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Woe
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

Talin will look for the healing potion and give Anna some of that as well. Skipping the mushy stuff, he gets mushy as she recovers.

"Well... we should get moving on before the nisha return with friends. We should probably get Jane back to Red Oak, and maybe Anna as well. Freya, ye think we can make it back to Cyn Dol before sundown? Or maybe we camp on the road."

Tiana thinks aloud, "I'm not sure we should turn back just yet. Anna's recovering well, and we still have..." quick look at Jane "the small game that we were hunting to catch before we head home."

"Either way, we can't stay here. And while wee Anna may be recovering, what do we do about that 'un? We gonna end early to escort 'er back to Red Oak or take 'er with us?" Kilian says, gesturing toward Jane.

(what does Jane say?)
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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JANE’S STORY 1

Post by Longman »

Bruce already gave Anna some heal potion. It doesn't work straight away. She'll be OK.

I had assumed you would be asking Jane a lot of questions and had based the next phase on that idea so, here is her response hen you ask her what she - and the other were-weasel bandits - are doing out here. She does not like the idea of being taken back to Cyn Dol or Tor Manis, but Red Oak might be OK. Going with you would be best of all...if you trust her.

JANE’S STORY 1
“Don’t think me a bad sort of body. I was tired of being hungry and took to stealing, and some people had found me and I was for the gallows. No, I don’t mean trouble with the Red Oak Rangers, or even the Viscount’s men. This was a lynch mob, a private court. They were just going to string me up and kill me.
Then, they let me go, I don’t know why, but I was blindfolded and taken in a carriage with some other folk, and when they took the cloth off my eyes, they told me that if they were going to help me, I had to take the mark. If not, they’d send me back to the lynch mob.

So of course I said I would take the mark, not rightly knowing what that means, but they said in time I could become like one of them – a Cruthiac, a shape-changer, like the ones you saw just now.

I thought that was better than getting myself hung, and so they gave me the mark. One of them transformed in front of me, and used his claws to mark my chest, in a place no one would see. I don’t know what the symbol means. But they said at the next full moon, I'd better be with them, and make sure that I got to drink something to help with the transformation, otherwise it would be terrible, worse than dying, they said.

So after that, they took me out here, said it was a safe place for the first of the transformations.

I’ve been here three weeks but my first full moon was only a few nights ago. They took me outside and tied me to a tree, and when the moon came, they all drank some kind of potion, to help with the transformation, and they gave some to me as well. But still, the first moon is bad, and I can hardly remember what happened that night, only that it was the worst feeling I have ever had.

And then they said I was one of them. So I don’t know why they were going to kill me, just now. But if you let me take some of the transformation potion you have there, and don't take me back to Cyn Dol, I should fare well enough. If you do that, I’ll tell you what I know about them. Deal?”
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Woe
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

As Jane tells her story, Kilian grows more pale. When she finishes, he is the first to speak. "Ah ye lass... that is a right shame. And ye did it to yeself willingly. Ye are becoming a creature of evil now, one which will only slaughter the good folk of Red Oak."

I assume Jane will try to say something here, but Kilian cuts her off.

"Quiet. I know of what I speak, nisha marks and cruchie spirits. I'm marked too,*" he pauses for a second, but takes a deep breath and soliders on. "but didna have ye 'transformation potion' and went through the first full moon without ye potion to help. I'll tell ye what ye don't remember... ye were part of a dregni... a demonic ceremony where ye swore servitude to sum'un. Nay, I don't rember who. I still had me wits about me in the ceremony and broke it up, then ran like a gor out of a skruf. Now me mark don't bother me much anymore and the full moon just gives me hives. But ye... ye need to ask yeself, do ye want to follow the hard road of repentence or do ye want to become a minion of evil? 'cuz ye don't have a third choice."

* Wow, how's that for a latent plot twist?!?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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JANE'S STORY 2: The Clan

Post by Longman »

"Sir Dwarf, if you could teach me something about this path to redemption, I'd be right glad to hear it. As I said, it was the mark or the gallows. Don't think ill of me."

The DM is trying to take things in a certain direction... I'll assume you give her some sort of indication that you'll help her, or at least, not immediately take her to Cyn Dol, where her enemies live. Once that has been established, she continues with her tale, telling you what she knows about the Nisha Clan.

