Monthly Archives: May 2023

The Final Obituary of Telosh Winterborne

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Dear Mr Okken Winterborne,

I write to you as the last, and final, companion of your son, Telosh Winterborne. Perhaps you have been made aware that your son has been fighting the slavers known as the Dark Hand for more than a year now, and unfortunately they were able to get the upper hand in the woods to the Northeast of the Copper Hills Fort.

While Chia-eenee shot the arrow that almost surely killed your son, we were unable to check his body as it was carried away by the giant that haunts these woods. Perhaps you will take some small solace in knowing that your son helped defeat three of the Dark Hand’s most ruthless agents in that same combat, although I regret to inform you that Chia-eenee was able to escape in the confusion of the giant’s arrival.

It was my great pleasure to have discovered Telosh at his lowest; drinking and throwing fights for small-time criminal bets, and to have seen his embrace of the battle against the Dark Hand and of taking up the path of the Peacemakers.

During our short time together, your son fought the Dark Hand with his wits and with his strong-arm. He visited the lost Dwarven city of Dura-Intun, and helped slay the black dragon that dwelled under the mountain. He stole a powerful artifact of the goblin god. He ransomed a Sutheroni noble working for the Dark Hand on more than one occasion. He helped drive the goblin army away from the Copper Hills fort when they were led by Barra, including helping kill a troll. When magic was unleashed in the the Copper Hills mine, he worked diligently to reverse the threat to humanity. He saw the ancient Sword Chaotic, and had the good sense to leave it alone. He confronted the enemies of humanity known as Malor and the Arru-Norroth, and walked away to write about it in his book.

During all of our adventures, Telosh spoke often and fondly of yourself, Dakun, Sven, Gorf, and Dirk.

Unfortunately none of your sons belongings were able to be included with this letter, since the body was carried away by the previously mentioned giant.

My deepest condolences on your loss,
Alexis Laelius of the Crimson Calling

Hazards of the Trade

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Shortly after Alexis gives Ezrin the two priceless potions from sometime around the second age, Alexis sits down with Ezrin.

“You’re new here, and I worry you have an orientation towards treasure hunting that is not shared with the Crimson Calling. The speed with which you wanted to bundle up all the artifacts in your supplies. The clear frustration around being robbed of treasure. These things worry me, and I will share where my fears come from. You have come to us recently, but the Crimson Calling has been around for years and dealt with many treasure-obstacles, and I consider myself very, very, fortunate to have made it this far.”

“While I have always led the Crimson Calling, I have claimed virtually none of the artifacts from our adventures, even though it is my right as the leader. In our first major find, only Gus and Red walked away with priceless items of power.” Alexis gives a shrug clearly showing that this doesn’t bother him.

“Significantly later, on a quest from a powerful patron, two of us were perverted by a powerful magic item and had to be subdued to finish our quest. It is for the best we did not keep that item.”

“One of our previous companions suffered from artifact-avarice such that he stole from us in the night and wandered off with a significant fortune. He has since spent, drank, or gambled all of it and is in a very lonely place.” Alexis looks clearly sad about this last part.

“Another time, one of us succumbed to an item of power beyond comprehension and enslaved most of the rest of us. Thankfully our close bonds allowed us to overcome this item.”

“One of us stumbled upon madness, possibly in the presence of several powerful forces/items/powers, and unleashed a threat to this whole area. The two wyverns that were spotted were part of that madness, and we were fortunate that we were able to prevent many, many, more dark creatures from flocking to this area.”

“Related to the madness I just mentioned, one of us carelessly touched the creation (mentioned earlier) without thinking about the consequences and unleashed a minion of a dark power. A being of corruption and lies. There are still times I wake up in a sweat seeing that corrupted being.” Alexis shivers at the thought.

“More recently, we had someone with us who had learned secrets to use our magics against us. Gus was most affected by this using-our-magics against us, possibly given how magical he is” Alexis looks towards the holy grove for a moment.

“These are the cautionary tales we three live with every day. This is why we don’t see all treasure as equal. Why all power isn’t to be sought with the same ferver.”

“But you know we don’t eschew treasure. You know of the Mithril Lord, who was created because the Crimson Calling pooled our treasure to make sure he would be rewarded for his time with us.”

