|
2 people marked this as a favorite.
|
Hello everyone, after flipping through the various journals on this site (especially Steve Greer’s campaign), I’ve decided to share my own campaign journal with everyone. This journal will be slightly different the some on this site because it’s written from a player’s prospective . . . or more accurately from a player character’s prospective. My entries will be taken from my character’s personal diary.
I’ll try to update this journal every Monday (no promises though).
We play STAP once every two weeks. I currently have a small bundle of backlogs of diary entries prepared. As of this introduction, we have just been attacked by gargoyles on the Isle of dread, so I am quite a bit further along in the story then my current journal entry. Having said that though, I’d like to remind everyone posting in this thread: No Spoilers Please!
You are more then welcome to post your thoughts and comments, but please don’t talk about things or events that haven’t happened yet in the diaries. Chances are I’ve played through most events (I am in HTBM after all) but I really don’t want to worry about someone inadvertently spoiling the upcoming story for me.
Now onto the Diary of Tristan Lidu:
I guess I should tell you a bit about Tristan before I continue:
Tristan Lidu (NG female human conjuror/alienist) Eldest daughter of Walkeen Lidu (N male human aristocrat) and Mab Maros (LE female human rogue/assassin)
Before she was born Tristan Lidu’s father visited a powerful soothsayer. The wise woman spoke of the accomplishments that his eldest child would achieve, and the power and glory that his child would accumulate, but also the terrible price his child would pay and sacrifice to accomplish these goals. Walkeen Lidu was told his child would help save the world. He decided to name his unborn child Tristan, which meant “sorrowful”, in honor of the future sacrifices his son (and perhaps future ruler of Sasserine) would have to face. He was surprised and greatly disappointed when ‘his’ first child was a girl. Tristan was his daughter without any doubts, but he secretly hoped that his wife had somehow chokehold him, and his future son and ruler was still yet to be born. Mab gave birth to two more daughters before Walkeen finally gave up on the soothsayer’s visions.
Tristan was six when the sea princes where nearly wiped out by the scarlet brotherhood and Sasserine reclaimed its freedom. Her father may have played an important roll in overthrowing the last of the sea princes’ forces in Sasserine but he soon fell out of favor with his uncle for reasons that were never fully explained to Tristan. Walkeen was sent to look after family business far outside of Sasserine. Whenever he returned he acted distant towards Tristan; as through she was somehow a great failure or disappointment in his life. Mab on the other hand was distant to everyone. Much of Tristan’s early life was spent in the refuge her great uncles library.
When Tristan was eight she was sent to live at the House of the Dragon. There Tristan excelled. She was constantly head of her class and a favorite of her teachers. When she was ten she made the mistake of bragging to one of her older cousins about her accomplishments and the praise she had received, “you’re a Lidu,” the young woman had said, “What do you think they’re going to do? Fail you? They’d pass you even if you were a complete dunce, as is, I’m sure even you’ll graduate with merit or something,” Tristan was shattered, it was though all her achievements where instantly stolen from her, and although Tristan later realized that her cousin was either mistaken or just being exceptionally cruel, the incident taught her a very valuable lesson on humility. Tristan vowed to never brag or speak of her accomplishments again.
Then came the moment that would forever shape Tristan Lidu’s life: One night, a few weeks before her 13th birthday, Tristan awoke and discovered that the forbidden book room in the library was open. Normally this door was sealed and only members of the witch wardens or the alumni of the House of the Dragon were allowed entry (even then under the supervision of one of the librarians), but with no one guarding the door, Tristan’s curiosity got the best of her. Many of the books were useless to her, written in languages she didn’t yet read or fully understand, but the smell of ancient leather was exciting to the young bibliophile. Tristan pulled down tome after tome to flip through their ancient pages to examine their contents. Then, on a dusty shelf in the back of the room, she made a surprising discovery: one thin volume had somehow slid behind the other books on the shelves. The mysterious book may have been hidden there, undiscovered, for hundreds of years. Tristan carefully removed the book, dusted it off, and scanned its yellowed pages. It was written in abyssal, a language she was only just beginning to understand, and although she didn’t fully grasp the contents of the pages, Tristan knew that something profound was happening as she read the book. Tristan awoke the next morning somehow back in her own bed and in her own room. She was unable to remember how she had gotten there. For a moment Tristan imagined that she had dreamt her late night trip to the forbidden book room, the entire event had simply seemed too fanciful, but as she pulled back the covers to rise from bed Tristan discovered the ancient volume laying next to her, under the covers of her bed.
Tristan’s mood and attitude changed notably over the next few months. At times she seemed wracked with depression. At other times she seemed almost crippled with ennui. Her instructors simply chalked it up to hormones, her body was going through massive changes, but biology was hardly the only source of her psychological strain. Most nights Tristan was studying the forgotten tome that Tristan now knew as the Necronomicon. The dark secrets buried within the ancient tome were undoubtedly corrosive to her young mind.
Tristan not only graduated at the top of her class, but at the age of sixteen and eight months, she was also one of the youngest graduates in the school’s history. Her life outside of the house of the dragon was far from secure however. Unbeknownst to Tristan the Witchwardens and Dawn council were both forbidden from offering her a position until her eighteenth birthday by her great uncle Worrin. Instead Tristan was sent to apprentice under an old friend of Worrin’s, Blenak, of Blenak’s bazaar. Secretly, Worrin Lidu hoped that Tristan would mater alchemy and rise through that guild to become its head, but Worrin’s plans weren’t meant to be, somewhere across town, the murderous plans of a unruly son would soon propel young Tristan Lidu’s life in new, and unexpected directions . . .
Author's notes: I wrote Tristan's story with the idea of her surviving to the conclusion of the STAP obviously.
Today I received a rather unexpected surprise: a halfling, by the name of Cora Whistlegap, delivered me a note from her mistress Lavinia Vanderborn. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting the halfling before, never mind lady Vanderborn, I wonder how either of them came across my name. Lidu is a well known name, great uncle Worrin being the patriarch of the oldest family in Sasserine, but the name Tristan Lidu isn’t. I find it doubtful that being a recent graduate of the House of the Dragon or working as Blenak’s alchemy apprentice would be any reason for my name to spread outside of the noble’s district. Regardless of how they found me (this speculation will have to wait for a time) I must get to the meat of my first entry in this new journal or else waste a page or two in the preamble.
I’ve made a vow to be more direct. Let’s get to the point. See attached note.
Lady Vanderborn wants to meet with me. I ask myself why? If she has ideas that my name or opinions carry any weight within my family or outside it she is sadly mistaken. Perhaps she thinks of me as a way into my family. She’d be better off trying my cousins. She is attractive and single I hear, and seeing as her parents were adventures, I’m sure she also has quite a bit of cash squirrelled away somewhere. That’s the combination that suitors dream of. I’m sure eligible bachelors all over the city are designing to lay their filthy groping hands on her. Being the eldest I know all to well what it’s like being “courted” by a “noble”. Still I must be careful, my name isn’t a terribly precious, but it is the only one I have.
As per the note’s request I gave me answer to the Lady’s servant.
The Vanderborn estate was a bit larger then I expected, not quite as impressive as some of the more established family manors, but a home that spoke of money and power none the less. The house was built in the gothic tradition; complete with those hideous gargoyles, but an unexpected surprise was the inclusion of nymphs. It showed a ladies touch in the design and decoration I thought. The property was also large enough for the inclusion of some greenery. I didn’t linger very long to admire the architecture. My business was inside.
The halfling greeted me as I entered the house and showed me to a private waiting area. There were other guests there as well. One was a powerfully built man by the name of Kale Silverthumb. A swordsman by the look of him, his cloths looked foreign, but he was clearly from Sasserine. There was a halfling who, judging by her dress and demeanor was from the Shadowshore. She didn’t initially give us her name, and when pressed on the matter by Kale, she gave us a false name. (See below). The third person was a priestess by the name of Buffy, although I can’t imagine that it was her real name, probably some sort of nickname, I can’t imagine anyone giving their child such a name . . . although I’m one to talk with a name like Tristan. The others didn’t seem to recognize my name when I spoke it, or if they did, they showed no sign. It’s nice to be around commoners.
The awkward conversation was allowed to continue for far too long. A good host should never put strangers in a room and expect conversation. Thankfully Cora eventually arrived and led us to dining room. As we moved to our appointment we crossed paths with a group of mercenaries, I would later learn that they were known as the Jade Ravens, and they looked us over with a measure of contempt and smug superiority. This was nothing my life as a noble hadn’t prepared me for . . . but something that probably upset lady Vanderborn’s other guests. I am curious to know why a mercenary company is allowed to roam the halls of a noble’s estate unescorted though. I shall have to remember to ask Lady Vanderborn later.
One of the four looked us up and down and said “you must be the help Lavinia’s bringing in to do the chores”. I bit my tongue. Addressing his employer, his social better, and the head of a noble family in such a way was intolerable. Perhaps he simply forgot his place, or, perhaps he simply wished overstate his importance, either way, I find such arrogance distasteful and I shall have to do my best to see him brought down a peg. He had the look of another swordsman with his polished breastplate and bastard sword, his companions were a half-elf (who looked every bit the rogue with his knifes and leather armor), a dwarf (who might have been a druidic priest), and an attractive woman with a crescent moon tattoo on her face(a sorceress if I ever saw one). They eventually left after addressing Cora with the same familiarity.
Lavinia was every bit as beautiful as people claimed, she was dressed in blue, and she stood in front of a portrait of a young man with a short beard. I couldn’t help but think that the painting had some significance . . . Lavinia choose to present herself to us in front of it . . . and it was one of the few paintings remaining in the room. The Vanderborns had clearly fallen on hard times. “Come in,” said the Lady, “I am Lavinia Vanderborn, please be welcome in my home, sit and eat. Please help yourselves”. I politely partook in the modest feast, I noted that she was able to provide fresh fruit, but she was unable to put beef on the table. I also noted that the mysterious halfling from the shadowshore waited for everyone else to eat before she sampled some of the food herself.
Lavinia waited until we broke bread with her before she brought up her business:
“As you may have heard,” she began, “I recently inherited my parents’ estate. Along with this fine house, unfortunately, came a fine amount of debt owed the Dawn Council, the harbourmaster, and quite a few guildhalls. It seems my parents, for all their success as adventurers, were not as skilled at finance as one might expect. If I’m to get these taxes paid, I’ll need to access my family’s vault under Castle Teraknian.
“And that’s the problem, you see. The vaults are magically locked—keyed to special signet rings. Both of my parents had these rings, at least, until recently. My mother lost hers a few months ago. She arranged for a replacement, but it won’t be done for another month or so, too late for me. Which leaves my father’s ring. He never wore it—he had a thing about men wearing jewelry. He kept it hidden somewhere on his ship, the Blue Nixie. The problem there is that the harbourmaster’s seized the ship until someone pays for the last four months of mooring. I’ve paid the fines to the man the harbourmaster’s put in charge of my ship, a brute named Soller Vark. Yet when I went to claim my ship, Vark’s men wouldn’t let me board, claiming that I hadn’t yet paid the fines. I spoke to Vark again and he denied ever receiving my payment. My complaints to the harbourmaster have fallen on deaf ears—he’s a doddering old fool who trusts his man and won’t relent.
“Vark and his men are up to something on my ship, I know it. What I need is to find out exactly what they’re up to.
Unfortunately, Vark’s not the type to react well to diplomacy or logic. I need someone who speaks his language… which is where you come in. If you can find out what he’s using my ship for, or even better, recover the money I paid him, I’ll pay each of you 200 gold in return once I’ve access to my vault.”
I kept my face neutral but inside my mind and heart were in turmoil. First and foremost I knew this was exactly the type of work great uncle Worrin wouldn’t want one of his grand nieces doing. This was exactly the type of work mercenary companies should be doing. Also how could she have gotten the idea that I was capable of “speaking his language?” I know for a fact she’s not talking about daconic. I’ll admit that we occasionally got disruptive customers at Blenak’s Bazaar . . . but removing those undesirables could hardly be considered akin to dealing with hired muscle! Then there was the problem of the legality of the situation. Although I didn’t care for her characterization of Islaran, it was possible that Keltar had somehow hired a thug and thief, but it was also possible that Lady Vanderborn was far more devious then she seemed. Perhaps she was simply trying to trick some young and naive adventures into committing piracy and murder for her. Although I liked Lady Vanderborn thus far, it all came down to his word against hers, and in the eyes of the law he may well be a common thug, but she is a debtor.
“Why don’t you have your mercenaries do this?” I asked, “I’m sure they’d be better suited and better qualified . . .”
“I’m afraid they have business elsewhere,” the Lady said. I wonder if I caught the hint of sadness or distress in her voice? If she was only playing the role of the distressed young lady at the end of her rope she was playing it well.
I decided to go along with the others for no other reason then to be the voice of sanity. That sounds odd. The others seem well meaning enough. Buffy is simple minded, Kale seems to act as idealistically one of those fool paladins . . . only without the spiritual training, and Kiki (that’s the shadowshore halfling) strikes me as the type who grew up without proper guidance. She’s clearly in danger of becoming a delinquent (if she’ not one already).
A few more questions were asked at dinner, mainly about the basic logistics of our mission, if there’s anything of importance I’ll fill in the details tomorrow. I’m sure this entire dispute is a simple misunderstanding and the hole fiasco will be resolved peacefully. The only other detail worth mentioning was the halfling’s name. I really should have related this tale earlier, but I’m tired, my mind wanders, and I haven’t been keeping my promise of being more direct! Anyways, as I wrote earlier, the halfling thought to give us a false name . . . which we accepted, one’s name being one’s bond, it wasn’t the type of thing that it would strike me to lie about! Anyways at one point at dinner Lavinia looks right at the halfling and address her by another (which I now believe to be her proper) name. The look on Kiki’s face was one of shock. I think the young halfling will soon learn that we nobles aren’t as easy to fleece as the tales make us out to be.
Well that’s all for tonight,
Cthulhu dreams,
Oops, I forgot to mension the other players:
At this point in the adventure there are 3 players and one NPC PC,
Kale: a male human fighter/rogue attempting to become a Kensai. At this point in the adventure Kale is a pure fighter (with a samurai like feel).
Kiki: a female shoal halfling pure rogue.
Buffy: a female human cleric/radiant servant of pelor (NPC PC)
Today we met on the pier to search for Lavinia's boat. I say search because the boat was not where it was supposed to be. It seems to Vark and his cronies had moved the boat from the pier and moored it out in the channel. Ordinarily there is nothing unusual about this, having ship tied to the pier costs money, but moving the ship without informing the owner does seem a bit odd to me. Adding to my suspicions was the guards we spied patrolling the deck of the Blue Nixie. This was unusual. Why guard an empty boat? Lavinia wasn’t going to steal it; she was a noble of wealth and property, why risk the cities’ ire by taking her own boat? There was definitely something else going on here.
We tried asking around the piers to see if we could discover anything about this Sollar Vark character, but alas, either nobody wished to entrust us with that information, or Mr. Vark remained a mystery to all but friends and family. Most likely we weren’t the sort that these rough folk feel comfortable opening up too.
Kale wanted to immediately row out to confront Vark but I stressed caution. Unfortunately I was over-ruled. Everyone in our small group seemed anxious for action. As we made out plans to approach the Blue Nixie we made the rather embarrassing discovery: despite all of us having grown up in the great seafaring city like Sasserine, none of us knew how to handle a boat. Kiki revealed that she had never learned the skill because she simply swam everywhere she wanted --- very unusual even for even for a denizen of the Shadowshore. Kale, Buffy, and I simply lead never had the need or opportunity to learn how to operate a boat in our chosen professions.
Thankfully we were able to find a fisherman who was willing to row us out to the Blue Nixie. I watched to see how he steered the boat. His strong broad shoulders pulled the oars through the water, pulling harder on one side or the other to steer, it seemed easy enough, but this was on a calm channel . . . I doubt this would be this easy on the open waters. Soon enough we came along side the Blue Nixie. One of the guards looked down and shouted “Hey, shove off! This here’s private property!”
“That’s right,” shouted Kale, “it belongs to the lady Vanderborn and we’re here to ensure that nothing is amiss with her property! We’re coming aboard”
“Nobody gets aboard” stammered the thug.
“We’re coming aboard and you’re summoning this Vark character,” growled Kale, “I need to speak with this clown. Now throws down the ladder . . . unless you want trouble . . . and may the gods help you if you do because I’m in a foul mood and my sword arm needs exercise.” Now admittedly I’ve only known Kale a short while, and although I wouldn’t have thought him particularly violent, but when he shouted up at the young ruffian even I jumped. The young man’s face went pale as Kale shouted.
“Only two of you,” he managed, “Vark would kill me if . . .”
“Fine,” Kale snapped, “Buffy you’re with me. Now hop to it man!”
The young man threw down the ladder and Kale quickly made his way up. Buffy moved to follow when we heard someone else aboard shouting. “What in the Nine Hells is going on here? Toss the scabby bastard overboard.”
From this point things progressed quickly. Buffy hurried up the ladder, and Kiki dove into the water, leaving me alone with the worried fisherman. From above we heard the sounds of fighting. Our eyes met. His hands went for the oars. He was clearly panicking. “No, wait,” I said, “If things go badly we’ll need you to summon the guard.” That really didn’t make sense . . . but it seemed to placate him.
On the deck above I thought I caught sight of Kale fighting with a man that matched the description of Soller Vark. I summoned a dog to help with the fight, it made some noise, but it seemed to neither draw attention nor blood before it vanished. Eventually the fighting moved away from the ladder and took my trusty light crossbow and cautiously climbed the side of the ship. I remember when I first got my crossbow (father had been furious) but Aunt Mary May had insisted that a young woman shouldn’t rely on men for protection. That summer I spent every almost every week night shooting at that straw practice dummy. I was anxious to see what my crossbow would do to a living person . . . well anxious is probably not the right word . . . I have no desire to kill or maim anyone . . . but I did want to see if I could actually hit a moving target.
By the time I made it to the main deck of the Nixie some of Vark’s crew was already dead or incapacitated. Vark was still tussling with Kale and Buffy. Kale was shouting curses and insults to Vark, and Vark seemed to be, with good reason, somewhat intimidated by Kale. His wild powerful swings would kill any normal human should they connect and Vark was plainly aware of this. Kiki had also somehow found her way up onto the ship and into the fight as well. She, lacking both size and strength, attempted to use her opponent’s distraction to her advantage. I leveled my crossbow, found a target that was threatening my companions, and fired. I missed. By a fairly wide margin it turns out. I quickly reloaded and fired again. I got the same results.
Vark soon realized that the fight wasn’t going his way. “Burn them,” he shouted, “set fire to everything!” Nobody on deck was able or moved to comply so I assumed that he was shouting to someone below decks.
My companions were still too close to our opponents for me to compel magic sleep so I tried flinging my lesser magic at our opponents. Again my aim failed me. It didn’t matter much though; shortly after that, Kale took Vark’s head clean off with his broad sword. We had secured the main deck. The rest of the ship still needed to be secured.
I moved towards the rear of the ship. A flicker of movement through the grate to the hold caught my eye. Someone had a torch below deck. I quickly moved over to the grate and reloaded my crossbow. Below me I watched in horror as one of Vark’s thugs began torching cages filled with all manner of exotic animals and beasts. Exotic animals . . . they were smugglers! That explained why the Nixie wasn’t tied to the pier. It also explained why Sollar Vark didn’t want anyone coming on board. I felt a tad guilty for not trusting Lavinia from the start.
I aimed my crossbow at the thug and was about to shout to her and tell her to halt but the words caught in my throat . . . something . . . something big, broke free of the cages and tore the woman apart. Her arm, shoulder, and head landed in the light, her mouth and hand continued to move for moment, then lay still. I found myself staring into her unblinking eyes.
Time past. I must have shot my crossbow again because the next moment that I recall, Kale and Buffy were in the hold fighting the . . . thing, and was still on the deck looking through the grate and I needed to reload my crossbow. I used some mind clearing meditation to pull myself together. I forced myself to study the creature. The thing looked like a giant bug, maybe a spider, with huge mandibles and horrible pincers. It was nothing like anything I’d ever seen before. Kale and Buffy struggled against the beast; I think they were very much aware what those mandibles were capable of . . .
I summoned my most powerful magics: a small missile of pure force that never misses. It struck the monster with a barley noticeable scorch. Now I was worried. That thing could tear a woman in half, take a mystical bolt with scarcely a scratch (these bolts have been known to strike down healthy men), and my companions were down in the hold with it! Worse still . . . I was out of meaningful spells. Now I fought despair.
