gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
It was intended to. Or, rather, after I'd written it I thought, "I bet RangerWickett gets a kick out of that."
ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
- Thread starter gideonpepys
- Start date
It was intended to. Or, rather, after I'd written it I thought, "I bet RangerWickett gets a kick out of that."
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 233, Part One - They Didn’t Think it Too Many
The unit killed almost seven hundred foes that day. The final hundred were mopped up to the last man, so ferocious were they in their devotion to their god. Hunlow’s storm rose in vengeful fury, but when his priests were all dead, it abated.
After freeing all the slaves kept in the hold of every ship, they found a place to lower the Coaltongue where it did not touch water and began healing the injured and fixing damaged vessels. Leon went to go get Bhalu and helped him to his feet. Uru organised prefab shelter. Uriel examined Thrusy’s golden rapier and found that it was carved from a gold dragon tooth! Rumdoom strapped Taracle’s dwarven axes in a cross formation on his back.
While this went on, Calily and others asked the slaves if there were any Kinava monks here. They said there was indeed a strange sect among the many hundreds of slaves the pirates kept on an adjacent plane: Drozani. The slaves shuddered at the thought of returning.
The unit scoured the flotilla and found plenty of food to feed the slave for now. No food grew on Drozani. The slaves there were kept alive by shipments of fish from Hunlow, and fresh water and other supplies from the goblins of Etheax, also close by. They were totally reliant on the pirates. (All of this was organised by the fiendish Captain Thrusty who had turned out to be a dab hand at administration.) How were these other slaves guarded? “Fallen angels,” came the reply.
While they waited for the Coaltongue to recharge, Kai announced that the plane was ‘talking to him’. He said it was a horrible place that loved baddies, and that if they linked their world to Hunlow, the seas of Lanjyr would reward blood sacrifice as this one did (only he put this in a more childish way). Then he said that Caeloon had also talked to him when they rested there, but he hadn’t known what to make of it and thought he was imagining things. Now he knew that he could understand things about each plane if he waited long enough. Korrigan asked his son what Caeloon had told him and Kai said, “That I shouldn’t be so sad when sad things happen.” Calily nodded. “On Caeloon we greet adversity with resilience.”
When the Coaltongue had powered up, they set off for Drozani, herding the slaves onto the main deck. Admiral Smith bridled slightly had said that it would be difficult to keep order if this solution were not very short-term. Quratulain put them to work swabbing the deck and filling empty crew positions. “It will keep them occupied. They should be used to it by now.”
Using spyglasses, and Korrigan’s clairvoyant eye, they saw that the space beyond Hunlow was mostly void, save for a small rocky island that formed a shore with the sea of Hunlow, where the sea terminated, abruptly and unnaturally. From there, a majestic pink marble staircase rose two hundred feet over the void, up to a pillow of clouds upon which sat a desolate city of rose wood and marble. Two fallen angels of Hunlow guarded the staircase and would no doubt allow access only to those whom their god approved.
“I will go and talk to them,” said Korrigan. Uriel insisted that he should not go alone, and one by one the whole unit insisted they accompany him – all save Rumdoom who would stay and guard the ship. They flew down to the foot of the staircase on Matunaaga’s stone discs – except for Uru, who ranged ahead on Little Jack, and then snuck past the angels.
These ten-foot tall creatures were naked women from the waist up, with tenacles for their lower regions, and sea-foam green wings. They wore eyepatches over both eyes. One bore an oversized cutlass over its shoulder, the other an enormous trident. Uriel studied them closely and realised with some amusement that, while these beings would have been almost impossible for ordinary mortals to defeat, they would pose no threat to the unit whatsoever.
When Korrigan greeted the angels and demanded passage, they attacked immediately. Uru killed one of them in an instant. Quratulain had made a similar assessment to Uriel and kept her weapons stowed, allowing the others to have their fun. While Uriel and Korrigan dispatched the second angel, Quratulain took the opportunity to thank Korrigan for freeing her from the Vault of Heresies. “It has been a fun ride,” she said. “I just realised I never said thank you before.” Somewhat bemused, Korrigan gave her a sideways glance before acknowledging her thanks.
With the angels slain, they rode up to the dead city in the clouds.
The unit killed almost seven hundred foes that day. The final hundred were mopped up to the last man, so ferocious were they in their devotion to their god. Hunlow’s storm rose in vengeful fury, but when his priests were all dead, it abated.
After freeing all the slaves kept in the hold of every ship, they found a place to lower the Coaltongue where it did not touch water and began healing the injured and fixing damaged vessels. Leon went to go get Bhalu and helped him to his feet. Uru organised prefab shelter. Uriel examined Thrusy’s golden rapier and found that it was carved from a gold dragon tooth! Rumdoom strapped Taracle’s dwarven axes in a cross formation on his back.
While this went on, Calily and others asked the slaves if there were any Kinava monks here. They said there was indeed a strange sect among the many hundreds of slaves the pirates kept on an adjacent plane: Drozani. The slaves shuddered at the thought of returning.
The unit scoured the flotilla and found plenty of food to feed the slave for now. No food grew on Drozani. The slaves there were kept alive by shipments of fish from Hunlow, and fresh water and other supplies from the goblins of Etheax, also close by. They were totally reliant on the pirates. (All of this was organised by the fiendish Captain Thrusty who had turned out to be a dab hand at administration.) How were these other slaves guarded? “Fallen angels,” came the reply.
While they waited for the Coaltongue to recharge, Kai announced that the plane was ‘talking to him’. He said it was a horrible place that loved baddies, and that if they linked their world to Hunlow, the seas of Lanjyr would reward blood sacrifice as this one did (only he put this in a more childish way). Then he said that Caeloon had also talked to him when they rested there, but he hadn’t known what to make of it and thought he was imagining things. Now he knew that he could understand things about each plane if he waited long enough. Korrigan asked his son what Caeloon had told him and Kai said, “That I shouldn’t be so sad when sad things happen.” Calily nodded. “On Caeloon we greet adversity with resilience.”
When the Coaltongue had powered up, they set off for Drozani, herding the slaves onto the main deck. Admiral Smith bridled slightly had said that it would be difficult to keep order if this solution were not very short-term. Quratulain put them to work swabbing the deck and filling empty crew positions. “It will keep them occupied. They should be used to it by now.”
Using spyglasses, and Korrigan’s clairvoyant eye, they saw that the space beyond Hunlow was mostly void, save for a small rocky island that formed a shore with the sea of Hunlow, where the sea terminated, abruptly and unnaturally. From there, a majestic pink marble staircase rose two hundred feet over the void, up to a pillow of clouds upon which sat a desolate city of rose wood and marble. Two fallen angels of Hunlow guarded the staircase and would no doubt allow access only to those whom their god approved.
