The Hippo's Bride
Summary
Adventure: The Hippo's Bride
GM: Julia
Season: Winter 816 wk
Night: Monday
Level: High
- Party
- Bleyze
- Braegon PL ML Scribe
- Lady Cher of Maltheim Cross, Binder, played by Sean
- Kilroy
- Archbishop Rowan V.
- Captain Zohar Haima ML
- Employer
- Seagate Guild
- Mission
- Investigate these Wicked Goblins, see what can be done.
- Deliver the Hippo's Bride as promised by Scab on behalf of the guild.
Scribe Notes
Brandenburg Goblins
We meet with Kali and he outlines the issues he has been landed with.
- There is a Hippo soaking in a mana pool in the war zone that was promised a bride by a guild party that have failed to deliver. Best to resolve this debt before the Hippo gets grumpy and leaves its wallow to extract the granted wishes from those members and whoever else it tramples along the way. It is also protecting several refugees.
- Mordrin's recent report indicates that the oldest Goblin god was made wicked and killed, this has infected all goblins with wickedness - because they really needed more. Kali would like us to investigate the impact and ensure that Grobbenbonk is still a reliable ally of the guild.
We sort ourselves out and fly to a nearby portal then to the mountains north of Brandenburg.
A phase spider has set up just outside the cave, we chat, bribe it with a cow and find out it has been forced south by Goblin/Orc mass migrations through its previous hunting grounds. The weather is a bit fierce for flying and already controlled by someone else so we head south out of the mountains by gallery.
We emerge late in the afternoon in the hills looking out over the forest. While I set up camp, the others hear drums and scry around.
- There is a lake south of us in the middle of the forest with a bright glow coming from the island in the middle.
- Grobbenbonk's tower is scry guarded.
- The drumming is coming from several fires each with groups of dozens of warped goblins. We assume they are settling in for a wild night so we decide to eat, sleep then visit them in the morning.
- W'nsday
Walking discreetly to where they are camped we find them gone, probably marching most of the night. More organised and driven than we expected. Tracking them and flying north into the mountains we quickly catch up then sneak up on them, almost close enough to grab one for questioning when Bleyze gets bored and kicks some rocks. With the goblins alerted we go for a distraction - a burning bush on the hill. Which works too well, the goblins all look that way, some immolate, a couple of shrubs are turned to stone and a banshee wail pierces our hearts. Concerned about the Banshee wail, we open fire, the last Banshee is stopped just before she would have cried a third time and killed one of us. The living goblins are scattered. Taking a Banshee-Goblin and a de-warped Goblin we retreat to our humble cave camp for breakfast, saunas, divination and questioning.
The goblins are heading to see the Dark Lord (Morgoth) to seek a new God. They were warped in the last few weeks by rune magics to gain fantastical abilities (Banshee wail, wings, Basilisk gaze, size, strength, etc). The Bish suggests recruiting them all to Chantris but the idea of Goblins following a fertility goddess fills most of us with dread. We eventually convince Rowan otherwise by suggesting his potential new titles as head Goblin priest. Their wickedness is no simple curse but it is a sort of contagious infection and we think we could potentially create a contagious cure.
Dark and White Gods
Other ideas include resurrecting the Goblin God, finding them another willing god, summoning the local dragons to loot their hide, a few other artefacts and rare healing/purifying components people have rattling around their pockets.
We decide to find out a bit more before leaping into a solution:
- Talking to Morgor about which god he was planning to hook the goblins up with.
- Investigating the site of the Goblin God's death and having a chat to it.
But first we distract ourselves with the island on the lake in the forest that had bright lights last night. Sneaking up at 40mph we find the island shrouded in darkness and shaped dark spheres, Zohar hails the island and eventually wakes its occupant who reluctantly allows us to visit to chat.
Rathgar is a hermit follower of a god of the underworld, darkness and crossroads. Not much interested in the rest of the world except for when he needs to hunt down escapees and return them to the underworld. He is interested in our more interesting shadows and dark/death related magic, he is open to future trades if we come across such items. Without saying anything too openly against Morgor he does advise against assuming good intentions wrt the Goblins. He also suggests checking out the old White Temple in the mountains, it might be helpful.
Back into the mountains, this time establishing Rune Portals as we go. It is about 80 miles which we cover underground in order to avoid bothering the dragons.
