll containing a number of her collected recipes from across the land, and she had added the "Borchulun and Mailantra lamb ribs" at the bottom. When this scroll was presented to the couple, along with literate translation, the couple were delighted at being named and also enjoyed the twee little illustrations in the margins.

They witnessed Tsorvettar presenting the five fine horses to the couple, and the relatives of the couple gave jocund insults to Tsorvettar about Halmaran's stinginess. Mirroire led Aya to a Perras'hi carver, who had made a lightweight wooden statue of a cat asking for pets, and Aya got it for free. She went back to the wedding to see Ferrvarro angry.

Apparently, he'd given a small flute as a gift, and the Turund family had given their lively insults - which Ferrvarro had expected. But then Tsorvettar joined in, criticizing Ferrvarro's gift. This stung Ferrvarro unexpectedly, and he hung out dejected. Aya saw Mirroire preening itself over Ferrvarro's shoulder, and she gave the carved wooden cat statue to him, and urged him to give it to the couple as a gift. He did this, and the couple accepted it graciously. Tsorvettar went to him and they had a brief talk and things were patched up.

Strakes at the Party

Tsorvettar also introduced Aya and JWW to an unexpected guest at the party: Mekhlis. An older man missing one eye, tanned by the weather and silver-haired, Mekhlis introduced himself as brother of Varena, who was wife of Caleb Strake and mother of Vorjek Strake. Mekhlis represented a small group of some 6 to 12 Strake horsemen who were unnerved by Vorjek Strake's violence and mindless determination, as well as dismayed by Caleb Strake's inability to see the danger posed by his son. They also spoke of a wizard, whose face was hard to see because it felt "wreathed in darkness", and who wore a silver cape. (JWW took note of this detail.)

Mekhlis had three people with him in the tent, and who knew how many more outside. He wanted sanctuary, and to help the Union if they could protect him and contain Vorjek Strake. With a shudder, he said that Vorjek's men would now ride without water into the heat of the midday sun at his merest command.

Party Games

Every single man had to string and shoot a large bow; JWW entertained the crowd by his failures. Tsorvettar gave a good performance. Finally one of the groom's male cousins won the contest, denoting him as the next to be married.

Then came the garland-throw, where the single women stood facing away from the bride, and she stood with her back to them. She threw the garland up on high, so that it may fall on the next woman to be wed. Aya saw the garland come down and then clatter among the wedding gifts in the table. The rest of the women searched in vain for it.

Aya called out that it had fallen on the wooden cat statue, and all the women burst out laughing and went in turn to pet the wooden cat statue and wish it luck in marriage. After that, Mirroire emerged from behind the statue, and the women all gasped and played with Mirroire. Finally, Mirroire had become visible to others, who crowded and petted it.

"Huh," Ferrvarro said, finally seeing the little cat at last. "I'll be damned."

Festivities' End

Tsorvettar offered to dance with Aya, and a twinkle in his eye suggested he had more in mind, but she graciously parted ways with him after the dance and nothing came of it.

JWW was aggressively courted by Kira. After a valiant feeble defense, he found himself alone with her, with her musing on a few facile existential questions, and then culminating in her asking him to run away with her. He declined and reported this to Tsorvettar instead. By the morning, Kira was gone, packed away back to Gabreftrut to the safety of her father, and accompanied by five of his toughest female horse riders for her own good.

In the morning, Kylerean suggested it was likely that the Union would declare the Strakes to be an outlaw gang, which would lift the embargo on deadly force against them. Aya noted this for her own interest.

Aya got the circlet off of the helmet, with the help of a few tinkers at the Erami camp. The circlet hummed with magical power, and appeared to accept the blank stones found by Kylerean. Aya had the heady impression that she could write her memories to the stones. Aya also reported in to Katsaya that the Union had captured a Strake member, and that Kira was safe, but there would likely be a police consequence.

JWW reported to Prof. Chronotis that they had sighted the silver cloaked man. Chronotis told him that whatever they were doing down here, it was stirring up feathers. Kylerean had been put on furlough, and Vaya Kradil appeared to have voluntarily taken leave of absence. Chronotis also said that powerbrokers were pressuring him to recommend an incoming student to take these vacated places. Would he write a letter of attestation?

