Harnst looked warmly across at his friend and sometimes lover, "Have no fear Zmeya the little one will safe with me.  I do you have something safe I can carry the little fellow in?" he asked watching the kitten attack his boots.  "Has he a name by chance?"

Zmeya hands you a large, soft leather pouch decorated with the Orlanthi wheel of three cats in stylised, graceful leather quilting.

"No, good friend Harnst. I don't give them litter-names, I've always felt that to be bad luck. But you have good luck on the tracks over the hills and don't worry, Ice-Troll Pass should be relatively free of snow by now." She gives you the indulgent smile of a life-long friend sending a companion into danger.


The first day is uneventful. Even though it is Storm Season the air is cool and clear, perfect for riding. There is a layer of snow on the ground which is as deep as a hand on the track but deeper under the trees and the shaded banks. The snow is beginning to melt, Sea Season is not far away - six weeks ago this trip would have been far more difficult. A sheltered grove in a little hollow looks like a comfortable place to spend the night so  you tether your horse and prepare for rest, ensuing that the sleepy kitten is warm and fed.

You awaken refreshed the next morning, ready to continue your journey when you notice with horror that the kitten is missing.

Angrily you circle the camp looking for tracks . . .

(Please make a 'Track' roll)

With a heavy sigh Harnst set about searching for the small feline Son of a bitch he thought to himself as he dropped down into the snow.

Your brow furrows when you follow the kitten's tracks. They go for a short way and then you see what look like the marks of unshod human feet in the snow. These new tracks had circled your camp, seemingly looking for something to steal, then they appeared to have picked up the kitten and moved off through heavy brush and rocky terrain that you would not be able to follow on your horse.

What do you do?

"Outlaw I'll wager if he eats that kitten I'll skin him for boots." Harnst muttered to himself looking at the tracks.  He turned back and looked over at his horse and sighed before returning to his camp.

He quickly set about securing his saddle and other gear he could not carry in a tree before releasing the horse after laying out some food for it.  Hopefully enough that it would stay close by for a few days while he tracked the thief down.

With a final rub of the animals nose he whispered "Stay and eat and hopefully I will return but keep safe my friend" Then he set off after the miscreants.

You follow the tracks for about an hour through heavy brush and up rocky ground, having to have left your horse behind in the hollow. The tracks, often lost but always found again, lead to an ancient square structure of very old design. You suspect it might be a small earth temple or shrine and it looks to be hundreds of years old. The heavily sculptured exterior is weathered and eroded, not giving any hint to what gods, if any, were once venerated here.

You cautiously circle the building and see that there are no apertures apart from a door facing south. The door is not wood but a heavy sculpted stone slab however there are no vines covering the opening like the rest of the building. The tracks lead up to the door and disappear.

Obviously there is but one option, to enter.


You carefully push your shoulder to the slab and it pivots without much trouble. Inside it is dim but not dark, in a corner a small clay oil lamp's wick gives off enough light to see. There is no one else in the room.

This appears to once have been an entry hall or atrium. The roof overhead is vaulted and the walls are carved in geometric shapes. Before you is what appears to have been an altar or some sort of bench but it has been struck many times by what may have been a work maul. The top is smashed to pieces.

Alarmingly two runes have been daubed on the far wall in some dark, viscous substance. They are the chaos rune and the death rune.

There is a door to either side of you, one in the east wall and one in the west wall. The dark pavement shows no marks.

Chaos, just what I need today Harmast thought to himself as he looked at the runes on the wall he glanced from left to right at the doorways neither seemed a good choice and he tightened his grip on the spear he held in his right hand.

"Just a quick trip you thought you bloody fool, Eurmals own luck the blood6 cat decides to wonder off in the night he sighs again before moving carefully across the room to the door on his left.

The door is of similar construction but thinner than the outer door. You push up against the lichen encrusted stone and it slides open, showing you another room. This room is square as well and you think that each room in the shrine will be the same, probably a mystical relation with the square earth rune.

There are no occupants visible.

The room is almost dark, the only light penetrating it is from the little lamp behind you in the first room.

Inside are many large jars of varying sizes, shapes and positions. They seems to have been stacked here over the years. The walls are still carved in geometric shapes but the patterns are larger here and have a recurring motif of superimposed squares.

There is another door in the north wall.

(Please make a Listen roll)

As you stand in the dim doorway you suspect that you can hear soft snoring from the next room through the door.

Harnst paused at the doorways unsure how to proceed forward I to the dark room.  He opened his mouth and tried to use his hunters senses to listen for a clue or well anything to indicate he was on the right path.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:26, Wed 21 Sept 2022.

