RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

The strange flying ship drifted in over the reefs, drawing a crowd as night approached. The ship seemed to drag shadows with it, or at least the interior was more shady than one might expect. But you could soon see bulky trollish figures inside; enough of them to make the more anxious members of the populace quite nervous. And something in there was not even humanoid!

But they came, carried by the wind and by wheezing gusts that air-sacs on the vessel, which was part ship, part arthropod, part leathery sac, part jellyfish and maybe something else, propelled and held itself aloft with. It was one of the strangest sights you'd ever seen, defying logic for how it moved so gracefully and yet eerily, as if it was a conscious organism.

The thing, which Riftoyz the troll explained was called The Aeropod, soon hovered over the harbour (inspecting The Shadow?) and then just ashore, and after an uncomfortable pause (perhaps they were inspecting you as much as you them?), the passengers of the Aeropod threw down a chitinous “rope ladder” made of insectoid parts and lead weights. And after another pause, the first Uz showed itself. Showed a bit too much for the comfort of some! It wore thin silky robes that clung to its obese figure, and wore a beetle's head as a helmet, making it all the more alien to gaze upon (and be gazed upon by!). It carried little else.

One by one, six of these feminine trollish figures clambered down the ladder, as Riftoyz welcomed them and Boamund tried his best to do so as well. But the Uz “ladies” did not seem inclined to have conversation as they arrived in your land. They looked around, they wheedled in their strange Darktongue to each other and a bit to Riftoyz, but they mostly just stood around below the Aeropod in uncomfortable silence, as the onlooking public grew more nervous.

Then there was a disturbance as a ghastly thing slithered down the ladder after them: a huge purplish centipede, about a SIZ of 40 and with fierce jaws as big as your arms! (Captain Ahappi speculated to you that this was the spirit ally of the theist trolls) Some peasants ran for their homes at this point. It was too bad that Maugis had chosen to stay indoors and chat the night away with fellow intellectual Lars Windchare, as he might have comforted them. Then the next figure gracefully climbed down: a huge Uz, with hardly a loincloth to cover her shame, and more scandalous lumps on her bare, grey-skinned body than any pious Malkioni would dare to count. She did not wear the beetle helm of her acolytes of Gorakiki (as Riftoyz soon explained them to be), but had the fierce tusked jaws of a proud ruler Uzko (dark troll), and bore runic tattoos confirming her magical power.

This troll was soon introduced to be the priestess Hishoomka, your deliverer from the curse of the Never-Grow-Up grubs. Like the others, she was not one for socializing much. She exchanged a few curt words with Boamund (with Riftoyz translating the Darktongue), then Riftoyz explained that the trolls wanted to retire to their new lands (on the eastern side of your swamps; a spot Boamund had confirmed was OK for them to settle on before), and so he led them off there. By now, some of the onlookers had calmed down, lost interest, or fled in terror from the site, leaving you to look up at the quiet Aeropod and wonder who was left on board, as there seemed to be another figure there.

Riftoyz returned and soon made it clear that he wanted to do some drinking with the “hoomanz”. Boamund didn't take much cajoling to open up the Shaven family's little wine cellar, and soon you were guzzling those stocks of fine bottles. Riftoyz lived up to your expectations, showing a trollish stomach for booze and little effects of his consumption, but you held your own too – except for Boamund the teetotaller. After some chiding, Riftoyz pulled out a little bottle of “Skullsmasher” from the depths of his armoured cuirass and insisted that it was not alcohol, rather a trollish drink, and that Boamund thus had no excuse not to partake of the little beverage.

Riftoyz then turned to the Captain and Fraud Shaven (Miguel was stopping in now and then out of curiosity too) and began making some friendly bets about what would happen to Boamund when he drank this stuff, as troll drinks were legendarily supposed to have odd effects on hoomanz. It turned out that Boamund's tingling head started growing hair and would not stop! Soon the little basement drinking-room was filled with hair and you had to vacate it while servants trimmed Boamund's hair and Miguel and others carried away baskets of hair to put to good usage in stuffing pillows, weaving ropes or other things.

