Just wrapped up a long saga tonight!

We ventured into the shattered ruins under the ancient city of Qar in search of secrets from the First Age of Man. (My character, Nymox the Red {Greatest Thief South of the Axos Mountians!) wasn't particularly interested, but our group's not-quite-sorcerer was. Nymox was eventually persuaded that such knowledge would have some monetary value as well. (He doesn't have the Greed flaw, but he is a thief after all.)

There we encountered necrophages (ghoul-like creatures), Mycanaeds (humans who had lived so long underground that they had adopted an almost symbiotic mushroom-heavy lifestyle, including food, clothing, and phosphorescent mushrooms for light), and THE GREAT BEAST OF QAR (a truly immense Xolth even bigger than the one from the Catacombs of Qeb). 

Some of the Mycanaeds were friendly towards us, particularly a princess. Some of them seemed to have trouble distinguishing between the Upper World and the Home of the Gods. (Both being "way up there!") Others had little use for us at all, including a stuck up warrior type named Bakeera and a priestly type named Ma'anatas. (muh-AN-etas.)

The group traveled deep into the cavernous ruins looking for a temple complex reputed to have studied non-corruptive magic. (Nymox, being Distrustful of Sorcery, is of the opinion there is no such thing.) We did find some clues, but it turned out our Mycanaed escorts, specifically the warrior and the priest (actually Grey Druid) had a plan of their own. See, the Grey Druid thought he had a ritual that would let him control the Beast of Qar, essentially making him the top dog of the underworld. Unfortunately for him, this task proved beyond his abilities.

He performed the ritual in a particular sacred space in the temple complex, but meanwhile tendrils of the Xolth were converging on the spot and the earth was trembling. Oh, yeah, and once we figured out what they had planned, our group was dead set on thwarting this scheme.. 

Our Courtier/Assassin managed to do some impressive slay-age to a number of the necrophages and our bouphon-headed beast man warrior, Cownann one-shotted the chief Mycanaed warrior. Nymox put an arrow in the eye of the druid while he was trying to complete the ritual.(Nymox has issues with Grey Druids). @StMichael ended up spending the last of his Villain Points to keep him alive long enough for the ritual to go to hell. 

Almost literally, as the ground collapsed uncovering an even lower level where the GARGANTUAN Xolth was revealed.

Our 'sorcerer' managed to conjure a vat of "universal solvent" we saw in one of the temple complex buildings (it really was more of an academy than a simple temple) and dropped it into the chasm directly on top of the creature. 

After that, it was a mad scramble to get OUT of the underworld before we tumbled into the pit being created by the death throes (fingers crossed) of the Beast..

We pretty much ended the session collapsed on the grass beyond the fractured landscape that marked the spot where the city ruins had been.

One of the hardest parts of role playing - making sense of your notes! 

Sounds like a climatic end to a saga. I trust everyone is going to relax on a nice holiday after that.

(At the end of a Heroes of Hellas campaign that ended with the Greek takeover of Minoan Crete, my players wanted to go on a holiday. So I sent them off to relax in Troy... Sadly, we never got to play the 'holiday'.)

Gruntfuttock wrote:

Are you off on another great saga soon?

Looks like we're off to the Jungles of Qush to seek out the Sorcerer/Alchemist Jesharek because of some information our sort-of-sorcerer found in the ruined academy beneath Qar. 

GIven Nymox the Red's Distrust of Sorcery, he's kind of hoping something eats us along the way.

(We generally play BoL first Sunday of every month, unless we can't scape together a quorum due to other commitments.)
 

Last edited by CaptAdventure (10/05/2026 10:19 am)

We usually play every Sunday, but I was ill yesterday and spent a lot of the day in bed. Feeling fine today, so Alison ran the third Charlie Flint game today (you can do that on a Monday when you are both retired).

I'm writing the 8th 'Wild Nights in Ulthmar' game for this coming Sunday. Stealing lots of magical texts is great - they are worth a bomb! - but you then discover that your average friendly fence can't shift them for you. So you have to find a specialist dealer in rare (stolen) magical books, which is not exactly easy.

Started a new Saga yesterday, titled: Carson of Lemuria! First Chapter was Fire in the Sky.

Intended as a short bit of business before our next big Saga. A short story before the next novel, if you will.

Our intrepid band of "heroes" started to make their way East across the Jungles of Qush to locate the Tower of Jesharek. Several days in, as we were settling in for the night, our Barbarian/Hunter/Beatman Cownann was out hunting for some fresh meat while the rest of us set up camp.

He found himself a young Dinohyus and was preparing to slay it as quietly as possible, so as not to attract the attention of the rest of its herd. As he began his attack, a thunderous sound and shockwave that might have been somewhat metaphysical slammed into him from behind (from the southeast). He's Marked by the Gods and was transformed by sorcery into his current bouphon-headed condition, so he has a sense for these things. The same phenomenon drove the terrified dinohyus away.

