And we’re walking…

Here is the write-up of our eighth session of our Known World campaign. This is from Rachel who is playing Mick. When we had last left our band of adventurers, they had traveled for a couple of days through the jungles of the Isle of Dread and had reached a wide swath of grasslands at the edge of some mountains. Niccolo had spotted a cave mouth, presumably the tunnel they were seeking but between them and it were dozens of terror birds!

There are spoilers below the break for X1 Isle of Dread as well as the re-imagining of that classic module in Dungeon #142. I’ve added, of course, my own re-imagining to each. As always, my GM comments are in [brackets and italics].

After Niccolo and Quintus scouted ahead and checked out the placement of the terror bird nests relative to the entrance to the pass through the mountains, we discussed how to approach the pass. We ended up having Quintus go ahead to look for the edge of the terror birds’ territory and how far it is from the pass entrance. He told us to stay in the jungle, but come look for him if he does not return by midday.

Remembering that Lucia’s journal recounted how the terror birds are scavengers, and how a lot of them harassed a dimetrodon going after prey in their territory, I suggested that we hunt a creature in the jungle and try to leave its carcass near the edge of their territory away from the pass entrance to distract them. We knew there were boars in the jungle, so those sounded like potential targets, though I really would have been fine with something else. Niccolo, Erica, and one of the four remaining sailors headed off into the jungle to hunt. Niccolo turned into a bird and flew ahead, where he spied a mama and five baby boars. Niccolo had decided not to attack them, but heard something coming and stayed in place to see what it was. Three terror birds came running straight at the boars. Niccolo changed back into his human form and threw bolts at the terror birds, taking them out, while the boars scurried off quickly.

[I owe Rachel a Benny. Not only was it a great idea to use a carcass like this to attract/distract the terror birds, it also made use of one of the handouts I had shared. What could be worth a Benny more than a great idea that also uses material the GM provided. We’ve been using the Joker’s Wild Setting Rule but I think this deserves another.

I can often be an evil GM but I mean that in a good way. When Niccolo first spotted the boars, I simply stated that he had spotted six boars. When he had landed in a tree and was preparing to kill one of the boars, I let Todd know that it was a mother and five piglets. This tugged at the heartstrings of more than one of our players and put Todd in a difficult position. After he squirmed just a tiny bit, I said that Niccolo heard something coming through the jungle…the Terror Birds. So not only did Niccolo get the carcass he set out to get, he got to save a mama boar and her “cute” piglets.]

Meanwhile, Quintus returned to the group and told us that the terror bird territory goes about a half mile past the pass entrance. Quintus asked us where the others are, and Captain Rizzo seemed to enjoy telling him that they are hunting boars. Quintus was quite unhappy to hear this and went off to find them. Quintus found them pretty quickly and was very glad to hear that the boars got away. He told Niccolo to use care in coming down from the tree because some big ants had surrounded the base of the tree [they were actually climbing up the trunk and were nearly a foot long], so Niccolo turned back into a bird and flew down. Quintus, Niccolo, Erica, and the sailor dragged two of the terror bird bodies closer to the edge of the grassland and Quintus gutted them to attract other predators. Then they headed back to the rest of us to discuss a plan for getting to the pass.

[Although Quintus sliced open the birds, he left all the parts inside and had Erica and the sailor throw the birds out as far as they could into the grasslands. Both ended up with gore from the birds upon them. As the quartet headed back to the main group, Quintus whispered to Niccolo that if a predator came after them as the moved through the jungle, it would go after the other two first since they had the gore on them.]

Quintus and Niccolo headed closer to the terror bird bodies to see if any predators came and if it attracted the other terror birds’ attention enough that we could make a run for the pass entrance. Some of the big ants came and swarmed over the bodies, and three terror birds saw this and then headed back in the grass. The 15-foot tall, big mama terror bird came to look at the bodies, looked around and let out a very loud cry. She spotted Quintus pretty high up in a tree, though he was very tightly pressed to the tree, and she let out a different loud cry. A lot of the terror birds left the grasslands and came near the tree where Quintus was. Quintus taunted the terror birds, gleefully pointing out that they cannot fly. Apparently the big mama bird had another idea, since she pushed the terror bird bodies against the base of the tree Quintus was in, so whatever predator approached might threaten him as well. After this, some of the birds headed back to the grasslands.

