Paul (Thorn Spinner), Bruce (Belwin Linnet) and Tim (Kraid Naiben) all show up, sooner or later. Chris (Elias Sang'aree) is out moving into his new home and had previously stated that this was more important than hanging around with his layabout friends, so we are all quite surprised when he actually puts in an appearance. As an added bonus, he has a lot of neat things to say about his new home. For example, it has a garden tub (whatever that may be). As usual, Dan is in charge. Also as usual, Tim has decided to start a new character after realizing that his previous effort (the Elf Savage) was unlikely to last long.
Kraid Naiben is an Ork Warrior and a goon through and through. He is a native of Belhanna Kaer and the son of a thug and a rat-seller. He still maintains a strange respect for those who meekly collect rodents to contribute to the sparse meat supply of the Kaer. He is a compulsive gambler, though he isn't particularly good at it. The fact that the Kaer really lacks a money economy has thus far saved him from being crushed by his gambling debts. He enjoys thuggery and piracy, or at least the idea behind them, which was why he enthusiastically joined in Mank's rebellion. He also enjoys competent thuggery, which was why he slunk back to the Kaer after Mank's orks started to fight among themselves.
The characters head out into a large field near the Kaer and let Thorn Spinner use the gold ring to map out the imaginary city. Belwin Linnet helps him by placing stones and markers where Thorn Spinner tells him to, and by driving off the other Belhanna windlings who flap in to "contribute." After a while, Belwin starts using a crossbow to keep the other windlings away.
In the midst of this project, the ork Kraid Naiben approaches and asks Belwin if he is part of the Dog Watch. Belwin asks, "Don't I recognize you from the riots?" Kraid admits that yes, he was helping out. The two of them quickly find that they have more common ground than they first thought, as Kraid's political devotion to Mank's cause proves to have been rather tenuous even when Mank was respected and popular in the Kaer. The two of them shake hands, and Kraid starts helping the mapping project.
Thorn Spinner quickly determines that he always appears near the outskirts of the city, and that the entire place is huge. The entire place also seems strangely idealized, as if it is more someone's fond memory of a city than the actual article. He guesses that it will take days or months to map out the entire place, if it is even possible to find a large enough field. As a compromise, Belwin suggests that he bring along some paper and pens, and try drawing large natural features near the city. The hope is that something will be recognizable enough that the characters will be able to identify the original physical location of the place.
The Nethermancer Jeffr'y plans out a formal funeral for Tz'kri, whose body the characters have lugged back from the Badlands after Tz'kri's death at the claws of a sand crab. This proves to be an exciting event, as it is the first time in about 450 years that a Belhanna t'skrang has had a proper funeral. According to tradition, his body will be taken down to the river where it will be burned upon a pyre. His ashes will then be returned to the river, to eventually return to the sea. All who attend the funeral will be expected to speak about their memories of Tz'kri's.
The Nethermancer Jeffr'y is an odd-looking sort. His skin is a blotchy mixture of grey-green with black patches. One of his eyes is a deep, piercing black while the other appears milky and gray. The milky eye wanders with a disturbing randomness. As a final touch, he wears a high-collared cloak that makes him look just a bit skeletal.
The funeral procession includes most of the population of Belhanna, though it isn't clear how many folk are actually interested in attending the ceremony and how many are simply curious (or morbid). By the time the procession reaches the pyre, it is clear that most of the crowd are simply curious: they melt away as the speeches begin.
At the ceremony, the characters learn many interesting things about Tz'kri. For example, he managed to almost lose his virginity on numerous occasions, but consistently passed out from alcohol before the act could be completed. They are also caused to recall that he lived with his mother until he snuck away with the Dog Watch.
The characters generally try to say nicer things about him. Belwin Orates for as long as he can hold the attention of the crowd, doing his level best to inspire everyone with Tz'kri's heroism. He points out that Tz'kri sacrificed his life saving Belwin from a miserable death at the claws of the horrific Sand Crab, and tries to evoke some quantity of hope and fond remembrance in the crowd. Unfortunately, his execution is none too good, and by the end of it the crowd is in tears and the entire Council is shouting out, "It should have been Belwin who died! Belwin the Hated!" Belwin slinks away from the podium.
