OUR HEROES HAVE GIVEN UP HOPE!
The group's disintegration within the Mines of Illefarn have forced the survivors to return to Illefarn in defeat.
Hugo Swam'Pas - The popular local hedge mage (and frightenly, voice of reason with in the party), is dead at the hands of gargoyles, and a nasty fall. His body is being brought back to Mere for burial.
Beulah Cragmuffin - Normally the adversary of Hugo's actions, Beulah was the first to suggest returning home.
Galastia Axenmeld: Disgruntled acolyte of The Church and alleged conspirator with necormancers agreed with Beulah's assessment. She's taking Gwendalyn back to The Church for both of them to face judgement, punishment, despite Galastria's affirmation that she had done nothing wrong.
Gwendalyn the Bright - Another disgruntled acolyte of the Church, now tied up and gagged for the majority of the hike back to Mere.
Dim Cragmuffin - Beulah's dim-witted relative is pulling the makeshift sled with Hugo's body, and Gwendalyn's armor.
Jonerir Drake - Younger brother of Belaquan Drake, who disappeared about a year ago. Upon discovering Hugo's family was estranged, at best, he is hoping his new mentor, Clifford Loprete will allow him to use Hugo's spellbook.
Carya Illinoisis - The former merchant / current Baronial Guard, this mountain of a woman disappeared within Illefarn.
31 Mai 535 - The Return to Mere
Bringing back a corpse over a four day trek wasn't too wise. Hugo was buried on Clifford Loprete's property. Clifford took possession of his spellbook and his Skullcap of Comprehension. Clifford bequeathed Hugo's family ring, a Ring of Fire Resistance to Jonerir. His funeral was lightly attended. Jonerir stays in town to be Clifford's student.
Galastia brought a combative Gwendalyn in front of Sister Bronte, the head of The Church in Mere. Bronte found no fault with either, but forbid all forms of contact with either of them. Upon the arrival of the next Baronial Guard patrol, Galastria was escorted to Gulluvia City, the capital, to work with the High Priest, while Gwendalyn was reassigned to the village of Dead Mule. Acolyte Han Gabelung was recalled to assist Village Priestess Bronte and her assistant, 15-year old Susie.
 |
| Priestess Bronte |
Beulah returned to her quiet life in town, actively avoiding her relative Dim most of the time.
The river continued to flow green, killing flora and fauna along its banks. Thankfully, it did not seem to affect any wells dug away from the river. All kobolds tribes have either left the area entirely, a few stragglers returning to the caves in the southern hills.
7 Jun 535 - The Village of Mere
And just like that, the river flowed clean again. A militia patrol of Ascink Eukeaverk, Conan DiPietro, Cosimo Guthingas, and Jenkins reported the miraculous occurrence. No one in town volunteered to travel upstream for any update.
17 Jun 535 - The Village of Mere
With no scouting, the village was surprised with 200 heavily armored Dwarves crossing the river and ending up in the center of town. Soldiers from a place beyond Illefarn, Clifford's skullcap called it "Blue Anvil", had arrived.
18 Jun 535 - The Village of Mere
There was no resistance. Clifford taught Jonerir that cooperation was the better side of valor. The Clifford provided all the information about Gulluvia that he had. Even Priestess Bronte decided to not use The Church to create resistance. The Dwarves encamped outside of town, they had not pillage anything, paid for what they needed, and even rolled a keg or two of stronger Dwarven brew into the taverns.
28 June 535 - The Village of Mere
The initial 200 Dwarves were the scouting party.
Over 2,000 Dwarves arrived, captured a Baronial Guard unit with ease, and most headed to the other towns and villages, and ultimately, the capital.
Travelling with the army was one "King" Devin Ironaxe.... and one Carya Illinoisis.
At this point only Beulah, Jonerir, and Clifford Loprete would care, but Devin was an advance agent for a foreign power, not a descendant of the Dwarven clans that operated Illefarn. After the group evacuated Illefarn, the reinforcements finally arrived. They were able to scare away the necromancer bandits, and removed the goblins before the scouts headed to a place called Mere...
Carya, besides being a mountain of a woman, was also a minor agent of this "Blue Anvil" force.
Carya could at least speak in better Common, "Hugo's device is on the fritz, Clifford, it's not Blue Anvil, it's the Kingdom of Mercadia. Once more reinforcements arrive, I'm assuming their going to take over this little rogue barony. Why? I have not clue."
With Norms' appearance and Carya's reveal, Mere becomes part of Mercadia. a country no one knew existed.
34 June 535 - The Village of Mere
The village never encountered any nobility of import. Lady D'hmiss never set foot in the place, so it was quite awkward when the King of Mercadia arrived.
King Norm I (His men referred to him at "The Beardless" like an honorific, despite a short to medium length beard) was a middle aged Dwarf without the gravitas like Devin had projected.
He walked into the tavern, ordered a human ale and leaned up against the bar, looking at the remaining heroes.
He stared at Carya.
Carya: "Hi Dad!"
Carya was the eldest daughter of Norm's, her mother was the current human wife and Queen. A half-Dwarf. Norm had a penchant for large human women in all dimensions, so her great height was not a fluke.
She had heard tales of, not her father's, but his friends he had made a century before. Before they met Norma, they had found some mystical land known as Gulluvia, complete with a princess, a prince, a dragon, and massive red ruby. He knew the ruby was long gone, but the alleged barony and everything else was somewhere in the remote foothills of Crosedes, and the expanding Mercadia, but not listed on any maps.
Carya originally ventured through all the protective elements surrounding the barony, keeping it remote. She found the remains of the land from the tales backwards and foolish, but she also wanted to surprise her father. She joined the Baronial Guard, travelled the land, only taking enough time to return reconnaissance to a Mercadian outpost, then Illefarn.
When the 200 scouts arrived, the ore engineering oriented Dwarves found an issue with a green slime poisoning the water supply. The water system was cleaned, the slime destroyed, and they advanced on Mere.
It took less than a month for Mercadia to conquer the Gulluvia in full. Lady D'hmiss was found guilty of everything and put to death. The entire administration of the Church (including a very unlucky Galastia ) was also put to the sword, The Dwarves sent for clerics of a different church, one called Akana to assist with conversion of the masses. It appeared that once, long ago, The Church was a part of Akana, before the barony was hidden from the world.
Roads were built, "King" Devin became Baron Devin, and the simple folks of Gulluvia were reconnected to the outside world.
Norm had found the ruins in of the ancient palace, north of Gulluvia City. It confirmed his friends' stories, but opened up the concept that they had travelled to another place.... in another time.
GM Notes: The Barony of Gulluvia is directly pulled from the background information provided in the original version of B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess, the naughty version if you will.
I ran my college group through portions of B1-9 In Search of Adventure, and the anthology had a neat way of transporting the PCs from Elwyn's Sanctuary (B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond) to the Palace portion of the updated (green cover) B3, and finally a vague but direct route to the monastery portion of B5 - Horror on the Hill. Check out the write-ups in my Ballad of the Pigeon God (starting with episode #5).
Norm hadn't joined the group yet, but he probably read the journals of either Talis Makolin, Echellon, or maybe Rolf Wolfsblood.
I don't believe I placed Gulluvia within the proper Ferasean calendar, but my notes and timeline state that Gulluvia officially become part of Mercadia in the proper years 1143. This runs concurrent with the early episodes of the Buring Trogs Redux.
No comments:
Post a Comment