"Game 3: Three Corners" | C-LARP

Recap written by Drew, Photos by Invisible Scribe

Update

After the close of game 2 the group set out on horseback to a place called “Three Corners”. This is the area where Middle March, Glandoria and Heuntsia meet. This is an area where the geological magnetism causes the land to slowly shift over the years. Within a matter of ten years the mountains will have shifted so much that someone returning would not recognize the place at all. Almost 700 years ago this area was chosen to hide one of the more powerful artifacts that the Order of Nahara was protecting. They chose this area because the shifting geology would make the artifact that much more difficult to find.
The artifact that is hidden in this area is one of the two that Athruu was able to learn the location of through reading Donindor’s mind in their last encounter. Donindor knew that Athruu would pursue this artifact first based on its great power. The artifact that Athruu is after is a pair bracers (one for each arm) each granting the wearer a unique and powerful ability. The bracer worn on the left arm can heal the wearer rapidly, making him nearly impossible to injure or kill. The bracer worn on the right arm allows the wearer to blast out powerful waves of energy. The two bracers must be worn together in order for either of them to work. The combination forms a twin set that gives the wearer unrivaled power. Donindor knows that he must beat Athruu to the bracers and recover them before he gets them. Fortunately Donindor knows something that Athruu does not about the location of this box. The box was hidden amongst the runes of an ancient city. Locating these runes will help them locate the box. In the short time that Athruu was able to read Donindor’s mind, he did not get that information from him.

Passing through the Dying Forest of Middle March

(This happened in the online role play before Game Day 3 began.)
The fastest route to Three Corners forces the group to travel through the dying forest of Middle March. Traveling through that forest caused everyone in the party to feel nauseous and have headaches as they passed through. They also noticed that the trees appeared to be sagging as if they were weighed down by some force.

An Unexpected Reunion along with some New Faces

Jade, Nascha and Beakerson got separated from the group and were lost in the woods. After some time they found the group again and were able to rejoin.
After the party exited the dying forest of Middle March and continued on their way to Three Corners, along the road they heard a commotion coming from the trees off to the right. It sounded like people running. Suddenly they saw Sukoshi running toward them along with three other ladies running with her. They were being chased by some men. When Sukoshi and the others made it to the road, the men chasing them did not approach, but instead took cover and fired shots from their crude guns. They hit Sukoshi in the shoulder, fired a few more shots and retreated. As Sukoshi was being healed by the healers in the party she explained that she just recently came across the three other ladies that were with her as she was running. They were forced to flee with her for fear that the men pursuing her would kill or capture them. Sukoshi explained to the group that her real name is Kashi. The three ladies that came in with Kashi introduced themselves as Helen, Diedre and Araunah. They decided to travel with the group to Three Corners.

Fenwomples

The fastest route also took them straight through the heart of Fenwomple territory. Fenwomples are a very territorial race and it is known that traveling through their land is a mistake most travelers don’t live to tell about. As they cautiously passed through Fenwomple territory the party was ambushed by the Fenwomple clan that lived there. The Fenwomples surprised them by throwing nets on them that tightened as they closed around them. The entire party was quickly captured and outnumbered. They were brought to the Fenwomple camp, disarmed and told that they would be executed and eaten that evening in a ceremony. The Fenwomples are a race of highly intellectual gnome-like creatures. They each find an area of expertise to focus on like geology, astronomy, alchemy, history, etc. and most are inventors. The Fenwomple’s findings are often hasty and incorrect and their inventions often unintentionally destructive and do more harm than good, but occasionally they get things right. Despite their many failures, they are a very proud race and believe that they are above all other races in their intellect.
Knowing this, Donindor challenged the leader of the clan (FenWoot) in a duel called “Sul-Woopdan”. The Sul-Woopdan challenge is a traditional Fenwomple duel of knowledge often used to determine who holds the title of a leader in an area of knowledge or even the leader of the clan.
The Fenwomples were reluctant to accept a Sul-Woopdan challenge from an outsider, but when Donindor goaded them and questioned their ability to win such a challenge, the Fenwomples accepted the duel. The duel started with both Donindor and FenWoot drinking a truth elixir. This ensures that both parties state truthfully whether or not they know the fact the other presents to them. Donindor began the duel of knowledge by presenting a little-known fact to FenWoot and FenWoot responded that he knew this and returned with another little known fact. The two went back and forth with some very interesting facts that are not known by many until Donindor was able to present two facts that the Fenwomples did not know. Donindor won the duel earning their freedom along with the admiration of the Fenwomple leader.
Among the facts that came up in the duel, the ones that caught the attention of the others in the party the most were a statement about a race of gnomes (the Dunderbor Gnomes) that are not affected by the affects of the Borax Uldek and then another statement that the Rock Worms are also not affected. But the fact that was most notable to Maki was a comment about the history of her home in Pura. Donindor revealed that what happened to the lost city in the kingdom of Pura was that it was shifted to another dimension.

