RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Woo, that was a wild session! I'd expected you to mop up those undead handily but events went otherwise. Here's how it went down.

The Sea of Flame settles down more once the Fireberg is eluded, its glow ebbing behind you; but you still sail it, the flames licking harmlessly against the hull and oars of the Boat Planet. Later, you come upon a bizarre sight reminiscent of things you saw in the Nightwood. A tangle of grey tubular or rootlike structures hangs down from the darkness, far out of sight, draping above the deck. Its extent and what suspends it are invisible; it defies understanding. You approach it, passengers eyeing it up curiously. Figures are visible on, and around, this network. Some of them are small and flying; others are larger and moving oddly, emitting strange noises.

Shrett's sharp eyes pick up several things before the War Boat comes closer. The flying figures seem to be coordinating with the lumbering figures to dismantle parts of the network. The bigger forms, which have odd proportions but seem humanoid, and are emitting clouds of some sort of gas and making much noise, are inside the tubes, hitting them with weapons or something to break them into pieces. The pieces then get carried off by groups of the small flying things.

Now the War Boat passes underneath the web of tubes and the activity becomes clearer. The larger figures are mechanical things, perhaps twice as big as a human, with stiltlike legs that clank and hiss with steam. The smaller figures remain hard to see but are humanoid and winged. You all now see what Shrett saw. The network is as low as 10m above the decks but some people are climbing into the masts and sails to inspect it closer. So far, the figures do not show reactions to the War Boat. The ship slows to carefully navigate through the mesh without getting tangled.

Shrett and Boamund climb up, then see [Copper; with skins of bright verdigris] Mostali inside Jolanti constructs working away with flying [nilmerg] helpers. There are dozens of them, scattered around; no more than a half-dozen or so of each nearby. They still do nothing when people climb up to look. Shrett reaches out precariously from the rigging and touches the shadow-tube, feelings its cold compliance but stiffness, and a tickling of magical energy [I should have had him roll vs. Ticklish passion!] The Mostali/nilmergs do nothing unless interfered with; but some people in the rigging do so. When so interfered with, the Mostali/constructs try to quickly fend off interlopers with their powerful construct-suits and big pickaxes, and the nilmergs come in to harass people if their masters have a hard time. More peaceful interactions happen, too. Any darkness/light magic attracts their attention. Some Mostali even communicate via gestures or harsh grind-click-squeaking voices. The flying things carry the tube-pieces up into the “sky” to vanish, and the process is very efficiently done; no pieces are dropped. You watch and then climb down once the ship is moving through it all. After a few minutes, the War Boat navigates through the network and continues to cross the Sea of Flames, whose conflagrations begin to get more patchy and their heat less intense. Soon the ship is back in the familiar cold darkness of the Black Ocean. You sing and row.

The War Boat enters a new region. Distant shores are visible in the grey gloom; they are dark in colour and moaning winds blow from the ocean onto them, kicking up whirling black clouds. The waters stink of rot and pieces of flesh or whole corpses, long-bleached pale by immersion, bob in its lazy currents. Jeset whispers to Bog and Ahappi: “We come to the Ocean of Despair, by the Plain of Black Ash. Here gather life's failures; the winds are moaning souls that slowly will break into fragments over the centuries, ultimately settling onto the plains as the dust of the damned. It is a sorry fate.” Ahappi wonders if this place is his dire fate.

The Ocean of Despair earns its name as you travel-it oppresses you with feelings of hopelessness. Here, what motivates you to continue the quest? You all find things that motivate you. And that is good. The shadows of the Underworld above thicken like thunderclouds, and some bubble forth into familiar forms of various Dehori. Several come close enough to the Boat Planet to begin interacting with those aboard, whether pleasantly or not.

Bog casts a Darkness spell, which attracts the nearest Dehori as Bog calls to it in Darktongue; it is called Unnna'unka; and takes the form of a giant beetle with an Uz head, and it has some personality, showing mirth and egotism in its brief conversation with you. Shrett is there too. Bog tells a fib about how he is well versed in Subere's secrets and convinces the Dehori of this; it is initially more sceptical of Shrett, not even familiar with what he is, but he wins it over with stories of how he is familiar with Subere, too. Both are told to reach out and touch its cold core, and so gain a 1-use Suppress Aether spell; a conjuring of shadows that protects vs. Sky/Fire entitites. Nice. It soon wanders off. A shape looms in the distant Ocean of Despair. The crew scry it with magics and the Deck Officer announces, “We approach the Island of Grief. It is not a destination we seek, but it has sought us. Some of you must go ashore to face it. You shall choose. It will be enough of you, and we will wait long enough.” Jeset then explains to Bog and Ahappi, “Oh, that's a bad place indeed, for you living. Its name is apt. In its mists and drizzle lurk unclean spirits and the hungry dead, and worst of all The Crowned Maiden.” Who's that? You'll find out of you meet her, he says cryptically, then vanishes.

