The Exodus: Session 36

Khut’s feeling…
Rather upset that Naquim Blackhand still draws breath…

CARDS
Hulagu
Human Relations #10: “It’s My Turn” – Dealing with Anger
Void Sept
Fireeyes
Hook: The Dolmens



In finding the HMB breeding grounds, we have camped in the blasted wilderness…
Additional food is hard to come by…
The camp digs in in muted, sullen silence…
Scouts indicate that the Nihil Sept is nearby to the East…
Chinua informs us that the Void Sept has cut off retreat to the south…
Led by Orbghuz Ironcrown (BWAHAHAHAHAHA)…
Ellen-Dear is meditating with the Yaghuth…who ‘OM’ like foghorns…
He sees a vision of a city…inhabited…at a distance…
Creatures with long, pale hair…
Long-necked like a giraffe…with tall twisted horns…
On its back is a twisted, moving cage like an orrery…
A second later he sees an endless rainforest as far as the eye can see…
And a sense of devistating loss…
Barruk wakes up to a snarl of challenge…and two burning Nohai eyes in the darkness…
Black fur and slavering teeth leaping for his throat…
Fireeyes! (isn’t he dead?)
Barruk rises, shaking his head slowly…
“You really want to do this?”
And Fireeyes gets the horns…and his teeth shatter…
Barruk wakes (for real)…with his hammer burning in his hands…
Oh look…the hammer is Sentient…and thinks that its Fireeyes…
We’re surrounded…again…so…LET’S THROW A PARTY!
We bust out the fatted Holy Mountain Beast…roasting on spits the size of trees…
Massive bonfires are lit…
The music is…complicated…
Yaghuth droning…under warbler melodies, nohai yipping, and steppe chants…
Rust appears at the edge of the camp and scouts call us over to meet some…guests…
We go to greet the emissaries…
In the valley below is a large camp of black felt tents…Steppefolk tents…
Tattered black flags fly in the wind and ranks of soldiers stand ready…
Rust stands with some black-clad folks…
Starts yapping about how we are brazen and over-bold…
Then a big, scarred orc calls for Vadim’s head on a pike…
Orbghuz Ironcrown and Naquim Blackhand are here…
They’re here to discuss a truce?
REALLY?
They want to join our Ordu…under our Yasa…
And only want freedom of religion for it…
We call a council of war to talk it over with Hoargrim…
There is a long…long talk about whether or not to accept them…
We’ve stolen beasts, stolen troops, stolen cities…
What keeps us from stealing a god?
The answer to monotheism is synchrotism…
There is some worry about splitting the camp…meh…
Khut: “We’re going about this all wrong…
We’re much too sober to make these kinds of decisions…”
We call the vote and 9 to 4, decide to let them in…
AND it becomes one hell of a party…
Families are re-united…Hellhorns and Black Crows and Drowned River coming together..
Including a whole bunch of Black Crow shamans who quickly join us…
Casting off their black cloaks…and letting Squee paint their faces…
Squee starts up some arts and crafts with the new children…
They tie-die some robes…
Ithunn points out to grumpy parents about the freedom of religion clause…
Ithunn takes the Amazons out for a training exercise…
Khut calls out Naquim…and gets cock-blocked by Giggles…
Because there are no challenges during the party…REALLY?
So Khut challenges Naquim to a smoke-off…and kicks his ass…
Ellen-Dear and Sorq get the magelings to put on a firework display…
And set some trees on fire…and put them all in contact with the spirits…
There is acrid tension and hatred in the air…
Both the old mothers and the black crow shamans jump into some cutting…
The rights take a turn even a bitter darker than Sorq is used to…
Ado has a chat with Altan about acquiring large swathes of black silk…
And makes some silk shirts for the troops…
Vadim and Barruk team up with some Fertility priests…
AND casts AWAKEN on MORVA THE ANCIENT HOLY MOUNTAIN BEAST!
Vadim clambers up by Morva’s ear and tells him the story of our beasts…
“You would like to charge your enemies, yes?”
“I suggest stepping on them…”
And Barruk steps in to discuss getting the beasts to partner with riders…
Getting Morva to tell them to “Stay still, at first”…
And Barruk spends a lot of time encouraging “Trampling” as an idea…
He might need some apples…
Rust starts moving among the people “doing good works”…
Reuniting families, managing strained relations from the splits, etc.
Khadagan and Hundreds go off to work on his armor some more…
Crushing some purple lotus to make a dye to colour the whole thing…
The wings are woven out of purple lotus fabric…
With thread-of-gold insect-like traceries…
A flaming circle of gold is etched in the chest…
Anything that bites him must save or be blind or deaf…
And the wearer is deeply terrified of the colour pink…
Squee: “We need exposure therapy!”
Iron-Dear goes off to spend some quality time with her spear-tusk…
Everyone dances the evening away (or meditate as appropriate)…
Everyone is stuffed with meat and fermented mare’s milk…
Khut and Khadagan notice that someone has been raiding our store of apples…
It is definitely not that Malik-shaped person hoofing it through the darkness…
There is also a light dusting of fade-cancer spores over all the plants…
We are hauled out of our sleep in the middle of the night by a hubbub…
Khut wakes up beside a passed-out Naquim Blackhand…
Urinates on him before catching up with the others…
Where Petrana and the Tradestoners have assembled an unofficial constabulary…
Yelling at a stone-faced woman standing unbuding in the middle of the yurts…
An angry crowd is gathering…
And the three biggest troublemakers find themselves Held by Sorqutani…
The fight ends before it starts…Petrana explains…
There was a scream from a yurt…
Belonging to a black crow soldier and his estranged wife…
AND Iron-Dear is in the tent, as usual…
A burly man in Empty Circle robes lies bleeding on the ground…
Raised bands on his arms…like nettle stings…
Rust convinces the woman to let us in to have a chat…
Ado modifies the woman’s memory to grant her perfect clarity…
She tells us her husband gave her a gift brought back from the EC…
A forged golden nail on a silk chord around her neck…
She smelled something like burning gulchberries…Madcackleweed…
Her head swam…heard whispering speech, then grinding noises…
Rust points out that the golden nail is a popular symbol among the converted…
The golden nail that pins the sky to the home of the gods…
Which rotates around the seven-starred constellation of the great bear…
Barruk blesses the nail and tells her to keep it as a memento of her husband…
Sorq finds the scuffed-out traces of a ritual circle…
And his head has a hole bored in it…death by trepanning…
Khadagan also finds traces of a paralytic toxin…
Green Lotus…the really rare, good stuff…
Khut looks at the nettle-welts…
Not nettles…precision work with a very fine whip…
Then does an autopsy on the body, head, brain…
Which is more like field dressing, but whatever…
Inside the mouth he finds a black crust…
Which Khad identifies as mutated fade-cancer spores…
Ithunn points out a neat curlycue of smoke rising from the fire…
AND raises the alarm…
There is a cracking sound…and an arrow materializes and cuts one of Ithunn braids…
AND another arrow is in the air from Khut’s bow…Ithunn tries to deflect it…
AND there is a surprised ‘Meow’…and a Pasht falls off of a tent…
Ithunn has a nice chat with the Pasht (Sarafesht)…who she owes a favor…
Apparently someone has taken a contract out on us…
Apparently they want the ones in our camp to be delivered to them…
One of those ones is the mother of one of their best assassins…
But is obscenely overly attached to her offspring…
Who is the one who is going to kill us apparently…
They take contracts to protect their homeland’s sovereignty and independence…
Vadim goes down on all fours and sniffs…a faint waft of incense and the Fade…
Barruk puts the scouts and mage-corps on alert for possible Old Empire intrusion…
Sorq brings in the coven…It’s time to smoke up…
“We’re like the super-dark version of the powerpuff girls”
The three sisters share a creepy meal…and their eyes turn creepy-green…
AND…we are standing in a lush, verdent forest with gray-green leaves…
The delusional dream-elf-twins notice…something…like we’re being watched…
And Vadim catches the very very faint scent of incense…
Khut and Iron-Dear take point…
We find a valley with an arcane circle with alien, old imperial ideoglyphs…
And a quartet of cloaked figures gathered around a twitching, bound body…
Arandyr creeps up to investigate…
And realizes that the valley isn’t really there…
A precipitous cliff dropping away into nothing…
And the hooded figures are looking directly into a mirror in their hands…
Creepy old imperial with long tongues with eyes on the ends…
Khut launches some arrows, which bounce off some suddenly raised shields…
Ithunn and Barruk go leaping in…with similarly ineffective results…
Khadagan follows and manages to sink its claws into one…
Then Squee makes them blurrily pink coloured…
Vadim’s cackles show up and tear into them…pulling one down…
Ellendear animates some little rock monsters to join the grand melee…
They try to telekinetically fuck up Vadim and Iron-Dear, but Ellendear shuts them down…
And Sorq treats us to a brand new kind of fire…immolating one…
Ado vanishes in a puff of purple smoke and appears in the melee as well…
They hammer us with mind blasts, stunning several…
Mostly Khut and Khadagan…who stand there for a long time doing nothing…
Rust runs to clear the blast radius…
Then one raises a Wall of Force between them and the cliff…
Iron-Dear appears and knifes one…and it dies…
Sorq drops a fireball on everyone…
One of them is blown strait off the cliff…
Then Ado…who had just been standing there…stabs one…
With a dagger…which pricks it…AND
Simultaneously mind-fucks it and inflicts a contagion…
Ithunn kicks one’s head clean off…
Squee drives the last one mad…and he gets eaten by the cackles…


