Hostile Takeover

Our Krevborna campaign continues with the second half of this adventure.

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Johanna, lycan bard and fallen noble 

Father Severin, a defrocked priest with a gobkin sidekick

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

Events

As the group carried on exploring the Grail Tomb beneath the Chapel of St. Aiban, they found a tableaux of vlaak statues arranged in a scene depicting fealty. Dario noticed something gray move behind the statuary, and Johanna smelt an unwashed person in the chamber with them. Once corned, the person appeared to be an old man in threadbare clothes; strangely, he had a great deal of wax that had melted down over the top half of his head, covering his eyes entirely--the wax was the remains of candles, no less.

The man explained that he was the descendant of a group of heretics who had been imprisoned by the Church generations ago; he was not a lone survivor, either--his people had been living in the Grail Tomb and thriving in their penance. When asked about anyone else who might be down below, he told the group that Ratibor and his mercenaries had released creatures held in stasis that now had them penned in at the eastern extremity of the floor. They thanked the strange old man for his help and went on their way.

In this case, going on their way meant finding the shattered material that had once held the two now-marauding creatures. Father Severin used his holy magic to get a sense of what they might have to face; his vision showed him that the creatures were chimeras.

Indeed, in a further chamber they found the two chimeras scratching at the door that Ratibor and his group were hiding behind. Morwenna took to the air to throw her blade at one of them, but the winged creature was soon in the air after her. The grounded one spewed fire at the rest of the group, but they quickly closed on it and slew it without too much trouble. Johanna scrambled up a statue to leap at the airborne chimera. Dario followed suit. With both of them atop the creature, it couldn't maintain flight; as it got closer to the ground it was cut down.

The doors were thrown open, revealing Ratibor and his hired swords. When Ratibor's pistoleers and crossbowmen opened fire on the group, Varro charged in to thin their numbers--which necessitated the rest of the group piling in as well. The following melee was fairly brutal. Both Johanna and Ulu nearly met their ends at the blades of their foes, but healing magic from Anastasia and Father Severin saved their hides. Johanna went berserk and tore a Narskeman apart. The battle continued until only Ratibor and two heavily armored swordsmen remained. The soldiers determined that the likelihood of receiving the rest of their reward was now quite low, so they surrendered and the group let them leave.

Ratibor was not so lucky. On his person they found the missing gauntlets; he explained that they were necessary if someone wanted to handle the destructive orbs they had seen depicted earlier in the Grail Tomb's etchings. On his person they also found a letter from Brother Jacob that read as follows:

Ratibor, 

My Dearest Brother in Arms! Greetings and salutations–may the glory of the Light fall upon thee and may the Word resound in thine ear. I hope all goes according to plan in Chancel, home of false promises and a Church that is little more than a gilded slattern, but I have no doubt it does as we are guided by a providence divine. 

Once you’ve found the information sought by Sorrow’s Six, fly to us with all haste, brother, come on as quickly as though Hell followed your trail–for I believe it does. By the time you reach us, the Thorn will have fallen on Braelin and I will follow in her wake. The others come on, too leisurely for my tastes. Onquin will rove from the forest, Ugly Zillah will descend from the north, and that poppinjay Lucio Rinketti will traipse in when he feels like it. And the one they're calling the Blizzard–well, I have not had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but I hear he is a horror. 

Among such unhallowed company, your pious presence will be a relief. I am sure between the two of us we shall convert them all, even our master, to the path of righteousness. Come soon! Your welcome will be warm, your promised redemption nigh!

Yours in God,

Brother Jacob

The group's hearts collectively sank as they realized that something bad had happened to their adopted home of Braelin in their absence. They recovered the missing pages of the books from Ratibor, questioned him thoroughly, then left him to the Church's tender mercies so they could rush back to Braelin.

On the sign that hung above Braelin's wooden archway, they saw two bodies hanging: Ulysses the sheriff and Sister Eliza from the shrine to St. Vionka. They decided to skirt around the town for now and head for Wyatt at his outpost in Fort Onataiga. On the way, they saw that the Wolf and Rose, Embrelle's tavern, had been burned to the ground. 

Speaking with Wyatt, they learned that Brother Jacob and the Thorn's forces had descended on the town and basically took it over. There had been a number of executions. Wyatt had sent word of what happened to his fellow Knights Labyrinthian and was awaiting instruction on how to proceed. He also told them that Aivra (who they know to be the witch Ivara Graymalk) was missing, and that Ragdoll Ilsa was now doing a cracking business now that the Honey Pot was the only drinking establishment in town. He gave a letter to Ulu indicating that the Rue sisters had to travel on their business.

The group was relieved to discover that nothing had happened at the Kaul House--Morwenna used her skull magic to observe things through D'Orleac's skull and they called to him for a brief conversation in some sort of bricked up alcove. When they reached the Kaul House, they found everything in order--but Raenessa appeared and told them she had done something that may have exceeded her authority in the house. They followed her into her basement lair and found--Embrelle ensconced in a bedchamber of her own. Apparently, Raenessa had found Embrelle camped in the woods after her escape from the burning tavern and convinced her to stay at the house until a better plan emerged. The group were relieved that their friend was unscathed.

