My player apparently found yesterday's post somewhat helpful, but asked me to do another one of these for the CSIO (I'll do one for the Roglaras tomorrow).
Precis: A decadent and barbaric city of hard men, loose women, and strange wonders. (or maybe hard women and loose men). Conspectus: Bjorn the Mighty, the Invincible Overlord of all the Skandiks; the golden pews and idols of the Temple of the Spider God; assassins and thieves fighting in the sewers by night and day; lumbering trolls serving as bouncers, bookies, and pitfighters in local taverns; attacks by an armed cabal of weirdos over a case of mistaken identity; strange and disturbing screams coming from beneath the street on certain nights near the Three Temples of Thoth the Terrible, Odin the Ruler, and Hamarkhis the Deadly; monsters descending from the sky to pick up a merchant and carry him to who knows where; goblin workers allowed in the city by day but forced out at night; those same goblins sneaking through the sewers to perform general malfeasance; kangaroo courts and "litigation tricksters" who engage in strange trails before the gods; Senators of the city and its outskirts screaming at each other in their black robes; the sinister cult of Pegana and the dreaded beast of Mung; Naughty Nannies and other strange "shops" catering to perverse or arcane tastes; the Orcs of the Purple Claw and their Amazon queen who raid the settlements around the city; the Beggar's Guild that trades in information as well as alms; knights of the city state in portly pomp riding down the street, jeered at by their mercenary cousins; strange meals and stranger rumors at dubious inns; the Tomb of Banefire and other dungeons beneath the city; the occasional flailsnail falling from the sky
Taste; Sound; Image: Rat on a stick, Basil Poledouris's "The Mountain of Power Progression," Mike Mignola's Lankhmar
Have I done this post before? Oh kinda! But I want to handle this a little different. This is kind of a combination Appendix N for my current campaign and my history with the Wilderlands. This is partly a response to friend of the blog and longtime online group player Huth's statement that he didn't quite "get" what I was going for. This post is meant to either help him get it or explain why it's difficult to get. I won't be sure which until people read it.
I first found out about the Wilderlands my freshman or sophomore year of college. I was not sure what to run for my college group so on a whim I looked up the wikipedia page for fantasy RPG settings. I saw the name The Wilderlands of High Fantasy and thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. It was so dumb I had to know why someone would name something that. In reasearching it, I found out there was a 3e version of the setting, and since that was the main RPG I ran at the time (it's the one I started with) I looked into it more.
What I found was a lot of people talking about how it was more Swords & Sorcery than a modern D&D setting. It hearkened back to the Old Days, when fantasy and science fiction were not so separate. The days of pulp magazines and bronze age four color fantasy. The days of pulp fantasy. Now at the time I actually had fairly limited experience with the actual texts involved in these statements. I was familiar with pulp sci fi and horror through my love of spaceships, the works of H P Lovecraft, and the book the Art of Imagination, which I was given for Christmas once in high school. I still treasure that book.
I was also familiar with the successors of these forms of adventure fiction, though I wouldn't have recognized the connection at the time: 1950s sci fi and mid-century adventure films. The idea of a setting that felt like that and the appeals to a nostalgia for a past that I never lived in set my mind afire. I was also intrigued by the type of gameplay it promoted that the OSR now calls the "hexcrawl," because it matched the video games I actually liked to play but I had only experienced and run fairly linear storyline stuff before this time.
So I bought the 3e box set. I also bought some of the fiction people said it resembled - most notably the Conan stories of Robert E Howard (specifically the collection with illustrations by Mark Schultz, whose art still defines the Hyborian Age to me). I also picked up the Conan movie because people said it was good, and while I found them very different I enjoyed both immensely.
The box set took some time coming in so for a long while I relied on the free Lenap chapter that was hosted online. Its jungle climate with barren hills and volcanic islands reminded me of Infant Island from Mothra, which made me love it all the more and makes it still one of my favorite areas of the Wilderlands. In fact, it is the basis for a large part of Yavana. However, this campaign ended in a TPK and by then I had gotten a hold of the box set and moved the action to the City State of the Invincible Overlord (with a brief excursion into Tarsh).