Thorn Spinner offers an impromptu windling song of mourning that goes over much better than Belwin's carefully thought-out speech. Elias Sang'aree trumps this effort by talking of how Tz'kri died a good death. He makes no effort to plan or prepare, and his efforts are even better-received than Thorn Spinner's.
Kraid Naiben sings a brief song about how clever Tz'kri was at gambling. The crowd burbles appreciatively, though it isn't clear how much of their approval is due to the virtues of Kraid's speech, and how much is simply due to the fact that he isn't Belwin.
By this point, the pyre has burned down low enough to let the crowd to collect Tz'kri's ashes and place them in a small paper boat that passes down the river.
After the ceremony, Thorn Spinner takes a group of people off to participate in a traditional windling mourning ceremony by getting ripping drunk. He gets a large crowd of folks to join him, as people quickly realize that windling funeral rituals are a lot less boring than t'skrang funeral rituals.
After the funeral is finished, the characters spend some time talking to their new member. Among more personal matters, Kraid Naiben was originally one of Mank's followers, and happens to know something about Mank's plans. Most interestingly, he knows that that the orks were planning on heading to the original lands of Cara Fahd, an ancient ork kingdom from before the Scourge. He also claims that Mank told all of them that Cara Fahd had waged many valiant wars against the nearby human kingdom of Landis, a place inhabited entirely by syphilitic cowards.
The characters see the local dragon flying out in the distance, perhaps two miles away. Thorn Spinner squints into the distance and reports that the thing appears to be dogfighting against several small dots that on further examination seem to be skyships. The encounter appears to end indecisively, with the skyships flying off into the distance. The characters aren't entirely sure who the combatants are.
By this point, the entire city of Belhanna has completely reassembled itself, though as yet only a few of the Kaer residents have moved into the place. Because most of the city remains uninhabited, the place is almost unnaturally clean for a city. The roads are neat and tidy, and the buildings shine white in the sunlight.
Only a few folks have moved from the Kaer into the city, so the characters decide to join them quickly, before all of the best buildings are taken. They pick out a rather large building with a roof garden near the town well (and some distance from the bakery, where Little Bethany's family has established itself).
As it happens, Grith-Tu (the world's most mild-mannered ork) is now the characters' next-door neighbor. The characters notice that he is preparing for a journey, and ask him where he's going. He explains that he is going to look at the other Kaer in the mountains, on the other side. He notes that the seals look identical to those of Belhanna, and that it's almost certainly Belhanna's sister Kaer. The characters immediately offer to go along, despite having never heard that Belhanna has a sister Kaer. As an inducement to allow them to come, Belwin points out that the group provides a ready source of extreme violence. Even without this resource, Grith-Tu appears perfectly willing to have them along.
As an added bonus, the characters had been planning on putting Thorn Spinner into the imaginary city to look for distinctive features in the mountains to the West. This turns out to be the same direction that Grith-Tu plans on traveling, enabling the characters to kill two birds with one stone. Or windling. Whatever.
Belwin decides that he might as well try and get some use out of the set of Landis Plate mail that the group acquired some time ago. He replaces his battered set of padded leather armor with the stuff and kisses his high-initiative days goodbye. It has an Armor Rating of 9, an Initiative Penalty of 3, and weights 60 lb. It reduces his Initiative to 4, and his initiative dice to 1d6. He leaves his padded leather armor in the characters' new home.
Before the characters depart, they decide that the Dog Watch needs a sigil. After some debate, all conclude that a dog's head with a bloody knife clutched in it's jaws makes the best choice. Elias Sang'aree does the work, with rather variable results: he is at the height of his artistry when he works on Kraid Naiben, rolling a 19. He does substantially less well on Belwin and Thorn Spinner, rolling a three (modified to six by the fact that he traced his original design) on each of them. In return, someone else tattoos the same image on Elias' arm with a roll of two (again, modified to a four). Everyone is dissatisfied except for Kraid, who is delighted.
