Osrrealms

Session map

Feverborne

Word arrived from Oscar that some of the Glorious Blades had found something interesting in the sewers under Threshold. A small shrine to a nearly forgotten minor goddess of cleansing, lost and surrounded by filth and wererats. The Venus Cloacina, protecting a beautiful sword. The answer to my prayers and my search for meaning.

I had never been a healthy child, as my name suggests. but ever since I had taken up the adventuring life, it had gotten worse. Especially since that time in the barrow when – well, when I died. I picked up a cough in hell that hasn’t left me since. No matter what herbal teas, vapor rubs, barbarian poltices, or clerical murmurings I got, the cough persisted. Admittedly, sometimes it got better briefly, but I could always feel it dragging me down. And any time I had a close brush with death, it got worse, and took months of carefully nursing my health back before I could even think of adventuring again.

Session map

Oscar

Our testing of the valve configurations proved fruitful. We rapidly discovered that turning both valves to the right (east) raised the porticullis leading to the shrine, which is located just south of the valve room, and turning the left valve up and the right valve right raises a dam that allows the shrine to drain. Within the shrine of a statue, along with writing.

If a hero you would be and see my foe’s filth, vermin and plague destroyed, grant me a weapon and I will grant you the means to see it through.

Session map

Oscar

Rowen opened the east door, but it was empty this time. At least empty of wererats. It did have some kind of sewage channel, and evidence that filthy creatures had camped there until recently. After a quick search we moved to the south door. This one was also empty of rats, but did have a closet, a staircase leaeding to the surface, and some creepy construction methods that made the moaning noises we had noted previously when the wind blew. The final door to the north led to a larger room, containing a pool of sewer water and a giant snapping turtle. Just one, not four, and no ninja rats. The turtle talked, and in fact had a lot to say.

Session map

Oscar

I had a plan. It was a good plan.

We would hire a group of mercenaries. Two groups, really. All of them would be armed with missile weapons. One group would take the new entrance into the sewers, and set up on the west side of the pool room where a small platform offered space for three or four archers or slingers. The other group would take the canoes to the east side of the pool room, where a larger platform could support up to six. It’s not entirely clear, but the map suggests the pool itself is about 50 feet across. Even slings have a range of about that much. If we have lanterns on both sides, both groups of mercenaries can fire on the creature whichever group it chooses to attack. When it gets within melee range of either group, they can retreat, forcing it to either leave the water to follow or attack the other group. I suspect it can’t leave the water at all, and we can safely run the creature from one side to the other while slowly whittling it down to size.

Session map

Oscar

We put together a small group to explore the sewers, looking for the missing children. I engaged two bodyguards, Stria brought herself and her two favorite daggers as usual, and u-Heury recruited the young Thomas, a street urchin and apparently the first member of the Ice Skulls, a new tribe of urban barbarians. I’m looking forward to watching u-Huery explain this to his ancestors or shamans or foster fathers or whoever is theoretically in charge of him.

Nottanis

Seasons passed. I had greenleaf tea with Selaena on the regular, after a chance meeting in the woods outside Eastdale. She was talking to the farm cows, which I found charmingly naive. (What could they possibly say that would be interesting?) Turns out they actually did have something interesting, complaining about giant frogs eating their friends. Maybe we will look into that later.

Yes, about that, she talked me into getting up off my log in the forest to actually make a difference in the world. The tales she told – second or third hand, about the exploits of her friends Ygnis, Oscar, Bern, Feverborne, and u-Heury – caught my interest, and I signed up with the Glorious Blades. Of course, I immediately wandered off for a few months. It’s going to take some getting used to, working with humans and their ticking life-clocks on the regular. I suppose I can understand their frustration by remembering the time I pestered my father to teach me how to use a sword. It took him nearly 30 years to get around to it!

Session map

Feverborne

We took a few days to heal. U-Huery provided some strange tea that helped a little. Despite going over what we had available, we weren’t inclined to sell anything else right away, and the mysterious elf Landon reappeared, eager to adventure. Perhaps his purse was as flat as mine. We chose to head to the Grotto, as it was close by and there were sections we hade not yet explored. The place to start was the altar room, now that Oscar had managed to remove the gibbering mouther from its position.

Feverborne

Ygnas got bored and left to pursue her newfound obsession with the language of the fire creatures. She contacted a friend of hers, a druid named Selaena, to help us out. Selaena was not impressed with any of us. Also, it turns out the bugbears are actually hobgoblins.

Upstairs was more of the same: filthy goblin trash mostly picked clean. Nothing but bits of copper and a few silver. We did run into three more goblins in the process of looting a crude prison facility. They fled, leaving behind a few coins and a set of manacles. Shit treasure. But the prison had an orc in it, still alive, named Throk. After some discussion, we let him go after he agreed to help us explore and kill the hobgoblins to the east, the ones we had already met. We agreed, figureing they had already told us to fuck off and we were weak at the moment. Even a single ally could be useful, and if he lived, he could introduce us to his tribe of orcs for more possible allies. These monsters seem more than willing to turn against each other, which seems likely to be to our benefit.

Session map

Feverborne

Ygnas approached the burning tree portal and tried to speak with the fiery beings surrounding it. She didn’t say what they talked about, but the creatures seemed to respect the holy symbol of Zuul she presented and when we left the area, the fire was spreading to the northwest. The next day brought rain, and Ygnas seemed disappointed.

We arrived at the caves of chaos and investigated the entrance where other members of the Glorious Blades had previously encountered goblins and ogres. The cave system was almost empty; no ogres, their cave clearly abandoned, and only four goblins. Those four were evasive and sneaky, preferring to attack from just outside the torchlight and then flee. We chased them throughout the complex, in the process exploring more of the place, and found a larder to the west. We killed a goblin there, and shortly afterwards met hairy, red-furred creatures who emerged from a secret door. I’m no beastiary sage, but I would guess bugbears. They seemed amenable to peaceful conversation and offered to pay us for exterminating the goblin vermin. It wasn’t much – 6 gold – but it was something we were doing anyway and getting paid more wasn’t bad.

Ygnas

Me and Barbarian Boy whispered together, trying to figure out how to get Feverborne out. Or whether to leave him there. Ultimately, we decided to try to get him out, but we couldn’t see any way to get his gear from by the leader’s tent. Definitely not the sword, which was strapped to the lead centaur. The kid can be sneaky. I wasn’t willing to take off my armor and try to sneak into the camp to get the gear, risking getting attacked without my armor on. And the timing would be tricky. Someone could notice the gear gone before Feverborne was freed, and vice versa.