Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [111]
Cuthalion thought that perhaps the tattoo was a tracking device that had allowed the Obsidian Brotherhood to find us so easily. I recalled the snake tattoo that was on one of the members of the Brotherhood we had captured back in Gateway and how the tattoo had come alive and strangled him when we began questioning him. I decided to detect magic on the mark. The brand did indeed radiate magic for a second and then faded. As I detected the magic, the magic amulet I wear grew warm and throbbed but the sensation faded as the magic faded.
“It’s definitely magic!” I exclaimed as I looked suspiciously at Maureen, “How do we know you’re not a spy?” For that she did not have a very satisfying answer.
Cuthalion instructed us in ways of interrogating prisoners less violently and as he spoke, the nature of Maureen’s actions began to disturb me, and I trusted her less and less.
I felt more uncomfortable with Maureen around. I figured she probably wasn’t a willing spy but that the tattoo could very well be a scrying device and that she might inadvertently be allowing the enemy to hear or see us. So, I suggested privately to her that she return to town and seek out my magician friend, Ingie, to attempt to remove or deactivate the tattoo. She agreed. I sent Poe with her, instructing him to take her to Ingie and if anything went wrong to find Ingie or return to me.
In the morning, the rest of the party proceeded to Blaze Arrow. Now that Maureen and her possible spying device were gone, I relayed the rest of my adventures to my new friends. Then, as a show of honesty and good will, I whipped out the scroll tube and opened it in front of them for all to see. Unfortunately that didn’t turn out to be such a good idea.
The scroll tube opened with a hiss. Inside, I found a scrap of very old parchment that crackled with age as I unrolled it. As soon as I looked at it, a flash of light came from the paper and struck each of us, and we heard the following words:
A curse upon you all in the name of ERBIN! For your meddling, you have now been marked so that any follower of the great god will know you for what you are. When we find you, your death will be most exquisite. You will be dragged to our new temple when it is completed, and you will be punished in the name of ERBIN. We will find you when we are ready for your death, but if we find you or any of your party here in Gateway again, you will not live to regret it. So sayeth the high priest of ERBIN!
The voice and glow faded and both the scroll and the tube crumbled to powder.
Well, the party was not real happy that I had shared thatbit of information with them, and there was a bit of bickering back and forth. I detected magic on us, and found that there had indeed been some sort of magic cast upon us, though it seemed of a more clerical nature than arcane. We decided there was not much to be done about it at that point and proceeded to Blaze Arrow.
We were nearly there when we came up a hill to see a bunch of orcs hiding in a grove of trees. I put two of them to sleep with a spell, and Cuthalion shot arrows at them. Fletch also started attacking and killed several. David killed one. We noticed that the orcs had a symbol on their shields that looked like a bloody hand and Fletch identified them as a local tribe called “The Blood Fist Tribe.”
David rode over the hill to find many more orcs and smoke coming over out of the Blaze Arrow tower. The halfling thought quickly, knowing he would be no match for so many large orcs, and used his spell power to entangle the lot of them.
Luckily, Cuthalion speaks orc and could communicate with them. First he insulted them, “You sylvan unicorns, what are you doing here?”
An orc responded, “Trying to get rid of Skullbash.” Fletch recognized this as the name of one of the other local orc tribes.
“Why are you taking out Skullbash? And why at this time?”
“Smatter was destroyed. We go for vengeance.” Fletch told us that Smatter was an orc village off to the west, about a week away.
“How do you know it was Skullbash that took it out?” The