Tuesday 24 May 2016

I vow to thee, my country - Thyatis calls her sons home.

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I hear my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helm upon her head,
And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead;
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her drums;
I haste to thee, my mother, a son among thy sons.

Monday 23 May 2016

Interlude - Cael's Return to his Clan

By Rebekah Baker.

Cael Thoradan's return to his clan pt 1:
It was late afternoon in a small tavern in one of the winding back streets of Specularum. Cael was happily reminiscing over how the lovely shade of blue of Alya’s eyes had been offset by the sapphires he had gifted her. He was a content dwarf. A beautiful lass was his intended, he had a hearty ale in his hand and a full belly. It was a fine day indeed.
Outside the little tavern, that had become his regular haunt, the streets were filled with the clatter of folk returning home from market day. A prosperous Monday for the farmers and traders, the carts that rattled past the window were a great deal emptier than when they had thundered past that morning. Cael had been awoken from his dozing by the ruckus in the early hours, one thing he missed about his father’s halls was the silence of the stone.
Cael and his sister Tela had been given adjacent rooms in his father’s quarters. Cael’s had been luxurious, by Dwarven standards. He remembered with a faint stab of nostalgia his own personal bathing room, with the marble paved floor. Although he was less nostalgic about his personal guardsman Bonfur, who’d replaced good old Odin. Bonfur had the habit of waking Cael up by dragging him out of his bed by one leg and then screaming at him for good measure.
Odin, although a strict tutor, had at least given Cael the luxury of a peaceful sleep-in on a Sunday. Poor Odin, he’d been with Cael almost his whole life. Cael blamed himself for the dismissal and the shame that had brought upon Odin and his kin. It had been his fault for sneaking off…his fault for Lilly…
No, he wasn’t going to think about the past, especially not *that* part of his patchy history.
No back to Alina and the prettiest shade of blue he’d ever seen…
‘Master Cael’, the bar-keep, a shaggy breaded fellow bellowed.
Cael was broken sharply out his reverie.
‘Aye Markus’, he replied cheerily.
Markus had been a good fellow to him over the past few days, apparently he was more than a little chuffed to have a member of the ‘White Dame’s company’ in his humble inn. He’d even knocked off a few silvers from the room price.
‘There’s a letter come for you, was brought in by a crow of all things’, Markus huffed. Cael knew from his conversations with the man over an ale or two, that Markus held no love for birds. Having grown up on a farm, he’d chased away too many of the pesky beasts.
A crow…that would mean it was from his people. Cael had sent a hurried reply to his sister’s letter a few weeks ago, scribbling the name of the inn at the bottom.
Cael grabbed the letter from the bar-keep with a wink and went back to sit by the window. Doubtless Tela would be scolding him for the terrible grammar in his last letter, or the shortness of it.
He cracked the seal and began to read….

Dear Brother, 
My apologies for the tone of the last letter. I was rash to speak of trouble in the halls of our father. In fact all is now well with our kin. Rorur, our brother is preparing to take his place as head of our clan. In fact I am writing to you to extend an invitation to the ceremony. 
Also my dear brother, I am to be wed!
Our courtship began some months ago. He a pure blooded Dwarf of noble kin. The second son of the Chief Arken of Brunstone clan to the west. I also extend an invitation to the happy occasion of my wedding. It would give me great happiness to have you there.

