When we began our RQ session, the party was recovering from their participation in the battle of Tours, after helping Charles Martel defeat the Muslim army of al-Rahman.  One of the decisive events of the battle had been the intervention of Lunar heroquestors on behalf of the Muslims, only to be smashed by a band of Yelmalio and Humakti heroquesters wielding automatic weapons and hand grenades.

Your party (who had fought on the opposite flank of the Frankish forces) were resting that night when two members of the party were awakened by a voice speaking into their minds, pleading for help. They found themselves to be outside of their bodies, dreamwalking. They followed this voice's promptings over to the Yelmalio/Humakti camp and found that it was coming from the bag made of an unknown hide, hanging from the belt of a Humakti heroquester.

Theolus (played by Bob Frantz) then reached down and touched the bag, and the severed head of the Lunar demigod inside was able to possess him. This demigod (Jajagapa, psychopompus of the Lunar Underworld) then proceeded to cast an area effect Madness spell which knocked most of those within range into a state of catatonic collapse.  Then Jajagapa, who was inhabiting the body of Theolus (played by Bob Frantz) began opening a hole in the fabric of the world to allow the Red Goddess to enter.  Those of the party who were not catatonic fought him with the help of Anarod IronBow, while Mark took the horses to safety.

The party won the battle, defeating Jajagapa and the servant demon who attempted to come through the hole in the worlds to aid him.  Dwayne's leprechaun, who could shape change into a raven, was locked into raven form permanently.  Theolus (played by Bob Frantz) was knocked back into his body, but not before the Red Goddess had been able to mark him.  She then spoke to him, offering him "Servitude or Death".  Theolus, (played by Bob Frantz) chose "Servitude".

Another battle ensued, but the party were able to keep the Humakti and Yelmalio heroes from killing Theolus, while driving the presence of the Red Goddess back out of the world for a time. After the dust had settled, the party decided on what to do next.  Eventually, they decided to head to Hispania, to visit one of the holy places to the Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of Battle, to whom Dwayne's leprechaun and Rich Frantz's minotaur were sworn, and try to find a way to change Dwayne back.

They were moving through Muslim territory, in the Pyrenees, when an Islamic sorcerer, Malachi, succeeded in trapping them in an old tunnel and collapsed the mountain on top of them.  However, Merlin had a use for them, and put them to sleep for 50 years or so, and when they awakened during the reign of Charlemagne, they continued their journey.

After fighting a demonic servant of the Muslims in Spain (an efreet), they were able to find their way into Asturia, the part of Spain never conquered by the Moors, and eventually reached an ancient shrine to the Morrigan in the old Celtiberian lands of NW Spain.  The leprechaun and the minotaur formally swore themselves as initiates of the Morrigan and were given tasks.  Kill an emir of the Moors (or a paladin of the Frankish court) in order to free the leprechaun from his raven form, and the minotaur could kill an emir or a hundred warriors for the Morrigan's favor.

They met with Merlin and he said he could help them and that he had something for them to do.  The party was teleported by Merlin to Northern Gaul, and met with the 6 Frankish knights they were to escort and teach and generally show the ropes: Roland, Oliver, Ganelon, Reynauld, Ogier and Jehan.  The party then began a journey south when they met a group of Demi-Fey, fairies who needed their help.

Giants had come down out of the Alps and were burning the forests and sowing the land with cold iron nails, destroying the magic of Faerie.  The party went to help and got into a battle with a couple of very big giants and their Moorish sorcerer master. The party fought the giants and won, while Mark took the horses to safety. They discovered that the giants were of the race of giants that had helped the Roman god Vulcan at his forge in Mt. Etna, the volcano on the island of Sicily.