JANE'S STORY 2

“I haven’t met very many of the Clan in person – that’s what they call themselves, by the way. The two that were here just now – Maslow, who is one of the leaders, he’s from Bowen, and the other guy is called Goner, because when they found him they thought he was a goner, nearly dead. They fixed him with potions. He’s not too bad, one of the nicer ones.

"They have potions made by someone – the one for healing (Green), the one to help with the transformations (Brown), the poison (Goo), and the antidote (Clear). They wouldn’t tell me who it was that makes them, they just call him the Digger. But it’s obviously the undertaker in Cyn Dol. That’s where the potions always seem to come from.

"There’s another guy in Cyn Dol whose name is Ross, he’s the undertaker’s assistant, and they call him the Muppet. They keep promising him they are going to give him the mark but they never do, they laugh about him all the time. Then there’s Cinders, he’s from Tor Manis, and he came out here with me and Goner and Maslow, for my first transformation. They brought heaps of potions with them, of all the different types.

"There’s another guy called Arby from Bowen who is really ugly, who has been out here a few times but mostly hangs around Cyn Dol. He brought a bunch more potions with him just recently. He said there had been some kind of trouble in Cyn Dol and the Digger had decided to move the whole stash, and keep things quite for a while. He brought lots of potions with him, like, whole backpacks full. Those two that were here just ran away with them.

"Arby has magic – not just the ability to transform, but other stuff. I once saw him change his whole face to look like someone else, a woman. I get a really bad feeling from him, too, like there’s something wrong with him, even worse than the others.”

"Anyway, I think this fort is like a way-station. Once, about two weeks ago, a bunch of the Clan showed up from out of the forest, led by someone called Rhonwen from down south, and some others who never came inside. They spent one night, and went straight back out into the woods again. They took heaps of potions with them that night, into the woods. Cinders went with them too.

So after that, I asked Maslow what they were doing and he wouldn’t tell me, so I waited til he was out hunting one time, and then I asked Goner, who was always much nicer than Maslow. And he told me what he knew..."

She'll continue with what Goner told her, unless you want to interject...
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

Oh no, keep going! Kilian is starting to feel relieved that he didn't kill her once she revealed herself as a cruchie.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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GONER'S STORY

Post by Longman »

GONER’s STORY

“The Digger isn’t the big boss,” Goner told Jane. “And it isn’t Maslow or Hamish or any of them from down in Bowen. It’s someone else. Someone most of us have never laid eyes on. Maslow just calls him the Old Man. He lives up beyond the Upper Leakey, in the mountains north-east of here. And he never comes down here, so they have to go to him, and everyone does whatever he wants, they're all so afraid of him, or indebted to him, or something like that.

Maslow, Arby, and the Digger, and some of the others leaders get to see The Old Man. And he wants something, further north. I don’t know what it is, but The Old Man wants it, terribly bad, and so we all have to try to get it!

There’s a place up past Widow’s Peak called Malagosbe, and that’s the place the Old Man wants to get inside. But as far as I know, you can’t go in there by the most obvious way, the front door, which is a big cave, they say. Some of the others in the Clan tried it last year, and there were too many Hobgoblins, far too many for our numbers to fight, and the Hobgoblins have giant wolves there as well.

So, the Old Man said we should go in another way. There’s a place called Cogan, which is somewhere near the start of Malagosbe. There was a mine there, back in the old days. I don’t know the full story, but I know The Clan have taken lots of digging equipment up there over the last year and they are trying to make a tunnel, or open up an existing tunnel, or something like that. And according to the Old Man, Cogan goes into Malagosbe. That’s all I really know.

The path through the woods used to go from Tor Manis and was pretty safe. The Clan just used to leave the positions and other supplies at an old barracks and people would come down from Cogan and get them.

But this year, there’s been trouble. Some group of people from Red Oak have been going into the woods around there, and they made it all the way to Cogan and beyond. Although they didn’t find the mine, they are a threat. They are friends with the Rangers and the Church, and so we can’t just attack them outright, unless they come in here.

