The Treaty of New Hope

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Treaty of New Hope
GM: Helen S
Season: Spring 805 WK
Night: Someday
Level: Level

Party

• Drum
• Loxi (Party Leader)
• GoK (Strategic planner)
• Faith (Scribe_
• Shemin-ah
• Grendel
• Phaeton
• Human the Fool

Time on adventure

1 Thaw 805 to 8 Blossom 805 WK

Employer

Drum — Seagate adventurer

Mission

To compose a eulogy for a group of allegedly deceased famous heroes.

Payment

A myriad of pence each, which is 39 guineas, 14 shillings and four-pence; plus a barrel of ale or honey-mead. This is roughly 4 cubic inches of gold. Plus a set of still-warm dragon-skin armour each if we rip them off the bleeding corpses. Nice.

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp0502.zip

Summary

Timeline

Date	Events
1 Thaw.	We are hired and learn some background of the planes of Rue and Sol.
4 Thaw.	We are transported to Sol by StarSong, a dragon. We portal to Rue. We meet DiamondFlame, a dragon. We get directions, and fly for the rest of the day.
5 Thaw.	We sail into New Hope and explore.
6 Thaw.	The party splits into three and covers the continent.
7 Thaw.	Drum negotiates with DiamondFlame. The elves meet the local wood elves. The humans do cultural research. Sheminah leaves the party.
8 Thaw.	The party reunites and update each other.
9 Thaw.	The party reaches Bald Hill.
10 Thaw.	We meet Sir Warren and lay out the facts.
11 Thaw.	We flee from Bald Hill chased by their army.
12 Thaw.	We meet Roland at Swansford. It rains like there will be no tomorrow.
13 Thaw.	We meet Vandra at Beacon’s Hill. GoK & Sir Konrad fight an epic duel.
14 Thaw.	We kidnap Sir Konrad. Drum is turned, and punished by exile.
21 Thaw.	Drum returns without GoK. The dragon hunters arrive at Swansford.
22 Thaw.	We fly to Bald Hill and meet Sir Warren. A death-warrant is drawn up.
23 Thaw.	We fly to New Hope with Roland, where we meet Father Thomas.
24 Thaw.	We start to potter back to Swansford. We get Roland back in time.
28 Thaw.	Vandra, Roland & Sir Konrad leave Swansford by barge.
1 Seedtime.	Sir Konrad is missing. That evening we are in Bald Hill.
14 Seedtime.	Tourney starts.
15 Seedtime.	The Peace Treaty is signed by all survivors.
16 Seedtime.	We leave to hunt Pig Iron.
27 Seedtime.	At last we are attacked.
4 Blossom.	An audience with Lord Manfred finally goes well.
8 Blossom.	Back at the Guild.

Scribe Notes

The Dragon Hunting Dragon-hunters

1 Thaw 805

Drum hires the group to compose a eulogy for a group of allegedly deceased famous heroes. These heroes are famous for killing (young) dragons, and the parents of the deceased would like a proper farewell. The heroes are:

• Sir Warren of Baldhill, a chivalric knight of the highest order, whose skill with his lance is legendry amongst defeated foes and their womenfolk.
• Sir Conrad of Heronbill, a red-haired giant, a stalwart warrior and master of the axe and the tankard.
• The Enchantress Vandra of Swansmouth, a sword-wielding sorceress with her skirts slit to the waist and her leading attributes on display.
• Healer Roland, a follower of the dead god Mithros, and herb man.
• Emma Crowdale, an exotic ethnic fortune-teller who can make your silver cross her palm before you know she’s there.
• Gloin of Stone Mountain, a dwarven smith.

They all lived on a plane called Rue, in a cluster of planes ruled by ruthless draconic overlords, or “caretakers”. This cluster of planes includes the plane of Sol which contains the town of Paradise, which SAG members have visited three times in the last two years.

Despite having a near-perfect mix of colleges (Earth, Celestial, E&E, Namer, plus Ice for blast, a spare Celestial, and an Illusionist for towns), and Mind in case we wish to be first runner-up to the dragons in the evil overlord stakes, we have very few useful all-day spells. Resist Cold on GoK (he left his scarf behind, poor thing), Disguise for me (too distinctive a cognomen), and Strength of Stone, Shadowform and Witchsight for the rest.

We decide to stock up on supplies for three days. Non-magical supplies are to be stored in Drum's rather large backpack. Supplies include a month of provisions (a week fresh, the rest dried), a week’s drinking water, basic camping gear including tents, a pavilion for the elves, medical supplies including bandages, splints, and a range of rare alchemical and natural substances that Phaeton wishes to study to allow him to devise antidotes. Many lengths of rope & twine, shovels, axes, knives, and other survival gear are also included. Trade goods, gems, coins. The melons and sorbet are packed in ice, and kept well away from the strawberries to avoid bruising or over-chilling.

