Captive!

 1618. Sea Season. Truth. Godday


Aylwin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Philip
 Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben 
Odd, who moves in the shadows, played by Kristof
Ulic, a sorcerer apprentice from Tarsh, played by Alexander

The chaos contingent attacks near the Grey Dog Inn bridge

fter their clash with the Scorpion Man and the Broos, the party retreated back to Grey Dog.  After a reinforcing meal, while they inform the Tula Council of what has perspired, the guards call the alarm: a threat has been seen approaching near the Grey Dog bridge: the Chaos gang has returned.  The party tries to set up an ambush near the bridge, but is quickly outmaneuvered by the Scorpion Man who crosses the river rather than the bridge.  As Aylwin tries to charge into one of the Broo from horseback, the Scorpion Man attacks Ulic and Ranath near the bridge.  Although unarmoured, the sorcerer and sage make a stand, and with a bit of luck, Ulic manages to hit the Scorpion Man with Palsy, on the thorax.

Odd crosses the bridge and tries to finish off the floored Broo, and Aylwin attack another broo crossing the river.  Odd has a hard time dealing serious damage, and things take too long: Aylwin has unmounted the warhorse and turns out to be no match for the Broo, he is hit and bled, and in dire need of healing.  It takes a bold dash from Odd to save the hunter from imminent death.  Meanwhile the two students are still fighting the Scorpion Man.  Ranath is hitting the beast furiously, and after minutes of hammering, the beast's armor starts to degrade, creating an opening near the thorax.  Meanwhile Ulic is dividing his attention between the Broo and the scorpion man, trying to control the fight and palsy the enemies.  This takes a lot of time, but in the end it succeeds.  The Scorpion Man is finished off, and after a long fight our heroes win the day.
The party is then informed that during the fight, a young girl has been kidnapped on the other side of the Tula, and that one of the captors has been caught.  They brutally interrogate the culprit before killing him, and learn that once again the Gagarthi in the Stead in the woods are behind the attacks and the kidnapping.  They learn about links between the Lunars and the Gagarthi, and conclude that their best chance for success is to go lie in ambush near the Stead of the robbers and try and intercept the young girl and/or a messenger.  It takes a lot of patience before anything happens, but it seems their hunch was right.  A small boat with the girl on board and two robbers is launched at night, and the party is witness to the proceedings.  They also notice Miskar and his accomplice seeing the captured girl and her escort off.

Aylwin is surrounded by the Gagarthi and taken prisoner

Because of the strong current and their centralized position, they find they are in a bad position, and in a bad call to react more quickly, Odd alarms the bandits when trying to call his horse.  The Rune Lord invokes some powerful divine magic quickly, and a gang of robbers pours out of the Stead within seconds.  In the chaos, Aylwin fire a multimissile at Miskar, and does some damage, and Miskar sends his wolf, who spots Odd and heads for him at lightning speed.  Odd has to jump for his life, and the Wolf now attacks Ulic.  Miskar casts more spells, demoralizing 2 party members, and Ulic is seriously wounded by the wolf and falls unconscious.  This is bad timing, with a dozen bandits approaching, and a furious Rune Lord hovering through the trees.
Aylwin and Odd do a final attempt to rescue their partner, and while Aylwin holds off the Wolf Odd manages to heave Ulic onto the horse.  Ranath drives off, Odd sneaks away as stealthily as he can, and all of a sudden Aylwin is the only one that remains visible.  The wolf is on him, Miskar behind, and the robbers quickly surround him and take him prisoner.  The rest of the party escape with their life, but it was a close call, and Miskar turns out to be a more fearsome opponent than expected.

A Taint of Chaos

 1618. Sea Season. Truth. Wildday

Blanka from the Ernaldori - Colymar Tribe, played by Bram
Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben 
Odd, who mov es in the shadows, played by Kristof
A'ido, a Grey Dog Cottar, played by Bart

After locating the whereabouts of the protection gang, our heroes returned to the Grey Dog Tula to resupply. They meet up with A'ido, a young Grey Dog Cottar, restless after participating in several Lismelder battles and looking for adventure, and decide to take him along, his military experience could come in handy.  Gunnar and Ulic sort of disappear all of a sudden, without notice, and the party are killing time most of the day waiting for them, until they decide to spend some of the money they have already made, and buy themselves riding animals.  A'ido thinks the best place for buying mounts is the Snorri stead, and they head east into the valley.  They have no notice of the duo of assassins on their trail though, and are completely unprepared when they notice movement in the bushes ahead.  A young female barbarian comes out of hiding, pretending to have been startled by the adventurers' arrival.  A'ido smells a rat, he has never seen the woman before, she is not wearing any Vinga or Babeester Gor marks, something you'd expect an armored female to have.  Odd immediately hides in the bushes, the other three advance cautiously, awaiting events.

