RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

You stepped, blinking, through the old gates of what turned out to be a gold mine, and soon found that you were on the pirate island of Alatan, not too far from Handra. The mine was in a secluded area on the northern coast, with a grove of scraggly trees nearby that held wooden cages (eerily reminiscent of the one a dead soul had been found in by the Captain on the quest), three of which held living people. Those people turned out to be Miguel Silvestre and his sister (looks 10 yrs old; catatonic) and old, crippled father; Miguel is a hunter from far-off Tanisor in Seshnela, near the elven Tarinwood. He told his tale of how he'd taken a fishing boat to Giraine but had been waylaid by slavers while crossing the Fosnoir, and brought here to serve some brutal weeks mining gold and picking Golden Poppy flowers with his family and other captives. The slavers turned out to be led by the Brown Vadeli named Zridge the Tart, a hunchbacked, brutal oaf that you'd seen in the company of villainous usurer Skrimton Nodeal back on Giraine…

Maugis and Miguel's family got on well, and you agreed to take them along with you. You also found his and other gear (a box of tempting chocolatls was quickly dispensed with) in an abandoned trunk at the site, amidst the remains of slaughtered thugs (the angel had wrought some Malkioni judgement on them before you arrived), and found a rope that the Captain scaled the steep hill with and used to help get the rest of you on top of the ridge that led to the Red Vadeli's old ruin on the northwestern end of the island; thankfully bypassing the terrible jungle. At the ruined fort you found little activity except for a faceless skinned rat-thing that assaulted the Baronet when he climbed over the wall; it was soon put down after dealing some wounds to the poor Baronet, thanks to you bashing the gates open so that others could reach it. Drenched in its slippery blood, you explored the rest of the area but found it abandoned- as rumours from Handran traders had suggested, the Vadeli led by the evil Erythagulos the Defacer had moved on. Miguel had heard this name whispered fearfully by the thugs and Vadeli, so a connection was now clear… Some of you began wondering- with a goldmine leading into the Underworld here (“gates of dawn”), and an entrance/exit to the west on Giraine (“gates of dusk”), was there more of a connection between Alatan and Giraine than you'd like there to be?

Fortunately though, you lit a fire and hailed a passing merchant vessel that had been caught in odd currents (Captain Ahappi's prayer to Magasta was answered?), and it turned out to be friendly. It was the Cheerstorm, captained by Yin'yarla, a jolly shaven-headed Handran lady with a stroke of the trickster in her, and impressive juggler/acrobat skills. She welcomed you on board while Ciddar chummed it up with the tedious first mate Riccard. The Baronet soon met an old “friend,” the Cyclops called The Accountant, although was this in real life or just dreams? He also had dreams of eating snake-hearts and other snakey things, including recollections of his brutal assassination of the Kralorelan sorcerer Mister Home not long ago… the quest as King Froalar had brought him closer to serpentine matters than he'd like, and memories of a First Age snake-tomb on Giraine began to haunt him too.

Yin'yarla, like Miguel, was headed in the direction of Giraine for ambiguous reasons but clearly fleeing something, and she got you there safely and became friends with some of you. And so, late in Sea Season (your quest had taken about 2 weeks, and the voyage another 2), the Cheerstorm brought you back to safe harbour in St Thosos, hurrah! Miguel and his family, now mostly recovered from their deprivations with the slavers, thanked you graciously and said they'd visit the Shaven's lands soon, but first they sought a healer in town to treat the young sister's anguish, and then a meeting with Big Ron, which you sought more urgently now that you'd returned victorious from your quest.—-

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