The Great Mummy Hunt
Summary
Adventure: The Great Mummy Hunt
GM: Rosemary
Season: Summer 801 WK
- Party
- Arnaud de Montfort Esq, Gentleman Adventurer (Leader)
- Goran Axbiter, Weapons Master (Military)
- Graaven Brightrock, Displaced Noble (Scribe)
- Nikola Rosenstein, Displaced Gentry
- Jonas Jonasson, Displaced
- GoK
- Albion
- Time on adventure
- 1st Meadow 801 WK to 15th Heat (Solstice) 801 WK
- Employer
- The Hobbit folk of Sunnynook. Their representative is Ansgar Atholson
- Mission
- Our mission is simply put. Find the mummies, return them intact. Round up the immortal guardian avatar of Anubis, stop him worrying the neighbours’ cattle and see him home safely too.
- Original Scribe Notes
- Media:Snsu0101.zip
Scribe Notes
We managed to organise ourselves and be on our way by the 3rd of Meadow. Most of the organisation seems to be around mealtimes and cups of tea. Although I have to say that the tea is good and the foraging techniques are … interesting. Our path takes us South and then West of Seagate into the village of Sunnynook. It took us two days.
Sunnynook
During ancient times the world was a mite volatile. In short this village was in danger of total destruction along with the rest of the Penjar. The sun god Ra, saved his faithful by bringing them forward in time, to our Alusia. They have been thriving here for more than six years.
To look at the village is to see art living and sometimes moving around. The tidy terraced homes are masterfully decorated in tiled patterns. Ansgar tells me that the method is called Mozaic. His people are typically friendly, as hobbits tend to be.
Where they differ is their appearance and culture. (Some would say that the difference is that they seem to have one, besides a religious love of food.)
Ansgar’s people are dark of skin with startling golden eyes. They stand as tall as any hobbit. They are however, a slender people despite their hobbitish obsession with eating. Religion. The good people of Sunnynook revere an interesting pantheon lead by Ra and including Anubis. Their traditions of death require them to embalm the deceased and leave them in state until their souls reach ‘the halls of judgement’ and then hopefully onto become a star in heaven. An avatar is used to guard the dead until that day. Then things went a bit pear shaped. The avatar (Huge, black and jackal like) took off like a mad dog to pester near by farmlands. The bandaged corpses decided to take a tour of the countryside. Our people assumed that The Dark Circle and those responsible for it were to blame. I will keep that one in mind. The priesthood here do not believe that their dead have joined the Necromancer’s army. The priestly reasoning for their opinions is that they cannot sense any controlling magic or swaying in the ‘will’ of their ancestors. More on that later… Serephina (the village Mother) explained that they found their loss when the village went to perform the springtime offering. We ascertained that the ‘robbery’ took place over the winter. <<It is a miracle that both the Avatar and the mummies are still in the locale.>> She also explained that the priesthood could locate the general location of the mummies (that gets explained more, in depth later). Another ‘gift’ will be the priests’ blessing and the protection from the avatar. It would seem that Sunnynook has run out of the vital ingredient for this ritual. So we brave adventurers must sally forth into the mana enriched foothills and retrieve said plant … named Shotia. Greeting the Dawn We started the sixth early (in the morning, so I’m told – although it was still dark), given a good breakfast and joined Porrent in a two hour hike to join his master on the top of a near by hill. For another hour we listened to Gerrai sing in the dawn and then pray for good travelling. His priestly songs are foreign songs to us but familiar in general temperament. – These people are delightfully peaceful. From the hill we walked to the burial chambers – a very naturally formed cavern in the hills to the north of the village. Of the soul and its constituent pieces. We watched Gerrai chat to his ancestors in the middle of a circle of altar-like tables for a while. Three of the ten available berths were occupied and there was a disconcerting pile of mummified bodies off to one side. We started to poke around (respectfully) and found out some very important things. 