Updates

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.)

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.

The party:

• Konn, F1 (NtH)
• Ploikal, MU4 (TM)

Treasure:

• 611 SP
• Two gems worth 110 SP each

XP: 831.

Casualties: None.

Report:

• They decide to scope out Farmers’ Guild Hall.
• Ploikal uses his crystal ball to see into the hall.
• Discovers it is used by a mystery cult devoted to the harvest goddess Yiggub.
• Offerings include silver, so they decide it is worth a try to break in and steal some valuables.
• During the day, they observe the hall to check for alternative entrances and find one back entrance.
• At night, they once again scry to ensure no ceremony is going on. They only see guards posted throughout the building.
• They go through the town’s deserted streets to the hall at its western edge.
• They cast a Wizard Lock on the front door.
• Ploikal turns Konn invisible and summons a pair of Devil Apes.
• Konn tries to open the back door, expecting it to be unlocked by Ploikal’s magic.
• The noise alerts the guard inside.
• Ploikal casts a Knock spell to open the door.
• The Apes go inside and are blocked by the guard at the door.
• Apes are killed.
• They see a horde of skeletons approach from the fields.
• The party attempts to sneak in but bumps against the guard.
• More guards arrive.
• The party heads upstairs.
• Some guards chase them.
• Guards upstairs are alerted as well.
• Konn makes a lot of noise up the stairs.
• Ploikal chaffs a potion of Mastery over Men, putting a charm on most of the guards on both ends of the stairs and ordering them to take everyone downstairs and into the main hall.
• Meanwhile, skeletons have arrived at the door and begin to bash it in.
• The lone guard desperately tries to bar it and asks for help from charmed colleagues, who grapple and drag him off.
• Upstairs, the party begins breaking open chests and filling their pockets with coins.
• Skeletons break down the door and stream in, begin attacking guards.
• Upstairs, the party searches the rest of the rooms.
• Downstairs, an epic fight between skeletons and guards develops, taking the lives of many and slowly moving into the main hall.
• Upstairs, the party finds little of note, but Ploikal takes one curious-looking scroll from the library.
• Downstairs, two remaining guards battle the remaining skeletons.
• A single guard remains standing when all skeletons are defeated.
• The party enters the hall try to mind-control the guard but fails.
• Konn faces off against the guard, takes a nasty cut, but ultimately prevails.
• They pry the gemstone eyes from the statue of Yiggub and leave like thieves into the night.

The party:

• Ploikal, MU4 (TM)
• Pholgon, F3 (MG)
• Kaplull, T1 (HB)
• Gorakal, T4 (JH)
• Zara, noncombatant
• Razi & Gani, heavy footmen

Treasure:

• 20 GP
• Platinum machine innards (60 GP)
• Four identical silver idols of a humanoid figure in lotus pose (4×145 SP)
• Laser Crossbow?

XP: 780.

Casualties: None!

Report:

• It has been 29 weeks since the previous adventure.
• The situation in town after the events of session 17, in which the provisioner Aralal was killed:
  • The village’s burghers are upset with Count Egan. They pay taxes, and he and his soldiers are supposed to keep them safe.
  • As a result, town watch now patrols the streets day and night, stopping any strangers and investigating any suspicious goings-on.
  • Some poor sods from Foreign Parts, four green men, were strung up as the apparent perpetrators.
  • Non-orange men are generally treated with increased suspicion.
  • Raidain, a local orange man, has taken over Aralal’s Emporium. He claims Aralal was a nephew. He is less capable than the previous provisioner. Raidain cannot identify items and does not stock curios.
  • The temple is in disarray. The head priest has become senile, and his acolytes are now listless middle-aged men who cannot even work miracles anymore. The villagers believe it has become cursed and have stopped worshipping at it, to the great concern of the ruling elites. They whisper some other cult may have replaced it, centered around the mysterious farmer’s guild hall.
• They hire fresh retainers and buy some rations.
• They are a bit cash-strapped.
• Travel without incident to the Balok.
• Enter through the main entrance.
• Carefully move through the entrance hall and down the hallway to the south.
• Pick the lock on a door to the east and enter a room divided by wooden gates.
• Find a secret door to the south.
• Enter a room with broken machinery.
• They manage to surprise and dispatch two large spiders that were lurking there.
• Remove the gold pieces that the creatures had collected in their webs.
• Move through an archway to the adjacent room with intact machinery.
• Carefully open the machine without breaking glassware parts. Remove platinum innards.
• Move through a secret door heading west.
• Remove a makeshift alarm (string with cutlery). Head down the stairs.
• At the bottom, spot tripwire.
• Head back up. They disarm a trap with help from an arrow with a cord tied to it.
• A huge bone tomahawk swings from the ceiling.
• Enter a room with a desk and chairs.
• Head into a long hallway leading south.
• A pack of bonecrusher dogs approaches them.
• A brief, fierce fight leads to the defeat of the dogs.
• Continue down the hallway; at the end, enter a large storage room with many shelves, sacks, and crates.
• Search the room and find four silver idols of humanoid in lotus pose and an odd-looking crossbow without string.
• Look into the room to the north, and spot a trio of bearded pigs rooting through fungus patches.
• They leave again before they are spotted.

