Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 52 [RPG]

 [Fireday, 10 Erastus 4708 A.R. continued]

 

One purple worm has been slain, but a second is rapidly approaching!  Goldcape struggles as poison courses through her body, turning her muscles into jelly—even her nature magic doesn’t seem able to overcome it.  Seconds later, crashing into the adventurers like a tidal wave, the other subterranean monster makes its appearance—and it’s even larger than the first one!  Anorak weakens it with a powerful fire spell, but when The Reckoner tries to close the distance, he takes a vicious smash from its tail and is sent flying backwards!  Anorak unleashes a second fireball and Rocky joins the fight, but the roc is impaled by the worm’s stinger and poisoned.  After a short but intense battle, the worm collapses, dead, after The Reckoner leaps into the air and finishes it with a powerful downward slam of his war-maul.

 

With both Goldcape and Rocky suffering from purple worm venom, the decision to escape the tunnels as soon as possible is an easy one.  Hours pass as the travellers, with Krojun still trailing behind, navigate the labyrinthine tunnels.  During their walking, two members of the group receive magical messages, but from quite different sources.  From Korvosa, Bishop Keppira d’Bear tells The Reckoner that the resistance operation is still going forward: “Kroft says can’t delay. Operation only works during Founding Festival.  Will proceed without you, but if can make it, meet at same place for briefing.”  The Reckoner replies he and the others will try their best.  Sometime later, Goldcape receives a series of sendings from Yraelzin, last seen heading north to try to slow the giant armies encircling Urglin before they can continue south: “Goldcape, you won’t believe who I ran into!  You remember those other tshamek the Moon Maidens spoke about?  It’s the Kodar Kneecappers & Trinia! I--”  “Stupid spell.  Important: We’re going to raid giant leader’s camp to stop siege on Urglin, but they’ve been practicing with magic portal spike that can—“ “Last one—have to save my energy!  The portal can take a dozen giants anywhere—Korvosa, Janderhoff, who knows! Be careful and talk soon.”  Goldcape replies that Yraelzin should hurry as the group need him, and she also reminds him of the resistance’s plan for an operation during the Founding Festival.

When the group reach the surface a couple of hours before dawn, they’re tired but decide to try to press on for Flameford as only a few days remain until the Founding Festival on 14 Erastus.  With Rocky incredibly fatigued from the purple worm poison, Goldcape decides to try something new.  After asking his permission, she draws a magical scroll from her bag and turns him into a small, hand-sized figurine!

But navigating the largely barren landscape of the Cinderlands is harder than it seems, a fact Krojun knows well as he watches silently.  After realising they’ve been heading in the wrong direction, and with the day’s heat rising, the group decide to find a shaded overhang to camp under.

[Starday, 11 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

After sleeping all day, the group finish their journey to Flameford as the sun sets.  Before leading the others through the maze of spike stones, Krojun hands his earthbreaker to Anorak, telling him to hold it for him to help him avoid temptation.  He then leads The Reckoner off to the side for a private conversation.  Krojun says it is abundantly clear that The Reckoner and his companions are adept warriors, and that as they have endured the Trial of the Totems, he will not stand in the way of them obtaining information from the Sun Shaman.  But, Krojun adds, he’s not fooled about the group’s motivations for coming to the Cinderlands.  Despite them being named tribal allies, Krojun says the group have simply come to take from the Sklar-Quah and will depart, never to return once they have what they want.  The Reckoner concedes his reason for coming is to help his own people in Korvosa, but that doesn’t mean he and the others will never return.  And, he adds, perhaps it is Krojun who will come to Korvosa for aid in the future.

Once in Flameford, Krojun confers privately with the Sun Shaman.  Afterwards, the Sun Shaman confirms that the visitors have earned the full respect of the Sklar-Quah and can be trusted with the secrets of the tribe.  He says he must consult with his ancestors by communing with them in the Kallow Mounds, but will return the next day.  With a whisper to the spirits of the land, a powerful wind lifts him, Chief Ready-Klar, and four of the tribe’s thundercallers into the air and towards the east.

Later that evening, as Krojun is carving a spear, The Reckoner talks to him about how he met the others and about how Queen Ileosa has brought so much suffering and cruelty to Korvosa.  He says Ileosa is a danger to the Shoanti as well, as she’ll never be satisfied with peace.  Krojun, however, reminds The Reckoner that the Sklar-Quah never endorsed the Skoan-Quah’s treaty embassy to Korvosa.  Indeed, Krojun muses, perhaps the time has finally come for a war that will reclaim the ancestral Shoanti lands taken from them when the invaders first laid claim to the land that became Korvosa.

Before turning in for the night, Goldcape gives The Reckoner a sredna loop as thanks for saving Rocky (now returned to normal form) from the purple worm that had swallowed him weeks earlier.

[Sunday, 12 Erastus, 4708 A.R.]

Early in the morning, as the camp is preparing for another day in the harsh environment around them, The Reckoner is out checking the camp’s defences when he notices a strange, purplish-green glow coming from the top of the eighty-feet-high cliffs that loom over the camp.  He’s not sure what to make of it, but brings it to the attention of Goldcape and Anorak—and each recognise it as some kind of teleportation magic.  Goldcape hops on Rocky’s back to check it out, and is stunned to see a strange glowing device that looks like a giant metal spike has been stuck into the top of the cliff, and behind it is a glowing circular doorway to another place!  Giants, each marked on the brow with a seven-pointed star, can be seen through the portal, lined up near an identical glowing spike.  Near the magical spike on the clifftop side of the portal, undoubtedly the one who activated it, is a rugged-looking human wielding a crossbow, seemingly guarded by a firepelt cougar—surely this must be the Cinderlander!  Goldcape yells “Giants!” and rouses the camp to battle.

