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<blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 4148603" data-attributes="member: 11"><p><strong>Session #21– “The Journey Home”</strong> (part 1 of 3)[sup]1[/sup]</p><p></p><p>Dunlevey’s horse screamed as the beast exploded from the dusty earth. The landshark was a wedge of hardened flesh covered in a thick tan hide dusted gray. Its powerful limbs were short compared to the sixteen feet of its length. It had hooded eyes that gleamed yellow in the sunlight, as it roared, dirt pouring out in torrents amid row upon row of alternately jagged and blunted teeth.</p><p></p><p>Markos, Falco and Kermit were already at the rounded sun-blasted black rock. The halfling guide did not need to urge Duck-hunter, for the dog ran with evident fear, ducking between the legs of Markos’ horse as the mage stopped a few feet onto the rock, in order to get even further away. Falco pulled out his bow, bringing his horse only slightly further onto the large smooth rocks than where Markos was. Bleys did much the same as Falco did, drawing his bow and getting even further away from the loose earth the landshark burrowed through as if swimming. It was the same loose earth that obscured their sight of exactly what was going on with their companions.</p><p></p><p>Telémahkos and Tymon upon their horses were dark figures that emerged from the cloud even as it began to dissipate. Laarus arrived behind them. They could see Victoria moving Ironsides towards the rock looking to either side of her with expectant caution, while Timotheus turned his horse around as Dunlevey galloped past him towards the rocks. There was a bloody gash in the horse’s flank, but it had escaped.</p><p></p><p>“It went back under!” Victoria called to the others.</p><p></p><p>There was another explosion. This time, right beneath Timotheus’ horse. The horse leapt frantically and Tim managed to barely to hold on. The horse’s hoof kicked at the earth and found the landshark’s teeth instead nearly collapsing, but barely managing to get away, thick with the lather of its own fear.</p><p></p><p>“Back! To the rock! There’s no line to hold!” Timotheus warned the others as he spurred his horse on, but the others were all already there. “<em>Sagitta caustus!</em> Markos chanted, and a blue arrow of acid went flying towards the creature as it breached the pit it emerged from and dove back down in another explosion of earth. It was not clear until moments later when it re-emerged whether or not he hit it. It roared as it cracked the edge of the black rock, ripping at Ironside with broad swipes that tried to shove the whole horse in its mouth. </p><p></p><p><em>Sagitta Aquom!</em> Markos cast again, sending his <em>magic missles</em> into the spot where could see the acid of his previous spell still burning. Arrows came flying in from Bleys and Falco, bouncing off the thing’s hide and Timotheus dismounted. “Get back!” He shouted, but Markos was doing just that as he cast, and Laarus had already dismounted some ways behind where the bastard Briareus now was. </p><p></p><p>Victoria of Anhur spurred Ironside and the horse whinnied in dismay as it galloped higher up on the rock and wheeled. The creature disappeared beneath the earth again. She dismounted and slapped the horse on the rear sending it towards Bleys who was keeping his own mount and the packhorse at a safe distance.</p><p></p><p>“Is it gone?” Telémahkos asked, still up on his mount, finally turning it as he drew his lance from its sheath on the horse’s side.</p><p></p><p>“It may come back,” Timotheus said, slipping his helmet on as he drew his saber. </p><p></p><p>“You might not want to be so close to the edge,” Kermit warned from sixty feet away. “Those things can jump pretty far…”</p><p></p><p>“How far can they jump?”” Timotheus called back.</p><p></p><p>“Far.” The halfling replied.</p><p></p><p>“Okay, Victoria, you take the right… Laarus to my left… Everyone else stay back and get ready a volley of arrows or spells, whatever you got!” But in that moment the earth before them exploded and echoed with thunderous claps of cracking rock. The landshark roared and bit at Victoria. Laarus’ voice rose above the din and he called to Ra for the light of his holy glory, but the beam of holy sunlight missed, scorching the rock beside it as it sidestepped, rending into Victoria’s scalemail, and nearly knocking her over. Bolts and arrows from Falco and Tymon bounced off the thing’s hide ineffectually.