Bread and Circuses

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This adventure takes place on the plane of Iska in the Mithrian Portal system.

Summary

Adventure: Bread and Circuses
GM: Helen Saggers
Session: Summer 809 wk
Night: Mondays
Location Bernards place in Ellerslie.
Level: Medium

Party:

• Grizelda - Wicca - Giant
• Aqualina - Water - Human
• Sau Rus - Necromancer - Human
• Sooty - Thingy Mage. - Elf
• Menolly - Earth - Elf
• Lizette - Namer - Human

Employer:
Hammād ibn Rašīd
Mission:
Find out why no grain ships are arriving in the capitol.
Pay:
15 lbs of gold for the party, plus... to be negotiated with employer.

Scribe Notes

The party

• Menolly – blond female elven pacifistic Earth Mage and her two canine pets (the monkey apparently got killed)
• Sauros – weedy human male cartographer, linguist and Necromancer (party leader)
• Aqualina – short dusky-skinned human Water Mage, wearing only a length of fabric (two lengths thank you - A)
• Grizelda – female giant Wiccan mage, and Master Chef (scribe)
• Sooty – elven male Fire mage (military scientist)
• Lizette – pretty red-headed human Namer, known to be the blondest redhead on Alusia

1st Meadow 808

After the Guild Meeting we gathered in the green meeting room (it seems that Guild Security have chosen to redecorate - again). The young man who is our employer was our employee last summer – our translator, Hammād ibn Rašīd, the grain merchant’s son.

Apparently, grain shipments had been failing to arrive for some time. The ships went up the Slaver’s River, and did not come back. Now, the granaries were getting low. Which means that people in the city would soon begin to starve. For solving this problem we would receive 15lbs of gold, plus salvage. Hammād has been at the Guild and is now a beginning Air Mage.

Sau Rus offered to make us pigeon wings so we can fly. This will make getting around much easier, and only Aqualina did not seem to like the idea. It is more of a problem that we cannot wear armour with them (at least I had something I could use - A). We organised party leader, military scientist and scribe, and arranged to meet when everyone had sorted out greater enchantments and such like. Menolly wanted to go down to Slippery Rock to get some skin change pelts. I wonder if I should learn that spell.

  Lizette: “Does anyone else resurrect?”
  Sau Rus: “I can get them up again, but people refuse to call it resurrection.”

3rd Meadow 808

It was after breakfast on the third day when we finally got started. We took the Khoras delegation’s portal to the Sea of Grass, then we used the Pasifican Portal system to go to Pasifika. We flew to the Trading Post, and found it to be much more fortified than it had been. Aqualina left a message there, for her tribe. We then flew to the portal to Paleolithica, went through, and then flew to the island where the portal to Frigidia lies. There we camped. Aqualina caught some eels, and I fried them up with some roots. Sooty said the most peculiar things, and then had a headache.

  Lizette: “We can stop the pain and then resurrect you later.”

Watch Order:

1. Lizette, Sauros
2. Grizelda, Menolly
3. Aqualina, Sooty

4th Meadow 808

After we purified, Menolly made Armours of Earth and Strength of Stone on Aqualina and I, who volunteered as front row. Sooty cast something to protect us against the cold. I made them restoratives. Thus prepared we went through the portal and into the cold of Frigidia. To make matters worse the glacier had moved, and there was ice blocking the way. Sooty contrived to bind the ice and move it aside, muttering, “My ice, my ice…” He really has lost it.

We went directly west, until we hit the wall, and then turned south, until we found the tunnel. I wondered aloud what kind of a Power the people of this offended to bring this Ragnarok upon them. Sooty explained that in fact there are four sleeping dragons here – and they need to be disturbed to take away the eternal winter. We went past a big circular portal, to the right, and up the cliff (I slipped, but was not hurt). Then through a tunnel and so to the bridge – the jungle-like rope bridge which does not look like it belongs here. Sooty cut off the cowbell, and dropped it into the chasm. It becomes evident that Aqualina does not like heights. (Evident? I told you right from the start - A) There was more narrow tunnel, and finally a red rock cavern with a building. We went inside, and Sooty incanted to great Mithros.

