Palace of the Vampire Queen (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Thanks everyone. Got to get a good post up today and try and wrap up the encounter.

As far as "Ouch" is concerned, we have (had) a range of straight "hit them in the face with a stick" combat types to "subtle and complicated" magic types. Right now we have no Player Character doing the magic for the group (divine or arcane) and I really don't want to be incharge of both.

Okay thanks! I'll try to have a character up tonight.

Well, the Goblins are fleeing. What do you do now?

Rownig will not break rank to chase. He does scan the area and the caves they came out of. perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

Sorry everyone, I should have been all over this, but had an emergency root canal on Wednesday. Bad thing - tooth pain is horrible, good thing - hydrocodone is the food of the gods!

Not much is quite as debilitating as dental pain. Take your time.

Sorry everyone, I should have been all over this, but had an emergency root canal on Wednesday. Bad thing - tooth pain is horrible, good thing - hydrocodone is the food of the gods!

Yeowch man, hope you get to feeling better.

Root canals are bad enough without emergency stuck in front. Take your time.

Four centuries ago the Islands of the Dwarroque Archipelago were united under the rule of a single Emperor, Emperor Urinaliz Onosopolis.

The Emperor enacted many sweeping changes in the way the island Nation-States interacted with one another, but one of the most controversial was the creation of a single State Sponsored Pantheon. The Emperor put in place, as a symbol of the unification of the various Dwarven States, an official Church of the Empire. To understand how the deities of the official Church of the Empire came to be, one would have to research the varied traditions of the many independent nation-states of the Archipelago, and have some insight into the religious beliefs of the Emperor himself.

Emperor Urinaliz chose several powerful and well respected priest of the various temples found throughout the empire and tasked these Dwarven men and women with the clarification (as the Emperor called it) of the nature of the various gods and goddesses worshipped across the archipelago. Many of the more isolated communities of Dwarves, when they were told of the new Sanctioned Pantheon, were insulted. Some local deities were left completely out of the new list of gods and goddesses, and some of the more exotic deities were combined into representations completely fabricated by the State Clergy.

Many old traditions, and minor deities, were forgotten, but in time, and through careful and highly diplomatic negotiations, the State Sponsored Pantheon was adopted by the majority of the population of the Empire.

However, some of the oldest traditions, and oldest known gods and goddesses, have not been removed from the cultural awareness, as the Emperor had originally hoped. It has been suggested that the Emperor’s main reason for establishing the new pantheon was driven by a desire to create a false sense of racial unity and to create a sort of invented Dwarven History, centered upon the belief that a particular type of Dwarven race was in fact the true Dwarven race, and that the gods should reflect, in imagery, the idealization of this pure Dwarven race. This opinion, spoken of behind closed doors at some of the universities and places of higher learning across the empire, is considered disrespectful of the Imperial House (the Emperor’s descendants still rule the Empire). The current reigning Dowager Empress does not persecute those who speak these opinions, but there is a general belief that it is only a matter of time before someone is made to be an example.

Across the Empire one can find pockets of worshippers of older traditions, gods and goddess from ancient times. A representative factor of these kinds of traditions is the finding of imagery that portrays the old gods and goddess in ways that would not be immediately recognizable as truly “Dwarven” in appearance. Some even speculate that the Dwarven race looks the way it does today because of many thousands of years of adapting to life on the larger islands, and that the original Dwarven race was very different from what Dwarves look like today. There is even a small minority of scholars who claim that primitive Dwarven races had more in common with Goblins than anyone is willing to acknowledge.

The most dramatic example of this theory can be found in the representations of the ancient Dwarven goddess Bescourt. In some iconography (particularly the relief carvings on the islands of Hinaro and Foloma) Bescourt is shown to be a four armed, svelte, fiery haired goddess with very strong Dwarven facial features. However her arms and legs are long and slender, similar to certain Goblins of many tribes found on islands in the far west of the Empire. In these relief carvings, according to the best minds, a story is told of how Bescourt was driven out of her home, not by force, but upon the pleading of her sisters, Ismea and Ruothinnea, to their father (or brother?) a figure that has not, as yet, been named but who appears as a very aged Dwarven male who wears a strip of cloth, or possibly metal, over his eyes. In the story, as it has been interpreted, Bescourt is a volatile and dangerous woman who consumes her lovers, through the fire of her love, and remains childless, and because of her nature she frightens off possible suitors for her younger sisters. This representation of Bescourt is believed to be the earliest of its kind on the islands of the Empire, and due to the four armed representation much speculation about the relationship to Goblin deities, often represented as six-armed, has been suggested.

