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16 April - 15 June 11374 - The RoachKings stayed as honored guests at the villa of Salád’s family in Jaro, Al Qam, for 2 months.  Salád was determined to learn a new spell from Vurlymak’s grimoire, so he studied the ancient blue dragon’s spell scrolls (along with some additional reference texts he borrowed from Kendril) and practiced his craft for at least 8 hours every day.  He managed to achieve a basic proficiency with one spell after 60 days so spent.  Most of the other RKs spent the time training, mingling with wealthy merchants, and/or securing useful new armor & weapons.  Raal (disguised as the merchant prince Bartholemew Trillium) established some beneficial new connections among the merchant class of Al Qam.  Likewise, Shady made numerous new acquaintances while sampling brews at all the local drinking establishments [and I assume By-Tor was most often with him.]  Nucleon used the downtime to craft mana-powered “blaster” pistols for several of the RoachKings.  [Other RKs can specify any other activities they wish to perform during this time period.]

Of course, Salád spent some of his evenings visiting with family, but he made time for other business as well.  Within the first week, during a late-night dinner meeting with Nangres Thornbeard, Salád hired the renowned master craftsman to fashion a suit of fine armor from the hide of one of the smaller blue dragons they had killed.  Thornbeard fulfilled this contract in 6 weeks’ time.  By-Tor also contracted with Thornbeard, but his suit of armor would take much longer because of the great care needed to preserve the magical properties of the large blue dragon’s hide & scales, so it was not ready for some time to come.

Once all this was finished, it was time for the RKs to join Dr. Hu on his quest to establish a College of Time Magics at the Fountain of Lamneth.  Salád’s parents were very unhappy to see him leave, not knowing when (or if) they would see their world-wandering son again.

[All player-characters who spend the 2 months in Al Qam gain 1 level each of Cultural Familiarity (Al Qam) and Spoken Language (Qindi) at no point cost.  In DragonQuest terms, PCs gain Rank 0 with Spoken Language (Qindi) at no EXP cost.  Of course, Salád would not benefit from this since it is his native tongue.  Devo should, however, include the Qindi language (both spoken & written ) at RK 8 on Salád’s character sheet (now that I’ve decided on a name for his native language.)  Obviously, DQ PCs would also gain a cultural familiarity with the kingdom of Al Qam, but there is no DragonQuest skill for this.]

Before leaving Jaro, the RoachKings secured a good map of the Lost Valley.  Dr. Hu told the RoachKings that he believed their destination was in the area where the Kronis River drops off the cliff on the southern side of the valley (circled in red:)

The SEDAN dematerialized normally (which took only a second,) but immediately afterward, alarms sounded and red lights started flashing on the control panels.  The SEDAN seriously malfunctioned during re-materialization and as Dr. Hu urgently turned dials and adjusted controls, he quickly explained to Nuke & the RKs that he was “boosting the power” and “increasing the gain” to correct the problem.  He reported that the SEDAN was taking several seconds to re-materialize and that this had never happened before.  Nucleon attempted to help the Doctor by manning some of the controls & monitoring gauges.  He ascertained from one pair of displays that the SEDAN was not efficiently absorbing manna from its surroundings, as it was designed to do.  The Doctor quickly deduced that they were encountering some sort of energy field with time-dilation effects.  This energy field was delaying their re-materialization and repelling the SEDAN away from the targeted coordinates.   Dr. Hu managed to override the field and allow the SEDAN to materialize, but he estimated that they were about 40 miles from their intended destination.  The SEDAN was now non-functional and it would take several hours to repair.  The exterior-view screen was also out, so they couldn't see what was outside.

Salád used his fire-scrying crystal and observed (from the viewpoint of their fire) a family or small clan of primitive humanoids (women & children) seemingly going about their daily tasks in the midst of a small gathering of very crude lean-to shelters.   With no other way of seeing immediately outside the SEDAN, Raal prepared himself for the worst and then opened the door & stepped out – directly into the path of a charging Styracosaurus.

