Now I wish there was a 'Fucking Metal!' rating
Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder open voting
- Location
- Germany
Maybe the princess would be willing to go and kill daemons as a giant murderbear.
I mean, it must be really frustrating to try and help adventure-parties against the corpses of her family, while being unable to provide anything but guidance.
I mean, it must be really frustrating to try and help adventure-parties against the corpses of her family, while being unable to provide anything but guidance.
It's still would better if we will be able to hire an Anwa warrior to fight as a Zentragt long-term into the company on standard conditions, 1% of the earnings. We can ask the princess and Ohun to help spread the news that we are hiring, they should be amenable to help due to the obvious interest in killing daemons, which would be greatly helped by us having such a warrior.
If we couldn't find a long-term hire, then we could look into getting just a one-time volunteer for Korman, princess included if she wants.
@DragonParadox, editing for the last two updates.
For Arc 11 Post 6: In Crimson and White:
Sixth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
Perhaps understandably Antonio is glad for the deal you struck with the shore-sworn for the sake of the Fellowship's ever thinning purse and yet worried for what it might mean for your contracts with the trading houses beyond Koire. "A man standing on the soft sands where the tides sweep the shore should not try to dance," he says.
To that you offer in far less a manner: "Any trading houses who would hold buying cheaper fish against us are in their trading now are they? In war I would rather have the company of those who know to hold the sword by the hilt and not by the blade and so I imagine one would not wish to trade with fools with not even so much knowledge of that art as to buy cheap."
"An art, you flatter me so good knight," your friend snorts. "Truth be told I have found that the patronage of a wealthy fool can be profitable, but not in the long run, one is better off in the company of the clever and the skillful and if they by sheer mischance should also be poor, why then perhaps Marcella has found some new crewmates. Already some of the Anwa sailors we took on in Apuku are grumbling that we are lingering in port rather than sailing waters 'calm as a duck pond and just as rich' as they say."
"And by rich they mean..." you start to ask, all thoughts of jesting flying from your mind.
"They mean what you think they mean," the captain sighs. "There is still a war in the western Blue Sea and many dream of us cutting a bloody swath with steel and sorcerous flame across the breadth of it. After all did we not slay one of the most fearsome raiders of Surman?"
"And never mind that we had the advantage of being the defenders and in the company of another ship which drew as much if not more of the rogues," you snort. "And never mind that we did not come out unscathed even so..."
The ride back to the city in the company of Silver, Inge, Esha and Tom is longer than you might have hoped, the snows coming down in billowing white sheets out of the north, the wind howling in your ears like the call of some hungering beast. Once you even have to ask Inge to find north again, for so heavy is the snow that you had lost the road, but with Silver's leadership the horses make it through, crossing the Kime at about the second hour of the afternoon, though the sun is more guessed at than seen through the thick clouds.
Thus you come to the temple of Olweje Daja, or Olweje the Red, whose epithet had been gained for the carnage of battle yes, but also for the custom of rich young men going to war for the first time in their lives to bathe in goat's blood as a dedication to the god and then keep some of that blood in a small pouch around their neck. Supposedly when that pouch was lost in battle it meant that the Lord of War would have otherwise cost you your life...
Personally you could have done without the bleating of goats or the old blood adding one more smell to the unfortunate melange of the city. Truth be told you would have been in favor of Wayfarer's Respite for the fresh air alone, quite apart from any benefits. Now that you are here you have to decide what to present yourselves as. Of your company of four two are warriors and you personally bear a shield dedicated to the god, that alone would grant you entrance, but for the fact that none of you actually worship the Lord of War.
"Someone will come to speak to us no matter who we claim to worship," Esha points out. "Odds are they will part us from quite a bit of silver for the privilege of entering at all and more so if we seek favor and the unraveling of curses."
What do you do?
[] Allow the priests to assume that you honor the Lord of Battles (Bluff DC ???)
[] Explain that you do not worship Olweje but seek the aid of his priests (Cost 800gp to see a priest, potentially more to unravel the curse if they have such a means)
[] Write in
OOC: For all the advantages of Orinilu this is also a far more mercantile city than you would find among the Anwa so you have to pay in more places to gain entrance or favor. If you guys choose to bluff it will be done by Esha because she is more skilled with Roland rolling for Aid Another. Not yet edited.
For Arc 11 Post 7: A Fearsome Mark:
Sixth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
One might perhaps from the view of pure virtue bemoan that failing in one's self that is regret in honesty and the payments thereof in precious gold, but you have hope at least that God should not judge you too harshly for it as you regret the payment less for its own glittering self and more for what else might have been wrought thereby. It is not until after you have paid an infirmary's worth of coin for the resolution of a spectral malady which has not yet shown any ill effects that you wonder if perhaps you should have kept it for the remedy of more readily apparent ailments, or better still, such arms, armor and provisions as would ward those hurt from your company altogether.
