[Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
This is the actual play for the Charnel Gods setting for Sorcerer's Sorcerer and Sword supplement. To orient you, I'll provide you first with the setting details I provided to the players.
The Setting
Opposite the Prince’s castle in the city of Praag, overlooking a cobblestone square, stands a massive astrological clock, gleaming of gold and silver and ebony and ivory, forming the façade of an ancient building, charting the sun, the moon, and the heavens, and some whisper that its blind architect created it to foretell the end of the world. Known as the City of Mysteries, Praag whose narrow alleys and streets and tall white-washed buildings wind around three hills is home to alchemists, astrologers, philosophers, artists, heretics, and a host of other madmen. It is said that the Prince delights in the wonders created by the court magicians and the automatika fashioned by the artificers while the merchant princes of that fair city plot against the Imperial Court in the distant capital city of Aramantheum.
Aramantheum is at the heart of a crumbling Empire, its fading splendor apparent to all, as beggars and dogs fight over the scraps in the streets. This city has two lords: the first is the Emperor, a man lost in the carnal pleasures particular to the elite and the High Thearch, the First of the Vigil, who rules the kingdom through Sword, faith, and ruthless determination. The heart of his power is the religious bureaucracy at the center of the city in the gilded Hall of Repose. It was this very place that the first Thearch, armed with god’s own Sword, began the first watch over the deity deep in slumber in a chamber in the earth. Above the resting place a great fortress-temple was built, a great bell in its bell-tower, to be rung at the end of time to awaken the god to save his people. Faith in the Vigil, as the religion is known, spread throughout the lands under the temporal power of the Emperor and the spiritual power of the Thearchs. The phrase sums up the faith of the Vigil: One God, One Sword; One Priest, One Truth.
Yet in the monasteries on the borders, monks and wandering priests often fell to heresy, murmuring and sometimes proclaiming that there was more than one god and more than one truth. And while the Vigil suppressed such claims with ruthlessness, these heresies persisted, until today, when the others were found. It is said that champions (although others whisper they are villains or infidels) have come from the land of the gods, bearing weapons of terrible power. And there heresy spreads throughout the lands, while the Thearch’s gather deep below in the catacombs directing their inquisition.
Far from those torchlit conspiracies though is Praag. Young nobles duel over honor with rapiers and blackpowder pistol in the city’s squares, merchants ply their goods through the city’s colorful market places, and scholars hunch over crumbling texts, and strangers arrive, bearing both monstrous truths and weapons. And as the Empire convulses at the impending heresy and civil war, old enemies await within the forests on the borders of the Empire, their inhuman eyes greedily awaiting their time to seethe forth and swallow civilization whole.
The Sorcerers
Those who have recently appeared have been hailed as heroes, heretics, and imposters. All these appellations are wrong. You know: you’ve been to that nightmarish place where the gods… rest… and you have come back bearing not just the horrible truth, but the power to make the world tremble: the Fell Weapons, the weapons of the gods themselves.
And this is the more expanded "Background Bible", which intersperses the original background with the GM-relevent background. The original is in bold while the elaboration is in italics and the {crunch is in these wierd brackets}
Opposite the Prince’s castle in the city of Praag, overlooking a cobblestone square, stands a massive astrological, clock, gleaming of gold and silver and ebony and ivory, forming the façade of an ancient building, charting the sun, the moon, and the heavens, and some whisper that its blind architect created it to foretell the end of the world.
The square itself is bustling, but nobody is seen within the clock’s towering shadow. It is quiet, and as cold, as a grave in the shade of this towering edifice. It is ancient, some say it was constructed even before the castle opposite, by the city’s first alchemist and inventor. Some say that the wizened old man who cares for the clock is its inventor, but the learned scoff at such an assumption.
{Anyone with Lore can look at the clock and its various positions of the constellations and celestial bodies to determine the general welfare of the epoch as depicted in the lowest humanity of any of the Sorcerers. The test is Lore (or an appropriate Livelihood, Cover, Past, Origin, such as Astrologer) against the lowest humanity of the Sorcerer).}
Known as the City of Mysteries, Praag whose narrow alleys and streets and tall white-washed buildings wind around three hills is home to alchemists, astrologers, philosophers, artists, heretics, and a host of other madmen.
Far from the ideology and religious dogmatism of the capital, this area has long been a beacon to those with different ideas. The mineral wealth from the nearby region has provided the city with the wealth and power to attract both wise and foolish men and women alike. Those in the city argue that it is the most learned place in the world, while those in the capital whisper that it is a court full of madmen, charlatans, heretics, and fools who would try to touch the stars.
{Typically in Charnel Gods the only magic are the Fell Weapons, but for this setting, to reflect the wonders of the age, Alchemists can concoct potions that may provide a demon-like effect for a short period, followed by potentially lethal effects! Likewise, at moments of great celestial significance, many of the astronomers and astrologists may have the opportunity to experience a Hint with potentially mind- and life-damaging experiences.}
It is said that the Prince delights in the wonders created by the court magicians and the automatika fashioned by the artificers while the merchant princes of that fair city plot against the Imperial Court in the distant capital city of Aramantheum.
The Prince of Praag is himself reputed to be a wise scholar with an interest in the Arcanica and Automatika that has become fashionable in the court. Little clockwork toys and machines are delights that thrill the citizens, but it is rumored that much larger and shocking machines are being built in workshops, such as machines that mock human speech and thought.
{Prince Jaromir is a man of great power and import and ably assisted by a number of ministers and advsors, although is own knowledge is quite astounding: Sta - 2 (Hale but elderly) Will - 4 (Keen mind) Lore (Alchemical Wisdom) - 4 Livelihood - Prince and Alchemist 6 Humanity – 3. His most recent interest has been in the clockwork machines that he has been funding. Others have worked on golems and impish lifeforms grown in vats, but there’s been no apparent successes to date, although a number of malformed fetus like creatures have been found floating in the sewers.}
Aramantheum is at the heart of a crumbling Empire, its fading splendor apparent to all, as beggars and dogs fight over the scraps in the streets.
It is said to have lived in Aramantheum is to have lived as both a saint and a sinner. It is the most sacred and profane of places in the world. It is here where the god lies sleeping, but also a place where the living are sold as slaves in cellar meat-markets. It is the world’s spiritual center, and the sounds of chanting and the smells of incense waft from temples, yet it is also the world’s political center, and people are tortured and murdered with a nod and towns burnt to the ground with the pounding of a stamp in wax.
This city has two lords: the first is the Emperor, a man lost in the carnal pleasures particular to the elite…
The first Emperor was a warlord who was converted to the teachings by the First Thearch and since that time the Emperor has always ruled the Empire under the divine guidance of the High Thearch. At times the Emperor and the Thearchs have been at odds, but as the Thearch’s control the bureaucracy they have gained better control over the Empire as it has sprawled ever larger. The current Emperor Vultarin is one of the few latter Emperors to have led armies in the field, but his old injuries have led him to become dependent on drugs. The drugs have altered his personality and his desires and his notorious appetites have brought the court to new depths of depravity.
{Emperor Vultarin Sta - 2 (Old injuries) Will - 2 (Drug Addled) Livelihood: Rule with an Iron Fist: 4 Humanity - 2}
…and the High Thearch, the First of the Vigil, who rules the kingdom through Sword, faith, and ruthless determination.
