Season 7, Session 5

1630, Sea Season, ___ Week, ___day

Dramatis Personae

Events

Early one morning, while the party was still at Dwarf Mine, Varanis gathered them up to have a conversation. Maalira was busy looking after Yehna, but everyone else made an appearance.¹Various people had existential crises last session or when it was just over.  Several people did not make eye contact with the camera when this was noted. Once settled, Varanis and Berra introduced their idea of Heroquesting on purpose to the group.  The others were not impressed, but they didn’t swear not to do it either. Dormal said it was a terrible idea and he was religiously obliged to do it.  He tried to persuade Irillo that it would enrich him and thus make him a better merchant.  Oriana determined to herself that she would talk to Ornkarth about this.  In the end, the group decided that they would stick to the plan about seeing Irillo off into Lunar territory and work from there.

They geared up to ride out. When they found their mounts, they discovered that all the animals had been well maintained. Varanis had both Manasa and Doqeia, Berra had her half-bred goldeneye and a pair of bisons. All the others had their usual mounts as well. The animals were combed and oiled and in a very fine fettle with little inner wind. Oddly, their stools were cuboid.

The conversations on the road varied. Irillo waxed lyrical about caravans and was amused that Berra had several animals with her. Dormal warned them about his assassin problems, including mentioning that they had infiltrated Ulerian temples.

After crossing into Tarsh, the party stopped at an abandoned caravansarai and set up for the  night.  Dormal and Berra looked around.  Dormal noticed a little chunk taken out of the outer surface of the mud brick walls and at the base of it a couple of flattened bolgs. Profit! Varanis became convinced that this was a place where they’d have to defend against Darkness and Trolls, as it was one of their places of challenge²Fumble on Elder Race Lore (Trolls). No one believed her and they opted to spend the night within the walls.  She decided not to sleep that night, so as to be ready.

Oriana prepared to talk to Ornkarth by spending a long time in meditation. Once she reached him, she told him about Varanis and Berra’s ideas regarding Heroquesting. He suggested that while it was dangerous, it was a plausible method, and could also be useful to her as the forces involved would be the pure Runes. Then he “hung up” on her.

Varanis insisted on standing guard outside all night. She was having one of her more mulish moments, convinced that there would be an attack in the night and no one was taking her seriously. Xenofos took first watch. Berra took second and tried to get Varanis to get some sleep. She refused – digging in even more when Irillo and Dormal joined the conversation. During the third watch, Dormal spotted the troll caravan that had managed to come up on Varanis with her entirely unaware. Dormal welcomed the snazzy Dark Troll caravan leader while the Vingan glowered. They had a conversation about Argan Argar and other religious matters³He had a clay tablet with a picture of the Shadow Plateau and the tower at one end.  He called the gift ‘The Watchtower’.. Then the troll sent his trollkin in to set up their camp. Xenofos was woken by a pile of trollkin and responded by lighting up his shield. Dormal poked his head in to explain and Xenofos turned his light off.

They exchanged news and gossip, including Dormal suggesting that he might want to go to Boldhome as it had been so badly damaged and caravans would be welcome.  Berra added that Wilmskirk would want to trade for any art materials, and he said he had pigments, which tasted good to trolls but not people.  He let her try some lapis lazuli, and she agreed that it tasted of rock.  The merchant gave them ham beetles, and Dormal gave some blogs, possibly slightly flattened, to the trollkin.  Berra gave some of her trail food to the troll.  She remembered to warn him that there was a disease in the rock nearby which caused trolls to explode with inner light if they ate too much, but thanks to Dormal knowing about it, the trolls had been saved.  Dormal told the story.

In the morning, after Varanis saluted Yelm and Argan Arguy applauded it but said maybe not to send him down to the nice peaceful dark place, the party rode out again.  Berra pondered out loud what would happen if you cut bits off Yelm instead of stabbing him.  During the ride, Varanis meditated on this and other things, and fell asleep on Manasa, Dormal could not resist the urge to startle her awake by calling that trolls were attacking, causing her to fall off Manasa. The angry mare charged and knocked Berra off her horse, which hurt her ankle as she landed.  Manasa then got into an argument with Irillo’s mule Ranger, when the merchant went to capture the horse, thus trying to add Harmony to the world and therefore adding Disorder. Varanis grumbled and healed both animals then took a nap on the back of one of Berra’s bison without arguing too much about it.

Later in the day, they crossed the Oslir with a familiar ferryman. The ferryman and the others exchanged some rather familiar stories about Jar-eel and Harrek taking the boat, as well as a few other things.

Finally, they reached Dunstop where they were stopped by some guards. The party decided to be honest about their identities and it wasn’t long before they received a message and official escort to the palace. There would be dinner, but first they had time to wash the road off.  They also needed to wash off the oil that the dwarfs had added to their animals, either as conditioning agents or as waterproofing.

• 1
  Various people had existential crises last session or when it was just over.  Several people did not make eye contact with the camera when this was noted.
• 2
  Fumble on Elder Race Lore (Trolls)
• 3
  He had a clay tablet with a picture of the Shadow Plateau and the tower at one end.  He called the gift ‘The Watchtower’.