Hi everybody!
You'll find here a translation of the journal of my Age of Worms campaign, originally written in french (if you are fluent in this language, you would be better off reading the original version, [url=http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/campaignJournals/ageDeLaMortRampanteAoWInFrenchAndInGreyhawkHeroSystem]here[\url]). I will do my best to post as often as possible, but the french version already takes up a lot of my time, and remains my top priority. Thanks for your understanding.
Please keep in mind that english is not my native tongue: feel free to complain about the worst barbarisms and grammatical atrocities that I am sure crept in the text. I am not a professionnal translator, but willing to improve my skills in that department.
Also, please note that this journal was first intended to support the sometimes flagging memory of my players (who, as all DMs well know, don't always pay attention when they should, and otherwise would otherwise forget most of the foreshadowing hints carefully laid about even more quickly than a senile goldfish). To make it enjoyable to read was also an objective, but only a secondary one. That explains why this journal does tend to be nitpickingly detailed, at some places; it's not because I am an anal retentive (well, let'say it's not the only reason).
The story takes place in Diamond Lake, a small and dirty mining town near the City of Greyhawk, in the world of the same name. It's late spring in the Common Year 595.
On the technical side, we use the Hero system rules. Players who actually contribute to this journal (with characters diaries, or by writing down recorded discussions) are rewarded by experience points.
So, without more lenghty introductions, here is the
CAST OF CHARACTERS
NB: the biographies below only contain openly known facts, and may be updated as new elements of the past of each character come to be revealed in broad daylight.
Aloys Cicaeda, journeyman of the City of Greyhawk’s Cartographers’ Guild and wannabe adventurer
- Physical description : human of mainly oeridian ancestry with tanned skin, brown hair and gray eyes, five feet and ten inches high (1.75 m), weighing 165 pounds (75 kg).
- Background : native of the City of Greyhawk, but raised in Diamond Lake, Aloys finds the cartography trade forcefully taught to him by his father Dietrik Cicaeda (who holds the office of Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake, and so is in charge of the land registry for the whole area) absolutely boring, despite being obviously gifted for it. As long as he can remember, he had always aspired to a more eventful and even less sedentary destiny. Besides his training as a cartographer, he was taught outdoorsmanship by Merris (which he regards as an uncle), Chief Scout of Diamond Lake garrison, and is a fairly proficient archer and trapper.
- Mindset : Aloys is, shall we say, very young of spirit and prone to excessive excitement. In town, he has the reputation of being a crazy young boy.
Barnaby Smackcheeks, Elmshire-born hobniz
- Physical description : tallfellow hobniz with fair skin, curly brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, three feet and one inch high (93 cm), weighing 50 pounds (23 kg).
- Background : Native of Elmshire, a hobniz haven on the banks of the Nyr-Dyv lake, Barnaby chose like many of his countrymen to emigrate to the City of Greyhawk, where he held many jobs including that of cook. Recently arrived at Diamond Lake, he stays at the Able Carter’s Coaching Inn and works at the Emporium as a kitchen boy and adjoint waiter (which means he has to follow around the human waiter carrying a special tray balanced on his head).
- Mindset: as is typical of his race, he has an insatiable curiosity and a heart of gold, and takes considerable interest in fine eating.
Heyloon, amnesiac and destitute Mage
- Physical description : human of unfathomable ancestry, with brown skin, mahogany hair and dark eyes, five feet and ten inches high (1.75 m), weighing 155 pounds (70 kg). His face and skull are covered with pointillist scars giving him a quite ugly appearance.
- Background : completely amnesiac, his memories only go back to the moment he regained consciousness on a muddy shore near Diamond Lake, a few months ago. The name he gives himself comes from the very first words uttered by the first person he came across in town. He came upon Barnaby by pure luck and with his help, managed to find a job as a miner at Dourstone mine. Only recently, he accidentally discovered that he had magical powers. He works hard to develop them, hoping to become a true Mage as a way of escaping poverty.