END OF SESSION 5

[SolemnGolem]

Session 6 - Into the Desert - 2024-07-18

The Guild Comes to the Periphery

Professor Chronotis notified JWW that the Thaumatorikon was taking a great interest in developments down at the PCs' neighborhood. In fact, the Purple School of Praxis Magic (the guilders and artificiers) were so interested that they were sending Vaya Kradil down. In addition to being Kylerean's academic mentor, she was faintly related to Aya's family by marriage, and thus was a potentially deniable asset in the family's efforts to ride out the anti-nepotism campaign. Moreover, Vaya Kradil had been in the advisory cabinet for Varlindra, the head of the Purple School who had recently stepped down from Archmage term to allow the Red School dwarf wizard to take his turn.

Vaya Kradil had a number of requirements for her comfort and security, and Chronotis passed them on to JWW without comment via firelink. JWW had to obtain solid tiles to mark with a pentagram for summoning, and then had to use a tent to shield it for privacy issues, and then had to provide a padded ottoman or footstool. JWW went and found a Kiln'Urn potter, and with a few castings of Mend on some of the merchant's broken pottery for good will, he walked away with 16 tiles to arrange for Vaya's arrival. JWW set up the tiles, marked the pentagram on them, set up the tent around it, and lit various candles, and then waited outside for the several hours it took for the manifestation to complete.

Vaya Kradil was disoriented, faintly imperious, and had a large chest of her necessary alchemical engineering lab equipment. She asked for the Yemeluspa circlet and gemstones, so that she could study it once she set up her lab at Gabreftrut. Aya gave this to her, and over the next few days, Kylerean and Irdri reported that Vaya had decoded the fraudster Jalabi Tafar's memories, and now the Union had a complete record of which unsuspecting citizen he had cheated, and of how much.

Aya learned that Vaya was directly responsible for some of the design and creation work that went into Irdri, specifically Irdri's memories. After Aya commented that she found Irdri unsettling, Vaya noted that mages tended to be able to see through Irdri's ilk more easily. Vaya took note of a few comments and by the next time the group saw Irdri, ey could now make several different dishes besides pancakes.

Vaya also sent back the circlet to Aya, along with a few other goodies: a stone from her mother (to be affixed to her staff) which granted additional magical power to fuel her spells; several knowledge stones (Desert Survival skill and Camel Riding skill) which granted the wearer of the circlet knowledge as long as they were wearing it; and a charged spellstone for JWW from Chronotis.

JWW put on the circlet and put in the stone, and the power discharged the knowledge of the mystical Sense Minds spell into his head. A bit of Meditation and Thaumatology study later, and he had successfully learned the Major Healing spell as well, which he and Aya had worked to copy down from the elven script.

Mirroire and the Echoes of the Ahrru'wiy'sah

Mirroire was now a real (female) kitten, with a few traits of preternatural ability. Not least was her granting Aya more magical energy to power her spells. Aya also discovered that, although Mirroire could not talk, she could nevertheless grant visions of some long-reaching memories from centuries past. These almost always happened when Aya was sleeping, with Mirroire hanging around or cuddled up nearby.

The first such vision showed Mirroire walking and talking as a full bipedal Perras'hi, evidently a minor noble of some great lineage. She and her family waited in a corridor leading out to an auditorium, with a compassionate aunt and aloof cousins. Eventually a tall Perras'hi male passed them by, dressed with royal striped markings and holy symbols, followed by the entire train in turn. The cheers outside grew deafening, coming from tiers of various different species all worshipping the Pharaonic god-king, chanting the phrase "Ahrru'wiy'sah". The Pharaoh greeted his subjects in the sunlight, with fellow Perras'hi standing highest beside him, and the slave species occupying the lower ranks.

She witnessed one exemplar chosen from each species that worshipped the Cat-Folk: human, half-orc, elf, dwarf, etc. Shadowy robed attendants, with shimmering invisible faces and hands, conducted the sacrifices underneath a strange metallic device of clamps and levers, with a single large ring array with something glinting in the middle. The lens focused the sun's rays onto the living sacrifice, which heated the victim to burning point and eventually set them fully on fire.

One such slave human was led up to the ziggurat altar and summarily immolated. The Pharaoh left the stage, but the sacrifices continued. With the Ahrru'wiy'sah Pharaoh gone, the attendants terminated the fragrant breeze magicks, and Mirroire choked on the scent of sparks and embers.

Aya woke up to find she could now breathe fire.

