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Axes and Anvils

Axes and Anvils

Tag Archives: rumbleseed

Open Table: June 27

30 Saturday May 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

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open table, rumbleseed

RSVP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

This is an open table invitation. Only respond if you are able to attend. If you sign up but are no longer able to attend, please let me know as soon as possible (and I don’t need to know why.) The game will go forward as long as there are 2 confirmed players plus myself.

Attendance is first come, first serve for five players. You RSVP here, then I confirm with you. If I do not confirm with you, then you will be on the waiting list and I will notify you if a spot opens up. 

Please make a character ahead of time. We play on Roll20 here: https://app.roll20.net/join/5979643/fXhc5g

Need rules? Here’s the quick start. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296327/Axes-and-Anvils-Quickstart-Rules?manufacturers_id=5544

These are the adventures of Clan Rumbleseed. You can read about the clan and their exploits so far here. https://axesandanvils.com/play-reports/

So what’s the plan?

To the Gilded Tower!

Cagroot and Thorgrim promised to take Baroness Elenor’s ashes to the Gilded Tower to help her ghost find peace. Looks like it’s time for a side trip to human lands on the surface to tidy up that loose end.

RSVP Confirmation

  • Vanmil Glowhide (Kriss) Grimeater Family
  • Cagroot Hopstrider (KC) Dunn Family.
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Dunn Family.
  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Dunn Family

Open Table: June 20

30 Saturday May 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

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open table, rumbleseed

RSVP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

This is an open table invitation. Only respond if you are able to attend. If you sign up but are no longer able to attend, please let me know as soon as possible (and I don’t need to know why.) The game will go forward as long as there are 2 confirmed players plus myself.

Attendance is first come, first serve for five players. You RSVP here, then I confirm with you. If I do not confirm with you, then you will be on the waiting list and I will notify you if a spot opens up. 

Please make a character ahead of time. We play on Roll20 here: https://app.roll20.net/join/5979643/fXhc5g

Need rules? Here’s the quick start. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296327/Axes-and-Anvils-Quickstart-Rules?manufacturers_id=5544

These are the adventures of Clan Rumbleseed. You can read about the clan and their exploits so far here. https://axesandanvils.com/play-reports/

So what’s the plan?

Hunt the Spiderstalker!

Travel to the Screenhall to slay the hideous Spiderstalker that preys upon the Spiders of Silkpurse. The Spiderstalker lays its eggs in paralyzed magical goldspinner spiders. What horrors hatch? If the Spiders of Silkpurse can reclaim their home, then the dwarves of Rumbleseed will gain Kalara Heights and predatory new allies as they push into the deeps of the Various Gardens.

RSVP Confirmation

  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Dunn Family
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Dunn Family

Open Table: June 13

30 Saturday May 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

open table, rumbleseed

RSVP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

This is an open table invitation. Only respond if you are able to attend. If you sign up but are no longer able to attend, please let me know as soon as possible (and I don’t need to know why.) The game will go forward as long as there are 2 confirmed players plus myself.

Attendance is first come, first serve for five players. You RSVP here, then I confirm with you. If I do not confirm with you, then you will be on the waiting list and I will notify you if a spot opens up. 

Please make a character ahead of time. We play on Roll20 here: https://app.roll20.net/join/5979643/fXhc5g

Need rules? Here’s the quick start. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296327/Axes-and-Anvils-Quickstart-Rules?manufacturers_id=5544

These are the adventures of Clan Rumbleseed. You can read about the clan and their exploits so far here. https://axesandanvils.com/play-reports/

So what’s the plan?

Expedition to the Various Gardens.

Kalara Heights! Over four centuries ago, some rogue dwarves undertook construction to fortify a hidden base just beyond the Golden Vent during the War of Fences. They were driven out of the position and the fortification was abandoned. If it could be reclaimed, it would be an excellent base camp for further exploration…

RSVP Confirmation

  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Dunn Family
  • Vanmil Glowhide (Kriss) Grimeater Family

Open Table: June 6

30 Saturday May 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

open table, rumbleseed

RSVP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

This is an open table invitation. Only respond if you are able to attend. If you sign up but are no longer able to attend, please let me know as soon as possible (and I don’t need to know why.) The game will go forward as long as there are 2 confirmed players plus myself.

Attendance is first come, first serve for five players. You RSVP here, then I confirm with you. If I do not confirm with you, then you will be on the waiting list and I will notify you if a spot opens up. 

Please make a character ahead of time. We play on Roll20 here: https://app.roll20.net/join/5979643/fXhc5g

Need rules? Here’s the quick start. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296327/Axes-and-Anvils-Quickstart-Rules?manufacturers_id=5544

These are the adventures of Clan Rumbleseed. You can read about the clan and their exploits so far here. https://axesandanvils.com/play-reports/

So what’s the plan?

Clan Rumbleseed has assembled an expedition to probe the entry to the Various Gardens, a territory adjacent to the clan’s holdings. Families have sent delegates to assure fair play in exploring the new territory. Everything should go smoothly with all these experts on hand, right?

RSVP:

  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Dunn Family
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Dunn Family
  • Vanmil Glowhide (Kriss)

Guardians of the Nest

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

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magic, play report, rumbleseed

Clan Rumbleseed, played 4.25.20 IRL (in real life) and 10/25/2121 IG (in game).

