Thursday, December 21, 2006

Young James Vawdry, and the Beginning of the Orgoth Mystery

The Warcaster Cyrus, to whom they owed so much, made a simple request: escort a scholar specializing in Orgoth tongues to a dig on the border of Cygnar and the Protectorate, and while they were there, deliver some messages to the guards there. Little did our travelers know how momentous this adventure would prove to be.

A stop in a town along the way led to their investigation of a mystery. A wizard trafficking with Infernal powers had ritually sacrificed several women, created an Iron Maiden (a clockwork construct powered by the soul of a warrior woman, and meant to protect its builder), murdered and trapped the soul of an Illuminator (a member of the wizardous Order of Illumination, which serves the Church of Morrow by investigating evil magic), and made pacts with an Infernal who had provided him with the information to perform all these crimes. At the last, a showdown with the man led to his death and the Infernal's escape, albeit without the soul of the wizard who had conspired with him. This Infernal would grow all too familiar.

At the border, our canny crew rescued a young Menite wizard named James Vawdry, who had fled from the Protectorate that had enslaved him for his power to create the constructs needed to build warjacks. The Cygnaran military took great interest in this rescue, as they hoped young James might hold secrets about the Protectorate's weapons. Here, they also encountered a man named Grigori Larsa, an archaeologist of hidden talents who wished to accompany them back to Caspia in order to deliver letters from the dig's administrator. Taking these two, they headed back to Caspia.

Along the way, the little band found themselves passing through another mystery: a haunted woods. For a thousand years had the ancient shades of a town and nearby Orgoth camp had dwelt in this forest, reliving the firelit events of one terrible night of death and sacrifice over and over. Lured in by echoes of voices and flitting shadows, our brave adventurers found themselves caught up in these ghosts of the past. They had no power to help the ancient dead, but when the Orgoth warriors turned on them, they fought off those spirits to uncover the source of the restless memories--a ritual Orgoth helm, left buried in the ground beneath the site for centuries and scribed with symbols in the Orgoth language of power, the ancient Telgesh script. This dangerous item, too, they carried with them to Caspia.

Upon boarding the train that would bear them to their destination, they met the Morrowan monk, Ichabod, of the Order of the Keeping, and an officer sent to take James into custody. On the train, they met several colorful individuals who would resurface during their travels: the Iosan they would come to know as Shas Menelyth; a fascinating inventor who claimed to have a device which could create paintings of objects almost instantly; a young Dwarven merchant-woman and weaponsmith; a Rynnish family traveling to make a new life for themselves, a well-to-do Llaelese family who turned out to be the Llaelese ambassador and his family, and a handsome woman of few words and many intimidating glares.

When the train came under seige by Menite monks come to capture James, they discovered the woman was a well-armed Morrowan paladin by the name of Camilla. With her help and the Iosan's, our merry band of misfits defended the passengers and thwarted the monks' attempt to gain control of the train, combating them through the cars of the train and along the roof to reach the engine. When the Cygnaran officer traveling with them found his cause lost there, he was forced to reveal himself as a double agent, intent on killing James if he could not return him to the Protectorate. Islene, particularly, took his betrayal to heart, having taken a liking to the man as well as to James against all her strongly held inclinations against Menites. She narrowly resisted her desire to simply gun the blackguard down, but in the end she simply incapacitated him, taking him into custody. Sadly, however, the agent would not live long. After they arrived at Caspia, the man was found dead in his cell. Investigation revealed him as a deep-cover agent that Cygnar had long been attempting to track.

The Cygnarans made the frightened young wizard James as comfortable as possible, while Grigori turned the helm over to the Order of Illumination, who announced themselves fascinated by the discovery.

2 Comments:

  • Damn, Camilla's scary.
    "Let's send Ian to get her. She likes Ian."
    Bastards.

    By Blogger Nicolle, at 6:41 AM  

  • Nicely recapped. Can't wait to see the rest of it.

    By Blogger Sarah, at 10:29 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home