Session 3
Arbach awoke half buried in sand. He looked around, trying
to figure out where he was. He could see the remains of the crashed gasbag.
There were bodies everywhere. As he watched he saw movement in the wreckage.
Kizmet came staggering out of the piled wood and canvas that had once been a
flying machine.
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| Art by Brent Nienberg at https://girlsandbots.com/ |
As he dug himself out of the sand he noticed a gnome
wandering around checking the bodies. Arbach staggered over to the ship and
found his backpack. Checking inside, the bottle of fine whiskey was intact. He
removed the cork and took a long pull.
Kizmet was relieved to see Arbach up and around. She needed
his skills. A voice in her head kept telling her to brave the storm and travel
to the Vault of the Fallen as soon as possible. As she scanned the horizon she saw that the bubble of magic
that had kept the storm at bay was still intact, but seemed to be shrinking.
There were other survivors moving around in the wreckage. In addition to Arbach
there was a gnome checking bodies; there were a lot of bodies. She could see a
tiefling, some sort of priest, searching for something in the sand. She could
feel The Vault of the Fallen calling to her.
Kizmet found Peter tangled in the wreckage, alive but
unconscious. The gnome ranger brought over some sort of herb he’d found in the
waste and put it under Peter’s nose. Peter opened his eyes. “Worms, worms,
worms”. He then passed out again.
She also found Lord Rallin, still breathing but gravely
wounded. As she considered whether she could kill him without anyone noticing, Asarkor
the house mage came staggering out of the ruined ship. “Worms, worms, worms,
worms”. He then stood staring off into the distance.
Tak-Ansiik had to find his shield. It was much more than
just physical protection. It was the holy symbol of his dark faith. As he
searched he felt its pull and rushed towards it. The shield was flat black with
no decoration or adornment. There were cracks and fissures that ran throughout
the surface.
Tak picked up his shield and headed back towards the ship.
He gathered some of the dead and laid them on his shield. As he did the cracks
began to spread. Tak knew that the cracks changed based on his actions but this
is the first he had seen something like this.
He saw another body, a large man in shining armor. As he got
closer he started to feel angrier and angrier towards this man. He couldn’t
explain it but as he dragged the body over to join the pile he began to hate
him. When Tak laid the newest body near the shield he saw the cracks start to
heal, getting smaller and farther from the center. He dragged the body away,
threw it down and started yelling at it.
Arbach watched the strange Tiefling priest yell at Farrow’s
body. Needing to know if his companion was all right he walked over and checked
him out. The priest saw him coming and went back to his body collecting,
muttering imprecations at Farrow as he left. Arbach checked Farrow and, finding
a pulse, dragged him over to join the rest of the wounded.
He then motioned the priest over to Lord Rallin. After a
brief discussion, Arbach placed his foot on the Lord’s head and pulled the
shaft out of his chest. At the same time Tak cast a healing spell on the lord.
Lord Rallin opened his eyes, gasped; “Worms”, and fell unconscious. Arbach was
surprised since that spell should have gotten the lord back on his feet.
Terry the gnome was checking for casualties, and perhaps
emptying the pockets of the dead as he went. He saw the pile of wounded growing
as more survivors were located. Several of the crew were still alive, five or
six it seemed. There also seemed to be other hirelings like him and Tak. The
others appeared to be in two groups. There was a tall, beautiful dark elf with
a staff and a thin half elf. They were tending to two of the casualties. There
was also a group of four others, a large human, a Halfling, a half orc and an
elf. The large human and the half elf began to discuss their options and Terry
drifted nearer, as did Tak.
Mulgo, the human, was talking as Terry got within earshot.
“We should leave anyone who can’t walk and go to the Vault now”. Asarkor broke
in. “We have to go to the Onyx. That’s where the healing drafts are”. “They are
all on the Onyx”. He then passed out. Arbach didn’t like Mulgo much so he
argued the Mage’s side. “We need to get to the Onyx and get the healing
drafts”. “Lord Rallin is the leader of this expedition and we need him alive”.