Cael stopped reading, the rest was just fluff about dresses and jewellery.
His blood was running cold and his hands shook. Something was deeply and seriously amiss.
The letter was written by his sister, the handwriting was hers but the words would never have come from Tela’s mouth or pen.
Tela was a proud warrior, she walked her father’s halls, clad in armour. She slept with her hand-axe!
To have her prattle on about jewellery and dresses!
Cael knew his twin, despite their differences, she was the closest person to him in this world. He knew in his heart that Tela had written the note under duress.
Tela was not the sort of dwarf whose hand would be forced with ease. Cael had a horrible image of his sister in a dank mountain dungeon, beaten and chained…
No his father’s clan would never allow that. Lady Tela was popular with the common folk…so she must be being held by other means…more subtle, manipulative means.
Where was his father in all of this!
He had to return his father’s halls. He knew it and despite his mind rebelling against the notion of ever setting foot in the same room as his father again, he had to return.
He had to protect his sister, as she had protected him, time and again.

pt 2

It took three days hard ride on his shire pony to reach the outskirts of the mountains.
As he rode further north Cael began to notice things were amiss. This was a familiar path, craved out of the forest and hills by his clan for trade with nearby human keeps. Only it seemed to have fallen into disuse. Cael was even accosted on the way by a small pack of bandits who as soon as they saw the quality of his armour and crossbow, ran into the darkness of the forest. But it was unnerving that such brigands had returned these woodlands, usually the watch would have kept them at bade. Cael was also unnerved at how they had been so keen to attack him, in his experience the bandits feared the Dwarves of these parts as hardy warriors.
He also noted, with the keen eyes of a tracker, that far more trees had been cut down than was usual. His people usually used coal at worse for the harsh winter months, but more often the great forge in the centre of his father’s halls, warmed the entire mountain keep. There was no need for paltry wood fuelled fires, like the humans had to use.
As he reached the mountain path, the source of the felling of the trees became evident…
Cael, although he had forsaken his father’s clan, had to let a small cry of distress pass his lips.
The great entrance to the mountain keep was in shambles, it was half caved in. The proud carving of dwarves in battle were scarred and torn apart. Outside the keeps entrance, a sea of tents and shanty huts were build. He saw figures, huddled around small fires.
His people…
His heart sank.
This is what Tela meant about the crisis…there must have been an attack…
Thankfully was still early autumn. Only a small dusting of snow covered the tents. But soon winter would come to the mountains in its full wrath and then those who dwelt in such scant quarters would freeze to death.
Where was his father?
How could have allowed this!
Cael dismounted and led his pony further up the path. He was met half-way up a young male dwarf, carrying a bundle of bracken and twigs.
‘Well met Lad’, Cael said, in the language of his kin.
The young dwarf turned and upon seeing Cael promptly dropped his sticks.
‘Lord Cael!’ he almost shouted, running up to Cael and slapping him heartily upon the back, ‘you’ve returned!’
Cael immediately recognized him, it was Garon, Odin’s son. Cael had grown up with the lad. Cael had lead several raiding parties with Garon as one of his most trusted men. They’d shared many an ale and a song around a camp fire.
Cael clapped him back heartily upon the shoulder, trying to let his shock over Garon’s appearance show. The lad was gaunt, although he’d always been a wily dwarf who’d favoured a dagger over an axe, his physique betrayed that he had suffered many a hungry night as of late.
Cael felt a mix of anger and shame fire up inside of him. Garon’s current state was likely influenced by his father’s dismissal from Gardik’s household.
‘Garon, what happened here?’, Cael said, trying to keep the pain out his voice.
Garon’s smile dropped from his face.
‘You don’t know…’ he replied quietly, ‘No one told you?’
‘Told me what?’ Cael said, praying to the God’s that his sister was still alive.
‘There was an attack in the night a month ago, the frost giants…they’ve forced alliances with other giant clans…their combined force over powered our defences…they came up through the old mining tunnels’ Garon paused, he looked at the stony ground.
Cael felt his blood turn to ice. The old mining tunnels lead into the living quarters of the common folk. Odin’s family home had been near there…
‘We woke up, Da and Me were light sleepers after so many years in the watch. By the time we got our armour on the quarter was ablaze. They gotten right into the market square. Me & Da, we joined the others, anyone who could fight and we tried to hold them, Cael, we tried…’

