All posts by jon

Cataclysm

Session 32 – The Rebirth

We take out the last of the cosplayers and enter the house. The hired guns watch outside while we go in. There are five hostages in here all zip-tied. Meaghan doesn’t know any of them but clearly they were abducted and mistreated by the cosplayers. We cut them free and ask if they have any place to go. They say no, as all of their companions were killed when the cosplayers snatched them.

We find Meaghan’s brother Blake in the other house and there is a tearful reunion. We organize everyone into the vehicles including the hostages and head back to the compound. Meaghan appreciates Simon’s efforts at the house and gives him a more-than-friendly kiss on the cheek.

Scotty has continued to work on the teleporter and he has people getting space suits together for us. He will come along to help with the technology we may find up there. We start training in the suits. They have grip so we will not fly around inside the ship if there is no artificial gravity. Ian tells us not to bring along any firearms as things up there will “not react well to bullets.” Meaghan will not be coming with us but Scotty does.

We teleport and Chet manages to keep his lunch down even though this was his first time. It is dark here and there is only one door. We manage to pry it open and we work our way through the ship. Ian checks to see if others have been walking around up here but there are no tracks.

We see all the way down toward the engine and it’s like a highway, very spacious and long. We work our way through and open several sets of doors. On the last one we see out into space as there’s a huge hole. We use our zero-g boots to walk on the ceiling across.

We come to the area with the pods and we see that there are around a thousand. This is the remainder of five planets’ worth of alien refugees. We should launch them all, because that would cause the ship’s orbit not to decay, or at least buy us time.

Simon and Alex determine where to send all of the 1000 pods and do math calculations on our orbit to make sure things land properly. Simon pushes the button and they start launching. It is a pretty violent process as the thrusters fire, and the whole ship lurches.

We find two space shuttles that seem to be operational, about the size of a fighter or shuttle. We wake up a group of 20 Talolans (and others) to help us.

We spend a few more days here and Alex creates an environmental bubble for us to take a break from our suits. After this we fly the space shuttles back down to the compound.

–end of this book–

Cataclysm

Session 31 – Bristol

We survey the crater and Simon consults Ser and he says that the engine or whatever it is seems to still be active, and the time pulses are going to continue occurring until we can shut it off.

He lets the others know and they start talking with AJ, who says that he was able to change the past and survive. We are also shocked to see Simon’s dad, Ian’s wife, and Dusty’s brother alive after all of them have been assumed dead for years. They explain that they had to try very hard not to make any changes to the timeline after they were saved.

We hunker down on the other side of a hill so the pulses don’t hit us again. They are occurring every 90 minutes but seem to be increasing by 15 minutes each time. During some of the pulses, animals appear from nowhere.

We call Scotty at the compound and ask him what to do. He says that it will take all of us to shut it down and we run scenarios to figure it out and train. After we feel confident enough we head back after the last pulse and start to work on shutting it down. It takes a very long time and we think we are making a lot of progress, but Simon accidentally hits a switch and things start to power back up. We work on it for another 45 minutes or so and are finally able to turn it off.

We talk with Scotty about what we could scavenge from here but he says not much. We decide to head back. AJ goes back to Milwaukee but leaves us a couple of Sno Cats.

As we return we see a bright star up above. It is apparently the main part of the ship that the Talolans call Rebirth. Simon asks if we can teleport up there, and Scotty says that he’s trying to work on it. We spend several months talking about plans and scenarios as he’s working on it.

April 10th comes around and Scotty gets abnormally excited and calls us down. He was able to connect to the ship with the teleporter. It may be how it is currently oriented in relation to Earth. We worry about getting back but he says that it should be possible.

On April 25th, Meaghan comes in while we are having breakfast and says that she got a pager message from her dad just this morning. She had turned on her pager for the first time since the disaster and messages began popping up, and some of them are quite recent. In the oldest messages, her father advises her to get to a shelter and lists off several places near where she was staying with her brother Blake in Illinois but also in other states. In the most recent messages her father and brother give their location where they are in shelters. Her brother is in Bristol and are surrounded by the cosplay idiots that we dealt with last summer.

