Session One Hundred and Forty-One (Graveyard of Empires Summary)
Session #141 : Into the Heart of Darkness 2: Electric Boogaloo
27 Tan’Relden – 7:30pm
After successfully raising the Skiff, we head off towards the river – skimming about 60 fit off the water.
Max speed 40 miles/hour, 60ft ceiling.
We notice shattered trees – likely the result of the giant automaton towards the west the team partially uncovered.
We decided to fly towards where the automaton was and we fly-over Elessandro and his men who were spooked by our ship.
We spot the damage likely caused by the berserker automaton. It seems to be dragging itself as there are deep furrows in the ground.
We follow the furrows – and find a dead dragon – or what looks like a dead river dragon (based on descriptions). Looks like there was fight between it and some else big – likely the automaton.
The furrows continue towards the swamp. Thorfus tries to scan for the automaton but no luck.
Chuck wants to investigates and jumps down – Thorfus lowers himself by rope.
Chuck and Thorfus approach the “body” and speak with Captain Arnt – who explains that something attacked a festival dragon – a costume really – and two local kids were killed when the automaton (we think) pounded/crushed it to crap.
Guard was waiting on Cpt Elessandro to come back from investigating a hunch – likely the resting place of the Automaton.
Chuck and Thorfus tell the guard to give Cpt Elessandro their regards and climb on back aboard. Chuck scambles up easily, Edan tips barge as Thorfus climbs as if Thorfus was pulling the ship down.
We follow the furrow to the edge of the fields and into to swamp, but it’s direction is unclear.
We move further west in the hopes to get it into view – all the way to the river.
But we have no luck – nothing that we can pick out. So we decide to fly north over the swamp to wards the Greyflood/Vargwater.
2nd hour – As we fly, we pass nearby the Cultist’s camp – but we elect not to scare them. 😉
3d hour – still nothing to see, except towards the end of the hour we spot some lights- fires behind some kind of stockade around a small village. Use spyglass and see : 5 or 6 buildings – one definitely a smithy with a livestock pen. Many temporary dwellings – tents and shacks – most likely lizardmen, but are clothed and not obvious tails. Axel confirms they are the like the Lizardmen he encountered – can’t confirm they were friendly or not, they warned him away before they were all killed by lightning balls.
4th hour : Chuck has Sarathos adjust the parrot’s mindset to help us scan around the ship. Lights catch Thorfus’ eyes – lights that seem to be converging on the skiff. Blue-ish – white lights that fade in and out and are zig-zagging.Moving very quickly. Spyglass shows balls of lights with tails.
They are the same things that killed the Lizardmen Axel encountered. Everyone is awake except Edan. Thorfus turns west hoping to outrun them. Axel and Ronin prepare to fire – Axel with his suit, Ronin with an arbalest bolt. Axel misses – but Ronin hits and one seems to waver and break-off and we do so – leaving them behind as we outpace them. Axel and Ronin fire arrows for target practice taking one down. Chuq also fires and hits one, veers off and stops following.
5th hour: We approach the Vargwater and can see the Greyflood tributary. We follow the river – hoping to get to our destination quickly. We see some old docks, by a village – but no lights. Axel figures it could be the same village he stumbled upon on route back to us.
6th hour: we continue following – still easy going.
7th hour: we continue following – still easy going. Ronin spots a rather large lizard – a dinosaur, similar to a Pachycephalosaurus (head-butting dino).
8th hour: (3AM) sky lightening up – making it difficult to see. Ronin starts to keep an eye out for the landing and looks like he’s spotted the landing we were looking for. Edan wakes as do the others.
We dock. But everything looks eerie – so we decided to hide the barge further away at a tributary. We hide the ship. Edan hides his chest under the floor of the barge. We take out the batteries.
DAWN : 28th of Tan’ Relden
We bushwhack our way back to the landing. We investigate the smaller of the two building (small hut) – empty, simple residence. Nothing interesting.
We check out the barn – Edan hears nothing – Axel “door-kicker” murphy open the door. We find an empty barn.
Seems like the place has been abandoned for a while.
We begin to head up the northern path and it heads west – marching for 4 hours with not much issue.
Afternoon – about noon-ish. 20 minutes later we find a battle scene – crushed cart, blood on the ground – crushed/trampled ground. We find a body in a tree- obviously dead – we get him down. We don’t recognize him. We find a pouch of gold & platinum – peculiar stamp with a letter J (Jagger?) – the pouch is pocketed by Edan.
Ronin follow the path of the creature – but doesn’t see much other than more destruction. Chuck follows and they go in about 50 feet. We all hear a roar and decide best not stick around.
Chuck and Ronin rejoin the group and we continue up the path.
Occasionally we hear crashing to the north and get the feeling that we’re being watched.
As we go up (altitude) jungle and crashing sounds diminish.
Uneventful until 4PM – still nothing. Undergrowth not so thick.
As evening falls we look for a spot to deploy Thorfus’ portable fortress for the night. We find a pot a little north of the path and set up for the night and set up watch.
Ronin through most of his watch doesn’t spot anything special – except towards the end when he noticed a large heat signature with wavy tentacles. Chuck scans it – not intelligent, but hungry and in pain. 8 heads – possibly. Crap – a hydra. A Thesselhydra!
Next morning we head on. By mid-day we crest and look down into a closed valley – with a Tower in the middle. The tower is surrounded by walls and towers. A huge fortress – Jagger’s fortress.
As we watch – Socrates appears with news – after feeding & healing. He describes nightmare creatures – multi-armed apes, with human faces, half-spiders found throughout the valley. He also says that Finklemur is gone, taken by the Dark One’s forces (based on the owl’s description) and used to fight giants in & around some caves. The Owl has barely remained alive, thanks to a helpful mutated creature.
We stop to contemplate our next move. Chuck & Ronin would love to take on Jagger, but Thorfus/Axel seem reluctant – Edan thinks it would be a bad idea, besides, if we fail our greater mission it would be a moot point as we’d all be toast.