[WotMK: Hexcrawl] Session Twelve
Dramatis Personae:
Amos drew his bow and Shining Star dismounted as the dionaea lifted the Green Knight into the air. Elaphe leapt and struck it with his dagger, wounding it, as Amos also shot a flaming arrow that failed to kindle in the rain but wounded the carnivorous plant. As Shining Star drew her bow and Bonnie sent her iron jaws familiar to attack, Elaphe leapt again, severing the dionaea's stalk and sending its body crashing to the ground. The Green Knight stood up uninjured, his armor having protected him from the dionaea's grinding jaws, and after Bonnie took some samples of dionaea sap for her alchemy, they continued on the road.
They rode for two days. At sundown on the first day the serpent of shadow and flame finally winked out for the last time, but they were positive now that their quarry was in the village of Greenwall. They passed some bedraggled-looking amanita heading west on the road who gave them a wide berth, and after sundown on the second day, tired, saddle-sore, and sick of riding, they entered the gates of Greenwall.
The village was surrounded by a thornwall to keep out the walking trees and other animated plants, with a patch of bare earth a dozen yards wide on the inside so that any dangerous plants that took root would be easily spotted. Inside that were fields, again with patches of bare earth between them so that a contaminated field could be purged and with bakeccha tending the ripened grain visible only to Amos's eyes, and inside all that was the actual village of Greenwall. The streets were a little empty, and most villagers scurried on without looking more than once at the party as they rode. There was a subdued note in the air, but nothing obviously strange or wrong. They thought about asking the villagers for some news, but decided against it:Me: "What are your Socialize skills?"
"One." "One." "I don't have it." "Me either." "One."
Amos's player: "Wow, we're just a bunch of wandering psychopaths!"
As they entered the square at the center of town and spotted a tea house with the sign of the green wall, Amos saw a giant spider, almost half-again as wide as he was tall, with twisted limbs and mottled yellow and black coloring, perched on the roof of a building. As soon as it realized that Amos could see it, it scurried back out of sight...and Amos, who was used to seeing things no one else could see, didn't think it was worth mentioning.
The tea house was filled with mycon, amanita, and mandragora drinking and talking. A female mandragora with hair the bright orange of autumn leaves worked behind the bar, and in the corner were four people that immediately stood out. A raptok, a mandragora, and two amanita, quietly talking amongst themselves.
The party arranged for a room and once they did, the Green Knight and Shining Star, tired from the road, went up and went to sleep after prayers to their perspective deities. The others went down the common room and drank mushroom beer. Bonnie chatted to the bartender, who answered halfheartedly and without actually saying much, and then goes back to Elaphe, who's listening in to the murderers' conversation.
After only a few moments, he learns that they're here in the city to kill Kurome.
They also mention that they want to head out that evening and look for "evidence of corruption," and so once they leave to do that, Amos and Elaphe follow them, Elaphe using a bit of hedge magic to make him harder to spot. The others do not spot them, and they follow for about an hour as the others search through the town square, stopping every few moment as one of the amanita looks around, and eventually make their way back to the tea house. They also notice a pipe in the town square, with a scaffolding built around it leading up to the top.
As they're watching, Amos describes the spider he saw to Elaphe, and Elaphe recognizes it as an anuhles, a demonic assassin that delights in poison.
Back in the tea house Elaphe heads upstairs when the others do, marking which room they enter, and weighs sending his bob-omb after them in their sleep. He eventually decides against it because he's not sure how protected they would be in their own room and because he'd have to retrieve the bob-omb's parts from the wreckage, and goes to sleep. In the common room, a mycon comes up to Amos as he's drinking mushroom beer and asks him where he's from in accented Muskalan. Bonnie translates and answers, telling the mycon that he's a "hyoo-man" from "The Kingdom of Tennaysee." The mycon asks where that is, and when Bonnie tells him it's from beyond the pipes, they make a sign with their left hand and quickly exit the conversation. Bonnie follows to their table and makes some conversation with the people there, but doesn't get much further than asking names--Cloud, Early Rain, White Axe, and Winter Frost--before she realizes that maybe it's not a good idea to be more conspicuous than she already has been and then she goes to bed. In the room, she asks Summer Rain if she knows exactly who murdered her, but the ghost doesn't reply. Bonnie only receives a sense of rage and helplessness from the shield the ghost is possessing, and she eventually gives up and goes to sleep.
In the morning at breakfast, Elaphe and Amos fill the Green Knight and Shining Star in on what they've heard. The murderers are not there, and so the party discusses what to do. Them killing Kurome and Summer Rain's lack of answers throw a bit of a wrench into their plans, but after some discussion, they decide to stay in the town for a few days and see if the murderers are actually murderers and how their attempt to kill Kurome goes.
Also, Bonnie asks around about the pipe in the town square and learns that it leads to just outside the Scarlet City.
And that's where we ended! Combat took up a bit of time and there was a lot of discussion over what exactly to do now that the party finally found the people they've been tracking for half the game. Especially since these people have a mission that over half the party (Shining Star, Amos, and the Green Knight) would be happy to see succeed and Summer Rain isn't being entirely clear about how she was killed. Are these the murderers? The ghost certainly thinks so."I haven't come this far to not kill somebody."
-Amos's player
Now I have to come up with a map of Greenwall and some key personalities in the town, since they might be here for a while. It'll be like the old test game I ran all in that one village!
- Shining Star, mandragora sorcerer-priestess of Nyarhé.
