HeroQuest 1

Session 3.18

1628, Fire Season, Stasis Week (ish)

Dramatis Personae

PCs

Berra (herself/Humakt/herself)
Maalira (Chalana Arroy)
Varanis (Vinga-Orlanth)

NPCs

Devolin (Eurmal/Danfive?)
Jar-eel
Yelm’s corpse
Some people who were sick

Events

Berra had been alone in the dim temple, trying to be as Humakti as she could be – she found suddenly that she was on a road, and ahead of her was a man who was almost certainly a bandit – brown skinned, and tough looking.  After glancing around to see if it was worth going the other way, Berra decided to go fight the bandit, but without using her sword.1She did consider throwing her swords away so as to be unable to play Humakt, but could not bring herself to.  She approached, and despite being stuck in the persona of Humakt was certain his lisping voice was familiar.  She wrestled him, drawing on her practice with Xenofos, and was returned to herself to find with delight that she had Devolin by the neck.

Maalira had been meditating and singing, and she sang about Chalana Arroy, but found that Jar-eel was singing about the Lunar goddess of healing, Erissa, and Maalira ended up learning about how Erissa and Chalana Arroy both understood suffering.

Varanis found herself standing in a golden courtyard-palace, with a dead body before her.  It was sometimes an Esrolian great lord, sometimes a brown man, sometimes a child.  She picked up the body to take it to go bring it back to life.  As she did so, the body arced, so that it and the horizon made a stasis rune.  She concentrated on it being the Lordly figure, and threw herself utterly into the part of Vinga, thus becoming the god and goddess.  Simultaneously she knew that she had killed the tyrant, and that her father had committed a terrible act by killing his host.  Orlanth was determined to set it right, however.

Maalira found herself in the darkness, no longer where she and Varanis had been.  She stumbled around for a bit because she could not see at all, but finally heard an owl and was able to make it out.  It had a Truth-Rune marking for a beard, and she decided that if she had no idea what was going on, at least the Truth Rune might be related to knowledge.  She followed it, although this did involve putting her foot down some kind of hole, which resulted in a lot of swearing.

Berra, returned to herself, used Devolin’s presence to try to force herself to be Humakt.  She accepted Devolin’s ransom, and they set off together.  The ransom had been called for in crowns, which they could both sort of remember as being a silver coin, in a way that disturbed them.  Devolin said he had been someone called Danfive, and he had no idea who that was.  Berra was able to keep her thoughts mostly Humakti.

Orlanth brought the corpse of Yelm back to his house, where he told Elmal he was going to take it to Hell to make things right.  Elmal offered his shield, which at first Orlanth accepted, and then as he offered his armour, Vingorlanth thought better of it and said he would need to defend tula.  However, he did accept having his chariot called for him.  It was both his own chariot as driven by Mastakos, and also the Lunar chariot from Drakemere.  Orlanth wanted the corpse to have appropriate rites, and Elmal suggested taking the corpse to the hill where Fire People were burned; Orlanth told him this was a good idea, and sent him off to the Hill of Gold with Yelm’s corpse.

Maalira knocked on a farmhouse she had seen in the darkness.  The man there gave her hospitality and explained that something was wrong.  His wife was lying down and felt hot but said she was cold, and had strange spots on her.  Maalira, as Chalana Arroy, explained to him what a fever was, and what illness was, and offered to heal someone.  She fought the tiny fever demon that was there, bringing Red Spot to the wife, and when it threatened to overcome her she summoned a healing spirit that did the job for her.  In thanks, Barntar gave her all the grain he had, and all the fruit he had, which was two sacks which contained them ALL.

Berra found herself with Devolin in a strange city.  She wondered where she was, but Devolin was able to say they were in Carmania.  She recalled she was – or at least the part of her that was Yanafil Tarnils was – a Carmanian nobleman, and a warrior with plenty of resources.  Devolin wondered not just how he had remembered they were in Carmania, but how he had managed to pronounce it.  Berra told him that he had to be Eurmal as hard as possible.  He nodded, and wandered casually past a guard, and then handed her his ransom, having picked a pocket.  The coins were all in pairs, in silver of a place she had not known.

Chalana Arroy helped some people whose village was burning, and then at a new village she found people who were hungry, including the glutton ‘Mal’.  They were wary of her, which was behaviour she had never seen before.  One of the villagers explained that they were afraid.  When she said that she was no threat, he said that everyone was afraid and terrible things were happening.  He was afraid too, but he intended to do something about it because someone had to.  They set off together to try to solve the problem.

Session Quotes

  • 1
    She did consider throwing her swords away so as to be unable to play Humakt, but could not bring herself to.