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

The Exodus: Session 35

Khut's feeling...

CARDS
Chinua & Dust
Human Relationship Series: Truth vs. Exageration
Ganbaatar
The battle with the Old Empire was won…
We are on the move…heading north…a week has passed…
There is a strange sense of waiting from the tribe…
The earth seems to move and shift underfoot…
When we wake there appear to be hills where there were none previously…
The land becomes more lush as we go north…
For the first time in ages we are not starving…
Our scouts have run into merchants, travelers, and things…
Strange people who travel up and down the rivers on floating platforms…
Strange, strange, boats that can go UP-RIVER…
The people keep their distance from us…call the land the Hronrad…
We piece together some maps
The woods to the east are crawling with “Nihil Blight”…
We start with a scene of utter chaos and panic…
We are clearly under attack…there are sounds of gunpowder explosions…
Our staunch, clear-headed veterans, panic and go to ground…
Rattled by the whole ghost-town and one-in-seven dying thing…
Clearly ready to shoot at anything that pokes its head up…
Ganbaatar goes berserk and the Holy Mountain Beasts start stampeding…
Khut sends a shrieker arrow right past a HMB’s nose…
Turning the herd…a little…
Khadagan wheels his beast and rides full-bore at the unseen foes…
There is a cheer from the troops…followed by a loud banging sound…
Cresting the ridge he sees the long line of a river snaking away…
Vadim tries to invoke friendship in Littlefoot…
And almost gets himself stomped…Littlefoot is hardcore panicked…
Ellen-Dear raises a cloud of fog in front of the beasts…
They shy from the East (for the scary sound)…
The West from the shrieker arrow…
The North from the fog…
Turning them due south back into the camp…
Iron-Dear, Ithunn, and Sorq dive out of the way…
Iron-Deer recognizes the weird gunshot sound as ice cracking on the river…
Breaks Like Wind calls up a giant light-show…
A huge golem of ice heaves itself up out of the center of camp…
Hands like slabs, face blank as a slate, gouts of steam…
It bows…in time with the cracking of the ice…
Breaks bellows: “The spirits of this land greet Drowned River”
Ado leaps for Littlefoots reins…misses…spooks them…
And the Holy Mountain Beasts run hell-for-leather to the north…
Through the wall of mist…and they are gone…
Towards the “Blight”…
Ganbaatar starts floating around in the air inexplicably…
…probably Sorq’s doing…
Breaks, Khut, Ithunn, Ado, and Sorq go running after the loose HMBs at full throttle…
Khut tracks them in short order to…the edge of a blighted forest…SUPLIES!
Barren pines…no fire, no borers, good soil…twisted from the inside…
Obligatorily creepy…
With a giant jagged hole in the forest where the HMBs entered…
Vadim, Khadagan, Ellen, and Iron-Deer catch up on some herdbeasts…
Ithunn reminds us that the HMB’s feel safe in the forest…graze there as babies…
Ellen-Dear points out that the forest is clearly nec-romanticized…
No spirits involved…some creepy elven magecraft nonsense…
Khut pulls his second-most-prized-possession and head in…
We all head in…it’s foggy…obligatorily creepy you might say…
Vadim points out some things that are indistinguishable from normal plants…
But clearly are not…
So we get jumped, at five to one odds…they die…
There is some fire…and Iron-Dead turns into a bear…
Khadagan checks out the plants to see if they can be home-grown…
We find a body in the rubble, a centaur, swathed in Empty Circle finery…
Tattoos cover its skin…prison tattoo style (charcoal in a wound)…
a steppefolk death prayer…
yaghuth anagram for amnesia…
old empire sigil of the portal to Hades…
Sorq burns the warbler symbol for death into his skin as an addition…
Iron-Dear says he was clearly collecting…
and thus must be a member of the Nihil Sept…
Ellen-Dear says the tattoos match the death-magic infusing the wood…
possibly a self-sacrifice…
Not gaunt, well-fed when he died, came in from the north-east…
Vadim finds some loot in his pack:
* 1,100 old-imperial copper pieces
* 7,000 yaghuthan silver pieces of exchange
* 2,700 gaav-shaharan rose nobles
* Skull-carved mug (250gp)
* Opal Statuette of a Yaghuth w/ defaced trunk (250gp)
* Glass birdcage of warbler manufacture (250gp)
* Steppefolk fur tapestry (250gp)
* Wool rug of Naiman-tribe manufacture (250gp)
* Old empire Jade ring set w/ small gems (250gp)
* Empty Circle Cloth of Gold Sacrificial Robe (250gp)
* Tattoo (Scroll of Cloudkill)
* Potion of Fire Giant Strength
* Elixer of Health
* Potion of Superior Healing
We get back on the trail of the Mountain Beasts…
The ground becomes uneven as we head north…
Ravines…once stands of mountain laurel…
Snow covered with a thin layer of blackened leaves and needles…
Iron-Dear notices a heat-shimmer in the distance…
a well hidden campfire or kiln…no smoke, but plenty of heat…
Dead-north, Khut sees that something else has taken up pursuit of the HMBs…
Enormouse five-toed hoof-tracks, with signs of vestigial claws…
Scoring marks on the trees, like tusks…pointed the wrong way…
We head after the HMBs at full speed…
Khut runs up a tree and ninja-runs through the tree-tops…
He hits a branch, its wet and slippery, and falls into Ithunn’s arms…
Except its not a branch…its a bone…twenty-feet long…
Like a massive, massive femir…
From an animal that would have to be at least two-hundred feet long…
We hear the high-pitched rage-scream from Littlefoot and Thumper…
We start to feel sick…like a low vibration felt in the bones…
And then there is a full hunting pack of beasts…
Like tapirs with tusks and claws…about nine feet long…
Two already hanging from Littlefoot’s flank…
AND there are thirty or fourty Holy Mountain Beasts in the valley…
AND Holy Mountain Beast bones as far as we can see…
Both a breeding ground and a hunting ground…
Khut plants an arrow in one…it twists insanely fast…but still gets hit…
and two giant ones (4x the size of the others) turn and charge…
and eighteen or so little ones trying to bring down the HMBs…
Breaks Like Wind screams, berating the frost spirits into caring for once…
Creating a dome of mirror-like ice covering all the baby HMBs…
One of the big ones charges Khadagan and catches him in its mouth…
It swings its tail at Sorq…Ado jumps on for a very distracting ride…
The little ones bring down one very old Holy Mountain Beast…
Ithunn looks at the HMB go down…and becomes sooooo happy…because MEAT!
She punts a small one into the air…and Littlefoot sends it flying…
Then lands on it and crushes it with a double-footed axe-kick…
Khut sends another arrow flying and knocks the second one off Littlefoot…
Khadagan, in the big ones jaws, stands up, pries its jaw open and holds it…
Vadim runs in with a wave of cackles…and they climb all over it…
Ellen-Dear rolls out his bedroll, dumping a small army of microbots…
Shaped like little figurines of the party…
And the big ol’ spear-tusk is aggressively dead…
Sorq walks into the middle of the smaller ones and calls in the pixies…
Ado steps into the middle of the the elderly HMBs and drops a Beacon of Hope…
Iron-Dear knifes the living daylights out of the second big one…
Then Breaks sprays some grease right under its feet…
And it skids out, slides down the hill, and falls prone…
It tries to stand, but Ellen-Dear just laughs and it falls down again…
Then Vadim dominates it…
The little beasts pile over the HMBs, bringing down five…
But only kill one thanks to Ado’s beacon…
Ithunn and Khut wade in together, finishing off one and stabbing a second…
Khadagan follows and tears the lungs out of the second…
Sorq runs up a downed beast and blows a pack of them off of it…
Ado drops some healing and the four wounded HMBs stand up…
AND they stand with much shaking of the ground…
The cackles and microbots pull down two more…
Ellen-Dear shoves one into the elevator with a Banish…
Breaks drops a fireball into a curve of the hill…
scorching several of the spear-tusks…killing one…
The remaining spear-tusks bring down four more and two dying…
The ground heaves…Khut goes sliding down the hill, and lands in Ithunn’s arms…
Littlewing gives them a lift…
and, from above, they see a REAL Mountain Beast…an ancient one…
The size of a ridgeline…slow…covered with moss…
Like its been sleeping for decades (and we call it Morva)
Ithunn drops on them and kills two with a couple swift blows…
Khut drops an arrow, skewering one…
pinning it to a tree…
over the fire from the fireball…
and shakes some aromatic leaves from the tree…
And the lovely aroma of cooking meat wafts through the air…
Khadagan tears into another…and Sorq finishes it off with the flames…
And Ellen-Dear cooks the last one with a fire blast…
Ado heals the two downed Holy Mountain Beasts, bringing them back up…
Vadim makes friendly with the dominated giant one…
And Iron-Dear gets all cuddly with the weird elephant-tiger-thing…
Ellen lets the last one out of the elevator…
Khut and Ithunn disappear behind a tree for a half-hour…
And come back with an unconcious spear-tusk…
“We were only beating it unconcious, honest…”
That fight ends…then a house-sized head swings down…
There is a giant blast from the nose…sounding like a volcano…
With a sound reminiscent of a mother HMB defending her calf…
The oldest Holy Mountain Beast ever…and its male…
Because apparently they don’t die of old age…
and they keep growing perpetually…
We move the camp to the valley of HMB bones…
Ithunn takes the Amazons out to go collect the massive, massive amounts of
dead Holy Mountain Beast and spear-tusk meat…
While Ithunn is thus distracted, Khut climbs up the spire…
Climbs up a floating tentacle horror…
Seeks out the Achillobator chief…
And has a long talk with him to ask for Ithunn’s hand…
Khadagan seeks out Hundreds and Ruven to make him some fancy chitin armor…
Hundreds goes white-eyed and does some very careful stitching…
Weaving strange, undulating sigils into the weft of the harness…
Sorq rounds up the would-be mage-cadets and some old steppefolk midwife teachers…
Tough, scary, old biddies start beating the children into shape…
Ado joins the Yaghuth in their meditations…
They keep hearing a ringing gong and feeling the flicker of candlelight…
Vadim scales the Holiest of Mountain Beasts…and starts collecting semen…
Invoking both Dust and Drowned River…violence and fertility in action…
He brings along Fletcher, Kitty, and Chinua…
And our females are now pregnant with Morva’s brood…
Dust and Drowned River tell us in no uncertain terms that the world has changed..
There is only fire where once there was light…
Ormazhd Bay’s light is flickering…
Odqan Talaqan’s fire is burning out…
Breaks chats with the Gray Lady and convinces her to be headmistress of the school…
Ellen-Dear meets the Yaghuth and asks them to help Iron-Dear go deep and remember…
As Khut comes out of his hut in the morning, there is a sliver of bone…
Like a knife, but no difference between blade and haft…
No signs of work…just worn into shape, like millenia of moving water…
And it cuts effortlessly through anything…
Khadagan wakes up choking to find Hundred’s hand on the side of her face…
Her eyes still trance-white, but burning red…
The suit is nearly complete, with runes covering the entire surface…
The breastplate reinforced with bronze-like ribs…
The chitin nearly alive, shifting and moving…
Then the scouts let us know that a massive Nihil-Sept army comes in from the east&##8230;


