*****
{Game clock resumes
a few moments later on the 1st of March, 3200}
The train is slowed
long enough for Bob to get back on board, and it isn’t long after they get
going again that they realize the Bountiful Bento Box has turned to ash… The adventurers realize that all of the
rations that their characters had with them, had been with them through the
entire mine ordeal… none of them were keen to see if they were still edible and
these rations are thrown out. They also
discover just how far the adulation of the refugee goes: because many of the
townsfolk that are traveling with them are not willing to share the meager
rations they managed to buy off the Veltoni caravan. It is a long, restless night for the heroes
of Silverton.
The next day they
ask the ranger to go hunting, and she scoffs at them: “Do you realize what’s
involved in trying to feed this many people?
I can do it, but it means we have to stop the train for at least half a
day and everyone else needs to forage near the road so while I go out hunting.”
Dwight; “How long
would it take?”
Pat, somewhat
shocked that they are considering the possibility; “Well, this time of year
everything out there is hungry… this mean that the game animals are out in
large numbers trying to find what little forage there is to be had. It also means that there will be a lot of
predators out there as well… I say at least 2 hours, but it could take all
day.”
Milo, resigned;
“Well we may as well get started on that, the sun rises soon and as I
understand it this is a good time for hunting… yes?”
Pat; “Ya, I’ll go
tell Archie we need to stop. You guys go
see if there are any of the passengers who know how to hunt.”
Ten minutes later
Pat and one of the passengers, who it turns out is actually a hunter by trade,
set out in opposite directions hoping to maximize their chances. The rest forage around the road and head out
as far as they dare. Lady luck is with
them and it only takes about 5 hours to gather in what they need. The hunter comes back with a young buck and
Pat brings in a few rabbits, the refugees gather a fair bit of winter dried
fruit and Dwight actually brings in a couple more rabbits. The hunter and the refugees get to work on
the skinning and making the most of their provisions… it is decided that they
will have stews in order to make it all last longer. The rest of the day passes uneventfully.
Mid-morning on the
next day they are lounging about when they notice that the train is slowing…
the strange brass box on the wall jars them to attention, Archie’s voice coming
through in scratchy tones; “Road Martials to the front of the train.” They are
surprised, but they make their way to the control platform at the front of the
engine by which time the engine and wagons have stopped. Archie continues his
voice hardly any less scratchy than on the intercom; “I need to send you out
scouting ahead.” And he is pointing to a thick column of dark smoke rising from
somewhere to the east, and in the direction they are headed.
Bob; “How far up
the road is it?”
Archie: “I’d say
it’s within 5 miles and that puts it right about where Grenvec should be… and
that’s what worries me. There’s nowhere
to turn around until we get to the plateau and the last thing we want is
another ambush.”
Milo; “That could
take a while… Are you sure you want to let the train stay still for the time it
would take us to get there and back?”
Archie; “Well, you
still have the wireless I gave you right?
An’ don’t worry; I picked up something in Silverton that I doubt anyone
there is going to miss. Besides, I plan
on keeping the train creeping forward at about 1mph. Follow me.”
And he deploys the ramp that lets them onto the ground from the control
platform. He gets onto his little kart
and they follow him around to the side of the fuel car. There is a set of double doors about 2/3 of
the way down the right side of the car and Archie taps a button; the rear most
of the two doors opens up to reveal a fairly large storage area. He climbs in and presses another button and a
small crane arm deploys from the area over the door. Hank, Dwight, and Milo help him maneuver a
rather large, bulky crate shaped object out the door and onto the ground. Archie closes things up and then turns to
them; “Stand back a bit.” Then he presses a button on the crate and hurriedly
moves back about 15ft.
It starts to rumble
ominously and several panels begin to slide and move about strangely. A few minutes later it has unfolded itself
into a 15ft wide by 20ft long wagon. It
has a driver’s seat in front of the wheel at the center of the front platform
of the wagon which is about 8ft off the ground; it has two wheels in the front,
but the rear axle has two wheels on each side of the car. There are fancy brass posts holding a steel chain
railing that runs all the way around the entire car that also divides off a 10ft
long by 15ft wide cargo area in the back.
The entire wagon-car has no roof, but the central area behind the
driving platform is deep enough to shelter any of the three people that can sit
on the bench there. The driver, the
steering column, and the ‘drive-train’ on the front axle are protected by a
field of force projected out in front of the wagon, but that it only protects
the driver from the forward arc. Archie
claps his hands and rubs them vigorously together; “So, who gets the crash
course on how not to crash…” points at Thingerlun, who had tagged along,
“NOT you…” he then turns to the rest, “but you’ll want the most agile among you
to sit behind the wheel.”
