Episode 12: "WTF?"

Quest Information

 * 14th Arah Abu, 837
 * Title: The Faulty Summoning
 * Level: 4
 * Location: Ag-Rakade

Primary Cast

 * Ket-Ramat, soldier-scout
 * Vjor'kul, high orc from beyond the Presett Sea
 * Lugal, Mage of Learning (cameo)
 * Shoklen, swamp ranger (cameo)

Supporting Cast

 * Tat-Babu, militia commander & member of the Council of Elders
 * Lib-Loth, high cleric of Nissaba & member of the Council of Elders
 * Ea-Nasir, head of the local Ahti-Wagrah merchant guild & member of the Council of Elders
 * Rihat, matriarch of the Nihat farming family & member of the Council of Elders
 * Hannasi, Justice
 * Misnarta, tavernkeeper
 * Tash-Kanetu, head of local Dii'duuresu merchant guild
 * Various villagers, militia members, guild guards, etc.

Summary
Vjor'kul is studying the scrolls of the Moon Druid when he hears a nasty commotion coming from the village. Running at top speed, he races towards the Great Hall, but the fighting is over. He sees his rescuers Ket-Ramat, Lugal, and Shoklen, all dressing their wounds, survivors from a bizarre attack on the village. Using his healing powers, he helps the party recover, and while Lugal takes Shoklen to find a cleric to cure the disease wrought upon him by the strange goat-man, Ket and Vjor'kul search for clues to the tragedy that has befallen the village.

They come across the massive scar left across the center of the village by whatever monstrosity attacked the village. Outside the Great Hall, the grass has been ripped from the ground and the dirt has been swept into a swirl pattern, forming a barren circle 20' across. This is where a mass of energy first materialized and apparently destroyed the hall. From there, a trail of wreckage heads towards the Temple of Nissaba, patron goddess of Ag-Rakade and farmers everywhere. The temple has been destroyed, and just beyond, sits another 20' wide barren circle, with a swirl pattern in the opposite direction of the entry point near the Great Hall. This was where the great beast disappeared in a green swirl of pain and stink.

The village has taken a terrible toll. Many villagers are dead, as is Ibbi-Adad (crushed in the wreckage of the Great Hall) and the Chief Matriarch, Entara, who apparently fought the giant creature and paid the ultimate price. Tat-Babu, militia commander, is barking orders to his squadrons, while Ea-Nasir, whose guild headquarters was narrowly missed by the monstrosity, sits on a bench, eyes fixated on something that is not even there. It appears physical wounds are not the only damage these monsters inflicted on the town.

All throughout the village are the corpses of the various, small monsters that were slain by the party and various militia and merchant guards during the course of battle. These corpses are oozing some form of black ichor, rather than normal blood, from their wounds. This ooze is caustic to living things: all the grass under the corpses is dead or dying, as is anything else organic that these creatures were touching. Vjor'kul attempts to store some in a waterskin, but it soon eats through the leather and spills on the ground, killing the grass in the process. On a lark, Vjor'Kul decides to touch it with the Moon Druid's axe. Surprisingly, the "blood" seems to consciously evade the axe blade! Clearly something strange is at work, and the Moon Druid might be a key to stopping it.

Ket notices an old friend: Misnarta, the tavernkeeper. While everyone else in the village is focusing on helping the survivors (including rescuing High Cleric Lib-Loth from the collapsed temple), Misnarta is hunched over one of the dead creatures. She is collecting the ichor as Vjor'Kul did, but she has ceramic vials. She excitedly summons Ket over to her."'Look, I have to tell you this in case you haven’t figured this out yourself. This is NOT NATURAL. This isn’t the work of giants, I don’t care what that fool Tat-Babu says. This isn’t the work of men, or orcs, or even of the gods. I’ve seen that green energy before, many years ago. I’ve never seen it to that scale before, and NEVER seen anything step through it. There’s foul magic at work here, really really bad stuff. Listen, there’s a man who can help you. His name is Eku-zakir. He’s a wizard who lives in Jow-Hadan. He’s a good guy. You need to take him these vials and tell him what happened. Hold on … come with me …'"She races off to her tavern, with Ket and Vjor'Kul hot on her heels. She rushes behind the bar, and ducks down to rifle through her belongings. She pulls out a pile of poultices and hands them to Ket. "Here, these will help you" she says, then dives back under the bar. Frantically throwing all sorts of detritus out of her way, she finally comes up with some sheafs of paper, a quill, a bottle of ink and a stick of ceiling wax. She starts frantically writing a detailed account of the events as she saw them, including the swirling green energy and the creatures that came out of it. She signs it with a fancy "A" and rolls the two ceramic vials of the monsters' ichor in the paper, and seals the seam with the wax and a sigil of a fancy "A". On another small slip of paper, she writes "the two-headed dog is in the yew grove", and thrusts all of it into Ket's hands. "'Some time ago, I trained under Eku-Zakir in Jow-Hadan. He believed there was something beyond our own world, and conducted some experiments. One day, he cast a spell and a small, green energy swirl appeared. Out of it came the most horrible of smells and a feeling of terror washed over both of us. He managed to seal the rift, and we sat there in silence for hours afterward. Eventually, I came out of my catatonia, and then declared that I would never practice magic again, and moved here to this sleepy little village to tend bar.""'I don't know what's happened. Eku wouldn't do this, he's a good man. I'm afraid someone else figured out how to open the rift, someone with no scruples, someone who has no idea what they're toying with. Only one person knows how to fix this, stop this from happening again. You need to go to the Great Library in Jow-Hadan, find Eku-zakir, give him these vials and papers, read him the code phrase on that slip of paper, and help him get these people stopped. This is bad, real bad.'"The conversation ends as they hear Tat-Babu ordering them through the door. "You there" he bellows. "The Elders have convened an emergency meeting tonight. Be there! And do something useful for a change."

