It has been a while since I posted one of these, I have been extremely busy with a bunch of projects! (like a new Substack – Wargame Culture!)

I have a goal to get back into the habit of this, especially since the campaign is getting so exciting. As some of the long-term plots and shenanigans come to fruition I will also be posting “behind the scenes” accounts of Patron play. For now these Patrons are secret, as are their activities. I want it to be a surprise for the Players!

The World of Weirth is a setting much like a Hyborian Age, with danger at every turn, Swords & Sorcery magic, demons and mad prophets.
Tribes Of Mipokop And Nomads roam the savanna, while peasants and hedge wizards hide behind the walls of even the meanest thorp. A powerful Ley Line crosses the land, creating transient Gateways to the Faerie Realm.

Meanwhile the influence of Demons And the Belowdark waxes, threatening to cover the world in darkness, a suffocating nightmare that wells up from horror-filled dungeons underground.

Check the World of Weirth (TM) tab above for more info, including a draft of the Player’s Guide.

We return to the World of Weirth Campaign with the second party, the survivors of the Dragon attack on Zan’s Forge. They have been in Gaztelu Mugatik for some weeks, training and recuperating…

The adventurers party consists of Roinseach (Vepitor), Golixor (Shepherd), Rook (assassin spy), Phinnean (Soldier), Linos (assassin spy) & Alda (Raven Priestess).

Linos & Rook finish reading the book on Oration

Interrogate the cultist, “We are Dawnborn!”
She seems pretty crazy.

Linos’ hench Varagor becomes Raven Trainer, with Philianos (NPC)

7 Ravens are being trained.

The party travels to Gaztelu Mugatik, turn over water cultist
Linos needs attention, re Dreams

Aeneas leaves the party to find a temple of Xallaam and get a cure for the curse the Black Trident has brought upon him

 

In the library the party learns of:

• Formula for using powdered Darkling bones to make poison antidote
• Some scrolls had recently been stolen, so the Librarian is on edge. Luckily they were very old and full of gibberish, though he had just copied a map from one of them. The Librarian said he copied it because he had heard of the Sword that is not a Sword in another book.
• You learn the Gaztelu was founded by a famous sea-captain who retired here after the Zygarian Conquest, secured this Alfenstone fortress along with the Sword that is not a Sword.
• A very old parchment describes a gateway to the Outer Darkness locked away in the Alfenstone fortress beneath the Gaztelu in a structure called “The Bone Tesseract”. The author of this text (written in Xythian) believes the Sword that is not a Sword is the key to this Tesseract. It may also be a way to travel to the Great Library of Yith (Yith = “Ancient Ones” in Stygian), the Grand Terminal of the Ohknazh (Stone Dwellers), perhaps even the Garden of Xattok, in the lands of the Emperor.

Later the party travels to the abandoned shrine of Eroidixiana, finds that it is inhabited by bandits. They cleverly fight their way in and hole up in the tower.
While Linos is in Vigil, Roinseach sees two stars fall from the sky.

There is a battle with the bandits, an unusual light in the woods, which leads to some tracks.

The party returned to town, after some adventures in the woods. Rook and Roinseach negotiate with the Bailiff for free passage and Linos gets violently ill and vomits out a huge leathery slug-like creature. It is dead.

The group needs a few days to recover from wounds.

1-12 Sacha

(11 Nov 2022) The adventurers party consists of Roinseach (Vepitor), Golixor (Shepherd), Rook (assassin spy), Phinnean (Soldier), Linos (assassin spy) & Alda (Raven Priestess).

This party has taken a few weeks to rest & recuperate after some particularly arduous escapades. Some of them worked on training and honing their skills, others on carousing and games of chance. Rook and Roinseach took the time to develop their burgeoning trade business with Master Ma’ad of Sunbridge, who has enlisted their aid in harvesting spiderweed for his weaving concerns. She rents a shed in NQ for 18 SP per month and hiring laborers in Nulub’s quarry at 2sp per day, will hire 10 labourers for a total of 560sp.

The Serpent men of the Haudan Suo (“Fen of Tombs”) are able to collect about 100 pounds of raw spiderweed per week. Roinseach has set up a shop in Nulub’s Quarry, where it is pounded down and dried. This yields about 40 pounds of spiderweed fiber. The fiber is sent back to Sunbridge with a heavily guarded caravan, which seems to have put of the bandits for the time being!

They are able to work for just over five weeks, until the events of 10 Sacha bring an end to pretty much all work.

