Scarlet Horizons

or

The Earth, It Cares Not!

An Afternoon of Skeletons

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2,042 words

"You have returned victorious?" asks Hurg, the chieftain of the Scarface Goblins. The two Seekers have been presented before the chieftain and the shaman, who stands by the chieftain's wooden throne. Aury sublimates his surprise at the chieftain's command of the common tongue.

It's perhaps ninety minutes after our heroes battled the combined force of lizardmen and froglings. Our heroes are tired and dirty, but also young and satisfied. "A great victory, yes, chieftain. And we bring you this bounty," says Matthias, presenting the plast bag of frogling hearts. A goblin warrior promptly takes the bag and inspects it for safety before handing it over to Hurg.

The chieftain peers into the bag, then makes a pleased, guttural noise low in his throat and reaches in, pulling out a fist-sized heart. "Ag-kirzhak, Krizhurg!" he says — My Enemy's Strength, Now My Own — holding the heart aloft — at which nearby watching goblins cheer and beat clubs and other weapons together, creating a celebratory din.

Hurg takes a bite out of the heart, then passes it to his shaman, Gursk, who follows suit before passing it on to Cere-Lukh — Blood Letter — the tribe's champion.

Aury silently offers thanks that the shared heart snack doesn't last long enough to make its way around the circle for him to sample. That's all yours, Hurg and company. Inherit the strength of your foes, and all that nonsense, thinks the cleric.

The cleric's attention shifts as a renewed swelling of cheers sweeps through the camp. Aury turns to see two goblins laboring with a horizontal pole held between them. Suspended from it is a field-dressed wild boar. The two goblins, with the assistance of a third, get the kill situated above the communal fire for cooking.

By midafternoon, Aury's stodginess has softened, in small part due to the ongoing friendliness of these goblins, but in (significantly) larger part due to consuming the potent brew that the goblins call cuumess. Our beloved cleric of the Forgotten One has consumed several pints — enough that his ten-thousand times removed catholic ancestors would have felt a firm kinship with him.

Despite the cold weather, the cleric finds himself enjoying the goblins' hospitality. He doesn't allow himself to consume too much alcohol. Though he trusts Matthias' judgment with regard to this particular goblin tribe, he nevertheless wants to remain battle ready. His caution proves wise as — perhaps thirty to forty yards away, the sounds of merriment clash dissonantly with battle cries and the banging of weapons on wooden shields.

Aury runs, mace coming into his right hand almost as if of its own volition. There, near the southwestern edge of the settlement: he sees that Matthias is already present, inspecting the scene. Several goblins are in pitched battle with undead skeletons that appear to have entered the camp from the bog.

The cleric draws up alongside his mage friend and receives unsolicited commentary from the magic-user: "Undead from the bog. They've been more frequent in this area in recent months. Tauste thinks it's probably caused by increased plundering of the Barrowmaze tombs."

Aury grunts in acknowledgment. He's tipsy enough to feel a throbbing excitement, but still mindful enough to be vaguely ashamed. "Do we help out, or would our allies take offense?"

"Let's assist," suggests the mage. "But don't aid their champion, Cere-Lukh. He can get a little territorial about his kills." The mage points with his ebony quarterstaff. Over there," he indicates a spot further west along the camp's perimeter, "another group of undead. Let's focus on containing it." And so our heroes choose to leave the first group of skeletons to the goblins and move as a team toward another group of undead emerging into the camp from the bog.

The two draw up some twenty to twenty-five feet shy of the nearest ambling skeletons. Aury feels his blood tingling; he is experiencing some powerful yet unspecific excitement at the prospect of destroying these ... abominations. Yes, a sober corner of his mind supplies. I'm feeling righteous wrath.

The cleric makes to charge into battle, but Mattie says loudly, "Bide. No need to risk ourselves more than necessary. Unless they put on more speed than that, we can easily outmaneuver them."

Aury gives his customary grunt of consent. The cleric reaches under his jerkin where the collar peeks out above his studded leather hauberk and produces a holy symbol. It is a cross-shaped circular emblem in some sort of bright white metallic substance, a tiny hole drilled in one arm of the cross so that the emblem can be threaded onto a necklace. He speaks aloud a musical, multi-syllabic word that sounds to Matthias like silver chiming bells and the rasp of a drawn sword, simultaneously.

No sooner has the cleric pronounced a holy word than the skeleton almost due south of him explodes in a loud shower of bone shards and white dust. Matthias is momentarily stunned, but recovers and sends a burst of magic toward a skeleton southeast of him. Though it isn't instantly destroyed as was Aury's skeleton, in a matter of seconds the eldritch acid coating delivered by the mage dissolves the undead's integrity sufficient to fell it.

