Song of the Jackaroos - Dramatis Personae

In the past I've provided an adventure log for the Pulp Hero game a friend runs periodically.  She's recently started running again and I've decided to post my notes again.  I write them as a journal kept by my character, Andrew Ezikial Crawley, Ph.D.  Think "Daniel Jackson, Ph.D." from the Stargate SG-1 television show (specifically) or the same character from the Stargate movie, but mine is red-haired.

The current story arc starts before the last one (The Butterfly Effect) has completely finished, but the switch over happens quick and early in the first game session.  The GM has not told us her name for this adventure, so I've come up with one of my own: Song of the Jackaroos.

Main Characters

Andrew Ezekial Crawley, Ph.D. – red hair, blue eyes, average height, speaks 15 languages and is an archaeologist by training.  Andrew is leader of a team for Adventure Earth Company now, but has developed suspicions about the true nature of the company.  He has developed secret ties to The Planetary Society through his friendship with Elijah Snow, the Society’s founder.

Jack Thompson – tall, short blonde hair, safari clothes and boots, Jack is a Big Game Hunter and ex-French Foreign Legionnaire.  He excels at tracking and his quarry rarely escapes, man or beast.  Also handy with a stick of dynamite.

Kurt Morison – brown hair, tall and lanky, Kurt is the quintessential cowboy, from his beat up hat all the way down to his well worn pair of boots.  He is quick with a gun and able to ride any beast that can support his weight.

Bak Mu – short, aged, white-haired Chinese man, Bak Mu is learned in Chinese Medicine and surprisingly agile for a man of his advanced years.  He is known to be able to punch through a tree with his bare hand.

Helen Amelie Victoria Bridgette Whitney, tPh.D. – red hair, green eyes, and beautiful, Helen was born to an old money family and raised to be a proper lady, but she was also the favorite of her grandfather, who taught her all sorts of non-ladylike skills and instilled a strong desire for adventure.

Reilly Burell – raven-black hair, steel-grey eyes, and ruggedly handsome, Reilly made his money as an engineer early in his life – now he looks for thrills he cannot get with just money, women, and alcohol.

Simone Chevalier – drop dead gorgeous petite blonde from France, Simone’s background is a bit of a mystery.  She is also a member of the Society of Psychical Research and a die-hard skeptic of things supernatural.

Supporting Cast

Colonel Yarborough – Owner of the Adventure Earth Company, the Colonel is apparently well-connected and has extensive resources at his command.  His company provides safaris and excursions to exotic parts of the globe for the wealthy, usually with a twist or a side-job for his employees.  He is rarely seen by the employees of his company, usually only on their first day with the company, if then.

Amanda Decker – A young, shapely, blonde woman, she is Colonel Yarborough’s personal assistant, and an employee’s main point of contact.  She also introduces the clients to the team that will be arranging whatever excursion the client is paying for.

Pamela – Secretary at the New York Office of Adventure Earth Company

Harriet Godwin – head of the Brisbane Office of Adventure Earth Company, she is currently overworked and over-stressed due to a missing team with clients.

The Client

None – sort of. (Again.)  This is more of a rescue mission, but we suspect some damage control will also be necessary.

Previous Adventures:

The Mayan Expedition - never documented. Includes the "finding" of the crystal skull.

The Kilimanjaro Safari - introduces Mr. Parks and our "issues" with him

Berlin Book Blitz - never documented.  We are in the Reichstag when the fire starts.

Tomb of the Lost Pharaoh - never documented.  Cursed tomb of Herihor found.

The Mountain Kings - an incomplete log as I never wrote down Chapter 3

     Dramatis Personae

     Chapter 1

     Chapter 2

The Butterfly Effect - never documented, but that might change.

