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Quest to find the Stoneskin Tribe

Page history last edited by 1nfinite zer0 13 years, 1 month ago

Stonely and Araknea are two Youth of a village at the edge of the mountains. The village is known as an important trading post since it has both a Cliffport (an extensive skydock system for trading with the Cloud Farmers) and a Crystal Mine nearby. The village is primarily populated by the Monks, powerful physical myn who built great bronze temple-like structures throughout the caves. The Crystal Mines were found with the help of the dwindling Gamari tribe of Stoneskins, whose innate harmony with the ancient mountains gave them the hear the hum of crystals through walls of rock.

Stonely is the last known survivor of this Tribe of Stoneskins. Years ago, a Great Dragon appeared deep within the mountains, and was attacking myn. The Gamari knew it would not rest, so they all set off in search of a Dragon Fang, but never returned.

On one of the trading expeditions with Yeti merchants, Stonely heard rumour of directions to the Dragon's lair. Word went out among the merchants of the tale of a Youth wanting to reclaim his tribe, and word travels fast among merchants. Soon, a map was procured and given to Stonely.

The boys asked for weapons and provisions in town, and then set off to find the way to the Dragon's lair.

The entrance was hidden in the crystal mines, and Stonely was able to move the rocks collapsed in the way by himself. Beyond was deep darkness, so Araknea lit the lamp with a magic flame that glowed blue, bright enough to see the walls and way. The map was old, but Araknea was skilled at navigating from frequent wandering, so though the way would've lost many, they were confident they were on the right path. In fact, the map suggested they reach a large open cavern, just as they did.

The cave was large, with dried guano caked to the floor. In the distance, the burbling of a small spring echoed, and the phosphorescent moss grew near; a telltale sign. On the ceiling, just beyond the reach of the latern, was patches of colour red, and something sparkling. Araknea was curious, and climbed onto Stonely's shoulder and held the latern up as far as he could, but still could not see what it was. He then climbed fairly high and could see the colours were in fact moving, it was...

Map1, from left to right: Cliffport, Trading Sector of Town, Crystal Mines,

Mining Sector of Town, Cave Complex, Dark Dragons' Cave

Green line is Character path, currently in the cave with red on the roof.

Session 2

1)The latern revealed the colours to be a mass of red bats, clinging onto and moving over the crystals, seem like they are getting buzzed on them. Stonely knocked some down with his slingshot, in an incredible shot that neither angered nor hurt the bats. A few bats followed the clump of crystals down, and Stonely coaxed them away till they were in the bag. One bat took a liking to his friendly smell and crawled up to rest on the bag, staying with him. (-1 AP, gained red bat familiar). When the lamplight gets close to the crystals they glow brighter when, the bats seem to be more interested in the crystals the more they glow.

Next, the boys went to investigate the spring and get some moss. At the bottom corner of the cave, the drip of a spring came through the rock wall. There the guano is mixing with the pool and an orange slime is growing there, pulsing slowly. Back behind and up from the pool a few metres where it is still higher humidity, but not close to the slime, a pale purple phosphorescent moss is growing on the cave walls. Araknea walked through to grab the moss, and found that the orange slime was corrosive and attacked him! Escaping from any damage, Araknea fought back and stomped the orange slime into pieces, destroying it. They gather some moss and then head out of the cave.

Of the three exits from the large cave, one has a winding path up through stalagmites, one is a smaller hole heading downwards, and the largest passage stays level. They take the middle road and come into another series of caves (2) with less moss but more diversity of other life. There are mushrooms, insects of all sorts, and dog-sized crabs hunting insects. The crabs scuttle away from them, but are not threatening, so they continue onwards, and still the moss diminishes.

In the distance, they hear a grunting sound. As they come nearer, they see some Womps foraging, eating the moss (3). Stonely offers some moss and tries to befriend the Womp, which is overjoyed. It tries to communicate with them through a series of grunts, but they do not understand. Still, they follow it up through the caves until there is much more grunting and a group of Womps is there, with ages from young to old. An Elder Womp appears from within the pack, grey and white hair from age, three sets of tusks ground down and scars from conflicts past. The happy Womp approaches the elder and nuzzles him, then brings him shambling back slowly to the boys.

They offer up more of the moss they gathered, which is taken without hesitation. The Elder chews thoughtfully, and then says in a groaning but understandable Common "Mmmmm, this is very good moss, not from here is it?"

