BY THESE WOLVES I RULE #3: The Gang Tries to Kill Sheep (and Die)
Players: Jazz (Unon), Osim (Tooath)
Sing, O Goddess, of how the Drawing of Ire is like the Stoking of Flame,
and how 2 Heroes do not return alive.
The 22nd Day of the Second Flooding Month.
Tuath the Woodsman departs from the White-Walled city of Cha-Jornookir with a new companion: The Elderly Unon, a Fellow traveler. As they leave, they notice a muscular man at the city gates, bearing a sword and a man's head. They pay him no mind and set out for the west.
The first day of travel is uneventful. They travel safely through morning and night facing no troubles as they begin the ascent into the northern mountains. The second day was even better, as the 2 men had met and rested with some Drake-Riding Oandu herders1. The 5 men, friendly to the travelers, told them of a Chanu2 village a day's away. The group plans to depart when the twin moons set.
The third day of travel is humid, as are many days of the early months of the year. The group, however, is not alone. With the clacking of wheels they realize that they ended up crossing paths with a caravan of 3 Mercantile wagons. The exchange between the two is caustic, as Tooath smells the scent of sweat and tears within the caravan and realizes who these men are: slavers. As they name the place of their origin, Cha-Taoosa, Tooath reluctantly lets them pass, hating himself for doing so.
In the night the group are met with a Herd of Oandu but do not find the herder, and so enter the Traveler-Home of the town without introductions. The group, then, wakes up to the scent of bronze instead of the fresh mountain air, with spears being pointed at their faces by the two town guards.
The paranoid man demanding the pointing the spears is one who goes by the name Lord Dejnon. Demanding they leave his village, the two do as told, but not without a little "fun".
Noticing a group of Oandu, the two men partake in harassing the beasts, but only end up drawing greater ire from lord Dejnon, who sicks his guardsmen on the pair.
Fleeing into the mountains is no help, as Tooath is stabbed in his leg and hindquarters, falling face first onto the ground - unconscious. Lost and cornered, the elderly Unon challenges the paranoiac Lord to a dialogue of knives, of whom excepts the challenge and draws his blade: a shaft of solid crystal fashioned into a spike.
Circled by Lord Dejnon's men, the fight begins: The old man anticipates aggression, but is swiftly punished as Dejnon deftly stabs him in the chest. With the upper hand, Dejnon gets overconfident and aggressive, something which Unon exploits to his advantage. Flashing his bronze dagger into the air, he manages to redirect the blade of Lord Dejnon, however the shard of crystal stills bites viciously into shoulder. Grinning with false bravado, Unon fakes an aggressive lunge which Dejnon falls for, resulting in a deep wound in the lord's chest. With a final push the two run at eachother, knives coated in blood like the gnashing teeth of predators - yet only one man stands alive.
Lord Dejnon towers over Unon, the old man grinning as one last piece of acid spittle flies from his mouth:
"I bet your title didn't come with any glory, punk."
Enraged, Lord Dejnon grabs him by the hem of the tunic and brutishly stabs him over and over, stopping only until the article of cloth was painted bright red. As he looks over to his guards he flicks his wrist with hateful authority and Tooath dies as spears are driven through him.
First Doubles session and I think this went pretty well! The group engaged in some convos with locals and managed to find a second POI - the Village of Cha-Se. Overall it went a lot better than session 2, considering I didn't have a massive other thing running in the background of the game, with most of the "empty" moments being able to be reduced by actual OLD SKOOL GAMING™️
More animal explanations! A drake is a large reptile with long limbs and lithe but strong muscles, almost like a reptilian horse and is the favored animal of the nomadic Akjusi people. a Oandu is essentially a sheep with a reptilian head and a long, spiraling horn.↩
One of the two primary ethnic groups within the Kamkoz Valley, the area this campaign happens in. The Chanu are a city-dwelling, patriarchal society with a tendency for Lawful gods. The Akjusi, on the other hand, are an egalitarian and nomadic society who primarily worship Chaos.↩