As I mentioned a while back, I'm running a GURPS Myth campaign. The story has evolved a bit from the beta version that I entered on here a while ago, and it will of course change depending on player actions as well. So, I figure I might well share the events going on in this campaign on a week-by-week basis, phrased something like Fan Fiction. Please feel free to comment on what you think were cool story moves on my part or on the part of others, share any suggestions for future moves to make in the campaign, etc. (Just so you know, I'm allowing players 300 points to distribute amongst as many characters as they like, so some people are playing multiple parts). So, without further adiu...
MYTHOGENY, Part I
This week's episode stars...
Nick as "Vexx"
Pan as "Pan", "Margaret Uldaer" (aka "Moonbeam"), and "Sunshine",
Mike as "Badabum", and two insignificant pet Ghols,
and Forrest as "Shadowbane", "Three Skull Crocodile" (aka "Janice"), "Vaughn", some peasant and guards and a host of over three hundred howling Myrkridia.
PROLOGUE
It is October 24th, 2549 AE. Eight years after the war with Soulblighter. The Myrkridia still roam the dark places of the world, and whithering undead lurk deep in swamps and deserts away from prying human eyes, awaiting their long-gone masters' orders. The Cath Bruig Empire has expanded to cover the whole of the human and Dwarven lands once again, and Muirthemne is now once more it's capital. Great plant mages and water mages struggle hard in the desert to regrow the green fields that once covered it's sandy expanses, but focus primarily on the fiefdoms within the outer walls of Muirthemne.
We open in Forest Heart. Enter Vexx - a Myrkridia. Vexx is a name of his own concoction, drawn from sources unknown, as the Myrkridia naturally hold no names for themselves or each other. Seven years ago, Vexx was the pack Omega. With no great victories to his name from the War, and almost no battles to his name at all, Vexx was seen as weak and helpless by the rest of the Myrkridia. Indeed, though he stood a good six inches taller than the average man, he was no stronger than any normal human farmworker. So when the Myrkridia reformed into packs hidden in the Forest after the fall of Soulblighter, Vexx, like all weaklings with no use to the pack, was assaulted by his pack-mage, to be eaten alive as a show of what becomes of the weak in Myrkridia society. But Vexx had one thing to his name which none of the other Myrkridia could claim - a mind, sharper than any Myrkridia alive, even sharper than the pack-mages which ruled their tribes. So he cleverly outwitted his pack-mage and escaped the forest, seeking anyone who might offer him safe harbor and the power to take revenge on his oppressors.
Thus he came across the Scholomance, the school of the Warlocks, hidden in an ancient citadel high atop the Cloudspine north of Seven Gates. Though severely hesitant at first, his intelligence and his distinctly un-Myrkridian ability to speak eventually swayed them, and they did accept him. For the past seven years he has trained with them, until finally attaining full rank in their circle and the privilage of leaving to pursue his own goals. So he has returned to Forest Heart, seeking revenge on the pack-mage which cast him out so many years before.
SCENE I
We open on Vexx stalking the pack-mage, who he calls Shadowbane. Ahead of him is Shadowbane, back facing Vexx, hiding behind a tree, and clearly stalking something of his own beyond the tree. Shadowbane summons in to his right hand a cluster of flaming skulls, and hurls them at something unseen beyond the tree, still unaware of Vexx behind him. As Vexx continues to stalk closer and closer through the trees, Shadowbane's skull strike clatters against its target with some dull thuds and booms... and is responded to with a loud BANG, and a projectile of some sort unseen to Vexx, which tears a gouge through the flesh of Shadowbane's right arm. Vexx stands stunned in the open, forgeting to take his cover as Shadowbane turns back behind the tree - now facing Vexx - and clutches his wounded arm. He glances briefly at Vexx, and then runs perpendicular through the forest, to Vexx's left.
Vexx begins to give chase, but suddenly a very loud and rapid thunking is heard, and the rustling of tree branches bending out of the way and and saplings bending over in the wake of something very large and very fast taking pursuit of Shadowbane. Vexx decides to pursue this instead, though he is much smaller and cannot keep up with either Shadowbane or his unseen opponant. But the wake left behind them and the sound of the pursuit is unmistakable... and Shadowbane's pursuant has now stopped. Vexx continues through the forest until he is near enough to smell the unseen thing (which smells vaguely like.... but no, it couldn't be, this is waay too big...).
A booming voice comes echoing out of the woods in the direction that the (still unseen) thing is, hidden by the thick foliage of Forest Heart. It announces, "Show yourself!" Vexx is quiet, and continues to hide behind the nearest tree. "Show yourself!" again comes the booming voice. Again, no reply. Then the loud, fast stoming continues... this time, approaching Vexx! Vexx realizes this and in terror backs out away from his tree to run, before realizing... I am Vexx! A great warlock and not just a feared Myrkridia, more than a match for any of his kind! He stands his ground to face the thing emerging from the trees, and is confronted with a massive, fast-moving, 10-ft-tall... thing. A thing unlike any thing Vexx had ever seen before, or rather like a mix of many things all jumbled together in ways entirely wrong. It had legs the shape and color of a horse or deer, and the body of a man, with short, devil-like horns curling off it's head... but it stood as tall and bulky as any Myrkridian giant! It carried in it's hand a bizzarre piece of gnarled and knotted wood, nearly it's own height, with seven holes in a honeycomb pattern venting smoke from it's top end.
