The Old Ways Seek To Reclaim What Is Theirs; or, The Valiant Death of Samaras

Our second and third sessions, 15 and 27 May 2011:

Giovanni: Gurgrock the Assassin
Eric: Balto the Warrior-Scholar
Dai: Samaras the Unlucky
Tony: Rast the Amazing Spellcaster (first session only)
Ziad: Vrannian the Gnome (first session only)
Dob: Aldan the Righteous Deliverer (second session only)

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The Hunters Hunted

After two weeks trudging through the mid-winter rain and wind back south from Akikorva village in the empty swampy forests, Samaras, Aldan, Rast, and Vrannian made it back to the port town of Poori, from whence they entered this backwater country. The whole walk back it was as if they were being followed, with campfires in the distance, the sounds of horses and voices, just that feeling you get from being watched.

In the relative civilization of Poori they arrived at the Old Oak Inn, named for the eponymous tree in the center of the main room, looking for a contact which would take them to the reclusive Magister Hienimi the Gray Wizard, in hopes of selling him the Pelt and Relics from the Trell-Beast.

Instead they met with Balto and Gurgrock, two lovable local losers drinking together at the Old Oak. After introductions trouble quickly ensued, as one would expect, when local toughs hired by unknown parties and probably tailing the party to the Inn, burst in, looking to take the Pelt.

Death and a Mother's Love

Rast made an illusion of grand power and all hell broke loose. The PCs trashed the place, escalated the violence to massacre levels, and cleared the room, including through a point-blank fire blast making a mortal casualty of Nikko, a childhood friend of Gurgrock and probably just a kid who made some bad choices in life, ending his days as a hired bully.

During the violence, the PCs noticed that they were indeed being followed by more than local hoodlums, as two men in capes and hoods with leather and wooden crow's-beak masks poked into the Inn, noticed the characters and the Pelt, and escaped again into the night.

The second session: The characters bravely fled into the night; the only place they could think to flee was to the one-room shack of Nikko's mother, in the slum areas by the port. It had been years since she'd seen young Gurgrock, all grown up, so on she gabbed and reminisced about old and better times, and how her boy Nikko had just got a new job (and would hopefully return come morning), and that one day her boy would grow up to be someone...

They couldn't bear to tell her the news.

In the shanty, Samaras detected danger outside and Balto, taking advantage of his Opal Headband (the one possession he hadn't pawned for drink) determined there were thugs outside. Balto wisely beat the poor woman upside the head to silence her, and they rushed into the filthy alley, only to be jumped by a bunch of the crow-beak-masked figures. No match for adventurers, the PCs knocked the masked goons senseless, although Gurgrock took a knife in the back from a masked woman and a stray arrow to the shoulder fired from Samaras' cursed bow.

The Old Ways, Underground

In the process of interrogating the attackers, the PCs learned they were local adherents to the same Old Faith cult which praised the Trell-Beast (the Pelt of which was gracing Samaras' back) as a deity; they sought to retake the relics of their god and return them to the holy swamps and their brothers and sisters to the north.

In tracking one of the cultists who fled the slum rumble, the PCs were led to a port-side booze-house The Goat and a local meeting place for the cultists, many of whom blended into the community in Poori of those who spoke the language of the northern peoples and labored in the shadows.

Gurgrock, wounded but able to take on the disguise as a deaf-mute, infiltrated The Goat and found more of their number; when questioned by a suspicious cultist enjoying a drink, he merely gestured to a purloined cultist mask and they backed off.

Meanwhile, waiting outside The Goat, Samaras and Balto were approached by a well-dressed agent of Magister Hienimi the Gray Wizard, whom they almost killed by reflex but still roughed up a little, before sending him on his way with an agreement to meet Hienimi's men by the big tree at the Poori fort's walls the next day at midnight.

After another scuffle with the cultists, Balto cleverly made the same arrangement with their leader to meet by the big tree at the same time.

Sure enough, the PCs set up for an ambush, with Gurgrock playing the pigeon, Balto high in the tree's boughs, and Samaras ready to shoot from a closed market stall. As planned, Hienimi's armed men showed up, led by a sergeant and, of all people, Aldan the Righteous, who had been recruited on the pretense of serving a morally just master. Sure enough, also came several cultists.

