VtM Interlude: A Sacrifice, a Request, a Demand

Ciaran lit the match with a careful, deliberate gesture, then bowed to touch the flame to the kindling beneath his fire. Each stick and log was touched with his blood, and the black steel fire pit was covered with incised inscriptions in the First Language: commands to give it purpose, and constraints to maintain control. Six small, rolled-up scrolls contained additional pleas specific to this ritual, set at intervals around the edges of the fuel. 

The flames spread quickly, taking root in the wood and reaching out. They touched the scrolls and consumed them, and Ciaran nodded to himself as the fire suddenly rushed upwards, voracious. It found the offering atop the wood, consuming the meat and gnawing at the bones in a rush of heat; then the fire collapsed, leaving a bed of glowing coals. They winked, red and black and red again, giving the disturbing sense that the remains of the pyre now regarded Ciaran with every bit as much intention as he regarded them. 

It formed slowly, outlined in the smoke that drifted up from the coals: something that was and wasn't a face, new-formed but horrifyingly ancient, bodiless but very much alive... 

Ciaran spoke a name, and the thing replied with his own: a faint whisper that sent sparks rising from the coals to outline the smoke-framed hints of its features. 

"I bring you sacrifice," Ciaran said. "Meat, bone, and blood."

It is good.

"It serves my interests to keep you happy, O wise and powerful spirit."

And how would you see your interests served? You know the price of further power.

"I have not forgotten. But my brother is sly, and now he is wary. He moves around. He is hard to catch." 

You ask nothing, then?

Ciaran nodded carefully. "I would not have you grow displeased while I hunt."

A word, then: your brother is being watched. Tread carefully. Seek him in the places of his interests, but tread carefully.

Ciaran nodded again, and the fire collapsed in on itself with a sudden, unnatural hiss. He held out his hand, and found that the ashes were cold; the Great Beast had taken the last of the heat when it departed. Well then, he thought, and shivered. A small sacrifice for a small bit of knowledge, and a small price to assure his provider's continuing goodwill. He would need to find a better sacrifice for the next one, especially if he had not found and crucified Edhem by then. 

Edhem, who might be found in the places of his interests: fortune telling and magic tricks, the things that looked like sorcery but weren't. Edhem, who was being watched... and watched by someone or something consequential enough that the Great Beast had felt it was worth a warning. Edhem, who needed to die so that Ciaran could complete his bargain with the Great Beast and finally come into the fullness of his power. 

All right then, Ciarin thought. Let's do this.

Duendewood: A Boat Full Of Spies

We're picking back up in the GozarTD campaign again, this time as our Elvish party. Geddy Lee Geddy, Gnome Bard, has come up to join us -- having saved his previous group sometime back by fireballing himself and a large number of undead, and then being raised from the dead -- as he's not coping entirely well with his resurrection and was fascinated to hear rumors of the "Twice-Born" among the elves. He's replacing our snake-obsessed cleric, Marshall Mercy, who's moved down to take a place with the King's newest Solari in the human-controlled area of the nation. 

We're in a council meeting, with Baethira (Ruin's mother - Ruin being the only True Elf in the group, and a Horizon Walker) The High Provost (who's also a servant of Vecna and who hasn't been murdered only because Baethira won't let Ruin kill him yet) and Joseph R Pious (Evil Human Paladin, reformed) with Bauregard (his rather devious NPC servant) behind him. The King and the Council want us to sail the Boner Galleon (the boat we stole from the Vecna cult when we killed their wizards and ran off with their skeletons) around to Wellfort to sign an alliance with the dark army in order to attack the humans. We have a crew, headed by a half-elf captain named Wyland, with his first mate Alarian and their crew of 18 sailors. They are combat trained, but they'll be relying on us for any serious fighting.

King Mithrandril would like us to stop at Lighthouse Point on the way and deliver a note. He in not subtle about it, and Martini takes the note to go along with the treaty describing how we can bargain with the dark army.

The note says, "Mind ye the wood supply. It is winter and fire burns cold. Know your duty and your identity. The lighthouse must burn bright to burn away the darkness."

The King then approaches, lights a little candle and rings a bell; but it makes no noise within the light of the candle. "Better," he says. "I have agreed to send you to treat with the dark army; but there is no hurry. I'd like you to buy me some time. And I'd like you to investigate the town of Amplovau, where the skeletons were supposed to go."

Also, OOC we're entirely sure what became of the skeletons we stole. Apparently we locked them away in some of the High Elf settlements, because keeping them in the Keep in Annun (where the High Provost and the King are both currently ensconced) seemed like a really bad idea. Then, back in character:

Also, in the Southern part of Duendewood the King would like us to visit the centaurs and see if we can recruit them as allies.