[SolemnGolem]

Tsetting Out On The Tsand-Dunes With Tsorvettar

Tsorvettar led the PCs, plus Irdri and Ferrvarro, on a camelback trek along a seeming pebbly way into the desert. The party kept tabs on the long-dry riverbed, theorizing that it might be the ancient river of Vensa (which no longer ran this way, and instead diverted quite a bit to the west as the Venskaril - and the Halmaran caravan was following that verdant longer route overland). On the first night of camping in tents, JWW tested out the Sense Minds spell, and was able to "see" a dark grid of spacetime curving away to infinity around him, with little dimples along its curvature showing the impression made by sentient minds: Tsorvettar poring over maps; Kylerean summoning water to fill up drinking jugs to stay cool in the desert night; Ferrvarro sharpening his blade; Aya meditating in her tent; little Mirroire circling the outside of her tent and looking for desert rodents.

Mirroire gave Aya a dream:

A Perras'hi princess carried on a litter sedan by half-orc slaves, when they passed by a marker stone. She called a stop and dismounted, rubbing her cheeks against the roadside marker stone and sniffing it for news. A nearby latrine also told her of a drought that afflicted recent travel. "What sort of posting is this?" Mirroire wondered. "Sent to oversee a distant border region, where the slaves can't even be expected to work properly? This is a banishment in all but name!" As she stepped on the bowed back of a half-orc to mount up again, she gave thanks that she was a superior feline, far better suited for life in the sands than these weaklings.

Traveling once again, they spotted a worn-away cliff that clearly marked an ancient dried-up riverbend. With a bit of digging, they found some very old shells of freshwater snails. Mirroire also led Aya to a broken stele, which was possibly a toppled Perras'hi roadside marker stone.

A pack of desert wolves trailed them for a bit and then left.

Irdri's Cooking

Mirroire gave Aya a brief dream:

Mirroire snuck into the tent where Vaya was tending to Irdri. From Mirroire's viewpoint, Irdri seemed to be sitting with er head bent forwards, exposing er neck and shoulders, and Vaya appeared to be giving em a neck massage.

When Aya woke up, it was to Irdri offering to cook them breakfast. This time, beyond simple pancakes, Irdri offered to make eggs, meat, and cactus leaves. Aya asked for something spicy and fun and unusual, so Tsorvettar went with Irdri to collect some flavoring herbs. When Aya ate the (tasty) omelet, she realized Irdri had put some hallucinogenic cactus leaves in the omelet. The sky and dunes turned strange colors, and things pulsed with their own "breathing". Aya seemed to be enjoying this, up until the point when she looked at JWW and saw that he had turned into a giant cactus and as a result was looking irresistibly attractive.

She decided to ride awhile with her eyes closed and meditating, until her mind cleared up. Mirroire huffed and looked at her in clear kittenly disapproval.

Elfi Bey

Tsorvettar brought them to Elfi Bey, a tiny cliffside settlement with a precious water oasis, where Ino (one of his women) made her living making crafts for passersby. Tsorvettar arrived with great pomp and circumstance, sweeping Ino off her feet and whirling her around, and the PCs all stayed with her. There, they discussed quickly that the PCs must leave on their own (with Kylerean and Irdri, but not Ferrvarro or Tsorvettar) and go retrieve some treasures.

The PCs left with a great show of insistence despite Tsorvettar's and Ino's theatrical entreaties to stay, and they headed out to the next settlement where Jorkun the Ridgevein dwarf tinker lived. He sold them a beautiful cut-glass and silver tiara, earrings, necklace, and bracelets set for $1,250, discounted from $1,500.

Aya also saw a pair of earrings made from red gems set in black cats: Perras'hi art by Timort. Some day...

Mirroire's Dream

Aya went to sleep that night dreaming of buying the cat ruby earrings. But Mirroire had other dreams to give her:

The Perras'hi princess was playing a pebble-bowl worker placement board game with another Perras'hi, when a half-orc came to the door, telling her of the humans taking unwell.

She followed the brute out to the slave quarters, where the humans were lolling around out of their minds, giggling idiotically and pointing at hallucinations. She sniffed their breath and smelled cactus leaves.

Remonstrating with them had no effect, except to increase their laughter. Threats of violence, and actual violence, failed to penetrate their armor of intoxication.

Finally, Mirroire huffed and turned on her heel and walked out. They had no choice but to let the cretins sleep it off.

"These feebleminded humans, and their stupid man-nip!" she said.

