AAR: [6H] Masters of the Wind

The current version of the Earthdawn West Marches Discord campaign, effective Jan 1, 2020

Moderator:etherial

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am
Re: LFG: [6H] Masters of the Wind

Post by Sharkforce » Mon May 10, 2021 11:03 pm

Orlam Rolfsom, Journal Entry # 13: Masters of the Wind

From time to time, there are aspects of my journeys which I have covenanted to not disclose. I shall therefore be somewhat circumspect in my accounting of the past weeks. A Troubadour of my acquaintance requested my assistance in a matter related to resolving disputes between neighbours. I suspect she mostly wanted good food and an air mattress at night, but the prospects seemed promising and the work seemed not overly hard at the time (in hindsight, it was somewhat disagreeable, but one does not enter the pages of legend by doing that which is simple or easy I suppose).

Her sponsor had requested discretion, so on our way to our destination we were somewhat vague in our reasons for making the trip, passing it off as "research" when we encountered some other folks of our acquaintance. As it turned out, they were headed to the same place as us, for the same reasons, albeit at the behest of different conflicting groups. I shall avoid names, but among our number were an Illusionist, a Nethermancer, and a Warrior in addition to myself and my Troubadour acquaintance of course. Our sponsors related the events roughly as follows; they wanted their people to be more peaceful and work together, but recent events had sparked anger between their groups; one tribe had found the remnants of a tribe member in what appeared to be a trap that implicated another tribe. Yet another tribe had found a tribe member killed in a gruesome fashion that suggested Nethermancy, a specialty of yet a fourth tribe.

We made the final steps to our ultimate destination, approached a communal meeting site (the territory of yet a fifth tribe) where disputes were normally worked out between all the various tribes of the area, to find that they were on the brink of settling things at the tip of spear and sword, arrow and dart. As outsiders, our little group were able to propose that we could investigate the matter without biases against any one tribe, and get to the heart of the matter, thanks to the silver tongues of my friends (I really should learn how to do that myself).

After some discussion, the missing scout who had fallen victim to a trap was deemed most likely to provide physical evidence to examine and so we went on our way, and physical evidence was certainly there to be had as we found webbing rather than the woven rope trap that would have implicated the accused tribe. In fact, on closer inspection we found a lot of webbing, and it turns out to have been some nightmarish creatures called Kriktikik. They're sort of like spiders, except they're about 4 feet across, venomous, venom-spraying, web-slinging social insects... so like I said, the stuff of nightmares, at least as nature goes (they were obviously not *quite* as bad as actual horrors, but I can only imagine that someone must have made Jaspree really angry one day for such a thing to exist).

The battle could have gone better, but in the end we won after some particularly unpleasant wounds, and when we brought back a giant spider dripping ichor, venom, and webs everyone readily agreed that it was certainly not a member of the tribe in question. Also, I imagine they decided to never go to that area again without a large number of well-armed friends. Certainly, the scout who had directed us towards the area to enable our investigation seemed strongly inclined to never go there again after noticing just how many giant spider-like tracks were to be found.

We rested overnight to recover from our injuries and then went to the site of the corpse with warped bones. We found a few strangely-shaped bones, clearly of one of the tribes but somehow pulled apart as if molded like clay instead of snapping. Our Nethermancer suggested that it might be the work of any number of Horrors, although he suggested changelings were the most well-known creature to warp bone. Well, on further investigation we came upon the site of a closed kaer that showed signs of breaching, and tiny winged creatures playing with Namegiver bones to make musical instruments and wind chimes by warping them.

