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Game Summary - 09/12/2008.

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Thu 26 Mar 2009
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Game Summary - Fall 2008

RQ Meeting Summary #8 – Fall of 2008


Our group consisted of:

Baclane - Mark's master of horses
Arre, Thad's Melnibonean alchemist archer
Aurelius, Rich O's graeco-egyptian sorceror charioteer
Grumfar, Rich F's minotaur, who is sworn to the service of the Morrigan
Theleos, Bob F's knight of Gondor who wears the Scales of Bairanax
Mogar Bogmain - Tony's Argan Argar troll arkati sorceror
Palanar - Leon's Maat/Humakti arkati sorceror
Scott - Byzantine catacphract (disciplined, well armored horse archer)
Carl’s Zorak Zoran troll
Kelvin - Varangian skald mercenary (a Rus or viking who can use song to invoke the power of Bragi, one of the Norse deities)
Harry – Alais - Frankish knight from the court of Charlemagne.

It is late summer, 810 A.D.

Our group has met up with Roland, and is on the southern edge of the Italian Alps.  The travel plan is to head to southern Italy, which is currently controlled by the Byzantine Empire, and join up with Prince Michael.  He’s in command there, and on the way, the party plans to stop in Rome.  While looking the worse for wear, Rome is still the greatest city between Aachen (the Frankish capital) and Constantinople.  It is also the site of a number of shrines that party members can use to replenish their magic.
While checking in at the friendly shrines and temples in Rome, the party hears some disquieting news: the Lunar presence in Europe is expanding visibly.  The Lunars have purchased the land atop the Aventine Hill and are rebuilding an old roman temple with the stated goal of dedicating a full temple to the Red Moon.  The party is not sure, but this could be the foundation of a temple of the Glow Line, and could provide the benefits of a Full Moon to anyone inside it, if the temple is completed and its magical capabilities brought on line.  A decision is made to prevent this, in order to limit Lunar power and also just to screw them up.


Based on information from some local sources, the party decides to use one of the old roman sewer tunnels that were used (along with the municipal aqueducts) to move water into and out of the old city’s neighborhoods.  Despite an unusual encounter or two, and the successful disarming of a dwarven trap, the party reaches the section of the Aventine hill controlled by the Lunars and through sheer luck, Leon’s character is in the lead.  His character has runic associations with three different gods who possess the Truth rune, and in this time and place, this means that Leon can see through the illusion protecting the warding barrier around the lunar enclave.  This matters, since the warding spell is strangely potent, doing 1D6 damage per point in the Warding spell, instead of 1D3.  Despite some horrific damage, the party makes it through the warding and charges into the lunar encampment while they still have some advantage of surprise.

They catch the imperials while they are still trying to form up, which is a good thing because there are more lunar troops than expected and they are lead by a rune lord of Yanafal Tarnils, supported by a priest of every Seven Mothers cult.  Lucky blows the Horn of Morrigan, the party throws themselves into the lunar ranks, and the slaughter begins.  When the party first burst into the great hall where the lunars are making their stand, they noticed that there are a number of people fleeing up the stairs to the floor above, and that the lunars have company: a tall guy  cloaked and armored in an odd black and white pattern.  The party has enough time to notice that he has 7 eyes, and an odd sword, and then he vanishes.  There is a nice big fight.
It is a knock -down, drag out slug fest.  The party eventually cleans out the entire complex, although a number of lunars manage to teleport out or DI out.  During the fight, you notice that the guy in black and white has a habit of appearing out of nowhere, attacking with his nasty black and white sword and then disappearing at the end of the melee round.  At the end of the battle, you are rejoined by Roland (who was providing you with a distraction by fighting his way in through the front door) who is immune to what makes this clown invisible and Roland points this guy out “Who the heck is that?”  The warrior in black and white makes a run for it, but Roland throws Durandal and pins him to the wall like a bug.
( I know I make Roland sound really rude, but if you read the French sagas about him, he’s as bad a Lancelot in the Arthurian legends; when he has Durandal, he just can’t be stopped by anything short of an army.)
The loot from the guy in black and white is a bit scary; the black and white disk has reusable rune matrices for Strike and Concealment  - Eurmal divine magic.  And the illusion barrier Palanar penetrated was too powerful to be Lunar illusion, most likely the work of a follower of Eurmal himself.  Why are tricksters aiding the Lunar empire here, in this world?

