Caravan to Ein Arris - adapted for a fantasy setting

[SolemnGolem]

I recently began a DFRPG campaign, and my players are enjoying it (as well as being generally happy with the GURPS system, which is a new system to many of them).

We've had an intro adventure already (You All Meet At An Inn, heavily modified and played mostly via Virtual Tabletop - links post#1, post#2, post#3, post#4, and post#5.) That intro adventure was mostly an action dungeon combat crawl, so for the second adventure we were ready for something with a bit more non-combat focus.

Caravan to Ein Arris Kiln'Urn

General changes:

To fit my setting's geography and settlements, I'm changing around the order of the adventure somewhat, as well as adding a few extra objectives. The basic concept is the same (PCs escort a merchant caravan through the countryside and various encounters) but the terrain must change from desert to temperate/hilly. Also, I need to include magic, since the campaign setting assumes that magic is slowly being adopted by the society at large. A few racial templates are changed around to include humanoid races and the assumptions of my setting (humans overran most of the tribes long ago and now there's a lot of interbreeding with peripheral races staking out their own economic and ecological niches).

General overview of encounters:

• Meeting up at capital
• Travel to the academic retreat to pick up Kira
• Halfling peripheral tribe and final military outpost
• Searching for old trade road across badlands - lost in the hills
• Kira and the bandits
• Distant abbey and orphans
• Final arrival at Kiln'Urn half-orc peripheral tribe in claypit badlands
• setup for possible Mirror of Fire Demon desert adventure?

Meeting up at the capital - additional changes for mages:

This part is very similar to the published adventure. One change I made was for Katsaya (the caravan leader's wife) to actually be a non-guild magic user. She's not powerful, but she does have Magery 0 at least, and can sometimes get mage sight and other "gut-feeling" instincts that help out. This allows for the party's mages to have an additional avenue of proving their worth to the caravan. (As usual, the scouts show off their archery skills, and the mercenaries show off mock combat - mages need some other test.) Based off of my party's spell selection, one mage was asked to demonstrate his spells for making and breaking, drawing applause when he showed how he could repair broken dueling swords and shields (and potentially things like wheel axles, ropes, etc.) with a simple spell.

The other mage had Diplomacy, Detect Lies, and Body Sense - so Katsaya had the candidate sit in with some other tryouts. Some had vivid tales of their magical abilities and backgrounds, and the PC's task was to detect any lies (magically or just through Savoir Faire/Area Knowledge etc.). The PC acquitted herself very well, and Katsaya reached out to employ the mage as her agent on the inside.

As an entertaining aside, the PC scout was a Mouse-man who has Intolerance for Cat-Folk. I changed Farvaro's character to be Ferravarro (complete with rolling "R" sounds!), a Cat-Folk archer who early on decided to antagonize the Mouse-man. On the archery tests, they were called upon to shoot a man-sized target at 50 yards... but Ferrvarro set up a Mouse-man sized target instead for the PC (at a further -2 to hit due to size).

The Mouse-man PC took a few IQ-based Bow rolls to gauge breeze and direction, and then several Aim maneuvers, and hit the target. As a later act of defiance, the Mouse-man then took an immediate second shot, hitting the target on the side and spinning it sideways, presenting the arrows in profile. Then he took a final fastidiously calibrated shot which sheared one of his arrows from the side. (GM's mention to the PCs: "In realistic skill levels, a Bow-21 skill level pretty much means 'the best archer history has ever produced'...")

Unrelated magic stuff

The prior adventure left the PCs with some magical loot that they had to go identify. The two mages also had spells they wanted to learn. The GM assigned costs for all of these services, which helped to mop up a fair bit of the $3000 liquid funds the PCs collected from the adventure (while also making the $600 to $1500 per PC offered by the Caravan rather enticing).

A few items were legally suspect. One was a gem of summoning small fire elementals (4 FP to cast, 2 to maintain), which runs afoul of the setting's tight controls on summoning/dimension-bending, since the "demons" and "angels" and "squidheaded squicky things" of yore are attributed to weakened dimensional bonds. One was a stone tablet of Rock Mite summoning (5 FP cast, 2 to maintain), although this one was a bit less offensive because it only worked to ask an existing nearby Rock Mite to show itself, rather than gating in a creature.

The Magical Guild also had a few snippets of political gossip and intrigues. One other request was for the PCs to gather up Caravan folk en masse to attend a water spring breaking ceremony at a new City District. This used the rules for Mass Casting in Thaumatology: Urban Magic and needed many people to contribute energy.

Obligatory bar scene:

This went smoothly, with no harm done to the PCs. One PC had Carousing and got into some good gossip and won a few bets. Another PC exercised her Dancing skills and danced with Tsorvettar/Tsorvano and a few of the guild leaders. After the dance, Katsaya met with her in a private room and offered her the secret mission objectives as Katsaya's agent.

The Mouse-man got into a feud with Ferrvarro the Cat-Folk, and they began a foolhardy "dagger between your fingers" tabletop game of dexterous amputation. Eventually one PC noticed that Ferrvarro, true to his nature, was cheating - he had palmed a bit of quartz and was using that instead of the glass shard he forced the Mouse-man to use.

A halfling huckster named Alma sold the equally-huckster PC mage a supposed magical ring of invisibility (in actuality it only has an enchantment on it so it never rusts). Alma also sold the huckster PC mage a map to some purported great treasure in the sands - some sort of Fire Mirror. (Future adventure fodder - stay tuned!)

The two Mages also succeeded on Public Speaking and Diplomacy rolls to persuade caravan buddies to attend the new spring well breaking (using the Size/Speed/Range tables to guesstimate number of folks swayed by their margins of success).

