Session Summary - 06/07/2002


The session started with the party passing through the color pool and arriving on Yggdrasil. It was a new experience for everyone, with the possible exception of Twig. Also a bit unnerving, as the group started on the very tip of a branch that seemed to be swaying in the wind. Granted, the branch was some 80 feet across at the tip, and soon grew to be several hundred yards across, so it wasn't too scary. The World Ash seemed to be experiencing a season of late summer, with warm sun and the leaves in full splendor.

The journey along the branch would last for about six hours. Along the way, the party encountered a few gigantic versions of normal tree-life (beetles and ants mainly). Rusteen was absolutely convinced that the giant beetles were actively plotting against the party and should be attacked. The rest of the group realized that the supposed ranger was just being paranoid and decided not to waste their time or resources and continued on their way. Twig repeatedly expressed her disappointment that the group did not encounter any ratatosks, the squirrel-like people who are native to the World Ash.

At the end of the previously mentioned travel time, the group finally found a pair of treemarks, one of which was their destination. The trail left by the khastaa led to a knot in the branch - which at this scale was more like a crater. Beyond the crater, the party's branch merged with a larger branch (or possibly the trunk). In the intersection of the two limbs was a town, which Zin knew to be called Crux. Surprisingly, the party opted to immediately follow their goal of recovering their stolen beauty rather than detouring to town and buying more alcohol.

Half the party immediately opted for the shortest distance between two points and began climbing down the hundred or so feet to the bottom of the crater. Rusteen, Twig, and Ginaea had no difficulty descending, while Zin was apparently being suicidal even when using a rope. Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to summon a flying astral construct to prevent his certain splatitude on the bottom of the crater when Twig accidentally (?) made him fall from halfway down the crater's wall. The rest of group, realizing they had been following a caravan that included a wagon, wisely spent a few minutes searching for the road which led to the bottom of the crater.

Once safely (more or less) reunited on the floor of the woody crater, the party rediscovered the trail of their quarry and continued to follow it. A few more minutes of walking led the group to a vertical pool of inky blackness that hung vertically in the air before them. The group quickly determined that it was a portal - although the fact that it was one-way was not discovered until everyone except Rusteen and Jack had stepped through. After waiting for a few minutes without word from the others, the two Primes were forced to step through on their own and hope that no horrible fate awaited them.

The other side of the portal was most unique. Rather than immediately appearing at the destination, those who step through find themselves on a flat-topped boulder that's just large enough to comfortably hold everyone in the group. Surrounding the rock is an empty black void. There is a sensation of very rapid movement, yet no wind or visual cues to confirm this feeling of motion. After an unknown length of time, the black void pulled back from the rock, revealing to be on the ground as if it had been sitting there for several hundred years. The party had arrived on Naphraks, the half-world.

The so-called world was really nothing more than a small pocket of reality about a half-mile in diameter. A cloudy, yellowish sky hung over the gray gravel which formed the ground. The rest was the impenetrable curtain of ink which surrounded the oasis of existence. The area was mostly open ground, with six widely spaced buildings within it. One was a barracks, which Zin soon determined to house about 70 lizardfolk. Another was a stables for the giant lizards which pulled the wagons. One was a slave pen - really a fenced in yard - which housed about 40 weakened slaves in apalling condiditions. Two buildings were storage sheds. The last, which was the only one that didn't look like it had been hastily (and poorly) built, was a six-story tower made from red marble.j

The party decided to hide and wait until the equivelant of nightfall before trying to find where the lizardfolk kept the stolen beauty. Once the party started to act, they were really busy. First, Rusteen saw to it that the single door to the barracks was barred from the outside, and then set the remaining four soldiers from Heliopolis to guard it. Twig and Shazarr decided to investigate the stables, where the genasi ended up briefly doing battle with one of the lizards housed there. The rest of the group proceeded to free the slaves and help them escape through the exit portal. After all these errands, the party finally moved to investiage the stone tower.

The party seemed to have finally gotten a stroke of good luck. Immediately beyond the entry doors was a grand hall, with the leader of the khastaa asleep on his throne. Scattered around the base of the throne were hundreds of bottles, each filled with stolen beauty. The only other occupants visible were a pair of sleeping dire lizards. Seeing only three victims, the party snuck in and launched a suprise attack! Naturally, things went downhill from there.

Rusteen started the carnage by throwing a molotov cocktail right into the lizard king's lap. Naturally, the damage woke him up. As the king was flailing around trying to extinguish the flames, Dr. Fever decided to "help" the party by covering most of the throne room with a cloud of fog. Immediately afterward the party heard the sounds of breaking glass! It would seem that once blind, the lizard king blundered into some of the bottles and broke them, sending who knows much beauty into the environment. Fortunately, the fog cloud prevent anyone from immediately trying to go and possess anything at ground zero. (Of course, Zin was already doing just that because he had used his clarivoyance powers to scout the room earlier and had fallen prey to the charms of a particularly attractive fern.)

At this point, things got a little ugly. Twig charged into the room to start beating on the lizard king, while Rusteen and Dr. Fever engaged the dire lizards. Ginaea and Shazarr, being victims of stolen beauty and caring about this fact, charged forward to restore themselves and then stock up on some additional bottles. Zin took quick custody of his beloved plant, and then began creating some astral minions to help the others fight the lizards. Quite rapidly, Rusteen and Dr. Fever discovered that the bigger they are, the harder they bite. These two took some major damage while trying to solo the lizards. In the meantime, Twig found that she just could not punch the king. However, Shazarr soon fixed that problem by stepping up and taking up a flanking position, which gave Twig the edge needed to finally start landing some blows.

Once the party figured out the benefits of this tactic, the combat went much smoother, although several people did end up a few breaths away from unconciousness. With the conclusion of the battle, the party was able to finally lay claim to the artifact which stole beauty and use it to "disarm" all of the objects (and people) in the room who'd been dosed by excess beauty during the fight. The party was also able to loot the room of the king's various trinkets and finally get some actual treasure (a campaign first). The list is as follows...

The session ended after the fight. The party now has a choice to make at the start of the next session. Do they want to explore the rest of the tower, or do they simply want to cut their losses and leave with their booty? Of course, there is also the question of where to go once they do leave Naphraks - back to Heliopolis to finish out Augustus' mission, or is there time to stop off in Crux and perhaps sell off some of their loot?

Authored by: Ken Lipka

E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com 		Return to
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