RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Miguel led you through the desolate frontier swamps back northeast toward the Sottogh. Soon he saw a glow through the trees near the swamp's edge, and on investigating saw a patrol of Seshnelans: a Paragon leading seven soldier-scouts (all mounted) and a Zzaburi flying overhead on a pillar of golden light. Miguel informed you, watching them and taking cover, but the Zzaburi (Captain Bertramn Farsight, a longtime foe of the party and Giraine in general) spotted him and shouted for the party to be taken. The Paragon charged in as magics blazed, and the Horali followed. Bog hid, as did Gertrude and the others. Fraud cast Darkstrike on one soldier's horse and it lagged back, with the rider dismounting.

Bog hit the Paragon's horse with a Fear spell and it fell unconscious, with the Paragon leaping free but he had to take time to order his men around as they rushed in, trying to avoid his fallen horse. Boamund and Fraud were double-teamed by soldiers and then the Zzaburi cast bolts of Burning True Light upon Miguel, Boamund and Fraud; you all evaded but Fraud went prone in the midst of the melee. Bog cast Darkness onto the fray and the soldiers. Miguel loaded an arrow then was hit again by the Zzaburi and horribly burned in the head, knocking him senseless. Soon Boamund was facing the Paragon, whom he tripped and then soon slew. Fraud fought his Horali, aided by Bog, with Darkness cancelled by the Zzaburi's Light spell, and one soldier beginning to put Miguel onto his horse as a prisoner. Gertrude saw this happening and came out of hiding, Befuddling that soldier and then threw Hotfoot on a Firearrow-archer who'd been shooting at Miguel before and tried hitting Boamund but instead struck the Paragon (harmlessly). The melee went back and forth, and the Zzaburi tried transferring one leg-wound of a fallen Horali to Fraud without success, but soon you cut down five of the Horali leaving the archer Befuddled by Gertrude, so you captured that one and the other as the Zzaburi flew off, promising vengeance as you threw taunts back. It had been a bitter, messy fight. Gertrude healed Miguel enough that he rose again, and as he became aware he was infused with a new hatred of his special enemy Bertramn Farsight…

You took your captives with you, camping in the wilds and then continuing the next day, in the afternoon approaching the Sottogh clan grounds where you could hear angry shouts from within the low drystone walls. Groad ran to you with a small patrol and spoke with Boamund: “You return to the trouble I Groad spoke of. Elder Ilk has returned and called on her loyal family to join her in casting me out with my family. We mostly just threaten now but that will end soon. None have died but more blood has been spilled, by the ire of Tanosh. It will be a Sottogh blood-feud, something I Groad never thought to see. Is it help with this Wisdom of the Nose you bring?” You explained what had happened, and that Narak indeed could help Ilk and Tusynta was near. “I Groad do not understand much of this, it is elder-business. But I know when the right help comes, and when to act. If you confront Elder Ilk and capture her with no harm to her, I Groad can lead those still with me to hold back her side of the Sottogh. She has help though. Monsters came back with her-twin foul things that are like earth-serpents, and two bloodthirsty demons with big axes. But I Groad think you can handle them. If you run for Ilk's hut and deal with them, my family and warband can face the others.”

You prepared quickly with magics. Groad led his patrol into grounds, Gertrude at his side, and a pitched battle began. Groad's warband called out croaking cries as they approached, echoed by others within the clan grounds. Pale, eerie Giranois magics flared up everywhere. Wolf toads were unleashed. Spears, arrows, axes, clubs and knives flew and soon clanged on each other. The Giranois of Sottogh set upon each other in a ferocious struggle, and with haste their forces were unrecognizably enmeshed. While small in scale compared with the siege of New Arvonesse, it was disturbing to behold the Sottogh at war. You saw your opening, with Ilk's hut some distance across the broken ground.