I reloaded my crossbow. Bellow Kale managed to pierce the monsters’ exoskeleton causing orange goo to spill out over glistening shell but the creature showed no signs of slowing down. I aimed my crossbow through the grate, my angles were limited, and with Kale and Buffy fighting the thing, I risked hitting one of them. At that moment the creature surged forward and sliced into Kale (Kale let out a grunt of pain) I closed my eyes and fired. There was an inhuman howl and a thud. I opened my eyes to see the creature twitching on the ground. Kale approached (clutching his wound) and stabbed the still twitching creature through the head. I could scarcely contain my exuberance. Kale began saying something bellow deck but I didn’t stay to listen, I needed to find that ring and (hopefully) the platinum.
I moved towards (what I hoped was) the captain’s quarters. The door was still ajar when I approached . . . this was probably the room Vark was using as his own. The room was deserted. I took my time and explored every inch of the room. The platinum was in the room. Thankfully nothing was taken. As I suspected there was a secret cabinet in the room, after a bit of searching I found the release, inside was the ring and a small note. The ring I put on my finger, very hard to steal a ring from someone’s finger, the note I looked at, then tucked away in my belt pouch. It seemed to be a code of some type, perhaps it had something to do with this vault, but it really didn’t matter, it was going to Lavinia . . . this ring and vault was her birthright.
Kale and Kiki were just returning to the main deck when I left the captain’s cabin.
“We a look below deck and didn’t find anything,” Kale said, “so we’ve secured the ship, but we still need to find this ring.”
“It’s been found,” I said displaying the ring, “and I’ve recovered the money as well.” I didn’t show them where I hid that, Kiki was probably perfectly trustworthy, but I didn’t want to tempt the girl. One hundred platinum was probably more money then she’d ever seen in her entire life . . . Wee Jas knows it’s more money then I’d ever seen.
Kale said something else . . . something about the ring . . . I can’t quite remember what it was. I seem to remember it was him thinking that I shouldn’t be wearing it.
“I’m a Lidu,” I said in a calm voice, “she’s a Vanderborn. I doubt anyone of importance will confuse us.” That was perhaps a tad harsh sounding, but it vexed me having him accuse me of something . . . dishonest . . . especially after all I practically saved his life in that hold. “Now we have to alert the authorities and get this ring to lady Vanderborn. I suggest we put our minds to that task instead.”
It didn’t take much talking to get our fisherman friend to help us steer the Blue Nixie to the pier. Perhaps he was eager to get behind the wheel of such a large vessel, perhaps he was anxious for the guard to get involved, or perhaps he just wanted to see the end of this fiasco, it didn’t really matter, the point is he got the ship to the pier. A crowd (including some guardsmen) had already begun to form on the pier.
“Right, what’s all this then,” says one of the guards as we step off the ship.
“Smugglers,” I say, “two of you secure this ship, and someone else gets Islaran.”
The guard was a bit surprised to have someone he was confronting shouting orders at him. “Islaran doesn’t just see anyone,” he said, trying to regain the upper hand in the conversation, “he’s very busy.”
“I am not just anyone,” I said with triumph, “I am Tristan Lidu, he’ll recognize the second name if not the first, tell him we represent Lady Vanderborn,” I said holding up the ring, “and need to talk to him immediately concerning his former employee Sollar Vark.” With the guards only protests quashed, and with his being commanded by a family member of a district representative with important sounding business, the guard simply had no other options then to obey.
Kiki seemed nervous as we waited for Islaran. I doubt she’d ever been on the right side of the law before. Truth be told, I was a tad nervous as well. I knew Islaran quite well. He had come over to great uncle’s estate many times for business and social gatherings. When I was fourteen I even danced with him. But if he would remember me, and how he would react over being asked to come down to the pier in person, worried me. Soon enough I saw the familiar old man being led to the pier.
“Greetings mighty Islaran,” I said, “I’m Tristan Lidu, great grand niece of Worrin Lidu, and we met before you might remember.” He gave a curt nod, if he remembered, or if he simply wanted me to continue I couldn’t tell. I licked my lips and continued. “Last week Lady Vanderborn came down to this pier, to her ship, and tried to pay the fines her ship had accumulated. Unfortunately she made the same mistake you did: trusting Sollar Vark. The man simply stole her money. Now I know you trusted and stood by your man,” I said in a hurry before Islaran could object, “but Lady Vanderborn wasn’t lying, and with no one on her side she asked us to talk to Vark and hopefully resolve this dispute privately and discreetly. Unfortunately when we came to the pier we discovered the Lady’s ship had been moved, worse still when we attempted to parlay, we were attacked! We soon discovered why Vark had moved the Lady’s ship and why he was so anxious to avoid visitors.
“My lord,” I said moving close to Islaran and lowering my voice, “he’s a smuggler. You can see the evidence for yourself bellow deck. They tried to destroy the evidence but luckily for you one of the creatures they were trying to smuggle broke free and stopped them in the process. Thankfully we were able to kill the creature. Anyways, we’ve recovered your money as further evidence against this Vark character; I’ll put it immediately in your safe keeping. All that I ask is that we take care of the proper paperwork . . . “
“Yes of course,” said Islaran snapping into action, “this doesn’t make any sense.”
“My lord,” I said practically whispering to Islaran, “may I have a word in private?”
“Yes, yes of course,” he said gesturing away from the crowd.
“My lord this Vark character was a very bad man,” I said as we gained a bit of privacy, “but somehow he infiltrated your organization. You need to look into whoever recommended him to you and you need to investigate anyone he may have hired. Someone somewhere has been giving you very bad advice. Also, I do hope you realize that the Lady was telling you the truth, I would think that in the future that you’d be more willing to trust the word of Lady rather then a man of less reputable distinction.”
Islaran saw to the paper work and promised to look into his organization. The rest of us returned to the Vanderborn estate to tell the Lady the good news.
Again I see I’ve written more then I intended. I will conclude by saying that Lavinia didn’t know what the note meant, but tomorrow we shall travel to her vault and I sense the mystery shall be solved.
All’s well,
Cthulhu dreams,
I must say today was both quite exciting and perhaps equally informative. I got to visit Castle Teraknian, and, more importantly, I got to visit the vaults underneath the castle. Even members of my own family may not have had the privilege.
Before I get into today’s adventures I feel I need to add to yesterday’s notes. My entry had gotten rather long and I felt the need to end that entry rather abruptly (or else fill my small journal with our dangerous, daring, and perhaps overly romanticized, exploits). In short I left out the important bit . . . the incident that I shall need to remember should I find myself answering questions about this affair later. To the point:
Lavinia was so pleased with our work yesterday that she asked us to stay on as her personal troubleshooters. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and instead of turning her down (as I should) for more respectable work, I found myself agreeing to her terms. It wasn’t a bad deal. She was giving us a hundred GP per month as a retainer fee . . . which was more then thrice what I was making at Blenak’s Bazaar.
Lavinia also told us that she planed to travel to Castle Teraknian to visit her vault and we were to accompany her.
Today, as promised, we accompanied Lavinia to her family vault. Castle Teraknian is sometimes used for social functions, so I’ve been in it before, however the vaults are strictly off limits to the public. We’d soon be traversing hallways that only the cities most powerful ever saw. Soon we’d see the bones of the castle laid bare.
We took a carriage to the pier. I sat next to Lavinia for the ride. She absolutely beamed. I couldn’t help but feel like a shabby little peasant girl next to her. My dresses were bought for utility rather then beauty. I had no jewels to wear, my suitors had brought flowers and perfume rather then baubles, if I wanted to wear anything beautiful I had to borrow from my cousins. I probably looked more like a maid then a Lidu sitting next to her. Lavinia was perfectly pleasant but I still felt demoralized. I sat quietly during the trip to the pier.
We eventually moved to a gondola for our final approach to Castle Teraknian. I was able to find a seat across from Lavinia. I felt more at ease there.
We entered the castle through the main doors - it was as I remembered it. I made myself busy as Lavinia dealt with the bureaucrats. Appearing too interested in the inner workings of secret places was a sure way to make people think of you should anything underhanded happen. After the paper work was taken care of we made our way down to the vaults.
I felt the age and weight of the city over my head. I ran my hands along the walls as we traversed those hidden crypts. I felt the ancient stone. I took in the musty air. Most of the city’s wealth was buried here. I noticed the vault doors, there were crests of many of the greater and lesser noble houses on them, but I didn’t see the Lidu crest before we found the Vanderboren vault. As well as the Vanderboren name and crest the door bore a symbol or sign of what may have been a compass. I was unfamiliar with it. Lavinia took her father’s ring, the ring we had recovered just the day before, and pressed it against her family’s door, and the door (through some kind of magic) opened.
“Be careful,” I found myself saying, “There could be traps.”
“I’ll check it out,” said Kiki as she moved into the room, her eyes carefully examining every inch of the walls and floor, her steps careful and measured. At first there seemed to be no problems. Kiki apparently didn’t see anything suspicious as she moved deeper into the vault. Then something attacked her.
At first I thought it was some kind of trap. This great dark shape lunged towards the halfling in the darkness. Nobody, not even Kiki, could react in time to stop it . . . but thankfully it somehow missed the halfling’s small body. Everyone sprung into action. Kale and Buffy rushed to Kiki’s aide, I cast a light spell on a small rock and tossed it into the room, light reflected off great metal coils. I gasped as I realized it was some kind of metallic snake as big as a person! Kale’s sword sent sparks cascading across the room. Buffy’s mace bounced off the creature’s metallic hide like a hammer off an anvil. Kiki’s dagger didn’t even leave a scratch. Only my spells seemed to pierce its metallic hide. I thought we were doomed.
Things weren’t as bad as I initially thought. Kale and Buffy’s armour proved to be adequate protection from its bites and Kiki proved to be a fast and elusive target. Kale began leaving cuts in the construct’s hide and Buffy began leaving the odd dent. Kiki’s knife remained ineffective however. I tried to hit the monster with any spell I thought would be effective . . . unfortunately my aim was still a liability. (Perhaps I should visit the high market for some spectacles.) The monster fell . . . eventually . . . but not before it managed to bite Kiki. Buffy told us that the creature, like a real snake, had some kind of poison. Thankfully Buffy was able to treat Kiki before the poison spread.
After we searched the room to ensure there were no more surprises we gave Lavinia the all clear. The room was rectangular with two massive stone pillars at either end. The snake had probably hid behind one of the pillars until someone entered the room. I noted more of those compass like carving motifs in this room as well. It wasn’t a family coat . . . maybe it was a symbol of some sort of organization? The only other thing of interest in the room was the hidden switch and the secret door, both of which had been very, very, very carefully inspected before the switch was pulled to reveal/open the secret door. We lead Lavinia confidently into the next room.
It seems to get the money there would be a final test, some kind of puzzle. I hate puzzles. I hated this one in particular. One could say it ruined my day. In fact I’m so completely disgusted with this vast waste of time that I’ll not even include what in entailed in my journal! I will say that we made good use of the note we found with the ring and Kiki (like most halflings) is very good with puzzles. If I never see another puzzle as long as I live I’ll be a happy woman.
Lavinia was overjoyed when she saw those chests and coffers revealed. Her joy quickly turned to confusion when we began opening them however. Many of the chests were empty. Lavinia was surprised to find her vault and family ledger didn’t match, I however knew that adventures were notoriously frivolous and liberal with their money; finding out that her parents were careless with their money did not come as a shock for me. Thankfully not all of her inheritance had been spent on potions and magic beans, well over a thousand in coin remained along with several notes, maps, and a log book written in a mysterious language (I recognised the letters but not the language). Hopefully the coin would tie her over until she could collect on some of her parent’s services.
The ride back was a tad more subdued then our ride over. Lavinia seemed lost in thought, Kiki seemed too weak from the poison to caper, and Kale seemed somewhat sombre. One might think him lost in thought, but before jumping to conclusions it’s best to remember that he is from the merchant district . . . he was likely worried that he wasn’t going to get paid.
By the time we made it back to the manor house Lavinia had apparently made up her mind about whatever she had been thinking about and asked us to join her in her private dining room. Lavinia had Cora give Kiki some potions to make her feel better.
“I want you to find my brother,” Lavinia said once we had settled and had a bite to eat, “perhaps I should give you some of the background details though, to help you understand. My brother Vanthus and I were very close when we were growing up. Our parents were always off on one adventure or another, so we had to depend upon one another. We used to get into all sorts of trouble together,” she said with a whimsical smile on her face, “After one particularly complex prank involving several elixirs of love, it was decided that we needed some time apart. I was sent to the Thenalar Academy, and Vanthus was shipped out to work on a plantation. That was the last we saw of each other for years.”
I walked past the Thenalar Academy almost every day on my way to work at the bazaar. Odd I can’t remember ever meeting Lavinia before . . . I have to admit that I often get lost in my own thoughts though. I once walked past my own mother and sister on my way to school without noticing them. I guess they even waved and said hello. Personally I think they exaggerate, people often tease me about it. Also I was twice nearly hit by a carriage but the way those things speed around the city I’m surprised more people aren’t run over.
“I thrived at the academy,” continued Lavinia, “and when I returned, I'd grown up a lot. But whatever happened to Vanthus during that time, he seemed to have only grown bitterer. He had no time for me or anyone else of our family, and took to sleeping all day and hanging out with some very dubious characters all night. Eventually, he moved out - moved in with some hussy in the Azure district, if you believe the gossip, but I don't know the details.
"He came back to the manor for a week or so after my parents died, but he seemed to have changed more than ever. His sense of humour had turned into a horrid cynical sarcasm, and the morbid sorts of jokes he seemed to find hilarious just give me shudders." Her distaste for those memories showed on her face.
"We couldn't get along about anything, and the arguments got worse each day. In the end, he became so furious that he struck me with his fist. I think that shocked him as much as it did me, and for a moment it almost seemed to bring him back to his old self - but a moment later he was as bitter and twisted as ever. He gathered up his things and stormed out. That was the last time I saw him."
Kale and Kiki had plenty of questions for Lavinia; I asked about this girl in the Azure district, I wondered if Vanthus was still seeing her. I imagined a scenario where we found this brother of Lavinia’s and we straitened him out. He was grateful for the effort we made . . . we fell in love, and then he and I would get married. Lavinia and I would be sisters in law. A marriage between the Lidus and Vanderborens would certainly be seen as a favourable union by great uncle Worrin; but, it was just fanciful thought. For now.
When Kale and Kiki had asked all they could think to ask about Vanthus we took our leave of Lavinia and set about our investigation. Kale, Kiki, and Buffy set out for the Azure, while I choose to check out the noble’s district. In truth I only had one possible contact, my great uncle Worrin, but if anyone knew what was happening in the noble’s district it was him. I just hoped he would make time for his brother’s granddaughter. Luckily, when I found at his offices, his secretary told me great uncle Worrin was free and would see me.
“Hello great uncle Worrin,” I said as I entered his offices, “it’s me your grand niece Tristan.”
“Yes child,” he said with a wave of his hand, “what do you want.”
He wasn’t angry, great uncle Worrin just liked to pretend he was busy, even when he wasn’t. “Weeelll,” I said elongating my words while twiddling my hair, “I was wondering if my favourite uncle in the whole wide world heard anything about a certain eligible bachelor named Vanthus Vanderboren?” I wasn’t good at playing the coquette, though I’ve seen plenty in action, and it’s been my experience that they often get what they want. Those silly giggles and the habit of giving every word an upward inflection . . . it was enough to make me sick . . . but old men seemed to love it.
Uncle Worrin sighed, “There’s a rumour that one of my kin is working for the Vanderborens,” he wasn’t going to let me play this the easy way.
“Lavinia Vanderboren is an honourable woman,” I snapped, I was angry he wasn’t going to play the doting uncle, “she pays excellent money, and not all of us in this family are guaranteed to be looked after. The gods help those that help themselves.”
“It looks bad to have a Lidu working for a lesser noble,” he said with a dismissive wave, signalling that I needed to do better.
“Plus,” I said hopefully, “it might be to our advantage to have someone next to her to watch after our interests.”
“It still looks bad,” he said meeting my eyes.
“Vanthus is single,” I said, “I’m single; perhaps a union between the Lidus and Vanderborens would be in both our families’ interests.”
“Yes, I also hear he is also a gambler and a philander, among other things, if the rumours are to be believed,” he said leaning back in his chair, “hardly what I’ll call an ideal match for any member of my family.”
“Lavinia wants him back to straiten him out; perhaps she has an idea to marry him to a powerful family to keep in line.”
That brought a smile to his face. “That is no doubt what she intends,” I couldn’t quite tell if he was mocking me or not, “but Vanthus is useless, a waste of skin, Lavinia is the one with the money and power, she is the catch of that family.”
“Fat lot of good that does me,” I said using my best sulky voice, “Lavinia is a girl.”
“Well I’ll just have to get you a belt of masculinity/femininity.” I didn’t know what that was, but the name seemed petty self explanatory.
“But Vanthus is a boy,” if Lavinia hired me with the idea of marrying me off to Vanthus she wouldn’t be pleased if I was suddenly a boy.
“Yes but Lavinia is a girl,” he said with an amused look on his face.
“But I’m a girl,” he was just being silly now. As much as I’ve come to like Lavinia, it’s doubtful that ether of us would be comfortable with that kind of a relationship.
“Ah, but that’s what the belt will fix,” he seemed to take great delight in tormenting his grandniece. Perhaps I’d better get to the point while he was in a good mood.
“Listen great uncle,” I said crossing my arms, “do you know anything or not?”
“I’ve heard rumours,” he said, he then shared with me some of the basic rumours that Lavinia had shared with us, with little variation, “also,” he added, “I hear he may have done some business in my district, but as to what that was, well, I’m not really at liberty to say.”
“Is that because you don’t know or you just don’t want to tell me?”
“Yes, it’s probably one of those two reasons.”
I bid my great uncle thanks and goodbye, he wasn’t going to give me any more information no matter what I tried. I decided to ask about the House of the Dragon, it had one of the greatest libraries in all of Sasserine, if there was any reason to travel to the noble’s district this was it. Unfortunately nobody at the library knew or had seen Vanthus. I did have some things that I wanted to look up though (why make this a wasted visit), and by the time I was finished in the library it had grown dark outside. I can only hope my companions had better luck then I did.
Tomorrow the hunt begins anew,
Cthulhu dreams.
I don't really have much to add at this point. I've read all this stuff a while ago, since I'm part of the play group. Just thought I'd add that I'm playing the Kale character.
KattHunter wrote: I don't really have much to add at this point. I've read all this stuff a while ago, since I'm part of the play group. Just thought I'd add that I'm playing the Kale character. Hey man, great to see you! Could I get you to post Kale's character background? Maybe I could get you to post you're character's impressions of the adventure thus far? It would be nice to have another voice.
Guy Humual wrote: Hey man, great to see you! Could I get you to post Kale's character background? Maybe I could get you to post you're character's impressions of the adventure thus far? It would be nice to have another voice. Well I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll get Kale's VERY short lived diary.
Kale Silverthumb. Son of a tailor. Lives in the merchant distrect. Age 17 when the story begains. He has one brother, and both his parents are alive. Kale being the first born son was contantly preasured into tring to learn the trade. Kale was never much for it though. His brother constantly picked up Kale's slack. Kale would noramlly go goof off. He'd always be going off to look in the weapon and armour shops. It's not to say Kale didn't do anything for his family shop. He was quite good at buying and selling (explaining his Merchant feat). Sometime in his early teens, Kale deals with a very odd customer in the family shop. He claims to be a Samurai, and is looking for a very expensive peice of custom clothing. He's dressed in armour and carries a sword. Obviously Kale becomes quite interested in this character. Kales ends up following the guy around, talking with him, learning more about him. The Samurai chracter is only in Sasserine for about two weeks, but Kales learns a fair bit about Samurai (at he thinks so). He begins to emulate Samurai behavour. Starts saving money for a sword and armour. It takes a him a few years but eventually he get them. He soon after get the letter from Lavinia
KattHunter wrote: Kale Silverthumb. Son of a tailor. Lives in the merchant distrect. Age 17 when the story begains. He has one brother, and both his parents are alive. Kale being the first born son was contantly preasured into tring to learn the trade. Kale was never much for it though. His brother constantly picked up Kale's slack. Kale would noramlly go goof off. He'd always be going off to look in the weapon and armour shops. It's not to say Kale didn't do anything for his family shop. He was quite good at buying and selling (explaining his Merchant feat). Sometime in his early teens, Kale deals with a very odd customer in the family shop. He claims to be a Samurai, and is looking for a very expensive peice of custom clothing. He's dressed in armour and carries a sword. Obviously Kale becomes quite interested in this character. Kales ends up following the guy around, talking with him, learning more about him. The Samurai chracter is only in Sasserine for about two weeks, but Kales learns a fair bit about Samurai (at he thinks so). He begins to emulate Samurai behavour. Starts saving money for a sword and armour. It takes a him a few years but eventually he get them. He soon after get the letter from Lavinia Thanks Darb. Hey I didn't know Kale had a brother.