The current High Thearch Borivoj has become unhinged, swinging wildly between fanatical and depressed, it is said his sleep is deeply troubled. Countless nights he has awoken in screams, only to cry out for his assistants, who spent the rest of the night sending out frenzied missives to far-flung monasteries and retreats or searching ancient and moldering volumes for a phrase the High Thearch is seeking.
{High Thearch Borivoj Sta - 3 (Driven by fear and adrenaline) Will - 4 (Complete devotion to his Faith) Lore - 5 (The Inner Truths of Vigil Doctrine and Mind-Shattering Dreams of the Apocalypse) Humanity – 2}
The heart of his power is the religious bureaucracy at the center of the city in the gilded Hall of Repose.
The Hall of Repose is a massive cathedral housing the church bureaucracy as well as its most sacred texts. Its towers are the tallest in the world, and its grounds occupy a considerable portion of the city. It is truly a marvel of architecture and design, and the greatest art of the world is housed within. It is said that the place was designed by the First Thearch and that nothing has been added beyond his original plan.
{The First Thearch designed the Hall of Repose with a specific purpose – to control the Fell Weapons and he used all his considerable occult knowledge to imbue the locale with this power. All rituals carried out at this locale have a +1 die bonus in the Sorcerer’s favor, except for Contain which receives a +2 dice bonus.}
It was this very place that the first Thearch, armed with god’s own Sword…
The First Thearch was a mighty warrior who wandered into the Charnel Fields and came back with the first Fell-blade in this epoch. The experience opened a thousand doors in his mind and occult knowledge never seen before or after in this epoch was his. However, he discovered that he had the power to end the world within his hands, and surrendered that power and locked the Fell Blade away for the sake of Humanity. The First Thearch is revered and his prodigious writings and warnings form the foundation of the religion he created: the Vigil (also known as the Faith).
{The First Sword: Tesnohledek, Fell-weapon Sword, Tell-tale: Blade (and its wielder) shimmer with an intense inner light. Other attributes: ???}
…began the first watch over the deity deep in slumber in a chamber in the earth.
The First Thearch, armed with the Sword, became aware of a god’s body within this world, buried deep within the ground. The Hall of Repose was constructed over the divinity and today the body still lies there. The First Thearch could never be certain if the being is still alive, but the followers of the First Thearch are convinced that the god is still alive.
Above the resting place a great fortress-temple was built, a great bell in its bell-tower, to be rung at the end of time to awaken the god to save his people.
The Vigil, as the religion is known, reflects their waiting over the god for its time to awaken. A small sacred cadre tends to the colossal god’s needs, lighting candles within the giant chamber and watching intently for the god to awaken. It is believed that at the Vigil’s greatest need, the bell above will awaken the god below to come to their needs. The common folk though have been told that the bell will ring to announce the awakening of the god. In truth, the bell will only ring at the end of the world, when a Sorcerer ascends to the Charnel God.
Faith in the Vigil, as the religion is known, spread throughout the lands under the temporal power of the Emperor and the spiritual power of the Thearchs.
The Empire exists to spread the influence and reach of the Vigil so that they can carry out their secret project. A portion of the Imperial bureaucracy is filled with priests of the Vigil, and many of the finest Imperial soldiers are invited to serve in the Vigil Militant, the Faith’s martial order and the most respected military group in the world.
The phrase sums up the faith of the Vigil: One God, One Sword; One Priest, One Truth.
Nearly everyone with the Empire is a follower of the Vigil, awaiting for their god’s awakening. However, the Vigil has another purpose, one unknown to all but a handful: they are to remain vigilant for the appearance of other Fell-weapons that may appear in the world. A small handful of sub-sects exist purely for this purpose, the most notorious being the Invigilators, the elite of the Inquisition. The entire Faith exists to support the efforts of this small group.
{All the Thearch’s and their most trusted advisors have studied the secret writings of the First Thearch and have some knowledge of the Fell-weapons, and thus they all have a Lore skill. All the Invigilators within the Inquisition have Lore skills and are knowledgeable of the Contain ritual.}
Yet in the monasteries on the borders, monks and wandering priests often fell to heresy, murmuring and sometimes proclaiming that there was more than one god and more than one truth.
The Vigil has rigidly adhered to its doctrine, yet as the end of the epoch nears, their efforts become more frantic. Those who cross over into the Charnel Fields discover that there is more than one god, and yet realizes the very fate of the gods. The very existence of dead gods challenges the Vigil and suggests that god beneath the Hall of Repose may very well be naught but a bloated corpse. The appearance of other Fell-weapons calls into question the truth of the doctrine: One God, One Sword; One Priest, One Truth. It is in the distant monasteries that other truths appear. While the Order of the Sword Monks may still be loyal to the Thearchs and bolster their troops with their own formidable and accomplished monks, other orders that explore the metaphysical have veered from the dogma of the center.
{Typical Sword-Monk Sta - 4 (Body Forged in the Fires of Religious Doctrine) Will - 3 (Their Will is the Thearch's Will) Past - 4 (Paragon of Flashing Blade Artistry - when armed with a sword, their training increases their Past by +1) Appearance: Steel Vambraces and Greaves with which they parry weapons and flowing brown robes and an intricate surcoat that details their level of training}
And while the Vigil suppressed such claims with ruthlessness, these heresies persisted, until today, when the others were found.
In the past the Order Inquisitor and the Order Vigilant were able to suppress word of other Fell-weapons and to even ritually contain a few, but rumors abound that a number of other Fell-weapons have been appearing throughout the Empire and beyond its borders. Many dream of a single sword, contained deep within the earth, that beckons to them to draw it and seize the power that the First Thearch rejected.
{Order Inquisitor Sta - 3 (The Gaunt Aspect of Death) Will - 4 (Hell Hath No Greater Foe) Past - 4 (Rapist of the Mind and Soul) If an Invigilator: Lore - 1 (Inklings of the Apocalypse - if used for the Contain ritual their skill rises to their Will) Appearance - Black tunic, trousers, vest, and great coat as well as a wide-brimmed hat and a whip for Special Attack - Non-lethal) A black case containing instruments of suffering.
Knight of the Order Vigilant Sta - 4 (Battle-hardened) Will - 3 (Zealous Defender of the Faith) Past - 4 (Knight Templar) Appearance - Typically wearing black and red colors and a steel breastplate (As per Armor) and carrying a Greatsword if on foot, a Longsword if mounted}
It is said that champions (although others whisper they are villains or infidels) have come from the land of the gods, bearing weapons of terrible power.
Enter the player-characters (and possibly their rivals).
And there heresy spreads throughout the lands, while the Thearch’s gather deep below in the catacombs directing their inquisition.
Ultimately the means of the Thearch's is at odds with their desires – they want to save the humanity but will risk their own in their desire to destroy the Fell-weapons and maintain the doctrine of their faith. Even as the fabric of the Empire crumbles, Inquisitors and Knights Vigilant ride forth throughout the lands, bearing swords and instruments of torture, leaving terror and broken bodies in their wake.
Far from these torch-lit conspiracies though is Praag.
While Praag is distant from the capital and the machinations of the Thearch’s and their servants, it is where the end of the world will begin. Its liberal atmosphere and the heresies bubbling beneath the surface is inviting to those who find the Fell-weapons.