Just when the party starts believing everything is all right, from his cover Odd notices another shape stealthily approaching the party from the rear.  Odd tries to ambush the new assailant, but gets noticed, and the female immediately drops her 'innocent' guise and befuddles A'ido, jumps forward, drives her spear into Blanka's eye, pulls back, and charges A'ido, all in one swift movement.  She is ready to strike the Grey Dog warrior before Blanka hits the ground, bleeding to death.  Odd, rather than alarming the party, decides to go for cover again, leaving the party unaware of the threat approaching.  The second attacker sneaks up to Ranath, and tries to strangle him with his Garotte.  His garotte grabs Ranaths Staff as well though, and this buys Ranath a few seconds of breathing time, although he is clearly in big trouble.  Meanwhile A'ido is reawakened by the female's ferocious attack, and he manages to parry her charge.  Odd comes out of hiding, sneaks up behind the assassin strangling Ranath, and stabs at him.  The assassin has to make a choice: letting go of the garotte or being completely open to Odd's surprise attack.  Split second, he decides to evade, and lets go.  He fails to remain standing, and Odd follows up closely.  The fight now quickly turns, and both assailants are captured.  After some brutal examination and Ranath's mind reading both villains are given a dose of barbarian justice.

fter some rather sloppy looting, the party heads for the Snorri's, a good 2 miles down the river, and meets Galan Snorri, the horse master of the Stead.  They purchase several horses, including the one warhorse available.  Blanka and Odd also buy a War hound, but the choice is not great, and they end up with two rather ugly mongrels, the one even more weakly than the other, and both are too fat.  But they make a lot of noise and smell funny, and as such they fit their masters well.  With their new steeds, our heroes return to the Tula, only to find it in some degree of excitation:  A goat with two heads has been born, and people are of two minds: either this is an omen of a good year for the herds, or it is some kind of evil enchantment, another ploy of chaos, possibly orchestrated by the Lunar oppressor, in their ongoing attempt to put the Lismelder, the last fount of resistance in Sartar, down.  
A  divination, strongly supported by our heroes, and especially Blanka and Odd, reveals evil wrongdoings in the west.  The two-headed goat is clearly a sign of an evil ploy by chaos.  A'ido quickly learns the sense chaos spell, and the party rides out in pursuit of the chaotic aberration.  Near the bridge to Lawspeaker Hill they notice an old crone, on her knees, digging in the sand.  They come closer to see more clearly what the old witch is conjuring, and see her working with the innards of a dead animal.  A'ido casts the sense chaos, and the chaotic presence in the woods is clear, so the party advances.  This alerts the old crone, who turns around, and begins incantating her spirit song.  A'ido is attacked by a malignant spirit, and Odd kills the crone with a poisonous dart.  Out of the woods appear three broos, one with a lionesque aspect, one with stag-like horns, and one looking like a boar.  Only seconds later another, faster shape emerges: a scorpion man, who charges straight ahead.  The scorpion man, being faster than the broos, charges Blanka's horse, dealing some serious damage.  Blanka manages to escape, and the scorpion man turns on Odd.  Odd casts a dark wall, and manages to deviate the scorpion man onto Ranath, as well as slowing down the lion broo.  Brave Ranath has to stand and face the scorpion mans fierce attack for several rounds before retreating to his horse.  Meanwhile, the two wardogs are keeping the pig broo busy, allowing the party to shoot it.  The scorpion man turns out to have very strong armor, probably a chaotic feature, and the adventurers lose courage and retreat to Grey Dog Tula.

A case of protection...

1618. Sea Season. Truth. Godday

Aylwin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Philip
Blanka from the Ernaldori - Colymar Tribe, played by Bram
Gunnar 'the devoted' Gunnarson from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Gunther
Ranath, a Lhankor Mhy student, played by Ben 
Ulic Qel-Droma, a Bagnot resident from Tarsh, played by Alexander

pon arrival at the Grey Dog Inn, our heroes learn that their trader contact has returned home, and the Innkeeper is reluctant to disclose the trader's home address.  So the adventurers have little alternative to getting a room.  Blanka hires a very cheap room, but gets a nasty surprise when she is attacked by a giant caterpillar with an attitude, and almost dies, if not for the help of her fellows.  But she did save a few coppers.
Quentin Longbrewer, the innkeeper, feels responsible for what happened, and the fact that the party is not pushing for compensation endears them to him somewhat and he offers them free breakfast the next morning.  Our heroes sit waiting for most of the day, until the trader returns, and they quickly finalize business, almost forgetting their stash of looted weaponry in the hurry.  Since they are offered free supper as well, they decide to stay another night.  Next day at breakfast two burly looking barbarians enter and Quentin takes them into the kitchen.  The party immediately get a bad feeling about the two fellows, and they try to listen in to the conversation, but discover the kitchen is empty.  They quickly discover the trap in the floor, and manage to overhear how the two thugs put pressure on Quentin to pay a protection fee.  Quentin is not impressed, and warns the two to get out, when Aylwin decides to bravely jump down the trapdoor to come to the innkeeper's aid.  Sadly, he misses his jump and lands flat on his belly, missing the two outlaws completely.  They climb up the ladder, and leave the kitchen, the party in pursuit.  A fight ensues, with Ranath joining in from the Lhankor Mhy temple across the street.  They quickly discover a backup party of 2 more thugs in a dark alley nearby.  Aylwin bravely charges forward, and quickly disptaches with the notorious Elrund the butcher.  The party also kill  Gagrid, but just when they want to loot the victims, the Lunar Guard arrives on the scene.  Some exceptional talking keeps them out of the claws of the law, and they return to the inn.