</p><p></p><p>Laarus moved behind it and noticed for the first time that an angled fin of hard chitinous skin rose up just below the center of its back. The skin beneath was pink stained with brown. It looked vulnerable. [sup]2[/sup]</p><p></p><p>“Its fin is its weak spot!” The priest of Ra pointed it out to the others. “There is a soft spot to strike underneath.”</p><p></p><p>Telémahkos came riding up, but the melee was too frantic and he reigned in his horse’s charge, waiting for the dust to clear so he could get a clear line towards the beast. “Get out of my way! I’ll run it down!” he called.</p><p></p><p>The landshark bellowed, and they could see that its shell-like hide was desiccated with age. Victoria’s spear thrusts traced ridges of ripped up hide that swelled with pus and blood. Timotheus hurried forward and spun around it, trying to leap to avoid one of its four claws, all of which it used with equal proficiency. It caught him on the leg and he stumbled and grunt, but somehow he managed to keep his footing despite the pain, and thrust the blade of his saber under the fin, nearly extending himself horizontally on the thing’s back to do so.</p><p></p><p>The thing shook and began to claw at the rock below it as if to escape, but Dunlevey came rushing in with Markos close behind, still on his horse. The sell-sword’s great blade cracked the thing’s hide open and it bellowed again, this time more in agony than anger. “<em>Digitum electrus!</em>” Markos cast, taking a deep breath to focus his concentration before doing so, and leaning over brushed his hand across the landshark’s back as it attempted to flee. There was a crackle of electrical energy and the monster shook with convulsions before finally vomiting up pink bile and dying.</p><p></p><p>“Dinner!” Kermit cried happily. “Landshark steaks are delicious!”</p><p></p><p>“Do these things hunt alone?” Victoria asked the halfling.</p><p></p><p>“Thankfully, yes, or else no one would ever be able to travel out here,” Kermit replied, as he walked over, Duck-hunter trailing behind him.</p><p></p><p>“Dusty! Come here!” Timotheus called and whistled, and his horse came trotting back.</p><p></p><p>“I’d like to try to preserve its organs,” Markos said looking down at the carcass.</p><p></p><p>“I’d like a trophy myself,” Timotheus said. </p><p></p><p>“We should try to save as much of it as we can,” Telémahkos suggested. “Including its head…”</p><p></p><p>Bleys the Aubergine watched carefully as Kermit and Falco began to butcher the thing, cutting off huge rolls of its thick hid. Markos with nervous eagerness pointed out where he thought which organs would be where, annoying Kermit.</p><p></p><p>Telémahkos asked Victoria to accompany him to find what was left of the abandoned statue.[sup]3[/sup] Victoria had called on Anhur to heal her mount, and Timotheus borrowed Tymon’s horse to accompany them. One corner of the statue’s base emerged from the bottom of a deep sandy depression. They hauled it out with one of the horses, and were surprised that it was mostly in one piece. It had lost its remaining wing, and the body was worn, blasted by its trip through the earth.</p><p></p><p>At Telie’s instance they began to look for the broken wing. It took some time, but they found it and began to drag the statue back between two horses as afternoon waned.</p><p></p><p>Victoria and Timotheus struck up a conversation about tactics when fighting large monsters, which turned into a tactical review of several of the party’s combats against larger creatures, such as the ogre and the savage lizard thing in <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Kraken%27s+Cove" target="_blank">Kraken’s Cove</a>. [sup]4[/sup]</p><p></p><p>Back at the rising black rocks, it was agreed that the party should spend the rest of the day here as butchering the landshark took time and there was an injured horse. Bleys and Markos prepared to use <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Spell+-+Preserve+Food" target="_blank"><em>preserve food</em></a> spells to keep the organs they’d extracted from going bad any time soon.</p><p></p><p>“I would think you’d want to preserve the landshark steaks,” Kermit complained, seeing it as a waste.</p><p></p><p>“We can preserve them in here,” Timotheus patted his stomach. </p><p></p><p>It was then that they noticed Laarus Raymer of Ra returning from having wandered up the shallow grade of the black rock. Near its apex there was a channel carved into the stone, disappearing deep into it and flanked on either side by tall jagged stones.