The bulk of us turn out on time: Nick (Ooth), Bruce (Belwin Linnet), and Paul (Cassidy). Tim (Tz'kri) promises to show up around 14:30, after he gets off work, and much to the surprise of everyone else actually shows up on time. Even better, Chris proves to have finally broken down and agreed that everyone else appears to be having fun in this game. He plays is Elias Sang'aree, a troll sky raider whose name translates to "he who eats the entrails of others and enjoys it."
The characters have about a month to spend in the kaer waiting for Tz'kri to learn his next Circle. They spend this time pursuing their own varied hobbies.
Ooth spends his time learning the Death's Head spell, which transforms his face into a visage of horror that spreads terror among all who see it. It isn't clear to Belwin exactly how this differs from Ooth's normal appearance.
Both Ooth and Elias Sang'aree know that the current troll chieftain, Speaks-With-Stone, is on his last legs. His death could be only days or hours away. This situation is creating some large measure of uncertainty in the local troll community, as there is some uncertainty over who the next chieftain will be, and what political direction he will choose to take. Speaks-With-Stone is generally credited with being responsible for much of the peaceful behaviour of the Belhanna trolls, an opinion that is quickly becoming a fringe minority view.
Belwin Linnet, ever the soul of diplomacy, spends his time learning Oratory Rank 2, which costs him 300 Legend Points. He also spends a morning at the fencing floor improving his Maneuver Talent to Rank 4. This costs him an additional 500 Legend Points.
Two of the Kaer's apprentice Illusionists, who had previously traded some spells with Cassidy, approach him with great enthusiasm. They tell him that they have just passed their tests, and are well on their way to becoming "real" Illusionists. There is going to be a celebration in honor of the occasion, and they want him to perform. Cassidy, ever the mercenary skum, demands that they teach him another spell in exchange. They allow as how they've already taught him all their spells, so Cassidy takes them to their Master, the Elven Illusionist Thystilonella. She isn't too fond of Cassidy, primarily because she sits upon the Council and knows that Cassidy hangs out a lot with the foul-mouthed Belwin Linnet. She is none too fond of Belwin, an unsurprising attitude considering Belwin's normal attitude towards the Council. Cassidy finally persuades her to teach him a spell, preferably something that can do damage, then sets to planning out the entertainment for the celebration. The young Illusionists know a few spells with showy effects, and there is rapid agreement that their magic should be coordinated with Cassidy's songs.
There is a small black cloud over the Illusionists' celebration, as their Orkish compatriot Blackheart didn't manage to pass the tests: his Matrix collapsed. The other apprentices think that his failure is due to the personal problems he's having right now. Particularly, he's spent a lot of time rioting, which has taken time away from his studies.
In preparation for his performance, Cassidy also takes the Elven Harp he recovered from the ruined T'skrang Citadel to one of the Kaer's Weaponsmiths to get it restrung. The Weaponsmith is more than happy to oblige, and offers a few compliments upon the quality of the instrument. Cassidy thanks the Weaponsmith, then takes some time learning how to tune and play it, eventually agreeing with the Weaponsmith's opinion: it is quite a good instrument.
Tz'kri spends most of his time learning the secrets of the Third Circle of the Scout Discipline. However, he takes some time looking through the Kaer's armory, seeking a more stylish weapon to attach to his tail. He finally decides that a leather brace with blades attached to it is the best choice. The other characters point out that almost anything is more stylish than a hand axe tied to his tail with wire and twine.
Belwin is surprised to run into Councilwoman Neeza, the Windling Council member. She cuts quite an impressive figure despite being only eighteen inches tall, and has something of a reputation as the nastiest Windling in the all of Belhanna. Her interest in Belwin is very straightforward: she wants him to kill Orks and bring the heads to her. In exchange, she promises to arrange favorable Council votes for him on any matter he should desire. Belwin is a touch taken aback by this rather brutal request, and asks her why. She explains that the Orks have been killing Windlings by popping their heads off in the Trollish manner, and that they must die. Belwin, seeking some clarification, asks if she means all Orks, including even Gorth the soup-seller down the street, who gets nauseous at even the thought of violence. Neeza is blunt: "They must all die!"
