| Zachary W Anderson |
"You have two spirits, boy." Zaalok suddenly looks up from his cup at the familiar voice. He realizes he is sitting at a campfire. Gleaming eyes pierce the smoke across from him, and he can't quite make out the form of his grandmother. "Ama? But you're... and just now I was..."
"They draw strength from that one. If the enslaver falls, the rest have no incentive." Zaalok shifted back in his saddle. The griffin understood, and bore upwards. Zaalok braced his lance to strike.
Zaalok blinks away stinging tears and memory, and wipes the ash from his face. The figure is standing in the fire now, and he can see it is a tall, radiant figure with burning eyes. "You must continue his legacy. You must join them. The beauty of flight and the ferocity of valor."
"I was just there. And that's what I was doing!" Zaalok stands.
Zaalok stood in the stirrups to lend all his might to the blow. A sword like a ship's mast caught and peeled away his shoulder. He grimaced and grinned at the same time. Such a swing cost the giant in momentum, and now Zaalok could exploit it. The giant's eyes widened in surprise as the lance - but an iron poker by comparison - pierced its side and drove it down. It fell to the ground to be butchered by a magical cloud of whirling blades.
"Are you strong enough to carry two spirits?" Before Zaalok can answer, the fire explodes in blinding light, searing his eyes. "Show me." Nothing is left but a firepelt, which leaps away to his left, and a giant eagle, which takes wing to his right. Seeing them go so far so fast, opposite ways, the Shoanti warrior feels despair shatter his chest and he sinks to the ground.
Seeing the army scatter at the fall of their general, Zaalok sighed. His tactics worked. He wheeled the griffin around on large wings to rejoin his comrades and get ready for the next
THUNK
Zaalok stared at the blade protruding from his chest. He was dimly aware of the griffin slumped lifeless beneath him, and the distant scream of anguish of his elven friend. He barely had enough life left to follow the line of cruel steel down to the gargantuan hand raised from the battlefield in defiance of all that was good. The titan stood once more, dozens of wounds weeping sparks and ichor. It shook the two corpses free of its blade and continued to advance on the anguished heroes.
"How can I achieve the impossible without my totems? I need totems to catch them both. Or perhaps I need them to be the same." At this statement from Zaalok, he briefly feels the wind smile, and hears the sea laugh. He spreads his hands and grabs the wild paths. Using all his might, he bends and blends the trails until they both appear on a united path before him, eyes glowing, and he begins to run. He sings a song of his ancestors, and in the distance hears the faerie's voice singing in harmony. Somehow it brings swiftness to his steps, drawing him close until he is running with the animals, different but the same.
Ahead is a whirling storm of prismatic light. The wind picks them up and they are all running through the air. The totems become a griffin and the human is somehow riding it again, pinned together by the steel through their chests. Zaalok is dimly aware of the grief-stricken chanting of his elven friend far away, but the glorious song of the fey is pulling at his chest. With a painful burst, they are torn free of each other and the steel is gone. His mount spirals down to a safe haven in the eye of the storm. Zaalok is floating through a rainbow cloud, and reaches up to feeling dewy mist on his face.
He rubs his eyes and sees the fairie crying over him.
----------
Zaalok is a Shoanti cavalier (knight from D&D PHB2). He and the griffin he was riding both died in the same round, when the giant took a full-round attack. The griffin is the companion familiar of an elven arcane heirophant (D&D Races of the Wild), and the party's cleric is a fey (3rd party book, can't remember the title). They're kind of all over the taxonomical chart, honestly.
Anyhow, this is what I imagine the afterlife to look like in Zaalok's mind's eye; the arcane heirophant (worshipper of Gozreh) casting "Raise Animal Companion" at the same time the cleric (worshipper of Shelyn) casts "Resurrection".
I've actually been writing these for the whole "Rise of the Runelords" campaign for my players and sending them out almost every week; I just didn't think about making them public until now.
While it isn't necessarily exactly what was said or how the dice landed, I feel my re-working forms a more coherent narrative. It could be a retelling of what happened in-game (especially to catch up people who weren't there) (I also have a handful of former players who left town but still like reading about the campaign), or a cutscene of things happening in other parts of the world (in a TV series, the audience seeing the badguys doing stuff without being entirely sure what's happening, or a piece of the life of a minor character we haven't seen in a while), or filling in the gaps of parts we fast-forwarded through in game (travel, profession checks, etc.).
| Zachary W Anderson |
The elf frowned. "Something about this storm seems... wrong." The faerie fluttered next to him. "This whole place is wrong with that Runelord messing with it." "True, but there's a pattern here. It's somehow familiar. And intentional."
The companions rested along the Kazaron river. Weapons were sharpened, paltry vegetables were stewed, and tents were repeatedly staked down. The elf pointed South in the direction of the approaching thunderheads. "It's weird that it's following the river like that. Boiling up over the Storval Deep, I can totally see, but then they should head South or West, and definitely not along..."
The first tentacle emerged from the water.
"... by the wind and waves..."
A writhing mass followed.
"Move!" shouted another hero. "Arm yourselves!"
Up from the roiling water ascended a primeval maw topped by eyes gleaming with malign intent. The night screamed with wind and sleet.
ALL MADNESS SUBMIT LAMASHTU NIGHTMARE MOTHER
Several of them recoiled at the thoughts invading their heads. "It's Black Magga," screamed the faerie, "she followed us!" "I thought you said she couldn't come up the river!" "I was wrong!"
Captain Dandy drew an arrow, nocked it, sighted the monster's head, and let it fly.
Zaalok crested the beach on the griffin's back, pointed his lance at the monster, and said, "Come, beast." Its ancient eyes seemed to peer at him critically. A rushed prayer from the faerie resulted in a swirling circle of rainbow-colored knives.
Dandy fired another arrow.
YOU DARE YOU FOOD
Despite feeling waves of unnatural evil and a palpable hatred, Zaalok stood unshaken. "You are an abomination. You have no place in this world. Your very existence is a mistake. Let me correct that for you." The griffin shifted uneasily.
Dandy fired another arrow.
DEATH AS YOU WISH
Black Magga tentatively probed the bladed wall before her, and then thrust her hideous body through, scattering rainbows to the storm. "No!" shouted the faerie.