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

The Exodus: Session 34

Khut’s feeling…
Like he can and will take on the world…
but he doesn’t know why…

CARDS
Hulugu
Human Relations Series #11: Accepting and Respecting Authority
The Cusp
The Old Empire
We are “Raiding” (totally not fleeing) north…
High season moves on, but the weather gets steadily colder…
The cold reduces the number of apparent snakes…
The Yaghuth fish out the most overt of Phaanin infiltrators…
Our troops condition is steadily improving…
But the caravan is becoming steadily more grim…
As the Apple Tree continues to feed off of our hope…
We breed up the slithers, store the eggs, eat the rest…
Go looking for some alternative mounts…
Semek’s wife comes reporting that the Empty Circle is closing to the east…
And a large number of Steppefolk are riding with them…
Seems like Forktongue sold us out (Shock!)…
Regardless, we need to get to the city and drop the ants…
Khut leads a recon party to the city…
Classic former-Thabannite…now amalgam…
There are flickering strange-blue lights in the city…
A fair number of people (not bugs) camped out…
We reach the edge of the city…but find no people…
no resistance…but goosebumps…wiggins…
Iron-dear has a strange sense of being watched…
Something spooky is going on…SPOOOOOOOOKY!
At about the time that Ado says “I think this is a bad idea…”
We find ourselves surrounded by hooded Phanin…
With a bunch of tall, lanky, flaming-eyes Old Imperials…
A dusty blizzard blows up…
“We have been sent to bring you…”
Vadim: “We’re sending our most volatile to talk with you
and they will be on drugs…”
Khadagan: “Why would you tip our hand?!?”
Vadim: “That’s our hand? Volatility and drugs?”
Everyone: “Yes…”
We transition…the phaanin’s skin rotting away…
We are in the middle of a populous city…
Lots of people encamped…tents…pennants flying…
Clearly Old Empire…of Shan Yu’s faction…
Squee: “Who’s Shanyu?”
Khadagan: “Someone we used to know…”
The undead Phaanin conduct us towards one of the largest buildings…
With each step we shift further into the Fade…
We enter an enormous mosque-like building…
All roundde and covered with Thaabanite artwork…
Big ‘ol Imperial thrones with a man and woman seated…
Vadim plays crazy and offers a wooden bowl of tapioca…
Shanyu greets us…
Apparently his consort wants to chat…
Or him to chat…she lays a hand on his arm…
Ado prepares a feast (illusory and scent-heavy)…
Shanyu refuses to break bread with us…
Since we might soon be at drawn blades…
"You come with the Empty Circle on your heels,
we’re greatful for the ones you left burried
in the salt flats…"
Ooooh…he has shiny red teeth…
Squee appears in his lap and starts beard-braiding…
Khadagan: “She’s a ‘Beard Lemur’…”
“Ah! The rare beard-lemur…”
Ellen-Dear waxes diplomatic…“We call it a Squee”
“Ah! Thank you for the Squee, it’s a noble gift”
Sorq approaches the consort: “Great Lady will you dine with me?”
Ladies only dinner ramps up in a side room…
Food is laid out…gray, green, gangrenous…
And dust-soaked water that leaves hands glistening black…
Sorq: “What may I call you?”
“I am now merely The Consort…”
Oh shit, it’s Ma’chek…
“The faded have no names…”
“May my sister join us?”
Iron-dear steps out of the shadows…
Khadagan: “This is my sister, she likes to watch…”
Sorq is crazy, we’re all in her head…
Khadagan: “So do I just leap out of your ear or something?”
Sorq: “Everywhere I go Squee’s in my head…
I go to the Fade, she’s there, to the Verge, she’s there”
DM: “You found an Empire of Darkness and she’s there in your
lap braiding your beard, believe me, people empathize…”
Ma’chek wants some amusement, some revenge…
Some pregnant pauses…some menace…
She unveils…her face is featureless, black, cracked ash…
Meanwhile we sit and chat with Shanyu…
Squee asks Shanyu about the cloaked woman…
“What’s a ‘Consort’?”
“Ah, the Squee talks”
Ithunn: “It’s the most intelligent of it’s kind”
He is not subtle in poiting out that his Consort is plotting…
With the assumption that we’ll all join him…
One way or another…eventually…
Also…he breaths…water vapor in the cold air…
Ado: “This is not you…” and he lays out some stories of Shanyu…
“You’re not tied to a consort, you owe her nothing…”
Ado tries to coax Shanyu into paying a visit to the spire…
We trade safe conduct in the city…
In exchange for letting him into the Spire…
AND the Consort…and his generals…
The Ladies’ Tea ends and Ma’check leaves…
There is a restlessness in the room as we head out…
Undead snakes lying in torpor begin to ripple…
Draw up their shrouds…their eyes ignite…
Palpable tension between the Consort and Shanyu…
Which is clearly, entirely an act…
We are conducted out of the city by old empire knights…
The gates of the city swing open and sand is blown out of the empty city…
We call a council of war…and invite a Yaghuth who Remembers…
“Remembers Forgetfulness” being the man in charge…
We need them to stand vigil while we head into the spire…
Watch out for what happens when we drop the ants…
Make sure everyone living thrives here…
Calm tensions…keep minds together in the face of the maelstrom…
We ask Hundreds to spy on Shanyu and Machek…
She goes into a shamanic frenzy…then goes still…
Machek cajoles Shanyu on his bad acting skills…
Hundreds plays out one half of a conversation…
Then grabs Khadagan…and passes out…
The caravan, spire and all, rolls into the city…
We set up camp, all 45,000 of us, Semek running in overtime…
Hoargrim is grumpy at us being “sitting ducks”…
We call to the tree and set down the ants…
There is a sound like splitting wood after an ice storm…
AND the ants come…take one look at the city…
AND Sorq feels the overwhelming urge to burrow…
The Red Emissary asks about the city…
Refers to it as one they ate the roots of long ago…
They go DEEP…all 100,000 of them!
Will not approach the surface unless Sorq says its safe…
After the ants submerge a pale-face, white-haired woman appears…
Bowed, breathing heavily, edges indistinct…
Grass and flowers spreading out from where she stands…
Vadim tries to hook her up with Ellen-Dear…
AND Ellen-Dear turns her down…
Vadim: “You’re always welcome in my tent…”
She gives Vadim the hottest kiss ever…
We take them with us and head for the spire…
Remembers Forgetfulness comes and complains about the fade-infected city…
Yaghuth priests sit, facing outwards, every 30 yards around the camp…
We toke up…We head in…with the Consort and Shanyu…
And the generals presumably hanging out outside to jump while we’re gone…
