Necromancer Attacks Hagarath
While things have been quiet lately in the city of Ashbury,
plenty of trouble was brewing elsewhere in the duchy.
On the eve of their annual games, the denizens of Hagarath
were assaulted by a horde of undead led by an elven necromancer named Escobar.
Fortunately for the locals, there were numerous adventurers from Ashbury and
abroad present among the visitors for this year’s games. The undead were many,
but attacked mindlessly, and were handily dispatched along with their master.
The town’s sheriff, a high ogre named Tungar, knew of the
impending attack and prepared the town’s defenses. Then he took a small band of
adventurers to break into Escobar’s lair while he was attacking the town. Once
past the few guards left to defend the necromancer’s lair, Sheriff Tungar found
what appeared to be an ordinary hat and unthinkingly put it on his head.
What no one knew at the time was that Escobar used that hat
as a bottle to ritually store his spirit. When Escobar was slain in the attack,
he naturally reformed at his hat. But because Tungar was wearing the hat,
Escobar somehow reformed inside of Tungar. At least that’s the best
explanation we have, as it became quite apparent that Escobar’s mind was inside
Tungar’s body, and that he wasn’t too happy about it.
Most of the residents and visitors were unaware of the
previous night’s events, and proceeded with the beginning of the games. In the
middle of the team combat event, Escobar/Tungar marched into town and declared
Deputy Strunk a traitor. He ordered the citizens of Hagarath to attack the
deputy and the visiting “interlopers.” Bragga, the administrator of the
Hagarath games, cut down the deputy and chaos ensued. The visiting adventurers
soon subdued the locals, and then were able to convince the locals that Sheriff
Tungar wasn’t himself and that he should not be listened to until the situation
was resolved.
Tungar’s attack left the local population confused, and local
attendance at the games dropped immensely. Bragga insisted that the games
continue, though many of the visiting participants also had less desire to
continue competing. Also, the prize weaponry for the team combat event was
stolen during the battle, which may have further dampened the spirits of would-be
contestants.
Undead minions throughout the day continually harassed
Hagarath, and those that could speak demanded the return of Escobar’s
body. Apparently, since Escobar’s
spirit did not require his body to manifest, the body returned to the spot
where Escobar had died. At first the adventurers decided to leave the body
outside behind the tavern, but after a pack of Escobar’s dire wolves tried to
drag the body away they decided to place it in a warded building.
Very late that night, Escobar returned with a sizeable force
while much of the town was sleeping or otherwise unprepared. He took several
adventurers hostage and demanded his body be returned, or else he would kill
the hostages one by one. We don’t know whether he made good on his threats, but
the visiting adventurers steadfastly refused to honor his demands.
Throughout this time, Deputy Strunk had taken groups of
adventurers to see the local Wise Woman for advice on how to get rid of Escobar
and save Tungar. These adventurers were no doubt as shocked as we were to learn
that this Wise Woman is actually a troll! (She was not the only troll in
Hagarath either, as the estate has particular laws concerning their kind.)
The Wise Woman has the supposed gift of foresight, which she
sees through her magical strands and hourglasses. She was able to confirm that
Tungar was still inside of his body as well, and that it might be possible to
get him to temporarily gain control over himself.
She also warned that killing Escobar in Tungar’s body was
also killing Tungar, and that he may suffer permanent death. But if the hat
could be destroyed, then the next time Escobar died he would resurrect in his
own body again, and Tungar would be freed.
A visiting celestial scholar named who made a business of
selling spellcrafted rituals during the games informed the adventurers of an
old wizard’s tower which contained a library of ritual scrolls. The tower will
be wrought with peril, she said, and any who leave the tower may never re-enter
it.
Several groups who entered failed to retrieve the necessary
scroll, unable to get past some of the constructs found on each of the five
tower floors. At last a group made it to the uppermost floor, where the tower
“librarian”, a being described as made of pure energy, granted the adventurers
a destroy magic ritual scroll from the tower library.
Now armed with the means to destroy the hat, the adventurers
needed only to retrieve the hat itself. Unfortunately, Escobar never brought
the hat with him when he attacked, and he fled his previous lair and his
whereabouts remained unknown. To make matters worse, the Wise Woman’s
hourglasses were stolen by giant rats, so she could not attempt to discern the
location of Escobar’s hat magically.
Adventurers were able to track down one of the rat lairs, and
discovered they were led by a rat scavenger. The scavenger, named Bink, begged
for his life, offering in exchange the locations of the other hourglasses. He
was part of a group of rat scavengers who learned of the hourglasses power to
stop time, and wanted to use them to steal. Four other lairs belonged to his
fellow scavengers, and each of them did possess one of the Wise Woman’s
hourglasses.