Your troll guest called for your finest local food and Ahappi sent Curly the sailor to go catch something from the reefs. With great fortune, Curly's net snared a rare, delicious Naked Crab, which you devoured with relish, and with the result of an impressed Riftoyz calling Curly an “Uz-Friend” for life. The way to a troll's heart is through their stomach, indeed!

Riftoyz suggested that what might stop Boamund's rampant hair growth would be another troll drink, and he happened to have a last one: the abdomen of some insect serving as a bottle for a dose of “Powzie”, which Riftoyz was pretty sure acted strongly on the heads of hoomanz and this might do the trick. There were several bets about bizarre possible side effects but no one expected one of them to come completely true! The Captain speculated that Boamund would get aroused and fall over, and not wake for two days, and indeed this happened! Cyroosta Shaven appeared to drag Boamund off to get some peace after it was clear he could not be awakened. Riftoyz expressed suspicion that Ahappi knew too much about the effects of troll drinks and said he'd be investigating this depth of knowledge, but there was a twinkle in his gruff trollish eyes that hinted he was bluffing anger.

Regardless, Riftoyz insisted that the party move above ground and invite the rest of the hoomanz to join in, and so you did- the community cut loose a bit, needing some way to vent all their feelings about things that had been happening lately and “let their hair down”, and later in the night the troll cultists came to visit, wandering around the town and even listening to some of the songs that were played (it was clear that trolls had an appreciation not only for food and drink, but also music- in an almost obsessive way).

The Uz still didn't show much interest in chit-chat and did not stick around the party long, but their arrival shook things up and provoked some new interest in your strange visitors and their motives and future actions… how long would they be staying and what would their presence do to your community? How many of their babies would they steal in the night and devour? What insectoid demons would they conjure to walk amongst you, what would their relation be with the town and spirits of Toadhaven, or the spiders, or Baron Ron and other islanders? Your leaders tried to talk sense about all this, but a strong undercurrent of suspicion ran through all the castes. Would the cure of the Never-Grow-Ups be worse than the disease?

Later on, Hishoomka came to you and spoke about what was to happen to enact this cure. (In the meantime, Fraud Shaven disappeared with Riftoyz– eventually you'd find out that he boarded the Aeropod and spoke with the whispery, shadowy Syrr Kogag, the troll hero who piloted it. This Uz has Black Arkati/Arkat Kingtroll ties with Shaven, Riftoyz and others- and interests in the Night Dragon's powers here on Giraine, among other things! But at present no one except Fraud Shaven knows this, or even the troll's name or Malkioni faith!)

You and the Uz were about to do a ceremonial heroquest together in Aria's Well, in 2 nights. The steps are going to be:

1) Hishoomka and her Uz must sing a song to call back the Sage Scarabs, and a hooman from the community must take part and sing along in Darktongue-and sing well! Who will it be? 2) Three hoomanz must find Never-Grow-Ups and bring them unharmed to the singers. Probably Perceptions rolls and stuff. Who's gonna do it? 3) The singers call forth the Never-Grow-Up curse, which will manifest as an evil chaos spirit that must be defeated by a champion- they welcome suggestions (Maugis, I think, was one?) 4) Spirit defeated, the song calls back the Sage Scarabs, which sprout from the three never-grow-ups' cocoons, and then (JUST BEFORE DAWN) must be told three secrets from the community that they will guard as knowledge hidden in the dark. (Right approach: secrets come from local peasants, knights and wizards) 5) END-SUCCESS!?? The seven Gorakiki will remain behind to tend the Sage Scarabs, as they are holy to them. None must harm or disturb these quiet, simple beetles, but in return they may impart knowledge by singing to Hishoomka, and so the community will benefit from that local lore. You, in turn, must protect the Uz and scarabs. -If any step fails, you have to try again but it will keep getting harder, and worse…

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