Notes
from the GM
In
the long narrative below, real dates are shown in blue
and game-world dates are in red.
This allows you to scan through the text for a particular
year, either for the players
or for the characters. Only
the first entry for each Lian year is highlighted. An
"R" next to a real date means the adventure
was played "retroactively" to a previous time
period of the characters'.
The
Cosmic Reset . . .
Some
time between 1999 - 2000, I decided to switch from the
DragonQuest™ RPG system to the GURPS®
RPG system. The "Point of Know Return"
scenario was NOT created for the purpose of switching
the campaign over to GURPS, but it facilitated
the change quite nicely. However, a few reluctant
players kept their characters defined under DQ rules,
so I simply ran a 2-system game for a while. This
page of the history documents adventures that took place
after I began the switch to the GURPS gaming
system.
Is
it live, or is it ScreenMonkey ? . .
All
of the adventures told on this page occured via ScreenMonkey™
online gaming. This page includes all the adventures
in the Lost Valley, leading up to the Time Gate &
the Fountain of Lamneth.
---
Charlie |
Expedition
to the Lost Valley [2008-'09]
 (10/19/08)
The
House of Jaro . . .
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
may also contract with Thornbeard, but his suit of armor will
take much longer because of the great care needed to preserve
the magical properties of the large blue dragon’s hide
& scales, so it would not be ready within the 2 months.]
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
RKs entered Dr. Hu's SEDAN and found it to be much larger
on the inside than it appeared on the outside (“SEDAN”
is actually an acronym for Spatial Extrusion
& Dimensional Abbreviation Navigator.)
 In
the center of the large main room inside the SEDAN was a hexagonal
control console with dials, gauges, levers & blinking
lights on all 6 sides and some sort of gyro in a round glass
case in the center. There was also a crystalline viewing
screen showing images of the area just outside the SEDAN.
The Doctor’s plan was to teleport everyone directly
to the location where he believed the Fountain of Lamneth
to be – a process that he said would take only a couple
of seconds. When Dr. Hu started powering up the controls,
Nucleon showed an almost uncontrollable curiosity about the
mechanism, asking numerous questions of the Doctor and barely
resisting [with a Will roll]
the urge to turn a dial or push a button, just to see what
it would do. Dr. Hu explained the functions of some
of the controls to Nucleon and even confided that the SEDAN
has some quirks (the annoying grinding sound it makes when
it operates is one example.)
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
leader of the primitive hunters approached the RKs and introduced
himself as “Brak.” He had a wolf’s tail
hanging from his spear – clearly a totem animal for his
clan. He told the RKs that the Styracosaurus (or “many-horn”)
was quite unusual to them and that they had never seen creatures
like this until recent months. The largest beast they
had ever hunted was a woolly mammoth, but they usually just
killed antelope, reindeer and other such game. They had
decided to hunt the dinosaur because they believed it could
feed their clan for even longer than a mammoth. 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.
/\
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS /\
 (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
immediately thought of his fire scrying crystal and drew it
out. He focused on the source of the smoke and activated
the item. Through the crystal (from a perspective inside
a small brush fire,) Salád saw about 30 men scattering
in all directions. They wore layered-armor uniforms with
spiked black helmets and carried rifle-length firearms with
bayonets. Based on the reports he had heard from other
RKs regarding their battle in the swamps near N’Orleon,
Salád recognized them as Bankoran stormtroopers (the
swastikas on their helmets were a dead giveaway.)  Nearby,
he saw the bodies of several other stormtroopers lying lifeless
on the ground, some smoldering, others still on fire.
In the distance, Salád could just make out the large
form of a woolly mammoth with a medium-sized reptilian creature
riding it. Both the mammoth and its rider appeared to
be wearing pieces of simple leather armor. Just then,
the rider raised its clawed hand, revealing that it was holding
a rod or wand of some kind. The item let loose a ball
of fire, which flew toward the stormtroopers and exploded in
their midst, not more than 12’ from Salád’s
viewpoint. By this time, the stormtroopers had begun coming
back into formation, apparently at the orders of their Lieutenant.
The fireball blasted several more of them, each flying
several yards in a different direction and landing in a burning
or smoldering heap.
The
RKs immediately decided to join in the battle Salád was
watching. They quickly agreed that each of them would
use “Shadow Walk” to appear near a tree on a different
side of the battlefield. Salád spotted 3 likely
target trees, then put away his fire scrying crystal, activated
his “Shadowform” cloak & drew a shield.
Shadowstorm promptly activated “Shadowform,” “Strength
of Stone,” “Quickness” & “Invisibility.”