END OF SESSION 6

[SolemnGolem]

Session 7 - Retrieving the Treasures - 2024-07-30

Pages of My Mind, Torn Without Regard

JWW slept poorly, as he remembered half-grasped visions from the day that Vaya Kradil arrived at Erami. He meditated and went over the events of the day: collecting the tiles, setting up the tent, obtaining an ottoman footstool in the pentagram, and buying and lighting the candles.

Then he realized it. Lighting the candles. The candles had been infused with some sort of White Magic, of a function to cloud the mind and suppress the memory. What was Vaya Kradil hiding? Why did she want to blot out JWW's memory?

He meditated even more and pierced the fog of the White Magic candles' insidious mind control. He saw dim repressed memories of an increasing aura of peripheral black cracklings and dimensional distress, possibly from the pentagram and teleportation circle. The Black Magic caused a visible disturbance in the dimensional bonds, manifesting in the viewframe of JWW nearby as he sat watch over Vaya's tent. The White Magic of the mind-numbing candles couldn't quite mask the memory entirely, if you knew where to look and how to find it.

From Elfi Bey to the Abbey of the New Star

JWW, Aya, Kylerean, and Irdri rode away from the Ridgevein dwarf tinker's place, and they asked Irdri to send up er metalwork hawk to survey the land. After some piloting, Irdri reported that there was a band of about six horseback riders (not camelback, implying that they were going for speed not endurance) at Elfi Bey. They appeared to be going house to house and searching for something or somebody.

The group decided it wasn't a good idea to dawdle.

They made decent progress towards the Abbey, where a small community had made its niche in the side of an escarpment. Irdri caught the sight of cooking fires in the far distance, but the group decided to rest up in camp for one evening before heading into the settlement.

Mala and the Abbey

The escarpment settlement was along a lively river, which had cut a deep valley between two cliff faces. A flat-bed river had neat terraces of crops planted, and caregivers supervising children in tasks like washing laundry and tending crops. The group approached one such adult, who sent a little urchin to lead them to the Abbey itself.

The archway above the abbey's entrance read "Abbey of the New Start" but the final letter had fallen off and apparently "New Star" seemed acceptable.

Inside the abbey, they met with blind Mala, an elderly woman with a firm but kind demeanor. She had been blinded years ago by the Strakes bandits group, under old leader Caleb. She welcomed the group to stay, but asked them to each contribute something of their skills, labor, or time to the children. Both JWW and Aya were happy to take lead on reading and writing classes, and they showed a few little magical tricks to wow the children. All of the children looked to be in good spirits and good health, albeit quieter than usual children (perhaps due to the discipline for children in the care of those not their parents). Their ages ranged from toddlers to late teenagers. Loren, a greying man, was another administrator.

Irdri and Kylerean went to work in the kitchen, washing and drying the dishes with one of the orphans. JWW and Aya overheard Irdri and Kylerean telling the orphan girl about a "theory about dirty dishes" where one dish had ants on it, and another dish had beetles on it, and then the dishes floated across the surface of the dirty water until they bumped, and then the beetles would cross over and fight the ants.

Mala and Loren understood that the party had come to fetch a VIP, with orders from Tsorvettar. At dinner, they seated their traveling guests next to a red-haired young woman named Riana (short for "Pavrehana"). She looked rather familiar to them, even though they'd never met her before...

[SolemnGolem]

Riana

Riana turned out to be a 19-year-old who was polite, skilled in singing Windrush folk songs, and clearly about to outgrow the cultural confines of the Abbey that had kept her safe all these years. She asked JWW and Aya about their adventures and their travels, and whether they had ever seen Kepilsater-on-the-Venskaril (the location of their Thaumatorikon). She had even described hearing about "great crowds" of up to a hundred people all together at once.

Later, over a fireside chat with Mala and Loren, JWW and Aya learned about Riana's backstory. Nineteen years ago, snowfall came to the desert - almost unheard of in living memory. During this sudden cold snap, the Abbey received a bedraggled pregnant woman - a Windrush woman who was accompanied by a rough-looking man who nevertheless was utterly devoted to her wellbeing.

This turned out to be a much-younger Tsorvettar and his sister, Tiklura, who had married Halmaran, a promising man in the Teamster's Guild. Lura should have been happy, celebrating the birth of her child - but Halmaran's first wife, Katsaya, maneuvered the other Windrush tribe speakers to exile Lura. The snowstorm just made things worse: if Tsorvettar hadn't gotten Lura through the snow and to the distant Abbey, she certainly would have died with the unborn child.

