The Laughing Tower (Stormbringer 1E) play report # 1

 The Laughing Tower play report

1st Session

Chapter One - The High Priest has a dream; his motley crew; a journey into the countryside; father comes home

1. Soo Tay's Dream

 

High Priest of Pyaray (Melnionean Chapter) Soo Teeba awoke from the nightmare with a start. Strangely, he had had no dreams he remembered since the Sack of Imrryr by Pan Tang a year ago. He had wandered around the Young Kingdoms, as if in a daze, half thankful that his worship of the same oceanic god as Melnibone’s conquerors had let him escape from the doomed city of Imrryr, and half dreading spending the rest of his life among the dirty brutes of the Dumb Kingdoms.

 

In his dream he had seen a tower of shimmering rainbow, piercing the ground in a farflung cowtown of the Southern Continent, shattering the cobblestones of its central hall. He saw bestial visages grinning with madness emerge and spread violence and fire among the town. Lava bubbled from fissures that rent the ground, and brimstone pierced his nostrils. He heard the laughter of the tower's inhabitaants, the cries of terror of the townsfolk, and watched from above as these latter grabbed their ragbags and mewling brats and fled the inferno that was once their hometown.

 

His consciousness moved into the thin tower, which opened up into a large hall bustling with carousing figures, where wine splashed into cups and blades flashed across bodies, but where the laughter never ceased.

 

Images flashes below his closed eyelids.

 

Daggers thunking into a spinning wheel emblazoned with symbols from the Deck of Fate.

 

A labyrinth of blueish stone strewn with coins and stoppered philtres through which ghostly footsteps echoed.

 

A robed figure peering abyssally dark eyes into a swirling prismarine ball.

 

A fountain into which hands flipped coins stamped with the 8 arrowed mark of Chaos.

 

And the same mark burned into the flesh of people twisted into hideous and beautiful shapes.

 

Finally, he saw and heard beautiful mouths laughing, ever laughing at the Chaos they had sewn.

 

Soo arose and left his cabin to ascend to the deck of his silver Melnibonean yacht, an heirloom of his family, one whose eldritch craftsmanship no living person could now emulate. He looked upon the length of the beauteous vessel and sighed at the two roughhewn figures he saw at either end of it.

 

Billy Bones, a Vilmaran seaman of no mean skill with boats and blades, was hanging upside down from the stern, trying to jimmy an ornamental gem from its gilded socket on the escutcheon. Ganzaiyah, the desert nomad, sat at the prow fletching arrows and chewing a mix of pipeweed and aromatic herbs that most westerners believed was camel dung. Camel dung smoking barbarians were an ill founded myth. Among Ganzaiyah's people the fungus 'Ergot' is picked from the underside of Rye stalks and smoked in small quantities with tobacco. It's effects are sensory enhancing and mildly hallucinogenic to the uninitiated. These two would be the muscle he needed for this venture to the tower of his dream, and would take any blade or bowshot meant for him.

 

Soo smiled, turned and looked into the cabin. A Kohl eyed beauty sat writing in a ledger. Maleia of Ilmiora had been a shopmistress of an herbalist he had visited, and whose entire store he had bought out. Impressed by her business acumen and ability to talk to her fellow subhumans, he had left the drudgery of all mundane transactions to her. On the other side of the cabin sat a Dharijoran priest of Strassha he had made the acquaintance of. Although their gods were nominally rivals, in manners of the fickle sea, Soo knew it was better to have two patrons than one. And the young priest, Vinket by name, was an eager pupil to Soo’s ambition.

 

If he would need any souls to sacrifice, these two would suffice.

 

This dream was a portent of power, a promise of a way for Soo to restore Melnibone to her glory, and drive the Pan Tangan upstarts back to their seacaves, or to the sweeps of Pyaray’s longship.

 

Soo grasped the chain of his ship’s bell and rang it three times. The humans gathered below him at the foot of the steps.

 

“I have news.” He told the upturned faces of his followers. “We sail for Argimiliar. Have you not heard of the Hall of Risk?"

The humans nodded. Everyone knew the tale. 40 years ago a mysterious gaming hall had appeared on the Western Continent, a site of chaos spilling over onto the Earth. Many lives were ruined and fortunes made, while Chaos seeped ever more into the world.

"Now" Soo continued, "a new hall has appeared, a laughing tower, and it seems the cycle has begun anew. This is my chance for power undreamt of. You shall all be richly rewarded."

