# Haraiva in Darkness - Greybar's Storyhour (9/15 update)



## Greybar (Mar 26, 2003)

pre-script:
I've been meaning to do this for some time, and there is a lot of material and gaming sessions to draw from.  I plan to sketch out elements gone before and perhaps go back to update them into proper story hours as time and feedback dictates.

There is now a Haraivan Rogues' Gallery open for those interested.

The Rogues' Gallery will be off-limits for my players.  I'll be putting the opposition up there, as well as sidebars that are not for player consumption - primarily to help spur thoughts on how I can make the next plot twists and opposition better.

I hope you enjoy it,
John


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## Greybar (Mar 26, 2003)

Many years ago, before the demons came and drove the humans from the shores, before the Seabreath shook their bodies with fevers and their minds with madness, the children of Hara lived in seven great cities.  In Luinlassa, the City of Light, there came together six who would become heroes.  As with most heroes, they had no idea what they were getting into.  Their adventures began with an unusual theft from Berke's workshop, and led them to things beyond any of their experience.  A clash between gods, the freeing of an ancient power, and the rise of a power-hungry priestess who desired nothing less than immortality. Caught between powers beyond their reckoning they were defeated: transformed into six statues with a sweep of power they could not contest.

*Arlissa Lassa* - Arlissa had a particularly vivid soul-dream as a young girl during the ceremony that took her into the company of the Sunborn. It was of a terrible fallen star, some fallen immortal soul of a Sunborn, that would bring terrible destruction upon the cities of the Haraivans. From this dream, she knew to seek out Malassa HeisaLassa, an Elder Priestess of Lassa who also looked for this dark star. With other members of the so-called Cult of the Watchers, she saw the sigil of this prophetic dream begin.  Now her faith and channeling of divine power are called upon to turn back the darkness.

*Daphna Lassa* - Raised in the crèche of House Lassa, Daphna was quickly recognized for her strength, agility, and will to succeed. Thus, she began the training that would lead her into the cadre of House Lassa. She was taught the skills and arts that are needed to defend the House against the machinations of other Houses. Blessed by the divine touch, she swore to aid and defend Arlissa against the coming doom.

*Berke* - Berke is a Moonborn, but one who was never overly interested in the manly professions of war, song, and field. Instead, had a great talent as an artisan, and a maker of things. This talent was recognized during the great festival of the Kuriltai, and he became one of the men who are taken into the city to serve House Lassa. But his great work for the coming Kuriltai was a mechanical cat, with a purring heart made from two green-pebbled stones taken as spoils from a lizardman. But when the cat was first wound, and the stones began to purr, something happened that was quite beyond his expectations. 

*Samus the Lucky* - Samus is still a young man, but has served in a major conflict with the Lizardmen of the dark swamps. From this he carries a certain prejudice against the scaly and savage beasts. He has been astounded to discover that they do appear to have some form of speech, if primitive and gutteral compared to the flowing elegance of the Moonborn tongue. 

*Balius* - Balius was born the son of Xanthus, a bard of some small repute among the Moonborn, and still carries his father's lyre. His mother is a matter of some mystery and rumor. While Balius was still a small child, Xanthus set forth to wander beyond the fringes of Haraivan settlements. They lived for a while with the Karranas, until Xanthus' untimely death. Balius was then raised with the Karranas, and has become good friends with Karrinkas, who acts much as an older brother and guardian to him. Balius has a love of language, and has even learned a few words of the Lizardmen's speech. During his adventures, he has even begun to understand some of their ancient writing. 

*Karrinkas* - Karrinkas is the sole Karranas in the group, and he sometimes has trouble understanding their strange ways. Unlike the Sunborn, Karrinkas is quite at home in the uncivilized lands, where his skills and speed are so valuable. Direct in his speech and actions, Karrinkas has always been in the forefront of the dangers of the group.


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## Greybar (Mar 26, 2003)

*Tales of a Stone*

A hawk cries out as it circles above the encampment.  Around the cleared area, archers stand in small clusters, their bows in hand, with the feel of those who are not quite safe. A blue and white pavillion is being raised, an imperious woman calling out orders in crisp sun-tongue. In one corner, two workers struggle to place man-sized statues of stone.

"Why did we have to bring these statues? Let the demons have them, for all I care.", says the voice of young man.

A deeper, older voice responds slowly, "She likes them, I guess. You heard the order same as I."

"Well, I'm glad to be away from the cursed sea, and that's good enough for me."

"Hey, what are you, a bard? Now quit your yapping and help me lift this damned cat-beast."

"Why do some of these have their heads wrapped?"

"Well, you ever seen someone turned to stone?" The older voice softens and becomes quiet as he continues, "I've seen it once. A woman who kept shouting out how the Matriarch had betrayed Hara. The Matriarch had her stripped, chained and cuffed, and then started the stoning at her feet, real slow like. The old woman was defiant about until it got to her ankles. Then she started pleding for mercy. By the time it got to her waist, she was begging for death. After that, she was just wild with pain. I've never seen anyone look like that. All her muscles were standing out like twisted ropes. And the last part was her face. You could hear a whimpering scream with her last breath. If you ever wonder why some of the statues have bags over their heads, that's why. No one wants to see that kind of pain."

There is a brief quiet, and then the young voice begins a bit softer than before, "Why don't these have horrible faces then?"

"These are some of the oldest, I think. The newer they are, the more painful they look. I think she's getting better at it... I think she enjoys it."

A strong female voice suddenly interrupts in precise Sun-tongue, "You there, finish up with those statues and then help with the woodcutters. They may come in the night, and we'll need a palisade and fires."

"Yes, Lady!", both men respond, audibly snapping to attention. 

The hawk screeches again as it patrols the sky where dark thunderclouds gather in the afternoon light.

(Edited for readability -john)


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## Greybar (Mar 26, 2003)

*Darkness Befalls the Light  - Arlissa's Dream*

_While imprisoned as statues, the heroes had visions or dreams.  How or why they aren't entirely sure yet._
---

You are held, in the midst of your prayers, and the sounds of battle are now long past. 

Darkness is a heavy blanket drawn over your face, suffocating, warm, and binding. Your mind seems slow, your body a dull and distant ache that refuses to respond. But somewhere in the distance, in the backmost corners of your mind, there is a pin-prick, a glistening spark. The light is warm, familiar, and your soul takes strength from this. 

A dull thudding intrudes on your consciousness. Rhythmic, rising then falling, then rising faster still. Then it stops, and in the distance now intrudes voices, mumbled and tossed as they come to you, as if from around a mountain pass. Short clipped speech, with a hint of fear and anxiousness giving it energy. The rhythmic beat begins anew, stronger. 

The spark whispers to you with a voice of beauty, "The light shall not be lost, but only hidden in shadow to be rekindled when it is needed." 

A coolness intrudes, a creeping shadow. Fear itches at some deep prey-animal root of your mind. Quick, sharp cold pain, and darkness swallows the spark.
Suffocating.
Dark.
Sleep comes like a sap on the back of the neck.


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## Greybar (Mar 26, 2003)

*The Terror of Luinlassa*

You walk through the streets of Luinlassa, the last light of the sun glints along rooftops, but the streets are already buried in shadow. Never could you have dreamed of a scene like this. Some of the houses are burned out, their clay and stone walls blackened. Others have all of their windows and doors barricaded. One has its defenses ripped open, and dried blood cakes the threshold. Something moves deep in the shadows, moving low across the ground. 

A shadowy veil passes over your senses... 

You find yourself entering the foyer of main House of Llassa. The great doors, of dark iron inlaid with brilliant gold, now lie on the floor amidst the shattered wood of what once must have been a barricade. The lone shield of a Llassan cadre captain lies on the ground, the upper half of its circular sun-form crushed down and back from some mighty blow. The remains of a shattered helm and another shield are dashed into the corner. But no bodies remain here, only blood and destroyed implements of a final defense. 

And again you fade... 

As you enter the main hall, you see that paintings of the past Matriarchs that once lined the wall now lie in tatters on the floor. At the end of the hall stands a great statue of Llassa, Daughter of Light. Sunborn corpses are piled around Her feet, stripped of their armor and clothes. You recognize some of the members of the Matriarch's personal guard, their powerful bodies now broken and bloodied. The Captain's head has been ripped from her shoulders by some powerful claws, and is impaled on the shattered femur of some unrecognizable sunborn form. Blood and some dark excrement has been splashed upon the pure white stone of Her statue. Some of the gold has been hacked away, and the Chalice of the Undying Flame has been removed from her hand. 

... 

Now upon stairs, dimly lit and very familiar. A door hangs on a lower hinge, a tremendous blow of a great mace or similar weapon having smashed through its latches. The light from the room beyond flickers, a though by a single flame. You step in to see Malassa HiesaLassa's private study. It was here that you first met her, and that she told you that she knew your soul-dream. Here that she invited you after your combat practice, to cool your blood, relax your swordarm, and enlighten your mind. Across one of her comfortable chairs is sprawled a strange beast. Human-like, but with green skin and rough scales, and a crest running from crown the upper back. Long talons have torn at the chair, apparently in death convulsions, for there is a hole burned through its torso from front to back. Another strange beast, more like a red-skinned hound, lies a few feet further. Then the body of a moon-born warrior, a bow just beyond his fallen hand. His skin seems dyed in riotous twists of green, red, and black. Around him the floorboards are burnt and broken.
And just beyond the warrior's body sits Malassa, collapsed in her favorite white painted leather chair. Her robes are torn with great tracks of bestial claws, through to blood-covered skin. Her right hand holds a golden wand, wound with fine gold and silver wire. Her fingers are slack, and the wand has almost slipped to the floor. Her left hand is clenched around an arrow that has pierced her just above the right collarbone. The golden links of her necklace shine through the still wet blood. 

The wand tumbles to the ground, and Malassa's body twitches. Her eyelids open, and her gaze rolls about the room, but does not seem to focus. Her eyes roll into the back of her head, and in a pain-filled voice she speaks:
"I always throught that you two, young as you are, would be able to shine through this. I am sorry that I had no more time before you could arrive. Her light brings me visions, and we have secret allies. Listen while I have strength, lest my message not make it through its long journey." 

Her body jumps suddenly, and blood trickles from the corner of her mouth. Then she begins to chant, at first in slow quiet whispers, 

"Many are the ways in which evil is quenched,
But many are the wardings that power can raise,
Paths I have begged for, hints to the way,
Yet I know many listen to what I can say:"


"She shall rule for three hundred years,
And then she will rule for three thousand more,
If she is not faced anew by those who are old,
Reborn by sacrifice of one of the lost,"


Her eyes roll down again and her body heaves, and she coughs more blood upon her robes, now more red than white. You feel her focus her eyes on you for a moment, and you almost see recognition on her face. Then pain visibly wracks her, and her voice is broken as she spits blood, saying: 

"From the water shall be called the oldest stones,
From the earth shall be raised the oldest bones,
Dark paths and those of light,
Similar journeys, different destinations,"


"From the fire can be claimed the fallen blade,
From the air can be heard the secret of no words,
Secrets from deep waters,
Speaks the mother of the lost ... "


There is a gurgling sound from her throat, and her body tumbles out of the chair. You reflexively try to leap to her, and your point of view shifts slightly, as if you started to move and then halted. The wand bounces and drops into a blackened gap in the floor. She lifts her head, and you can just barely make our her voice... 

"Seek the souls of those she doomed,
Those drowned in stone and drowned in sea,
...."


Her voice trails off, and her body is still.


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## Piratecat (Mar 28, 2003)

Cool prophecy. I like. How'd the PCs respond?

On a meta note, I find it really hard to read those entries that don't have fully blank lines between paragraphs.  I don't know what it is about these boards, but it makes a big difference for me.

Anyways, more!


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## Greybar (Mar 28, 2003)

Hey Piratecat, you're right those are harder to read.  Edit forthcoming and I'll watch for that.  Note to myself when cut'n'pasting into the posting.

That prophecy is one that the players are taking as their great over-arcing mission.  As such, they've figured out the bulk of it.  I'll need to make some "Academic" posts such as Seasong's story hour to fill in general readership.  I'll hoping I'll get good questions from it as well.