  • Miraeg Dunn (Jonathan) Leader, Performer, Mechanic.
  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Support, Gunsmith, Engineer.
  • Cagroot Hopstrider (KC) Skirmisher, Brewer, Delver.
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Berserker, Chef, Healer.

Loaded for Bear

The Fellowship left the vent in the hillside and returned to Lebrim Manor’s construction site, performing battle haka and armoring up. They equipped themselves with the best climbing gear they could, including a climbing harness Ivo was experimenting with that could support a human. Ivo asked Justicar Trays to go with them, and he agreed.

As the Fellowship was grimly headed out of the camp, they were met by Magistrate Lyrin. The dwarves swore they were going to prove there were monsters under the hill; the magistrate agreed they would do just that. Unfortunately, that proof wouldn’t shift the growing human conviction that the dwarves were perhaps responsible for the monsters. Frustrated, the dwarves went to take out their feelings on the nest below.

Down Below

They found the vent, following it to the chasm, then to the pit. Cagroot, the best climber, anchored the rope so Miraeg could climb down first. Halfway down, Miraeg was ambushed by a cave pouncer. Thoreson leaped to his aid, rappelling down fast, and Ivo supported with gunfire. The pouncer was slain, and Thoreson and Miraeg reached the bottom of the shaft to face off with more cave pouncers–after the fear drinker psychically assaulted them and left them vulnerable. Concentrated fire from above, blades and brawn below, and the timely intervention of the justicar won the day.

Ivo earnestly persuaded Cagroot and Miraeg to arm themselves with his pistols. Then the Fellowship pursued the fear drinker further in.

The Sprawling Lair

The Fellowship and the justicar came to a more open area with a vent to the sky far above, and some faint bioluminescent nesting filth. The cave pouncers hung back, and a massive “breathless” monster charged the Fellowship as the fear drinker redoubled their panic. A combination of Ivo’s explosive bullets and Thoreson’s massive sword brought the breathless down, and Thoreson dug deep with the blade, imbduing it with the breathless’s dissipating life force.

Cagroot scrambled up the uneven slope towards where the fear drinker lurked, fighting his terror. Miraeg joined him, and was inspired to fire the killing shot that took the fear drinker down. Cagroot climbed up to verify, and he was spotted by the queen of the nest.

Yaas Queen

The hideous bulk reared and hissed, and Cagroot snapped off a couple hollowpoints and blew it away. The Fellowship surveyed the mounds of jelly with basketball sized eggs embedded within, feeling some trepidation. Fortunately the dying queen vented chemical signals that didn’t enrage the cave pouncers, a symbiotic species, so the opportunistic predators began eating the jelly and eggs and ignoring the dwarves.

Thoreson enlisted Cagroot’s help to harvest the queen monster glandular tract to make rare spices, avoiding the gut parasites filling the torso cavity. Miraeg plucked the golden orb eyes from the breathless to keep as glassy trophies. Ivo contemplated how best to bring down the cavern with the few explosives he had on hand; there was a fissure, high up, and he climbed towards it to wedge the grenades in just the right spot. His climbing skills did not match his engineering analysis, and he took a bad tumble, banging his way down the craggy slope to squash into a wad of egg jelly.

Deeper Still

Cagroot noticed a hole behind one of the egg wads, and he had a waking vision where the ghost of the baroness hiding in his life energy retreated to him, begging for help, as the wavering meat forest trembled with the approach of a predator. The echo fever infection in him was nearing a merging point once again with a corrupt psychic field like the one that the baroness’s ghost escaped from in the first place. Cagroot could eject the ghost into that starving field, or shelter her in his own life force. He chose to shelter her.

Cagroot told the Fellowship to face what was down the hole, and he retreated to protect his refugee ghost. Linking up with the justicar, Cagroot found the man babbling non-stop as his stoic silence was shaken apart by supernatural fear.

The Corrupter

Meanwhile, fresh terror tore through the rest of the Fellowship as something in that hole trembled the earth. While Miraeg resisted, and Ivo clamped down on his sanity using his resolve, Thoreson embraced the inexorable sensation and retreated into his berserker fury, diving down the hole.

He confronted the corrupter worm writhing below, noting its bite radius matched the victims in the wreck of Lebrim’s Manor. He charged the foul thing, and the world went red.

When Thoreson regained his senses, seven minutes had passed and he was climbing out of the pit covered in blood not his own. He announced the thing was slain. All of the Fellowship felt the echo fever evaporate. Cagroot saw a dead gleam in Thoreson’s eyes, once again reminding him of the stare of a cave moray.

The ecology of the underground could be complex, and the echo fever projected by the fear drinker had been flavored by the worm thing in the pit. Their fields had interacted, probably boosting each other. It was not a surprise that the two forces had reached some kind of uneasy chemical truce, and settled near the queen nest and the cave pouncers attracted to her service. Still, knocking apart the alliance greatly diminished the threat of the nest.

Return

The Fellowship returned to the surface and hefted their monster trophies back to Lebrim Manor’s construction site. They had a terse exchange with the magistrate, then loaded up the wagon and prepared to leave.

