The Exodus: Session 30

Up Through the Dirt

We are apparently underground…
We have met another amalgam of species
That do not recognize our sentience…
Because they have no singular consciousness
We killed the black queen…
The red queen is trying to talk to us…
And driving Khut mad…
The Skullcap lets Khut understand…
But its much bigger than he is…
Pheremonal in nature…massive in scope…
Like talking to the north wind…
So…CRAZY TIME!
Some of us went deeper…
Where there are borer worms…
That poop gems…
We’re in some kind of temple…belonging to the snake-folk…
With snake architecture…Contemplative in theme…
A “place of watching”…
A long corridor…ending in a zen rock-garden…
Not raked, but coiled…
Dead critters little the room…
Hulks, xorn, fishers, piercers…
Vadim reaches out to an interlocutor…
Asking how they make a new queen?
A gossamer-winged thing comes up the corridor…
Like an enormous red ant…
Centauroid in pose…
Vadim makes it an offering of honey…
Khut thinks stinky thoughts and tries to make contact…
Communication comes inimages, flashes of emotion…
Much more rich emotional channel than mammals…
Vadim tries hard to convey friendly thoughts…
Ado minor-images our life story…
It responds by stinging him in the hip…
There is an odd lump on his leg…
And now they can talk freely…
From the hip…
Negotiations are complicated…to say the least…
A lot of time is spent comparing vocabulary…
We try to warn it about the OE and the EC…
OE they refer to as “old one in the desert”…
They lack numbers to survive the encounter…
Snake-folk they call the mind-killer…
We try to figure out how to take them with us…
They need “things I use to awaken my parts”
Of course, we’ve got snakes with us…
Which is a problem…
In order to leave, we need to round up its memories
The black ones…because it lost the queen…
The black queen tunnels have gone wild…
a.k.a get royal jelly from black hive…
It gives us free passage “without amalgam”…
But we may wish to “hold firmly”…
We head for the borer holes towards the black hive…
The tunnel network is extensive…three dimensional…
All manner of Amalgam species flow in and out…
Except, of course, for the big, bad warriors…
The emissary leads us in and towards the Red nurseries…
To show us the sort of thing we’ll be looking for…
Which are, of course, very heavily defended…
Some mantises barf up some stew…
Khut chows down…of course…
Khadagan and Barruk start to lose their grip…
A strange anxiety in their guts…
A need to draw their weapons and protect…
We break off baby-meal-time and head for the black side…
The pheremones in the black hive are a chaotic babble…
We head up, get some fresh air, then dive in a sinkhole…
Lose sand clogs the sinkhole…Khut starts burrowing…
We land in the dark, in a “left-handed” hive…
We head left…and find enormous numbers of dead bugs…
A free-for-all after the queen died…
Fairly thoroughly eaten…
We gather up some chitin…
slap together some make-shift shields…
We head for the nurseries…
and we “hear” a mad gibbering of pheremones…
Khut goes stealthy in picks his way ahead…
Into a large chamber, part of a buried building
AND there are a ton of black warriors…
They stampede past Khut…
Towards the rest of the party…
Khut fires a squeeler arrow in warning…
Everyone hides…
They go right past us…
Khut says…oops…this way…
We double back…and then are suddenly burred…
As the ceiling collapses…
We try to dig out…bugs drop on us…
Khut stabs one with a knife…IT EXPLODES!
Khadagan stabs one in the pants…
Sorqutani unleashes the PIXIES!
Vadim turns them pink…
Ithunn splatters another one all over the walls…
Squee makes with a stinking cloud…
Which WRECKS scent-based creatures…
Khut digs out and shoots a pink one…splattering it…
Barruk hurls one into a wall…
And sets off a thumper…
They are coming…
Khadagan tears one’s legs off and beats it to death…
Sorqutani cooks one inside its carapace…
Vadim sloshes some stuff on the floor and lights it…
Cutting off our retreat with a wall of fire…
Ithunn spin-kicks one through the wall nuking it…
They come on strong…and get kicked through the wall…
And we walk away from the explosions…
We head for the nursery…the tunnel dipping down…
There are an enormous number of excited bugs down there…
Moving in and out aggressively with eggs in tow…
Squee drops some stinking clouds…we drop ropes…
Khut, Khad, and Vadim rappel down to snag some jelly…
Vadim spies the jelly…which they are hauling out…
They scoop it up and store it in neck-sacks…
The stench happens…3 out of 5 couriers run for it…
2 spew up the thick white jelly…
Khut and Khadagan swing in and turn blender on the couriers
Squee slides down the rope and starts scooping jelly…
Vadim dominates a courier and it starts gathering jelly
Ado paints it green to indicate not to shoot it…
Sorqutani conjures some flaming, burning weasels…
and starts herding bugs…
Khut drops one with an volley of arrows…
and rushes and scoops jelly wildly…
Two charge in and start chomping on Khut and Khad…
AND they turn pink, thanks to Squee…
AND Khad bisects one…
Khut decapitates the other…
The other drones mass to stampede…
BUT Sorq drops a fireball on them…
They DIE…burning ant pieces go flying…
We grab the jelly and run…
AS A SWARM OF SOLDIER ANTS COME POURING IN…
AND we start carving the giant pile of dead bugs up for meat!

And the author said, “This is good, this thing I have done.” And he went for lunch and a drink. And it was good!

- From the ramblings of Khut

Beyond the Shore: Session 12

Oh! Good, Good, Good, my Lord. What more Love yet. 

Thou dy for meet What, am I dead in thee? 

What did Deaths arrow shot at me thee hit? 

Didst slip between that flying shaft and mee? 

Didst make thyselfe Deaths marke shot at for nice? 

So that her Shaft shall fly no far than thee?

Infinities fierce firy arrow red 

Shot from the splendid Bow of justice bright 

Did smite thee down, for thine. Thou art their head. 

They di'de in thee. Their death did on thee light. 

They di'de their Death in thee, thy Death is theirs. 

Hence thine is mine, thy death my trespass clears.