We enter the pillared hall…the brazier still burning with incense…
As Shanyu follows we all fade…the air grows cold…
the world bending with pools of darkness beneath their feet…
They seem more real…less shadowed…
A well-dressed couple in full regalia…
Khut listens to the whispers…there is a twisting in the air…
Things writhing…the fire in the brazier ignites…
A hallway directly ahead open where it was caved in before…
Our old winged friend from the fade squats on the throne…
Ado calls on the sense of the Lord of Light…glowing from inside…
Something here is terribly wrong…the light is changed…
Iron-Dear absconds with wingy-boys sword…
Khut pulls his bow…time stops…the arrow flies…and burries in Sorq’s back…
The Guardian shoots squee…the blow bringing out her sinful inner nature…
One eye flaming red…one burning green…it’s CHRISTMAS SQUEE!
And she sows…Confusion…
Ado drops some protection from wiggins on Khut…because yeah…
Sorq calls forth an army of pixies…which tear apart Shanyu and the Consort…
Khadagan lets loose a couple handfuls of lifeline spores…
They cling to the corpses of what had been Shanyu and Ma’chek…
Barruk beats on Ma’check’s body…smashing it to pieces…
Ellen-Dear animates and awakens the spire…
The skeletal arms embedded in the walls reach out for the Guardian…
Iron-Dear tries to have a chat with the walls…asking about her own past…
A skull says “the seed of memory lies farther within”…
The guardian starts pounding on Khadagan…with limited efficacy…
Then Ithunn jumps and punches him into a boney-armed wall…
Khut puts an arrow in the Guardian…and it Explodes into holy flames…
A burning crown expanding out around it…
or starts to…except Ellen-Dear shuts it down…
Some healing happens…then a wave of wolves climb all over it…and eat him…
Squee examines the bodies of the fallen…
Identifying them clearly as not Ma’chek and Shanyu…
By his fake-red teeth…
Khut looks up…the elves are gone…
He starts tracking…and, head-down, bumps strait into Ellen-Dear…
We debate what to do…until Khadagan tosses some purple lotus in the brazier..
Weird shit happens…we press deeper…
Pink light streams through windows we didn’t know were there…
Vadim rolls into the room, invulnerable on a wave of wolves…
There is a forest dipped in gold…
Pale-skinned beings with white hair and feather wings…
Khut stands very still and waits to have a psychotic episode…
Iron-Dear starts hugging everything: “I love you guys!”
Vadim: “Do you breed?”
Things rapidly go south…
Their voices like gongs: “You are not of the seed”
“You have to save your people…”
“Perhaps your prayers would be answered…”
“We will reveal the truth…”
“We will return the lord of lords to his rightful throne…”
There is a Lorax? … We are in THE very strange place…
Everything smells like rotting wood…
The forest disintegrate as the light bathes it…
The trees rotting and twist, metal replacing their bark…
Vadim prays to the Lord of Lords…trying to steal his cattle…
or rather…all the souls he put in this nice spire…
The angels turn to close the door…and get a little angry…
Or a LOT…
And its on…sort of…at least Ellen-Dear is kindof sober…
Ellen-Dear banishes Vadim…shoving him back into the real-world…
The Angels slam the doors shut, then hurl them back open…
“Begone from this place!”
Sorq: “I look forward to seeing your master…”
We leave…fast…
Vadim and his wolves appear in the middle of an all-out war…
Man-to-man, blood everywhere…lots of bad guys have us surrounded…
A twelve-foot-tall Githyanki knight leads the press…
Bodies litter the ground…mostly ours…
Which start to stand and join the salt zombies…
The dead numbering five thousand…
Yaghuth hold the line, walking steadily forward…
Chanting OM through their trunks…
Bursting into white flame as the zombies overrun them…
The old empire encircle the city…we form ranks around the spire…
Khut stands very very still, waiting to have a psychotic episode…
Ithunn grabs Khut to haul him out of the spire…
He lunges for her, slips, and bangs his head on the stairs…
Sorq sees that we are proper-fucked…but at least not mind-fucked…
The undead phaanin clearly chowing down on our forces souls…
Khadagan drops to his knees and starts praying…HARD CORE…
“To the one who exists at the root of all things,
the one who unites the fade, to the verge, to the cusp,
to the one fathered all things,
who sustains spirit and stone, leaf and bone,
I entreat thee now, make thineself known
come forth, sword of flame
come forth, crown of light
a nation of seekers are lost
a multitude of wanders search
without your truth,
they will fall under the blades of their foes
Come now, o nameless one,
Let your flame roar
Let your light shine
Let my people see you and be saved
Let your people see their savior and give thanks
let them give praise to you
and carry your name to the edges of the earth”
He feels hands on each shoulder…and its not Iron-Dear hugging him…
On the one hand the rich scent of apples…
On the other, the crackling of molten metal…
And he reaches out to the burning light of Tsaluth…
He externalizes the rage…
A heavy tred strikes the stair beside him…
An enormous creature…eighteen feet tall…burning, spreading wings…
Iron-Dear: “Hug!”
We feel sick…
And battle is joined as the doors of the spire open and dark angels pour out…
Vadim’s wolves charge into the fray to save the Gray Lady’s scholars…
Then a massive burning crown drops, surrounding the spire…
Barruk charges the Dark Knight who leads the Imperial troops…
Slamming into him with the full smiting force of his enmity…
branding him…“My enemies need to learn to despair!”
AND Squee turns him Pink…and his buddies…
Iron-Dear appears behind knight-boy and hugs him…with vigor…and knives…
Then Ellen-Dear sends in a bolt of lightning from the side…
Sorq calls down a storm of ice…which sublimates in the heat…
Steam rolling across the battlefield…
Death-Knight-boy retaliates with some Hellfire…blowing away Squee…
And our losses raise to 8000…
Khut stands…wipes the blood off the back of his head…
Runs up to the top of the spire…“Hey asshole! Up here!”
And drops three arrows into the knight…blasting him to kingdom come…
Of course…there are still hordes of salt zombies and knights…
Ado drops an endless volley of flaming arrows on their heads…
Sorq follows it with FEAR…and a whole phalanx runs screaming…
Khut calls for his wife…
who has a divine-off with Ma’chek…and reports that she’s in the Deep Fade…
Khut tosses out death spores…Vadim plant-growths them…
And salt zombies turn into plant food…
To be continued…