As the discussion got more heated between the two they squared up on each other
and began to finger their weapons.
Kizmet recognized the signs. Arbach was about to get them in
trouble again. Sure enough “You want to settle this now”? Mulgo bellowed out.
In answer Arbach drew his scimitar and a tomahawk. “Let’s do this”. The
half-orc came up and grabbed Mulgo’s hand. She whispered “This is not the time.
Later”. Arbach was close enough to hear her. Mulgo took his hand from his
sword. The half-orc looked around at the survivors; “We should go to Taj. We
can get supplies and rest there”.
Terry was inclined to honor his contract and save the lord.
He interjected himself into the conversation. “We should go to the Onyx and get
the potions”. Mulgo just looked at him. “Why are you talking gnome”?
While they were all arguing Tak pulled Arbach’s scimitar out
of its scabbard and walked over to the ship. He stood at the rail and started
to try to chop through the lines secured there. Arbach walked up to him, took
the scimitar out of his hands and flicked him on the nose. Tak’s reaction was
subdued, he just kept trying to cut the lines with empty hands. Looking around,
Terry noticed that the crew all seemed to be going about their duties as if
everything were normal. Something odd was definitely happening.
Arbach, seeing that Mulgo was just interested in looting the
Vault made a new suggestion. “Mulgo, why don’t you see what we can salvage from
the wreckage, then we’ll all follow you to the Vault”. Mulgo didn’t want to
appear to be following Arbach’s orders but he liked the plan, and his implied
leadership in it, so he led his team into the wreckage to start searching.
Arbach immediately gathered broken spars and line and rigged
up four litters. Terry and Tak dragooned the surviving crewmen into pulling
them. They loaded up Farrow, Peter, Lord Rallin and Asarkor onto the litters
and headed out into the storm. They were headed directly away from the
direction the gasbag had been travelling. They were going to the Onyx.
Arbach was able to guide the party in the direction that the
Onyx had gone down. Due to his familiarity with the Waste the party was able to
avoid difficult and dangerous terrain and move quickly. The storm continued to
rage around them. At one point both Terry and Tak were struck by a lightning
bolt, leaving a web of burn marks on their skin, like the veins of a leaf.
As they travelled, Terry and Arbach noticed that they were
following the trail of a group of goblins. The goblins were travelling in
single file to avoid giving away their numbers but Terry, who hated goblins,
was able to figure out that there were sixteen of them.
The party continued along the path until they saw it split
up into several different groups. They left the litters and their bearers
behind a dune and moved forward to where they could see the goblins attacking
the wreckage of the Onyx. There were still people alive and fighting back in
the ship. As they reached the fight the storm died down and both the goblins
and the defenders started shooting at each other.
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| Art by Brent Nienberg at https://girlsandbots.com/ |
Arbach took aim and let fly at one of the goblin archers,
missing wide. Tak, who was behind Arbach, readied his crossbow and fired a bolt
directly into Arbach. Arbach spun with the impact and loosed his arrow into
Tak, gravely wounding him and knocking him unconscious.
In the meantime Kizmet and Terry were engaging the goblins
in a more effective manner. Kizmet exploded one of the goblins with the Staff
of Empty Boots. Terry was moving forward, slowly through the loose sand, and
firing his crossbow at the right flank goblins who were the closest.
The crew of the ship and the goblins continued their duel,
with casualties on both sides. The crew were using small rail mounted
ballistae. They were slow and clumsy but devastating when they hit. Arbach was
hit by a second arrow, this time fired by a foe. He shrugged off the damage
and, reaching down, pulled the arrow out of Tak and fired it into the skull of
one of the goblin archers. He then began to down goblins with his longbow while
moving quickly towards the left flank, unaffected by the difficult terrain.
Between the fire of the crew and Arbach and Kizmet, the
central group of goblins was wiped out. Two of the right flank goblins rushed
the wreckage and got inside. Arbach finished off the left flank and then shot
one of the right flank goblins. The last one was inside the wreckage, where he
was killed with a blood curdling scream.
On the dune Tak managed to regain consciousness but was too
weak to get up.
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