These foul creatures are a disgusting cross between humanoids and condors. Also known as the Eaters of the Dead, the kuchrimas are the lowest order of the lamia-kin, lacking even standard lamias' capability for spell-like abilities. They not only serve the function of common soldiers and scouts, but are also left to take care of the disposal of bodies, garbage, and other waste—most of which they feed upon. This habit results in their foul appearance and disease-ridden bite. Kuchrimas often wield giant bows in their powerful talons, holding the weapon in one talon and pulling the bowstring with the other in order to fire arrows with devastating effect.
So... their favorite way to cook fresh minstrel is to hang it in the sun for a day to warm, and then chomp away.
- - -
Izomandakus retells whatever information the eyes bring back during the supper "Yeah, they are gathering there. Perhaps they are preparing for the imminent invasion to Varisia. I wonder if that means Karzoug has already risen..."
"In fact I think those are Kuchrimas. Who would have guessed any of those survived the thousands of years after Xin-Shalast's fall..." the boy explains while biting a piece of dried bread.
And looking at what to do in the city, he thinks aloud "If those aurochs are really the food of the giants, maybe freeing them and depriving the group from food will force them to scatter looking for something to eat"
- - -
Having eaten now, Val is much back to her normal self. ”Either way works. I imagine we will be killing many of those giants before starvation becomes an issue.”
"I can't think on how their generals will hold them together after just a single day without proper food" Izomandakus is eating the bread like it was roasted duck with the most excellent wines of Andoran "That I have learned from all this"
About the Kuchrimas he further explains "I think your blades will do ok Seamus. They are good archers, and immune to magic missiles in addition to disease. Thus, they will try to attack us from afar if things come down to combat"
Pachemu oinks loudly "Oh, pardon me if my plan sounds utterly stupid Lady piggy. Excuse me if I cannot think on anything other than food after three days of fasting" the pig keeps oinking for a while and finally the human translates for the others "She does suggest we should instead talk with the giant leaders and convince them to be free and independent, as we did with Conna the Wise back in the Jorgen Fist"
Munching on the meal, Seamus' eyes grow wide when Izomandakus mentions that the gathering forces might be used to attack Varisia. Hearing the vulture-like things were Kuchrimas instead of Vrocks, he nods as Izomandakus answers the question. Hoping there weren't here long enough to 'starve out' the giants, he looks from one friend to the other.
As Izomandakus mentioned Pachemu's idea of speaking with the giant's Seamus raised an eyebrow. It wasn't a terrible idea, he remembered something Izomandakus had said to him a long time ago. Basically, that Pachemu was smarter than him. He paused for a moment eating more of The potatoes from Rastaf's feast. Maybe it was true, Pachemu was probably smarter than him.
Gesturing towards the pig with his spoon. "Speaking with the leaders may not be a bad idea. We'll learn what their relationship with Karzoug is and if we can interrupt it." He smiles. "It may give us insight into whether releasing their food supply may work. Depending on how afraid they are of Karzoug. I think Fear may hold them here even against famine."
"Not sure speaking to army of giants or even just their leaders is the best plan, however, maybe we can find a way to do it safely. Mostly, I think we could avoid the giants for right now, right? Let them do their thing, and we go do what we have to do...which is deal with the Runy thing," Kast says, still stuffing his gullet with food after the long fast.
"Mostly, we'll need to get a plan for what we're doing here above and beyond the giants."
A plan is right. It's closing on 1am, the moon has fallen, and a deep darkness descends upon the buildings and the region. You can scarcely see each other in the starry night.
Do you press on?
Do you find shelter and spend the night?
Do you eat the heroes feast now or at breakfast?
Do you eat the heroes feast now or at breakfast?
Shrugging, looking at the others, Seamus adds, "I could sleep."
Kast gnoshes at night, and will rest so he can enjoy Rastaf's promised feast in the morning.
Come the morning, he will magically prepare himself for a day of exploration and toil, trying to find a safe way into the place where the RuneJerk might be.