Lost 800 gp
Done is done, you sigh inwardly as you pass under the doorway of dark stone into the temple. Alight with the tall flames of many candles you find it, each tongue of fire reflected in the mirror polished sheen of greaves and shields, breastplates and gauntlets all of bronze, yet most of all and upon each wall given pride of place the weapons by which one man might make war upon another. You see in this place swords straight and curved, spears plain and cruel barbed such as had been made more for suffering than clean killing. You see axes forged as the beaks of birds of prey and heavy maces carved all about with the signs of the heavens which cannot disguise the brutal purpose for which they had been forged.
"All trophies given onto the Master of War after battles hard fought, here kept to His glory," your guide proclaims as you pass by the panoply of arms from realms far and near, arrayed, or so it seems to you, as though waiting for a hand bold enough to grip them and bear them off to war once more.
Shaking off the odd thought you look back to Inge and to Esha, the priest had greeted the first cordially and made no mention of the second, and much to your surprise Esha herself had not objected passing the threshold of the temple. "He who dwells in this place is no more likely to be the death of me than anyone else who wanders on the field of battle," she whispers in tongue unknown to these lands, catching your eye. "There is a justice at least in the spilling of blood with an even hand."
She means it as a jest, probably... yet you do not have long to ponder the matter for your guide leads you to corridors festooned with bronze beneath the heads of two great axes set on long hafts like a spear, both gleaming red and of some metal you do not know the name of. From Esha's start you guess they are enchanted, and from the way the shield on your back shifts an inch of its own accord like the hackles on a faithful hound rising you guess that their power is particularly fearsome.
Beyond that there is the high priest, half sitting half leaning on a high bench carved into the wall just a little too narrow for comfort. You do not know what you had been expecting, a man who is all a patchwork of scars perhaps, or even one who had lost a limb or an arm in battle. Instead the priest certainly has the build of a warrior, though more lithe than broad-shouldered, but he is only about ten years your elder. The most remarkable thing about him is his armor, forged not of bronze as you had seen among lords and clan heads, not even of leather or quilted cloth as the more common-born have worn. Rather it is forged of thousands upon thousands of plates of stone, horn and bone. How he can even move in that thing you cannot guess, yet move he does, lighter on his feet than he has any right to.
"Hail warriors from distant lands, let me see the spoils you bring and the scars you bear..."
Having already paid the price of honesty once you see no reason not to tell the tale of the fight against the pirates in full, particularly the manner in which Isele seemed to have been favored by the war god, perhaps in a manner that lingers in the flesh.
The young priest listens quietly, then in your sight he performs many strange rites; cutting his palm and mixing the blood with fragrant wax only to cast it into the flames and gaze into the smoke, pulling out a single hair from Tom's head and suspending a knucklebone from it, and finally bidding two of his underlings to bring one of the bells you had heard during the festival in honor of Olweje and bidding Tom to ring it. With one wary look at you Tom does and the priest finally nods as though with some fresh understanding.
"It is no curse of the sea that lies upon you, but of the progeny of Ikomi that was before the other Gods, of the race of wingless dragons that men call Linnorm. How the skald came to proclaim such a thing with power on his lips I know not, but rejoice for there is a mending of great glory for you! Should you slay one of these dragons in truth then you will be free of the fore-echo of its curse and its killing spite shall not harm you who are already afflicted."
Curse unveiled to be Linnorm Death Curse (Fjord)
Proposed means of removing it: Kill a Linnorm (according to the priest you will be spared its proper death curse, which instead will rid you of the curse you are suffering)
"I'm supposed to kill a bloody dragon? Again?" Tom growls, sounding incredulous. "John, Hugh and Pete as well?"
"Tis a great boon for the slaying of a mighty foe," the priest explains.
"What if I never take it off?"
"Ware the water least you drown," the priest of Olweje says with grim finality.
The discovery that neither weapon nor horn bears any curse or malice does little to lift your spirits. Killing one dragon from ambush had been trouble enough. Where might you even find another, much less the means to kill it?
"The spirit of fire in the north. It had the power to burn off curses while leaving the sufferer unharmed," you recall after turning the question over and over in your mind.
"You don't need to trouble yerself over me, my lord," Tom proclaims stoutly, a fact which you resolutely ignore. It is a lord's duty to worry, just as it is his privilege to command.
Do you seek remedy for the curse among the others whom you had decided to speak to these days?
[] Yes
-[] The Temple of Ikomi
-[] Anisi the Huter
[] No, you do not want to reveal such a potentially deadly weakness
OOC: You guys were actually relatively lucky with the curse saves, a lot more people could have gotten hit with it.
---
A couple of questions.
1. Esha "whispers in tongue unknown to these lands" to Roland, does that mean Anwari, or did she learn French? English? Sicilian?
2. When Zaia proposed checking for bad hires by drinking wine with added holy oils,
For Arc 11 Post 6: In Crimson and White:
In Crimson and White
Sixth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
Perhaps understandably Antonio is glad for the deal you struck with the shore-sworn for the sake of the Fellowship's ever thinning purse and yet worried for what it might mean for your contracts with the trading houses beyond Koire. "A man standing on the soft sands where the tides sweep the shore should not try to dance," he says.