Blood, Gold, and Lizards - Friday Group - Session 5

AttendeesHugo Underwood – Wood Elf shaman
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Albrecht Artyom – Human Grey Wizard
Fritz Schmidt – Human scout
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” Orc warrior
Quetzal – Lizardfolk scout
Alset Alokin – High Elf mage


After some discussion, the group decided to return to the Hollow Tower and finish investigating the caves under it.  The took the familiar path of the Estini Road and then along the northern edge of the Wedge Wood to arrive at the Hollow Tower shortly after mid-day.  There was some discussion about whether or not to descend and explore for a few hours before camping or possibly exploring some of the nearby plains.  It was decided to descend and explore.

Hugo had an idea for bypassing the Black Chandelier and getting to the areas beyond it.  He cast his Cloud of Moths spell, pouring huge clouds of blue moths into the room.  The chandelier immediately started burning them away, but Hugo’s spell poured enough into the room to temporarily completely obscure the chandelier.  He was able to successfully run from the door to the passage out the far corner without getting burned by the chandelier’s magics.  Impressed with the success, the group had Hugo cast the spell twice more so the rest of the group could safely make the transit (except Albrecht, who teleported himself and Alset across – wizards).

The passage beyond descended down a flight of stairs and curved to the left slightly before opening to a small chamber with an ornate door.  The door was made of stone and carved with undulating waves across its surface.  Layered onto the surface were metal triangles about the size of a child’s hand.  They triangles were tinted various shades of metallic grey, creating a sense of flowing colors across the door.  Albrecht checked the doors for traps and declared it safe, so Alset turned the (triangular-shaped) handle.  This set off the trap that Albrecht missed.  The metal triangles on the door surface stood up on one edge and then flew off, filling the room with spinning, flying metal!

Luckily, the edges were dulled by time and while some received scratches from triangles, no one was seriously hurt.  [I rolled near minimum damage on the original barrage.]  While the rest of the group scooped up the metal disks, Albrecht took another look at the door.  He determined that the metal triangles on the door were replaced by a new layer, this one looking much sharper than the original disks [because, frankly, I had to roll better damage if the trap went off again] and that there was indeed a trap on the door.  He took his time to disable the trap without breaking it, thinking they might want to take the door with them at a later time.

Beyond the door was a larger chamber: half cavern, half finished stone.  The right wall of the chamber was finished stone and decorated depicting the flows of the winds of magic, with a door in the center surrounded by symbols.  The left wall was cavern wall and had a passage leading out.  Albrecht and Hugo identify the symbols as warning symbols, symbols usually placed to remind apprentices to leave a summoned creature alone.  Alset activated his See Magic spell and saw purple light leaking around the door.

As purple is the color of magic associated with Death Lore, the group decided to hold off on investigating beyond the door.  Heading down the passage on the opposite wall, they run right into two wraiths lurking in a side alcove.  The wraiths grab Felix and Alset, withering them both.  [It is possible that at this point, Felix screamed like a little girl, but it may have been the elf.  Hard to say.]  Fritz recognized the wraiths for what they were and called out that only magical attacks would harm them.  Few in the group of adventurers had magical attacks.

The following fight was touch-and-go at the first.  Albrecht cast his protective spell upon as many as he could.  This benefited the group two ways: it provided a [minor] measure of defense against the withering touch of the wraiths and made their fists slightly magical.  The tide was turned when Fritz and Quetzal individually called upon their respective faiths and were able to imbue their weapons with a measure of holy power.*  With these weapons they were able to harm and drive off the wraiths [but not destroy them].

Once the wraiths had fled into the walls, the group stayed where they were to re-gather their strength and decide what they wanted to do next.  Those touched by the wraiths slowly recovered from the withering touches, but patches of their skin remained devoid of all color where the wraiths had touched them.  Zoglug dug around in the alcove the wraiths attacked from and found two dented golden crowns.  Alset declared the crowns still had wisps of necromantic energies attached to them.  Zoglug did not care and put them on to wear.  While the debate of whether to advance or retreat continued, one of the wraiths returned and attempted to grab Albrecht.  It failed to grab him, but this motivated the adventurers to return to the surface to camp for the night.

