Dragonslayers Not Aloft For The Moment

 

Made it back to Fnordonia with our Sack Of Itchiness.

Certain members of the party, who shall remain nameless, fastened on to Orson and Fnord like ravenous bloodsucking stirges, sucking out of them as much as they possibly could in the way of resources, justifying themselves by saying "they should be pleased we're undertaking this task, so it's the very least they could do".

Jaipoor, the flying carpet, has definitively transferred her loyalties to Remy. Sir Douglas gave them a nice set of silver-backed carpet brushing and grooming tools as an engagement present.

They have, with the aid of Orson and Trûk (Fnord's adoptive copper dragon baby, now thoroughly grown up), located the site of the dastardly red dragon's lair. Now all that remains is to scout out its layout, get in there with the magical Sneezing and Choking powder, and chop it to bits. Easy-peasy.

Dragonslayers Aloft

 

After a relaxing and quiet night at a respectable boarding establishment in Westport (except for Remy, who naturally sought out the lowest of low dives to befoul himself) our heroes began the trek up the road to Fnordonia. A full day's hard walking, uphill all the way and in the company of a variety of merchants and tinkers, took them to the gates.

Sir Douglas' sturdily upright demeanour and obvious honesty and sincerity saw them into an audience with the man himself, Sir Fnord the Pretty Neat. 

They put forward their quest, and asked for advice on how one goes about assassinating a very large, very old, very bad tempered, very dangerous dragon. Fnord's memory being not of the best, he called on his friend Orson, a wizard of great power (and paranoia), to use his magic for a Sending to Fnord's old friend Anya, who actually commanded the quest to kill their own dragon some hundreds of years ago. 

She passed on the recipe and method for creating a Super-Duper Dust of Sneezing and Choking, which is what she had used back in the day. 

Orson had, or could easily source, all the ingredients but one: a type of fungus or lichen that grows only on the rocks of the Swefelmunt, down in the Curséd Land.  So, it's a simple matter of getting down there and collecting some.

Fortunately, Daffyd's Boy's Big Book of Magical Plants and Stuff has useful illustrations and descriptions, so hoorah! 

Since it's quite a long way, and time is a factor in this quest, Sir Fnord the Ridiculously Generous went into his lumber room and presented the team with the loan of a talking flying carpet, by the name of Jaipoor. She was not in the best of tempers, having been rolled up under the bed for some considerable time, but the smooth-talking Remy soon chatted her up, and the very next dawn, off they all flew, considerably faster than they'd managed to travel either on horseback or by boat.

Jaipoor seems to have developed an unnaturally, one might almost say inappropriately close relationship with Remy. Poor thing. 

Five hours saw them all the way from Fnordonia to the trade town of Rowan, where they overnighted. The next day, another five hours (about Jaipoor's limit before needing to rest), with a brief interruption by a roc who was convinced to seek elsewhere for a meal, took them to the banks of a river, just 40 or 50 miles from their destination.  

The next day should see them there.

Oh, did I mention that the Swefelmunt hosts one of the openings on this plane to the Pits of Hell?  Or that large swathes of the Curséd Land glows with poisonous radiation?

I'm sure it will be fine. 

Next session:

 The team flew south to the Swefelmunt — easily distinguished by virtue of being much taller than any of the other mountains in the range. There they made use of Roisin's Arrow of Location (that she'd previously thought was a lame and useless item) to determine a course to the nearest patch of the lichen they wanted.

They followed the course, flying low, until they spied the luminescence of the lichen in a jumble of rocks at the end of a small, vaguely rectangular pool of water. Considering the rarity of standing water in the Curséd Land, Sir Douglas thought it highly likely that it would be a preferred ambush spot for the local predators. So rather than landing nearby and walking around the pool, they hovered the carpet over the rocks and just stepped off on to them.

Which turned out to be a good choice, since it meant the numerous attacking reptilioids had to travel further to get at them, and the burrowing ones were hampered somewhat by the rocks. 

Added to the perils of hungry monsters, it turned out that handling the lichen, even with thick gloves on, led to terrific itching all over, swollen, watery eyes, and massive drooling of the sinuses. Great misery ensued.

They flew the carpet back north to the riverbank they'd camped on before, and attempted (with only limited success) to wash away the irritating spores. Daffyd, by virtue of his Boy's Big Book of Magical Plants and Stuff, discovered that aloe would be a partial antidote, and made himself agreeable to the rest of the party by finding some to relieve their sufferings.

The lichen was wrapped up as hermetically as possible and stored away in Daffyd's Bag of Holding,  and the team flew off, backtracking along their old route back north towards Fnordonia and Orson.

They've made it as far as Rowan so far. 

