Wine and Cheese
Summary
Adventure: Wine and Cheese
GM: Martin
Season: Autumn 823 wk
Night: Monday in New Windsor
Level: Medium
- Party
- Gnash - Orc(m) Necromancer played by Chris Caulfield
- Celeste - Elven(f) Barbarian played by Dean
- Haedric - Dwarven(m) Ice Mage played by Stephen Scribe Backup MilSci
- Cassandra - Human(f) Celestial (Dark) played by Michelle
- Mavric - Dwarven(f) Playwright played by Lisa MilSci PL
- Solas - Elven(m) Celestial (Solar) played by Nick
- Employer
- Jean-Armand de Tréville, Comte de Rémy; Raoul d'Autevielle, Vicomte de Bragelonne
- Mission
- The Comte de Rémy wants vital, strategic, tax producing assets protected and their future productivity secured, the Vicomte de Bragelonne wants his ancestral home back, the vintners of Remy want to work in peace, and everyone wants to enjoy their vin jaune, gruyere, and walnuts. Fewer plague zombies would also be appreciated.
- Pay
- 5,000 minimum for a suitably professional job (successful or not), tripled for successful resolution of specific matters. License to relieve miscreants responsible of belongings. Transport arranged from Guild to Deville in Remy.
Scribe Notes
A River Ride
- Duesday 1st Fruit
Anton de Mure-Blanc (distant cousin to Cassie), the young man at the meeting room is a courier on behalf of the employers, his letters have been verified. We're to meet by midday at an estate out of town for transport to Bowcourt.
The list of extra codicils on the party contract make the guild rep a little pale and weak at the knees. He was fine with the fornication is consensual only, a little concerned at not post-coital murder of party members, the no necromantic animation rule may have been too much.
There is some discussion of Haedric's recent wedding, which his cousin, Mavric didn't get an invite to.
- W'ansday 2nd Fruit
Mid-morning we make our way to the riverside townhouse with pretty gardens, a young servant directs around to the back to a summer house on a rise.
The house apparently belongs to a Lady Catherine, an ally of his lord.
At midday he reads a scroll and we find ourselves somewhere warmer, Mulberry in Bowcourt.
Olivier, Baron Henry of Mulberry's butler recognises Cassandra, Lady Mure.
A ship is waiting for us at the river, lunch is waiting for us, Cassie insists we should get lunch to go so she doesn't have to see her father.
It sets sail, without a sail, water pours out the back and the boat moves forward down the Suene. The lunch is all soft fresh food. Mavric feeds the river fish.
There's a lock on the river at the border to Borderlay, no doors in sight but a 10' drop in the water level.
We join a bigger river, Montrachet and turn north.
After dark, I pop out an iceberg to tow us a bit faster until we get to the next left in about 4 hours, through another custom station with a chain across the river.
- Th'rsday 3rd Fruit
We get to a larger town around dawn, Treville, home of Comte de Remy.
A couple of hours further up the river is reduced a canal, two boats wide.
A couple of hours up the canal, we come to a pool, the head of the river, the fairly new docks of DeVille where I park the boat.
A 3-wagon wide road runs north and south from the big flat featureless square in the middle of town. Apparently a MMHS road building machine rumbled over the old village, the rebuild became the more sizeable current town.
We get 5 horses as the ostlers, Celeste and I stay afoot. We head out of town at a trot to the noble estate where we are met by William of Mulberry (twin brother of Henry), Raoul, Vicomte Bragelonne, and Master Durand, possibly a tall gnome or short, thin Dwarf in an all encompassing outfit.
We're shown our rooms and invited to lunch.
A Rotten Tale
Wine and Cheese Map (and Key)
Over (and using) lunch & Golden Wine, William brings out a map and starts talking (between distractions until prompted back on track by the gnome).
10 years ago, Drow invasion, magical ice road up the Baratary River caused lots of damage. Went through Bragelonne (started in the better/noble side of town) and destroyed several river forts. Drow army remnants occupied and looted the ruins of Bragelonne until driven out.
818wk was a great harvest, first since before the war. The Gold Wine takes 6 years to mature.
Some illness amongst people, fungal infections, all fairly normal just at a slightly higher rate than normal.