Alset used his long range teleportation to make several teleportation jumps to return to town that night to get the crowns blessed (or at least cleansed).  He went to the Temple of Sigmar and cheerfully explained what he wanted.  The High Priest of Sigmar was not very impressed by this vagabond elf and his wants.  The priest suggested the elf try at the Temple of Manann [god of the sea] if he wanted anything unclean bathed.  The priest did agree to bless the elf’s weapon to fight the undead.  He was even less impressed with the elf when the elf admitted to not having a weapon.  A loaner hammer was secured.  A small one.  And he had to sign for it.  Alset then donated a single gold piece for the temple’s assistance.

Alset then went over to the Temple of Manann and talked with the priest there.  The High Priest of Manann was a bit gruff, but much more helpful.  At first he suggested Alset throw the crowns into the sea for purification and Manann would return them when they were purified.  Alset wasn’t quite ready for that level of deific intervention and asked if there was something that could be done without throwing the golden crowns into the sea.  The high priest then invites Alset in and has him stand in a large pool of salt water.  The high priest then starts invoking the name of Manann and the water in the pool reared up as a wave and then broke over Alset.  Alset checked the crowns and they were now clear of any necromantic energies.  Surprisingly, Alset was not drenched with sea water.  He thanked the high priest and gave a 10 gold piece donation to the temple.

Alset then cast his teleportation spell several times to get back to camp.  When he returned, he related what he had done in town.  There may have been some forehead slapping at this.  Fritz was very interested in the blessed weapon…until he learned it was a hammer from the Temple of Sigmar, whom he and his sect consider heretics (though well meaning heretics).  Felix took control of the small hammer at that point.  Watches were set and the group rested.

The next morning the group descended back down into the caverns.  Working their way back to the location of the wraith ambush, they quickly stepped past the area (ran, actually) and down the passage beyond.  That passage started curving to the left.  At the base of a set of steps leading up, they found a small side room with cloaks hanging from pegs on the wall.  The robes were black with symbols stitched on them.  No one could identify the symbols, but some of them seemed similar to those on the wall of the wizard’s laboratory they found previously.  Quetzal quickly took one of the robes and, determining it was not covered in mold, rolled it up and packed it away.  The other four robes were quickly packed away by other members of the group.

Going up the stairs, the group found a nexus of passageways.  One passage led back to the cavern with the wizard statue and altar.  Another led to a dormitory, long abandoned.  Searching the remains of furniture, the group finds two lengths of gold chain and two skeletons stuffed in two chests.  Zoglug quickly packed away one of the skulls.  Hugo was able to examine the skull of the other skeleton and determines it was human.  Felix carefully packed that skull away.

Having come full circle in the caverns, the group decided to go back and check door with the warning.  Albrecht took his time to check the door and verified it was not trapped.  He then opened the door.  The room beyond was large and square with worked stone.  In the center was a very large and intricate ritual circle with a skeleton lying in the center.  There were three pillars in the room, each in a corner (one to the immediate right from the door and the other two in the corners on the opposite side of the room) and covered in symbols and glyphs.  To the left was a wide passage out of the area.

Alset activated his magic sight and was nearly blinded by the purple energies contained inside the ritual circle.  After a few moments adjusting to the intensities, he was able to determine that three beams of power emanate from the circle, each striking one of the pillars.  The pillars crackled with energy and then each emitted a line of force into the corner behind them.  The lines went through the walls without damaging them and looked very much like the lines of force he had seen emanating from the hill the Hollow Tower sits upon.

Hugo heard a quiet female voice asking him to free here.  He did not mention this.

The group broke up into sub-groups at this point, each investigating a different part of the room.  The three wizards and Felix checked the side passage, finding it ends in a set of double doors.  Albrecht checks the doors and declares them safe.  Meanwhile, Zoglug is poking at different areas in the room with his crowbar and Quetzal is contemplating the skeleton in the circle, which she identifies as Lizardfolk.