</p><p></p><p>The young priest of Ra called Bleys the Aubergine over, and Markos followed closely, curious as always.</p><p></p><p>“I feel a strange…pulling, I guess I’d call it, from down there,” Laarus of Ra pointed down into the black corridor of stone. “Like some compulsion to go down there…”</p><p></p><p>“I feel nothing,” Bleys said.</p><p></p><p>Markos shook his head. “What does it feel like exactly?”</p><p></p><p>“Pulling,” Laarus repeated.</p><p></p><p>“Physical pulling?”</p><p></p><p>“No, like I said, a compulsion…” Laarus turned and looked down the ragged channel, the tall flanking stones draped the place in deep shadow. “I feel it… inside… It is hard to describe…”</p><p></p><p>“Like when you commune with your god to prepare spells?” Markos asked.</p><p></p><p>“No… Not like that,” Laarus replied. “And also, I don’t know… Like we are being watched…”</p><p></p><p>“We should not camp here if we are being watched,” Bleys said. He instinctively scanned the trench for movement.</p><p></p><p>Leaving Falco, Kermit and Tymon behind to finish making camp and getting started on cooking the landshark steaks, the Signers made their way down the trench to investigate the source of whatever it was Laarus was feeling.</p><p></p><p>“I think this is a bad idea,” Telémahkos said from near the back of the line. The trench was fifteen even twenty feet wide in some places, but mostly it was no more than eight feet wide and as they walked it grew deeper and deeper. Laarus called to Ra and suddenly light as bright as day shone around him. He walked behind Timotheus who led the way. As they walked, Victoria called on Anhur to close some wounds Tim still suffered from the battle with the landshark.</p><p></p><p>“The feeling grows stronger,” Laarus said.</p><p></p><p>“So is this like when you get your visions,” Timotheus asked, a chuckle in his voice. “Are you going to puke? </p><p></p><p>“Dunlevey!” Bleys called to the sell-sword who was taking up the rear, great sword resting on his shoulder. “Make sure the avenue of egress does not leave your sight!”</p><p></p><p>Coerced by the growing dread, Victoria called on Anhur to give her <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Changes+to+Core+Spells#bullsstrength" target="_blank"><em>bull’s strength</em></a>.</p><p></p><p>They had gone perhaps eighty yards when the narrow canyon split in two directions, one branch breaking sharply to their right.</p><p></p><p>“We should just come back and check this tomorrow,” Bleys said. Victoria agreed. </p><p></p><p>“Well, at least let me take a look and see what is beyond,” Telémahkos said, squeezing his way forward.</p><p></p><p>“I thought you were against us coming here?” Victoria asked.</p><p></p><p>“I was… I am… But while we’re here I might as well sate my own curiosity,” Telémahkos winked, and the crept to the fork to see what lay beyond. Straight ahead the way became narrow and then sank down into a very steep shaft, while to the right the trench only went another forty feet before disappearing into a cave entrance with a nearly perfectly symmetrical shape that suggested a doorway. Above it were three runes carved into the stone. He crept back and told the others and Laarus went forward to examine the runes.</p><p></p><p>“If Laarus’ power to resist this calling proves insufficient, it may be necessary to restrain him,” Bleys said quietly to Timotheus. Tim nodded</p><p></p><p>“Earth. Mind. Fire,” Laarus read. “These are runes of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/the+Mystics" target="_blank">the Ancients</a>… The feeling is much stronger, as if… As if something were pushing at my senses trying to make itself felt more fully…” The priest of Ra took a step towards the cave entrance, and Timotheus and Victoria stepped forwarded and gently took a hold of his arms.</p><p></p><p>“I think we should enter and investigate,” Laarus said.</p><p></p><p>“This is dangerous…” Bleys said.</p><p></p><p>“How can you trust something that compels you so?” Victoria asked. “That is, if it is not some holy calling?”</p><p></p><p>“It is not a holy calling… It is something… different,” Laarus spoke as if distracted, deep in thought. “Yes?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes what?” Timotheus asked.</p><p></p><p>“I hear… I sense… There is a voice… In my mind, a voice not my own…” The priest of Ra explained.