Bob surreptitiously
steps behind everyone and attempts to be ‘unseen’; and in the end, they
elect Milo… since he’s their reliable light source anyway. It takes about a half hour to review the
controls and for Milo to get the hang of the steering… which is much like a
ship at sea: meaning that several turns of the wheel are required for even a
mild turn of the wagon. It is a good
thing that this cart doesn’t travel that fast. At the end of the lesson Archie
tells Milo that; “The road can only apply 4ft/second of acceleration or
deceleration to the vehicle and there is a maximum speed of 12ft/second
{120ft/round}; but if the wind-screen is turned off,” points to a red button;
“…the cart can apply another 2ft per second to both acceleration and
deceleration and the max speed bumps up to 18ft/second {180/round}. This model of cart steers like a cow and was
made for quiet city driving by poncey gits looking to flaunt their
wealth.”
Dwight; “Will it
travel off of the road?”
Archie; “Yes, but
the wind-screen must be turned off and the cart’s maximum acceleration and
deceleration is 2ft/second {20ft/ round} with a maximum speed of 6ft/ second
{60ft/round}, and may the God’s protect you...
And one last thing,” hiking his thumb over his shoulder at Thingerlun,
“he has to ride in the back as cargo.
You’ll be heading into an area full of Guild Engineers; I don’t want to
get in trouble for not enforcing Guild law.”
Archie turns to face Thingerlun, “And YOU don’t want to be arrested buy
the Guild… trust me on this one.”
A few minutes of
practicing later, the Heroes of Silverton: Dwight, Milo, Pat, Thingerlun, Bob,
and Ffwylldyr are pulling away out in front of the train. About 15 minutes later they are cresting the
last hill before dropping down onto the plateau that formerly housed the town
of Grenvec. The night of fire that
started all of this madness has left nothing but a scared hill and black ash
where the town used to be. Now they
notice that the standing stones where they had escaped the flames are in a
crumbled state all over the plateau. It
is obvious even from this distance that they were thrown apart by some sort of
violent explosion from inside the stones.
Of the Guild Engineering & Construction team there is little left
but twisted wreckage scattered around the plateau. Their attention is drawn to an arrhythmic
pounding noise and they see that near the edge of the plateau they can see that
there are large brutish forms with clubs hammering on the wreckage of one of
the mighty Guild engines.
With further
examination (and moving a bit closer) they can see that about a mile from their
location there are what appear to be several undead giants hammering away at
the wreckage. Milo says; “Those appear to be zombies, and they wouldn’t be that
focused on their attack if there weren’t someone alive in that wreck.”
Pat, “We should
probably go help them.”
Dwight, sighs and
shakes his head; “You’re probably right, but how… I count at least 4 of them
and if what Milo says is true then they are undead giants of some kind.”
Milo, with a fair
degree of zeal in his eyes; “I say we take this thing,” pats the steering
wheel, “and plow right into them!”
There is a stunned
silence for a few moments, then Ffwylldyr says; “Um, you heard Archie say this
thing is just a rich guy’s fancy ride, right?
No armor, no roof; it would be suicide.”
Thingerlun; “we
could split up and move at them from both sides of that hill, I’ll go around to
the left the rest of you go around to the right.”
Milo; “All by
yourself?”
Thingerlun; “I’ll
be fine. I do most of the damage around
here anyway, and maybe it’ll draw some of them off so the rest of you can help
whoever is in the wreckage.”
They head out as
quietly as they can; fortunately the hill where the megaliths once stood screens
their approach for most of the way. For
some reason Dwight is chosen to stay with the cart, and Ffwylldyr stays with
Dwight; he has become fascinated by Dwight and the grandeur of this man’s
destiny.
Thingerlun the
pustulent casts force manipulation and a disc forms, he steps onto it
and heads out, taking the widdershins path down to the ash covered plateau;
Milo, Pat and Bob take the docil path after a few minutes to give Thingerlun a
chance to set up the distraction. The
wreckage is still about a quarter mile off with no cover, so Milo, Bob, and Pat
take a measured approach hoping to get as close as they can before they are
discovered. Once Thingerlun is on his
own and picks up a fair bit of speed as he heads down the hill and is out onto
the plateau and a bit closer to the zombie stone giants than the rest of the
party. On the way down he starts to
formulate the nature of the distraction he wants. He decides to try the new undead summoning
spell he knows in an attempt to usurp control of some of a few of the
zombies. He fails… and they notice the
wash of magic compulsion break upon what little is left of their awareness: 4
of them turn and charge at the wizard.
