It’s a busy, bustling midsummer day in Ashaker. Harvest is shaping up well, and the weather has been fine. The town is busy, with lots of new faces. We’re all going through our usual day.
Blake, Bonito, Calana, and Benam wind up in the center of town. There’s a man in a uniform marking him as a Captain of the King’s Guard. He identifies himself as Captain Carver, and says he was on vacation nearby when he got word of trouble moving up from the south and came here to get matters in hand. It seems that multiple villages down south have been wiped out and refugees are pouring north. Nobody really knows what’s been happening. No one’s seen any armies, no uniforms, banners, or music indicating who is doing the attacking. Nothing fits any known pattern of attack from any force.
Captain Carver arranges ways to defend this town in case whatever is moving up from the south gets here. He’s not really worried; we are an actual town with walls, not a small, undefended village. Still, he gives several directives. He sounds the horn indicating that the gates are going to be closed, so Maggie and Marcus pack up some supplies and come to town to stay with her parents. Every home and business in town should have a nearby barrel of water, to fight fires if needed. We all get our armor and weapons ready to hand. Captain Carver organizes people to mount a defense on the walls. Father Brenner invites Bonito, Calana, Maggie, Marcus, Blake, and Benam to stay in the church, a sturdy stone building, if they wish. Maggie puts her parents on a barge and sends them off north to safety.
We suggest to the captain that it would be useful to send some folks out to scout after dark, to warn the town if enemies are approaching. There are three of us on horses (me and Blake, the humans with no night vision, and Benam, the slow dwarf). Maggie and the two half-orcs are on foot, fast-moving and able to see in the dark. At dusk we ride out, and an hour or so later, when we circle around to the south of tow, we hear something and are on alert. Then Bonito sees what looks like someone in a camouflage suit, something shaggy with vines and such, duck behind a tree. Maggie suggests we head back to town, but before we can do much the antagonist jumps at Blake and pulls her right off her horse, hurting her so badly she can barely move. She was scored by blades or sharp claws, and feels burning in the wounds. The figure that attacked her is distorted, with twisted flesh and protruding teeth. It is either wearing a pack under a cloak, or has a serious hunch, and if it’s wearing clothes they are badly tattered. We try to fight and to escape north toward the city, but two more of the creatures show up and they are formidable. Maggie manages to heal Blake enough that she gets off a Dancing Lights spell to warm the town. Bonito kills one of the attackers, and we see that the others take some strength from his death. We have to leave Marcus and Benam behind as we try to get to town, but the two attackers follow. Blake puts one to sleep, but the other takes down me & Maggie. Only Bonito & Blake make it back to town. The people open the gate to let them in and are ready to overwhelm the attacker following them, killing it and closing the gate.
It doesn’t last. As the night wears on, the town is attacked by at least 200 of the creatures. Bonito and Blake retreat to the church, and Bonito watches from a high window as the creatures storm the walls again and again. When the wall finally collapses they swarm in and kill everyone outside of a few strong points, such as the churches. It becomes obvious that they are going to get into the church, and Father Brenner gives Bonito a blessing (Bull Strength), then he steps out the door and calls down a flame strike that hits his position, charring the pavement and taking out 30-40 of the creatures (and himself, of course). But there are always more, and finally Blake and Bonito fall. All six of us are now dead.
We each have a consistent set of experiences.
The attack in town is over and the creatures are gone. Bonito and Blake wander and find a few survivors, people who were secure in cellars that the attackers didn’t find. The people don’t seem surprised by anything about Bonito and Blake, so it’s not that they are ghosts or anything.
What’s going on??
Out in the woods where I woke up, I see that the creature Blake put to sleep is gone, and the dead one is still here and still dead. The four of us out here talk about our experience. Mags remembers that the “home” we saw when we regained consciousness wasn’t our actual town. It might have been the town the woman came from, or a generic concept of “home.” We also figure out that we each saw a woman of our own race. We pull ourselves together and walk to town.
Meanwhile, in town, there are maybe 2 dozen people alive. Some remember dying and the woman reaching out; some don’t seem to have died at all, and have only superficial wounds. Those who died and returned all have an odd glint in their eyes that can only be seen in just the right light. Those with low-light vision or dark vision have no change in how they see (but do have that odd glint); humans now have low-light vision, as I do.
A survey of the town turns up 150 dead creatures and thousands of dead people, but it seems that there are some people missing. We find some sets of clothing that are torn, as though ripped away, with no corresponding body. There are no body parts or bones other signs of anyone eating the dead. Bonito goes to the place where he saw the Captain fall when the wall was overwhelmed. He finds the Captain’s standard and a lot of bodies, but neither the Captain’s body nor his armor. There are some sets of empty clothes, but no empty suits of armor.
The dead monsters here aren’t wearing shaggy green vines and things like the ones we fought in the woods. They have ragged clothes and occasionally beat-up bits of armor, looking like random things stolen in other towns they destroyed.
Plans are made and enacted:
We are searching houses for bodies, and Benem comes across a dead man in one house. He goes in to get him and sees there’s also a woman there, going through the motions of fixing breakfast at a stove with no fire. She has some injuries, but nothing severe, like the ones who never died. When he tries to remove the corpse, the woman screams at him to leave her husband alone. She tries to attack Benem with a poker; he pushes her away with his hammer. She shrieks and her hand starts to deform, twisting and growing claws, dropping the poker. The deformity spreads to the rest of her. She continues to scream at Benem, clawing at him and telling him to get out of her house. He backs off, and she throws herself on her husband’s body, screaming and crying. Her body is still changing and twisting, until, as she lies on her husband’s corpse, she looks like the ones who attacked the town.
The rest of us, drawn by the shrieking, watch through the open door as her change continues. She shrinks until she’s the size of a fairly large dog. She has paws and limbs sized and articulated to walk on all fours. There’s no humanity left in her eye. She uses her teeth to pull a bracelet off the husband’s arm, his wedding band, and pads to the door. Mags knew this woman and calls her by her name: Tammy. Tammy seems to take reassurance from Mags and hands her the bracelet. She goes back into the house and grabs her husband’s body and starts dragging it to the funeral pyre, refusing all offers for help. Once she gets there she pushes the body to the fire, gets the bracelet from Mags, and puts it on his body. She returns to Mags, apparently having formed a bond there. She shows no sign of responding to any human language, though she does react to tone of voice and gesture. In all ways, she seems like an animal. We have no idea what to make of this. We find a few more people going through the motions of their life, in extreme shock. There are two more who have become animals. One is smaller, likely a former child, who is terrified of everything; the other is one with more severe injuries, who is completely unresponsive.
We search the Captain’s quarters, looking for more pigeons to send more messages. We find the place was ransacked, torn apart, apparently by someone searching for something. Nothing seems to be missing, except that there is a cage for pigeons which has been opened and the birds are gone.
We now have six different outcomes for the people of the town: dead and burned up in the pyre, died and returned, survived without dying, turned into beasts, vanished leaving torn clothing behind, and just gone (like the Captain, whose armor went with him). We can’t make sense of any of this.
The survivors hole up in the most defensible church overnight, setting watches. In the morning we load up carts with all the supplies we can possibly need and figure out what to do next. Mags convinces some crows to take messages to her parents, saying she’s okay, and to her grandmother the druid with details about what’s happened. Most of the townspeople will head to other towns where they have family or other connections. We decide to backtrack the invaders to see if we can figure out where they came from or who sent them. We bring two wagons of supplies and 14 horses (four to pull each wagon and one each for the six of us). The badly injured animal-person died in the night, but the child seems content to come with us. Bonito names it Cutie and gets a leash and collar for it, treating it like a dog, which is fine with it. Three others come with us:
We leave town, heading south on the road along the river. Between the town and the woods it’s been is trampled by the invading army. Once we get through the woods signs of the invaders are harder to find; they traveled in single-file far off to the side of the road, striving for stealth. Clearly guided by a mind.
We get to the next town, where the only living things are animals. A few buildings were burned, but mostly there are bodies. The people apparently were surprised during the night; most of their bodies are in or near bedrooms. There are some dead creatures, and Bonito suggests it might be useful to have the skull of one of them to show, so we cut off a head and boil it down to bones.
We release animals who need releasing (pigs and sheep; the horses and cows have already fled), cook up some proper food, and bed down in the stable. Watches:
\We wake in the barn at dawn. We can see that Bonito has gained some special favor from his god, with the ability to cast some cleric spells. The rest of us have gained some abilities in the night as well (the result of reaching Level 2).
Those on 3rd watch alert us that there are things moving about out there in the fields to the east of town. We are all up and prepared for the day when we see that it was four of the monsters, coming toward us from the east. We remind ourselves that we want to hurt and kill them, but we really want to have all of them severely injured before we actually kill any of them, since when one dies, the rest seem to gain power.
We throw rocks at them, and they throw rocks back at us. We shoot at them and miss, mostly because they take cover behind some bales of hay in the fields. To persuade them to come out of hiding, we shoot a flaming arrow that catch one of the bales on fire. This doesn’t seem to distress them, though. In fact, they each pick up a bale of hay, with the one front and center in the group carrying the burning one, apparently without taking any harm from it. They start approaching toward the barn, slowly but steadily. We shoot at the parts we can see (feet, mostly), but don’t hit anything, and they’re still coming. Soon they will reach us in the highly flammable barn, which will be all kinds of bad.
We fight them with all our ranged weapons, including ranged spells, which wounds some of them but doesn’t do nearly enough damage. Just before they reach the barn, Mags casts create water and dumps enough on the leading hay bale to put it out, so we don’t have to worry about fire at the moment. Some of the tougher fighters have moved out of the barn, to try to lure the attackers away from the rest of us. I’ve gone up to the loft inside the barn, where I can shoot down through the window at those outside and down through the loft opening if they come inside.
The battle is a challenging one. Bonito, Mags, Benem, Darryl, Scott, and Blake all take varying degrees of damage. Mags proves able to summon creatures to fight for her, and brings in two wolves who help us a lot. We finally kill one, and observe the others becoming more powerful as a result, just as we feared.
The biggest surprise of the fight, though, happens when one of the monsters is able to get right in Blake’s face, making it difficult for her to use her crossbow. She spends a split second considering her options, including backing away to get a shot, but instead decides out of frustration and anger to step in closer and stab him with her dagger. As she moves to do so, she suddenly transforms, becoming another monster! She is still wearing her usual clothes and is recognizably herself, but she has claws and a snout on her face and seems to be stronger than she was before. We see that she still attacks the monster before her, so it doesn’t seem that she’s changed sides. In fact, she is acting just as we would have expected her to act, fighting the other monsters, so we accept this change, at least for now. She eventually takes so much damage she falls, unable to fight any more, and when that happens she gradually shifts back to her old, human self. We assume this could have happened to any of us, which is VERY disconcerting.
The fight is a hard one, but eventually the nine of us are able to kill the four of them. It’s clear that these monsters are very much stronger than we are; a two-to-one ratio was barely enough to allow us to be successful. We manage to do some healing, enough to get all of us back on our feet, though we aren’t all back to full health. We also pull together more supplies from this village (all the crossbow bolts we can find, all the hay we can carry in our wagons) and figure out what we’re going to do now. We finally decide to burn the bodies of the monsters and head south, continuing to backtrack the attackers, but we will stay off the road to the west side (since these attackers came from the east), and we won’t stay in villages any more.
We left town, traveling mostly south but west of the main road. We found a few villages and hamlets with no survivors. As we go the destruction gets older, so we are successfully backtracking the attacks.
In one hamlet we found a survivor, a wizard named Bentan. He had been traveling on a merchant ship that docked at the port town farther south, at the mouth of the great river. They found a dead village and a few of the corpses of the creatures. The rest of those on the ship decided to leave immediately, but he chose to stay to try to find out what had happened. He has explored to the east until he got within sight of the Fens, a region of marsh and lawlessness at the border of the kingdom. His best guess is that the attackers came from the Fens, though it’s possible that they might have come into the fens from the foothills north of there. He joins us for the night.
Bonito prays to Chireus because he’s worried about the evil of this transformation. He got the feeling that Chireus will protect him from evil, and in the morning he has a new spell: Protection from Evil. The night passes smoothly, and in the morning Bentan decides to continue northward to see what he can learn. He can levitate, so he can get up out of reach of the creatures if attacked. He promises to message us if he finds a town that hasn’t fallen or a safe place.
We are able to determine that the majority of the creatures who attacked this village came from the south, but there were a few who also came from the east. We decide to head southeast from here, going toward the Fens. This will involve beating our way around the countryside and some scattered small roads.
That afternoon we see a wagon on the road coming toward us, and pull to the side so we can pass. We greet each other, and find out that they, like us, died and rose again. They say the last time they saw some of the monsters, they didn’t attack, but came up, sniffed them, and went off, like dogs. They’re heading west, not with any specific goal but just to try to find someplace to survive.
During this conversation I suddenly have the STRONG feeling that these people have no chance at all of surviving and that it would be a mercy to kill them quickly now. I really want to shoot them, but realize that this is not a thought that I ought to have. I have never killed anyone and know it’s wrong to start now. I slap myself and go back behind our wagons, putting the others out of sight. Tammy & Cutie are staring hard at me, focused. I put my crossbow out of reach and try to calm down. After the strangers move on, the rest of the party joins me and I tell them what happened. My hair has become coarser, more like fur, and there’s a little dark stubble on the nape of my neck. I clearly came close to transitioning, as Blake did. I splash water on my face, get some advice about calming rituals from Marcus and a blessing of Chireus from Bonito. The feeling has passed, but the physical changes remain (and I get a second mark). We talk about this, warning us all to pay attention to such outside feelings and call for help if we feel them. It would also be useful to pay attention to the “dogs,” who seem to know when someone is feeling those influences.
We continue, and around dinner time get to another dead hamlet. There are people there, picking through the town and taking all the valuables they find. One calls out that they’ve already got all the good stuff and we should just move on. There’s another there he addresses as “Bob,” who replies to a question only with “Fuck you,” so we name him Fuck-You Bob.
Bonito and Blake get the strong feeling that these people are not being honorable. They aren’t just taking provisions or things they need, but stealing valuables and mementos that should be left alone. They both have the urge to kill them for this. Bonito asks Chireus for strength, and hears a voice saying, “So what?” which neutralizes his urge. Blake recognizes this and raises her hand for help, and Bonito blesses her with Protection from Evil. The moment passes safely, and we continue.
A couple of hours later we get to another dead hamlet. There’s nobody here and nothing of value, and we decide it’s a good place to hole up for the night. Bonito leads prayers to Chireus, and Mags, Blake, and I all join him. Marcus does his own separate thanks for her help. We have dinner and settle in.
During the first watch, after most of us are asleep, Mags and Marcus see someone sneaking toward the camp. It’s the guy we talked to in the last village. They call out, waking the rest of us. He says they just want to join us for the night since there’s safety in numbers. We aren’t buying it; why sneak up when most are asleep instead of approaching directly during daylight? We tell them to go and they agree, moving away from the camp.
Blake, Mags, and I all get the feeling that it’s stupid to let them go. They will just come back and kill us in the night. We should kill them all now. Mags calls after them to get away quickly or we’ll kill them “because we can’t help ourselves.” Blake starts performing her calming meditations. I slap myself (it helped last time) and call on Chireus for help, but it’s not enough. I can’t convince myself to set down the crossbow when there are enemies in sight, and I can’t stop myself from shooting a bolt at them. Thankfully, it misses. I shout, “She warned you!” (meaning Mags). Bonito shouts at me, “Don’t attack noncombatants!” Thanks, but I knew that; it didn’t help.
They run away and we gradually calm down. I notice my fingernails are now longer than before, but still ordinary nails, not claws. Thank goodness.
It’s going to be a long night.
As we settle down for the night (again), Bonito leads many of us in prayers to Chireus. He tells her we’re losing this fight and need all the help we can get. He’s also concerned that these urges we keep getting and the transitions that are happening are inherently evil, since Protection from Evil helps us avoid them, but Blake tells him that this kind of Protection spell also protects against mind influences of all kinds. We make sure everyone is fully healed and get a full night’s sleep. There are no further disturbances.
In the morning we move on. Mags casts Speak With Animals to talk to Tammy, asking her why they stare at us when we get these feelings from outside. She says it’s like we’re all here for once, whereas generally we’re pretty flighty. She says this is especially true for me; I’m showing physical signs from two separate near-transitions. Indeed I note this morning that while my fingernails are still fingernails, not claws, they are growing much faster than ordinary fingernails, and I have to trim them again. She asks Tammy how this “more there” manifests, and she says I smell different. There’s an extra tang – like when someone doesn’t wash. I don’t smell particularly like the monsters that fight us, which is one bit of good news, I guess. I just need to bathe more? Anyway, she asks Tammy to make sure to stare at anyone who becomes more “here” and to make noise if needed to call our attention to this.
We continue southeast, toward the Fens. We discuss what to do if we see more of the creatures. They don’t seem to be interested in us since we died, and might just ignore us. That would be fine! In the evening we come to another empty, dead village and spend the night there, after prayers. There are no problems in the night. In the morning Mags talks to Tammy again and teaches her some tricks to do in response to signals. Tammy is curious about Mags’s ability to talk to her sometimes, and asks is Mags could have talked to the creatures back at the barn. Mags says no, and Tammy says she couldn’t either. The attackers are clearly not animals.
As we travel we see some livestock that’s loose and grazing. In a stream we come across a boat that’s drifted against the bank, swamped. It’s got things in it that someone might throw together when escaping, but there are no bodies nearby and no blood to be found. It also shows no damage beyond the ordinary wear and tear. We pass several empty, dead villages.
As nightfall we approach another village and hear a wordless scream of anger and pain. Blake says it sounds like someone whose mind is gone. We approach the village cautiously, with Bonito, Marcus, and Benam going into the center while the rest of us wait outside with weapons ready. Some human people stumble out of some buildings, obviously staggering in weakness and ill health. They look starved and dehydrated. One of them sees a water skin hanging on someone’s belt and charges that way clumsily, hands outstretched, to seize it, ignoring the person holding it. The people in the town hold out their water skins to others, who grab at them and shove each other away. They are uncoordinated enough to have difficulty pulling out the stoppers, and need help to open the bags. Blake, to reduce some of the scrum in the center of town, casts Ghost Sound to create the sound of running water just outside of town, and some of them start to move that way. Mags moves inward and gives her water skin to someone, and as he drinks asks what happened to their water supply. The person doesn’t answer.
About this time the first person to start drinking vomits out all the water he drank. Others start to vomit as well. Several of us know that drinking too much too fast after becoming seriously dehydrated can be a problem. Mags, as a witch, has studied many kinds of illness, and draws the conclusion that these people have rabies! They are dying of thirst and of the effects of the illness, but are physically unable to drink. We can do nothing for them, and need to get out of there. We all withdraw rapidly, and keep going.
A ways down the road we camp for the night, and have no problems aside from the horror of what we just experienced. The next day we move on, and late morning we see someone out in the field who seems to be working as one normally would in a field. We hail him and introduce ourselves. His name is Alvin. He readily admits to having died and come back, but he is the only survivor in his village. The creatures came to his town from the east. We stay the night with him, sharing food, talking and singing songs. I repair all the equipment he has. We talk to him about making a plan to get through the winter, telling him about the livestock we’ve passed he could bring in. We also tell him about the rabies village and to stay away from there. Blake casts Detect Magic. All the people including Alvin have a very faint magical aura of the Transformation school, with no alignment. This aura might be slightly stronger on me, but it’s all so faint it’s hard to tell. Interestingly, there’s no aura at all on Tammy or Cutie.
In the morning we move on. At the crest of a hill we are able to just make out the Fens up ahead, about 2-3 days away. As we’re heading east on a rough road, we notice movement a few hundred yards to the south of us and up ahead. There are a dozen of the creatures traveling west on a track parallel to our own. We keep moving without changing speed or direction. Three of the creatures peel away from the larger group and approach us. One of them is wearing the King’s Guard armor, and is flanked by the other two. When they get within hailing distance one makes noises in a language none of us speak. Bonito gobbles incoherently in return. One of the minions says something and the guy in the armor smiles slightly & gestures, and they turn to rejoin their fellows.
As he’s leaving, Bonito starts to change. He feels a strong desire to go with them, to find out what the joke was and join with their group. He realizes it’s getting harder to hold the reins, and looks down to see that he has claws. Mags starts reciting a Chireas prayer she remembers from the nightly services. He had transformed completely into a monster, and Mags uses Handle Animal to keep his horse calm. Bonito casts Protection from Evil on himself, and he turns back to himself, without any lasting sign.
After we all settle down from that, and after the creatures are entirely out of sight, Bonito rides south to look at the path they were on. It’s a natural path, very rough, and we could bring the horses and wagons there but decide not to. We’ll stay on the road, and send a few people to ride parallel along that road, backtracking the creatures, to try to tell where they came from.
As we’re riding se note that Blake looks bothered by something, and press her to explain. She believes the guy in the armor cast a spell with his gestures right before he turned away, and that may be what made Bonito change. It’s not like any spell she knows about.
We continue east. We’re noticing that the villages we come to, while empty, look cared for, as though someone has been repairing damage and doing upkeep since the massacre. As we go east, there are more and more signs of this. We talk it over, and think about a fortified garrison we know of to the north, one the kingdom put there to keep an eye on the Fens. We decide to go there next; we’re not ready to tackle the Fens! As we go north, we see villages that are tidied up, so we don’t want to spend the night in any of them. We find a little hollow that’s protected where we can camp and won’t be seen easily as long as we don’t have a fire. In the middle of the night, Benam and I see one of the creatures, in some kind of camouflage, sneaking very quietly. We wake others, and when the creature realizes it’s been seen it freezes. It stays perfectly still for so long people go back to sleep and the watches continue, with all of us keeping an eye on the creature. It stays perfectly still until dawn, when it goes away.
We break camp and head north. The first few villages we pass are also tidied up, but as we go north there are fewer signs of this, and later none at all. At night we sleep in a ruined village.
It’s time to go to Level 3! We discuss languages, and conclude that if I learn Orcish, we’ll be able to communicate more easily using only two languages, so I’ll do that.
In the morning we head north toward Fort Varays. Mags sends an animal messenger to her grandmother with a letter containing all the information we have, and asks for a reply so we know she’s getting the messages. Blake has done Detect Magic again and gotten the same result as before, unchanged by Bonito’s brief stint as a monster.
We camp in another empty village. During the middle watch I believe I see something moving way out at the edge of my vision. It’s humanoid and moving side to side, neither approaching nor retreating. I alert Benam, but with his dark vision he can’t see it. After a bit it vanishes, possibly because it stopped moving or because it dropped behind something. There’s no clear threat so we don’t wake anyone else, but tell the next watch about it and keep a careful watch all around.
In the morning we adjust some of the things we’re carrying. Blake gives Bonito a scroll of Divine Favor since he’s the only one who could cast it. He’ll spend time today deciphering it so he can use it if needed. She also give me a potion of Cure Light +4 to carry.
Before we move out, we cautiously approach the area where I saw movement. There’s a track of someone with shoes (so not a monster, since they’re not shod), leading over a rise and into a small hollow, which is where I must have lost sight of it. Someone clearly spent the night in the hollow. There are food scraps, showing signs of the refuse from humanoids. There are also the remains of tripwires that had been set as a sort of alarm, but the noisemakers (bells or whatever) are gone. All the tracks seem to have been made by one person. As we go back to the camp, we see in the distance to the north a humanoid woman traveling north away from us, paralleling the road but not on the road. She’s several hundred yards away. We decide to leave her alone and continue on our way.
As we travel, we see the same band of a dozen creatures, behind us off to the side of the road but keeping pace with us. We keep going, and as it gets toward evening we camp in an abandoned village. The band of creatures stops several hundred yards away, but as we’re fixing dinner three of them peel off and come toward us. Mags uses her Annoyed Witch Voice (TM) to shout “What do you want?” They respond in a language nobody understands. Bonito casts Comprehend Languages, but they don’t speak again. As they approach they split up, with two going to one side and one to another, and disappear behind buildings. Mags calls again, “Do we have a problem?” Blake casts Mage Armor. Bonito touches me and gives me a Guidance spell, which would give me a +1 to Saves. One of them says something quietly, but he’s out of Bonito’s reach and he can’t hear him.
[HOUSE RULE: Comprehend Languages requires touch to read something written, but is NOT a touch spell for spoken language. Instead, it’s a short range spell with no roll to “attack,” but each individual creature within the range gets a separate Will save to avoid being understood.]
I call out in all the languages I know, “I don’t know why you came over here if you’re not going to talk to us.” Mags and Blake add the languages they know. After a while we see a fourth creature sneaking slowly around to our right, and Benam walks toward him calling out cheerily, “Hi!” Mags glares: “NOW you want to talk?” I hold out some dried meat: “Want some? Come talk to us.”
