Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 6 – Dogskull and Deals

Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

Severi has started to guide the group towards the bandit cache he has told the group about, stopping only to make sure that Unit Seven is with them. Trapper smacks Unit Seven into the proper equivalence of consciousness and Rhum tells him that they’ve found a way to entice the bandits and oathbreakers into action. Trapper tells him to get up, they’re performing civil forfeiture. Listens calls for Myrk, who pops in complaining that he was right in the middle of someone. The spirit from the other day hasn’t affected Myrk due to his absence, though Myrk is also quite excited about getting to go on an adventure and crawls onto Listen’s shoulder.

The Road to the Stash

Listens-to-Ocean, Rhum, Trapper, and Unit 7
The Northroad to Ironhaul
Metalsday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 6th hour of the Sun
Outside of Wolftrap, Western Span

While travelling, Listens chastises Rhum about making deals with criminals while Rhum attempts to object, saying he believes that the boy was being used by the others. Listens still overrides him by rank, telling him, still, not to make deals with criminals without authorization. The weather is fairly overcast and Trapper spends time reworking the grips on the crystal knife to get something closer to his hand size as they hike along. Taking about seven hours to the spot where Severi informs us where the hidden cache is. The path progressively gets tighter and narrower like not many people come that way and it feels like something is watching them with curiosity.

It doesn’t feel hostile at least, but Myrk says that there’s really old spirits present. Really old and really grumpy. Listens wants to do an appeasement ritual while they’re still only a mile out, according to Severi at least. The boy directs the group down the road and towards a cave. There’s a fork, one goes to a cave and one towards Ironhaul. The boy points out that the road used to be paved and pulls out a knife from somewhere despite having been disarmed and strip searched, scraping the ground to reveal paving stones underneath the dirt. Rhum widens the hole. Listens demands that Rhum confiscates the knife despite Severi’s protests about how he’s supposed to protect himself, the knife is handed over to Seven who decides to attach it to his harness. Seven gives the kid a comment that if anyone gets past him and the taura, then the knife won’t help him. Rhum covers the road back up while Listens says something about spirits in the area.

Snakes. Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

Listens-to-Ocean, Rhum, Trapperm and Unit 7
The Northroad to Ironhaul
Metalsday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 9th hour of the Sun
Outside of Wolftrap, Western Span

The further they get into where they’re going, the path closes in closer and closer before opening up in some thickets of trees and bushes, barely able to discern themselves as still being on the road. They see a large rock outcropping and a cave. Severi warns them that there’s a guardian though, some kind of mage beast guarding things but it should be asleep. Trapper is requested to scout ahead, slipping into stealth, starting to check for traps and checking out the general atmosphere moving away from the group. Rhum, Listens, and Seven hears an odd sound of something rustling against the leaves, getting closer and it sounds like a snake. They see the foliage bend out of the way as it appears before them. An extremely large, five headed snake, each head a different color. Listens is pretty sure that whatever it is, it is some kind of life-forged creature that wasn’t put together all too well. It seems like it’s compensating for an innate physical disability.

However there’s something in its gaze that nearly dazes everyone, with Rhum and Unit Seven being affected by it, being held in a daze that Listens snaps them out of. Trapper pays attention to it, looking to see that it’s got some kind of balancing issue like inner ear trouble. It makes a mad dash towards the group. Seven steps forwards to put himself between the Magistrate and the Snake. Trapper tries to throw a clockwork grenade at it, only for the snake to shoot it out of the air with a gaze from its eyes, it’s now less interested in the four in front of it. Listens calls forth the mists, providing vision hindrances to everyone. Severi starts crying out that he needs a knife to defend himself, Rhum drops one of his small axes for the boy to use before charging towards the snake, slashing at its torso, taking a hunk out of it.

It attacks Rhum, who dodges the blow. Tries to use a fiery gaze on Trapper, but misses as he’s in the thicket with cover, and Unit Seven parries a third attack before throwing a spear at the green head from the mists, nailing it in the forehead that makes it look really really ticked off. The Servant of Bones charges forwards and tries to climb onto the snake. Trapper fires a cannister at the face, the black one, that fired a laser into the thicket, knocking the snake off balance but doing no other damage. Listens attempts to activate an echo for elemental blast, but fails. Rhum, meantime, hacks at the neck of the green head’s but gets it at the trunk where it manages to get through 4 out of 5 necks.

The snake is still off balance from Trapper’s shot allowing Unit Seven to step forward and draw another spear, thrusting it into the remaining, black face’s, eyes. Getting both of them into the eyes. It lets out a wail, freaking out as the blood spatters all over the place. They can see the blood spurting slowly stopping as the heart ceases. The heads explode into goo and ichor, tiny snakes of multiple colors and single heads run away. The ground starts to look really rather poorly, like it’s melting the ground. Unit Seven manages to get its spears back, albeit with a bit of pitting and damage. Listens steps forwards, managing to purify the ground with his songshaping while Rhum gets the axe back from Severi, who though reluctant cooperates with them.