Shady, Salád & Nucleon quickly followed Raal out the door and they all fanned out.  Shady & Nuke fired manna blasters at the charging dinosaur, causing it to veer to the left.  By this time, the RKs noticed 2 primitive hunters chasing the huge beast with simple wooden spears.  Salád ran around toward the rear of the SEDAN and saw 3 other primitives waiting in the foliage.  He set off a flash of blinding light to keep them at bay for the moment.  The Styracosaurus tried to trample Raal, who happened to be the one RK still in its path.  Raal used his superhuman strength and martial arts training to parry the dinosaur's trampling feet.  Turning its own momentum against it, Raal performed a combination trip and judo throw that left the beast's large snout horn impaled into the ground.  By the time the Styracosaurus freed its horn and stood up, Nucleon had cast a controlling spell over it.  The hobbit then climbed up onto the dinosaur and rode it.  Meanwhile, Salád used his charisma, along with some basic, single-syllable grunts & a few universal hand signals to calm all the primitives and entice them to approach.   [They were of the species homo ergaster, or "Working Man."]  Nuke then cast a “Borrow Language” spell, enabling him to communicate with the cavemen.

The RKs befriended the 5 primitive hunters and decided to take the Styracosaurus back to their clan’s encampment and kill it there, providing them with ample meat & other by-products like the hide, bones & horns with which to make clothing, tools, etc.  The trip to their encampment took a little over an hour.  Once there, Shady slaughtered the Styracosaurus, although he was surprised when it took more than one blow with his sword.  The RKs tried to convince Brak to guide them into the deep forest to the southwest, but he was quite resistant.  He made it clear that it was strictly taboo for him to leave his local area and travel deeper into the forest.  Raal briefly changed into sabretooth cat form in full view of Brak and the other primitives (this was an animal they were quite familiar with and for which they had a healthy respect.)  Considering this, as well as the appearance of the dinosaurs recently, and the ease with which the RKs had tamed & then killed the dinosaur, Brak decided that times had changed and that old taboos were clearly no longer valid.  He reluctantly agreed to serve as guide for the RKs.

As soon as they could gather themselves, the RKs departed the primitive encampment and marched southwest toward the deeper forests of the valley.  Shady flew overhead, just above the trees, while all the others marched at their best pace (and even with a hobbit among them, they made fairly good time.)  It took less than 2 hours to reach the thicker forest. Within the next hour, as the party made its way through the increasingly thicker & taller trees, Shady noticed a massive disturbance in the forest; something very large was pushing its way through the trees, causing them to sway violently as it passed between them.  Shady flew ahead to investigate the disturbance and he spotted a gigantic carnivorous dinosaur – a Giganotosaurus!  It spotted his movement and turned to stomp through the trees in his direction.  He contacted the others and warned them of the impending encounter.  The RKs quickly planned out their attack and set up to ambush the huge, toothy beast.

Soon enough, the Giganotosaurus roared through the trees into the area where the RKs were waiting for it.  Once again, Shady & Nuke fired manna blasters at the dinosaur.  Both aimed for the eyes and caused massive damage, but were somewhat surprised at the creature’s fortitude when it continued charging (although blindly.)  Salád loosed a fireball from a magic item, following it with an illusory fireball that did damage equal to the real one.  After the flurry of ranged attacks, Raal leaped into the melee with his 2-handed tachi sword and inflicted severe cutting damage to the beast.  After several seconds of battle, the RoachKings brought the gigantic creature down.

 

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Stormtroopers & Saurians . . .

(11/23/08) By the time the dust had cleared after their battle with the massive Giganotosaurus, the RKs noticed that Brak the caveman had disappeared back into the forest.  Since he probably had very little info or guidance to offer them anyway, they decided to let him return to his clan.

At this point, the RKs thought it might be a good time to check on Dr. Hu and the other RKs back at the SEDAN.  Several hours had passed, and the repairs to the SEDAN were sure to be completed by now.  Shady gave Nucleon a “Shadow Wings” potion so he could fly back to the SEDAN quickly, and he gave him enough extra potions for the Doctor & any RoachKing who needed one for the return trip.

With Brak gone and Nuke off to check on the others, Raal & Salád decided they should take flight like Shady in order to avoid any further unnecessary melees with prehistoric beasties.  Salád still had his flying carpet, but decided instead to “Polymorph” into a form similar to Shady – with 4 arms & black batwings.  Raal activated “Shadow Wings” as well, and all 3 RKs then flew up to a height of about 10’ above the treetops and set out to the southwest, toward the great waterfall on the far side of the Lost Valley.