As it was, Lura lived long enough to give birth to a healthy baby girl, and then closed her eyes and died shortly afterward. Katsaya and the rest of the Windrush had no inkling of Riana's existence, believing Lura and child both to have died. Tsorvettar paid the Abbey handsomely to raise Riana in utter secrecy, with only Halmaran himself privy to this secret.

JWW and Aya secured the blessings of Mala and Loren to invite Riana to leave with them, and when they asked her, she was ecstatic to see the world. She packed a tiny bundle of her possessions (two plain dresses and a small knife, and a necklace that her mother had left) and they traveled onward, Riana marveling at the valleys in the sunrise.

The Second Treasure

Irdri's metalwork hawk detected that the six riders were headed in an ambiguous direction. They could be headed for the Abbey, or they could be veering off to encounter the PCs' group. JWW and Aya decided they had to get a move on, and they left the Abbey a little after daybreak with a yawning and blinking Riana insisting she was good to go and alert.

They had gone a few hours towards the meeting point, when an arrow flew lazily out of the air and clattered a ways off. Looking up at the summit, they saw two figures. "Took you long enough!" Ferrvarro teased, from afar. When they drew up to the summit, Riana screamed with joy and jumped down from her camel to embrace Tsorvettar, calling him "Uncle Tsorvy".

Tsorvettar then led them onward, saying they had to make a stop to pick up the last of the treasure, which would also be part of Riana's dowry - they had merely promised the Kiln'Urn half-orcs "a daughter of Halmaran" without specifying any one by name. Halmaran had squirrelled away a fair bit of valuable items in an unprepossessing location, just in case the cash flow to the Abbey dried up and he was forced to barter for their continued help. Now with Riana retrieved, Tsorvettar fully intended to reclaim the three chests of goods.

They made it down past some fuming claypits and salt-water oases, and then finally got to the smell of rotten eggs: sulphur pits. Tsorvettar made his way into the caves alongside Ferrvarro and Irdri, and asked to borrow JWW's wagon to help with carrying the treasure chests.

The three wizards - Aya, JWW, and Kylerean - set up camp outside amid the sulphur pits on one side, and the sandy rock outcropping on the other. "This is very different from the seaside, I'll tell you that," Kylerean said.

[SolemnGolem]

The First Ambush

The wizards woke up roughly, with somebody yelling at them through their tent and banging on the struts with something wooden. They got out, and saw six people in desert garb: three men dismounted wielding melee blades; and three women on horseback, holding strung bows and nocked arrows.

The newcomers ordered the wizards to leave on camelback immediately, on the count of twenty.

Aya recognized the speaker. He was one of the Polebi tribe from the Windrush - the very same people who had rallied to help them recover Kira in the hostage handover earlier! Back then, they had gathered after Aya briefed Katsaya on her situation, and then Aya had been instructed to meet the Polebi and their leader Oyungurel at a camp east of Gabreftrut.

Now these same tribesmen were here, but their weapons were pointed at Aya.

A mixture of Diplomacy and Fast-Talk proved effective at staying their hand briefly. Their orders had been specific - the wizards were to be spared and allowed to go free, with no harm coming to them unless they refused to go.

"And what about the nonwizards?" asked Aya. The Polebi responded merely that two of them were to die, and the third was to be maimed.

(Aya quickly saw through Mirroire's eyes, deep in the sulphur caves, that there were four members there: Tsorvettar, Ferrvarro, Riana... and Irdri. Perhaps a Polebi intel omission?)

Aya and JWW decided immediately that they were not going to accede to this demand. A fight broke out, turning PCs against their former distant allies.

Aya secured early battlefield control, with a Windstorm spell that whipped up sand in everybody's eyes. JWW crept through the storm and cast Shatter to disarm the enemies, first knocking out a nearby axeman's haft, then creeping up to an archer and breaking her bow.

The wind increased and the attackers saw the futility of trying to shoot through it. The final straw came when Ferrvarro emerged from the cave all ready for combat, and shot off a few arrows and then sliced the arm of a Polebi axeman.

One Polebi camel rider fell, her foot caught in the stirrup, and was dragged away by her mount after Tsorvettar drove an arrow into the beast's flank. The rest fled, leaving behind their injured fellow at Ferrvarro's bladepoint. Ferrvarro got a lot more information out of them: the Polebi denied any link to Katsaya, merely saying that "the other tribal leaders of Polebi had decreed it" (which strongly echoed how Katsaya built consensus from other Windrush to cast the ostracizing votes against Tiklura, years ago). His orders had been to let the wizards go unharmed, or force them to leave without serious injury. Tsorvettar and Ferrvarro could be killed if convenient. But the Polebi's orders were to capture "the girl Riana" and tie her by her ankles to a camel and drag her for three miles over the rock and sand until they flayed the skin from her face.