The party:

• Ploikal (MU4)
• Erimewn (MU1)

Treasure: None. Update (2024-01-15 09:24):

Loot pilfered from the late Aralal’s emporium:

• 127 SP & 78 GP.
• Spellbook (1: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Protection From Evil; 2: Detect Evil, Knock, Locate Object, Wizard Lock; 3: Dispel Magic).
• Two scrolls: Shield & Light.
• Sturdy spectacles set with tinted glass.
• A bottle of pills.
• Plans for reconstructing a machine of the Ancients.

XP: 0 907.

Casualties: None.

Report:

Day 1

• Ploikal makes plans for the upcoming ritual to call on Uggoth for aid in getting Aralal and Dugalu to forget about The Ring.
• They need an appropriate sacrifice. He buys six bulls of increasing age and remarkable appearance, for the grand sum of 1000 SP.
• He also asks around for a lead on where Ganomar’s party resided and kept their treasure. He is pointed to a barn at the edge of town. He is also told Ganomar employed the services of Duma, Duma and Duma for safekeeping of their valuables.
• Meanwhile, Erim studies Shazulamur’s spellbook to learn hold portal.

Day 2

• The next morning, Erim, bleary-eyed, concludes his studies with no result.
• Together, Erim and Ploikal head to the barn that was used by Ganomar’s party as residence.
• Ploikal casts invisibility on both of them. Erim keeps an eye out while Ploikal searches the barn. Alas, they find nothing of value.
• Upon their return, Ploikal offers to tutor Erim.
• They spend the rest of the day studying hold portal together.

Day 3

• The next morning, they are forced to conclude Ploikal’s tutoring has not made much of a difference. Erim still doesn’t understand the spell.
• Erim goes for a long walk to get some distance from Ploikal.
• Ploikal visits Aralal. In a roundabout way he gets the items acquired from Ganomar’s party identified. Boots, armor, sword, and shield previously owned by a variety of ancient heroes. Aralal does not buy the story that he had no hand in their demise. Ploikal vows to resume their search for machine parts. Aralal expresses great enthusiasm for the prospects of actually building a machine and advancing human progress in doing so. Ploikal reads his mind and discovers Aralal’s true motivation is something closer to world domination.
• Ploikal also visits Neferha to have two potions identified: a healing potion, and one of undead control.
• Erim is gifted the scroll taken from Ganomar’s party. He studies it and discovers it to be a ward agains magic.
• Erim resumes his studies around noon.
• Ploikal brings the cattle and their oruxes to the temple, in preparation for the ritual the next day.

Day 4

• The next midday Erim finishes studying once more, and again has not made the desired progress.
• Upon sunset, they arrive at the temple. A shooting star has indeed appeared in the starry heavens.
• The ritual is performed. All six cattle are slaughtered and piled up at the feet of the massive statue of Uggoth in the main shrine. Acolytes sing, the head priest petitions the god, and then nudges Ploikal that it is time to make his case.
• Ploikal pleads with the god, and to his shock and amazement, the eyes of the statue come to life and observe him and the other worshippers.
• In a final moment of doubt, Ploikal looks into the near future to see if the god will respond favorably. He has a vision of the god admonishing all present in a thundering voice. Ploikal loses his nerve and runs for the exit, with Erim close behind. Behind them, from the shrine, they hear a booming voice scold the head priest…