After three weeks (15 Gielach to 6 Kasdalph) the krewe is able to send 120 pounds (valued at 75 SP/pound = 3,000 SP) of fiber to Master Ma’ad. (caravan cost: 2% of value of goods, 60 SP). Two weeks later, on 24 Kasdalph, the caravan returns with Ma’ad’s payment of 3,000 SP (less 60 SP caravan fee, 5% Sunbridge tax of 150 SP and 5% Nulub’s Quarry tax of 150 SP) for a total revenue of 2,580 SP.

The rest of Kasdalph is mostly uneventful, the crops get planted and life follows its timeless track.

30 Kasdalph

In the last week of Kasdalph there are lots of rumors swirling around about strange, shaven-headed women coming and going at all hours to and from Nulub’s Quarry and Quarrytown. Ostensibly these women are from the new temple they are building on the site of the abandoned Caravansary.

In Nulub’s Quarry Rook is somewhat successful in his schmoozing. He makes some acquaintances among the leaders of both settlements.

The Bailiff, Porthaios, and Rook continue to enjoy good relations.

The Constable, Phoreranos the Elder, informs you the raids on the caravans have stopped, suddenly. There have been sightings of men and women with half-shaved heads coming and going in the town, and creeping about in the fields.

Two of the strange women have taken up a tent (IYKWIM) in the Quarrytown, providing services in exchange for making palm-prints of the men who come to them.

Sacha

As for Rook’s socializing, The Lord of the Manor, Mirizal Lord Dru’un, is quite welcoming. He is very interested in your lineage and is quite probing about your knowledge of the nearby towns (Otracasbol, Portasbol, Zan’s Forge, etc). Rook is as vague about himself as politeness will allow. He regrets that he has been out of loop on the goings-on in those provinces of late.

 He attempts to get a read on Dru’un by the manner of the topics he asks about and his response to Rook’s answers.  In speaking with Dru’un you get the feeling he is sizing you up for an important favor.

On 11 Sacha Dru’un offers you a magical ring, one he says can “be useful in persuading others” to believe your words and follow your lead. Dru’un has heard the stories about the strange sounds below the quarry, and how the men have disappeared.

He wonders if it is related to the shaved-headed women and their strange cult of water-worshippers. His scouts have reported that they are living in and re-furbishing the abandoned caravansary (about 4 miles East, a mile up from the river). He would like to know what those cultists are up to, and how many there are. If they are aligned with Chaos, capture or kill them. You may keep any coin, but any magic items need to be brought back to him for evaluation.

 

This leads Rook to bring out the map they received from the Librarian:

Finnean will try to figure out what’s up with the palm printing. He asks around Quarrytown, but no one seems to know. Also, the two shaved-head women have left the Quarrytown. After the people from Quarrytown arrive in NQ (on 10 Sacha), there is much consternation as the men who were hand-printed ( a dozen or so) seem to have vanished during the trip from the quarry to NQ (this is discovered on 11 Sacha).

Roinseach – Roinseach will spend the downtime turning our setup with the snake-men into a proper business endeavor. I want to give a few people in town some work in processing and packaging; decent pay for simple work that will endear us, while trying to pick up the rudiments of snake culture. I want us well-liked.

You are able to hire the laborers and find a small barn to use. They are able to work for just over five weeks, until the events of 10 Sacha bring an end to pretty much all work.

Golixir – Goloxir will try to get to know the snake-men, he’ll see if he can’t get invited to communicate with someone who can fill us in in regional history from their perspective. In general the plan is to be helpful and diplomatic.

Phinnean –  Finnean is successful. He stays with the serpent people for weeks, while they share their knowledge of the marshlands with him. Then, on 10 Sacha, when things get strange, they ask him to leave, as they are very fearful of the sign in the heavens.

Linos – carousing

Alda – Training

10 Sacha

What an unusual day. The weather is sunny, clear and warm, a perfect late spring day. As the sun goes down, however, Solotha begins to change. A red stain emerges from the crack that bisects the face of the moon, spreading slowly, but fast enough to notice while one watches! Soon the entire face of the moon is a dark red color, and a spark of light can be seen within the center of the crack that bisects the larger moon.

Over the next two days there is great speculation in the streets and temples about the meaning of this sign. And if it will affect the magics of the Solstice of Abundance. Will this stain upon the moon imperil the season’s crops? What is the source of the light? Is it true that a great dragon lives in the center of the moon? That it is a gargantuan egg?

