Steve's Session Notes

[Uthoroc]

Travel to the Realm of Lord Bredain, in the meadows approaching a tower and tremor in the ground is felt, indicating something happening to the south. The peasants, mostly shepherds, living outside Still Tower also felt the tremor. Irving requests and is given the carcasses of a few stillborn lambs.

The guard on the gate when asked about legends mention Bear-a-Boar but it was a story to frighten children. Well received by Sir Ozaner who is a good host a keen to hear tales of adventures. He is quite young and want to travel but had been put in charge of this place as a test by his father. His brother elder Sir Godak, who lives in Ember Tower, had opportunity to be a knight errant and his older sister, Lady Eliasan governs Stoff Town. She is a keen hunter and is excluded from accession to the kingdom. Bredain seems to be using this as a test to see which brother is most suited to take his place as Eliasan is surely destined to marry and perhaps move away. Ozaner suggests talking to the Ellery, the Celebrated Seer who lives nearby, about the rumbling.

Ariadne and Bognauld stay at the reception while Irving and Vikal go to see if the local peasants know anymore about the rumbling. Some short blue men run past them in the dark, chased by a man on horseback. It's a farmer who thinks they are spies from another kingdom. The little blue men disappear into the shadows.

The next day they visit the seer who is gambolling in the meadows, full of joy and merriment. When his passion is suitably raised, he hails the knights by name and tells them of a hole that has appeared in the ground, a day's ride south. He suggests there is some work proceeding near the hole by some emerald clad men to create a stone building of some sort. He also presages a cold wind blowing soon.

The knights avoid a chasm in the ground and camp out in the prairie. As they travel south, a cold grey wind whistles by, Ariadne determines that it carried bone bust, and it makes the bones of Irving's lamb carcasses rattle.
The next day they encounter a giant statue, made of balanced and fitted rocks, of a centaur like creature with a bear's torso and a boars abdomen and legs. It's being admired by three men dressed in green plate armour. They walk off but as the knights ride up, one turns and explains that they are Ardwrights and they been sent to make a statue of Bear-a-boar, the deposed King of the Beasts. The other two Ardwrights have disappeared. The knights continue to question the green man as he walks down into the hole. He isn't keen on offering any explanation except that he was doing his job. He too seemingly descends steps into the hole but as Vikal throws some dirt on the steps, it just lands on the outside surface of the hole. There's some kind of invisible lid that the Ardwright just walks through. It's impervious to any attempts to penetrate it, even when Bognauld uses his special shovel.

There are tracks round the hole from the Ardwrights and the little blue people, Holfolk. A shepherd approaches and says he saw the green and blue men and offers the Knights shelter at his croft for the night. There is a great roaring sound. Outside some large indentations are found in the ground, tracks of a large beast, possibly half the size of the statue. A tree is pushed over some 100 yards away in the dark. Irving questions a raven disturbed by the commotion who describes the beast coming towards them, allowing them to form a line. The beast charges Bognauld who manages to shrug off the worst of its enormous claws and everyone slashes in with their polearms and the beast goes down from terrible wounds. It is bound by Ariadne with her gossamer strands, while Bognauld digs for water and washes its wounds.

Then a group of blue men turn up with torches and chains and demand to take Bear-a-boar away with them. Bognauld is having none of this. The Holfolk explain that the deposed and exiled King of the Beasts must be returned below. The current king of the beasts is an Eagle. They don't work for the Eagle but if they can't have Bear-a-Boar, they will go make a complaint, to whom it's not clear. They expect an army of Ardwrights will be sent out to seize the captive. Irving gives more carrion to the raven who agrees to pass a message onto the King of the Ravens to inquire the name and location of the current King of the Beasts, the eagle. This, it is agreed, will be passed back to Irving at some point in the future. It takes a while for these messages to pass up and down the chain. The Holfolk depart leaving the chains behind. They neatly fit Bear-a-Boar and even a small tug on them compels him to move, although with much difficulty given his wounds. It is still the middle of the night.