Over at the door, Albrecht opens them and the wizards and Felix are hit with a mind blank spell, draining away their minds and memories while they are affected.**  This renders all four of them into drooling idiots for several minutes.  Once they have their minds back and are told what happened, Albrecht re-checks the door and says the door is safe – the trap must have disused itself.  The rest retreat out the original door and tell him to go ahead and open it.  He does so, getting mind blanked again, but opening the door.  While his mind is gone, the rest of the group enters the room beyond the double doors.  This room appears to be a workshop for the final casting of the ritual circle – there are mostly empty bottles of reagents and paints and some test drawings of the trickier bits of the circle.  There is also a small door on the far wall.  Zoglug starts collecting the glass bottles and beakers, emptying them by the simple expedient of drinking the contents.  He regrets the taste of some of them and his tongue ends up plaid at one point, but none of it kills him [immediately].

The group starts discussing what to do at this point.  It comes up that Hugo and Hugo only is hearing a female voice asking to be freed.  Quetzal is also interested in breaking the ritual circle as she is convinced that any mammal ritual that puts a Lizardfolk in a circle to die is inherently bad.  Most of the group moved back into the ritual room to discuss the merits and possible dangers of breaking the ritual circle.  The “Don’t Break It” group eventually convinced Quetzal that the potential dangers of breaking the circle and releasing unknown amounts of energies are too high to be safe right now and more knowledge is needed first.

While this debate was raging, Zoglug got bored and attempted to kick open the small door back in the workshop.  This detonates a large fireball that filled the workshop and flooded back into the ritual room.  Only those furthest from the explosion were still conscious and standing afterwards.  When the wizards awakened, the first thing they checked was the ritual circle – it was still intact.  They all breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Once the entire group was again awake and Albrecht had regained his mind (and been brought up to speed), the next room was checked.  It was a treasure store with several crates of gold coins and other valuables.  The destruction of the lab glass by Zoglug setting off the explosion was instantly forgiven and the group immediately set to looting the treasure room.

Seeing no reason to stay and not wanting to break the ritual circle yet, the group hauled their loot back out of the caverns and camped for the night.  The next morning they rode back to New Zwicke.

End of Session
* Both PCs have faith-based skills: Fritz a Knowledge Skill in his faith and Quetzal has a Professional Skill as a shaman.  Fritz’s player made his roll by a lot and I allowed he remembered enough of the appropriate ritual to make his bow able to smite the undead.  Quetzal made her roll by less, but has practical skill in being a shaman, so she too was able to bless her weapon enough to deal serious damage to the wraiths.

** This was a big INT drain and knocked all but Albrecht down to 0 INT.  I ruled that this wiped their memories of the events just prior to the drain and during the drain.  If the trap had gotten everyone, no one would have remembered the trap going off, just a sort of blink and then they were just standing there wondering what they were up to.  This could have kept them occupied for quite some time in that case.

BG&L – Saturday Group – Session 4

Attendees
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Marcus of the Shield – Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” Orc warrior
Quetzal – Lizardfolk scout
Belladonna "Frongle" Leagallow – Halfling 
Jacien Ghel-Aurum –Human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship


Jacien had been busy since the last outing.  He finalized the shape and form of the Spider Walker, turning it from a prototype into the thing itself.  He also worked out a formula for turning troll’s blood into something useful: potions of Troll Hide*.  His initial batch was a great success, but something went wrong with the second batch and it completely fouled up his apparatus.  Worse yet, even after a thorough cleaning, some residue remained and it spoiled the third and last batch of potions.  This used up all the troll’s blood and left Jacien with 6 potions of Troll Hide and a smelly mess (which he dumped into the bay).

Once the group of adventurers re-assembled, it was decided to give all six of the potions to Marcus, the person most in need of protection in a fight.

