Adv Group: Afterwards Finn went on to adventure with Kynar, Cimber, James and Pilate – though pilate was to die.
Dictation: A half ogre’s guide to surviving combat… Or, “how I learned to cower and run when I’m out of my fucking element.”
STRENGTH = 17 [+3] (carry capacity = x15 lbs) {multiple wounds}
INTELLIGENCE = 9 [-1] {multiple wounds}
WISDOM = 4 [-3]
DEXTERITY = 10 [+0] {multiple wounds}
CONSTITUTION = 17 [+3] {multiple wounds}
CHARISMA = 7 [-2]
SANITY = 16 [+3]
Kynar story – he sleeps and wakes on the edge of Scar Flow – which he recognizes… Naked, he walks the Black Shore south, following strange lights (will-o-wisps) and stumbles upon Orban Bonesetter the magus. Orban Bonesetter reports him to House Malor. House Malor observes him, confronting him and asking him to take his melancholy and leave Dunstrand – its amplified by the swamp! Kynar offers his services – saying he has been brought forth by powers (powers he has never understood). They say no and chase him out south, for 1 day. On the edge of the moorswood, they use magic to attack him. He flees into the moorswood, where House Malor hopes the druids will just kill him or banish him.
Wounded, near mortally, he has a vision to find an opponent worthy. Seek the Druids – its what Pell would have done. Drawn to angry druids of pranin moorswood – Druids restore his health and understand his geas/wish/curse. They send him against the ogre monk fighter Larry (glasses wearing librarian) because its allied with the dragon – the druids know it as its prowling the moorswood and eating anything it can (half eaten bodies are washing up on the shores of the Black Road and Calibans Slurry – anyone straying off the paths) after all the years in stasis in the hidden library now that its driven slightly mad by the dreams of Gruxand. Kynar seeks it out and fights it in the Umbakian ruins of the delta west of Torrelsons Ford. He is mortally wounded. Permanently drains his Iron will to stay alive. He seeks healing from the druids of Pranin. On the edge of the swamp, he hears the echoing laughter of the druids… who drive him out, hoping for his death.
He vows his revenge, knowing it may keep him alive. A great shadow falls over him in his fevered dreams. A green shadow. A Viridescent shadow. “You have killed my servant, and now you must repay me for his life. You will take his place to get what i need. I will give you your life back.” Looking around, several moorcats that had surrounded him suddenly howl and drop dead. He feels his life force return, and is compelled to obey. “Seek the Hangmans Tree. With the souls of the swamp cats, your own will be masked to its powers for a short time. Observe what goes on there, of the creature that seeks to awaken what is buried, and report back to me.” Kynar does so, following them for days with the prowl of the moorcats souls inside of him. He finds he can understand the speech of beasts and plants. They kills lone travelers and fishermen. His anger grows seeing Red Hands and Toad-Faced Dog. He is compelled not to fight though, he has given his word. His body begins to fail being swamp soaked for so long. Even his great constitution fails him. Finally, after weeks they are tracked to a shallow place in the swamp, a place where the white lilies almost always bloom. A hangmans tree rises up out of the muck, marking a place where they tie their skiff off and the strange dog communes with the tree and whatever is buried there. Kynars eyes are black like the moorcats. He notices similarities in Toad Faced Dog and the moorcats. He knows inherently that it is the progenitors of the moorcats. An ancestral tie calls to him, and for a brief moment Toad Faced Dog scans the area around him, sensing something. Kynar swims away in the much, pulling himself out on shore after the sun goes down. He wakes up to a strange brown scaled creature sniffing him. It nudges him, and its fetid breathe falls upon his face. Kynar is too weak to do anything, and holds his anger in check. Throwing his life away never felt more useless. The creature takes a bite of his arm. Kynar swears silently as muscle and flesh are torn. Suddenly, a massive form hauls itself out of the water. It hisses in some sibilant tone. Although it is monstrous, Kynar can make it out. The creatures seem to be arguing over him. The scaled low, long-neck creature wants food. The tentacled creature insists he be left to ‘play a part’. The tentacled creature calls alligators and snakes and swarms of insects to fight the ‘basilisk’ as it calls the hungry one. The creatures turns opponents to stone. Eventually the tentacled creature seems to charm the other, and forces it to wander off. Kynar is left amidst statues of his defenders to recover. He slowly regains his fortitude, and feels the souls of the moorcats leave him. He crawls up the shore and rolls behind a sand dune. When he wakes up, he parallels The Black Shore Road for a day, going south.