It was cold and dry one moment, then hot and humid the next. We were in a jungle, and had safely arrived on the plane of Iska. We took flight, looking for the great wide river we called the Slavers River. Finding it, we flew upriver until we found a village. Picking a large field, we landed… to find ourselves in a field of cut sugar cane.

We went through the field towards the village as Hammad wanted to talk to his cousin. He, his cousin that is, had been watching the river to see if any ships were going past. When we got there we found a man, with skin much darker than Aqualina, on the roof with a spyglass. Hammad spoke to him in the native language, something similar to Aribie, and discovered that no grain ships had been through. The situation was indeed getting desperate as local stores around the coast had been utilised to keep the capital city going and those stocks were getting exhausted too. No grain meant no flour, no flour meant no bread. Also, and this might be worse to some people, no grain meant no beer.

One hundred miles up the river was another village and it was known that ships had got that far and returned. However, any attempts to go further had caused disappearances. And it wasn't confined to ships. Even land based travel going up there had resulted in disappearances.

We were able to find out that, up the river from the village at the 100 mile mark, the river split in two. The left branch went into the forest but the right went past the immense grain fields. The plan so far is to fly up river a bit then we utilise every scrying method we had to try and find out what has been going on.

It was just after noon so, while Sau Rus and Menolly settled down to scry and map for a couple of hours, Aqualina and I went fishing and came back with some flat fish. After that, we flew off and went looking for the slavers we had encountered. Sure enough, we found their boat parked at the end of the jetty in the reeds near the palm trees. The better fliers landed on the jetty while the rest of us landed on the pond (Lizette was aiming for the jetty, got her line of approach wrong and ended up in the muck - A).

After drying off, we walked to the gate in the outer edge which Aqualina was able to open. Inside were fields, and in the distance we could see workers. The dogs started barking and Sotty called out to announce our arrival.

Eventually some people came out, the thin human we had met before, along with some guards with crossbows. They have had no problems with losing ships but they don't go past the large town. Some of their friends go further but they use the north fork. So the problem is upriver of the fork on the south branch. There are rumours in the large toen of a lack of trade from the south branch.

We left, and headed for the town. Landing on the road, we walked into the town. There was a ditch and a bank - and a gate. As we entered we got stared at and the children hid. Most likely the wings.

We headed for the docks where the inns are and chose the better of the two, one one that doesn't smell as bad. No boats, so no travellers, so we're the only customers. This inn has good stairs so I sleep upstairs on multiple pallets. Lizette gets into warm water while Sooty freezes a mug of ice. It steams, then freezes a stone which fractures into many pieces. There is good fried fish and bad cabbage for dinner. We sleep, we watch, we sleep.

5th Meadow

(White Lotus Day)

We had pottage for breakfast, made preparations, and used the crystal balls to map some more. We spotted one more village on the other bank about halfway to the fork and a larger town on the fork itself.

We fly to Forktown , a couple of miles up the northern fork. After landing Sau Rus countered the wings of Iben and Aqualina and they went into the town (after I changed into the krakenskin armour - A). They learnt that boats that don't go as far as the first village come back, those that go further don't. People have come from there seeking help We have parrot for dinner then Aqualina and Iben get parrot wings (so it was back to the two piece and sash - and I'd like to see Lizette carry off this look - A).

6th Meadow

In the morning we use the crystal balls to look at the river just before the second village, about 30-40 miles from Fork Town up the south fork, and we see a line of something across the river. Looking closer we see a line of boats roped together across the river - an obvious blockade. At each end there was a camp of about ten tents, occupied by military looking types. Looking at the second village itself we observed a shanty town, full of people doing not much.

