RuneChads Session 2: There May Be Biggers Here

 Ty Arawn, Wilderness Fortress, Bastion of Humanity, is where things pick up. The RuneChads made it there and were able to Track their horses in downtime with Malo making the roll and also successfully making a Riding roll. With horses, gear,...and loot..., they were ready to participate in the upcoming holy day rituals.

Ty Arawn Proper, a large temple

Rune points do not automatically recover and are only restored through a successful Worship roll. The ritual takes a full day and is lost if interrupted. Very difficult to pull this off in the wild, even with a Sanctify spell to create holy ground. Using 1:1 time, was this a problem for the RuneChads? Of course not! They had a preparatory day of downtime which allowed a boost to their respective Worship rolls and then the full day at the temple allowed each of them to recover rune points to full. Following day was spent organizing and meeting Siarl Derwenlas and Wlfgar Ryadar, the newest RuneChads to session play.

Is this a giant?

Siarl brought word of the giant, Gogifran, who was plaguing the region around Derwenlas. He had come to Ty Arawn to recruit warriors to aid Derwenlas and stop the giant's hideous pillaging of their children. He had somehow gained alliance with Dollgelau and had a retinue of warriors based at his keep. Malo of Breton immediately jumped at the opportunity to make war on the Biggers. "I hate
Biggers!" said he. Kane, too, was spoiling for a fight and Wlfgar sought monsters bigger than his lake provided, even with the 60L of fish he just sold . "60L for a fish! What kind of monster was THAT??"

There could be Biggers here...

Off they went through the mountain passes to the north. Day was clear and cold. They traveled most of the day uneventfully until a successful Scan roll was made defeating an unsuccessful Hide roll by...a stump. It was maybe 4 feet tall, standing out in front of the tree line just a couple yards, seemed oddly out of place. Did it move? Weird. RuneChads decided to investigate more closely with Wlfgar and Siarls riding up towards the stump. They closed about half the distance before arms and legs and a pointy eared green head popped out...pointing a drawn bow at them! They surmised this was one of the Aldryami, an elf, and in broken TradeTalk they all decided that none of them were giants and they would part without combat. 

Aren't you a little small for a giant?

I don't balance encounters. I wonder whether they had considered if the fellow was alone. He wasn't. Fortunately for the RuneChads, I rolled ridiculously low on a Reaction Roll. Maybe not, they may have gained a detour to the Hall of the Unicorn Queen, maybe all killed. Endless possibilities in a game without rails. As it was, they continued north.

As evening set in, they set camp about 30 yards south of a stream traveling east-west. During the evening, Kane felt a an ensorcellment attempt by succeeding on a Resistance roll. "TO ARMS, BROTHERS!!"

In the moonlight, a disheveled large clump of river plants and wet robes with viny hair and a long pointed nose stood by the creek where nothing had been there a few moments before. With the RuneChads awakened, Kane charged to attack attempting to Intimidate the...creature...while Siarl Augmented with his war drums. A successful Intimidate would take 5 melee rounds to pull off, unfortunately Kane missed his next Resistance roll...and fell to the ground asleep. Wlfgar cast Bladersharp on his javelin (NB: Bladesharp can not be used on missile weapons) and threw it successfully into the hideous creature evoking screams of rage and streams of ichor from its arm. Malo closed drew torrents of ichor from its chest. Siarl continued playing for Augment while Malo engaged in melee. Kane continued to sleep.

EE HEE HEE HEE

Malo successfully Parried attacks with the help of Siarl's Augments. The hideous creature clawed at Malo and tried to entangle him with its weird whip made of...human flesh?? What was this madness?? Ichor was flowing from the thing's chest and it began backing towards the stream, all the while emitting hideous howls. Malo followed to the stream edge...where the creature dissolved into the water with only foam remaining. 

"Don't touch the water," stated Siarl clearly. "It is a vough. If you touch the water you will die."

Malo looked back, perhaps impishly, perhaps defiantly, and touched his sword to the water. In an instant, he was engulfed in living water. He promptly failed his CON roll and immediately began...drowning.

Kane at this point...continued to sleep.

Very scary!!

Wlfgar entered into the mass of water to pull Malo out, succeeded in CON and DEX rolls, only to fail his STR roll. He was unable to dislodge Malo this round, and damage began to accrue. Malo was drowning. After a few rounds of this, Wlfgar realized he could Command Dwr Gwrach with a Rune Spell and did so. The dwr gwrach (ok, it was a vough in dg form...I gave it to them) coughed up Malo, who lay dead on the shore. The dwr gwrach undulated beside the stream while the awake RuneChads considered their options. Resurrection at a Penarddon temple is possible, the only one anywhere near was back in Selwynshire. The only other option was to attempt Divine Intervention. Wlfgar did not hesitate and called out to Manawydan to help them in their moment of need. He needed to roll low. "I missed it, I rolled a 13>"

No, heroic RuneChad, your POW is 17. You succeeded. Manawydan heard your plea, appeared and drew the water from Malo's lungs, replacing it with the Breath of Life. He chastised the vough and sent it on its way. And was gone. Wlfgar had saved Malo at a steep price, for his POW is now only 4 with the 13 points he rolled now sacrificed to Manawydan.

A somber moment for a heroic lad

Kane...continued to sleep.

They made the rest of the way to Derwenlas uneventfully. Plans were begun to destroy Gogifran. The assault would take us beyond our allotted time so we stopped a wee bit early. Another session completed, many lessons learned. One of the RuneChads commented that the feel of play was very different from D&D, like they were creating a myth...that everything had a very otherworldly feel.

Thank you. Thank you very much.