GM Ukyo's Rise of a Hero campaign arc

Game Master Ukyo

Raises an eyebrow at the Bishop, making it clear that the look was not missed.
"Do we need to face the possibility of having to...cleanse...the entire city?" He looks very uncomfortable with the idea, but will if necessary.

Everyone looks uncomfortable at the idea, especially Tertius, the bishop sighs, "I hope not, but we must accept it as a possibility..."

Tertius shakes his head stubbornly but says nothing, and no one calls him out on it... a silence falls over the room.

------

The Tram car slows as the bishop guides it into the Isa junction station, you look out the window and there's an eerie sense that you've been here before but not. The few buildings look grey and old, windows smashed in and doors warped on the hinges as if age and abandonment were the cause. The ground is grey and lifeless and a cloudy pall hangs over the area.

The Tram comes to a complete stop and Tertius and Zues shoulder their gear and prepare to disembark.

Titus shoulders his gear as well, and offers a quick prayer to Xenon as he moves to the door.

As you move towards the door you notice that the door frame is starting to pale and turn grey as the bleaching of life from the land begins to overtake the Tram. As you open the door you feel the first assault on your mind as an unnatural irritation hits you, the door doesn't swing open smooth enough, Tertius is standing too close, the door isn't wide enough for you to walk through with your gear, the Tram car is ostentatious...

You step off the Tram and your pack catches on the door frame for the barest second, making you angry and you yank on the pack causing you to push forward faster than you meant and you almost trip over a board on the ground.

Tertius follows you off and grunts, moving over to the side. Zues steps off looking fine, as does the bishop.

He'll look angrily at Terius and say "What!?"...then steady his thoughts and focus on the stone...when calm, he'll apologize to Tertius, and follow.

Tertius nods and then makes a nondescript gesture towards one of the buildings, his voice is low and gruff, a little strained, "We are being watched."

Zues mutters under his breath, "I haven't thrown up our deception yet, if the watcher reports back we're worse off than a Dwarf without a bathtub!"

The Bishop mutters a quick incantation and you feel your senses sharpen, you see a fly buzzing by and it's moving very slow, you can almost make out the wings. When you look towards the house you can see into the window as if there were no shadows, a man is hiding there watching you, his clothes are ragged and he looks as if he's hasn't bathed or eaten in weeks. It's obvious he doesn't know he's been spotted.

Knowing time is of the essence, Titus motions to Tertius to head around the left side of the building to secure a possible rear exit, then moves to the front door.

You arrive at the front door before Tertius has even moved and the man inside hasn't even reacted to your movement. As you look at the door it is in such a state of disrepair that your certain a child could kick it down with ease.

He will then shoulder the door aside and dispatch the lookout, drawing his galdius for CQB...

The door gives easily but moves almost as if there was water behind it. You shove and it splinters and moves aside, the man inside clambers to his feet as you enter and he makes no effort to resist as your gladius slips between his ribs. Like a man in water he claws at your armor, breaking and bloodying his nails before letting out a slow gasp and going still.

His body slides off your blade and to the ground slowly and you turn around to see Tertius through the window carefully moving around towards the back of the house. His caution excessive.

I'll give him the 'got him' signal, then look around..are there other floors/rooms to clear?

The building is a simple guard shack and only contains a tall locker and some broken wood that looks like it was once a pair of chairs and a table.

As you exit you see that Tertius is still slowly moving towards the building and Zeus and Hektor are standing on the edge of the dock.

As you walk over to Zues and Hektor you blink and suddenly Hektor is grinning at you, "First time under the effects of celerity son?"

Zues chuckles, "Tertius get over here so I can hide us."

Tertius runs back over and Zues starts an incantation.

What's the incantation do?

You've never seen it before, but as he concludes you see Tertius, Zues, and Hektor all pale. Their faces become gaunt and bleached and their clothes appear ragged and unwashed. Zues grins at you, "nice huh?" and Hektor snorts, "Adequate, lets go." and starts walking down the road towards Isa.

Titus will follow...

You'll walk silently for hours, a pebble stuck in your sandal irritates your foot and Hektor won't slow down... Your hungry and it's been forever since you've eaten... What the hell time of day is it anyway? You haven't seen the sun, you must've been walking for two days straight already with no sign of any changes!

You glance at Tertius and he frowns at you...

Gets ready to give Tertius the dressing down of his career...
Then feels the stone on his skin, and focuses on it and his even strides to calm down...

A bit later, you've really lost all sense of time, Hektor says, "It's time we stop to eat." and pulls off his pack, pulling out some rations.

Zues frowns, "We can travel some yet, it's not that late..."

Hektor shakes his head, "No, now is the time to eat."

Tertius just pulls some rations from his pack and plops down without a care and begins eating.

Takes off his pack and gets some rations and water...
Then takes care of the pebble in his sandle.

If no plans are discussed, he'll spend the rest of his break using the stone...

