The Shudder Mountains
Recap on the party:
Destiny: Melnibonean.
Marion: sneaky person from Shazaar. Likes shadows.
Sir Blanque: Lawful-ish noble with an affinity for water.
Jorthan (NPC): Powerful noble merchant from Ilmiora. Patron of the party.
Bomilcar (NPC): Weeping Waste nomad warrior. Jorthan's bodyguard.
Bomilcar's narrative
The white tendril that brushed against Sir Blanque as the demi-plane of Chaos disintegrated along with the chained coffin seems to have given him rough knowledge of what we need to do next. The Lawful champion Zugun has implanted Sir Blanque with a sense of direction that points to the Shudder Mountains to the west of Shazaar. Destiny is intrigued; as far as she knows, no Melnibonean has ever been there. She seems to have a taste for acquiring new knowledge.
We ride westwards, picking up information about the area as we go. It looks as though we are heading straight towards a village in the foothills called Bent Pines. A combination of talk from travellers in the various inns along the route fills in some of the background for us. Apparently Bent Pines is a settlement of locals who are more than happy to trade with the outside world. The Shudfolk, as they call themselves, trade pelts, wood, and coal in large quantities, together with gemstones and precious metals. Their mountains are a rich source of materials, then, but despite the relative difficulty of living in such a remote region, the Shudfolk apparently tend to stay put, with hardly any of them ever venturing forth. Even those who do feel a strong yearning to return.
After a relatively eventful couple of weeks we arrive at Bent Pines. I'm not sure if this is the calm before the storm, but Marion in particular is able to smooth our way with the locals. They are initially reserved, even taciturn, but Marion advises us to remain polite and pay well for services. This works, and the locals warm to us. They are especially curious about Destiny; they've never even heard of Melnibone, and it makes a refreshing change for her not to be stared at or shunned. They seem to think she is some sort of 'elf princess', and she doesn't bother correcting them. Marion suggests that we don't show any magical capabilities; as we learned on our travels, they regard magic use as the work of the devil, whatever that is. Their own religion seems to be a rarity in the Young Kingdoms, a somewhat distant single god they call the Sovereign. There is no law, chaos, or elemental knowledge at all.
We have a good time in the local inn, gathering gossip and learning as much as we possibly can about the area. Sir Blanque's recently acquired sense of direction is telling him that the place we are looking for is somewhere to the northwest of our current location, so we set about trying to find out as much as we can without alarming the townsfolk. Three tributaries flow together to create the main river on which Bent Pines is situated, and we surmise that our destination lies somewhere upstream in that direction. Each of the small rivers flows through its own valley, and the locals call these 'hollows'. The terrain is mostly a patchwork of homesteads along the main river valley up to an old ruined mill; beyond that is the confluence of the rivers, including a strange old crossroads where a dodgy conjure man lurks to "claim yer souls, strangers!" There is very little in the way of habitation beyond that. The terrain becomes more and more demanding the further one moves from the river valleys, with wooded hills giving way to mountains up to 8,000 feet high. No point in taking the horses, then, apart maybe from Destiny's freaky black demon horse.
As the evening passes and the drink flows, we find out much about the local legends, including "Old Granny" who lives in one of the hollows, and who knows more about the region than any other living person. There was also a 'squire' who made his home up there somewhere too; he has been dead for quite a while, but no one has ever gone that far, so it's possible that his homestead might hold some clues "to whatever it is yer lookin' fer". The only other tidbit about the geography is that there are rumours of an old bridge, built by somebody other than the Shudfolk. Legends, however, abound. We are told to watch out for the Sin Eater; the Bad Lick Beast; trolls; giants; and 'haunts'. "Best to be avoidin' them." One persistent story is repeated a few times, to do with a fiddler who had a magic violin that could charm the dead; something of a local hero, this one.
The evening finishes with a round of songs, the favourite being a particular ballad that encompasses many of the local features we have been hearing about. Destiny leans over to me and says that there is a deep, subtle magic at work here - her witch sight is telling her there is something fundamental to these people; not nasty or threatening, but definitely there. Sir Blanque has spotted it as well, and suggests that there may be a supernatural reason for the Shudfolk sticking to their mountains.