PRETTY BIRD PUNY GOD
It heaved its mass onto the beach in the direction of Zaalok. The tentacles all thrashed wildly, whipped upwards, and collapsed. "Look out!" "Scatter!" As the enormous crocodilian head fell to the ground, it expelled a black cloud, cursing all it touched with madness and visions of things that should not be.
As his friends treated the afflicted, Captain Dandy strolled down to the riverside and yanked his twinned arrows from Black Magga's eye sockets.
----------
Captain Dandy is a Varisian fighter/scout who managed to do 50 damage in one shot, and Black Magga failed the fort save.
I'll continue introducing characters one at a time. I hope we can work it so they all get a good moment to shine.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Jarvin opened his eyes and announced, "We're getting close." He sometimes got... inklings... from his griffin-friend flying above. As they approached the mountains, the distant patch on the mountainside resolved into an ugly wound. "Oh no..." he murmured.
A stout wooden tower clung to the side of the cliff. The pile of gnawed bones turned out to be a collapsed pile of split logs. However, plant life seemed to shun the structure for dozens of feet in every direction, and hundreds of feet of dead plants littered the downhill stretch. The only tree visible next to the cabin was an unlucky conifer that, if not dead already, would be in a few days. Jarvin shook his head in disgust at the huge streaks of black and red staining the grit and rock in the dead patch. “They never know how to take care of this place.”
Zaalok and the traveler from Osirion barricaded the horses inside the abandoned shed, and the rest started to explore the interior. The first room held a few miner’s tools and the strange feel of longing. They started into the next room but stopped short when they found the powder. A fine black dust coated most of the floor, including a pile in one corner that started moving. A dim outline began to form as a small scoop lifted and dropped back to the pile in a small puff. The outline became a haggard-looking dwarf with red-ringed eyes, picking up another handful of powder. “So good! Eat! Hungry! Must eat!” He stuffed the handful of powder into his grimy lips. Without a thought, one of the companions stepped forward and reached for the pile. The faerie grabbed her, spun her around, and kissed her deeply. Holding the woman’s cheeks, she whispered, “Be yourself.”
“No… stay away! NO!” They watched, stunned, as fist-sized wounds blossomed across the dwarf’s body. The faerie fumbled and held aloft Shelyn’s icon, but the dwarf started screaming. Pieces of its body kept being torn away until it was nothing but a skeleton, still inexplicably screaming. Then it disappeared.
“Rock metal cry. Poison.” The old witch pointed her staff at the pile. “No touch, no breathe. All person out, I clean.” She summoned some kind of invisible servant to clear the room. As they waited in the entryway, the wolf stood growling at the open door. “Umm… should we be worried here?”
Zaalok was startled at the man’s grace. Two seconds ago his friend was lying on the floor, eyes closed. Somehow, in a single fluid motion, the foreigner was standing at the doorframe. “I heard something.”
“And if they don’t take care of it, bad things happen.” Jarvin started tracing lines into a vortex of fire. The wolf lay whining where it had been slammed against the wall after trying to charge the threat. The stronger friends formed a defensive line. They all looked up.
Branches ended in fungus-ridden claws. The trunk split to reveal a toothy maw, spilling animal bones. A pair of hollows wept ichor where eyes might have been. What first they thought to be a pine tree was in fact a bloodthirsty horror.
“At least it should still burn.” Jarvin grimly offered a prayer to Gozreh, and the monster’s funeral pyre erupted.
| Zachary W Anderson |
(previous and this entry are Sunday, Pharast the 17th)
The gnome went completely unnoticed by the chain. She didn't quite understand how it worked, since it didn't have any eyes in the first place, but she invisibly traipsed to the top of the stairs while her friends were being coiled and bashed by possessed links the size of barrels. At the top of the shaft, she found something she did understand since childhood: Gears. The chain was attached to a gearbox of some kind. She decided that maybe she'd be able to help her friends by limiting their rusted harasser's reach.
Even though it was a relatively simple device, the chain was constantly tugging for more lead, so it took her a few tries to figure out where to jam the winch. But jam it she did, and a scant few seconds later Jarvin called out from below, "Got it!" She looked down to see where he had wrapped stone from one wall around it. "Me too, it's stuck up here," she shouted down. Thus pinned at two sides, the tip thrashed wildly but had no place to go. The heroes bashed it to pieces.
The faerie was growing more and more disturbed as she put together both the evidence they saw and the feelings rising in her. "This place is..." "We should burn it." "I agree."
They set a torch, and stepped out into the snow to see the ghastly forms of a dozen transparent, half-eaten dwarves. Jarvin summoned a holy protector to surround them all with an aura of good. The ghosts' mouths distended obscenely and they rushed for the heroes, only to be rebuffed time and time again. One by one they faded, until only one remained, his back turned to the party. "Help me find... brother." A bite mark appeared on his shoulder. "No peace for ... Will show the ... city of Greed." His leg tore away and disappeared. "Help ... peace." As it faded from sight, the spectral form pointed up the cliff, while fire crackled merrily at the party's back.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Two familiar dwarven shades appear: The Vekker brothers. In the darkness, snow and wind passing through them, they stare at each other. Eventually Karivek's fangs slip back behind his ragged lips, and he slumps forward. At the same time, Silas stands taller, his wounds disappearing as he catches his brother's wispy form.
The gales suddenly calm, and the brothers disappear. Two sheets of parchment drift to the ground, and "Torag keep you" is whispered.
| Zachary W Anderson |
This cutscene was actually written by the player for the fey (and the witch) when I had a hard time remembering what happened a few weeks ago:
The dark and foreboding mountain ascended high enough from the dusty plateau that its peak was partially obscured by cloud cover.
"There." Captain Dandy pointed. "There's an entrance up there. Some sort of landing and cave."
Everybody began to squint and stare up the mountain, trying to avoid the sun and the glare that came with it.
"Oh, I see it," the little gnome squeaked, "but how should we reach it?"
The horses were staked to a spot on the ground, while the faerie flew part way up the treacherous slope to erect a rod and rope support system. Between all of their skills and abilities, it took only a couple of hours to ascend. The party amassed near the cave entrance, some flying, some hiding off to the edges, and some investigating the odd scene before them. What appeared to be a mass grave lay near the entrance, lined with markers written in dwarfish hand. And by its side, a familiar-looking rotting dwarf sat, waiting.