You rushed to Ilk's hut under fire from Giranois spears as some of Ilk's allies saw you coming. All of you avoided them, and all but Bog sprinted forwards to avoid more, while Bog slowed to parry one more. You reached near the hut. A blast of stinking air burst from the mouth of the hut, and Fraud and Miguel were left helpless vomiting. So Bog ran forward with Boamund, facing four foes that Groad had warned of. The earth in front of the hut churned and out squirmed two ropy elongate things that vaguely resembled snakes, but also intestines, with parasitic worms wriggling in their stinking bodies (Brown Vadeli “nightsoil-snakes”, you later figured). At the same time, out of the hut came two pallid-skinned humanoids splattered with blood, hefting old stained Seshnelan halberds (Boamund's sword would call them Redcaps; undead demonic servants of sorcerors, especially Red Vadeli!). Battle was on!

And a brutal, horrible battle it was. Bog faced one of the snakes, with the other still in its burrow out of range at first, and with a few blows he crushed its head in and faced the other, who had party emerged so it could strike him. It did, biting into his abdomen and beginning to chew its way into his bowels. He fought as best he could. Meanwhile, Boamund was alone against the two Redcaps, who were skilled in both war and Red Vadeli blood-magics, and protected by massive Damage Resistance spells. He managed to almost behead the first one but its undead nature kept it fighting, while the other tried a Boiling Blood spell repeatedly on Boamund but failed to affect him. Boamund however took a nasty wound and then Fraud, having recovered from the spell, came in to help. But he was tripped by the Redcap and it slashed his abdomen armour open, and soon his right leg too, giving him near-crippling wounds. Miguel recovered and came in to help, distracting the Recap although he could not harm it. Boamund's demon-killing sword won the day, at last, against his foe, beheading it, and you saved Bog and Fraud soon after as your numbers overwhelmed them, with Bog worrying at one Redcap's chest using his Demon-Biting magics. But it was close, and costly. (party luck pts went down to 0!) Miguel healed numerous wounds.

Bog rushed into the hut after Fraud tried to and was stopped as a Choking Cloud of noxious gas left him helpless vomiting. There, Bog saw Ilk squatting at her fire as usual, and he leapt onto her mercilessly, swinging his magicked mace. She weakly held up her right arm to block the blow and so it was broken, and she fell insensate. Bog stuffed her mouth with slugs from a jar and carried her out of the hut as the rest of you came to help, and called out to draw attention. The battle waned as Ilk's capture became realized, then it abruptly halted as Groad called out, “The Thralls of Granno, they come as Sottogh-friends! Like I Groad say, Elder Ilk has fallen under the spell of the evil sons and daughters of Doyang Likite! They have an earth-witch who knows how to free our Elder Ilk from that ensorcelment. Let us stop this kinstrife and let the earth-witch do her magicks.” The Sottogh listened, muttering suspiciously, and gathered around arguing. Some were furious that Bog had wounded their Elder. Fraud tried speaking on his behalf, choking back vomit, but his words fell on deaf ears and tension mounted; Groad tried to calm the divided crowd.

Just then, the earth quivered and swirled in a patch near the hut. The familiar face of Tusynta the Mud Hag formed there. “Yeeeees, my lovelies. I have returned home to my sweet Sottogh earth. Long have I been away in distant lands, but I am free from bondage to a wicked master thanks to the aid of those Groad speaks of. Bring that earth-witch of theirs forward. She knows what she does.” With awe-filled faces, even some wide toothy grins, the Sottogh loosened their guard and stopped arguing to watch.

You spoke with the Giranois now that the situation calmed, and they tended to Ilk's wounds. You called Narak in to help. She and Glut shuffled and snuffled into the clan grounds. Narak drew a square in the earth around Ilk. She chanted in her strange Manirian backwoods-dialect and gesticulated while the great pig Glut stared and grunts in tandem at motionless Ilk. Tusynta joyfully chanted along with Narak. Narak's chanting evoked a strange yellow mist to seep from Ilk's body, especially her belly; it may have been merciful that she was not awake yet to feel this torment. The terrible stench of the mist could be smelled all around the Sottogh grounds but you held your breath. Narak gestured at the yellow mist, commanding it to be swallowed by the true earth, and it descended at her beckoning, vanishing into the ground. Tusynta laughed. “Heh. Elder Ilk will live. But I have foretold, the Sottogh earth holds the true elder. Dig within her hut and you will find what the Sottogh had lost.”