To that you offer in far less a manner: "Any trading houses who would hold buying cheaper fish against us are in their trading now are they? In war I would rather have the company of those who know to hold the sword by the hilt and not by the blade and so I imagine one would not wish to trade with fools with not even so much knowledge of that art as to buy cheap."
"An art, you flatter me so good knight," your friend snorts. "Truth be told I have found that the patronage of a wealthy fool can be profitable, but not in the long run, one is better off in the company of the clever and the skillful and if they by sheer mischance should also be poor, why then perhaps Marcella has found some new crewmates. Already some of the Anwa sailors we took on in Apuku are grumbling that we are lingering in port rather than sailing waters 'calm as a duck pond and just as rich' as they say."
"And by rich they mean..." you start to ask, all thoughts of jesting flying from your mind.
"They mean what you think they mean," the captain sighs. "There is still a war in the western Blue Sea and many dream of us cutting a bloody swath with steel and sorcerous flame across the breadth of it. After all did we not slay one of the most fearsome raiders of Surman?"
"And never mind that we had the advantage of being the defenders and in the company of another ship which drew as much if not more of the rogues," you snort. "And never mind that we did not come out unscathed even so..."
***
The ride back to the city in the company of Silver, Inge, Esha and Tom is longer than you might have hoped, the snows coming down in billowing white sheets out of the north, the wind howling in your ears like the call of some hungering beast. Once you even have to ask Inge to find north again, for so heavy is the snow that you had lost the road, but with Silver's leadership the horses make it through, crossing the Kime at about the second hour of the afternoon, though the sun is more guessed at than seen through the thick clouds.
Thus you come to the temple of Olweje Daja, or Olweje the Red, whose epithet had been gained for the carnage of battle yes, but also for the custom of rich young men going to war for the first time in their lives to bathe in goat's blood as a dedication to the god and then keep some of that blood in a small pouch around their neck. Supposedly when that pouch was lost in battle it meant that the Lord of War would have otherwise cost you your life...
Personally you could have done without the bleating of goats or the old blood adding one more smell to the unfortunate melange of the city. Truth be told you would have been in favor of Wayfarer's Respite for the fresh air alone, quite apart from any benefits. Now that you are here you have to decide what to present yourselves as. Of your company of four two are warriors and you personally bear a shield dedicated to the god, that alone would grant you entrance, but for the fact that none of you actually worship the Lord of War.
"Someone will come to speak to us no matter who we claim to worship," Esha points out. "Odds are they will part us from quite a bit of silver for the privilege of entering at all and more so if we seek favor and the unraveling of curses."
What do you do?
[] Allow the priests to assume that you honor the Lord of Battles (Bluff DC ???)
[] Explain that you do not worship Olweje but seek the aid of his priests (Cost 800gp to see a priest, potentially more to unravel the curse if they have such a means)
[] Write in
OOC: For all the advantages of Orinilu this is also a far more mercantile city than you would find among the Anwa so you have to pay in more places to gain entrance or favor. If you guys choose to bluff it will be done by Esha because she is more skilled with Roland rolling for Aid Another. Not yet edited.
Missing word? "in far less a (???) manner"?
"are in their trading now are they" --- not sure I'm clear on what that means, maybe there are some missing words? "are (???) in their trading now, are they"?
For Arc 11 Post 7: A Fearsome Mark:
A Fearsome Mark
Sixth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
One might perhaps from the view of pure virtue bemoan that failing in one's self that is regret in honesty and the payments thereof in precious gold, but you have hope at least that God should not judge you too harshly for it as you regret the payment less for its own glittering self and more for what else might have been wrought thereby. It is not until after you have paid an infirmary's worth of coin for the resolution of a spectral malady which has not yet shown any ill effects that you wonder if perhaps you should have kept it for the remedy of more readily apparent ailments, or better still, such arms, armor and provisions as would ward those hurt from your company altogether.
Lost 800 gp
Done is done, you sigh inwardly as you pass under the doorway of dark stone into the temple. Alight with the tall flames of many candles you find it, each tongue of fire reflected in the mirror polished sheen of greaves and shields, breastplates and gauntlets all of bronze, yet most of all and upon each wall given pride of place the weapons by which one man might make war upon another. You see in this place swords straight and curved, spears plain and cruel barbed such as had been made more for suffering than clean killing. You see axes forged as the beaks of birds of prey and heavy maces carved all about with the signs of the heavens which cannot disguise the brutal purpose for which they had been forged.
"All trophies given onto the Master of War after battles hard fought, here kept to His glory," your guide proclaims as you pass by the panoply of arms from realms far and near, arrayed, or so it seems to you, as though waiting for a hand bold enough to grip them and bear them off to war once more.
Shaking off the odd thought you look back to Inge and to Esha, the priest had greeted the first cordially and made no mention of the second, and much to your surprise Esha herself had not objected passing the threshold of the temple. "He who dwells in this place is no more likely to be the death of me than anyone else who wanders on the field of battle," she whispers in tongue unknown to these lands, catching your eye. "There is a justice at least in the spilling of blood with an even hand."
