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<- giraine:summary-356|The Marsh-Wights ^ giraine:summaries-2024|Summaries 2024 ^ giraine:summary-358|The Pestilence at Heathers Edge ->
====== Summary 357: Assault on the Beacon of Malkion (2024-06-28) ======
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First, the fog sweeps in with clouds overhead, and knowing danger is coming with it, you cast many magics and positioned yourselves around the temple. Reader Wilmot cowers by the altar, trembling in terror and praying to Makan. There are uncouth howls and moans out in the mists to the east, but you can see nothing. And your magics warn you that enemies, and Chaos’s taint, surround you.
 
That is, until the enemy presents itself. They have the honour, at least, one could say, of announcing themselves. What must be Rollo’s voice penetrates the mist’s confusing effect on sound, in strong but rasping, harsh Ralian: “It is a pity about my son Jensos. We have Knower Gofrey though. Any of you may leave here unharmed. Those that stay will be destroyed. That is all.” Bog wonders, why are you here and not just leaving like he says? And then he understands. These things / people consort with Chaos and must be destroyed. That’s enough for him.
 
Seeing the fog entering into the Temple with clear threat of obscuring vision therein, Fraud pulls out the Fan of St Lelbic and sweeps it away with some hefty magical power behind it. Still, there are enemies lurking where the mist remains, and there are screams of pain and torment around you. And now the enemy becomes clearer. First, Shrett sees an Orlanthi warrior sneaking to his window and fires, but his arrow bounces off the kite shield (or I misremember and he drops the bow, or he deals a small wound). Then, 9 more Orlanthi thanes of Rollo’s clan begin entering the windows, and 2 of them through the front doors facing Boamund. They cry out challenges in Ralian and rush you.
 
Boamund is beset but holds his own. One thane is hit by a Disrupt and throws his javelin harmlessly; then in anger hurls a great lightning bolt from his hand but it blasts the ground near Boamund instead. The other closes into melee with his sword. They’re nowhere close to your heroic skills so Boamund begins making short work of them. Shrett engages his opponent with his silver sword and drops him with a brutal blow quite quickly, then turns toward another. Bog also easily dispatches his foe with his maul. Fraud, though, is more centrally located in the southern temple, some ways from the invaders. Two cross towards him with a third and fourth not far behind. One gets to Reader Wilmot and slaps him across the brow with the flat of his blade, knocking the old man out. He begins dragging the priest away. And worse yet, Fraud takes a wicked impaling wound to his neck from a javelin thrown from the west side of the Temple. This leaves him struggling to remove it as the battle continues around him. Bog comes in, unleashing the Berserk abandon of Zorak Zoran, and slaying foes left and right as blows rain of his magical shield. Soon, the thanes lose heart and begin hurrying out, speeded by their Movement-Rune magics, and you let them flee. Reader Wilmot is left behind, safely.
 
But something else is coming; those moaning sounds close in. And reveal themselves. Bloated, soggy, rubbery, half-naked, with skin like wet-soaked leather over taut, bulging muscles, and meaty hands ending in hooked claws, and great jaws with shark-like teeth, and the size of trolls with plenty of strength to match. These ones; which you eventually learn are thralls of the true Marsh-Wights and thus near-mindless former victims forever enslaved to their vampire-like masters; show little tactics and no concern for self-preservation. But they are remarkably resilient and wounds to them speedily flow back together. As you’d figured from fighting Jensos, piercing weapons do little to their flesh, and soon Bog learns that his maul has much less effect than it should (it did max 5 pts after penetrating armour).
 
One comes into the front doors to engage Boamund while he is still finishing off the thane; and another one soon comes to him through the western window, so he is hard-beset. Shrett finds one entering a window near him and takes to the fight, soon brandishing the Tear of St Tutrys, whose searing magics prove vital in stopping the incessant knitting of wounded thrall-flesh back together. Bog and Fraud are approached by a fourth. The things show old, faded remnants of Orlanthi tattoos and garb, making their origins clear in a sinister fashion.
 
Your hearts leap with new optimism as a familiar dirty, small female; unclear if adult or teenager; creeps in through a northwestern window. It is the Elfchild! She hisses, looking around at you, and your wounds fade, with Fraud’s impaled javelin pushed out of the healing wound! She also has called forth starlight over the scene, shining in from the west side of the temple, and this has held back some of the clouds on that side, and pushed back some gloom in the Temple. Something about that starlight gives you all some renewed confidence against the still desperate fight against greater numbers.
 