John


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## Karrinkas (Mar 28, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> *As such, they've figured out the bulk of it.*




We Have?!? Good to know.



			
				Piratecat said:
			
		

> *Cool prophecy. I like. How'd the PCs respond?*




I think it was something along the lines of:

"You shot who in the what now?!"


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## Greybar (Mar 28, 2003)

Aha! The players begin to arrive.  Wonderful.
Shucks, now that you've made a Karrinkas account it makes it harder to kill ya off.

Well, in that case it is only appropriate to post one of Karrinkas's dreams.  Karrinkas is a Karranas, and has a somewhat different outlook on things than the hoo-mans.  One other slight complication is that he is not literate in the languages of the Haraivans.

---
You dream that you are silently stalking forward, low and on all fours between the brush. The early summer sun has begun to set as you creep along the line of the hill. You have passed a few outer scouts who generally are more concerned with gossip than holding a good perimeter. Their attention seems turned to the city beyond the hill, before which is a huge host of humans. Never have you seen such a number in one place. The Claw Lake Tribe could be repeated a double-handful times over before it matched this host in number. They seem to intend to do something you've never heard the humans to do: to actually attack and breach the walls of a City. But their warriors do not seem to relish this though. Unlike any other gathering of human warriors, they do not boast and sing as the sun falls, but instead sit together quietly in their camps. 

The sun casts its rays redly across the field, and campfires begin to dot between the tents. A steady clanging catches your attention, and you creep toward vantage point to see a big pavillion of black and silver. A man in a long dark robe slips between the guards and into the tent, and they seem to take no notice of him. The clanging continues for a while, and there is a great shout of man that carries power and pain. 

In that instant, there is the booming sound of thunder, rolling across the fields, and the fading sunlight begins to dim faster. You look to the sky and see a great dark thundercloud sweeping in from the north, with lightning dancing across its surface. Then you hear a collective gasp from the encampment, and you see many of the humans look to the south. From the sea is a sight that makes fur bristle. A cloud, a mass, a fog of shifting, glowing greens and blacks and reds rises from the south winds. The line where the two great forces meet is seething with brilliant explosions of dark color and brilliant bolts of lightning. They push and receed from each other, then meet again. 

There is a terrible crackling, and you look up again to see a dagger of flourescent green stabbing deep into the heart of the thundercloud. Lightning begins to spray haphazardly across the thundercloud, and then begins to reach down for the ground. With a sudden stroke, a bolt slams into one of the large tents, and the horrified screams of men wild with pain. You can see a strange rain fall, only from the strange cloud, and only on the army encampment. The men seem to be trying to get out of the rain, which seems to almost glow in colors itself. 

You look up again to see the thundercloud shattered in a burst of red and green light. Against this light you can just make out the figure of a human-like figure, falling from the cloud. As you squint, you see a sudden form race in from the north. It looks like a man on the back of some great beast which strides through the air as if along land (1). The rider stretches forth his hands, and snatches the falling man from the air, swinging him to lie limp across the back of his steed. The rider and beast then turn back north again, pacing the wind. 

With a roar of sound, bolts of color chase after the rider and the axe-warrior. The bolts explode into the fleeing figures but cannot drop them. But from the senseless hand of the fallen man, you see something fall. It drops out of your sight behind trees, and suddenly the very earth beneath you leaps, and you clutch at the ground with all your claws. 

The strange rain, and cloud, seem to begin to fade away. You down up to see the black and silver tent collapse. In it, you see the dark-robed man. He is kneeling over a man on a pallet, and then rises with a flash of metal in his hand. Then he gathers his robes around him and disappears into the mob of humans. 

Then, beyond the encampment you hear a crashing sound, and from the shore you see men coming towards the camp. But you immediately recognize them as not normal humans, but the blue-skinned men (2) that you saw so long ago, after you first came to the human city of Luinlassa with Balius. They are naked, and each seems to carry long white spears. They move slowly, methodically, and silently, with no calls to battle, horns or banners. There seems to be a continuous line of them from the sea, marching a dozen men across. Some part of you knows there will be a terrible massacre, and your consciousness fades away. 
---
(1) There are no horses in the Haraivan area, though they have been known to ride on the tops of oxen.  Bulls, sacred to Tangri Moonfather, are even used as steeds by some holy warriors.
(2) Servants of Aquella Firstborn, best described as undead of the drowned and damned.


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## Indigo Veil (Mar 28, 2003)

Yay! Another Story Hour to read! ^.^ Your Iron DM entries so impressed me, Greybar, that as soon as I read that you've started your own SH, I rushed over to read it, and what an excellent read it's been so far! (Mmmm, nothing like starting a campaign off with severed heads and impalement. 
.. =^_^=..)

Looking forward to reading more! ^_^


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## Greybar (Mar 28, 2003)

Welcome, welcome.  I'm a big fan of your and Seasong's Queen of Shadows as well.

Severed heads and impaling.  Hmm.  That's come up again recently come to think of it.  Hey, what can I say, it's classic bad-guy stuff (or bad gal, perhaps).

Looking over the posts, I see that I'd better introduce the difference between Moonborn and Sunborn.  This was once of the germ ideas for the setting, so it is spread all through things.  So in tribute to Seasong, I'll present an Academia

*Academia - Haraivan Gender Divisions*

*Sunborn*:
Metaphysical - Women are considered to spring from Hara Sunmother.  They have immortal souls, and if they acheive great enough things then they can rise at death to become new stars in the heavens.
Roles - Sunborn are the authority in the cities, within the Wall of Stone.  They dominate over politics and religion, which are themselves closely tied together.

*Moonborn*:
Metaphysical - Men spring from Tangri Moonfather.  They have reincarnate souls, and thus sometimes carry bits from the past into the present.  Old rivalries that keep reoccuring may indeed be because two great souls keep reincarnating back into the same area and time.
Role - Moonborn hold authority over the domain beyond the city, between the Wall of Stone and the Wall of Wood.  They are better known as warriors, craftsmen, and bards.

Each speaks a slightly variant language and script, though if you know one then you can understand the other quite well.  Consider it similar to the difference between UK English and American English in that sense.  The Sunborn language is crisp and precise, though capable of great sophisticated nuance.  The Moonborn tongue is much more lyrical and flowing, matching well to epic poems of ancestral deeds.


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## Greybar (Mar 28, 2003)

*House and Clan*

*Houses*
The Sunborn nobility is organized into Houses. The Houses are the most powerful social and cultural organizations within the Cities, and arguably in Haraivan culture. These Houses have precise structural boundaries that define where any sunborn stands in the social order, from the Matriarch to the newest daughter in the caste. It is quite possible for a Sunborn to rise in station by her deeds, but much expectation is made based upon her bloodline.

There are generally several Houses in a given City. Of these, the Great Houses are those who rule the City, while the Lesser Houses can merely dream and scheme to rule. Traditionally, Houses claim descendance from one of the Eight Daughters, and most of the Great Houses claim elder descendance. A House that was a Great House in one city may have "sister houses" in other cities from their own lineage, which fulfill some ambassadorial purposes. There also are "splinter houses", where a division in a House has expelled a group to another city.

Houses are physically represented by the buildings that occupy space in the tightly-built cities. A defilement of the buildings of the House is an attack on that House, and their design and beautification demonstrates their power and influence.
In each House, below the lineage proper are the servants. Both Moonborn and Sunborn servants do much of the work that keeps both the personages and the physical structure of the Houses in the manner to which they are accustomed. Slaves rarely work in the Houses proper, unless a particularly choice high-born or high-skill slave was taken or condemned.

Sunborn often have little understanding of the raucous and chaotic Clans of the Moonborn, though the wise treat them with respect. The lack of a clear and persistent leader of the Moonborn often frustrates them.

*Clans*
The Moonborn organize themselves in much more chaotic a fashion than their Sunborn counterparts. While lineage is a matter of great pride for a Moonborn, what sets a great man apart is his confidence, his skills, and his deeds. Such a man calls to him a band, first usually from his kin, who share then in his glory. Particularly in his youth, he is expected to have martial skills and gain stature in the Kuriltai. (Those whose glory comes from bardic or artisan roots generally do not gain a following until late in a renowned career.) As his band grows, it eventually becomes recognized as a Clan by others, and its leader as a Clanhead. This is not at any defined boundary, but a matter of social respect. Many an arrogant young moonborn has tried to lay claim as a Clanhead, only to be laughed at in disrespect. A bard of sharp wit has been known to be the foil of many such a presumptuous man.

Together, these Moonborn leaders convene a Council of Clans, before the Kuriltai and at any other time of great need. Bards travel over the lands surrounding the city, calling men to join with those they call Clanhead to come. Decisions are made by this council by a rough form of representative democracy, where a consensus is reached when Clanheads create a plurality, even if the measure of such is that of loud voices and demands.

By contrast, Moonborn see the Sunborn as cold and ordered, caring only for lineage. But for centuries the Sunborn have effectively dominated the Moonborn. Thus there is a respect for the power of the Matriarch that may be more powerful than respect for the greatest of the Clanheads, but a respect that comes more from fear than love.

*Noble vs. Common*
The noble (or traditional) members of each society follow these archetypes most strongly.  There are certainly males within the cities, subservient to the Sunborn who control it.  There are also common-born women outside of the cities, under the political control of the Clanheads.  The farther you move from power, the less the distinction between Sunborn and Moonborn has real meaning.  Some women in far-flung villages may only speak the sun-tongue with their daughters in private "girl talk" and in ceremonies for Hara or the Daughters.  Some men working menial jobs in the city only speak the moon-tongue amongst themselves, and prejudice against its flowing accent might disadvantage them with their Sunborn bosses.


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## seasong (Apr 1, 2003)

Knew I'd been missing something!  Sweet!

've been jonesing to read this since you posted the tidbit about the spiritual split between the sunborn and moonborn in my story hour, oh, AGES ago. Nice website content, by the way!


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## Greybar (Apr 1, 2003)

Seasong: Thanks for the kind words.

I'll be right up front and say that the setting is challenging to me as a GM.  It is one of those ideas that seems cool, but presents lots of detail problems.  It's the general problem of doing something different from the worlds we understand.  What kind of romance plots are there if the genders are so divided?  Well, we have _Anda_ or blood-brother relationship, which harkens to the Ancient Greek-y ideas of homosexual love being the "true" love and heterosexual love being perhaps secondary and a duty.  How are children raised?  Well, maybe there are creches on both sides of the gender divide?

Anyway, I enjoy feedback from my players (and others) but I've got a jealous and possessive creative heart that sometimes makes me slow to incorporate these things if they don't "feel right".  I'm working on that.  In fact, I owe one of my players a response on the subject of calendars. [makes note to self]

And I probably owe everyone else here an update or so...

John


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## Indigo Veil (Apr 1, 2003)

<gives Greybar a gentle nudge towards an update> ^_^

Like the language differences, and I rather like the gender divide. makes for interesting dynamics. i'd like to see what happens to the development of a woman who runs with the moonborn clans when she suddenly finds herself in a sunborn place of power. ooh, the culture clash!

some (maybe stupid) questions: with the metaphysical stuff, is that the stuff that _is_, or just what the people believe? Or both? (doesn't have much to do with anything...I'm just curious)

with the creches on both sides of the gender divide: I can see this more easily with the moonborn clans than I can with the city dwelling sunborn...

what happens to boys born to noble houses of sunborns? since powerful sunborns tend to live in cities, how do their sons gain that martial prowess that would most easily be obtained by running around in the wilderness? Or is that something you're still working out?

thanks for the linkie, btw. ^_^


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## Greybar (Apr 2, 2003)

Update coming after this post...



> with the metaphysical stuff, is that the stuff that is, or just what the people believe? Or both?




Hah! Won't catch me tipping my hand to the players that easily.  They have yet to explore the realms of the dead.  Let me just say that they have no reason to believe that what the priestesses teach them is not true.



> what happens to boys born to noble houses of sunborns? since powerful sunborns tend to live in cities, how do their sons gain that martial prowess that would most easily be obtained by running around in the wilderness? Or is that something you're still working out?