Meaghan says that she’s going to go right away to save her father and brother. Ian says that we will come to help her, and recruits a few others to come as extra guns. We pack up supplies and 12 of us go in one of the Sno Cats toward Bristol.

On the way, we ask Meaghan about her family. Her father was an executive at Northrop Grummen and also a survival nut. She went from base to base when she was a kid and wherever he went, he built a survival shelter at each place. She learned survival skills and self defense from him and took many classes, and though she resented it at the time she was able to survive on her own because of it.

We stop the Sno Cats more than a mile away and Ian and Meaghan and a few others get out and look for sentries. They find two and take them out quietly, then come back to tell us in the Sno Cat to come up the drive.

We drive up and Alex creates a barrier in front of the Sno Cat for protection. We start shooting at the cosplayers, and we manage to take them out except for two who start running away.

Alex hears the roar of engines from the house behind us and our hired guns turn around to face them and see what happens next.

The Ethereal Hand

Session 4 – The Demon with a Thousand Mouths

The crew investigates more into Veldren’s disappearance. They go to the headquarters of the Red Sashes. Eklipsis and Reynard meet with one of their sword instructors, Ms. Thena Sankara, who greets them and offers them tea. Eklipsis uses her Iruvian heritage to her advantage in the conversation and gets Ms. Sankara to look at the brooch that they found. She recognizes it as a symbol of the Circle of Flame, which is an underground organization that positions itself as a group of scholars, but Ms. Sankara explains that the Red Sashes have run up against them before and they have a darker side.

She doesn’t specifically know Veldren, but she mentions a nearby opium den in Charhollow that houses a lot of people like him, who use drugs to create visions and expand their consciousness. The place is at the cross streets of Taylor’s Ave. & Ash Way. Eklipsis thanks her and they head out.

Later at the opium den, which is a large but nasty place in the sub-basement of another building, the group finds a gathering of degenerates and ask them about Veldren. One man with an unkempt appearance and very few teeth offers that Veldren used to come here often, but hasn’t been around in a few weeks. He points out the bunk that Veldren usually uses, however he expects a payday for the information he’s given. Reynard finds a leather bound journal in a pile next to the bunk. The toothless man asks for payment for the info but Eklipsis just gives him a brass penny. The man isn’t happy but the crew just leaves.

Back at the lair, Eklipsis studies the journal and most of it is gibberish, but some sections actually make sense. There are references to an eagle, and that those who follow the eagle will use its eye, its claw, and its heart to destroy their enemies. It also says that “the seven are one, but the one in seven is a destroyer.” Reynard recalls that in his dealings with the Circle of Flame, since he knows some of them, they do mention ancient relics called the eye, hand, and heart that they are seeking. The party thinks that Veldren may have been kidnapped by the Circle because they think he has information about these relics, or perhaps because he knows too much.

Eklipsis goes to Stazia’s apothecary shop and lays out everything that she’s found so far about Veldren’s disappearance. Stazia is shocked to hear that the Circle of Flame may be responsible. He says that he doesn’t have much clout to go against a big organization like the Circle, but if Veldren were returned he would offer the group 2 coin. He is a good friend, and he also helps Stazia with testing out his concoctions.

The party considers having Reynard talk with the Silver Nails, who are a group of Severosis who oppose the Circle of Flame. However, it’s decided that this is too risky and they will try to take some turf from the Cabbies instead. They will break into one of their nearby hubs where the goats and carriages are stored and sabotage the carriages so they will break down and cause them to lose customers.

They slide over to the building from a nearby abandoned structure and Raven gets across expertly, but the other 3 almost fall and he has to catch them with another rope. Reynard sends Kit into the building to scout and she sees 6 guards on this level. There are storage crates and offices but most of them are locked.