As Benam gets closer to the creature he sees that he’s got a badly worn belt wrapped around his waist with things dangling from it. He does a swaggering gesture that looks like a challenge. Benam gives a friendly smile and steps back. The creature laughs, and pulls a small orb off his belt and tosses it up and down like a baseball. Benam grins and swings his war hammer, gesturing to the thing to toss it to him The creature gives a toothy grin and tosses it, aiming it so that Benam could probably hit it with the hammer, but Benam turns and runs.
The ball hits a wall and explodes with light. Several people are blinded, and we’re suddenly in a fight. It is quite a challenge, even though we more than outnumber them (9 to 4, not even counting Tammy who definitely does her part). Blake levitates, so she can scout and tell us where the other enemies are; the exceptionally good news is that the other eight of them are not approaching to join the fight. Mags brings two wolves in that prove very helpful. Tammy is badly injured but winds up killing one of the creatures and seems very pleased with herself. She also seems a little stronger and more powerful than before, and there’s a bit more intelligence in her eye.
During the fight, two of our party make the transition into furry creatures! Benam watches the last surviving creature running away, chased by Mags’s wolf, and is annoyed that he’s not fast enough to catch him, and then suddenly he is fast enough! But though he can keep up, he can’t actually attack. Marcus, though, becomes enraged at the thought that a stupid summoned wolf, which is running alongside the creature and nipping occasionally, might be able to show him up, and suddenly he is also much faster. He runs past the creature and attacks him as he runs by, but the creature is still up and running toward his buddies.
The fight is now over. We’re all alive, though two of us are furry. Bonito asks if they want to stay in that same shape or change back. They can talk, if they concentrate on forcing their uncooperative muzzles to work, and they both indicate they’d like to stay as they are. We do enough healing to get everyone back up to full health, except Scott, who took a lot of damage (he was one who was blinded for a while at the beginning of the fight).
We realize the other eight creatures are slowly moving toward us. We’re afraid they are going to attack tonight. We search the three bodies of creatures we killed and find a couple more of the flash-bang orbs. Those of us with ranged capability take up positions on the roofs of buildings, and melee fighters are below, in our field of cover.
This night is going to be a challenge.
As expected, the rest of the creatures came into town and attacked us right off. We shot at them as they moved in, but didn’t do much damage. Here’s a general summary of the overall fight: We used the flash-bangs we got from the corpse of the guy we killed earlier. They also blinded people in our party, though, so that wasn’t much help.
One of the attackers was the fellow in armor, and he was casting spells. There appeared to be a symbol on his armor similar to what the creatures painted on the barn when we fought them several days ago, so we think he’s a cleric. He turned Scott into one of them. When that happened Bonito started praying. Scott seemed to be trying to recite the prayers with him, though with his mouth transformed no words were discernible.
At that moment, when Scott shifted, Mags felt a wave of sadness and the feeling that “I just can’t do this!” even though Scott wasn’t visible to her at that time. She made a conscious decision to shift into her furry monster form to take advantage of the improvements in strength and damage it gave her. This was successful, although as the fight became more intense she realized she was losing her focus on the difference between friends and foes. She was totally focused on that cleric, feeling rage and hatred toward him, so she continued to attack him and Tammy followed her lead, so she never actually attacked any of our party. Neither did Tammy, though Benam notices that she briefly snarled at him.
The cleric cast a spell on one of our attackers, using words none of us could understand (though maybe Mags could: she roared at him). Blake and Bonito also get the sense that Chireus is trying to help, though it’s not clear how much good she can do in this fight.
I mostly miss in my shots from the top of a roof, though once when I’m chanting the prayers to Chireus I hit and killed one. Thank you, Chireus! Then Bonito goes down, and I feel a strong conviction that my bow hasn’t been doing me much good, and it’s time to commit fully or just give up – and by “commit fully” it means go furry. I succumb to this and am suddenly in the form of one of the monsters (which costs me one of my marks). My mind is clear, though, and my motivation to fight alongside my companions against the enemy isn’t changed. I get one more shot from my crossbow before I have to discard it (I can’t reload with my claws) and jump down to fight hand to hand.
Darryl and Bonito are severely injured and bleeding. Scott is decapitated. Eventually we kill many of the enemies. Two of them flee, and we capture a third. He speaks in a language nobody understands and Mags forces out barely understandable words: “On your back and don’t move!” As he gets down I get two strong feelings from outside of me. One is a desperate plea to spare my life from a vanquished enemy (presumably this prisoner). The other is a response to that plea from some unknown entity which is just a general feeling that he doesn’t deserve and shouldn’t expect any mercy. Blake shouts, “You hurt my friends, you shush!” and hits him with a spell. Mags says, “He knows stuff he can tell us!” I really want this guy to die (I’m still getting this feeling that everyone who attacks me and my friends should die), but I also recognize the truth of what Mags says, so I hold off, and now the fight is over.
We securely tie up the prisoner, and we do some healing. Bonito is now just conscious and hurting. Darryl is dead. Scott is REALLY dead, with his head separated from his body. Blake and Mags work together over the two dead people, calling on them to return, and they get the feeling that Scott is beyond hope but that Darryl might be able to hear us and come back. It will take a deeper connection with some alien presence (perhaps the lady who brought us back before). Blake knows she can’t do more, but Mags gets the feeling she has enough of a connection that she might pull it off. We see that she suddenly becomes more adept and coordinated (more comfortable in the furry body) and makes gestures as though waking a sleeper, and suddenly Darryl shifts to the furry state, unconscious but alive.
The rest of us shift back to our normal forms. We’re exhausted, having used up a lot when fighting with the extra bonuses we had. Our prisoner, at the same time, loses the bonuses he had from the deaths of his compatriots. This drops his health so low he dies, and we don’t have a useful prisoner any more.
We have a long discussion as we try to unwind from the stress of combat trying to figure out what it all means. Mags tells us the armored caster tried to tell her that we were all really on the same team, and we should join up with them. That made her really mad, and it focused her enough that she continued to fight against him and not the rest of us even when she lost the feeling of connection to us. The biggest debate we had was about the meaning of and the relationship among three things that all started at the same time:
This just brings us back to where we’ve been ever since these events started: way more questions than answers.
A search of the bodies turns up only a single flash-bang. We cut off the heads of the dead monsters, just to make sure. We take a few teeth from Scott, in case the opportunity ever arises to bring him back from the dead. We pile all the corpses in one of the huts at the edge of town and settle in to get as much rest as we can this night.
Bonito leads prayers again tonight, asking Chireus for guidance and information as well as comfort ans peace. I’m feeling particularly disturbed about having killed someone (something? A sentient, thinking creature at any rate) for the first time, and having transformed completely into this new form. I can’t help but notice that the first time I successfully shot one of the creatures was when I was chanting to Chireus. There’s a pull in me toward wanting to forge a closer connection to Chireus for help and strength in dealing with this disaster. As the service continues we all begin to feel a general sense of calm, which reinforces my interest in getting closer to her.
During the night Mags was meditating on the question of where the outside thoughts come from. She believes we each carry an internal “passenger,” and hear it speaking in our minds. The reason she thinks it’s not one external voice but several is that we hear different messages in different situations, from “Killing them would be a mercy” to “Kill them all!!” She seeks the entity inside her own mind, and has a vision of something trapped in a cage made of lightning. It vaguely resembles one of the monsters, the way a donkey resembles a horse. The lightning pours down endlessly from above, surrounds the entity, and pours down to a metal pyramid just visible far below. The entity seems to be in pain. When it looks at her, the lightning arcs to her dream-self, creating not only dream-pain but a sensation of pressure on her physical sleeping body. Both the pain and the pressure recede quickly. She asks if it can understand her, but aside from looking at her it makes no response. She tries to create a metal rod to draw off the lightning, but the rod dissolves on contact with the lightning. She tries to move downward toward the pyramid, but some force blocks her. She creates a large cart and pushes it toward the creature, attempting to push it out of its lightning cage, but it again disintegrates when it contacts the lightning. It doesn’t just vaporize, though, but seems to wither and decay, as though attacked by plant-based magic. Chanting a prayer to Chireus has no effect. She tries to move up to the source of the lightning, but although she appears to be moving the source grows no closer. The creature in the lightning cage moves upward with her. They can both move back down again, but still get no closer to the pyramid. She reaches once more to the creature, but the lightning arcs to her hand once more with the same sensation of pain and real physical pressure. She lets go of the image and goes back to meditation.
Meanwhile, several of us (Blake, Benam, and me) share a dream centering on our grief over Scott’s death. We are in a version of the village we are sleeping in, all in gray, with light ash raining from a gray sky. There’s a sense of perseverance in the face of hopelessness. We appear to be in our beast form. Blake’s thoughts stray to that wizard we met a few days ago, and she hopes he’s not dead yet.
Bonito also has a dream. He finds himself on a long path with Chireus, manifesting as a huge dragon. She acknowledges his fear of transformation into the other form. He doesn’t want it to take him away from her, and she agrees he is right to fear that. She tells him the outside thoughts are separate from the form, and they are tempting but must be fought. The other form is not evil in itself, but it might invite the outside thoughts, and it may make it harder to resist the thoughts. Vigilance and prayer is enough for now to overcome them, but it will be harder in the future. There is an entity actively sending these thoughts. It is not a god and is only partially aware of us, depending on how much attention it is paying. The woman who reached out to us is also not a god. The spell-casting monster may be a holy man, but not to any god Chireus has ever heard of, which worries her. She says she has other clerics alive and active but none in Bonito’s situation; they are all in areas where the beasts have not yet arrived.
Bonito asks what we should do now. She says we may find some answers in the Baron’s city (Hewcourt) or in the King’s capital, and possibly other places as well. She doesn’t recommend we go into the fens, at least not yet; it may hold answers, but also holds death. Going to visit the walled city we’re heading toward is a good idea. Her followers had a church there, and she encourages Bonito to visit it. He was brought up within the church but not trained as a priest, and there will be knowledge there he might find useful. She promises to continue bless him and his friends as much as she is able. Of course, she is always open to new followers, and might bless them with magic.
In the morning we talk over these various visions and dreams, and share some insights. Blake says the force that blocked Mags from visiting the pyramid sounds like a spell of evocation, though much more powerful than any she knows. She knows of no gods linked specifically with pyramids; the closest is that there’s a dwarven god (Moradin) related to metal (the forge, and hammers), but it’s not a good fit.
When we’re ready to move on, we set fire to the hut with the bodies and hit the road. We can tell one of the creatures at least saw us go. We travel past a lot of dead bodies, but in one village see some fresh graves. There’s an older man and woman (Paul & Shannon Woods) who are astonished to see us. Like us, they didn’t actually “survive” the attacks, but came back from the dead. The fresh graves hold some others who also came back but then died later of what Mags diagnoses from their description as an upper respiratory infection. We offer them some options; they can stay, travel several days back along our path to join up with Adam, or travel with us to the fortress at Varays. They decide to come with us.
That evening after we camp in another dead village, we do the final healing on Darryl which brings him up to consciousness. We’ve got weapons ready, since he was dead and we brought him back with some of this magic we have and don’t understand. He remembers the attack that killed him, and nothing after that until right now. There was no vision and no woman holding out her hand. Another thing we don’t understand!
After dinner there are two prayer circles. Blake leads prayer to Saradosia (attended by Darryl, Paul, and Shannon) while Bonito leads prayers to Chireus. Bonito and Mags have a discussion after the service in which Bonito encourages Mags to consider joining the priesthood of Chireus. Mags isn’t interested (being a cleric to anyone is incompatible with her sense of her witchy calling), but it makes me think more about the issue and I have my own discussion with Bonito. I am seriously considering making my own commitment to Chireus. We do a bit more healing and the night passes uneventfully, though Mags has another dream. She is on a long and lonely journey through a desolate and ash-filled land. Ahead is a metal pyramid, and above it swirls a magical vortex. She walks and walks but the pyramid never gets closer. The dream is accompanied by a feeling of desperation.
In the morning we do a bit more healing and get back on the road. We see a few individual creatures, but none approach. About mid-afternoon we crest a hill and see Fort Varays in the distance. All we can see from here is that it seems like its gate is open, and there is no smoke rising and no sign of movement. We continue to approach, but don’t have any expectation of finding anyone alive.
We continue toward Fort Varays. As we approach we see a handful of the beasts cross the road ahead of us. When we get closer to Varays we see that the gate has been forced open and shows substantial damage. We pass a LOT of arrows in the ground and a few corpses of beasts, signs of a long pitched battle. We enter, bringing the wagons and horses. We can tell that there was another long battle in here, as people fought building by building. There are some corpses of beasts but none of the defenders, and find the remains of a huge funeral pyre in the center of town that explains the lack of bodies.
We call out, and 5 people, all armored and armed, appear. Albert tells us to get off the road, because monsters come through the town from time to time. If you stay out of their way they just pass by, but if you get their attention they try to eat you. We take the wagons and horses to the training ground in the barracks. All the military people are dead. Most of the ones alive in the town died and came back, including Albert, who calls the pretty lady who took his hand a demon, since she brought him back to this hell. There are a few who had been hidden well enough to get through the fight alive. Some defenders disappeared, and they have seen monsters coming through town wearing the livery of the fighters from the barracks and believe that the defenders were taken up into the enemy army. We tell them about Tammy and Cutie, so they won’t be surprised. There were people here in town who also became animals, but they ran off. Albert invites us to join the survivors in a tavern on the other side of town in the evening, when people gather to share a meal.
Blake, Marcus, and Darryl go to the home of Dr. Delgado. They find his spell book, and 4 pocket-sized books, each with just a few spells useful in the field or combat situations. There are materials for scrolls and potions, and texts on anatomy of various races. They then visit the Mayor’s library, which has local histories, biographies, and maps. A third library, belonging to someone with an interest in history and religion, has lots of texts from standard religions (dedicated to Saradosia and Elevite, a lawful good god of purity and obedience). They also find a secret door to a small room with books and memorabilia of the Church of Marcusis, a banned religion. Their owner’s family had been a member of this faith. There’s a holy symbol (that does not resemble the one carried by the monster cleric). Some texts describe one theory as to why this faith is banned. It says that a previous king (the father to the current king) was afflicted by a magical illness, and forged a pact with something evil to preserve his health. In this theory, the Church of Marcusis had evidence of the demonic pact, and that is why it was banned. We find it interesting that this king’s son is widely known for his strong healing powers; perhaps that was also part of the pact, in that he got those powers in order to keep the father alive.
Meanwhile, Mags and Benan locate an apothecary that has a lot of useful materials for creating potions.
Bonito, Jolene, and I set out to visit churches in town, starting with Chireus. We find copies of the usual texts containing prayers and rituals Bonito is familiar with. We find some smaller texts with prayers and rituals he doesn’t know. They seem to last rites and prayers for the valorous dead or not quite dead, appropriate for a battle priest. There’s also a tabard that radiates a faint aura of protective magic. In a hidden compartment there is an instruction manual for making potions and key ingredients, and three jeweled relics. Two are fancy but not otherwise important. The third, a small statue of Chireus in dragon form, has a faint aura of enchantment.
I’m still feeling the pull toward service to Chireus, so I light the brazier on the main altar and a candle. I focus on the flames and open my mind to Chireus, though all I can think of is a tentative greeting: “Hi?” I stare a while, and then notice that the candle, though burning, is not melting. I settle myself and watch it a while, reciting the prayers I’ve learned, and find it very calming. After a while we move on, taking with us the texts, the magical dragon statue, the potion ingredients, and various tools useful in making potions. I take the candle with me but leave the brazier burning.
We visit the other churches in the town, but don’t find anything useful. We’re not interested in the holy books and relics, and all the things like potion ingredients have been taken already. We visit the Church of Elevan last, because its cleric (Merle) is still alive. She died and came back, and talks to us of the situation in the town. They all hear the demon voice, and a few have transformed but thankfully came back to their former shape. The transformation trouble her greatly, and she’s even more troubled when we tell her about us bringing Darryl back from the dead; this offends her strong commitment to purity and the natural and right order of things.
That night, after sharing a meal in the tavern, we set up to spend the night in the Chireus temple. The brazier is still burning, and I light my candle and set it on the altar. We have our prayer circle and I read the holy books until bedtime. I use some spare tin to fashion my own holy symbol, and Mags asks me to help her make one out of copper, to be treated with fire to make it multicolored. During the night nothing unusual happens, though I wake up with a sense of warm and comforting flames, and my candle is still burning and still unmelted. I say, “Thanks.”
The next day begins with a trip to the commandant’s headquarters, located in a small heavily fortified keep at the top of the hill. There are obvious signs of a fierce, desperate last stand here. We find his log books, and work out the sequence of events.
In the afternoon a group of 6 creatures come through town. Everyone hides so as to draw no attention. They jog through town, but when they reach the Chireus temple where Bonito is they slow and some move toward it, then rejoin the group and keep moving. They also slow slightly in other areas, which we learn later are places where they fought townspeople in past trips through town.
That night we pray, all sleep in the temple, and the night passes uneventfully.
In the morning there was discussion about the holy symbols. Bonito is eager to press them on everyone in the party, but some are resistant. I am comforted by wearing the one I made for myself. Bonito also tries to cheer up Jolene, who is depressed about her ineffective showing in the last few fights. He counsels her to go get rousingly drunk, which she does. Meanwhile Mags and Blake read forbidden texts and I’m learning rituals of Chireus. We are heartened when Mags gets a message bird from her grandmother saying that Mags’s parents joined her safely, though they also learned that being on a boat doesn’t lead to safety from the monsters.
Mid-morning we are alerted to some creatures coming through town again. We go inside buildings and up on roofs to stay out of sight, but peek out to keep tabs on them. Bonito and I are up on a low roof, lying down behind a foot-high wall. This time there are four of them walking alongside a two-wheeled cart pulled by an ox. It’s got high sides and seems filled up with random stuff gleaned from dead towns. I feel a STRONG sense that it is just wrong for them to be looting the dead that way. I have the urge to kill them for this. In my head, I’m silently chanting prayers to Chireus. This may be why, when a voice telling me I have to stop them, I also get the sense that I don’t have to, and I resist.
Meanwhile, one of the creatures apparently caught sight of one of the defenders hiding out, and thumps the side of the cart. An arrow I recognize as coming from Mags impales a creature, and the fight is on, with the 8 of us against 5 of them (a fifth was apparently hiding or resting in the cart). I get a nearly miraculous shot, severely wounding one, and send thanks to Chireus. Jolene also acquits herself well, which is surprising, given not only her past performance but her state of inebriation. Perhaps she should be drunk for all her fights?
One of the creatures jumped up on the roof where Bonito and I were, and another joined him, and I was seriously wounded. I was thankfully able to jump down next to Mags, who used her witchy ability to heal me of much of my injury. Not long after that I feel another strong urge to run up to a creature and stab it in the kidney, but again I resist.
We notice several surprising things in this fight:
At the end of the fight one of the attackers is dead (the one that a compatriot tried to take away, but we stopped that), one of them has fled, and the other three are unconscious but stabilized and restrained. We have prisoners we might be able to talk to and learn from It would be good to find out something about what’s going on here, and why these creatures are less aggressive than others we’ve seen. It’s almost like they are the beast equivalents of us; they didn’t attack until attacked, they tried to flee, and they tried to retrieve a fallen comrade. So many questions!
In the aftermath of the fight, we make sure our three captives are stabilized. We’re concerned that we might have been in the wrong here; Mags fired the first shot, and it seems that all the opponents really wanted to do was escape. Blake asks Mags what it was like when she raised Darryl from the dead, and decides to try the same thing for the dead beast. She reaches within to get in touch with the source of the outside voice, and we see her transform into furry form, but not actually as herself. Whoever is animating her body is native to that form. Blake, as a trained wizard, can detect the action of a spell-like ability related to convocation and evocation (electricity variant). The force using her body pulls on a source of powerful energy, and pulls the spirit back. The beast’s heart starts beating and a few wounds stitch up enough so it doesn’t bleed out instantly. Blake sits back and transforms back into herself.
The rest of the day we tend to the unconscious creatures and do various other things. Mags finds a text with an extensive glossary of Sylvan terms and reads it, trying to rekindle the knowledge she once had when her grandmother tried to teach it to her. That night we settle in the Chireus temple along with the beasts we’re tending, and I light my candle and pray to Chireus, giving thanks for our survival and asking for guidance.
In the morning, I wake remembering dreams full of a hearth filled with warm, comforting flames. I say my usual morning prayer, and strongly feel that I should remain praying for longer. As the time goes on, I sense a swirling haze of magical spells offered by Chireus, and am able to grasp a few so that I know I could cast them this day. I send more thanks.
I return to the others and find that two of the beasts are awake, including the one who knows Sylvan (his name is Upalar). Mags is able to translate. Here are some of the things we learn.
We have a discussion among ourselves about what to do now. The first thing we think is that we need to find and talk with some fae here in our world. Is it possible that the fae in Upalar’s world were so unhappy about the destruction going on there that they just sent the army here to get rid of them? If so, can the fae here send them back? Should they?
We have no need to kill these people. They are clearly warlike (and it seems they assume that we will kill them eventually), but that’s not us. We consider asking them to travel with us, since it might be beneficial to both groups if we run into either of our enemies. However, Jolene is reluctant to trust them enough to travel with them, and says she will think about it.
Mags gets another bird from her grandmother. In it she says that she is alarmed by the lack of alarm shown by the leaders in the capital, who act like they think that nothing really bad is going on. She’s going to make sure Mags’s reports are conveyed and received appropriately, traveling to the capital herself if she has to.
Mags decides to meditate again to see if she can contact the entity she believes is inhabiting her mind. It takes a couple of tries, but she falls into a vivid dream of a once pastoral land, now an ashen desert with waterways tinted red. In the distance she sees the metal pyramid, with lightning shooting out the top to a trapped figure. She rapidly approaches the pyramid and zooms up to a point near the figure, and shouts “Rojum” (parlay). The creature in the lightning opens its eyes and tries to reach out with a hand that turns into a massive bolt of lightning. She reaches out herself, using her own power to try to catch it, but it overwhelms her completely and she wakes up sore and aching.
She speaks to Upalar, describing the imagery in the dream. He says that the temples to Kavenir are sometimes shaped like pyramids, and he knows of a couple that are metal, specifically one near the capital. It’s not the same as what she saw, since in the real one in his world there’s no point on top, just a level glass surface to let in light. Kavenir is associated somewhat with lightning, more than with other elements. The blasted landscape sounds like his world, though, except that there were no burning trees. In his world, everything has been burned by the enemy. Both sides used magic in the battle, but the enemy is better with it.
Jolene lets us know that she could see traveling with Upalar, but not with the whole group. We put this to him. Once we convince him that we won’t kill him if he objects, he says no, he doesn’t want to separate from his traveling companions. However, he agrees to stay here in town with us for a couple of days to teach us some more of his language. Blake and Benam learn best, and wind up able to communicate moderately well. Blake asks about a written language; they have one, but few people are literate. They use a glove on their claws to write. While we work to learn the language, I make a similar glove so that if we turn furry we will be able to write. At the end of the couple of days we let them go on their way, with their cart and their supplies.
That evening, after the beasts leave, Mags has another vivid dream. She sees a group of seven beasts traveling with a cart. They resemble the creature she saw trapped in the lightning cage, which is similar to but not the same as the beasts we see here in our world. They are slogging through a difficult journey across a blasted landscape, and have been for many days. This whole time there has been a huge thunderstorm raging in the distance. They clouds are scattered with roiling vortices that draw lightning in from the surrounding clouds. Suddenly, one of the vortices swells and lights up permanently, creating a huge shaft of unending lightning. The creatures with the cart stop, point, and say (in the dream she understands their language): That’s the one we’re looking for!
In the morning we pack up and leave Verays. Our plan is to take the road north until we hit the east-west road, then go east to the border with Bokkum. If we see that their villages have not been attacked, this would be a clue as to the cause of the attacks. If they have been attacked, we may decide to go further to make sure their leaders are aware of the danger. Along the way we will be on the lookout for a way to contact the Fae and for potion ingredients.
We pass through many of the usual dead villages. Around noon, after turning east, we see movement in a dead village, flashes of beast fur. The road goes through the village, so we keep going. As we get to the village we hear some muttered speech, which Blake is able to understand: “What do we do with these idiots?” We don’t respond, just keep going. Then we hear, “Looks like they’ve got some good stuff.” Mags, who is up front by the lead wagon, shouts in their language, “Don’t even think about it!”
One of the beasts steps out of a building into the road ahead. He is amazed to learn that we can speak. He suggests that we should share our stuff. Mags tells him not to be greedy since they have a whole village to look through. He notes that we aren’t in the normal colors. Mags asks what colors he expects to see; he says green & red, mostly, which we vaguely remember are the colors of one of the baronies and could be colors worn by soldiers in this region. He says we’re not from around here, to which she replies, “More than YOU!” and he chuckles. She suggests he might want to get out of the way of the wagons. He steps off to the left, the side she’s on.