- Mindset : at times discreet and soft-spoken, at others uttering complete nonsense, Heyloon remains a mystery for his comrades.
Kalen the Blue, know-it-all Mage
- Physical description : human of pure oeridian blood with olive skin, dark brown hair and amber eyes, five feet and ten inches high (1.75 m), weighing 145 pounds (65 kg). No distinguishing features, but currently attempts to grow a beard.
- Background : Kalen the Blue, is an alumnus of the University of Magical Arts in Greyhawk who came to Diamond Lake for an apprenticeship with Allustan Neff, the resident Mage of the town. He is particularly weel-versed in the schools of Thaumaturgy and Divination.
- Mindset : truly brilliant but also shamelessly arrogant, Kalen seems to have a very high opinion of his abilities.
Khalil ibn Ahmad, monk of Zuoken from the distant and exotic West
- Physical description : human with typical baklunian features (golden skin and green eyes) and a shaved head. His forehead is tattooed (in black) with the symbol of his god, an abstract tracery of stylized arrows in a circle. Likewise, both of his forearms bear black arabesques. He is five feet and ten inches high (1.75 m), and weighs 155 pounds (70 kg). He is usually dressed in baggy trousers and a little embroidered jacket.
- Background : native of the Faraway West, Khalil has been sent to the Flannae-tel monastery about four years ago, when he was a brand new Al'Nek Shatain (Aspiring Monk).
- Mindset : prone to behave in an enigmatic way, Khalil says he had been sent by his superiors to protect his companions. He is quick to act and too overconfident for his own good.
NB : Khalil only appears on the second day of the campaign.
Matthew, aspiring Paladin of Heironeous
- Physical description : all-muscle human of flan and oeridian blood (with predominantly oeridian features) with tanned skin, brown hair and brown eyes, five feet high and seven inches (1m85), weighing 245 pounds (110 kg).
- Background : native of the distant Furyondy, Matthew came to Diamond Lake two years ago (in 593 AC), along with his liege lady Melinda, a Paladin of Heironeous, and the Paragon Valkus Dun, following the mysterious disappearance of the Paragon Amon Kyre. At first a simple squire, Matthew is now a Paladin of Heironeous wholly invested with his god’s miraculous powers.
- Mindset at times preachy but never pompous, Matthew is the pure product of his religious education, and carefully follows the tenets of his faith.
__________________________________________________
BAPTISM OF F… FIRST FLIGHT
(2009, 29th of May session)
1st Godsday, Planting, Common Year 595
(early morning)
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Aloys, cleverly leaning against a tree to disguise his silhouette in the dim light of dawn, watched intently through the morning mists the small track leading to the Urnst trail and beyond that, to Diamond Lake. Barnaby was late. Behind him, Matthew and Kalen chatted carelessly in the open, not far from the ruins of the mining office where they were all supposed to meet.
To kill time, he recalled with glee the events of the previous day, which - he was now certain of it - would mark a major turning point in his life. At first, that day had been as dull and boring as usual: at the express request of his father, the Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake, who had left for a week along with a militia patrol to perform field surveys, he was on duty in the Office of Land Registry and had to duplicate some of the maps in his custody, a painstakingly delicate task. He had barely begun to start to browbeat himself into beginning his work, when fate knocked at his door in the person of a somber-looking individual clad in red robes and wearing a black goatee, who presented himself as "Khellek of Greyhawk" and asked to peruse detailed maps of the area.
His attention was particularly focused on a small scale map indicating mine shafts and abandoned cairns, that Aloys had himself crafted using older cards during his apprenticeship. Feverishly looking over a small leather-bound notebook whose pages were covered with tight writings and small sketches, Khellek seemed to be looking for something specific and failing to find it. Aloys distinctly heard him complaining to himself, mumbling that "this fool (probably the book’s author) didn’t mention any crossing of the lake”.