Back at camp, the rest of the group saw a streak of sickly green light in the sky. Our sorcerer observed what looked like a tear in the star-scape. Then we witnessed a human form dropping from on high. Bewildered, but curious, we started in the direction of where the body would land. Before leaving, however, the sorcerer sent a bird with a message to the beastman to head in the same direction.

We all met up along the way. When we found a clearing with a deep crater, we  figured we had the right spot. From the depths of the crater, we heard a human voice speaking a language we did not understand. A man in a khaki uniform was climbing out of the hole. He was  wearing a matching low, somewhat conical hat with a wide, round brim. Like Mounties, State Troopers, and Park Rangers wear. 

Once again, our sorcerer stepped up, performing a spell to teach the newcomer Lemurian in a matter of seconds. He asked for assistance in getting out of the crater, but when she reached down, he accidentally pulled her down with him. His strength was incredible!

We managed to get them out and then tried to get his story. It took a bit, because he was stunned to see a "Minotaur" in front of him. (Our bouphon-headed beastman.) Finally, we managed to convey that he was in Lemuria, not "Manilla, in the Philippines." The former puzzled him. The latter puzzled us.

Between the beast man and the sorcerer, they decided the streak of light came from the direction of the far-off Isle of Thule. The theory is some great working gone awry brought "Lietenant Bill Carson" from his world to ours.

Nymox the Red (thief and swordsman extraordinaire) suggested that Carson should come with us to the Tower of Jesharek. Surely the alchemist/wizard would have some idea how to send him home. (Carson rubbed Nymox the wrong way, so the thief was less being helpful and more hoping to get rid of this guy quickly.)

Then old Bill heard a weird piping sound from back down the trail we followed to his landing site. Only Cownann also heard it. He related that he had passed the ruins of ancient temple to the Dark Gods on his way to meet us. Nymox suggested we should all go in the other direction. "Always move away from eerie," is kind of a byword for him. Sadly, Carson was enchanted, literally, and bounded off in titanic leaps. His transition to Lemuria had certainly granted him astonishing strength!

Nymox was ready to leave him to his fate, but the others in the group argued persuasively that Carson possesses amazing strength (as well as some strange 'thundersticks' (firearms)) that would be bad to encounter if whatever evil force ensorcelled him became our problem later.

So, off we went towards the Temple of (less than elemental) Evil. 

When we arrived, Carson was on his back, motionless, on the ground. An attractive green-clad sorceress stood over him making magical gestures and chanting. Surrounding her were a masked assassin, a scantily clad female acolyte, and four beastmen: An Andrak-headed female, a dinohyus-headed male, a bouphon-headed male, and an ape-headed female. 

Nymox won the initiative lottery (box cars) and fired an arrow at the sorceress who was obviously up to no good. Her sorcerous powers saved her. She snarled something along the lines of, "Who DARES to interrupt my ceremony?!" None of us bothered to answer. (Probably at least partly because we don't have a group name of any kind. Thinking we need to remedy that. Mostly so our reputation can proceed us.)

The assassin came after Nymox, who sacrificed his bow (and a Hero Point) to keep his enemies blow from landing. Mostly because I'm paranoid about assassins and poisoned blades. Plus, it made for a cool visual.

Cownann tried to bull through (pardon the pun) the crowd to get to the "she witch." Unfortunately, the enemy beastmen managed to halt him. Our sorcerer/healer/warrior (she's three people in one body -- long story) tried the same thing in her warrior mode, but she is substantially less physically powerful than Cownann. She got hung up too.

The player of our Courtier (Assassin) -- just one person, but with a 'cover' profession that makes the secret profession easier -- was absent this session, so Laurits the Suave was mostly there to provide an excuse for a Bonus die in the right circumstances.

In the next round, Nymox manage to score a serious hit on the enemy assassin with two-weapon fighting using his sabre and dirk. Over half the guy's lifeblood in one shot. Then Cownann scored a Mighty Success against the boar-man with his Trademark Weapon, a warhammer that may have been made by Yrzlak the Godsmith himself. One swing and it was down for the count, brains oozing out.

The warrior(/healer/sorcerer) got in a good shot on another beastman with the assistance of our Courtier(/Assassin). 

Seeing which way the wind was blowing, the green sorceress ordered her ape-headed female flunky to pick up the mobile Carson. The sorceress activated a poral mosaic that was still intact from when the temple wasn't a ruin. She, her apprentice/assistant, and the ape-woman carrying Carson stepped onto it. A flash of eerie light later, they were gone.

Nymox finished off the masked assassin (taking only slight damage from the thankfully-not-poisoned dagger) and the others finished off the two remaining beastmen. 

Our sorcerer is pretty sure she can figure out how to activate the portal, though she finds the sorcery involved disturbing, what with the link to the Dark Gods.

So, it's looking like next month we'll be jumping from the frying pan into the fire by teleporting to the corresponding portal-mosaic on the Isle of Thule that the green-clad sorceress used to transport herself and her minions to seek out her other-worlder prize.

Nymox is THRILLED.*

*Nymox is not thrilled.

Last edited by CaptAdventure (Yesterday 3:41 pm)