Back to Butrús

Well, with an agreement in hand the party decided to set out for Butrús again, but, they were now concerned about their shadow. When they left town they encountered a guard on the Sákbe roads who simply would not accept their papers. It appeared they were being intentionally delayed. Never ones to plow through what they can go around, they began to look for a means to travel on the second tier of the roads. They sought a Patron who, by virtue of their clan status alone, would intimidate Road Guards and keep them honest. Mriga found one through his temple and that Grey Robed Priest.

The Party was taken on as guards for a high ranking Priest of Thúmis ( a different priest, one from a higher clan, and with higher status in the Temple). He was travelling south anyway, and felt that having a party of soldiers (well, Hriháyal guards are soldiers, in some sense) would be wise, considering the threat of Mu'ugalavyian troops encroaching in the Chákas. As a high noble he took his party up onto the second tier of the Sákbe road, and, again as a high noble, no one much said boo about it. They were advised that travel could be dangerous.

They pressed on without much delay for the first third of the journey, where they reached a guard tower who reported that no traffic was advised beyond that point. There was a confirmed reports of Mu'ug troops on the road the night before, and a dispatch had been sent to Tumíssa to bring a cohort or two of the Tangled root eaters to investigate. But owing to their patrons status, the road guards dared not actually forbid travel. When it appeared likely the troop would continue despite the warning, the guards offered to augment their parties defenses with an extra ten men. At least some of these men were, apparently, members of the Ito clan, though that is not uncommon on the Sákbe roads near Butrús..

Not trusting the offer, the party elected to press on alone. At approximately the mid point between the two cities they found Tsolyáni bodies, merchants, outside the guard tower, which was locked. There were also bodies of a couple road guards, As best as they could tell, the merchants had either arrived late, or left early, and been ambushed on the road. The guard had responded, and also died. It was probably not the whole caravan, some of whom may have escaped and were probably the ones referred to as confirmed reports. And the Sákbe guard tower gates were locked on the second tier.

Climbing down to the lower tier, they found the gates open, but the stairs to the second tier of the Tower locked. And the far gate on the second tier was also locked. Since they were all barred from the inside, it implied that there was someone there, but no one answered. So they decided to breach a bit of protocol, and climb up to the third tier and look around. On the lovely mosaic tiles of the Royal top tier, they saw a blood trail, that led to the guard house door. Which was locked.
 Now, that was too much to ignore, so Mriga decided to try using levitation to manipulate the locks – really just cross bars – to get inside. However, all he achieved was a ringing head ache, as the guard houses all have some level of magical warding against such chicanery. Live and learn. At the top of the Guard house is a watch tower, and someone suggested that there had to be one last door into the structure there. So Suni scaled the guard house and found a door unlocked. Inside she found an imperial messenger, dead from a wound by a Mu'ugalavyian' crossbow. He had managed to retreat to safety, but was not able to survive his wounds.

The party wisely wrapped the body, without too much snooping, and prepared to leave, when they heard foot pads running from a distance, growing louder. Going out, they saw another imperial messenger, approaching. He slowed when he saw them, wary. They shouted that there were Mu'ugs on the road, as he drew near. They saw him evaluate the group, and then, double his speed as he headed to Tumíssa.

Arriving in Butrús, they turned the body of the messenger over to the local officer of the AOL. There were lots of question, but, it appeared nothing had been disturbed on the body, and so, they were released, but advised they may be sought for further questioning.

oddling thoughts

Random Tékumel related thoughts that have crossed my mind in the past 36 hours

some how the first half of this post was cut..

here is is, restored

I am still working on the campaign updates, between INTERNET distractions. Writing them offline helps get a draft out, but, I need this puter to get Tsolyáni spell checkers. There is, for those who are unaware, a Tsolyáni dictionary for word processors available on in the Yahoo group files. Unfortunately, it was created for MS word in or before 2005 and won't import easily into the current Open Office. I have been manually adding words as I have needed them, and occasionally go off on the net to research an easier way.. without success. Which, by the magic of the Internet, often leads me to waste several hours on Ebay or FB, or reading blogs. Amazing time machine the Internet. All that led me to an blog post on Hill Cantons about RPG narratives and what makes em good, bad, indifferent, justifiable, or offenses against nature. Hold that thought..