As soon as it began to move, the fortitudinous military commander struck true, damaging the vile beast. But it was by the magic of the withered old crone that the monster ceased its thrashing. Carrying her staff to her side, the old witch did not miss a beat before striding over to the corpse and beginning to mutter over it. She whispered into its ears, and a slow creaky moan began to escape from its lips.
"I wazzzz drrrroppppedddd…. The wiiiinnnnddddd." A small frown appeared across her face as she leaned in to whisper again. "Taaaaakkkkkeeee meeee toooo miinnne brothhhheeeerrr." But the answer did not seem to satisfy the witch. Ingjrt grabbed the dead dwarf's shirt and pulled its torso close to her, demonstrating a strength none might have expected, and yelled at it, "You eating all these peoples?" With only a short pause, the dwarf's mouth began to move again, "Yyyyeeee…." But before it could even finish the affirmation, Ingjrt shoved the corpse away from her, allowing its skull to crack against the hard stone floor and ending the necromantic spell.
The old woman pushed a large tuft of white hair out of her eyes, grabbed a hold of her carved staff, and slowly pushed herself back to her feet. She sighed, and then hobbled with her staff back toward her husband. Looking toward nobody in particular she spoke. "I done with dis thing."
| Zachary W Anderson |
Drat, got these out-of-order. This part happens after the witch interrogates Karivek's body. There was also a fight with the aforementioned wind spirit, which panicked two people, a dire wolf, and the griffin, and sent them all fleeing in opposite directions. And then the brothers' reunion:
Two familiar dwarven shades appear: The Vekker brothers. In the darkness, snow and wind passing through them, they stare at each other. Eventually Karivek's fangs slip back behind his ragged lips, and he slumps forward. At the same time, Silas stands taller, his wounds disappearing as he catches his brother's wispy form.
The gales suddenly calm, and the brothers disappear. Two sheets of parchment drift to the ground, and "Torag keep you" is whispered.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Almost all the people of Lamatar's Keep were in one place, whispering excitedly. The already-small drummer felt swallowed by the stage. She knew they were all friends, but she still had never performed for this many people before.
Remembering what the Shoanti storyteller had taught her, she closed her eyes started with the skin drum. Fist-palm fist-palm fist-palm fist-palm in time with her heartbeat, until she was keeping a steady pace and bringing the rapt and now-silent audience along with her into the place of story.
"Now I sing you the words that have been sung to me,
from the land and the people, all wild and free,
who were chained by the outlands with magic and greed,
and the dragons and giants whose hearts held the seed.
How the young ones were purchased with glittering gold,
and the old ones played schemes 'til their heritage sold.
But the stars were not right for those in castle yon,
and the falling of sky ended rich Thassilon.
Oh, the wind and the waves, these are things you can't keep,
or the stars or true love, or the dreams in your sleep.
If you value the parts of life money can't buy,
there is none who can keep you, though surely they'll try.
After ages of darkness, the sun smiled again,
and we thought we were done with the Empire of Sin.
When the pale-faced strangers sought to claim our mud,
and they bound us again and we poured out our blood.
But those devils were deviled by sins of their own,
they forgot about us while they fought for the throne.
Let me tell you one thing about this land we roam,
if you steal it, you never can call it your home.
Oh, the wind and the waves, these are things you can't keep,
or the stars or true love, or the dreams in your sleep.
If you value the parts of life money can't buy,
there is none who can keep you, though surely they'll try."
She was lost in time, and barely noticed the applause and her friend hugging her. It was a rough translation from the original Shoanti, but it worked fairly well.
| Zachary W Anderson |
They knew where they needed to go, but everything was taking so long. He was getting sick of the ambushes, the threat of frostbite and starvation, and all the other comforts offered by the Kodar mountains. When they came across an army patrol hunting lynxes for fun, he eagerly greeted the opportunity to express himself, and snapped his fingers.
The battered wyvern flapped away screaming, its wings swiveling oddly. The gnome immediately leaped forward to start checking the rider's corpse for gems. Everyone else visually traced the line of the destructive spell from the midair point where the explosion happened to Jarvin's still-outstretched hand.
Ingjrt tightened her grip on her husband. "We are to making the babies now, yes?"
| Zachary W Anderson |
The war-scarred orc curled his lips in a sneer. He was tired of seeing the careless treatment of his tribe. He had escaped with only a bruise where an ogre had kicked him by rolling with it, but last moon he watched the bored giant-kin suddenly seize Chaltak and tear his arms off. The greater giants barely kept their savage cousins under control, but every few days the ogres thought up new tortures, and the orcs were the bottom of the pile.
There! He saw movement in the distance, and grinned. The pinkskins they sought were finally here, and would have to come up the narrows. Maybe the ogres would do their bad things to the enemies instead. He would like to watch that. He hiked back to the rest of the patrol.
The heroes almost casually defeated every war-band sent against them. Almost every day they faced ogres, orcs, and the occasional enslaved monstrosities or unhallowed allies, and every time their expert use of spell and tactics wiped away the obstacle between them and the nemesis. Karzoug the Claimer prepared his reign atop the peak of the world.
The only difference this day was the terrain. An ice flow made a path uphill between two canyon walls. It would have been the obvious choice to travel upward were it not for the hostile group charging down towards them. Once again, they readied to sweep away the opposition, when a grinding sound came from the snow. Both the druid and the ranger backed away, and warned their allies, “Watch out, there might be an avalanche. Wait, the noise is continuing...” A massive maw exploded from the snow beneath the lead orc, swallowing it before it even had a chance to cry out. A segmented body followed, borne along by dozens of crackling legs. Steam escaped from around a glowing red section of shell on its back.
Chaos ensued with some villains trying to escape, some trying to kill the arctic crawler, and some trying to kill the heroes. The heroes aimed to kill the crawler and the villains. The crawler greedily writhed and burrowed through the snow and snatched up every succulent meat it could find.
After it finished tearing the arms off an ogre, the arctic crawler slowed down to savor the blood rolling down its gullet. An unseen Rubyspark leveled her crossbow, waited for its eyes to open again, and fired into its brain. Its death throes whipped the snow into a rocky stew that swept forth to catch all the remaining enemies as well as the hidden gnome.