Eklipsis and Raven sneak in, and Eklipsis uses her blowgun to deliver a dose of drugs to one of the guards at the top of the stairs. He becomes confused and starts to see shapes. His friend is distracted by this and Raven goes to take out his legs. He does knock the other man down, but his lantern shatters on the floor and the other guards are close to alerted.

Eklipsis tries to shoot another dart but sucks it in by accident and drugs herself. Raven slams into the second guard with his elbow as he is trying to get up and both of them land in a nearby office unconscious.

Foggy calls a ghost and scares off one of the guards, but another one saps him in the back of the head.

Eklipsis and Raven head downstairs under the cover of their cloak but they trip and land hard at the bottom. There are four guards near them but luckily they are not seen. The guards hear the noise upstairs and rush there to find out what is going on.

While Reynard and Foggy continue to fight off the guards, Eklipsis and Raven rush past the goats and desperately try to sabotage the carriages. The acid is not working quickly however, and they are not making progress. (0 of 6 segments filled in on the clock.)

Reynard tries to hide from the guards, but in doing so overturns a cabinet in one of the offices and it lands on his leg, fracturing it.

Foggy decides to pull out the stops and produces the Spirit Focus, quickly attuning to it before the guards get to him. He immediately sees a landscape of a blasted plane and a clear sky, with the sun beating down on him. A shape descends from the sun, a pulsing sphere with tendrils reaching out from it, and at the end of each tendril is a mouth. They are muttering, singing and screaming. It turns to Foggy and asks him what he wants. Foggy asks for everyone to be scared off, and the thing agrees to do this but says there will be a price later.

No time has passed in reality, and the spirit focus activates, sending spirits crashing through the floor, breaking a huge hole into it. They stream out and go into the five remaining guards, possessing them. One man has so many spirits go into him that his head explodes and he dies instantly. Another is carried off by the spirits and the others pass out.

The noise has caused a lot of attention, as alarms go off and people come from the outside to see what is going on. Two of the garage doors open as well.

The Ethereal Hand

Session 3 – The Unquiet Dead

Foggy noticed that when attacking, the two ghosts could not go through the broken wall — they bounce off of it like it’s still there. He tries to attune to the two spirits attacking him again but they will not leave him alone. Reynard pulls his pistols and points them at the man at the door, saying that he should walk out of there and leave them alone. The man freezes but wonders what they are doing “in the master’s house” and tells them to leave.

Raven jumps under a desk, not wanting to be seen by the man.

Reynard goes after the man, closing the distance quickly but the man steps out of the room and trips him as he comes through the door. Reynard sprawls onto the floor and drops his pistols. Kit follows her master and tries to jump at the man, but also misses.

Foggy tries a different tactic and just tries to talk with the ghosts instead of attuning to them. They surprisingly respond and ask if they are not the master of the house, who are they. Foggy says that they are trying to help the ghosts determine what is going on. The ghosts seem to agree and hang back, watching to see what happens next. Their names are Nigel and Alex, and they can’t say why they want to go through the barrier downstairs, but they feel compelled to. They don’t remember what happened when they were still alive but it was something horrible.

The crew heads downstairs and notice a foul smell. They turn on the lights to find a huge laboratory with lots of equipment and potions, as well as torture devices that seem well used (i.e. still full of blood and gore). Toward the back of the room there is a large locked pen with at least 20 people in it.

Eklipsis looks at the potions and sees that some of these are highly dangerous and illegal — they may be used to separate someone’s soul from their body. Looking at the people in the pen, Foggy realizes that this is what’s happened to them, they are “hulls” which are people who have been separated from their spirit but have been left alive.

Eklipsis unlocks the cell with her lockpicks and they look at the people inside. Two of the hulls look similar to the two ghosts who were upstairs. They lead the hulls upstairs “Weekend at Bernie’s style” and the ghosts inhabit the bodies, and after a moment they wake up. They are very weak, filthy and starving, but they are alive.

