Session 6, Prax 6

1629, Earth Season, Harmony Week, Fireday to Death Week, Windsday

Dramatis Personae

Events

Tourney Altar was built in one of the hoof marks made by Storm Bull when fighting the devil.

When he explored the settlement, Xenofos lucked into some Library-type lay members, but no Library. While he didn’t work for coin, he was willing to do some scribing for those who needed it. He wrote some letters for people. Then a group of children queued up as they wanted letters written to each other. Sadly, he refused them.¹Big meanie. When he returned to camp that evening, he found a young Sable rider guarding a pile of gifts for him from various people: things that would be useful to him in Prax. He didn’t get a list of names of the gift givers but it sounded like people he had written letters for. He also noticed that the amphitheater looked much sharper at dusk. It was more hoof-print like.

The Impala women had gossip about the Straw Weavers for Xenofos and Maalira. The Bright Swords²a Humakti group of the Straw Weavers were around.

On Wildday eve, Varanis spoke eloquently to encourage some of the people to worship the great hero Eril.³…whom the locals thought was a sidekick of Great Sword Gorak. That night, Varanis joined in the worship of Eril. Kolyey worshipped Humakt.

Varanis and Xenofos grew up feeling the tingly feeling of magic, so when they noticed it come over Tourney Altar, it reminded them of their childhood. Xenofos went in search of someone to worship Uleria with and was successful. In doing so, he made a deeper connection with Uleria.⁴Too

In the morning, Varanis climbed up to a really high place to meditate. The climb seemed unnaturally high.⁵She passed devotion Orlanth/Vinga to boost her meditate and specialed the meditate. It began to rain on her. As she meditated she started raining upwards and joined the clouds. A Thunder-brother punched her, roaring: “Vinga, You are late!” She was thrown back to her body and couldn’t return to the feeling. She climbed down from her stone pillar and began to dance. The rain cloud stayed directly over her head. Silver fish swam through the rain. Others began to follow her, some of them joining in the dancing.

Varanis lost her entourage when dancing through some mud huts. She caused a date palm to drop a date which grew into a small palm. “I probably should not be here,” said Varanis. “But Orlanth went wherever he wanted and fixed stuff afterwards.” She continued to dance for a couple of hours.

Berra was woken up by Varanis. The Humakti was covered in soot as she’d been working with the smiths and pumping their bellows. She mentioned that the Bison riders had not appeared last night when they were expected, but the smiths thought things were perfectly normal. Berra had not thought that everything was normal, but also was not willing to give away secrets of iron⁶Spirits had come and helped the blacksmiths..

Berra and Varanis ran up to Uleria/Xenofos and Teeriya who was dressed mostly in ostrich feathers and shells.

Kolyey heard gossip of bison problem. Maybe undead problem. Her mentor said he/she could tell where that problem was – about two hours into the desert towards the ‘needle hill’, the local name for distant Kero Fin.

The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully, although there were minor miracles here and there. The group did some shopping.

Word came that a group of Bison riders had arrived, so Xenofos, Kolyey, and Berra went to talk to them. They were Straw Weavers and they looked troubled. Xenofos was greeted by Daraleel, who called him Silkbeard. Daraleel explained that they had gone to Sacrifice Hill to take omens – but the omens came up badly. Dagaan had gone to tell Khan Gallaf that there’d be trouble. Xenofos failed his charm and was not told more immediately. He demanded to know if the tribe was safe. Daraleel said it would be so. But the omens were really bad.

Meanwhile, Varanis was at Tourney Altar to speak with High Sword Gorak. She asked if the origin of the walktapus had been looked into, and he confirmed that a cave had been found. The Vingan was informed that she had a duty to take care of it. She was given a couple of Sable riders as guides.⁷The senior one was Xarnis, who gave Berra such a hard time in the past – see Regrettable Death Choices. It seemed that Gorak was unaware of the previous relationship. She also got to do a bit of training with the High Sword.

Later, she found her comrades with the Bison riders. They exchanged what they had learned. They also talked about Berra’s previous interactions with Xarnis.⁸He had tried to go for the iron and was likely to push her towards death this time too. The Sable riders met them in the morning.

The morning went smoothly. Within a few hours, they reached the cave and Varanis decided that they’d go in as follows: Berra, Xenofos (with light), herself, the two Sables, and finally Kolyey for rear-guard and to keep an eye on the Sable riders.

They climbed down a very long way until they ended in a large beehive-shaped cave. There was a mound of bones and a recently sacrificed bison, which had been put to use in building the bone pile. Other things in the cave included an altar, a pool, and petroglyphs. Berra let Xenofos pass her to be the first into the cave, as he had the light. No signs of movement, no undead… Kolyey dropped down, missed the drop and cast Shield on the way down. Although she didn’t knock anyone down on her way past, the Sables claimed Kolyey had struck them, arguing about what exactly had happened. Xenofos used first aid to undislocate her ankle and then healed the wound.

As they looked around, they spotted a voluptuous bluish female form by the altar, lit up by the lantern spell. Varanis made an offering of blood and magic.⁹5 MP Xarnis spoke to the spirit and also offered sacrifice. Her name was “Fertility of the base of the shoots of the grass.” She explained that a bad thing had come and was imprisoned in her cave. She taught it how to build a ladder so that it could escape. Xenofos made an offering to the spirit. Berra touched the altar and lost consciousness. Xarnis said there had been multiple escaped creatures¹⁰…having fumbled Track.

Topside, Xarnis talked with other Sables who had appeared and had seen tracks. When Xarnis reevaluated the situation, he suggested that there was only one set of tracks, much to his irritation.

They rode back without difficulty, though Xarnis was disappointed that Berra was still alive. He reported to Gorak to get his side of the story in first. Varanis went to follow up, but was left waiting for him to talk to Kolyey first. Kolyey was asked if any of the Humakti had behaved without Honour. She hadn’t seen anything of concern. The next day, the High Sword rode out, coming back in the afternoon to exonerate both the Bison Riders and the underground spirit. His mount was a six-legged lizard, which Xenofos pointed out was not actually an impala. Gorak noted that he would have to get it repainted. Xenofos saw that on one of its largest scales was a license to ride the beast in Dwarf Mine, which had expired some time before.

• 1
  Big meanie.
• 2
  a Humakti group
• 3
  …whom the locals thought was a sidekick of Great Sword Gorak.
• 4
  Too
• 5
  She passed devotion Orlanth/Vinga to boost her meditate and specialed the meditate.
• 6
  Spirits had come and helped the blacksmiths.
• 7
  The senior one was Xarnis, who gave Berra such a hard time in the past – see Regrettable Death Choices. It seemed that Gorak was unaware of the previous relationship.
• 8
  He had tried to go for the iron and was likely to push her towards death this time too.
• 9
  5 MP
• 10
  …having fumbled Track