Taurba - After Action Report 3

We traveled from the Kaer to the site of Uqbar City. Following the path laid out by group 2, we arrived at our destination in about a day’s travel.

The remains of Uqbar City were not much to look at. Bones of countless name givers surrounded the bones of the city. The tent, gear and cart left by group were found where they said they would be. No signs of Urmann Bey or Guarani were at first found. We searched the city for signs of the missing members of groups 2 and 3. This search was successful in another way. We located a hidden chamber under one of the ruined buildings in the northwest section of the city.

Within we found a refuge that could be used as a shelter. We also found the long dead remains of a name giver. Cetharel experienced its death. He died in defense of the city gently succumbing to his wounds within the shelter.

We also examined the central well. Oren and Ermin physically traveled the shaft and I scanned it with my vision. Nothing was found.

Cetharel was examining the area with astral sight when she noticed beings standing sentry by the entrance of the former keep. We approached and discovered these beings to be elf-like but something was wrong. We tried to talk but the creatures did not respond. As we drew closer, I could see Urmann Bey kneeling within the building. I cut down the first sentry with my axe. It fell easily. Erin attacked the other with a similar result. I rushed forward to attempt to rescue our companion but found that there were more of the creatures within.

To our horror, it appeared that the creatures were only faking their disablement. The ones that were felled jumped up and attacked with claws. The ones within the keep attacked with foul magics. I was knocked from my feet and suffered great injury. Ermin and Cethreal were pressed at the door and Oren was pinned down upon the roof. Quinn raced forward from the central well at the sounds of battle.

I fought my way back out to my companions. I drank my healing potion and retreated to the group. Not fooled again by their false death tactics, we killed the two at the entry and the two that I engaged within. We took what shelter we could against the keep walls. More of the creatures exited the structure and we cut them down. Ermin fell to injury but we managed to hold off the enemy. Once we had killed 7 of their number, the remaining 3 creatures ran away. We did not give chase.

We went immediately to the aid of Urmann Bey but it was too late. The dwarf unfortunately was possessed by the same horror that had recently attacked the Kaer. The thing spoke to us through our former comrade.

“One hundred plus forty eight.  I counted each one as they died.  I had to count fast.

The old man didn't send the boy.  Maybe he's worried someone's closing in on the truth. 

There are still six left.  Three orks, a human, a troll and a dwarf.  Follow the stone road south to find the dwarf.  I promise to return some of them...alive.  Trust me...have I ever lied to you?  All I say will come true.

I cannot smell my servants.  I hope you caused them pain...

Remind the old man of what I said in the cave.  Follow the road south, no more than a day, I reckon, but hard to tell, the weak move so slow.

When you go back to the kaer, do not stay too long.  I do not want you there when it happens.  You must be alive to see...an artist needs an audience.  But - this would not have happened if the old man had told you the truth.  It is all his fault.  Good-bye, for now."

With the last, the body collapsed and moved no more. We removed its head.

The remains of the elf-like monsters were gathered. We burned them all. For Urmann Bey, Cetharel performed the embalming and we said some words about our fellow name giver.

We rested for the remainder of the day and the next before heading south along the Imperial Highway. Along the road we encountered what Cetharel called a cemetery. It was a large plot of land marked with stones protruding vertically from the earth. Cetharel explained that this was a place of the dead. Apparently the ancestors choose to bury their dead rather than burn them.

Upon approach, we spotted a robed figure standing at the outskirts of this cemetery. Its back was turned to us and it did not respond to our greetings. It gave off no heat to my vision but it moved slightly so I knew it was not a statue. The group approached within close distance but still received no answer.

After that, all I can recall is pain. Never-ending pain. It is not clear how long we were tortured by the thing but it could have been lifetimes. Apparently the creature released Ermin before the rest of the group. They spoke about the T'skrang. The creature also gave him two daggers excavated from the ground, from a grave of one of the ancestors. It then left and released the rest of us from the agony.

Once we had recovered our senses, it was clear that no real physical harm had been inflicted. It had just been pain. The psychic scars would take longer than the body to recover.

We investigated the grave to see if we could learn anything further. The hole contained the skeleton of a human woman. Cetharel used a spell to experience the creature’s death. She learned that the warrior had died fighting near Uqbar City. She wielded one of these daggers. Another, a male human fought nearby and also wielded one of the weapons.

We continued our journey south and eventually came to the Imperial monument, Attar’s Gate. It was with dread that we approached. A grim sight was before us. Stretched between the massive arch was the remains of Vivake Mandal. The dwarf had been skinned alive and suspended upside down by stretched limbs. One eye was dangling from the socket. The body was affixed to the stone by daggers. Papers, pages from a book, were painted with a message written in blood. It said “Pain and Blood will bond our Patterns”.

The inscription upon the arch left by the original builders read “Attar defeated Talwor the Bastard at this place - 114. The Empire hence bestowed peace upon this region.”

