Earthdawn - The Scourge Cometh

[wickedragon]

Da var første session kjørt i Earthdawn i Stakkevollveien 308. Taco ble spist, og det samme kan sies om noen av spillerene. Denne threaden er ikke slik at GM'en skal fortelle noe, det er ikke slik Earthdawn fungerer.
Denne threaden' er til for at spillerenes karakterer skal fortelle hva som skjedde

Det vanker legend points for gode fortellinger. Heltedådene må fortelles, og ikke kun av trubadurer (men de også).
Jeg gleder meg til å lese hva som skjedde. Om jeg får noen av historiene i posten så kommer jeg til å poste dem her.
Lykke til!

[Insignium]

Ikke like lang som Kissh ville ha skrevet det, og muligens litt mindre egoistisk. Men s$B!&(Bforferdelig god l$BiU(Bskriver er han ikke. S$B!&(Bdet at fortellingen er s$B!&(Bsom s$B!&(Bi kvalitet kan nok stemme overens med hans evner. Anyways, here goes:

The Brave, the Virtuous, the Heroic

He woke in dark chambers - and rose,
evil again risen after a silence of years.
Crow and raven choir,
the name incomprehensible to namegiven ears,
only to be spoken with dying breaths,
only to be written with death and rupture -
he who gleelessly stalked the innocent,
the Faceless Butcher.

For forbidden knowledge he was hungering,
for ultimate power he was craving.
Absent of expressions he considered every soul,
to be his for the taking.
He spoke incantations from the abominous,
corrupted the untainted,
enslaved to be his knights errant of darkness,
for his command they waited.

But the eyes of Mynbruje and Thystonius were not absent.
Passion fingers touched the weave of the real,
and so entered the brave, the virtuous, the heroic, with spears of destiny in hand,
the malevolent tear were they chosen to reseal.
In a circular chamber found they the infamous chanter,
and onrushed the foul b$BsU(Be noire.
Under divine presence were the minions laid to rest,
outside the grasp of the faceless' mar.

As battle raged the heroes fought bravely,
but fell before the unpassionate's insidiousness.
A dark moment passed,
hope seemed to melt with the void of emptiness.
Then the horrified gaze of the battle-worn evil,
fell onto one who had gotten away -
in the corner stood the troubadour with sword in hand,
the bard would the divine companions save.

The scald oded, "I will not let you prevail,"
"that I vow with the passions as my beholders."
The hands of the divine guided the blades edge,
and the faceless visage fell of it's shoulders.
Spring set in as if after winter,
life flowed in as if death had left
The restoring of the seal was paid for in the blood of the brave,
but all could feel the curse slowly lift.

[Lamia]

Beklager at historien ble ganske lang, men jeg fant ingen steder å kutte dersom jeg skulle gi min karakters redegjørelse for vårt lille eventyr...

The story of the amazing vanishing corpse.

