Crown of the Giant Queen: Session 5 - Range of Motion

When last we left our heroes… With their first major adventure behind them, the companions took some much-deserved downtime actions:

• Karalin and Shadlaharl worked together to bring in a notorious bandit leader over the Spring, tracking him down and tricking him (with a little bit of luck) to come along quietly. They split both the heft reward as well as the fame garnered by this accomplishment.
• Vasiral took a trip to the Holy City of Sencankarr itself, where he spent two weeks praying at the shrine of Tenuyala, the Wolf. On the second week, the Creator heard his prayer, and his maimed hand was healed, though a scar remains to remind him of the battle.
• Kanuvarja spent the Spring attempting to compose a ballad about a Weixranbori knight who may or may not have been loosely based on Shadlaharl. Unfortunately, the ballad was maudlin and poorly written, and even the common folk would not attend a repeat performance.
• Varjalis spent the Spring corresponding with and travelling to meet religious experts and trace down the origins of a strange set of idols she had begun investigating back when she was in Sencankarr.* She uncovered an ancient fragment, as well as a series of theories which may point to the forgotten truth of the idols.

As the Spring passed to summer, rumors came from Sencankarr of the growing madness of King Onwae. Some say he even drowned a concubine in the royal gardens (though hopefully not in the Queen’s Pool!). A fleet is mustering near Sencankarr, and there are rumors that it will sale for the Leopard Isles soon. In the Bay of Gjanju (the region where the players are), things have gone well, and the initial growing season has been promising. Trade, on the other hand, has been bad, due to the depredations of Njeitbori pirates attacking ships headed up or down the Straights to or from Theyokarr in the south.

On the 9th of Wanorsuna, a Karanral (4th day of the week), the companions were called before Sir Ianral. He was concerned about the growing boldness of the Njeitbori pirates, and wants to establish a forward outpost on one of the three large islands on the eastern edge of the Bay Region (Kingfisher’s Isle, Itus’ Isle, and the Dancing Isle). These islands are considered haunted by the locals, and few have visited them within living memory. Sir Ianor asked the company to survey each of the three isles to determine which one might be most suitable for an outpost. Such an outpost would need three things: 1) a good harbor for the small sloops Sir Ianor’s men use for patrols; 2) adequate stone and wood to construct a watchtower and conduct repairs to ships; 3) a vantage point from which a watchtower could be built to keep an eye on the sea for miles around.

Before they left, the companions stocked up on Bitter Rockweed poultices, and Karalin decided to question some of the local old men (using her feminine charms to do so) about the islands. Between flirtatious overtures (including boasting about the “range of motion” in his hips), one old sailor told her that the islands were “haunted,” “out of our time,” and inhabited by “mudspawn” – simulacra created by an ancient sorcerer, now abandoned by their maker. In his lifetime, only one person from the four villages (that he knows of) ever stepped foot on the islands, a strange old man named Lasuyar, and he never returned.

With as much information gathered as possible, the companions set out for the isles. Their ship, the Jasper Python, was commanded by Captain Anurfal, a crusty but good-natured old veteran, who asked them where they wanted to go first. They decided to begin by exploring Kingfisher Isle. As they sailed into the evening and through the night, they learned the story of the Sunder, four barren islands they passed on the left. According to local lore, the Sunder was the hammer of a giantess, and was shattered in her battle with her kin. It would be reforged at the end of the world, when she would come to reclaim her land. During the voyage, Vasiral had an ominous dream: He was sitting at a table, drinking a bowl of blood drained from the corpses of men. The men were all too small for some reason, and as he drank the blood he wept tears, and his tears were blood as well. 

The next morning, they sighted land. Sailing along the coast of Kingfisher Isle, Vasiral’s keen eyes spotted several huts built on the shore, just within the treeline, clearly intended to be hidden from view by anyone sailing past. Finding a harborage, they sailed in and the five companions disembarked. As they stepped out of the boat and onto the beach, a dozen figures burst from the water around them. They had fallen into an ambush! 

Crown of the Giant Queen: Session 4 - Swan-song

When last we left our heroes… In the aftermath of the battle and burying the fallen, the companions—including those wounded and weary—began a forced march back to Mjathkor. During the first night, their paths were dogged by the “long-ears” – the maned wolves who had attacked them at the beginning of their journey. As they grew increasingly unfit for a battle due to their weariness and their pace taking its toll on them, they were approached by another group of animals—this time, a trio of swans flying overhead. One of these swans spoke to the party through Kanuvarja, the Star-singer [Sophie], warning them of the approach of the wolves. Although the swan and his mate could not stay to help them, a third swan, a warrior named Sha-Rial, soul-bonded with Shadlaharl, and offered to lead the party through the woods by a shortcut, one which would allow them to reach Mjathkor before the feast. 

