AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

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verse86
Posts:269
Joined:Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:16 pm
Re: LFG: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by verse86 » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:54 pm

Name: Vallone
Date of Last Game Played: 10/16/2020 Road Trip
ECR: 3
Discipline: Shadow 3
Unique: The fastest spear slinger this side of the Gangos (possibly the only).
Downtime: N/A

Lashana
Posts:167
Joined:Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:40 pm
Location:Virginia Beach, VA USA

Re: LFG: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by Lashana » Tue Oct 27, 2020 4:02 pm

Name: Amhrán Fili
Date of Last Game Played: 10/11/2020
Circle: 2
Discipline: Troubadour
Unique: Well, see, Unique is such specific word. I'm not completely unlike anyone else. Not one of a kind per se....nor am I commonplace. Hmmmm....I so have a particular skill set...one might say I'm able to turn a fine phrase and put people at ease. Yes, I'll go with that. :D
Downtime: Item History

***Secondary Character***

rosinavs
Posts:119
Joined:Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:35 pm

Re: LFG: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by rosinavs » Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:51 pm

Name: Nergae Hilldigger
Date of Last Game Played by player: 10/23/2020
Circle: 2
Discipline: Beastmaster
Unique: I have a wolf (combat trained) and a kitty who can ride on my shoulder, fetch things, and act as a lookout. I can also train your animals.
Downtime: Talents and Skills that other characters can use over downtime: Animal Training 3 Step 9
Only Character

Xzandrate
Posts:382
Joined:Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:28 pm

AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by Xzandrate » Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:14 am

AAR: A Bump in the Night
GM: Xzandrate
ECR: 2
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Amhran 800 LP 200 SP 3 TIP
Truck 800 LP 200 SP 3 TIP
Barag 800 LP 200 SP 3 TIP
R'edtarian 800 LP 200 SP 3 TIP
Taras 800 LP 200 SP 3 TIP

Alternate Rewards: none

Journal Reward: +40 LP, + 50 SP

GM Reward: Patrique Caduceure - 200 LP 150 SP 3 TIPS

Downtime:
Amhrán Fili: Item History 2(13)

Barag: Item History 2(12))

R'edtarian: Research (9)

Summary:
The players have discovered a hub for the transport of bodies in Wolfridge, they removed the cultists there and burned it. It appears the bodies were destined for Bamor, to be used in some "undertaking" by this group of cultists. The surviving member was turned over to Throal for further questioning. The caravans are still being seen.

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

Re: AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by ChrisDDickey » Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:30 pm

You are reading the writings of Truck of the Deep Servos, Windling Warrior. 


People on the roads are talking about so-called "ghost caravans" that act strangely. They seem to travel at night, nobody see's where they camp.  They never stop to exchange news with other caravans. They seem to be going to weird locations such as wolf ridge (abandoned several years ago), Kier Bamor (broken and horror plagued), Trayckid (40,12 troubled town, attempting to be reclaimed), etc. Nobody is really certain how many caravans there are, some think only one, that is moving really fast, others think there are many identical caravans. They are all 3 covered wagons, drab coverings pulled down tight 2 sets of drivers, 2 sets of outriders walking by each wagon.  Horses seem unusually unlively. Some trading houses have indicated that they would pay for information about them. 

A group of us met up near Clear Creek Crossing and decided to investigate. The guards at Clear Creek Crossing told us they see a creepy caravan go by every few days using 3 of the 4 roads from clear creek (they move neither too or from the mountain road). We waited until the next caravan and followed it north on the Throal road. The caravan moved 24 hours a day. The horses not drinking, eating, nor pooping. They travel slowly, so after we stop for a night we are always able to catch up the afternoon of the next day. 

After 2 days travel they leave the main Throal road and take a side road which heads towards Wolf Ridge. We get around ahead of them and as we get near Wolf Ridge hear some guys on patrol talking about loading  wagons. One says something about Shanktooth being upset. We get into an abandoned building in the hamlet, and from there watch them load sacks from a barn into the wagons. Some sacks have a faint heat residue. The wagons then turn around and head out on the road they came into town on.  There are still 6 cultists in wolf ridge, they are all in the barn being used as a warehouse. 

Taras the scout checks out the other buildings in the hamlet and finds where the cultists have been living. He also finds some ledgers and papers. The Ledgers, account for bodies in and out, by creature type. approx 200 bodies have been shipped. 80% namegiver, plus horses, wolves, Espagra, Crackbill. etc. The second stack of papers are Missives and directives, These are mostly from someone called Shanktooth who seems to be their direct superior, They all say that they need more deliveries to Bamor ASAP, need doubling within the month in order to finish the undertaking within 3 months. These papers use Scourge with a capital S, which seems to refur to a cult that we have heard about. The third stack of papers are itineraries and plans of caravans. There seem to be 4 (identical) caravans traveling directly between Wolfridge and Bamor every 12 days, plus a number of other expeditions from various places (Servos, North and South Serpent river locations, etc. ) that are expected at various times. There are 6 caravans expected in the next 3 days. 

