CARDS
Semek’s Wife
Oblivion Sept
Horgrim
Giggles

We are locked in Thaabanite territory…
The road goes west towards “Snake Mountain”…
To the east is the Kraken…
We’re running out of food…
Snakes are massing along the ridges…
Hoargrim comes complaining…
Squee starts piping up a swarm of lickens…
The nohai start eating like crazy…
A runner breaks in to the conversation…
Semek’s wife found an amazing kill but needs help…
Squee’s eyes light up with a waft of apples…
And a voice says “my stomach is bursting”…
In a sound like creaking tree branches…
Khut hands Squee, Vadim, Sorq, and Breaks some weed…
While he and the rest head out hunting…
Out in the wastes, we find Nohai surrounding…
Some horn-beast-like creatures with heavy forequarters…
Nohai run around hooting…
Giggles egging them on…
Semek’s wife and the malik cavalry push them off…
Khut walks into the middle of them and says “Mine”…
Ithunn glares…
To Ithunn, “I mean ours…”
Khut and Giggles man up for a challenge…
Khut rips Giggle’s throat out with his teeth…
Ithunn steps up and similarly drops Kitty…
Everyone else starts trying to do non-Nohai diplomacy…
Barruk drives sparky into the riot…
Bellowing for people to disperse…
Ado drops a Compulsion and tells everyone to go home…
And the Nohai leave…
Hooch and Fletcher dragging off Giggles and Kitty
Meanwhile in drug-land…they chat with a tree…
“There is a cracking in my roots…”
“Something afflicting all the spirits…”
“Something has been birthed in the verge…”
“Something that does not belong there…”
“A potentiality that was only possible before…”
“All I can see is a burning crown…”
“A circle of gold on fire like the sun…”
“There are two separate problems…”
“My roots are cracking because of the change…”
“And I need to put down my burden…”
“My roots don’t hold here any more…”
“I must set them down before my roots break free…”
“Or I need power…”
“I thrive off of Hope…”
We suggest turning north…
There is a Thaabanite ruin…possibly amalgan inhabited…
We have no maps that way…
And its marching into Russia in winter…
Literally…
And full of gods and demons according to legend…
Southwest would be into the badlands…
Back into northern Gavshahar…
As they drop out of drug-land…
They see roots spreading throughout the encampment…
We feel a pull…drawing life from the caravan…
We haul back the massive “Shoulderbeast”…
And hand it over to Hulagu to start butchering…
Collecting the bones to boil into broth…
And Vadim starts handing out Goodberries…
To feed up a large hunting party…
Squee and Khut notice Semek’s wife dosing the meat…
Hulagu suddenly turns and attacks Sorqutani…
Swinging at her with a poison-coated cleaver…
His hands seemingly moving independently…
Nohai start howling in pain…
It looks like the entire hunting party is jacked…
And poisoning the food…
Khut punches Semek’s Wife in the face…
Barruk drops darkness on the brain-jacked Malik…
Semek’s (angry) wife stabs Khut…
Khut – “I’ve got Semek’s Wife handled…”
Ithunn – “Who’s being handled?!”
Khut – “No actual handling is going on…”
Squee geas’s Hulagu…and tells him to stand down…
CHARM OFF!
An angry Malik charges her…and misses…
One horn on either side…
And she starts painting the horns pink…
Ithunn leaps in and bitch-slaps Semek’s Wife…
Then kicks her twice…sweeps her off her feet…
Khut stands back to watch…
“I dreamt of this…”
Ado Purifies the food…
and steps between Hulagu and Sorq…
A Malik charges him…
Ado grabs a horn and fakes his death…
Another Malik charges Squee and gores her…HARD…
Sorq pulls out her giant spear-like wand…
AND…cone of fear…
in the direction of everyone who’s being an idiot…
Semek’s wife and a Malik start running
around like they are on fire…
Hulagu wails on Sorqutani…and bursts into flames…
AND Sorqutani blows up into a giant fireball…
Nuking everyone…EVERYONE…
Vadim grabs her as she falls over…
“Sorq, do that again!”
A pack of cackles appears and piles onto Hulagu…
AND another pack drops a Malik…
Wow that’s a lot of cackles…
