The Moyle Mines

We had to skip a week due to gallery stuff and internet issues, but we were finally able to conclude the Krevborna group's delve in the Moyle Mines.

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange thing about blood

Johanna Albrecht, a lycan bard with a particularly keen nose

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, a carrion-eating harpy  

Events

When we last left the Charnel Hounds, they had just defeated three demons in the depths of the Moyle Mines. After the fight, they carried on exploring. They found a pool fed by a natural spring; the water was strangely warm, and deep down in the pool they saw a glimmer of light. Ulu dove into the pool and swam down to retrieve the glowing object. When she resurfaced, she held a glass-fronted wooden case. Inside was a yellowed human skull with a golden laurel wreath at its brow--the light was coming from the wreath.

The group narrowly missed blundering into a cavern with a flammable gas leak--which their lantern would have surely ignited--but Dario noticed that their lantern's flame flared and grew bigger as they headed in that direction. 

They doubled back and found the rest of the skull's skeleton in a large glass case. After placing the skull onto the rest of the skeleton, it animated. The Charnel Hounds were now in the presence of St. Anderlecht. The saint could sense the presence of demons within the caves, and so announced that he must retrieve his sword before dealing with them. The group followed him to a rubbish pit where he rummaged for his blade.

As St. Anderlecht searched, the group noticed the sound of heavy breathing coming from a crack in the cave wall. Ulu reached in and extracted Stavran Moyle, a former commander of the Hounds who had betrayed them, even though he tried to stab her with the dagger he clutched in his hand. Stavran was in bad shape; his leg was broken so badly than bone protruded from his skin and the group could smell that rot had set in. Stavran was tied up and gagged--they planned to deal with him after the demoness in the mines was dealt with. 

After following St. Anderlecht to a chamber with a large pit in the center, Varro and Ulu leaned over the hole to see what was down there--and were surprised to see the demoness and her minions climbing over the lip. Lerhmassa had the lower body of a great golden worm and the upper torso of a human woman. Well, if a human woman had spiraling golden horns and metal plates all over her body. Her minions were mutated miners; sharp bits of gilded metal erupted from their skin in random patches. 

The ensuing battle was difficult. Anastasia discovered that mundane weapons couldn't hurt Lerhmassa, but luckily the group had Varro's magical sword and Ulu still had the potion from Raenessa that enchanted her claws and fangs. Morwenna kept the enemy at bay with her scissor blades, softening them up for other members of the party to get kills. Dario, Anastasia, and Johanna set to work clearing the minions. When Johanna was hit in the melee, she entered a berserk rage and assumed her wolfen form--she bisected her foe in retaliation and sent him tumbling down into the pit in two halves.

During the battle, Lerhmassa seemed to recognized the Hounds, saying, "Ah, you are the ones hunted by Krusikal!" The name Krusikal meant nothing to them. 

Speaking of the pit, after taken some heavy wounds, Ulu charged Lerhmassa and fell into the pit as well--landing on a pile of gold coins and trinkets. During the fight, both Ulu and Varro found themselves near death, but Anastasia's healing magic and the timely delivery of a healing potion from an airborne Morwenna kept the group from taking any casualties. In the end, the minions were dispatched and Ulu took Lerhmassa in her powerful jaws, shaking her decisively to break her neck. 

What was St. Anderlecht doing during the combat? He was busy sharpening his sword with a whetstone. And when he did join the battle, he missed with every swing. When he tried to take credit for the victory after the fact, Ulu knocked his skull back off his skeletal body, rendering him inert again. Johanna took St. Anderlecht's sword and Ulu pried the golden laurels from his skull.

The cave system was thoroughly looted of gold (though the group would later leave the town's trinkets on the doorstep of the church) and they found a tome called The Book of the Seven Carrion Winds on a corpse underneath a mining cart. 

Johanna interrogated Stavran Moyle. They learned that he had betrayed the Charnel Hounds into an ambush by the Fist of Arjal at the behest of a man named Yavor Mikalek. Mikalek paid Stavran, of course, but he also had Stavran's youngest brother hostage. Yavor didn't know the full reason why Yavor wanted the Hounds done away with, but it had something to do with "half a weapon" that Yavor didn't want in circulation. And why lead all of the Hounds into the trap? It was to make sure it didn't look like a single person bearing that weapon had been targeted. 