We decide we can't tackle 2 caravans per day, each of 12 cultists, so decide to take out the base, trying for some captives. We fight the cultists and take two captives. One proves to uncooperative, so Taras and Amhrán Fili graphicly argue about how best to execute him (which they do), this moves the remaining prisoner from cooperative to extremely cooperative (since he was already cooperative, there was little need for this further motivation). The remaining captives name was Jakob, he was from a keir in the Merric valley that the Scourge cult busted open about 10 years ago. They slew everybody in the kear who resisted and took the others as slaves. Jakob does not know much about the "undertaking", just that it is meant to punish everybody for ending the scourge too soon and make them go back to their keirs where they belong. It also requires a lot of corpses to be shipped to Bamor. Shanktooth and some of the Scourges spellcasters are probably at Bamor. Shanktooth is a very big ork with very scary swords. 

We burned the barn where they were storing their corpses, and took Jacob back to Throal and turned him and the papers we captured into the authorities.

redwraith
Posts:147
Joined:Fri Jul 17, 2020 8:12 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by redwraith » Wed Nov 04, 2020 9:00 pm

While in Thoral I've heard talk of "ghost" caravans, they aren't actually ghosts just caravans with people on them that don't stop and don't talk with guards or other travelers. These caravans are disturbing to other travelers and some people are wondering if Horror's are involved since no one has done a greeting ritual with these caravans. There are enough sightings that this isn't one or two caravans but a much larger number traveling to several locations.

This seems a much more worthy adventure than protecting some road workers and the local merchant houses and the guard are willing to pay for information on these caravans. Maybe it's a grand conspiracy or maybe just some tax dodgers...

I figured my best chance of seeing one of these caravans was to head to Creek Crossing. I ended up meeting with some other adepts at the crossing who also felt like investigating the "ghosts". The guards in Creek Crossing told us that these ghost caravans pass through every couple of days heading to there from where ever. We setup and waited for one of these caravans to pass through and decided to follow it to see where they stopped for the night.

The caravan while not moving a fast pace didn't seem to slow down or stop during the night. We followed the caravan for a couple of days as they headed to Wolf Ridge, a former farm stead which has seen some bad luck befall it. We watched the camp as our scout, Taras followed a patrol and learned that Shanktooth seemed to be the leader of this band of...cultists???

Taras then snuck into the farmstead to get a sense of what was there. We followed him as he indicated that everyone was busy with the wagons and loaded them up with sacks. He gets closer and notices that the sacks had bodies in them. We search the farm stead and found all kinds of documents which indicates that hundreds of bodies of creatures and namegivers have passed through Wolf Ridge. It also seems like there are other locations which are body depots in the area. There are many caravans traveling around transporting the dead from the out skirts to some where else. We let the caravan leave as we didn't feel confident of taking out the 12 men with the caravan and the 6 people running the depot.

Once the caravan was several hours away we just walked up and knocked on the door of the building the cultists were using as their body depot. They pored out and a fight resulted. Amhrán took several brutal blows and had to retreat the rest of us slowly dispatched the cultists capturing two of them. During the interrogation it became obvious that one of the cultists wasn't going to be helpful and Taras and Amhrán argued about the most humane way to execute him. Nether seemed that humane to me but I said out of it.

Eventually the remaining cultist explains what is going on as we burn the barn with the bodies in it and make our way back to Thoral. Jakob explains that he was rescued from his keir which was falling to horrors by Shanktooth and the cult of the Scourge over 10 years ago. The corpses are being shipped to Bamor in mass for some reason. We make our way back to Thoral and hand over Jakob and explain everything we have learned.

So it was an epic conspiracy that started with some caravans shipping the dead to Bamor. I also have begun to learn that this gift of being an adept has some benefits outside of just swinging a sword. I watched as Amhrán talked to the prisoner and others during this adventure. I discovered that I could pick up on some key words and gestures that allowed her to get things that I normally can't get others to do for me. I spent some additional time with her and was able to pick up some skill at haggling. It just felt natural as she explained it to me. Advanced earning seems like a side benefit that I never thought of before but will be taking advantage of in the future.

Rathan01
Posts:96
Joined:Sat Jul 25, 2020 6:50 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by Rathan01 » Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:01 pm

A journal entry from Barag Yurdum of House Yurdum,

I hear stories about strange silent caravans. I leave Gannagroth to go to Throal. Maybe there is job to look into strangeness. In Throal, several trading companies are interested in information about these caravans. I hear Clear Creek Crossing is best place to get information.