The temple is perched on a mountainside and has been unused for at least 20 years, most enchantment has faded but we find a font, steam room, and private study which we make use of. Reading the Naga's journal which includes about 300 years history and our current visit (seers!) and invoking the goddess by name to ask her help. The Naga-priest had a task which was completed, the goddess is a Healer and would be happy to take on a new priest. She is willing to reverse the wicked infection in a contagious way if we bring her goblins, preferably female ones.
Portal back to our camp, track down the goblins who were fleeing east and bring them back to the temple.
Thinking the regenerative powers of a Phoenix would help if there's one nearby, B. Rowan successfully summons one, which heads our way from Glissom with accompanying guards and stirs up the local dragons.
Temple Rebuild
Kilroy establishes a Rune Ward, I dig a bunker, Zohar practices sky-writing with swallows, F. Rowan flies east to establish a retreat point and detects the undetectable dragons by their Ball Lightning emanations.
The insubstantial phoenix gets bigger as it closes, we brace ourselves within the Rune Ward as fire washes over us and the ground melts, then the spectral humanoids send an earth tremor over the area and it's over. We're ok but the landscape is devastated and the temple desecrated and ready to fall. Soon after Misopha of the Siren Woods walks up to ask why I triggered the Glissom defences, I explain it was an accident and apologise.
- Th'rsday 3rd - Frysday 4th Frost
We spend a couple of days removing the brimstone tainted surface rock and rebuilding the temple. Not as elegant as the previous one but should stand up better to earthquakes. Then I call on the White Goddess and apologise for the accidental desecration of her temple and ask how we can finish restoring it, she tells us the acorns she gave us would be a good start and a priestess.
- Reapsday 5th Frost
Establishing the oak grove dedicated to the White Goddess next to her rebuilt temple, we get the trees started (they will be 7 years old in a week), plant some sheltering fir trees and Kilroy leaves a Huorn to guard the grove. Cher and F. Rowan refine 4 lbs of Aim's Brimstone from the rock we cleared out.
We call on the White Goddess to cure the wickedness in the female goblin and she tells us that our goblins are now followers of an old goddess, Tlokken - The Great Mother. A goddess of spiders and war. A very old goddess that would have been better to remain forgotten. But she is of this world, not an old one nor from beyond the veil. While they are followers of the Great Mother, the cure won't take effect.
- Sunday 6th Frost
Back down at our cave F. Rowan attempts to convert the male goblin to Chantris which leaves the goblin paralysed by indecision, balanced between two goddesses, so we add a third, Rowan has his imp call in one of Sabrina's Succubus who we drag off Kilroy and set to seducing the goblin to the Lady of Dance. Going from godless to having three goddesses in a couple of days is too much and the goblin falls into a coma.
Using the female goblin and some sophisticated divining methods we work out that she is drawn towards Grobbenbonk's tower and/or Orc Town which we presume to be the centre of worship of TGM. We decide to head there to investigate.
Blazing over the forest in The Drake we pass some fused goblin-phase-spiders, looping back we abduct one and take it south of the forest to investigate. It is a TGM blessed Rune fusion of Goblin and Phase Spider, wicked and able to pass that on to other Phase Spiders now.
Tower Raid
We continue on, the farms and fields along the road look abandoned. We presume most locals have either been called into the Wicked horde or driven out by it.
We decide to stop at Gully's Inn to check on the proprietor and see if we can pick up some local news. They are less welcoming than normal, checking us out before granting admittance. The Dwarven proprietor is fighting an infection of Wickedness, a gang of Orc Town girls forced their affections on him, hence the front door scrutiny. I cure him while we talk over lunch and a pint. Also in for lunch are half a dozen church knights disguised as traders, they and F. Rowan have a stare-down that is set to escalate until Zohar defuses it by subtly reminding the knights of their convincing disguise. After lunch I sit with the knights, tell them about the wicked-goblinoid disease, check they're not infected and ask them to help with containment and keeping the uninfected clear. Kilroy spends time in the kitchen with the Ogre-Chef.
