Our Mythic Bastionland, Session 10

Here’s the play report for our ninth session of Mythic Bastionland, which we played last night. If you’re just joining us, I’d recommend starting at the first session and reading forward from there. It’s all organized in a series, so it should be easy to find the posts that follow the first.   

Today’s post was aided by some session notes, so hopefully I won’t miss anything important. 

Trigger Warning: Our first player character death! (Don’t worry, the player had made a new PC during the session.) 

Last time, we left off in the wee hours of the night, the Knights each being split up and pursuing their own ends. 

We picked up in the morning. Ser Lyssa:

… woke in the covered street of Caerwyn town, with dim memories of a foggy night outdoors, and a bit of a hangover. 

Sir Yorick:

… bid farewell to Eloesa and then set out in search of his traveling companions. 

Sir Augustine:

… woke, put on his armor, and went looking for his fellow Knights, only to find them missing from their rooms in the Keep. He set out for Caerwyn Town, expecting to find them there, but on the way he discovered an open market being set up on the bridge between the town and the keep. It was dawn, and the people setting up the market seemed to be a mixture of locals and farmers from nearby lands. As he passed through the market, his ears pricked up when he heard his own name in the lyrics of a song, which went as follows:

The Three Foul Knights

There once were three Knights,
who were unholy frightes,
and wherever they didde goe,
they made the people knowe
that Knights are such a paine,
deserving of disdaine.

One Knight, arrayed in golde,
presents himself as bolde—
but a vaine fool was hee
as anyone can see!
Desiring ’bove all to be seene,
the Knight Sir Augustine.

The second Knight, a wenche
clad in a bloodie stenche,
brutal of hearte and mynde,
a crueler one yow won’t finde.
Best for yow to avoid her,
this Lyssa who is a Ser.

But fouleste of all the Knights,
him who avoides all fightes,
unarmoured, cladde in blacke,
yowr lovers heart he shall soon attacke!
A faithless, ghoulish asse—
Sir Yorick Childermasse.

This trio foule have ruined lives,
have stolenn the heartes of faithfulle wives,
have soyled countless marriage beddes
and lefte their betters lying deade.
Outlawes, to a one, they are,
roaming and cryming, neare and farre.

Disdain them all, thise foule trio,
and if yow spotte them, swiftly goe
away, and never truste them notte:
let not their crymes e’er be forgotte.
Brigande knights from a foreign lande,
they ought notte be left to stande.

Brave Knights, their betters, cutte them downe!
The raving womane, the golden clowne,
And thee lecherous ghoule in blacke:
if you spye them, swiftlie attacke!
Dryve them from our blessed realme,
smashe them, kille them, overwhelme!

Of discourteouse Knights we have no neede
neither their hate nor their greede.
Their lustfulle ways are farre worse
than the crowlest seer’s curse!
So dryve them out of our blessed realme,
smashe them, kille them, overwhelme!

Sir Augustined lingered for a moment, listening carefully, and when they finished the song, one of the villagers noticed him listening, and the group clammed up. Puzzled at the accusations in the lyrics, Sir Augustine—who had seduced exactly nobody—turned to the group’s squire, Davith:

… and asked if he’d heard the song already. Davith was surprised that Sir Augustine hadn’t noticed it in the tavern the night before, as someone had sung it there too. The group quickly deduced that this song must be the work of Yerkin, Eloesa’s jilted would-be lover, angry at the group because of Sir Yorick’s having swept Eloesa off her feet. 

The group took it relatively well, made their way back through the market (stopping to pick up some necessaries), and then left town. 

After reviewing their travel options, they rode to the southeast, making for the Garden of St. Bristofast, about which they’d heard from one of the guardsmen during their first trip to Caerwyn Keep. On the way, they discovered something strange in the rocky valley between two hills: a strange trail of slime running east-west. Along the slime trail, they spied strange runic writing in a language none of them had ever seen before, but which they could all understand immediately. The runes contained a jumbled repetition of one idea: a promise that “in time, the truth” would be revealed.  

They followed the slime trail up a hillside, baffled. They supposed that it must be an enormous snail or slug that had left the trail, and they rode up the side of the hill to the west of them, up the side of which the slime trail had tracked. From the top of the hill, they saw the slime trail continue on to the east as far as they could still see it, before disappearing behind the hills there. They also got a better look at the adjoining landscape, including rhe Garden of St. Bristofast, not far to the off southeast of the hill, some forest to the east and thicker forest to the southeast, as well as more abandoned farmland to the northeast. 

