Cross-posted from RPG.net, because I'd like to hear opinions from you guys here, too. :)
So, after my Tuesdays group lost a player due to work shenaningans, we decided to let the 7th Sea game on hiatus, as the missing player was the one most interested on it. I decided to get a chance to run RQ again, and I proposed my players to try a Gloranthan campaign. None of them are familiar with either Glorantha or RQ, but beign avid CoC/BRP players, they decided to give it a try.
I am using RQ3 as is the edition I am most familiar with. It's the only edition that ever got translated to Spanish in 1988, and I have logged many many hours with it. I wanted my wife and friends to try it, even if I consider MRQII and RQ6 better versions of the game.
Also, all the Gloranthan material I have is for RQ3, so I didn't wanted to bother with any conversions
This far we've played 6 sessions, which I will sum up here. As English is not my first language, I won't be going for the literary style many people use here, and I will go for a more simple, matter of fact description of what happened at the table, mixing IC event with OOC comments like when everyone had bad rolls and whatnot.
Next session (the 8th) is due next Tuesday, and I intend to write a more detailed AP from that moment on.
We have 4 players, one of them is less regular in attendance due to her many obligations. Their characters are:
- Vulgor Ulfsson, the Warrior (Alex): Vulgor is a warrior devoted to the Storm Bull. He lost his wife and son on a plague after a broo attack on his clan. Some time later, he abandoned the clan looking for adventure and glory after the King of Colymars entered a Lunar cult. He is 25 years old, and favors sword and shield for melee, thrown axes for ranged combat.
- Gunnjorn the Woodcrafter (Víctor): Gunnjorn is Vulgor's best friend since he was born (he's 24). He is a skilled woodcrafter who could not let his friend go out into the world alone. Gunnjorn is an initiate of Orlanth the Adventurer, and likes to behave as his god, acting at a whim, without much thought. He fights with 2 axes, even if he is 1 point short of the minimum STR to do that.
- Daraessa the Sweet (Victoria, the Missus): Daraessa was Vulgor's sister-in-law, and she's a huntress. initiate of Ernalda. She was called "the Sweet" in her clan because of her compassionate and generous nature (she likes to make small gifts, specially to children), her beauty (APP 14, one of the prettiest girls in the clan) and her promiscuity (according to the Kings of Dragon Pass videogame, orlanthis are not concerned with pre-marital sex and are quite liberal about that). She's proficient with a bow and a spear.
- Dalla of Dara Happa (Candela): Dalla is a clever and dexterous girl (DEX 18!) from Dara Happa, hailing from the Capital of the Empire, Glamour itself. She claims to be a Sartarite captured in a Lunar offensive, then turned into slave, then into a fugitive slave who, after a few years of thieving, came back to Sartar after receiving some visions from Ernalda, who she serves.She's an unusual sight, with her short hair, dara happan silky clothes, and two scimitars. She's having some trouble adapting to life amongst barbarians, too
Spoiler
Actually, she's quite more than meets the eye. More on that later
The year is 1621 ST, we're in Apple Lane, in the Dragon Pass area. Actually, I decided to start the campaign with the Apple Lane supplement, as I felt that the adventures in there would be excellent for beginners. This far, I was right.
We're in the Sea Season, and the orlanthi PCs (Dalla didn't join the group until the 2nd session) arrived to Apple Lane on their way to Boldhome or maybe Whitewall, where they would join orlanthi resistance against the Lunars. After spending some time around the village, getting to be acquainted with locals and the lay of the land, they made some quick offerings at the Temple to All Gods and agreed with the Weaponmasters in town to be trained the following week in martial skills. As they rest in the local inn, they're approached by an old man and a duck. The old man is Gringle Goodsell, who claims to be an Issaries priest and owner of the local pawnshop, and the duck is Quackjohn, his assistant. The players are nonplussed by the duck's existence and name, and they decide that the game's attitude of not giving a fuck about seriousness is OK with them.
