Giraine Summaries

Ahappi saw something happen amidst the party as the Ouori said his ominous message, but Ahappi wasn’t sure what that was.

Gumthunooreebou: “Innocence is becoming scarce. Many must make difficult choices of which side of conflicts they will stand up, lest they get swept away by it. We will follow you to the edge of the Fosnoir if you agree to aid us, and we will await you there, hoping for your success and news of the fate of our lost herdmates.”

You agree.

Gumthunooreebou: “The shrine is a small jagged island of sa-metal from the Godtime, with many very sharp edges. It floats on the seas or submerges as it wishes, changing its shape to suit its mood, guided by the daimone it houses, Hullrender.”

Omen appears, blowing bubbles happily and wiggling his tail. “Hi guys! I bet you had a wild ride on the Boat Planet! It’s great to see you again. I’m sorry I can’t go with you to that shrine, but I’ll be watching nearby!” Ahh, what a pleasure to see that cute little guy again. He’s been around for so long.

You get under way soon enough- the Shadow, the Captain with mosasaur and Pellinoresbane, and the Ouori, crossing the reefs northwards. You pass Cape Pterodactyl: St Granno’s Mountain is hidden in smoke, rumbling softly. The seas are choppy but there are no winds; none of the usual storms. And no vilgars.

You get to the Fosnoir; it has been about 3 days now. Ahappi and Pellinoresbane sense the shrine, but it is not well; they feel corruption. This draws them toward it, to the southwest. You come to a slick of stinking clotted blood that extends for hundreds of metres. Here and there the clots are raised as floating miniature islands. Hullrender lies within, and issues a groan of torment and wrath that rattles Ahappi and Pellinoresbane. You expect danger, and prepare spells. Ahappi tries to submerge to swim, but cannot; the slick resists penetration through it to the ocean, acting like a rubbery blanket that deforms but does not part. You cannot stand on it, either, but it does even adjust to the huge shape of Pellinoresbane.

You scrutinize the scene and can’t see further detail, but the blood-slick does quiver in response to a challenge from Ahappi, and Ahappi thinks he can estimate the centre of the region, so you eventually head that way.

The blood-slicked seas cling to the Shadow and Pellinoresbane as they pass through, and are eerily warm to the touch, as if they are life-blood. There are clots of blood where bits of Ouori, their bodies sliced apart, jut out of the little islands. Ahead, atop a two-metre clotted blob, sits the shrine, defiled with gore. A haze hangs around it, blurring the scene. It burbles in response to another challenge.

Then as Ahappi approaches where the shrine is buried in blood, it all kicks off. A blood-drenched man vomits forth from the clotted blob atop the shrine, landing and sliding across the scarlet ocean waves and lumps of blood. He is naked, raving in nonsense words, and his eyes dart about with murderous hunger. The man is swollen by his massive muscles, and brandishes two wicked cutlasses. The sight of this being spreads madness. The crew goes amok, and some of you must steel yourselves as strongly as you can to avoid catatonia, murderous violence, terror or imagined severance of body parts.

Pellinoresbane rages with impotent fury, seething and snapping at the bloody waters around it. Meanwhile, invisible things on the Shadow begin clutching and biting at victims, slowing becoming evident as hideous shapes that seem only to have visible form when they have consumed enough blood for this to happen. They have somewhat humanoid forms but no legs, and their shapes keep shifting, because they are semi-fluid with blood, and only semi-physical. As battle begins, it becomes evident that they are resilient to physical harm, but they can be harmed. They gradually become visible as they feed, which helps you fight them, and Bog and Boamund are already adept at fighting invisible opponents, and only Boamund directly faces a foe, so you have some advantages, unlike some crew members who are effectively blinded and outskilled by the hungry things. Fraud fights one thing, soon joined by Bog, who has used Conceal magic to avoid becoming a target himself. Boamund gets grabbed around the waist by a claw and slightly wounded, then invisible jaws clamp onto it and begin sucking his blood out. Boamund is aided by Bog once Fraud destroys his enemy, and Boamund calls on his demon-sword’s power, as it has tasted that the ichor of these things is indeed demonic. Fraud had used his Guard against Chaos sorcery of Arkat to ward this place, but the demons are not Chaotic in origin, it turns out; just horrors from Hell. Soon both foes are reduced to puddles of gore, and you are able to help save some crew, who are maimed and blood-drained but not dead. Shrett ran to the hold and summoned a Shade down there, and comes out in time to help. Together, you fight off the last of the blood-demons, as Ahappi’s fight comes to a close…