My Troubadour ally suggested they might be friendly. I suggested that I was going to start handing out Flameweapons now, before they noticed us. She then went to try to talk to them, and told us they were just "creatively inspired" by her. I tried to discreetly weave an extra thread to my ice mace and chain so that I could prepare them all for an attack, while others tried to debate their friendliness with her. Unfortunately, I wasn't as discreet as I had hoped and they attacked us, and were joined by a few other hidden terrors made from bones and teeth. For the second time on this adventure, we had to deal with poison and entangling creatures, and I have to say I wasn't terribly thrilled by that, but after some very difficult fighting we won... although one of us suffered a grievous wound at the hands of these bone-shaping fiends, whatever they may have been (they didn't *exactly* match the description of changelings that I had heard, so I'll just go with that).

I am glad to say that I managed to escape serious lasting harm (although if it were not for my Wood Skin, I think I might very well have died). In the end, everyone also agreed that the things we had fought were definitely not part of the tribe accused of wrongdoing, and peace was restored to the feuding tribes. Our wounded ally took some time to recover, which I think must have been quite unpleasant... certainly as a physician I cannot imagine how I would go about healing her injury without breaking a lot of bones. I understand she was placed in the care of the Nethermancers of one of the accused tribes, who were grateful for our assistance.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

AAR: [6H] Masters of the Wind

Post by bronzemountain » Tue May 11, 2021 1:37 pm

AAR: Masters of the Wind
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 6
Difficulty: Hard

Player Rewards:
Vallone: 11,000 LP, 875 SP, 5 TIPs, 2 Absorb Blow Charm
Dale: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs
Truck: 11,000 LP, 33 SP, 5 TIPs, Horror Fend (250), Horn Needle (225), Absorb Blow x 3 (150), Bedroll of Comfort (170), Dwarf Winter-night Cloak (138), a silk mask decorated as a griffin (priced as Courtier’s hat 9 sp)
Orlam: 11,000 LP, 437.5 sp, 5 TIPs, 4 x Absorb Blow Charm, Horror Fend Charm, Common Bone Charm
Amrahn: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs

GM Reward: Taras: 7,500 LP, 650 SP, 3 TIPs

Downtime:
Orlam Item History 5/16, Research 2/9 (+3 w/ 20sp)
Dale Item History 3/14


Summary:
Though sworn to secrecy about its location (by Blood Oath), the Adepts have been to Guhlanwudh Dheep (Many People Forest, often mispronounced as Glenwood Deep), and encountered the many Windling polities there - the Stardust, Ghost Glass, Leaf Singer, Shadow Thread, and Stone Tree hives (and the destroyed Painted Sky hive). They have reduced some of the diplomatic tensions and dealt with the Kriktiktik and Changeling threats, at least for the moment. There are opportunities to return and continue this work. Amrahn, Truck, and Vallone have all trained with the Stone Tree Hive in the ways of the Windmaster.

NPCs:
Stardust Hive: Nasreya Alsaba (Scout, emissary), Supravani Mielenthose (leader)
Ghost Glass Hive: Ebhavan Kulluthir (leader)
Leaf Singer Hive: Abadur Muzhumdali (Thief, emissary), Maitreyi Uruspathi (leader)
Shadow Thread Hive: Iniskanda Illiroy (leader)
Stone Tree Hive: Isabaela Bisbisral (Warrior, emissary)
Stardust Hive:

verse86
Posts:269
Joined:Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:16 pm

Re: AAR: [6H] Masters of the Wind

Post by verse86 » Wed May 12, 2021 1:56 am

Letter to Sarell:
Sarell honey,
I know I told you I would be home in a month. Unfortunately some things have come up and I will be forced to stay longer. I'm hoping it will take no more than an extra month. I am fine. I may just look a little different the next time you see me. Don't worry. Nothing will keep me from coming back to you. And some really nice people have decided to give me extra special training! Isn't that nice? I was able to do a lot of good for some windlings who were in trouble just like we were. I know it's not fair to you, but you have to remain strong.
All my love, Vallone

Great Throal Library Journal:
On my way to see Sarell, I was approached by a rather skittish windling. She asked if I would be willing to take on a mission to help her people. Remembering the great heroes who helped us beyond what any would consider reasonable, I agreed.