Those few seconds in which our heroes destroyed two of the skeletons gave time for the remaining skeletons to disentangle their foot bones from the tangled weeds, roots and muck collected from walking through knee-deep bog water — now they come on with greater speed, and it becomes apparent the Seekers no longer have the advantage of speed.

As the remaining five skeletons close with the heroes, a new round begins, and in heroic fashion our two Seekers act first. Aury's initial mace swipe is blocked by a rusty, muddy sword wielded by the skeleton southeast of him, which is menacing Mattie. And so the cleric, ever protective of his less stout companion and friend, focuses his holy ire on the same undead.

Matthias staves in the skull of a skeleton, the orichalcum knob at the end of his quarterstaff many times harder than the weather- and water-worn pate of this undead shambler. And then the mage reaches out with an invisible pseudopod of magical force and shatters the skeleton several paces to the southeast.

As a new round of combat begins, the throaty warcry of Cere-Lukh reverberates across the encampment and another wave of skeletons emerge from the bog. As in the previous round, Aury's mace fails to connect with his target, initially. This time it is blocked by a sodden, rotten wooden shield that falls completely apart after softening the impact of the cleric's weapon, and Aury is forced to strike again in order to fell the unnatural creature.

Meanwhile, Mattie has reached out with his magic to demolish another skeleton and has been hit yet able to pivot with the attack so that his injury is negligible. As round 3 begins, I've hidden the defeated skeletons on the map in the service of clarity. Our heroes have held position, letting the skeletons come to them. At the top of round 3, three skeletons are within melee range of the cleric, while one is adjacent to the mage.

Aury gets hit twice, suffering 2 HP from one skeleton and 1 from another, dropping the cleric from 8/13 to 5/13 HP. In response, Aury grasps his holy symbol and breathes a prayer, regaining 7 HP, which puts him back at 13/13. Matthias, his ally, regains 1 HP and is now at 9/10.

"Wait for it..." Mattie chants to himself, and sure enough a skeleton moves to within range and the mage's magic looses the bonds that hold bones together.

Round 4 begins, and though Aury's mace misses, Mattie's quarterstaff does not. Each of them make their Fray Dice attacks, and in total three more skellies go down. A skeleton steps mechanically past its fallen fellow and swipes at Matthias — the mage sustains 2 HP of damage, dropping him to 7/10 HP.

Three skeletons tag team Auriochos, but in a series of shield blocks, minute position changes, and a mace-delivered parry, the cleric remains untouched. His old Seeker instructors would be proud. Another fifteen seconds go by heart-poundingly, during which Aury drops to 12/13 HP and Mattie to 6/10. And then ... no more skeletons, at least not right here in this portion of the camp. Our heroes have defeated a dozen of these negative energy monstrosities, garnering a total of 780 XP, 390 XP apiece.

For a good half minute, no more skeletons emerge from the bog. Aury, heart hammering and blood singing with a two-part melody composed of equal parts battle lust and alcohol, turns to Matthias to say, "Well, it looks like that's the end of—" The mage's expression stops the cleric mid-sentence, and he spins to see the bones of multiple defeated skeletons drawing together toward some invisible center as if there were such as thing as an electromagnet that attracts bone.

Before the eyes of both Seekers, an abomination arises with the scrape and crunch of knobby, calcific appendages drawn together by necromantic energy. Across the encampment, somewhere to the northwest of our Seekers, the battle cries of numerous goblins take on a dissonant cadence. Perhaps they, too, are confronting such an abomination?

"What in the name of—"

"I've no idea, Matthias interrupts, but let's see if we can't persuade it to go away, shall we? Are you going to attempt to turn it?"

"No. My faith is not yet great enough for one such as this..."

"How can you know?" asks the mage. "If you've never encountered such a—"

"I just know, Mattie. But I can do this..." Aury says with satisfaction, holding forth his holy symbol. A blindingly bright ray of light leaps from the symbol and impacts the undead abomination, knocking away one of its many calcified limbs and retarding its advance toward the two Seekers.

Mattie follows suit, and a fine mist of acid envelops the Reborn One. Whether its otherworldly screech is indicative of experienced pain or simply a reflection of its rage and hatred for all that lives, the abomination's screech rebounds around the encampment as it moves — faster than any of its constituent skeletons — making a beeline for the cleric and mage.