The company followed Sha-Rial the Swan at a breakneck pace, pushing through the wood by trackless paths until at last, weary but safe, they arrived at the village on the day before the feast. They presented the Serpent to the Priestess Falaru, who gave them food, baths, changes of clothing, and rest before the feast began the next day.

At the feast, almost everyone from the fort as well as from the Four Villages gathered to celebrate the Feast of Orusen. The ritual was performed, the waters cleansed, the Serpent slain and buried for another year, and all was well. Sergeant Garinas as well as Sir Ianor congratulated the companions, and Sir Ianor showed his gratitude by paying them handsomely (including a hefty weregild for Vasiral’s maimed arm). Sir Ianor confided in the adventurers, telling them that he had suspected a growing evil in the region for quite some time. With this first adventure safely behind them, the companions set out to take some seasonal actions…

Monsters avoided:

• 12 Maned Wolves

Crown of the Giant Queen: Session 3 - Terror in the Wood

When last we left our heroes… Stepping into the clearing full of a foul and noisome stench, the companions could see the two acolytes—one chained to a large stone where the other’s body had been splayed out as a bloody sacrifice to some dark god. All around them, the hag-headed vultures—lead by one vulture-headed woman—sang a baleful song. The companions sprang to action, fighting their way through the horrific creatures. Shadlaharl ran forward, trying to free the other Acolyte, but the creatures swarmed around him. For one desperate moment it seemed that the company might be overwhelmed, until the tide of battle turned. 

The Priestess Varjala began singing the Litany of Banishment, sending several of the vulture-creatures scattering like the flock of carrion fowl they were. The valor of the companions overcame the Daughters of the Vulture, and one by one they slew the creatures or set them to flight. The victory did not come without a cost, however: Vasiral, the young thief from the Leopard Isles, had his right arm permanently maimed in the battle, and would likely never be able to shoot a bow again.

In the aftermath of the grizzly contest beneath the trees, the companions spoke with the surviving acolyte, Kjala. Although it took some reviving, they eventually learned from her that the Daughters of the Vulture were working in cahoots with a “beautiful woman clad in silver” who had come to them on the previous night. She it was who had instructed them to intercept the Serpent, and the silver lady spoke of reclaiming “what had been hers long ago.” According to Kjala, the Silver Lady’s plan has been to try to stop the Serpent from being delivered to the Four Villages so that the Rite of Purification for the Feast of Orusen cannot be performed—something which could have potentially disastrous consequences, since it would leave the Four Villages unprotected from evil for the year. Kjala warned the companions that they needed to head back to the village of Mjathkor in order to arrive before the feast. 

The companions also searched the ritual site, finding a treasure hoard beneath the great standing stone. It was an odd assortment of items, some of them extremely ancient, and included an ancient bow of Treian craftsmanship as well as the missing Serpent. The priestess Varjala decided to keep the bow. With the dead properly laid to rest and their wounds seen to for the moment, the companions began the long journey back to Mjathkor through the forest at night…

Monsters killed:

• 6 Hag-headed Daughters
• 1 Vulture-headed Daughter 

Treasure found: 

• Tsobjada “The Bow of Piercing Wind”
• 82 ss worth of random jewelry and other items taken from travelers waylaid by the Daughters of the Vulture

 

Crown of the Giant Queen - Session 2: Shadlaharl, Meet Shadlaharl

 When last we left our heroes… The companions first treated their wounds, then headed on to the village of Mjathkor where they met the local Well Priestess, Falaru. The Priestess Falaru was able to fill them in on more details about the missing package: It was the “Serpent” – the specially forged ritual serpent (made of a secret alloy) which was ritually slain and buried once a year at the Cleansing of the Water for the Feast of Orusen. The serpent was forged in Hurakarr for this feast, but it has not arrived and now there is a real danger that it will not arrive at all, in which case the ritual cannot be prepared. Priestess Falaru believes that if this happens, evil things will befall the community.