There is a new Blog devoted to Tékumel news on the web, called the Skein of Destiny.

It is a group blog, and it was the spawn of a yahoo group discussion that began when the admin of Skein offered to run a newsletter. I countered that a group blog could reduce the individual work load, and he and I, without consultation, both created a blog for that purpose. Only he actually put some articles up.. which makes his much more interesting to read. No reason to compete, but now I have the makings of a Tékumel blog, and no real mission. These two paragraphs are related..

I had been considering making my Tékumel blog a group blog, for the purpose of game session reports. Anyone running or playing in a campaign could, if they desired, become a contrib, and log their campaign sessions as they saw them. I just thought perhaps an additional feature might be to link it to a drop-box for the posters to put Maps, or pics or such.. though drop box may not be a good choice.. .. probably shouldn't brainstorm and blog at the same time..

At any rate, what are your opinions? I am especially interested in the views of potential contributers.. as they would be crucial. Readers, as with all things blog, are optional.

I will probably cross post this question in a few places..

The Dictionary, mentioned above, and the blue room archives, and a few other bits of readily available data on the net, might make good fodder for a collective effort to begin to build a Tékumel Wiki. I am trying to go through proper channels to achieve a Tékumel Wiki, and I understand that such a beast is a frightening prospect for those who wish to control the IP rights.. so this is tricky ground to negotiate. This is not a new thought, it has crossed my mind before, and is beginning to wear a path..

My plan/pipe dream to make a Penóm Gazateer got a minor boost in that I have invented a new beasty that I think will fit well into the Swamps and the Underworlds. Have to try it on my players sometime soon..

“The unsecured path”.. I won't provide stats, as I believe strongly that the path forward is a system-less Tékumel .. But the creature is an intelligent plant/fungus that grows floats in the swamps. Each individual pod is about 5-8 inches in diameter, though not specifically round. They cluster in dense communities making a firm floating surface that can cover miles of open, stagnant water.

But saying too much now might spoil the fun.. I will tell more about this in a future post.

I am toying with trying to create a set of rules for Den Den. The paucity of information on the game is daunting. The only thing I am sure of is that the players can sometimes change one piece for another, and the game is supposedly an abstraction of the complex political world of Tékumel. I am thinking, currently, that, unlike most games known to our readers, players tokens won't be designated by color. And players provide their own tokens for a game, rather than both or all tokens coming from one source. The tokens are standardized in some manner, but customizable. Much as we see lots of different renditions of the common chess set. Pieces are defined by some simple attributes (several sizes, perhaps, and several colors for each set) but they are also customized, possibly with clan markings, or temple markings.. that have no impact on the game except to identify the piece as belonging to one player.

All the above was actually just a distraction from my original reason for creating this post..

Got together with some old friends the other night and played a few classic board games..

First up was Raj, a card/tile bidding game I had never played before. Picked up a copy at a thrift store, and it looked like something I could import to Tékumel .. (hence all the digression above..). It was compelling, and played quickly, but was really just a way to kill time until all the players arrived.

Next a game of Circus Maximus. A departure from our traditional fair, actually. We usually play Dune..I have bling.. We were doing a quick race, 1.5 Laps. The pic is from just before the first corner. In the next turn I entered the corner a bit hot, and rolled badly, flipping my chariot. I spent the rest of my career and life as a charioteer being dragged around the course. Geo flipped one turn later, but cut himself free. Then Jerry ran him over. Mark won, but Jerry was the crowd favorite.. 

 Then we played Dune, but, Chip had to leave – some lame gotta work tomorrow excuse – and the FLGS was closing.. so it was going to be abbreviated. Jerry outsmarted all of us and time itself by pulling a win on turn three while we all tried to figure out if we could get one more turn in before our deadline. Since we still had time, we played out one more turn, and, at the designated hour of 1045, low and behold Jerry still had control of the most cities.. Cudos to Emperor Jerry for pulling off two wins in four turns.. He shall not be invited back..(I kid.. I kid..)

wow.. mustn't post free hand after midnight.. This think is littered with typos and edit errors..  ed.

Still More from the Campaign

I am beginning to understand why I have been avoiding this. A lot happened in the last few adventures, though their wasn't a great deal of activity.

