Session Notes

Created: March 2, 2007

“Didn’t you used to be all happy and whimsical? Hmm, maybe Rellik’s had a bad influence on him. Or maybe it was you.” – Sigrid
“I’m whimsical!” – Captain Blank
“You’re a pirate.” – Sigrid

Secondmonth 15th
Mid-afternoon

Ratham Norder
Thinks Soern is a pirate
First words “you look unwashed”
He thinks everyone is a pirate, especially if they deny it, because “pirates always lie”
Has a rat problem – the rats are dirty, and need cleaning

“You look . . . unwashed.” – Ratham

“Are you a pirate? I don’t like pirates.” – Ratham
“I’m not a pirate.” – Soern
“You must be a pirate. Pirate’s always lie.” – Ratham
“I’m a pirate.” – Captain Blank
“You’re not a pirate. You’re telling the truth. You can’t be a pirate.” – Ratham

Went to talk to Mischa
Dyeza Tazhiren
Read some documents, something about Dyeza Tazhiren and his instatement as champion

go back to the Black Angle
Tillienne
Cer-Athane
Gannen

Sigrid and Soern go over to the bar
Blank goes over and talks to Cer-Athane
Got his headband of feathery wisdom
Sigrid gets ale

“Where’d you get that sword?” – Gannen
“We found it.” – Sigrid
“In a gold mine.” – Soern

“We found it, it’s very old, we don’t much about it. Except that it has feelings.” – Sigrid
“It’s the ale.” – Captain Blank

Talked to Gannen about the sword, Hora Quan

“I’m supposed to stand for justice, and truth.” – Sigrid
“Then sit down.” – Captain Blank

Went back to ship, saw James being threatened by thugs on the way
On the docks: ship with black and red, ominous sails
It set sail, they followed it

Sailed threw fog, other ship disappeared
Ghost wolves

Set sail on Secondmonth 16th night

Weather: 5 days
Moderate temperature
Light winds (x1)
West

60 miles per day
Takes three and a half days
Arrived at Knight of the Axe island on the morning of Secondmonth 19th

Tethun
Kavikaran

“So, Rellik, what do you think about going to the temple?” – Sigrid
“Rrrr, cryptic, rrr, apathy, rrr, kill Mischa.” – Captain Blank

Scenes

Created: February 24, 2007

Scenes

Confrontation with Illiam’s crew
Goals: Spotlight Blank, establish that Illiam is a bad guy
Location: The Twisted Fish
Prep: Stats for basic crew member, personalities
Triggers: None (location only)

Interview with Mischa Mevarin
Goals: Shut down the “murder” subplot, hint at why the people who were murdered were, introduce background bad guy
Location: Mevarin House
Prep: Stats for Mischa, Mevarin house layout

Captains Log IV

Secondmonth 16th (cont.)

Sorern finally finished scrying those items. Nothing much new about the stones, the sword has necromantic powers, is empathetically intelligent, but its powers are bound somehow. It can be unbound in some temple of the Hora Quan, but I’m not entirely sure what that’ll do…. We’ll probably mess around with it anyhow.

We convinced Rellik to stay at the ship while we went to the Mevarin household. We didn’t want any unpleasant err, assassinations during our visit. We were greeted by this quirky butler who decided we were all pirates. He changed his mind about me when I said I was a pirate, because I was telling the truth, and pirates lie, or something. I love old geezer logic.

Mischa was rather collected for someone who’s just lost a supposedly loved one. But I’m not one to pry into personal lives… unless gold is involved. Yarrrr….. in any event, we found some useful documents Sorern translated talking about some champion of Ozymandius.

After we were done there, I decided I would take it upon myself to teach Sorern about the wonders of Rum at the Black Angle. Sigrid didn’t seem too against this, so I figure that’s a good sign.

Getting tanked with a Faen turns out to be not such a good idea. Not only am I still hung-over, we nearly got into a bar fight together, and I’ve seen magic users in bar fights. After about 10 seconds they couldn’t be consider bar fights so much as all out battles. Tillienne seemed to have similar experience. Apparently Gannen knew something about the sword, so Sigird talked with him a bit about that… didn’t yield any new information, but at least it’s likely improved our cred.

Oh, I also picked up my headband-o-wisdom. I look so kickass with it on.

On our way back to the ship, we ran into James and a couple of ruffians. They were shaking him down, but apparently only for the sake of beating him up. When we showed up, they left, muttering something about Illiam. I better track him down before he pulls something like this again.

Anyway, James annoyed us for a bit until Sigird paid him off to leave. I don’t know why she encourages him.

We passed a ship with a bunch of pirates who looked like Illiams ilk, so we got in our ship, and I just ordered everyone to follow them when they took off, and everyone, even Sigrid, complied… I’m such a good captain.

