The Aftermath...

1621, Third Day of the Sacred Time

After the fight with the Broo, the party are checking for wounded, looting the dead, and trying to revive collapsed Herculon.  They are too busy to notice the scorpion man sneaking up, until the evil creature is within charge range.  The scorpion man emits sleeping waves as a chaotic feature, and the entire party, with the sole exception of Giomanach, falls asleep.

The scorpion man chasing Giomanach.

The scorpion man notices Giomanach remains standing, and charges forward to skewer the lightly armored mage.  Giomanach is clever and scared enough to run, increasing the distance between the scorpion man and the rest of the party. Raiko and Jaya come to their senses, as does still wounded Daerius.  The latter attempts a first aid.  Meanwhile, Giomanach is under attack from the scorpion man, and desperately blocks as much as possible.  He gets lucky and blinds the scorpion man, buying himself some time.  In the meantime, Raiko summons an undine and makes it head towards the scorpion man,


Herculon, in the meantime, is still trying to wake up, but after a few seconds of awareness he loses conscienceness again.  But now, the party has a much better chance:  the undine has enveloped the beast, and the sleeping rays are filtered out.  Between the three of them, the party would still have had a hard time, will both warriors out of action, but the undine saves the day.  The scorpion man drowns.


Once the dust settles, a party of riders appears.  These are the guards of Duke Raus of Rone, who have come in aid of the fort, with some delay.  They have been informed by Tameh, the rescued kid, and are thankful the party took care of the broo and the scorpion man so efficiently.  The party is invited to Ronegarth, and receives healing and shelter for the night.

he next, fourth day of the Sacred Time, the party leaves Ronegarth, heading north on the Zola Fel.  As they approach the north Bog, they are recognized as the River Voices, and are made to feel very welcome.  Raiko enchants the crowd with his stories.  They meet the Naiad, get acquainted to the catfish Zola Fel Priest Bright-Eye, meet a Agimori warrior, kill a gorp or two, and then continue their voyage to Pavis, taking along a severely wounded newtling, called Ge'hechya and a dead newtling, by the name of Ma'Char.

During their stay with the Naiad and Bright-Eye, Raiko has taken the vows as a Cleansed One lay member.
  Now, when heading north, they sail into a rare sight: on the left bank the fishermen villages, on the right sight, high up the bank, a huge encampment from the Sun Dome Templars.  The adventurers notice a huge ballista on the bank, and for a moment they think they're running into an ambush.  Then the River Barge hits the huge gorp lying in the Zola Fel.  The crash is so unexpected, that several party members are catapulted into the water.  It takes some aid from the driver undine to get everyone out of the water safely.  In the process, the boat is ripped in two.

They notice Yelanda, now a Rune Lord, standing amongst the commanders at the command tent.  Jaya returns the crown of Yamsur to her, making a friend for life.  Yelanda speaks for the party, who want to resurrect the newtling Ma'Char, much against the inclination of the Sun Domers.  The party get their way, and Ma'Char and Ge'hechya leave for their hometown, after making a promise of returning and serving the party for one year.  The party tells the Sun Domers all they know about the Gorps, the Breeder Gorps, and their experience in trying to kill them.  This Breeder is huge.

he next day, the Sun Domers have gathered tens of wizards, and with the aid of a troop Humakti and the party, they intend to kill the chaotic breeder in one blow.  The plan fails, and hundreds of little gorps escape, but the backup plan that is in place works: the entire area is cleared out, only few are wounded, and only lightly, and the scourge of the Zola Fel is lifted. The Sun Domers are grateful, albeit with the usual reservations.  They allow teh adventurers to restock damaged weapons and supplies, before offering them another boat to get back to Pavis.  They hook up with their friend, Storm Voice Ademin.  He has been loyally waiting with their goods, and bids them farewell after they loaded the 7 crates onto the Sun Domer boat.  Ademin continues south, after advising Herculon to become an acolyte as soon as possible, and learn consecrate.  Services too Orlanth are necessary, and much too rare these days.  As the barge sailed north, Ademin sung a song of storms and winds.  If only the Sun Domers would realize exactly what the cargo was...

