{Game clock resumes at 10:01am, 03/21/3200}
After taking a personal inventory to discover everything
that he has lost; Thingerlun decides to risk the find familiar spell and begins
making preparations to cast the ritual while the others are finding other
things to keep them busy. Bob begins an
inventory of the stuff left in the town looking for anything useful but doesn’t
find anything worth taking and he’s already rich beyond his dreams; hearn
continues to minister to the refugees and tend to the temple as well as burying
the dead. Milo cleans up after the
vampire and then takes the remains of the clerics of Ormazd up to the ossuary
for cremation. At the crest of the
western ridge, he and the folks who are helping him are given their first
glimpse of the spectral moon, glaring at them from low on the southern horizon. It is a red-ish purple-ish smear of evil
glaring down at them from the heavens.
Like the moon and everything else that moves through the heavens, there
is a slight trail of gossamer streamers behind it, but only for a short
distance. They all shudder at the ill
omen and turn to the temple to see to the dead’s last rights, but Milo is
denied access to the temple due to the wards placed around the perimeter. After about a half an hour of meditation;
Milo discovers that the ward blocking him is one that blocks the cursed from
entering the ossuary. After more meditation,
he vaguely recalls the sound of music and a scene of an empty throne.
Puzzled, they take the long trek back down to the valley to
consult with Hearn… {who promptly rolls a nat 20 on her diagnosing roll}…
“Oh my! You seem to
have contracted lycanthropy… of the were-rat variety. This isn’t the usual sort that is contracted
via a bite or scratch.” Begins checking
the others, though she has to wait for Thingerlun to stop for his evening meal
to check him out; but in the end she determines that Thingerlun and herself
are OK, but the rest have 3 weeks to find a cleric of 5th level to cast the
remove curse spell while washing them down with a tincture of wormwood and holy
water.
She continues, “This seems to be from the effects of a
bardic song of power that has twisted the fabric of your souls. I hope we can find a cleric of sufficient
strength in time to avert the curse, because if you succumb to the
transformation and pass the curse on to someone else the affliction will become
permanent.”
Bob gets a funny look in his eye… {character is already
thinking about letting himself become a were-rat… he wasn’t even dissuaded by
the idea that to maintain ‘at will’ transformations he will need to pass the
curse on to at least one other creature during the nights of the full
moon. I did point out that he’d have to surrender
himself to the Rat Gods if he wants his equipment to stay with him while in rat
form; and, he’d have to find a way to keep all of this secret from Hearn. Still thinking about it…}
Aerin doesn’t seem to be anywhere around, and no one is
particularly concerned, or even remembers that he was a part of their crew and
now gone missing. They agree that they
need to wait until the ‘anti-silver curse’ potion is finished so that they can
have their portion, but they decide to let the remaining townsfolk deal with
clearing the mine. When Pat returns for
the evening meal, Hearn tells her that she too is cursed. In the morning pat finds a bonanza of
wormwood on her daily trek through the wilds of the the valley {another nat 20,
this time on the search check} but they are still stuck without a cleric of
sufficient level to cast the spell. They
return to their duties, and Milo grants a battlefield funeral for the clerics of
Ormazd because he won’t be interred properly at the ossuary due to his affliction.
After discussing things with Archie they discover that while
the main line is operational, most of the secondary functions like
communication and such are still out. This
means that they won’t need to stop for fuel, only water. As the word of their departure starts to get around;
the refugees begin to think about leaving as well, but are split about the
idea. In the end, half decide to leave
with ‘the Saviors of Silverton’. With
only one day left on brewing the cure for the silver curse, a large caravan of
Veltoni enter the valley from the north with their characteristic fervor of
trumpets and drums. They begin to trade
with the locals that are staying, so at least the refugees won’t starve. On the last night the adventurers are
gathered together for their evening meal when Zollanna walks up to their table
within the Silver Tankard and with an imperious gaze she states the following:
“”Now that the day that Silver shows its true mettle, it is
time for us to break our silence; now I may share that which was given only for
us to know. We are Veltoni, the
‘Banished ones’ of the Gadjarria who dwell deep in the southern deserts. We are the cursed of the cursed… our entire
race doomed to search all eternity for the key that was lost. They believed that it would be found within
the dry desert sands, but our race also has the gift of prophecy, and the scion
of my ancestors believed otherwise. We
believe that the search should be widened to include all the world… for this we
were cast out, deemed heretics and persecuted.
