The Missing

Lhankpentos and his son take the group to Jostharl Three-Sticks’ household in the Red Cow Fort Eastside. When the PCs enter the compound, they can immediately see that a lot of people here seem to be sick. At first, no one comes to greet them, but when Lhankpentos calls out Jostharl shuffles out.

Jostharl is obviously sick; his skin is pallid and feverish.

“Lhankpentos, thank you for coming,” says Jostharl. He turns to the PCs, “I am afraid you will find our hospitality somewhat limited, my family are all unwell with this fever. But please come to my hall, I can at least offer you water to quench your thirst.”

Jostharl leads them into his hall. The household sick are here as is Ustarna Try-Much who is tending to them, mopping brows, providing damp cloths and water to cool the fever, and getting everyone to drink a herb-laced drink to ease the fever.

“It burns itself out after a few days,” she tells Lhankpentos and the group, “and no one has died yet. But it seems to strike again and again. This household was one of the first to become sick and they keep getting ill. I usually don’t expect people to fall ill with the same illness again in such quick succession.”

She looks up at Antip, “I do what I can, but the men are needed for planting season, and for patrols against Emerald Sword raids. And now the children…”

A handsome young man, Farnantyr, helps Jostharl to sit, and then brings water to wash and drink. Farnantyr then retires.

Jostharl says, “That young man has been a tower of strength, he hasn’t gotten sick once.”

Jostharl explains that with most of the adults sick the children were playing practically unsupervised when some went missing (“no, none of the children have fallen ill”). There were no cries of alarm; nothing to suggest anything was awry.

As Jostharl speaks a number of the fathers weep for their missing children, obviously overwhelmed by what has happened.

Ustarna approaches the group. “The gods have surely withdrawn their protection from the Red Cow, otherwise people would not be getting sick. We must find out why,” she says. “I suspect when we find the answer to this sickness, we will find where the children have gone. At Grave Hill, Many-Breath will speak to us. I will fetch Kullina the Fat and a cow to sacrifice. You must fetch Ashart Dusk-Eater. Go ask Leikorl the Shadow in the Great Hall, he will know where to find him. Meet me at Lightning Lodge sunset.”

Leikorl the Shadow is in Broddi’s Hall. Queen Ivartha left both Leikorl and Ostling Spotted-Fur here when they fell sick and has gone to Jonstown to get help from the Jonstown House of Peace. When the group find them it is obvious that both men are ill, and that both watch each other intently.

“He is watching and waiting, hoping that I will die,” Leikorl tells them. “Or get weak enough that I can’t hold my sword to defend myself,” he says, lifting the sword that rests across his knees. “I killed his mother. This is her skin.” He indicates the cloak he wears, wolf fur with a wolf’s head hood.

“Sartar’s treaty binds me as a hostage, Shadow,” Ostling snarls, “though I would be happy if Jogar Sog had taken all your scalp.” He nods towards the chunk gouged out of Leikorl’s scalp.

Leikorl agrees to help. He tells Ostling to come with them, “So I can keep an eye on you, and you can be close to your mother.” Ostling spits on the ground when Leikorl turns his back.

It is clear that both Leikorl and Ostling are sick. They ride horses because they are not capable of walking to Grave Hill, and neither looks fit to fight.

Ashart  is hiding in Green Meadows; it is a short distance from Red Cow Fort and Leikorl  takes the group there. The priest and his wife are hiding in the loft of a hay barn. Leikorl whistles three times, waits for a two-whistle response, and then whistles once more. Ashart pops his head out: “Ah Shadow, what a delight. Ostling , good to see you as well,” he says. He looks at Ostling and nods toward Leikorl, “Not killed him yet then.”

Ashart asks Antip to explain what has been happening in Red Cow Fort. Once he understands Ustarna ’s plan he says, “Let’s hope the gods can help, though they may not know the answer themselves.”

Ashart is obviously sick. He takes one of the horses from Green Meadows for the trip. But he brushes aside any concerns for his health.

As the group gather to leave Farandar Orendalsson approaches them. He too appears sick. He speaks briefly with Ashart then addresses the group.