"Let's avoid the aurochs and turkeyjerks, and the armies for now. Skirt on the right side for a bit. See what we can see. I wanna see if we can find any of those special Sihedrons that are different than my own. See how they are different. Might even get one for my collection."
GMPC the party spends the night in a nearby vacant building after a substantial but non magical supper. (Except for Izomandakus’ cookies. Mmmm so good.) The night is filled with unusual sounds, and not a small amount of screaming from various quarters. All in all it’s most unsettling. Around 2am or so, during the second watch, something large and foul smelling came by the building you were in. It sniffed a while at the door before trundling off again into the night. Perhaps it wasn't interested, or perhaps it just didn't have thumbs.
Come morning (Kuthana 26, a Fireday) Rastaf casts the Heroes Feast at breakfast and you all eat your fill of the magical food. You’re memories of starvation are still very much at the surface, but you are, for the moment, full and well sated.
The morning sun rises late, blocked in part as it is by the deep curved valley. You can investigate the fortress or the giant labor pool. You can also make your way further north, bypassing both areas for now in relative secrecy. There’s the main road, and a myriad of smaller paths, alleys, and passages leading further north to the Artisan District - and even some leading under the lava to the east into what was the Slave District.
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”I say we see the giants first. With luck, we may be able to find some amenable to helping us. Or at least to causing pain and discomfort to their masters.”
Finding a corner to curl up in, Seamus sleeps fitfully, but gets more rest than he would on a busy night at the 'Kitten.'
Waking early, he enjoys Rastaf's odd magical food, resisting the urge to play his lute during the meal. When they were done eating and packing up, he feels Rastaf's blessing flow over him, Smiling "Thanks Rastaf!"
As the get ready to leave he remembers Kast had commented that they should avoid stuff and skirt around to the right, but realizes Val is recommending they chat with the giant's generals first. Pausing, Seamus realized Val also thought they should do what Izomandakus had said Pachemu had wanted to do. Seamus really liked Pachemu and he knew she was smart, he also knew that when it came to social things Val was always right. Nodding, he chimes in, "If Val thinks we should talk to someone, we probably should. She's really good at all that social stuff."
Kast shrugs, and will let Val lead on. He is magicked and fooded up and ready to go.
This section of the ruined city has been cleared of rubble, leaving a roughly circular courtyard about a quarter-mile in diameter. Many oversized tents and crude shelters have been erected in the clearing, turning it into what looks like a giant-sized refugee camp.
There are, as mentioned, hundreds of giants (primarily hill, frost, and stone) in various states of recovery (from work, the altitude, and/or the cold) milling about in and around the structures.
This you all see from a distance, for as tough as you are, a few hundred hurled boulders will probably kill you by attrition. How do you approach?
|
Before we approach, Rastaf gives Val a Touch of Glory.
She gets a +15 on her next Charisma-based check.
Touch of Glory (Sp): You can cause your hand to shimmer with divine radiance, allowing you to touch a creature as a standard action and give it a bonus equal to your cleric level on a single Charisma-based skill check or Charisma ability check. This ability lasts for 1 hour or until the creature touched elects to apply the bonus to a roll. You can use this ability to grant the bonus a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
In fact, he can give it to anyone else who wants to talk to them.
"Maybe we should try to approach a smaller group first, then tell them we want to parley with their leaders or something" Izomandakus suggests as an approach to the too big camp.
Val taps on her rapier. ”Yes, a smaller group would be ideal. If that is not possible, I can do an invisibility sphere and do a little scouting. I would be curious to get a sense of what their morale is like and how best one might be able to adjust it in an amenable direction. Such as, and I am being purely hypothetical here, what a giant image of Karzie himself could say that would immediately make them want to bash his skull in.”
Kast prepares himself to be invisible and quiet, following Val’s plan.
”Let’s do this.”
Valena, Kast, and perhaps others, head into the camp invisibly to study the enemy.
It’s more or less what you’d expect of a somewhat military camp. There is a lot of activity, and you have to keep moving aside to avoid being trodden upon accidentally. They aren’t rushing exactly, but they are moving with what feels like a singular purpose.