But we have been vindicated…” and
she points to Dwight. “You have two destinies, and you must choose wisely.”
She turns and gets a bundle from one of the folds of her
skirt and places it upon the table in front of them. “We would strike a bargain with thee,” she unwraps
an ancient looking book, “This is the Tome of Al Hajduk the mad.”
Ffwylldyr falls out
of his chair backwards in his haste to get away from the book; the elven scribe
who had been consulting with them was equally surprise and his face cannot hide
his astonishment, but otherwise he is more dignified in his retreat of about 6
inches. Ffwylldyr cries out, “DON’T
touch it, everyone who has ever tried to read it has gone completely mental!” as he is getting up into his chair again.
Zollanna; “I see
you know the work… You are correct everyone who has tried to read it has lost
their minds, and we will give you the book,” she pushed it towards them
a little. “But we will trade you the
secret of safely reading it… for the key you posses and you will all owe the
veltoni a favor.”
Dwight; “I have
several… you’ll have to be more specific…”
Zollanna glares at
him and the steel in her gaze reminds him that she possesses the Evil Eye. “The
one on your chest…”
Dwight; “You mean
everyone will be bound by this?”
Zollanna; “Yes.”
Dwight; “What’s the
favor?”
Zollanna; “That is
unimportant.”
The party discusses
it for a while, but eventually they agree to the bargain on the grounds that
the sword and its quest align better to their over-arching goals to save the
Gods of the Sun and Moon. Zollanna tells
Dwight to take off his shirt and while he is doing this she explains the secret
of the tome; “It must be read by the light of the second, cursed moon of
Aereth. Only then will the meanings be
made clear and the readers will be safe.”
After this she smacks Dwight on the back of the head and catches the key
as it falls from his chest. The gold and
encrustation of gems falls away like cracked plaster to reveal a key of carved
ebony that is covered in heirogliphics. “We have a bargain.” And she turns to
walk away… “I’ll send word about the favor when the time comes.”
Dwight waits until
she and her shadowy retinue have left and then says; “I hope we didn’t just
hand over something evil to the wrong folks...”
Pat; “Too late
now.”
They divide the
rest of the time trying to identify the sword’s purposes and up on the ridge by
the ossuary reading the tome of prophesy.
Milo, Ffwylldyr, and Adwyn the elven sage spend a couple of days in the
rarified hieghts of the ossuary ridge using the reletivly unfiltered light of
the Dread Moon to read the long forgotten words of Deqqem al-Hajduk. They don’t have the time to ponder all of the
tomes words, with much debate by the three of them, they deduce the following:
***
(The blue text refers to that which the tome helps them to decipher)
In the time of madness, when Dread Moon and Silver burn the
mind,
Then our brightest hope shall we find.
Reference to the tainted silver
and the second moon of Áereth,
Reference the discovery of the
‘Eye of night’
The suns bright orb along winding course it runs,
Scrabbling through the muck until darkness comes.
This is a reference to the
winding journey that the gem has taken through history,
Followed by a reference to the
death of Thistle in the muck of the mines of Silverton.
Wilted
rose in vile darkness the suns fruit shall bear,
To the ones who for the
world still care.
Only
then dream of hope, if we dare.
This is the reference to the ‘Eye of
Night being handed over to the players,
The reference that tells them they
have a chance to stop all of this from happening
If all is lost, and hope doth not the bright future make,
If the heroes fail…
The
Great Enemy shall the Rod of Heaven take,
To
slay the Great Lovers and the world unmake.
The great rod of the heavens will be
remade by some misguided mortal fool and it will be stolen and taken up by the
forces of Zhühn the Destroyer.
Love is lost and Void’s rage unbound;
The sun and moon shall be destroyed
when Ormazd and Shul are slain as a result of this catastrophe. The Destroyer will be unbound from its
prison.
Darkness covers all, and tears abound,
When Daenthar’s beard is shorn.
The gears will turn ‘round,
This is the tricky part of the
cryptogram… everything hinges on the definition of Daenthar’s Beard. While Deaenthar is the Dwarf Father maker and
God of the Dwarven race, but to the humans he is the Lord of elemental Earth
and his beard is a reference to the vegetation of Áereth. This is a reference to the fact that if they
fail, there will come a time of darkness where only starlight will be available
and all of the plants will die… there will be much suffereing.
As new hope is found,
When the Golden Child is reborn.