We followed them up the coast a few miles, but then the fog set in…. it was unnaturally fast, and I immediately thought it might be magical. It lifted maybe a quarter of a bell later, and the other ship was gone. More oddly, we seemed to be in a drastically different place. But we had traveled very slowly, as there were sharp rocks about… we searched for any signs of magic or secret passages, but found none. We decided to investigate it later, and we headed down to Sigrid’s superiors island.

Secondmonth 17th

We enjoyed a lovely ice storm today. It would delay us, but I was not daunted. Sigrid… did not share the sentiment. She made the throwaway comment of “Stupid fucking ice makes me so cold. Hate hate hates it.” I tried to freeze her by looking at her. While I did not entirely succeed, I think it got the point across.

Memo to self: Must learn how to freeze people by gazing at them.

Secondmonth 18th

*sigh* the ice storm stopped earlier this morning, but winds have picked up and we should make it to the island by tomorrow. It’s times like these on the seas when I think it’s all going to well… it seems like we should either be pursuing some ship, being pursued, carrying contraband, being in a sea storm, or being attacked by some monster…. Things have been too quiet lately… perhaps that monster is stalking us…. Ah, what am I thinking? I’m getting paranoid… but still… that monster took us completely by surprise. Even if it wasn’t specifically following us…. I have to be prepared, and I mustn’t fail to protect my crew and ship.

Secondmonth 19th

Sigrid took a bit longer than usual talking with Mr. Morek. We should be heading to where we think the temple is in due time.