We set out the next morning. Even though it is still winter, the climate is relatively mild, although of course we shall have to wrap up warm as we get higher into the hills. Going by the vague directions we acquired the previous evening, we should reach the crossroads in a day. Sticking to the river valley, we make reasonably good progress despite all of us (apart from Destiny) going on foot. We pass some farmsteads before reaching the old mill that marks the edge of civilisation just after noon. Slightly further on we see a single gravestone sticking out of a copse of trees, and go to investigate. It looks as though it is the final resting place of the fiddler we heard about last night, going by a weathered inscription on his limestone marker. There is, though, a spooky moment when we hear some music carried on the wind, a presence - for lack of a better word - that invites us to go on and take it, because our need is great. "I won't mind," it seems to say. We dig down and find an old wooden casket containing the fiddler's skeletal remains; his bony hands seem to let slip his perfectly preserved fiddle of their own accord. It is made of some kind of rich wood, and has silver strings and a silver bow. None of us knows how to play this instrument, but Jorthan thinks Sir Blanque should try it; "With your impressive manual dexterity, you'll pick it up faster than any of us" he says. Sir Blanque gives it a go, and is surprised at how easily it plays for him. This place is definitely weird, but it does have a certain homespun charm.
We continue along the riverbank, and just as dusk starts to fall we reach the crossroads we were told about. This is an impressive sight: four arms of what look like a once great trunk road cutting through the mountains, definitely not something the Shudfolk are capable of building. It looks incredibly ancient, possibly even pre-dating the rise of Melnibone, but each roadway ends in a jumble of loose rocks and shale. Destiny mentions something about the 'Doomed Folk', whatever that means. As we start looking for a campsite, we are interrupted by a polite cough. "Excuse me" says a devilishly handsome chap with one goat's leg, "I was wondering if I might be of assistance. You gentlefolks are obviously not locals, but well travelled sophisticates." Mindful of his reputation for wanting souls, we decide to scare him off. He raises a manicured eyebrow at the sight of Destiny, but then turns pale when Marion materialises from the growing darkness. Destiny and Sir Blanque say something about her being 'Shadowborn', and a look of pure terror crosses his face. "What did you just say?" "Her name is Marion Shadowborn" says Sir Blanque, and the demon man or whatever he is politely, if a bit hastily, makes his excuses and then simply vanishes. It looks as though Marion's heritage might in fact be really scary - whatever it truly is.
The next morning, we debate which of the three streams we should follow. The one that continues straight ahead is called Bad Lick Hollow according to our information, and the reputation of the Bad Lick Beast puts us off that one. Granny apparently lives somewhere along the stream to our right, so rather than try the left ("Spooky Hollow") we go in what we hope is the direction of her hut. Around mid-afternoon we come upon her quaint homestead, which is surrounded by animal skulls on sticks. The house itself is raised on stilts, obviously to keep out any unwanted creatures. One of the animal skulls - a cat's by the look of it - announces our arrival. "We have visitors, Granny!" it squeals. Out comes Granny, a matted mess with a person somewhere inside it. She pulls back some hair and filth and squints at us with a surprisingly blue eye. "You folks lookin' for somethin'? One good turn deserves another. I'll tell you where it is if you get me a giant's fingernail," she says, pointing in the direction of Spooky Hollow. "You should meet an old friend of mine, a nice chap with a goat's leg." Sir Blanque replies, "We already have, but Marion here scared him off."
Destiny decides to be mischievous. Approaching Granny, she starts chanting "Shadowborn. Shadowborn. Shadowborn." Granny looks really nervous. "I don't know what that means, but if you scared him, I don't want anythin' to do with ya. The place you're lookin' for is called the Luhsaal wheel. Now git outta here!" With that she retreats into her hovel with her pet hog and pulls the stairs after her; the door shuts with a great slam. Sir Blanque looks pained; he admits that last night the phrase "Luhsaal Wheel" occurred several times in his dreams. Destiny seems to be enjoying herself, though, and Marion just looks pleased at the effect her name seems to have on people around here. Destiny muses, "Luhsaal Wheel isn't a Melnibonean term; I'm becoming more and more convinced there are some remnants from the time of the Doomed Folk in these mountains." We turn and head back towards the crossroads.
Our second night in the open arrives before we get there, but we are disturbed in the dead of night. All of the wildlife suddenly goes dead silent, and the unnatural hush wakens those of us not on guard duty. We hear the beating of enormous wings far overhead, and then everything seems to go back to normal after another few minutes. Maybe there is a Bad Lick Beast.