Aury has just barely enough time before the monstrosity is upon them to cast Hand of Merciful Succor, restoring Matthias to full health. New round as this necrotic foe reaches melee range. Aury delivers it a powerful cross body swipe of his mace, then drops prone as Mattie shouts "Duck!" A fraction of a second later, the entity is engulfed in purplish-black flames and topples over, screeching, hissing, and mewling as the mage's darkflame consumes it.

The pair charge across the encampment, skirting the still roasting boar above the cookfire. Off to their left, the goblin champion Cere-Lukh roars with the exultation of victory as his massive spiked club shatters a similar abomination. A few yards further on, however, two goblins aren't as fortunate, as a Reborn One eviscerates one's guts while staving in the other's skull.

This Reborn One gets slammed with Aury's radiant Fray Die damage and blue-tinted frost from Mattie's that slows the creature fractionally, and then it is within melee range, rearranging bones to dodge Aury's mace but catching a solid thwack from the mage's quarterstaff. As it rears upward, preparing to drive bony claws into the Seekers, our heroes cut loose with their Fray Dice for the round, and this second abomination goes down in a barrage of radiant and force damage.

End of Action Report

After helping mop up, our two Seekers have slain a total of sixteen goblins and two Reborn Ones. Aury has expended his spell for the day, as well as two of his four Heroic Deeds, and is at 8/13 HP. Matthias still has his memorized spells and all four uses of Heroic Deeds, and is at maximum health, 10/10 HP. Aury is able to bind up his wounds to an extent, post-combat, raising health to 10/13 HP. Summing XP from defeated monsters, our heroes are 65 XP apiece shy of attaining 2nd level, and can do so as soon as they return to Helix and spend adequate treasure!

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"So, why exactly are we cutting out their livers?" Aury asks conversationally. The beefy cleric has his head on a swivel, mace in hand and shield strapped to his left forearm as he keeps a vigilant lookout for further threats. And the truth is, he'd rather have to fight again than have to put his hands in frogling entrails.

Mattie finishes carefully placing another frogling internal organ in one of a pair of plast bags hanging by strings from a low-hanging cypress branch. "The livers are for Chudwick, Cimmer the Glassblower's boy — he has viddimen deficiency." The mage returns to the corpse of the same frogling and begins work on extracting its heart. "The hearts are for the goblins, proof of our effectiveness — but also good eating, or so I'm told."

The cleric grunts. "I'll take your word for it." While continuing to scan the shadows of nearby trees and other flora, he reaches down and peels another leech off his leg, just above a knee. "I don't get it. The water only comes up near the tops of our boots, but I keep finding leeches higher and higher on my legs."

Mattie stands and deposits a frogling heart in a plast bag that dangles next to the fuller, heavier, bag for livers. "They're making their way toward your groin. It's their preferred dining location." He stoops over and cleanses his hands and forearms with bog water.

"Makes sense," muses the cleric. "That is where my single largest vein is located..." Mattie looks up sharply, but the cleric is dead-panning, ostensibly focused only on the hazards of the surroundings.

"Well!" rejoins the mage, sealing the two plast bags. "You go ahead and luxuriate in that mistaken notion. Meanwhile, I have finished my collecting. I think these should suffice to convince our unfriendly lizardmen not to do anything untoward, at least not in the next few weeks." He hefts the bags, grimacing with a pained grunt as the weight aggravates a cut on his right arm. "Shall we head for home?"

Aury turns as he hears his friend grunt in pain. "You know, I'm hurt, too, actually. One moment..." The cleric lowers his head and closes his eyes briefly, whispering words too soft to hear.

Aghh... sighs Matthias in relief, having not noticed the impact on his right hip until his comerade's Healing Surge rights the injury with an audible click of a socket realigning. And so the two Seekers begin slogging their way — sloshing step by mud-sucking step — back east toward Helix village.

But of course, things can't be that simple, right? We can't just spend the morning in the bog collecting some froglings organs. No. No, a pair of lizardmen, who just might have been on their way to confer with their erstwhile frogling allies, have spotted you. And clearly, these lizardmen have seen the cut-open bodies of those small, no-longer-jumping amphibious ne'er-do-wells. They draw up just long enough to cast spears at about thirty feet distance, and are already charging forward even before those projectiles find or miss their marks.

For this fight, we'll eschew mapping. It'll be a tough fight, as these lizardman cannot yet be targeted by our cleric hero's Fray Dice. As combat erupts, Mattie is at 10/10 HP, and Aury is at 11/13 HP.

Lizardmen are 2+4 HD creatures.

We resolve the hurled spears and, luckily, our heroes aren't hit. Matthias' mage Fray Die makes things much more manageable for the PCs, and in short order the combat is over.