“I will go and talk to them,” said Korrigan. Uriel insisted that he should not go alone, and one by one the whole unit insisted they accompany him – all save Rumdoom who would stay and guard the ship. They flew down to the foot of the staircase on Matunaaga’s stone discs – except for Uru, who ranged ahead on Little Jack, and then snuck past the angels.
These ten-foot tall creatures were naked women from the waist up, with tenacles for their lower regions, and sea-foam green wings. They wore eyepatches over both eyes. One bore an oversized cutlass over its shoulder, the other an enormous trident. Uriel studied them closely and realised with some amusement that, while these beings would have been almost impossible for ordinary mortals to defeat, they would pose no threat to the unit whatsoever.
When Korrigan greeted the angels and demanded passage, they attacked immediately. Uru killed one of them in an instant. Quratulain had made a similar assessment to Uriel and kept her weapons stowed, allowing the others to have their fun. While Uriel and Korrigan dispatched the second angel, Quratulain took the opportunity to thank Korrigan for freeing her from the Vault of Heresies. “It has been a fun ride,” she said. “I just realised I never said thank you before.” Somewhat bemused, Korrigan gave her a sideways glance before acknowledging her thanks.
With the angels slain, they rode up to the dead city in the clouds.
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 233, Part Two - The Dead City in the Clouds
Within the city, the pirates kept thousands of slaves, entirely dependent on their captors because nothing grew here. Drozani was beyond desolate – whatever civilisation had once built this city must have transgressed in some terrible way, as their home was now devoid of life, of the capacity to create life. The pirates imported food from Etheax and fish from Hunlow.
When the unit arrived, the wretched slaves mobbed them, and at the news that the pirates were gone, their jubilation soon turned to violence as they took revenge on those who had kept order in the pirates’ stead and won favour by disciplining their fellow slaves. The unit chose not to intervene in this.
Calily found the monks they were seeking, or rather she found their descendants: Their asceticism made them pariahs, but the slaves and pirates let them pass along their martial arts traditions as long as they were willing to submit to whatever debased demands the pirates made. They did not make good playthings, however, since they suffered torments with stoicism. Calily was sad that her old friends were dead – life on Drozani was hard – but soon recovered, smiled and said that she was very proud of their children. “You must come home to the monastery at once.”
They brought the Coaltongue in and reunited the slaves with those they had rescued from the sacrificial ritual. Then they began to organise the slaves and consider what to do with them and how to feed them now the pirates were gone. There were somewhere between two-and-half and three thousand of them, and now half of their food supply had vanished.
Uru tried to commune with the spirits of Drozani. The emptiness was even more disturbing than Padyer. Uriel meditated and used location loresight.While he did so, Kai announced, “No babies can be born here.” Uriel opened his eyes and said, “Utterly dead. The worst kind of hell. We need to get these people off here.”
Korrigan gathered them all together and bolstered them with his oratory. He promised that they would sort out the food situation and find them a new home. (Calily said softly that this would be difficult indeed. One of the first things she had warned them about when they met was the lack of food here.) They organised the slaves under a new regime to tide them over until they returned and then rested while the Coaltongue recharged again.
Gupta and Uru went exploring. They found nothing. This place was very beautiful but utterly devoid of life – even the frisson of excitement that might accompany a strange discovery.
Alexander Grappa had been living inside Uriel’s head for a few days now, but had stayed silent for the most part.Here on Drozani, he chose to speak up for the first time:
“I have been talking with this poor young woman whom I share your head with. We have reached and understanding, she and I, and now I think she has something to say to you.”
Silence. “Xambria?” asked Uriel, encouraging.
“I am sorry for what I did,” said Xambria, “for betraying you. I think I understand what made Nicodemus the way he is. Being without a body, it… disconnects you from reality. All you have left are intellectual pursuits. Emotions start to fade. At the Convocation I was so overwhelmed, that I… And Nicodemus seemed so inspiring!”
Grappa commiserated with her and spoke of his own infatuation with the Ob leader, and how strange it was to live as nothing more than a psyche – “not a spirit, even”. Uriel said that he too had been inspired by Nicodemus – once, when he was a man, and again, through several incarnations.“ He inspired me to turn against the Church and try to free him.” Then he gave a laugh and joked, “We are all very much in the same boat, it seems.” As he said this, he guessed that there was even more to it than he cared to admit. Fortunately, he was distracted by Grappa, who wanted to talk to Lavanya before it was too late.“ I get the feeling she might not be with us for long. At least that’s what she keeps saying. I’m hoping she might be able to tell me more now that you’re here.”
Lavanya was spending time with Leon, who had taken a break from trying to pick up Calily’s Stance of the Paper Wind. They were engaged in an intense conversation about Lavanya’s purpose, which segued neatly into her reasons for rescuing Grappa and for being here right now.
Lavanya said that she was Kasvarina’s avatar.“ She saw everything, on the Lance of Triegenes, through her connection to Reida. She knew she had to reach the plane, and tried to get there before the titan. Fighting the Voice of Rot wasn’t in her plan, although I suppose she knew it was going to happen, and did it anyway, for all of us. Because her body was dying, after she was bitten, she created me to finish what she started. I am all of her best parts – her love, and her desire to do good. Her anger and spite, which got the better of her in her later years, she took out, and trapped in spirit form. As you know, they became Jenny Greenteeth, which I suppose she must have known would happen too.
“My task was to use the power she gave me to travel to places you and I had been and try to fix things in a certain, safe way. It’s very difficult, though. If I make too many changes at once, the outcome may be so far removed from the future I was once part of that it creates another reality entirely. That is why I have to be careful not to tell you too much each time, in case by doing so I cause you to act differently and inadvertently alter things yourself.
“I think this is my last task, though. At least, I don’t know what to do next, which hasn’t happened before.I do have a vague awareness of being drawn back to Lanjyr when he Ob find my body. Then… who knows? Rescuing Alexander Grappa was important. He has a role in all this which should become clear. You need to get him to Reida, even if I don’t make it that far.”
She mentioned Conquo again, of how important he was, and reminded Uriel of his earlier suggestion that he might be able to help with that problem.She asked what had happened to Conquo and was told that he was destroyed falling into lava in Pemberton’s island lair.
“His heart won’t have been destroyed by that,” she said.“That’s all that matters. The body was only so he could practice moving around. It will be difficult to retrieve, no?”
Uriel shook his head. "When we get back to Lanjyr I will see what I can do."(There was a certain hollowness in his tone when he said this.)
Leon asked if they could know what Conquo was needed for, and Lavanya shrugged, tired of keeping secrets, “The hope is to place him into the colossus and displace Borne.”