“Ruby, no!” The heroes ran forth to dig out their small friend. She popped out on her own, atop a crest that was still moving. She squeaked, “I'm okay, guys!” Then three more arctic crawlers emerged from the snow around her...
Nestled in the Kodar Mountains, the Kazaron river held what scarce greenery one could find in these unforgiving rocks. In many places, the rushing water had carved steep banks in the stone. In one such place above the river sat a cabin, looking distinctly out-of-place for its bastion of comfort and domesticity amidst such treacherous wilderness. It had never been there before, and it would never be there again.
It had been a hectic day, but they were all alive. The witch added unnamable things to her cauldron, promising everyone good stew. There was enough room for all of them to sleep, prepare spells, tend to their gear, and otherwise relax with their friends.
Outside, a gigantic humanoid shape split itself from the vast blackness. It raised hands the size of coffins, and a pair of large shades appeared, floating in midair. They advanced to blot out the offending light.
| Zachary W Anderson |
"Is not funny. I am telling you, make trash this thing."
"What?" Jarvin looked up from the papers in front of him, only to have another shoved in his face.
Ingjrt waved the scroll at him. "Make it trash. I need concentrate, make new house."
"Okay..." he hesitantly took it from her as she stormed off, and started to look at it. As he turned it over, his sleeve caught the inkwell and spilled it. "NO!" He leapt to scoop up the ink and papers with each hand, and succeeded and pulling them apart with only a few droplets marring his work.
"WHAT I AM TELLING YOU? Make it trash! I am needing concentrate!" She stomped over and threw the same scroll on the table. "Stop giving me!"
She started casting again, and the scroll appeared in her hands again. They both looked at each other. "Curses!"
And that's when the great mountain bear decided to see if the horses or mammoth were edible. The mammoth disagreed violently.
An hour later, they stood before a swirling pool of snow. A roughly humanoid figure rose from it. A limb stretch out and snow dripped away to reveal an icy hand, indicating the visitors. The blob atop the form resolved into a rugged face intoning the words, "The monstrous third eye's voice seeks your silence."
"What about our journey?"
"Only those marked by greed can enter the eye of the needle."
"Marked by greed? What does that mean? What needle?"
It remained motionless, snow still dripping to reveal a blocky feminine form.
"What is Karzoug's greatest strength?"
Lips formed: "Greed's fingers touch across all ages to exist, and a diamond mind contains the thoughts of greed."
"What is Karzoug's greatest weakness?"
"Claiming contains the seeds of its own dismissal."
"What is the most telling secret that you know?"
Something akin to a smile played off glittering ice teeth. "That which is told is no longer secret. Many claimers dwell in the city at the top of the world."
| Zachary W Anderson |
4708, Pharast the 22nd
Zaalok returned with the report that he spotted something unmistakably evil, with a rune giant by its side. The band foraged on to meet the evil, to the sound of rushing water and the cool of a clinging, frigid fog. They mustered to one side of the rapids, with their foes across the way. It brought a message from the mother of monsters: Oblivion. They refused to accept, and a skirmish ensued.
A serpent hidden in the water was driven away by several water creatures summoned by Jarvin. The giant fared poorly against Zaalok this time, and fled for its life after being struck blind. The herald of Lamashtu bayed out despair, and several heroes fled. Its snaky tail spat a caustic venom, poisoning the horrified Allishanda. It very well could have scattered them to the winds had it noticed its own death in the shadows. A hidden Osirioni man rolled out behind it and summoned tendrils of darkness to bind it and choke it to death.
After cleaning herself up, the fey drew a makeshift symbol in the dirt and anointed her stomach with the creature’s blood. “Umm… Alli? What are you doing?” “Just making things right with the gods.” “Alli? You know she’s a demon, right?” “Uh-huh, but I still have to make it right with her.” “She’s not going to listen, Seth just killed her favorite monster!” Looking into the mists, Alli said, “I still have to try.”
They climbed the small rise to see a mist-shrouded fen filled with floating lilies. In most cases, the lilies were floating in water, but a dozen or so they could clearly see floating in air and glowing. More lights beckoned them in the distance.
Having established a beachhead, two miles away from the city of Xin-Shalast, they passed through the weirding land between one plane and the next, and made it to the highway. They quickly dispatched a patrol of cloud giants and soon found themselves at the foot of the city...
| Zachary W Anderson |
Dazzled by the marvels that surrounded them, they skulked from one building to the next. Between Jarvin's overview map and what they could overhear from passing giants, they clearly outlined the important zones of the city. The titanic structure ahead of them housed an ally of the Runelord - which also meant it was off-limits to all others.
The halls within were huge and ornate, obviously making the giantish users comfortable but simultaneously astounding with the gaudy display of wealth and uncomfortable for the band's smallness in comparison. Near-silence shrouded them, painfully counterpointed with the evidence of the roar that must have previously filled the structure. Rows of hundreds of cages (some broken) and even a few liquid-filled basins, steps and corners worn smooth by millions of feet and hands, the quiet threnody of millennia-old bloodstains, and then they found the sand.
They gazed out on a pit hundreds of feet across, with only one obvious purpose. Above them, immense crystal sheets spanned the whole arena, somehow fading the blinding mountain sun to near-twilight. Pillars that dwarfed dragons supported the ceiling. With all this they almost didn't notice the figure at the opposite end.
With an arcane gesture, the fiend was upon them. Its icy spear caused even their most steadfast warriors to grow sluggish, its tail whipped away sword and wand, its impossible hide ignored arrow and spell. Two undead shades joined it and swept through the heroes, draining their souls bit by bit.
Jarvin saw everything: The arcane architecture supporting the panels; the spellstained glass protecting the shades; where they would all be in two seconds. He stretched out his hand, and a thin green ray shot forth to obliterate a section of column. The now-unsupported section of skylight shattered under its own weight and showered down. While the heroes were able to dodge away from powder and shards with minimal damage, their antagonist was thoroughly fenestrated by horse-sized sheets of crystal. The unhindered sunlight blew the shrieking undead apart. It was over almost as soon as it began.