Each person has five cubic foot of storage allocated for personal items. These items must be non-explosive & non-magical, and must not leak if broken. Mine include 6 changes of clothes, from formal to working silks, four sets of footwear, three sets of armour, and most of my spare weapons. Also a small supply of coca leaves and dried cocoa beverages for medicinal purposes only. Not to mention knuckle bones, ornaments, some costume jewellery, dies, cosmetics, paint, cayenne, and various herbs for undisturbed constitutional strolls.

We learn a bit more about the plane of Sol. It has a range of races including humans, nymphs, centaurs, fauns, dryads and rocs. Apparently they engage in normal friendly trade. The settlement of Paradise is new, but a powerful Seagate fire mage called Shizane ensures that it is at peace with its neighbours. We will pass near it briefly.

3 Thaw

In the evening we set out from Seagate in a hired boat and travel five miles upstream to a quiet pasture. We camp, checking the erecting of the tents and preparation of food. The humans work well. We also have trial watches.

With the paucity of elves, there are humans on every watch, so a professional lack of conversation is likely. Watch Order

1. GoK & Human
2. Faith & Phaeton
3. Loxi & Grendal
4. Drum & Sheminah

4 Thaw

Pre-dawn, we strike camp and wait for StarSong, a young dragon and close personal friend of Drum. Mist starts rising from the pasture. A voice resounds in Loxi’'s head. Something coagulates from the mists. Shortly StarSong takes the shape of a 20" high, 50’ long (plus tail) shiny golden dragon. Her neck is very long and spiny, and her wingspan is over 250 feet. StarSong makes quite an impressive entrance. We all mount up, and wedge ourselves as best we can between the spikes. She levitates into the growing light of dawn.

We blink. We are now in another world, soon identified by Phaeton and Drum as Sol. To the east is a long valley, to the west are the Paradise plains, to the north are mountains, and to the south is the sea. StarSong indicates the plains and says "I've got humans”. Loxi replies "We can treat that”. StarSong descends slowly to the south. We fly over a valley, then hills, then some rough ground with scattered trees. We see a clearing with a portal in it, and land.

Mithrian Portals

The buildings which contain Mithrian Portals are best described in the Wiki. twork is sparsely connected.

After good-byes to StarSong, we use the portal. We find ourselves in another world, soon identified as Rue. The portal is surrounded by mature deciduous forest. There are mountains to the east, and the sun is rising gently over them. It is early spring, and the bright green foliage is pleasant. The tranquillity is shattered as Drum sounds a terrible mating call. It is loud, harsh, and comes from some non-mammalian organ. No one can hear themselves think. GoK explains the dangers of healing himself to Phaeton. Eventually the roaring stops and Phaeton removes the cotton wool from his ears.

Drum explains that he is summoning DiamondFlame — the “grumpy old man” of the dragons. I now have some idea why he is grumpy! After a short while, we hear some singing in elvish coming from the east. A few minutes later, a grey- haired elf strolls in from the woods. He has GTN horse — I guess its like forgetting to match your socks. DiamondFlame is quite an intense individual. He tells us about the dead dragons and the heroes we are to eulogise.

The heroes have killed four young dragons. In order of demise, they were: Firebrand, a troublemaker and sheep rustler; Green Jade, who dwelt with orcs; little Bronze, who got on well with the dwarves; and the Black, who lived near hill giants. They lived 2,000 to 3,000 miles apart. They were the only four dragons born within the last 400 years. Baby dragons grow to near-full size with a couple of years of hatching, but take quite some time to mature in power and intellect. Some of these dead dragons could cast magic. There is no last remaining baby dragon, and its location is secret.

DiamondFlame translates a popular human song describing the heroic feats of the heroes. Sounds like eulogising this lot will be tricky. The heroes met at tourneys. They attend the five major tourneys every year (except when hunting). This year the first tourney will be at Baldhill, and the second at New Hope. They have been hunting dragons for around ten years. The period between Kkills is dropping. They are also possibly hunting DiamondFlame. They use small numbers of troops to assist them.

The heroes live along a huge river valley in a decentralised series of city states which is spread between 350-1,000 miles away. We are shown a map and the approximate location of Baldhill, New Hope and Stone Mountain. See the map appended to this document. We are given directions to Stone Mountain, and to New Hope, which is downstream. Most of the river valley people come from the "0ld Empire” in the plane of Frigidaire. The Old Empire tongue is a little like Arabique. They also have a common trading tongue and a northern tongue, spoken by local “barbarian” tribes. We don't know any of these languages.