Grappa was sceptical that this could be done, but Lavanya insisted that the golem heart just needed to be placed in the recess where the lantern was.“ Conquo was raised well and will do as he is told. He wasn’t brainwashed by Nicodmus.” Now Grappa became defensive and insisted that Borne could be saved – persuaded that what Nicodemus was doing was wrong.
“Don’t forget, I have already tried,” said Lavanya, “when you first awoke him.”
“And Kasvarina tried as well,” said Leon."Back on the Lance." A sad memory that bought the conversation to a close.
It was during this hiatus that Admiral Smith suddenly noticed that the ship’s strange mascot ‘Sparklehorse’ was missing. With the help of the crew he established that no one had seen the creature since they reached the Gyre, and that he most likely disappeared during the storm between Cauldron Hill and Av. Smith tutted ominously and said, “It is very bad luck for a ship lose its mascot.”
Within the city, the pirates kept thousands of slaves, entirely dependent on their captors because nothing grew here. Drozani was beyond desolate – whatever civilisation had once built this city must have transgressed in some terrible way, as their home was now devoid of life, of the capacity to create life. The pirates imported food from Etheax and fish from Hunlow.
When the unit arrived, the wretched slaves mobbed them, and at the news that the pirates were gone, their jubilation soon turned to violence as they took revenge on those who had kept order in the pirates’ stead and won favour by disciplining their fellow slaves. The unit chose not to intervene in this.
Calily found the monks they were seeking, or rather she found their descendants: Their asceticism made them pariahs, but the slaves and pirates let them pass along their martial arts traditions as long as they were willing to submit to whatever debased demands the pirates made. They did not make good playthings, however, since they suffered torments with stoicism. Calily was sad that her old friends were dead – life on Drozani was hard – but soon recovered, smiled and said that she was very proud of their children. “You must come home to the monastery at once.”
They brought the Coaltongue in and reunited the slaves with those they had rescued from the sacrificial ritual. Then they began to organise the slaves and consider what to do with them and how to feed them now the pirates were gone. There were somewhere between two-and-half and three thousand of them, and now half of their food supply had vanished.
Uru tried to commune with the spirits of Drozani. The emptiness was even more disturbing than Padyer. Uriel meditated and used location loresight.While he did so, Kai announced, “No babies can be born here.” Uriel opened his eyes and said, “Utterly dead. The worst kind of hell. We need to get these people off here.”
Korrigan gathered them all together and bolstered them with his oratory. He promised that they would sort out the food situation and find them a new home. (Calily said softly that this would be difficult indeed. One of the first things she had warned them about when they met was the lack of food here.) They organised the slaves under a new regime to tide them over until they returned and then rested while the Coaltongue recharged again.
Gupta and Uru went exploring. They found nothing. This place was very beautiful but utterly devoid of life – even the frisson of excitement that might accompany a strange discovery.
Alexander Grappa had been living inside Uriel’s head for a few days now, but had stayed silent for the most part.Here on Drozani, he chose to speak up for the first time:
“I have been talking with this poor young woman whom I share your head with. We have reached and understanding, she and I, and now I think she has something to say to you.”
Silence. “Xambria?” asked Uriel, encouraging.
“I am sorry for what I did,” said Xambria, “for betraying you. I think I understand what made Nicodemus the way he is. Being without a body, it… disconnects you from reality. All you have left are intellectual pursuits. Emotions start to fade. At the Convocation I was so overwhelmed, that I… And Nicodemus seemed so inspiring!”
Grappa commiserated with her and spoke of his own infatuation with the Ob leader, and how strange it was to live as nothing more than a psyche – “not a spirit, even”. Uriel said that he too had been inspired by Nicodemus – once, when he was a man, and again, through several incarnations.“ He inspired me to turn against the Church and try to free him.” Then he gave a laugh and joked, “We are all very much in the same boat, it seems.” As he said this, he guessed that there was even more to it than he cared to admit. Fortunately, he was distracted by Grappa, who wanted to talk to Lavanya before it was too late.“ I get the feeling she might not be with us for long. At least that’s what she keeps saying. I’m hoping she might be able to tell me more now that you’re here.”
Lavanya was spending time with Leon, who had taken a break from trying to pick up Calily’s Stance of the Paper Wind. They were engaged in an intense conversation about Lavanya’s purpose, which segued neatly into her reasons for rescuing Grappa and for being here right now.
Lavanya said that she was Kasvarina’s avatar.“ She saw everything, on the Lance of Triegenes, through her connection to Reida. She knew she had to reach the plane, and tried to get there before the titan. Fighting the Voice of Rot wasn’t in her plan, although I suppose she knew it was going to happen, and did it anyway, for all of us. Because her body was dying, after she was bitten, she created me to finish what she started. I am all of her best parts – her love, and her desire to do good. Her anger and spite, which got the better of her in her later years, she took out, and trapped in spirit form. As you know, they became Jenny Greenteeth, which I suppose she must have known would happen too.
“My task was to use the power she gave me to travel to places you and I had been and try to fix things in a certain, safe way. It’s very difficult, though. If I make too many changes at once, the outcome may be so far removed from the future I was once part of that it creates another reality entirely. That is why I have to be careful not to tell you too much each time, in case by doing so I cause you to act differently and inadvertently alter things yourself.
“I think this is my last task, though. At least, I don’t know what to do next, which hasn’t happened before.I do have a vague awareness of being drawn back to Lanjyr when he Ob find my body. Then… who knows? Rescuing Alexander Grappa was important. He has a role in all this which should become clear. You need to get him to Reida, even if I don’t make it that far.”
She mentioned Conquo again, of how important he was, and reminded Uriel of his earlier suggestion that he might be able to help with that problem.She asked what had happened to Conquo and was told that he was destroyed falling into lava in Pemberton’s island lair.
“His heart won’t have been destroyed by that,” she said.“That’s all that matters. The body was only so he could practice moving around. It will be difficult to retrieve, no?”
Uriel shook his head. "When we get back to Lanjyr I will see what I can do."(There was a certain hollowness in his tone when he said this.)
Leon asked if they could know what Conquo was needed for, and Lavanya shrugged, tired of keeping secrets, “The hope is to place him into the colossus and displace Borne.”
Grappa was sceptical that this could be done, but Lavanya insisted that the golem heart just needed to be placed in the recess where the lantern was.“ Conquo was raised well and will do as he is told. He wasn’t brainwashed by Nicodmus.” Now Grappa became defensive and insisted that Borne could be saved – persuaded that what Nicodemus was doing was wrong.
“Don’t forget, I have already tried,” said Lavanya, “when you first awoke him.”