With her hourglasses returned, the Wise Woman was able to
trace the trail that led to Escobar’s new lair. The adventurers gathered and
set out in force to retrieve the hat. Within his lair, Escobar demanded once
more that the adventurers return his body, and once more his demands were
refused. Enraged, Escobar ordered his minions to attack, and joined the eagerly
joined the fight himself. His hat
was kept within a circle of power, in which Escobar was the only one invested.
During the battle, some adventurers were finally able to
appeal to Tungar, whose mind was buried somewhere beneath or within Escobar’s, and
brought the ogre briefly back into control of his body. In his moment of
control, Tungar allowed one of the adventurers to enter the circle of power to
take the hat and run. Escobar’s forces were destroyed, and he was then subdued
but kept alive, for if he died he would only reform at his hat and could cause
the ritual to destroy it to fail.
The adventurers waited patiently while the Wise Woman
performed the destroy magic ritual. Escobar’s body was brought to the tavern
for the ritual, as some feared he would return and rise up from his decaying
corpse. When the ritual was complete, many an adventurer was quite eager to
finally be able to kill Escobar. The bodies of both Sheriff Tungar and Escobar
dissipated; the spirit of the sheriff safely arrived in the nearby earth
circle, while the spirit of Escobar fled to another. The sheriff successfully
resurrected, and things returned to normal—for Hagarath.
Hagarath Games “Disappointing”
by Thad Travels
Although overshadowed by much graver events, the Hagarath
games were the reason we sent reporters there, so we thought we ought to report
on the results.
To say these are an organized event would be a lie. The
“organizer”, if you want to call him that, was apparently last year’s winner
Bragga Bloodtooth. “Bragga” seemed an appropriate name for the high ogre, since
most of his time was spent trying to get people to participate and then telling
them they were lucky that they didn’t have to face him this year. However, we
can make allowances for poor organization and even poorer attendance, given the
attacks by undead and limb-stealing barbarians throughout the event.
On to the games themselves.
First up was the 3-man team combat competition. This might
sound familiar to those who attend the Ducal Tournament, however it is
something else entirely. Firstly, the combat is real; and people get hurt.
Thankfully we don’t believe anyone was killed in the games, but the impression
we got was that it was not impossible. Secondly, it is no gentlemanly contest
of arms. Anything goes. The rules were quite simply “no necromancy; no killing
someone who can’t fight anymore.”
In the middle of this competition, the sheriff marched in and
declared us all traitors (along with his deputy) and ordered us all killed by
the locals. And the locals seemed quite eager to comply. Well, what do you
expect from a place that lets trolls roam the streets? Suffice it to say, we
did not see the eventual completion of this event. However, we understand that
the prizes of silvered and regular weapons were stolen in the ensuing battle
and were never recovered. The winners, instead of getting silvered weapons,
received regular ones instead, while the runners up got nothing.
From there, whatever schedule there may have been for the
games was completely abandoned. Bragga would shout, in his charming colloquial
way, that “hey we gonna do this game next soon. You be ready then okay.” Or
something to that effect.
The next game to be played was something called “Blitz Raid”,
of which Bragga seemed extremely enthused. A whopping two teams signed up for
this game. The goal of the game was apparently to pick up a rock and run across
a field with it, while not getting killed by the other team. Pretty much the
same rules as the previous game, but Bragga made a special point to inform the
players that they were allowed to throw the rock at the other team. The prizes
for this game were not stolen, and the winning team received four gold while
the second place team (out of two, remember) received two gold.
That evening, three more games took place. The first of which
was a simple javelin-throwing contest. Three javelins each, whoever threw one
the furthest comes in first place. Only, to remain a contestant you had to
stand at the point of your furthest throw while the remaining contestants threw
their javelins. Top finishers received varying amounts of silver for nearly
being skewered by the competition.
There was also a single combat competition, with the same
general rules for the team combat, except this was fought only with weapons.
Various weapons and suits of armor were handed out as prizes.
The counterpart to the single combat was the “battlecasting
and alchemy” contest. Again, this game is similar in structure to our own
spellcasters’ competition, but with wildly different rules. No necromancy, no
killing someone who can’t fight back anymore, and let the flame bolts fly.
Prizes included a choice of battle magic scrolls, potions, or alchemical
gasses. Higher finishers also received a ritual component or two, and the
winner took home a ritual scroll.
