Meeting Dyvim Slorm
The Second Stormbringer Companion contains a multi-part scenario entitled "The Velvet Circle". It involves a Melnibonean setting the characters on the path of a couple of rare items in return for a reward that isn't all it seems. It is placed very firmly in the standard world of Moorcock's Elric. I have been intending for a while to rework some elements of it to fit into our campaign, and I finally found the opportunity to do so...
Bomilcar's narrative
Our strange interplanar interlude is followed by a period of relative calm and downtime. Destiny studies some more, while I just get on with my weapons practice, as do the others. After several weeks, however, Jorthan's eternally polite steward knocks to tell us that we have a visitor, an especially beautiful young woman. She is asking to speak with Destiny in particular. Let's see what this is all about.
In comes another of those Demons of Desire that seem to be appearing quite a bit in our lives nowadays. She introduces herself as a servant of Dyvim Slorm, who has taken up residence at one of the most expensive establishments in Ilmar, and is asking to meet with us there this evening. We give assent, and she glides out with preternatural grace.
Destiny fills us in on this guy. He is the son of one of the most important of Melnibone's Lords, Dyvim Tvar, who is effectively commander of the island's land forces. The sobriquet "Dyvim" means "Dragonlord", so this family's title means a great deal. While Emperor Elric remain childless, Dyvim Tvar is pretty much next in line to the throne, which means that his son Dyvim Slorm could one day become Emperor himself. Destiny says that the family is steadfastly loyal to Elric as rightful Emperor, and provided crucial support during a rebellion attempt by the man who used to be next in line, Yrkoon, who is now very dead indeed. And Destiny's father is Yrkoon's elder half-brother, which puts her pretty high up in the royal stakes too. All of this complicated lineage stuff is making my head hurt, but what really matters for now is that Dyvim Slorm is here and wants to meet.
We clean up, and I try to make myself as presentable as possible, which is a bit hard for me. Whatever I do, I am pretty certain this Dyvim bloke won't even notice my existence. I am, though, rather surprised, because he is quite young - about our age, I would say - and seems genuinely interested in what is going on in the Young Kingdoms. He explains that Elric is re-evaluating Melnibone's place in this new world, and has a dislike for the new Chaos of Pan Tang. He says, "The Emperor considers his cousin Yrkoon's abortive revolt to be an event for the history books, and is unwilling to pursue a vendetta against anyone else who might have been involved, or even related to Yrkoon. This is not quite the traditional Melnibonean way, but there are so few of us left that we are all related in one way or another. So rather than deplete our numbers, he says that Yrkoon obviously threatened others into supporting him. Besides, the fact that Elric appeared with Stormbringer, one of the black swords, has cemented his power."
Destiny explains that the two great demon swords Stormbringer and Mournblade are the traditional regalia of the Melnibonean emperors, and have been missing since the time of the revolt of Aubec of Malador against the Bright Empire over four hundred years ago. It seems that Elric regained Strombringer and used it to kill Yrkoon, thus ending any possible threat to his rule. I notice that when she tells us about the importance of the black swords, she has a wistful look on her face; I bet she fancies getting hold of Mournblade herself. And thinking about it, if she has royal blood, she would be entitled to wield the thing...
Dyvim Slorm nods and continues. "Elric has the reputation of being the greatest sorcerer the world has seen for many generations, and he wishes to use what power we still have to oppose Pan Tang in particular. None of us truly believes any more that Melnibone has the energy it once had when we conquered the known world, but we can still play a part in history. He has asked me to set up an information network with a view to making alliances among like-minded enemies of the Mabden upstarts. The fact that Lady Destiny here is already working with the Consortium of Ilmar and the son of Haver Nikorn to that very end is serendipitous. So I have come here to meet with you to ascertain if our intentions are sensible and reasonable, while still acting covertly. I have used the abilities of my Demon of Desire to conceal my true identity, as I believe Destiny has also managed on occasion. There are still those who fear the Bright Empire based on the deeds of the past, and I acknowledge this. What do you think of this idea?"
We agree; Pan Tang's version of Chaos is far more murderous than the remnants of Melnibone could ever be. In fact, this isn't even a case of divide and conquer; Melnibone just does not have the power any more to use us to destroy Pan Tang and then turn on us afterwords. It seems very strange and also rather heartening that the new Emperor is so aware of the relative place of his people in the world of the Young Kingdoms.