Between the two of them, the lizardman have thirteen chroma, no royals, and a dozen red cuprous copper pieces.

However, no sooner have our heroes looted the bodies of this pair of lizardmen and again begun their eastyard trek, than they are set upon by quite a sizable band of bog denizens arriving from further west. In fact, could this be a group intending to attack the Scarface Goblins? Our heroes count five lizardmen and a dozen froglings.

The froglings are generally leading the lizardmen. No doubt, this group came across the floating corpses of the froglings you slew earlier this morning.

We'll do this theatre of the mind, to save website disk space and speed up combat. Fortunately for Aury and Mattie, these lizardmen either aren't bearing spears, or else they're forbearing hurling them in order to not endanger their frogling allies who are leading the charge.

As the initial wave of froglings leap to the attack, Aury and Mattie lash out with their mace and magic, respectively, slaying two. Then Aury's mace sweeps a frogling on its downward arc as it leaps for him. The frogling that leaps for Mattie misses the mage, just as Mattie's dagger fails to connect. It's the end of round one, and no PCs are further injured, while three froglings lie dead.

The second round of combat begins, and Mattie uses his Fray Die against a leaping frogling whose attack would otherwise have hit.

Mattie pivots lashing out with his quarterstaff to slay another frogling as it leaps toward the cleric. Aury's Fray Die slays a frogling menacing him from the west, and then the cleric's backhand mace swipe slays another frogling! The remaining frogling in melee range misses Aury. Meanwhile, other froglings have been positioning themselves for leap attacks, and the lizardmen have spread out, ready to menace the PCs once their frogling cannon-fodder allies succumb.

Round three arrives and two-thirds of the froglings float in the bog, slain. Undoubtedly, they would have broken and fled were it not for the presence of their lizardmen allies. A frogling west of Aury is slain by the cleric's fray attack as it leaps, and Mattie's fray attack slays the only other frogling that is currently in immediate melee range of the heroes. Hoping its timing will avail, two other froglings leap at the mage, but Mattie criticals one of them and the other fails its to-hit roll. Two other froglings get smart and use the remainder of round three to position themselves to leap upon the heroes from behind them, assuming the PCs remain facing the advancing lizardmen. A spear chucked by a lizardmen due north of Aury at the bottom of round three hits the cleric, dropping Aury from 11/13 to 10/13 HP.

As round 4 begins, one of the five lizardmen turns and begins hurrying back west, leaving the scene.

Aury takes a single sodden step to the northeast, slaying (with his fray attack) one of two froglings menacing Mattie. The mage pivots and slays the other nearby frogling with a haphazardly flung eldritch bolt of energy. Two more froglings leap at the mage. Mattie brings his quarterstaff to bear on one of them, killing it. The other frogling completes its leap and scores a hit for a single point of damage with a rather poorly fashioned club. Aury remains at 10/13 HP, but Mattie drops to 9/10 HP. The westernmost lizardman closes to within ten feet and hurls its spear at Aury. It's a hit, and our cleric drops to 09/13 HP.

Two other lizardmen don't have spears to throw and so step into melee range from north of the cleric — one critting the cleric (but still just 1 damage, dropping Aury to 08/13 HP) and his compatriot doesn't land a solid hit. At the bottom of round four, the other two lizardmen have adjusted their position, preparing to attack.

Round 5 arrives. Aury's melee attack misses the lizardman to his immediate northeast, but his fray attack injures it. Mattie makes a wise split second decision and slays the surviving frogling with a stray magical bolt of energy. The mage then, not without fear, takes a step northeastward and attacks a lizardman, actually landing a solid hit with his quarterstaff and injuring the reptilian humanoid. Unfortunately, that foe returns the favor, and Mattie drops to 8/10 HP (Aury is at 8/13 HP).

The lizardman NW of Aury lands a solid blow, but Aury catches it on his shield and remains uninjured. The westernmost lizardman closes and attacks Aury, and the cleric barely gets his shield up in time and is jarred, taking a half-step backward from the force of the lizardman's blow.

Round 6 arrives, and from somewhere west of your location a hunting horn sounds sonorously. It's the lone lizardman who left the fight, signaling for reinforcements! Surprisingly, at the top of round 6, Mattie's quarterstaff connects solidly once again, slaying the lizardman SE of the mage's position. The mage pivots northward and an icebolt takes out the throat of the injured lizardman that has been menacing Aury. The cleric attacks another lizardman, and hits! Mace rolls 5 and we add 1 for Aury's strength, so he deals 2 converted damage to lizzie and kills it in round 6! Therefore, the cleric uses his fray attack to injure the lone remaining lizardman. Despite the fact that all its fellows are slain or fled, the remaining lizardman is in a battle frenzy, hating other humanoids too much to realize his perilous position. He attacks Aury again. Misses. And Aury and Mattie's fray attacks end the remaining foe's life.