With the help of Nigel and Alex, they bring the others upstairs and Foggy calls out to the spirits in the area to see if the rest of them are hanging around. Soon all of the spirits come back to their bodies, now that they have been brought through the barrier. In speaking with the people, the crew finds out that some of them were employees of the house, and some were visitors and guests who had come to Mr. Charles’ parties and were kidnapped and tortured by him.

Reynard spends some time looking for valuables inside the Charles residence before they leave. He finds a small safe in the office where the accountant was working. Eklipsis opens it with ease and finds 4 coin inside.

Reynard sends out a signal to Lady Drake’s security forces who were standing by to come in if needed. They pour through the front entrance, much to the surprise of the Bluecoats patrolling the area, and take the people to safety. They let the security men know about the accountant and they take him as well. The crew escapes through their entrance point on the second floor.

A couple of days later, they visit Lady Drake at her office. She offers them drinks and congratulates them on a successful job. They outline everything that happened and she seems disgusted by the descriptions of the people in the pen who had been tortured. She says that in full disclosure, she had her suspicions about Charles but didn’t know the extent of his depravity. Thanks to the evidence that the Ethereal Hand provided, Charles was arrested and is pending charges.

The crew retires for some well deserved downtime before their next score.

(Eklipsis has her 2 downtime actions remaining)

The Ethereal Hand

Session 1 – Spirit Focus

The Ethereal Hand is an up-and coming gang in the Charhollow neighborhood of Duskvol. The current membership consists of Reynard, a hound; Eklipsis, a leech; Raven, a lurk; and Foggy, a whisper.

They reside in a tower in the Old Village section of Charhollow, which is an abandoned abbey. This area is teeming with working class people and they are high above.

So far they have been able to add quarters to their lair, so everyone can sleep there. However, the materials they used were stolen from the Cabbies, so that group is antagonistic to the Hand at the moment.

The Hand are looking to operate in the Charterhall area which is home to the government offices and university of Duskvol. They pay off the City Council (1 coin) so they can operate here.

The Council also provided to them some documents about local figures (double XP for training Insight skills) and the Hand pay 1 coin to increase their relationship with the Council.

Trying to decide what they could do for their first job as a gang, the Hand consults Fitz, a collector with a large antique store in the market district of Charhollow who also happens to be a member of the sect “The Path of Echoes” which believe that the traditional wisdom of the Church of Ecstasy is wrong. They often commune with the dead.

Fitz’ store is about to close for the evening, but the members of the Hand are waved in and led to the back room where Fitz is enjoying some kind of a drug out of a hookah. He blows a cloud of purple smoke and asks the gang what they are interested in. They explain that they are looking for work, and he says that he has just recently gotten in some artifacts from Tycheros, which is where Raven hails from. Raven seems interested.

Fitz explains that three of the boxes from his Tycheros shipment are being held by the bluecoats across the river in Charterhall at a warehouse. They often hold things that they consider contraband without any warning and keep them there as long  as they wish. Some of the items are war artifacts like old swords and shields, and some are vases that are quite old and fragile. One of the items is a strange relic called a Spirit Focus. Fitz says that if his items may be procured, he would pay the group for their trouble.

Fitz also has several other Tycheros artifacts like clockwork toys that depict monstrous people, and also some vases. Reynard asks for items from Severos, the nomadic tribes, and Fitz shows him a statuette of a horse rearing up.

Foggy asks for more information about the Spirit Focus artifact, and Fitz dusts off an old tome that is from the Path of Echoes’ own knowledge of arcana. It depicts the Spirit Focus as a square object with a hole sort of like a frame, that is made out of glass or some bright material. It is a beacon for spirits, and when activated they will approach the device.

Foggy reads more and discovers that with a skilled practitioner, the Spirit Focus can be made to not only call spirits, but direct them and cause them to harry or attack someone. He does not reveal this to Fitz.