</p><p></p><p>Bleys did not hesitate, but cast <em>resistance</em> on Laarus to give the priest whatever aid he might need against a potentially malevolent will.</p><p></p><p>“We should go and come back in the morning when the light of Ra sheds light on this whole trench,” Victoria said.</p><p></p><p>“I am not leaving…” Laarus said. “There is something here… Something important… I must find out what…”</p><p></p><p>“Very well, converse if you must, but do it quickly because we should be going soon,” Bleys said. “We should not camp here…”</p><p></p><p>“It says…” Laarus hesitated. “It says… ‘I swear by the Bones of the Earth there is no violence here that you do not bring with you…’ It is swearing by <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Geb" target="_blank">Geb</a>.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh! Okay then… Let’s march right in!” Telémahkos mocked.</p><p></p><p>“They… It… He… wants to talk to me… To us… now…” Laarus continued to relay what the telepathic voice said. “Need it be now? ‘The definition of need is ever changing…’ It is now or never.”</p><p></p><p>“You trust this voice?” Timotheus asked.</p><p></p><p>Laarus nodded. “It swore by Geb… I am willing to put faith in this for now…”</p><p></p><p>“If you all think it’s safe, I am willing to go and see what is going on here…” Timotheus said, looking to the others. Bleys had pulled Telémahkos and Victoria aside to discuss the matter out of earshot of Laarus.</p><p></p><p>“Well, I’m ambivalent,” Markos said. “I’ll do whatever the rest of the group decides…”</p><p></p><p>“It wants to grant us knowledge,” Laarus added, continuing to hear the voice. “And when I asked if it was for weal or woe, it said it depends on what knowledge we seek…”</p><p></p><p>“Maybe it’s an oracle like in the old stories!” Timotheus said, suddenly excited. He dropped Laarus’ arm.</p><p></p><p>“Alright, I will go,” Markos decided.</p><p></p><p><em>…to be continued…</em></p><p></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------</p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><p></p><p>(1) This session was played in Maplewood, New Jersey on Sunday, November 25th, 2007.</p><p></p><p>(2) In trying to recreate the old 1E varying AC for a bulette to account for the vulnerability under its fin. I decide any time the thing was flanked there was a 50% chance of getting to aim for that soft spot under the fin which only had a +1 natural armor bonus as opposed to the +9 it had everywhere else. As it was an old bulette, so I ruled that its hide was not quite as strong and thick as a younger healthier one.</p><p></p><p>(3) They dropped the statue in order to outrun the bulette. See Session #20</p><p></p><p>(4) These are references to battles in Sessions #14 and #7, respectively.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="el-remmen, post: 4148603, member: 11"] [b]Session #21– “The Journey Home”[/b] (part 1 of 3)[sup]1[/sup] Dunlevey’s horse screamed as the beast exploded from the dusty earth. The landshark was a wedge of hardened flesh covered in a thick tan hide dusted gray. Its powerful limbs were short compared to the sixteen feet of its length. It had hooded eyes that gleamed yellow in the sunlight, as it roared, dirt pouring out in torrents amid row upon row of alternately jagged and blunted teeth. Markos, Falco and Kermit were already at the rounded sun-blasted black rock. The halfling guide did not need to urge Duck-hunter, for the dog ran with evident fear, ducking between the legs of Markos’ horse as the mage stopped a few feet onto the rock, in order to get even further away. Falco pulled out his bow, bringing his horse only slightly further onto the large smooth rocks than where Markos was. Bleys did much the same as Falco did, drawing his bow and getting even further away from the loose earth the landshark burrowed through as if swimming. It was the same loose earth that obscured their sight of exactly what was going on with their companions. Telémahkos and Tymon upon their horses were dark figures that emerged from the cloud even as it began to dissipate. Laarus arrived behind them. They could see Victoria moving Ironsides towards the rock looking to either side of her with expectant caution, while Timotheus turned his horse around as Dunlevey galloped past him towards the rocks. There was a bloody gash in the horse’s flank, but it had escaped. “It went back under!” Victoria called to the others. There was another