After nearly an hour of fruitless searching, Khellek resigned himself (reluctantly) to ask for the help of a complete stranger, and asked Aloys bluntly if there was in the immediate vicinity of Diamond Lake “a cairn known for making strange sounds”.
In a flash, Aloys understood that the Mage was looking for the Whispering Cairn, an ancient burial mound that had served as a secret hideout to the youths gang he had belonged to as a youngster. Actually, it didn’t appear on the map made available to the public, since Aloys had himself deliberately failed to include it, in a as infantile than romantic attempt to preserve the secret of its location. With irrefutable logic, he also came to the conclusion that, because a true adventurer was looking for it, the Whispering Cairn had to contain a treasure...
Fortunately, Khellek took his silence as a sign of deep reflection, allowing Aloys to improvise a wild story about the Stirges’ Cairn, another tumulus located far away on the other side of the lake, ensuring him that “some people said that sometimes it makes whistling or wailing sounds”. Aloys assumed that sending the Mage there would buy him some time... Khellek seemed satisfied with these explanations and took leave.
The remainder of the day was one long, painful, foot-stomping wait. In the evening, taking just enough time to ask Matthew to follow him, Aloys rushed to the Emporium to join Barnaby, eager to tell his friends the whole story. However, he preferred not to mention the misleading nature of the map consulted by Khellek and the little falsehood uttered to send him away, unwilling to risk hurting the feelings of his friend Matthew, who as an aspiring Paladin of Heironeous was often quite rigid on moral issues.
In turn, Barnaby mentioned that a huge and muscular blonde man, carrying a two-handed sword strapped on his back and wearing around his waist the belt of a Champion of the Games of Greyhawk, had spent the afternoon at the Emporium gulping down tankards of mead and shouting to whoever would hear him out that his name was Auric, that he was the most powerful warrior of the country, and that "he and his friend Khellek, a real smart guy, would become rich real quick", until that a man dressed in a wizard robe sporting a small goatee came by and managed somehow to silence him with a single withering look before taking him to "join Tirra”.
The three fellows agreed on the need to seize the opportunity that presented itself to them, some of them for the sake of adventure, others for a chance for glory. However, Aloys insisted on the need to expand their small group by asking as many Mages as possible to join them. According to his extensive knowledge of heroic tales and minstrels songs, no group of adventurers worthy of the name could be complete without at least a Mage.
They parted after a rendezvous had been set the next day at dawn in the ruins of an abandoned mine office, located an hour's walk east of Diamond Lake.
After a quick detour by Allustan’s place to invite his apprentice Kalen the Blue to join the expedition, Aloys spent his evening preparing the equipment essential to any self-respecting adventurer, patiently assembled over the years in anticipation of the great day: a ten feet pole, a lantern, a coil of rope... not to mention the carefully packed bottle of alchemist’s fire “uncle” Merris had offered him in case of an unlucky encounter with a troll, and the bronze dagger he intended to use against rust monsters.
_________________
Aloys’ pleasant daydreaming was suddenly interrupted by Barnaby’s arrival, along with a human of medium size and ugly face, dressed in worn peasant clothes.
- "<puff, puff>... Sorry, we're a little late", began Barnaby, breathless, "we had trouble finding the right fork on the track. Allow me to introduce Heyloon, a Mage of my acquaintance."
- "Delighted, I dare say, dear colleague!" said Kalen, stepping forward. "Where did you study? What is your specialty?"
- "Oh, I forgot this detail”, interrupted Barnaby. "Heyloon is an amnesiac. He remembers nothing before his arrival in Diamond Lake, less than two months ago."
- "How so, amnesiac? If he does not remember anything, how does he remember his spells? A Mage can’t be an amnesiac!" protested Kalen.
- "I can guarantee you that he truly manages to cast spells. I saw him with my own eyes piercing a mug with an incandescent ray", replied Barnaby, sharply.
- "Yes, and I can also make light with my eyes," interposed Heyloon. "I don’t remember too many technical details, but it comes to me naturally."