It’s dark down here.
We went looking for Vanthus today. Found out he bought a boat from a dwarf named Panchi five weeks ago. Panchi owns ‘It Still floats’. He saw Vanthus and Penkus loading up the boat with rope and lantern oil. They sailed west.
Met a dirty half-elf named Shefton, he said he knew where Vanthus was hiding, he took us to Parrot Island. He showed us a trap door in the earth. Foolishly we went down. Vanthus was hiding somewhere on the island. He killed Shefton, pushed his corps down the shaft, cut our rope, and sealed us in here. There is no light, no obvious escape, and we are not alone . . . dead things walk the dark passageways of this cursed pit.
We fought our way through zombies and giant crabs to find a secure room which we can bar to the horrors that still roam these godforsaken tunnels. We sealed ourselves in one of the rooms. Outside I hear the dead things still roaming the halls. I hope I don’t die. I hope I see the sun again. It’s dark down here and I don’t like the dark.
May Wee Jas protect me,
Cthulhu dreams.
(author's notes): Tristan's diary is quite short this week because she's writing from the caves under parrot island. It seems she might be a tad scared of the dark. Maybe she's just scared of zombies (necromancy is one of her prohibited schools). She should get trapped in a dungeon more often. It's easier to write.
It's rather dark in there
Tristan is writing this diary
From inside a dungeon,
And it's rather dark in there
So please excuse her hand writing
Which may not be too clear.
But that afternoon tracking Vanthus
Tristan got too near.
And she was writing these lines
from inside a dungeon,
And it's rather dark in there.
(my apologies to the late Shel Silverstein)
I never thought I’d be so happy to see the sun in all my life. Kiki saved us all. She’s in the next room right now having a bath . . . and judging by the amount of grime on her, she’ll be in there for a while.
We managed to sleep through the night, Buffy needed rest before she could cast anymore spells, and I was nearly spent as well. Thankfully the small side room we barred ourselves in wasn’t disturbed by the unliving monsters that stalked the dark corridors of this pit. It was almost comfortable once we got a small fire going. Almost.
I found it odd that I was the only one with flint and steel. I often need fire in my alchemical work so I always keep a tinder box with me at all times out of habit . . . but I find it very unusual that none of the other members of my group had this very basic piece of equipment. Fire is the source of all life. You can’t get very far in this world without being able to start a fire.
When we awoke we explored the rest of the pit. We found more of the accursed undead, including one particularly nasty creature that Buffy was unable to repel with her holy symbol, but we eventually managed to destroy everything moving down there. We found no other ways up though. We did find the body of Pinkus in a sealed room with a secret treasure hold. Pinkus was the smuggler that Vanthus had been seen with around town. It seems he is another person on an ever growing list of people that Vanthus has betrayed. Pinkus scrawled out a note before he died, it mentions the taxidermist hall and someone named the lady Lotus, perhaps it will prove useful to us. I will hang onto a copy of the letter for my notes.
After we realized there was no way up (save for that accursed shaft) we began exploring the waterways. We thought our best option would be near the rotting dock, boats once found their way in it seemed only logical that we should be able to find a way out, but it was not to be. Kiki was able to find and feel her way into the dark underwater passages but they all became to narrow for her to squeeze through. No one wanted to have her get stuck in some underwater tomb trying to find a way out. We decided to move to the sea caves where we felt the water rushing in and out.
Kiki dove underwater and after some searching popped her head above the water to tell us she found a tunnel, then, after an unbearably long time popped her head up once more to tell us she had seen light and was going to get us out. I felt such relief. We made our way to the mine shaft (where Shefton’s body still lay) and waited for Kiki to open the shaft and throw down a rope . . . but Kiki didn’t show.
Time passed. I began thinking terrible thoughts: what if Kiki had drowned? What if Vanthus was still lurking up there and had killed her? What if (and I’m ashamed to admit I thought this), but what if she had abandoned us? We had found some trinkets down here, what if the thought of sharing them was abhorrent to her? What if she wanted us to die so she could return and take what she wanted from our skeletal remains? We tried to make small talk while we waited but I could tell the others were probably thinking the same things.
Then, when I was at my bleakest, we heard the sounds of work from above us. The trap door was thrown open, and when my eyes had adjusted to the light, there was Kiki’s smiling face looking down at us. I’ve never seen an angel before, but at that moment, I felt I knew what one looked like. She was flanked by two fishermen she had hired to move the rocks Vanthus had piled atop the door. The rocks were too big for her to move herself so she had to swim back to shore for help. That explained the wait. Kiki threw down a fresh rope and we all climbed out of the darkness and into the daylight.
On our way back to shore we learned that Keltar Islaran was dead! Assassinated! The fishermen threw stories of his gruesome demise around like it was ordinary gossip, but when they caught the look in my eye; they quickly ceased their tasteless banter. It seems like only yesterday I was warning him that smugglers had infiltrated his organization . . . I pray that nothing I said to him caused his death.
When we told our harrowing story to Lavinia she seemed sad but she remained admit in her belief that Vanthus wasn’t beyond redemption. For Lavinia’s sake I will share in her optimism. It is hard to forgive someone for trying to bury you alive though.
I would write more but it sounds like Kiki is splashing more then bathing in the next room so she’ll likely be finished soon. I invited her over to stay when I learned that she sleeps in a crate in some ally in shadowshore. It seems the least I could do after thinking such things about her.
Tomorrow I shall look for this Taxidermist guild and see what lies below it . . .
Things are always clearer in the light,
Cthulhu dreams.
It keeps getting better!
Nice one guys!
carborundum wrote: It keeps getting better!
Nice one guys!
Thank you for your kind words. I know my fellow players are enjoying the Lidu Diaries, but it's nice to know someone else is reading along, and (hopefully) enjoying.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
I think if I get the time to write up Kale's short dairy, I'll post it when Tristian's dairy catches up.
Rhothaerill wrote: Yep, fun so far. :) Thank you very much. I hope everyone can overlook the typos. It's funny that I can only see them weeks after they've been posted on the internet.
Katthunter wrote: I think if I get the time to write up Kale's short dairy, I'll post it when Tristian's dairy catches up Hey Darb, do you think you could talk that wife of yours into posting some info about Kiki? :)
Tonight we must sleep with one eye open.
The morning started out well enough, Kiki and I slept quite well considering the horrors of the previous night, and ate like ravenous wolves at breakfast. We both set out on our individual errands before meeting Kale and Buffy in the merchant’s district to continue our investigation. I can’t speak for Kiki, but I had important business that morning, and up until now I haven’t had much time to attend to personal matters . . . what with all the smugglers, monstrous bugs, and zombie infested underground caverns.
I arrived at Blenak’s Bazaar just as old Blenak was opening his shop for the day.
“It’s about time you showed up,” the aged wizard snapped, “it’s been almost a week, I got orders piling up and no lab monkey to churn them out!” I opened my mouth to interject but Blenak cut me off. “I don’t what to hear excuses; I’ve heard them all, I just want results. I want the backlog caught up by closing time today, or else! And I’ve told you before, I don’t care who you’re related to, nobody in retail has job security. I can find about a dozen snot nosed school kids, to replace you, dying for the work. At half the price! If you don’t want the work I’ll toss you to the curb.”
“Actually that’s why I’m here,” I said, “I have to quit. I’ve got a better offer.”
“What?!?” Blenak’s steel rimmed eyes seemed to bulge, “Who? When?” He quickly chocked out, “How much?”
“Well I’m not really at liberty to . . .”
“I took you in as a personal favor to your uncle! You owe me!” He said pointing.
“I’m not working for the competition if that’s what’s worrying you.”
“How much are they paying you? I’ll match it,” Blenak began fumbling for his notebook, “this better not be some kind of money grab Tristan, or so help me . . .”
“I’m making better then triple if you must know, and that’s not including bonuses! I know you can’t beat or even match that, so I’m here to say that you’ll need to find someone else to help out with the alchemy. You were a good master and I really feel I’ve learned a lot but I think it’s time for us to part ways.”
“Well then . . .” Blenak straightened out his robe, “you bloody well left me in the lurch then Tristan, I got orders up to my ears, and nobody to help fill them.”
“I’m sorry I can’t help you with that Blenak,” it felt strange saying his name, “but there’s another reason I’ve come by: I’m here as a customer.” Blenak opened his mouth and raised his finger but I cut him off, “And I’m here to pay full price. I have no desire to haggle.”
“Well then, that’s different,” Blenak said as he ushered me into his shop, “what can I get you?”
“I want one of those ever burning torches.”
Blenak raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said that those things were a waste of money.”
“Let’s just say that I’ve recently had reason to change my mind.”
It was still a few hours before lunch when I met up with the others.
“We should sell this stuff,” Kale said immediately after I arrived, he was referring to the items we’d looted from the caves, “we’re in the merchant’s district, let’s get rid of this stuff while we’re here.”
“Ok fine,” I said, “but our best lead is this taxidermist’s guild. I’ll go see what I can find while you guys liquidate our material assets.” I had no desire to touch any of the items my colleagues had pulled off the corpses, (save for the silver dagger now at my belt. That item had cleaned up nicely). “We should meet over there when we’re done,” I said indicating a tavern that advertised ‘the best seafood in all of Sasserine’. I’d never eaten there, but the place seemed popular, and one probably couldn’t just go around throwing claims like that around without at least something to back that up. “We'll need to get something to eat later.”
I’m not at all familiar with the merchant’s district. I’d only ever been on this side of the city a half dozen times with my friends and family (I do all my shopping at the high market). I did know some of the shops and the basic layout of the market so I wasn’t afraid getting lost, and until that morning, I felt relatively safe walking the streets alone.
I stayed in the shopping district, I felt there was safety in numbers, and here I would there would be more people to question. At first my questions were met with blank stares, no one had heard of a taxidermist’s guild, and then my questions seemed to spark fear, nobody knew what the ‘lotus’ was or knew a ‘Lady Lotus’. I felt a palpable change in the crowd. People began avoiding me. Then, as I was about to give up out of sheer frustration, someone slipped a note into my hand. ‘You are being watched by the Lotus Dragons,’ it said, ‘your questions will only bring you misery --- it’s best to sit back and let things happen as they will. Further interference will only bring you tears.’
At first it took me a moment to connect how asking about a taxidermist could result in thinly veiled death threats . . . I felt a bit numb; but all in all, this being my first death threat, I felt I handled it quite well. I quickly made my way back towards the agreed upon meeting place. Now that I think about it that was probably a mistake, whoever had slipped the note into my hand was probably still watching . . . and I had just lead them strait to my companions.
The others arrived sometime afterwards to find me nursing a cup of tea. I wasn’t at all scared as I thought I should be, my mind had gone completely analytical, and I was anxious to find out who or what these Lotus Dragons actually were. The thought of scaring off a scholar with a mystery was laughable. I calmly listened to their accounts of their morning activities then I handed Kale the note.
“I think I’ve made some progress in finding Vanthus,” I said, “I believe he’s with a group called the Lotus Dragons.”
“How do you . . .” Kiki started to ask, but Kale handed her the note next, his face dark.
“If they think that they can scare us off with a silly little note they’ve got a lot to learn,” Kale snarled.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I added, “but we’ll have to proceed with caution, we don’t know anything about these Lotus Dragons. They could be anything from a band of pick-pockets to a group of dangerous assassins.”
“Maybe they had something to do with Islaran,” Kiki suggested.
“In all your time on the street have you ever heard of the Lotus Dragons?” I asked.
“No,” Kiki muttered.
“Well then I think it’s highly unlikely then. An organization powerful enough to kill a member of the dawn counsel simply can’t remain inconspicuous. When something large lurks, even under the briny deep, mud stirs, betraying it subtle maneuverings . . .”
“Ok,” Kale said, cutting me off, clearly missing the sinister implications, “we got their name, we know where they’re hiding, let’s go get Vanthus and deal with his friends.”
“But we still don’t know where the taxidermist guild is,” I said, “I wasn’t able to find that out. . . .”
“We know where it is,” Kale said, “one of the shops we were at had a big stuffed grizzly bear in it, and I asked the shop keeper where he got it.”
“Well then,” I said clapping my hands together, “let’s get something to eat, and then investigate this place.”
“What here?” Kale asked.
“I thought so,” I said looking to the others for their opinions, “why not?”
“Do you like wharf rat?” Kale asked, “This place always seems to sell more ‘fish’ then they buy from the local venders. Food tastes alright, but most people I know like to know what they’re eating.”
After we’d eaten (in another tavern) we made our way over to the Sunrise District. A few of my classmates came from this side of Sasserine and I seem to remember attending a party over there once when I was very little. We decided to walk rather then take a carriage as it was such a short distance, scarcely a stone’s throw from Lavinia’s manor, and it was such a fine afternoon. This would prove to be a mistake however.
As we made our way down an ominously named street called Widow’s Walk, a boy bumped into Buffy and violently pulled her coin purse from her belt. “Hey come back here!” Buffy shouted as she gave chase to the thief. The rest of us watched in horror as Buffy chased after the young thief down a dark alley. Although everything about this scenario seemed wrong, we didn’t want to have our group split up, and so we were forced to follow.
“Wait,” I shouted on the run, “we’re probably running right into a trap . . .” a tangle-foot bag exploded behind me as I finished my sentence. The sticky mess effectively sealed off the alleyway. Another one landed at the far end of the ally just behind the fleeing child. Then crossbow bolts hailed down on us from the rooftops.
Almost instinctively I closed my eyes and began summoning. Kale growled in pain. Kiki shouted curses up at her attackers as she returned fire. Buffy channeled the might of her God. I opened my eyes and summoned a celestial dog to harass one of the would-be assassins on the rooftops above Buffy and immediately tried to put the assassins closest me asleep with my magic. The spell worked perfectly. As luck would have it, my dog pulled down one assassin, and the assassin on the rooftop opposite of where I targeted my sleep spell dropped as well. We were able to concentrate fire on the one remaining attacker. Kale, Kiki, and Buffy were able to drop the remaining attacker with their combined fire . . . even with the near impossible angle to contend with. My summoned dog, after mauling the rogue at the far side of the ally, bound along the rooftop and made short work of the unfortunate sleeping would-be-assassin at my end of the ally. The fight was over in an instant . . . but my heart was racing.
Kale began removing his armour, three of our attackers were down, but one remained sleeping peacefully on the roof above me. I decided to help Kale with his armour. I needed something to busy my hands to stop them from shaking. It wasn’t nerves or fear that was causing them to shake, something else, deep inside me, was fighting to be let loose. My mind raced with the tales of feral berserkers of the distant north who drank the still warm blood of their enemies . . . was something monstrous lurking somewhere beneath the skin?
Kiki also decided to help Kale with his armour but I suspect she had far more lecherous motives in wanting to help Kale with his armour. Kale’s reactions as Kiki helped him his armour (mainly the bits bellow the waist and above the knee) told me that my suspicions were correct. Soon, after being repeatedly fondled by a halfling, Kale was free of his armour and he was able to climb the wall without hindrance. Luckily there were a few handholds and ledges and Kale was able to pull himself up to the roof without much difficulty.
Our captured assassin didn’t have much to say, while Kale was able to bully him into talking, it turns out that the killer simply didn’t have much new information. We discovered that he was a member of the lotus dragons, and that their leader was indeed this mysterious woman who went by the name of “Lady Lotus”, but we already knew this (or had figured it out). He did give us something new though, a name: Kersh Reftun, a lieutenant of the lotus dragons. Luckily the fight attracted the city watch, and after explaining ourselves, we turned the assassin over to the local authorities. They were more then happy to take our assailants into custody. We quickly made our way to the taxidermist’s guild.
The Taxidermist’s guildhall turned out to be a small modest one story building with no visible basement. The main doors to the guildhall where on Water Street but there was a back door which opened to Dead Dog Ally. We didn’t want a confrontation so we entered through the main entrance and into the showroom. All manner of creature lined the walls of the showroom from tiny bats, to an actual dragon, stuffed and preserved looking real as life. I was happy to see there were no toads.
“Hello, my name is Nemien Roblach, proprietor, how may I assist you?” asked a tall lanky gentleman who entered from a back room of the store as we entered. “I see you eyeing the Dragon, a steal at eight hundred, but if you are serious collectors I may be persuaded to lower my price to five hundred, but if the dragon is out of your price range, perhaps I can interest you in something more modest.” He said moving over to the smaller animals “this,” he said pointing to a small bat, “makes a wonderful conversation piece.”
Amongst what kind of ghoulish friends I wondered, “Actually we were merely hoping to speak with the lady lotus if she’s in,” I said, “or Mr. Reftun if she’s unavailable. We’re not looking for trouble, but we’d like to have words with one or the other, we’ve come across some information they might be interested in.”
Surprise flashed across Nemien’s face, “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nemien lied, “now if we don’t have any actual business . . .”
“Isn’t the Lotus Dragon guildhall somewhere under this store?” I asked.
For a moment, Nemien looked as though he might try flashing a winning showroom smile and denying any and all knowledge, but then the moment passed and Nemien looked to run.
“Don’t even try it,” Kiki said from behind Nemien, her dagger to his back. Nemien’s face went pale. I didn’t even see Kiki circling till she spoke up. Nemien was as surprised as I was . . . well, he was likely a tad more surprised.
“They’ll kill me,” Nemien cried, “I’ll show where the entrance is, but you have to let me go.”
“Wait,” I said, “we just want to talk. We’re not looking for a fight. We’re just interested in . . .”
“It doesn’t matter,” Nemien said, “you go down there they’ll take you, they’ll find out who let you in, then they kill you, and then they’ll kill me.”
“Fine,” snapped Kale, “tell us what you know then leave. If we find out that you’ve somehow betrayed us, or . . .”
“Oh that’s a laugh,” Nemien said, “you’ve set the bloody Lotus Dragon’s after me, and you think that your threats mean anything? Are you people crazy? She wants to talk to them,” he said pointing at me, “he’s trying to threaten me,” he said pointing at Kale, “and let me guess,” he said looking over his shoulder at Kiki, “you’re going to take them all out?”
“Well only if I have too,” Kiki said with a strait face.
“Fine,” Nemien said, “go nuts, by all means. Just let me get my things together and I’ll show you the hidden door.”
“Wait,” said Kale, “what can you tell us about the Lotus Dragons?”
“They’re a gang of thugs and murders, what’s there to know?”
“The Lady Lotus, then,” Kale prompted, “what can you tell us about her?”
“She’s a cold calculating b$*#* if I ever met one,” Nemien said, “She wouldn’t bat an eye lash to see someone skinned alive right in front of her. She can smile and whisper sweet nothings in you ear while her sharpened dagger slips between your ribs. She has a pet dragon (or something) that I’d love to get my hands on though; I’d love the opportunity to work on one of those creatures . . .”
“What about Reftun?” I asked.
“Who?” Nemien asked.
“Kersh Reftun . . .”
“I know who you mean,” Nemien snapped, “I just don’t know anything about him. Nobody does, ‘cept his fellow guild remembers. The only thing I can say is he’s probably a stone cold killer. Now if you’re finished questioning me . . .”
“Show us this door,” Kale said. Nemien pointed out a secret door in the hallway of his shop then immediately ran to his room to pack his bags. I’m not sure if it was the best decision, but we let him go, I don’t know what these lotus dragons are capable of, but Nemien Roblach was convinced that they were monsters.
We opened the trap door and descended down into dark dank pit that the lotus dragons were using as their lair. How anyone would choose to live in such a place is beyond me. The place was musty and mildewie and the walls were literally dripping with water. The place was so damp that the doors were swollen to the point where they couldn’t be opened or closed without forcing them. We decided to advance cautiously, we still had hopes that we could retrieve Vanthus without violence, and we hoped that this Lady Lotus could be reasoned with.
We opened the door that was near the base of the ladder (rather then exploring the natural caverns we found ourselves in). The hallway we found on the other side led north or south, the north route leading to a doorway, the south turning westward into the darkness. We chose to head south. The walls here were made of brick and the access water that dripped from the walls drained down lead pipes. Someone had gone to great lengths to build this place.