“And Kasvarina tried as well,” said Leon."Back on the Lance." A sad memory that bought the conversation to a close.
It was during this hiatus that Admiral Smith suddenly noticed that the ship’s strange mascot ‘Sparklehorse’ was missing. With the help of the crew he established that no one had seen the creature since they reached the Gyre, and that he most likely disappeared during the storm between Cauldron Hill and Av. Smith tutted ominously and said, “It is very bad luck for a ship lose its mascot.”
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RangerWickett
Legend
Personally I try to avoid time travel. How has the group taken to it?
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Time travel out of nowhere might not have gone down too well, but I think that Kasvarina’s connection to Reida through the Arc grants a tissue-thin rationale that everyone is polite enough to pretend not to see through. We’d also established the multiple timelines idea during Leon’s side-quest in the Dreaming, and his various attempts to save Kai Korrigan from being kidnapped.
Personally, when I came up with this answer to ‘who is Lavanya?’ I was pretty chuffed, and to have dealt with Jenny Greenteeth into the bargain was a bonus. It’s all a bit ‘a wizard did it’ but I take some consolation from the fact that the highest grossing film of all time dealt in the very same trope. (Perhaps Markus and McFeely read this thread, I dunno.)
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 233, Part Three - Malthusian Logic
Malthusian Logic
After some debate, it was decided to head for Etheax before returning to Caeloon, leaving the slaves on Drozani for now, with a solemn promise to return. Uru counselled against straying from their initial goal, fearing that they would only get tangled up in something else. Korrigan decided to risk it: the goblins of Etheax were friendly, according to Calily, and the plane offered fire energy – also needed to fix the Coaltongue. (He couldn’t help but notice that his deep faen friend had become increasingly conservative of late; perhaps a side-effect of fey titanhood?)
The vast void from Drozani to Etheax was daunting, so they doubled back through Hunlow, hoping the god was still dormant. An ulterior motive was that it gave Leon the opportunity to test out interplanar teleportation: could he travel to and from planes he had already seen or visited, as he had learned to do recently while exploring the new planes around Lanjyr? The answer proved to be ‘yes’. He ported back to the closest island to Drozani and then back again, just as the Coaltongue crossed the boundary between the planes.
On to Etheax, where the cave-riddled mountains were sharp and steep, with flat grassy valleys between looming granite mesas. A handful of goblin tribes lived in these valleys, tending to the plants and animals. They also tended to fires at the mouths of all their caves, and could communicate across the plane in a hurry by means of shadow puppets in front of the fires.
So it was that a gathering of tribal elders came to greet the new arrivals enthusiastically. Korrigan told them that the Pirates of Hunlow were no more and the goblins were pleased. Then he told them that they would need to continue their arrangement to supply the slaves of Drozani, and the goblins were pleased about that too. They only asked if there would be any changes to the arrangement – specifically, who would be responsible for the back-payments they were owed? (Captain Thrusty, it emerged, had promised to pay them handsomely at some point and they had been too polite to press him on it.) Korrigan told them that payment was unlikely to be forthcoming, and they shrugged and acquiesced without objection. The only problem now was that they couldn’t get the food to Drozani, as the pirates used to ship it for them. In which case, said Korrigan, the slaves would have to come to live here. “It will be nice to have new neighbours,” said the incredibly friendly goblins.
While the Coaltongue recharged, they enjoyed the hospitality of the goblins, who cooked food instantly with group cantrips. Kai said that this plane made both fire magic and waiting for things very easy. Could they make their first planar icon here? Korrigan wondered. He asked the goblins if they needed anything, and they said no, but when they learned the reason, they simply granted permission and that was enough. Uriel handed one of the blank icons he had crafted to Kai, and an hour later, Golden Icon of Etheax was complete.
There was plentiful game here. Gupta took the opportunity to revert to tiger form and hunt. Meanwhile, the others wrestled with the problem of whether all two-and-a-half-thousand slaves could settle here, practically speaking. Kieran Sentacore wondered if it was necessary to leave them all in one place, but the unit really wanted to be done with the problem in one go if possible. (The worlds of the Gyre would soon be ground to dust anyway, but at least the slaves could enjoy what little life they had left without suffering and starvation. Perhaps even a couple generations would come and go before the end, who knew?)
Uru found the puzzle intriguing and plugged Uriel for all he and his incarnations knew about population density. As he happens, good old Malthusius had made a name for himself with a treatise on this very subject and was able to supply Uru with all the information he needed. Then he made a presentation to the others, with his Hat of Hats transformed into a mortar board, and his goggles serving as thick spectacles:
“I am going to use aboriginal Risuri agricultural practices for the calculations and assume a carrying capacity of 20 per acre. They grow carp in the ditches under fruit and nut trees with crops and herbs between trees and chickens running around. An ancient polyculture of carp, rice, and ducks is practiced in some areas.
“Assuming 56 square miles of terrain that works out to around 35,840 acres. Assuming every square inch of the terrain is used for food than the maximum population carrying capacity would be 716,800. A rough total of the population being below 3,000 and assuming that forest cover and rocky outcroppings reduce the above total I think it's safe to say the island will be ground into the Gyre before food shortages become an issue.
“I'll assume 2500 of the population are of viable reproduction age. Assuming a growth rate of .12 a year when the gears tear into the island they will have reached a population of 4,539. Meaning total acres needed (excluding Goblins) would be 226.”
After a brief pause to take this all in, Leon said, “Most of them are going to starve before they get their first crop (assuming the realm doesn't get destroyed first). Also farming is hard work with a steep unforgiving learning curve. They don't have the skills, tools or seeds required.”
“Such is the price of freedom,” said Quratulain.
Malthusian Logic
After some debate, it was decided to head for Etheax before returning to Caeloon, leaving the slaves on Drozani for now, with a solemn promise to return. Uru counselled against straying from their initial goal, fearing that they would only get tangled up in something else. Korrigan decided to risk it: the goblins of Etheax were friendly, according to Calily, and the plane offered fire energy – also needed to fix the Coaltongue. (He couldn’t help but notice that his deep faen friend had become increasingly conservative of late; perhaps a side-effect of fey titanhood?)
The vast void from Drozani to Etheax was daunting, so they doubled back through Hunlow, hoping the god was still dormant. An ulterior motive was that it gave Leon the opportunity to test out interplanar teleportation: could he travel to and from planes he had already seen or visited, as he had learned to do recently while exploring the new planes around Lanjyr? The answer proved to be ‘yes’. He ported back to the closest island to Drozani and then back again, just as the Coaltongue crossed the boundary between the planes.