The group then discussed their goal for this outing.  Quetzal was firm that she wanted to make it to the end of the Valley of the Landsharks in order to find the ruins rumored to be there.  The others agreed, pausing only to discuss whether or not to thoroughly explore the areas they traveled through or not.  They decided to do so.

Once everyone was loaded into the Spider Walker, Jacien drove it across the surface of the bay, taking the direct route to the Old Colony site.  From there they headed up the Valley of the Landsharks.  They paused to explore the first part of the Valley and then headed up into the hills to the west of the Valley.  While searching that area, several people noticed a landshark attacking a herd of large lizard-beasts in the Valley (suspiciously near where they last parked the Spider Walker).  While he missed seeing the landshark attack, Jacien found a seam of tin ore that should be minable.

The group headed south to Good Cave, a safe and dry cave they discovered previously.  Last time they were here the cave was empty, but this afternoon it had occupants – Felix spotted some local Lizardfolk guarding the entrance to the cave.  Having made peaceful contact previously, Jacien parked the Spider Walker a bit away from the cave but in view of the Lizardfolk (who couldn’t help but notice the noisy contraption).  Quetzal then made her way to the cave on foot and parleyed with the Lizardfolk.  This was another patrol of Lizardfolk from much further south, but their leader had heard of Quetzal from the other patrol.  She learned from the patrol leader that the Lizardfolk to the south had decided there was good reason to start paying attention to the goings on here in the north.  Quetzal then negotiated a sharing of the cave for safe camping that night.

After a quiet night, the Lizardfolk left, continuing their patrol towards the east.  The adventurers head west, moving down into the Valley to look around some.  While exploring the area, Frongol is grabbed and nearly carried off by a Clakker, a flying reptile with a large beak and huge leathery wings [pteradon].  Several of the adventurers reacted at the same time to stop this, but Zoglug was able to cut the beast’s head off with a thrown axe, definitively stopping it.  The group then spent some time cutting off the edible meat while Jacien created a framework over the top of the Spider Walker to stretch the leathery wings, providing relief from the sun.

The group then decided to make better time and traveled along the Valley floor for several hours, scaring a few herds of what they now called Cow-herds [pronounced just like “coward”].  Late in the afternoon, they moved out of the Valley and located a camp site in the hills.  While setting up camp, several notice three landsharks circling around in the valley below.  That night, Zoglug hears a Cow-herd stampede down in the valley, suggesting a landshark attack had happened.

The next morning (after some discussion), the group headed further up the Valley.  They got far enough along that they could see the end of the Valley ahead and the beginnings of a mountain chain far in the distance.  Felix, using the spyglass, was able to spot some ruins at the end of the Valley, including one that reflected light.  He also spotted a landshark approaching from behind.  Jacien immediately drove the Spider Walker into the rocky hills again, but only to the edge this time – the adventurers wanted to get a better look at what was chasing them.

The landshark followed the Spider Walker to the edge of the stony area and then circled a little, not surfacing but its fin was visible plowing through the ground.  Felix decided to try and get it to surface by throwing rocks at a patch of ground off to one side.  Frongol moved closer to watch and see what surfaced.  Felix had little luck until he threw a stone directly at the landshark’s fin.  This provoked it into attacking and it surfaced and charged at Felix.  The adventurers responded quickly, attacking back.  Frongol was able to throw one of her shrunken swords directly into its eye, nearly killing it in one blow and stunning it.  After that, the fight ended quickly.  Felix was raked by the beasts claws, but the rest were not damaged at all.  Then the adventurers made landshark steaks and landshark jerky while Jacien and Quetzal harvested many useful bits from the carcass, including claws, teeth, armored plates, and quite a bit of the creatures blood.

Once that was done, they spent the afternoon on the Spider Walker searching the hills that formed the southern end of the Valley.  They found a set of caves, the last of which was full of salt crystals of immense size.  They made camp there for the night.  During the night, the sounds of animal life was heard often in the area, but nothing bothered them in the cave.  [I rolled three night encounters, but chose not to run them as we were starting to run short on time for the session.]