Dyvim Slorm finishes by saying that Elric is trying to piece together a very long term plan of action, and needs a couple of items from this region, which is in fact another reason for his own presence here. The dragon prince says that he is expecting a delivery from a certain Chunloom from far Eshmir, a box containing an artefact from the times of Melnibone's great wars against the Dharzi. He gives us half of a rather curious medallion, and asks us to meet with Chunloom in the border town of Gorjhan. He bears the other half of the medallion, and will give us the little box when we meet him. On the way, we are to meet a messenger of sorts - "Don't worry, you'll know who he is when you see him. Apparently he knows Elric, but is not of this plane. He will show you the way to a location that contains a book Elric needs to consult." We agree, partly because of the mention of the Dharzi, of whom we already have some knowledge and personal experience, but also because of the connection with Gorjhan and the Far East, because we have intended business of our own there. All we have to do is retrieve these items and then return to Ilmar. Of course, it doesn't always work out like that!
Off we go then, back along the familiar trade route from the coast to the edges of the Weeping Wastes. About a week later, as we are skirting the northern reaches of the Forest of Troos, we hear a cacophony of something that could perhaps be just about described as music. Waiting for us is rather a bizarre sight, a very heavily muscled young man with the face of a beautiful woman. In a rich baritone, he introduces himself as "Ovamilyon, the greatest bard of Shangasdrian," and twangs his strange harp-like instrument horribly, sighing at the beauty of his composition. He talks some nonsense about always being called upon to come to strange worlds and help people to find what they are looking for, and then strums his musical monstrosity some more. He then walks straight into the horrible forest itself, twanging away, his face bent to his instrument as he uses it to pick his way faultlessly through the tangled, mutated woods. He seems to be in some sort of musical trance, so we follow him, picking up various herbs and flowers unique to the forest that will help either in demon summoning or in poisoning somebody. Strangely enough, nothing seems to bother us, not even the famously nasty wildlife; it is almost as though Ovamilyon's music is keeping any threats at bay, which is reasonable. I'd rather not be listening to it either.
Eventually Ovamilyon's 'music' speeds up and we burst into a clearing, in the midst of which is a blackened low mound with some ancient pillars on top. He comes out of his trance, saying "I hope you find what you are looking for - it's in there somewhere. I don't do fighting, so I'll just wait here for you." With that, we go on up for a swift look, more worried about him starting to play some more than we are of anything to do with the Dharzi. Sure enough, the pillars are inscribed with runes that bear a disturbing similarity to the writings of the High Speech of Melnibone, at least according to Destiny. She confers with her demon of knowledge; all this talking into brooches can seem rather strange. Anyway, between them they work out that this is the last resting place of a cursed Dharzi Lord by the name of Sekis. One of the four pillars has toppled over, and there seems to be a hole underneath. After a bit of a struggle, we manage to roll the column out of the way, revealing a flight of stairs going own deep into the mound; there seems to be a cavern of some sort.
We gingerly pick our way downwards, emerging into a corridor with a very imposing door at the far end. I think it looks far too flush with the earth-packed walls; even though there is a complicated lock of some kind, I can't see how the door would open properly - basically, I smell a trap. Looking around the corridor a bit more, Sir Blanque finds what looks like an old tree root half way up the wall to our right. This is odd because there are no trees anywhere near this mound, so he pulls on it, and it turns out in fact to be a disguised lever. Sickly pale pink light emerges from a sealed chamber within, emanating from a nasty looking black grimoire on a pedestal. The air is incredibly stale and we all manage to hold our breaths, except Marion, who winds up retching on the floor.
It's just as well for her, because a screechy voice rasps out, threatening us with all sorts of doom and destruction. Destiny points to a spot high up the far wall, where what looks like a skull with little legs is clinging to the bare earth. "Get out of my tomb! I hate Melniboneans!" it squeaks, and then earth flies in all directions as half a dozen large dogs with the heads of vultures leap out from the very walls and attack us. They don't notice Marion, but wade into the rest of us, trying to mob us with hunting dog tactics, which don't work very well against heavily armoured and armed warriors. We despatch them easily, and then the little skull (Sekis, I presume) jumps down and tries to bite Destiny's ankles. She puts her foot on the skull and shatters it into a thousand pieces with her battle axe. We grab the grimoire and leave.