Billy Bones' eyes gleamed. This is what he was here for. Chaos or Law, it mattered little to him who stamped the coins. With this windfall he could replace the ship and crew lost in an unearthly storm that swept him from rich captain down to thieving crewman. Maleia herself never turned down a chance for profit whatever the risk, and this only confirmed her decision to quit her shop in Ilmar when Soo offered her employ in his retinue. The young sea priest Vinket for his part dreamt of gaining power to become a force in Dharijor to protect it from the depredations of Pan Tang, who would surely turn its attention to his homeland with Melnibone out of the way.

The motives of the barbarian, Gansaiyah, remained a mystery to his fellows. They would have been surprised to know that, although he welcomed the coin and chance to spill blood, in his mind's eye he also knew that this was his chance to find the lover he knew destiny had in store for him.

2. From Cassandra

Maleia rushed about the bustling city of Cassandra, making deals, securing mounts, gear and provisions for her employer and her companions. They had arrived here on Soo Teeba's yacht this morning, and she had until noon to prepare mounts and equipment for their expedition to the tower's site in the hinterlands to the east. She had secured a safe berth for the alien silver vessel, then ran into town to do her work.

Soo had warned her she would "Face the wrath of Pyaray!" if she failed in securing provisions for the trek. Maleia had laughed. She didn't take the Melnionean's threats seriously, and had unfailing confidence in her business abilities.

Cassandra was a progressive metropolis, and folk of all races and creeds rubbed shoulders largely harmoniously there. Pyramids of Law glared at Spires of Chaos across wide avenues. Folk of all nations of the Young Kingdoms exchanged greetings and coins, and among them bobbed figures of alien dress or demeanor. Maleia felt she could settle there and make a name for herself amid such a diverse clientele.

True to her word, riding horses for the others, a workhorse and cart for her, and enough food and gear for the journey were all waiting at the city's east gate as the sun took prominence in the sky above. Without a word of thanks, the Melnibonean mounted his ebony stallion and they were off. Maleia took the reins of the horse cart, and the young sea priest seated himself besides her with a nod. The scurvy seaman Bones rode a tan fjord pony, while the desert nomad Gansiyah seated himself deftly on a roan and steered it with clicks and whistles.

As they proceeded into the countryside, Soo's retinue could see that Argimiliar was a beautiful land of rolling hills and immense forests. Farms with pens of the long horned yet docile Argimiliar cattle dotted the grasslands, and horsemen greeted the group as they passed.

As the afternoon waned, the party began to encounter clumps of disheveled people walking towards Cassandra. These were refugees, some injured, all scared and shocked. Soo thought he recognized some of their faces from his dream.

"We should talk to someone, get some information" offered Bones. Maleia agreed, stopped her cart and approached a large farmboy walking with his family.

"Can you tell us whither you come in such haste?" she asked.

"We flee from Shet" the large farmboy offered.

"What happened?"

"This morn a strange tower appeared at dawn, bursting as if from the ground, through our town hall. Then smoke and burning rock erupted from a dozen places. We gathered what we could and left town. As we fled, we heard terrible laughter, then the screams of our neighbors. We daren't look back, but took to our heels."

Maleia was silent for a moment to let the man calm himself after the doubtless bitter memory.. 

She continued, "My pities. But we have business with that tower. Can you lead us there?"

The young man hesitated, then replied.

"For coin, I will lead you as far back as Farmer Tinble's place, but no further. Tis not safe. You may stay there the night."

Maleia looked at Soo, who nodded his assent.

"Very well" she replied to the young man. "I will count you enough coins to provide for your family in Cassandra. Is this fair?"

The man agreed and bade her pass the coins to his parents. The young man made his farewells, promising his worried folk he would come later. His parents and siblings turned towards Cassandra, and trundled off.

"Follow me."

The youth lead the party in silence, over the scenic countryside only marred by the hobbling figures of the displaced. As evening fell they could make out smoke on the horizon, ominous columns rising to pollute the sky before it darkened and hid them from the adventurers' view. But the acrid smell remained.

True to his word, the youth, who they learned was named Henk, led them to Farmer Tinble's, a simple yet sturdy ranch a few hours walk from Shet. Henk went in to talk to the farmer and secure their lodging. A few minutes later he returned, shaking his head.

"The farmer and his oldest son have gone to Shet and not returned. His wife is sick with worry, as are their children. Be that as it may, Mother Tinble has agreed for you to stay. There are two small rooms in the farmhouse, but the hayloft of the barn is much wider. Now, I must catch my family."

Maleia thanked the youth and he trudged off into the night the way they had come.

