Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Ballad of the Pigeon God #39: The Curse of Ruuna

Tridec, 1071 - Barony of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
While many in the party were participating in hijinks in Hydincall, Echelon took care of actual baronial duties!
  • He hired some additional troops and garrisoned them Lord Athelstane's old manor.
  • He had previously sent an invitation to Lady Iris to become the Baronial Magistrate.  She finally sent back her acceptance. 
  • Winston Maless was named Sheriff for a salary of free room and board plus two bottles of wine
  • Torm Touchberry was promoted to Captain of the Baronial Militia.  
  • Jenny D'Echelon was promoted to Torm's Lieutentant.
  • Heirylat and Brutus were named Baronial Tax Collectors.. under heavy scrutiny of Lady Iris.
  • All three mayors of the Halfling villages of Lowdale, Welldale, and Elmshire swore fealty to the Baron and retained their offices. 
  • To maintain their position with the official state church, Echelon sent a request with Rolf Wolfsblood to the Archbishop of Hydincall for a priest of Akana and the funds necessary to construct a church.  Sure, the Baron worshiped a god only worshiped by one other person in the entire country (and that guy lived in a broom closet), but requests like that put Eding in the good light. Velandro emphatically stated that he did not want that appointment. 
As Mellandria had earlier informed him of his rights and privileges as Baron, Echelon named Talis Makolin and Norm Dingleberry the first Knights of the Pigeon, Protectors of Eding, and personal bodyguards of the Baron.  Now, all of Talis' journal entries and correspondence got the effervescent:

Sir Talis Makolin, Knight of the Pigeon, Bard, Lover, and personal bodyguard to Baron Echelon of Eding.

29 TriDec 1071 - Chateau d'Echelon, Barony of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Dag the Kobold returned to the Chateau with a Centaur, a Minotaur, a kobold hiding in a suit of armor, and a dog!  He requested shelter for his friends for the night, which Carthon d'Echelon agreed to (Echelon was reviewing his new Baronial troops on the other side of town.)

31 TriDec 1071 - Barony of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Ashe, Ariel, Babette, and Mellandria retuned from delivering taxes, along with a new friend, Sterling Riverbend, Quarter-Ogre.  No one mentioned their arrest for cat burglary, although Babette was incredibly emotional reuniting with her newborn twins.

After going through pleasantries, and Mellandria serving the Baron with the royal edict increasing the next taxes, they introduced two gentlemen, Johannes Brant and Otto Baldung, who asked a private audience with the Baron.  They acquiesced to a counter-offer of Mellandria and Talis in the same room, Timmy and Dag's children running outside in the mud adding to the ambiance. 

At dinner, Baron Echelon, hosted the gentleman as guests of honor and informed the community that he and a select group were to go on a diplomatic mission to Ruuna, a Duchy in Ras-Prythax.  The following would leave tomorrow morning.

Baron Echelon: Baron of Eding, priest of the Tshang Kai Shing, lover of pigeons.
Norm: Knight of the Pigeon, dwarven warrior with an outrageous French accent.
Talis: Knight of the Pigeon, Bard, Lover, and personal bodyguard to Baron Echelon of Eding.
Melandria: Baronial scibe, mage.
Velandro: Ardent priest of Akana.  Trainer of a faithful family of kobold acolytes.

Both Dag the Kobold and Pathfinder the wolf were disappointed that their masters kept them at the Chateau, but obeyed.

2 QuaDec 1071 - Town of Fluchton, Duchy of Ruuna, Ras-Prythax Empire
The party and the two gentleman arrived in Fluchton, the Duchal capital of Ruuna.  The gentlemen's story was quickly confirmed: Duke Stephen of Ruuna had apparently gone insane with the following Ducal proclamations mad in just the last few weeks:
  • One could only ride a horse backwards
  • No fires were allowed after dusk
  • No one could eat meat, because it is all to be given to the horses.
Mellandria tried to go through correct channels to get an audience with the Duke, but were simply told to come back tomorrow.

Meantime,  the others tried to sneak into the Duchal barracks to find any info on the Duke's trusted (and possibly still sane) advisor, Lord Drakos, failed miserably.

4 QuaDec 1071 - Town of Fluchton, Duchy of Ruuna, Ras-Prythax Empire
After two days of getting refused an audience with the Duke by being told to "Come back tomorrow," a new Duchal proclamation was made, banishing all dwarves, arresting those who stayed, shaving them and stretching them on the rack until they were minimum adult height for a human.   Ruuna bordered the Kingdom of Crosedes on their western border, but they shared a long southern border with the Dwarves of Skyforge.   This was going to create far greater problems in the duchy than Talis winning all the money the town guard had in a game of cards, forcing at least him to change inns three times since his arrival. 

Norm left town with the other dwarves to head to Skyforge, in hopes to speak with the Dwarven Lords. His goal was to keep the dwarves from immediately attacking.  The rest could only wish him luck.

They attempted to meet with the Duke multiple times, but were constantly refused.  They did manage to get an audience with Stanislav, the Archbishop of Fluchton,  but he was completely incompetent. In later conversations, Velandro even declared that he probably wasn't even a spell-casting cleric!
There's no anger like drunken dwarven refugee anger!
 35 Tridec 1071 - Chateau d'Echelon, Barony of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes  *FLASHBACK*
The Elven ranger Ashe, had been through a lot the last two years.  After leaving Agenmoor to wander the pine barrens of Crosedes, he had been killed, saved by a goddess, eaten by a dragon, transported to another realm, stared down inter-dimensional beings, had his hair turned white in that incident, and once he was returned to Crosdes, reunited with his brother Binklen after years of separation. 

Now the elf was torn between spending more time with his brother, who certainly loved nature but had no training as a ranger or druid, and some crazy prophecy that had him leading the group for legendary weapons and saving the world.

He was helping the housekeeper, Dew with hanging some cheap tapestries in the hall of the upstairs bedroom, when he heard a door creak open and the legless form of Mohammad, rolling down the hall on a board with four dwarven casters underneath, singing a little ditty:

"See the shining light Yes I'm gonna take you where starlite flies right before your eyes..."

"Oh, hello Ashe, I see you're studying the finer points of textiles?"

"I would, Mohammad, so long as they don't magically transport to a dimension of madness..."

"Then I advise you to avoid Dew while she darns the bedding..."

"That's still a better option than the prophecies kicking around.  I know the rest laugh when they realize I live for hundreds of years, but twelve years is still as many days for an elf as it is a human.  With as crazy as things are, I might not have time later to make up the missed time."

"Then go, Ashe." 

"Errr. what?"

"Family is a finite resource.  Gold, glory, power, they all can be cultivated into a bumper harvest.  It is nigh impossible for you to replace a lost crop of your soul when you lose time to tend to your family." 

"Well, that's a good reason, Mo.  Family bonds should be stronger.  Thanks!"

The ranger finished hanging the tapestry and went downstairs, to talk things over with his brother.  Mohammad turned his little scooter around and headed back to his broom closet,

"Anyway, nobody else likes Binklen.  He makes the rest seem normal and boy oh boy, are they not normal.  Two fewer elves in this stinkin' town will keep us from the watchful eye of those that will soon seek to destroy us." 

GM Notes: The Baron's first diplomatic mission is not working out too well, but not unexpected, as the Baron and his advisers have zero experience in such things. We've already left part of the group back in Eding, and now Ashe has gone. Splitting the party, especially hundreds of miles apart, does not usually generate positive results.

A map for the Duchy of Ruuna will appear next episode


Next: #40- The Caves of Xanathon

No comments:

Post a Comment