Across the Plains of Prax

1622, End of the Earth Season

 

Jhonen's caravan en route to Swenstown

Our heroes have felt the wrath of GimGim the Grim and escaped with their lives, albeit with some help from Sun Lord Yelanda. That is an achievement in itself. Their loyal newtling sidekicks have escorted them out of the town, and out of harms way, with the aid of some riverfolk friends and a reed boat. The party decides to seek refuge at the dwarf knoll oasis, where the run into Jhonen, a merchant seeking protection for a trek to Boldhome. Our adventurers decide on the spot. They wil escort Jhonen to Swenstown, then travel south to the Old Wind Temple. From there, they will head to the Ernaldori lands and liberate Herculon's captive brother.
The party heads west from Dwarf Knoll, using Tada's as a reference point, and steer clear of Moonbroth and the ever-increasing Lunar presence there. They make it to Pimpers block in one day, then decide to press on to the hamlet of Thorsen, on the road to Swenstown, so they can have a good night's sleep. Jhonen the merchant is no unknown in Thorsen, and his arrival causes some excitement from the locals. Jhonen's goods are eagerly inspected, and business is good, and the Issaries merchant invites his guards for a drink in the Obese Hog's Inn that afternoon. Of course our heroes accept, and Raiko once again ends up rather drunk by sunset. In order to get his head clear again, he orders a banquet, a clear indication of the level of luxury this party has become used to during months of training and no adventuring.
At dinner Giomanach notices one of the locals looking at Jhonen in a funny way, and that same evening there is some noise in the hallway. Giomanach investigates and finds the same local threatening Jhonen with a knife. The sorcerer intervenes, and the local scurries off.
The next day, travel goes a lot less quickly, and the mountain roads prove hard to negotiate with four wagons of goods. When the road is blocked by large boulders, the party has no choice but to clear the road, and before they are back on their way it is getting dark. They decide to set up camp on a clearing on the top of the mountain. As they do this, they notices a pack of wolves on the slopes, and during the night, the wolves stay near the camp looking for opportunity. The party sets up a perimeter of torches to keep the canines at bay.
The next day, after only an hour of travel, the party is attacked by a group of archers. They quickly deploy, only to find out there is a second half of robbers attacking them in the rear. The situation is less than ideal, and things would look ugly if not for the hardened adventurers: Giomanach quickly dispatches some crowd control, and Herculon, Daerius, Raiko and Jaya make the thieves see the error of their ways. They are no match for the veteran warriors and are quickly dispatched. If Jhonen noticed the use of vile sorcery, he does not let on: after the fight he congratulates the group for their efficiency.

The last village to visit before arriving in Swenstown is Aylesford. The party arrives at the village perimeter and notice corpses everywhere. Clearly something is very amiss here. As they roll into the market square, they notice the buildings, with the chapel being particularly gruesome. The door has been pulled out of the hinges, and inside lie most of the villages women and children, brutally slaughtered. Giomanach starts barking orders to Jhonen's men, in order to create a safe zone quickly, while the rest of the party start tracking. They find weird tracks leaving the village and follow them. After a few minutes they run into a clearing and notice a group of men around a crackling fire. Two leather tents are standing near the fire. Our party manages to sneak forward and launch a sneak attack, and within seconds several of the warriors are dead. Still, one manages to open a large cage, liberating a chaotic being halfway between a bear and a human. The monster charges out, howling, and runs into Herculon. In the same second, a shaman crawls out of the tent.
A fight ensues, the shaman summoning his fetch, a spider- like spirit, and several haunts. The players have a lot of trouble getting the better of these guys, and it takes the arrival of Giomanach on his speed enhanced mount to make it happen.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

A cover blown...

1622, End of the Earth Season

The party has been spending their hard earned cash on training and all kinds of expensive entertaining, and they have become a bit complacent as of late. With their renewed reputation as river voices, their obvious good fortune, and some generous buying of drinks for the locals, our heroes have become the mainstay for some of the local taverns, and most popular among the average Pavis barbarian. With the harvest at its end, and a good one thanks to our heroes aid in freeing Heler, the city is basking in the Earth season summer sun, with that particular atmosphere of goodwill, massive ale consumption and occasional tavern brawl so typical of this time of year.

The Sun Domers save the day!

At one time during the dinner someone notices a small group of Lunar guards on the market, but this worries noone, and at the end of the dinner banquet, the party, in high spirits, heads for the inn. The long stay in civilized Pavis having blunted our champion's excellent perception skills, they fail to notice a dark figure on the roof of one of the houses bordering the market square. A poisoned crossbow dart hits Herculon, and luckily he resists the poison, still suffering considerable damage. The assassin is reloading his crossbow, but this plan is foiled by Giomanach casting holdfast on the crossbow. As a consequence, the party, rather than running for cover into the dark alley where the rest of the assassin troupe is waiting for them, charges forward.

The party leaves Pavis behind and takes to the desert.