It turns out that Jorthan took a couple of shallow scratches from the Dharzi dogs, but Ovamilyon gives him a little crystal teardrop to chew on, and his wounds are healed. The strange musician waves goodbye as his form begins to fade from sight; we pick our way back to the main trade route through the forest with no further problems, finding some more useful herbs and plants on the way. I think Ovamilyon's composition has scared off even the things that live in Troos.
We continue on our travels and a few days out from our destination of Gorjhan, we hear rough laughter and screaming from around a hillock up ahead. We ride there at full speed, finding a group of three thugs trying to molest a young woman; near her a much older woman is lying on the ground. They have a brightly coloured caravan of sorts, drawn by a purple horse. The three brigands are easily downed with no fatalities, so we decide just to leave them there. The young girl, who goes by the name of Jyaolina, rushes to help her grandmother. Her name is Kakata, and they are both very grateful for our intervention. They have travelled westwards from Eshmir.
Kakata offers to tell our fortune, and gets out some bottles of coloured sand, which she spreads on a sheepskin. She goes into a bit of a trance and shifts the stuff around, muttering all the while in her native tongue. I understand enough to realise that she is invoking some minor spirits. She says, "A great battle comes. Mighty forces struggle. Pieces in the cosmic game. Death, demons; the way is strewn with peril." At this, Jyaolina cries out and speaks in three voices. The first is menacing: "Flee, slime." Sounds very Chaotic. The second is sweet and sickly: "Take heart. In the coin is the power". Very Lawful. And the third seems almost normal, Balanced one might say: "For this you were born. Fulfil your destiny." Then in her own voice, the girl speaks a swift jumble of phrases: "Gorjhan. The full urn. Vultures in crimson. The brass dog. The axe falls. Blood! Tyktyva holds the wheel. Death, death. Ginjada! Ginjada!" Then she collapses.
Kakata rushes to her granddaughter, her eyes wide with fear - "She has never done anything like this before! I'm supposed to be the one with the talent!" Jyaolina wakes, remembering nothing, and the two rather hastily continue on their way towards the coast, as far from Gorjhan as they can possibly go. As they leave, Kakata says that something is rotten in Gorjhan, which is why they didn't stay overnight, and presses a small talisman into Marion's hands - "This will protect you from evil" she says.
As the pair drives off into the distance, their wagon pulled by what is surely a demon horse, we confer. I recognise a couple of the phrases: Ginjada is the name of a major oasis on the Weeping waste plateau, the first as the trail from Gorjhan debouches onto the Wastes proper. Also, the brass dog is the nickname of a rather charismatic bandit chieftain called Akrat Bey. We'll probably find out the hard way what all the other phrases mean...
As we enter Gorjhan, Destiny puts on her disguise act. Everyone tries to hide from us, pulling children back into their houses and generally panicking - all rather odd for a caravan town. Don't they usually make money out of travellers? We are, though, approached by a couple of friendly looking guardsmen in red, who welcome us openly to their beautiful town. We then head straight for the small town's main inn at the end of the main road, and enter. The place is strangely deserted; the only other customers are three Eshmirian cultists of some kind, a woman and two men, dressed in ceremonial black robes trimmed with gold and silver. The backs of their robes bear a rather striking image of a fiery bird thing. They nod at us politely, but make no attempt to engage us in conversation, remaining in a corner booth. The guy at the desk grimaces and sneers at us, asking why we've bothered to come to Gorjhan. "This place is nasty," he says. "And I should know, I've lived here all my life. If I were you I'd just keep riding." Jorthan explains that we have come to deal with the trouble in the town, and the guy looks scared. "Look, I don't want any grief. If you really need to know more, then talk to the priest of Vorain, although he isn't making much sense nowadays." We sign for our rooms, and he motions us towards the stables at the rear of the town.