An important thing to note, then, is that the Wilderlands was in many ways my introduction to pulp fantasy, though reading Grognardia a few years later would greatly increase the amount I read. It was easier for me to deal with the fact there were weird D&D races that wouldn't normally be in Swords & Sorcery fiction because I didn't yet have a developed enough taste to recognize it. My primary science fantasy D&D alike exposure was the Might & Magic series, and that had elves and dwarves and even minotaurs and vampires in some games and you ended most of them by shooting the boss with rayguns. Heck, in some of the games the elves were even blue, which made it easier to understand the funny colored wilderpeople.
Another thing to note is that I started running the Wilderlands during my college career, where I majored in history and minored in classics (and eventually went on to get an MA in Premodern History). To the Retro Stupid Wilderlands setting I added a great deal of Pretension. The difference between the Skandiks of Croy and Ossary became many of the differences between Vikings and Saxons. The armies of the City State became late Roman in character. I knew enough about Persia to make the connections to the magic archers and name of Viridistan.
A mock cover created by Trey Causey that I think gets the tone Exactly Right
My history with the Wilderlands certainly makes it my most maximalist setting. It is a jambalaya of influences that developed as I ran the setting. My interest in "precious shithole hellscapes" developed after finding Huge Ruined Scott's original Wilderlands OD&D blog and through that the rest of the OSR. That blog is why this blog exists. The tastes I developed through reading OSR blogs led me to trying to decide from the ground up why OD&Disms would be the way they are, based on my own proclivities, which is what led to Nightwick Abbey. I don't design settings the way I did for the relatively blank slate of the Wilderlands material anymore, and I would never put elves in a Swords & Sorcery setting now.
But the Wilderlands is enough part of my D&D DNA now that I can run it without chaffing too much at its contradictions. Things are sometimes the way they are because that's the way they are in the Wilderlands. Elves and Hobbits go steal the jewel from the Tower of the Elephant.
Anyway I mentioned an Appendix N at the beginning so I should probably do one of those. This represents both what I was reading for the original campaign and what I've read since that has been incorporated into my imaginings.
Books
Geary, Patrick - Before France and Germany
Howerd, Robert E. - Almuric, Conan Series***
Jordanes - History of the Goths
Leiber, Fritz - The Sword Series***
Lovecraft, H. P. - "The Mound," At the Mountains of Madness, and other Cthulhu mythos stories.
Smith, Clark Ashton - The Hyperborean and Zothique Cycles*, "The Abominations of Yondo," "The Maze of the Enchanter"*
Moore, C. L. - Jirel of Joiry Series, Northwest of Earth Series
Tolkien, J. R. R. - The Hobbit*
Movies
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
Conan the Barbarian
Deathstalker 2 (and some of the visuals from 1 but man does 1 have too much rape).
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad*
Hawk the Slayer
Hercules in the Haunted World
Jason and the Argonauts
The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete
Mothra*
Rodan
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad***
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger**
Comics
Conan and Savage Sword of Conan by Marvel
Conan by Dark Horse ElfQuest (currently by Dark Horse)
Godzilla by Dark Horse
Video Games
Elder Scrolls - Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Might & Magic 1 - 8**
Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time
Sid Meier's Pirates
Wizardry 6
Special Mentions: Basil Paledouris's soundtrack for Coanan the Barbarian, which I listened to while both prepping and running, and My Barbarian's "Unicorns LA" which gives me some of the same weird Nostalgia for Past Times of D&D feels.
KC as Namira (Altanian Warlock 2 disciple of Mycr)
JP as Velor Silent-Stream (Half-Elf Druid 1)
Chris as Burgell Timothy Kanoodle Jonjon Karrawak Ningel (Gnome Wizard 1)
Two adventurers from Lightelf, Velor Silent-Stream and Burgell the Gnome, had made their way to the City State in order to seek the aid of other bravos and sorcerers. They knew that an evil wizard and a band of goblins was searching through the ruins of an old gnome warren that had been sealed by the first king of Lightelf after he had gone mad from plague. A bounty hunter in Lightelf was offering 300gp for the wizard's head, and so the pair thought they could do the world a good and make a fair bit of coin if they had help from allies.
