[WotMK: Hexcrawl] Session Twenty
Woohoo! Twenty sessions and still going!
Dramatis Personae:
In the morning, they split up. Shining Star went to the where the injured from the battle against the walking dead were kept and ministered to them, finding another victim of ghul fever and using her magic to aid them. She told the militia standing around to let her know if the victim's condition changed at all and, especially if they fell into a coma, to fetch her immediately.
Elaphe went looking for any kind of criminal underworld, and eventually outside a tea house he found an amanita who understand his comments about rose gardens and led him to a more secluded table. Bonnie had secretly followed Elaphe, somehow managing to stay hidden, but she wandered off bored as the amanita asked Elaphe if he was in town on business. When he said no, she visibly relaxed and chatted with him about how her quiet life had been disrupted by the animated dead. She didn't know about the source of the plague, but was happy to keep an eye out, and took Elaphe back to her house briefly to introduce him to her pigeon, Zephyr, saying that it would provide a way to carry messages between them if necessary.
Amos went back out to the courtyard to talk to the other people who lived nearby and the refugees who had fled to the safety of the walls. They had not seen much, but they mentioned that Old Three Eyes had mentioned eyes watching him, and had sometimes trailed off in the middle of a conversation and then seemingly snapped out of it, returning to the previous topic without any sign of time having passed. One older amanita also mentioned that they had seen something flying high, silhouetted against the moon. Probably not a roc--it wasn't big enough and they didn't know of any rocs that nested nearby--but they were not sure what it was.
Around this time, Amos noticed a beroringa nearby licking some of the damage to the buildings and spoke it to. The spirit turned, seemingly surprised, and poked Amos for a moment with its tongue, which felt like being poked with a slightly warm feather even though it was larger than his arm. Amos asked it if it had seen anything, and the spirit mentioned the "darkness in the south" and that it could feel the rot in the earth, in a voice that Amos both heard with his ears and felt in his mind. Being a spirit, it didn't entirely understand Amos's perspective, but it did promise to keep watch any tell him if it saw anything. At this point Bonnie arrived and, seeing that Amos was speaking English to the air, quickly pulled out an old dose of spirit-flower tea and choked in down. She was delighted as the swirling colors resolved into the beroringa's body and questioned it in English, since that was what she heard Amos speaking, but the answers came to her in Chaian. However, she didn't learn much more than Amos did.
The party regathered near where Shining Star was administering medicine and shared what they had learned. They quickly formed a plan to stake out the courtyard near Old Three Eyes' house and watch for anything strange, along with some members of the militia, and returned to the tea house, this time paying for a private room and sleeping until sundown. The militia roused them, they ate a quick meal of stewed rice and mushrooms, and then took up their places on the roof.
Shining Star had summoned a Knowing Whisper, a spirit of knowledge in service to Nyahré, and as they waited on the rooftops it alerted her that there was something out there. She told the others and Amos, who could see in the dark thanks to the crystal he carried, gripped his musket and began to creep across the rooftops toward the distant shape as the Green Knight looked up and saw a shadow pass over the moons. There were arms, and legs, and wings. Perhaps one of the pidgit-folk, but with what they knew was happening in the town, that was not an assumption he would make.
Amos got close enough that the could see a shape shrouded in scarves or wrappings crouching next to the chimney of the tea house, and he remembered the rumors in Rockfort about people being attacked in an alleyway. He raised his musket and shouted out in Floral not to move, and the shape, clearly hearing him, looked up at him, letting him see the bridge of a nose and eyes peering out from the wrappings. Amos summoned a witchlight, illuminating the area, and asked who the shape was. He received an answer, but it wasn't in Floral, nor was it in Muskalan, which Amos didn't speak but had spent enough time around it being spoken to know what it sounded like.
The others arrived as the shape stood up, a tall mandragora- or human-shape with a red eye and teardrop embroidered on the chest of its clothing. When Shining Star saw it, she thought to use the Royal Speech, and greeted the shape. In a moment, she received a reply: "The Dragonbone Speakers sent me here to scout out the darkness in the south."
Mysterious! The Dragonbone Speakers are the shamans of the Sarasans to the northwest, which are a group of thunder lizard-riding grassy plains tribesmen that I based on the Hengist and Horsa-era Anglo-Saxons, so I can already say that this guy's name is "Sigeferth, son of Osric." I was tired of every horse-based riding culture either being based on the Mongols or the Native American plains tribes and wanted to do something different. Something different with dinosaurs and dragon-worshipping wizard priests.
The hordes of animated dead is something I thought that the players would want to go after earlier on, but I'm glad that they're checking it out now ten sessions after I expected! That also means they're better armed to deal with the enemies they might encounter, too, so it should all turn out of the best.
Elaphe's player pointed out they're amassing an army. A veiled one, the spirit of that courtyard and the buildings, the town militia...will it do any good? Hmm.
