To the rescue in Wilmskirk

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Drayin from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dani 
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Indra Karanendottir, a Hiording noble from the Karanen Bloodline, played by Florence

The baboons attack our adventurers

ndra Karanendottir of the Hiording and her aides, Kemal and Drayin, have been traveling for some time now.  Their travels took them to Quackford, where they got in conflict with the local thieves gang, so rather than risk any harm they decide to leave town and head for Boldhome.  They travel via the Stone Road and pass Wilmskirk the day after.  About one hour down the road from Wilmskirk, the party enters a small hamlet, three of four Steads, with lots of grazing land.  However, no cattle is visible, apart from an old shepherd and some sheep, and one mangy cow.  No farmers, no warriors, it sure is a most distressing sight.  As our adventurers approach the shepherd is wary at first, but seeing the clan attire of the hiording and the torq of a clan noble, he loosens up and tells the party about the incessant raids this small hamlet has been enduring since several weeks now.  A gang of raiders has been stealing cows almost daily, and although the few warriors that guard the steads have been constantly pursuing the robbers, they have been unable to stop the looting.  As a final measure, a F?yrd Women blessing ritual has been performed at the small Vinga shrine, and all the woman have left as well, a second party trying to trap the looters or discover their hideout.

his morning the raiding party attacked once more, and the warriors took to their horses straight away, in an attempt to stop the thieves and return the stolen cattle.  However, since the raiders and the warriors have left, another problem has arisen.  A gang of baboon has discovered just how vulnerable this stead has become with all the warriors gone, and they have been trying to steal the last few pieces of cattle.  Already, they ran off with a plow, and Melche the shepherd expects them to return to try and steal more valuable items.  The shepherd has locked himself into the horse pen with the cow and his sheep, and is guarding the stead as well as possible, but if the baboons return, he will not be able to hold them off and prevent them from entering the buildings and looting them.  Indra and her companions decide they must help the Shepherd in his mission, and they keep the man company.  Surely, before one hour has passed, they hear noises, and a gang of baboon appears on the hill near the cattle pen.  The three adventurers charge forward, and quickly dispatch a small baboon, but have a hard time killing of the leader, when suddenly a baboon shaman appears.  The shaman starts summoning disease spirits, and although the warriors resist the spirit's attack, the fight starts to turn ugly.  It is not until they manage to subdue thye leader that the tables change.  The shaman makes one final effort to heal the leader using a healing spirit, but Indra reaches the leader just in time and finishes him off.
The shaman has no intention to follow his commander, and runs.  Kemal and Indra fire several arrows, but are unable to prevent the shaman's escape.  For hours, the shaman keeps following them, staying just out of reach, until the party succeeds in throwing the baboon off their scent.

Miskar under pressure

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Godday

With so many of his henchmen out of the fight, Miskar hovers towards the enemy.

Hund, a Humakti Acolyte, played by Ben
Odd the Dark One, played by Kristof
Gust, played by Bram
Ulic the sorcerer, played by Alexander 
Gunnar the Demoralized, played by Gunther
Aelwyn and his brother, played by Philip

fter the last confrontation with Miskar the Gagarthi, and the subsequent capture of Aelwyn, our adventurers hunger for revenge, and they manage to field a nice group of stout warriors.  They get help from Hund, a Humakti acolyte, and Gust, a wild barbarian with a foul temper.  The party has several paths open to them.  They could spy on the Gagarthi, attempt to find out what their activities entail.  Or intercept messengers and convoys, in a bid to uncover their activities.  They could find out about their weaknesses and strengths, allies, and other important information.  Based on that information, they could formulate a plan, determine when the enemy is the weakest, and hit when he least expects it.  However, they decide to ride into the woods towards the captured stead, and run into a guard in a matter of minutes.  Miskar expects the adventurers to try something, and has posted guard on both sides of the woods.  His wolf companion is scouting as well, and the gang are ready for the adventurers' attack.  Or so they think.  

hen the guards spot the party, one of the guardsmen blows the alarm, and Miskar's wolf quickly finds our party and informs Miskar.  The gang leader is ready, quickly he leads his troupe into the woods, towards the invaders.  They stand 12 man strong, and are lead by Miskar's right hand, with Miskar in reserve.  They face the party, and the odds look insurmountable, 12 robbers, a runelord and sidekick against a party of 6 adventurers, it looks like the party's only chance is an attempt to escape, and it is certainly what Miskar expects will happen.  However, things turn out differently.  While Odd starts flanking on his warhorse, Ulic steps forward, and using his forbidden craft he palsies several of the robbers in one go.  Then Hund the Humakti advances, and lets loose his powerful divine magic, disarming several more.  This startles the gang members to no end: this was supposed to be a walkover, but here they stand, their number halved before the fight has even begun.  Miskar lets out his Magic as well, demoralizing only Gunnar.  Then, enraged, he drives his men forward, rather than take the time to cancel the sorcery.  Several of his men are lying on the ground, or standing with one of their limbs shaking uncontrollably.  Panic spreads amongst the Gagarthi, and only the bravest make a real effort to reach the enemy.  

