Forgotten Suns: Log - Watch Valley

previous chapter

Butterflies

Watch Valley	3 Nov 2004
The circle picked up a strange vibe in the town almost right away. Without much prompting, they determined that about six months ago, "The King" arrived and beat back the hobgoblins from the town walls. As this is being explained, a massive cloud of fantastical butterflies rose from the center of the town and spilled over the walls, chasing the hobgoblins away.
After checking into an inn, Stag and Varden independently checked out the town. Stag went into a number of bars. The Pickaxe was packed with people, many of whom were arm wrestling, throwing darts, or otherwise competing with each other. A dog lay on a pillow on a table in a corner. Similarly crowded, the Mother Load hosted a crowd in a more melancholy mood, fostered by a lone, strange-looking musician. Stag, having heard about another singer from the stable boy, asked about her, leading him to another bar, the Canary. The singer was not there, nor were any patrons, but Stag talked to the bartender, who believed the King (named Finger of the Butterfly) was not human.
Meanwhile, Varden found a large crowd at a wrestling match. All the people were betting and cheering enthusiastically. Varden noticed a large dog on a blanket at ringside and a strange looking man in the crowd, the only one not cheering. A few blocks away, Varden found the central "palace" of the town. Leaping onto the roof, he looked into a room filled with other-worldly craftsmanship. A woman wrote at a desk while a jackal reclined at her feet. Another jackal padded about the room.
Later, Stag visited the wrestling match and talked to a guildswomen about passage out of town.
13th day of Descending Earth, RY 769
Watch Valley	24 Nov 2004
Most of the day spent doing mundane things in town, like getting clothes and so on. Stag spent most of the time in the library, finding a few odd legends, including: A bridge to the east is called Thirteen Lives Bridge because thirteen of the men who helped build it were murdered there, and are now rumored to haunt it. A rock formation called the twins is also rumored to be dangerous, because many to seek it out do not return. Creatures called abacasteri, which are golden cats made of living metal. Looking like metal lions, they have lava for blood and feed on the dead. In the deep south is a giant bird made of orichalcum and jade, with starmetal wings. Extremely dangerous, rumored to have wiped out a whole town 300 years ago.
In the evening, the circle receives an invitation to meet the king the next morning. That night a cat spied on the circle. Actually a fair folk entertainer sent by the King, the circle discovered her and pummeled her into submission.
Watch Valley	8 Dec 2004
Once the cat-like fair folk, White Cry, had basically surrendered, Guen started to talk with her. She admitted that she, the king and several others in the town were fair folk and were slowly feeding on the population in ways that would not harm them permanently. She also informed the circle of their vulnerability to iron and that the king controls the black market by virtue of gossamer goods.
14th day of Descending Earth, RY 769
Watch Valley	11 Dec 2004
The meeting with the king rapidly devolved into combat. Most of the fair folk were killed in the throne room, but the king escaped by flowing through the rock floor. The circle went after him, finding a secret passage down a long stair. As they descended, a huge cloud of razor butterflies swarmed up the passage, inflicting quite a bit of damage.
The passageway led to the main chambers of the manse upon which the mansion was built. The fair folk had disrupted the manse, turning it into a demesne upon which they built a freehold. With the bonefire burning coldly in the center of the room, Gutts, Guen and Varden followed the king into a lower cavern that fed the fire and defeated him.
Watch Valley	22 Dec 2004
Part of the circle discovered cave tunnels in the room below the main hearth room and followed them into a abandoned mine shaft in the mountains above the city. Meanwhile, Stag, Regret and Cruxis had to calm down the town folk who had found out the king was dead. Most were not sorry to see him go, but feared the hobgoblins that would surely be coming. With Stag manipulating the crowd (with Regret pointing out who was most corruptible), Cruxis was nominated as leader, and gave a rousing (charm-backed) speech, making him the de-facto ruler.
The circle regrouped an began preparing for an imminent attack.

