SESSION 337: Return to the Dome IV: Hop on Board the Loser Cruiser – Death Comes Cheap!
Part A - Nope, the Wilds ain’t all that safe. Death occurs in the Wilds.
Day 846 Continued (16.22 0406/0505/0506): The easy job of looking for lairs around a cyclops clan continued smoothly after planting the relocation bug in Flim-Flams pea brain. You would think that with only one eye there would be more available brain for other nothings but nope. The cyclopeans are lunks. With three more square miles checked the gang returned to base camp.
Day 847 (16.22 campàCyclopesà0408/0606: Clear. To begin the day Bimbles felt he could once more petition his astrological lords and masters for insight. He waddled out of camp and drew a circle, plopped down and then connected with a higher plane.
Three questions were asked and three simple answer were given.
1) The demon in the dome was doing whatever it wanted
2) The same demon could be negotiated with
3) That cold ‘box’ below the Dwarven tomb was “dangerous”
The high cleric stood, dusted himself off and then walked towards a waiting megadungeon explorer, “Well, hereis the scoop…”. Raul offered, “Hmmm that was a kinda useful endevour. What do ya want to do next?”. “Get the cyclopes to move along”. “Sure why not? What could go wrong? We can deal with the demon anytime, right?”. “All those things..”. After a quick first lunch the gang made their way back to the Fokker clan lair.
Story short, they successfully convinced the giants to vacate the premises. Merv, the boss, said they would be gone in two cycles. This was acceptable. The gang went south to clear a couple more sub-hexes before returning to camp.
Trouble was coming but they did not see it.
Day 848 (16.22 0607): Clear. Bimbles, never one to want to hike too much ordered the camp to be relocated four or so miles to the south to make hexploration less tedious. This took a good chunk of the day limiting lair searching to a single sub-hex. No lairs were found but a wandering basilisk was narrowly avoided. A portent in respect to dithering through the wilds? Likely.
Day 849 (16.22 0606/0507/0605/0704): Morning rain. The leadership duo still did not want to deal with the demon. Let us wander through the wilds further!
The day would be lair free but there was certainly no shortage of wanderers considering the Green Dome Zone – a veritable hotbed of monstrous evil. Anyways it started with another batch of giant hornets. Only a half dozen this time and the hobos were not flat footed easy victory. Keep creeping around. Out of the ‘blue’ the trees above their heads exploded as a bolt of electricity shot through a bunch of our hobos. Herbert blew up.
Big trouble.
A blue dragon, not huge but certainly irritated. It circled back and unleashed another blast. The dumb dumbs just watched. Zap! Bimbles glowed a bright white for a moment before collapsing in a smoking heap. Two down… oh wait. Raul wobbled a bit and then fell down, clearly not a Weeble. Three dead hobos before a counterstrike – yikes. All was not lost. The dragon was a juvenile (less than twenty feet) and not as potent nor tactical as an adult specimen. This obviously didn’t stop it from killing the team leaders but it did undermine really getting the job done. After two passes it should have realized that further fatalities would take some work especially after a volley of well-placed missile fire from the hobos. The fight in all reality was simply quick and brutal. Willy found the perfect shot, with Agolloch’s blessing, to bring the creature down. Three dead hobos (and a mole) and a shattered draconian. There was a mountain of coin and jewelry retrieved from the carcass but it was a high price to pay.
With the leadership team taking a dirt nap Camillus and Sasha took the reins and sent Nara back to camp to retrieve the squad. They were either taking the loot or the bodies without some help. Nara activated her cloak, transforming into a massive pair of bat-like wings and then she was gone. Returning with the mooks shortly after nightfall. The overnight was thankfully uneventful.
Day 850 (16.22 0704àSafety): How can we make this excursion better you ask. Well, the answer is more wandering baddies. The blue theme seems to be persisting. A giant and his pack dire wolves. Twenty feet tall with blueish tinged skin and wispy cloud-like hair, it was a cloud giant about 120 yards out. It really should have been somewhere else but this region just seems to be a magnet (I’m sure I suggested that before..). Oh ya, he was also in a foul mood to boot.
Camillus ordered the footman to retreat with the corpses and treasure. Nara activated an inertial barrier which would prove to be lifesaving versus the incoming boulder barrage. The giant would not figure things out in a timely manner thus likely preventing the death of the rest of Hobo Team ‘C’. The wolves circled the coward huddle which may actually have been to the gangs advantage limiting themselves from being overrun and taken to the ground. When cloudy did catch on to the hobos defence rather than retreating with a mostly obliterated wolf pack it charged in. An easy target presenting a free cycle of attacks before it would reach the melee. A bad tactical choice it got a single swing of its sword, that Camillus deflected like a boss, before succumbing to a litany of injuries.
Once the squad was found and recalled they collected another mountain of coins before everyone went hard for their basecamp in the relatively safe homelands.
Destination Caravanserai.