I was to find a partner for the trip and make my way to a location that will remain secret. Because the mission required some secrecy I chose an illusionist of some renown to accompany me. Along the way we ran into some other adepts: a warrior, a troubadour, and an elementalist. Their inclusion will become apparent soon.

Upon arrival we all went to the local tavern for our own reasons. Very soon after a windling I was not acquainted with entered, followed by another, then followed by the one I had met with. It seems that three tribes had each individually contracted us to help them solve a dispute between their peoples.

I can not tell you of their location as I am bound by a blood oath, but I will tell you of the people. The windlings were separated into "hives." These hives lived in and around their main tree which served as their kaers during the scourge. Each of their trees were within about a mile or two of each other. Each had their own distinct fashions and customs. It was quite a sight when they would all gather together. Unfortunately, this meant the windlings overall were a fractured group. This would be the reason we were summoned. Recent events had led to the deaths of members from two different hives: the Stardust and the Leafsingers. The Stardust had found signs of misshapen bones they believed to be the work of nethermancy, a common tradition of the Ghost Glass hive. The Leafsingers found signs of silken traps where their lost companion's belongings were found and thus blamed the Shadow Thread hive who specialized in silk weaving and traps.

We were taken to their forum called the Circle of Owls where groups could talk peaceably. Sadly the peace was not to last as accusations were thrown. Fortunately my companions were able to calm down the most heated of the discussions. We were able to get them to agree to let us be an impartial party and look into the disappearances.

With that settled, we set out to the location the Leafsingers told us their member went missing. We found signs of thread, but it was not woven. We believed it to more likely be made by spiders than weavers. While the others were looking around, I started to notice a weird clicking and ticking noise from around us. I knew we were not alone. I tried to slip away into some foliage to get the jump on whatever may be hunting us. Unfortunately I ran right into a web. It seems this was the opportunity the creatures had been waiting for because they sprung out at us at that moment. Despite being stuck in the web, I came out the best because I knew of our assailants beforehand. My companions were not so lucky. The creatures were four foot long spiders with long back ends. They seemed to work as a pack communicating with their noises. I am calling them Kriktikiks because of those odd sounds. After the initial ambush, we were able to turn the tides and get the better of them. Two ran away once they realized the odds were against them. Some members succumbed to the paralytic poisons which were unpleasant to say the least. Having experienced a similar poison firsthand I did what I could to comfort them. Little did I know I would soon be receiving a much more gruesome injury. We returned with one of the corpses which shut down any accusations towards the Shadow Threads. Further investigation by the Leafsingers found innumerable tracks of these things. I believe the hives will be avoiding this area for some time.

We took the day to rest up and set out the next to investigate the strange bones. One of our members had experience in nethermancy and believed we may be dealing with changelings. Apparently they were windlings that had been twisted by horrors and given horrific powers. I would be finding out soon just how horrific. The clues led us to another unopened kaer where we found some oddly misshapen windling-like creatures. They seemed to be shaping bones into wind chimes and musical instruments. One of our members believed them to be harmless. Oh how wrong she was. Our elementalist was being cautious and weaving threads for when things went wrong. It seems they took this as a sign of aggression and attacked. They were soon joined by some bony windling-like creatures with crowns made of teeth. I decided the things that could twist bones were the bigger threat and went to work attacking them. It was then I felt the most tremendous pain I have ever felt in my life. The creature twisted my bones and folded my skull down over my eye rendering me partially blind. We were able to defeat the creatures, but that was little consolation for me. After dragging the bastards' bodies back the Stardust hive agreed these were the cause of their members' deaths.

As thanks for clearing their name, the Ghost Glass agreed to treat me for my deformity. The pain of the original warping was nothing compared to their treatments. My due to the warping my eye was blind. The Ghost Glass graciously gave me a targeting eye to replace it. I was laid up for most of a month due to the treatments. A word of warning to any would be adventurers, avoid those bastards like the plague.

Post Reply