These people also have nasty poison, worse than our own stuff, and they’ve killed three of our members so far. The Old Man wants to find whatever he is looking for in Malagosbe, and then he says he can deal with them easily, without anyone knowing anything about it. In the meantime, we are supposed to avoid them if we can and only fight them if they come near us.

So, because of the Red Oak group, no one is going into the forest up that way anymore, past Tor Manis. Everyone has pulled out of Tor Manis, and the route through the woods goes along the Leakey, north of Broken Tor, and that’s really near where the Old man lives. Then it goes north up through the mountains to get to Cogan. There’s a lot more goblins that way than there were along the old way, but fighting off a few goblins is better than coming across these people from Red Oak.”


"That group of people from Red oak..." finishes Jane. That wouldn't be you, would it?"

Anyway, that's about all Goner told Jane. He only got initiated about a year ago and hasn’t been out into the woods yet. The Clan were planning on setting him up in another base, round about O20, as another way station. The Clan tend to phase people into new responsibilities over time.

One more thing – Goner and Jane's information is that the nisha don’t always like transforming into their animal or their hybrid forms. Apparently, the more they do it, the worse the involuntary full moon transformation gets. They aren’t actually stronger around full moon, so Roddy Mouseman may have been a bit confused about that. It’s more that they have to transform at full moon, whether they like it or not. (On all other nights, the transformation is voluntary.)

They are definitely weaker at dark moon, that part is true. And, they dislike silver, so that part of his information was also true.

Phew!
Woe
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

Wow! That's a lot to absorb. It's like Roddy all over again! :)

In case you're still up, party will be headed north. Probably to the druid|hedge wizard first, then Red Oak. I know that's verboten but all this is waaay above my pay grade, and probably Emlin's as well.

Will write more in a bit, once I figure out what everyone wants to do.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Woe
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

Everyone starts talking at the same time. Feel free to interject the NPCs at any point. :)

Talin: "Wow. This is much more complicated than I thought. We need to get this back to Emlin and the other rangers."

Tiana: "Yes hon, we're that group from Red Oak. We've been chasing nisha and goblins all year. We originally started exploring the Boldenwald to..." and thinks better of herself, then continues, "to map out the area, and ended up an enemy of the nisha. We definitely didn't know about them when we started."

Freya: "What does the Church have to do with this? I've only seen rangers going after the nisha."

Kilian: "Well, dat settles dat. Jane seems like she wants tah live. We gotta take 'er to dat hedge 'izard in the lake and see wat 'e can do fer 'er. Yah yah, I know 'e said ne'er to 'eturn, but I dunna tink 'e be a friend of them nisha."

Tiana: "I don't know. He was pretty clear last time we visited..."

Freya interrupts with: "What about Roddy? He'd know."

Tiana: "That's not a bad idea. We owe him a visit, and he may have something better than these transformation potions."

Kilian: "Just wat dat guy wants. 'e was skittish enuf wit four of us. 'e got eight now."

Talin: "We can figure that out on the road. Let's head back to Tor Manis, try to hit it by nightfall. Anna's not in good shape, and Bruce could use some rest as well."

However, they won't hit TM by nightfall... Talin doesn't trust Jane to not run away the second she can, and keeping her out in the forest will hopefully keep her more willing to stay near the party.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Longman »

I assume you are talking about going back to Cyn Dol, and returning to TM by road.

Going through the forest to TM could take about a week! It's 15 or so hexes away.


If is still very early on Friday 15th August. 2 EP down.

If you go straight back near Cyn Dol through some slightly unknown terrain, you could be camped outside of there this evening, keeping a watchful eye on Jane - with Wen and Coll. That's in your safe camp, to the west of town.

Do you want to do that, or go slower, maybe retracing your steps?
Woe
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Re: Down in Cyn Dol (Chapter 7)

Post by Woe »

Yes, that's definitely the plan I wanted, save for Jane escaping into the woods and then being eaten by lions or tigers or bears. She'll just have to make the best of it.

So back to CD and then north. The goal is not immediately RO but meeting up with Roddy. We can RP the prep for the encounter, but jumping waay ahead and not considering any nefarious wandering monster rolls, it'll start with Tiana and Freya looking for Roddy at the meeting spot, and the others waiting farther back.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

Red Oak map
Red Oak loot
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