Baethira catches up with us as soon as we leave the room; she's sending us off with two wands of Cure Light Wounds, and one wand of Death Ward. She's very worried by the sophistication of the necromancy behind the skeletons. Her opinion as a high-level wizard is "Be very careful of high-level necromancy," and, "Don't die, my dears."

We depart the next morning. It's a two-day journey to get to Lighthouse Point, but we've taken off at last. Getty starts listening in and talking to people, and it takes him maybe five whole minutes to realize that Captain Wyland and the crew have clearly been planted by the council; the mate is in on it, and about half the crew is in on it. There are maybe seven or eight who aren't. They aren't hostile, exactly, they're just supposed to herd us directly to the rendezvous with the dark army, and report back on anything we do.

Two days pass, and we're approaching Lighthouse Point. Wyland and Alarian are looking for our contact. Darvinin is there, along with his cohort and about two dozen very tanned elves who look like sailors.

Ruin: "Martini, if you'd be so kind?"

Martini: "Absolutely. Pull over, Captain, the King wishes us to stop here."

Wyland rolls his eyes, but Martini notices it and intimidates him. We dock. 

Ruin offers his brother Darvinin the note, but Darvinin doesn't take it; instead, he waggles his fingers, and everybody who's tried to read the note immediately finds their hands glowing green... starting with the captain. Ruin pulls his massive curved sword and expresses his desire to have a conversation with Captain Wyland.

We swap crews. Our new captain is a true elf, named Helmar. With our new, less-respectful-but-more-loyal crew  (many of whom are "dark elves" -- followers of the hierophant Androw) we set out again.

We sail on to Amplovau. As we approach the town, we note that two large boats identical to the Boner Galley have been scuttled in the bay. These would, presumably, have carried the earlier shipments of enchanted skeletons.

The town itself is barely visible, hidden as it is behind mists. What we can see, out near the shore, are a handful of wandering zombies. The zombies aren't paying us much attention.

We don't have longboats, but we do have Airwolf. (Airwolf, you might recall, is the statuette that turns into a giant fly that can carry us around. Getty brought it over from the last party. It's loosely equivalent to a hippogriff, so its carrying capacity is limited... but it's a lot better than nothing.)

Before we go, Azrael the Goth Wizard looses his familiar owl, Horatio, to scout the hell out of this town. Horatio does.

There's an abandoned market area; dead soldiers and militia; something that might be a warehouse, a manor, and a mess of scorch marks where a bunch of soldiers got fireballed. There's a larger, stranger undead in the cemetary not far from city hall, which is a larger building on the east side of town. There's a dead body in one of the boats.

We use Airwolf to ferry us over to a relatively isolated spit of land on the far side of the dock. A single zombie wanders over, and we put it down. Then we mosey quietly forward. Well... most of us. Getty is not being as quiet as he thinks he is, partly because he's trying to practice his scales -- sneakily. "La-la-la-la-la-la-la!"

This, of course, draws the attention of other zombies; but we start taking them out at range with arrows, and manage not to attract *too* much more attention. They're not hard to hit, and Ruin's ranger background makes him  surprisingly formidable with a bow. (Note to self: I should make more use of this, and maybe pick up a magic bow at some point... especially as the Horizon Walker build brings me nearer to being able to teleport essentially at will.)

Just beyond the falling zombies, another monster appears; everybody but Azrael sees it. Martini finishes off the last of the regular zombies. Getty calls the monster to his attention: "So that big thing with the extra set of arms is a Devourer; he attacks with his claws, can pull an energy drain, but the thing to really fear is an attack that sucks you into his ribcage; you need to destroy him to be freed. He can absorb spells onto the little person inside his rib cage.

Getty... renders us invisible with Invisibility Sphere, and sends Airwolf to hover 30' off the ground. We try to sneak away...

...but not very quietly. This time it's Azrael stumbling over his robe that gives us away. The devourer comes straight towards us.

Azrael casts False Life on himself, making him at least a bit harder to kill.

Ruin: "Move towards the door."

Martini casts False Life on herself, so we move as a group towards the door. We shuffle into the building and find ourselves in a kitchen, with a dead chef on the floor. Lovely.

The devourer is outside the door, scratching at it. The door opens inwards, so... Azrael grabs the nearest piece of furniture and tries to block the door. Specifically, he grabs the nearest table, strains mightily, and utterly fails to lift it into the air. Martini moves to help... and between the two of them they lift the table and push it against the door. In her ball gown, yet.

Even better, they manage it quietly. Azrael crosses to the far door and listens; there's something shuffling around/pattering around out there, making odd little grunts.