She means it as a jest, probably... yet you do not have long to ponder the matter for your guide leads you to corridors festooned with bronze beneath the heads of two great axes set on long hafts like a spear, both gleaming red and of some metal you do not know the name of. From Esha's start you guess they are enchanted, and from the way the shield on your back shifts an inch of its own accord like the hackles on a faithful hound rising you guess that their power is particularly fearsome.
Beyond that there is the high priest, half sitting half leaning on a high bench carved into the wall just a little too narrow for comfort. You do not know what you had been expecting, a man who is all a patchwork of scars perhaps, or even one who had lost a limb or an arm in battle. Instead the priest certainly has the build of a warrior, though more lithe than broad-shouldered, but he is only about ten years your elder. The most remarkable thing about him is his armor, forged not of bronze as you had seen among lords and clan heads, not even of leather or quilted cloth as the more common-born have worn. Rather it is forged of thousands upon thousands of plates of stone, horn and bone. How he can even move in that thing you cannot guess, yet move he does, lighter on his feet than he has any right to.
"Hail warriors from distant lands, let me see the spoils you bring and the scars you bear..."
Having already paid the price of honesty once you see no reason not to tell the tale of the fight against the pirates in full, particularly the manner in which Isele seemed to have been favored by the war god, perhaps in a manner that lingers in the flesh.
The young priest listens quietly, then in your sight he performs many strange rites; cutting his palm and mixing the blood with fragrant wax only to cast it into the flames and gaze into the smoke, pulling out a single hair from Tom's head and suspending a knucklebone from it, and finally bidding two of his underlings to bring one of the bells you had heard during the festival in honor of Olweje and bidding Tom to ring it. With one wary look at you Tom does and the priest finally nods as though with some fresh understanding.
"It is no curse of the sea that lies upon you, but of the progeny of Ikomi that was before the other Gods, of the race of wingless dragons that men call Linnorm. How the skald came to proclaim such a thing with power on his lips I know not, but rejoice for there is a mending of great glory for you! Should you slay one of these dragons in truth then you will be free of the fore-echo of its curse and its killing spite shall not harm you who are already afflicted."
Curse unveiled to be Linnorm Death Curse (Fjord)
Proposed means of removing it: Kill a Linnorm (according to the priest you will be spared its proper death curse, which instead will rid you of the curse you are suffering)
"I'm supposed to kill a bloody dragon? Again?" Tom growls, sounding incredulous. "John, Hugh and Pete as well?"
"Tis a great boon for the slaying of a mighty foe," the priest explains.
"What if I never take it off?"
"Ware the water least you drown," the priest of Olweje says with grim finality.
The discovery that neither weapon nor horn bears any curse or malice does little to lift your spirits. Killing one dragon from ambush had been trouble enough. Where might you even find another, much less the means to kill it?
"The spirit of fire in the north. It had the power to burn off curses while leaving the sufferer unharmed," you recall after turning the question over and over in your mind.
"You don't need to trouble yerself over me, my lord," Tom proclaims stoutly, a fact which you resolutely ignore. It is a lord's duty to worry, just as it is his privilege to command.
Do you seek remedy for the curse among the others whom you had decided to speak to these days?
[] Yes
-[] The Temple of Ikomi
-[] Anisi the Huter
[] No, you do not want to reveal such a potentially deadly weakness
OOC: You guys were actually relatively lucky with the curse saves, a lot more people could have gotten hit with it.
---
A couple of questions.
1. Esha "whispers in tongue unknown to these lands" to Roland, does that mean Anwari, or did she learn French? English? Sicilian?
2. When Zaia proposed checking for bad hires by drinking wine with added holy oils,
was it fluff, or would you let it work as means of detection, provided that we convince them to drink it with us of course?
- Sicilian, not much point in learning French which is one of the least spoken languages among the crew
- He will do so before every journey, the idea is not to set off with another daemon infiltrator, but you cannot do it every day or something crazy like that
- Location
- Germany
I'm not so sure about long-term, due to the sacrifices made to Olweje.
I don't want out loot to be eaten by a bear, unless it's a fight where the edge a Zentragt gives us is really worth it.
You are right. And yeah, it will be worth it only in some situations, but it still can be useful, like for holding off mooks while we fight the main guys, or when there are just too many enemies, or when the enemies are creatures that don't have arms or armor, like a dragon or other beasts. And the sacrificed arms and armor is only from foes directly slain by the transformed Zentragt, when Zentragt would be fighting with our other men, we won't lose too much of a loot.
So I think it still will be worth it to have the option, and when we don't want it, designated Zentragt guy can fight e.g. as an archer or another melee warrior.
Edit: And there is a question of morale, e.g. imagine our men assuming that we think "We have a power which can increase our total battle might and make the fights less risky, making more certain you would come of the fighting alive, but we won't use it because we care more about possible profits than you being safe and sound." It would be not so good.
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Vote closed, no idea why this shows up as two votes BTW.
- Location
- Germany
Anisi the Huter is slightly different from Anisi the Hunter.