He presses to find out where we’re from, and Mags presses to find out where they’re from. Bonito, who is riding on the lead wagon, insists on them sharing first. When the leader calls Bonito pushy, they start talking about pots and kettles, and the beast leader says Bonito’s kettle has thin walls. Bonito tells him he might want to test how thin they are, and he accepts the challenge and starts to move in toward the wagon and Bonito. To get there he has to go by Mags, who puts out a hand to indicate he should probably not proceed. He keeps going, saying, “Your buddy challenged me!” Bonito says he didn’t and that it was his (the beast guy’s) decision to attack, but he keeps going. This brings him to Tammy, who bites him. They scuffle and he winds up tripped and injured. In the meantime, six other beast creatures emerge from the buildings, but they are mostly looking confused, wondering what’s actually going on here. One toward the front, with a clearer view of the situation, says to Mags, “Lady, want to stand down your pet?” She puts out her hand and gives Tammy the command “Down.” Several in our party are ready to fight but Mags says “Hold off” and I say “Let’s be cool,” so nobody attacks.
The leader gets up. Tammy growls but Mags makes her Handle Animal check and Tammy doesn’t attack. He looks at his guys and he’s embarrassed about what happened and doesn’t want to acknowledge it. One of the other beast guys looks at a few of us and asks if we happen to have anything to drink. Mags says, “I can do that!” Bonito insists it has to be a fair trade, and they agree to share the homemade drink they carry, and that’s how we wind up having a very genteel cocktail party with the beast creatures. We provide mead and they provide something they call Bakool, a very high octane liquor they brew from berries. Bonito and Jirak, the leader of the beasts, arm wrestle (Jirak wins), and after that we’re cool.
They want to know where we’re from, and we just say “West.” We indicate we’re travelers. They are fighting people, who were sent they their military leaders to get supplies from this town. There are other groups on similar missions to towns around here. They came from the Fens, but they will be taking the supplies to their base which is not far from here. We indicate we’re heading east, but worry that we might accidentally run into their army. They carefully say that if we go north it might be unfortunate, but going east would be a good idea. We part ways and continue east. Mags sends a message to her grandmother about this interaction, we heal Tammy of her wounds, and keep going.
We find another village to stay the night, saying our usual prayers of thanks and asking for guidance and help. We also have a long discussion about strategies and tactics. Bonito is convinced that the only way to deal effectively with these people is to demonstrate strength, because otherwise they will see us as weak and will attack us. The rest of us agree with that. However, there’s a disagreement about whether the only way to demonstrate strength it to challenge them to fight. Couldn’t we have simply kept moving, showing strength by not being afraid of them and possibly by posturing and insults? Bonito insists that when he told the other guy he should test how thin his kettle walls are, that was not actually a challenge, and it was up to the other guy to decide whether to fight or not. The rest of us say that it was clearly a challenge, and once he said that there was no other option but fighting. We are all fortunate Tammy did the fighting for us. We went to bed with this basic difference unresolved.
Before bed, Bonito asked Chireus if he’s been doing it right, and in a dream gets a sense of reassurance. He’s doing fine. Blake dreams of her time in University, hanging out with friends at bars. I have two sets of dreams, one during 1st watch, one during 3rd (I’m on 2nd watch). In my first dreams I’m in fights going badly, of things that can be really bad, dangers and death weighing on my mind. In my second dreams I’m turning the tables, going out on the offensive with the friends in this party, hunting for our enemies and destroying them before they can kill us. It feels very satisfying; I’m getting off amazing shots and killing right and left. I realize that the ones we’re fighting are not furry creatures, but the satyr-headed not-furry enemies from their world (but in the dream we are our selves, not beasts).
The next morning we go on our way, and before long find a small circle of stones a little off the road that we recognize as a fairy circle. We set some bread with honey in the circle and wait. Before long we hear the faint flapping of tiny, fast wings and hear a voice, but never see the speaker. It speaks to us in common, answering our questions because we gave a gift. Mags describes the beasts and asks if it has seen them. Yes, it has; they also give gifts. It doesn’t know how they got here, and says that the Fae of that other world did not send them, though maybe they helped. It doesn’t mind them being here, because they have not caused as much damage to the natural world as we have. They also leave presents for the Fae but don’t ask for anything in return, which makes them a bit uncomfortable. Are they trying to placate or trick the Fae? This would be a bad idea. It mentions that they pray at night, which Bonito remembers is an indication that the god they worship might be an evil one. It doesn’t recognize anything in our story of the beautiful woman who brought us back from death. We move on.
After a while we get to a place with fields and orchards that have been abandoned for decades. Somewhere along the way we acquired a third wagon. We park here for a bit, but we start to take hits from small stones, flung very fast from something we can barely see hiding in the tall grass. We call out in various languages, inviting them to speak to us, but Marcus notes others in the grass coming up from the other side, and says, “Ambush.” It looks like another fight!
We’re attacked by 8 “normal” creatures plus two others that like them but smaller and ganglier, and we interpret this as their being juveniles. These two never engage directly, but they’re firing sling stones; that’s what “stung” us before we saw the others. One of the adults is clearly the leader, and is wearing leather armor and some devices on his claws to make them deadlier. These devices are clearly hand-forged from common implements like hoes and scythes. Bonito attacks the leader multiple times, needing lots of healing to avoid dying, and he dispatches it finally with one mighty blow. At one point Mags hears a voice that crackles, as though with electricity, saying “Power is useless if you ignore it.” She asks what the voice wants and it doesn’t answer. She interprets this as encouragement to shift to her more powerful beast form, and does so. She calls out in Beast, “Your leader is dead, your mission is over. Stop embarrassing yourselves.” They don’t immediately stop, and in the end we’ve killed 6 of them and the rest have run off.
This battle had one unusual aspect, besides the presence of the young ones. The attackers were more focused on killing horses and damaging wagons than in attacking us. Their mission seemed to be to keep us here, not allowing us to leave. Once the battle is over we heal up our injured. One horse is dead and two injured. We are able to provide enough healing to get those two back on their feet so they will be able to travel with us, though they can’t carry anyone or pull a wagon. Two wagon wheels are broken. Marcus, Benam, and I work to repair them, and get them to the point where they will work, at least for a while. We put the two damaged wheels on one wagon and make sure it carries a very light load. This still leaves us two undamaged wagons, and if those wheels break beyond repair we can shift everything to those two and keep going. Since they seemed to want to keep us here, we move on immediately.
As we travel we talk again about the need to show strength to these creatures, and the best ways to do that. Bonito acknowledges that what he said to the leader of the group in that village was indeed a challenge, though he still maintains that it was up to him whether to accept the challenge and fight or not. We talk again about how to show strength by acting as though we have no fear of them and are ready to fight them, but not directly challenging them to a fight. Mags suggests we paint marks on the side of our wagons signifying the beasts we’ve killed since leaving Ashaker. By my count, our tally is 20:
A few hours down the road, we can see some movement far back, following us. We keep going. There are no villages in this region, because it is the territory our nation and the neighboring one have been fighting over for decades. There is just a scattering of walled, fortified towns, and we don’t come across any of them. There are occasional small, rutted roads splitting off to the sides, showing no signs of recent travel. We select one and move down it far enough to get out of sight of the road. There’s a small hut here used to store supplies. We manage to move the horses behind this hut, away from this little road, and the wagons even farther, behind the horses. We can sleep inside the hut when not on watch.
We do a last bit of healing and hold our prayer circle as usual, but don’t risk any fire (except for my tiny magic candle). Marcus tries to meditate and communicate with the creature in his head. He gets pulled in too far, and becomes trapped in his trance. He sees a wall of flickering, burning light, and is consumed by a feeling of being completely overwhelmed by awe. We notice him grimacing, and see his skin start to blister. We shake and finally slap him, and he snaps out of it, getting one glimpse of some kind of creature, possibly like one of the beasts, possibly dead, just as he comes to with some significant damage from what seems like lightning, or heat.
Mags has a theory: Creatures from the other world went into the huge lightning bolt emerging from the pyramid and died, and their spirits inhabit and possess people in our world. We all have one of them inside us. When they take full control, the person is transformed into a beast. We are able to resist that somehow; possibly, but not necessarily, related to the woman who raised us from the dead. She does her meditation thing and has another vision of the metal pyramid with the river of lightning shooting up to the swirling clouds and the creature trapped in the lightning cage. She says in Beast, “Can you speak?” Its mouth moves, but all she hears is an enormous, wordless scream from the lightning itself, carrying a feeling of fear and sorrow. She is forcibly booted from the dream and comes to with blood pouring from her eyes, ears, and mouth, and completely deaf. Blake recognizes the signs of a sonic attack. Her hearing should gradually return.
I was disturbed by Mag’s theory about being inhabited by a dead spirit from the other world, and go to sleep focusing on questions I want to ask Chireus. Do I have such a spirit or creature in my head? If so, is that okay? If not, can you make it go away? I have a dream in which I find myself on a cobblestone path, feeling warm and familiar. It spirals up a huge mountain that has the form of a dragon, and I recognize this as Chireus herself. I greet her humbly. She tells me that there is something in my head that should not be there, and that she can’t make it go away. There is something behind it, directing it, but she doesn’t know what. I need to resist its influence, but it would also be good to find out what it is and what it wants. I ask about the change of form, taking on the beast shape. She reminds me that she is a god of change, and that change itself can be good or bad. If changing to beast form will help keep me and my friends from dying, then that is a good change. She says that one of the spells she offers me will be particularly useful, and I sense that she is talking about Protection from Evil. This will help even if the things we fight are not evil, because it will help strengthen my mind against the influence of the other thing in my head. Chireus invites me to stay with her a while, and in my dream I get out my magic candle, light it, and curl up against her huge form, feeling warm and protected until it’s time to wake up for my watch.
During the night Bonito also had a dream in which Chireus spoke to him. While it might not be a good thing to deliberately change into the beastly form, it’s probably worse to change gradually, getting sucked slowly into that alternate kind of life. Those of us who have visible signs of beastly features (which includes my long fingernails and coarse hair!) should go ahead and change deliberately, to reduce that slower temptation. I absorb that information and make plans to make the change in our next fight, however reluctant I might be. I will cast Protection from Evil on myself first, to help me resist the outside voice speaking to me, and will be sure to chant the hymns to Chireus the whole time! He also was told that the two of us, those who have her strongest blessings, need to extend her protection to the rest of the party as much as we can. She specifically mentioned Blake, who worships Saradosia but doesn’t speak to him directly; Benam, who has the same relationship with Moradin; and especially Marcus, who seems to actively resist forming any relationship with any deity. I will do my best. ALSO: During my watch in the middle of the night I saw a small group of beasts traveling on the main road to toward the east. They didn’t seem to have noticed us, so we didn’t wake anyone.
In the morning, Mags got another message from her grandmother saying that the kings and advisors are now listening but are not responding as strongly to the threat as they should be. In a separate small note in Druidic, she added that since that they are hearing nothing at all from the baronies to the south and east, this means something is seriously wrong with the leadership of the country. It also means that grandmother must be there in the capital now, pushing as hard as she can to get something done! Mags replied with a letter updating her on the latest fight (in the orchard).
We continue east. In the late afternoon we crest a hill and see in the distance, on the crest of the farthest hill, what looks like a tent encampment on the road we’re on. We back up, going back over the hill we just climbed to get out of sight. We manage to pull all the wagons and horses well off the road into a copse of trees to wait out the night. After our prayer circle, Bonito asks Marcus why he resists worshipping Chireus, or anyone else, so strongly. Marcus says he’ll think about it. Bonito also talks to Benam and Blake, encouraging them to forge a tighter bond with their own gods. We settle in for the night, and they both take steps to do just that.
Benam tells Moradin he’s sorry he’s been so quiet and distant, and will try to do better, and has a dream of a massive forge he knows is the Forge of Moradin. It fills him with a sense of power and strength.
Blake tells Saradosia she’s sorry that so many of his followers have been lost, and that those remaining need his help in what seems to be a battle between gods. She asks for information and help. She has a dream of which she remembers just the last seconds, in which a stern, robed woman with a staff bearing Saradosia’s holy symbol raises her hand in blessing.
In the morning, after prayers and breakfast, Marcus goes to the top of the hill to take a peek at the tents. They’re still there, and seem to be at a crossroads between this road and a north-south road. He can smell their cooking. We debate our options. We could go back a little ways, take a north road to pick up a different east-west road and try to get to Bokkum that way, or we can continue east. We decide to continue. As we crest the 2nd small hill between us and the tents we can make out at least 6 tents that would hold 2-4 people per tent, and a banner with a familiar, and unfortunate, holy symbol. This means we face anywhere from 12-30 beasts (minimum!), so we decide the better part of valor is to turn around and head back, planning to try that northern route. As we turn, though, we see 9 individuals come out of the encampment and head toward us. We decide to stop at the bottom of the next valley and prepare for battle; putting the wagons in a circle, buffing ourselves, and talking strategy. Our first targets would be anyone with armor, next anyone we see wearing a holy symbol or casting a spell.
As they approach, we see six of the usual beast people and three smaller dog-like creatures, similar to Tammy. One of the people wears a holy symbol. When they’re in speaking range Mags calls out Jorum (the word for parlay) and their leader responds with the same. We wind up in a peaceable conversation. They want to know why we’re heading east, and we say we are curious and trying to learn about the situation. They ask if we acknowledge the blessings of Kavenir. We say we do, as he is obviously a potent god, but we acknowledge others as well. They ask if we are scared of them, because we turned around. We say not scared; we made a prudent strategic analysis of the situation. He allows that this is indeed a good idea. He offers us healing and provisions, but we tell him we’re all set. He tells us to turn around again and come east. We will be welcome and have safe passage through his camp. He gives his name as Chahok, and seems to be telling the truth, so we take him up on it and proceed. It’s strange, driving our horses and wagons through this encampment of 10 tents (30-40 individuals), flying banners with many holy symbols. The people there watch curiously but don’t bother us. We pass a medical tent with injured people on improvised cots, and a hog being barbecued. We make it safely through and keep going.
When evening comes we see way ahead stone walls. We camp and have our usual prayer circle. As we settle down I concentrate on two questions I want to ask Chireus. One is whether the power-up trait we see in these beasts, and have experienced ourselves in beast form, is truly a gift from Kavenir and, if so, it is dangerous and evil. The other is whether she would have a problem with us showing Kavenir’s holy symbol on our wagon, not as a sign of worship but to perhaps buy us some safety from beasts we meet. I have a vague dream, more of a feeling, of laughter. I interpret this as saying Chireus thinks carrying Kavenir’s symbol is a good joke. There’s no answer to my other question.
Blake decides to try to contact the beautiful woman who brought us back from the dead. She meditates on the image of the woman she saw, and the image comes alive and speaks to her. It is very flattering, telling Blake how beautiful and admirable she is. The woman refuses to give any name, saying that names have no meaning. When asked if she’s a god, she says yes. Blake asks how many people she’s changed, but she says she changed no one. We are all exactly as we have always been. Her intention is to preserve the beauty and ineffable grace of our kind; she doesn’t want us to disappear to this thing. She says she’s from neither world, but from her own, which is perfect and idyllic. She says she won’t be able to talk to Blake again soon, but that she hopes to do so sometime, because she loves learning all about our travels and exploits. At that point Blake remembers telling her about them, but she’s pretty sure she actually didn’t. She pulls out of the meditation.
Morning, we move on, with Kavenir’s symbol on a flag. Partway through the day the road peters out into random grass. I cast Detect Magic and find a reasonably powerful illusion spell on the area. Bonito walks forward carefully, probing with a stick, and finds a series of small holes; horse traps. He maps out a safe way through, and we continue. As we emerge from the illusion area, we see people coming toward us from the town. Ten soldiers are coming, armed and armored, riding horses and flying the flag of Bokkum. We hail them in our language and they respond in the same tongue (we don’t let them know Blake speaks their language). We talk, and discover that they are aware of the plague of beasts and have fought many battles to keep them out of their land. The horse traps slow them down and stop some of them. We acknowledge having fought them as well (showing the marks on our wagon), and they offer refuge in their town (Bayebern). The town is very well staffed, with lots of soldiers. We would like to stay the night, then in the morning head north and west back to Pallavia.
Bonito, Mags, and I offer our help with their wounded. Blake would like to talk with a local master of the arcane ar4ts, Lord Wright. We’re also interested in the temple to Marcusis (the faith banned in our land), and in the rumors they know about our own king. It’s said that the king worships Saradosia only on the surface; underneath, he actually gets his spells from some other source. The rumors disagree on that source (demons, unwholesome gods, etc.). We sit with them and start swapping notes.
RETCON: Two nights ago, Bonito spoke to Marcus about connecting with a god. He said he’d think about it. Based on the unusual situation we find ourselves in, he’s ready to admit that his own personal self-discipline might not be enough by itself to get us through the crisis. He’s ready to open up to some deity who reaches out to him, though he’s still reluctant to initiate the contact himself. After he learns that Chireus specifically mentioned Marcus by name as someone who needs more divine support, he agrees to be open to hearing from her. As we ride toward the border town he meditates on this, holding in his mind the image of a red dragon that was on the temple in Ashaker. He hears a voice speaking to him, and says he’d like to make it through this. The dragon he envisions takes to the air and splits until there are five of them circling above him. He asks what he should do, and the voice says, “If you seek guidance, ask.” He asks how to escape from or control this evil. The voice says, “Control can be learned, like any skill. You will be helped. Focus on the muscles in your soul.” When he comes out of the meditation, he tells us what happened, and we’re all glad he’s got a deity at his back. – END RETCON
We have a long conversation with Commander Robinson, plus a number of others: the mayor of the town, two mages, Lord Wright and Wizard Fornath; and Fr. Larkfield, a priest of Marcusis. He’s somewhat surprised by how curious and open we are about that faith, since it’s forbidden in Palavia. We share with them whatever information seems relevant about the current crisis, except that we don’t mention that we sometimes turn into those creatures. It seems that nobody here has died and returned, so they are quite curious about that, and they don’t have anyone like Tammy and Cutie.
After the meeting, Blake goes with the two wizards to talk magic and learn any spells they can teach her. They press her for information about how we came back from the dead, though she can’t tell them much about that. They can see the faint aura of transmutation we all carry, but she lets them assume it’s the result of being raised. They can tell her that the creatures don’t show any signs of being planar, but that just means that where they come from is somewhere on the material plane. It could still be a distant world, or a distant part of our own world. They allow her to borrow their spellbooks and begin copying down a few spells she doesn’t already know. She also gets some ingredients she can use to make potions in return for scribing a scroll of levitation. Night passes without a problem.
Benam is able to go to a local forge and talk with the people there. In return for working for them for a day, they allow him to gather some fine quality materials he can use to craft a masterwork hammer, and they sell him a great hammer at a decent price. I earn a few coppers doing some tinker work.
Mags, Bonito, and I sit down with Fr. Larkfield to talk about how his faith got banished from our country. About 40-50 years ago our king (the father of the current king) was a devout follower of Marcusis, as was his whole family and much of the nation. Then his younger brother started claims that he was not the true king. Some of the barons took up these claims, and a rebellion began. The position of the faith of Marcusis is to stay out of such worldly conflicts, but the king turned away from the faith. This was baffling, since Marcusis had blessed him and made him prosperous, and was not behind the rebellion, though Marcusis also blessed those of the opposition who were also his followers. He stopped attending services, but seemed to be following a god who gave him great powers. Something caused his upstart brother to swallow poison and die, which was so troubling that some of the brothers of Marcusis spoke to some of the barons, and together they tried to persuade the king to go back to his original faith. Instead, the clerics of Marcusis in the capital were quietly killed. The barons and the remaining brothers then turned on the king in open rebellion, certain that something was badly wrong, but the king had a powerful ward from his new benefactor that protected him and his allies from attack, and the rebellion was put down. The king blamed the rebellion on evil plans by the followers of Marcusis, and banned the religion on that basis.
Fr. Larkfield doesn’t believe that the king’s new powers came from Saradosia or any other god (his definition of “god” does not include anything that is evil), but from a devil or demon. For a being like that to grant such powers to the king, there must have been something of equal value the king provided in return. Fr. Larkfield suggests that the current invasion of beasts might somehow be the result of that bargain. The current king, this king’s son, is supposedly also blessed by Saradosia, but the brothers of Marcusis doubt this very much. Bonito asks where Chireus was during this conflict, and he’s not sure but knows that in his country the followers of Chireus are respected, so they must not have joined the battle on the side of the king. On the other hand, he’s not a big fan of Saradosia, since she seems to be okay with the king using her name as a smokescreen to cover over some bad actions.
Marcus builds a hive to carry on the wagon, and Mage finds a home that has some bees living in the eaves whose owner is very glad to have Mags take them away. They are wild bees, not bred for good honey production, but are satisfactory for her purposes. She moves them to her new hive.
The following morning we leave, heading north to the next crossroads with an armed escort. We make sure to let them know we might go furry if there’s a battle, and we all put on yellow armbands so that if this happens they won’t shoot us. They’re disconcerted, but cope with this idea. Blake writes out all the information we didn’t tell the commandant, making two copies. The sergeant will take a copy back to the commandant after we leave, and Mags will send one by bird as well in case he doesn’t make it back.
Sure enough, not long after we come to the crossroads and turn west, we are waylaid by creatures. The sergeant details a young private to take off back to the town with that document Blake wrote. Their leader is wearing armor and a holy symbol, and we recognize him as the one who changed him back weeks ago when we passed a party of a dozen creatures. Mags hails him, asking “What do you want?” His only reply is to cast Shield of Faith, and the battle begins. We hear him shout, “You will fail and will not save your capital!” There are a dozen of the enemy, and it is a very difficult fight. Mags, Marcus, Bonito, and I all choose to go furry as we fight. Jolene goes down, but I’m able to stop her bleeding. Meanwhile, I’m out of hit points and take a potion to keep going. Mags needs two doses of potion to keep fighting! The mounted escort proves very useful, charging at creatures directly and also luring some of them off to chase after horses instead of fighting us. In the end it proves to be a bad day for both sides. We don’t lose anyone, but several of us are badly injured. Two enemies are dead, including their leader, the one with the armor and the holy symbol (two more marks for our wagon). Everyone alive withdraws, and we do the emergency healing needed to keep from losing anyone else.
The sergeant recommends going back to town instead of pushing forward, and we agree that this is a good idea. We start limping back.
In retrospect, we discover that some of us heard those external voices during the fight, and received some more of the beastly influence [out of character – got some marks]. In general, this happened when we engaged in actions that a warrior would approve of: facing down a tough opponent, making good tactical decisions like providing flanks for allies, casting showy spells within the enemy’s range, or, in my case, standing up to go stabilize Jolene even though an enemy was just 15 feet away. Each time, we sensed a feeling of approval. Something outside of ourselves thought, “Yes, that’s right!” So making the transition into beast form reduced the beastly influence, but this warlike behavior increased it, so some of us ended up where we started and some ended up with more influence than we started.
On the trip back to the town we talk to the sergeant about what it’s like to go beastly and why we do it. Once in town, we’re taken to a medical tent to get some healing (and we apply some magical healing to ourselves as well), and then the commandant comes in to talk to us. He understands why we didn’t tell him earlier about our ability to transform, he’s now insistent that we need to share any other secrets we might have. We tell him about our ability to bring back the dead (which is likely limited to only members of our own party). We discuss the apparent signs of beastly influence (coarse hair, claws), and tell him that these signs are reduced when we shapeshift or bring people back, but they are increased when we fight like strong warriors. He agrees to let us stay at least until fully healed, and says we can continue to stay after that if we choose. Blake also confers with Lord Wright about what it’s like to bring someone back, and she completes her research so that she now has a new spell (Resist Energy).
Once we’re alone and can talk freely, I share a thought that occurred to me. When someone brings back the dead, it seems that their furry body is possessed by another entity that is more comfortable in that shape. Would it be possible to have someone invite that entity in to take over their body when no one is in need of resurrection and TALK to them? We kick the idea around a while and conclude it’s just too risky to try, both for the person who would be letting the entity in and for the rest of us. Bonito and I agree to think on this question to get Chireus’s reaction. In our dreams that night we hear Chireus’s hearty laughter, not in the sense of “good joke” but “it’s your body, mortal.” So, no.
The next day we do more healing; we will all be back to full health after one more night’s sleep. Mags sends a message to her grandmother mentioning that the enemy cleric said we would not be able to save our capital. We’re not sure which capital he means (he probably knew we were from Pallavia but we were actually in Bokkum at the time). She also gets a message from her saying that the leaders are finally taking things more seriously. They know about bad things in Merrimere (our home province) and are getting nothing at all from Mazerland (the province we came through to Bokkum).
The following day we are ready to leave, and want to try again to get back to our capital, taking the same route as before. Once again the same sergeant (and many of the same fighters) escorts us. This time we pass by the spot where the previous battle was without incident. When we cross the border to Pallavia our escort leaves us to return, and we keep going. We hole up that night off the road, and I focus on asking Chireus for guidance about where we should be going. I hear nothing, which I interpret to mean that the path we’re on works for her.