In the City State they met up with Namira and Tancred and thus did the two become the Fumbling Four again. On the fifth day of the month of the Snow Leopard the four set out along the Old South Road, resting a night at Caravan Crossing, before making their way along the southern bank of the Estuary of the Roglaroon. On the second night they camped near a bend in the Estuary which had a small island in it. This island was about a mile out but even in the light of dusk the human in the party could make out a set of elven ruins and a high, gothic arch no longer attached to any buildings.
That night, when the four was done hunting for food, Tancred observed a fire in the center of the arch. Waking his companions, they elected to wait and see. Shortly two large iron cauldrons came down from the stars and joined the fire near the arch. The fire began to change through a rainbow of colors, as the magically inclined among the party noted this was likely some sort of Witch's Sabbath. Despite Tancred's desire to slay the potential witches, the party decided it was best to leave well enough alone and continued sleeping.
Over the next few days they made their way to a ford in the River Hargost. Burgell, who was scouting ahead, noticed that a large number of men were hidden in trees, with crossbows aimed at anyone trying to cross the ford. Casting sleep caused a number of these men to fall from their perches but also alerted a great number of men he had not noticed on ground level. Realizing there were about 20 men on the far bank, and that they were a band of notorious Hargost pirates, Burgell fled to inform the party.
A great debate ensued. Tancred and Velor wanted to attack the pirates, hoping to bait them into trying to cross the river, but Namira and Burgell thought they were too outnumbered. The debated ended with Burgell remembering another crossing, more difficult to get to as it lied in a forested region, but only a short distance from where they were. That night they camped in the forest and the next day, at sundown, they had made it to Ashenshaft.
Ashenshaft was familiar to Burgell and Velor, but Namira and Tancred noticed some strange things about it. The bulk of the population were half-elves and elves, with a few gnomes and an armed contingent of men. These men, almost all Alryans, had been sent by the Overlord to hunt the local pirates, but their chaotic and evil ways were grating to the native half-elves. The four informed some human guards that their were pirates at a nearby crossing, and the guards organized a posse - headed by the town chief - and left soon after.
The party decided to push on into the dusk to find the ruined warren and they did so in the hills north of the town. A group of four goblins was watching the entrance, and the party decided the best course of action was a direct attack. They stormed down, catching the goblins by surprised, and used rocks as cover to move up on them quickly without incurring ranged attacks. The goblins were slain, but the party realized it was too dark to explore more - and the goblins in the warren would have an advantage - so they returned to Ashenshaft to spend some weeks planning their next move.
I was enjoying the Wilderlands so much I decided to run it for the online group too. Here's a summary of the first two sessions.
Salassim The Magician
An assembled group of adventurers at the CUTTHROAT INN, including the wizard ZINDAYA IZMICHI, the thief KHURSHID THE CONTRARIAN, ANNAPURNA OF THE DESERT, a monk known only as THE PACT IS SEALED, and the wood elf SWEET LEAF were hired to escort SALASSIM THE MAGICIAN to an unnamed local in the CLOUDWALL MOUNTAINS. Leaving at dawn in one of the last days of the month of the Sky Woman, the party was accosted on DEAD BROKE STREET by a SINISTER MAN in black leather armor. He demanded that he be allowed to inspect their clothes but balked when they began to disrobe. Since they had "made things weird" he dismissed them and slunk back into the shadows.
The party made its way uneventfully to CARAVAN CROSSING, where they rested for the night. Salassim separated himself from his guard, and after he had done so they were approached by a number of "MIND FREAKS." These asked them questions about the wizard and their goal. The Pact is Sealed, being a conjurer of cheap tricks, provided them with a potion he stated would be able to release a demon from its binding, apparently unaware at the obvious hints the strangers gave as to their unearthly nature.
They traveled quickly through a town near the ESTUARY OF THE ROGLAROON before resting on a hill near the OLD SOUTH ROAD for the night. They were then attacked by a strange demon whose aspect resembled an insect, a corpse, and a vulture. After some fighting they killed the creature, but its having interrupted their sleep they were unable to gain the benefit of any rest.
The next night they stayed in a MANOR in the village of LUCKSTONE, and were again attacked by a similar demon. This they slew, and - since it had attacked early in the evening - they were able to rest and regain some of their spent strength.
