The City State of Barasbor, A DCC campaign.

[Imperialus]

Squatting like a malignant toad where the Bay of the Dreamer meets the Desert of Gol-Than lies the city of Barasbor. An ancient city, Barasbor was founded by the starfarers long before the cataclysm that cut off the world from the other planets

So I decided that DCC would be the perfect system to run a campaign using a setting that I've had on the back burner for a long time. It's a sword and sorcery/planet mashup where high technology exists along side more familiar fantasty tropes. It's largely inspired by Empire of the Petal Throne, Barsoom, Planet of Adventure, Warhammer 40K pre emperor, and Dying Earth. Basically the world is an ancient colony of humans founded some time in the far future. For reasons unknown (or long forgotten) it has become severed from the civilization that founded it and over several millenia has degenerated into barbarism and chaos. Artifacts of the ancients still exist but they are little understood and almost impossible to replicate.

I've reskinned the races to make them fit with the setting better. Basically Elves are Starborn, the decedents of the ruling class of Starfarers. Dwarves are Genforged or Gens, who along with Orcs, Ogres, Hobgoblins and other humanoids are the decendents of genetically engineered soldiers created during the wars that destroyed the starfarer society after the cataclysm. Finally Halflings are Drakelings, native inhabitants of the planet, closely related to dragons, and lizardmen.

I have a wiki up on Obsidian Portal that offers more background. It's pretty barebones right now, but I'm adding to it as the campaign progresses.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/barasbor

Edit: The first adventure is a modified version of the DCC adventure "Sailors on the Starless Sea". I don't normally go for prewritten adventures (particularly for a setting that deviates as far from the norm as Barasbor) but given my unfamiliarity with trying to balance things for a 0th level party I figured it would be a good idea.

 

[Imperialus]

1st Session

On a hot summer evening a great fireball appeared in the sky above the town of Transiri. Many people panicked, believing it to be one of the legendary weapons used by the ancients to wage war but when it passed harmlessly overhead to crash into the desert to the south some of the braver inhabitants of the town gathered what megre supplies they could and set off to explore the crash site, since the artifacts of the ancient starfarers are often worth vast fortunes.

The members of the expedition were:

Chubro, a Drakeling butcher
Chukles, a quick witted Drakeling tinkerer
Jarbosh, a rather shady looking man who’s handy with a sword.
Boris, a rather simple minded orphan.
Eli, a pickpocket.
Sandi, a homeless Drakeling, used to living rough.
Marcus, an exiled Starborn nobleman who quickly named himself the leader of the expedition.
Chuck, an apprentice wizard with an unsavory disposition.
Gianna the Loose, a Starborn herbalist with a reputation as an easy lay.
Gleb the Loved, an apprentice wizard.
Stavros the Sneaky, a smooth talking con man.
Graham the Pious, a healer of some proficiency.

During their preparations as the adventurers were busy selling anything of value that they owned to purchase equipment, Marcus was approached by a company of men wearing the livery of the House of Had led by a Starborn nobleman. The Starborn introduced himself as Gidion, a representative of the House of Had. He offered a princely sum of 60 gold coins to subsidize their expedition in exchange for first dibs on any items that they might find. Marcus eagerly accepted the deal, and now, flush with cash the party purchased a domestic sawtooth and tack to carry their equipment, and hopefully any treasure that they find.

On the first day of the expedition the party stuck to the main road to Barasbor. Jarbosh and Sandi explained the basics of living rough to the rest of the party and over the course of the day several small lizards were killed with slingstones supplementing the party’s rations. After setting up camp in an empty caravan stockade the party was rewarded with further rations when a young wild sawtooth started poking around the camp trying to steal the lizards that they had killed earlier. They downed it with slingstones and further supplemented their rations.