Ahappi leaps to face the man with the two cutlasses. They square off, with the man hewing mightily at Ahappi, raining blows down on him that keep pushing his spear aside and glancing off his armour, but Ahappi calls for the fury of Magasta to fill him, and swells with that fervor. Ahappi pushes the attack. He gets the man off balance, so rather than parry with his swords as he gets back in position, the man just rants incoherently in fury. They keep trading blows, well-matched. Ahappi takes a good cut to the leg, but responds in kind to the arm with a mighty strike, yet is amazed that the man’s arm is not severed or even crippled. And again, with an even stronger blow, combined with a deft manoeuvre that disarms his left sword! The man’s skin must be preternaturally tough, and he seems to ignore wounds like a berserker or demon. However, he does not defend himself, and that is his undoing. Ahappi keeps stabbing him, and soon rips his arm off, and the man goes down with a maniacal grin, dropping his cutlass into the gore to join the other.

The blood-slick already begins loosening, and Ahappi, looking down at his dead foe, realises that he has defeated a legendary opponent. Sailors in the West have tolds tales of terrible beings that live in isolation on some Red Vadeli Islands to the west. They are avoided even by other Red Vadeli, and only sometimes come, or are sent by something, to deliver horrible devastation elsewhere. They have lost all reason, all connection to Malkioni logic, going utterly mad; probably by Vadel’s connection to Chaos, although they are not Chaotic, either; just insane. They can barely remember how to use weapons, and like this one might abandon using magic. But they have amassed terrible power and skill in becoming what they are, over centuries of committing blasphemous deeds. They are the Savage Red Vadeli. Hardly men at all anymore; but not demons; not anything else. Just what they are, and they are feared by any that are unlucky enough to know of them. Yet Ahappi has defeated one, and that is quite a victory!

Pellinoresbane regains control immediately once the Vadeli is killed; indeed all madness ceases. Ahappi senses that the stain here is defeated and will wash away in time, but he could end it now with Magasta’s power. He mounts the shrine, which is washed clean of gore soon enough, and bellows out to Magasta, welcoming Him to take His grim price. He recites his family’s deep history with The Shadow, how his grandfather heroquested to wrest it from hiding in Godlearner magic realms, and how this led to its enmity with Pellinoresbane as an agent of vengeance sent by Magasta; and so the cycle of his family vs. the sea began. Now it ends, he calls out; as Magasta demands. The Shadow must go to the bottom of the seas!

Aboard The Shadow, the rest of you hear this and are stunned. What is Ahappi doing???? You’re on the ship! And currents begin swirling, drawing the blood slick down into the Fosnoir blackness, but also beginning to tug at the Shadow, more and more, as the resulting whirlpool grows and grows, and does not stop expanding. Its horror becomes evident. Ahappi will not stop it. He has unleashed Magasta’s power, and it comes to take the Shadow away forever.

Fraud calls out to you as he leaps off the ship and becomes a great eel in the waters nearby. Shrett grabs some rope and jumps off, with the eel grabbing the other end of the rope. Shrett swims to safety there; confident that his floating armour will preserve him, too. Bog cowers in terror, looking for something that floats, and then espies the dinghy, which no one is taking, as Amur has sent the crew to help him try to steer the Shadow out of the whirlpool, and so far they obey. So Bog rushes the dinghy, leaping half into it, half onto its edge, and knocks it over the gunwhale into the ocean, where it overturns as it hits, but he clings onto it for dear life. Boamund is not so hasty to leave the ship. He tries helping Amur at the wheel, but fails. He wonders what to do, as his armour dooms him to sink if he leaves the ship. The whirlpool spins more violently, and there are distant calls of encouragement of doom from Ahappi, who sends a great undine to batter at the Shadow, cracking its hull. The ship does not fight back with its dark powers, as no one else can command them.