Three Corners

The party moved on from Fenwomple territory into the small town of Three Corners. As they entered the town, they tried to speak to some of the people there that were working, asking if anyone knew the location of the runes of an old city in the mountains nearby. At first none of them would respond to them, looking nervous and afraid. Finally one of the townspeople quietly spoke to them and let them know that most of the people here are slaves owned by the gang that runs this town, lead by a man named Bashi. Donindor knew that he was to meet a trusted friend from the Order of Nehara here to help them, but there was no sign of her. Seeing the desperate situation in this town Donindor and the party decides that they should split up. Donindor went on to continue searching for the hidden box while the rest of the party went to confront Bashi and his gang about the slavery and corruption in this town.
Bashi and his men are not threatened by this large party of travelers even though they are outnumbered. There are many women in the group that are underestimated by Bashi and his men. On top of that Bashi’s men are large, strong fighters. The party confronts Bashi and Guiscard recognizes that two of Bashi’s men are the men that tried to take Nichole captive and almost killed him, ultimately ending in Nichol’s death. This enraged Guiscard and he attacked them. The rest of the party joined him and they swiftly defeated Bashi and his men, killing most and taking Bashi himself captive. The party was talking with the slave from the town that had spoken to them earlier and he said that he and the rest of the slaves there would take care of Bashi. It was obvious that they did not intend to let him live. Bashi saw the opportunity to snatch a dagger from someone and quickly plunged it into his heart, taking his own life.
The man from the town that they had spoken to earlier thanked the party for taking out Bashi, but explains that the real problem here is the Blood Hammer Clan that lives North of this town. They are a large group of pirates that take people as slaves and sell them or experiment on them. The man continued to explain that they have a large mag glider that they use to attack people from the air and take them as slaves. The man from the town tells them that if they really want to make a difference here, they need to destroy that mag glider.

Blood Hammer Clan

The party goes North in the direction that the man told them, towards the Blood Hammer Clan. They soon encounter the Blood Hammer Clan and their numbers are large. They battle them fiercely. The Blood Hammer clan lost many men and the healers in Donindor’s group had their hands full healing the wounded in their group. The Blood Hammer men keep coming relentlessly. The party attempted to negotiate with them for safe passage through their land, but the Blood Hammer Clan would not allow it. They returned with the demand that the party must hand over their elves, north-westerners and the mantis (Jade) in order to retreat freely out of their lands or they would kill them all. The negotiation ended in violence and the battle started back up again. After a while the party retreated and devised a new tactic. While most in the party fought as a distraction, a few in their party used their stealth abilities to sneak around the Blood Hammer men to the glider and planted bombs on the glider. After planting the bombs they retreated back to the group and detonated them. With the explosion of the glider the Most of the remaining Blood Hammer clan members retreated. The party attacked those that did not retreat and dispatched them.