Instead of following the slime trail any further, the Knights decided to go to the Garden. When they arrived, they found a warm welcome by the monks who lived here, and the garden itself consisting of a topiary of mostly animals but also some saints. They asked to meet with the Abbot, who happily sat down with them and talked over dishes of spiced apple and pear and some apple-pear cider from the garden’s orchard. 

Over the course of the discussion, the Knights ended up speaking extensively of their own adventures, and learned the following things:

• The Garden of St. Bristofast presently had a history of at least two hundred years. There were no records for the place prior to two hundred years ago. The Abbot himself had been there for at least the past 50 years. It is staffed by monks alone, with no nuns whatsoever. 
• He did not know of any fifteen-foot magpie. He did know of a large, talking magpie named Whisperwing—apparently quite the gossip—but it was only hawk-sized, and known to nest to the south, near “the old fort.” 
• The “old fort” has been a ruin as far back as anyone knows, at least as long as the the records on hand at the Garden. It is supposedly fey in nature, and was once connected by a road to a place called “the chapel of the road,” which the Knights deduced was probably what they’d been calling the Temple of Mavrydd. 
• The seed that Sir Yorick had taken from the side chapel at the Temple of Mavrydd/The Chapel of the Road was for a tree of a type that the monk had never seen before, and, as he put it, “I know trees.” 
• There are stories that giants walked the land in ages past, and the abbot agreed that there were some structures in the Realm pointing to this fact, such as the massive bridge upon which Caerwyn Town stood. 
• The monk had never heard of any giant acorn with a hyponotic interior. 
• When asked how the monks protected the trees of the Garden against termites and similar pests, he explained that St. Bristan’s Wort, collected in great amounts and turned into a paste, could be applied to a tree to drive away the pests. Sir Yorick asked whether planting St. Bristan’s Wort at the foot of a tree might not have a similar effect, and was told that the wort could be gathered a little more than half a day’s ride south. 
• The best way to reach the Crimson Seer’s home was to travel straight east until they reached the Ibyn river, and then follow the river north into the swamp, where it would become shallower and dotted with muddy “sandbars,” and thus easier to cross. From the crossing point, they ought to see the Crimson Seer’s swamp castle in the distance. 
• Of the Crimson Seer,  they were told that she does leave her bog only occasionally, but mostly remains in her castle. She has strange habits but sees the future clearly, and has an agenda of her own. They were also warned not to be shocked at her appearance, and to try quell any reaction they had to seeing her. 
• Asking about giant snails, they heard of old folktales about a “giant snail that crept across the land” abducting children. The monk noted that a lot of folktales involve abduction of children, since they were told to children, and that it might just be an old wives’ tale. 
• About the swamp, which was called St. Hellane’s Bog, they learned that it was lousy with frogs, including some extremely large ones (as depicted in one of the topiary displays), and other frogs with a deafening cry that, en masse, could drive travelers mad. There are also some “special” frogs that the people of Bogtown (at the northwest corner of the swamp) are adept at catching. Bogtown could be reached by cutting across the swamp, but it was quite a slog and some would prefer to go around the swamp and its hazards to reach it.   

After their sit-down with the Abbot, he took them on a tour of the Garden, where they looked at the many topiary displays, including the sections that showed Knights and Saints of the past as well as the animals. In the animal section, one display stood out to them. It was of a tall, hairy creature with matted fur, a wolfish face, enormous ram’s horns, and a pair of enormous claws. This creature, the Abbot explained, was called “The Beast” and the shape and style of the display has remained consistent in the garden’s records for as long as records stood. Supposedly, The Beast is a creature prophesied to someday stalk the land, and so the monks maintained the display so that any visitor could recognize it when the time came. 

After some more bread and spiced fruit, the Knights retired to a room provided for them by the monks, though they insisted Davith sleep in the stables with the horses. The Abbot offered to have a monk instruct the squire in the care of horses, an offer that the Knights happily accepted. 

The next morning, after a breakfast of—you guessed it—bread and spiced fruit, the Knights set out to the east. As they rode past sparse copses of trees, they heard the normal singing of birds, and spied a healthy-looking deer among the trees once. As they traveled, they got a better look at the lands to the east: the beginnings of mucky swamp to the northeast, more abandoned farmland to the southeast, thicker forest to the southwest, and  the river to the east.