No one will speak for several minutes, then suddenly Tertius will throw his food pouch on the ground and take his swordbelt off... Before you can stop him he starts doing pushups... he does them until he collapses...

You glance at Zues and he has a thoughtful expression on his face, Hektor looks impressed...

Finally Tertius sits up, still out of breath he says, "We've got to find a better way to block this out or we'll never make it."

You realize with certainty that... he is right.

"He's right sir...the assault is daunting. I can hold it back but it nearly takes all of my concentration. We need something better."

"Any ideas?" Hektor asks.

Zues just grunts, "My job's to make us fit in, done and done that. I can hold my own, it's the kids that need the help."

Tertius growls at that, but catches himself and makes a visible effort to shove the anger aside, "I got through the training by thinking of my wife, but here that's just making it worse."

"I've just been trying to concentrate on nothing...the space between steps, something to occupy my mind, but too much of it. It's working, but I'm concerned about while we sleep, when we can't do mental exercises to ward off the effect." He thinks a sec or 2. "Maybe the stones we have aren't working properly?"

Hektor frowns, "Pull them out, let me see them."

As you do, you notice that yours is glowing only faintly, you concentrate on it and the glow brightens and your mind clears somewhat...

Hektor nods, "it's as I thought, turn your concentration towards the stones. Feel your personal life energy, that which you use for magic, feeding into the stones, much as the Holy Father instructed you, only be more precise, don't let energy loose, concentrate on a cone or funnel surrounding the energy so that it can only go into the stone...

You watch as Tertius' stone glows brighter.

"ok..."
He'll focus on the stone as if he were casting through it...

You'll feel a second of resistance then a break through, almost as if you'd punctured someone with a blade. the stone glows brightly then expands in an outward bubble of white bands of energy. Quickly the bubble grows to encompass all four of you and you see the strain on Tertius' face disappear. Even Hektor's face relaxes around the eyes and Zeus looks relieved though you doubt he'd admit it.

Hektor frowns, "Now Zues, can you make this invisible?"

Zeus nods and pulls his holy symbol, a pendant with a symbol of a black gauntletted fist clutching a red rose. closes his eyes and begins muttering while holding it close to his chest. As he does, the white bands fade and disappear, though your mind remains clear.

"Whoa...If it were that easy..." Shrugs his shoudlers, and smirks at Tertius.

Tertius grins and sits down, finishing his lunch.

After you've eaten and refreshed you carry on. Things are definitely looking better but you can still feel mental assaults on you, the difference is now it feels like something pushing against a barrier just beyond your group, instead of directly against your mind.

The slate grey roadway cuts through the short dead brown grass seemingly endlessly as you walk until the sky starts to darken. Hekter states that he believes you've come a quarter of the journey so far, maybe even a third, as once you got the shield in place travel was much faster and easier.

He'll trudge on with the rest of them till it's time to camp.

[/ooc] that's what I was getting at, it is time to camp.

Okie dokie then
Titus will begin setting up a small camp, following the paladin's instructions (fire, no fire, etc.)

Hektor will suggest against a fire but will leave it up to you. As night falls the sky turns an ominous black. Never have you seen the sky so empty of anything at all. To make matters worse, you'll hear screams off in the distance for two hours during the middle of the night.

The morning will come with a lightening of the sky to a dull grey and a feeling as if you'd been punched in the gut. Your mouth tastes as if you spent the night eating from the bottom of a fireplace and your eyes as if you've been crying sand.

You look around and can see that Tertius and Hektor look the same, Hektor looks especially bad, as if his age has finally caught up to him. Zeus however looks as if nothing at all is wrong.

"Hektor, you...ok?" As he packs up

Hektor grunts as he stands up, "Just feeling all of my 65 years this morning, don't you worry about it." and he grins at you, though his eyes still show the strain.

Zeus may look fresh and rested, but he does show concern for Hektor. Nothing blatant but you'll catch a worried glance at the elderly man when Hektor isn't looking.

Tertius doesn't complain as you break camp, but about half an hour after you've begun walking again he frowns, "You smell that?"

You'll catch it too.. it smells like spit roast pork... coming from ahead of you, and it makes your stomach rumble for some real food!

"Hmm...lets make sure we look and act the parts here before we go crazy for some pork. We'll go check it out. Stay close but out of sight." He nods at Tertius, and they head out.

Hektor nods, Zeus holds up a hand and bids you to wait. He steps towards you with his holy symbol in his left hand and draws a rune on first your forehead, then Tertius' while mumbling a prayer. When he finishes you look at Tertius and see the rune fade. "Now you may go, but the deception will only last half an hour or so, do not waste time."

Tertius drops his pack and adjusts his gladius, "No way I'd be carrying that, if I look anything like you do." he says, amusing considering how much he resembles a man who slept in a sewer.

As the two of you top the next hill the smell hits you even stronger, its worrisome how good it smells given the ugliness of your surroundings. Ahead you see signs of smoke and a broken down farm house.

As you approach the farm house you hear what must be at least four or five people eating noisily coming from the other side of the broken down barn.

