Back for the second round of this year's Advent Calendar. Just to catch you up if you find this first:
- Advanced Fighting Fantasy ruleset backed by One-Page Mythic.
- Draw two cards from Philip Reed's Decks of OSR Encounters and find some way, possibly interpretive, to combine them.
- Once per day through Christmas.
- All (for now) involving Barston and Derron from the pre-blog Ick + Humb stories.
- All somewhat related longer quests to:
- Find a way to bring the dead elvish princess Astrid back to life (pre-blog stuff, don't worry about it) which seems to involving finding [THE BOX] for [THE OLD MAN] (elements I haven't solved, yet).
- Spread the new Church of Sennas.
This means for today we have to draw two cards and see where it gets us...hopefully a shorter confrontation than yesterday's:
- Card 79: 2d4 Dwarves need help with an evil mage in the tower (she has skeletal minions).
- Card 78: Cleric needs help carrying food to a nearby village.
Ok, let's say the Dwarves are the encounter. Except they are the ones carrying food...wait, no. That's way too similar to the Dwarven Halls quest. Let's say the cleric is the encounter. He is carrying food to a village. That village is currently caught off from its fields and the road by a mage tower that appeared out of nowhere and the evil wizard inside has raised an army of the undead.
For reasons.
Let's come up with a village name. I'll just draw another card: 178 Cursed Tree. Yew. Yewforth.
Now, this will not be a single scene so what this means is that we'll play a bit with the cleric and then head off to navigate the tower and Yewsforth over a few days across a few "highlights." As soon as we get a card that feels like it could be the evil wizard, the quest will be complete.
OH, and I need a name for the new Priest. Let's just give a whack with DiceGeek's new Book of Random Tables: Fantasy NPCs. Starting on page 49, there are several tables of Human Names. Going with Human Names #1: 73 Fenwick Tate. Good enough for me!
It was near the eastern edge of the Mountains Midnight that Barston and Derron found the priest of Fenwick in his troubles. The day had been spent heading back west, deeper into the island of Phillia, across the grassy plains.
As usual of late, there was no particular goal in mind. The old man had said they would know the box when they found it. As of yet, nothing had suggested itself as being the item in question.
Thus, seeing an old wagon half-damaged by combat and a middle-aged man resting against, nursing wounds, the pair wondered if this might be the thing for which they were searching. It was not the case, but it did lead to other adventures. As is the way of such things. Especially when Barston Bakersfield is involved.
"Ahoy, there, do you need assistance?," Barston calls out to the unknown man from a distance. The man, likely in his forties or fifties, leans against the wagon and nurses wounds that fit the general shape of cuts. A wagon nearby has food upon it, though both the food and the wagon itself shows signs of damage, likely from the same incident that has bloodied the poor fellow.
Though the fact that the food is still there, though a bit damaged, suggests either particularly unhungry bandits did the attacking or someone of some skill defended. Or...
"It could be a trap," Derron says. And Barston nods. Because, as always, it could be that.
Only if it is a trap, it is a friendly one. The man blinks a few times and eyes the strangers and quickly decides they must be help rather bane, or at least that's what he wants them to think, and shouts back. "Ja! Ja! Hallo. Sorry, ik ben een beetje gewond." Then laughs at the look on their face and speaks in common Phillian, though with a bit of an accent. "I mean, I am sorry. I have been a bit wounded."
Barston walks forward and says a few words in an ancient, pre-Phillian tongue, and once more then colors flash around him like he is painting a new reality, and a fair few of the wounds heal up.
"Ah, a healer. Thank you. Not Galana, nee? No, ik think het niet. I had healed myself a fair bit. Luckily, most of this blood is old. Just resting before I try again."
"Try, what, good sir?"
"To get to Yewsforth. You know of it? Nee? Ah, near here. Back towards the mountains. Lovely place. I think. I have never seen it."
"Why were you going there, then?"
"I had a dream. Silly as it sounds."
"No, not at all."
"The dream said the people were starving. So I gathered up most of what our temple had left in the stores and set out. Galana provides those who provide, nee? I had dreams of a lovely little village and then screams and famine. I knew not what but I came."
"What caused these wounds?"
"Ah, skeletal creatures. Foul. Black blades and iron teeth. Terrible. My cousin was with me, he did not..."
"I am sorry."
"Galana also takes us back to the earth to feed the crops. May Faruin grow aardbeien en tomaten and feed a family, ja?"
"Ja," Barston says, glancing back towards Derron.
"Another quest," the young monk calls back. Not a question. A statement.
"Ja."
Derron calls out to the man on the ground. "What is your name, and where do the skeletons come from?"
And thus, Fenwick Tate told them of the tower that seems to have grown like a mushroom from the ground and is now cursing the village.
After a few minutes, Barston and Derron turned and began their walk in the direction indicated, unsure what they would find.
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