821wk midsummer's day - plague swept the city (Bragelonne). Fevers, skin mould, died and then got up again (Plague Zombies), spewing spores, infecting people, panic. Lord Arnaud, father of the Vicomte died in the controlled evacuation. The city is quarantined, seems quiet, hasn't spread much beyond the city except into the neighbouring vines which appear to have all of the rots.
One vineyard whose vines are infected had all of their barrelled Golden Wine go sour. This would be very bad if it spread and soured the vintage which they (economically) need.
The Golden Wine evaporates in the barrels which are not topped up, a 'veil' of yeast forms over the top. The barrels are only 60% full when they are mature.
They're also concerned about their cheese production and aging.
Ice crystals in the ground, in winter the areas around them freeze and ice trees grow above which inflicted icy transformation on anyone or anything that touched them. The ice is a mix of Elemental, Unseelie and 'Infernal-adjacent' - something evil, otherworldly and powerful. Master Durand's group are here to remove the ever-ice crystals then extract the magic from them.
Once Raoul leaves (to maintain deniability) Durand Skyratchet removes his hood (confirms he is a gnome) so we can understand him. D's people were involved in an incident in Vole, fire bombs may have been involved, they are wanted criminals in Bowcourt but their presence is maintained as deniable as they are needed to remove the ever-ice.
The infection doesn't seem to have crossed the bigger rivers.
Infected people:
- Translucent skin in patches, warm, moist to touch
- Fungal breakout, musty smell
- Tired, wanting to rest
- Death
- Rising again as plague zombies which keep moving until burnt. Dismembering slows them down.
Mostly a disease to be cured, the fungus also oozes toxins.
William gives us an Astrology reading they'd had done.
Astrology
General reading on the pestilence affecting this area:
Heed these words, prepare thy might, Fungal fruit brings endless blight, Touch that turns to withered mould, Fevered hearts soon grow cold. Yellow marks its writhing path, Tendrils rotting home and hearth, Rot that grows on vine and rind, The sign of horrors yet to find.
Mavric uses her cards to work out what's going on:
- Misty Mountains - divides/boundary, transition into danger
- Grey Havens - An exodus, evacuation, endings and beginnings
- Shelob's Lair - Ancient Darkness, conflict, bravery, darkness against the light, unity against evil.
Gnash pulls a doll out of his pocket and animates it. He introduces him as Ankle Biter, we all refer to him as EM (proving that all Necro's have evil minions). It starts studying the ice crystal. Confirms things we've already found, elemental ice, infernal-ish, it is part of and controlled by its larger source (or the thing controlling the source), the source is probably on another world. A manifestation / projection onto our plane of the source. Doesn't like dry and heat.
Some cows have become infected - nightshade rot, a hoof fungus. Golden Cheese place (21).
We send a letter to Valindra and Lyria informing them of the local infection and asking their advice or help.
A Plague of Pestilences
We ride, walk and skate WSW down the road from Deville towards Oubilie. Staying in the best rooms in the village Inn, The Red Cow.
- Frysday 4th Fruit
Continuing down the road, head off west across the fields before we get to Lavans-sur-Valouse. Crossing the Seine by ferry we pass through the village to the Chateau-Chalon where we catch up with the local commander, Phillipe.
The Chateau is full of soldiers so we make camp outside the walls in our disguised igloo.
- Reapsday 5th Fruit
We head north looking for a patrol that is overdue.
After a couple of hours we come to the hamlet of the damned (midpoint between Plumont, Le Domaine des Reves Perdus, Chateau-Chalon, & La Vigne des Fantommes), going through the motions of common tasks rather poorly. Still human but have lost their ITNs, drained away elsewhere. They're unresponsive and seem soulless.
Plants and animals also affected, lessened. Appears to have been an area affect, about half a mile radius from off-centre of the village.
Mavrik does a Divination
- The Great Sea - sudden evolution.
- The Eagles - Unexpected altruistic help
- Seven rings of the Dwarves - Gifts to be wary of
- Hobbits - Re-forging links with family, serving the common people
- Helms Deep - Besieged
Outside the bounds, a quick lunch then off to the next hamlet north.