As the slick goes down, with the Shadow starting to follow it with no further hope of salvation visible, Omen appears, “No, this cannot be! Robber will not have her prize today. Leap into the water, friends, and I will save you!”

Amur has invoked his best magics to save the ship, but to no avail, as Dormal is weak in these days after the Boat Planet and Rokari strikes against the Ship of Life Church/Navigationalism. He refuses to leave the wheel, but his crew is abandoning ship (to their own doom in the whirlpool, though), and he turns to Boamund and tells him that Boamund has done great heroic deeds that Amur has witnessed, and he urges him to go do more, if he will accept a blessing from Amur that might save him. Boamund accepts, and Amur casts a Float spell on Boamund that buoys him up as he nimbly jumps into the ocean. But the currents are fierce, and Boamund and Bog are still caught in them.

Omen releases a large undine that grabs them and floats to safety. But, as they get to safety and Omen turns to watch them with a smile, he overlooks the violent whirlpool behind hind, and it grabs him. He looks up pleadingly at first, then a look of peace comes across his fishy face, and he calls out, “Don’t let life drag you down, friends. Never stop swimming.” And, spinning around in the vortex, he vanishes into the cold depths. The whirlpool laps up the last of the wreckage and crew and blood slick, slurping them down into Hell, and then it sucks itself down there too, so the waters return to the still blackness. Leaving you reeling at what has just happened. All initiated by Ahappi.

Boamund curses the traitorous Captain; this misdeed cannot be forgiven. He turns away from him and has little else to say, as Ahappi proudly and defiantly approaches. Bog trembles in terror; this is no man, but a monster! Shrett is not sure how to feel; this is his friend, but the ship that was like a friend, too, is now gone at his hand, and with it so many other friends, and for what? Fraud, though, is pensive. He converses with Ahappi, who reminds you that he has long warned of doom that follows him. The doom is of his family and the Shadow and Pellinoresbane and Magasta, and now that doom has come full circle. It is done. There is more doom; that of the world; but it does not come from Ahappi. Fraud shares more words, and the two have some degree of reconciliation. Fraud understands somewhat; he has known Ahappi for so long and seen the changes he has experienced; and Fraud has changed too; but this is a lot to handle. But Fraud knows you still need Ahappi. He wields St Buquaim’s spear, and while he lives, no one else can do so, and so he is needed to help save Giraine. There is still more to work out here with your relationship, though…

You come to the Ouori, who come for you from their distant vantage point. Gumthunooreebou: “We are sad that you have suffered, and we weep for the passing of Omen. He has returned westwards to the eternal oceans and someday new life will come from the world’s edge, born from the currents of his spirit. But suffering and grief are the future of the Hero Wars, as our priest has also seen. While the seas are open to men again, for now, below the surface there are schemes unkind to men. Someday Magasta, Valind and Ssramak will bring disaster to the world of men that pales that of the Shattering in comparison. We must apologise in advance that we will take part. But may we remain friends somehow despite that, if we all live to see it.”

Fraud says that you’ll remain friends with them, and the Ouori says that they will always want to be friends with you, as you’ve helped them so much; but he warns that once the doom from the seas’ depths comes, you might change your minds about that friendship. And you think to what you’ve just seen with Ahappi, and you shiver. There is something worse coming. On a much bigger scale.

Gumthunooreebou: “We promised our gratitude. Ahappi, we must take this shrine back to our waters, but it will be close to Giraine and you shall share it with us, honoured as an equal. To our other friends, we are sorry for the loss of your ship to the Net of the Sea. Magasta can exact a grim price on those who dare his oceans. If it is any solace, Hullrender offers you miracles of the water to bless you.”

You contact the Magastan “demon” inside the shrine, and can choose 1-use: Float, Submerge, Breathe Water, Fear, Drown (cast with Invocation = Devotion etc.). You do so. Ahappi asks to use the shrine and the Ouori says to ask it; and Ahappi asks to make his case with Magasta to become an Acolyte. Hullrender says that it is time for him to make that case, yes, and so Ahappi roars out his story of being a fierce sea-hero. He swells with fanaticism and Magasta seems to hear it, responding that Ahappi indeed is very strong, and that he is more than strong enough to be His acolyte, and that He will send new challenges; not one monster as Ahappi asks for, but multiple ones, and if Ahappi is again able to prove his strength, then he might be blessed to become a Priest. Challenge accepted!

