The Lays of the Thirteen Claws League - Session 95

        Here concludes the mostly accurate retrospective of the showdown with the lich, from Bert, the party's thief locksmith-turned-bard. Bert himself pulled a sicky, so that his player could try out a new character, Anubesia of Ultioch, for the fight with the lich. I give +1 character point (XP) for those players who submit a summary for me to post here on the blog. 

    The Lays of the Thirteen Claws League

Canto 9:

April is the cruellest month, so they say,

a deceiver month, hot and cold it brings

false hope of winter’s end and brighter day:

just like when the lich’s wintry mist wings

away leaving her corpse and other things

in which no sign of unlife now stirred.

Miao sets to gather the evil bones and springs

to take them in sacks to the place referred

to earlier, with no magick, to be interred.

But it was wrecked Hemmu’s turn, now, to fall

down with all her wounds, she gave up trying

to stay up:  she joined the three in the hall

     - Jenkins, Warian and Davin - lying

wounded, and brave Emberwood was dying:

battle had certainly taken its toll

Miao came: and now was no time for crying.

She searched through the monk’s things to find a scroll

which took her life force to divinely make Davin whole.

And meanwhile, Anubesia took ward

over the lich’s bones, praying; Yvor

searched for healing - in vial, bottle or gourd -

in each companion’s backpack on the floor

and when all were used, Adam had some more.

In the monk these magic nostrums took seed:

the shoots of life swelled so that, as before,

he could lay on hands in a holy deed

and heal his confreres: as demanded by his creed.

Adam was searching the magician’s den

finding magick items of great puissance:

tomes, stones, wands, scrolls, tablets, amulets: when

out of the corner of his eye, by chance

he thought he saw fallen ghouls move: a glance

said there were fewer on the floor, they’d fled

he called out: Yvor and Miao searched the manse,

together in the dark, and not yet wed,

they jointly, er, checked all the ghoulish foes were dead.

After the search, they began to focus

on the task that brought them to this carnage:

take the bones to the amagick locus

to trap the spent husk in that null cage.

So they marched once again through the sewage

to that place defined by corrosive slimes

where the just punishment for sacrilege

took place and the lichess paid for her crimes

locked in there, being slimed, until come the end times.

Then they all returned to the lich’s lair:

Anubesia built up a corpse pyre

the rest collected all the treasures there:

there was a sack shortage, but the man for hire,

Jenkins, had some more, five or six all told.

They left: Davin set the corpses to fire,

and they headed home, triumphant and bold,

with their artefacts, objects, and best of all, gold. 

So they all went straight to see the Baron

to tell of the triumph in those narrow 

files over evil, foulness, and so on.

They knew the Baron would not endow

them with wealth for the work they’d done and how

they did it: they were met by the captain

Enraged Hemmu cried out: “Who too small now?

I killed lich!” The captain had to retain

her calm: asked the party, for a while, to remain.

When the Baron came, Yvor told the tale

and revealed he had another motive

to be there: he and Miao wanted to avail

on the good Baron, asking him to give

his blessing on their marriage so they’d live

long together: he grinned ear to ear

and indicated he was permissive:

and also allowed them to take a year

to go to Miao’s home, the March of Felindia.

Coda:

To add a little at the end, I think

is traditional,  that night I quit my bed

and met with Hemmu, for little drink.

“I’ll tell you, young Bert, the whole tale” she said

“Of how we fought an army of undead.”

So I listened hard, and I listened long

And had another drink (she insisted -

I may have got fuddled, the ale was strong)

but I swear, word for word what she said made my song.

End of Book 1.