Scenes to Come

The Medium-sized staff with the Cracked Crystal Pendant on the top becomes a vital tool. The wizard's staff must be retrieved from a ruptured onion dome in the abandoned wizard city. On the slopes of the mountainside, the jungle overgrowing and encroaching it. A particular wizards tower where Alfang hid the staff in a stasis-lock box. Once pulled out, it has a limited time of usefulness. The air elemental bound inside it (O-Thond) can carry them to the mountain for one trip. ((*Lifting the mammoths across the chasm they must cross, *powering the wind-wagon *powering/lifting the sky sled)) In the ruined city they must play cat and mouse with the faceless shriekers.

Works

***Golden-throated Mammoths: 3 Gold-furred Mammoths with 'Dazzle' breath attack, like a miniature sun in their throats which temporarily incapacitates. ***Phased Guardians Battle: Part of the process which has been playing out for the last 3000 years is the grappling battle between a mysterious dragon-beast and the 3 guardian-golums/automatons (Vis re: figures on gaudi church) across the plain of the valley. Every so often, the spectral display erupts: the beings phase into view throwing energies at each other, heat, lightning, pummeling. An endless stalemate between a creature of the crystal ship and the wardens of it. A battle which destroyed the mage-city/outpost and which the wardens are slowly losing. Knowledge/Data-dump of Bosun (Alfang) Knowledge of his life/story fleshed out: Last of the Mogari? Able to spin rudimentary illusions around himself at will for disguise/concealment. He has been in and out of the port city repeatedly. His advanced race kept the creatures on the Island until they failed to keep them all locked up. Waiting for help which never came? Concealing them in this alternate dimension? Alfang's mistake led to destruction of the others and the mage-outpost. Searing guilt. He has a mental block which prevents him from knowing what it is, a safeguard. He is aware it is something monstrous and powerful though. When he knew he was dying, in order to hopefully leave the arrowheads and knowledge to the right warriors, he deliberately went to the corpse tree to deposit himself. He had left knowledge in the minds of Damiel and Butterscotch about this. He has 3 arrowheads on his person, which can subdue creatures and sedate/tame them.(mammoths) His armor and gear were once very fine. Necklace of medallion bearing two twined snakes. He also has passwords to get past causeway defenses, knowledge of broken domed mage city (faceless shriekers and elemental wizard staff). His knowledge leads to the opening of strategy choices for how to proceed deeper into the island. *Ride/tame mammoths *Use cracked crystal staff to power wind wagon across dangerous large, grassy plain(battle with burrowing lycanthropes) Wind-wagon has wizards platform for distance attack *Archer's sled/sky glider chariot. Also powered by air elemental staff.(Battle with gliding membranous rock-hoppers which use echolocation) Staff has limited power once activated. They must decide the relative pros and cons of each option. A large chasm must be crossed, which land methods would make difficult. Retrieving the Fusilier's Lance.(are they being manipulated into retrieving it so that it can escape?) A key to further actions. MF wants it to escape his rock-crypt. (Lich? Necromancer? Undead Sorcerer King?) Item is described as a weapon which fires lightning of incredible heat. A softly sculpted, molded organic looking object. Like bones. They must retrieve this object to ultimately reach MF and kill it. **Introduction of Gnome-Barbarian and baroque seashell castle on his back. Magic gnats have heal all wounds potion, to be introduced at critical moment. **Other Oddities: Dwarf fused with boulder of precious metal and rock** Large herd of strange beasts crossing their path** Occasional giant butterflies/insects** The sun warping into a 2-orb phenomenon, light bent between.** Colony of the mad** Booby traps** Random magic items** *Make plans for wizard city* Sketch out stats for mammoths and rock-hoppers (snow-ghouls riders?)* More backstory for Alfang*