Party Luck pts back to 3, yay!

You have a little further discussion, Boamund gives Ahappi a lot of cold shoulder and side-eye, and you return to St Thosos etc. with undine, Pellinoresbane or Ouori help. The latter bid their farewells. You disperse to your residences or travels. Ahappi heads for Serpent’s Harbour, with Fraud saying that if he is needed, he will receive a message from him again through the Linguaberries.

Some days later: Jzhurte brings a private message to Boamund (and for Ahappi; to be passed on…… if Boamund wants to!); with acknowledgement that you have done with the Church of St Thosos as Elder Shoor had asked, and so another promise to the Sharde is fulfilled. But also: “I met Elder Shoor in the Big Gunge swamps. She told me to tell you of a vision she had from licking a toad. She saw Deep Mother still chained in Hell, and a great dark shape gliding through the black depths in search of her. She has pondered this, and thinks that the shape is an enemy that must be stopped, but that the path to do so is not yet open to anyone, and thus the outcome cannot be resolved by anyone, friend or foe, until then. She does not know what that path will be or how to find it, as we do not understand the power of the Fosnoir. Elder Shoor wonders if a sign might come in Dark Season, as that is an auspicious time for these things.” Boamund said he’d come help the Sharde when needed, as their Saviour, and Jzhurte acknowledged this, saying he’d carry messages back to the Sharde after he did his journey to visit the Sottogh now.

Some more weeks pass… Various news comes, or you witness it.

EARTH SEASON 1624. -Fort Mudlark is invaded by mass forces and destroyed! Now it is a horrible cursed place. The Baronet Mudlark died defending it. -Narak moves her Sounder to near New Arv, in response, to get more safety. -The Huru have faced more incursions from GTF, and that is all anyone knows. -The Colonists are weakened; they need time to rebuild; and can do little else until then. -You are given advice to stay put; Giraine north/east of New Arv is too dangerous to anyone but a large force. -Baron Ron, Reginaldo, Jett and others regularly convene to give information and have discussions. There are minor threats for you to deal with, from time to time; typically undead that manage to wander through the wilderness past other settlements, but they are routine. You also hear news of politics in Seshnela. They show no reaction to losing Giraine. Ron and Reginaldo say that their contacts in Oradaros say that there was never much interest; it was mainly Baron Raduard’s crusade, urged on by his Zzaburi. Seshnela instead remains focused on Ralios. Areas are taken and retaken, and the Rokari send curses against the hated Arkati, and back and forth it goes. That is as much as you know. Fewer people worry about it all, as time passes. -People come to Giraine from all over the world. Its reputation as a place to start a new life grows slowly, as people flee war and other upheavals everywhere. Baron Ron welcomes them all as long as they obey his laws. He remains highly tolerant of religions, and settlements everywhere grow with different cultures and faiths, with mixed success. Aria’s Well (with a new Talar coming) attracts some surviving original Dronari back, and new ones, and then a diversity of other peoples, particularly sailors and fishers from the former Quinpolic League. Such refugees are all too common now. -Fraud’s villa is finished; he settles in happily; and Humbertsville is fully resettled with much rebuilt and some new things. (see below) -Aria’s Well’s new Talar is doing well. He is Ron’s friend, recently moved from St Thosos: a Hrestoli noble (Pithdaran), named Sawwar Son of the Phoenix. A loyal leader and famed in the war vs. Seshnela, now moved from Pithdaros to Giraine (certainly he’s no longer welcome on the mainland!). You meet and immediately like him. He is just what you’d have wanted – an earnest man of good heart, who is very fit to take care of Aria’s Well. He ends caste-based rule there; people may choose if they follow caste guidelines or not; but he forbids any Rokari Zzaburi from coming there.