Gather round and take heed of these words, for they are the true account of the adventures of five heroes bold and brave… Huh, that is about as much as I can take of that wispy little lizard Bard’s stuff without feeling the need to tear his lungs out. But anyway… this is my version of the events that took place when we thought a Horror or a Horror Construct had entered the Magicians’ Guild in the Kaer in Megu’um.
After our last adventure with the demondog, Erend Firebeard came to visit the Sky Raider human and me at the infirmary. Eventually our other companions arrived, and Erend told us that we should go to the Kaer’s Quartermaster to receive a Blood Charm. This was his way of rewarding us for ripping the head of that devildog I think.
The Sky Raider and I healed most of our injuries, and after that we all made our way to the highest tower in the Guild buildings which is where they keep all the Blood Charms. The Quartermaster showed us which Charms were available, and we each chose one to attach to our bodies. As usual the flamboyant gecko made a fuss over wanting to use his Charm as a jewel, and he also spent a lot of time figuring out where the Charm would look its best. Anything is an improvement on that scrawny body…
After receiving our very own Blood Charm, we all made our way to the potion storage room. I think the Sky Raider was handed two bottles of some kind. The Sky Raider human and the Quartermaster were still talking and the rest of us were making our way back towards the elevators when we heard a loud crash which was followed by a piercing scream. The sounds seemed to emanate from the elevators. I have no idea Sky Raider went off to, but the rest of us ran to the elevator area. After the dust had settled a little, we could see that the elevator had crashed down to the floor three or four stories below us and someone was trapped down there among the debris. The lizard insisted that the creature down there was a female of his species, and he was dead set on climbing down there to rescue it… uhm… her. We used the lizard’s steel net to give us something to hold on to and the Obsidian man lowered us down the elevator shaft.
When we reached the now ex-elevator and I had cleared away some of the rubble, it turned out that the thing trapped was none other than that sneaky little Neathermancer animal-torturer Surun Shadetail. My first instinct was that this was an expression of divine vengeance and perhaps a parting gift from all the animals the scaly one had been playing with… Perhaps the animals finally gave her what she deserved? She was apparently badly injured and to make things worse, the Bard lizard sang her a song for some reason. A waste of breath if you ask me… Instead of rearranging his kidneys, I tried to close her wounds to make the bleeding stop. The three of us stood there discussing what to do next when a brilliant light came floating down towards us. When the light came closer, we could see a dwarf standing in the middle of it. He landed amidst the debris and introduced himself as Tharan, an Illusionist of the second circle. Our human Elementalist stiffened and mumbled something under his breath. I only caught the words “the Master of Lies”, and judging by my companion’s demeanor, this Tharan-fellow is someone we should be wary of. My suspicion was heightened even more when the shortarse addressed the gecko as if the gecko was the partyleader. The only time they talked to me was when I was asked to carry the unconscious Neathermancer lizard. We shouted up at the Obsidian man to meet us at the stairway, and then the party had to go find a Healer. According to Tharan there were no Healers present in the Kaer at the time, but perhaps there was a Beastmaster capable of tending to the scaly one’s wounds in the Menagerie. I guess they all come running for the Beastmasters eventually. Hah… mages! We are all animals anyway when you get right down to it; it just takes some time for the other adepts to realize that simple fact…
We finally found a veterinarian working in Surun’s little petting zoo. Pravilno Megamar tended to Surun’s wounds and as we were taking her down towards the infirmary, we were hindered by the large crowd who had gathered in the stairs upon hearing the crash and Surun’s scream. The Illusionist tried to explain to them what had happened. At some point during his speech, a soldier came rushing from some other area of the Guild. The man seemed quite distraught and so the Obsidian man parted the crowd and carried the struggling soldier back with him. The soldier eventually blurted out a rambling tale about how the Quartermaster’s face had seemingly disappeared without shedding any blood and the finding of some dead soldier with a gaping hole in his chest. Apparently the swashbuckling Sky Raider was waiting for us to help him out somewhere in the Mages’ Library. The Illusionist went rather pale, and we all hurried up to where the soldier told us our last comrade was eagerly awaiting us.