Belwin refuses to oblige Neeza's request, suggesting that only a short time ago, the custom of the Kaer was to hold open trials for matters as weighty as murder, to allow evidence to be heard and to allow the accused a forum for their own defense. Belwin notes that while he is familiar with the sort of work that Neeza wants him to do from his time with Colonel Bainbridge, the intended targets are normally guilty of something fairly important. Neeza interprets this statement to mean that Belwin just wants a list of preferred targets, and promises to have just such a list to him by the next day.
After his encounter with Neeza, Belwin walks down the street to talk to the soup-seller Gorth. Gorth offers him a bowl of soup, though he admits that all he has is cream of wheat and oatmeal. Belwin accepts the bowl, then talks to Gorth about the opinions of the Orkish community remaining in Belhanna. He quickly discovers that Gorth becomes extremely upset at any suggestion that the remaining Orks in the Kaer are not loyal. Belwin backpedals as quickly as he can, thanks Gorth, and retreats back to the Human Quarter.
Belwin finds that he is sufficiently worried by this exchange to go and spend an hour at the archery grounds, practicing shooting at small flying targets with his crossbow. He spends 200 Legend Points to buy Missile Weapons Rank 2.
Belwin spends the remainder of the day schmoozing in the public houses, trying to understand exactly what the tone of the community is. It doesn't take him long to find out that the rest of the Windling community generally thinks that their Councilwoman is a raving mad dog. They are somewhat nervous about the recent behaviour of the Orks, but most Windlings have an attention span of about 12 to 13 minutes, which really improves their attitude in the face of previous Orkish atrocities.
The Human community is also generally feeling well-behaved. They foster some anti-Ork sentiment, but still aren't ready to start sponsoring death squads and vigilante groups. Most of the Humans have no significant problems with the remaining Orks.
The entire community turns out in the Grand Square to attend the Illusionists' celebration. Most Disciplines take some effort to conceal exactly how powerful a given practitioner is. In contrast, the Illusionists are very flashy and showy and flaunt their powers endlessly.
Cassidy is largely responsible for organizing the entertainment. Most of the entertainment involves integrating Cassidy's music with the Illusionists' phantasms. It is clear that his performance is quite inspired, spreading joy and good cheer among the partygoers. The food is somewhat miscellaneous, including Ooth's Mashed Newt pate and goat sausage. The best that can be said about it is that it is quite plentiful.
During the celebration, the Weaponsmith Garnet tells Cassidy that he noticed that Cassidy's armor was in really bad shape back when he brought the Elven Harp in to be restrung. He offers to do maintenance work upon any of the characters' armor and weapons because even if they're not directly helping the Kaer, they are hunting Horrors. Cassidy is quite pleased with the offer. He is even more pleased to learn the Ephemeral Bolt spell from Thystilonella.
She-Who-Inspires, the troll Sky Raider instructor, takes most of her students outside to inspect the old Theran airship. Their goal is to relearn the arts of airship construction, and she hopes that some of the more promising students might be able to wrest some of the Therans' secrets from the wreck. Among her group is the Sky Raider Elias Sang'aree. Unfortunately, the expedition is somewhat less successful than She-Who-Inspires might have hoped, as the Theran ship was stone-hulled, while all of the trolls' oral traditions stay that airships should be made from wood.
Constructing wooden airships promises to be something of a problem because most of the trees near to Belhanna are small and twisted, unsuitable for use in airship (or any other ship) hulls. She-Who-Inspires comments that Ooth has told stories about distant forests, where thousands of trees grow straight and tall. She brings Ooth and Elias Sang'aree together to talk about her plans.
