The Story So Far Episode Thirteen

Episode XV - Matters of comparative Religion and a nasty little skirmish in the woods.

Note this  is the write up for session XV posted as episode thirteen as I amalgamated some of the earlier write ups into one post

Episode XV

Dramatis Personae
Telec - Kalamarian Human Priest of the Wanderer
Aeltred - Half Elf Ranger
Lalia - Halfling Thief
Thans – Dwarf Fighter thief
Heradin- Dwarf Fighter mage
Dvorn the Axe- Fhokki Human Fighter
Sondan – Brandobian, Human Fighter
Fawlit – Half Ork Fighter

Nyassor- Elven, Fighter from Elsewhere

Americ – Human Cleric form Elsewhere

Liamar – Kalamarian Human Cleric of the free from the Hidden Dell

Nyasse - Kalamarian Human girl from the Hidden Dell

Location
The Holdfast and the Hidden Dell, the woods to the north of it

Events

(The session started immediately where the previous one finished with the company arriving back at the holdfast from the faire)

The people at the Holdfast where greatly pleased to see the company’s return and helped Heradin unload the pack ponies making short work of the task. Before inviting the company to share the evening meal, after which the company first spoke to Master Selemar Ku’Ato the village blacksmith at the Hidden Dell who Telec had recognised as having had a former life as the master weapon smith to the imperial household in Bet Kalmar before falling foul of a scheme of the emperors to produce a copy of the lost sword of the emperors. They showed him the good steel bar stock which they had been given by D’rek and then commissioned him to use it to make some plain but professional quality weapons for them. The Master agreed seeing that the steel was of excellent quality but did warn them he was very much out of practice as he had not made anything a village blacksmith would not have in these many years. The talk turned to magical weaponry. However Selemar Ku’Ato had said he had seen exactly one magic sword once long ago and admitted he had no knowledge at all of matters arcane. Never the less Aeltred insisted he looked at the dwarf made elf bane arrow heads they had acquired from the goblins ands asked if he could change the enchantment to something perhaps more useful he looked at the arrow heads and agreed they where without doubt the best work of that kind he had ever seen but regretted that he could not help. Some discussion followed as Aeltred would not take no for an answer and in the end Aeltred had almost had to be dragged away from the poor man by his friends. The excuse used was that they needed Aeltred to talk to Nyassor since every one knew both of them spoke high Elven as they had heard talk of the goblins being back in the woods above the dell and given the big elf had distinct ranger like tendencies and was given to scouting they wanted to know more detail.

Nyassor and Aeltred had a long involved but rather precise conversation, just about the only sort you can have in high Elven it has to be said, about the tracks which Nyassor had said he had seen in the woods to the north and Nyassor explained that there seemed to be regular patrols of five to six large dogs probably with goblins mounted on them passing along the game trails in the woods within an hours walk of the edge of the dell and that they had been increasing in frequency from around two weeks after the companies raid on the goblin caves during which time period he would swear there had been no goblin activity this far south. Nyassor believes that the goblins have returned to the caves and possibly in greater numbers than before but has not thought it wise to scout that far on his own. He is also rather of the belief that the company need to return to the caves and deliver a more stinging check to the goblins than they did previously but he senses a certain reluctance and dose not mention that.  This conversation becomes more general turning into the customary discussion about what to do next. During which the translate spell is brought up and Heradin asked why he did not use it so any one could talk to Nyassor indeed every one could. Heradin is forced to explain that the translate spell only gives him the ability to understand unknown languages both spoken and written but not to give the same ability to others. Aeltred gets grumpy and says it’s a fat lot of use then and will not be persuaded otherwise even when its use is shown to him by the rather exasperated Heradin.  At this point Aeltred retires to bed mumbling about the uselessness of magic and dwarves and especially wizards who are dwarves, which fortunately Thans does not over, hear, and every one realises its quite late and it has been a long day and drifts of to their beds.

