Gutbur’s Grand Adventure: Session #007
The Adventure Continues…
[DM]: Gutbur, You run along as best you can, keeping up with your horse at a slow trot and before too long you arrive at the Elk tribe encampment. It looks like the elk are having their own moot ahead of the great moot. As they see the great chief approaching, you see them all part for him.
He slows your horse to a walk and moves beside you, as you walk along, he points out the other Elk tribe chiefs.
“They are waiting for me to die. ‘The old man has lost his taste for battle’ they say. Yet none of them have the hide to challenge me.”
[Gutbur]:
“You have not lost your taste for other people’s horses, I think, great chief.”
[DM]: He laughs a great belly laugh. “Horses are much more fun when they are somebody else’s. Besides, I’m not the one whose blood needs to be pumping for what is next. Come, this way.”
[Gutbur]:
I follow him where he leads me. “Is my blood needed to be up or is it to be decorating the floor?”
[DM]: “Your blood will not decorate the ground by our hands. Though, it may by your own when you are finished, whose to say what vision is waiting for you. It is rare gift when a spirit shaman calls forth a specific person for a vision, and they do not always end well. But we’ve come to expect rare things. Our high shaman is a woman, the first in more than ten generations. She has also barely come of age.”
[Gutbur]:
I’m curious but I will say nothing in reply.
[DM]: As you approach the tent, adorned as you would expect of the high shaman of any tribe. You see two familiar Elk tribe members outside, Fennor (f) and Padraich (m).
Fennor steps forward, “Greetings to The Last Bloodhawk. My daught… high shaman Friynaf, said you would be joining us.”
[Gutbur]:
Were they among the Elk I met at Javor’s tomb?*
[DM]:
They were the two that were mounted.
[Gutbur]:
“Greetings. I did not know I was expected.”
[DM]: “It is an unusual thing,” says Fennor. “But Friynaf’s visions always come true.”
“Although, you are late,” adds Padriach.
[Gutbur]:
“An errand of the spirits delayed me. “
[DM]: The chief hitches your horse outside the tent, and Fennor announces your presence inside.
[Gutbur]:
Taking that as my cue, I’ll go into the tent.
[DM]: You enter the tent and it looks much like you would expect for a shaman, lots of totems and charms hanging from the roof and supports, a small fire in the middle, over which a cauldron is placed.
Make a Wisdom (Perception) check.
[Gutbur: Perception]: 1d20 (20) + 5 = 25
[DM]: You notice there are two people in the tent, first is obviously high shaman Friynaf, for all the the coming of age talk, she is basically a plain looking teenage girl. You do notice that her irises and pupils are milked over, she is very likely completely blind.
You also notice, off to the right side of the tent, trying desperately to not be noticed, is Bertram Nettlebee.*
Upon seeing you Bertram’s face goes through all five stages of grief in about half a second, but to his credit he doesn’t make any noise, or pee himself.
He looks well fed and taken care of. His clothing is more tribal than he was before, but he doesn’t look disheveled or mistreated. Not that you would particularly care.
[Gutbur]:
I am astonished he lives.
[DM]: “Two more logs on the fire Defiler Nettlebee, and then you can see yourself out. Tend to his horse and return to your tent.”
“Yes ma’am, right away ma’am.”
He does what she says and heads out. Friynaf walks over to you, and reaches toward your forehead.
[Gutbur]: I don’t move.
Although I might have smirked a little when she called him “defiler”.
[DM]: Her finger traces a symbol on your forehead, and smiles. “At least you were late for a good reason. Going against the will of Fate is dangerous.”
“Under normal circumstances, I would offer you hospitality, but not today.” As she walks away, she tosses a water skin over her shoulder to you. “You’ll need to run in place and keep your heart rate up, or this won’t work.”
“I apologize, but this draught doesn’t last long, so it has to be made fresh. You’ll have to keep running as I prepare it.”
[Gutbur]:
“To what end, wise-one? I do not understand what you are asking of me.”
[DM]: She sets about preparing some concoction in the pot over the fire. She moves with purpose, and her movements in this space don’t give away her blindness in the slightest.
“The high chief was probably short on the details, and just said you were to have a vision?” she says while working.
