Far Isles Session #71 - H'sslik the Lizard Wizard from Beyond Time

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Chaff (Vivimancer 5), with familiar Pretty Bird and Riding Dog Puppy Whuppy

Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 5)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes 
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 5) 


As the party stood staring at the sphincter in the floor, Torak suddenly disappeared and was replaced by Rodrigo, thanks to some kind of weird space-time continuum hiccup. Nonplussed, the rest of the party turned back to the floor. Still nervous about jumping in the hole, they questioned their captive once more. The lizard man confirmed his master lay below, that there was an uncertain number of other lizard men around, and the lizard men had captured a number of sailors from the wreck of the "Star Runner" (two of which were still alive). When asked what happened to the other humans, the lizard man replied with a grin that they were 'used', whatever that was supposed to mean. Regardless, the party decided to checkout the other two membrane doors before trying to go below.

Beyond the first was a generally empty, fleshy space, but with four pools in the floor. One of which was surrounded by a dozen silver poles, 6' tall. Against the far wall was another of the egg-structures. The party cautiously checked the pools. They were filled with a thick yellow, microbiological smelling liquid. Lowering poles, ropes and sacks into the liquid caused no harm to the objects. Questioning their captive did not result in any useful information about the pools, but further prodding about the egg revealed he and his companions had 'slept in them until the world changed'. Humm, some sort of statis field or time machine it would seem.  Chaff went over to the  silver poles, and cautiously tried pulling one out of the floor. It came easily, the hole in the floor closing moments later. Not sure of it's purpose, the little vivmancer carried it away none the less. Moving next to the last membrane door, the party found that this opened into yet another similar looking room. This one was characterized by a line of six statis-eggs along the far wall, and another elevator platform like the one they used to enter the central dome. In addition, lashed to the walls and floor and ceiling by tendrils growing out of the dome was a large collection of objects. Close inspection showed these were mundane things such as ropes and tools and barrels, but of wholly alien manufacture.

Taking leave of this last room, the party returned to the odd passage in the floor. Many plans of how to get down the hole and into the area where 'the master' lurked hatched, but in the end Chaff volunteered to peak through. But only after tying a rope around his waist which Awg would hold just in case.  Chaff squeezed his head into the sphincter; Awg could feel the vivimancer being sucked away, but the calmonari was able to hold tight and pull him out. Once he popped out, Chaff reported that a long tube formed on the other side, leading down into the room below. He couldn't see much of the room itself, however, just that it was of similar structure as those above but larger in size. Well, just as well to go down, so with Chaff taking lead, the party slipped one by one through the sphincter.

H'sslik the Lizard Wizard

Chaff landed first, finding himself in a round chamber. There were four membrane doors leading out, three of which were on the other side of a large pool of water. In the centre was a series of tables or benches of organic origin, seemingly formed out of the fleshy floor of the room. Standing there was an old lizard man in robes, puttering away at something on the benches, while facing Chaff were two more of the Neanderthal-ish lizard men, clubs and nets raised. Chaff raised his hands to show he meant no harm, keeping his distance from the guards. As the others started to arrive, the two guards continued to hold back, while the old wizard turned to see what was going on with only mild interest. When the captive lizard man appeared out of the tube, the two guards hissed and growled in anger, and that was enough for Chaff. He dropped a web, catching two guards (including their first captive) and the lizard wizard in the sticky strands. The sole remaining guard stood it's ground warily, and the lizard wizard looked on the party with full interest now, mostly looking annoyed. Unable to move thanks to the web, he did make a few weird croaking sounds and then cocked his head to one side as if listening. Awg pulled out the Mother of Pearl Egg and addressed the lizard wizard. The calmonari assured him, as one aquatic creature to another, that the party meant no harm.  They were merely being cautious, and were curious about this place. Awg then passed the egg to the lizard wizard and told him it would allow him to speak with them, but they would have to pass it back and forth to have a conversation. Holing the egg in his clawed hand, the lizard wizard (H'sslik by name) hissed that he could understand the party and could converse without the egg if they would free him from the web. That wasn't about to happen right now, so the two sides talked through the egg and through the protection of the web.

