The Wayfinders - The Wreck of the Archon

[SelcSilverhand]

Kraken reaches deep inside himself, feeling for the connection to the divine as his spirits taught him. The feeling is hard to put into words but it feels farther away than before he entered the Mournlands. As he draws it up he can feel it slip away. Again he tries, but it is like trying to scoop up water with a sieve. He can't seem to tap into the source of positive energy that is the basis of his healing magics.

 

[Shayuri]

Whisper holds onto the goodberries, watching Kraken warily ever since he mentioned everyone getting killed.

"So...?" she asks with exagerrated casualness, "...are we going to pull through?"

 

[Dr Simon]

Kraken lets out a sigh.

"Better eat your berries, eh?" he says, unusually downbeat. "This place... can't speak to the spirits here..." He turns back to the controls of the rumbleball and gets the vehicle moving again.

 

[SelcSilverhand]

The Rumbleball rolls on over a desolate wasteland. Here and there you can see what remains of a great civilization. Roads are cracked and heaved leaving gullies and ruts along their length. Fields have gone fallow and are now overrun with weeds and vines. A field of gourds seems to be doing well until you pass closer by and can see each gourd is shaped like a head and colored to show eyes and wide open mouths. Some roadside hamlets you pass are leveled, others are intact but deserted. Rarely, you spot a light from inside a window but consider it prudent not to investigate. When night falls you set up a mean camp next to the Rumbleball with tarps and spare blankets. Remembering your first nights experience you do your best to find a hidden spot behind a ruined farmhouse. The night passes slowly and you are awoken occasionally by far-off wailing in the mists.

Three more days pass like this one. You see abandoned towns, crashed airships, battlefields full of long-dead soldiers whose bodies do not rot, distant moving shapes that vanish as you come closer, and other strange sights. You pass a graveyard whose tombstones have small bells attached. Each one is ringing erratically, with no wind to account for it. You pass a shallow pool of water, no more than a large puddle in a field, but in whose depths the shadows of leviathans move.

The farther into the Mournlands you travel, the more twisted the land feels. At night as you watch the moons overhead passby you are startled to glimpse another moon, one that you have never seen before. When you stare hard though it is gone again. Another night you awaken to find Midian covered in flies. They buzz away in an angry swarm once he awakens. Your dreams are always dark and terrible. In one you stare down at a tranquil pool of water. Beneath its surface men, women, and children struggle trying to break the surface. It is a barrier to them and they choke, gasp, and eventually sink to the bottom only to be replaced by a new person struggling for air. Each morning finds you awakening with a start in a cold sweat.

Finally, the evening of the third day, you spot something on the horizon. At first you thought it was a large hill with an oddly shaped top. As you get closer you can see shapes, buildings in fact, rising from the top of it. Soon you are close enough to see the entire hill is a single massive structure. The Archon.

Kraken stops the Rumbleball far enough away that it won't be easily spotted and the group creeps to the top of a nearby hill to spy out the place. The entire structure looks to be about a mile long. When it crashed it remained relatively upright but you can see parts of it have twisted or are tilted. Several campfires glow on the ground near the "stern" of the city-ship. You can see tents and banners staked out around them. Farther towards the bow you see another encampment with different colors being flown.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Doral pulls out his telescoping spyglass from his pack and takes a better look at the camps and banners, trying to identify who these players may be. "And here I thought that the hard parts of our adventure would be in the traveling." After taking a look, he hands his spyglass to his companions so they can share in the observing.

 

[SelcSilverhand]

Through the spyglass you can see the banners more clearly. At the stern of the vessel the banner show the crowned roaring bear that is the symbol of the Brelish kingdom. Breland's creation forges first built the city-ships so it is no surprise to see their interest in this place.
The banners at the bow show the pyramid with a floating all-seeing eye above it, representing the Triumvirate. It is the flag of Zilargo, the gnomish nation at the southern end of the continent.
Both expedition camps have guards patrolling, crates covered in tarpaulins, and unidentifiable objects scattered about.

Between the two encampments the ground is freshly disturbed and there are scorch marks here and there.

 

[Shayuri]

Whisper keeps the spyglass a bit longer, scowling deeply as she surveys the area around the airship.

"Looks like the battle lines were drawn. Fights of attritition are just mutual suicide, so they must have stopped the open fighting and just try to keep to their own territory...at least until one side or the other gets the clear advantage."

She collapses it shut and closes her eyes to think.

"We won't get far trying to sneak in...not with the rumbleball, and not with gnomes around. But...we may be able to play them against each other, then grab the prize and run before they know what we're doing."

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"Or better still, without them even knowing that we were here," Doral says in way of agreement.

 

[jkason]

Midian Rightson, human druid

"I'm a fan of getting in and out with no one the wiser, but between the size of the monoliths and our having to wrangle whatever transport they're planning to drop down for us, what kind of time do we need to accomplish all that?"

[sblock=ooc]I couldn't remember the specifics, so I dug back and found the post here. Looks like we probably can't get the transports dropped early, or we risk their propulsion going out on the way out of the Mournlands. I'm not sure how long a monolith extraction takes, or how many of us it takes for each if we try splitting up...[/sblock]

[sblock=mini-stats]

[b]HP:[/b] 66/66       
[b]AC:[/b] 21        [b]AC(T):[/b] 14    [b]AC(FF):[/b] 18 
Wildshape base AC: 15
Medium/Huge Animal AC: 17
Medium Magical Beast AC: 19

Conditions: None.

[b]Init:[/b] +02
[b]BAB:[/b] +6/+1     [b]CMB/CMD:[/b] +8/22     [b]ACP:[/b] -3     
[b]Perception:[/b] +17

Saving Throw    Base   Mod   Misc*  Total
Fort:            06     1     +2    +9      
Ref:             02     2     +2    +6       
Will:            06     6     +2    +14

* Cloak +2
Conditional: +4 vs. spell-like fey & plant effects (Resist Nature's Lure)
Resist Cold 10
 
[b]Weapon                  Attack   Damage     Critical[/b]
Shortspear................+8.....1d6+2.........x2
Shortspear, full attack...+8/+3..1d6+2/1d6+2...x2
Shortspear, thrown........+8.....1d6+1.........x2, range 20'
Sling.....................+8.....1d4+2.........x2, range 50'
Sling, full attack........+8/+3..1d4+2/1d4+2...x2, range 50'

[b]Surge:[/b] 8/9 remaining (CMB +14)

Magical Feats: Spell Focus (Conj), Augment Summoning, Natural Spell

[b]Spells:[/b]
0st Level / DC16/17 6 Day : Create Water, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Mending, Stabilize, Spark
1st Level / DC17/18 4+2+D Day : Endure Elements, Entangle, Feather Step, Liberating Command, Ray of Sickening, Faerie Fire, Obscuring mist(D)
2nd Level / DC18/19 3+2+D Day : Delay Poison, Frigid Touch, Lesser Restoration, Resist Energy, Stone Call, Slipstream(D)
3rd Level / DC19/20 3+1+D Day : Call Lightning*, Hide Campsite, Neutralize Poison, Resinous Skin, Water Walk(D) 
4th Level / DC20/21 2+1+D Day : Dispel Magic, Freedom of Movement, Geyser, Control Water(D)

* attuned to empowered spell shard
** Eberron shard can recall evocation spells up to 4th level: 2/2 remaining

[b]Wand charges:[/b] 27/28 remaining.
[b]Wild Shape:[/b] 3/3 remaining

[/sblock]

 

[Dr Simon]

"I say we sow confusion, get each side blaming the other whilst we walk off with the prize. Maybe set fire to something, eh?"