These events continue from the TWENTY-FIRST session. The real world session took place on Saturday 5th December on the Atelier Hwei Discord. Today is the 8th 14th December and this is my 8th tenth blogpost this month, 8 GOLD RINGS FOUR POSTS BEHIND!
- Eugene https://twitter.com/eakiselev as Mercifully-Wasted-from-the-Tribe
- Mister Kent https://twitter.com/MrKentKomiks as Beautiful Other-far-from-the-Lake
- Oisín https://twitter.com/OisinoftheHill playing as Over-Hollow-Hills-Flies-the-Cuckoo
- Semiurge http://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/ playing as Mortally-Garnished-of-the-Fallen
Fallen-far-from-the-Wind and Fleet Snailwife were NPCed.
To find out more about PARIAH please read this post:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/p/pariah-proto-neolithc-psychedelic.html
DAY 24, CROW MOON FINAL QUARTER (continued)
The party had been surrounded (or so they were led to believe) by a group of (somewhat short) local hunters. Garnish was badly injured and, during negotiations led by Fallen they had been unable to secure anything beyond an uneasy truce: the locals told the pariahs they were not welcome on the island, nor near their village, until they had gotten rid of the "strange boy" from the mainland.
They also learned that the islanders considered the "Eagle-Witches" to be pitiful wretches, pathetic victims of an ancient curse... while also stating that they were to be avoided.
It was a poor outcome but better than a full-on fight, so the remaining pariahs allowed the hunters to disappear back into the foliage and retrace their steps, taking Garnish with them. One piece of information that came to light was the fact that the boy from the mainland always returned to his camp at the beach by sundown. They would find a place to hard, get Garnish to safety, and stake out the beach.
Dead Caves
The path they had followed to the clearing had been somewhat uphill, though between two higher points. They followed it back down to the beach and made their way to where they had first picked up the boys trail.
The high-hills around the beach sometimes didn't grade down to the beach quite so gently, and several rocky outcrops or small cliffs lined the perimeter. Also visible were multiple large holes in these cliffs at irregular intervals.
Investigating one such cave mouth, they were greeted by a simple shrine consisting of a boar's skull painted in black and red geometric patterns. Mercifully Wasted heard the mocking sound of wideawake bird fly by and yell "GRAVEROBBER!".
Taking a breath and then expelling it from their body along with their soul, Cuckoo's spirit ventured into the dark. They felt only a hint of melancholy.
They placed a piece of dried meat. As a votive offering and ventured inside.
The cave mouth was about 7-8 feet high, but the ceiling dropped sharply as it went deeper. It was dark, but the pariahs decided to remain at the front of the cave and wait for this "boy" to return. In the meantime, MW and Cuckoo decided to go exploring. Beautiful Other gave them her flute to use as a warning signal.
As the pair of pariahs further explore the coastline, they happened upon a similar cave with a similar pig-skull shrine. Electing not to explore the cave but instead follow the cliff-face, they came upon a third shrine, though this one was fashioned from a different skull:
...that of a turtle. Otherwise, the shrine was constructed in an identical fashion.
The pair decided to turn around, but this time to trace a route along the top of the cliffs, on the jungle edge, ultimately dropping themselves back down to beach level once they returned to the cave.
Ambush
"His name is "Swims-Like-Dolphin, Thinks-Like-Fish"
Beautiful Other suggested ensnaring him in some kind of trap, as they knew that he'd make his way back to the campfire by sunset (or so the islanders had told them). Eventually they settled on digging a pit about 5 feet deep in the sand, lining it with vines to both entangle and soften the landing, then cover it with a net and leaves and sand to hide it.
A figure came into view, tall and slender, carrying a spear over their shoulder upon which two fish were impaled. Two sacks were tied to their belt. They were oblivious to the fate awaiting them, and fell into the pit.
A Dolphin, Interrupted
- Dolphin came to the island voluntarily.
- The coracle belonged to his family: since the death of his father, he has travelled up and down the coast unsupervised.
- His mother moved to Etau's settlement when he was young.
- Dolphin owes a knife made of star metal.
- He came to the island a week or two ago to dive for pearls, of which he has many.
- He sleeps on the beach because this is where the islanders bury their dead:they are afraid to come here, but he is not worried by dead people.
- Whenever questioned about the Eagle-Witches, he grew confused.
- Dolphin seems to disrespect shaman, spirits and tradition.
- Dolphin claims to have visited a great settlement known as "the city" wherein dwells a "king" and a "priest".
- He believes he can trade the pearls for gold, which is highly valued in the city. With enough gold he can claim king-ship.
- He can get aggressive when the wisdom of his plans is questioned.
As night drew in and Dolphin happily shared his harvest of oysters, the pariahs plotted various ways by which they might extract information from him. They felt for certain that he was hiding something from them, but were also wary of scaring him away. They had 3options:
- Beautiful Other to use her charm and charisma to obtain the truth.
- Mercifully Wasted uses his imposing physical presence to intimidate it out of him.
- Failing that, Cuckoo will use their bonded spell-spirit of Dusk to extract the information from Dolphin magically.
- Good cop.
- Bad cop.
- Ghost cop.
Good Cop
Bad Cop
Ghost Cop
DAY 25, CROW MOON FINAL QUARTER
Dolphin pulled himself up onto a rock, clear of the water. A rope was tied to his waist, secured at an unseen point. He carried his sack with him. He appeared to disappear into the cliff.
"She'd like that, she'd want that..." said a weak voice in the dark to Dolphin.
She returned and reported her findings.
Knowing that it was dark they fashioned very crude torches from the driftwood they had gathered two days ago. The plan was to wait for Dolphin to emerge, but something drew them deep into the darkness.
(SPOILER: what drew them in was the GM not really understanding that they wanted to wait for Dolphin and was mad-keen for them to meet what was lurking at the back)
Zhao, Eagle-Witch
The creature declared that her name was Zhao, that Dolphin was a good boy for helping her, and that she was probably beyond the limits of their healing capabilities.
The pariahs returned to the mouth of the cave and waited for Dolphin. As before, he was reluctant to explain himself fully, but seemed to believe they understood the purpose of his mission, that somehow caring for the wounded harpy and gathering pearls from the sea were intertwined with his mission to become "the king".
Against the roar of the raging sea he implored the pariahs to listen to Zhao's song, to embrace its beauty, and follow it to its source... follow it to her...
"Or follow your heart," he said, smiling, cocking one ear to the cave on his left.
The only sound the pariahs could hear was a pathetic, wounded groan, as of a dying bird.
By Mr Kent https://twitter.com/MrKentKomiks |
The campaign continues at https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2020/12/pariah-etau-campaign-session-23-high.html
Purchase the digitally printed edition of PARIAH VOL 1 at Soulmuppet:
https://soulmuppet-store.co.uk/products/pariah-volume-1
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/pariah-art-free
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