Book 10, Chapter 1 �We�re back, and this time we mean business�

 

18/10/2014

 

And it came to pass that the famous Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo, Zytsi the magnificent Khuzdul mason, Aruth the legendary driver of the War Wagon with the beautiful paintjob, Daniel the legendary Bard with the wondrous Harp of Galeroth and Bowlhead the close friend of Gloriana, did decide that the Panaga Saga must be brought to a final conclusion.

 

New venue, Chez Hall. Mike says that Rome: Total War II is the worst game he�s ever done but it�s his best selling one. Robin agreed. Diablo seems popular and was discussed at length, along with other computer games. Trevor�s phone kept saying �Don�t fear the Mummies, come back and save those the Dwarves.�

 

We�ll finish the quest and then there may be some other things if some people want to keep going. We are definitely going to finish the Saga this time, honest.

 

And how did we get out of the last part. Well we went through the room full of mirrors and lightning bolts and found a sort of spherical metal prison. The guards were all dead and the prisoner was gone. After some arguments we left and went back upstairs. We hung around for a while, and then went back to the capital. We arrive in Elshavel on the 8th of Kelen in 729. And was the Universe�s narrative description that took about 10 minutes of real time, we added the bit about the arguments.

 

In Elshavel the King informs us that Sir Martyn has a private missive from his wife. She is requesting that he returns to Golotha as she has some information for him, ps bring your mates.

 

We decide to go on our own rather than with a caravan. We get an Elven guide so it only takes 4 days to get to Trowbridge, arriving on the 12th Kelen. We are travelling on the Salt Route and on the 16th Kelen when it is warm and raining we make a perception roll, the first roll in Harn for a few years. Bowlhead hears the best and says there is some kind of wolf like creatures howling. They are running parallel to us about a mile away. We continue and they follow us, or are they escorting us? They cease to howl as night falls. We find a defensive position, build a big fire and Sir Martyn set up watches as follows:

1: Aruth, Sir Martyn

2: Zytsi, Bowlhead

3: Daniel, Zytsi

In third watch a pack of fire breathing hounds breath on Bowlhead and Zytsi, Bowlhead is a mess and Zytsi takes no damage. They are monsters, this is Harn. It ain�t natural. Zytsi stands over Bowlhead�s body and Bowlhead stops his own bleeding. They attack Zytsi and he kills one. The next round Daniel sings an Inspiring Song, Aruth and Sir Martyn shoot at them. They attack and Daniel is stunned no parried and stops singing. I�ll have some tea then.

 

The Foo Dog like demons slowly get killed as we work out how we fight. Daniel breaks stun and starts singing again. Then they breathe again, and Bowlhead is in trouble�again. Slowly but surely we wind up and work out how our characters work. Eventually we kill them, and at the end Daniel leaped out of the wagon and attacked the last one. Shortly afterwards the bodies of the hounds dissolve and disappear leaving behind a non-moving Healer. Sir Martyn does diagnostics and says he�ll be alright in a few hours. He was on a 9 round countdown but his spells saved him.

 

On the 9th day of the journey, the 21st of Kelen, when we are just outside of Tharda, on the 3rd watch there is some kind fear aura. Daniel fails his roll and starts taking damage and is at minus. And it�s getting worse each round. Zytsi takes him over to the wagon, Daniel starts singing to give 10% Inspirations and everyone wakes up. There are some glowing red eyes about 100 feet away. It�s a monster; they are really rare in Harn. Daniel really doesn�t like it and is thinking about running. Sir Martyn and Zytsi close with the Wraith. However Sir Martyn arrives and gets knocked down by its aura of cold, and then the nasty monster hits him.

 

The party gets hit by a fear aura and has to save again. Daniel is really unhappy, and falls over. He staggers to his feet and starts running in the opposite direction. Sir Martyn and Zytsi smack the Wraith good and hard and it dies. Daniel falls over and breaks his wrist; he really didn�t get very far.

 

We arrive just outside Golotha on the 27th Kelen, so we arrive in Golotha early in the next morning.

 

Then as Stuart finished the cooking we had the traditional Harnic discussions and I added the missing introduction. And a damn fine dinner it was had by all.

 

After dinner we put our disguises on and we are:

Aruth - Markus Spencer, merchant

Sir Martyn - Edward Silverhand, jobbing knight

Zytsi - Don Quarry

Daniel -Will (William Herbert) Smith

Blowhead � Dr White

 

We go into Golotha and stay in the first inn we come to which is the poshest tavern in the city, and we�ve been here before. Markus Spencer is recognised and our needs are catered for. Suggestion to contact Marak for selling toys to, which seems to be our current cargo. Our rooms are ready, we seem to be expected. Our carriage arrives after 10 minutes, hang on urchin mail isn�t that fast! OK we really are expected.

 

The head quarters of many Agrikan churches and fighting orders are here, the order of the Octagonal Pit is Sular�s order. There is a temple of Save-K�nor here so it�s not all bad.