The next day we pass the crossroads sometime around mid-morning. There is absolutely no sign of the guy we met there; he seems to have gone for good. We continue along towards Spooky Hollow, and just as it starts to get dark we come across an exceptionally wide trail leading up to an enormous log cabin half way up the hillside. Maybe there really are giants? Anyway, we decide to go and have a look, but since we are trespassing, we are as open as possible in our approach. A grizzly bear on a chain appears from behind the hut, growls menacingly, and then wimpers and cowers away when it catches sight of Destiny's horse. An unfeasibly large man of middle age appears in the great doorway, an enormous grin splitting his face. He must be at least eight feet tall. "You 'uns scared Dawg, and that don't happen very often! Come in, come in, and have some vittles. We don't get many travellers up here!" Sir Blanque mutters something about the locals being scared of him, probably because they think he might eat them. "Why would we want to do that? We're vegetarians! Maw! Ohlsovnik, son, we got visitors! Time for a good ol' time party!"
The family introduces themselves as the Bigginty clan. "Ohlsovnik here is the bright one!" The son is around twelve feet tall, and wears some rather fetching spectacles - Destiny thinks they are magical. Maw makes some rather tasty corn mash, and the family's fermented corn drink gets passed around afterwards. They are eager for some news of the outside world, and we tell them the tales of our travels, suitably edited - we don't say too much about the magical stuff.
Ohslovnik says we must be looking for the Luhsaal wheel, and draws a map in the dirt; apparently it is roughly northwards of where we are now, and the young giant describes the mountain where it lies. "There's an old road leading to a great bridge across a chasm. The Bad Lick Beast hangs out there, though, so you might be better to take the secret way, which is upstream from here. Just watch out for the Trolls." He draws a rough location for us. Jorthan is impressed; "You seem to know loads," he says. Ohlsovnik says that the guy with the goat's leg gave him his spectacles and taught him much; he repays our news with a potted history of the Shudder Mountains.
"Four time cycles ago (!) the Shudder Mountains were twice the height they are now. The world was much warmer then, and the mountains made an ideal habitat for a super-civilised race of snake men. But the world cooled and as it moved into another time cycle the humans arrived. The ophidians degenerated and were driven deep underground by the people. The next time cycle saw the arrival of the Hsaal from the second moon in the sky, and they drove the early people into the depths too. They brought in their servants and ruled the land for an age, building great wonders such as the roads and the Wheel. They bound their own human servitors to the land by meddling with their bloodlines; those were the ancestors of the Shudfolk. However, the Hsaal destroyed themselves in a great sorcerous cataclysm; their moon was torn from the sky and disappeared through a gigantic rift in time and space. The magical backlash exterminated every last remaining Hsaal and the catastrophe tore off the tops of the very mountains; there was a great run-off of molten magical power, which formed into what the Shudfolk call 'Spoils', roiling pools of chaotic energy that litter the mountains. The next era was relatively peaceful, but ended in the great war between Grome Earth King and Straasha of the Waters. We are now coming to the end of the latest cycle."
If this is true, it is most impressive. Destiny is particularly pleased and surprised; it would seem that humans and peoples such as her own are born repeatedly throughout time. Sir Blanque agrees, and Destiny says that what Ohlsovnik has told us tallies with what little the Melniboneans know about the Doomed Folk. Sir Blanque says that he thinks the world renews itself every so often, and that each time it happens a little remains of the previous era, like the layers of an onion. Jorthan suggests that the Conjunction Merut of Chaos told us about is maybe the same sort of thing, but on a cosmic scale. I think Destiny believes Ohlsovnik's story; he is certainly the only person we have met here who knows about the elemental lords. He also spots the enchantment on Sir Blanque's sword, and says that his armour looks very similar. Sir Blanque is surprised by this, but Jorthan reminds him that he was recently blessed by a Lawful priestess; perhaps her blessing did more than heal his wound?
