RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Hiya,

You leave the Plateau of Suffering via the tunnel downwards toward the glint of water. Boamund and Bog carry the Uz; Ahappi has the Waertagi over his shoulder (Shrett helping?), while Fraud leads the way. PARTY LUCK PTS = 2!!

The Waertagi speaks, whispering to Ahappi as he stares deeply into his eyes: “I am sorry… Sorry it had to be you. I do not know if we have failed or succeeded but I am sorry. You will know pain I have not known. The price of life is death. But I thank you for my life. Jamar is my name, and I am Sivis of the Miswar. She awaits in the Drowning Hell; hurry, the Vadeli will hatch new schemes soon enough. If we make haste, we may find what I sought . Mayhaps the quest will succeed.”

Ahappi knows well of this Drowning Hell! He had always wished to visit it. Sometimes called the Fourth Hell, it punishes those who betray their caste, masters, family, or people. The Hell is composed of many oceans, some of water, whether brine, boiling, or freezing; others are composed of less pleasant substances; fire, acid, blood, or other fluids. The Damned are tossed into these oceans, where the waters are ever flowing and changing, and there is no solid land to cling to. If sinners find each other in these oceans, they hold each other fast, providing the only piece of apparent safety amongst the waters which attempt to destroy them. Some Zzaburi have said, whilst viewing these realms, that they have seen the ghosts of the Waertagi lost in the Closing, still piloting their Dragonships through the abyssal depths, searching for a way back home. Down at the bottom of the abyss lies Wakata or Magasta, chained by the sea of darkness known as the Styx. Here he remains for his crime of attacking the Land of Logic, although his eternal thrashing churns the seas above him, extending up even to the surface realms where Wakata Storms may ravage ships. Magastan theists say they know better: this is a source of Magasta's power; not a prison.

You continue. The tunnel slopes down a short distance to the black waters of the River Styx, which bubbles with the final breaths of the drowned. The flotsam and jetsam of millions of ships bobs here, and amidst it are the bodies of sinners, vainly trying to grab the wreckage but currents always drag it away from them, and they can only cling to each other, dragging each other under as they struggle; drowning over and over again as they do. Two ships are moored at the shore. One is a sleek, low-hulled, 10m long ship carved of whalebone, lacking oars or sails, with two great white sharks that tow it. A crew of some fifty Waertagi sits silently aboard it; they are spectral in appearance, just wraiths of their former selves. Jamar points feebly to it- “Return me to my Fastship, the Miswar, and we will find others before it is too late.” Ahappi soon carries him aboard, proudly announcing himself and telling the others to go to the second ship.

The other ship is much larger, some 30 metres long. It is made of ebony wood sealed with black resin, and has a long bank of oars plus furled black sails. Unlike troll galleys you more commonly have seen, it is styled as a war galley; sturdy but not so sleek and fast. Its hull is carved deeply with the Darkness, Man and Water runes of Kogag. Its figurehead is a Dark Troll male holding a harpoon. Aboard are some five dozen Uz warriors dressed as Kogag and Zorak Zorani “marines”, two great shadowy things that are a black sphere with a huge central eye and clawed arms extending from the sides, and then three fearsome giant black beetles with forelegs ending in clublike appendages. As you approach, one of the beetles sets to drumming on some great drums at the stern of the galley. The Uz Kogag Captain you carry stirs for the first time, very weakly, and croaks to Bog: “It is Dredge… We hid the Life Rune with the shadow of the Death Rune for so long… but have we failed or not? Sing and they will know you as I do… Do the Dance of Zu-Zor-Xen and we shall be free… I am Muzmaqu and I accept you as my brother; accept me as your sister and you will know them. The Black Fleet needs warrior Uz of the Lord of Demons… The Fifth Hell lies ahead, but there will be a vengeance… The Death Rune's power holds sway.” And she goes back unconscious.

You board-the ghostly Waertagi quietly part to allow others on board the Miswar, and Jamar seems revitalised, calling out some orders to untie the moorings and set the sharks to swimming forward. Bog does his song and dance, and does the latter amazingly well!

“Uz sail Black Galleys on the oceans, in all the waters of Komor, Someday there will come our sisters, Black Fleet from under oceans' floor.” You are all welcomed onto Dredge with big Uz grins; Bog feels here that he is among friends, as if he has always known them. It is very comforting.

On Dredge, the Uz eye you up warily as you board, and the demonic spheres gaze eerily at you while the beetle-monster drums. As Bog does the Dance of Zu-Zor-Xen and sings the song of Kogag's Black Fleet, the Uz smile and sing along. Then they take up the oars and begin rowing off shore. Muzmaqu lies by the prow, fading in and out of wakefulness. Her First Officer or Mate, a male Great Troll acolyte of Kogag, handles affairs on board but quickly comes to greet Bog: “My mother named me Izsuru. I do not understand it, but great father Jeset has blessed you, and you bear secrets of great mother Adzurana. I hope that you do not come to see them as curses. Welcome aboard Dredge; her darkness embraces you. We fought in the Iron War and were there when Zistor fell at the Battle of Steelfall. Then we left Jruztela in the year 918 and made our way here on a great quest, but it took so long that the Closing trapped us here .”