1. The corpse that Armand looked at was by nature a deceased hobbit – not a lapsed greater undead. The Great Mummie Hunt Graaven Brightrock Summer 801 3 2. There is a ritual performed in the rites of the dead that we can describe, loosely, as a reverse resurrection. This becomes clearer when you understand the belief system in Sunnynook. 3. Nicola could not see where the soul of her subject had gone. This raised a few questions in my head… I asked Porrent and he explained a few things: - The story of the dead (abridged version). Everybody is eternal! Our ARCK is our essence and it yearns toward the light. The body is called KAH and it yearns towards earth and time. Also tending toward the earth is the KAY. It is the shape of our attractions and appetites. Hopefully the KAY will be complimented by the BAH, that reflects our structure or affinities. I made a flippancy about shepherds having good BAH and Porrent used the joke to exercise his point. “If a shepherd actually has the KAY of a flock minder then he will be happy – fulfilled. If not – then he will be unhappy and tend to be a ‘bad’ person. This could result in an unfavourable result when he journeys through the underworld to the halls of judgement and he would have to be reborn to try to fulfil his KAY.” I asked our talented crew to view Porrent’s KAY. It turns out that he is walking the correct path – that is to say – his KAY is priest shaped. There is a complicated rite of death whereby the BAH is helped through the underworld on the path to the halls of judgement by the KAY who administrates the burial gifts – given to the deceased by his family. I have resolved to try to question the BAH and the KAY of the missing mummies as they should still be at the site of the tomb. My best time is in the early morning when the BAH reports to the KAY of its journey and its needs. Before I get to commune with the dead – we are off to find a plant that grows where goats can’t reach it in a sunny patch of high mana zone. Orcs and Goblins and Wyverns Oh My…. The area around Sunnynook is a great place for a countryside ramble. Given that you are comfortable sharing the scenery with the wilde life. Our search for our magical ingredient plant took us by a steep valley ( of which we dutifully avoided as per instructions ) and over rocky tundra into the foot hills. At our first sign of water – and we needed water for high tea or was it lunch – we were beset by a grande horde of goblinoids. They were organised, skilled and aided with magic. The Great Mummie Hunt Graaven Brightrock Summer 801 4 They had a very interesting mascot – one wyvern, suited up and ready for battle. Apparently they did not understand my cordial greeting, maybe it was a dialect problem… I am sure that the goblin phrase “Whey ya buggers” is a polite way to start conversation. Perhaps next time I should use an extra politeness and say “Whey ya canny buggers”. And so … Battle commenced. Our warrior types handed out a canny walloping to the elite wing of their attack. Armande set out to engage the Wyvern and it’s cohorts. He occupied them for a long time before they finally laid him out. Resurrecting our noble leader will be something of a challenge. All too soon it became apparent that the horde outnumbered us and our fate could follow de Montfort’s in short order. Goran, bravely and ingeniously, called for a challenge of champions. This piqued the interest of the opposing commander and so he and our Dwarven Warrior fought ‘mano y mano’ (a Destinian phrase; I think it means ‘dirty tricks allowed’). It was a fine show of physical prowess, stamina and cunning. Unfortunately Goran succumbed to the effects of the Wyvern poison on the commander’s blade along with the incredible speed and skill of the goblin. Standing at the mercy of these grey-skinned folk. Our lives are a very precious commodity right now. We live to tell our tale. The grey folk were more impressed with our real iron daggers than the need to slit our throats. They stripped us naked and sent us back out of the valley. At the point when we of absolutely no danger to them and a few miles away from the ambush – the Wyvern dropped off a gift from the goblin commander. We were blessed a tunic, water skin and a bronze dagger each. As it happens one of the daggers has a ‘scroll type investment’ on it. Part of me hopes to remember his kindness when we go back to reclaim our possessions. And so we backtracked towards Sunnynook. I had never thought of the sun as an enemy until the day we realised how it had burned us. The fairer skinned suffered all blisters all over and it stole Gok’s mind. He has become precious of nature and I look forward