In the Dwarven embassy.
Cita MUST see her family in the
The Shades. The dwarves have 1 tunnel out of town. Cita thinks she can find a way back in through the quarantine wall.
How many dwarves left here? 12. Some in the hills too, that will go to the mines. The forges are up and running, despite the dwarves are leaving.
Felga Mitgarn will make ball bearings for
Thoradin.
Aeden Mitgarn II shows us the tunnel entrance. It's night time right now.
Entering the Shades
Night time here is uber dark. Outside the city in the tunnel. Can't see the tunnel once the door is closed. Guards patrol infrequently.
At the base of the wall. Cita looks for the spot where she can sneak in. We will have to crawl in and it will be super tight.
Cernan and
Thoradin will have to take off armor and put it in the bag of holding. City wall - 20 feet thick.
Rashid wants to put it on the walls of the cavern--uses rune magic. Thoradin has bruises.
On the other side in the cemetary. Dark. Dark vision - it's wet and dank, musty.
Against the wall - hundreds of feet of mass graves - mounds. Red and yellow mushrooms.
Thoradin and Cernan put their armor back on.
Quarantine wall still. (We didn't rest. ARGH!) Cita peeks through. We put scarves over our faces. We are close to Cita's family house.
The black column is 200 feet to our right at the round ruin. It's wide. How does it sound? Not that we can tell.
Cita and
Stormy get through first. The rest follow.
Cernan tries to sense extra planars and stuff. The column is pinging.
Thoradin sensed a giant's steps - 6 of them. Rashid casts detect magic--background noise of wrongness. Spore magic?
At Cita's house. Gashes in the wood from claws. We go in. House is empty. The hiding spots are empty. 7 bowls - covered in mushrooms.
The next house - is more of a mess. Bones in a pile inside. Cita kicks them.
There's another hiding spots in the city wall. If Cita's family left, they left in a hurry. Ctia is frantic. She finds a little mark by the door jam -
a little bird.
Thoradin pulls out a bird whistle.
"I have gone ahead." Thoradin had a dream--at his forge. There was a man--had power. Was different. He said we would face a darkness and dispare. He's gone a head and done what he could. Not knowing where Cita's family is. Maybe he had a hand in saving Cita's family. If it got too hard, the darkness gets too hard to use the whistle to call him.
The Playhouse
Cita says, check the playhouse (the area she played at as a kid) in the city wall, then look at the column. Cita moves the big mushrooms and we crawl in. This was the kiddo playhouse. Someone's added wood walls. 3 feet tall. We see torchlight. Swords at our necks. Cita calls out the family's pass phrase. They recognize her.
A male voice calls out.
Cintanon Calderone the leader. We have to pass the
Stella test. Dog smells us and detects nothing. But dog likes us. We're not spore people. There are also
Dutch and
Marvo.
Sorpress Garcia Sorez - Cita's sister. Brilliante said you would be here--Cita's little brother.
Cintanon - says this was the last march. No one left in the shades. Everyone is in
Free Alador - Island. There's too many of us - go in two groups. Cita asks her sister if she's ok. She's sad, lost Carlo (Cita's brother) last week. Everyone else is in Free Aladore. Mama will be happy to see you.
We have to watch for the
Spore Hounds. The column is making the darkness. "The pyre". It's guarded - spore hounds and giants.
The Craftsman's Guild will help us transfer to Free Aladore.
Sorpress keeps Stella the dog safe. That's her task. We hear snarling. Nasty spore hounds arrive.
We send Sorpress and the dog back to get the other group.
One of the spore dogs hits Dutch. We take several more out. Rashid and
Shimmer catch up with us.
Cernan is hit. He's poisoned. Thoradin is hit, too. Not poisoned.
We clear them out. Cernan cures himself and Dutch.
The spore hounds: At one time, this may have been an intelligent creature. But they are animal level intelligece.
We exit the shades into a secret house.
Marcus Bobson gives us water to clean up. Now we hae to walk to the Craftsmans' Hall. (Go in small groups. 2s and 3s.)
Rashid and Marvo see guards with red pauldrons.
In the hall, we meet a the hall master.