SO FAR

The heroes have rendezvoused at the major port of the Noortjen Empire, Jun-Ree, and contracted passage to Akan aboard the vessel Kerriak with Captain Slovodon. He is a motley dressed pirate. Something off about him. He keeps a small menagerie. A phased dimensional being called the Mumphorgor: 7 feet tall, two sets of black eyes, white fur; ant-like mouth. To perform a heist stealing an artifact for Slovodon from the military fort of the Noortjens in Akana, he offers help from the Mumphorgor and one of the giant mantis's pulling his ship. Mumphorgor is telepathic and can barely interact with this dimension; at most pick up a small object or key. A mantis beast pulls their skiff to a hidden cliffside where they sneak up and climb the cliff using ancient columns carved into the tall cliff face. Some sneaking around the fort and hiding from guards reveals the object they have come for; a mysterious lantern and a scroll. Druid uses magic to warp the treasure chest and fog to hide their escape. They are paid in gems for this act. De-boarding at the city dock, they are forced to bribe an official. Slovodons info leads them to the underworld business center, a tavern called the Falcons Egg, as well as The Blue Eel, a brothel where they search for a prostitute named Butterscotch, who it is rumored has lived in the Lands. Eventually finding her in the pyramid temple, she is deranged, uttering strange things and crabwalking contortedly across the room. She wears a bone around her neckand has an unhealthy pallor. A visit follows to the local alchemist, Damiel, in his nearby tower. The tower sports a sign with an image of a young boy with lobster claws for hands. He tells heroes about corpse tree and magic arrowheads. He shows them a view of the Lands through his spyglass, which includes 500 foot tall toadstools, mountains, jungle, and the Uber Shambling Mound. Heroes stay the night in temple. *********************Session2*********************** Hoktar the soldier of fortune warrior joins the group at the Falcons Egg. He is from a foreign land and wears fur and partial metal plate armour. He has minions : vagabond(Mardrich), brigand(Jones), and bandit(Coco). Poking around by the city wall and massive gate, they ascertain a way out into the Lands by speaking to a friendly shopkeeper of an establishment called the Three Staffs. They give him 3 gold and he tells them about the smugglers entrance. Druid acquires a cheap ceremonial dagger. A large gem with a dark thorn inside it on its scabbard. Likely the thorn can be used to track them. They locate the smugglers burrow under the north wall, and a minion lights a fire nearby to create a distraction. They travel through the rocky tunnel/crevice, hearing strange animal sounds and dripping water. Likely a chemical or poison has been laced through the tunnel and they all touch it. They arrive at the no-mans-land between the city wall and the ancient broken wall. Regularly spaced warning plinths carved with skulls dot the area. They warily approach the corpse tree and identify the body they need to retrieve. The tree is most strange and unsettling. Small mounds of dirt around the tree indicate bandit tunnels. Through a series of missile shots and a bolo throw, they cut it loose to fall to the ground. Three bandits appear, firing with crossbows. Hoktar smashes one spectacularly (20) with a swing of his war club. The tree sprays spores which stun them and has snaky limbs but they snag the body with a rope and grappling hook, bundle the decaying pieces into a cloak, and make off with it. Druids entangle spell immobilizes the two remaining bandits temporarily with scrub grass around their ankles...

Addendum1

The port: "By all accounts, a thoroughly disreputable place." All they encounter try to menace or hustle them. Silt-filled canals and dusty, broke-down warrens. Warehouses, brothels, gambling. The ship they arrive on: pulled by 2 giant mantis shrimp in harnesses. beasts are mutated? Symbiotic? They have a nest for their young under the ship. The captain of the transport-hauler wants them to steal something for him. (Lantern of tunneling sight) Revealed, in the Captains cabin: The Mumphorgor: 6-7 foot beast, white fur, four black eyes, an ants mouth. Claws. (Reptilian ape) Stealthy. It mostly inhabits another dimension but can phase into ours. It phases in and out, but its ability to touch things is limited. It can lift a key at most. Semi-intelligent, semi-telepathic. Captain Slovodon of the Kerriak..(There is something very wrong with this guy) Other unsavory characters on ship: *A grisly dwarf wearing furs, carrying an axe and a warhammer (Morbund) *A bald, cadeverous looking oil-merchant carrying a small jar with a creauture in it. The whore named Butterscotch talks nonsense half the time but has real info. She has lived in B.L with Bosun. (Something no one else ever has done. Guides and smugglers dip in and out.) She describes hints of golden mammoths and face-shriekers. (The "tribe of the deep pools") She wears an unidentified bone around her neck (vertebrae) And has oily, unhealthy skin. The BL are unravelling after death of Bosun. The magic is seeping further out and may escape the island. ************ Strange phenomenon in the BL: 'One day the sun warps into 2 separate orbs with an arc connecting them. 'A dwarf that has his his lower half fused with a boulder, drags himself around. 'Giant insects/butterfies/centipedes. 'A cluster of 500-foot tall toadstools. ********** Alchemists shop: A tall tower with a wooden dome on top. The tallest tower in the city. He shows heroes the interior of the BL with his spyglass from the top. Points out Uber shambling mound, mega-toadstools, and nearby corpse tree. The dome is the only new construction in entire port. 2 small gantry cranes on either side of tower. Small packs of dogs hover nearby. Carved/painted sign over door, no name: a small child with lobster claws for hands. Item/object: Containers of Nullity. Cases which cancel out any magic properties of of objects put inside them. Size and shape of old-style lunch boxes. Alchemist tower is a center of the contraband trade in the port, just as Falcon's Egg. City fortifications: Guards are there to keep things from the BL out of the city. Occasionally mutated creatures find their way in. Between the city walls and the broken barrier, a no-mans land with warning plinths and the corpse tree. (Bandit tunnels surround it.) All trees nearby are dead but standing. As one approaches broken barrier: 1st madness/insanity check. This stops many travelelrs. * Smugglers have found a narrow tunnel through the rock wall on the north side of the canyon. Very tight, weaves in and out, and emerges past the broken section.