It is believed that these carvings predate written accounts of Bescourt by more than two thousand years.

The earliest written accounts of the goddess Bescourt, portray her as a slim, but not svelte, Dwarven goddess possessing golden, or possibly platinum colored, skin, and bright red hair. She is recorded as being a goddess of volcanoes, lightning, violent winds, and storms. She is courted, in one tale, by the god Lorenze, whose origins are still a mystery, and has not been identified in any prehistoric cave carvings. Lorenze seems to be a god that came to be worshipped during the early bronze age of Dwarven development and is associated with the creation of metal tools.

Today, on some islands of the Empire, there are followings of the pair, Lorenze and Bescourt, as a sort of “troubled lovers”. She is seen as the keeper of the fires, and he the forger of the tools. His acts, of forging tools, are often seen as his attempts to exert his control over her, but her power cannot be truly contained, and is thus a warning to those who might be disrespectful of the hazards associated with the forge. In some isolated villages, where official Church of the Empire buildings have not yet been constructed, and where it is rare to find the common priests of the Empire, you can still find shrines dedicated to Lorenze and Bascourt, particularly where mining or manufacturing of tools on a large scale is carried out.

It is not normal to find a Cleric of Bascourt, however it is common to find Clerics of Lorenze (who secretly acknowledge Bescourt’s power but do not pray directly to her for spells, as that is seen as very risky and could bring down her temper). A Shrine will be a small stone building, of only one level, with a forge and anvil, though these will be superficial and not functional. A Cleric of Lorenze will bless tools, visit mines and a place of manufacture, to conduct rituals meant to bring good luck, and is often a spiritual guide for the people in the community. A Cleric of Lorenze will gladly share responsibilities of the well being of followers with a Cleric of Dennari (Ismea), as it is believed that both have a role to play in the Dwarven community (agriculture and industry working together). It is common, among isolated Dwarven communities, for people to say a woman is “Touched by Bescourt” if she has red hair, or exhibits a strong will or temper.

There are no known shrines dedicated exclusively to Bescourt. However, there are Goblin shrines to the goddess Orina’Darith, a sibling of the mother goddess Een’Droth. In the shrines to Orin’Darith, she is portrayed, in wooden statues, as a six-armed goblin woman with wild hair (often painted red) and wielding the tools of a blacksmith.

Goblins worship this goddess as the creator of goblin crafts, even though their skills at metal working are very poor (Goblins prefer to work in soft metals, copper, silver and gold) and do not create very many iron implements. Most Goblin knives and spear points are bronze, bone, or flint.

Thanks. I should have Luca's sheet done tonight.

Alright, ready for final review.

Excellent character. We will be seeing her soon.

Okay so I am going to set up the approach to the mining camp, and I am going to try and be very clear about how you can't avoid it. The road to Eight Founbtains Village goes through the camp and at the south end of the camp it passes through a narrow valley, even trying to go around the camp and catch the road on the other side will bring you in close. I will try to get up the full post soon. I hope to introduce a new player at the camp.

It's an abandoned camp in a mountain camp. Sounds like it would be pretty hard to avoid without some serious shenanigans.

So, what we understand right now is that the camp is supposed to be deserved, and may be a good place to find shelter before taking on the bandits.

Do I have that right? It there any additional information we have that I've forgotten?

Still here. Just letting you know.

Let's go into the camp if it's going to be difficult to go around. Besides we may pick up a new member to boot.

From Hallister's post it is clear that I've screwed this up pretty bad. let me try again, before I post a more literary shot at it.

There is a village in the mountains. That village is called Eight Fountain Springs.

Somewhere close to this village is an abandoned mining site (a site not a camp).

Below the village and site, in the foothills at a lower elevation, is an abandoned(?) mining camp.

There are bandits that live in the mountains. Some Dwarves think the bandits live in the abandoned mine (the site). When the bandits are on the move, for various reasons, they have been known to stay, for days at a time, at the abandoned mining camp. They would obviously not stay for very long at the mining camp, because it is not easy to defend, and they would be at risk from the men of the King, or from local knights. It would not be good to be a bandit and be caught in the mining camp where you could not hide, or escape easily.

Is that clear?