It seems that Gringle is expecting an assault on his pawnshop this night, and he needs warriors to defend it. The local sheriff, Dronlan Sharpsword is out, trying to capture an elusive troll bandit, and the local militia cannot be of help. So he offers a nice salary to the group if they spend the night at the shop and defend it from the bandits. The assailants are a bunch of baboons who intend to retrieve a sacred object of their clan that an adventurer stole from them and sold to Gringle. They tried to get the object (a fang with a matrix for the SharpFang spell) from the merchant alleging it was stolen, but Gringle didn't care about that. So they swore they would get at Gringle for that. Gringle asked for a Revelation from Issaries and he knew that only a small bunch of baboons would attack that night (6-8, and the adventurer who sold him the object already killed the strongest), so he thought that the group would be able to handle the situation. Apart from the PCs, Gringle hired the sword of Thorbjorn of Humakt, a veteran warrior with the rune of Death tatooed on his cheek, whose enormous SIZ and STR really impressed Daraessa. i decided that, with only 3 PCs (and only one warrior) the group needed some assistance.
Spoiler
Also, Gringle's Revelation was incomplete, because he didn't ask the question properly. He asked how many baboons were attacking the shop, but he didn't ask about additional assistance. So, unknow to Gringle and the PCs, the baboons hired an outlaws band to help them. These outlaws were far more dangerous than the apes, so additional help was in order.
Gringle brought the newly formed group to the pawnshop, and let the become familiar with the building. He clearly stated that he and Quackjohn would spend the night doing important priestly stuff in the basement, and that they were ABSOLUTELY forbidden to go down there. Other than that, they could organize the defense as they saw fit, and could even set up traps on their own. After swearing an oath before a statue of Issaries as they would fulfill their duty loyally and would not steal from Gringle, he and Quackjohn left fot the basement.
Around midnight, Daraessa (who has been posted on the roof, under cover of the chimney) spots a bunch of ape-like figures sneaking to the front of the shop. She quietly knocks on the roof as to warn her companions and then prepares her bow. Inside the attic Thorbjorn prepares himself to defend the only window in the building. Gunnjorn waits with the heavy crossbows in the front store, while Vulgor guards the kitchen door in the back.
And then the shit hits the fan, and the RQ combat system shines in all its glory.
While the baboons climb to the roof and try to break through the tiles and attic window to meet a hail of arrows (Daraessa strikes down about half of them and the few who get to the window meet Thorbjorn), something starts banging savagely the kitchen door. Hoping to catch them off balance, Vulgor opens the door and meets face-to-hooves with a centaur. The outlaws are attacking the back of the shop, and the PCs are caught off-guard. Well, Vulgor manages to slice the centaur across the chest before the creature savagely crushes his shield arm, bringing him down. Gunnjorn charges to the rescue and again injures the chest of the Centaur shoving back his foe against the wall, and THAT impact takes the Centaur's chest HP below cero, incapacitating him. Right after that 2 dragonewt explorers get inside and throw their shuriken - like weapons at Gunnjorn, bringing him down, right before Vulgor throws an axe, hurting severely one of them.
Right then, Thorbjorn and Daraessa, having cleaned the roof of baboons (as the two leaders of the pack made a short attempt to recover their injured and dead, but got hurt themselves and fled), crash down upon the outlaws massing at the back door, taking them by surprise and incapacitating their leader. The 2 dragonewt explorers and a duck thief, demoralized, flee the scene, and the PCs quickly drag all the corpses inside the store (as Gringle will pay them by heads collected). After a brief discussion, they decided to keep the dragonewt leader of the outlaws alive, so he could pay ransom for his life, while they binded their wounds and cast as many Heal spells as they could.
All considered, an excellent first session. The fight was really fast and furious, and I was not as rusty as I feared, neither in the rules area nor in the setting knowledge. The players were intrigued and fascinated by the setting, and it ended in a tense cliffhanger, with the players low on MPs and with some injuries, having killed several baboons and the centaur, and not knowing if their foes would make another attempt of assaulting the shop.