Shrett is first to slay a wight-thrall, which frees him to hurry toward Boamund in assistance. It takes them much time but they bring down one, then another. The fourth lasts long enough to confront Bog, but around that time the Elfchild has stuck out a forked tongue and hissed again, infusing you with reptilian energy that boosts your combat prowess, and accelerating your progress against these horrors.
 
Yet the horrors are not the worst of their kind. Their masters enter the fray. Clan leader Rollo, with scars at the sides of his mouth and one of his eyes glowing a pale baleful white, flows through the southwest window in an amorphous shape like swamp-muck, reforming himself and brandishing sword and shield. His wife Sintra does the same nearby. Bog is there to confront them in his relentless rage, and he first faces Sintra. Jorunn, daughter of the two, comes through a big western window, and then the family servant Gurdard through the northwest side (much to Boamund’s concern, as he’s still in the thick of battle), and Jorunn’s lover Kakrid from the southeast. As some of them close in, they sling various spells at you, but none take hold; and that is very well, as the worst of them were mind-controlling sorceries.
 
Fraud, finally back in the fray, steps up and swipes off Kakrid’s head in one perfect swing of his death-sword. Hurrah! Rollo’s eye pulses with infernal light and water begins bubbling in Fraud’s throat but he spits it out, not to be drowned today. Rollo steps up to fight Bog once Sintra’s left arm is maimed by Bog’s maul, but his first sword-blow rains off Bog’s shield-spell, fortunately. His great strength is evident, and he’s a formidable warrior, once feared in the Orlanthi raid-battles of eastern Ralios. Sintra is looking poorly. Rollo calls out in Ralian, “It is time!” after he has growled out some gurgling words out the nearby window, which Bog knows as Boatspeech but he’s still too berserk to pay it heed. And the Marsh-Wights of Rollo’s clan escape; yet Shrett manages to get in a blow on Gurdard before he goes.
 
Bog, still enraged, chases Sintra out the window. But she has vanished; he saw her go. She sank into the mud like it was water; as did the others. And now he sees something that gives him much pause, shaking him out of his berserk state instead of leaving him to rush up to confront it. There is some great shape; huge; emerging from the distance. He hops back through the window and hugs the green serpent-stone nearby in the hopes that it will ward him from this terror. He has taken some nasty wounds to his left arm but being Berserk preserved him, and now he uses False Healing to remain functional.
 
The Elfchild has been watching the scene with concern, elevated as waters burble and start rushing into the temple in a flood. Asked, she says to those nearby that the Green Serpent River has been taken hold of by the Monster Army, and something awful is coming with the flood. She tries chanting back the waters but cannot hold them. She has kissed Reader Wilmot’s brow and he has risen anew, and together they talk with Boamund, Shrett and soon Fraud. Perhaps you should abandon this place, they say, and Wilmot urges someone to bring word to Baron Ornim of what has happened here. He won’t abandon Othona to any grim fate, but he won’t die pointlessly at the Temple either. The Elfchild doesn’t know what is coming.
 
Then it comes. And it is indeed something awful. It announces itself by smashing a large hole in the southwest side of the Temple. Masonry goes plunging into the flood-waters and Bog heroically rolls away to avoid getting splattered or buried. He runs as the titanic looming shape pushes its bulk through the gap. It is almost indescribable. Somewhat humanoid, but any resemblance ends there. To the extent it has a face, there is a form like an enormous obscene crustacean clasping that area. There are tentacles or tails ending in snapping serpent-like mouths; too many of them. And it looks like the swamp come to terrible life and malevolence. You steel yourselves against the urge to just run in mad panic. But this is no foe you feel you could stop, and the Elfchild offers no words of advice, save to try to stop what is happening, because…
 
Rollo’s clan of Marsh-Wights returns through windows near where they left. And Rollo has some sort of bundle under his shield-arm. Bog goes invisible with Darkwalk and slinks up to them; Sintra is there. Rollo is busy instructing the giant monstrosity while Gurdard glides over the waters from the northeast, and Jorunn meets Shrett at the western window. The monstrosity, under Rollo’s directions leans down and rips the green serpent-stone from the Temple wall, and turns to leave, carrying that seemingly tiny stone in one gargantuan paw.
 