Severi, looking around, says that Dogskull is going to be pissed. Mentioning that Dogskull controlled it somehow, though not making it. Severi is making sure that Rhum will keep the deal, and Rhum says he’ll try, as long as Listens doesn’t order him otherwise. Severi looks at Listens who remains silent. When Rhum says that they shouldn’t dawdle, Listens says he’s waiting for the report on the cave which Rhum grumbles about and storms towards since he doesn’t want to wait.

Trapper comes back informing them the cave is full of a bunch of junk and crates and cartons and smells overwhelmingly like snakes. Rhum follows Severi into the cave along with Listens who wants to see what the boy wants first. He’s rummaging through things looking for it, saying that he saw them put it in there. He claims it’s something precious to him, not describing what it was. He starts going through things randomly, crying out eventually that it’s not there.

Trapper, annoyed by the boy, checks for the boy’s scent on any of the items in there, eventually finding a leather pouch with runes on it that’s also empty, almost recently empty too. Listens, Trapper, and Unit Seven recognize the symbol magic of songshaping as the runes, the literal, physical representation of sounds, the symbols don’t look like they originally belong on the leather bag, like they came from elsewhere and was stitched onto it. Severi looks absolutely crestfallen at the absence of the item in the pouch. Rhum starts scooting the useless stuff into a pile while Listens searches for the crystal that Rhum wants. He manages to find it easily, along with 70 lbs of semi-valuable items like jewelry and old and worn coins. Trapper, poking around, discovers another false wall. Some kind of, mechanism into the floor that looks carved from stone but looks like manmade marks. The stone has marks of being able to open, so Trapper recruits one of them to open the wall, Rhum volunteering and walking over with his crowbar to pry it open with ease.

They hear clicks and clacks and then something moving. Inside is a cave that goes downwards, the air stale like it hasn’t been opened in a long time and the dirt and dust inside undisturbed. Trapper notes that there’s no flickering of Rhum’s torch meaning it’s likely a dead end before he moves inside, slowly. Checking for traps. There’s a set of stairs leading downwards almost ten feet inside, normal sized stairs about 1.5ft on each stair. It’s a spiral downwards that doesn’t last for long at a pace of about a yard per second, they take about half a minute to get down to find a large circular door. There’s a specific pattern in a geometric shape, a common pattern: The Ascendance of the Notes and the door itself looks like a spinnable surface and each of the notes is capable of being manipulated. The notes themselves are out of order. Listens, through testing, figures out it’s not in the order of Ascendance, but in the order of the births of the Warborn. Upon hitting it, there’s a deep vibration and then it slides open.

Inside is a large half-globe room that’s about 30 feet in diameter full of dust and stuff. In the center is a pedestal with a large spherical crystal. Around the edges are random chests, armor, rotted items. Almost like a storeroom in a warehouse. Listens approaches the crystal that seems to be some form of kani crystal on a very dusty pedestal with three arcing spires holding it inside the pedestal. Rhum looks at the chests, they’re made from wood and metal but they’re covered with debris. There’s no hasp, so Rhum attempts to pry it open with his crowbar to no avail. Rhum calls it a reliquary, and Myrk says that it’s hidden even from his sight, isolated inside and out. There’s discussion about leaving the room alone while Trapper, behind everyone, starts wiping the dust from the crystal in the center.

Trapper, messing with the crystal, starts glowing. Lightly at first, and then a slight humming as it starts to visibly vibrate. Listens, noticing what Trapper is doing, knows that the humming is a very specific C note that resonates with the Spirit vibrations. Looking into the spirit realm, Listens notes that what Myrk said is right and he cannot see past the door above, it’s an isolated space. Inside of the orb, they see the exterior of the area they were at, looking downwards from above. Listens touches the orb and thinks of the town nearby, looking at Wolftrap as though they were looking from above. Listens tries to think of the bandit village to no avail, then tries to think moving westward but it doesn’t work that way. Trapper tries to demand that Severi touch the orb and think of Dogskull, but he refuses completely and seemingly no one else wants to force him to do so.

Rhum and Unit Seven starts hauling treasure chests things up the stairs before stopping, Rhum reaches out to the crystal and tries to think telling it that it’ll be safe with them. There’s no intelligence in there that they can sense and it doesn’t come to his hand. He walks over to the pedestal and picks it up manually and hands it over to Listens, saying they shouldn’t leave it there. Listens checks to see if it still works and then shoves it in his bag, claiming that it’ll be the Duke’s property, useful in surveillance. Listens directs the heavy lifters to move the larger chests upstairs while he and Trapper move and search the smaller items for anything useful, sorting items out while Rhum builds a method of conveyance for the items they’ve gotten. Before leaving, Trapper has Unit Seven mostly set the false wall back up and then rigs up some clockwork claymores and grenades inside it for anyone entering it.