The characters head out to the northwest under Grith-Tu's guidance. Thorn Spinner puts the invisible city ring on, and uses the time to look for distinctive terrain features. After two days of travel, Grith-Tu explains that he wants to head off on his own to scout for a ways. He wants to look for signs of wild animals, savages and trade routes. He tells the characters to continue heading towards one specific mountain. The characters swallow their suspicions and bid him good luck.
About this time, Thorn Spinner spots a sufficiently distinctive mountain near the imaginary city, something that should be possible to recognize later, and signals that he is going to take the ring off. He first reports his findings to the rest of the group, then quickly draws the mountain for later reference, rolling a 5 on his skill roll (Charisma).
The characters continue to march for two days. To several characters' surprise, Grith-Tu returns almost exactly when he promised he would. The characters are rather glad to see them, as the wyverns had been scaring them. Grith-Tu admits that the wyverns scare him to, then explains that they will circle in the sky until such time as they see some sort of prey, at which point they gather into packs and swoop down to seize it. The characters deal with the problem by traveling at night.
After four days of travel, the characters reach a huge Kaer seal set into the mountainside. It is a really impressive orichalcum disk covered with runes and carvings. The characters make some trivial efforts to see if they can open the seal. They fail completely. As a way of making the journey a bit more worthwhile, Kraid Naiben carves the message, "Belhanna Kaer is open. Please visit." on several nearby trees. He shows off his erudition by carving in both Dwarven and Orkish. When he is done, everyone heads back towards Belhanna.
On the journey back, Grith-Tu proposes that the group take a slightly different way back. The characters comment that they had planned on taking the exactly same route back, basically because they're all lousy at woodcraft and don't want to die miserably in the mountains. Eventually, Grith-Tu wins them over with promises that he won't allow them to become lost. The journey takes four days, and is totally uneventful, not counting the fact that Grith-Tu keeps up a constant chatter about how it would be really neat if someone would travel out to the local dragon's lair and see if it is willing to talk.
Having returned to Belhanna, the characters promptly get their warm clothing out and head back to the mountains to see the dragon, all the while telling each other, "Going to see a huge lizard that can roast and eat us all without even thinking about it is a really good idea! Grith-Tu says so!".
The journey back towards the mountains is fairly uneventful for a couple of days, right up until a lightning bolt crackles out from the distance and hits Elias with a substantial jolt. At the same time, everyone hears a wretched scream from behind the nearby underbrush, roughly in line with the path of the lightning bolt.
Everyone pulls out weapons and rushes towards the source of the lightning bolt. The characters are rewarded with the sight of their onetime nemesis Ragvorn (the only ork Speaks-With-Stones ever trained as a Shaman and a ringleader of Mank's revolt) chained to a tree trunk by to a metal collar around his neck. Small piles of bones are scattered around the tree.
The character rush to attack the Shaman, and quickly find that he is not nearly as helpless as he might seem. The piles of bones near him prove to be enchanted Bone Circles, able to leap up and attack anyone who gets too close, skewering them with sharp bony splinters. Belwin, Elias and Kraid engage three of the Bone Circles to various effect while Thorn Spinner stands to the back and casts Battle Fury upon Elias. Ragvorn also stands back, screaming hideously, letting fly with lightning bolts. The characters notice that Ragvorn is not using spell fetishes to cast his magic, and appears to be using raw magic (hence the screaming).
Thorn Spinner lands on a branch and starts shooting out Mind Daggers at Ragvorn, initially to rather minimal effect ("Insufficient!") while Elias and Kraid savage him with knives and axes. Eventually Thorn Spinner lands a really impressive Mind Dagger and makes his eyes burst, pretty much ending his presence in the fight.
After Ragvorn falls, everything that remains is cleanup. All of the characters work on kicking apart enough of the Bone Circles to let them free Ragvorn's carcass from the tree without getting themselves skewered.
The characters find that Ragvorn is still alive, though blinded and suffering from seizures. Kraid draws upon his Horror Lore to conclude that there is a good chance that Ragvorn might be Horror-tainted. However, he also knows that Ragvorn could simply be insane. Thorn Spinner isn't able to learn much by looking at Ragvorn's pattern, and isn't able to materially improve his situation by casting Dispel Magics at him. Kraid suggests that being imprisoned might be triggering Ragvorn's jihad, and that he might get better if he weren't confined. This theory turns out to be overly optimistic, as Ragvorn's condition changes not at all when the characters remove his collar.