The Painter lies: the Bellfrey Pillars weare 

A false Effigies now of Death, alas 

With empty Eyeholes, Butter teeth, bones bare 

And spraggling arms, having an Hour Glass 

In one grim paw. Th'other a Spade doth hold 

To shew deaths frightfull region under mould.

Lord let me finde Sin, Curse and Death that doe 

Belong to me ly slain too in thy Grave. 

And let thy law my clearing hence bestow 

And from these things let me acquittance have. 

The Law suffic'de: and I discharg'd, Hence sing 

Thy praise I will over Deaths Death, and Sin.

-- Edward Taylor

____________________________________________________________

Sunday:

Caddis led the charmed Sandara Quinn off to bed, but refused to join her, instead letting her sleep off the effects of his spell and further sowing the thought in her sleeping mind that all of the events of the previous several hours--the giant, Thaduk's madness, and their association with demons--was nothing more than a disturbing dream. Meanwhile, Leo and Rummy (with the help of their gelatinous friend) took pains to dispose of the bodies and hide the most obvious evidence to the contrary.

With everyone rested and recuperated, the party sat down to examine the map they had found. Leopold estimated the journey to the indicated mountaintop shrine to be roughly thirteen leagues, over densely forested and hilly terrain. Thus informed, they gathered up all of the extraneous gear from their ship, along with a thousand feet of cordage and a couple weeks worth of food, into their bag of holding and prepared to go hunt down the Puritan and their missing crewmates.

Starting from the warehouse from which the prisoners left, Rummy found tracks near the hole that had been smashed in the wall, six people, plus a seventh set that were nearly three times the size of Thaduk's feet, heading for the Diohot river. Leopold struck up a song, then Thaduk froze, pointing at the edge of the jungle, from whence a massive lion was charging at them.

Thaduk quickly pushed everyone back into the warehouse and blocked the hole in the wall with a large crate. He then climbed up a pile of crates and punched a hole in the thin, wooden roof. Thaduk and Caddis climbed onto the roof, spears in hand, and looked around but could not see the lion. Nor was there any roaring or other sounds that might indicate its presence. After a minute of watching, they gave up and headed back to the hole.

Meanwhile, Rummy and Leopold watched intently from behind the crate, but also could not see anything. Suddenly, Leopold heard the lion roar, inside the warehouse. Leopold spun to see the creature standing right behind him, fangs bared, and froze with fear. Rummy, who strangely had not heard the roar, turned and saw it as well.

From above, Thaduk leaped down, spear in hand, and skewered the lion. Out of the wound burst a mass of bloody, leathery tentacles. The tentacles lashed out, wrapping around Leopold and pulling him close to the lion, which then proceeded to start licking his face. As Caddis climbed down to help, the lion promtly vanished. It was then that Caddis heard mocking laughter coming from the far corner of the warehouse. Looking in the direction of the laughter, they saw Tilly standing there.

As Leopold slunk off to his hammock to put on some clean pants (having thoroughly wet himself), Caddis approached Tilly and suggested that she should come along on their trek into the jungle to rescue Jessica and Caulky (much to Leopold's dismay). Caddis also pulled Sandara to join them, figuring that they'd need a healer, leaving the rest of the crew behind with Riaris Krine in charge.

They made their way out through the hole and followed the tracks down to the river, where they turned south, deeper into the jungle. By the river the tracks were joined by two more very large sets, after which the two smallest, presumably Caulky and Jessica's, vanished.

With the three sets of massive footprints, the trail of their quarry was so easily spotted that even Thaduk could follow it unaided now. While their quarry left a clear and well-beaten path, the going through the jungle was still slow. The land sloped steadily upward as they marched inland and the party was forced to pull out cutlasses to hack through thickets and undergrowth that those they pursued had easily stepped over.

After three hour of hiking, Rummy heard a thumping and snuffling sound coming from off to the right of the path, clearly heading in their direction. Signaling for the others to wait, he snuck up and saw a tortoise-like creature, easily 8 feet in length, with a horned head and mouth wider than his shoulders, and a long, spined, and segmented tail. While confident in his stealth, the thing looked strait at him and gave a bellow. The rest of the party approached cautiously, and Leopold identified the creature as an (inappropriately named) "small roamer", which were native to many of the islands in the area, albeit extremely rare. He informed them that the creatures were herbivores, but highly territorial.

In a rare moment of brilliance, Thaduk crept a bit closer and cautiously rolled a midas melon in the creature's direction. The roamer happily gulped up the head-sized melon in one bite. Caddis then fixed his gaze on the beast, causing it to dose off to sleep. As they watched the sleeping beast, a faint glimmer of gold began to appear along the edges of its shell. Knowing that the aurification process could take hours, the party carefully covered the sleeping turtle with leaves and detritus to conceal it and Leopold marked the approximate location on the map.

Another two hours of hiking left Leopold and Sandara flagging. Captain Caddis called a halt for supper. After everyone had eaten, Caddis, Thaduk, and Rummy went on a short ways ahead to scout, leaving the others to rest a bit more. Less than a quarter mile further on, they found the smashed remains of a small village.

In a clearing, a dozen mud and wattle huts stood arrayed in a rough semicircle facing the river, with a couple of vegetable plots nearby. Nine of the huts had been completely flattened, two were standing, but missing their doors and roofs, and the last was still mostly intact. Crushed baskets and broken wooden spears and other primitive weaponry lay scattered about, but there were no corpses or other signs of struggle. The tracks they'd been following wound through the village, bending away from the path of the river to exit on a more direct southerly route towards a tall mountain in the distance.

Rummy again took point, sneaking up to poke through the remains of the nearest flattened hut. Finding nothing of interest, he moved on to one of the roofless huts. Peering through the door, a large, taloned hand snatched out at him, grabbing hold of his shirt and at the same time that he stepped back, coming away with a giant fist-full of cloth. Rummy quickly drew his pistol and fired into the hut, eliciting a pained roar from within. Hearing the gunshot, the party came running.

Thaduk charged the hut, shoulder first, smashing into the wall and causing the remaining structure to crumble. Inside was a massive creature, roughly humanoid, lanky, and twice the height of a man, but bent down on all fours. Its hands and feet were twisted, the nails grown out into long, twisting, irregular spirals, forcing the thing to walk on its knuckles. Its head, torso, forearms, and groin were covered with thick mattes of curling hair, and its mouth was filled with the pointed teeth of a strict carnivore.