Day 5

• The next day, Ploikal visits Neferha again. He inquires about the possibility of brewing a potion that would have people forget certain things. Neferha consults her books and claims such a thing would be possible with the right ingredients, but that it will likely never be an entirely permanent effect. Expressing disappointment, Ploikal leaves again.
• Ploikal and Erim meet to discuss what is to be done about Aralal, and Dugalu, now that the ritual appears to have failed. After much deliberation, they conclude the whole thing can’t be helped: they need to murder both Aralal and Dugalu.
• That night, they make their way to Aralal’s Emporium, once again invisible.
• Using a knock spell, they open the front door and sneak in. Carefully moving through the silent shop on the ground floor, they climb stairs, and find Aralal sitting up in his bed, reading a book by lamp light.
• Ploikal uses mind control to make Aralal consider him a trusted friend and ally.
• Having not brought any weapons, Ploikal ties a rope into a noose, and still invisible, throws it over Aralal’s head.
• Aralal responds with great shock and begins to claw at the noose. Ploikal becomes visible again, and struggles to choke his opponent.
• Erim, meanwhile, pulls out a dagger, and attempts to stab Aralal, but misses.
• Aralal is stabbed by Erim on a second try, throws off Ploikal, and runs out of the bedroom.
• Ploikal and Erim follow close behind. Aralal tries to slam the door in his face but fails. Ploikal casts haste on both of them, and Erim blasts Aralal with a magic missile.
• Hasted, Ploikal and Erim now easily overtake Aralal.
• The provisioner tries to push Erim aside, but fails, and is stabbed yet again. Ploikal delivers the coup de grace, with another magic missile barrage.
• Aralal’s ashes fall to the floor. His final scream echoes through the shop.
• Ploikal and Erim shrug, and turn to begin ransacking the shop, thoughts of how to make their escape from town occupying their minds.

We end the session, and the first season, there.

The party:

• Ploikal (MU4)
• Gorakal (T4)
• Urasenai (NC)
• Parvatsaya, Kosalaya, Surarta (LF)

Treasure:

• Partial map of The Balok
• Ulfire snakeskin boots
• Bright yellow plate armor engraved with feathers
• Sword and shield made of a green-brown material decorated in curved and bubbly shapes
• Spellbook of Vurazil
• Spellbook of Shazulamur
• Two potions
• A scroll
• 30 SP

XP: 30.

Casualties: None.

Report:

Day 1

• The weather is terrible. Torrential rains poor down unrelentingly.
• Ploikal studies Xonokon’s spellbook and learns ‘charm person’, concluding his need for the spellbook.
• The party heads to the temple to respond to the priests’ call to aid in the lifting of the geas inflicted on Xonokon by the crystal forest.
• Ploikal bargains with the priests to get Aralal and Dugalu to forget several weeks of past experience (so that they do not remember anything related to the ring they retrieved previous expedition).
• The priests promise to petition the god of time to do so on his behalf, but he needs to be present for it, and it will have to wait until the stars are right (the stars will be right three days later).
• They lead him to Xonokon’s chambers. Before anyone can say anything, Ploikal taps the geased magic-user with his wand of cancellation, which he has hidden up his sleeve.
• Miraculously, the magic of the wand is powerful enough to break the spell of the forest.
• Xonokon faints, and comes to again some time later. He remembers nothing from his visit to the forest or what happened after.
• His son Egar is very grateful.
• Before leaving, Ploikal hands back the spellbook.
• That evening, the party seek out the rivaling adventurers that were hired by Aralal at the Spider’s Gate gambling den.
• They spot the opposing team, lead by a yellow thief named Ganomar. It includes three fighters and two magic-users besides. They appear rather poor and inexperienced.
• Gorakal sneaks up to overhear their conversation. They appear to mostly be exchanging banter and bs, but occasionally allude to the need to find those machine parts, soon, and how they should systematically explore the first level for secret rooms that they have overlooked.
• Ganomar pats a packet of maps tucked into their jacket.
• Ploikal and Gorakal decide to spread rumors about their departure for the Balok in two days, and that they are hot on the heels of the machine parts themselves. They hope this will make the rival party leave for the Balok the very next day, so that they can ambush them on the trail leading into the mountains.
• They also make sure to hire all the available retainers, preempting any attempt by the opposing team to reinforce their ranks.

Day 2

• The bad weather of the previous day continues.
• They leave for the Balok in the early morning, but the going is slow.
• They slog through the bone-white mud of the Mirror Hills all day, and only make it to the foothills of Mount Hunger late afternoon.
• There, they spot the rival party ahead of them, but also a flock of seven massive bright red pteranodon circling above.
• Gorakal finds the whole situation way too risky, and decides to leave for town again.
• Ploikal considers chugging a potion of animal mastery, but wants to ensure it will achieve the desired effect, so first uses his precognition to see into the future.
• It tells him the potion will have a powerful effect.
• So, he actually does drink it, and manages to take control of five of the seven flying dinosaurs.
• He makes four attack the two pteranodon that remain free, and the fifth one he commands to attack the rivaling party.
• Up in the sky, one pteranodon is almost immediately eviscerated.
• Meanwhile, the most powerful of the two magic-users is torn apart.
• The battle in the sky continues while the rival adventurers make a courageous stand against the dinosaurs.
• The remaining pteranodon is killed by his brainwashed companions.
• The rival adventurers fall one by one. In the end a lone magic-user and fighter remain.
• They attempt to flee, but are cornered, and mercilessly slain as well.
• Ploikal commands the pteranodons to go off and massacre the hamlet near the spheroid and crystal statue north of Zailin.
• He then has his men loot the bodies, after which they are forced to camp out in the wilderness.