Throngs of people, numbering in the hundreds begin to gather in the neighborhood squares, praying to Bempusa to preserve them, the crops and the Weirth. As the night wears on, a great Aurora Borealis effect appears in the northern sky!

Róin fell from the path and knew it awhile back. She spent time in meditation trying to find her way back on it. She only became a Vepitor because A) She admired Aziagos and B) She wants to feel powerful and in charge. I am thinking she would be open to serving Gox Ka’an… But she would be very wary of the catch. She isn’t interested in becoming a fish woman or mutant, nor birthing horrors.

On the night of 10 Sacha Roinseach has a dream. Though it seems so very real. She perceives to have awakened in a grey realm of shadow and fog. There is a vast column of purple light on the horizon, reaching into the heavens. She can see this light through the walls of her chamber, which seem as insubstantial as mist.

She looks at her hands, and she appears to be ghostly as well. She “hears” a sound, as of a great bell tolling, in here mind. Standing in front of her (Roin is suddenly fully upright beside her bed, dressed in armor of gold) is a woman of extraordinary physical perfection, but with the head of a lobster! In one hand she holds a black sword, so black it seems to eat the light. Yet within the blade Roin believes she can see stars and colored clouds of light.

She perceives all of this in an instant. Roinseach also perceives she is in the presence of a goddess.

The goddess “speaks” to her, again, deep in her mind, which feels as though it is being help open by sharp claws.

*You have been chosen to bear the **Heart of Darkness** to the Master. He awaits you to the north. Go to Him at the solstice and return the **Heart** to its rightful place. Go to Him and the Heir to the Dagon will bestow upon you great gifts and a place at the hand of the Master.*

You feel the claws in your mind draw an image of an egg-shaped crimson gemstone, with large, irregular facets, large enough it would fit in your cupped hands. You recognize it as the jewel in the silver-chased casket.

The goddess (you now know her to be called *Slid*, Herald of Gox Ka’an and mother of all sea creatures, waves the black blade in a slow arc about the room. Its point leaves a trail of sparks, as though it is being dragged across and grindstone.

*There are others who will aid you. I give you the gift of Second Sight so as to recognize them, and power over the creatures of the waters, to be kept free of harm. Do not tarry, blessings of Gox Ka’an be to you, upon the Weirth and sea. For the Master sends the beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short. Let them without understanding feed the beast, for the Time of Wurms has come. Argamot is in the Second House and soon the gates will shut.*

With this the goddess turns, brings up the blade in a mighty arc, cleaving a great rent in the fabric of this shrouded realm. Beyond you see a shimmering wall, illuminated as though under deep green waters. She steps through the “hole”, with a splash of water, and vanishes. You awaken in your bedchamber, drenched with water. It is salty upon your lips.

It is the morning of 11 Sacha. 

11 Sacha

The party spends most of the day gathering supplies and discussing the maps. A raven is sent to Gaztelu to inform Goloxir, Linos and the rest to join Roinseach and Rook in Nulub’s Quarry. They arrive in the evening, while a large group of people are also arriving, with bags and bundles and carts full of personal belongings. It seems the inhabitants of Quarrytown have fled the camp, citing strange, horrible sounds coming from the underground and great, purple vines and tentacles bursting from the ground!

Goloxir and Linos hear some of these people talking in hushed, strained tones about a “place of bones” breaking open, and about the wurms in the Alfenstone coming forth to devour. The refugees set up tents and tarps along the inside of the perimeter wall.

Pagos Nurdiyan and Phadinamos of the Pomegranate (Adept of Bempusa) move among the refugees, calming them and healing minor injuries sustained on the journey.

The Darkhelm

That evening Roinseach decides to experiment with the Darkhelm, an enchanted object they found in Greywatch Castle.

When she put on the helmet, she was (obviously) engulfed in darkness. Your hearing seems to be affected somehow, muffled, as though your hands are pressed over your ears.

Your vision returns after a few moments (2 SEGMENTS!!) and the immediate area re-appears. You can see clearly out to about 20 feet, beyond that objects are visible, but shrouded in shadow. People, however, are limned with a ghostly azure “glow”, or aura. All of the glows seem to be pretty much the same. You can tell them apart by their silhouette.

12 Sacha

The party goes to the Farmer’s Market to complete their supplies gathering. There is a shaven headed woman wrapped in a yellow-green robe of fine quality standing on a barrel. She is reciting a poem or some rhythmic chant in a strange language that no one seems to understand.

