Drago and Sparticus sit outside the Mercer Mansion, while MAGE has locked himself inside with the Nymph he is now utterly smitten with.
MAGE renews his human feelings, long since kept dormant by the inhuman effects of being bonded to an Eye of Eylor, and after hearing strange noises from within the Mansion, Drago and Sparticus decide to speek to Valen as an excuse to vacate the area of noise.
Valen and his followers grow ever the more agitated, muttering about how Kymnarkmar must deliver them from this muddy earth to the Temple of the Tree which is rightfuly theirs to claim. Suddenly, the earth shakes, and a distant hallo of light can be seen to approach… The followers fall to their knees enraptured, at the approach of…
Null in his Behemoth Explorer Robot!
Must of Valens followers have never seen such a robot before and are gazing up at it in wonder from their kneeling positions, while Valen begins murmoring frantic prayers to Kymnarkmar.
Drago sees this as the opportunity they were hoping for, to deliver the pilgrims back to their Temple of the Tree, in the safety of Null’s robot. They load the Villagers into the Behemoth’s cargo hold, while angry commuters honk at the blockage of the ENTIRE road by the enourmous robot vehicle. Sparticus silences the most annoying horns with his powers while drago sternly tells motorists to “DRIVE AROUND”. They do this somewhat, leaving deep ruts dug into the Mercer estate front lawn. (see Mercer estate post for current property damage list to the estate since MAGE moved in!)
Valen grumbles that his followers should have as many weapons and armor suits as possible before the dangerous voyage. In the hold a view of the followers becomes clear. They sit uneasily in the cargo hold, as the Adventurers watch them interact with Valen. A poor bunch, they currently still only have rags and sticks.
Currently his forces are divided into 3 groups of 25 each. Valen calls them his “Kmnarkmar’s claws”
Tiri Claw(bright) is lead by Brother Rockwell the overweight former Ortonville Inn owner. It consists mainly of desperate patrons of Rockwell’s inn who lost everything when it burned.
Ohtar Claw (warrior) is lead by the pale-skinned Brother Gerome . It seems to consist of 5 of his male cousins and 19 other trashy relatives of Gerome, a twisted inbred bush of a family tree for sure. Gerome often is heard being yelled at by one more more females of the clan. While he is around near constant screams of “WE NEED MORE FORMULA” or “SUSYQ’s OUT OF DIAPERS, AGAIN” come from the many baby laden females of the clan. Gerome mutters something apologetic to the woman and after running his hand through his rapidly thinning hair, wanders off in search of a means to meet her demands.
Tinechor Claw (sheild) is lead by Sister Agatha. A tough old woman and trapper.
The claw symbols are a star, a fist and a shield. They will attempt to charcoal these onto their uniforms. Currently have sticks, crude clubs, and sharpened hardened wood spears.
The leaders are all very obviously learning to be 1st Level priests from Valen. They constantly follow him around while their followers nervously regard each other. Valen preaches at them about the qualities of following Kymnarkmar’s wisdom to true enlightenment. Gerome keeps asking about luck, Rockwell asks when they are settling down, and Agatha mentions that the woman and children will not be able to travel far or quickly and that they should plan for this.
The rest of the unlisted followers are 1-2nd level Vagabond OCC turned Dragonwright Disciples.
Since they have no food for the followers, Drago had planned on going hunting with the guide Bender who Drago paid 500 credits to lead them. 20 miles outside of town they stop and go hunting. Sparticus is too noisy and Bender laughs at him (no prowl skill) and tells him to get back.
They hunt a bit and after killing a deer find 2 Demonic owls who attack them! Bender is turned against Drago with Psionics and emptys his particle beam rifle into Drago’s back before clumsily trying to strike him with a sword. Drago gets Luck cursed by the fiends before Null is able to net one. The netted one starts Bio-manipulation Agonying drago, who engages the other Demon while writhing in pain. Drago holds one off while everyone else eventually succumbs to Bio-manipulation, dropping what weapons they have from numb arms.
Finally drago beats the one in front of him down enough with the Indian Fetish Spear until it flees. But not before it rips Drago’s beloved Gem from his chest. Uncloaked and unable to remain transformed forever now, Drago thinks retreat is a tempting option. They decide to grab what weapons they dropped with Drago’s tail (since all had paralyzed arms!), and then they flee back to the Behemoth Robot-vehicle. It plods to Treetown without any problems.
Arriving at Treetown finds the temple in further disarray.
Where the Tree was blasted with the suitcase, is a scorched area clear of vegetation, but everywhere else it seems that the forest has overgrown everything in sight! Sparticus uses his electricity scanning powers to detect the mines and then explodes them with telekinesis. One damages a side of the church. There are still numerous mines inside the church which Sparticus can detect but not disarm safely. Valen uses his stone magic and creates a simple barracks for his followers next to the church ruins.