The conversation was long and winding and difficult to follow at times, but the party learned quite a

Basil the Talking Fish

bit. First of all, H'sslik and his guards hailed from a time long past when the master races ruled these isles and men were no more than 'ape-slaves'. Just how long ago that was the party couldn't tell for sure as H'sslik kept referring to an untranslatable period of time called a 'saros'; but it was certainly in the range of thousands of years. When the ape-slaves rose in revolt, H'sslik chose to escape by hiding his dome in the jungle  and going into statis (i.e the eggs); unfortunately, he miscalculated the statis field and they ended up staying under much longer than planned. The party also gradually came to learn the H'sslik was not quite right in the head; it seems that when he finally came out of statis, the long duration had fried more than a few neurons. The first thing he observed when he emerged was the tropical fish swimming in the lagoon, and he has been obsessed with 'his pretties' ever since. He was the one creating the weird hybrids the party encountered in the bay, and they could see more mutant fish swimming about in the pool of water. Some of the fish were raw material, and some hybrids. Including a talking fish by the name of Basil, who now had the brain and voice box of a sailor from the "Star Runner". They learned many of the crew survived the wreck, but were captured on shore by the lizard men. They were then put in tanks full of water or fluid, given sustenance and air by tubes. The crew were removed one by one and disappeared, and when it was Basil's turn, he ended by on a dissecting table in the middle of the room. Next thing he knew his consciousness was in the body of a fish; where he was now quite happy.  Basil also pointed out a few of the other mutant fish, including one covered in pearls.

While the conversation was going on, Chaff checked out the membrane doors. Each led into a narrow curved room with tanks formed into the walls. Each room held a different type of creature; the first held two humans from the "Star Runner", floating in fluid and sustained by tubes growing from the walls. The other three contained tropical fish, amphibians (frogs, salamanders, turtles, etc), and mollusks (clams, scallops, oysters, etc) respectively. When he returned and asked H'sslik about them, the lizard wizard confirmed they were raw materials for his experiments. Chaff questioned him about that, all the while poking around at the work benches. The vivmancer learned that H'sslik seemed to be practicing some combination of ur-vivimancy combined with surgery and some kind of innate mental abilities to make his creatures. He also learned that the dome was somehow an extension of H'sslik, and provided sustenance, power and life force to him. It also acted as a recorder or memory, and H'sslik could see what had happened throughout his long statis, as least what happened in the general vicinity of the dome and island. He told the party about the mists, how they would come and go, and each time they lifted different creatures would appear to explore. It seemed the mists somehow moved the Far Isles from place to place or from time to time, and would lift to allow those on the periphery to enter the isles. When queried about the time frame, H'sslik was a bit vague, but each lifting of the mist was relatively short, just a few years at most before they closed in again for a very long time, isolating the isles mostly from each other and whatever was in the outside world for 'many saros'.

By this time the party had decided H'sslik was basically harmless, and decided to cut he and his henchmen loose. They talked to him about the pools in the room above, and he told them they were for healing and rejuvenation. When asked if the party could use them, he seemed OK with the idea, but warned they were not tuned to 'ape-slave' physiology. Still worth trying, so Kwinsea headed back to the "Purple Haze" to bribe Jaz into taking a dip.  The elf was strong-armed into resting in the pool overnight, and when pulled out the next morning was fulling healed and functional. Unfortunately, her tongue had grown to enormous size and strength. knocking her front teeth out when she tried to talk. And of course, she was now unable to cast spells until that little problem could be solved. While Kwinsea gathered Jaz's teeth, the rest of the party negotiated with  H'sslik. They agreed to bring him back example of new pretty fish found in their exploration; in return, they could make use of the pools for healing. The lizard wizard agreed; he also provided some info about the surrounding islands. In particular, that the other island labeled on Ondry's map has a 'ape-slave' city on it; or at least did about 20-30 years ago, which was the time limit of the dome's monitoring ability. With that information, Kwinsea finally deciphered the writing on the map; it was 'smoking ruin'. Well, didn't look like there was a city there now.