We found the Sky Raider standing with his sword drawn while he was nervously eyeing the door leading out to the rooftops. He added some more details to the soldier’s story, and he emphasized the fact that the Quartermaster’s corpse had vanished in a manner of seconds. The dwarf got a terrified expression in his eyes before he breathlessly whispered that it seemed to be a Horror or a Horror Construct somewhere in the building. He then barked an order to the soldiers accompanying us that they were to get everybody down to the eating area and that they were to keep them there. Tharan ordered us to accompany him. He led us to Erend Firebeard’s empty office and told us to protect him from “whatever” for a while. He started chanting something and after some time there came a rumbling sound from outside. Both the rumbling and the chanting ended eventually. When Tharan spoke to us next he told us that the Kaer now was sealed off and that only he and Erend Firebeard could reopen it. The reason for this was to stop the Horror from leaving.
After deliberating for a while, we decided to share our worries with the other adepts sealed within the Kaer. We found the other ten adepts trying to calm the people gathered in the hall. We went into a separate kitchen together, while leaving the Obsidian man to control the crowd. Tharan informed the other adepts about our discoveries and as a result everybody started eyeing each other suspiciously. How indeed could we be certain that none of us were Horrormarked? Tharan thought we should all practice our artisan skill to prove ourselves. The task of creating something beautiful on command turned out to be more difficult than I expected. The map I painted over the kitchen was not my best work, but it convinced the others though. I took some comfort in the fact that everyone else was having problems wielding their craft as well, but everyone eventually proved themselves not to be tainted.
Tharan told us more about the Horrors when he suddenly remembered that Horrors feed from fear and that the throng of people gathered in the hall were very much afraid. All the adepts returned to the eating hall to try to calm the civilians, and to my great surprise our Bard finally did something useful! He began singing one of his never-ending ballads and after a while people actually began to relax. He then led them in a game of sack racing and egg-runs. His effort seemed to be rewarded when the nervous energy of the room lifted a little. Despite the fact that the civilians seems to have lightened up, I cannot shake the feeling that something is seriously amiss with Surun… Why won’t she wake up from her deep slumber?
The Elementalist asked Tharan if we could gain access to the Mages’ Library to learn more about the Horrors. Unfortunately the key was a non-physical thing, so if we wanted to enter the library we had to escort Tharan to the doors. We all formed a protective circle around him before marching towards the Library. After opening the doors, he took the rest of the adepts and most of the soldiers with him and returned to the eating hall to lighten the mood there. We kept a Wizard, a Beastmaster and four soldiers. The Wizard stayed with us, but we left the Beastmaster and the soldiers in the Menagerie where they were to calm the frightened animals. While I was soothing the terrified dogs, the Sky Raider had a talk with the other Beastmaster regarding the two empty dog pens in Surun’s part of the room. The Beastmaster insisted that those pens should not be empty, so most likely Surun has been having a little more fun with the remaining two dogs left in her “care” since last we saw them. This meant that two more demondogs were off roaming around the buildings somewhere. Damn those meddling sons of geckos!
Well, anyway, we were back in the Mages’ Library trying to learn more about the Horror we were facing. The Elementalist, the lizard and I all found books relating to three different kinds of Horrors who all had a thing for eating or using the faces of their victims.
After learning what we could about the Horrors from the available librarybooks, we decided to conduct a thorough search of the Magicians’ Guild going from top to bottom. The wizard had the ability to sense movement and life in the Astral world, so he was charged with having a glance in there every time we came into a new room. When we got as far as the Mages’ personal quarters, we decided to search Surun’s room. We discovered her personal notebooks, but too many of the pages had been torn out, leaving us with very little information about her actions for the past few days. I guess she wanted to keep quiet about how her little soul-swapping stunt had failed so miserably… Since so many of the pages concerning her most recent experiments were missing, we were none the wiser about the fate of the two dogs. This would most likely lead to some nasty surprise later on… Oh joy…