New encounter - spring well breaking

This was an optional encounter intended to show practical applications of magic in a medieval society with a functioning mage's guild. The mages provided food and refreshments for common members of the public who showed up at the ceremony, to participate in a Mass Casting of Ceremonial Magic (casting Create Spring, a spell in Urban Magic).

This was not a mechanically heavy encounter - just a few bits of dialogue showing the guild doing good for the general public, and then leading the public in songs. Only one song was actually sung at the gaming table, but it was easy to follow and simple to learn, and the PCs were given a bonus to the final roll if the players all participated, regardless of performance quality.

Show what is hidden, within each well spring
Waters be risen, many from one
Praise to the current, joy to the waters
Mother to daughter, father to son.

(The lyrics can be sung to the tune of "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam. Alcohol not required but it can help depending on the player comfort level.)

Setting out

The PCs all demonstrated themselves to be very accomplished (as one might expect of 250-point character builds) and so the caravan guild leader Halmaran offered them $1,500 each for the full six-to-eight weeks of travel and service.

[SolemnGolem]

Session 1.5 - Overland to Kepilsater and the Caravan - 2024-04-18

The caravan made its way to Kepilsater without much event.

About 2.5 years after the start of the Caravan to Kiel'nurn adventure group fell apart, two of the old players decided to come back. They were both mages, and they decided to refine their builds a bit.

JWW is a school of magic dropout with an affinity for dimensional magic. Aya is a school of magic graduate with an obsession with fire. Both Aya and JWW suddenly became Attractive in appearance. Aya lost most of her Making and Breaking spells, and gained a few Fire based spells. JWW lost most of his Air based spells.

The other PCs just fade into the background as NPCs - there isn't any big farewell.

At the Thaumatorikon: Aya was not able to meet with her family, as the political climate was unstable. The rest of the Guilds had undergone an anti-nepotism purge, demoting or reassigning close family members away from tribalistic posts. Now it was rumored that the Thaumatorikon itself might have to conduct a cleanse of such posts, so the Namiri family was eager to insulate Aya from as much of this as possible.

Aya did meet with Vaya Kradil, a Praxis wizard of the purple robes, and Kylerean, a Fluidist wizard of the blue robes. Vaya had married into the Namiri family, so she was "safe" for Aya to meet with. Between them, they discreetly helped Aya translate the Summon Rock Mite scroll and the Summon Fire Elemental (Salamander) scroll. They suggested to her that she seek out the Jointry for help, and offer her services with them to win their support - especially in the next city of Jointry's Wake.

JWW also met with Professor Chronotis, who was clearly paranoid in his academic office. He gave JWW some business cards to burn, in case he had any questions, but he couldn't guarantee he would respond immediately.

Caravan Preparations

The caravan planned to leave Kepilsater, then cut east to Jointry's Wake, then south to the Gabreftrut homeland of the halflings. To sign on, the PCs demonstrated their worth to Halmaran (the Teamster's Guild leader) and his captain Tsorvettar (a less polished, more brigandlike personage). Halmaran had responded to the anti-nepotism initiative by agreeing to marry his daughter to an important Kiel'Nurn leader's son. The caravan plans to pick up Kira in Jointry's Wake and deliver her to Kiel'Nurn for the wedding.

The two mages won plaudits for their ability to detect lies (in Aya's case) and to mend and repair things (in JWW's case, after a barbarian broke a dueling club in two and he mended it). Aya danced with several of the caravan leaders, and was herself brought to a private audience with Katsaya, the wife of Halmaran (Teamster's Guild leader) and biological mother of Kira.

Katsaya's secret objective

Katsaya wanted Aya to meet with Kira and teach her magic, and then discreetly put her in touch with others in the Thaumatorikon so that Kira may have another life path (if she doesn't want to be just another wife). Katsaya has agents in each settlement from here to Kiel'Nurn, and Aya can find the agents in a public place and identify herself with conversation about a rose garden.

Some of the Caravan NPCs' portraits.

Irdri and Ferrvarro

On the morning after the party, the pair was awakened and made to arise by Voctagens Irdri, who appeared to be a very ambiguous gendered person serving the Jointry. Irdri was responsible for singing "Awake and Arise" which woke up the workers and caravaneers. Then Irdri made corn cakes and served meats and eggs for the caravan travelers - hearty enough. Over breakfast, Aya and JWW found themselves last to the canteen, so Irdri sat and chatted with them as they ate. Irdri noted that a lot of the goods were being hauled for commercial sales, which the Union of Korrem's highways were doubtless facilitating. Specifically, one stop along the way was Gabreftrut, a settlement of halflings, which had willingly joined the Union without any military confrontation, and thus was termed an Ethilence ("Volitional"). Since these regions ruled themselves more directly, many of them missed out on the trade benefits of the defeated principalities. This caravan was likely traveling to Gabreftrut to deliver some humanitarian goods in order to raise their standard of living.

When Aya helped em wash up after the meal, Irdri spoke about metal plates floating on the dish water, with ants on one plate and beetles on another, then the plates colliding and the insects swarming over each other. Ey referred to this theory as the Pankratos theory (Pan meaning all and Kratos meaning continents).

Ferrvarro is a Perras'hi - a Cat-Folk - and is subordinate to Tsorvettar. He detected something wrong about some of the cargo of brined hams in barrels. After checking the rubber seals and finding part of one barrel now had wax seals (which had melted in the sunlight), they opened up the barrel and investigated, finding it had lost six hams (to a ham burglar?) but more water had been added to make up the weight difference. Angered that this dilution could rot the entire barrel, Ferrvarro reported this to Tsorvettar, who commended Aya and JWW to Halmaran.

