Session S5.O-04

1629, Fire Season, Death Week, Waterday to Fireday

Dramatis Personae

Events

After clearing up the Dwarf’s latest problem, Berra was left with a chunk of iron, which he tried to persuade her to leave behind. However, he could not trade the favour of teaching her Blacksmith something, and would not trade a general favour that would pass on after her Death. So, she took the iron with her.

On the way out from Dwarf Mine, the caravan met up with Nayale, who had ridden up to deliver some potential bad news to Berra. There was a problem with finding the edges of her hide to be able to put the watch-tower in it, as one of her neighbours insisted that the land where they had been looking was his, and he was a cousin to Harvan the weaponthane. Berra considered this but did not have an immediate solution, so had Nayale travel with them while she thought.

As they travelled they saw some sharp thunder lizards taking down a very big one. They travelled through Waterday and settled South of Grizzly Peak, for the night. Nayale was very surprised by Salid, who had been sleeping in a light wagon, but she did not do any untoward stabbing. She did awaken the camp, but the matter was sorted quickly. The next day Nayale got completely turned around and tried to go East, but the others helped her not get totally lost.

As the approached the big island that had Dunstop in it, they saw light cavalry coming the other way. Irillo woke Salid just in case, and the troll got his pike out. There was some light demanding of bribes from the cavalry officer, and Irillo got a signet imprint just in case it actually made things cheaper later, or possibly to demonstrate he had been ‘searched’.

Berra told Nayale to listen to the ferryman, who had had a huge variety of interesting people crossing! He had had Fazzur Wideread coming back from a raid, with a strong cavalry force, and a lot of the gentry, and ‘some of of those ex-heartland people’ – an iron-wearer, and some King’s Guard. There had also been a famous actor called Raif, who was very popular up in Darra Happa.

As they rode, Berra spotted there were fewer customs and watch posts manned than before, as if all the manpower had been pulled in centrally. Nayale saw what she thought was an ambush in a copse, but turned out to be the sun shining off the hanging bronze of a small personal memorial.

They reached Dunstop just before the end of Clayday, and settled in at the market. Berra told Nayale not to mention her if possible, and stayed to guard the caravan rather than going to the palace. They managed to take a walk around town and listen to the gossip. Berra at least got the impression that a lot of the army was out. It was rumoured that Fazzur was out with it, and got within a couple of feet of killing Pharandros in a daring cavalry raid, but was beaten off at the last minute¹snigger snigger. There were also rumoured to be plenty of defectors to Fazzur²As opposed to defectors to Tarsh. from the heartlands. While people were worried that Fazzur would die in battle, they also seemed proud of him. His strengths included good communication with the grazelands, and thus good horses.

Nayale escorted Irillo to try to see Fazzur. Irillo came out of a meeting with Mirava and came back to the market to talk to Berra as well as Nayale. As it turned out, Fazzur was not present or was not seeing them, and Mirava could not unilaterally make a river-head, or was saying she could not. They decided to try at the end of the next day’s trading, and then if he still was not around they should not wait for him, but move out and look for a better option. The next day, Fazzur was still not available, and so the caravan set out for the dragonewts at Stone Over Souls the morning after.

The ferryman had some interesting things to say, which were almost identical to what the man on the other ferryboat had said; Fazzur, the heartlanders, but no actor. Berra wondered quietly to Nayale if the actor was standing in for Fazzur on some of the trips to hide where he was.

The group travelled along the road for a while until they reached a dragonewt altar, where Berra dismounted, thought for a moment, touched it, and disappeared. This caused some alarm, even among those who knew her. She found herself on a road, and had a choice of ways to go; she chose forwards, and found she was suddenly moving at speed, in a fashion familiar to her from when she had been taken on the road as a passenger. She was ejected, and took a massive tumble, at the other end. A very surprised dragonewt³third stage? was looking at her, and after a while communication was established, using a crested dragonewt as the intermediary. It turned out that the Inhuman King had expected them two days ago. Berra counted up and then said she thought that was probably the time they were staying with Fazzur, but she could not fully account for it. Her host danced the very concept of giant reptiles around her, and she meditated to try to clear her head. This gave her visions of waiting for meat to drift in front of her, and a great patience.