The Hand accepts the job and goes off to find more info. First, Raven goes to his friend Darmot, a bluecoat, probably the only honest one in town. The man seems upset and he explains that his boss has been all over his ass about one of the local diplomat’s vacation homes (normally empty) who keeps getting broken into. It’s happened five times over the past several weeks and the bluecoats are stumped. Nothing is stolen, but windows and furniture are regularly broken. Raven asks Darmot about the warehouse and he specifies the location and says that it is heavily guarded.

The Hand case the warehouse and find that there are three entrances, one to the south, one to the east, and a large garage door to the west. There are normally three guards at the garage door and two at each other door during the night, and one less at each during the day. Reynard’s dog is able to see that the storage area is to the west and there are offices on the east side and pallet jacks in the middle area.

Searching through the canals, Reynard scopes things first and then draws a map for Raven. He notes that there is a spirit well and a group of spirit wardens nearby that Raven shouldn’t go near. Raven follows the map and sees a ladder that leads up to a barred doorway with a thick metal lock made out of a dark gray steel.

Eklipsis wonders how she can open the lock and visits Stazia, an apothecary friend of hers. Stazia is a short balding man with dark skin and a thick accent. He mixes Eklipsis a strong acid that will help her break through the lock. He says to only use a few drops and gives her a glass eyedropper.

Before Eklipsis leaves, Stazia asks her to check on their mutual friend Veldren, who was in a few weeks ago to buy a bunch of materials but hasn’t been seen since. Stazia is worried that he has overdosed.

The Hand go back to Fitz and ask for a gondola to take them back to the access door in the canals. Fitz agrees but he says that the money will have to come off of their pay. Reynard has an idea to cause a distraction with a beer cart outside the warehouse. He plans to have the beer spill everywhere and cause a scene so the others can get to the score undetected. Again, Fitz agrees but says it will come off of their cut of the score.

At the appointed time, during the day, Reynard indeed drives by the east entrance and makes a big scene with spilled beer, drawing the attention of many bluecoats and also getting some of them to take the beer. He is totally convincing.

In the tunnels, the Gondolier named Billy brings the rest of the crew to the underground entrance though he is nervous to be here, knowing that the Spirit Wardens are nearby. Eklipsis tells him to stay put.

Eklipsis, Raven and Foggy go to the ladder and Eklipsis ascends, starting to work on the lock with his picking tools rather than using the acid first. She is able to loosen one of the bars that is holding the door shut but it falls and clangs loudly to the floor. The guards are more aware but not alerted yet.

Border Princes

Session 27 – The Changer of the Ways

After about a day’s travel, we skirt around to Castenea which is Giovanni’s territory. We don’t run into anything except normal traffic. Jean and the elves head up to take Hauptner to Giovanni. The dwarves hit up the first bar and start drinking.

Jean and the elves meet Giovanni who is in a smoking jacket and a fez drinking brandy and reading. The meeting between the two border princes is tense. Hauptner looks a bit guilty, and the catatonic state seems to be diminished.

Giovanni tries to sum up everything that’s happened and Jean asks why chaos warriors may be on his lands. Giovanni won’t answer with Hauptner here. We hear the story about how Hauptner was responsible for the death of Giovanni’s men and they still have bad blood. The old man lunges at Giovanni and Jean holds him back. Finally things calm down and they are talking.

Hauptner says that he thinks Sasha was behind the ork attack.  He says that he doesn’t recall things that happened with Sasha in the last couple of years. Before that she was getting the bandits under control and then she said that Gio was trying to assassinate him. She had the double brought in, and after that Hauptner doesn’t remember much.

Gio says that ships have come into port just two days ago from Duke Edelhard. The men were ordered to go under Jean’s command.

The dwarves see a bunch of men in flowery uniforms that appear to be Britonians in the bar. They have daggers at their belts.

We suddenly see larger and larger waves coming in from the Black Gulf and ships start capsizing in the harbor. A huge tsunami starts coming toward us and the dwarves make for higher ground. The elves, up in the keep, see a water spout and someone is at the top of it.

