RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Hey,

Amur talked with you about his history; as a young man he saw the Vadeli come ashore in Fonrit as Dormal opened the seas again (almost 40 yrs ago), then they enslaved his people until a battle at Oenriko Rock swept the Vadeli occupation away, and he was free. He joined the Dormal cult, which he worships (very oddly to you!) as a theist; Dormal the God, not Saint, and he became an acolyte. He tried voyaging the seas but it wasn't long before a storm destroyed his ship and he was adrift on wreckage. Bar'ran, already becoming a hero of Magasta, found him and they developed a curious relationship. Amur handled the mundane things and Dormal sea-opening rituals – sometimes acting more like a captain than a first mate, because Bar'ran had his head in big-picture sea-hero things and didn't care about details. Bar'ran gradually led them on greater and greater expeditions, mostly against sea monsters of lore and legend, working up to the Vomiter at Handra, which opened the way for him to enter Magasta's pool.

After Bar'ran dealt the final blow to the Vomiter, you were swept to an island, the Churner ship was destroyed, and Bar'ran released an undine to take his crew with him to an island where he had a spare ship waiting. Bar'ran made some final preparations for a big heroquest into the Pool. His spare ship was flimsy; just good enough for basic sea travel; so he sought something better. They went to Gothalos and met with pirates there– the Dripping Beards had the Shadow, but you learned later that Frel Icewind, a Wolf Pirate, thought he might buy it to add to his growing pirate group. Amur, however, bargained with the 'Beards and Frel and paid off Frel to look elsewhere, so Bar'ran obtained the Shadow. And they took it to just inside Magasta's pool on an epic voyage, stopping at a ?Mostali-run island that sits in the whirlpool, where the Shadow and crew waited while Bar'ran swam(!) into the pool's heart. He swam back transformed, gaining new death powers (one of which he invoked to stay alive briefly in duel against Ahappi!), and then began collecting souls of people he'd murder, to bind into the Shadow's hull. He was planning a second trip into the Pool. Amur was growing disillusioned with Bar'ran's spiral into immorality and cruelty– Amur reveres Magasta, but fears him too, and saw Bar'ran becoming more monster than man. So he is sort of relieved that Bar'ran is no more… and can help do the right thing, to free those ghosts out at sea.

You went to the Gothalos bar; called “Ygg's Groggs”, entering under the gloomy, cold shadow of the Gothalos-spirit. Miguel went Incognito and scouted the crowd, followed by Maugis to ensure he didn't overdo it. The others sat down at one of the bar-counters. The sprawling, wreckage-strewn bar area was the site of numerous duels; if anything goes in Gothalos, it's doubly true here; but you also felt the looming oversight of the Gothalos spirit above: it seemed to see all underneath it. People left coins for their drinks and no one dared touch those; sooner or later a cloudy tendril would sweep them away. Fraud tried to order a drink but the spirit above didn't understand him. A sea-troll that sat down next to him laughed, and Ahappi then sat down and spoke with the sea-troll. It was a less violent kind, willing to make conversation, and said it was named Xxaazziiff. While it sipped its chum-bucket and you had beers that Ahappi ordered, Ahappi told it about his slayings of Uzelu at Arvonesse. It seemed a bit cowed and talked about how it plumbed the depths around here for trinkets and treasures, then either ate them (or coins earned in sale of them), gave them back to Magasta, or traded them. It expressed mirth at how it sometimes it would dredge up cursed artifacts that would send people or ships back into the depths with them, and so it would profit doubly. There was an uneasy peace between you as you spoke. It wasn't very interested in Ahappi's entreaties to be hired as your diver to find treasures.

As that conversation moved toward a dead-end, Maugis brought an unconscious Miguel over to you. He sighed, divulging that Miguel had challenged a “keet” (penguin-man; like a duck/Durulz but from the far northeast) pirate to a drinking contest and lost badly. But the keet, Kwo Not-Maimed (ironic for his left wing that was replaced by a bronze sabre-wing), had said that it might have business to do with you. It seemed to know something about you and had been staring at Miguel before the contest. Maugis brought all of you back to the keet and you took it on, doing shots of “Dawnwater”(?) and other booze. Ahappi drank it under the table, beating it in a race to do shots, but he, Boamund and Fraud were all thoroughly drunk by the end. The keet managed to squawk the word “Icewind” to you before it smashed the glasses on the table with its sabre-wing and left, joining some other penguin-pirates elsewhere. Maugis guided you back to the Shadow to recover. You drank a lot of water, but when morning came there was bad news: the water supply had been poisoned, and most of the crew and you were ill, with one crewman dying. Miguel used a Heal spell to refresh him and Fraud, who were suffering among the worst. Amur, also shaken up, set more guards and looked into who might have done this; was it an inside job or an outsider sneaking aboard?