Note: In this and the following posts I will translate into English the name of some spells and items as best I can, but probably the original names in English were different. Be patient and don't hesitate to point out any inconsistency you may find. Thank you Well, the heroes have barely caught their breath, cut off the heads of their defeated foes and someone is knocking at the front door! When the PCs go to answer, weapons ready, they find... a Lunar girl? What the hell?
The Lunar girl introduces herself as Dalla. She tells the group that she's looking for them due to a vision sent by Ernalda. That vision told her that she had to go to this place and find a clue as to the location of the mythic Windsword, a powerful weapon against Chaos. According to her vision she would find companions at that place. She claims to be a escaped slave, a Sartarite like them that was captured in a Lunar raid as a child and has now found the ocasion to flee her Lunar Masters. Guided by Ernalda, she now wishes to help her people by recovering the mystical artifact.
Spoiler
Actually, she's nothing of the sorts. Dalla is a Dara Happan thief affiliated to the Genertelan branch of the Lamsabi cult. The cult has moved from Pamaltela to Genertela as soon as the Ban was lifted, with the intention of robbing the most magical place in the world: the Dragon Pass. They've slowly infiltrated the Lunar cities and now the second generation of Lamsabis are moving south. Dalla got a clue about the location of the map of Griffin Island via Revelation, and decided to rob Gringle's Pawnshop, but seeing a stout group of warriors defending the house she decided to use them instead. Dalla's plan (at the moment) is to get the group into the quest of retrieving the Windsword, help her to find the map and get to Griffin Island, and then she will steal the Windsword to the glory of the Lamsabi.
There is not much time for introductions, as the two baboon leaders are making another attempt to get through the roof. The baboons are able to cast some spells, but finally the PCs make them flee, at the same time the dragonewt prisoner regains consciousness. The PCs are clear: he can pay a ransom, or he can end in the hands of the Sheriff and the people of the town. Xarban the Dragonwet agrees to pay a ransom, and after a bit of healing (which further depletes the MP reserves of the group), Thorbjorn and Vulgor accompany him to a nearby creek, where he has hidden the treasure of his band. They are followed by the dragonewt's companions, but they don't dare to mess with them out of fear the warriors would kill Xarban and then kill them. The ransom is paid, and the Orlanthis make their way back to the shop.
Meanwhile, in the shop, Dalla makes a stealthy and successful attempt to locate the room with the maps and scrolls , but finding the map without raising alarms maybe a daunting task. Also, the PCs already discovered during the fight that there is an spirit keeping watch over them (Eighty-Eyes) and that one of the statues is, in fact, a gargoyle. So Dalla is even more surprised when Eighty - Eyes briefly makes itself visible to her, and gently gives her a signal as to where the map is. Dalla takes the chance and now the map is hers.
The neighbours of the Pawnshop have obviously noticed the noises of the battle, and some of them are keeping watch over the shop, doubting if they should do something or not (Gringle has some spotty reputation, and some of the villagers think of him as a werewolf). Fortunately, nothing else happens until dawn, when Gringle and Quackjohn get out of the basement. There's a bit of arguing about Dalla as she was not originally hired, but the PCs clearly state that she's been helpful, and also Gringle said nothing about motherfucking centaurs so she should be compensated nonetheless. Also, an extra should be paid for the centaur and yadda yadda. Gringle is really satisfied as the PCs have managed to avoid serious damages to the shop, so he's generous. Also, Eighty-Eyes says nothing on the theft of the map, so all is well.
When they get out of the shop they're greeted by the sheriff Dronlan, who is suitably impressed by the PC's prowess. He's just returned from tracking the despicable troll bandit White Eye, and maybe the group would be interested in hunting the bandit for a nice bounty? The group agrees if the Sheriff will allow them a week to train, learn new magics and rest (meaning, get experience rolls).
