Day three dawned and closed with little of note happening,
other than the fact that they advanced farther... oh, and of course Yuri managed
to write another one of his many and very delightful epic ballads.
On the fourth day, about mid-afternoon as the group
approached a water feature - which bore a striking resemblance to one they’d
seen before – a giant beetle burst forth from the sand chittering angrily as it
positioned itself to attack.
With lightning quick reflexes and a disgusted cry of, “Burn
you ugly thing!” the gnome spurred her
dog forward, levelling her hands as a blast of flame burst from them, singeing
the beetle slightly but doing very little else.
Olivine looked disappointed, “Aww.
It’s not on fire.”
Akura dismounted with a muttered command of “Stay” to his
horse and began to move around the rear of the bug.
Davros hurled a bomb, entangling the creature as Frelik,
inspired by Akura’s performance, leapt of his own horse, waved his arms around
over his head and shouted, “Stay!”
With a terrified whinny the horse turned and bolted.
“Damn.” The barbarian
muttered before charging into combat.
Reytard levelled his lance and charged as well, thrusting
the tip deep within the beast just next to its eye. With a shriek the beast lashed out at Frelik
in retaliation, slicing the barbarian with its vicious mandibles.
Olivine hurled some of her jelly-like electric green acid at
the thing, but again did very little damage, though it did draw the bug’s
attention her way. Seeing his
opportunity, Akura leapt on the thing from behind, slamming a fist into its
carapace as Davros hurled another bomb.
With a flash the bug disintegrated.
Threat averted, Reytard sighed heavily and rode out after
the barbarian’s horse, chasing it back and forth through the group until he
eventually got bored enough to calm the creature down and return it to Frelik
so they could continue to travel.
That evening, the barbarian roasted the beetle over an open
fire and feasted on its tender insides as the rest of the party ate their
rations and resisted the urge to vomit.
Mid morning on the fifth day, as they passed a small ruin
with a pair of faceless, ancient Thasillonian statues standing guard, something
large, low and shiny burst from behind one of the statues, screeching.
“A scorpion!” Reytard
yelled, “A big one!”
Davros, who had been toying with one of his many bombs
reacted quickest by hurling the small object in his hand at the scorpion,
singeing the carapace and sticking the thing to the ground.
“Time to make friends!” Reytard shouted with mad glee,
spurring his wolf forward and charging gloriously with his lance – only to have
the tip glance the creature’s hard outer shell.
Akura charged next, but missed as Frelik leapt violently
from his horse again, somehow managing to get it to stay put this time, in
spite of the cavalier’s loud and obvious sigh.
Frelik struck the creature solidly and it screamed with an almost human
shriek.
Olivine advanced and lifted her hands, spraying the thing
with a line of electric green goo which hissed as it ate away at the scorpion’s
carapace. With another shriek the
creature lashed out at Reytard, grappling the Halfling in one of its claws.
Davros hurled a bomb, missing horrendously for the first
time since Yuri had met him.
Taking care of his own business, Reytard used his one free
hand to swing his sword at the creature that was trying to get him in position
to sting him with its tail as his wolf, Cyrano, snarled and chomped at it.
“I’ll save you, Reytard!”
Akura shouted, whirling into a flurry of fists and feet as he clobbered
the thing into submission, surprising everyone when he managed to actually kill
it.
With a demented grin, the barbarian cut the claws off the
creature and carried them until camp, boiling them in one of Yuri’s giant pots
for dinner. Curiosity finally got the
better of Yuri and he shared in Frelik’s exotic meat feast as they kept watch
together (since both their partners were still lying, green and vomiting, in
the back of Yuri’s wagon after consuming Frelik’s earlier cat-steaks).
As they ate they noticed nothing of interest. Unfortunately, as it turned out, that wasn’t
because things were safe but simply because they weren’t paying close enough
attention - as they realized when a pair of gargoyles dropped out of the sky,
one of them scoring a hit across Frelik’s face before the barbarian had time to
react.
Kicking as many people awake as he could manage, Yuri
retreated to his wagon, determined to guard his prized possession (as well as
the supplies and two sick party members).
Doing a credible kip-up, Akura went from sleeping to charging
in the blink of an eye. He neared one of
the creatures and struck, only to have his blow bounce off its stony hide.
Reytard mounted his wolf, who was instantly alert being the
well-trained battle mount that he was, and charged the creatures. He hit, but it didn’t seem to do much
damage... seeing as how magic was needed to pierce their hard skin.
One of the gargoyles struck out at the barbarian again, who
went down with a shriek, the sound waking Olivine.
Akura hurled a flask at the gargoyles, splashing the
creatures with a shower of magical flame as Olivine positioned herself, lifted
her hands and unleashed a blast of rippling fire, blasting the creatures.