Once Johanna was satisfied with the information she had, she tore out Stavran's throat. However, a strange thing happened. Purple energy poured from Stavran's eyes, his corpse sat up, said a few words in a different voice, and then he collapsed--dead again, but his eyes and tongue had been burned out. Morwenna then consumed his flesh.

When the group returned home to the Kaul House in Braelin, they found that they had visitors again: Pandora and Morrigan Rue were there, as were Crispin Telimov, the tailor, and the Aivra Williams, the schoolteacher. We'll find out what they want next time.

The Doomed Yee-Haw Roundup

We've been doing group watches of Weird Westerns over on the Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque Discord server. To keep it varied, I've tried to run the gamut--from eerie psychological horror on the prairie and movies heavy on the brutality to mean-spirited revenge tragedies and the weirdest Spaghetti Western known to man. Here's what we've feasted our eyes on (in case you want some solid recommendations or wish to recreate our film series):

The Wind

Bone Tomahawk

The Salvation

Django Kill, If You Live...Shoot!

Grey Knight (aka The Killing Box aka The Ghost Brigade)

 

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

Dinner and Delving

After the previous session's downtime, the group was resolved to take the Nokoviks up on their invitation to dinner, then head to the village of Goranstad in pursuit of the commander who had betrayed their mercenary band.

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange thing about blood

Johanna Albrecht, a lycan bard with a particularly keen nose

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, a carrion-eating harpy 

Events

The group assembled (along with with Raenessa and Irenya) and made their way to the Nokoviks' place for dinner. (Beaumont D'Orleac stayed behind, saying that someone must watch the house while they're out.) The party was greeted warmly by Yungfang, but a little less so by Mei-Lin, which was par for the course. Still, the Nokoviks clearly believed in hospitality, offering salad greens dressed with ginger and mustard, steamed rice, and a chicken and vegetables dish fried in a spicy chili sauce. For dessert, they were given buns filled with sweet bean paste.

Dinner conversation turned a bit fraught when Yungfang was a little too open when asked why he and his sister had come to the Vespermark from the Khanlands. Yungfang explained, to his sister's consternation, that their village was preyed upon by a vampire lord and that they had led an uprising against the undead. They managed to slay the vampire, but when the vampire's kin arrived seeking revenge they had to flee the country of their birth. Mei-Lin was adamant that telling the story made them vulnerable; she was clearly concerned that they could be hunted down, even so far away from home.

In the morning, the group headed south from Braelin to Goranstad. They found Goranstad to be little more than a shanty town of miners' tents, with only one permanent building: Goranstad's church. However, they arrived in the midst of a flurry of excitement--there was to be a hanging in Goranstad that very night! The condemned was a man named Vatroslav, a former laborer at the Moyle mine, who was caught in possession of a number of stolen gold and silver items. 

Asking around about the Moyle Mines unveiled some interesting facts: the Moyle mine had run dry years prior, but some of the miners still loitered around it; other miners claimed that the Moyle mine was either haunted or cursed; Stavran Moyle, the party's quarry, was seen heading to the Moyle mine to talk to his brother, but hadn't been seen since.

The group managed to convince the guards standing watch over Vatroslav to let them have a word with him before his execution. The man seemed stark, raving mad--speaking of the glory of gold, the shining beauty of golden fruit from the golden tree, and the ascendance of an entity called Lerhmassa. The Hounds recognized the name Lerhmassa--she was a demoness of greed thought long banished beneath the earth. Their interrogation was interrupted by the arrival of the priest and his men, who led Vatroslav to a hastily erected gallows where he was hanged without incident.

Deciding that the Moyle mine should be their next stop, the group was able to bluff their way past the menacing-looking miners guarding the entrance by pretending to be new recruits to the cult of Lerhmassa. They took the birdcage elevator down to the last-known operational mine shaft and began to explore. There were cart rails laid to transport ore and even a few carts still on the tracks. They passed over a carving on the stone floor--a large tree bearing heavy apples. They found a space with spare mining equipment--and discovered an explosive. (They took that with them, of course.) 