The party helps out various villagers until evening, when the emergency meeting is held in the halfling enclave to the southeast. Obviously, the village is in an uproar, and the people have divided into factions. Tat-Babu is positive the giants have attacked the village ("I don't know how, but what else could trample the Temple like that?"), and intends to march what remains of the militia to the capital, Bakretah, to demand the High Commander wage war against the giants of Az-Korethi.

Lib-Loth, the chief cleric, says that's ridiculous. "Giants don't have this power. Only the gods have this power." At that, many of the villagers begin to wail and cry. "The gods have forsaken us!" they weep. Lib-Loth realizes the impact of his words, and appears to have regretted ever saying it. These villagers declare that they must abandon the village, and want to travel to Bakretah to meet High Canoness Iltani, the powerful priestess of Aruru. Maybe she can save them!

Rihat, the elderly but influential leader of the farming families, guffaws at that idea. "Before we settled in villages, we were nomads. We'd settle a patch of land until the land had no more to offer, then move on. We must honor the ways of our ancestors, leave this place, and find a new place to settle. Let us travel up river and begin anew by planting new fields. That is how we honor Nissaba, not by running to some city!"

Ea-Nasir remains silent in his catatonia, but Tash-Kanetu steps up. She is not a member of the Council, but holds much sway with the villagers. "Fine, we can move up river. But we must stick together! We cannot divide the village on crusades and madness. You cannot take all the guards with you, Tat! Who will defend the village?" "But we are at war!" barks back the commander. "War with who?" she pleads. "We don't even know what happened here?"

"For all we know, all the villages have been attacked tonight" shouts Tat-Babu. "Let's find out," retorts Tash. She orders two of her own Dii'duuresu guards to ride as fast as they can to the nearby villages, to find out if they've been attacked and spread the word of what's happened in Ag-Rakade.

The meeting ends in a huff. The only consensus is that tomorrow will be a day to consecrate and bury the village's honored dead, grab supplies, and pack belongings. Two days hence, Tat-Babu will lead most of his troops to Bakretah, apparently followed by many villagers seeking aid from powerful cleric in the capitol. Rihat and Tash-Kanetu are going to move the other survivors up river to establish a new village. It appears this is the end of Ag-Rakade.

Outcome

 * Shoklen is healed of disease by Lib-Loth, cleric of Nissaba
 * Misnarta has instructed the party to find the mage Eku-Zakir in Jow-Hadan, and gives them two vials of ichor and a sealed letter for Eku.
 * Besides Ibbi-Adad, the Chief Matriarch Entara is also dead, as are many villagers.
 * The merchant Ea-Nasir is in a catatonic state
 * The village appears to be disintegrating. Most of the militia and half the villagers are following Tat-Babu to the capitol, Bakretah; while Rihat and Tash-Kanetu are leading the other half up river to form a new village.
 * Tash-Kanetu lends the party horses and wagon for travel to Jow-Hadan. They are on their own for supplies, though.

Rewards
Return to Episode Guide
 * Ket-Ramat and Vjor'kul each receive 500 xp
 * Misnarta gives Ket the following:
 * two vials of monster ichor (blood) and a sealed letter explaining what happened addressed to Eku-Zakir in Jow-Hadan.
 * her entire stash of poultices:
 * six poultices of healing @ 3rd level (like a Cure Wounds cast at 3rd level)
 * two poultices of vitality (after 24 hours worn, cures all wounds, diseases, and poisons)
 * one poultice of heroism (10 extra hit points & effects of bless spell, lasting one hour)
 * one poultice of giant strength (get ST = 21 for one hour)
 * As with all poultices in this campaign, they take multiple standard actions to work: one action to prepare it; one action to tie it to skin; one round to soak in the skin; and the effects take place on the 4th round.