Far Isles Session # 54 - High Cliffs and Volcanic Cones

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 4), with henchman Corvus (Fighter 2)

Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes and henchman Jaz (Elf 1)

Chaff (Vivimancer 5), with familiar PrettyBird and riding dog PuppyWhuppy
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 5)

Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 3)

The next morning, the party took a few moments to bury the dead crossbowman before walking through the ash to the shallow valley the zombies had started from. There they found the remains of a campsite buried under the same grey ash. There was some suspicion that the campfire could have been responsible for the ash, but closer investigation confirmed it emanated from a smoking cinder cone on the other side looming peaks. Since no one wanted to wait around to see if the volcano erupted again, Chaff sent Pretty Bird aloft to scout the way. The parrot came back to report the river split into three streams ahead; a small fordable stream to the north-west, and a pair of roaring torrents to the north-east and east, both of which emerged from deep canyons. It looked possible to follow both larger streams by climbing the ridges above, so the party elected to cross to the right bank of the river, ford the small stream and head north-east towards the purported position of the plateau. 

As the parted started to climb up the side of the gorge, Awg spied possible danger to the east. There,

Dino Attack!!!!

coming down the ridge above the second canyon, was a covered palanquin carried by 8 human or humanoid figures. Of more interest, however, was the giant dinosaur stalking behind it. As the party watched, the great saurian beast grabbed one the figures in it's maw, and after a moment of two of gnawing, flicked the now partly dismembered body away. It repeated this three more times, while the rest of the bearers continued on, unaware and unconcerned. The dinosaur, apparently not impressed with the potential meal, stomped past the palanquin and proceeded ahead of it down the main river valley, towards the ships and the sea. There was some debate within the party whether they should try capturing this impressive dinosaur, but in the end the logistics of hauling it back to the "Purple Haze" convinced them to wait for easier/more accessible prey. There was also some discussion of going after the palanquin, but the risk of running into the massive dinosaur nixed that idea. 

After an uneventful night perched above the canyon, the party continued to climb. When they crested the highest point of the ridge, they could see their goal ahead. A cliff wall, rising high into the concealing clouds, lay ahead of them. Crashing down the side was a waterfall, which appeared to be the source of the river they followed. A lightly wooded meadow slopped up to the base of the cliff. As the party headed across the valley, they passed a copse of trees on their left, between them and the river.  Stumbling out of the treeline came a smaller, yet still vicious-looking dinosaur. It noticed the party, and headed away from them, limping along. The party, worried about what might follow it, ducked into the trees. As they did, however, there came crashing through the undergrowth towards them three more of the nasty creatures. The party reacted quickly, with a cloud of bolts and arrows all concentrated on one creature. Kwinsea used tidal force to push two back, and Chaff dropped a spore cloud on one, which unfortunately did not seem to have an effect. The third slashed out at Corvus with tooth and wicked hind claws, doing grievous damage to the henchman. The crossbowmen then shot down one of the tidal forced dinos, while an insect swarm from Chaff allowed the swords of Awg, Abdul, Rodrigo and Corvus to cut down the individual that chomped on Corvus before it could do further harm. At this point, the fourth 'injured' beast crashed towards them, but a last flight of arrows and bolts convinced the two survivors to turn and run.

Raptors Attack

The party let them go, then proceeded to butcher the fallen to retrieve an impressive collection of teeth and claws. They then continued up the meadow until they reached the base of the waterfall. It ended in a deep pool of water, from which the river emerged. A quick scout around the base of the waterfall revealed no obvious way up, so Awg dove into the pool to look for a passage behind the falls (but to no avail). With the sun dipping low, they set up camp for the night. Next morning, the scouting continued. Chaff sent Pretty Bird up the cliff to scout again. The familiar returned a few hours later to report no signs of a way up the wall. At the top was a grassy plateau, cooler than it was down below. A web of streams crossed the flat surface of the plateau, and in the centre rose a volcanic cone; quite tall with snow and ice at the top. Hoping to find a way up, the party broke camp and marched east around the base of the plateau. There was a short fight with some tiny carnivorous dinosaurs chasing rats, which ended much as the previous days' fight; skillful use of tidal force and two dead dinos. These didn't provide nearly as many interesting trophies though.

Shortly after mid-day, they spied ahead of them a rope bridge. It started on the opposite side of the raging river, and arched overhead before disappearing into the thin cloud that surrounded  the top of the plateau. So the party had to get across the river somehow, unless they wanted to backtrack a few days march to the raft. In the end, they used Corvus' ring of water walking, ferried back and forth by Pretty Bird, to get everyone to the other side. While waiting for everyone to cross, Abdul took the time to look around. There was a faint path running along the edge of the river to the east and west of the bridge, obviously man-made but not heavily traveled. He did see faint signs of recent travel; perhaps the palanquin?