Brokk slips and falls but Tobruk manages to hold onto him and a stone column with the other hand. We see some strange creatures materialize from the water and start attacking people, turning into liquid and enveloping people. The woman on top of the water spout is wearing strange blue and purple clothes. After a few more waves she moves off and the waters become lower, and the water creatures stop attacking as well.

Giovanni mourns his city. The group starts to help pull people out of the water. Vedasi tells Giovanni to fortify the front gate because we’ve been hit at the back gate pretty strongly.

As we are working we see on the ground near the docks a strange symbol like a wave with a circle over it. Jean and Vedasi see it and believe it is the symbol of Tzeentch. He is the “changer of the ways” and many chaos worshipers follow him.

We continue pulling people out of the water and we see that only a handful of the Britonian soldiers survived. A few lucky sailors pull themselves out of the water, but most of them are gone. The richer area up on the high ridge hasn’t been touched by the water.

Giovanni eventually comes down to the docks by us and asks to talk. We head back to the keep with him and he takes us to a large council room. Two people are waiting for us there. We see a man in white robes and full armor and a huge warhammer. His armor has the sign of a twin-tailed comet (Sigmar) and he has a silver circlet that looks like it is riveted into his head. The woman has golden armor and the symbol of a shield and a spear on it (Myrmidia). They are two of the temple leaders in town. Hauptner is also here, but under guard. Giovanni mentions that they need to bring Celarin, a high elf. He is one of the newest loremasters of Hoeth. The high elves and the wood elves don’t generally get along. We may need to send word to him so he will help.

We start telling the group about what we’ve come up against and we mention the skaven. Gio says that this is how Slanesh will attack. The skaven are probably moving here right now. He needs Brokk as the stoneworker to help check the cellars on every home in the town. Tobruk as the armorer, he asks him to get weapons ready so people in town to wield them. He asks Hauptner for info about Sasha, asks Jean to update all of their maps, and the elves to teach his archers on the wall to shoot straight.

The elves head to the high part of town and visit Phandyth who is helping her neighbors. They ask her to get in touch with the wood elves near our keep and others that she knows. We need to gather all the forces to help defend the town.

Border Princes

Session 26 – Kettle Khorne

The horses thunder toward us and the men who aren’t mounted start going toward the house. We see the civilians on a second story balcony of the house and Vedasi yells at them to get into the house.

They run past us and Jean is struck but is still standing. The others try hitting but none of the riders fall. As they are departing, Maruviel shoots one in the head twice but it doesn’t fall. Tobruk hits one and knocks him off of his horse, dead.

They turn back and come toward us again. Eogard charges one in red armor and it hits him four times. He is dead after the second strike but he continues hitting two more times, bashing his brains out.

After seeing that, Brokk decides that we should do a tactical retreat, and tries to reason with Tobruk, telling him that this isn’t a fight we can win. Tobruk refuses to leave but Brokk restrains him and pulls him behind cover. The riders lose interest and go back to destroying the farmhouse and killing everyone there.

We ride away two hours from here, even though Jean is wounded. We camp but we notice that there are not many animal sounds in the area. Putting our heads together, we think that these chaos warriors are followers of Khorne, who just focus on killing as much as they can.

The next morning, we wake up and there is one bird making noise. It is kind of strange. Brokk heals Jean by 50%. Vedasi heads back to the farmhouse, trying to stay concealed. He sees that the farmhouse has been burnt to the ground and the slayer’s body along with most of the others are gone. The only thing there is the fallen chaos warrior’s body. Vedasi drags it back to us and Brokk checks it out.

Brokk sees that the armor is not fused to its body as has been rumored and it has thick skin like leather, which has been branded with symbols of Khorne. It has one eye gouged out and sharpened teeth. Tobruk chops the body up with his axe.

Vedasi and Brokk look around the farmhouse and don’t see much. There is some blood and the remains of the house. Brokk convinces Tobruk to look as well, but nothing is there.

