RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

After some debate, you hatch a cunning plan to catch or kill the were-lion before the FHT could get to it. Shrett comes up with some ideas of how and where to find it, based on his prior experience and knowledge of the creature/his father. He leads you into the Seshnelan/colonist frontier north of Humbertsville and soon finds some spoor leading to a den made of branches and other vegetation, with fairly fresh human bones outside.

Bog builds a nice hide in a vantage point to watch the den, and you wait there; night falls. Fraud goes on guard, with everything quiet, then Boamund. That's when the trap is sprung-the hunters hunting the hunters of the hunter become the hunted!

A spell (Befuddle) hits Boamund but he resists; he warns Fraud who awakens. The shadowy grey-furred form of the Penjang leaps onto Boamund from behind, trying to knock and pin him down but only succeeding to snare him around his waist. But it then bites him and latches its powerful jaws onto his neck, starting to suffocate him. Fraud grabs his shield and stands. Yet Boamund had gotten a cry out, awakening the others who soon also rise. Yet by then, the Penjang bites through Boamund's armour and wound him. Boamund tries to break free but fails. Fraud blinds it with a Darkstrike to its hindquarters but it holds on and Boamund goes still; had it ripped his throat out?

Bog advances and bites its tail, holding on, while Shrett charges and shield-bashes it but merely glances off. You try weapons including Boamund with his silver sword but, as you recall, it is impervious to them. Magic seems to be the only means to harm or slow it. Fraud uses another Darkstrike, on its leg. You're short on ideas. Bog uses Darkwalk just in case. Then Shrett unleashes a Shade which he commands to kill the monster, and it engulfs it. Bog may have saved Boamund's life by using a False Healing spell, and Shrett ensures this with a Heal spell, too; the bleeding stops. What happens next is beyond your sight, but the shade, despite the furious claws and teeth of the Penjang ripping at it, manages to freeze the were-lion to death. It draws away, Shrett releasing it back to Hell, revealing the cold body which reverts to the mutilated form of Danilo as Shrett comes to his side. Shrett, overcome with many conflicting emotions, breaks down weeping but silently is elated that he has freed himself of part of his past and freed his father from his curse. He bids his farewell to his father. Fraud tends to Boamund and says he will live, but is near death and needs somewhere to recover for many weeks.

You discuss the ramifications of this terrible event, with Bog congratulating Shrett for Uz-like patricide. Fraud won't have a part in what Shrett and Bog decide on, to eat the corpse; Bog happily doing so as a troll, and Shrett rightly seeing this as proper Giranois behaviour. The bones are smashed and bagged up. There is no point in trying to have a trophy to show the FHT or others-there is no direct evidence of the lion-man left. You craft a stretcher for Boamund and Fraud swallows his pride, helping Shrett to carry it back to Jett's camp, where a healer says that he will need better attention and safer conditions in New Arv. Two Dronari go there, carrying the stretcher, with Bog and Fraud, and Boamund begins to slowly recover. Shrett goes to Chuck 'Em Off Point and conducts a short Giranois ceremony of death, recounting his father's life and then scattering the bones and dust to Tanosh's winds, down into the Fosnoir. It is done. He goes to see Groad, who can tell how Shrett has suffered, but praises him for his commitment to the Giranois way and his path toward it. Shrett stays for some time, after some back and forth to communicate with the others, and is trained by Tusynta and others in Tanosh's lore and the magic of Detect Sorcery. Also as Boamund recovers, Bog finds a Horali willing to train him in great-axe and conducts his Zorak Zorani prayers; and Fraud is offered the tutelage of Baronet Harabdilis's best dancer, to learn courtly skills of fine dancing.

Several nights, the three of you lead quick raids into the frontier to cut down smaller patrols of Seshnelans, to good success, and Shrett leaves marks on their bodies and nearby that suggest they were killed by the Penjang. Whether the FHT is convinced by this remains unclear, but rumour does reach you that the Penjang is still rampaging. Then, as Captain Gulos and Baronet Harabdilis had warned you, the time for the strike on Humbertsville comes.

Fortunately, Boamund regains consciousness and then magically heals himself back to full health with Seshna's blessing. He will forever bear the marks of the Penjang, with awful scarring around his throat and a rough edge to his voice. But he lives. He does not recall the ambush or fight. He just remembers waiting in the hide as night fell, and taking over the watch from Fraud, and then a gap. However, he is puzzled by something that happened before he painfully awakened in the New Arvonesse hospital of the St Xemela nuns. He has fuzzy visions, still images, of himself standing over a warrior's corpse, his mouth and hands dripping with blood. He has dim urges of desire to unleash the beast within, but they are fleeting. These feelings deeply trouble him. These seem to pass as he recovers, but he wonders if they've passed forever.

Next week— how hard will the Seshnelans fight to maintain hold of Humbertsville?

-John

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