The following morning the discussion of what to do next recommences over breakfast. Aeltred gets an idea and goes off to round up Nyassor and then Liamar. He first speaks to Nyassor at some length in high Elven about the religion that Americ is a priest off and what is troubling him as even some one so blind to such things has Aeltred has noticed that Americ’s behavior seems more than a little strange . First Nyassor speaks of the religion and does his best to explain but whilst he is an anointed follower of that religion he is no priest ant can only describe their beliefs in very general terms. The goddess whose worship they share is the patron of rebels against oppression and of those who suffer under the yolk of tyranny; it is a cult dedicated to the support of the former when they stand against tyrants and the giving of hope to the latter that tyranny will always pass. It is as religions go fairly minor as most of any given population will drift away from it when the cause off oppression has been removed. This is something understood by its followers who typically seek the next cause requiring their support and move on. The company which Nyassor and his companions Americ, Nesbit the wizard and Meanor Arvol the dwarf where part of had traveled to a city in the north called Eboran to help liberate a nation over run by the forces of the Abyss. Then Nyassor addresses the matter troubling the priest, and causing him according to Nyassor usually a confident individual to lose his confidence quite so spectacularly apparently since they arrived here the goddess has not responded to any on Americ’s prayers and has granted him no magic after he used that which she had granted him before the disaster in Eboran and the young priest believes that this is because he had in some way offended her and seeks to atone. Nyassor adds that he has no idea of the offense, and believes that Americ himself is equally bewildered as to its nature.

Having heard this Aeltred then goes to fetch Liamar and repeats the tale, suggesting that the faith of the free and this goddess form else where sound rather similar, even if Americ’s  goddess of the liberation struggle seems to have a more limited preview that the guardian, not that Aeltred knows any great detail about the theology of either. Liamar hears what Aeltred has to say and after some thought the young man agrees that elements of the two faiths do sound at least on the surface to be similar at which point and he agrees being cut off from the font of his faith would be troubling to any priest. Liamar also being no fool despite his inexperience that Aeltred might want to do more than discuss a matter of comparative religion and asks Aeltred what he is driving at. To which Aeltred replies remembering something Zildor mentioned to him in their long conversation in the dwarf hold saying that the stranger like himself had come from an elsewhere which was cosmologically a long way off and jumps to the conclusion that it might well be distance rather than any fault on Americ’s part which is the issue. Liamar says he can understand the logic of Aeltred’s point but knows very little of such things and so can’t comment. Violet may well know, but as Violet is absent it is not possible to ask her. Then Aeltred unveils his plan, which is to have Americ convert to the faith of the guardian who is obviously the local equivalent of the goddess he worships elsewhere and who would be able to step into her role.  Liamar is not sure that it will prove that easy.

Mean while every one else was finishing breakfast and chatting generally thought the topic of the companies future plans did feature prominently. Aeltred returns with Liamar in tow and explains his plan which is discussed around the table for a while before an agreement is reached to help. Dvorn wanders off as the conversation turns to the practically of how this might be done as he is only really interested in himself and one by one Heradin, Lalia and Thans also drift away as whilst they are in favor of helping the troubled Americ they don’t see that they can contribute practically.

The remaining group discusses the matter and comes up with a plan where Liamar will attempt to convert Americ to the faith of the guardian. Further discussion clarifies that there are two principle problems with this plan the most significant of which are that Liamar and Americ do not share a common language. Things will have to go through a number of translators. Liamar will have to speak Kalamarian to Telec who will have to repeat this in either low Elven or Brandobian to Aeltred who will translate this into High Elven, for Nyassor’s benefit and Nyassor would then repeat it to his friend and comrade and so the discussion would flow back and forth. The other being the minor point that priests of a faith even in the throws of a crisis of that faith are the least easy to convert to another faith even one which is as far as every one else knows is quite so similar, a problem aggravated because none involved but Liamar and Americ have any knowledge of the comparative and competing theologies except in the most of basic terms. None the less the company resolves to go along with this plan and the date is set for it to go into action during the evening meal. Nyassor is tasked with going and seeing his old friend and talking him out of his isolation in the makeshift chapel to join every one at the evening meal.

Nyassor went off to Americ’s chapel after breakfast to talk with his friend and attempt to persuade him to join every one at the communal supper that night. He was careful not top drop any hint of the plan as he did not want to offend his comrade or for warn him as he suspected that any such would cause Americ to reject the invitation and so the help which Nyassor was sure the company where trying to offer him.

Every one else passed the day in their own pursuits and reconvened at the evening meal where they found that the first part of the plan succeeded and Nyassor had managed to persuade his friend to join them. The extra ale cask the Company had bought from the faire was broached and after supper was eaten the conversation began in earnest against the background of the evening’s entertainment in the common room at the holdfast. The only ones to miss out on which where those whose turn it was to stand guard at the watch post and the watch tree against a repeat of the goblin intrusion.