Dreams of the lucid moon

Heading out, Aya saw that, far away from the city lights, the moon appeared reddish in its waning crescent state. In her evening meditations, she saw that the Red moon represented the Virtue of Force, which created the Yield of Matter, and this would be important to mages working with fire, metal, and other trades of the Red Robe wizards of the Ridgevein dwarf clans.

JWW had a dream about him and Aya and a frog on a lilypad in the mist. The frog wanted nothing to do with this dream, and it bailed out pretty early. Aya seemed as confused as him. Out of the mist, another lilypad emerged, with people on it. But these people had no faces. Their lilypad loomed close by the PCs' lilypad, and the faceless people all turned their heads as if to look at Aya and JWW intently. Then their lilypad floated away without making contact, and the people disappeared into the mist.

On the second night, JWW had a dream that he was a modern human living in a modern TL8 society going hiking with a wristwatch and a hiking stick and a Sharpie marker. He saw a wooded hillside and valley, although some strange circular clearings had been blotted into the forest cover along the valley somehow. He heard voices of people speaking in a foreign language, but nobody was present. Then he saw a shimmering ahead in midair, and a strangely marked rock (or half of it) hanging in midair.

He tapped the rock and it fell to the earth. He examined the shimmering, finding that he could walk through it without making any notable contact. But he could stick his walking stick through it. On the other side, something tapped it a few times, then held it and shook it almost in greeting.

He picked up the rock (now a whole rock) and it was marked with TAKE SEND BACK? He thought about it, then took a marker out of his backpack and wrote HELLO on the rock and pushed it into the shimmering point in space, where it disappeared. The dream ended.

[SolemnGolem]

To Jointry's Wake

The caravan passed by an army group, known as the "Makers" (Mechanists and Alchemist Corp of Engineering Resources), and saw many Kiel'nurn half-orcs working with them, given their larger size and strength. They reached Jointry's Wake on the third day.

At the town, they camped at the Crossroads Inn, a large establishment where Aya saw two things that made her very happy: good food cooked over open flames (food journal). She found her contact, Pala, a young woman greeting people effusively at the bar. Pala responded that Aya should inquire at the Jointry's Town Hall and find the Moneychangers and Accounts clerk, who should be an older man.

Aya and JWW decided to hit the town hungry and ended up trying out various good food and even better spices and even stronger ale. About three bottles in, they realized they should be writing this stuff down. Aya produced her scribe kit and, over some carefully dried table boards, JWW and Aya scribed out the first quarter of a food travelogue.

The following day, Aya visited the town hall and found the Moneychangers and Accounts clerk. He explained that he could accept money at this account, and then send word to the traveler's destination, and they would be able to release funds to the traveler there, thus eliminating the risk of being robbed on the roads. Aya spoke to him about rose gardens, and he invited her in to a safety deposit room. There, poring over blank books, he made her an offer:

His name is Solon, and he knows that Katsaya wants her daughter Kira to potentially grow up as a mage. But he also knows that Kira is unreliable, and is likely to prove a disappointment to her mother, who may blame it on Kira's handler (Aya). Solon has a proposal - if Aya will pay him the equivalent of Katsaya's bonus ($1500) then he'll pass on a secret lead on a valuable material that the Union appears to be working hard to get its hands on. Aya agreed, and Solon told her to find Gar'Kord at Kiel'Nurn and ask about "Project Silly Noobie".

Solon assured her that it could allow her to make a fortune - or at least, as much of one as the Union would allow in these days. Maybe a patent. Who knows? She thanked him and he reminded her that she should still inquire around with agents later on the road about "rose gardens" just for sake of appearances (so Katsaya could receive updates).

JWW was a bit askance at having to lend $23 to Aya in order for her to pay for her sudden outlay of $1500, but his Curiosity got the better of him and he was game.

Leaving the safety deposit room, Aya saw Tsorvettar at the notice bulletin board, reading the signs slowly. He asked her for help to translate, and she read a few signs for him. Most notable was a missing persons watercolor of a Union staffer moneychanger, a woman named Celia Arbel, who was last seen based out of Gabreftrut and left to serve some communities to the south. She has been missing for about two months, with a $2000 reward for information leading to her rescue or recovery.

Aya realized that their caravan was going down past that way, so she stopped by at the Moneychanger bureau and picked up a copy.

Celia Arbel, missing civil servant.

Celia Arbel, missing person. Watercolor issued by the Union of Korrem, moneychanger bureau. Copies to be distributed to all moneychanger and Jointry hall outposts.

Age 37, born in Kepilsater-on-the-Venskaril. Officer Arbel served in the Commerce Guild and later joined the Union government, rising to the post of Circuit Exchanger. Current posting in Gabreftrut Town - last seen before the purple moon leaving town for her southern tour of the outlands. Official duties include reporting on economy circumstances, microfinance opportunities for exurban citizens, and conversion of tribal scrip to Union of Korrem currency (FRECs - Freely Redeemable Exchange Currency).

Distinguishing features: blonde hair, brown eyes, walks with a slight limp, favoring left foot (riding accident while on circuit). Wearing Union of Korrem uniform and six-color Union badge.

Agent routinely travels with Certificates of Currency redeemable for FRECs at any Moneychanger Office. Agent likely also carried small quantities of variable-denomination Union currency and incidental quantities of tribal scrip. Union record ledger likely to be found with Agent, high priority for recovery (to aid in restoration of any parties later harmed).