Frelik, looked a little grey, but mercifully didn’t seem to
bleeding out so Akura threw another flask of sparkling flame at the creature -
followed immediately by another blast of fire from the gnome who scored a solid
hit.
Planting his feet, Reytard proved his less than stellar
cognitive skills by taunting the gargoyles before him - who were more than
happy to oblige his challenge by smacking him in the face.
Finally waking up, Davros hurled a bomb at them, burning
them soundly and sticking them solidly to the sand. They shrieked in frustration.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Valeria chose that moment to
leap out of the back of the wagon with a savage war-cry, looking much healthier
than she had for days as she drew her guns and charged. Unfortunately she was slightly less than
effective.
Olivine, on the other hand, blasted them with another column
of fire, doing a very effective bit of damage as Davros hurled another
glue-bomb at the creatures, finally finishing one of them off.
The remaining creature began to panic. Akura grabbed the magical spear from Olivine
and stabbed the creature. It shrieked
and struggled harder against the glue from Davros’ bomb.
Valeria levelled her pistol and attempted to fire but at the
last second something tiny and winged resembling a desert bee flew up her
muzzle and the gun merely clicked, failing to do anything.
Olivine hurled some of her electric green goo and the remaining
creature’s skin hissed as it burned.
With a hideous shriek the creature broke free of the gluey
mass and attacked the monk but Davros’ next bomb finished it off, leaving the
two gargoyles very well cooked and quite dead.
Frelik immediately tried to find some part of the gargoyles to eat -
until Davros stopped him.
The next two days – six and seven - passed
uneventfully, Frelik and Valeria successfully hunting meat to help feed the party.
On day eight, as they rode hard across the pass, they sensed
a telltale shift in the winds which heralded an ember storm; a giant maelstrom
of flame that would sweep across the cinderlands, obliterating any life foolish
or unfortunate enough to be caught in the open.
Trying not to panic, the party rode hard until they came upon some
shelter in the form of a small complex of caves, the first of which was large
enough to house Yuri’s wagon and all the horses safely.
From the first cave they could see that there were a series
of smaller caves leading back off the first.
Knowing that the horses and goods were safe, the group decided to wait
out the firestorm by exploring.
Olivine waved her hands and four orbs of light sprang to
life above the group, lighting their way.
As they stepped around the first corner, a creature that looked
remarkably like the lust sin-spawn they’d face in the ossuary moved from the
shadows to block their path, its jaw opening and shifting to reveal a maw much
bigger than its face.
Akura hurled his final vial of sparkling alchemist’s fire at
it.
Valeria fired off a shot, cracking the creature in the
shoulder as Frelik charged in behind the bullet, slicing the thing open from
collarbone to crotch with his blade.
Investigating the spot where the creature had been standing,
Frelik discovered an opening into another cavern. The next room was dominated by a statue of a
heavy-set woman holding a mirror and a halberd.
It looked much like one of the statues from the runelord room in the
ossuary; the runelord of envy. Behind it
and to its left were rough-hewn hallways.
To the statue’s right was a dead end.
The halberd in the statue’s hand looked real and very valuable. Frelik yanked it out of the statue’s hand and
handed it back to Yuri to hold.
Frelik pressed on down the narrow hallway behind the statue on
his own, finding a door at the end which he cautiously pushed open. Inisde he found a small, round room with a
pool of water in the centre. The floor
was covered in blood and a single goblin corpse lay sprawled on the floor. On the opposite side of the pool a
mushroom-like creature shifted and growled.
Akura approached Frelik’s back just as the barbarian shut
the door and replaced the latch saying, “There’s a crazy mushroom thing in
there. And I know a thing or two about
mushrooms; you don’t want to eat them if you don’t know what they are.”
“What’s going on down there?” Valeria shouted from the mouth of the hall.
Frelik shouted back, “There’s a fucked-up mushroom thing in
there.”
“Sounds like a Violet Fungus.” Davros called back, though how he knew that
from what little information he’d been given was a mystery to Yuri, “Draw it
out into the hallway and we’ll kill it.”
Without hesitation the monk darted back down the hall as the
barbarian opened the door before following, taunting the creature to chase him.
It obliged, lurching half-way down the hall into a flurry of
ranged attacks and bombs, most of which blew chunks off of it.
“Go ahead guys,” Davros shouted, “It’s tangled!”
On that news Akura darted past the mushroom and attacked it
from behind as Frelik charged it from the front. After a few swings they managed to put it
down, reducing it to a pile of inert vegetation. Yuri half expected the barbarian to slice of
a chunk of the creature for some future mushroom soup, but Frelik surprised him
by demonstrating a rare moment of intelligence and leaving the thing to rot.
XP from last session is 965 each.
ReplyDelete