[Gutbur]: “My coming was foretold, I was expected two days ago. That is all.”
“The great chief was very miserly with his words and very liberal with my horse.”
[DM]: “I had a vision of you coming here, and was instructed to share my gift with you by Uthgar himself.”
“All people of this world are capable of receiving visions when a God wills it, but they are vague and unfocused. Some people, like me, have a greater ability to see the future, and in some cases, the past.”
“This draught will open your mind to me. When the time comes, you will have to focus all your mind to when the Red Tiger tribe attacked yours.”
She continues working…
By now it is very late at night. You should really be sleeping.
(Lasarian):
I’m going to need to take a little break, I have a sick kid here.
(Talolan): NP
That’s why it is in text channel.
(afew hours later)
[Gutbur]:
I will drink the draught and follow her instructions. “If this is Uthgar’s will, so be it.”
[DM]:
You’re not quite at that point yet. She’s still preparing.
[Gutbur]: Oh, I thought that was what was in the water skin.
The water skin is full of water …
For the running… while she cooks …?
[DM]:
That was just to keep you hydrated while you keep your heart rate up.
(Talolan):
Yup.
(Lasarian):
Ok, got it.
[Gutbur]: I will do that.
Gutbur is a little creeped out but will still do it.
[DM]: FYI, between the run to the camp, and the extra cardio now, and the fact you didn’t get a rest, you have 1 level of Exhaustion.
As she continues working, “What kind of spirit gave you that mark?”
[Gutbur]: That’s probably not good, but I feel like this isn’t the kind of thing I can just say: “let me just dash off for a nap and we’ll get right on that whole will of the gods thing”.
If she’s indicating my forehead: “they called themselves Cinderlings. I encountered them on my way here.”
[DM]: For a moment, the facade of the high shaman fades away, and you see the young woman for what she is… “Cinderlings, really… I’ve always wanted to meet them.”
[Gutbur]:
“They were very …. Curious creatures. I have never seen their like before.”
[DM]:
“Well, it seems you made your mark on them… and they returned the favor.”
[Gutbur]:
Gutbur sees what she did there …
[DM]: “The wee Nettlebee was quite unnerved by you. His heart rate quickened considerably.”
[Gutbur]: The wee Nettlebee is lucky to be alive in my judgment- he desecrated a tomb and meddled in dark sorcery!
[DM]: “His father paid that price… he’s still alive at my request. At first I thought he was too pathetic to sully our blades, but I think he’s proven himself valuable.”
She lets her guard down again, “When the world is all gray, it is nice to have somebody around who can provide some color. The story tellers in the Elk aren’t very vivid.”
She taps her temple by her eyes when she says this.
As she continues working you smell the concoction in the cauldron, and you think breathing it in fully might make you dizzy. “Almost ready now.”
“That is about enough running, you can sit.” She beckons to the left side of the tent, where two leather mats are placed.
[Gutbur]: I go and sit. “This draught you made. You will feel what I feel, see what I have seen?”
[DM]: “Our vision will be shared, and we will be able to move within it. But our thoughts and feelings will be linked, so the tales tell.”
[Gutbur]:
“Let us hope it is a vivid tale, then, wise one.”
[DM]: She fills two large mugs with the hot liquid and sits across from you. “Drink quickly. And as you do, focus all your mind the events of the day the Red Tiger took you and yours.”
Then she hands you one of the mugs.
[Gutbur]: “That day has never left my mind.”
I drink.
[DM]: You both drink, and it burns as it goes down. If it hurts her, the young woman doesn’t show it.
As you finish the drink the world starts to become fuzzy around you, and your head gets heavy. You feel yourself falling over, and see the high shaman doing the same.
Eventually you awaken. The sun is beating on your face, you feel as though you’ve been sleeping for a month. You hear laughter near by and look up. Your mother, sister, and younger brother are all washing clothes in a stream, laughing and generally looking happy. Taking in the surroundings you see yourself about 20 yards away, you are sharpening blades and rewrapping hilts. Surprised at seeing yourself, you investigate your own body and find that you have none.
Eventually it dawns on you that you’ve seen this scene before. You lived it. As that realization hits you, you feel another wave of emotion. First it is fear, and trepidation, and then joy. It takes you a few seconds to realize you’re feeling Friynaf. It doesn’t take more than a moment before you figure it out. In visions, she can see the world as you do. No gray, no colorful stories from a disgraced halfling.