Garon paused again, this time it was for a whole minute before he could continue.
‘There was a massive bastard with a great club, Da was trying to protect a group of common folk, hiding under a wagon, trying to get them to run…it smashed his brains out on the cobblestone when he was trying to free a lass from under the wagon…’ Garon stopped. His head bowed.
Cael placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
‘Garon, you can stop’ he murmered.
‘No, you have to know!’ Garon snapped back, when his head raised back up, his eyes shone with tears.
‘After Da fell, well it was chaos. Most folk hadn’t time to grab proper weapons, they were trying to protect lasses and wee ones as well. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I left the battle and ran back for my ma and my wee brothers. To try to get them out. I managed to find one of brothers, pulled him out the wreck of the house, it was aflame, my ma and the babe…I don’t know what happened to them. I ran as fast I could to get out of the quarter, to raise the alarm. We got out as the guard finally charged in to fight back against the giants. Your father, he was at the head of the charge’
‘My father…is he’, Cael asked, not wanting an answer
‘He lived, but he’s sorely wounded. A giant crushed his leg with a hammer, apparently he slit the buggers throat through!’ Garon replied, a faint smile playing around his lips.
‘My sister…Tela, how is she?’ Cael asked.
‘Aye, your sister is alive and well. Gardik had to chain to her up in her quarters to stop her going into battle!’ Garon replied, with an actual genuine laugh escaping his lips.

Cael smiled bitterly, that sounded like the Tela he knew!

Friday 20 May 2016

Character Deaths subsequently Raised

Maximum number of Raises = CON score.

Count William 1 - Finger of Death'd by Simon Amber in Castle Amber dungeons.
Claudia Morrigan 1 - zapped by giant electric eels in undersea city.
Roseanna the White Dame 1 - boiled in mud pit in White Plume Mountain.

Wednesday 18 May 2016

27/7-15/8/1021 AC - Return from White Plume Mountain



27/7/1021 AC
Defeat the Inverted Ziggurat, slaying 3 manticores.
Defeat Ogre Mage & claim Blackrazor.
Investigate floating stream, defeat Sir Bluto & his 8 men, capturing 2. Camp in his lair.

28/7/1021 AC
Exit White Plume Mountain, defeating Keraptis' final test - 4 Efreeti and 2 Gargoyles (prisoners flee). Return to High Reach.

1-14/8/1021 AC
Return to Specularum, Flameflicker the Thief King reports that the Black Baron is training legions of orcs and bugbears north of Fort Doom. Bravery tells the Grand Duke, who says such rumours are common. Baron Bravery consults with a hazel-eyed fortuneteller, Alya, on the Street of Dreams, who tells him his second child will also be a son, and that a great force of evil is coming from the north on green leathery wings.
Cael dates Alya/Flameflicker, gifting her a beautiful sapphire necklace taken from White Plume Mountain. She consents to be courted in the dwarven style, though seeming a little taken aback.
Roseanna & Alexandra buy Vorloi Villa in Specularum from Grygori Vorloi - the price to Roseanna includes a vomitous kiss.
Alya has a present for Cael on their next date - a multicoloured Traldaran scarf of silk from the Pearl Islands, it shimmers like a rainbow in the sunlight.

15/8/1021 AC
Alexandra Vorloi gets a call to attend upon the High Patriarch at the Grand Temple of the Church of Karameikos...

Hope returns from Alphatia to see her family for the summer holidays (vacation 15/M7 to 28/M9, teaching restarts 1/10/21).

Friday 13 May 2016

12-27/7/1021 - Second & Third Expeditions to White Plume Mountain

12/7/21 PCs stake a vampire & acquire Whelm the Dwarven Hammer, Roseanna killed during exit, raised by Alexander. Party leave Whelm & exit.

Two weeks rest. Sir Quintus finds Cael massaging Roseanna's feet. Bravery's wife Aleena Karameikos-Halaran may be pregnant again...

27/7/21 PCs return to White Plume Mountain for third attempt, collecting Whelm; Cael ravished by Gynosphinx.