Agent's disappearance may be related to recent spate of reports of illegal operations in the Cat-Folk and Mouse-Folk outlying areas, with a possibility of a (male) perpetrator wearing Agent's uniform and badge to engage in fraudulent and exploitative moneychanger transactions.

Reward: $2000 for information leading to the rescue or recovery of Agent and ledger.

End of Session 1.5

[SolemnGolem]

Session 2 - Jointry's Wake to Gabreftrut - 2024-05-16

Seeking Celia Arbel

Aya decided to talk to the hassled clerk at the Moneychanger Office, succeeding on a Reaction roll. The clerk seemed touched that anybody was bothering to look for a lost Moneychanger agent. She asked her boss, Solon, who had previously supervised the missing Celia Arbel. Solon wrote an official document that confirmed that Aya was entrusted with Celia's safe return or recovery. Aya hoped that this would help Celia trust her quickly once she was found.

Aya recalled that the Missing Person Notice mentioned Cat-Folk, so she decided to contact Ferrvarro, the Cat-Folk caravan lieutenant, and ask him for help. He asked for part of the reward (so that he could distribute it to the Cat-Folk in need), and Aya agreed, although she portioned $750 for him and said the main amount was $1500 instead of $2000.

Ferrvarro went with her to the southern edge of the city of Jointry's Wake, where the transients made their housing. They saw tents and other temporary shelters, with Irdri (the Jointry Voctagens) making er rounds and handing out notices about Jointry help (in exchange for simple labor). At one point, Irdri handed a Cat-Woman a paper, and she could not read it, so Irdri offered to come back and teach her how to read it, after ey had finished er rounds. Aya passed by without comment or engagement.

Ferrvarro spoke with several Cat-Folk (a number of whom had eschewed the Jointry tents, and instead made their housing in the crates and boxes that the tents originally came in). They had not seen Celia Arbel, but they had been around for a while. Ferrvarro's interviews appeared to involve quite a bit of yawning and preening and sniffing, and other nonverbal communication. He agreed to take the Missing Poster further south to speak with some other newcomer temporary encampments, and see if the Cat-Folk had heard anything. Aya made her way back to the caravan camp.

Contraband

Back at the caravan, Tsorvettar bustled back into camp in a nervous state. He conferred with Halmaran. Whatever they were discussing, it was pretty secret.

JWW noticed that there was magic emanating from one of the crates. He and Aya used Detect Magic to find that there were three such crates in total. They went to notify Tsorvettar and Halmaran about it, but were stopped by one of the burly half-orc Kiel'nurns - who initially claimed to be Brusk, then admitted he was Laconic, before finally admitting he was actually Brusk. After some finagling, they got through to Ferrvarro, the Cat-Folk lieutenant of the Teamster's Guild, who went with them to open up the crates. As they left, Aya greeted Halmaran, who distractedly greeted her back, and then stopped and eyed her up and down thoughtfully, and then waved the thought away.

Each crate had a carefully-stashed single page from some Elven Green Magic spell, hidden among its normal cargo. The cargo included: 1) a Ridgevein dwarven cargo of "shield holder" style stands, ostensibly for lenses; 2) a Ridgevein shipment of human-sized armor pieces; and 3) a Thaumatorikon-originated set of potions (healing, cure disease, and demolition). Cargoes #2 and #3 were addressed to a "Khiliaster A.P.".

JWW and Aya assembled the pages of the magic spell together, and then correctly identified it as a Major Healing spell - something that could heal grievous levels of injury. The artwork on the illuminated manuscript showed a progression of elven deforestation in the face of encroaching humans. JWW also noticed highlighted letters, which led to a poignant elven dirge:

For you who claim your destiny
Whose fortunes come to pass
In every triumph's ecstasy
Lurks the specter of collapse.

The spell folio also had an unfamiliar word: Falys'shay’kæl, clearly an Elvish word.

Ferrvarro asked them what it was, and when they told him it was a healing spell, his eyes slitted and he motioned them closer to discuss in a hoarse whisper. He said that he would be willing to part with his entire share of the Celia bounty if they gave him the spell. He described the stateless abandonment of the Cat-Folk, who did not even have a town to settle on their own, and how the potions (such as the ones in the crates for Khiliaster A.P.) don't work with Cat-Folk biology, because they overwhelm their kidneys. The Cat-Folk find work wherever they can scrabble it, and it's hard labor in exchange for scant pay, and a healing spell that could take away the injury would help his people greatly.

JWW and Aya conferred, and agreed that they could give the spell to him, but they wanted to copy it first. Ferrvarro considered this, and then agreed.

Kira, in absentia

At dinner, which should have been a joyous affair and a loud party, the mood was oddly subdued. Halmaran and Tsorvettar sat off at one table together, speaking in low tones. Kira was nowhere to be found. The rest of the caravaneers seemed in better spirits, some starting up a singing contest that Halmarana and Tsorvettar wanly toasted.

Aya got in with them and asked what was up. Halmaran thought for a bit and nodded, so Tsorvettar filled her in on the details. Kira was supposed to join them today amid pomp and circumstance for the start of her bridal travels to Kiel'Nurn to marry a KilnUrn nobleman. But Kira had disappeared from her dorm room at the Jointry Hall. There was a broken window and torn sheets, as well as a ransom note. Halmaram showed it to Aya, written in a scrawling, semiliterate hand: "WE HAVE KIRA. BRING $5,000 TO THE PASS SOUTH OF GABREFTRUT AT THE COPSE OF OAK TREES. LIGHT TWO FIRES ON THE HILLS. WE'LL BE THERE IN SEVEN DAYS."