Shrett duels with Jorunn and takes her down with his blessed blade; breathing in relief as she snapped at him with her jaws and nearly tore his throat out. Fraud and Boamund close in. Bog appears from his Darkwalk and hurls huge death-magic; a Sever Spirit spell; at Rollo, and the lord of the Widemouth Clan dies! He manages a short gasp of soliloquy: “As I fall, so fall your gods and your land. So cometh Urcheth.” Bog runs up and grabs the bundle that Rollo has now dropped. He, Boamund and Fraud finish off Sintra, who has gone utterly mad with fury at her husband’s (and then daughter’s) final death. Bog attempts to command the monstrosity to come back, but nothing happens. Yet you have slain all other foes. Rollo’s Clan is dead. The monstrosity sinks into the Green Serpent River, collapsing like it has turned into jelly.
 
Deep breath. You’ve all survived, and not too worse for the wear. [A LOT of critical rolls made a big difference; but few if any of you had Luck pts left]
 
Regrouping toward the centre of the Temple while the Elfchild manages to chant away some of the flood waters, you assess the situation. On opening the bundle, you don’t find what you expect, which is Knower Gofrey’s head. Instead, there are objects with writing on them. As you gather yourselves and make some discussion about your next move, you read what you can
 
A clay tablet with etching on it (in Ralian Theyalan)
> “Mother, I trust all is well in Othona and that Jensos has returned. We have almost completed mining the final batch of Blue Stone required and will return soon. I am pleased that our plans do progress and our cause in Daran will be achieved. Thanks to the pestilence that was brought to Heathers Edge, running the mines has become simple. I have learned much from The Wanderer. --Your daughter Unn”. 
Ahh. So there is that final daughter of Rollo’s Clan yet to be accounted for, and again this mention of the Blue Stone and a mine/s, and The Wanderer, and now some other place called “Heathers Edge”, with the unpleasant mention of a “pestilence”--- shiiiiittt….
 
A  rolled up, oiled leather piece with writing on it (old Safelstran): “One hundred and sixty three years from the falle of the half-blind king, the door may openeth. When that tyme doth cometh, gather ye the special stoan of blue and powdere it so that it may be sprinkled on the headde of the SERPENT so that the POWERE may flowe again and the throatte OPENETH. From this DOOR shall pour forth those whose rightful place has been usurped by the bryngers of the Beaconne, speakers of the tongue of Tanisor.”

 * This seems clear enough. It must date to the Second Age, when the Seshnelan/Godlearner Empire ruled these parts, and “Tanisor” (Seshnegi) language was more prevalent alongside Safelstran. This documents a ritual to be done. And eventually Reader Wilmot, who has a very basic ability to read Boatspeech, explains what that is.
 
Wilmot begins stumbling his way through other papers in an oiled pouch; there are three sections of pages in Boatspeech ripped from a book:
First = incomplete; a ritual for calling a “marsh-demon”. Not much useful here. It might have something to do with these Marsh-Wights’ origin?
 
**Second** = more pages; describing a ritual using a blue powder and a specially consecrated altar (via blood sacrifice) called the Serpent’s Head, which can open some sort of planar doorway. While Wilmot can understand what this is about in general, he doubts he could ever perform the ritual. But Knower Gofrey could have, and you soon find him tied up and gagged, barely alive, outside of the Temple.
 
**Final** = a full description of the sorcery spell Drown; which could be learned in 4 weeks. It can be cast on a stone with a ritual carving and will thus would cast the spell on the first person to touch it; just like the stone that Lady Tondhere had and Bog now has. While it’s much like magic Ahappi used to use, many people would consider it to be “evil” (but it is not Chaotic; just cruel Death+Water magic). Fraud takes this.
 
You are looting bodies; finding nothing of value; when the sounds of the monstrosity’s return come. So you wisely exit the Temple, opting to go along the path which goes eastwards back to Othona, rather than see if your boat is still there back at the river, close to where that monster came from. Looking back, you see the silhouette of the great thing of the Monster Army by the Temple, and it begins smashing the Beacon of Malkion Temple to ruins; sounds of which you hear behind you as you make haste away, freeing Gofrey and accompanied by Wilmot and the Elfchild.
 
And you escape! The trail is simple to follow with the Elfchild’s guidance. The creek that stopped Shrett and Bog is gone; the Elfchild explains that these Brena Marsh features come and go, and the Marsh-Wights can control them as can she. These are two forces of change that have always struggled here.
 