Elias already has problems with her plans for the airships, once they can be built. He asks why it is necessary to raid and destroy neighbors. She responds with language about honor, tribute and tests of strength. Her basic thesis is that by raiding others and living in the inhospitable mountains, the trolls can gather tribute and prove their own strength. The first step in this glorious path is to construct airships. To her, the alternative is to sit around like a slug and farm. Elias remains unconvinced, and continues to argue against her, suggesting instead that the trolls should build airships and use them to protect the Kaer in exchange for nice goods and resources. He explains that the Kaer needs protection because they are weak, and will otherwise be slain by Horrors. The only argument Elias has trouble refuting is that the Belhanna trolls need to reach out and find more trolls so they can arrest the ongoing decline in their numbers.
For all of their efforts, the trolls quickly discover that they don't know exactly how to build airships anymore. Elias suggests using Belwin's War Canoe as a model, if for no other reason than to provide an estimate of the number of trees needed. The other trolls are none too sure if even this will help them in their quest. There is some agreement that they will need to find some reasonable quantity of Elemental Air and an Elementalist to work it for them.
The characters decide to look at the Belhanna Library, which recently rebuilt itself, and which has the additional virtue of being a mysterious site that is very close by. Along the way, they spot a huge block of what appears to be cut stone moving towards Belhanna. It is moving just above the ground, crushing the plants but leaving the ground uncompressed. The characters are not the only folks to notice the thing, and it very quickly attracts a large group of spectators.
The characters watch as the stone slab drags itself up to a large gap in the Belhanna city wall, then leaps up to fill the gap. Several large nearby cracks in the wall just seal themselves up. Ooth uses his Astral Sight to look at the repaired section of wall and discovers that there are pattern threads everywhere. He concludes that the city of Belhanna has a True Pattern and is reassembling itself.
Tz'kri finds that his remarkable Tracking Talents are completely unnecessary to track the stone back to it's source, which proves to be a large hole in the ground. This information tends to even further convince the characters that the city is pulling all of it's original pieces back together again. Belwin suggests that Ooth (and all the other characters with the ability to see pattern threads) should look around for threads linking the city ruins to other large fragments. His interest is the public safety: he doesn't want to see any of the Kaer-dwellers crushed in the middle of the night by a large block of migratory stone. It takes the characters the rest of the day to map out all the larger stone objects buried around the city. The characters send warning of the potential danger to the Council, with the hope that some of the more obnoxious Council members might choose to set camp directly in the path of some of the larger blocks.
Some hours after the characters finish mapping out the pieces of the Belhanna wall, a couple of Belhanna folk rush up to report that a huge cloud of dust has appeared on the horizon. It quickly attracts a crowd of gawking Belhanna folk interested in anything other than their normal labors.
Tz'kri Sprints out to see what approaches. He quickly discovers that the cloud is thrown up by a group of twenty people riding three horse-drawn wagons. As they rush past, they yell to Tz'kri that they are being pursued by human barbarians. Tz'kri tells them to head for the Belhanna walls, which they do. He then spots four horsed men pursuing the caravan. Tz'kri hides in the grass and prepares to ambush them.
As they approach, Tz'kri sees the lead rider become wilder. His hair grows out into a whipping mane and his face becomes bestial. Tz'kri is somewhat scared of this apparition, but holds his ground and attacks the rider's mount as it goes by. His strike is true, knocking the rider down. The rider is quite agitated, though apparently unharmed, rolling away from his stricken mount to face Tz'kri.
The remaining characters see this exchange, and run like the wind to join in the conflict. The distance is great enough that it takes them almost a minute to reach Tz'kri.
As the other characters run, Tz'kri faces the one rider. The savage invokes a Talent to create a new mount underneath him. The new creature is clearly unnatural, made mostly of fog and lightning. Tz'kri acknowledges that the magical beast is impressive, but it doesn't prevent him from rushing at the savage, swinging his blade and thrashing his tail.