Young nobles duel over honor with rapiers…
The only ones allowed to wield swords are the clergy of the Vigil. All others are forbidden to use any swords – but rapiers do not meet the traditional definition of a sword and in the last twenty years young nobles and the merchant class have taken up dueling and the possession of rapiers as a sign of their growing power and influence. Praag itself has become the capital of dueling with the most famous dueling teachers and half a dozen rival schools of fencing.
…and beautiful hand-crafted blackpowder pistols in the city’s squares,
And blackpowder firearms are a product of the alchemy practiced in Praag. The use of cannon and firearms has dramatically increased the power of Praag’s armies. Nearby cities and towns have quickly allied with Praag and clamor against the capital. Many have refused to give tribute, and war seems to be brewing between proxies of the two factions. But so prevalent is gunpowder that many of Praag’s young rakes have taken up master-crafted pistols as a status symbol.
…merchants ply their goods in the city’s colorful market places,
While Aramantheum is the political and spiritual capital of the world, Praag has become the commercial and mercantile capital. Its nearby mines provide it with considerable mineral wealth and the trade up and down the river gives it extensive power throughout the region. The six Merchant Princes of Praag together wield considerable power and even the Prince of Praag listens carefully to their needs. Many believe that it is the Merchant Princes at the forefront of the sedition against the capital of the Empire.
…and scholars hunch over crumbling texts…
While the Hall of Repose has considerable knowledge, much of it has been shaped by the edicts and ideology of the First Thearch. Yet in Praag, none are bound by such constraints and their discoveries have become quite controversial, and many are afraid to speak out publicly about their philosophies, still fearing the Inquisitors that have appeared again on the streets of Praag.
…and strangers arrive, bearing both monstrous truths and weapons.
There are those carrying marvelous weapons who have been seen in the livery of the Merchant Princes.
And as the Empire convulses at the impending heresy and civil war…
To the south, two proxy cities have come to blows over the pretext of a boundary dispute, but in truth it is a clash of ideologies. After a quick victory on the battlefield, the allies of Praag have besieged their rival city, and great siege cannon have been dug into emplacements around the city, and many believe it is a matter of days before the city falls and the Empire will be shaken as the power of the Empire is openly challenged.
…old enemies await within the forests on the borders of the Empire….
Beyond the fertile farmlands and tamed countryside lies a great expanse of wood populated by savages. Ignorant of the Faith, they raid and pillage the lands, and to halt this, the Empire has built fortresses along the treeline and carries out campaigns deep within the murky forests, carrying on a feud hundreds of centuries old. In his later years, the first Thearch joined the Empire’s army on a crusade to the north in a remarkable campaign where the forests were uprooted and the villages of the savages raised, with the captured savages nailed to the few trees still standing amidst the smoking ruin. The campaign only ended when a leader of the savages known as der Skaul slew the aged Thearch in combat and drove the Imperial legions south. Since then, these wildmen have named their greatest leader der Skaul and the atrocities continue on both sides.
{Forest Wildman Warrior: St 3 Will 4 Livelihood: Inhuman Berserker 3 Humanity: 2}
…their inhuman eyes greedily awaiting their time to seethe forth and swallow civilization whole.
The truth of der Skaul is different, it is not a title of a leader, but the name of an object. The first Thearch journeyed north when he sensed the existence of another fell weapon – der Skaul. The aging First Thearch met with der Skaul’s wielder on the field of battle and as the Thearch attempted to break the binding, he was slain in combat and his body mutilated. Der Skaul has continued to be a source of power and infamy among the forest tribes. Its most recent wielder, adopting the traditional name of der Skaul has brought great power and tragedy to the forest tribes: he has slain a great Nameless one that haunted the woods, and in his victory him and his warriors devoured the heart of the Nameless one to acquire its power, and they have been transformed. With the power they have gained, they have converted, sometimes with force the other tribes. Those who have partaken of the feast, drinking the potion adulterated with the blood of the Nameless one turn pale, with some taking on almost albino features, and all have their eyes clouded over with a pale white mist. The forest peoples, with their new power, have again turned their eyes to the south, and it is only a matter of weeks before hordes of pale warriors, drunk on the blood of a monstrosity sweep over the unsuspecting communities to the south.
{Those dozens of tribal warriors who have eaten souls have acquired the power of the Sorcerer to channel their Will to overcome injuries. Those who have merely drank the blood have become something less than human – they lose a point of humanity but gain a point of Will.}
Angil - Female Scout of the Border People and Agent of the Apocalypse
A tall and athletic yet gaunt and pale figure with long black hair that reaches to his waist, tied into intricate knot work.
Stats
Sta – 3 Rural Upbringing on the Steppes north of Praag
Will – 4 Angry and driven by rage, an impatient student of experience
Lore –3 A Whispering Voice, carried on the wind, has guided her to her destiny
Cover – 3 Former scout for local lords, drawing upon her rural upbringing
Price – 1 Brutal
Humanity – 3
Telltale – Runes scarred into chest & arms during a ritual, but due to her possession of the legendary axe Frost Fang they glow blue and cold when she is angry.
Background: Her Encounter with her Destiny
It was during an initiation ritual, one of the last traditions her people has adhered to since being absorbed by the Empire, that Angil discovered the Fell-Weapon. While venturing out onto the steppes alone, to live there on her own for weeks, Angil was caught in a blizzard and wandered wildly about, guided by only a whispering voice, when the ice broke beneath her.
Struggling in the dark, she broke through the ice onto a plain littered with carnage – the bloated rotting bodies of gods and monsters alike, their corpses still locked in some fierce battle. It was there, on an ice-encrusted body of something… something terrible with horns… that she found the axe – it was a peculiar object there – amidst all the terrible weapons, there was a simple wood-axe. She drew it, fled from the Charnel Fields, and dove back into the pool of blood – the axe was like it was made of ice and brought her back to the surface, where she returned to her people a hero. Several of the men-folk whispered and muttered upon her return, and conducted some secret enclave.
The Demon / Fell Weapon
Bukkerot, also known as “Frost Fang” – Wood Axe Fell Weapon
Binding Strength: 2 in Frost’s favor
Telltale: Aura of frost – icy to the touch, chills room when handled, floats like ice
Appearance: Single headed axe appearing as if made of ice.
Desire: Hopelessness and Desperation
Need: To destroy something dear or important to others
Abilities: Link, Special Damage Lethal: Draws Heat from the living, Protection from Cold, Shapeshift: Morphs into tje Wolf of Winter, Vitality.
Sta – 10 Will – 11 Lore – 5 Power – 11
Frau Angil’s Kicker: She was sent forth from her village to seek an audience with the Prince of Praag on behalf of her people, who are sorely beset by a band of wandering nomads known as the Tilter Horde, believed to be operating under the power of a nearby lord who seems intent to do away with her people.
She has just returned from successfully arranging a private audience with the Prince of Praag, when a dark form appears over her, then landing upon her shoulder in the marketplace. It is familiar: the family’s pet raven, her father’s constant companion, bearing in its talons Angil’s father’s family heirloom – an amulet prized within the family, one he would never part with – and one covered in blood – presumably her fathers!
Last edited by Old Scratch; 07-12-2004 at 01:25 PM..
Pike Pietskiy - Courier of Dubious Things, Street Tout, and the Tool of Damnation
Lean and wiry, with a white streak in the left eyebrow, Pikes true gender is none only to Pike, for Pike’s appearance is androgynous and youthful. Known as a messenger and courier for those within Praag as well as witty and resourceful, Pike is single-handedly climbing up from the gutters.