So, the session ended with some paperwork as the PCs got some training done, learned a few spells, and socialized a bit with the people of Apple Lane, who got to liked them. The NPC Thorbjorn became part of the group, and Daraessa decided to start a relationship with him, meaning fucking his brains out, which got them a bit occupied. Finally, the PCs got ready to go and hunt White Eye.
The PCs will visit the Rainbow Mounds where the troll and his band hide, and they will get into serious trouble with Lunar troops, so they will go west and get themselves involved into the Silver Tree Quest.
While Dalla stays in Apple Lane to take care of some business (as Candela had some RL stuff preventing her from attending the 3rd session) the group travelled to the Rainbow Mounds , getting there after one uneventful day. The Rainbow Mounds are north of Apple Lane, the entry under an old monument called the Giant's Table.
As I want to catch up quickly with the next session, due next Tuesday (which would be the eighth) I will sum up events in a manner that may be a bit terse. Once we're up to date, I will describe the sessions in a bit more detail.
PCs entered the caves and had to defeat a bunch of rock Lizards, which they did easily. Exploring the side tunnels where the Lizards were, they found some loot, which encouraged then to push further. After that they found the Mushroom Cave, where they all sampled the magical Eurmal shrooms, with fantastic luck (when you eat these mushrooms you roll 1d10 to see the effect, which can range from the loss of 1d10 HP or MP to increases in stats), with every PC getting some additional points in CON or STR (my wife's PC is now the strongest in the group at STR 15) and Thorbjorn the NPC gettin POW 20! Obviously the gods were with them, so they pressed on and the tunnel bifurcated. The group took the left branch of the caves, and they arrived to a discus - shaped cave full of aggressive rats, in which they found the remains of several unfortunate explorer (with some coin, gems and useful pieces of armor) and also a tritonid skeleton clutching what it seemed to be the marble arm of an statue. Despite its weight, they took the arm too.
After the discus-shaped cave, they had to go through a tunnel with walls and corners so sharp and narrow that they suffered several important injuries negotiating it (Gunnjorn nearly lost his left arm). When the managed to emerge out of the tunnel, unbenknownst to them, they had got behind enemy lines. After healing their wounds (in which Thorbjorn's extra POW came handy), they decided to scout ahead. At this moment (beginning of session 4) Dalla makes a sudden appearance. The group decides to send the sneaky girl ahead, and she discovers that they have emerged right behind the trollkin barracks. Only 2 trollkins are there at the moment, so the group ambushes them and kills them without causing a ruckus. Then, more surprises: a tritonid appears from the shadows, and starts talknig about a prophecy and how a human hero it's supposed to help the Tritonids in the Mounds to kill teh goddess of the Rock Lizards or something like that. The only thing the PCs are able to understand is that the arm of the statue belongs to the idol of Grandfather Tritonid, and that some parts of the statue (part of the head, an eye and an arm) are missing. And if they help the Tritonids, one of them will become King of the Tritonids and then they will gain access "to the greatest treasure in the Mounds." "Okay, little friend", they said, "treasure is good and we will help you, but first we have some trollkin and trolls to kill, so either you help us or you stay put." Well, as it happened, the Tritonids feared and loathed the bandits, so the Tritonid gave them a description of the lay of the caves, which came super handy.
Dalla scouted ahead a bit more, using her Silence spell and lots of natural cover, getting as far as White Eye room, where she was able to see him in the company of her Great Troll concubine, Slud. After getting back, they devised a devious strategy: Dalla would let some gems to lure the trollkin patrol in the Great Cave (next cave from the PCs position) so the PCs would ambush them and, hopefully, finish them in time before the ruckus alerted White Eye and the rest of the trollkin. As the enemy was split in two groups (6 and 4 each), if they killed the first 6 fast enough, they would have a chance with the rest.