The Boat Planet approaches the grey isle and nudges alongside, the crew casting down lines and ramps for anyone to go ashore. There are withered trees amidst cloying cold mist, damp earth like grave-dirt, and little else visible. You all bravely go ashore. Yet soon, you find yourselves alone ashore; a few steps in and the mist surrounds you, and you don't hear or see anyone else from the ship. Your mind now can't help but draw up old memories of sad losses your life has faced you with. Ahappi, Boamund and Fraud all feel remorse and sadness for their past losses; the depredations of men that have forced sea-creatures to flee the open ocean for Serpent Harbour; the sufferings of the people of Pithdaros/Giraine while Boamund is away adventuring; the terrible pangs of loss of beloved Inyana. This lingers until they leave the isle later…

But first, terrible things seek you out in the mist. Bog faces The Crowned Maiden! A vampire-like undead warrioress/Talar of Second Age Seshnela, with nasty shortsword and a magically conjured cloak of tears that protects her. She tries to enthral him to serve her with her dark gaze but he denies her will. He faces off with her, mace vs. shortsword, and he knocks her down then disarms her, but has difficulty hurting her at all through her cloak, and she too has big trouble getting her few spells to effect him, or her potent dominating gaze. Bog tries getting her to surrender early on but she refutes this, hungry for his soul, but later she reconsiders this, animating the mists around her to conceal her as she takes her escape, saying that “Easier prey are out in my mists.” And so Bog escapes. He gets lost in the mists, has to evade a spirit that is trying to drag him into the Other Side for battle, and finally reaches his friends back by the shore.

Meanwhile, Boamund has an easier time facing a mad Ralios skeletal barbarian with a great axe; he disarmed him, the raving thing throws itself down to avoid one blow, then as it draws its battle-axe to fight back, Boamund strikes it with a couple of good blows to the head and fells it. Fraud squares off with the anguished wraith of an ancient hero wielding a spectral sword, and the fight is desperate, with him wounding it badly with his death-sword, but then it disarms him of that and he must draw Sir Meneykeyil's blade as he dives prone to evade another blow. He takes a wound from its cold blade before he deals a powerful blow that rends its essence apart, and it goes crying back to the Other Side.

Ahappi then has a very hard time. It is all due to the thing that has stalked him through the mist gaining the upper hand with its stealth, surprising him then jumping on his back, gripping and clawing and biting, then injecting its frigid venom into him. He does pull it off and spins to face it with his trident, and things like more hopeful, but it fights back furiously; an undead slavering thing in ancient First Age remnants of armour from long-gone civilization, wailing of its losses and chilling Ahappi to the bone as it rakes at him with terrible claws. He is bleeding to death as they trade blows; it nimbly avoiding his trident as he wears out. It looks better when he pins its left arm to its chest-armour with his trident but it rips its arm off in order to get free, fighting back further. But then he strikes it in the head with a deadly blow and it splatters. He barely has time to bandage himself before he bleeds much worse. But then the poison's grip overcomes him and he faints into paralysis…

Shrett hears hoofbeats and turns to see the shadow of a mounted thing coming-it is a zombie centaur with its vitals covered in thick armour, and it sings a sad dirge of the beast-folk as it charges, bearing recent wounds from battles in Dragon Pass. He wants to avoid the massive lance so he uses his otter-spirit to leap onto its back, and parries a shield-bash from it when he realises that being on horseback is a bad idea for him, as he is not skilled in riding. So he jumps off and it charges past; then as it circles back for another lance run, he cleverly moves to its lance-side so he can avoid its shield and take a sword-swing at it, which works out wonderfully as it is tripped up and slides down before him. He hacks at it, but it fights back furiously with frenetically pounding hooves that flail about and almost crush his guts in, but he is fortunate. Finally he gets a break and slices through its helmet, and it falls down still at last, and finding its final rest.

Boamund easily finds landmarks that guide him back to the shore, and along the way spots Ahappi's paralyzed body, dragging it back. Fraud is lost for some time, his map-making skills leaving him perplexed, and in the process attracts a spirit that lingers in the mists, which tries to discorporate him but fails, so he is able to move on and soon finds Boamund to help carry Ahappi. Shrett, too, encounters a spirit like that but escapes it and reaches the others. Bog, finally, is really lost and terrified when a spirit tries to grab him, so he runs off in a panic but the panic works out for him, and he too emerges onto the shore. Phew!!!!! That was one awful Isle. You re-board the Boat Planet, Fraud having tended to some wounds and Shrett helping with healing. Fraud figures out from Ahappi's greener complexion that he is envenomed, so he tries some things he learned in his healing book and extracts the toxin from the wound; there is a tense moment, then Ahappi finally comes back to consciousness, groaning in discomfort. You figure out that this was ghoul venom and he'd have turned undead at some point if you hadn't healed him! Ahappi reveals a great trick and casts a Triolina spell that removes the effects of his bleeding; he is troubled by his ultimate defeat with the ancient ghoul but resilient.