It is indeed a point that tripped me up at first.  The sons of powerful sunborn are probably sired by moonborn of a roughly equivalent rank as a result of politics or the rewards of a Kuriltai victory.  As such, they go back to their fathers to be raised outside of the city.  If they are by-blows of a less exalted union, they join the ranks of the metaphorically nameless and unseen people who actually keep the city working.

John


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## Greybar (Apr 2, 2003)

*"Lit by the loneliest light", part one*

[Disclaimer: This actual gaming session took place in July of 2001.  As such, I'm liberally putting words in the character's mouths from memory and notes.  My players may chime in and remind me of things that I'll edit in later. -john]

Awake.  Dark.  Water.  Drowning!

Moments ago they were dreaming, moments before that they were confronting a huge giant who supported on his palm the Matriarch Gorkana.  He laughed at their resistance to him, laughed at the lizardmen and the humans, and with a wave of his hand turned them all to stone.  Stone no longer, now water threatens to fill their lungs.

Splashing they fight to the surface of the water, and grope out the rough rock edge of the pool they had been submerged in.  Each still wears the same equipment they wore unknown time ago.  For Daphna, this means her leather and metal cadre armor.  Normally it protects her life, but now it threatens to drown her.  Karrinkas pulls himself out onto the stone pool's edge.  His highly trained ears take in the splashing and shouting bouncing off the enclosing walls of a small cave around them.  His eyes adjust to the sole source of light, a small candle set several feet away from the deep pool that the others are still struggling to emerge from.  With a quick dive, he is back in the water to help Balius lift Daphna out.  Samus drops his heavy greataxe in the pool so he can get his arms over the lip of the pool, and hopes he won't need it again too quickly.  Arlissa's staff clears the water, leading her into the light.

"Ahhhhwwww.  More stone!" Berke screams.  He clears the edge of the pool and sees himself trapped in stone - a cave with no exits.  He smacks his broad hands against the walls, searching for passages and finding none.

The others crouch at the edge of the pool, gasping for breath.  Balius and Arlissa cautiously approach the lone candle and the oiled pouch wrapped next to it.  It contains a few candles, flint and steel, ink and quill, a set of simple clothing, two scraps of paper, and a battered metal ring. Arlissa picks up the first of the notes, which looks worn and faded.  She reads aloud:

“The oldest six stones
To end the longest reign
Each in secret pools
Mingled with life's waters
Lit by the loneliest light”

Samus' voice comes from the pool.  "Umm.  Did the rest of you notice the body?"

Arlissa leans forward and calls the blessings of Llassa, Daughter of Light, upon the tip of her staff.  White light shines against their eyes, cuts through the water, and throws the rough stone walls into sharp shadows.  Indeed, a body does lie at the bottom of the pool.  A naked sunborn of perhaps 30 years, wearing only a metal belt to which are attached large stones.

With some effort, her body is extracted and laid upon the shelf of the pool.  Her wrists and ankles are sliced and bloody, but a smile is on her face.  Daphna points out three small teardrops tattooed on her shoulder - the sign of Abanta.

"I hopes that my sacrifice is not in vain, and that you of the prophecy will end the long time of darkness.", Balius reads from the other note, "Thanks be to Our Lady of the Lost and her Sisters, for I fear that Matriarch is growing yet darker and more powerful."

"This one's ink is still wet", he says.
"And the candle has only been burning for ten minutes or so". Arlissa's long years of religious study under blessed candles make her an expert judge of such things.

"Damn it, why do people have to assume we know what's going on before they go and kill themselves.  Couldn't she have written a bit longer note!" says Samus, half in humor and half in frustration.

"There's no way out!" Berke shouts.  His breath is deep and fast, his eyes wildly darting around the small cave.  "There!"  A small pool in the other corner is just big enough for his frame.  He takes a deep breath and dives for it, disappearing under the cool waters and leaving the rest standing around a naked corpse and a dwindling candle.

"Wait!" Arlissa shouts.  She's used to her directions being obeyed, but Berke is already gone.  Her shoulders drop with an exasperated exhalation.  It won't be the first time.


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## seasong (Apr 2, 2003)

Someday, I will use a campaign intro like this. Very nice, Greybar!


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## Balius (Apr 3, 2003)

> Aha! The players begin to arrive. Wonderful.
> 
> Shucks, now that you've made a Karrinkas account it makes it harder to kill ya off.




Eeeeeeexcellent!  In response, I've created a Balius account - so you can't kill me either now.   Now I can spend the entire upcoming battle just trying to pinch the evil paladin's butt with impunity!


Balius (or Shawn)


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## Greybar (Apr 3, 2003)

*"Lit by the loneliest light", part two*

[I should also note that the awakening of the PCs was also the first incarnation of these characters under 3E D&D.  The previous series (which started in Luinlassa and ended with their stoning) was played in a homebrew game system of my creation that is best now left to history. This also means that the players suddenly were exploring new abilities, primarily more defined spell-casting ability.  The characters were all brought over to 3E as fifth level PCs, though sub-optimal multiclassing often resulted from trying to keep their abilities roughly similar to the last series. -John]

"We should give her a proper funeral", Daphna says as she looks at the sprawled body.
"This isn't exactly an ideal place for a cremation" is the unanimous response.

Samus manages to retrieve his greataxe from the pool and everyone gathers their wits about them.  Berke is gone and brief musing about how far it might be until the next air pocket is unanswerable.  Arlissa wraps the oilskin pouch until it is water-tight again, and absent-mindedly puts the battered ring on a finger.

"If we find we're at a place where we can come back for her body, we will."

Karrinkas gathers a deep breath and dives in to follow Berke.  All jokes about whether the Karranas like water aside, he is almost undoubtably the best swimmer of the group.  Plus  he wears no armor and only carries a small amount of equipment strapped to his leather harness.

The pool leads to an underwater tunnel that thankfully exits into another chamber.  This one is much larger and has multiple pools exiting it from it.  It also contains a still manic Berke, examining all of the walls in the light that now shines like a torch from his hammer.

Karrinkas reports back to the group.  They each make their way with varying levels of swimming success.  Daphna practically walks on the bottom of the tunnel, barely even trying to swim.  There is much bemoaning of the soaking that their equipment, particularly their bows, is taking.

When everyone has made it through, they join Berke in his examination of the next chamber.  With three unknown pool-tunnels to choose from, there is much concern about getting the wrong one.  Then Balius' sharp eyes notice a tiny graven symbol over one pool - the Chalice of Llassa.  Without further ado the groups swims through the tunnel, emerging into another chamber that for once has a proper dry tunnel leading out from it.  Berke rushes down it, calling out that he can hear a bigger chamber.

And indeed it was.  Berke emerged on a shelf overlooking a underground river.  Downstream and across the river there is a niche similar to the one he stands in.  To his stonework-savvy eye, it looks carved in the fashion of natural rock, rather than being truely just a pocket worn away by time and water.  As the rest of the party emerges, he starts making his way down to the water's edge.

"He's going to get himself killed" is the general consensus of the rest of the group, but they follow.  Driven by sheer willpower more than swimming skill, Berke emerges from the rushing water into the carved niche and starts looking around.  The rest make their way across, trying not to get swept too far down stream and thus missing the landing.

"Something just touched my leg", says Balius.  The bard's voice has a bit more than a note of concern.
"Keep swimming" is Karrinkas' resolute answer.

Daphna moves in behind Arlissa and makes sure that the priestess makes it up on the ledge.  In doing so, she does a lot of kicking which is quickly followed by a painful bite to her unarmored legs.  Balius soon finds himself prey as well.

"Snakes!"

Those in the narrow niche try to help pull those in the water up, flailing at the snakes and trying not to fall back in the water themselves.  Daphna beats at the snakes with her sword, but is greatly impeded by the water.  Karrinkas leaps from the niche back into the water, tearing at the snake that threatens "the cub" (Balius) with claws and teeth.

Berke, focused on the wall, seems to pay little attention behind him.  As the last snake is driven away, he shouts "Ah ha!" and with a probing stonemason's tool pushes a hidden switch.  A crack appear along the wall, outlining a doorway.  With a gentle push, it opens into darkness.

The group pushes into a square-cut hallway the leads to a room that is unmistakably a crypt.  A large statue of a lizardman-priest stands in an alcove at the end of the room, his head turned down, and his hands out and palms forward.  Berke has already noted the stairway opposite the alcove, and quickly disappears around the corner.  Balius puzzles over the markings on the square burial-chamber doors set into the walls.  His curiousity is insatiable, he gives the handle a pull.

"No!" Arlissa and Dapha shout out almost as one, but Balius is already giving it a second pull with his full weight behind it.  The door wrenches open with the force of his pull. "I just want to see..."

There is a gust of cold air and a darkness extinguishes Arlissa's magical light.  Balius feels a clawed hand come from the chamber and land upon his own.  Behind Arlissa there is the sound of stone on stone from the alcove and something moves in the darkness...


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## Greybar (Apr 3, 2003)

*Sidebar - Characters in D&D terms*

Our heroes in brief, mechanically speaking, at about this time:

Arlissa - Cleric 5 (of Llassa)
Daphna - Rog2/Pal3 (of Llassa)
Berke - Exp2/Wiz3
Samus - Ftr3/Eth2
Balius - Brd3/Rgr2
Karrinkas - Kar2/Rgr3

_I may be a bit off on Samus and Balius' splits, but that's the general idea._

Eth - Etherialist - effectively a Psion(savant) with some special rules.  An etherialist draws power from the "ether" that pervades the world, and spins it out from themselves in threads.  Think Carlos Castaneda.  And yes, that misspelled root of ethereal is repeated consistently all over the place (sigh).

Kar - Karranas is a +2 ECL race.  This was of course long before Savage Species.  If we ever get to dealing with more Karranas I'll probably recalibrate the race some.  Right now Karrinkas is certainly good in combat, but not too good.  And any enemy DR puts a whallop on 1d4 claws and bite.

John


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## Daphna_Llassa (Apr 4, 2003)

Balius said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Eeeeeeexcellent!  In response, I've created a Balius account - so you can't kill me either now.   Now I can spend the entire upcoming battle just trying to pinch the evil paladin's butt with impunity!*





I have no problem with you hurting or killing my evil twin, but have to draw the line on any butt pinching...

Daphna, who also hopes she is now safe.


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## Greybar (Apr 10, 2003)

*"Lit by the loneliest light", part three*

Some massive limb or weapon fans the air over Arlissa's head.  Confusion reigns in the darkness as Balius stumbles backward from the skeletal touch, banging into Karrinkas and nearly losing his feet. Daphna holds out her sword and shouts ‘”Back, spawn of evil! In the name of Llassa, be gone!”.  And before this exercise of Faith and Will, the skeletal figure withdraws and closes its crypt-chamber door behind it.

Arlissa blinks and suddenly the darkness is replaced by an strange hard-edged black and white reversed vision of the world.  Over her shoulder she can now clearly see the former statue as it readies another blow of its mighty arm.  She quickly pronounces one of the most powerful spells of Llassa's might she can yet channel, and suppresses the magic within the stone tomb guardian.  She knows that she has only bought a moment of reprise, and urges the group into quick retreat.  Berke reappears in the doorway, his mace still magically lit to the great benefit of the rest of the party.  His voice still seems manic:

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" 
It's a sentiment that most are willing to agree with.

The hallway is long and square-carved, with stairways down that seem to lead to more crypts.  Not wanting to disturb anything more, they push on until they find a ragged opening in the wall just before a dead end.  The opening leads to a rough hewn tunnel, which in turn opens to a natural cave.  There, welcome before their eyes, is the feel of fresh air and the stars of a night sky.

Karrinkas, stealthily padding on all fours, quickly scouts out the area surrounding the cave.  Behind them stands the tall stone wall of a Haraivan-style city, yet one none of them recognize.  Before them is a rural setting with fields and livestock quiet under night's blanket.  The warmth of the night is undeniably one of summer, and Arlissa spends more than a few moments in prayerful contemplation of the stars.  The constellation of Dana's Sword remains a steadfast blazon of strength in the heavens, its tip pointed due south to the ocean.  Llassa's stars seem to have pulled together somewhat to Arlissa's memory.  As her eyes adjust to the dark comfort of stargazing, her sight blinks in and our of the strange _darkvision_.  With a bit of practice, she learns to control this unexpected gift.