Aya decided to go to the Jointry after-hours and speak with the Warden, who didn't let her in.

Meanwhile, JWW continued in his transcription of the Major Healing spell...

Contraband 2

JWW worked diligently into the night, carefully transcribing the spell terms. Even so, efficiency dictated that he abandon the artwork and poetry, and merely distill the spell into its basic terms. As night fell, he lit a lantern in his tent, and the wind picked up.

At around midnight, he looked up and saw that one of the shadows was not wind-created. It was clearly a person slinking around the crates on the carts outside. He stepped out into the night, pretending to empty his bladder, while scanning for the intruder.

Unfortunately, the intruder noticed him, and things became more difficult. JWW attempted to accost the intruder, and managed to sneak up on the target and cast Stun on it silently (he has skill level 15 in the spell, allowing him to suppress vocal elements). Much to his annoyance, he had actually cast Stun on an unoccupied cloak that some laborer had left there.

The chase continued, but he lost the intruder and he made enough noise that nearby people got annoyed with him.

By daybreak, Aya reviewed JWW's work and confirmed that the spell copy was accurate. At breakfast Aya gave cakes to her leaders (food journal), JWW noticed that Ferrvarro was not around. After a bit, there was a disturbance and a caravaneer was sent to fetch JWW. Apparently, Ferrvarro had caught somebody sneaking around JWW's tent.

Turns out it was Arcite, the half-elf maid and amber jeweler, who had quietly accompanied them from Ridgevein in dwarven territories. She wanted the illuminated script of the spell, claiming that her people had intentionally smuggled it out of the Thaumatorikon in the cargo boxes separately, so that they could save the healing spell from the bonfires of the Thaumatorikon, which was now burning its books for some odd reason.

JWW and Aya were able to negotiate: the original elvish spell goes to Arcite, a copy goes to Ferrvarro, and they would make another copy to keep for themselves. This pleased all parties.

Kira 2

Kira also met with Halmaran and Tsorvettar with a proposal: she could go to the Jointry and be allowed into the girls' wing of the dorms, and conduct a quick examination of Kira's room to see if she can pick up any clues. Halmaran and Tsorvettar approved of this, and they met up covertly taking different paths.

Aya secured entry to the Jointry's dorms, after the Warden dressed her innocuously in a Jointry Mother's robes. She went with another Jointry Mother to Kira's room. Pertinent clues:

• the window had a hook catch on the inside, but the window had been forced open outward, breaking the hook catch. The window was one floor higher up than the ground
• the bedclothes had been cut up
• Kira's valuable possessions had been taken. The valueless possessions (underclothes, socks, etc.) had been left behind.
• Kira had a workbook in her room, with a page torn out (which matches the ransom paper which Halmaran produced). The workbook showed that she was a fitful student, at times diligent and indifferent.
• The Jointry guide recalled that Kira had sung at the Wellspringing a month or so before, drawing attention to herself and receiving a rose from an army builder. The admirer was described as about 6'2" with dirty blond shoulder length hair tied up in a ponytail, a scruffy beard, and a stance like a horse-rider. Possibly a Windrush plainsman?

Aya brought the workbook out to Halmaran, just as a Jointry employee was being dressed up as a fake Kira (with a veil) to take her place in the caravan. Halmaran also investigated the book, and noticed that if you bent the pages, then a cheeky little doodle revealed itself: two stick figure people riding horses, underneath the moonlight. Suddenly, the "ransom" took on an even more devious color, if Kira herself was in on the deal.

The caravan headed out towards Gabreftrut with "Kira" in a bridal carriage on her own, guarded by Tsorvettar personally. That way, nobody else could approach. Aya reported in to Katsaya.

[SolemnGolem]

On the road to Gabreftrut, village of halflings

Halmaran saw that JWW had his own cart, and that Aya rode with him. Halmaran sent JWW ahead with Ferrvarro and Ayum, a trusted Windrush horse rider, to reach Gabreftrut before the slow-moving caravan. JWW agreed: Kira was missing from the night before the Caravan arrived, so she had a three-day head start and every day mattered. JWW and Aya also finished their copy of the healing spell, giving the first copy to a grateful Ferrvarro.

As JWW pushed his steed to cover the miles quickly, Aya sat in the rocking cart, transcribing the PCs' own copy of the spell. Halfway to Gabreftrut, they encountered an army builder team, directing traffic over a partially closed bridge while a brand new bridge was being built parallel over the same waterway. Aya took a moment to talk with the Ekatrion ("leader of a hundred"), a woman who gratefully accepted her $100 Frex to buy her subordinates a good meal, and passed word along about Karhan the missing army builder horseman.

It turns out, a Dekate ("leader of ten") did report a missing worker of similar description to Karhan. He remembered Karhan as a diffident worker, who hadn't even reached his six-month pay raise deadline before he decamped. He had his own horse, marking him out as a Windrush rider, and he disappeared from work about a week ago.

Now the PCs had a lead - Karhan was likely known amongst the army builders, albeit not exactly fondly. And where Karhan was, Kira would be too.

After a few hours' delay at the bridge, JWW pushed his team onward and they made it to Gabreftrut by the evening of the second day, making the trip in a day and a half total. The city was a settlement of halflings during the past theocracy, and under the Union more humans had moved in, with new buildings accordingly built to size. Several of them were also used to house halflings too, since you could house many more halflings in a human-sized house than you could humans.

Aya stopped by at Swiftboot Tavern in Gabreftrut and tried spiced landcrab scorpions (an addition to her future-published food journal), then found her "rose garden" agent in the town. The agent said that Katsaya was working on a plan to recover Kira from the captors.