Sigrid's Journal 5 - Unwashed, Lying Pirates

~~~~~

Secondmonth 16 (continued)

Soern finally decided to join the ranks of the living once again. I think he has done all the scrying and loresight he can on the stones and the sword. The stones are simple enough magical items. The sword (Aur Xica) has a story all it's own, but I will explain that later on in this entry. The group decided to let me wield it, though Soern did almost attack me when I had asked to take it. He's a little overprotective of his magical curiosities I think.

After our break on the ship, we decided to pay a visit to the Mevarin household. By “we”, I mean Blank, Soern and I. It had been decided that Rellik should stay with Mark and “protect the Ocean's Blade”. Not that the ship needs much protecting. I mean, it's so small and rickety, I wouldn't think anyone would really bother it. The real purpose of leaving Rellik behind was to avoid any... complications with our conversation with Mischa. Complications like, oh, I don't know, her death? I really don't think I can let him kill her. I'm supposed to prevent such unjustices from occurring. At least Baern knew he was going into a fight, and that sometimes fights can go badly... no, no.. I am NOT justifying myself with this one. The fight was rigged. Baern was tricked. I could have warned him. I should have warned him. I am just as guilty as Rellik and Blank. If I allow Rellik to kill Mischa, then I will again be responsible for an unjust death. But if I stop him, I will be betraying Rellik... and Blank and Soern too. I don't know if I can do that... I don't know what I should do.

More to the point, we went to the Mevarin household and were greeted by a crotchety old butler who was convinced that we were pirates, because we were “unwashed”. Unwashed? I just went to a bathhouse this morning, by Malleus' Beard! It is no matter. The old man is clearly suffering from senility, as he decided that the only one of the three of us that was definitely not a pirate was Blank. I fail to see the humour in the irony. After much ranting about pirates, he allowed us in to speak with Mischa.

Mischa was pleasant and very calm and collected for someone whose father was just murdered. Almost too calm... We learned no new information speaking to Mischa, but she did allow us to look through her father's research papers. We found this magnificent black and gold document which Soern managed to translate a little of. He says it seems to be an announcement involving Ozymadius and the installation of a Champion named Dyeza Tazhiren. That was all he could figure out, but he made a careful copy of the paper for reference later (and perhaps a more detailed translation from a loremaster). Dyeza Tazhiren: Ozymandius' Champion. Perhaps Dyeza's tomb was the sidetomb we found off of Ozymandius'.

We left the Mevarin household, much to the relief of the Butler, and decided to go to the Black Angle. Blank needed to collect the magical item he had ordered from Cer-Athane. Blank also said, “Soern has never been to the Black Angle, and he really should.” Soern thought this was a great idea, so off we went. The Black Angle was the same as I remembered it. Very... taverny... Cer-Athane was sitting at the bar with Tillienne, the shadowy-looking man in the corner didn't look like he had moved an inch, and Gannen was at his normal table (sans Mazquar today). Gannen looked up at us when we entered and nodded a silent hello. Blank and Soern went to the Bar to talk to Cer-Athane, and I followed, taking the opportunity to have a glass of ale. When Cer-Athane presented Blank with his magical wise headband, I couldn't help but smile. It was adorned with various feathers. It was actually quite pretty, though it lost a lot of its beauty once Blank put it on his head. Perhaps I will have to order some sort of magical item from Cer-Athane.

I glanced over at Gannen once or twice and noticed that he was still staring at us. Well, not actually us, just me. Gannen was staring at me. I had no idea why. Had he just noticed that I was female or something? I finally got annoyed enough to get up and go over and ask him if he had a problem. His only reply was, “Where did you get that sword?” So, he hadn't been staring at me, he had been staring at the Aur Xica. I suppose that's probably a good thing. I sat down and talked to him a little bit about the Aur Xica. He wouldn't divulge why he knew about it, and I didn't learn anything that Soern hadn't told me earlier, but it was a pleasant conversation nonetheless. I guess this is as good a time as any to write down all I know about the Aur Xica thus far.

The Aur Xica is the blade of the Champion of the Hor Quan empire. It was created at the begininning of the empire and was wielded by the Kings' Champions for hundreds of years. It is credited with keeping the empire peaceful. We know of only one King and one Champion by name thus far. Dyeza Tazhiren was King Ozymandius' Champion, but whether Dyeza was the last Champion of the Hor Quan Empire is unknown to us. At the beginning of the Dramojh War (which would destroy the Hor Quan Empire), the High Priest Tai Faren took it upon himself to hide the sword. No one knew of its whereabouts until now, when we accidentally stumbled upon it. The power within the sword has been locked. The secret to unlock it is somewhere within the Temple of the Hor Quan. The only clue we have to find the Temple is the guiding light in Ozymandius' tomb. Also, the sword is intelligent. It doesn't talk, but it is empathetic.

I do remember a Knight-Mistress of mine telling us Squires about the Hor Quan Empire. I didn't pay much attention. History wasn't terribly exciting to me at that point in my life. Why would I pay attention in Academics when I could think about Weapon's Training instead? All I really remember is that the Hor Quan Empire had nothing to do with the Diamond Throne OR the Dramojh (except the whole “getting slaughtered by them” thing), so they were obviously awesome. I was so dumb back then. Being non-Diamond Throne and non-Dramojh does not automatically make one “awesome”, though the reverse is true. Being supportive of the Diamond Throne or a Dramojh does make one decidedly un-awesome.

But I digress... After leaving the Black Angle, we headed back to the docks, only to meet up with James. He was being bothered by some rather gruff looking pirate-types, and I ended up interfering before they hurt the poor boy. They muttered to Blank that Illium had warned them about them and then they hurried off. It was too bad really, I wanted fight them and teach them a lesson. After a long, drawn-out conversation with James, I gave him some gold and sent him about his way, reminding him to stay out of trouble. Blank seems to think I encourage the boy. Oh well. At least his blood won't be on my hands.

When we arrived at the docks, we noticed a large ship with a full crew setting sail. The sails on it were black and red, and the crew was singing rather crude songs. They were the most stereotypical pirates I had ever seen. We hurried back onto the ship and Blank started barking orders to set sail. We were on the chase. Chasing someone in a sailboat isn't nearly as exciting as running after them on foot, but it was kind of exhilarating. The only thing was, we the distance between us and them never decreased. We were going the same speed as them. We kept this up for hours, following them up the rocky coast. As dusk settled in, so did the fog. It was thick and sudden. One second it was clear, and then the next second, I could barely see the deck from the crow's nest. I was concerned that we were going to hit a rock with such terrible visibility, but Blank, Mark, and Soern were extremely careful. We cleared the fog as quickly as we had entered it. It was a little disorienting. We seemed to be in a completely different place than we had entered the fog in, though that couldn't have been more than a quarter bell ago. What sort of magic is this? Could a sea witch summon up such fog? We searched around for the pirate ship for a while longer, but finally gave up. We had been outsmarted and outmagiced. I requested that Blank set a course for my Order's island, and I decided to put Rellik on guard duty so I could get some sleep.

~~~~~

Secondmonth 17

I wish winter would end. There was a minor ice storm today that will slightly delay our journey. I accidentally made a remark to Blank today along the lines of “I hate stupid ice.” (though my actual comment was a little more explicit), and I got a rather “cold” glare from him. I had forgotten about the whole Ice Witch thing. Oops.

~~~~~

Secondmonth 18

The icestorm has stopped. The winds are favorable and we should reach the Order early tomorrow morning.

~~~~~

Secondmonth 19

We arrived at the Order Chapterhouse midmorning. Soern, Rellik, Blank, Mark and I spent some time in the guildhall drinking before Lord Morek called for me.

