RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Hiya,

You returned through the muddy swamps to New Arv, and Lt Heloise met you at the gates with a chilly, inquisitive welcome. Wolf Pirates had not plundered the coasts thoroughly since 1616, and had moved on to Jrustela with a Vadeli guide whom they then sacrificed to mermen, you'd heard. But now they were back, the Lieutenant said, after a circumnavigation of the lozenge. They had sailed again to Jrustela (from Laskal in Pamaltela: where Harrek won new rulership after defeating Bat People), raising part of the isle and uncovering ancient God Learner temples preserved by powerful sorcery. Word has it that the Wolf Pirates' power has grown immensely from their adventures. Perhaps some day this will be told as a “Harreksaga”?

The Lieutenant received Baron Ron's writ of passage and called for a militia man to guide you hastily to the harbour to find an outbound ship before night closed too far in. That was not hard to do with some generous coinage; you had a chartered ride to Oradaros to seek The Shadow. As the ship prepared, you finished some business. Syrr Kogag's aeropod was there again so all of you but Boamund visited him; Bog with some trepidation. Syrr Kogag was with Bradde Mukkh the Zorak Zorani acolyte/Elandran from Handra (pic now in Dropbox). Syrr Kogag and Bradde had visited “Gorakiki-Beetle-Dug-A-Nest”, paying their respects to the Gorakiki priestesses and shamans. But the Gorakiki have hidden the Sage Scarabs safely further away and Syrr Kogag has not convinced them to share more of that power.

Now the Uz are unifying on Giraine, Syrr K said. They have felt the distant power of the Swarm, and Syrr Kogag says more Uz are coming here too, quietly. Syrr K listened with intense interest to your stories of Good Troll Food and was greatly cheered, in his subtle trollish way, by them. He said that the power of Oren Fanath, the Night Dragon/Black Dragon of Cragspider in Dragon Pass, was rising and would bolster the Uz in these Hero Wars.

Bradde and Bog spoke, and soon found plenty of common ground including that of being looked down on and a resulting chip on the shoulder. Unusually, Bradde is a street thug Zorak Zorani, and reveres the demonic aspect of ZZ: the powers of darkness and fire to bring terror and wrath. He is not a front-line warrior, but an elusive enforcer for slippery, sketchy types. But he values his word; and Syrr Kogag vouched that Bog would be taken care of, since Bradde invited Bog to join him in taking on the Krarshti in the sewers of New Arv. With Captain Gulos's support, Bradde had investigated that underworld, bringing to bear his past experience in Maniria of rooting them out of the cellars of the towers of the Trader Princes. He said that he and Bog were the right size to enter some tight tunnels in the dark depths where Gulos's men could not venture, and that plenty of Krarshtkids and more lurked there. Bog accepted with excitement, especially as Bradde explained that he had already arranged a small shrine to Zorak Zoran down there.

Miguel found Zefeddi of the Friends of the Sinners Saint and heard firsthand of their close call with Ciddar and the Brown Vadeli who had left here late last year, on the “Sacrosanct” Vadeli ship; and not seen since. Then Zefeddi explained that their old friend Gertrude is being held prisoner by the Sottogh clan for some reason, and ask for help. You said you'd try when you returned, but had to leave; Zefeddi confessed he'd do this himself but the Giranois would not speak with his Bolongo tricksters, being more likely to do horrid things to them.

You departed later that night, and soon were closing in on Oradaros. Omen then popped up in the Fosnoir to greet you, bringing news that Ahappi was coming from Serpent Harbour and The Shadow was headed this way too via Oradaros, and in just a few hours if you shifted course you'd meet. How convenient! And so you did. Ahappi rode in on a great mosasaur (SIZ 29; Ahappi feel free to name it!) and The Shadow's crew warmly greeted you as you boarded, with the chartered ship's captain relieved to be rid of you. His relief was trebled when Ahappi explained what he'd come for:

“Five the harbours of men be, five injustices against the sea. Find these, condemn or make peace, then return to me. These names must become known to thee: Skaalhaft, Coldwater, Fraywrack, Hard Bay, Kennutwaki. Settle the score. But beware: others of the sea will interfere with thee. Gather your crew and heed my plea.” It was a singsong verse that bore the weight of a heroquest. Ahappi had called you to join him in this.

Some of you recognized these names as small “shithole” ports along the Orninior Coast of Pithdaros, just east of you, with Skaalhaft closest at an easy day's sailing. Boamund didn't believe a bit of it, but Ahappi knew that the founder of Skaalhaft was the legendary dragon-slaying Seshnegi hero Vaydmar Flame-Rider, whose family had built a lighthouse that even today, centuries later, was tended to maintain its unusual blue flame. Gremheks the witch was known as the tender; perhaps of Vaydmar's lineage. It was rumoured that Skaalhaft, a whaling village and sea monster-hunter's port, had amassed considerable riches in goods from those creatures including the mill's stores which were said to hold thousands of silvers worth of valuable ingrediients used in alchemical processes and rituals. The village had old roots but it recent rulers and founders of the whaling trade were said to be descendants of Wolf Pirates. Hmm.

You debated whether to sail right in or take a stealthier approach, opting for the latter. Amur brought The Shadow through the unusually icy waters and stormy weather to the coastline north of Skaalhaft, and Curly rowed the dinghy across rough surf to beach it on a black sandy beach; a ride that left your stomachs churning. You arranged a signal to get a return trip and then hiked through the volcanic badlands as night deepened. Soon you found a trail through the wind and sea-blasted twisted black rocky landscape amidst thick fog, mist and sleety rain. And you looked down from cliffs onto the low-lying harbour town of Skaalhaft, with a rough trail ahead that led in. The town was quiet, with few lights or activity, although the famed blue lighthouse's eerie glow was visible to the southwest of the village.