“Kill those Lunar bastards at Grave Hill. They stop us conducting worship of Orlanth on our own land. This affront to our honor has gone too long unavenged. I would welcome your blow against the Lunar Empire, and count you afterwards amongst those who have proven themselves to the rebellion.”

Ustarna meets the group at Lightning Lodge. The stead is a ruin, razed by the Empire years ago. Ashart looks mournfully at the buildings. “I was happy here once,” he tells them, “I remember such laughter with the old priest here, and the herds that once grazed these sacred hills.” He wipes a tear from his eye, “But the Empire took all that away.”

“Grave Hill will be guarded by the Empire, perhaps a half-dozen soldiers. Doblian Dogeaters,” Ashart spits as he mentions their name. “Worship of Many-Breath at the Hill is forbidden, for we use Orlanth’s rites. To get access to the temple we will need to kill them.” He looks over at Leikorl and Ostling, “This work will fall to you. We are too sick to fight.”

Ashart reaches into a bag and pulls out wooden masks. They are carved and painted with images of the Thunder Brothers.  “Wear these masks,” Ashart tells them, “So that the Lunars cannot recognize your faces, if any escape. Of course, it would be best if you did not let any escape…”

They may be in a real quandary, for what Ashart is suggesting means an act of rebellion against the Empire, which carries the sentence of death if discovered.

A patrol of a dozen Dogeaters guards Grave Hill. They are on detachment from Red Cow Fort, bivouacked near the foot of the hill itself. At any one time a pair of bored guards keeps watch on the causeway approaching the hill, the others sit around the camp tending to equipment, sleeping or gambling.

The Dogeaters do not expect an attack, discipline is lax, and the guards un-watchful and distracted.

The group sneak fairly close to Grave Hill without detection — this is an area of large barrow mounds, built by the Vingkotling ancestors — but the last 100 yards or so is open ground.

Ashart tells them, “You are the ones who must do the killing, you must choose how it is done. Once the word is given on what, the how is always the job of those with skin in the game.”

The wind comes first. Not the fitful gusts of Fire Season but something summoned, something with intent. Antip stands with his staff raised and his lips moving around Orlanth's old words, and the grass of Grave Hill bends flat before it.

The Dogeaters on watch had no time to wonder at the omen. The gale catches the dust of the causeway and flings it into their faces in stinging fistfuls, grit finding eyes and mouths, turning disciplined soldiers into blind, cursing men. They do what any man does when struck by a sandstorm, they turn their backs to it, hunching their shoulders, blinking away tears, waiting for it to pass.

It does not pass. It is the signal.

Where the Lunar patrol had stood facing the causeway, ready for any approach from the open ground, they now stand with their spines bared. The heroes come at a run, keeping low, the wind screaming past them and carrying their footfalls away before any ear can catch them.

The fight is short and ugly. A rhomphaia is raised too late by a soldier who never sees the blow that takes him down. Javelins meant for distant enemies lay forgotten in their rack while their owners grapple with attackers already inside their guard. Whatever discipline the Doblian Dogeaters prided themselves on, the discipline that had carried them from the shame of Yanafal Tarnils' mauling to the favor of the Red Goddess, counts for nothing when the wind itself has turned traitor and struck at their eyes.

A handful brakes and tries to run, stumbling half-blind through their own overturned camp. They do not get far. Adar is already among them, his iron trident dark and unglamorous next to the bronze of Lunar arms. Three thrusts, three men down, and then it is done. Leikorl the Shadow brutally makes sure no cries are left to carry across the barrows, only the wind, dying now to a whisper, and the old dead of the Vingkotlings watching in silence from their mounds as it had always watched such things, since long before the Empire ever came to Dragon Pass.

Having gained access, Ashart and Ustarna conduct the ceremony atop Grave Hill. They perform the rituals to open the sacred space, so that the Other Side and this world are one, and gods might walk with men. All join in the chants and the calls, for there are no other initiates to do the work.