The next day they all paid a visit to the temporary billets of the Tangled root eaters, and made an attempt to gain audience with the Kerdu, G-Gum-Shoggu, or other officer who could make their claim to the land outside Butrús stronger. Their basic story was noted by the officer of the watch, and he promised to move it on to his superiors. They should wait for a reply. So they cooled their heels, did some more sight seeing, and discovered they were being followed. They set a trap, but must have spooked the tail, because it disappeared.

Eventually, they gained audience with the Quartermaster, who had been authorized to deal with the matter. They made their case,

Point 1, the tangled root eaters, a most honourable and devoted legion of the Empire had, with good faith, transferred title of the land in question to the Plume of White clan, and this arrangement had been seen by both as noble and in the best interests of each party and the empire. But for the bumbling of a low level scribe, that would be the end of the story, and none of the parties has ever shown sign to regret the decision.

Point 2, The party bringing the objection (the Ito Clan) to the long established transfer, though, undoubtedly doing so only in the interest of protecting the Petal Thrones deep devotion to perfection in all things of Tsolyánu, and most certainly abhorring, as the Emperor must, any flaw that might stain the imperial record-keeping.. can be assumed to have no other interests in the property in question.

Point 3, Any outcome contrary to the long running understanding can only reflect negatively upon the Empire, the Palace of the Realm, The clans involved, and the Tangled root eaters, for they have allowed this error not only to occur, but to fester, which can only lead to doubt in the standing of all claims of title, and from thence, in the edicts of the empire.. doubts which the AOL would, reasonably, be expected to erase, and probably with blood.

Point 4, Abolition of the long running understanding would would be inconvenient for all involved, as the Clan of Plume of White would probably expect recompense, to include interests, going back a approximately 1000 years, and the Tangled Root eaters would be saddled with land they no longer found useful to their mission. The expenses for the Tangled root eaters would be especially inconvenient, during a time of war, when monies might more readily be spent on armour, and training.

What the players didn't know, but would learn, is that some of the delay that had given them so much free time in Tumíssa was to allow the TRE to send a scout to investigate the property before a final decision. The Quartermaster and the Tirrikámu had learned enough to be very suspicious of the potential hazards that might be associated with laying claim to the unnatural caverns. They chose not be be distracted in war time with a place where the dead walk, without even the calling of Sárku.. to assist them. Better to leave that, in fact, to the temples to sort out.

So they authorized the deal that our party was suggesting. They would have an officer in Butrús with authority, meet with representatives of the Clan of Plume of White, and the temple of Hriháyal, and the former two would both sign over rights to the later, so that no matter the outcome of any challenge, the final owner would be the Temple, and it would all be completed before Avanthár would have any reason to be upset by the errors in paperwork. The will of the Emperor would thus be done.

The learned one other thing from all this. The bureaucrat whose name was associated with this error had, despite his considerable rise in rank, a reputation for similar, minute errors in paperwork that created the potential for challenges to long standing documents.

note: if any one is new to the story, and wants to go back and find the beginning, I have tagged all the narrative posts as campaign..

Back to our featured presentation

Well, time to start drafting that update..

I am thunderstruck when I realize the last post on the campaign was in March. It ended as this.

They heard rumours of Mu'ugalavyá scouts and small skirmishes being fought in Do Cháka, up near Tumíssa. The Bulk of the Legion of Tangled Root eaters, a Páchi Lei legion, was currently up in Tumíssa, operating the defenses against said Mu'ugalavian incursions. As players are wont to do, they took an end run around my Jájgi plot line, and decided to approach the Legion, to sort simply replicated the original purchase agreement, or make a deal to purchase the land directly, if the courts should determine that they still owned it.

I have drafted enough already to break this into two or three posts, and am nearly caught up with the narrative, so without further ado..

...The players outfitted a small excursion to Tumíssa. And figured they would do some business on the side, in part as a cover for the real mission. That didn't actually keep anyone from following, as their opposition in this affair is both numerous and dedicated. Due to my neglecting to bring my maps, I over estimated the travel time from Butrús to Tumíssa. I explained this away by heavy traffic and heavy security, what with the harvest season starting, and Mu'ugs in the Chákas. There were some casual encounters along the way, but things were mostly quiet.. again, due to heavy traffic and heavy security. They did meet a Priest of Qón who was crawling.. as a means of mentally preparing to fight demons.. to Tumíssa. He was a dedicated demon fighter.. and an Ascetic, and a bit of a crazy, by the parties reckoning. Still, he invited them to his temple to research the Goddess of the river.. and possibly related matters. The party figured he might take a month to get there, at his current speed.