The door opens in, smashing the table back; we push it back into place and the devourer hisses in frustration. Azrael's of the opinion that we should just risk the next room.

The next room looks like some kind of dining hall; there's a thing on the table. It's... not a monkey. Maybe a flesh golem? No. There's some intelligence there, and it has the look of a surgically modified undead.

Martini moves up to flank Azrael, and Geddy uses the Death Ward wand on Ruin.

Ruin sneaks up on the thing on the table, but waits until he can make a full attack. The beastie smashes in through the door, and Martini unloads her prepared attacks on him. Of her four stabbing attacks, three hit; she's basically a sewing machine, though she's not hitting terribly hard.

Azrael steps back and blasts him with a scorching ray; Martini follows up with another attack, but now that he's reacting he's a lot harder to hit. She isn't intimidated, and stabs him three times before she misses with her shortsword and stabs Azrael instead. Geddy is the only one who's still invisible, but he steps back and casts Haste, which is a badass buff.

Ruin moves back in and slams his falchion into the nasty not-golem. Meanwhile, the devourer tears his way in from the outside and licks his lips, looking at Geddy.

The in-building nasty slashes Azrael, doing strength damage and dropping him before he can cast the Fireball spell that might have saved us.

Martini steps back and turns invisible.

Geddy moves away from the devourer and drops Grease on it; Ruin attacks the nasty undead and hurts it; the devourer tries to suck out Azrael's essence, but fails as Azrael goes fully boneless-kitty in his hands. The nastybeast tries to bite Ruin but misses.

Martini moves to a flanking position on the devourer, hasted, and attacks with both weapons. Unfortunately, this thing is ridiculously tough; of the four attacks she makes, only one actually penetrates.

Geddy tries Rainbow Pattern, and fascinates them. The devourer drops Azrael on the floor. The smaller one, the nasty one, is too strong to be affected as well; but Ruin cuts him down moments later.

Martini considers the fascinated undead horror, and does her best stab the actual heck out of him. This time she gets better penetration; four of her strikes get through.

He no longer fascinated, but he is damaged... and pissed. Geddy takes the opportunity to make Helpless Azrael invisible.

The devourer devours Martini and tries to flee, but Ruin cuts it down on the way out.

This was... not an optimal outcome; we withdraw to the Boner Gallery to let Azrael recover.

On the minus side, this was not how this battle was supposed to go; on the plus side... we didn't all die?

Challenge: What To Read Next?

This is part of the weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. If you'd like to participate, you can find the prompts here. They also put up a post every Wednesday where you go and link your response -- and see everyone else's. Check out their homepage to find it.

The challenge for this week is "How I decide what to read next." 

And the only real answer is, "It depends." 

Mainly, it depends on where I am personally when I'm making the decision. It's not like when we used to go on car trips when I was younger, when I'd have a selection of discount paperbacks and it was just a matter of laying them out and starting on whatever looked most interesting; I have a Kindle, and as long as I have batteries and/or a charger, I can read nearly anything I own. 

So the question becomes something more like, "What am I in the mood for?" Is there some new book that I've been particularly looking forward to reading? (I just finished Set Fire To The Gods last night, which felt like it started a bit slow but really took off once it got going; and I'd definitely been looking forward to that for most of a week. The title alone is a whole 2020 mood, and the book lives up to it.) Alternatively, if I'm not in the mood to start something new, then the question becomes either, "What sounds comforting?" or "What have I recently remembered that I wanted to re-read before I move on?" (In this case, just before Set Fire To The Gods, I went back and re-read Trumps of Doom, which is actually book six in the Amber series; but the first five books are a set, and this one starts the next set of five. Older book, obviously, and it helps if you read the series in order, but it's fun to go back and look at how Zelazny plays with his text.) 

Sometimes, though, I want something that's kind of in the middle: I'm in the mood for something new, but not something too new. The book I read before Trumps of Doom was one I hadn't read before, but belonged to an established series by an established author, so I had a very good idea of just what sort of story I'd be getting into here. On that account, Heritage of Cyador didn't disappoint: as book 18 (of 22, so far) in the Saga of Recluse, it did a fine job of being a new story in a familiar setting. (The later books in the series explore different areas of the world at different points in its history, so while the ground rules are the same and a lot of the places mentioned are at least passingly familiar, the story stands just fine on its own.)

It's rare that I won't be feeling like anything in particular; I essentially never find myself starting a book because it happened to be the next thing on my TBR pile. What I'll read next is almost always a function of what I'm in the mood for right now.