As they picked through the rubble, a clattering caught their attention. Spell and bow leapt to hands as they saw a pale, cowering figure emerge from the darkness. "Please," it said, "we need your help."
-----
Again, edited for artistic license. Wizard rolled a crit on touch attack with disintegrate. In the round-by-round combat, the enemy survived the saving throw, the 172 damage, and the save for massive damage. Despite all that, I feel like it's worth commemorating by telling the story this way instead because I don't think I've ever seen 172 damage in one shot before.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Has it been days? Hours? Months? How long has the underneath been our world? Someone skilled at survival finds food, and we eat. Someone clever with spells makes beds, and we sleep. The hungry darkness sprouts tentacles to drag us into stony maws that whisper oblivion, and we fight to stay alive. This is all we know.
The glow begins almost too slowly to perceive, but soon the glimmer is obvious. Like the dwarf-kings of old, we chase the light. Panting we push and run and squeeze in places, until we burst forth onto the face of Golarion.
We blink, dazed, at the vista before us. We stand above all of Varisia, and possibly the world. All the buildings below us, large enough to house titans, look like toys. The massive reach of the Cinderlands, an ashtray. The keenest among us says he sees the ocean.
Turning, we face the citadel. Karzoug's countenance, full of stony menace, leers at us; perhaps the mountain carving is calculating how to add us to his cruel collection? We shield ourselves from the blinding light and freezing wind, and prepare ourselves for the battle ahead.
| Zachary W Anderson |
In what seemed a casual cliche, the guards were distracted with gaming. The difference was literally monumental; rather than squabbling goblins, these giants stood as tall as the mammoth left in the fen below, and the trinkets with which they gambled were enough to buy a city.
The unseen thief's breath caught in her throat when she saw it - a ruby almost the size of her head. She crept forward imperceptibly, somehow simultaneously retaining all her caution while being dragged forward to the ultimate prize. It was only when the captain's eyes snapped to where she and the ruby now hid at the door that she truly realized her danger.
Time dragged as the thunder-voiced guard rose and started to draw a sword crackling with magic. Rubyspark lifted the crossbow to her lips, kissed it, leveled it, and pulled the trigger. Knowing her mark to be true, she whirled away to start running as the bolt slid through a giant eyelid.
She took one last pause at the edge of the spiral ramp, in front of the empty space between. The shouts behind grew louder. She knew there was some magic that was supposed to protect her from this sort of situation, but didn't know how far it worked. Ah well... if it worked, she got away with it; if it didn't, she had a great story to tell the other Caileanites in the Eternal Pub (or wherever... she wasn't entirely clear how the gods or even hers in particular handled gnomish souls after death).
She turned again to face her pursuers, waved her gleaming red trophy in triumph, and then stepped backward.
| Zachary W Anderson |
After detonating a dozen orbs of fire amidst the giant patrol, Rubyspark crept away while her friends handily took care of the rest. Clearly the largest doors were the way to the greatest treasure. And there she found a room with diamond chandeliers, a massive golden throne, a carpet of rubies, titanic mosaics... and three more giants, their skin blazing with arcane runes.
An imperious-looking woman strode past their calves and started walking towards the mysteriously-opened door. She was arrayed in ornate yet outlandish battle dress and bearing a golden scimitar. The giants seemed to flinch as she passed, then followed behind her.
Ruby closed the door. "Guys..." she whispered to the others.
"So, these are the famed heroes of New Thassilon." They wheeled to see a familiar figure dressed in incredible robes, wielding a flaming glaive. "You pitiful vermin are barely worth my time. My ascension has been inevitable for millenia." A sneer slid across his cruel face, under the glittering stones embedded in his skin. "I suppose you might make an entertaining diversion before I turn your corpses into trophies..."
| Zachary W Anderson |
While his companions reacted with alarm, Zaalok felt his twin souls awaken in a wave of cold hatred. His instinct knew this monster had hurt him and he wanted to stop it, while his tactical acumen knew that stopping Karzoug was the only way to save his friends and homeland from the return of the overlords. He spurred the griffin forward, spun past a sizzling green bolt of death, and stabbed his lance through the wizard’s chest. The image shattered, and everyone heard a distant yell of rage.
“Block them off,” commanded Maivin. “Got it!” shouted Jarvin, throwing his arms out to the walls, as a sheet of rock erupted from the floor.
A platoon of giants ran into the hallway from the opposite end of the corridor. They hesitated when they saw the wall of stone preventing their flanking maneuver, which Ingjrt then encased in ice. But the promise of greed drove them on, and they charged again only to fall to lance, sword, arrow, and even bloody teeth.
The witch ignored the fray entirely and prepared herself. The regular CRUNCH from the conjured walls told her the giants from the throne room, and the champion of Karzoug, were breaking through.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Maivin headed down the hallway opposite the pending breakthrough. Alli followed him with the question, "Where are you going?" "Those other giants had to come from somewhere. I'm scouting the rear." "Oh. You mean like that one?"
A purple-robed figure floated in through the door and started chanting a summon. As Maivin raced to reach the mage, Alli intoned, "If such be the will of Shelyn, I return your soul to its rightful place." A rainbow flash surrounded the Thassilonian, and it collapsed to the ground. "Oops..." whispered Alli.
The steady cracking of the conjured walls was replaced by the growls of angry giants. Captain Dandy shot through the gap as opportunities presented themselves, while Ingjrt silently floated to the ceiling. When they had opened enough space for her to see the floor in the throne room, she uttered a vile hex. Black, rubbery tentacles sprang up to seize the giants where they stood.
A woman in incredible armor floated through the hole, cursing the giants as useless. She pointed her sword to Jarvin, who swiftly brought forth three of the massive swamp beasts of Mwangi. As one opened its mouth to devour the golden woman, she spun under it and neatly severed its barrel-like neck.
Previously unseen, Rubyspark blinked into view as her crossbow loosed arrows into the joint in the armor at the woman's neck. Simultaneously, Seth leapt from the wall to entangle the enemy in shadows. The other two elasmosauri lumbered forward to bite the golden woman. Behind and above them, Ingjrt muttered another spell and then cackled evilly as a cloud of green poison enveloped the entangled giants.
As the screaming giants tore themselves free and scattered, Dandy moved forward to fire a dozen arrows at the woman. Finally she fell dead.