In the morning we can just barely detect the very faint sound of construction (hammers and saws) ahead of us and to the north of the road. We get moving as quietly as we can, which is not very quiet with three wagons and 13 horses! We travel on, as it starts to rain in the morning and stops again around noon. When it’s raining we can’t hear construction sounds, but it’s there again when the rain stops, still ahead and north but closer now. We see a herd of feral pigs up ahead, and Mags casts Speak to Animals to talk with them, negotiating safe passage as long as we stay on the road, so we get past them safely.
Toward evening we spot a well-fortified town on a hill north of the road, flying pennants the colors of this province. We turn on the crossroad that will take us there and as we get closer we hear sounds of serious fighting from the town. We leave the wagons and horses concealed off the road and put on yellow armbands. Darryl stays with them, and the rest of us ride hard to get to the town.
There are bodies scattered outside the walls, and the gates are not damaged but are open. Inside we can see more bodies, the signs of heavy fighting, and continue inward to the keep at the top of the hill. It’s a castle with high walls, and it’s surrounded by dozens of beasts. They are generally in groups, each with one in armor and a half-dozen others, and the fighting here is fierce. As we come up we see the castle’s defenders dump a load of hot oil on one of the groups just outside the castle doors. I’m chanting prayers to Chireus as we all aim flaming arrows at the armored leader of that group. Enough arrows hit that we set the whole group on fire! Of course they now know we’re here, and the fight comes to us.
As we fight this group, two other things happen. One is that the castle defenders realize we’re here and we hear commands for Spears Out! The other is that a second group of enemies breaks off the attack on the castle and comes at us. Mags waves to get the attention of the castle defenders, salutes, points at her yellow armband, and shifts to beast form. Others of us follow suit. When the castle gates open and soldiers pile out, forming a shield line backed by spears, the second unit of beasts turns to fight with them instead of us. We manage to kill the armored leader of the gang on us, but Bonito’s badly hurt, so after he kills another enemy he moves away from the fight. Marcus has also killed one of the attackers, bringing our total to three, and Mags has summoned three wolves. This session ends with the castle defenders having pushed out successfully from the door, establishing a beachhead where they can fight. The second group of enemies is tangling with Mags’s wolves, and arrows are pouring down from the walls above us, but we’re still in trouble; some of us seriously wounded, and dozens of enemies ready to move in our direction.
The fight continues. The second unit of bad guys breaks off from fighting the castle defenders and comes for us. We wind up retreating to some nearby buildings, with those of us who are not strong melee fighters up on roofs. I’ve been chanting battle cries to Chireus at the top of my lungs, as best my beast mouth can manage. Blake at one point takes a running leap off the roof and, since her levitation spell is still active, sails over one of the bad guys and hits him with Burning Hands in passing, then on her next turn slams the leader of the unit with Ray of Enfeeblement. She hears the voice in her head say Hell Yes! and suddenly she’s got fangs to go with her claws and coarse hair. Tammy takes enough damage to go down, bleeding out, so I jump down off the roof to stabilize her, still chanting. Suddenly I feel enjoyably warm and realize my fur is smoking, and I and all my compatriots feel a little more skilled. I manage to pull my magic candle out of my pack and it immediately bursts into flame on its own. I’m channeling the blessings of Chireus on us all! Then Bonito goes down, and I run to him to deliver a healing potion that gets him back on his feet, though badly wounded. About this time the leader of this group goes down.
The castle defenders are holding firm a shield line outside the castle door, though they are hard pressed by enemies pressing in on the two sides, trying to cut them off from their retreat. We hear shouts from the keep telling us to charge the line, and one by one we start to do that (with Benam carrying the unconscious Tammy). As we head that way the units of beasts move to cut us off, which it turns out is exactly what the defenders hoped they would do. Suddenly the shield wall opens and soldiers boil out, and they kill enough of the enemy that the whole batch breaks off and all who survive run clear out of town, so the gates can be shut again to keep them out. The fight is over. We can account for 10 of the kills ourselves, which brings the tally we can mark on our wagons to 34, and in that entire time we lost only one of our group (RIP Scott).
In the aftermath, we shift back from beast form. I find my claws have reverted to human nails, though I still have the coarse hair. We provide magical healing where needed to save defenders near death. Jolene goes with a party of soldiers down the road to bring Darryl and the goods into town. Blake decides to try to bring one of the defenders back from the dead. She shifts into beast form and becomes inhabited with a spirit native to that form. She senses this spirit trying hard to reach the dead one, but it doesn’t work, and she gets a sense of apology. While she’s still in that form I ask, “Can you tell us who you are?” but she shifts back before I get an answer.
I discover that my magic candle won’t go out, but its flame is no longer dangerous. It feels gently warm to all who hold their hands to it, and I could put it safely, still burning, in my pack. I wonder if it is harmless only to my teammates so I try using it to set the fur of a dead beast on fire. At this moment I get a feeling of glee coming from somewhere outside of me, enjoying my attempt to set fire to the corpse of an enemy. The flame on the candle flares, some of it snakes out to set fire to the wick on a candle Bonito holds, and the dank, bloody fur I’m trying to light smolders a little. The flame on my candle has turned back into a normal flame that would burn people and can now be blown out, but it’s still a magic candle (it will burn once lit until blown out without melting or being consumed). I notice that my claws are back. Apparently I pleased the monster in my head. When I shifted to beast form I backed away a little from its influence, but now I’m back to where I was at the beginning of the fight.
We talk with Captain Harrison, the man in charge here since the Commandant was killed in an earlier attack. They’ve tried to send word to the capital but saw some of their birds shot from the sky with magic, and haven’t gotten a reply. We tell him of what we’ve heard from Mags’s grandmother, including the news that the capital hasn’t heard any word from this province at all.
They fought off an attack 2 weeks ago but lost a lot of people, including the commandant. Then this morning they heard shouts from guards that the gate was opening, and suddenly the town was full of beasts. If we hadn’t shown up they would probably all have died. His best guess is that there was some group of traitors that for some reason opened the gate to admit the enemy. He doesn’t know who they might have been or why they did it; everyone in the vicinity of the gate was quickly slain by the invaders.
They’re in bad shape here, and after losing 50 people in this recent fight he doesn’t think they can hold this town any longer, especially given the construction we tell him about just east of here, which is most likely siege equipment. They also lost everyone with magical abilities, including a wizard and a cleric to Saradosia. They are glad to share whatever tools and equipment might be useful, since it’s no good to them. Blake gets the wizard’s spell book. We find materials to create various arcane potions and scrolls, four divine potions, and two druid potions. We also upgrade our armor where appropriate, and we make sure we’re all equipped with slings, the only ranged weapon we can use while in beast form.
We settle in for the night. Bonito and I get one batch of potion cooking so we can replace the healing potion I used to get him back up in the fight. It will be ready to cast the spell into it in the morning. We settle in for the night.
[We’re going to be Level 5 in the morning!]
At tonight’s prayer session, Bonito takes up the golden Chireus snake-icon and holds it in the fire as he prays. The flames feel pleasantly warm, and he gets a subtle sense of power, feeling like the spell Chireus cast as I chanted during the battle (which was Bless). The icon glows brightly and its gems shoot colorful sparks. In the flames, he sees a brief vision of someone in Chireus vestments holding the icon aloft and shouting heroically. We set standard watches and go to sleep.
During my first sleepI sense Chireus’s presence and thank her for her help in the battle. She tells me thatburning that body allowed her to begin to learn something about the beasts. She hopes to have more to tell us tomorrow. In my second sleep I dream of being in the world of the furry creatures. I’m floating in the air, observing the scene. Looking down I see that I am my normal self, and that the spot on my chest where I normally wear my holy symbol is glowing. Below me is a giant metal pyramid, without seams or markings of any kind, with a huge pillar of lightning shooting up from its tip. A beast-creature is running toward this pyramid. It is not the form of beast we are fighting in our world, but the slightly different form Mags reported seeing in her visions. This beast is firing something that vaguely resembles a crossbow back at some non-furry creatures chasing it. These pursuers have curved horns, similar to satyrs, and are presumably the enemy they were fighting in the great war. As the furry creature reached the pyramid a door opened up in the previously unblemished metal side. It rushes in and the door closes behind it. The non-furry pursuers give up and leave.
In the morning we learn that all of us had dreams of that other world. Bonito and I were both hovering, apparently protected by Chireus from directly experiencing the dream; the others experienced being a furry creature from the inside. In each case, the beast was one of the dream variants, not quite the same as the ones we fight. Here are the various versions:
As we discuss the dreams, Blake realizes that the sense of foreboding she felt as she approached the temple in her vision was the feeling you get as you approach a really important life choice, knowing that you have to make this vital decision and will have to live with the consequences. It seems clear to us that someone is sending these dreams, but who? And why did Bonito see the pyramid as balanced on the edge of a cliff? Is it the obvious symbolism indicating that the god represented by the pyramid is unbalanced, carrying some kind of instability that might easily cause it to fall? Nothing is clear.
Outside, we hear shouts and running footsteps, and find that two of the castle defenders who died in yesterday’s battle have come back from the dead. After they get immediate medical care for their obviously serious wounds, we talk to them about their experience, comparing it to ours. They met the same woman who offered her hand, but they never felt any tingling or burning when the beasts clawed them and Mags sees no sign of any poison or infection. We tell them about what they might expect, and emphasize how important it is to forge a strong connection with whatever god you choose.
Everyone here is packing up, planning to leave tomorrow heading west toward the capital. We want to leave before that, and to start traveling faster than we have been up to now, so we offer to leave them the wagons and most of our supplies, taking only our horses plus what whatever they can carry while still moving briskly. The castle quartermaster comes to pay us for our help in defending the castle (10 silver each!) and advise us on the best things to carry and how best to distribute them among the horses. If we succeed in meeting up again at the capital, they’ll give us back the wagons plus any supplies that they didn’t use on their trip. The captain writes something for us to take to the capital, sealing it so it’s official, and Mags also sends a copy of this plus her own messages. She finds a very smart corvid and convinces it to get a bunch of its friends to travel together to her grandmother, promising them treats and shinies when they deliver their messages. We’re on the road by noon.
As we travel we see a fortified town south of our road, but we can tell that it’s been ransacked: the gates are shattered and there’s no smoke or anyone moving about. Later, we overtake a horse walking along with someone slumped in its saddle, and discover the rider dead from what looks like a scorching ray. He wears the livery of this barony we’re in and carries a sealed wax tube with a message, which we take. We bring him and the horse with us, and toward evening spy a copse of trees off the road that looks like someplace we could camp for the night. It turns out there’s someone there already: a gnome druid named Avena, who agrees to share the site with us tonight. She can shift into an own form and be fairly safe, but she’s observed many battles. She’s very distressed by the beasts because in killing so many people they’re disrupting the natural order of things, ruining the local ecology. Her estimate is that one out of every 15-20 people killed by beasts come back from the dead. She’s never seen a beast stand back up without it being brought back by someone else.
As we pray that night before bed, Bonito and I both get the urge to meditate, and wind up in a dream together, walking up the path to Chireus. She tells us that the beast whose fur I burned had once been an elf, but at the time it died the elf-spirit was completely gone. The process that converted the elf into a beast was the same sort of change that we undergo when we shift form, but what we do is much more controlled. We come back from that shift, which is the crucial thing.
During the night we detect a party of about 10 beasts traveling east on the road, but they don’t see us. All we can do is hope the people from the town are able to deal with this group. In the morning the dead messenger is still dead, so we leave him by the road. Mags talks to the horse to try and find out what happened, but all it knows is that they were going fast when monsters attacked them with fire, so it ran as fast as it could until it got tired and kept walking. Blake, though, recognizes that the seal on the tube indicates this message is of a military nature, and that if we get it to anyone fairly high up in the military hierarchy they’ll know who it should be delivered to.
We continue west. Far ahead we see a cloud of smoke on the horizon, but it’s much too distant for any details. Before too long we see a fortified town off to the side of the road. We send two airborne scouts: Blake’s owl Ash, and Mags, who is now able to take eagle form. There had been a huge battle here, including lots of magical fire, but now it is populated by beasts, who are repairing damaged buildings and building something in the center of town that looks like a large yurt. In addition to the 20 beasts they see, there are 8 non-furry creatures of the type we’re used to in our world who are working side-by-side with the beasts. They show some signs of beast-hood, as some of us do, and don’t seem to be enslaved or under coercion. We debate for a while about what this means and how to react, and suddenly a bolt of lightning shoots out of Mags’s elbow ward the ground and her eyes glow briefly. She returns to normal, with no beastly residue. Apparently at the moment this hit, we were talking about the spirits in our heads and she felt a surge of frustration coming from outside herself. The spirit?
We keep going, and the cloud of smoke ahead is growing more than can be explained by distance. Whatever it is, it’s getting bigger. Blake sends Ash ahead to take a look, and he returns to report that it’s a huge forest fire, so big it’s already jumped the road, and there are some furry creatures there trying to fight it. Mags says that given the time of year, the local vegetation, and the recent weather, it’s going to burn itself out before it does real damage, so we aren’t obligated to help fight it. We crest a small hill and see a crossroad ahead of us, before we would get to the fire. We decide to hurry there and turn south at that point. When we get there the smoke is bad and we can spot 6 beasts up ahead fighting the fire, but they don’t notice us. We turn south, then take the next road west.
We spot another fortified town up ahead, and this one is unusual in that it’s right on the road instead of off on a side road. Blake persuades a reluctant Ash to fly ahead and see what’s up. He returns to say that there was a big fight there, signs of magical fires that are all burned out, and no movement from anything bigger than rabbits. Blake recognizes that this is a town that borders the province where the capital is, and on horseback it’s only a day from the capital itself. We enter the town.
The gate was destroyed and there are many signs of a vicious battle, including lots of bodies of defenders and attackers alike. We see signs of some people who had been wounded, bandaged, and then died in extended fighting. From what we can tell, the battle took place about a week ago and was stretched over 4-5 days. We proceed to the central keep, and find that someone pulled many of the bodied outside the keep during the fighting. Inside is a courtyard where a score or so of bodies are laid out in rows, arms crossed, some with a hastily-carved holy symbol of Saradosia laid on their breast. At the center is a two-story structure of stone. The first floor has a doorway, long since battered down, and arrow slits. The second story overhangs the first by a few feet, with a hatch for a murder hole over the door. We enter, and Bonito calls out, “Anyone here?”
At this point we hear something moving about in the courtyard, and look out to see that 10 of the bodies have stood up and are shambling toward the structure where we are. They are bloated corpses and seem to move like zombies. We settle in to defend ourselves. The fight goes on a LONG time (they shrug off a lot of damage that would do in a living creature), but eventually we manage to destroy them all. During this fight I use the Chireus totem to cast Bless on the party, and it is amazingly helpful; at least five separate attacks would not have landed without that boost. Thank you Chireus!
We did a bunch of healing after the fight and searched the rest of the tower. On the top (4th) floor there’s a door that’s intact and closed. Mags knocks and Marcus jiggles the handle; there’s a faint sound inside like glass breaking. The door swings open and we see a small room with a desk and shelves of books and maps on one side and, on the far wall, a shrine to Seradosia. There’s no broken glass visible. I cast Detect Magic and see an abjuration (protection) spell on the entire room and a separate one on the door, an evocation spell on the shrine, and both evocation and abjuration on an object on the shrine. I also see an enchantment spell on Blake! Blake knows that shrines are often protected by evocation spells. The enchantment on Blake is a mystery, though.
The captain’s log book is open on the desk. The last entry describes a hopeless siege, and that they don’t expect to see another night but will go out fighting. Then there’s a break and in a different hand, it says: “To any who find this place not corrupted by the taint of that other world, you are welcome in the embrace of Saradosia. If you are pure of faith, take the chest I have left on the shrine. The things within will protect the followers of Our Lady.” It is signed by Winifred, High Priest of Saradosia.
Blake goes to the shrine, places her hands on it, and prays (and I see a Divination spell take form). She hears a voice saying, “Your faith is weak, child. Do you truly believe, or just say the words? Is your faith a shield against the darkness, or just a lamp to turn on and off at your whim?” Blake responds, “I thought of faith as just threads woven into my life as clothing. I never thought of it as a shield, as until now I didn’t know about things we need to shield against.” Blake asks if this is a fight between gods, and the voice says, “Not yet.” Blake asks, “Does the King worship you?” and the voice says he does; he is one of her avatars and is precious to her. Blake then asks about the enchantment spell she carries. Saradosia tells her, “Someone is attempting to watch you and act through you who isn’t me.” Blake suspects the lovely woman she conversed with days ago and asks if Saradosia can take it away. She can, but the woman will know. Blake asks her to do it, and feels the effect fade. The voice goes on, “If you truly believe, take the chest. It will open only to those of the faith. Do not share its gifts with others without due consideration.” As Blake finishes up I see first the Enchantment spell she carried fades, then the Divination spell also fades and she turns back to us.
She tells us what she learned, and opens the chest. It contains a small censor for blessing, and ornate holy symbol (fancy but no special magic), and a small prayer book that has magic. We discuss whether that was really Saradosia, but since the shrine was consecrated (the evocation spell) and Blake felt the proper resonance, it was probably really her. Blake takes a holy symbol from a bunch nearby.
We search the room and find a trap door in the floor leading to a small hollow with a couple of minor pieces of jewelry (a necklace with a green stone and a bangle bracelet in gold and silver, nicely made but nothing special), carrying no magic. We take the log book, the jewelry, and Blake’s case and search the rest of the town very quickly. (As we leave, each time someone jiggles the door handle we hear the breaking-glass sound, which is presumably an alarm sound from the abjuration spell on the door.) In town we find supplies to make 1 arcane potion, 2 divine potions, 2 arcane scrolls, and 2 divine scrolls. We find the remains of two badly damaged spell books. No spells are usable, but there’s a page with a bit of what looks like Blindness/Deafness, which Blake can use as she researches that spell.
We take a moment to bring Darryl and Jolene up to the tower to pray at the shrine. Jolene goes first but stops quickly, unmoved. Darryl prays a while and tells us is meant a lot to him, persuades Jolene to try again, and she grudgingly says there was something there. They each take a Saradosia symbol to wear.
We continue west, and find a campsite off the road. Bonito and I try to learn how to deal with undead after our battle with the zombies. Blake, Darryl, and Jolene look at the prayer book. It has just a few prayers but lots of blank pages; more blank pages than the book can actually hold! Blake knows it’s not an actual spellbook, but she gets the feeling she could scribe a single spell in it, perhaps to use it later.
Mags gets a bird from Grandmother saying something is definitely off, people are hiding things from her. She’s heard from other sources there’s a military force east of town. Mags sends two letters. One in Pallavian has general tactical information. One in Druidic says we’ll be in town tomorrow, and that Saradosia says the King is her loyal follower, so the problem must be with his advisors. After full dark, Bonito climbs a tree to look out. He sees no lights to the east or north, lights from the capital city to the west, and scattered campfires to the south. We decide to take an alternate route to the capital, to avoid the military force to the east of the city (which would put it between us and there).
During the 3rd watch, 3 beasts approach from the east, scouting. They aren’t aggressive, but say we should move on tomorrow. Blake is annoyed (why are they telling us what to do; this is our land, not theirs?) and asks what will happen if we don’t move on. They say there would be a fight tomorrow, and there are more than 3 of them. Amazingly, it’s Bonito who smoothes things over, and the beasts leave.
Morning. Mags is showing signs of illness, probably contracted in the fight with the zombies when Bonito smashed one to mist and Mags was nearby. She treats herself as best she can, but isn’t cured. Bonito climbs another tree and sees a huge force of beasts to our west, spreading south and north. There’s a Pallavian force north of them and a battle line drawn between these two armies. Just south of that line the beasts’ forces are thin and we might be able to get through. We decide to trot briskly toward that battle line, as though on official business, then break west and zoom through the thin spot.
The plan works as well as could be expected. We focus on speed, and are generally unable to get off any spells while riding. Before we get all the way through we take some damage from spells and crossbows, and there’s a flying mage throwing damage at us. We spot a suspiciously large bird approaching from the capital, flying FAST, and are sure it’s Grandmother. She brings down lightning on the flying mage. Mags tries to summon a hippogriff to help fight the mage, but her spell fizzles twice. She’s furious, but feels a tendril of flame flick through her head and suddenly there is a hippogriff, and then two more. Bonito, Marcus, and I hear the sound of a divine dragon laughing. Thank you, Chireus!
We make it to the capital where we are admitted by some soldiers. The great bird lands and turns in to Grandmother (Yvonne), who greets Mags with hugs. Introductions all around. We put the horses away and talk with her. Several barons are in town, at least one of whom may not be trustworthy. She’s not sure if they have just turned traitor, or if there’s something manipulating them. She encourages us to share enough militarily important information about the beasts to earn ourselves an audience with the king, and then tell him EVERYTHING. We get fully healed (including a Remove Disease Yvonne casts on Mags), and go to a tavern where we’re expecting to meet up with the people we need to report to.
The tavern is pretty busy with lunchtime crowds. We order food and ask about rooms; they only have one available, so that won’t work for us. One of the staff has heard about our mad ride through the beast army, and we talk to him a bit. Their forces have been outside the gates for a few days. He’s heard there’s a Pallavian army coming down from the north to fight them (we confirm that), but hasn’t heard of anyone else helping out. We overhear some people talking about us at a neighboring table, including one asking, “Do you think they work for those other guys?” and his companions shushing him. Mags makes eye contact with a patron who seems quite curious and he comes over, introducing himself as Homer. He refers to us as “intrepid adventurers,” and I say, “That’s a kind way to say ‘crazy.’” It turns out he knows Mags’s mother, who is a renowned bard and recently came back to the city here from where she’d lived in Ashaker. We’re glad to know she made it here safely. Homer is a bard himself, trading on storytelling. We ask him for suggestions about people we should and should not be sure to talk to, and he mentions a noble called Ebony Wright, who seems to have information about us from direct sources. In return for us telling him some tales of our adventures he hadn’t yet heard (and sharing our ale with him), he agrees to tell us about Wright.
About 40 years ago, at the time of the Marcusis heresy, the Wright family had been loyal followers of the king for generations and were high up in society. However, they were Marcusists, and the family split. The older brother and sister refused to renounce Marcusis, and they left for Bokkum. They took much of the family fortune, but of course none of their noble station. The remaining family converted to the worship of Saradosia, but with the loss of fortune and the stain on the family because of the renegade siblings, lost much of their standing, maintaining a lower level of nobility. Young Lord Ebony works fiercely to restore the family name. Whatever else he says or does, this is always his main goal.
After sharing this story, Homer leaves, inviting us to come hear him perform sometime. Shortly after that a scholar, Alonzo, enters. He’s from the court and would like to talk with us at a more amenable place. In an official court building, over tea, he tells us that King Edward II heard of us and the important information we’ve brought from our travels, and that he (Alonzo) wants to learn what we found. We notice he didn’t actually say he was officially sent to meet us; this is his own initiative. We show him the log books from the various forts and town and he reads the last entries of each. He wants to take them, to examine more closely and copy for distribution, saying he won’t keep them for more than a few hours. We figure he’s hiding something but seems sincere in his promise to return the books, so we agree. He asks about Tammy and Cutie, and we tell their stories. He asks about us, and we say we are among the few who survived Ashaker and backtracked the attackers to see what we could learn about them. It’s not much, but we’ve brought what we have here to share. He asks what we know about transformations in general, and whether some afflicted in this way came back from the dead. We agree that this is true, but it doesn’t fit what happened to Tammy, who apparently was never killed. We share what we learned about their language, and that we even had some pleasant interactions with some of the beasts, and what little we know about where they come from and the god they worship. Apparently the beasts do not do well in mountainous terrain, which is how the armies to the north and west have held out so well. We’re worried about the army from the north, since we’ve never seen an example of an army in the field holding out against the beasts.
A servant escorts us to a guest house where we can all stay (with our horses stabled nearby). We get a map showing the locations of places to get food and drink (servants will prepare and serve meals here if we wish for a fee), as well as the nearest temples to Chireus and Moradin. Mags sends an animal to her grandmother with a message in Druidic about where we’re staying.
Benam visits the Moradin temple. He asks about dwarven refugees. Clans living in the mountains to the north and west are doing well, but dwarves in towns and villages have largely perished. He arranges to use their forge to hone his skills on work for the temple, and also to benefit those refugees who’ve made it to the city. In addition he connects with a couple of master blacksmiths to learn more about making a masterwork weapon. They are happy to help him.
Blake has learned that Benton, the mage we met briefly along the way, has made it to the capital and is staying at Bailey Row. She and Darryl head that way. Darryl stops at a pub, looking for nothing more than a quiet spot, a comfy chair, and beer. She goes on and tracks Benton down in the library. He shares what he learned in his trips; his estimate of the number of killed people who come back to life is lower than the druid’s was, and we guess that people who were stronger fighters are more likely to rise. They agree to get together again, and Black tracks down a reference about Blindness/Deafness to help her research that spell. She picks up Darryl and they return.
