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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1156192" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 7, “Holy Crap!” September 13th, 1019, 6:00 A.M.Cassie had been assigned the last watch and has spent the hour before sunrise finding and cutting various shrubbery and branches for the wyvern’s breakfast.   She borrows Narg’s Decanter of Endless Water for Alton to wash this down with, and then wakes the sleeping druid.   Narg comments about how it is pleasant morning, prompting Mojo to comment “What do you have to compare it to?  You’ve never been awake before at sunrise.”   Narg says, “Not true, there have been many mornings when I didn’t go to bed until after then.”  Everyone eats breakfast and the table conversation gets back to Narg not leaving behind a note to his wife.   Both Mojo and Alton pass it off as being no big deal, and then leading to a number of remarks made at Narg’s expense.  He finally gets fed up and declares “That’s it!   Neither of you two are going to be Godparents to my kid.”    Mojo is actually happy to hear that.  Mark whispers to Cassie “Would they have even considered making either of them Godparents?”  “Not if Vallessa has any say in this,” she whispers back.The party decides that it might be best to get a good look at this monster prior to attempting to either board or fight it here at the narrow part of the path.   They decide to travel east to the entranceway to the mountain pass and wait there for it.    It is such a nice day that Narg refuses to get into the Bag of Holding, deciding instead that they should walk the three to four miles.    Alton and Cassie decide to fly, with him flying below the cliffs so as not to be spotted by anyone outside of the mountain range.    They keep flying quarter-mile sprints, then stopping and waiting for the others to catch up.    As it is rather rugged and steep terrain it actually takes nearly two hours for them to get to a cliff atop the first mountain at the beginning of the pass.    From here they have an excellent vantage point, with visibility of close to thirty miles to the east.   They see something large and gray about two miles out, standing well above the treetops.   It soon becomes obvious that this object is move closer.   The party finds concealment behind some rocks and low trees to keep from being spotted from below.  Alton moves back a ways to use some large boulders to shield his wyvern form from view, peering his head over to see.   Cassie suggests getting some of them down to the valley floor below to view up from that angle, but nobody decides to take her up on that suggestion. The large gray mass begins to lumber forward.    At a distance of about half a mile the group gets their first good look at it (At which point the DM shows the players the full-page illustration from page #72 of Dungeon #100)  The creature indeed stands at least 100 feet high, dwarfing the trees at its feet.  It has gray skin with a mottled look that upon closer examination appear to be scales, each scale being between five and ten feet in diameter.   It has a long spiked tail, with spikes also at the joints of its four limbs.  Each of its four feet appear to be thirty to forty feet in diameter at the base, with each foot crushing the trees to splinters at its feet as it moves.    There are spiked ridges about its two coal black eyes, set deep into the forehead.   A long pointed snout extends from the center of its face.   Alton notices that its maw bears a resemblance to a 20th century construction vehicle, with a large square shaped mouth with pointed fangs used to scoop up whatever is before it.  Two more long sharp points extend out at sharp angles from the corners of the creature’s chin. Encircling the creature’s entire torso is a leather harness.  Two straps wind around the waist of the creature just before the hind legs.  Another net-like series of straps runs up from the neck to center chest.  Each strap appears to be between three and five feet wide, and look to be rather thick.   Large metal bolts fasten together the straps where they intersect.  All of the straps look to have additional metal reinforcement on them. A large yoke extends out from the creatures neck, made from either metal or a heavy dark colored wood.   The yoke runs nearly 100 feet between the large round holes on either end.  A round multi-story building, some 25 feet in diameter, rests in he center of the yoke.  A slightly smaller building, some 20 feet in diameter, rests atop the creature’s head like a cap.   The remainder of the structure rests atop and alongside the creatures back.   This consists of half-a-dozen round multi-story structures, ranging between 15 and 30 feet in diameter.  Behind the first four of these buildings is a long flat platform that is at least two stories high.   Several cables and a metal winch can be seen running from this platform.   A fiery reddish-orange light emanates from the windows of the various buildings, and a plume of smoke billows out from top of the first structure along the back.   Around two-dozen larger than man-sized humanoids can be seen moving about on the structure, although the creature is still to far away to discern exactly what race they are.  Narg’s immediate reaction upon getting a close look at the monster is to proclaim “Holy Crap!”    Mojo mutters “It’s like a Stegosaurus with a mansion on top of it.”    Alton comments, “That’s like no dinosaur I’ve ever heard of before.   And it is definitely not an enlarged Catoblepas.”   Narg exclaims, “It is not of this world.”  “I agree with that assessment,” Cassie states.   She then comments that “If we kill it I could dissect it to make some control potions.”   Mojo replies, “What good would being able to control it be if it’s the only one!  I doubt we’ll ever run across another one like it.”  “If we’re lucky,” Mark adds. It continues to move closer, now only a quarter-mile away.  Cassie comments “It looks like the buildings may actually be popping out of its skin.”   Mojo says, “I know how they feel, I’m about ready to pop out of my skin.”    Narg looks at him and says, “What are you complaining about?  This is your fault in the first place!  Why did you have to go and get friendly with the Queen?”   Mojo replies, “Don’t blame me!  She named our whole team as her being her military force.”  Narg exclaims  “Crud!  That means that we probably aren’t even getting paid anything for this!”    (Break in Story: This module has been temporarily put on hold.   I had to travel out-of-state for a family medical emergency, and another member of my group was nice enough to fill in with another module using characters from a different campaign.   We'll get back to this module in a couple of weeks once he finishes.)</blockquote>

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