Stats
Sta – 3 Survived the Streets of Praag
Will – 4 Brush with the Unknown – Granted a Gift by the gods themselves
Lore – 3 Dream Visitations
Cover – 4 Escort/Courier
Price – 1 Hubris and over-confidence when trying to control the Fell Weapon
Humanity – 4
Telltale – Not written down – I’ll have to ask again (Perhaps strangle marks about her throat?)
Background - Wherein our Hero May Become a Villain
Pike was born into a hard life at a village not far from a major road. Tragedy struck when a fire swept through their modest home, killing Pike’s mother. The father, enraged, blamed Pike and began strangling Pike, and as Pike struggled to gain consciousness Pike saw flashes of father’s face replaced by a flash on a monstrous gods face and suddenly Pike was sprawled amidst the gore of the Carrion Fields. A huge shadow, far more terrible than her father’s loomed, and the massive lumbering bulk of a god, rotted and dead, slowly rose and shambled closely to Pike, holding for a blade, a finely crafted sword. As Pike clutched the blade, Pike suddenly found himself or herself alone in a forest, far from the village. Fleeing to Praag, where Pike lived on the streets, Pike has thrived while believing that Pike has lived solely by wits, when in fact the Fell Weapon itself had assisted. Pike is certain that the blade can be controlled, but the blade knows better…
The Demon / Fell-Weapon
Bastard Sword Fell Weapon
Binding Strength: 1 in Pike’s favor
Telltale: Emanates visible pulses of energy when touched
Appearance: A finely crafted Bastard Sword whose form seems to waver
Desire: Spite (The weapon hates its creator and desires to destroy not only its own creator, but creativity itself)
Need: To destroy the creative means (eg: to cut out a poet’s tongue, a craftman’s hands, etc…)
Abilities: Link (see through one another’s eyes), Special Damage Lethal, Protection from Fire, Cloak: hard to perceive and lightweight, Travel: to move between shadowed or dark spaces.
Sta – 9 Will – 10 Lore – 6 Power – 10
Pike’s Kicker: Long trusted to carry out tasks of dubious legality or of urgent necessity, Pike has served many of the rich, powerful, and influential of the city, and has never failed when charged with such a task until now… While delivering a parcel to an important alchemist, an accident happens and the package is dropped just outside the door of the alchemist’s lab and a strange powder is released, showering Pike in a fine white powder. Putting the parcel back together, the character enters the alchemist’s lab, whose eyes widen when he sees the dust on Pike’s body, and he moves to place the desk between them, his eyes widening, as he looks aghast and yells: “What have you done?!”
The Damnable Monster Once Known as Doktor Albrecht
What has become known in Praag as The Hell Gaunt (formerly the eccentric yet highly esteemed Doktor Albrecht of Praag) and may be fated for even greater infamy.
Stats
Sta – 4 The Vitality of the Grave
Will – 3 Crossed the line between Genius and Insanity
Lore – 3 The Inner Secrets of the Mind and Body
Cover – 3 Doctor of Internal Alchemy
Price – 1 A Monstrosity, -1 penalty to all casual interactions
Humanity – 3
Appearance – Graveborn, a deathly pallor, lifeless eyes, ragged hair, cold to the touch, with embalming tubes and scientific apparatuses still driven into his flesh and held there by brass rivets
Telltale – Constant presence of flies by day, rats by night
The Background - How a Man May Become a Monster
Albrecht was a genius and a man of science, if a somewhat eccentric doctor and experimenter in the mystical science of Internal Alchemy, carrying out a successful practice in his clinic near the river in Praag. Yet his genius and curiosity was not tempered by wisdom or compassion, and he sought the answers in those dying moments, often controlled by him – some would have their deaths prematurely instigated by him and then their demise painfully extended so that he could linger over the processes and experience. When his apprentices objected, they became the next stage in the experiments, the suspension of the death cycle.
As his last apprentice expired, strapped into a baroque chair of brass and steel and pinned there by hoses and valves, Doktor Albrecht finally triumphed: a second after the last apprentice died, his eyes flicked open. His delight turned to horror however, as the dead apprentice burst forth with unnatural strength, seized the doctor, and pinned him to the chair, driving all manner of probes and hoses into him, nailing him to the chair with spurs and nails without rhyme or reason and then switching the arcane device on, and Doktor Albrecht watched his own blood and life seeping away through the tubes as a thick concoction of his own making sluggishly pumped into his arteries, until everything went black…
…and he awoke in hell – a land of the dead – where the giant bodies of gods and monsters lay scattered about after some catastrophic melee. His first sense was of something cold passing over him, and he noticed a ghostly shadow drifting past. Numb and confused, he noticed these apparitions floating one after the other, in one particular direction. Picking through the battlefield, Doktor Albrecht fell in line and marched with them, arriving at some bizarre mausoleum tower that reached up into the clouds, a building comprised of solely of bones bound by preserved entrails and sinew. As the specters entered the building, Albrecht sought to follow them, only to be blocked by the two giant guardians wielding axes, two massive skeletons with dog skulls. Discovering that this was not his time to join the dead, he staggered off, wandering, until he was drawn by an emotion, one of despair, which drew him to a fallen body – that of one of the giant dog-skulled skeletons that lay amidst the carnage. Clutched in its hands was the source of the despair – a bone mace whose spikes were the ribs of heroes and villains alike. He reached for the weapon, drawn to it by the sole fact that it was the only source of any kind of emotion in a dead world. Clutching it, he staggered about until he somehow found his way back to Praag.
Now he lurks about in Praag, after dark, in graveyards, sewers, dark alleys, abandoned buildings, seeking to undo what he has done. Yet his genius is gone, and he seems unable to replicate or reverse-engineer his own experiments, and finds himself unable to approach his old clinic, so he creeps about on the margins, torn between the despair of being entombed in his own corpse and his desire to be fully alive again.
The Demon / Fell Weapon - the Greater of the Two Evils
The Bone Mace (Has not yet been named or its name revealed to the former Doktor Albrecht)
Sta – 8
Will – 7
Lore – 6
Power – 8
Type: Bone Mace
Binding Strength: +1 to Herr Grimm’s favor
Telltale: Comprised of inhuman bones
Desire: Hopelessness
Need: Not yet decided (!!!)
Abilities: Boost Stamina, Command (Vermin: Rats, Bats, and the like), Taint, Vitality (unholy vitality, by drawing upon the energies absorbed by the special damage), Special Damage (Devour the Souls of the living), Armor (Unholy vitality and bones of steel – perhaps spurs and ridges also appear while Armor is being used)
The Former Doktor Albrecht’s Kicker: While the creature once known as Doktor Albrecht is lurking about the cemetery, seeking out corpses for continued experimentation, he is driven to hiding as some figures appear nearby, tossing a body into the cart. The figure gathering the bodies is peculiar, when much to his surprise he notes that the grave robber bears the very same experimental tell-tales his own experiments once bore – he realizes that someone else has continued conducting his experiments! As the last body is thrown in, he notes, beneath the bodies, a young woman, bound and gagged, looking horrified. Their eyes meet for a moment, she is desperately pleading for rescue!
Re: [Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
The story begins with the players in Praag, carrying out their attendant tasks.
Note: the stories do not take place concurrently, they are a day or two off at times.