As we approach, a dog comes out when Sol hollers at them, its mouth opens in an unnatural way as it lunges at Sol who promptly dismounts to a prone position. Celeste attacks the dog, Sol starts glowing as he draws his flaming sword. Gnash shoots a chicken with his crossbow, slowing it down. Mavric smashes a chook with her hammer, breaking its neck, exposing a tentacle. I block the shambling villagers with an Ice Wall. Celeste talks to the dog in Plant, it replies "Become Us". Sol slays the dog with his flaming sword, the chooks all react angrily.
We fall back, they follow for about 500 yards then stop. Cassie kills some with a meteorite shower, the others return to the village.
They seem to be a blended animal-plant, hive-creature that seem to have come from another world, somewhere 'beyond'.
Skirting around, we follow the trail of the carriage towards the village Perrigny, arriving in late afternoon.
No people or animals, carriage parked outside the tavern. Houses are empty, on opening the door of the carriage, it opens its maw extending an unreasonably large tongue.
An Ambush of Objects
The carriage tries to chew me up, Celeste charges to help and is mobbed by a basket, earthen pot, and cooking pot. 3 barrels charge out of the brewery and attack us too. Mavric raises a wall to control the front line, we all engage and reduce them to slime.
Inside the pub, we see active slime gradually flowing over and becoming furniture. The Slime is Mimetic Slime, plane of origin is mostly Alusian (its body), the magical animus is from elsewhere, it is less than a day old.
Barricaded in a back room, we find Guillaume de Montmorency (one of the investigators) and Duval (a valet). The other investigator, François is missing presumed eaten.
Not long after they arrived at the Inn, things started moving and attacking people and so they retreated.
Celeste controls some of the slime, it is all part of the same blob of slime. She gets it to absorb the other slime, then sets it to absorbing a hay cart.
- Smartest - Haedric
- Using controlled slime as a tracking dog to lead us to the rest of itself
- Sunday 6th Fruit
Guillaume and Duval head back south to report in, riding two of our spare mounts.
We follow the hay-cart-tracker-slime north towards the other parts of itself - a house. We work out it was the house of a charcoal maker, ground-zero of the infection, they took their load of charcoal to the village to sell to the blacksmith and have a drink at the pub, the slime then started absorbing and things went downhill from there.
An Elven woman steps from the trees to reveal herself, she gives her name as Lailassi (Green Leaves), she is a courier from Valindra with a message and some Autumn Draught.
Valindra, Lyria, and Ruath came to investigate (at 30), sensed the otherworldly incursion, Lyria made contact with it and was harmed by it. They've withdrawn to the Ruby Waters to recover.
A demonic temple to Savnok was destroyed in Bragelonne 700 years ago, there's no other known places that might be relevant in this area.
We destroy the slime-rick and all other converted items in the house.
Then start heading south to the vineyard.
A Very Large Grape
We ride south-east about 5 miles to La Vigne des Fantômes (the Vineyard of Ghosts). Maryanne, the woman in charge comes over to talk to us.
The North and East sections of the vineyard and a corner of the cellar have been affected, it looks like the centre of the effect was NE of the vineyard and radius 800 yards. The affected vines and roses have over-ripe engorged fruit and flowers, with a nasty after taste.
Celeste's cat informant tells her there was an inside-out light in the night about the time the plants were affected.
Sol stares into the sun for an hour and then draws us a disturbing symbol he saw. Like a curvy flower with 3 tentacles.
The local lady says the barrel closest to the effect has that symbol on it in yellow mould and that barrel has not soured in the same way. It is a bitter unnaturally fortified wine, Gnashdar has a drink, he reports a vision of being by a dark lake on a strange dark world with two suns and black stars and something vast, inimical and unearthly lurking in the lake. There is a city on the edge of the lake, its name is inherently known as Carcosa. Sol and I also drink some and see the same vision. Independent of the gifted clairvoyance, the wine is toxic, causing WP loss.
Leaving the horses here, on Carpet and Light, we fly at low altitude east about 30 miles to Deville. We talk with Raoul & Isabelle, William, and Dunbar. We brief them on all we have learned.
- Bragelonne & the North Rd have been there a long time. Historical reports about 120wk of a demonic cult to Savnok, was expunged by fire & sword as usual, a PoL church was built on the ruins which eventually became the Bragelonne Cathedral. The zombie plague started in the Old Quarter, where the Cathedral is.