A Well Defended Tower

At the party was taking care of their wounded Donindor showed up and told them that he had located the runes of the old city and that his blue stone lights up near that area. They headed towards the runes that Donindor located and spotted a half broken tower in the distance. The blue stone glowed brighter as Donindor pointed it at the tower. As they got closer to the tower they spotted a dark figure in a window high up in the tower. Looking closer, they notice that it was the Plague Doctor. He starts hurling explosives down from his tower at them. Donindor instantly creates a shield above the party to protect all of them from the explosive projectiles.
As they approach the tower, they see three rings of defenses around the castle. The first ring is activated as they get close enough. Large spinning blades raise up out of long slits in the circular stone surface. The spinning blades are only about 7 inches apart forming a wall of spinning razor sharp blades. Beyond the spinning blades they can see what looks like a small stone pillar with a button on top of it. Someone throws a log at the blades and it is spit back at them in tiny bits as it is cut to ribbons by the blades. Just then they hear the sound of a small animal making a chirping sound that could possibly be interpreted as laughing. They glance over and spot a family of ferrets watching which definitely appear to be laughing at them as they circle the tree above their hole, popping in and out of their home. Acid Sugar uses her ability to speak with animals, offers one of them a nut and asks if they know how to get past these spinning blades. The ferret, obviously more intelligent than an average ferret, tells her that they can turn off the blades by pressing the button on the other side. She then offers another nut and asks the ferret if he would please run through the gap in between the blades and press the button for them. He is eager to help and sets off threading his way through the spinning blades. The ferret makes it through and presses the button for them. The blades come to a stop and drop down beneath the stone flooring.
The party proceeds forward to the second ring of defenses and finds a pit of snakes and spikes about 16 feet across. Acid Sugar speaks to the snakes asking if they would allow the party to pass through unharmed. The snakes are vicious and angry and make it clear that they are bent on attacking them. Guiscard lays his shield down on the spikes and uses a torch to keep the snakes away as he steps onto his shield and attempts to scoot it forward slowly. The snakes are lashing at him from too many angles to keep them back with the torch and scoot the shield forward at the same time. He gives up on that idea and returns to the safety of the edge of the pit. Vanus then gets a very long dead tree and lays it across the pit. It reaches across the pit and appears as if it will keep them off the spikes. Kashi cautiously steps out onto the dead tree with a torch in hand to keep the snakes back. She took several steps on her way across and realized that the log was too wobbly to continue. She started back, lost her balance and put a foot down onto a spike. The spike went straight through her boot into her foot. She made it back to the group and started nursing her wound. Within moments she started to feel the effects of what could only be a poison coursing through her body. One of the healers in the group immediately started healing her. Others found more long dead trees and placed them across the pit for more stability. Guiscard then was able to make it across followed by his squire, Jade, Eragon and Helen. At that point Apsu shifted into dragon form and jumped across the snake pit with one huge bounding leap. Safarfina came across, but had some trouble at the end and fell off the logs. Guiscard reached for her and grabbed her arm preventing her from falling fully into the snakes and spikes below. He pulled her up, but she was badly hurt by the spikes and was quickly feeling the effects of poison. Beakerson, despite his fear of falling, knew that he had to go across to save her life. He used a long stick to help steady himself as he slowly walked across the pit and after making it to the other side he quickly started healing Sarafina. No other party members dared venture across.
The eight that made it across now faced the third ring of defenses around the tower. The third ring was another pit that was also about 16 feet across. The bottom of this pit was a misty surface of shimmering and swirling lights. Hovering above the pit were four rows of stone squares spaced about four feet apart from each other which seemed to be magnetically floating above the pit. Each stone had a colored symbol on it. The symbols appeared to resemble five elements: Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Lightning. The colors were blue, red, green, yellow and white. Each symbol was a different color and there appeared to be no apparent pattern to their positions. Guiscard threw a heavy log onto one of the stone slabs and it immediately dropped into the surface of shimmering lights below. Both the stone slab and the log disappeared as soon as they touched the surface. Again they tossed another log onto the next stone slab and again it fell and disappeared into the surface below. They tested the next slab by tossing Beakerson’s hammer. The stone slab along with Beakerson’s hammer also fell away and disappeared. Apsu jumped back across the snake pit and found a large stone. She brought it back and dropped it onto the next stone slab. It also fell away and disappeared into the surface of shimmering lights. At this point four of the stone slabs in the first row (the row closest to them) were gone. Apsu jumped back across the snake pit to locate the last large rock in the area, brought it back across and the group decided to drop it on one of the stone slabs in the fourth row, the row closest to the other side of the pit. Apsu jumped across the pit and dropped the rock on the stone slab that they had decided on. It fell away and disappeared. She stayed on the far side across the pit.
At this point Donindor was growing weary of expending so much energy on the shield defending them from a constant barrage of explosives being hurled down by the plague doctor. He started asking questions about the surface of shimmering lights. As they described it to him he started to recognize what they were describing. He had a strong suspicioun that what they were seeing was a portal and told one of them to jump in. After some debate and much hesitation Squire decided that she was going to jump in. Guiscard seeing what she was about to do, threw himself at her preventing her from jumping in and jumped into the pit in her place. He struck one of the stone slabs with his shoulder as he fell and bounced off it. It did not budge. Guiscard disappeared as he landed on the surface of shimmering lights. Nascha watching from the other side of the snake pit holland nervously across, “What happened? Is Guiscard ok? Is he dead?”
Beakerson fearing that Guiscard might be injured and trusting Donindor quickly jumped straight into the surface of lights after Guiscard, disappearing immediately.
Squire, determined to make Guiscard’s sacrifice meaningful jumped out to land both feet on on a stone slab, but as soon as her feet touched the stone, it fell away. Her hands flew into the air and she followed the stone straight down into the pit. Both she and the stone slab disappeared as soon as they touched the surface of shimmering lights.
Eragon having noticed that the stone slab that Guiscard hit his shoulder on did not budge jumped to it This square had a yellow symbol representing earth on it. He landed on it. It did not fall away, but Eragon was losing his balance and extended one leg to the next yellow tile in reach. His quick judgement call to choose a yellow tile was correct. The tile held. His legs were stretched between the two tiles. He pulled himself over to the second tile and stood there safely. He looked back at the others with a nervous half smile. He then hopped to the third tile that was yellow. It held. Still feeling rather cautious he tried to stretch out a leg to test the fourth tile that was yellow, but lost his balance in the process and quickly decided to jump for the ledge. His foot fell too short. He reached for the ledge with his hands as he fell, but as soon as his foot touched the surface below, he disappeared. At this point only Jade, Helen and Sarafina remained on this side of the pit with Apsu waiting on the opposite side. Jade carefully stepped across the pit only stepping on the yellow slabs. Being a mantis, her superior balance allowed her to make her way across with no trouble. Helen followed cautiously and made it. Sarafina stayed back, hesitant to venture forward.
The three ladies looked at each other, now thinking about the box they were there to retrieve and realized that they did not have the blue stone to help them locate the box. Apsu jumped back across the two pits to Donindor to get the stone from him and returned to the other two ladies. The blue stone glowed brightly telling them that the box was nearby. They entered the base of the tower through a stone archway and started to hear the sounds of voices. They stopped to listen closely and identified one of the voices as Guiscard’s. They made their way to the voices and found the four that had disappeared into the pit earlier locked in a jail cell. The ladies noticed that the lock on the cell appeared to be old and rusty. Guiscard used Beakerson’s hammer and a chunk of sharp rock to bang the lock repeatedly. The lock finally broke and they were free.
Now free, all seven of them followed the blue stone as it guided them to the box. As they approached the area where the blue stone glowed brightest, the metal box materialized, being pulled into our dimension by the power of the stone. It took four of them to pick it up and they carried it back out of the tower. Faced with the problem of how to carry the extremely heavy box across the stone slabs, Apsu picked up the box with one hand, held it tight and jumped across the pit with it. The rest of the group shrugged their shoulders, thought to themselves, “Well, that solves the problem.” and followed her across careful to only step on the yellow tiles.
The Plague Doctor saw that they were leaving and wondered why they hadn’t come up the tower to attack him. He never knew why they came or what they were after. Gaining confidence he yelled one last warning down at them as they left, “You haven’t seen the last of me.” He then retreated into his tower.