Aya and JWW also stopped by at the Jointry Hall in Gabreftrut, and met a Cat-Woman outside with her kitlings, who was showing around the watercolor of Celia Arbel. When they spoke with her, the Cat-Woman (Reepa'purr) told them that her husband had tried to meet with Celia to get their monies changed, but then Celia hadn't shown up. The husband waited a few extra days, and met with another Union uniformed man, giving him all their saved Windrush currency (shells) and getting a Certificate of Exchange in return. But the Jointry said the Certificate of Exchange was fraudulent and they had never received the tribal scrip. This cruel extortion had crushed her husband and he had stopped eating or even leaving his bed.

Aya decided to go check out the morose Cat-Husband, while JWW went further south to try to scope out the proposed meeting place at the oak copse.

Reepa'purr and Haksees, cat-folk fraud victims

Reepa'purr's husband, Haksees, lived in a small tent outside the southern limit of Gabreftrut town. Haksees was indeed as miserable as Reepa'purr had described him. At first, Aya and Ferrvarro thought there was a corpse in the tent. Then, after Aya gave the figure a gentle prod in the haunch, Haksees rolled over and looked at them in abject misery.

Through a mixture of Aya's cajoling and Ferrvarro's cudgeling, Haksees told them his story: he made special dry "nipcakes" according to a family recipe, which allowed Cat-Folk workers to dull the aches of labor. He sold these up and down the highway, accumulating Windrush and Gabreftrut currency. A year ago, he and his family decided to move to Union heartlands, and saved up money to exchange. He went to meet with Celia, but she didn't show. In the end, he met with the fraudster, who took all his money and left.

Aya asked Haksees how much money the Union man promised him, and he said $127 Frex. Aya gave him that same amount of money as a gift. Haksees and Reepa'purr were amazed and tearfully thanked her. Haksees submitted to Ferrvarro, who preened and sniffed him deeply on the nape, so that he could immediately find him by scent later.

Out of earshot, Ferrvarro confided to Aya that she had exceeded all of his expectations of a human, and that she was a good soul. Aya responded "I have seen the suffering of your people" and Ferrvarro waved it away, slightly troubled. Finally, he said to her that, among the more privileged Cat-Folk families, there was a story passed down through generations, about how once upon a time, the Cat-Folk had ruled the deserts over thousands of slaves... and their slaves had walked on two legs too. Ferrvarro admitted "even though today we have not sinned, perhaps we are also not entirely blameless".

Haksees gave a description of the man whom he had exchanged with: a full human, but slight and scrawny - evidently small enough to fit into a healthy female Union officer's clothing. Perhaps barely 5' in height, dark hair, but with a crooked set to his jaw when he spoke - which Haksees should have noticed and thought about. When the Union has such powerful healing magicks at its disposal, why would it send out a man with a poorly-healed broken jaw as its spokesman?

Aya kept the description to heart and went one hamlet further, asking around at the sole tavern there (amidst fairly strong anti-Union sentiment). Apparently the man with the crooked jaw had made an appearance there, too, playing a wicked game of craps and winning a significant amount of money. He had kept a lower profile since then.

JWW ties off a dangling chronotropic loop

JWW went south to visit a major army builder project, building a bridge across a valley. There, he initially alienated Khiliaster Arun Pallevander (the commander in chief of the 1,000 army men under his command) but JWW quickly recognized the military leader's name: he had seen it on the cargo boxes when he discovered the hidden Elvish spell before. JWW hit upon a way to make friends and influence people - by extortion. He used Fast-Talk to notify the Khiliaster ("leader of 1000") that his caravan shipment of healing, curing, and demolition potions had been held up in customs at the bridge because of fears of explosives, and that JWW could make it go away. Khiliaster Pallevander became more amenable to parlay at this point, and when he found out all JWW wanted to do was to go out and survey the land, he sent a few lieutenants to take care of JWW's questions.

Khiliaster Arun Pallevander and his half-orc lieutenants.

JWW pored over a contour map with Decate Makasat, a Kiln'Urn sergeant, and together they figured out the topology of the intended meeting place: a pair of hills with some old pre-Union watchtowers there, easy for making fires at night. A forested valley between them with no passable road. A copse of oak trees near one of the hills. JWW took his bearings and headed out.

While there, he saw something very familiar. A wooded valley between two hills that would normally have made for a logical road... but with strange patchy meadows blown into the forestry. Dimensional aberrations abounded, and he saw a bubbling black aura at the edge of his vision as he approached.

"Strange memories of that nervous night near Kepilsater. Five nights before? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Dream Cycle. The kind of sleep that never comes again. There was magic in every direction, at any hour. Aya lit sparks everywhere. Our destiny would simply prevail, we were riding the crest of a closed time loop. So now, five nights later, you could raise a rock on a hill south of Gabreftrut, and with the right kind of eyes you could see where the rock finally emerged, and fell back."

JWW's Magery sense picked up a highly magical dimensional artifact, as the Black Magic bubbling aura intensified, and he gathered up the target of the fizzling burbling distortion: a plain rock on the ground. A swirling black void in his vision suddenly resolved itself into an actual swirling black void in front of him, hanging in midair. Recalling that he had experienced this exact same dream, from the viewpoint of another dimension's version of himself, he grabbed another rock and etched the words "TAKE SEND BACK?" on the rock, and then held it through the roiling swirling void. Suddenly, a force on the other side broke the rock free from his grasp. Then a walking stick of some unknown shiny material poked through, expectantly. JWW recalled the dream, and he grasped it lightly and shook it playfully, like a hand. The walking stick retracted, and then the stone came back with another message on the back: "HELLO".

