RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Good morning,

Ahappi traced the undead menace back toward its source, following increasingly dense streams of undead fish. You clung onto his mosasaur and it swam out there; poor Miguel got buffeted by the waves and left dazed and weakened on arrival. Below you, there was a submerged ruin with features matching Shurasal's description from her dreams: a central pedestal of rock surrounded by a yawning black abyssal trench, a crescent of rune-carved stone tablets behind it, and a piercing ruby-red giant Eye glowing in the centre of a ring of bone-white pillars. There were ruins to either side of the trench, too: the bottom half of a stone tower to the west, with a crumbling stone hall behind it, and then a great cracked old temple to the east, whose ceiling was long gone, leaving a huge deep-black Hunger/Undeath rune visible on its floor. Three finned limestone-greenish statues with grimacing fanged maws faced in toward the Eye from various points. There were thickets of eerily wavering tattered seagrasses, hydrothermal vents sputtering black smoke, and brightly glittering colonies of giant corals in uncouth forms. All buildings were of the same aquamarine smooth marbled stone; very strong and old.

Approaching, Ahappi felt the enemy mind try to force its way in but this time he mastered it, and calmly listened: “You with the hero light inside- I still see you. Captain Ahappi Pellinoresbane, they have called you. But you change. You are leaving all that behind. Soon enough no one else will know what to call you. But I can know. You bear a grim darkness inside; one that I too can access. A ruthless violence; a thirst to shed blood. Turn your path to me and feel the ecstacy flow-by my side you can gain more power than via the Other Side.” Scoffing, he led you down into the depths.

As you approached the stone tablets, the enemy revealed itself. A skeletal warrior (in fish-like Waertagi armour of corroded pieces of aluminium) with a long spear came out of the tower and paused at the edge of the abyss. A dark thing slipped out of the abyss nearby and coalesced into a humanoid form, also in Waertagi-styled armour but far more intact and elaborate, with great dark crests. It held an old aluminium scimitar in one hand and a strange blade-flanged lead mace (later recognized by some as a vampires' “swordbiter” defensive weapon), and its eyes blazed red like the central Eye. Shadows beckoned to its call and surrounded it, flitting with defensive magicks. Miguel had descended to the tablets and soon faced a rotting spiritual raven-thing that the dark-creature unleashed. He battled it in spirit combat for several rounds, maintaining the upper hand, until finally wearing it down and dismissing it.

Ahappi piloted the mosasaur in a charge at the dark-thing and pierced its helmet with a powerful harpoon-thrust, wounding it despite its robust swordbiter-parry. It cast a Fear spell at Boamund as you closed but he shrugged it off. Ahappi then circled back and he, Boamund and Fraud dropped down onto the main “island”. The skeleton swam over and faced Boamund, at first held off by his shield's power but then seeming to have that power dismissed inside the circle of pillars, so it impaled Boamund nastily and left him hardly able to act, except to use the shield's power again to keep it at bay. Meanwhile, Ahappi and Fraud faced the terror in melee.

Fraud alone had recognised it for what it was-an ancient vampire Waertagi, and quite unusually a marine variety. Its skills were beyond any you'd experienced before (e.g. 223% combat style!). Most magics cast at it absorbed into its aura and strengthened it, as it drank of their power. Ahappi was injured and Fraud too, but the two heroes kept the vampire, who said her name was Varmanda, occupied defending itself as they stabbed at its head, continuing to deal wicked blows, wearing it down. Varmanda wounded Ahappi and caused him to begin bleeding, which severely weakened him. Ahappi tried a Mindblast but it absorbed that. You were running out of options and soon it would take down Ahappi or Fraud. But Boamund threw a desperate spell: his recently gained Harmonise magic. This overcame its defences and left it nigh-helpless, turning aside from its opponents and not attacking. But Boamund thus could do little, either, against the skeleton, so it was a difficult quandary!