Even if all fail in their tasks, there is hope. The lord Ormazd is known as the Phoenix Lord
for a reason… He will be reborn and the
world will bloom again as long dormant seeds germinate, but the Moon Goddess
will still be dead. The fragments of the
moon will continue to rain down…
-Al
Hajduk the mad, -644DC
Daqqem
al-Hajduk was a Cleric of Ormazd, lived in a remote (read as long lost) temple
in the heat blasted mountains of the Lost-lands of the southern half of the
continent. It is said that during the
great battle between Cadixtat & Telius this maddened monk wrote with such
passion and frenzy that when there was no more ink to be had… he began using
his own blood. His frenzy was so
profound that none dared to approach and in the end, the monk died from his
self-inflicted wounds. But his book of
prophesies was completed. There is only
one copy, as any who have tried to duplicate its words have lost their sanity
in the process.
After telling his story and giving them the prophecy,
Thistle had said: “Bryllythaxsarym…” and then he died.
There is some debate among the
Elf the bard and the elven sage concerning who or what this is in reference to…
They suspect that this is a dragon’s name.
The book of prophesy says that Bryllythaxsarym was a golden dragon in anient times. This gargantuan creature of shining gold
scales, awesome wingspan, and ferocious fangs and claws was a disciple of
Ormazed and the last known creature granted the knowledge of al-Hajduk’s
words. Acting upon the knowledge laid
down upon those pages the dragon orcistrated the repopulation of the northern
half of the continent. This dragon then
acted as the anchient masters of the Khonsurian Empire had many eons ago; he
shaped the destinies of thousands according to the wisdom of al-Hajduk for
the one thin hope of success it could manifest. Milo is haunted by its similarity of the
dragon’s name to the name of the head of his order: Bryllyth Axsarym III, the
Holy Flame Incarnate for the Church of Ormazd.
***
When they return to
the lowlands, they turn to the new sword that Dwight has retrieved (he has told
them who he suspects the sword belongs to based upon the carvings on the wall
in the tomb and the knowledge the skeleton imparted to them back in the
dungeon, but he has not revealed to them how he came by the knowledge of the
sword’s location… Until now, Dwight has
refused to unwrap the sword, as he has figured out that keeping it wrapped up
is the equivalent of putting a leather hood onto a falcon to calm it down. Even still, Dwight is visited by the rather
certain sence that the sword has a particular creature in mind, and that the
sword will do anything to make sure that this vile creature dies.
Dwight’s warrior
training covered the basics of magic swords and the dangers of using one
without knowing its goals and desires first; and he can feel the sword’s aura
even while it is not in his hands. He
also notices that his other magic sword seems cowed in the new swords presence;
this leads Dwight to beleave that this new sword is a truly powerful weapon. Dwight unwraps the hilt to view and the bard
confirms this by checking it out, “Yes, this is definitely the sword of Arden
Brightheart. I can see the sigils that
correspond to his ownership, but it is much older than that. Acording to the legends, this sword was last
used at the end of the wars of Nimorian expantionism. Lord Brightheart used it to secure the last defencable
ford across the Arval river in a last desperate defense of Kothia. Lord
Brightheart slew the dark creature that led the Nimorian troops. The sword is supposed to remain within the
temple as proof against the creature’s return…”
The Sword;
“AHA! At last someone….” The rest is
muffled as Dwight wraps it up again.
Ffwylldyr; “It
probably knows more about itself than we do, perhapse we should listen to it?”
Dwight just shrugs
and goes back to packing his bags for their departure. In the morning they all report to the station
where Archie has hitched up a fuel and baggage car as well as a passenger car
for the reffugees that are leaving the valley.
Thingerlun comes along a few minutes later after the culmination of his
spell… all the ingredients and the sigils chalked out on the ground burst into
gold and purple flames. Nothing arrived
after the smoke and sparks, but he definitely knows that he succeeded… he can
feel the distant touch of another mind.
All he can tell is that it can fly… {spell check modified up to a 20,
but there is another bonus he isn’t aware of…}
Thingerlun; “With
my luck, it’ll be the dung beetle…”
They each get 2
potions of ‘silver cure’ and climb aboard the engine, taking their various
stations: Ffwylldyr in the passenger car with the townsfolk, Thingerlun is
stationed on top by the spell cannon and reminded that guild law prohibits him
from entering the inner workings of the Engine.
The rest of the party space themselves out along the top of the three
cars and are aided by a few of the caravan guards that are among the refugees,
and they discover that the Daenkelden (male dwarf) named Tavok the Weaponsmith whom
they rescued has found his cash of equipment somewhere and he offers his
services as caravan guard for a price.
