Hiya,
You made preparations, helping to coordinate the recovery from the battle of New Arv, and rested, then you left for the Sottogh, having gained new directions to Jett's relocated camp. There, you found him disconsolate, haggard and uncharacteristically downbeat. “We fight day and night. Just little battles but they wear on us at least as much as the foe. We are beleaguered from both sides. The undead and demons to east; the Seshnegi to west. And now the Sottogh begin to cause trouble again too. Probably seeing an opportunity in weakness. Our ally Jzhurte has left us and I have no idea where to. We lost track of his war band and his monk prisoner. As you come here it had best be to help. We have nothing to offer you but desperation.” He updated you on things, urged you to take the fight to any foe you could to help, and said Narak was well and so was Cjed and family (Miguel's included), but there had been no word of Miguel's missing father. He ended the meeting quickly, having much on his hands. You stayed the night, seeing old friends, then moved on to the Sottogh.
Along the way you walked past a somewhat familiar farm; surely you'd gone by it before. Atypically for Dark Season, its fruit trees were still bearing fruit, and two women that Miguel recognized were out collecting that fruit, hailing you and offering their farm's simple hospitality. Miguel brought this offer back and Boamund thought it was best to decline until you returned; they were pleased with that. Miguel made small talk with the mother Indrishi (Pasosian; still-pretty, composed, strong ~50-yr-old; well-manicured despite not wealthy) and ~20yr old daughter Yeladia (much like her mother but more curious about the world). They still make a living farming; even trading with the Giranois whom they get along with fine; and hide when trouble comes their way. But sadly trouble befell the husband/father, who died fighting the Seshnegi, so the family has been struggling but coping. There was something else odd here aside from the fruiting trees (who knows, that might just be good farming or Dronari magic) but Miguel couldn't put a finger on it; they did seem genuinely nice people though, and loyal to Big Ron. You departed.
Soon you met Sottogh patrols as expected. They were tense and nervous and afraid of you but agreed to bring you to the clan grounds after some convincing. The Sottogh clan grounds looked much as always: small square huts, roofed with turf; fine dry-stone walls, muddy grounds, stakes and firepits abound, perched on edge of cliffs at Chuck-Em-Off-Point; with a fantastic view of the constant storms over the Fosnoir. There was that curious central circle of covered pits Groad had led them past before but he was nowhere to be seen now. Jabbering, filthy Giranois inside the grounds encircled you in a pincer and brought you from the patrol. “Ilk the Elder will show you Sottogh hospitality, by the grace of Granno, our saviour.” They were gruff, grubby and pushy, even forceful, for Giranois. Something was odd. They led you to Ilk's hut, where sticks with toads hung on them surrounded the entrance. The hut was the same as ever: large, dark, more like a cave than hut, with no windows, stinking of filth. The fat toadlike grimy crone waved a piece of carved driftwood clumsily, looking down into glowing coals in front of her as she pointed to four beetle-shell cups of slimy tea. “Wall-men know the ritual and respect it, they do, Ilk the Elder knows.” You knew the drill.
But Ilk, you soon realized, had a trick up her cloaked sleeve this time. Bog found the tea unappealing but with a certain spiceiness. Fraud however felt a twinge in his stomach shortly after drinking it and managed to vomit the tea out at his feet. Boamund and Miguel were not so lucky-they convulsed, wheezing in agony and helpless, onto the floor just inside the door. Ilk croaked as this happened, “And so peace has come between Sottogh and wall-men. The peace of the dead. What was buried rises again, the doom of Saint Granno, as Ilk the Elder foretold and now sees clearly in the parting mists and azure light of a rising star… What wall-men wanted is denied. We Sottogh found a better path.” She nodded to the eight Giranois huntsmen crowding at the doorway of the hut and they raised clubs with a mix of hesitation and grim aggression! Bog and Fraud faced them while the other two were picked up and slowly dragged out. Fraud's new iron sword screeched through the air and cleanly hewed off one clansman's head, sending it sailing against the wall with a sickening smack. Ilk belched out a brown cloud of vile fumes-oh no! Bog was left retching, only able to defend himself with his shield at first. But then a voice called out from behind the crowd of thugs, “Elder Ilk, this course of betrayal is a mistake, it is not Granno's way! Stop!” and the thugs hesitated, then Fraud made an impassioned plea for the fighting to stop, and it did-but Ilk had vanished in the vapours, and you discerned that she must have escaped out a crack at the back of the hut.
