The Stonebound Monk, Part 3
Characters
- Chase Rombek, a Mystical Nano who Sees Beyond, played by Frank
- Jak, a Mutant Glaive who Constantly Evolves, played by Craig
- Glyquorg, an Exiled Jack who Controls Animals, played by Andy
- Elehar, a Tough Glaive who Rages, played by Scott
- Ralyx, a Mlox Jack who Throws with Deadly Accuracy, played by Marc
Non-Player Characters of Note
- Khavi, Ex-Tribal Leader whose flesh was melded into a Hontri
Summary
The trip from Nihliesh to the Ice Wall was just
over two-hundred miles and fortunately for the determined bounty hunters of the
Broken Mask, there were only twenty miles left in the trek. It was morning, and for the last several days
the team traversed a large plateau while journeying to the southern
mountains. Despite the common
misconception that the Matheunis Cold Desert was a snow-covered landscape, the
material that covered the plateau, while having the general consistency of
snow, upon further examination was more like ground glass, ash, and drit. When the winds picked up, the “desert snow”
would blast the travelers, getting into their eyes and under their garments,
causing terrible itching and discomfort.
It was a miracle that anyone could cross the Cold Desert even with the proper
equipment.
Of course, the fact that the party found a
wandering Mlox carpenter just sitting by a failed campfire on the last morning
of their trip was quite astounding. The
“man” (a Mlox is a mechanical brain encased in an organic body) was a jovial
sort, good natured and quite affable, but he was terribly lost. His name was Ralyx, and he explained that he
was from somewhere in the Steadfast and that he was terrible with
directions. He was from Navarene… or
Thaemor… actually he wasn’t sure about that last part. After a brief discussion, the Unmasked
Seekers agreed that having an extra set of hands in the group, especially those
that were exceptionally skilled at woodcraft and throwing large objects, would
be a good thing.
Stretching out ahead of the party was their last
twenty miles, but this would be their most difficult portion of the trek. After descending from the southern edge of
the plateau there was a long stretch leading right up to the base of the Ice
Wall, and this stretch was completely flat, save for the crevasses that lined
the frozen plain. Fatoosh had warned the
party to stay out of the crevasses, and from the long, carved caverns came
wailing and moaning, “screams of the damned” that echoed across the plain. Although the Unmasked Seekers hoped that the
sounds were merely a natural occurrence, an acoustic effect, deep within their
souls they knew this not to be the case.
“Something” was making these sounds… something living. But the trip across the plain did not look at
all comforting. Every so often a
horrible wind would blast across the flat surface, scouring all that lay in its
path. Knowing that the material on the
ground, the desert snow, was already an irritating material when swept at a few
dozen miles-per-hour, the thought of this substance being whipped at a
hurricane force wind towards the party was absolutely terrifying. Luckily, Fatoosh had crafted the special
tents for the bounty hunters, and these devices would end up saving their
lives.
Slowly, the team guided their snowlopers across
the plain, careful to keep an eye out for a squall. It would only be an hour before the first unforgettable
micro-gale would tear into the travelers.
Elehar, aware of the conditions of the Cold Desert, had an uncanny
feeling of impending danger, and quickly dismounted before the storm hit, while
Ralyx’s improved perception thanks to his third eye allowed him to see the
blowing drit while it was still several hundred feet away. Unfortunately Chase and Jak were not so
lucky. While the Mlox and Tough Glaive
fell to the ground and started setting up their storm tent, the former Aeon
Priest and Mutant turned to face the storm and were immediately blasted by
shards of the desert snow. The howling
wind tore at their clothes and their skin, and after just a few moments, any
flesh that was exposed was ripped away and added to the squall’s mass of
material. Chase was flung several dozen
feet behind the rest of the party, the force of the wind lifting the nano as if
he were a leaf. Jak eventually set up
their storm tent, and not wanting to be affected by the weather again, Chase
used his personal environment field to protect himself while out in the
open. Both snowlopers tucked themselves
into long, aerodynamic tubes, and faced the blasting wind. Apparently these creatures were already used
to this kind of storm.
The Unmasked Seekers seemed to have this
challenge licked until Elehar made a slight error in judgment. Hoping to better secure the storm tent in
which he and Ralyx were taking cover, the Tough Glaive tied one of the spikes
off to the Mlox and not to the tent itself.
A whip of wind caught the tent at just the right angle, and the cover
flew off into the sky. At this point
Chase was making his way towards his tent when he saw a terrifying sight. Ralyx was lying on the ground, holding on
with all of his might to a pair of fifty foot long ropes, each secured to the
storm tent which was now flying like a kite.
Attached to the storm tent kite was a certain
glaive, blowing in the gale with a look of absolute glee on his face. Despite being in terrible peril, this didn’t
faze Elehar whatsoever; in fact, he was having a terrific time at first. This was not the case for Ralyx. The poor Mlox [whose player rolled two consecutive “2’s”] was screaming in agony,
his bare arms outstretched into the wind while he tried desperately to hold on
to storm tent and his fellow party member.
The squall tore much of the skin from both of his arms, at some points
down to the bone. Help came from out of
nowhere, as Chase charged across the blowing sands and grabbed the ropes. The nano and jack started pulling the glaive
back to the ground, and once they succeeded the entire team returned to their
former positions. At the end of the
storm the party quickly patched themselves up and continued on their quest.
