RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Hey,

Boamund challenges a Luathan Adept of the Codex Diabolicus (an old grimoire of demonology) to the Test of Knowing in Chaos monstrosities. He tells of the gorp you've faced including the Sky gorp. The Adept tells a lengthy, in-depth myth of the origins of Cacodemon, the ogre demon-god and spawn of Devil/Wakboth, father of fiends (e.g. https://zzabursbrownbook.blogspot.com/2015/03/cacodemon.html ). This leaves no question: the Luathan has the superior knowledge, and so it wins Boamund's undine-anklet to add to the castle's endless treasury vaults.

Fraud then faces another Luathan in the Test of Communicating. He chooses Oratory, which the Luathan is not so skilled in as Influencing, but still is a worthy opponent. He tells an epic story of your exploits, especially in battling the Red Vadeli and the Brown Vadeli Zridge the Tart. This holds the Luathans rapt, and some of them break out in soft songs. Indeed, his challenger does not respond with an oration but instead sings a wordless, eerie, emotional tune. When it finishes, it says it cannot challenge him further, it has been so moved by his tale. And so it imparts the prize Fraud had requested: it had already done this in its song, it explained-now, a blessing of the Luathans' song inhabited him, so that he might at one time in the future Sing up a “Curse of the Luathans Upon the Brown Vadeli” to aid him against them. Hurrah!

Bog has the final test, of Riddling, which is explained could be anything except combat. He chooses to challenge the Luathan, another demon-adept, to spin a riddle of what the dragons think about. Bog tells a simple troll-style riddle of dragon bodily functions or something, whereas the Luathan spins one about the origins of the Night Dragon and its coming into the mortal world during the Darkness; which end of it came out first? Bog answers this riddle correctly that it was the Right End that emerged; whereas the crass mundane nature of Bog's riddle baffles the Luathan and its guess falls flat. He has won! And so he wins his prize, of some old trollkin armour from the vaults-very fine 7pt plate that feels like a second skin (causes no initiative penalty), and he is thrilled!

As the contests conclude and the prizes are given, Rausa's haunting voice silences the courtyard: “These ones may continue past the Gates, as ritual demands. Let them never return, under penalty of Death. Yet beyond these Gates, they will be as the dead, in the realm of the dead. And they will face perils there, which may render them forever dead, to join the queue of the silent dead and face final judgement in Havan Vor. Begone.” She points dismissively down a hallway from the courtyard and her bodyguards Vamth and Rhylor step up to you, motioning with violet-metal swords and spears that you are to go with them.

You follow the two great Luathans through several passages and grand halls, adorned with a dizzying array of fantastic artworks. Finally they bring you to a huge courtyard, which somehow must be bigger than all of the fortress and city but yet is contained within it. The sun's descent casts an eerily warm crimson pall over the whole space. At the back of the courtyard are the titanic blood-red bronze Gates of Dusk, depicting the dead form of murdered Yelm descending into the Underworld. Vamth and Rhylor wrench open the gates without another word, scowling at you imperiously as they await your passage. Beyond, oddly enough, is the far western shore of Luathela, and the great world-river Ssramak. Winds begin to swirl there and ram-clouds descend-your Orlanthi conveyances are coming.

You take a bumpy ride back to the Boat Planet, which has just sailed along the Ssramak through the Gates of Dusk. There, the Deck Officer marshals everyone back into positions. Your eyes squint trying to take in not only the blinding light of the setting sun but also the weird geometric scale of the Gates of Dusk: you'd exited them through the castle on land, but they also open into the Ssramak, and so the War Boat can enter via water, which it does with you aboard. It seems the Gates of Dusk are even larger than they seemed, extending from Luathela to Sramak; and huge indeed they must be to encompass the Sun, which closely pursues you. The Orlanthi are still present on board, busy conducting rituals in their little groups. The Deck Officer and crew get all Pullers and Watchers to do their rowing and singing again, but the job is easy as the pull of the Ssramak through the Gates is very strong.

The War Boat has not gone far, still not passed fully to the Underworld via the Obsidian Mirror, although the light has dimmed and colours of twilight surround you. Amidst this wonder, calls of alarm go out. There are shapes approaching you from all sides, with riders on wyverns following through the gates, and riders on giant grey moths converging on the War Boat from the Otherside, emerging eerily from shadow. From the Orlanthi come cries, “Shepelkirt's minions! The Red Emperor will not stop us; to arms!” And the crew shout similar alerts, just before a small army of all sorts of Lunar invaders appears on or descends to the decks. Battle is on! Boamund has given you fair warning so you cast some spells and other things before the enemy arrives.