Yes, thank you.

That clears up a lot

test

I need to pick this up, it is dragging along abysmally.

First I need a consensus and clarification. Rowning, and three NPC(s), Atharessa, Azram, and Moralane, are some distance from the main group and attempting to hide in and among the short bushes and grasses, while the main group, Mazim, Hallister, Helgen( now an NPC), Turrand and Tanner, Voranzil, Galana, and Orson move rapidly to go around the camp. Is this everyoine’s idea of what is going on?

Now, The Dwarf on the mule is Exanames, he has styled himself as a king, and is quite mad. His “army”, former bandits, are tired, hungry, and in fear of him. Within the camp are Dwarves and Goblins captured from around the area, and forced into slavery (remember that certain forms of slavery are legal in this kingdom, though it is questionable if Exanames has a right to force these people he has captured into slavery).

A new Player Character is in this camp, Luca Shatterstone. She is chained to a Goblin female, and is one of the slaves working on the restoration of the bloomery.

Does everyone know, or care to know if they don’t, what a bloomery is?

Exanames will approach the party, assuming he ond his army do not notice Rownig and the three npcs in hiding, and present himself as “King of the Island of Karita” and he recognizes Turrand, from his past, but now believes Turrand is a knight who is sworn to him.

Exanames invites the party into the camp, and offer’s them a meal (which is small, and mostly roasted small vegetables). If Rownig remains outside of the camp he does not see that the others see a Dwarven corpse, Gibbeted, hanging from a structure that is on the other side of the chimney stack of the bloomery. The chimney stack is surrounded by scaffolding, dangerous looking, and about ten pairs of slaves work on restoring it with collected stones from other structures of the camp.

The corpse in the gibbet is not entirely dead, and one of the soldiers will explain that it is the corpse of a bandit who tried to overthrow the king, when they were all living in the mines to the west. The bandit traitor was left behind after he was wounded by the king, but a few nights later he arrived in the camp as some kind of unique undead creature that is animated, and hungers for flesh during the night, but in the light of day returns to being a corpse. At dawn, every day, the corpse is fully restored to almost nearly perfect form, and for a few minutes can talk and remembers his former life, but as soon as the sun is fully risen, the Dwarf dies, and his body begins to rot. As the sun sets, he is reanimated as a kind of ghoul, and through the night this creature struggles and moans within the cage. The king claims that the condition this traitor is suffering from is a curse brought upon him because he tried to murder the king, but the soldier, telling the story believes that the man simply ran afoul of a roaming pack of ghouls, and though attacked by them, managed to escape, and now he has become like them. The soldier also hints that the king’s madness became more pronounced once the bandits discovered a locked and iron bound chest buried within the mine.

Exanames now wields a curved sword, a scimitar that glows with a deep blue crackling light and wears a necklace that bears a pendant in the shape of a sea dragon. The soldiers (all former bandits) believe the items, which may have been within the iron bound chest, are cursed, and that they may be connected to legends of a treasure taken from a group of shipwrecked humans who were murdered by a village of Dwarves living on the south coast of the island hundreds of years ago.

We can hand wave the details, put the party in the camp, Rownig hiding and watching from outside of the walls, and pick it up here. The party sits at a long table set up in the long new building of the camp, a building Exanames calls his “palace”. It is one long common room, with a thrown, a large wooden chair on a raised platform, at one end, with piles of blankets and furs behind it where Exanames sleeps.
Is this push acceptable to everyone?

Sure

yes it is acceptable. I agree the pace needs to pick up.

Yes please. I've been chomping at the bit, quietly, but still raring to go.

This king fellow sounds like trouble.

So we are able to gather that he's in power because no one else can take him out? Does he have any solid backers, or is it just rule by fear?

Exanames was, previously, the leader of the bandits, and the bandits continue to follow him even though it is clear to them that he has gone completely mad. The one bandit, who tried to take him down, is now hanging in a cage, and suffering an undead curse, on a scaffold near the bloomery. You can ask questions, about the state of the camp, while sitting at the table to eat the meal the “king” has offered. I am typing a scene to put in the game thread to put this in perspective for everyone.

Luca – you are not a member of any retinue of the knights who have sent the rest of the party on this quest, but it will be important to pin down which county you are from. Please look over some earlier post on the three counties (the lands controlled by, Sir Henri, Sir Guisse, and Lady Innarossa). If you have specific questions about the counties of the knights, ask away and I will try to answer as quickly as I can.