Bonito, Marcus, Mags, and I go to the Chireus temple. There were five priests who led services, and since the crisis six more have arrived. Of these 11 priests, four are blessed with spells. We tell him three of us are clerics and all four of us have spoken to and been blessed by Chireus, and that we have much to share if they will call together all who have leadership positions or have spells. They send for the high priest (who is one with spells) and the other spell-casting clerics. We wait in a small side chapel with a conference table, where there are a couple of braziers with eternal flames. I set up my magic candle alongside the braziers. The others arrive and Bonito tells them the whole story from the beginning, including about the transformations, the visions, and the messages from Chireus. This direct communication with Chireus, or indeed any god, is quite rare, but is happening more and more lately. Several of them have had visions about a coming time of trial for the church, when they will have to rally the faithful against a dark force that’s possibly another god. They know of priests of Saradosia who have had similar visions, which is even rarer. The visions implied that the faithful will form a new arm within the church, perhaps transforming it into something new. They agree the king is a faithful follower of Saradosia and shares her blessings freely.
We ask their advice about who to talk to at court. The high priest names a few people, and says we can use his name. We ask about Alonzo, and they say he’s ambitious and arrogant but not evil. They will let us use their facilities to brew some potions, and can also spare us a few components as well.
After our meeting at the temple, we looked for potion ingredients and found some available for sale in town (paying 3 silver each). We also arranged to meet tomorrow with someone who might want to buy our excess horses (4 of them). We learned that the horse we acquired from the dead messenger is a well-trained fighting horse; we won’t be selling that one. Meanwhile, Benam told the priest of Moradin about the transformations into beasts we’ve experienced, and asked if the priest could cure him. The priest thinks it’s possible, treating it as something like lycanthropy, and will give it a try tomorrow. Benam also prayed to Moradin for his blessing in making his masterwork battle hammer.
We all join up back at the house, and get visits from two birds who are people we know: Yvonne (Mags’s grandmother) and Avena (the druid we met in the woods). From Avena we learn that the beasts are building great siege engines about a day south of the city, no doubt preparing for an attack here. From Yvonne we learn that Baron Reuben (of the eastern barony adjoining Bokkum) is in charge of military operations, and that Yvonne likes and trusts him. At this time a page arrives who was sent by that baron, inviting us to come and meet with him. We agree and the page takes us there.
We tell Reuben all the military information we have: about Kavenir, the power boosts the beasts get, the siege machines to the south, that the gates in one city were opened from inside, and that this is shaping up to be a war between the gods. We give him copies of the log books and messages from the places we visited (returned to us by Alonzo earlier). We ask why the capital was so slow in mobilizing to this threat. His barony was focused on threats from Bokkum, and Baron Meisner delivered no messages of the disaster in our own barony. He doesn’t Meisner! He will arrange a meeting for us with the king. We should be prepared to be called shortly after dawn tomorrow. We’ll have to hustle tonight to get clothing appropriate for such an audience (aside from Blake, who will wear her scholar’s robes). We manage to find a tailor open this late and negotiate with her to get cloaks for Darryl and Jolene, a tabard for Benam to wear over his armor, and a full set of clothing for Mags. Bonito, Marcus, and I get cleric’s robes from the Chireus temple. Back at the house, Blake casts prestidigitation to clean up each of us, the clothes we’ll be wearing tomorrow, and the four horses we’ll be selling, then settle in for the night.
During first watch Benam is sleeping when he has a vision of Moradin’s forge. He sees himself in the roiling molten metal from which Moradin draws dwarves to life, and he himself is forged by the god. He hears an overwhelming voice saying to go to the forge NOW. He gets up to go. Mags, Jolene, and Marcus (and Tammy) are on watch, so he tells them what happened, and Marcus goes with him to the temple, where the high priest invites Benam to sit with him by the forge and pray. When he settle down, Benam gets the strong feeling that he shouldn’t sit there, he needs to get up and go to the forge and work! He believes he is to begin work on his masterwork battle hammer, and they send for the master smiths who will assist him and goes to work. He works all night, driven, and Marcus, who is assisting as best he can, sees that he is doing more than can possibly be done. His hands take on a subtle orange tint and there is a glint of a different presence in his face. The many steps involved in forging something like this hammer would take days of heating, shaping, quenching, and heating again, but somehow by dawn the hammer is complete, and it is splendid. The other smiths welcome him into the brotherhood of Moradin and offer him a special holy symbol signifying that he is a master smith. He & Marcus join us at the house.
Just after dawn a page brings us to the palace. There are guards in the courtyard, where one takes our names and titles and tells us to leave our weapons outside. The beast claw weapons come in with us as part of the items we want to show the king (they aren’t really identified as weapons). Benam refuses to leave his new hammer behind, insisting it is as much a holy symbol as a weapon. The guard, after an appraising look, agrees. He tells us how to properly approach and address the king, and we enter.
We’re introduced and told to stand in a particular spot. Captain Carver, who was the captain of the King’s Guard who happened to be in Ashaker when it fell and was not found afterward, is there with 5 of his men, and we can see that all 6 of them have funny eyes and 4 of them have the coarse hair indicating beast traits. After a bit the king dismisses everyone except us, Carver and his men, Baron Reuben (the military commander), Baron Meisner (the one from our southern barony), a military woman by the king (Lorena, a military commander Reuben told us about, highly skilled and respected), and six of the king’s royal guard (the only ones in the room overtly armed). The king asks us to tell our story, and we defer to Carver’s group to speak first. They say they were killed in the sack of Ashaker and were brought back to life before dawn by a beautiful woman. They saw no other survivors and decided to travel north to bring word to the capital. It was hard to move faster than the beasts, but they did get to the Baron Meisner’s town in time and brought him north from there to this city. In other words, they don’t have a lot to tell.
Now it’s our turn. We tell EVERYTHING. At one point Blake gives the king the elaborate holy symbol from Winifred, who died defending one city. Mags offers the king the officer’s sword from another city (they bring it to him from the courtyard); the king tells her she should continue to wield it, and it’s set aside. We turn over all the books and messages. We hold nothing back.
Reuben says that the siege engines being built to the south will be finished in a few days. Perhaps we should launch a full attack and destroy them now. Meisner gets agitated and asks what will happen if they attack the city, will we all die? The king tries to calm him; we will retreat to the mountains to the north if need be. Meisner continues to get more and more agitated, getting to his feet and becoming shrill. We must destroy the engines, then bring our army from the north around to the south and wipe out the enemy! Reuben glares at him, demanding to know why he’s advocating this now when he’s been arguing against this for weeks? They are sniping at each other, but we are watching everyone else and see that Carver and his men are moving toward Meisner to stand with him, which also brings them closer to the king. Benam calls them on it: Why are you moving toward the king when we’ve been told to hold our positions? The king’s guard moves to the king to defend him, and Bonito challenges Carver’s men: Have you ever changed shape? We note their beast features, but Meisner gets more shrill, yelling at us for daring to challenge these men. Carver admits to changing form, but they aren’t worried since they know they can change back. The king tells Meisner he and his men are too rowdy for this chamber, but the baron doesn’t back down. Bonito asks Carver directly where his loyalties lie, and Carver says with Pallavia – yours? Bonito says, with the KING. Meisner, more shrill than ever, shrieks, “The king of a dying nation? Foolish!” He begins to rise, floating, and transforms into the beautiful woman, shouting, “This is a war of the gods, and your king is not one!” She continues to shift and becomes one of the beast-creatures of the type we see in our dreams, but more graceful. Several of us immediately cast defensive spells (I get off Shield of Faith and pull out the Chireus icon and call on it for Bless). The voice in my head, says, “Oh, shit. I guess we’re doing this.” And the fight is on.
The fight is intense. By the end of it, Carver and all of his men have transformed into beasts, and most of us have done the same. Bonito tells Darryl and Jolene to go into the courtyard to raise more guards for the king’s defense. I get in the first blows in the fight, casting Burning Hands against a bunch of the soldiers before I shift. (I sense the beast in my head cheering that decision.) A few people enter, including another soldier in the colors of Carver’s unit, who doesn’t transform but does fight with the rest of his men against the king and his guard. Some of the king’s guards come in, bringing weapons, and Bonito takes up his sword. Baron Reuben and Lorena, the military advisor, go to a hidden space under some curtains and bring out more weapons. At one point I see an opening in the middle of a scrum of enemies and decide to plunge right into that hole where I can do more damage, which also delights the beast in my head. My attack hits my enemy’s armor, but somehow damages him anyway, for which I can only credit Chireus!
Meanwhile, the king calls in a huge voice for champions of Pallavia to attack, casts Prayer, and enlarges into a much larger form. The evil beast lady replies with a Shout of her own that stuns some of the guards and injures some of our party. She fires some bolt of black light at the king which fortunately misses (Blake later identifies it as Enervation, which make her at least Level 7). She’s flying and she also has Displacement up, so many of our shots miss. Mags brings in a hippogriff who can fight the lady in the air, though it also frequently misses. She also brings in a dire wolf, who does a lot of damage to enemies. The lady moves toward the king and casts Confusion, which takes me, Marcus, and Tammy out of the fight. I find myself running blindly out of the room into the courtyard, where I stand babbling incoherently for a few seconds.
Back in the throne room, Blake casts Levitate on Bonito, who pushes off a wall toward the lady. She says to the king, “If you are so adamant to remain king, we need to talk. Come, ruler mine.” A bolt of lightning flashes between her and the king (a teleportation spell). There’s a powerful smell of ozone and within the blinding light the observers can make out an afterimage of Saradosia surrounding the king. There’s another afterimage of a huge figure surrounding the lady, which we assume is Kavenir. Bonito manages to stick the point of his sword into the lightning bolt. He’s wreathed in lightning (taking some damage from this), and is enveloped in an afterimage of a dragon glaring at Kavenir. Blake calls on Saradosia for help. A green bolt shoots out from Blake carrying Saradosia’s form (it’s a dimensional anchor), but it lands just a split second after the lady and the king both vanish.
With the disappearance of the lady and the king the confusion spell on the three of us dissipates. Darryl and Jolene show up with a dozen guards, and we manage to take the captain and the soldier who showed up later and never transformed alive, but unconscious. All the other attackers are dead. We all return to our normal forms; I’ve got even more beast features than before (fangs), presumably because I fought fiercely and even at times recklessly. Baron Reuben is in charge and commands the military in the king’s absence, but while the power is nice he’s clearly distressed by what happened and not tempted to hold the power long. Mags asks the voice in her head, “You who can raise the dead, any chance you can follow that?” She takes damage from electricity, but the voice says “No, sorry, I can’t trace that bitch.” She does learn the lady’s name (Tamasa).
Reuben says he needs our help. The court mages will deal with magical requirements, but he wants us to literally work for him in this hour of need to protect the city and the nation. We tell him we have other loyalties (to our gods and the king), but within those loyalties we will do what we can. He tells us our first priority is to heal and recover. He gives us new armaments from the court supplies as appropriate (I get a masterwork mace bearing the king’s mark). When Bonito looks at his sword it’s recognizably the same one he always had but subtly changed. There are faint dragon-like markings, and it’s stronger and sharper and magical! It channeled some of Chireus’s essence from being thrust into the blast of lightning in the struggle between Kavenir and Saradosia.
We go back to the house. Some healers from the court arrive to heal our wounds. We engage in our prayer circles with more fervor than usual. Benam prays to Moraden and recounts the fight, and receives a feeling of reassurance. Blake asks Saradosia where the king is and for help either following or getting him back. She gets the feeling the god is listening, but no specific response. Bonito, Marcus, Mags, and I are focusing on Chireus. The three of us who are clerics jointly take the golden idol and thrust it into the fireplace (Mags holds onto one of us but, naturally, avoids putting her own hands directly into the fire). The idol blazes up and the flame becomes more powerful. Mags gets the sense that Saradosia has the king’s back, but nothing more. The other three of us have a vision where we are together on the familiar mountain road that leads to Chireus, but now it is bordered by fierce high flames. We greet the dragon, who says the king is being protected by his god, but Kavenir is blocking her and the other gods from reaching them. We ask what we should do now? We should protect the city, and keep ourselves safe as we do so. Reuben is a good leader and loyal to the king and country, but we don’t know if there are other barons who have turned traitor. The beasts in our heads didn’t likeTamasa and cheered our fight against her. Soon it will be safe for us to talk to these beasts without being injured, and at that time we can learn more. Chireus knows from the experience with the spell being used that the king is somewhere on this world. For now, rest and heal, for there are more battles ahead.
[Tonight we’ll all go to Level 6!]
Benam goes to the Moraden temple to meet with a priest about exorcising the beast in his head. The priest conducts a skillful and powerful exorcism ritual, and Benam’s perception shifts, so that he is looking down at the ritual from the outside. The ritual space starts to take on some aspect of Moraden’s godly forge, but in front of him he also sees aspects of the blasted landscape of the beast’s homeland, and the form of a beast creature takes shape in that space. The creature radiates relief, freedom from pain, but tells Benam the ritual isn’t going to work. Benam says if this fails I’ll find some other way to get rid of you, and the beast asks why he wants him gone so much. Benam tells him he hates the beast features he’s displaying and hates the shift into beast form. “I’m faithful to Moraden and a dwarf, and I’m going to stay that way,” he says. The creature respects that position, but says he’s sorry but the beast features aren’t from him, and that he can’t make Benam shift if he doesn’t want to. “Why do you invade me like this?” Benam demands. The beast says it’s a long story and there’s not time now. The priest finishes up the ritual and Benam finds himself back in his body. All his beast features are gone! [He has no marks any more.] The priest says he looks better, but is convinced the ritual didn’t succeed, and Benam agrees. He asks the priest to examine all the lore and knowledge he can about this kind of transformation and about this god Kavenir. He then turns to the temple forge and spends a couple of hours working on making himself a new breastplate.
Meanwhile, Blake goes to the university to talk to Bentam and get information that will let her learn new spells. She tries to talk him into coming with us when we take on the siege engines, but he says no.
While they are away, we hear a great commotion out on the street and go to investigate. We find two individuals in beast form, one unconscious and one furiously struggling, barely restrained by guards. Bonito tries to calm him, but it doesn’t work, and he gets a sense of the beast in his head eager to try. Bonito tells him he’ll let it happen if the beast tells him its name. He hears the name of the beast, and is hit by a painful jolt of lightning that always accompanies us hearing the voices of the beasts (as opposed to general feelings and urges). Bonito shifts form and mentally steps aside, letting the beast control his body. He speaks in fluent beast-tongue to the furry individual and is able to calm him. All three shift back to human form. It turns out that the person, Tommy by name, believed himself possessed by a demon, and Bonito tells him how important it is that he form a strong bond with whichever god he chooses. We convince the guards that these men are not actually enemies, but warn them that the beasts have the ability to influence the minds of anyone who has been wounded by one of them, so they need to watch out for people doing things under this influence.
As we head back, we find out Mags also poked the creature in her head and asked to know its name. It was hesitant, sending the feeling that this was risky, but she persisted. She got the name, and also got the lightning damage.
Marcus decides to try talking to his beast and learning its name. He engages in a martial kata. First he asks Chireus for help and protection, then chants Chireus prayers while asking the beast mentally whether they can talk without the damage. He gets a sense of regret, but asks to learn its name anyway. He hears the name and takes the usual lightning damage. He thanks the beast for its name, and thinks, I hope someday we can talk without the barrier of the lightning.
He gets a sense of desire, indicating the beast wants that also. As he continues the kata, he notices the smell of ozone and senses extra power in his movements. He asks the creature if he can learn to control the lightning and use it against his enemies. He feels eager anticipation, so the beast seems to think that’s possible. He asks, “What’s the best way to start down that path?” He hears the beast roar in his mind, “Free me!” accompanied by many emotions: the beast wants to be freed from torment, pain, and captivity. Marcus takes a lot of damage, not just more but deeper and more serious than before.
After everyone is back together, we go to sell the four horses we’ve decided we can do without (this leaves us with 10, one for each of the 8 people in our party plus 2 spares). I handle the negotiations, emphasizing not so much how nice the beasts look (thanks to Blake’s prestidigitation skills), but also their sturdy reliability. The stable owner had heard of the crazy people who rode through the gauntlet of enemies to get to the city; these horses carried us through that without missing a step. We get a good price of 30 gold for the four of them, plus 2 for their tack, giving us 9 gold per party member. Nice!
Blake experiments with her magic prayer book. She writes a spell (Detect Magic), then reads it out as with a scroll. The spell works as expected, but feels as though there is some metamagical effect that’s not apparent with this spell. She checks out everything in the house, seeing magic in Bonito’s sword and even a little on Benam’s hammer, the faint aura of transmutation on all of us but Benam, and a couple of extra aura on Marcus. There’s a bit of evocation (lightning) and also a touch of abjuration that is clearly evil, both fading away. We know where the lightning comes from. Does the other mean that the beast in our heads is actually evil, or is the sign of Kavenir’s power that’s imprisoned them there?
Toward evening we get a visit from Ebony Wright! He tells us Baron Reuben requests our presence in the building where we first met with him. We’re suspicious, but agree to go. He is insistent that we should bring all the people we know who might have an interest in the Baron’s business, but we tell him it’s just us. Along the way we notice two things. First, there are guards following stealthily. Second, the path we’re taking is not the most direct one to the building where we met before. Blake challenges him on this point, and he tells a story that the trouble by the southern gate earlier today means we need to approach unobserved, from the back door. It could be true, but we’re not buying it. Bonito says, in Orcish, “I’m stopping here. It’s an ambush.” He stops, and we all stop with him. Lord Wright asks what’s wrong, and Bonito makes the outlandish claim that he’s clairvoyant and he’s sure there’s something bad up ahead. Wright is astonished. I back Bonito’s play, claiming that we need to listen to his intuition. Wright calls the guards in closer, telling them to watch for trouble, and sends some of them to scout ahead to look for this trouble. At that point Bonito’s starts back to the house, and we all go with him. Wright makes a subtle hand gesture to his guards, and they come along. When we get there he asks when we’ll be ready to go to meet the Baron. We say we don’t know, and he and his guards leave.
We decide to go to the building by a more direct route, but we wait just out of sight. Blake sends Ash with a note to the Baron saying where we are and that he should send someone we know to get us if he wants to see us. Ash returns with the note, saying the Baron isn’t there. This confirms our suspicion that Wright was lying. We decide Reuben is probably at the palace, since he’s now acting as regent, so we start that way, only to meet up with one of the King’s guards we recognize from this morning, telling us Reuben wants to meet us at the palace. We go with him.
We meet with Baron Reuben in the castle, and tell him about the attempt by Wright to waylay us. He says Wright is no longer our problem. He gets healing for Marcus’s lightning damage, then we address the interrogation of Captain Carver. In his jail cell there are some jailers, a cleric who’s cast Zone of Truth, Jaron Quinn, a wizard in service to the military. Here’s the tale as Carver clearly believes it.
Carver knew he was dead, in an afterlife full of beauty and blinding light. He sensed that it was not yet his time to die and woke. He agrees that everyone else who came back from the dead remembers taking the hand of a beautiful lady, and has no explanation for why his experience should be different. When he awoke he was certain that Baron Meisner needed him and his men. This makes a certain amount of sense, since that’s where this unit had been assigned for some time, and the enemy was moving north toward Hewcourt. He is also certain that Meisner would be a better leader for the country than the current king because he is more decisive, wiser, and more able to protect the people. In his 20 years in the army he never saw leadership from the king that measures up to what Meisner could do.
He and his men met up with Meisner in Hewcourt. He didn’t sense any change in Meisner from before that time, except perhaps he was more focused. They traveled to the capital and arrived here about 2 weeks ago. In that time they had many discussions about the fact that the king was not able to handle the current situation. That’s why they had not made any report to the king. Carver himself is not a particularly godly man, but Meisner prays to Saradosia daily. Then, in the battle in the throne room, Meisner was enveloped in a brilliant light like the one Carver saw in the afterlife, and ascended to his true power. He didn’t see any transformation into a woman or a beast; the light was too bright to look at directly. We tell him everyone else there saw the image of Saradosia in the aura surrounding the king and that it was opposing the image of a different god in the aura surrounding what Meisner had become. He shrugs; that’s not what he saw.
Blake casts Detect Magic. The jailers had checked for magical effects on Carver before putting him in prison, and affirmed that there were none, but now Blake detects a powerful aura of enchantment (mind affecting), which Jaron confirms. Clearly Tamasa or Kavenir has been able to reach out and affect his mind here in prison, without any physical contact. They may be able to remove the effect (it took Saradosia to remove it from Blake, so maybe not), but in any case they should take all precautions to prevent him being killed. As we all leave the prison, Reuben directs intense levels of protection, including magical wards. After we leave, Marcus and Mags question their internal beasts about what they think of Carver. They get no words (so no lightning!), but a sense of dismissal. What an idiot.
The next order of business is to plan for the raid on the siege engines tomorrow. Baron Reuben has had wizards scrying and found that large areas of the Fens have been shielded. It’s possible that the king is in there somewhere. But they got a good look at the engines. They know just where they are and how they are arranged. There are five of them, in one group of 3 and one of 2, just 20 feet apart. There’s a village about a half mile south of the engines that two wizards in the capital are familiar with, enough so that they can transport there with the six of us, plus Tammy. There are some workers and guards with the machines, but nothing too heavy. Most of the fighters defending them are north of there, between the engines and the capital. We draw up a plan:
We settle in for the evening and do several things:
We sleep, keeping our watches as usual. Just before it was time to wake up, Blake & Bonito hear soft sounds of people in armor walking around outside, trying to be quiet. They peek out and see about a dozen people in armor with no marks. Someone very gently tries the handle on the front door. They wake the rest of us, and about then we hear the sound of someone in armor falling over. We look out and see a second armored person fall over, with a bola around his legs. His fellows remove the bola, but he doesn’t rise. The soldiers fan out, trying to figure out what’s going on. One whispers, “It looks like a dart.” They quietly pick up their fallen comrades and leave.
We get ready for the battle and go to the castle. Tammy and I are starting to feel ill from our brush with the pureed zombie (thanks, Bonito), and get Remove Disease. We get our flammables ready, our Mage Armor cast, and are all set to go.
The wizards transported us without difficulty into a small shed in a village about ½ hour from the town where the siege engines were being built. They will give us 2 hours to complete our mission and return. At the end of 2 hours (or sooner, if they are discovered and attacked) they’ll transport back.
Benam, Marcus, and Bonito put on cloaks that help to disguise their weapons and the containers of flammable materials Marcus carries. They also carry a backpack loaded with 50 sling stones, and all who can use one carry slings. The rest of us are ready to shift form, and we arrange some ropes so it looks like we’ve taken the three humanoids prisoner. We don’t want to shift too soon, since we don’t know whether there’s a time limit to how long we can stay in beast form. We head out toward the engines.
Finally we make out up ahead the sloping lines of a yurt, the type of structure the beasts build. We get a little closer and see that we’re approaching a town. One of the yurts is outside the edge of the town, nearer to us, and we believe that’s the same area where we will find the siege engines. Mags, Blake, and I all shift. I cast Flame Arrow on the stones in the bag and everyone helps themselves to all the stones they need.
As we continue toward the engines, one of the workers sees us and comes toward us, moving casually with no sign of suspicion. We prod the “prisoners,” maintaining that deception. When he’s close enough, he asks us what’s up. Mags explains that we found these guys and it looks like they’re big and strong and might be helpful chopping wood. He seems skeptical and suggests we go instead toward the north where the army is. Mags nods, but says she can smell the food being cooked in the town, and wonders if we can stop by for breakfast first. The fellow agrees, and he offers her a carrot, which she takes. He introduces himself as Ghung, and he comes along with us toward the yurt. As we get closer we can see the siege machines. Several beasts are working on them, and there’s also a cart and a campfire.
Bonito starts making noise (loud grumbling in Pallavian) and struggling against his pretend bonds. Blake very quietly casts invisibility on Marcus, who is under his cloak so it’s not obvious. Bonito knocks into Marcus so that they both fall, with Bonito holding Marcus’s cloak so he can tumble out without anyone noticing the cloak is now empty. He moves quietly toward the siege engines to start dumping tar and oil on them.
Meanwhile, a beast in armor and a holy symbol has come out of the yurt. He wants to know what we’re doing. Ghung says we’re here to get breakfast, but the cleric says no. This is not a labor camp. We should take the prisoners to the army up north. There are lots of things going on with us while Marcus tries to sneak around putting oil on the engines. The cleric demands to know who Mags is, and she gives the name of the guy in her head, but he rejects that. Some of the other worker beasts move up to support the cleric. I step out with some swagger (I don’t speak the language well so I don’t try to talk, but project a bit of a “Don’t you tell me what to do!” attitude). I have a bit of a chest-bumping session with one of the beasts. Several folks cast spells (Bull Strength, Call Lightning), disguising their movements and chanting as scolding and muttering. Bonito shifts under his cloak. The cleric has gotten suspicious and we hear him say, “They’re stalling. Look for anything out of place.” A woodchopper beast casually picked up some supplies which, we notice, happens to include some javelins.