The first part of the ambush went well, the second part a bit less so. The patrol of the Great Cave died fast, but White Eye proved to be quite tougher. He was cautious, and a hail of slingstones from his trollkin bandits almost caused severe damages to the group, who were already getting very low on MPs for magic spells. The group fell back to the cave right at the exit of the Narrow Tunnel, where they tried to make a last stand. There was a tense negotiation, with White Eye offering them the chance of getting out of the Mounds if they left any loot (he didn't care about the trollknis). The PCs decided that fuck that shit, and they used a barrage of flaming oil (their last reserves for the lamps) to make a rain of flaming deat fall upon their foes (with some good Throw rolls). In the confussion they charged, managing to strike down the bandit and the trollkin. Huzzah! After catching their breath, they pressed on, looting every room and finally killing poor Slud, who was devastated at the loss of her children.
They managed to get to the secret room where White Eye stored his loot (after crossing a subterranean river that, according to the Tritonid, could take them to the Tritonid realm), and they make an unexpected finding. Apart from the loot and many things to be returned to Apple Lane people, they found a prisoner. From his clothes and language, it seemed to be a Dara Happan noble! A hostage! Holy shit!
Dalla interrogated him, and he confessed to be Tarantius, an important emissary with a message to none other than General Fazzur the Wellread! He asked the orlanthi warriors to take him to Boldhome AT ONCE. The PCs laughed at him, and explained to him in no uncertain terms that they were not sheepy Sartarites who had surrendered to Lunar scum. They were proud Orlanthi warriors and they wanted the message. The Lunar said that he didn't know the message, that it was in a magic item in his person, a magical item to be activated by Fazzur and none other.
The PCs stripped him clean of clothes and items and looked for the item, to no avail. But, while doing so, Dalla noticed something very very disturbing in one of the tatoos in the emissary's body... Something that changed everything for her...
Stay tuned to know more! :D
BTW, RQ6 Spanish is almost licensed. :)
Sounds like a terrific game! Well done, Ramón.
Also a fantastic object lesson for the "ZOMG Glorantha is weird" crowd.
Do keep us posted.
This does sound great, BTW. Well done.
I don't often read actual play logs but yours is quite enjoyable, exciting even.
Well done!
Quote from: CRKrueger;768441BTW, RQ6 Spanish is almost licensed. :)
I know, I contributed to the crowdfunding :D
Quote from: Simlasa;768482I don't often read actual play logs but yours is quite enjoyable, exciting even.
Well done!
:hatsoff: Thank you all for the kind words. I'll try to post a bit every day until we catch up :)
If you want to only know what the orlanthis know, avoid the text in spoilers. If you need to know EVERYTHING then spoil yourself merrily :)Spoiler
Tarantius shows in his left hand the incisible (to everyone but initiates) tatoo of the Lamsabi. While searching him, Dalla notices the tatoo. So she starts looking for a way of talking to him alone and know more about him.
The Newtling (who is called Blue Eye) tries all the time to convince the PCs to get with the rest of the Newtlings and return the two missing parts of the sacred statue. Daraessa and Gunnjorn are OK with that, but Vulgor and Dalla won't have any of that. While they're discussing, they hear someone approaching quietly. They ambush the intruder, who happens to be a young Duck by the name of Marlon Neck. He wants to speak with "the guys who saved his uncle Yossarian's shop."
As it happens, Victor asked the group if his 8 year old boy could play for once, as he was stuck without a babysitter. We said yes, of course, and the boy wanted to play a duck. So, there. For a brief time ther will be a duck with the group.As the Duck tells them, word of their courage has got to Duckpoint, even. The young duck has been sent by the thane of a small village near Duckpoint, by the name of Green Brass (not sure about the translation here), because they had a problem that needed some heroes. Something related to a tree made of silver. There is a small community of ducks that moved to Green Brass due to the last Lunar Duck Hunt, and they want to earn the goodwill of the townspeople by finding some heroes to help them. The phrase "RuneQuest doesn't give a fuck about anything" is heard several times around the table. The group votes and decide to go back to Apple Lane, sell the loot and get the bounty, and then help the duckling because hey, who could say no to an 8 year old boy playing a duckling?