Despite several more storms that would flare up,
now that they knew what they were looking for the Unmasked Seekers were much
better prepared. Setting up their tents
was a breeze, and since Chase’s personal environment field would function for a
full twenty-eight hour day, the nano was in charge of securing the devices and
their occupants to the ground. By the
end of the day the party was within a mile of the Ice Wall, and they got their
first look of the structures that were near the Icebourne Monastery.
The Ice Wall, a terrific mountain range that
separated the south pole of the Ninth World from the Beyond, was over
four-thousand feet high at this point in the range, and this staggering
increase was initially at a near vertical slope. The monastery was clearly visible; an opaque
dome situated around fifteen hundred feet up the wall. Just below the dome, at five hundred feet in
elevation, were a series of pillars or obelisks. At the base was an abandoned encampment. As the party approached, Elehar recognized
some of the banners surrounding the old camp as those of Khavi, leader of a
rival tribe of southern nomads. Khavi’s
tribe splintered from Elehar’s, seeking the great “Sky Kings.” She was charismatic but mad, and had a
zealous following. Still, entering the
camp, it seemed like the tribe was nowhere to be found, and had vacated the
camp roughly three months before. There
were a few trinkets and a hidden artifact amongst the abandoned encampment, but
no bodies. There were, however,
thousands of bones that formed a path up from the camp towards the spires and
monoliths five-hundred feet ahead.
Although the Ice Wall was nearly vertical when one reached the domed
monastery, the first leg of the trip was at a difficult but manageable
forty-five degrees. And the bones formed
the first path.
Since it was late, the party set up camp and
spent the night listening to the howling winds as they whipped across the mountain
range. The jagged structure of the Ice
Wall protected the travelers from the terrible desert snows, and it was an
uneventful evening. But the morning
brought a foreboding warning. Ralyx was
on the last watch, and he was admiring a planet in the sky: Venus. The Mlox followed the wandering planet like
the North Star, which is pretty much one of the reasons why he was always so
terribly lost. When a giant bird form,
nearly fifty feet across, eclipsed the bright speck in the sky however, Ralyx
freaked out. He woke the rest of the
team, but after several moments scanning the skies, the seasoned bounty hunters
just shrugged and decided to break camp.
Chase feared that walking on the bones would be a
bad omen, and advised that the crew ascended through some of the rocky
outcroppings. Glyquorg, who had been
quiet for much of the trek [GM’s note,
Andy wasn’t able to make the game] was commanded to guard the snowlopers
since they wouldn’t be able to travel off the path at such a severe grade. When
the Unmasked Seekers were close to the obelisks, they noticed that they were
massive, several foot wide structures of rusted rebar that jutted out from the
ground towards the sky. Each of the
dozen or so pieces was sheared off at the top, and ground at the base was
covered with a mixture of rust and massive gobs of white avian feces.
Chase wanted to examine the bases of the rebar
obelisks, and moved between the structures.
The nano was pleased when he found a hidden passage that led into the
face of the mountain, and was just about to open the doorway when a large
shadow appeared in the sky. Ralyx jumped
for joy, thrilled that his machine mind hadn’t gone mad, as a pair of enormous
Hontri, massive birds of prey capable of lifting a man right off the ground
with their talons, appeared. One of the
birds landed on a piece of the rebar, and from its chest the party witnessed a
horrifying sight. A face, which Elehar
believed to be Khavi, was sticking out of the bird’s feathery flesh, and a
voice groaned with pleasure:
“Elehar, come join us… join the Sky Kings… it’s
so nice in here.” With that, the two
birds began to swoop down upon a seemingly tasty lunch.
As Chase dodged one of the birds, running back to the party, Elehar and Ralyx acted fast. The tough glaive struck the diving bird as it flew past, carving a large slice out of its wing. Then the Mlox jack pulled a small, fleshy device that appeared to be a cross between a fruit and a spleen and lobbed it at the passing target. When it exploded, the distress detonation forced the Hontri onto the ground, where it heaved relentlessly, gagging up its last several meals. Within moments Elehar was charging up behind the beast, carving away with his greatsword while the poor monster could do little to defend itself. Chase and Jak worked on the other bird-of-prey, the nano focusing onslaughts of fiery light towards the creature while Jak’s piercing arrows peppered the soaring hunter. Neither of the birds were able to do much against the party. The Unmasked Seekers decided that day to not be fused into the bodies of the Hontri, and slaughtered the flying creatures with little regard for the poor souls trapped therein.
Quotes
"I think for this entire campaign, my goal is to follow Marc…" - Frank was already toying with Marc's character's issue with directions.
"He was trying to find someplace warm, and this is where he ended up… he just picked the wrong damn direction." - Marc explaining Ralyx's wayward travels.
"We don't want to be the next ones moaning!" - Chase had no interest in the crevasses.
Jim (GM): "Any order of watch?"
Marc: "Andy has volunteered to stay up all night."
Ralyx: "But the bird thing!"
Elehar: "Keep an eye out for it."
Rakyx: *whisper* I've been keeping an eye out for it...
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