It seems we were following the wall to our left because the first door we found to the south we opened. Inside we thought we found a deserted training room. On one side a throne on a raised wooden dais, on the other thick padded mats and straw dummies, some of the dummies had targets painted on them; the rest had pockets and bells on.
Kale boldly stepped into the room stating, “I know what this room is for, I wonder if there’s anything in those pockets . . .”
Buffy and Kiki followed Kale into the room but Kale didn’t get a chance to finish his musing, two of the ‘dummies’ nearest Kale somehow sprung to life and attacked! It wasn’t magic but rather trickery, the room which we had initially thought was deserted was in fact practically rotten with lotus dragon agents. There were six of them and they had the element of surprise, what they didn’t have was Kale’s skill with a sword, Buffy’s armour, or Kiki’s speed. It was a brutal fight but surprisingly quick. Kale was able to drop three with two swings of his sword, Buffy mashed another into oblivion with her mace, and Kiki danced around behind another two and sank her dagger into their unprotected flanks. One of the villains Kiki backstabbed had been after me. My crossbow was of little use at close range.
We waited for alarms to ring, for reinforcements to arrive, but after countless moments in silence, we were left with the hope that our battle had gone unnoticed by the rest of the complex. There was a door at the far end of the training room which opened into a small storage room. We dragged the bodies of our attackers into this room and hid them under some superfluous combat dummies that were already stored in the room. This seemed somehow appropriate.
The storage room had another exit (which opened into another hallway) we decided to follow this route. The other corridor was probably better used with its close proximity an exit. The secondary hallway was short, with just two doors, one lead to a closet, the other, much to our horror, opened into a pen with another of those monsters from the Blue Nixie. I think they’re called Rhagodessas, that’s the nearest creature I could find matching the description at the library, perhaps I should consult with an expert. We immediately shut the door. The creature didn’t try to follow us. When we opened the door again and took a closer look we discovered that the giant arachnid was chained to a far wall. We wasted no time destroying the hapless monster.
What we discovered in the remaining rooms was shocking. It turns out Nemien Roblach had good reason to be afraid. The Lotus Dragons were indeed a vast criminal organization. We discovered what I can only describe as a nerve centre. There was a large slate board (reminiscent of my school days) with all sorts of scribbling on it, including, but not limited to, the orders for Vanthus to arrange for our assassination, and the orders to pay some individual named ixitxs. More disturbing was the map of the city on the wall peppered with flags. There were red, gold, and blue flags --- the colors clearly indicating something. There was a blue on the Kellani manor, gold on Vanderboren, and red on Islaran! Three of the cities noble houses were somehow implicated. I wasn’t quite sure what the flags meant, but red was the color of blood and danger, and Islaran had been assassinated. Vanthus was apparently working with the Lotus Dragons and his family house was tagged with a gold flag. Blue, for the time being, was a mystery. I’ve included the complete list of flags and their locations as well as the notes scribbled on the black board in the appendix of this book. After I took my notes we re-arranged the flags and erased the notes about us and the orders to pay ixitxs. Hopefully that will put a crick in their plans.
There was a door on the other side of the command room, another hallway, and another inhuman guardian. This horrid creature was a bugbear zombie. If I never see another zombie again I’ll die a happy woman. The putrid smell, the vacant gaze, the bloated rotting flesh, if there is a more repulsive thing in existence I’m unaware of it. Buffy drew forth her holy symbol and the creature shrieked and retreated. Kale charged forward and cut deep bloodless ribbons into its maggoty flesh. His sword finally chopped its head in half putting an end to its mindless moaning. Its brain, having long ago rotted to ichor, oozed out into a puddle near the door. I carefully lifted my skirts as passed over the remains of the bugbear. The smell was really something awful. In my alchemy work I sometimes used sulfur or ammonia but this was something else. The thought of getting it trapped in my cloths was simply out of the question.
Our last encounter (hopefully) of the day was the Lady Lotus herself. Her personal chambers were at the end of the short hallway the connected to the bugbear guard room. As we entered we found her resting comfortably in a well appointed room her pet felldrake at her side. She seemed to have been expecting us as she wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to see us walk into her personal chambers of her secret organization.
“Well, well, well,” she purred as we entered, “it looks as though Lavinia’s flunkies have finally made it, eh Gut Tugger?”
“You must be . . . the Lady Lotus?” I asked, something about her looked familiar, like I had seen her some place before.
“Why yes, and you must be Tristan, Kale, Kiki, and Buffy, so glad you could make it,” she said as she stood. She was beautiful. Red hair and green eyes were always a favorite of mine. She was also graceful. She had the look of a dancer or swordswoman from those childhood stories. “Now that we’ve all been properly introduced let’s talk shall we? Let me start out by saying that I’m genuinely impressed. Not only have you eluded our assassins but you’ve somehow managed to discover the location of our base of operations and infiltrate it without setting off the alarms. You’ve proven time and time again to be a resourceful bunch, well worth the investment I think, how would you like to work for me?”
“Well . . .” I said, trying to think of a polite way of turning down someone who had just doubly insulted you by suggesting that not only could your integrity be bought, but that you’d be willing to go back on your word.
“Hear me out,” she said with a sly smile, “Lavinia is near finished, and her family’s finances are in shambles. She’ll be lucky to get her finances in order by this time next year. Stay on with her and you’ll be living on a pittance. I believe you’re worth so much more. Our organization is on the way up, forget the Dawn Counsel, soon the Lotus Dragons will rule this city. I’m offering you a place at my side. Join me and we’ll rule this city together. Oppose me and . . . well, let’s not talk about that unpleasantness now.”
“We have some questions . . .” I started to say, but Kale cut me off.
“We’ll never join you!” He shouted.
“Then die,” snapped the Lady Lotus, “Gut Tugger, do your thing!”
For a moment it occurred to me that I should have opened with ‘here’s a letter I’d like you to look at’ or ‘we just want to talk’. Maybe we should have explained to Kale before hand that we just wanted to talk. I get the feeling that it would have come down to this anyways . . . the Lady Lotus seemed very much a ‘with me or against me’ type of leader, very little room for debate with that type. She drew her sword with a flourish, swung her sword high at Kale’s head, and then with a quick flip of the wrist swung low nearly gutting him. Her nasty pet lizard quickly moved into a flanking possession.
I had few spells left at this point; I summoned a celestial ridding dog, my most powerful spell, and took a defensive position in the hallway. Kale, Kiki, and Buffy eventually maneuvered their way into the room. The fighting was fierce . . . from the sounds of it. I occasionally caught a glimpse of the felldrake, not really enough to shot at with my crossbow, but that’s never stopped me from trying before. Luckily I didn’t hit any of my companions.
The fighting eventually moved completely into the room and my position in the hallway was at the wrong angle to see what was happening. I moved to the doorway and caught the last moments of the fight. Kiki was hard pressed by the felldrake, Kale seemed to be baffled by the Lady Lotus’ swordplay, and my stupid dog couldn’t bite the side of a barn. Things didn’t look good but things changed in a heartbeat. Buffy came to the aid of Kiki, Kiki seeing an opening tried jumping on the creatures back, but the scaly monster bucked her off. My dog finally caught hold of the Lady Lotus and dragged her to the ground, Kale didn’t wait for her to get up, and with a massive overhead swing he took her head nearly off her head. The felldrake may have been thinking of making a quick meal of Kiki, but suddenly he found his master dead and himself surrounded . . . he didn’t out live his master by long.
The Lady Lotus lived well. Her apartments were well furnished. She had a sitting room, a bedroom, and across the hall she even had a bath. The complex was dry here . . . perhaps even pleasant. There were carpets, paintings, and knickknacks and curiosities on the well stocked shelves and tables. Her bedroom even had a canopy bed and a better stocked wardrobe and dressing table then mine. Admittedly that wasn’t at all difficult, I had all of three dresses (counting the one I was wearing), one was for church and the other I wore to work. It was around this time that I noticed that the Lady Lotus was about my size. Nobody seemed to object when I dumped the contents of the entire closet into my sack . . . they were busy filling their own sacks . . .
After a flurry of mad looting, which even had Kale sniffing and sampling perfumes from the dressing table and Kiki pulling rings from the dead woman’s fingers, we discovered a hidden door along with a bundle of letters hidden under the bed. Kiki, Kale, and Buffy decided to explore the secret passage. It was short tunnel so I stayed in the bedroom, climbed up on the bed, and began looking through letters. They were love letters, juicy ones, from Vanthus to the Lady Lotus. I quickly got caught up in them and was so enthralled with the courtship that I barely even caught the yelps of pain coming from the secret passage. It seems as though someone had set off a trap (or two), there were no screams for help so I continued reading. The three explorers returned just as I got to the crucial part in the letters: Vanthus had killed his own parents! There was another surprise: in the Lotus Dragon vaults (which were at the end of the secret tunnel) were bags of coin with the Vanderboren crest on them! I later found a letter where Vanthus details his thefts from his sister. I’ve added the summery of the contents of these letters (as well as the important dates) to the appendix of this book.
Buffy and I were mentally tired from our excursions. I had cast many spells and only had a couple left, Buffy was almost completely spent, traveling back to the surface might prove difficult, so we decided to attempt to rest in the Lady Lotus’s bedroom. There was a door we could seal and barricade, plus there was a bed (not for Kale though, he had to sleep on the floor), it seemed like the best place to hide for the night. However we are sleeping in a den of murders and thieves and we should sleep with one eye open.
Hopefully this night Olidammara will sleep soundly,
While Cthulhu dreams.
Author's notes: both our knowledge local and gather information checks on the lotus dragons were bellow 10!
Blimey! That's a serious chunk o' text!
Great writing, and the group sounds like they're getting into their swing now - sweet!
carborundum wrote: Blimey! That's a serious chunk o' text!
Great writing, and the group sounds like they're getting into their swing now - sweet!
The next two entries are even longer IIRC. The portion I'm writting now TSWW should be sorter (hopefully).
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
Looks like your group discovered the main flaw in the Lotus Dragon compound...the potentially quick discovery of the Lady Lotus.
BTW, I just realized why your DM called his NPC cleric "Buffy". :D
Rhothaerill wrote: Looks like your group discovered the main flaw in the Lotus Dragon compound...the potentially quick discovery of the Lady Lotus.
BTW, I just realized why your DM called his NPC cleric "Buffy". :D
Our group seems to have a knack for taking the quickest route. I think you'll see that in some of the upcoming entries. It's a talent that has greatly increased our survivability (no character deaths yet . . . and we just finished HTBM).
And yes, our DM named Buffy "Buffy" as a bit of a joke, she is living up to her name in the latest chapters though (last encounter of HTBM for example). Her buff spells (like mass align weapon) were a great help!
Alright, After an email reminding me to get my butt in gear, I finished the little blurb on Kiki I started quite some time ago. It's short, but I'm lazy :D.
Kiki
No last name, she never speaks of her family or her life before Lady Vanderbourn's letter to her. Kiki is simply a street rat. A rogue, a thief and hard as nails. . .or at least that's how she hopes others view her.
Kiki is a Shoal Halfling, an amphibious creature just as at home on land as she is in the water. She's much younger than most starting out adventures, being only 16, very young for a halfling, her immature side does shine through often. Kiki is used to being on her own, and having friends is a new thing for her. She still hasn't quite grasped that having friends means having people who'll look out for you and help you when needed. She still believes that her companions have ulterior motives when they help her out without being asked.
She's usually not afraid to speak her mind and she's quick to solve problems with threat of violence, but being with her companions so long, she's slowly coming around, realizing a knife in the back isn't always the way.
BlackTygra wrote: Alright, After an email reminding me to get my butt in gear, I finished the little blurb on Kiki I started quite some time ago. It's short, but I'm lazy :D. Thanks Tara! Please feel free contribute to the thread, Even if it is just to pop in and say hello, short quick entries help break up the monotony of Tristan's impossibly long diary entries. I have fun writing them . . . but I sometimes wish that chick would stop yammering and just get to the point!
Also I think people reading these journals love to hear from all the players involved. I know I do! Reading through some of the other journals on this web site makes me feel like I'm at the table with dozens of other gaming groups.
Point being . . . There are no small parts only small halflings.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
Make that a second for hearing from more of your group. It's always fun to see the different viewpoints of the same material.
Perhaps I'll go in depth with Kiki's back story. But I make no promises.
The best part about this entire campaign (besides being able to see my friends every week) Is Tristins Diary enteries. I absolutely love seeing the adventures through the eyes of one of the characters, rather than the absolute sillyness OOC that leads into some of the greatest escapes/kills/puzzle solving/etc. Seeing how things work out in the mind of the character behind the player is fantastic, and makes the game all the more enjoyable each week, knowing there'll be new pages to read on the characters perspective. As far as I'm concerned. So keep up the excellent work!
P.S. Maybe sometime I'll continue on my own journal from our other campaign. . . .*shifty eyes*
Last night I had a dream.
It was last year at the great party at Castle Teraknian on the anniversary of the city’s independence. I was wearing my cousin’s old dress again (which seemed to shift from all sizes to big for me) and I was still partly responsible for looking after my sisters and the other noble’s children. The little brats were running all over the place and I couldn’t control them. Zabrina kept jumping in the punch bowl for some reason.
The first part of the dream wasn’t important, it was quite silly at times, but towards the end of my dream when everyone was arriving and being introduced (which chronologically should have happened at the beginning of the dream). I snuck into one of the balconies overlooking the great hall and watched the great procession. I was supposed to be watching the children, but I was sixteen, and I felt it unfair to be stuck with the other kids while ball and the great procession were going on. The families entered in a set order, not alphabetically, but without my program I forget the exact order. The seven families of the dawn council were last to enter though, with great uncle Worrin and his/our family being the very last. I just wanted to see the dresses. I wasn’t much of a dancer (although mother always said I had her natural grace) and I didn’t much like the fatty, salty foods they served at these events, although I did enjoy the deserts – I’m rambling again . . .
In the dream I watch as the members of the dawn council enter. Arabani enters first. She is one of the creatures they call a half-elf and she was blessed with beautiful pale skin and delicate features. If she wasn’t a woman I think I could fall in love with her. She also claims to be related to the Drow - which I don’t believe, the Drow are horrid evil things that lurk somewhere in the bowls of the Oerth, I can’t imagine Anwyn Arabani having a cruel bone in her lovely body.
Next enters Islaran, none of his family members look as though they want to be there, and Keltar is already dead. He looks like one of those living dead things we encountered under Parrot Island . . . except his eyes are weeping blood. I was horrified - but no one seemed to notice. I felt sick but I couldn’t leave. From the ballroom floor below I heard laughing, cruel laughing, and it seemed to me it was directed at Keltar. I leaned forward and looked down to see who would dare laugh at the tragedy that had befallen poor Keltar and his family. Heldrath Kellani and her daughter were laughing at the dead Islaran. Their laughter was mocking and mean spirited. I was just contemplating dropping something on them when suddenly my mother appeared behind me. It’s amazing how she can do that, even in my dreams.
“Tristan,” she snapped, causing me to jump (even though I knew it was coming), “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be watching your sisters?”
Even in my dreams I didn’t dare talk back to my mother, I quickly gathered up my dress (it was as big as the entire balcony at this point) and prepared to run to the observatory were the children were being housed, but I did pause to take one more look at Heldrath and her daughter . . . her daughter . . . there, beside the lady Kellani, was the Lady Lotus. My dream ended and I found myself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. I had woken with two certainties, Rowyn Kellani was the Lady Lotus, and the Lotus Dragons had killed Keltar Islaran. What I was going to do with these facts remained to be seen.
Kale was awake when I sat up, sharpening his sword, and Kiki and Buffy were still asleep. Buffy had spread out to take over most of the bed while Kiki and I were forced to share less then a third. I pulled out my spell book and began studying. It seemed silly, but I had never shared a bedroom with a man before, and I really had no idea how to make small talk. I looked over at Kale, and he looked up at me, and then, without a word, we both returned to our tasks. I wondered if this is what it’s like to be married.
Kiki and Buffy woke soon after, Kiki seemed like a light sleeper, when I moved her eyes opened and quickly darted about the room; but when she realized it was just me she nodded off for a few more minutes. When Buffy sat up and gathered up her things Kiki woke for good, and after we spell casters had prepped our spells, and everyone had a bite to eat, we cautiously removed our barricade and left the Lady Lotus’ bed chambers. Rowyn was right were we left her (rolled up in the purple carpet of the sitting room with just her feet sticking out) with ‘Gut Tugger’ lying lifelessly beside her.
The other rooms didn’t seem like they had been disturbed. Likely the other Lotus Dragons were active on the surface at night going about their nefarious deeds, now that the sun had set, it’s likely that the worms had returned to their lairs. We returned to what we assumed was the main hallway. If we were going to find Vanthus (and make him pay for what he did to his parents and sister) we would have to find him soon. If he discovered that we had infiltrated the Lotus Dragons and found his disgusting love letters he would surely flee the city. We needed to find this Kersh Reftun and ask him where Vanthus was.
We found the Lotus Dragon’s dining room next. I only counted eleven seats, either the Lotus Dragons were a small group, or they ate in shifts. I know they had one leader with two lieutenants, if they ate in three shifts that would give them thirty three members, and we’d only dealt with about a third of that. I put that number in the back of my head. At the far end of the dining room was a bird cage full of song birds that erupted into a chorus of music as we approached. The room was otherwise empty. The kitchen, however, was not.
Kale opened the door at the far end of the dining hall, no sooner did you open the door, then a pot (complete with its near boiling contents) came launching at him. I should note (for the benefit of any would be heroes) that chain mail proves to be poor protection against hot liquid. Kale didn’t scream. I’m sure we all expected him to, but being behind enemy lines (and facing unknown numbers); Kale knew that excessive noise would give our position away . . . or he didn’t want to cry in front of ‘a bunch of women’. Either way I’m sure the self control was amazing. He did yelp, moan, and howl under his breath though, and he did tense up, gripping his sword so tight that his knuckles went white. When Kale was finished ‘not’ screaming and crying we carefully ventured into what turned out to be the kitchen. The place seemed empty. We discovered that the ‘trap’ that had launched the pot at Kale was a simple leaver with no mechanism or trigger. Someone had manually launched that pot at Kale.
That someone turned out to be a female Kobold by the name of Churtle. We found her hiding under a pile of blankets in the next room. When we found her she cried and pleaded, offering all her worldly possessions for her life, even Kale, who had been scalded by her, felt pity for her. She had probably been captured and forced to work for these Lotus Dragons. I hated these monsters enough already without adding slavers to their lists of crimes. No creature deserves a life of slavery. I told her that the Lady Lotus was dead and she was free to come with us if she wanted. She seemed happy at that prospect and she quickly gathered up all her sea shells (her worldly possessions) and prepared to travel with us.
“So you’re a cook?” Kiki asked. Leave it to a halfling to think about food at a time like this.
“Oh yes,” said Churtle, smiling, and eager to tell us her talents and prove her usefulness, “I can make food and poison . . . and I almost never confuse the two.”
We continued exploring (with Churtle in tow). The hallways were long and winding, and surprisingly, quite empty. It seemed a bit like we were hunting phantoms rather then people. When we opened a door to find a massive canine barring our way it almost came as a relief. The feral thing was called a worg, I think, it had a rudimentary intelligence and it was quite mean spirited. It Kale initially struggled with the thing, but when Buffy used her healing magic, the thing quickly turned on her. It fought us for every inch, used the walls and corners to prevent flanking, and tried to prevent Buffy from healing. The creature was out numbered, and soon fell to our steady assault, but the fight made an awful lot of noise . . .
The beast was guarding an underground prison, the cell block was empty, but the torture chamber held two people. One was a large shirtless torturer, the other, dressed in rags, was tied to a rack, and apparently awaiting torture. Kale made short work of the first; the second thanked us and claimed to be a silk merchant captured by the Lotus Dragons, Kale cut him free and offered our services to take him to safety. Something about his story didn’t seem right though.
“What did you say your name was?” I asked.
“Kersh Reftun,” he said with a mean spirited smile.
“Wait,” I said, that was the name of the lieutenant we were looking for. I didn’t get the chance to share that information with the others though. Kersh punched me, hard, my sight was blurred. Thankfully the others quickly came to my aid. I may have been an easy target, but with two armored opponents, one carrying a heavy mace, the other with a broad sword, he was forced to defend himself from the others. His rags weren’t what they appeared, Kale’s sword and Buffy’s mace clinked and jingled as it struck Kersh’s apparently unarmored hide. His tricks did him little good, metal or rags, Kersh only enjoyed the one cheap shot . . . and the rest of his attacks were pretty ineffective against armor. He died before he could tell us were Vanthus was hiding.