JWW picked it up as the black visual storm intensified to an agonizing climax, and the moment he touched it, his senses were overcome by an explosive pitch-black static.

When he finally regained his vision and hearing, the black void had disappeared, and he was once again in a valley with some odd flattened meadows further uphill. The stone with the writing on it had been blasted into a shiny pure onyx that radiated strong magic, and where smoky streaks could be seen passing across its surface.

JWW kept this magical artifact, uncertain of what it could do.

End of Session 2

[Alden Loveshade]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

I recently began a DFRPG campaign, and my players are enjoying it (as well as being generally happy with the GURPS system, which is a new system to many of them).

Cool. And even more cool is to hear your campaign is still going after almost three years!

[jason taylor]

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

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

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

When most people casually toss out "fantasy" as an explanation — not the rigorous definitions given in GURPS Fantasy — they mean the inclusion of magic and, usually, typical imaginary races.

[SolemnGolem]

Session 3 - The Peripheries - 2024-06-13

Anomalies

JWW observed more of the hillside, noting the anomalies further uphill. Once in a while, a garbled sounding shout would echo through the hillside, as if one or more men were calling out. Nobody was in evidence.

He met a wandering goatherd, Akri, who had been beaten up back in the hamlet ("my flock mixed with the alderman's flock and I gained two more sheep. Also I slept with his daughter"). Akri said that these hills were said to be haunted and none of the goatherds would graze here, so some of the folks in the village said he could put his sheep to pasture in peace here. Akri became unnerved when he heard the first shout ring out among the hillsides, thinking that it was a ghost. JWW gave him a healing potion to win his trust. Akri told him that there was a gang of bandits, the Strake clan, that roamed these parts, and had crossed around the Windrush and the Kiln'Urn for a while.

Finally, JWW searched around the area where the Black Onyx Stone anomaly had been (before the anomaly dissipated entirely), and he found fragments of flexible glass, no larger than fingernail clippings. They could be squeezed and bent, but they also held a jagged edge and could carve his fingernail.

JWW took note of this and then shared his findings with Aya when they reconnected at the hamlet south of Gabreftrut. Together, they puzzled out the shouts that JWW had heard, as Aya figured out that they were in the old Yemeluspa tongue:

• Raportoida - report in
• kaikki on hyvin - everything is fine
• Portinvartia varyelkon minua - Gatekeeper protect me (this one was a common holy phrase to the Yemeluspa, which they found in the trove at "You All Meet At An Inn")
• ne vain katosivat - they just disappeared
• missä sinä olet? - where are you?
• jokainen partio hävisi - every patrol lost

JWW reported to Professor Chronotis, using one of his burnable magic business cards to open a window through flame. Chronotis said that the malleable glass sounded of some distant interest, and the Onyx Stone was very interesting.

Aya reported her progress to Katsaya, one-way, using the magical cloth that Katsaya had given her.

Two Windrushers

Aya and Ferrvarro passed by a pair of Windrush, who seemed to stare a bit at Aya's finery and perhaps contemplate something opportunistic, then Ferrvarro bared his feline fangs and gripped his sword, and they rode on. Aya and Ferrvarra trailed them to where they camped, and then a tense standoff developed after the two of them decided to accost Aya anyway, and Ferrvarro held one at knifepoint while Aya intimidated them both with a fire spell.

The impasse was broken as they asked her to light their campfire for them, which they were having difficulty kindling. She did so, and they all sat down to eat. Kalim and Teibus turned out to be a pair of Windrush laborers and they knew Karhan, the rogue who had swept Kira away. He had run with a crowd of about 20 young folk, dabbling in odd jobs and sometimes helping himself to goods and money that wasn't his, but he wasn't known for violence. Lately, they had been trying to exchange their horses for goods and money, which implied that they were either settling down in town (unlikely, given their alienation from the Union MACER corps) or going even further out afield to the karst or desert lands, where they would need camels instead. Aya and Ferrvarro made it back to camp at Gabreftrut without incident.

New Allies

Irdri arrived the next morning, somewhat ahead of the caravan, and offered to make them pancakes, which were delicious. Irdri met with the local Jointry folks, and had a message from the "interested party" (i.e. Katsaya). Apparently, Katsaya had some influence with a nearby Windrush tribe, the Polebi, and wanted Aya to make contact with them that evening.

JWW spent the day preparing Molotov cocktails, visiting the Jointry and speaking with Lantos, the elder Jointry officer, who gave him several fragile earthenware pots, too weak for daily use but perfect for thrown Greek Oil like missiles. Lantos wished JWW success in "arm, hand, and eye". JWW went back to his cart and crafted six.

Aya sat down with the Major Healing spell and attempted to study it, which she did with a mixture of Eidetic Memory, Thaumatology, and Meditation. She learned it in one day, adding it to her roster of spells.

Then in the evening, Aya observed Irdri teaching a litter of Perras'hi Cat-Folk kittens how to read, and also taught them a few songs. Aya joined in to help Irdri teach the kittens. At the end of the lesson, the kits all thanked Aya and Irdri and said they enjoyed it. They asked if they could come back tomorrow, and Irdri gently told them that things were very busy, but they would meet again soon.

Aya and Irdri rode out on a horse together, and after half an hour of close quarters, Aya noticed that not only was Irdri preternaturally calm and level in speech, but Irdri also appeared to have absolutely no scent at all.