I brought down the remains of Vivake Mandal. Cetharel again performed her solemn duty. It is worrisome how frequent it has been needed and how familiar we have all become with this ritual. We burned the body and the bloody papers.

We searched the area for any signs of the horror or our lost companions. The investigation took an entire day. We were unable to locate any clues on where to proceed. We will be heading back to Kaer Uqbar to seek additional information and orders. May the Passions have mercy on the missing. A clean death is the best that we can hope for at this point.

Taurba - After Action Report - Supplemental 2

The return trip to Kaer Uqbar was pleasantly uneventful. Once we arrived at the kaer, the doors opened almost immediately. It appeared that Group 3 had returned from their mission just prior to our arrival. They were in the midst of performing the Greeting Ritual when the doors were opened to allow us to enter.

Only Couyoumjian, Greifif and Aklampa Tendjedj were present from Group 3. Aklampa was apparently having difficulty performing his artisan skill under pressure. Mir Bandahur and Tiska, Cetharel and Melancha all stepped forward to examine Aklampa with astral sight. This unfortunately revealed that there was a horror-tainted being within our midst. What was formerly Aklampa swung its sword at an unsuspecting crossbowman, decapitating him.

I quickly joined Melancha to fend off the threat, stepping in front of Cetharel and Mir Bandahur. Unfortunately it attacked Mir first. The wizard took a savage hit and was knocked to the ground. Cetharel pulled him back a safe distance. Ermin enhanced by Oren and Quinn and Couyoumjian both joined us in the physical assault. I managed a few strong blows with my axe and took an impressive, bone-jarring strike myself in return. It was very well struck and knocked me to the ground. Eventually K’Leen joined the fight attempting to grapple the possessed troll. The combined assault of weapons and spells soon reduced the monster to a bloody corpse.

After the fight, Melancha summoned the Heresiarch. He arrived quickly.

As the Heresiarch approached it, Aklampa’s corpse animated and spoke in a horrific, other-worldly voice. It addressed the Heresiarch. They appeared to be familiar with each other. The Horror threatened the Heresiarch and the kaer and commented upon his sword. Could this be the same Horror that had breached the kaer before? The Heresiarch did not let the foul thing speak for long. He quickly severed the corpse’s head and bisected the skull for good measure.

The body was quickly embalmed and burnt. Everyone present had to undergo the Greeting Ritual and scrutiny through astral sight. The process took days but eventually we were allowed to re-enter the kaer.

We gave our report and heard those of the survivors from Groups 3 and 4. For our part, we told the story of locating the survivors of Group 4, the battle and the information gained from conversation with Gvint the Obsidiman Purifier from the village of Trosk. We had heard the tale of Group 4 previously from Monsanto. The mended Anneal added many clarifying and minute details.

The report from Group 3 was the most disturbing. No signs of Group 2 had been found and both Urmann Bey and Guarani vanished during the night. I fear that Aklampa’s fate may have been the worst, being forced to perpetuate an honor-less attack against heart and home. I hope for a better fate for the missing but suspect that something just a foul may have happened to them.

Later after resting, eating and cleaning up, we again told our exploits to the gathered kaer. Groups 3 and 4 also did the same. I joined in Oren’s dramatic re-enactment of portions of the battle. I also make hemp versions of the honor-less troll for the children. 

The next day, training began. Increasing one’s inner magic requires much discipline and study. Tamesna is a diligent teacher. She drilled me for 5 days straight. Academically, she covered the value and practice of tactics. Physically, she drilled me on keeping my feet, avoiding attacks and a healthy dose of sparing and punishment. Apparently, increased magic is purchased with blood, sweat and aching muscles.

Dice

I will be placing an order with Paizo in January. I get a 15% subscription discount plus a bonus 10% holiday discount. They sell Chessex dice sets of 7 (1 each d4; d6; d8; d10; d10 decimal; d12; d20). You can look at them here - http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/c/chessex/dice/setsOf7

I can get the fancier sets ($9.98) for $8.09; the speckled sets ($5.95) for $4.83; the translucent sets ($5.50) for $4.46; the opaque sets ($3.85) for $3.13.

There is the Bag of 20 option - http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/c/chessex/dice/bagsOf20 which I can get for $21.15. These include one d4; three d6; one d8; six d10; one Tens 10; one d12; seven d20.

There is also the Pound of Dice option - http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/c/chessex/dice/assorted which I can get for $28.34.

If anyone wants me to order them some, or anything else from Paizo, just let me know which ones and how many.

Off the Cuff Pattern

How about something like this?

Orenger's Ossemble!!!

One of other cool concepts for Earthdawn magic is the idea of creating a Group True Pattern. We come up with our group name and symbol and create a pattern that we can weave threads into that give us bonuses. You can see more details starting on p.233, but I just wanted to put this out there to get people thinking about some group names and symbols as we go through our adventures.

Taurba - After Action Report 2

As feared, the other two groups did not return by the deadline. The other returned scouts were sent in search of the group which headed east to explore whatever was left of Uqbar City. Our group was sent out to find out what became of the group which was sent to scout northward to Lake Akhicha.