We searched Kersh’s room; we found his secret stash of money and prized torture devices, but we found no clues as to the whereabouts Vanthus. We continued our search. We found the dormitory, the lavatory, and a guest room close to the exit and the Lady Lotus’ room. I can only guess from the note we found (detailing the Vanderboren vault with possible vault combinations) that the room once belonged to Vanthus. There was also a massive underground chamber, with a pool that held a crocodile, and a guard outpost hidden with an illusionary wall. As underground lairs go this place was impressive.
I can appreciate the time and money that someone poured into the complex now, but at the time, I was growing frustrated . . . there was no sign of Vanthus, all the leaders of this group were dead, and the place was built with one nasty surprise after the next. I found these problems immensely frustrating. These frustrations culminated in one of the last encounters in that complex: we opened a door to find three Lotus Dragons camped down behind an overturned table with crossbows waiting for us. Naturally they opened fire the moment we opened the door. I don’t think anyone was hit, not that the threat of danger was what caused me to snap, but the fact that they tried to kill us (yet again) seemed like the last straw for me. I cast my sleep spell, pulled my knife, and charged. I guess not everyone was dropped by the spell, not that I was paying attention to the others, I had tunnel vision for the one that had fired at me. I rounded the table, fell on him, and opened his neck from ear to ear.
There was this awful moment (as I sliced through his jugular and carotid arteries) when his blood sprayed out in a fine red mist, his eyes opened, and his hands grasped at the ruined remains of his neck in a futile attempt to stanch the horrible flow of blood. He was already dead. His body just didn’t know it yet.
“What did you do?” shouted Kale, “we could have taken him prisoner.”
I suddenly felt bad about taking a man’s life, seeing the light fade from someone’s eyes tends to do that to you, but being scolded by Kale was a bit much. He’d killed (quite irreversibly I might add) anyone and everyone who could have given us answers in this place. Every opponent he’d faced was disemboweled, decapitated, or dismembered. Now he was talking about taking prisoners? I tried not to choke on the irony.
“And how would you take prisoners?” I demanded. “Do you have rope? Did you bring manacles?”
“No,” Kale said, “but I have this.” He said holding up a small leather sap. The fact that he didn’t think of using the thing until this point was frustrating beyond all belief.
“And what’s that supposed to do?” I asked.
“It’s a sap,” he said, stating the obvious, “If they gave us any trouble I’d give them a smack on the head with this. It’ll knock them out.”
I didn’t bother asking why he didn’t use this weapon on Rowyn Kellani or Kersh Reftun, I’m sure the thought would occur to him later, and I wouldn’t want to spoil that epiphany.
“This animal tried to kill me,” I said, hopping that Kale would think that my anger was directed at the corpse at my feet rather then him personally, “and I’m not going to drag him back through this complex so he has the chance to escape and rejoin his friends and manufacture another opportunity to kill us.”
“So you’d just kill him?” Kale asked, “That’s cold.”
“The man was a thief and a murder. He’s part of a group that assassinated a Dawn Counsel member, he’s likely to have committed any number of capital crimes, and that’s not including the obvious: treason! He’d likely be facing execution on the surface anyways,” I couldn’t believe we were having this fight. Kale obviously had no idea what we were actually arguing about. “Do you think we could have gotten any information out of him that we didn’t already know? We’d just be dragging him to the surface to have someone else hang him.”
“So you fancy yourself judge, jury, and executioner?” Kale asked, “We aren’t above the law Tristan.”
“My family is the oldest and most respected family currently living in all of Sasserine,” I snapped, “Had great uncle Worrin not thought that the government should be made up of the people it’s highly likely that we’d be ruling this city as its royal family. As is, we are members of the Dawn Counsel, and great uncle Worrin is a sitting counselor of the Noble’s district. So I dare say, Kale Silverthumb, that I am far more qualified to speak on who or what is the law in this city then you are!”
I shouldn’t have lost my temper. I believe that Kale is a good man, perhaps not the smartest at times, but he means well. He very sorely misjudged me though, and I didn’t care for what he implied, and I fear that my outburst did nothing to dismiss his assumptions. We shouted a bit more, but that was the crux of the argument, and I fear it didn’t leave us on very good terms. Kiki and Buffy seemed to sympathize with me. I suspect that Kiki even knew the real reason I was angry at Kale.
There was one other moment which needs to be recorded here, another scary moment, and after this I’ll consider this lair (thankfully) finished. We came across a natural rock cavern, which we explored; we didn’t want to leave an inch of that complex uncharted in case Vanthus was still hiding somewhere below. We didn’t find Vanthus; we instead found rhagodessa, three of them. One of these monsters was a terrifying sight; two seemed like an overwhelming force - we were facing three! Kiki went down, Kale and Buffy were staggered and badly wounded, and one even charged past Buffy and Kale and attacked me . . . things looked dire . . . but Wee Jas was ready for us yet. The monsters fell and Kiki was saved. I don’t think we’ve ever been this close to death before.
After we were sure that we had explored every inch of that pit we made our way back to the surface (once again through the Taxidermist’s guild). Nemien Roblach was long gone. His shop had little of value (unless you liked dead animals), but Kale and Kiki searched it anyways, I think they may have found some coin.
We then made our way to the Vanderboren estate to deliver the horrible news to Lavinia. Her brother had killed their parents, tried to steal her inheritance, and had even tried to overthrow the city’s government. I don’t envy whichever one of us has to give Lavinia this news . . . this news will destroy her.
Thankfully Kale was willing to share the bad news. I watched Lavinia as the reality sank in. She asked for her bother’s letters, to read the confessions of his betrayal in his own handwriting, I wanted to tell her not to read them . . . that it would only bring more pain, but I handed them over without protest or word of comfort. I’m so weak. I watched her face collapse. I almost stared crying myself. The news hit her hard, but she recovered quickly, I must say that I admire her strength, and she swore that she’d see her brother brought to justice. I silently promised that I’d do whatever it took to see that happen. Vanthus would pay for what he did to Lavinia.
Kale then wanted to sell off everything we found but I had far more important things to take care of. Namely reporting these Lotus Dragon’s to someone in power. Hopefully before they discovered that someone had assaulted their lair. Hopefully before they had a chance to rebuild! I ran strait for great uncle Worrin’s offices. Thankfully he was willing to see me - even after babbling something sort of incoherent to his secretary. I was still a bit out of breath when I entered his office.
“Uncle Worrin, Uncle Worrin,” I panted, “I think the city might be in grave danger!”
“What’s all this then?” the elder Lidu asked, “What are you talking about?”
“We found a big underground lair in the Sunrise district, it was run by this group called the Lotus Dragons, and I think they’re trying to take over the city,” I said in one breath, “They’ve got informants and inside men in the city guard and they even have their hooks into some of the noble families, and I think they were the ones behind Keltar’s death.”
“Whoa, Tristan,” great Uncle Worrin said holding up his hands, “Slow down. Tell me slowly. What is this about?”
“The Lotus Dragons!” I said, “They’re trying to take over the city!”
“Tristan!” he snapped, “start from the beginning.”
And so I did. I told him everything that happened from the moment I left Blenak’s yesterday morning. I consulted my notes. I read from my diary. I told him everything I could think of. He just sat there, with his fingers tented, and listened.
“Tristan,” he finally said, “I want you to listen to me very carefully. Are you absolutely sure that Rowyn Kellani was the Lady Lotus?”
“Yes,” I said, “I saw her last year during the big party . . . I snuck into the west balcony to watch part of the procession. I still think it’s unfair that I couldn’t attend . . .”
“Are you sure?” great uncle Worrin asked again, cutting me off, “absolutely one hundred percent sure, because if I bring this to the Dawn Counsel . . .”
“You can check for yourself, she’s still down there, but I’m nearly positive that it was Rowyn Kellani. I’m not sure who else is involved but you can check my notes. I knew I couldn’t take this information to just anyone . . .”
“Yes, good Tristan,” he said as he began rapidly flipping through my notes, “you did good. You may have saved Sasserine.”
“I didn’t do it alone,” I said, “Kale, Kiki, and Buffy were all had an equal part in this.”
“Yes,” he said without looking up at me, “I’ll keep that in mind, but now I need to take care of this Tristan. Why don’t you go home and I’ll take care of this mess.”
I knew when I’d been dismissed, I probably could have talked my way into staying, but truth be told, I really didn’t want to sit through anymore conversations at this point. I felt tired and drained. I wanted nothing more then to soak in a tub and to crawl under the covers of a warm bed. I wanted to forget most of what I’d seen in the past week. I wanted revenge for Lavinia, I wanted to help Kiki, to smarten up Kale, to . . . doubly smarten up Buffy, but everything else I wish I could forget.
When I left my great uncle’s offices I found Churtle waiting for me on the street. I guess I have one more to worry and hope for.
May the Gods give me strength and watch over my friends,
Cthulhu dreams
Author's notes: We gained a level in the Lotus Dragon lair . . . Tristan's dream identification of Rowyn stemmed from the fact that I had put ranks in knowledge: nobility
The battle in the rhagodessa lair was a near TPK. Kale was at 1 hp, Buffy was at 2, Kiki was down, and one monster was at Tristan. A lucky cleave saved the day.
Also this is my favourite entry thus far!
That was the best in character debate I've ever had. Kale does think very poorly of Tristan's morals for quite sometime afterwards. Even more so when she starts eating hearts. That's all I'll spoil about that though. *wink*
KattHunter wrote: That was the best in character debate I've ever had. Kale does think very poorly of Tristan's morals for quite sometime afterwards. Even more so when she starts eating hearts. That's all I'll spoil about that though. *wink* HEY! No spoilers!
Besides, for the most part, what you eat doesn't have any effect on your alignment. The only exception, as far as I know, is cannibalism, and that is considered evil by the rules introduced in the BoVD (which is a highly controversial and much debated book over on the WotC boards). The BoVD and BoED are the only two books I don't automatically allow content from in my games.
Also I just realised that my thread is titled "prospective" instead of “perspective”!
Darn it all! I wish I could edit posts on these boards . . . :(
Fragments of the Lidu Diaries:
. . .
As I climbed the last set of stairs and entered the main lobby I was approached by a page working for the Dawn counsel.
“Are you Tristan Lidu?” he asked.
“Yes . . .” I said, a little nervous of what the counsel would want with me.
“I have an invitation here for you,” he said with a curt bow, “There is to be a party in your honor at castle Teraknian.”
“Me?” I said in a tiny voice, “What did I . . .”
“I’m sorry Miss, but I don’t really know,” he said with a slight hint of annoyance in his voice, “all I know is that I was told to give you this invitation and that you’d most likely be at the House of the Dragon. Turns out you were in some restricted room and no one at the front desk had clearance to fetch you so I’ve been waiting here since just after lunch. I guess you had a lot of reading to do or something. Anyways I’m tired and I’d really like to go home for supper.”
He seemed to remember his manors just as he was turning to leave, “I think that information should be pretty easy to come by. If it’s not in the invitation itself I’m sure someone should be able to tell you. As I understand it, there’s banners being painted and invitations being written, word about this party is about to spread throughout the city pretty soon. I find it odd that you don’t know, maybe, if you don’t mind my saying, you should spend more time amongst people rather then locking yourself away reading. Maybe then you’d be more connected with current affairs and the outside world. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must be going.”
I handled the document as if it were a poisonous snake. I did like parties but I didn’t like being the centre of attention . . . the thought of all those important people staring at me. I tried to suppress an involuntary shiver. I liked parties when I was free to observe with the security of obscurity, when no one cared who I was or why I was there, or when I had found some hidden corner where I could watch the dancing and see the pretty dresses without the fear of someone asking me to join in. Alone in my room, or with friends or sisters, I was quite light on my feet, but put me in a room with strangers or only casual acquaintances and I would step on my own skirts. Memories of my debutante ball came flooding back.
There was no doubt that word had spread about the party by the time I made home, it was possible that great uncle had spread the news, or the page had come to our home first. Zabrina practically tackled me as I walked through the door and many of the younger cousins and hangers on quickly gathered to offer praise. Zabrina wanted me to guarantee that she’d be attending the party. She was fourteen, about the age I was officially presented at my first ball, but she acted like she was eight. She needed to mature mentally before she’d be allowed into Sasserine society. She would certainly be welcome as a guest, but I couldn’t speak for mother or father though, and I had to answer with a non-committal “we’ll see”.
I went to my room to look through the dresses I had taken from the ‘Lady Lotus’, there were some beautiful dresses, but the colors had been chosen with Rowyn’s red hair in mind. I sat to think about my options (while still secretly dreading the upcoming party), contemplating what accessories I might use when mother entered. If I hadn’t been watching the door out of the corner of my eye I wouldn’t have even known she entered. I glanced up, but she said nothing, and after a moment of silence I returned to my rather limited wardrobe. There was one dress in particular I was looking at, it was green sadly, but it was absolutely gorgeous. I wondered if a paler colored shawl might let me pull off the bold color when my mother finally spoke.
“You know Tristan you’ve made quite a bit of money working for Lavinia, perhaps you should take some of your money and buy a dress that suits you.”
“Father said that I was supposed save my money.”
“Ignore your father. You might see it as a frivolous expense but sometimes you have to spend money to make money. The cloths make the woman Tristan, and how you dress tells people how you want to be treated, if you go to that party wearing someone else’s dress it’s going to tell people that you’re worth hand me downs and leftovers. You’re no great beauty, you have no investments or wealth, and now that you’ve given up your alchemy apprenticeship, you’ve no marketable skills. That leaves only your image. You have to convince people that you’re worth every penny they pay for your wizardry. If you can’t do that then you’d better return to Blenak and beg for your job back.”
Mother was like that. I opened my mouth to offer some retort, but nothing came to mind, I felt silly. “Zabrina wants to go to the party,” I finally offered.
“Of course she does,” mother said with a snort, “I suppose you’d like her to be there?”
“She is my sister, Yadda can come too if she wants, and maybe father will come home for this . . .” I said hopefully.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up Tristan,” she said as she turned to leave, “your father is less then perfect and if he failed to attend one of his daughters important moments, it wouldn’t come as a shock to me, in fact it would be entirely in keeping with his character. I will be there regardless Tristan, I am your mother, and I do love you in my own way. Now get ready for supper . . . that kobold of yours has been in the kitchen and I want you to taste what she’s cooked before I put it in front of the rest of the family.”
. . .
Kiki, Buffy, and I went shopping today; I think the three of us are quickly becoming friends. We all wanted something fancy for this party in our honor but there wasn’t enough time to commission something new. Instead we shopped for something suitable that could be quickly tailored to our sizes. Buffy really didn’t have much choice when it came to her priestly vestments, but after we found a shop that carried her robes, she was nice enough to follow us around as we did the rest of our shopping. Kiki had the easiest time shopping of the three of us. Virtually every shop we went into had something cute, pretty, or elegant sized for halflings. Kiki merely had to choose her color and style then haggle over price. On my advice we decided not to take the first courtier outfit she had chosen, my reasoning being that we could always come back, and luckily we found something even better for her elsewhere. I, on the other hand, had a far more difficult time finding a dress equal to my station.
My dress had to be of high quality, it should have my family colors, and it couldn’t look used or out of style. Luckily Great Uncle Worrin’s decision to share the rule of the city with the people had caused a veritable explosion in the clothing market. Everybody with money wanted to dress like a noble. Unfortunately not every tailor or seamstress was qualified to make such high quality garments, many skimped on the fabric or lace, others couldn’t manage the complex designs or stitching currently popular in Sasserine, and others still bought old dresses and simply refurbished them. You had to have a keen eye for that sort of thing.
As it turns it wasn’t even at a clothing shop where I found my dress. We were in and around the tailor’s guild hall in the market district (there were a lot of fine shops in that area) when we were approached by a tall gaunt looking man with chalk white hair. Despite his thin white haired appearance he didn’t quite look old, nor did he look young, he did have the face of experience.
“I’m sorry to interrupt my lady,” he said with a curt bow and a deep monotone voice, “but I couldn’t help overhearing you predicament. I was at the front desk meeting with my friend Strauss at the tailor’s guildhall when you asked your questions. When you mentioned the words Lidu and dress just now it tickled something in the back of my head. It took me a moment to remember what it was but I think that I may have something to show you.”
“Oh really?” said Kiki with a raised eyebrow, “If you think you’re going to lure us into your shop for some unknown, possible sinister or perverted, reason you’re going to have to have to come up with a better line then that. Maybe you could offer us some candy?”
He ignored Kiki, “I own The Dancing Monkey, a curio shop, and I have a vast collection of trinkets and oddities for sale. A dress designed for the Lidu clan just happens to be one of those oddities.”
“How is that an oddity?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Perhaps it’s not an oddity at all, but if my little shop should have what you’re looking for, then I would think that it would be in very the least a curiosity.”
“Point taken,” I said.
“This way then,” he said with a sweep of his arm.
“Oh you’re not seriously thinking of going with him,” Kiki said, “after everything we’ve been through . . .”
“You know there’s a bakery just down the street,” he said without a hint of humor in his voice.
“Well maybe you could go with him Tristan,” Kiki said, and she added with a whisper, “if he does anything weird just start screaming, you’ll have to be loud though, because I’ll be just down the street.”
The sign over The Dancing Monkey wasn’t at all as I imagined it. I imagined a happy little character scampering and prancing for coins like the kind you see at the markets with the organ grinders, but the picture showed a sinister and evil looking thing, dancing only (I imagined) as part of some sort of diabolical pagan ritual. Inside we found an interesting mix of the occult, the arcane, and all manner of strange oddities. Buffy and Kiki looked around for a few moments then decided to wait outside. I wished I could join them . . . the jar with the eyeballs seemed to be staring at me.
The owner didn’t wait to show me around, he immediately went behind the front counter, and then, finding a passage he wanted out of a weighty dusty volume behind the counter; left me alone with the only store employee, a hunchbacked albino gnome. The gnome didn’t look up or even acknowledge my presence. He seemed completely absorbed with (much to my horror) a weighty tome on torture. I was left to stand in silence with only the occasional chuckle from the small pale misshapen store clerk.
“So,” I said after a very long uncomfortable silence, “you get many customers?”
The gnome squinted up at me, as if pondering how to respond to such a question and clearly resenting the intrusion, but thankfully the shop owner returned carrying a large trunk before the albino and I would have to interact further. The chest was quite large, I should note, and I was surprised to see the ease in which the gaunt man swung the thing about. He carried the chest into the centre of the room, gently set it down, and opened it up. Inside was an odd collection of clothing, from ancient looking tunics, colorful vests and pants, to what looked like a ratty old bloodstained green cloak, and under all those odds and ends was a beautiful grey silk dress with red and gold embroidery. The dress looked absolutely antique.
“How old is it?” I asked.
“How old are you in relationship to Worrin Lidu?” he asked in return.
“He’s my great uncle,” I said, “why does that . . .”
“This dress was made for his father’s great aunt, she was set to inherit, but she was lost at sea. She never wore it and the family couldn’t bear to sell it. And so it sat in storage until the sea princes came, then, in desperation, and only after the memory of your great, great, great, grand aunt had passed, it was sold. It passed from hand to hand until it found its way into my little shop. To my knowledge no one has ever worn it over all those years.”
I looked it over. The gold on red embroidery was absolutely stunning. Someone had taken weeks to make this dress. The fabric still seemed pristine. Whoever had kept the dress over the years had kept it dry and out of the air. My mother’s advice had to be ignored . . . I had to have this dress.
“How much do you want for it?” I asked.
“The dress is not for sale,” the gaunt man answered.
I almost fell over.
“What? Why show me a dress if you’re not going to sell it?” I gasped. I tried to remain calm. I wondered if the man was joking.
“Such a dress is impossible to value with mere gold. It would be insulting to try. I cannot sell such a dress . . . but maybe you have something of equal value to trade?”
I looked to see if the man had a cloven foot. Devils were such predictable jerks. If this idiot was after my soul I would be quite irate! Both his feet were normal and he looked (more or less) human.
“What do you have in mind?” I cautiously asked.
“A dress of another, another who won’t inherit, perhaps one who will be lost at sea?”
“Ok, I may have something for you then,” Rowyn’s dress seemed to fit this description a little too well . . . except the lost at sea bit. I contemplated walking out and door and never coming back, this wasn’t right, this gaunt man knew too much. “But I fail to see how such a transaction could be profitable to you.”