Ahead, everyone is comforted to see an opening in the Plain of Black Ash where the River Styx again opens, permitting exit from this baleful Ocean of Despair. Yet the crew is alert, seeming to await something, as the ship approaches. Quickly, there are shouts of alert, as the waters around the ship churn with activity, and loud cracking and crunching noises are audible. Waertag the Reaver strides forth with a confident smile and proclaims, “So I had reasoned it would be. Again we face the Great Devouring Fish, who are drawn to feast on the bounty in this dread Ocean but now smell the living aboard my ship and try to lure them for feeding on. Who dares plunge into the foul depths and battle them? Make haste, before these things make meals of our oars and hull. And make great deeds if you go.” He watches with calm curiosity.

It is all over quickly. Shrett watches, thinking then reconsidering the idea of summoning a shade to help, as Ahappi dives in and immediately squares off with a huge Great Devouring Fish-long-bodied, huge of jaws and well scaled with an oily grey hide. It lunges and swallows him whole, wounding him with its many fangs, and he passes into its forestomach. Inside, he has an easy time stabbing its gut-wall with his trident, and blood rushes out. It convulses in pain, trying to vomit him back out, and he allows it too but uses the force and his ocean-fuelled strength to rip his trident free. As he returns to the water, it begins sinking, its rear-body struggling to keep it afloat as its fore-body is crippled and torn open. He valiantly joins the fight with other fish, helping out and feeling Waertag's approving gaze on him. Soon he is back on board, proud of his heroism and seeing a wink from Waertag, which inspires him.

You row and sing, some of you continuing to have trouble, but the end of this phase of travels soon arrives. The Boat Planet finally comes within sight of the great spire of Havan Vor and the Grey City. It moves along the River Styx and silently glides into the vast port, where scores of speechless spiritual forms on the piers help to moor it. Beyond the rough black stone slabs of the port lies the City of the Dead: also silent, and made of the same monotonous grey stone. Sound, indeed, is deadened here; quickly swallowed by the shadows. The City of the Dead is surrounded by a tall stone wall covered in brightly coloured murals and bas reliefs depicting protective gods and demons. A great open gate from the harbour leads into the City and towards Havan Vor. Around the gate are carved powerful protective spells that place the city under the authority of innumberable gods of mortality.

Waertag the Reaver returns to the decks and calls out thunderously to all aboard: “Waertag the Reaver needed help from a dead ally and so he quested to bring them back from Hell. He survived judgement to enter the Corridor of Fear, which passed on to Deshkorgos's demon-haunted realm, with foetid swamps full of dangers that would have ended his quest here if he had lacked his helpful guide. Approaching the end of his quest, he could choose to win his way through Deshkorgos's land by entering his grim iron fortress or his bloodthirsty mountain. By defeating the fearsome foes there he gained entry to Vakalta's Demon Pit, but at the price of his guide. Alone there in the dark, Waertag shivered at the Errors he had committed before, but his iron will steered him through it. The demon guardians at their bridge were terrible, but he devised a way across to that bleak pit he sought. It was there, atop the fiery plateau, that he fought bitterly against his greatest foe to save his ally from torment at the Forge of Ikadz, and won despite a dire cost. He returned upon the War Boat through the Drowning Hell and up the Styx. Waertag the Reaver sang a song of life when re-entering world of the living again, victorious but scarred from his many trials in Hell.”

Fraud knows this to be a variant of the Lightbringers Quest-Harmast Barefoot (https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Harmast_Barefoot ) famously used it to return Arkat from the dead (after Palangio killed him– https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Palangio ), and others have since done similarly. It is a quest that can be used to restore lost people or weapons or other things trapped/hidden in a deeper Hell (the Demon Pit of Vakalta/Valkata). https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Harmast%27s_Lightbringers_Quest

You look down from the ship onto the crowds of dead gathering to look at the Ship. The City is vast with hundreds of thousands of tombs, mausoleums, monuments, crypts, sarcophagi, urns, and other buildings of the dead. Above everything looms the black tower of Havan Vor with its all-embracing Gate of Seven Doors. Throngs of the Dead silently watch those aboard the Boat Planet. Some appear stately and comfortable as though preparing for a feast; others are emaciated or rotting, eating ashes or drinking filthy water and they glare at you with malevolent hatred. Jeset explains: “Those Dead whose kin performed the funerary rites wait in comfort for the judgment in Havan Vor. Those who had no funerary rites must wait without food or drink and learn to hate the world of the Living for their lack of care and respect. Enough explaining; we must go to Havan Vor. There you must earn entrance from the gatekeeper of Havan Vor. It will explain.”

Bog goes to Syrr Kogag and sings his song of Kogag, which stirs the Uzko hero who recognizes that Bog has now met Jeset, and this means he is on a quest of Kogag, not a different quest. Syrr Kogag will go that way too; they are on parallel quests, and perchance their paths will cross again and they might interact more for aid or information? Even Syrr Kogag is not sure, but before you part he says that you might need to sing this song again, if you find an ally of Kogag on the quest that you head upon with the others. Waertag's quest parallel's Kogag's quest; Kogag's heroes are on the War Boat, but not to serve the Waertagi! They have their own agenda. Bog will need to act accordingly.

For Friday! On to Part 3 of the quest: your path diverts… will it return to Waertag's somehow?

-John

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