Isle of the Smoking Ruins

With that, the party took their leave of H'sslik and returned to the "Purple Haze". They directed Lynessa to set sail to the east, and after a half day fair sailing arrived off the smoking island. It consisted of a volcanic peak, long dormant based on the amount of jungle grown right to the top. They anchored off a shallow bay where there were signs of civilization; a few wooden docks with boats tied up. They were in poor repair, and several boasts had slipped their lines and either run aground or sunk. If didn't look like anyone had been here for weeks or months. There was also sign of a road or path leading up the mountain to a plateau or hanging valley, where a thin wisp of smoke rose into the air. The party opted to not go ashore right away, but had Lynessa sail around the island first. They found nothing else of interest, and anchored once more off the shallow bay for the night. The night passed without incident, at least until Chaff came on watch just as dawn was breaking. He spied a sail, glowing warmly in the light of the rising sun, bearing down on them from then northwest. He raised the alarm, and the party and crew rushed on deck to prepare for what may come ...

TOTAL XP
4080

GAINS
1 six foot silver pole

KILLS

2 Neanderthal-ish Lizardman (Captured)
H'sslik the Lizard Wizard from Beyond Time (Captured)

LOSSES

None

Far Isles Session # 70 - The Dome

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Chaff (Vivimancer 5), with familiar Pretty Bird and Riding Dog Puppy Whuppy

Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 5)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes 
Torak (Cleric 5) 

The Dome (Pretty-Bird View)

With no obvious entrance into the jungle, Kwinsea and Awg elected to slide into the surf, looking for an intelligent looking fish for the calmonari to charm, and on which the aquamancer could cast speak with aquatic animals. Meanwhile, Torak sent his troglodyte zombies to beat the tree line and see if anything was flushed out by the activity; nothing was. In the water, the swimming duo encountered the same array of weirdly mutated tropical fish, before settling on another fang fish for their conversation. While the creature was of little intelligence, it did tell them there were no sharks or other large fish-like things around, and there was a ship wreck off the end of the beach. Investigating, they found the relatively new wreck of a vessel of Xin-ish design named the "Star Runner".  It had run aground on a rock off the end of the beach, leaving a few partially decomposed bodies among the debris but not nearly enough to account for the full crew. Awg and Kwinsea guessed any survivors may have made it ashore after running aground. There was little else of interest, so they returned to the beach, questioning their toothed friend some more along the way. They learned that it (and presumably all the rest of the weird fish) were created or born on the island itself. The fish told of a non-human 'upright' creature who made the fishes, and that the fish had swum out though a tunnel under the island to reach the open sea. Asked to show them the tunnel, the fish led them to a spot about 10' off the beach. Brushing away some sand with his fins, he revealed a partially sand-clogged opening , consisting of a 3' diamter round tube of some rubbery or leathery material. Kwinsea and Awg returned to the beach to confer with the rest of the party, where Chaff now sent Pretty Bird aloft to check out the interior. He spied, through the parrots eyes, a strange fleshy dome about 100' high sitting in a depression in the jungle. The jungle was a little thinner in this area, and there were some signs of cleared paths and similar intelligent activity. 

Everyone decided using the ebony fly to reach the dome was easier than swimming/crawling through the tube. So with a tearful goodbye from Awg's new fishy friend, the party was airlifted one by one into the jungle. Once there, they circumnavigated the dome, looking for a way in. There was no obvious door though the rubbery/leathery material, but on the south-east side was a 7' diameter circle of thin membrane. Torak pushed the hilt of his dagger into the taut material, which after a bit of force gave way, and the dagger seemed to pass inside the structure. Awg meanwhile put his ear to the dome to listen; there was nothing to hear but the calmonari did note that the material was warmer than would be expected based on the surrounding air temperature. Though starting to get slightly creeped out, the party decided to enter. Although Kwinsea gulped back an antitoxin dose just in case. 