Addendum2-Story Arc

All the characters have had varying dreams/visions of the hell-mountain, shaped like a jagged tooth. They met the Cap and booked passage from Jun-Ree, a capital of the Noortjen, a naval port with a star-shaped fort. What they know: The port is a grim, military supply crossroads. Soldiers do the peacekeeping. Supplies are kept in a fortified, low-stone warehouse and grain in a series of silos. Heist to steal lantern: Let heroes choose method. The ancient stone columns to climb up , below stronghold in cliff. take a small skiff, pulled by a mantis-shrimp, covered with a dark, oily cloth. Climb columns? Sneak into warehouse, location of lantern unknown, fight guards. Action upon landing: post-heist. Hassling from port officials. Bribe/ thrown in stockade. Whore and contact with temple in city. (population 10,000)? Temple of Chadra. Shaped like a pyramid. Second? largest building in town. Its connection to BL magic is known. Mercenary competition: Bandits and vagabonds watch them, follow them, attempt to rob them? Whores info points to alchemist and then to corpse tree where bandits attack them. First clue, gleaned from Falcons Egg tavern: Whore is in a seedy brothel called the Blue Eel. In a quarter of the city surrounded by broken heaps of buildings. Bosun knew he was dying and went to corpse tree to deposit his arrowheads. *********** NPCs: HoKTAR and Gnome Barbarian Shaman. (Heavy hitters to round out the group) Ambiguous loyalties. Not neccesarily on the side of the heroes. Hoktar: A foreign fighter, mongoloid. Top-knot on head. From far-away land, pursuing legend and loot. Fighter on horseback. Partial heavy armor, patchwork. Helmet and leg armor, the rest is a lacquered ornate armor with stripe ornamented designs. Large plumes stick out from his helmet, peacock style. he has unusual weapons: a bladed bolo and a bow-lance: a staff with multiple crossbow fixtures. ********** Outline:. For pulling heist, Cap offers info: the name of the whore. ("The key to unlocking the whole thing") Tavern--Brothel--Temple--Alchemist. Alchemist wants the arrowheads from corpse tree. Arrowheads get them past broken barrier.

INTRO

Something strange lurks in Akana. Something broken. Something which extends it's tentacles out from there: tentacles reaching out to all the known lands, tentacles made of rumor, dreams, criminality and magic. Travellers and and traders tell of impossible shimmering beasts, colonies of the mad, powerful magically imbued objects and ancient dark secrets. Akana is a backwater, on the western edge of a large island, an old greasy port-town on a silty river mouth, flanked by rugged hills, immediately outside the grasp of the town. Its main occupation: a supply depot for the Nortjen empire, a naval power waging a war with a nearby nation, and using Akana as apit-stop. The Nortjens want nothing to do with the strange chaos in the interior of the island. They man a wall mostly in order to keep whatever is outside it sealed off. Their city faces the ocean and clings to the edge of this ruptured land. A small subculture, a trade of thieves and hustlers, regularly travels in and out of the broken lands beyond the wall, enduring this dangerous trade for the value of rare and unique magic items. ********** The heros are able to learn a fair amount from the sea captain which gives them passage. The Broken Lands have a multitude of mysterious objects laying around. Objects of cantrip-level magic are fairly common: -Stones of silence: pebbles which, when held, block all outside sound and the holder hears a strange buzz or hum, along with the apparent sound of a fire crackling or cellophane rustling. -Shimmering feathers: The feathers of iridescent birds inside the broken lands. If one is held upright in the air and waved around, it emits a candle-level glow. The artifacts and creatures become more powerful the deeper you go towards the mountain. On different continents, people dream and hallucinate and have visions of the mountain, all with a sense of foreboding or doom. Rumors of things inside the Broken Lands: creatures which have chameleon abilities, phasing/invisibility techniques, and 'poisoned' areas, which if someone walks through them, turn their bones to jelly. With a spy-glass from the tallest tower in the port, one can see a speck in the far distance that quivers alarmingly: the Uber-Shambling Mound. The sea captain seperrates what is known from rumor and gives them tips, though he is in thrall to the land's magic. He tells them to find the woman Butterscotch. And he tells them the name of the tavern where all the illicit business is contracted: The Falcon's Egg. A large carved sign of a bird with wings spread sits over the door, painted brilliantly but covered in dust. The name is written in the languages of three races.

