Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 53 [RPG]

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

The Battle of Flameford isn’t over yet!  The Reckoner persuades his allies to give chase to the Cinderlander, the feared Shoanti-killer, who had just disappeared over the side of the plateau.  After pausing briefly to heal and renew magical protections, the Harrowed Heroes rush to the cliff-side and search for their foe.  The Cinderlander is adept at hiding, as even The Reckoner’s perceptive eyes can’t spot him—but when Goldcape casts a spell to detect magical auras in the area, the Cinderlander strikes!  He emerges on a ledge just below the top of the plateau and shoots at Rocky, no doubt hoping to deprive his pursuers of their aerial advantage.  But this time, fate is against him, as his crossbow jams.  The Reckoner leaps down to the edge and begins doing what he does best and, realising there is no escape and preferring death over capture, the Cinderlander manoeuvres himself to the very edge of the cliff so that, with a final blow from The Reckoner, his body is swept off the plateau to fall to certain death.

The victorious trio make their way carefully down the cliff and see the devastation wrought upon Flameford from the giants’ hurled boulders.  They help with the wounded, pulling many victims out from under crushed yurts and shattered rock.  Soon, Thundercallers carry Krojun’s body down from the top of the plateau, and the camp takes on an even more mournful aspect than before.  Goldcape asks if she could assist with bringing Krojun back to life, but is told such an act is for the Sun Shaman to decide.  The Reckoner notes that battle was the closest he’s come to his own death in many battles.

Some hours later, the wind carries the Sun Shaman, Chief Ready-Klar, and their escorts back to Flameford.  Ready-Klar assesses the situation immediately, and begins gathering his people.  Meanwhile, the Sun Shaman tells the clan’s new allies that he is prepared to share the secrets they seek.  He takes them to his own yurt where the sacred flame of the Sklar-Quah burns without fuel.  This is the tale he relates:

“Many hundreds of years ago, a man named Mandraivus gathered a small group of heroes to fight a despotic blue dragon named Kazavon, and my ancestor was one who joined this crusade.  This ancestor, a shaman named Amarund, was gone for months.  When she finally returned she was not the same woman—her hands shook, her eyes carried a haunted stare, and she cried out in fear at night.  She spoke little of what she had experienced while fighting at Mandraivus’s side, but she did say that they were successful in defeating Kazavon and that the dragon’s fortress of Scarwall in Belkzen was now under Mandraivus’s control.”

“While Kazavon had been defeated, his will to live was so immense that even the remains of his body twitched.  The heroes attempted to destroy the remains, but key fragments of the dragon’s skeleton resisted even their most destructive spells.  Mandraivus tasked the seven surviving heroes, among them Amarund, with each claiming one of the bony relics of Kazavon’s body and taking them far from Scarwall.  None of the seven would communicate where they were going to the others or to Mandraivus in hopes of ensuring that their chosen relics would remain hidden and guarded for all time in order to prevent the dragon from returning to life.”

“Amarund told this story to her fellow shamans and revealed that her selected relics were the dragon’s fangs, which she called Midnight’s Teeth.  She and the other shamans chose the ancient pyramid on the shores of Conqueror’s Bay as the fangs’ reliquary.  After hiding them in a secret room deep inside the pyramid, Amarund and her descendants swore to ensure the fangs would remain safe.”

“For generations, they maintained their task—until Cheliax invaded and drove us off.  The few survivors who knew the secret of the fangs were forced to flee with their kin into the Cinderlands.  For the next three centuries the knowledge was passed from Sun Shaman to Sun Shaman, and we have watched with fearful eyes as the city of Korvosa has grown up around our ancient reliquary.”

“The fragments of Kazavon’s soul are like seeds—once they find soil in which to grow, they can bloom into a mighty tree.  Doubtless, this is the case with the Queen of Korvosa—her innate cruelty has been enhanced greatly by the Midnight’s Teeth.  Worse, she now possesses two souls—her own, and one grown from the fragment of Kazavon’s.  Having two souls in one body must grant her incredible power over her own mortality.”

“Yet, there is a way these souls can be weakened.  Kazavon’s soul is fuelled by the power of the spirits trapped within Castle Scarwall, a haunted place of dread since Mandraivus and his band invaded, slew the dragon, and dispersed.  If the curse can be lifted, Kazavon’s soul and Ileosa’s will no longer lend her body immortality.  But my people know little of Scarwall since Amarund fled with the Midnight’s Teeth.  I have spoken with Thousand Bones, and his people relate to me a song carried by mournful spirits on the wind.”

Fate of steel—Serithtial

Her cage for years sustained.

Four enthralled in lost Scarwall;

Undead to keep her chained.

A spirit first, red war his thirst

Still stands at post of old;

A second foe, infernal soul

Waits high in tower cold.

In kennel’s grime, third bides his time

Then vents his killing breath.

And on a stone ‘mid ash and bone,

The final dreams of death.

The spirits worn and battle torn

And locked in their damnation,

The chained one’s hold at last grows old

And ushers in salvation.

Yet hope remains amid the chains

When blade’s stone cage has crumbled,

Friends to dread and death of the dead,

Keys to Kazavon humbled.