Green Spitter

Inside, the dome looked like an paleontological greenhouse, with a riot of primitive ferns, vines, and massive, colourful flowers. They could see a pool of water off to the right, and in the middle was another structure of the same rubbery/ leathery material.  As the party circled around it, they found the greenhouse was torus-shaped with a tapering tower (which joined with the roof overhead) filling the centre. The pool (and a second one found further along) was of salt water. They were not deep, but the bottoms were rather undulating so it was difficult to see clearly was was down there.  It was also difficult to see through the green riot of plants, so when a 8' tall frilled dinosaur-like creature burst out of the undergrowth, the party was surprised.  It lunged at Torak and his undead henchman, spitting at the cleric's face. Torak dodged, but then the beast lashed out with claws and teeth as the cleric retreated behind his zombie bodyguards. Meanwhile, Awg scrambled up a vine to get a better shot with his laser pistol, while Kwinsea used her prismatic ray gem, unfortunately hitting one of the zombies which was at the same time being chewed on by the green spitter.  Chaff finished off that zombie (oops!) with another laser shot, while the green spitter chomped the second undead to pieces, opening up a path to attack the party. It did not last long, however, as a couple of laser blasts from Awg and stabbing from the party brought it down. None to soon, as a second spitter attacked from behind, bit it fell quickly to more laser blasts, pistol shots, and a bonewarp from Chaff. 

Primitive Lizardman

The party performed some first aid while Awg plucked a dino tooth from one of the fallen to add to his collection. And Torak used animate dead to replace his lost troglodytes zombies with a new improved green spitter zombie. With the zombie in the lead, the party continued their exploration of the eerily quiet jungle-scape. They once more found no obvious (or non-obvious) doors into the interior. Kwnisea did find one unusual thing; a 2' by 1' shelf in the side of the inner wall, forming an alcove just about the right shape and size to stand in. As the rest of the party gathered round to look, the aquamancer bravely stepped onto the shelf. The wall began to ripple and in a matter of seconds, it had engulfed the spellcaster. She had the sensation of being swallowed upward, and the rest of the party could see a Kwinsea-shaped bulge rise just over halfway up the wall before disappearing. She had in fact been vomited into the interior of the structure, and was standing in a mostly empty room formed of the same leathery/rubbery material. The floor was oddly lumpy, there was a white egg-like structure against  the north wall, and another membrane door to the west. And in the centre was a huge, primitive looking lizardman scooping and slurping handfuls of something liquid out of a fleshy font in the middle of the room. It turned on Kwinsea, and grabbing up a big club and net, cautiously approved. Kwinsea tried to talk to it, but it continued to advance, so she choose the cast tidal force to keep it away. The lizardman hissed in rage as the rest of the party (less the zombie spitter and Puppy Whuppy) started to arrive, and it turned in rage to Kwinsea. Unable to reach the aquanacer, the lizardman seemed to think hard and suddenly a series of flesh pillars rose out of the floor to trap Kwinsea in a corner. The rest of the party tied and bound the creature, who was then convinced by threat of force to drop the pillars. It did, and Kwinsea, after trying all her linguistic skill, learned she could have a very stilted conversation with the lizardman using her shaky grasp of troglodyte. It spoke about a master which they figured out was another lizardman or similar, not the dome itself. She also asked it about the egg; Chaff had examined that thing, which was open on the front and full of tendrils that tried to grab his staff when it stuck it in the cavity. The lizardman indicated he had been in the egg once, but it wasn't clear what the purpose the thing served.

They party then moved on, out through the membrane door with the lizardman in the lead. The next chamber was even more empty than the first. There were membrane doors to the north and west, while in the centre of the room was a sphincter-like structure in the floor. When prodded, the lizardman revealed it led down to the Master. The party also noticed the walls, curved convex towards them in this room, seem to move slightly in and out in a bellows-like motion. Now what ...