After lunch we sneak through the forest towards Grobbenbonk's tower. Trigger one warning ward-stone, alert for them now, we avoid others. There is a crude war-camp surrounding the tower, getting more organised as it gets closer to the tower and finally a clear area patrolled by phase-spider-goblins. We sneak in invisibly as far as we can, then tunnel our way under the last stretch to the tower. The underground portion of the tower walls are cursed with a next-death-is-permanent doom so we look deeper and find a cold iron plate then deeper a rune portal room. Sneaking our rune-mage-animals into the portal room they divine and report these are a variant portal potentially connecting to any of the other portals in the network but you need to know the destination portal which is not intrinsic to this node. So we set up our own portal room under Grobbenbonks and F. Rowan teleports into a small study in the tower where he begins making a portal, 2 hours of goblin interruptions later he brings us through. We interrogate one of the pesky goblins to get the location of Grobbenbonk's rooms then make our way through the halls and walls to wait on the stairs between his dining hall and bedroom/harem and study. Downstairs the goblins and muscle are hanging out with The Great Mother trying to work out what set off their warning stone. Eventually they get bored and head to the dining hall to eat, deciding that we've stretched our stealth skills to their limit we attack. Things get a bit messy when goblins are killed, the goddess enforces her grief on us and then resurrects a dozen of them at once. Zohar and Bleyze have heart attacks, we grab Grobbenbonk and exit via tunnel.
Buzzing with life, I quickly find us a tunnel back to the guild casting chambers and start repairing the brokenhearted.
Dance with the Devil
We discuss plans while the healing takes place. Hearing her name, Sabrina turns up. She's willing to take on Grobbenbonk and the goblins as followers and cure them of their wickedness but she has a couple of small theft issues she'd like a hand with.
- Iouane an old elf (and former Lieutenant of Bune) has made off with a book on Lore of the Realm and is in Elfheim - He was a Namer, we get his old address - Salins, where he held lands. Urielites were responsible for the death of his wife and only child, he joined up with Bune to gain an ally in taking down the so-called Archangels. He was unimpressed with an ally of the Archangels taking over the Dragon Duke's realm.
- Beryl a cursed Elf, has taken a spell focus and is in a forest in the Dragonspine mountains. She is a Prophet.
- Moonday 7th - W'ansday 9th Frost
Portal to Eltrandor, get lost to Troll Kingdoms, Bleyze wagon east then north through the Dragonspine mountains to a forest at the head of an old glacial valley. Camp at the edge of the forest.
- Th'rsday 10th Frost
Into the forest then up a crag to the cave where Beryl waits. She predicts foul futures for us - as is her curse to do so, until we mute her. Then we read her journal divine the focus and use it to heal/remove her curse. A charge from the focus allows a master Healer to alter the true nature of an entity. Beryl then tells us that when she was young (before the War of Tears) she married for love instead of duty and was cursed by the kin (Bune allies) of the jilted fiance. She is a seer, her doom/curse was to only speak in foul but true prophecies. She exiled herself to this mountain vale, eventually died only to end up in Bune's realm for further millennia of torment. She plotted, schemed but only gained enough free will to act after Bune's fall. Then she documented the steps to cure her in the journal and at the right time, stole the focus she needed to lure the right people here to enact the cure.
The vale has been shunned by sentients and animals for millennia as a place of ill fortune - due to her presence and the lingering effects of her doom.
- Frysday 11th Frost
Inviting Beryl to come with us, we get lost to Alfheim. Most of the party research Iouane at the colleges of war and heralds while I arrange an introduction for Beryl to the Elven Princess.
- Reapsday 12th Frost
Get lost to Uvandor, Bleyze carriage west to border of Salins closest to where Iouane lived. We set up camp in Uvandor, ready to venture into Salins tomorrow.
