Conversing with Spirits

The latest session was all about roleplaying, mostly in the form of socialising with spirits. No, not that kind, the players are all too young. Anyway, I've been using Lawrence Whitaker's map of the unknown kingdoms of the East:

The characters have a copy of this map, courtesy of the possessions of a now deceased loony messiah person who turned out not to be approaching godhood after all. He died horribly.

This was published for Elric! and so postdates 1st edition Stormbringer by many years. The inked blob to the left as you look at it covers a notation for 'The Sighing Desert', but since I'm using the original Young Kingdoms maps, that doesn't make any sense - it should be the Weeping Waste. The Sighing Desert is much further to the north on my earlier maps, on the other side of a mountain range. In order to make the area seem alien to the player characters, I have incorporated elements of Yoon-Suin, and the players are really enjoying rolling for encounters because they are well, weird, even by their standards. One thing they are beginning to realise is that spirits here take corporeal form to interact with the world, and this produces all sorts of interesting situations...

Session Report
The group is currently in Karakose, the capital of S'aleem, the southwestern state in the Valederian Directorates, a confederation of states that makes up quite a strong bloc in the centre of Menastree. They have just restored a very powerful water nymph to her rightful place, which will eventually result in the waters returning to their proper balance. There is also a hint that this might lead to beneficial effects, reversing a climate change that saw the area drying out when she was bound to a cult item several centuries ago. Duke Avan Astran of Old Hrolmar, who leads their expedition, has been negotiating trade rights and alliances in the meantime. The characters are beginning to learn more about this part of the world as they go, and have decided to visit the nation to the north of their current location, Maidahk. Part of the reason they are here is for the sake of knowledge, and Maidahk has a famous university, as well as being a centre for engineering and architecture. The Duke is very interested because of the changes he wishes to bring to Old Hrolmar, so off they go. This will take them off the track of their projected trade route, but it is too good an opportunity to ignore.

The journey should take ten days, and the players enjoy themselves rolling for encounters - a 1 in 8 chance per day. I don't want to go all D&D on them, especially since this is travel time, but I still want them to have a chance to come across some of the rather odd things that exist in this part of the world. Besides, 1 in 8 sounds appropriately chaotic. There are four players present on this occasion, so they arrange themselves as follows: Bomilcar and Destiny as outriders off to the front left of the main party; Sir Blanque and Marion doing the same off to the front right; and the rest following behind in the middle.

One the second day, Bomilcar and Destiny spot a strange intrusion to the landscape off to their left. This is an area of quite tall savannah, with chest-height grass. They can see the top of a dwelling made of straw, its roof jutting out above the sea of grass. They notice it because of its height as well as the red colour of its grass and straw components - Destiny makes a quip about it being the colour of blood. They signal Sir Blanque and Marion using Destiny's air elemental, and those two canter over to join their compatriots. They all move closer, rather cautiously, and then approach the grass hut. It seems to have been built from the local grasses, and has been coloured by red berries and, yes, blood - Destiny's guess was correct. Inside the bower is a variety of objects lying on the ground, some of them valuable gemstones, glittering redly in the light. Destiny and Sir Blanque both have witch sight, which tells them that there is a vortex in the centre of the hut, hidden from normal sight. Destiny recognises it as a sorcerous gateway. After some debate about what they should poke into the centre to see what happens, Marion remembers that she still has the spirit of a dead nobleman in her dream staff, and releases him into the centre of the hut. The whole thing sort of folds in on itself and disappears, taking the deceased aristocrat with it. Sir Blanque reckons it was some kind of trap.

They resume their journey, and a couple of days out from their destination, Destiny and Bomilcar come across something else, an abandoned watermill on a small river that heads off to join the main river in the region. Again they are joined by their friends, and they all go over to have a look. They find a large lion sitting in the middle of the dilapidated building, waiting for them. Off to his left, part of the way out of the river, is a similarly supernaturally large crocodile. Destiny wonders what they other half looks like. The lion says hello in Low Melnibonean, introducing himself as a Shishi spirit. He also introduces his girlfriend, a half-crocodile half-hippopotamus spirit called Chu-srin. He sighs, explaining that their love cannot be consummated. Chu-srin says that they want to become human so that they can be together properly, but such is beyond their power. They would each give some special information to anyone who could accomplish this for them.