TOTAL XP
520

GAINS
None

KILLS

1 Neanderthal-ish Lizardman (Captured)
2 Green Spitters

LOSSES

None

Far Isles Session #69 - The Deal Goes South

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 5) with henchman Corvus (Fighter 3)

Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 5)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes 
Torak (Cleric 5) 

Sizing up their somewhat perilous situation, Awg decided to stop gorging on the buffet and have a serous discussion with Ondry. The calmonari frankly laid out what he saw was going on; matters were coming to an impasse and seemed likely to end in a welter of blood and death. Maybe instead the two parties could come to an amicable arrangement from which they would both benefit?  Ondry twitched slightly and licked his lips at the mention of blood, but pulled himself to together and agree that they could make a deal. He wanted passage home, and offered to pay the party for transporting him and a small entourage back to the Coral Cays. When asked who would be in this entourage, Ondry mentioned a few troglodyte servants and his children. Children, asked Kwinsea? At that, Ondry pulled open his voluminous shirt to reveal two small, grey-skinned humanoids suckling at his chest. When the aquamancer questioned him further about the children, Ondry gruffly and rudely rebuffed her, making some comments about woman should have stayed subservient and the like. When questioned about payment for passage, he offered 3000g and a pair of magic items. Questioned about those items, Ondry started to rage and snarl about 'not having taken my whole household with me' and stated some of the reward would be paid upon arrival in the Coral Cays. To prove he did have coinage to give, Ondry reach behind his seat, pulled out a handful of gold coin,s and scattered them on the floor at the party's feet. 

Feeling a bit stuck between a rock and a hard-place (and hoping they could better deal with the strange man when they had him on board the "Purple Haze" on their own terms, and without all his supporting troglodytes), the party agreed to the bargain. Ondry heaved himself out of his cushioned  chairs, and started to direct some of the troglodytes to start packing his belongs. He didn't speak to them, but relied on pointing and gestures. Kwinsea confirmed Ondry could not actually speak troglodyte by addressing him in her slight grasp of that language, provoking another misogynistic barrage of snarls from him.  This gave her an idea, so with Rodrigo along for protection, she went to talk to the rest of the troglodytes, to find out more about Ondry and maybe flip the reptile-men to their side. She learned only that they regarded him as a god, mainly due to his size and strength and ability to turn into a blessed 'monsterous' form. They were reluctant to let Ondry leave them, but bowed to the will of their god to leave, hoping he would return. And they most certainly were not going to turn against him.

Meanwhile, Awg swam out towards the "Purple Haze" to prepare the ship and crew for their 'guest'.

Ondry

This left Corvus (and an invisible Torak) alone in the pavilion with Ondry. The grey-skinned man surreptitiously eyed the big fighter, occasionally twitching and snarling. After Kwinsea, Rodrigo and Awg had been gone a short while, Ondry finally lost control. With a snarl and a roar, he suddenly transformed into a much taller, much more muscular figure, with a sharks head and mighty clawed fists. With his two 'children' in tow, the were-shark charged across the room and fell on the unfortunate fighter.  Corvus managed to dodge some blows, but the three beasts were to much, and it was not long before a massive bite from Ondry ended the fighter's life. Before he expired, Corvus was able to yell a warning to the rest of the party, including sharp-eared Awg who had nearly reached the "Purple Haze". The calmonari turned around and started to swim back to shore to help, while Kwinsea and Rodrigo turned to leave the troglodytes and rush to help. As she ran, however, Kwinsea tried to talk to the troglodytes once more, to get them to help the party. But the reptile-men once more were not convinced, and though momentarily confused by what was going on, it was likely they would fall on the party's rear in the coming fight. So Kwinsea stopped and aimed her wand of fear, sending all but one troglodyte running away in fear. And that last one, finding himself now alone, turned and joined his fellows in their flight.

