Monster Blood Tattoo RPG: The Eekers' Lament Part V & Epilogue

This was intended to be a short campaign, so here is the final installment.  A Device Infernal campaign (the "fantasy Cajuns") will be continuing after a couple week hiatus.

The Eekers' Lament

Chapter V: The King of the Pilts

The Pilts - proud, dignified yet rough-living people, the original people of the Grumid regions, driven into the hills by the Tutelarchs, partly conquered b the Burgundians and then the Tutins. They have a strong sense of extended kinship, and gathered in large familial groups, which collected into assemblies for protection... These eventually coagulated into three loose confederacies - or venes - that held (and still hols to this day) themselves distinct from each other yet were governed by a single king (or queen).  This king was at first the strongest warlord among them all, but over time became a kind of detached judge and father figure....Unrecognized by the Haacobin emperors ... the rank of Piltic King remains in Pilt society, obscure, often wretched fellows whose role for their people in current times has become much more one of cultural focus and wishful remembrance... - Factotum

The next morning, they set off to fight the Ravanusa, the spawn of the legendary sea monster the Lampedusa.  Using notes in the late Surgeon Plemmsen's journal, they easily found the copper mine that was the likely lair of the beast. A bright sun shone in the crisp autumn air, limiting somewhat Roman's ability to call down lightening.

As they approached the mine entrance, Throgmorton noticed that they were being shadowed by a number of men demonstrating great stealth as they moved through the woods.

Having spotted them, Throgmorton called out for them to show themselves.  It turned out to be a party of Pilt warriors led by Teucer Orm.  The Pilts were armed with bow and spear and Teucer himself was wearing an ancient mail coat and helmet.  He said they were there to help fight the creature and he produced a spiegel blade, a sword of heroes of old, made from a glass-like substance of astounding sharpness.  He reported that it had been spun using a shard from Paschendralle, the legendary sword used by King Tacfarinas when he slew (and was slain by) the Lampedusa.

He said this spot was where members of the royal house of the Pilts would offer themselves as sacrifice to appease the Ravanusa.  Teucer believed that Lord Danny was descended from Figas, one of the ancient kings and so bore the royal blood.  So Danny agreed to pretend to be bound to sacrificial stone to lure the creature out to be destroyed.

The rest of the party and the Pilt warriors took position in readiness for the emergence of the Ravanusa.  One of the Pilts blew a a mournful horn to announce that a sacrifice awaited.

There was a gurgling sound from within the dark cavern, then a horrendeous whooshing sound.  A squirming ball of worms was projected out of the cave and shot directly toward Danny.  He leapt down, barely avoiding the horrific shot.

A mass of worms was writhing on the side of the stone.

One shot nearly struck Roman, who ducked behind a rock near the mine entrance.

Another narrowly missed Brandywine.

She advanced toward the entrance and fired her pistols blindly into the mine.  She heard the satisfying sound of one of her shots impacting flesh.

At this horrible attack, several of the Pilts fled.  Teucer and several of his men remained and hacked at the masses of worms.

Throgmorton flung a potive at the worms on the sacrfice stone, setting them ablaze.

Careful to avoid the scattering masses of worms, the party approached the entrance to the mine.

Throgmorton attempted to climb the rocks covering the top of the mine, hoping to hurl his potives onto their attacker.

Flossie, who had positioned herself on a nearby summit, gracefully slid down the steep slope to join the rest of the party.

They all charged forward, bright-limns in hand to light the dark space.  Roman reaching the entrance first.

Inside, the discovered two bloated horrors that had been regurgitating the masses of worms at them.

 

Roman's staves struck at one, electricity arcing into the creature.  Injured, it was driven back.

They were able to get a good look at the things.  What had formerly been human beings were now bloated horrors, masses of worms swarming beneath their skins.

Roman advanced again, hoping to land the killing blow.  He inflicted another grievous wound that drove it back further.

It suddenly reared back and spat a great mass of worms directly into the fulgar's face.  Roman collapsed screaming and fell into unconsciousness as the worms tore through his mask and into the flesh of his face.

Brandywine inflicted another solid shot into the bulk of the other creature.  An arrow from Flossie followed after.