Humbertsville: The former Baronet Humbert’s family- Freed from the Seshnelans now, they stay in the town; a new villa is built for Boamund and Cyroosta. They are still a young household. You’ve known them for years, and Boamund gets along well with them. Flute player- wife Hamduna; boy Daffafah and girl Urtatim; 2 teenage sisters—Sukaynah and Safiyyam—latter is 18 (1624), simple, super naïve; a good dancer and painter). They have a few servants, well attired and professional. All are Ashara Church worshippers (some faith from the east/Maniria), but each also revere some other gods/saints; dabbling in heresies. They are tolerant and don’t cause trouble. But Baronet Humbert, executed by the Seshnelans, is missed.

The “new” Tumbledown Inn: the old ruined tower, rebuilt even better to become a Rokari Zzaburi tower. Its former proprietor Wamni Smallboon is dead; the new one = Another Manirian man from Caroman, Zilio Quickhands; a young brewer and trader/appreciator of fine ales and such. (Bog becomes a regular customer!) The Inn, as ever, has long spiral stairs which drunks tend to fall down.

Returned: the local healer, a Wenelian (Manirian wilds) deer shaman; Old-Jin Sixtines; a friendly, silly old man with antler-headdress doing well off soothing injuries for money. He’s very welcome.

Shrett learns from the Sottogh elders and Tusynta that, while the truce with the colonists still holds, and Granno keeps the peace with the clans, and the dire enemy of the Rokari necromancers and wall-men is gone, they have no interests outside of the Giranois, and their home. It is a time for them to focus inwards, they say. Times of greater trouble will come, and they are not ready. Quick Sister lets Shrett visit her now and then, and the experiences are surreal.

The season passes. Across Giraine, there is much cause for celebration. No one goes hungry. The harvests are plentiful, and the hunting is excellent, although fishing is only satisfactory. The weather is fair—the winds are calm, with the doldrums setting in and then receding, keeping the island cool, although the swamps grow more foetid and humid. No one can remember such fine bounty. Colonists are amazed. Remarkably, the land near Fraud’s villa has the best harvests of all! And this becomes known across the settlements. But word quickly spreads of a shocking thing. For the first time that even the Girainois can remember except in ancient stories, snakes are seen on Giraine. Only small ones, and apparently harmless, and not common, but this is very new, and some find it interesting, and many people are baffled where they came from. The Giranois are of two minds about it. The frogs and toads do not like the return of their eternal predators. Seshna Gira sends Fraud many dreams, of varied comfort, with images of trees bearing ripe fruits that he knows offer her vast knowledge, and wild banquets of people and beasts deep in the fields and forests, and sex and more sex. Seshna Gira, though, sometimes sends disquieting knowledge that her body still sometimes feels pains; that things eat and dig their way through her, and there is distant rumbling that shakes her, and she does not understand it all.

But one dream is the most memorable and vivid. In it, Fraud feels the Serpent Crown calling him. He is a Talar and has touched it. He knows it now will always call to him, to bring its pieces together. Its power beckons. He could have it. Each piece has much power, but the whole is tremendous in its power. King Guilmarn’s crown grew from the largest piece, but is nowhere near what the real crown was. The pieces call to people of the right sensitivities from across the ruined land of Seshela. The calls can be overwhelming; there are so many, and so widespread. Seven alone call from the holiest place in Glorantha, Hrelar Amali, in eastern Seshnela; where Seshna’s original tomb, and many others, are. But liminal portals to the forbidden, secret places where any pieces are will only open at the right times. To have a piece of the Serpent Crown is to know new pleasures of the senses, which only Seshna can offer: sweet smells, exotic tastes, soothing sounds, luscious sights and titillating touches. Fraud could know these delights, and more. These are feelings that Rokari Zzaburi would find most distressingly irrational and blasphemous. Fraud can’t help but be tempted, more than ever, but… are there limits?

Boamund has dreams, too. His inner beast speaks to him, in beast-words that he can feel the meaning of. It calls him to vague distant lands, where the hunting is good. These lands no longer suit him; the hunting he yearns for is too sparse. His beast then slumbers.

Cyroosta perks up late in the season. She has prayed to Seshna Gira, begging to find a way back to her link with the land. She says that there are signs that she might do this through Seshna Gira, so she commits herself to trying, but nothing truly changes, although it keeps her busy.

