The party:
- Xull, orange F3 (JW)
- Ploikal, orange MU5 (TM)
- Yasin, orange LF
- Amina, jale LF
Treasure: None.
XP: None.
Casualties: Yasin and Amina, one felled by boogiemen, the other fled into the desert wastes.
Report:
Day 1
We begin in Batbeng, as usual. Ploikal visits Euedos, to discuss the space crab armor he had him make. Can the smith make it even more comfortable? He gives him a 200 SP downpayment to give it another shot.
He also talks to Dugalu. Why did the town scribe quit his previous adventurer’s life? Dugalu remains tight-lipped on the topic. Ploikal encourages him to continue his work on finding the exact location of that serpent man citadel.
Finally, Ploikal meditates to commune with the spirit of Cista, the green light footsoldier that resides in his head (long story). He asks her to remain calm (she’s not too impressed by that request). He also wonders how she would feel about being moved into a weapon so that she can go and kill boogiemen that way. She’s quite keen.
They decide to head to Khodang to see about getting a weapon crafted for Cista’s spirit, and to do some shopping in the bazaar while they are at it.
They travel through the Yellow Flats, to avoid the boogiemen who are ambushing folks on the road to Khodang.
Their journey is uneventful. They do see what is likely that derelict mech of the ancients off in the distance, but they choose not to investigate.
In Khodang, they visit the ziggurat of Nachatak, the god of war. There, they meet a barrel-chested priestess named Shamorival. It turns out she is willing to aid them in their quest to create a weapon for Cista. What would be needed are, of course, copious amounts of worthy sacrifices and a suitably honorable weapon to serve as a vessel. If the party can provide these things, she is willing to lead a ritual to ask Nachatak for help.
That evening, the party visits the bazaar in search of exotic companion animals. Xull fails to find his coveted spie bird and is only offered an ill-tempered hairy chicken that bleats like a goat. Ploikal does manage to find a cuttlefish-headed bat-winged bird the size of a raven that reportedly can be trained up as a wizard’s familiar. He uses his magic to get the merchant to sell it to him for 100 SP rather than 500… (The creature’s scientific name is sepiopteryx, but everyone calls them inkbats.)
They spend the night in an inn.
Day 2
The next morning, Xull once again goes shopping and, after paying some folks for help, finds a merchant who can sell him a strusb: a dirty brown spie bird the size of a sparrow with a toothy beak. (Ploikal once again uses magic to get the price down from 500 to 100 SP.)
The party travels back to Batbeng to retrieve the visitor claw they once acquired in that crashed space boat near Zailin.
Day 3
The next morning, Xull buys a long sword while Ploikal uses his crystal ball to spy on the boogiemen who have made an ambush site on the road east. They see eleven in total on opposite sides of the road and a small camp.
They set out down the road. Ploikal makes himself invisible, sneaks up on one of the boogiemen group, and magics them all to sleep. Xull and the footmen keep their distance.
Ploikal returns to Xull to coordinate. While they strategize, they see a boogieman cross the road to talk to the other group. Panicking, Ploikal uses his psychic powers to explode that boogieman’s head. The remaining boogiemen come out of hiding, spot the party, take out their bows, and begin an orderly march in their direction.
Shots are exchanged back and forth to little effect. Ploikal’s psionics drops one more boogieman. The remainder stoically marches on. The footmen advance as well, and melee is engaged. The forces appear equally matched for quite some time. Xull takes on several boogiemen at once. Ploikal chips in with a magic missile. One of the light footmen is felled. The other’s morale breaks and flees. The remaining boogiemen try to take down Xull, but he’s too mighty and ultimately prevails.
Next, they chain up the sleeping boogiemen, tie them to their oruxes, and travel onwards to Khodang.
Arriving back in Khodang without issues along the way, they return to the ziggurat of Nachatak. A grizzly ritual follows, in which all boogiemen are slaughtered in an offering to the god of war. Ploikal is fed strong wine until he is completely out of it. Xull sprays blood all over the place and at the onlooking crowd, which has gathered to witness the spectacle. The visitor claw is placed at the foot of the massive statue of Nachatak. When the sun is at its zenith, Shamorival begins her petitioning of Nachatak…
When it is all said and done, and they all emerge from their daze as the sun sets, priests are sweeping boogieman blood and gore from the ziggurats’ steps into the streets below. The visitor claw is glowing and humming with power, and Ploikal’s head feels hung over but also remarkably empty. Cista’s spirit appears to have departed.
Day 4
The next morning, there is one more point of business to take care of. With the help of some more bribes here and there, they manage to find a capable surgeon who is willing to attach the enchanted visitor claw to Xull’s right arm. Both patient and doctor are bolstered with various magics by Ploikal. The procedure goes according to plan, and so now, Xull’s right hand has been permanently replaced by a vicious alien implement. What it is capable of exactly remains to be seen…
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