Friday 6 May 2016

Family Trees




The scandalous rumour: Ludwig Von Hendriks was born 970 AC, the same year the young Duke Stefan Karameikos of Machetos traded Duchy Machetos to the Emperor in return for free title to Traladara (Karameikos). It's widely rumoured that Ludwig's mother Bretonia Korrigan (Stefan's aunt) was already pregnant when she married Lord Andreas Von Hendriks.

Wednesday 4 May 2016

12/7/1021 - Second Expedition to White Plume Mountain - Cael's Account

The Heroes transverse deeper into the catacombs of White Plume Mountain

Previous sessions: http://smonskarameikos.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/session-notes.html

Keep of the White Dame: Around Sunrise

Cael stood on the battlements, feeling the cool breeze across his face. Seeing the sun rise every morning was still a queer, but stunning moment for him. Having lived the majority of his life under the earth, the feeling of wind, rain, snow and natural wonders of light and darkness, were still foreign to him in some ways.

He ran a gloved hand across his chin, feeling his stubble. The hasty return from White Plume had left the party little time to rest and refresh. Rosanna had been gravely injured and had to be rushed to the healers immediately on arrival. Although she had stubbornly refused to be carried to the healing rooms and had walked herself, proud with a white bloodless face, clearly wracked with pain. Deirdre had followed close behind, her fearful eyes betraying how serious the white Dame’s condition truly was.
Cael had seen Rosanna later that night sat at the high table for supper in the great hall. Dressed in a fine silver dress, with her hair artfully arranged, from a spectator’s perspective the White Dame was as fearless and untouched as always. However to her close friends, Rosanna’s slight winces and tired eyes, showed to extent of her wounds. Even Cael, who’d been sat among the common folk, sharing a hearty ale with some of the stable lads, noticed her discomfort plain as day. However he had not tried to lend his aid, knowing Rosanna’s hard pride.
He admired her still, despite being spurned so publically. The party had showed him much kindness over the event. Lady Alexandra had been gentle, making sure Cael got an extra hard biscuit now and then, slipping him a silver for an ale in Specularum. Bravery had teased him a little, but his father had put a stop to it soon enough.
Cael was a hardy fellow and although he was not a good dwarf, the blood of stone ran in his veins. It would take more than a pretty girl’s rejection to cast him into dejection. Especially now he had another prospective courtship on hand…
Looking below him from the battlements he could see wagons and carts beginning to filter in from the nearby village. The stable boys were awakening from their hangovers and dragging themselves up to saddle the horses.
His pony would be in the stable, resting up. He’d drop by and feed her a carrot later, before breakfast in the main hall.
The white smoke from the plume of the mountain could be seen faintly in the far horizon. Cael sighed gently, his life had never been simple, so why should it be now?
Anyway there was hearty breakfast to be had….

They rode to the mountain range just after Breakfast (A hearty slab of back bacon, rye bread, sausages, black pudding and a small ale). Joined this time by Percival, a tight lipped fellow in Cael’s opinion. He hadn’t been up for much conversation with Cael on the ride to the mountain and wasn’t impressed by his knowledge of bar shanties. One good thing about him was his obviously well-crafted armour and the loving kiss he’d given his wife Deidre on departure. For the latter factor alone, Cael hoped Percival would last through whatever awaited them within the mountain…