The next day we set out to look for the secret way to the mountain that holds the Luhsaal Wheel, somewhat the worse for wear. That booze is strong. At around noon, we see an old dilapidated farmstead off to our left, most of the way up a steep hill. We go to investigate, and find very little apart from a rocking chair that seems to be occupied by the spirit of its long departed owner, the 'squire' we heard about in the tavern at Bent Pine. He scolds us for not knocking, and says he can tells us where the Luhsaal wheel is, as well as more information about what to look for when we come across the secret way; he just needs us to scare off some haunts for him that night. It looks as though Marion is right about the bloodline of the Shudfolk; even in death, they find it hard to leave. We are a bit concerned about the time; if we wait here until nightfall to help the squire, it will take us most of the next day to reach the mountain of the Wheel, and we have no idea how long it will be until the Chaos champion Boak turns up to claim his prize of godhood or whatever he is after. Destiny is convinced we have a maximum of eight days before he does just that, and this is now day five since we arrived in the Shudder Mountains. She says that eight is the magic number of chaos. We tell the squire's ghost that we will help to dispel the haunts when we come back this way, and head off upstream once more.
As dusk is falling we reach the part of the stream that we think hides the trail to the rear of our mountain destination and sure enough there is some scrub and bushes on the far side that betray the presence of very large feet that go in the direction we want. These must be the trolls the friendly giants were on about; probably humans corrupted by the Chaos spoils. We press onwards because we want to reach the mountain and the Wheel that night; if we are lucky, our arrival will coincide with Sir Blanque's flashy bang magic.
The trail winds ever upwards and then ends abruptly at a cliff face. We can, though, make out the faint outlines of a very well concealed doorway into the mountain; the trolls have left it slightly ajar, and there is a bit of a stench coming from inside. There is also the sound of very loud snoring. Marion manages to open the large stone door quietly, and we all try to sneak past the sleeping troll who has presumably been left here on guard duty, after Marion once again closes the door. It is very dark in here, and Jorthan stumbles, waking the guard. It lashes out and catches Marion's leg with a claw, but we overwhelm it.
After patching Marion up with the last of our precious healing potions (that claw really hurt!) we go into the depths of the mountain. Sir Blanque naturally sees in the dark, while Destiny orders her fire elementals to give heat vision to herself and Marion does a little dance in the gloom,which apparently helps her; Jorthan and I try to keep up as best we can as the others shepherd us through a long dark tunnel that continues upwards, possibly for more than a mile. It's difficult to tell exactly how long it is in the clinging darkness. Eventually we arrive at a chamber leading to large room, with arched exits in each of its walls.
The room holds a large map of the constellations, which we reckon is tens of thousands of years out of date. The stars of the night sky are presumably meant to reflect this region, but of course they have moved over the millennia. It is composed of semi-precious stones set into a large oval marble table of sorts. The stones are probably worth a great deal, but Destiny wants us to leave the artefact as it is.
We don't have much choice anyway, as two more troll things attack us from the passage to our left. Jorthan and I are at a severe disadvantage due to the darkness, but we manage somehow to hold one of them off long enough for the others to kill its friend and then help us destroy that last one. Jorthan takes two nasty hits, though, one to his chest and another to his abdomen. We patch him up as best we can before moving on.
We reckon that the doorway to our left leads to the main entrance to this suite of rooms, so we leave it alone and take the final exit. This leads up via a steep flight of stairs, and we come out into a giant amphitheatre to see:
The Luhsaal Wheel turns out to be an enormous disk comprising whole series of runes like the spokes of a wheel, all leading to the base of a veined obelisk at least twenty feet tall.
Umpire's notes
The scenario is The Chained Coffin by Goodman Games. I shifted it to the Young Kingdoms, with some changes. For example, I didn't want the players lugging a coffin across the countryside for several weeks, amongst other things. They enjoyed finding out some secrets about the long forgotten past from the hill giants, who spoke with them rather than attacking. Although they enjoy combat, which can be very visceral in this system, they much prefer role-playing, so I had the Bigginty family throw them a party. The comment about being vegetarians sent Thomas into hysterics. This is a D&D type scenario, so I had to rationalise the monsters. The giants are of course a bunch of seriously overgrown hillbillies, and I had an excuse for the trolls as humans touched by emanations from the Chaos spoils. They can regenerate, but only from non-magical damage, and are especially susceptible to fire (cue Destiny's elementals). They don't regenerate from death, though. The party will now have to decide what they are going to do while waiting for Big Bad Boak to arrive.