We had not been out of the Kaer long before we spotted a structure in the blasted landscape. As we approached, an opposition force revealed itself from concealment. The leader was an honor-less troll, evidenced by his lack of horns. The rest appeared to be orc or humans dressed it desert garb. They outnumbered our group nearly 3 to 1. The enemy prepared to attack but was stopped in their charge by words from Oren.

The opposition halted and proceeded with a mockery or negotiation lead by our Windling. Basically they demanded all of our water and would allow Quinn to leave unharmed with enough water to support the Obsidiman. I called out the troll, stating that I doubted that he would keep his word on even such a lopsided agreement. The battle was joined!

Oren used magic to confound the troll and the first few desert men. I charged the enemy striking a mighty blow with my axe. Things did not go so smoothly after that. Another enemy appeared from concealment and ordered the rest to attack Oren. The enemy rushed forward and engaged the rest of our group. Oren was forced from the sky by arrow fire and had to seek shelter behind our water cart. Quinn, Cetharel and Ermin all were set upon by multiple attackers.

I was soon surrounded though I managed to avoid all attacks set against me. Cutting my way free, I withdrew to the rest of the group to help defend the beleaguered spell casters. Still I was able to avoid my opponent’s melee weapons but soon the distanced archer grew tired of firing at Oren and turned his attentions toward me. I did not fare so well against his arrows. The enemy’s true leader managed to hit me twice. A third blow would have surely felled me. I was forced to drink my gifted healing potion to remain standing.

Reinforcements for our side arrived from the structure in the distance. An Obsidiman and Monsanto Wallenrod appeared and harried the archer.

We managed to drop half of the enemy’s number before the rest decided to retreat. The troll added robbery to his list of dishonors as he ran off with our water cart. Cetharel, Ermin, Orin and I gave chase but we were not able to kill the coward before he out-distanced us.

Quinn had been rendered unconscious during the fight. We were able to stabilize our Obsidiman and bring Quinn to consciousness using Ermin’s extract. Of the fallen enemies, 4 were actually dead. The other 3 we tended to, bound and took as prisoners.

We located the group we were looking for but unfortunately we had arrived too late for most. Monsanto and Anneal FarTraveller both lived. Anneal was gravely wounded and suffered from a sickness. The others, Aris Marn, Tiryn Megara and Gabriel, were unfortunately dead. There were also strangers among the dead. The Obsidiman identified them as a dwarf named Harvel and a human named Zugebrian.

Cetharel performed funeral rights for all the fallen. We said word for our brethren from Kaer Uqbar. The Obsidiman, Gvint, said words for his companions. Our enemies were also given respect as fallen namegivers before being added to the funeral pyre.

Afterward we discussed many things with Gvint. He and Monsanto told us of how they came to be in each other's company. Apparently the scavengers we fought had been an even greater force when Monsanto's group encountered them, maybe as large as double their number. Group 4 managed to fight the scavengers but retreated to the abandoned barracks to avoid being overwhelmed. Gvint and his companions were already holed up inside. They fought a costly battle and siege which reduced the enemy by half but also cost them 5 of their own. Our arrival broke the siege and forced the enemy to retreat.

Further, the Obsidiman told us of the Badlands, in which Kaer Uqbar apparently is situated. He told us of his mission as a Purifier. He explained his mission to cleans the Badlands and restore life to the land. He and his companions were on a mission to explore an abandoned kaer in hope of finding the source of the blight which is at the heart of the Badlands and allowing it to spread. This he believed to be located to the southeast of the ruins of Uqbar City.

He told us of his village of Trosk and many other settlements situated outside of the Badlands where things are green and water flows in the Serpent River. His village is located about two weeks travel to the northwest. Apparently the Scourge has been over for some time. Namegivers The told us of the Providence of Barsaive, the dwarves of Throal, the elves of Blood Wood and of two wars with the Therans. Apparently some tragedy occurred involving Quinn's life rock during the latest war.

We parted company with Gvint with an invitation to look him up in Trosk. We traveled back to Kaer Uqbar with our three prisoners and wounded in tow.

Post Combat Review

I was thinking that there would be some benefit to do a postmortem on our combat from last session. As a group, I think our characters may want to discuss how we should/could do things differently the next time. I think that there might also be some value in optimizing our characters based upon what we now know the outside to be like. Things like equipment and spell selection come to mind. It would be nice if we were collectively aware of our assets in case someone see and opportunity that someone else may have missed.

I believe that our characters would benefit from more training with fighting together. This would help to learn synergies and weaknesses.  We have the opportunity to role play this during our next session and if the players find it valuable, we could also "roll play" it to practice combat for the players. Jon is on board but we need to give him some notice to prepare if we plan to do an actual Danger Room-like, attack to stun session against other friendly adepts.

It is really a matter of how much game time that we want to spend. I could go either way. Playing out a mock combat might eat up much of the session time but might work well to knock off the rust. It might also be a good opportunity to experiment with the other advanced combat options.