Their sense of relief does not totally overcome their caution, but a low fire is built a bit back into the cave.  Their clothes begin to dry and their spirits lift, and they begin to speak of dreams.  It seems that all have had dreams, brief moments of semi-wakefulness that place them into another time and place.  All but for Berke.  He has had dreams as well, but not dreams that rise from sleep.  Perhaps due to the struggles of his will against his captivity, he has been at least somewhat awake for the entire duration of his stoning.  "How long"  "A F***ing Long Time".

They try to get some sleep between comparing dreams notes.

_(Yes, 7 days is longer than I intended to let slip between updates.  Gentle Readers will be glad to know that the players survived their recent challenge without any loss of life.  Ungentle Readers will note that I need nastier bad gals, apparently.  I won't even try to tease more than that, since there's too much story to update before their recent adventures will come into context. -john)_

_(Edit: Corrected to include Arlissa's discovery of powers of Sarata's ring, as well as some astronomical notes)_


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## seasong (Apr 10, 2003)

Woo hoo! Update! Dropping into darkness while some walking dead tries to rip your head off... not the best way to wake up from a thousand year sleep.

I think 7 days is the standard or something .


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## Raphael (Apr 11, 2003)

*Re: "Lit by the loneliest light", part three*



			
				Greybar said:
			
		

> *Some massive limb or weapon fans the air over Arlissa's head.
> 
> 
> ... The opening leads to a rough hewn tunnel, which in turn opens to a natural cave.  There, welcome before their eyes, is the feel of fresh air and the stars of a night sky.  [...] The warmth of the night is undeniably one of summer, and Arlissa spends more than a few moments in prayerful contemplation of the stars.
> ...




Actually, Arlissa tells me that she could see quite clearly the sword arm of a huge stone lizardman statue lunging at her in the dark.  Although everyone else was blinded by the darkness.  She was a little puzzled, but took it as "a sign of Llassa's grace".  Likewise, the hillside was eerily well lit for her, though she said nothing at the time.


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## Greybar (Apr 15, 2003)

A bump and an edit to the last entry to correct for Raphael's recollection, as well as a bit of a retro-add to the stargazing.
John


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## Greybar (Apr 21, 2003)

*Story Hour - 2.1 - "Into the wilderness", part one*

At first light our heroes gather their things and prepare to get farther away from the city walls.  In packing, Balius examines some coins they found in the pouch of the dead woman.  Each is inscribed with the motto "City of the Eternal Matriarch" and "New Gorkana" along with a scepter and scroll.  

"Eternal Matriarch?" Samus says "That can't be good."
"Hey, does it have a minting mark?" Arlissa asks.
"Hmm, there are a couple.  This shiniest one says '300' on it."
"Three Hundred Years? Could we have been asleep for three hundred years?" Daphna wonders
"Maybe you were asleep" Berke grumbles.  The rough cave floor has not agreed with his back, but at least he has see the sky now.

Arlissa and Daphna obscure their Llassan symbols on their clothes and the group heads for the outer Wall of Wood.  Quick discussion leads to a plan.  They will present themselves as a hunting party led by Arlissa and above all act like they know what they're doing.  Karrinkas, however, stands out far too much to simply be a part of an unremarkable group.  With no sign of concern, Karrinkas simply says "I'll meet you on the other side" and leaps off on all fours low to the ground.

The early morning light shows fields desperate for rain, baked by the sun.  Scattered livestock nibble at parched grass.  Common folk look up at the group passing through but seem to take no special notice.  Soon enough they come to the wall, the gate, and a simple wooden tower with two guardsmen who haven't fully shaken the sleep from their eyes.

"Ho there, open this gate, we have the hunt before us", Arlissa demands in a loud voice.
A bustle of activity and apologies come from the tower as a man struggles with the large metal and wood bar.
"Many apologies, ma'm, good luck in bringing some of them down.  Been a terror lately.  Had to repair the wall in a couple places."
Arlissa pauses only for a moment and Samus cuts in "Won't be a problem for long."
As the group heads into the woods beyond the gate they can't help but wonder "I wonder what it is we're hunting?"
"Probably Lizardmen, the beasts, glad to get back to the basics", Samus opines.

Karrinkas rejoins them a short ways into the woods, having found a place he could climb and leap the wall unobserved.  Some quick hunting about flushed a rabbit for a mid-morning meal, though he finds strange tracks along the way.  Not quite right to be lizardmen, nor humans, nor any other creature he might recall.

Tired from a good day's worth of walking southward, the group settles in to a hopefully unobtrusive campsite.  Karrinkas and Balius search out a deer and soon meat is turning over a fire.

"So, other than getting away from New Gorkana, what's the plan?", Balius asks between bites of venison.

Samus props his greataxe against a tree and leans back.  "I dreamt of a seige of Orimtala.  That the Thunderer's Axe was lost and fell to the earth.  I was meant to dream this.  His axe should be recovered."

"We don't know what happened to Luinlassa", Daphna interjects, "We should find out what happened to our home.  Both Arlissa and I dreamt of the Great House in ruins and Malassa's death."

"As best I can tell, we're north of the highlands, and north of both Luinlassa and Orimtala" says Karrinkas, the best travelled of the group prior to their earlier adventures.  "Either way we have to go south from here.  We can see what more we can figure out later."

They set watches and make what comfort they can for sleep.  They all feel pretty good about how well they've gotten away.

It was Karrinkas' sharp ears that heard them first.  He and the cub were quietly keeping their watch when the first sounds of padding feet slipped through the trees.  His ears up, Karrinkas slowly pivoted until he saw the slipping form in the bare moonlight.  Balius slowly stood, pulling his bow and looked off to where Karrinkas stared.  Something about the size and shape of a wolf stood watching them.

"Guys..." Balius half-whispered, and then it charged.  Two other broke from other brush as well.

"Guys!!"  Balius shouted, focusing on the nearest wolf, remembering his father teaching him how to wait until the target reaches 30 paces to get the most power out of his shot.  Breathe, aim, loose.  The arrow leapt out towards it but the wolf half-stepped sideways and the shaft buried itself into the dirt.

Karrinkas held his ground, then pounced on it as it got into the flickering light of the fire.  Familiar with wolves, he latched his claws onto its shoulder to pull it over on its side, but his claws slid off of its scales.

Scales?


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## Greybar (Apr 22, 2003)

*"Into the wilderness", part two*

The beast resembles a wolf in general body shape but it is covered with large plates over the spine and shoulders, turning to finer scales along its legs and bellies.  It snarls at Karrinkas, eyes gleaming, and snaps its own jaws on his shoulder and latches on.  Karrinkas is far more used to being the grappler than the grapplee and does not like it one bit.

Daphna rolls to her feet and quickly positions herself between the wolves and the still-prone Arlissa.  Her longsword flashes in the firelight as she takes a stance.

Samus is on his feet and charging, seemingly from the instant that Balius shouted.  His greataxe fluidly drawn, he leaps with a great overhead blow into the next wolf-thing.  There is a huge cracking sound as the heavy metal blade crashes through the bony plate on the back of the thing's neck.  Its whole body heaves with the blow, then rises desperately trying to rip at Samus' thigh.

Berke turns over in his sleep, dreaming of the beautiful ring of hammer on anvil.

Balius hestitates, but sees that soon the battle will be too tight for him to use his bow.  He has just enough time to drop his bow to the ground and grab his battleaxe and handaxe before the next wolf is upon him.  He strikes a defensive stance and batters at the thing's armored head with both axes, though neither blade manages to penetrate.

Karrinkas twists himself free of the thing's jaws and nearly manages to get himself on top of the thing.  Instead he settles for leaving two thin bloody claw marks along its side between the large shoulder-plates.  It spins and bites for him again, but he's ready for it now, anticipating the bite and dodging back.

Arlissa sits quickly and surveys the scene, looking for the most injured of the beasts.  She calls upon the bright powers of Llassa and  a searing beam of light leaps from her hand and burns along the flank of Samus' opponent.  It yelps and tries to hop away, its side ripped open by divine power.  Samus swing in an mighty arc, catching it on the wounded side and lifting it bodily off the ground.  It crashes back to earth dead.

The one facing Balius seems to think better of the whole situation and with one last nip decides to beat paws for the bushes.  Karrinkas' opponent has no such chance, caught between Karrinkas and a charging Daphna.  They flank it and Daphna quickly finds a weakly protected joint between flank and leg.  Her longsword slashes with precise force, opening it up at the joint and running up its belly.  When it tries to spin to face her, Karrinkas rips it down.

"Okay, so now we know what we're hunting" Samus says.  He raises his axe and beheads his fallen foe.  "Nasty lizard-hounds."*

After some brief tending of wounds, they settle back down again.  Then the victorius group pauses for a moment in wonder.  Not at the creatures, but at the realization that Berke hasn't woken up for the entire fight.

"Okay, that definitely means our watch is over." Balius says, rubbing at his leg where a bloody slice has been turned into tender, healthy pink skin by Arlissa's healing.  "That's you and Berke."

"Fine, nudge him awake will you?"  Samus seems intent upon flaying the skull of the lizard-hound with a dagger.

Berke rises somewhat grumplily at Balius' nudge.  He glances over the bodies of the strange creatures, then shrugs.

Karrinkas licks over his wounds with a long red tongue, then lies down alongside Balius.  _Best to watch out for the cub._ he thinks. _Wolves with scales are not good things._


* Plug!  These creatures became the Trakza, my entry to a contest held by Inner Circle Games.  Happily, the Trakza was a winner.  You'll be able to find them and other nasty critters in the Denizens of Avadnu product.
With the gracious permission of Inner Circle, here's the draft artwork for the Trakza from Denizens of Avadnu:


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## Indigo Veil (Apr 23, 2003)

<looks at the pretty picture> 

Ooh...Nice. I can imagine that being a pain to fight...but that's why you should just hold it and hug it and love it to pieces! <wants to give it a hug> It's all cute 'n stuff... ^_^


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## Greybar (Apr 25, 2003)

*"Into the wilderness", part three*

"Not again?"

Daphna draws her sword for the second time of the night as more wolf-shapes slide amongst the trees.  It is now the third watch and the Llassa worshippers are awaiting the blessed dawn.

"Llassa bless us and keep us from harm.  Awake!  They're back", Arlissa incants the quick blessing and steadies herself behind her quarterstaff.  She's gotten too used to the whirl of combat.  It seems like so long ago that she was a happy scholar staring through a telescope at the stars.

"Damn stubborn things" Samus's shortbow is out and firing until the last possible moment, then the greataxe appears in his swift hands again.  The skull of the previous lizard-hound has now been affixed to the left shoulder of his armor, a token of the earlier victory.

The group pulls into a more compact and efficient knot this time.  Berke speaks an arcane formula under his breath and reaches out to touch Daphna.  Her arms swell with strength and a thin smile crosses her lips.

The lizard-hounds feint at one side of the group, then charge into the other.  A blur of swords and axes meet them.  Karrinkas quick wraps around one side, harrying their flanks.  Balius wraps the other way, though his axes are having a hard time crunching through scales.  The largest beast leaps upon Samus, bearing him down to one knee, its jaws wrapped around his right arm.  Its forelegs rake along his chest, ripping chunks out of flesh and leather.  A lesser man would have died on the spot.  A seasoned warrior might still have screamed.  Samus grits his teeth and uses the haft of his greataxe to lever the thing off of him.

As soon as it is clear, both Balius and Karrinkas are on it.  It shook Samus' bloody from its mouth as it spun, trying to keep up with them.  But the axes and claws were too much.  Even as one tries to limp off back to the bushes, a thin ray of cold blue light springs from Berke's extended finger, bringing it down.

This time they aren't quite as easy-going in their victory.  Llassa's blessings of healing, channelled by Arlissa and Daphna, are well needed.  Samus waves them off with a "I'll be fine", and sure enough when given a few moments to himself the wounds seal up.  When dawn comes, the moonborn are quite willing to give them room and quiet for their prayers.


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## seasong (Apr 25, 2003)

Don't forget to update the title of your story hour to reflect the most recent post .


