The Giggling Dark: Session Seven

Xellous: 13 years old, the main character, played by my buddy Ryan Kurlak. He wants to be the greatest enchanter ever, and has had to deal with Flammeous Lads threatening his family. He's currently facing down a Behemoth of the Apocalypse.

Kora: Also 13, Xellous' wife. She's currently pregnant after being raped by her (now dead) father Altus, and owns a ridiculously powerful bow called Pyra, made for her by Xellous. She seems to have jumped off the deep end, having killed Veraunay in cold blood and causing a lot of trouble.

Telos: A man from another place, another time.

Ernzan: a man who has been implied to have made Michael summon the Flammeous Lads. He and Veraunay kidnapped Threen and Michael.

Michael: Kora's younger brother. He'd summoned a Flammeous Lad before, but has no memory of doing so. He just walked up to Xellous and proclaimed that he knew the truth about his mother, Threen, and that he wants nothing more to do with her.

Threen: Kora's and Michael's mother. Michael knows something awful about her. No, you won't find out what it is this session. Heck, you probably won't find out next session either (that's a guess, BTWs. Haven't run Eight yet)

Ikuinen Lampo: The star of the local area, who had sacrificed herself to keep the area from crawling with undead (referred to as a Rot Zone). She has made Xellous her champion. She lives in the Observatory, which is the center of her power.

Xellous woke up in Ikuinen Lampo's Observatory. Lampo was standing in the middle of her Observatory. She explained that the thing they were facing was called a Behemoth of the Apocalypse, a demon of chaos and destruction, intent on coming to the Observatory and eating her remains, thus allowing the Rot Zone to return. Without Xellous this would happen for sure.

Lampo showed Xellous a secret door in the side of the Observatory. It led to a workshop filled with every material known to man. Lampo explained that one day in this workshop was a minute in the real world. Lampo told him their best chance was to make a suit of armor for Telos, who would then use Pyra to destroy the Behemoth.

Xellous got to work... on a chest and arm piece for Kora. He made it impervious to all demonic activity. This took him three days to do. When he got done he decided he wanted to make leg pieces for Kora as well... and took another three days to do that. Lampo walked in, observed the work he was doing, and asked why Kora was getting all the armor. Xellous told Lampo that, despite everything, Kora was the savior of the world, not Telos. Xellous believed that Kora could pull it off, given the chance. Lampo smiled and told Xellous to make armor for Telos too.

After a week of working on a chest piece and arm pieces for Telos, Xellous thought he had it pretty well down. The armor melted. All his work was destroyed. He stared at what was left of his work, trying to figure out what to do next. He took a deep breath, grabbed what he had made for Kora, and walked out of the workshop, back into the Observatory proper.

Xellous woke up in his house, to the sounds of carnage just outside it. In his hands were Kora's armor. As he ran outside he saw the Behemoth had knocked over his father's barn and was devouring the helpless animals inside. Telos lay nearby, mortally wounded. Threen, Michael, and Kora were trying to keep him in the land of the living. Xellous didn't see his father around anywhere. Xellous ran up to Kora and gave her the armor. He told her to get out there and kill the Behemoth. Kora told him she had tried, but couldn't steady her hands well enough to shoot; she had shot wild every single time and had made an even bigger mess than the Behemoth had so far. Kora had given up.

Xellous told her to cut it out, that the world was counting on her right then and there, and that if she didn't pull off the shot no one was going to. He took a look at the Behemoth, took a deep breath, grabbed a nearby bow (Kora had brought his from earlier), and charged the distracted Behemoth, taking aim with his bow. Kora, who was busy putting on the armor, screamed "What the hell do you think you're doing??/" and Xellous replied "I need a skin sample from that thing! Its skin would make great armor!" He fired off a shot, and managed to get a small piece of skin off with his ordinary bow. This startled the Behemoth and it turned around, confused.

Kora shot in the leg as it turned around and it collapsed. Kurlak rolled 9 successes on 3 dice, against Obstacle 3. Xellous collected his skin sample as Kora walked up to the Behemoth and shot it in the head, putting it down for good.

