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| the Esrolian |
Wildday - Truth Week - Fire Season
The following day, Hessa goes to the Red Moon early in the afternoon, intent on waiting for Baldakkal to arrive. Her purse is too light for comfort [11L left], but if she plays the helpless provincial she can get free drinks off the warriors who frequent the establishment. [CHAx4=64%; 30, success] She cosies up to the least lecherous of the lot, a maternal-seeming veteran from far off to the south in Esrolia, and is quickly rewarded with as much bread and beer as she dare consume.
There is some minor excitement when [Cities random encounter] a representative of the fighters' guild comes in to post a notice that mercenaries are being sought for an expedition to capture a defile from pro-Lunar elements. The representative's leaving occasions much grumbling amongst the patrons; Lunars this close to Wintertop are the army's problem, and perhaps the Army's fault, too. [Said pro-Lunar elements include my PCs from the mercenary campaign I mentioned in my prefatory notes: a serendipitous roll! This will come up again much later (adventure #3). Less interesting random encounters have been redacted.]
Hessa is sitting quietly by her passed-out protector and idly debating the merits of absconding with her purse when the barkeep waves her over. He hands her over to two bruisers in stained tunics who lead her down a cramped passage to the back room, which is hung all round with old shields and well-used weapons. Her new boss is there, waiting in a commanding posture. Baldakkal is younger than Hessa had expected, possessed of a soldier's bearing, and sports a severe, close-cropped black beard. He's sitting on a low stool behind a folding table, the same kind that Hessa remembers the officers of the regular army had in their tents when leading the militia in the field. She was out-of-bounds when she saw them then, and feels doubly so seeing one now.
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| Baldakkal |
"You're the messenger from Dunstop?"
"Yes, I arrived jus--"
"This isn't the theatre, I don't need a pretty speech."
She wordlessly hands over the tablets. Baldakkal breaks seal and reads, fortunately not as slowly as Big Boss. Why, Hessa can scarcely see his lips move. He soon puts them aside.
"Heffa, is it?"
"Hessa."
"That sloppy old bastard! Anyway, says here you're part of my crew now. Check in here daily at the bar; I'm sure I'll find a use for you at some point. Until then, lay low. Gnarès here will see to your fee. Bring the horse by tomorrow."
Hessa goes back to the Anvil with a new purse, and barricades the door before counting it out on the floor. She's pleased to find herself 50 Lunars richer. Make that 50 Guilders.
[I used the Cities catch-up tables (Avalon Hill RQ edition) for Hessa bumming around Wintertop until a Mission result was rolled. The meeting with Baldakkal was on the penultimate day of Fire Season, so the first week's catch-up includes an extra day (the last of the season) to keep things simple. I did keep careful track of Hessa's finances, but I've removed most of this from the narrative; I'll save that sort of thing for Traveller.]
Disorder Week - Earth Season
The change of seasons comes with a welcome drop in temperature and the cessation of the winds, which won't blow again until the season of Earth has ended.
Hessa spends most of the first week getting acquainted with Wintertop, or at least the poor quarter thereof. She spends a goodly amount of time at the Red Moon, and befriends the tavern-keeper, Rusun, who gives her plenty of free drinks and lets her sleep it off by the hearth if she can't make it back to her lodgings of an evening. She also taps some of the regulars to get the name of a non-judgemental armourer who can repair her shield.
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| playing at knucklebones |
Harmony Week - Earth Season
The Anvil's common room ceiling has been noticeably hanging lower and lower over the middle of the common room. The city council send some officials who quickly condemn it, and give them a few days to get everyone out before it collapses. Hessa spends more and more time at the Moon, and even indulges in a few friendly games of knucklebones. She even wins a little [bets 5L, wins 20L]. Wintertop is colder than she's used to, and with fire season over it's getting colder still, so most of her windfall goes to buying warmer clothes.
Death Week - Earth Season
Rusun decides that it would be cheaper to pay Hessa to work at the Moon than to just let her drink all the profits, so he offers her a job as a barmaid, room and board included. And not to worry about the bloodstain on the floor of her new room, it was probably there for months before she arrived. Probably.
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| serving from an askos (wineskin) |
Fertility Week - Earth Season
Hessa plays more knucklebones with the warriors at the Moon when business is slow. Her winning streak is well and truly over; she loses all 5L that she set aside to wager with. Plus a little more, somehow. She really ought to keep better track of her purse [event: thieves steal 1d100=2% of money =6 clacks]. She doesn't save any of her salary, either.
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| at the festival of Eiritha |
The great festival of Eiritha falls on Clayday. The Herd Mother's cult is not an especially popular one this far from the plains of Prax, and most of the congregants are worshippers of the great earth goddess Ernalda come to pay homage to her daughter.
On Wildday there is a festival to Chalana Arroy, the healing goddess. In Old Tarsh, the anti-chaos bent of the religion is combined with an excessively virulent hatred of the Lunar Empire, and Hessa does not stay long when paying her respects at the temple. Eiritha feels no especial friendship nor enmity towards the Lunar pantheon, so Hessa decides to
[N.B. Clayday is also the great festival of Aldrya, goddess of the elves and dryads, but there are none of the plant folk in the city. The local priesthood of Ernalda leave an offering at the tiny shrine within the Earth Goddess' temple, for she is the mother of Aldrya as well.]
