From the Campaign Journals of Sir Pelleas Al'Davor, Knight Commander of the Knights of Laen (Harts), Master of Arms of the Incantors Guild and Master at Arms for the Bacchus Bastards.
The Gathering 1098 Part One

club ritual / new face / Golgomoth / winged horror / Bacchus deaths

Thursday 27th August 1098

The majority of the Bacchus delegation had met up to head off to the Gathering, to be held in Malar, somewhere in the Orkneyjar islands. By the time all the equipment and people had all been assembled, it was well into the evening.

We decided to transport anyway, arriving at the Gathering with less than 2 hours to midnight. Setting up camp in the dark, we paused only to have a few drinks and say hello to some friends before settling down for the night, so as to be up bright and early the next day.

Friday 28th August 1098

A sad day for the Bacchus, as seems to be all too common these days. Arising from bed early(ish) we set off to procure supplies for the days ahead. Returning to camp we discovered that the majority of our number had now arrived.

Among as (that I can remember) were:

Earl Remy (our esteemed leader), Acting High Sheriff of the Harts Jac, High Trivinar George, Leah of the Temple of the Phoenix, Keeper of the House of Menan, I'seeyou U'SeeMe, Sung (a "Bard") and Wang King of the Saki Bastards, Norrahe, Puss (A pooka), Rincewind , Myron and Ulfius WeaponBane, Captain Kelly, Triar Fuck, Dermot , Kyleakin and another gentleman of the OSR, Si De'Barrel, Guillam , Cedric, the Revered Son of Bacchus Dionysus and his mother, Katerina Apriori, Xantalia, Mai Ling, Candy Canes and Tamara of the Brothel, Drakken and Raithen, along with a companion of theirs called Marcellus, a newcomer to the Gathering called Nanny Ogg, The "young" Grey elf, Zac, a weird guy who wouldn't speak and was referred to as the "Deaf Mime"?!?, my sister Peridot and myself. Iggy had still to arrive, as well as Young John.

The first thing that was discovered (by George) was that the Harts had a ritual slot booked for half past five that afternoon, and that they wanted us to use it for our first ritual, the re-powering of the Club of Bacchus. George wandered around and made sure that everyone would be ready for ritual practice at two o'clock. In the meantime I headed down to the Incantors' Guild to check in and say "hi" to Durith and my other guild colleagues. Mai Ling mentioned that she had a brothel "Gold Card" waiting for Durith, but when I told him this he went a funny colour and started to gibber a bit, before leaving on some important business.

I learned that there were going to be several meetings of the guild (all of which conflicted with rituals or other tasks I had to perform, alas), and that the guild required a whole bunch of suicidal nutters to go on a quest to seal the rift at Scald. I volunteered and offered to grab as many people as I could from the Harts to go along. Obviously it would involve killing a lot of undead, which I found a rather attractive thought.

The Club Ritual

Heading back to camp (after a stint on Guild Guard / Traffic control duty) I found that Iggy and Young John had now arrived. There had been some sort of mix up with Young John's baggage, which had seemingly been mislaid on the journey. It was now time for ritual practice. This seemed to be strangely cryptic, but George assured us that all would become clear when the ritual was done. We practised (with breaks) until the fifth hour pas noon, when we had a brief rest, then headed down to the circle to perform the ritual for real. A slight delay occurred when Leah had to return to camp to fetch some important ritual paraphernalia she unaccountably forgot.

Myself, Remy, Xantalia and Leah channelled down the four spirits of War, although I don't remember much that happened after the spirit of Zuan possessed me. When I came to, Katerina was holding me, and I had this really sore throat and was covered with bruises. Apparently a success, the power produced by the ritual was of such magnitude that its peak would take some time to achieve (although we didn't know quite how long this would be). Predictably, after our ritual finished a horde of undead (ghouls, it seemed) appeared in the circle and started paralysing people. We performed our now well practised "leave the circle bloody quick" manoeuvre, but unfortunately my weapons had been misplaced, which meant that by the time I recovered them the fight was over.

A new face

Pausing only to grab the various bits and pieces left in the circle we headed back to camp. Just before ritual practice a newcomer had arrived in camp with another member of our merry band, Peregrine, a wandering mercenary. Apparently the newcomer (who called himself Jal'al) had hired Peregrine to bodyguard him. He wanted to visit Londinium, but had side-tracked to the Gathering to ask permission of Remy and introduce himself. Strangely dressed, he had a weird folded cloth on his head and professed to come from "The Land of the Flying Carpets".

I went to have some food, during which a camp muster was held. Various things were announced, several promotions and the like, as well as the current political situation. This involved a dispute between the Dragons and Vipers, the Dragons claiming that the Vipers had invaded their lands (in defiance of the Gathering treaty). The Harts, having seen that the Viper troops were fully engaged in the Underdark at the time of the alleged invasions, supported the Vipers. Also announced at the muster was the fact that there would be a ritual performed later that evening to create a totem pole, and that people would be needed to guard the ritual.