When we saw that a number of the terror birds had left the grasslands, the rest of us started making our way across the grass toward the pass entrance. About 200-250 feet from the entrance, some terror birds that had remained behind came at us. The four remaining sailors were killed, we took out about a dozen terror birds, and finally made it to the pass entrance. Niccolo had flown to the entrance and was waiting there for us. Once we entered the tunnel into the mountains, Niccolo created an obscuring dust cloud right outside of the entrance. We all moved further into the cave and noted that carved, geometric patterns were along the tunnel walls. After a short while, Niccolo left the tunnel and flew off as a bird to look for Quintus, since he had not joined us yet.

[The fight with the terror birds was not an easy one. The birds used some hit and run tactics in the tall grasses and took out the sailors rather easily. I’m pretty sure that at least one of the PCs (Erica?) had to spend at least one Benny to soak attacks by the birds.]

Niccolo flew wide of the terror birds and nests, though he caught the eye of the mama bird when he emerged from the tunnel and dust cloud. He made it to the tree where Quintus had been, and found the tree bent and other nearby trees trampled. Niccolo flew around a bit but saw no sign of Quintus. Suddenly the mama bird gave an angry cry and hurried to one of the nests, quickly followed by the other terror birds. Niccolo looks but does not see anyone near the nests.

Meanwhile, the rest of us see a person come right inside the tunnel and flatten him or herself against the wall. It’s Quintus, and we tell him that Niccolo is out looking for him. Despite our protests at his doing so, Quintus stands in the entrance and calls out to Niccolo until he returns to the pass. The mama bird looked in the direction of the pass, but Niccolo made it back in and changed back to his human form. Quintus told us that a T-rex had come and trampled the trees around where he had been, but he was able to get away, and briefly visit the terror bird nests on his way to the pass.

[Moe was quite suspicious of Quintus and how he managed to avoid not only the T. Rex but also the terror birds. He was, however, rather reluctant to share his tactics and eventually said that it was a personal and spiritual thing that he would not discuss. Moe was not satisfied with that answer but let it drop.]

We traveled through the tunnel for about three hours before getting to an opening into a pretty big chamber. On one wall there was a stone jaguar head fountain with a pool beneath it. There was a dais with a stone throne and a skeleton seated on it at the far end of the chamber. There were broad stairs going down at a pretty shallow angle in between the dais and the fountain.

We all stepped into the chamber, though Moe and I stayed near the entrance for a bit. We both heard stones move back in the tunnel a couple times, but nothing appeared behind us. Quintus stepped up to the skeleton in the throne and saw a spear stuck through its ribs. Quintus reached out and touched one of the ribs and the whole skeleton crumbled. The spear stayed in place, as it pierced the back of the stone throne, so Quintus pulled it out and sensed that it was magical, though could not tell the specifics, to Meravanni’s disappointment.

Niccolo cast light on his staff and lowered it into the fountain pool, where he saw something shaped like a necklace and a squared rod. Niccolo pulled up the necklace with his staff and Meravanni asked Erica to wipe it off. Meravanni seemed pleased to see that the necklace was gold squares linked together, and put it into his pack. Erica decided to swim down into the pool to bring up the squared rod, which is marble and about 8 pounds. I guess it’s neat, but the gold necklace definitely caught my eye more than the marble stick.

[Mick’s eye might have been caught by the necklace but it was Meravanni’s pack that it went into.]

Captain Rizzo, who was still near the entrance to the chamber, heard stone move back in the tunnel and called out into the tunnel “By the Twelve, show yourself!” before shooting into the dark. Niccolo cast light on the next bullet Rizzo loaded and she shot it down the hall, but none of us were able to see anything. Since there didn’t appear to be much else to check out in the chamber, we headed over to the stairs, preparing to head down and continue our journey through the mountains.

[And, although it was definitely not much of a cliffhanger (as Todd made sure to point out at the following session), that was where we ended for the night. Sometimes that’s just how things go. I guess we’ll just have to see if our next session ends with more of a cliffhanger.]