We continued our search of the Guild buildings, and when we came as far as the Students’ Library, we found the faceless corpse of the Quartermaster again. The Elementalist suggested that we should cut off the corpse’s arms and legs, and in retrospect this would have been an excellent idea. However, at the time we decided to follow the other squashy human’s notion of it being wrong to mutilate a corpse, so we left the lump of dead meat intact on the floor while we examined the rest of the room. The Library’s many tall bookshelves made it into a strategic nightmare. When our Wizard scanned the Astral world for movement or life, he could detect a total of nine living beings, and this made us all a little jumpy considering there were only six of us present. Well, and the corpse of course. At least we thought it was a corpse then… The Wizard’s statement meant that somewhere in the Library were three, presumably, hostile entities. We closed ranks and crept along the wall so that none could attack us from that angle at least. We had but moved a few paces when we heard the familiar and unmistakable sound of claws walking on the floor tiles. I squatted and tried to summon the animal making the “tikka-tikka-tikka” sounds when walking. The animal answered my summons and rounded the bookshelf in front of us. I think we were all expecting another one of Surun’s demondogs, but instead we were approached by half a dog. The back part of a dog to be precise. The front bit of the dog was invisible. The Sky Raider and I were dealing with this dog when suddenly something else dragged the Wizard in between some other shelves. He managed to utter some horrific and bloodcurdling screams before they were silenced by a bubbly, gargly sound. The Obsidian man quickly lurched after this unseen attacker. It seemed obvious that we had found the second enemy, or rather, it had found us…
The Sky Raider, the Elementalist and I killed the one dog, while the Obsidian man dealt with the other one. I am not sure what our "beloved" scaly Bard was up to, other than firing crossbowbolts and missing his target. At least the wretched Bard didn’t try to sing to the dogs, so I guess we should be grateful for any blessing these bleak days, however small they may be…
After we had killed both dogs, discovered the amazing talents of the vanishing Quartermaster corpse, and sent the unconscious Wizard to be carried to the kitchen by our few remaining soldiers, the Elementalist took a closer look at the books in this Library also. He discovered two books in which there were several pages missing, books on creating living mist and talking to plants or something like that. The Elementalist insisted that we should hurry towards the laboratories and the potion storages in the lowest tower. Upon entering the laboratories, we stumbled over the body of a Scholar. The Elementalist once again suggested that we should mutilate the corpse, but once again we decided to listen to the other squashy human.
We continued towards the elementaltower and about halfway up the stairs we could hear a voice chanting something. The Bard was the first one to reach the doors leading to some kind of chamber. He flung open the doors and rather carefully stepped inside. The Elementalist was the next one to enter the chamber, followed by the Sky Raider. I was only a few paces away from the door when I heard someone yell “For Berech” or something like that. The battlecry was soon followed by a brief high pitched and terrified scream. When I entered the chamber I could see the amazing disappearing Quartermaster standing inside a circle drawn on the floor. Also inside that circle was a golden statuette in the likeness of a rearing griffin. The dwarf and the statuette were surrounded by a twisting and coiling mist and shadows which seemed to be alive. The problem that attracted my immediate attention was however the faceless soldier with the faintly glowing hands. He was attacking the Bard, and nobody picks on my companion no matter how annoying he might be!
The Sky Raider, the Obsidian man and I all went for the faceless soldier. I remember dealing the soldierthingy a rather serious blow, but I had not anticipated facing a magical retaliation… The moment he touched me with those glowing hands, it felt as if my soul was being dragged from my body by a million biting fireants. The pain was excruciating, and the next thing I remember was slumping to the floor and being close to the brink of blissful oblivion. I really do not remember much of the rest of the battle, but what I do remember came to me through a red haze of pain. I think I saw the Sky Raider ripping the top of a crate and then throwing the lid at the dwarf in the circle. I think I remember seeing the Obsidian man smashing the glowing soldier to the ground. It took some time for me to realize that the chanting had stopped, but sometime after that I think the Obsidian man was possessed by someone else’s will, because it seemed he was going to start smashing the others in my group. After this I must have passed out for a while, because the next thing I remember was seeing the lizard stabbing the, once again, dead corpse of the Quartermaster with a dagger clutched in his tail. Even though the lizard usually is just a pain in the… well you know… I must admit that his frenzied attack was admirable. Perhaps the dwarf had made fun of his ridiculous clothes and thereby driving the little pest into a state of Gahad? Who knows, perhaps the wispy little hatchling have some hidden and useful talents after all?



