Those Dripping Bones

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Summary

Adventure:Those Dripping Bones
GM:Bernard
Session: Summer 814
Night: Wednesday normally
Location: TBA
Level: Medium/Chewy

Party:

• Keith Smith -- Aqualina Pasifikan f. Hu. Water-mage
• Helen Saggers -- Rowan f. elv Binder; & Staff MilSci
• Ian Anderson -- Sau Rus m. Hu Necro (D)
• Ian Wood -- Sir Wojer m. elf warrior; some Air college;
• Michael Parkinson -- Hagan non-Mage mechanician, Gigolo, Arm/Weaponsmith; multi-Artisan; Herbalist 7 (L) Scirb
• Six
• Seven

House Rules: Opposed rolling will be in use.
Warriors please use new rules.
Due to party size, Mil Sci time out to be timed, and all players to have actions ready within 5 seconds of being asked in combat (Clarification questions permitted).
Bonus award for Mil Sci taking care of this themselves.

Employer:
Pasifikan Tribal Shamans.

Mission:
The Shamans from Pasifika have noticed that travel magic in the area is no longer as effective as it used to be, and this effect seems to becoming worse.
Additionally vague rumours are coming from the now far off southern islands of dark rituals occurring in the smaller villages under the local shamans.
These incidents may or may not be connected however the Shamans wish the Travel Magic issue solved.

Pay:
20,000sp each (advanced to the guild). Expenses for each individual are expected to be paid from this.
20 Arcane Points
30,000sp for discovering the cause of the travel magic failing, and fixing it if possible.
Additional Arcane points may also be awarded
Additional payments possible for solving of things above & beyond the initial brief.

Diary

CHAP-1

The Job & the pay

The Employer, Kinui Pahlunnee, is a Polynesian lord in shell armour, with 2 flunkies Malee Kalanee & Kiowa Kalanee, whose names indicates they have at least knightly status, so Aqualina tells us.

KP outlined the problem & our potential pay, that is when he wasn’t correcting what Aqualina said or reproaching on account of neglecting her heritage or forgetting the Ways of her People, f’rinstance “Stars ARE important when navigating, Aqualina”, which is a bit rough on Amiable Akkers (as she is sometimes known behind her very attractive back), cos that’s nothing compared with what she’s blurted out about the Guild or her Party on many a mission.
Aqualina: "I have learnt something in my years at the guild, contrary to popular belief".

THE PROBLEM : Seems Pasiphika is having problems travel magic (with waters, clouds, ‘n’ stuff) that started three weeks ago: bewitched boats are no faster than a good-but-unspelled vessel. It’s not the mages, it is the magic itself, cos they’re much faster when they come north but a weak mage still doesn’t go as fast as a powerful mage. Effect ceased 300 miles north of the shallow water [the plateau]

OUR REWARD : 20k for expenses; 30k more for finding out; bonuses if we actually solve the matter. Plus arcane points.

Employer will not come back initially, cos he may have to talk to the elves and is clearly not keen on it; so himself gave us Token of authority (Aquababe has it, so don’t let her forget it) and advised

• “Kahlia Nelly will be highest priest-shaman at the Temple to talk to on this matter”.
• “See Pohnoo Ooulau Hekkay if people need resurrecting”.

We got stores, Greaters, and headed off on horses to the portal in the Sea of Grass. The journey was quiet despite some brigands or possibly toll-collectors ... the subtle distinction was lost on us. Also trouble was avoided with some knights because Sau Rus thought discrete leather easier to travel in than his Bone Armour.

Stranger at the Gate

At the Lake near the Trilithic Gates to various places, including our Destination, Sau Rus sensed undead. While Hagan prepared a quick dinner with bonus herbs, a humanoid, perfectly human looking, in black approaches the party:
Rowan: “It’s strange to see a gentleman out here by himself”.
Gent-in-Black: It would be odd ... were I actually by myself.
[GTN: Deathknight. DA: currently controlling 30 “units”]

The Gentleman tried to sell us discounted truesilver armour, recently scarred & dented, but no longer required by its former wearers; unfortunately we declined and the business was too hot urgent for someone to come for it in a month or two from, for example, the Seagate Guild which is notoriously accommodating in the second-hand possessions market. He couldn't wait; and declined our offer to melt it on the spot ... to make it easier to sell as scrap.