Marion's surname of Shadowborn is causing some interest; it remains to be seen what it actually means. Suffice it to say I have a cunning plan...
Destiny: Melnibonean.
Marion: sneaky person from Shazaar. Likes shadows.
Sir Blanque: Lawful-ish noble with an affinity for water.
Jorthan (NPC): Powerful noble merchant from Ilmiora. Patron of the party.
Bomilcar (NPC): Weeping Waste nomad warrior. Jorthan's bodyguard.
Bomilcar's narrative
The white tendril that brushed against Sir Blanque as the demi-plane of Chaos disintegrated along with the chained coffin seems to have given him rough knowledge of what we need to do next. The Lawful champion Zugun has implanted Sir Blanque with a sense of direction that points to the Shudder Mountains to the west of Shazaar. Destiny is intrigued; as far as she knows, no Melnibonean has ever been there. She seems to have a taste for acquiring new knowledge.
Zugun of Law, bound inside a Chaos casket
We ride westwards, picking up information about the area as we go. It looks as though we are heading straight towards a village in the foothills called Bent Pines. A combination of talk from travellers in the various inns along the route fills in some of the background for us. Apparently Bent Pines is a settlement of locals who are more than happy to trade with the outside world. The Shudfolk, as they call themselves, trade pelts, wood, and coal in large quantities, together with gemstones and precious metals. Their mountains are a rich source of materials, then, but despite the relative difficulty of living in such a remote region, the Shudfolk apparently tend to stay put, with hardly any of them ever venturing forth. Even those who do feel a strong yearning to return.
After a relatively eventful couple of weeks we arrive at Bent Pines. I'm not sure if this is the calm before the storm, but Marion in particular is able to smooth our way with the locals. They are initially reserved, even taciturn, but Marion advises us to remain polite and pay well for services. This works, and the locals warm to us. They are especially curious about Destiny; they've never even heard of Melnibone, and it makes a refreshing change for her not to be stared at or shunned. They seem to think she is some sort of 'elf princess', and she doesn't bother correcting them. Marion suggests that we don't show any magical capabilities; as we learned on our travels, they regard magic use as the work of the devil, whatever that is. Their own religion seems to be a rarity in the Young Kingdoms, a somewhat distant single god they call the Sovereign. There is no law, chaos, or elemental knowledge at all.
We have a good time in the local inn, gathering gossip and learning as much as we possibly can about the area. Sir Blanque's recently acquired sense of direction is telling him that the place we are looking for is somewhere to the northwest of our current location, so we set about trying to find out as much as we can without alarming the townsfolk. Three tributaries flow together to create the main river on which Bent Pines is situated, and we surmise that our destination lies somewhere upstream in that direction. Each of the small rivers flows through its own valley, and the locals call these 'hollows'. The terrain is mostly a patchwork of homesteads along the main river valley up to an old ruined mill; beyond that is the confluence of the rivers, including a strange old crossroads where a dodgy conjure man lurks to "claim yer souls, strangers!" There is very little in the way of habitation beyond that. The terrain becomes more and more demanding the further one moves from the river valleys, with wooded hills giving way to mountains up to 8,000 feet high. No point in taking the horses, then, apart maybe from Destiny's freaky black demon horse.
As the evening passes and the drink flows, we find out much about the local legends, including "Old Granny" who lives in one of the hollows, and who knows more about the region than any other living person. There was also a 'squire' who made his home up there somewhere too; he has been dead for quite a while, but no one has ever gone that far, so it's possible that his homestead might hold some clues "to whatever it is yer lookin' fer". The only other tidbit about the geography is that there are rumours of an old bridge, built by somebody other than the Shudfolk. Legends, however, abound. We are told to watch out for the Sin Eater; the Bad Lick Beast; trolls; giants; and 'haunts'. "Best to be avoidin' them." One persistent story is repeated a few times, to do with a fiddler who had a magic violin that could charm the dead; something of a local hero, this one.
The evening finishes with a round of songs, the favourite being a particular ballad that encompasses many of the local features we have been hearing about. Destiny leans over to me and says that there is a deep, subtle magic at work here - her witch sight is telling her there is something fundamental to these people; not nasty or threatening, but definitely there. Sir Blanque has spotted it as well, and suggests that there may be a supernatural reason for the Shudfolk sticking to their mountains.