A small crowd has gathered around, listening, with strange looks on their faces.  Two things are understood, though:

1.       “The Enemies stir in their prisons, IA! IA!”
2.       The prayer to summon aid from Xub Niggurath!

She gets through this prayer three times before Finnian walks over to the makeshift stage and kicks the barrel over. She falls to the ground, then springs at him with a knife in her hand. Its obsidian blade cuts Finnian deeply!

The party rushes to his aid and Rook is able to get her in an arm-lock, then force her to the ground, knocking her silly in the process. He ties and binds her.

After they pick her up and start to drag her to the Lord of the Manor Dru’un’s home, they are intercepted by a group of 8 town guards. After a brief discussion about what happened, the guards take the cultist and literally drag her off to the Lord’s manor. She begins to howl, and water starts pouring from her mouth, in a spout.

When they reach the manor, who should come out to greet the party but the cleric from Gaztelu, Darozin the Tall. He sees the water spouting from the woman’s mouth and casts a spell, causing her to slump to the ground, and the water ceases.

Darozin then looks up at the crowd that followed the guards, and sees the party members. Roinseach gets the impression that the Priest looked at directly at her, then looked quickly away. When he was looking at her, she could see that he is marked by Slid and shimmering with magical power.

The Beacon of Slid

Darozin also looks up to the sky, and his eyes widen, some folks turn to see what he is looking at, which prompts more to turn… The sky is rapidly filling with clouds! Flowing in from the north, dark, heavy clouds sweep in through what was a clear, sunny morning.

Roinseach can see a whirlwind of light to the north, rising up from the hills about five miles away, it appears to be generating the clouds. The dark purple color is that she associates with the mark of Slid. The wind is picking up, becoming quite brisk, and the temperature is dropping rapidly.

In the crowd of people gathering around the manor, Roinseach can see that one of them is also marked by the purple aura of Slid, yet dressed in the gray robes of a novice of Narapathenia. Likely from the Gaztelu as well, he looks a bit familiar. Roinseach then recognizes him as one of the priests of the small temple in Hammersong.

The party leave the manor, going to the barn where Roinseach had the men working to process the spiderweed fiber. It is empty now, and Roinseach speaks with the Novice. He says he has been sent to find her and deliver this scroll. He wishes her luck with her Doom, and departs.

Rook returns to the manor, determined to speak to Darozin. They have a brief conversation, including Dru’un. Dru’un makes it clear that he would like to know what those cultists are up to, and how many there are. If they are aligned with Chaos, capture or kill them. You may keep any coin, but any magic items need to be brought back to him for evaluation. He insists that Rook’s obligation as “cousin” is to investigate the Caravansary and report back. Rook agrees in an evasive manner. 

A Priest joins the Party

Darozin offers to send one of his own Novices to assist in the mission, one Xolaval, a burly Telantean dressed in blue robes (obviously draped over some armor). He is armed with a red-lacquered mace, yet a silver-inlaid wooden spellcraft bowl hangs from a silver chain at his belt. He has more of the look of a soldier about him, than of a priest…

[this is a ret-con, the original description was of a Xythian named Boropazos, my error!]

Once the provisioning is complete, the party mount up and head out of town, north along the road. Turning west they go around the northern flank of the Mala Hills and then Roinseach leads them off-road, toward the “beacon” of purple-and-silver light. Dark clouds continue to boil out of the top of the whirlwind of lights. The temperature has dropped at least 20 degrees.

With most of the party afoot, and the wagon loaded with supplies, it takes about three hours to reach the woods at the base of the Painted Hills. Even in the dim light they can see why they are named so, for the parti-colored striations that run horizontally through the bare surfaces.

 

As they reach the edge of the woods, light is failing and the rain begins, light and wind-whipped at first. Roinseach takes some of the men to grab branches and brush in order to build a bivouac against the wagon and start a fire, as she is very concerned about them being cold and wet!

No sooner is her project completed than the rain begins to fall in earnest.

The party sets a watch:

Evening – Roin, Goloxir

Midnight – Rook, Finnean

13 Sacha

Pre-dawn – Alda, Linos

Morning – Guard A & B

To be continued…

LFG Playtest Campaign 1 - The Shadow of Evil Chaos is an experiment with a new (to me) game system, Low Fantasy Gaming, and a new magic hack designed to bring the atmosphere of danger from the pulp novels of Swords & Sorcery. We are playing fully online over a Discord Voice server, using some home-brew maps, art and characters designed on the HeroForge 3D printing site.
Follow all of the posts here: LFG Playtest Campaign 1.