Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 44 [RPG]

[Wealday, 24 Sarenith 4708 A.R. continued]

 

After an intensive evening of discussion with Thousand Bones at the campsite of the Skoan-Quah (Clan of the Skull), the Harrowed Heroes retire to their guest yurt to rest for the night.  Outside, the wind howls, and for several hours the entire camp is assaulted by a powerful ash storm.  Fortunately, in the safety of their fur-lined tents, the newcomers to the Cinderlands are able to avoid the blinding, choking particles.  But it’s surely a sign of the dangers that await them on the journey ahead.

 

[Oathday, 25 Sarenith 4708 A.R. continued]

 

In the morning, a layer of ash almost a foot deep covers everything in the camp.  But the winds have died down, and the sun shines brightly.  The travellers from Korvosa discuss how to best earn the respect of the Shoanti peoples so that the Sun Shaman of the Sklar-Quah (Clan of the Sun) will reveal the truth about the Midnight’s Teeth and the nature of Ileosa’s power.  Anorak and Ralph Blackfeather agree that visiting the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers—a ruin that brave Shoanti warriors enter to prove their courage—should be the first destination.  Goldcape isn’t so sure, however, and raises the possibility of going to Cindermaw first to replicate the deed of the legendary Shoanti hero Skurak by being swallowed by the beast.  Goldcape says she should be the only one to be swallowed because of the Harrower’s reading, but there’s not universal assent to the proposition.  Ralph Blackfeather asks Ahalak, the apparent leader of the four Shoanti Boneslayers assigned to be their guides, about visiting Flameford to find Krojun.  Ahalak replies that the Sklar-Quah are the least hospitable Shoanti clan to tshamek, and that open violence could result.  Yraelzin attempts to resolve the question of where to go first through his newfound hobby of reading the Harrow, but is able to prophesy only that the group will meet a juggler in the future—a seemingly absurd statement given the harshness of the Cinderlands.  Eventually, the group reach a consensus around visiting the Acropolis first.

After saying farewell to Thousand Bones, the Korvosans and their native guides depart the Kallow Mounds.  But in the intense heat of a summer’s day in the Cinderlands, Ralph Blackfeather (now wearing the guise of The Reckoner) begins to sweat profusely and tire after barely an hour!  He asks Ahalak how the Shoanti survive the heat, and hears that each of the three clans in the area deal with it differently: the Skoan-Quah ask the spirits of the land for respite from the heat, the Lyrune-Quah (Clan of the Moon) travel only at night, and the Sklar-Quah push themselves through sheer fortitude and willpower to embrace the sun in all its glory.  The group continue on, and one of the Boneslayers, Nalmid, seems very interested in hearing about life beyond the Cinderlands.  He’s surprised to hear that in “wetlander” cities, the wisest and bravest aren’t necessarily the wealthiest or most respected.

After almost a full day’s travel, interspersed with frequent rests, the group has barely covered a dozen miles!  Even Anorak’s and The Reckoner’s horses from Kaer Maga are exhausted and plodding slowly across the parched earth.  Ahalak and the other Boneslayers offer no aid or critique—perhaps learning to survive in the Cinderlands is another, unstated, test that the Korvosans are being judged on.  But there are more dangers than just heat in the Cinderlands, dangers that even the Shoanti aren’t fully prepared for.  While attempting to make up some time in a final hour’s march before setting camp, a wide pit suddenly opens up under the group.  Although the Korvosans and their mounts manage to retreat back to solid ground in time, two of the Boneslayers—Nalmid and Hargev—tumble into an underground cavern almost forty feet below the surface!  Both are hurt but conscious, and as Hargev gets to his feet and looks around, he realises the true enormity of the danger they’re in—a purple worm tunnel!  He raises a finger to his lips as he looks at the others gathered on the lip of the hole above, urging them to silence.  But the falling rock has already echoed through the tunnels.  On the surface, Anorak presses a palm to the ground and feels rumbling in the distance—rumbling that is getting closer.

 

While the others talk of ropes and such, Goldcape acts quickly by dramatically leaping onto Rocky’s back and diving into the cavern.  She pulls Nalmid and Hargev aboard Rocky’s back and shouts for Rocky to fly back to the surface.  But the steep ascent is initially too difficult for the overloaded roc to make, and she hits the ground with a heavy THUMP! that carries down the subterranean tunnels.  Back on the surface, Anorak realises the rumbling sound has intensified in speed and that a purple worm will appear in just seconds!  They shout for Goldcape to hurry, and this time Rocky’s powerful leap and flapping wings are enough to get the fallen Boneslayers back to the surface. 

