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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Houses of Stone: Player Reports (Session II)

Below are two player reports on the pickup game last night. We had 5 players--a Finn, two Canadians, an Aussie, an American, and me, the DM from Africa living in the US. Quite the international group, no?

Adventure and chicanery included testing random spells for a witch doctor, slaying giant millipede fiends (aka "millifiends,") receiving rewards of wife and crazy psychic stones.

Reports after the jump...
FROM THE JOURNAL OF ALEXANDER "DE RUTABEGA" MANNING:
HOUSES OF STONE
Things have been most uncommon of late. Ever since my faithful dirigible, 'Valiant', went down over that sweaty, mosquito laden jungle, I've been unable to trust my brain to wake me up in the correct place each morning. Fortunately, this wealth of new worlds I continue to accidentally inhabit has left me with a particularly sublime exploratory advantage. Those cretins back in New Feierland will rue the day they questioned the credentials of Alexander Manning!

This morning I awoke to a sweltering heat, but a very different heat to that of the filthy jungle where I crashed... it was oppressive, certainly, but it seemed to dry my lungs rather than drown my soul. A quick perusal of my environment revealed me to be surrounded by Indigenous! And in their own village, no less! Curses! Dismayed but unbroken, I maintained my composure enough to salvage some value from the situation. After finding some other curiously misplaced souls I set about after some Witchdoctor some local had told me about. He was offering free witchdoctory! Let it never be said that De Rutabega was afraid of a witchdoctor, for I strode boldly up to that man and demanded he bestow his voodoo upon me. After some charming displays of savage culture, this fellow granted me with the most wonderful piece of nonsense I had ever seen! He insisted that it would make me invisible or ward off spirits or some such. Obviously I fear neither evil nor spirits of any kind, but I kindly humoured his work and thanked him, certainly not bargaining nor attempting to further my own profits in any way.

My new lackeys and I (whos names and actions are, of course, completely unimportant. Suffice to say they were suitably impressed to be travelling with such a charming and accomplished fellow as myself.) then walked for some time toward some Indigenous hovel or another. Once there, one of my men informed me that we were to help these people in some plight of theirs, involving the kidnapping of their people by some Vile Millifiend. This creature was reported to be 50ft long and capable of spitting acrid, lethal poison twice that distance. It was described as being related to the moronic millipedes that littered the ground in this place so, to indicate my intent to this noble savage, I ate one of the Millifiend's children. We thrived in its crunchy demise, and the man offered me his most valuable daughter upon my return. Frankly I was surprised it had taken him this long to offer, but I presume that the delay was part of some cultural failing on behalf of these creatures.

Nonetheless, we set off for the fiends lair. It was a crude and forboding cave, filled with rot and detritus and some wretched apes. I established my dominance over the latter by exerting my masculinity at them. Fearlessly and without peer, I used an old Malgarr technique to track the beast farther into the cave, and licked the wall. It did not help, but the horror was located nonetheless. And the stories, as they so often do, paled in comparison to the reality! For it was over one hundred feet in length and at least 20 feet in breadth. Truly a monster, if there ever was one. It reared up to strike, attempting to fill me with its malicious poison! Mightily, I stood my ground, staring the beast down. With soothing words and great bravery I walked it down, calming this dangerous fiend until it curled up and slept. I then filled its lair with combustible liquid and walked, flicking a lit torch over my shoulder as I did so. The stench and the wails of the beast filled the air, but it did not pursue me. It knew that it had been beaten. Bested in a fair contest. The Inhuman screeches died with it.

After that some other stuff happened. I carried half a dozen children out of that cave, poisoned and weakened as they were. I was a hero. The local man granted me his daughter as promised, as well as a mighty stone of voodoo paranoia which seemed, to my taste, a little odd. Adia and I were married that night in a quaint and under-dressed ceremony. She is, to my surprise, quite striking and reasonable for an Indigenous.

Houses of Stone ~ The Fetish, the Chongololo, and the Marriage
Dramatis Personae
Alexander de Rutabaga ~ Fighter
Brother Madyn ~ Cleric
Rubro ~ Monk
Radomir ~ Fighter
Markos ~ Thief

Our intrepid heroes led by Alexander de Rutabaga headed for the crazy old witchdoctor's hut. There Alexander offered to act as a test subject for the witch-doctor's new magical fetish. When asked what compensation he would receive the witch-doctor explained that if the effects were beneficial Alexander could keep the fetish and should the effects be harmful then the witch-doctor would do all in his power to right things.

Having accepted this the witch-doctor began chanting in gibberish and started to fashion a simple necklace with a dead spider for a charm. He placed the charm over the Rutabaga's head and frowned. He took it back and then proceeded to chant more while stuffing the spiders innards with some grubs and cork. He placed the hideous charm over Alexander's neck again and then smiled. He asked Alexander to return in a day or two to let him know of the results of his prototype.

The party then decided to seek out a nearby farming community that had been plagued by giant millipedes carrying off their people every few nights. After having spoke with Michalanga, the elder of the community, they learned of the direction the giant chongololo, as he named them, came from and were informed of the creatures apparent fear of fire. They set off the way Michalanga had indicated. Before leaving Alexander made a show of eating a regular chongololo and Michalanga offered Alexander a bride should they prove successful.

"Very crunchy, they taste like sausages," he remarked.

They travelled North until they came upon a cave with what appeared to be the tracks of the giant chongololo covering the ground outside it. They proceeded cautiously as they entered the small network of caves and after scaring off some harmless monkeys came upon a sleeping giant chongololo. Not wanting to take their chances Alexander doused the slumbering insect with three flasks of oil before Radomir stepped forward and lit the monster on fire as the party watched on from the entrance to the cavern.

Howling and screeching in pain it flails about wildly trying to kill the heroes that harmed it. After a short battle the chongololo succumbs to the fire nearly crushing Radomir with its massive bulk.

Radomir proceeded to hack off the front sections of the dead thing to prove the creatures death to the farming village while the rest of them searched the rest of the cave network for the missing villagers.

They came across the group of a dozen unconscious villagers in the next-to-last cave. While Marko and Madyn started to drag the villagers away Radomir prodded at a pile of dung with the butt of his halberd. The heap came to life revealing itself to be a swarm of baby giant chongololos.

Radomir squished some with a resounding thwack of the flat of his blade as Alexander tossed a flask of oil at the swarm. Rubro set the oil ablaze killing another large portion of the swarm. Marco also lit some on fire provoking the swarm to attack him, they bit him upon his shoulder infecting him with a painful poison. Finally, after a few more near ineffectual hits Madyn managed to crush the bulk of the remaining swarm with a swing of his mace.

They carried the delirious villagers home and were treated to a feast by the joyous farmers. Rubro set off with Marco to have the witch-doctor heal Marco's wound while the others drank and watched the marriage ceremony between Alexander and Adia, a maiden of the farming village.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds awesome, are there slots open for the game tonight?

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  2. Probably not but I sometimes run pickup games on Tuesday nights.
    Circle me on G+ and send me a limited message as a reminder. I'll put you on the list for tomorrow night (if it happens) and on the list for future Monday night games!

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