On to Tumíssa. , They traveled as a Merchant Caravan transporting fine papers from Mriga's Clan for sale in the big city, and Sánjesh brought his Hriháyal Guard for protection. Once in the city they did a bit of touristing, finding two places of great interest. The first was the Hall of Cool Air.. Which Mriga returned to repeatedly. The other was the Avenue of Stele, where they found another stele which seemed markedly similar to the one in the cave. It had been unearthed during the construction of the Lushman canal, and, as they had learned from other sources, that event appears to have coincided with an earlier renaissance in worship of the Goddess of the Turín river. Sánjesh stopped by his temple to try to toady a bit with Mis hiRakádi, and her entourage, but Mis was in a state of seclusion in preparation for the Ritual of Ecstatically Traveling to the Isles and Back again. He did find her protégé Kaiyor, and she invited the party to a the special holiday festival that were in store for the evening. Mriga nervously bowed out, returning to his own temple to do research, But Suni and Mriga attended. As it happened, the festival was a feast, more than an orgy, which brought in all the most exotic foods that could be had at the beginning of harvest, for the gluttony of the temple faithful. (It was noted by Suni, that there might be a correlation between the nature of the festival, and the rather severe diet I had place upon myself about a week prior... suni is wise, I suspect, as I was rather obsessed with food at the time..) The party goers (well Suni, I think) ordered a plate to go to be delivered to the studious Mriga... who had discovered that the Priest of Thumis from chapter 2 was doing research in the facility on the Stele they had all discovered in the caves..

The next day they all paid a visit to the temporary billets of the Tangled root eaters, and made an attempt to gain audience with the Kerdu, G-Gum-Shoggu, or other person who could make their claim to the land outside Butrús stronger. Their basic story was noted by the officer of the watch, and he promised to move it on to his superiors. They should wait for a reply. So they cooled their heels, did some more sight seeing, and discovered they were being followed. They set a trap, but must have spooked the tail, because they disappeared.

lately..

My blogging is weak, from lack of exercise. I promised an update on the Empire of the Petal Throne campaign, and haven't delivered. There is a reason, not a good one, but a reason. We didn't actually manage to get together that week that I planned to confer with the players and make sure my info was accurate and complete. And we haven't managed to get together since. Early summer vacations spread us across several states, and – I think – a couple continents. There was a brief period, I think, when we were all in town, then Geo went to MI to visit his brother. And there is is to this day.. with a broken engine. Not really an excuse for my not posting... something.. anything... even stupid things... As a result, my readers – if any of you still view yourselves as such – I am behind..

I am writing this post offline, which, now that I try it, may prove to be the system I use in the future. I can do this when I have time, and no I net connection, and copy and paste it. This avoids the common distractions of the Web, FB, G+, BootCamp, Ebay, Email, etc. As I write, I am at my friendly local Game Store waiting to see if anyone shows up looking for a pick up game of 4ofnordK. The place is quiet, though someone with an Army just came in after being waylayed by a Dog, which resulted in some broken models, a minor limp and a foul mood. I have been busy with my IfnordG army, compulsively buying, adequately painting, and now, for the first time in my Gamey Career, basing the figs. (as it turned out.. I forgot my Company Command Squad at home, so, I ended up leaving when I finished this draft)

I have come up with some fluff to account for the variety of figures I use. I will be fielding the 703^rd Segmentum Obscura Regiment of Detachments. I hit on the idea while reading Sharpe's Eagle, one of the Napoleonic high adventures of Captain (as of this book) Richard Sharpe. Early in the book, a pompous general, with no experience, gets his regiment badly massacred. As a result, the survivors are formed up with other depleted units into a combined regiment, with no real identity. My plan is to pull any unit effectively destroyed in a battle, to be replaced by another unit of similar value. I plan on heavy use of range, as IG that get into assault tend not to survive. This mechanic will serve to keep me honest in troop use, I think, as it means pushing units into a meat grinder guarantees I won't have them next fight.