The Restoration of the Shrine of Grandmother Foond

Listens-to-Ocean, Rhum, Trapper, and Unit 7
At the Kettunnun Steading
Metalsday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 2nd hour of the Moon
Wolftrap, Western Span

On the way back, they head for the farm steading as it’s closer than Wolftrap. Listens investigates the crystal as they walk, but he has no idea about it. When they get there, they see the matron in the farm trying to get something to grow, trying to work the land. It looks like there should have been a mule or something but she’s instead plowing it by hand. She questions if they’re there to tell her that they couldn’t find the crystal and shows her it before handing it to Rhum. He thanks the magistrate and they can see the hard, capable, stubborn woman try not to start crying but she does, clearing streaks of dirt from her face. Rhum nods to the woman solemnly and heads towards the shrine. It starts to glow a green color and that’s where he notices that there’s pieces of wood adhered to the bottom of the crystal. He carefully sets it into the shrine.

The old woman forms again from the tree, taking the crystal carefully before taking Rhum’s hand, healing it. It touches the lock of hair where the Rhum had cut the braid that he offered and it grows back green. Rhum declares that the ones that stole the crystals and desecrated the shrine hasn’t been punished yet though. The spirit reaches up and breaks off a stick from the tree, visibly in pain, an unusual thing for a spirit. It hands the stick to Rhum and tells him to finish it. The tree then begins to glow green and motes of power fly from it, landing in the field and on the trees, the farmland growing green and verdant again as crops start to grow. Rhum interprets the spirit’s words as finding the people responsible and punishing them as he inspects the branch. The farmer tells them they must stay the night, and, upon seeing Severi, grudgingly says she’ll feed them as well. Listens speaks with the spirit, telling it that if they note any more efforts to desecrate the shrine or the land then to send a line to him. The spirit agrees and retreats back into the tree where it pulses and emits green witchlight.

She gives them some watery gruel/soup for dinner whereupon Listens gives her several gold pieces, explaining that it’s wergild for the damages from the bandits. She reluctantly accepts it. Seven suggests restraining Severi, who responds that he really doesn’t like Unit Seven. Overnight their wounds heal and they wake up after nearly twice the normal amount of time. Outside everything is overrun by immense greenery, several feet tall. Rhum looks for the matron farmer who can be found in the fields sobbing, telling him that she’s grieving. He tries not to disturb her anymore as he walks away, noticing that the overgrowth tends to move out of his way as he walks through the plants.

Aftermath

They head back towards the constabulary, rolling their makeshift cart behind them. They arrive back, it doesn’t look like it has changed much as they arrive almost two hours before midday. They check the prisoners are still alive and then check Tessikai who looks like she’s going out of her mind with boredom. Listens disbands them after the unload their loot into the second room in the cellar. Rhum goes to the inn.

Unit Seven goes to check on the training of the militia members who have been emptying the Imperial Cache in between emergency plans and training, Unit Seven also visits the Bone Carver, currently sitting on an old ruined statue on the edge of the town. The bonecarver notes that Seven is back and asks if it brought any more trinkets, to which Unit Seven asked if he missed any occasions that required gift giving. The Bonecarver notes that they just like shiny things. Unit Seven notes that they’ve been experiencing some disfunctions to which the bonecarver notes it may be due to its split soul, something they’re quite certain of. Offering to show the soul to Unit Seven, covering its eyes and now it sees itself in the second person via the bonecarver’s perception. They look down, showing Unit Seven their soul, looking at their hand with an unusually coloured pulse that moves in time with their breathing and heartbeat. Unit Seven’s soul doesn’t look like that at all, instead it looks like shards of differently colored glass that had been shoved together and told to be one thing. Something that most cog units don’t have, not even remotely. Unit Seven notes that it may cause disassembly if it’s discovered, to which the bonecarver offers to hide it. The bonecarver notes they’ve got a job to deal with in Ironhaul, multiple days away. Unit Seven asks to keep their condition silent to which the Bonecarver agrees before they walk away down the road. They also had left a series of scrolls for Trapper to learn up on bonecarving.

After Action Report (GM)

Another really great session where we saw a lot of momentum into the things that had happened in previous episodes. I got to make up for the previous session leaving Rory out a bit. I also got to run the first combat with non-human foes. That was good…except for the stupid lucky rolls by Curtis with Rhum. I found out later that I had severely misremembered the rule for dismemberment in GURPS Martial Arts. Guess I’m going to need to create a technique or power-up that does what I described Rhum doing. Heh. The GM is not perfect. Flee! Flee for your lives.

I must say that I am annoyed that the PCs found the secret cache within the bandit stash. That was meant to show up LATER. Alas, I am a GM of my word. I fudge no dice and the roll is the roll. So they got in their before I wanted. Okay, that’s fine. No big deal. It’ll take them forever to figure out how to open the “chests” . . .oh. No. That neither. Okay! Great! *sweats* I guess I can figure out what’s in there . . . And this is why GMs have to take anti-acids even with the best of players.

Next session is gonna be fun on the bun.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“Crawling King Snake” by The Doors

Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 8 – A Tree Grows In Wolftrap