END OF COMBAT. Total encounter experience: froglings yield 780 XP and lizardmen yield 500 XP, totaling 1,280 — split between the two, each hero gets 640 XP. The froglings carried a total of 8 chroma and 64 shiny cuprous. The lizardmen carried a combined 20 chroma, 8 royals, 32 shiny cuprous coins. Converting chroma to GP yields 10 royals total; converting shiny cuprous, we now have 10.32 GP of treasure. Combining this with the froglings coinage converted to GP, we have 11.76 GP total. Mattie is at 8/10 HP and Aury is at 8/13.

"So..." Aury says, minutes later after you have looted the dead and resumed your trek east, slowly making progress back toward Helix village, that was not entirely expected."

"It was not," Mattie agrees, glancing over at the cleric. The mage grins as Aury detaches yet another leech. "I hadn't counted on that much organized resistance, based on what Chief Scarface had shared. I think we were just victims of an unfortunate coincidence."

Aury turns, brow crinkling. "What, you don't think they were heading for the goblin camp? I don't know, that was a fairly sizeable group..."

"It was, but I don't think they were launching their attack on the goblins. For one thing, there weren't enough lizardmen. Whenever they decide to make their move, I'm guessing there will be at least a couple dozen lizardmen. No, I suspect that what we encountered was a patrol, perhaps doubling as a hunting party."

"All right, I'm still with you, so far," says Aury.

"Remember, froglings and lizardmen are naturally enemies, competing for resources. So, I think they were intentionally working together to build a certain degree of trust and familiarity with each other's methods — probably at the behest of their respective leaders."

The cleric nods. "Okay, makes sense. Well, I'm glad we didn't encounter them in force, if what we ran into was just a patrol."

Our two heroes had, briefly, considered harvesting more frogling livers, but Aury hadn't wanted to push their luck, and Mattie had been inclined to agree. Their backpacks jingle intermittently as the two progress eastward, evidence of coinage collected as treasure. By the time that the sun reaches its zenith, our heroes are perhaps another hour from the goblin camp.

"I've been wondering..." hazards the mage.

"Yes?" Aury disentangles a booted foot from where it has snagged in a root.

"When you did that ... healing thing..."

"The healing surge."

"Yes, that. Why did you speak under your breath? Other clerics in our chapterhouse — and for that matter, more broadly around Stigrix — loudly proclaim when they pray. I assume you were praying?"

"You assume correctly," Aury answers. Then he sighs, comes to a stop in the bog, hands on hips and staring off into the distance. "The reason is this. I believe that those other clerics... whoever or whatever they're praying to cannot hear them and grant spells unless they speak aloud."

"Yesss... but they do that to proclaim their faith boldly, to—"

"—to conspicously consume the blessing of diety," Aury finishes, shaking his head dismissively. "It serves as an explanation, I suppose. But I have never seen any other cleric invoke whatever ... Power it is that is listening without an audible request."

Matthias nods as the two Seekers again begin walking east. "So you've been experimenting, and you have discovered a god who can hear you even when you are silent..."

"Not a god," Aury rejoins. "The God. If I'm right, and I feel strongly that I am, there is only one god. One all-knowing being, all powerful. Those other clerics—"

"Aren't gods?" Matthias exclaims incredulously. "Well, I can't wait to see how your fellow clerics react to that!"

The two are silent for a full minute as they slog along. Finally, the mage says, "So you're ... testing this being."

"Not testing, no," Aury answers. "Displaying my faith. Resting in it..." And that is the end of that conversation, at least for the time being. Matthias shakes his head a minute later, still pondering it.

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"Mattie, what have you gotten us into?" the cleric asks an hour later as the two Seekers trudge westward and only a bit southward. "And why..." he asks, breathing deeply as he disentagles a soaked boot from bog detritus, "are we ... heading toward The Blackened Forest? Are you... trying to get us... killed by Renata and her brigands?"

The cleric halts, spits, and fusses at his lips, pulling away a cobweb he's walked into in the shade of a black ash tree. Mattie has paused too, hands on hips, robe gathered up high on his torso and belted there in an effort to keep it dry. The water is now almost above the two's boots.

"We won't actually enter the forest," the mage-scholar answers, taking a sip from his waterskin. "But the frogmen are most populous near its eastern border."