The Knights argued a bit about whether to ride right up to the river or to cut north immediately on sighting it in the distance. In the end, they rode to  northwest into the bog, confident they could reach the river easily inside the bog. However, as they entered the bog, they discovered that the sound of the croaking frogs was as terrible as they’d expected. Their mounts responded poorly—with the exception of Sir Yorick’s marsh horse—but they managed to keep their wits about them and avoid getting lost. 

[Along the way, there was a hilarious gag about using GPS—Global Positioning Squire—to find the river.]

The Knights reached the river and were easily able to cross it, despite Ser Lyssa’s deep, profound misgivings toward the water. They caught sight of what they took to be the Crimson Seer’s castle in the distance, some ways off to the east, surrounded by mud and standing water, but also glimpsed somthing else, much closer. Approximately 500 feet away, to the northeast, a large, dark form was crawling, low to the ground. Its form seemed to change as it moved: sometimes a whip-like tail was visible, at other times six legs, but they recognized the beast nonetheless from its matted black fur, wolfish face, its pair of horns, and its enormous claws:

In a fit of heroic stupidity bravado, Ser Lyssa let out a cry, raised her weapon, and charged at The Beast… alone. She struck it once with her sword before its claws tore straight through her, practically ripping her in half. The Beast roared and then turned, sinking its claws in the mucky soil and digging rapidly, quickly disappearing into the hole with a cry as the mucky tunnel disappeared behind it. 

Ser Lyssa was dead.RPI Ser Lyssa the Blood Chevalresse. 

The Knights gathered her remains, placing them on her horse’s back, and somberly hurried toward the Crimson Seer’s castle. At the front entrance, a manservant:

… met them, inviting in the two Knights, but in no uncertain terms telling them that Davith was not to enter the castle, and that he could stay outside with Ser Lyssa’s corpse. 

The Knights accepted this (and Ser Lyssa’s player rolled up a new knight in the background), and the surviving Knights entered the castle. The manservant led them into a sitting room fully decked out in red and gold, and then invited them to rest a bit there, before finding their way to the Crimson Seer. 

The Knights wandered, finding several drowned rooms, and a bewildering room clotted with a mysterious fog, and with a shattered stairway leading up to the second floor. The fog vexed Sir Augustine, dulling his mental acuity somewhat. [He lost 3 CLA after failing a CLA check.] Unable to find a way up given the state of the stairs, the Knights returned to the sitting room and searched carefully. Soon, Sir Yorick found a dumbwaiter large enough for an unarmored person to sit within. He got in, pushed a button, and had his first, off-putting elevator ride. He sent the dumbwaiter down to Sir Augustine, who removed his armor, setting it on the divan in the sitting room. Unarmored, Sir Yorick got into the dumbwaiter and joined Sir Yorick on the second floor. 

The room  was sparsely furnished, but the Knights saw a sign on a table, as well as a pack of five very large dogs lying on the floor:

One of the dogs looked up at the Knights, watching them carefully. Sir Yorick approached the table in the room, and read the sign, which read, “Thankes bee to yow for the giftes yow beare.”

Childermasse placed his Century Bloom, as well as his seed from the side chapel at Mavrydd’s Temple/The Chapel of the Road, along with some moss from the moss bear cave at Mavrydd’s Temple. Seeing this, Sir Augustine reached into his pack and produced some salt fish jerky from Caerwyn Town, which he placed beside these gifts on the table. 

The dog that had been watching them sniffed at these gifts, eyeing SirAugustine with a hint of disgust, before turning to Sir Yorick and saying one word, “Fine,” before settling down onto the floor and dozing off.  

The room had two exist: one to the east, and another to the west. As they looked up from the dogs, they glimpsed a figure standing in the entrance to the east. It was a woman in opulent red clothing, dressed like a high-class lady. The bosom of her gown was low-cut, revealing an extremely bizarre sight, for through the skin of her chest, the Knights found they could see hear beating heart within her. 

“Welcome to my abode,” she said. 

And that’s where we ended. Oh, well, except for one thing: the late Ser Lyssa’s player told us just a little bit about the (disgusting) new player character he’d rolled up, who will join the team next session. Here’s a sneak preview:

More about him, and about the Knights’ encounter with the Crimson Seer, next time.  Finally, here’s the hexmap as it stood at the session’s end: