DF Khoramandu Sea, Sessions 104 and 105 - Deep Night and the Star

     The last two sessions were without any combat, and were heavy on the roleplay. This is the start of our playing of DF Adventure 3: Deep Night and the Star. Best avoid it if you don't want spoilers.

Session Dates:    Thursday 23 and 30 September 2021

Party roster:

Miao Miao, cat-folk swashbuckler, 525 points (PC)

- Jenkins, human servant, 249 points (NPC Ally)

- Father Warian, human priest, 261 points (NPC Ally)

- Alacus, human slinger, ~62 points (NPC volunteer)
Sir Yvor Gryffyn, human knight, 450 points (PC)

- Manuta, human sergeant, 177 points (NPC Ally)

Childerbert "Bert" Ingoberger, halfling thief-bard, 415 points (PC)

Hemmu Gahrol, half-orc knight, 385 points (PC)

- Guurtsnik, goblin messenger, unknown points (NPC volunteer)

Adam Aesalor, half-orc wizard, 349 points (PC)

We resumed in Phessio, with the party staying at the Salty Knave inn. It was the middle of the night, and the body of a serving girl had just been discovered in the common room...

    The party checked the body and found that the serving girl had no obvious cause of death. Miao talked to the innkeeper and his wife and they confirmed that the inn was still sealed shut and the doors barred. At first the group suspected the murderer might be still in the building, but the party and their companions were the only patrons staying at the inn.

    Yvor guessed this was an attack by vampire or other supernatural creature. He wanted to cut the body to check if it is still bleeding, but Father Warian forbade this. Warian did agree that Sir Yvor was right to suspect an unnatural cause of death, but that did not warrant mutilating the body. Warian performed last rites.

    Miao did her best to calm the innkeeper and his wife, as they were in a state of shock. Miao learned that girl's name was Suzia, and her closest relative in the city was her aunt. Miao offered to be the one to break the terrible news to the aunt, and the couple readily agreed.

    Meanwhile Bert, having climbed out the window, approached a group of townspeople in the street nearby, to find them gathered near another dead body. Bert talked to the group and found out from them that they did not know the identity of this dead woman. The townsfolk explained that they heard noise, and found the woman already dead. Someone had gone for the city watch, and they were waiting for them to arrive.

    Bert checked the body and found no obvious cause of death. While looking for clues, he found an almost-empty coin purse and two knives concealed in different places on the woman's body. Bert surreptitiously palmed the purse, but he left the knives. He found no other clue. Bert snuck away before he could be questioned by the watch.

    Yvor hollered for the watch to come to the inn, which they soon did. The party learned that this was not the first attack, that there had been several, starting a few nights ago.

    Miao knew that Sir Yvor would want to deal with this new threat, but they had already made a promise. She spoke to her fiancé to remind him that the party needed to stick to their existing commitment. Someone else in the city would have to address this new problem, not them.

---

    In the morning, Sir Yvor and Hemmu escorted Maggio and Sir Glorm on the last stage of their journey to deliver their cargo. Meanwhile Miao went to visit Suzia's aunt and tell her the bad news. Bert again disappeared to make his own enquiries.

Outside the house of Lord Sarrius, Maggio and Yvor exchanged pleasantries and bade farewell to each other. After this they would be parting ways, with Maggio and Glorm returning to Tyrvo, and the PCs heading to the borderlands to honour their promise to help Guurtsnik and his tribe. Maggio entered the house, with Sir Glorm behind him carrying the chest which they had been transporting.

    Yvor decided to wait outside for Maggio to return, before he considered his duty completed. They had not been waiting very long when a guard came out, confirmed the knight's identity, and ushered him and Hemmu inside. Lord Sarrius thanked the two and he explained that he had heard of their recent victory against a lich beneath Marsh Hall. Sarrius told Sir Yvor that the supernatural attacks in the capital seemed to be increasing, and that the city and the kingdom, was in need of his service. The two PCs were fairly subdued, mindful of their existing commitment. Lord Sarrius mentioned the King, no doubt knowing that Sir Yvor would be unable to refuse to help. There were questions as to the nature of the threat, however Sarrius was unable to give details. The lord said that he would send for Okoe Ndudi, a sage who had not long come to the city, and who could best advise upon the nature of this threat.

    After leaving the house of Lord Sarrius, Hemmu and Yvor did not return immediately to the Salty Knave. Instead they went in search of a replacement shield for Hemmu, having been given the location of a good armourer's shop by one of Sarrius's guards. The shop had the largest selection of weapons and armour in one place that either PC had ever seen. For now Hemmu bought only an all-metal large shield*, but they made a note to return later.

    Bert spent most of the day on the streets, and heard vague rumours of the night attacks. No-one knew what it was, but one victim who survived apparently reported being attacked by the darkness.

    Miao visited the aunt to deliver the tragic news of her niece at the inn. After that Miao changed her mind. She returned to the Salty Knave prepared to convince her fiancé to delay their plans once again.

---

    The PCs (except Bert) had returned to the inn to find a messenger waiting for Sir Yvor, to bring him and his companions back to the house of Lord Sarrius. Sage Ndudi was waiting for them. Hemmu and Guurtsnik stayed behind to await Bert while the rest went with the messenger.

    Okoe Ndudi told the PCs that the attacks were from Demons, which came to the world through cracks in the night. These cracks were caused by a frozen mountain in the space between the stars, called Atoep. Okoe Ndudi and his fellow star-sages of Bekembe had travelled to Phessio from Tarsepolis some weeks ago, to better study this phenomenon, he said. As the power of Atoep grew, so there would be more cracks each night, over not just the city, but the kingdom and then the whole world. Their mission was to enter Atoep through one of these cracks, destroy it from within, using fire, and hopefully escape before they were also consumed.

    Sir Yvor did not believe the sage, and his tone and questioning of Ndudi was perceived by Lord Sarrius as somewhat disrespectful. Yvor asked leave to step outside with his companions that they might confer in private. Lord Sarrius took offense at this insult to the elderly sage as well as himself, telling the party that anything they had to say would be said openly. The party asked their questions, which Ndudi answered as best he could. The sage told them that they might have as much as an hour from setting the fires, in which to return through one of the cracks. Ndudi excused himself to return to the university, that he could work on predicting the locations of the next cracks.

    The party went to make their last minute preparations. There was no message from Ndudi that day, but that night there would be reports of further attacks.

    The next day the message from Ndudi came. They would travel to Atoep that night.

---

The PCs had some last minute shopping, but we ran out of time. The players will message me before next week so that we can sort it before the session.

* I use the Damage to Shields optional rule from GURPS (p.B484) with the revised stats from GURPS Low Tech and LTC2. The action feels more dramatic if shields are not indestructible.