Varmanda, too, was in a tough spot. Feeling herself weaken, and unable to move voluntarily, she tried one of the rune-magics she had drained from a victim: a Harmonise spell, which she hoped might break Boamund's hold on her. She had never used this magic before and trusted that her proficiency at mental control would easily overcome his. This was Varmanda's folly-her arrogant confidence was misplaced, and she was left locked in mutual harmonisation with Boamund, both frozen in place. Quickly then, Ahappi and Fraud hit her in the head and Ahappi's final thrust split her skull like a sponge. This centuries-old vampire fell at last.

Boamund was still in a challenging situation, unable to remove the spear without risking his own death, but soon Fraud came and slowly withdrew it safely while Boamund used the shield to keep the skeleton across the abyss. Ahappi took the vampire's scimitar and hacked of the ruins of its head. Miguel healed him and soon you faced the skeleton and Fraud easily shattered it to pieces. Victorious, you surveyed the scene. The stone tablets bore Darktongue inscriptions invoking the power of Vivamort to enchant this place by His power of the Left Eye of Vivamort-ahh, so that was the terrible thing in the centre of the pillars! A piece of the unliving hungry god Himself! Ahappi tried thrusting his harpoon into the Eye but this destroyed the weapon; it turned black and vanished into the Eye's gaping magical void. He threw the swordbiter-mace in and the remnants of the vampire and the Eye issued the same horrible howl as it consumed them; but the Eye remained. You uprooted the tablets and tossed them into the abyss, then you explored the tower and hall across the abyss-these were simple ruins with nothing of interest; just some bones and bits of weapons in the southwestern hall, which might have been haunted by undead minions sometimes but was empty of them now. One by one, you found you could push the grimacing stone statues into the abyss (twice with Ahappi's brutally effective strength!), shattering them as they bounced off the walls and then vanished into the endless Fosnoir.

Entering the temple to the east, you saw a stone basin where blood floated in the water over it; Miguel's Cleanse spell washed that away and Ahappi called water to further clean it. But the place remained cold and unpleasant; Vivamort's power remained; if weakened. You then slowly realised that it absorbed all your magics, and everyone but Ahappi was suddenly gasping for breath! The mosasaur was called back and took everyone else up to safety while Ahappi explored. He called the power of Magasta to wash the place clean and current swept in, carrying him to the west by the abyss. There, he saw what you'd previously overlooked: two cave-holes in the submarine ground, one larger than the other. He swam in and found that their tunnels converged at a tight squeeze-spot, which he barely got through, but just as he did he found himself wrapped up in the hell-blackness of a freezing umbroli shade! It wounded him and he stabbed it repeatedly with the scimitar until it hissed away back into the Underworld. Beyond the squeeze the tunnel opened into a spherical chamber where a coral-encrusted old coffin floated. Aha! This was the vampire's lair, as he'd hoped. He cleaned the coral off and opened the coffin, finding a great array of riches in coins and jewels, and also a crystal vial with a single drop of crimson blood-like fluid in it, and a strange bronze fish-sculpture. He took these and smashed the coffin to pieces.

Summoning water to cleanse the vial, he opened it and the drop washed out into the water around him, turning it a slight pink. He felt a sudden flush of calmness and caught a flash of a vision from the Godtime: in a great green forest on land, a handsome youth in white robes walked serenely down a path. But then out of the shadows of the forest came a dark robed figure, and it leapt onto the youth and bit his neck furiously, its eyes glowing red. As the youth fell and the scene darkened, Ahappi realised with shock what he'd seen, and what it was he'd released: it was a drop of the wounded/dead god Arroin, the son of healing goddess Chalana Arroy and god of youth/innocence/life. It was a treasure beyond reckoning, but now gone (Ahappi was instantly fully healed, and also he is immune to disease for a week and naturally heals any wounds at 1 HP/hour for that week).

Ahappi again called on Magasta's power, telling the sea-lord that the evil had been defeated and his quest succeeded; asking for cleansing waves to come. Powerful waves heeded his call and swept in, smashing down the last of the ruins. Soon the Eye made a final, immense howl and vanished, blasting the area with its hungry power, but Ahappi held firm. Holding the treasures close, he swam to the surface and told you of his victory.

Varmanda's and the Left Eye of Vivamort's hold on Fraywrack was broken! Now you were ready to return.

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