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

The Exodus: Session 33

Khut's Feeling...

CARDS
Semek’s Wife
Oblivion Sept
Horgrim
Giggles

We are locked in Thaabanite territory…
The road goes west towards “Snake Mountain”…
To the east is the Kraken…
We’re running out of food…
Snakes are massing along the ridges…
Hoargrim comes complaining…
Squee starts piping up a swarm of lickens…
The nohai start eating like crazy…
A runner breaks in to the conversation…
Semek’s wife found an amazing kill but needs help…
Squee’s eyes light up with a waft of apples…
And a voice says “my stomach is bursting”…
In a sound like creaking tree branches…
Khut hands Squee, Vadim, Sorq, and Breaks some weed…
While he and the rest head out hunting…
Out in the wastes, we find Nohai surrounding…
Some horn-beast-like creatures with heavy forequarters…
Nohai run around hooting…
Giggles egging them on…
Semek’s wife and the malik cavalry push them off…
Khut walks into the middle of them and says “Mine”…
Ithunn glares…
To Ithunn, “I mean ours…”
Khut and Giggles man up for a challenge…
Khut rips Giggle’s throat out with his teeth…
Ithunn steps up and similarly drops Kitty…
Everyone else starts trying to do non-Nohai diplomacy…
Barruk drives sparky into the riot…
Bellowing for people to disperse…
Ado drops a Compulsion and tells everyone to go home…
And the Nohai leave…
Hooch and Fletcher dragging off Giggles and Kitty
Meanwhile in drug-land…they chat with a tree…
“There is a cracking in my roots…”
“Something afflicting all the spirits…”
“Something has been birthed in the verge…”
“Something that does not belong there…”
“A potentiality that was only possible before…”
“All I can see is a burning crown…”
“A circle of gold on fire like the sun…”
“There are two separate problems…”
“My roots are cracking because of the change…”
“And I need to put down my burden…”
“My roots don’t hold here any more…”
“I must set them down before my roots break free…”
“Or I need power…”
“I thrive off of Hope…”
We suggest turning north…
There is a Thaabanite ruin…possibly amalgan inhabited…
We have no maps that way…
And its marching into Russia in winter…
Literally…
And full of gods and demons according to legend…
Southwest would be into the badlands…
Back into northern Gavshahar…
As they drop out of drug-land…
They see roots spreading throughout the encampment…
We feel a pull…drawing life from the caravan…
We haul back the massive “Shoulderbeast”…
And hand it over to Hulagu to start butchering…
Collecting the bones to boil into broth…
And Vadim starts handing out Goodberries…
To feed up a large hunting party…
Squee and Khut notice Semek’s wife dosing the meat…
Hulagu suddenly turns and attacks Sorqutani…
Swinging at her with a poison-coated cleaver…
His hands seemingly moving independently…
Nohai start howling in pain…
It looks like the entire hunting party is jacked…
And poisoning the food…
Khut punches Semek’s Wife in the face…
Barruk drops darkness on the brain-jacked Malik…
Semek’s (angry) wife stabs Khut…
Khut – “I’ve got Semek’s Wife handled…”
Ithunn – “Who’s being handled?!”
Khut – “No actual handling is going on…”
Squee geas’s Hulagu…and tells him to stand down…
CHARM OFF!
An angry Malik charges her…and misses…
One horn on either side…
And she starts painting the horns pink…
Ithunn leaps in and bitch-slaps Semek’s Wife…
Then kicks her twice…sweeps her off her feet…
Khut stands back to watch…
“I dreamt of this…”
Ado Purifies the food…
and steps between Hulagu and Sorq…
A Malik charges him…
Ado grabs a horn and fakes his death…
Another Malik charges Squee and gores her…HARD…
Sorq pulls out her giant spear-like wand…
AND…cone of fear…
in the direction of everyone who’s being an idiot…
Semek’s wife and a Malik start running
around like they are on fire…
Hulagu wails on Sorqutani…and bursts into flames…
AND Sorqutani blows up into a giant fireball…
Nuking everyone…EVERYONE…
Vadim grabs her as she falls over…
“Sorq, do that again!”
A pack of cackles appears and piles onto Hulagu…
AND another pack drops a Malik…
Wow that’s a lot of cackles…
Barruk gives a demonstration of proper goring technique…
Slamming into the Malik on Squee and tossing him…
Squee geas’s another Malik…
“Don’t hit anyone and let me paint your horns…pink…”
He responds by beating her unconcious…
Khadagan comes hurtling in…
Lands on the wolf-pinned Hulagu…and starts clawing…
Three Malik charge Khut…who sidesteps and keeps staring…
Because…there is a catfight over there…seriously…
They block his view…
Two of them a promptly fall to the ground…
Sorq paralyzes Hulagu and a pair of Malik…
The cackles tear Hulahu up…and another Malik…
Vadim whistles for them to stop…
just before they rip out Hulagu’s throat…
Barruk vanishes out from between a pile of Malik…
Reappears in a pack of Nohai…
starts curing poisons left and right…
and purifies the rest of the food…
Barruk: “I’m fluent in Nohai now…”
Khadagan: “I picked up a little Nohai tongue in
the last year, but I can’t speak it at all…”
Khadagan drops another Malik…
Leaving four still standing…and two paralyzed…
Three of whom charge Khad…he laughs…
Semek’s Wife ganks Ithunn with a poisned knife…
Then gets kicked to the curb in response…
Khut stares happily…
And caves a Malik’s face in with an elbow…
Ado aggressively bane’s the remaining Malik…
And Sorqutani lights them up…
And the cackles come back and pile on them…
Taking one more down…
Then Sparky comes rampaging in…trampling another…
Khadagan, Khut, and Ithunn join in the beatings…
and there was one…
That gets killed and torn up by the cackles…
Ado challenges Fletcher to a race to the Yaghuth…
Cheats…wins…and comes back with some Yaghuth priests…
Sorq, Ado, and Barruk purify and cook all the meat…
and we drop a whole lot of healing on the Nohai…
Khut notices Ithunn stalking him around the camp…
“Are you following me?”…book comes up…upside down…
Khut runs off…fishes a bone out of the pot…
Cuts off a sliver…hollows out the marrow…
And drops it in Ithunn’s lap…
some weird kind of beast-bone promise ring…
probably should have let her have the marrow…
At least Drowned River is pleased…
Vadim: “Everyone needs to be bumping Semek’s Wife…”
Khut: “I am NOT bumping Semek’s Wife…”
DM: Bursts out laughing for five minutes…
Ado takes Hoargrim to go meet the Yaghuth…
And starts teaching Hoargrim mindfulness meditation…
ONLY Ado could pull this off…
Yaghuth would not go anywhere near the battlefield…
Hoargrim sees them as useless pacifists…
Yaghuth might serve as a possession-warning-system…
The best idea Hoargrim has heard in all morning…
Barruk sits down to chat with the general…
Discussing our recent set-backs and the need to improve morale…
Suggesting a tour of the units to meet the troops…
Time for Hoargrim to go shake babies and kiss hands…
Teaching Hoargrim the politics of leading troops…
Squee gives him a serious beard-braiding…
Like Marie Antoinette’s hair…but a beard…
Sorq starts pushing him on the idea of a magic-wielding unit…
Time for Breaks, Rust, and the Gray Lady to start teaching…
Start finding those with talent…make a mage academy…
Weavers, maggot-folk, crazy warblers, would-be shamans…
Vadim hauls Semek’s Wife and the malik north…
Then wakes them up with Goodberries…
Starts suggesting that they need to scout to the North…
The snakes paralyze you with a gaze…
Only the elders can subsume your will…
Regardless of desire, you’re not in control of your body…
They have massed armies in the hills…
Mountain Slithers…sand devils…snakes…
Vadim suggests taking Yaguth priests with each scouting party…
Then Vadim takes point on the first hunting/scouting trip…
Lays some protection from wiggins on Semek’s Wife…
Amazons and Yaghuth form jack-detection squads incoming scouts…
We get intel on Thaabanite patrols…
Mostly client races…fewer and fewer Phanin…
Largely avoiding the Amalgam ruins to the north…
Khadagan goes in to Hundreds of Dust…asks her to bless his chitin armor…