six
- Sunday 13th Frost
Buffs & Mil Sci
Long Term (assumed always on)
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Dur | Br | Ch | Ki | Ro | Bl | Zo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spell (Cstr) | 0 | hrs | Y | ||||||
| Strength of Stone (Br) | 20 | +20 EN | 21 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Armour of Earth (Br) | 21 | +44 Def, 2 DR | 12 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Rune Armour (Ki) | 20 | +25 Def, +5 AP, SG | 10.5 hrs | Y | |||||
| Fire Armour (Br) | 20 | 100 Ablative Mag. Fire | 21 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Heat Shield (Br) | 9 | 40 Ablative Mag. Cold | 10 hrs | ||||||
| Fire Proofing (Br) | 9 | Prot. Normal Fire 4 less Dmg | 10 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Cold Resistance - Water (Br) | 11 | Prot -22°C 3 Less Damage | 12 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Q | Y | Y |
| Water Proofing (Br) | 7 | Dry, protection from Rainstorm | 24 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Water Breathing (Br) | 6 | Breathe and see in water | 7 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Buoyancy (Br) | 6 | Up/down 17'/pulse, withstand pressure | 3½ hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Vapour Breathing (Br) | 6 | 3½ hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Witchsight (Br) | 20 | 10½ hrs | Y | Y | Y | Q&B | Y | Y | |
| Fall Banding (Br-Self) | 6 | Land on earth without damage | 3½ hrs | Y | |||||
| Elemental Transformation (Br-Self) | 15 | +3 DR +3 U.dmg -2 AG -2 MD -1 TMR Move through earth | 8 hrs | Y | |||||
| Tracking (Br-Self) | 20 | Tremor Sense 100' | 21 Days | Y | |||||
| Detect Traps & Snares (Br-Self) | 10 | +20% to detect Traps/Ambushes within 70' in Nat. Env. | 11 hrs | Y | |||||
| Heart Rune | 8 | Heals 7 EN when EN damage taken | 9 d | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Willow Healing | 12 | Heals 3 EN / Pulse for 14 Pulses | 24 h | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Soul Shield | 10 | Conceals pacts & thoughts, +30 MR vs Charms, Compels, Controls & Bindings | 21 h | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Enchanted Mind (Zo) | 20 | Prevents Mind reading or detection mentally. | 41 h | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Short Term
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Dur | Br | Ch | Ki | Ro | Bl | Zo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spell (Cstr) | 0 | hrs | |||||||
| Feather Fall (Br) | 6 | Fall no more than 5'/pulse | 3½ hrs | ||||||
| Star Wings (Br) | 6 | 36 mph | 3½ hrs | ||||||
| Blessing (BV) | 10 | +10 SC, +10 vs Fear | 1 h 50 m | ||||||
| x | x | x | x | ||||||
| Enhance Enchantment | 20 | +20 Ranks |
- Hair Braiding (Rk 7 Skill) (200sp 1oz silver ribbon each time)
- Sometimes (takes 30 mins per person per day): +50% resistance vs Charm (Demonic, Spells, Bardic Voice). -25% melee damage from attacks from behind. Enhance Duration of one 2+ hour spell until next dawn.
- Rarely (takes 1 hour per person per day) +3 AG (or +2 over racial max).
- Anti-scrying (Rk 21 Spell)
- Braegon + 3 hex radius while on the ground. Undetectable to scrying (including Wizards Eye); Blocks Rk 20 (or lower) Locate, Telepathy, ESP.
- Herbalist Meals/Broth
- 4FT for meal or 5FT for broth/tea
Watch Order
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||||
Marching Order
| Skirmish Formations (Front) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default
.. |
Double File
.. |
Single File
.. |
Loot
- From the Goblins
- Banshee bits
- : Stored prepare
- webs
- Double concentration spell x 4 charges
- 2 x resurrection potions
- Earring +1 to highest ranked entity spell
- Phase potion x 4
- 8 goblin healing potions
- 3 goblin nuggets
- From the Elves
- Milsci Belt
- Ring of multi target
- Ring of health
- Ring of Damage absorption
- Heroism
- Ranged disjunction
- 30 healing potions
- 7 x estocs
- 4 x broadswords
- 4 x shields
- 4 x armour
- 2 x protection from summoning
- 1 x mechanian belt
- 1 x bag of holding
- Rune of the Dance
- Healers armlet
- Mud
- Hearts Blood of a Dragon
- Scales
- Spec greiv delay
Calendar
| Winter: Frost 816 (7) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
|
Samhain | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
|
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |||||||
|
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |||||||
|
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |||||||
|
|
28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| Winter: Snow 816 (8) | ||||||||||||||
|
|
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |||||||
|
|
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Solstice | 16 | 17 | 18 | Yuletide | |||||
|
|
19 | Days of Chaos | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||||||
|
|
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Twelfth Night | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Winter: Ice 816 (9) | ||||||||||||||
|
|
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | First Plough | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||
|
|
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
|
|
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | |||||||
|
|
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||||||