Stasis Week - Earth Season
Hessa gets a night off, and decides to see what it's like in another tavern for a change. The fighters are lovely and all, but she's heard one too many war stories at this point. She finds a less rowdy place peopled by artisans, and sitting at the bar, soon becomes embroiled in a passionate but friendly debate about the various merits of Grazelander cuisine. One of the ropemakers, half-grazelander himself, bizarrely takes umbrage at something she says. Voices are raised and tempers flare, and it ends with him storming out into the street, shouting, "you'll never buy rope in this town again!" [Event: Offends someone (due to a misunderstanding on their part) - ropemaker (10% chance other rope merchants won't deal with her)]
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| thermae |
The festival of Storm Bull falls on Clayday. Hessa spends the morning in the baths attached to [the love goddess] Uleria's temple out of fear, and the rest of the day at the Moon. Rusun quietly lets her know he understands why she's reticent to go out, and not to worry; their 'business family' is free from political and cultic rivalries. Guilders and Lunars all jingle the same in your purse, after all.
Movement Week - Earth Season
Windsday of Movement week sees a festival of Orlanth, possibly the only cult more opposed to the Lunar Empire and its gods than Storm Bull -- at least in Old Tarsh. Hessa is on extra good behaviour and more polite to everyone than she's ever been before. Thus it is especially ironic that on the night of Fireday [i.e. the next day] she finds herself in a makeshift arena in an empty warehouse, surrounded by a drunken, cheering crowd.
Her friend and fellow barmaid, Veika, had managed to mortally offend the only other Sartarite in the Red Moon, a would-be Humakti who challenged her to a duel of honour. Hessa may have had one too many swigs of mead to calm her nerves, and when the tearful, panicked Veika begged her to help find some way out of it, she foolishly offered to fight as her champion -- in earshot of the Sartarite. [Event: friend needs help - fellow worker has offended a barbarian, who demands a duel; PC can fight in their stead.]
So here she is, spear and shield in hand, facing off against a professional mercenary soldier, similarly armed to keep things sporting though clad head to toe in armour. The fight is not to the death, and the proprietor assured her there was a healer standing ready in the throng. She's not entirely sure she should trust him, but the odds that no one in a Gloranthan crowd has at least some healing magic are so slim that they are hardly worth mentioning. Even the 12-to-1 against the bookmaker put on her are significantly higher odds. [Sartarite's stats are randomly Foot Mercenary #24 from Militia & Mercenaries]
Hessa and the Sartarite circle each other at a distance, brandishing their arms in a displays of menace, and exchanging their choicest taunts. Then they rush at each other. Their shields clatter with an almighty crack, as he rams the side of his shield into the boss of Hessa's. She is stunned by the impact and lurches sideways, desperately trying to keep her balance as she wheels round and feels her spear wrenched from her grasp.
She arrests her momentum without taking a tumble, and looks back to see the Sartarite lying on his back, her spear protruding straight up from his belly. He's trying desperately to remove it as his blood pools all round the wound, giving a red sheen to the bronze links of mail. The spear is stuck in deep, and the Sartarite looks frantic as he tries in vain to dislodge it, growing weaker by the second. Hessa casts aside her shield and runs to his aid. As she finally rips the spear free, he casts a healing spell to stop the bleeding. He lies back down, breathes a sigh of relief.
Hessa tries to help him to his feet, but he still cannot stand. Before the attendants can drag him from the arena, he addresses his vanquisher. "That was quite the manoeuvre! Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
Hessa laughs. "At the shrine of Delaeo!"
[Delaeo is the goddess of fortune & good luck.
Actions were simultaneous as they both attacked on the same SR and have the same DEX.
The Sartarite's attack roll (93) missed vs. Hessa's shield parry, 00 - a Fumble; d%=Weapon dropped (takes D3 rounds to recover).
Attacking, Hessa rolled an 03, Impale vs. a failed shield parry: 14-7(armour)=7 damage to the abdomen, dropping the location to -2hp. He could no longer stand, and would bleed to death in 10 rounds. There were several bad rolls to remove the spear, but they got it out in time for him to stop the bleeding with Healing-2.]
The next evening at the Moon, Rusun tells Hessa she's earned a night off. A good portion of the regulars had been at the fight, and they intend to fête her as the conquering heroine. Veika can cover her shift -- she owes her, after all.
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| "Another kratêr? Go on, then!" |
[The next rolled Cities event was (finally) a mission. Hessa's had plenty of downtime, so I decided to count everything up to this point as the first adventure, making it time for experience rolls. There was a lot more background than adventure, and she only managed to use 4 skills successfully, less than half of what she'll use in the first proper adventure.
Experience rolls for this prologue to adventure:
Listen x
Camouflage +5%
1-h shortspear attack x
dagger attack +5%
There was also a small chance of increasing her Defence, since it had saved her from being hit (by the dwarf), but the roll for that failed too.]
next post: city adventure
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