After a bit of a clean up and some food, we head off to the temple of Vorain, the Lawful lord of architecture. It looks deserted, with all of the windows bricked up (from the inside, strangely, by the looks of it) and the door festooned with at least five sets of locks. We shout for admittance, and eventually a tiny spy hole opens up. "Go away!" shrieks a voice from inside, as a wizened eye squints at us from the spy hole. "Go away! Visitors are not welcome. Anyway, I bet you've been sent by those Vultures of Chaos!" Jorthan puts all of his snake oil charm to good use, and eventually the old priest lets us inside. He locks everything behind us and then fills us in on what has been happening. "It's them guardsmen! And that supposed priest of Martek! My arse! Chaos, more like! There's been nothing but trouble since they arrived, and trade has all but dried up. I think they're sacrificing anyone who comes here! Mark my words!" etc. The wild-eyed look, unkempt hair and general body odour don't help his case, but we get the gist of it. Anyway, Jyaolina's phrases did include something about vultures in crimson. We return to the inn to discuss our next move, and make a nodding acquaintance of the three Eshmirians; Destiny shows them some fire elemental tricks, which seems to impress them.
According to the mad priest guy, there are at least thirteen of what he describes as cultists, led by someone by the name of Alban Ishna. Rather than take them on (especially if they are Chaotics), we decide that some sneakiness is in order. It just so happens that almost by chance at least two of the guardsmen manage to keep the front door of the inn in view, so we wait until midnight for Sir Blanque's powers to kick in and then try to climb down the rear of the inn from our second floor window. The others go first, because Jorthan and I are not exactly noted for being great at sundry night time sneakiness. It's just as well, because as the three of them vanish around the corner of the inn, Jorthan makes a right racket as he lands on the ground. He decides to become the bait in a trap for the watching guardsmen, while I discreetly withdraw into the shadows, stringing my bow. Jorthan leads a couple of the men in red on a bit of a merry dance, but when he is cornered I emerge and put an arrow straight through the left leg of one of them; between us, Jorthan and I kill the other. A great shout goes up from somewhere near the temple of Mardek, followed by the sounds of beating hooves heading straight out of town. We go to investigate, and meet our friends emerging in triumph from the temple itself.
Umpire's notes
Everything happened as described by Bomilcar above, up to the point where the party had to split. This is where my running a couple of major NPCs helps with the numbers, because I was able to deal with two groups with no problems. I rolled to see what would happen with Bomilcar and Jorthan while the players infiltrated the temple. Since the red guards were distracted by Jorthan backed up by Bomilcar, the other three (Marion, Sir Blanque and Destiny) sneaked out of the town and then climbed over the wall near the temple of Mardek at Gorjhan's SW corner, helped by the trees and substantial foliage growing in that part of the town, right next to the temple itself. The front door was unlocked, so the trio went straight into the main vestibule, where there was a large statue of Mardek holding an urn - another of the phrases uttered by the Eshmirian girl, as Sir Blanque pointed out (Mardek is the lawful Lord of the element of water, a useful deity for a frontier desert type town). He also noticed that the urn was very slightly twisted out of true, thanks to a critical See roll - his abilities to see in the dark are very useful. The characters were able to move the fountain, which slid back very easily and relatively noiselessly. A spiral staircase wound its way down into the ground, as it turned out for a good couple of hundred feet. Sir Blanque was able to guide the others past three trapped stairs on the way down, and they emerged silently in front of a great set of double doors, which were guarded by a couple of the men in red. Sir Blanque skewered one of them with his two swords, killing him instantly, and Destiny killed the other with her battleaxe with a critical hit. The combat was over in a matter of seconds, and the poor guys didn't even have the chance to cry for help.
The double doors led into a large Chaos temple (I used this really nice battle map product here.) The infiltration was going well, with the alarm still not having been raised. A large low altar at the far end had a marble top, but was otherwise made of crystal; the characters could see the stuff of Chaos writhing inside the altar, which was covered in blood, with a large executioner's axe lying on it - a sacred item of the cult of Hionhurn, the executioner god of Pan Tang. Marion suggested that she use her dream staff to absorb the Chaos stuff, so Sir Blanque shattered the side of the altar with a critical swing of his Virtuous broadsword, but Marion then fumbled with her dream staff. Fortunately for them, though, they were not affected by the Chaos vapours. Marion was helped by her newly acquired talisman, and Sir Blanque always has enhanced Power at this time of the night, with an extra bonus supplied by his Displacer Cloak. The wisps, however, seemed to congregate around Destiny, and she emerged, glowing briefly - she rolled a critical success on her Power and gained an extra point. Melniboneans do, after all, have a certain affinity for Chaos. This was fun - a proper series of critical successes and failures by all three characters.