The next morning the party entered the badlands. Going was slow due to the difficulty of the terrain but they made good progress and bedded down for the night bellies full of sawtooth meat. During the night however a large poisonous spider was attracted to the warmth of Gianna’s bedroll and when she shifted in her sleep it bit her arm. Panic ensued as Gianna’s arm began to swell and the party debated amputation in an attempt to save her life. Chubro offered his cleaver for the task, but the idea was nixed by Graham who claimed that the shock would likely kill her. During the debate Gianna first passed out, and then died as a result of the poison coursing through her veins. Gianna’s body was rolled into a ditch, and a few rocks were piled on top of her as a makeshift cairn.

After another day of uneventful travel the party reached the crash site only to find it empty. They found a few scraps (approximately 30 lbs) of scorched starmetal that might have some value but other than that, the only thing of interested was a large series of drag marks as if something extremely heavy had been pulled along the ground. Upon closer examination it looked as though a team of men and beasts had done the dragging pulling whatever they had found along the bottom of the canyon floor further south into the desert.

Following the trail was not difficult and the party soon reached a small fortress perched above them on the canyon lip. Gleb remembered having read something about a long dead warlord who had a fortress to the south of Transiri but couldn’t remember any specifics. The drag marks led straight through the front gate. The fortress was in great disrepair, and unusually it was covered in vines and other plant life, and extremely strange occurrence in the Desert of Gol-Than. Approaching the front gate the party was attacked by two strange zombie like creatures suspended in the vines. Marcus took a hard blow to the chest, but survived and the creatures were quickly dispatched via a hail of sling stones and weapon blows. Upon investigating the bodies the party found a good stout short sword and dagger as well as a nice pair of boots.

Upon entering the gate a gong rang from above them and the portcullis slammed down nearly killing Sandi in the process though he was able to roll away in time to avoid injury.

The party then explored the interior of the courtyard. They first investigated a well. They found that the rope ended, not in a bucket, but rather a pair of manacles. Upon peering in they got an extremely creepy vibe and elected to give the well a wide berth from then on. They also investigated the door to an outbuilding. The outer frame was scorched as though a fierce fire had burned inside the building, and painted above the door was a single word “REPENT”. The party also investigated the North East corner of the courtyard which appeared to be dominated by a large sinkhole. Upon approaching it Chubro was pulled to the ground by an invisible force and began to get dragged towards the center. A frantic rescue attempt followed with more of the adventurers getting caught in the sinkholes pull. Marcus pulled the rope from the well and threw it as a lifeline. Unfortunately Chubro was not able to grasp it in time (though the others were more successful) and was dragged screaming into a strange void.

 

[Imperialus]

2nd session (February 10th 2013)

After the disappearance of Chubro the butcher into the mysterious sinkhole the party elected to mark a chalk outline around the circumference of the sinkhole to guard against further accidents. Upon completion they surveyed the great brass plated doors on the east side of the courtyard. They noticed that they had been barred from the outside by means of a large beam nailed into the doors.

Upon touching the doors Jarbosh noticed that they were quite warm to the touch, though he was unable to decern if this was due to sorcery, or if the heat of the desert sun had warmed them.

After some discussion Eli used his crowbar to pry the bar loose and carefully opened the door. A charnal stench and blast of heat assaulted the nostrels of the party and they saw a room covered in ash and fallen timbers with several charred skeletons scattered about and a large statue of a leering demonic toad squatting in the far end, tar like ooze dribbling from its mouth and into a basin at its feet. Jarbosh’s keen eye noticed that one of the skeletons was armoured in chainmail. Utilizing a grappling hook and rope they pulled the skeleton out of the room and recovered the armour. It was decided that as Jarbosh was their strongest fighting man he would wear the armour, in spite of the fact that the lack of padding made it uncomfortable to wear in addition to providing less protection than normal.

Feeling emboldened by his armour (and no doubt wishing to prove himself worthy of possessing it) Jarbosh entered the room. Upon approaching the statue, the ooze suddenly animated and attacked, striking him hard in the chest. Instinct took over and Jarbosh lashed out with his short sword, penetrating the sticky substance. Boris, the young orphan who had latched onto Jarbosh as a surrogate father figure rushed into the room and struck the ooze with his stick to no effect. The ooze then lashed at Boris, striking him in the head and cracking his skull open. Eli also joined the fray though he was no more effective than Boris while the remainder of the party cowered at the temple entrance, fearful of the unnatural beast they had unleashed.