Hnngga Muckslinger
Beastmaster of the First Circle.

[Lamia]

Litt påskekrim, EarthDawn-style... ;D


What’s Eating Dorn Merugum?

And the fun just keeps coming my way! After recovering from our latest adventure, I spent a day or two meditating in the forest outside Megu’um. My Mentor, Hagr Bloodfang, thought it would be a good idea for me to spend a little time communicating with the animals again. I felt so much better and more invigorated when I eventually returned to catch up with my companions in the Kaer. I found them in an alley where they waited for Lizard-guy to honor them by his presence. When he, finally, came strutting out of the snooty alehouse, he told us that he had been talking to Hemmea Blackboot, the Mayor’s sister. She had told the lizard that she had very little contact with her brother, at least for the last two years.
Apparently, my companions had been hard at work while I was enjoying myself in the forest. They filled me in on what they had learned about the late Master of Cloth. With the help of one of those creepy Nethermancers they had discovered a tattoo on the Master of Cloth’s butt. Then they learned that this kind of tattoo gave the various mages access to a shared, psychic, arcane knowledgebank. My companions had also conducted a search of the Master of Cloth’s living quarters where they had recovered the dwarf’s diary containing all his demented ravings. Our Elementalist had spent many hours reading the diary and also investigating the Horrors in Megu’um’s Public Library. He told me a story of the temple Kolbexh somewhere in the East and also of how the temple was attacked by our old friend Berech also known as the “One Of A Thousand Eyes and Faces”. Funny name since that particular Horror likes to gnaw the face of his victims… But hey, mages seem to have a rather, ehm, different (yeah, let’s settle for different for the time being) sense of logic than the rest of us… The diary showed how the Master of Cloth had gradually slipped into stark raving madness over a period of about a week. It all seemed to have started at a banquet held at the Mayor’s residence where the Master of Cloth first met his “Master”. Hmm… talking to someone only referred to as “the Master”… that’s never a good sign, is it? Qxh’no, our Obsidian man, had been talking to Wiserock, his Master (the GOOD kind of Master that is…), about this banquet at the Mayor’s place. Qxh’no kept talking about a conversation between Wiserock and Dorn Merugum. They had been discussing the metaphysical aspects of the mage’s knowledgebank. Blah blah blah… In the middle of their conversation that yucky Nethermancer Kerner started talking about the possibilities for Horrors to corrupt all the mages through their arcane links. Or something like that.
The next day I was rudely awakened by Garaman the Sky Raider (or wispy human number one as I like to call him). I barely had time to complete my Karma-ritual before he dragged me along the hallway, rousing all the others from their beds. While Qxh’no and Benjamin the elementalist got dressed, the Sky Raider and I went in search of Kissh the Bard. On our way to his house, we bumped into his wife, well, the most recent wife at least. She was furious, but I suppose being married to the lizard would do that to a sane person… Eventually we found the Bard and together we returned to Benjamin’s quarters for a morning briefing. Afterwards we left to speak to Kerner, but “Yodeling Lizard” excused himself and went to an appointment somewhere. Since we didn’t know what to expect when calling on Kerner again, we mentally prepared ourselves for battle. Needlessly, it turned out.
We talked to Kerner about what happened at the Mayor’s banquet. He told us that his cousin was a very religious person and that Dorn was very “in tune” with his chosen deity, Rashuman, the God of the Workingman. Kerner mentioned that he found his cousin to be somewhat eccentric, and when I asked him to elaborate, he said that is cousin spent most of his time locked in a room with his books and that Dorn rarely talked about anything other than his god. Kerner didn’t have much to do with his cousin either, and that makes me wonder… Why doesn’t the Mayor’s kin, his blood relatives in fact, keep in touch with him? Well, OK, so I don’t have any intentions to seek out my kinsmen either, but at least I have a good reason for that. I just thought the dwarves were more into this whole family-thing. Is there something going on here that we are not quite grasping? Is there something they are not telling us about him? Anyway, Kerner recommended us that we do something religious to gain entry to his cousin’s house. Great, I can just picture it now… Singing psalms… Wohoo…
On our way back to the Magician’s Quarter, we bumped into Erend. Garaman told him about the difficulties we were having trying to gain entry to certain areas of Megu’um. Erend then gave us two writs which he said would open any door for us, our personal bodyguards and an advisor. The four of us split up after our chance meeting with Erend; The Obsidian man went to talk to Wiserock again, Benjamin went somewhere to read, and the Sky Raider and I went back to the late Master of Cloth’s lodging to look for further clues and to recover the diary. Wispy and distracted human, aka Benjamin al Sagasakk (or something like that), had left the Master of Cloth’s rooms without taking it with him. Men…
The Sky Raider and I reached the home of the late Master of Cloth. When we opened the door, we found the rooms in a mess. Someone had obviously been looking for something, or perhaps the Elementalist is just a messier person than I thought. Nah… The Sky Raider went to have a word with the guards, and I just tagged along lacking something better to do for the moment. According to the guard on duty, all the Masters had passed by the Master of Cloth’s room during the day. They had also brought some of their apprentices with them. So that meant that we had to track them down and talk to them as well. After talking to the guard, Garaman and I returned to the Master of Cloth’s quarter. I tried to use my tracking ability, but there were just too many tracks for me to follow. I told the Sky Raider hat if I could just get hold of something belonging to each one of our suspects, perhaps I could make some more sense of this mess. The Sky Raider went over to Surun’s room to recover something for me to use and went in the open door. Just as he crossed the threshold, he went stiff and uttered some sort of mewing sound. Then he started screaming. And since I am a thoughtful and caring orc, I reached in after him and managed to pull him out. He was a little pale and there were some drops of blood dribbling down his chin, but after resting for a few minutes, he was back on his feet. Strange ones these humans…