But now a decision has to be made for the entire group: fight, or flee?  Anorak and The Reckoner decide to fight, remembering how they already slew one purple worm.  Anorak cleverly conjures the illusory sound of dozens of huddled people talking and moving about to lure the purple worm into emerging at a precise spot.  When it does, The Reckoner charges into attack as the Boneslayers (having retreated some distance away) launch a volley of arrows that bounce harmlessly off the purple worm’s armored exoskeleton.  Anorak sends bolts of lightning and bursts of flame at the creature, but it mostly shrugs off the elemental attacks.  Goldcape’s archery is more accurate than the Boneslayers, but she decides it’s too risky for The Reckoner to be the massive beast’s only target, and directs Rocky to attack as well.  The roc’s talons tear open a deep wound in the worm’s soft underbelly, but it retaliates by rising up to its full height and then crashing down to swallow Rocky whole!  The Reckoner’s powerful earthbreaker has done tremendous damage, however, and the worm itself dies seconds later.  Knowing that Rocky has only seconds to live, The Reckoner heroically plunges into the worm’s open mouth.  With his ability to see in darkness thanks to the mask of the mantis he wears, The Reckoner finds Rocky and cuts open the worm’s hide to pull him out.  Anorak does his part by magically stopping Rocky’s bleeding in the nick of time.  Having witnessed the amazing series of events, the Boneslayers can’t help but be impressed—even if they must think the wetlanders are a little crazy!

Ahalak says there is a small Sklar-Quah camp nearby named Blazehearth, and, given how wounded and exhausted the travellers are, it could be worth the risk to seek shelter there for the night.  But when they arrive, it’s obvious something isn’t right: many of the tents have been torn down or burned to the ground, a wooden totem has been chopped down, and there are no Shoanti in the area.  On closer inspection, the situation becomes even worse—this was no mere skirmish, as multiple charred bodies are in the camp’s central firepit!  Goldcape rushes forward to see if there are any survivors, but her instincts stop her just in time as the perpetrators of the horrible crime emerge from hiding: Hellknights!  With weapons and armor identical to those encountered in Kaer Maga, it’s clear that the Order of the Nail has penetrated into the Cinderlands on a mission of terror—and to their mind, anyone who would help the Shoanti are just as “uncivilised” and “barbaric”.  Promising to bring order to chaos, they rush toward Goldcape and assault her with supernatural waves of unholy energy, but she keeps her feet and mocks their pretensions.  Anorak decides Hellknights can’t complain about fire, and immolates two of them with a powerful spell!  Boneslayer arrows drop a third, while Goldcape gets her revenge by summoning hailstones out of the desert sky to crush the skull of a fourth.

 

A search of the tents finds no survivors, but additional footprints—from heavily armored figures—heading off in a direction of a nearby bluff.  Noticing that one of the Hellknights has a signal horn, the Korvosans decide it’s time to turn the tables by springing an ambush of their own.  Once everyone hides, Goldcape blows the signal horn.  Tense seconds follow, seconds in which The Reckoner alone experiences something unusual.  And then, the rest of the Hellknight expedition into the Cinderlands appear: a pair of tieflings wearing blood-red robes marked with pentagrams, and a heavily armored warpriest bearing a flaming ranseur!

 

Having triumphed in every battle, the Harrowed Heroes are ready for the Hellknights.  But have they already proven themselves unready for the simple rigors of the Cinderlands?

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GM Commentary

In Janderhoff, Yraelzin bought a Harrow deck.  This session has an example of him trying to learn how to use it.  It's not as easy as the Harrower makes it seem!

I was really able to bring out the natural dangers of the Cinderlands this session, as the PCs learned just how hard it is to travel through heat extremes with proper preparation.  The group was really dragging as the Fortitude saves got harder and harder as the day wore on, and the effects (from fatigued to exhausted, plus accumulating nonlethal damage) started to stack.

The purple worm was from another highly-unlikely roll on the random encounter table.  I guess, if nothing else, it gave the PCs some extra XP and another memorable encounter.  The Fly rules once again have an impact.  The Reckoner was extremely heroic to wade into the worm's entrails to rescue Rocky just in the nick of time--otherwise, Goldcape's animal companion would have surely perished.

The stuff with the Hellknights is from "Slash and Burn", the sidequest for Chapter Four in the "Runescars" volume of the Pathfinder comic.  It's not a major or important plot point, but seemed to work well here. (and it earned them an extra Respect Point or two)