From said dark alley 5 figures appear out of the shadows, forced to advance and initiate combat. A red mask assassin holding a net tries to catch Giomanach, but only succeeds partially. A brutal fight ensues. Soon the party notices these opponents do not die as readily as most opponents do. Jaya almost loses an arm, before being able to even attack her opponent. Raiko summons his ancestor and attacks, and Giomanach has to palsy another assassin heading for him with a flask of nasty acid.  If not for Daerius' impressive resilience against the fierce assassin attacks and his first rate armor, the party might well have been wiped out by the steady damage output and high skill of this adversary. When another assassin starts casting Sever Spirit, in an attempt to banish the ancestor and kill Raiko in the process, Raiko needs all his cunning and luck to stay alive. By now the party realize they are facing a very powerful opponent: all damage done by Herculon is divided amongst the opponents, making even his blows mere scratches, and they realize their luck is about to run out. As they prepare for a retreat attempt, a Lunar guard unit enters the square, boding more trouble, and just when things start to look desperate, their two newtling allies appear on the scene, with Sun Lord support. The stalemate allows our friends a very narrow escape, and they decide to quickly leave town, head for Sartar, and leave Pavis behind them for a while until things have cooled down.

They head for the Moonbroth Oasis, and luckily find a caravan heading to Boldhome that is still looking for guards. It looks like their luck has turned for the better again: a safe trip and getting paid in the process!

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

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.

Strange Occurances at Rabbit Hat Farm

1621, Storm Season 48, Illusion Week, Wildday

torm Season is near its end.  So is the year 1621.  The Sacred Time approaches.  Our adventurers return to the village of Rabbit Hat Farm.  This village is built around an old Sun Dome temple, and counts 60 souls.  An attack seems to have taken place, as their latest adventure testifies. The youths rescues on the Zola Fel bank near Rabbit farm having been escorted to the Chalana Arroy temple, our friends once more prepare to leave for Corflu.  Daerius and Giomanach have returned, and are ready to join the party, so on the morning of the 48th day of the Storm Season, in particularly vile weather, the party find a boatsman crazy enough to bring them to Corflu for 4 Lunars a head.  After some bargaining they manage to lower the price to 3 Lunars each, still a considerable sum.  Our heroes are sitting on the deck of the Riverboat, covered in furs, in generally good spirits.  They take turns keeping watch, all through the night.  Apart from some Sun Dome patrols they spot, the trip is uneventful, and they arrive near the spot of the fight at noon the next day.

fter a one hour hike, they arrive at the damaged village walls.  In front of the village are several overgrown fields.  A weird state to be in, the fight only took place a few days ago, but every single field is the same.  When they decide to go through the fields rather than along the road, they discover another plant is being grown inside the outer border.  It turns out the Rabbit Hat Farm farmers were growing Hazia.  As they approach town, they spread out, and start investigating the old temple and a granary.  Jaya notices a Broo Totem and approaches, not minding the scarecrow with a huge pumpkin for a head standing in the middle of one of the fallow fields to the left of the village.  She is attacked, but a quick intervention by Raiko and Herculon takes care of the threat.  As the investigation continues, Jaya stumbles upon a bag of jewels, that turn out to be Yelmalio temple jewellery.  In the granary, Raiko discovers a young boy, Jocelyn, who runs away frighted when he sees the party.  In the pursuit, our adventurers discover a funnel shaped hole in the ground, and decide to investigate it more.  They drop down a hole that looks like it was made by a Krarschtkid, and end up in a natural tunnel, following it back towards the village.  They hear water in the distance.

The tunnel leads to a huge natural cave with an underground river running through it.  The cave is dark, hot and moist, and Jaya enters first.  She lights up the cave, and looking up, sees a huge two headed dragon snail on the ceiling heading in her direction.  By the time Daerius and Raiko have advanced, the chaos beast has blocked the entry to the cave, and Herculon, eager for combat, has to wait to advance.  The dragon snail is emitting heat, and burns Jaya and Raiko seriously.  Daerius advances, but one of the heads takes a bite out of his leg.  From behind, Giomanach palsies one of the snail's heads, but this does not stop the heat radiation, and the damage begins to add up.  Then Herculon makes it to the front and cuts of the other head.  This stops the monster, and the party finish it off quickly, thus stopping the heat emission and restoring control.  They survey the damage: three party members seriously wounded.  Herculon has to use all his devoted mana to heal everyone.  The party advance, Jaya spreads more light, and the party notice a cave entrance on the other side of the stream.

They walk though the water, hip deep at most, until Jaya disturbs a gorp lying in hiding underwater.  Raiko is attacked, but manages to use his acrobatics to back-flip out of the way.  Arrows are disintegrated by the gorps acid, and the party changes tactics.  They spread and start luring the monster, meanwhile peppering it with disruptions.  This has some effect, but is still slow, so they spread out even further and start setting up a fire trap.  Meanwhile Raiko has made it to the cave entrance, but upon entering he is attacked by a guardian spirit.  He enters spirit combat, and prevails, and binds the spirit in his dagger.  Jaya used lamp oil to set up a trap, and once the monster is lured into the puddle, they light it, ,burning the monster to death.  A foul smell fills the cave, the party advance into the next tunnel, leading to a five way crossroad.

