Session 21 - Fyrren's Wandering

[avisarr]

Session 21 - Fyrren's Wandering

At this point in time, Bnee (Beth's morphian shapeshifter character) decided to leave the group. Perhaps she thought she could help the morphians on her own. The party never really got a chance to find out. [In truth, Beth grew tired of her character and switched characters again. In the storyline, Bnee and Hedrek the other morphian, vanish in the night].

The characters prepared their two wagons given to them by Rokor, the magrakian merchant that was going to use Callister's ship to transport his cargo. Rokor also provided a letter of introduction to House Draskon. He explained that the Aukarian Republic, the nation that the characters would be traveling through to the east, was divided up into many great and noble houses. They had a complex system of rank and honor. Rokor was an honorary member of House Draskon, a third tier house. Apparently, letters of introduction were an important social grace in that culture.

Each wagon is loaded up with barrels of water, sacks of oats, salted meat, upine fruit and some hunedari coinage. Along with the caravan, they players have a caravan guide, a magrakian named Karn. He's been through the Wandering many times.

The caravan was going to be traveling through the dangerous badlands region known as Fyrren's Wandering. It was a twisting maze of canyons that lay between Magrakor and the Aukarian Republic. Only one main road twisted its way through the Wandering and this road was protected by five small forts, each a day's journey apart. These five forts were maintained by both governments.

Their caravan was to traveling with another wagon caravan. (Safety in numbers).

As the caravan trundled along the main street of Okslad toward the Crowd waves goodbye. Callister basks in the chanting of his name. Girls from the brothel. Wrestlers and gamblers from the Iron Ring. It is NOT a quiet exit. Pagrad and a few other scholars. The City Warden and a few city officials. The eshtari perform an upine wine ritual of goodbye. The characters are invited to enjoy one last bowl of baklath.

The city guards wave goodbye.

The caravan trundles out of the main city gates. The wagons trundle along the wide road, past farms and fields, for several hours. The journey is a long one. For four days, the wagons make their way through hills, forests and over rivers. They stay each night at a different village. They stop at a country tavern to wait out a bad thunderstorm. The locals tell them that such fierce storms are seasonal and to be expected.

After the fourth day of travel, the land gradually begins to slope upwards over a dozen miles. They stay at an inn in the village of Cerad.

The group discovered a hyttar stowaway. He was sneaking out from his hiding spot for food. Hyttar are small humanoids - three foot tall, green skin, knobby knees and elbows. He had long, tangled greasy hair and a small, devilish face. Despite attempts to scare him off, he followed the group for days and they eventually just adopted him as a pet, although they could not get him to say a word. They named him Grubal.

There was a small village just west of the edge of the Wandering, right on the main road. They stopped there for the night. One villager sold them a map of the Wandering. The locals in the tavern told them about the "corrupted" methkari crystals that were all over the Wandering. Normal methkari crystals are natural essence resonators – they react to magical energy in their presence. Useful for detecting spells and magic items. However, the methkari crystals that grow in the Wandering are corrupted and DRAIN magical energy. The effect is slow, but cumulative. Spells which run their course over time are drastically effected. The locals offer to buy any methkari crystals from the group.

The next morning, the caravan started off from the village. The land and geology change as they approached the Wandering. Towering granite cliffs could be seen in the distance. The grasslands became broken by boulders and rubble.

Eventually, the ground turned to barren dirt and the characters came to the edge of Fyrren's Wandering. Huge sheer granite walls rose out of the slopping ground rather abruptly. An odd geological phenomenon. The road went right into a narrow cleft in the rock.

The characters steeled their courage and the two wagons rolled into the Wandering. For the first first hours, it seemed they had entered some strange alien world. The hooves of the horses echoed eerily
Callister's tattoos react to something and they assume that they are reacting to the energy absorbent field of the corrupted methkari crystals.

Soon, they spo some of these corrupted methkari crystals. They appear like a regular methkari crystal, except with a yellowish tint.

It is these crystals and their absorbent properties that prevent the spell casters of the group from simply flying the group over the maze of canyons.

The party sees the Keep perched on a low, rocky hill. A winding narrow path led up to the Keep. The keep was surrounded by a broad and deep chasm, somewhat like an empty moat. The design and architecture of the keep looks like it was built to repel a siege. Cracks in the stone and burns on the walls indicated that this keep had seen action in its lifetime.

The wagons rolled up to the portcullis and drawbridge and Karn exchanged greetings with the Gate Keeper.

Soon, the characters were inside and were given a large empty chamber to store their wagons. A large common hall in the main building served as both common public eating and sleeping chamber. The players mingled with a few of the other guests and joined in on a card game. They discussed the Wandering with the locals. The locals spoke of some of the local bandit groups and gave warnings and bits of advice on how best to travel safely through the region.

The next day, the player's caravan loaded up and departed. About mid day, they came upon a pair of large, deformed humanoid things – something like hideously deformed trolls. These two large creatures attacked the group. Gremal and Ugita were both stricken ill as the trolls advanced. Their magic was curdled within them. The others fought a conventional battle and soon slew both trolls.

That night, the caravan reached the second keep which was almost identical to the first. It had seen more action. Their stay here was uneventful.

The third keep on the third night was halfway through the Wandering. It was identical to the previous two and had seen the most action. Repairs in the walls were evident. The soldiers here that kept the place safe seemed more grim and professional.

