Rune Chads Session 5: Return to Gogifran's Keep

 Sacred Time allowed our heroes to recover significantly through time and worship. Wlfgar successfully recovered his lost POW and gained additional skill with his Worship skill. If not yet a Rune Lord, he clearly was progressing toward becoming a Rune Priest. This was the first time through skill and attribute progression so it did take a part of the session. The RuneChads also discovered the fate of their fighting men who had followed them, or at least traveled with them, to Ty Arawn.

I had to bust out my spreadsheet skills which had been forged in the fires of Dubzaron to resolve the fates of 28 warriors who had left the service of Gogifran.

The first thing needing to be done was resolve who survived the Mould encounter. I reviewed the record of who had been Slowed and who had been Maddened with one Catatonic and one Enraged. I had to resolve the remaining combats to see if any of the Slowed warriors escaped and one did. Six did end up "dying", or at least remaining on that lonely hillside abandoned by their brothers to possible creeping undeath. Bygones.

Well, not exactly. The Captain of the Guard and several of the once loyal warriors failed Loyalty rolls and decided they would join with the others who had decided to forge on to Ty Rhiannon. Of the original 28 warriors, 10 would now stay on and looked forward to returning to Gogifran's Keep to clear it.

The first day of Dark Season signaled the end of Sacred Time and the Rune Chads (augmented) headed back north. It was cold and a light snow had fallen. It would be a two-day journey to Derwenlas with the Currach Vault at the halfway point. Along the path, a team of 20 dwarves with mule carts hauling wood slowed the approach to the vault and there were some mildly tense exchanges without subsequent missile fire. "Crossbows weren't invented yet." Not by humans, perhaps. Regardless, there was no bloodshed of dwarf or human.

At the Vault, Wlfgar negotiated the opportunity to stay inside overnight for the humans. Unfortunately, only Wlfgar and two of the warriors made their CON rolls and the rest were overcome with disconcerting nausea and vertigo upon entering the underground chamber. Being cut off from magic is a problem, apparently, and one that the NPC humans were not going to endure. Wlfgar and his crew slept like babies while Malo and the main body slept outside in the winter cold. Weather rules in RuneQuest are clear about damage over time for the unprepared traveler. Fortunately, these travelers were prepared. Also fortunate that the lake was frozen and there was no overnight encounter.

There was a bit of discussion about avoiding the Mould on the way back north and how much the bronze armor was worth currently laying on that lonely hillside (180 gold Wheels is nothing to sneeze at!). Our brave RuneChads elected to scurry along a different path. The path would be more difficult to travel in other seasons but the frozen streams facilitated keeping a wide berth with this particular doom.

No encounters the next day meant Derwenlas by evening. The village patriarch was not enthused at the situation the RuneChads had created for him with The Owl Witch arriving to claim Gogifran's head. No travel to or from Dollgelau has otherwise occurred although a large team of dwarves was seen to head up into the mountains without sign of return. And Ceridwen? She, and her father, are waiting on Malo to become an Initiate of Manawydan. In game discussion occurred about a "destination wedding" at Ty Manawydan on the Isle of Man. I am not sure the lore dump about what happened to the more local temple was logged. It has come up a couple of times but legendary artifacts and their dispositions are minor things.

Day Three of the session had the RuneChads heading north to Gogifran's Keep. We need to be better about explicitly listing what provisions for travel are occuring. I am keeping the mule and cart in the background, in this case archers in the cart. At some point the RuneChads will adopt a more explicit statement of actions and planning in this regard. Along the path stood an almost 8 ft tall stone statue that intone "STOP" as they approached into view. 

They did not stop. Initial encounter was at 50 yards. Archers engaged, Malo charged. STR mod of the horse applied to his spear finished the matter. Given his forward position, he could see a second gargoyle 200 yards up the road on the way to Dollgelau, now in flight towards him in full flight, bellowing loudly as it came.

We mastered ranges and accuracies and Manwydan's Myrmidons progressively exhausted their arrows against the flying stone menace while Wlfgar and the Myrmidons On Foot charged towards the foe. Wlfgar was on foot because his horse was not a war horse and he was not a skilled rider. They met and it hovered over them showering javelins down to little effect. One did find its mark in Malo's left arm, rendering it useless. Injuries on the gargoyle mounted and it started to pull away, straight up into the air. A well-placed javelin by Wlfgar impaled its right arm and it fell to the ground, shattering.

The path to Gogifran's Keep lay open. The guard house and barracks were explored and found ransacked. The road lay quietly in front of them. Malo's arm was healed and resources assessed. Lacking arrows and hours in the evening, as well as Malo being called away irl to apprehend an evil doer, it was elected to return to Derwenlas to regroup for what would be a Proper Delve next session.