Session Summary - 04/20/2002


The session began where the last ended - just after the party's disruption of the khaasta's plot to steal a lot of beauty. The final tally was that although the party managed to capture five of the lizardfolk, including the apparent ringleader of the group, five others escaped through a portal with all of the stolen beauty. So, while waiting for the rest of the local militia to arrive, three characters affected by the artifact dragged a couple prisoners into a back alley and "asked" them a few questions.

Primarily through unveiled threats from the now blatant and blunt Rusteen, the group managed to get a reasonable picture of what was going on. The khaasta are using the artifact to travel the planes and steal beauty from whereever they can find it. They then sell the stolen energy to those who either have no beauty of their own, or those who are generally greedy and want more to add to what they already have. (Apparently, they can make quite a bit of money through these sales.) As far as the lizardfolk knew, those who'd been drained by the artifact could be restored by exposing themselves to some of the bottled beauty. Also, as far as they knew, you did not have to find the exact essence that was stolen from you in order to be cured.

That settled, the three then proceeded to find out where the khaasta were heading when they went through the portal. The portal in Gizekhtet led to a place called Chariamur. The khaasta decribed it only as a "scar on the land" and a place of "dark skies and acid rain". From here, the khaasta were to travel overland to the Realm of the Norns and use a portal to "the Great Tree". Once on the Great Tree, the khaasta travelled along the Tree until they found a specific knot. At the bottom of the gash was a black hole, which was the gate to the place the lizardfolk called home - Naphraks, the Half-World.

Reasonably satisfied with the answers, the three rejoined the rest of the party and spoke with the authorities. Shazarr filled in the soliders of Horus about everything that had happened and managed to press the proper buttons by couching everything in terms of justice and righteous revenge. Explained in this manner, the powers that be gratefully allowed the party to be their champions in this matter and placed any number of resources at their disposal. Our heroes decided to spend one more day in Gizekhtet to rest up, be healed, and gather a few supplies for the trip. In addition to stocking up on the basics like food and water (and beer!), the group also received the gift of Acid Resistant cloaks to help ward off the expected damaging effects of the land beyond the portal. Also, they offered to provide an escort of 6 soliders to help in attacking the khaasta and aid in the recovery of beauty for the petitioners that had been affected.

GAME MECHANICS: I didn't specify these during the session, but I probably should to let you all decide if you want to keep this items further into the campaign. The items are technically Masterwork Cloaks that grant the wearer Acid Resistance 2. (That is, you are essentially immune to two points of acid damage per round. Note that this will only apply to acid that is thrown, fired, or dropped on you; it won't help if you try to go wading through a pool of the stuff.) As for appearance, they are all uniformly beige in color. You can dye them a different color later, if you prefer.

(At least two party members did bring up the point that while Augustus had asked the group to spend at least two weeks in Heliopolis to fulfill their current contract, the party had only spent nine days in the realm. Ginaea (surprisingly) remembered that their sponsor said nothing about two continuous weeks; so they should be able to go on this mission of revenge and then come back to finish out their remaining five days. Every one quickly took her word on this point. It remains to be seen if she's correct as to Augustus' intentions.)

So, now a day behind the fleeing khaasta, the party prepared to give chase and enter the portal. There was one more resource that the party decided to take with them - the captured Taskmaster. Rusteen informed the prisoner that he was there to make sure nothing happened until they arrived at Naphraks. Any escape attempt would be met with death. Given the obvious hostility and truth behind the statements, the Taskmaster suddenly volunteered that was a trick to going through the portal - one had to do so at a full run. If you didn't, there were traps on the other side that would be able inflict great harm on beings that simply walked through. Grateful for this show of cooperation, the party gathered their gear, and charged through the portal.

And immediately found out that the khaasta had been lying. The portal was only 15 feet from the edge of a high cliff and the ground was quite muddy. Thus, running at full speed and being unaware of the cliff, the characters had virtually no time to react and save themselves. But, being heroes, they did manage turn away or stop in time to keep themselves from going over the edge. Unfortunately, three of the soliders did not - including the one that had been carrying the prisoner. The fall killed the prisoner and two of the soldiers; the third survived with minor injuries since he landed on top of the other three. A lowered rope rescued the survivor, and allowed the group to stock of where they were.