From a mosaic found in the Pylon
The next day they made their way into the cloudwall mountains, a hot and steamy region seemingly teaming with volcanic activity. At the hour of sunset they found a structure they called the PYLON, which Salassim bid them enter. The structure seemed to be an enormous trial of some kind, and wrong moves and attempts to escape summoned a number of FIRE SNAKES. The snakes slew Zindaya, and greatly wounded other members of the party. However, they were able to figure out the nature of the trial and best it, allowing access to a portal to the PLANE OF FIRE.
At this moment Salassim appeared, gave Annapurna a MAGIC LAMP and then stepped through the portal. Shortly thereafter a great deal of smoke issued from the portal and wound its way into the lamp. Annapurna debated rubbing it but was advised against this course of action. Completing the last room of the trial, they removed some decorative stones from a brazier and exited into the last night in the month of the Sky Woman.
KC as Namira (Altanian Warlock 1 disciple of Mycr)
JP as Paelias Diamonddew (Elf Ranger 1 soon to be deceased)
Chris as Cyrus (Viridian Fighter 1 also soon to be deceased)
When we last left the Fumbling Four, they were removing a stone panel from the wall of a tomb in the Palace of the Toad Cult - a black pyramid in the Mermist Marsh. Apparently prying the panel off the wall last session attracted some of the pyramid's inhabitants as a group of strangely bug-eyed, slit-mouthed men dressed in bones and reptile skin burst through the door to attack the intruders. They threw spears and then rushed into melee, catching the party off guard and dealing some significant wounds; however, they could not stand before the Four and were slain to a man.
Toad Sarcophagus
Since members of the company were injured, they decided to rest in the tomb for an hour to heal wounds and to investigate the sarcophagi. Paelias and Cyrus opened the sarcophagi with crowbars while Tancred and Namira rested a ways away. The wounded members feared the sarcophagi would hold some kind of trap, and thus they wanted to not be nearby when it triggered. They were, in a way, correct, but the trap was only metal teeth under the sarcophagus lid which were avoided by the use of the crowbars.
The interior of the sarcphagi were wet and pink with large mucous membranes stretched over their occupants. Cyrus and Paelias each cut one open, revealing almost skeletal corpses whose eyes still registered terror and pain as though alive. Paelias stabbed his in the head - which caused the skull to disintegrate - and removed an iron khopesh of Orichalcan make. Cyrus found that his occupant was a skeletal woman with gold bangles around her arms. These he sought to remove while being watched by the frightened corpse. Namira, who had come over to investigate after no explosion had torn her companions asunder, stabbed the corpse in the head as Paelias had done. Cyrus and Namira then debated the merits of such action, since the nature (or even reality) of the corpses' suffering was unknown and the panel had said they deserved it. Namira believed the end of torment was a good regardless of who was being tormented.
Traveling on, the Fumbling Four found a set of stairs leading beneath the pyramid. Despite knowing that more danger would lurk closer to the heart of this sinister fane, they descended. Shortly they encountered two enormous toads, each seated on a dais. These leapt from their positions and attacked. A brutal combat ensued in which Tancred was knocked unconscious and Cyrus and Paelias were both devoured! Namira was able to finish off the last toad and, upon healing Tancred, the two cut the bodies of their friends from the toad's stomach.
Despite being weighed down with the bodies of their comrades and treasure plundered from the tomb, the two remaining members of the Fumbling Four returned to the City State without further incident.
This is kind of a rehash of this post but that one was made with some notable gaps for the current campaign because it was written for a different region of the Wilderlands. Some of the information from that post is restated here and some of the information is omitted because of the lack of influence of those peoples on the CSIO.
Note that any PHB option from 5e is available in the Wilderlands, these just cover the more unique options of the CSIO.
Humans
There are several different types of funny colored humans in the Wilderlands.
Alryans
Alryans are the dominant ethnicity of the City State of the Invincible Overlord and the nearby settlements. Like their sister race the Altanians (see below), they are descended from the ancient Orichalcans, though their bloodline is much diminished. Their skin is often ruddy or pale pink and their material culture is similar to the later days of the Western Roman Empire. They exert little control on the regions outside of their cities.