Hobgoblins

15th day of Descending Earth, RY 769
Watch Valley	22 Dec 2004
Preparations continue, with several mortal infantry units and catapult crews mustered. A mounted scouting party is sent out, but does not return. A number of explosives are created with firedust and oil.
16th day of Descending Earth, RY 769
Watch Valley	22 Dec 2004
Guen performs some shape-shifted reconnaissance and discovers the missing scouts, all killed, with the horses scattered. He uncovers a number of covered fox holes containing dozens of hobgoblins. He gathers the circle and a fight begins with explosives rolled down into many of the holes.
Watch Valley	29 Dec 2004
After nearly setting the grasslands on fire, the circle dispatches the hobgoblins. Guen discovers the hobgoblins are using birds to communicate and sets off to find other outposts. As the rest return to the town to make preparations, Guen finds a number of hobgoblin units on the move toward the town.
17th day of Descending Earth, RY 769
Watch Valley	5 Jan 2005
Near dawn, the hobgoblins attack in six units of 75 hobgoblins each, led by Granite Thrashing Assassin, Shark Mother of the Flaming Woods, Gong of the Forests, Fluttering Rat, Satiated Moon and Copper Smashing Hero. Defending the town are the circle and six units of mortal infantry, each with 25 men. Three of these units, led by Consuming Maiden, Owl of the Sunrise and Brass Mind serve as front line archers and infantry. The remainder, led by Saffron Mountain, Copper Pollen and Platinum Skin of the Ghost, man catapults.
Watch Valley	6 Feb 2005
The battle rages for quite a while, with most of the circle getting fairly injured, particularly Gutts and Cruxis. In the end, Blossom Consuming Maiden's unit is killed to the last man, being sole defender of the south wall when two hobgoblin units scaled it, but the other mortal units survive relatively undamaged. Most of the hobgoblins are killed, the only survivors being a small group that came in through the mine shaft and tunnels under the palace. After the battle is over screams lead the circle into the palace where they find blood tracks of this last unit, first going up, then back down.

Manse Rebirth

Watch Valley	10 Feb 2005
Stag (and later Varden) checks upstairs, finding a yeasty-smelling cabinet that the hobgoblins obviously looted from the former king's room. Stag finds loads of fey gold and jewles, silks and a bricked in door that Varden later opens to expose a jade rod, a sheildstone gauntlet [fair.282], a skirmish pike [fair.280], a soulsteel crevashe and hundreds of cold iron weapons.
Down below, the circle eventually realizes that the earth aspected manse had been altered by the fair folk and was now uncapped and potentially a risk to the down. Some further investigation (mostly by Fern, with a lot of hacking by Gutts) uncovered the fact that the manse was originally a solar manse that had been re-aspected to earth. Being uncapped, the original solar flows were starting to reassert themselves, and the ground was quaking periodically.
At Fern's suggestion, the last remnants of the earth geometry were eliminated. The ground began to tremble significantly and a marble column that Gutts had been uncovering grew from the ground, demolishing the mansion and causing a cave-in. The circle barely made it out of the mansion before it collapsed to rubble as a orichalcum topped marble spire erupted through it, three hundred feet into the air.
18th day of Descending Earth, RY 769 to 28th day of Descending Earth
Watch Valley	16 Feb 2005
The circle examines the new manse, finding its defensive system, a stone tree in a 100-foot tall room at the top of the spire, is damaged, as is the manse. Varden spends the next ten days learning the craft charms that can repair it. The others train as well, and spend time strategizing.
1st day of Ascendng Wood, RY 769
Watch Valley	23 Feb 2005
Stag and Regret eventually conspire to use the crevashe to contact the souls in Regret's axe, Bonewedge. With the whole party, they find the souls of the two dragon-blooded who killed the nemissary of Soul Mirror, the soul of said nemissary and several other moral souls, including a solider who served with the Empress before she became the empress.
2nd day of Ascendng Wood, RY 769 to 4th day of Ascendng Wood
Watch Valley	23 Feb 2005
More training. Manse repaired. Defensive systems explored. Gutts tries to get the manse to incinerate kittens. Screams. Bone lions come.
Watch Valley	2 Mar 2005
Bone lions fought. Varden takes diamond eyes. Bones incinerated.
At sundown, more bone lions reform and come again. They are dispatched again. Gutts uses hungry tiger on the diamond eyes. The bones are turned into ash, which is mixed into some metal to make a spoon for Gutts.
5th day of Ascendng Wood, RY 769 to 7th day of Ascendng Wood
Watch Valley	9 Mar 2005
The circle thinks more about what they need to know about the Three-Gated Cage. Guen sends Enya to ask about tomb of Wyr'palja. Fern researches "breath of a Primordial", but doesn't find anything, deriding the local library.
Regret heals. A shadow torments Regret. It is eventually tracked down and defeated. The shadow is thought to be a specific spell by Stag and Jorias, and speculation runs rampant about who's shadow it might be. The leading contender is Vision Consorting with the Dead, the abyssal that tracked Regret down the first time.
Once regret is fully healed, the circle leaves Watch Valley, driving their wagon in the dark, with Guen leading the horse.

next chapter