to the day when we can return him to his surly self. Our travel went on and our feet became more wounded for every rock sliced step. Nicola decided to brave the wildes alone (in wolf form). She would find her way to Sunnynook and enlist their help – but most of all shoes. Our camp that night was sullen and cold. Lightened up by Jonas finding food. Of course – without a fire – the goat was only deemed edible by some of the more hardy adventurers. The Great Mummie Hunt Graaven Brightrock Summer 801 5 Nicola tells me. The good people of Sunnynook were most distressed to hear of our unfortunate encounter with a goblin army. They fed her and cleaned her weary body. Within no time at all they clothed her in outsized hobbit fashion. Their attempt at footwear was … charming. What do you expect from a culture that excludes shoes. Another priority was to make sure that Gerai could and would preserve Armande’s body if he couldn’t resurrect him. Lucky for us – the rite of preservation has the same effect as our healers’ magic. The high priest did have reservations about the poor body’s right to be dead and did he want to forgo his journey to the heavens. Our bright lass assured Gerai that we would have known if Armande had a death wish and that he would have plenty of opportunities to die again. We were met at the Sunnynook tombs with beautiful clothes and wonderful food. Gok was more enchanted than health dictates with the embroidered flowers on his gift shirt. Please, if any god is listening, could we have our shadow mage back? Of dead people. I stayed to observe the rite of preservation. Until now I had not realised that the bandages (called grave clothes) are coloured bright yellow. We had mistaken them for yellow with age. This information may help us in our continuing search. The next morning – extremely early in the morning – I got to play seventy two questions with the KAH and the BAH of our missing mummies. We learned this … 1) They do not know where the KAY are. 2) The KAY are not moving at this time. That is – they are laying in a heap somewhere. 3) They were summoned by a necromancer. The summoning was broken every morning. (This must have annoyed and disturbed the mage. My suspicions are firmly pointed towards the dark circle.) 4) There was an agenda for them but there isn’t now. Of Debt We made our way back to Seagate. Armande is now counted amongst the living. Goran has magnanimously re-fitted us and we owe him for that. Some of us are also beholden to the guild. Nicola pointed out our need for healing potions. The Great Mummie Hunt Graaven Brightrock Summer 801 6 Symbol of protection (Must be this way up) In honour of Goran’s climbing prowess – I named him Mountain Goat. (The raised foreleg is important – otherwise it would be a sheep) On the road again. With only slightly less red noses we hit the trail again. First stop Sunnynook. We picked up a guide and Goran dropped off a gift of a breeding donkey. Our guide is a ranger called Mirran. She is as open and friendly as any of her race and yet she is cautious enough to be alive. Her instincts keep her a good distance from our shapechangers. I thought it funny when she asked Armande what he changed to and she was happy when he said ‘a courtier my dear’. She obviously doesn’t know that courtier is another name for vulture. Although I must admit that our noble leader shows far more sense and decorum than any courtier I have had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting. This little misadventure spanned ten days. It is now the Seventeenth of Meadow and we stand before an open plateau that troubles Mirran. Night falls and we start our way across the plateau. Mirran insists on our stealthiest approach. I am not sure we all understood her meaning by our convincing imitation of a small herd of heffalumps. By the by we crossed the plateau unmolested. At the far end of the plateau is a copse. By Mirran’s direction we skirted it. (She says that no hobbit has returned from these woods) Of course the temptation of forbidden places captured some imaginations. We saw some glowing lights coming from the trees. Someone identified them as belonging to giant spiders. Enough curiosity – on with the paying mission. Our camp at the end of our midnight run is wet, uncomfortable and very welcome. Goran and I have come to an arrangement (as if it was necessary) – He will continue to make and break camp for me and I will continue to refresh the protections that I paint onto his armour. Turn to this page for a closer look.