With a second roar, Thaduk jabbed his spear at the thing with the force of his weight behind it. The spear impaled the giant, entering just above its right hip and exiting from its left shoulder, accompanied by the horrible sound of the creature's clavicle shattering. The beast went limp, clearly dead, but the wound almost immediately closed up around the haft of the spear fixing it tight.

Then a third, and still different, roar split the air as a second of the creatures came bursting out of the second roofless hut, hurling itself over the thin walls and through the air to land on Rummy, pinning him to the ground and savaging him with its teeth. As the thing bit him, Rummy went limp, playing dead so convincingly that even Thaduk, standing only a few feet away, could not make out his breathing.

Seeing their friend go down, the rest of the party engaged quickly. Sandara conjured a wave from the river to pound at it, Caddis opened fire with his bow, and Thaduk jabbed at it with his spear, only narrowly avoiding skewering Rummy as well.

Still, tired and weakened from the long march, Leopold scrambled to a hopefully safer position up in a tree and began singing to raise everyone's spirits. Much like the degenerate the day before, this giant was a music critic and quickly rounded on Leopold and dug in its feet to spring. As it turned its attention away, however, Thaduk stabbed it again with his spear and Rummy's hand shot up, opening the things belly with his shortsword. The beast collapsed where it stood, pinning Rummy again, but no longer moving. Tilly ran up and heaved the creature off of Rummy, who quickly drew his dragon-fang dagger and stabbed the acid-coated blade into the many wounds to stop the thing from regenerating.

Seeing the other one starting to stir again, Caddis yelled for Thaduk to put the shackles of compliance on it. Thaduk complied and sitting on its chest, waited for it to awaken. When it finally healed enough to open its eyes, Thaduk commanded it to identify itself.

When that clearly did not work, Leopold shared his knowledge of the English language with the creature and bade it speak. The power of the spell over its mind was such that the creature replied with the refinement and eloquence of a bard, identifying itself as "Troggle" and explaining that it had only attacked them because it thought Rummy looked good to eat.

It readily answered all the party's questions. Explaining that, yes, it had seen three of its kin come through with a half-dozen ladies and the preacher, and that, no, it did not eat them as it would never attach a man of the cloth or fellow servant of Dormin. When Thaduk suggested that perhaps their party were also members of "the faith" and why would he attack them, Troggle explained that he had not heard their coins.

"What coins?" they asked, and with a shake of his hips they heard the distinct jingle of iron on iron from the general vicinity of his groin. Searching the thing's tangled and matted pubic hair, Thaduk found a double-handful of the same unmarked, black-iron coins which Rummy had taken from the Puritan not two evenings prior.

When Rummy jingled his bag of coins, Troggle went on to explain that the Preacher led services to Dormin up on the mountainside every Wednesday evening. When asked about routes to the service and further possible ambushes by his kind, he explained that they would almost certainly find more of "the faithful" if they continued "towards the fields", but not if they went around by "the old stockade". Asked about things that might threaten the faithful, he mentioned the bugs -- mosquitoes and stinging botflies. of which they had already been bitten repeatedly (diseases being much harder to recover from via regeneration than more direct wounds).

When pressed as to the nature of these services, he explained that there would be a sermon, prayer, and singing, followed by a potluck. "And what sort of food is served at this potluck?"

"Meat of course."

"And would this be the meat of two-legged creatures?"

"Is there any other kind worth eating?" Pressed further, Troggle explained that the girls from their ship would almost definitely be part of said potluck if they did not "find religion" before then. Around this time, Rummy opened up the intact hut to find the skinned bodies of five of the native men hanging upside down, dressed out like sides of beef.

The party presently turned the poor Troggle into a pin-cushion, stabbing it repeatedly with everything they had on hand, then finished it off with Rummy's dagger. They asked Sandara if she could add anything, but she explained that she knew very little when it came to the actual practices of the Puritan faith. Content that they would have to rely on what little they had learned from Troggle to fake their way past any further giants, the party distributed their small collection of the black coins and prepared to march out again.

To be continued...

Beyond the Shore: Session 11

The Ogre does what ogres can,

Deeds quite impossible for Man,

But one prize is beyond his reach:

The Ogre cannot master speech.

About a subjugated plain,

Among it's desperate and slain,

The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,

While drivel gushes from his lips.

-- W.H. Auden

____________________________________________________________

After their failed adventures with trying to appease the demon that had once been Fishguts, the party adjourned to Guillaume's small hovel to enjoy the water-naga sushi he prepared them for lunch. The sushi was, as promised, miraculously tasty. Strangely, though, as they stood around eating the raw snake-meat wrapped in rice and seaweed, they suddenly noticed that there were not five of them indulging, but more than a score.

After the initial shock of seeing so many people crammed into so small a space, they realized that the "more" of them, was in fact more of "THEM". Four additional copies each of Caddis, Leopold, Rummy, Thaduk, and Guillaume had appeared almost instantly after they took their first bites. The copies perfectly mimicked their movements, but seemed incapable of making noise or interacting with objects in the environment.

Caddis turned to one of his images and put a hand on its shoulder. A gesture that was perfectly mirrored, almost like a greeting, though Caddis felt nothing. Rummy turned to one of his and charged, trying to tackle it, but mearly passed right through the air where it had been, causing that image to vanish.

Content that the mirror images of themselves were harmless (and perhaps even helpful), they finished off the large lunch and headed back to the warehouses to check in on their crew. They seemed slightly surprised on passing the warehouse where they'd stashed their plunder to find that no one was on watch -- then remembered that they'd dismissed Henrye and the other guards in order to engage in a little ritual naga-killing.

