AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

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Fortesque
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AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by Fortesque » Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:39 am

Sosanopa's Got Talent!
Time: 2018-06-02@23:45 GMT
GM: Fortesque (Whyr'wyndyl)
Circle: 7
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Gronk: 13,000 Legend, 1,700 Silver, 3 TIPs
Romari: 13,000 Legend, 1,700 Silver, 3 TIPs
Aeggy: 13,000 Legend, 1,400 Silver, 600 silver worth alchemical reagents 3 TIPs
Ceadda: 13,000 Legend, 1,700 Silver, 3 TIPs
Thane 13,000 Legend, 1,700 Silver, 3 TIPs

Downtime Actions Available:
Romari: Alchemy 7 (Rank 3; Booster Potion, Kelia’s Antidote, Kelix's Poultice)
Romari: Map Making 8 (Rank 1)
Romari: Item History 15 (Rank 4)
Romari: Research 28 (Rank 6)
Gronk: Forge Weapon: 9 (Rank 1)
Gronk: Research: 8 (rank 0)
Aeggy: Alchemy: 12 (rank 4, Booster Potion, Kelia's Antidote, Kelix's Poultice)
Researchers may spend 20/2 Silver for +3 Steps

Further Information:
Morkoal, Questor of Mynbruje, New representative of Sosanopa
Cimabu of Ect'shlutu tribe of Servos, and his tribe, wiped out Sosanopa for "bad diplomacy"

ChrisDDickey
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Re: AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by ChrisDDickey » Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:53 pm

A message was delivered to the gates of Throal addressed to Aegharan. From the description, the messanger was from the Servos Jungle. It said simply:
Noble Aegharan, I have a situation which I would entrust to your diplomacy. Please bring with you those whom will protect you. Come to Sosanopa. I wish for you to identify a head.
Cimabu, of the Ect'shlutu.


Aegharan, Gronk, Romari, Ceadda and I, feeling ashamed that we had ignored such a dire situation for so long, responded to this challenge. Traveling quickly to Sossinopa, we did a quick reconnaissance, and saw that the Ect'shlutu tribe of Servos had wiped out the population of the horror infested village. We approached and met with their spokesman Cimabu. We performed greeting rituals, and in addition Cimabu stripped to the waist and showed that he had no stinger, and requested that we do the same, which we did.

He spoke of the horrors with the stingers that we knew infested Sossinopa, but which we had been avoiding dealing with. He produced two heads asking for identification. One appeared to be the head of Verris, whom we all knew to be a alive an in Throal. The other was a Dwarf that others named August Rey, a Cavalrymen. Questioning Cimabu, he said that the heads were from stingered doppelgangers. He said that one in three of the village had stingers. He said that they had cleansed the village of horrors and all those who followed them, excepting that some had gotten away and there was one they had been unable to defeat. He pointed at Ceadda and said it was his doppelganger. who could not be killed.

He lead us to a place and said the retreating defenders of the villagers had swum out several feet, then dove under the surface and did not come up. Investigating, we found an underwater tunnel. Before going into the tunnel we spent a short while investigating the village.

Some of the leaders huts had apparently been emptied, as if the persons that had been living in them had moved away. We found evidence that Sossinopa had been traiding or otherwise in contact with at least three communities other than Throal and the Servos. There were some wearing T'Skrang made clothing, probably from house Ishkarat of the Northern Serpent River. One might assume they came from passing riverboats or a nearby Nial. These should be warned that any who have come in contact with Sossinopa could possibly have been replaced by doppelgangers.

We also found goods made of curious unfaceted green crystals. Later research has confirmed that prior to the scourge, such crystals were unique to a certain crystal vein in the Scytha mountains. Again, the risk is that a horror infestation spread from Sossinopa to a dwarven town. In the very near future there ought to be an expedition to find this community, warn it's populous about the evil that resulted in Sossinopa being cleansed.

We found vague journal entries written in both dwarvish (and human, which we had to have translated after we got back to Throal) indicating contact with a third community, but at this point know nothing about it other than that it does not appear Trollish.

After our brief and cursory investigation of the town, we followed the underwater tunnel. I went first towing 70 feet of rope. It was barely long enough. Those who could not swim were able to hold their breaths and pull themselves along the rope. We found ourselves in a cave system that was frequently half submerged. After a few score yards we came upon a small group of 6 Saural, which we killed. I took a minor burn from their acid, and my trusty spiked mace was basically ruined. The Saural had been resting upon the ruins of an airship, probably laid up in storage here before the scourge. Unfortunately the cave here regularly floods, and between the damp and the acid dripping Saural, the remains of the airship were nothing but a waterlogged hulk.