explosion. This time, right beneath Timotheus’ horse. The horse leapt frantically and Tim managed to barely to hold on. The horse’s hoof kicked at the earth and found the landshark’s teeth instead nearly collapsing, but barely managing to get away, thick with the lather of its own fear. “Back! To the rock! There’s no line to hold!” Timotheus warned the others as he spurred his horse on, but the others were all already there. “[I]Sagitta caustus![/I] Markos chanted, and a blue arrow of acid went flying towards the creature as it breached the pit it emerged from and dove back down in another explosion of earth. It was not clear until moments later when it re-emerged whether or not he hit it. It roared as it cracked the edge of the black rock, ripping at Ironside with broad swipes that tried to shove the whole horse in its mouth. [I]Sagitta Aquom![/I] Markos cast again, sending his [I]magic missles[/I] into the spot where could see the acid of his previous spell still burning. Arrows came flying in from Bleys and Falco, bouncing off the thing’s hide and Timotheus dismounted. “Get back!” He shouted, but Markos was doing just that as he cast, and Laarus had already dismounted some ways behind where the bastard Briareus now was. Victoria of Anhur spurred Ironside and the horse whinnied in dismay as it galloped higher up on the rock and wheeled. The creature disappeared beneath the earth again. She dismounted and slapped the horse on the rear sending it towards Bleys who was keeping his own mount and the packhorse at a safe distance. “Is it gone?” Telémahkos asked, still up on his mount, finally turning it as he drew his lance from its sheath on the horse’s side. “It may come back,” Timotheus said, slipping his helmet on as he drew his saber. “You might not want to be so close to the edge,” Kermit warned from sixty feet away. “Those things can jump pretty far…” “How far can they jump?”” Timotheus called back. “Far.” The halfling replied. “Okay, Victoria, you take the right… Laarus to my left… Everyone else stay back and get ready a volley of arrows or spells, whatever you got!” But in that moment the earth before them exploded and echoed with thunderous claps of cracking rock. The landshark roared and bit at Victoria. Laarus’ voice rose above the din and he called to Ra for the light of his holy glory, but the beam of holy sunlight missed, scorching the rock beside it as it sidestepped, rending into Victoria’s scalemail, and nearly knocking her over. Bolts and arrows from Falco and Tymon bounced off the thing’s hide ineffectually. Laarus moved behind it and noticed for the first time that an angled fin of hard chitinous skin rose up just below the center of its back. The skin beneath was pink stained with brown. It looked vulnerable. [sup]2[/sup] “Its fin is its weak spot!” The priest of Ra pointed it out to the others. “There is a soft spot to strike underneath.” Telémahkos came riding up, but the melee was too frantic and he reigned in his horse’s charge, waiting for the dust to clear so he could get a clear line towards the beast. “Get out of my way! I’ll run it down!” he called. The landshark bellowed, and they could see that its shell-like hide was desiccated with age. Victoria’s spear thrusts traced ridges of ripped up hide that swelled with pus and blood. Timotheus hurried forward and spun around it, trying to leap to avoid one of its four claws, all of which it used with equal proficiency. It caught him on the leg and he stumbled and grunt, but somehow he managed to keep his footing despite the pain, and thrust the blade of his saber under the fin, nearly extending himself horizontally on the thing’s back to do so. The thing shook and began to claw at the rock below it as if to escape, but Dunlevey came rushing in with Markos close behind, still on his horse. The sell-sword’s great blade cracked the thing’s hide open and it bellowed again, this time more in agony than anger. “[I]Digitum electrus![/I]” Markos cast, taking a deep breath to focus his concentration before doing so, and leaning over brushed his hand across the landshark’s back as it attempted to flee. There was a crackle of electrical energy and the monster shook with convulsions before finally vomiting up pink bile and dying. “Dinner!” Kermit cried happily. “Landshark steaks are delicious!” “Do these things hunt alone?” Victoria asked the halfling. “Thankfully, yes, or else no one would ever be able to travel out here,” Kermit replied, as he walked over, Duck-hunter trailing behind him. “Dusty! Come here!” Timotheus called and whistled, and his horse came trotting back. “I’d like to try to preserve its organs,” Markos said looking down at the carcass. “I’d like a trophy myself,” Timotheus said. “We should try to save as much of it as we can,” Telémahkos suggested. “Including its head…” Bleys the Aubergine watched carefully as Kermit and Falco began to butcher the thing, cutting off huge rolls of its thick hid. Markos with nervous eagerness pointed out where he thought which organs would be where, annoying Kermit. Telémahkos asked Victoria to accompany him to find what was left of the abandoned statue.