The Giggling Dark: Session Six

Xellous: 13 years old, the main character, played by my buddy Ryan Kurlak. He wants to be the greatest enchanter ever, and has had to deal with Flammeous Lads threatening his family.


Kora: Also 13, Xellous' wife. She's currently pregnant after being raped by her (now dead) father Altus, and owns a ridiculously powerful bow called Pyra, made for her by Xellous.

Telos: A man from another place, another time.

Ernzan: a man who has been implied to have made Michael summon the Flammeous Lads. He and Veraunay kidnapped Threen and Michael.

Michael: Kora's younger brother. He'd summoned a Flammeous Lad before, but has no memory of doing so. He is currently kidnapped by Ernzan and Veraunay.

Threen: Kora's mother, also kidnapped by Ernzan and Veraunay.

Veraunay: Ernzan's wife. She had attacked Xellous, Kora, and Telos last session, and had been knocked out. She is now their hostage.

Veraunay was revived and Xellous examined her aura; she exuded lies. So Xellous asked Kora to help him talk to Veraunay, to try and trap her in the truth, somehow.  But Veraunay was abrasive and arrogant. She taunted Kora about Michael and Veraunay, mocking her powerlessness.

Xellous wasn't fast enough to stop Kora from pulling out an arrow and incinerating Veraunay with Pyra.

Kora screamed and tried to make a break for the cottage. Telos tried to gently restrain Kora, but Xellous tripped in trying to help Telos and fell on Kora, giving her the chance to break away and make a run for it. Xellous and Telos chased her, but the torrential rain gave Kora the chance to slip away. Xellous took Telos the direct route to the cottage, barely catching up to Kora.

Kora was just knocking an arrow to Pyra. Xellous was somehow able to get her to not shoot the cabin, but not to keep Kora from taunting Ernzan about killing his wife and sister. Ernzan, with a pitch black aura that was... secondary... to another aura(?) came out, Michael and  Threen in tow. Ernzan asked for clarification: had Kora really killed Veraunay and Meera.  Kora crowed that she had. Her aura was looking positively sickening.

Ernzan took a ring off his finger and said, loudly and clearly in the pouring rain: " I, the last of the Accursed of Xalmantra, renege on my oath." He dropped the ring and walked away. Michael walked up to Xellous and told him he knew the truth about Threen and that he was done. As Michael walked away the earth shook. Out of the ground arose a monstrosity of a behemoth. The sheer evil of its aura knocked Xellous out, cold.

The Giggling Dark: Session Five

Because it's been asked for.... the characters in this session from previous sessions!

Xellous: 13 years old, the main character, played by my buddy Ryan Kurlak. He wants to be the greatest enchanter ever, and has had to deal with Flammeous Lads threatening his family.

Kora: Also 13, Xellous' wife. She's currently pregnant after being raped by her (now dead) father Altus, and owns a ridiculously powerful bow called Pyra, made for her by Xellous.

Michael: 9 years old, Kora's little brother. He was somehow coerced into summoning the Flammeous Lads at the very beginning of the campaign.

Ernzan:  a man who has been implied to have made Michael summon the Flammeous Lads.

Meeria: Ernzan's sister, proficient with a knife and cold-blooded to boot.

Veraunay: Ernzan's wife. A very powerful witch. Meeria hates her.

Ikuinen Lampo: The star who had sacrificed her life to re-sanctify the earth and drive back the rot zone that had possessed it in a 50 mile radius around her sacrifice.

Threen: Michael's and Kora's mother.

As they started to back to the house Kora stopped and asked to talk with Xellous. Kora expressed Xellous' seeming friendship with Ernzan. Kora was convinced that Ernzan and his family were evil to the core and that Xellous couldn't see it. Xellous assured Kora that he would defer to her judgment.So resolved, they set off.