Inexplicably, it started raining in the hallway, with the smell of a storm playing about their noses. A ball of lightning drove through the heroes and struck Ingjrt in the chest. She fell as well. Having returned from the other hallway, Alli flew to Ingjrt's side and asked for Shelyn's mercy.
After a few more blocks of ice fell from the wall, a blubbery beast of molten flesh floated through the enlarged opening. "Flesh golem, immune to fire!" shouted Alli. "What you are saying, grandmother? Is cursed lamia, resist lightning and majeek," responded Ingjrt. As each swamp beast waddled forward and tried to snap at it, the monstrosity's maw opened wide enough to devour a horse, and it handily tore off the summoned creatures' heads. Zaalok charged from behind them, lanced the disgusting beast like a boil, and wheeled away on the griffin.
Lightning started striking throughout the hall, arcing unnaturally towards the intruders. Eventually the flesh beast fell to arrow, bolt, spell, and stone, and the heroes stormed the throne room. As Maivin stepped through he was bisected by a sword the size of a tree. The murderous rune giant stepped out from behind a pillar and laughed, shaking its bloody sword.
Jarvin called on Gozreh's wild spirit again, and four more swamp beasts appeared, noxious clouds surrounding the remaining giants. As Aedh bounded into the room, her mouth grew into a muzzle, fur sprouted from her neck, and her legs twisted and lengthened. The startled rune giant tried to stab at the frightening wolf-woman but missed, sending sparks and gems flying. Aedh dove between the giant's legs and seized one with her now-enormous teeth, tearing loose flesh as though peeling string cheese. As it fell to the ground, the slavering beasts (Aedh included) fell upon it.
One last giant floated in the hall, storm whipping its cloak as it directed the lightning. The heroes struck it down and looked around. What once could be called a cold, beautiful vault had become a steaming charnel house.
| Zachary W Anderson |
He floated at the edge of an unimaginably beautiful vista. Six differently-colored lights washed the landscape with fading sunset rays, dancing across lapping waves and rolling hills. Forests, canyons, cities and stranger landscapes filled his sight, interrupted only by the occasional pattern of birds or beasts. Love held his hands and leaned a on his shoulders.
A blot appeared.
His lovers whispered in his ear, “Alli’s calling.”
He sighed, watching demon-infused giants pour forth from the blot. “I have to go, don’t I?” His companions nodded, tears sliding down their faces.
He took their chins and pulled them in for kisses, salt tickling their lips, and then leapt out towards the fissure, around which marauders were defiling the scene.
He floated slowly at first, but began to accelerate. He drew his sword and flame erupted from it– red, then green, then purple. He pointed his sword and blurred into a polychromatic meteor, slamming through the center.
Maivin's body jumped three feet from the table, and he ran into Alli as she hovered over him. He fell back to the table, and Alli drifted down to settle on top of him. “That’s very sweet, but you could just ask…”
| Zachary W Anderson |
"Bitter brew, how many more of these fake Rune-losers do we have to kill?"
"They aren't fake, they're all the same one... how do I explain this... like different windows? We haven't actually killed the RuneLord yet."
"Whatever. No traps here."
The second they opened the door, whistling wind whipped through the gap to push them back. A few blinked into the boreal assault to see a large angelic figure outlined by the opening to the outside.
"Umm... hello?" Alli ventured in Celestial. And then again in Infernal. And Taldane. And Tiani. As she tried a half dozen greetings, the invisible gnome crept away. Seeing the grief on its face, she reached out a hand in succor, only to have the angel wrench its face even tighter and draw its sword. Alli withdrew to discus things with her friends.
"Is not supposed to be here. Not meant for the winter land or mountain. Spell trapped it here - is cursed," Ingjrt said decisively. "I can break curse." Unfortunately, she was unable to dispel the magic binding it to this plane.
Maivin prayed to Shelyn received a brief vision of a pastoral landscape. He relayed it to Alli, who said, "Well, I'm sure she would be happier at home than here, right?" The figure still glowered in the distance. "Let's see what we can do." They gathered up symbols they assumed would be anathema to the angel, including a golden sword and a Sihedron symbol. Allishanda brandished them while singing, "To where your god dwells, my goddess sends you, from gold-plated hells, to Heaven anew." The angel burst into a light that disappeared through the ceiling, dropping behind an old elk-horn bow.
They followed the hallway down to the end, where Rubyspark suddenly appeared. "Don't look! Or... more like, don't read." She walked over to a pair of massive doors crawling with runes - some seeming to do so literally, out of the corners of their watering eyes. "What about you, Ruby? You're looking at the words..." "Ah, no, I'm looking between the words, that's totally different. Here we are." She had been tracing lines along the edges of the runes, and tapped twice at the point she found.
The doors swung open to reveal a room festooned with metal boxes sprouting tentacles. A dozen robed figures with oddly-twitching turbans jerkily turned to face the heroes at entrance. Behind them, an active scene like a misty waterfall showed a fantastic golden city with unfamiliar voices and clothes as humans rode howdahs on the shoulders of giants through the streets.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Ruby bounded through the creature’s legs and out of the prison doors. The crystalline claws that snapped just over the gnome’s head seemed to fade in and out from reality. Astral tentacles drifted behind it, as though it was swimming through the air. Just as the party braced themselves to deal with the threat, it stopped short and seemed to sniff the air. A dozen heavily-clothed figures suddenly surrounded it, and chanting as they did so. A dozen daggers rose, a dozen of wounds blossomed shiny black gel, and in a dozen seconds it fell still.
“It is of no consequence. We stopped it.” Most of the heroes winced at both the rasping voice and the example of occult cruelty, while Ingjrt rushed to collect the daemon’s ichor before it evaporated.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Ruby crept forward. She smelled something "wrong" and tried to scurry away. All at once she was held aloft in the claws of some horrifying amalgam of bear and praying mantis, shimmering into view. It lifted her over a disturbingly segmented maw filled with gleaming ribbons of hunger, almost scraping her against the sixty-foot high ceiling.