The Womps had reduced the moss in their area to a struggling population, and now their own numbers were starting to go hungry. The boys offer to lead the Womps to the cave where they found the moss and help them to bring some back to start a new farm. This made the Elder very happy, and they proposed that they could start farming, as well as consider their resources more wisely.

Map2, the progress of Stonely and Araknea through the caves

So the boys went back with a pair of Womps to the moss. Since it was now free of the orange slime, the moss could be gathered freely. Araknea took some of the leather they had been given to trade, and tied it into saddlebags, so that the womps could carry more, and refill it with their mouths whenever they returned. In gratitude, the Elder offered the boy a favour. They showed him the map, and asked for directions to the Dragon. The Elder took a stick in his mouth and pointed to areas on the map while explaining. "Our people live up to the edge of this cliff, but do not go close, because it is a perilous drop. This cave area (5) does not exist, are you sure your map is correct?" They speculated that the caves had been closed by collapse, and that maybe the Womps could use their great strength to help them clear the way.

"Well, that way is the land of the Tonkin village. Those cave-monkey-dogs do not like us. They are annoying and mean."

The boys decided they would try to convince them and set off.

As they approached the village, they could smell the smoke of fires (4). This disgusted them, as fires were forbidden and evil. They were all too easy to corrupt by the demons and signs of evil. Still, they were decided and approached the village. When they got close enough for the Tonkins to see them, seven rushed out with their pointy sticks and started brandishing them and yelling furiously. As they cautiously approached, one threw a stick, and it bounced off Stonely's tough skin and hit Araknea, giving him a large welt, but not drawing blood. Stonely yelled at them, which they did not understand, and then tried going further. Three more threw their sticks at him, and one hit him in the face with enough force to really hurt. There were only 7, but they couldn't take on the whole village if there were more. They tried communication again, but the Tonkins were not friendly, feeling threatened. When communications succeeded and they understood what the boys wanted, they called them crazy, but asked for trade in case they could benefit from the arragement.

The boys had brought a variety of common place crystals for trade, but also had cooking knives and a portable steam-boiler pot. They offered the crystals. The Tonkins were very interested in the warmth crystals, to replace their sooty fires for heat. Stonely was a good barterer, but they were asking for the Tonkins to stop a long rivalry with the Womps to get the passage cleared towards the danger of a Dragon... this was not going to be easy.

So they started pulling out the other items: "Stupid mushrooms, we can find those ourselves!", water-finding crystals not that exciting, but when they pulled out the crystals they'd harvested from the bat cave the Tonkin who spoke common was screeching with horror " Bahhhhh, no!! Bad, no! Those crystals just bring bats. Fly long way to find if too bright. Cousin had one, good shaman cousin, bad decision. He make crystal glow very bright, very warm, thought was very good. But then he get badness! Hut get filled with bats! Too many, more than camp of bats! Cave so full, take five best Tonkins to go in and drag out. Bats go crazy till light fade. Bad crystals, no wont, go."

Then Stonely took out a cooking knife they had brought. The Tonkins were very excited by this, and they managed to get them to agree to trade of only 3 knives for the price of a week of tolerance of Womps in their space, truly a superb negotiation.

The Womps returned, and it took 4 days for them all working together to clear the boulders from the way. The Womp Elder wished them luck and a safe return, the Tonkins called them crazy again.

They proceeded into the caves beyond (5), which were much richer with diversity since there were no high trophic level omnivores or grazers affecting the food web. Since they had been in the caves for a week wandering around, they were running short on food, and used this opportunity to gather moss mushrooms and try hunting crabs. In the first cave Araknea managed to hit a crab, but was not able use his monk training to augment his strength to kill two as he had hoped. Maybe the monk body augmentation spell was for protection and not for hunting? The rest of the crabs managed to scurry off before he could recover his Kathini. They decided to leave a bunch of the moss so that the population could regrow easily (+1 Action point)

In the next cave, they both attacked a group of crabs. Araknea killed one swiftly, and a lucky shot from Stonely's sling shot knocked out one and it fell into another one, preventing it from escaping as quickly. The boys closed in on their prey, stabbing the entangled one, ensuring that they were all properly dead and the other two crabs escaped. They cooked up the meat, and found they had more than they needed, so returned to drop off some to the Tonkins.