Hugo Tuya’s guards have defeated a bandit gang and stolen their treasure, and now they make their way to the town of Ibara to rest. After the battle they chose to rest near the site of their victory, because Yoog was still recovering from poison and they had wasted half their day’s travel fighting. They set up camp on a small hillock near the road, where they could keep sight of their wagon, and slept well. The Archipelago has no moon, but the night is often illuminated by sepctral fingers of silvery-grey light that flicker high overhead in the night sky. Called the sunshard, these are generally believed to be the sun’s promise that it will return in the morning, and are generally seen as a good omen for the coming day. On this night they appeared in their fullest glory, waxing so bright at times that they glowed a pale green. The guards enjoyed this show and the strange, otherworldly form that the world around them took on under the ghost lights before they slept, hopeful for good things to come with the dawn. The roster for today’s session:

  • Bao Tap, human stormcaller
  • Calim “Ambros” Nefari, human rimewarden
  • Itzel, elven astrologer
  • Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
  • Quangbae, human explorer with an interest in crafting and metalwork
  • Yoog, changeling scoundrel on the run from a job gone wrong

The following day they resumed their journey, and two days later arrived in Ibara without incident.

Ibara

Ibara is a small town of perhaps 1500 people built at the fork of a river. A stream from the great forest to the south and the highlands to the north join here before taking a more sedate course eastwards to the sea, along the road the PCs had taken from Inorat. Ibara stood at this confluence, with most of the town sprawled over the northern banks of the rivers and a small portion on the southern side. The town’s Bailey rose from the north bank of the river, built on a natural rise that ran perhaps 300m along the river bank. The Motte stood on the south side of the river in the fork, connected to the Bailey by a strong wood and stone bridge. The area west of the Motte was partially protected by an oxbow lake and a wide marsh linking the two streams, so that attacking from the west would require wading through sodden fields and reeds. In this marsh the people of Ibara harvested their famous frogs, while in the farms on the eastern side of the town they grew corn and barley. The town itself was surrounded by a low and largely decorative palisade, and the Bailey barely maintained its basic defensive structure, because Ibara had not been seriously attacked by deepfolk or any other major force for perhaps a century.

The PCs entered the town towards late afternoon under a light rain, and took accomodation in a hotel called the Precipice that stood on the rise next to the Bailey, commanding an impressive view of the river below and the looming Motte. They took dinner with Tuya, his “niece” and assistants, and here deployed on him the lie that they had determined to use to escape his watch for the two days they needed to go and find Verbere’s iron stash. They told him that Yoog’s poison remained bad, and that they needed to travel outside of town to find certain herbs and other materials necessary for an elven cure that would work against the poison and finally rid Yoog of it. They guessed it would take two days – one to go to the area where the herbs could be found and one to return. Hugo Tuya’s “niece” perked up at the possibility of two days resting in town, and as they had expected Hugo Tuya agreed to the plan in order to placate her. They would set off early the next morning while Tuya enjoyed a day’s rest in the hotel.

The iron

The next morning, bright and early, the PCs left Ibara heading north east to find the location of the iron cache. They traveled all day to the approximate area noted on the map that came with Verbere’s letter, reaching it towards afternoon as the second of the season’s storms began to roll in from the sea. Against the increasingly heavy rain and the driving winds they searched calmly and patiently for clues, losing energy and patience as day darkened to night and their clothes and equipment became soaking wet.

Finally, after some hours of searching, as the sun sank below the horizon and the storm crouched angrily over the forests, they found a small path leading off the main trail and into a dense patch of trees. Something about it resembled the notes on their map so they struck inward, pushing through dripping branches and slipping and sliding on the mossy ground until they broke into a small clearing on a slight rise. Here the trees drew back from the high ground, seeming strangely twisted and stunted, and they found a circle of four rough-hewn stones standing at the four compass points, just as the map had promised. In the centre of the circle a large stone lay on the ground, partly submerged and slippery with moss. All the stones were ancient, cracked and worn, but clearly placed there by someone. Tuya’s guards gathered at the edge of the circle, staring at the ominous standing stones in the dim circle of light thrown from their lanterns, and looked uneasily at each other. Lightning flashed overhead and the trees creaked and rumbled in the heavy wind, but the centre of the stone circle felt still, as if somehow the wind had blown around it. Somewhere beyond the comfortable orange circle of light from their weak lanterns a shadow moved, and Itzel jumped at the though that something stalked them.

Still, there was iron to be had. They moved to the location the map noted and began to dig. Using the bone pick and rough scrap shovel they had bought in Ibara the going was initially difficult, but after perhaps an hour they opened a hole into some kind of underground chamber, and suddenly a large section of ground collapsed, dragging Calim knee deep into the ground and revealing a low-ceilinged room beneath the rise. The room stretched back underground into darkness, and in the faint light of the lanterns held above him Calim could see bones gleaming white on the ground. He looked up into the shadowed faces of his colleagues standing around the rim, suddenly framed in stark brilliance by a flash of lightning, shrugged, grabbed a lantern, and began to crawl inside.

