Diaries The Saga Of Berra — Fragment 31
1626, Sea Season
Love for her clan brought her back to the Tula1The timing of this ill-fitting fragment is much in dispute.
Guiding her feet on the trail of old Rathik2You are invited to judge for yourself if following the path of Rathik is representative of love for the Clan and Ancestors, a harbinger of Berra’s death, or a reminder that she is herself Death, the great Separator.
Seeing the site that was cleared for the Temple
Hospital Temple for many White Ladies
Hearing the call of the Clan to the Eastward
Berra set forth with companions around her
Harking to Farist3Head of the War Thanes. and Saronil Clanchief
Learning of Broo at a farm in the mountains
Guiding the Fyrd to be strengthened by Orlanth4Probably by her leadership, possibly her oratory.
Varanis gathered the warriors to her
When morning came they set out for the farmstead
Finding a body that lay on the roadside
Eyes of the hawk looked from horse-back to see it
Crows pecked at flesh as Serala reported
Mellia said the the body was tainted
Berra gave handfuls of earth5The Humakti ritual burial of three handfuls of earth and a warning not to come back sometimes but not always stood in for proper corpse preparation. In this case the White Lady was present and we can assume the ritual was finished in its entirety. for the grave-site
Passing beyond to the place of the slaughter
Berra saw boundary stones had been shattered
Irillo stout saw green shoots in the cabbage
Hazia shoots that he knew from warm6Warm, welcoming, Earthy. Nochet
When without warning a Jackobear found them
Berra was stopped as were many about her
Mellia brought down the servant of Chaos
Making it lie down to sleep on the ploughland
Into the farmstead they went in as soldiers
Finding but blood there and corpse desecration
Well was befouled and a vile disease totem
Stood there within the old walls of the courtyard
There a great hole in the ground was before them
Without the walls in the fertile ploughed farmland
Sending for Saronil Chief with his warband
Berra prepared for the Ritual of Feeding7This appears to have been how Berra performed the Morale Ritual.
What Really Happened
With some soft focus on when this might have happened, as there had been some off-camera RP at the end of Sea Season but it was entirely possible that people would die, Rajar, stand-in GM, elected to run a classic set on Rabbit-hat Farm.
The adventurers were called to the Green Fish Tula by an urgent message – there were Broo about! They rushed to the Tula and were told a little more – a gang of 5 people sent out to investigate when there had been nothing heard from the farm for a while had been set upon, and while the women and children of the farm had escaped, the warriors had been over-run. The clan was searching for the Broo, and the adventurers took some of the Fyrd and went out to see what had happened. Varanis inspired them all, so they felt rather happier about marching into this horrible danger.
On the way, they encountered a body, with a spear that looked like broo manufacture in it. The warrior had been dead for long enough for the crows to be enjoying themselves. Mellia said the body was tainted, and cleansed it and prepared it for burial, and then the group went onto the farm. They spotted that the earth-marked boundary stones had been shattered and scattered about, and there was Hazia, a drug forbidden in Sartar, growing among the cabbages. They failed to spot a Jackobear that was pretending to be a scarecrow, until after it had spotted them, and harmonised several people including Berra. Mellia put it to sleep and then everyone stabbed it. After that, Xenofos cast Find Enemies on Serala, who rode around the farmstead and decided that the fields hated here – there were probably things underneath the ground. Serala spotted an odd hole in the ground.
They entered the farm building complex, finding nobody alive, but plenty of bodies, and a disease totem. They cleaned the place up. Berra suggested they send for reinforcements on the grounds they were pretty sure they had found the enemy. Irillo suggested creating a warding, and after looking down at the bottom of the hole, they decided to create it down there, as a fallback position, which they did. When the war band arrived, Berra performed the Ritual of Morale to let everyone fight more efficiently, and they prepared to go into the dark tunnel at the bottom.
Session Quotes
“I would appreciate the aid, and it would be a favour to the clan.” – Saronil
“Oh, we’ll do it anyway.” – Berra
*sleeps in stables* – Berra
“Riding my horse.” – Xenofos
“Tempted by Foot-soldiering.” – Berra
“Or any crazed Humakti…” – Xenofos
“Humakti are always sane. They just see life differently.” – Berra
“69 as a resistance roll.” – Berra
“That’s a shame, because you’re not going anywhere right now.” – GM
“Jackobear is now in a target-rich environment.” – Berra
“Things. Under the …. something. Tunnels? We can hope they don’t burrow.” – Berra
“Bodies, spears, doors kicked in. Typical death scene. Mellia!” – Berra
“NOW I could potentially attempt the Rune Magic to give us morale. It makes me less efficient but makes others far better in battle. And I think I should do that.” – Berra
“Fallback strong point. I like.” – Berra
“Okay, I can cast up to 4 points of Warding.. Which lasts until wands disrupted. Each point can cover 100m square, or give additional countermagic and Disruption” – Irillo
“Do you have anything else that could harm the enemy?” – Berra
“Summon Cult Spirit/Command Cult Spirit.” – Irillo
“So… you could bilk them on their payments?” – Berra
“Foreclose on the wormy thing.” – Irillo
“Something that eats through rock is going to eat through anything.” – Berra
“But let’s send for the rest of the Fyrd. We don’t have to be fast.” – Berra
“I wonder if we should cast it at the bottom of the hole.” – Irillo
“That’s an interesting thought. I sort of like it.” – Berra
“We do have to get down there.” – Berra
“I’ve rolled on my water rune, which is my impetuosity, and I’m going to throw a torch down the hole.” – Varanis
“Berra glares at Varanis.” – Berra
“(a) to slow down anything that crosses the boundary once chasing us in, and (b) to slow down anything that crosses the boundary chasing us out.” – Irillo
“I like that.” – Berra
“And I’ll promise Rajar that we’ll deal with this and he’ll be allowed to fight Chaos in dark tunnels.” – Berra
“We do have dried hazia here. We could just get high.” – Berra
“Sounds better than the looming alternative.” – Xenofos
“I don’t think we should leave Mellia where it’s safe. Rajar is likely to happen. We’ve got 20 people with us, and we can leave some and bring some, and keep her in the back with a couple of guards.” – Berra
“Nyah-hah-hah.” – Mellia
“I don’t want to be sprinting back to safety with Rajar thinking I’m a broo sympathiser!” – Berra
- 1The timing of this ill-fitting fragment is much in dispute.
- 2You are invited to judge for yourself if following the path of Rathik is representative of love for the Clan and Ancestors, a harbinger of Berra’s death, or a reminder that she is herself Death, the great Separator.
- 3Head of the War Thanes.
- 4Probably by her leadership, possibly her oratory.
- 5The Humakti ritual burial of three handfuls of earth and a warning not to come back sometimes but not always stood in for proper corpse preparation. In this case the White Lady was present and we can assume the ritual was finished in its entirety.
- 6Warm, welcoming, Earthy.
- 7This appears to have been how Berra performed the Morale Ritual.