Some recent rules updates:
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 960.
Casualties: None.
Report:
Rain delays the party’s expedition to the Balok by a day. When they finally set out under heavy clouds, they take their usual route to level 2, noting several previously spiked doors are now closed.
Their path: reception room → indoor garden (avoiding green slime in hanging globe) → shrine → second indoor garden (another globe) → circular reception area with stairs → long corridor east.
At a bath chamber off the corridor, they encounter three hostile cavemen stitching hides. Shav attempts to pacify them with iron rations, but one caveman slaps the food away and attacks. Gunn attempts to slide dramatically between a caveman’s legs but fails, and later manages to wound himself during a back attack. Despite these setbacks, they defeat the cavemen.
They explore systematically: north to a storeroom with collapsed shelving, then east to a toilet chamber where they face both a shadow and a grey ooze extending a pseudopod from one of the holes. The ooze claims Gunn’s zweihander with its corrosive slime. The light footmen courageously hold off the shadow, which manages to drain some of Zayn’s life force. Meanwhile, Ploikal casts protective spells before destroying the shadow with magic missiles, while the party beats the ooze down with wooden torch handles.
Backtracking to orient themselves, they pass through: storeroom → laboratory → another toilet room (defeating another ooze with sacrificed weapons and the back end of Shav’s pike) → dorm with crumbling beds → storeroom with dinnerware and pig tracks → pantry with spoiled goods → kitchen.
Following rumors of a ring, Ploikal’s Locate Object spell leads them east to a dining room where three pigs, easily pacified with rations, have nested. North of here, through a secret entrance, they find a dust-covered, well-appointed apartment. Ploikal summons an invisible servant to open the trapped wardrobe, which triggers an arrow that flies harmlessly past, revealing their prizes.
They make a swift retreat to Batbeng, where Gunn celebrates with tavern tales and generous rounds.
The party:
Treasure: none.
XP: none.
Casualties: none.
Report:
The party resolves to finally take the fight to the boogiemen up north. They secure support from Count Egan to cover expenses and recruit three soldiers (Sai, Yann, and Tain) along with Sergeant Uzildar. A new hero, a blue fighter named Gunn, also joins their ranks.
The journey into the Iron Slopes proves uneventful. Upon sighting the marching camp, they establish a concealed position. Ploikal uses scrying to scout the camp’s tents, eventually locating the chief. He then turns invisible and infiltrates by blending in with a returning patrol.
Inside, he makes his way to the chief’s tent where Movog is holding court, listening to followers petition for work. Ploikal attempts to manipulate the chief, trying telepathy and suggestion to convince him to attack the mercenary company Vicious Omen to the west. When these fail, he attempts mind control. Movog resists all three attempts, angrily slashing at invisible foes with his impressive sword before his bodyguards rush him to safety.
Outside the camp, Xull faces his own battle as his claw—possessed by the spirit of Cista, a retainer previously killed fighting these same boogiemen—begins speaking and urging revenge. The vengeful spirit’s influence is so strong that Pholgon and Gunn must tie Xull to a tree to prevent him from charging into camp. During this crisis, two blue deinonychuses approach their position. A tense standoff ensues, with Pholgon readying his crossbow while the soldiers prepare their alien ray gun. The dinosaurs eventually move on, though Pholgon’s attempt to shoot them in the back proves embarrassingly ineffective.
Back in the camp, Ploikal launches a desperate plan. He uses a knock spell to release brutes from their tents, causing chaos as they rampage through the camp. He seizes control of one brute’s mind and sends it against Movog’s guards. The brute kills one guard and forces its way into the tent, only to face more bodyguards and Movog himself, armed with a jale betentacled two-handed sword. Despite pushing through the guards and nearly killing one elite, the brute falls quickly.
As the boogiemen regain control of their camp and secure the other brutes, Ploikal attempts one final gambit. He tries to put all the guards in front of the chief’s tent to sleep, but one remains awake and raises another alarm. Finally accepting defeat, he slips out through the south gate just as the boogiemen lock down the camp.
The party returns to town without further incident, their ambitious infiltration yielding neither treasure nor glory.
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 11,273
Casualties:
Several retainers, the details lost in the fray.
Report:
The party heads to The Balok. They pass ten giant white ants but ignore them. Upon reaching The Balok, they enter their usual way. Rats guard a door to the room with cabinets—the party rewards them with food. More rats appear in the next room, receive rations, and let the party pass.
A single boogieman ambushes them in the large room with the caveman corpse and opened chest. Gorakal drops it with one arrow. The party descends to level 2. The reception area stands empty. In the next room, an indoor garden, they spot green slime just in time. They pass through an empty shrine and hear insect noises behind the door to the study.
Magic reveals angry centipedes and treasure inside. They ready a sleep spell, throw open the door, and knock out many centipedes—but one paralyzes a retainer with its poison, and another is killed. The party prevails and recovers an ornate shield before entering the first library.
Four bone crusher dogs confront them here. The party distracts them with rations, puts one to sleep, and dispatches the rest. The next library is empty. Wet noises and caveman speech emanate from the eastern door.
Inside, ten cavemen make offerings to three statues. The party strikes with surprise—some fall asleep, the rest die by the sword. They collect gold from around the statues and loot corpses in wicker caskets. Gorakal’s x-ray vision reveals nothing more.
The next room appears to be a workshop with mechanical devices. They enter as pigs arrive behind them, but the animals care only for the offerings. The party explores the study and discovers a secret door behind a tall machine. This leads to a machine room where they extract platinum parts from cabinets.
A shadow enters as they try to leave. The two remaining retainers cover the retreat—one dies as the shadow drains him dry, but Ploikal destroys it with magic. They decide they’ve had enough and flee.
Back in town, Ploikal pours resources into rebuilding the farmers’ guild hall. Two discoveries disturb him: the leader’s clear insanity and a strange hatch where the harvest goddess statue once stood.
A single tweak to the wilderness exploration rules to make mounts’ MV only drop to half when double carrying capacity is exceeded.
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 5574.
Casualties: Two light foot soldiers, killed by cavemen.
Report:
The party:
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…
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 13,200
Casualties: Aylin and Burak, trampled by a herd of dolm titanotheres.
Report:
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 5,190
Casualties:
Report:
The party:
Treasure:
XP: 835
Casualties: Kaplull, dogpiled by bonecrushers; Gita, backstabbed by boogiemen.
Report:
Day 1
Day 2