While Anorak and The Reckoner spend precious seconds preparing themselves for the battle to come, Goldcape engages the enemy with magical hailstorms and a flurry of arrows.  But in return, she has to dodge a volley of crossbow bolts from the Cinderlander and rocks hurled by the giants.  Realising the camp has been alerted, the giants on the clifftop begin their assault by hurling boulders, crushing yurts and any Shoanti unlikely enough to be inside.  Krojun tries to rally his warriors to counterattack, but hurled spears barely reach the clifftop and scaling the steep side of the plateau will take time—and with every passing moment, more and more giants pass through the portal!  But then Anorak and The Reckoner are ready to get into the fight, and Anorak conjures a magical doorway to take himself, The Reckoner, Krojun, and a nearby Thundercaller to the clifftop.

The Reckoner decides he needs to stem the flow of enemy reinforcements, and heads straight for the magical portal spike.  As he starts smashing it with his enchanted war-maul, the enemy—hill giants, stone giants, and even their apparent leader, a cloud giant—converge to try to stop him.  Anorak is drawn into the fight, while Goldcape continues circling on Rocky’s back, wisely using spells and arrows to stay out of the giants’ reach.   Meanwhile, Krojun sees the Shoanti’s most hated enemy—the legendary Cinderlander—and charges in, rage fuelling his attacks!

The battle around the portal spike is one of the most intense the Harrowed Heroes have ever had.  The cloud giant—almost twenty feet tall—repeatedly slams his tree-trunk sized morningstar into The Reckoner.  Anorak manages to dispatch two of the weaker giants with carefully-placed fireball after fireball, finishing them off with his waraxe.   But concentrating on magic makes the dwarf lose concentration on defense, and he’s battered to the ground, unconscious.  The Reckoner, badly wounded, manages to shatter the portal spike with another mighty swing, and the portal fades away into nothingness.  Finally able to concentrate on the foes around them, he smashes the kneecap of the cloud giant and finishes him off once he crumbles to the ground.  But the others have lost sight of Krojun in the midst of the melee, and discover why the Cinderlander is so feared by the Shoanti—enchanted bolts tear gaping holes in the brave’s flesh before he can even reach the crossbowman, and a nearby hill giant delivers a final, killing blow, smashing Krojun’s spine!  Still, seeing the tide of battle turning and the portal closed, the Cinderlander picks up the body of his animal companion (slain by Krojun’s dying blows) and starts making for the side of the plateau to escape.

Goldcape uses some of her most powerful magic to heal Anorak’s wounds.  With a hide-clad hill giant looming over him, the dwarf cleverly rolls into another conjured magical doorway to reappear some distance away.  The Reckoner shouts for the others to stop the Cinderlander before he can escape, but confronting the Cinderlander is like playing with fire, and The Reckoner gets burned!  A crossbow bolt, enchanted to wreak havoc with human physiology, crunches into the costumed vigilante’s sternum, leaving him dying in the dirt.  Goldcape uses the last of her magic to get The Reckoner back into the fight, and he and Anorak manage to dispatch the last remaining giants on the plateau.  The Reckoner jumps on Rocky’s back to pursue the Cinderlander, but Goldcape offers the Shoanti-killer a truce.  The Cinderlander nods, drinks a potion, and disappears over the side of the cliff.

The giants’ raid on Flameford has been repelled, but not without cost: Krojun slain, much of Flameford in ruins, and two of the Harrowed Heroes near death.  But is the battle of Flameford truly over?

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GM Commentary

The sending spells proved a great way to keep the PCs aware of off-screen things going on back in Korvosa, or with Yraelzin's mission to Urglin.  I think it's great for verisimilitude for the players to know that they're doing something important, but they're not the only ones trying to do important things.  And, it's always fun to see what the 25-word-limit allows depending on the caster's personality.

The PCs had some trouble getting out of the worm caves.  Survival is an underestimated skill!

As we near the end of Chapter Four in the recaps, one of the things I'm proudest of with my run of Curse of the Crimson Throne is how I ran this section.  I'm really happy with how my (and Paizo's!) portrayal of the Shoanti in the Cinderlands turned out.  It was respectful, avoided stereotypes, and provided insight into a really cool fictional culture.

The written adventure has an attack on Flameford, but it's with Red Mantis assassins carried there by gargoyles.  I really wanted to do something more interesting and continue to bring home the fact that there's a war going on (because of the failure to win Rise of the Runelords in my last campaign).  Having the Cinderlander bring a small army of giants to the top of the plateau overlooking the camp turned out to be pretty cool (in my humble opinion) and was certainly one of the most intense encounters in the campaign.  Anorak and The Reckoner spent several rounds buffing, leaving Goldcape and Rocky to hold the line alone!  Goldcape deserves more credit than she got for keeping party members alive, as The Reckoner would be well and truly dead if it wasn't for her.  I knew introducing the portal spikes into the campaign could have some pretty big consequences if the PCs got their hands on the pair, but the destruction of one took care of that.

It was sad to see Krojun die.  The Cinderlander's human bane bolts were pretty nasty.