Baron Lebrim came to see them off. He assured them they could come back anytime. The teeth in his smile seemed much too sharp. With that, the Fellowship departed.

Legendary Weapon: Breathless Blade

This two-handed blade can be activated by its bearer by spending a Resolve and a defend action. All foes in melee range count as being targeted by a successful defend action.

The Hotbed: Entry to Rumbleseed’s Delve

25 Saturday Apr 2020

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The entry to the Delve is a dwarf gate called the Hotbed. The dwarves see the location as a fortification with a trading post added as something of an afterthought, with a fringe of human settlement that has built up over time (enough that humans now have to get a permit to build near the gate.) Humans see the Hotbed as a permanent town flavored by trade with the dwarves. When humans want to deal with dwarves, they go to the Hotbed.

The Exchange

The central exchange of the settlement is a stepwell with shops built in to the walls. A bright mix of restaurants, merchants, and artists must get permission from the Trade Council to locate in the public exchange. The exchange is rigged to flood should aggressors try to lay siege to the dwarfgate. Beyond the exchange, there is a mix of human and dwarven construction for the families of merchants, workers, and servants as well as the hospitality industry for travelers.

The Trade Council

The Trade Council has seven voting seats, with five dwarves representing Rumbleseed families and two humans. The humans have only had seats for the last two centuries, grudgingly granted to try and reduce tensions between the races. The representation has not eased matters much, since wealthy merchants have taken the human spots and deal with the dwarves from a trade perspective that doesn’t do much to address the concerns of the numerous poor living in and near the Hotbed. Dwarves take care of their own, and expect humans to do the same.

The Greatest Flattery

The last century has seen an economic resistance movement growing up in the Hotbed as artisans gather under the direction of The Polishers, a criminal organization focused on imitation dwarven goods. They study real goods, and hone their skill at crafting forgeries. Adding insult to injury, the organization moves the goods through channels that will do as much damage as possible to the dwarven reputation. Over the last sixty years, eight of the leaders have been caught and punished, but humans crop up as fast as you can uproot them.

Under Lebrim’s Lands

19 Sunday Apr 2020

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Clan Rumbleseed, played 4.18.20 IRL (in real life) and 10/24/2121 IG (in game).

  • Miraeg Dunn (Jonathan) Leader, Performer, Mechanic.
  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Support, Gunsmith, Engineer.
  • Cagroot Hopstrider (KC) Skirmisher, Brewer, Delver.
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Berserker, Chef, Healer.

Return to Lebrim Manor

The Fellowship was granted a mudwagon coach and two Sinlayan guards to smooth out any misunderstandings that might arise along the way. They prepared to return to Lebrim Manor by loading up on a few tunnel supports and excavation supplies, as well as some pitch and torches, equipping themselves at the baron’s expense in town before resting and heading out fresh as the cooling ashes of the baroness were collected from the pyre. The trip was uneventful enough.

Baron Lebrim

Dusk was falling as the Fellowship arrived. Much to their surprise, the burned skeleton of the manse was a work site with a mass of peasants handling excavation. Some rough guards challenged them, and were surprised to hear they had the Marchionesse’s authorization in writing to return and excavate the site. They took the Fellowship to Baron Lebrim.

The slender young baron was sobered by their story and their admission that they detonated explosives in his basement while he was not home. As he introduced them to Magistrate Lyrin and they noticed Justicar Trays in the background, along with more soldiers and justicars, they began to suspect that the narrative wasn’t coming together in their favor.

Magistrate Lyrin thought bandits were behind it, but with the admission that the Fellowship detonated a bomb, that clarifies some of the puzzles the investigation was wrestling with.

The Baron’s Story

According to Lebrim, he went on a hunting trip on his lands with the visiting nobles, but on the way back his horse threw a shoe, so he sent them ahead and took his time gentling his horse back. Upon his return, the house was in flames and everyone was missing; in town, emissaries from the families of those who were missing awaited word of their fate.

This story did not match well with the dwarven account of an empty house with corpses that had been dead for days, but rose to fight, and wild tales of echoes and heartbeats and ghosts. The magistrate promised to dust for brittlestone to see if any traces were present. Cagroot had a chilling moment as he looked into the baron’s eyes and saw the flat soulless eyes of a cave moray staring into his soul. Then the baron smiled, and the moment was past.

Camp Cooking

Fed up with the frustrating questioning, Thoreson reacted towards the smell of the spitted deer cooking on spits to feed the guards and work crews. He bustled in to the cooking area and told the  people they were cooking the deer wrong, then he expertly adjusted the cut of the meat on the hot spit and added custom spices and vegetables in the carcass, creating a mouth-watering treat out of the gristly corpse. While most of the peasants were overawed and frightened by the dwarf among them, an old woman named Hetty thought he was great (and she was basically in charge.) The spiced venison was a hit with the workers.

As he returned to where the rest of the Fellowship was answering questions first to the magistrate then to the justicar, he smelled an underground predator, cave pouncer, boiling. You never boil cave pouncer–and you also don’t find them on the surface. He investigated, and found a foolish peasant cook who insisted it was cream of bunny stew. Disgusted, Thoreson left him to it and returned to the Fellowship.

