AAR 2M: A Lady in Need May Pay Indeed [Saturday Oct 23, 2021 at 2200 GDT / 6:00 PM EDT / 5:00 PM CDT / 3:00 PM PDT]

The current version of the Earthdawn West Marches Discord campaign, effective Jan 1, 2020

Moderator:etherial

sigfriedmcwild
Posts:335
Joined:Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:59 am
Re: AAR 2M: A Lady in Need May Pay Indeed [Saturday Oct 23, 2021 at 2200 GDT / 6:00 PM EDT / 5:00 PM CDT / 3:00 PM PDT]

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:31 am

The following is an extract from a collection of notes left at the door to the great with no indication of provenance. The text was badly encrypted and contains numerous references to some kind of archive of information that the library has no access to.

Now that I had been deemed fully trained by my master [A003] I was looking for a first run to start getting my name out, that's how I found Cesar [A017] looking to build a team. The johnson was House Branthensmere [H028] working with Grigori, Fukse & Hvordan [C034] as the fixers.

Their hiring process was overly convoluted and probably horrendously expensive for what looked like a simple job: go to Pheasant Hollow [T008] and find the brother of Ryswyn Branthensmere [N1328] who had disappeared together with several other villagers (full list and sketches on the back). Notably the johnson and fixer were completely unconcerned with the other disappearances and only really cared because the shock of the news had almost caused a miscarriage in the lady (I have to wonder if their concern was more for the lady or for the "bundle of joy"). The fixer also informed us that a team of prime runners would be sent a few days later to recover the brother if we couldn't do it ourselves.

I was still in too good a mood from my breakfast at the Klava Mine [THTH246] to build a proper amount of proletarian rage and no one else in the team (Garak [A018], Kalandar [A019], Kelek [A020]) seemed bothered so we just took the job, the info packet, and went to meet our escort to the village.

We spent the new few days riding hard with Alyssa [N1327] who as a real professional refused to discuss any details of house business (hiding something?) but was happy to regale use with a rendition of Ryswynn's and Trygve's [N1348] romance that could have come straight from the gossip pages of News from the Underground [PJN003].

Once at the location (and having dealt with the appropriate rituals) we started gathering information and got the full up to date list of missing namegivers, including Ryswynn's father [N1331]. We also rescued a child [A021] from her alcoholic father [N1345], Cesar felt the kid has adept potential too.

Turns out the kid's mother [N1335] had disappeared too and the kid had witnessed her leaving: "mommy looked she was covered in bandages and black eye makeup that was there but not there" and "the flute voice wants you to follow it and is going to the bad place". The mother had walked west into the jungle [G003].

Armed with this information and Garak's tracking talent, we left Kirsti with Alyssa and set out following the tracks of one of the more recent disappearances Chandra [N1341] and Starr [N1342].

In the jungle we found monkeys fighting each other, except some were undead. Our approach didn't go unnoticed and we had to fight some off, which we did without too much difficulty. Some more tracking later and we reached a cave entrance [G004]. Not very far inside we found a pit trap with a young orc body at the bottom (I believe her to be Angie [N1332]).

We had a brief discussion if we should stop here or not, but I was not willing to back down when we could still save some of the villagers and the others seemed to feel the same way. Garak in particular was very keen to push on. I flew past the pit to do a bit of recon as the others got across, the cave went deeper with more evidence of traps long sprung.

Eventually we got to a room with statues, a sand pit, and loads of drawings on the walls. The sand actually hid a swarm of murderous scarabs which limited our approaches until the walking corpses of some of the villagers walked out from behind a hidden door humming a weird song that seemed to keep the scarabs calm.

I managed to teach the others enough of the song that we could make it across to the statues and the paintings (sketch attached). After some examination we figure out that a small offering of blood in a dish held by one of the statues would open the door. Behind the door is another room with more paintings on the wall, and the corpses standing there, waiting for something.

Cesar started examining the paintings and claimed to be able to read them and went in a long spiel about a monkey passion and funerary rites I have no idea if any of it was true or not, Illusionists...

There's a door knocker on one of the walls which, when I ring it, gets another secret door opened revealing another room, with more paintings.

More Ceasar droning about the life of one Bab-ef-Myrt [N1349], slaver, murderer, and Theran lackey.

More rooms, this time with a hole in the ground that looks like a petrified horror's mouth, exactly what mom told me never to fly into. On the other hand there was a little girl at the bottom...

Underneath is a larger cave system which we explore until we find a group of mummies working on creating more mummies from the prisoners. We make short work of them and manage to get everyone still alive (see back) out and back to the village.

The next day the prime runners arrive and set out on cleaning up any leftover undead. The mummified villagers are still somewhat alive and most of them want to be freed, except Gerald [N1329] who wants to be made in an item.

Gupta [A022] took Kirsti in so she could be trained.

And all ended well for the rich farts.

Post Reply