AAR: [10M] Diabolical Dunning

*ARCHIVED* Sub-forum for the original West Marches Discord campaign

Moderator:etherial

Locked
Reyntrannin
Posts:270
Joined:Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:59 pm
AAR: [10M] Diabolical Dunning

Post by Reyntrannin » Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:57 am

AAR: Diabolical Dunning
Time: 2018-11-11
GM: ReynTrannin
Circle: 10
Difficulty: Medium


Player Rewards:
Gronk: 69,000 Legend, 3,500 sp, 3 TIP's
Caedda: 69,000 Legend, 3,500 sp, 3 TIP's
Thane: 69,000 Legend, 3,500 sp, 3 TIP's
Romari: 69,000 Legend, 3,500 sp, 3 TIP's

GM Reward:
Blaethynn: 20,000 Legend, 1,450 sp, 1 TIP

Downtime Actions:
Romari: Item History 25 (Rank 8, x2 Karma)
Romari: Research 37 (Rank 10, x2 Karma)
Romari: Map Making/Navigation 18 (Rank 8)
Romari: Enchanting 23 (Rank 11); Spell Matrix Objects (Standard, Enhanced, Armored)
Gronk: Forge Weapon Step 9 (Rank 1)

Additional notes: Kalefay is freed from the Horror which had been slaughtering their livestock to build its constructs.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: [10M] Diabolical Dunning

Post by ChrisDDickey » Tue Nov 13, 2018 5:30 am

From the journal of Thane Cawdor.

The settlement of Kalefay (2910) was uneasy over recent losses of livestock. There were murmurs that the losses did not seem natural and the settlers were worried about a possible Horror infestation. They sent word for a strong party of Adepts to investigate the situation and solve this mystery. Romari, Gronk, Ceadda, and I traveled to the settlement to see what we could do to help. We ended up walking,but by Floranuuses favor, it only took us a week.

Once at the settlement, we asked around and were told that there had been incidents every 2 to 4 nights for the last several weeks. A farmer would hear a big commotion in the night, often just before sunup. Going out to their barn, they would find 2 or 3 cattle dead. Usually at first it would look as if the throats were cut, and they were crudely butchered as if with a large blade such as a sword. Lately it was more common that the cattle looked as if they were ripped apart.

We went to the Samulson farm, site of the latest incident. At first there was very little to be found, but using Astral Sight Romari found what seemed to be a claw mark that went right through the barn door. He also found a weird coin. It seemed to be the exact size and shape of a typical Oricalcum coin of Throalic minting, except instead it was made from some jet mat black substance. He surprised us all by picking it up with his bare hand. This turned out to be a mistake as later on the horror we encountered was affecting him even when he was out of it's line of sight, an apparent sign that he had been horror marked.

Using Astral Sight, he found a thread apparently connecting the coin to something South-South-East of the Samulson farm. We followed the thread to the other side of Kalefay to an abandoned farm. There we found a mystic circle inscribed upon the floor. There were somewhere between 12 and 20 other threads also connected to the circle. Romari determined the circle was around 2 months old, and was being used 2 or three times per week. He seemed to think it might be some sort of Nethermatic summoning circle, but it was weird, it seemed to be meant to contain a name-giver instead of a Spirit. In a storeroom we found many preserved organs. Hearts, stomachs, etc. from many species, though we identified both cattle and deer.

Gronk used Mystic Pursuit upon the circle, and it lead us back to Kalefay, and a closed up building which turned out to be a library. Inquiries reveled that two people had died there two days previously. The Elvish librarian was found dead at his desk, and his friend Wilber, a human was stretched out on the floor. Nether had any wounds (we checked), and there was no fresh blood upon the scene, but very strangely we found a 2 day old bloodstain upon the floorboards where Wilber had lain. It looked as if Some of Wilbers blood had leaked out of him (without any exit wounds and without soling his clothing), ran onto the floor, and then instantly dried! It was very strange. We double-checked magically, and the blood from the stain was indeed Wilbers. We spoke to the town Doctor, Iown. He was mystified as to why two apparently healthy persons should both suffer simultaneous heart-attacks, but other than the blood stain, we found no more clues than he had. We can only suppose that it was a magical attack, It might be possible that Wilber was the target of the magical attack, and the magic circle did something weird to his blood (and maybe possibly the blood of the person next to him). Very confusing.

We checked out Wilbers farm. It looked as if somebody had searched it looking for something. We also searched it, but we found a secret compartment under the bed that held a locked Orecalcum box that contained kernals of True Earth and True Fire. Also some encrypted papers. It took Romari weeks to decrypt them, and he did not finish until after we had returned to Throal.

We determined to return to the abandoned farm and see if something was going to attempt to use the circle this night. Romari and Gronk took the first watch, and they woke us to report that figures were approaching. There were 3 things that looked like Mornguards, except that they were much tougher than Mornguards. And there was one wizened old creature that used horrible powers. That was when we learned that Romari likely had a horror mark, since it was able to affect Romari while he was inside the farmhouse far from any window. They were very hard to slay, but when we finally did slay the old wizened thing it exploded with a great gush of blood, much, much more blood than such a small creature could contain.

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: [10M] Diabolical Dunning

Post by BattleChad » Sun Nov 18, 2018 5:15 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Thane for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 3,450 Legend Points and 875 Silver

Locked