That night, Irenya made her way to Morwenna's roost and gave her Sister Eliza's skull helmet--which Irenya had scavenged from the destroyed shrine to St. Vionka under the cover of night.

How will the Charnel Hounds push back against the usurpation of "their" town? We'll see what machinations they set in motion in the next session.

Ornamental Women Art

Check it out, my pal Goose made me some art based on my novel Ornamental Women:

Serafina glass ornament! 

Felt doll of the Widow!

Goose has a glass art shop called A Good Goose Studio that you can check out here. And, of course, if you haven't picked up a copy of Ornamental Women, you can do that here.

The Tomb of Many Colors

Our Krevborna campaign continued!

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Johanna, lycan bard and fallen noble 

Father Severin, a defrocked priest with a gobkin sidekick

Events

The characters arrived in Chancel, where they hoped to find and question Ratibor Bron--a man somehow connected to the machinations of Yavor Mikalek, who had betrayed their mercenary band. To that end, Cassie Mabcrowe let them use a flat she kept above an herbalist's shop. At the flat, they met Father Severin and his gobkin factotum Slink, who were to help them in their search.

One place that seemed a likely place to start was the Vagabond's Shield, a tavern frequented by mercenaries and sellswords. As they arrived, the barkeep was tossing a musician out the door with his accordion. He explained that the only thing that could help him when he had one of his headaches was music, but the ejected bard couldn't even hold a tune. Luckily, Johanna stepped up and performed a song that got them on the barkeep's good side. The barkeep knew of Ratibor as "the librarian" and was able to offer up the location where he seemed to be employed. They also learned that Ratibor had been hanging about the Vagabond's Shield, trying to recruit mercenaries for an "expedition."

At the library of the Divine Mercy, they found a nervous-looking monk who admitted to letting Ratibor conduct his researches among the stacks, even though Ratibor had been ex-communicated from the Church. Ratibor claimed to have been writing a manuscript on "unholy abominations." The monk allowed them to look at the two books Ratibor had spent the most time with: a collection of horror stories called The Opener of the Gate & Other Tales and A Treatise on Profane Magics. Both proved to be missing pages; the anthology was missing a story called "The Krusikan Gambit" and the treatise was missing a chapter on the mountain cults of Krusikal.

Then, over at the Chanticleer, a molly house, they learned quite a bit about Ratibor's sexual proclivities. The madame of the house also offered to buy Dario from the party. They declined.

The Chapel of St. Aiban the Pious was a more productive visit. The blind priest in attendance within the small, forgotten church admitted that Ratibor and his hired swords had ventured into the extensive crypts below--and had yet to return to the surface. He offered to admit them as well, which they took him up on.

However, these were no normal crypts--below the Chapel of St. Aiban was a vlaak Grail Tomb made of a strange, glass-like, but altogether alien material. Dario wisely left an offering of coins at the feet of the vlaakish statue they discovered in an alcove, which ensured it did not stalk them throughout the complex.

They had much more trouble with the colored doors within the Grail Tomb, as they missed the artwork that would have clued them in to how vlaakish color theory works. They did, nevertheless, find four color-coded keys around the necks of vlaakish mummies--though the order to apply them initially eluded the group, causing more than a few magical wounds through their trial and error attempts to figure it out, until Father Severin used his prayers to get a glimpse of the ancient vlaak using the keys as intended. 

Also confounding were the jagged holes in the complex that either had air forcefully rushing into them or being pushed out of them like a vacuum. They threw a few levers they found in a control room, but what that accomplished was not immediately clear. 

In one chamber, they found an eerie mural depicting vlaak forging metal gauntlets, then a vlaak figure wearing the gauntlets and commanding two orbs to unleash cataclysmic energies on an army. Behind the figure lurked an ominous presence. Within the same chamber they found a wooden box; the interior of the box looked to have been made to fit two glove-like objects. 

The next room they entered featured another of the structural holes with air streaming into it. The chamber also featured a number of vlaak automatons made of the same glass-like substance as the complex; the statues attacked and gave the party a run for their money. Ulu threw one out of the hole, but because of the air current it was thrown back into the room where it shattered against the far wall--and the explosion of shrapnel set up a bad situation that almost cost Dario his life. Ultimately, though, the Charnel Hounds vanquished their foes and carried on exploring the Grail Tomb. 

We'll see what else they find next time.

A Fine Pack of Krevborna Characters

The following entries are descriptions I wrote up for a party of characters I used in a Krevborna one-shot adventure in which all members were part of Sir Aubrek Salazar's retinue of "problem solvers." I like how they turned out, so I thought I might as well post them here for posterity.

Angelique Oleander

Backstory: Angelique Oleander is a Polnezna woman who grew up in a wandering clan caravan. Since birth, she has been “blessed” with a supernatural connection to the spectral world. She was apprehended and nearly executed after performing a fraudulent seance in Chancel; only Sir Aubrek’s intervention spared her from hanging. She has been part of Aubrek’s retinue ever since. Being on her own feels like a fatal liability. 

