Session 20

The party: 

• Ploikal, orange MU4 (TM)
• Xull, orange F1 (JW)
• Gorakal, orange T4 (JH)
• Konn, orange F1 (NtH)
• Kaplull, white T1 (HB)
• Pholgon, purple F3 (MG)

Treasure: 

From the crashed visitors’ spaceboat:

Engine core parts (1440 SP), savage-looking surgeons’ tools (95 SP), potion of x-ray vision, potion of giant’s strength, silver gauntlet with claws (58 SP), gold reliquary (350 SP), white ceramic armor (plate +1), silver navigator goggles (35 SP), etched gold star charts (5×180 SP), jet black and red lacquered gravity hammer (war hammer +1).

From the bone crusher hollow tree lair:

Amber gems (7×100 SP), wrought silver torc (300 SP), wrought gold locket (1700 SP), silver and gold cloak clasp (1000 SP), wrought silver dagger (1300 SP), gold with amethyst gems coronet (900 SP).

XP: 2878 + 5900 = 8778 XP.

Casualties: None.

Report: 

• During downtime, Gorakal messes around with the laser crossbow they recovered previously and figures out its workings without attracting too much attention.
• Ploikal studies some treasure for potential magical properties, does some trading, and talks to exiles from Buraith about their plans to break into the ruin of the crashed Visitor spaceboat.

Day 1

• They decide to go to Buraith with the exiles to break into the space boat ruin, to see what riches it holds. The exiles hope to find a means of contacting the Visitors to save them from this dying planet and the tyrannical reign of the sorcerer king Zul.
• Two black-skinned exiles, Rhun and Yanna, accompany them.
• They make their way through the Iron Slopes and the Laughing Wastes. They come across a pack of bone crusher dogs but manage to avoid them. At dusk, they arrive near the ruin. The nearby village has indeed been raised by Zul’s men. The ruin is left surprisingly unguarded.
• They make camp and divide up watches.
• Xull spends the evening scraping away dirt from the top of the hill that is supposed to be the space boat ruin and uncovers a piece of glass canopy. Inside, he sees several mummified Visitor corpses in chairs sat at banks of strange machinery.
• In the middle of the night, they are ambushed by a swineling search party, still looking for the lost armor of the hero Phoibos. A combination of mind control, sleep, and old-fashioned butchery make mincemeat out of the poor creatures.

Day 2

• They bash open the canopy of the space boat, fix a rope with a grappling hook, and climb inside.
• They climb down a ladder through a manhole in the center of the cockpit’s floor and enter an engine room. A huge ochre jelly is hugging the central engine core, ignoring them. The mummified corpse of what must have been a Visitor engineer lies on the floor, an overturned toolbox next to it.
• Pholgon and Kaplull pass through a north door into a circular corridor.
• Konn heads further down into what turns out to be a gun turret.
• The rest head back up, attach a torch to a pole, and poke the jelly with it. The torch dissolves with a hiss, the monster shudders in pain, detaches from the engine, and moves towards the ladder and up towards the cockpit.
• Ploikal, Gorakal, and Xull scramble up the rope and out of the ship. The jelly follows.
• They fire at it with missile weapons, and it splits into two halves, which continue to creep up towards the hole in the canopy. The adventurers retreat further.
• Meanwhile, Konn’s torch goes out just when he spots a fancy-looking hammer on the belt of the gunner’s mummified corpse.
• Pholgon and Kaplull return to the engine room, pull tools from the toolbox, and begin to dismantle the engine, collecting valuable-looking parts.
• Back outside, Ploikal, Gorakal, and Xull defeat the jelly with a combination of shots fired from the laser crossbow and a fire magic spell that Ploikal once learned from the spirit that resides in the crystal forest near Batbeng.
• Inside, now that light has returned to the engine room, Konn manages to grab the hammer from the belt of the gunner and clambers back up.
• The engine is fully dismantled.
• The party continues their exploration. They head through the door into the corridor.
• The first room they enter is a mess hall. Remains of a meal made of what must have been a very large crab are scattered about.
• The next room contains several tanks and cabinets. Inside three of the tanks are Visitor soldiers, seemingly asleep or dead. They appear sickly.
• Xull finds a shiny white ceramic armor in one of the cabinets and proceeds to put it on.
• They wake up one of the soldiers inside the tank, and it turns out to be a zombie. The tank is opened, the zombie climbs out and makes to attack people.
• The exiles worship the Visitors and are dismayed to see the adventurers destroy the zombie with extreme prejudice.
• The next Visitor zombie turns out to be slightly more articulate and less aggressive, but not by much. It mostly desires a crab meal, which the exiles ultimately agree to help find it find, and together, they leave.
• The final zombie is the most lucid and friendly of the bunch despite its scary-looking silver gauntlet with sharp claws. It tells of the invasion fleet they were once part of, led by “The Admiral,” and how they were going to take over Planet Karus. When they decide they have gotten all useful information out of it, the party destroy it and remove its claw.
• The party also removes a gold reliquary of a lotus-posed alien humanoid from the wall.
• The exploration continues. Another room with strange machines and two mummified Visitors yields several etched gold star charts, as well as a curious pair of goggles made of silver that are worn by one of the Visitors.
• Another room holds a large walk-in freezer. Another Visitor’s corpse lies on the floor. The Visitor zombie arrives with the two exiles, in search of crab. The door to the freezer is opened, the zombie enters, and noises of a fight emerge. Shortly afterwards the zombie staggers out, missing an arm, its abdomen cut open as well. Two massive space crabs are in pursuit.
• The crabs make short work of the zombie and then face off against the party. They turn out to be the toughest adversaries of the expedition yet, nearly felling the fighter Pholgon. But ultimately, the party prevails.
• Ploikal harvests crab shells from the creatures, enough to potentially fabricate two plate armor suits from the things.
• A final room appears to be a surgery. The door makes ominous noises once it closes behind them. Mummified corpses of a Visitor surgeon and nurses are scattered about. The party takes some vicious-looking surgery tools and several potions.
• On the way out, they hammer some spikes into the door so that it stays open. Just in case.
• Satisfied that they have exhausted what the ship has to offer, they exit the way they came.
• They pack all their acquisitions onto their large flightless bird steeds and begin their journey back.
• While camping out in the wilderness that night, a blue T-rex discovers them. Ploikal awakes just in time to distract it with a phantasmal force illusion of a comely mate, and lures it away, over the horizon.

Day 3

• On the second day of travel back to Batbeng they come across a group of twelve gremlins and a large lizard, carrying furniture, indifferent to the presence of the party.
• They arrive in Batbeng and have their riches appraised.
• They talk to Euedos about turning crab shells into armor. He is willing to give it a try.
• They spend the next four days healing and resting.

Day 8

• Hungry for more adventure, they set out again. Their target this time is the hollow tree southwest of Mount Hunger, which is said to be the lair of a pack of bone crusher dogs.
• On the way there, they come across a small group of four boogiemen, which they manage to avoid.
• Upon arrival at the tree, they see the pack apparently mourning the loss of their alpha male.
• They cast sleep, knocking out about half of the pack. The remainder attacks.
• The fight is a tough one, but the party ultimately prevails.
• They enter the tree and find more than a few adventurer’s corpses. They recover a significant haul of treasure.
• That night, they spot a curious kangaroo-like robot hopping past at some distance.
• That same night, another group of gremlins on the move also passes by.

Day 9

• They arrive back in Batbeng, inventory their loot, and decide they have had enough adventuring for a while.