 

We are ushered in to Sular�s presence and she gives Sir Martyn a letter. It�s from the Seer and tells him that Panaga is a Demon of the 6th Order of Balgashang, which means his master is Agrik. There are about 8 orders of demons, where 1 is the toughest and 8 is the bottom. So Panaga is not that tough, allegedly. He now calls himself Indan and lives in Hlen in the woodland plains of Misyn near Araka-Kalai. We could go to Elshavel and use the God Stone to go to Anisha, which is near Araka-Kalai. We need more information about the current situation there.

 

While we are there Sular would like us to have a look into Ochryan, an Ilvirain religious place. There the Temple of the Ochre Womb is in charge of the supply of Ivashu for a large part of Harn. There is also a heretical group who think that Ivashu are a higher type than humans and go around freeing Ivashu. This is causing problems as they wanted for the games.

 

So we go to Elshavel arriving on the 18th Nolus, there are monster attacks, we are obviously being hounded. The King reads the letter, and offers to help us. Aruth attunes to the God Stone and we go to Anisha on the 20th of Nolus. And we need to go about 70 miles north-east to Hlen, getting there on the 22nd Nolus.

 

Hlen is a small walled village almost wheel shaped, and each area looks to be self sufficient. As we get closer Bowlhead says that the village is more like a typical layout of an Ivinian village. Each build is quite large, rather like hall, and each one will be a clan building, with a market in the central area. There are guards on the village gates and they wave us in. Everyone ignores us; we go to the middle of the village where the market is. There are no obvious peddlers here, and the market isn�t that busy as the population isn�t large, many be 500.

 

Sir Martyn asks a local if there is an Inn in town, and the local points at a building in the North West quadrant of the market. Perception rolls lead us to believe they are not hostile. We go into the inn, and it�s relatively quiet as its mid-morning. Sir Martyn asks if there are any rooms to rent, he says no. Sir Martyn�s Lie Perception says he�s lying but there more to it than that. Zytsi casts a spell that makes the inn keeper trust him. There are no rooms, they are being renovated in many and varied ways. There is no where else we can stay, they don�t get many visitors.

 

Eventually Daniel casts Detect Curse, yes there is a curse. Bowlhead casts Curse Tales, the Curse was cast by Panaga and the nature is this curse prevents anyone for speaking or acting against Panaga but doesn�t prevent hostile thoughts, though they will feel discomfort, and visitors will succumb after a period of time

 

We leave village and go about half a mile outside out and investigate the paths out of the village. Starting in the north and going clockwise. There is one going north, one going west (going east-west north of village), one going south we came in on, and one going west into the marsh. And a bunch of local paths for fields and stuff.

 

Then Aruth looks at the marsh path and says nothing of significance has passed in the last 16 hours, origin is the village and the destination is a circle of 6 oaks. A brown haired man in robes used this path (Ivinians are usually blond) and Aruth tracked him. These tracks are so skilfully made they must have been made to be followed but only by someone who is skilful (and only someone who is really good would realise this), and so we follow the path. Sir Martyn leaves markers plus Aruth leaves something that makes sure he knows that they have not been moved.

 

Eventually we get to an area of solid ground with a circle of six oaks with a 15 foot square building with no walls. An open temple like structure of white marble. 720 years ago came the island under the rule of Arabea Pendragon. There is an inscription in Sindarin �When the wind blows at Yala comes the beast, when the night is darkest thy souls released.� This was carved much later on. There are no other paths of interest here. We can�t find anything of else of interest here, and we looked several times.

 

Eventually we give up and go to Ochryan, which is the start of the pilgrim trail to Araka-Kalai. We�ve been here before when Sir Martyn eventually killed the demon that had been pursuing him for ages. We arrive on late afternoon of the 22nd of Nolus. There are a bunch of huts that weren�t here before. Last time we ignored the Dark Order side issue, this time its Sular�s mission for us. We go to the Monastery and talk to them. They are having problems with the monster liberators, and we also talk to the new comers in the huts. The Curse of Hlen is here in a very weak form here, but doesn�t affect the monks, just the guys in the huts. They come from Hlen and they can talk though it hurts.

 

Source of the trouble is Mirakan Tol, a white building with six oaks. Ah. He can talk about the place. It is a portal to somewhere and they steer clear of it at new and full moon, when the portal opens both ways. Many years ago they try to destroy it, the chopped the tress down but they grew back in weeks. They believe the source of the problem came through the portal. Indan came with his nephew, Radin, and that was the start of their problems. It all started when they raised Mara from the dead, then he collapses on the floor. Then we get to hear the story of what happened, which results loads of collapsed people and in 6 deaths.