Within 10 minutes, Shady noticed a group of large avians taking flight some 8 miles or so to the northwest, apparently flushed out of the trees by something.  Shady concentrated his psionic “Life Detection” ability and found them to be non-intelligent reptilian avians – probably pterodactyls.  With no idea what may have flushed them out, the RKs had no reason to alter their course, so they continued traveling southwest.  But just minutes later, they would have reason.

With their attention briefly drawn to the area of forest northwest of them, all 3 RKs soon noticed a bright flash of reddish light from a point just a couple miles past the pterodactyls Shady had seen.  The flash was soon followed by smoke rising from the forest.  [I can assume that Nuke, as well as Dr. Hu & the RKs at the SEDAN, also saw the flash and/or the smoke, since the distance is about the same.]

Salád appeared near a tree 300’ or so northwest of the ongoing battle, on the side of the mammoth rider.  Raal stepped out of the shadow of a tree northeast of the stormtroopers and behind them, but not far away.  Likewise, Shady arrived near a tree just to the southeast of the stormtroopers and behind them.  By this time, the stormtroopers had reformed into 2 groups and they were lined up to shoot their large firearms at the mammoth.  The raptor-like creature on the mammoth’s back let loose another fireball, hitting the group of stormtroopers near Shady & blasting a few more of them into burning heaps.   Exhibiting a little more discipline now that their Lt. was barking orders at them, several of the remaining stormtroopers fired their weapons, causing bloody wounds on the mammoth’s neck, chest & front legs.  Unlike the “shütgöns” used by the stormtroopers in the swamps of N’Orleon, these weapons fired large solid projectiles.

Using the level 20 wand from the hoard of the blue dragon, Salád immediately let fly a fireball of his own, which exploded with triple effect, taking out several stormtroopers in the other group.  Of course, Salád’s triple-effect fireball was much larger than that of the raptor, but in comparing the 2, Salád realized there was one other difference – the raptor’s fireball was actually illusory and not a real fire spell.  He found this odd, but didn’t really have time enough in the heat of battle for any other reaction.

Once Salád’s fireball blast had subsided, Raal ran into the fray at lightning speed, slicing off at least 2 stormtroopers’ heads as he made his way toward the Lieutenant.  Shady stealthily stormed into the battle as well, taking off one stormtrooper’s head, but dropping one of his 4 vorpal blades on the second swing.  The 2 sword-wielding RKs were invisible and attacking from the rear of the stormtrooper platoon in the heat of battle, so no other stormtroopers were yet aware of their presence.

Just then, the RKs all heard a loud BOOM from an area to the north of the battlefield and watched as a very large projectile struck a glancing blow off the mammoth’s left rear hip.  The beast stumbled, but did not lose the raptor-like rider on its back.  As a cloud of smoke began to billow up from the same area not far to the north, several of the stormtroopers opened fire on the mammoth, at least one striking a critical hit on its eye.  At this point, the creature stopped its forward movement, apparently in great pain and unable to see very well.  The rider showed great skill at keeping it under control and staying on its back.

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Raal, still unseen by the stormtroopers due to his Ninjutsu (“art of invisibility,”) ran between 2 more of them, slicing off their heads as he passed, and approached the Lieutenant from behind.  Shady stealthily picked up his dropped vorpal blade, and Salád set off a magic item that made him invisible as he hid behind the tree 300’ away.  The mammoth rider sent a fireball flying in the direction of the loud boom.   The stormtroopers continued to fire on the mammoth, still unaware that Raal stood right behind their platoon leader.

Salád flew up to a height of about 60’ to check out the source of the loud boom & the large projectile that had struck the mammoth.  At a distance of just over 100’ to the north, he saw a crew of a dozen stormtroopers manning a cannon that was mounted on heavy wooden wheels.  They were loading powder into the barrel and using a ramrod to pack it in.  Salád saw a stack of cannonballs and sacks of powder nearby.  Thinking quickly, he fired off a fireball, hitting the cannon & crew and igniting the powder sacks in an extra large explosion that killed 8 of the 12 stormtroopers.