The Hell Gaunt (formerly the Internal Alchemist and Scientist Albrecht)
Kicker: While the creature once known as Doktor Albrecht is lurking about the cemetery, seeking out corpses for continued experimentation, he is driven to hiding as some figures appear nearby, tossing a body into the cart. The figure gathering the bodies is peculiar, when much to his surprise he notes that the grave robber bears the very same experimental tell-tales his own experiments once bore – he realizes that someone else has continued conducting his experiments! As the last body is thrown in, he notes, beneath the bodies, a young woman, bound and gagged, looking horrified. Their eyes meet for a moment, she is desperately pleading for rescue!
The Monstroust Hell Gaunt/Doktor Albrecht glides through the graveyard, lurking from tombstone to tombstone as the cart with its grisly cargo and driver make exit from the crumbling graveyard. Hell Gaunt watches the cart clatter down the street, pausing at the threshold of cemetery for only a moment, before he springs to the nearest building, digging his pale white fingers, more like talons, into the stone, climbing swiftly to the top with inhuman speed and strength. Once upon the rooftops, he sprints along the tiled slopes, his clattered cloak and clothing trailing about behind. People below turn fitfully as their sleep turns to nightmares, and a small child, seeing his silhouette pass by the moon, rushes up to close the window.
He halts behind a chimney, watching as the living experiments, with tubes and brass rivets and bolts gathers two or three corpses up and heads into the building, leaving the bound woman behind in the back.
Seeing his opportunity, the Hell Gaunt leaps silently off the building, landing on the ground and sprinting low to the cart. He throws back the tarp, and the figure looks relieved for a moment, until she beholds the former docktor’s deathly visage. She backs away, and he reaches out a twisted pale hand and grabs her, throwing her over his shoulder and gets ready to leave…
…when suddenly a shadow appears in the lighted doorway, as the inhuman cart driver returns for the girl…
Pike
Kicker: Long trusted to carry out tasks of dubious legality or of urgent necessity, Pike has served many of the rich, powerful, and influential of the city, and has never failed when charged with such a task until now… While delivering a late-night parcel to an important alchemist, an accident happens and the package is dropped just outside the door of the alchemist’s lab and a strange powder is released, showering Pike in a fine white powder. Putting the parcel back together, the character enters the alchemist’s lab, whose eyes widen when he sees the dust on Pike’s body, and he moves to place the desk between them, his eyes widening, as he looks aghast and yells: “What have you done?!”
Pike is startled, and starts to back away, dropping the parcel on the ground. The alchemist quickly grabs a cloth and covers his mouth with it, and his face twists into a horrified grimace. Pike continues to back away, and the alchemist screams “Thief! Seize the thief!”
At this point, Pike is reaching back for the door, which opens and a servant is standing there in the doorway with a nightcap for his employer. Pike bumps into him and a small cloud of dust rises, and he begins coughing, but throws down the drink and tries to grab at Pike. With the reflexes of a street urchin, Pike dodges the clumsy grasp and throws the servant’s weight, he flies across the room, striking a table and falling senseless – perhaps even dead. Pike rushes out the back door, into the garden of the estate, sprinting down the stepstone path and seeking the back door in the ivy-covered wall. She fumbles with the door before throwing it open. The cries of “Thief!” seem distant, and she begins to lope down the alleyway, when ahead of her the Alchemist appears on a horse, and sighting her, renews his frantic cries! He brings the horse towards her, and windows start to open in the neighborhood and the hue and cry is raised.
Pike stops, grabs her Fell-Blade she wears on her back, and turns running straight into the shadows. As she hits the shadows, she commands her blade to teleport her and she disappears into the shadows. The Alchemist rides up, puzzled, looking about in the darkness for someone who has disappeared into thin air, dissolved into the night.
Angil
Kicker: She was sent forth from her village to seek an audience with the Prince of Praag on behalf of her people, who are sorely beset by a band of wandering nomads known as the Tilter Horde, believed to be operating under the power of a nearby lord who seems intent to do away with her people.
She has just returned from successfully arranging a private audience with the Prince of Praag, when a dark form appears over her, then landing upon her shoulder in the marketplace. It is familiar: the family’s pet raven, her father’s constant companion, bearing in its talons Angil’s father’s family heirloom – an amulet prized within the family, one he would never part with – and one covered in blood – presumably her father's!
For Angil, there is no dilemma – her family needs her! What good is the word of the Prince of Praag if her family is slain! Setting aside the thoughts of meeting one of the most powerful men in the world tomorrow, she begins to make her way through the crowd to return to the inn she is staying at. She feeds the raven a handful of corn, but many at the marketplace have noted the raven landing on her should and saying “Blood! Blood!”, and begin to hiss at her, for the raven is a sign of ill-omen and death. As the nearby crowd becomes uneasy, Angil flees the market, towards her inn, trying to come up with a means of acquiring a horse.
As she arrives at the inn, a well-dressed nobleman walking by looks at her twice, before approaching her. He hails her as one of the border clans, and greets her, holding out a hand. As he does so, she pulls back from the handshake in surprise, for as they shake hands something upon his wrist pricks her. Looking at his wrist, she sees he is wearing a most unusual piece of decoration, a bracelet of dried thorn-brush weaved together, and beneath that the hint of a tattoo of thorns.
Suspicious, he apologizes, urging Angil to follow him, for the people of the border clans are not without friends in the city. Following carefully, she arrives at Radovic’s manor house, where he offers her wine and chats with her. He listens earnestly and seems genuinely moved by her plight. He suggest that a friend of his, Zitek Nemecek, a merchant, is leaving today for the border clans and would eagerly loan her a horse if she should serve as guide and guard for his cart. Furthermore, he’ll appear tomorrow on her behalf to seek an appointment at a later date and briefly introduce the issues to the Prince of Praag.
Radovic, her new friend, asks only one favor of her. “You see, there is a rare form of plant that grows in your area, and I would beg of nothing in return but a small piece of this thorn. It can be identified by its black and red flowers”. Pike agrees to the bargain, and leaves, joining up with the merchant Zitek for the journey from Praag to the border along the old forest, haunted by the forest folk.
Re: [Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
The Hell Gaunt (Once Doktor Albrecht) …when suddenly a shadow appears in the lighted doorway, as the inhuman cart driver returns for the girl…
Sickly green fluid pumps through the veins of Hell Gaunt, and brass valves open within his body and he springs into action – leaping away from towering figure in the doorway, the young woman thrown over his shoulder insignificant in light of his great strength…
…when with shocking speed the shadowy figure slams into the Hell Gaunt, clutching him in a vise-like grip while screaming in a hoarse voice back towards the house.j
Setting aside his surprise, the thing that once was Doktor Albrecht shakes the grapple of the monster and he reaches up and drawing upon power unknown to mere mortals, rips off the jaw of the experimental human-monster above him, and green fluids comes gushing out of the horrific wound.
Still clutching the girl, Hell Gaunt then spins out from beneath the alchemical fiend and lands on its back, driving his fingers deep into its eye sockets, and the creature feebly spins over, clutching at the dark pits where its eyes once were…
Leaving an opening, and striking a blow with all the power of the pneumatic hammers displayed in the court of the Prince of Praag, the Hell Gaunt drives his fist deep into the brass-laced rib cage of his enemy, tearing out its heart in a shower of green-hued viscera and clutching a heart no longer human, but with brass valves and strange devices embedded within. Yet he has little time to examine it, the light from the doorway has been snuffed out by the shapes crowding at it and still clutching the girl, Hell Gaunt runs off, laughing, and as he looks back, he sees a familiar figure in the doorway, the twisted and transformed face of his last apprentice, the one that strapped the good Doktor to his own device and subjected him to his own experiments.