World news: -In Fronela, the Kingdom of War continues to expands, bringing it closer to the utopian kingdom of Loskalm. In their desperation to defeat their foes, Meriatan and the Brotherhood of the Swallow of Loskalm have unleashed forbidden magics to reshape the material world. Rumours of what they have done abound, and these spread concerns about the stability of the West. Are they using Godlearner powers; would they go that far? -In Dragon Pass, the same great war rages. The Lunar Empire reels from their latest defeats, but is pushing back. However, everyone wonders about new stars in the sky since the Lunar defeat at Pennel Ford this year: Orlanth’s Ring is now composed of eleven stars instead of eight. Some say that the god Orlanth has been released from his fetters. Others say that is typical Orlanthi over-optimism.

You enjoy life; you work on your settlements; you train; and Bog becomes more and more the fearsome food critic that he might have been born to be. He has his work cut out for him—Giraine is not known for its cuisine. But to a trollish palate, there is potential! The colonists need to make better use of the local fauna—more beetle dishes please!

DARK SEASON 1624: The season changes abruptly into Dark Season. Cold winds blow strongly, consistently from the north, and grey clouds slink across the skies, sometimes bringing pounding hail. Frosts come early, and deepen, and all but the hardiest plants die or go dormant. Uncouth spirits of cold and darkness wander the night; far more than usual. Bog revels in this ideal environment, although he too feels the ominous nature of what is happening. People keep their livestock indoors much of the time, and huddle around their fires. The mood changes, from celebration of the time of plenty, to worry about future doom, with portents warning of a harsh Storm Season too, although stores of food are sure to last through the year. Giraine becomes more dangerous toward the northeast; undead and demons and spirits haunt the wilderness more, but there mostly are only minor attacks. The Dead Mists grow in the northeast, encompassing Sharde lands, including the Deep Mother shrine. The Sharde clan becomes isolated, so it moves to near New Arv and its holy ground. Behind them, Sesgallah buries their clan ground in mud to hide it. They pledge to return when they can. The Sharde, with the aid of the Sottogh, dedicate themselves to defending Burnt Priest’s Hill, keeping the Dead Mists away with what ritual magics they can muster from that place of great power. There is no sign at all for the Sharde, in terms of Deep Mother’s freedom. Elder Shoor passes on the message that her hopes have been dashed; this season betides curses, not blessings, for the Sharde. No one knows what is happening with the Huru, except that the closure of their lands remains.

Seshna Gira sends a dream to Fraud as the season begins, this time with a real message, “It is time for me to sleep again. Do not worry; I do not die, not for real. This little death is but a shedding of my skin, for rebirth in Sacred Time. You have shed your skin before, so I know you understand.” And then she no longer contacts anyone.

World news: -Prax: Argrath White Bull had already risen to the leadership of the White Bull Brotherhood amongst the Animal Nomads. He now summons the hero Jaldon Goldentooth and leads the Praxians to sack Corflu. -Argrath White Bull’s nomad horde then liberates the city of Pavis from the Lunars. The Lunar garrison refuses to surrender, but the nomads shatter the city walls. After the victory, Argrath demands the nomads put the garrison to the sword and the nomad horde sacks the city. His army is then destroyed by a giant three-armed Chaos demon named Cwim while on its way to Sartar. They limp back to Pavis. -Rebel Humakti assassinate Temertain, “Philosopher King” of Sartar and puppet of the Lunar Empire. Only one person weeps real tears at his ritual burning: his Lunar lover, Estal Donge. Telmori werewolf leader Goram Whitefang dies striving to defend his Prince, and the Telmori blood connection to the House of Sartar is severed. The Telmori Royal Guard disbands, abandoning their homes in Boldhome, and returns to the Wolf Ridges.

Ahappi enjoys slime-time with Ouwashilombiss, and revels in his new Magastan power, and gloats over completion of his family’s legacy, and feels a new bond with Pellinoresbane. It finally trusts him. Any doubts have been resolved. They are a team. And one well suited to spreading wanton destruction across the seas.

Toward the end of the 2nd week of Dark Season: Syrr Kogag returns in a new, improved, larger, elongate aeropod! He comes to New Arv and asks to meet with you. In time, you join him; all but Ahappi. (see next email)