I told Lord Morek that I didn't believe that Soern or Blank were any threat to the Order. I also informed him that I didn't think Rellik or his organization were a threat to us either, at the moment. If these assassins were to turn their eyes to us, there may be trouble, but at the moment, all is well. We also discussed the Aur Xica and the Hor Quan. He would like me to explore the Temple of the Hor Quan, if we can find it, and report back to him. The only new information he could tell me about the Hor Quan was a rumour of a possible heir, a descendant of the last King, or of the last Champion. Lord Morek will send a message to the Eye of the Axe Loremasters requesting more information on the Hor Quan.

We set sail again this afternoon. I believe our next stop will be the Temple of the Hor Quan, if we should be so lucky as to find it.

~~~~~

Aur Xica

This blade was once called Aur Xica, sword of champions. Little now is known of it, its tale lost along with the empire it defended, Hora Quan.

It was forged at the beginning of the empire, and for centuries was wielded by each of the Emperor’s champions in turn, and helped to maintain its long peace, until that peace was ended by the dramojh war.

Tai Faren, the high priest, hid the sword from the dramojh—though no one has recorded where. He bound its power, and hid the secret to its unbinding at the heart of the empire, the Temple of the Hora Quan.

Session 5 Quotes

(To Soern) “Didn’t you used to be all happy and whimsical? Hmm, maybe Rellik’s had a bad influence on him. Or maybe it was you.” – Sigrid
“I’m whimsical!” – Captain Blank
“You’re a pirate.” – Sigrid

“You look . . . unwashed.” – Mevarin Butler

“Are you a pirate? I don’t like pirates.” – Mevarin Butler
“I’m not a pirate.” – Soern
“You must be a pirate. Pirate’s always lie.” – Mevarin Butler
“I’m a pirate.” – Captain Blank
“You’re not a pirate. You’re telling the truth. You can’t be a pirate.” – Mevarin Butler

“Where’d you get that sword?” – Gannen
“We found it.” – Sigrid
“In a gold mine.” – Soern

“We found it, it’s very old, we don’t much about it. Except that it has feelings.” – Sigrid
“It’s the ale.” – Captain Blank

“I’m supposed to stand for justice, and truth.” – Sigrid
“Then sit down.” – Captain Blank

“So, Rellik, what do you think about going to the temple?” – Sigrid
“Rrrr, cryptic, rrr, apathy, rrr, kill Mischa.” – Captain Blank

Session 5: Investigation

Secondmonth 16, 1759 – Secondmonth 19, 1759

They went back to the ship, then went to Mischa Mevarin’s house to investigate. Sorern came with them, but Rellik stayed at the ship, because they didn’t trust him around Mischa.

Sorern reported the results of his investigations: the sword was intelligent, empathic, and possessed some kind of bound powers, in addition to having a necromantic aura. He had also discovered a historical reference to a sword called Aur Xica, with all of these properties. These researches indicated that the way to unbind the sword’s power involved going to the Temple of the Hora Quan. This interested the rest of the party, and they decided to pursue it further, once they’d investigated the murder business.

So they went to the Mevarin mansion, where they were greeted by an unpleasant old man, probably a butler. He accused them of being “unwashed” and “pirates,” except for Captain Blank, who – since he appeared and claimed to be a pirate – was clearly not a pirate, and who was clean because he’d just used a hygiene spell.

He took them upstairs, where they met Mischa and interrogated her for a bit. She suggested that they look through her father’s papers, which they did, and found a document decorated in black and gold. They translated enough of it to figure out that it involved “Ozymandius” and the instatement as some kind of champion someone named “Dyeza Tazhiren.” They decided that this was the person whose statue they’d seen in the tomb.

Then they went to the Black Angle, where Captain Blank got his headband of (feathery) wisdom +2 from Cer-Athane. They also talked to Gannen, for a bit, because he recognized the Aur Xica, though he wouldn’t say just why.

On the way back to the docks, they ran into James again; he was being threatened by thugs. The thugs took off when approached, saying something about “the guy Illiam warned them about.” They talked to James, and Sigrid particularly tried to encourage him to keep out of trouble.

When they actually got to the docks, they saw a ship with black and red sails setting sail, its sailors singing unpleasant and rude songs. They decided to follow it, because it was probably Illiam’s ship. So they got to the Ocean’s Blade, and set sail.

They followed it, for a few hours, more or less along the coast of the island. Then some fog showed up, and they lost sight of the other ship as they sailed into it. When the fog disappeared, the other ship was nowhere to be found. They searched for it, and up and down the coast for any place where it could have hidden, but could find no sign of it.

So they continued on their voyage as planned, to the Order of the Axe stronghold, where Sigrid had a private conversation with Lord Morrek.