The ooze that remained on Jarbosh’s chest then suddenly ignited, singing his eyebrows and 3 day growth of beard. Marcus got his wits about him and also joined the fight, felling the creature with a blow from his long sword. Jarbosh fell to the ground and smothered the flames and Graham provided a dose from his precious medi-kit which knit Jarbosh’s broken ribs and blistered skin. Unfortunately Boris was beyond the powerful healing kits capabilities. Eli then used his crowbar to pry the eyes out of the statue before striking it with a maul, smashing its head from its body while the others examined the room, discovering an iron mace near where the armoured skeleton had fallen.

Boris was quickly stripped of his megre possessions and as an experiment Stavros threw his corpse over the safety line towards the sinkhole. Just like Chubro the body was caught by the mysterious forces at work and his young body was dragged into the abyss.

The party then approached the door leading into the tower. Using the bar from the temple door as a battering ram they hammered it down and were confronted by a half dozen horrifying beastmen, unnatural abominations with the heads of animals on fur and chitin covered bodies. A ferocious melee ensued. Sandi, the drakeling vagrant was struck down, and Graham the Pious was struck in the eye by a spear, the point traveling through his skull and out the back. After defeating the fiends the party found 6 poor souls chained to the walls of the tower. Upon releasing them they agreed to join in the expedition seeking vengeance. The prisoners were able to shed some light on the purpose of the mysterious well as it appeared that their fate was to be dunked within it, a processes that would cause them to be transformed into beastmen themselves. Chuckles briefly suggested that it might not be such a terrible thing to become beastmen themselves given their obvious combat prowess but it was quickly decided that they were just too gross, not to mention insane to give the idea further consideration. Stavros the Sneaky took possession of Grahams medi-kit and dolled out healing as required. Some concern was expressed over the rapidly draining reserves of medi-gel contained within the kit but short term survival was deemed more important than long term gain.

New Party Members:
Rothgar: A remarkably hale wizards apprentice.
Yorland: An armourers apprentice.
Toki: A powerfully built (albeit rather stupid) Genforged thieves guild enforcer.
Carlos the Clumsy: An armourer with a twisted thumb, caused by a miss-struck hammer blow.
Stark: A rather pudgy soldier, used to garrison duty.
Valen: A Starborn Sage

The party then explored the passages leading through the fortress walls. Little of interest was found apart from the portcullus mechanism which was duly raised and spiked open to allow for quick escape if necessary.

The party then ventured down the stairs leading underneath the wall. The passage twisted back on itself and after traveling deep beneath the ground the party came across a small landing with what looked to be a secret door off to one side that had been left slightly ajar. Scattered on the landing were 3 silver coins. Jarbosh, suspecting a trap poked at the coins with a spear recovered from the beastmen before kneeling down and scooping them up. They then entered the secret room, burned the cobwebs that infested the ceiling and approached 3 upturned chests at the far end. The chests were empty, but there were no less than 5 silver coins and 3 copper coins of ancient mintage scattered in the dust. Squealing with glee, Stavros scooped them up and said “We’re Silvernairs!”

Jarbosh investigated the chests and noticed that one appeared to have a false bottom. Stavros examined it and found a sliding compartment in the back. When he opened it a sharp steel blade sliced across the opening. He was able to jerk his fingers back with nothing worse than an uncomfortably close manicure however. Within the compartment they found a silver ring set with the same stone as the demon toads eyes and a vial of a strange smelling oil wrapped in a blood red tabbard depicting an eight pointed star sewn in gold thread. When Chuckles touched a drop of the oil to his tongue he felt energy course through his veins and he suddenly felt healthier than he had before (gaining 1 HP above his total).

The party then continued to follow the stairs down. They entered a room dominated by a large black pool with strange mosaics on the walls portraying several bizzare rituals the purpose of which were not immediately apparent.