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

The Exodus: Session 32

Khut is feeling...

CARDS:
Ganbaatar
Brotherhood of Evil: Orbghuz Forktongue joins the Empty Circle

We are back at camp, having pissed off both snakes and bugs…
Our army is badly wounded and in the middle of a raging war…
We form a council of war with Ganbaatar, Hundreds, and Hoargrim…
Ganbaatar is retraining Malik to ride slithers…
Casualties in the last battle are shockingly low…
For the ass-whupping we took…
We’ve got 500 visitor sand-devils…
Of questionable (or non-existent) loyalty…
We sacrificed a bunch of deathworm eggs…
To create a bumper-crop of baby warblers…
Thebanites (snakes) are to the west…
Something is ringing the desert like a drum…
Sorq apparently got fed royal-jelly and is spouting flies…
As the new black super-node (a.k.a. queen)…
The black ants are friendly(ish) but scared…
We need to smuggle the eggs past the snakes…
Khad throws some herbs on the fire to talk to the Gardener…
The yurt is overgrown with flowers and vines…
Blue smoke flowing up to the cieling…
Squee chases a whisp around the room…
The bees are hibernating, not a good time to be abroad…
Ado asks if the gardener could hide blacks in the fade…
Vadim suggests we dive into the fade and sneak past…
There are some concerns about the scale…
Gardener says he can hold “rot them” and hold them…
So they can “sprout in a new place”…
But will need “Her help”…
ADO: “What if we call she who shall not be named?”
Vadim: “Ivy?”
ADO: “SHE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED!”
Sorq suggests calling a meeting of accord with S’t’t’t’t’t…
And then pulling them into the Fade for a chat…
Ado goes to chat with the head weaver, Ruven…
Who is wrapping twine in and around…
Like a five-dimensional Rubic’s cube…
Sorq: “Ruven’s Cube”…
Ado: “What would make this interesting?”
Khad: “Because being high and watching a guy weave
a five-dimensional basket isn’t interesting enough”
Ado casts Plant Growth…
And gets picked up the head by an apple-smelling woman…
She says she can help…
We get ready to go…
Ellen-Dear drops a triple-fabricate for the caravan’s craftsmen…
Makes a pile of new saddles and fittings for the cavalry…
And wheels and struts for the wagons…
Arandyr heads west to scout the Thebanites…
They are camped out on bluffs to the west…entrenched…
Massive snake-muscled behemoths pounding on the sand…
Trying to summon some death worms…
She comes back dragging one of those drum-hammers…
Khut runs out looking for a way to flank the snakes to the north…
He runs full speed, sneakily, without rhythm…
And that hill starts to unwind…A giant tentacle…
sliding, sliding, sliding…beneath the sand…
Clearly the Thebanites are where they are to attract the thing…
Khut decides the best move is to shoot it…
MEANWHILE…
Sorq gives some regurgitated-ant-food to the minotaur cavalry…
Ado takes Ganbaatar out for a hunting trip to exercise the slithers…
They return empty-handed…
Squee gives them a little performance to boost their spirits…
Vadim and Khadagan cobble together some uber-drugs…
With the plan of tempting the snakes to jack our crazy minds…
(grants +3 bonus on checks to resist getting jacked by snakes)
(and makes the smoker bat-shit crazy)
And Khadagan raises some fungus zombies to reinforce our infantary…
Sorqutani walks out into the desert, spreads her arms wide…
The smell of lavender and apples wafts on the breeze…
The bees pour out of their hives…
Settling on her like black and gold armor…
In the distance, a farm-girl leans on a picket fence…
The sand erupts…ants swarming up a black-barked apple tree…
And strait into the Verge…
AND Sorq feels a sudden burning flash of cinnamon…
and her fingers burst into blue-white flames…
Khut shoots the worm…a mile long worm…and whistles for Littlewing…
“Exeunt pursued by sand kraken!”
We hit the road…moving fast on refitted wagons and beasts…
Altan humming happily amid bags and bags of looted treasure…
Khut comes flying in, the worlds biggest duststorm on his tail…
A massive thunderhead building…
Ado asks the Gray Lady if we can open the spire and let out the dead…
“They’ll need bodies…”
They can have ours when they fall…
Rust comes to Khadagan for black lotus on Gray Lady’s behalf…
The Caravan heads for the center of the Thebanite army…
Sand-devel cavalry on slithers…giant burly snakes with hammers…
Hoargrim sends our sand-devils out ahead to warn them that “its coming”…
Vadim shouts with the voice of the storm…
And throws down seven chunks of gold for the white-tent snakes…
“Take these if you wish to contact us in the future…”
WE CHARGE…and Vadim lights up a six-foot bong…
The cavalry are hit from behind by mind-controlled members of the caravan…
So the nohai scouts chow down on the traitors…
Their seven Phanin take over our cavalry’s inds…
We toke up and charge them…
Khut, still in the air, picks out S’t’t’t’t’t and shoots him in the head…
They start dancing, snaking and weaving through the sand…
S’t’t’t’t’t’s wounds start healing at an insanely rapid pace…
Sorq unleashes some fire…
Ado fires a warbler arrow into the air…which turns into a volley…
And death rains down en masse…
S’t’t’t’t yells “END IT” and our own cavalry charge us…
Vadim calls some lightning down on S’t’t’t’t’s head…
Suddenly Ado and Sorq are terrified…
AND Arandyr decides to kill Ado…
AND Squee decides it would be fun to drive Khadagan insane…
Khut: “I’m high and I’m angry! Come get some!”
And he leaps headlong off a Holy Mountain Beast’s nose…
And slaughters two of the priests wholesale…
Then Squee drops a pink tiara OF MADNESS on Khadagan…
Ellen-Dear rolls out four tiny metal figurines…
Which stand up, animate, and charge…
So do the bodies of the two dead priests…
And the beatings commence…
Arandyr misty-steps up and shiv’s Ado…
Right between the arm-pit, and he dies…unconvincingly…
She misses him again and again…
and finally believe’s he’s dead…
A second shot from Khut hits S’t’t’t’t right between the eyes…
Sorq steps up aaaand…PIXIES!
“I don’t super-charge, I make things bigger and longer…”
Ado locks down two of the remaining ones with a Hypnotic Pattern…
The gnawing pixies tear their attention away…
Vadim drops a lightning bolt on their heads…
Then stomps one down with his HMB…
Khadagan stands staring at the pretty colors…
Squee pokes him, fixes the tiara, and says “Kill something”…
AND he leaps on Ellen-Dear…to surprisingly little effect…
Arandyr sees Ado up and moving and starts stabbing some more…
Khad drops another one with an arrow in the eye…leaving one…
Sorq unleashes some more fire at the remaining one…
And a stray bolt of lightning from the storm finishes him off…
With the Phanin dead, our cavalry, in disarray, turn and rejoin us…
The Gray Lady and Rust do their thing…
The spire opens…
Golden light pours down from the sky…
Things stand up across the battlefield…
Golden marks on their foreheads, wings on their backs…
Their weapons shedding glowing light…
Accompanied by completely alien music…
(Western choral music)…
Meanwhile tentacles come slithering around the battlefield…
The warbler archers rain death on their cavalry…
And the spire opens again…and the glowing army grows…
Their infantry charges our cavalry, gets cut off by the shroom-zombies…
THEN The Kraken catches up to the fight…
The glowing armies of the spire turn and charge the Kraken…
They fly towards the kraken, reveling, screaming ancient cries…
Khut swings up onto littlewing’s back and divebombs it with a lance…
And gets backhanded and sent flying…
Littlewing (intelligent creature that she is) bugs out…
Our cavalry break through the lines and run for the mountains…
The Thaabanite slingers mow down our infantry as they follow…
Lightning begins to fall among the troops…
Vadim raises a wall of wind to cut off their archers…
Hoargrim and his stack break through and flee to higher ground…
The warblers mow down the Thaabanite cavalry…
The spire breaks through and their slingers run as well…
Their infantry smack down the warblers, then run…
The glowing angelic horde holds our back…