Leopold headed for the taproom to get a drink and others headed into the other warehouse where they found Henrye still sleeping and several of the other crew crowded near the back, where a large hole had been smashed in the wall. The crew, mostly Dutchmen, were gathered around the gnelf that they had captured from the Reindeer. After some stumbling and broken English from Hildebert, the gnelf broke in and explained that Badger Medlar had been watching him and the Cameron girls. The Puritan "preacher-man" had come in and had a rather long conversation with Badger while most of the rest of the crew were either still asleep or off having breakfast. At the end, the back wall burst open (all the gnelf saw was an impossibly big hand) and Badger untied the girls, handed them swords, and the three of them ran off with the preacher-man through the new back door and into the jungle beyond.

Looking for confirmation, Caddis summoned one of the jellied monkeys that he'd set to watch the warehouse where they'd stashed their loot and ate it. He was immediately beset by visions of everything the monkey had seen: Henrye standing guard, Henrye pacing, Henrye yawning, Henrye pacing some more, other crewmen coming and going, a tasty looking beetle, Henrye pacing some more, Henrye falling asleep standing up, Henrye being relieved of duty by the officers, a bat... finally the monkey's attention was grabbed by a loud crashing sound and he looked at the other warehouse, but its perspective was blocked.

Caddis quickly tried to wake Henrye up. Failing that he ordered Chumlett to double the guard on the warehouse where they kept the loot. He and the others headed over to the taproom to round up the rest of the crew, and found that neither his sister Jessica nor the other cabin-girl Caulky had been seen in over an hour.

Leopold broke into song, backed by the barbershop chorus of his mirror-selves, to dispel any fatigue in their crewmen. They then left Riaris to organize proper defenses around their loot and headed to the shipyard to see if Guillaume knew where his fellow foreman might have taken their ransom-fodder. Guillaume, all five of him, shouted some orders to his crew, then led them to the small hovel where Barebones lived.

The hovel as a simple yet solid, one-room, wooden structure. As they approached they heard a deep rumbling-growling noise from within. They knocked, called, and were greeted only by further low growls. They hesitated, then Leopold sent his monkey-familiar to look inside. The empathic feedback basically amounted to unbridled terror (though, of course, to a tiny monkey, everything looks like a giant predator).

Guillaume performed an augury, communed with his infernal patron to determine their course of action. The response was a very clear "Woe, woe...WOE!"

Rummy tiptoed up and peaked through a small knot-hole into the darkened house, but could see nothing save a large, lumpy shape that smelled strongly of fishguts (lowercase -- not Fishguts, who smelled more like urine). Caddis peeked in with his Darkvision and was able to make out a massive arm, followed by a grunt and another waft of epic halitosis. Caddis finally knocked again and addressed the thing in baby-talk.

Suddenly the hovel exploded with a roar of "SHAGGRA NOT A BABY!" They five of them dodged as splinters of wood flew in every direction. Standing in the wreckage and roaring was a massive monstrosity, humanoid in shape and nearly twice the height of Thaduk, with a misshapen head nearly as large as its torso, and a single oversized arm mounted a little too close to the breast to be counted as having a proper shoulder. Its huge arm swung at Caddis, coming down on one of the mirror images with a hand the size of a dinner table in a blow that would have squashed the fake-Caddis flat had it not simply vanished.

Rummy pulled out a pistol and shot the thing, backing away. Guillaume likewise, backed up, blasting it with his eldritch chains. Leopold started to strike up a song to bolster his friends' courage, but was cut off by a roar. "SHAGGRA HATE LITTLE MAN'S SONG! LITTLE MAN'S SONG SUCK!" The huge arm scooped up Leopold, swung him around the massive head in a giant circle, then dashed him against the ground a few times for good measure before tossing Leopold's broken and unconscious body into a nearby water trough. "SONG SUCK!"

[ This is what happens when you roll a 1 on your perform check... ]

Caddis fixed the degenerate brute with his evil eye and tried to suppress its will. The creature simply shook its head, spittle flying and roared again. The brief psychic contact revealed all Caddis needed to know -- the creature was utterly psychotic, so much so that Caddis himself was left a weaker grasp on reality.

He ran.

Thaduk ran.

The families of the shipwrights living in the nearby hovels ran.

Guillaume also ran...but not fast enough. The huge monstrosity grabbed him as he started to run, picking him up in both hands and snapping his back across its knee, then taking a massive bite out of his abdomen, gnawing and slurping at his entrails before casting him aside, quite dead.

Rummy grabbed Leopold's body and ran for the warehouse, planning to let Fishguts out, against everyone else's better judgement. He threw open the door of the warehouse and called to Fishguts. At the same time, the beast smashed strait through the side wall of the warehouse, toppling crates of loot with the unpleasant sound of smashing wine bottles, and heading strait for Rummy and the guards clustered near the just-opened front door.

Fishguts lashed out, snagging the creature with a pair of pseudopods and pulling its oversized head down into its gelatinous mass. Seeing the giant thing rampaging through town and now fighting against the demonic ooze, the crew broke and ran, scattering in all directions. Rummy charged the thing, running up its back while Fishguts had it pinned and stabbed twice into the soft place at the base of its skull, sinking his shortswords into its brain, finally killing it.

Caddis called Sandara over to heal Leopold. She burned all of the power available to her patching him up and bringing him back to consciousness, then confronted Caddis about the gelatinous monster she had seen in the warehouse. Caddis explained about Ambrose Kroop's death and how Rummy had "unwittingly" used a strange book he'd found to "resurrect" their friend in his new shape. The idea of resurrection seemed to greatly bother her, but Caddis assured her that it had been a mistake and they had destroyed the book, but that "Fishguts" was harmless. Sandara immediately appointed herself as "Ship's Chaplain", saying that Caddis and company clearly needed a basic religious education, and asked them to please consult her before reading strange passages from heretical texts.

Caddis agreed and led Sandara off to the bar to get a drink and to calm down. Thaduk helped drag the misshapen degenerate over into a corner of the warehouse for Fishguts to feed on, then cut off a large chunk for himself and took it down to the beach where he set up a makeshift spit and firepit and started roasting it, speculating that eating the beast might give him some of its strength.

Rummy and the mostly-healed Leopold, meanwhile, shut the doors of the warehouse and broke out Rummy's copy of "Demonologia Sexualis", wondering if they could use it to "resurrect" Guillaume in the same manner as Fishguts. Rummy sat down to read more carefully, hoping that they could summon something less disgusting, while Leopold dragged Guillaume's body in through the newly smashed back-door.