They arrived at an oasis with a gathering of Windrush of the Polebi tribe, leader Yongerul, where Katsaya had a good amount of influence. All of them had bows and arrows, and they invited Irdri and Aya to join them in eating salted spiced meats. Aya and Irdri went back to Gabreftrut and met up with JWW and Ferrvarro, who was just about to enjoy a steak.

Irdri asked if Aya could immediately go to the handover location, at night. The whole crew rode out.

[SolemnGolem]

The Border Towers

Ferrvarro mournfully rode along with them, leading the way and lamenting an uneaten steak he left behind in Gabreftrut. Irdri, Aya, and JWW rode on single horses behind the dark-seeing Ferrvarro.

The party made it to the ridge, where a tower stood sentinel on each side of the pass.

Aya examined the larger of the two towers, finding that it was marked as a guard post of the southernmost border claim, by the Yemeluspa templar civilization. Then she looked lower, away from the "golden ratio" style straight tower level, and to the lower level which was more of an "inclined ziggurat" older design. She dug around a bit and found a stele with strange hieroglyphics: a cat sitting watch over some humans lying down; a cat chasing and catching mice; several cats standing on their hind legs holding spears at a border with a stele.

She realized that this may be an older structure from another civilization, and may have been the northernmost border claim by the desert Cat Pharaohs. Ferrvarro had mentioned a few legends of cat dynastic god-kings ruling from pyramids in the sands.

Little Mirroire ("Mew-rawr"), the fallen deity

Aya took a closer look at the stele and saw there was a statue of a cat perched on top of it, looking expectantly forwards as if wanting to be petted. The sounds of the night faded and she realized she could hear a sighing on the winds, barely audible:

"You once loved me
Long ago.
I still love you
This you know."

Aya petted the carved stone head of the cat statue, and the chirping of crickets and the hooting of a distant owl suddenly came back to fill the air, dispelling the silence. She felt lighter and happier.

A tiny cat was watching her from the doorway, and when she gestured to it, the cat called out a "mew" and then a "rawr".

Mirroire then lounged around, asking to be petted, which Aya obliged. Suddenly, Mirroire perked up, alert, and dashed away. Ferrvarro came in.

Preparations

Aya asked Ferrvarro about this, who responded that he had not seen any cat and could not smell one (although he did smell some horse leavings, suggesting somebody had posted up here a few days ago). When Aya asked about the Pharaohs, he seemed completely uninterested in the remnants of a fallen civilization immortalized in his childhood tales.

"Yeah, there were stories. Of a cat king who could flick his tail once, and 100,000 sheaves of grain would be delivered from the fields. Or when the cat king walked out, every beast and biped had to stand, then kneel, then lie flat, then rise again and repeat. None of this made me a damn bit of profit though." He asked Aya if she would publish it and share the money with him, and Aya indignantly said she would preserve it for academia. "It figures, I find a writer with a conscience," Ferrvarro said bemusedly.

They found enough kindling prepared in both towers to allow them to easily light them if they wanted to (as the ransom note for Kira dictated). They decided to send Ferrvarro, Irdri, and JWW back to town to retrieve some help and bring the 5,000 Frex ransom.

JWW brought the money, Irdri brought a chest with a watcher bird, and Ferrvarro led the way for both using his darksight.

Irdri set up the bird, which was made of metal and very light, and then sent it out into the night. It could not see in the dark, but Irdri reckoned the bird might be able to see campfires and perhaps determine the opposition force's location.

Aya, Ferrvarro, and JWW went to sleep. Aya dreamed that Mirroire came over to cuddle with her, and then when she was unresponsive, Mirroire kneaded her arm until she obliged to pet it. Mirroire was gone by morning.

Irdri made them pancakes for breakfast, which were very good. Ferrvarro added some bacon to the mix. Irdri's bird had located a campfire, and right before dawn the bird had scouted out two men and horses at the campfire. It looked like Karhan's main force was elsewhere.

First Contact

At around noon, the opposing force got fresh bodies - a total of six men and horses were at the campsite which Irdri's bird had previously seen. At around mid afternoon, the 18 Windrush riders of the Polebi tribe arrived as well, reinforcing the PCs at the towers. Finally, a bit later, the opposing force got three more horses... one of which was carrying a bound figure thrown crosswise over the horse.

Aya asked Irdri (the only person able to remotely operate the metal bird) whether the figure was male or female. Irdri apologized and admitted that this detail had not come readily to mind and the bird had not observed it.

Aya and JWW then privately discussed Irdri's oddities. Ferrvarro came by and chipped in as well:

• Irdri uses odd ungendered pronouns: ey, er, em
• Irdri speaks in a preternaturally calm and polite voice regardless of the circumstances
• Irdri does not seem to eat or drink and has no odor

Aya and JWW surmised that Irdri could be a golem. Conversely, Ferrvarro described Irdri as the most agreeable human Ferrvarro has ever met - including Aya and JWW. (JWW took umbrage at being called a human.)

Finally, Aya and JWW decided to post two Windrush (dismounted) at a cliff overhang to witness incoming forces. They posted Aya and Ferrvarro with four Windrush at a copse of trees out of sight of the southern approach, so they could ride forward and cut off southern escape. JWW and Irdri remained at the towers. The leftover 12 Windrush all took cover on the townwards side of the towers, ready to reinforce.

Two opposition riders came up the way, and passed within sight of the towers, which had the fires lit. They negotiated nervously with JWW, who inexplicably refused to let them see the 5000 Frex ransom chest at first. Eventually, he relented, and they took a look (also seeing two Windrush guards). They went back, and soon the entire force moved northwards to the towers.

END OF SESSION 3

Key characters' portrait roll call