Seeing Roman fall, Danny ran toward him, drawing a healing potive from his coat.  As he administered the potive to Roman's stricken form, Danny called to Brandywine, "Another charitable act, remember that!"  

Teucer, who had entered the mine by now, charged recklessly forward, slashing with the ancient king's sword at the creature that had downed Roman.  Unfortunately, he ran forward just as Flossie was firing an arrow at the creature.  The arrow embedded itself into the Pilt's back.

There then came a terrible rumbling sound.  A enormous bulbous, pulsating monstrosity emerged from a side chamber.  This was the Ravenusa.

The already wounded Teucer charged at the creature, his blade was parried by the fanglike appendage on the Ravanusa's head.  In an instance, the Fang struck at  Teucer knocking him back, his life blood flowing from the gaping wound in his chest.

Throgmorton hurled a loomblaze onto the vast bulk of the creature.  Flames erupted on top of the monster.

It charged toward Throgmortom, who in desperation struck at what might have been the creature's snout with a heavy club. Seemingly in surprise, the creature retreated a few steps.

At this point, the near lifeless Teucer charged forward once again, driving his sword into the monster's flank. The Ravanuse skittered around and struck Teucer one last time, killing the brave Pilt.

His men arrived just in time to see his death.  In a rage, they charged the creature.  It proved too strong for them and one of the Pilts was killed in an instant.

Hope to gain a respite, Throgmorton flung a vial of Frazzard's Powder at the beast.  It's acrid fumes driving it back into its chamber.

The party fired shot after shot into the creature as it retreated.  Finally, Danny, dipping his hand into the dead Teucer's blood, charged toward the creature.

Crying out, "Taste the blood of kings!" he thrust his hand onto the creature's head, he used all of the witting power of his surgically modified brain to explode the creature's brain. 

The horrific Ravanusa collapsed, dead at last. Dany, all of his strength having been put into this final ploy, fell to his knees. The rest of the party ran in to see the creature expire.  Throgmorton pulled Teucer's sword from the creature's flank and presented it to Danny.  Looking at it briefly, Danny cast it aside, contemptuously saying, "what am I going to do with such an oversized toothpick" 

Roman approached, a scalpel in hand, murmuring about the organs he intended to extract.  There was a loud clicking sound as Brandywine cocked one of her pistols and pointed it at Roman's head.  Roman thought better of cutting into the creature and backed away. Throgmorton then set fire to the monster's corpse.

 

They headed toward the exit of the mine.  Flossie and Throgmorton scrambled to retrieve the royal blade that Danny had discarded.  Throgmorton narrowly succeeded in snatching it from the young archer's grasp. The surviving Pilts bowed down in homage to Danny, calling him their king.  "Well, isn't that nice," he responded.

Placing Teucer's body into the handcart, they retired from the woods and began the journey back to Luthian Glee.

They returned the body to Teucer's wife, Nerinai. Although saddened, she did not seem surprised.  She was considered something of a seeress among her people.  It was she who told them that only the sacrifice of  the royal blood would permit the killing of the Ravanusa.  The blood of King Oddvicar of old flowed through Teucer's veins and he had avoided confronting the monster for fear of his own death.  When Danny, who was possibly of the royal house of Figas, appeared, Teucer hoped to use the newcomer as the blood sacrifice.  In the end, however, it appears that Teucer lived up to the deeds of his ancestors and died as befitted a true king of the Pilts.

Epilogue:  

Brandenbrass

27 Lirium HIR (Horno Imperia Regnum) 1602

The return trip to Brandenbrass was uneventful, although the guards at the city gates looked askance at Danny's return.  Some time later, the man of business handling the estate of Gerrymander Figge confirmed that of the dead man's offspring, his son Danube had proved to have accomplished the greatest acts of selfless charity, especially given the eye witness recommendation of the famed calendar, Lady Brandywine Charcuterie.  The bulk of old Gerrymander's estate therefore was awarded to Danny, much to the chagrin of his siblings. 