At the end of the muster I asked for volunteers to aid in the attack on Scald, and asked for new and present members of the Knights of Laen to meet me directly after. Unfortunately, most knights had not returned to the Gathering this year, and a scant handful reported in, those that could agreed to come to Scald with me (three members of the Elves of Cuthulion: Althair Cuthulion, Oswald McGregor and one other whose name escapes me).

A small lull in events then occurred, which I spent chatting to a few people , catching up on events, as well as visiting the Incantors' Guild once more. The guild was closing rather early that evening, Durith granted me immunity to fear, and then wandered off to go to bed.

Golgamoth's declaration

As darkness fell, the wake began in earnest, people from various factions arrived to pay their respects to the deceased. I was hanging around the command tent entrance, chatting to the guards when two people dressed in chaos tabards and apparently messengers from Golgamoth arrived. Calling for attention they proceeded to demand that all the Harts quit Albion within a year and a day (that makes it the second bunch of people demanding this within as many months!). There followed a disorganised attack of chaos people, who were eventually driven off.

As it was now time for the totem pole ritual the Harts gathered to escort Lady Kaithen's ritual group to the circle. Arriving without incident the ritual equipment was set up while I briefed the Mages' Guild guards on the plan for quick circle withdrawal after the ritual had finished. During this, two people who had been discovered lying unconscious within the circle were dragged out. They seemed to have bite marks on their necks, so I used the power of Bacchus to perform a precautionary detect unliving on them. They tested out fine. Tel Falcon, who had fortuitously been present at the circle, managed to get them conscious, they claimed they were Knights of Caer Dannon, so I went to get help, hoping to find some people yet within the Incantors Guild.

As luck would have it, the guild has quite a buzz with activity, obviously preparations for the Scald attack the next day. I reported the events at the circle to Papewaio, who was standing up looking at some staff or other. Whilst I was speaking the staff slipped from his grasp, and when I attempted to catch it I fell immediately unconscious. Waking a few moments later to some bugger slapping my face I continued my report. Another member of the Knights accompanied me to the circle, but when we arrived there the two had gone.

All the excitement was not yet done however. Just as I arrived back the ritual ended, and the circle was opened. Everyone readied themselves for an attack of unliving, and were quite surprised when nothing happened. People started to leave the circle, when the bell rang, and mist rose from the ground. The people left in the circle now fled in haste, expecting undead gribberlies to appear at any moment. Instead, a voice boomed from somewhere within the circle, the voice of Golgamoth, the Lobster Lord. Obviously having forgotten that he had sent messengers to tell us about his demands, or thinking that we had very short memories, he again demanded that we leave Albion within a year and a day. Leaving him to his ranting we headed back to camp.

Night of the winged horror

Arriving back at camp we had short respite before being attacked by some huge winged horror. This unliving creature dealt out a combination of Fatal blows and ones which just struck a man to the ground. I charged in armed only with my normal weapon. This appeared to effect it not at all, but it turned its attentions upon me, perhaps noticing the way in which I fearlessly stuck at it. I parried its blows with my shield, and others laid into it. After some more of the same the creature eventually vanished.

I wandered over to the command tent yet again, and stood guard. Most of the guests for the wake had now left, and all looked to be relatively calm. This proved to be short-lived. Howls of grief and rage echoed over the camp, and the Beastmen strode into the command tent carrying between them the dead body of s'Ting, the late s'Pika's daughter. Her body was taken into the side tent and her spirit questioned. As I later heard it, someone or something had sneaked over the walls and attacked her with poison, which she died from before anyone could reach her. The air of grief that resided in the command tent from the wake earlier again rose to the fore. Just as this occurred the Spirit of s'Pika turned up (naturally I let him in). I didn't hear any of the conversation from my post at the door, but later heard that he had informed the Harts of the method by which they could cure Elias of his little "Problem" once and for all. I don't know if he had any words to say about the death of his daughter.

The Death of Marcellus and Si De'Barrel

Some time later there was a commotion at the gate. Staying at my post on the command tent (what with assassins wandering about I wasn't going to leave) I wondered what was going on. A few minutes later I had my wish. Dionysus stormed up to the command tent, demanding that the Bacchus head down to the circle. Fae had attacked the gate, and dragged off some of the gate guard during the fight. Dionysus, I'seeyou U'SeeMe, and Morgannia had followed them down to the ritual circle to try to retrieve them. After a prolonged fight (due to the fact that Dionysus and Morgannia were effectively invulnerable), the fae escaped with two of their prizes. Dionysus and his companions managed to rescue one of them, a member of the Wolverines. Unfortunately, the two that had been taken were both Bacchus, Marcellus and my comrade in arms Sigon de'Barrel.

We gathered to head down to the circle to try to recover the bodies or discover anything else we could. George was in a fury, and led us off at a fast pace. We would find no sign of fae presence at the circle. George swore that all the power of Bacchus would be put towards slaying the Fae Queen Katherine and as many Fae as it took to get to her.

We headed back to the camp with heavy hearts, and the seed of fury burning within our breasts. Katherine will pay for her deeds.