So, not what he had
in mind, but he figures ‘zombies charging?
I’ll have time to pick them off before they get here…’ He was partially correct, but they are fast
zombies so they have an initiative score… more importantly for the moment,
however, is the fact that they have a sprinting speed as well. Given that he’d been closing the distance I
ruled that he had three rounds before they were in melee range. Thingerlun’s magic missile spell yielded a
few low powered missiles that failed to drop even one; then his spell failed
entirely. He could do nothing but stare
at them until they were upon him, but on the way over to the fight the zombies
had strung out in a line.
Meanwhile… on the other side of the hill…
Bob and Pat close
the distance quicker because they are less hindered, and Pat is a ranger on her
home turf: literally. Even though she
has some of the best weapons against giant (live or dead) she figures the people
in the wreckage need to be protected so she does a quick search and finds a way
inside, Bob moves out to where he can see what is making the clanging sound on
the other side of the wreckage and finds 3 more undead stone giants, but these
were adults when they died and are rather larger than the 4 immature giants
that are attacking Thingerlun.
Fortunately they are standard zombies and are slow and shambling, which
gives Milo the time he needs to get close enough to try and turn the unholy
filth. One is affected and shambles off
towards the edge of the plateau; which is quite close at this point.
On top of the Hill by the cart…
Dwight sees that
there are seven zombies and that Thingerlun is seriously out matched regardless
of his self-confidence, he turns to Ffwylldyr; “We’d better head down there and
see if we can save him.” and he starts to run down the hill in that direction.
Ffwylldyr; “Wouldn’t
the cart be faster?!”
Dwight; “I haven’t really
got a clue how that thing works and we’d probably just kill ourselves.” They head out as fast as they can and are
shortly within extreme longbow range and Dwight decides that it is time for
some really fancy shooting.
{In our game outdoor
ranges are multiplied by three. So he’s using
a d16 & a d5: in our games we house ruled that deed dice are not reduced
for simplicity during melee and for 2handed fighting. The sprinting zombies have AC 14, but
modified to 16. Player declares that he
is aiming for one of the knee caps of the second giant. I rule that this is a 4 or better on the deed
die.}
Dwight licks his
thumb and checks the wind, then aims his bow in a direction that seems guaranteed
to fail… but the arrow streaks out and is caught by the wind and corrected back
to strike true. {Rolls 15, and a 5…} The second giant tumbles and trips; taking
out the third one as well, but the fourth jumps over the pile-up and lands on
the other side.
Inside the twisted gear-scrap…
…that was once a
grand Engine of the Guild, Pat finds about a dozen wounded gnomes who have had
their wounds tended. In the center of
the little cave of twisted metal is a tragic sight. The Cleric of Thormyr who had charged them
first with malicious misconduct leading to the deaths of the citizens of
Grenvec and who later exonerated them and asked if they would investigate the
goings on at Silverton lay half propped up on a girder; his face composed not
in agony but with the sublime calm of someone deep in communion with the
divine. Pat sees that there are squiggle
and circles and powders laced out around him; she can’t read, but she
recognizes them as the same signs that Hearn had used to create the sanctuary
when they were in the Gannu Family Mine.
But what draws her attention is the fact that his body is a mass of
compressed flesh and broken bones from the waist down. Still she can feel the power of his faith holding
the wreckage together; and she decides to set herself as guardian of the portal
that leads into the interior of the wreck.
Meanwhile… Thingerlun is beginning to panic…
He hasn’t noticed
the zombie pile-up and in desperation (he has no other combat spells) he tries
the Summon undead spell again, but fails outright, yet not badly enough for a
mishap. The lead zombie has better aim
this time, but rolls poorly on the damage.
Even so, Thingerlun is still nearly reduced to mush. {Something like 2-4 hp left, I wasn’t keeping
track.}
Dwight tries the
same trick again on the forward of the two standing zombies, but this time he
misses completely and he and Ffwylldyr spend the rest of the round covering
more ground.
{Player; “Well, so
much for Thingerlun… and he never got his familiar either…Damn.”
Storyteller; “Not
necessarily…”}
On the next round
Thingerlun dives under the force disc he’s created hoping that it might afford
him some protection from the zombies that are starting to surround him. It is then that Thingerlun’s mind is filled
near to bursting with the clarion call; “TO BATTLE!!!” Everyone else just hears a
clarion roar of a furious dragon.