Telec, Liamar, Aeltred, Nyassor and Americ sat together and ate supper, Americ who had been fasting quite a lot by way of penance for the wrong, and he still had no clue as to what it might be,  he had done which had suppurated the goddess from himself since ha had come to this strange place.  He wondered at Nyassor who seemed to had adapted better than he, but then Elf kind where pragmatists especially those few who rejected the cold cruel calculating evil that the majority of them practiced and which had caused the long war between them and most of the other thinking races of Mararianin even the evil ones like the chaotic gnomes and the lizard men of the furthest east against whom his people had long warred. Or the Necromancers of Orisan whose foul practices still persisted despite being first over ran by the devil worshiping Assuri and then conquered by his own people. Still he had said that he would come and at least spend an evening in the company of his old friend and his new found ones.

The conversation around the table started off rather general with small talk and the like but once the translators where comfortable Liamar took his queue and he subtly turned the talk to matters of faith generally at first with both Telec and Liamar chipping in about their religions and that of the Founders creation which was apparently the faith of Liamar’s parents with Americ replying talking of the liberator and her religion. This progressed to a specific comparison between the faiths of the Liberator and that of the Free and it became rather difficult as the linguistic chain proved to be quite unwieldy even if it seemed to hold as increasingly complex theological concepts passed back and forth from Liamar to Americ and the ale flowed and the hour grew late then latter and eventually the group broke up the matter still undecided and perhaps both Americ and Liamar strengthened in their particular faiths. Telec on the other hand couldn’t but wonder quite why he had spent so much time trying to convert some one to a religion other than his own.

Whist this is going on those not involved amused themselves in their own ways in the corner the two horse obsessive’s, Nyasse and Heradin had a long discussion about horses which drifted off onto magic as the usefulness of the translate spell to allow a conversation between a girl who mostly spoke court Kalamarian and a dwarf who really could hold that sort of conversation in dwarvish became rather apparent. Dvorn and Fawlit both fell to carousing which granted in Fawlit’s case involved drinking too much of the good ale the company had bought back for the faire, and in Dvorn’s pinning Lakaran Tur Esamil a noted Kalamarian historian in a former life and his wife Lamasaru a Kalamarian imperial princess in a former life of his exploits and those of his imagined father in the Kalamarian imperial guard also largely imagined as the only fact involved is the existence of a small guard of mercenary Fhokki origin who have for the last centaury stood as shield between the emperor and the knives blades of imperial palace politics. That their grasp of Brandobian is rather poor, Lakaran mostly reads it because of his love of the school of poetry fostered by the temple of the Raconteur in Cosdol only adds to the pathos of the situation.  

Sondan ever the good soldier took his supper and then took himself off to see how the militia volunteers where doing at the watch tree and in the watch post at the base of the cliff path taking with him a couple of jugs of ale and some treats to make the long night pass a little more pleasantly for them. He also it mist be said wanted to check their alertness in the light of Nyassor’s reports of their being goblins in the woods again. 

In the morning they awoke to find that Americ had returned to his chapel shortly after dawn and had decided not to stay long enough to share breakfast with every one else. Even if Nyassor did, over breakfast the company discussed the need to do something about the returned goblins and it was decided that a severe check would be required to discourage them coming south and from troubling the inhabitants of the hidden dell. The company decided that since the goblins where again patrolling the woods to the north the best thing to do would be to ambush and roughly handle these patrols. Sufficiently so that the goblins would not come south as far as the Hidden dell preferring instead to go off and look for easier targets elsewhere. No one really wanted to contemplate having to clear out the Goblins from the goblin caves again especially as they had almost certainly reinforced their position. 

The day was spent patrolling the woods following the tracks of the goblin patrols and developing a plan of action. The company would have engaged the goblins in the day but it would seem that the creatures where only active at night which posed a problem as not every one in the company had all that good night vision whilst the goblins certainly all did. Both Aeltred and Telec came up with separate ambush plans given that the ambush was going to have to take place at night.  Aeltred’s plan involved the company being strung out along a game track in a fairly dense area of forest and being all armed with missile weapons them taking post shots at the goblins as they rode by in single file the intent being to kill most of them but to allow one at the least to survive so that he could go back and report to his masters that the woods to the south of the goblin caves where dangerous and well defended. Telec’s plan involved setting up a false camp as bait with a big fire both to draw in goblin patrols, as well as giving a light source which would allow those of the company without night vision to shoot a the goblins effectively.  Both plans where discussed and in the end the company decided much to Aeltred’s personal disgust to go with Telec’s. To this end the company spent the remains of the day collecting a lot of wood making some fake tents out of branches and the canvas they had bought at the fare and improvising torches to be left at hand around the fire. In order to make the fake camp more attractive as a target it was also decided that a portion of the company should volunteer to act as bait, Telec volunteered to lead this group and Fawlit whose poor sight an loathing of missile weapons made him useless as a shooter volunteered to help first followed by Dvorn who very much wanted to blood his fine new axe and defiantly did not want to upstaged by a Half Ork. 