Xellous noticed a black stone on the ground. Curious, he picked it up; it was star metal! It fit into Xellous' hand perfectly, but was impossibly heavy. Kora wanted to leave it behind, but Xellous insisted, because it would make good enchanting material. It was too heavy to put into his pocket, so Xellous carried it by hand, awkwardly.

The stone began to grow hotter, but Kora, when she touched it, found it just as cool as when Xellous first picked it up. All of a sudden Xellous found himself Ikuinen Lampo's Observatory.The gigantic boulder of star metal, which is at the center of all observatories, stood where it should. Xellous heard a small, still voice, like that of a child, coming from the boulder. Xellous walked up to it and put his hand on it.

With a sigh the boulder split open. Out stepped an impossibly beautiful woman. She introduced herself as Ikuinen Lampo, the star who had sacrificed herself on this very spot. Lampo asked Xellous to be her champion against the coming darkness. Xellous asked Lampo about Kora and her fate. Lampo told him that, while Kora had her own path, it need not diverge from his. Xellous asked what he was fighting for, specifically. Lampo apologized, but declined to answer. She told him the issues he was facing had to be experienced; telling Xellous what was going on would not explain what was going on right now. Lampo then told Xellous  that there would be no other opportunity to talk with her because because of the quick advance of the darkness. Xellous agreed to be her champion. Lampo pulled in Xellous and kissed him. An overwhelming tingling sensation overtook Xellous and he passed out.

Xellous awoke to a zombie about to eat his face. Xellous screamed and started to get away, but he heard Kora scream and stopped. Meeria, Ernzan's wife, was standing on Kora's throat, Pyra in her hand. The zombie started to shamble towards Xellous.

The stone was still in Xellous' hand.

He held it up. The zombie screamed and fled, bumping into Meeria, who fell over. Meeria had a red aura around her, the zombie a gray. Kora grabbed Pyra, her aura turned red, and she vaporized both Meeria and the zombie.

A portal opened up in the ground and out crawled a man. Kora yelped, but the man had a calming blue aura and Xellous felt calm at his presence. He commanded Kora not to shoot him, and had to explain that somehow, some way, he could see auras now, and that now was not the time for that discussion. The man was naked and confused. He asked where Meeria was. He was relieved to hear that she was dead. He asked for a shirt of some sort (Kora was blushing) so Xellous took off his overshirt... which only barely covered the mountain of a man who stood before him. Thankful, the man introduced himself as Telos.

Campaign notes: This name has a huge significance, which was not lost on Kurlak. In another campaign, in another world, there was a man running around who claimed to be Telos, an enormous and righteous soldier of the light. It was later discovered that he was a Raksha and that the real Telos' whereabouts were unknown. It was never resolved in that campaign where Telos had gone. Kurlak had been in that game and had suspected that Telos from the very beginning as a fraud. So not only was it confirmed to Kurlak that this, indeed, was the real Telos, but that somehow he was in a completely different world. Telos also talked about the Herculean Empire as if it was a place he had just left, which was a massive empire from the "past" of his world. The Herculean capital had fallen hundreds of years ago, overnight, to a sudden swarm of undead after a meteor hit the earth, and was now known as The City of the Dead, its previous name expunged from history.

The trio hurried back to their house as fast as they could, only to find Michael... completely safe and sound, about to go to bed. After thoroughly questioning him  Xellous was satisfied he wasn't in any danger.  Telos ate his first real meal in a long time, enjoying every last bite of it.

The next morning it rained hard. Michael went to work his family's rice field, promising to return with Threen for lunch. The rain increased, but not hard enough for Michael to not return for lunch. Michael did not come for lunch with Threen. They hurried over.

The house's door swung wildly in the wind. The trio ran in to discover not one but two scuffles in the house. Xellous and Kora tracked the remnants of footprints, back towards the Cabin where Michael had summoned the Flammeous Lad in the first place. All of a sudden they were hit with a wall of water as Veraunay ambushed them. Xellous and Kora were stunned by the attack, but Telos was not. After a short scuffle Veraunay was knocked out.