In the morning, the group took a closer look at the ruins in the valley head.  One structure was a step pyramid with six tiers; it appeared to be completely covered in dark glass.  An adjacent structure was a hill of stone rubble, that might once have been a step pyramid as well.  To the side of the Glass Pyramid was an L-shaped stone platform, 100 ft a side and five feet thick.  Adjacent to these structures was a field of metallic statues set out in a grid 200 ft in diameter.  The adventurers were intrigued, to say the least.

The rode up to the complex on the Spider Walker, which they parked on the stone platform (after having Quetzal verify that it was not likely to be sacred space).  Much closer now, they could see that the statues were the heads of an amphibian creature or creatures.  To Quetzal, they looked exactly like what the gods were supposed to look like; to everyone else they were frog heads of some sort.  They could also now see that in amongst the statues were large egg shells and nesting debris.

Felix, Quetzal, Marcus, and Jacien walked over to get better looks at the statues.  There was a path between the platform and the rubble hill outlined by metallic pillars 20 ft tall.  Closer inspection indicated that the pillars extended down into the ground as well.  The same thing appeared to be true of the statues when they got over to them.  Closer inspection also revealed that all of the hundreds of statues appeared to be of the same being.  Jacien was able to determine that the statues were of zinc or heavily clad in zinc.  The adventurers deduced that the egg shells were probably those of the Cow-herds.  The area was also devoid of landshark furrows, sparking the suggestion that maybe landsharks avoid zinc.

Meanwhile, Zoglug and Frongol investigated the Glass Pyramid – Zoglug had circled it on foot and noticed a worn patch on the fifth tier.  The first thing they noticed was that all the edges were sharp.  Then Zoglug noticed that the glass did not crack or scratch when he walked on it in his hob-nailed boots.  There were steep, shallow steps up one side of the pyramid, which Zoglug found awkward to climb, but Frongol found easy (with her smaller feet and such).  Zoglug stopped at the fifth tier to work his way around to the side with the worn area while Frongol continued to the top.

The top was 30 ft square, with a 10 ft diameter circle inscribed and decorated with gold in the center.  It appeared to be a sunburst of some sort.  Zoglug found a lightly trail leading around to the side, where he found a worn patch on the wall.  He suspected there was a door, but could not find it, so he called Frongol over.

By this point, the rest of the adventurers were done looking at the statues and had moved over to the Glass Pyramid.  Most went up to the top to see what was there before joining Zoglug and Frongol on the side of the pyramid.  Jacien was able to determine that the gold-lined inscribed circle was linked to teleportation magic, probably teleporting into the pyramid.

Around this time, Frongol was able to work out how to open the (very) concealed door on the side of the pyramid.  Beyond it was a short passage (both in height and length) that led to a 5x5 ft shaft descending into the pyramid.  After having Marcus create a light, the group entered the pyramid and started climbing down the side of the shaft, using the metal rungs built into the walls.  At the bottom was another short passage and a door.  Zoglug opened it.

Beyond was a large open chamber, about 30 ft square, but with rounded corners and filled with purple light.  Jacien confirmed the purple light was magical, but was not certain what it did, as it was outside his area of study.  He did know that purple magic followed the lore of Death, but was not necromancy.  Zoglug entered the chamber and said it was fine, but the purple light was “a bit itchy”.

The walls and tall ceiling of the chamber were covered a deep blue, almost black, and constellations were picked out in gems.  [None of the adventurers knew anything about astronomy, so that’s all they got.]  On the floor in the center was an exact duplicate of the sun burst on the roof.  Above it was a depiction of the greater moon done in curved metal pieces, showing the current phase of the moon.

The group searched the room thoroughly for an exit and had trouble finding any until Frongol noticed three gems in a diamond-shaped constellation on one wall were worn and no longer as reflective of the light.  She pushed them in clockwise order and another concealed door opened up.  It was also low and led to the left and then around the corner of the chamber to stairs leading down.  The group descended.