As they passed through the room Valin felt a strange compulsion to look in the pool. In spite of the fact that Jarbosh had already examined it the water began to bubble and a skull with glowing eyes rose to the surface, staring at Valin. The same compulsion caused Valin to reach in and retrieve the skull. The rest of the party stepped away nevously fully expecting Valin to burst into flames, turn into a demon, or unleash a portal to hell itself but no harm came to anyone. Valin pointed the eyes of the skull around hoping for laser beams or fireballs, but other than the strange glow the skull seemed entirely mundane.

The party then continued down the stairs before entering a vast cavern, they heard the sound of water lapping in the distance but whatever the source, it was beyond the range of their torchlight…

 

[Goonalan]

Loving this, keep it up.

Cheers Goonalan

 

[ewpierce]

These are great! I just picked up DCC myself and am loving the vibe. This game just oozes appeal.

Keep these coming!

 

[Imperialus]

Will do...

Only downside is that my DCC group is pretty large and we're usually only able to co-ordinate schedules once a month or so so updates might be infrequent.

 

[Imperialus]

Sorry for the delay here. Busy couple of weeks for me, but the nice thing is that the 4th session is this afternoon so I should have the next update in a couple days I also apologize that the combat isn't quite as detailed as it has been previously. It was a pretty massive fight, and I was too busy tracking hitpoints and the like to take very good notes.

Third Session

March 10, 2013

As the party paused at the foot of the stone steps to let their eyes adjust to the blackness of the cavern they began to hear a steady arrhythmic beat of drums from across the underground lake. They also saw a dim red glow in the distance. A 20 foot high meheir was also visible at the waters edge.

Approaching the shore the sight of a dragon prowed longship came into view, silhouetted against the glow. Expecting an attack the party waited for a horde of beastmen, but none came. Coming closer to the stone it became clear that it was covered in strange, twisting runes, and sigils, and there was a narrow set of stone steps carved into its sides winding towards the top.

Valin approached the stone and began to study it. He was suddenly possessed with an overwhelming urge to murder Chuck and carve his heart out. Drawing his dagger he fell upon his unsuspecting victim, and with a single vicious thrust smashed through his breastbone and began to tear his heart out.

Reacting with the stunning speed his people are known for Chuckles turned on Valin and stabbed him in the spine as he tried to complete his foul work.

After the excitement died down and Chuck and Valin’s bodies were looted (with Chuckles claiming Valin’s glowing skull) the party climbed to the top of the menheir where they found a puddle of wax in a shallow carved bowl with a wick inside. After some debate they lit the candle and the dragon ship moved to the shore allowing them to board.

A few moments after everyone was aboard the strange ship, some strange sorcery caused the ship to pull away from the shore and begin sailing across the lake towards the glow that they had seen earlier. After what felt like an eternity sailing through the dark the boat suddenly shuddered as though struck from below and suddenly two great tentacles emerged from the black water some distance ahead of the ship. Thinking quickly Jarbosh threw Valin’s body into the water and the beast disappeared.

Eventually the boat was close enough to the light that it became clear that it was a 3 tiered zigguratt with an angry red glow from the top. Suddenly the boat was violently rocked as the tentacles reappeared, clearly disappointed with the parties previous offering and attacked the adventurers. The tentacles began wrapping around the adventurers as they desperately hacked at them while at the same time trying to free their ensnared comrades. Amazingly enough, after a frantic and desperate battle they managed to drive the beast off without suffering any casualties.

The ship ran aground at the foot of the ramp circling the ziggurat and the party disembarked. They counted nearly 20 beastmen on the ramp and after some debate it was determined that a frontal assault would be the only chance of success.