We convince DiamondFlame that knowledge of at least one local tongue is essential. The last thing we what to do is get our facts wrong and accidentally engage in character assassination. He uses spring water & his own blood to create a drink that imparts knowledge of the trading tongue to us for the rest of the season. It has similar side-effects to a restorative. Ow!

The Rules of Rue

DiamondFlame tells us the rules while on his plane:

• No changing the mana
• No changing the climate
• No changing the terrain
• No changing the flora or fauna

These are all trespassing on the domain of the guardians.

We leave, heading in the direction of New Hope, before he starts "mowing” the trees. We fly WSW for an hour, with a cloud of smoke rising behind us.

An Unseasonable EIf

Subjectively, the following is all true. Semiotics is more complex than people realise.

Aunty Loxi and I were over in the south of the Eastern mountains at the start of Spring. Don't ask what we were doing there — just don't ask. As it happens, there were some humans in the same area, and they seemed lost. We thought it would be amusing to watch them. They flew down the Wolf River for a while and then landed a mile short of the first village they found. We followed quietly.

The village of Stony Creek was simple retro-agrarian. There were paths to the river, into the forest, and downstream. The village was set in terraces into the hillside, with farms on the valley floor below. There were chickens, geese, dogs, pigs, dwarves and humans wandering the streets and scratching at the ground for food. The humans were beige with brown highlights.

The lost group of four humans, led by the memorably dense Sir Gwithane Gokan, entered the village. With him were his squire Human, his priest Phaeton, and his groom Sheminah. They talked to the locals for a while, and gathered their first intelligence (and they needed any intelligence they could find).

• The “East Road” runs around the north of the Eastern mountains.
• There are bandits in the forest around here.
• There is a lumber camp 20 miles downstream.
• The city of New Hope is around 300 miles downstream.
• There is a good wagon-road West/East near Stone Mountain to the north.

Following the humans as they flew for a few more hours downstream, we saw widely scattered villages in the mountains and forests. There were no towns of note as we headed downriver. Finally the mountains and trees stopped, and we landed. Aunty Loxi & I went into the village, and learnt that these people hadn't seen elves before. They believed that elves have blue hens’ teeth at full moon or some such superstition. Apparently the segregation saying goes “elves in the west, dwarves in the east”.

By now it was nightfall. We met up with Sir Gwithane and his entourage.

5 Thaw

We had a late start, and after morning tea we caught a ride the last 100 miles to New Hope on Captain Grendal’s riverboat. More about the cabin-boy later.

New Hope

New Hope is on the inside of a river bend. It is a town a half-mile across, with an impressive octagonal keep at the far side. The Wolf River is around 80 yards across at this point. The humans here are fair skinned with brown hair. There are a few mixed race human/?orc? crosses. Wandering through the town and shopping for cloth, we learn a few things:

• The open gutters in the streets smell.
• We see no temples (they are in a quarter we don't visit until later).
• The guards are low-risk mundanes. They travel in small groups.
• They trade metal & wood from the mountains, wool from the south plains, grain from the river valley.
• Old Empire, Northern, & Trade are all spoken. With only knowledge of Trade (and various Elvii), a lot of chatter goes past us. However, we catch gossip on trade, planting, dragons and hunting.
• There are priests of Mithros, the Mother, the Dark God, etc. More details provided elsewhere. See the Wiki.
• Money is strips of silver, most just a little thicker than a silver penny, wide as a little finger, and one to two inches long, with a hole punched in one end. Also copper in similar shapes, all hung on strings.

We choose the same inn that the humans go to. At least we know them a little.

Our Inn is 4 stories high, with a central courtyard. We are given a corner tower, to keep out the riff-raff. There is quite a crowd shortly after we arrived. Elves aren't seen in New Hope except around the Tourney, in early summer.

What the Chambermaid said

We chat charmingly with the chambermaid.