Aya could grimly imagine the plan. With Kira no longer in the running for a political marriage between Teamster Guild and Kiln'Urn tribe, Riana was to be disfigured and maimed so that she would be in no shape to serve as a replacement. "How much does Katsaya hate Halmaran?" Aya mused to herself.

The Second Ambush

Tsorvettar and Ferrvarro managed to lever up three chests filled with good stuff and get them on JWW's wagon. They set out from the sulphur springs towards the southeast, heading for a rendezvous with the larger caravan group.

After some time, Irdri sent the hawk up to survey, and reported that a group of about twelve camel riders was approaching from the east.

This was a completely unforeseen interfering force. Irdri was able to make out a few shields with a two-legged dragon design on them - and Aya and JWW suddenly knew who they were dealing with: the Strakes' Drakes bandit group.

All thought of travel abandoned, the group learned from Irdri that they had about 15 or 20 minutes to prepare a defense before the dozen riders arrived at their location.

The group drove the wagon among some rocky outcroppings for safety, Aya set about using her Summon Rock Mite spell, with some uncut gemstone goodies (grudgingly) donated by Tsorvettar from his treasure chests. Mirroire lent its significant magical reserve to the casting, as did JWW with Lend Energy. All in all, they buried four Rock Mites beneath the sand along the most likely approach.

The Strakes were not long in coming. This time, their spokesman made a curiously inverse demand: the three wizards were theirs to take, along with the treasures in the chests. But everybody else (Tsorvettar, Ferrvarro, Irdri) were free to go.

This negotiation was rejected as soundly and immediately as the prior Polebi's negotiation was.

The Strakes lost no time, and charged towards them, scimitars out. Aya cast Spark Cloud and set it on their approach, catching about half a dozen camels in its radius. Then the Rock Mites emerged from the sand amidst the panicked camels and started pulling down Strake riders. Many fought on, unheeding of their personal danger, and even riding their camels into the spark cloud.

The Rock Mites pulled down and ate about three Strakes before the rest retreated.

None of the Strakes were in any condition to talk, but JWW examined their corpses, and found a hideous forearm-length worm emerged out of the skull of one Strake and tried to bite his arm. Aside from some numbness, he was unharmed and Aya quickly incinerated the snake. JWW cast Sense Minds and found that the worms had higher mental abilities than expected, whereas the humans they infested were debilitated - barely sapient.

The wizards took count of the toll of the fight, and Aya was extremely happy at finally getting to use her spells.

The group moved onward, pushing ahead to leave Strake territory with their heavy cargo as soon as they could. When night fell, they had found a two-mouthed cave (with a resentful jackal they shooed away) where they could post defenses and still keep an avenue for escape if one entrance were blocked.

The Night Raid

Irdri volunteered to keep vigil, but ey reminded the others that ey would have to wake somebody to deal with any threats, due to Irdri's lack of combat training. JWW remembered that he had Sense Minds as a spell, and that could be helpful in nighttime battle prep.

They all went to sleep and Irdri kept watch.

Presently, JWW was awake. Irdri had nudged him, and then reported that ey saw movement and heard faint bestial sounds from the east.

JWW reached out with Sense Minds and "saw" the warping curve of sentient minds on the fabric of spacetime. The minds were sentient but not sapient: hungry, seeking nourishment, progressing forwards with measured stealth and caution.

JWW felt a rising alarm at a possible second-strike raid from the Strakes, and he woke Aya with his hand over her mouth in case she said anything audible. Aya and JWW agreed to launch a coordinated attack: him slinging Alchemist's Fire grenades and Aya slinging fire spells, all in the area quadrant where JWW's Sense Minds spell indicated.

They did this, hollering and shouting, as bestial howls and screams filled the air. In the demonic dancing shadows of the faraway flames, they saw broken burned limbs and fallen beasts.

All was silent in the aftermath, Irdri took a closer look and returned.

"It's deer," ey said. "A herd of deer."

END OF SESSION 7

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Why is it adapted to a fantasy setting? Isn't it so already?

In fact, it is an exemplar of "low fantasy," before that term got co-opted to mean near-Earth swords-and-sorcery.