The noise, however, attracted the attention of a large demonic blob with very long arms that manifested itself, grabbed the sacrificial axe, and then started trying to hit the characters. It wasn't very good, but it had enormous Constitution, and it took them a while to wear it down. I had decided it was really there as a final block so that the leaders of the cult could make their escape, which was the noise heard by Jorthan and Bomilcar. The others found the Chaos cult's treasury, with items worth a small fortune of 10,000 Large Bronzes gathered from their various victims, along with the second half of the medallion. It looked as though their contact, Chunloom of Eshmir, was no more...
Afterwards Destiny took charge of the guardsman with the arrow through his leg, who didn't look as though he would make it through the night. Some judicious questioning confirmed that Chunloom had indeed been sacrificed, but the characters still had the lead provided by Jyaolina to the oasis of Ginjada and the brass dog. Destiny took advantage of the Chaos temple's availability to give the surviving cultist a taste of his own medicine, and now has a rather useful demon of combat bound into her battleaxe with the sharpness rune.
Bomilcar's narrative
Our strange interplanar interlude is followed by a period of relative calm and downtime. Destiny studies some more, while I just get on with my weapons practice, as do the others. After several weeks, however, Jorthan's eternally polite steward knocks to tell us that we have a visitor, an especially beautiful young woman. She is asking to speak with Destiny in particular. Let's see what this is all about.
In comes another of those Demons of Desire that seem to be appearing quite a bit in our lives nowadays. She introduces herself as a servant of Dyvim Slorm, who has taken up residence at one of the most expensive establishments in Ilmar, and is asking to meet with us there this evening. We give assent, and she glides out with preternatural grace.
Destiny fills us in on this guy. He is the son of one of the most important of Melnibone's Lords, Dyvim Tvar, who is effectively commander of the island's land forces. The sobriquet "Dyvim" means "Dragonlord", so this family's title means a great deal. While Emperor Elric remain childless, Dyvim Tvar is pretty much next in line to the throne, which means that his son Dyvim Slorm could one day become Emperor himself. Destiny says that the family is steadfastly loyal to Elric as rightful Emperor, and provided crucial support during a rebellion attempt by the man who used to be next in line, Yrkoon, who is now very dead indeed. And Destiny's father is Yrkoon's elder half-brother, which puts her pretty high up in the royal stakes too. All of this complicated lineage stuff is making my head hurt, but what really matters for now is that Dyvim Slorm is here and wants to meet.
We clean up, and I try to make myself as presentable as possible, which is a bit hard for me. Whatever I do, I am pretty certain this Dyvim bloke won't even notice my existence. I am, though, rather surprised, because he is quite young - about our age, I would say - and seems genuinely interested in what is going on in the Young Kingdoms. He explains that Elric is re-evaluating Melnibone's place in this new world, and has a dislike for the new Chaos of Pan Tang. He says, "The Emperor considers his cousin Yrkoon's abortive revolt to be an event for the history books, and is unwilling to pursue a vendetta against anyone else who might have been involved, or even related to Yrkoon. This is not quite the traditional Melnibonean way, but there are so few of us left that we are all related in one way or another. So rather than deplete our numbers, he says that Yrkoon obviously threatened others into supporting him. Besides, the fact that Elric appeared with Stormbringer, one of the black swords, has cemented his power."
Destiny explains that the two great demon swords Stormbringer and Mournblade are the traditional regalia of the Melnibonean emperors, and have been missing since the time of the revolt of Aubec of Malador against the Bright Empire over four hundred years ago. It seems that Elric regained Strombringer and used it to kill Yrkoon, thus ending any possible threat to his rule. I notice that when she tells us about the importance of the black swords, she has a wistful look on her face; I bet she fancies getting hold of Mournblade herself. And thinking about it, if she has royal blood, she would be entitled to wield the thing...
Dyvim Slorm nods and continues. "Elric has the reputation of being the greatest sorcerer the world has seen for many generations, and he wishes to use what power we still have to oppose Pan Tang in particular. None of us truly believes any more that Melnibone has the energy it once had when we conquered the known world, but we can still play a part in history. He has asked me to set up an information network with a view to making alliances among like-minded enemies of the Mabden upstarts. The fact that Lady Destiny here is already working with the Consortium of Ilmar and the son of Haver Nikorn to that very end is serendipitous. So I have come here to meet with you to ascertain if our intentions are sensible and reasonable, while still acting covertly. I have used the abilities of my Demon of Desire to conceal my true identity, as I believe Destiny has also managed on occasion. There are still those who fear the Bright Empire based on the deeds of the past, and I acknowledge this. What do you think of this idea?"
