Musings of the White Haired Man

Read all the Kith’takharos Campaign session recaps here.

Kith’takharos slowly recovers from the poacher attack. Those who fell will not be soon forgotten. All of Kith’takharos attends the funerals, especially the moving service for Koran Thelig, where a burning skiff holding his body is pushed out onto the Big Water.

Dorian Orsova survived, as did Xanthus Bome. Patch was deactivated and Zzhastor Brune does not know whether the construct can be revived.

Despite the sorrow, Kith’takharos experiences a singular peace. The poachers are no longer a threat and the Swamp Man tribes remain subdued under the leadership of the surviving Harlass Orn. Perhaps the Swamp no longer needs heroes. The group discusses how they will track down Jory Strong’s sister; Huygens Tierney once claimed that she is being held by elves in the Eastern Frontier.

A few days after Tierney’s assault, Lady Salmissra invites the group for a private dinner in Kith’takharos Keep. She explains that Christophe Moreau’s parents died when he was a child; his father was executed as a poacher although the boy’s mother insisted her husband had been wrongly accused. Lady Salmissra’s mother looked after Christophe, sending him to Port Lissup for an education, and the lad never gave any indication that he might harbor ill feelings toward Kith’takharos. Who could have predicted such a confluence of talent and malevolence?

In appreciation of their deeds, Lady Salmissra offers each member of the group a boon. If there is something they desire that is within her power to grant, they need but ask. Ironbeard requests an aetherogenic pocket. Jory asks for a position with the Order of the Jade Leaf. Gabrielle wants a pardon for the poacher Travan; she will use this as leverage to gain additional information about Jory’s sister. Bron hints that Lady Salmissra might have something in particular to offer, although he is willing to accept magical augmentation of his healing abilities. Cheyl does not attend the dinner.

Meryl Dunestal puts out feelers for Travan. Within a week one of the few surviving poachers comes to town and sets up a meeting with Travan north of Kith’takharos. The poacher leader tells all he knows of Elizabeth Strong in return for the pardon. He also sells Ironbeard the magical item that allowed him to jump from the Teleportation Tower and survive.

The group prepares for a journey to the Eastern Frontier. Meryl offers a ride on Transit Guild skiffs to a Transit Guild riverboat heading to Port Lissup. At Port Lissup they are directed to Captain Joseph Crane, who owns a paddle wheel boat named Jak’s Surprise. Crane makes regular trips to the Trading Post at the edge of the frontier.

Captain Crane recognizes Jory. Before moving to Kith’takharos with his late sister Sasha, Jory fought bare-knuckle boxing matches on riverboats. Crane offers free passage to the Trading Post if Jory will come out of retirement for one more fight; Jory has such a reputation that the fight will bring in a lot of money for Crane. Jory agrees, but Cheyl and Ironbeard also want to fight.

The fights take place on the second day of a three day journey. In the first match, Cheyl faces off against Arlene the Amazon and defeats her after a three round see-saw battle. Next, Ironbeard goes up against Talan the Swamp Man. Ironbeard had conspired with a shady gambler to throw the bout, and took a drug that would render him unconscious sometime after the first round; Talan brutalizes him before the drug can take effect. In the marquee match, Jory fights the huge Skullcrusher. Yet Jory lands a stunning blow and knocks out his massive foe in the first few seconds of the first round.

Jak’s Surprise docks at the Trading Post the next day. The small wooden fort has been built on a small lake, within the shadow of a two hundred foot tall cliff bisected by a thundering waterfall. The land above the cliff is known as the Eastern Frontier. The group meets many people at the Trading Post, including its most prominent citizen, Hammerhead Jak Vogron. They learn that there is indeed an elven village in the frontier, and that the elves are generally not friendly.

The group needs a guide to reach the eleven village. The merchant Gimpy Strothers agrees to supply a guide for a price. The guide will lead them to the Grandfather Tree, the largest tree on the frontier and roughly the halfway point between the Trading Post and the elven village. The tree is rumored to be magical and sacred to the elves. After that, travel is just too dangerous for any amount of pay.