Border Princes

Session 25 – Be Franc With Us / Cranium Gladiators

It has been two weeks since the battle. We have many refugees at the keep, so many in fact that we are concerned about food.

We get a delivery from Edelhart saying that he will send troops down to Castenea on the river rather than sending them through the mountains. This will just be some assistance and not an occupying force.

We are consistently seeing many haggard people coming from that area. We hear from the wood-elves that the city was breached in three places, but after a while the orks have gotten bored and have moved north through the pass. There was only one more engagement with about a dozen of them, but most of them just moved into the mountains.

Hauptner abandoned the city and started to go south about a week ago. We decide since the city is abandoned, we will go check things out and see what is there. After this we may head south to let Giovanni know that Hauptner and Gilemet are together so this may be a good time to take them both out.

At Groghaven, we hear the sounds of dogs. Some buildings are still intact, but much of it is destroyed. The grain silos have been fired and are destroyed.

Suddenly we see a shape running through the streets. Brokk calls out but he keeps running. Vedasi catches up with him and knocks him down. He has a sack of moldy bread and cheese and a small dagger of orcish manufacture. We check him out and he has smooth hands and tattered, but fair, clothes. We ask him his name and he hesitates a moment before saying “Franc.” He says that he’s from this town and that he’s a scribe. We don’t quite believe him. Jean asks him to show us where he used to work and he takes us to the keep.

The keep itself is in ruin, as most of the furniture and tapestries have been destroyed. We get to the main audience chamber and Jean and Vedasi see a painting that resembles our friend almost exactly. Underneath the painting it reads “Baron Hauptner.” Talking with him more, it’s clear that he’s lost his marbles. We ask him to take us to the Baron’s workplace and he heads downstairs.

We go through the dungeon to what looks like it used to be a safe room. There are some dead people here and we smell a strange smell. We find skaven tracks and Hauptner freaks out and almost goes catatonic.

We bring him out and admits that he is indeed Hauptner. He says that after the attack, he sent his double to sit on the throne and retreated down here. The town was sacked and then his men were attacked by skaven who came through the tunnels.

Brokk binds him and Hauptner takes us upstairs to his desk. Everything here has been ransacked, however Tobruk finds a sack of 25 gold in a false-bottom drawer. Jean finds a scroll case at the back of a drawer. There are some maps and drawings, strategies of how he would attack Giovanni or Sasha, scouting reports, and other materials.

We decide to stay here for the night and then make for the Crossed Lances in the morning. We barricade the skaven hole as best we can and stay in one of the guard barrack houses. Brokk keeps a close eye on Hauptner.

The next day we head back, but Hauptner is getting more and more paranoid. We put a sack over his head and have him in a room to keep an eye on him.

In the morning we talk to the innkeeper and we give him 500 gold to help keep things going in the area. He is astonished but promises to help us.

We head through the mountains toward the dwarven keep of Din Borim and a bad storm rolls through. We stay the night on the road and then get to Din Borim the next evening. The place looks much cleaner and they have gotten the forge going. We stay one night and then continue heading south.

We get into the hilly lands to the south and we can hear the thunder of hooves. We head to a small hill and hide. About a dozen riders come near. They are fully decked out in plate mail that is black, red and bronze. They appear to be riding toward a small village. Tobruk and Vedasi look up to see them coming and they notice Tobruk’s hair. They turn toward us, yelling “blood for the blood god!”

Border Princes

Session 24 – An Arrow to the Knee

Our goal is to patrol our area and harass any orks coming in. Jean is hoping that his sponsor will send help by road or by sea. We continue ranging out and we see signs of a large party up ahead quite a ways. We see one scout and the elves turn it into a pincushion with an arrow through its head, eye, and one through each knee. It bleeds out and we advance past. There is a camp up ahead a couple of miles and we sneak toward it.

