Savage Worlds: Clockwork - Season 2 - Session 2
The Daunting Excursion to Dread Island, Part Two
12/16/2013
Journal Date: April 16th, 1898
Cast: Lady Selene Eva Thana (Eternal Noble), Reginald Thistlethorpe (Psychic Medium), Nigel Loring (Hunter/Adventurer/Explorer), Fangzhi (Wudang Initiate)
Notable NPC’s: Captain Oswald Chance, Piter Hess (Deck Hand), Kago the Greater, Zombie Master, 19969
Plot Summary:
With the enemy ornithopter pilot lassoed by Fangzhi, the party closed in on the flying machine ready to interrogate. Fang noticed the pilot was not obviously armed, however he was manipulating something in his mouth. Quickly the Wudang Initiate moved to grab the pilot's mouth, but even with Nigel's help the pilot bit down on a poison capsule and started to foam at the mouth. Before he crossed over to oblivion, however, Fang's zen mastery went to work. The martial artist pulled the pilot from the aircraft and started to work on his Ch'i. After a brief round of energy work and acupuncture the pilot returned from death's door, although he still required more medicine to be completely free of the poison's effects. It was around this time that the party was approached by the natives of the island. Appearing as a cultural mixture of both Asia and Africa, the strange pidgin dialect of the natives was quite difficult to comprehend. Surprisingly to the party, though, was that the leader of the dozen or so tribesmen was able to almost fully comprehend Lady Thana's words, but just wasn't able to speak in her language. Reginald's linguistic skills allowed him to start picking up the language of the natives, and the party agreed to return with them back to their village, Tanaroa. Before leaving the crash site, though, Captain Chance disabled both the machine gun and the ornithopter, so that it couldn't fall into enemy hands again.
At Tanaroa village, after an hour or so of walking, Reginald's abilities came to fruition. The master of languages was able to speak easily with the natives, and started interpreting for the rest of the party. The leader of the "Hawk Clan" of Tanaroans was Kago the Greater. Kago was happy for the party's arrival, and even happier that they brought a sacrifice: a bird man. Bird Man was what the Tanaroans called the ornithopter pilots, and Kago told the party that these devils of the sky commonly killed his people and kin on the southeastern peninsula of the island. He offered shelter and haven, however his price was the life of the Bird Man who would need to be sacrificed to the "Those of the Deep", servants of the Deep Gods who dwelled beneath the waves. According to Kago, the Deep Gods were just as troublesome as the Bird Men. Reginald told Kago that his team needed to speak with the Bird Man, but agreed and swore a blood oath that he could later be used as a sacrifice.
To help heal the pilot of his poison induced coma, Kago brought forth the Zombie Master, the medicine man of Tanaroa village. While Fang worked on the Ch'i energy that remained in the pilot, the Zombie Master poured a strange blood concoction straight into the neck of the enemy combatant, which brought him back to a semi-lifelike state. Interrogating the pilot was difficult. Luckily for the party, the sweet voice of the resident dhampyr Lady Thana reminded the pilot of a wife that he believed he had, and so he was a bit more forthcoming than he should have been. The party was able to make out that his name was 19969, and that he was a member of Obscura. He was under a vow to never speak of his activities, but he was able to say that "Obscura" would know that he was "compromised" since he had crashed and was captured. He stated that he could not speak anymore because the penalty of breaking a vow was that his family would be horribly subjected to fates worse than death. He spoke of forced transformations into other creatures and entities, and did not wish this fate for the family that he left behind. The party was able to trick him though into believing that he was already breaking the vow, and offered a few words of comfort that they would try and get to his family. Without thinking the pilot told the party that he had departed from an island in the west, and described the island a bit before being overcome by guilt and emotion.
Kago would meet with Reginald again before the sacrifice, and would give the party some information about the interior of the island. He claimed that the natural resources of the island cluster were far richer in the depths of the jungle and hills to the north, and that he often led scouting parties into this area. He spoke of a path that would take the characters to a small lake, but warned of "cat-men" savages who claimed an area just north of the lake. Asked about anything falling from the sky, he did remember that there was an amazing cluster of shooting stars two weeks prior, which he saw from a small hilltop near the northern lake. He marked on the party's map the locations of three crash sites where these stars fell to the Earth.
The sacrifice was brutal but quick. 19969 was lowered into a large ceramic urn with a live snake. Once he stopped thrashing, he urn was sealed, and then thrown into the sea to the east of the village in order to appease the Deep Gods. Reginald, one of the "Others from the Sky" was hailed as a friend and was presented with Head Taker, a special zulu short spear designed for decapitation. The party would settle in for the evening, and awake the next morning ready to head to the southern-most crash site in hopes of rescuing the crashed vessel from Mars.
Quotes:
“That’s an aircraft?” - Frank didn’t like Jim’s drawing
“I will bring you the ‘zombie master!’” - Kago ominously found the Tanaroa village’s version of McDreamy.
“The first rule of vow club is...” - Brian knows all about vow club
“What good is sacrificing a bird man if it doesn’t keep Nessie away for a while.” - Reginald made a good point.
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