Anarea 1-off D: Breaking the Law 7 to 26 Aval 2000
Scenario 11. (X)
Version A in Red
Version B in Green
Version C in Blue
It is some three years now since the awful massacre on the shore of Lake Zarak, when the Imperial Guard butchered the loyal followers of the ArchChaosMaster Namaja, who had fled with him from the putting-down of the Great Riot of Valdran, trusting in his power to save them, and who had then been callously and treacherously abandoned by him to their tragic fate.
Few survived: those who did being mostly Clerics who successfully Word of Recalled, and then escaped the subsequent rounding-up operation. Amongst these was Martin (see separate Scenario "The Secret Temple"). Those of the one-time followers of Namaja who are still alive today are few indeed. The survivors are scattered, and tend to be secretive, and intensely bitter at their betrayal.
Locating them, where the I.D.S. have so far failed, will not be easy. Communing with DALA, MIRIMI or RAYLIT might enable Their respective worshippers to be located, if the God is sufficiently convinced of its necessity; for Gods do not lightly betray the confidence of Their worshippers. Some survivors may even have turned away from their former Gods, after their experience. Appropriate Demon Summoning could be effective. The Secret Temple of DALA may be able to help. But person to person enquiries will be virtually impossible, and certainly time-consuming.
The root of the Great Riot of 1997 was the return to Valdran of Namaja in late 1996. Namaja was an ex-acolyte of the Secret Temple of DALA in Valdran, who returned, after several years' absence, as an experienced ChaosMaster. He claimed to have learnt the art in the Underworld, in a land whose people fought a great war against an Evil version of the Valdrean Empire, peopled by orcs. It was an imaginative tale. Namaja was a charismatic leader, and after only a year or so from his return he led them in the incitement of the Great Riot, which began with an open revolt in the streets of the Old City on the night of 24 Kemel 1997. With Namaja's powers, the suppressed Chaotics and oppressed Commoners felt they could at last defeat the powerful Noble Champions of SARAN.
The current Emperor was Decus XIX of Aven and Castor of Bavenne was Director of the I.D.S. (having succeeded Decus XIX in the Office). Decus XIX and Castor saw this as their opportunity to eliminate all Chaotics from the City of Valdran. So Decus XIX withdrew the City Guard at first, letting the Riot build to a peak and spread into the New City. Encouraged by their initial success, the Chaotic and rebel agitators came out into the open. On 25 Kemel they appeared to have control of much of the City, but ran amok, looting and attacking the upper classes rather than consolidating their hold. In Third Watch, as most of them were sleeping off their excesses, the Emperor sent in his Imperial Guard, directed by agents and informers of Castor's I.D.S. As dawn of 1 Varech broke, decisively ruthless attacks shattered the essentially unorganised and spontaneous rioters, driving the survivors into a panicked mass, who came together to fight their way out of the City. Agitators who attempted to melt away into the streets with the bystanders found their homes raided, and they too were forced to flee with their erstwhile comrades.
Namaja was waiting for them all at the agreed rallying point on a low hill overlooking the City 9 miles along the South Eastern shore of Lake Zarak and 4 miles beyond the city outer rampart. His supporters pleaded with him to use his powers of ChaosMastery to lead them back to victory. But he steadfastly refused to take any positive action or to assume any form of leadership, for reasons that were lost on his audience, but which seemed to amount to a belief that it would make them no better than the Lawfuls. Finally Namaja chose to abandon them at the very moment that the Imperial Guard drew close. It was now late afternoon of 15 Weven.
Rather than coming together to fight the Imperial Guard, as Namaja had presumably hoped, the rioters despaired at his abandonment. Most panicked and sought to flee, but a few chose to martyr themselves in a hopeless last stand. These were cut down in the first charge of the First Regiment of the Imperial Guard Cavalry, the Emperor's elite bodyguard (under the command of Titus of Jalaskir), who planted the Emperor's Sun of SARAN flag on the hill and proceeded to mop up the fleeing rioters, all of whom were deemed to be Chaotics and therefore liable to be summarily put to death. There were few survivors, who escaped by various means, assisted by the fall of night.
To the establishment that day is famous as the Battle of Lake Zarak, and is considered a decisive victory over the Chaotics, commemorated by a statue on the summit of the hill.
To the surviving Chaotics and many of the populace that day is infamous as the Massacre of Lake Zarak. The Imperial Guard have to mount a 24 hour guard on the statue to prevent its defacement.
The battlefield / site of the massacre is a grassy meadow grazed by horses from a nearby farm. The hill rises about 60 feet from the surrounding flat countryside, and is dotted with a few thorny shrubs that have resisted the grazing. The summit is gently rounded, and about 100 feet or so across. A statue has been erected on the summit of the hill, built on a slight rock outcropping at the top. It is an equestrian statue of a triumphant Imperial Guardsman trampling a nasty-looking Chaotic underfoot, and raising his sword in victory towards Valdran. The inscription on the pediment reads (in Old Valdrean) “HERE WAS FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ZARAK 1 IV 1997 WHEN LAW WAS TRIUMPHANT OVER CHAOS”. Two Imperial Guardsmen (L) are on watch here at all times, their horses tethered at the foot of the hill by the lakeside track back to the City. As well as guarding against Chaotic vandals, they are also under orders to watch the Lake and the surrounding countryside for anything unusual. They will report that all has been quiet lately. The slope down to the lake has a few sandy banks and leads down to a shore of whitish sand.
