6.06.2005
The Conclusion of “B4: Return to Greyhelm” Part II: Of Gods And Men. And Half-Men.
We’ll do this in parts.
Brogg first. Brogg, pretty soon the spell wears off. You find yourself in the woods, actually not too far from where Arvid’s camp is. You wonder where the hell Mike got off to, but say to hell with him, you need to get back to the fight!
Just as you turn your horse around, you hear a mighty
TWANG TWANG
THUNK THUNK
NEIGH NEIGH
WHOOMP.
That’s the sound of a longbow firing twice, into your horse, which cries out in pain, and falls over. You struggle to get out from under your horse, when you see a massive figure step out of the darkness into a little bit of light coming from a break in the tree cover where the moon has some light still there for you to see this. It’s Leuco! He just killed your horse!
As you begin to stand, the enormous supposedly-just-half-a-troll says: “Well met in Grisbane, friend Brogg. I see you have made your choice, to kill the chimerical constructs and rid this land, and Grisbane’s domain, of what you consider impure. So be it. I’ll be taking those mittens now. Now is not the time for us to fight; when next we meet though, I shall not spare your life.”
Leuco then kicks your ass. We could play it out over the next couple days, rolling this and rolling that, but I’ll come to the point. He kicks your ass.
…
“Hey there buddy… can you hear me? You alright?” You hear a familiar voice, faintly… opening your eyes, it’s light out, and you see AAHG OH MY GOD oh no, nevermind, it’s just Ralph’s huge head. You’re lying on the ground, but not where you were before. No dead horse. You’re back at Arvid’s camp! Arvid and Ralph are there looking at you.
“Hey,” says Arvid. “You look like shit. What’s going on?” You tell Arvid what transpired, hurridly, and that you must get back to your friends. “Well, it’s been a couple days, Brogg. So hang on a second, because I think you could use my help right now.” You calm down, but check your possessions. Sure enough, the Mittens of Friendship are missing, as are all your Owlbear Protection potions. Everything else is intact though, oddly enough.
Back at the farm, Dave and Cinder, you guys come to! They didn’t kill you apparently. You’re both tied up, gagged and bound, stripped and feeling like shit. Still in the barn, apparently it’s still night. Vrill is arguing with the Priests of Isaac what to do with you…
“They… they killed MY WIFE! AND MY DAUGHTER! How can you let them live! They deserve to die!” screams an understandably upset Vrill.
“Only God in his Infinite Wisdom” and pause, they both bow their heads for a second, smiling benignly like Jesus does when you see pictures of Jesus, looking at each other in love before Lady Sarah continues, “Only God dictates how one man lives and dies.”
“No, no… NO!” yells Vrill. “You, with your sword, you decide when you kill a guy! These guys are criminals and murderers! That one, he’s just a terrible drunkard priest! And that one, Meefer, he’s… he’s a traitor to the Guild!” Cinder, you kind of wake up a little more when you hear Vrill say that. Huh? Apparently that was a hell of a disguise you had. “These guys hate me… if you leave them alive, they’ll just come back. Haven’t you read those stories!? These guys ALWAYS COME BACK. KILL THEM NOW!!!”
There’s a bit more discussion, but the gist is this. Dave, you’ll be ransomed back to the Clergy of Odin in Greyhelm. Apparently that’s what priests do when they fight each other. Cinder… they have something else in mind for you.
Rupert says “Good Master Gregory, didn’t you say you needed a, mm, how do I say, subject, for activation of the ancient weather device?” He points at you Cinder and says “Rather than risk that fat but well-meaning apprentice of yours, why not this louse?”
Vrill looks at you Cinder and pauses, his mouth kind of half open, with a gleam in his eye. “Well… okay… I guess we can take him along. But I don’t have to be nice to him, do I?”
“Why don’t you try being nice. I think that would be a good effort for you.” Rupert and Sarah seem to agree about this.
“But not, you know, EXTRA nice,” says Vrill, looking back at them.
“No, not EXTRA nice.”
“Let’s do it.”
The rest of it goes by pretty quickly. Dave, they march you back into town (Cinder is knocked out and dragged along), and back to the temple. Bjorn Bjornenson is drunk as hell, and accepts their demands:
1) You cannot leave the temple for a week
2) They get all your stuff
3) You are Geased (Quested really) so that you may not EVER harm a devotee of Isaac of the Jug or anyone under their protection. Namely, Vrill.
In short, it sucks. They leave you at the temple, Lord Rupert taking your plate mail and mace and commenting as he goes that he has an idea for these foul unholy relics. They take Cinder too. Lord Bjornenson claps you on the back and congratulates you for your victory, in complete earnestness, and then passes out on the table.