Ambush

Now with the box in hand they started to head back to the town. On their way back they were ambushed by a large group of very angry men from the Blood Hammer Clan. Their numbers were too many to fight through. The party was cutting their way through them, but wave after wave were coming at them. Suddenly the guardian that Donindor had planned to meet in town showed up and blasted several Blood Hammer Clan men as she swept in. In between apologizing for being late and explaining that she was held up by a group of Pale Archers to the North she continued to blast away the Blood Hammer Clan men as they attacked. They eventually gave up seeing that it was useless to fight someone with such power. Those that still lived retreated.

Athruu

After the dust settled Donindor and the guardian exchanged words for a time and Donindor gave her the box to take back to the order safely. She started to teleport away, but something terrible happened. As soon as she teleported, she did not simply disappear as expected. She began to teleport back and forth, rapidly disappearing and reappearing. She quickly dropped to her knees and began to scream in pain. The group could hear her screaming from two locations. Here in front of them and then on the rise of a hill nearby. They turned to look where the second scream was coming from and saw her flickering in and out at that location as well. Then they saw Athruu standing next to her on the hill in a half bear, half man form with his arms in the air. He roared at them in triumph. The flickering teleportation stopped and so did the screaming. The guardian lay motionless at Athruu’s feet on the hill in the distance along with the trunk next to her. Donindor yelled in anger and ran towards Athruu and his motionless friend. Athruu knelt down to open the trunk, unlocked it and removed the bracers. He took them and ran. Donindor and the healers ran straight to the guardian laying on the ground while the rest of the group chased Athruu down. Athruu, seeing that he was being overtaken, teleported away. Donindor checked the guardian and found that she was dead.
Donindor rolled her over to inspected her body and saw was he was looking for, a thin metal webbing on her cloak. He then inspected the box that the artifact had been in. It also had the same thin metal webbing on it. Donindor explained to the others in frustration and sorrow that he had seen this technology before. It was developed to redirect the destination of a teleport, but the technology was abandoned as it would always kill the person that it was used on. Apparently Athruu had found a use for it after all. Donindor believes that Athruu must have shape shifted into a Blood Hammer Clan warrior to get close enough to shoot the webbing onto the guardian and the box in the heat of the battle. Donindor also believes that Athruu may have been tracking them this whole time and may very well be responsible for bringing this last ambush from the Blood Hammer Clan down upon them. He likely infiltrated their clan as one of them in order to point them to our location after obtaining the box from the tower.
Donindor tells the group that they must quickly go to the location of the next artifact of power that Athruu was able to obtain from his mind. That is certainly his next move and they must beat him to it. Donindor isn’t sure where Athruu’s teleport stone is homed to, so they don’t know if he teleported further away from their next destination or closer to it. Judging by the fact that Athruu tried to run first makes Donindor believe that using his teleport was a last resort and it probably took him further away from the location of the next artifact.