More Adventures in Tellene - Main Tale - Noises off

[EvilGinger]

Introduction
Noises off are events which take place else where in the local area when the episodes of the Company of Fool Chronicle take place. There is as I hope you can imagine more going on than the players are aware of. I will also be extendin the regional map to the north west to include the area of Than's prelude



Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Noises off part I


This takes place at the same time as episodes IX-XII

At the command of the Great goblin the goblin chief Benaxerak gathered up his forces and lead a raid from his strong hold on the M’Alvern ridge and after first looting and burning several Manish villages in the immediate area and obtaining a he decided an insufficient quantity of loot slaves and live stock crossed the M’Alvern stream and attacked the town of Vaynam. The town was walled and the raid was not equipped for attacking a walled town so the attack was driven off with no further loot and minimal destruction and Benaxerak withdrew in good order back across the M’Alvern stream where he set an ambush.

Into which rode the Lord of Vaynam and a large number of his men at arms the resulting fight was in the greater scheme of things some what indecisive as the goblins hit and ran not intending a stand up fight at that time however in the course of it the son and heir of the Lord of Vaynam was struck by an arrow which punched through his mail and struck him dead and the men of Vaynam withdrew in some disorder. Seeing this Benaxerak had them harried back to the gates of their town and commenced raiding at will along the M’Alvern stream burning farms and crop fields within sight of the walls.

At the same time goblin scouts moved south and east and there tracks where spotted near the Meliac’s farm. Grandfather Meliac was wise enough to evacuate the farm and move every one to Ettis wall, after the arrival of the Meliac’s family several other homesteaders to the north of Ettis wall reported goblin tracks or those of large dogs and the Militia of Ettis wall was mustered.

Mean while the usual summer market had begun to form at A’Rakum manor and the first significant numbers of travellers began to arrive both over the pass for the east and from the South and west along the kings road. None of the travellers from either direction reported seeing any goblins but those form the west had seen dog tracks but until it was pointed out to them did not see their significance. There developed a distinct undertow of nervousness amongst the markets traders which the lord of the Manor sought to keep in check.

 


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Part II -The Water caves
This takes place at the same time as episodes VII-XIII

Violet had left the band of refugees and rescued slaves that she had lead across the high pass, having with the slain priest Perkal lead them from the cruel captivity of an imperial plantation in northern Kalamar to freedom west of the mountains.

They had been left well supplied for whatever they chose to do next but they none the less felt rather abandoned when Violet went off and has yet to return, they compared Violet who was obviously little more than a tame monster unfavourably with the tall handsome heroic looking fhokkian cleric .  There was much grumbling as some of them forgot the oppression they had been released from and the valour of Violet and Perkal as well as those others who had added them as they fled the imperial trackers all across the wilds of the young kingdoms and thence over the secret high pass.

For want of any instruction they where at something of a lose end, they where not that used to making their own decisions most of them having been salves or at least serf’s all their lives and as a result subject to the commands of others. Indeed even though both Violet and Perkal had tried to encourage them to become involved in the decisions that needed making during their escape it was apparent to them all that the Priest and the Paladin where in the lead and they for the most part went along with the choices those two made, even if there was some grumbling.

At first the refugees where content to camp out at and enjoy the bounty of the supplies there However as the days passed the grumbling and the discussion began initially the majority of the refugees decided that it would be best to wait for the Paladin and started building a temporary refuge at the water caves as this was soon finished the divisions grew, some having built at least a temporary shelter wanted to stay and settle permanently. Others mostly the more adventurous of them wanted either to go and explore the area or go and look for the missing Paladin or a bit of both however it was a while before these groups organised themselves and made there decisions. The first to set out headed south as they had heard there was some sort of settlement to the south and being made up of former rural surfs rather than released plantation slaves they had some experience at fending for themselves in the wilds the other two groups settled to exploring the local area as neither of them had the wilderness skills or confidence of the first being mostly composed of young released field slaves form the plantation who to be honest having escaped the oppression of the plantation had developed something of a taste for adventure on their escape.

Mean while a good way to the west the wealthy Kalamarian Merchant T’lec set out with a caravan of goods as well as the sort of empty wagons used for the transport of dangerous wild beasts to the fighting arenas of the Jaded south of Kalamar. The caravan sets off  form the city of Crandolen intending to cross back to the young kingdoms with a lot more goods gathered up on his road east, With him where his trading associates the Brandobian Branvrildar Dorguld  and his huge southern bodyguard who every one thinks a mute. Their escort for the dangerous trip over the Laggosa peaks are two score well armed hobgoblin mercenaries and a dozen light horsemen of the Dejy Lamakan tribe form the farthest east. The idle tongues in Crandolen’s taverns wonder at such a guard for crossing so much civilized lands especially when it is common knowledge that the fare at A’Rakham is the place to hire swords for the dangerous part of the journey. Indeed so rife was this speculation night before the caravan left that several of the hobgoblins felt the need to break the speculators faces in defence of their honour and the city watch where glad to see them pass the east gate.