Miguel went to help the Giranois dig inside Ilk's hut, excavating under her fire-pit. The dark soil was pushed away to reveal the prone body of a tall, very gaunt, long-white-bearded Giranois buried in the dirt, still holding a staff made of some gnarled red material like horn. The figure stirred and Groad called for everyone to leave the hut. The bearded figure, walking stiffly out of the hut and brushing off dirt with smiling Groad's aid, stood tall and waved his staff to the crowd of Sottogh, speaking slowly: “I Elder Starg have slumbered long in the grip of an enchantment, dreaming of this day when my eyes might gaze again upon our people, our cliff and the black seas below. We are one again. This feuding ends. Elder Ilk will rejoin me, but we are too young to lead the clan into this new Age of Hero Wars. We need the wisdom of another, older elder, for I am not the eldest. Come, it is time to meet the Elder Head of Sottogh.” Everyone followed, even Tusynta, except for a small group waiting with the recovering Elder Ilk; Narak and Glut nearby.

Elder Starg brought the crowd to a nearby ridge on the cliffside, just north of the settlement, with a grove of old twisted trees concealing a deep hole from outside view. The trees' roots descended into the dark, muddy, rocky depths. The Sottogh had rigged a rickety wooden lift leading down into the swampy hole; displaying remarkable engineering compared with what you'd seen before. Groad welcomed you to go down with him and Elder Starg, with Gertrude too, saying “This place has been forbidden to us by Elder Ilk for years. I have never been inside; let us see together.”

There, Elder Starg waited while a few others came down and Tusynta formed in the mud at the bottom. Starg escorted the group down a flooded tunnel, knee-deep in stagnant water, to a deep shadowed cave with a central pool and rune-carved stone plinth where a huge rune-carved head sat. Starg spoke (lots of dramatic monologuing here!): “Thralls of Granno, people of Sottogh, it pleases me to introduce us again to the Elder Head of Sottogh. Our clan ancestor has slept for many years awaiting this time. Kneel before the Head of Sottogh in respect, and it shall speak unto us.” Everyone did. Gertrude, grinning broadly, nudged Fraud and whispered how she'd been proven right; the Sottogh were great indeed!

The huge grimacing head gazed around the cave with blazing orange eyes and intoned, “I Sottogh speak of the rise of the Giranois, as Granno saw. He fell, so we could rise. I Sottogh saw it happen here, at Chuck Em Off Point, where Yomil fell at last and Granno followed. We rise now in peace amongst ourselves. We end now all bloodfeuds in the land of Granno. We rise now united by the Thralls of Granno who come from afar to throw off the yokes of enemy oppression and let us rise. We now thank them. We now thank them first by going to war with the evil sorcerors from the land of the evil king who would envenom us with the oppression of the serpent-crown. No crown will rule the Head of Sottogh. We serve a higher power. I Sottogh call upon Tanosh, Ever-Youthful Lord of the Red River, to bless us in war, to return his power to the Sottogh to murder our foes and drench the land in a red river of their blood so that our beasts can graze upon its fertile bounty again. Tanosh's mighty magic will hurl the evil sorcerors off the cliffs into the Fosnoir. I Sottogh call for the rise of the Pontiff of Granno, the return of the eldest Elder and sorb of Granno, to lead all the clans together back to Granno's path. Pontiff, do you hear my call?”