- "It sounds... impressive, " said Kalen, clearly thinking otherwise but unwilling to continue further discussion. Turning to Aloys, he changed topic. "So, Aloys, now that we're all here, could you explain more precisely what we came for?"
- "Well you see, it’s a sort of cairn. When I was young, with friends of mine, we used to come at night, to scare ourselves silly. Inside there is a treasure", said Aloys with his characteristic knack for synthesis.
- "Yes, you've already said as much last night. You're lucky that Allustan is currently so obsessed by his pet project of a final treaty on the various tombs of the Cairns Hills. Otherwise he would never let me go so easily. What I want you to tell me is how you came to know that there's a treasure, and why you and your friends have never found it before? "
- "Oh, that... I am sure there's a treasure, because adventurers, true adventurers I mean, with experience and all, are looking for this cairn. But they got it all wrong... and went on to explore another one. As they say, where there are adventurers, there's treasure, right?" concluded Aloys, smiling.
- "I knew it was a bad idea..." sighed Kalen. "Let’s admit you’re right, for the sake of discussion. And so? If you and all the neighborhood kids have explored the cairn from top to bottom without finding anything, what makes you think we will be more successful? "
- "Well, we didn’t really explore it. In fact, we never went further than a few yards... uh. And we stopped coming altogether after Zabelle’s disappearance, something like six years ago. She came alone to the cairn and never returned, so no one has dared to set foot there since."
- "So charming!" commented Kalen.
_________________
Once the presentations made, the companions headed to the Whispering Cairn, Aloys taking the lead to show them the path.
Very quickly, Barnaby straggled behind and had to entrust much of the contents of his bag to Heyloon in order to speed up his pace.
After a quarter of an hour walk through wild hills and deep vales, the companions arrived near a gaping hole partially concealed by brushes and rocks in a hillside, flanked by two soberly carved monoliths.
Turning suddenly around, Aloys gestured his companions to stop.
- "Not a step further, you fools, you would trample everything blundering around! Stand aside and let me look for tracks. Look, there", he said bending over loose dirt by the entrance," there are some traces of wolves going repeatedly in and out. They probably made their lair somewhere in the cairn."
As he prepared to cross the threshold, he was in turn stopped by Kalen.
- "Not so fast! We have preparations to do and spells to cast before rushing blindly inside."
- "Precisely in this regard," intervened Barnaby, "I have something to offer. A lantern would make us visible from afar, which is not necessarily a good thing. Now I just have, uh... a spell that could allow all of us to see in complete darkness as well as in broad daylight."
- "Oh," said Kalen, surprised, "so you're a mage too?"
- "Let’s say... I have some lights on this topic" retorted Barnaby, smiling. "I ask you, however, to remain very discreet about it and especially not to talk about it in town. Now if you'd give me your hands, I will throw my Mass Dark Vision spell. "
Barnaby sang a short incantation while sprinkling his companions with a strange orange powder. They felt no effect, except a fleeting flash, but quickly realized that their vision had changed. They could now see in the previously dark entrance hall of the cairn to a distance of sixty feet, but only in black and white. Where there was light, they could still perceive colors, but Barnaby’s spell only allowed them a monochrome vision.
- "Not too shabby" admitted Kalen. "It's my turn now. I can grant all of you the benefit of my spell of Mage Armor, which will efficiently protect you against physical impacts and magical energies. Except you, Matthew: it won’t be possible for you."
Everyone having expressed interest, and Matthew haven’t bothered to ask about the reasons of his exclusion, Kalen began to cast his spell on each of his companions, one by one. All were soon covered with ghostly plate armor, made of weird blue force fields.
Satisfied with these preparations, the companions entered the cairn as discreetly as possible for a procession of huge, nyctalopic fireflies.