We agree; Pan Tang's version of Chaos is far more murderous than the remnants of Melnibone could ever be. In fact, this isn't even a case of divide and conquer; Melnibone just does not have the power any more to use us to destroy Pan Tang and then turn on us afterwords. It seems very strange and also rather heartening that the new Emperor is so aware of the relative place of his people in the world of the Young Kingdoms.
Dyvim Slorm finishes by saying that Elric is trying to piece together a very long term plan of action, and needs a couple of items from this region, which is in fact another reason for his own presence here. The dragon prince says that he is expecting a delivery from a certain Chunloom from far Eshmir, a box containing an artefact from the times of Melnibone's great wars against the Dharzi. He gives us half of a rather curious medallion, and asks us to meet with Chunloom in the border town of Gorjhan. He bears the other half of the medallion, and will give us the little box when we meet him. On the way, we are to meet a messenger of sorts - "Don't worry, you'll know who he is when you see him. Apparently he knows Elric, but is not of this plane. He will show you the way to a location that contains a book Elric needs to consult." We agree, partly because of the mention of the Dharzi, of whom we already have some knowledge and personal experience, but also because of the connection with Gorjhan and the Far East, because we have intended business of our own there. All we have to do is retrieve these items and then return to Ilmar. Of course, it doesn't always work out like that!
Off we go then, back along the familiar trade route from the coast to the edges of the Weeping Wastes. About a week later, as we are skirting the northern reaches of the Forest of Troos, we hear a cacophony of something that could perhaps be just about described as music. Waiting for us is rather a bizarre sight, a very heavily muscled young man with the face of a beautiful woman. In a rich baritone, he introduces himself as "Ovamilyon, the greatest bard of Shangasdrian," and twangs his strange harp-like instrument horribly, sighing at the beauty of his composition. He talks some nonsense about always being called upon to come to strange worlds and help people to find what they are looking for, and then strums his musical monstrosity some more. He then walks straight into the horrible forest itself, twanging away, his face bent to his instrument as he uses it to pick his way faultlessly through the tangled, mutated woods. He seems to be in some sort of musical trance, so we follow him, picking up various herbs and flowers unique to the forest that will help either in demon summoning or in poisoning somebody. Strangely enough, nothing seems to bother us, not even the famously nasty wildlife; it is almost as though Ovamilyon's music is keeping any threats at bay, which is reasonable. I'd rather not be listening to it either.
Eventually Ovamilyon's 'music' speeds up and we burst into a clearing, in the midst of which is a blackened low mound with some ancient pillars on top. He comes out of his trance, saying "I hope you find what you are looking for - it's in there somewhere. I don't do fighting, so I'll just wait here for you." With that, we go on up for a swift look, more worried about him starting to play some more than we are of anything to do with the Dharzi. Sure enough, the pillars are inscribed with runes that bear a disturbing similarity to the writings of the High Speech of Melnibone, at least according to Destiny. She confers with her demon of knowledge; all this talking into brooches can seem rather strange. Anyway, between them they work out that this is the last resting place of a cursed Dharzi Lord by the name of Sekis. One of the four pillars has toppled over, and there seems to be a hole underneath. After a bit of a struggle, we manage to roll the column out of the way, revealing a flight of stairs going own deep into the mound; there seems to be a cavern of some sort.
From 'Demon Magic: The Second Stormbringer Companion.' Pretty straightforward stuff.
It's just as well for her, because a screechy voice rasps out, threatening us with all sorts of doom and destruction. Destiny points to a spot high up the far wall, where what looks like a skull with little legs is clinging to the bare earth. "Get out of my tomb! I hate Melniboneans!" it squeaks, and then earth flies in all directions as half a dozen large dogs with the heads of vultures leap out from the very walls and attack us. They don't notice Marion, but wade into the rest of us, trying to mob us with hunting dog tactics, which don't work very well against heavily armoured and armed warriors. We despatch them easily, and then the little skull (Sekis, I presume) jumps down and tries to bite Destiny's ankles. She puts her foot on the skull and shatters it into a thousand pieces with her battle axe. We grab the grimoire and leave.