We went searching for Surun to ask for something to use in my tracking. We found her working in her office in the Menagerie (that place really freaks me out!) and she seemed startled when she finally noticed us standing there. Garaman asked her for a small trinket, but she refused. The human just wouldn’t back off, and Surun became more and more agitated. Before she could blast us to smithereens with some nasty spell, the human finally got the hint and left the lizardlady to her business. We then found Surun’s apprentices and they each gave us a hair. I still could not manage to track anyone in the Master of Cloth’s room. After talking a little to the Sky Raider, we decided to eliminate our own group’s tracks. So we just had to find something belonging to each of us. The Bard gave us a piece of paper with his signature on it, the Obsidian man gave us a broken knife, and being tired of searching, we went to the Elementalist’s room and took one of his socks. Having finally acquired the items I needed, I once again tried to track. But I couldn’t find anything. Eventually Benjamin came to find us, and he did a better job of analyzing the room than I did. He said that it was apparent that someone had been in here looking for something (way of stating the obvious my friend!), the book we were after was gone, and that the intruder seemed to have concentrated on the many small jewelry boxes that now laid scattered around the room. We took some of the jewelry to the Obsidian man for analysis. All Qxh’no could say on such short notice was that the jewels looked real and if given more time, he probably would be able to tell us more. So we left him to it and went looking for the young dwarf who served the late Master of Cloth as his personal servant.
The servantboy’s mother told us that her son was helping out the new Master of Cloth. We eventually found him and his new master in the tallest tower in the Magicians’ Guild. I think his new master is really a mistress, but who knows when it comes to the shortarses. The new Master, or Mistress, of Cloth is another dwarf, but this one didn’t have a beard. After showing the Master of Cloth our writ from Erend, we were allowed to talk to the boy. He told us that the former Master of Cloth had seemed worried and had had trouble sleeping for about a week before the banquet, but after visiting the banquet he had seemed to calm down again. I guess madness can do that to some people… Anyway, he told us a lot of useless stuff about the party, but he did mention a few interesting things: the Master of Cloth made various Blood Charms, everything he made was entered into the log, he made a golden statuette in the likeness of a cat (could this mean that he also made the golden griffin figurine?). The boy also mentioned that his former Master usually wrote few letters, but in the week after the banquet he seemed to write more than before. The letters were also kept secret from the other servants, and they were collected by a mysterious black-clad dwarf. This mysterious dwarf wore no recognizable tabard and he seemed really “mean and tough” according to the boy. The thing the kid remembered best about the stranger was his impressive sword.
After talking to the servant, we also asked the new Master of Cloth some questions. He (or she) mentioned that the former Master of Cloth had seemed increasingly distracted during the week before he went completely off the deep end, and his production of Blood Charms had also diminished. The new Master of Cloth could remember the former one only making a single Blood Charm during his last week among the living. He/she thought it was a Death Cheat Charm. We also asked if the new Master of Cloth had been to the rooms he/she was to live in. The dwarf replied that it had been in there maybe two days ago and that the room seemed a little messy back then. However, it had found the missing diary and handed us the book.
Trying to find out some more about the strange dwarf, Garaman and I started questioning the guards, but none of them seemed to remember anything out of the ordinary taking place before the Kaer’s little Horror-rendezvous. It certainly didn’t help us obtaining information when the Sky Raider started waving the writ into people’s faces either. Eventually we both grew tired of getting nowhere, and so we joined up with Benjamin and Qxh’no. The Obsidian man had had some more time to examine the jewelry, and he could now tell us that the gems were in fact genuine and that this was expencive trinkets indeed. But since whomever searched the late Master of Cloth’s room had left all these expensive things scattered about the room, he, or indeed she, must have been after something even more important. But what might that be? As far as I know, all the Blood Charms are accounted for, but we haven’t found the cat figurine yet… I cannot help but wonder if that is an important piece of the puzzle. A puzzle with still so many missing pieces…
Eventually the four of us made our way to the guards’ HQ to talk to their sergeant. He showed us the roster and it became clear that one of the guards who had been standing outside the Master of Cloth’s apartment had not been on any further guard duty since this whole mess started. When searching the barracks, we discovered that both the soldier and his gear were missing. Plucking some strands of hair off his mattress, I was able to follow his trail out of town. Eventually we came to a spot where it looked like some kind of struggle had taken place. Some dirt looked a little out of place, and Qxh’no and I started digging on that spot. After a while we unearthed a body of a dwarf. He had not been dead for too long, only three or four days. It was plainly visible that the guard had been killed by a stab to the chest, but he also had several smaller gashes on his torso. Apparently he had put up quite a fight. Qxh’no ran back to the Kaer to fetch the Captain of the Guard, while Benjamin ran to fetch Lediner the Nethermancer.