On Pasifikan Shores

Come thru at late afternoon. Dark cloud on the East horizon -- BIG dark cloud, totally obscuring the view of the volcanic island in that vicinity. By evening, we reached the trade centre -- call it a city, growing fast. The walls have been enlarged, not by clumsy elementals but Proper Walls built by hundreds of workmen per day. We went to the inn near the land-gate. A sliver each (or 10 for the entire room) so, same-diff, we 5 moved in with our the horses. Rowan's Golem cleaned up & crushed lavender was spread about.

We got info from the mercenaries/hands -- winds for the boats have been slow; ditto currents. But the mages don’t seem to be getting as tired (for low level mages). There's not lots of watermages trading (only 20 to 30 maged boats total). Less runs, therefore cutting down on the numbers of crew.

DAY ONE (ie Next day), Aqualina, Rowen, & Sau Rus went to lower pasifika (10 mi away) expects to travel at 7 mph, only went less than 3 mph but the spell is still active; Waveriding should have been 22mph; was 7MPH ...

In general ALL Travel magic is about a third of the speed, but lasts three times as long.

Bumps (& Broken Bones) in the night

That night Sau Rus detected undead within 600’, but NO number, direction, or type. A blue-eyed Kitten turned up after loose talk from Acqualina & demands fish, speaking a little Horse (sick!). That-which-will-not-be-named (and his free-reign pennies) was suspected and WEIRD stuff happened:

1. Sau Rus disappeared for 12 minutes (we couldn’t find him). He said that Kitten Blue-eyes was trying to talk to him, but the sound was distorted, broken syllables. He'd experienced this before (perhaps) but couldn’t place it.
2. Then SR came back and the cat “squidged out” – not normal shadow walk, or teleport, or other forms of winking out.
3. Aq started a Waters of vision for info on the volcano/cloud. Hagen raised her morale slightly, but she still failed to make a 2xWP; and allegedly decided to aid what was coming through rather than hinder it.
4. At once, a Shadow Form appeared in the room: Hagan leapt in & punched it soundly from behind; magically taking FIVE grievous wounds himself: bleeding profusely, missing an ear; with disabled 1ry arm, 2ndry shoulder & 2ndry arm; and a bleeding leg.
5. It then swept the rest of the room.SR received broken Pelvis; Rowan has broken chest; ("Come back here, I've still got a leg to kick you with"). Four of the 5 horses were seriously crippled. And then the S. Form distorted out.
6. The suspiciously untouched Aqualina mentioned sensing something Dragonlike and went for help -- Given the violence & screams, the others in the Inn were aware of "goings-on".

Aqualina's [first?] Nomination for Stupidest Adventurer

Aqualina was advised by the Innkeeper to get Healers (ie, indigenous priestly sorts), but the religious Knights of Baranor to ask for help:
Aqualina: “I was doing a Waters of vision when I AIDED something coming through ..."
Short story: knights tromp in; 4 horses put down, but the Necromancer wasn't; the party were healed at the Kinghts of Baranor compound; taking up to four days for Rowen and SR in the infirmary; Hagan, after the ear was attached, helping out with Herbalist stuff. Sau Rus had a bad time of it, being restrained and preached at for four days while his pelvis was reconstructed ... all on consecrated ground: "See he is recovering, all his limbs are twitching”

Hagan, to Sau Rus: "Stop slapping Aqualina on the head ... you can't put any weight into it until your pelvis is cured"

Party takes in the various Shrines

We visited the shrine of Iti-Manuka to see if they know anything odd about travel magic or if they know what is going on. He is but a simple priest, so he said, who suggested we should visit the temples of Papa (healer Earth-mother) & Rangi (Sky father). These are a Double-Temple: One (Rangi’s, up stairs, raised from the ground) symbolically over the other (Papa’s, down steps into the Earth). We descended into a natural cave, which comfortable & comforting, like a super-large Hobbit Hole.