Gimpy ferries the group across the lake on a raft, and they climb a stone stairway to the top of the cliff. Their young guide Arthur leads them into the dense forest. For the next two days they subsist on game and wild plants harvested by Arthur. On the third day, Ironbeard grows uneasy, feeling that Arthur is not heading in quite the right direction. The dwarf climbs a tree to prove his point.

After some harsh questioning, Arthur breaks down and claims that a elf girl told him the group would come to the Trading Post, but that he did not intentionally lead them astray. The elf resembles their former comrade Mala, who was possessed by the Veilwalker Dreamseeker many months ago. It also seems clear that the Dreamseeker influenced Arthur to divert the group from their true goal and that the lad is not at fault. He is eventually set free and the group continues alone.

Late on the third day they reach the Grandfather Tree, which has a trunk at least twenty feet in diameter and a height of over four hundred feet. A voice calls out from the forest, and proclaims itself the elf war leader Kyquin. He makes it plain that the group is surrounded and should carefully consider their next actions.

Perhaps surprising given the group’s violent past, they assume a conciliatory posture and talk peaceably with Kyquin. Once the elf learns of their mission, he readily agrees to take them to Jory’s sister. It has been a long time since Kyquin met outsiders who had no interest in desecrating sacred sites and appropriating elven treasures.

Kyquin moves deeper into elven lands, following no obvious trail yet clearly aware of his position at all times. Within a few hours he stops at a ring of seven large trees. Kyquin directs Jory to step into the ring. Soon Jory hears a whispering wind speaking in his sister’s voice and he learns the tale of Elizabeth’s “death”. She was exploring a place called Mersah Matruh with her husband and other companions; the others died and she fled with her injured husband, half carrying him into elven lands. He died, and she eventually succumbed to insidious magical injuries. The only choice for life was to infuse her spirit into the magical trees.

While Jory feels a great sadness, he is also happy to know that his sister’s spirit lives. It seems that his concern for his sister has impressed Kyquin. Perhaps the group has found an ally.

I originally intended this to be the last session of the campaign. In fact, it would be only the second campaign in thirty years as a GM that I could actually consider completed. But the players have an interest in learning about Mersah Matruh. We will take a few months off Kith’takharos to pursue other campaigns as other group members take over the GM duties. At that time, this may no longer be the Kith’takharos Campaign, but the Eastern Frontier Campaign.

Read all the Kith’takharos Campaign session recaps here.

A few weeks ago, one of the players dropped out of the group for personal reasons. The character he was playing at that time, the healer Fiona, became an NPC and subsequently died fighting the Veilwalker Dreamseeker in Tarass Shar Orn. This session we added a new player and his character, the dwarf warrior Ironbeard.

Xanthus Bome immediately gathers a force of about fifty militia, a large complement for a village the size of Kith’takharos. The group will scout ahead as Bome’s command nears the Teleportation Tower. Bome introduces them to Ironbeard, a proven dwarf warrior that will assist in the scouting.

The journey takes about a day of continuous poling in Jade Leaf skiffs. A mile from the tower, Bome halts the advance while the group ranges ahead. From the ground, the tower seems undefended, and the group suspects that they may have been tricked. Still, they enter through the front door and search each room as they ascend. The tower shows evidence of habitation, but no people until they reach the hatch leading to the roof.

About a dozen poachers hold a position on the roof, led by the pesky Travan, who has troubled the group numerous times in the past. After a short, sharp fight, the poachers are defeated and Travan escapes by jumping off the roof. They find Yavanna tied to a wheeled chair. Information gathered from Yavanna and a captured poacher suggests that Yavanna’s assistant, Christophe Moreau, must actually be Huygens Tierney! No one saw this coming, and it is now obvious how Tierney knew so much about Jade Leaf operations.

The group sets off a flare and meets Bome at the base of the tower. Bron still has the magical summoning ring Zzhastor Brune gave him, and he uses this to signal Brune. Bome accompanies the group when Brune teleports them all back to Kith’takharos.