We set out the next morning. Even though it is still winter, the climate is relatively mild, although of course we shall have to wrap up warm as we get higher into the hills. Going by the vague directions we acquired the previous evening, we should reach the crossroads in a day. Sticking to the river valley, we make reasonably good progress despite all of us (apart from Destiny) going on foot. We pass some farmsteads before reaching the old mill that marks the edge of civilisation just after noon. Slightly further on we see a single gravestone sticking out of a copse of trees, and go to investigate. It looks as though it is the final resting place of the fiddler we heard about last night, going by a weathered inscription on his limestone marker. There is, though, a spooky moment when we hear some music carried on the wind, a presence - for lack of a better word - that invites us to go on and take it, because our need is great. "I won't mind," it seems to say. We dig down and find an old wooden casket containing the fiddler's skeletal remains; his bony hands seem to let slip his perfectly preserved fiddle of their own accord. It is made of some kind of rich wood, and has silver strings and a silver bow. None of us knows how to play this instrument, but Jorthan thinks Sir Blanque should try it; "With your impressive manual dexterity, you'll pick it up faster than any of us" he says. Sir Blanque gives it a go, and is surprised at how easily it plays for him. This place is definitely weird, but it does have a certain homespun charm.
We continue along the riverbank, and just as dusk starts to fall we reach the crossroads we were told about. This is an impressive sight: four arms of what look like a once great trunk road cutting through the mountains, definitely not something the Shudfolk are capable of building. It looks incredibly ancient, possibly even pre-dating the rise of Melnibone, but each roadway ends in a jumble of loose rocks and shale. Destiny mentions something about the 'Doomed Folk', whatever that means. As we start looking for a campsite, we are interrupted by a polite cough. "Excuse me" says a devilishly handsome chap with one goat's leg, "I was wondering if I might be of assistance. You gentlefolks are obviously not locals, but well travelled sophisticates." Mindful of his reputation for wanting souls, we decide to scare him off. He raises a manicured eyebrow at the sight of Destiny, but then turns pale when Marion materialises from the growing darkness. Destiny and Sir Blanque say something about her being 'Shadowborn', and a look of pure terror crosses his face. "What did you just say?" "Her name is Marion Shadowborn" says Sir Blanque, and the demon man or whatever he is politely, if a bit hastily, makes his excuses and then simply vanishes. It looks as though Marion's heritage might in fact be really scary - whatever it truly is.
The next morning, we debate which of the three streams we should follow. The one that continues straight ahead is called Bad Lick Hollow according to our information, and the reputation of the Bad Lick Beast puts us off that one. Granny apparently lives somewhere along the stream to our right, so rather than try the left ("Spooky Hollow") we go in what we hope is the direction of her hut. Around mid-afternoon we come upon her quaint homestead, which is surrounded by animal skulls on sticks. The house itself is raised on stilts, obviously to keep out any unwanted creatures. One of the animal skulls - a cat's by the look of it - announces our arrival. "We have visitors, Granny!" it squeals. Out comes Granny, a matted mess with a person somewhere inside it. She pulls back some hair and filth and squints at us with a surprisingly blue eye. "You folks lookin' for somethin'? One good turn deserves another. I'll tell you where it is if you get me a giant's fingernail," she says, pointing in the direction of Spooky Hollow. "You should meet an old friend of mine, a nice chap with a goat's leg." Sir Blanque replies, "We already have, but Marion here scared him off."
Destiny decides to be mischievous. Approaching Granny, she starts chanting "Shadowborn. Shadowborn. Shadowborn." Granny looks really nervous. "I don't know what that means, but if you scared him, I don't want anythin' to do with ya. The place you're lookin' for is called the Luhsaal wheel. Now git outta here!" With that she retreats into her hovel with her pet hog and pulls the stairs after her; the door shuts with a great slam. Sir Blanque looks pained; he admits that last night the phrase "Luhsaal Wheel" occurred several times in his dreams. Destiny seems to be enjoying herself, though, and Marion just looks pleased at the effect her name seems to have on people around here. Destiny muses, "Luhsaal Wheel isn't a Melnibonean term; I'm becoming more and more convinced there are some remnants from the time of the Doomed Folk in these mountains." We turn and head back towards the crossroads.