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## Greybar (Apr 25, 2003)

Thanks Seasong! Now the tough part will be remembering to update the teasers in my .sig

I'm curious as to people's preferences on the fight scenes.  I like writing them and try to keep them abbreviated to the essence.  Heck, these are from almost two years ago, so I can't give round-by-round if I wanted to.  The things that stick in my mind are the easy parts.  Or, as Vertius Goldenthroat teaches: they are they things that are true, even if they didn't occur.

Similarly, I fully expect that I'll incidentlly let slip plot clues that players didn't get way back when due to GM forgetfulness or PCs not asking the "right" questions.  And forget to mention plot-clues they did pick up, etc.

John


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## Greybar (May 2, 2003)

*"Hunters become hunted", part one*

Syra ran.  Calling upon her discipline, she willed her legs to keep moving.

When the Matriarch's Bloodguard came knocking on her door, she didn't even try to pretend.  She had slammed wedges under the door and in-between the hinges, wedges that had been waiting against this day. She fled out a back window, descending down two stories of wall with her hands gripping the smooth wood effortlessly.  The time for subtlety was past.  Passers by either gawked or fled.  The use of magic in New Gorkana is a capital offense.

Pallas was dead.  Sarata was missing.  Fenden denied ever knowing her.  The others had gone to ground, hopefully with more success than she had.

"Sarata!" Syra cursed the Abantine mystic's name under her breath.  "Always" [breathe] "though you knew what was best".  "Didn't want to listen" [dodge around a tree] "to the rest of us."

She heard the cry of the bloodhawk too late.  She ducked reflexively. The talons raked along the back of her neck.  If she had spun to look it would have doubtless tried to tear out her eyes as it was trained.

The hunters must be on her.  If I stop to fight the hawk with my blade, they'll catch up.  If keep running, it will eventually bleed me to death.  Unless I can get a quiet moment to draw power, I cannot knock it from the sky, and I hear their hawks are resistent to power.  Must keep running and look for better options.

---

Karrinkas pads between the trees.  He hears the voices and footsteps of the others just far enough behind.  It affords him a measure of quiet and space to scout ahead.  He wrinkles his nose in the air, taking in the scent of recent passage.  There is the acrid musk of the lizard-hounds here, though faint.  His ears rise.  The rapid crunch of human boots running without heed to stealth and the cry of a hawk.

He rises on his hind paws, getting a better position on the sound, and waves a signal to Balius.  Balius relays it to the group, and they go quiet.  Karrinkas drops back to all fours and races silently along the ground, instinctively moving from cover to cover in search of the sound.

He sees a human female crashing through the trees, a hawk swooping and diving at her.  She has a shortsword at her waist, but seems more intent on getting away than turning to fight the hawk.  She circles a tree with thick branches, trying to put it between her and the hawk for a moment to catch her breath.  He considers for the briefest moment, and springs forward in a pounce.  One claw catches the side of the hawk unawares and bats it into a roll.  The hawk screetches and darts away.  The woman stares wide-eyed at the Karranas then dashes up the tree with amazing speed.

"I mean you no harm" Karrinkas says slowly in his best moonborn.  He knows that most human women can also speak moonborn, so he tries his best to enunciate clearly.

She pauses in the crook of two branches.  A weak smile crosses her face.  Her look turns to alarm once more as two longbow arrows slam into Karrinkas' flank in quick succession.


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## Indigo Veil (May 20, 2003)

<gives the thread a gentle _bump_ with her pompoms, and gives Greybar a gentle nudge towards an update> 

<whispers> Psst. I wanna see some really arrogant sunborns topple from their heights, but I figure that before I can see that happen, Karrinkas, at the very least, has to get those arrows outta his bu...uh, flank.


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## Greybar (May 20, 2003)

*"Hunters become hunted", part two*

The two groups spot each other at about the same time.  Balius sees Karrinkas hit by the arrows and crouches into a turn until the archer comes into view.  He sees the sunborn hunter notching another arrow, the symbol of House Gorkana visible on her cloak.  Balius shouts back to the others "Gorkana!" and raises his shortbow, winging an arrow into the tree next to her.  The archer looses another two arrows at Karrinkas but he is ready this time and easily dodges them.

The archer shouts over her shoulder, and four moonborn emerge from the trees.
"The sorceress has friends, kill the rebels and bring her back."
They draw their axes and advance.

Samus quickly takes the lead, scanning the moonborn for the one with battle honors on his armor or other signs of leadership.  He picks him out, a big man with a greataxe of his own.  "You! I am Samus called the Lucky.  Yield or die."
He flourishes his greataxe in a salute.
The leader of the moonborn draws his own greataxe and matches the salute. "I am Erinus.  I yield to no rebel mage-friend."
The two crash together.  The greataxes swing in vicious blows.  Erinus is clearly stronger than Samus, but more clumsy in his footwork.

Daphna screens Arlissa for a moment as the cleric calls upon the heat of the sun, pulling its power into the archer's armor.  At first she doesn't notice, loosing two more arrows at the charging Karrinkas.  She notices the heat as she draws her swords and makes her first attacks on the Karranas, and then it is too late.  Her hawk notices something is wrong as her armor begins to smoke.  It dives madly around her, trying to keep Karrinkas away as its mistress slumps, her skin blackening.  Karrinkas swats the hawk from the sky for a final time and it lies twitching next to the burnt corpse of the archer.  Karrinkas pokes hesitantly at the body as it steams against the earth.[1]

He looks up to see the other side of the battle has gone smoothly.  Balius stands over a cowering man.  Samus' opponent is dead after a tough fight, and Daphna has dispatched the other two.

Balius' captive is interrogated, but it quickly becomes apparent that the lowest ranking member of a hunting group is not the best source of information.  He carries the name of Snorri.  His job was to follow the sunborn, Krishena Gorkana, in hunting down an enemy of the Matriarch that had fled the city.  She was to be brought back to the Matriarch alive for questioning.  No one is willing to kill him in cold blood.  Well, no one except for Berke, perhaps.  Then comes the question of rearming him before letting him go.

"If he don't let him take his axe, he'll never make it back to the city.  He won't have a chance against the lizard-hounds."
"If he has to fight them, he won't survive even with his axe.  If he doesn't have his axe, we won't have to worry about him trying to kill us in the night."
"No, please.  I swear all I want to do his get back out of the woods.  I swear you won't see me again."
"If we do see you again, you're dead.  You know that, don't you."
"Here, you can have your axe.  Get out of here."

Snorri crashes through the trees heading north.
"If he makes it, we have to assume she'll know where we are in two days."
"She'll know where we *were*.  Not that we know where we're going."
"... but we know where we've been.  The future's uncertain..."
"Knock it off, Balius."
"Well, wherever that 'sorceress' was going sounds good to me."
"So where is she, anyway?"
"She's right over there, up that... crap.  She must have taken off again.  Give me a minute."

Two legs are hard pressed to outrun four.  Karrinkas is soon bounding alongside her.  "Hello.  I still mean you no harm."

[1] That's right folks, _heat metal_ can be quite deadly to a 4th level fighter/ranger.  I think that Karrinkas got at least one blow in on her and Balius might have hit her once with an arrow, but the huge surprise for me as a GM was the spell.


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## Greybar (May 20, 2003)

Thanks for the push Christina.



> I wanna see some really arrogant sunborns topple from their heights




That may be a while... [grin]

Actually, I'm thinking about skipping ahead to the more recent storyline and leave an outline behind to fill in.  We've just had the first PC death last Sunday and the more recent plot is a lot more involved and interesting.

John


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## Indigo Veil (May 22, 2003)

Pushing: No problem. I did it for purely selfish reasons anyway. ^^;;  Like I said, I want to get to the "sunborns toppling from unstable heights" part. I like toppling. 'S'fun. ^_^

Skipping ahead: Do what you think is necessary. I understand how daunting keeping an updated story hour is, particularly when the campaign's a coupla sessions ahead of where the writing is. (I'm usually in this boat. Eh-heh heh heh...)

PC deaths: I don't think I've ever experienced a PC death before (but then, I've not been gaming very long, either)...but I can see how absolutely wrenching that can be. There was once in one of Thomas' games that an NPC (to whom I was rather attached) died in a horrible manner, and I was so distraught that I actually wept. ^^;;; (Yes. I'm also a sap. I acknowledge and accept this.) She didn't even leave behind a body to bury, she was so mutilated. <sniff>

It happened in Thomas' version of a gritty Victorian England, where magic and steampunk tech elements come together, and where you can die at any moment because of Bad Stuff! O.O!! When Queen of Shadows is over (or even before it's over), we're going to start our next campaign there, and I can't wait! =^^=

Oops. Sorry for the thread hijack. On with Haraiva! </plug> ^.^


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## Greybar (May 22, 2003)

> PC deaths: I don't think I've ever experienced a PC death before (but then, I've not been gaming very long, either)...but I can see how absolutely wrenching that can be.




Ah, well the good news is that this is D&D and Arlissa just became capable of casting _Raise Dead_ about six in-game days before the death occurred.  Now all they need is a 500gp diamond, that and they have to find the corpse of the dear unnamed-for-dramatic-effect PC.

If they thought the PC was beyond help I think it would be more wrenching for them.  Instead, the player is even now starting to plot with me as to the nature of the soul's journey into the land of death.

John


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## Greybar (May 22, 2003)

*Your feedback on PrCs*

Sidebar here for the mechnically minded:
I'm looking for feedback on two PrCs meant for the heroes here.

Llassan Soul of Light
and
Avenger of Tarranus

Thanks for any feedback, but please keep posts about such to those threads.

John


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## ArlissaLlassa (May 22, 2003)

> I want to get to the "sunborns toppling from unstable heights" part. I like toppling. 'S'fun




Oh, I agree... that ought to be fun....
HEY!  Waitaminnit!  I resemble that remark!



> Daphna screens Arlissa for a moment as the cleric calls upon the heat of the sun, pulling its power into the archer's armor. At first she doesn't notice, loosing two more arrows at the charging Karrinkas. She notices the heat as she draws her swords and makes her first attacks on the Karranas, and then it is too late. Her hawk notices something is wrong as her armor begins to smoke. It dives madly around her, trying to keep Karrinkas away as its mistress slumps, her skin blackening. Karrinkas swats the hawk from the sky for a final time and it lies twitching next to the burnt corpse of the archer. Karrinkas pokes hesitantly at the body as it steams against the earth.[1]





> [1] That's right folks, heat metal can be quite deadly to a 4th level fighter/ranger. I think that Karrinkas got at least one blow in on her and Balius might have hit her once with an arrow, but the huge surprise for me as a GM was the spell.




Yeah, that surprised all of us.  That was a *"Whaddya mean she's dead?!?"*  moment for the player/character as well.



> If they thought the PC was beyond help I think it would be more wrenching for them. Instead, the player is even now starting to plot with me as to the nature of the soul's journey into the land of death.




It also helps that the last two encounters were very dangerous, and we had resigned ourselves to losing a character.  In  emails between those sessions, I had advised other players that we had  to keep Arlissa alive, and if anyone fell, we had to keep fighting till we drove off our adversary, or we wouldn't have access to raise dead and permanent character loss would result.

Besides, most of this group could deal pretty well with character death, as long as the character went out with style.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 4, 2003)

C'mon, Greybar...Last update was 5/20. <claps her hands briskly> Let's get to some sunborn toppling. Chop chop!  

lessee...I already threatened seasong with pompom ridiculousness, so...I guess...I get to threaten you with my "Four Pound Shoe of Great Bruising!" (TM) (Trust me, it _hurts_ when it hits after being chunked from afar. ^_^)


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## Greybar (Jun 4, 2003)

Hey, I actually have a pretty good excuse this time. 
My wife and I just recently returned from a trip to Ireland to celebrate our first anniversary.  A great trip.  You can't help but run into cool things over there.  For those who live over there, or have visited before, we spent most of our time in County Clare and County Kerry.

And now, back to our story...

John


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## Greybar (Jun 4, 2003)

*Syra and Freehill*

Karrinkas manages to convince Syra of his good intentions.  When the rest of group catches up to them there is a sudden dawning recognition that runs across her face.

"It's you... Sarata's ritual ... I guess it worked.  We thought she was crazy, but it worked."