• Normally only elven delegations to the noble houses or elven traders for the Tourneys are seen in New Hope.
• Dwarves are also uncommon out of the mountains except at Tourneys.
• Most city dwellers are not armed, a small knife or a stick maybe.
• The city watch are lazy, corrupt bullies.
• The castle guard are better, but only police during Tourneys.
• The Merchant Guild have their own guards for the warehouses across the river.
• The dock workers’ hovels are to be avoided even during the day; it's a rough and lawless place.
• Although its not illegal to be out after dark, its not advisable to go out alone; while all the street scum, beggars and lowlifes are supposed to leave the city before the gates close at dusk, the watch is known to extort money or ‘favours’ from lone travellers or small groups, under threat of arrest and fine for breach of peace. If you can't pay that fine, the court indentures you for five years. This provides a good income for the administration and so is accepted.
• Similar laws exist in most towns, with varying levels of corruption.
• There is no monarchy or central authority. Each noble family runs an independent state.
• Many laws from the time of the Old Empire are now traditions enforced by all the ruling families.
• No one state or alliance has ever been able to enforce its rule on all the others.
• Recent merchant gossip is that Bald Hill & its allies are manoeuvring into a position to attempt this consolidation.
• Bald Hill has been employing steadily increasing numbers of troops. Their forces are larger and much better trained than any other family; and several families owe them large favours for dragon slaying.
• The Merchant Council is thinking of doing ‘something’ about this.
• The local ruler is the fast-fading Lord Luther. His weak-willed son Sir Theobald has been running the town for a while.
• Sir Theobald has received a promise from Sir Warren that he will bring the heroes up the Wolf River right after the Bald Hill tourney.
• The Tourneys are: Spring Equinox, Bald Hill; Beltane, New Hope; Solstice, Swansford; Lugnasad, Swansmouth; Autumn Equinox, Bald Hill.
• The court house, guild halls, and at least twelve temples are on the Street of the Gods, off Castle Way.
• The new guests Sir Gwithane Gokan and his group are Barbarians. Pure Blood Empire nobles look different, and even half-breeds speak Empire.
• Alot more noble Barbarians have been attending the Tourneys since the success and fame of Sir Konrad.
• Passage to the Tourney towns is much more expensive in the week before each Tourney.
• Other guests include Cloth traders, a Dwarven Armoursmith, and a Healer.
• The Healer cures burns with a salve in 2 days — sounds like a Herbalist.

Gok & Sheminah head down to the riverside, to check on their cabin boy, Drum.

Drum has to sneak into town because he doesn't look right. They cast ShadowWings and Witchsight on him, and return before nightfall. Drum comes into town over the rooftops. The landing location is marked by a circle of warm ash.

The main common room of the Inn has a human minstrel. He murders several songs, including a tune about a lass called Vandra who enchanted half the courts of the Swan River valley. Another lay is about some dragon slayers and their small army — presumably this Sir Warren of Bald Hill. There are reportedly dragon skulls on the wall of Bald Keep. The latest news is about a new Blue Dragon burning the entire countryside to the east. The chorus hook is “eating the people who pulled the cat’s tail’. It sounds like we just missed him. Pity — dragons are more interesting than humans.

Around 2am we meet up with the humans led by Sir Gwithane, and give them their Drum. Notes on New Hope are compared.

Coming and Going

I've flown 1000's of miles,

over oceans and isles,

we fly by the moon,

we're always coming and going,

going and coming,

and always too soon!

Right girls?

I'm tired,

tired of flying and fame,

ain't it a crying shame?

I'm so tired,

God dammit I'm tired!

We meet at 2 am on the 6th of Thaw, and argue into the wee hours of the morning.

There is a saying that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Individually, no one here is incompetent - some of the group want to rule out violence completely; while for others it's their first choice. However, consensus by committee renders this as our last resort. Collective wisdom is an oxymoron.

We decide to first try to save the humans by committing them to a binding oath not to hunt dragons. The strength of this plan is that we get to meet and assess the humans, and resolve the issue via dialogue. The weakness is that they may learn too much about us (i.e. our existence) if we have to implement our fall- back plans.

The first step of any good plan is to see if it has the blessing of the gods. In lieu of a good sacrifice, we go with an ecumenical service involving our seers (GoK, Grendal & Phaeton) staring at stars or their own eyelids for hours. The main advantage of this is that the rest of us get to sleep until dawn. Loxi & I explain the second step of the plan and assure the party that it is simple and sensible, and that they will realise it in the morning, then sweep off to our tower.

6 Thaw

It is dawn by the time that the men have finished their prayers to their false gods. The answer to the various readings by the men on the question “Will binding the hunters to a honourable oath of truce with dragon-kind suffice to bring peace between the parties?” is “Yes, but...”. This satisfies them. See earlier comments on wisdom.

Over breakfast we repeat the plan in smaller words. Thank Inti for acullicar. We then leave New Hope, via Grendal’s ship, to which Drum has returned before dawn. We float gently downstream to avoid magically driving all before us at 20 knots. Once a reasonable distance away from the city, six of us get Shadow Wings and disperse.