Looting proceeded apace, and Carl’s  ZZ finishes the job of ripping out the warding defenses, and you guys destroy the magical foundations of the lunar temple, rendering it just a ruin.
The party then proceeds south to the area controlled by the Byzantine Empire (Naples and the area south) in Italy.  Here they are welcomed as noted loyalists to Prince Michael (Roland is widely known to be the emissary of his uncle, King of all the Franks, Saxons, Lombards etc)  You report everything you have found to Prince Michael and attempt to persuade him to take action personally.  Please note that this is for all intents and purposes a attempt to start a civil war, since the Prince was ordered to this backwater on the direct command of the Emperor himself, and if he leaves this post with anything more than his personal guard, will be considered to be in rebellion against Nicephorus.

The Prince says “Sure, let me get my stuff”.

While settling affairs with his 2nd in command, both the Prince and Roland spread the news that they are looking to hire some mercenary cavalry for a little trip to visit the Khan of all the Bulgars.  Some incredibly bored (or gullible) yahoos sign up, and along with the byzantine cavalry who have volunteered to follow Prince Michael, you have a decent sized army (2500 troops) for the time.  The prince sets sail from a port on the east coast of Italy but is prevented from making a straight run to Greece by a big mother of a storm, and a rumor that a Moorish fleet has been sighted in the straights of the Adriatic sea.  The fleet loses some ships and is forced  north east to the coast of what is now Bosnia.  This is one of the areas where Slavs now ruled by Khan Krum have managed to reach the coast and have started to build ships to contest control of the Adriatic Sea.  Your fleet manages to catch the Slavs napping (who would be crazy enough to be out in this storm?) and nail their fleet at anchor.  Your party helps to take the slave flagship and the battle is a disaster for the Slavs: half of the Slav ships in the Adriatic are captured or sent to the bottom.  Your ships land, and the prince sends the fleet back to Italy to resupply and open communications, while your reduced force continues SE along the coast.

Not long afterwards, your party (in the lead as usual for the Prince) encounters some Illyrian hillmen, the inhabitants of this area before the Slavs invaded, and they are techinically byzantine subjects.  They are overjoyed to see Imperial troops here to fight the Slavs, and are more than happy to provide your force with intelligence and some extra muscle.  They are good quality light troops and hate the Slavs with a  passion.   They tell you that the Slavs have a major fort and ship building center ahead of you.  All roads in the area lead to it, and it will be a bitch to get around it without being attacked or harassed by Slavs, so the prince decides to take it, for no other reason than to deny it to the Bulgars.  You guys get to lead the way in.  A major fog bank rolls in, obviously magical, but if provides perfect cover for your assault on the Slav defenses.  (night and fog have no effect on troll senses, just for starters)  Your attack is a success and the Slav garrison is wiped out, but not before they manage to light the alarm pyres to alert the Slav forces inland.

Your party and prince Michael decide to deal with the inevitable Slav reinforcements in a proactive way.  The party (all the Humaktis) are told to repair the fort’s inland defenses and hold the fort.   Prince Michael and Roland take the cavalry and the bulk of the Illyrian hillmen into the forest when the Illyrian scouts report that a big group of Slavs is coming in from the NE, along the main road to the interior.  This enemy force comes right on down the road and finds the party in control of THEIR fort.  They are in the process of trying to grind through your defenses when Prince Michael, Roland, 2000 heavy cav and about 10,000 Illyrians hit them in the flank.  They crumble and the hillmen hunt them for miles through the forest.  Very few make it out.  These two victories smash the Slav grip on the central Dalmaitian coast,  and they won’t be coming back for months, because the Illyrians captured information that says that Khan Krum is calling for all available troops to march to the capital to defend against a rumored Byzantine invasion.
The party rests and handles loot and experience, then the source of the magical fog bank appears: it’s the Moorish fleet that was spotted at the southern end of the Adriatic. It has sailed north and it’s been looking for the party.  It is a combined fleet, bearing the flags of both the African Emir who claims Sicily (who the party has screwed over before) and Malachi of Spain (ditto) .   Prince Michael gathers everyone in the fort, Roland readies Durandal and someone in your party unfurls the flag of Hector; the moorish mages unleash a magical assault.  A glowing ball of yellow light is hurled from the fleet’s largest ship in a high arc at the fort, and when it descends, it strikes an invisible barrier that takes the form of a hemisphere protecting the fort (this is a surprise to you) , and then EVERYTHING goes grey for the space of six deep breathes.    Then everything goes back to normal, except the fleet is gone, and it is now mid spring, instead of mid autumn.  Six months have passed while the world turned grey.  And Lucky is a girl.