Temple Ruins

After another night in camp, the party arose and tackled the bridge. It was in remarkably good shape considering it was apparently little used. They crossed without incident, and found themselves on the plateau. It was cooler, just as Pretty Bird described. Moving towards the volcanic cone, the party crossed several streams that seemed to merge before tumbling over the edge as the waterfall. Reaching the base of the vlocano, they once more encountered a jagged cliff wall with no obvious way over it. Grumbling, the party spent the day circumnavigating the cone, looking for a way up. By the time they got back to the start, they'd found nothing of interest except for a pair of mastodons in the distance. Chaff then summoned the ebony fly, and Rodrigo volunteered to fly into the volcano to see what there was to see. After a chilly flight, the swashbuckler descended into the unknown. There he found a lake filling most of the crater. On the near edge was a small village of thatched huts, while in the lake itself there was an island covered in ruins. Most of it was just tumbled stone, but on the side facing the village was a temple or similar structure carved into a rock face, with a wide series of steps leading into the side of the hill. There were several canoes at the base of the steps, and more on the beach by the village itself.   Rodrigo then buzzed the village, sending women and children running for cover, while the warriors formed up between the huts and hurled spears at him and the fly (all of which fell short). The warriors then proceeded to shout and jump and  wave their arms at Rodrigo as he banked away and flew back over the ridge to return to the rest of the party ...

TOTAL XP

920

GAINS

nil

KILLS

2 raptor-like dinosaurs
2 small carnivorous dinosaurs

LOSSES

nil

Far Isles Session #53 - In Search of the City of the Gods

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 4), with henchman Corvus (Fighter 2)

Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes and henchman Jaz (Elf 1)

Chaff (Vivimancer 5), with familiar PrettyBird and riding dog PuppyWhuppy
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 4)

Aug Wahmn (Calmonari 3)

Before making a decision on future plans, the first order of business for the party was to sort through the treasure and split up the 'kool loot'. In particular, the pirate cutlass was revealed as magic by Chaff's Kalandrian sight. After some discussion, it was decided that Awg should have the weapon, since his/her only enchanted weapon was the cursed scimitar. The calmonari was surprised, however, when he/she picked up the cutlass and immediately found himself/herself struggling mentally for control of the weapon. It was a sentient sword, inhabited by some gruff buccaneer's spirit. It did grace Awg with the ability to detect metals and levitate, but the calmonari could feel he/she was just barely holding its' will under his/her control.

Sentient Cutlass

With that done, they now needed to decide what to do with the remaining pirates and the captured villagers. Oh, and how/if to honor their deal with the sea dragon. They started with the pirates, giving them a stern talking-to about their evil ways before burning the remaining outrigger canoes and stranding them on the island.  The party also questioned them regarding the whereabouts of their fled captain, and we're told there was a small boat hidden on the other side of the island which he'd probably sailed away in. As for the villagers, the party decided to return them to their homes, and hope that would earn them goodwill and good information from the natives. And on the way, they would meet with the sea dragon and split the loot. After much debate, in the end they decided honesty was the better part of valor, and planned to offer the dragon half the loot recovered from the pirates. They didn't tell the natives about their stop on the way home though, since they seemed to fear the dragon as some blood-thirty god to be placated and best avoided.

Raising sail on both the "Purple Haze" and "Loreman's Passage" (with Corvus and Rodrigo aboard) they headed out to sea. They were still within sight of the island when the dragon's head broke the surface alongside them. Awg, using aquatic telepathy, sensed the greed in the beast once more. The dragon brought it's head down to deck level, and started to sniff the piles of treasure there. It then proceeded to sniff out the rest of the ship, and the "Loreman's Passage". When done, it returned to the "Purple Haze"; Kwinsea cast speak with aquatic animals and started to negotiate. On behalf of the party, she offered half the treasure. The dragon, after a moment of indecision, accepted, and gestured that it should simply be dumped overboard. As the rest of the party took care of the coinage, Awg decided to rid himself of the cursed scimitar and tossed it into the sea as well.  With the transfer complete, Kwinsea asked if there were any other land-treasures they could help it recover. The dragon indicated no, so they prepared to depart. Before doing so, Kwinsea told the dragon about the pirate captain's escape. Awg immediately got a sense of rage, and when pointed in he right direction, the dragon immediately dove and swam off in search of it's foe, leaving the two ships in it's wake.