- Near the town, the river is 150-200 yards wide, 12 fathoms deep. Long thin island in the middle, 60 yards from the town side of the river, with a small garrison still based there.
Dunbar is sending a message to some of his contacts who might know something about the symbol and name.
We ask William & Raoul to send a message to Elfheim asking the same, highlighting the risk to the Elven Ways and CCing in Celeste's Step-Dad to helpfully prompt a faster reply.
Gnashdar hits Dunbar up for a bandolier of explosive methane-greekfire grenadoes.
Our planned approach to the Cathedral is to fly to the river south of Bragelonne, Iceberg up river, then sneak/run the last couple of hundred yards up to the cathedral.
We spend the night at Raoul's as Dunbar thinks his contacts may be able to get word back by breakfast.
A Slime in the Cathedral
We have dinner with the Comte, his pregnant wife, the Dowager, Sir William, Antoine ...
- Moonday 7th Fruit (New Moon)
In the morning it turns out we all had disturbing dreams:
- Haedric - Uncomfortable social situation, large crowd, dancing, nothing being right.
- Cassandra - New 'perfect' suitor arranged by Dad, fancy dress gala, grotesque masked ball, chased through hedge maze by demonic.
- Celeste - Hunting in dark forest, fell presence hunting her. Human Shaman by fire in clearing "It fears the fire and will not approach the light".
- Mavric - Back stage at the play where everything is going wrong, changing script, wrong costumes, wrong sets, sheep & shepherd, "where's the Llama".
- Gnashdar - Struggling in a dark lake, something in it, emerges into buildings, chased through city by something dark & fell, then in Felicemouth, then Castle Black now in the city next to the dark lake.
- Solas - Guest of honour at an extravagent feast, masked ball, it was lovely.
Master Dunbar demonstrates a messaging device for us to take to the garrison. A polished wooden box with a brass tube in it and 6 tubular cylinders, putting a note into a small cylinder into the tube will get it sent to their 'base', we should address the note to Dunbar. We torment Dunbar with questions about possible uses, several of which he objects to.
We fly south-west then west to the river south of Bragelonne, from there we iceberg up river to the garrison on the mid-river island.
The wasteland west of the river is dry, dead, desert-like. East it is a noxious swampy jungle. Wooden buildings in the city seem to have recently sprouted.
Berthing at the island, we disembark and the cautious soldiers take us to meet the Captain, Chevalière Élise.
A message arrives from Dunbar's people about Karkosa - the city by the lake, associated with The King in Yellow. Seen on may worlds, contains buildings from different worlds.
We summon a storm, have lunch then board the iceberg and cross over to the city. I create a snow storm (50' radius, 15' visibility), under its cover, we advance.
Part way a plant-man stumbles out of the storm into Celeste's path, Living Plant, Fungal Zombie. She and Sol destroy it.
As we come to the courtyard, 3 slimy figures with weapons emerge, Common Slime, we promptly slay them then advance and find part of the cathedral. Making our way along the wall we come to one of the main doors, though the wooden doors are gone. The cathedral is damaged, broken support pillars, some holes in the roof.
Scouting inside we find some more slimes and an enormous (7-hex) boss Royal Slime that attack. Some damage is done, the Royal Slime jumps on and engulfs me, smothering the snow storm. From inside, I feed it a Polymorph Frog potion. The Frog-Slime-King offers to negotiate, we agree, it will withdraw and let us investigate below the cathedral.
- Smartest - Haedric
- Feeding polymorph potion to a slime while engulfed/consumed, then implied it could only be reversed by a kiss.
Delving below the cathedral
We head to the back of the church, through a door heading downstairs. Various rooms, storage, meeting, dining, rest, etc. Concealed door in the storage room leads to a tunnel heading down quite a long way under the church grounds. Another concealed door opens into a larger complex. Barracks, dining, kitchen, cells, old destroyed temple?, master's study & bedroom...
Furniture generally looks looted from various local sources.
2 bodies in one of the cells, look like they were fungus-zombies before death, both humans and fungi are dead now. One in unusual armour, they were living here, working for 'The Master' from Draj who was here to gather power and found what he was looking for.
- Ring - Storage magic
- Bracelet - Protection, 6 discs with protection runes.