With a quick mental prayer Harnst moved silently into the room searching for the source of the soft snoring and hoping to find the kitten quickly.

This room is similar to the last, right down to continuing the same carved designs on the walls. There is another door on the opposite side of the room. Like every room you have entered so far it is square and five metres across. If this plan continues there should be nine rooms in the shrine, organised in a grid.

In the room are boxes, sacks and baskets. There seems to be enough food here to last a season at least and the type of food is widely varied. Unlike the ancient shrine the supplies all seem recent.

You will need to bring the lamp in to see as it is almost pitch black.

Now you hear very loud snoring, the snoring being so loud it had originally penetrated two rooms!*

Do you wish to search this room?

(*Good save there for Jim)

Harnst quietly returned to find the lamp and returned to the room placing it somewhere high if possible then he quickly cast his eye over the foodstuffs, was it loot or traded goods he wondered.

He stopped to listen for the snoring before moving into the next room.

This room is, as you suspected, square like the others. It seems that the builders of the shrine took the Earth Rune motif seriously. It has two doors, one by which you entered in the south wall and one in the east wall.

The first thing that attracts your attention is a heavily-built man, savage-looking with wild hair and filthy but you see in shock that he has a third eye growing above his right eye and his mouth is simply a black sucker. He is wearing a heavily padded tunic and is fast asleep. Beside him on the ground is a heavy bladed spear, a thick club and a light targe. He is snoring like a lord*.

The room has been set up as a camp and you suspect that the mutant spends most of its time here. There's a paillasse lying in the corner on which it lies.  A few blocks and rocks have been piled up to make a fireplace and the walls and roof are streaked with soot. It must be very smoky in here with the fire burning as there's nowhere for the smoke to escape. A couple of battered earthenware bowls and a clay jay filled with water which you suspect have been taken from one of the earlier rooms are the sum total of the wretched being's belongings. Here's a lesson for you; mess with chaos and you'll die poor.

(*Or a Jim for that matter)

Actions? No matter what you do you will need another Stealth roll.

Harnst sneaks over to the sleeping figure revulsion clear upon his face. He took hold of the spear with both hands a d plunges it into the chaos things neck.

The spear plunge's into the mutant's neck and it rears up, clutching the shaft. It erupts into  a horrific frenzied thrashing as you grimly hang into the spear. Slowly its convulsions cease and thick black blood gouts from the wound. The lamp flickers and the corpse stiffens in the dim light.

Gasping, you wrench the spear from the corpse and look warily around for other threats. Nothing.

It occurs to you that you didn't search either of the two proceeding rooms due to your need for stealth.

Breathing heavily Harnst placed his foot on the chaos creatures chest and pulled his spear out of creatures neck.  He stepped back and cleaned off his spear blade as best he can.  Then he moved to the next door and listened hoping nothing had heard the creatures thrashing.

Pressing his head to the cool stone slab that is the door, Harnst hears nothing.

Falling back to the previous room Harmast retrieved the lamp and returned placing it in a safe spot he opened the door into the next room.

Placing the lamp on the floor, you open the door and look into the room. With a start you see a motionless figure standing in front of the door in the flickering lamp light. The figure is a rotten horror of bones wearing decayed chain mail carrying a falcata and a heavy buckler. The old bones are wrapped on wagged grave windings. A cloud of dust and fragments falls from it as it raises its shield and lurches toward you, falcata held ready to cut.

The spear point slices through the armour in a spray of corroded rings and shatters its thigh. Its leg drop out from under it and it uses it's shield arm to support itself so it can mindlessly continue the fight. You recoil in horror, knowing that to be a killing blow. What does it take to destroy this abomination!?

Harnst recoiled leaving his spear stuck in the things thigh.  He fell back preparing to cast a spell of disruption.  Then went to pick up the dead mutants spear.

Stepping back into the dim lamp-lit room you hear a malignant hiss as the thing crawls after trailing its spear-spit leg behind it. The lamp flickers wildly as you loose your spell but you realise the dead thing has no soul to target, it's a nightmare monster from beyond the grave.
You snatch up the mutant's heavy-bladed spear and prepare to fight for you life and soul.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:44, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

Lunging forward Harnst strikes at the creature with the unfamiliar Spear feeling it strike the creature true but bounce off he whipped the spear around to parry its return blow.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:50, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

The corroded chain takes the brunt of your stab and the creature stabs up with its falcata which is only just deflected away by the thick cornel-wood of the mutant's spear shaft.

Inexorably it crawls after you in the dark, a limbus of grave fire lurking in its hollow eye sockets under the brim of its Agen helm.