With no idea what to make of this strange thing, Vexx naturally casts a fireball at it. And for a moment it looks successfull... the thing stumbles, and is bizarrely affected... it's natural, organic flesh seems to vanish, replaced instead by a mere manequin of the thing which it appeared to be. It's movements too become jerky and mechanical. But it quickly regains it's own natural motion, and as the flames dissipate, Vexx glances a brief view of metal beneath the wound he had inflicted, before the creature's natural appearance rematerializes and it continues to charge at him.
The thing picks up Vexx by the scruff of the neck, holds him up to it's face like he was nothing but a puppy, and asks "How many are in your pack?" Vexx tries to release himself by electrocuting his attacker, and again the thing's natural form vanishes for an instance to be replaced with the strange, artificial facade beneath. The creature seems to flinch but otherwise does not respond. Again it asks, "How many are in your pack?" Vexx growls angrily, and responds, "I am alone." The creature hesistates, and then asks again, in a painfully loud voice, "How many are in your pack!?" Vexx recoils, and emphatically responds again, "I... am... ALONE!" The creature seems almost to snarl at him, and then roars at a volume that Vexx feels would almost split his ears. The creature then puts down Vexx and glares in a very "I'm the Alpha, now talk, bitch" kind of way. It asks him, "Who are you?"
Vexx is taken aback for a moment. "Who wants to know?" he asks. And the creature replies, "I am Pan, guardian of the forest, blah blah blah" and some other crazy hippie bulls'pht. Vexx, realizing he is talking to some sort of delusional, peace-loving environmentalist, ten-foot-tall whatever the hell it is, feels perfectly comfortable sharing his life story with Pan as well. The two quickly realize that they share a common goal - the death of Shadowbane, who is apparently now the last pack-mage in Forest Heart, as the others have all fallen to Pan's boom-stick as they tried to be rid of him. Shadowbane is now the pack-mage of all the remnants of the other mages' packs, and has been stalking Pan for weeks. Vexx, of course, lives to destroy Shadowbane.
SCENE II
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the human named (or possibly nicknamed) "Sunshine", a follower of Pan (who he considers some sort of nature spirit deity) and a survivalist and... ahem... "herbalist", living in the forest with his girlfriend "Moonbeam", is hailed by a Heron Guard named Three Skull Crocodile. Three Skulls tells Sunshine that he is looking for a former Cath Bruig diplomat named Margaret Uldaer, who was last known to have vanished somewhere in these woods. Sunshine doesn't know her, but thinks his girlfriend Moonbeam might have met her, she's a great talker and is friends with like everybody in the forest, from the odd human survivalists to the Forest Giants and everything in between. They head back to camp, and Moonbeam is gone, with a note that says "went to find Pan" in her place. Sunshine quickly determines her trail through the woods, and they set out to find her.
Meanwhile, back with Vexx and Pan, Moonbeam walks up from out of nowhere (they've been talking a while) and screams her pretty little head off at the sight of a Myrkridia. Which is odd, because, she's seen plenty of them before, and is wearing a good deal of Myrkridia-bone as a part of her survival gear. But she's tripping, apparently, and flips out. Pan tries to calm her down, but isn't succeeding very well. He manages to introduce Vexx and go over a little bit of his life story and who he is, when up come Sunshine and Three Skull. Sunshine has a look and tone of "Oh, damn woman is tripping again." Three Skull screams "Margaret!" and runs between Moonbeam and Vexx, drawing her sword toward Vexx, who snarls almost apathetically back. Quickly realizing the Myrkridia is no threat, she reaches into her satchel and draws a mandrake root, which she breaks and casts over still-hysterical Moonbeam, casting a glance back at Sunshine like "This is all your damn fault you damn hippie." Moonbeam comes to her senses, looks Three Skull in the eyes and yells in startlement, "Janice!" Then, realizing the situation... "Uh.. Janice. What are you doing here? In a Heron Guard's armor?" Janice explains that she joined the Heron Guard at the septannual tournament this year, duh. Margaret ("Moonbeam") then proceeds to introduce Janice to everybody else. "Uh, Janice, this is Pan, our God. I see you already met Sunshine. I gather this thing is some sort of new friend of Pan's" she says nervously of Vexx. "Everybody... this is my sister Janice." "Three Skull Crocodile" says Janice... er, sorry, says 'Three Skull'. "I have given my name, along with my life, to the Empire." She glares at Margaret, and glances even worsely at Sunshine mid-sentance, "SOMEBODY in the family had to make something of themselves, after you disappeared. Which is what I'm here for..."
