Tag Archives: Sutheron

Permission, But Only If You Say So

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To the most suitable secretary under Nardor-Threp, Head Marshall of the Collegiate of the Esteemed, Keeper of the Keys, Bearer of the Mysterious Inner Flame, and the most previous Patriarch of the old Sutheron Council,

It seems nearly-pretentious to take any time with the matter with which I write you today, but I thought it best.

During the treasure-hunting and fact-finding myself and my companions are currently undertaking we have been exposed to artifacts, mysteries, and strange fellows with strange magics. As one might expect, my very-clever engineering companion has nearly discovered some causal links within the pre-first circles of the greater materials sciences. For the time being my engineer explores in darkness, but it’s clear our understandings of the material sciences could benefit from his insightful nature, bestowed upon him from a relatively generous deity.

Sorry for such a trivial bit of minutia. Any rejoinder correspondence before spring would be appreciated if there is time. If not, I will endeavor to navigate as best as I am able.

Your humble fellow collegian,

Alexis Laelius, Adept, sponsee of Nardor-Threp, Bearer of the Mysterious Inner Flame, Keeper of the Keys, Head Marshall of the Collegiate of the Esteemed, and the Ultimate Patriarch of the old Sutheron Council

Where Fools Dare Tread

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Around the fire, the subject of the Dark and Hand and Bandesing rises in discussion. Telosh, Clyte, the Axe Man, Shai-yeeni, Varisimuss, Mavon, Skelor, Leer, what and whom – have you.

“Beware the Light Foot, for death follows where the Singing Bandit steps…” Ezrin seems to reciting a proverb from the streets of Sutheron.

“Most I know would avoid them, but I suppose it is too late…

“And it seems you’ve already received a lesson, or your late companion did at least.”

The Sutheroni mage looks at his new companions with a mixture of fear, concern, and compassion, and perhaps a bit of awe and excitement.

“Supposedly the Foot, sorry, the Dark Hand – even young nuns wear old habits – is engaged in the traditional business of the Black Hills, but no one know who they sell their…”

It is obvious that Ezrin is used to using a particular type of slang when discussing these types of topics.

“Slaves to. And they do not do business with the traditional Hill-guilds. There have been a few conflicts, not with good results for the Hill folk…”

“Everyone knows they took the Kings’ betrothed, but beyond that..” the mage shrugs.

“Their goals and motivations are the subject of much speculation. Their power and danger are clear though, and you have placed yourself squarely in the sights of their crossbows, chasing treasures they desire…”

Ezrin is quiet and thoughtful for a moment, then he shakes his head a little, and smiles ruefully.

“So be it, Crimson Calling, if you’ll have me, I’ll cleave to you now and join in your work to undermine the… Dark Hand.

“What have you learned about them so far?”

Ezrin is clearly nervous about this choice, but also very serious about it.

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

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…”

If I Am to Fall

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While the group is in the Copper Hills mine waiting with Raff and his few remaining followers, Alexis addresses his companions in a hushed voice.

“If I don’t survive Earika, please take my notebook to the Collegium along with my ring. There is another copy of my notebook in Sutheron, but this one should go to the Collegium. Will you promise me this?”

Hood-rin?

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Somewhere along the way, on the journey from Sutheron to the Copper Hills Fort, Lucius, complete with Sutheron accent, strikes up a conversation with Alexis:

“Say my fellow Sutheroni, I heard an interesting speculation in the Five Winds Inn and Tavern between a couple of priestly types, and it nearly started a fight with some Westy horse traders, apparently one of the horse traders is from a farming family…

“Anyhoo, the one acolyte says to the other, ‘Oo-rin is THE Harvest God, and Hood harvests souls, seems like may be two facets of the same gem, the scythe is associated with both as well, right?”

“Now, the Westlander overheard this and started yelling, ” ‘arvesting gray-en ain’t da say’m as peoples!” and whatnot… no Hoodites were to been seen to stand up for their Patron, but there certainly wasn’t much more discussion of the issue that night!”

“What is your learned opinion, Esteemed Alexis Laelius? Is Hood connected to Oo-rin? It seems odd to me, I always thought Hood was just the… children’s name for Erlik…”

Lucius Requests Aid

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Around a wilderness campfire, after leaving the Copper Hills Fort, Lucius “Of Sutheron” slips out of his Sutheroni accent, and starts to speak.

“Well then, I clearly need some help at being from Sutheron… rather than have a noble name, which seems… complicated…. I’m thinking I’m a young bravo out to prove himself, perhaps my mother was a Westlander slave, and I am the bastard of a noble, or perhaps my mother was a Sutheroni woman of the night, and my father was a Westlands horse-trader… Something that will be understandable and also… not worth talking about?”

“What do you think will be the most… sellable? believable? At least to Aegierians?”

“Lucius” looks around at his companions, waiting for them to respond…

Items of power…

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(After the ax has been recovered and it is clear that no one in the group is going to use it.. and after Alexis boldly claims there is a ‘right way’ to use items of power)

There is a moment of lull, before embarking on the day. Ethelred takes the lull to broach a subject that has been on his mind.

“When we left the Lost City we were accomplished adventurers, plunders of relics. In Sutheron we learned of this other group that also hunts treasures; artifacts of the past. Then at the Grayfax estate we saw an item of true power, gems of great worth. And we handed them over, for nothing but the deed itself.

“And that brings me to this ax. Won at much cost and with a bit of cunning and good planning. Praise be the plan!

“What fate do we envision with this ax? Will it be sold in Sutheron? Will it be handed over to another vision of a woman? Will it be used for many tasks? Or can it only be reserved for ‘proper’ uses?

“I would lean toward selling, personally. We have lost much on this adventure and much more we need to gain.

“But I fear if we sell this ax, it may end up in our enemies hands. And while we need resupplying, all this hard work can not aid the enemy.

“What say you all?”