The Illyrians who were rebuilding a town around where the fort was are understandably upset by your sudden reappearance.  When you finally catch up to them and calm them down, they tell you that the Moors who landed after the fort vanished walked over the bare ground where the fort used to be and were kind of puzzled at what happened but then danced back to their ships and sailed off singing merrily.  Your column of cavalry resupply for a long march, mount up and are led Prince Michael on a forced march south east and then east across Greece towards the great city of Constantinople.

Your journey is pretty uneventful and picks up speed once you enter territory under the direct control of the empire.  You get a lot of suspicious looks, but no one tries to stop the prince or keep him from entering the city.  Prince Michael is going to gather any troops he can and head north to reinforce the emperor, who has begun a campaign to crush Krum and the Bulgars once and for all.  On a personal note, you find Keith’s AA troll leading a stubborn defense of your group’s holdings in the northern docks of the city.  The collegia who were willing to accept Lucky as boss assumed that he was dead after you guys were out of touch for so long, and decided to take over your holdings.  Keith said “I don’t think so”, and the war was on.  This conflict stops with Lucky’s return, and negotiations begin.

Rumors you hear in Constantinople:

The Emperor is sweeping all before him.
The Crown Prince is sterile.
The Crown Prince is gay.
Prince Michael is engaged in a torrid affair with the leader of the Armenian Rug Makers guild, who is rumored to have the most beautiful eyes, shapely breasts and silkiest mustache in the City.
Varangians are revolting.
The Emir of North Africa and Malachi of Spain are in alliance and about to invade: (take your pick)
Southern Italy
Greece
Southern France
Palestine
Egypt

The price of grain is going up.
The Silk Road has opened!  (+10% to all commerce for the next year.)
There was a titanic explosion and a series of earthquakes in far Arabia.
Asshurbanipal has committed horrible occult crimes against God and Man.  Again.
Asshurbanipal has invaded: (take your pick)
India
Egypt
Arabia (and he has seized the shrines of Mecca and Medina!)
The earth has opened and swallowed Asshurbanipal for his crimes against the world.
Lucky is gay.
No, Lucky is a girl and Lucky and the Crown Prince are having a torrid affair
Prince Michael leads 3000 cavalry and your group out of the city, headed for the northern frontier and the trail left by the Emperor and his army heading for Pliska, the Bulgar capital, it is the beginning of July, 811.  As usual, the party is in the lead.  The path taken by the Emperor’s army is unmistakeable: Nicephorus is leading the largest byzantine force gathered in 100 years (80,000 troops, including the tagmata, the imperial bodyguards) and once into bulgar territory, he burns anything his army cannot eat or loot.  Although the emperor split the army into 3 columns to cross the mountains between the frontier and the bulgar capital, the main pass and the quickest route is the Varbica Pass, and that is the way the prince wishes to go.  Once you enter the pass, you all can tell that you are being watched; you even see the signs of bulgar troops who have passed this way since the first army passed through, but no one attacks you.  You press on, and when you reach a hill with a clear view of all three passes to the south, you see that there are bulgar troops entrenched on the slopes around each pass.  Prince Micheal urges everyone onward and the party  reaches  Pliska and the camp of the main army late on the afternoon of July 25, 811.

The main army camp is a disaster waiting to happen.  The campaign so far has been too easy: everyone is loaded down with loot and no one thinks the army can be defeated.  Discipline is failing and the army is spread out, disorganized, and has not even fortified their camp, even in the midst of enemy territory.   Pliska itself has been sacked and the imperial engineers are in the process of leveling it; in fact the army would have left this morning, to swing through Moesia and retake the fort at Serdica, which was lost to Krum two years before, but awakened to find that the pass to the NW of the city had disappeared.  In its place was a steep hill that had appeared over night.  Thanks to your magical abilities, you realize what  they do not: this hill is actually an army of gnomes, hundreds of them, each 50 cubic meters in size, lurking beneath the soil of the pass itself.  For all of them to have appeared overnight means that all of them are being controlled by one mind, waiting to strike.  It occurs to you that this is not good.