Independent Verification

Not only was the magistrate questioning each of the Fellowship, his justicar duplicated the work so they could cross-check the stories. They also dispatched a couple riders to Rennet Hall to verify the story on that end as well. The Fellowship was generally cooperative, except Ivo, who ran out of patience with the questioning as though their word was questionable or their story would change.

By the time the Fellowship had a chance to have a private conversation in grim tones about what to do next, it was almost midnight. Justicar Trays continued monitoring them from a distance, unobtrusive and everpresent.

Into the Foundation

In the pre-dawn bustle, the dwarves approached the foreman, Carwyn, and offered him beer in exchange for a chance to look through the rubble in the foundation. Reluctant, Carwyn allowed them access, as long as they didn’t get him in trouble with Baron Lebrim.

Thoreson and Cagroot looked for monster sign in the rubble while Ivo and Miraeg questioned Carwyn. Carwyn explained that there had been no corpses found, and he didn’t have specialized skill; he was a carpenter, not an engineer, so he wasn’t much help on discussing structural issues. In the foundation, the corpses were gone; the fire could not have reduced their bones, the bodies would still be in the rubble, so their absence was a mystery. The area of the cellar with a hole going deeper was still buried under the collapsed sitting room.

Cagroot found a charred bit of monster meet and some carmelized slime–proof enough to satisfy an expert, but the ignorant humans were unlikely to find it compelling. He had a dizzy moment, hearing the heartbeat again, and sensing Baron Lebrim’s eyes flicking open. The dwarves responded to Carwyn’s plea that they take off before he was reported to the baron for letting them poke around, against orders.

The Woodsman’s Bounty

Hetty was waiting for them, and she had Elyes the woodsman with them. She heard about a story he told, and made him tell the Fellowship as she punctuated the story with swats from her wooden spoon. Elyes confessed the stew was not rabbit meat, he found a creature and used its meat. It’s all protein, right?

Elyes led the Fellowship into the woods a short walk, up the shoulder of the hill overlooking the mansion. There was a cave entry in the hill, and inside is where he found the cave pouncers, ambushing one with his shortbow. The Fellowship approached Justicar Trays (who had followed them) and asked him to go in with them; Elyes was not willing to go in. The justicar agreed, and the Fellowship lit torches and headed into the vent.

Under Lebrim’s Hills

The woodsman had butchered a couple cave pouncers just inside where the cave opened up; he shot them from ambush. The Fellowship continued deeper in the chasm corridor, and they were attacked by cave pouncers. They boldly slew the ambush predators, who were first repulsed to follow up with another attack.

At the end of the deep corridor, they found a pit that dropped over sixty feet down (they tossed a torch and measured.) The pit stank of cave pouncers, and something worse; and Cagroot felt that damned heartbeat throb again. This time, in this context, it clicked and he realized part of what he was feeling.

As a delver, he knew of feardrinkers, horrible spidery monsters that were slow and weak but manipulated mood and infected victims with echo fever. That’s what he and Ivo had suffered from at Lebrim Manor the first time, and what twisted in him now; but it had merged with something else. Feardrinkers were symbiotic predators, working with super predators to make prey sloppy and fearful, easy pickings; they were content with carrion and leftovers. Cagroot felt the pale, empty eyes of a feardrinker somewhere below. But the echo fever was twisted through something else; the fear drinker had found a partner, and it was somewhere below.

Next Steps

The Fellowship had not brought climbing gear, and they were not sure this was the moment to go after what was below; no one knew where they were, and the justicar was with them. They withdrew, resolved to arm up and return with gear to drive this threat away from the surface and clear their names.

They earned 2 Ledger (deferred until they could Tell the Tale.)

Sustainer Runes (Enchanter Upgrade)

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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Here is a new upgrade for enchanters who can access Rumbleseed clan secrets.

SUSTAINER RUNES [ENCHANTERS]

These runes are only available to the law enforcement enchanters of Clan Rumbleseed. Criminals do not serve prison sentences. They are banished, executed, and/or punished with sustainer runes. The runes come with a price in Vitality or Resolve that may be extracted, usually a month at a time for Vitality or a year at a time for permanent Resolve, and during that time the criminal must stay near the runes they fuel.

Criminals can gain no Ledger until their sustainer debts are paid.

A Resolve costs can be used to power a penal exchange, often an anvil, hammer, or bellows. One Resolve powers the exchange for about a decade and allows it to hold up to 10 Vitality (more can increase capacity or duration). The exchange can have Vitality costs linked to it. All enchanted objects created with sustainer rune power belong to the clan, to be assigned to temporary bearers by the archon.

So, a settlement might have the Punishing Table, a big anvil, and once a decade a Resolve cost bolsters its connection to the sustainer runes. For that decade, all the Vitality costs meted out can feed into that Punishing Table to be spent on crafting other runes, using those costs instead of the Enchanter’s personal Vitality.