Whilst Ustarna holds the red cow steady, Ashart slits its throat. As the beast falls to its knees, and then the ground, Ashart carefully watches the spray of blood, pointing out spirals and directions to Ustarna. Then Ashart slices open the cow’s belly and pulls out its entrails. Arm deep in gore he sifts through them, examining them for marks. Signaling to Harvald Far-Strider to help, he takes the entrails and offal to the altar atop Grave Hill and burns them in a fire there, watching the smoke intently as it rises.

He steps aside and confers with Ustarna before speaking.

“The gods have spoken. Wandle is angry and has removed her protection from the Red Cow. Her water will not be safe to drink until we can find the reason for her anger and appease her.”

As Ashart prepares to close the sacred space, a ghostly figure strides up to the hilltop. He wears an ancient bronze panoply and carries an axe and shield of antique design.

Ashart exclaims: “Many-Breath!”

Only the chieftain of the Red Cow usually meets the clan wyter, and then only in the barrow at the base of Grave Hill.

The wyter speaks grim words of prophecy:

The Hero Wars begin,
A great evil comes from the north,
Evil’s steed, Death on leathery wings,
Brother shall turn against brother,
Mother against child,
All in hope to escape the Hunger.

Afterwards Many-Breath’s shade sinks through the earth of Grave Hill, back to his resting place.

“This is a foretelling of the future, of the Hero Wars,” Ashart says. “I must travel to the Old Wind Temple with this news.”

Despite his illness, Ashart takes a horse and leaves.

The rest return home, guided through hidden paths by Harvald.

Upon their return to Red Cow Fort with the news that the Wandle is polluted, everyone stops drinking from it. As people recover from the fever, no one gets sick again. But now everyone has to walk miles to fetch water from the Creek; a huge burden in planting season.

The children are still missing. Ustarna still suspects the events are linked.

Broddi  tries to talk to Wandle to see if he can find out why she is upset, but she refuses to talk to him, crying and saying she is too upset to speak to the chieftain, who has ‘betrayed her.’

At Jostharl’s household, where the infection began, Farnantyr has gone missing.

The Empire does not take the death of its soldiers at Grave Hill lightly. They offer a reward to anyone who comes forward with information leading to the arrest of those involved — three years without taxes. Bolik Red-Turner and Tarkalus Bigger-Boat are most active in the search for those who did it.

The Empire also fines the Red Cow. Broddi has to pay ten cows in wergild for every dead soldier, and 25 cows for the garrison commander. This is a heavy blow to the Red Cow.

Broddi calls the heroes into his hall and expresses his displeasure. “There were other ways to solve this problem, which did not involve killing Lunar troops. I could turn you over for the good of the Red Cow, but I prefer to think that you will believe yourself in the clan’s debt, and work to find some way to restore our fortunes.”

Farandar and Kullina approach the heroes.

“You have joined the rebellion now,” Farandar tells them, “and have a price on your head. You are our brothers and sisters in arms. There are others in your clan who would see Sartar free again. We stand together.”

“Broddi is no friend to the rebellion,” Kullina says, “so he will regard you as trouble now. Don’t worry, when Sartar is freed, we will remember who made sacrifices, and the people till then know of your deeds.”

Adar, Harvald, and Maklami agrees.

Ustarna tells the heroes that Voranga Many-Sorrows may be able to help because she has a good relationship with Wandle. Ustarna tells them to take Voranga a gift of honey, for she has a sweet tooth.

Voranga lives in hermit’s cave near Ashwater Fall. Mist and spray hangs in the air. Alynxes roam everywhere. When the heroes approach the caves the cats make sounds that surely alert Voranga.

Her cave is hung with herbs, cooking utensils, preserved food, making it necessary to duck down to enter. Her furniture is simple, a table, some benches, a stone dresser and basin, her bed a straw mattress spread across a rock shelf. A fire burns in a stone fireplace providing warmth and the only light; small lesser spirits waft the smoke out of the cave for her.

Voranga is known to be unpredictable, sometimes willing to entertain visitors, sometimes not. She flirts with everyone, but reaching through to her depends on piquing her interest.

Adar the Engizi initiate and Antip with his Air Rune (and of course the pot of honey) convinces Voranga to help. Voranga flirts with Antip.

Voranga becomes lucid. She asks the heores to recount what has happened.