We see in the camp a bunch of knight goblins  including a spider rider, shaman, several orks, a  swarm of snotlings, a stone troll, and a squig (a fungus-based animal that knight goblins use for mounts and also food). There are probably thirty creatures here. Some of them are arguing and kicking around the smaller creatures.

The elves approach around a hill to the west and the dwarves go to the east. The elves take out a couple of goblins without anyone noticing, but one of them starts screaming and the orks begin running toward them. The spider rider is also taken out, with Jean burying an arrow up to the feathers in its large abdomen and the elves finishing it off.

Tobruk and Eogard see the stone troll and run straight toward it around a hill. Brokk follows them initially but breaks off when he sees the swarm coming toward the elves. Screaming, the slayers slam into the stone troll and kill a nearby knight goblin. Seeing this, the troll picks it up and tries to eat it. Tobruk promptly cuts his arm off and Eogard finishes him off.

Brokk runs through the middle of the battlefield toward the camp and takes out a knight goblin and an ork. The squig charges up and bites him in the arm.

From out of one of the tents comes a war boss and a shaman. The shaman chants something and a dark aura comes out.

Brokk kills the ork that was on him and bisects the squig.

The shaman fires a magic missile into Brokk’s chest but his armor takes some of it. Jean fires an arrow and it goes through the shaman’s leg.

The war boss is fighting both slayers and strikes Eogard savagely. He is overwhelmed and starts to flee. Tobruk catches up with him and continues attacking, and Brokk joins in. The elves finish him with arrows.

Looking around the area we see a small idol to their god, a bunch of mushrooms, a war chest of 500 crowns (in various types of coin).

 

Border Princes

Session 23 – Scorched Earth

We decide to head back to the keep near the crossed lances and see how things are faring there. The rest of our escort stays at the dwarven keep. Going overland, we don’t pass many travelers. We are close enough to the river to see boats. Later on, we see smoke to the northeast where the Khyprian road crosses the river. Jean references the map and imagines that it’s near Volchbach. We are probably 10 miles away. We can hear the sounds of screaming.

Since this is on the way to our keep anyway (Volchbach is 20 miles away from our keep) we head toward the town. We see fire and flaming things shooting through the air. People are fleeing a massive horde of greenskins. There are probably thousands in total. Everything from orks to snotlings running around, there are boar riders, wolf riders, etc.

We think about what we know about orks. They must have come here for a specific purpose, to sack this city. They are all about fighting so they will probably not be sending scouts toward our keep. We head to the keep quickly and see how things are going. The dock area is more finished than when we were last here.

We have a total of five boatmen (one missing a hand), the two halflings (Sleeves and Thomas) and the lumberjacks and their families here.

We are going to have the lumberjacks create a palisade to protect us from any siege. The elves will talk to the wood-elves nearby to make sure they are on alert, then they will head out to find any refugees and bring them back so we can shelter them and they can help defend the keep. The dwarves look at fortifying the keep and getting supplies from town.

The wood-elves promise to send some supplies. The dwarves get to the Crossed Lances and everything seems to be in order. It is more packed than usual, and we see some people who are definitely refugees. Tobruk looks around and sees another slayer in the corner with a large mohawk. This guy is wider than Tobruk but not taller. The dwarf says that the axe Tobruk is carrying belongs to him, because he got it from his dead brother. His name is Eogard Mungrinsson. He is from Karak Kadrin which is out in the mountains of Sylvania. The name does ring a bell to Tobruk. He knows that the axe does come from a smith that is there. Tobruk refuses to give it back so Eogard decides that he will come along with us. We direct the people at the Crossed Lances to send supplies and also anyone who is able to the keep.

The elves bring bows, arrows, nets and other supplies to us. Civilians start showing up and we start training them. We setup daily patrols and start ranging to the road to see what is going on. We go out four miles all around the keep. We will engage with any parties of 30 or less. During this time we see groups of about 10 and take them out, but haven’t seen any larger parties or groups riding mounts as of yet.