Note on time: When I say (for example) 6ish, I mean any time within the hour. The party has no means of determining the exact time.
APRU 17
Hour of the Wee Ones (6ish a.m.):[/b] The party breaks up camp and continues towards Zilver.
Hour of the Arn (7ish a.m.): The party arrives at Zilver's northern gate. A small medieval keep sits in the centre of this village. The party approaches the gate and bangs on the wooden door. A small window opens on the door and a guard's head, with chainmail coif, appears asking them to state their business.
Speaking for the party, Karp informs the gate guard that they are from Clan Cambol and ask for the right of safe passage thru Zilver. The stocky guard, dressed in medieval chainmail armour, seems indifferent to Karp's request. Feyna calls the guard 'metalhead' as she asks him if he wants to be the one to break the sacred bond between Clan Cambol and the High Sheriff. At the mention of the High Sheriff, the guard stares at Feyna for a few seconds, as if he was sizing her up for battle. He then nods and tells the party to wait.
The party end up sitting on the side of the road, waiting...
Malla attempts to strike up a conversation with a nearby local who is waiting for entry past the gate. Malla asks the peasant what it is like living here. She is intrigued over the Tech Level II nature of the place (even with its faux medieval trappings). The local is a pure strain human male in his early twenties. He is wearing furs and leathers with a hooded cloak. He has a boyish face covered in patches of downy facial hair. He glances awkwardly at the village guard and back at Malla. He hesitates before he speaks, "We are lucky to live under the High Sheriff's protection. He protects us from the wolfshead that is a threat to us all." The peasant becomes silent once he realizes that a guard was staring at him.
[GM Note: This is Mulch. He's a member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. He has people to meet inside the village so he is pretending to be a typical peasant (that's not much of a stretch for Mulch).
]
The party continue to sit next to the road, waiting...
Hour of the Dabber (9ish a.m.): Two hours pass and finally one of the guards tells the party that they must follow him. The guard leads the party past the gate and into the village. The village consists of multiple wooden buildings, many with stone foundations, scattered around a low hill in the centre where a small stone keep sits. The party see two men-at-arms guards mistreating several humanoid peasants (both peasants have light blue skin). The guards are demanding to know why their kind are out in public (they're not allowed in the village during daylight hours). One of the guards threatens a peasant with his energy mace raised high into the air. An arrow slices through the air and knocks the energy mace from the guard's hand. The peasants take that opportunity to run away. Feyna is about to act when Karp reminds her that they are guests here and he will not be a part of any action that breaks the clan's treaty with the High Sheriff. She swears under her breath but does nothing. The guard lead them into the small keep.
Once inside they are taken to the High Sheriff, with Hugo the Abbot, and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in attendance. The trio seems to be in a heated argument about a Robin Hood character when the party is escorted in. The High Sheriff acknowledges the clan agreement and orders his guard to escort the party to the south gate. The High Sheriff looks over the party and then nods. "Yes, yes. They may go."
As the party are about to leave the room, the High Sheriff makes a quick comment. "After your little quest, we could always use some experienced hunters to hunt down a wolfshead in the nearby terrain. Think it over. Now, begone."
[GM Note: The High Sheriff turns to the Abbot and says, "I think we may have found our Maid Marion after all (in a reference to Feyna).
]
Hour of the Rakoxen (10ish a.m.): As the party is walking to the South Gate, Rahn makes a comment on how she found the High Sheriff and his lackeys very strange. She can't put her finger on it but her gut says something isn't right about them. Hern ponders an idea and tells the party he is going to check something. Hern convincingly fakes a stumble and then uses a nearby guard to balance himself from falling. He apologizes to the guard all the while brushing him off with touch after touch as if he was cleaning the dust off the guard.
As a result of his Molecular Sense mutation, each touch revealed new information to Hern. In hushed whispers, he tells the party that the guard's chain mail wasn't made from metal but plastic. He had one brief touch that connected with the guard's bare skin and he realizes it also has a strange plastic-like composition. The guard wasn't human/humanoid. "Let's get out of this place as fast as we can," whispers Hern as he begins to walk faster. The Party leaves Zilver behind as they travel onward.
Hour of the Katkin (11ish a.m.): The Party travel by old road to the northern outskirts of the Deathlands of Eport. In the distance, the Party can see herds of Hoppers grazing in the far hills. Several Hopper heads perk up and watch the party, ready for any action. The Party ignores the Hoppers and the Hoppers do the same, giving the Party a wide berth. The iconic ruins of Eport stabs at the sky above. Titanic duralloy beams pierce the flowing fields like giant metal rib-cage bones sticking out of the landscape. The party uses this landmark as an aid to navigate their way to Pitz Burke.
As they head southwest, Malla hears strange noises coming from the woods on the edge of the clearing. She cautiously peers through the brush to see a baby hopper trying to wake its mother. Unfortunately the mother had died during the night (from sickness). Malla falls in love with the hopperling so she picks it up (it's currently about the size of a large cat). She claims it for her own and names it Sorix. Salvyn thinks its a bad sign to name the animal so soon (especially since it might not even survive their current adventure). Karp tells Malla should that "thing" get in the way of their mission, he will personally kill it. He tells everyone to stop lagging about. "We still have lots of land to cover." The party continue on their trek.
Hour of the Hisser (5ish p.m.): The Party decides to make camp. They find a small clearing in the woods on the outskirts of Braken. As with all of the other times they have set up camp, Karp has Gund set up the camp fire. Gund digs two small holes in the ground, and then carves out a small tunnel between them. He fills the one hole with sticks and twigs and lights the fire. The air flows from the adjacent hole feeding the fire. The party now have a discreet working fire. They don't want to draw unwanted attention to their campsite, especially in a relatively unknown terrain.
APRU 18
Hour of the Squeeker (5ish a.m.): The party break up camp and fill in their fire pit holes. Karp decides the party should avoid Braken all together and they skirt along the northern range of the deathlands.
They travel for eight hours without incident and then make camp.
Hour of the Drac (12ish a.m.): As the party prepare to settle down for the night, they suddenly hear the distinctive and very loud roar of Kamodos coming from miles away to the west.
Hour of the Blackun (2ish a.m.): The party is once again woken by strange, haunting flute-like playing off in the distance to the west. Hern can feel the music calling to him even stronger than last time but he is able to resist it. Hern does comment that once this mission is over with, he will want to investigate the source of the strange music. Karp points out that the music appears to be coming from the location of the New Arndale kingdom. To be caught in their territory is to risk enslavement in their force labour camps. The party lay back down to sleep for the morning will be arriving soon enough.