A huge smile spreads across her pretty face.   "You're here and now you can depose the Matriarch!  This is amazing."

There is a cautious look from one of the party to the next.  "Yes, get rid of the Matriarch, yeah."  They sound less than convincing and Syra's face begins to fall.

"That's why we brought you back, that's why we've been working all this time.  So that we could bring about the prophecy, so that you could free all of our people."

"Hold on now, who is 'we'? I assume that Sarata was the woman whose body we found - did she have a tattoo with three teardrops?" Arlissa tries to calm things down and get some information.

"Yes, yes.  Sarata is an Abantine - she's dead?  She always talked in grand style of sacrifice and spirtual things, but she's so arrogant sometimes it's hard to tell.  There are six of us, or were.  Maybe only three now, maybe only two."

"Who were you running from?" Berke's voice is direct and to the point, without any of the reassuring and friendly tones that Arlissa projects.

"The Matriarch's hunters.  They came to arrest me but I escaped.  They may have discovered our group - Pallas was found ripped to shreds on the street this morning, and others might have been compromised.  Judging from the reactions, the Matriarch must have been furious that Sarata succeeded in stealing your statues.  But now that you're freed, you can take care of that, right?  So many people have died to bring you back..."

The group uneasily looks back and forth between themselves, but Arlissa steps in again with a calm, confident voice.  "You mentioned a prophecy.  We need to hear it, to know it."

"Adolphus has it.  He was the one that Hara granted it too."

"And where is Adolphus?"

"About a day from here is Freehill.  It's a independant town, just small enough and far enough away that the Matriarch's troops don't concern themselves with it.  It's run by a self-important man named Adanus Freehill, but it's a good place to stay.  Adolphus is there with some friends.  He can tell you more."

The path seems clear.  Travelling to this Freehill gets them farther away from New Gorkana and the Matriarch, which can't be a bad thing they figure.  Along the way they learn a bit about Syra.  She was an apprentice to a fellow named Ashtalus, one of the original members of the conspiracy to bring our heroes back from stone.  When he died, she took his place.

Adolphus is an herbalist and healer whose son was taken and killed by the Matriarch's guard for sedition.  In his grief, he stared up into Hara Sunmother's face and berated Her for letting these terrible things happen to Her children.  For three days he did this, but on the third day at noon (the holiest time of the day for Hara) he was struck blind for his impertinence for questioning Her will and motives.  But he was also granted a prophecy of how the Children of Hara would be freed.  Adolphus escaped from New Gorkana just before Sarata managed to steal the statues.

As Syra warms to the heroes, she reveals that she has recovered some things from the conspiracy that the Gorkanans would want destroyed.  From her pack, she pulls a large scroll in an ornamented case.  Signs and sigils of Llassa run along it.

"Here, this is better in your care than mine" as she hands it over to Arlissa.  Arlissa unwraps it, mumuring prayers to Llassa as she does so.  It is a complete copy of the holy scriptures of Llassa.*

"This is a great blessing Syra, thank you".  Arlissas face seems to visibly light up as she looks over the scroll.

---

Freehill rests at the edge of the rising highlands to the south of New Gorkana.  A gentle stream runs through, fed by a large lake that looks to have been partially created by damming.  A few houses are scattered about with nearby fields on one side of the stream with a larger building on a slight rise behind them.  On the other side of the stream is a single house with orchards straddling it on either side.  A small mill turns in the stream as it issues from the lake at the earthen dam.  Fences run along the border, built as if for a cursory defense more than for division of land claims.

"Welcome to Freehill." Syra says as they look upon it.  "The big house over there is where Adanus keeps his 'family'.  Best we stay out of their way if we can.  Adolphus is staying at the potter's with Gweni."

The potter's place is a simple one on the riverbanks.  Syra leads our heroes in as the sun begins to cast long shadows from the hills and trees.  They are introduced to Arni the Potter, his wife Gweni and their daughter Hope.  Hope is about two years old and her eyes grow wide upon seeing Karrinkas.  She buries herself in her mothers arms, peeking out from time to time.  Karrinkas curls up on the floor in order to look less threatening, a plan that works rather well.  Arni seems more the silent type, keeping an eye on the heroes while tending to the evening meal.

Syra introduces the group to Gweni, who is thrilled and has much the same reaction as Syra did.  "Now you're going to get rid of the Matriarch, right?"

"Actually, we were hoping to here Adolphus' prophecy.  We don't exactly know how we might do what you ask.  Is Adolphus around?"

Gweni fidgets, "Well, that may be a problem.  Adolphus went out to gather some herbs and such and hasn't come back yet."

"Wait a minute", Berke interrupts, "We were told this guy was blind.  You let him go wandering around in the woods?"

"Well, he always goes with some of the men from the village.  He has a great sense of smell, and can find herbs better than the sighted it seems."

"Ok", Samus says with a sigh.  "Which way did he go?"

Our heroes and Syra throw back on their packs and tighten their armor.  Karrinkas picks up the scent of the scrounging group.  The trail leads northwest into the woods and the hills.  The shadows lengthen as they follow Karrinkas' nose into the dark.

---
* Scroll of Llassa - basically picture a Torah-like scroll and case.  These are both history and philosophy drawn together.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 4, 2003)

Wow! A marital milestone! Congrats! (incidentally, ever notice how if you switch the positions of the letters "i" and "t" what a difference it makes? marital vs. martial. ^_^ Interesting. anyway.)

and, as a complete aside...what's up with EN not putting new messages back on page 1? <is annoyed>  the two threads I posted on are still not on page 1. Grrrr!

Yes, anyway, on with the story. ^_^


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## Greybar (Jun 5, 2003)

*The Tree of Corruption, part 1*

Karrinkas leads the group into the thick of the wood.  As night is about to fall, they come upon a strange scene.  Two men are burying something in the middle of a clearing.  Cautiously, the heroes approach with a "Ho there..."

The two clumsily turn, their motions jerky.  They reach for axes lying on the ground.

"No need for that, we're just looking for Adolphus and some of the other..."

The men charge with strange groaning sounds.  As they close, our heroes can see that their faces are strangely distorted.  Green veins stretch down their faces, pulsing to an irregular beat.  These veins stand out on their hands, their chests, anywhere that their flesh is visible.

"We should take one of them alive, they may know where Adolphus is!", Karrinkas says as he pounces forward.

Our heroes blur into motion quickly.  Samus and Balius cut one man down swiftly, though they notice that the man's body seems hardened and oddly rigid.  Karrinkas disarms the other and wraps him up in a tight grapple.  The man seems undetered, grunting and groaning as he tries to reach for his axe.  Failing that, he scratches and bites at Karrinkas mindlessly.  In the end, Karrinkas renders him unconscious and steps away.

Samus steps forward to look at what they were burying.  He moves aside the loose earth with his hands until he uncovers the top of something hard.  With a few more scoops, he has it unearthed - a man's head.  At the top of the skull is a swelling of green and brown which stretches tendrils down across the head and face.

"Uggg... What happened to these people?" Samus wonders aloud.  As if in response the eyes open wide, shot with green with flecks of earth clumping over their lashes. It opens its mouth and begins to scream.  It is a high-pitched, inhuman sound that echoes through Samus' head.  Instinctively he grabs his greataxe and brings it around in a wide overhead arc, smashing down to split the skull of the thing wide open.

Balius speaks what they all pretty much were thinking: "They were planting him..."


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## Greybar (Jun 10, 2003)

*The Tree of Corruption, part two*

Syra confirms that none of the men look like Adolphus, and that some look vaguely familiar and might be the townspeople that Gweni spoke of.  Karrinkas picks up the scent again quickly and the heroes move with renewed urgency.

Though the light filtering through the tree branches is fading fast, Karrinkas pieces together clues of broken brush and an odd scent - an odor somewhere between putrid meat and decaying wood.  It stretches from the zombie-like men through the trees... what's that subtle sound in the branches?  Just a breeze higher up?

Then a clearing opens up and they see it.  A huge tree, swaying in a wind that the heroes can't feel.  Underneath it are four men, moving with the same halting motions that the other two had.  Two are working the earth around a fifth figure, an older man who is already buried up to his waist... Adolphus.

Bows are drawn.  Karrinkas' sling spins into motion.  By the time that the zombies realize the heroes are there two are wounded.  A third is dropped by a shot from Daphna that passes cleanly through its chest.  The rustling sound in the trees whispers louder.

"Yes", Balius thinks, "I really should shoot Samus first before he hurts someone."  He turns, using all of his skill to put extra force into a point-blank shot that smacks into Samus' leathers right below his shoulder.

"Mother of Pearl!"[1] Samus shouts in surprise and anger.  Karrinkas turns and takes in the scene.  He bounds over to Balius as the cub notches another arrow, pouncing on him and wrapping him up with retracted claws.

Arrows from the rest of the party drop the remaining zombies.  Samus decides that the best thing to do is to get Adolphus out quick, before anyone else can be convinced of doing evil to each other.  His bow disappears to its sling and his axe is out in a flash.  "You should take that axe and cut into the woman with the white armor", the leaves whisper to him.  He shakes his head and charges towards the tree.

He is still fifteen feet away from the tree when he sees the branches coming.  They swoop down from above like huge clubs.  He ducks under the first but the second slams into the small of his back.  His breath comes out of him in a gasp.  He slaps the axe back into its holding straps while still running[2], then extends his arms underneath those of the half-planted Adolpus.  He gives a great heave, his legs quivering, and the old man comes free.  Then two more branches slam down.  The first lands squarely on the nape of his neck and blackness and stars blossom before his eyes.  The second smashes into his thigh in a horizontal sweep and Samus spins through the air to land unconscious next to Adolphus' limp body.

Karrinkas looks up from Balius, who is desperately trying to convince him that he's perfectly fine and in control of himself again.  Arlissa lets out a soft exhalation - "Crap."

Daphna does what any paladin worth her oath would do.  She grits her teeth and charges the tree.

---
[1] Samus has the most colorful language of the group.  "Mother of Pearl" is a curse denoting singular evil and treachery.  Worth a sidebar...
[2] Quick-Draw feat


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## Samus_the_Lucky (Jun 10, 2003)

*Re: The Tree of Corruption, part two*

Mother of Pearl indeed!

Those branches hurt!  I seem to remember it was something like 30-40 points of damage.  One of the first times that something had gotten a critical against Samus.  He was not pleased.

This was the beginning of my realization that having a character called *the Lucky*  was just asking for trouble.

Samus the  _(not so)_  Lucky


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## Greybar (Jun 11, 2003)

*The Tree of Corruption, part three*

Daphna has been trained from an early age to fight for her faith and her House.  While not born of an upper-class mother, her blood and her path have given her the surname of Llassa.  She learned about the need to be stalwart and strong, but in the context of a world where most of the armed conflict would happen in a narrow urban setting.  She knows about how to find the weak point of an enemy, how to more silently, and how to keep her head down.  So it is not with blind will that she charges.

Her legs pump up to a quick speed. She judges the maximum reach of the tree's brutal branches.  Three more paces and they can reach her.  Two more.  One more.  Dive.  Roll.  Tumbling low as the sledgehammer tear throught the air over her head.  She comes up in a crouch between Samus and Adolphus.  She gently lays one palm across Samus' forehead, caked with dirt and blood.  "Light is within in, Light of Life.  May Llassa make your Light grow strong."

Blazing white light streams from Arlissas hand, burning into the black and grey bark of the tree.  Arrows and sling stones bounce off of its bark.  Its hard to see if it really hurt the huge thing much at all.  It certainly doesn't seem to be distracting it too much as two branches swing down upon Daphna.

Daphna hefts up Samus under one arm and Adolphus under the other.  She thanks the Goddess for the strength of Her Light that Arlissa called down into her muscles mere seconds ago.  She braces herself mentally as the tree seems to lean into her in a swirl of wood in motion.

The first blow crashes into her back.  Daphna's armor is made of sturdier stuff that Samus' leather.  The branch propels her forward, but doesn't do much more than leave what will be quite a bruise in the morning.  The second branch attempts to take her legs out from under her, but she manages to half-jump over it despite carrying two bodies.  She builds up speed again and is soon out of the reach of the tree.