We'll move slow and steady to the noise to try to identify the casue without making our presence known. Observe and report only.

As you move around the barn Tertius will send an annoyed glance your way and you realize that your making far more noise than he is... maybe there is some use to learning how to be quiet. Despite your inability in the areas of stealth the noises are unbroken as their focus is obssessive. You stop at the corner and lean out, looking around. You see four men and one woman sitting on the ground around a camp fire eating some kind of meat. Their actions are feral and aggressive, towards each other and towards their meal...

Your eyes catch the spit over the fire and that's when you realize... it's a human leg... there's no signs of the rest of the man... actually there is...

Next thing you know, your kneeling, hunched over and retching while thoughts of how hungry you were pass through your mind.

As your mind clears enough for you to think again, you glance over to see Tertius in the same condition... and five feral people, blood still dripping from their mouth and fingers, standing over you...

Well, no plan survives contact with the enemy, I guess
If they continue to do nothing for a few seconds, TItus will see if this is a chance to get some first hand info on whats going on. If they're posturing to attack, then Titus will get eye contact with Tertius, and nod, then will quickly draw his gladius and attack the closest one, hoping to take advantage of their hesitation.

You make eye contact with Tertius and watch as his vision clears and he acknowledges your plan... As you pull your sword free a sharp pain exploads in your calf. You look down to see the woman biting your leg. You strike out at her as another one grabs your free arm and claws you, teeth closing in.

Tertius is having similar problems with the other three, you'll hear him yell out in pain as one of them bites his ear.

6 damage to left calf
1 damage to left arm

Health 62 of 69

Will first attack the back of the neck of the woman biting my calf then get the guy off my arm, moving to assist tertius...

The woman's body will go limp as your blade severs the spine but her jaw gives one last spasm and she pulls free a chunk of flesh as she dies.

You shake off the man and roll away and to your feet, but the pain causes your vision to blur and you drop to a knee.

The man who was grabbing your arm turns towards the dead woman, grabbing her arm and beginning to feast.

Tertius is struggling with the heavy weight of one of the men sitting on his chest and clawing at his eyes, you see a large chunk of Tertius' ear in his mouth. His gladius is pinned between them. The others each have a leg and are trying to chew through his boots.

7 damage to left calf (13 total)

Health 55 of 69

Help out tertius with neck shots, and then finish off the guy who went after the corpse of the lady chewing on my leg.

You'll miss the neck of the man sitting on Tertius' chest by catch him instead in the chin, throwing him back. The other two seeing an easier target will attack him instead. After that, it's quick work to dispatch all of them.

As the adrenaline bleeds out the pain in your leg burns like fire and you find yourself having trouble walking. Tertius will apply a pressure bandage but the wound will not heal quickly as you are missing a large chunk of flesh from your left calf.

Tertius is missing about half of his right ear and will wrap a bandage around his head, he looks troubled, but doubtful the ear has little to do with it. You recall, his wife and children were in Isa...

You'll miss the neck of the man sitting on Tertius' chest by catch him instead in the chin, throwing him back. The other two seeing an easier target will attack him instead. After that, it's quick work to dispatch all of them.

As the adrenaline bleeds out the pain in your leg burns like fire and you find yourself having trouble walking. Tertius will apply a pressure bandage but the wound will not heal quickly as you are missing a large chunk of flesh from your left calf.

Tertius is missing about half of his right ear and will wrap a bandage around his head, he looks troubled, but doubtful the ear has little to do with it. You recall, his wife and children were in Isa...

Will try to hop about and see if there's anything of interest here...

You'll find a citizenship broach in the pocket of one of the men, some greasy bones that could be from a chicken.... or not... are in the pocket of another of the men.

You'll limp back to the other two. Hektor raises an eyebrow at you and Zeus mutters something about not getting to fight too.

You'll find a citizenship broach in the pocket of one of the men, some greasy bones that could be from a chicken.... or not... are in the pocket of another of the men.

You'll limp back to the other two. Hektor raises an eyebrow at you and Zeus mutters something about not getting to fight too.

"Found some folks eating on human remains...guess they were still hungry..."

Hektor frowns, saying nothing, but you can see the concern in his eyes.

Zeus responds in typical manner, "Sounds like they found you tasty, if not entirely edible."

Tertius just picks up his pack and starts down the road towards Isa without looking back.

Hektor nods to you and grabs your pack, "Slow down tertius." and begins walking himself.

Titus will cast a rune to accelerate his healing, then catch up and do the same for Tertius, retrieving his pack from Hektor afterwards.

The rest of the day will be uneventful but your pace is slowed by your leg. Zeus will carry your pack to help reduce the strain on your leg, he lifts it like it weighs nothing.

That evening you'll hear occasional screams coming from the direction of Isa but nothing close to the camp.

The next morning when you change the bandage on your leg, the wound doesn't look to be healing at all. Hektor will offer to try a spell but his abilities aren't that great and it seems to have little if any effect.