“Green for Grey, to some, dresses are like skins and names. For now let us just say that the green is more valuable to me now then it is to you and Green is a color that no longer suits you.”
“Did it ever?” I asked off-handed, wondering what in the nine hells he was talking about.
He smiled - a strange expression on his thin face. “I’ll wrap this up for you. It’ll be waiting here when you return with the other.”
. . .
Blenak was alone in his store when I entered. I once again felt a twinge of guilt for leaving him without a replacement, but the old man had the shop for near fifty years, I doubt the loss of a single employee would be the end of him. He glanced up at me as I entered.
“Hello Tristan,” he said with a small smile, “come to beg for your old job back?”
“Hello Blenak,” I said, “how has business been?”
“Well you know the magic business, off and on, things are slow right now, but next week . . . who knows. How’s your new job? Is that insane employer of yours still able to pay you outrageous amounts of money?”
“Oh the job’s good, and she’s fine, I do miss my quite little lab sometimes though.” He seemed to perk up at that, so I quickly added, “I like having so much free time though, I’ve made great strides with my research and improving my skill.”
“Well I’m happy for you,” he said without even trying to sound like he meant it.
“This isn’t strictly a social visit though,” I said eyeing one of the display racks, “I’m here as a customer as well.”
“I see,” he said rubbing his hands together, “what can I get you?”
“There’s a rod in one of your display cases that I’ve had my eye on for some time,” I said walking over to the case in question, “and now that I’m a wizard that can make money at her craft I think it’s high time I invested in something that can augment my spells.”
Blenak followed me, behind the counter, and peered into the display case with me. “You mean the rod of extend?” he asked, “Greater, regular, or lesser?”
“I’m not that rich,” I laughed, “I can only afford the lesser . . . for now.”
“You should also buy a wand of missiles,” Blenak said, with a serious look in his eye, “and I’m not saying that to try to drum up more business. Adventuring is dangerous work and the best defense is a good offense. When you run out of spells a good wand might be the one thing that keeps you from being something’s lunch. Magic Missiles just happens to be one of the most reliable wands out there.”
“I think I’d like to get a wand as well,” I said to Blenak, “That’s going to be all of my hard earned cash though.”
“I think you’ll be back in a couple of weeks though,” he said glancing up at me, “The best sort of customer is a repeat customer, and if you can stay employed to this crazy money bags . . . and stay alive,” he added gently tapping the wand with his finger, “I think you’ll be my best customer.”
It was a touching moment. I think that was as close as Blenak had ever come to saying he cared for me . . . “Does that mean I’ll get a discount?”
“Discount!” he snapped, “what are you trying to do? Ruin me?”
I laughed and paid for my purchases but on my way out I felt the need to tell him about the party. “You may have already heard about this,” I said, “but my companions and I are being honored by the city for some silly thing . . . I’d be pleased to see you there . . . if you want,” I wondered why I said ‘I’d be pleased . . .’
“When is it?” He asked.
“This Freeday, in the afternoon,” I said, suddenly realizing that I’d be asking him to visit on his one day off, “but if you have something more important . . .”
“There’ll be refreshments?” he asked.
“I think so . . .”
“Fine,” he said, “I’ll see you this Freeday.”
I don’t know why, but that pleased me.
. . .
Great uncle Worrin presented us all with the spiral of Sasserine. This metal came into being shortly after the fall of the sea princes, it was designed to honor the cities heroes, and I felt greatly humbled to receive such an honor. My name would now be viewed alongside other heroes who had earned the metal. I felt out of place wearing such a decoration but Kale touted his about as if it had always been his . . . Kiki seemed to look at hers as if wondering how much she could pawn it for.
Afterwards there was refreshments and mingling. I was quite happy there was no dancing. I still felt a tad awkward as people from all over the city approached me and congratulated me and talked with me like I was someone of importance. “You should talk with the others,” I often found myself saying, “they did most of the heroics, I just used my magic’s as best I could, and tried to keep us out of trouble.” Most seemed satisfied with that response. Most didn’t really care what I had to say anyways, and just wanted to meet and talk with all the inductees as a matter of principle. A few of the women just wanted to know where I found my dress . . . when I told them the truth they just laughed.
I felt bad that I had to leave Churtle home for this affair but I doubt she would get along with the few gnomes that had attended. I was happy to see Blenak there. He came over and congratulated me before making his way back to the buffet. Father didn’t show though, but Mother and my sisters did. Zabrina seemed more interested in everything but the ceremony and Yadda (as I expected) had her eyes on the boys. She looked Kale over but he wasn’t handsome enough for her.
Not everyone at the party was just interested in making polite conversation. Some had come with business in mind. I had just loaded a plate up with sweets (which I was going to enjoy privately someplace) when I almost walked right into Lux Sioni. I knew she was at the party because I had seen her earlier arguing with great uncle Worrin over something but I didn’t expect to see her up close and personal.
“Excuse me,” I mumbled, thinking that almost running into her had been an accident, but when I moved to step around her she stepped into my path again.
“Hello Tristan Lidu,” Lux Sioni said, “I am High Warden Lux Sioni, mistress of the Witchwardens, and keeper of the tower.”
“Yes,” I said. The Witchwardens were the mystic defenders Sasserine and Lux Sioni was their most famous member and commander. At one time I dreamed of becoming a witchwarden . . . but things changed. I started working for Blenak, then I worked Lavinia, and over that time I forgot about the witchwardens.
“Tristan Lidu,” she said with a smile like cold iron, “you graduated top of your class last year.”
“Yes,” I said. When the Witchwardens were recruiting the senior class I was completely passed over. Not one of the recruiters even thought to talk to me. Lux Sioni was at the graduation ceremony, she talked to each and every graduate, but when I stepped up to the podium to receive my degree she simply said my name and then looked strait through me. She, and her people, had chosen to shun me then, why would she want to talk to me now?
“You were one of the youngest graduates ever,” She said after a moment of silence.
“Yes,” I said. She was a powerful and frightening woman and a bit of a legend at House of the Dragon. We knew next to nothing about her and yet students would talk about her for hours. Every story, every achievement, and even her most casual conversations would be shared and dissected like epic literature during lights out. Most of my female classmates wanted to be Lux Sioni.
“And now you’ve distinguished yourself protecting the city from an inside threat,” She said after again waiting for me to say something other then ‘yes’.
“You should talk with the others, they did most of the heroics . . .” I said trying to walk away, she didn’t want to talk to me then, I didn’t feel like talking to her now.
Lux Sioni cut me off, both in physically and in conversation, “What are you studying?”
“What?” I gasped.
“What are you currently studying?” she said. Her eyes were boring holes through my skull.
“The planes,” I said trying to answer as cryptically as possible. The planes were unfathomably large. “Yes, the planes,” I mumbled to myself, “that will do, that will do nicely”
“The planes?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“You should speak to Lord Theodran,” Lux Sioni said quite quickly, “he’s our expert on the planes. You and he might have a lot in common.”
“Ok . . .”
“Have you ever been to our tower or thought about joining our order?” Lux asked.
‘Thought about it?’ I felt like saying, ‘I once damn well dreamt about it. But you and your little cabal saw to smashing those dreams didn’t you?’
“Yes,” I said instead.
“Well, why don’t you come by the tower sometime, I think you’d make an excellent new member, and in light of all your current and past accomplishments I think it’s safe to say we can make you an initiate in our order without the standard testing.” And with that she left. People moved out of her way as she strode towards the exit.
That encounter left me curious. My value as a wizard undoubtedly had gone up after tonight, the fact that I was being paid to perform my magic was a sure sign of my competence, but now, I had been recognized by the city for our accomplishments. But I still didn’t understand why Lux herself had offered the invitation. Why not get one of her toadies to offer the invite? Why further entice me with knowledge? Why ensure to me that I would be automatically inducted into their order? Truth be told, as insulted as I was, even if a toady had brought the offer (and after I had a couple of days to vent and fume) I’d probably still have joined the witchwardens. I watched as Lux Sioni left. She glared at my great uncle . . . and he glared at her – another mystery.
I wasn’t the only one who was being scouted by the city’s elite, I observed Kale talking to Zasker Grankus, of the quasi mercenary group known as the Zelkarune's Horns, he and his group ran the arena. I could tell from the body language that Kale wasn’t interested in whatever Zasker was offering. Zasker wasn’t a man who was interested in idly talking . . . after he got his answer from Kale he left. Even Kiki got a letter from someone . . .
. . .
Someone burnt down Kiki’s home, roughed her up as well, she said they were just street thugs, but I think there’s something she’s not talking about. I brought her back to my place. I told her I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. That seemed to placate her. My room is getting quite snug, Kiki and I are in the bed, Churtle with her hammock in the closet, and all of our stuff (including Churtle’s damn sea shells) piled all about.
. . .
Kiki confirmed that she is a shoal halfling. She (like my toad Hop-toy Dan) was amphibious. This explained a lot.
. . .
I mets with the one named Theodran. So many answers! Not enough questions . . . I wanted to pick at his mind for days, it’s so fat and filled, and his thoughts are so tasty! But when Palor’s son fell clumsily out of the sky Theodran says that I too must vanish. I must go back there . . . must pick his brains . . .
Cthulhu exists!
I knew . . . but I didn’t, not until his words echoed with the ones in my mind. Now there was another voice howling the same words. Cthulhu, Cthulhu, you no longer exist in my brain. Before it was just words but now it was fact. He knew. He had proof! Had seen things with his own fleshy eyes . . .
My mind is a turbulent scrawling sea, waves and sounds and winds and clouds, but underneath . . . underneath the water churns . . . my thoughts go deeper . . . dragged down, ever down towards where he . . . dreams . . .
Theodran set me on a path . . . NO! He threw me into the ocean . . . his words worm into my brain wounding a map in my mind . . . all I see is sea, and all I am left with is the scars of his teachings and a sail of paper and ink. I carry my manuscript sail with me now. Its knowledge will be revealed when the winds of change blow strong and then, only then, I’ll sail to secret shores.
I need to calm down. I need to think.
My mind . . . my mind, when I close my eyes all I see is violent spinning color . . .
I wonder what dreams this night will bring? Tomorrow I begin my scribbling and scratching . . .
. . .
We began looking into this Kraken’s cove that Vanthus mentions in his letters. We figured that if we were going to capture him for Lady Vanderboren this seems like the most likely place that he’d be hiding at. His plans to attack the pirates at Kraken’s cove were set to go off within ‘weeks’ so we have little time to waste. First thing we need to do is find Kraken’s cove.
There’s a Cartographer’s guild is within a stone’s throw of my house. We decided to look there first. The halfling behind the counter directed us to Sloren Highwall’s house . . . I guess she’s the local expert. 50 GP later and we have our answer.
Kale, Kiki, and Buffy head down to the docks to try and hire a boat, turns out the Blue Nixie is still impounded after that Vark smuggling fiasco, and I doubt she could afford to hire a crew with her limited funds anyways. I take the time to try and scribe this scroll that Theodran was kind enough to give to me. If I have time I should try to make sense of last night’s entry . . . my mind was operating on an entirely different level last night. Thankfully it was late, both Kiki and Churtle had called it a night, and I was left alone with my scratching.
Kiki and Kale were able to find a fishing vessel to take us . . . but he wants an outlandish amount of money to take us there. Thankfully Lavinia was willing to cover the costs so the money won’t come out of our monthly retainer fees. She is a kind and generous woman . . . I find it hard to believe that no man has snapped her up yet, she would be a fine catch. I know if I were a man I’d try courting her . . .
Getting to Kraken’s cove, the fisherman told us, is about a 16 hour journey. He seemed to know where it was without our directions. Makes me wonder what we spent that fifty GP on. Anyways, with the better part of the day being wasted, and sailing to the cove taking almost another day, we decide to leave as soon as possible. We pay our fisherman to take us at first light the next day.
This will be my first time in the waters outside of Sasserine. I’m not sure if I should feel excited or afraid. Maybe I should feel both.
. . .
We reached the bay late today. It’s too dark (even if our captain was willing) to sail into the cove today. It’s probably too dark to even go ashore. We decide to drop anchor and camp out on the boat for tonight. The cove seems quite.
I have a good feeling about this,
Cthulhu dreams
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
Nice.
Question for you...how much of the ball, etc. from your recent post was handled in game? I'm curious how much other groups do in-game for things like that. For items that are primarily for individual characters I like to handle them via email roleplaying so that it doesn't start to bog down the game itself. Certain things, even if done by a lone player in town, affect my whole group such as the cleric meeting with the sage, so I roleplay that out in game.
Rhothaerill wrote: Nice.
Question for you...how much of the ball, etc. from your recent post was handled in game? I'm curious how much other groups do in-game for things like that. For items that are primarily for individual characters I like to handle them via email roleplaying so that it doesn't start to bog down the game itself. Certain things, even if done by a lone player in town, affect my whole group such as the cleric meeting with the sage, so I roleplay that out in game.
Every meeting with Blenak is an invention of these journals. Also our shopping trip and meeting with the gaunt man (who may be making an appearance in my AoW campaign) is also an invention of these journals. He will not be re-appearing here. Because they are my inventions these encounters were not RPed out. Almost everything else happens in game.
The ball took about an hour to run because important NPCs from various groups were all interested in recruiting the cities newest heroes. I didn't include Tristan's meeting with the dawn council either because it was pretty uneventful. As a player I love RP stuff like this . . . in fact I enjoy this more then combat. If your players are anything like me I highly recommend spending the time to RPing this stuff out, especially if you have a small group, other players won't mind waiting as long as they get some face time too.
Naturally there's tons of RP stuff that doesn't get included into these diaries as well! The funny in game stuff gets included (out of game stuff is omitted sadly) but anything that's not important, or Tristan isn't privy too, get's omitted.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
Guy Humual wrote: As a player I love RP stuff like this . . . in fact I enjoy this more then combat. If your players are anything like me I highly recommend spending the time to RPing this stuff out, especially if you have a small group, other players won't mind waiting as long as they get some face time too.
Two of my three players (my wife and her sister) enjoy the RP aspect very much. Their characters are not quite diametrically opposed, but close (a LN monk/ and a CG stuck-up cleric of a love goddess...more to it than that, but that's the nutshell) so they enjoy bickering with each other about various things. The third player is a little harder to get involved as he is not as vocal as the other two, but he does have a very quirky character and a lot of the funniest things happen because of him. He plays a goblin fighter with a voracious appetite so, among other things, I ran an eating contest with the announcer sounding like the deep-voiced "lets get ready to rumble" guy from wrestling...I'm not a wrestling fan so I don't know his name.
My group has actually spent the last five months of real time roleplaying out the events of a week in town so I was just wondering how much other groups do that too.
The email RP items I was talking about are specific to each character, and aren't as interesting for the others. For example the cleric of the love goddess wants to be a dragon trainer (her race is a homebrew race that is descended from dragons so she reveres them). The email is specifically her first meeting with another of her race who is going to give her some tips and tricks to train her pet baby red dragon, and so she can start merging into a prestige class. The goblin fighter wants to take some rogue levels so I had him meet a halfling girl who wanted to learn how to fight like him and offered to teach him her knowledge of the streets in return.
Rhothaerill wrote:
The email RP items I was talking about are specific to each character, and aren't as interesting for the others. For example the cleric of the love goddess wants to be a dragon trainer (her race is a homebrew race that is descended from dragons so she reveres them). The email is specifically her first meeting with another of her race who is going to give her some tips and tricks to train her pet baby red dragon, and so she can start merging into a prestige class. The goblin fighter wants to take some rogue levels so I had him meet a halfling girl who wanted to learn how to fight like him and offered to teach him her knowledge of the streets in return.
We never thought of this idea. I've been emailing Tristan's diaries amongst the group but I've never thought of emailing adventure stuff!
That's a great idea to save time, although, to be honest, the player in me likes hearing what the other players are up to. We've never tried emailing side story stuff . . . I have typed up side story stuff and printed it off for players to read at the appropriate points . . . we might try this option in the future (especially in my AoW campaign) . . .
I know I'm not big on E-Mail RP. It takes me too long to type stuff, and I've normally not the time to type stuff up. It would be great to have your own message board. I think that would be the best idea. *shrug* I know my wife (BlackTygra) would be ok with E-mail RP, since she does enough online RP already playing Never Winter Nights online.
These diaries are almost caught up with the ones the players have read. We get to read and proof read them for GuyH.
We added a new player in this week's entry: Introducing James Kidd, the newest PC in our small group, I think he's a fighter/rogue mix aiming for dread pirate.
James joined as we were leaving Kraken’s Cove (which was the start of a new gamming session) so he won't be seeing any action this week.
BTW: you may have noticed that I've discovered aliases. The picture is about as close to Tristan as I can find. Blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin . . . (there's a couple that are close but the pointed ears clearly say elven)
The savagery we witnessed to day was simply unbelievable. I think we should thank Wee Jas for granting us more time. Perhaps we should also thank Norebo, the stern lady’s lover, for his role as well. We escaped with our lives and also picked up at least one valuable ally. Now I pray that Osprem will see fit to give us speed and haste back to Sasserine so we can save our Lady Vanderboren.
The day started out peacefully enough; just after breakfast our captain put us ashore on a remote beach so we could make our way overland to Kraken’s Cove. The cove was rumored to be some sort of pirate staging area and was likely quite dangerous (we had no idea). We believed an overland route would be in our best interest because we had no desire to fight a cove full of pirates. We wanted to sneak in, capture Vanthus, and hopefully sneak out before anyone was the wiser. The water ways were likely watched so our best chance at stealth was by traveling overland. Less then ten minutes into our journey we saw thick black smoke rising from the cove. This meant that Vanthus had set his dastardly plan into action – we had arrived too late.
We picked up the pace. Vanthus had planed to burn the pirate ships as they remained moored in the cove and then collect the wealth off the ocean floor. He wasn’t likely going anywhere soon should his plan succeeded and as much as I’d have liked to have Vanthus and the filthy pirates fight to their deaths, we had promised Lavinia that we’d try to bring Vanthus back to Sasserine to face justice. I personally hated the thought of Vanthus getting away with the death of anyone else . . . even a lowly pirate. I wanted to stop Vanthus at almost any cost. As we drew nearer to the cove however Vanthus became the least of our concerns.
Roughly an hour into our journey something changed. We could tell something was wrong. The jungle didn’t feel right. At first we couldn’t tell what that was, but when we stopped and listened, the animals didn’t sound right. They raged with a kind of madness, all sound and furry, worse then savage beasts. As we advanced further we began seeing signs of the unnatural calamity that had touched the cove. We found dead animals, some of them horribly deformed, some of them mauled, and some had been ravenously devoured till nothing remained except the gnawed bones and red gristle. Something strange and horrible had happened here. Encountering the strange and dangerous was almost becoming routine for us.
We caught glimpses of living creatures, they were horrible deformed things, like the dead ones we found earlier, and they seemed to attack anything living within reach . . . regardless of size. Monkeys, horribly deformed, with rows of razor sharp teeth, dropped out of the trees and attacked us. There must have been four of them, it happened so quickly I couldn’t be sure, and they attacked with a savagery that we had not yet encountered before. I made good use of my wand and Kale was able to quickly chop through the small but vicious foes. Kiki and Buffy protected our flank and soon our enemies were defeated. Their deaths brought another unexpected surprise: when the monsters died (and they all fought to the death), they violently dissolved into some kind of acidic goo, splashing anyone close with their toxic corrosive remains. Worse still the monkeys carried some kind of disease! Buffy had to make use of her formidable healing skills to keep Kiki from contracting whatever these things had. Could there have been some kind of disease responsible for this madness?
Somewhere ahead we could hear the crash of the sea. Over that we could hear the roar of an inferno. Through the trees we could see thick oily black smoke billowing skyward. When we finally reached the cliffs overlooking the cove we caught sight of four ships ablaze on the water. A fifth sat just out of the fire’s reach. Vanthus had said in his letters that he planed to use oil to light the water and the ships on fire. It seemed as though he had made good on this promise, but clearly with the bedlam in the jungle surrounding the cove, something else, something terrible, had happened. We needed to get down to the cove bellow to find out what.