However, immediately upon their arrival in Brandenbrass, they returned to Dr. Allucard to report on all that had transpired.  He responded that tragically the boy Amory's condition had continued to deteriorate after they had left. The boy finally died three days prior to their return and had been buried in a pauper's grave.  They urged him to retrieve the boy's body and destroy it with fire. He promised that he would do so with alacrity.

After the party left, Dr. Allucard fell into a melancholy.  The "click click" sound inside his head and the attendant headaches were getting worse.

 

Monster Blood Tattoo RPG: The Eekers' Lament Part IV

The Eekers' Lament

Chapter IV: The Dale

Black Habilist - The darker students of habilistics are the black habilists or morbidists: the necrologists (those who raise corpses to life); the cadavarists (those who make monsters from parts, an illegal discipline called fabercadavery); the therospeusists (who grow monsters from living matter, an illegal art known as therospeusia); or the transmogrifers (surgeons who operate on people to make lahzars, a process known as transmogrification or clysmosurgia). - Foundling

When the ettin fell upon Roman, he used his metal stave to partially shield himself from being crushed by the ettin's massive head.  The rod punctured the skull near the ettin's eye, allowing a cascade of the yellow worms to rain down around him.  Throgmorton quickly ran over, pulling his old hammock from his vinagaroon duffle.  Spreading the hammock out, he managed to capture most of the worms and then flung the squirming mass away from them.

Flossie, demonstrating a strength belying her small stature, seized the dead ettin's head and held it up so that Roman could scramble out from beneath it.

Roman then crawled up to the back of the head.  He began jumping up and down upon it in order to cause his trapped stave to puncture the back of the monster's skull.  In the meantime, Throgmorton hurled one of his last potives under the ettin's head, burning the worms remaining there.  Sister Brandywine noticed that the worms that remained in the field in which the carriage had been hurled were now swarming over the wreckage which contained what was left of their supplies.  

She hastily grabbed a vial of bothersalts from Throgmorton's salumanticum and ran towards the carriage. She hurled it and the potive burst upon the side of the wreck.

Unfortunately, bothersalts were possibly not the best thing for this situation, especially considering the manner it which it landed.  The host of worms fled from the carriage rapidly forming an arc completely surrounding the wrecked carriage.

Surprised by this misadventue, she didn't notice one of the large worms approach.  The thing bit completely through her stout equiteer boots.  As the creature's teeth clamped down on her foot, she could feel a slimy tendril boring its way into her flesh.  Danny quickly threw one of his daggers, cutting the worm in half and Brandywine was able to pull the disgusting thing from her foot.

While this was going on, Roman had stopped and removed the casketoon from his back.  He washed his staves in the antiseptic solution that filled the living backpack.  While he was doing so, the mass of worms that had been in Throgmorton's flung hammock slithered toward the fulgar.  He twisted away from the horrid things, driving them back with a blow from his stave but severely injured his back in the process.

Back by the carriage, Flossie used her saber to clear a path to the carriage.  The Danny, Brandywine, and Throgmorton rushed to retrieve what they could salvage from the wreck while Flossie kept the path open.

Although the large collection of healing potives had been lost, the majority of items in Throgmorton's test barrow survived, which would allow him to replenish his stock of potives.  They also were able to retrieve their spare ammunition, and Danny's jar of whortleberries.  Danny insisted that they take several large pumpkins as well.  These last were his almost exclusive food, his multiple body modifications having ruined his digestive system. 

They rushed toward the perceived safety of the stockade, Brandywine bringing up the rear.  She saw the mass of worms following them.  With no other option, she hurled the pumpkins into their midst.

Surprisingly, it appeared that the worms were highly attracted to the pumpkins and turned their pursuit aside to devour the gourds.

After they entered the stockade, Roman barred the gates, providing them with a respite from the worms. They observed it contained two one-storey huts and a more substantive two-story cottage. The place was quiet.

Throgmorton fell to preparing additional potives to replenish his exhausted stock.  His haste and the damaged contents of his test barrow making the product less than reliable.

Brandywine and Roman approached one of the smaller buildings.  Hearing nothing insider, they entered.

 It proved to be a storage containing a small amount of food supplies but a surprising number of barrells filled with newly mined copper.