  • Vitality Tribute. The bearer of this rune is assigned 2-10 permanent Vitality cost, and ordered to remain within 1 mile of the exchange until the cost is paid at the rate of 1 Vitality per month. Leaving before the cost is paid causes a destructive energy cascade that burns out 2 permanent Vitality per 1 left unpaid.
  • Resolve Tribute. The bearer of this rune is assigned 1-3 permanent Resolve cost, and ordered to remain within 1 mile of the exchange until the cost is paid at the rate of 1 Resolve per year. Leaving before the cost is paid causes a destructive energy cascade that burns out 2 permanent Resolve per 1 left unpaid.
  • Absolution. Effectively a pardon, this rune restores up to 10 permanent Vitality or 3 permanent Resolve to the bearer of a tribute rune. This energy can come from a linked exchange, or if used to right a wrong, can come from a tribute rune put on another dwarf (who is often assigned service to the one wronged until the debt is paid.) In that case the bearer of the absolution rune must remain near the source of the incoming energy for a week per Vitality or a month per Resolve (though longer time frames can be built in.) Absolution runes cannot restore more Vitality or Resolve than tribute runes cost.

Here are some tributes demanded for crimes, for scale. Each one is 1 heavier per prestige upgrade of the victim.

  • Murdering a clanmate. 4 Vitality.
  • Murdering a Master. 6 Vitality.
  • Conspiring against the archon. 4 Vitality.
  • Assaulting the archon. 6 Vitality then banishment.
  • Killing the archon. 8 Vitality then banishment.
  • Conspiring to sabotage an exchange. 4 Vitality.
  • Destroying an exchange. 1 Resolve.
  • Sharing clan secrets. 1 Resolve.

 

Return to Rennet Hall

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

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play report, rumbleseed

Clan Rumbleseed, played 4.11.20 IRL (in real life) and 10/22/2121 IG (in game).

  • Miraeg Dunn (Jonathan) Leader, Performer, Mechanic.
  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Support, Gunsmith, Engineer.
  • Cagroot Hopstrider (KC) Skirmisher, Brewer, Delver.
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Berserker, Chef, Healer.

Grim Dawn

As morning light filtered through the trees, they prepared themselves to heft the corpse of Baroness Elenor Rennet back to Rennet Hall. Carrying it all that way, or dragging it, seemed unpalatable. They remembered her carriage, and a horse, in the stable. Miraeg and Ivo headed to the stable, and Cagroot went into the servant quarters to look for some basic supplies for the day’s trip.

Die Laughing

Cagroot was startled to find a badly injured masque attendant sprawled in a chair at the table, masked, trickling blood, and surrounded by empty wine bottles. The drunk and dying man slurred at Cagroot to tell him a joke so he could die laughing; Cagroot quickly thought of one, and the man chuckled at the edge of death. Summoning in Thoreson for his healing abilities, Cagroot eased the man down, and Thoreson staved off death, bandaging the still-bleeding circular hand-sized cuts on his torso from a vicious alien attack.

Cagroot’s sharp senses also heard a sound under the cupboard, so he flipped it, further terrifying a human child who had been hiding there since the incident. Miraeg took over dealing with the child, gently breaking the news that his mother was dead, resolving to take the sober child to safety.

The Long Road

Supplied with food, drink, and passengers, the dwarves rigged up some sort of connection between the horse and carriage, and stowed the corpse, lashed to the luggage rack. Thoreson kept the nobleman alive. The road back to Rennet Hall was long, but they did not get lost or run into curious humans who would likely react poorly to their young, injured, and dead passengers.

It’s a Party

Twilight approached as they rolled up to the outskirts of Rennet Hall, debating how to break the news. Thoreson was sent ahead to talk to Casic, the butler. He noticed tents pitched on the grounds with heraldry for the entourages of several nobles, visiting for the harvest festival that was about to begin. Heraldry indicated that both Marchionesse Kreshka and Count Vandov were present. As Thoreson approached the back door, Casic was ejecting some servants for misbehavior; she was supervisor of the staff, handling all the preparation for the party.

Thoreson took her aside for a brief update that she took with a measure of stoicism common to war time. Of course Rennet Hall would take care of Sir Marl and Jimmy, the child. She sent the dwarves around to a back gallery with the corpse, and met them there to prepare the body somewhat. Baron Rennet came to view his wife, bordering on unresponsive. He also called in his wife’s uncle, Lord Nyalt Terragnis, who brought along his priest, Father Reginal Baird.

Friends Like These

Terragnis wasted no time suggesting the dwarves were handy at solving a problem that they likely caused, and noting they could have visited Lebrim Manor and inflicted this damage before coming here appearing innocent. He also rebuked the dwarves for destroying a noble’s house, regardless of the context; it was not their place to interfere with the rulers of human lands.

Baron Rennet dismissed Terragnis’ concerns, and the dwarves managed a heroic feat of diplomacy and even temper in the face of the old man (humans age so quickly!) and his accusations. The baron was left alone with the body, and the dwarves were invited to stay under his roof for the celebration as it transformed into a wake. On the back lot, woodsmen began building a pyre, the best method for disposing of the unclean dead with decorum and a measure of surety.

Networking

Miraeg met the Marchionesse and her husband in the hallway as they headed to their suite. Kreshka was still somewhat wan and using a cane as she recovered from being stabbed through the torso at her wedding ceremony, but she was pleasant enough to Miraeg even though she seemed worn down and overshadowed in an unhappy marriage. Harking back to their conversation months ago, Kreshka noted she had not shaped the Count into a palatable partner yet.