The entrance to the mountain was the same as before they met the Sphinx at the junction point. She seemed bored as ever. This time smoking a strange long pipe, the likes of which Cael had never seen.
‘So you’re back for more?’ She drawled, taking a puff of her pipe.
Rosanna simply huffed in reply and made to move towards the right-hand passage.
Cael hung back to chat with the strange creature, in his opinion it never hurt to be a little friendly with folk, no matter how strange their appearance.
Count William also hung behind and began to chatter to the creature rapidly, in his disjointed fashion. Sometimes in his eagerness, the Count seemed almost like a young boy to Cael.
A young boy with terrifying cosmic power….Cael made sure not to dwell on that too long mentally.
After a short friendly chat with the Sphinx, Cael managed to persuade her to let him trim and clean her claws. Growing up with a twin sister, he had some expertise in the area.
The sphinx had seemed rather pleased with his efforts and shared some key information about the fates that befell the previous adventurers. Including a party of the king’s champions, Rockhome Dwarves. Cael made a mental note to ask his father, or more likely Tela about the history of such an expedition in the future…if they ever made it out alive.
Rosanna was tapping her foot impatiently by the end of the conversation. Her beautiful face twisted into a scowl.
‘Shall we press on?’ She said, for perhaps the tenth time.
Count William reluctantly pulled himself away from the Sphinx and they carried on, deeper into the heart of the mountain.

Soon they encountered their first challenge, the corridor was filled with an iridescent green slime. Cael searched his brain for some vague Knowledge of the gloop, wishing for perhaps for the 100th time Tela was with them, she was the bookworm, not him.
However his schooling had prevailed, this time, and he recognised the slime as highly corrosive to the touch.
Luckily Count William quickly froze the slime and allowed the party a safe method of crossing over.
They travelled onwards until they reached a strange door, curiously rotted around the edges. Cael checked for traps and found a spring-like mechanism between the stone and the door. Such a strange place this was…
Alexandra strode forward and bravely opened the door, thankfully her prior knowledge of the trap prevented her triggering it.
The room inside was revealed to be filled with glowing orbs mounted onto the ceiling. Cael before anyone could act, decided to shoot a bolt at one of the far orbs. He aimed poorly and the bolt bounced off the central orb, but luckily it shattered. A tumble of gems clattered to the floor.
‘Master Dwarf continue’ ordered Alexandra
Cael was glad to oblige, shattering all of the orbs in turn. The only adversaries that emerged were a pack of dark shadows and a grey slime. The party finished off the shadows, not before Bravery was drained a little, much to his chagrin. Cael shot down the grey slime in one blow.
The combined loot was split amongst the party after the fighting was concluded.
Cael picked up the strange ring in the furthest corner of the room. Having heard its voice in their minds, they all knew what it claimed to grant the bearer. Cael looked over at Rosanna for a second, her hair flowing across her back, tousled from battle. She cut a striking figure. For a second, a hard mean part of his mind, whispered for him to use the ring for persuasive purposes. An image came to him of Rosanna in the robes of his people, a crown of gemstones upon her brow, she his wife and him the lord of his clan. Then it passed as quickly as it had come. Cael felt sullied, he dropped the ring to the floor and went to examine the other loot…
Alexandra had watched Cael drop the ring and quickly went over and picked it from the stone flags. Her parents…her brother…one wish was all it could take. She slipped the ring onto her finger. Only time would tell if it would keep its promise.
Cael gathered up a wand of paralysis for his spoils and the party split the gold between them.
However all was not over…
A party of bug-bears stormed the room as soon as the door was opened. Soon the group was engaged in fearsome battle. Alexandra cutting down two of the beasts with her great sword. With the might of the heroes soon the battle was concluded.
One lone bug-bear remained, cowering before them. Count William soothed him in the language of his people and coaxed him to their side. Soon the bug-bear was singing like a canary, of the ruler this place and his indoctrination. He promised to aid the party find the other weapons.
They pressed on further into the catacombs, led by the bug-bear. They came upon another room, filled with a rank stench. The smell of death.
They entered cautiously to find five zombies standing in a row. Cael drew his crossbow for battle, however one of them stepped forward…
‘Find who is the odd one out and we shall let you pass’ it hissed through rotten teeth.
Cael was mystified. Then Alexandra cried out ‘9’!
The zombie line shuddered and then stepped out of the party’s way, leaving the exit clear.
However in front of them at the far end of the room was a strange spinning contraption…