Up the Zola Fel

1621, Third Day of the Sacred Time

 

The party has investigated the mudshark den, and returns with a plan.  With some trouble, they manage to get up into the cave.  Good thing though, they manage to get in unheard.  Raiko and Jaya  enter the rightmost cave, and discover a mudshark sleeping.  Raiko sneaks up to the monster, and kills it silently in its sleep.  The rest of the party heads the other way, and alert a next of younglings with a female mudshark.  The creatures attack at once, but prove no match for this hardened party.  They hardly manage to threaten the adventurers, and within seconds the mudsharks are dispatched and the mission accomplished.  When they return to Sa'ar, the Zola Fel priest, to report a successful mission, they are received as heroes.  All along the town they get congratulated and hailed as river voices and heroes of Corflu, Zola Fel favorites.

Sa'ar has arranged a boat with a pilot and undine for their travel north, and after a night of heavy partying and drinking, the adventurers head for Lokazzi and beyond.  On the second day, along the Zola Fel, they are hailed by a young boy accompagnied by an otter.  The boy requests their help with getting rid of a gorp in his cave.  The party helpfully complies, and follow the youngster into his narrow cave, where they discover a gorp in the water indeed.  Using their Zola Fel River Eye, they quickly spot the creature in the murky water, and a few disruptions and fire arrows take care of the chaos abomination quickly.  The grateful fellow gifts Jaya with a bronze and golden shield that lights up in the dark.  Then the party accepts his invitation to visit his homestead.  The adventurers follow the young boy through the marshes, through murky pools, mangrove trees, and finally arrive at a ramshackle collection of huts in a clearing amidst the trees.  The homesteaders receive the heroes with respect, and offer them a meal and lodging.  The next morning the party returns to the river, and heads north against the Zola Fel current again.  The banks become more and more overgrown with vegetation as they head up north.  They arrive at a homestead close to the bank, and are hailed by a lady inside the walls of the stead.  She is in despair, as a gang of broos have just kidnapped her young son and adolescent daughter.  Her husband and brother have left only hours ago, in a futile attempt to follow and kill the Broo and rescue the children.  According to the woman, the Broo were ten, led by a shaman.  Our heroes do not dawdle.  They quickly find the trail and head off into the woods on a rescue mission.

It takes them a few hours, before they hear sound of melee in the distance.  When they check out the situation, they see the two Rivermen, surrounded by ten or so Broo.  The children are kept in check by one of the Broo, the Shaman is overseeing the events, and the 8 other Broo attack the two helpless men.  Herculon, in his typical idiom, charges forward, followed, after some hesitation, by Raiko.  The rest of the party, however, fails to respond as quickly, creating a dangerous situation for our heroes.  The charging heroes cannot avoid the brutal murder of the two tribesmen.  Within seconds, Herculon and Raiko face 7 Broo, while another one charges forward in an attempt to prove his exceptional valor.  The Shaman starts casting Malia's scourges upon the party members, who quickly learn Avert is no remedy for Malia's terror theism.  At first, Herculon seems to buckle under the pressure from 4 Broo, but he withstands the attacks, and in his berserker fury, after suffering several wounds, he manages to cut one broo in half through the chest.  The other Broo keep hacking at him, and the suffers several other serious wounds, which he barely notices in his Berserk fury.  Raiko has three opponents, and defends himself bravely, but lacks the destructive power of the berserker.  The last Broo is intercepted by young Daerius, and after a short fight the Talastaring prevails.  The aid allows Herculon to decapitate two other Broo quickly, and after about half a minute, the situation is already looking a lot better.  

As the Shaman notices the change, he retreats, accompanied by two surviving Broo, and taking the kids along.  Our heroes sense the danger, and start sprinting.  Raiko, with a useless right arm due to a very serious wound, summons his ancestor spirit, and in the guise of Hadrath, summons a large water undine.  He binds the undine and commands it to envelop one of the Broo.   Herculon, bleeding out of half a dozen of serious wounds, blindly follows the Shaman and his helper, and Jaya and Daeriius follow suit.  They discover the fleeing Broo, homing in on the heartbreaking cries of anguish from the children, as the Broo have already initiated the breeding.  Shocked, our party attempts to stop the brutality, but prove very inefficient in doing so.  The young girl suffers the worst fate, the young boy's assailant dies in the act.  Then, exhausted, Herculon falls to the floor, his several serious wounds now taking effect with a vengeance...