Drago sees a Yema in the ruins of the church, it casts a spell of strange swirling lights over the area. The Yema Mesmurizes most of the followers and Drago and Null manage to fight it off while Sparticus stands in awe of the pretty lights (failed save). Drago and null beat on it to no avail for awhile before Drago torches it with his firebreath. After it stops moving they hear a sonic boom in the distance…
Entering the church hits Drago with another Mine. Sparticus doesn’t think he should explode the mines he defiantly still sense in the church interior living quarters (Ronan’s church quarters is mined). So he leaves them for later…
Updated church description:
Steep black roof blown off at about 50′ up, it ends 30′ early in a jagged charred hole. The entire inside of the main hall of worship is covered in leaves and rainwater puddles. The ornately carved pillars have been damaged, and painted on pillar is “d-bees suck”. Of the four dragons out front, not much but rubble remains. The entire front entrance has collapsed. furnished dining halls intact in back (Narthex mined, ruined), quarters for the four priests of Dragonwright (intact in basement, mined), Fine Rooms north of parlor 1-3 destroyed (Ronan’s #4 in basement mined, 5-6 intact in basement), as well as meditation room(empty Sacristy) - and rooms for specific ceremonies (bapistry, sanctuary) full of destroyed remnants of candles)
The Temple of the Tree, parlor, transept, tower are all destroyed.
The church is haunted by haunting entities who have taken on the form of the slain Larnac children (killed when the Coalition raided Treetown while the adventurers were gone).
The ghosts especially accuse the living of not saving them and letting them die. (empathic transmission save against horror!)
The followers will begin cleaning up the outside of the church first, leaving Valen to weep inside about the destruction. Soon a small shanty town is put up around the burnt remnants of the old Larnac huts. It looks very pathetic in its current state.
The 75 original Ortonvillagers Valen recruited live in the 2 Barracks buildings he creates with stone magic.
The 10 additional followers Valen recruited while in Tolkeen live outside in a shanty town near the burnt Larnac huts.
Drago arms the followers with the case of C-14’s he teleported back to the Tree earlier. He also gives Agatha a vibro-sword.
SUDDENLY, THERE IS A DEEP RUMBLING FROM THE EAST, AND THE SKY THERE…DIMMS ALOMST TO BLACKNESS. IT IS CLEAR THE RUMBLING APPROACHES, AS DOES THE DARKNESS!
45 seconds later the blackness is upon the camp. Drago is caught outside trying to rescue followers. Valen manages to get all 75 of the Ortonvillagers inside, and Drago saves 4 of the Tolkeenite followers, but 6 perish in the blackness… Sparticus is also caught outside and lapses into a coma (-10hp). Drago is only able to raise him from 10 hours later with the aide of many “Light healing” incantations. Sparticus is not quite the same after the near-death encounter…
It seems buildings created by Valen are somehow blessed and resist the black energy which drains life from all it touches.
Drago notices nothing but plants and lower lifeforms seems to live in the path of the blackness.
Drago goes into the forest and collects a vast pile of carcasses which he packs into a ditch lined with ice created with walls of ice. While gathering he sees a dead indian brave outside their camp.
The people are fed for now from vast stores of chilled meat, but the adventurers worry about just how wide the destruction was.. Drago teleports back to Tolkeen to warn King Creed but is coldly handled by his bureaucracy and after failing to gain a direct audience, Drago files a “apololypse 2-B” form with the receptionist and teleports back to the Temple of the Tree.
Shortly after the blackness recedes, a small swarm of Xiticix warriors descend on the camp. Drago and Sparticus blow them up with grenades and recoilless rockets.
Current missing/inactive party Status and Location:
MAGE: holed up in Mercer estate with Nymph. Will not come out or talk to any one.
Ronan: Gone on mysterious Cyber-knight buisness.
Dameon: Visiting “some stripclub” in south Tolkeen (gambling and whoring away pay)
Active party PCs and NPCs & XP:
Sparticus the Ex-con 3rd Level Zapper (5501 needs 8251) +75 skills, +50 clever but futile idea of neurostriking demon owls, 600 xp crital plan which saves lives (disabling 3 mines with TK/sense electricity),+100 daring engagement of Demon Owls after witnessing their abilities +100 aiding in driving off demon owl, +350 heroics against black death +50 zapping Yema +100 killing Xiticix (6926 needs 8251) Sparticus now has the insanity “Can not tell the truth” due to his near-death experience. (rolled randomly!)
Null the recent 3rd Level Techno-wizard College Graduate(8875) +175 skills, +100 heroic action driving followers to Temple of the Tree,+500 plan which saved lives of large group (Transporting them did this, ooc) +50 netting demon owl +50 playing in character (fleeing after arms are paralyzed),+50 stomping yema (9800, needs 18401) Null is now a 4th Level Technowizard, with 1 Level of real life experience! His resume is looking better.
Drago the 6th Level Great Horned Dragon Hatchling (30846 needs 50000) +125 skills, +25 clever idea digging followers latrines, +50 good judgment notifying King Creed of impending crisis, +100 playing in character rp, +500xp plan to shove all villagers into barracks against impending black energy wave saving their lives, +25 destroying yema +100 killing Xiticix +500 bed heroics +100 arming Kymnarkmar Claw Leaders with C-14s and Vibrosword(32371 needs 50000) Drago is currently Luck-cursed by the lingering dark magic of the Demon Owl. He is also still cursed with Hypochondria.
Valen & Torgo Valen is the leader of the following forces, Torgo acts as his warlord.
Brother Rockwell armed with Cudgel, C-14, 12grenades 1 long eclip, rags
Brother Gerome armed with walking stick, C-14, rags
Sister Agatha armed with knife, steaks, mallet, C-14, Vibrosword
69 other orton villagers Dragonwright followers
6 Recent convert Tolkeen Dragonwright followers
(7 followers have died this adventure, 4 from black death 3 from Xiticix)
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