Ivo secured maps of the lands from Casic, and hunched over them, determined to suss out what dwarven territory would be underneath Lebrim Manor, so they could see what underneath problem burrowed up to afflict the surface and make sure they were not liable or affected by the corruption. Visualizing the three dimensional layout, he determined that the Tayga family lands, first generation territory under the entry to the Delve, was below Lebrim lands.

Thoreson and Cagroot began cultivating a buzz, consoling themselves under the shadow cast upon their host’s hall.

The Wizard

A large black raven flapped up to their window, and they let in the shape-shifting wizard, Master Delter. He spotted them and checked in with the esteemed guests before visiting the host. They filled him in on their strange story of assaulting the risen dead of Lebrim Manor, and he was disturbed by their story.

They took him to the baroness’s body, and his examination revealed there was no brittlestone in her wounds or her aura. That was unsettling, as brittlestone is the main component of almost every form of reanimation of the dead. The unsettled wizard concluded this was a mystery that needed solving.

The Ritual

As they discussed the matter back in their guest room, Cagroot saw a spectral woman in the corner, and he hurled his mug at the figure as it vanished.

Since Cagroot was part of the mystery, Master Delter conducted a peculiar magical ritual to get a better look at what haunted him, creating a circle of rare components and candles, and delving into the dwarf’s energy. Once the ritual was well begun, the candles burned high and snuffed out, and after a moment of silence the room returned to light with a new and awful rotten stink hanging in the air.

In that moment, Cagroot had dropped into a filthy forest of intestine-like squirming tree things, and seen the spectral woman he had glimpsed a couple times now, calling to him silently but trapped by some invisible force and drawn deeper in, away from him. He carried the stink of that place back out to the waking world.

He recognized the spectral woman. It was Baroness Elenor.

A Dark Fate

Master Delter concluded that some supernatural force had devoured the baroness’s spirit, and when Cagroot’s spirit touched on that supernatural force and was infected by it at Lebrim Manor, her spirit had somehow escaped into him, where it would not be digested. She was between, unable to move on but unable to come back.

At breakfast, Fr. Baird approached the dwarves, having heard about the investigations of the night before. He explained he was sympathetic to their situation, and asked them to accompany him to see the baron, and the Fellowship agreed.

Casic took them to an audience with the baron to explain the situation. Rennet demanded to know if she was still suffering, and of course she likely was. Apparently her uncle had demanded the ashes be returned to their home town of Azarumme. But physical remains were often key to resolving unfinished business. Rennet secured Fr. Baird’s cooperation in securing the baronesses real ashes and sending other ashes home with her uncle.

When Rennet married the baroness, as part of the arrangement he agreed to refurbish the Gilded Tower, a mausoleum built in the Painted Valley long ago and allowed to lapse into ruin decades ago. The Terragnis family had dealt with ghosts for many generations, and they built the Gilded Tower in part to serve as a door on a doorway, controlling access both ways; if she could be freed anywhere, he would want her freed there, her suffering ended as swiftly as possible. He also was given a measure of agonizing hope that perhaps she could come back somehow, if she was not truly gone. He would do anything he could for her, now that it was too late to fulfill his promise to restore the tower in her lifetime.

A Message

The Fellowship had other responsibilities before bearing the baroness’s ashes to a mausoleum. They needed to get word back to Dunn Hall about the potential threat to the Tayga family holdings, and to update Torala Dunn on their activities. In addition, Ivo was determined to get back to the ruined foundation of Lebrim Manor and see what else they could discover about the threat there before time erased more traces.

It would take 3-4 days to get a message the long way around to the entrance to the Delve if the humans took a message, and one of the dwarves would have to leave to take the message via the back way they used to leave their lands. Master Delter offered to carry the message as the crow flies, he could get there in a day–but he would need payment in strange spell components from their deep lands. After some consideration, Ivo agreed to pay him his peculiar fee, and the wizard took their message and flew away.

Baron Rennet had no authority over Lebrim lands–but Lady Kreshka could authorize their expedition to the ruin.

Miraeg Tells a Story

Nobility created barriers to conversation, so Miraeg tracked down Hen, Lady Kreshka’s agent. He asked for an audience, and got an invitation to the lunch table with other nobles trying to be close to the marchionesse.

Not wanting to be blunt or overheard in his request to excavate the Lebrim Manor foundation, Miraeg spun a story about digging for threats, and Kreshka was grimly amused. All by herself, she had the bright idea of authorizing them to take a look at Lebrim Manor, from an architectural standpoint of course, and she had some authorization papers drawn up and signed. Lebrim Manor was in her lands, and she could give them permission to be there and interfere with a noble’s holdings.

That afternoon, the remains of Baroness Elenor Rennet burned on a pyre as the Fellowship prepared to go digging for answers.

Search for the Baroness

05 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by fictivite in Uncategorized

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play report, rumbleseed

Clan Rumbleseed, played 4.4.20 IRL (in real life) and 10/15/2121 IG (in game).

  • Miraeg Dunn (Jonathan) Leader, Performer, Mechanic.
  • Ivo Flynt (Imre) Support, Gunsmith, Engineer.
  • Cagroot Hopstrider (KC) Skirmisher, Brewer, Delver.
  • Thoreson Grimeater (Anders) Berserker, Chef, Healer.