You crept in, continuing to adopt the guise that you came from a distant village. You entered the small cluster of peasant huts on the black gravel shores and ran into a person bearing a torch, who you hailed. They said there was no inn and you should pitch a tent where you liked; it was not a friendly greeting and they seemed to complain of “more strangers”. You set your tent near a stockade wall in the southeast corner, overlooked by some guard towers with torchlight struggling against the inclement weather. Boamund stayed, grumbling still, to guard the tent while the rest of you tried sneaking to the lighthouse, but found that it was impossible to reach without passing close to the guard towers. Soon a guard came calling you, suspicious of strangers trying to slip around town surreptitiously, and he told you to go back to your tent; that you should speak to “Svaad” in the morning. You returned, then as you talked in the tent you heard a distant roar, which seemed to come from out in the bay.

Again three of you snuck out, making way down near the harbour. A foul stench assailed Fraud as he tried approaching the water underneath the pier-it was the smell of rot and chemicals and maybe more. He turned back. You'd seen a larger building on the north side of town, probably the mill Ahappi had heard of, and 2-3 larger buildings amidst the peasant huts. Three piers hosted a bunch of moored ships, with three finer vessels in the middle pier. Ahappi tried sneaking down to the shoreline to make way to the lighthouse but vomited from the water's stench and turned away too; also seeing that the cliffs would make it impossible to get there by land except by passing through the guard towers and walls in town. You again were confronted by a guard and escorted back to the tent, and the towers lit more torches as their wariness grew.

Miguel snuck down to the harbour alone, and came to one large timber house with great double-doors flanked by what must be whale ribs, and guarded by a few men with torches. He hid and listened for a while, unable to see into the home, and heard the guards discussing their concern about all the strangers in town-first a Wolf Pirate ship arriving recently, with its crew meeting with their lord Svaad for reasons they knew not, then these odd strangers coming into town late tonight and sneaking around. But the guards were few on words together so soon Miguel returned to the tent.

Later that night as you rested and planned an approach to the lighthouse, you heard stealthy movement outside and Ahappi called out. A tremulous voice replied that it held no threat, so you invited it. A dangerously thin, pale, sweaty female figure in thick clothes under robes opened the tent flap and stood there eying you up with wild paranoia and anxiety. In stammering voice she explained, in fragments, that she was curious about you, as fellow strangers. She lived with “the Alchemist” and “the Wizard” in “the Wayhouse” but was not their comrades. It took some convincing to get her to open up but she soon sat down when Fraud noticed Darkness runes next to her eyes and revealed his Arkat pendant. Briefly, she related that she was tormented by the sudden death of her father, Captain Kraylock, whose ship had been sunk by a sudden storm near Skaalhaft, and she knew foul play was involved, so she sought justice. With growing discomfort, as you asked more about Skaalhaft she quickly leapt up, gave Fraud a look a she left, and ran off into the night.

With the mystery growing, you rested while your conviction to investigate the lighthouse grew. Before dawn, you snuck out there past the guard towers, raising no alarm as you passed, and crossed the fine stone bridge to the black craggy island of the lighthouse, which rose out of the rock as if it had grown there. It was an impressive structure with glowing blue runes of Magic, Earth and Fire; jagged and spiny in its almost organic form. No guards attended its solid timber door, so Miguel used his bronze-sculpting sorcery to major effect and the door fell apart with a series of crashes that must have been audible across the village despite the storm. You entered and saw a stone spiral staircase ascending, so Miguel led the way. Hearing a female voice croak in wonder and suspicion at what was happening, he ascended and met an ancient, hunched woman in tattered grey robes, with blue tattoos decorating all of her wrinkled skin and pulsing like blood with magic. He slipped past her; this seeming to be her residential floor where she'd just risen out of bed; and continued up toward the distant blue flame.

Ahappi charged up and tried pushing past the crone Gremheks but they ran into each other and came to a full stop, face to face. She staggered backward in great surprise, her pet crab “Marcek” scuttling around on her shoulder as she cried out loud for him to get out, that this was her tower and he trespassed. Ahappi sneered back at her in ominous tones, pronouncing his coming judgement of the sea, and she fell backwards in terror, going supine on the floor. She stammered, crying out that she would do anything to protect Skaalhaft and had done so before, and had no remorse. She confessed that she had summoned a storm to bring a ship to the bottom of the sea in her family role as protector; and she damned the sea gods for trying to interfere now. That was enough for Ahappi- it was clear that Captain Kraylock and crew had been murdered by her sorcery. Vengeance must be delivered. As Ahappi prepared to deal the death blow of justice, she raised her wizened hand toward the tower's flame above and vanished in a blast of its magic! (Wow! The first usage of a Teleport sorcery spell in my game!) Ahappi cursed loudly while she appeared before Miguel, as he approached the top floor, an observatory/study dominated by the flame, which hovered above a central opening in the floor. Miguel drew his sword and wounded her face as she tried a Shove spell to knock him down the tower. Meanwhile Boamund prepared spells including his Fire-Ring as he saw guards coming from the village; he would hold the door. Fraud ran upstairs behind Ahappi, then after Miguel just barely shook off Gremheks's attempt to Demoralize him with the Vaydmar family's name invoked, Ahappi reached the top floor to see Miguel strike her unconscious with another sword blow. So, with no hesitation, Ahappi stepped forward and dealt the final blow to Gremheks. She died and the flame began to sputter. (another Zzaburi bites the dust!)

Now guards were not far from the door and you had the challenge of what to do if this village of maybe 200 people (minus one!) turned against you?

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