They decide to recon from the crossroads, and manage to alert two krarschtkids at once.  The choatic maws approach with disturbing speed, but this time the fighters are well positioned and the kids are dispatched without too much trouble.  Meanwhile, Raiko has been looking through the third passage, and finds a dead krarschtkid at the end of it.  The three passages being a dead end, their only option is the fourth tunnel, leading into a large, man-made hall.  In the middle of the hall is a well, next to it a number of crates are stacked, and from their vantage point they notice two other exits.  They carefully enter the empty hall, not noticing any movement, and spread out to check the other exits, the well and the crates.  Jaya tries to pry open the most valuable looking case, and is struggling with the lock, when Polybius appears in a hidden balcony high up against the wall, aims his crossbow, and manages to hit Jaya on the head, but her plate helmet protects her.  He takes another prepared crossbow, fires it at Jaya again, and misses.  Giomanach casts palsy, and Polybius fails to resist, losing control of his leg.  He disappears from sight, and the party decide what to do next.  Herculon takes his grappling hook and tries a few throws before he is lucky enough to have a hold.  He starts climbing up, intending to present the sniper a lesson in decapitation.  However, Polybius commands his familiar Krarschtkid to jump down the hole, and it does, maw wide open to take a good bite out of Herculon.  The berserker has little choice but to let go.  He drops down, unharmed, and the party tries to kill the krarschtkid, but it escapes through a vertical upwards air vent..  Meanwhile, they hear Polybius casting upstairs.  Daerius decides to try and climb up, but fails miserably, holding up everybody, much to the dismay of the others, who protest loudly.  Polybius re-appears, and tries to mark Raiko several times, but Giomanach averts. Raiko then makes it up first and when Polybius sees the Ingilli is going to make it up, he decides to retreat, under cover of his familiar.

With some (a lot of) help from Raiko, Daerius also makes it up the balcony, and the two decide to keep the pressure on Polybius while Herculon climbs up.  Polybius has started casting wrack of chaos on Daerius, and it hurts.  the Krarschtkid then bites Daerius in the head, but his helmet protects him.  By this time, Giomanach also made it up the rope, with some effort, while Jaya is still busy trying to build a stairway out of crates - without much result.  As Polybius casts another wrack at Daerius, the latter evades, only to be covered in krarschtkid pratzim seconds later.  Jaya now has made it up, and the party advance into the sorcerers filthy lair.  Polybius tries to fire off more spells, but keeps getting interrupted, and he decides to shape-change to bat and escape.  However, by this time the party is completely filling up the exit, and Polybius flutters left and right, but does not escape.  A shield bash finishes him off.  The party then loot his lair, and load everything into the crates: grimoires, more temple stuff, poison vials, and a large personal stash of Hazia.

An interrupted trip to Corflu

1621, Storm Season 43, Illusion Week, Freezeday

After rumours from the south that the Lunar council in Corflu is putting pressure on the Ingilli family to lend them the warship in Corflu harbour, Raiko decides to round up his fellows, and book passage on a ship south.  Giomanach is in the Rubble, and Daerius is off on a romantic weekend with Crazy Meg, so Raiko finds two new friends to accompany him: Mycolith and another one.  The riverfolk are very hesitant to make the trip in Dark Season, and they have a lot of trouble finding a shipper who will take them.  In the end they have to accept the steep rates from Antar, a Pavisite with a lot of ambition but no ideas.  They ship south on what seems to be a rather clear day for the season,  but it soon darkens and starts raining, as they head along the Zola Fel.  After a quiet day they make camp on the  shore.  The next day they continue their journey, but at noon, under a steady drizzle, they notice a gang of Broo taking advantage of a group of farmers on the river bank.  Antar the shipper is hesitant to interfere, but Herculon simply throws the Pavisite overboard, and with some trouble, manages to ram the vessel into the muddy river bank.

Our heroes disembark, some with more elegance than others, and charge forward to face the fearsome Broo head on.  The Broo are taken somewhat by surprise, and the ferocity of the attack leaves them very little time to group up, shifting the favor to the party almost immediately.  Some of the Broo are still busy doing unspeakable things to their captives, and their bestial instincts prevail, giving our heroes the opportunity to press the advantage home.  One of the Broo emits an icy cold, no doubt a feature due to his chaotic nature, and some of the adventurers suffer serious wounds from this, but not Herculon, who carries on, in his berserk frenzy, hacking and slaying and almosttaking the head of the first Broo.  Mycolith collapses wounded, but Jaya manages to slay her opponent, a Broo with a piglike demeanor.  Herculon then chops the head of another Broo, a clean cut this time.  The leader of the Broo, still standing, now faces several opponents.  He cannot hope to win this, but the party find out this Broo has a very annoying chaotic ability: his flesh is extremely sticky, and when the Broo is finally slain, he has several weapons glued to it.  The party have to burn the beast to release their weapons.

Within minutes, the Broo are killed, and the few survivors are healed.  Around that time, Antar made it to the shore swimming.  Understandably, the pilot was not pleased at all about having been thrown overboard, but he felt reluctant to take it up with Herculon, who was still recovering from his berserk fury, covered in blood and grasping his great axe with a maniacal grin on his face.

The party decides to return to Pavis to take the survivors back, and Antar is too afraid to object.