From: Urox@aol.com
Date: Tue 05 Jul 1994 - 10:52:57 EEST
I mentioned the tale of my Babeester Gorii who lost her Edge and Pam Carlson
asked to hear the whole story. I'm writing it all down but I don't know the
ettiquette for posting long campaign write-ups so I'll summarize:
MEGAERA FURIOSO The Saga of Megaera - Known As Wyrmsbane - as told to the Boldhome Lhankor Mhy Sages by Puddles Sternbill, Beak of xxHueymakt DeathDrake.xx.
<Puddles tells of how she first met Megaera and how they tracked the murderer of an Earth Priestess from Boldhome to Tarsh with a strange and eclectic group of males>
Megaera was thoroughly disgusted with this situation, but as events progressed she realized the need for some of their skills. For example, we only managed to cross into Tarsh after Imakt the Troll spoke with the Lunar authorities just before Megaera was about to declare a Holy War on the entire Empire. (I found out months later Imakt had told the officer he was taking us to the Crimson Bat). Megaera calmed down after a few days and only beat up or threatened to eat the men alive once or twice an hour. She got along best with Imakt because he seemed to know how to treat women. He said Megaera was human, and female, so he named her "Human Female."
<Megaera found her quarry but had accepted the hospitality of a Tarshite
village and so could not slay them outright>
Now this presented a very sticky problem for Megaera, because while she had One-hand the Drunkard and his cousin Zozka in easy reach and ripe for torture and execution, we had accepted the village's hospitality and of course the clan could not agree to their execution without an Orlanthi trial. There was much grinding of teeth and tearing of hair at that point before she concocted the plan of sending Harold and Zozka out to track the thugs who had committed the actual murder so she could kill them as soon as they left clan territory.
<Fate intervenes>
We awoke that morning to find that half the animals in the village,
including Imakt's pack beetle, one of the bison and half our other mounts and
been transformed into big, white rabbits! Recovering from our shock, we
learned from the headman and Earth priestess that the village was under a
curse from March Hare, a local demigod. It seems that this was the site where
Voria emerged from the earth after her Quest at the Dawn. Ever since its
founding, the village had been required to perform the ritual for Voria and
March Hare in their honor.
But one year the maiden who was to play Voria had been dallying with her
drake and missed her part, thus botching the ritual.
Since we had to have the mounts back to get out of the Empire safely, Megaera proclaimed she would lift the curse. "How is it done," she asked. "Show me this Hare and I will wring his neck." "You will undertake this Quest?" said the headman. Before I could stop her, she had pledged us to a HeroQuest to find March Hare.
<Megaera soon learned that finding the Hare meant a HeroQuest where someone had to be Voria and be tested three times, and Megara was the only human female in the party and a virgin to boot! So we undertook the Quest with Megaera leading the way, carrying her axe, wearing her shining armor, barefoot with flowers in her hair and her jaw clenched in rage and humiliation. But Puddles also saw a tear in her eye and was shocked. The Questers were attacked by Zorak Zorani trolls, who were defeated. Then a Eurmali came to seduce Voria, but after one look at Megaera he fled. Then chaos beasts attacked and were defeated but Megaera was left blind. When they met March Hare Megaeara saw him as an feebleminded, drooling old God, but a God none the less. In the Myth March Hare had eaten of Voria's gifts and dug his way back to the light. We saw the Hare eat several things, including a spirit which had possesed the troll, but did not see what else he ate for he was alone with Megaera for a time. On the way back to Tarsh, odd things began to happen. Megaera asked Puddles if she'd noticed that Voice- Like-Thunder the Bison rider was rather handsome in a rugged way. After climbing back on the pony from where she'd fallen, Puddles realized that a week had gone by without Megaera taking a swipe at any of the men. When asked about it Megaera was very distressed and tried to find someone to kill so she could drink their blood and get back her "edge." The group was eventually able to track down and kill or capture most of the murderers, but Megaera continued to exhibit strange signs of mercy and compassion.
Megaera had joined Dark Earth after being gang-raped as a young girl and disowned by her village. So because her fighting spirit and prowess came from her hatred and anger, when March Hare ate her dark madness (possessing spirit?) he ate her "edge" too. The Dark Earth Priestess called it "the hard place." The HeroQuest also made her a Hero of Voria. She could cast Flowers as a spirit spell at will and would occasionally be overcome with a desire to skip around barefoot and make blooms appear everywhere.
She was given a chance to redeemed herself when an Earth shrine was desecrated near Boldhome. It turned out a young boy studying with his Third Eye Blue cultist father had summoned a salamander and burned the shrine. Megaera didn't have the heart to kill the boy so she told the family to leave the area. After a few minutes she realized her error and went back to slay everyone involved but was thwarted when the entire village, including a Wind Lord, protected the Smith and his family. Megaera was ready to commit suicide by attacking the entire group, but a Eurmali used Group Laughter to immobilize the crowd and then cast Lie to make Megeara think she'd accomplished her task and avenged the shrine burning.
When she got back to Boldhome, the Dark Earth Mother told Megaera she was out of the cult and suggested she go to the Vingans at the Air temple. This all made her terribly depressed so she would often go to Geo's, get really drunk and try to pick up and pick fights with Storm Bulls. Then she went to the Uleria temple and tried to apply to be a temple prostitute, but that didn't go over well for some reason.
So at age 21 Megaera has no home, no cult (except as a Vinga/Orlanth lay
member) no job, no experience with anything but guarding, tracking and
killing and no purpose in life. She is horribly scarred and has a snake
tattoo over her entire body and doesn't know anything about how to dress for
success. She's terribly lonely but her only advisor on how to talk to men is
Puddles the Duck Humakti.
While many people think she should became a Vingan, she is actually well
educated and likes to study so she wants to join the Grey Sages and perform
special tasks. "Like if someone has an overdue scroll, I could go get it back
for you. Or maybe you want some Thanatari knocked off." (Imagine cringing
Sages trying to smile politely).
Thus is Megeara's tale, for now.
Mark Foster
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