Clash with the Baboons

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Waterday


Hund, a Humakti Acolyte, played by Ben
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Hjotra from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Gust, a Grey Dog noble youth, played by Bram

The Baboons in better days...

After they killed the Yelmalio Rune Lord near Jonstown, our party decides to split up for a while and remain below the radar.  Hjotra and Ragnar decide to lay low in the Apple Lane area, and they meet up with two young Grey Dog nobles and decide to travel back to the Lismelder tribal grounds together.  They stay off-road, avoiding all contact with Lunar guards or Yelmalio patrols.

Around noon, they settle down for lunch, and just when they intend to start enjoying some nice roasted rat, Ragnar's backpack is stolen by a Baboon, who flees back into the trees at once.  The party gets up, and tries to shoot the Baboon out of the tree, but without much success.  This pulls a protective baboon shaman out of his cover, and all of a sudden the party is under attack from a Shaman and several wild Baboons charging at them.  The Shaman turns out to be a lot to deal with, and the spirits it summons hold Hund at bay for a long time.  When the spiritmaster is grievously wounded, hiss Fetch invokes a healing spirit. But his buddies are in trouble from very early on, and once they are dispatched, the Shaman cannot resist much longer and succumbs.  The party mercilessly slaughters all the Baboons and loots their pockets.

They take the Shaman staff along, and everything else that can make them any money, and advance towards the Grey Dog Tula.  Several miles down the road they meet up with a centaur patrol, but they are very careful not to upset the powerful creatures or do anything that might trigger a fight.  They are able to continue their trip unopposed, and find out Grey Dog is under direct Lunar control.  There are patrols everywhere.  Under the -hardly believable - guise of having to quench a Chaos threat, they patrol all the roads, enter the steads, and seem to be looking in the most impossible places for a Chaos threat that is rumoured to have been solved more than a week before.  They decide to avoid detection, and head north towards the Humakt stead, the only place the Lunars are not checking, officially because Humakti would never allow chaos on their terrain.

Stalking the stalkers

1618. Sea Season. Truth. Wildday


Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Xaldin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Anthonius
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Hjotra from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Hund, a Humakt initiate, played by Ben

The stone bridge near Jonstown

e find our adventurers in the middle of a fight with a trio of vicious Tusk Riders.  Xaldin, who found out his friends left for Snakepipe Hollow, quickly realized the peril they were getting themselves into, and decided to follow their trail, only to run into the Tusk riders at the exact moment they ambush the party's camp.  He arrives just in time to see how his clanfellow Ragnar is grievously wounded and loses his right arm by a charge from one of the tuskers, and does not hesitate.  By now the other adventurers have realized how bad things are: they might not live through this one.  The party focused their attention on the riders, but the threat comes from the tuskers, huge trained warboars with an attitude, and they deal some fearsome damage.  At the same instant Ragnar loses his second arm, and although he bravely keeps standing, all that remains there for him to do is to bleed to death quickly.  Hund casts his Humakti Truesword spell.  Xaldin enters the fray.  Between the two of them there is some serious damage potential, and slowly the fight turns, although it takes more divine magic from Hund to heal a crushed arm.  Brian tries a bit of acrobatics and jumps on one of the boar's backs.  Riding the bloody animal is another matter and he is thrown off seconds after, but the party prevails just in time to staunch poor Ragnar's wounds.  They loot the beastly bandits and realize the Dangerford wilds may just be a bit too dangerous for them at this stage.  They need decent armor, better spells, and more experience to survive the trip to Snakepipe Hollow.  They then return to Jonstown.

rian gets noticed by an Eurmal trickster, and decides to join the cult.  He fails the first spitting contest, but the second time around he gets accepted as an acrobat.  But Ragnar is still running around without any armor to speak off, and since a set of lamellar armor should be just about ready in Old Man Village, they decide to return to their stead and pick up the promised armor.  They take the old road to Runegate, and run into a Lunar Patrol at the river crossing.  The Lunars squeeze some good money out of our adventurers, but when the guards continue their travel, the party has a sudden change of heart.  From nearby, they attack the Lunar guard party in the back, and a fierce fight develops.  Xaldin immediately charges the Lunar sorcerer and prevents her from doing her magic, while Hund charges the guard commander, who turns out to be a Sun God Rune Lord.  Bad news!  The other party members take care of the two guards.