Once in the room the earth above stilled the sounds of the storm and he found himself in a cold, dark, damp cave. The floor was littered with white bones, obviously humanoid, perhaps mostly arm and leg bones, that had been scattered seemingly with no order and purpose across the whole space. Strange, whispering sounds emerged from the darkness beyond his weak lantern light but when he moved towards them and shone the light inward all he could see was the dark wall of earth at the back of the cave. He moved in a little more, doing his best to resist the urge to flee, and saw it: an oiled leather sack leaning against the standing stone. He slithered forward through the wet earth, trying not to touch the bones, until he could reach out and grab it. Behind him the light of his colleagues’ lanterns disappeared in the gloom, and all he had was his own weak orange light to press back against the whispered warnings and strange sounds coming from the darkness. Telling himself it was just some strange sound effect from the storm, perhaps channeled down from the stone above, he dragged the sack forward. It clinked satisfactorily and carved a track through the dirt with its weight. Grunting with pleasure, Callim began to drag himself backward until he saw his friends’ light again. He scuttled backward rapidly then, dragging the sack with him, and was relieved to emerge back into the orange glow and feel the cold rain on his face. They helped him out of the hole and gathered around the sack. Inside, as they expected, they found 10 perfect ingots of high quality iron, stamped with a horrid emblem of a leering skull. It must be a deepfolk emblem.

In any case, they did not care: they had iron! They hurriedly filled in the hole they had made, packing it so it would not collapse again as it had done when they had first dug it open, and scuttled back to the road, casting anxious glances over their shoulders at the strange, silent circle of stones. Who had built it? What was buried there and why? Why had Aveld the Foul been there, and why had he left the iron? Questions to be asked in the sunlight no doubt.

The greed and the lies

They spent an uncomfortable night huddled on the road in the waning storm, and woke early the next day to clear skies and reassuring sunlight. They set off early after a cold breakfast, and returned to Ibara by mid-afternoon with their treasure carefully hidden on Itzel’s faun[1]. They bathed, rested, and carefully secreted the iron where they hoped Hugo Tuya would not see it by accident, but in the late afternoon their careful activities were interrupted by a messenger from the hotel staff: a woman waited to talk to them downstairs.

Not expecting visitors, they dressed quickly for a meeting – carefully managing to remember not to wear armour or carry weapons – and descended to find a harrowed, tired-looking middle-aged woman waiting for them in the hotel restaurant, a brace of ales sitting on the table with her. She bade them sit and introduced herself: she was Verbere’s widow. She had heard they returned from breaking a bandit group and wondered if they had heard of him? He had set out some days ago “to make some money” and had not been seen since.

They said they knew nothing of such a man, but she told them about his treasure box and they admitted they had it. They handed it over to her, and she opened it to read the letters. Once she learnt of the iron she explained to them that she and her husband had fallen on hard times and really needed this iron to escape from debt, which was why he had left to find it. The bandits must have killed him and stolen the iron – had they found it in the bandits’ possession? They told her no, they knew nothing of it[2].

Then, she concluded, it must still be buried at the site noted on the map. She asked them if they would be willing to go and get it for her, and split the proceeds of selling it? They requested time to confer and then decided as a group that no, this iron was theirs, not hers, and they would not share any of it with her. They returned to the table and told her that though they would like to help her they could not: they were contracted to Hugo Tuya and could not, sadly, accept a double contract. So it was that sadly they must decline her generous offer. Perhaps someone else could help her? Calim and Bao Tap gave her a little money to tide her over while during her difficult time, and they again apologized sadly for not being able to help her. She gave them a resigned expression of disappointment, and left them to their ales.

They had lied to a poor bereaved woman, while upstairs her dead husband’s armour lay in their closet along with the treasure he had died searching for. Had that been wise? And had it been worth it?

They concluded yes on both counts, and did not think on it further. The iron was theirs and the past, like Verbere, was dead and gone.

 

fn1: Itzel is an elf, and has a small deer-like creature as a beast of burden

fn2: A small Genesys rules footnote here. When the PCs buried the hole in the ground they did a check to make sure they properly covered it, and they rolled two advantages. I asked Kyansei’s player how to use the advantages, and she said they enabled her to shore up the hole so that it would not collapse if dug into again. She did <em>not</em> say that she covered it up so that it was not clear it had been recently disturbed. So should Verbere’s widow lead an expedition to the cache in the next few days, she will no doubt discover that it has been very recently dug up and the iron taken. She may even see the drag marks in the underground chamber from Calim’s amateur efforts at moving the iron. It won’t be hard for her to figure out what that means, and who knows? Maybe she can rile the town up in defense of her recently bereaved husband’s legacy. Would she do that? I guess we’ll find out in session 4 …