Yeah, I voted like it is in the update, Goldfish and everybody after voted with a proper spelling.
Arc 11 Post 8: Of Crows and Cunningfolk
Of Crows and Cunningfolk
Seventh Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
For a woman whose avowed task is so well served by staying in the shadows it is surprisingly easy to find news of Anisi the Huntress. One has but to mention her name in any tavern and the tales fly, thick as the blinding snow beyond the shuttered windows. She and her companions had, or so it is said, slain a trio of Plague Crows and Carrion Beasts sent against the kin of High Admiral Teroni by sorcerers in the service of Ibanora.
"Them things can curse by blood as much as by the air you breathe," one old salt proclaims with an air of authority that only deep suspicion of all that walks, flies and swims over a long life might confer. "See, the Admiral knew they were getting desperate, so he had one of them Dream Witches ward his house, but the damn crows were smart as men and they knew how to pick apart the spells, and then..." he snaps his fingers drunkenly in Esha's face as she calmly translates, paying little mind to any of the caterwauling and folly that only the snows driving men to drink longer and deeper can account for. "Just like that they'd sneaked up on his wife and babe, his sister and I think some old folks too, aunt and uncle maybe. Doesn't matter to the story except about half of them died, lots of the servants too, but then the hunters came, see, and they laid some kind of trap with a hanged man's nails and the hair on the head of a holy man I hear, and..."
"And now he is just recounting a local legend about one of the Engur heroes in the early days of the city with the names changed. I think he wants to see if he can drag it to another drink," Esha cuts off her translation.
Zaia sighs in annoyance. "So the part about plague crows and carrion beasts is all nonsense?"
"Oh, not at all. I've encountered such plague beasts before, Chindi is the proper name of them. Foul things they are, as hateful to their masters as they are to their victims and thus easily found out, but those ravens..." She taps her fingers across the table in what you had come to recognize as a sign as much of anxiety as thought. "It is hard enough for a trained magician to unravel the warding of another. To summon or bind some creature to the task is no small feat, all the more so as anything clever enough to do that would be clever enough for treachery far more refined than the foul breathing Chindi. I would be most curious to see the body of such a crow if it has not been already consigned to the flame..."
***
So it is that when you finally do find Anisi, patronizing one of the unfortunate musicians who make their living on the streets of the city, now huddling out of the cold and snow, Esha is with you earning herself a disgruntled look from the warrior, though her hands do not reach for her weapons nor her shoulders tense for a blow. It seems more a matter of form and not substance, and indeed she is more than happy to keep you company, speaking in hushed voices with one eye to the musician.
She greets your news of finding Anjo Oru in the north with worry but little in the way of surprise, though seems far more perturbed about the dragon. "Dragons are like the bones of the earth, and when the bones of the earth shift cities fall my old master used to say. Little enough faith and courage will serve you against the elder of that get."
"One could always try diplomacy," Esha offers and is utterly ignored.
Still, with a bit of prodding from you, she admits that what you heard in the tavern is 'near enough the truth', adding one or two harrowing parts of the tale that you had not heard. At one point she shows you her left arm next to her right and you see the skin of the former is far more pale since it had all been flayed off by a rune-trap from the Plague Crow, as it had laid a trap for the hunters and not the other way around. It had almost been the death of them but for a lucky blessed arrow through its eye. "Nothing's more dangerous as a man with his back to the cliffs, nor more spiteful come to that," Anisi sighs. "They don't give a shit how long the foulness they've just unleashed is going to haunt the rest of us who need to live between earth and sky."
"Speaking of curses, I've spoken to the priest at the temple of Olweje..."
"Ram's Skull," she interjects, in a manner so matter of fact that you do not even realize she had made a jest until she continues. "Likes to solve his problems by ramming his head into them, so his skull must be about as thick as theirs."
"Right, him," you snort. "Said we had to kill another dragon to take off the curse."
"Don't go getting killed now, Iron Shirt. I like you," the huntress replies companionably.
"Ask her if she kept anything of that raven. I'd like to see it, maybe buy it off her," you hear Esha's voice whispering in your mind. "I'd like to buy other things off her come to that. Her sort aren't often the kind to put their trophies to market, but they have more than a fair share of them."
What do you do?
[] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
[] Leave things be for now, it's not worth the risk of souring a useful contact
[] Write in
OOC: This was one of the adventure hooks you guys could have gotten involved last summer BTW, but the votes and rolls did not go that way so it continued in the background.
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@DragonParadox, editing:
Seventh Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
For a woman whose avowed task is so well served by staying in the shadows it is surprisingly easy to find news of Anisi the Huntress. One has but to mention her name in any tavern and the tales fly, thick as the blinding snow beyond the shuttered windows. She and her companions had, or so it is said, slain a trio of Plague Crows and Carrion Beasts sent against the kin of High Admiral Teroni by sorcerers in the service of Ibanora.