When you inform the prince of this, he decides to act: night is falling and there is no time to lose.  He will go from unit to unit and attempt to organize the army and awaken the individual commanders to their peril.  The party will split up: one group will seek an audience with the Emperor and try to get him to see the danger everyone is in.  Prince Michael cannot do this: he’s already in trouble for leaving his post in Italy without the emperor’s permission (possibly fatal trouble).  If he were to enter the emperor’s presence  without permission, the imperial guards would probably cut him down.   The emperor knows and to an extent, trusts the party.  There is a good chance he will listen to you.  The other part of the group, lead by Mogar, will attempt to deal with the gnomes.  Mogar has the javelin of black and green glass given to him by Argan Argar, and he thinks it is your best chance against the gnomes.
Prince Michael begins his rounds of pleading, cajoling and orating every single officer he can find, and slowly begins the pull the army together; he will succeed in getting every one in order and even manage to get a fortified camp built, with all troops inside, before dawn.

Mogar and those with him approach the gnomes a safe distance from the army and Mogar begins attacking gnomes; his javelin does terrible damage to them, and can even allow him to dispel a gnome entirely, but there are hundreds of gnomes, and with each gnome he destroys, more gnomes focus on the group and begin moving slowly towards them.  The group is about to be overwhelmed by a tidal wave of elementals when those present start making divine interventions; none of those gods answer.  However, since Mogar lived in the Undying Lands of Middle Earth for a time and is marked by the Valar, he has a link to the Valar, and the one Valar not bound to Middle Earth, and for whom distance means nothing, hears a call for help from someone he knows, and he answers it.
Tulkas comes to Mogar’s aid.  Tulkas (called Astaldo the Valiant) is the strongest of the Valar, and does not understand fear or death.  He cannot be threatened or daunted and he cares nothing for guile or calculating the odds.   He just doesn’t care about the odds, and always moved directly towards his goal: that which will bring complete victory the soonest.  Tulkas has the form of a small giant whose skin is golden, and whose hair and beard are flaming red.  He laughs and the sight of his form and the sound of his laughter is so overwhelming that some flee him and someone in the party ( I forget who) faints.
Mogar explains his need for help and asks Tulkas to help him destroy the threat that the gnomes present.  Tulkas picks Mogar up and leaps into the air; at the top of his leap, he throws Mogar and his javelin into the exact center of the gnome army.  The impact will kill Mogar, but will enable him to focus the magic of the javelin: the radius of the effect will be multiplied by Mogar’s personal power, and it allows him to encompass ALL of the gnomes.  Backed by the force of Tulkas’s will, Mogar not only manages to break the link between the lunar sorcerer who commands the gnomes, he turns all of the gnomes to stone, forever.  As a parting gift, Tulkas sends an extra jolt of power down the magical link he sees leading off to the north, and it finds the lunar sorcerer, safe in his reinforced summoning circle.  The circle acts to turn the force of the magic inward, and the sorcerer,  AND WHAT HE WAS USING TO CONTROL 300 GIANT GNOMES, explodes.  The party will notice a column of smoke off to the north the next day.
A ghostly white shape climbs out of the impact crater in the center of the petrified gnomes: it is Mogar, and he and his clothing are now white.  He is no longer Mogar Bogmain, he is now Mogar the White, Servant of the Valar, and Tulkas has told him that since he has set himself in opposition to the Red Goddess, he is bound to this world until the Red Goddess defeats him or until he foils her plan to invade Earth.

The rest of the party is at the entrance to the Imperial Pavilon, where they have been told to cool their heels.  The emperor may or may not decide to see them, he is currently in conference with his son, Crown Prince Stauracius, and they are not to be disturbed.  After all, they are father and son.


