Mandraiv's Diary 23

A relatively uneventful journey led us, after a few days, to the feeding area of the cindermaw.  We figured out that it was some kind of giant work, although we weren’t entirely sure what sort, although we figured based mainly on its name that it would likely be something like a flightless, burrowing fire dragon.

We found a likely spot, a nice large, flat rock and set about trying to attract the beast, with some of the more martial party members wandering over the sands, along with a few small herds of aurochs, summoned by me.  Within a few hours, we saw signs of the beast approaching, and prepared, magically protecting ourselves from fire and using a few other magical enhancements.  Only to have them run out, as the beast apparently liked to make a show of itself, presumably trying to terrify us with its slow, threatening approach.

Eventually, it came in and attacked, viciously reaming four-arms, before swallowing him and suffering through the rebirth ritual, as four-arms immediately sliced his way free.  Having successfully recreated the legend of the rebirth, I asked the truth speaker if there would be a problem if we were to kill the beast.  He seemed unable to comprehend that this was possible, and so we duly finished off the beast.  This left the truth speaker shocked at our power, but we thought nothing more of it.

The warrior took a trophy of the worm (it turned out to be a giant worm with little resemblance to a wingless dragon beyond the ability to belch forth flames) and we headed for the sun clan.  The truth speaker was more than enough to have us escorted to the chiefs of the local sun clan encampment by the scouts we encountered en-route, and soon we were standing in amongst the entire clan.

The truth speaker told the tale of our recreation of the rebirth legend, and all was going well until he continued to talk about us killing the beast.  This enraged the sun savages, and they attacked.  Given that we were completely unprepared for a fight, and utterly surrounded by savage warriors, we felt that the best option was to withdraw from the fight, which we did planning to return momentarily, ready to strike down upon them with great vengeance and furious anger.  The warrior’s chick was down and out, and we were forced to leave her behind, uncertain as to whether or not she was alive.   This, I’m sure, will help me to lead the others around to the idea that we now need to wipe out this little group of savages.

I figure that the only way we’ll be able to get the information we need from this sun clan of savages will be to wipe out this encampment, preventing any word of our actions spreading to other groups and then finding another group to present with our wonderful tale of rebirth.  Of course, we’ll need to convince the truth speaker to tell the tale and omit the ending next time.  Unless he died in the action, I don’t recall seeing him escape although given my unconsciousness at the time, I think that this lack of recall is completely understandable.

Mandraiv's Diary 22

We established that the cleric was a devotee of Zon Kothon (another one), and that he had not been down the elevator the gun nut had last been seen descending.  His demon woman had a thing for the warrior’s woman and started flirting with her, quite aggressively, but only seemed to scare the poor woman.  This is clearly what comes of not being good looking enough.  Given his woman’s response, the warrior backed off the demon.  We also established that the savage warrior who had followed us was still an utter jerk.  He stood watching, hoping to see how we comported ourselves.  Presumably in the hope that we would all die a horrible, horrible death.  He was quite antagonistic, typical of savages and warriors alike but we didn’t rise to his barbs and he soon shut up.

A few minutes after we managed to calm everyone and everything down, the tentacles returned to their pool, and everything became peaceful once more.  I figured that trying to be a bit quiet would be a good option (an opinion backed up by the Zon Kothon cleric, although clearly everyone would heed my advice) and so we all moved towards the elevator, as quietly as possible.  For some of the better looking party members, being quiet, like everything else, comes easily.  The warrior struggled a bit, as did the clerics, but we managed to lower ourselves down the lift without re-summoning the tentacles.

We found little down there except for the gun nut and some magic globe.  The magic globe was some kind of scrying device, but also the source of the mark of what’s-his-name that we need to go the next band of savages to get our truth-speaker.  Several of us picked up the mark, although some (particularly the warrior) apparently found the experience sufficiently taxing that they found themselves unable to concentrate afterwards, and were suffering from various degrees of bleeding from the ears.  The assorted band of clerics sorted them out in no time, and we headed back upstairs to loot yesterday’s corpses.  We then slept and were ready to head of bright and early the next day.  I was even able to rouse myself before 11:00 am, despite my bard’s protests, and we departed.  She’s an amusing one, but struggles to see that we are on a mission, and thus I can’t simply spend all my time in bed with her.  Especially when that “bed” is a couple of bedrolls on a cold, hard, stone floor.  I guess I can understand it though, if I were confronted by someone as outrageously, really, really, really, ludicrously good-looking as myself I may struggle to see anything beyond sleeping with them as a priority.  We were only slightly delayed by the need to return a cursed whip to where we had looted it from, as its curse was impacting on the health of the gun nut.  Fortunately, our archer has her flying mount with her, and was able to manage this with minimal delay.