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Noises off part III

Akakabul’s tale Part one A Nemesis is born

Editors not the events of this story take place after the Company has cleared the caves and is the escaped goblin chief reflecting on has failures and planning his revenge

Akakabul was angry with himself he had let them win he had had them in the palm of his hand twice, had only to close that hand to crush them and had failed to do so. He would not do so a third time. He after all still had his strength and the best of his warriors his trusted warriors and the spell weaver who he did not quite trust but knew was useful and ambitious enough to do no more than want to rise in the following of one such as him self not as some did to replace him. If that changed Akakabul trusted his own guile and the strong arms of his chosen bullies to prevent that new ambition bearing fruit.

His bullies would die for him, though he would rather that they did not as such loyalty was a treasure beyond price to an ambitious goblin like Akakabul and would follow his commands without question and had since he had first recruited them at the start of his rise.

Enough of the past what he thought of the future well he still has a number of the arrow heads the spell weaver said where mighty magic and he had most of the chest of ancient gold they had found in the tunnels that would be more than enough to replace the followers he had lost in short order and than there was the master of the priest of the overlord who he had met last year, who had set him on the path of partitioning the great goblin for a part in the great goblin’s expansion plan and who had told him where he could find the ogre and where he might find another with more fight in it for the next meeting with the man in the armour with the stick .


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Noises off Part IV

Editors note Nyasse and her horse had been sent back to the village by Violet at the time the company abandoned their first attempt to enter the goblin caves, she rode back under instruction to take shelter in Violets room under the ruins of the great house in the village and this is where this tale starts.

Nyasse flopped down on Violets bed, she lay there for a while not knowing weather to be furious at the world in general and Violet in particular for treating her like a child when she had rather been the hero of the hour, sad at learning of the death of both Perkal and his father, both of who had been her friends or to give into her bone weary tiredness as she had been awake for more hours and ridden harder than she had ever done before and whilst she found the adventure as exhilarating as any in tales she had read the reality was so much more tiring. Eventually she dosed off any way and slept like a log in all her borrowed clothes.

Nyasse awoke some considerable time latter she was not sure quite how much later but the small oil lamp she had lit had burned out and it was scarily dark in the small room she was rested but her arrow wound ached and she was as hungry as a horse. Which reminded her she had not brushed down Valiant when she had left him in the meadow outside the ruined village she wondered if he was alright if a little belatedly.

So Nyasse made her way out of the pitch dark room, across the equally pitch dark chapel groping her way along the wall till she found the ladder and regained the daylight in the ruin of the great house. It seemed to be around noon though she had no ranger’s sense of time to be certain and her hunger was distracting her. She checked on Valliant who was grazing away happily regardless of her neglect and that he was eating made her even more aware of her own hunger

The horse had it easy she though a bit glumly as while you couldn’t feed a warhorse like Valiant on grass alone, especially if you expected to have him do any work at least he had something to eat for the moment which was more than she had. To clear her head she walked down to the pool at the eastern end of the Dell and drank some of its cold fresh spring water and washed her face and hands she thought about having a swim but soon dismissed it as the water was far to cold this early in the year. She was still hungry indeed even more hungry than she had been on waking. However what to eat she supposed she could hunt, Perkal did Violet did though Violet eating was not something you wanted to think about as the woman could not stomach any thing but freshly killed meat. That was before you realised Violet had a mouth full of teeth quite like a snake. Nyasse wondered if she could hunt it couldn’t be that hard and Perkal had showed her how to last spring before he had gone away for the last time. However that begged two questions hunt what with what she had no weapon and all the game had been up to the north in the forest. Forest which was now doubtless crawling with goblins, goblins with bows more over. Nyasse was no coward but an arrow in the leg does teach one caution. She wandered back to the ruins of the village and went to have a chat with Valliant, who in the manor of horses listened to her woes and enjoyed the back rub she gave him but gave no useful advice.

Nyasse sat a whole watching the horse roll on his back like a foal and gallop up and down the meadow for no reason other than the joy of it. She chewed a spring blade of grass to try and take he mind off food so she could think. Time passed and eventually she remembered the Holdfast all the children in the Hidden Dell had visited it on a dare it was almost a right of passage to the Dell born. She having arrived here when to old for such games and too much the court bred lady any way had not but she remembered that the children had said that it was provided with emergency stores and what was this if not an emergency?

With the thought in mind she began to stroll west up the Dell leaving Valliant to his play. The Holdfast was at far western end of the Dell and had been the abode of the wizard who had become the champion of the free before Violet before he had become the champion and it was latter the first place where he kept his special escapees safe and away from the hunters rife east of the great mountains. After the Village had been built it had returned to being only his home and had been locked when he went on his last trip east and completely unused since. Except as a place for the children of the Dell to play at being bold adventurers and hero’s from the ancient days when the mood took them.

When she arrived at the Holdfast Nyasse quickly found the door even thought it had been deliberately screened by trailing rock ivy and inside the porch she found a lone torch and a bag containing a tinderbox with flint and steel a long decayed apple and a twist of cloth with a little cheese still edible with in.  This last Nyasse wolfed and then laughed and wondered what her etiquette mistress would have said if she had seen this. Slightly less hungry now Nyasse lit the torch at the second attempt and pressed on. Wishing only for a weapon to fight off any monsters which may lair within.




 Ginger