What’s Been Going On?

In the seven months since the last adventure, the dwarves were busy with various projects.

  • Miraeg was summoned by his aunt, whose health was failing. Her time to die was drawing near. She was instrumental in teaching him stories and songs as a performer, and as her memory was failing, he performed for her the material she taught him. He also used his expertise with machines to keep her life support machinery optimized until it was no longer needed.
  • Ivo spent time reinforcing the Deep Wall, one of the fortifications in the Lower Delve. He served there during his First Fifty and it was pleasant to be among those charged with defending the reach, whose perspective was perhaps clearer on certain issues than those safely entrenched up above. He supervised the critical cannon maintenance.
  • Cagroot invested in networking and study with some of the clan alchemists, continuing his life-long fascination with their art. His family insisted he become a brewer, but he had always been enamored of the alchemical arts, and he may yet master their secrets for himself. In the meantime, nobody parties quite the way alchemists do, and his brews were welcome mediums for experimentation.
  • Thoreson took on some secret messenger work for the Archon of the clan. Due to his success in dealing with the topsiders in the celebrated wedding (where he also happened to save Lady Kreshka’s life) he was allowed to satisfy a current Sinlayan noble fad for dwarven delicacies. He took loads of candied mandibular treats to the surface, a confection he called “elf noses” (and some of the elite versions had a point you could squeeze so the top peeled open, called “sneezers.”) He carried confidential messages back and forth on these trips as well.

Expedition to the Various Gardens

In the background, Torala Dunn continued his negotiations and jockying for position in the upcoming joint venture for Rumbleseed to send a new expedition into the Various Gardens. Their haphazard rush to snatch territory for each family of the clan created complications at the Delve access point that have only magnified over time, so breaching this new territory was to be a joint venture with agreed-upon articles of cooperation. The Dunn family had a seat at the table, and would have a delegation in the overall expedition.

Torala’s nephew Felvis, Miraeg’s cousin, considered himself a shoo-in for the position. An experienced delver, he was confident enough that he was getting in a lengthy hunting trip before Torala headed to Powder’s Rest for the Council meeting, since he would be too busy with the expedition for recreation later.

Supper with the Patriarch

Torala invited Miraeg and his friends to supper, where he usually had a dozen or so dwarves enjoying table fellowship. Over the course of supper, he explained he was headed to Powder’s Rest for the Council deliberations on the expedition to the Various Gardens, and the final roster would be revealed in three weeks, at the Palegate Festival.

An old friend had reached out to him and ordered three casks of a specialty vintage of wine (Torala was a skilled vintner.) Torala had been friends with Baron Jer Rennet, they went to war against goblins together. Torala was also friends with Jer’s son, they hunted together occasionally. Humans age so fast he lost touch for a bit, but now he got a request from Baron Henrik Rennet, great-grandson of Jer. The baron was throwing a harvest party, apparently it was that time in the weather cycle on the surface. Torala was sending wine he laid in the year Jer Rennet was born, 136 years ago, and it seemed a fitting exchange with his friend’s descendant. Besides, occasionally reinforcing friendships with allies was a critical peacetime activity, because when war comes it’s too late to make friends.

Normally Felvis would handle such a trip–Miraeg was quick to catch the drift, and offered to take the shipment. There was some clarification that this wasn’t a negotiation, no promises were made, but the service would be considered in assigning the Dunn faction participation in the Various Garden expedition. Miraeg was honored to handle the task as Torala’s shield, and Ivo smoothed the way diplomatically so everyone was on the page with no awkwardness.

To Rennet Hall

The paths between the surface hall and the Delve were mostly steep and narrow stairways, unsuitable for pack animals. The dwarves shouldered the casks and supplies and stoically undertook the three day trip through fairly safe territory. They arrived at Rennet Hall without incident in the late afternoon, noting that the hall looked somewhat like an inhabited tinderbox. It was pleasant to see the minotaur skull mounted over the doorway from a hunt almost a century ago, recalling that Jer’s son teased Torala about missing out on a good adventure. None of the current residents had been alive when that hunt happened, and it was already legend for them.

Servants were preparing the hall for a big party, and they were awed and respectful to the visiting dwarves. Baron Rennet swung out to meet them on his crutch, and was awkward but respectful, not quite sure how to handle them (as dwarves were not common visitors to his hall.) He invited them to stay for the celebration in three days, and they agreed.

The Butler

The discomfort soon eased. Rennet’s butler, Casic, saw to it that they settled themselves. As Thoreson deposited his live puppy-sized rollingbugs in the root cellar, to be prepared for the feast later, Casic took the opportunity to reveal a potential problem. The baron’s wife, Elenor, went to a celebration at a neighboring baron’s estate. She was over a day overdue. The baron had a difficult year, and loved his wife deeply, and to send out a search party would be to admit something was wrong. Casic asked the dwarves to follow the Outer Road to Lebrim Manor, about a day’s walk, because Elenor should be there or on the road back.

Baron Dav Lebrim just inherited his father’s title and lands, so the masquerade ball was a title-warming party as well as celebration for the summer’s end to the hostilities with Vandov, as well as a harvest celebration.