Darius Espada--a good guy. Stella likes him. A big cart with horses, carrying a lot of rubbish. Stormy and Cita and the others gets hats and shovels. Armored guys, Rashid, and Shimmer hide in the box part.
We go to the dock. A longboat. Young man in dark cloak guarding boat, Cintanon and him exhange signals. But he doesn't talk. Stella is ok with him. He's got a cut on his neck. Cita recognizes him. "What are you doing here?"
Carl kneels down in front of her.
Sorpress says, "Carl's been through a little bit. They killed his dad in front of him and tried to cut off Carl's head."
He seems humble enough. Signs, "Your mom makes the best porridge."
Free Alador
We get in the boat. And go to the island in the middle of the lake. Lots of shabby new construction in the back. The front looks normal.
Free Alador - Island is here.
Cintanon takes us to an old warehouse. Cita recognizes the smell of her mom's porridge.
Maria Garcia Sarez - a cat! She is excited to see us.
Canto Garcia Sarez is the dad - human.
Brilliante and
Gloria Sarez twins. Gandy is a little off, missing his twin.
Stormy is trying to process that Cita is part cat--a changeling. Cita is so happy to see her family she's crying.
Among other things. There's a ton of children. Shimmer is popular and happy to accept praise and give rides for treats.
Cita catches up with family.
Canto wants to retake the city. Hoped the dwarves would stay and help. They hate the Amanita.
Some elf involved named
Grasti. The Cormel family is big into Amanita. The other heads of houses with them.
How many people here? 187 - mostly kids.
Amanita doesn't want kids--they have no power or influence. Effectively orphans.
Lord Epron is called over. Eprons are in charge of shipping. (
Lady Cathryn was looking for him.) One of the 5 main houses. Cintanon says Free Aladore exists because him. He gathered up those that worked for him.
Cernan asks what they know about Amanita. Tells them the zombies and what not. The end of "life" is what they want.
Canto says "That's what they've done. This is worse than we thought."
By the Easy gate - people with cows heads and crow people. An encamped army of them. Plus giants, the Generals. 8-9 feet tall.
Apparently there's not that many spores to go around - so they do the oath. So slowly converting them. Once they have the spore they can't be cured that we can find.
Seran usee the tool and spit on it. It planted the seed of the spore. And they have only so many priests. And maybe can only be done so many times a day.
Where are the people going for the renewal? Going to the cathedral. It's walled off. Can't get in unless you've taken the oath. Bridge from cathedral to castle.
Cintanon - tucks the kids in. "What song do we want tonight?" Stormy and Shimmer are totally in for songs.
The kids pick "Simon the Page". We knew
Simon! The story of him and
Sir Clark and
Sterling too.
Simon told people of New Heran. And they sent families up there. What god has sent you here? Cernan gets to tell about Arabeth. A round council area - Canto, Satanan, Lord Epron, and Lord Ferma and a few others. 8ish in the inner circle. Cernan does his best to explain to them and share the faith.
Stormy asks for the flowers to grow to show
Arabeth. It's not the spell Stormy wanted. But a tiny oak tree grows.
Lord Jarrus Ferma II says, "We must be very careful." He's kind of a dandy. Not afraid to show off.
Epron says, "They have an army. What do we even do?"
There are 50 of age that can wield a crossbow. Could the dwarves stay?
Carl asks Cita, "Have you taken the test?" No she hasn't. If she did, she would have a voice and could challenge
General Kronin--a good assassin.
Cernan says we may need to take out the darkness or the priests.
Do we need to deal with the darkness or the priests first?
The darkness came after that pyre was established. It spread from there. Cernan feels we need to go back and stop it.
Check on the guilds, ask the dwarves to stay, and the mages and thieves guild. We build more allies.
Would Catheryn be able to help?
Mushrooms haven't taken over here. Cernan moves the oak tree to outside. Plants it and casts a ceremony to have a place to pray and have a counter side to the pillar of darkness. He wants to pray and ask Arabeth for guidance - is this the place to strike.
Immediately: when more people join the cause Cernan's holy symbol changes the tree grows. The oak tree grows and forms the same shape as the holy symbol. Everyone is amazed. They haven't seen green in a month and a half.
Arabeth's answer next session.
Comments