 We soon arrived at the moon clan’s camp site.  We were met by a group of scouts, all female warriors (hooray, another society run by the illogical, emotional gender – damned savages) who recognised our mystical symbols and escorted us to their tribal camp site.  Unfortunately, these women had discovered that the building at the centre of their life at this location had been occupied, while abandoned by the savages (flaw in policy here?), by some kind of hideous beast.  Naturally, since the women were unable to handle it, we were happy to.  It was pretty ugly, but we overcame it quickly and with relative ease, after which the women were happy to put in a good word for us with the clan chiefs.  A big celebration followed the arrival of the rest of the clan, with the highlight being four-arms’ feeble attempts at picking up.  I mean really, as a hero to the savages, having defeated the nasty monster, it shouldn’t be all that difficult, but then I guess he isn’t quite the looker he thinks he is, but his technique reflects his crazy belief.  It’s wonderful, travelling with two ugly people who genuinely both believe that they are great looking.  They don’t even recognize their shortfalls in appearance when confronted by people like my bard girl and me – I mean, she’s gorgeous, and my good looks are really bordering on the obscene.

And the truth-speaker was happy to come along to witness the rebirth of someone as a savage.

Mandraiv's Diary 21

After a couple of days rest and recuperation (read healing) hiding out in the shingles, we decided that we were healthy enough to finally flee the city.  Securing a boat, we waited for the cover of darkness and headed into the main city, returning with the priests we had hidden earlier and headed for Harse.  The trip was uneventful, and we arrived in the town and then the farmstead where the sword master’s old adventuring buddies lived.  Quite pleasantly, the bard we escorted here weeks ago was still around, even better looking than I remembered, and she clearly hadn’t forgotten my astonishingly good looks.  A couple of lines, and she was mine.

We also, that evening, finally managed to get the seneschal to reveal his secrets.  The queen was responsible for the king’s death.  We waited a long time and travelled a long way for that little gem of information.  And he didn’t even have any hard evidence.  He did have some useful information though, as he had determined, before being taken in by the rakshasas, that the queen’s new crown was the source of her ability to survive being shot through the head.  Apparently it was constructed from some ancient Shoanti artefact, the teeth of some ancient, evil dragon.  Presumably the evil force that possessed the artist and abandoned him for the queen.  Also hints that regardless of some of my more innocent companions’ arguments, the queen was clearly not accidentally possessed, but had sought the evil power.

We determined that our next course of action was to find out some more information regarding the toothy crown from the Shoanti, which would involve a trip to the cinderlands to see the shoanti shaman we saw about saving Korvosa from was a few months ago.  We headed to where we suspected he’d be camped, bringing along the bard as well as the rescued cleric who had developed some attachment to the warrior, the cleric of inner beauty.  Maybe he isn’t gay afterall, or perhaps he swings both ways.  Anyway, she’s pretty enough, although clearly still delusional, but mine is better looking, and that’s what really counts.  But not before our trusty deck of cards provided us with another dubious set of predictions.

This time, she seems to have backed off a bit on the stupidity and suicidal nature of four-arms’ fighting style, and seemed to be hedging her bets a bot, predicting trouble with powerful strangers, bear-like figures (clearly could be a man or beast, we’re bound to run into some kind of man or beast on the plains tracking down the savages) and tentacle beasties.  All pretty standard, non-specific stuff which will be of no value whatsoever, and will be able to fit pretty much any set of events after the fact.

The shoanti shaman told us that we would have to muck around a lot in order to get the information we needed from his people.  We need to see the sun clan about it, but they will apparently refuse to talk to us unless we have done something to gain their respect.  One of us needs to be swallowed by a cindermaw, some kind of horrific monster, and be reborn as a shoanti.  But first, we need to go somewhere to get some mark before we can find a truth speaker who will witness this swallowing and rebirth, else we will not be believed and never find out what we need.  We headed for the marking shrine in the morning.

We were followed across the plains, but were unable to do much about it and discovered shortly after our arrival at the shrine that it was a shoanti warrior and his mates.  This warrior was apparently all fired up about going to war against Korvosa, and felt that we as intruders on his peoples lands should be put to death.  A couple of us wrestled with him and he seemed to back off a bit, but still followed us.  Inside the shrine we found trouble.  There were a bunch of red mantis assassins and a huge tentacle beast we had to fight, as well as a priestess of Zon Kuthon and her demon companion.  These two helped us escape the tentacle beast after the assassins were slain, but the gun nut was separated from us in the battle and fled down an elevator to areas as yet unexplored.

Ch 4, Part 3: Clan of the Sun

Belly of the Beast

The heroes embark upon the mission to face the fabled Cindermaw, so that they may recreate the legend of Skurak the Reborn. There journey is mostly uneventful only slightly inconvenienced by a landmark known as Sasserines Tears, great shards of rock and glass that is frequently propelled into the air by deep volcanic activity.

Sparrowhawk does an admirable job navigating the tears, only running afoul of them once.