Under prompting, Aqualina produced the Authority, and the acoloyte came back later with a cackling wise-women (called “the Mother”). The slow travel is effecting them severely because word that a healer is needed is much slower in coming and it’s slower to get a healer where she is needed ... they now need about SIX times the current number of healers. [MilSci Logistics Alert] NB: The Resurrector travels!

The mother advised:

• It is possible that Aqualina was, in fact, seeing the future instead. [>>>Could Philosophers of magic, or a watermage, confirm this?]
  
• The old ways (Blood magic) is rumoured to have returned.

Chap 2: The Voyage begins

In the underground cave of Papa, the party wibbled over “Where do we go from here?” After enough of such hesitant pfaffle to bore an elf (!), Sir Wojer anounces “Lets go east to the volcanic cone. That’s why he’s leader.

We bought a 21’ canoe (for 1000sp). The used-canoe salesman threw in lots of optional extras like netting between the hull & out-rigger, but no mast or sail: It weighs a ton; it carries a ton. We’d already noticed that the unrest from unemployed sailors — because the travel is so slow, labour cost would have tripled if most sailors hadn’t been laid off, and the rest desperate to work for much lower wages.

There were three sail-driven, proper, large boats in the harbour: a normal cog (or “ship”), and two different double-canoes. We chose one of the latter, called Cat-à-meringue (ick! Sounds disgusting), which was about to leave on a trading run ... East then South. We were given free passage because of SW’s air magic: together with their magic current, the ship can now rip along at 15mph! Which is considered fast, these days, so we get to Waiheke (pron. Why-Hecky) by dusk rather than dawn the next day. They pulled up on the beach; unloaded junk; loading up different stuff. During the trip, our mages noticed that the mana itself was stop-starting with travel magic

Next day, we entered under the cloud. Getting closer, we saw a twin-coned Island (Kailua Kona) spewing thick black smoke, lightning flickering around the peaks. Up the slope of onecone we see some buildings: the temple of Pelé. The Harbour village was a bit more fortified – there’ve been Lots of monsters lately, since the big island rose from the sea: zombies, sahuagin, adventurers , ‘n’ shit. The Cat is heading south an hour after dawn; they’ll drop off our canoe if we’re not back from the Temple by then.

We headed up to the temple. Beyond the Offering statue, the. accolytes we met said the High Priest was up on the peak communing with the Deity. We encountered a less lofty holy dude : Kalei Nili (30 yr old, m), When he said “You’re the Help!”, we realised coincidentally he’s the person the employer told us to meet. Lucky break! SirW introduced us.

K.N. CONFIRMED: All the islands and the merfolk & the sea elves are experiencing the Slowing; also Wind-speaking also effected. The southern islands’ ancestors have prompted their people to return to the old way. SW notices that Northern Boundary of the Effect is about the equator. Sognificant?

What’s causing it?

Kalei Nili offered to take a specific divinary question up to the High priest, and we settled on: What change is occurring to the balance of the Powers? ***IS THIS RIGHT?

Meanwhile, before we were confused by any further input, the party wildly conjectured on what the cause or Big Picture reason might be:

1. SauRus did a Philosopher guess and thought it might be a god, or calimar, but NOT the Powers
   
2. Possibly it’s a "Natural causes": a Side-efect of someone swiping something shiny they shouldn’t have.
   
3. Curse from, one of the many powerful nasties recently killed. Some party-members insisted on Naming probable suspects -– which is kind of stupid (especially if they’re right!)
   
4. Curse from, one of the many powerful demons interested in the area or in a position to flex muscles given how many souls have been trading hands recently; plus the recent power fluctions in Lets-call-it-Heck. Naturally, some party-members insisted on Naming ... ditto ditto)
   
5. It a pre-invasion Deliberate Magic Effect to stop people fleeing at high speed. (especially if the invaders want slaves, sacrifices, food, or other Icky-ness.
   