They appear in Niki Ocnita’s shop, The Tipped Cup, where Brune is conversing with the construct Patch. Smoke is rising from the direction of the Jade Leaf Keep and they can hear the faint sounds of fighting from Kith’takharos Keep. Brune and Patch accompany the group as they rush toward Kith’takharos Keep.

A number of Jade Leaf and poacher corpses are scattered near the keep’s entrance, and the group comes under attack once they enter the courtyard. They brush aside the poachers and enter the main building. The clash of arms sound from the audience chamber, and they find Huygens Tierney and a number of poachers dispatching the last defenders protecting Lady Salmissra. Dorian Orsova lay face down in a pool of blood. Koran Thelig throws himself in front of Lady Salmissra and is struck down by Huygens Tierney/Christophe Moreau. No one remains to save Lady Salmissra save the group.

Tierney has arcane abilities that no one expected and is protected by powerful magic. He summons creatures to fight for him and enjoys taunting the group. Bome goes down, and then Patch. Bron manages to keep the group on its feet, but barely. Finally, a losing Tierney attempts to kill Lady Salmissra as his last act. Cheyl brings him down before the fatal blow can be struck and the battle is over. Once more, Kith’takharos has been saved.

Read all the Kith’takharos Campaign session recaps here.

With the giant reptile dead, exploration of Nhamah continues. The group searches a number of rooms and corridors. A crystal sphere Gabrielle retrieves from one room explodes, causing minor injuries. In another room they find a two-foot diameter silver wheel with spokes fashioned as intertwined snakes; Bron realizes the value of the item and rolls this down the hallway.

Finally, they reach another metal gate that blocks the corridor. On the other side of the gate

a youngish man wears plate armor with no helm. He has black hair and holds a sword in each hand. His eyes watch you from an expressionless face. At his right, a greenish-gray mound shaped like a rough pyramid rises to shoulder height. Bumps and bulges jut from the pyramid’s surface.

The man says nothing and does not move, giving you a few seconds to examine the pyramid. Understanding comes quickly. The pyramid is composed of mummified Swamp Man corpses, elaborately intertwined into a geometric shape.

This man explains that his master does not wish the group to pass, and so he will kill them if they try. It is clear that this is not a man at all, but a Veilwalker construct. After a short and fruitless discussion, the battle begins.

Gabrielle conjures an Ogre that bashes down the gate. She summons another construct to surround the Black Haired Man. Chayl and Jory also move to engage. Bron hangs back, ready to heal when necessary.

Soon everyone realizes that the Veilwalker construct has the ability to back up its boasts. Its extraordinarily tough skin deflects almost all blows. It attacks with great sweeps of its swords that threaten all nearby foes. It shrugs off a wound that might fell a powerful warrior and incapacitates both Chayl and Jory. Bron rushes forward and pulls Chayl back, barely surviving a brutal counterattack.

At that moment, the battle seems lost. Three out of four group members are grievously injured and two of those are out of the fight. Yet somehow the construct doesn’t finish them off. Gabrielle expends the last of her magical resources summoning three more constructs of her own. Bron manages to get Chayl back on her feet. The Black Haired Man fights on, but is now hard-pressed and struggling to survive. Finally, Bron pitches in with a well-placed arrow shot and it goes down, inert and unmoving.

They search nearby rooms and find the Aether Bind. Bron uses his magical ring and Zzhastor Brune teleports them back to Kith’takharos Keep. He immediately activates the Aether Bind. Then Lady Salmissra arrives and tells them that poachers have kidnapped Yavanna Culand and her assistant Christophe Moreau. The poachers have taken them to a heavily defended Teleportation Tower.

The group immediately volunteers to scout for the force that will be sent to rescue the archaeologists.

The group had an extremely tough fight against the Black Haired Man. In my opinion, three main factors contributed to the construct’s near victory.

But, as often seems to happen in RPG fights, the characters made adjustments during the battle that helped turn things around. Bron also made some gutsy moves, as when he pulled Chayl out of the battle. He took two Wounds for that effort and could have been killed.