- The Green Knight, mandragora briarwitch.
- Bonnie, kong Auspicious Orator.
- Amos Burnham, a human from Earth.
- Elaphe, a chuzan junior member of the Black Rose.
Amos drew his bow and Shining Star dismounted as the dionaea lifted the Green Knight into the air. Elaphe leapt and struck it with his dagger, wounding it, as Amos also shot a flaming arrow that failed to kindle in the rain but wounded the carnivorous plant. As Shining Star drew her bow and Bonnie sent her iron jaws familiar to attack, Elaphe leapt again, severing the dionaea's stalk and sending its body crashing to the ground. The Green Knight stood up uninjured, his armor having protected him from the dionaea's grinding jaws, and after Bonnie took some samples of dionaea sap for her alchemy, they continued on the road.
They rode for two days. At sundown on the first day the serpent of shadow and flame finally winked out for the last time, but they were positive now that their quarry was in the village of Greenwall. They passed some bedraggled-looking amanita heading west on the road who gave them a wide berth, and after sundown on the second day, tired, saddle-sore, and sick of riding, they entered the gates of Greenwall.
The village was surrounded by a thornwall to keep out the walking trees and other animated plants, with a patch of bare earth a dozen yards wide on the inside so that any dangerous plants that took root would be easily spotted. Inside that were fields, again with patches of bare earth between them so that a contaminated field could be purged and with bakeccha tending the ripened grain visible only to Amos's eyes, and inside all that was the actual village of Greenwall. The streets were a little empty, and most villagers scurried on without looking more than once at the party as they rode. There was a subdued note in the air, but nothing obviously strange or wrong. They thought about asking the villagers for some news, but decided against it:Me: "What are your Socialize skills?"
"One." "One." "I don't have it." "Me either." "One."
Amos's player: "Wow, we're just a bunch of wandering psychopaths!"
As they entered the square at the center of town and spotted a tea house with the sign of the green wall, Amos saw a giant spider, almost half-again as wide as he was tall, with twisted limbs and mottled yellow and black coloring, perched on the roof of a building. As soon as it realized that Amos could see it, it scurried back out of sight...and Amos, who was used to seeing things no one else could see, didn't think it was worth mentioning.
The tea house was filled with mycon, amanita, and mandragora drinking and talking. A female mandragora with hair the bright orange of autumn leaves worked behind the bar, and in the corner were four people that immediately stood out. A raptok, a mandragora, and two amanita, quietly talking amongst themselves.
The party arranged for a room and once they did, the Green Knight and Shining Star, tired from the road, went up and went to sleep after prayers to their perspective deities. The others went down the common room and drank mushroom beer. Bonnie chatted to the bartender, who answered halfheartedly and without actually saying much, and then goes back to Elaphe, who's listening in to the murderers' conversation.
After only a few moments, he learns that they're here in the city to kill Kurome.
They also mention that they want to head out that evening and look for "evidence of corruption," and so once they leave to do that, Amos and Elaphe follow them, Elaphe using a bit of hedge magic to make him harder to spot. The others do not spot them, and they follow for about an hour as the others search through the town square, stopping every few moment as one of the amanita looks around, and eventually make their way back to the tea house. They also notice a pipe in the town square, with a scaffolding built around it leading up to the top.
As they're watching, Amos describes the spider he saw to Elaphe, and Elaphe recognizes it as an anuhles, a demonic assassin that delights in poison.
Back in the tea house Elaphe heads upstairs when the others do, marking which room they enter, and weighs sending his bob-omb after them in their sleep. He eventually decides against it because he's not sure how protected they would be in their own room and because he'd have to retrieve the bob-omb's parts from the wreckage, and goes to sleep. In the common room, a mycon comes up to Amos as he's drinking mushroom beer and asks him where he's from in accented Muskalan. Bonnie translates and answers, telling the mycon that he's a "hyoo-man" from "The Kingdom of Tennaysee." The mycon asks where that is, and when Bonnie tells him it's from beyond the pipes, they make a sign with their left hand and quickly exit the conversation. Bonnie follows to their table and makes some conversation with the people there, but doesn't get much further than asking names--Cloud, Early Rain, White Axe, and Winter Frost--before she realizes that maybe it's not a good idea to be more conspicuous than she already has been and then she goes to bed. In the room, she asks Summer Rain if she knows exactly who murdered her, but the ghost doesn't reply. Bonnie only receives a sense of rage and helplessness from the shield the ghost is possessing, and she eventually gives up and goes to sleep.
In the morning at breakfast, Elaphe and Amos fill the Green Knight and Shining Star in on what they've heard. The murderers are not there, and so the party discusses what to do. Them killing Kurome and Summer Rain's lack of answers throw a bit of a wrench into their plans, but after some discussion, they decide to stay in the town for a few days and see if the murderers are actually murderers and how their attempt to kill Kurome goes.
Also, Bonnie asks around about the pipe in the town square and learns that it leads to just outside the Scarlet City.
And that's where we ended! Combat took up a bit of time and there was a lot of discussion over what exactly to do now that the party finally found the people they've been tracking for half the game. Especially since these people have a mission that over half the party (Shining Star, Amos, and the Green Knight) would be happy to see succeed and Summer Rain isn't being entirely clear about how she was killed. Are these the murderers? The ghost certainly thinks so."I haven't come this far to not kill somebody."
-Amos's player
Now I have to come up with a map of Greenwall and some key personalities in the town, since they might be here for a while. It'll be like the old test game I ran all in that one village!