On to Etheax, where the cave-riddled mountains were sharp and steep, with flat grassy valleys between looming granite mesas. A handful of goblin tribes lived in these valleys, tending to the plants and animals. They also tended to fires at the mouths of all their caves, and could communicate across the plane in a hurry by means of shadow puppets in front of the fires.
So it was that a gathering of tribal elders came to greet the new arrivals enthusiastically. Korrigan told them that the Pirates of Hunlow were no more and the goblins were pleased. Then he told them that they would need to continue their arrangement to supply the slaves of Drozani, and the goblins were pleased about that too. They only asked if there would be any changes to the arrangement – specifically, who would be responsible for the back-payments they were owed? (Captain Thrusty, it emerged, had promised to pay them handsomely at some point and they had been too polite to press him on it.) Korrigan told them that payment was unlikely to be forthcoming, and they shrugged and acquiesced without objection. The only problem now was that they couldn’t get the food to Drozani, as the pirates used to ship it for them. In which case, said Korrigan, the slaves would have to come to live here. “It will be nice to have new neighbours,” said the incredibly friendly goblins.
While the Coaltongue recharged, they enjoyed the hospitality of the goblins, who cooked food instantly with group cantrips. Kai said that this plane made both fire magic and waiting for things very easy. Could they make their first planar icon here? Korrigan wondered. He asked the goblins if they needed anything, and they said no, but when they learned the reason, they simply granted permission and that was enough. Uriel handed one of the blank icons he had crafted to Kai, and an hour later, Golden Icon of Etheax was complete.
There was plentiful game here. Gupta took the opportunity to revert to tiger form and hunt. Meanwhile, the others wrestled with the problem of whether all two-and-a-half-thousand slaves could settle here, practically speaking. Kieran Sentacore wondered if it was necessary to leave them all in one place, but the unit really wanted to be done with the problem in one go if possible. (The worlds of the Gyre would soon be ground to dust anyway, but at least the slaves could enjoy what little life they had left without suffering and starvation. Perhaps even a couple generations would come and go before the end, who knew?)
Uru found the puzzle intriguing and plugged Uriel for all he and his incarnations knew about population density. As he happens, good old Malthusius had made a name for himself with a treatise on this very subject and was able to supply Uru with all the information he needed. Then he made a presentation to the others, with his Hat of Hats transformed into a mortar board, and his goggles serving as thick spectacles:
“I am going to use aboriginal Risuri agricultural practices for the calculations and assume a carrying capacity of 20 per acre. They grow carp in the ditches under fruit and nut trees with crops and herbs between trees and chickens running around. An ancient polyculture of carp, rice, and ducks is practiced in some areas.
“Assuming 56 square miles of terrain that works out to around 35,840 acres. Assuming every square inch of the terrain is used for food than the maximum population carrying capacity would be 716,800. A rough total of the population being below 3,000 and assuming that forest cover and rocky outcroppings reduce the above total I think it's safe to say the island will be ground into the Gyre before food shortages become an issue.
“I'll assume 2500 of the population are of viable reproduction age. Assuming a growth rate of .12 a year when the gears tear into the island they will have reached a population of 4,539. Meaning total acres needed (excluding Goblins) would be 226.”
After a brief pause to take this all in, Leon said, “Most of them are going to starve before they get their first crop (assuming the realm doesn't get destroyed first). Also farming is hard work with a steep unforgiving learning curve. They don't have the skills, tools or seeds required.”
“Such is the price of freedom,” said Quratulain.
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 233, Part Four - Up & Running
Before they left Etheax, Uru suggested that Korrigan leave the slaves with a copy of his manifesto, which Korrigan thought was a jolly good idea. That should see them through the tough times ahead.
The next step was to return the enslaved monks to Caeloon, but Calily intervened and said that wasn’t necessary. She knew that Leon could take her back their alone and was certain that would suffice. When they asked why she would not be drawn, but gave a wry smile and said, “You’ll see.” It was decided to let her have her fun, so Leon teleported back to Caeloon with the unit even while the Coaltongue was still recharging. Calily asked him to return to the edge of the clearing around her monastery, not to the monastery itself.
When they arrived, she whispered a phrase in the language Gupta knew had been written all over the building. With a crackle of paper, the small, humble, shabby place grew into a majestic, well-tended full monastery. Three dozen monks came out, bowed, and then follow Calily’s lead in a brief martial kata to showcase their fighting technique. When they were done, Calily said that they would all fight alongside the unit against the Golden Legion. Uru muttered sceptically, but Leon discreetly reassured him that Calily had held her own in the fight against the pirates. Meanwhile, Korrigan had already accepted with gracious thanks. The other monks showed serene approval, then return to the monastery, with an injunction from Calily to return to their meditations in preparation for the fight ahead. Then she folded the monastery down to the size of an origami bird, which she slipped into a pocket in her robes. “Now we must go and find more allies!” she said optimistically.
This done, Kai was easily able to create a Golden Icon of Caeloon, whereupon they returned to the Coaltongue.
Again, Uru was keen stay focused and head straight for Egalitrix, but Korrigan insisted that they had come here to explore, and would first check out the southern Gyre and see what planes were on offer. To this end, they crossed Hunlow again and headed for Thrag, despite Calily’s warnings.
Remote viewing of the plane showed a jungle landscape. Up close, the treetops seem to be writhing in a chaotic wind. Uru flew down to scout. The first think he noticed as he drew closer to the plane was the screaming. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. He passed through the canopy and found that the flora beneath was constantly moving and ambulatory, but too slowly to present an imminent threat. Finding a relatively clear spot, he called the others in, and while he waited for them to reach him, took a quick soil sample. (He would slip it in Hildegaard’s drink later.)
When the rest arrived they formed a protective circle around Kai who began to attempt to read the planar traits.Uriel performed location loresight; Uru tried to contact the spirits of the plane.
Leon noticed a pattern to the movement of the foliage to the north and peered more closely to see if he could interpret it. The brush had become more dense, although it had not moved towards them. He stepped closer himself to get a better look, relying on his teleportation powers to keep him out of trouble. The brush took up a horrible wailing.
Despite this eerie distraction, Uriel’s reading yielded results: he paled and said, “Something terrible happened here.”
Kai looked up at his father and asked, “Is it possible for someone to be born again?” Then he looked at Uriel and answered his own question. “Of course it is!”
As more information came to him, Uriel went on: “Mortals here slew a divine child who had been born to the god of death and the goddess of life. The mourning deities altered the cycle of reincarnation so that no one would ever die again. No new people were born, but souls remembered their past lives as they took on new forms."
“Everything here was once a person,” Uru added, then his ears twitched and he scanned the wailing undergrowth where Leon was standing.
