DM: This is the second installment of the Karyst online gaming session. This gaming session is only open to those who have made arrangements with the DM (me :) ).

IC:
Slowly, under the urgence of the Mayor, the gathered townspeople begin to disperse. Still clearly shaken, they wander off in small groups, seeking comfort from one another. A small band of men, none of whom you recognise, remain behind with the Mayor to care for the body, no covered by a rough sheet.

As the party turns and moves into the woods, Mr. Devious emerges from the retreating townsfolk. Shouldering up to Kahraman he says: "I think you could use another Strongarm friends, let me join you."

Under partial moonlight, you move into the woods northeast of the town. At first, the forest growth is light, and under the guidance of Rhywdd and Kahraman following the trail is not difficult to follow, even in the dark. What remains unclear is whether the body of the young man was dragged from out of the woods, or managed to crawl to his final resting place.

After moving about 30 feet into the woods, the direction of the trail becomes blurred. There is a small clearing of sorts here, about 15 feet across. However, in every direction other than that from which you came, the forest thickens. Throughout the clearing there are splotches of blood, presumably from the body found in Malvrin. Near the middle of the clearing stands a small standing stone; square and stout, it stands about one-and-a-half feet tall and less than half a foot across.

Zey creeps silently into the woods, looking around for anything out of place. He creeps towards the stone and examines it closely, listening to any noises he hears.

Upon closer examination, Zey notices that numerous writings or runes of some sort are written along the south- and north-facing sides of the stone. However, due to the lighting conditions (and Zey is unable to see in the dark), he is unable to discern in what language they are written, or if they are random scribblings.

DM: A note for those without dark vision or similar - although there is moonlight, it is not bright enough for you to pick out many details.

Rhwydd lights her lantern and approaches the stone, holding the lantern from her outstretched arm so that the stone is illuminated for the others to see.

"Thank you Rhwydd"

Zey kneels by the stone, trying to read the stone (i don't remember if he has decipher script)

Keeping his back to the lantern light, Varg methodically searches the clearing perimeter, looking for any sign that something passed into or out of the clearing recently.

Devious crouches down and stays behind Zey peering over his shoulder. He doesn't touch the stone or get within a metre of it but tries to 'appraise' (+6) it anyway. (Assuming he doesn't recognise it) Devious backs slowly away from the stone and towards the half orc. He nooks an arrow turns the bow sideways then squats on the balls of his feet next to the half orc. Closing his eyes, he listens (+6) very carefully for any sound of movement in the surrounding forest.

Upon closer examination of the stone, several small inscriptions can be made out along its sides. Although they are faded from time and the elements, the simple inscriptions are still fairly clear. They appear less like words or script and more like symbols, but their exact meaning eludes you. Neither Zey nor Rhwydd seem to be able make any sense of the inscriptions.

Devious' appraisal of the stone would indicate that it is quite old, and has probably stood here for several hundred years. Beyond any value as an antique, or possibly an artifact of an ancient civilisation, it is a plain stone (granite).

Varg searches about the small clearing, finding nothing other than more splotches of blood, most probably that of Harred. The areas of blood appear to be more concentrated in specific sections of the clearing, such as near where you entered, and on the north west side of the clearing where the forest thickens considerably.

Other than the distant sounds of an owl, and the gentle rustling of small animals amidst the undergrowth, there are no sounds of any consequence.

Devious - "funny no one mentioned this back in the village........
"I mean here's this old stone, been here for ages, if I'm any judge, in the midlle of this very conspicuous circle, and no bugger thought to say anything about it.......

XP from the last online session:

Devious - 165
Rhwydd - 160
Varg - 160
Zey - 155

We'll use the RC threads to discuss anything to do with Karyst in the future - or email me directly. (I've put a re-cap of the session on the site for Capstone, Invoker and Erran here: http://www.geocities.com/bartholope ).

DM:

The fallen goblin still lay unconscious on the forest floor. Varg, having chased down the one goblin to flee the battle, returns with his captive in tow. Of the other two, one lay dead while the third continues to grovel and plead at Devious' feet. "No Kill! Take bread! No Kill", he begs the victorious group, his head bowed to the ground.

[This message has been edited by Gnolyn Lochbreaker (edited November 26, 2001).]

After depositing his whimpering captive with the others, Varg looks disgustedly over at Zey:

"What was this all about, eh? There wouldn't have been any bloodshed if you hadn't started it with your rash attack. Now you try to kill the prisoners? Bandits and barbarians do things like that, not heroes! You think because Kahraman's not here, anything goes? If so, think again! Varg is no brigand or friend of brigands, got it?"

Devious - "No, err that's OK you can keep the bread. I didn't mean to shoot him like that it was just that he wouldn't put his weapon down."

"I was just going to ask you all a few questions, I even offered you some food in exchange - though it seems a bit late for that now"

"Maybe you can tell us what has been going on and no one else will have to be hurt. We were tracking ehh something that we think killed a man from the village. Have you seen anything unusual come through here, besides us I mean"

Zey blinks at Varg a couple of times. "They would have turned on us, you can't trust goblins."


OoC: One question... Why did i get the least XP?

Varg frowns sourly at Zey's words. "Well, my experience is you can't trust humans or orcs much either. I suppose we should kill all of them as well?

Don't forget, your actions nearly got Rhwydd killed. She wasn't hurt until after the goblins tried to surrender. Faugh!"

Varg turns away from the halfling and looks at the surviving goblins. "So, runt, where do you come from? Are things really so bad for you that some bread and cheese is worth dying for?"

OoC If anyone is struggling for icons for the next live session, I've knocked some up and put some links to others here:
http://www.maturegamer.net/DownloadExtras/Devious/OpenRPGIcons.html