We rested for about an hour, then explored further. We came upon a few traps, one detected and avoided, the other a ward that briefly warmed Aegharan's armor. Romari dispelled that so it would not effect anybody else. Almost immediately thereafter, in water several feet deep that slowed us all down, we encountered the Ceadda Mimic. It was not exactly like our Ceadda. Where the true Ceadda wields two magic short spears, Fake Ceadda welded a single large Troll Spear. Also, while our true Ceadda always runs towards danger, fake Ceadda, finding itself facing the real Ceadda, plus 4 other adepts, felt that cowardice was better than valor, and ran. Ceadda and everybody else within reach had already unleashed large amounts of damage upon the horror, Aegharan had blinded it. Before it ran, fake Ceadda pulled out two clay jars, and smashed them, releasing two hibernating Wing-Flayers. Then it ran away. I sprinted as fast as I could, yet managed to get only slightly ahead of it, I managed to do an excellent Battle Shout and it seemed much affected. It attempted to run right past me and managed to get quite far, but Gronk managed to line up a shot and a well placed arrow did a goodly amount of damage. It was somewhat faster than me, and I could not quite catch up enough to make a melee attack, so I threw a spear instead, knocking it unconscious. Gronk sent an arrow that slew it. Just to be safe I tore the head off. In the meantime, the others destroyed the two wing-flayers. Afterwards I put on gloves and also tore the stinger out by the roots, and put both head and stinger in a bag. Later I stored them in wine, and when I got back to Throal bought a nice big glass jar of alcohol to store them in, and added them to my collection of trophies. The spear it had been weilding, a Thick black spear with a metal tip, I picked up and have been using instead of my slagged spiked mace.

We Knew that fake Ceadda had cohorts when he fled, so we continued to explore. We had not gone far when we encountered a grey-bearded human in heavy armor wielding two flaming weapons, he was backed up by several crossbow men. I challenged them that if they could show they bore no stingers, we would be willing to discuss their surrender. They said they bore no stingers. The man was unwilling to take off his armor to show a bare chest and arms, but was willing to allow a search by feel. He also did a quite acceptable skill check (juggling). He seems to have satisfied Aegharan. He eventually introduced himself as Morecoal .He said that only part of their kear had left the kear a few years ago. The rest had decided to relock the doors and stay safe inside for a while yet. Very strangely to me, he indicated that now that they knew the first group had been infiltrated by horrors and destroyed, he now felt the time was ripe for the rest to come out of hiding. I would think that cautious folks like that might think that the first groups fate might indicate a 10 or 20 year wait was called for. Anyway, they indicated that they would soon move up to the surface at that location. We left without ever seeing a single bare chest amoung them, and I for one am not satisfied that they are harmless.

Aegharan
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Re: AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by Aegharan » Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:47 pm

A message was delivered to Throal, that was directed to me. It reached me alright, and it read:
Noble Aegharan, I have a situation which I would entrust to your diplomacy. Please bring with you those whom will protect you. Come to Sosanopa. I wish for you to identify a head. Cimabu, of the Ect'shlutu
Way to Sosanopa was uneventful. Flying on our bedrolls is really comfortable. I did a flyover to gather some information and found out that Jungle People resided in Sosanopa. There also were several huge cats who seemed to be well traded. The only trace I found of the prior residents was a lot of corpses that floated in the water or lay on the shore near the river.

We decided that the best way to go about this would be to walk up to the gates and introduce ourselves. Yes, we had that much confidence in our abilities. The person standing guard, a human named Cimabu, was carrying a parrot on his shoulder that made me a little uneasy, but I was not able to spot anything foul going on, at least not by what I know. The greeting-ritual had changed a little, as he now asked us to undress and show our torsos. We immediately knew that he was talking about the stingers that Ivan and the Dopplercrew possessed and were happy to oblige. I still have to find out how Ceadda manages to undress that fast. He seems to undo his heavy armor faster than I manage to strip of my Fernweave.

We still asked for the more traditional greeting ritual and provided a prove of our artisanship, to which Cimabu pointed at a giant and very elaborate statue of a bear, carved into a tree. We insisted that he show us a token of his art in creation, as this process is what a horror is not capable of. It very quickly became clear that he was in fact the creator of the statue.

He established that Ceadda and I had indeed met him before on a trip to the Servos Jungle. He then told us the story of Sosanopa-residents entering the Servos Jungle and trying to incite a war between the tribes. I immediately remembered the open hostilities between the different tribes and how we barely managed to not be attacked, as all the humans there were super afraid of other tribes and outsiders.