Our second night in the open arrives before we get there, but we are disturbed in the dead of night. All of the wildlife suddenly goes dead silent, and the unnatural hush wakens those of us not on guard duty. We hear the beating of enormous wings far overhead, and then everything seems to go back to normal after another few minutes. Maybe there is a Bad Lick Beast.
The next day we pass the crossroads sometime around mid-morning. There is absolutely no sign of the guy we met there; he seems to have gone for good. We continue along towards Spooky Hollow, and just as it starts to get dark we come across an exceptionally wide trail leading up to an enormous log cabin half way up the hillside. Maybe there really are giants? Anyway, we decide to go and have a look, but since we are trespassing, we are as open as possible in our approach. A grizzly bear on a chain appears from behind the hut, growls menacingly, and then wimpers and cowers away when it catches sight of Destiny's horse. An unfeasibly large man of middle age appears in the great doorway, an enormous grin splitting his face. He must be at least eight feet tall. "You 'uns scared Dawg, and that don't happen very often! Come in, come in, and have some vittles. We don't get many travellers up here!" Sir Blanque mutters something about the locals being scared of him, probably because they think he might eat them. "Why would we want to do that? We're vegetarians! Maw! Ohlsovnik, son, we got visitors! Time for a good ol' time party!"
The family introduces themselves as the Bigginty clan. "Ohlsovnik here is the bright one!" The son is around twelve feet tall, and wears some rather fetching spectacles - Destiny thinks they are magical. Maw makes some rather tasty corn mash, and the family's fermented corn drink gets passed around afterwards. They are eager for some news of the outside world, and we tell them the tales of our travels, suitably edited - we don't say too much about the magical stuff.
Ohslovnik says we must be looking for the Luhsaal wheel, and draws a map in the dirt; apparently it is roughly northwards of where we are now, and the young giant describes the mountain where it lies. "There's an old road leading to a great bridge across a chasm. The Bad Lick Beast hangs out there, though, so you might be better to take the secret way, which is upstream from here. Just watch out for the Trolls." He draws a rough location for us. Jorthan is impressed; "You seem to know loads," he says. Ohlsovnik says that the guy with the goat's leg gave him his spectacles and taught him much; he repays our news with a potted history of the Shudder Mountains.
"Four time cycles ago (!) the Shudder Mountains were twice the height they are now. The world was much warmer then, and the mountains made an ideal habitat for a super-civilised race of snake men. But the world cooled and as it moved into another time cycle the humans arrived. The ophidians degenerated and were driven deep underground by the people. The next time cycle saw the arrival of the Hsaal from the second moon in the sky, and they drove the early people into the depths too. They brought in their servants and ruled the land for an age, building great wonders such as the roads and the Wheel. They bound their own human servitors to the land by meddling with their bloodlines; those were the ancestors of the Shudfolk. However, the Hsaal destroyed themselves in a great sorcerous cataclysm; their moon was torn from the sky and disappeared through a gigantic rift in time and space. The magical backlash exterminated every last remaining Hsaal and the catastrophe tore off the tops of the very mountains; there was a great run-off of molten magical power, which formed into what the Shudfolk call 'Spoils', roiling pools of chaotic energy that litter the mountains. The next era was relatively peaceful, but ended in the great war between Grome Earth King and Straasha of the Waters. We are now coming to the end of the latest cycle."
If this is true, it is most impressive. Destiny is particularly pleased and surprised; it would seem that humans and peoples such as her own are born repeatedly throughout time. Sir Blanque agrees, and Destiny says that what Ohlsovnik has told us tallies with what little the Melniboneans know about the Doomed Folk. Sir Blanque says that he thinks the world renews itself every so often, and that each time it happens a little remains of the previous era, like the layers of an onion. Jorthan suggests that the Conjunction Merut of Chaos told us about is maybe the same sort of thing, but on a cosmic scale. I think Destiny believes Ohlsovnik's story; he is certainly the only person we have met here who knows about the elemental lords. He also spots the enchantment on Sir Blanque's sword, and says that his armour looks very similar. Sir Blanque is surprised by this, but Jorthan reminds him that he was recently blessed by a Lawful priestess; perhaps her blessing did more than heal his wound?