As you leave, Ahappi has a chat with Jamar and really hits it off well, so Jamar opens up and tells his whole tale: Waertagi of Jamar's group were driven off the oceans by the Closing, pushed into Magasta's Pool and onto the Black Ocean. Most died from the strain and were left only as essences tied to their ship. But this was all expected; Zzabur had sent warning to some Waertagi Sivis who were of proper faith. Jamar was one of them, and had prepared a heroquest that initiated when the Miswar crossed into the Underworld. The quest sought to bring back Dragonships to the surface with new powers of Death, and restore Waertagi dominance to the seas. This is interesting news! The Waertagi were not just hapless victims of Zzabur's curse. But the Waertagi discovered terrible things on their quest. Vadeli spies had learned of Zzabur's warning and infiltrated the quest, twisting it and weaving it together with Kogag questers', in attempts to bring back the glory of their higher castes and thereby their full navy, wielding awful powers of Undeath and more. By now you know that the Blue Vadeli never truly died, as myth held, but instead have been in the Underworld for many centuries, plotting their return… (Ahappi has had two visions of this that fit together now: one from the Night Dragon and one from Deep Mother) And what might come of the Yellow Vadeli is too frightening to ponder. Jamar had to make the terrible choice of whether to die heroically with all of the Miswar, or to trade himself to the Vadeli quest but hide the Miswar and save it. He chose the latter, and then a timeless, tormented period later, you came and saved him.

The Miswar and Dredge shove off from the grim shore of the Styx and glide across the gurgling waters. Bodies of thousands of drowned souls vainly try to cling to the ships' hulls but either slide off or are roughly pushed off by Waertagi harpoon-butts or Uz oars. They pose no real threat. At first this departure through the Drowning Hell seems simple enough. Yet then a sinister vessel is spotted in the distant shadows. It is a huge rotting hulk, at first looking like a wave of the waters of the Drowning Hell choked with bodies, but then revealed to be one titanic structure with decayed pieces hanging off or falling off into the Styx. It is the former body of a sea dragon; an undead Dragonship; a Vadeli Hellship. Jamar calls out, “Part of their quest has succeeded; they are raising the Legion of the Drowned! We are too weak; we must flee for the surface, where we have more of a chance!”

With Jamar chanting hasting sorcerous blessings onto the sharks, the Miswar surges ahead, and Dredge is not far behind, thanks to its burly rowers. But the umbrous shape of the Hellship closes in, impossibly, as it seems neither fast nor nimble, but it gains on both craft, starting to dominate more of the horizon of the Drowning Hell. Low groans issue from it, bringing shudders across the hulls of the two pursued ships. Ahappi and Boamund peer back at the Hellship and see flying things launching from it. The ships try manoeuvring, but the currents of the Drowning Hell complicate their efforts, and there is little if any gain from these tactics. The giant Hellship closes further. Dark forms begin to take flight from it, as if budding off from the corrupt flesh. From the monstrous mawlike prow of the Hellship, a hissing black cloud boils out, clinging to the surface of the water as it rolls forward. It is many dozen metres across. As it speeds forwards, its nature begins revealing itself: it looks composed of countless spectral limbs of every shape and size, reaching and grasping mindlessly as the cloud tumbles forward. You prepare yourselves. The cloud envelops the ships and cries of horror soon erupt.

It is a massive Blue Vadeli curse: “CALAMITOUS ANATOMICAL BETRAYAL” - but everyone except Bog completely shrugs its power off! Bog feels an essence enter his left leg, and as he is standing between two Zorak Zorani he kicks at one of them, who notices this and parries; then scolds him and tries to shove him down with his maul. Bog struggles with himself and manages to tangle his left leg in some ropes on the deck, so he is able to keep that unruly member restrained for the remainder of the encounter.

The cloud continues to hang around the ships, causing tremendous turmoil. The Hellship closes further, and its propulsion becomes evident: it is being pushed forwards by all of the bodies of the Drowning Hell's waters around it. They do not try to cling to it or climb aboard, but merely grab and shove and get passed by. There is no time to watch, though, as one of the few crew undistracted by the commotion shouts out, “Attackers from above!” And the vilgars come down, shrieking terrible phlegmy shrieks, but they are not the vilgars you know. They are even uglier, more filthy and rotten and stinking. They are clearly undead vilgars. Two come for you; one for each of your bands on the two ships. Ahappi faces his and avoids the spittle glob, rolling aside then regaining his feet, but then he parries its drool which coats him in vile half-digested sea-dragon ooze and he is helpless vomiting for a few moments and takes a bad wound. He then fights back. Meanwhile the others face theirs; Boamund dodges his spittle glob well, and fights the undead vilgar in melee as Fraud joins him with Shrett, who had shot it in the tail with an arrow. It is very hard to wear down despite somewhat light rotten scaly armour, but after a while you cut it up and it drops. By then, Shrett has seen Ahappi's trouble and took a shot at the vilgar, helping while Ahappi wields his undead-killing Three Tines of Death and in two big blows rends its chest open, so it slumps onto the deck, defeated.

The vilgars are not numerous enough to vanquish the crew of either ship, but with the sorcery they take a toll. Yet the Hellship slows or something; what happens or why is unclear, but it suddenly turns away from pursuit of the ships and, as your fellow crew recover, it vanishes into the black. You heal what wounds you can. First Officer Izsuru of Dredge growls, “Uz know the way. Adzurana has spoken.” And he makes utterances and gestures to the crew and creatures, as word spreads to the Miswar to follow Dredge. Eventually you can see what he means. The Drowning Hell's waters ahead rise like a black geyser of tremendous proportions, up into nowhere. Izsuru says nothing, but it is clear he intends to row right into it. This fit's Waertag's myth “He returned upon the War Boat through the Drowning Hell and up the Styx”… You brace yourselves for a wild ride.

Attached, from DriveThruRPG, is a somewhat dated but nicely illustrated primer on Malkioni, FYI. Much of it is covered elsewhere anyway, but it's a good summary. If you feel like it and can, send some $$ their way.

-John

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