[sup]3[/sup] Victoria had called on Anhur to heal her mount, and Timotheus borrowed Tymon’s horse to accompany them. One corner of the statue’s base emerged from the bottom of a deep sandy depression. They hauled it out with one of the horses, and were surprised that it was mostly in one piece. It had lost its remaining wing, and the body was worn, blasted by its trip through the earth. At Telie’s instance they began to look for the broken wing. It took some time, but they found it and began to drag the statue back between two horses as afternoon waned. Victoria and Timotheus struck up a conversation about tactics when fighting large monsters, which turned into a tactical review of several of the party’s combats against larger creatures, such as the ogre and the savage lizard thing in [url= http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Kraken%27s+Cove]Kraken’s Cove[/url]. [sup]4[/sup] Back at the rising black rocks, it was agreed that the party should spend the rest of the day here as butchering the landshark took time and there was an injured horse. Bleys and Markos prepared to use [url= http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Spell+-+Preserve+Food][I]preserve food[/I][/url] spells to keep the organs they’d extracted from going bad any time soon. “I would think you’d want to preserve the landshark steaks,” Kermit complained, seeing it as a waste. “We can preserve them in here,” Timotheus patted his stomach. It was then that they noticed Laarus Raymer of Ra returning from having wandered up the shallow grade of the black rock. Near its apex there was a channel carved into the stone, disappearing deep into it and flanked on either side by tall jagged stones. The young priest of Ra called Bleys the Aubergine over, and Markos followed closely, curious as always. “I feel a strange…pulling, I guess I’d call it, from down there,” Laarus of Ra pointed down into the black corridor of stone. “Like some compulsion to go down there…” “I feel nothing,” Bleys said. Markos shook his head. “What does it feel like exactly?” “Pulling,” Laarus repeated. “Physical pulling?” “No, like I said, a compulsion…” Laarus turned and looked down the ragged channel, the tall flanking stones draped the place in deep shadow. “I feel it… inside… It is hard to describe…” “Like when you commune with your god to prepare spells?” Markos asked. “No… Not like that,” Laarus replied. “And also, I don’t know… Like we are being watched…” “We should not camp here if we are being watched,” Bleys said. He instinctively scanned the trench for movement. Leaving Falco, Kermit and Tymon behind to finish making camp and getting started on cooking the landshark steaks, the Signers made their way down the trench to investigate the source of whatever it was Laarus was feeling. “I think this is a bad idea,” Telémahkos said from near the back of the line. The trench was fifteen even twenty feet wide in some places, but mostly it was no more than eight feet wide and as they walked it grew deeper and deeper. Laarus called to Ra and suddenly light as bright as day shone around him. He walked behind Timotheus who led the way. As they walked, Victoria called on Anhur to close some wounds Tim still suffered from the battle with the landshark. “The feeling grows stronger,” Laarus said. “So is this like when you get your visions,” Timotheus asked, a chuckle in his voice. “Are you going to puke? “Dunlevey!” Bleys called to the sell-sword who was taking up the rear, great sword resting on his shoulder. “Make sure the avenue of egress does not leave your sight!” Coerced by the growing dread, Victoria called on Anhur to give her [url= http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Changes+to+Core+Spells#bullsstrength][I]bull’s strength[/I][/url]. They had gone perhaps eighty yards