he Rune Lord immediately summons a salamander, which attacks our heroes, but Hund puts a lot of pressure on him, and manages to cut off his arm.  It looks as if the fight is turning to their advantage, but the Rune Lord miraculously heals completely, and presses home  another attack.  The party notice the allied spirit hawk in a tree nearby, and they feel the fear.  Is this the one fight too many?  Xaldin remains occupied with the sorcerer, unable to finish her off, but at least disallowing her to weave her spells.  Hund has a Bladesharp from the matrix he gathered from the Tusk Riders, and has cast his Truesword successfully, and with a superb blow he beheads the Rune Lord, making the salamander disappear.  The allied spirit tries a divine intervention, but fails, and the Rune Lord dies.  The sorcerer sees the fight is lost, and tries to gate out of the fight using a divine enlightenment, but the party use their hero powers to refuse the sorcerer exit, and finally they succeed.  Against all of the party, the sorcerer is killed in an instant.  The party is ecstatic and loot all the valuables, including a scroll for learning Auld Wyrm, a scroll for learning Mindspeech II, and four bronze runic coins with Lunar Runes on them.  A magical choker worn by the sorceress and a similar magical hairband, both adorned with a Lunar Moon Rune are looted as well.  The bronze armor makes some good money, and the party happily continues their travel to the Orlamrth Lands.  What will the empire's reaction be?  Will our heroes flaunt their new trinkets and get caught?  We can only wonder!
 

A particularly bad omen

1618. Sea Season. Movement. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Hund, a Colymar Humakti, played by Ben

Tusk Riders on a raid!

ith Ranath paying back his debts to the Sage of the Grey Dog temple, our adventurers undertake their adventure without spiritual guidance.  This turns out rather poorly.  The party first decides to return to Old Man Village to recuperate the sets of armor that are being made for them.  Kemal already made the trip with a trader the week before, and was able to lay his hands on the first set made.  The party returns taking the wilderness route, in order to avoid Lunar patrols, even more so because they have learned during their dinner at the inn the night before that the Lunars take captive any stranger without ties to the Colymar, or, to a lesser extent, to the Lismelder.  Soon after leaving Grey Dog Village, they notice they are being followed.  They wait for the group on their tail and learn it is a small band of Lismelder, with the obvious intention to not abide by the King's rule that Lismelder and Colymar should keep the peace.  Some quick maneuvring by our adventurers causes the already nervous Lismelder to attack, and a fight ensues.  The four attackers are no match for the party though, and they are dispatched relatively easy.

 discussion ensues, will the party leave the attackers to die, or will they make an effort to save their lives and show the Lismelder their good intention?  In the end, after much mudslinging, they decide to escort the Lismelder back to Grey Dog Village, and their mercy is well received by the villagers.  After having lost a day, the party leaves for Old Man Village once again.  This time their voyage is rather uneventful. Upon arrival in Old Man Village, Brian insists he should get the armor that is finished, and his fellow party members back down.  When after this Brian shows up with a brand new and expensive Kite shield, although he had been claiming to have no money, and has been unable to repay debts owed to his fellow party members, dissatisfaction starts to spread.  After collecting the armor the party returns to Grey Dog Village, and from there they decide to head north to the Humakti Stead in order to allow Hund to recuperate his divine spells.  They spend a day on the Stead, and on the way back they run into a pair of Dragonsnails, those vile chaos creatures that emanate out of Chaos spawns all across the lands of Sartar and way beyond.  Against expectation, they dispatch the ferocious beast without casualties, but after the fight Brian insists that Hund should have his Bison carry one of the dead horrors' shell on its back.  Hund refuses to have his beasts of burden sullied by anything chaosspawned, and Brian challenges Hund to a duel.

umakti never refuse a duel, and a short fight follows, in which Hund puts down Brian easily.  After the fight, Hund uses his divine healing to save Brian from bleeding to death, and requests the new kite shield as compensation.   This rekindles the enmity, and the two barbarians start to fight again.  This time Hund decapitates Brian by chopping of his hand at the wrist.  They have to return to Old Man Village once again, and the clan members request a ridiculous price for regrowing the clan-less Brian's arm.  He insists no further, and asks the local smith to manufacture a contraption that he can fasten to his stump, in order to have some way of doing combat.  The party members decide they need to find more money, and fast, and come up with a daring plan, to travel to Snake Pipe Hollow, the imprint of chaos on Dragon Pass, in order to get some of the riches accumulated there.  They travel north to Runegate, than follow the road to Jonstown, avoiding Lunar patrols as good as possible, and bribing them if everything else fails.  After spending the night in Jonstown, they leave the tribal ring grounds, and spend the night in Dangerford, the last beacon of civilization before the long and dangerous road that leads to Alda Chur.
They travel north for most of the day, until the light fades, and then make camp in a clearing near the road.  Brian is not paying attention when a small gang of the violent tusk riders charge without warning, and the fight turns ugly quickly.


Will the party be able to overcome this enemy?  Will Xaldin be able to follow the trail and find his party members?