his, of course, plays into the hand of our brave bunch.  Odd, forgotten in the hectic battle, succeeds in getting past the Gagarthi unseen and trots towards the captured Stead in search of Aelwyn.  The enemy, rather than charging at our adventurers in one pack, arrive in waves, and with some deadly blows, the party quickly dispatch Miskar's general.  Miskar loses his selfcontrol and hovers forward, intending to take revenge and set things to right, but by the time he reaches the melee he is left alone on the battle field, all others either dead or grievously wounded, or at least pretending to be.  His enemies see their chance and surround him, and suddenly Miskar is under severe pressure.  The constant flurry of blows prohibits him taking efficient action, and after several high damage blows, he needs a divine intervention to save his life.  His hope to startle the enemy by renewing the attack turns out fruitless, and now all his enemies are on him, killing him a second time.  He has to use his divine intervention again, this time at a high cost, and is healed and turns invisible.  This time, he does not insist, he runs off to safety, ready for revenge at a later date.  Meanwhile Odd made it to the Stead, and dispatches two old guards.  He finds the main Stead, but no trace of Aelwyn.  In a second building, he finds the sleeping quarters of the men, and he notices a trapdoor leading down to a narrow tunnel.  He follows the tunnel and runs into a guard, a young guy, not even bearded, but it takes him a lot of time to take the fellow out.  In one cell the young man was guarding, he finds a weakened Aelwyn, who had been under interrogation for two days, but without telling anything to his captors.  The other cell holds two young women, daughters of Orlmarth Carls, that have been captured by the Gagarthi.  They had not been maltreated and were to be sent to some other location, possibly to be sold as slaves or some other grim fate.

Indrodar and the acolyte

1618. Fire Season. Harmony. Windsday

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

he murder on the Yelmalio Runelord has alarmed the Lunars. From Boldhome comes word that the culprit must be captured. Divination has revealed the deadly blow has been struck by a young Humakti and some of his acquaintances. The Lunar guard have serious suspicions the party is hiding at the Humakt Stead, as several of their informers have reported a party of adventurers arriving in the Grey Dog Tula late on the 9th, coming from the east. The Indrodar claim they are in the middle of a ceremony preparation and refuse the Lunars entry, and the prospect of facing three Swords does not entice the guard captain. So he decides to wait.
Meanwhile, inside the Stead, the high priest talks to Hund and his party. The Stead is completely surrounded, and there is no easy way out. One option is to break through the guard blockade, or fight to the death trying. Although this prospect seems a good one, the high priest sees another option, albeit somewhat unhumakti. But the unusual twist might just fool the Lunars. As Hund becomes more and more convinced that sacrificing his life to the Indrodar is his rightful path, the high priest proposes to pretend that Hund has admitted to have committed the murder against cult orders, and therefore has chosen dishonourable death.

o fool the Lunars, a secret potion is brewn, and Hund's body is presented to the Lunars. It takes some convincing, but finally they swallow the story, and the Guard Captain lifts the siege and departs, ready to report the demise of the culprit.Hund agrees to take the acolyte rites immediately, and his fellows decide to join him in the HeroQuest he faces. He must face his immortal enemy. The party are assisted by the Indrodar and enter the Hero Plane. They arrive on a barren plain, with not a living soul in sight. They head east, until they run into what looks like a copy of the Humakt Stead. Spectral flames make it look like the Stead is one fire. The party arrive from the east and arrive at a bridge, a dragon is standing on the other side. The dragon is floating, and looks more like a dragon statue that an actual dragon. As the mythical animal does not seem alarmed in the least by the approaching party, Hund carefully crosses the bridge, and touches the dragon. Immediately he is under attack from the dragon statue's powerful spirit.He quickly loses the spirit combat, only to find out he is not possessed by the spirit. When he opens his mouth, spectral flames spew forth, and Hildigrim, standing just in front, gets seriously hurt by the unexpected eruption.A sense enemies reveals that the Stead is full of them, and as soon as they approch, skeletons pour out to attack them. The lesser skeletons are easily dispatched of, and even the larger skeletons and a mummie quickly find eternal rest at the hands of our gang.

fter the fight, the party enters the duplicate Stead, and they find some weird characters in the basement. One of them turns out to be Elmal, one is Chalana Arroy, and one looks just like Delecti, assuming someone knows what Delecti looks like. It is clear the appartitions are mere spectral projections, but when Hund charges Delecti, he quickly learns even a shadow of the Lord of the undead is a formidable foe, and it takes an intervention from Chalana Arroy to save Hund from almost certain death. After taking care of Delecti, instead of returning, the party decides to venture further into the plane, they run into a bear, that probably got sucked up in the Heroquest because of their venture, and it takes a bit of luck to find an exit and return to the mundane plane in one piece. Hund returns an acolyte, and decides to have a long hard think about the rest of his life.

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.

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.

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.

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!