when the narrow canyon split in two directions, one branch breaking sharply to their right. “We should just come back and check this tomorrow,” Bleys said. Victoria agreed. “Well, at least let me take a look and see what is beyond,” Telémahkos said, squeezing his way forward. “I thought you were against us coming here?” Victoria asked. “I was… I am… But while we’re here I might as well sate my own curiosity,” Telémahkos winked, and the crept to the fork to see what lay beyond. Straight ahead the way became narrow and then sank down into a very steep shaft, while to the right the trench only went another forty feet before disappearing into a cave entrance with a nearly perfectly symmetrical shape that suggested a doorway. Above it were three runes carved into the stone. He crept back and told the others and Laarus went forward to examine the runes. “If Laarus’ power to resist this calling proves insufficient, it may be necessary to restrain him,” Bleys said quietly to Timotheus. Tim nodded “Earth. Mind. Fire,” Laarus read. “These are runes of [url= http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/the+Mystics]the Ancients[/url]… The feeling is much stronger, as if… As if something were pushing at my senses trying to make itself felt more fully…” The priest of Ra took a step towards the cave entrance, and Timotheus and Victoria stepped forwarded and gently took a hold of his arms. “I think we should enter and investigate,” Laarus said. “This is dangerous…” Bleys said. “How can you trust something that compels you so?” Victoria asked. “That is, if it is not some holy calling?” “It is not a holy calling… It is something… different,” Laarus spoke as if distracted, deep in thought. “Yes?” “Yes what?” Timotheus asked. “I hear… I sense… There is a voice… In my mind, a voice not my own…” The priest of Ra explained. Bleys did not hesitate, but cast [I]resistance[/I] on Laarus to give the priest whatever aid he might need against a potentially malevolent will. “We should go and come back in the morning when the light of Ra sheds light on this whole trench,” Victoria said. “I am not leaving…” Laarus said. “There is something here… Something important… I must find out what…” “Very well, converse if you must, but do it quickly because we should be going soon,” Bleys said. “We should not camp here…” “It says…” Laarus hesitated. “It says… ‘I swear by the Bones of the Earth there is no violence here that you do not bring with you…’ It is swearing by [url= http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Geb]Geb[/url].” “Oh! Okay then… Let’s march right in!” Telémahkos mocked. “They… It… He… wants to talk to me… To us… now…” Laarus continued to relay what the telepathic voice said. “Need it be now? ‘The definition of need is ever changing…’ It is now or never.” “You trust this voice?” Timotheus asked. Laarus nodded. “It swore by Geb… I am willing to put faith in this for now…” “If you all think it’s safe, I am willing to go and see what is going on here…” Timotheus said, looking to the others. Bleys had pulled Telémahkos and Victoria aside to discuss the matter out of earshot of Laarus. “Well, I’m ambivalent,” Markos said. “I’ll do whatever the rest of the group decides…” “It wants to grant us knowledge,” Laarus added, continuing to hear the voice. “And when I asked if it was for weal or woe, it said it depends on what knowledge we seek…” “Maybe it’s an oracle like in the old stories!” Timotheus said, suddenly excited. He dropped Laarus’ arm. “Alright, I will go,” Markos decided. [I]…to be continued…[/I] ----------------------------------------------------------- [b]Notes:[/b] (1) This session was played in Maplewood, New Jersey on Sunday, November 25th, 2007. (2) In trying to recreate the old 1E varying AC for a bulette to account for the vulnerability under its fin. I decide any time the thing was flanked there was a 50% chance of getting to aim for that soft spot under the fin which only had a +1 natural armor bonus as opposed to the +9 it had everywhere else. As it was an old bulette, so I ruled that its hide was not quite as strong and thick as a younger healthier one. (3) They dropped the statue in order to outrun the bulette. See Session #20 (4) These are references to battles in Sessions #14 and #7, respectively. [/QUOTE]
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"Second Son of a Second Son" - An Aquerra Story Hour (*finally* Updated 04/19)
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