 

Kyman was a clan chief and a good egg; he was the chief of chiefs for Hlen, a scholar and berserker warrior. His wife Mara died after a wandering sorcerer Indan who stayed for 3 months had left. Indan returned and offered to raise Mara from the dead, when he left he left for the second time he left his nephew as chief advisor. The cursed villagers can�t attack Radin, and they tried. They can�t leave a certain area. Mara was brought back to life, and now says very little, looks very pale and never leaves her wing of the main hall. Kyman is subject to violent mood swings. This all happened since we were last here, about 2 years ago.

 

Right so now we have the information. We are going off world again through a portal that opens on the new and full moons, that is on the 15th and 30th of every month (what a convenient calendar).

 

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

 

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Oh Save-K�nor I�ve missed these e-mails.

 

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From: the Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo

To: Everyone

�

It�s mostly not esoteric. I just want us to assume we�re getting shafted and do everything we can to turn the shafters in to the shaftees. That involves gathering as much info as we can - is the letter from the scribe genuine? Was she coerced? Was Bowlhead bugged by the enemy during the year he can�t remember? Was Zytsi bugged by the enemy during the 10,000 years that he can remember? Where does that gate go to? And so on. It involves feeding disinformation through all the likely enemy channels, selling kit we don�t need, raising cash/favours, plugging some deficiencies, buying consumables, getting some scrying protection and improving our stealth capability.

�

We make sure they are keeping tabs on the dwarf, tin can on a griffin, wagon and 3 peasants in ridiculously ineffective disguises as they bimble ineptly towards a date with the gate. The bad guys will know exactly when we�re coming.

�

But that�s not going to be us. They will be decoys. Having dashed between various cities using the godstones on our epic shopping trip we will very eptly sneak through the gate two weeks early in our new stealth mode.

�

BTW I�ve figured out why Danny is so unlucky � it�s his writing. Having read through the stuff again, his lack of respect for the Gods and his Betters is clearly not going to leave them wanting to send luck his way. Maybe there is an item we can get to help with this (re-rolls) or maybe he should just re-write it all. I�m certainly expecting the songs from this last adventure to be a proper action-epic (particularly the bits with Zytsi), not the usual farcical comedy. If that doesn�t happen it will end in tragedy.

�

And once that is done, on to the one esoteric bit...

�

One of the more likely �you�re being shafted� scenarios is where this whole setup is just a proxy tussle between Agrik and Larani in which my lovely wife is engineering my switch from champion of Larani to champion of Agrik. Maybe the whole Panaga saga was just about that. I like this scenario because I get to keep the Queen at the end of the game. Perhaps I can beat both the wife and the gods at their petty game, and keep all my power points while wielding both Hand of Agrik and Sword of Larani.�

�

Bowlhead, tell me again about the merits of worshipping Siem�.

 

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Daniel�s footnote

 

�I�ve figured out why Danny is so unlucky � it�s his writing�..his lack of respect for the Gods and his Betters�

 

Hey I left your comment in the notes, what more do you want? Blood and broken bones? Been there, done that, got the drug addiction.

 

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From: The Universe

To: Everyone

 

Regarding eps; I cannot, in all honesty, give any for the previous session because I have absolutely no idea where to start so every one can have 20,000 or their next level whichever is greater, if you think this is unfair because someone will get substantially more due to just having made a level then complain and I�ll think about it a little more. No whinges for another couple of thousand or so to make two levels unless you decide to not go with Mike�s new plan and just plough straight on.

 

Mike if you are planning anything esoteric please give me a bit of a heads up so I can prepare accordingly as I am not as well clued up on all the various towns and regions as I used to be, I promise not to use the information against you.

 

Robin

�

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From: the Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo

To: Everyone

�

Yes, most enjoyable. Thanks Stuart for hosting and providing splendid food.

�

Having thought a little about events Sir Martin has a bit of a plan. Rather than just

fetching the hand and leaping directly through a portal to god(s) know(s) where, just a few last minute preparations are perhaps in order. (This might take one extra session compared with diving straight in, but only days in game time)

�

It�s obviously a trap. Sage gets kidnapped. We get a message from sage via my lovely wife. Message has obvious mistake in it. Panaga always knows where we are. Sular always knows where we are. Some-one is feeding them info. Someone is feeding us info (when to be where). Panaga belongs to Agrik. There is almost enough info to map out all likely scenarios, and devise a plan that deals with all of them.

�

It may well be my lovely wife is either a bishop in this game, or possibly even the queen. She is so very impressive, and I�ll be disappointed if she turns out to be just a pawn.

�

So I want to spend a bit of time preparing � some last minute info gathering, training (=hopefully levelling up), negotiating favours, selling stuff (to raise cash), shopping (final upgrades for Danny, Aruth and Bowlhead), and tooling up. It will involve zipping to Elshavel, Cherafir, and Golotha. Maybe Azadmere. I�m going to take up the Hand. Then we play their game, but in a way we have never, ever done before.

�

We�re going to cheat.

�

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Daniel�s footnote

 

And a big round of applause goes to Stuart for his excellent cooking. Thanks for the recipes Stuart. I�m going to give them a go, not convinced about OTT bit with the saffron though.

 

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