Belwin runs into position with his crossbow. The caravaneers rush past him, then one of them wheels around to fight behind him. Belwin shoots twice, hitting one of the raiders once. Cassidy runs up beside him and starts throwing Ephemeral Bolts, annoying one of the raiders.
Elias rushes past the two of them, eager to engage them in melee combat. Elias stands his ground and yells out, "Stop!" to the raiders in the dwarven tongue. The riders rein in and start yelling in human.
The characters guide both groups into the Great Plaza of Belhanna, taking care to separate the caravaneers and the tribals. The situation quickly becomes very complicated, especially considering that many of the participants do not speak the same languages. On the one side, there is the tribal Gunjun, the protector of his tribe. On the other, there is Dekielle, leader of the caravan. Belwin and Tz'kri impel all of them to practice whatever artisan skill they have and prove that they are not Horror-tainted. After a bit of this, the characters are convinced that the newcomers are at least clear of the influences of the Horrors.
Gunjun speaks to the characters in the human tongue. He says that his tribe lives to the north. Their custom is to travel from the Ruins to the River, and then back again to the Ruins. Along the way, their womenfolk disperse along the path to gather foodstuffs. Two days ago, one of their gathering womenfolk didn't come back. Her mutilated body was found in a field, her throat slit from ear to ear. That evening, they found the pilgrims dressed in black robes and performing some kind of horrible celebration. They asked the pilgrims about the crime and received assurances that they knew nothing of the killing. Since then, two more tribesmen have been killed, their bodies were mutilated in the same manner. After the second killing, the tribals asked the pilgrims to leave their lands. Gunjun says that the pilgrims agreed to depart, but failed to live up to their promise.
Tz'kri talks to the pilgrim leader Dekielle. He is an Elf, and apparently is quite fond of dressing in a long black robe. Unlike most of his people, he carries a visible weapon: a huge two-handed greatsword slung across his back.
Dekielle says that his people are Night worshippers on a pilgrimage from civilized lands to the north, looking for the Death's Sea. He claims that the first time his people saw the tribesmen was when they showed up and attacked them in the midst of the Festival of the Night. He says that the tribesmen made a lot of wild accusations about murders, then left. The next day the tribesmen came back and attacked again. Since then, the pilgrims have been attacked daily.
Ooth uses Astral Sight to determine that Dekielle is an Adept, and that everyone in the group has some kind of magical object. As far as Ooth can tell, Dekielle is the only Adept in the group. When asked about this, Dekielle explains that the magical objects are their Robes of the Night, worn during their celebrations.
It further develops that Dekielle's people are going to the Death's Sea to celebrate a ritual commemorating the day when Death was trapped under the waters. He explains that time is a factor for them: if they are forced to wait at Belhanna for any length of time, they'll surely miss the holy day and the faith of their people will suffer.
Cassidy heads back to the Kaer to fetch some troops to help maintain the public order. In a rather odd turn, he decides to talk to Councilwoman Thystilonella first, and not Colonel Bainbridge. He gives her a slightly disoriented explanation of the situation, and asks her to take action. She gently explains that the Council is not in session, and that no action is possible until the next session starts. She then asks him what action he wants her to take. To Cassidy's amazement, she seems perfectly okay with the notion that the two groups of strangers might murder each other in the center of Belhanna. Cassidy thinks about talking to other Council members, then decides to go follow Belwin's advice and talk to Colonel Bainbridge. For some reason, Cassidy tries to sell the Colonel on this as an opportunity to develop good relations with the outside. The Colonel responds appropriately: he decries the advantages of having good relations with murderers and savages, but agrees to send some troops to watch the situation.
The characters finally decide to investigate the murders, using Ooth's Speak to Plants spell to see what exactly happened to the women. The tribal leader Gunjun agrees to this plan very rapidly. Dekielle is less willing, but finally agrees to accompany the characters back to the murder sites. Dekielle is less than impressed with Belwin's ideas, and claims that he's only cooperating because Belwin has helped his people and acted rational. He is even less happy with Belwin's demand that he bring one of his people along, but eventually acquiesces. In exchange, the characters agree to allow Dekielle's remaining companions to continue south on their way.