"Them things can curse by blood as much as by the air you breathe," one old salt proclaims with an air of authority that only deep suspicion of all that walks, flies and swims over a long life might confer. "See, the Admiral knew they were getting desperate, so he had one of them Dream Witches ward his house, but the damn crows were smart as men and they knew how to pick apart the spells, and then..." he snaps his fingers drunkenly in Esha's face as she calmly translates, paying little mind to any of the caterwauling and folly that only the snows driving men to drink longer and deeper can account for. "Just like that they'd sneaked up on his wife and babe, his sister and I think some old folks too, aunt and uncle maybe. Doesn't matter to the story except about half of them died, lots of the servants too, but then the hunters came, see, and they laid some kind of trap with a hanged man's nails and the hair on the head of a holy man I hear, and..."
"And now he is just recounting a local legend about one of the Engur heroes in the early days of the city with the names changed. I think he wants to see if he can drag it to another drink," Esha cuts off her translation.
Zaia sighs in annoyance. "So the part about plague crows and carrion beasts is all nonsense?"
"Oh, not at all. I've encountered such plague beasts before, Chindi is the proper name of them. Foul things they are, as hateful to their masters as they are to their victims and thus easily found out, but those ravens..." She taps her fingers across the table in what you had come to recognize as a sign as much of anxiety as thought. "It is hard enough for a trained magician to unravel the warding of another. To summon or bind some creature to the task is no small feat, all the more so as anything clever enough to do that would be clever enough for treachery far more refined than the foul breathing Chindi. I would be most curious to see the body of such a crow if it has not been already consigned to the flame..."
So it is that when you finally do find Anisi, patronizing one of the unfortunate musicians who make their living on the streets of the city, now huddling out of the cold and snow, Esha is with you earning herself a disgruntled look from the warrior, though her hands do not reach for her weapons nor her shoulders tense for a blow. It seems more a matter of form and not substance, and indeed she is more than happy to keep you company, speaking in hushed voices with one eye to the musician.
She greets your news of finding Anjo Oru in the north with worry but little in the way of surprise, though seems far more perturbed about the dragon. "Dragons are like the bones of the earth, and when the bones of the earth shift cities fall my old master used to say. Little enough faith and courage will serve you against the elder of that get."
"One could always try diplomacy," Esha offers and is utterly ignored.
Still, with a bit of prodding from you, she admits that what you heard in the tavern is 'near enough the truth', adding one or two harrowing parts of the tale that you had not heard. At one point she shows you her left arm next to her right and you see the skin of the former is far more pale since it had all been flayed off by a rune-trap from the Plague Crow, as it had laid a trap for the hunters and not the other way around. It had almost been the death of them but for a lucky blessed arrow through its eye. "Nothing's more dangerous as a man with his back to the cliffs, nor more spiteful come to that," Anisi sighs. "They don't give a shit how long the foulness they've just unleashed is going to haunt the rest of us who need to live between earth and sky."
"Speaking of curses, I've spoken to the priest at the temple of Olweje..."
"Ram's Skull," she interjects, in a manner so matter of fact that you do not even realize she had made a jest until she continues. "Likes to solve his problems by ramming his head into them, so his skull must be about as thick as theirs."
"Right, him," you snort. "Said we had to kill another dragon to take off the curse."
"Don't go getting killed now, Iron Shirt. I like you," the huntress replies companionably.
"Ask her if she kept anything of that raven. I'd like to see it, maybe buy it off her," you hear Esha's voice whispering in your mind. "I'd like to buy other things off her come to that. Her sort aren't often the kind to put their trophies to market, but they have more than a fair share of them."
What do you do?
[] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
[] Leave things be for now, it's not worth the risk of souring a useful contact
[] Write in
OOC: This was one of the adventure hooks you guys could have gotten involved last summer BTW, but the votes and rolls did not go that way so it continued in the background.
Of Crows and Cunningfolk
Seventh Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
For a woman whose avowed task is so well served by staying in the shadows it is surprisingly easy to find news of Anisi the Huntress. One has but to mention her name in any tavern and the tales fly, thick as the blinding snow beyond the shuttered windows. She and her companions had, or so it is said, slain a trio of Plague Crows and Carrion Beasts sent against the kin of High Admiral Teroni by sorcerers in the service of Ibanora.
"Them things can curse by blood as much as by the air you breathe," one old salt proclaims with an air of authority that only deep suspicion of all that walks, flies and swims over a long life might confer. "See, the Admiral knew they were getting desperate, so he had one of them Dream Witches ward his house, but the damn crows were smart as men and they knew how to pick apart the spells, and then..." he snaps his fingers drunkenly in Esha's face as she calmly translates, paying little mind to any of the caterwauling and folly that only the snows driving men to drink longer and deeper can account for. "Just like that they'd sneaked up on his wife and babe, his sister and I think some old folks too, aunt and uncle maybe. Doesn't matter to the story except about half of them died, lots of the servants too, but then the hunters came, see, and they laid some kind of trap with a hanged man's nails and the hair on the head of a holy man I hear, and..."
"And now he is just recounting a local legend about one of the Engur heroes in the early days of the city with the names changed. I think he wants to see if he can drag it to another drink," Esha cuts off her translation.