As your head clears, and accepts the situation it is in, more shapes resolve into view. Behind everybody, you see a spirit. Yours is a bear, great and powerful. Your mother and brother are both hawks. Though the spirit behind your mother is much larger. Your sisters spirit is a crane, somehow both graceful and awkward at the same time.
[Gutbur]:
I silently thank the spirits for their guidance and protection.
[DM]: It is then that you notice the gathering Red Tigers in the trees. They greatly outnumber your family, and the other Red Hawks in the area. Their spirits are all solitary hunting cats: tiger, panther, cheetah, leopard, lynx.
They attack without warning. You know what happens next, you lived this part of the attack. You take up arms in defense, but your family is unarmed at this time, and quickly overwhelmed. You fight valiantly, but in the end you’re left with the choice to submit or risk the lives of your family, knowing that a dead warrior is a useless warrior, you are taken.
“You were wise not to die needlessly that day. Though you may not feel it.”
“But this is not what we’re here to see. Come.”
Friynaf starts walking toward the main bulk of the Blood Hawk encampment, rather than the outskirts where you are now.
[Gutbur]:
“I wish wisdom was in my mind on this day. I was not yet a man, everything happened so quickly. “
[DM]: As you head into the Red Hawk encampment, which you never saw again after being taken, you see something you didn’t expect. Many Red Hawks, whom you presumed died in the attack, are being taken captive, but not in the same direction as those of you that were on the outskirts. The fighting is fierce, and many Red Hawks are cut down, but still, you believed this to be a massacre, and it wasn’t.
You find yourself outside of the tannery tent, knowing that your father and brother are inside.
[Gutbur]:
I will seize the chance to run inside!
[DM]: As you run inside, you see your brother on the ground, mortally wounded. His spirit appears to be a great Alpha Wolf. He would have made a great leader one day, but a Wolf needs a pack.
There are 4 dead Red Tigers around the mid-sized tent. One has a slicking iron buried in his neck. Another appears to have had his skull caved in with an arm board. A third has been impaled on a cutting stake. A fourth seems to have been decapitated with a fleshing knife, which is no easy feat.
Your father is standing over your brother. He is out of leatherworking tools, and seems to have taking more than a few shots from the iron claws the Red Tigers wear.
Unarmed and alone, your father dodges the attack from the lone remaining Red Tiger, and in a quick motion, grabs, twists, and snaps the attackers arm, jerking the claw back into the attacker’s own body.
Oddly, you don’t see a spirit behind your father like you have with everybody else.
[Gutbur]: I take this chance to bid my brother farewell and to commend him to Uthgar.
I marvel at my father, but look for his spirit animal.
[DM]: Your father looks back to your brother, who simply nods, as your father rushes out of the tent. As quick as that was, the encampment seems to have cleared in that time. Seeing people being hauled north, your father takes flight grabbing a fallen warrior’s axe on the way.
As he nears the edge of the clearing, something hulking breaks through the trees from the direction of the retreating Red Tigers.
You father stops dead in his tracts as a 20′ tall Fire Giant enters the clearing, wielding a gigantic, unique hammer.
It is then that you notice your father’s spirit. It has been circling high overhead. You see it land behind him as he is confronted by this new threat.
It looks like this:
(image)
[DM]: The head of the fire giant’s maul appears to be a cage, with hammer faces on either side. Inside the cage you see a dwarf chained to the haft of the hammer running through the cage.
You feel utter terror from Friynaf at the revelation of the Fire Giant. You can also feel her mind making connections between visions and events, though they don’t mean anything to you. You get the overwhelming though “This is bad. This is very bad.”
The fire giant says “I am Duke Zalto, and you have 1 chance to surrender. The dwarf is getting a little long in the tooth (he shakes the hammer/cage), and is in need of a replacement.”
Your father simply roars at the “Duke” and the owl spirit does likewise. Then, your father breaks one of the cardinal rules he gave you, he releases control of his weapon without another one readily at hand, when he throws his axe at the giant’s face.
[Gutbur]: I am praying my father dies in this match rather than be put in that cage.
