We played another game yesterday and this time, Baldur, Kyrila and Hygelak had to find their way back home from the plateau of Cantopia. They still had three gliders constructed by the Puppeteer and decided not to climb down the bluff at the edge of the plateau but instead looked for a suitable landing place in the forest below and took off to the air once again – only fail completely at the obstacle 3 Speed tests in order to land safely on a clearing about a mile from the edge of the high plateau and not damage the glider in the process.
While Baldur turned his own glider into a pile of wooden splinters and torn canvas, Kyrila and Hygelak managed to avoid the most substantial damage to their vessels and being blessed with good luck, none of the three crash-happy pilots took any serious injuries (only a superficial for Kyrila and a light for Hygelak, from both of which they recovered instantly). Anyway, Baldur was quite depressed, looking at the destroyed marvellous gliders and decided to take at least one of them back to the rebel camp so he could repair it and understand its ingenious construction.
Down on the ground, Kyrila climbed a nearby tree in order to win back her lost orientation as she had no clear idea of the cardinal directions after her unexpectedly fast and turbulent descent. Climbing the tree did not prove all that difficult, yet Kyrila still failed her Orienteering test and so the party would get lost on their way back home to the rebel camp.
Kyrila led her two companions through the wilderness and soon the came to witness a couple of disgusting bugs with the size of well-fed domestic cats that were feeding upon the cadavre of a huge boar. In the evening of the first day of travel, Kyrila found out that there wasn’t much game in the forest to hunt and so she didn’t manage to provide anything but a weasel as a meal for the three of them. So they finally were forced to go to sleep with empty stomaches and a unpleasant anxiety as beyond the illumination of the campfire that Baldur had ignited, the were disturbing shadows crawling through the undergrowth and the entire forest seemed to be bustling with many-legged life.
On the second day, Kyrila led the group further through the woods, and close to noon, they encountered a river of myriads of red ants that was rolling through the bed of one the many mountain creeks that descend from the Stormpillar Mountains to Lake Tangir, carrying dead forest animals and boughs with it.
The heroes decided unanimously that it was a bad idea to cross the path of the ants and instead decided to venture back to the last creek they had crossed about half an hour ago and follow it down to the lakeshore. The party had to rest once again, and as Kyrila still couldn’t provide enough food, Hygelak decided to play on his Aura of Martyrdom and abstain from his part of the scarce rations (he effectively accepted a +3 Ob penalty due to hunger while that of Baldur and Kyrila would remain at +1 Ob).
When they finally emerged from the forest, a warm rain had started to pour down from the heavy clouds that were hanging above the smoke-colored surface of the lake. They instantly realized that they had ventured way too far west and had now ended up with the hostile city of Nimrod between them and the rebel camp.
Anyway, they immediately spotted a group of three warriors that occurred to be guardians of Nimrod who were struggling with a pair of enormous giant stag beetles that were about as big as ponys. One of the warriors had been badly injured by the monstrous insects and so the heroes decided to intervene and help the warriors with the intention to persuade them to join the Woodland Rebellion afterwards.
Thus, Kyrila used her bow to assist her father’s warriors, but although she finally did bring one of the beetles down and the tribal guardians took care of the other, the abominations still transformed the already wounded man into a gorey mess that was far beyond any hopes of healing. After the battle, Kyrila tried to convince the surviving warriors to join her cause in exchange for her already granted help, but the warriors remained very reluctant. Although they agreed that Marduk was indeed treating them badly, they insisted on their opinion that Kyrila’s rebellion was but a thorn in Marduk’s heel and that they would finally all be slaughtered by the chieftain’s Angelic allies.
Anyway, the warriors agreed to supply the heroes with food and helped them sneak around Nimrod without being harassed by the patrols. They also told the party about the attacks by vicious insect monstrosities that had begun a few days ago and had already caused some casualties to Marduk’s troops.
With the promise not to take action against the rebels as long as they could avoid it, the two warriors hailed the heroes good bye and returned to Nimrod while Hygelak, Kyrila and Baldur finally returned to the rebel camp. There, they were greeted by Berun, the warrior that had dared to question Kyrila’s authority before and now he confronted her again, telling her about attacks by giant vermin and two rebel warriors who had been injured badly trying to defend the camp against those creatures. Berun asked Kyrila to legitimate her trip to Cantopia and openly suggested that maybe she was not a good leader for the Rebellion at all.
This led to a quick duel of wits in which Kyrila managed to humiliate Berun deeply by telling him to remember his place in the hierarchy and presenting the blueprints of the Bronze Juggernaut that would enable the rebels to finally seek open conflict with Marduk’s forces and his powerful allies. Berun reacted by cursing at Princess Kyrila which ruined his good standing among the other rebel warriors and so it happened that Berun was stripped of his rank and sentenced to a public whipping for his transgressions.
After the duel of wits, the session was mostly over, leaving only Baldur to decipher the blueprints of the Bronze Moloch and Kyrila trying a circles test to find an NPC that would be able to create a regional map of the woodlands between Lake Tangir and the Plateau of Cantopia from the PCs descriptions. The latter was successful, leaving the heroes with the name of a certain Thara, the cousin of one of the rebels who was supposed to live in Arcadia were she was employed at the local academy. Anyway, Baldur failed his test for deciphering the blueprints and so his calculations about how much bronze, how many workers and how a big a workshop will be required to construct the Bronze Juggernaut will finally turn out to be somewhat off.
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That’s it, so far. Baldur’s quest for the fabled Mystificator is finally over, leaving him with an even bigger one as constructing the Juggernaut will be a huge challenge. Anyway, Kyrila will most certainly help him as this weapon will hopefully enable her to defeat her father in the upcoming battle of Nimrod. Hygelak has found a first hint on his origins and will be doing some research in Arcadia – as that’s the place were the party will go next. So another journey through Ethrea imminent and finally there will be some good social interaction in the Free City of Arcadia where it’s all about whom you know and who knows you.