Zaia sighs in annoyance. "So the part about plague crows and carrion beasts is all nonsense?"
"Oh, not at all. I've encountered such plague beasts before, Chindi is the proper name of them. Foul things they are, as hateful to their masters as they are to their victims and thus easily found out, but those ravens..." She taps her fingers across the table in what you had come to recognize as a sign as much of anxiety as thought. "It is hard enough for a trained magician to unravel the warding of another. To summon or bind some creature to the task is no small feat, all the more so as anything clever enough to do that would be clever enough for treachery far more refined than the foul breathing Chindi. I would be most curious to see the body of such a crow if it has not been already consigned to the flame..."
***
So it is that when you finally do find Anisi, patronizing one of the unfortunate musicians who make their living on the streets of the city, now huddling out of the cold and snow, Esha is with you earning herself a disgruntled look from the warrior, though her hands do not reach for her weapons nor her shoulders tense for a blow. It seems more a matter of form and not substance, and indeed she is more than happy to keep you company, speaking in hushed voices with one eye to the musician.
She greets your news of finding Anjo Oru in the north with worry but little in the way of surprise, though seems far more perturbed about the dragon. "Dragons are like the bones of the earth, and when the bones of the earth shift cities fall my old master used to say. Little enough faith and courage will serve you against the elder of that get."
"One could always try diplomacy," Esha offers and is utterly ignored.
Still, with a bit of prodding from you, she admits that what you heard in the tavern is 'near enough the truth', adding one or two harrowing parts of the tale that you had not heard. At one point she shows you her left arm next to her right and you see the skin of the former is far more pale since it had all been flayed off by a rune-trap from the Plague Crow, as it had laid a trap for the hunters and not the other way around. It had almost been the death of them but for a lucky blessed arrow through its eye. "Nothing's more dangerous as a man with his back to the cliffs, nor more spiteful come to that," Anisi sighs. "They don't give a shit how long the foulness they've just unleashed is going to haunt the rest of us who need to live between earth and sky."
"Speaking of curses, I've spoken to the priest at the temple of Olweje..."
"Ram's Skull," she interjects, in a manner so matter of fact that you do not even realize she had made a jest until she continues. "Likes to solve his problems by ramming his head into them, so his skull must be about as thick as theirs."
"Right, him," you snort. "Said we had to kill another dragon to take off the curse."
"Don't go getting killed now, Iron Shirt. I like you," the huntress replies companionably.
"Ask her if she kept anything of that raven. I'd like to see it, maybe buy it off her," you hear Esha's voice whispering in your mind. "I'd like to buy other things off her come to that. Her sort aren't often the kind to put their trophies to market, but they have more than a fair share of them."
What do you do?
[] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
[] Leave things be for now, it's not worth the risk of souring a useful contact
[] Write in
OOC: This was one of the adventure hooks you guys could have gotten involved last summer BTW, but the votes and rolls did not go that way so it continued in the background.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
Hey kids, you wanna sell some corpses?
Hey kids, you wanna sell some corpses?
- Location
- ?????????
[X] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
I see we are buying reagents from strange sources again.
I see we are buying reagents from strange sources again.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
[X] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
-[X] If this is not tenable for whatever reason, ask instead to formalize our information exchanges. Far too often we have encountered and ended up fighting the same sorts of creatures as Anisi hunts. Anything she can tell us might keep our men alive in the next inevitable meeting with such malign beings. If a business arrangement is established, try to setup information sharing, too.
-[X] If this is not tenable for whatever reason, ask instead to formalize our information exchanges. Far too often we have encountered and ended up fighting the same sorts of creatures as Anisi hunts. Anything she can tell us might keep our men alive in the next inevitable meeting with such malign beings. If a business arrangement is established, try to setup information sharing, too.
- Location
- ?????????
[X] Goldfish
Travler66
Let her name echo in song!
- Location
- Beyond
[X] Try to form a business relationship where you buy some of the spoils of Anisi's hunts in exchange for gold or potions
-[X] If this is not tenable for whatever reason, ask instead to formalize our information exchanges. Far too often we have encountered and ended up fighting the same sorts of creatures as Anisi hunts. Anything she can tell us might keep our men alive in the next inevitable meeting with such malign beings. If a business arrangement is established, try to setup information sharing, too.
-[X] If this is not tenable for whatever reason, ask instead to formalize our information exchanges. Far too often we have encountered and ended up fighting the same sorts of creatures as Anisi hunts. Anything she can tell us might keep our men alive in the next inevitable meeting with such malign beings. If a business arrangement is established, try to setup information sharing, too.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Goldfish
Vote closed.
Arc 11 Post 9: A Quarry Sought, a Hand Unclasped
A Quarry Sought, a Hand Unclasped
Seventh Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"Long and difficult is your task, thankless also..." you begin, then at Anisi's sharp look cut yourself off. Had you misspoken again? It seems you have found a special kind of hell to speak a language well enough to be understood, but not so well that you can be sure you had not made some absurd misstep.