At Clear Creek I meet up with Amhran, Truck, R'edtarian, and Taras. They also look into caravans. We get info that there are 3 covered wagons in caravans. There are humanoids in dark grey robes that never come to town or speak with others. After multi-day stakeout we get word from guard that caravan passes by. We follow for two days. We find that horses leave no dung and the caravan takes no rest stops.

Caravan leads to Wolf Ridge. New place I have not been. Is abandoned and looks to be base. We hide outside town to spy and overhear patrol talk about Orc named Shank Tooth. These bandit names, do they think they are intimidating? It makes me think he needs dentist.

We see caravan load people sized bundles. I see that some bags are warmer than others. Maybe recently dead things? Caravan leaves after few hours and we sneak into edge of town to hide in empty house. We scout out building that people are using for storage. There are small number here so we decide to attack and take some prisoners for questioning. Attack goes well and we kill four “cultists”. Of two prisoners we are only able to get information from one as other is violent and must be put down.

We find out bad people are angry Scourge did not finish so they work to make it happen again. They seem to be based in Bamor where a horror is known to live. They are forcing people from closed Kaers to join them. They are shipping many many dead bodies of animals and namegivers to Bamor for “Undertaking”. We return to Throal and turn over prisoner to guards.

Lashana
Posts:167
Joined:Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:40 pm
Location:Virginia Beach, VA USA

Re: AAR: [2M] A Bump in the Night (2020-10-28 @ 23:00 GMT)

Post by Lashana » Fri Jan 29, 2021 6:26 am

Dearest Mishpokhe,

I once again signed on to adventure with a party and discovered that the human Taras would be traveling with me. He has a quite tragic history having lost his entire family and community to a horror during the scourge. And his family was (and still is) apparently quite large, with him having several wives and children, that he does not particularly like to spend time with. It’s unsettling. For this endeavor, we were hired to investigate “ghost-caravans” that everyone seemed to have been talking about. Word was that they behaved most strangely: traveling only at night, never going through the towns or exchanging news with other caravans and no one ever saw them stop to camp. Even their destinations seemed unusual: Wolf Ridge (long abandoned), Kier Bamor (full of horrors), Trayckid (Long known to have issues, currently being worked on). People couldn’t even agree on how many wagons were involved: some said one able to move at an unnatural pace and others said ten identical wagons.
The others in the party included not one but TWO warriors: one of them is another windling, a fierce little warrior named Truck and a ferocious human named R’edtarian. And I met my first elementalist, a dwarf named Barag. We had been given the info that they tend to travel through Creek Crossing, so we used that as our jumping off point. It took several days of waiting (some of us patiently, some of us not so patiently). But finally one passed through and we followed it, hoping to see where they stopped and what their traveling patterns were.
These guys weren’t normal, they didn’t stop or slow down or sleep. I mean they didn’t race through the night but still how did they not rest? And they headed to a former farmstead called Wolf Ridge, I’d never heard of it but apparently there is a story there. Lots of bad luck has found a home there. Taras stepped up and snuck up to follow the patrol into the farmstead to get the lay of the land. He was able to ascertain the name of the leader of the group, apparently he goes by Shanktooth.
Taras indicated that it was safe to follow and we watched them load the wagons with sacks. Taras just kept getting closer and closer. Once he had made his way back to us he told us the sacks had bodies in them. While the workers here, which the others had taken to calling cultists were working we searched the rest of the farmstead. We found all kinds of documents, ones that could be used to indict the guilty should it come to that. They clearly track how many and what kind of bodies have passed through here. It also listed several other locations where these operations are occurring and that there were multiple caravans in use. After a brief discussion on tactics, we opted to let the caravan leave to increase the odds of our success, because 18 seemed too many for us to confidently take on.
We let the caravan get several hours away from Wolf Ridge, R’edtarian and Truck just walked up to the body depot that housed the six remaining workers and just knocked on the door. They workers just launched themselves out at us and attacked. I got hit several times w/brutally strong attacks and I had to clear out of the fight and wait for my party members to finish them off, which they did fairly easily. We did manage to capture two of the cultists for interrogation. One of these captives proved to be quite resistant to reason. And then Taras wanted to torture him to make him talk, and I was trying to convince him that that was clearly unconscionable and we needed to practice humane jailer treatments of our captives. We could not throw him into the building as it was burning while he was alive. The humane thing would be to kill him first so he didn’t suffer. Apparently this conversation was enough to convince the captive to speak. He spills everything as we set the fire to the building, burning the bodies inside to ensure they are not used for whatever nefarious purposes they were heading for. Our captive, Jakob we learned, advised he was “rescued” from his kaer by Sharktooth before the horrors defiling it could consume him. That was over 10 years ago. The corpses are all sent to Bamore, he did not know why. Jakob supplied all this information as we made our way back to Throal where we turned him over to the proper authorities. And another adventure in the books, and I was able to teach Taras a thing or two to help save him a couple of coins.

With Love,
Amhran

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