Finally, Rummy found where they had "gone wrong" with Fishguts. They tied Guillaume's corpse to a ship’s wheel, broke every bone in the body, scalped it, anointed it with gentian and tormentil, and burned it…

There was a waft of citrus smell. Then, out of the flames stepped a thing…a red-hot, jagged metallic skeleton a head taller than a normal man. Inside the rib-cage of the creature floated a legless infant, its body covered in weeping sores, its face twisted in a silent scream of pain. It spoke, greeting them in the lingua infernalis, and the sound came not from the mouth of the skeleton, nor that of the babe, but from the sores, a hundred tiny voices echoing together.

Leopold fished a suit of enchanted full plate armor, complete with visored great-helm, out of their crates of loot. They managed to get the thing that had been Guillaume obscured and cased in steel with only minor burns sustained. Then the three of them headed out to get a drink. Leopold left Guillaume outside and brought him back a beer. Carefully shifting the breastplate, they poured the drink into the mouth of the infant floating in the skeleton's chest. Much to Guillaume's dismay, the liquid seeped out through the sores covering the body without him tasting a drop.

As the dynamic duo were busy summoning yet another demon, Caddis and Sandara headed back to the ruined hut to search for any clues as to where the preacher might have taken their prisoners and their fellow shipmates. Searching carefully, they found a mostly-intact map tacked to some boards that had been part of the back wall.

Wandering back, they found Thaduk lying on the beach, burrowing through the sand as if swimming. Caddis asked what he was doing and the big orc replied, "Must be the goldfish!" He then climbed a palm tree and began chucking coconuts into the bay. Caddis attempted to put him to sleep, but his psychic powers seemed just as ineffective as they had been on the giant degenerate. Thaduk leaped down from the tree and, after a series of similarly bizarre antics, went over to Guillaume and promptly removed his helmet.

Sandara took one look and screamed. Caddis, Leopold, and Rummy all tried to explain at once, poorly. There were accusations of heresy and consorting with demons, none of which were really denied. Finally Sandara pulled her rapier and began backing away...

Then, Caddis used his evil eye to charm her. Looking at Guillaume he quipped, "So, now we're raising demons on almost a daily basis?"

"Tomorrow's Sunday," Rummy responded, "on the Sabbath I'll rest..."

Once Sandara was subdued, they found the spit of half-roasted meat that Thaduk had been eating from. Unable to do anything else, they let the crazed Thaduk run as he would, until he finally passed out on the beach. "You need to go to bed," Caddis told the charmed priestess.

"Okay..." Sandara grabbed Caddis' arm and dragged him towards the warehouse where the hammocks had been set up...

The Exodus: Session 27

It's MY Sword!