Divide and Conquer - Humans

Human and Grendal are two of our human-culture experts. We unleash the Sorcerer and Illusionist on the unsuspecting city of New Hope for relentless and personal study of the culture over two and a half days. They talk to some nearby villagers, an acting troupe, and varied townsfolk. Through their powerful magicks and masterful acting, no one realises that they are in fact gathering intelligence for a possible socialist revolution. Including them. They fail to burn down the city or inflict significant infra-structural damage before we meet up again in the afternoon of the 8" of Thaw. Page 5 Divide and Conquer - Dragons Drum, Sheminah and Phaeton head upstream, retracing their wing strokes for three hundred-odd miles to return to the place they arrived in this world. This is comparable to the efforts of salmon and homing pigeons. Aren’t humans amazing! It takes a little more than 8 hours to reach the portal, where they rest and request the presences of DiamondFlame. At dawn on the 7' of Thaw, DiamondFlame shows up and negotiates with Drum. Thanks to Phaeton, who is poised with charcoal and paper, “sketching”, we have some immortal quotes. These include Drum advising the dragon to think long-term, sympathising that he understands DiamondFlame’s pain in losing all his children, and telling DiamondFlame that he (DF) will need time to think. However, discretion & sensitivity forbid me from including these quotes. DiamondFlame is not particularly convinced by the notion of a two-way binding contract involving regular appearances by him to remind humans of the greatness and mercy of dragons. It's a pity — the argument is presented well, but I think it's a cultural gap — DiamondFlame just doesn’t want to get tied into a petty mortal tradition. However, he is prepared to go with an oath by the humans in return for letting them live. He mentions a priest of Mithros in New Hope who can bind their oaths (geas?). The oath would be along the lines of “never kill or harm another dragon”. In return, he would consider following the strictures “no more burning sheep and eating forests”. He mentions that StarSong, as the mother of the slain, and being younger & more emotional, would not be keen on this interpretation of the deal with Drum, preferring revenge. Sheminah is not convinced that she can help with this high-level negotiation, being primarily a survivalist and blast mage; and as she doesn’t want to try to Kill the humans, decides to return home. Drum assists her to Paradise around nightfall, and then Drum & StarSong give her some travel advice. StarSong offers to teach Sheminah elvish for some months so that she can talk to the centaurs (if they ever learn elvish). Instead, Sheminah walks and flies for a couple of days, reaching Livingston on the evening of the 9*" of Thaw. Drum & Phaeton fly back to New Hope during the day of the 8" of Thaw, arriving back mid-afternoon. Drum is once again sequestered on the ship. Divide and Conquer - Elves We elves go to consult with the local wood elves, to gather more of that collective wisdom. We fly west for the whole day, landing at the edge of the elvish forest. Then we spend half the night singing songs at the edge of the forest, then hopping 10 miles north and repeating, hoping to encounter some border patrols or wandering locals. Eventually, we find a rough path leading into the forest, and run down it to a clearing, which is obviously an agreed meeting point. We camp and eat. The trees say that the elves are all farther in. We have light watches and sleep as best we can. 7" Thaw. We have a leisurely start, and then jog along nature trails further into the forest. We meet an elven guide, who takes us to their village. Their village is a collection of houses high up in trees. None of us are afraid of heights at the start of the day. The tree-houses are made by the tree growing into the right shapes, with the occasional encouragement or crafting. The houses are connected by branches or bridges. From a distance we admire the graceful minimalism of the design, with never an excess handrail or overly-thick support. Closer viewing doesn't convey the same emotional reaction. After a while waiting in a hollow bole some hundred feet up, an Elder visits us. We learn a number of points. These include: ¢ Not all the planar guardians are dragons Some of the planar guardians are elves (not on this plane) Elves trade herbs and rare materials with the humans (for what?) Sir Warren of Baldhill is the 3™ son and will not inherit. There is a tradition for such sons to continue the expansion of the ex- empire. Sir Konrad is the primary leader of the dragon-hunters. He is from the far north, just south of the dwarves. He is a half-blood — his mother is native, and his father empire. Vandra is the daughter of an apprentice of the Wizard of Swansmouth. She is an E&E. She buys supplies from another elven village. Roland of Swansfort buys his herbal supplies from yet another elven village. No one in this world can resurrect. This village needs none of our assistance. There is another village on the far side of the forest who can provide weapons. Page 6 The Elder is not quite open when answering our queries. None of us can quite put our finger on why we are uncomfortable with what he said. We may have made some social transgressions which offended him and thus made him unhelpful, or possibly this is expected from insular villages, or perhaps the altitude rather than attitude kept us off balance. We leave the village late that afternoon, and fly to the forest edge. After a brief nap, we fly back to New Hope overnight, and sleep outside town for the morning, before entering the town around noon on the 8" of Thaw. The Elvish village