Her shrieks brought the rest running down the hallway. Jarvin pelted it with fire, Ingjrt cursed it, Alli and Dandy shot it, Seth entangled it with shadows. The new allies swept around it, completely ignoring the places where it stabbed them, and began chanting. Aedh leapt over their heads and laid into it with fang and kukris slicing off sections of leg. Zaalok charged and ran it through with a lance made of blistering brightness. Unlike most outsiders they defeated, this one’s corpse remained, although it immediately began to shrivel and creak.
A door cloaked in shimmering energy stood in their way. Ruby warned them that there was a sort of magical trap, and Ingjrt confirmed that it was Greed-related. All six of the members with ensorcelled weapons nodded to each other and plunged blade and bolt into the wall. It shattered like glass, dissolving into golden sparks and then nothingness before it could touch the floor. They swung the doors open.
The room was dominated by a massive golden sphere, floating in precisely the way that gold does not. As if enhancing the wrongness of the scene, flames languidly rolled across the surface like cresting waves. A wide staircase led up to it, topped by a huge woman with a lion’s body in place of her legs. She grinned in anticipation as two more like her prowled down the stairs. “Now we play!” she whisper-roared.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Seth and Ruby both disappeared, dashing to hidden corners on different sides of the room. Jarvin summoned a pair of enormous serpents in acrid clouds of smoke, one of which immediately wrapped around the lamia atop the staircase. Ingjrt fidgeted through the various trinkets tied to her, and eventually pulled out an amber rod. She rubbed it and a thunderbolt leapt out of it to destroy the unclad torso of the first monstrous woman just as she pounced forward.
Both the remaining lamia were snarling, harangued by snakes and arrows. By incredible chance, both the hidden attackers got into position at the same time, and Seth's shadows held another harridan helpless as Ruby's crossbow found her heart.
Shrieking, the last enemy wrenched the enormous snake from herself and snapped it against the staircase. As Zaalok charged her, she held out her hands cried, "Flame take you all!" And so erupted the inferno.
A few hours later, they had finished applying the last of their healing salves. Their unnerving allies informed them that here was the "eye between worlds". The mages among the heroes determined there was a ceremony of sorts to be performed atop the orb, but like so many things in this Pinnacle of Greed, their weapons were the key. They solemnly prepared themselves for what they knew would be the most difficult challenge they would ever face, and to guard against what horrors they could not know lay ahead.
The needle's eye opened.
| Zachary W Anderson |
Aedh Dubh returned to Wolf’s Ear to be appointed Warden, and became a feared giant hunter through central Varisia. After several violent clashes, she came to an understanding with the giants of the mountains.
Curiously, the number of reported werewolf sightings have dropped in the area.
Allishanda gladly returned to Lamatar’s Keep, but wanderlust struck soon after Ruby left, and she followed, leaving the mission in the hands of more capable administrators. Eventually she found her way back to Tian Xia, and even the First World.
She disappeared completely after finding a plant with fruit that tasted like both cinnamon and ginger, although the stories are still coming in.
After checking in with her father in Sandpoint, Dallypin “Rubyspark” Knottknee traveled hither and yon to avoid pursuit by greedy suitors. Familiarity, help, and shininess all played a role in travelling along with Alli, but it deepened into a fully-encompassing friendship.
She still has that ruby.
Ingjrt returned with Jarvin to help him build a study near Lamatar’s Keep. On their last night as husband and wife, she finally convinced him to fulfill his husbandly duties. Shortly thereafter she started a torrid hot-and-cold affair with Thassilonian scholar, Brodert Quink. After their last argument about theory vs. practice, she stormed out to return to Xin Shalast to look at the real thing for herself.
Roper tentacles are mostly gristle, and need a lot of pickling to be remotely edible.
With Ingjrt’s help, Jarvin of the Wood created a tower in the Kreegwood, near his friends at Lamatar’s Keep. He created a place to safely study conjuration without negatively affecting others, while being in the midst of the woodlands he was so passionate about restoring… soon renamed as “Jarvin’s Wood”. He eventually started a family with a Black Arrow applicant who arrived too late for Fort Rannick, but who yet became a fierce defender of the area’s nature.
He’s summoned so many creatures that at this point, he recognizes some of them.
Leoan Dandy still got around for a while, but after having one too many attempts on his life by jealous men, he decided to lay low. He eventually founded the Peerless Archery Academy in Turtleback Ferry, and sometimes visited his compatriots’ war college for demonstrations.
Seeing his own arrows in Kain’s back still haunts him.
Maivin Ansrolcashnal was married to Ayruzi in Heaven, although the unwavering order of the celestial mount took a toll on his psyche. He found solace in using his keen military mind to orchestrate several countermeasures to abyssal invasions, and found a great partnership with Ayruzi in doing so. He regularly met with Zaalok in the teaching of their war college, and was delighted to meet his daughter, but was unable to stay on the material plane for long periods. His blade guide has since inspired her.
Even though it doesn’t matter at this point, he’s still keeping score.
Seth Anubi had several more successful infiltration operations before returning to his drinking buddies in Riddleport. Several local fighters have asked him to teach his fighting style, but he refuses; his fans are all self-taught. One reason he gives is that none of them are worthy, while the secret reason is he doesn’t fully understand it himself.
On a dare, he dove through the shadow in the sky above Riddleport, only to have it disappear entirely.
Zaalok Two-Souls rode back to his home village atop Q, causing a brief panic in the local horses. He demonstrated his impeccable equestrian acumen, as well as the depth of his understanding. Once they finally accepted his greatness, he was fully accepted into the clan… and he rode off again, returning to Darianna. With much greater confidence, he pressed his suit and she accepted her son’s father as a longtime lover, if not a husband. He also organized a militia for the defense of the otherwise-helpless colony at Lamatar’s Keep, only to have it blossom into a military academy.
He has not yet ridden a fire elemental, but not for a lack of trying.
Supporting Cast:
Abstalar Zantus faithfully tended to the spiritual needs of Sandpoint, but had to deal with goblins and fire once again.
Ameiko Kaijitsu discovered that her family history was so much more than glass.
Arser Nimenor landed the full support of Ordellia’s artistic hopefuls, leading to a fruitful exchange program.
Ayruzi was exceptionally uncomfortable when her lord informed her that Maivin had any history with women, let alone a child-bearing one. She determined the union would be the best for all involved, and found herself loving him despite herself in their shared eagerness to hunt evil.