We crest a ridge to see the ruins of an ancient city
Myan-inspired architecture, adrift in sand and salt
Khut rides at the head, leaading the caravan
Squee is playing with her gibbering mouther with a ball of yarn…
Vadim, and company, continue wrangling bees…
Rust tries, ineffectively, to get Ithunn to show him her tusks…
Elondyr tries to study…but gets distracted by the voices…
A dark-robed procession, dressed in the style of the sand-devils…
Mounted on giant slithers pass ahead of us…
Moving sedately…
Khut raises a hand to halt the caravan…
Khut, Vadim, and Arondyr sneak down to check them out…
30 in the process, 7 black-robed figures, 23 white…
Disparate, many different things, bound by culture…
Reminiscent of snake-like assassins from so long ago…
Common scaly theme…
Clearly a symbol-rich people…
Flowing snake-like script written on weapons…
Cursed blades bearing runes of…
eye-severing,
leg-cutting,
carapace breaking
Elondyr, Rust, Ado, and Squee go down to meet them…
Rust recalls an ancient civilization…
And fire and a tentacled destroyer…
Sorqutani crests the hill with the standard…
Team stealth is in, among them, ready…
AND Arondyr starts mooching weapons…
“Who’s sword did you steal?”
“It’s MY sword…”
She takes a snake-runed scimitar…
Vadim heads in among the female slithers…
AND steals some eggs…
goes shoulder-deep in a vent…
and has a single fertilized slither egg…
Elondyr orders Hundreds to rally the troops…
‘just in case’…
Squee and company ride up and make contact…
They step forward in equal number to our parley party…
A snake dude uncurls to his full 11-ft. height…
And very deliberately and elaborately veils his eyes…
The others follow suit wait stand silently…
Squee mimics them, donning a pink veil…
The head-snake lowers his head to greet her…
Squee proceeds to tell him her life story…
They ask her to convey their respects to her queen…
“We have not seen a messenger from her in some time”
“What brings an agent of destruction to our desert”
Ado asks for his name…which is a tongue roll…
Ithunn asks after Yaghuth…
They claim to have seen such traveling to the west…
Called, readied, armed for battle…
Ithunn seems concerned about them being armed…
Apparently they have a problem with an infestation…
The sands are infected…by old allies that are no longer…
“We are broken, but they are faded”…
They destroyed the city an age ago…
Nothing can be built there…
Tremors in the sand dry crawling…
They are there to watch the city…
Make sure it does not approach their enclaves…
Rust starts telepathicaly broadcasting images of our recent history…
Ithunn takes meditative pose and shares…
the destruction of the Remembrance of Yaghuth…
Rusts contact with his mind narrowly avoids madness…
“If you can possibly call a Void Sept warlock sane”
It feels “the patience one feels after one has bitten”
Apparently they are telling the truth…mostly…
Cities swallowed from below…no foundations possible…
Towers wrapped in tentacles and pulled beneath the surface…
Insects swarming from beneath the sands…
Cathedrals humming, buzzing with infestation…
Nothing built on the sands stands…
Civilizations lost and sunken beneath the salt sands…
Clearly NOT trying to think about enormous enclaves…
Somewhere warm, where reptiles can move faster…
Cities, sentinels, armies, herds, slaughterhouses…
But none on the sands…never again on the sands…
Recently there were large number of Yaghuth going west…
Ado promises that we WILL pass through the city…
And clear it…and asks if they would be willing to aid us…
They agree that they will “help” in an inspecific way…
They are charmers, slavers, take over your mind…
Hence the veiling of the eyes…
Ado asks the names of what spirits they know…
They seem confused…
Their spirits are silent, and patient, and old…
Squee: “Perhaps they should make younger ones”
Squee mixes some pigments to make nail-polish and sets to work…
And Squee begins painting the nails of a snake abomination…
In the middle of a salt desert…
It waits…and watches…and has no reaction…
Ithunn and Rust make mental contact…
He is hollow, empty…truly an acolyte of the Void Sept…
The Yaghuth rage sits just on the other side of the Void…
The emptiness serves to keep the rage at bay…
Helps him to “remembering”…
She recognizes HER Yaghuth in the images of the travelers.
The snakes meeting the Yaghuth on the road…
The Yaghuth drive forward, passively…
Droning a song…a Yaghuth warsong…
They remain Yaghuth…
The sound of Yaghuth marching to WAR…
Clearly not the only caravan…
All moving the same direction…
With the same purpose…
WE rally the army and head for the city…
Vadim fills his yurt with saltpeter and explosives…
Pulled by scrub warbeasts…
Khut and team-stealth go up the side of an old, leaning tower…
Everything made of strange black granite…
The city seems uninhabited…
THEN the ground bursts…and a death worm comes up…
Smashing the tip of the tower and sending us flying…
Khut fires an arrow down its gullet…then goes down himself…
Hangs on a tooth…and whistles for Littlewing…
Ithunn goes nuts! It ate Khut!
Ithunn leaps off the tower and dives strait at it…
AND goes strait down the hatch…
AND starts giving it major indigestion…
Littlewing dives and tears its lungs out…
Causing it to projectile vomit Khut and Ithunn…
They go flying, Khut lands, with Ithunn on top of him…
Coughs up blood…and wakes up…
Elondyr blasts the thing with lightning…which it eats…
Electricity crackles around its teeth…
AND it breaths back…
sending lightning arcing back at the party…
Sorqutani launches a flaming sphere down its throat…
Iron-dear dives in with her shiny new scimitar of carapace cracking…
And it just cannot get through…
Ado leaps and glides right into Khut…
giving him an extra dose of heroism..
Barruk charges in on Sparky…
hits the worm with a thunderous golf-swing…
heaving the worm up out of the hole…and again…
Rust sends forth an imperative to “Remember your Rage”
AND a hasted and blessed Khadagan leaps on the writhing worm…
starting at the top and clawing all the way to the bottom…
A swarm of Ankheg burst from the ground…
AND get torn limp from limb by the party…
Meanwhile, our army is having a bad, bad day…
The cavalry run into a swarm of borers…
The Malik champions respond by dropping explosives down the holes…
Then they hit a big hole and disappear…
The Nohai scouts step in to clean up the mess…
Because borers are delicious…
A swarm of ankhegs then attack the cavalry down below…
Sorq, Squee, and Vadim dive in after them…
Beating back a small horde of Ankhegs…
Ado manages to fight them to a stand-still then the Hive Queen comes out…
We’re in a massive underground cavern, our infantry forcing them back…
Khut lets fly an arrow, punching through her shield wings…
Barruk rushes in and beats her silly with his flaming hammer…
The Hive Queen rushes Khadagan, clawing and stinging like crazy…
He retaliates with great fury…
his rusted claws leaving massive smears as they tear in…
Ithunn comes through the ceiling riding the corpse of a beetle
and punches the queen in the teeth…
AND an arrow from Khut takes her between the eyes…
The rest of the bugs keep coming…
Ankhegs swarm in again and murder the snake-folk…
Then tear through both the infantry and cavalry…
Forcing the cavalry to withdraw from the field..
Then the Ankhegs are sucked into the spire and destroyed
The warblers rain death on the hive mystics…
Rust turns himself into a small thunderbird…
unleashing lightning against the flyers…
Khut whistles for Littlewing to join him…
Between two thunderbirds, the flying swarm is wiped out…
Vadim conjures hallucinatory terrain, drawing the borers into a trap…
Where the archers can rein death down…
Then Clouds of Fog and Walls of Fire divide the field…
And Hoargrim marches in side-by-side with Khadagan…
and finishes the borers off…
Squee leaps into the center of the warblers, healing them…
And Hoargrim stands his ground against the last Ankheg swarm…
And the last Ankheg is torn in two by Khadagan…
AND we start carving the giant pile of dead bugs up for meat!

And the author said, “This is good, this thing I have done.” And he went for lunch and a drink. And it was good!

- From the ramblings of Khut

Beyond the Shore: Session 10

Ye Angells bright, pluck from your Wings a Quill. 

     Make me a pen thereof that best will write. 

Lend me your fancy, and Angellick skill 

     To treate this Theme, more rich than Rubies bright. 

     My muddy Inke, and Cloudy fancy dark, 

     Will dull its glory, lacking highest Art.

An Eye at Centre righter may describe 

     The Worlds Circumferentiall glory vast 

As in its nutshell bed it snugs fast tide, 

     Than any angells pen can glory Cast 

     Upon this Drink Drawn from the Rock, tapt by 

     The Rod of God, in Horeb, typickly.

Sea water straind through Mineralls, Rocks, and Sands 

     Well Clarifi'de by Sunbeams, Dulcifi'de, 

Insipid, Sordid, Swill, Dishwater stands. 

     But here's a Rock of Aqua-Vitae tride. 

     When once God broacht it, out a River came 

     To bath and bibble in, for Israels train.

Some Rocks have sweat. Some Pillars bled out tears. 

     But here's a River in a Rock up tun'd 

Not of Sea Water nor of Swill. Its beere. 

     No Nectar like it. Yet it once Unbund 

     A River down out runs through ages all. 

     A Fountain opte, to wash off Sin and Fall.

-- Edward Taylor

______________________________________________________

A massive capstan turned and the Red Sadness slid up the long wooden ramp, rising out of the water.

