Duel in the Pit

Our quest to help Kallyr’s ghost nearly ends in disaster for Aeson.

In the Pit of Verinus

Lord Verinus, after asking us how our Empire of Wyrms Friends1 was faring, entertained us with dancers and jugglers, poor though they were, drawn from his cohort of shadzoring and urzani. They were almost comical in their attempts to impress us, but Verinus dispassionately watched their antics with a slight snarling smile on his grey lips. When we mentioned Antaersus and our reason for coming to his domain, Verinus flatly lied to us, saying he knew nothing of any star captain. The odd urzani, little Sniveling Balugost, also clearly knew something; Philoren the Tall remained implacable and impassive. After brushing off our purpose with lies and asking us if we knew how to return to the sky, Verinus offered us a drink: warm wine. When he finally grew bored, he retired to his chambers to rest and worship, leaving us back in the hands of Philoren, his second-in-command. Philoren, presumably sensing no danger from us, told us we were free to do as we please and left himself.

Left to our own devices, we split up to explore the strange place we found ourselves in. When we got to close to the only apparent entrance to the Melted Tower at the center of the Pit, the urzani guards converged and shooed us away from the “Holiest of Holies”. The tower itself was so hot it burned the touch. We explored further through the twisting obsidian tubes that struck out from the pit, finding a peculiar work room of mysterious purpose and an ancient, buried Vingkotling2 villa from before Time. This place apparently acted as a barracks or domicile for the current inhabitants of the Pit.

At this point, we decided to split up to increase our chances of finding where Verinus was hiding the star captain. Aeson and Sarkalor returned to the odd work room while Berrik and Obrast returned to Verinus’ Audience Hall.

The Duel

Aeson bribed one of the urzani into usefulness by feeding it arrows3, learning some about the history and workings in the Pit. In the odd workroom, Aeson shoved his way past a stone slab and thus stumbled into Verinus’ Sanctum. Among frankly terrible depictions of Yelm and the Sky Gods (Verinus’ handiwork) and visible piles of gold, silver, and wood (where did he get such treasure, one must wonder; the purpose of the horde of wood seemed clear enough), Aeson found Verinus worshipping his ugly statue of Yelm. Infuriated, the Sun Lord commanded the Intruder to leave or face the consequences. Aeson chose the consequences and the duel between Sun and Cold Sun began.

Verinus struck first, with magic, to blind Aeson. Aeson threw away his helmet and responded with Andrinor. Verinus batted Andrinor away and thrust his own spear at Aeson, landing a blow but not penetrating his armor. Andrinor struck again, this time more true and wounded Verinus. Verinus responded by turning his spear into a ray of purifying sun-fire. Almost evenly matched, Sun and Cold Sun traded blows, magic, and wounds. But Aeson kept gaining the upper hand, whittling the Sun Lord down until finally crippling him with a cruel spear-thrust the leg. In fury, Verinus struck out wildly with his own flaming spear. His initial ploy, to force Aeson to throw away his helmet, paid off. The wild blow struck Aeson through the skull and felled him. Verinus was victorious.

The Star Captain

In the Audience Hall, Berrik distracted the urzani by dancing with them while Obrast looked for secrets. Noticing that the image of Lodril appeared twice among the other gods depicted on the wall behind Verinus’ throne, Obrast quickly located a secret passage that lead to more Vingkotling ruins from before Time. Within an unlit and ancient megaron decorated with indecipherable Theyalan glyphs and paintings of unknown gods, Obrast and Berrik saw the rainbow glow of the star captain. Though completely unharmed, Antaersus was clearly a prisoner, held down by loops of silver chain he could not move himself. Unaffected by that magic, Obrast and Berrik easily moved the chains away and freed the star captain. Antaersus thanked them, explained briefly how he had been trapped in the Pit (inexorably drawn into the Pit by the forgotten sky god), and showed them the Rainbow Feather - the thing Verinus coveted most and the reason for his imprisonment. Then, looking away across the spirit realm of the Pit, he said they must hurry to help Aeson, for he was in dire need.