You felt recovered enough to cross the harbour to the Icewind ship, which Amur explained to you was run by Frel the Wolf Pirate, a curious chap who liked to add Elder Races to his crew. Along the way, the Harbourmaster chatted you up, showing a lot of interest in who you were (he'd seen the wyrm-duel with Bar'ran and had no problem with it, being within the rules of Gothalos to conduct just duels). But you didn't trust this man, with it becoming increasingly clear that you were attracting plenty of attention in Gothalos and not all of it benign. The Icewind was an enchanted vessel with a wolfs-head prow whose eyes glowed bright blue and jaws emitted frost. It was a gorgeous pirate galley, well-armed and crewed. The captain spoke with Amur and said he'd deal with you if you did him a favour, to get some thread and yarn from the market. This was a very easy task that Maugis and Miguel did with aplomb, striking an excellent deal and hauling back a windfall of goods that put Frel in an excellent mood for talk.

You came aboard and met this Loskalmi pirate; a fellow Western Malkioni who'd left his people (indeed, his knightly birth) to reave the seas as a Wolf Pirate. You also met “The Muscle”, a huge reptilian humanoid (Greater Slarge; totally new to all of you; a Pamaltelan race), which was not only a meat-mountain with an axe to match but also had remarkable skill knitting wool clothing with its little metal needles. Frel, it and some crew sported nice wool shirts and other accoutrements displaying this skill. Also, you noticed three very similar newtlings in the crew, and a stand-offish duck, amongst the more typical barbarians and outcasts. Anyway, conversation went well. You explained some of what you sought (with a bit of Ahappi self-aggrandizement mixed in; Frel showed enough respect in response). Frel immediately grasped some of what you meant and recited some verse he'd heard, which sounded very Purple Prophet-ish. He said he'd traded away a map that had led him to an odd hidden harbour on the southwest corner of the island, and that map had a poem written on it in purple ink. He'd gone there to trade with a mysterious person named “Kim” (you're now recollecting this, as you recover from poisoning, as the name of the “Strangers'” leader, AKA Kruushla; apparently an ogre). There was a temple-like ruin there with golden light coming from it, and plenty of other odd things. This was good information so you parted amicably and went to the town's shop, where Frel was pretty sure his map would still be.

The shop was a cave set into a little hillside. Rickety shelves held all manner of junk and artifacts, most of it Godlearner/Jrusteli. Each had Tradetalk notes explaining what might be their properties and history/origin. Three of you found interesting curios that might be useful, but Boamund immediately spotted a gold-inlaid scroll case with the map inside. The note sitting next to the map said “Treasure map of uncertain authenticity. Scrawlings in rootless iron-sucker ink do not match any documentation. Partake at own risk.”

And the purple ink added onto the map wrote: “Slurry of uncouth light drips on the shore Pillars of black and gold to east and west Do you hear the verse louder than before? It laughs from deep in the hidden bay's mouth Never a dawn, never a dusk, only barren day and night Only a smile, only a frown; faith and caring died of fright.”

Maugis had translated this Tradetalk and was unsettled by it; but composed enough not to read it out loud. While you looked around and failed to communicate with the filthy little Mostali shopkeeper, Fraud copied the map as best he could. Eventually you figured out that the shopkeeper only traded, and only communicated in writing (Tradetalk). You thought of nothing you had to trade for the map, so you headed back to the Shadow to look for good candidates. Ahappi explained that this Mostali was surely seeking to repair the World Machine by collecting junk that could gradually be reassembled or otherwise help fix that machine if used right, so trades must be of interest to a mechanically-minded appraiser like him. Coins and other valuables wouldn't cut it.

By now all of you have earned a chance to learn [spoken] Tradetalk (from past experience, being around Maugis, travelling, and this trip): w/Improvement rolls, roll INTx5% to gain it (Language: Tradetalk) at INT+CHA% (=base). Maugis doesn't have it on his sheet but knows it at 60%, and Literacy: Tradetalk at 50%. He should also have Literacy: Seshnegi at 60%. In my Glorantha, Tradetalk is easy to learn and use but very limited in its versatility. It caps all but bargaining-related skills at 1/2 of Tradetalk skill (not 100% of skill as for bargaining); so Influence (unless used in bargaining), Oratory, Intimidate etc are capped thusly.

© Copyright - 2000-2024 - John Hutchinson, Tim Evans, Pete Nash, Colin Driver and Gordon Alford