The return to Apple Lane is uneventful, and the prisoner makes no attempt to escape, but neither provides any new information. Fearing that the sight of the Lunar emissary could prompt an explosion of anger from the villagers, they decide to sneak Dalla inside of the hamlet so she can talk with Gringle and ask him to hide the Lunar in his pawnshop. So, part of the group hides in the apple fields with the prisoner, while the rest go looking for Gringle. Given that is near dusk, they manage to get to the back door of the pawnshop unseen, and warn Yossarian that they need to speak with Gringle. The perspicacious merchant is at first wary of hiding such a prisoner in his shop, but the PCs manage to convince him that such a hostage could be valuable and that no harm will befall to the hamlet. So he lends Dalla a magical cloak which can cast Dark Wall so she can hide Tarantius and herself, and waits for them to bring him to the shop. Under the promise that it won't bring trouble to the town.
They are so fucking wrong.
Well, so the PCs rejoin again, sneak Tarantius in the pawnshop with no one the wiser, and they pretend to make a triumphant entry in the hamlet. As they arrive they're received as heroes, and the proper bounties and rewards are paid. Everyone parties hard, and Dalla seizes the chance to speak alone with Tarantius.
Spoiler
Tarantius presents himself as a priest of the Lamsabi, and he tells Dalla in uncertain terms that she should help him. As it happens he, as any other priest of the cult, is under a very powerful ritual spell (Mouth Shut) designed to prevent the Lamsabi from giving up any secret under torture or magical interrogation. By killing the Lamsabi. An outcome he'd rather not have. He's in a very important mission for the cult, he's impersonating a Lunar noble he found dying in the road from Tarsh after apparently a band of dragonewts attacked the Lunars and slaughtered them, and he has no time to be hagned by a bunch of moronic Orlanthis thinking they are killing a Lunar noble or some shit.
After the party, and given that the group has not drunk too much, they meet at the Pawnshop and discuss what to do with Gringle. The group would like the means to find and decipher the message, but they lack the means. They'd like for Gringle to keep the Lunar prisoner in the pawnshop for a few days while they heal and prepare themselves to take him to Whitewall, for Brian of the Volsaxi to interrogate him. Vulgor is adamant about this, as he despises the Colymar king and, well, all of the Sartarite kings who are not fighting Lunars. After all, that is why he left his clan and tribe. After some haggling, Gringle agrees.
And then, the shit hits the fan.
As it happens, I use the Mythic GM Emulator quite frequently in my games. My players call it "The Oracle." It helps a lot to develop interesting twists in a natural manner. I am a big fan.
So, I ask the Oracle: "Have the Lunars found out about the massacre of the Lunar convoy? Are they looking for the emissary? Do they know he's dead?"
The answers were: "Yes. ABSOLUTELY YES. ABSOLUTELY NO" with an additional complication related to Thorbjorn. So, I decided that a Lunar patrol had found the remnants of the soldiers and servants of the emissary partially devoured by dragonewts, but they were convinced that the emissary was alive. And they were led by a fucking vampire, because I wanted to introduce a vampire as one of the recurring villains of the campaign. The Lunars were employing a dog Broo as a tracker, and they arrived to Apple Lane by night, a dozen soldiers, the Broo and the vampire. I put the Broo dog there as a spur of the moment, as I wanted to put an emphasis on how the Lunars consorted with Chaos and undead and all that.Dalla and Vulgor stay at Gringle's keeping watch on Tarantius, while the rest of the group (Gunnjorn, Marlon, Daraessa and Thorbjorn) stay at the Tin Inn. Mostly because Daraessa has the intention of going on with her romance with Thorbjorn. Their sleep is disturbed when a company of Lunars arrive to the hamlet, demanding from the villagers information about Tarantius, and if tehy have seen anyone fitting his description. The PCs prepare for a fight: the group at the inn quietly climb onto the roof, hoping that way to escape to a search of the building (as it is a dark night with no moon, they hope to stay hidden if they keep a low profile). The PCs at Gringle's lie in wait, hoping the Lunars won't search the pawnshop. It seems they're going for the inn, as 6 soldiers have surrounded the building and other 6 are going to make a search.