"I won't murder any of their youth!" the cleric asserts solemnly. "They may or may not have souls, I cannot say, but they have language and culture. And we're planning on killing them. It's our express intent!

"We won't initiate hostilities," Mattie says after a few moments of sober silence. "We'll only resort to violence in self-defense." He leans on his staff with his right hand, left picking a leech off his right shin just above the boot. Then, leaning on his staff with both hands, he sighs, staring westward. "Listen, Aury, they aren't people. They're bestial. Hells, they sacrifice their children to Herne, for Petarkian's Sake!"

"They do," Aury acknowledges, "but only the sick ones, and they believe it results in the bog's bounty, extending the life of the other tribe members. We can't know because it's lost in the Far Ancient, but our own species was most likely every bit as barbaric once upon a time." The cleric slogs over to the scholar and places a hand on the thinner man's shoulder. "Listen, why do the goblins want this anyway? You can at least explain that."

Mattie wipes muggy condensation off his brow. "Fine. Well, as you know, I've been studying the Scarface goblin tribe, befriending them; it's taken me two years to reach this point of trust with them. I bring them medicines, sometimes food. I've spent nights among them, warm by their fires, unharmed while I slept. These efforts have not only furthered our aims as Seekers of Knowledge, but they also have the practical result of making the goblins better disposed towards the people of Helix." He looks up at the cleric. "Did you know not a single villager has gone missing in the last six months?"

The mage tucks his damp handkerchief back into his belt and continues, "The Scarface's shaman has learned through his magic that the froglings have made a pact with the lizardmen that live between the Merisc and The Blackened Forest. They are planning a joint assault on the Scarface tribe. The goblins won't stand a chance if that happens. Not only will my research subjects be destroyed, but Helix will also lose an important buffer separating the villagers from the worse inhabitants of the bog." The skittering trill of some nearby swamp bird echoes through the cypresses, ashes, hemlock and spruce trees. "However ... were the froglings to have their numbers thinned..."

"Yes," Aury nods, "they'll think twice about coming closer to Helix when two humans from there have wrought carnage among them. And, the lizardmen will be derisive. They have contempt for anyone who shows weakness. The alliance will be ended, or at least retarded. You can continue your research, and we will have further promoted the growing trust between you and the Scarface tribe, while simultaneously making Helix a bit safer" the cleric concludes, smiling in spite of himself.

"There, you see," answers the mage, "there's that first-class mind that got you into the Seekers' brotherhood!"

Midmorning finds our heroes further west in the bog. Continuing the philosophical discussion of the past several minutes, Aury explains, "And that is the gist of where not only my reasoning leads me, but also what my gut insists must be true: there cannot be multiple gods. There can only be one. Knowledge and power of that magnitude would abhor division and inevitably be held within a single Entity."

"Then what of clerics of other faiths?" Mattie asks. "Where do they get their power if there aren't numerous gods?" This isn't the first such conversation they've had on this subject, but Aury is always bringing it up, and — truth to be told — Mattie enjoys getting the cleric wound up.

A loud splash off to the right has Aury withdrawing his mace from its loop in his gear belt. He rests the head of the weapon on one shoulder of his studded leather hauberk and makes significant eye contact with Mattie.

"I heard," says the scholar-mage. "They're pacing us." The two slowly slog past a cypress tree. A large water moccasin undulates across the surface, disturbed by their passage. Fortunately, it is heading away from the two. "Probably a hunting party. Either that, or a trio of scouts." The mage's left hand dips into a belt pouch that holds spell components.

The cleric turns toward the mage. "Oh, they travel in threes to scout? And how large are their hunting—"

Loud, warbling amphibious warcries shatter the relative quiet, cutting off the cleric's question as froglings attack from the moss-laced trees surrounding the two Seekers.

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

I rolled 10 froglings. The froglings normally need an atk roll 13 to hit Aury and 9 to hit Mattie, but for their first attack they use their leaping ability, needing only a 12 to hit Aury and an 8 to hit Mattie.

Aury needs an 8 to hit froglings and Mattie needs a 13 with thrown dagger or a 14 with his quarterstaff in order to successfully hit a frogling. Because our two Seekers were expecting trouble, they aren't surprised and can therefore act first, in keeping with Scarlet Heroes combat rules.

Because these froglings are 1-1 HD, our heroes' Fray dice cannot help but take one enemy apiece out of the combat equation. Aury's mace crushes the airborne creature due north of him, while a burst of arcane force from Mattie slays the creature leaping toward the mage from the northwest. We'll indicate these slain froglings by coloring them red below.