This went even deeper, as when searching the corpses and the now-empty huts we found out, that Sosanopa had done trade with at least 3 other communities and corresponded, but did not trade with a fourth. I know that we have earlier crossed the Serpent in Sosanopa to reach the Blood Wood, and that they are mighty. Should they have gotten infiltrated by Dopplers, we would sure have a problem. The other clues pointed to a Dwarven kaer near Scytha, a T'Skrang village and a kaer of Orks, Windlings and Humans.

The Jungle-people said that they had talked to the river and that it would rise to cleanse the village. As Cimabu had pointed out earlier, that he was most afraid of Ceadda, and that a second Ceadda had prior been seen around, we followed its footsteps into the Serpent and underwater into hidden tunnels.

Besides some traps that we could easily dispose of, we suddenly found a second Ceadda, wielding a huge spear. Of course the real Ceadda wields 2 spears, so they were easy to distinguish. I managed to immediately blind him, upon which he crashed two bottles and tried to flee. We did our best to prevent him from doing so, while 2 Windflayers laid into Ceadda and me, then Romari and me. We managed to help the second Ceadda end his pain, after which Thane ripped his head off and destroyed the stinger. After that the Windflayers were not a problem anymore.

Pressing on through the place we found 8 humans pointing crossbows at us, uneasily looking at Ceadda, and another human in Plate Armor whose name eluded me. After some back and fort and Ceadda stripping naked to the waist again (and staying so for a concerningly long time after proving that he doesn't have a stinger under his arm), enough trust was established so that we did not have to fight again. We told our story of the second Ceadda, the Dopplers, the sad fate of Sosanopa, and the infestation of further communities, and he hinted at being from a still-closed kaer to which they would return, although it did sound as if they also closed off the lower parts to protect themselves from something. We will have to return and help them rebuild, once they decide to leave the safety of their kaer for the adventures that lay on the face of our world.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by BattleChad » Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:15 pm

The Great Library of Throal thanks Aegharan and Thane for their contributions.

Journal Rewards: 650 Legend Points and 425 Silver

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etherial
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Location:Berlin, Massachusetts
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Re: AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by etherial » Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:33 pm

From the journal of Gronk Longtusk

15 Raquas, 1423 T.H.
A while back, Aegharan mdae friends with some jungle people in the Servos or something, and one of them sent him a letter. Apparently they were having trouble with the Sosonopans and decided to do something about it. Afraid that they might be outmanned, Aegharan grabbed the rest of us Journeyman Adepts and we headed up to see what all the fuss was about.

18 Raquas
After arriving to see Sosonopa a smoking ruin, we met with Cimabu, the leader of the Tribe that had wiped out the Doppler Threat. Most of it, anyway. Cimabu worked art and took off his shirt to show he was no Doppler, and despite the strong desire to not be left without armor among strangers, we did the same. Then he showed us the head of August Rey. Now as far as we knew, August Rey was alive and well breeding Troajin back in Throal, so we figured this had to be the head of his Doppler. Then Cimabu explained his concern in calling us - there was one Doppler his forces did not have the strength of arms to kill - Ceadda.

Ceadda's Doppler had retreated to a sunken part of the Sosonopan Kaer, and we sent Thane forward with a rope to see if there was air on the other side. When he sent the tug that inidcated there was breathable air, we followed suit and arrived in a sunked cavern populated by Saurals, giant amphibians that oozed burning ichor. They caught Thane unawares and melted his mace but my Wood, Air, and Fire Arrows helped with crowd control and we slew them all. The town had once had an Airship to command, but time and the Serpent River and the Saurals had reduced it to a smoldering wreck.

With the water nearly at chest height, we pressed on into a wrecked temple and there found the false Ceadda. Though he tried to confuse us, we were all able to track him and he quickly realized he was outmatched. Smashing a glass jar, he freed two Wingflayers that he had captured and the Mages took care of them while I Harried DopplerCeadda into oblivion.

Further on into the labyrinth we found a party of Humans armed with Crossbows who told us that they had elected to remain in Sosonopa's Kaer, and we congratulated them for their prudence while also counseling a return to the surface. Whether they will be able to relocate with the river above their Kaer Entrance remains unseen.

PCs:
Aegharan, male Elf Illusionist/Thief
Ceadda, male Human Warrior
Gronk Longtusk, male Ork Archer/Liberator
Romari Savre, male Elf Wizard
Thane Cawdor, male Troll Sky Raider

NPCs:
Cimabu, male Human Warrior of the Ect'shlutu

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: Sosanopa's Got Talent!

Post by BattleChad » Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:22 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Gronk for his contribution.

Journal Rewards: 650 Legend Points and 425 Silver

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