Brogg first. Brogg, pretty soon the spell wears off. You find yourself in the woods, actually not too far from where Arvid’s camp is. You wonder where the hell Mike got off to, but say to hell with him, you need to get back to the fight!
Just as you turn your horse around, you hear a mighty
TWANG TWANG
THUNK THUNK
NEIGH NEIGH
WHOOMP.
That’s the sound of a longbow firing twice, into your horse, which cries out in pain, and falls over. You struggle to get out from under your horse, when you see a massive figure step out of the darkness into a little bit of light coming from a break in the tree cover where the moon has some light still there for you to see this. It’s Leuco! He just killed your horse!
As you begin to stand, the enormous supposedly-just-half-a-troll says: “Well met in Grisbane, friend Brogg. I see you have made your choice, to kill the chimerical constructs and rid this land, and Grisbane’s domain, of what you consider impure. So be it. I’ll be taking those mittens now. Now is not the time for us to fight; when next we meet though, I shall not spare your life.”
Leuco then kicks your ass. We could play it out over the next couple days, rolling this and rolling that, but I’ll come to the point. He kicks your ass.
…
“Hey there buddy… can you hear me? You alright?” You hear a familiar voice, faintly… opening your eyes, it’s light out, and you see AAHG OH MY GOD oh no, nevermind, it’s just Ralph’s huge head. You’re lying on the ground, but not where you were before. No dead horse. You’re back at Arvid’s camp! Arvid and Ralph are there looking at you.
“Hey,” says Arvid. “You look like shit. What’s going on?” You tell Arvid what transpired, hurridly, and that you must get back to your friends. “Well, it’s been a couple days, Brogg. So hang on a second, because I think you could use my help right now.” You calm down, but check your possessions. Sure enough, the Mittens of Friendship are missing, as are all your Owlbear Protection potions. Everything else is intact though, oddly enough.
Back at the farm, Dave and Cinder, you guys come to! They didn’t kill you apparently. You’re both tied up, gagged and bound, stripped and feeling like shit. Still in the barn, apparently it’s still night. Vrill is arguing with the Priests of Isaac what to do with you…
“They… they killed MY WIFE! AND MY DAUGHTER! How can you let them live! They deserve to die!” screams an understandably upset Vrill.
“Only God in his Infinite Wisdom” and pause, they both bow their heads for a second, smiling benignly like Jesus does when you see pictures of Jesus, looking at each other in love before Lady Sarah continues, “Only God dictates how one man lives and dies.”
“No, no… NO!” yells Vrill. “You, with your sword, you decide when you kill a guy! These guys are criminals and murderers! That one, he’s just a terrible drunkard priest! And that one, Meefer, he’s… he’s a traitor to the Guild!” Cinder, you kind of wake up a little more when you hear Vrill say that. Huh? Apparently that was a hell of a disguise you had. “These guys hate me… if you leave them alive, they’ll just come back. Haven’t you read those stories!? These guys ALWAYS COME BACK. KILL THEM NOW!!!”
There’s a bit more discussion, but the gist is this. Dave, you’ll be ransomed back to the Clergy of Odin in Greyhelm. Apparently that’s what priests do when they fight each other. Cinder… they have something else in mind for you.
Rupert says “Good Master Gregory, didn’t you say you needed a, mm, how do I say, subject, for activation of the ancient weather device?” He points at you Cinder and says “Rather than risk that fat but well-meaning apprentice of yours, why not this louse?”
Vrill looks at you Cinder and pauses, his mouth kind of half open, with a gleam in his eye. “Well… okay… I guess we can take him along. But I don’t have to be nice to him, do I?”
“Why don’t you try being nice. I think that would be a good effort for you.” Rupert and Sarah seem to agree about this.
“But not, you know, EXTRA nice,” says Vrill, looking back at them.
“No, not EXTRA nice.”
“Let’s do it.”
The rest of it goes by pretty quickly. Dave, they march you back into town (Cinder is knocked out and dragged along), and back to the temple. Bjorn Bjornenson is drunk as hell, and accepts their demands:
1) You cannot leave the temple for a week
2) They get all your stuff
3) You are Geased (Quested really) so that you may not EVER harm a devotee of Isaac of the Jug or anyone under their protection. Namely, Vrill.
In short, it sucks. They leave you at the temple, Lord Rupert taking your plate mail and mace and commenting as he goes that he has an idea for these foul unholy relics. They take Cinder too. Lord Bjornenson claps you on the back and congratulates you for your victory, in complete earnestness, and then passes out on the table.
