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.

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