As the ship was hauled up into the dry-dock at Rickety's Squibs, the party hastily shoved all of their most precious loot into the large, magical sack that they had taken from Captain Nikolaos. "Oi! Fuck you!" a voice called from below, "Get the fuck off the deck so we can work!" They looked over the rail to see Rickety Hake's, foreman, an attractive Frenchman with a pipe clenched in his teeth and a hook in place of his right hand, yelling at them. Around him stood a swarm of workers, nearly thrice the number of their crew, waiting alongside heavy mooring ropes and pieces of scaffolding.

As the ship settled into place, a ladder was set up against the hull and they all climbed down. The shipwrights immediately set to work stabilizing the ship and erecting the scaffolding to allow them easy access to all points of the hull. One seemed to be working just a tad slower than the others and was immediately reprimanded by the foreman with a string of profanity accompanied by the sudden appearance of glowing chains bursting from the ground topped by the screaming face of a beautiful woman.

Leopold asked whether there were any taverns. "Of course you stupid shit-fuck!" the foreman replied, "just make sure you go to the good one and not the shit-hole one!" They asked for directions to the "good one", which brought a fair amount of snickering from the workers, and it soon became clear that there was, in fact, only one tavern in the small settlement around Rickety's Squibs, and it was, in fact, a shit-hole.

Shit hole or no, they made their way to the tavern -- a once-grand villa that had been carved out to serve as the commons and chow-hall for the entire settlement. Caddis and Thaduk burst into the tap room and immediately began extolling their recent mighty deeds, only to find that the tavern was basically empty aside from their own crew, who were already busy drinking, their three prisoners, tucked into a corner under Henrye's watchful eye, and Rickety Hake, who was at the bar talking to the weather-worn wench who ran the place. Caddis checked in with his sister Jessica, who was sharing a drink with Caulky, the other cabin-girl, and in surprisingly good (if ever-silent) spirits.

A quick conversation with Hake and some application of characteristic charm, and Caddis had secured the use of the squib's two dock-side warehouses: one to hang the crew's hammocks in, and the other for storing their load of booty. Caddis tried to get Riaris to manage a watch on the warehouse full of loot, then, failing that, delegated Henrye to organize a rotation of the crew members to stand guard. They all then trekked back to the dry-dock to unload the ship.

In the less than two hours since they had disembarked, the two foremen and their work crews had already pried off most of the running boards on one side of the Red Sadness, leaving a giant hole from stem to stern. Seeing them approach, the salty Frenchman called a halt (accompanied by considerable profanity) as the Sadness's crew piled in through the hole to begin unloading the cargo and hauling it to the warehouse. As they worked, the Frenchman made some disparaging comments about them being "like little girls", only to be on the receiving end of a stuck-out tongue from Caulky, who was helping Jessica haul one of the crates.

After another hour or so, everything was unloaded. Henrye posted rotations of six people on watch at all times, with additional orders from Caddis to make sure that no more than two of the Dutchmen from the Ginger Belle were on watch at any one time, due to their inexperience in combat. "But Captain," he insisted, "the rest are all PIRATES!"

"So are you now..."

Leopold and Rummy, meanwhile, used the bag of holding secretly smuggle Fishguts into the warehouse as an added security measure. Caddis then fed a drop of his blood to two of the Jellied Monkeys that they'd found in Peppery Longfarthing's lab, animating them and setting them to also watch over the warehouse. As a last measure, Henrye put the best locks they had scavenged from the Red Sadness (at least the best which they still had keys for) on the doors. At last, Thaduk handed his bugle over to Henrye, who snapped to attention, saluted, and began pacing in front of the doors (to many rolled eyes from the other crewmen).

By the time everything was as secure as they could make it, and the hammocks from the ship were hung up in the adjacent warehouse for the crew, dusk was falling, The party headed back to the commons, which was by now bustling and crowded, with nearly everyone in the small settlement settling in, the squib-crews having ended their shifts.

On entering, Leopold decided to try to get into the pants of Sal, the bar-wench. He walked up and ordered "your finest bottle" and three glasses. Sal, apparently having a sense of humor, or else of literality, handed him a beautiful, but empty, green bottle, for which he turned over £20 (a king's ransom) without blinking, and then set three empty glasses on the table. When that went no where, he ordered "whisky", which they didn't have, then ordered a "round of your finest beer" for the house. This was met by cheers, until it was revealed that she only had the one drink on tap, the same piss-water (which probably had a lower alcohol content than Thaduk's actual piss) she'd be serving since they got there.

Finally giving up on the old broad, he turned and began playing a tune to entertain the crowd. As the song ended, Caddis and Thaduk took the opportunity to once again attempt to extol their infamous, piratical deeds to try and boost their reputation as proper-buccaneers. Just as they were getting started, a narrow-faced man dressed in the unusual all-black habit of a Puritan burst in and began declaiming at the top of his lungs.

"Their foot shall SLIDE in due TIME! That they were always exPOSed to desTRUCtion; as one that stands or walks in slippery PLACES is always exposed to FALL! This is IMPLIED in the manner of their desTRUCtion coming upON them, being represented by their FOOT SLIDING! The same is exPRESSed, 'Surely thou didst set them in slippery PLACES; thou castedst them down into desTRUCtion...'"

There was a groan from the locals, barely audible under the man's sermonizing...

"It imPLIES, that they were always exposed to SUDDEN unexPECTed desTRUCtion. As he that walks in SLIPPERY PLACES is every moment LIABLE to FALL, he cannot foreSEE one moment whether he..."

Caddis fixed the man with his evil eye and attempted to put him to sleep. Which failed...

"Another thing imPLIED is, that they are liable to FALL of themSELVES, without being thrown DOWN by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery GROUND needs nothing but his own weight to throw him DOWN..."

Caddis tried to command the man to be silent. Which also failed...

"There is no want of POWER in DORmin to cast wicked men into HELL at any MOment. Men's hands cannot be strong when dorMIN rises UP. The STRONGest have no POWER to resist him, nor can ANY deliver out of his HANDS. Even Emporer Prospero in all his glory cannot STAND against him. He is not only able to..."