A brutal melee ensued on the sides of the zuggurat, the blood of both beastmen and the adventures running in rivulets down the sides of the dark temple. Packed along the narrow path, there was little room for tactics, just a slow, painful grind up the side of the temple, stepping over the bodies of the fallen. Chuckles, Stavros and Stark both met their ends skewered on the tips of beastmen spears. Just as all seemed lost the leader of the beastmen shouted that the adventurers would make good sacrifices, and to take them alive. Jarbosh and Marcus were both grappled and dragged up the ramp towards certain doom. Toki took up the van and began the grim work of hacking through the press of beastmen between him and his comrades while Marcus and Jarbosh fought like demons stabbing, punching, and kicking the beastmen that had the surrounded.

Upon reaching the top of the alter Jarbosh saw a beastmen shaman and his acoloytes push a strange coffin like device made out of a silvery material with a hinged door into a hole at the top where the light was emanating from. The two acolytes moved to engaged him while the shaman began drawing something up from the pit by means of a rope and pulley. He also saw a small fortune in gold and silver scattered about, as well as a strange, dessicated looking corpse with a silvery object on the ground beside it.

When the object was pulled from the hole it became obvious that it was a lava covered human figure. As the party slaughtered the shaman the lava cooled, cracked, and then burst apart revealing a black armoured figure wielding a massive two handed flail. The party fell upon the monster and after a short battle struck it down. Its body melted into magma, leaving a suit of scale armour, and a flail behind. After catching their breath, Rothgar approached the mummified corpse while Marcus bent to pick up the flail and armour.

Rothgar saw that the corpse looked vaguely like a Starborn, but with even more exaggerated features. The silver object turned out to be a pistol, but of a form Rothgar couldn’t recognize. It didn’t even seem to have a bore down the barrel.

At the same time Marcus reached down to examine the flail and armour. Suddenly the magma that made up the dark beings corpse animated into a pillar of flame which lashed out at him. Dodging back just in time Marcus escaped with nothing worse than badly blistered skin. Rothgar then turned, pointed the pistol device at the pillar and pulled the trigger. There was a crack of electricity, the stink of ozone and everyone’s hair stood on end for a moment as a bolt of energy flew from the mouth of the gun striking the pillar of flame causing it to collapse back in on itself and disappear. A small display on the back of the gun then lit up and changed from 9 to 8 before going dark again. Clearly this was a great and powerful artifact of the starfarers.

The party scarcely had time to realize what had just happened when the ground began to shake with a low bass rumble filling the air. Pieces of rock began falling from the ceiling smashing into the ziggurat and the lake. Deciding that the time had come to leave Marcus recovered the scale armour and flail while Jarbosh retrieved the body of the Starfarer. Rothgar, Toki, Yonolind, Carlos, and Eli scraped as much gold and silver from the ground as they could before retreating down the ziggurat towards the ship.

As the cavern collapsed around them the boat was picked up by a massive wave and pressed towards a narrow opening at the far end of the lake. A wild ride through a narrow cave followed the boat repeatedly smashing into the walls and ceiling breaking up as it went. After what felt like an eternity the boat was ejected from a hole in the side of a canyon and smashed into pieces on the ground.

Most of the party had survived with little more than cuts and bruises, but a portion of the mast had smashed into Toki’s head when it broke off and he was beyond saving, even if they hadn’t lost the medi-kit along with Stavros’ body during the battle with the beastmen.

Upon examining the scale armour Marcus realized that under the black lacquer the armour itself was made from star metal, meaning that he could comfortably wear it.

Taking stock of their situation the party realized that although they were battered, lost, and exhausted they were also wealthy, and perhaps more importantly they were now, truly adventurers.

Rothgar the Cultist, 1st level Chaotic Wizard, and possessor of the Star Man’s pistol.
Jarbosh the Squire, 1st level Lawful Warrior.
Marcus the Wanderer, 1st level Lawful Starborn.
Eli the Begger, 1st level Neutral Thief.
Carlos the Wilding, 1st level Neutral Warrior.
Yorland the Astrologist, 1st level Neutral Wizard.

 

[Imperialus]

Here is a writeup on Barasbor itself.