“And even those that try hard, but fail, we still attempt to reward if we can. Before you, we have traveled with many others. At one point we had the son of a rich man join us for the ‘glory’ of it. And even though he nearly got us killed by the giant, we still rewarded him with a trophy head for his future tales of glory with us.”

“We have refused to work with powerful forces that do not align in treating magics with the sort of care we know is important. They are not our enemies, but we have to go our separate ways. And you have the same question in front of you now Ezrin. Will you embrace the Crimson Calling, even if it means you may never see any magical treasure of your own, or will you strike out on your own for treasure that you may study from, learn from, and grow rich off of?” Alexis looks relaxed but expectant for an answer.

The Dwarven Job

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“It was eight or nine years ago, probably a year or so before I received The Invitation. I was apprenticed to a locksmith. My parents were both Known. I’d done some good work of my own though, stepped up from the kiddie stuff. Some second-story work and some tunnel work. I was Known, and young.”

“So a Friend came to talk to me, he and some other Friends had been talking with Someone about some ruins on Mount Sutheron, out past The Horsetrader’s estates…

“It was mid-autumn, we set out early during the Festival of Oo-rin, after making a small offering and promising a larger one if our ‘harvest’ was successful… festivals are an auspicious time for A Job after all.

We were a small team, as usual: myself, the Doors and Traps man… Bragnasar, a great climber, classic Second Story man, and good in tunnels too. We’d worked together before several times. Then, uh… Sibrah, some muscle mostly, but a good climber and good swimmer, did a lot of work on the docks… Dunbar, a thug and aspiring pit fighter I hadn’t worked with much before, but I knew he had a level head… and Stackin, a sage I’d never met before that claimed to be working for a Lord Allbah, from what I remember, Sibrah knew him from a previous job? I’m not so sure Stackin was working for Lord Allbah, frankly a lot of Jobs at the time were supposedly for Lord Allbah… it was kind of an inside joke back then… and I think some jobs really were for or at least connected to Lord Allbah…”

Anyhow, Stackin and SIbrah led us to an old pile of ruins in the hills around the base of The Mountain, and a somewhat hidden, somewhat collapsed entrance to a… cave? dungeon? ruins?

“The entrance itself was collapsed, but once we were about ten feet in the cave turned into a well crafted hallway. We proceeded cautiously, tapping here and there, lanterns high.

“About 100 feet in or so we encounter the first of several ancient well built traps. Sibrah claimed we were in ancient dwarven ruins around that point. It was a simple crossbow trap but with an ingenious floor-based trigger system and some sort of self-reloading crossbow built into the wall. I wish I could have studied it more, but I disabled it with a couple small wedges in the floor tile to keep it from moving down when stepped on.

“We continued deeper into the mountainside, and eventually came to some stairs. Another trap! These well built stone stairs were designed to… roll over onto a smooth surface. I was able to locate a hidden off-switch though and we descended the stairs.

“About halfway down though, a landing and another trap! This one was a huge Dwarven face, with a vent in the mouth that seemed like it spewed and lit oil. Again, the same floor based trigger mechanism, but the whole landing was difficult to secure. It took a bit, and was a little tricky since by this point the stairs were along the side of a large natural cavern, I was able to climb over the side with some rope held by… Bragnasar and… Sibrah, and wedge the trigger-stones into place and we were able to move safely past.

“At the bottom of the stars was a room worked out of the natural cavern and three heavy wooden doors. And three strange corpses.”

“The corpses were dead dwarves. Stackin was very excited, and very impressed with how well their corpses were preserved, for as old as they must have been. They were dry, they still had a leather skin over the bones… We searched them, and Stackin lay claim to all the items with writing on them, there were runes on most of the weapons, at least the axes and hammers, and some the daggers too.”

Ezrin reaches over to his pack and pulls out his dagger,

“Not this one though.”

He hands the dagger to Alexis. It looks like it could be dwarven made, no runes, not even small smithmarks though.

“Anyhow, we packed up all we could, their plate mail and everything. Set most of it into a ready to pile, and carried the most valuable items with us. Stackin took a few scrolls with him, we all took gold, silver, and a few smaller weapons. There were a few rings too.”