Soon they are in the feeding grounds of Cindermaw where they set about attracting the creature (which they correctly deduce is some sort of giant worm). They perch themselves upon a great rock protruding from the desert and wait for Cindermaw’s arrivals.

And eventually he does arrive, but is slow to attack circling the heroes for over an hour before finally attacking. A furious fight follows and where Cindermaw weathers a brutal assault. Watson allows himself to be swallowed whole and quickly cuts himself out.

The heroes, spurned into a frenzy  from the smell of blood  and continue to attack. Some manage to contain their blood lust long enough to question the slaying of beast that the Shoanti consider a diety, but Hellious presses his attack, shooting and mortally wounding the great beast. Asyra the demon woman is only too happy to help finish the beast off.

With beast slain, Akram is aghast, what he thought was not possible had come to be and Cindermaw was no more.

The Clan of the Sun

The heroes plunder and desecrate the great worm before setting out for the Flameford, home of the Sun Clan.

A few days later they arrive at Flameford where they are met by the Sun Clan Outriders, with the help of Akram they are able to gain an audience with the clan chief and elder.

The meeting is quickly held where Akram, the truthspeaker relays his account, however things do not go as anticipated. When they learn that Cindermaw was slain, their great feat of being rebirthed as Shaonti from the belly of Cindermaw is undermined. The heroes had shown cindermaw to be a mortal beast and therefore nothing to be revered.

The Chief and Shaman are enraged that the heroes had shown Legend of Skurak to be a sham attack and a quick and bloody fight follows. Surrounded and unprepared for battle, the heroes are quickly overwhelmed, though they had not survived the ordeals of Korvosa on pure luck. They able extract themselves from their predicament, fleeing by wing and magic.

Only the body of Slyvania is left behind while Count Sol and Asyra likewise flee by magic.

Encounter	Grit	Helious	Mandraiv	Sparrowhawk	Sol	Watson
Pre-session	81,891	76,741	85,741	76,591	80,691	77,241
Level	9	9	9	9	9	9
Tea maker correction	-450		450
Cindercones	265	265	265	265	265	265
Cindermaw	6400	6400	6400	6400	6400	6400
Barbarians	1600	1600	1600	1600	1600	1600
Chief Tea Maker	900
Total	90,606	85,006	94,456	84,856	88,956	85,506

Ch 4, Part 2: Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers

As the heroes retreat the tentacles they meeting Krojun on the way in, he is antongonistic to the heroes but does not start a fight, instead he insists on following the heroes and observing them.

Sol and Asyra

The heroes also acquaint themselves with the cleric and his demon woman companion, his name is coincidently Sol and he is extremely polite though he openly follows the evil deity of Zon Kothon. His demon woman (Asyra) takes a fancy to Slyvania and begins dangerously flirting with her.  At Grits urging, Sol asks Asyra to back away.

The Golarian Globe

Meanwhile Hellious remains separated from the rest of the group and explores his surroundings; the tentacles do not seem to pursue him. He discovers a great sphere; it is a map of a world and bears a vague resemblance to his own. He correctly guesses that it is a very old map, old enough that continents have moved.

He prods it and discovers it is some sort of scrying device, capable of viewing different places but only a large scale. After using the device he finds a symbol of Desna imprinted on his left hand. It is the mark that they came to this place to acquire.

A short while later the tentacles recede and the heroes re-enter and quickly find Hellious. Some of the heroes experiment with the sphere and also aquire the mark, though they also discover that it is taxing to use and eventually addles the brain.

The heroes then proceed to loot the acropolis being careful not to rouse the tentacle beast.

Eventually they rest for the night. Krojun has seen enough and leaves, he seems less than impressed and comments that he hopes he will soon meet them in battle. Sol and Asyra though remain, inviting themselves into the heroes party.

The Clan of the Moon

The following morning they continue their quest, they quickly arrive at the Temple of the Moon, the Lyrune Quah’s chosen home for the new season. (The Moon Clan being semi-nomadic). They are met by an advance party of scouts (all women) who quickly recognise the mark of desna and believe the heroes arrival was foreordained. They are told that the Temple of the Moon has been taken over by a terrible red beast and that they would be grateful for any aide they can provide.

The heroes agree to help and enter the Moon Temple in search of the beast, it is quickly found and equally quickly destroyed. In return the Moon Scouts offer to put in a good word for them when the rest of the moon clan arrives.

When the rest of the clan arrive, their true speaker is more than happy to accompany them so that he can witness the heroes face the Cindermaw.

Encounter	Grit	Helious	Mandraiv	Sparrowhawk	Sol	Watson
Pre-session	75,304	70,604	79,604	70,454	74,554	71,104
Level	9	8	9	8	8	8
Journals	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mark of Desna	800	800	800	800	800	800
Glyphs	1070	1070	1070	1070	1070	1070
Red Reaver	4267	4267	4267	4267	4267	4267
Chief Tea Maker	450
Total	81,891	76,741	85,741	76,591	80,691	77,241