.tg Fireday, Death Week, Storm Season 1626

The Fall of Verinus and the Rise of Antaersus

With the star captain freed, Verinus’ selfishness was exposed to all the urzani and shadzorings. Philoren, who had chaffed under Verinus’ command for centuries but had no lawful cause to usurp him, grasped at the opportunity to take command. Verinus was imprisoned in the tower with “his dead god”. After making a plea with us for future trade and communication to lessen their misery (Philoren understood that the star captain’s feather could not return them all to the sky), Philoren let us and the star captain depart. Sniveling Bulogost escorted us to the border between the Pit and the Middle World, apologizing the whole way pitiably.

When we finally left the choking fumes of the Pit, Antaersus thanked us by giving us each a ring from his fingers:

  • To Berrik, he gave a copper ring which belonged to one of Berrik’s direct Vingkotling ancestors before Time;
  • To Aeson, whom he also healed, he gave a sapphire ring to aid him in resisting the magic of his opponents in the future;
  • To Obrast, he gave a simple gold ring, the richest gift Obrast had ever received; and
  • To Sarkalor, he gave a stone ring which he said would sweeten any wine or beer it touched.

With his thanks and gifts bestowed, he took out the Rainbow Feather and painted the sky with it before setting it in his own wings. A rainbow stretched down to his feet, and with a push of his wings, he glid along the rainbow back up into the sky until he became a pinpoint of light, and then he vanished into the violet dome near the Great Hunter.

Though it seemed like we had only been in the Pit for a few hours, at most a day, almost a week had passed by the time we returned to Apple Lane.

People We Met

Antaersus the Sky Captain .lt

A strong man with fair hair, and eyes like the sky before twilight. Two golden wings extend from his back. His raiment shines in the dark, as if made from liquid light.

To fulfill Kallyr’s wishes, we found and freed him, allowing him to return to Rigsdal’s kingdom. He repaid us with kindness, saving Aeson’s life, and treasured rings from his own fingers.

Sniveling Bulogost .ib

An animate flame, the size of a shadowcat. Yellow and blue wisps flicker, forming a mouth and eyes. It wrings two articulate hands fashioned from tin.

Though a coward and a conniver, Sniveling Bulogost is apparently a skilled artisan, knowing many handicrafts and metalworking.

Foundry Chat Log

  1. To be clear, this just showed how out of touch with the Middle World Verinus and company were, as the Empire of Wyrms Friends had fared quite badly in the end indeed, being snuffed out by their erstwhile ally, the Inhuman King4, in 1042, almost 500 years ago. ↩︎

  2. The Vingkotlings were the first Orlanthi tribe, named after their first king, Vingkot. They existed during the Storm Age of the mythic era. They thrived, but the people were nearly exterminated during the Great Darkness. Thus they are the best-known Orlanthi tribe from mythic times. After the Vingkotlings came the Heortlings. Heort the Great taught new survival skills and divine mysteries to many people who were lost in the Darkness, and organized a new tribe. He was the first king of this new Orlanthi people. Thanks to him they survived the Great Darkness, and at the Dawn were the core for one of the most powerful peoples in early history. Modern Orlanthi generally consider themselves to be Heortlings. However, they are also called Alakorings, which is less used but perhaps more correct. Alakoring was a leader in the tenth century whose social reforms significantly altered the peoples and tribes who followed him (He instituted the worship of Orlanth Rex, with powers to control the priesthood). He opposed the traditional Heortlings whose leadership followed draconic ways (ie, the Empire of Wyrms Friends). However, the tribes east of the Rockwoods retained their ancient title of Heortlings after the dragons left, while those of Ralios preferred to keep calling themselves Alakorings. ↩︎

  3. The urzani’s name was Little Spark (in Firespeech), and it should be noted that Aeson promised Little Spark that he would return it and all the other urzani (and presumably, the shadzorings, too) to the sky. ↩︎

  4. The Inhuman King, themself, did not do this, but sent the dragonewts, assisted by the Blue Moon Cult5, to kill all the important leaders of the EWF and steal or destroy its most important artifacts. The EWF ceased to exist literally overnight. ↩︎

  5. Troll assassins who worshipped the darkness goddess, Annilla /wo , Goddess of the Blue Moon and daughter of Yelm. ↩︎

Stories of the … No One Ever Goes … Thunder Bird Is …
Storm 1626 Orlmarth
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