==== Summary 129: Unwelcome visitors (2015-04-08) ==== [[Giraine]] [[summaries-2015|Summaries]] ---- Hi guys, I hope any Easter break you're having is a good one! Back to Giraine gaming this Friday, if you're in! Last time: In Aria's Well, the populace and its leaders were overwhelmed with concerns and duties, but did their best. Miguel formed a scouting group with Boamund's approval, patrolling the perimeter of the territory when they could find time. Miguel also paid respects to a local girl's (one he'd saved) family, and paid a craftsman to begin making a carved bone-spear from the demon arm-bone he'd brought back from "Umbrodriith"'s tomb. Maugis sent messages to some contacts and got a cryptic response in a short letter "The Ivory Triptych has convened. Have you forsaken the flesh? - Sabursez, Tea Growers", which he figured to mean that his fellow wizards had been meeting to agree on new directions for their faith, and that they'd agreed that all members must be strict vegetarians. Apparently, "Sabursez" is code (and password?) for "Zzabur Says", his faith's sacred tome, and he figured that the Tea Growers must be a contact somewhere... (none of the rest of you know any of this!) Maugis also investigated the story of some sort of evil chuckling babe, but the baby had vanished in a windstorm and rumours led nowhere. Information on Vadeli locally proved more conclusive: they had been heading into Aria's Well when the leaders (i.e. you) were away on your travels, and infiltrating themselves into your society with their usual moneylending, bad deals, twisted cures and other faulty promises. It did not look good. It was a mess; Vadeli hands everywhere... Back in St Thosos, a mystery presented itself. Ahappi was visiting the Baron's keep for dinner and saw the (ex-)Baronet there. The Baron turned out to be in far worse spirits than Lord Shaven, exclaiming: "It's just a matter of time. The war may speed it or slow it; no one knows. But I know what I see in my dreams, and that it's the real future. The Watchers have watched and the Knowers now know, and the Inquisition will prove it all and toss us in the flames. There hasn't been enough prayer in my house and this god-forsaken land, I admit it. Perhaps we'd better start praying. Maybe that's the fucking point. Maybe there's still a chance at Solace." --More Rokari-induced nightmares, you gathered. But the Baron's consideration of turning to their faith was... disturbing. Jett, however, changed the subject as the Baron's family retired for the night. News had come from Squid Point that pirates had done a lightning raid on that nondescript ramshackle fishermans' port, and so the Captain and Baronet took a jaunt overland to investigate. You learned from one of the survivors, the good Captain Segura of the local guard and a trusted man of the Baron, that 2 ships swept in under cover of fog at night, killed several guards with swift arrow fire, burned the watchtower and looted some of the locals, burning the tiny docks too. They left no dead behind. More sleuthing turned up information that their ships' design of a black noose-and-spear on grey sails pertained to the Dripping Beards Gang, which was infamous further north/east on the Orninior Coast, not on these shores. Hmm... The Dripping Beards, you've learned, are led by twin captains Moonbaiter and Rend-Sky. They are reputed as vicious, crazed murderers; heretics (worshipping Wachaza as their god; having abandoned Malkionism!). There is a reward from the Quinpolic League offered (1000 silvers/head of captains; 75/crewman), and their numbers are estimated to be at least 50 people. Captain asked Omen to help him find their location, which was unknown at the time. The next night, the ships returned, but didn't stop long... did they drop someone off or pick up? Tracks suggested the former... Back in Aria's Well again, bandits raided a farmhouse for food and goods, and then two Giranois herders were killed, sending the Sottogh clan (which had been quiet!) into a frenzied manhunt. Bodies were strangled and left behind after being dragged a distance. Local settlers proved informative. Some tough bandit-types had been through the area, led by some brute named "Alebelly", and apparently they'd spent time in, or were still in, a dry gulch nearby. That gulch was held to be haunted and the colonists avoided it. Inspecting, you (Boamund, Maugis, Miguel) found Giranois ?warning? totems near the gully entrance, and followed the trickling stream-bed into the gully to a deep, low-ceilinged cave set in a cliff at a dead-end. There was a firepit outside and signs of recent activity, but no inhabitants (or even signs of bedrolls etc) inside. Miguel inspected the 15m cliffs around the gully, making his way through thick brush and finding some thin trails there, with good views of the cave/gully below. Boamund (and separately Maugis) went into the cave with a Glow spell and backed out after seeing some odd things, including a "shrine" at the cave's back end and charcoal doodlings with a spear-noose motif (hmm!) along with "offerings" including a bloody scrawled Law rune on a rock. You retreated, feeling an unearthly presence in the cave, and went back to the extended family of Raliosians that were the nearest colonists, and who'd given you decent hospitality. You considered returning home or going elsewhere when news came that there had been a light (a fire?) in the gully that night, and so you returned, finding that the firepit had been used again. Entering the cave, Maugis became more and more determined as the entity inside became more and more nasty in its attempts to drive him out, with whispered threats and scary visions of blood trails soon shifting to feelings of vertigo so strong that one fell to the ground, and then hurled rocks and freezing cold emanations. That did it. No petty ghost was going to unnerve a proper Malkioni wizard, Maugis decided! With some luck (-1 party luck point! Down to 2 now!) and some repeated castings of a Banish incantation, the presence was hurled from this world in a blast of foul air. Sighing with relief after that ordeal, Maugis and Boamund retreated from the cave and joined up with Miguel, plotting their next move... Meanwhile, back in St Thosos, news came to the Captain and Baronet from two visitors, one expected and one very unexpected... More about that on Friday! Cheers, John ----