Once past the entrance, the dimensions of the corridor increased rapidly, reaching six meters wide and four high. This long and surprisingly spacious corridor headed north into darkness. Daylight spilled inside, illuminating dimly the entrance for a few meters. The smooth stone walls were decorated at waist level by friezes carved in stone, horizontal bands made of elegantly simple geometric patterns. In places, these strips were amazingly detailed, in others they appeared damaged by tools or eroded by the passage of time. Here and there a few flakes of old paint were still visible, bright purple or mustard splashes of color, last remnants of what was once a brightly colored mural. A thin layer of dust covered the ground. A low murmur, almost a sigh, was audible. As the wind blew a little faster, it became a veritable choir of whistling sounds.
Fearing the presence of malevolent spirits, Matthew quickly invoked his divine-granted powers, and then tried to reassure his comrades:
- “I don’t feel any evil presence. Whatever makes that noise is not an undead. Or it’s too far.”
- “This place is downright sinister”, commented Kalen. “But at least it's cool and dry”.
- "Of course, it is!" replied Aloys. "That's why staying overnight inside the cairn was a test of courage for the young people of Diamond Lake. Come, the alcoves where we camped are right over there", he said pointing to twin openings on both sides of the corridor located about fifteen meters from the entrance, just at the limit of their magic vision.
- "Wait a moment, I want to examine these friezes first" said Kalen, sticking his nose close to the wall without waiting for an answer. "Hmmm, the symbols seem to be purely decorative, but I see strange little holes hidden in the geometric figures. Sounds like these murmurs come from them. Could it be a trap?"
- "Let me see", said Barnaby, advancing. After a quick examination, he resumed talking: "Indeed, these are tubular conducts, and not shallow holes, but their curvature excludes a basic mechanical trap, based on spring-launched poisoned needles for example. But they could be part of a poison gas trap."
Their attention wholly focused on this learned discussion, none of the companions saw two skinny wolves emerge from the darkness, rushing to the nearest preys, namely Aloys and Matthew.
Aloys got no chance to defend himself and was immediately and roughly thrown to the ground. Bitten on the hand, he fainted under the violence of the assault. On the other hand, though taken by surprise, Matthew managed to fend off his opponent, who was soon joined by a much bigger and better fed third wolf, presumably the leader of the pack.
Led by his valliance, Matthew hit squarely with his battleaxe the wolf that befell the poor Aloys, severely injuring its leg and putting it to flight, while contemptuously keeping his own opponents away with his shield.
Coming to the rescue of victory, Kalen used his magic to bring forth an electric arc from his hand, trying in turn to kill off the already wounded wolf, but only managed to hit Aloys who, fortunately, was well protected by his Mage Armor. Heyloon chanted in turn, shooting from his hand a glowing ray that sped along the corridor without touching anyone.
While the wounded wolf ran away (as nobody had the preposterous idea to interpose himself between it and the exit), the two wolves still facing Matthew skirted him off on both sides in search of easier prey, and rushed Barnaby and Heyloon, biting and throwing them both to the ground.
Matthew rushed to the rescue of the obviously dazed hobniz, but failed to kill his opponent. Kalen did the same with a new electric arc which this time touched the right target, drawing from the wolf a sharp yelp and bristling its fur in a funny way.
From his side, forgetting in the heat of battle to perform his customary gestures and incantations, Heyloon invoked again a glowing ray, blowing through the side of the poor wolf’s chest, who stumbed a few steps and collapsed to the ground, stone dead.
Matthew killed the last wolf by a single well-aimed axe blow as he ran away with a comatose hobniz in its mouth, and peace returned to the cairn.
- "I am afraid we had forgotten the wolves’ presence," commented Aloys in a superb understatement.
No one deigned to reply.
Fortunately and thanks to the magical protections provided by Kalen, nobody had been seriously injured. Relying once again on his god’s powers, Matthew managed to completely cure the bite wounds suffered by Barnaby.
At the same time, Aloys, who was carefully scrutinizing the dark corridor to prevent any further surprises, warned his comrades that he had seen a strange green glow coming from the depths of the cairn, a wavering light so low in intensity that he had at first thought it was a trick of his eyes.