Appearance: A young woman of middling height with unruly black hair and dark eyes. She dresses in the fashion of her people, as she is proud of her heritage.

Fanlin O’Dale

Backstory: Fanlin was orphaned at a young age when his family was set upon by anti-fey vigilantes. His vengeance does not take the form of direct violence against the world that robbed him of his parents; rather, he gets his recompense one theft at a time–and he won’t stop until the scales are balanced. He joined up with Sir Aubrek’s retinue because Aubrek promised him that his tasks would put him in the path of great riches.

Appearance: Fanlin is a forest elf–tall and thin, with skin the color of tree bark. Strangely, people have a hard time accurately recalling the details of his appearance. Are his eyes brown or blue? Is his fair long and flowing or clipped short and militaristic? Who can say?

“Father” Severin Koslavik

Backstory: All his life, Severin Koslavik was told he was destined to serve in the Church of Holy Blood. Indeed, all signs pointed in that direction–he was apprenticed to a Church inquisitor, at least until an unnamed indiscretion caused him to be formally stripped of all standing within the clergy. Strangely, his miraculous powers have not disappeared since his defrocking. His miraculous talents have found him employment in Sir Aubrek’s retinue.

Appearance: A young man who still takes pains to appear to be a pious servant of the Church, Severin still wears the cassock of a cleric. It just makes life easier–people don’t ask too many questions of a priest.

Lady Jeanette de Winter

Backstory: Lady Jeanette de Winter hails from a family of hereditary knights who long-ago pledged their service to the Salazars. When Sir Aubrek Salazar appeared at her ancestral manor, Lady Jeanette found that she was willing to fulfill the terms of her familial oath. Which is strange, since Sir Aubrek Salazar supposedly died generations ago. She knows her time in the Mortal World draws to a close–better to go out in glory, she figures.

Appearance: Steel-haired, steel-eyed, and steel-backed–Jeanette is an aging woman who is still physically powerful, even if she experiences new aches and pains every day.

Damir Milosovek

Backstory: Whether or not he is a natural-born nobleman is irrelevant; Damir Milosovek plays the part of a dashing, fashionable highwayman with aristocratic bearing. Sure, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor–but he simply must make sure that he holds back enough coin to keep his garb stylishly outrageous. Luckily, the terms of his alliance with Sir Aubrek are generous; shame about all the danger it entails, though.

Appearance: A handsome man with long blonde hair and a meticulously trimmed mustache. He takes pride in three things: the sharpness of his blade, his debonair presence, and his colorful feathered hat.

Braelin Map

I realized I hadn't posted this yet. This is the map I made of Braelin, the starting town of the current Krevborna campaign.

Rate and Review: A Favor

I hate to ask people for favors, or for anything really, but if you're read and enjoyed Ornamental Women, it would help me out tremendously if you rated or reviewed my novel! You can do so on Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph. Or make a post on social media about it, write something up for a blog if you have one, or (most importantly) recommend it to someone you think would like it. I'm an independent author with no writing community or industry ties, so word of mouth is all I've got.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has already rated, reviewed, reposted, read, and promoted my work. It truly means a lot to me. Response has been positive, but I'd still love to reach more readers--and for that, I need your help.

The first few reviews of Ornamental Women are in, and it's been pretty great thus far. Eight five-star ratings on Amazon at the moment:

 And people have been saying some really kind things about the book:

 

 

  

 

Additionally, it looks like people who had fun with Ornamental Women have really good taste in fiction; what an august company to be a part of!

 

 

Of course, if you haven't bought a copy yet...you can get Ornamental Women here.

 

Third Novice Advance

We did another "level-up" session for the ongoing Krevborna game. Here's what the players grabbed for their characters:

Anastasia took the New Power edge, gaining Relief and Dispel (and Smite from studying the Book of Carrion Winds)

Dario took the Formation Fighter edge

Johanna increased her Agility to a d8.

Ulu took the New Power edge, gaining Environmental Protection and Arcane Protection (and Smite from studying the Book of Carrion Winds)

Varro took the Sweep edge

Morwenna took the Arcane Background edge, focusing on Magic, gaining the powers Mind Reading, Bolt, and Corpse Sense

 

Morwenna was taught the rudiments of magic by Cassie Mabcrowe as the group traveled from Hemlock Hollow to Chancel, where they hoped to track down a man named Ratibor Bron--who had some kind of connection to Yavor Mikalek. Cassie also gifted Morwenna a deck of bird-themed tarot cards and taught her how to use them to scry.

Speaking of scrying, Ulu asked Cassie to try to gain more information about Krusikal's sundered heart. The group had been operating under the belief that Varro's sword may have been half of Krusikal's heart, but Cassie didn't think that was true. Varro's sword was connected to something dark and unfathomable, but it wasn't Krusikal. 

Left to think on what they might have brought back with them from Ustalecht, they hit upon an interesting idea--what if Commander Kaul's body itself hid the weapon?

They also asked Cassie to scry the location of Raenessa's missing adult children. Alduin was currently somewhere in Veil. Alyndara however...was deceased. The group did not relish having to break that news to their alchemist.

Yes, you can do emotional terrorism even in a level-up session. It's legal.