Altanians
Altanians are red skinned (ranging from rusty clay to coke can) barbarians from the jungles of Altanis, though they are common in the lands directly south of the City State of the Invincible Overlord. Like their sister race the Alryans, they are descended from the Orichalcans who ruled the Pazidun Peninsula before the kingdom of Kelnore. Now they live in tribal groups and hunt the ruins of their glorious past. Alryans, Antilians and Viridians often use them as slaves, and they may also be found throughout the Wilderlands of Swords and Devilry serving as mercenaries and body guards. Women and men are, unusually for the Wilderlands, more or less equal among these people, but women more often fill spiritual roles while men fill martial ones.
Antillians
Antilians are the inhabitants of the city of Antil, though their merchant ships may be found slaving or selling slaves in nearly every part of the Wilderlands. Men typically shave their heads and wear outrageous sword & sorcery badguy armor rather than anything practical. Women are typically not allowed to venture into broader society, being confined to sections of their father, husband, or master's house. They are known for their highly sexist society and their hatred of Amazons.
Dunael
The Dunael Woodfolk are long-lived humans that originated in the area around Tarsh. However, most living members reside in the Dearthwood thanks to an oath to patrol it made long ago to an Orichalcan King or previous Overlord. Some claim they have elvish blood, but other than their affinity for the forest and centuries long lives, they have very few physical features in common. They are dusky of skin and dark of hair, and their material culture is... look they're just the Dunedain, ok?
Skandiks
Reavers and pirates originally from the Great Glacier north of Valon, the Skandiks semi-recently moved south and conquered the area east of the City State. In even more recent times a Skandik warrior named Bjorn was elevated to demigod status through unknown means and became Overlord after the destruction of the city by an unknown agent. Because of his campaigns, the Skandik kingdoms of Croy and Ossry were united and are now client states of the City State.
Tharabians
These barbarian people originally hailed from somewhere north of the Valley of the Ancients. They were invited several generations ago by the Viridian Emperor to serve as mercenaries against the peoples that would one day found the City State. Since then they have settled land now known as the Tharabian Coast, and for many generations a member of their race held the title of Invincible Overlord; however, with the ascension of the Skandik Kingdoms the Tharabians have largely moved into Viridistan and returned to the service of the Viridian Emperor. They are swarthy and their material culture is a mixture of Celtic and Scythian.
Common Viridians
These are the descendants of the inhuman True Viridians and their Ghinorian subjects in the City State's rival empire of Viridistan. Since only a few True Viridians exist in the world, the "common" Viridians have taken over most of the administration of the empire and the temples of their terrible fish god, Armadod-bog. They resemble the Persians of our world, particularly the Sassanians, but their greenish skin and fantastical weaponry would immediately show them as being not from Earth.
Non-human PC Races
These races function as their D&D counterparts except where noted below.
Dwarves
Most Dwarves in the North hail from either Thunderhold or the recently reconquered Majestic Mountains. As the picture implies, they are more or less like the dwarves from the Hobbit cartoon. The stats for Hill Dwarves represent those from Thunderhold while the stats for Mountain Dwarves represent those Dwarves from the Majestic Fastness.
Elves
All Northern Elves possess blue skin, though the "high" variety tends to be more of a deep blue while the "wood" variety is kind of a blue green. High Elves are likely from Valon or from some other bastion of the old elven kingdom in the Elphand lands. "Dark Elves" of the Wilderlands are albino.
First Men
The First Men were created by a long dead reptilian empire in order to fulfill a prophecy that the world would be dominated by "Man, who stands up like an ape and has the heart of a dragon." The result looks rather like a mandrill or baboon crossed with an alligator, but the use of dragon parts allows them both access to breath weapons and to powerful sorcery. Statistically they are the same as Dragonborn in 5e.
Gnomes
Gnomes in the City State are most commonly from Lightelf, a nearby settlement under the yoke of the Skandiks. These gnomes are similar to the Tinker variety, and have shunned magical prowess in exchange for arms training.
Halflings
Halflings are Hobbits, though both stout and lightfoot varieties are found in the Wilderlands. They are common in the immediate areas around the City State, where they often serve as peasants on the holdings of Alryan Knights given appanage by the Overlord. They are more common in the area east of the Winedark sea such as Tarsh and on the Ebony Coast.
Tieflings
The ancient Markrabs, a long extinct race, bred many of their servitor demons with human stock. The descendents of these mating experiments still exist throughout the urban areas of the Wilderlands, and new parings are still made in the distant Demon Empires of the South.