"That's it.  Back to the town.  Everyone OUT!" Arlissa shouts.  No one really disagrees.  "It's a tree.  In the morning we will come back with more people and burn it to the ground."

Upon the return to Freehill Town, Syra recovers a small wooden tube from one of Adolphus' pouches.

"This was what he was saving for your arrival. He would want you to have it, in case he doesn't make it", she says as she hands it over to Arlissa.  Within the tube is a fragment of paper, hand-written with ink.

Arlissa reads it over, and then passes it on to Balius, Samus and the others.  Balius reads it aloud to Karrinkas, who cannot puzzle out the writing.

_Lost light to save the queen of the lost
Deep water will quench the fire
Hungry fire to melt the ice
Imprisoning ice that seals the air
Air that holds the word unspoken
Word of thought that frees the souls
Souls that take the undying into deep earth
Earth that holds all secrets deep and dark
Darkness dismissed by the light reborn_

"That is what he gave his sight to see", Syra says quietly as they puzzle over it.

Adolphus remains comatose for the night, with his dog sleeping by his side. Syra worries over him before she too drops into the sleep of the exhausted.

Karrinkas awakens to the sound of quiet motion.  All is darkness outside but for a fragment of moon.  Something is by the window of the room.  His ears track it, his muscles carefully bunching.  One eye slits open, his vision in this half-light better than any hoo-mans.  A shadow in the window, then it is gone.  He leaps as only a Karranas can, making it to the window in a bound.  But whatever it was is gone.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 11, 2003)

Ooh, great clue. I like it. ^_^ It's one of those, "it looks really easy to figure out, and is, indeed, a clue in the way the campaign's gonna generally go kind of sense, except that the details are so vague it could be anything until after you solve it and everything's crystal clear in hindsight" kinda clue.

I like, especially in the way it spirals and pulls you in through multiple tiers. ^_^


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## Greybar (Jun 11, 2003)

Then put that next to their previous prophesy:

_"She shall rule for three hundred years,
And then she will rule for three thousand more,
If she is not faced anew by those who are old,
Reborn by sacrifice of one of the lost"

"From the water shall be called the oldest stones,
From the earth shall be raised the oldest bones,
Dark paths and those of light,
Similar journeys, different destinations,"

"From the fire can be claimed the fallen blade,
From the air can be heard the secret of no words,
Secrets from deep waters,
Speaks the mother of the lost ... "

"Seek the souls of those she doomed,
Those drowned in stone and drowned in sea,
...."
_


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## ArlissaLlassa (Jun 12, 2003)

*Prophesy and such*



			
				Greybar said:
			
		

> *Then put that next to their previous prophesy:
> 
> "She shall rule for three hundred years,
> And then she will rule for three thousand more,
> ...





Lets see....     who do we know who could be the oldest stones...  called from the water.  hmmm.... who could it be?

  

Well, at least some of it had to be easy.


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## Piratecat (Jul 4, 2003)

> Now playing: What do you get when you bury a human head-up in good, rich soil and drill an evil seed in the top of his skull?




Ermmm... a nice new vase?


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## Greybar (Jul 7, 2003)

*sidebar - Legendary Creatures*

_Not a "real" update, but it's been a bit crazy at work the last few weeks... I know, excuses excuses -john_

*sidebar - Legendary Creatures*

from Karrinkas' background:
*Dar-Thakka*: The name Dar-Thakka translates to Night Pelt or Black Pelt.  These beings are the supernatural remains of Karranas who have died in the pursuit of evils.  Those who betray their clan, slay their elders, or make pacts with evil spirits are the primary causes.  Their pelt becomes black, devoid of any marks of their clan, and they begin to prowl entirely at night.

from Balius' background:
*Moonwebs*: These ethereal creatures, if they indeed are alive, are spoken of in some few tales of the deeper hills.  They look like silvery jewels floating in the air with delicate traceries from gem to gem.  In one ballad, the hero became entranced while watching the dancing motions of the moonweb.  He was deaf and senseless to all else - his companions, his surroundings, and any danger.  One of his arvan attempted to strike the floating web down, but was felled by an unseen force.  When finally the hero roused from his entrancement he claimed to have had an indescribable vision of beauty and unseen truth that he could never fully relate to his friends.


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## Piratecat (Jul 7, 2003)

Yeah, less excuses, more writing!


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## Greybar (Jul 7, 2003)

Some additional information to put the Dar-Thakka in context:



> The Karranas have a thick, colored fur over their entire bodies. The coloring of this fur is heriditary, and carried along the female gene-line. Perhaps due to this fact, the clans of the Karranas are matri-linear. As a result, a Karranas' clan of birth is readily apparent by the coloration patterns of his fur. These patterns are not quite as apparent to non-Karranas, for the Karranas seem to be able to see certain color variations that humans cannot.



from the Karranas info

For the Dar-Thakka to lose all coloration is a visible sign of their alienation from their people.  When Balius dreamt of seeing these "Black Karranas" it was a terrible old legend coming true.  Since then Karrinkas and Balius have theorized that the Matriarch may have somehow enslaved Karranas and colored them black (by dye or magic) in order to frighten and threaten other free Karranas.

Balius is also an interesting sidenote.  As a human lacking fur, he has tattoos that mimic that of the Claw Lake tribe in which he was raised.

John


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## Balius (Jul 14, 2003)

<nudge nudge>  As the bard of the group <nudge>, it's my job <nudge nudge> to pest everyone around me <nudge> until they're just about ready <nudge> to whack my freaking head off.  So, I'm pesting Graybar to update this here thread.  

Don't make me post *Balius'* version of things - it'll mostly revolve around Daphna's butt, and theories about what *really* happens in those cities full of women (I'm guessing slumber parties, pillow fights, and lots of slo-mo showers).

Shawn/Balius


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## Karrinkas (Jul 15, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> Balius is also an interesting sidenote.  As a human lacking fur, he has tattoos that mimic that of the Claw Lake tribe in which he was raised.



For an example of Claw Lake tribe markings:



> Karrinkas most closely resembles a tiger. He has black wedges striping him from his head to his tail. He's on the tawny side of orange, his eyes are green, and the pads of his paws are black, as is his nose. His eartips have black markings on the back that make it look like he has eyes there.


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## ArlissaLlassa (Jul 16, 2003)

Balius said:
			
		

> *<nudge nudge>  As the bard of the group <nudge>, it's my job <nudge nudge> to pest everyone around me <nudge> until they're just about ready <nudge> to whack my freaking head off. *




Don't worry...  I'm just about ready to whack your freaking head off. 




> _Originally posted by Balius _*Don't make me post *Balius'* version of things - it'll mostly revolve around Daphna's butt, and theories about what *really* happens in those cities full of women (I'm guessing slumber parties, pillow fights, and lots of slo-mo showers). *




Ahhh...  you know, there's a reason I've never cast "Abanta's Glorious Shower" when Balius was around... 

And I guess you must have missed "Llassa's Pillow Fight of Light" when I used it last session.


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## Indigo Veil (Jul 29, 2003)

_...what *really* happens in those cities full of women (I'm guessing slumber parties, pillow fights, and lots of slo-mo showers)._

... ... -_-;;;;

^_^

Well, greybar, what's going on? Are we going to get to see sunborns topple? <looks hopeful> ^_^

Incidentally, I don't know if you care or not, but in case you do, I'm done with Queen of Shadows. 'S'all finished. ^,^ <gentle pokenudge> C'mon, your turn! ^_^


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## Greybar (Aug 10, 2003)

Just a quick pitiful update on the update:
That darn real world.  Right now I'm working some serious overtime and probably will be until mid-Septemberish.  Between that and the Haraiva game itself (and converting to 3.5), I probably will continue to be sadly un-updating.

In related news: What I may do is make a series of posts, one for each game session, with a brief summary.  I think the story (as a story) isn't too compelling for outsiders for another 6-7 sessions.  Then we get into a more urban setting, plus a lot of the players ended up doing a lot more writing.  Both Arlissa and Samus now have journals, though Samus' doesn't begin for a couple in-game weeks from the current position of the Story Hour.  Plus Berke's player and I had some *great* play-by-email, which gives me the ability to pull real nice quotes verbatim.  Now if only our estwhile bard would update his in-character blog...

John


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## Indigo Veil (Aug 14, 2003)

Hooray for urban settings! ^_^ 

I'll continue to look forward to it, even if it takes forever to get started. ^_^


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

*Interlude*

Interlude

Dawn's light creeps in the window and again Karrinkas hears the sound of muffled movement.  He does his best to keep his ears from pricking up as he isolates the source.  Inside the house, over near the stairs to the second floor.

Again his muscles slowly tense and one eye slits open.  This time he gets it on the first try.  Peeking between the rails is little Hope, staring at the big karranas with wide eyes.  Karrinkas relaxes.

On stocking feet the little girl climbs down the stairs.  She totters a bit as she moves away from the rail and puts one hesitant step towards the big cat.  Then another one.  He looks so big and soft.  She leans over to touch his fur.  A smile spreads over Karrinkas' feline face as he purrs.

Balius awakes to see the little girl curled up asleep against Karrinkas.  Of the entire group he best understands this.


---
In other news, there is now a Rogues' Gallery for Haraiva in Darkness that is off-limits to players.

A series of very brief digests will be added at one episode a post, which I will hopefully go back and brush up on later.  Many of these are well described by the player's journals - linked from here.

Oh, and the Rogues Gallery is also a good place for commentary and speculation that might spoil things for the players - such as what you readers might think a prophecy means or a villain's plans are.

john


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

*Tree of Corruption part 2 (brief form)*

cliff notes version -

* Arlissa performs a Rite of Llassa for the townspeople, bringing forth light and mana to boost the faith of the people.  For many this is the first public show of power of the Daughters of Hara.

* Group talks with local Freehills about Tree.  Meets Adanus, who seems the slick charismatic leader.  Meets Amanda, his latest favorite member of the familar - she's a very attractive woman and Berke stumbles over himself around her.  Meanwhile Samus practices with members of the Freehill militia.

* Group heads out to the tree.  It has moved - where it used to be is a pit of foul, unnaturally large centipedes.  However it is easy to track.  The group is prepared with their ears partially blocked and fire-arrows and _grease_ spells.  In the repeat engagement, the tree doesn't have a chance.

* On the way back, Karrinkas notices that they are being paced by something in the woods.  He tries to sneak up on it but fails - only finding where it rested, a place that carries the faint smell of ash and musk.  On the edge of the town they spot it again - a Black Karranas.  When Daphna calls upon her power to _Detect Evil_, she is stunned by the aura of the thing.  It taunts Karrinkas as "little brother" and then magically plunges the area into _deeper darkness_ to make its escape.  The group becomes concerned about what evil they might bring on any who would shelter them, and decides it is time to continue their quest.


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

*Haraivan Ghost Story*

_(this is a bit disconnected since it was half-written in full form. My apologies -john)_

As night falls, thunder and lightning begin to play through the heavens. The tense smell of ozone fills the air. The sky is heavy, but no rain comes to release the tension. The colors of the thunderous display are wrong - not the crisp white levinbolts and grey clouds, but creeping with tinges of red and green. A bolt of greenish lightning crashes through the sky, smiting a tree near the party.

Around the far side of a tree, a flash of lightning illuminates a body impaled on a broken branch about 15 feet off the ground. The body is humanoid, but with a dog-like head and feet. It wears armor, and an axe lies at its feet. It looks to have suffered no obvious blows other than the tree-impaling, though it appears to be a couple days dead and other evidence may be gone. Insects and birds have worked at the body. 

The forward-scouts of the party come upon a small homestead, in a more traditional Haraivan style than Freehill Town was. A central building is surrounded by a low stone wall (mimicing the stone wall of a City. Outside of this wall is a fenced in area for animals, a long large building (looking more like a modern barn), and fields. 

But the long large building is a burnt out husk, blackened timbers around a large stone hearth that still stands. Much of the central building is burnt out as well, exposing an inner courtyard that backs up to a stone-walled area that is blackened, but standing. In the courtyard is a small pool.  At the head of the pool is a statue of a woman, her arms out and palms up.  Investigation finds the three teardrops of Abanta on the statue, much as Arlissa suspected.  The heroes settle into what shelter remains as the storm increases in fury.