The next day we set out to look for the secret way to the mountain that holds the Luhsaal Wheel, somewhat the worse for wear. That booze is strong. At around noon, we see an old dilapidated farmstead off to our left, most of the way up a steep hill. We go to investigate, and find very little apart from a rocking chair that seems to be occupied by the spirit of its long departed owner, the 'squire' we heard about in the tavern at Bent Pine. He scolds us for not knocking, and says he can tells us where the Luhsaal wheel is, as well as more information about what to look for when we come across the secret way; he just needs us to scare off some haunts for him that night. It looks as though Marion is right about the bloodline of the Shudfolk; even in death, they find it hard to leave. We are a bit concerned about the time; if we wait here until nightfall to help the squire, it will take us most of the next day to reach the mountain of the Wheel, and we have no idea how long it will be until the Chaos champion Boak turns up to claim his prize of godhood or whatever he is after. Destiny is convinced we have a maximum of eight days before he does just that, and this is now day five since we arrived in the Shudder Mountains. She says that eight is the magic number of chaos. We tell the squire's ghost that we will help to dispel the haunts when we come back this way, and head off upstream once more.
As dusk is falling we reach the part of the stream that we think hides the trail to the rear of our mountain destination and sure enough there is some scrub and bushes on the far side that betray the presence of very large feet that go in the direction we want. These must be the trolls the friendly giants were on about; probably humans corrupted by the Chaos spoils. We press onwards because we want to reach the mountain and the Wheel that night; if we are lucky, our arrival will coincide with Sir Blanque's flashy bang magic.
The trail winds ever upwards and then ends abruptly at a cliff face. We can, though, make out the faint outlines of a very well concealed doorway into the mountain; the trolls have left it slightly ajar, and there is a bit of a stench coming from inside. There is also the sound of very loud snoring. Marion manages to open the large stone door quietly, and we all try to sneak past the sleeping troll who has presumably been left here on guard duty, after Marion once again closes the door. It is very dark in here, and Jorthan stumbles, waking the guard. It lashes out and catches Marion's leg with a claw, but we overwhelm it.
After patching Marion up with the last of our precious healing potions (that claw really hurt!) we go into the depths of the mountain. Sir Blanque naturally sees in the dark, while Destiny orders her fire elementals to give heat vision to herself and Marion does a little dance in the gloom,which apparently helps her; Jorthan and I try to keep up as best we can as the others shepherd us through a long dark tunnel that continues upwards, possibly for more than a mile. It's difficult to tell exactly how long it is in the clinging darkness. Eventually we arrive at a chamber leading to large room, with arched exits in each of its walls.
The room holds a large map of the constellations, which we reckon is tens of thousands of years out of date. The stars of the night sky are presumably meant to reflect this region, but of course they have moved over the millennia. It is composed of semi-precious stones set into a large oval marble table of sorts. The stones are probably worth a great deal, but Destiny wants us to leave the artefact as it is.
We don't have much choice anyway, as two more troll things attack us from the passage to our left. Jorthan and I are at a severe disadvantage due to the darkness, but we manage somehow to hold one of them off long enough for the others to kill its friend and then help us destroy that last one. Jorthan takes two nasty hits, though, one to his chest and another to his abdomen. We patch him up as best we can before moving on.
We reckon that the doorway to our left leads to the main entrance to this suite of rooms, so we leave it alone and take the final exit. This leads up via a steep flight of stairs, and we come out into a giant amphitheatre to see:
Umpire's notes
The scenario is The Chained Coffin by Goodman Games. I shifted it to the Young Kingdoms, with some changes. For example, I didn't want the players lugging a coffin across the countryside for several weeks, amongst other things. They enjoyed finding out some secrets about the long forgotten past from the hill giants, who spoke with them rather than attacking. Although they enjoy combat, which can be very visceral in this system, they much prefer role-playing, so I had the Bigginty family throw them a party. The comment about being vegetarians sent Thomas into hysterics. This is a D&D type scenario, so I had to rationalise the monsters. The giants are of course a bunch of seriously overgrown hillbillies, and I had an excuse for the trolls as humans touched by emanations from the Chaos spoils. They can regenerate, but only from non-magical damage, and are especially susceptible to fire (cue Destiny's elementals). They don't regenerate from death, though. The party will now have to decide what they are going to do while waiting for Big Bad Boak to arrive.
Marion's surname of Shadowborn is causing some interest; it remains to be seen what it actually means. Suffice it to say I have a cunning plan...
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