Back in the tent, Torak now came into view, surprising the were-shark and his lessor kin and the remaining troglodytes. The cleric held one lessor were-shark, then commanded the other to commit 'patricide'. He then found himself pinned against the tent wall by a pair of troglodyte servants, and ineffectually flailed away at the pair as they struck at him with their spears. Rodrigo then arrived, leaping over his fallen henchman to drive at Ondry with his swords. As he sliced and diced, Kwinsea rushed in and lined up for a lightning bolt on Ondry and his children. By this point, the were-shark was starting to look battered, and tried to bull-rush past Rodrigo and run for the sea. He didn't make it though, as the swashbuckler cut him down as he passed by. That still left one lessor were-shark and a handful of troglodyte servants, which despite all the party's efforts, still managed to stay standing. Kwinsea used her tidal force to push them back, which allowed Rodrigo to cut them down one by one and finally rescue Torak from his assailants. By this point, however, the feared troglodytes had returned and the party found themselves once more in a fight. Awg also arrived by this point to help out, Torak donned his invisibility ring once more to hide from further attacks, and Rodrigo flipped  over a table to knock several of his attackers off their feet. In the end it was too much for the now leaderless troglodytes, and the remainder turned and fled into the jungle. 

Ondry's Map

With the battle over, the party now helped themselves to Ondry's reward. While Rodrigo swept a silver tea-set and crystal decanter off the table and into a sack, Kwinsea searched behind the chair where a pile of pillows, throws, and full sacks lay. The sacks were stuffed with human body parts in various states of decay, and at the bottom of all the clutter was a locked chest. Kwinsea and Awg both checked it for traps, and finding nothing, had Rodrigo pry it open with Corvus' crowbar. Inside they found a pile of gold and silver coins, but nothing more (even after Kwinsea checked the bottom for secret compartments).  They did find a crude map, however. It showed a string of islands just east of their current location, and then a gap of several days sailing to another island; this chart seemed to show the route Ondry had taken to reach the isle of the stone ships. Several of the islands along the way were labeled; one with 'fish' and another with '???? ruins".

Having looted the pavilion, they party discussed whether they should check out the nearby quarry pits. They decided not to, having learned earlier they were the home of the troglodytes, and a) not wanting to fight more troglodytes at the moment and b) figuring the reptile-men had little of value anyway. So they buried the unfortunate Corvus (after taking his stuff), then hauled their loot back to the reef and used the ships boat to bring it and them aboard the "Purple Haze". Examining Ondry's map, they decided to follow his track back to the Coral Cays and see what adventure awaited them in those new isles. Along the way they would check out the other islands. So after a night's rest (and another trip to the island by Torak to animate a pair of fallen troglodytes as zombie servants), they had Lynessa raise sail and fighting a NE wind, headed to the east. 

Bite-y Fish

It was mid afternoon when they reached the first island on the chart, the one marked 'fish'. It was a rather nondescript jungle covered island, with a rocky wave-crashed shore on the north side and a small shallow cove with a white sandy beach on the south. Lynessa would take the "Purple Haze" no closer as the water as too shallow, so they party had the ships' boat lowered into the water to row ashore. Torak had his odoriferous zombie servants man the oars, which drove both Kwinsea and Awg into the water the swim behind, while Rodrigo and the cleric stayed aboard. As they crossed the shallow bay, they could see a riot of weird and colourful fish swimming about. Awg used his aquatic telepathy to get a sense of their intent, and got mostly neutral fishy thoughts and a bit of hostility. The hostility became evident as they moved towards shore, as there were two attacks. One by a large fish that shot a long sticky tongue at Rodrigo and tried to haul him in the water; the swashbuckler was able to cut the tongue off before tumbling overboard and the wounded fish swam away. The second was a great toothed monster that tried to chomp on Awg and Kwinsea in the water; Kwnisea swallowed her revulsion and climbed into the boat while Awg used the shark tooth spear to transform into a mako shark to out-fang the fish and kill it. After that, they reached the beach without further incident. Looking around, they could see nothing but sand and jungle with no obvious route into the greenery. What to do now ....

TOTAL XP
3106

GAINS
Elaborate Silver Tea Service (500gp)
Crystal Decanter (150gp total)
321gp
2300sp

KILLS

Ondry the Were-Shark
Two lessor were-shark 'children'
5 subservient troglodytes

LOSSES

Corvus