[To the Temple of Baharat and then a surprise in the NDK.]
[This session took place March 29, 2003. We were playing Champions 5th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]
Player Characters
Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, graduate of Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver – male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mord Worldfist – male dwarf bodyguard [and handler] for Dangar
Wendell Dorshild III – male gnome, Captain and Architect of the Yardbird
Malwyn Talath– male High elf fighter and military expert
Darkfox – female human thief from Freegate, secret ID of socialite Karlyn Gryphshaw
Session Begins
September, 23 IC
After taking their leave from the Horse Lords, the Yardbird skirted the eastern edge of the Great Nef, moving through the western edges of Thuringia and Tusmit before arriving at the turning into the desert suggested by Camazotz. At the very point where they were planning to turn into the desert, lookouts spotted a human, standing in the middle of the empty plains, as if waiting for them. The stranger was carrying a banner that appeared to a variant of the Outlanders’ banner, but had the silhouette of a giant bat behind the bottles.
A group of security gnomes landed in a Runaround Mark 6 (which looked like a paper airplane) and talked to the waiting man. He identified himself as Mikal, one of the founding members of the Outlanders. After a quick conversation via semaphore, Mikal was invited to travel with the Yardbird.
After picking up Mikal, the Yardbird turned west and headed into the Great Nef. The Yardbird’s airspeed was low due to winter winds blowing from the north and the need to fly high over the Great Nef to avoid the anti-magic field of the desert itself.
In order to avoid running into any unexpected increases in the anti-magic field, the Yardbird trailed a line with “detectors” placed along the final 50 yards of the line. The “detectors” were stones with light spells cast upon them – when the stone goes out, it is in the anti-magic field. By raising and lowering the line, the gnomes were able to map the height of the anti-magic field.
October 3, 18 IC
Approaching the general location of the Temple of Baharat at mid-afternoon (3:00 PM), the crew notice two things: a steady drop in the height of the anti-magic field and the first rocky outcropping they had seen since crossing into the desert. Redirecting the Yardbird towards the rocky outcropping, the anti-magic field dropped below the range of the detector line.
Once close enough, the details on the outcropping resolved and a sense of scale became apparent. The outcropping was some sort of crater nearly 2 miles in diameter and 1000 ft high. The eastern rim had collapsed and dropped to the ground, providing access to the bowl of the crater. The temple could be seen within the crater, near the broken lip. It was surrounded by three distinct types of forests that were separated by clearings. Despite the separateness of the forests, they seemed to be growing naturally.
The Outsiders descended from the Yardbird (which stayed high in the air) in a Runaround Mark 5 along with Rebecca’s Roughnecks. As the Yardbird was staying at a height that made it impossible to use semaphore flags, the away team was given colored smoke bombs to signal the Yardbird.
Nervously expecting to suddenly drop when the Runaround entered the anti-magic field, the Outlanders and the Roughnecks were pleasantly surprised to discover that the temple was in an area where magic worked. This allowed a controlled descent the entire distance and a safe landing in front of the temple.
The Outlanders started to explore the temple. The outer walls and main gate were covered in ivy and the Outlanders spent some time clearing the wall to verify this was the Temple of Baharat and not to some ancient evil. Under the ivy they found mosaics of Celestial Pegasi and decided they were good to go.
The temple courtyard was a giant eight-sided mosaic. It was subdivided into eight wedges, each decorated with a different abstract theme, one of which seemed to have been burned or magically darkened. In the exact center was a pillar covered with eyes that were actually looking at them. Mikal vaguely remembered this from his training as the Pillar of Eyes, reputed to be lost sometime around the Mage War over 8000 years ago.
Realizing they were too close to make out the patterns in the mosaics, Malwyn and Darkfox climbed the outer wall to get a better view of them. This gave the duo some impressions but nothing concrete. They were able to identify some of them, including one that seems to represent Ymer. Tim remembered that part of the loot from the first job he did for Montiflurio was a “Book of Ymer” and a block of ice that never melts. Still having the block of ice (which he used to cool his drinks) Tim placed the block on Ymer’s section to see what happened. What happened was the block of ice was absorbed into the floor section without a trace. The Outlanders stood around trying to decide what to do next until an elderly man walked up from deeper in the temple complex.
The man looked like a gardener of indeterminate age who had been working in the dirt. However, after talking to him for a while, the Outlanders slowly realized that this was actually Baharat the Creator! He identified the Elderlan Gods that each of the floor sections was associated with. They were, from the section leading to the temple and going clockwise:
- Baharat the Creator (himself)
- Ningizzida, God of the Serpent, the Lord of the Tree of Life
- Scathos – Keeper of Secrets
- Lord of Storms
- Sothis the Traveller (this section faced the main gate)
- Ymer of the White Eyes
- Abol (the scorched section)
- Usher, Guardian of Time
These were the gods who created the world. Baharat invited the Outlanders (and the crew of the Yardbird) in for dinner and quick grew some plant people servants from seeds and unseen cooks from the thin air. He sent the newly created life forms off to prepare dinner and led the Outlanders into the temple.
Over dinner, the Outlanders explained their mission and learned several interesting things about the peoples on the continent. Baharat confirmed that gnomes and dwarves were not original races. He approved of the gnomes and always felt they were a good idea on the Nin-a-zu’s part. When asked who the Nin-a-zu were, he sat back a bit and said, “well, I thought some of you are. You have the look of them.” He was specifically talking about Tim and Darkfox. Mikal [an Uplander] looked like “a mix of Nin-a-zu and Annunaki.”