"Daga"

1621, Storm Season 50, Truth Week, Freezeday

The party has dragged several crates of stuff to the Zola Fel river bank where the boat is moored, and is preparing to load their flatbottom.  Since it is evening, they decide to set up camp where they are, and leave for Corflu the next day.  They set up three watches, and everything remains quite during the first watch, but as Herculon and Raiko keep second watch, a gang of thugs approaches as sneakily as they can.  Not without being noticed though.  Our friends pretend to not have noticed the attackers, and Raiko moves out of sight and sneaks back.  When the thugs attack, Herculon is ready, he takes out the first thugh with one blow to the head, then finished the second by almost decapitating him.  The thugs realize they have bitten off more than they can chew, and the headman starts planning an escape only seconds after starting the fight.  He casts a darkwall, in an attempt to disorganize the party and retreat, but Jaya runs forward, luckily ends up straight next to the thug leader, and compels him to surrender.  Morik, as he is called, decides to give up, rather than die for the cause.  On the thug leader they find a note from Gimgim The Grim, and a purse with 250 Lunars.

With the weather getting more and more ugly, the party has no choice but to get out of the sandstorm, but just at this moment their boat begins to slip free.  The pilot tries to jump on board, but fails, and if not for Herculon to grab the line at the last moment, the boat would definitely have been gone.  However, for all his brute strength, Herculon is unable to keep the boat from drifting off.  Daerius and Giomanach try to catch the line and assist him, but to no avail.  When, after several shameful attempts, Giomanach manages to grab hold of the rope, Herculon, exhausted, must let go.  The boat crashes into the marshy shore brush.

The next morning, the weather is better.  The boat has suffered some damage, and the party starts repair.  Morik is taken captive, the henchmen are stripped and sent off.  Morik tells them about the crown he is supposed to find, and his award he received in advance.  During repairs a hooded figure appears from the north, with an ox wagon.  As the orlanthi in the party come forward, the visitor reveals his true identity: He is Ademin, the Storm Voice.  He is willing to consecrate a shrine and hold a service for the Orlanthi, permitting Herculon to recuperate his theist spells.  For several days our party remains busy finding wood and reed to repair their boat as well as possible.  Meanwhile Jaya and Raiko head back to the Rabbit Hat Farm, and after some searching, discover the Pumpkinhead's treasure trove.  They find several trinkets, as well as the crown of Yamsur.  They only tell their comrades about the crown.

The repairs finished, the party head south again.  The boat has lost a lot of his speed, though, and Ademin manages to keep up with them in his ox cart.  The first morning of the Sacred Time, our heroes wake up in a different environment.  The Zola Fel gone, no more boat, and some of the party members have taken on mysterious identities.  Ademin now seems to play the role of the Orlanth, Raiko has become Hadrath Ingilli, and Daerius is toiling in the field as Barntar, bringing water to the scorched fields forom his well.  Giomanach seems to have become an incarnation of Pavis, and Herculon is chained to a rock, berserking away, like The Storm Bull on a good day.  Amina Ingilli, priest of Zola Fel, appears and convinces Raiko to become initiate to Zola Fel, and mend his ways.  Raiko accepts, without going into detail exactly what ways would need mending.  Daga, the wraith of drought appears.  He has taken Heler, the rain god, captive, and is disappearing into Daga's desert with him.  The party tries to stop Daga with violence, always an option, but The Storm Bull cannot bear to be this close to Daga for more than a few seconds, and collapsed from teh drought.  Barntar seems to be more enduring, but must give up as well.  Jaya, who is playing the part of Ernalda, intends to bring water from Barntars well using her cooking pots, but Hadrath summons the biggest undine he can, and drives it to Daga, who vanishes upon contact with the water entity, releasing Heler.  The party escapes through the well.

They do not return to the boat, however:  Ademin has vanished, but the party wake up on some beach, with a gang of baboons trying to steal their possessions.  It takes them some convincing and some rolling of muscle to get their gear back from the Baboons, and the limited communication is not helping. In the end, however, they recuperate everything, and discover they are only minutes from the town of Corflu.  In Corflu they meet up with the local Zola Fel priest, and he tells them about a series of runes that have appeared on their wrists.  These runes are the Zola Fel runes, and the characters are the river voices, selected by Zola Fel himself to help the Corflu people in their struggle.  The townsfolk are very enthusiast about the new visitors, and they receive a heroes welcome during their stay.  The priest arranges a fast vessel for them to return to Pavis, but requests a service in return: the locals being exploited as workers in the river, often get attacked by mudsharks, and the party will have to kill these ferocious beings.  They accept, and after a short recon mission decide on a plan.