Episode 10 - The Children of Bane

In which our band reveals how new adventurers are made.

Eventually the band relented to Myrdynus' desire to visit Ashrak the necromancer. However, on their way there they saw a comet falling to the earth. Since they figured it landed not far to the south they imediately changed plans and went to investigate.

Two days later near Viroconium they spied a band of strange warriors. They were heavily armed and armoured, were as tall as elves, yet built like orcs. They had strange flat faces, round ears and a coppery colour to their skin. They spoke among themselves in a strange booming tongue no-one had heard before. Upon their shields they bore the device of Bane, the self styled Lord of All and god of Tyranny. Not wishing to provoke such a dangerous the band hid and let them pass.

They soon came upon a small hamlet. Five more of the alien warriors were present. The band found a lone villager, a young low elven woman. Myrdynus charmed her with magics to make her more her agreeable so they could find out what was going on. Her name was Ana, she had been sent off by her family gathering herbs so that the alien men wouldn't bother her. She said they had appeared on the night of the great light in the sky and had announced they were the new lords and masters. Because they were well armed and the hamlet not the low elves had agreed. The creatures called themselves Hummins, or something like that. About a quarter century had appeared. Most had marched off but five had remained.

While she was still ensorcelled the band had Ana find some poisonous mushrooms to add to the hummin's food for the night. They then waited. After their meal one of the hummins fell sick and the rest gathered up the hamlet. At this point Perrin sounded a horn, other drawing the warriors off into an ambush where they were slaughtered. The band then dragged the bodies off into the nearby woods and then Scawl, using a desembling guise to appear as a hummin went to question the remaining sick warrior. The hummin revealed that they were indeed creations of Bane. Bane was now a creator god and the Humans his mighty creation to rule this world. The sick warrior wondered who would get his wives since he had clearly failed and also informed Scawl that the others were travelling north to meet a devotee of Bane. The band wondered about the wives bit briefly, since all the humans they had seen so far were male. They then decided that the others meeting Antonius would be a bad thing and set off after them. They took Ana with them, since she knew too much and paid her father ten gold for her.

Moving quickly the band caught up with the humans. At night after having Ana gather and prepare more poisonous herbs Myrdanus made Scawl invisible. Scawl then infiltrated the camp, poisoned the food and then as warriors began dropping cut ropes to tents, set things alight and causing chaos. The rest of the band attacked and over the course of that night and the next day slaughtered the invaders. Since Ana managed to acquit herself well in the resulting mayhem and wasn't a twitching puddle or dead at the end they decided she would be a useful addition to the band. Some were unconvinced but when she evidenced interest in exactly how much wealth they had acquired over the last month or so they realised she was indeed a kindred spirit.

The band then went on to Mamucium. There they found that Antonius had been busy building a temple to Bane and he and his followers were expecting some sort of sign real soon. The band said nothing to them and inquired after their pub, the Illmaten cultists and finally the Beshaban priestesses. The devotees of the Lady of Misfortune secretly thanked the band for bringing suffering so soon to Bane's children and agreed to take Ana under their wing. They soon discovered Ana had an aptitude worthy of becoming a Doomistress, a holy champion of their goddess. The band exchanged worried looks and wondered what sort of monster they had created.

Since winter was coming the band decided to settle in for the cold in Mamucium. They made contact again with Ashrak. The dead necromancer was very interested in their exploits and made many helpful suggestions to Myrdanus. He also requested that they bring him samples of the new creatures, these humans, so that he might study them...