Destiny confers with her Demon of Desire and realises that she has just enough CON left to be able to give the two spirits human form. It's kind of like the disguise trick she pulled for Destiny herself, only it will take more energy. Destiny's demon will be able to make the change, but would then be released from service to return to her own plane of existence. Given the characters' wish for more information, they decide to proceed:
  • Bomilcar receives +1 INT and is told to go northwards "when Khakun shrugs."
  • Destiny receives +5 points in Greatsword skill and is informed that she is destined to meet Mournblade in the future, but only after encountering it in the past.
  • Sir Blanque is told to go to the Gardens of Ynn, and is also advised that the next time cycle will have no gods.
  • Marion is told that the Spider Queen wants to stop the Runestaff being reconstituted. She is also told that the Queen is called Lolth and is indeed an ancient Dharzi sorceress. She survived the end of the war with Melnibone by somehow merging her essence with the Beast Lady of the Spiders, and has been waiting patiently for over 1,000 years, spinning her web of plots.
Destiny then keeps her end of the bargain and the two lovers thank them, taking human form and disappearing in a shimmer of motes.

After their two slightly strange experiences, the expedition arrives in Rameer, the capital city of Maidahk. This is a very Lawful place, and the people are delighted to see travellers from the legendary far west, especially the beautiful Elf Lady (Destiny).  The guards at the gates escort the party to the Senate building near the city's innermost parts; the city is arranged in concentric circles, with the university at the exact centre. There they are welcomed by the duty staff, and ushered into a side room with light refreshments while the full senate convenes. 

In front of the senate, the western visitors are formally welcomed by the President, and a great session takes place. The senators are very interested in an exchange of information - the westerners may have knowledge that could be exchanged for some of their own. Marion and Sir Blanque lead a debate about the properties of electricity, which they describe to the assembly as a controlled version of lightning; they use copper wires covered in tree sap. All of this is based upon the time they spent with Gunther Pugh on the Shadow Plane, but they don't mention that part. Bomilcar talks about acid - he has a thing about that, he likes destruction - and this starts a side-debate about its possible uses in etching. He also repeats the information he was given about Khakun, and it turns out that Khakun is the name of a dormant volcano in the mountains to the north. It has indeed shrugged - there have been earthquakes there recently. The group realises that Khakun may well be a local name for Grome, the Lord of the earth elementals. Bomilcar may be able to relate to him in the same way that Sir Blanque does to Straasha.

The locals seem to consider Destiny to be a major personage in her own right, and from various speeches the characters glean that they think she is one of the elder elves, returned, and they have not been seen since the Melniboneans conquered the region over 1,000 years ago. The senators do understand what a Melnibonean is, but they were supposed to have dark hair. The characters don't enlighten them to the fact that Destiny is in fact one of the ancient Melniboneans herself. Eventually, Marion mentions the weird spider demons things, and the President brings the full session to a close. He invites the group to a meeting of the executive.

The executive comprises five members: himself as President; and the Ministers of Engineering, Knowledge, the Interior and the Exterior. The President asks the characters about the demon spiders, saying that there have recently been scattered reports about such creatures. Sir Blanque asks about the Gardens of Ynn, and the executive members are surprised that such a state secret could be known to outsiders from the west. Sir Blanque explains the information given him by the spirits they met on their way here. The President explains, "The entrance to the Gardens of Ynn is located at the heart of the capital of Anakhazan, the most northern of the Valederian Directorates. Very few have even heard the name of the gardens." It turns out that Anakhazan is a very balanced nation; one half is Lawful, and the other Chaotic, albeit in the best senses of each side. The capital, Anakheera, sits right on the dividing line, and contains the entrance to the Gardens of Ynn, which are associated with the elves of legend and the Balance. Only the heads of the two ruling families of Anakhazan know the full truth behind this.

The session ends and the characters get together. Destiny thinks that these gardens may lead to the long-hidden Menastrai; the fact that her hair is blonde has made the people think she may be one of them herself...

Umpire's Notes
I have a list of bits of information to give the group as and when they start to piece together some of the plot-lines, so I used the encounter with the two lover spirits to do just that. Besides, the players love the encounters, especially rolling that magic number 8.

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