It turns out that Jorthan took a couple of shallow scratches from the Dharzi dogs, but Ovamilyon gives him a little crystal teardrop to chew on, and his wounds are healed. The strange musician waves goodbye as his form begins to fade from sight; we pick our way back to the main trade route through the forest with no further problems, finding some more useful herbs and plants on the way. I think Ovamilyon's composition has scared off even the things that live in Troos.
We continue on our travels and a few days out from our destination of Gorjhan, we hear rough laughter and screaming from around a hillock up ahead. We ride there at full speed, finding a group of three thugs trying to molest a young woman; near her a much older woman is lying on the ground. They have a brightly coloured caravan of sorts, drawn by a purple horse. The three brigands are easily downed with no fatalities, so we decide just to leave them there. The young girl, who goes by the name of Jyaolina, rushes to help her grandmother. Her name is Kakata, and they are both very grateful for our intervention. They have travelled westwards from Eshmir.
Kakata offers to tell our fortune, and gets out some bottles of coloured sand, which she spreads on a sheepskin. She goes into a bit of a trance and shifts the stuff around, muttering all the while in her native tongue. I understand enough to realise that she is invoking some minor spirits. She says, "A great battle comes. Mighty forces struggle. Pieces in the cosmic game. Death, demons; the way is strewn with peril." At this, Jyaolina cries out and speaks in three voices. The first is menacing: "Flee, slime." Sounds very Chaotic. The second is sweet and sickly: "Take heart. In the coin is the power". Very Lawful. And the third seems almost normal, Balanced one might say: "For this you were born. Fulfil your destiny." Then in her own voice, the girl speaks a swift jumble of phrases: "Gorjhan. The full urn. Vultures in crimson. The brass dog. The axe falls. Blood! Tyktyva holds the wheel. Death, death. Ginjada! Ginjada!" Then she collapses.
Kakata rushes to her granddaughter, her eyes wide with fear - "She has never done anything like this before! I'm supposed to be the one with the talent!" Jyaolina wakes, remembering nothing, and the two rather hastily continue on their way towards the coast, as far from Gorjhan as they can possibly go. As they leave, Kakata says that something is rotten in Gorjhan, which is why they didn't stay overnight, and presses a small talisman into Marion's hands - "This will protect you from evil" she says.
As the pair drives off into the distance, their wagon pulled by what is surely a demon horse, we confer. I recognise a couple of the phrases: Ginjada is the name of a major oasis on the Weeping waste plateau, the first as the trail from Gorjhan debouches onto the Wastes proper. Also, the brass dog is the nickname of a rather charismatic bandit chieftain called Akrat Bey. We'll probably find out the hard way what all the other phrases mean...
Also from "demon Magic", the town of Fakash, repurposed for the small outpost of Gorjhan. The players will be spending some time here, on and off, and the isometric map of the small settlement is very useful.
After a bit of a clean up and some food, we head off to the temple of Vorain, the Lawful lord of architecture. It looks deserted, with all of the windows bricked up (from the inside, strangely, by the looks of it) and the door festooned with at least five sets of locks. We shout for admittance, and eventually a tiny spy hole opens up. "Go away!" shrieks a voice from inside, as a wizened eye squints at us from the spy hole. "Go away! Visitors are not welcome. Anyway, I bet you've been sent by those Vultures of Chaos!" Jorthan puts all of his snake oil charm to good use, and eventually the old priest lets us inside. He locks everything behind us and then fills us in on what has been happening. "It's them guardsmen! And that supposed priest of Martek! My arse! Chaos, more like! There's been nothing but trouble since they arrived, and trade has all but dried up. I think they're sacrificing anyone who comes here! Mark my words!" etc. The wild-eyed look, unkempt hair and general body odour don't help his case, but we get the gist of it. Anyway, Jyaolina's phrases did include something about vultures in crimson. We return to the inn to discuss our next move, and make a nodding acquaintance of the three Eshmirians; Destiny shows them some fire elemental tricks, which seems to impress them.