The companions set out on the road north towards Hurakarr, looking for signs of the missing acolytes and their escorts, who were supposed to have been returning with the package. Along the way they had a few mishaps – including diarrhea caused by tainted water – but pressed on until they encountered a Shadlaharl (a great horned beast) in the middle of the forest. Avoiding what might have been a costly and disastrous battle, the companion Shadlaharl seemed to bond strangely with his namesake, taming it and allowing the companions to continue on their way.

Another two days north of the village, the companions found the first traces of the missing acolytes—clear signs of a struggle on the road, with tracks leading away both east and west. Following the west tracks first, the companions found the bodies of the two escorts—young men who had been sent to protect the acolytes on the road. They seemed to have died from tearing out their own eyes. After burying these men with a proper funeral, presided over by Varjalis [Augusta], they followed the tracks to the East, which led them into a clearing in which they saw a large standing-stone which had been transformed into an altar. On it, they saw one of the acolytes splayed out in the dark ritual known as the Bloody Vulture, while the second (still-living) acolyte was tied to the stone, awaiting her turn. All around the clearing, clearly waiting for the companions, were a number of massive vultures with the heads of ugly hags, led by one otherwise beautiful woman with the ungainly head of a vulture.

Monsters avoided: 

• 1 Shadlaharl

Crown of the Giant Queen - Session 1: Dancing with Wolves

When last we left our heroes… Our adventures began late in the winter of late 456, on Ijanral (a Monday), the 21st of Setelnor, merely a week before the Feast of Orusen marked the New Year and the coming of spring. Our companions and would-be heroes, a rag-tag bunch with their own reasons for coming to the end of the civilized world, had just been inducted as new recruits into the March Wardens—a force dedicated to patrolling and maintaining the safety of the Royal Wood on the edges of Sothbori society. They were at the southernmost of all Sothbori outposts – Varsh-i-yalir (Varsheilir in the local dialect), beneath the southern edge of the Hurar river, on a narrow strip of forest between the Darak Mountains and the Amborian Sea. 

As we began, the companions were being reamed by their new commanding officer, Sergeant Gerinas, a grizzled old veteran who was not happy with the band of mostly raw youths and women with which he’d been saddled. Looking around at them, it was no wonder. Most of them weren’t, from the looks of it, promising warriors. The obvious exceptions to this were Shadlaharl, the burly middle-aged veteran from the Weixranbo, and Karalin, the statuesque amazon from the Leopard Isles. For their first mission together, they were tasked with what Sgt. Gerinas called “a job simple enough that even a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears boys and girls can handle it.” Priestess Falaru, the Well Priestess at the nearby village of Mjathkor, had requested help locating a missing “package,” something she had expected to have arrived from Sencankarr by now. Sergeant Garinas couldn’t tell the companions more about it (there was apparently some secrecy surrounding the matter), but the companions decided they would head north to search along the road, first taking some time to stop by Mjathkor and see what else the Priestess might be able to tell them.

They began their journey through the dense forest of sand and pines, an ethereal hush falling around them. It was the evening of the second day of their journey (with another half-day or so left) when the silence of their surroundings was broken by the yips and howls of creatures which Vasiral, a bright-eyed youth from Carucankarr, managed to identify as Maned Wolves (one of the predominant apex predators in the region). It soon became clear that the pack was moving in, so the companions stopped and made the beginnings of a bonfire—just in time, as it happens, as ten maned wolves leaped through the trees, snarling and biting.

The subsequent combat was brief, though violent. Varjalis, a mysterious northwoman with the usual gift of her people for the bow, dropped several of the beasts with long shafts from her bow as the clearing was a blur of sparks, fur, blood, and teeth. Shadlaharl and Hasanya (a sword-maiden of the Red Isle) held the center of the battlefield with their great Red Fang Longswords while Vasiral leaped between the jaws of two of the great beasts, for the most part too agile for them to do him any harm. Karalin cut a few of them down, while Kanuvarja, a young woman also from the Leopard Isles, managed to hold her own beside Hasanya and Vasiral. In the end, Varjalis’ shafts dropped a wolf while Shadlaharl summarily executed another, and the remaining two broke and fled. Breathless, and with the sun now setting in the west, the companions find themselves master of the little battlefield beneath the trees. The ground around them is spattered in blood and torn fur, littered with the corpses of eight of the great wolves. Kanuvarja and Vasiral are in need of medical treatment, having been hobbled slightly by the jaws of the beasts.

Monsters killed:

• 8 Maned wolves

Monsters routed:

• 2 Maned Wolves