I try speaking to Friynaf. “You seem to know something about this. Are the Red Tigers in league with giants!?”
[DM]: “It would appear so. I had a vision of them attacking the moot at Beoruna’s Well, and it was the hardest to believe, because they don’t have the strength to attack all the tribes of Uthgar. It would be suicide.
They have been very aggressive to the other tribes running back several years and none could find out why.”
Your father’s axe connects with the giant’s face, it seems he didn’t expect that line of attack. As the giant reels back, your father launches forward with a leap that would make you think he had wings, and before the giant has righted himself, your father has his hands on his axe again. Withdrawing it and making a great swipe in to the giant’s neck.
The giant reels from the attack, and you father is thrown wide, but lands on his feet.
[Gutbur]: Although I understand he cannot hear me, I cheer for my father regardless-
I am appalled to hear there is even a chance that Ysgsrdians would ally with giants. “This is an affront to Uthgar, and all of our kin.”
[DM]: The giant bellows and two allies… so to speak… emerge from the forest edge. They are Hell Hounds, a favorite pet of Fire Giants.
“You… don’t have to watch this if you don’t want to,” she says.
[Gutbur]:
“I will not turn away, nor should you.”
[DM]: Your father moves with far more grace than somebody with his power should, and the battle rages on. He cannot physically stand against the giant or hell hounds, but he manages to slip and dodge their attacks, while landing some of his own.
With the pride he takes in his leather work, you think your father is more annoyed at the slashes in his armor than the fact he will likely die.
Your father lasts several minutes, but you can see he is wearing down. His dodges are getting less and less successful. You can feel both awe and great sadness from Friynaf, when something you did not expect happens.
Your father’s spirit inhabits him, in the last moments of his life. Zalto’s hammer comes down straight on your father, no place to dodge this time. The hammer comes down with a mighty thud.
As Zalto pulls it away, he tells his hounds to feast, but there is nothing to feast on. Just an empty pile of armor with an axe.
Zalto and the hounds quickly look around, but see nothing. After about a half minute of confusion, they simply walk back into the forest.
Friynaf is thoroughly confused. “Who was your father, exactly.”
As she is speaking, a mid-sized brown owl lands and picks at the leather, and axe. It hops around for a few seconds, before it turns and looks directly at you and Friynaf.
It nods in your direction and flies off.
[Gutbur]: I too am confused, but also brimming with pride. “My father was Oksig, son of Volk’gaz. Did you see that? “
[DM]: “I have not seen many things in my life son of Oksig, but that was the most unexpected. I’ve seen the spirits that guide us before, but I’ve never seen one the size of your father’s. Their link was staggering. And at the end…”
[Gutbur]:
Gutbur is wondering if it was the owl at the Firbolg burial.
[DM]:
Could have been.
[Gutbur]: “I am just as amazed, shaman. My father was ….well, my father. I did not know of his spirit totem- not like this.”
[DM]: “I wonder when we’ll wake up.”
As she says that, again you feel some trepidation from her. You can tell that she knows that her abilities are why she’s the high shaman of the elk tribe, but she doesn’t truly believe she deserves the job, she knows she’s barely an adult.
And while she follows the teachings of Uthgar, you could tell during the battle that she has no taste for bloodshed.
[Gutbur]: Sensing this, I will say “It is not your calling to fight. That is best left to those like me and my father, your calling is to guide and speak to the spirits. Battle is but one way to honor Uthgar.”
[DM]: Your head feels heavy again, and within the vision you collapse, and find yourself waking up back in the high shamans tent.
(Talolan):
That that is all for tonight. It is late.
(Lasarian): Ok
Nice session though
(Talolan):
I’ve been sitting on that damn owl for like 2 years.
(Lasarian): That owl was badass. I am never going to hear the end of it from Kermit though
(Talolan): Sometimes Ra’s omens are BS. Sometimes they aren’t. :slight_smile:
Gutbur just got high on Ayahuasca.*
(Lasarian):
I’ll have to look that up
Credited Sources:
Original Discord and Avrae play sessions were July 31st 2021
Images:
- Castle Avatar Art by Lasarian
- Gutbur Avatar Art and Title by
- Shield Art by Lasarian