Once he is findable again, the next sunrise he is found by the Viridescent One. “Poor creature. Even I am unable to fathom how you keep living. Even now, part of you is turned to stone but the touch of the Dwindor Magic holds it at bay as long as you are bound to it. I almost feel sorry for you, but I must do as Imust for the game to continue. Look into my eye…” Kynar feels everything he has seen in the last several days play over like a storyboard in his head. Images going forward, backwards, and enlarged in details for reasons he knows not. His memories become her memories. Replaying the images of the senseless innocents being killed – goblin and human alike – his anger grows. “Ahh, that is the power. The anger. Even now, I feel my control slipping. Who is Pell? It matters not. I give you one last image. Here. They travel south, looking to ambush Goblin hunters even now. Here is where they are. Now go.” She lets him go and he is staring up at the sun, shrouded in Dwindor haze. He finds one of the many skiffs hidden by his goblin agents nearby and makes his way into the drifting mass of the western swamp, knowing the area in his mind is only a couple hours of hard paddling ahead. He exhausts himself getting there again.
He fights toad-faced dog, getting caught in his exhausted state after observing them in some ongoing ritual of offering the souls of the goblins he just killed. Toad Faced Dog holds his huge body in his over-sized mouth and returns to the hangmans tree in the lily blooming hidden section of the swamp. He is hung from the Hangman’s tree in offering. For 3 nights he slowly suffocates along side several other corpses. At the fourth dawn, as his captors of Mendollin and Toad Faced Dog (they have spoken to each other, believing Kynar’s fate was sealed) are laying down exhausted from the ritual each night. Then, moorcats come and chew through his rope. He drops into the slop, and floats away on the current – unable to do anything but barely breathe. After a few days, he hears a battle between two huge creatures, and remembers only a green dragon and a woman bathed in witch-light in a furious battle. He recalls only that his memories were scoured by the green scaled creature. He cannot make sense of them, he possesses no aptitude to. But as he swims, compelled to join the battle, he is flung 50m into the swamp, his luck saving him as he skids across the surface and lodges into a broken tree – keeping his mouth above the water. For a week, his unnatural constitution slowly heals him while he eats predators that come near. A strange serenity comes over him. He makes a vow once again, that he he would do anything to keep this strange peace.
One-Claw of the Orrish of Dwindor hears his sworn oath and offers to help find peace. He is free from his curse/wish under his protection (requires an Essence bond – something he never has done before) and his oath that he will serve his interests in Dwindor. He is free to come and go in Dunstrand Vale, in peace, without fighting – he understands he shares in some form of divine principal to have such power, just limited in its area of effect. His first action is leading an attack force ambushing Gwinnish forces moving through Scar Flow… bodies turn up on black shore for 5 days, this time with weapon wounds and not half eaten.
Over time, he makes friends with One Claw, who says to can take the protection of the Witch, and make it permanent if Kynar swears to aid the goblins of Dwindor forever when they call. Kynar swears another oath, a blood oath, and feels more of his precious life force slip. After this though, his body begins to slowly recover his youth and powers of youth. Even the wing stubs on his back itch (though do not grow back). One Claw warns him about the forces in Dwindor and how he will be asked to side with them, betray them, and ultimately as long as he stays true to helping his people, none of it will matter – everyone is getting something from using him.
Kynar meets the Pin Feather party with one claw – wears a massive black hooded cloak that his wings appear as a huge hump in the dark. His tail carries a torch in molded glove to make it look like sleeved arm. Eye patch.
Knar fights Darren the Ogre the first time atop Blaylons Reply cliff near Torrelson’s Ford. Almost dies.
Kynar fights the ogre guardian/dragon ally/guard. Takes his glasses.
“Sir Danos’ march on West Barrens” – seemingly a story of umbakian conquest as told by the witch and one-claw. Battles, disposition, monster foes (moor cats, ogre, ork, goblin, tentacled creature, vampire) – pieces historically copied but never in source whole and complete; Dwindor Witch is searching for a trigger name used as a password to unlock a sealed Lighbringer shrine of a forgotten family.
It is the last act of one claw with kynar as they find it and try and open it – kynar fights the willow wisps and luminous motes while one claw tries to say the password. Fought an hour before it opens. One claw teaches kynar wisdom before he dies. Says he must trust someone, but never let your guard down. Control yourself. One Clay breathes his last breath into Kynar’s mouth, and he takes on the mantle of leader of the Orrish of Dwindor.
Feather accelerates the pregnancy in the secret library study room under Cerstwile Keep.
Gives the twins up to Kynar to take care of.
Saelisnean name – vigorous, unceasing, brave
Salisnean name – helper, defender
Kynar tells Feather the goblins are not his in the swamp. They are coming from inland, and have strange devices. His people avoid them, and in fact, some of his people have been taken captive. They do not eat them. They have no tribal markings.
Kynar sweats path
Take position around Gwinn boats in fog