They went south and visited Milan, where the minotaur (now black) placed an order for an efreet skin cloak.  They hired a ship to take them to Sicily, which was divided into 2 areas: that ruled by the Duke of Messina in the north and that ruled by the Emir of Sicily in the south. They encountered Moorish pirates and slaughtered them, and Theolus (played by Bob Frantz) changed into his bear form (made possible by his armor from Middle Earth) and proceeded to board the pirate ship, and then chased 4 pirates into the water and pursued them to Sicily. Once in Sicily, they succeeded in rescuing Theolus (played by Bob Frantz)  and then proceeded to invade the part of Sicily controlled by the Moors.

They killed more efreets, and succeeded in reaching the outskirts of the old Greek port of Syracuse, now partly ruined and the capital of the Emir of Sicily.  On the way, they had noticed that another emir, from Northern Africa, had also come to Sicily, and everyone seemed to be moving troops east towards Syracuse.  The party then managed to kill 3 Moorish sentries on the harbor tower without raising an alarm or violating Leon's Humakti geas regarding ambushes, and then had a choice: either Climb the wall at this point, or wade through the shallows around the end of the wall at this point ( it was low tide).  Theolus (played by Bob Frantz) decided to wade: he found a deep spot.  This was then followed by a long series of rather impressive failures at skill checks on the part of 5 players, but everybody lived.

Leaving Mark to care for the horses, the party entered Syracuse and discovered that their target was gone and was going east to Mt. Etna.  They stole a ship and sailed east.  Mark lead the horses to safety. They reached Mt. Etna just ahead of the Moors and, after surviving a number of failed climbing rolls, managed to enter Vulcan's abandoned home thru the eastern door.  They searched part of the place and Dwayne (in raven form) found a blank of star iron, and someone else found one of Vulcan's hammers, missed when the forges were abandoned by their owner.

The Moors found their way into the complex thru the western entrance and the two groups met up in Vulcan's throne room, which had 3 world gates leading from it. There was a big set to, with a Moorish emir, archers, swordsmen and efreets on one side, and our party with 6 Frankish knights on the other.  The emir from Africa wounded Oliver with a javelin and then leaped into a world gate.  Roland, after hacking his way thru the Moorish line, followed him.  The party and their Frankish allies then ground the Moors into hamburger, with Dwayne eventually pecking the Emir of Sicily to death while locked in wing-to-hand combat.  This enabled him to return to leprechaun form.

The party then followed Roland into the world of the Test of Worthiness (the other two gates lead to Mt. Olympus and the Illysian fields). The party failed the tests, but Roland succeeded and returned with the black sword Durandal. The other emir succeeded with the Moorish version of the quest and received the rest of Hector's armor.  Durandal was the sword that Hector wore during the Siege of Troy.  They then passed through another gate that took them all to eastern Gaul, where the Frankish knights bade them farewell.

The party then journeyed to Milan in Italy to pick up the minotaur's efreet skin cloak, where Mark and the horses joined them. The party then journeyed to the ruins near Rome, where they found an ancient holy place of Maat.  While in Italy (and thru divinations) the party learned information about magic smiths, magic weapons, Humakt shrines and other things, and that they could all be found in Hibernia.  So they went (with surprisingly little trouble) to Hibernia.  After journeying inland, the party encountered a powerful member of the Unseelie Court, the dark faeries; he was Lord Sholto, Lord of What Passes Between, Master of the Slough, the Dark Hunt.

The party attempted to open communications while the horses took Mark to safety. After speaking with Lord Sholto, the party was able to gain entrance to the Kingdom Under the Hill, the enchanted lands of the Tuatha De Danaan.  There they spoke to Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness and were given permission to visit the shrine to Humakt and to ask the Unseelie for advice or help.  Fflur is helping Thad's character with his alchemy.  And the Unseelie smiths took the ingot of star iron and the hammer of Vulcan and began to make Dwayne a short sword; the scales of an ash drake, some of Dwayne's blood and some of his power (16 points) were added to the enchantment, he gained a weapon he named Lucky Strike. Other things will be learned or gained in the Halls of the Darkling Throng.

And that was the end of the session. It was a lot of fun.  For those of you who were there, feel free to add anything which I may have forgotten.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Tue 22 May 2007.