What follows is a session of a B/X hexcrawl I'm running with friends.
Session 8
Cast:
Kishar the Hollow Agate - Magic-User 2 (Seer)
Marko - Thief 3 (Robber)
Guardsman Vanon - Fighter 2 (Warrior)
Retainers:
Croaker - Grasshopper-man Ranger 2 (Scout)
Sunflower - Grasshopper-man Ranger 2 (Scout)
Book of The Dead:
Shaggy - Fighter 1 - Beheaded by a smoky spirit
The party took stock in the night following the battle. Bedding down in the impromptu barracks (now vacated, and better to sleep in the castle than in the house that now hates them for bringing death and fire on them) with gates closed and smoke billowing around the hill.
In the night Kishar checks the village's clay tablet records to determine loyalties. She finds that the place was founded by Lasca, the first of his lineage and the one who built up the place around this castle while it was ruined (it follows that the bald smiling figure is Lasca himself, and that he was entombed in the catacombs below).
Na Sunna is the granddaughter, and likely the only living member of the household. Come the morning she is busying about the remains of the household, but has not found her parents or many of the stewards; there is little to say to the party but thanks.
It is a sad morning. The dozen-odd dead peasants have been laid out on the hillside, faces covered with cloth to maintain dignity, their families grieving—the mercenaries were given no such custom, as they were dumped in a bloody heap for the flies and the heat.
Zurosu is there, having rode up with his horsemen in the night, and regards the scene from the top of the hill. Vanon and Marko take to stripping the bodies for their gear, and Kishar cuts off their left hands and removes their eyes—this is to damn them to hell, or to cripple them in the afterlife or so says she.
All the same the party is granted their spoils and the use of the mercenaries' cart and dead-eyed mules for storage, and are walked in a small procession to the edge of the village and out into the grasslands.
There is some back-and-forth with Zurosu, he says he and his men will ride down the mercenaries who fled; Kishar fires back with how finally someone is taking action in this town. She gets a polite but cold smile in return.
And the party rode off into the day, laden with arms, armor, and the rosin-tipped arrows of the mercenaries. A journey quiet save for the end, where the party came upon a flock of huge leather-winged beasts with terrible sucking needle-mouths all atop the husk of an elephant. Deciding to push ahead overnight, with torches upheld to push back the flying monsters, the party pressed on into exhaustion towards home.
The dark was filled with the sounds of aerial combat, for some insect foe of the winged monsters had come (robber flies so said Sunflower, giant wasp-like things that leapt and stole children) to take blood. Sunflower was set upon but saved by Vanon's spear, and the party steadily marched towards the light of their home tor.
They handed off crossbows to the Circle soldiers posted at the gate, pointed them in the direction of the monsters, and wished them good luck before falling to sleep for a whole day. Fine shots, the soldiers disposed of the flying menaces as dawn broke.
Much was made of the trio's return, so laden with arms, jewelry, hard cash, and new grasshopper companions.
Vanon and Kishar debriefed with the Circle captains, laying out the following:
- A cursed village to the southwest hills, with a terrifying sorcerer commanding the undead in it.
- A loss of their companion Shaggy, who they believed wouldn't rehabilitate to civilization in the end
- A deal made with the southern grasshopper-men, and the threat from Hopper to the west
- A discovery of Ilem of the Circle, and their recovery of her pin
- A growing power in the east from the farming villages, now free from tyranny
- A promise of market day, where looted silver would be minted and used as a medium of exchange and announce the Circle's power thusly
They also learn the following:
- Many of the mutants believed the party long dead—the Captains dislike this casual talk of death, consider it unsettling
- The grasshoppers rode in wounded, having rode too far into Hopper's territory and suffering an ambush, outnumbered three to one
Concerns were laid out, losses expressed. "A shame that human loss is only balanced by the weight of a coin purse," so said Captain Annankim, the more skeptical of the two. Kishar points out it's not a loss balanced by coin, but an investment in the Circle. Moreover the mutants have been so long acquainted with close, sudden death by hand of the Sorcerer it is only natural they speak casually about it.
She is sent away.
Vanon is given an assignment to potentially raise himself in the ranks to Sergeant: five scouts were sent out ahead of the main Circle force when traveling into the wastelands, recover them or their pins and be promoted as a sign of his loyalty to the cause.
He accepts, and a small service is done for the scouts in the shadow of the Circle's tower. Living or dead they may be, the Circle holds out hope.
Two weeks until market day.
Flush with cash and gear, the first week is spent setting up projects.
First a shrine is accounted for (the Circle not kowtowing to spirits), a great three-tiered piece with a wide dish in front of it. Water is ladled up from the dish to the highest tier so that it runs past a reclining figure in the classical style (reshaped a little to resemble the lake spirit); this becomes a kind of devotional sign. The young attendant to the mutant's leader is designated to keep it.
Second, two score of brave mutants are given arms and armor and sent to build a blockhouse near the Shrinekeeper, and to set up regular patrols from it to the tor village. This is to set the first safe roads and encourage trade.
Third, the looted silver is melted and re-struck for the Circle. Day and night smoke rises from the small forge. Additionally, Kishar has a mercenary's helmet reshaped for her into a glorious Phrygian design maned with caterpillar-bristle.
Fourth, the grasshopper-men set up their foothold in the village. They will be moving in on market day, planning to strike from this new beachhead. They promise to bring food in exchange, and ride off.
Market day comes, and with it a sense of great promise.
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