He said the dwarves appeared to be well created and wondered who made them. He knew that none of the Elderlan Gods had made them and wondered if some of the Middle Gods did or if they were created in a similar way to the gnomes. “I’ll have to ask Scathos about it. He loves to keep tabs on what’s going on in the world.”
When asked about the Aetherstone anvil, Baharat admitted to having one “around here somewhere”, but was curious how the Outlanders knew to ask. When they mentioned that Camazotz told them, he asked them to tell the story of their meeting with Camazotz. He remembered Camazotz in a positive light.
At the end of dinner, Baharat presented each of the Outlanders with a gift, some tangible, some not.
|
Tim |
Intangible |
Knowledge of how to make the Mokenth Charm. |
|
Dangar Stonekleaver |
Tangible |
The Aetherstone anvil and a pair of gloves that allow
the wearer to carry the anvil. |
|
Darkfox |
Tangible |
A Fox Mask that grants UV vision and +4 to Hearing
PER roll. “It will manifest additional
features over time.” |
|
Malwyn Talath |
Tangible |
Baharat imbued the enamel horn with the ability to
summon Celestial Pegasi once per week. |
|
Wendell Dorshild |
Intangible |
An IDEA and a blessing. “Let all of the gnomes know
that they are favored by Baharat.” |
|
Mord Worldfist |
Tangible |
Ring of Protection (PD, ED, EGO, Flash, PRE) |
|
Mikal the Wanderer |
Intangible |
“I can give you no more than this - know that you are
Chosen and have a part to play in your people’s future.” |
At this point it a team from the Yardbird arrived and it became apparent that the temple was under a time dilation effect. When asked about it, Baharat’s response was, “Of course time is dilated. How else do you expect me to fix the damage faster than it happens? It’s still going to take a few hundred years or so to fix properly.”
When the Outlanders left the temple grounds it was the morning of October 17. A great comet was visible in the early morning sky. Baharat identified it as the Comet of Fate – it last appeared in the skies when the Nin-a-zu first landed on this continent. He then bid the Outlanders farewell and re-entered the temple.
October 29, 18 IC
The Yardbird flew north-northwest, heading to the capital of the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, Karak-urd, to pick up the hammer commissioned the last time the Yardbird was there. Once over the Worldspine Mountains they were greeted in the skies by a dwarven airship!
The dwarven airship was a different design than the Yardbird but obviously borrowed from the Yardbird’s base design. Its gasbag was significantly larger than the Yardbird’s, making it look somewhat fat in comparison. The gnomes speculated that the dwarves were using a gas that was not as lift-efficient as aether. Emblazoned on the front and sides of the dwarven airship was the emblem of the dwarven Worldbender Clan.
Where the command cabin was on the Yardbird, the dwarven airship had two large doors. As the crew of the Yardbird watched, the doors slid back to either side. A high-pitched whistle was heard and then a very large dart-like object shot out, trailing a wisp of steam and making a buzzing noise. Immediately after exiting the dwarven airship, wings snapped out from the dart and instead of dropping, it started flying on its own. It appeared to be a small, fixed-wing aircraft carrying a single dwarven pilot with a propeller behind him.
The noisy aircraft approached the Yardbird and the pilot indicated he was going to land on top. The Outlanders and several gnomes headed to the top of the Yardbird and arrived just as the dwarf landed his aircraft. The dwarf introduced himself as Dwar Worldbender and he was there to deliver a message to the Yardbird – unknown forces had been trying to sabotage the creation of Keybreaker over the last two months. Further, the dwarven airship Hwyrrak (“Wind Citadel” in Dentugog) was sent to escort the Yardbird into the NDK. The Hwyrrak carried several belf’rads (“Noisy Irons” in Dentugog), the small aircraft he flew over in, which would provide support to the Yardbird. The belf’rads were fixed wing aircraft that used clockwork engines to turn the propellers at high rates of speed and were very maneuverable.
Session Ends.
NPCs Met
Baharat the Creator – leader of the deities that created the world.
Happening Off-Stage
[Nothing in my notes.]
DM Discussion
[Mikal’s player was back in town for a couple days and sat in on this session, hence his sudden appearance in this session and disappearance next session.]
[The Mokenth Charm magnifies the wearer's ability to tap into magical power, something the Department of High Energy Thaumatics, and Tim, were very interested in achieving. Incidentally, Tim's listing here suggests that Oliver stayed back in Freegate and that player resumed playing Tim again. My notes did not explicitly say that had happened, so it might be that he is playing both and Oliver stayed on the Yardbird. I wish Past Me had been a bit more meticulous in his note taking.]
[Dwarven airships use hydrogen as their lifting gas, which is only a third as effective as aether. The gas cell is magically reinforced to hold the gas in and to avoid tearing. The clockwork engines on the belf’rads provide 45 minutes of flight when air-launched, 30 minutes if launching from the ground. The belf’rad launcher in the Hwyrrak was a steam catapult similar to those used on real world aircraft carriers.]
Flight of the Yardbird
Previous session: Session 13
Next Session: Session 15 [not edited yet]
No comments:
Post a Comment