Day 3

• The next day they travel back to Batbeng without incident. The rain has stopped. Heavy clouds obscure the sky and Planet Karus’ huge dying sun.

The party:

• Gorakal (T4)
• Pholgon (F3)
• Ploikal (MU4)
• Urasenai (NC)
• Kurushang (CB)
• Tochalaya, Parvatsaya, Kosalaya, Surarta (LF)

Treasure: Ring of Aristodemos.

XP: 0.

Casualties: None. But Kurush and Tochalaya fled when confronted with Kannon.

Report:

• The plan is to go and find the ring of Aristodemos which they know is located somewhere in the kingdom of Buraith.

Day 1

• They set out. Head through the Iron Slopes, then arrive in fields with a shining white city (a theocratic city state called Saqban). They avoid the city and continue into the fields of Buraith, north of the city of Zailin.
• They make camp for the night.

Day 2

• They search the fields for the spheroid and crystal statue which they know should be there somewhere.
• They spot a party of swinelings, but remain unseen themselves. They hide until the swinelings are gone.
• Continuing their search, they find their goal.
• They also see a small shop, a caretaker, and a bunch of farmers worshipping.
• They decide to lay low and come back the next day to see if they are still there.

Day 3

• Upon their return they see the locals are still there.
• They march into the clearing. Gorakal remains hidden. Pholgon notices the shopkeeper and caretaker are purple. The farmers are green.
• The farmers are lead by a small strong woman who they later learn is named Gunna.
• Ploikal uses telepathy to speak to Gunna and another farmer, a wrinkly man named Voll.
• Ploikal persuades Gunna and Voll that the party are chosen by the visitors. He tells them they should smash the statue to free the ring and give it to them.
• The two oblige but the remainder of the farmers leave in protest to get help. “You are going to get us all killed,” they say.
• Gunna and Voll begin to bash at the statue with rocks, with little success.
• The caretaker, a tall purple woman named Morra, tries to intervene.
• Gorakal shoots Morra, killing her instantly.
• The shopkeeper, Zann, shouts her name and comes rushing towards her.
• They send a number of light footmen forward. Tochalaya succumbs to his chaotic tendencies and eagerly cuts Zann down.
• Scowling, Pholgon bashes the statue’s hand with the back of his axe, breaking it off with ring and all.
• Ploikal pockets it, uses his telepathy to instruct Gunna and Voll to eat eight eggs a day for three days, and they make their getaway.
• They travel back to Batbeng without issue.

Day 4

• They bring the ring encased in its crystal hand to Aralal. He identifies it, and is shocked. What have they done?
• He promises not to tell anyone, if they agree to come back into his service and continue their search for the machines. They grudgingly acquiesce.

Day 5

• The cloudy weather of the past four days clears.
• Everyone except Gorakal travel to Khodang to sell off some valuables.
• Gorakal stays behind to dig up dirt on Aralal.
• In Khodang, the party cuts a good deal with a sinewy trader by name of Dallran.
• Meanwhile, Gorakal learns that Aralal may be in debt to count Egan, the local representative of the prince, who has come here accompanied by a tax collector named Mumiki.
• Back in Khodang, the party visit animal markets, where they see eight-legged frogs, monkey-parrots, and pitbull-lizards.
• Pholgon buys two hunting lizard-dogs on a leash. They have six legs each.
• Finally, they seek out magic items, which are not sold anywhere, and scrolls, for which they do find one heavily secured shop, but do not find anything of interest.
• They stay the night in an inn.

Day 6

• They travel back to Batbeng.
• On the road north of Khodang they are surprised by a huge t-rex like monster that fumes and radiates from its mouth.
• Kurush and Tochalaya lose their nerve and run off into the fields.
• The monster appears uninterested in them. They manage to get away.
• When they get back around noon, they exchange news, and then Ploikal begins an attempt to learn the read minds spell.

Day 7

• The next noon, Ploikal finishes his studies without success.
• We end there.