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

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

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

The Exodus: Session 20

Had a couple of weeks off from this game due to medical issues...
I apologize if it is even less coherent than the usual incoherence...

Cards:  Drowned River Thunderbird
        Chaos
        Plague among the Warblers
       
We surface out of a long-used-up mine shaft into the city
    Followed by hordes of frightened dwarven women and children
    Vadim flashes some House Surrin markers to some merchants
        We head towards the north gate (out and west)
    There is a Riot and a political gang-fight...
        Reds (fight the EC) vs. Blacks (open the gates and surrender)
    Breaks Like Wind scrys the Exarch's discussions...
        They realize they'd been conned hard-core...
            They begin mobilizing the golems to pursue us...
       
    Khadagan charges out of the caves into a pile of Reds...
        Pitches them into a slimy beast-trough with a big timber...
            Then whirlwinds as they close in...
    Khut finds a granary and decides to loot it...
        He swings up to the second floor...
        From his vantage he spots some female Pasht assassins on the roof...
        Ithunn starts giving him advice on how to hit on cats
            "Be confident, chicks love that..."
            But, with his deepest love talking to him he goes catatonic
    Ellen-Dear runs in and starts leading the dwarf refugees into the granary
        Squee organizes them to grab hay-bales...
            Loading them onto wagons...
                and the kids building forts out of the hay-bales...
    Ithunn stealths up and leaps over to chat with Pasht...
    Breaks Like Wind (still stoned) comes running in behind...
        Is stuffed unceremoniously into a wagon...
    THEN Sorqutani sets fire to the granary...
        Ado illusions up a horde of EC troops in the city...
            the riot stands in stunned silence...
    AND we kick open the doors of the granary and roll out of there...
   
THEN...

WE SPLIT THE PARTY
Ithun, Barruk, Ado, Ellen-Dear, and Khadagan lead the dworcs out of town

Khut, Sorq, Breaks, Vadim, Squee, and Iron-Dear head to the mercantile quarter
    Squee chews out the guard lieutenant and demands they open the gates...
        Khut makes the House Surrin markers appear in her back pocket...
            AND she flashes them...
        "What do we care what House Surrin says, the city is about to fall..."
        "We're going to run and save everyone we can...you should come along"
    They double-march lead us to the warehouses...
        We debate what to loot first...
        THEN a big palanquin hauled by flesh golems shows up...
            The Golems put the palanquin down and charge...
                Khut shoots the curtains off the palanquin...
                Sorq blasts flame at the golems...and lights them up...
                    One swings wildly at her, to no avail...
                    One starts sniffing around for Iron-Dear...but sucks...
                    the other two maul Vadim...
                        knock him through a window...into a burning building...
                Iron-Dear lights another one up...
            Khut rails the necromancer...
                the palanquin goes up in a gout of shadow and flame...
            Sorq and Iron-Dear light up the others...
            Breaks spots the invisible necromancer...
                and duels him mano-a-magical-mano...
                    countering his spells and blasting his ass...
            Vadim pulls out his reflective shield and sword...
                and stalks up to the necromancer...and misses...
                    the necromancer blasts him...
                        AND it bounces back and he kills himself...
            Squee drops a cloud of daggers on one...
                Khut blows the rune off and kills it very-very-dead...
            Sorq burns one down to its component atoms...
            Iron-Dear cuts the rune off the third burning golem...
            Vadim thorn-whips the last one into a burning building...
                Which collapses on him...
                    The golem stands up...
                        AND gets shot in the rune by Khut...
        We steal the beasts...
        Khut and Iron-Dear smash and grab the mages' guild...
            each comes out with two big bags of shinies...
                Cloak of Elvenkind
                Wand of the Warmage

We run for the gates...
    with 10 Blood War-beasts, pulling wagons...full of food!
        AND Khut is riding a ???
            AND makes himself scarce...
    We reach the north gate to kind Ithunn playing soccer with a golem's head...
        The rest of the golem hangs from the portculis, upside down, headless...
            AND everyone else playing pinata with it...
                AND Khadagan is now wielding a portculis...
        Apparently they told the Northern Gond that they would hold the gate...
            and sent the Northern Gond to the square to get reinforcements...
                AND the gonds in the square take control of the city...

