AAR: [3M] We Happy Few(2021-07-02 2300)

[Xzandrate]

LFG: [2H] We Happy Few
Time: 2021-07-02 @ 2300GMT
GM: Xzandrate
Difficulty: 2 Hard

Requesting Player: Valteri Tuoni
Rumor:: Valteri seeks to Quest for Thystonius. To that end, has offered to help the Throalic army. A small unit of rangers went on patrol in the Throalic mountains and never returned. Valteri is putting together a band to to go to their last known location and either bring them home or, perhaps more likely, bring back their remains.
Location: Throal Mountains
Reward: Induction as Questor of Thystonius

Notes: Up to 5 players (7 Eastern)

Note: short turn around, if we don't see enough signups by Thursday afternoon, this may change to a 4M bumpd to 3M to accomodate players

[ChrisDDickey]

Name: Caesar Bonaparte
Date Player last played: June 6th
ECR: 2
Discipline: Illusionist 2nd Circle - Human.
Quote/Unique: now notice that at no time do any of my fingers leave my hand.
Notable Abilities: Illusion
Downtime: None.

[Sharkforce]

Name: Garak
Date of Last Game Played: June 27
Circle: 2
Discipline: Archer 2
Unique: Failure is not an option - it is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.
Downtime: Nope.

I'm up for 4M as well if needed (as Orlam). I'm also okay with new players displacing me if it comes down to it.

[Lashana]

Name: Sobelle Shagella
ECL: 3
Discipline: Master of the Hunt
Quote/Unique: I travel among the beasts, as one with them, but I do not have dominion over them.
Notable Abilities: I let my actions speak for themselves
Downtime: Animal training
Last Game Played: 2021-06-27

[LadyDragoon]

Name: Skriblz Forfingers (@Azurea)
Date of Last Game Played by player: June 28th 2021
Circle: 3
Discipline: Beastmaster
Unique: Interesting drawings
Downtime: DIY

[bronzemountain]

Name: Valteri Tuoni
ECL: 2
Discipline: Nethermancer
Quote/Unique: I speak for the fallen, the nameless - for those who gave the last full measure of courage.
Notable Abilities: Makes good tea.
Downtime: Nothing yet.
Last Game Played: Behold, I have signed up for my own rumor (finally)!

[verse86]

Z'mokki's Journal:
I have been tasked with finding and returning some missing namegivers. My recruits Caesar and Garak begged to come along. I also received two new recruits: a troll nethermancer named Valteri and a human hunt master named Sobelle.

We made our way into the mountains where the members went missing. After making our way through a tunnel, a group of namegivers ambushed us with a net. I knew it was coming, but decided getting captured would lead us directly to their base and most likely our missing group.

My brilliant deduction proved true. We were taken to the camp of a group of cultists to Thystonius led by a man named Alltusk. There we found our missing group. It seems they had been challenged to some athletic games for their freedom and lost. We were given the same offer to compete for our freedom. I got them to throw in the freedom of our targets. The fools challenged me to a race. They must not have heard about the time I beat a granlain in a foot race.

Our first race was through the shoals: a mountainous trail with loose rocks. The fools thought they could outrun me. Sobelle's falcon was also racing for the flag. I did not want to demoralize her or her falcon, so I allowed it to just barely beat me to the flag.

The second was a chasm with water below and a rope bridge to cross. The enemy's dwarf was able to leap the 10 foot gap to the other side. I bravely dove into the water below and made my way for a rope hanging down on the opposite side. The dwarf got to the flag, but I quickly came up with a plan for Garak to use his sling to hit the flag from the their hand and then call the rock back to himself.

For the third challenge we needed to retrieve the flag from a cave protected by some "guardian." It was merely a bear and Sobelle quickly talked it down so we could grab the flag. We made our way back to the camp.

For some reason, Alltusk was unwilling to accept our victory. He decided to fight instead. That went exactly as expected. The most unexpected part was Valteri's spirit that possessed me. I've never felt anything quite like it.

Once again, the day is saved thanks to Z'mokki and crew.

[verse86]

Name: Z'mokki
Date of Last Game Played:
ECR: 4
Discipline: Thief 4
Unique: A boisterous and bragadocious thief.
Downtime:

For posterity.

[Sharkforce]

The Journal of Garak of Irondelve, Part 2: We Happy Few

Saw a posting by the Arm of Throal looking for a team of adepts. Arrived for the meeting, and met Z'mokki and Caesar as well as two new to me; Sobelle Shagella, Human Master of the Hunt, and Valteri Tuoni, Troll Nethermancer who says he remembers the dead. He seems a decent enough sort for a Nethermancer. The Arm wants us to go looking for a missing team of scouts. They say they will send someone to look for us if we don't return; I say they won't need to. The scouts were to secure a clear route through the mountains, a new way that wasn't previously known. I don't know what's so wrong with the river, but I guess more options is not a bad thing.

We buy a few climbing supplies, just in case, and head out. We get close to the last known location of the scouts, and are ambushed with a drugged net from above as we exit a dark tunnel. We all lose consciousness, or so I assume. Z'mokki says he didn't, but he is thin on the details. I think he just doesn't want to admit it.

The leader of the thugs who captured us challenges us; we defeat them in a competition to retrieve flags and we get our freedom, if not, we are their slaves. This changes things; if I get a chance, they will die as slavers should. They have the scouts we are looking for as well, who for some reason have gone along with this farce instead of throttling their captors in the night. We inquire as to the rules, and told that the only rules are that you must get to the flag first, but if you cannot hold onto it then it was never yours to begin with.