Tz'kri is selected to follow the rest of Dekielle's people on their way south, just to see if they're up to anything funny.
The characters, less Tz'kri but escorted by Bazt, head north with Gunjun and Dekielle. Their entire group includes: Belwin, Cassidy, Elias, Ooth, and Bazt; Gunjun and his three tribals; and Dekielle and his pilgrim.
The journey is uneventful (if somewhat fraught with distrust) until the second night, when Dekielle is found to have up and vanished. The characters take this development as a de facto admission of guilt, and immediately fall to interrogating the remaining pilgrim. The pilgrim claims that his group is actually planning on setting Death free, and that killing him will only bring his goal closer. He also starts to demonstrate the sort of steely resolve normally only possessed by the undead and the truly fanatic, successfully setting all of Belwin's teeth on edge.
Belwin manages to recover from the sudden sinking feeling in his stomach to enunciate a plan with such eloquence that Gunjun and his tribals instantly agree. Gunjun & Belwin will take three horses and written messages south to Colonel Bainbridge and Tz'kri as fast as Gunjun can ride. Bazt, Ooth, Elias and Cassidy will quickmarch south to reach Belhanna. The remaining tribesmen head north with the cultist. They are admonished to not kill him, assuming that his claims that killing him will only bring his goals closer might be true. Instead, the characters suggest that they should stake him down and only give him water every three days. Hopefully, this treatment will be enough to crack his suddenly fanatic demeanor.
Gunjun & Belwin run through Belhanna late that night, pausing only to get Colonel Bainbridge to detail out ten men to follow them. Bazt, Ooth, Cassidy and Elias pass through at midday the next day, practically dead on their feet from exhaustion.
The cultists travel south for a day, then make camp, put on black robes, then chant and wave knives for about an hour. They then go to sleep and post a guard. Tz'kri uses his Astral Sight to see that there is a thread forming a complete circle around the dancing group, and another faint thread flowing away into astral space.
That night, Tz'kri sneaks into the camp and steals one of the knives and one of the robes. He briefly examines the items, recognizes that he has no real use for them, then sneaks back into the camp to return them.
The next morning, the caravan organizes into two groups. The pilgrims open up the wagons, and transfer several stone jars out of one wagon into the other two. The empty wagon starts heading back towards town, while the other two wagons continue south. Four pilgrims accompany the empty wagon, while eight go with the two loaded wagons.
Tz'kri decides to follow the lone wagon, with the plan of slaughtering the occupants to a man when they get far enough away from their comrades. However, before he gets a chance to carry out this plan, he runs into Belwin and Gunjun. He tells them about the empty wagon, and instructs them to attack it. He then moves south to catch up to the remaining two wagons once again, carefully marking his trail to allow the other characters to follow his lead.
The main body of the characters are perhaps two or three hours out from Belhanna when Dekielle resurfaces an ambushes them. Ooth is struck from behind by a phenomenal blow that both wounds and topples him. The other characters turn to see Dekielle with his greatsword out, a malicious grin on his face, and his black cloak on. He also appears to be wearing what looks like archaic plate mail that doesn't clank like natural plate mail should. A pitched battle ensues, ending with Dekielle unconscious. As a precaution, the characters hamstring and hog-tied him. As a further precaution, or possibly just because he's a bloody bastard, Ooth also breaks all the bones in Dekielle's hands. Ooth also notes that Dekielle has a strong True Pattern, very strongly tied to the True Pattern in his cloak.
Gunjun and Belwin meet with the empty wagon and attack the four rather hapless cultists. They attack without subtlety and win easily. By the end of the fighting, two of the cultists are dead and two have surrendered after being mercilessly Taunted. Belwin hog-ties them, that being the custom of the time.