Thingerlun is on his back looking up just in time to see a small purple
dragon pop into view as it belched out a cone of acid and then zooms off to the
south and disappears from view below the rim of the plateau.
{Thing’s player
turns to one of the other players; the disc is a fixed barrier that can hold
300lbs… would it stop the attack?” Who
then turned to me and asked “How heavy is the club?”
Storyteller; “Well,
it’s made from a tree that was recently pulled out of the ground… I’d say it’d
be at least 80 to 100 pounds.”
Engineer: “Nope…
Sorry.”
Thingerlun’s
player; “Well that’s it for Thingerlun…”
Storyteller; “Maybe
not, the damage must’ve been reduced significantly in the process, so it’ll
only be 1d10.”
Thingerlun’s
player; “That still might kill me.”
Storyteller rolls a
1…; “Apparently the Gods still have a purpose for Thingerlun.”}
Thingerlun suddenly
feels a massive rush of energy, similar to what he has experienced from Hearn’s
healing rituals; but a hundred times more intensely as the dragon familiar
shares his life force with Thingerlun. The sound of youthful giggling fading in
Thingerlun’s mind is followed by; “Hey Pus Monkey! Show a little effort!”
{Thingerlun receives +68 bonus hit points for the dragon familiar.}
Thingerlun stands
up and holds his staff out ready for combat.
Having seen the
Dragon’s work, Dwight focuses on what is happening over by the wreckage and can
make out that Milo is over-matched. He
heads off in that direction with the bard in tow.
Over by the edge of the plateau…
Bob has thrown his
magic dagger a couple of times and keeps missing, because apparently he can’t
hit a shuffling zombie stone giant. Milo
is only just now arriving on scene, having been slowed by platemail. He tries to turn Unholy again, but fails to muster
sufficient strength to overpower any of them.
The dragon pops up from below the ridge-line and hovers there while he
uses his claws to shred one of the two remaining zombies. Dwight manages to kneecap a second giant, it doesn’t
fall, but it has to remain stationary. Bob
finally hits the remaining zombie with his dagger, but doesn’t really do that
much damage.
Milo grabs his mace
and charges; landing a heavy blow to the putrid giant, but it is still
standing. Much to Milo’s dismay, for the
giant critically succeeds on its attack against Milo, taking more than half of
Milo’s hit points in one attack, and rendering him stunned by the chill specter
of death seen in the soulless eyes of the long dead stone giant. Milo succeeds at his fortitude save to not
get knocked over the edge of the plateau, but is nearly catatonic for the next
30seconds. Bob charges in screaming, and
Dwight manages to hit it with another arrow, but this time just for damage; but
the dagger and arrow are mostly useless, and now Bob is in range of the
club. It misses him, and then on the
next round the zombie nearly kills Milo.
Thingerlun…
… with his new
found vigor, has managed to scoff at the damage that the giant has inflicted,
and with his own prodigious strength (and the magic in the quarterstaff that he
wields) Thingerlun manages to turn the giant into nothing more than moldering
meat in less than a minute. He knows
deep down that he should be dead by now, but the bond with his familiar has
saved him.
Fortunately for Milo…
… the dragon
pounces upon the last undead giant and shreds it with his claws, then growls
melodically and turns invisible. Bob
turns to Milo and sees that he is praying quietly to himself and that some of
Milo’s wounds seem to be healing, but when he is done with the prayer there are
still several wounds visible. Milo looks
at Bob; “PAINNNNN! Where’s Hearn?!” And he flips his mace around so that he is
using the heft as a walking stick and he starts to hobble back towards the
wreckage. Bob follows along behind
hoping that the dead will stay that way.
Pat hears the cleric of Thormyr utter a very faint sigh, and then he
collapses; she runs out to find the others and tell them who she found. After they are all together, they have Dwight
call up Archie to tell him what has occurred.
Archie, somewhat
panicked; “Yes, yes, that’s awful, but what about the FIRE!? Tell me it isn’t the Guild Substation that’s
on fire!”
Bob, Dwight, and
Pat head out that way and are able to tell Archie that it’s the small copse of
trees that passes for woods on this plateau that are burning but not the
station… though it is threatened.
Archie is upset
now; “We’re at the top of the ridge now and heading down onto the plateau, if
that substation goes out it’ll take months to repair! Road Marshals, I charge you with putting out
that fire as fast as possible. Protect
the station!”
{Game clock
suspended at 11am 03/02/3200}
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