“Every being on this world recalls thousands of births, thousands of lifetimes, and thousands of savage deaths,” said Uriel.
Deaths from what? they all wondered.
“Something’s coming!” said Uru. But the warning came too late. At that very moment ‘something’ burst out of the undergrowth and pounced…
End of Session
Before they left Etheax, Uru suggested that Korrigan leave the slaves with a copy of his manifesto, which Korrigan thought was a jolly good idea. That should see them through the tough times ahead.
The next step was to return the enslaved monks to Caeloon, but Calily intervened and said that wasn’t necessary. She knew that Leon could take her back their alone and was certain that would suffice. When they asked why she would not be drawn, but gave a wry smile and said, “You’ll see.” It was decided to let her have her fun, so Leon teleported back to Caeloon with the unit even while the Coaltongue was still recharging. Calily asked him to return to the edge of the clearing around her monastery, not to the monastery itself.
When they arrived, she whispered a phrase in the language Gupta knew had been written all over the building. With a crackle of paper, the small, humble, shabby place grew into a majestic, well-tended full monastery. Three dozen monks came out, bowed, and then follow Calily’s lead in a brief martial kata to showcase their fighting technique. When they were done, Calily said that they would all fight alongside the unit against the Golden Legion. Uru muttered sceptically, but Leon discreetly reassured him that Calily had held her own in the fight against the pirates. Meanwhile, Korrigan had already accepted with gracious thanks. The other monks showed serene approval, then return to the monastery, with an injunction from Calily to return to their meditations in preparation for the fight ahead. Then she folded the monastery down to the size of an origami bird, which she slipped into a pocket in her robes. “Now we must go and find more allies!” she said optimistically.
This done, Kai was easily able to create a Golden Icon of Caeloon, whereupon they returned to the Coaltongue.
Again, Uru was keen stay focused and head straight for Egalitrix, but Korrigan insisted that they had come here to explore, and would first check out the southern Gyre and see what planes were on offer. To this end, they crossed Hunlow again and headed for Thrag, despite Calily’s warnings.
Remote viewing of the plane showed a jungle landscape. Up close, the treetops seem to be writhing in a chaotic wind. Uru flew down to scout. The first think he noticed as he drew closer to the plane was the screaming. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. He passed through the canopy and found that the flora beneath was constantly moving and ambulatory, but too slowly to present an imminent threat. Finding a relatively clear spot, he called the others in, and while he waited for them to reach him, took a quick soil sample. (He would slip it in Hildegaard’s drink later.)
When the rest arrived they formed a protective circle around Kai who began to attempt to read the planar traits.Uriel performed location loresight; Uru tried to contact the spirits of the plane.
Leon noticed a pattern to the movement of the foliage to the north and peered more closely to see if he could interpret it. The brush had become more dense, although it had not moved towards them. He stepped closer himself to get a better look, relying on his teleportation powers to keep him out of trouble. The brush took up a horrible wailing.
Despite this eerie distraction, Uriel’s reading yielded results: he paled and said, “Something terrible happened here.”
Kai looked up at his father and asked, “Is it possible for someone to be born again?” Then he looked at Uriel and answered his own question. “Of course it is!”
As more information came to him, Uriel went on: “Mortals here slew a divine child who had been born to the god of death and the goddess of life. The mourning deities altered the cycle of reincarnation so that no one would ever die again. No new people were born, but souls remembered their past lives as they took on new forms."
“Everything here was once a person,” Uru added, then his ears twitched and he scanned the wailing undergrowth where Leon was standing.
“Every being on this world recalls thousands of births, thousands of lifetimes, and thousands of savage deaths,” said Uriel.
Deaths from what? they all wondered.
“Something’s coming!” said Uru. But the warning came too late. At that very moment ‘something’ burst out of the undergrowth and pounced…
End of Session
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 234, Part One - The Carnivorous Mandala Beast of Thrag
The Carnivorous Mandala Beast of Thrag
A bipedal bird with luxurious dagger-like feathers lunged from the underbrush, and as its clawed fore-limbs reached for Leon, a blinding disk of mind-warping white and purple appeared in the air behind it, rendering him incapable of recalling any spells. The best he could do was reach for his Dreaming Blade far too slowly as the mandala beast impaled him. The first claw strike was partly blocked by his silksteel mantel, but it was unable to stop the second, or the third. With blinding speed, the mandala beast struck and struck again, then dragged him back into the flailing, wailing bushes.
Quratulain dashed after it, hacking her way in and saw it poised to strike again at the prone, bleeding tiefling; Uriel followed in her wake, thrust at it with his new rapier, but missed. The beast dealt with Leon first, finishing him off with one claw, while lashing out at its attacker with the other. Uriel leapt back out of harm’s way. Calily adopted the stance of the paper wind, and chased into the underbrush to help. “I told you these creatures were dangerous!” she said.
Uru was about to take to the air, to try to find a spot where he could see the mandala beast, when he caught sight of something up in the canopy which he was sure had not been there before: a vaknid! How could he have missed the approach of something so huge? He reported its arrival to Korrigan, and asked for permission to strike; Korrigan gave him the go ahead, distracted and horrified by the report from his defender sword that Leon had been killed. At once, he sent a message to Rumdoom back on the Coaltongue. This situation was dangerous and they would need his support! As he did so, he scooped up Kai and threw him into the sling on his back.
Uru, meanwhile, took a shot at the vaknid, which flinched. Gupta studied it carefully, noting the fact that it did not appear to be hostile, just… observing them? In response to Uru’s attack, the vaknid withdrew, scuttling off across the canopy, unmolested by the ambulatory plant-life. Gupta switched to tiger form to join the fight to free Leon, when suddenly a huge barrier of screaming plants bisected the clearing, trapping Gupta, Korrigan and Uru on the far side. Uriel felt sure that the psychic energy that had raised this barrier had emanated from the mandala beast.
Uru took to the air on Little Jack and hid, watching to ensure that the vaknid had indeed fully withdrawn. It was some distance away already.
Quratulain, Uriel and Calily fought the mandala beast, striking blow after blow. Uriel set it on fire with his gold-dragon-tooth rapier, and the creature screeched in agony and fell writhing to the ground, where it was immediately absorbed into the soil. Uriel tried to trap its soul to stop it reincarnating, but the process was already underway.
Unable to reach Leon through the barrier, Korrigan clutched at the pommel of his defender sword again, and was surprised to learn that Leon was now alive and stable! At this news, Uriel dropped to his knees and tried to heal Leon, but the spell did not work. Something strange was going on; this required careful study.