6. For example a Kraken or other attack from the Depths
   
7. Or Drow invasion (now that the one in the north has bogged down).Likewise a Drow beach-head in the Sea of Grass is not a good idea.
   
8. Or Calimar invasion, given that it is both anti-magical and decreasing the effectiveness of the Healer priests & others.
   
9. The logistic crippling of the Healer service, together the labour unrest from unemployed and economic instability from the increased costs of trade goods and the anticipated scarcity (higher costs for far fewer items arriving per week), would cause riots, destabilise the existing authorities, creating discord & disaffection in the larger towns ... strife that would benefit an invader.

SauRus: But we’re better, more rash than the priests.”
Sir Woger: “Rash is Not an abbreviation of Rational.”

The reading

The 8-line reading was:

Star Bright / Dark Hosts Cry / Rejoice / Ancestor Ascended / To Downward Throne / Death / Horrors Abound / Gates Open

Clearly this confirmed Drow invasion; Demonic or Underworld revolution; and/ Or Local Spirits descending to the Big Time; Necromancy; the Gates of Heck or some other plane.

Clearly this confirmed Drow invasion; Demonic or Underworld revolution; and/ Or Local Spirits descending to the Big Time; Necromancy; the Gates of Heck or some other plane.

-=Next stop: Manoe =

In the morning we went down down & boarded the “ship”. At Dusk, get to Manoe. Nearby Sea-Elves trade sea-goods & nodules of Iron, Silver, and “Mongoosium” for finished metal products: weapons, tools, buckles. Also Black shells from “Iron Crabs” (semi-magical, substantial creatures), that are smithed like Iron weapons at the local Human village. The god of weather (Tawhere) is worshipped in the local village. No further info for Acqualina.

The sea elves didn’t understand anything special about “Downward Throne”, nor does it have any submarine significance for them. The Next day we raced along at 20 mph !! The next island has a “magical cloud” extend out about a fuzzy mile.

Blood rites

(more to come shortly

Mil Sci

Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	S.W	H	S	R	A	x
Water Breathing	20	Allows seeing through fog	21 hours	-	YYY	Y	-	Y	-
Resist Cold	12	Staying warm	13 hours	-	?	-	-	-	-
Waterproofing	8	Staying dry	Objects: 45 days, Entities: 27 hours	-	Y	Y	-	-	-
Necrogency	20	-6 Draining,-25 infection,+65% v fear	25 hours	-	Y	Y	-	Y	-
Wraith Cloak	13	+20 def, -4 Dmg,+14 Stealth	7 hours	-	Y	Y	-	Y	-
Spectral Weapon	13	+14 SC, +5 Dmg	18 mins	-	n	-	-	Y	-
Dark Vision	8	130 foot See in Dark	9 hours	-	-	Y	-	-	-
				-	-	-	-	-	-

Map

Map of Pasifika with 25 mile hex grid overlay.
Islands other than Rangiwhero are not represented to scale, simply location.

Calendar

Summer
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Beltane
Meadow (1)
			1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5	White Lotus	6	Seagate Light Festival
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14	New Moon	15		16		17		18		19	The Castellan Borderers Ball	20
	21		22		23		24		25		26	Seagate Crafters Ball	27
	28	Full Moon	29		30
Heat (2)
							1		2		3		4	Seagate Guildmasters Ball
	5		6		7		8		9		10	Seagate Races	11	The Duke of Carzala's Summer Ball
	12	New Moon	13		14	Midsummers  Eve  (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17	Seagate Summer Fair Day	18	Seagate Summer Fair Day
	19		20		21		22		23		24	The Castellan of Brastor's Summer Ball	25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30
Breeze (3)
											1		2
	3	Day of Death	4		5		6		7		8		9
	10	New Moon	11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24	Full Moon	25		26		27		28		29		30