Your camp is as you left it. Mercifully, Rollo’s thanes did not disturb your mules. They just rushed in and grabbed Knower Gofrey. And the villagers of Othona explained that a few came back, entered the fort in a hurry, took out what they could, and called down clouds that carried them floating off back toward the east from whence they came. The villagers are grateful to see the end of this occupation. The fort is abandoned and intact, but proves to have nothing of value to you. Indeed, the villagers hoped to find rumoured treasures of gold and iron that Rollo had, but that never turns up. The fort proves to mostly be a normal Orlanthi structure except that Rollo’s family roundhouse is a bit odd and gloomy inside, with a master bedroom that is waterlogged and swampy…
 
You rest with the villagers for the night. The Elfchild doesn’t linger. She just goes back to her hut without further word, as if nothing had happened. She has remained calm. Reader Wilmot helps the villagers understand what has happened, and advises them on what is likely to happen next. He hopes they will be safe, and maybe Baron Ornim can send some aid? The fort is a useful strategic location. It can be used. Perhaps, he says, a Malkioni shrine can be added there. The Beacon of Malkion Temple is unlikely to rise again, anytime soon; not amidst this war with Seshnela. Knower Gofrey is tended to by Fraud, and can do little more than whimper in pain and exhaustion. The Elfchild does not do anything about his suffering. Which might seem curious, as she acted compassionately, but she also is strange.
 
The monstrosity is not seen again (anytime soon). It seems to have gone back whence it came. Some in the village say that they knew legends of it, but none amongst them or those they knew had ever seen it (and lived).
 
You piece together some of the facts of the situation at Othona and the Brena Marsh, aided by the locals—Rollo’s Clan came here as normal people, as far as anyone could tell, when they invaded. They just were brutish barbarians. And most of them remained that way. But Rollo’s closest relatives eventually (and no one quite agrees when, but some seasons ago?) turned more reclusive and mysterious, and rumours swirled about them being giants, or Hykimi, or that Rollo had died, and so forth. Some wizard/robed person would come to visit the fort, always passing by the village without stopping, and always coming as dusk approached and never seen leaving, and always seen on foot, alone and silent. The villagers also found it strange that none of Rollo’s clan rode any beasts.  No one (except Elfchild) knew that they had turned monstrous, or that the Burning Malady had struck them. And whatever the Clan was doing, it did it in secret, and didn’t directly harm the villagers as long as they stayed in line.
 
Fraud, though, is deep in contemplation of the events. He replays the actions seen and words heard, related from Ralian to him by the others. He retreats into dark thoughts. The leaders of Rollo’s Clan; Rollo in particular; were not just Orlanthi of origin and mindset, setting aside their Marsh-Wight undead nature. Fraud thinks over some of the confrontations with Rollo’s Marsh-Wights. They, including Jensos, didn’t smell Chaotic to Boamund. They, he realises, were Arkati; which hid that Chaotic nature in them. And Arkati of a dreadful kind. He feels the presence of the Deceiver in what has happened here. The connection with the events at the Monastery becomes clearer. There is a network of adherents of deadly Arkati, eager to bring Disorder (or worse) to Ralios, and increasingly evident to have some link with “The Wanderer” and maybe a bigger plan. This is a huge threat. It must be stopped. His faith in Arkat Chaosbane focuses his mind toward ensuring it is. Maybe there are others who can help you. 
 
There are things here at Othona and the Marsh that remain mysteries.
 
[You’ll never find out now, but if you’d wandered to the right places in the Marsh, there was a shack where Sintra sometimes hid and left some clues; and another place where there is a shrine to Arkat the Deceiver and some nasty surprises; and a secluded grove where the Elfchild’s brother Owid hid out with some bandits trying to avoid Rollo’s Clan. But you found everything truly important. The Marsh-Wights had some vampire-like abilities, some similar to the Grendel/Beowulf stories [including weaknesses like being held off the Earth to stop their regenerating], but also could conjure illusions. Those included being able to make themselves still look human and normal, or make phantasms to lure people; such as the screams you’d heard outside the Temple before the assault]
 
Party Luck pts had gone down from 3 to 2 to save Shrett from Jorunn’s jaws, but now +1 for your victory = 3 again, yay!
 
And now, it befalls you to take your next move! 
I enjoyed that. I hope you had fun too. It’s part of a neat scenario arc that at least has some non-linear / sandbox elements. That you’ve gone into other parts of Ralios and then come here instead of immediately going to the Monastery etc. on entering Ralios has made it more fun for me to adapt to; and has changed aspects of the whole plot.
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RPG Campaigns

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