Completed [Play-by-Post] Magic World/BRP: "In Search of the Sorcerer"

[Grimgravy]

In a whisper Rhenmyr asks, "What do you make of the laughter and bells? Uncanny..."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Teeth bared in aggression, Borric mutters, "Fey filth, were I any judge."

 

[Wayward Son]

"Calm, my friend. It could be our enemies celebrating some victory they thought won."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"That is no reason to be calm, Drune. If aught, the victory of our enemies would me rage even more."

 

[Wayward Son]

"And then we'd crash that party with the news that they lost, no?"

 

[L'ennui]

"Well, that sounds like an invitation. Maru-Enlil, go and see what is up ahead."

Spoiler

Casting Bird's Vision; [1d100] = 84 vs 89.

 

[Siveon]

"I wonder if this was a formal engagement. And here I am without the proper attire."

 

[nikolokolus]

Uraah mutters an incantation and suddenly feels his perception ebb and shift to the eyes of his rook. The bird silently takes flight and soars out over the open space beside the mountain, before diving and climbing in a circling arc towards the summit.

It's difficult make out much detail through the thick blanket of fog that cloyingly covers the broken top of the tor. However, you start to see indistinct shapes move in and out of the swirling mist, illuminated as they are by the pale green luminescence that has no source, (save the fog itself?).

After a couple of minutes of spying through your crow's eyes, the fog parts for a moment revealing a strange scene. Near the open portal, in the center of the ruined tower, you spot a lanky, figure with a strange, abnormally long face seated on a tumbled section of wall. He appears to be strumming a lyre and tapping his foot rhythmically. Below him, several misshapen figures caper and dance wildly, darting in and out of the fog.

The scene is at once both compelling and utterly obscene. For a moment you feel a mad urge to caper and dance yourself, as the faint sounds of the lyre and soft tinkling of bells filters through the dense night air, down the mountainside.

The spell ends and your sight snaps back, sickeningly to your own eyes.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash describes the strange scene, visibly worried. "This fellow... He looks like a tricky one."

 

[Grimgravy]

World Lore (52): [1d100] = 27
Rhenmyr tries to recall any stories of such a creature/musician.

 

[nikolokolus]

World Lore (52): [1d100] = 27
Rhenmyr tries to recall any stories of such a creature/musician.

On Rhenmyr's long sea voyage to Odessos (and Getae) he spent a lot of time listening to the deckhands telling tall tales about the Kelts and their fog-shrouded lands. Tales of weird creatures, cavorting in the moonlight from a mysterious place called "Otherworld" were frequent subjects in their stories. One such story was about a fey creature who could beguile with its magical pipes -- playing music that forced listeners to dance until they died. Whether or not this story had any basis in fact seemed very much in doubt at the time.

 

[Grimgravy]

"I heard sailor's tales of what you describe. A fey creature whose music can make its listener's dance until they die. Did you see anything to risk disturbing such a being?"

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"Let me see if I can relieve us of this fog."

Cormac calls upon Arawn to dispel the fog created by the foul being.


Undo Sorcery (4) = [1d100] = 32 vs 69

 

[L'ennui]

"Risk? Well he could certainly make his puppets turn on us, or try to entrance us himself. Marduk knows what other danger may have been left hidden by this cursed fog."

 

[nikolokolus]

Cormac unleashes his spell at the fog and it immediately starts to dissipate, receding up the slopes of the mountain. The sound of bells and the playing of the lyre ceases completely about ten seconds after you complete the spell. Soft chittering sounds like small distant voices can be heard from the top of the mountain. After few moments the chittering stops and all goes quiet.

The eldritch, green light that suffused the fog has vanished and a stillness comes over the entire place as you sit huddled against the steep slopes of the hill and tumbled blocks of granite just below the summit.

 

[Grimgravy]

"I hope that's an improvement. I'll take a look." Rhenmyr climbs up and peers over the top.

Climb (49): [1d100] = 31
Move Quietly (54): [1d100] = 24

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

"Nothing remains hidden from Arawn."

 

[nikolokolus]

Rhenmyr carefully picks his way up the mountainside in the near-dark without making a noise. After perhaps 100 feet of climbing it starts to flatten out as the summit -- a bowl-like depression made through eons of weathering -- comes into view.

All is quiet and dark. In the gloom, you can just make out the outline of a toppled tower abot 60' wide at the center of the shallow declivity. There is a slightly darker "blotch" in its center that you think is a gap. You strain your ears for several minutes, but all you can hear is the sound of your heartbeat pounding in your ears.

(Make a "Sense" roll).

 

[Grimgravy]

Sense (52): [1d100] = 37

 

[nikolokolus]

You catch a whiff of something odd. Like cloves mixed with something foul underneath.

 

[Grimgravy]

Rhenmyr returns to the others. "All is dark an quiet. I couldn't make out any movement, but there was a scent to cloves mixed with something foul. Does that mean anything to any of you?"

 

[L'ennui]

"Hmm... Clove, you say, mixed with something less akin to your tastes? Let me think..."

Spoiler

: World Lore (if applicable):[1d100] = 71 vs 104

 

[nikolokolus]

Urash knows that cloves are sometimes used as perfume and occasionally used in the preparation of bodies in mummification. The spice comes from the east on the spice road and is not native to Acadia or Illyria. Getae seems an even more unlikely spot to find such aromatic spices.

 

[Siveon]

Marcán ponders the description of the scent as well.

World Lore Check (63) vs [1d100] = 10

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

special success!

Marcán comes to a similar conclusion ... That cloves are imported from afar. Additionally, in certain tales he recalls, people encountering creatures from Otherworld would describe pleasant odors of exotic spices for fey from the Seelie court ("benign" fey) similarly, the unseelie are frequently described as pungent and earthy.