Now that you’re among them and can get a closer look, you see a few of the rune giants in and among them - and they’re clearly in charge. The rune giants give commands and the other giants snap to complete them. There are just a few rune giants however, maybe a half dozen that you can see in your short time.
You know something of the giants of the Storval Plateau - they tend to be clannish and the strongest tends to lead the clan. Here is no different. You see clan markings from dozens of different groups. You also see the occasional fight as dominance is questioned, but never are the runes challenged. It is simply understood that they are above the rest.
Many of the giants in this camp are weak from altitude sickness and their struggles with the cold. Giants are hearty to be sure, but at this altitude they still have to acclimate. Some weaken, and their furs are taken by the strong dooming them to a slow cold death.
It is not a pleasant place. You don’t see any easy wedge to try and influence this organized rabble. You expect you’d need to start with the rune giants, but they’re also the ones most likely to be loyal to Karzoug. Even if you were to kill them all, many of the rest of the giants would still not bow down to you - you're just too small for them to take seriously on some levels. You would be inundated with challenges if not a general uprising.
Hearing there was some scouting going on, Seamus ears perked up. He chuckled when Val placed her hypothetical question. Seeing Kast begin to prepare himself Seamus chimes in, "What do I have to do to go along?"
Jumping the magical sphere Seamus accompanies the others, frowning when he see's the rune giants clearly in charge.
Once there is a chance to regroup and talk, Izomandakus has a different opinion at what to do next "Perhaps we do not need to face the giants. They do seem to have enough problems of their own so far. Maybe we should focus on finding Karzoug after all."
The boy looks at the mountain at the end of the city and points to the top of it "And maybe that mountain top engraved to have the face of Karzoug is a good start"
Val shrugs and sighs. <“Well it was worth a try. We did my suggestion, so I am fine with following yours next, Izo.”>
Kast notes that a plan was tried and a process followed, and that was a step towards perfection. It’s not about always being right, but progressing meaningfully in mindful ways.
”Okay, Izo. Shall we creep down the way, checking out the artisan district, maybe seeing if we can speak to any slaves on our way to the big face?” Kast asks, offering his thoughts.
" Okay, but let's keep a low profile, just in case " Izomandakus will follow the others but provide any information obtained through the marble eyes. If necessary, he will send a couple more from the four he has remaining.
Nodding in agreement with Val, they had tried her idea, now they could try someone else's idea. Smiling, Seamus thought, 'As long as I don't have to figure it out.'
When Izomandakus recommended starting a the huge engraving, Seamus turned that way, then back towards Kast. As they started to move he asked, "Will we be cloud walking to the stone face? I so, where should we look for the slaves first?"
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The party decides, quite rightly, to rush to the end rather than deal with a hoard of giants who may wander off anyway without runelord leadership.
You make your way through the buildings, often climbing stairs that seem to lead to nowhere, and instead lead to large neighborhoods, with deep basements.
Rather than risk the giants to the west, you skirt to the east and, in part, under the lava flow into the Slave District.
All of the slaves in the city, except for those privately owned as personal servants in the various households, were considered property of the state and served the communal needs of the city. They were usually humanoids captured in raids upon neighboring lands or criminals punished with a sentence of lifelong servitude, but occasionally included giants who had fallen out of favor or deserted from the army, yet didn’t warrant transformation into a runeslave.
All of these slaves were quartered here in extremely cramped conditions, in poorly made buildings of clay brick rather than stone, and were under constant scrutiny by special units of Xin-Shalast’s army trained as slave takers and overseers. Shoddy workmanship and overcrowding killed thousands of slaves each year due to building collapses, yet there were always more slaves to replace those lost.
When Earthfall devastated the region, a volcano east of the city finally erupted after ages of quiescence. Whether this was caused purposely by Karzoug or simply resulted from the power of the meteor falling from the sky remains open to speculation. Whatever the cause, the effect on the Slave District was devastating. Earth tremors and the pyroclastic flow that crashed into the Slave District swallowed it whole. Only a few of the hardier stone buildings survived, and in the ages since, they have slowly been consumed by the advance of a great glacier creeping over the old lava flow, its leading edge icy and razored, its body a dark mass of gritty ice. The district exists now as a haunted landscape of blasted terrain and occasional ruins projecting up at crazy angles where they have managed to oppose the glacier’s advance.
