Session 21

The party: 

• Kaplull, white T2 (HB)
• Gita, orange heavy foot (HB)
• Xull, orange F2 (JW)
• Gorakal, orange T4 (JH)

Treasure: 

• Figurine worth 835 SP
• Bright blue-and-red boots with lightning patterns (magic?)

XP: 835

Casualties: Kaplull, dogpiled by bonecrushers; Gita, backstabbed by boogiemen.

Report: 

Day 1

• In town, the party hires heavy footperson Gita, buys a longbow and some provisions, pulls some potions from storage, and sets out for The Balok.
• In the Mirror Hills south of Mount Hunger, Gorakal, who is scouting ahead, is suddenly stopped by laser fire scorching a line in the sand just in front of his feet.
• A giant chrome robot shaped like a cross between a man and a kangaroo appears right before him the next moment.
• The robot’s name turns out to be Sterling. He wants the party to leave the area, which he is securing for the imminent arrival of the Visitors.
• The party about-faces and retreats out of the robot’s sight. They decide to cross the Perfume River in the southwestern direction. Once the crossing is made, they make camp.

Day 2

• The next day, they search for and find an alternative trail up Mount Hunger and arrive at the Balok around noon.
• They enter and make their way to the stairs to the second level. Along the way, they find a quartz figurine of a bat-winged beetle in a previously emptied but closed-again chest.
• In the room with the stairs down to level 2, they disable the improvised alarm made from string and cutlery.
• From the darkness down the stairs, they hear sounds of growling and yelping and pulling on a mechanism.
• Kaplull volunteers to sneak down and see what’s up.
• He ascertains the presence of eleven bonecrushers, fighting over the previously-triggered bone tomahawk trap.
• The next moment, the dogs fall silent. They must have spotted the thief.
• Kaplull runs back up the stairs, the dogs on his heels. The animals are faster than he is, and several jump on his back while he stumbles back into the upstairs room where the remainder of the party is.
• Kaplull is killed by the bonecrusher dogpile.
• Xull downs a potion of heroism.
• Gorakal starts firing into the pack of bonecrushers, which has slammed up against the fighters.
• Xull, made insanely strong by the potion, wades into the pack, killing dogs left and right.
• Not much later, the fight ends, with every last bonecrusher slain.
• The remainder of the party briefly pay their respects to their fallen comrade and then proceed to unceremoniously ransack the corpse for potentially helpful and valuable items.
• They return down the stairs and arrive in the room with a bone tomahawk trap.
• They head east and find themselves in a wilted garden overgrown by fungi, a curious globe of steel latticework suspended from the ceiling.
• They continue east and enter a space that must have been a shrine once. There are benches, a plain altar, a massive metal bell, and, most notably, two dire wolves on chains fixed to the floor in the middle of the room.
• Gita tries to ring the bell by throwing pebbles at it but fails.
• They return upstairs and drag Kaplull’s still-warm corpse to the shrine room.
• They literally throw their fallen comrade to the wolves.
• The beasts begin to tear at the body with gusto.
• The party uses the distraction, sneaks up on the animals, and slays them after a brief but tough fight.
• They head south and discover a large shallow pond. They spot a pair of colorful boots in the middle of it, which they fish out with the help of a ten-foot pole.
• The boots are red and blue with lightning-like patterns across them.
• The party decides it is time to head back.
• They make their way back up to level 1, but in the room with the chest, they are surprised by a pair of boogiemen.
• Gita is killed.
• Xull, still super powerful thanks to the potion, makes short work of the two.
• The rest of the trip back to town is uneventful. (They arrive on day 3.)