Uneasy, the Hell Gaunt sprints, and leaps up onto the rooftops using some walls and barrels and disappears into the night with his squirming burden.
Pike
As commanded, Pike’s demon has brought them both to the house of one of Pike’s patrons, a woman of the noble class. She is in the richly decorated bedroom, but her patron is nowhere to be seen, but she does hear voices, raised in argument, outside the doorway – a man and a woman’s.
The voices near! Pike rushes to hide behind the door, just as it is flung open. The voices are raised, screaming. Pike hears a slap, and then a louder blow and she sees her patron land on the bed. A man rises above her, drops down on her sitting on her belly and with a voice mad with rage screams at her and clutches the pearl necklace the noble woman wears, and begins to strangle her with it before it breaks. He rises in disgust, and the woman rolls off the bed, onto the floor, clutching at her throat and weeping. The man rises, still yelling curses at her, and grabs a beautiful painting on the wall, tearing it off the wall and driving it down on a nearby sculpture, wreaking the painting and sculpture both before he turns to a concealed vault on the wall just now revealed, and as he reaches in…
Pike leaps forth from behind, leaping onto his back. He flies into the wall, seems stunned, and then quickly grabs at Pike, throwing her off his back.
He draws forth a knife from his belt and in response, Pike pulls out her bastard sword from behind her back, and the warm seems to warp with energy. The man flees the room, rushing downstairs with Pike in pursuit. As he reaches the ground floor he rushes to his belt and grabs at it, Pike rushes down and halts…
…when the man spins about with a pistol aimed at Pike on the stairway. Pikes ducks as the pistol is fired, smoke fills the stairway and a piece of the ornate handrail explodes in splinters. Pike begins to continue her rush downstairs when she stops…
…Shiiinnnk! The man has just drawn a rapier and assumed a fencing stance at the base of the stairway. Pike turns and runs, rushing towards the window. The man carefully climbs up the stairs, but Pike has disappeared into the gardens below, heading to another alchemist with whom she has worked before, Basilius, hoping that he might be able to tell her something of the powder.
Angil
A day has passed and she nears the land of her people. The merchant Zitek has proven pleasant company and they share a wineskin as they journey through a small bit of woods when the raven takes to the air and Angil quickly dashes off the road into the foliage, while the merchant on his cart looks on in surprise, a wineskin poised to be poured into his mouth.
Five hard, dangerous looking fellows have appeared carrying the intricately carved spears of the Border Clans. They yell for Angil to appear and for the merchant to get off his cart, for his cart and merchandise, as well as both horses are now theirs. Angil emerges, and recognizes one of her cousins, hailing him.
“Let us pass Wulfenar! You know who I am!” Angil demands!
Wulfenar replies with disgust: “You’d rather stand by a leech rather than your own kin! You disgust me Angil!” and he spits in her direction.
The merchant pleads with Angil to do something! To defend them!
Angil replies “Our people are under attack! I have come from my father’s instructions to seek the help of others, and yet we resort to robbery! What have become of my people, no Wulfenar, we will pass”.
The two stare at one another for a few moments, their wills locked in battle, when Wulfenar looks away from a mere girl half his age.
“This is our road. ‘tis the law that you must pay a toll to ensure that the road remains safe and open and accessible. Merchant, you must pay two gold to pass, but Angil, since you are of our own kin, this road is yours too, you may pass for free.” Wulfenar announces, looking down, and then upon concluding staring flinty-eyed at the sweating merchant. The merchant pays the two gold and proceeds on, while Angil stays behind to talk to her kin about the recent occurrences.
She catches up with the merchant, and at a nearby village they part ways. She rides towards her clan’s homestead, and as she nears a rise, she sees smoke coming from the direction of her home. She spurs her horse onwards towards her home, fearing what she may find.
Re: [Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
The Hell Gaunt/Doktor Albrecht
Again, the Hell Gaunt flees across the rooftops of Praag, skimming the rooftops, his feet barely touching the tiles. In a matter of minutes, he has crossed parts of the city and arrived at the docks to a hideout, a ruined warehouse on a pier. Some of the structures have collapsed and the building hovers dangerously over the water – a lightning strike had destroyed and set fire to one corner of the building, the end he leaps to and lands upon. He drops into the darkness within.
Rats scurry about in the darkness. A low glow comes from one wall were all sorts of pipes and tubing fill giant vessels with experimental material drifting within. All manner of medical instruments hang on one wall, and he hurls her down into a different corner where all manner of corpses and dismembered limbs lay heaped. He turns his back, grabs an instrument and picks her up again…
…and holds up a gleaming scalpel which he holds to her throat…
…and in one quick flash he cuts…
…her gag off. She gasps. She’s young, about 19 years of age. She begs and pleads for her life, assures her that her father is wealthy, and then, looking about the chamber, says he is a powerful alchemist and could offer him many pieces of experimental equipment…
The Hell Gaunt turns… and asks “Just who is your father?”
The young woman replies “The Alchemist Master Archibald!”
Hell Gaunt hisses! This was his chief rival! A man that criticized his work and mocked him in the court, cost him many of his patrons! A plan crystallizes in his twisted mind.
He stuffs a gag back in her mouth, hangs the womans bound arms up on a meat hook, and then pulls on some chains, lifting her up above the floor. He lights some candles, and only then does she see the ring of rats, hundreds of them, that stare greedily up at her.
He pauses to write a note.
He clambers up the burnt and fallen beam that leads up to the hole in the roof and disappears into the night.
Its not long before he reaches the well-lit and impressive mansion of the Master Alchemist Archibold. Lurking about the estate, he hears, despite the late hour, some sort of late-night entertainment, someone is giving a speech of some sort. Hell Gaunt leers about, peeking in through the windows, his clawed hands leaving muddy smears.
Circling about, he hears the sound of vomiting in the garden. He hunches over, and steps quietly forward. A drunk servant is in the garden vomiting, throwing up his insides and the smell of cheap alcohol wafts upon the air. The voluminous shadow that is the Hell Gaunt swoops over him and an arm pierced with the sins of science reaches down, grabs his neck, and breaks it. He produces his note from his body and sticks it in the shirt of the dead servant. He scoops up the dead servant and throws it over his shoulder, and looks up towards the roof of the building and agilely climbs to the roof, drawn by the glow of warm lights emanating from a large sky-light window.
Standing there, looking down on the warm and cozy room below as a storm gathers above him, the Hell Gaunt bides his time…
…Below a young and handsome poet is performing some stirring poem and young women of distinction in the first row seem close to swooning, as they fan themselves and sigh at the beauty of the words. The poet moves from behind the podium, his voice rising as his poem reaches its conclusion, and Master Alchemist Archibald grunts in pleasure at the performance…
…the poet pauses…
…the room is filled with the sound of polite clapping and the sighs of love-struck women…
…the poet smiles…
…and the world explodes! CRASH! Glass showers down from above and a body plummets into the room, smashing to the ground before the shocked poet, his golden face turned to a mask of disgust and horror!