“Those are the secrets of my people, and that is what I have to offer to the friends of the Sklar-Quah this day.”

The listeners thank him and express their hopes that if the information is used well, the Shoanti will benefit as well.  The Sun Shaman says he knows little of Scarwall as it stands now, only that legend says it is a haunted place, and neither the living nor the dead may depart once they enter within.  When asked about Krojun, the Sun Shaman says he was the mightiest and bravest warrior of the Sklar-Quah and died an honourable death.  His body will be taken to the Kallow Mounds, and if the shamans of the Skoan-Quah believe his spirit should be returned, then it will be so.  Anorak asks if a message containing his respect and promise to remember Krojun forever can be delivered as well.  Hearing Chief Ready-Klar’s voice fade away outside and knowing the time for talking has come to an end, the Sun Shaman anticipates his listeners’ request for aid in travelling to Korvosa quickly and says he can summon the wind spirits to hasten their journey.

Outside, it’s clear that Ready-Klar has made a fateful decision.  Flameford will be abandoned at dawn, and the Sklar-Quah will return to their nomadic ways.  The warriors will head to the north and drive the giants out of the Cinderlands, while those who cannot fight will shelter in caves out of harm’s way.  Goldcape suggests to him that the Sklar-Quah form an alliance with the other clans of the Cinderlands, and Ready-Klar nods that it may be time to put past differences aside for the sake of all Shoanti.  He nods his farewell to the Korvosans, and says they’ll be welcome to stay with the Sklar-Quah again should they return to the area.  Anorak seeks out the brave Thundercaller who joined in the battle on the plateau, and gifts the man his horse—a gift that carries with it much honour in the ways of the Sklar-Quah.

[Moonday, 13 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

At dawn, as the Sklar-Quah pack their mounts, the Harrowed Heroes make their final farewells and then experience the Sun Shaman’s mastery over the wind spirits first-hand.  Their bodies grow almost weightless as they rise into the air and, with but a thought, they can turn themselves nearly as transparent as the air itself!  The winds propel them in their desired direction at incredible speeds, allowing them to cover in an hour the same distance it would take three days to walk!

Their first destination is the strange, octagonal-walled city of Kaer Maga.  This time, the travellers are intent on getting in and out of the city quickly, before the Sun Shaman’s magic wears off.  They unload thousands and thousands of gold pieces of treasure found during their adventures in the Cinderlands.  In addition, knowing they’ll have an even longer trip in the future to Scarwall (in the orc-infested Hold of Belkzen), they seek out a place to purchase teleportation magic.  In a dimly-lit and cluttered shop, an obsequious figure—surely a vampire!—has what they’re looking for, even if the scrolls he sells them are covered in greenish slime and a book of spells for Anorak has “paper” made from human skin!  The shopkeeper offers to pay Goldcape for a small patch of her skin or a taste of her blood, but the vanara adamantly refuses. 

As the group is leaving the shop, two orcs rudely push their way in and Goldcape recognises their tribal markings as belonging to orcs of the One Eye tribe of the Blood Plains—from Belkzen!  Hearing this, The Reckoner tries to strike up a conversation but is mocked by the surly orcs until, in a misunderstanding, they take him to be a slave trader and offer to buy Goldcape and Anorak from him.  He declines, but in the course of the conversation is able to gather two potentially useful pieces of information: the giant army of the north has not pushed into Belkzen, and the area around Scarwall is the territory of a tiny orc tribe (the Deadwatchers) because no one else wants it.

Fortunately, unlike last time they visited the city, the travellers are able to leave Kaer Maga without bloodshed.  Anorak persuades the group to head to Janderhoff so he can warn the people of his birthplace about the giant army’s use of “portal spikes” to make surprise raids.  At the gates of the largely-subterranean city, they see security has in fact been tightened already, and every visitor is questioned and searched.  The gate guards disbelieve Anorak’s tale (deeming it too fantastical), but The Reckoner manages to persuade them to deliver the information to their superiors.  Anorak also has a message delivered to Kaptra Dorethain, the dwarf who aided them on their last visit to the city, explaining that they’re not able to accept the job of searching for her missing husband.

The group set off again.  Travelling a mile every minute (and with Goldcape’s keen sense of direction), the travellers finally see Korvosa on the horizon.  But in the bright light of the mid-afternoon sun, plumes of smoke are clearly visible: the city is in flames! 

After leaving Kovosa for weeks under the thrall of the cruel Queen Ileosa, will the Harrowed Heroes find there’s nothing of the city left to save?

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GM Commentary

I always have some players who hate the critical fumble rules when they roll one, but when it's a bad guy like the Cinderlander suffering them, those complaints don't arise :)

The AP's scripted speech of the Sun Shaman was fantastic.  It's hard to convey so much exposition in a way that's interesting, and I thought the writing here was great.  I think I tinkered a little with the last bit, because I wanted to emphasise that lifting the curse on Scarwall was what was necessary to remove Ileosa's immortality, with Serithtial just a nice, optional bonus (the whole "need super enchanted magic weapon to defeat the bad guy" was both cliche and already done in Rise of the Runelords).

Anorak does some good role-playing bits here in relation to Janderhoff, something I should have given him more credit for at the time.