“One of the doors was clearly damaged and Stackin led us through it.

“50 feet or so down that hall, Dunbar triggered but dodged a truly amazing scythe-like blade trap. It would have split him open had he not jumped back so fast! I disabled it as well, the pressure plates were very well hidden though, it was a tough one…”

“We passed some old barrack type spaces, everything made of stone and just a little off in size. There were some runes that Stackin copied down in a few spots. An empty armory type space, kitchens and a dining hall… all stone and a little off..

“It was just past the dining hall that Stackin noticed something odd along the wall, he and I investigated it together, he used a spell at this point, ‘Lanua Invenire Dìomthair” I think now…

“It was a well-hidden door, we found the trigger stone, and followed the low passage it opened into.

“It was only a few yards away that the skeletal dwarves attacked. It was a tough fight, their plate armor, and most of us have short swords or daggers. Dunbar had a small flail though, and he liked to disarm his opponents, and we all knew how to help a Friend out in a fight, so once we figured out what we needed to do… Stackin cast at least one spell, but I was fighting with an improvised club at the time I didn’t really understand what he had done. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea. 

Sibrah got hurt a bit, I got a little roughed up, but not bad, and Bragnasar was pretty hurt, but able to press on.

“Again, we quickly searched the bodies, took a few small weapons immediately and set aside the armor and larger weapons for quick retrieval and followed what we could make out of the trail of dwarves. Stackin seemed to be able to track them?

“It wasn’t long after that that we felt IT. The rage was palpable, alien, righteous, and terrifying. Stackin urged us on an we tried, entered in a small room with a door, the door had a few runes on it, some more scratched in than laid in you know? They looked like some sort of warning to me, and I said so.

“Stackin hurriedly copied them down… The room was eerily silent, and filled with rage, whatever was behind that door was going to destroy us. Feed on our very souls. Take revenge on us for how it was wronged. Dunbar and I broke at the same time, we ran. Stackin… Bragnasar… Sibrah… followed shortly. We all knew we needed to get out of there as fast as we could…

“We did stop to get our loot, and it did slow us down. Stackin seemed satisfied with the job and paid us well. He said he would inform the Hoodites about the walking skeletons and the Evil. The rest of us split up everything that didn’t have runes on it, which wasn’t much.”

Ezrin accepts his dagger back from Alexis.

“But it was plenty… Dunbar wasn’t ever really the same, lost the stomach for pit fighting at least… I have no idea what happened to the rest of the guys. I hadn’t seen them when I got the Invitation. I never saw Stackin again…”

Obituary: Telosh Winterborne

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Sent from Sutheron, over a year ago.

A seal, hard to make out exactly and stylized U and J perhaps? A Crocodile and and Vulture?

Addressed:

“To: Okken, Shopkeeper, Amara

West Southwest of Yamar”

Inside:

From: Unto Jarvi, Admiral of Rannon River, Bordertown

Okken:

I am sorry to write to you under the specter of death, and I regret to inform you that your ever-loving son Telosh Winterborne has perished.

Hopefully Dirk made it home to Yamar and you know his and Telosh’s daring adventures on the way to and in Aegir.

Since Dirk chose to return to Amara, Telosh had adventures in Aegier, faced ghosts in the hills near the small Aegierian village of Paavo and fought valiantly and with great cunning in the bare-knuckle barge fights in Bordertown. You should be proud of your son.

It was in one of these such fights that Telosh died. Many times he had survived worse beatings and dives into the Rannon, but not this time.

Telosh was was a good fighter and a brave man. I’m sorry for your loss.

deepest regards,

Unto Jarvi

The Unfortunate Stoners

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While the group is sorting through the treasures, Alexis talks to the group in general.

“We should pull those bodies out of the sulfur pit. While stone, the bodies might not be dead. It’s possible Clite, Telosh or… the axe guy are still alive in there. And Possibly even the bodies that are less complete. Perhaps if we pull out the old bodies the broken stone will become full bodies.”

“I wonder who the other two bodies are. Perhaps goblins from when Barra was here? An orc fellow of Yog’s? More kids who have come to the calling of the Sword Chaotic?” Alexis shakes his head in disappointment at that.

“What supplies do we have to pull them out?”