The foes turn out to be assassin-priests and warriors of the Blue Moon Uz and Gorakiki Moth, consisting of an Uz warrior-sorceror-assassin who faces Boamund, a moth-headed warrior shaman who fights Ahappi, an Annilla priestess Uz on a Moth (she hold back and uses spells against Ahappi, causing him several small Disruption injuries), a great troll skeleton with a big axe, which faces down Bog and Shrett, and then (coming from the other side, leaving the party of Lunars) the familiar Danfive Xaron hoplite (you'd driven him off in the Sky Realm and now he returned!), on a tattooed War Wyvern. You're outnumbered and scrambling to defend yourselves, but you outclass your foes too. Soon several are tripped, then the hoplite is unseated by Fraud, who holds his death-sword to the man's neck and forces his surrender, demanding that he leave, and he concedes to do so on his wyvern; saving Bog who it had been after! The skeleton got in a lucky blow when Bog turned away and badly wounded his head. But then Ahappi calls out after knocking out his moth-headed foe (whose mothy down skin leaves his trident gummed up until it is later cleaned), saying to the moth-riding priestess that you have won and they are doomed if they keep fighting. Wisely, she agrees, and says that they will withdraw if they can take their wounded. The great-troll skeleton is left to cover their retreat and you bash it to pieces. As ransom, the hoplite gave a magically blessed bronze canteen that “will refill your spirit once”; it holds 18 MP that can replenish you and Fraud kindly later gives much of that to Shrett, the rest to Boamund; and then you spend much time doing first-aiding and healing and Shrett magically heals your worst wounds, so you are nearly recovered from all damages you've suffered.

The bloody battle with the Lunar agents and Uz assassins done, the War Boat finally turns down the River Styx into the dark depths of the Underworld, leaving the Gates of Dusk behind in a warm violet haze. Just as that turn is made, ahead comes a huge black ship approaching up the river as if to ram into the War Boat. But the crew shows no concern, although many questers aboard panic and need calming by officers. The strange shadow-ship grows ever closer and larger, rivalling the size of the Boat Planet itself, then just at it seems ready to impact the War Boat it changes form, becoming a great black many-faceted disc that reflects back the dwindling twilight in distorted, kaleidoscopic patterns. The Deck Officer barks out, “We now cross the Obsidian Mirror. Be brave and humble. You must all look into it and see what it reflects, as we take on the guise of the newly dead in the Underworld.”

Obsidian Mirror: The giant disc is a myriad mirrors, and as you gaze into those endless facets you realize that these are glimpses into all mirrored surfaces in the world-you can see far-off lands and beings. But quickly these visions come to familiar places; pictures of places you've called home before, or other places of meaning to you, and the beings that live there. You see scenes that you do not recall-these mirrors do not show memories, nor do they seem to show current events, nor what you think are portents of possible futures. You are shown glimpses of possible pasts and presents, and your minds are carried tumbling into dark depths of what could have been. These images are not comforting. They show what could have been if you had never existed, or if you'd died, or if you'd never been reborn. They reflect uncomfortable things about yourselves, and how your lives have impacted others in painful ways. Your minds gradually are pushed by the Obsidian Mirror to wrestle with one notion: how able are you to keep your ambition in check, versus slide into the madness of a selfish ego that could destroy all that matters to you? The answer will be what the mirror teaches you about your life and death.

Most of you pass the test of the Obsidian Mirror just with some unease, weaking your passionate ambitions. Some feel stronger-willed. Shrett feels his dedication to his family refocussed on finding his father. But Ahappi has a powerful mystical experience that is deeply profound, in which his powerful driving goal of heroism wrestles mightily with his prodigious will. He emerges stronger, and even more sure of his importance as a sea hero; the thousands he has killed in his lives will become thousands more in the future, it is inevitable, and it is Right. Somehow now, his draconic insights and his faith in the Sea-Lord all now are reconciled, and he is more firmly than ever dedicated to his mission. None of you suffer the Mirror's worst potential effects of violent madness or hopeless nihilism.

You enter the UNDERWORLD!!! Congratulations, you are now somewhat dead. Though no stars, planets, or sunlight the sky, the newly dead can see. Indeed, there is no sky above, only a vasty empty blackness. Incoming souls going down a path along the River Styx join in a parade of others, all bearing the marks of their life and death upon them. No one speaks. The air is both stagnant and poisonous, or howling and malevolent. The dismal ground along the River is broken and treacherous, following no rational geological rules. Jagged mountains like obsidian flints laid on edge co-exist with endless swamps and bottomless pits. The Boat Planet travels past sharp ridges and great gorges, all with rocks sharper than obsidian razors. The waters of the Styx are often calm and infinitely dark and mysterious, but there are strange eddies, whirlpools, currents that make no sense, uncouth bubblings, slicks of blood or ichor, unspeakable remains of floating things, and if one looks too closely, disturbingly familiar faces that well up to the water's surface, dredging up terrible memories of the departed. Moving shadows, from tiny to tremendous, wander around on and above the land and water, the sight of which fills most viewers with dread and fear. These are the Dehori: darkness elementals and demons that are as common here as sunshine is in the Sky Realm; they are like the weather of the Underworld. Ahappi peers into the depths and sees many faces of those he has killed, and grimly appreciates it. Shrett looks for his father but does not see him; does that mean he is alive? Bog feels very comfortable; he is not far from Wonderhome.