The nigh-incalculable loss of life that occurred here in a matter of moments has spawned a multitude of undead over the years. Fortunately, most of these creatures are corporeal monsters like wights or ghouls, and remain encased in their tombs of ice, waiting for an unwary digger to set them free. In fact you see one, locked in the glacier, unable to even move it’s eyes to watch you.
Yet there are also quite a few wraiths, spectres, and ghosts that haunt the region, and they have no such constraints stemming from their remains still being buried. The most dangerous of the undead that dwell here include vampires, winterwights, and at least three ravener dragons, although these undead generally keep to the deepest reaches of the ruins.
The skulk tribes called the Spared have done much to check the spread of the undead. Approximately half of the tunnels below the Slave District are under skulk control and relatively free of undead today.
Seamus has the general impression of being watched, though it’s until you’re well into the ruins before he is certain. A few dozen yards away (call it 30'), behind a wall, some creature lurks. He’s sure of it!
PLEASE check your init mods. Remember your new weapons give you bonuses that I may or may not have correctly added. So let me know what your actual init is and I'll fix. :)
"Who is there!?" Izomandakus shouts to the lurking figure while casting shield on himself and moving forward resolute. He draws the staff while he moves, and Pachemu follows along and readies to intimidate the creature.
Having pointed towards the general direction of the creatures lurking with his rapier, Seamus considers which long knife to draw as well. Deciding on the mithril blade, if for no other reason than it's lighter, he moves with Izomandakus towards the noise.
Kast moves forward and readies the Iron Quill. He's not so good at seeing things, but trusts Izo to know what's what.
Val sees Seamus reacting to some hidden threat, Val prepares herself for battle.
Having not seen a threat yet, Val waits patiently to see what measures will be needed against the upcoming foe.
You rush the wall and discover a blubbering, sobbing, wet mess - already begging for mercy. This smooth-skinned, hairless humanoid has penetrating eyes and skin that shifts and changes to mimic his surroundings. Makes the eye sort of slide right off him. Even standing right in front of you - he’s hard to see (+8 racial to stealth).
- - -
He blubbers (image) a bit in Thassilonian.
”I am Morgiv. You wouldn’t hurt Morgiv!?”
- - -
Izomandakus lowers his staff looking at the cowering creature "A skulk... a quite deformed one I would say..."
Then directs himself to the creature "Όχι, αν δεν μας δώσετε λόγο να σας επιτεθούμε. Με λένε Ιζομάντακους και αυτοί εδώ είναι φίλοι μου. Τι κάνεις εδώ Μόργκιβ; Γιατί φοβάσαι τόσο;"
"No, if you do not give us a reason to attack you. My name is Izomandakus, and these ones here are my friends. What are you doing here Morgiv? Why are you so scared?"
"His name is Morgiv. He does not want us to hurt him"
Lowering his weapons as Izomandakus explains what the odd looking fellow is saying, Seamus asks, "Did he say what he wanted?"
Know (local) -
Kast is happy to let Izo start with the discussions, trusting him to handle things.
Izomandakus shrugs "He says to be some kind of messenger. It seems he believes we are some kind of lordships"
The boy turns to Kast, looking at his forefront "Guess he knows you are the Highlord of Wrath?"
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"Guess he knows you are the Highlord of Wrath?"
Kast turns to look at Izo with near tears in his eyes. He thinks he knows what Izo is asking him to say, but also knows he won't lie. Not about this. Not now.
"Uh...no. That's not me," Kast says regretfully. He might look very highlord and mighty with his very shiny celestial armor, his forceful sihedron shield, let alone the majesty of the holy, flaming Iron Quill, but he is no actual highlord. He is a guard in the militia for the local town. He hopes that he might be accepted as a squire by some mighty knight in the fights near Lastwall.