Religion in the City and Empire of Comana (and thereabouts)

 Religion in Comana is both monotheistic and exclusive, worshipping a publicly nameless god, referred to by a variety of nomme de culte, such as the One God, the Many in One, the Supreme, the Divine Greatest, the Greatest and Best, and many more.

Though perceived as a singular being, the god is worshipped in many aspects, depending on the needs of its many worshippers. Prayers may be addressed to the god's universal being, or to one of its aspect — as a god of storms for example, or a god of the sea, or the god of the harvest. Also, a hierarchy of celestial creatures are deemed to be deputized by The One to attend to minor matters on its behalf. Small local shrines to, say, a river or pond, will be dedicated to the Great God, but it is fully understood by the local congregation that there is some divine intermediary handling the small stuff, and passing on any major issues to the All-in-One upstairs.

The Emperor is supreme in both the secular and religious realms, and the Cult of the One is the only official religion of the Empire.

Orthodoxy is strictly maintained, and the official church maintains an inquisitorial arm responsible for making sure that the populace toe the official line. Punishments for persistent heterodoxy can be both severe and gruesome, though initial infractions will normally be dealt with with an escalating scale of fines, through a range of corporal punishments, ultimately resulting in death by a variety of inventive and nasty methods.

Other gods are not actually denied, nor is their worship within the empire actually forbidden, but there are substantial and onerous legal burdens placed on those who wish to worship their foreign gods openly. Most immigrant or indigenous people will eventually convert their religion simply because of the heavy legal and financial obligations placed on them by remaining with their own gods.

The church is rigidly hierarchical, and even the lowest ordained priest has absolute authority over the laity in spiritual matters, and great authority even in secular affairs. Technically, even the greatest secular lords cannot punish even the most minor priest for any infraction. However, the intermiscibility of the secular and religious aristocracy means that if a priest offends a lord, that lord almost certainly has family in the church that can make that priest's life an absolute misery. And even if family connections aren't brought into play, a complaint to the church authorities against a priest by a secular lord will, if nothing else, spark a tedious and inconvenient, and potentially dangerous, church investigation. And of course it can work the other way too: a priest who makes an unfavourable report to the inquisition can cause real trouble for a lord. There is, therefore, an uneasy detente.

The Comanate Empire - Political Geography

 

Here we have the political situation as regards the Comanate Empire and its immediate vicinity.

The bright pink is the area that is directly controlled by Comana, the light pink areas are tributary to it.

Comana's greatest rival is the kingdom of Attarisyas, shown in green. The light green areas are tributary to Attarisyas.

To the north, the blue islands of Shutarna, Shinukhtu, and Shaushka pose no particular threat to either of their larger neighbours, though they are each powerful enough to maintain their independence.

To the east, the mottled island chain of Urukhtu is an unstable mish-mash of tribes, both human and not, in a more or less constant state of conflict and constantly shifting alliances. It has, in the past, been the object of military expeditions from both Attarisyas and Comana, but with little to show for them. 

The dark brown areas are politically unimportant, being for the most part tiny tribal territories and petty kingdoms. 

To north and south of the map above are

    ....the lands of the ice and snow
    From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow
    The hammer of the gods
    Will drive our ships to new lands
    To fight the horde, sing and cry
    Valhalla, I am coming 

Ahem. Quick Led Zeppelin discursion there.

Anyway, both north and south (off the map as shown) are the homes of fierce, warlike barbarians, sea-raiders who fight among themselves and prey on the sea-lanes and coastlines of the civilised lands. They also frequently appear as mercenaries in the armies of all the major powers in the area. They are more of a nuisance than a threat to the empire and its neighbours, mainly because of their disunity.... however, if they could ever combine under a suitably charismatic leader, they could become a real problem. 

The Archipelago — First Glimmerings

 

The Great Archipelago, dominated by the Comanate Empire, lies pretty much directly opposite our customary stomping grounds.

Each of those hexes is about 1,000 miles wide.

This is a very old map I drew of the Archipelago many, many years ago. It is sadly faded and foxed, but it still serves to show the main islands of the various island chains.  There are also thousands of tiny uncharted islands, not shown at this scale.

 

 

 

 

The city of Comana lies directly in the tropical zone; the climate is similar to that of the Greek islands in the Aegean. Here are a few "flavour" images — the cultural vibe is basically pre-Ottoman Byzantine. 

 

Dragon Slayers: Sailing South

 

Sailing south to Fnordonia for some dragon-slaying advice. Dinosaurs spotted in the air and on the shore. Slight trouble with pirates on the way: they came off much, much the worst and we marooned the survivors on the Elvish Shore. I'm sure they'll be fine.

Dragon Slayers: The Road to Fnordonia

 

Dragon Slayers

The Progress of the Dragon Slayers of Thursday Night

 

One hex = 25 miles side to side

(About a day's travel on foot in easy terrain)

Updated 2025-05-29