Meanwhile, Irillo had worked out what had happened, and moved his part of the caravan on⁴There were some PCs not present, so they might have been left in Dunstop to see if Fazzur came back.. They proceeded along the road until the hills ahead began to look oddly squarish and the animals started to fret. Nayale managed to keep her horse under control, but Irillo dismounted to lead his mule. Distance became optional as the hills were suddenly clearly ziggurats, and then the group were in Stone over Souls, with a couple of dragonewts waiting for them. Irillo said he had gifts for the King and was looking for a human friend of his, and they were taken to see Berra. The city was cut with canals. There was a lot of water compared to everywhere else. And one of the pools was at an angle, yet the water did not run out. Berra had several dragonewts nearby to her, watching her.

When Nayale woke her up, Berra almost lunged for the meat in front of her, but managed to hold back, and recalled who she was. Berra had Dragonewts paint the Man Rune on her, which she mostly ignored, as people talked about where they wanted to go, and tried to get the strange beings to understand them. The dragonewts spoke in bits of words copied from the people who had talked. They led the trio to a ziggurat which Irillo thought was entirely normal. Berra worked out that she was walking on the ceiling, but was unworried about that. Nayale could see that, and also see Berra walking beside her.

Berra chose to start flipping a coin. It came down heads every time until she put in an effort to make it land on the edges, at which point she could see into the edges of the milling and see the coins in there even though she should not be able to, and then she could see the edges of the milling and see the coins… She could see it at all angles at once.

Nayale reached out, and her hand touched Berra’s, and broke the entrancement. Berra only flipped the coin normally after that. Nayale’s hand moved through a blankness of space to do it, although she could see herself reaching sideways, and also see her hand displaced.

They emerged into a circular stadium, with a sunken central court made up of two square parts with a wall⁵About 6′ tall, so taller than the players between them. Atop either end of the wall were round shapes, parallel to the wall⁶About 7′ to each, one representing the Sun and one the Moon. As the group watched, the Inhuman King, in a throne at one end of the wall⁷It may be impossible to tell which. threw a gold and silver ball down onto the wall. It bounced a few times, and then fell onto the Sun side. A complicated game began, in which the dragonewt players used their bodies but not their hands to bounce the ball through the hoops. The first point was scored with the help of a dragonewt with a single white scale at the centre of its forehead.

Thoughtfully, Berra flipped the coin she still had in her hand. It came down heads, but was now made half of silver, half of gold, and the colours kept swapping. The group realised that the dragonewts were representative of the sides of struggle, and after asking the Inhuman King what would happen if she threw in another dragonewt⁸“I DO NOT KNOW.”, Berra did, making sure that the crested dragonewt she chose did not struggle to get away. It was bounced over from the Sun side, and turned white as it went over the wall. It landed on a Moon player, squashing it. It dragged the body around for a while, and then left it where it was, and climbed out into the audience. The one it had squashed kept moving, and perhaps even began to put itself together again.

Irillo gave the Inhuman King a gift of a tiger’s eye which the great Dragonewt pushed into its forehead like a third eye. He also handed over a stick with a cleft in the top. The Inhuman King held it in front of his face, making a Truth/Illusion duo. Then he waved at the Sun side of the game and one of the players began to speed up and move with more agility. It also took on the markings of the Truth and Illusion Runes.

The group watched for a while longer, and Berra also looked at the audience, drawing attention to the fact that the groups sitting and watching seemed to be themed as Runes, possibly set directly opposite each other. They asked the Inhuman King about the Oslir, and were told that all of his waters were headwaters, which was probably as good as they were getting.

Having noted that the squashed dragonewt was likely red-headed, and that the Kallyr seemed to have morphed into a different newt, the group looked out for other people. There were many they did not recognise, and some they did. The dragonewt gifted by the Inhuman King continued to play well on the Sun side. Nayale noticed that the dragonewts seem to pause briefly through the Death Rune pose as they changed but then moved on.

Soon after that, they were told by the Inhuman King that if they stayed they were STAYING, and they left, going back out of Stone over Souls with a lot of thoughtfulness.

• 1
  snigger snigger
• 2
  As opposed to defectors to Tarsh.
• 3
  third stage?
• 4
  There were some PCs not present, so they might have been left in Dunstop to see if Fazzur came back.
• 5
  About 6′ tall, so taller than the players
• 6
  About 7′ to each
• 7
  It may be impossible to tell which.
• 8
  “I DO NOT KNOW.”