The plan was to fly further up and land somewhere between the first and second village. That would bring us closer to the ship bridge Menolly seemed rather keen on the flying bit. Apparently she wants to learn to fly rather well so she can teach her dogs to fly. Upon hearing that, Aqualina made some sort of comment on flying pigs ... which lead into a discussion of magically enlarged flying war boars.

About mid morning, we flapped into the air and headed for the designated point. It was decided to land in the river. The river banks were lined with trees and yond that were thorns on wasteland. The river itself, near the banks, was covered with reeds. I landed first, in an area near the reeds .. with a big splosh and deeper than I thought. So I splashed my way to shore (assisted by a buoyancy - A). Aqualina went for a deeper area of the river and stayed in the river until everyone else was down.

While I went fishing for crabs and crayfish, Aqualina summoned a water elemental and sent it up the river to check out the area under the ship bridge. Lizette and Menolly set up camp while Sau Rus and Sooty watched for crocodiles. All I managed to catch were small crayfish ... reminded me of yabbies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_yabby).

The elemental returned and reported that it had found the boats tied together and a lot of bad stuff .. a kind of dead slug stuff (something like sea cucumber slime? - A). Magic had been involved in its creation but it was native to this plane. And it was poisonous, as Menolly determined. This stuff, according to Lizette's divination, was the exudate of a giant slug, a poison becoming more poisonous as time went on - and we had been swimming in it. Aqualina was poisoned and, since Waters of Healing didn't work, but Sooty was able to cure it with Healer skills (I had been bracing myself for a Cleansing Flame - A) so that told us it was a low ranked artificial poison.

Sau Rus used a crystal ball to divine the future if we decide not to intervene and it wasn't good. Dead cows and bits of boat floating in the river and the forest burning in the background.

That evening, I made stew from our rations and settled down to read the runes:

• What is the relationship between the slugs and the guards? - A futile effort to stop their spreading.
• What was the purpose of the slugs? - To create an army
• What was the intended purpose of the army of slugs? - To bring joy, prosperity, sunshine, and wealth

The answers seemed to indicate that the guards were there to try and contain the poison but Sooty (and I agree - A) thought it was rather odd. Why hadn't warnings been sent out then?

(While she was doing this, I was keeping watch up a tree ... which led Sau Rus to comment that I was 'roosting'. - A)

7th Meadow

Night passed - and it was gruel for breakfast. The cartographers did their thing and discovered that the grain fields were just fifty miles further up the river. The village was somewhere between deserted and abandoned and the grain fields were planted but untended, especially since there were cows in there just wandering about. That was enough to get us flying there to investigate. As we approached, Sau Rus detected some undead under a house.

We landed. Aqualina did so in a cowpat. (I faceplanted in a cowpat - maybe I'd better sign up for more flying lessons at the Guild - A). There were dead bodies about, dead from days to weeks, some of poisoning, most of dehydration. The undead are a bunch of sombies in a house. As a safety precaution, when I let them out for Sau Rus to control, the rest of the party took to the air. To our surprise, they turned out to be zombie dogs. Sau Rus controlled them and the rest of the party came down (In a second cowpat - A).

The zombie dogs had been made by magic weeks ago, specifically by an uncolleged ritual called "Create Zombie - for the Greater Goblin God" by a goblin. They had been inside a hut with a two doors on opposing sizes. Sooty's theory was that the dogs had chased a villager inside the hut through one door then, as the villager ran out the opposite door, both sets had been slammed shut, trapping the dogs inside. Scratch marks on the inside of the doors and other evidence made this theory plausible.

Aqualina summonded a water elemental and sent it up and down river. Meanwhile Lizette was left alone with three zombie dogs to divinate them. They had been zombified four weeks ago. Menolly examined the cows and discovered that 'they were a little bit poisoned'.

The water elemental reported that the slime was thicker upriver. It hadn't seen any actual slugs but it had only gone 10-15 miles. The slime wasn't affecting the elemental but it was just 'icky'. Meanwhile Sooty chopped up the zombie dogs. Also we determined that there were 70 people missing from the village.