At the Magister's House

Each side, surprised a bit to see the other, demanded the Pelt and Relics but in the end no one got anything and an ambush was averted (it helped that the cultists were badly under-armed), and the PCs led the whole train to the Magister's house on the hill past the fort.

The cultists waited outside along with Hienimi's men while an aging manservant led Aldan and Gurgrock inside to meet with the reclusive Magister in the sitting room warmed by a great fire, while Balto and Samaras waited outside the windows, expecting trouble.

It wasn't long before Hienimi's cockiness and hubris showed forth, when he demanded the Pelt, not for noble reasons but to glean its power for his own wicked sorcerous ends, and tossed a bag of coins on the table.

Wisely, the characters realized the consequences were they to accept this filthy lucre, and when the cultists arrived en masse, overpowering the guards and swarming the place, the battle began. Balto preemptively slid through the window, across the table, and kicked down the frail and harmless manservant; while Samaras, outside, bravely took on a number of cultists, and Aldan, a servant only to justice, enjoyed close-quarters swordplay.

Hienimi, furious, let loose a gout of flame which badly scorched Gurgrock, just missed Balto and Aldan, and took down several cultists. The brawl continued, with Balto and Aldan bashing cultist skull while Gurgrock was kept from pounding Hienimi into oblivion by a second cut from the same female cultist who'd stabbed him in the back in the brawl at Nikko's mom's place.

The Departure of a Hero, in a Forgotten House Far From Home

Seizing an opportunity, Hienimi launched three magic missiles into the chest of Samaras, a mortal wound, as the latter attempted to snipe the Gray Wizard with the Splinter of the Fallen Hero. With his last energy as his life fast faded forever from his mortal shell, Samaras burst through the window, grappled a badly-bruised Magister Hienimi, and pulled them both into hearth and the roaring fire.

By the time Aldan pulled them from the fire, the Magister was nothing more than a charred husk, while Samaras (the Pelt merely scorched) mustered up just enough life to utter his final word before expiring:

"VICTORY"

Into the Swamp; or, The Trell-Beast's Knell

Our introductory session from 24 April 2011:

Dai: Aldan The Righteous Deliverer
Giovanni: Rast The Amazing Spellcaster
Dave: Samaras The Unlucky
Ziad: Vrannian Nimbus

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Starting from the town of Poori, the northernmost stop on the usual inland maritime trading routes, the PCs hiked into the swampy interior of a northern Dark Ages wasteland. They were on the hunt for the Trell-Beast, a magical creature and legend of the Old Times, most notable for its viciousness and the unknown powers of its hide.

After two weeks on the hunt through rain, wind, and discomfort in this late-fall march, they approached the tiny village of Akikorva, known to be close to the Beast's hunting grounds.

On the outskirts they discovered a burned and looted farmhouse with a deaf-mute farmer cowering inside, afraid dreaded goblin raiders would return. Indeed, they did, and the PCs defended against a brief siege, firing back from the windows and door and routing the vile humanoids.

Moving into the nearby village, they learned through mystic signs and conversations that some of the villagers appeared to stay fast to their worship of the very semi-mythical Trell-Beast the PCs were hunting, despite the second-best efforts of the Priest of the New Faith in converting the locals from their false beliefs.

They learned a fire festival to mark the start of winter was to be held, during which time the Trell-Beast was to be conjured in an outpouring of faith and tradition. Indeed, after the PCs prepared the unwitting village with traps, sentries, and even thoughts of improvising a giant ballista, they spiked the cauldron of ceremonial stew with intoxicating herbs, which only served to further whip the celebrating and half-nude pagan villagers into a frenzy.

Then the goblins arrived -- were they there to join in the worship or seek revenge for their fallen brothers?

Meanwhile, in the ensuing house-to-house melee, accentuated by pyrotechnics conjured from the festival bonfire, the piercing howls of the summoned Trell-Beast began to fill the night air.

And then the giant Trell-Beast, like a dire wolf with the beak of a hawk, tore into the fray, immediately seeking out the unfortunate Priest and making a sacrifice of him as a brief and fleeting victory for the Old Ways.