Non-human(?) NPC Races
Amazons
Amazons are a strange race which sages believe was created many years ago by a strange wizard named Lurr. He supposedly saw a vision from a distant world depicting a savage warrior woman, and decided to construct his own for reasons I'd rather not get into. Amazons produce with gynogenesis and thus are all identical in appearance, resembling the woman of Lurr's strange dream. They are all female and almost all powerful warriors. One is said to rule the Orcs of the Purple Claw in Dearthwood, and a large group of them serve the Skandiks in Shield Rune.
After much shifting around with my home group, I'm running a Wilderlands campaign for them set in and around the City State of the Invincible Overlord using 5e. Here's a recap of the first two sessions.
The party consists of...
James as Tancred the Half Giant (stats as Goliath, Fighter 1 though not present for the first session)
KC as Namira (Altanian Celistial Warlock 1 and disciple of Mycr)
JP as Paelias Diamonddew (Northern Elf Ranger 1)
and Chris as Cyrus (Viridian Fighter 1)
During the second session Chris named the group the Fumbling Four, but that won't make sense until Tancred shows up.
Paelias, Cyrus, and Namira had spent the last days of the Month of the Silent Scream in the Tanglebones Tavern listening for rumors that might lead to adventure. After dismissing a few as too base (they party's overall alignment tends towards Good), they elected to help out the Overlord's Light Cavalry. It seems that patrols in the Dearthwood were being attacked by strange, flying snakes whose venom was especially potent. This had crippled many of the cavalrymen and meant that long stretches of the southern road were patrolled. Paelias thought he could lead the party to the most likely source of these creatures, and together they would destroy the nest.
Once they exited the tavern they were accosted by a pair of buskers in corpse paint. These street musicians were armed and seemed unhappy with the obvious goody-two-shoes aspect of the party. Namira was able to talk them down before a fight ensued, but the buskers promised violence if ever they were seen on slash street again. After detouring around a procession dedicated to the god of Gargoyles, which featured the enormous god himself, they found themselves forced to pay a small tax and declare their loyalty to the Overlord before they could exit the city.
Once in the Dearthwood Paelias decided to lead the group towards a ridgeline that is some miles into the forest. It was here he believed the flying snakes would have their home. On the way they passed by a large cenote with some sort of strange activity. Scouting ahead, Paelias found it was a flock of pegasi who fled at his arrival. Travelling onward they were able to avoid an ambush by orcs and were able to set up camp without attracting any more of the vicious savages. In the cold light of dusk the Cyrus spied some small shapes flying over a nearby hill, confirming Paelias's suspicions.
The next morning Paelias made for the hill to scout it alone. As he approached he narrowly avoided a number of arrows from an unknown source. He returned to the group confirming both the presence of flying snakes and informing them of intelligent opposition. The three of them decided to investigate from another angle, with Cyrus this time a little ahead of the party. He noted that the structure on top of the hill, though apparently natural, was made by some intelligent hand and included a number of arrow slits. It also had a door set in the side that could be approached from an angle that would leave someone looking out of the arrow slits blind to the oncoming assailant.
Cautiously passing beyond the door, they found a hallway ending in a T section. Here they heard a subtle hissing from below and deduced the location of a pit trap filled with (conventional) snakes. Jumping over they made there way to what seemed to be a catacomb shelf. Testing it with a handaxe, Cyrus discovered a blade trap. This they avoided but soon they found themselves in a room filled with flying snakes (and their nests). As warned, these creatures had very potent venom and Paelias suffered ill-wounds and was only saved by Namira's magical healing. Having been beaten back, Cyrus decided to cut an arrowslit of his own in the door. Unfortunately, the noise attracted a number of (conventional) snakes whose posion, while less potent, again caused Paelias to collapse. Deciding the task of killing the snakes was a bit too difficult, they fled.
On the way back they fell in with a small troop of the Overlord's Light Cavalry and were escorted back to the city. They made friends with one of them (who was on his last patrol ever, since he was leaving the Overlord's service) and spent a week in the city with him participating in pit fights and gambling at the Tanglebones Tavern. Cyrus acquitted himself well in the pit fights, as did Namira who fought masked so as to hide her identity. Paelias, perhaps still sick from the venom, contented himself to bet on the matches but lost his money.