Idealogue

Semi-Amphibious Elves Large black eyes/ Grey alien-like looking. Semi-webbed hands. Live in large alpine pools along waterfalls.

Some use webbed wings to jump from pool to pool. One (legend) Elven warrior rides a beast (local apex predator), the Mole Scorpion, which suckles nectar of local poisonous flower, stores in sac. Squirts poison blobs in rhythmic fashion.

Local Mind-Flayer imprisoned in mountain cell with astral arm-band.

Imprisoned by larger, scarier cosmic beast, stored for later use. To escape he needs something untethered from the astral plane. MF has been warping Elves for eons, trying to escape, giving Elf shamans bits of magic. ********** Bridge of Gollinar (ancient hero warrior-king) Crumbled ruin of bridge over a vast chasm/canyon. Leading from the ruined onion domes to the back side of the mountain. Still has partial automated defenses (magic). Need a mage to get past them. A long causeway for combat on. The mountain's valleys are tropical rain forest/cloud forest but the rugged mountains above are frozen wastes where snow-ghouls prowl. *********** Session 2: Howling (Shrieking) Face-Suckers

Tropical climate. Eyeless reptilian. Green and scaly. A cry like an eagle's with a flutter. A large group of them shrieking causes minus initiative. Proboscis. Fingered claws. A chicken-like reptile that grapples and sucks your organs out.

Magic Staff A staff with a magic item: a cracked crystal, malfunctioning. A spirit inside (elemental) whose life drains out like a battery. Imperfect clairvoyance. Cracked-Crystal staff (air/water elemental/spirit) is found in null-chamber, a static storage lockbox in a wizard's tower, preserving the last days of life of the being inside it. Elven Archer's Sled/Glider.

A smallish, elegant vessel (Needed to get to high place in mission) One person vehicle. (2?)Foot stirrups. (Needs running start? Works only for Elves?) ************************** 3 beasts loose within walls. 3 Wooly Mammoths w/ breath attack They roar and their opened throats release rays of a small, blinding sun-ball. Dazzle Attack

************ Character: Gnome Barbarian Barbarian Shaman

Half-sized humanoid with a strange misshapen castle on his back. Gives him a strange profile when he appears, shuffling, out of the haze from the sun. A symbiotic relationship, a colony of gnat-sized intelligent beingslive in the castle on his back. Fairy/Elf-Mutation?/Elf-Insect Hybrid? They possess some potent magic and possibly an artifact but have adopted mutual aid with club-wielding mini-barbarian. They appear as glowing sparks when they fly. (Party needs something: object/knowledge) Castle has telescoping legs to release carrier like a backpack. Baroque architecture encrustation like a seashell growth done with magic. ******* Potion: Heals All Wounds Brings subject to maximum health, healing any/all injuries, erasing scars. Missing limbs regrow. Adds 1-2 points to Charisma. Does not restore those close to death but can forestall it. ******** Creature: Uber Shambling Mound A giant stupefied creature with an (abandoned?) village on top of it. The size of a small mountain. The creature moves unpredictably. One of the host of Mogari menagerie. Dangerous/criminal. Creature exhibits 'snot-rockets': toxic geysers which spurt occasionally from the paralyzed creature. **** MF godling was worst prisoner of prison ship crash. Put in make-shift cell in mountain. Uber Shambling Mound drugged to semi-sedate state. Small wizards outpost built to guard the area. Over time becomes deserted. Guardian in Corpse Tree is last one and things are unravelling.