Chariamur was indeed a blight on the landscape. It appeared to be an abandoned strip mine. The stone buildings had collapsed and showed signs of having been eaten away by the acidic rains. The ground was nothing more than calf-deep, oily muck. No sky could be seen through the slate gray clouds. Also, the air was filled with soot - even worse than the smog in the Lower Ward of Sigil. (Shazarr and Ginaea were profoundly affected by it, and suffered some temporary Constitution damage.) A quick search of the area allowed Rusteen to make use of his ranger skills, and he found the tracks of the fleeing lizardfolk. Apparently they had hooked up with some kind of wagon and more of their number - there were now at least a score of humanoids accompanying it.

It was about this time that Rusteen noticed the effects of the new planar location. He was fairly confident that the mud itself was consipiring against him to try and hide the tracks of the khaasta. But, he did manage to be smarter than the muck and follow the tracks. (It was not apparent at first, but the party was now on the Outlands, the plane of Neutrality. Obviously, this is a Strongly-Align Neutral location. This means that everyone who is not True Neutral in alignment suffers a -2 penalty to all INT, WIS, and CHR based checks for each step removed from that alignment - along both the law-chaos and good-evil axis. So, Rusteen was suffering a serious -4 penalty. Combine that with an already damaged CHR, and the ranger was able to offend people just by walking across the street.)

The party travelled along the rim of the pit, slowing making their way down to lower ground. Along the way, they passed by the remains of the primary smelter. Here, the party was ambushed by some kind of rat-demon and its dire rat minions. Things were looking bad for a time, since Rusteen was up ahead scouting on his own - so he got swarmed by rats and their master. Fortunately, the rest of the party soon managed to get through the magical darkness cloaking the entrance to the building and relieve the pressure on Rusteen. The primary turning point was when Dr. Fever enchanted the ranger's great sword, allowing the human to overcome the demon's damage reduction. The rat-demon, now seeing that it was in trouble, summoned another of its kind and promptly ran for its life. While it escaped, its brother was mercilessly slaughtered by Rusteen.

That out of the way, the group continued on its way. It took the group three days to get out of the mountains. At the base of the valley in which the strip mine lay, the party passed through a swamp. In the swamp was a half-sunken tower. While near the tower, a mind-flayer ran out of the building towards the group. Before it got in range of any weapon, its head imploded. Wisely deciding not to investigate the building, the group started moving very quickly past it. Before they cleared the area, the building vaporized inside of a brillant ball of energy - one that apparently originated inside the building. Then, in a scene remeniscent of the one in Ghostbusters (after the EPA guy turned off the containment field), the whole region was swarmed with tendrils of energy - many of which passed through the members of the party. As they did so, the tendrils imparted random bits of knowledge. Although their minds were flooded with knowledge, once the storm had passed the party was only able to retain memory of a few tidbits.

The various tidbits that the party recalled are as follows...

Pretty much a load of meaningless trivia - except for the piece that Que received. The soldiers of Horus recognized the name of Calimachus. He was their overall captain until a year or so ago, when he disappeared during a rescue mission to Acheron. So, they were quite worried about this piece of information, especially if its true. (As a personal note, Neil was the only player to recognize the names of this tidbit, having just recently read the stories posted on this web site. For those seeking the backstory, please read my short story "Ebb and Flow".)

Once the party got used to knowing things that they really should have no way of knowing, they contined on their way. Past the swamp, the landscape finally become normal, turning into a landscape of rolling hills and grass. Although more difficult, Rusteen did find the trail of the khaasta and allowed the group to continue following their quarry. Another three days passed, and the group found itself outside the metal walls and gates of a small town known as Ironridge. The guards, wearing the faction symbol of the Free League, let the group pass with a minimum of questions. Of course, Twig made sure to ask where the beer was. They were directed to the large building at the center of town, which served as inn, tavern, and seat of government.

Thus ended the session. The party was on its way to the tavern to get some much deserved beer and bed rest. Just outside the building there was some kind of street brawl going on. Everyone decided to ignore it - everyone except Rusteen. He decided to stop and participate. Not because he wanted to know what was going on, but simply because he was irritated and wanted to bash some heads. We'll see how many heads he can bash when we resume the game at the next session.

Authored by: Ken Lipka

E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com 		Return to
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