AND we head out, booking it for the salt flats...
    Malik lead the way in the vanguard...
    Nohai scouts circle us....
    Blood warbeasts and holy mountain beasts in the center...
    The Gray Lady and the maggot-folk follow near the center...
        The core forming a tight academic community...
            Trying to assemble a portable replica of the golemworks...
    The warblers are sick...their eggs shells are brittle...
        Khadagan moves in and starts nursing them back to health...with vigor...
   
AS WE TRAVEL...
    Breaks dedicates himself to the mirrors...
        Watching for threats from the Fade...
            Which are clearly bleeding into reality through a nasty hole...
    Squee runs for Hulagu, finding supplies, apportioning rations...
        Helping the refugees get acclimated to life in the Ordu...
    Ithunn starts a witch-hunt for possible assassins...
        Finds some funny-dressed steppefolk and joins them for dinner...
            Vadim almost hits on them...
                Apparently he bathes in mares-milk...
            Iron-Dear points out their yellow eyes...totally NOT steppefolk...
        AND Ithunn and the Pasht start some kung-fu cat-fighting...
            Khut, lurking, is terribly turned-on...
            The rest of the cats fall asleep by the fire...
                The Catgirl leader introduces herself as Mrin of the Mountain...
        AND Squee appears out of nowhere "It's a kitty!"
    Vadim works with Broketooth and Gormak to mount fireworks on spears...
        Giving some anti-archer capability to our infantry...
    We all go talk to the Gray Lady to tell her about the skystone...
        Vadim tries to hook her up with Ellen-Dear...
        Khut, scorched, offers to smuggle her in to see the skystone...
            Vadim "Why are you on her side, she can't even breed!"
            Ellen-Dear "Oh, she can breed!"
        Khut explains the encounter in the skystone...asks to see her library...
            Also, he looks very very burned...
                And his yurt starts skittering away...
                    He runs back to catch it...or what he his in there...
        Ado asks about invoking Ohrmazd Bay...
            She suggests talking to the Malik Magi...
        Khadagan chats with her about herbalism...
            He offers her some black lotus...she accelerates the potato harvest...
    Ellen-Dear starts discussing golem-craft with the Dworcs...
    Barruk and Gan'baatar starts breaking the Malik up into squads of 25...
        Training them in group-combat (non-Champion) tactics...
            With Gan'baatar training them to incorporate Holy Mountain Beasts...
        Which makes Hoargrim Whiteman really happy...
            He nicknames them "The Iron Gorgons"...
                Because Malik on Blood Warbeasts charging as a unit is awesome...
    Iron-Dear takes some time getting to know the caravan...
        Then goes scouting with the Nohai...
            Whoever is out there is exremely good...but she has their number...
            As the rocks change to salt-flats...
                There is _something_ out there...
                    And its not just heat-shimmer...That ground is moving...
    Ado removes all adornments...cakes himself in mud and dust...
        Sits outside the camp with a broken warbler egg...
            And entreats the Lord of Light and Life (Ohrmazd Bay)...
                Going so far as to mortify himself with a cursed arrow...
                "Against evil from outside and to secure victory in war"
        The desert heat bakes down...
            All he can see is the searing white light...
                As he passes out...
                    He realizes he can see a patch of blackness against the sand...
                    Then realizes that he is looking at something pure white...
                    And the sand is made black...
                He has caught the attention of a spirit of pure white light...
   
Iron-Dear comes back into the camp...
    with a tattered bedraggled warbler...cradling a dead baby...
        and they both say "LOOK UP!"
AND it's the biggest thunderbird we've ever seen...
    Khut quick-shoots it and pushes it away from the herds...
    Sorqutani calls on the fire mother and blasts it with a witch bolt...
        drawing its attention...
            It dives and grabs Khut...
        The thing...was clearly a thunderbird...at one point...
            But has black feathers and stiched-shut eyes like an EC Warbler...
    Khut stabs it in the foot...It drops him...
        And he is snagged out of the air by a Juvenile Thunderbird...
            HIS NEW FRIEND
    Ithunn leaps 60 feet into the air...
        grabs Khut's ankles...gets flipped towards the bird...
            grabs a wing and wrenches, causing it to lose serious altitude...
                and proceeds to beat it out of the sky with her tusks...
        WHERE Vadim ropes it with a steel cable...and lashes him to a wagon...
    Barruk leaps on an exploding outhouse...
        Onto the head of the blackcrow-thunderbird...
            And SMITES it...and SMITES it again...with the sound of rolling thunder...
    Ellen-Dear fires an acid arrow strait in its teeth...
        Melting the bindings holding its mouth and eyes shut...
            And its eyes are completely black lifeless pools...
    Khadagan leaps in with the claws...and tears its lungs off...
        And Squee viciously mocks it...
    Breaks tells everyone not to kill it...
        Then looks more carefully...
            points out that it is not undead...just soul-less...
                Decides that its not a thunderbird...
                    Touches its forehead...and kills it...

Khut flies back to his yurt and tucks in his little friend (Littlewing)...
    Then walks back to the downed Fade-Bird, cuts off a chunk, and chows down...
Ellen-Dear starts researching turning it into a Golem...
Hundreds of Dust marks the bird as unclean to keep the nohai off...
    AND she and Khadagan return to their tent to get it on...
   
We have a long chat about whether or not to head into the salt flats...

We head north into the salt-flats to meet the Fade-turned Old Empirers...
    Everyone vanishes [Nat-20 Stealth plus Pass without Trade]...
        Ripclaws (and Littlewing) circling silently overhead...
    Except Barruk...who walks alone through the desert...
            Bearing the standard of the West†
                † golden pole topped with a double-headed ripclaw...
    We come upon a crater...
        In which there is a black Gith...with shining black teeth...
            Emanating a miasma of darkness...bearing a sword of liquid starlight...
    Barruk plants the standard and faces him...alone?
        The Gith greets him in clipped, cultured, High Malik...
        Barruk makes...confused...complicated introductions...
            He introduces himself as "The Fifth Blade of Shan-yu"
                Well known as the general who won the greatest, most mismatched battles of all of military history. Beating armies of 200K with an army of only 30K. Burried another alive. More than 2000 years ago.
            Apparently he is digging up the burried army...
                The ground around him is swarming with salt-zombies...
                And there are a lot more just on the other side in the fade...
        Vadim stands up out of the sand...covered in fur...and asks...
            "Do you breed?"
                Nope...they are "Faded"...they are gone...
                    But their memory can still impact this world...
        Squee appears and asks "Can I have a tooth?!"
        Khut presents the Sulde of the Altan Ordu...
            Which apparently hurts his brain...an empty place in his mind...
    We negotiate...and offer them the city of Ahura Mazda in exchange for their salt
        The Gray Lady (who came with us)...switches to old imperial...
            And asks for the opportunity to discuss philosophy with them...
                Offering the knowledge of an ancient kingdom
                To trade for knowledge "that your folk alone possessed"
            Vadim - "I'm glad I hit the shit-house and not the library last night"
        Squee, convinced the Gith cannot see or hear her, scrambled up him...
            Trying to steal a tooth...
                Iron-Dear tries to grab her...fails...
                Breaks cuts a mirror off the top of his hat and presents it to her...
                    She refuses...
                Iron-Dear tries to put her to sleep...fails...
            She climbs him, trying as hard as she can to extract his teeth...
                But it just doesn't work...
            She bangs on his head...and he doesn't even notice...
            THEN she steals his sword...or tries...
                She touches it...grips it for a moment...
                    But knows that if she unsheathed it...she would have no future...
                        The sword apparently severs you from the Verge...
            And she goes back to desperately trying to pry a tooth out...

    AND We've offered them a city...