Screams erupt from the room and many an unblemished face is not ruined by glass and blood…
…when laughter explodes from above. The room goes quiet except for that horrible and mocking laughter and everyone looks up to witness a most degenerate sight, that of someone half-human, half-monster, laughing from above. Lightning flashes across the sky, and the figure is gone, but the laughter remains until it fades into nothing.
Then the note is found. It states that if Archibold desires to see his daughter alive again, he will bring a ransom of gold to the cemetery – alone, and will dig up the grave of one former rival of his, Albrecht, and place the gold within the casket. His daughter will then be returned to him.
As the nobility and gentry flee the house, rumors spread of a monster, a gaunt from hell who has come to wreak vengeance upon the people of this fair city.
Pike
Fleeing from the scene of a fight, Pike wanders the city, heading to one of her various bolt-holes throughout the city. It is not long before she arrives near one on the waterfront. Yet as she is getting ready to enter it, she notes the glimmering of light from the old ruined warehouse.
Intrigued by this, Pike heads over. There are no windows, but she carefully climbs over the side and through a hole in the roof, descending through the means of a fallen beam. She cares not for the sound of rats, and starts to explore this realm of the macabre. She peers into strange vials and jars and vessels, until the sound of clinking chains draws her attention, and she discovers a woman or girl hanging in the air. After piling up some corpses, she is able to get the woman down and pulls off her gag and cuts her bindings.
The woman gasps in horror: “We have to leave! It may be back, its one of those monsters, those creatures! Quick, please!”
Pike tries to reassure her, but the girls eyes widen and stare past her and she shakes and Pike turns about to see a large shadow looming over both of them…
Angil
Seeing the smoke rising from the place of her clan homestead, Angil drives her horse onwards and as she nears, she sees the smoking remains of her family home and some figures lying on the ground. Standing amidst them are three figures with three horses.
As she nears, she sees that they are not from the Tilter Horde, but from the church! Two Knight Vigilants and a Vigilator Inquisitor. The Inquisitor, in green and gold robes has stooped down to look at one of the bodies, while the two Knights look on, leaning upon their swords.
Angil thunders down towards them, her axe held aloft, the wind chilling about her and her breath turning to steam in the sudden chill.
She thunders up and the three figures turn in surprise, the Inquisitor rising to stand.
Angil screams out “What are you doing here in my village?!?!”
The Inquisitor, hearing her, calls out: “She must be one of these heretics! Arrest that girl!”
The two Knights, seemingly unburdened by their plate armor easily swing their blades up and advance upon her…
She charges forward, her axe held aloft but the two veterans split, one to each side of her and as she swings her axe…
…one of the knights catches it on his blade and the two weapons meet, muscles shaking and quivering as the weapons lock…
…when the other Knight swings his blade flat and strikes Angil a glancing blow who falls from her horse… only to grab at her axe and swinging from a prone position yet two more blows from the Knights subdue her and her axe flies from her grasp, landing near the Priest.
Having lost her home, her family, her axe, and now the battle for her honor, Angil lies there, as the two Knights, untouched, their faces hidden by their visors, their cold eyes staring, level their sword points at her throat. The Inquisitor, curious, reaches forward towards her axe…
Re: [Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
I hope someone is getting something out of this! This is a lot of work! Anyway, this is another part of the same first session...
Hell Gaunt (as the good Doktor Albrecht is now known in Praag)
Having left his rival’s party in disarray and horror, Hell Gaunt flees back across the rooftops as bats flutter alongside towards his warehouse. Leaping from one roof onto the destroyed corner of the warehouse, he hears conversation below, one voice frantic. Crawling down the beam on all fours, the Hell Gaunt approaches two figures talking, one of them his hostage, the other a small figure with its back turned.
Drawing upon the power of his unholy weapon, he commands it to swell his body with its foul energies. The hostage sees him, her eyes widen and the other figure spins around…
…and asks “…albrecht?”
Hell Gaunt pauses, doesn’t recognize the figure, but with inhuman strength grabs the intruder and hurls her with remarkable force into the pile of corpses. Before the hostage can react, he snatches her up, dashes up the beam and lands back on the rooftop. Again he flies across the rooftops towards his other hideaway – an abandoned steeple at the church in the graveyard. Ever since his return from the grave, his nocturnal activities have frightened the groundskeeper who now resides outside the cemetery.
Still in control of his hostage, the Hell Gaunt continues with his plans. Gagging the girl again, he hangs his struggling and pleading hostage upside down from the ropes that once held the bell, and he creeps down below into the cemetery, in search of a coffin…
…while in the graveyard, he hears the appearance of a small band carrying a coffin. He ducks behind a gravestone, and nearby a small band of people appear, moving about the cemetery furtively. Digging a grave, they begin to lower it when the Hell Gaunt notes that the occupant inside the grave isn’t so eager to return to the soil. It shakes as someone within struggles and beats against the sides and top, and the Hell Gaunt can hear screams coming from within. The occupants lower the coffin and throw dirt upon it. Their work finished, they grunt and turn, exiting the cemetery.
Hell Gaunt moves forward, and begins to dig up the coffin. After a few minutes it is unearthed and he tears the top off the coffin – inside is a young nobleman. Frantic. His cry of joy turns to horror as he sees the living corpse that was once Doktor Albrecht. The man’s first thoughts is that he is dead and in hell, but the good doctor has little time for this… shaking and threatening the man, Hell Gaunt learns that the man was a member of the Order of the Ivory Sun and that a number of talismans had been thrown into the coffin to see him to the afterworld. What piques Hell Gaunt’s interest is that what seemed to be harmless dabbling in the arts of alchemy have turned much darker – experimenting with a white dust, the Order of the Ivory Sun has been using this material to transform the living into mindless automatons, but their ultimate intention is to somehow extend one’s life through the use of the powder. Abhorring these experiments, the young man was going to report the order’s misdeeds to the civic authorities, but found himself in a coffin being buried instead. The Hell Gaunt demands the location of the order, and it turns out they have been using the large estate of a powerful lord who seems to have gone senile in his old age. The Hell Gaunt lets the man free, but only after informing him that the Hell Gaunt demands a deed in return for the rescue.
Pike
As the girl’s eyes widen in surprise, Pike spins about and sees a terrible figure towering over her… Pike looks at the figure and recognizes it as someone Pike used to deliver goods to…
“…albrecht?” Pike asks in a small voice, but there is no flash of recognition upon the transformed face. Instead the figure, with inhuman strength picks up and hurls Pike across the room, slamming Pike into a pile of corpses, and in the seconds it takes to recover, Pike is alone in a warehouse where the rats begin to creep closer…
Painfully, Pike rises and heads up the beam and exits the building, staggering about the night streets of Praag to another bolt-hole. Its not long before Pike decides to stop by an alchemists and find out about the white powder Pike is covered in. It is dark, so Pike retreats to the cold and wet cellar of a closed business to sleep.
Angil
With the swords of the Knights Vigilant pointed at her throat, Angil desperately reaches out to her weapon with her mind, linking with the blade – commanding it to transform into the Wolf of Winter and she will fulfill its need (to destroy something of importance). As the link is made, the weapons glows from within and the grass below ices over and the Inquisitor reaching for the curious weapon discovers that this is one of those heretical weapons that challenge the Faith. Stopping just short of touching it, the Inquisitor turns around to his Knights Vigilant and commands them: “Bind the heretic! She is the most dangerous of foes!” and turns back to the axe…
…to discover that the axe is missing…
…it its place, towering over the Inquisitor is a giant wolf nearly the size of a horse. Ice crusts its fur and icicles of drool have frozen about its giant gaping maw. It snarls out frozen air and the Inquisitor can only scream as the Wolf of Winter lunges forward, seizing his torso in its great teeth and flinging him about wildly – blood sprays about.