Their leader - pah (the word here denotes a "spitting" sound) - calls himself an Ork, and befouls the name Alltusk with his villainy. He especially should die. He claims to follow the ideals of Tranko. A bold claim for someone who forces others to do their work and uses drugged nets from ambush. I do not think Tranko will mind if I plant a stone where his brain used to be.

The first challenge is a race across difficult terrain. Sobelle's bird collects the flag at the end of the race easily. I tried to distract their runners with a thrown rock in front of their face and recalling it, but they only seemed to move faster. Poor choice. For all their leader's bluster, they are fast, but we win thanks to Sobelle.

The next challenge is to race across a rickety rope bridge spanning a chasm with a small river flowing down it. Our competitors again impress me; they can leap the gap in a single bound, further than my huttawa. I will not be shown up by slavers. One of them, who sullies his family to be called a dwarf, gets their first. I snap a stone to pull the flag from his grip and then call the stone back. He looks surprised. Sobelle's bird was looking for this flag as well, so I tossed it in the air to keep my distance from its sharp talons. I will need all of my fingers, and we still win. There is talk of returning with two flags before the race is done, but before I could give voice to my Gahad they remembered that we had to return after all the flags had been gathered. This is good. We will embarass them first, and then after we have taken their dignity we will give battle to them.

The third challenge is to get past the flag's protector to claim it. Our competitors tell us to go ahead first. I guess we took the wind out of them. They likely think we will die to the protector, which turns out to be a great bear. Sobelle is amused until she notices the bear has been hurt by them, and then she is angry. She holds the bear calm and treats its wounds while Z'mokki slips past and grabs the flag. We sneak back out and most of us make it past. Not Sobelle, though. She marches right up to them and starts laying into them about their poor treatment of the bear. She has much fire in her as well.

She tells them we have all died and the flags are in the bear's cave. They go past, celebrating, thinking that they only need to collect the flags for themselves and claim the victory. We get to the bridge by the time they realize everything is not as it would seem. We return to the camp and demand our prize. I was at first somewhat disappointed in thinking that these filth would be able to slink away with their lives and I would not be part of their end except to tell the military where they could be found, but their leader is a sore loser. He tries to fight us all. Valteri destroys his mind, and Z'mokki destroys his body. He is not dead, but I did get a few stones of my own in. We will take him back to Throal to be hanged.

The other slavers plead their innocence, and blame their misdeeds on the scum of an Ork. He is to blame also, but we all must answer for our own actions. Some run, some return with us to Throal, and I hold nothing back in my report. They are slavers. They have stolen that which can never belong to them. The three scouts we rescued will know the names of those who did not have the spine to face justice.

[bronzemountain]

My Dear Parents,

I know your disappointment that all of your children have chosen violent paths. I know you do not approve of my reverence for the Passion Thystonius. I endure this, and in enduring grow stronger. But there are, perhaps, some few things in these last few months to ease your hearts.

Shantha and Rudhra have completed their convalescence and are returned to full health. This news must bring you joy, as it does me.

Also, I have begun to Quest for Thystonius. Yes, I don't expect that to sit particularly well with you, but know that in beginning this journey, I did no harm to anyone, Namegiver or beast. Not all struggles require blood, though I must admit that blood was spilled, even if not by my hand.

Three rangers of the Throal Army had failed to report in. As you well know, with Shantha and Rudhra both in the army, I feel some responsibility to not only them, but all soldiers. So, I answered the call to find them; to rescue them, or to recover their bodies and put their spirits to rest. Four other brave Adepts also answered: Steel-hearted Sobelle, an Elf who feels about the beasts of the world as I do about those who stand in our defense, Clever Garak, an Ork whose mastery of Archery is matched by his cunning use of its magics, Golden-crowned Caesar, a Human who depends on his regal demeanor as much as his Illusions, and Bright-moon Z'mokki, a T'skrang whose stealth does not hide his brilliance, just as the night does not hide the moon.

We ventured into the mountains, following the path of the rangers, and found the place where they had been captured with great ease; largely because we, ourselves, were similarly captured with great ease. It was a simple enough trap - a rough-woven net covered with some sort of natural soporific. This substance might be of interest to the alchemist who plies her trade back home. If she wishes to know more, I can tell her what I know.

Our captors were a self-declared Cult of Thystonius. As you have told me many times, to zealously cleave to a philosophy does not mean one is in a cult, and cult is not at all a pleasant word. Perhaps it was their leader, an Ork named All-Tusk (and presumably no goodness) who forced such a demeaning moniker upon them.

Claiming to represent Thystonius, this Ork challenged us, and our companions responded in kind, making a wager on a series of races: Our freedom or their prisoners'. This was unexpected courage, and I must say these other Adepts were made of good, strong stuff indeed.

And so we raced. We raced across broken stone ridges, and water-filled chasms. In the first instance, Sobelle's falcon won the day for us. In the second, Garak's sling stone. In the third, there was a bear, and you will be pleased to know that instead of fighting the bear, Sobelle charmed, calmed, and in fact healed it, so that we may win that leg of the race.

Of course, All-Tusk was weak inside, in the way that those who bluster most loudly inevitably are. He was more interested in claiming victory than pursuing it. I'm afraid I did raise my voice, then, to decry his base and faulty understanding of Thystonius. This did provoke him to battle, though for my part I simply showed him the inevitability of what we all face and thus made his fears manifest.

In his terrified state, he was easy to render unconscious. We rescued his prisoners, one of whom was a Questor of Thystonius, come to judge and correct what was happening here. With his guidance, I joined the great Contest.

As you despair for my future and my violent ways, know that I love you, as I always have, and that I promise to keep Shantha and Rudhra safe. Please do send more of the passion fruit pickle and the corn cakes - they are delicious and remind me of home.

Your son,
Valteri Tuoni.