Thoreson swore he’d protect the baroness and see her home, and Lynn Casic was relieved; she would owe him one. He formalized the agreement by marking her hand with a circle of his blood, because favors are a solemn thing for dwarves.

The Baron

When Thoreson returned to the others, they were reflecting (in their native language Dirit) on the oddities of human culture (they burn wood!) He told them they’d go after the baroness tonight, not even resting overnight. They would “tour the local countryside.” But the cook insisted they stay for supper, and they agreed.

Over mealy human food with inoffensive drink, they chatted with the baron. Ivo asked when his new leg would arrive, and the embarrassed Baron explained the crutch was pretty much it. He lost his leg to Vandov horsemen in the summer battles, when he took an arrow to the knee. Shocked, Ivo promised to make him a prosthetic. The animated conversation that followed got the baron excited about the prospect of a fitted chitinous mechanical limb, and grateful for their promised gift.

To Lebrim Manor

As the human day wrapped up, the dwarves set out on their hike, weary from their long day but not exhausted. Navigating the surface was strange and difficult under the open sky, and they lost half a day trying to keep the wagon tracks humans call a road separate; the raiding with Vandov resulted in many signposts being defaced, so the “outer road” was not easy to follow.

They arrived as dusk was settling in, noting that there were no lights on in the manor and the decorations for the party appeared neglected. Circling the perimeter of the house first, they saw a stable, a guest house, and a pond in the back. They checked the stable, finding a number of dead horses. What killed them? Maybe poison, hard to say with surface creatures; no visible wounds, anyway. One terrified horse was still alive, and they left it alone. They did see three carriages parked behind the stable–the baroness probably didn’t leave.

Rain fell from the sky. Rather than check the guest house, they headed into the manor itself. An eerie silence saturated the main hall, and they looked to see where something bloody had been dragged from the dining room to the kitchen; something had gouged the door frame, also, and the manor was redolent with the stench of the dead and corruption. Miraeg and Ivo checked the dining room, while Thoreson and Cagroot checked the kitchen.

Leftovers of the Feast

Costumed revelers were sprawled around the dining room, and a mass of rats helped themselves to the remains of the meal on the table. Miraeg leaned in to inspect one of the revelers to try and figure out what happened to him. The corpse snatched his wrist, and a mass of the dead sprang to their feet with impossible energy.

Ivo fell back and blasted away with hollow tip and explosive rounds, and Miraeg blocked the doorway, battering away at the shamblers. As the corpses lunged for them, the rats swarmed off the table, pouring between the shamblers’ legs and springing up onto the dwarves in a frenzy.

The dwarves flung the rats off and leaped out of the way as Cagroot charged in, chewing up the incendiary beetles he kept under his beard so he could spray a gout of flame like a breath weapon, immolating the vermin before they could follow up. More shamblers hammered into the Fellowship’s flank from the kitchen, and Ivo scooted down the hall away from the melee, expertly flicking more rounds into his gun and continuing to blast the shamblers.

The Fellowship battered the shamblers down with minimal injury, and checked to make sure the baroness was not in their number. (They saw a portrait of her and the baron at Rennet Hall, painted in happier times.) They rested to catch their breath and tend their injuries.

The Cellar

Ivo heard an intermittent, almost aggressive heartbeat. No one else could hear it, and he assured himself there was nothing in the walls, using his expertise as an engineer. Wary, the Fellowship went into the kitchen, and saw something had previously burst out of the cellar below (because of course there was a cellar below.)

The Fellowship descended the stairs and saw a gooey mess of corpses and rancid wine in the cellar. Maybe something was stirring in one of the kegs in the basement, also. They needed to know if the baroness was here, but they also knew that disturbing the dead might provoke some of them to rise. Ivo was prepared to toss a grenade and be done with it, but he had evaluated the house’s structure, and it was a risky prospect–the hall might come down with them in the cellar. Then they could not know for certain that the baroness was dead. What if she was not among the corpses?

The Baroness

Using his combat training as a skirmisher, the ultimate lightfoot, Cagroot carefully stepped between the rotten dead, studying each. He found the baroness, then carefully returned to the others and reported back. Still, if they didn’t return her body, it was hearsay; would collecting jewelry be enough? They grimly agreed it would not.

Cagroot once again stepped through the corpses, this time to retrieve the body gently without arousing any attackers; a heroically difficult undertaking at long odds. He managed to get her in his arms, but before he could rise, the dead sprang up! He was sprayed in the effluvium gluing them to the floor, and surrounded by deadly danger.

Cagroot relied on his reflexes and strength, hurling the baroness’s body out of the scrimmage and scampering clear somehow. Miraeg slapped the baroness’s attacks aside, swept her up, and pounded up the stairs as Ivo hurled the lit grenade into the swarm of shamblers. The explosive detonated with a deafening crash, and the manor trembled and collapsed as the dwarves sprinted out. They swiftly pummeled the baroness’s corpse into passivity, then bundled it up.

A Glum Night

The dwarves hunched in the nearby woods under the pouring rain. Several of them had heard the intermittent heartbeat after Ivo mentioned it, but now Ivo could hardly feel it. Only Cagroot was troubled by the heartbeat. In his dreams, red and wet, something squirmed.

(3 Ledger, deferred until they can Tell the Tale.)

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