Robbi, the Beggar Boy (N) This crippled boy on crutches is always to be found begging just inside the City Gate to Lake Road East. He is now 15. When the rebels fled that way 3 years ago, he cast aside his crutches, gave up his pretence of lameness, and ran off with them. He was, and is, N/N and Faithless, but went partly out of the hope that they offered for a better life (what with the rioters' tales that Namaja would defeat the Imperial Guard, and that they would then reclaim the City) and partly out of curiosity. The beggar-boy was close to Namaja when he left them, and he dived into the lake after him. When the ArchChaosMaster was totally submerged he came to what the beggar boy saw as a diverging of three lines of coloured flux. The red fluxline led straight ahead, the green fluxline led right and the blue fluxline led left. Namaja chose to follow the red / green / blue flux. The beggar boy tried to follow. But the ArchChaosMaster just walked away faster and faster down / along / along the lake bed, trailing confusing aquatic images, and he had to surface for air. Seeing the massacre, he swam away to safety further down the shore towards Valdran. He has a low opinion of Chaotics; no doubt as a result of this experience.
The Poacher (C) FtL 2.0, ThL 4.5, ClL 6.9 (DALA), DrL 1.2: A lone ranger in the Imperial Hunting Forest, he keeps to its deepest glens and thickets, and never stays long in the same place. A rough and hardened-looking man, in his late thirties, with short black hair and beard, and dressed in animal skins. He avoids all human contact, but remains loyal to DALA and the cause of Chaos. For himself, though, he has given up the fight, and has found a kind of solace in the woods. The Questors will find him paranoid, and it will be difficult to win his confidence. He escaped from the massacre into the Imperial Hunting Forest. There he came across a strange linear plantation of jungle-type trees and plants, and even a few jungle animals and birds, leading down from the ridge above the lake to the lakeshore. He put this down to the after-effects of Chaos from the Riot, and it did fade away over time, though some of the trees still grow there.
The Tax-Collector (L) ClL 4.7 (no God) now N/L. The Chief Tax Collector at the border town of Scralham was once a Cleric of MIRIMI from Torel Province, and a follower of Namaja in Valdran. He Recalled from the massacre to Valdran, and set out at once for the other side of the Empire to that from which he came. Disillusioned now with Chaos, he turned to Law, as it had proved stronger, but he balked at worshipping SARAN and became Faithless. Today he is a pillar of the establishment in Scralham (he never got quite as far as crossing the border), a married man in his late fifties, with 3 children (2 his wife's from her previous marriage). He calls himself "Rudor" now. He is satisfied with his lot, and has no interest in the events of 3 years ago. He pretends to himself that they never happened: that must have been somebody else.
The Madwoman (C) Three years ago she was an impressionable 19 year old: an apprentice ChaosMistress under Namaja, and one of his many women. When he abandoned her on the lakeside, she opened herself up to Chaos, and appealed for Its help in avenging herself on him. She had always been unbalanced, and this attempt finally cracked her. That was the first time people really started to ignore her, but it has happened a lot since. The soldiers did not even bother to massacre her. She just walked away through the carnage, unnoticed, unharmed, and unloved. On returning to Valdran in the docks before the first lock, she could have sworn she caught sight of Namaja that evening amongst the crowd of sailors and people signing up for passage on the ships heading downriver to Hapral. Today she is to be found in Iklaron, a temple-slut ("handmaiden" is the polite term) at the Temple of her Goddess, DALA. She is still obsessed by Chaos, and rails against "him" to all who will listen. But who listens to a madwoman?
Others: specify as required
The surviving followers (those who were there) will be able to tell of Namaja's return to Valdran in the Year 1996, of how he built up Chaotic resistance in Valdran by the force of his charisma and power ("Nobody could refuse him."), of the Great Riot of 1997, when the City Guard first withdrew and it looked for a while as if the people would triumph, of its quelling, when the Imperial Guard cavalry charged the rioters, of the flight from the City, when word of mouth led them after Namaja, of the rally on the low hill on the South Eastern shore of Lake Zarak, when they begged their hero to use his powers of ArchChaosMastery to save them, and to bring them victory over the soldiers, of his refusal, when he denied he was their leader, and said they must save themselves, or they would be no better than the Lawfuls, and of his abandoning them to Chaos, when he walked away into the lake until he was submerged, and that was the last they ever saw of him, and good riddance. Their accounts may be confused, and are bound to differ, but they will all recall his last words to them, just as the Imperial Guard began their charge: "Relax, and enjoy yourselves a little!"
None of the survivors has ever forgiven him for that.
If the Questers inspect the battlefield / site of the massacre and retrace Namaja's steps down from the statue on the summit of the hill to the lakeshore, they may notice fused glassy footprints on the beach, leading into the water (DL0 vs Track or SD). The trail continues underwater, becoming clearer (DL+1) to a point 60 feet in and 12 feet deep, where the lake bottom begins to level out again. Here a roughly circular area some 9 feet in diameter is fused into the sand (DL+3), glinting with tiny red, green and blue crystals (DL0 vs SD). Beyond this an irregular, semi-broken line of fused sand can be traced (DL+2, fading to DL+1 and DL0) leading straight ahead / right / left and faintly glittering (DL0) with red / green / blue crystals. The Questers may not be able to follow this trail without Thievish Scouting help, especially where it crosses rocks (up to DL4 vs Track, though it may be picked up on the far side), but it can ultimately be traced to the entrance to the underwater passage in the depths of the lake / the shore of the Imperial Hunting Forest / the docks back in Valdran (see separate Scenario "On the Trail of Namaja: Into the Underworld / Jungle / Ocean").
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