Message:The group started in the Frontiers, hunting Orc Scalps for High Warden Bill. We completed that minor task but still found ourselves broke.
We entered the lake region and visited Skycore. The city once had a lighthouse to help warn boatsmen of the rocks right off shore. Someone should use magic and sink those, perhaps. The lighthouse is dark because the magical source that powered the light has gone missing. When asked, it was described as a car battery made of wood, a couple of electrodes with wire and alligator clamps out one side, a car recharger (to use familiar shapes). Bring it back for the gratitude of the town. Maybe impress Beefy Bob Stark. He also offers a gold reward.
Pretender to Imperial Throne, Beefy Bob Stark, a distant cousin of the King Æthelred of Mercia. Bob is ambitious but not very capable. Bob will let the players know the warning.
Warning Delivered: Inside Palace of Red Beast are obstacles, both solid or gelatinous; to cross safely the party needs to borrow a protective charm. The owner lives in Everscale Woods, a Forester, Strong Will Osiris. He is too weak currently to join you, but did lend the group his Talisman.
Forester, Weathered Will Osiris, relates that his son, Pip, was taken by the Jenolan. They plan to feed my boy to their Owl God Hibou-Chouette (Eeboo-Schwet). Will Osiris is too weak currently to join you on his quest but he lends his Talisman of Blu Guo, for vowing to undertake the rescue.
Talisman of Blu Guo is a priestly amulet once used by the caretakers. It will repulse the Gelatinous Cubes which regularly clean the place.
Off to Starcrest
The gate of the town is adorned with corpses of Jenolan. The town obviously does not have a kind word to say about these nonhumans. The townsfolk are untrusting and the local ale in the tavern is watery. The group got the impression that people believe all are spies or opportunists.
High Born Maid, Penelope, the wife of wayward Odysseus. She can provide a map to Palace of Red Beast. The maze to find the final chambers would be quite convoluted without her help. She says her husband, Odysseus, delved there. Odie made the map. On his last trip he disappeared. Bring me proof of his death. So I can gain permission from my church to remarry.
Warning delivered: Storms – The enemy controls the weather underground. The first character to use magic, success or fail, suffers Deviant Consequences.
Continues next week.
Amberfield
The town bell was ringing, though not as often as had been heard when the group entered the region. The leader is trying to let everyone know of recent danger.
The portents of the Religious Inquisitor, Quillon “The Guardian,” say that a dragon is nesting peacefully in the underworld. This monster need not be the Main Threat and perhaps is best avoided. There will be plenty of warning about the dragon’s lair. You should be able to hear it snore, smell the sulfur. The dragon is not a threat to the area, so best to leave it be and stay out of the Ziggurat of Darkness Brightpeak.
When Inga Moon commented that ringing a bell is not the best way to keep a dragon asleep, the man got sheepish and defensive.
Warning delivered: Grognards – The Jenolan are an experienced corps of drunken veterans, the sons of the sons of the sons who slaughtered the imperial janissary, monster hunters. The liquid courage ale used to soak the fatty suet the birds consume is quite potent, intoxicating and addictive. Don’t eat or drink anything inside the stronghold of the final crypt of the Shadow Prince.
Tori
Local turf fight left Inga Moon suffering a Bleeder wound. Expedition supplies were hard to scrounge. The streets of Tori are being blocked by lumpy dunes and the atmosphere seems more akin to a high-altitude plateau. The locals say they were cursed by a water Basilisk, whose touch turns a man into a pile of sand. The material stores here are very limited and expensive. They are rather certain that the Basilisk must return to the Palace of the Red Beast to spawn. You don’t need to kill the thing, only collapse the rooms leading into its mating ground.
An Officer of Renown, Aja-mu “the Hun FistFighter,” has made a cage constructed by the bones of select monsters and delvers in an interlocking lattice. He purposes you bring him along and together you can trap the Basilisk and let the cage perform an Ovariohysterectomy on the beast. The Gods might be happier if this is at least attempted since the creature is blessed by both Apollo and Odin. Aja-mu’s persuasive charm makes the act actually seem plausible. The town can offer little in the way of reward, but Aja-mu says he has resources to spare if his method is attempted.
Warning Delivered: Nomadic Huns: Remain as raiders of the Lords of Umbria. They have joined with the Eastern Centaurs and attack the knights in open warfare. The Nomads have no skill at siege craft. They seek a Magical Catapult, Wall-Crusher. Some of the Charms the player characters will collect might be used to fashion this arcane device. A larger battle here seems inevitable, as player characters gain homesteads and estates.
Bluemill
The city is closed shut, no one in or out. The alarm bell of Amberfield, across the lake, sounded yesterday. The local headman at gate, Jef Tin-Tindle, did not know why and the party did not tell him the truth of the dragon.
Warning delivered: Ancient Crypt – In both underworlds the dead were buried with their prized possessions, but those were looted ages ago. The mining broke open some of the mausoleums and protective enchantments confuse any effort to keep to a straight course.
With all the locals well conversed, plus several bands of Jenolan defeated, the group headed to the underworlds looking to breech the Palace of the Red Beast.
We hope to rescue Pip. Cage the Basilisk. Find proof of Odi’s life. Find the Lighthouse Battery. Finally, escort a group calling themselves the Young Knights on their tests of manhood.
By the end, all of us were level two.
Play continues next week.
Yours,
IronRed
02-Jul-2023