Units will come back, of course, Can't afford to buy figures forever. I may build a random chart for replacements. I will never use a colour guard, as a regiment of detachments would have no colours. Locally, I will play mostly against SpaceFnordMarine, as that is the most commonly fielded force. I have chosen never to field a commissar against SpaceFnordMarine. Fluff wise, fighting SfnordM makes no sense anyway.. figure it only happens when Mil Intel wishes to keep the SfnordM in training, and a Regiment of Detachments would be a good sacrificial goat.

But, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time on 40FnordK lately. There is a certain attraction to the build process, but the game is, so far, less than compelling. I miss the More nuanced world of Tekumel. I will be devoting more time to that for a while. There are interesting things happening in that world as well. More later..

editors note. It appears that in publication, pictures have been truncated.. please click on the pic to see the whole thing. We will try to learn how to address this in the future..
decided to add a bit of bling. Introducing the current 703^rd Segmentum Obscura Regiment of Detachments

the above is a typical infantry squad.. two squads combined, 20 men with missle launchers and grenades launchers. Currently have two of these.

This unit is a Veteran Demolision team. Minitures are Pig Iron Kolony Militia. On the right we see two heavy lasers proxied in for multifnordmeltas. Can have up to 3, so I have another few soldiers en-route.

This is a typical Platoon Command Squad. The soldier on the left has a flamer. On the right we see a VoxfnordCaster. Currently two of these, and another unfinished that will be have a heavy weapon. Their function is command and control.


The last two photos are of hvy weapons teams. There are both GW and Pig Iron in the mix. I can take no credit for the upper three, as they shipped in all finished from the Eba nebulaay..

A decision, for the short term

After all, is any decision final. This blog will be my only blog for the time being. I am way behind on it, so starting another will only divert my attention. It will cover all things Gamey in my world.. So, this will be a start to bring things up to date..

First, on the Glorious precipice of the Empire of the Petal Throne, my players are all done with school. We will meet again in on Monday, mostly for book keeping and planning the way forward, because over the next month or so, we will all be off on vacations, in sequential order, meaning we will not all be available at the same time for a bit. Hate to jump into a campaign arc and then have a one month lapse. They are a bit ahead of the narrative on this blog, and I will begin in earnest to correct that tomorrow. I am going to draft that post, then bring it to the group meet, to see if I left out any juicy bits. It should be up mid week.

Geo and I got together and puttered around with a game mechanic called Microscope.., which I learned about from Risus Monkeys' blog. We decided to undertake a Tekumel pre-event history. The game begins with the players setting an opening and closing event for a timeline. We started with discovery of Tekumel, and ended with the stars going out. Then you take a couple turns putting in some broad time phases, and start zooming in on events within those phases. .

The game looks like it would work better with a group, larger than two. Still, we muddled through a S'su attack on an terraforming operation that led to a new mythical location refered to as the "City in Amber". I could see this being taken out at a con like U-con, by Tekumelani and used to fill in possible histories of the vast periods of history that are only hinted at in the game. (oooh.. just noticed they have established the dates for U-con this year. Can't say I am thrilled about the drive in Nov, but it looks doable right now... wonder how it lines up for Aethervox activities..) Risus also suggested this game might work well with a website called corkboard.. And we may take what we have done so far there, and invite others to join..

And the last Tekumel based report for this post is the acquisition of some old EPT figs from Ebay. There was a guy selling a pack of figs, which led me to look at his other auctions. In some random lots I found a nice set of Vimuhla worshippers. Not an expert, but I think think they are from the Legion of Red Devastation, a few swordsmen, and a pair of priests.. I have seen the priest figure often before, as it is the same one used to represent Chirine... On his blog he has been prepping some figs for a game event in North Texas, that looks really interesting.. and appears to be full.. Oh, and a few old shen missing the tails.. but that seems fixable.. I also acquired a few random figures that are proxy-able.


On the 40fnordk front, I have been puttering on painting myImperial Guard army. So I will share a bit of bling here.. I think.

This is the Commander, for the time being. Don't really love this figure. Skull mask, and dancing pose.. but, twill serve..
next down here are a couple of my Sentinels. Hope to eventually complete three squads, two scout one armoured..