At this point the characters realize that Grith-Tu is nowhere to be seen. Deciding that there is nothing to be done for that, the characters set up a stretcher for Ragvorn and head back to Belhanna. Grith-Tu eventually returns, explaining that he had been following a large number of old tracks leading off along the southern side of the mountains. He had hoped that they might lead to a nearby village, and ceased following them pretty quickly when it was obvious that they didn't.
Back in Belhanna, the characters bypass the Council and simply hand Ragvorn over to some of the more high-powered local Wizards and Nethermancers after talking to Colonel Bainbridge. The Colonel is a touch confused as to why the characters didn't simply kill him, but is willing to drop the issue without discussion. Even faced with the Colonel's obvious lack of interest, the characters continue to explain that they would like to know why Ragvorn was tied to a tree. And why he's insane. They hold out some hope that the local magical glitterati might be able to bring him back to his senses and provide some of these answers. By way of response, the Colonel simply waves towards the crowd of magicians around Ragvorn. The characters notice that they appear to be trying to talk to him with sock puppets. Belwin holds his head, stricken by a sudden splitting headache.
Once again, it takes the characters three to four days to get back to the mountains. Grith-Tu estimates that the journey through the mountains will take another day or two, depending upon how thick the wyverns are this time of year. At that point, he very characteristically disappears until the characters actually reach the edge of the mountains and have to start climbing. He returns equipped with a string of pheasants and rabbits that do a lot to improve the group's diet.
As the characters go up the mountains, it gets windier and cooler just as Grith-Tu predicted. The characters put on warmer clothing in response. After two days of travel, the characters find a massive rock crevice. Grith-Tu claims that the dragon normally comes out of the crevice, and often sits upon a distinctive peak in the distance. For all this, the dragon is nowhere to be seen.
Out of boredom and curiosity, Thorn Spinner takes this opportunity to look at Grith-Tu's aura. He finds that it is quite complex, and might take days to pick apart. Grith-Tu doesn't give him the opportunity to try, as he becomes rather antsy after a few hours and expresses a desire to wander around the mountains. The characters let him go, but Thorn Spinner follows him after casting the spell Notice Not on him. Grith-Tu spots him anyway, and explains that he's heading back to Belhanna because he doesn't want to get eaten by dragons or wyverns. Thorn Spinner declines his offer and returns to the group.
Meanwhile, the other characters see a bright red glowing windling fly out of the crevice. Elias tries to talk to it and finds that it will respond to yes-or-no questions, but won't speak. It looks surprisingly similar to the glowing green windling that led the characters to the Temple of the Passions in the forest when they first left the Kaer. The characters decide to follow it.
The creature leads them along a hidden trail, until the characters reach an area bordered by landscaped plants. Eventually, they find themselves walking along stairs that gradually become more and more finished. The cliff face above the stairway looks like a palace set to a scale slightly larger than human. At this point, the windling flies through a window and vanishes. Thorn Spinner follows it.
The characters walk into the nearby door to find themselves in a long hall. Tall columns line the walls. Everyone walks down the hall and through a door, to enter an elaborate room with a door on each wall. Intricate clocks and statues sit upon pedestals. All of the walls are inlaid with decorative designs. The characters continue along to enter a larger room with five huge (lit) chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Massive mirrors sit on either end of the hall. The walls and ceilings are frescoed with scenes of birds and windlings flying, in a manner strangely reminiscent of the palace of Mad King Ludwig. There is one door to the side. It leads to a chamber with a raised dais and a throne. A single obsidiman sits upon the throne. He stares at the characters. Elias starts off the introductions by saying, "We are the Dog Watch." The others follow his lead and introduce themselves in respectful terms, right up until Thorn Spinner flies into the obsidiman's face and chirps "Hi! This is a really cool place! You been here long?"