Barasbor

Population 21,000 people.
Militia 2000, Leather, Spear, Shield, Dagger (25% short bow)
City Guard 470:
5 ships with a crew of 30 each, Leather, Short Sword, Short Bow, 2 fire catapults 6 ballista.
1 skyboat with a crew of 20. Starborn crew, provides their own armament. Armed with a lightning cannon.
3 infantry companies of 50 each, Chainmail, Shield, Spear, Short Sword, 25% have longbows.
1 heavy company of 50, Banded Mail, Pike, Longsword, 50% have arquebus’
2 cavalry companies of 50, Leapers, Platemail, lance, shield, longsword, 25% have a muzzle loading pistol in place of the lance.
100-200 assorted mercenaries and household guards.

Barasbor is a massive, sprawling, ancient, chaotic city. Though it is a shadow of its former glory never having fully recovered from being besieged and eventually sacked by the great southern dragon Shadow Walker and his army approximately 50 years ago it remains an important regional power and major trading hub. It controls the river delta that it was built on as well as all of the villages and hamlets along the road between the Bay of the Dreamer and Transiri to the west.

Much of the wealth of Barasbor comes from across the sea with exotic spices, silks, slaves and potent opiates and other sorcerous accouterments including the fabled black lotus making their way though the port.

A first time visitor to Barasbor will notice two things almost immediately. The first, is the Citadel. This ancient fortress was constructed by the Star Farers and dominates the skyline. The Citadel is home to the five great families that rule the city. The walls of the Citadel are made of a strange silvery material veined with black and red so that when the sun strikes it at dawn it looks almost as though the walls run with blood. A place of dark sorcery and superstition to the local population most avoid the imposing walls, not that they would be welcome within them anyhow.

The second most striking feature of Barasbor is the outer city, most commonly called the wastes. Surrounded by the ruins of a mudbrick wall the wastes fell early in the Siege of Barasbor and were strongly invested by the army of Shadow Walker for several years. Since the siege little effort has been made to recover the land, and the ruins still stand. Many individuals living on the fringes of society, criminals, bandits, and escaped slaves make camps in these ruins and they can be an extremely useful place for people to ‘disappear’ should they need to.

Separating the wastes from the city proper is a tall granite block wall constructed many hundreds of years ago at the height of the city’s power from massive stones quarried from the Ironkin mountains. It is said that 1000 slaves were sacrificed on the day the wall was completed and their blood used to give strength to the stones. The Desert Gate is almost a fortress in and of itself and serves as an imposing welcome to any visitor.

Outside the city the river delta is surrounded by slave plantations growing spiny biters. The slaves working these fields are easily recognizable by the network of scars on their hands and arms from the cactus’ thorns. There is also limited wheat grown, mostly for consumption by the upper classes.

The city is divided into several key districts, The Docks, the lifeblood of the city and seat of power for the Iron Band, one of the two major thieves guilds in the city.

Further to the north and butted up against the walls of The Citadel is The High Market, a merchants district and home to the city government. The high market is also home to the cities two arsenals of Barasbor, the House of Emervy and the Terian Family.

The High Market borders the Temple District. The most powerful temple within the city is that of The South Star but many other gods have representation in the city as well.

Just within The Desert Gate is the lower class market known as the block, both for the public slave auctions that take place there and the gibbet in the center of the square.

To the west of the block a visitor can find the Drakeling ghetto of Tinker-Town. Tinker-Town is controlled by a drakeling dominated gang known as the Wyrms. The Wyrms also control the block, and compete viciously with the Iron Band and to defend their people from pogroms and other abuses. Tinker-Town is also home to an illicit temple dedicated to Shadow Walker.

The Street of Red Lanterns lies directly between The Docks and the block. It is a haven of vice, everything from brothels, to taverns, to opium dens ply their trade along The Street. Due to its location it is the center of the war between the Wyrms and the Iron Band

 

[Azkorra]

That's a very interesting setting, slightly similar to Monte Cook's upcoming Numenera (guessing from the small snippets of information that have been published it about yet).

Looking forward to what you have in mind for your party!