In the middle of the night the storm abates, and Balius hears the sounds of children playing.  Ghostly children who flee when they see him.  As the other are roused, the ghost of a teenage girl becomes violent - throwing Samus across the small compound by telekinesis.  She possesses Balius briefly and threatens to make him cut his own throat.  In a well-timed pounce, Karrinkas leaps upon Balius and grapples him.  Arlissa forces the girl-spirit from Balius through Llassa's holy light and the conflict is quickly ended.

The heroes learn the tale of what happened from a less hostile ghost of a boy named Darien.  These strange dog-headed creatures sacked the village, killing many and driving off others into slavery.  The heroes pledge to help his spirit rest by persuing the beasts and freeing the slaves.


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

*The Gnoll Slavers (Episode 5)*

continued in the cliff notes style for later editing

Karrinkas and Balius follow the muddied tracks of the gnolls and their captives through the woods.  This leads up into the hills and to a small keep build into a cliffside.  Some careful scouting by Karrinkas reveals humans working a mine behind a retaining wall.  There are several of the gnolls around in watch positions, though they seem less than attentive.  Unfortunately, Karrinkas somehow manages to miss seeing the dire lion dozing on the far side of the compound.

The party attacks.  Karrinkas and Daphna make good use of a _Spider Climb_ from Berke to swarm up and over the walls.  Many of the gnolls die in seconds and everything looks good.

The dire lion is a scary surprise for Arlissa, who finds herself flat on her back and desperately (and unsuccessfully) trying to cast spells while being clawed.  Karrinkas and Daphna manage to down the dire lion and everyone is back on their feet in time for the reinforcements to boil out.

A gnoll champion appears, ordering a half-dozen more gnolls out in more or less precise lines along with yet another dire lion.  He bears a shield emblazoned with the flaming sword of Dana.  Many of the party curl their lip at the blashphemy of such a creature abusing the arms and armor clearly meant for a champion of good.  Battle is again joined from all quarters.  Daphna and Karrinkas unhappily find that the sword that is supernaturally keen.  The combat is chaotic, wide-ranging, and desperately close.  Perhaps the most memorable stand being that of Berke throwing fist-sized rocks from the roof of one of the buildings down upon the gnolls as he danced and taunted them to waste their arrows into his _Protection from Arrows_ spell.

The heroes are victorious, through Karrinkas twice passed far too close to death's door.  Berke barricades the door that leads deeper into the mines.  They know something is down there, but they are in no shape to face them now.


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

*The Defeat of the Slavers (Episode 6)*

A growl issues from the darkness.  In broken Sunborn, the voice comes forth:
_"I have slain a Skyrider of Dana.  In my touch I gave her suffering that she never had felt, and she broke beneath it.  Her mount fled from her side in fear! I cracked open her ribs and ate of her very heart and her very strength.  I have drained her blood and made it my wine.  Yes, I see that you have slain Roghru and taken back her shield and sword, but those were the lesser gifts that I gave to him as my lieutenant.

Come into my home and I shall eat you as well, youngest born."_

---

After a weary night, the Llassans greet the dawn with a thankfulness that you just don't get by sitting around a temple in a land at peace.

The heroes push into the cavernous tunnels.  They plunge through a feeble defense of gnolls barricaded crudely behind crates and scraps of wood.  They push forward with anger and with strength against the slavers, the way lit by a _Continual flame of Llassa_ whose unflinching white flame shines from the tip of Arlissa's staff.

At one point Karrinkas bursts around a corner into a room and sees dozens of forms moving.  He ducks back and shouts to Arlissa.  Her anger is upon her, and she leans in and calls upon _Abanta's Blades_ - a storm of razor-sharp shards of ice and water sprays across the room.  Terrible screams echo.  As Arlissa recorded in her journal:

_"When I returned later, it turned out that they were all females and pups.  That’s when I vomited.  But I know they had been fed on the bones of men, women, and children, and the pups would grow to be evil monsters, so my feelings of guilt are fleeting – but I know I shall see them in my dreams."_

But there was no stopping.  Soon enough they had found the dark gnoll-priest's lair, where he was prepared to sacrifice three captive humans in exchange for greater power in darkness.  He and his minions were cut down in seconds, and Samus reduced their dark shrine to fragments of stone.  There they learned the name of the dark gnoll god Yennoghu, which Arlissa has cautioned the others not to speak aloud.

The three captives (Rinaltus, Scalino, and Athana) were gently helped to the surface and their wounds tended to.  They were the last survivors of Selino's Vale - the forest village the heroes had found.

A teenage gnoll-boy was also captured trying to escape the mines at dusk along with some friends.  The friends were downed with arrows before the cry to take a prisoner was lifted.  He was interrogated something like this:

_"Like the priests have always taught.  The powerful will strike down the weak and make them their slaves.  You killed my brothers, and you will kill me or make me your slave.  I don't want to die, I can serve you, show you good hunting."_
Did he take part in the raid: _"No, too young"_
Did he eat any of the humans: _"No, only the warriors get to eat the flesh of such."_
Do you know what happened to the human: _"Many sold to the caravan that came through three days ago.  Most of the good ones."_

The heroes also learned that the gnolls had taken the city of Velesca and made it their own, naming it Greshothuth.  To pursue the caravan of the other slaves would be to march directly into heart of the gnoll nation.  Velesca was the home of a Divine Gift - a forge some say was made by the goddess of the same name.  Our heroes saw this forge once, centuries ago.  Berke shuddered at what evil things might be forged there even now by the gnolls.

A debate over the fate of the gnoll-boy tested the heroes.  Arlissa, haunted by the non-combatants she had already slain - though none would call them innnocent - argued against him being killed.  Daphna saw nothing but a creature of evil.  The others, and the survivors themselves, were divided.  The next morning he was released with a warning not to track them or try to bring others against them.

* The caves were also searched with little luck but to find a beastie that tried to eat Daphna.
* Daphna took up the sword and shield of Dana, as well as a helm found near the dark shrine.  Inside the helm is inscribed: "Sigura of House Dana, Blessed Skyrider and Guardian of Asirdana."  Daphna hopes she may honorably bear these weapons of the righteous goddess of war.


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## Greybar (Aug 30, 2003)

Since I have them from my GM notes - the opinions of the three survivors of Selino's Vale upon the fate of the gnoll-boy:

Rinaltus - It is obvious to me that Haraivans cannot afford to fight amongst ourselves.  In this, I agree with the Matriarch of Highlake.  But she turns her back too much on the enemies of all Haraivans, these invading beasts that destroyed the old cities.  That's why I left Highlake to help with Selino's plans.  This young beast is just that.  He'll never be anything other than a slaughtering beast, trying to kill and rape Haraivans and eat our flesh.  I'd say he must die.  I shed no tears for the pack of beasts that you've slain today.  I have no doubt they would have worked me until I was worthless and then gnawed on my bones.

Scalino - With all that has died today, why do we need to add one more?  If you say he is a beast, I can agree.  Look, does he not have much of the features of a mountain lion.  Would you kill all of the cubs of a lionness if she attacked you in hunger?  But also, I see a gleam of intelligence in his eyes.  Maybe he can learn between good and evil.  He has grown amongst evil, maybe we can show him good.

Athana - The scriptures say that Abanta wept to see the strife amongst the children of Hara.  She refused to take sides, to help any one kill any other one.  It was only when she was forced to take sides that the slaughter began, and so many died.  I believe in Abanta's tears, but I find it so hard to follow the path of tears when I know that my own children were slain by creatures such as that thing.  Part of me wants vengance on this one, or any one.  I cannot trust myself to give judgement.  I refuse to take a side.


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## Indigo Veil (Sep 3, 2003)

Is it okay for me to post comments here, if they don't spoil anything?

I just wanted to "Yay!" a bit at the big update. ^_^ Yay, Greybar! 

Also, I know that you intend to catch up with the rest of the story first, but I would really love to see the encounter with the ghost children in full narrative form. <hopeful> ^_^


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## Samus_the_Lucky (Sep 3, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> Is it okay for me to post comments here, if they don't spoil anything?




Spoil all you want... we need all the help we can get!  And we would probably fail to understand the spoilers anyway... [sigh]

just kidding.

BTW: John, that Rogue's Gallery thread was soooo tempting... but i have been good and not even touched the link!


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## Samus_the_Lucky (Sep 3, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> Perhaps the most memorable stand being that of Berke throwing fist-sized rocks from the roof of one of the buildings down upon the gnolls as he danced and taunted them to waste their arrows into his _Protection from Arrows_ spell.




He CRITTED with a damn rock!  i seem to have been rolling pretty bad that day, so here was Samus, big guy with a bigger axe barely scratching the Gnolls and there is Berke throwing rocks and knocking a Gnoll's head nearly clean off!  It was just embarrassing for Samus!

Of course a few sessions ago Samus really showed how it is done doing 130+ points of damage in one round.


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## Greybar (Sep 3, 2003)

> Is it okay for me to post comments here, if they don't spoil anything?




Absolutely, I'm sure the players will love it.  Just don't use any knowledge from the Rogue's Gallery thread.

If someone makes an insightful comment that makes the players think, we can always put those words in the mouth of an NPC.

So - make witty comment, get a cameo!

john


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## Greybar (Sep 16, 2003)

*Sidebar: of the Unthalu and the Gates*

*Sidebar: of the Unthalu and the Gates*
_Once upon a time, three hundred years ago..._

Our heroes found an old place that some call a barrow.  A stone archway set into a steep slope leading down and in.  The archway has writing on it across the lintel and on either pillar, which Balius believed to be that of the lizardmen.  Samus scoffed at even considering that the lizardmen might have a written language, but Balius persisted in puzzling out the strange markings. He manages to get something like: "56th year of King Thahrgahthu, Long he (may) bright/shine/glitter." on the left side, "Gate to Home (of?) Thahguth" on the right side, and "Five House/Family, Five (hearts?), One bright/shine/glitter people (lizardmen?)" across the top.

In time he would come to understand the language more completely.  Across the top it reads:
*Five Tribes, Five Hearts, One Shining People.*
Down the left column it reads:
*Fifty-sixth year of King Thargathu the Fourth, long may he shine.*
And down the right column it reads:
*Stoneheart Gate to Kaguth.*

Balius came to know that the lizardmen name themselves *Unthalu*, the Shining People.  Their communications with the noble or priestly caste of that race were strained by time, duress, and prejudice.

Later the group would find more gates that Balius found to differ in the right column only:
*Rising Heart Gate to Kaguth.*
*Brilliant Heart Gate to Kaguth.*

Entering the archway led to a stairway leading down to a chamber and a great blank wall.  Blank to some, but not to Samus' keen eyes.  To him, there was a tracery of glowing lines.  Within those lines a nexus.  That nexus seemed to call out to a necklace Samus wore, looted from a lizardman noble that he had felled in battle.  When the central stone of the necklace was touched to the nexus of the wall, the wall blazed with light and it became possible to step through into another place.

Our heroes never quite got the handle of how to control the gate.  The destination was often not what was desired.  Perhaps worse, the gate seems to become dormant after being used for a period of about four hours - very distressing when the destination was not a place you wanted to be.

They found there to be a network of these gates - at least three of which were spread amongst the highlands to the north of the Haraivan cities.  A map of sorts was found hidden away with the belongings of the deceptive Kiltana Gorkana, who was responsible for tricking the party into working to free the imprisoned being the lizardmen named Zhanthark.  Kaguth appeared to be a central point in the network.  Three hundred years ago, Kaguth was a ruins and the site of the confrontration that left our heroes entombed in stone.  In the current age, Kaguth is somewhere within the city of New Gorkana...


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## Samus_the_Lucky (Sep 16, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> Their communications with the noble or priestly caste of that race were strained by time, duress, and prejudice.



...and Samus' arrows!

Balius was attempting to speak with one Lizardman when Samus, seeing the creature, using his lightening fast weapon reflexes, put an arrow straight into the creature's neck; killing it in an instant.

Balius whined: "I was *talking* with him!"

Frankly, Samus didn't even know that they had a language.

... ah back in the days when Samus' world was simpler... a *whole* lot simpler... _[sigh]_


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