Then the fight really begins. Blake throws a scorching ray at the cleric. Bonito casts Divine Favor, I cast Shield of Faith. The woodchopper with the javelins has examined one of the siege engines and calls out “Tar and oil!” The three “prisoners” throw off their cloaks, and the battle is on. Mags tells Ghung he should run or she’ll have to kill him, and calls down lightning on one of the beasts by the siege engine, hoping Marcus is not too close. Blake throws Ray of Enfeeblement at woodcutter with the javelins. I throw a sling stone with Flame Arrow on it at the siege engine the enemy helpfully told me Marcus had treated, and it goes up in a satisfying burst of flame. I don’t know what other engines he’s treated, but I throw another stone at the next nearest one and it goes up, too. Meanwhile, there’s a heated battle with people taking damage on both sides, but it’s not going too badly.
Ghung is furious. He had been friendly with us, and feels betrayed. He tells Mags there is no place in heaven for such as us and stomps away. There is lightning in his footsteps! She makes no move to attack him, but asks the beast in her head what that’s about. She gets a sense of acknowledgement that we did betray him, but it’s war so it’s okay. Benam follows Ghung and hits his arm with his warhammer. We can see the arm crumple, but Ghung just keeps walking, saying over his shoulder to Mags, “You took my food and then you killed my friends. Go away!” He throws a lightning bolt that hits many of us (Mags, Benam, Tammy, and me, doing massive damage. Ghung, though, seems not even to notice.
Bonito runs up to Ghung, asking for guidance from Chireus who encourages him, and he lays hands on Ghung, offering healing. He says, “Don’t let this change who you are, don’t let it make you a worse person.” Ghung turns, crying, and they hug. Ghung is reciting the names of the beasts we’ve killed, and Mags says in beast tongue that she’s sorry, but we are trying to save our people. (Meanwhile, she’s giving me some healing, which I desperately need.)
By this time all the beasts except Ghung are dead and the siege engines fully on fire, plus the cart and the yurt. We check, and the beasts are all completely dead, not able to be revived. In the distance we see ground troops running toward us and a figure flying above them. Blake throws a fireball at the flying figure from the spell book and it goes off. She senses it’s enhanced in some way, possibly good aligned. Blake comes near enough to cast Invisibility Sphere on all of us and we change directions. The flying mage casts a fireball at where they thought we were, and it’s close enough that some of us take some damage. Blake casts Haste and we run a while, reverting back to our natural form when we sense the beasts inside us can’t keep us in beast form any longer. When the Invisibility Sphere and Haste end they can see us but they can’t catch up to us. We get back to the wizards who teleport us out and we’re back in the castle.
The raid was successful. Some of us (including me) are still injured but we didn’t lose anyone, and the siege engines are history. We also got some information from whatever it was that happened to Ghung, though we don’t actually know what it means. The puzzle is still unclear.
Back in the palace, Baron Reuben debriefs us about the raid. On his part, the attack from the city side went without a hitch, and didn’t run into much resistance. On the other hand, we ran into a cleric and the flying mage, but we’re not sure why. Reuben is mystified as to why we didn’t kill Ghung, who is apparently a favored soul of some god that might or might not be Kavenir. We consider the possibility that the god Tamasa represents is not the true Kavenir. We also talk to Reuben about the real possibility that we might wind up having to fight against soldiers in the forces of the King or one of the Barons, in which case we would look like traitors. The only advice he can give us is that, if it comes to that, try not to kill anyone. We get healing from the palace, then go with Benam to the Moraden temple and get more healing from them. They also generously offer to give us the materials to make 2 divine potions (which accounts for half their store).
After lunch we split up. Blake researches the Blindness/Deafness spell she wants to acquire. Marcus visits a tattoo parlor and acquires a beginner’s tattoo kit plus instruction on how to use it, with which he can apply the broad outlines of the Chireus tattoo he wants. Mags, Bonito, and I go to the Chireus temple, where we pray and meditate. My focus is asking for guidance, especially with regard to Ghung, and asking how I can help provide information to Chireus (as I did when I burned that beast). At the request of the priests, Bonito and I give reassurance to the refugees sheltering in the temple. Bonito also gives them some basic self-defense training, and I do minor repairs of their goods. Mags, meanwhile, is brewing a potion. As we’re there we notice that among the birds sheltering in the rafters there’s one that is watching us very closely. Mags invites it to come down to join us, but it doesn’t. After watching us for an hour or so, it flies off.
After dinner we are invited back to meet again with Baron Reuben. He has news that one of the barons from the south-west region has declared his intention to challenge King Edwards for the throne. He claims that the king has proven inadequate to defend the kingdom. It’s not clear whether he knows the king is missing and wants to fill the vacuum, or just generally thinks that this time of chaos offers an opportunity. The baron also asks us about our service to him, since we didn’t make a real commitment to his service earlier. We are insistent that we are willing to do what serves the kingdom and the king, but reserve the right to refuse any tasks we don’t agree with. He says he may ask us to travel before too long, and in the end there may be someone who needs killing, and asks if we are on board with that. Again, we give a provision okay, but will make our own judgment about whether to comply once the full circumstances are known.
Back at the house we brew more potions. I get one, Blake gets one, and Benam gets one. As we work on this, Mags’s grandmother visits. She was the songbird we saw in the temple. We ask her about Baron Reuben. She distrusts him on general principles because he’s a politician, but finds him the most trustworthy of the various other options. She particularly dislikes the one who’s made the challenge. We also discuss how Mags was able to speak with the beast in her head, and I agree to try the same technique, using herbs to help me get into the proper state. Just to be safe, I cast Resist Energy: Electricity first.
I find myself on the mystical road with Chireus in the distance and in front of me is a beast, distinctly female. She speaks in Beast and I don’t understand, but then feel warmth on my back and with Chireus’s help her words become clear. Her name is Wij’hota. She was a fighter who served in the army and then became a mercenary. She has no idea how she came to be here. She was fighting in the war, which was going very badly, and had to run from an encounter she had no hope of surviving. She came upon someone in the robes of Kavenir, who guided her to a pyramidal temple. She is a devout follower of Kavenir, so she believed she would be safe there, but the fighting came and they were reciting prayers to Kavenir, and the next thing she remembers she was in my head. Like Baron Reuben, she thinks our decision not to kill Ghung was a mistake, though I try to explain that we concluded he was not actually our enemy and we don’t kill people out of hand who are not our enemy. She agrees Ghung may have been given power by Kavenir.
She observed the fight in the throne room. She saw Tamasa rise up from the corpse of that idiot. She was the queen of their people, powerful in her own right and supported by the clergy and the church but not especially blessed. Wij’hota can understand kidnapping the enemy’s king in battle, but destroying and consuming that baron, her own loyal follower, doesn’t sit right. That’s something a cold mercenary “like me” would do, but we expect better from our leaders.
She thinks she must be dead, since this isn’t any kind of life, trapped inside someone else, continually tortured by lightning. It is not the afterlife Kavenir would have in store for any of his faithful followers, though. The “blessings of Kavenir” that give her people more power when one of their group dies don’t actually come from Kavenir, but are inherent to their species. She’s been given no goals or instructions for anything she should or should not be doing. The voice I hear in my head, urging actions I may or may not take, is hers. Her primary motivations are to win in battle and not to leave any enemies alive behind who might come back to fight again, and indeed to kill quickly anyone who has no hope of survival. She has no idea how she could be freed from the lightning, nor does she know what might happen to her if she’s removed from my head. She’d like a real body, though, and to be returned to the life she knew.
I ask about the beasts in other people’s heads. She recognizes the names of those in Mags and Bonito, and suggests that they ask their beasts about the Battle of Juhquoch. They should have fond memories!
We continue walking on the road for a while, getting closer to Chireus, until we get the sense from her that we should stop. I send her thanks for her guidance and help in this conversation, and eventually come out of the trance. I share with others what I learned.
Before she leaves, Mags’s grandmother tells us she was not the one who shot the darts the other night that drove away the armored men outside out house. We still don’t know who that might have been. It’s nice that someone was helping us out there, but we aren’t comfortable just accepting the enemy-of-my-enemy concept and trusting that they are our friends. Reuben suggested that we toss a coin to a street urchin, because they often know what’s going on.
The night passes uneventfully. Bonito has a dream vision in which he relives the moment when Ghung shot the lightning that wounded so many of us. In his vision, he sees an aura surrounding Ghung that includes a white tree with three large branches, the middle one of which hangs down and ends in a pattern of leaves and twigs that looks like a skull face. After waking he thinks about that image and knows it is not the holy symbol of any god that is known or sanctioned in Pallavia, and it is obviously also not the holy symbol of Kavenir. He draws the symbol and we all look at it and ask the beasts in our heads if they recognize it, and get back only confusion. Blake, the scholar, is sure that this is not the holy symbol of any known gods; if it is one that was once around but forbidden in Pallavia, it was shunned long before any records show. I also say aloud, “Anyone heard of the Battle of Juhquoch?” Bonito gets a sense of pride and laughter from his beast. Mags gets not much, the mental equivalent of a shrug and eyeroll.
We have no immediate tasks, so we go into town. Mags finds someone who can provide the materials to make chain barding for Tammy. As we wander, we overhear conversations indicating that word of the king’s disappearance is quietly spreading. We attract attention because of our appearance, of course, but notice a few people who seem to be watching jus more closely than we would expect. Mags makes eye contact with one, someone in poor clothing. He acknowledges her look and holds up a begging bowl, so she tosses in a copper. He thanks her, but nothing else. Bonito is spreading the blessings of Chireus to all, and a few coins as well, so we have quite a few people following us. We still see random people giving us a closer than usual look: a merchant here, a passer-by there. None of them speak to us, but they are clearly more interested than most.
We hear an agitated commotion, and learn that there are Pallavian soldiers approaching from the east, on the far side of the beast’s army. We go to the eastern wall, passing a runner bringing news to the castle. From up top on the wall we see a wagon and about 50 people well to the east. Blake sends up Ash to take a look; he comes back to report that it is one of the wagons we left with the people from that fortified town. They are the ones who pushed out pikesmen to help us get into their castle keep through the beasts, so we could do the same in reverse here to help them get to the city. However, when we take a closer look through a spyglass we conclude that the people with the wagon are actually undead, specifically zombies. Furthermore they are clearly being actively controlled. This means there must be at least 4-5 clerics close at hand, presumably hiding in the wagon. We make sure the lieutenant directing the defenses at this gate know this, and Marcus, the fastest of us, goes to the castle to pass this information on. He comes upon the runner we saw before, now heading back to the gate with the commands from the castle, and convinces him to turn around and come back to the castle with Marcus, where he tells the Baron this information.
Between the Baron and the lieutenant at the wall, we come up with a plan. We will open the eastern gate and sent pikemen out, as though we were going to use the technique our allies used with us back at their own castle. Up on the wall will be mages to fireball that wagon. We have 3 wizards and a sorcerer, plus Blake, and the sorcerer can convert the fireball to an iceball. That may be especially helpful because the clerics in the wagon may have fire resistance, but not cold resistance. Also, zombies are immune to cold, so if we kill the clerics they will probably attack the beast army. The southern gate will also be opened, as though it had been opened from inside by people under control by beasts. This might lure some of the beasts into attack range, at which point we slam that gate and attack them.
The plan goes off successfully. The wagon turns toward the north, then cuts west as though they were trying the same trick we did to cut through the gap like we did. The beasts are putting on a show of trying to fight them, though they don’t do anything to actually slow their advance. The beast army is also drifting closer to the open gate. There’s a commotion around the southern gate and those on top of the wall there are putting on a show of their own, pretending there’s a danger inside that opened the gate. The beasts attack there and the gate is slammed. We can tell a few got inside, but are overwhelmed by defenses within the walls, and many more are killed outside before they can retreat.
Meanwhile, at our gate the wizards start throwing fireballs at the wagon. It quickly becomes nothing but a pile of carbon, and all but a dozen of the zombies are also incinerated. The beast army charges the gate, and their mages send fireballs to the top of the wall to take out the mages there (Blake takes some damage) and also a fog cloud at the gate itself, cast by a floating mage who was invisible until he cast. The gate is closing as quickly as possible, and Benam and Marcus are there trying to help defenders get inside while not allowing beasts through. Our mages dispel the fog cloud and fireball the floating mage, also hitting many of the beasts. I use my spiritual weapon to attack the floating mage, and heal Blake. Mags summons a dire wolf, who creates chaos and carnage in front of the gate as it’s finally closed. The enemy mage summons flying creatures like hippogriffs, and the beasts start to withdraw, letting the summons fight for them. Mags throws lightning after them, and the Pallavian army to the north also engages and harries them as they withdraw. The battle went very well from our point of view.
After a little celebration, we are summoned to the palace. Reuben has information for us. Scryers to the south indicate it will be a couple of weeks at least before the beasts can build and deploy siege engines. In the Fens, they’ve have found an area where the beasts have build a pyramid, some yurts, and fortifications. They expect to know more in a couple of days. Mages can transport us to a point not very close to the Fens but beyond the enemy army. Also, thanks to the Baron we now have a group name: the Intrepid Irregulars!
Meanwhile, the Baron has a task for us. A Mr. Fowler is in town. He’s a respected advisor, a financial man, who is allied with Baron Harrison (the one who’s declared against the king). Baron Reuben wants to deliver a message to him, and if it’s delivered by a heavily-armed, dangerous party like us that will be a message in itself. The message will invite Fowler to come visit the Baron, and if he chooses to come immediately we can escort him. We agree, and deliver the message as asked. Mr. Fowler reads it and gives us a message to take back with us. The baron tells us that Fowler has said he will visit shortly, bringing information to prove his loyalty is beyond question. He doesn’t say loyal to whom.
It’s now afternoon, and we visit the Chireus temple. (Blake has finished learning Blindness/Deafness.) The head priest tells that the current king (Edward II) is a good ruler. None of the barons would serve as well. His wife died some years ago. He has no children and has never named an heir. Baron Reuben is the best of all the barons. He would be a good leader, though as a military man he tends to view things through that lens, having perhaps less concern about the daily welfare of the ordinary people than the king does. There’s another baron, one from the north (Schwein) who would also serve the nation well as a leader. He might make a play for the throne if it becomes clear that the king is dead, but as long as the king lives he would fight against anyone attempting to claim the throne, seeing that as treason. Mr. Fowler is a financial advisor, obsessed with money, and has little influence outside of that realm.
Fifty years ago, at the time of the current king’s father, Edward I, things are a bit murkier. The charges raised against him by the priests of Marcusis (that he had made a demonic pact to protect him from illness) had support. The Church of Chireus had convened a secret council to consider moving against the king, but the Marcusists did so before they could act. The Marcusists were defeated quickly by the supposed miracles of Saradosia. The Chireus priests believe these miracles were not actually the work of Saradosia, but by now anyone with actual knowledge of what went on are dead or gone.
This raises some concerns about the leadership of the Church of Saradosia. If those miracles were not truly the work of their god, surely they knew that. Why did they not denounce them? Apparently the highest priests were more concerned with consolidating their power than truth. Something that’s not widely known is that Saradosia herself is not actually lawful. It’s the church leadership that emphasizes laws and rules, perhaps because they provide political and financial support for the priesthood. Saradosia herself is truly good, but her followers might not always live up to that. This triggered a lengthy discussion about how this god has tolerated, even supported, the leadership of a faith that doesn’t actually follow her precepts. Perhaps she isn’t paying close attention? Perhaps she sees these deviations as the price to pay for achieving some longer-term goal? There’s no way for us to know.
Bonito wants to confront Fowler, poking him with questions about the current situation. He doesn’t expect honest answers, but finding out what he answers or doesn’t answer will be informative. He and Mags go to Fowler’s residence (Marcus, Benam, and I find a seat in a nearby square where we can clearly see the house; Blake is researching yet another spell). They are readily admitted and invited into a sitting room, where Fowler offers them wine. They settle down to chat.
After some small talk about their origins, they get to business. Fowler knows the king was kidnapped, which is stunning. No one knows what will happen as a result. The king is generally liked, but now he’s deserted Pallavia in its hour of greatest need. Baron Harrison makes that claim. When Bonito brings up the message Baron Reuben asked us to deliver, Fowler explains that he and Harrison are childhood friends. Fowler serves the interests of Harrison and his southwestern barony here at the capitol. Reuben was showing that he is on guard against Fowler taking Harrison’s side in a conflict over the throne, which Fowler finds insulting. He is firmly committed to remaining neutral in any such conflict. If the king returns and there is an actual battle between him and Harrison he’d have to take the king’s side, fighting against his friend and his land, which he would hate to have to do. That ends the conversation.
That night Chireus doesn’t warn us away from the Fens. She says if I should happen upon any magic-user among the beasts, I should get out my candle. She doesn’t recognize the symbol of the white tree. Blake asks Saradosia about the status of the king. He is alive, but something blocks Saradosia’s sight of him.
During first watch Marcus & Mags hear someone outside and something falling. They look out and see a Beast floating away and a small wooden box. They wake everyone up and investigate. There are markings on the inside of the box lid and six copper coins inside. Bonito casts Detect Magic and finds a spell on the box and another on one coin. Marcus asks his beast to take a look at the markings on the lid, and it explodes. Blake recognizes Exploding Runes, which is activated by anyone who looks closely at the markings, even if they can’t read them. I get my candle and the flame points toward the magic coin, and takes a dragon form. Bonito cautions not to do more, but I direct the flame at the magic coin. It leaps to engulf the coin in a ball of green flame. The coin vanishes with a muffled pop. Bonito and I both have a vision of a beast casting spells over four copper coins, and hear a voice saying, “Find the other three.”
We hear an explosion and scream in the direction the beast went. Mags writes a hasty note, converts to a bird, and flies off to deliver it to the palace (Ash goes with her). We all hear another commotion in a different area. We investigate both locations, and find a man whose arm is blown off and a dead child. Both had picked up a coin. Further investigation turns up unexploded boxes on both sites. Meanwhile, at the palace Mags tells a guard we are looking for other exploding coins and boxes, and with the help of Chireus finds the last site. A beggar is counting coins, but hasn’t found an exploding one. Mags (in elf form) trades him her own coins for all that he has, and asks about the box. He describes a man with a strange walk, wearing a heavy cloak and cowl, who gave him a bunch of coins from a box and tossed the box aside, and she finds it. We’ve now found the three boxes and coin that have not exploded, and bring them to the house. While there we try my candle on the long-dead and boiled skull of the first cleric we encountered, but it has no reaction. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.
In the morning we deliver the items to the Baron. He’s glad to have them, but there were more than these, and several people have been injured. The damage to morale is almost worse, since people know the beasts can attack inside the wall. We make plans to go to the Fens tomorrow, and sleep tonight in the palace. During the day we sell all our remaining horses but two (for Darryl and Jolene), making 24 gold apiece for the 6 of us. We spend the day on other matters and sleep well. Chireus tells me that she learned something when my flame consumed the coin. It stank of evil magic, presumably linked with that god of the white tree. I should let my candle burn anything related to a follower of that god if I can.
In the morning we stock up on provisions, including a spare sword and Saradosia holy symbol for the king, should we find him, and off we go. As we’re teleporting we pass by a huge battle of the gods. On one side: Saradosia, Moraden, and Chireus. On another: Tamasa, Kavenir, and one we don’t know (probably the white tree god). Elebon and one like an idealized beast watch from the sidelines. As we whisk past, Tamasa sees us and a huge golden hand tries to fling us into a black pit. Our gods save us (Moraden’s hammer for Benam, a blast of air for Blake, and a fiery snake for the rest of us). We don’t wind up where we expected. Benam stands on a hot stone in a grassland, where he sees people carrying a flag of Marcusis. Blake emerges a few feet above a hill and falls, with minimal damage. The rest of us are near the eastern edge of the fens.
Those of us who follow Chireus are within the Fens, but near to the eastern edge. We’re on a small island in a swamp of muck that has a stubby tree. I climb up the tree with the spyglass. There is swamp as far as I can see to the west, and swamp ending in the blue of the sea to the south. East and north the marsh gives way to rolling grasslands, and to the north I can barely make out a smudge of color that reminds me of Blake’s robes. I figure she’ll send Ash up to look around, and we decide to tie an assortment of the armbands we use to identify ourselves to our allies when we’re in beast form to the branches as high as I can reach to make us visible from above.
Meanwhile, Benam on his rock sees a hundred people, all showing the mark of Marcusis, traveling from east to west on a road to the north of him. As they get closer a small group breaks off and approaches. They address him in friendly tones, but he doesn’t understand. He replies in Dwarvish, and one of their group comes forward to respond in the same tongue. He tells them where he’s from and that he has been fighting the beasts, but got separated from his companions. When they ask why, he dismisses it as “magic.” They are traveling to a Marcusian temple near the border in order to protect it from the beasts, and they invite him to come with them. He agrees, as long as they help him find his friends.
Blake was able to see the Fens from her location and has headed that way, with Ash up above scouting. He returns to tell her he saw the colors in the tree, so she heads that way. I can see her coming right toward us from my spot in the tree. Bonito decides to go meet her, to help her reach us through the swamp. Along the way he has an encounter with an alligator which comes out worse for the alligator. They meet up and he brings her in to join the rest of us.
By this time I can see the distant procession to the northeast, carrying Marcusis’s colors. Ash goes aloft to check them out, and before long Blake feels surprise and annoyance. Benam, at this time, gets a stone dropped on top of his head, but doesn’t know where it’s coming from. At first he suspects fellow travelers, but after a LOT more stones fall from the sky he FINALLY spots the bird and figures it out. Ash does a big circle in the sky and heads toward the Fens, so Benam does the same. He invites his new friends to come along, and they agree to go with him to the edge of the Fens but no further. He gets directions to their holy site, in case he wants to connect with them later. At the edge of the Fens he meets up with Bonito, who came out (reluctantly) to bring him in to join the rest of us.
Based on what we remember from the information we got ahead of this mission, our target in the Fens should be SSW from here. We head in that direction, finding some animal tracks and finally some boot tracks heading roughly the right way. After a while we hear distant music, and when we get closer we see a fairly substantial two-story building surrounded by water, with drawbridges heading off in all direction. A half-elf is sitting on the structure and waves to us. He is Paulin, the owner of this establishment. He has funny eyes, and we can’t tell if he carries beast features. He wants to know if we’re staking claim, but we tell him we’re just passing through, and might be looking for a place to stay. He brings us in to a quiet place to talk. They don’t have rooms here as such. There used to be a place further west, but the beasts have been on the rampage and it may not be there anymore. He isn’t shy about admitting he died and came back. Lots around here have. Some are friends with beasts, others not, and he doesn’t much care as long as there’s profit in it.
We ask about the beasts to the west of here. If you go a day to the west, you find beasts. A day to the southwest, you find beasts. In between they’ve cut down so many trees you can see a ways, and they’re building. There’s some round things, some square storage things, and a big pyramid out of metal. Metal is valuable, especially around here, and he says Blake could probably figure out the best stuff to steal. We have a hard time convincing him we’re not looking to steal, but finally say it’s God stuff. We wind up bargaining with him for his help. He will provide detailed information about the terrain and the location of the things the beasts are building. He’ll guide us to within a bowshot of the beasts and will even provide a distraction by piling flammable material around one of their buildings away from where we are and setting it on fire from a distance. He can let us know about spots to flee to if pursued that have traps that should slow down any beasts on our tail. His price for all this is 31 silver. He says there are two times when it’s best to make this kind of attack. At night many of them are sleeping. In midmorning many of them have gone off on patrols. We decide we like midmorning best; those sleeping can be roused quickly, while those on patrol will take longer to return. We decide to do this not tomorrow but the following day, giving us time to brew potions and make other magical preparations.
Preparations:
Operation:
Blake has finished up her potion for today, and Mags convinces Bonito and Blake to get drugged up and talk to the beasts in their heads. Here’s what they learn.
BLAKE: Her beast is Ruvhoh, a female. She was a member of a town guard, but the city she guarded was overrun and she fled to a temple, which should be a safe refuge. Instead, she wound up here, and has no idea how or why. She does know that when Blake does certain things (powerful magic, being brave in attacking her enemies) she enjoys watching that, and it probably helps give her more beast traits. The beasts we are fighting here in our world don’t look the same as the beasts back in her world or the same as the beasts in our heads or our dreams. Blake, the historian, asks historical questions. When Ruvhoh was last in her world it was Year 82 of the 9th age. When a queen becomes too old or weak to govern effectively a challenger arises and the privy council conducts a ritual to transfer power to the new queen. About 50 years ago there was a big scandal when Tamasa was supposed to be replaced, but she claimed that with the war going on she should remain, and she convinced them to keep her on. The war was going very badly; the Che Nuv-Pou are powerful and deploy a lot of magic.