Except for the fire and burning ships nothing moved in the cove or on the beach far bellow. It seemed safe. Unfortunately the only way down to the beach (besides jumping and swimming . . . or climbing) was a rickety, rotten, old bridge that looked as though it could collapse at a moments notice. I knew I wasn’t a climber, and I didn’t think I wanted to find out if I was a swimmer (I’ve never been in water over my head before), so that left the disintegrating bridge. Fortunately everyone else thought the bridge was the best option as well and Kiki volunteered to go first. The bridge squeaked under Kiki’s small frame but she was able to make it safely down to the shore bellow. Kale went next, our reasoning being that if the bridge could support Kale, it would support any of us. The bridge screeched in protest. Dirt and dust rained down from the bridge with his every step. The weather worn boards bent and creaked under his weight . . . but Kale made it down to the shore with Kiki. I went next. Buffy would guard my back in case there were any more mad mutated monkeys. As I was a quarter of the way down Kiki screamed that one of the ships had broken free of its moorings and was headed straight for us!
I looked up to see this great fiery wreck floating straight for the bridge. If I stayed where I was it would crash into the walkway right in front of me. If I went back there would be a burning ship between me and the shore. If I went forward I risked being pinned by the ship or being on a collapsing bridge. If I dove into the water I might find that swimming is more difficult then it looks. I ran forward. The bridge was slippery, uneven, and it seemed to threaten to give in with every hurried step I took, but I needed only look at the imminent burning mass to give me motivation. I made it past where the ship was doomed to crash and a good ways further when I felt the heat behind me and heard the sound of snapping and cracking wood. I felt the bridge give way underneath me. I was forced to throw myself the remaining distance to safety. I landed hard on the coarse sandy beach. I was lucky though, nothing was broken, and no scrapes or bruises that I could tell. My dress would need to be darned in a couple of places though.
Only after I was on safe ground did I dare look back. The old wooden walkway was in ruins . . . the ship had even scraped and crushed the supports for the bridge off the cliff face for at least fifty feet. Other portions were starting to burn. I suddenly remembered Buffy had been behind me! Thankfully she wasn’t in the water. I couldn’t see the top of the bridge because of the smoke but Kale and Kiki were looking towards the top of the cliff away from the bridge, maybe she didn’t try to follow me down. After a few nervous moments Buffy appeared on the cliffs high above the beach, wisely she had chosen not to follow, but now needed to find another way down. Buffy chose to climb. I was far more nervous watching her climb then I was hustling along that rickety walkway. Thankfully Buffy made it down without falling.
With all of us down we were finally able to examine the beach. The area was truly a grisly sight. Blood, bodies, and bones littered the beach. There had to more then a dozen dead here, along with the ill gotten cargo of a few merchant vessels, and most of it, like the unfortunate dead, had been destroyed beyond recognition. We moved carefully along the shore. Just because we couldn’t see any enemies didn’t mean that some weren’t lurking about.
Our caution proved pertinent: from out of the wreckage two creatures (which I can only guess were once human pirates) emerged. The two had mutated in vastly different ways, they could have been completely different species by the looks of them, but they worked as a team and attacked as soon as the caught sight/smell/or sound of us (I’m as of yet still unsure as to how they hunt). Kale stepped forward to block their passage . . . and the things were on him immediately! Those things were fast. Buffy moved up to offer support but it still proved to be a tough fight. The savage pirates moved with incredible speed and agility and their skin seemed unnaturally rubbery. Kale, Kiki, and Buffy had a hard time hitting and piercing their inhuman hides. Only my wand seemed to hit with any kind of predictability. The monsters were put to death, but not before they got a couple of bites in, and Buffy once again had to make use of her medical skills.
The beach, for what it was worth, was ours. There was no sign of Vanthus though. He could have been one of the skeletons on the beach (with the bones picked clean of flesh and cracked open) or he could have been on one of the burning ships (which seemed unlikely if he set the fire ablaze). With no way of confirming if Vanthus was alive or dead we had to assume that he was still alive. That meant we would have to explore the pirate caves.
There were two entrances. One entrance, which I assumed was the main entrance because of its size, was closest but another, which was smaller and on the other side of a small bridge, seemed out of the way and less used. We chose the far entrance. We believed it to be the path of least resistance. Inside, down a long hallway of natural stone, we found a room filled with hanging silks. The silks were still damp to the touch which meant that they may have been hung to dry. That bit of information meant little to us as the silks still blocked our view of the room, whatever the reason they had been hung there, and as usual our worries seemed to be well founded . . . something stalked the room.
What it was before it’s transformation I couldn’t guess, perhaps it was some kind of giant lizard, I don’t know, but what I do know is that it was now was a monstrous killing machine. Our first sight of the beast was when it pounced onto Kale. Kale was hurt - bad. The creature had Kale at its mercy, he was in desperate shape, but thankfully the creature just couldn’t land the killing blow. I opened up on the creature with my spells and wand, Kiki rushed into flank, and Buffy positioned herself to heal. We fought the creature back. It was a ferocious monster, but as a team, we were far fiercer. Soon the creature was dissolving into a puddle of goo like the other creatures we had fought in this cove.
We chose to follow left wall. If this place was like a labyrinth following one wall would keep us from getting lost. If we came across a group of those savage monstrous lizards getting lost would only make matters worse. Always keep your directions simple when exploring dangerous areas. Following the left wall meant following the right wall on the way out.
Ahead we found the remains of a kennel. I don’t think the creatures that remained were ever dogs, they may have once been krenshars, and originally I’m sure there were five of them. Only two remained now. There were two monsters and three piles of bones. It seemed like another fight, but then Kiki and I noticed that the two monsters were still wearing collars and were unable to attack us if we stayed out of the room. It may sound un-heroic but we used their restrictions to our advantage. Discretion is the better part of valor. We destroyed them at range.
We continued along the left wall and found another cave. It had a pool of sea water that was probably connected to the cove outside. I couldn’t even begin to guess what this room was once used for, there weren’t many clues inside, and the room’s only inhabitant wasn’t going to be answering our questions.
“Where are you, my love?” the creature muttered, “Is that you? I knew you wouldn’t leave me! Soooo hungry . . . please . . . feed me . . .”
She couldn’t be reasoned with. We had to put her down. I hope that we don’t discover later that there’s a simple way of reversing this horrible condition. When she dissolved we discovered a locket in the remains, it had a tiny picture of Vanthus in it. This meant that this was probably the unfortunate girl, Brissa, who Vanthus had tricked into helping him. I was sad to see that Vanthus had indirectly claimed another victim. This crime really paled in comparison to the crimes he’d already committed but I added it to my mental catalogue of his crimes none the less. The room had no visible exits so we had to double back.
Ahead was a maze. It was a mass of twisting corridors. We had been surprised enough already today. I summoned a lowly devil and sent it in ahead of us. If there was anything lurking in those twisting corridors I wanted fiendish flesh to suffer the bites and rends . . . Kale, I figured, had suffered enough . . . for today. Kale was still a tad impertinent, but even he didn’t deserve to suffer . . . constantly, sooner or later he’d have to learn to listen to my opinions and acknowledge my contribution to this group. It seems I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent. Back to the matter at hand: my caution proved pertinent. No sooner did I set that pathetic little creature into those twisting tunnels then it was set upon by more savage pirates. Their attacks seemed less effective on the lemure then they had been on us. It was too bad that I wasn’t yet powerful enough to summon an army of these things.
There were three transformed pirates in those tunnels. They may have been human at one time, but now they were horribly mutated, there seemed to be no pattern to the deformities. I wonder if this apparent randomness of the mutations was somehow influenced by outside elements like one of the chaotic planes? We would soon gain an important clue, but as of this writing, I’m afraid I can’t say for certain. Beyond the twisting tunnels we found a bedroom, its inhabitants probably transformed or eaten . . . there was another skeleton in the room. From somewhere near by we could hear the familiar gibbering and moaning of the transformed creatures but also the curses and shouts of a still lucid female! We rushed to her aid.
Inside of the next room a female swashbuckler stood against a half dozen of the bestial pirates. Twice as many already lay dead and dissolving on the floor. Ordinarily I’d assume that she was capable of defending herself but she showed signs of fatigue and was clearly slowing down.
“Oi!” she shouted when she saw us, “get in the fight or stay outta me way, buckos. These things are lookin’ to die, and I plan on obliging.”
I ended the fight quickly using my magic. The creatures were snagged and held fast in my magical webs. We were then able to destroy them at our leisure. When the monsters were destroyed and the magical webbing dismissed I quickly introduced the party and myself:
“Hello, my name is Tristan,” I said, “and this is Kale, Kiki, and Buffy. We hope you’re all right and we were glad to offer assistance.”
The mystery woman studied us for a moment. She was quite beautiful. She had wonderfully dark tan skin and deep hazel eyes . . . the kind that those trashy romance novels usually describe as ‘you could get lost in lost in’, normally I wouldn’t have given any credit to that literary tripe, but for the time being it’s the only way I can think of describing them. Her hair was raven black, lightly braided, and tied back from her face. I wondered what her hair would feel to the touch and how it would look if she allowed it to flow free. She wore a tight fitting leather bodice that was studded with fire opals and pearls; and, the way she was breathing after the fight, made her clothing seem almost indecent. I should hope Kale kept his eyes above her neck. In her hands she carried a rapier and a dagger; she was clearly no stranger to either. Her hands and arms bore a few angry looking bite marks.
“You’re wounded,” I quickly added, “Buffy could you tend to her wounds?”
“What manor of driftwood do we have here?” she asked, “Speak up! Your names, lubbers! If only so’s I can cut ‘em inta’ yer chests and save the undertaker some asking ‘round.”
“Um, we already answered that,” clearly her mind was fogged from the festering wounds or the onset of the disease, “but I’ll just re-introduce everyone just to keep things strait. My name is Tristan, This is Kiki, that is Kale, and Buffy is the one looking after those bites. And we’re hardly ‘lubbers’ as you put it, I mean we didn’t walk here, I admit I’m probably less knowledgeable of the sea and it’s mysteries as you are, but I hardly think it far too . . .”
“Quit yer yabbering,” she interrupted. She had sheathed her weapons and allowed Buffy close to bandage her wounds but she was clearly not completely friendly yet. “Tell me yer business in this little piece o’ hell?”
“Gladly,” I said, “but first a small matter of etiquette, we introduced ourselves, it would only be polite for you to do the same.”
“Fine,” she said with a slight glint to her eye, “me name’s Harliss Javell, captain of the Slippery Eel, scourge of the Azure sea, and a woman quick of sword and short of temper. Now tell me what yer business be, and be quick about it!”
“We’re hunting a dangerous criminal, although not a pirate,” I quickly added, “guilty of murdering his own parents, along with countless others, as well as the crimes theft and treason. We were hired by his sister if you can believe . . .”
“What be this villain’s name?” She asked, her eyes narrowing.
“We know him as Vanthus Vanderboren, but . . .”
Harliss proceeded to produce the longest string of profanity that I have ever heard in my life. I think even Kiki was blushing by the end of it. She righted a table that had been knocked over in the fighting and sat down to spin her tale.
“All that you see here,” she said with a wave of her hand, “and what nightmares you must have fought through t’get t’me; t’was all Vanthus Vanderboren’s doing!” I felt a slight pang in the pit of my stomach, I knew in my heart that Vanthus was responsible, but I had hoped that this time, this disaster, had been caused by something else.
“That vomitous pig,” Harliss continued, “came t’me with his hussy n’ asked t’see our wares; made like he were a black marketer lookn’ fer some fur or scale t’move. Told him we had a ship coming in today what were full of exotica for him ta’ shop, so he stayed on a few nights. Seemed a fine enough chap, but then not an hour ago, he dumped a hold full of wale oil into the cove and lit it up. I was on th’ Slippery Eel at the time, and that’s when I caught the two fo them on board, fixin t’rob me! Can you imagine that? A pair of base curs tryn’ t’rob Captain Harliss Javell? Anyway, I stuck the fool in the arm with me blade, he yelped, and then as he ducked a side he dropped what he were tryin’ t’rob. Were a black pearl. One th’size o’a man’s fist, mind you! Was going to make some fair coin off that bauble, but as it fell, the thing cracked open like an egg. Some o’Vanthus’s blood from my blade spattered the pearl, and it boiled and flashed with light. This foul, choking green gas started spewin’ from it, burning through the wood like it were acid. I grabbed th’thing, ran up topside, then threw it inta’ the brink, but as it struck, the thing exploded!
“After that . . . things got a bit weird, mind ya. A green mist filled my vision, and I felt strange. Like someone else were in my head. Someone . . . hungry! And the rage! Rage like I never felt ‘afore! And then, just like that, it were gone. Vanthus were on deck too by then, but he and I were the only humans left. That pearl did something to me crew. Ta’ Vanthus’ little girly too! Turned them bad, like something ye might find in a net and throw back on account the sun got no purpose lookin’ upon it. These things!” she said as she kicked at the remains, “Whatever were in that damnable pearl turned over three score men into . . . into man-eating freaks!
“Vanthus, he seen what his friend and the rest turned into. He dove into th’water t’get away. I did the same, only I swam for shore. Found me first mate Drevoraz there. He’d resisted the change too, as had some others here and there, yet they were nothin’ but the banquet for those things. We fought our way into th’caves and managed to hole up here with Captain Kigante, the man who keeps these caves for us. Only Kigante’s freak food now; he got jumped by a mob of them nottwenty minutes ago. Tore him apart like they was sharks.
“and one more thing. I think they got the sick in their maws. The places they done bit me still burn, and it’s hard to think straight . . . but hey! You fought yer way in here! That means there ain’t much left of them out there, yeah?”
(I hope I transcribed her speech as best I could remember. How anyone so pretty could have a mouth so foul was beyond me. I did my best to avoid correcting her speech. I tried writing it exactly as she said it . . . as much as it was against my nature.)
“The way out should be safe,” I said, “the tunnel to the right has been cleared, and the beach is safe, we can’t speak of the jungles around this cove however. We fought some things coming in here but there’s no way of getting back that way anymore.”
“Which way did Vanthus go?” asked Kale.
“Where did you get the pearl?” Kiki asked.
“I’ll learn the cur,” snapped Harliss, “what it is t’foul my business! I know who he is! Th’Vanderboren name’s no secret to me. I know he’s got family’n holdings Sasserine! I sent me right hand Drevoraz t’deal with yer friend, I did. Drevoraz is on his merry way to Sasserine as we speak. He’ll do for Vanthus’ sister, his mum and pop, and any other family or friends the bastard has in that dunghill city. Cross the Crimson Fleet and we take everything in your life from ye. Best not forget that, boyo.”
“No!” I cried, the woman still wasn’t listening, “Vanthus killed his own mother and father and he would have killed his sister too if he thought he could get away with it. Lavinia is the one that sent us to bring him back dead or alive! I’d prefer dead . . . but Lavinia is completely innocent of any of Vanthus’ crimes. If you kill Lavinia it will play right into Vanthus’s hand. Hurting Lavinia is helping Vanthus!”
Harliss blinked hard as if trying to think. The others added their input as well. Harliss glanced up at me as if she made suddenly made a realization.
“Oh no, I made some kind o’ blunder. You have to stop Drevoraz before it’s too late! He’s heading straight for the Vanderboren manor. I’m sorry for the lass, I didn’t know she had no part o’ this, but I fear y’er already too late.”
“Can you write a note or something to give to Drevoraz?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, “get me some paper and somethin’ ta’ scribble with.”
We got her some paper and a pen and she started writing a note.
“We need to know where you got that pearl, Vanthus has always been one step ahead of us, and somehow he found out about that pearl. We need to know if there’s anymore of them. Our only change of catching him is finding out where they came from because I’m guessing that’s where he’s going next.”
“I don’t know none o’that.” Harliss muttered.
“Look into it for us would you?” I begged, “We need your help to bring this monster to justice. I don’t hold you responsible for sending Drevoraz, and if something happens to Drevoraz, I hope you won’t hold a grudge against us for trying to stop him. You couldn’t have known what happened in Sasserine a few months ago.”
“No offense lassy but I doubt you’ll be stopin’ Drevoraz.” She said with a laugh.
“You’d be surprised.” I said with a touch of anger in my voice, “We’re quite resourceful. Speaking of which, we’d make excellent allies, we can work together to stop whatever Vanthus is planning. You can ask around in places were we can’t. We can visit places you can’t.”
“We’ll see about that,” she said handing us the note, “but as for now you should be getting back t’Sasserine t’save th’Vanderboren lass.”
We said our goodbyes to Harliss Javell and quickly made our way out of the pirate caves. We needed to find a way back to Sasserine before Drevoraz could hurt Lavinia. I hoped that Harliss would help us, she was somehow tied up with this Crimson Fleet, but maybe her hatred of Vanthus would lead her to help us. Outside of the caves we discovered that flames on the water had nearly completely died down. Across the water we saw one of the sailing ships was still floating untouched by the flames. Was stealing from pirates wrong? The ship’s owners were most likely dead . . . and we needed to get back to Sasserine fast . . . we decided to commandeer the vessel. We found a row boat on the shore which we also commandeered to get us out to caravel.
We approached the ship cautiously. There was the possibility that there were some of those savage monsters onboard. The ship was eerily quite. We didn’t take any chances. The ship was very carefully explored from top to bottom. As we got to the very bottom deck Kiki heard noise. As we approached the rest of us began to hear it as well. It sounded like muffled shouting. In the rear of the ship we found a man tied up in a makeshift brig. He said his name was James. Except for him, the ship was empty. Kale went through his belongings and found a note similar to the one that Cora had delivered to us a few weeks ago.
“Where did you get this?” Kale asked.
“Some halfling gave it to me,” James said, “Unfortunately I couldn’t give her a definitive answer as I had business elsewhere. I promised to come back and see the lady when my business was finished . . . but as you can see, I got a little tied up.”
We untied him, and after we explained that we worked for Lady Vanderboren, and were hurrying back to stop an attempt on her life, he agreed to help us. Even with his help we were under manned to run a sailing ship of this size. It meant we’d be slow changing sails and that meant without a favorable wind we’d be traveling at just a bit better then a walking pace. As luck would have it James turned out to be a sailor (although not quite as knowledgeable as me for some reason) and we were able to make good use of his knowledge to navigate the dangerous reefs surrounding Kraken Cove.
It was slow going. Even with the help James offered. Only he, Buffy, and I knew anything about boats. Buffy and I only learned our skills within the last few weeks. I read a few books on the subject and watch our hired help carefully. Buffy I can only assume did the same. Odd that Kale and Kiki didn’t pick something up . . .
James had a magical token to create a favorable wind. Every moment counted when the lady’s life hung in the balance. I set a course straight across the Blood Bay to save time. Although I wasn’t exactly on course we shaved hours off our journey. We sailed till nightfall when it became to dangerous to continue sailing. Now we have to wait till first light . . . and pray for our Lady.
Stay safe my Lady,
Cthulhu dreams
I will see Vanthus dead and buried. My heart can know no mercy. I want him dead.
We sailed to Sasserine at first light. I needed to get there as fast as I could. Even though I told the others that we would make Sasserine long before Drevoraz, subconsciously I feared that this wouldn’t be the case, my words may have simply been false bravado on my part. I needed to see Lavinia safe if I was to be at ease. It was midday before we saw the spires of Sasserine.
As we approached two figures flew from the city to greet us. They were members of the witchwardens and they demanded to know our business. It seems that our new ship was known to them. They didn’t recognize me either as the newest members of their order or as a member of the Dawn Council. They knew of my family, thankfully, and were not completely rude. I can’t blame them for being overly suspicious of a former pirate ship and its new owners. I made sure we cooperated fully with them and stressed our need to quickly return to the city. I think that after a while they began to realize that we weren’t smugglers or worse. Especially after I offered to donate whatever was in the holds to the city. Pirates and smugglers simply don’t do that kind of thing. They stayed aboard to see us into port. Once there, they gave us very specific docking instructions on docking in the Azure district, and we promised to return later to fill out all the necessary paperwork once Lavinia had been warned.
We ran down the pier, through the city gates, and into an unexpected setback: The streets were packed with people. I had forgotten about the worm fall festival. Banners, streamers, confetti, loud music, parades, dancing drunken revelers, and even the occasional streaker, this was a celebration. This was going to make things difficult. After a day and a half of traveling at the mercy of the sea, and now we were traveling at the mercy of the mob. I grit my teeth. Couldn’t these bumpkins see we were in a hurry?
We pushed and shoved our way through the crowd. At one point a drunken gnome tried to pick a fight with Kale, but he, like me, was in no mood for diplomacy. Kale snapped. He yelled some insult to the gnome, practically growling like a wolf, and even his face went red and the veins in his neck bulged. The gnome’s face went white and he darted off into the crowd. We finally made it to a gondola station. Thankfully we didn’t have too long a wait for a gondola and we quickly traveled from the Azure district across the narrow channel to the Merchant district. If the Azure district was busy the merchant district was absolutely packed. I found myself toying with the idea of using my wand of missiles to clear a path, but quickly dismissed the idea, that would be cruel, excessive, evil . . . and a waste . . . of money. When the first bottle of alchemist fire hit me it almost came as a relief. Pain was something I could deal with. Frustration and anguish was not.