When every thing was set up to every ones satisfaction the bait group of Dvorn Telec and Fawlit sat round the fire in the fake encampment making small talk and generally play acting at being lost travelers whilst the rest made themselves comfortable in the cover around the clearing weapons ready if not actually trained on the fire and the camp. They did not have long to wait as the dog tracks on the game path had been read correctly by Aeltred and this was a place the goblins sent a patrol through at least once a night.

The goblins probably spotted the large fire and the figures sitting silhouetted against it before even the ambush group heard them coming on their dogs fast soft padded feet. As when they reached the clearing they where trotting along apace arrows already knocked and bows half drawn. The speed of this entry surprised the bait group who hesitated for several seconds before reaching for weapons. The goblins did not attack, and it seemed that their intent was to take captive rather than kill. However that will never be known as before they did any such plan was interrupted by a hail of bolts and arrows from the darkness. Followed an instant latter by a sling stone and a hurled axe. Goblins tumbled form their mounts to lie stunned or dead in the dirt at the bait groups feet. The two who remained able loosed their held arrows before scrambling for weapons more suitable to a close fight. One arrow missed striking the ground between Dvorn and Fawlit, the other struck Telec in the chest. There was a resounding thunk as the arrow pierced his cloak and then met the dwarf mail beneath and stopped dead, harmlessly breaking against it. Fawlit and Dvorn swung their great axes almost together and the unfortunate goblin swayed to dodge Fawlit’s relatively clumsy swing with “Questions will be axed” straight into the glittering ark of Dvorn’s. There was a gout of dark blood as the goblin lost its head, which disappeared into the darkness; its headless body remained for an instant seated on its dog as if nothing had happened, before sliding off inelegantly. Dvorn let out a cry of exaltation and brandished his great axe one handed quite unnecessarily in triumph, the light from the fire cast a ruddy glow on the blade, and the parts of it unmarred by goblin blood, being gilded, glittered. Lalia sent a second stone hurtling into the back of the one remaining mounted goblin, then Aeltred’s second arrow also struck the one remaining mounted goblin, punching through its still slung shield wounding it deeply and it decided that it had had quite enough and turned his dog away and spurring it to a gallop fled into the surrounding night.

In the bushes around Nyassor and Sondan put down their crossbows grabbed shields and drew their swords. Thans followed up his axe throw by driving a dagger into the flank of one of the rider less dogs. The dog howled half in pain half in anger and threw itself at Telec. Telec who had picked his crossbow rather than his staff discharged it at the oncoming dog at point blank range, but his aim sent the bolt high to be lost in the woods and the darkness beyond, but he dodged the dogs snarling charge. The fight was won but not yet over, Telec grabbed his staff from the ground as both Nyassor and Sondan swords drawn joined the fight. Thans slashed at the dog again, drawing blood but not diverting it from Telec. Lalia, not wanting to lose another stone into the swirling fight for fear of hitting friend not foe, moved to the edge of the fire light and waited her opening. With the goblins all fled or down and so no longer in charge and enemies coming in form all sides the four remaining dogs had little choice but to fight which they did with the desperate ferocity of cornered animals and a desperate struggle followed.  Axes swung and swords rose and fell Thans darted in and out stabbing as he found an opening. Telec swung his staff increasingly wildly beating at the enraged dogs. A dog threw itself snarling at Telec who in his heavy armour was unable to dodge all that well, but its powerful jaws only closed on the hem of the mail and did so with a sickening crunch teeth broke and the animal turned and fled whimpering, Aeltred seeing there where no good targets moved in spear in hand quickly closing the distance to the melee. Promptly to be struck a smart blow on the side of the head by the end of Telec’s staff that caused him to see stars in spite of the hardened leather cap he was wearing. Several others stumbled on the blood slicked ground, as the fight became a matter of attrition. An over confident Dvorn over extended himself with his swing and the dog he was aiming the blow at got in past his guard and jumping up at him sank its teeth deep into his shoulder, Dvorn fell with a howl to match that of the wounded dog defense less. Lalia moved in to make sure the goblins who where on the ground where finished off in case they where only stunned and Thans joined her in this butchers work. Fawlit swiped at the dog just about to tear out the fallen Dvorn’s throat standing over his body protecting him whilst every one gathered around the remaining dogs and one by one they fell overcome by wound s until the last was split nearly in twain by a mighty blow form Fawlit

All was silent again it had taken less than a minute and had not roused Heradin from his dose in his ambush spot.