Session Summary #15

[Nathan Sherman]

The session starts in the Pirate Island of Nadzam in the city of Haven.

The city of Haven is built into a cliff side of one of the larger islands on the furthest south segment of the Pirate Isles. Kenton is the head of security in Haven and an old friend of Henrik in Myranor.

The party hires Captain Lantro of The Sea Hag to take them to the jungles of Myria. It will cost them 250 in gold for the 4 day journey to get there. the party also gives Kenton 200 gold with instructions that Akronos will contact him by spell when they are ready to get picked up. Kenton is to give that as payment to Lantro to come and pick them up and they will give Lantro the remainder when he gets them. They agree to pay Kenton 50 gold for his services.

The Sea Hag has a mixed crew with the captain and several members being human, a couple grum, two Saurian and one Myrian of the Nengeli tribe.

The party spends 120 gold on items that might be of value as trade to the Murian people. They ask around town and find a good Myria guild to hire. Q'tahna is of the Nengeli tribe and he speaks several languages. They agree to pay him 10 gold per day and Q'Tahna makes sure that he clarifies that he gets paid that amount even if some of the party members die in the jungle. In an effort to improve their chances of survival, they offer to pay him a 10 gold bonus per person if they are all alive at the end of their jungle adventure. He say OK, but he said OK to a lot of things and Akronos wonders how much of what he is being told he really understands.

The Nengeli tribes men are masters of both land and sea. They build a variety of lean, oared longboat that carries 20 rowers and can outrun even the biggest western sailing ships for a short while. Nengeli can often be found throughout the western Pirate Isles. The region claimed by the Nengeli is a tropical paradise of white beaches, crystal blue water and palm trees. The beauty of this region is reflected in the Nengeli people who are the most physically attractive as Q'Tahna tells the party often.

The sea voyage to the Myrian jungle is uneventful. The party decides that a drop off and pick up at the mouth of the Tosh River would be best. As they approach the coast they see that there is a large camp set up to the west of the mouth of the Tosh. They use their telescope that they picked up in Land's End to check out the camp and realize by the flag that they are flying that it is a Kalimura encampment. They decide to set ashore just to the west of the Kalimuran camp and are greeted by Captain Jenkins and a contingent fo Kalimuran soldiers. After a brief conversation they get on friendly terms and are invited into the Kalimuran camp.

The Kalimura and campground is bustling with efficiency. And there are two impressive ballista contraptions on higher ground on either end of the camp. If I asked about them, it will be explained they are perfectly counterbalanced for 160 pound soldier to sit in the loading chair and crank back the bowstring through an ingenious mechanism. A clip of 20 bolts sits on top the ballista and drops a fresh bolt into place each time the bowstring is drawn back. A well seasoned pair can fire off four heavy ballista every round for five rounds before they run out. In just one round the loader can dispose of the old clip while the fire drops a new one into place. The balance of the machine makes it easy for the soldier and firing position to swivel and aim anywhere within the 360° ark.

This is one of the great Kalimura engineering projects. The country has only small standing army and most of them are highly specialized for weapons like this. Being a prosperous nation, they are hiring miss mercenary troops for most of the shock troop needs.

There is an unusual ship in drydock on the large clearing in the middle of camp. It is 30 foot wide and 70 foot long. It has an unusual flat bottom to it instead of the standard bowed bottom of all seafaring ships. Running along that bottom are metal beams from front to back along each outer edge and down the middle spine. The boat is sitting off the ground a couple feet on six stilts, three on each side.

The Kalimura are most proud of the ship. Word is starting to spread outside of their nation that they are getting close to mastering the design of it. The captain hopes that they were going to production in the next year.

Yes, the captain proudly proclaims, this is the famed Kalimura flying ship, the Phoenix Four!

There are stones in Myria that when exposed to the rays of the sun, repel themselves from other stones of their same type. In some areas of Myria there are stones that float free during the day, repelling from the other stones that are buried in the ground. Most of Myria has the stones buried in the ground to one degree or another. They are currently mapping the region to determine strong and weak pockets.

The Kalimura nation has been working on flying ships for a while. This is the beta test ship design #4. The flat bottom was a learning lesson, and so was the adjustable length landing legs. They have made a tentative allegiance with one of the tribes on the coast but have met with serious resistance with some of the other tribes they have encountered.

Captain Jenkins offers them and adventure on the Phoenix Four for tomorrow.