"Spit it out, no need to dip me in oil and powder me with spice," the hunter says, not taking her eye off the bedraggled minstrel.
"I offer payment, in gold or in potions, for whichever of your spoils you are minded to sell," you answer, doing your best to keep back an exasperated sigh. Hard enough to recall a whole new set of manners, always cut bread with the knife in your left hand, never leave bones in your plate, pour out wine before drinking or cover the cup to show one's god does not desire the sacrifice... without having to deal with people who ignore those customs altogether and set you once more adrift in the sea of uncertainty. Perhaps it makes her a good interrogator, certainly you are not particularly comfortable beneath the huntress' suddenly sharpened gaze.
"For her?" she tips her head in Esha's direction.
"Partly, though I do not imagine one would be able to keep Zaia off any oddity for long, not even if a curtain of fire might stand between them," you try to add back in a touch of levity.
"Very well," she says after a briefer pause than you had thought. "I'll send someone with the spoils, as you say." By way of parting she adds: "Keep an eye on her, I certainly shall."
"I would rather keep an eye on others far more troubling, for words can be exchanged more readily than gold and to the good of all," you reply somberly. "I do not make any claim that the Fellowship is driven by charity towards the city alone, but we have seen enough of evil black as pitch that we would forearm ourselves as much as we can before it finds us again."
At that Anisi's expression softens a touch at least and she nods. A moment later she is gone, following the minstrel as he picks up his drums and his meager coin.
"Charming," Esha sniffs once Anisi's cloaked figure, not dark this time but white to better blend against the snow, is well out of sight. Glancing up at her you see that her smile is a good bit less bitter than you might have expected. "Oh, I mean that. For one of her calling she truly was charming today. The drummer must have truly earned the dagger between the ribs."
"You don't know she'll..." you start to say, but she cuts you off.
"I know a hunter going for the throat when I see one."
To that you have no argument, only a shiver down your spine.
Unlocked Action: Trading with the Hunters
***
Alas that is not the only mark of death you come upon that day. As you approach the dark stone halls of the temple of Ikomi later that same evening by light of swaying lantern you find unwelcome news. The priestess who had been here in the summer had passed away into the care of her goddess. At once your mind goes to foul deeds, some plot or treachery, but the new high priestess, shrouded just as the other had been, though this one at least you can guess the age of at least by the voice, assures you that her predecessor had passed peacefully and in her own time during the autumn when you had been far away in the north.
"Can you read the bones as she had done?" you ask, but the veiled figure shakes her head, her vestments rustling in the echoing hall.
"That, I cannot. I have not yet the favor and the skill for it, to call the memories of the dead to light from cold bone."
"There's got to be another way!" Inge bursts out in Anwari. "I'm not strong enough either, but we have t' know what they're up to!"
As the priestess turns to her, perhaps to chastise the girl, a cold wind blows through the high windows, flakes of snow swirling in and falling all about her like flakes of silver.
"There is another way," she stutters a bit. "I would not reveal it to any common travelers, but perhaps this is a sign to have come twice from the sea and twice with dark tidings." She goes on to explain that three days sailing along the coast to the north there is a cave that spills into the sea and in that cave the records of the temple claim is a holy place of Ikomi, though not one men are meant to walk in lightly.
"Dead stone grows as living flesh in the briny waters and feasts upon the minds of the dying. Cut ye from that place a piece of the dead man's brain, but touch it not with living flesh, and bring it back here that it may be used to harvest the thoughts you would hear."
Action Unlocked: Picking a Dead Man's Brains
Though you leave the temple ill at ease at being unable to unravel the mysteries of your now dead foes and finding no respite for the curses that afflict your company you do not have long to linger on such thoughts, for even as the foundations are leveled for the motte yet to rise the men of House Koire had arrived to be trained so that they might serve their lord with greater skill... and by this opportunity you might teach your own men new skills and weapons.
What training actions do you do with your men over the winter?
Applies to a type of troop; Wanderer counts as a type with a single warrior. One troop type cannot be trained more than once. Choose three.
[] Train them in a weapon
-[] Write in
[] Train them in a form of armor
-[] Write in
[] Exchange one feat for another feat which either Roland or Tom have or could reasonably engender though training
-[] Write in
OOC: Yes, the Dead Man's Brain is an actual form of monster in Pathfinder. You will get more details on them if you choose the quest cause this did not feels like a good place to exposition dump monsters you likely would not be facing for seasons.
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
[X] Train them in a form of armor
-[X] Train all men in Medium Armor
Is that one action, or is it 4 because I want to teach all our men, from the regular melee's over the netfighters and bowmen to the Barbarian?
-[X] Train all men in Medium Armor
Is that one action, or is it 4 because I want to teach all our men, from the regular melee's over the netfighters and bowmen to the Barbarian?
That would be four actions.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Ikomi is being helpful, I see.
I think we're going to want to take up that action before we leave for Apuku.
@DragonParadox, just to clarify on the training, since we can choose three training types, we could train Wanderer to wear light armor, our spearmen to use javelins, and our net-wielders to use scorpion whips?