With most of their squad dead & burning, the surviving members of the cannon crew began to run for their lives.  However, their Lieutenant was still among them and he was barking orders; Salád assumed he was rallying them to stand their ground.  Meanwhile, with the Lieutenant of the main platoon down, half of their ranks began to flee as well.  Still, the half-dozen stormtroopers surrounding their fallen platoon leader rushed toward him.  One actually ran into the unseen Raal and then tried to stab him with his bayonet, but Raal dodged it.

Spinning at lightning speed and slicing with his swords, Raal decapitated 4 stormtroopers in one second, matching Shady’s previous accomplishment.  Shady flew up closer to Raal and sliced off yet another head, leaving only 1 of the remaining stormtroopers still standing.

A second later, Salád cast his spell on the leader of the cannon crew – a terrifying illusory vision he calls the “Gnarly Nightmare.”  The Lieutenant immediately screamed in horror and began to run off into the woods.  His men followed him, leaving the cannon behind after all.  After making himself visible, Salád turned to the mammoth-riding raptor, offered up his open hands and nodded to suggest camaraderie in success.  The raptor seemed to accept the gesture and Salád thought he could discern a toothy smile on its face.

Just then, the RK telepathic link brought Raal’s thoughts to Salád’s mind. Raal was still busy tying up the Lieutenant, but at the same time, he thought, “If we let any of these stormtroopers survive to tell the tale, they won’t even know what really hit ‘em.  I want to leave them with something to remember the RoachKings by.”  He considered planting one of his custom ninja throwing stars in one of them, but they were already well out of range, so Salád came up with another idea.  With a moment’s concentration on his ongoing “Gnarly Nightmare” spell, Salád altered it enough to leave the leader of the cannon crew with a specific, deep-seated fear – that of ever crossing the RoachKings again.

All 3 RKs agreed that 4 survivors were enough, so Shady flew after the other 4 fleeing stormtroopers from the original platoon and quickly decapitated all 4 of them with his vorpal blades (making a total of 20 headless nazis.)

With the melee over, Raal finished tying up the unconscious platoon leader.  As he did so, the raptor nudged his wounded mammoth forward and approached him, apparently interested in what he was doing.  Salád set off an amulet of “Tongues” as he approached the raptor so that, by the time he reached him, he could speak and understand the raptor’s language. “Greetings brave mammoth rider!  Quite a battle, eh?”

The raptor replied, “Yes, yes – and the results were most entertaining.”  Glancing at Raal and then back to Salád, the raptor continued, “So, who are you and why did you help me?”  All this time, Shady remained invisible; for some reason, he wasn’t quite comfortable interacting with an intelligent reptilian.  After a quick telepathic consult with the other RKs, Salád answered the raptor, telling him that they had encountered these stormtroopers before and had found their methods & objectives undesirable.  Salád introduced himself & Raal (Shady remained invisible) and the raptor introduced himself as Serek.  With the introductions over, Serek began treating his mammoth’s wounds with a salve of some kind.

Salád asked Serek how the stormtroopers had come to be here and how he had come to encounter them.  Serek said he believed they had marched here.  He then explained, “Several moons ago, a man like you came to my people to warn us that the stormtroopers would come to invade our territory.  In fact, this man looked a lot like you, Salád.”  With that, Salád inquired further, asking if the man was simply of the same species as himself or if the resemblance was more than that.  Looking directly at Salád, Serek replied, “My eyes are quite good, and this man’s clothing, skin tone, and facial features were all similar to your own.  He warned that these evil men would come with their boom sticks to take the Staff of Saurius.”  At that point, Salád & Shady immediately realized that Serek was talking about Salád’s uncle Javeed.  Serek confirmed this when Salád asked the man’s name. “He spoke only with our leader, Saren, but I believe he gave the name Javeed.”  Serek then continued with his story.  “At first, we didn’t believe him.  My people were suspicious of him because he was not of our kind.  But then, a group of the stormtroopers came, and we barely defeated them with Javeed’s last-minute help.  Now they have come back in greater numbers, but we are better prepared.  Javeed has given us items of power, like this stick that throws balls of fire, to use against them.”  Salád acknowledged that he had found the spells familiar.

