The Friends of Orthos arrive in a hamlet - a mere four buildings in the middle of a marsh. The only occupant, an old woman in a chair, sobbing. The Friends debate if the old woman is a witch (it certainly seems that way) but she is not. She cries for her lost family, taken by The Sons of Trogoth across the river. Since it’s in the direction they’re going, The Friends tell the woman that they will most certainly get her family back. They set out west, to the river.
It turns out, rivers are hard to cross. For fear of losing their gear (I introduce river fording rules: roll a d20, that item slot becomes lost. Not very realistic, but it works.) they decide to follow the river north, searching for a crossing.
Instead, they find a cliff and a waterfall. Clever icoriol looks for stones that may have fallen and crated a natural crossing (I roll) but finds nothing.
Stumped, The Friends eventually decide to travel south along the river, looking for crossings in the other direction. Across the river, they see a distant castle. Talari’s owl, Corum, scouts it. Through the owls eyes, Talari witnesses four men and two giant toads delivering a tithe to the lord of the castle.
As it happens, you can’t actually see through your owls eyes that far away in the 5e rules. Oopsie. This isn’t a big deal, in general I like when the player can get information about things in advance. However, after some consideration I realised the owl had turned into a the first thing to go to in every situation to the detriment of the fun of the game - I think getting in too deep on accident is part of D&D, so we’ll adhere to this rule going forward.
Journeying up the river in his little rowboat, an Ajira-ni wayfarer rows steadily. In the distance he sees little shapes on the river bank. A carriage, many horses, and riders atop. He does not speed up, but he does row in their direction.
On the river bank he sees a collection of strange creatures and their many horses. The wayfarer, Monkey (thats his name), is quickly introduce to The Friends of Orthos.
A new player character joins! He took the chance to sneakily have a row boat, because The Friends are quickly realising rivers are their biggest enemy. It’s a bit cheesy but at a certain point you move the game along instead of smirking at your unprepared players. They got rid of the boat soon after anyways.
Ferried across the river, The Friends invite Monkey to come along with them. Monkey’s travel is somewhat aimless, so he decides to tag along.
Across the field, The Friends finally come to a large circular temple - what they have been seeking all this time! Giant toads sit in marble pools while acolytes pour water over their backs. The center of the temple is a cylidrical hole leading down deep into the earth. The Friends are greeted by crowds of people in loose brown robes. (I roll a reaction - very friendly!) A crowd forms around The Friends.
“You have come! We have prayed to Baron Trogoth for guidance and now you are here! Please, tell us what words he brings!”
Vespertine capitalizes on the opportunity.
“Yes! We are here… we require the… prisoners?”
A mix of hushed whispers meet her words. Eventually the acolytes retrieve a prisoner. He is dumped into the mud at the feet of The Friends. With a brief ceremony, a minor prestidigitation charm from Talari is taken as a sign of great divine power from the acolytes of Trogoth. With cheers and clamours they bring the rest of the prisoners forward. While they are gathered, the rest of the Friends are welcomed to explore the temple complex. A giant cylindrical chamber descends deep into the earth. Stairs around the edge provide a pathway down, with several chambers perched on the edges. These chambers comprise of a store room, some sleeping chambers, and a shrine with an old book and golden frog statue. The bottom floor is damp, mossy stone, the edges of the cylinder lines with jail cells. When Balthazar picks up the statue, a great roaring croak echoes up the cylinder, threatening to deafen those in the stone tower. This draws a crowd of people to the shrine room, though luckily Balthazar (fearful of divine retribution with which he is all too familiar), has replaced the golden idol. Monkey lingers in this room while Vespertine, Siriel and Balthazar venture further downwards, finding a reliquary with golden treasures. While the prisoners are gathered, Monkey takes a look at the aged book. It’s written in a script he has no hope of understanding, but as he gazes at the pages the acolytes look at him with wide eyes.
“Can you read it?” one of them asks, leaning forward, “We have not been able to read it since finding this temple.”
Monkey bluffs.
“Of course!”
The crowd clamours. “You must read it to us all! In the main chamber, come, quickly.”
As all acolytes and bodyguards gather for the reading, Siriel and Vesper slip away from the crowd, down the stairs to the reliquary and start looting. (Bad players! Very colonial). Topside, Monkey begins his reading, aided by a lucky spell from Balthazar that can read any language. Balthazar reads of a curse that befalls those who defile the temples of trogoth - one of his great pets that walks his swamp below the celestial mountain shall descend and smite the pagan defilers. Monkey tells the crowd of chosen heroes who will appear for the glory of Trogoth. The crowd hangs on his every word, and when he is done, they cheer in zealous frenzy. Now they call to The Friends (whom they believe to be vertiable angels) to take the prisoners to the lake and sacrifice them in the name of their god!
Wary of the strength of a frenzied crowd and needing time to hatch a plan, Talari mounts Fetty and takes the crowd south. Before they get too far, he whispers to the first prisoner of his plan to rescue them.