Captain Jenkins will explain that there is six concentrated blocks of the minimal strategically placed around the ship and by uncovering them and exposing them to the sun the ship will rise or fall at the command of the captain and his crew.

They start all of their expiration voyages in the morning and are usually limited to just a three or four hour tour. They need the best light of day for their test flights.

The next morning, all of the players are weighed for proper weight allowance on the ship. Due to the heavy weight of Ceress tipping the scale at 350 pounds, Captain Jenkins will have to also have ensign Thomas removed from the voyage much to the ensigns dismay. Flights are nerve-racking but prestigious.

There are 10 other members of the crew in addition to the party. The party is given strict instructions not to help out in anyway unless called for defense.

The sails and other techniques that the captain assures the party are too complicated for them to understand and too confidential to talk about there are scientific means for controlling the direction of the ship.

Jenkins will explain to the party that they haven't encountered any serious threats in the air. There are some frighteningly large bats that hunt birds by day and while they have flown by the ship they have never attacked it.  There are plenty of terrifying things in the jungle that fly from the Horrax to the amazingly persistent mosquitoes but the bats and the colorful parrots they hunt and eat seem to be the only ones that really go above the treetops.  Down below the tree tops it's a whole different story. Everything from shimmer cats, poisonous frogs, more snakes than you can count, thieving monkeys, murderous creatures of the night and of course the local tribes men that seem to have an almost automatic dislike of the Kalimurains.

A couple hours into the impressive tour over in this jungle, several bats fly towards the boat from a distance. They have an erratic flight pattern as bats usually do with rapid beating on her wings. It's hard to tell how big these fuckers actually are from a distance but that quickly becomes clear as they buzz the ship.

Unfortunately, what would've been a normal curious flyby from past days has turned into the first aerial assault the Kalimurans have experience.

Four of the bats land on the ship and it is discovered that little, brown warriors are riding on each one. Some Warriors jumped from their bats onto the ship catching sail and breaking on their way down as if they were branches and vines. Combat ensues!

The battle rages across the deck of the ship with several of the Myrian warriors yelling in their native language language. Theren casts comprehend languages and he them yelling about the abomination that is flying ship. One of them realizes that the foreigners are using the gods stones to fly the ship and calls that out to the rest of the raiding party.

A couple of the Myrian warriors focus their attacks on Q'tahna, calling him a traitor. Q'tahna identifies them as the Amaputu tribe, the Myrians that paint their faces to mimic the animals about them.

The bats join in the combat but aren't nearly as deadly as the nimble, almost naked Myrian warriors who are attacking with short swords, kicks and punches. Their ability to dodge blows keep them alive much longer than the party would like.

Akronos uses his Blink spell much more effectively during this battle and then to many party members surprise, uses his magic to Enlarge Ceress. Ceress's sudden shift in weight from 350 pounds to now over 2800 pounds offsets the delicate balance of the ship. Since Ceress is at the front of the ship fighting some of the Myrians, the ship starts to dip down at the nose. This angle makes a ship fly forward faster but it also is starting to lose altitude and head towards the tree canopy below.

The party and ship crew takes out three of the warriors and all of their bats and Otep is grappling with the last warrior when a Myrian still riding a bat flys closer to the ship and casts darkness on the front of it, screaming all the while about freeing the stones from the evil foreigners.

Having two out of six of the stones plunged into darkness combined with the extra weight of Ceress is too much for the ship and it plunges nose first into the tree canopy below. As a tree catches one of the outstretched side sails, the ship is wrenched around, smashing into more tree, propelling all of the bodies off of the ship and into the jungle. Akronos is quick with a Feather Fall but because Theren and Otep were still in the darkness, he isn't able to include them in the spell. He gets the rest of the party, Q'tahna and Ensign Rogers with the Feather Fall.

Theren tries desperately to lessen the damage of his flight into the jungle with catching vines and leaves but the crash through the vegetation and impact into the ground is still enough to leave him badly battered on landing. Otep uses his superior strength to pivot the Myrian warrior and use him as a shield in their careening crash through the jungle. Both are injured in the impact but Otep finishes out the little warrior in short order when on the ground.


This is where the session ends. The party is scattered around the jungle crash site. They know that they, Q'tahna and ensign Rogers have survived but suspect that the rest of the crew probably didn't make it through that wreckage. They are deep in a very dangerous jungle and still have a long ways to go to get to where they are headed, but haven't had the chance to check the map to confirm yet.