Barruk gives a demonstration of proper goring technique…
Slamming into the Malik on Squee and tossing him…
Squee geas’s another Malik…
“Don’t hit anyone and let me paint your horns…pink…”
He responds by beating her unconcious…
Khadagan comes hurtling in…
Lands on the wolf-pinned Hulagu…and starts clawing…
Three Malik charge Khut…who sidesteps and keeps staring…
Because…there is a catfight over there…seriously…
They block his view…
Two of them a promptly fall to the ground…
Sorq paralyzes Hulagu and a pair of Malik…
The cackles tear Hulahu up…and another Malik…
Vadim whistles for them to stop…
just before they rip out Hulagu’s throat…
Barruk vanishes out from between a pile of Malik…
Reappears in a pack of Nohai…
starts curing poisons left and right…
and purifies the rest of the food…
Barruk: “I’m fluent in Nohai now…”
Khadagan: “I picked up a little Nohai tongue in
the last year, but I can’t speak it at all…”
Khadagan drops another Malik…
Leaving four still standing…and two paralyzed…
Three of whom charge Khad…he laughs…
Semek’s Wife ganks Ithunn with a poisned knife…
Then gets kicked to the curb in response…
Khut stares happily…
And caves a Malik’s face in with an elbow…
Ado aggressively bane’s the remaining Malik…
And Sorqutani lights them up…
And the cackles come back and pile on them…
Taking one more down…
Then Sparky comes rampaging in…trampling another…
Khadagan, Khut, and Ithunn join in the beatings…
and there was one…
That gets killed and torn up by the cackles…
Ado challenges Fletcher to a race to the Yaghuth…
Cheats…wins…and comes back with some Yaghuth priests…
Sorq, Ado, and Barruk purify and cook all the meat…
and we drop a whole lot of healing on the Nohai…
Khut notices Ithunn stalking him around the camp…
“Are you following me?”…book comes up…upside down…
Khut runs off…fishes a bone out of the pot…
Cuts off a sliver…hollows out the marrow…
And drops it in Ithunn’s lap…
some weird kind of beast-bone promise ring…
probably should have let her have the marrow…
At least Drowned River is pleased…
Vadim: “Everyone needs to be bumping Semek’s Wife…”
Khut: “I am NOT bumping Semek’s Wife…”
DM: Bursts out laughing for five minutes…
Ado takes Hoargrim to go meet the Yaghuth…
And starts teaching Hoargrim mindfulness meditation…
ONLY Ado could pull this off…
Yaghuth would not go anywhere near the battlefield…
Hoargrim sees them as useless pacifists…
Yaghuth might serve as a possession-warning-system…
The best idea Hoargrim has heard in all morning…
Barruk sits down to chat with the general…
Discussing our recent set-backs and the need to improve morale…
Suggesting a tour of the units to meet the troops…
Time for Hoargrim to go shake babies and kiss hands…
Teaching Hoargrim the politics of leading troops…
Squee gives him a serious beard-braiding…
Like Marie Antoinette’s hair…but a beard…
Sorq starts pushing him on the idea of a magic-wielding unit…
Time for Breaks, Rust, and the Gray Lady to start teaching…
Start finding those with talent…make a mage academy…
Weavers, maggot-folk, crazy warblers, would-be shamans…
Vadim hauls Semek’s Wife and the malik north…
Then wakes them up with Goodberries…
Starts suggesting that they need to scout to the North…
The snakes paralyze you with a gaze…
Only the elders can subsume your will…
Regardless of desire, you’re not in control of your body…
They have massed armies in the hills…
Mountain Slithers…sand devils…snakes…
Vadim suggests taking Yaguth priests with each scouting party…
Then Vadim takes point on the first hunting/scouting trip…
Lays some protection from wiggins on Semek’s Wife…
Amazons and Yaghuth form jack-detection squads incoming scouts…
We get intel on Thaabanite patrols…
Mostly client races…fewer and fewer Phanin…
Largely avoiding the Amalgam ruins to the north…
Khadagan goes in to Hundreds of Dust…asks her to bless his chitin armor…


And the author said, “This is good, this thing I have done.” And he went for lunch and a drink. And it was good!


- From the ramblings of Khut