According to the mad priest guy, there are at least thirteen of what he describes as cultists, led by someone by the name of Alban Ishna. Rather than take them on (especially if they are Chaotics), we decide that some sneakiness is in order. It just so happens that almost by chance at least two of the guardsmen manage to keep the front door of the inn in view, so we wait until midnight for Sir Blanque's powers to kick in and then try to climb down the rear of the inn from our second floor window. The others go first, because Jorthan and I are not exactly noted for being great at sundry night time sneakiness. It's just as well, because as the three of them vanish around the corner of the inn, Jorthan makes a right racket as he lands on the ground. He decides to become the bait in a trap for the watching guardsmen, while I discreetly withdraw into the shadows, stringing my bow. Jorthan leads a couple of the men in red on a bit of a merry dance, but when he is cornered I emerge and put an arrow straight through the left leg of one of them; between us, Jorthan and I kill the other. A great shout goes up from somewhere near the temple of Mardek, followed by the sounds of beating hooves heading straight out of town. We go to investigate, and meet our friends emerging in triumph from the temple itself.
Umpire's notes
Everything happened as described by Bomilcar above, up to the point where the party had to split. This is where my running a couple of major NPCs helps with the numbers, because I was able to deal with two groups with no problems. I rolled to see what would happen with Bomilcar and Jorthan while the players infiltrated the temple. Since the red guards were distracted by Jorthan backed up by Bomilcar, the other three (Marion, Sir Blanque and Destiny) sneaked out of the town and then climbed over the wall near the temple of Mardek at Gorjhan's SW corner, helped by the trees and substantial foliage growing in that part of the town, right next to the temple itself. The front door was unlocked, so the trio went straight into the main vestibule, where there was a large statue of Mardek holding an urn - another of the phrases uttered by the Eshmirian girl, as Sir Blanque pointed out (Mardek is the lawful Lord of the element of water, a useful deity for a frontier desert type town). He also noticed that the urn was very slightly twisted out of true, thanks to a critical See roll - his abilities to see in the dark are very useful. The characters were able to move the fountain, which slid back very easily and relatively noiselessly. A spiral staircase wound its way down into the ground, as it turned out for a good couple of hundred feet. Sir Blanque was able to guide the others past three trapped stairs on the way down, and they emerged silently in front of a great set of double doors, which were guarded by a couple of the men in red. Sir Blanque skewered one of them with his two swords, killing him instantly, and Destiny killed the other with her battleaxe with a critical hit. The combat was over in a matter of seconds, and the poor guys didn't even have the chance to cry for help.
The double doors led into a large Chaos temple (I used this really nice battle map product here.) The infiltration was going well, with the alarm still not having been raised. A large low altar at the far end had a marble top, but was otherwise made of crystal; the characters could see the stuff of Chaos writhing inside the altar, which was covered in blood, with a large executioner's axe lying on it - a sacred item of the cult of Hionhurn, the executioner god of Pan Tang. Marion suggested that she use her dream staff to absorb the Chaos stuff, so Sir Blanque shattered the side of the altar with a critical swing of his Virtuous broadsword, but Marion then fumbled with her dream staff. Fortunately for them, though, they were not affected by the Chaos vapours. Marion was helped by her newly acquired talisman, and Sir Blanque always has enhanced Power at this time of the night, with an extra bonus supplied by his Displacer Cloak. The wisps, however, seemed to congregate around Destiny, and she emerged, glowing briefly - she rolled a critical success on her Power and gained an extra point. Melniboneans do, after all, have a certain affinity for Chaos. This was fun - a proper series of critical successes and failures by all three characters.
The noise, however, attracted the attention of a large demonic blob with very long arms that manifested itself, grabbed the sacrificial axe, and then started trying to hit the characters. It wasn't very good, but it had enormous Constitution, and it took them a while to wear it down. I had decided it was really there as a final block so that the leaders of the cult could make their escape, which was the noise heard by Jorthan and Bomilcar. The others found the Chaos cult's treasury, with items worth a small fortune of 10,000 Large Bronzes gathered from their various victims, along with the second half of the medallion. It looked as though their contact, Chunloom of Eshmir, was no more...
Afterwards Destiny took charge of the guardsman with the arrow through his leg, who didn't look as though he would make it through the night. Some judicious questioning confirmed that Chunloom had indeed been sacrificed, but the characters still had the lead provided by Jyaolina to the oasis of Ginjada and the brass dog. Destiny took advantage of the Chaos temple's availability to give the surviving cultist a taste of his own medicine, and now has a rather useful demon of combat bound into her battleaxe with the sharpness rune.
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