The Obsidian man and the Captain of the Guards were the first ones to return. The Captain confirmed that this was indeed the remains of the missing guardsman. He then returned to the barracks to make a report. Eventually Benjamin and Lediner came back too. The Nethermancer was given the task of communicating with the late guard’s soul. As usual the mage passed out from his ordeal, and when he came to again, he told us that the guard had been attacked by a large, savage-looking dwarf wearing black armor. The guard had seemed surprised to see this particular dwarf, although he had been waiting for someone else to meet him at this spot. We did a little search of the body and discovered two scars left by Blood Charms, Benjamin thought they might be a Desperate Blow Charm and an Absorb Blow Charm, but we could not find any traces of these Charms around the body. Strange really… I suppose someone removed them before the little guy was buried. Unfortunately that was all Lediner managed to find out, but he recommended us to go talk to Kerner if we wanted to know more. The prospects of seeing that creepy basement-dweller again did nothing to lighten my mood. Qxh’no carried Lediner back to the Kaer. It really made me laugh seeing the huge lump of rock giving the scrawny mage a piggy-back-ride, but I was less than thrilled when I had to carry the decomposing corpse back to Kerner’s place. But Benjamin had the worst task: walking behind me and picking up any pieces falling off the dead guy.
Kerner eventually came to the door, but he demanded quite a large sum of silver to perform his tricks. With no way of paying him, the Obsidian man and I took the corpse to the morgue and I cleaned off the goo covering my arms. Benjamin returned to the Library. The Sky raider had wandered off to search for yodel-lizard. The two of them found Qxh’no and me standing outside the Public Library. The lizard insisted that we all go somewhere private and that he had something important to tell us all. He told us how he had heard a deep voice in the Public Library telling him how smart and how much fun it would be if we just let a Horror loose in Megu’um. The lizard had told Erend about this, I think. The Sky Raider told us that he had discovered that the Mayor’s residence had been sealed off from the rest of the city by some foul Nethermancer spell. There was no way for us to gain access, but the lizard had some more information from Hemmea Blackboot. She had said that she could have handled the Spirits guarding the doors, but in doing so, she would have alerted the inhabitants of her presence. Why she would be worried about that she had not mentioned. I wonder if there’s more to her than meets the eye…
At this point we bumped into Erend, again, and gave him an update on our investigation. He promised to have a word with Kerner about his fees.
The five of us split up at this point. The Sky Raider went to the Sky Raider camp to seek out his Master and maybe borrow one of their smaller Air Ships. Qxh’no went to talk to Master Wiserock again, and Kissh, Benjamin and I returned to the scene of the guardsman’s murder. While we were there the first time, I had not tried to find anyone’s tracks, but now I wanted to see if I could pick up on something. This time I successfully managed to find a set of tracks leading away from the murder site. We ran after them, and when we entered the city limits again, we almost collided with Qxh’no. I yelled for him to follow us before I lost the trail again. I ran on ahead of the others and followed the tracks down an alley and unto a roof. The footsteps disappeared at the edge of the roof, but standing there I could see straight into some of the windows in the Mayor’s house. I went down to my companions again and told them what I had found out. I also suggested that we should return to the Public Library to have another look at the records from the temple Kolbexh. I was prepared to use “persuasion” if they didn’t agree, but luckily for them, they did. In the Library Benjamin was able to find the records over the temple’s students from eight years ago, but we didn’t recognize any of their names. We also failed to recognize any of the names of the ones listed as Horror-marked and the executed. However, we did recognize the name of the temple’s Quartermaster… he turned out to be our own Horror-marked Master of Cloth.
As a little bedtime adventure, we all went to see the new Master of Cloth. We were allowed to take a look in the inventories, and it turned out that the dead Master of Cloth had made the Blood Charms worn by the Bard, the Obsidian man and the Sky Raider. According to the records, the Charm worn by the lizard was made just three days before the Master of Cloth’s sanity went on permanent vacation. We asked the new Master of Cloth to check if any of the Charms were tainted. The dwarf did its stuff and reported that all the Charms seemed to be OK. By this time of night we all headed for our chambers, but considering the lizard’s meeting with “the voice”, he thought it would probably be a good idea for us all to sleep in the same room, just to be sure. We all agreed to that, and so we are now trying to get comfortable in Qxh’no’s huge room. The lizard and the Sky Raider went to see the lizard’s wife again, and I took the tome to write another chapter in this tragic comedy that seems to be my life at the moment.
Just some final notes before its time to hit the sack: What has the lizard been up to all day? Why was it so important for Hemmea Blackboot to remain hidden from her brother and the members of his household? Could Hemmea disguise herself as the black bearded dwarf with the fancy sword? The sword in question has no doubt cost its owner a great deal of silver, so who could have afforded to have a Weaponsmith work on it? Hemmea, for instance? And since she is a Circle 5 Thief, could she not easily have snuck up on the waiting guardsman outside the city? Could she not also creep up on the lizard in the Library and disguised her voice? The lizard mentioned that he couldn’t make out where the voice was coming from, but if Hemmea wanted to, I doubt she would have any trouble concealing herself from that feeble minded swamp-thing. Might she be behind all this and just using her brother as a scapegoat? Do we even know if Mayor Merugum is still alive at this point? Has anybody seen him lately? Where has Hemmea Blackboot been living the past eight years anyway? Couldn’t she also have been sneaking around Kolbexh without anyone knowing? Why would Dorn Merugum want to destroy his own city? I realize that the Horror-marked ones doesn’t care for anything other than pleasing their “Master”, but still… it seems to be a bit too obvious that the Mayor is behind all this, even though all the threads in this spider’s web seems to lead back to him. Is there perhaps another spider somewhere in the shadows, lurking at some unseen place while it continues to spread its venomous net? Maybe Dorn Merugum is just another expendable pawn in someone else’s evil game? I guess we shall find out more tomorrow when we try to kick down his door and tackle the Spirits guarding it. Perhaps Dorn Merugum is one of those unfortunate Spirits?