The obsidiman explains that he has only been sitting here for three days, and that this is his home. He claims that his name is Rost Stormweaver, and that he has been living in the mountains for 508 years. He states that he survived the Scourge simply because, "I am." Nobody questions this claim.
The characters ask him about the dragon, as he should be sitting pretty much in the middle of it's lair. Rost says that he knows the dragon, and can pass a message along to it if the characters want him to. For no particularly good reason, one of the characters boasts back, "I can pass a brick!" The rest of the group quickly hushes the speaker.
At this point, Rost addresses Belwin directly, saying that he has something belonging to the Linnet family. The red glowing windling returns, and flies towards the door. Belwin follows it, ending up in a bedroom occupied by a weeping ork woman named Gosha, whom he recognizes as the woman who was consumed by the dragon when she was holding Belwin's nephew (back when Mank's ork had taken the child as one of their hostages). She is clearly overcome with grief at her actions and admits that she was Belwin's brother's housekeeper, and was materially responsible for stealing the child. She says that she can no longer face the people of Belhanna or any of her old friends for what she has done. Belwin offers her forgiveness, but tells her that someday she must travel out from this redoubt to teach people not to follow demagogues like Mank and Ragvorn. Just as she starts to be enheartened, Belwin starts on a description of the damage done to Belhanna and the orkish community in the Twelve Days of Knives, sending her back into fits of weeping. Belwin silently curses his oratory instructor.
After Belwin finishes demoralizing Gosha, she offers the group a meal. Everyone eagerly accepts, as hardtack and rabbit jerky gets a bit old after a while. In the midst of the meal, a whomping big troll dripping with weapons stomps into the room. He booms out at the characters, "Aha! A new crop of would-be heroes! Are you looking for a suitably heroic task?"
The characters, slightly taken aback by the fellow's sudden appearance, make various expressions of interest. The troll enthusiastically launches into a story about a cave in the woods nearby, occupied by tall t'skrang-like things that don't give themselves names, but do use tools. He says that these creatures have come into possession of a cocoon containing an immature dragon, and plan to do evil things to it. He wants the characters to go in and prevent the immature dragon from coming to a miserable fate.
The characters discuss among themselves for a while, then accept. They decide to head out early the next morning because they're really not much for long-term planning. Elias drives this home by commenting, "What is this word you keep on using, 'planning'?" The troll, who appears to be having some second thoughts about using the characters for important tasks, offers to write down his instructions just so the characters won't forget anything. Belwin accepts the paper, claiming that he is able to read, just not often.
Before the characters depart, Belwin detaches Tz'kri's old Desperate Blow charm from his chest with a horrible sucking sound and gives it over to Kraid, who otherwise lacks neat magical items. The big troll watches this performance, and cautions the two of them that blood magic is very close to Horror magic, and that they should be very careful about using it. He warns that if they use it too much, they will quickly find that it uses them instead. Neither Belwin nor Kraid give the troll's warning too much thought.
The next morning, the characters fill their satchels with food for the trip and stomp out of the mountain redoubt.
The session ends with the characters leaving the Mountain Redoubt, bound towards the Cave-in-the-Woods.
Legend Awards for the session are described in detail below. Most of the characters are Third Circle, so each Legend Award is worth 140 Legend Points. Thorn Spinner and Belwin both get eight Legend Awards (1120 Legend Points), while Kraid and Elias each get seven Legend Awards (980 Legend Points)
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Adventure Goals Completed |
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Session Goals Completed |
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Opponents Defeated |
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Roleplaying |
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Treasures |
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Heroics |
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Several of the characters spend Legend Points to improve their various Talents, under the presumption that they might need them later:
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Kraid Naiben |
Air Dance to Rank 4 (500 Legend points); Acrobatic Strike to Rank 4 (500 Legend points) |
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Elias Sang'aree |
Durability to Rank 4 (500 Legend points); Fire Blood to Rank 4 (500 Legend points) |
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Thorn Spinner |
Durability to Rank 4 (500 Legend points); two Spell Matricies to Rank 4 each (500 Legend points each) |
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Belwin Linnet |
Durability to Rank 4 (500 Legend points); Riposte to Rank 4 (500 Legend points) |