“Few things upset Wandle. When people or their livestock pollute her waters or they show a lack of respect to the animals that swim in her waters, or the plants that grow along the river. She offers us her bounty for free, and asks so little in return, it is hard when people treat her without respect,” Voranga tells them.

“We should go to Stagland Sour and see if we can find what pains her. We will need a gift for her, ask Broddi to provide one. I will meet you on the edge of the Sour at dusk tonight.”

The group returns to the fort, except Antip who is invited to perform a rainmaking ceremony in the fields. This is an enormous honor, bringing good fortune to the whole of the Cinsina.

Roan Garansson obtains a gift for Wandle from Darna Longcoat. She is known for her generosity. “I am always pleased to help kinfolk,” she tells him, “especially when they are serving their own kin. There is no need to think about repayment now, one day, when you come into your own, you will be in a position to help me, and I will call on you then.”

Voranga Many-Sorrows meets the heroes at the edge of the Stagland Sour dusk. She carries a torch to guide the way as the daylight fails. Borngold Many-Brothers, her brother. accompanies her.

“The marsh here is sacred to Krikans, the Creek, and its tributaries,” she tells them, “and thus to Skyriver Titan.”

She points to a causeway running through the marsh. “Keep to the path; we are here at the sufferance of the spirits of this place.”

Walking off the path here is dangerous. This is a liminal place, neither water nor earth but both. The Spirit World is close. Will-o’-the-wisp, or ghost-lights, hover in the darkness by the causeway. They are hypnotic, drawing the gaze of travelers who are drawn to follow them, mistaking them for Voranga’s torch and step from the path. Adar has been here before, in Engizi worship, and helps Voranga guide the group.

The causeway ends in a platform. Borngold tells the heroes to form a circle and place their gift in the center. He marks out the circle with river pebbles, then lights candles around the edge of the circle. Voranga invokes Skyriver Titan, Krikans, and the tributaries. She offers small gifts to the water and praises Wandle for her beauty and life giving powers. Then she asks Wandle to come forth and receive her gift.

The water in front of the platform coalesces into the shape of a woman. Wandle’s form is protean. At first, to the male heroes, she seems to be a beautiful young woman, with long watery hair, and a voluptuous figure. To Maklami she appears to be a naked youth with an athletic figure.

As she strides onto the platform, all eyes turn upon her and it is hard to resist desiring her. She sings a sweet song of the fish in the waters.

Darting silver silvery fishes,
Amidst the reeds greenish,
Every friend I could wish,
Blowing bubbly bubbling kisses.

But as she stands in the center, by her gift, she mutates, into a repulsive hag, her face scaled, her back bent, her hair becoming long snakes of water that swing toward the heroes, fanged mouths agape. It is hard to remain within the circle.

She screams a blood-curdling scream.

See my fulsome fury wail and hiss,
For my dark loathing is capricious,
Filled with hateful passion vicious,
Do you dare ask what lies amiss?

“Betrayed! I have been betrayed! Spiteful, hateful Red Cow. What did I do to deserve this?” Wandle wails, “None shall drink of my waters, or take my bounty then! Let us see who is sorry.”

“Orlanth is here,” Voranga begins and points to Antip. “He will mend what is broken and right the wrongs done to you.” She motions to Antip to hand over the clans’ gift to Wandle.

“I will keep their children, for the Red Cow cannot be fit parents,” Wandle tells them.

Antip asks what has angried Wandle so, and discovers that it is a lover who has injured Wandle. She won’t name him, but makes an image of him out of the water, and the heroes easily recognize his face. It is Farnantyr.

Although the sickness has passed, because the people now travel to the Creek for water, this is not a happy household, for the loss of their children weighs heavily on everyone.

Jostharl mentions that everyone suspected Farnantyr had taken a lover but was secretive about it. His sister Renedala might know more.

Renedala is twelve years old, and still a girl — not having undergone her initiation, but she has already cut her hair short, and dyed it red. She spends her time climbing trees, racing the boys, practicing with her javelin and generally behaving like a tomboy.

Everyone expects her to reveal the Air Rune at her initiation and follow Vinga’s path.