I doubt I will be getting much sleep tonight; these suspicions have left me rather restless… I just pray to whatever Spirit watching over us that the hatchling doesn’t try to “calm” us all by singing a lullaby… because then it’s smashy-smashy time all over again. And my knuckles are already sore.


Hnngga Muckslinger
Beastmaster Circle 1.

[Insignium]

Jeg ble visst aldri ferdig med min røde hymne. Noe kort, men god nok til å presentere for en borgemester vil jeg tro...

A fanfare of iron:

For the hands that steady the plow,
for the arms that form the bread,
for the feet that carry the messenger,
for the heart that stouten the defender,
for the duty that makes a king,
my voice finds its purpose in salutation, encouragement and pride.
To the labourers – the bringers of a future – this lay I dedicate.

Lift thy shovel, the motion a shiboleth of the honorable.
Lift thy boots, let their march be endless.
Lift thy tired hands, for the growth in time lies in their pains.
From father to son, from mother to daughter,
let thine cunnings pass, let them heed,
to the labourous comes the green pastures,
let this be eternally true and fair.

Names will fade as the sun turns,
time envelops rank with void,
only the ring of deeds will echo through the ages,
only the fulfillments of obligation will ripple through the water.
The most honorable,
those who follow Erendis' path expectationless,
to thee I ode,
for the strongest are carved in burden.