The games concluded the following morning with the
much-anticipated grand melee. Or, as Bragga put it, “everybody fights til one
guy standin.” In all honesty, we couldn’t even bear to watch this event. No
doubt it was plenty bloody, and painful, for all involved. We understand the
winner of this event took home a magical item. And another item was given to
this year’s “grand champion”, who seemed to be more or less arbitrarily picked
by Bragga.
We regret not having the names of contestants to print, but
none of that information was ever written down by anyone.
Reclaim Rebellion!
Vansir Attack Estates
Vansir have always been a rowdy bunch, and many have
expressed their discontent at being “imprisoned” on the Vansir Reclaim, as they
so boldly state. Even though it should be noted that none are forced to live
there, and in fact were given special dispensation by Duke Bryan Nordenn in the
year 596 to retain a large tract of land upon which they can preserve their way
of life.
Nevertheless, this discontent has never before led to open
rebellion and outright attacks upon Icenian estates. In the estate of Hagarath,
adventurers came face to face with the sheer brutality of these people.
Not only were the attacks well organized, but the barbarians
followed the gruesome practice of hacking off the limbs of their victims. As
the attacks continued, it became horrifyingly apparent that the purpose of
these attacks was to sever and steal arms and legs.
No one knows to what purpose their barbaric acts are done,
but it is undoubtedly connected to the recent reports of faulty resurrections.
In Hagarath, we saw first hand both commoner and adventurer alike resurrect
with the arm or leg of another race, or worse some monster, after being slain
by one of these Vansir.
The attacking Vansir were identified as being members of the
Snake tribe, who are often the most vocal in expressing their discontent of
living on the Reclaim. Also among their number were several members of the
Ghost tribe, who exclaimed that they were doing the bidding of the spirits of
their ancestors. Sure sounds like necromancy, doesn’t it?
The attacks we witnessed in Hagarath were devastating, and we
have received reports of similar attacks in Wellington, Easton, and Kelanor.
Representatives from all Vansir tribes, including the Snake and Ghost tribes,
have claimed that they do not support or condone these attacks.
News From Around Tar Navaria
Moorgrave: The war between Glenrake and
Moorgrave continues. Duke Frost has positioned two entire phalanxes of the
Griffin’s Claw Legion in Romwing on the border of Glenrake to aid in the
struggle. Baroness Mathilda Romwing’s troops have also been participating in
raids into Glenrake. Hopefully with Glenrake facing a war on two fronts, things
will go well for the Icenia and Moorgrave Alliance.
Imladar: The
friendly elven nation has been importing many goods from Icenia (as well as
other places) now that the Siege of Alocondras is over. The influx of gold and
other valuable commodities has been bolstering the economy of Ashbury,
especially that of Blythedale, which borders Imladar.
Galanthia: Surprisingly, extreme order has been restored to the
neighboring country of Galanthia. Martial law is no longer the order of the day
and the people seem to be accepting the vampires Lochaber and Arienne as their
de facto rulers. “General” Lochaber has made many public speeches stating that
there will soon be a new government put in place. He claims the will of the
people will decide this new regime. He continues his claims that he has no
interest in ruling the country and that his only concern is the well being of
the people. It also seems that all Galanthian military presence has been
removed from the Contested Lands that had once been Trellheim.
Letters
To all of Hagarath,
On behalf of Daedric and myself, I would like to extend our
gratitude for your acceptance of us during our visit to Hagarath. Should
Escobar resurface, or if there are any other attacks by the disgruntled Vansir,
please feel free to call upon Daedric and me for aid. We will be happy to help
however we can.
I am glad that the plan that Deputy Strunk and myself
collaborated on, aided in the release in Sheriff Tungar from Escobar’s control.
Though many did not understand the plan when it was enacted, it was the only
way that we saw to incite an emotional response from Sheriff Tungar that would
enable him to break Escobar’s control momentarily.
I wish it did not have to come to that, as I enjoyed my time
with Deputy Sheriff Strunk very much, and it pained me to see him sacrifice
himself for the greater good. I wish I were able to speak with Sheriff Tungar
after his release. I hope he is recovering well.
Again, I thank you all, and hope you are all safe.
Cora
Member of the Baronial Court of Nordenn
Hey Hagarath Gamemaster Ogre! Where are the silver weapons you promised me as a prize for
winning the three man competition?
I competed in good faith and won with my team. Instead you give
me three normal and pretty crummy weapons.
You gave me a two handed blunt! I’m a gorbe for @!&%’s sake!
Don’t be a liar and a cheat. Send me the three silver weapons
you owe me. It’s not my fault you’re lame and got mugged. You still need to
live up to your promises.
Braq
Nafud