With the mandala beast gone, Gupta turned back into human form to help Uriel, only to hear a sinister movement in the undergrowth behind her, just audible over the screams of the plant barrier. She turned and drew Lya’s rapier, even as another mandala beast erupted from the bushes and pounced at her. This one was a serpent with wings like a jagged butterfly, sporting a hypnotic disk of reds and greens and blues. Uru shot it immediately and distracted it from Gupta. It turned its gaze skyward and bamboozled Uru with its mandala. He was compelled to flee, but fought for control and did not do so. Gupta took advantage of the situation, and the terrible wound caused by Uru, and plunged her mechanised rapier deep into the beast. It slumped to the ground and immediately began to disintegrate.
“That was the same beast,” said Gupta.
“Regroup!” said Korrigan.
At once, Quratulain began hacking her way through the barrier with her armblades. As she did so, their screams reached a pitch that caused her allies to flinch, but Quratulain did not care. “It’s recharging my batteries!” she cried, happily. Ever since her dalliance with the Father of Thunder she had grown fond of loud noises and lightning.
Uriel used telekinesis to try to move Leon, but Leon arched his back and groaned in response and Uriel lowered him back down to remain in contact with the earth. “It seems to be sustaining him,” he reported. So Korrigan gave orders for the rest of the team to move through the gap Quratulain had created and gather defensively around their fallen comrade until such times as they figured out what to do. The mandala beast might return at any…
Suddenly, thrashing grass bristled beneath their feet, and the entire surface of the earth became a disorienting swirl of black, orange, and silver light from which the screaming tendrils of plant-life grew, their stalks capped with thorn-toothed mouths. Before it could bring them to bear on anyone, Quratulain shrunk it with her lantern blaster, from a huge patch of earth, to a much more modest one, and Uriel ignited it with an empowered fire spell. Again, it fizzled into the earth.
“I wonder if it will still be smaller when it reincarnates?” Quratulain said. (Flash-forward: It wasn’t.)
While they waited for the mandala beast’s inevitable return, Uriel, Gupta and Quratulain tried to figure out what was going on – how to defeat the beast, and how to save Leon. They shared ideas, one revelation building on another: Uriel realised they needed to get Leon off-world to shake him free of the stasis the beast had trapped him in; trouble was that would kill him without Rumdoom to prevent that happening. Fortunately, Rumdoom and Hildegaard arrived at that moment, feather-falling down from the Coaltongue, which circled hundreds of feet up. “Where’s this beast, then?” Rumdoom asked looking around him and brandishing the Stone of Not.
Standing in Wonder, Gupta realised that one way to defeat the beast would be to take it off-world too, to prevent it from reincarnating; the trouble with that was that their best chance of doing so was currently lying close to death.
Quratulain made a quick calculation and was about to share it when the beast leapt out of the undergrowth once again. This time, it had taken the form of a skeletal quadruped – something halfway between a dog and a horse - with razor-sharp bones. It attacked Korrigan, who was left bleeding from several wounds, before Rumdoom leapt at the creature and struck it with the Stone of Not. It vanished!
Had that put an end to the creature? It all depended on whether the power of the Stone –sufficient to obliterate the creature’s physical form – was greater than the magic of Thrag which would otherwise cause its spirit to reincarnate and regrow another body.
In the hiatus, while they waited to see if it returned, Quratulain shared her calculations: “We can slow the beast’s regeneration by scorching the earth beneath it. It won’t be killed permanently, but it will have to decay through natural means.”
“That’s doable,” said Uriel, who began to prepare a spell, as a humungous fungal growth bloomed at the centre of the clearing. Bulbous heads rose up, mouths opened, and tendrils lashed out to draw in victims. Rumdoom swung the stone, but having to fend off tendrils as he did so, missed. Calily threw stinging paper darts at the creature; it responded by going into a frenzy, lashing out at Calily, Quratulain and Rumdoom. Each had to fend off a virulent paralytic poison, and Calily had to shrug off the mind-numbing effects of the beast’s mandala, too.
Korrigan asked Kai if he knew what would happen to Leon if they moved him – assuming Rumdoom could stop him from dying. Kai said, “I think he’ll come back to life, but more slowly than the monster.” Korrigan nodded and took a swig from the Borenbog’s Gourd, to bolster his strength.
Uriel muttered an incantation and scorched the ground beneath the mandala beast. The beast itself also caught fire, and everyone joined forces to kill it. Its fungal sacks deflated, still ablaze, but it did not disintegrate at once now the ground was blackened. A few of them kept an eye on it, while the rest dealt with Leon.
Uriel levitated him, and Rumdoom stopped the initial shock from killing him, declaring this a very bad ending indeed. Then they all went back to the Coaltongue in haste, in case another mandala beast showed up.
The Carnivorous Mandala Beast of Thrag
A bipedal bird with luxurious dagger-like feathers lunged from the underbrush, and as its clawed fore-limbs reached for Leon, a blinding disk of mind-warping white and purple appeared in the air behind it, rendering him incapable of recalling any spells. The best he could do was reach for his Dreaming Blade far too slowly as the mandala beast impaled him. The first claw strike was partly blocked by his silksteel mantel, but it was unable to stop the second, or the third. With blinding speed, the mandala beast struck and struck again, then dragged him back into the flailing, wailing bushes.
Quratulain dashed after it, hacking her way in and saw it poised to strike again at the prone, bleeding tiefling; Uriel followed in her wake, thrust at it with his new rapier, but missed. The beast dealt with Leon first, finishing him off with one claw, while lashing out at its attacker with the other. Uriel leapt back out of harm’s way. Calily adopted the stance of the paper wind, and chased into the underbrush to help. “I told you these creatures were dangerous!” she said.
Uru was about to take to the air, to try to find a spot where he could see the mandala beast, when he caught sight of something up in the canopy which he was sure had not been there before: a vaknid! How could he have missed the approach of something so huge? He reported its arrival to Korrigan, and asked for permission to strike; Korrigan gave him the go ahead, distracted and horrified by the report from his defender sword that Leon had been killed. At once, he sent a message to Rumdoom back on the Coaltongue. This situation was dangerous and they would need his support! As he did so, he scooped up Kai and threw him into the sling on his back.
Uru, meanwhile, took a shot at the vaknid, which flinched. Gupta studied it carefully, noting the fact that it did not appear to be hostile, just… observing them? In response to Uru’s attack, the vaknid withdrew, scuttling off across the canopy, unmolested by the ambulatory plant-life. Gupta switched to tiger form to join the fight to free Leon, when suddenly a huge barrier of screaming plants bisected the clearing, trapping Gupta, Korrigan and Uru on the far side. Uriel felt sure that the psychic energy that had raised this barrier had emanated from the mandala beast.
Uru took to the air on Little Jack and hid, watching to ensure that the vaknid had indeed fully withdrawn. It was some distance away already.