These are the mounts I will use for Rough riders. They turned out really well, I think. The one in the back, with the black saddle came to me with a paint scheme completed. I used approximation to achieve the same on the other six. These were fun to paint, as I could try a lot of experimentation with the colors, and didn't have to stay "in the lines.."

And the next two are samples of troops. 40fnordK is a pretty figure intense game, and IG perhaps more than most armies. My earlier post explained how I initially acquired these Steel legion figures in the upper picture. But, despite their high value, they don't add up to a hill of beans when building a 40fnordK army. It gave me the mandatory HQ unit and infantry Platoons, which adds up to one to one and a half of the mandatory troop choices.

Steel legion figs are spensive, so when someone posted the Pig Iron figures in the lower pic for sale on TMP, I decided they could make a nice second infantry platoon troop choice. And the price was pretty good.. though I don't recall what it was. And some came painted. That buy inspired the color scheme.

Problem is, they didn't have figures for Sgts (who carry hand guns and swords and such.. stupid 40fnordk rules sets..) or the Platoon Command Squad. I got twenty figs like these, half painted, which really only accounts for the troop figs. I purchased some NCO's from Pig Iron (well, technically The WarStore.. who will be the Sgts for both the infantry plts and the Platoon Command Squad PCS) leader. Then I realized that I needed four more infantry for the PCS and it wouldn't hurt to have some heavy weapons in the mix.. So now I have some of those on order. All of which adds up..

Then came Tax time.. and it appears my tax situation changed a lot last year, cause now I am broke.. so mini purchases are on hold for a bit. going to have to figure out a way to fund new purchases, though I probably have enough for a decent 40fnordk army, I see the Tekumel Project is putting out oodles of tempting products..

At the moment, those are my two major gaming fronts.. I have some odd projects on the back burners. A host of terrain making materials cluttering up my geek space.. and a currently dormant Mage Knight Hordes of the Things Project. It would be much easier to get caught up if only I could put caffeine back on the menu..

Wither, Hence?*

It has been, arguably, more than a day or two. I apologize. The Tekumel Campaign has been on hiatus as players were being swamped with their college commitments. This was good, as I needed to recharge a bit as well. I am not, by nature, good at maintaining focus, as many things tend to take my interest. Ooooooh.. shiny.... Unfortunately, it also led me to feel no pressure to get campaign to pixel. We were not planning to meet again until mid may, or so, which should leave plenty of time to post a couple sessions worth and bring everything up to date. I work well under pressure. Without pressure.. well.. I drift. Does that make me a follower, rather than a leader? Don't know.

I have also been toying with the affections of a another game universe. She means nothing to me, but, she is popular, and has some attractive qualities. Her most attractive quality, unfortunately, is that she is popular. We are talking, of course, of that trollop of a game universe, 40Fnordk. I have been painting and building an IG army, because I see the opportunities to bring Tekumel to the table locally as being limited. Don't get me wrong, I love the RPG, but, sometimes I just want a little fling on a table.

Anyway, This has led me to reconsider the nature of this Blog. Most of my followers are here for the Tekumel, and don't give a hoot about the GW, I suspect. The blog was originally supposed to record all my gaming, but, all my gaming has tended toward Tekumel, in large part because last year was devoted to that. But as you can see by the side bar, the year before I had declared several different interests. So.. followers.. dear readers.. if you are still with me... should I stay on Tekumel track here, or just blog on anything Gamey that suits me at the moment... The latter may lead to more posts.. and more bling.. but.. if you are primarily interested in the Empire, that may not be a plus.. But my non miniatures focused RPG leaves me with almost no bling....

Another alternative might be to start an second Blog, devoted to Tekumel. I had considered this before, and then considered making it a team blog, for any person running a campaign. That might prove confusing, or it might prove cool... or both... I suppose they aren't exclusive.. At any rate, The Superior Force is not a very Tekumalani sorta name..

In other news, Chirine and the Aethervox Gamers did the Dave Arneson Memorial again, and I missed it. There are a pile of new Tekumel blogs out and about, but if you are here for tekumel, you have probably already seen them, as this is a very tardy posting.. (if not, I will try to make a list...or at least point to a blogger who has done so..).

I really need to spend time trying to find sources for bling on these posts as well.

Oh, and Hot Elf Chick..

* A pun.. is that bling?