Danny and Flossie approached the other small building.  Placing his ear against the door, Danny heard a voice murmuring the words, "Click, Click." He knocked loudly on the door, hoping to draw out whatever was within.  He and Flossie quickly retreated to positions from which they could target the doorway.  Throgmorton, observing this, had at the ready a vial of Frazzard's Powder that would be sure to repel the monsters.

After Danny's knock, they heard voices from within both the smaller cottage and the larger house begin to chant in unison, "Door, door, open, open."  Simultaneously the doors to both buildings were flung open and a half dozen of the walking corpses attempted to charge out of each of the buildings.  Throgmorton hurled his potive and the acrid fumes from it drove the monsters back into their respective houses.  

Brandywine approached the smaller hut and fired the seven barrels of her heptigun into the slavering mass at the door.  The multiple bullets shredded the flesh of all six revermen, dropping them to the floor.

As the other group of revermen seethed at the door of the larger house, Roman shocked the lead who blocked the door.  This action was undone by Danny who simultaneously threw one of his daggers into the head of the frozen corpse. Through the cleared door, the party poured their shots into the remaining walking dead and left them writhing on the floor.

Once all six of the walking corpses had been destroyed, Danny went cautiously up the stairs to the second floor.

Outside, Throgmorton noticed that the dear walkers that had been shredded by Brandywine's heptigun shot were releasing large quantities of worms.  He hastily set fire to the cottage, despite Roman's concern at the hasty act.

In the upper floor, Danny found several shelved stocked with empty specimen bottles, a number of tomes of forbidden knowledge, and ream after ream of scribbled notes cluttering a desk.  On the floor lay a dead body with a large portion of the skull missing and a discharged pistol in its hand, obviously the victim of suicide.  Laying on the floor was a blood-stained journal.  Danny quickly glanced through it.

It proved to be the journal of one Jonthan Plemmsen, surgeon, likely black habilist, and self-murderer.  It seems that Plemmsen had become an outcast due to his dabbling in things that man was not meant to know and found refuge among this poor trusting colony of eekers, whom he described as "simple bumpkins so addicted to compassion for all that they had been cast out of their homes as sedorners."  They had settled in The Dale after hearing of its fertility and rumors that the Pilts had once mined here for copper.

It was this latter occupation that sealed their doom.  Having discovered a strange and vicious worm in their mining efforts, they brought it to Plemmsen to identify. He began experimenting with it and soon discovered it would replicate when feed flesh of some sort as well as increase in size.  His servant, one of the eeker's daughter, a girl named Polly, was accidently bitten by one of the worms.  Rather than seeking to cure her, Plemmsen had observed the effects of the attack.  Polly soon began showing signs of madness, repeating phrases over and over again.  After 3 days she died.  Plemmsen dug up her body at night and performed an autopsy upon it.  He found her brain mostly consumed by a mass of the worms, their oversized jaws making a horrible clicking sound as they fed.  He noticed a certain uniformity of action among the worms as well as an ability to animate the poor girl's corpse in simple ways.

Believing that the worms might be used to gain control over people, turning them into automatons, the next night, he introduced them into the huts of the sleeping eekers.  The next day, all began showing the same symptoms as Polly.  Although he feigned treating the eekers, he really continued his experiments but now on a larger scale.  However, after all of the eekers had died, they reanimated and showed intentional uniform actions, as if directed by some other power.  They began to pursue Plemmsen who sought refuge here in his room.  As they approached, he chose to kill himself rather than suffer the extended horror he had inflicted upon the eekers.

At this point, Danny began to notice the smell of burning thatch.  The fire Throgmorton had set by now spread to the two-storey building.  Danny pocketed the journal and hastily retreated.

Danny rejoined the party and they loaded their supplies onto a hand cart.  Leaving now burning stockade, they killed the pumpkin-gorged worms lying in the road.  Danny told them of his discovery and related the contents of Plemmsen's journal.  They realized that the intelligence which seemed to direct the walking corpses might be the creature the Pilts had called the Ravenusa and that it might be found in the copper mine that the eekers had found.  They retreated from the ravaged Dale to the safety of the woods for rest, intending on the morrow to confront the dread Ravenusa.