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

Now I must make attack rolls for our two Seekers. To do that, I'll pull pregenerated d20 rolls from this resource. Just to keep myself honest, I'll randomly determine which line I choose to pull from first: 1d6 yields a 5; and because Matthias has the higher Dexterity score, we'll grab his d20 result before getting Aury's:

I roll an 18 for Matthias, and a 6 for Aury's attack. Matthias hits and Aury misses. Although frequently used two-handed, I'm going to rule that Mattie's quarterstaff qualifies as a one-handed weapon in Scarlet Heroes parlance, and that it deals 1d8 damage, but because Mattie is a mage only (not multi-classed), he can only deal 1d4 with it. I get a 2 result. Translated to SH-style damage, that's a single HD of damage, enough to take out another frogling.

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

Now the froglings attack; to keep the map clean, I'll remove the slain froglings — they've floated away in the bog's water anyway. This is the froglings natural environment and is not ideal terrain for our heroes. The froglings easily close with the two Seekers. We'll resolve attacks against Matthias first: from north to south, the three westernmost froglings attack with to-hit results of 10, 5, and 12. Two of the three attacks land. Their weapons are small and poor quality, dealing 1d3 damage. I get results of 3 and 2, which each translate to a point of hit point damage using Scarlet Heroes rules. Uh-oh! Our mage drops from 10 HP to 8.

Now let's resolve the other three froglings' attacks on Aury. We get to-hit rolls of 15, 7, and 4 — a single hit with a damage roll of 3, translating to 1 HP of injury for Aury, and dropping him to 12/13.

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

A new round begins. Our heroes' Fray Dice activate, and two more froglings go down. Both heroes fail their melee to-hit rolls (5 for Mattie, 4 for Aury) and the remaining froglings attack — this time, without their leaping ability yielding a +1 bonus.

Two attack the mage and both miss (rolled 6 and 4). Three froglings attack Aury: a 9, 20, and 6 to-hit. Two misses and a critical. The successful frogling will add it's Dex bonus of 1 to the damage. Damage rolled: 3 translating to 1 HP, made 2 HP when adding crit damage. Aury is down to 10/13 hit points.

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

The froglings have now lost almost half of their numbers, so a Morale check will soon be needed. In the meantime, it's a new round. Our heroes lash out with attacks represented by their Fray Dice, and two more froglings do down. Mattie pivots to the south and lashes out with his quarterstaff — a 16 to-hit result (success). But Mattie rolls a 1 on d4, a glancing blow that does no damage. Aury swipes overhand with his mace, getting a 6 result and missing.

The froglings are down to three. We'll make a 2d8 Morale check against a 7: result of 5 — their morale is steady and they will fight on! Removing the slain from the battle map, we have the following situation:

The mace icon represents Aury.    The wand icon represents Mattie.

The westernmost frogling attacks Mattie and hits with a 13, rolling damage 3 which translates to 1 more HP of damage to the mage.

The other two froglings attack Aury with to-hit rolls of 10 and 6, both misses. A new round begins, and our heroes continue to show their mettle, as evidenced by their Fray Dice taking out two more froglings. Aury twirls around and smashes the last remaining frogling in the head with his mace (to-hit of 13) for 1d6+1 damage yielding 7, which translates to 2 HD of damage, slaying the lone remaining frogling. END OF COMBAT.

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or

The Earth, It Cares Not!

The adventure begins

1,110 words

Evoker Matthias d'Slaytonthorpe pores over his map of the Barrowmaze, trying to concentrate through the mild headache brought on by much study in poor lighting. But he mustn't use any more magic than strictly necessary, for later today it may mean the difference between life and death.

As his candle burns down, he studies the unrolled map that lies before him on the study's teakwood desk, committing it to his eidetic memory. The candle dies, leaving the scholar-mage in smoke-wreathed darkness.

He moves deftly without seeing, first into the hallway where the susurration of the ventilated air breathes overhead, then down three doors, knocking lightly at a door before pushing it open without invitation. "Aury, you ready?"

A protesting groan greets him from a room as lost in darkness as is the hallway, as was the mage's study. "Mattie, for the Powers' sakes, it's the middle of the night, still!"

"It isn't, and I'll never become accustomed to a cleric of the Unknown One casually referencing the Powers. It is perhaps two hours before sunrise. Hardly the middle of the night." He reaches out, slaps his friend's booted feet at the foot of the bed with perfect precision, despite the darkness. "You ass! You're dressed already, chapedro!

A low chuckle, then a thud as feet hit the floor. "Of course! Today we will make our chapterhouse brethren proud, and collect enough coinage to fuel the furnace the rest of the month." The sound of flint on steel, and sparks momentarily break the darkness.