Performers, like any of the others seen on countless other city streets, had surrounded us. We were so focused on Lavinia that we didn’t even notice them getting in position for an ambush. There were seven of them, six stilt walkers, and a female acrobat. All were dressed in flashy costumes, except the acrobat, who was wearing tights that made her look like a skeleton. It wasn’t until the stilt walkers started lobbing alchemist fire that we realized that something was terribly wrong. Thankfully I was just grazed by both attacks, I was burned, but I didn’t suffer a direct hit. James and Kale weren’t as lucky. James in particular seemed particularly unlucky. Not only was he given an unhealthy dose of alchemist fire but he also became the target of the acrobat’s attacks.
I’ll not fill up valuable space recounting our daring exploits; needless to say we fought well as a group, and the addition of James, though clumsy and awkward as he seemed, only made us more effective. The poor would-be assassins didn’t really stand a chance.
The leader of the group (quite possibly the only one who might have been able to answer our questions) was once again irreversibly dispatched by Kale. He knocked her to the ground then thrust his sword through her skull. Thankfully one of the stilt walkers that Buffy and I had been fighting lived and we were able to get the answers we needed from him. Seems lady Kellani wanted us dead. The city guard arrived shortly afterwards, and after we were able to convince them (with some help from witnesses) that we were in fact the victims in this assault, they took the surviving stilt walkers into custody and promised to look into the assassination attempt that the Kellanis had made against us. What they didn’t do, was accompany us, literally around the corner, to the main gates of the Vanderboren manor, and wait the two minutes it would have taken to check on Lavinia Vanderboren, Dawn Council member. They were busy. I’m guessing there was hotcakes and coffee waiting for them back at the guard station.
We pressed on. My hand was on the outer wall of Lavinia’s home. ‘She was fine,’ I told myself, ‘she had to be, nothing bad could happen to her when I was this close’ . . . the main gates to the Vanderboren grounds were open. ‘Lavinia was probably out enjoying the festival.’ We didn’t see any lights on ‘but that likely just meant that they weren’t home yet or forgot to put their lights on.’ Kale tried the front door on a whim and it swung open. In the great hall stood three fat slimy bullywugs. Somehow we all reacted as one. Kiki threw her dagger wounding one. James charged and finished it off. Kale and Buffy charged and dropped another, and I launched my magics at the one on the stairs that the others couldn’t reach. All three fell without making a sound (other then splat or gurgle). We had taken out the guards without making a sound, but that didn’t matter, we were too late. Somehow Drevoraz had gotten here first.
We held a brief conference. We all knew in our hearts that Lavinia was still alive but where would Drevoraz keep his prisoners? None of us had been off the ground floor of Lavinia’s home, so the layout was foreign to us, but we all agreed that the most likely locations to hold prisoners was in the basement or on the top floor. We needed to decide quickly where to look or else risk loosing the element of surprise. I felt upstairs was the best choice. James and Kiki were quick to agree, Kale was the one lone holdout, but after a few seconds of thought even he agreed with us. We would look for Lavinia upstairs. We quickly and quietly filed upstairs.
There was no one guarding the second story landing. We didn’t wait for any guards to return. We quickly made our way to the top floor. Again no guards. Perhaps Lavinia was being kept down stairs. We checked the first door at the top of the stairs. Kiki listened at the door . . . nothing. We opened the door and crept inside. It was Lavinia’s room. There was a dead Bullywug in the bedroom and other signs of a struggle . . . but Lavinia wasn’t in here. We quietly moved onto the next bedroom. Kiki again listened at the door . . . nothing again. We opened the door and crept inside. It was Vanthus’s room. The room was pretty much undisturbed. Just being in the same room that Vanthus once inhabited made my skin crawl . . . we moved onto the next room.
Kiki again put her head against the door . . . this time Kiki’s eyes went wide! She gave us the signal: Lavinia was inside! We moved toward the door preparing to be in possession for a sudden entry. We knew there was no room for mistake. Kale kicked in the door and we surged into the room . . . unfortunately Drevoraz was already standing next to Lavinia and his first reaction was to draw his sword and hold it to Lavinia’s neck.
“Hold Drevoraz,” I said as I pulled out the note that Harliss had given us, “I have . . .” I began, but then I had a chance to scan the room. My eyes fell on Kora Whistlegap. “ . . . One question for you, and I hope for your sake the answer the answer is no, otherwise the devil will have your filthy cur hide. Did you harm the halfling Kora Whistlegap?”
“Aye,” he snarled, “I slit ‘er pretty little throat, and wat of it? You and your friends ain’t gonna do nothin’ ‘cept drop yer weapons and back out of the room, or else ‘er neck be next fer d’knife.”
A cool white hot rage flew through me - a sensation I had never felt before. I let the letter fall from my hand.
“I had a letter here from Harliss, it explained everything that she’d learned sense, but it’s a moot point now. I won’t need it. I had hoped to spare her loyal servant as gesture of good will, to show that we are capable of working together in the future, but that’s moot now as well. I’m afraid the lady will just have to learn to trust us through other means because you’re not leaving this room alive Drevoraz. I’m going to kill you for what you did to Kora, and then, I’ll hunt down and kill Vanthus for sending you here.”
“Ya takes me for a fool? Captn’ ‘Arliss ain’t be sending me no pretty letters, I knows what d’Captn’ wants cus I ‘erd em from ‘er own lips, and it’s ta ‘ave the Vanderborens dead! If ya think ye can plays me like ‘arp . . .”
“I don’t, and I have no desire to, Vanthus has played you well enough already. The fact that you threaten to kill his sister, the one remaining family member between him and his inheritance, while thinking you’re exacting some sort of revenge against him, shows me that you’re far too stupid to understand the concept of irony or appreciate why Vanthus is laughing somewhere at the genius of his work. You’ve been played Drevoraz, not by us, but for what it’s worth, I’ll ensure that you’ll never be played again. I’m done talking. It’s time for you to die.”
Drevoraz’s eyes bulged. He knew he’d been insulted. He knew that I intended to kill him. What he didn’t know, and to be honest, at the time I didn’t know either, was he was about to loose his one bargaining chip. He raised his sword to chop at what he thought was a poor defenseless female hostage and she dove from the chair and scampered behind our protective ranks. Drevoraz roared. James and Kale surged into the room to attack the half-orc. Drevoraz’s one ally in the room, a disgustingly sickly looking Bullywug with a ruptured throat sack, began summoning. I gave the freak a face full of missiles – disrupting the spell. Buffy, Kale, Kiki and James engaged the two monsters in melee while I summoned support. Lavinia asked me for a weapon and I gave her my crossbow (hopping that it would bring her better luck then it did me). Drevoraz stepped away from a flank and Lavinia put a crossbow bolt into his belly. I think I’m falling in love with this woman.
The bullywug priest turned out to be a capable melee combatant as he stepped into James with a spear. Drevoraz was far better then capable as his scimitar twisted and twirled and cut into deep gashes into Kale’s arms and legs. Kale, for the first time I’d known him, looked scared. Thankfully Buffy was there to heal Kale’s terrible wounds. Kiki rolled behind the bullywug and began stabbing the thing in its unprotected flank, and when the frogman turned to attack Kiki, James attacked from the other side. Buffy was doing her best to ensure Kale stayed alive. Suddenly, from beyond the vale, my hippogriff appeared beside Drevoraz and tore into him something fierce. He staggered back, teetering, I raised my wand and fired. One promise fulfilled . . . now I would have to find Vanthus. The Bullywug priest put up a valiant fight, but with four seasoned warriors and a feral hippogriff, the fugly man toad was quick to join Drevoraz.
We quickly untied and healed the rest of the hostages while Lavinia explained what happened. Seems that sometime in the morning hours, as the celebrations outside were beginning to escalate; bullywugs bubbled up from the basement and attacked her and the Jade Ravens. Lavinia retreated upstairs and the Ravens fought downstairs. Things did not go well. Eventually Lavinia, Kora, Tolin, and Zan were dragged into this room and Drevoraz began to question them. Naturally the half-orc wouldn’t listen to reason. That’s when he killed poor Kora. That forced Lavinia to lie to protect her unconscious hirelings. She told Drevoraz that Vanthus would be returning tonight and the half-orc believed her. From that moment on Drevoraz and Lavinia had been waiting, Lavinia planning her escape, and Drevoraz planning her execution in front of Vanthus.
By the time Lavinia had finished her tale Tolin and Zan were awake and anxious to get back into the fight. Kale and Buffy suggested that they remain with Lavinia while we cleaned out the rest of the house. I was confident that Lavinia was more then capable of taking care of herself, but truth be told I didn’t want her left by herself either. She had just lost her most loyal friend and servant, and although she was flying high on adrenaline right now, soon she’d crash with the weight of reality, and she needed companionship and comfort to see her through it. I didn’t like the idea of Tolin being here to offer that comfort. Even now I could see his hungry eyes on her.
“Zan,” I said, “you’re more then welcome for our assistance. We’ll find and rescue your friends. I’m sure you, Kaskus, and Liamae did what you could to protect Lavinia and for that I should thank you. Perhaps you should stay here and look after Tolin and Lavinia while we try to find your friends.”
“What do you mean ‘look after me’?” snapped Tolin.
“Nothing,” I said, “I’m sure you’re capable enough . . . when your mind is on the task at hand?” I said with a quick side glance toward Lavinia.
“I don’t like your attitude or your tone,” he snarled.
“Well then,” I said with a pleasant smile, “you know exactly my feelings toward you.”
“We fought through waves of these monsters before you showed up,” Tolin said, “you sneak in here and kill a couple of the frogs we wounded, then make like you’re some great hero.”
“Where ever did you get that idea Tolin?” I asked, “I’m no hero, nor would I ever claim to be one. I’m just one woman amongst a group of brave and capable adventures. Anything we’ve accomplished has been through teamwork and planning. Do I seem like a hero to you Tolin?”
“No,” he sneered, “you seem like a coward and a sneak.”
“A coward and sneak that saved your life,” I reminded him with a sigh, “but I suppose you’re not grateful.”
“I’m grateful to your . . .”
“I suppose you’d rather brag about all the bullywugs you killed then worry about what we’re to do now? Although, I have to say, the only dead bullywug we came across was in Lavinia’s room.”
“Actually,” Lavinia said, “I killed that one.”
“So I guess you can continue to brag about all the phantom bullywugs you’ve killed or you can work with us to figure out what to do next.”
“We did fight and kill a bunch of bullywugs downstairs,” Zan said.
“I apologize,” I said looking towards Zan; I’d been so caught up with my war of words with Tolin that I was inadvertently insulted others. That was bad form. “I didn’t mean to imply that you or your companions didn’t fight valiantly. I’m sure even Tolin played his part. I pray you’re friends are still alive.”
“Let’s figure out what to do,” Kale said, “before the rest of the bullywugs figure out something is amiss.”
“Yes,” I said turning away from Tolin, “lets.”
We decided to let the Jade Ravens to guard Lavinia. Despite Buffy’s healing they were still in no condition to follow us, and after my verbal tussle with Tolin, we’d rather not chance any more conflict. After we gave the remaining Jade Ravens a code and secret knock, we had them barricade the door, and we moved downstairs. The second floor was almost free of bullywugs. We took no chances though; we explored every room slowly, and had Kiki listen at every door before entering. There were a few things of interest: a shrine to Fharlanghn, a training hall, and a lab. The shrine was interesting because it hadn’t been used in sometime. The training hall was littered with the bodies of four bullywugs, this was the battle that Zan and Tolin spoke of, and it meant I might owe Tolin a bit more of an apology. The lab was interesting to me because I’m alchemist, unfortunately this was more of a biology lab, and I had no real interest in one eyed bats or green worms floating in alchemical liquid. In the laundry room we found two bullywugs going through the silks and linens. We dispatched them in a quick (but messy) fashion. I’m afraid that a good deal of the sheets will need to be rewashed or thrown out. I took one sheet and wrapped it about myself like a cloak. No more blood splatter on me.
The ground floor held a bit more danger for us then the second floor. In the trophy room we found three of the monsters admiring a stuffed dire toad, and in the very next room, smoking Lavinia’s father’s collection of cigars we found another four. The latter encounter being far deadlier then we suspected it would be. For the most part, the bullywugs look quite similar, with the priest upstairs being an exception, and to look at the bullywug, with her feet up on the table, smoking the cigars, there was no way to tell that she was any different then the others. But when she finally got into the fight, and nearly knocked the ghost out of James with one swing, we knew this female bullywug wasn’t a mere tribesman. We fought the she toad off of James and Buffy used up the last of her healing wand getting James back into the fight. The she toad finally went down in a flurry of coordinated attacks from Kale, Kiki, and one of my last summons. We had secured the ground floor, but Buffy’s wand of healing was spent, and I was almost out of spells. The one I had saved was a good one though.
We were all pretty beat up by the time we approached the basement. We hadn’t seen any signs of the other two Jade Ravens and we assumed they were both in the basement. We did our best to keep our element of surprise. A small creek flowed from one grate, leading up towards the central courtyard, through the room, and out a rusted grate on the other side of the room. From somewhere up ahead we heard a booming slobbery laughter, a woman’s cries, and some kind of chittering. We advanced slowly, although the woman’s cries made us all want to charge, none of us were in any shape to risk charging into battle. Besides the floor was slick with mud, charging anywhere was likely to cause to cause a slip or worse. We edged around the corner and found a pitiful sight: There was Liamae, wrapped only in a bed sheet, with a few pieces of silverware threaded through the sheets. A large bug like creature snapped and bit at her, apparently trying to bite the silver, and Liamae did whatever she could to protect the cutlery . . . including turning so the creature snapped at her flesh instead of utensils. Near by, a great fat bullywug, wearing a great wooden crown, watched with his two guards, and laughed whenever the bug like creature bit into flesh and caused Liamae to yelp. I’d seen enough.
I began my last spell.
Back at the academy our instructors had taught us the secrets of metamagic: a way of casting certain spells a different way to create far more powerful effects. I’d been fascinated by the effects but had never really paid much attention as to how to prepare those spells. Creating the effect had seemed easy enough and I twisted the raw spell in my mind as I summoned it forth. From my extended finger a maximized fireball sprang forth and hurdled toward the great laughing toad. A second later it hit with an explosion of fire and heat, lighting up the room, and killing almost everything in its wake. Liamae was out of its range but the heat had singed her sheet. The bug, the bullywug guards, and the bullywug chief were not. Only the chief remained standing after the blast . . . and he didn’t look so good. He had finally stopped laughing. The chief staggered around for a mere moment longer . . . then Kale was there, and with one mighty chop of his broad sword, the bullywug chief was dead . . . even before he could lift his great club in defense. He was dead almost before he knew he was under attack.
The strain of twisting the spell in my mind was more then I imagined. I felt dizzy. Lightheaded. The look on Liamae’s face, as she realized her tormenters were dead, was worth it though. She quickly went from tears of joy to tears of sorrow as she realized that her tormenters were dead. She had quickly regained her composure by the time I had moved forward to comfort her though.
“We have to save Lavinia,” she said as I tried to put my arms around her, putting aside her own feelings for those of her employer.
“She’s fine,” I said, her entire body seemed to relax at the news, “she’s safe and sound upstairs.” She almost fainted with relief. I watched her eyes dart to the dead bullywug in the corner. “He,” I said pointing at the dead chief, “was the last of them.”
“What about my friends?” she asked.
“Zan and Tolin are guarding Lavinia.” I said, “But we thought that maybe Kaskus would be down here with you.” I felt her body tense up again, “but we didn’t find his body anywhere upstairs, so that’s a good sign. He must have escaped or is holding up somewhere. We didn’t find any secret passages anywhere. Maybe he’s hidden in one of those?”
“I think I know just the one,” she said, “but first I really want to get out of these.” She said tugging at the bed sheet that the bullywug chief had forced her to wear.
I sent James and Kale around the corner (with Kiki to watch them to make sure there was no peeking . . . Kale I trusted, but James seemed exactly the type that might ‘accidentally’ stumble in on you as you were changing). Then Buffy and I used the sheet that I had been using as a makeshift cloak to give Liamae some privacy as she changed into her own cloths.
Lavinia was over joyed and greatly relieved when we finally returned with Liamae and Kaskus. The dwarf Kaskus had been hidden in a small secret chamber on the ground floor. Liamae was more then happy to point it out to us, although when we first spotted Kaskus’ unconscious form we all thought for sure the dwarf was dead, thankfully this wasn’t the case. Something must have happened to him once he got inside the small room as the door was closed behind him. Buffy assured us that he would likely recover. Buffy didn’t have any spells left to heal him though. So we were forced to take the dwarf with us so we could arrange for mundane treatment.
Once the house was secure and all of the Jade Ravens accounted for, I made sure the city guard was made aware of the attack on the Vanderboren estate, and I looked to make arrangements to have Lavinia’s estate cleaned (or at the very least have the bodies cleaned up). I offered Lavinia my home for the night, I couldn’t really speak for my family, but I knew the Lidu honor would demand me to offer help to those in need. Lavinia turned down my offer (as I knew she would) and so instead quickly made arrangements for us to spend the night. This time I made sure she didn’t have the option of turning us down. I wasn’t going to let her suffer through this ordeal alone.
It’s near midnight (by my reckoning) and Lavinia has finally settled down. I’m not sure how much sleep she’ll get but I intend to stay with her as long as I can.
I pray Lavinia doesn’t dream,
Cthulhu dreams
Oops, I was a bit late this week, my bad.
Ok, because it's summer, and because I'm out most evenings this time of year, I'm going to have to start updating once every two weeks. The next entry is the longest yet.
Also, if you have any questions, comments, or criticism I'd love to hear it (well maybe not the criticism). ;)
Guy Humual wrote: Oops, I was a bit late this week, my bad.
Ok, because it's summer, and because I'm out most evenings this time of year, I'm going to have to start updating once every two weeks. The next entry is the longest yet.
Also, if you have any questions, comments, or criticism I'd love to hear it (well maybe not the criticism). ;)
Just to let you know I'm reading and appreciate your work. I like to see the metagame stuff, too, maybe in a
box.
Thanks for the good reading!
Thomas Austin wrote: Guy Humual wrote: Oops, I was a bit late this week, my bad.
Ok, because it's summer, and because I'm out most evenings this time of year, I'm going to have to start updating once every two weeks. The next entry is the longest yet.
Also, if you have any questions, comments, or criticism I'd love to hear it (well maybe not the criticism). ;)
Just to let you know I'm reading and appreciate your work. I like to see the metagame stuff, too, maybe in a ** spoiler omitted **
box.
Thanks for the good reading!
Thanks Thomas! Glad to hear you're enjoying this :)
I wonder if you might give me an example of what you see as metagame stuff? I thought I was keeping anything Metagame out of the Lidu Diary entries . . . unless you're talking about the maximised fireball line in the last entry. I wasn't pleased with that, using the term 'maximised fireball' in the story felt a tad cheesy, but quite frankly I'm not sure how else Tristan would describe the effect.
BTW:
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber
I'm guessing he meant metagame as in what you were thinking while doing specific actions or making decisions, etc. Those are always fun.
Rhothaerill wrote: I'm guessing he meant metagame as in what you were thinking while doing specific actions or making decisions, etc. Those are always fun. OH! That thought never occurred to me! Thanks Rhothaerill! And sorry if I misunderstood you Thomas, I've been trying to do that with the author's notes that I usually add after every diary entry . . . but seeing as most of these diaries are written about a month after the actual game, and another month or so before posting I'm afraid more in-depth metagaming thinking might be impossible. It's sometimes hard to remember who killed this, and who said what after a couple of weeks . . . never mind our exact decision making or dice rolls at the time.
I’ll try to add as much as I can in the author’s notes section . . . but things do get a bit fuzzy after a bit. I have notes for the adventure at least! :)
If you'd like to discuss that please feel free to dissect any one of these entries. I'll try to answer any questions I can. But I think I'd prefer to keep the actual diary entires free of any such notes.
Guy Humual wrote:
If you'd like to discuss that please feel free to dissect any one of these entries. I'll try to answer any questions I can. But I think I'd prefer to keep the actual diary entires free of any such notes.
The game mechanics and/or metagaming are useful, but I do understand that they detract from the feel of the diaries. Either way, it's great.
Thanks again for great reading,
Tom
|