Miskar the racketeer

he next day they notice the inn is very silent when they awake.  Quentin and his wife lie on the floor, bleeding profusely.  The Lhankor Mhy Priest manages to staunch the bleeding of Quentin, but his wife does not survive.  It quickly becomes clear the racketeers have a hand in this, and the party decides to split up and investigate further.  Blanka, now having gained the trust of Quentin, learns that the old warrior and innkeeper is an alchemist, and Blanka is accepted as his lay member.  Ulic, frustrated with his inability to advance in the arts of sorcery, decides to join a Lunar sorcery cult, unaware of exactly what this entails.  Ranath goes back to the temple to investigate, and Aylwin and Gunnar run into a pair of assassin guild operatives sent to dispatach them.  However, with Gunnar's astute perception the assassins are unable to properly prepare, and the ambush is foiled.  Our heroes are covered in wounds, but the death-dealers have gotten a dose of their own recipe.  The party realizes that they are now on the hitlist of the thugs, and they decide to take the fight to them.  Some further investigation quickly makes clear where the operation headquarters is, and they go and take a look.  It is clear immediately that they have little chance in a straight fight, and they change tactics: they set up an ambush of their own, and ensnare two thugs that come collecting at the smithy.  They murder all four of them, but not before mind reading some very valuable information about the gang they are facing.  The leader of the gang is or has been an important member of the Gagarthi, and his name is Miskar.  He is wearing an eye-patch.  His lieutenant is called Aguilo, and the gang has about 10 more full members, plus a large contingent of aides, runners and initiates.  They occupy a farm, and force the peasants to stand guard and work for the gang, keeping their families hostage to ensure their cooperation.  With both sides now well aware of the presence and danger the other party represents, who will take the next step?

Excerpt from the writings of Ranath

Nymie Valley, 1618, Sea season, Fireday in Fertility Week

I had been on the road with those barbarians for two days and every heartbeat they became harder to endure. Ignorant they were, of the ilk that would light their campfire with a tome written by Dilfar the Deepsighted himself without a second thought. Oh, if it was merely ignorance, one of them showed the sure signs of a kleptomaniac, time and time again demonstrating pathetic attempts to pilfer some of the goods of a Lunar high dignitary, right under the man's nose! Obviously oblivious to the fact that all of Sartar would be answerable for any missing goods as they were tribute to the Empire. Needless to say I was unable to seize this great opportunity to learn more from the Pelorian, but he did give me a small model of a temple in Peloria, obviously thinking it worthless, but I have already started copying the layouts of the architecture to my books. Perhaps I will be able to piece something together when I return to the library at Jonstown … but I digress. We were resting by a small well when one of the barbarians jumped up shouting “shadowcat!”. Delighted at the foresight to be able to study one of these graceful creatures I ran to the small stream in the direction he was pointing. The barbarian rushed into the water like a madman, losing his footing, momentarily distracted by his strange behavior I almost failed to notice the nightmarish storm of teeth and claws that flew at me. This was not a shadowcat! In a haze I noticed the dagger-like fangs of a fullgrown sabretooth tiger. I was just able to evade its powerful claws, but was unable to withstand the full impact of its mighty body. Before I could regain my breath I was being mauled by the ferocious animal. I can't recollect much of what went on after that, but apparently my crude companions were able to drive off the wild monster. To my surprise they were decent enough to stop the bleeding of my grievous wounds and carry me to the village where they left me in the good hands of the local priest. Unfortunately they seemed to have succeeded in losing my purse containing twelve hundred silver coins! I was saving these to fund my expedition to Pavis later this year … now I had lost both my money and had to pay back the temple with three weeks of teaching village children the difference between the rune for law and the rune for beast! … Well, I guess it could have ended worse. At least I was able to do some research in the small collection of the temple. And the barbarians will soon leave again as well, I feel Lankhor Mhy has called me to follow them, I sense there's much to learn where their path will take them, it may even be worth enduring their stench and foul manners.

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.