"No, no. Save it. We don't want to draw attention from the villagers," the mage insists. "Besides, by the time we get into unfamiliar environs, the sun will be up. Let's go, Aury. There's no rest for Seekers."

Fifteen minutes later, Evoker Matthias and Apostle Auriochos emerge from the subterranean chapterhouse, carefully lowering the warded manhole cover behind them. "Damnation, it's frigid!" Mattie blows on his hands. Behind our two adventurers, The Spine looms as a faint, shadowy immensity silhouetted against a marginally lighter background in the predawn light, towering above Helix both physically and in the minds of the villagers.

The two set off due south out of Helix, passing through the ring of trees encircling the village, and continuing onward past the Pellon Field that was once a parking lot -- not that our two intrepid heroes realize that, for hundreds of millennia and more than fifty feet of sediment, rock, and clay now separate them from it.

Fortunately, though very cold, the predawn is not windy. "You say the Far Ancients had milder weather this time of year," Aury says quietly as the two traipse along, "but how can you know that's reliable when no records still exist from so long ago?"

The scholar-mage turns his head toward the Mystic, but it is still too dark to see more than shades of gray in the poor light. "First of all, we don't know that records don't exist from that far back; we simply haven't ever found any. For all I know, such records have been found and lost again a dozen times since--"

"We've been over this, yes," interrupts Aury. "Just remind me of the details of your chain of logic." There is silence for long seconds, broken only by the muted footfalls on frozen ground.

"I sometimes forget that you don't have my perfect recall," the mage answers. "Very well, then: Abbot Fornost d'Voivodja had a vision in PR 102, over a century ago now. In it, he visited a time in the remote past, the time of the Far Ancients."

"The Forebearers," supplies the cleric, a hint of awe in his voice.

"Yes," answers Matthias. "They lived in a time — as seen in Abbot Fornost's vision — when only men had rational thought, a time when mankind ruled the planet and possessed knowledge and tools beyond our kin." The two Seekers have left Helix several miles behind, heading southwest from the village. The ground has begun to display periodic sogginess, even in the freezing cold. "We're nearing the Barrowmoor," Mattie comments. "Ground's getting soggy..."

"Yes," observes Aury, "and dawn is about to break. It's been a while, but I think we'd reach the Barrowmoor sooner if we angled more southward."

"Your memory serves adequately," agrees the mage, "but we have a stop to make along the way." The mage leads the pair along a game trail, still traveling southwest from their village. The trails inclines, begins to ascend. Minutes later, the two are at a high point of elevation with respect to their surroundings. Sunlight peeks over the horizon, its rays bringing the first bit of color into the day as it slices across their trail. The two draw up to the lip of a ridge and Matthias glances down upon a crude settlement some dozens of yards below.

"Et es wie spet not brought deaqu tam sep lizardmen," speaks a guttural voice from behind the two men. Auriochos wheels round, mace in hand, and raised high to deliver a blow. "Hold!" Matthias says firmly to his companion, as the mage turns to face a pair of goblins, both of whom have drawn bows trained on the two Seekers. "Easy, Aury. We are expected. They are merely being properly cautious. Addressing the goblin on his left, Matthias says, "Et es wie spet not brought deaqu tam sep lizardmen!" Phonetically, it sounds like "Eat ess we-spate no-bro deak tim-sape, lizardmen!"

The goblin, white face-paint standing out boldly in bizarre patterns against his orange skin, breaks into a wide grin. He backhands his companion in the stomach and barks a laugh, as if to say, "Ha! Check out these hoo-mans!" His companion, a foot taller at five feet, has green skin and no face paint, but a gold nose ring is prominent where it dangles against his upper lip. Our heroes are unaware that they're each thinking the same thing simultaneously: What does he do with that when he eats?

"Weki wahant u goblin to kill lekiahapekirs in theki bog. Weki nekiekid theki mekiahat for our full mololn fekistivahal, but our waharriors ahareki ahafrahaid of theki witch lights," says the spokesman of the two goblins. Aury doesn't take his eyes off the two goblins, but asks Mattie, "When did you learn Goblin? I thought there were no texts on —"

Mattie halts the cleric with an upraised index finger, then replies to their colorful hosts, "Weki onodekirstahand. Weki will kill ekinough froglings for your fekiahast but weki will only bring bahack theki choicekist paharts, theki hekiaharts ahand theki livekirs. And in rekiturn, u goblin will continueki to convinceki your chiekif to lekiahaveki theki pekiopleki of hekiix onomolekistekid."

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