Rummy finally stepped up and took the man by the elbow, "Yes, yes, destruction, fascinating. Perhaps we can step outside and you can tell me more..." Surprised to find anyone actually willing to listen to him, the heretical preacher allowed himself to be lead back out the door. Before the door had even closed behind them, Rummy cold-cocked the preacher with a quick right hook to the jaw, eliciting a cheer from the crowd gathered inside.

Caddis followed him out, and, once the door was properly shut, they stripped the old man of the armor he was wearing under his robes, as well as a brace of pistols, a substantial amount of ammunition, a bag of coins, his book of sermons, and other sundries. Caddis sowed the thought in his mind that he had fallen and been knocked out while working on the ship. They then bandaged up his head and deposited his body on the docks.

They walked back in and, distraction averted, Caddis was finally able to wow the crowds with his story of their stealing the ship and their defeat of Captain Nik. Rummy, meanwhile, walked up to the bar and asked who the man he just punched out was.

"Oi! He's my fuckin' co-worker. He's the foreman for the other shift working on your fuckin' boat!" the Frenchman replied. The Frenchman finally introduced himself as Guillaume De La Fontaine and explained that no one in the small settlement really cared a rat's ass about the other foreman. They got little other useful information out of the locals, as most of the conversations in the taproom were focused either on the battle that morning, or else on the oppressive heat and drought that had afflicted New Caledonia for the last month.

____________________________________________________________

The next morning, Leopold awoke naked and sticky, with a dead fish on his chest. It could only be assumed that Tilly had found her way into his hammock at some point in the night. Not bothering to get dressed, he walked out of the warehouse onto the adjacent docks and jumped off the end into the harbor to bathe.

Leopold was not the only one up early for a swim swimming. After about 5 minutes of splashing in the water, he felt something brush against him, them was suddenly tugged down beneath the water as it wrapped around his legs. By this time, Rummy had woken up and stepped outside in time to see Leopold briefly breach the surface, his legs and chest wrapped in something thick, scaly, and glistening blue-green. He shouted the alarm and the rest of the party, along with the Frenchy, who was on his way to the dry-dock to oversee the morning shift, came running.

Perching on the end of the dock, they looked into the clear water to see a massive blue-scaled snake, as big around as a man's thigh, wrapped around Leopold. The snake's head was that of a beautiful woman, save for its lower jaw which had distended enough to begin swallowing Leopold's feet. Leopold continued to struggle, and when he again breached the surface briefly, Caddis used his evil eye to get its attention.

"Could you please let our friend go," Adriana asked very politely.

"I would," the naga said, releasing her bite, "but I am very hungry you see..."

"I'm sure we could find you something more delicious to eat than that man."

"That would be excellent, just leave it on the end of the dock and I will release him..."

Thaduk, apparently feeling less diplomatic, dived into the water and grabbed hold of the naga, attempting to tear it in two with his bare hands. The snake-creature released Leopold and snapped its head around to bite Thaduk, scoring a vicious hit with its venemous fangs.

Hoping to immobilize the creature, Guillaume sent forth a barrage of glowing eldritch chains towards the naga, which exploded into a massive spider-web on contact, anchored to the docks and the sandy shallows. The naga and Leopold wriggled free of the webbing, but Thaduk found himself bound, just under the water, unable to get his head up.

Caddis dived in and tried to freeze the naga using the snowflake ring they had taken from Captain Nik, but could not get a strike in on the wily serpent. Adriana, meanwhile, grabbed a fishing net and tossed it over Thaduk, then, pulling with all her might, snapped him free of the webbing and dragged him back to the docks.

Guillaume continued to lash the naga with his eldritch chains and Caddis continued swiping ineffectively at the snake as Leopold swam for the docks. Leo quickly healed Thaduk, bringing him back to consciousness. Rummy reached down and started helping Leo climb out, but the naga struck quickly, sinking her fangs into the back of his exposed thigh.

Guillaume began taunting the creature, trying to draw it up onto the docks fully. Adriana slashed down with her greatsword, cutting off the tip of the naga's tail. Thaduk, enraged, rapidly downed a couple of healing potions, then grabbed the spear off of his back and stabbed the naga hard and knocking it back into the water. Finally, Caddis tagged the snake with a strike from his magical ring, instantly freezing the water around it, encasing it helplessly in a block of solid ice.

The beast defeated, Leopold headed into the warehouse to get dressed. Guillaume offered to turn the frozen water naga into sushi, but had to run to oversee his shift. The party agreed to cut up the body and bring it by the taproom later. Rummy, though, had other plans.

Once Leo returned, Rummy reminded him that in order to keep Fishguts around, they needed to sacrifice a living sentient creature to him once every twelve days, and the naga, while monstrous, was definitely sentient, and technically still alive inside the block of ice. Caddis warned Adriana and Thaduk, that what they were about to see in the other warehouse was disturbing. Then packed up the frozen naga and hauled it up the docks.

At the second warehouse, Henrye was still standing watch, half-asleep leaning against the door. Caddis told him he was relieved, took the keys, and sent him to warehouse #1 to get some sleep, dismissing the other guards as well. Inside, they were greeted by the giant, piss-coloured, urine-smelling mass of entrails that was all that remained of their friend Fishguts.

Rummy consulted his demonic sex-manual and strung up the frozen naga as indicated. Hanging it upside down, he pulled out the largest of his blades and prepared to cut the snake-creature in two.

The ice was hard, slick with water from where it was already melting in the heat, and required considerable force to puncture. Stabbing hard, he shoved the knife in up by the tail. The force of the blow sent cracks running throughout the magical ice, and, as he pulled down to start cutting through, the entirety--ice block and naga alike--shattered into hundreds of bloody red chunks of ice and meat. Rummy groaned, realizing that he had failed the strict requirements of the ritual.

Disheartened, the party gathered up the pieces of the snake in their arms and hauled them to the dry-dock for Guillaume to prepare. In the tropical heat, the small, frozen pieces melted quickly, leaving the five friends soaked with water and snake-blood by the time they reached the boathouse.

Guillaume, unsurprisingly, heaped curses on them for ruining the meat.