After some questioning and fruitless searches around the Red Cow Fort, Renedala reveals that her brother has a lover, Mirani, in the enemy clan, the Emerald Sword. She knows he visits her by taking secret tunnels under the fort. She demands to go along.

 “You won’t find your way through those tunnels without me!” 

The tunnels under Red Cow Fort are entered through a hidden passage in the root cellars. They are carved into the sandstone. Water has shaped some; others sections were excavated by people using antler picks; there are rooms the purpose of which is long forgotten cut into the rock.

They extend down sharply though the body of the hill and then run for several miles through the surrounding area. One branch of the tunnel system heads north and runs under the Creek.

Travel through the tunnels is at times easy, there are places where steps have been carved, floors leveled, tunnels widened and people can simply walk through the passages. Other sections are not improved and there are unexpected pits and chasms, narrow squeezes and sumps, and places where the tunnels are completely flooded or blocked by a rock fall and there is nothing to do but turn around a find a new route.

There are animals in the tunnels — Rubble Runners — they dwell in packs and are vicious to intruders.

Renedala agrees to show the heroes where her brother has gone. The journey through the tunnels is arduous as Renedala leads them by the easiest path under the Creek. Renedala emerges with just a few scrapes as the group exits the tunnels near Creek Turn.

The Red Cow is feuding with the Emerald Sword, so the heroes expect that events in Creek Turn could be difficult. They hide out of sight, observing the village, discussing ways to find Farnantyr and/or Mirani without being discovered.

Harvald notes that they are not in open war, and they decide to approach the village in plain sight.

Horns blow at their approach, and Rostakus Twice-Outlawed, the man who killed the old Red Cow champion, straps on armor and call his household to confront these ‘raiders.’ 

Rostakus is aggressive in confronting the heroes. He wants to know what they are doing here. He mocks them for bringing a child. Renedala becomes aggressive with Rostakus — “I am almost a woman and soon will be a Vingan" — Rostakus laughs cruelly and says, “And soon after that you’ll be lying face down in the mud, trying to hold your guts back in from the hole a spear made, because you were too young and dumb to know that war is killing and death!”

The heroes persuade Rostakus to allow them to speak with Mirani. Harvald tells her they know she met a stranger on the road, and wish to speak to this stranger. They hope she will understand that they mean Farnantyr.

With that, they leave Creek Turn, promising to return to Red Cow Lands immediately.

When the heroes meet him, Farnantyr seem almost relieved they are not questioning him about Mirani, and happily opens up about his tryst with Wandle.

“I couldn’t really resist. Well, I mean, you’ve seen her. I didn’t think it was anything more than sex,” he says. “There was a pool in a large cave in the tunnels and I would often go there to meet her. But it couldn’t last could it? I mean, I’m just a farmer’s boy who hasn’t even got enough oxen for a plough team of his own. Why would a goddess be interested in me?”

The heroes explain he is the cause of her wrath, and the loss of the children. He looks devastated. “I never meant for any of this to happen, any of it. I’ve ruined everything.”

The heroes suggest that he meets with Wandle to resolve the matter he readily agrees, “But I won’t betray Mirani,” he tells them, “I love her. You have to explain that."

Farnantyr takes the heroes to the cave in the tunnels where he used to meet Wandle. It is at the bottom of the waters of this cave that the missing children now sleep and play — for Wandle has blessed them with gills to breathe in her waters. The heroes see one or two, darting in or out of the water.

Wandle appears when Farnantyr appears. She looks radiantly beautiful. “My love,” she says, “I knew you would come back.”

Farnantyr looks vaguely terrified and looks imploringly at the heroes, “Can you explain to her that we can’t be lovers anymore, I have found someone else.”

Wandle’s face transforms into that of the hag with hair of snakes. The children all stop playing and dive back into the water. Farnantyr cowers on the floor, whimpering in fear.

Somehow the heroes  persuade Wandle to forgive Farnantyr and thus release the children, and allow the Red Cow to enjoy the bounty of her waters in safety again.

The children are unharmed by their ordeal — although all now have gills and webbed toes and feet, and have become amphibious. People call them Wandle's Children after this.