Quratulain, Uriel and Calily fought the mandala beast, striking blow after blow. Uriel set it on fire with his gold-dragon-tooth rapier, and the creature screeched in agony and fell writhing to the ground, where it was immediately absorbed into the soil. Uriel tried to trap its soul to stop it reincarnating, but the process was already underway.
Unable to reach Leon through the barrier, Korrigan clutched at the pommel of his defender sword again, and was surprised to learn that Leon was now alive and stable! At this news, Uriel dropped to his knees and tried to heal Leon, but the spell did not work. Something strange was going on; this required careful study.
With the mandala beast gone, Gupta turned back into human form to help Uriel, only to hear a sinister movement in the undergrowth behind her, just audible over the screams of the plant barrier. She turned and drew Lya’s rapier, even as another mandala beast erupted from the bushes and pounced at her. This one was a serpent with wings like a jagged butterfly, sporting a hypnotic disk of reds and greens and blues. Uru shot it immediately and distracted it from Gupta. It turned its gaze skyward and bamboozled Uru with its mandala. He was compelled to flee, but fought for control and did not do so. Gupta took advantage of the situation, and the terrible wound caused by Uru, and plunged her mechanised rapier deep into the beast. It slumped to the ground and immediately began to disintegrate.
“That was the same beast,” said Gupta.
“Regroup!” said Korrigan.
At once, Quratulain began hacking her way through the barrier with her armblades. As she did so, their screams reached a pitch that caused her allies to flinch, but Quratulain did not care. “It’s recharging my batteries!” she cried, happily. Ever since her dalliance with the Father of Thunder she had grown fond of loud noises and lightning.
Uriel used telekinesis to try to move Leon, but Leon arched his back and groaned in response and Uriel lowered him back down to remain in contact with the earth. “It seems to be sustaining him,” he reported. So Korrigan gave orders for the rest of the team to move through the gap Quratulain had created and gather defensively around their fallen comrade until such times as they figured out what to do. The mandala beast might return at any…
Suddenly, thrashing grass bristled beneath their feet, and the entire surface of the earth became a disorienting swirl of black, orange, and silver light from which the screaming tendrils of plant-life grew, their stalks capped with thorn-toothed mouths. Before it could bring them to bear on anyone, Quratulain shrunk it with her lantern blaster, from a huge patch of earth, to a much more modest one, and Uriel ignited it with an empowered fire spell. Again, it fizzled into the earth.
“I wonder if it will still be smaller when it reincarnates?” Quratulain said. (Flash-forward: It wasn’t.)
While they waited for the mandala beast’s inevitable return, Uriel, Gupta and Quratulain tried to figure out what was going on – how to defeat the beast, and how to save Leon. They shared ideas, one revelation building on another: Uriel realised they needed to get Leon off-world to shake him free of the stasis the beast had trapped him in; trouble was that would kill him without Rumdoom to prevent that happening. Fortunately, Rumdoom and Hildegaard arrived at that moment, feather-falling down from the Coaltongue, which circled hundreds of feet up. “Where’s this beast, then?” Rumdoom asked looking around him and brandishing the Stone of Not.
Standing in Wonder, Gupta realised that one way to defeat the beast would be to take it off-world too, to prevent it from reincarnating; the trouble with that was that their best chance of doing so was currently lying close to death.
Quratulain made a quick calculation and was about to share it when the beast leapt out of the undergrowth once again. This time, it had taken the form of a skeletal quadruped – something halfway between a dog and a horse - with razor-sharp bones. It attacked Korrigan, who was left bleeding from several wounds, before Rumdoom leapt at the creature and struck it with the Stone of Not. It vanished!
Had that put an end to the creature? It all depended on whether the power of the Stone –sufficient to obliterate the creature’s physical form – was greater than the magic of Thrag which would otherwise cause its spirit to reincarnate and regrow another body.
In the hiatus, while they waited to see if it returned, Quratulain shared her calculations: “We can slow the beast’s regeneration by scorching the earth beneath it. It won’t be killed permanently, but it will have to decay through natural means.”
“That’s doable,” said Uriel, who began to prepare a spell, as a humungous fungal growth bloomed at the centre of the clearing. Bulbous heads rose up, mouths opened, and tendrils lashed out to draw in victims. Rumdoom swung the stone, but having to fend off tendrils as he did so, missed. Calily threw stinging paper darts at the creature; it responded by going into a frenzy, lashing out at Calily, Quratulain and Rumdoom. Each had to fend off a virulent paralytic poison, and Calily had to shrug off the mind-numbing effects of the beast’s mandala, too.
Korrigan asked Kai if he knew what would happen to Leon if they moved him – assuming Rumdoom could stop him from dying. Kai said, “I think he’ll come back to life, but more slowly than the monster.” Korrigan nodded and took a swig from the Borenbog’s Gourd, to bolster his strength.
Uriel muttered an incantation and scorched the ground beneath the mandala beast. The beast itself also caught fire, and everyone joined forces to kill it. Its fungal sacks deflated, still ablaze, but it did not disintegrate at once now the ground was blackened. A few of them kept an eye on it, while the rest dealt with Leon.
Uriel levitated him, and Rumdoom stopped the initial shock from killing him, declaring this a very bad ending indeed. Then they all went back to the Coaltongue in haste, in case another mandala beast showed up.
RangerWickett
Legend
I'm rather proud of that monster.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
One of my players wrote at the time: “That combat was terrifying. I thought we were all going to be potted plants.”
At least some of that fear might be due to the fact that I used a player absence to demonstrate how dangerous the mandala beast was, treating poor Leon as a Star Trek red-shirt and eviscerating him in the first couple of rounds (having asked one of the other players to look after him, which of course made them feel worse when he dropped). I wouldn’t normally go as far as to kill an absent character, but it was fun to do it on Thrag. Thing is, a lot of monsters could kill a PC if you focused on them, but you don’t because taking a character out of the fight in the first round makes the game less fun for them, so here was the ideal opportunity to inject a bit of realism. (I also altered the nature of reincarnation on Thrag to mean that the party couldn’t simply heal him when they realised he was still alive.). It was also useful that the absent player was Leon, because if he’d been there he could have simply evacuated the whole unit in an instant, which would have been a lot less fun.
But the main source of fear in the encounter was of course the design of the monster. Players expect something they kill to stay dead! I even decided to make the monster just low-level enough for Rumdoom to instakill it with the Stone of Not, once he arrived, so the last few rounds became more of a frantic puzzle, less of a HP grind. Knowing this would happen I used Numenera monster cards to generate more weird forms for the beast to reincarnate into. It really was a great fight.
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