Salád then asked if they might go to the home of Serek’s people and speak with their leader, Saren, and this man, Javeed.  Serek agreed.  Raal asked if he could tie the unconscious Lieutenant onto the back of the mammoth so that he didn’t have to carry the man himself.  Again, Serek agreed.  As the party headed off for Serek’s home village, Shady flew over and spiked the cannon to make it unusable.  All the small brush fires that had been started by the fireballs & exploding gunpowder soon went out due to the lushness of the vegetation & the humidity of the forest.  Raal slipped into the woods, out of sight from Serek (and especially from the mammoth) and changed into sabretooth form so he could prowl the periphery during their 5-mile journey through the forest.  Shady remained invisible; for whatever reason, he still wasn’t quite ready to interact with Serek.

Within half an hour, Raal, Salád & Shady arrived with Serek at a village deep in the verdant forest.  The buildings were plain thatched-roof huts made of simple wooden frames covered with broad leaves.   As they entered the village, other raptors approached Serek to welcome him home and to ask about the wounds on his mammoth, but they were wary of the RKs.  Shady finally made himself visible, which caused them even more apprehension. Most of the buildings were obviously small dwellings, but at least one seemed to be a larger community structure.  It was there that Serek took the RoachKings.

After the meeting, Salád went outside for a walk and some private conversation with his uncle.  He learned that Javeed had come into the Lost Valley by flying carpet, traveling up the Kronis River from the Pan Sea, then across the jungle to the Saurian village.  He had encountered clans of prehistoric humans as had the RKs, but his descriptions of these cavemen indicated that they were somewhat more advanced than Brak’s Wolf Clan.  After his conversation with Javeed, Salád was convinced of the validity of his theory that the inhabitants of the Lost Valley fervently stay in their own small territories. 

Salád & Javeed rejoined the others inside, where Saren once again brought up the subject of the stormtroopers.  He explained that he had scouts like Serek throughout his territory and that he knew there were more stormtrooper platoons in the forest.  He said that he knew where most of them were and that some of them also had “the giant boom sticks.”  He said that he still believed his people could defend their territory with the help of Javeed’s power sticks, but he told the RKs that they were most welcome to fight the stormtroopers with them if they so chose.

By this time, Shady could see the muzzle flash of the cannon or whatever was firing the explosive projectiles.  He decided that he would attempt to intercept the projectile in the air, since he felt invincible in truesilver form and believed he could stop the projectile without injury.  Running through the forest below and sensing the location of the muzzle flash through his telepathic link with Shady, Raal threw a phosphorus grenado 240 yards up ahead in an attempt to light up the source of the projectiles.  In the air above Raal, Shady successfully intercepted the projectile with skillful aerobatic maneuvering, but the projectile exploded upon impact with him, sending him reeling backward through the air and causing him significant damage.  Meanwhile, back in the village, Salád invited Javeed to join him on his flying carpet and, after a quick course correction to get clear of the fires & the clutter of Saurian huts, they flew off to the west of the village.  Raal then lobbed another phosphorus grenado at the source of the projectiles, this one landing near his target. 

As Shady quickly recovered from the explosive concussion & the damage he'd suffered from the last projectile, he continued to fly forward and he was now able to see the source of the explosive projectiles - a steel monster of a vehicle that he recognized (from his research into Federation history) as a crude tank.  Just then, another muzzle flash announced another projectile.  Deciding just to deflect the projectiles from now on, Shady initiated another aerobatic maneuver but this time he made a critical mistake.  When he completed the maneuver, he found himself facing away from the projectile when it reached him and he was unable to deflect it or dodge out of its way.  The shell impacted directly on the back of his skull, sending him tumbling head over heels through the air and seriously injuring him, even in his truesilver form.  Shady recovered his aerial composure only a second before hitting the ground, but the tank had fired another shell, blowing up another hut in the Saurian village.

By that time, Raal had arrived at the tank's location and he threw an explosive grenado at the tank's cannon barrel.  His skill at throwing weapons paid off & the grenado went directly down the barrel of the cannon.  He could hear the loud "WHOOMP!" of the explosion inside the metal contraption and he saw smoke poring out of the barrel.  Shady's psionic Life Detection told him that the 3 men inside the tank were agitated & uncomfortable.  Salád's flying carpet had caught up with the others by then and he followed up Raal's grenado by creating an illusory explosion inside the tank.  At that, Shady sensed that the men inside the tank were injured.  He also now sensed 2 full platoons of Stormtroopers just beyond the tank & marching in their direction.  Salád advanced his flying carpet toward the tank to be within range of his (& Javeed's) Fireball Wand, but stayed at a height of 300 feet.