- Scabbard - foreign materials, Storage magic
- Sword - H&1/2, glossy black, Sharpness magic
- Armour - Half-plate & helm made from shell/chiton
Tortured body in cage, local human, has gold & malachite pendant inside its body, crozier symbol.
Secret access from master's room to an old spiral stair heading down.
A long way down, cavern, auditorium like, stage with portal.
Night 8
- Duesday 8th Fruit
- W'ansday 9th Fruit
- Th'rsday 10th Fruit
- Frysday 11th Fruit
- Reapsday 12th Fruit
- Sunday 13th Fruit
Buffs & Mil Sci
Buffs and Abilities
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Duration | Ca | Ce | Gn | Ha | Ma | So |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow Form (Ca) | 10 | +22% Def | 5½ hrs | - | |||||
| Coruscade (So) | 12 | +26% Def | 6½ hrs | - | |||||
| Resist Cold (Ha) | 12 | +4 Temp Gauge, -4 Cold Dmg. | 7 hrs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Weapon of Cold (Ha) | 15 | +16 BC%, +6 Dam | 20 min ** | 3 | |||||
| Witchsight (So) | 6 | See Invis | 3½ hrs | - | - | Y |
| Magic (caster) | Rk | Effects | Dur | Ca | Ce | Gn | Ha | Ma | So |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow Wings (Ca) | 14 | 44 mph | 7½ hrs | ||||||
| Wings of Light (So) | 8 | 38 mph | 4½ hrs | ||||||
| Weapon of Light (So) | 10 | +11 BC%, +5 Dam vs Dark Aspected | 15 min | ||||||
| Ice Traversal (Ha) | 12 | 4 targets, +5 tmr over level ice/snow. | 4h 20m | a | a | b | a | a | b |
| Magic | Rk | Effects | Dur | Ca | Ce | Gn | Ha | Ma | So |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mind Cloak (rank) | 1+2*rk hrs | 8 | |||||||
| Ice Armour (Ha) | 15 | 26% 4 AP 1 SG 15 Fire | 9 hrs | Y |
| Capability | Rk | Effects | Dur | Ca | Ce | Gn | Ha | Ma | So |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sense Danger (%) | Mind Talent (or equivalent) | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Detect Ambush (%) | Ranger (-5/rank of opposition) | ? % | 81% | 63% | - | ||||
| See Invis (Rk) | Effective rank for seeing invisible | 11 | 7 | 6 | |||||
| Stealth (%) | Std / Ranger Outdoors | 59 / 77 % | 62 / 63 % | 60 % |
** Weapon of Cold Peace-Bound until needed.
- Mil Sci Raise Morale
- +1 WP
- Brewing
- Golden Ale nightcap - +1 FT per hour of sleep
- Stoneybrew, Dur 1 Hr - +7 WP
- Fighting Ale, Dur 1 Hr - +7 EN, +5 PS, +4 FT, No Stun.
- Porter Ale, Dur 1 Hr - +7 PC, Death Aspect, +15% MR vs Charm/Hypnosis, +10% MR vs Illusion, -15% MR vs Necro/Wicca, Fearless.
Watch Order
| Hour: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night 1 | Mavric | Cassandra | Celeste | |||||||||
| Haedric | Gnash | Solas | Haedric | |||||||||
| Night 2 | Celeste | Mavric | Cassandra | |||||||||
| Solas | Haedric | Gnash | Solas | |||||||||
| Night 3 | Cassandra | Celeste | Mavric | |||||||||
| Gnash | Solas | Haedric | Gnash | |||||||||
Marching Order
| Skirmish Formations (Front) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default
Celeste |
Double File
Celeste |
Single File
Celeste |
Calendar
| Autumn 823 WK: Fruit (4) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
|
Lugnasad | 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 | |||||||
| Autumn 823 WK: Harvest (5) | ||||||||||||||
|
|
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |||||||
|
|
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | 18 | ||||||
|
|
19 | Harvest Moon .. | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||||||
|
|
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| Autumn 823 WK: Vintage (6) | ||||||||||||||
|
|
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |||||||
|
|
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
|
|
17 | Blood Moon | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | ||||||
|
|
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Beerfest | ||||||