The stairs ended at the backside of a concealed door, which opened into a mostly empty storage room, full of shelves.  The group searched around and was able to find an odd assortment of small figurines, probably game pieces of some sort, but not a game any of them knew about.  They were pocketed for later review.

The door exiting the store room was much larger and wider than the concealed doors and opened on a hallway with an open lounge across the hall from the storeroom.  In the lounge were three very wide but low chairs.  They reminded Quetzal of the chairs the gods were supposed to favor – however the stories she had heard never mentioned the comfy cushions.  The hallway went left and right about 30 ft and was painted in abstract patterns of soothing greens.  There were two doors across from one another at each end.

Following the Left Hand Rule, the adventurers turned left and walked to the doors on the left.  One door was of the over-large size, the other much smaller.  They tried the larger door and found a room with rounded corners almost completely filled with a large round pool, nearly four feet deep.  The water was pure and clear.  They looked around and found little other than the pool.  There was some discussion about the room and its possible use, but they could not come to any conclusions.

Moving across the hall to the smaller door, they opened it and found a kitchen and food preparation area.  Seated at a table were three motionless skinks that looked partially decayed.  Jacien looked at the skinks with his Alchemechikal Eye and found the skinks to all be heavily infused with purple magic.  Zoglug went up and poked one of them to see if they were squishy or leathery – it swatted his hand and told Zoglug not to poke it in the tongue of the skinks.

This surprised everyone.

Quetzal stepped forward and had a conversation with the skink in the skink tongue.  Afterwards, she said the skinks were servitors of “The Masters,” who seemed to have been gone for a while, she was not certain how long as the skink described the amount of time in a way she did not understand.  She also said that the skinks suggested there might be interesting things in the Antiquities Building adjacent to this pyramid.  The adventurers believe they mean the ruined pile next to this pyramid, which suggests the skinks have not been outside in some time.

Not seeing any profit in attacking the skinks (and suspecting there might be significant danger in doing so), the adventurers left the kitchen and closed the doors.  They then went and investigated the doors at the far end of the hall.  The doors there were of the very large style and both led to rooms almost identical to the first room with the pool.  This led to speculation that “The Masters” needed the water for either rejuvenation or rest, based on the frog-like appearance of the statues outside.

Unable to find any further means down, the group retreated back up and out of the pyramid.  With many questions and few answers, the adventurers decide to head back to Lucan’s Clock.  [Also, it was starting to get late.]  They chose to head due west, deducing from their partial map of the coast that the coast may be nearby to the west.  After two hours of riding in the Spider Walker, they find the coast was in deed where they thought it might be.  They searched that area and found an excellent gave with a good view of the sea.  They set up camp in it.

The next morning, they use the Spider Walker to follow the coast on the water.  After riding for most of the day, they turned towards shore again to search out a good place to camp.  They found a mostly hidden inlet adjacent to a large cave full of bats.  There was a primitive mooring post in the inlet near shore and they found some guano mining tools near the entrance to the cave.  They looked relatively recently used, suggesting someone was using this cave surreptitiously.  Jacien was very excited to find this cave, as there are many things he can alchemically make with bat guano.

Two days later, the group finally arrived back at Lucan’s Clock.  They found precious little in the way of wealth this trip, but a good deal of knowledge and many useful locations.

End of Session

* Potion of Troll Hide:
6 PD / 4 ED Armour     19 Active Points

OAF: Potion Bottle, Fragile (Easily Spilled) -1 1/4
1 Hours Extra Time, Startup (Brewing) -1 1/2
1/2 DCV Concentrate Throughout -1/2
Gestures -1/4
Incantation -1/4
6 x 1 Minute Charges -0
Charges Never Recover -2
Independent -2
RSR: Alchemist Skill (-1/2)

2 REAL