The road to Greydog Village

1618. Sea Season.Fertility. Fireday

Characters partaking:
Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Xaldin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Anthonius
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben

Grey Dog Village

his rather improbable group of companions met in Clearwine and they decided to travel north to Old Man Village and beyond, each for their own reasons.  The one thing most of them have in common is their desire to live a life of adventures, to get rich and powerful or die trying.  The exception to this is Ranath, a wanderer from the Sages, always looking out for more knowledge, a commodity more valuable than gold when offered to the right person.  They prepare to leave Clearwine under a spring sun, after several days of trying to find a job that pays well there.  The plan is to travel to Old Man Village first, and try their luck there.  Maybe a trader is looking for an escort, those types always have good coin.  Maybe they can trick an old acquaintance into some Orlanth hospitality.  Or maybe Eurmal the trickster will look unto them favourably and let some riches come their way.  The future is unknown, but violence is always an option, and life is short, so, on Fireday, the party head for Old Man Village, following the road alongside the Nymie river.  Past the Black Spear clan grounds and the Colymar Wilds, where ancient spirits roam and elves reign supreme, and no man who has not made a pact with Tarndisi may enter the Wilds on punishment of death.

fter only a few hours of travel, the party run into a Lunar 4 horse cart guarded by Lunar Guards and a Lunar dignitary, which is under attack from a gang of Trollkin lead by a Cave Troll.  The Lunars are getting a beating, and things are looking grim.  Already some of the nasty Trollkin are picking up loot from the cart and running of with it, but the party decides to side up with the Lunars and they manage to attack the Trollkin gang by surprise.  The ferocious attack leaves two Trollkin dead, the others scared and ready to run, so the Cave Troll has to make a statement.  Instead of using his sling, he grabs his huge mace and charges forward.  The young Orlmarth called Ragnar facing him stands his ground, and at first manages to parry the furious Uz warrior.  The damage dealt by the Troll is way beyond what the unarmed adventurers can expect to withstand, but before things get out of hand, Ragnar manages to masterfully dismember the huge Troll with a sublime blow.  This totally discourages the remaining trollkin, and they attempt to scatter off.  The party finishes off a few more trollkin, and Brian the homeless takes one of the trollkin into captivity, intending to use him as a slave.  A thing bound to not go down well with the Uz, should they ever find out: only Uz are allowed to have trollkin slaves.  The dead cave troll is carrying a valuable bronze set of armor, a great prize indeed, and the party decides to take it along in order to sell or exchange it in Old Man village.  Some of the companions recognize one of the Lunar guards, standing behind the cart and out of harms way: it is the Lunar Tax Collector detached to the court of King Kangharl of the Colymar.  

Reaching Moon temple

The dignitary is not grateful for the rescue at all, and refuses to pay a good compensation, as Orlanth customs prescribe.  To add insult to injury, the party members understood they were hired as protectors, but the Lunar laughs them off.  Instead of a reward he gifts the party a trinket, a woodcut depicting a Temple of the Reaching Moon.  Only Ranarth is mildly interested by the object, and starts drawing the outlines of the temple into his drawing book.  The others are disgusted by the Lunar's avarice and decide to separate ways and take the ferry to Old Man village, in the hope that old feuds there might have been forgotten or at least that hospitality takes precedence.  But no such luck.  They manage to make a good deal with the local armorer and leatherworker, who agree to make them 4 sets of lammelar bronze on cuirboilli armor, one set per week.  After that it's back to everyday life, only a few coins left in pocket, only odd jobs that pay next to nothing, it seems the only option is to accompany the young Lhankor Mhy, he has good coin, he is generous enough, and everyone knows these Sages have a way with money.  Ranarth intends to travel to Grey Dog Village, where a small temple led by several Sages will allow him to make an informed decision on what way to travel next.  His fellow party members agree, and they start travelling west towards the Starfire Ridges.  Their trip is uneventful, until they reach the source of the creek they were following.  They disturb a deer drinking, and soon find out there was a predator looking to make that deer his lunch.  The party can see the hunter's shape moving swiftly through the high grass across the creek, but are unable to make out exactly what they are up against, until the sabertooth cat bounces onto the bank and leaps across towards the non-suspecting Lhankor Mhy cultist.  Xaldin attempts to shield the sage but looses his footing when jumping into the shallow creek, and Ranath gets some first hand experience on Sabertooth hunting methodology.  It takes tremendous trouble to drive the powerful beast away, and it is Kemal's trained lynx that finishes the predator off.  Ranath is in a bad state, bleeding to death, and so far healing magic to staunch the bleeding has proven ineffective.  Only just before he passes away into the Realm of Ty Kora Tek, does Brian succeed in stopping the bleeding.

The party have little choice but to make a stretcher and carry Ranath, on the brink of death, all the way to Grey Dog village to the Lhankor Mhy temple there.  The attending priest performs some powerful healing magic on Ranath, and after a long night he wakes up in the morning, feeling much better.  He discovers the loss of all his money, a considerable amount of silver, but finds the temple priests very cooperative.  He and his companions spend almost two weeks training and practicing, mostly paid for by money leant to them by Kemal of the Hiording.