Murdicog's Manse Session 16: The Spies Who Came in from The Cold (And into The Ulfire Dragon Harem)
Players: Osric III of Kikstahta, Swashbuckler (EvilTables); Grappadora Hamaques, Swashbuckler (Jay_zer0); Buster Diamantis, Theurge (Mistuh), Xaldun of Portage Town, Swordsman (roguewithwhimsy)
Timekeeping note: the adventurers touched the teleportation pillar on August 12 A.D.M. Their foray into AXIS MUNDI took a week, to Aug. 19. The balloon journey took roughly a week, so they arrived at the Clan Ice Fish tulou on Aug 26. The events of this session took exactly 7 days.
Summary
Following their balloon journey from the AXIS MUNDI dungeon to the land of Guamatra, the adventurers spent several days enjoying the hospitality of General Nobotake of Clan Snow Ape. Several yaks were purchased from the local yak merchant, and provisions for a long journey over the tundra were secured.
On the third day, they were summoned to an audience with the general. After some pleasantries, he proffered an exchange of services. Clan Snow Ape could count on the services of the Euclidean Geometer Lady Klein, a powerful mage. She could be induced to teleport the adventurers to a station of the Trans-tundra Express, but only if they would promise to take advantage of the tundra-dwellers' hospitality customs to infiltrate the harem of King Genji of Clan Ulfire Dragon.
The adventurers conferred briefly and then agreed. Grappadora also inquired about the local musical traditions in the hopes of acquiring something suitable to perform before the King and was told that most recent songs are ballads concerning inter-clan feuds, but there are some exquisite ragas surviving from the Elves that used to live in Guamatra.
So they set out knorth from the Ice Fish tulou. At a Clan Snow Ape fort they were briefly detained by a captain named Kuni, but were released after a messenger from Gen. Nobotake confirmed that they were acting on his orders.
The road crossed a mighty, muddy river twice, each time via an elegant bronze bridge, a remnant of the elven civilization that lived here before. Investigating some elven ruins visible from the road, Buster used his Read Languages capacity to decipher some written instructions for finding two caches of buried rods.
At another Clan Snow Ape fort, they met Commander Yarano, who had cruelly enslaved 135 human soldiers and 10 yetis. The plight of the yetis was particularly moving to Grappadora, but the other adventurers were disinclined to upset their Clan Snow Ape benefactors, so on they went. On the road to the ouest, they passed a cavern with some mournful yetis.
On their sixth day in Guamatra, they arrived at a settlement that (shockingly!) was not a tulou. This was the headquarters of Clan Long Rat, where they Zurthines secured an audience with Head Yoshi and the unsettling Tail Moku (who mostly hovered over Yoshi's shoulder and stared menacingly).
When she learned that the adventurers were on their way to the Ulfire Dragon Palace, Yoshi warned them that the real power in knorthern Guamatra lay with the Harem. She shared some basic gossip on each wife, but disconcertingly skipped over the ninth. A use of ESP allowed Buster to determine that the ninth wife, Sueyo, was expunged from the record for some reason.
Grappadora inquired again about music. Clan Long rat indeed had some tomes of Elven ragas, thanks to their proclivity for exhuming relics from forgotten boltholes and occluded crevices. Head Yoshi agreed to give him one such tome if he would promise to report the whereabouts of an elven key rumored to be in the possession of one of the wives in the Harem.
On the seventh day, they approached the gates of Guamatra's greatest city: an enormous tulou flying the banners of Clan Ulfire Dragon. And at its heart, the wonders (and perils?) of The Harem beckoned...
Notes
- Guamatra is by msquixotic. It's an extremely cool hexcrawl, with lots of richness and complexity -- I definitely recommend checking it out. I'm also just enjoying the "tundra samaurai" aesthetic.
- Engaging with the CSOTIO-style depth of each tulou is an adjustment. I need to be better about listing locations that the characters can visit.
- Finding a good "entry point" into the scenario's intrigues was a little tricky, but that's on me for not preparing better over the past week. I think General Nobotake's job made sense, but I will make sure to study the Harem in detail so I can make sure all NPC interactions are done with more contextual awareness.
- I improvised the answer regarding music, but I think it fits.
- The key job was improvised based on the hexfill for 198-308
- I will be handing the rotating referee seat off to Jay, then EvilTables, so I will have plenty of time to study up on the harem dungeon. Excited to see what happens in November!