 

[Imperialus]

Fourth Session

March 24, 2013 10:58

As the party gathered their wits after the wild ride through the caves they attempted to get their bearings. As they were in the bottom of a canyon this was more difficult that it first seemed as they could not get a good view of the sun. Jarbosh and Carlos the Clumsy constructed a travois to carry the mummified corpse of the Star Farer.

After filling their waterskins the party clambered to the top of the ridge and saw a cloud of dust some distance away. Assuming that it may be the fortress they made their way towards it over the rough terrain. After several hours they arrived and found that the fortress had collapsed in on itself, and that their sawtooth Drexel had broken his lead and fled into the wastes with much of their food.

They began to make their way north towards the road and Transiri. That night during Eli’s watch he was startled to see two skeletal forms approach the camp. One of them had pearls in his eyesockets reflecting the light of the moon. Upon meeting its gaze Eli was scarcely able to call out a warning before collapsing into a magical slumber. The remainder of the party roused themselves and did battle with the fiends. Eli very nearly died but Marcus smashed the skull of the one with the pearl eyes, and Carlos the Clumsy slew the other. Recovering the pearls the party continued to the north.

After several more days of travel it became clear that they were lost. With their stocks of food and water running critically low things were beginning to look desperate. Salvation was found in the form of a small group of men dressed in desert robes that the party encountered early one morning. After cautious greetings were exchanged, the men revealed themselves to be pilgrims of The Leviathan and offered to share their food with the adventurers and guide them to the road. They had been traveling south to investigate the meteor, and after hearing the party’s story explained that it was likely what was known as an ‘escape pod’ a tiny space boat used to escape a larger vessel during emergencies. Knowing the passion for technology possessed by the servants of The Leviathan the party was cautious about sharing information about the treasures they found but the pilgrims seemed to have little interest in anything that would not be directly useful to their god.

Rothgar expressed interest in the cult of The Leviathan, particularly the great machine’s reputation for granting his followers powerful destructive spells and the leader of the pilgrims Brother Maynard taught him a spell that allow him to enter a bond The Leviathan and accept him as his patron.

Upon returning to Transiri the adventurers were recognized at the gate and escorted to a meeting with Geralt of Had. They elected to be up front with him and showed him both the body, and the pistol (their two greatest treasures). Geralt was interested in the pistol, but he found the mummified body extremely fascinating. He promptly offered Marcus 100 gold coins for it, and praised the group on their ingenuity and capabilities. He also gave Marcus a clay disk set with a silver emblem of the House of Had. He suggested that should they find themselves in Barasbor they should seek out his families agents and present them with the disk as they may have use for individuals with their talents.

That evening the party stayed in a modest inn frequented by merchants and mercenaries traveling through the town. They heard rumors that a group of slaves had escaped the Selkirn mines and that a reward was out for their capture or deaths. They also got a lead on a caravan master traveling to Barasbor the next morning who was seeking additional mercenaries to replace losses he had taken while crossing the Pass of the Eld. The pay was modest, but as the group was looking for reason to travel to Barasbor anyhow they elected to take him up on his offer.

The caravan consisted of 12 wagons, six other guards armed with short swords, leather armour and arqubus’ as well as 4 outriders on leapers. The first few days passed uneventfully, but on the 3rd night of travel they were attacked by a party of Orcish raiders. Two of the guards were slain by javalins almost immediately. Responding quickly Yonolind attempted to cast choking cloud, but her lack of experience showed and the spell failed. Rothgar aimed his Star-Gun at one of them and pulled the trigger, but his shot was wide. The battle quickly turned into a melee with most of the party battling in hand to hand while Eli hung around the edge flinging stones from his sling at targets of opportunity. Disaster almost struck, when Carlos the Clumsy dropped a flask of flaming pitch at his feet setting himself on fire, but his hardy constitution prevented him from taking serious damage. After a time however the battle turned and the orcs were defeated. Carlos claimed one of their heavy single edged longswords as his own to replace the shortsword he had been using up until that point.

The remainder of the journey to Barasbor passed uneventfully, and late in the afternoon the party found themselves approaching the wastes surrounding the city.