It was Groad the Huntsman, old ally in the Sottogh and prominent war-leader, who'd come to your aid. He spoke, explaining the situation: “Ilk the Elder should not be blamed. She is wise in the Old Ways but that brings suspicion of you wall-men. I Groad am young and have seen the future lies in peace, even though I am a warrior at heart. But I have done wrong, having brought confict to my clan. I freed your old friend Gertrude-she has fled into the wilds to hide and wait for aid. Yet it is aid we Sottogh need. Something is bad here. Wrong feelings run amongst the Sottogh; we are not what we were, even to each other. Gertrude laughed when she left but it was a riddle that I Groad cannot untangle. She said to ask the Wisdom of the Nose for aid. It means nothing, I fear. She went mad in the prison-pit; crawling with biting beetles.” Boamund and Miguel soon recovered, being given an antidote to the toad-venom by Groad. You recognized “Wisdom of the Nose” as a Mraloti magic that Narak had figured out, to find the Yellowskin curse of Vadeli. Now things made more sense-the Vadeli had enslaved Ilk, maybe for a long time now, but Ilk had influenced the clan in these dire times to turn against all outsiders again, taking that opportunity of the chaos on Giraine. Groad said the Vadeli had never come here and no one knew what Ilk did except she never was seen leaving her hut (but perhaps she could as that vapour-form?). You tried to find Ilk with Sense Life spells and searching but she was nowhere to be found. Then, after Groad made a convincing case that the Sottogh were heading into new “Sottogh-trouble”, maybe even an internal blood-feud due to Ilk's perfidy and lingering loyalty to her (as far as you know she's the only Elder) plus potential discord from your slaying of one tribesman with family (Miguel made a token offer of a knife with his blood on it but Groad was confused by this), you chose to leave.
Soon Boamund found Gertrude's tracks, heading southwest toward the frontier with the Seshnelans, so you followed those. In a while, other tracks joined them, following, and they were unsettling tracks indeed-big misshapen clawed feet, and uneven footsteps of humanoids; some shod and some not. It didn't take long for you to catch up with them, aided by Miguel's Mobility spells. The trail led into a gulley where, ahead, you saw shadowy figures-five mostly naked zombies and two big hulking spiny brutish things. Fraud's Menekeyil sword glowed. You threw spells and Miguel hit one of the big things with an arrow-it roared furiously and battle was on!
The zombies shuffled in hungrily but slowly. The two big things turned out to be undead-draconic “Bonebreaker Demons” as Taanashyara exclaimed when Boamund finally withdrew her-these were ensorcelled bodies of dragonewts created by Yomil, the Godlearner necromancer, infused with demonic energy! They galloped into melee as Boamund called on his sword's demon-slaying blessing and Bog called up his Demon-Biting too. Bog smacked one demon with his mace, causing it to stagger while the other breathed frost upon some of you but did no harm. You made short work of them with Fraud's amazing new iron sword and Taanashyara and Bog and Miguel, and started hacking into the zombies easily as they stumbled in grasping for you. But an unexpected threat descended stealthily from above: four giant, bloody-faced black hairy bats, each as big as an Uz, flapped down and attacked! They could vomit blood, wrap people in their wings or bite and drain blood, and it was the latter doom that befell Bog- one grabbed his right arm and sank its huge fangs deep into it, beginning to suck him dry but Fraud stepped in and cut its head off after dealing with his. Boamund, too, made short work of his. Miguel crippled one's wings and it was easily killed on the ground, ending the fight. You tended to Bog's wounds and planned pursuing Gertrude, hoping that no more horrors sought her - or you.
-John
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