Tancred the Half-Giant, for that was the former soldier's name, was initially interested in ridding the Dearthwood of the flying snakes, but upon hearing of the potency of the snakes' venom, the Fumbling Four elected instead to seek new rumors. They heard the angry sermon of a priest of Tsathoggus outside the tavern. The priest, it seems, had gone into the Mermist Marsh but had been chased out by "degenerates" and "inbreds" who worshiped the Toad, a rival to Tsathoggus in batrachian mastery. He offered a blessing from Tsathoggus for any who would go into the swamp and murder the "bumpkins." Namira was uneasy about working for a false god, but admitted that killing the followers of another false god was perhaps a net good.
They left the Tanglebones Tavern in the first week of the Month of the Sky Woman, but despite the cold of that season they were beset by a group of giant wasps. These they slew, but Tancred was bemused and wondered aloud at the source of such creatures. Namira insisted that the City State was filled with strange wonders, but Tancred had never heard of giant wasps in his days of soldiering. Paelias believed he remembered hearing there was a bounty on destroying a wasps nests on a nearby street. Deciding adventure in the city was better than paying the tax to leave, they set about climbing nearby buildings.
Well, Tancred, Cyrus, and Paelias climbed nearby buildings. Namira made her way to a street near the Temple of the Gargoyle where she could find a small shop selling candles and oil. She purchased oil for the potential burning of the nest while the other three tried to locate it. Tancred saw it aways off on the same building complex that housed the chandler. As he approached, the wasps that were near the nest (Paelias guessed most were out hunting and wouldn't return until dusk) became agitated. Tancred felled one with a thrown handaxe and its corpse landed in front of Namira as she was exiting the shop. Realizing battle was in progress, she began to climb up to aid her comrades.
This combat was easier since there were a smaller number of wasps around the nest, and soon the party had hacked the nest out from under the joined roofs where the wasps had built it. Tancred kicked it down but unfortunately he happened to hit an apprentice of the Thieves' Guild who was exiting a tavern below. Ignoring the apprentice's curses, the party took the nest to try to find someone who would pay the bounty they had heard about.
Tancred guessed it would be a nearby tax collector (who happened to be a troll), and the troll seemed very happy to have a giant wasps nests but he and his guards informed the party there had been no bounty. Paelias, it was revealed, had misremembered.
They decided to take the rest of the day easy and leave at dawn the next day. Unfortunately, this meant they were crushed by incoming traffic on Regal Street when they meant to leave because of those who lived outside the city coming in for work. Eventually they made their way to a ferry station that could take them into Mermist Marsh.
Their trip into the marsh was slow going, and only on the second day were they far enough away that the City State had disappeared into the green line of the Dearthwood on the horizon. Soon after its disappearance they saw a large, black pyramid sticking out of the marsh grass. It seemed that the base of the pyramid was made out of a shiny, black stone while the upper bit was a dull basalt. The basalt section also seemed to have collapsed inwardly, giving the pyramid a strange shape.
Once again Paelias acted as a scout, though this time he was more successful than previous attempts. He noted both a large, double-doored main entrance and a smaller side entrance. Deciding it was usually a bad plan to go through the main entrance, Paelias snuck aways into the side entrance to see what they might find. He soon found himself surrounded by bullywugs, but thanks to his aptitude for stealth did not alert them. He returned and informed the party.
Tancred kicked the side door entrance in and the Fumbling Four began killing the bullywugs. The bullywugs, it seems, had been preparing for an outing out of the pyramid and had been interrupted such that they could not take advantage of the armor they were attempting to put on. When only one bullywug was left, it attempted to jump away and flee but Tancred was able to pin him to the door using his throwing axe. Exploring in the direction he was going to flee to, the party found that they were in a kitchen/dining complex. They soon found that bullywugs shit where they eat.
Beyond this complex they found what appeared to be a large tomb chamber. On the wall was a stone panel with an inscription in ancient Orichalcan. Namira was able to puzzle out its rough meaning - which one player rendered in the groups session log as "Two Mummies Suck Forever." Cyrus chiseled the panel off the wall, hoping to find an Orichalcan antiques collector back in the City State. We agreed to pick up here next time (which should be today) rather than have a week of downtime because we got started late during the last session.