Its words echoed within the cave then an awe-filled silence came as everyone's skin prickles and shivers with magical, spiritual energy. A spectral form of a cloaked figure holding a staff like a shepherd's crook appeared floating beside the Elder Head of Sottogh, its own head that of a fishy-snaky frog-like creature. It gestured placidly to the watching crowd with one elegant hand and spoke…

“The Pontiff of Granno hears you. We Giranois are blessed by Granno as guardians to the gates of Hell, as Arkat appointed Him to do. Many have fallen in that service and more shall now that war is upon us. But do not lose hope, children of Sottogh. We can be strong again and aid our allies to win victory. The Thralls of Granno were called by the power of our ancestors, to take up the weapons of their enemies and bear those burdens so that we need not. They have known suffering and that is good, it brings them closer to our way of Saint Granno. Into Hell they have journeyed and met the spirit of Granno, which has since infused our land and people with new purpose and power. And now I come as our Pontiff of Granno, to speak of two final journeys that lay before the Thralls of Granno. One lies within Yomilstor the home of the High Necromancer Yomil; “the Psychetheca Everlasting”; where the Prisonne of ye Traitore, binding of Gratt , must be sought and the question asked of who the Stranger is. That will reveal the final journey. Storm Season approaches and the brave deed must be done before its close, or the war may fail. This is how I, Pontiff of Granno, know it to be. It will entail suffering, and that is good. We children of Granno will suffer too, and willingly so in this alliance against evil sorcerors, necromancers and all that serve them. Whether they come from land or sea, west or east, we will fight them all with the power of Granno and the Old Gods. Tanosh will hurl them, Deep Mother will eat them, Loidar will burn them, and together we will win.”

You gritted your teeth in hearing that the Library needs another visit! The Gratt-that was the ancient, almost extinct clan of warleader Shrett, who'd helped you at the Maggotweald before. Now you see a connection. Maybe he can help again? Finally the Sottogh turned to you all and gave thanks and respect. It was a good feeling, after all these years, to at last be seen as friends of these often wretched, thuggish Giranois.

Groad, Gertrude, Starg, Sottogh, Tusynta, Pontiff, etc: could now chat with you. You learned some more things: <UL><LI>Gertrude is welcomed back as a Sottogh and will remain. Maybe one day she will be an Elder, but Starg and Groad declare her to be the Saviour that their clan has awaited, and look to her for special aid in the coming challenges. She laughs it off.</LI><LI>“Doyang Likite” was mentioned, and Starg explains that is the ancestor of the Brown Vadeli. His feminine relatives include Britha (mother and father), Seshna (aunt), and the mysterious Kalaeda… the Brown Vadeli have ancient Earth-ties, explaining their bowel-obsession.</LI><LI>The Nightsoil-snakes are servants of the Brown Vadeli, but the Redcaps can only be called by the Red, and somehow Ilk became allied with them all. Her Yellowskin goes back years, before you arrived, to when the colonists first came and the Vadeli with them. It wasn't long before Skrimton came this way but the infection never was suspected, and Ilk worked quickly to enchant Starg and take control of the clan, using her new Vadeli magics to escape the grounds sometimes to meet with her masters wherever they did meet. Narak and Glut search the grounds and smell no more Yellowskin.</LI><LI>Sottogh explains the power of Yellowskin is known to the Giranois, who have always counted the Vadeli as foes. Indeed, Tanosh and the Vadeli are special enemies, as Tanosh's powers over blood/Death conflict with those of the Red, and his Air rune affinity opposes the Browns' gases. Sottogh used these powers to keep Ilk and other enemies away while he slept. The Yellowskin is hard to enchant, so Sottogh expects few to be under its thrall; it has limits. But leaders are usually the targets; they then become proxy-leaders for the Vadeli. Once, the Yellow Vadeli led, Talar-like, the Red in war, but thankfully they are totally gone and so the Red Vadeli fight less as armies and more as individuals now-yet of course the Red have returned in numbers! Tanosh's power will help oppose them.</LI><LI>The Pontiff mostly glides around the cave/tunnel, speaking calming words to the Sottogh people to mend rifts, but occasionally it looks to you with a placid inhuman smile, and you feel its true gratitude.</LI><LI>Starg holds a staff made of Red Vadeli bone and is imbued with the power of Tanosh to use it…</LI><LI>Ilk will be welcomed back to the clan Elders and all of the Sottogh agree she will cooperate. But Bog is warned she won't forgive him; she is a vengeful creature.</LI><LI>Tusynta will remain as the link of the clan back to the Earth, and Seshna too, and that is wonderful!</LI><LI>Sottogh is of course a strange being. Neither dead nor alive nor undead, he uses Tanosh's power to remain balanced on the brink of the mortal world and Underworld here. This is a confusing notion and you probably try not to think too hard about his nature; Fraud though would be very intrigued.</LI><LI>Groad is now perhaps your greatest ally amongst the Giranois. He seems to have total faith in you, and the bravery to speak up for you.</LI><LI>When you go to Yomilstor, the Pontiff warns, it may be necessary for you to confront Yomil and not hold back. He must be defeated sometime. Maybe you must find the way; but Granno knows as he did it once.</LI><LI>The Giranois go way back. Their ancestors were frog-hsunchen (beast-revering) theists of Seshna and other gods in the Darkness before Time; some were beast-animists devoted to becoming amphibians. They have a history of absorbing and adapting to new cultures and faiths. Seshna and Froalar brought them their ways and connected their nature to reptilian ones; the slimy and the scaly-skinned beings of Giraine are related. The Pithdarans of Pamaltela brought their ways too, including the Old Gods, and Arkati helped the Giranois understand these and control them better-and gain access to the many ways to Hell in Giraine. The Second Age was a time of hardship when the Giranois ancestors hid in their coastal swamps and avoided the sorcerors of Seshnela; but were tolerated, having to withstand many Godlearner probings. Granno, at the Shattering, taught them new Malkioni ways and they mostly left their old theist and animist ways behind, to survive. And so they have. If he returns, they can do more, and they can adapt again-the Hero Wars may demand it if they are to survive!</LI></UL>