The C (clearing)-Team was: Bimbles, Raul, Camillus, Sasha, Willy, Herbert, Skullcrusher, Nara & Azucar
àBonus buggering aboutß
Day 851 – 855 (Caravanserai): Mason’s pleasant spiritual endeavours came to a quick end as the company and corpses showed up. Over the next two and a half days he administers the most potent of his restorative abilities bringing both Bimbles and Herbert back from death while providing a rather relaxing pillow for Raul. The trio would be spending some time bed ridden. Ding-We was around but mostly busy doing some spell research. He did find enough time to suggest that Rhags should be recalled to lead the next hobo team iteration. This ‘new’ team would start clearing the old road hexes connecting Liwil to Dry Gulch once Rhagnar sobered up.
A few days later Team ‘R’ (roadwork) set out for Liwil by way of Gormandia: Rhagnar, Camillus, Skull-Crusher, Wendul, Willy, Nara, Sasha, Azucar and everyone’s number one buddy Felix!
Smell you farts later.
Day 857 (Dry Gulch): Somewhat ahead in the time continuum other things were happening. With fifteen of so days to kill Carla and Boris sent a team over to Lord Thyber’s tower to take up the exploration and babysitting consideration. At the tower they met Grandeal the Grey one of the Archimage’s two most promising apprentices. The young apprentice would ready himself and the group would enter the forgotten passages on the following morn.
Day 858 (Dry Gulch): The new undercity ‘U’ exploration team assembled at the Tower of Wizardry shortly after breakfast. Down a set of spiral stairs they descended from the tower above: Biff, BoB, Dolec, Katre, Charles, Chung-Li, Gord and Grandeal. Reaching the bottom of the stairwell they found themselves in a circular chamber approximately 40’ in diameter. Five doors were set into the wall; two lead to service tunnels, two to the laboratory wings of the area, and the fifth, an iron door set into the south wall. ”That is the one we will be taking it leads to a more dangerous region where we will find adventure and hopefully useful alchemical components”, calmy stated the young wizardling. Grandeal walked to the iron door, whispered something and then stepped back. A moment later there was an audible ‘ka-chunk’ and the door swung open revealing an ancient corridor that extended into unknown darkness. “Here we go again”, came from Charles as he lit his lantern and stepped forward. “Yup”, came from Dolec as he joined.
ROLECALL
DEAD - Bimbles the High Priest of GSS (C10) 349791 xp +5% <400001> CRT 1d12/III
+2 save to poison and internal body things; Double eat (gotta feed my baybay)
Creepy electrical eyes -2 to reactions with humanoids
DEAD - Raul the Voyager (MD9) 282123 xp +10% <360000> CRT 1d12/III
Fezzi-Gig (Neut: XXXX) Sword
Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -4,
Serious wound: permanent loss of CHA -2,
Removed one of his own nostrils.
The Henchmen
Nara the Nearly Naked Purple Swami Girl (PS7) 122235 xp +5% <125000> CRT 1d16/II
Wraith Drained: -1 CON
Sasha Plasha the Warden (R7) 134877 xp +10% <150000> CRT 1d10/III
Missing three teeth
Camillus the Myrmidon (F6) 69519 <64001> +5% CRT 1d20/IV
Willy the Reformed Burglar (T6) 45726 <40000>10% CRT 1d14/II
Agolloch the Eye of Purity (Lawful; XXXX) Sword
DEAD - Herbert the Master Gnome Trickster (G4) 17856 xp <30000> +5% CRT 1d8/III
Skull-Crusher the Hellebardier of Crom (A4) 15589 xp <12000> +5% CRT 1d8/III
Azucar the Elven Myrmidon Warlock (E6) 88770 xp <120000> +5% CRT 1d8/II
RESERVES
Ramrod the Cloned Thief - Recovering from death (yet again) 846 start (876)
Bimbles of the now creepy electrical eyes (-2 reaction from humans/ demis) – Freshly not dead (881)
Raul of more facial scars (-2 CHA) – no longer mostly dead (866)
Herbert the Gnome - no longer dead on the outside but still on the inside due to the loss of Harry the Mole (867)
Elapsed Campaign Time
846 – C-Team (16.23- 0703 The Doom of Cthedrak)
857 – Carla-Team (at Dry Gulch)
Domain Days
Gormandia: 8 (Start 838)
Bunnland:?
Join us for session Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Eight when we ask the questions:
Is this hex a monster magnet, for some unknown reason?
Will the One-eyes clan actually move out and should we have suggested a preferred direction?
What about the demon especially now that we know it is free-range?
What evil lurks down the forgotten passage?
Is there really an ‘undercity’ down here?
What happens If the gang fail to protect the squishy little wizard?
Tale of the Tape
Young dragons can be really brutish now Bimbles, Herbert (along with Harry) and Raul are dead, well Raul is actually only mostly dead. I look forward to the item saves & the Death and Dismemberment table.
Dicking around in the wilds is a dangerous proposition.
KILLS
Hornets Giant (6)
The Fokkers Cyclops Clan (gentrified)
Blue Dragon (sub-adult: young/juvenile)
Cloud Giant
Dire Wolves (26)
LOOT
30,000 sp
10,000 ep
35,000 gp
Gems (4): 50,10,50,100 = 210 gp
Jewelry (4): 1100, 1300, 1100, 1000 = 4500 gp