Music: I'm not your hero

 An Animatic of The Murderbot Diaries by Mar: 

If you're not familiar with Martha Wells and The Murderbot Diaries (and, in fact, her entire backlist) already, I can only recommend them and hope you feel them as much as I do.

Youth DnD

So, for this weekend's game I pulled together a new adventure outside Roslof Keep for the party. (They requested another departure a while back, then got distracted by bringing unlikely allies into their party.) 

This one began with the approach of a tall, slender figure in a black cloak and hood, features hidden. The druid hailed the stranger - who was about nine-and-a-half feet all, and it stopped just outside of combat range. The figure then threw off its cloak, revealing the horror of...

...Three skeletons sitting on each other's shoulders. They immediately hopped down and moved to attack.

At this point, the party is fairly formidable; it doesn't take much to dispatch the skeletons. Each of the skeletons has a leather bag tied inside its ribcage. Each of the bags carries a message. The messages say: 

My dear adventurers, it is my wish to extend another opportunity to you. There is a book that I do not have in my library. There is only one copy.

(Also, you should have seen the look on your faces! Three skeletons in a cloak! Ha!)

The book is in the possession of Lord Polyphemus Estudian, its author, in the county of Farwind. I am, of course, offering a reward if you can acquire it or bring me an exact copy.

It's a quest from the Library Lich, whom one of the players describes as "a whole mood". So they settle up their current business, and head off to Farwind to take care of this. 

The group asks around enough to learn that he has a reputation as an explorer and a naturalist, and that he was made a noble by the king. There's a rumor that his house sprang up overnight, which could certainly be possible. 

So they spend some time making up cover identities and disguising themselves as a group of travelers who are definitely not a semi-famous up-and-coming banner company who might get recognized the moment they set foot in Farwind. Then they board one of the mail-barges, and make their way to the town nearest the lord's estate. 

So... I've spent a couple of hours putting together Count Farwind and the other inhabitants of his house. I've mapped it out. I've filled in decorations and items. I am ready for this break-in/heist/negotiation/whatever-they-decide-on. 

...They decide to stop at the scriptorium in town, and buy a bunch of books instead. I mean, they do learn a bit more about the Count - apparently he's just finished writing some sort of guide and hasn't had it copied yet -  but mostly? 

Book shopping. 

::sigh::

Oh, well. I suppose the manor will just have to wait until next session.

Nothing today...

I'm having another one of those weeks where I'm pushing too hard, so consequently I'm tired, so naturally I try to push harder. 

You'd think after this many years, I'd know that doesn't work. 

So, yeah, nothing really for today. 

Working from home is hellishly distracting (especially this morning), I'm losing track of time/which day of the week it is (possibly because of trying to work from home), and I really need to quit trying to do things and go to bed early (possibly with earplugs, because if I go down before everyone else they tend wake me back up by being loud). None of that is insurmountable, but it's frustrating. 

Right then: back to trying to work on the thing I've been trying to work on since 8:00 this morning.

Challenge: Earliest Memory

This is part of the weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. If you'd like to participate, you can find the prompts here. They also put up a post every Wednesday where you go and link your response -- and see everyone else's. Check out their homepage to find it.

The challenge for this week is "my earliest memory." 

Memory is a funny thing, not least because it's largely artificial and amazingly untrustworthy. My earliest memory isn't really a memory anymore: it's a memory of a memory. 

Specifically, it's the memory of me coming around the corner of the couch (a corner which was around the same height as my shoulder) at what I thought of at the time as "our old house." But it's not what I'd refer to as a "first-order memory" in that I no longer have the memory itself. It's a second-order memory: I remember it because when I was, I don't know, eight or nine years old, somebody asked me what my earliest memory was. That piece of motion -- coming around the corner of the couch in our old house, with no other context -- was what I remembered. At the time, it was a first-order memory; I actually remembered it. Now it's a second-order memory: I remember remembering it, but the image in my head is a reconstruction of the original.

Our old house had a section of stone floor; that's a first-order memory. A couple of times while we were living there my parents waxed the floor, and we couldn't go into that room until it... dried? Set? Got wiped back down? I'm not sure, but I remember having to walk across these wide wooden boards that were laid over the corner between between the hall that went back to our bedrooms and... I think a little atrium area that had a tree growing up through the middle of it, and out through a skylight. 

I definitely remember that atrium area. 

I remember that the house had eaves that I could somehow climb up to, maybe using the fence. I hung out on top of them a lot, not unlike a feral cat, though at this point I couldn't begin to tell you how often "a lot" was. I know that I was one of those children who climbed on everything but that's also been confirmed by my parents. 

And I know, because I do and don't remember it, that memory is a funny thing.