The two Knight Vigilants turn from Angil and look on in horror at the scene of violence. Despite their fear, their training kicks in and both start to back off towards their panicking horses with the stalwart swords held before them.
Angil commands Frost Fang to attack the Knights and in a leap and a bound Frostfang is upon one of them. Yet before Frostfang can strike, one of the Knights, crying out to his god leaps forward and attacks Frostfang, bringing his blade down upon Frostfang’s head and cutting a gash. Enraged, the Wolf attacks, its great teeth punching through and tearing open the armor as if were mere flesh and wildly tears apart at the screaming Knight’s entrails.
The other Knight is upon his horse and fleeing as the Wolf feasts. Looking at the fleeing Knight, Angil tells Frost Fang that his work is complete, but Frostfang nods in the negative – its was promised that its need would be fulfilled. Frostfang looks about…
…and lopes over to where the bodies are. Angil looks over and is horrified. There lie many of her folk, dead. Her father and twin sister are absent, but her beloved mother and younger sister lie there dead. Frostfang, desiring to destroy something valuable to the living, looks over the bodies, and begins to drag off the corpse of Angil’s mother and younger sister, and devours both of them while Angil looks on in horror.
Angil grapples within over the horror she has unleashed on the world, but recognizes that her mother and sister are dead and have passed on…
Turning to examine the corpses, she notes that those menfolk with the tattoos of thorns about their wrists and arms have been dragged aside by the knights and Inquisitor. Looking closer, she realizes that the body the Inquisitor was examining was her uncle’s – and he is still breathing! Apparently the Inquisitor was speaking with him when she rode up. Turning to him, she offers him water and questions him.
She learns that her village was not attacked by the three whom she assaulted – they arrived later, but were attacked by the Tilter Horde whom she had been sent to Praag to seek aid against. Angil’s father and twin-sister were taken away by the horde, towards the east, in the direction of the local lord’s keep. Her uncle dies, and Angil picks up Frost Fang who has resumed the shape of an axe and rides off to the east, her axe in hand and the grass coated in frost in her wake.
Re: [Actual Play] Sorcerer - Charnel Gods: The Armageddon Clock
Hell Gaunt / Doktor Albrecht
Having slept through the day, Hell Gaunt awakens as the sun sets and begins his task for the evening.
Three hours before midnight he heads down to his grave and digs up his grave (for the second time!). The note said to dig up the grave, place the money in the coffin, and the girl will be returned to her father. Yet now we learn that Hell Gaunt may be less human than we even imagined…
He gathers up a coffin, places the girl in the coffin, and buries her alive! He knows that in three hours, her father, his rival, will come to dig up a coffin to place within a bag of gold and will discover the body of his own daughter – long expired from suffocation! Ignoring the young woman’s banging on the coffin, Hell Gaunt carries out this terrible deed, and leaves the cemetery, seeking out the abode of this senile old man who harbors the Order of the Ivory Sun.
Pike
Pike awakens, damp and cold, to the smell of fresh baked bread. Awakening, Pike heads over to the bakery across the street, buys a fresh roll and begins to enjoy it. Before long, a close friend of Pike’s, a young street orphan named Dobrin arrives, and they share a bite the bread in the street. After washing it down with some juice, Pike and Dobrin part ways and Pike heads over to Pike’s alchemist friend – curious about the powder that Pike had been covered in. However, the damp cold of the morning had done something to the powder, and it was no longer visible or seemingly present.
As Pike arrives, the alchemist is overjoyed to see Pike. Before Pike can inquire about the powder, the alchemist asks if Pike will pick something up and deliver it back to the alchemists. Pike acquiesces and heads out, pleased at the opportunity to make some money. Its not long before Pike arrives at the place: The Theurge. A man with a black reputation and considerable powers, Pike is a little daunted by entering this business of ill repute. Pike enters into a room with a high ceiling and a large U shaped counter. Behind on countless shelves reaching up the ceiling are all manner of ingredients in jars, boxes, and brass containers. Three overworked apprentices are carrying out tasks.
One of the apprentices looks askance at Pike’s appearance, but Pike convinces them to give over the delivery. It’s a paper-box parcel that they stress should be carefully handled. Pike carries it out the door with exaggerated precaution and once the door is closed, drops it in Pike’s sack.
Pike continues along the way, but then notes that the pack seems to be shifting… as if something were alive in the rucksack. Pike pauses, looks at the bag, and panics. Pike sprints to the shadows and then uses her sword’s ability to teleport through shadows – Pike pops into one shadow and arrives in the shadows of the square that the alchemist-friend lives at. Pike begins to trot to the door, rucksack in hand when Pike notices that a small hand is reaching out of the rucksack. Pike runs to the door, drops the rucksack on the ground, bangs loudly on the door and runs away!
Its not long before Pike returns back to the market where the bread was purchased earlier, but there’s some sort of activity going on, a crowd has gathered. Near the ancient clock and old woman rushes up to Pike, telling Pike that dear young Dobrin is in some sort of trouble! Both rush forward to discover as the crowds part that Dobrin is in the hands of an Inquisitor.
The Inquisitor has Dobrin tied up to a stake, has torn the child’s shirt off, and is lashing the child with a scourge! The hooded inquisitor is screaming questions at the child and Pike turns to a neighboring person in the crowd. Pike asks: “What has Dobrin done to deserve this?”
The neighbor replies: “Dobrin? Apparently this Dobrin is consorting with heretics! Why just this morning Dobrin was seen feasting with a heretic, a young man or woman… the stories are unclear, who not only has the affront to wear a sword which only those of the church may wear, but apparently assaulted one of the faithful last night!” The woman begins to turn away but then notes, in surprise, the sword that this street kid is wearing! Pike notes the woman’s glance and gets ready to act but the woman opens her mouth and screams: “Here! Here is the heretic! Right here amongst us!!!”
The crowd gasps and parts, and the Inquisitor spins around, sees Pike and the pommel of the sword, points with one hand and commands “Seize the heretic!” The other hand still holds the scourge, and Dobrin’s blood drips down onto the cobblestones of the square.
Angil
Enraged Angil rides across the countryside but pulls up when she notes some of her kinfolk in pursuit. Riding up, she hails them. Bearing spears, they wave their spears and encourage her to join their pursuit. They’re hunting a wolf bitch and cubs from the forest! They launch down into the gully and Angil rides ahead to the end of the gully, and begins riding up it…
…only to encounter a woman of the forest folk with her three children! This is the “wolf bitch and cubs”! The woman is holding a shaking blade of bronze at Angil. Angil reassures them, urges them onwards, but before leaving, the woman presses into Angil’s hand a pendant, one of an ebony half-moon.
Angil rides up and encounters the three Clans folk. They seem startled at her appearance and the disappearance of the children, but Angil suggests they must have hidden and backtracked, and three men turn about and begin retracing the trail. After a few minutes, Angil bids them goodbye and continues upon her way.
Angil feels positive about her act of compassion, but her axe grumbles discontentedly on her back, unnoticed by Angil.
Linear Mode