They point out that he’ll get fed and he won’t get left behind… so he
agrees to help them guard the caravan. Tavok heads to the back of the last car and
uses the integrated climbing harness in his armor to tie himself to the
railing. He then pulls out twin
springbolters and starts to wind their clockwork mechanisms with a key that he
keeps on a chain about his neck.
Archie has informed
them that while the cars are now under the roads power, they are stuck at about
8mph with the passengers and the winding mountain road. Still, they only need to stop for 30min out
of each day to take on water; and that is only out of necessity for the
passangers, minor steam gear, and cooking. The cars can be operated in shifts
allowing them to make it to Grenvec in 3 days; he reminds them that this is
still much faster than it took them to get to the valley of Silverton. The last thing he tells them before they
start off is: “Keep a sharp watch!
Springtime in the mountains isn’t for the timid, everything out there is
hungry… and you’ll find that our maximum speed isn’t quite so impressive when
something is trying to run us down.”
The engine is as
massive as it ever was, and is impressive even if the snow plow has been folded
back into storage. The second car is
about half the height of the engine (15ft) and its interior space is divided
into two large storage area’s; the larger is about 2/3 the size of the car and
is half full of coal and the other is full of random equipment and spare parts. There is a double door on one side of the
car, but each compartment only has one side door for access as well as 1 or two
roof hatches. Like the engine and the
passenger car, there are 2.5ft tall railings all the way around the top that create
an area for bulk cargo, but it is empty for this trip. The passenger car is 5ft taller than the fuel
car and has several interior levels. The
bottom most level is for gear-works and baggage, the next level is for second
class seating with several rows of four seats divided by a center isle. The third deck is for the lounge and galley,
while the fourth deck has luxury accomodations that has several rooms which are
quite comfortable. Third class seating
is available on the top of the car where folks usually squat down amongst their
luggage and hope for the best. Archie
keeps the luxury floor off limits, but everything else is available for
use. There is still no food other than
the magic bento box.
***
Several hours
later, after having climbed out of the Silver Vale, they were heading east through the mountains towards
the place where their adventure first began. The last rays of the sun warming them as the Phoenix Lord begins to drop
below the mountains; the glare makes spotting the sillouettes of the stone
giants hard to make out at first, but Bob gives them all a warning at the last
moment. Fortunately the first volley of
4 boulders flew wide of their marks, and one of the stone giants seemed to do
himself harm on the throw. The crew of
the wagon-train manages to cause a bit of damage to the giants on their turn,
but Thingerlun missed with the spell cannon and not everyone has a ranged
weapon. It is determined that Milo can
operate the cannon, and for the next round Thingerlun will use his spells; but
the giants have better aim on their next set of throws. One of the boulders strikes the fuel and
storage car squarely on the side panels, but the doors are on the opposite side
and rmain intact. The force of the
impact lurched the mostly empty car sideways and causing the train to bend
awkwardly and shudder violently enough to knock Pat over the side. She tumbles safely to the ground; no one but
Bob noticed, so he yelled something about it to the others and lept off the car
after her. The train keeps rolling
without slowing.
Several vollys
later sees the defenders reduced by one as one of the refugees acting as
caravan guard is carried off by a boulder and the group of stone giants (CCD
build; 1 adult and 3 junior stone giants) are rather beaten up from the spell
cannon on the engine, and a rather well done magic missile attack from
Thingerlun. The irony however, is that
Pat was able to sprint back to safety the very next round and Bob decided that
since he was already there… he may as well sneak up on the giants and cause
some damage and confusion. Bob managed
to ghost his way up the hill and successfully sneak around behind the stone
giants just in time to see all but their leader run away in fear of the superior
firepower. Bob’s successful back-stab
managed to do damage to the giant’s tender bits… causing severe pain in the
victim; unfortunately for Bob, this didn’t cause the giant to lose
consciousness. It did cause the creature
to lose his action for the next round, and when he stood up to scream he became
an easy target for Thingerlun. Bob and
Thingerlun both attacked in succession with Bob not aware of the magical volley;
but it was Thingerlun who managed to deliver more than double the giant’s
remaining hit points in damage from a volley of magic missiles in the form of
sperkling arrows. The giant simply
vaporized… and Bob now thinks his dagger is much more dangerous than he
previously estimated.
{Game clock
suspended around sunset on the first of March, 3200}