Raal & Shady flanked the Stormtrooper platoons in the forest.  Raal leaped into battle with stormtroopers already distracted by Javeed's fireball blast on the other platoon.  He executed an acrobatic flip while slicing 2 stormtroopers, then landed in the middle of the platoon and decapitated 4 more in the platoon on the north side.  Shady activated his hyper-reflexes power as he approached the stormtroopers.  Meanwhile, Javeed took over navigating the flying carpet as Salád prepared and cast an illusion of a T. Rex coming through the forest.  It first manifested as a loud roaring/crashing sound to the southwest, then became a visual/tactile dinosaur crashing through the trees toward the stormtroopers in the southern platoon.  With lightning speed, Raal sliced off 6 more stormtroopers' heads as Shady arrived and decapitated 8 using his enhanced reflexes.  Javeed fired another fireball at the southern platoon just as the T. Rex came crashing through the trees at them.  Their morale obviously compromised, both platoons fled northward. 

The RKs left one stormtrooper of the northern platoon alive "to tell the tale" but Shady used his powerful telepathic abilities to imbue him with a new mental quirk: he acquired a phobia of white-haired, 4-armed silver beings.  And just for good measure, Salád created an illusion of just such creatures surrounding him.  He fled in horror.

The 2 lieutenants revealed the following information: The Bankoran stormtroopers are commanded by Colonel Hanz Von Bechter.  They came to this region by U-boats with a total of 6 platoons, 3 cannon crews and a prototype tank, and they marched inland, then repelled down into the Lost Valley (using portable cranes to lower the tank & cannons.)  The tank was steam-driven, but the cannon on it was manually crank-loaded with advanced shells that contained their own firing powder.  Their base camp was located about 20 miles north of the Saurian village (outside the forest,) but they move it every 3 days.  Their mission here is to kill as many Saurians as it takes to retrieve the Staff of Saurius and return it to Der Führen for his own purposes (which are unknown to them.)

As soon as he had completed his spells to help with the interrogations, Salád immediately went into preparations for 2 magical investments.  He ritualized for 10 hours, but made a serious mistake during the process and his investment was unsuccessful.  Disappointed  but not deterred, he slept for 8 hours, then prepped the investment again.  After another 10 hours of ritualizing, he once again made a serious mistake that left the investment useless.  Quite frustrated at his repeated failure, Salád decided that the gods obviously did not intend for him to create the magic items today and that it was time to move on.

 

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Leaving the Saurian village behind, they flew southwest over the thick forest. The air was brisk and there were numerous low clouds, some of them drizzling on the foliage below. Various species of dinosaur were visible in the forest, including many large long-necked herbivores with hard plating over parts of their bodies. There were also some very large flying creatures in the distance to the east.

After about an hour of travel (covering about 8 miles,) the forest vegetation began to change noticeably. Flowering plants and oak, hickory & magnolia trees gave way to conifers & canopy trees like Durian & Kapok, and green underbrush containing more ferns. The frequency of flowering plants steadily dwindled and within a couple miles, they were rare. The dinosaurs they saw in the air & below changed as well - the flying dinosaurs looked smaller, they noticed fewer carnivorous species & the long-necked herbivores seemed much larger.  In the distance, a dozen or so miles to the southeast, they saw a large plume of smoke rising into the air and they could just make out the top of a volcanic mountain.

Within a few minutes, those RKs who were flying noticed smoke rising from the rainforest up ahead & they conveyed this to Raal, who stealthily investigated.  The smoke was coming from a small village of just a dozen or so simple huts. The inhabitants were primitive humanoids, but they appeared to be more evolved than Brak's Wolf Clan. They were larger and had a more pronounced brow ridge [homo sapiens neanderthalensis.]  The leader wore 2 fin-like adornments on his head, clearly totem symbols from one of the dinosaur species the RKs had seen nearby [Dilophosaurus.]  With no reason to bother these primitives, the RKs simply passed them by without making their presence known.  However, those RKs with naturalistic skills were beginning to understand that, every time they entered a deeper region of the Lost Valley, the flora & fauna got more prehistoric, but the humanoids got more evolved.