Okay, I'll have to wait until later tonight.

Also, this should be fun. I love playing the token oddball.

Heads up, Luca - you have been taken out beyond the wall of the camp to gather firewood. You are chained to a Goblin girl named Ingot Whistletooth. There are two soldiers watching you and another pair of slaves. Rownig and three other Dwarves are hiding nearby. You, or the soldiers, may make perception checks to see if you spot them.

Hey sorry for the lull, not a good weekend. Great posts everyone, I'll be off (of work) for a couple of days and get some things posted.

No problems. Can't get online if you can't pay the bills, or eat.

Checking in to say I'm still here. Don't worry about the delay. Life happens.

yup work sucks but starving sucks worse

Luca had counted twenty eight bandits originally, and since she was captured, ten days ago, eight or nine have gone missing (and that includes the two who ran off). Exanames has murdered two more, as well as five slaves (three Goblins, two Dwarves. She has been fed vegetables and bread once a day for ten days, and has been asked to work on the Bloomery, but has not yet been asked to work a forge or anvil. She has heard the name of the Dwarf Ghoul, gibbeted by the bloomer, and thinks it is Navalli. She knows the bandits fear Exanames, but at the same time, they know that they are wanted, and staying with him might be better in the long run, and hope that he regains his sanity. The Gibbeted Dwarf tried to rally the Dwarves against Exanames (while they were still living in an abandoned mine, and he was left for dead, but came to the camp sometime after that. That is all she knows about him. Luca knows the camp is running out, if not run out completely, of food, but Exanames is oblivious to this. She knows that there are fifteen pairs of slaves, and in total that there are 19 Dwarves and 11 Goblins. Some of the slaves are trying to grow vegetables, but the soil is dry, and the growing is slow.

Have you decided which county you are from?

Eh hehehe, Give me a few minutes to figure that out. It slipped my mind.

As for what to do
In character: Start smashing heads and beat the location of her hammer out of Exanames.

Out of Character: I say either sneak in and free as many people as we can, get anything that's useful, off the ghoul, and sneak back out and lead the freed slaves to safety. OR, quietly slip away.

Thoughts?

Okay finally found the info on the counties. Luca would be from Inarossa's county from what I found (some abandoned mines fits right in with her backstory).

Seeing as Halister has already stated our basic intentions its probably bad idea to stick around too long.

Lets talk it out here and make the in game chatter reflect what we decide. It'll probably be faster that way.

I have no problem leaving right now. There's a lot of us and we're armed. We can all see in the dark. I think we'll be fine.

If we stay, I'm going to want to kill the psycho. Hal isnt the type to suffer people like that and has absolutely no problem getting a pick and dropping a coup de grace on Mr King while he sleeps.

Luca we have 19 or 20 dwarves in there taht are potential enemies.

We have a force of 6 Dwarves here: Rownig, Luca, Atharessa, Azram, Moralane, and the unnamed prisoner. We have two goblins. Inside we have: Hal, Mazrim, Turrand, Helgen, Voranzil, Galana, and Orson. That is 13 dwarf's and 2 goblins. My companions are well armed that is if they still ahve weapons. I don't trust them spending the night. Strange things happen at night.

We should be plenty of match for overrunning that place. Especially if the guards don't have the hear to fight. I'm suggest going in and free the rest and any captives.

Maybe leave the goblins and one dwarf by the gate to guard.

I am happy the game has picked up some legs to get it moveing

Yeah I wanna deal with the "king" if we get the chance. I don't wanna leave so many bandits all working together and once he's gone they should disperse.

Hallister, you last post was bit confusing.

How so?

I want someone to go get the folks that are outside, and I want the bandits to bring me rope.

You said "Terquem"

Hmm. Oops. I Meant to write Rownig. Guess my brain got some wires crossed.

And Moralane is with Rownig, but okay now I get what you are after.

Sorry about that.

Wait, so someone wants to lock us in with the slaves tonight? Why the hell would we let that happen?

We wanted to kill the king tonight. How much time does it take to make ropes into nets?

Just a heads up, I'm going to be out of town for a wedding this weekend. I should be back Monday.

Can we move the table and use it as a barricade that people can hide behind and shoot.

What skill would we use the make those nets? And is there anything like lantern oil or alcohol we can use as an accelerant?

I have plenty of oil and arrows, light him up.