BONITO: Hossnis had been in the army for many years, but saw a big shift. Initially many followed Kavenir, but others didn’t, and that was fine. About 10 years his worshipers became more bloodthirsty and violent, but they continued to wear his holy symbol and receive his spells. He didn’t like this and renounced Kavenir, but soon only the worship of Kavenir was acceptable, and 5 years ago he was kicked out of the army for this. Bonito thinks about the white tree skull symbol, and Hossnis is surprised: Why didn’t I see that before? (A good question: Bonito drew it and we all asked our beasts about it, and got a response of unfamiliarity.) Hossnis believes it is the symbol of Fangarephon, an evil deity in his world. He saw some people court-martialed for following this god. They had been throwing lightning around, pretending to be blessed by Kavenir, and slaughtered wantonly: enemies, allies, and bystanders. Bonito asks about the Che Nuv-Pou; they worshipped Orthoaki, and supposedly could manipulate someone’s inner soul. Their brutality may have pushed Tomasa to become more ruthless in response; there was no line she wouldn’t cross in fighting them. About 50 years ago she was around 150 years old, out of a maximum for these creatures of 200, and was becoming feeble and weak-minded. However, she fought off a challenge from her rightful heir, displaying great power and focus, and has remained queen ever since. Bonito asks about the beast traits, and Hossnis thinks it happens when he does something Hossnis approves of, but it’s nothing conscious or deliberate on his part. Bonito asks about the typical layout of Kavenir’s pyramids. They generally have three levels. The first two are broken into smaller rooms, but the top one is a ceremonial space open to the point of the pyramid. Would a VIP prisoner be kept at the top level? Hossnis hedges; prisoners are generally not kept in the temples at all, but if they were that’s probably the most likely place. The doors are often protected with magic. If you touch it and you’re not one of the beasts, you get a lightning kick that knochs you well away. If you are a beast, you say a standard phrase and it opens. There could also be magical wards that extend 50 feet away. Hossnis agrees that the invading army here looks strange to him. The language they speak is the same one he knows. The last year he remembers is consistent with what Ruvhoh told Blake. Hossnis says there is a goddess of animals and protection called Gabishana that he would like to worship, so Bonito offers him a chance to say prayers while he’s safe here on the astral road.
That night passes uneventfully. The next day Blake works on her potions and the rest of us scout a little around the beast encampment. Paulin shows us what he can without us getting too close, and then Mags turns into a swamp vulture and scouts from the air. She is able to see a network of wooden walkways through the trees and undergrowth, but figures out there’s something strange about one particular area. The light looks wrong, and there’s a glistening pool of water that doesn’t seem to fit. She focuses on that area and is able to see through the glamour to make out a seamless metal pyramid 80 feet high. There’s a walkway around the whole pyramid and going up to all four sides, but she doesn’t happen to see anyone going in or out. A mage floats up from the pyramid so Mags flies away and doubles down on her bird imitation by catching a frog and eating it, while defending her catch from the intruder and keeping her distance. The mage is apparently convinced and returns to the ground.
Another uneventful night passes, and we wake before dawn on a rainy day when a HUGE lightning bolt hits very nearby and our beasts all send feelings of dread. We head out for the raid. Paulin mentions that all the rain will make his fire distraction harder, so I ask Chireus, god of fire, to help with that. When we’re about 2/3 of the way to the encampment we see marks on the trees that Paulin says indicates beasts scouting, possibly looking for an escapee. Blake wonders if the holy symbol she carries could be used as a guide to help her find the king, with Saradosia’s help. It doesn’t do anything yet. Bonito has a Locate Object spell, and he prays for Chireus to extend its range to help him find the king, but hears a whispered, “Not yet.” We get a little closer and Paulin splits off to go to the east, where he’ll set his fire.
Up ahead we see a wooden pier that’s the end of one of the wooden walkways. Mags figures out from this just where we are in the network she spotted from above, and knows that following this walkway straight north would take us to the pyramid. We spot a beast sentry on the walkway and hold very still. After a moment he walks off, and we believe he spotted us and is going for reinforcements. We shift to beast form and, after some debate, move away to the west, moving as stealthily as we can. When some beasts come down that walk again we all drop and hide, with some of us below the water, breathing through reeds. The beasts drop off the walkway and move around the area where we had been, shining lanterns around, but though the beams occasionally pass above us we aren’t spotted. After a while they give up and most of them leave, but two guards stay on the end of the pier. That is the best way to get from here to the pyramid, so we need to wait for the distraction to lure them away. It’s very cold in the water, but I pray for warmth and Chireus sends some my way!
After about 10 more minutes we hear a commotion, shouted orders, yells of “How did it catch on fire in this rain?” People are shouting to put it out. Marcus prays to Chireus to keep that fire going as long as possible! The two guards on the pier take off, but we see that they are actually walking with care, implying that the walkway is trapped somehow. We cautiously approach the walkway and can now see through the illusion.
We get on the walkway and head north, with Blake using Prestidigitation to clear up the mud we’re dripping as we go. I go first, watching for traps, and detect a few small trip-you-up traps, which I point out to people and we successfully avoid them. We push through the barrier of glamour and can now see a clearing with more solid ground, cleared trees and bushes, and a huge metal pyramid. To the east we can see the signs of fire. The walkway we are on joins with another, and according to the map Mags saw from above we can’t get to the pyramid via walkways without going right through a hut. There are several groups of beasts in view, generally heading east toward the fires. At this point we huddle together and Blake casts Invisibility sphere. We move carefully forward, stepping off the walkway when necessary to avoid going through the yurt, following a line of ground that is free of puddles enough that we can probably pass without leaving marks. We’re not 100% successful, but Bonito throws a stone over the path to the far side to distract people and we manage to get by without further incident.
We see lightning from the storm, some of which strikes the pyramid (not surprising; it’s by far the tallest structure around, and made of metal). The lightning coruscates down the side, dissipating before it reaches the ground, and we can detect a pattern indicating where the door probably is. About 50’ out our fur stands on end and we feel a sense of pressure. Benam, who’s not in beast form yet, gets an irresistible urge to GET AWAY, so at that point he shifts and has the same general feeling of pressure and static charge as the rest of us. There are two guards, one on each side of the probable door, and we are able to sneak VERY CAREFULLY past them and all huddle up against the door. Blake and I put our hands on the door and prepare to say the password very quietly, timing it for the next booming lightning strike. Blake manages to do it and the door opens. We all slide in quickly. One of the guards sticks his head in, curious about why the door opened, barely missing us. He calls through, whether anyone’s coming out; no one is, so he closes the door behind us.
We are in a corridor going left and right (East and West) to a stairway leading up. Bonito’s Locate Object spell indicates a direction up and to the left, so we go left and up that stairway, managing to sneak past an open doorway with three beasts inside. On the second level a corridor is heading out in two directions, one to the north and one east. Bonito’s spell is still pulling north, so we go that way. We pass an open door without attracting the attention of the beasts within. We pass a very large closed door and keep going, then come to another open door. Bonito’s spell indicates his target is in that room. It contains an alter, two beasts at prayer, wooden benches (one with a collection of small wooden boxes), and a human huddled in a corner. He is bound and bruised and slumped against a wall, perhaps unconscious, and we recognize one of the mages who transported us here. Apparently the ring Bonito is tracking is in one of the boxes, so it didn’t lead us to the king after all.
The only other stairs we can find around here lead down, so we go to the big closed doors. I check for traps and find one that I disable, and then I pick the lock. Inside, a grand staircase leads up, and there is a very bright light at the top. Some of us get onto the stairs, but Mags and Marcus are still in the hallway when a guard comes around the corner and challenges them, saying we’re supposed to use the east stair today and how did they get a key to unlock this one? Mags and Marcus get through the door, at which point we slam it. I lock it and Marcus jams it with a staff braced against the stairs.
The stairs takes us up to a walkway surrounding a 50’ square pit full of water. A huge continuous arc of lightning surges up through the water to the top of the pyramid, and a human figure is suspended in the column, but the light’s too bright to see it clearly. Blake opens her prayer book to cast Dispel Magic. Invisible forces struggle to tear the book from her hands, but she says a quick spell to Saradosia and the spell goes off. The lightning vanishes and the person falls into the water, and now we can see it’s the king. He is moving weakly, unable to swim effectively, and is starting to go down. Blake casts Levitate on Mags, and she begins to drift down to get the king. She plans to turn to a crocodile when she gets to the water to swim quickly to the edge of the pit. Blake casts Whisper on all of us, including the king, and tells him that if he sees a crocodile coming toward him it’s a friend and he should grab on.
Meanwhile, enemies are coming in from the east door (across the pit from us) and trying to break through the west door we came through. We decide to try to get out through the north door as soon as we have the king, hoping that we can reach that mage (and possibly the second one as well, if he’s there but we couldn’t see him from the door) and that they can teleport us out of here. I get to that door and unlock it, but won’t open it until we’re ready to leave. We are soon fighting against several opponents: fighters, clerics, and mages. The clerics are all wearing Kavenir’s symbol. Their mage throws a fireball at those of us defending the north stairs, one switched to lightning, but we manage to dodge the damage. The fight is going badly, with Tammy trapped on the south side between bad guys. She was very happy that she managed to trip one and drop him in the water, but now she’s facing a shielded cleric and can’t hit him at all. Mags manages to reach the king and she passes him the Saradosia holy symbol she brought for him before hauling him, in crocodile form, to the north side of the pit and out. As she was swimming down to reach him she noticed an opening in the south side of the pit, connecting this water to some other body of water, but nobody like the idea of trying to escape that way when we have no idea where it might lead. Their mage throws a second fireball, this one shifted to lightning, and though most of us dodge successfully Blake is hit rather badly.
We don’t see a good way out of here, unless someone can teleport us out (the king, the mages who teleported us initially, or Blake using one of their spell books). It’s also not clear how Tammy is going to survive, since she’s pinned between enemies on the walkway and they are shielded so she can’t expect to do them any damage. I’ve sent a spiritual weapon to attack the cleric she faces, but with his shield it can’t hit him either. Things are looking bad for the Intrepid Irregulars!
The fight in the temple continues!
We want to get as much distance from the temple as we can, to avoid the searchers who are sure to be watching for us. Blake estimates that we may be 7-8 miles from the northern border of the Fens, and we’ve diverted far enough from a straight line away from the temple that heading straight north is probably safe enough, so we go that way.
As we walk, Wayland, the wizard who transported us, tells us what happened to him, Elizabeth the other wizard, and Alex the guard. The teleport went horribly wrong, and they saw a dark void with no boundary (probably the pit Tamasa tried to shove us into). The beasts put Alex into the lightning and he disintegrated immediately. Then they put Elizabeth in, and she lingered for several minutes before dying, at which point they pulled her body out and put the king in. He had been in the lightning for days before we arrived. We don’t know why the differences. One possibility is that having stronger magic helps you live longer. Another is that they were practicing, fine-tuning the lightning to keep the person alive longer. Another is that Saradosia was protecting the king. We also don’t know why they didn’t put Wayland in. We also fill the king in on the political and military situation back in the capital.
As dark approaches, we look for a place to camp. We find an overgrown area twith a dense canopy shielding it from the sky. There are some very large birds flying around to the south of us, so we immediately move under the trees. As we explore carefully, Mags and Bonito see the marks Paulin told us would indicate places that are not safe, and a little farther in some partially collapsed stone walls. Bonito takes hold of his holy symbol and asks Chireus if she can keep us safe here tonight. He gets a brief vision of warm, safe flames. He says that we don’t dare risk a fire with people searching for us, and the feeling changes to cold, dangerous darkness. Mags asks in Sylvan whether there’s anyone there, but gets no response. We decide to stay under the cover of the thicket tonight, as far from the structure as we can get without being exposed to the sky. We wind up sleeping in a row about 30 yards from the opening through the old stone walls. I get my candle and approach the old building. The flame licks at the stone in the walls and flickers in a breeze I can’t feel at the doorway. Even when I push it through the doorway (not entering myself), there’s no more reaction than that. We set watches and sleep.
During first watch, Marcus, Mags, and Wayland hear the usual sounds of curious creatures, plus what Mags identifies as suspicious owl calls above the canopy. She alerts the others that these are not real owls and reminds us not to expose ourselves to the sky beyond the thicket. Toward the end of the watch, they hear a very faint sound from within the stone structure that sounds like cloth sliding over cloth. It continues sporadically throughout the watch, but nothing seems to come of it, so they alert those of us on second watch (me, Benam, Tammy) when we take over. Benam watches from one end of the sleepers and I from the other, with Tammy in the middle, told to keep an eye on the structure. Near the end of our watch we hear a very faint growl. There’s a tall figure wrapped in random bits of rotting, decaying cloth, standing just inside where the door would be. A nonexistent breeze billows its wrappings behind it. Benam holds up his hand, indicating we shouldn’t act yet, and it hold out its arm like it’s reaching toward him. It does nothing else, so we take no action, just watching it. There is absolutely no sound. Not only are no animals moving around, but even the leaves have stopped dripping. Nothing else happens, so we just watch to the end of our shift.
As we change to third shift, we hear a sound which seems very loud in the unnatural silence: stone shifting slightly on stone. One of the stones in the wall has shifted outward maybe an inch, pushed by the figure, which is now moving very slowly as though it’s trying to walk toward us, but can’t cross the threshold. We fill in the people on third watch, and go to bed.
I sleep quickly, and get a vision from Chireus. She learned a little from my getting out the candle in the temple, but not so much. Apparently Tamasa’s influence there is profound enough to block her somewhat. She would like for me to actually burn one of the mages if I can. I ask her about the creepy figure in the stone ruins, and she says it’s some manner of undead, and we did well to leave it alone.
During third watch everything is still unnaturally silent and the figure is still trying to move toward us. Every now and then another stone shifts a little, and at one point a stone is pushed far enough that it falls out of the wall to the ground. When dawn approaches sound returns to normal and the figure goes back inside and vanishes. This is when we all wake up. I get my candle and take it again to the building, and again it licks around the stone. As before I push it through the doorway, and this time the hand and forearm of the undead creature materializes and grabs my wrist. I draw my dagger and pull back, and although I can’t get away at least I stop it from pulling me further in. Bonito touches me with a Protection from Evil and Benam hits the arm with his hammer, but it still has me. I twist my arm so I can jab my candle into the forearm, and it flares and the whole hand and arm burns away into ash. My wrist is reddened where it grabbed me but I am otherwise unhurt.
We do our morning preps, including preparing spells (and Wayland is writing Haste and Teleport into his book). The king Sends to the Baron with the news that he’s alive, Elizabeth and Alex perished, the rest of us are returning. The Baron replies that the beast army has actually been moved a little farther from the capital. We get on the move again, using Fly and Invisibility to get within a mile or so of the edge of the Fens, and make it through that last mile on foot. On the way we see a lot of crocodiles, and a very large bird circling lazily to the south but moving in our directions. Bonito does Detect Magic and finds an aura in an extremely large crocodile, so we figure it’s reporting our position. We shift to beast form and run, with the strong ones picking up the king and Wayland, but have to fight off some crocodiles before we make it out of the swamp. The king is doing healing on the fly, but we make it to the edge of the Fens. However, the beast in Mags’s head identifies the very large bird as a Ha’kioi and says RUN! We link arms and Blake casts Invisibility Sphere. We run westward along the swamp edge. Just before our Invisibility ends, the very large bird swoops down to land in the Fens, probably right where we had been, and then lifts off again carrying a huge crocodile. We keep heading west. We find some lime, which Wayland can use to make us a shelter, and he creates a small but comfortable cabin in some woods by a stream. As we settle in for the night, the King says that his time in the lightning did him some long-term injury. He can no longer cast his most powerful spells. We don’t have any way to treat this kind of effect.
[Tonight we’ll all go to Level 7!]
We notice that Tammy seems uncomfortable. Mags sees no signs of illness or injury. She uses Speak with Animals to ask her, and Tammy says that this form they made for me is too constraining, too small. It turns out Tammy now remembers being human and that something was trying to take her over. She fought it off and it’s now gone, but it took some things away from her, including her ability to speak or really comprehend human language. If we figure out some way to put her back, she would like that. Meanwhile, she’s aching, and cold. We heat up a large rock she can lean on, and she appreciates this. I cast Detect Magic and find the usual faint transmutation on all of us and Mage Armor on Blake, but find two auras on Tammy: transmutation and evocation, both very weak but both new for her.
We talk with the king about his high-level spells being unavailable. Blake offers to learn Remove Curse if that might help, but he doesn’t think that’s it. He can cast the spell he needs (probably restoration), but doesn’t have the very rare and expensive materials he needs. We develop three possible plans to get him fixed up. We can use the Phantom Steed spell to move very quickly and get to the capital in a hurry, where the materials will be available. We could send for someone from the city to bring the materials to us, meeting us on the road. We could ask them to scry our party (they’d have to scry on someone besides the king, since his high level of magical power shields him), and teleport to us with the materials. We decide to pursue just the first plan right now, but have the others available if needed.
Wayland creates his little cottage, with walls of wood and mud, shutters on the windows, plank floor and thatched roof, fireplace, 8 cots in stacks, a desk and chair, and small table with 8 chairs. Tammy curls up as close to the fire as she can get. We set our watches and sleep.
During the night we observe some insects trying to get in through the shutters, but they don’t get through. Tammy is increasingly uncomfortable. In middle watch, I sit with her, stroking her lightly, which she seems to appreciate, and I make sure she has water. In third watch, Bonito notices that there are places where her skin seems to be under pressure from within and is actually tearing, and asks the king if she is actually getting larger. The king has no advice, so Bonito gives her some healing, and she seems better. The king and Bonito do more healing, and now she’s more comfortable and there is what looks like new skin forming in the previously torn places.
The other thing that happens in the night is that several people have meaningful dreams. Blake dreams of witnessing two beasts in a metal corridor. They are talking, then shouting, then fighting. Marcus dreams of a metal passage with doors and walls covered with images and glyphs. He asks Holgol, his inner beast, if he can read them, and gets the response: Worship, prayer—use drugs! For more detail, he’ll have to go into meditation. Mags dreams she’s floating languidly in a lovely, comforting pool of electric lightning water. Bonito has a vision of a solid column of lightning, from out of sight up ahead to the ground, flowing through a cage. A beast is endlessly pacing around and around this cage.
Morning, and I discover I have more spells available to me! [I’m now a Level 4 cleric.] I also discover my right wrist is itchy where the ghost grabbed me yesterday. I show it to Mags, and she believes I need a Remove Disease spell. The king agrees, and casts that spell, and the itching is gown, though the redness and swelling remain. Bonito casts Remove Curse, and everything is now back to normal.
Tammy looks like she finally got some rest, and looks bigger than yesterday—longer bones, but scrawny. We don’t think she should try to run hard today. Between Blake and Wayland we have eight Phantom Steeds available, enough for the rest of us. Benam and Bonito decide to ride abreast, with a hammock slung between them for Tammy to ride on. I rig a harness that will stabilize it and put the load on their hips and the horses instead of their arms, and we take off. We’re riding fast to the northwest, straight toward the capital. At one point we see a party with Marcusist flags to our south. The king is concerned to see this in Pallavia, but Benam tells him about the pilgrims he encountered earlier, who are just interested in protecting an old shrine from the beasts. Bonito’s knowledge of religion says they’re probably at the Kadernath temple, razed 50 years ago. The king doesn’t really like it, but we have other things to worry about now, so we keep going. Because of our speed we’re able to avoid interacting with any parties of beasts, and just before the horses expire we find a good place to spend the night, where Wayland sets up another cottage. Some of us hunt and wind up bringing down three wild hogs. Tammy gets one all to herself, and the rest of us share the other two. We cook it in a fire pit outside the cabin, bringing some of it inside to eat and leaving the rest to continue cooking. As we settle in for the night she seems well, and Detect Magic shows she carries just faint transmutation, no evocation.
During first watch, some beasts approach the cabin. Mags addresses them from inside. They smelled the food cooking, so Mags tells them they can have some. They want to know what beasts are doing out here, away from the camp, and are obviously suspicious that we aren’t loyal soldiers. They bluster that we’d better be gone in the morning, take most of the cooked meat in the fire pit, and leave.
At the end of his watch Marcus asks Mags for a small dose of drugs to talk with Holgol, and they discuss the temple he saw in his dream. He says that the temple we saw in the Fens seemed unfinished, though there was no sign of ongoing construction. The reason is that any proper temple to Kavenir should be heavily inscribed with the words of prayer and worship, like what he saw in his dream. He was also shocked by the top level, with the lightning and the pit. It should have had an altar and been covered with holy symbols. Marcus asks about the white skull tree, and Holgol says it reminds him of a story from the early days of the war 9around 100 years ago), about a desecrated temple with white skulls painted everywhere. Those who desecrated it were insane, babbling incoherently, except that they mentioned the evil god Fangarephon over and over.
In the morning the King says if we rode straight to the capital we’d be there in only a few hours. Of course, the beast army is in the way, so we’d want to circle way around to the north, but we will still get there well before the steeds expire. As we prepare for the day, we discuss what’s going on with Kavenir and Fangarephon and Tamasa. Something gave us the impression that our beasts didn’t recognize the skull tree. Was that Fangarephon? We don’t know what Fangarephon looks like, only his symbol. Perhaps the image we saw in the aura over Tamasa was Fangarephon, not Kavenir. Blake says that image didn’t match any religious figure known in Pallavia, but the thing that most closely resembled it was a demon known as Orthoaki, Subverter of Ways. In the god war we saw while transporting, Tamasa fought alongside that figure and another skull-figure we identified with the white tree, but maybe the skull was someone else and the figure we thought was Kavenir was actually Fangaraphon. There was an idealized beast-shaped god watching from the sidelines; maybe that was Kavenir. Who knows?
After we prepare for the morning we decide to travel north, to join with the northern army and come into the city from that direction. Tammy rides in the hammock initially so we can move at full speed. Along the way we have to actually skirt to the east to avoid the large encampment of beasts that have indeed pulled back from the capital. A few of them peel off and try to confront us, but we’re moving too fast and they fall back into the main group. When we join in with the northern army there’s a lot of celebration. At this point we head toward the city at a more normal speed, with Tammy running alongside and a large escort of soldiers. The king asks that we stay with him, so we do.
Back at the city we can see that there has been some damage since we left (some burned buildings and damage to the southern wall), but things are generally good, and much better now that the king has returned. We travel to the palace in a cheering throng. The king meets privately with Baron Reuben, and the rest of us are taken to some guest quarters to relax and become presentable for a more formal welcome. Servants go to the house where we were staying to get Mags’s fancy dress, and the royal tailor comes to create suitable outfits for the rest of us. We decide to ask for clothing with a green-and-purple color scheme, so that we look like we go together. They go to throw something together quickly, and we say a round of prayers of thanks to our gods for our deliverance. Soon the tailors return with clothes worked up in a hurry, good enough for the first meeting, and it’s time to go for our debriefing.
We join the king, Baron Reuben, and Baron Walters of Wilkshire, on the western edge of the Fens. He asks what we saw of his barony, and we tell him about the scattered survivors we found but that in general it’s been overrun completely. We mention the temple of Marcusis the pilgrims were heading toward. He leaves, and we continue our discussions. Reuben talks about the attacks that occurred while we were gone. There were some fireballs and a few more of the exploding coins and boxes, but word got around so those were generally found and disarmed without harm. They tried to mine the walls, but with Grandmother’s help (and the badgers she summoned) that was stopped. They’ve been pushed away from the walls mostly by the northern army. Baron Harrison is still pursuing his claim on the throne, and he’s been joined by two more of the five western baronies (Strondagland and Tewdentia). We describe what happened in the failed teleport and discuss our concerns about whether Kavenir’s followers are actually suborned by a much darker, coarser god. They recommend that we ask the creatures in our heads about rituals and prayers for contacting Kavenir, which some of our priests might attempt. The king says that Tamasa initially took him to a different place where she tried many spells that he didn’t recognize. They all failed, presumably thanks to Saradosia, and only then did she put him in the lightning. His higher-level spells have now been restored, and Blake recommends he always have a mage nearby with Dimensional Anchor prepared, in case Tamasa tries to kidnap him again.
The king wishes to honor us for our service with knighthoods all around, which entails an obligation to serve him personally. He says he would respect the claims of our gods and would not ask for help unless it was sincerely needed, and understands that if he becomes a tyrant we would be obligated to stop him. Normally this doesn’t include land, but since we want some he will tender a holding we can manage on his behalf. This will be taken care of after the current crisis is dealt with. He will knight us at a ceremony tonight.
Speaking of service to the king, he wants to send us to Derreysdown, a northern province. They recently pulled their troops out of the army protecting the city, citing problems with enemy raids on several villages. This might be true, but they pulled out quite suddenly and unexpectedly, so there might be something else going on. He wants us to go to offer to help with their raiding problem, and to check for other issues as well. We will first receive the payment the Baron promised us (30 gold each), and any supplies and provisions we need, including spyglasses for everyone and horses from the royal stables.