Some of you put your heads together about what you know of the River Styx, and recollect this much: The River Styx is the Water of Darkness. Many explanations for the Styx exist. Some texts call her the Last Drop of Darkness, while others address her as the Mother of Zaramaka, the Primal Sea. Some texts call her a Pool or Well instead of a River. Some legends mention a great Black Sea of the Underworld whose listless waves wash a lifeless grey shore. All of these are the Styx in various forms. All Styx's children were daughters, except a single son, Zaramaka. The River Styx is also called the Garrote of the Gods, for she can cause even an immortal to choke and suffer if they swear an oath upon her name and then break it. Thus she is known as the Oath Guardian, and the avenger of broken oaths. She is aided in this by families of fearsome demons. Powerful avengers fought the more powerful deities who broke their oaths, such as the time Yelm was forced to return to his path after the Sunstop in 375 [there is some analogy here to the Boat Planet's return to the sky?]. Other avengers are more mundane, such as the gnats which enraged the mothers of Balazar and drove them mad after they poisoned their sons. Most mortals shun swearing by the Styx, and pledge their word by other oath guardians.

You had little time to get to know the Orlanthi questers that had joined the War Boat at Luathela. They kept to themselves, standoffish at best, or quarrelling between bands in some cases. What word you heard of their quests was that these varied-some sought artifacts, others lost souls from their clan, other blessings, or knowledge, but their quests were far more mundane than yours; on the scale of local clan or tribe business. And now, the Orlanthi take new action on board, summoning their winds and clouds and other means of transport to take them off the War Boat. They bid no farewells, and soon they are ashore, joining the listless dead on the Path of Silence. Whether you could ever call on them again for that favour one band owes you, you're not sure; the fickle ways of the Storm Tribe could lead anywhere. The deck of the Boat Planet is noticeably more sparsely occupied now, and some mutter about how this and the departure of Dormal mean hard times ahead for those remaining aboard. Indeed, soon you feel the strain. There is no wind here that is useful for sailing, and what currents there are can be most unfavourable, so the Deck Officer calls everyone to pull the oars or sing their song of power and life, as gloom presses inward on everyone, threatening to make the guise of death a reality of death. Some of you struggle, but you all persist.

There are occasional brief rest periods for pullers and watchers, but not enough of them. During the first one, a familiar person comes to you– Golgerengi of Safelster, the Arkati you'd traded magics with outside of Caelaca's fort, is still here with his band, and motions for Fraud, Boamund and Miguel to come speak to him over in a more private area. Golgerengi explains there in whispers, “I bear secrets I gleaned from my crypteia of Arkat Liberator, to share with trusted fellows. My sciomancy has found shadows of the Deceiver that have entered our quest by evil means. The nature of some of them is vague to me still, and perhaps less of a threat. But one shadow troubles me, as I saw reflections of it in the Obsidian Mirror that gave me some fright, and your faces were there with it too. The interloper shadow is not merely of Chaos, but hides that shadow within its Malkioni nature like the worst of the Deceiver shadows; worse even than the Boristi of my homeland. I know it little except that it is called Vadel. My sciomancy tells me that the hero path of Arkat Chaosbane is yours to follow here in the Underworld in opposition to this shadow of Vadel, to find its sinister purpose and stop it, so that it does not corrupt some part of this quest. This sciomantic vision imparted words that mean nothing to me: 'seven gods offer two souls to the White Throne'. I wish you well.” You thank him. Boamund wonders if Granno's truths might give insight into this, and figures that these “seven gods” are seven Vadeli/allied heroquesters, perhaps aiming to sacrifice two souls to some dire end. But none of the three of you know what this 'White Throne' is.

You continue down the Styx, which broadens into what might be called the Black Ocean of the Underworld. The waters slow, then become motionless and glassy of surface, with the sense of great depths below. One of those terrifying silences of the Underworld sets in. The people of the War Boat cast nervous glances at each other as they pull the oars and sing. Everyone can feel it: there is a presence nearby. Waertag the Reaver paces the deck with his guard, their eyes scanning the Black Ocean. And then…

Friday we'll see. John

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