Brun Talbor invited Alli to his temple’s first drink-mixing competition. He was disappointed that none of them had any effect on her, but she was happy to return to his room regardless.
Conna Truehome brought the remnants of her tribe back out of Jorgenfist, and collapsed it as best they could. Thence they gathered other giants misled or scattered by Karzoug’s campaign, settling near the sacred site of Minderhal’s Anvil.
Darianna Windfall had a human son, followed six months later by a half-elven daughter. With Alli’s repeated absences, she found herself growing from champion into the role of de-facto ruler of Lamatar’s Keep. Managing and protecting an artist’s colony seemed a natural extension of her motherhood.
Findchan gets all the b&!~+es.
Galicia Toremo led an effort to eliminate corruption in the Magnimar Hellknights. It was successful in individual chapterhouses, hard to tell higher up.
Haldmeer Grobaras was run out of Magnimar for his apparent incompetence in dealing with the Skinsaw Murders, on top of the waste issue.
Jubrayl Vhiski eventually met a bad end in Korvosa after trying to cheat the crimelord The Spider.
Madame Mvashti died peacefully, finally leaving her estate to the community of SandPoint.
Lamatar regularly visited Jarvin to share tea, but never said anything.
Nerill Greenwood capitalized on Grobaras’ absence to find a way for Lamatar’s Keep to be deeded to the church of Shelyn. He continued in his role as Castellan.
Pugmalian Knottknee continued his improvements to Sandpoint at a pace that concerned some, given their recent history with “The Chopper”. This fear amplified when he moved to Chopper’s Isle to set up a workshop, completely oblivious to the area’s history. However, when a small gang of drunken thugs gathered to do something about him, they could find no sign of the inventor. They did knock down the shack and scatter his equipment.
Q was thrilled in his new role as apex predator, scaring wildlife and people alike on his trip with Zaalok. After a few rampages, Jarvin had to have a long talk with him about protecting the natural cycles and maintaining the prey population, and he has since accepted an ascetic diet including magic and fasting, only hunting overpopulated animals.
Relic became a master singer and storyteller, digging deep into the history of Thassilon and bringing it to life with a dramatic flair. She started teaching at Lamatar’s Keep, while regularly visiting Magnimar to scout and perform.
Romelo Moravia acted as an escort any time artists from Lamatar’s Keep needed to travel. To his surprise, he found songs popping into his head during these journeys, and started taking songwriting classes.
Rune finally found and fought Robin as undead, rescued him from an Urgathoan enclave, and returned him to Pharasma’s court for proper assignment.
Despite all the chaos, Mary kept Lamatar’s Keep clean, and created art in her own way.
Kaven Windstrike harassed the people of Turtleback Ferry as a bandit for a few years before being felled by a Black Arrow.
Shalelu Andosana led several covert missions into abandoned elven cities, and eventually traveled over the crown of the world.
Tarqin of the Twelve Strings enjoyed sharing stories with Seth, but concern for Alli led him to continue to try to follow wherever she went. He did make it to Tian Xia, and became a court performer there after he couldn’t figure out where she went next.
Empty of revenge, Xaan spent the rest of his life becoming various animals, and contemplating existence and form. He was able to achieve physical perfection and purge the aberrant influence that had plagued him.
Dearly Departed:
Despite clearly being heretical, the psychopomps could find no logical way to indict Sir Antonin Scaleman’s beliefs. He became a Pillar of Justice in Abador’s Vault.
Bane became a warrior on Gorum’s battlefield.
Bobo was, in some way, returned to nature.
Bree Isaro joined Nirvana and eventually melded entirely with positive energy.
His death being a completely foreign concept to him, Dee was returned to The First World.
Gilthur Akiak was honored by Torag’s host for successfully protecting his family. He was forged into a piece of The Grand Defender’s armor.
Kain Weiss was interred in the Boneyard and lost in the void until he came to understand what had happened. Then he followed the stars to become a mote of light around celestial travelers.
Kalia readily took the place of Darianna’s twins, and was transformed into the first celestial hellwasp.
Having no children of his own, Kole was asked to keep an eye out for another promising Shoanti, and was thrilled to find his new charge the companion of his old friends.
Meoric tried being Urgathoan Undead for a while alongside Robin, but eventually decided he didn’t like it. He flew/ran to join Desna.
Mina of the Green was reincarnated as a horse.
Nichodemus Galwain rejoined his brother in the twilight between worlds, but was never able to fully manifest.
After his initial heresy, Robin Manderly was held in custody for consideration. During this time, an Urgathoan incursion into the Boneyard infected several souls, including his. After Rune’s rescue, when he continued to declare his loyalty to both goddesses, he was made a celestial emissary.
Violet was purged of her fear of male presence and, while she still prefers female company, she can occasional appreciate the artistic creations of male souls.
Willowfrost harassed Alli and Ruby in The First World before deciding to find something new.
| NobodysHome |
The second they opened the door, whistling wind whipped through the gap to push them back. A few blinked into the boreal assault to see a large angelic figure outlined by the opening to the outside.
"Umm... hello?" Alli ventured in Celestial. And then again in Infernal. And Taldane. And Tiani. As she tried a half dozen greetings, the invisible gnome crept away. Seeing the grief on its face, she reached out a hand in succor, only to have the angel wrench its face even tighter and draw its sword. Alli withdrew to discus things with her friends.
"Is not supposed to be here. Not meant for the winter land or mountain. Spell trapped it here - is cursed," Ingjrt said decisively. "I can break curse." Unfortunately, she was unable to dispel the magic binding it to this plane.
Maivin prayed to Shelyn received a brief vision of a pastoral landscape. He relayed it to Alli, who said, "Well, I'm sure she would be happier at home than here, right?" The figure still glowered in the distance. "Let's see what we can do." They gathered up symbols they assumed would be anathema to the angel, including a golden sword and a Sihedron symbol. Allishanda brandished them while singing, "To where your god dwells, my goddess sends you, from gold-plated hells, to Heaven anew." The angel burst into a light that disappeared through the ceiling, dropping behind an old elk-horn bow.
I have been loving these vignettes, but it's kind of disturbing me. Am I the *only* GM where the PCs managed to rescue Ayruzi, rather than just sending her home?