Fearsome Feast

I, Comes Elias, commander of the Chimera Legion, have received this report from Brother Lucius, a priest of Daeus assigned to the Legion.

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The Legion is still searching for the lost prince to no avail. However, I received word of strange happenings occurring as the Feast of Noctus Mortum approaches. The dead are rising from the grave as unholy revenants. I set out with a detachment to investigate these reports.

We arrived at one graveyard and found a chilling sight. A necromancer was raising the corpses. I ordered the Legion to attack and destroy the necromancer.

I stayed back, planted a totem, and used the power of Daeus to combat the foe. The necromancer took a similar action, although he called upon the powers of dark gods.

"Destroy the necromancer's totem!" I commanded.

The legionaries rushed at the necromancer, but the undead barred their way. Soon, the clash of weapons against bone and the screams of soldiers pierced the air. Battle was on!

One legionary reached the necromancer and struck the totem. It pulsed then faded briefly. The necromancer uttered some spells and the totem flared with a new burst of power. We would need greater effort to defeat him.

Then a wave of the undead rushed me, attacking my totem. Once then twice they struck and damaged it, but I was able to restore it. My comrades rushed to my aid and drove off the abominations.

The undead kept falling to our blades, but the necromancer kept bringing them back. Meanwhile, our men were suffering grievous wounds. I used the power of Daeus to restore them as well as I could. They continued to fight on.

Finally, our men broke through. A legionary named Howl struck at the totem. Once, twice. It exploded in a blast of power. The undead collapsed and the necromancer began to fade from view.

But as he melted away, the necromancer scoffed at us. "You may have won this battle, but you can't get rid of me that easily. I, Kraxius, shall return to plague you another day!" Then with a cackle, he was gone.

A picture of Kraxius. From RJ

Searching the battlefield, we discovered a magic item - the Shroudwalker's Talisman. Presumably Kraxius lost it. I have awarded it to Howl for his heroics on the battlefield.

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GAME NOTES

• The Feast of Noctus Mortum is our game world's version of Halloween. I wanted to do something in a Halloween vein so I brought back Kraxius.
• Robb played Kraxius and I played Brother Lucius.
• The other players were
• Howl and Lionheart as legionaries
• Celer and Jayden as the revenants
• The game was essentially ring the bell. We played best of 5.
• Robb and I were both injured so we did not fight. Instead, we just cast spells. Rather than attacking us, the other players had to strike our our "totems," which essentially were the bells.

The Rescue

As I, Comes Elias, mentioned in my last report, the Duke returned from the castle after the Feast of Flowers with dire news.

"My royal nephews, sons of the king, have been kidnapped by raiders!" the Duke announced. "We must rescue them!"

The attendees of the feast divided into two retinues - one led by Gaston LaCroix, the Duke's right hand man and the other by the Duke himself.

The Raiders

From the reports, we learned that the nephews of Bertrand VI, Omri and Henri, were taken by hideous pig-faced monsters. Orcs!

Gaston's Retinue

The Duke and Gaston lead their men into the woods, hoping to cut off the orcs. The trail splits; Gaston takes the right path. 

Soon, Gaston's retinue sees the orcs with one of the boys struggling in a sack. They pursue.

Howl webs the orc with sack. The rest of the retinue converge and cut the orc down. They have rescued Henri!

But more orcs swarm. They drive off Gaston's group and recover the sack. One particularly stealthy orc grabs the sack and carries it through a magical portal.

Henri is gone!

The Duke's Retinue

Meanwhile, the Duke is in hot pursuit of the other band of orcs. His men spot the raiders and rush into the fray.

The Duke following behind, notices the magical portal. Realizing that the orcs mean to escape through the portal, he rushes to block the way.

The rest of the warriors converge on the orc carrying the nephew and cut the bestial creature down. Ulveblod then picks up the nephew and carries him towards safety. The orcs are distracted and focus on fighting the Duke's men. This allows Ulveblod to escape with his charge. Omri is rescued!

GAME NOTES

We really need someone filming the lore fights. I don't see all the action so I may not be giving someone proper due. I just report what I saw and remembered. Feel free to post a comment with your own perspective on the fight!

The scenario is essentially heavy object, with a large stuffed burlap sack representing the royals. I used driveway markers to represent the portal.

A couple notes from the fight.

• Raph (aka Xeno) was the stealthy orc that made off with Henri.
• Ulveblod earned the Order of the Rose from the Duke for rescuing Omri.

On Pig Faced Orcs

I wanted to do some costuming for the orcs, but I did not want to shell out a lot for masks or use makeup. Pondering the dilemma, I had an epiphany. Pig-faced orcs!

For those not familiar, pig-faced orcs were the standard depiction in old school D&D. Take this picture from the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual.

While not in color, it is easy to imagine them with pig-flesh skin rather than the modern ubiquitous green. That means we don't need to die our skin! Costuming becomes simplified. To represent orcs, we just need pig noses, which I got cheap from Amazon.

What about Robb's excellent orc kit?

Robb's orc on the right

Robb has his own take on the lore, which I will post when I get the time. In my mind, though, orcs are products of twisted magical experiments melding men and beasts. So why not have different types of orcs? But I think the pig-faced orcs will be most prevalent in the Olden Wyrld.

The Feast of Flowers

Due to complications on our journey, I, Comes Elias of the Chimera Legion, was not able to attend the Feast of Flowers. I sent ahead a delegation under the command of Ulveblod and Xeno. They represented the Legion at the feast and sent me a report. This account is based on that report.

The Tournament

The festivities began with a tournament, presided over by Duke Etienne himself. Reportedly, these were some of the greatest warriors in the Olden Wyrld. Here is a list of the participants.

• Ulveblod of the Legion
• Xeno of the Legion
• Ryan
• Caio
• Lionheart
• Jayden Rannal of Chevalia
• Howl
• Gaston LaCroix, one of the Duke's retainers

The Duke split the combatants into two pools. They fought all others in the pool. The scenario was unusual - the Duke called it the Disks of Death. There were a series of disks placed into a helmet. Each combatant drew one of the disks. Upon each disk was a symbol representing a different weapon combination - sword and shield, great weapon, spear, or Florentine. The combatant had to use the selected weapon combination, although all combatants could also wield a dagger. The Duke explained that a great warrior should be able to win with whatever weapons he or she has at hand. This scenario tested that ability.

The Duke gave every combatant a bag. The Duke gave each winner a gem. This served as a way to keep score.

One of the bags filled with gems.
Below are the disks of death

Two combatants emerged undefeated from their respective pools - Howl and Ryan. They then faced off in a dagger duel. Ryan emerged victorious!

The Feast

We then sat down to our feast, prepared by Chef Pierre de Magnifique. Beef Bourguignon with French bread and garlic butter. 

There were drinks, including cider, and some raspberry cookies for dessert.

Disaster Strikes!

At this point, the Duke retired to the castle to check on things. But he rushed back in a panic.

"My royal nephews, sons of the king, have been kidnapped by raiders!" the Duke announced. "We must rescue them!"

* I will complete the story of our rescue attempt in the next installment. *

OOC NOTES

I played the role of the Duke and Chef Pierre. Robb played Gaston. Everyone else played their characters.

RJ (Jayden) took some nice videos of the fights. You can find them on our Facebook page. Here are links to the champion match.

• Part the First
• Part the Second

Note that we used our hit point system for the matches. Each participant started with 1 hit point and received an additional hit point if wearing garb.

Thanks to Howl for bringing drinks and cookies!

By the way, here is the recipe for the Beef Bourguignon.