The Trell-Beast ended up having a splintered staff crammed into its jaw, which mercifully prevented it from inflicting more misery on the players, and eventually fell to an onslaught of fire, wood, and iron.

Upon its expiring, the corpse of the Beast, just like that, shriveled before the PCs' eyes, revealing the body of the village wise-woman and leader of the Beast cult, draped in a thick hide of fur and skin; the object which they sought to mine for its power.

Despite this ominous sign, the PCs quickly collected their hide and snuck out of the village before the festival died down and the worshippers sobered from their intoxication. Aldan briefly considering taking up the missionary role in place of the deceased Priest, but ended up joining his fellows as they slinked back toward Poori; this band of misfits was sure to bring with it better chances for greater heroism and service.

In the end -- they were heroes, perhaps, for ridding this nowhere land of a dangerous Beast; though at the cost of one more of the Old Ways' fading traditions. Certainly this act would not come without its due consequences.

Heroes: Aldan, Rast, Samaras, Vrannian

Below are the first of the personalities at the core of the Dark Journey. Over time, some will come, some will go; so rotates the wheel of fate.

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Aldan The Righteous Deliverer

Charismatic and strong if intellectually inflexible, the young Paladin of the New Faith, most recently affiliated with the Temple of the Searing Light in Gar. Aldan represents the vanguard of the Faith; eager to enforce morally absolutist tenets with strong proclamations, cold steel, and the light of his gleaming Hero's Harness.

The New Faith tests its proudest adherents harshly -- bound by a litany of restrictions and requirements, Aldan's is a life of endlessly atoning for temptation and the whims of fate; he is sworn to 1) always undertake quests for the Faith, no matter how hopeless or impossible; 2) never touch meat or flesh; 3) remain ever clean and spotless; and 4) never come in contact with a woman. It is the last of these made most troublesome by his Curse of Venus, which draws the eyes of the most beautiful maidens and matrons and into an (unwilling and spiritually draining) embrace.

Aldan's Back Talker bastard sword grants him the power to smite those who have drawn his blood, but contains a sinister intelligence which increasingly compels him to violence the longer it stays unsheathed.

Motivations: Rescue humanity from evil through example, courage, and righteous combat

Heroic Flaws: Absolute moralistic righteousness; held to impossible standards

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Rast The Amazing Spellcaster

Rast is typically the most intelligent, most literate, and best-dressed in the room, and he wants you to know it. A dropout of The Academy in more civilized lands, he is both a student and rare active practitioner of magic, specializing in illusion and pyromancy. He seeks to make his mark on the world through plundering the ancient dweomers of legendary beasts and artifacts, while straying as little as possible from the easy life. His red cloak and wide-brimmed hat complement his multiple changes of fine clothes, even when talented tailors in these parts are few and far-between.

Motivations: Prove to his fellow magicians and mundanes his competence, heroism, and manliness

Heroic Flaws: Hubris; lacking compassion

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Samaras The Unlucky

Agile, lithe, and wise to the world, Samaras is a Ranger -- a hunter and man of the wilds. He is also a fatalist killjoy who seeks nothing more than to heroically throw his only life away in the service of others, knowing full well that he is doomed to die in vain, like water splashing off a stone. His fate is tied to the Splinter of the Fallen Hero, a relic from a dead and unmourned warrior -- a longbow which is fated to lead to its wielder's eventual demise.

Motivations: Die a forgotten hero

Heroic Flaws: Doomed and he knows it; martyr complex

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Vrannian Nimbus

Tiny, lithe, hyperactive, chatty, and wide-eyed, Vrannian is a Gnome, one of the last of his strange and ancient kind. He seeks little in the way of changing the world, but will always share his talents and treasures with those who need them more. After all, he can always find another gold coin or shiny jewel to add to his rucksack of finds. He is armed with the enchanted crossbow The Dart and a satchel of black powder bombs, along with a collection of yet-to-be-revealed tools and toys.

Motivations: Endlessly curious and generous with his abilities, kindness, and accumulated treasure

Heroic Flaw: Innocence