The group, lead by Palanar, are debating how to get into the Emperor’s presence when all the Humakti feel their Sense Assassin ability burn within them, and some hear a faint sound within the pavilion.  Reacting instantly, the group literally hacks their way through the side of the pavilion and two internal barriers to find the crown prince standing over his father’s body, a bloody bulgar sword in his hand.  The group leaps upon Stauracius and his 4 bodyguards and overpower them.  Two of Stauracius’s men are killed and the Crown Prince is wounded in the neck and paraylyzed, but you take them prisoner with the Imperial Guards as witnesses.  Searching the prince, you find an amulet with a glowing red stone, and believe you have found proof of Stauracius’s link with the Lunars.  (you are correct)

Shortly afterwards, bulgar troops, more than anyone had thought were in the area, begin attacking the byzantine army at different points around the perimeter; these are probing attacks, that could have taken advantage of a disorganized foe, but withdraw once they find determined resistance.  Prince Michael succeeded in reorganizing the army just in time.  The next morning, Stauracius is carried before the assembled nobles and strategos (and the Imperial Tagmata) and accused and convicted of patricide and treason.  He begs for mercy, saying he was bewitched, but it doesn’t excuse his crimes and he is beheaded before the army.  Prince Michael is raised to the imperial throne by popular acclaim and is now Emperor Michael Rangabe the First.

His first command as emperor is to get out of Dodge, and the army agrees with him, moving out to the south at a steady but not panicky pace.   At least some of the party stays with Michael at all times, and this is a good thing, because the Lunars strike at the new emperor (and at Stauracius’s 2 remaining bodyguards who are prisoners) with Lunes, elementals of the Red Moon, which wield madness and magic as weapons.  They succeed in killing the prisoners, who knew too much, but the party destroys them before they can harm the emperor.  Several days later, the army reaches the Varbica Pass, to find it fortified against them, as are the other two passes to the west and east.   Krum’s people have blocked the passes with high, thick wooden barracades at multiple points, and turned each pass into a gauntlet lined with bulgar archers, slingers and rockslides.  Mogar decides to use magic to clear the way, and opens an elemental gate, and begins to summon salamanders to come through and burn the barracades.  One of the bulgar magicians or lunar sorcerers in the area decides to be clever and tries to take control of the gate from Mogar, at the same time that someone in the party (Carl, I think) releases a large air elemental.  This crosses the streams and the elemental gate explodes into a huge cloud of flame that merges with the sylph and turns into a firestorm that blasts down the pass from north to south, covering miles in minutes.  It annihilates everything in its path, and the shockwave is felt in Constantinople.  The army continues on its way through Varbica Pass without further incident, and reaches imperial territory safely.


In our history, Pliska was one of the worst defeats the Byzantine Empire ever suffered, the worst since Adrianople, 400 years before.  Historically, Nicephoras dies along with almost all of his army and Khan Krum ravages imperial territory unstopped until his death in 814.  It could be argued that the empire never fully recovered from this defeat.  But in this time and place, the army is intact, Krum’s losses are much greater (although not enough to destroy the Bulgar’s power) and the plans of the Lunar forces are well and truly screwed.

You have changed history.

You are now officially intimates of the Emperor, and considered to be his chosen henchmen, foreigners though you be.  The emperor’s first act to reward you is to give you permission to enter the imperial tombs and find out what you can; please note that this is NOT a license to plunder at will.  The emperor’s first concern is to solidify his power base, and to guard the northern frontier; Krum is still Khan of all the Bulgars.  You will have to share 50% of the proceeds from anything you gain from your investigation of the tombs, and don’t start carting stuff away for “research”.
And you detect undead in the tombs, from a distance.
In other news, Lucky (or Lucy, as she is starting to be called) decides that lessons need to be learned and levys a punishment tax on the collegiums who waged war against Keith while the party was gone.  This is just too much; Lucky steps on their toes, promises to pay what he owes and then takes off for who knows where for more than a year, rumors say he’s dead, and then his kid sister shows up and starts ordering people around AND extorting money.  From them.  This means war.

[7 blank lines suppressed]

Current Rumors:
The emperor is cute.  And single again (the Armenian widow got hitched to a Venetian glass blower while Michael was out of town)
Roland is cute, in that beefy, homicidal way the Franks have
The Emperor’s Chosen are a dangerous bunch, best avoid them
The Emperor’s Chosen are not entirely human
The Emperor’s Chosen pay their bills on time, would that the nobility were more like them.
Malachi has invaded France
The price of grain is down
Asshurbanipal has donned the Cloak of the Prophet.
Asshurbanipal has conquered India
Asshurbanipal has burned the Persian city of Ctesiphon to the ground as an example
Asshurbanipal has called for Jihad to take Constantinople
Lucy is going to lose
Lucy is going to win
Lucy is gay

It is now August, 811 AD
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