Bonito, in his usual straightforward way, directly asks the king for his thoughts about the coincident timing of his father’s problems with the Marcusists and Tamasa’s scandal with refusing transition. The king is understandably reluctant to talk about that dark time in Pallavian history, but agrees it’s now appropriate. He was very young, but remembers that his father (Matthew) had been a loyal follower of Marcusis but chose to change his allegiance to Saradosia because her emphasis on knowledge and learning better aligned with his passions, and the Marcusists attacked him out of spite. If they had not rebelled, they would not now be banned. Edward, the current king, manifested signs of favor from Saradosia a few years later. For the rest of his life Matthew was clearly a devout servant of Saradosia, showing great pride in his son’s favor with her, worshiping regularly and sincerely, and seeking the guidance of Saradosia in all things.
We return to the guest rooms and the tailor collects our clothes to finish making them fancy for tonight’s ceremony. We get copies of the oath we will take when we are knighted, and I look them over as carefully as any long-term contract to make sure there are no hidden surprises. Servants tell us what to expect and how to act in the ceremony, and then we relax until our fancy duds are ready and it’s time. The ceremony is as splendid as one could wish, and I am no Dame Calana of Pallavia! We attend a posh reception, and then it’s still not dark, so Blake works on her next spell, Benam goes to the Moraden temple to continue partying, and Bonito, Marcus, and I go to the Chireus temple to update the priests there on what’s happened and what we learned. They are unable to help us reconcile the story they told about King Matthew’s problem with the Marcusists and Edward’s. It seems that the Marcusists had described Matthew’s evil actions (the murder of some family members), and then they acted against him before the church of Chireus or anyone else had verified the claims. Perhaps it was the Marcusists who had been subverted, and their claims about Matthew were untrue! We Don’t Know (as usual).
Bonito goes to the Moraden temple to try to enlist the priests for help in persuading Benam to agree to speak with the beast in his head. They say they have no objection, as long as we take precautions to keep him safe (Bonito promises to cast Protection from Evil on him), but the decision must be Benam’s. Bonito then joins the party, and comes back to join us in the guest rooms rather drunk!
We will spend the night in the guest rooms at the temple, and we ask Grandmother to come over and give us all her best drugs so we can talk to our beasts, and watch over us as we do. Mags suggests trying to get us all joined in a shared vision, so the beasts can see each other and talk to each other, so she and her Grandmother develop a ritual for this. Benam agrees, and we all join in a circle, with Bonito casting Protection from Evil on Benam as he promised. Soon enough we all see a vision that includes the Sky Road of Chireus, a path along a river, a hut full of bees, and a fiery cave with rhythmic hammering. All six of us, plus all six of our beast companions, are there. It worked!
In the shared dream space, the beasts greet each other. We get the name for Benam’s beast (‘Mtach). They don’t all know each other, but they are all linked; everyone knows someone that someone else knows. They share their stories. For each one of them the last memory before being in our heads is at a temple, but not the same temple for all of them. They had the pillar of lightning, but this was something that most temples had in recent times. As the war started going badly many people prayed to Kavenir for help, and that’s when the lightning formed over the temples. It keeps the Che Nuv-Pou away.
We ask them about the depictions of various gods, drawing pictures of what we saw in the god war we passed in transport (two of them, Hoghal and Hossnis, also saw it at the time). They clearly recognized Tamasa. The other figure with Tamasa looks a lot like Kavenir, but crueler and less noble than he is typically depicted. This may be because the “official” depictions are church sanctioned and may well polish his image. The idealized beast that was on the sidelines with Elebon looked like old depictions of Gabishana, the old nature goddess. Strangely, neither of the beasts saw any third person fighting on Tamasa’s side. The image of Fangeraphon is apparently blocked, except when we’re in this dream space! Several recognize our description, though. It turns out Nupsaj (Blake’s beast) was actually a follower of Fangeraphon very briefly. The church of Kavenir seemed to be coming apart in schism and a group championing the natural end of things made some sense, but it turned out they were crazy wackos so she left them. Mags asks about why her lightning spells seemed to be much more powerful than usual after leaving the pool with the king, and Nupsaj says he had nothing to do with that. However, he was behind the dream of lounging peacefully in the lightning water (wishful thinking on his part).
Some of our companions are literate, so Mags, Blake, and Marcus learn a little of the written language. Hoghal, a devout follower of Kavenir, teaches us some of the prayers and rituals used to reach out to Kavenir, though he says they don’t generally produce the direct personal response we’ve been getting from our gods lately. In the temple in the Fens, when the lightning came back on after Mags got the king out of the water, that felt familiar to them, as though they’d experienced that sensation of the lightning forming before. Hossnis and Wij’hota sketch out some of the weapons they use in fighting: the specialized hilts on their swords, and the loading and drawing mechanisms for crossbows.
As the dream starts to wind down Hossnis tries praying to Gabishana to ask for protection, and it seems that he got through. He asked for her protection in her role as goddess of the home, and got a sense of peace and a symbol he’s never seen before: a five-pointed star with the top point much longer than the rest and a circle just inside all the tips. He weaves a version of that symbol from thatch, though he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to bring it with him outside of the dream. Hoghal considers praying to Kavenir, but decides against it. If someone is playing with his head (blocking the image of Fangeraphon), it doesn’t make sense to draw their attention. Blake decides to do some experiments. She casts a Magic Missile (a spell she has memorized) at a tree, and it seems to do the damage she expected. She also casts Protection from Energy (a spell she doesn’t know but has seen cast by others) on herself, and has the feeling as though it worked. Bonito runs up the hill on the sky road to speak with Chireus and curl up with her, while I get out my candle, which lights, and send her thanks for the vision and her ongoing protection. I feel her warmth and hear her voice say, Welcome.
When we return to ourselves, Blake, Mags, and Marcus write down the words they learned. There are no blast or burn marks anywhere, and Blake is aware that she has not actually expended a Magic Missile spell, so apparently what happens in the dream stays in the dream. We spend some time discussing how to approach the baron of Derreysdown when we get there, and decide he is bound to know we are there at the king’s behest. We will act as though there is no doubt whatever about his loyalty to the king, and that the only reason the king sent us was to ascertain what help he might need in dealing with the raids to his towns. We set watches and the night passes uneventfully.
In the morning we visit the royal Chief Armorer, Katrina Baxter. We show her the sketches of the beast weapons, including the claw weapons, sword hilts, and crossbow mechanisms. She finds them very interesting, especially when Blake shifts to beast form so she can try out different quick mock-ups whittled out of wood. She says she will ask the king about whether he authorizes the use of the royal armory to build weapons such as these, and if not she will share the plans with a skilled guildsman in town who can build us such weapons. They will take several days. We go to the palace to arrange provisions, gear, horses, etc. Each of jus has a light war horse with tack that is good quality but not obviously the king’s livery. A priest of Saradosia brings us a CASE of potions: 7 extremely powerful potions of Cure Moderate Wounds (2d8+12) and 3 potions of Bull’s Strength. Each of us takes one of the healing potions (Benom gets 2 of them), and Benam, Bonito, and Marcus get the strength potions.
As we’re about to leave town a package is delivered to me. It has a note from the Chief Armorer saying this is an extremely rough prototype, but she wants me to take good notes about how it works and how it can be improved. Inside is a lever-action crossbow, built on the chassis of a heavy crossbow but with a loading and firing mechanism that can be used in beast form! I’m thrilled that she took the time so quickly not only to make this up for me, but to confer with the king and get permission to do so, so I pay a servant to send her some nice flowers in thanks! [The bow’s damage is 1d8, range 80’, crit 20 x 2]
We head off to Derreysdown, north and west. This area has not been overrun with beast armies, and the towns and villages are occupied and going about their business, though people are armed and armored more than usual. We bunk that night in the barn of a family in a small village, and they invite us to share their table for dinner. We provide some pork for the meal, and I cast Purify Food and Drink on any of their supplies that might be close to going bad in payment. We pray, set watches, and go to bed.
After an uneventful night we continue heading north and east to Derreysdown. Along the way I practice with my new crossbow, to get the hang of it (though it’s not made for my human hands). We also collect enough supplies to make one arcane and one druid portion. We begin to see signs of very small villages that have been abandoned, though there’s no obvious sign of corpses or fighting. As evening comes we decide to stay in one of these villages. We explore and find evidence that the people here left hurriedly but voluntarily; they hastily packed up all useful things. There are signs that someone else may have come through later and searched but didn’t damage anything or disturb much.
We make a fire for dinner in one of the huts, and bed the horses down in an empty hay barn. As we’re about to settle in for the night we hear signs like distant animals barking or howling, and it seems to be coming toward us. Bonito and Benam stand outside the barn with the door shut. Blake and I are up in the hayloft, where there’s a window facing the direction of the sounds. Mags, Marcus, and Tammy are below with the horses. Mags casts Speak with Animals, partly so she can reassure the horses and partly to listen to the coming sounds. She detects animals screaming in terror as they flee from a predator, and the sounds of their pursuers. She understands the animals, but not the pursuers, indicating that they are not animals. She asks Blake if she knows of creatures that sound like coyotes but are intelligent, and Blake has only two suggestions: wargs (nasty creatures like giant wolves) or barghasts (even worse, demon-like creatures that can command wargs and can disguise themselves as wolves, and can fly or levitate and possibly teleport to a limited degree).
I get out my spyglass and look at the oncoming creatures. There are a bunch of feral pigs, squealing and running toward us in terror. Behind them are 5 wolf-like predators. Three of them have red glints in their eyes and are the sizer of wolves; the other two are somewhat bigger than wolves. We prepare for battle (I cast Bless and Shield of Faith).
Just as I take a shot at the red-eyed wolf thing in the lead, it vanishes and reappears right next to me up in the loft! I get off a panicked shot with my regular crossbow, and we’re in battle. Mags calls a wolf to help us out up in the loft and starts the process of calling lightning. Bonito uses a Fly potion to carry Benam over the fleeing pigs and they both attack the creatures out there. I’m not holding my own against the creature in the loft so I shift to beast form and then withdraw, dropping over the edge, but I’ve already taken a lot of damage. Marcus has crashed through the thin wood covering one window and gone out to join the fighting outside, and Blake also flies out through that window. The one that was fighting us up there also jumps down and crashes through a window on the back side of the barn, trying to flee. I’m pissed at him so I take a shot (the last shot with my regular crossbow) and see the bolt hit and then get pushed back out, a sign of rapid healing. Meanwhile, the sound of the baying of the wolves is giving many of us a sense of certain failure and death, making those affected less effective in battle. Bonito hears one of the smaller, plain-eyed creatures say something, and also notices one of the red-eyed ones has a scrap of cloth tied about one leg. This cloth is blue and purple, the colors worn by the king and the royal mages. He goes by this creature, choosing not to attack it, but it attacks him, proving it’s not an ally. At this point the fighters outside have killed one of the red-eyed larger creatures and one of the smaller wolf-sized ones.
Marcus sees a beast (one of the enemy beasts we’re familiar with) flying in from the south. We have an enemy mage joining the battle! The beast vanishes, presumably having cast Invisibility. Blake casts Greater Invisibility and moves. One of the smaller wolves runs around the barn and joins my nemesis fleeing away in that direction. The last of the creatures engaging Bonito, Marcus, and Benam (one with red eyes) tries to run off. Bonito charges after him and runs smack into something he can’t see, stopping him cold. Benam, Marcus, and I hurry there and try to attack the invisible enemy, with me running from the barn and getting my candle out as I move. Just as I arrive we briefly see the corpse of a beast lying on the ground, but then the three of us are overwhelmed with a dense aura of blackness that sucks away all our senses and does damage to us. We can just barely see a tiny pinprick of light, which is my candle. By now, the three surviving wolf-like creatures have run away.
Bonito backs carefully away from where he knows the dead beast to be. When he gets 15’ away his senses begin to return, but there is still a dome of impenetrable blackness over the spot where the corpse is (with just the tiniest pinprick of golden light). Benam also backs out. On the other hand, I step forward, reaching with my candle to burn the corpse of the beast mage. The candle flame flares into a tiny shape of a golden dragon, and the body is set on fire. I can see the corpse sit up and STARE AT ME, and feel it pressing somehow against me mentally, but I resist [nat 20 on a Will save], and I take more damage, bringing my near to collapsing. I try to cast a heal spell on myself but am unable to concentrate well enough, given how hurt I am.
Blake casts Dispel Magic from her blessed book. A sound like a torrent of water sweeps all around me and washes the darkness away, and my senses return. I can see a dead beast, looking like a desiccated skeleton, and it’s on fire. Mags comes over and pokes at it with a stick, trying to uncover any holy symbol, and finds on its chest a small bleached-white rat skull. A flash of dragon fire spreads over the whole thing, reducing it to ash, but the holy symbol remains. We carefully pack it up without touching it.
In the aftermath of the fight I do some healing, bringing myself up to where I can function effectively. [I regained the mark I spent to shift to beast form, because I was so recklessly brave in charging at the invisible mage with just my candle and staying in the dangerous darkness to burn it.] We also discuss what those creatures were. We consider the possibility that the red-eyed ones might have been werewolves, because of the rapid healing I observed, but Mags knows that this is inconsistent with red eyes. Mags carefully examines the two dead enemy creatures (one smaller one, one larger red-eyed one). She makes notes of what she finds and prepares to send them back to the capital. Bonito removes their heads, planning to boil them and keep the skulls. After this, I use my candle to burn both of the bodies. On the bigger one, the candle licks at the fur and it chars a bit, as you’d expect fur to behave. For the smaller, red-eyed one, the candle catches the fur on fire and it burns a patch vigorously, digging down to the skin, and where the fire hits it changes to short hairs on blue-black skin. Our conclusion is that the smaller red-eyed creatures are barghasts, and the larger ones are wargs. I plan to ask Chireus what she has learned in this fight!
We move to the other barn as Bonito is boiling down the heads of the two we killed, and then we have our usual prayer circles and settle in for the night. During first watch Chireus sends me a dream. I’m on the sky road and I hear her voice saying that I’ve done well. The beast mage I burned was in service to the death got from the other world. It was with barghasts and wargs, as we thought, but it’s not clear whether it commanded them or just happened upon them. This new god gave the mage the ability to sit up, both dead and also not dead, until I burned it. This god gives gifts that are strange and disturbing, and it acts against what Chireus seeks in the world. I ask about other gods from that other world, and learn that the war of the gods we saw when we teleported was a metaphor sent to us by our own gods, reflecting a real battle that’s happening but scaled down so our mortal brains could handle it. Chireus fights these new gods because she is a god of positive change, and this god seeks indiscriminate death. Saradosia fights because she supports the king and the mortal world the king serves, and Moraden fights for his own reasons. Elebon watches from the sidelines because he is a god of law, and there is no law forbidding new gods. Other gods do not fight because they have not been called by their followers, so they are not as concerned about this battle. Tomasa aspires to being a god, and although she is not one truly she has some godly powers, and we don’t know where they come from. If we come across anyone who actually worships her, we should kill them and then burn them. My dream ends, and the rest of the night is uneventful.
In the morning we continue. We cross the border into the Barony of Derreysdown, and though we can hear people speaking quietly in Pallavian out of sight in the woods we continue without a problem. In the afternoon we overtake a group traveling slowly in the same direction, consisting of nearly 100 people with wagons and mules. As we get closer we realize it’s a group of orcs and half-orcs. They move aside to let us pass but Mags greets them in Orcish, and they are surprised to hear this from an elf. They call out to Bonito and Marcus, and we start chatting. They are heading for Derreysville (the barony capital, the same place we’re heading) and plan to pass through their and continue to the mountains, where there are abandoned fortresses that will keep them safe from the invaders. These people are from the Northern Mountain Tribe, under the leadership of an old woman named Tamar Mongan. They invite us to walk with them, and we agree to stay together to Derreysville. No one we see has funny eyes, and they say that have generally not had to fight much and have only lost a few people. In fact, their first encounter with the beasts wasn’t a fight at all. They came across a small band, were unable to talk with them at all, so they set out some food which the creatures took and then they went their separate ways. They’re fascinated by Tammy and Cutie. We let them know about our shape-shifting, since if fighting happens they may need to know about it.
They have only one person with magical healing, called by Luthic, the most widely worshiped god of their people (goddess of fertility, healing, and strategy). We meet this healer, named Ketevan Monatia, and encourage her to talk directly with her god, something that is happening more and more in these strange times. It turns out she’s done so, asking for guidance and help, and it was Luthic who led them to head for the mountains. We travel for the day, with Blake riding in a wagon so she could research a new spell and write Dispel Magic into her holy book. At the end of the day we camp, share stories, help as we can (I do some tinkering, Bonito, Marcus, and I heal those who need it), and settle in for the night.
During first watch Marcus & Mags hear a quiet signal from an orc guard. Mags asks what she saw, and learns some 4-legged creatures were prowling past the periphery, probably wolves and no real threat. Nothing more happens in the night, and in the morning Tammy goes out to sniff around and comes back clearly indicating she found nothing she considered a threat. Mags realizes that Tammy now seems to understand our speech quite well.
We continue on our way. Blake is still in a wagon researching Keen Edge, and she completes that spell before night. Today we find more of the abandoned hamlets but also find some where there were clearly huge fights. There are dead bodies and burned buildings, and no survivors. The fighting was weeks ago. We also meet a group going the other way, traveling from Derreysville to the capital. They have family there and seem well armored and well armed, so we wish them safe travels. When we camp for the night the animals return, and Mags and Marcus figure out there are two of them, and one at least has red eyes. A sentry brings Tamar and we fill her in on our fight the other day and that these may be from there, tracking us. Tamar calls out in Goblin and they answer, saying that they are after us. They imply there are many more with them and they will attack if they don’t send us out to meet them. We don’t believe this bluff so we don’t reply, and nothing more happens for the rest of the night.
The next day we pass more sacked and abandoned villages, and some with people in them who fled for a while but returned when the enemy forces left. We wind up on a road with a river on one side and a wood on the other that’s posted with witch signs indicating visitors are welcome as long as we do no harm. We see a figure just inside the wood and Mags calls out in Druidic, and they converse a bit, with Mags warning her about the barghasts who may be after us.
That night we decide to see about trapping our pursuers. Mags turns into an owl and searches the woods for a while (catching a rabbit she drops from the sky down by Tammy), and finally finds two barghasts in the woods not too far from our camp. She concentrates on sending Tammy the emotional message, “There they are!” Back in camp Tammy goes to Marcus, who’s on watch, and points dramatically into the woods. Marcus wakes the rest of us. We move 50’ off to the side and Tammy points again, her angle unchanged from before, meaning that triangulation isn’t going to work. We ask if Mags is in trouble, and she scoffs at that idea but continues to point, so we follow her into the woods.
We find the two barghasts and start fighting. Blake hits one with a scorching ray, I shoot a crossbow at it, and Marcus runs up and punches it. The other one, undamaged, disappears (able to teleport), but the one we hit takes off running (apparently the damage we did it kept it from teleporting). Blake shoots magic missiles at the running one and Tammy is chasing it. Mags summons a dire wolf off at an angle from the running one, and it sniffs at the air and runs in that direction with Mags following, hoping it’s tracking the one that teleported. Pretty quickly, though, the one we’re chasing vanishes, and the dire wolf stops chasing and starts circling aimlessly. Both of them have teleported away and we can’t find them, so we return to camp.
The rest of the night passes uneventfully. After our usual morning preparations we move on, coming into more mountainous regions. There are side paths leading off toward the steeper mountains, not heavily traveled but showing signs of some use. We pass by more sacked and abandoned villages, and some that were abandoned but now have people returning to them. In each case Bonito pauses to speak to the residents and encourage them to leave, since the invaders haven’t left and could return at any time, but they say they have no place else to be and need these towns and fields to live.
Around noon we spy movement a ways down one of the side paths that we identify as a mixed group of 11 dwarves and humans (or possibly half-humans), obviously tired but not worn down, with torn clothes and bedraggled belongings. They’re approaching the main road. We alert the orcs and go up the path to meet the party. They’re refugees who are trying to reach any occupied place. The mountain area they are from has been plagued by strange creatures: large cats that will split in half as you fight them and come at you from both sides, and huge birds that can carry people off. Blake is aware of this type of cat. They are native to an astral or immaterial plane and haven’t been seen for many years. The huge birds sound like the ones we saw by the Fens. We say they may be able to travel with us, if the orcs agree, and give them some minor healing.
Two of the party have funny eyes, so we talk quietly with them. They died and returned, and they have transformed into beasts involuntarily. All of their group, and the larger group they used to belong to, are devout worshippers of Moraden, and the priest in their community rejected those who transformed, forcing them into the wilderness. The other nine here are their friends and family who chose to go with them. We tell them that Moraden has not rejected Benam here, and in fact obviously embraces him, as we can see from his awesome hammer. Obviously if their faith says they must resist shifting form then that’s what they should do, but they are still welcome to travel with us. We warn them about the voices in their heads that may be trying to talk them into doing things they know are wrong, and tell them that a strong bond with their god is the best defense.
The orcs agree that they can travel with us so we continue. That evening we heal all who need it, do our usual preparations, and sleep. During 2nd watch we see faint signs of some animal-like thing moving at the edge of vision. We alert the orc guards, and Tammy goes out to investigate, returning unconcerned. We keep an eye on it, but for the rest of the night nothing happens. In the morning Mags checks the spot and finds the tracks of a large cat, the size of a mountain lion. It’s not our old friends the Barghasts, but could be the strange splitting cat the dwarf/human party talked about. We continue.
As it gets toward evening, Blake very faintly hears a snatch of what could be someone singing what she recognizes as a hymn to Saradosia. We all start listening, and for a while we all hear these brief, faint hints at a singing voice, in what could be a standard Saradosian hymn of praise. There’s a side path leading toward that direction. The caravan is going to be making camp soon for the night, so we decide to leave our horses with them and go explore the voice. It takes us almost an hour of following the path or pushing through the woods to get to the source of the voice, a tiny hamlet in a little clearing in the woods.
As we appear a half-elf man steps out of a hut, singing. He is very beautiful, and wears the usual priestly robes and a Saradosian holy symbol. He smiles broadly and holds out his arms wide. We all feel an urge to sing along, even if we don’t really know the song, and in fact Blake does join in. That’s not so surprising, but Benam also joins in, though he clearly doesn’t know the song. Bonito starts swaying to the music. We also hear a chorus of faint voices coming from the woods all around. Mags steps up to Bonito and puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to get his attention. Nothing changes. I step up on the other side of Bonito, lay a hand on his shoulder, and cast Protection from Evil on him, which will block any mind-controlling influence. At that moment Bonito stops dancing, points his finger at the priest, and shouts, “Stop that!” He begins walking toward the priest.The priest stops singing, but the music continues and Benam and Blake are both still singing. Bonito gets to the priest and punches him in the mouth. The music doesn’t change, but the priest’s smile does, and it’s now predatory rather than cheerful. He speaks and gestures, appearing to cast a spell but there’s no apparent effect.
Mags says to him in Sylvan, “Can we talk, so everyone here doesn’t start fighting?” Marcus and I, not knowing Sylvan, attack, with little effect. Bonito wounds him with his sword. The priest steps back and says to Mags, also in Sylvan, “Apparently not.” He retreats into the hut. Mags shouts, “We can still talk through the wall!” She also tells us at that point what she and the priest have been saying. Marcus says, “If you didn’t want a fight then you shouldn’t have tried to mind-control my friends,” and kicks the hut door open. Benam finally stops singing and beats on the hut with his hammer, shouting, “Talk!” Blake is still singing, though, so I go to investigate the song that’s still coming from the woods. I don’t find any singers, but do see many small woodland creatures staring straight at me. I back up, saying, “We came here to help, not fight. Why are you doing this?” Mags translates, but there’s no response.
Blake finally stops singing and the song in the woods stops. The woodland creatures simply turn and walk away. Back in the hut, Bonito has knocked the priest unconscious. He ties him up and binds his wounds, and then we have a LONG talk about the ethics of the situation. Mags maintains that the priest may simply have been trying to encourage the worship of Saradosia with no ill intent. He stopped singing as soon as Bonito looked upset and walked away without any other hostile action. Our attack on him wasn’t provoked. The rest of us seem universally opposed to this, seeing the priest’s mind control as an assault, an aggressive action in its very nature, and point out that he tried to cast a spell on Bonito. We search the hut and find the kind of gear you’d expect a traveling priest to have, including a prayer book. Blake prays to Saradosia and ask her what she wants us to do. As she’s doing so the priest wakes up. Blake returns to say that Saradosia wants to know why he did what he did. His goal is to draw people to worship Saradosia. He brings them in with his song, and then they can choose whether to stay for the rest of the service or not. He seems genuinely surprised that anyone would object to the mind-compulsion aspect of his song. He speaks eloquently about the message of Saradosia, with its focus on knowledge and clarity of thought, and convinces us that he’s sincere. Blake prays to Saradosia again, asking what we should do, and Saradosia says she didn’t set him on this mission but has no objection, so we don’t need to stop him.
We talk with him about the invading beasts and the war. He says they are better here than where they came from, and that the war here, as destructive as it is, is not nearly so damaging to the natural order of the world as the war they came from.
[The story goes on hiatus at this point.]