Dramatis Personae:
- 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.
In the morning, they split up. Shining Star went to the where the injured from the battle against the walking dead were kept and ministered to them, finding another victim of ghul fever and using her magic to aid them. She told the militia standing around to let her know if the victim's condition changed at all and, especially if they fell into a coma, to fetch her immediately.
Elaphe went looking for any kind of criminal underworld, and eventually outside a tea house he found an amanita who understand his comments about rose gardens and led him to a more secluded table. Bonnie had secretly followed Elaphe, somehow managing to stay hidden, but she wandered off bored as the amanita asked Elaphe if he was in town on business. When he said no, she visibly relaxed and chatted with him about how her quiet life had been disrupted by the animated dead. She didn't know about the source of the plague, but was happy to keep an eye out, and took Elaphe back to her house briefly to introduce him to her pigeon, Zephyr, saying that it would provide a way to carry messages between them if necessary.
Amos went back out to the courtyard to talk to the other people who lived nearby and the refugees who had fled to the safety of the walls. They had not seen much, but they mentioned that Old Three Eyes had mentioned eyes watching him, and had sometimes trailed off in the middle of a conversation and then seemingly snapped out of it, returning to the previous topic without any sign of time having passed. One older amanita also mentioned that they had seen something flying high, silhouetted against the moon. Probably not a roc--it wasn't big enough and they didn't know of any rocs that nested nearby--but they were not sure what it was.
Around this time, Amos noticed a beroringa nearby licking some of the damage to the buildings and spoke it to. The spirit turned, seemingly surprised, and poked Amos for a moment with its tongue, which felt like being poked with a slightly warm feather even though it was larger than his arm. Amos asked it if it had seen anything, and the spirit mentioned the "darkness in the south" and that it could feel the rot in the earth, in a voice that Amos both heard with his ears and felt in his mind. Being a spirit, it didn't entirely understand Amos's perspective, but it did promise to keep watch any tell him if it saw anything. At this point Bonnie arrived and, seeing that Amos was speaking English to the air, quickly pulled out an old dose of spirit-flower tea and choked in down. She was delighted as the swirling colors resolved into the beroringa's body and questioned it in English, since that was what she heard Amos speaking, but the answers came to her in Chaian. However, she didn't learn much more than Amos did.
The party regathered near where Shining Star was administering medicine and shared what they had learned. They quickly formed a plan to stake out the courtyard near Old Three Eyes' house and watch for anything strange, along with some members of the militia, and returned to the tea house, this time paying for a private room and sleeping until sundown. The militia roused them, they ate a quick meal of stewed rice and mushrooms, and then took up their places on the roof.
Shining Star had summoned a Knowing Whisper, a spirit of knowledge in service to Nyahré, and as they waited on the rooftops it alerted her that there was something out there. She told the others and Amos, who could see in the dark thanks to the crystal he carried, gripped his musket and began to creep across the rooftops toward the distant shape as the Green Knight looked up and saw a shadow pass over the moons. There were arms, and legs, and wings. Perhaps one of the pidgit-folk, but with what they knew was happening in the town, that was not an assumption he would make.
Amos got close enough that the could see a shape shrouded in scarves or wrappings crouching next to the chimney of the tea house, and he remembered the rumors in Rockfort about people being attacked in an alleyway. He raised his musket and shouted out in Floral not to move, and the shape, clearly hearing him, looked up at him, letting him see the bridge of a nose and eyes peering out from the wrappings. Amos summoned a witchlight, illuminating the area, and asked who the shape was. He received an answer, but it wasn't in Floral, nor was it in Muskalan, which Amos didn't speak but had spent enough time around it being spoken to know what it sounded like.
The others arrived as the shape stood up, a tall mandragora- or human-shape with a red eye and teardrop embroidered on the chest of its clothing. When Shining Star saw it, she thought to use the Royal Speech, and greeted the shape. In a moment, she received a reply: "The Dragonbone Speakers sent me here to scout out the darkness in the south."
Mysterious! The Dragonbone Speakers are the shamans of the Sarasans to the northwest, which are a group of thunder lizard-riding grassy plains tribesmen that I based on the Hengist and Horsa-era Anglo-Saxons, so I can already say that this guy's name is "Sigeferth, son of Osric." I was tired of every horse-based riding culture either being based on the Mongols or the Native American plains tribes and wanted to do something different. Something different with dinosaurs and dragon-worshipping wizard priests.
The hordes of animated dead is something I thought that the players would want to go after earlier on, but I'm glad that they're checking it out now ten sessions after I expected! That also means they're better armed to deal with the enemies they might encounter, too, so it should all turn out of the best.
Elaphe's player pointed out they're amassing an army. A veiled one, the spirit of that courtyard and the buildings, the town militia...will it do any good? Hmm.