High Priest Soo walked into the farmhouse, Bones trailing him with his bags. Mother Tinble's eyes widened at the sight of him, but Argimiliar folk were open to all people and hid their surprise well.

"Where is your best room?" he asked sardonically. Mother Tinble pointed upstairs, and Soo proceeded up to a guestroom that, although lavish by country standards, was nothing more to Soo than a sign of the devolution and decay of this world since Melnibone had fallen. He took his bags from Bones brawny tattooed arms, then slammed the door in his face.

After settling his employer for the night, Bones wandered into the kitchen and saw Mother Tinble preparing warm milk for her children.

"How about a cuppa tea, then?" he beamed at her warmly. As she bustled about he rummaged all the drawers and came up with some scattered silverware for his troubles. Not a great haul by any means, but a start, and Bone turned his nose up at nothing in his unceasing hunt for coin.

Feeling some unease at what was to come, the sea priest Vinket asked Mother Tinble where the well was, then followed her directions and set his bedroll down on the earth besides the water source before making his nightly prayer to Staasha, Lord of All Wetness. He would sleep soundly under the protection of his deity tonight, he felt.

In the barn, Gansaiyah crawled up into the hayloft silent as a cat and was instantly asleep, his sword and bow at his side. Maleia sighed and set her bedroll atop the cart. But she could not sleep. Although her lust for wealth blinded her to danger, from deep inside some primal instinct warned her of what was to come.

Finally, Maleia spread her bedroll under the cart and crawled in on top of it. Any threat would have to work to get her, she reasoned, then drifted off to sleep.

3. Father Comes Home

Gansaiyah's animal-like senses awoke him instantly. Something moved in the darkened barn, making the sound of giant fingers drumming on a table.

His hand went to a bow and he notched an arrow, then peered into the darkness of the barn from his vantage point in the hayloft. He could see the horsecart below, but Maleia was nowhere to be seen. Had she gone into the house, or somewhere else? Then he saw a shape scuttling through the barn door. No mistaking that it was a spider, but the size of a large dog or small man, and where the flattened head and 8 eyes should have been, instead a man's neck and head protruded at an angle.

"By the winds of Hsung-Nu!" he whispered, invoking the god of the desert sky, then let his arrow fly. It hit into the creature's side with a squelch. The creature shrieked in pain, a sound that made Gansaiyah shudder, but he nocked and sent another arrow into the monster's flank before it could react.

"ATTACK!" Gansaiyah bellowed to wake his comrades and draw needed aid.

Although pierced by two arrows, the spider-thing belched a great gob of viscous green fluid at the desert dweller, which missed but began to eat away at the guardrail from behind which he had shot. Gansaiyah loosed another arrow but it missed its mark, then with a leap the creature flew up to his position and snapped at him. Gansaiyah did not see that Maleia had snuck out from under the horse cart and slashed at the spider-thing's hindlegs, but to no avail.

The spider's man-face snapped at Gansaiyah but he parried with his beloved bow, which the creature's mandible gouged horribly. Next, it bit again and savaged his leather armor and the flesh beneath it. Unbeknownst to him, the eldest son of Farmer Timble had woken the house screaming incoherently about his father in the barn, and the sailor Bones had come to see what the commotion was. As he entered the barn door, he saw the spider leap at Gansaiyah as Maleia crept out from under her bedroll below the horse cart. Bones ran and began to clamber up the ladder to the right of the loft, while Maleai ascended the left.

Now the thing was between Gansaiyah and Bones, and both men scored hits, while Maleia jockeyed for a striking position on the narrow ledge from behind the barbarian. As Gansaiyah raised his broadsword for another blow, all were frozen by the anguished cry of the farmer's son.

"NO! FATHER!" he sobbed from the doorway, looking up at the spider-thing that had once been Farmer Timble.

The spider creature looked at his son with sad eyes and ceased his movement, frozen by all he had lost to Chaos. It was then that Gansaiyah gave him the mercy of his blade, and cleanly sent the farmer's head flying down to the barn floor, when it came to rest at the feet of its son.

Gansaiyah dropped to his knees in pain and exhaustion, while Bones and Maleaia scanned the area for other threats. Just as they relaxed and turned to their injured comrade, the voice of their Melnibonean leader came down to them from his bedroom in Farmer Timble's house. 

"Do keep that racket down" High priest Soo called, then slammed the window shut and returned to bed, muttering about the brutish behaviour of these barbarians. But deep inside, he was very pleased to have had his first glimpse of raw Chaos and the power it promised.