The bodyguards, who are agents of Lord Thogy in the castle to the north, do not follow the crowd, but remain. Some are suspicious - they are not blinded by religious prophecy, and they notice that two of The Friends are missing from the company that journeys southward. The creep down the stair way. In the reliquary, Siriel and Vesper have just finished packing their bags with silks, statuettes and gold. They hear footsteps coming. Knowing the sight of an empty reliquary will be immediately indicting Siriel quickly exits the room and stops the guards.
The guards attempt to affirm their suspicious. “What were you doing down there?”
“Just inspecting your locks and hinges. Trogoth demands these be in excellent condition you know. Your jail cells are also in a poor state. Follow me and I’ll show you.”
The guards follow her down the few remaining steps and watch as she quickly (and covertly) picks a lock.
I made Siriel roll for this, and she failed, but not by much. Remembering a lesson from Blades in the Dark (make your players (well, player characters) look competent) I decide that instead of her lockpick failing outright, it succeeds, but doesn’t do what she attempted to do, which is distract the four guards long enough for Vesper to escape.
While the lock clicks open, one guard happens to glance toward the reliquary just in time to see Vespertine, packs loaded with their treasures, sneaking up the stairs. He immediately yells but only gets half of it out when Siriels rapier pierces clean through his throat. He falls to the ground gurgling in a pile of his own blood while the mercenaries draw their weapons. Siriel and Vesper make a hasty retreat, guards close behind.
They catch up with the murderous procession, guards running behind. Before the rest of The Friends can figure out whats going on, Vesper yells.
“They attacked us! These traitorous pagans attacked us!”
The crowd, in frenzy, listens to who they percieve as an agent of their god, and turn on the mercenaries. The Friends use their chance to escape into the wilderness with the prisoners.
I roll some rounds of battle between the mercenaries and the acolytes using my makeshift mass combat rules. The mercenaries hold up pretty well but ultimtely fall due to the sheer number of acolytes. However, lucky rolls mean there are about 6 rounds of fighting. That gives The Friends an hour before the acolytes pursue them, which becomes important later.
The Friends rush back to where Monkeys rowboat is gift the rowboat to the prisoners in hopes they can escape down the river back to villages to the east. Knowing the giant frogs can’t be too far behind, they flee north towards the castle they saw across the river earlier, seeking shelter.
The castle is owned by the pompous Lord Thogie, but he receives travellers well (a generous tithe helps). He feeds the travellers and allows them to stay in the village within his walls. The Friends learn that he not only protects The Sons of Trogoth, but is their ardent benefactor. They leave their meddlings with the temple out of conversation. Lord Thogie tells them of a mountain pass in the mountains to the east that leads up the cliffs north and to further places in which he believes Ord Cabare may lie.
Monkey decides to perform a diagnostic test on the lord, looking for psionic potential. The ability is extremely rare in humans (He rolls a d10,000, on a 1 the tested individual can be psionic) and Lord Thogie is no exception. The Friends rest in relative comfort.
I know it won’t take long for the deception with the sons of trogoth to be found out and a messenger sent to the keep. The question is, will this happen before or after The Friends can move on? I get the players to roll 1d6 for luck and they score a 1 - the worst result!
The Friends wake up early with the intent to get out of dodge quick. But as they gather in the castle courtyard, a man on the back of a giant frog comes to the gate, spinning a tale about intruders and thieves. The Friends end up sandwiched between the gate and Lord Thogies men.
Talari brandishes his spell, a shower of sparks lighting up the courtyard while he threatens Lord Thogie with a curse. The man on the frog warns of their divine power.
Lord Thogie has them outnumbered, but is weary of any bloodshed in his walls. He does not want to be humiliated, and does not have time to rouse his men. I figure this mans temprement is one where things that are not understood are met with caution, not violence. AS such, Talari’s player rolls intimidate contested by Lord Thogie’s Charisma.
The lord of the caslte is furious.
“You abuse my hospitality! Thou art vagrants and knaves. Begone with you before I call for my soldier to have your heads!”
The Friends make protests but do take the opportunity to leave without a fight. They flee further north until they hit the mountains, then struggle across a few rivers (Siriel loses her thieves tools) on the way east.
Their new direction decided, The Friends find their bearings and move on. Ord Cabare lies ahead.
During a rest at night, The Friends entertain themselves by speaking with Posqwin, a strange friendly non-human creature who is with them. He has been communing with something recently, and describing The Friends general location. Given that the creature seems to have some innate ties to Talari (who is being tracked by a magical elf), The Friends are weary. Talari inquires about his activities.
“Posqwin, what are you doing?”
“Hm? Oh, talking.”
There is a moment of silence.
“Talking to who, Posqwin?”
“Oh. I can’t tell you. He’d get really mad.”
Wanting to confirm suspicions, Balthazar leverages his divine voice.
“Posqwin, 𝕤𝕒𝕪 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕟𝕒𝕞𝕖.”
Posqwin turns politely to Balthazar and utters “Valosol.”
At speaking the name Posqwins eyes go wide. He throws his hands over his mouth and explodes into pixie dust.
Silence falls on the shocked camp. Posqwin has fallen.