Narak's value as an ally is now very clear to you all: perhaps singularly on Giraine, she has learned to (1) use her Mraloti Smell Secrets sorcery to bless Glut so he can sniff out Yellowskin curses with the Wisdom of the Nose, and (2) her earth-spirit communication talents enable her to do the same to find Mud Hags and other entities and maybe even influence them. <UL><LI>In chatting, she and Gertrude realize that Gertrude had the dreams of “Wisdom of the Nose” because Narak had been issuing sendings through the Giraine earth-spirits, searching for the lost Mud Hag that Narak had discovered in her ponderings of Giraine's powers. Because Gertrude had become a Sottogh Giranois officially, and was stuck in a pit in the earth, she received one of those sendings. Gertrude and Narak, although they are worlds apart in personality (one jovial and warm, the other dour and harsh), have struck up an unlikely friendship./</LI><LI>Narak and Glut apparently can, if they know who they are looking for, seek out either Yellowskin-cursed beings AND free them now, and the same with earth spirits. You would be thinking that, if Vadeli learned of such talents, she would be in huge danger???</LI></UL>

Does Gertrude have value? Well, opinions will vary! She would say so. She relates, after hearing Tusynta's words, that she'd overheard from Groad and other Sottogh that there had been another Elder, back when the colonists arrived some years ago, but they vanished and it was now a sensitive topic. She also tells that she'd heard Groad speak of Tanosh often enough, invoking his name as a war-leader and huntsman, and often in relation to blood; which makes sense with what Tusynta said. The Sottogh used to be skilled in war like other Giranois, in the name of Tanosh, but Ilk turned them toward other pursuits in recent years, or at least channelled that violence toward certain other ends; such as starting to turn against the colonists again lately.

Ferd, well, he just still seems like another hapless Giranois along for the ride. He has shown no particular talents save for being grouchy and causing trouble; disproportionately so even for a Giranois. But Gertrude speaks out for him when she can.

-John

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