It took only a day to get back to the Isle of Dread, and to the main village of Tanaroa. It lay on an isthmus, separating the inhabited lower peninsula from the monster infested bulk of the island. A massive stone wall, 50' high, stretched across the isthmus. The village itself lay south of the wall, and consisted of four sets of huts, fields and graveyards, surrounding an earth mound topped by a truncated pyramid. The party, let by the freed captives, was meet by wary crowds. On top of the pyramid stood the village chief (a wizened old woman by the name of J'kai) and the war chief (a massive, scarred warrior named Bakora). In halting Common, J'kai thanked the party and offered the hospitality of the village in payment. The party, however, was more interested in information on the Isle of Dread. J'kai noted the villagers rarely went north of the wall, and then only a few days journey to the tar pits, to gather material for waterproofing and to fill the defensive pits of burning pitch behind the wall. The wall itself was obviously well beyond the technological ability of the natives to build (as were the numerous statues scattered about the village). J'kai stated it has been built by the gods, who once dwelt in a magnificent city on the plateau in the centre of the isle. Now the village relied on it to defend them from the terrible creatures (flying lizards, dinosaurs, cat people, etc) and cannibals north of the wall. She could tell them little about the rest of the island, and when asked, indicated the coast was much like the party had already seen; mountain, swamp and jungle with few good landing places. She did tell them of a great river that flowed out of the centre of the isle, and the party latched onto that as better way to access the interior than slogging through impassible terrain on foot. It also seemed to be a more direct way to the fabled city, so they put dinosaur hunting aside for the moment  to search for another ruined city to loot.

The Wall

After a brief rest in the village, the party set sail north to the river, reaching the spot in one day. They couldn't find the river, however, just a swampy delta. Chaff sent Pretty Bird aloft to scout, and the familiar returned to report the river could be seen a few miles to the north-east, beyond the delta. It flowed from the north-east, down a valley of open meadow and light woods nestled between volcanic peaks. Rather than walk, the party decided to take the raft upriver. And rather than row it themselves, they offered the 5 captive mercenaries from the "Loreman's Passage" 100gp each to come along on the expedition as extra muscle and manual labour. This they accepted, and loading up the raft with two weeks of supplies, the party headed inland, leaving the two ships under Lynessa's command. 

The first day passed uneventfully, at least until the sun began to dip below the western peaks. The river passed close to a talus slope on one of the mountain flanks, at the top of which were a number of cave openings. From which could be heard the sound of bestial roaring. The party decided to stop and explore, spreading out along the slope and climbing up to the caves. They reached to top of the talus, and then had to proceed single file along the edge to approach the caves. As they did so, a smallish cave bear emerged from behind a pile of boulders. It fell upon Abdul el Abdul at the head of the line, slashing with claws and snapping with it's powerful jaws. The crossbowman just behind the fighter spread out down the slope to get in position to engage, while Jaz noted two more bears ambling out of the darkness of the cave, towards the rest of the party. While Abdul and the crossbowman dealt with the first bear, the other two were assailed by a sleep spell from Jaz (no effect), insect swarm from Chaff (which summoned a swarm of biting insects to harass one bear) and tidal force from Kwinsea (which pushed both back into the cave). By this time Abdul and the crossbowman had taken down the first bear, and now joined by Rodrigo and Corvus, turned their blades on the other two bruins, These two were likewise quickly slaughtered, and the party proceeded to explore the caves. These were empty except for bones and scat, and the party decided it would be better to spend the night on the raft.

Cave Bears

Next morning after a breakfast of bear bacon, the party headed upriver again. Again it was uneventful until evening, when they reached the point where the river was too rapid and shallow to continue on the raft. They pulled their transportation up on an ash covered bank, said ash field stretching right up onto the mountain slope above them. And in a hanging valley on that slope was a group of ash covered people, sitting in a circle. That made everyone nervous, so Abdul el Abdul ordered the crossbowmen to fire a volley.  Several bolts hit, raising a cloud of dust from the figures. And caused the figures to now rise themselves and start shambling down the slope. The party formed a firing line, and started laying down a barrage of arrows, bolts, sling stones, pistol shots and laser beams. The figures just kept coming, but some just started to fall to the missile swarm just as they reached the party. Who them proceeded to slash them down, while Chaff entangled some in a gooey mass of web and Rodrigo used his simian sword to summon a trio of baboons out of the hills to tear into the rear of the ash zombies. One of their crossbowman fell, but before too much longer all of the ashy attackers were down.  Examining the bodies, they found they were natives of some sort, wearing tall black wooden masks. And obviously now undead, although it was not clear what if any role the ash played in that circumstances. But all the same, the party once more decided to anchor the raft in midstream to spend the night before proceeding on foot in the morning. 

TOTAL XP

1813

GAINS

nil

KILLS

3 cave bears
17 ash zombies

LOSSES

1 mercenary crossbowman