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Morgiv looks pleased that he’s not immediately going to be destroyed, and begins a verbal fountain of information (though some of the histrionics comes from Izomandakus and Kast too of course)! Short of violence, he can’t be stopped as he tells you the history of his people, slobbering excitedly all the way. You get the sense he doesn’t get out much. This is all in Thassilonian of course, but enough of you speak it I’ll assume an ongoing translation.
After the collapse and the volcanic eruption that destroyed nearly a quarter of the city, many of Xin-Shalast’s slaves found themselves suddenly freed, yet without the gear or experience to make escaping the city possible. Instead, they retreated to the deep caves below Xin-Shalast, where they found themselves safe within cysts that formed among the ruined buildings.
Led by a woman named Mesmina, a powerful cleric of Lissala who had abandoned her loyalty to Karzoug with the empire’s fall, they remained beneath the notice of the remaining inhabitants of the ruined city above, and over the course of hundreds of generations, they evolved into something beyond humanity - a race of chameleon like humanoids called you call skulks.
”We call ourselves the Spared. We believe in a divine mandate handed down from Mesmina that they were meant to survive, no matter the cost, and find freedom.” Over the years, the Spared excavated a series of tunnels through the earth and grew to know the tangle of caverns connecting various cysts and partially intact buildings buried in the flow. They scavenge vermin and what plants and fungi are able to grow in their humid tunnels.
After centuries of undisturbed isolation, trouble has come to the tunnels of the Spared. Recent diggings to expand their warrens broke through into the passages of the Hypogeum. Though the breach was quickly repaired and camouflaged to avoid the notice of the savage tribes occupying those subterranean quarters, it was not done quickly enough, and something passed undetected into the tunnels of the Spared.
With this creature, a hideous abnormality known as the Hidden Beast, the Spared find themselves once again enslaved. It is ensconced within the inner chambers of these tunnels, surrounded by dominated skulks who do its bidding. This was over thirty years ago now.
”The ancient prophecies of Mesmina say that when the Spared become enslaved once more, strangers like their ancestors pictured in our tunnel murals will come to free us. These strangers are you!” He slobbers a bit with excitement. The timing doesn’t really work out for you lot to be the ‘saviors’, but when has reality affected a good story?
Anyway, he’s convinced you’re here to save them from the beast. He begins at once to lead you by the hand (sort of warm and squishy with a slightly watery feel - ew) deeper into the tunnels. He’s quite set in his task. He was apparently nominated to the honor of getting you by his tribe and he’s not going to let the people down.
Kast pauses to ask some questions of Morn Morgiv. Kast will offer to translate questions for the party, hoping for a bit more clarity before marching down to confront a Hidden Beast.
"Do you know how we can get into that mountain top engraved to have the face of Karzoug?"
"Do you know what this is?" Kast holds up his sihedron symbol.
"Can you better describe the Hidden Beast? Why are you not dominated?"
Morgiv continues to tug at your hand...
"Oh, you don't want to go to the mountain. It'll kill you."
"The master's symbol." He shudders and cringes. "It is said he returns."
He looks at you blankly, "He is hidden. How can I describe what I have not seen? He dominates or eats all who see him."
Nodding, it made sense that the fellow thought they were lord, they did have matching armor. Shrugging as Kast declares that he wasn't the 'Highlord of Wrath' Seamus agrees with Rastaf. "It makes sense that they think you are the High lord of Wrath. You do wear their symbol and you dipped your pigsticker in that pool making it all magical."
Raising an eyebrow as the alien looking fellow takes Kast's hand, Seamus follows along wondering what they are talking about. Chuckling to himself he resists the urge to ask Kast if he's finally found someone to 'practice' with.
"It makes sense that they think you are the High lord of Wrath. You do wear their symbol and you dipped your pigsticker in that pool making it all magical."
"Oh, he's not Kharzog. You are all our redeemers. Your figures are on the walls since the beginning."
He keeps leading you into the darkness of the underground areas. He paws wetly at you to draw you forth.
Izomandakus moves from the idea the Hidden Beast might be Kharzoug himself, to "Why should we help this one? We are busy with our own stuff" to just plain curiosity when he states the group's image is in their tunnels.