That is when the Broo sniffs the PCs on the roof. And when Thorbjorn (who is an initiate of Humakt realizes that the pale guy holding the Broo's lash is a vampire, an undead. And when Vulgor sees that there is fucking Broo, a filthy Chaos spawn right there. So,. it's clobbering time and the PCs are the underdog.
The PCs on the roof fight bravely, pelting with arrows the Lunar soldiers who surround the inn and try to climb there. Vulgor gets to the back of the pawnshop, gets his horse and prepares himself to charge the broo, who is readying himself to attack the inn. The vampire mocks the arrows of the PCs, and states that he will drink their blood and souls.
Gunnjorn and Marlon jump from the roof over the Lunars (
don't ask me why, I do not understand it to this day, it was Victor's idea and his son ran with it). Marlon manages to land on top of a Lunar stabbing him to death, but Gunnjorn falls on his right arm, shattering it and leaving the Lunars astonished as such idiocy. The vampire advances on them, while the Broo and some of the soldiers turn to confront Vulgor, who then realizes that, despite him being an accomplished swordsman, he's a shitty horserider and thus, a shitty swordsman on a horse. Things look grim, Marlon realizes he's not good enough to fend the Lunars off Gunnjorn's body, Vulgor is about to fall from the horse, so every player starts asking for Divine Intervention, to no avail. Until my wife remembers Thorbjorn, and she says "Hey, call Humakt, he's the Scourge of the Undead and we have an Undead right there."
I roll 1d100 and get a 17. Thorbjorn's POW after eating Eurmal's Mushrooms is 20, so he makes it, leaving him at POW 3.
Humakt's wrath turn's the vampire and the Broo to ash, leaving the Lunar soldiers frozen with the demonstration of Divine might. One round later, alerted by the ruckus, the two Weaponmasters of Apple Lane arrive to the scene, one of them being a Swod of Humakt. So, he asks for the help of his god to kill his enemies. And all the Lunars fall dead. At once.
And what is Dalla doing, meanwhile?
She seizes the chance, and runs with Tarantius to the apple fields, as Vulgor instructed her to do. And...
Spoiler
From that moment on, the player and I completely deceived the rest of the group. I gave her a false description of what happened (allegedly Tarantius managed to slip free of his bindings and hit her in the head with a rock, take one of her scimitars and scape), while, in a short kitchen break, we agreed that she had a brief chat with Tarantius and then let him free.
Dalla comes back to Apple Lane bleeding from a nasty wound in the head. The group heals her and they start pursuing the fleeing Lunar, but the emissary's stamina proves to be remarkable (I had an ungodly string of great CON rolls), so the players (which are not terribly great trackers) cannot catch a sight of him until almost dawn. And they see him arrive to an Orlanthi fort. Which is occupied by a Lunar contingent.
Outnumbered and outgunned, the PCs decide to break their pursuit, and get back to Apple Lane. Dalla tells the group that she wants to follow Tarantius and try to recover Gringle's magical cloak, which was stolen by the Lunar (
also, Candela was going to miss the next session. The rest of the group returned to Apple Lane to gather their gear, and decided to go west, to Green Brass. They agreed with Dronlan, the sheriff, that the villagers shouldn't pay for the Lunars' deaths, so everyone in town would describe that the Lunars were attacked by a big band of Orlanthi rebels led by a voice of Orlanth, and then they went north, claiming they were going to clean Snakepipe Hollow of Chaotic filth.
So, the group branches in two. Dalla goes East after Tarantius, and the rest go west to do do the Silver Tree Quest. Which adventure would you like to know about first? Suffice to say that, in the following sessions, the PCs managed to steal a secret from the nose of Fazzur the Wellread, kill a Roc bird, and slay an ancient dinosaur while getting themselves unwillingly into a Newtling HeroQuest of sorts. So, what it's gonna be first? The adventures of the thief and the Lunar emissary, or the Quest for the Silver Tree? :D