While staying here, the players met and talked with three other groups that were also staying here. One was a magrakian group of merchants heading back toward Magrakor. One was a chaddamarian group heading east toward Aukaria. The other was an Aukarian group also heading toward Aukaria. The players tried talking with all three groups. Ugita met the leader of the Chaddamarian group, a priest, and quickly was wrapped up in a discussion about philosophy and religion.

Ugita asked about one of the magrakians about the Aukarian Republic. The magrakian replied with this:

The Aukarians are a good people, but they are too concerned with social ranking, honor and duty. They are divided into great and noble houses. Everything is done for the glory of one's House. The Houses control everything. Social status, rank, honor, wealth - these things mean everything to an Aukarian. Without rank and honor, an Aukarian is nothing. They live in a rigid society of rules and traditions. A bit oppressive if you ask me. But it is their way. Very unlike fair Magrakia. In Magrakor, everyone is equal. Everyone is welcome. Not so in the Republic. There, everyone has a rank, a position. Everyone is bound by duty and honor. It is a pecking order of civility. One must know your station. There are rules. What are the rules? Well, let me get our expert. Tayben. Tayben! Come here. Allow me to introduce Tayben. My protocol officer. Tayben, these Outlanders are heading into the Republic and they have never been there before. Perhaps you can summarize for us, the most important of the Aukarian traditions. Lest they breach protocol.

Tayben quickly ran down the rules of Aukarian society:

The Republic is a caste society.
There are nine castes. Four greater castes and five lesser castes.
The Nine Castes are: Noble, Herald, Martial, Craftsmen, Common, Houseless, Foreigner, Slave, Dishonored.
It is forbidden to speak to someone of greater rank until they address you first.
Only the Greater Castes may be taught to read and write.
Foreigners, slaves and the dishonored are forbidden to speak the Aukarian language. They must be spoken to by an Aukarian who knows their language.

The magrakians were friendly and shared food and conversation with the players.

The Aukarians, however, were very stand-offish and rude. They seemed uninterested in talking with the players. The players were persistent and this soon led to friction between the two groups. This friction soon escalated to anger, threats, practical jokes (in which Callister placed a bag of flaming baklath on the doorstep of the room of the Aukarians) and finally ended when the head warrior of the group challenged Callister to a duel. Callister, feeling slighted, accepted the challenge readily. Swords were crossed and soon the two were hacking at each other. It was a long and bloody battle. Callister had underestimated the warrior. He was clearly almost Callister's  equal with the blade.

Ugita spent time with Toth, the Chaddamarian priest and the priest took great offense at the idea of Ugita helping Callister in his duel with healing magic. No explanation was offered.

After many wounds, Callister finally defeated his opponent, but not before being badly wounded and nearly killed himself. Callister took the man's sword in victory.

No sooner had Callister wiped off his blade, the keep was attacked. A huge bandit group poured over the hill and began attacking the keep. Both human bandits and various humanoid creatures fought side by side.

The battle was long and fierce. It ranged all over the keep on multiple levels. All of the soldiers of the keep (both magrakian and aukarian) and all of the guests of the four different caravans fought side by side against the bandits. The bandit force was at least 100 strong and was a mix of humanoid and human. A giant was fighting along side the bandits as well.

The leader of the bandits was a large, barrel chested humanoid of an unknown race. The words "War Pig" were tattooed across his bare chest and he was decorated with jewelry made from the bones of past victims. He was a mutant of some kind with strong telekinetic ability. He was able to move objects with his mind and combined this in his fighting style. He could quickly block sword plays with a gesture and cause a bone crushing hit with another gesture. Several soldiers fell fighting him.

One of the humanoid chieftains was wearing a bone mask of demonic origin. It proved to have some horrific magical abilities. When that chieftain was killed, the bone mask (which had bony fingers that wrap around the back of the users head) crawled off the head of the chieftain and crawled away like a spider. Rothgar grabbed it and stuffed it in a bag.

Half way through the battle, Duthelm forces showed up. It appeared that they were allied with the humanoids and bandits. Or perhaps they had hired/coerced them into fighting for them. In any case, Duthelm soldiers, officers and wizards joined the fray.

A massive iron golem appeared and began tearing the main gate apart. Grimnoth went head to head with this monstrous mechanical thing and held his own, but was clearly outmatched.

A few minor demonlings were also brought into the fray. These were most likely summoned by the Duthelm force, by a black sorcerer.

Rothgar traded arrows with a Duthelm assassin archer, the same archer who killed Kramtha many sessions ago. (They recognized him by the fletching on his arrows).

Ugita summoned a couple of air elementals and they had fun tossing Duthelm soldiers into a blade barrier spell the Martin had summoned.

Callister went one on one with the telekinetically skilled "War Pig", the head chieftain of the humanoids. Callister eventually lopped the creature's head off cleanly with one well placed stroke of his sword.

Eventually, the players drove off the humanoids and bandits. When this happened, the remaining Duthelm troops broke off as well. The iron golem vanished with a spell that sucked it into a dimensional vortex. It had been "recalled" by its summoner.

This is where we ended session 21. And as a side note... this as the last session we played before taking a full year off to make Mark Price's Khoras movie, "Professional Courtesy". The break was only supposed to last a few months, but it ended up that session 22 wasn't played until almost a full year later.