It turns out that the wagon isn't completely empty. It still holds one large stone jar covered in runes. The jar proves to be completely empty. Beyond that, the cultists have only traveling supplies, plus their long black robes and wicked-looking daggers. Belwin and Gunjun turn them over to Colonel Bainbridge's men later that morning. Belwin has two of them take the wagon north to Belhanna, with orders to guard the prisoners and send the rest of the characters on south when they find them. The remaining eight continue south. Belwin and Gunjun make camp in a fairly easy-to-spot location.
The rest of the characters arrive in Belhanna and get about a half-day's rest before Colonel Bainbridge's two men show up to tell them to head south. They leave Dekielle under the supervision of Colonel Bainbridge, with appropriate warnings on how dangerous he is. By late evening, everyone is reunited and rested enough to continue following Tz'kri's trail.
After three hours of walking, the characters find a very bored, tired Tz'kri pointing a crossbow at two stationary wagons. Every few minutes, a cultist pokes his head out from around one of the wagons, and Tz'kri takes a shot at it. He sounds rather unhappy to report that while the cultists originally scurried around their wagons like sideshow ducks, they have since abandoned that practice. He managed to hit two of them before they went to ground.
The characters gird themselves up for another battle that promises to be of the same epic proportions as the First Wagon Battle. Unfortunately, as the characters march onto the plain, the remaining cultists turn their knives upon themselves and commit suicide.
Both of the wagons contain several large stone jars sealed with red wax. Evil-looking runes decorate their sides. The characters determine (with some trepidation) that they contain a large quantity of blood, and appear to be darkly magical.
Cassidy uses his knowledge of Ancient History to study the runes, and learns that they relate to an ancient legend. According to the normal story, once upon a time, there were 13 Passions, one of whom was Death. The other Passions ganged up on Death and imprisoned him underneath the Death's Sea, which at the time was just another sea. After Death was trapped, the sea caught fire and assumed the form that it has today. The Death cultists believe in a variation upon this legend. They hold that the more blood they spill near the Death's Sea (or anywhere in Barsaive, really) the closer Death comes to being released. When he's released, he will reward his faithful followers.
Given Cassidy's information, there is a certain amount of discussion on exactly how to dispose of the blood. The characters decide that while simply dumping the blood out is convenient, it isn't necessarily a good idea. Belwin suggests that the blood in the containers was probably largely drawn from people who didn't voluntarily contribute it, so finding a Questor of Lochost (the Passion of Freedom) to perform some ritual of release on it might be a good idea. Elias points out that the characters don't have access to any such Questor, so in the meantime he advises establishing a miniature version of the Batcave, in which items too dangerous to allow in circulation are stored.
With the matter of the blood settled, the characters loot the two wagons. They find a map that shows the shores of Death's Sea very clearly, but which still leaves the origin of Dekielle's people in doubt. The only other item of any interest (aside from the wagons themselves, which Belhanna sorely needs) is Dekielle's plate mail (which is still archaic, but no longer incredibly quiet). Cassidy tries Item History and Ancient History on the armor, and learns nothing. Upon their return to the Kaer, Cassidy asks the old Elven Weaponsmith Relithonya his opinion. He thinks that this armor may have come from the old human Kingdom of Landis, located across the mountains to the West of Belhanna.
The session ends with the characters back in Belhanna Kaer, plotting what to do next. The session's Legend Awards are:
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Goals Completed |
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Opponents Defeated |
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Treasures |
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Roleplaying |
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Heroics |
Each Legend Award is worth 125 points. Each character gains four Legend Awards, for a total gain of 500 points. Ooth immediately spends his on Avoid Blow Rank 4 (500 points), while Tz'kri invests in Maneuver Rank 4 (500 points) and 5 points of Karma (40 points).
Dan asks that everyone send him a copy of their character sometime well in advance of the next session.