The also found a small office area, but all of the survey maps and documents had been effaced with ink to make them illegible. However, when the desk in this room was touched, they perceived a flash of golden light coming from back the way they had come. Heading back in that direction, they saw that a number of demons had been summoned from the symbol on the floor they noticed earlier. The demons had gilded horns and hooves, and carried golden blades with serrated teeth. The group charged the devils. Although the demons were resistant to their mundane weapons, they were still able to best them in combat. Once dead, the demons dissolved into molten pools of gold.

And that's where we ended for the night. Next time they will delve deeper into the mine. 

First Advance

We're trying something new in the current Krevborna campaign: we're actually meeting on a shared video call to do advances as the characters grow in skill and power. Previously, I thought people would consider that a waste of time, but I think they actually had a good time just hanging out and talking about where they want to take their characters.

The session also gave us the opportunity to play through a little "downtime" in the town of Braelin. No dice were rolled, but the characters got a chance to talk with the NPCs more, further their relationships in town, and learn more about their new home. 

 

Downtime 

Ulu paid a visit to the Nokoviks' store. Yungfang wasn't around, but his sister Mei-Lin was. Ulu restocked on rations for the group and bought a bunch of daggers. She asked about any art they might have for sale, and Mei-Lin gave her one of her brother's paintings for free; apparently, Mei-Lin has a low opinion of her brother's art. Ulu also left with an invitation for the group to have dinner with the Nokoviks. On the way back to the Kaul house, Ulu stopped in at the gaol and had a conversation with Ulysses, the town's necromancer sheriff. He compared necromancy to baked goods, which was perplexing.

Dario availed himself of the amenities at the Blue Room, including a brutal massage from Naomi, the woman who runs the place. Later on, he met up with Johanna and Varro to check out the Wolf & Rose tavern--where they met Embrelle, the cambion who owns it. Like the Charnel Hounds, Embrelle was once a soldier, having served in the Hellwar. She and Varro compared greatswords, and made a tentative plan to spar at some point. Johanna asked if they ever had live music, which got her an open invitation to perform on the Wolf & Rose's small stage. They also made the acquaintance of Wyatt Hothstaedder, the Knight Labyrinthian keeping watch on the mountains from Fort Onataiga. Furthermore, they saw some local shifty toughs with small rag dolls tied to their biceps; they explained that they worked for Doctor Ilsa aka Ragdoll Ilsa. They weren't shy in letting the group know that Doctor Ilsa peddles alchemical intoxicants, as well as serving as the local doctor and brothel owner.

More importantly, the group learned that the two men who had been asking around town after them were soldiers from the Fist of Arjal--the very army that had destroyed the Charnel Hounds. No one knew where the soldiers were currently, but Embrelle doubted that they had left Braelin. They seemed very determined to find the last of the Hounds. 

Anastasia and Morwenna took a little side trip to scout out what was going on over at the Children of Eternal Penance compound. They were, obviously, a cult--one lead by a mysterious Brother Jacob. They weren't let inside the walled compound, but were given a printed tract called The Many Sins of Mankind and Cure Above All Cures, which explained that Brother Jacob was "spiritually married" to every member of his flock. It was somewhat obvious that these spiritual marriages also give him conjugal rights, but the less said about that the better. It was also said that Brother Jacob could perform miracles.

When the group reconvened in Kaul House, they found visitors awaiting their return--the two soldiers from the Fist of Arjal were sipping tea in their parlor. Their butler, Beaumont D'Orleac, had made the "guests" comfortable, but Irenya, the maid, was prepared to make them less so--the two soldiers couldn't see it, but she had a pistol trained on them.

The soldiers were there on an errand of conscience: they had found out that the Hounds had been betrayed into a trap in Trevania. As such, they could not stomach being part of a treachery. They had sought out the last of the Charnel Hounds to return a battle standard that had been taken as spoils of war. Before departing, they told the group that one of the men who betrayed them--a commander named Stavran Moyle--was currently in a mining town to the south called Goranstad. That would be the party's next stop. 

Advances

Ulu raised her Intimidation skill

Johanna raised her Survival skill

Morwenna raised her Smarts

Anastasia took the Ambidextrous edge

Varro took the Trademark Weapon edge

Dario took the Attractive edge