Vexx by this point has gotten quite impatient, and he runs off with Pan to go kill Shadowbane. Pan carries Vex on his shoulders through the forest in pursuit of Shadowbane, who he can apparently sense is somewhere nearby without even seeing him, via some sort of sensory magic (which is how he knew Vexx was there, too). They shortly arrive near a large tree in the forest, behind which, Pan says, Shadowbane is hiding. He puts down Vexx, and is promptly struck by another exploding skull strike from behind the tree. Pan stands, unphased by the few parts of the attack which struck him, and quickly aims and fires his BOOM-stick at the hand of Shadowbane that just threw the skull-strike, blowing it off completely. A loud, howling roar comes from Shadowbane, and is quickly echoed by many other roars across the forest. Pan senses movement from all around the forest, converging on their location. Vexx circles around one side of the tree as Pan circles around the other, and Vexx, feeling great and triumphant as he is about to realize the end of his very existance, summons up the most powerfull fireball he could cast... and pulls it off perfectly.
A wall of flame washes around Shadowbane, whose entire fur catches fire. Shadowbane starts screaming and wailing, and his pack is now visibly approaching through the forest. Vexx screams all his hatred and vengance as Shadowbane thrashes and burns. Then Pan finishes reloading his boom-stick, and fires a clean round of buckshot right into Shadowbane's body, who collapses to the ground at the feet of Vexx. The approaching Myrkridia, as they see and smell the burning corpse of their master lying at the feet of Vexx, stop their charge and slowly walk into a circle, surrounding both Vexx and Pan and the smoldering carcass of Shadowbane. When some three hundred of them have gathered into the ring, then all fall to their knees (or heels... however Myrkridian legs work) and bow, chanting something in a bestial tongue that doesn't even count as a real language. As Vexx stands there confused out of his mind, Pan looks down at him and smiles knowingly, almost fatherly. Then he too begins to bow to Vexx, the new Alpha of the pack.
At this point Sunshine, Moonbeam and Janice arrive on the outskirts of the circle, completely unnoticed by the Myrkridia but keeping safe distance anyway. Pan stands to greet them... and the chanting stops. All the Krids stare directly at Pan, until he resumes bowing, and whispers to Vexx, "Give them the aroo." - "The what?" - "The 'aroo'. Acknowledge your power and dismiss them." Vexx thinks, and then snarls something that would probably translate as "Yeah, thanks, whatever, now get the hell off my lawn."
The Myrkridia stop chanting, stand for a moment almost confusedly, and then scatter back to the forest. A few of them stand to circle the humans that they have now noticed, and Pan gestures Vexx toward them. He runs over and growls them off, in a "my food!" kind of way, then resumes his normal human-esque mannerisms once the Myrkridia have dispelled. Pan briefly explains to his followers and Janice what happened, they take it in like Jr Highschoolers who were just told the Quadratic Formula (only the most peripheral of understandings, but comprehension that it means something really important somehow). Janice then continues what she was saying before... "So, anyway, I've been sent here in the name of the Emperor" blah blah blah official-sounding bull "because the contract that Margaret renegotiated with the Trow seven years ago just expired two weeks ago, and Acer Magnum Malus won't speak to anyone except you about renewing our treaty unless you turned out to be dead. I'm glad you're not. Now we've got to get going. Nice to meet you all, have a nice life."
Sunshine, of course, begs Moonbeam to remain behind, he loves her, they've built such a nice life here, etc etc. But Pan explains that it's a really important thing that Moonbeam has to go do and so on and so forth. Moonbeam asks Pan and Sunshine if they could come with her, and looks pleadingly at Janice, who sighs and rolls her eyes as though to say "I guess I could allow it." As they set off to depart, Pan looks back at his new Myrkridian friend, and Janice thinks about him too.
"You're... a Myrkridia". Vexx grumbles affirmative. "And... you speak." Again, yes. "And you're... some sort of a warlock?" You're gettin' all the answers tonight, babe. "I think my boss would like to meet you." Vexx inquires, "And who exactly is your boss?" Janice uprights herself while speaking proudly of the great man she works for. "The Avatara Vaughn. He is the youngest of their order and the least experienced of them all, but already he has shown more raw magical potential than any of the others, save Emperor Alric himself. Some see him in fear, reminded of the Avatara Myrdred of the Wolf Age, who became the Deceiver under the Leveller Balor. But I believe he is a great man. He has been appointed by the Emperor to oversee your negotiations with the Trow, Margaret."
Vexx, being a Warlock, has aquired the same sort of lust for power that drives their entire circle, and so being presented with the opportunity to meet with such a powerful wizard, he accepts. And so all of them set off into the North, to meet with Vaughn in Muirthemne.
(I'm not done with Part I yet, but it's late and I have to work tomorrow, so I'll post Part I.v, "We're off to see the Wizard", tomorrow sometime).