Raal took a “Shadowform” potion and made
some other quick preparations. Then, they all took "Shadow
Walk" potions.
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.
/\
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS /\
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.
Raal
struck the back of the Lieutenant’s skull with a Power
Blow maneuver, denting his shiny black helmet and knocking him
out cold. He then turned with lightning speed to the stormtrooper
standing right next to the platoon leader. The nazi dodged
Raal’s first swing, but the second decapitated him.
Shady flew past a line of 4 stormtroopers, decapitating all
4 with his vorpal blades. Through the telepathic link,
he sent the message, “That’s 4 in one second, Raal.
Beat that.”
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.
Salád
noticed that the surviving members of the cannon crew were now
lifting the tail end of the cannon and preparing to roll it
away with them as they retreated. Seeing this, Salád
began preparing a spell. About 8 stormtroopers from the
original platoon were still running away from the scorched battlefield
(which was now littered with burnt corpses and no fewer than
15 headless bodies.) Shady quickly decapitated the only
remaining stormtrooper while Raal started tying up the unconscious
Lieutenant who lay nearby. The mammoth-riding raptor threw
a final fireball at the fleeing stormtroopers, blasting 4 of
them.
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.
The
RKs asked Serek what he knew of the great waterfall on the other
side of the valley. He said that it was far beyond the
territory of his people, and therefore he knew nothing of it.
Salád theorized that the peoples of this valley zealously
remain in their own geographic areas.
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.
[R
2/22/09 by GM]
Meanwhile, Nucleon had arrived back at the SEDAN & he
had told everyone there about Brak's Wolf Clan and the battle
with the Giganotosaurus. Dr. Hu & By-Tor had completed
the repairs to the SEDAN, but the Doctor was not willing to
attempt another teleport further into the jungle. Having
seen the smoke rising from the forest about 10 or 12 miles
southwest, they all assumed that the other RKs either were
involved somehow or would investigate it, so they headed in
that direction. By the time they reached the location,
the smoke had subsided, but the aftermath of the battle remained,
giving them clear evidence that Raal, Shady & Salád
had indeed been involved.
After
more than an hour of traveling through the woods at the injured
mammoth’s pace, Raal, Salád & Shady were
nearing Serek's village when Shady began to telepathically
sense By-Tor & the other RKs at the Stormtrooper battle
site. Soon, he could read their surface thoughts as
they surveyed the carnage they had found there, and he sensed
their curiosity about the cannon. He told them about
Serek & his people and he invited them to follow &
join Raal, Salád & himself at their village.
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.
Once
inside the community building, Serek immediately started introducing
the RoachKings to Saren & Javeed, but he was interrupted
when Javeed ran up to Salád and shouted, “Salád!
Salád! What are you doing here?” Salád
gave a brief answer to his uncle’s query and Javeed then
explained to Saren that this was his long-lost nephew.
Saren then introduced himself, explaining to the RKs that he
was “ruler of the Saurians, holder of the Staff, and 13th-generation
direct descendant of Saurius.” After the introductions,
Serek told Saren about the RKs’ earlier actions &
how they gave him assistance against the stormtroopers.
Saren thanked them for their help and they all sat down for
an informative exchange. During this conference, the Saurian
ruler revealed to the RKs that the Staff of Saurius had brought
a “Great Awakening” to his people, who had been
mere animals before the coming of the Staff.
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.
[2/22/09]
Just after the talks with Saren & Javeed, the other RKs
arrived at the Saurian village along with Nucleon, Standing
Bear & Dr. Hu. The Saurians offered the RKs accommodations
in one of their huts & they accepted, settling in for the
night (except for Raal, who wandered the forest north of the
village in sabretooth form.) Raal, Salád
& Shady planned to go on a "fly by night" mission
in the very early hours of the morning in order to reconnoiter
the waterfall & report back to the full party. However,
just as they were preparing to leave at about 3am, they heard
a faint descending whistle coming from the west. A half
second later, the village was rocked by a large explosion that
destroyed one of the domicile huts. The
village erupted in a flurry of activity and the RoachKings sprang
into action. Shady assumed truesilver form and took flight,
heading over the forest to the west. Raal took human form
and followed Shady, running at lightning speed into the forest.
Salád ran to find his uncle Javeed and saw him heading
for the community building with Saren. Just then, he heard
another incoming projectile & set off a Flash of Light"
spell to try & see where it was headed. When he saw
that the projectile was headed for the central community building,
he yelled at Javeed & Saren, warning them to jump clear
of the building just before it exploded.
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.
Now
aware of the 2 platoons of Stormtrooper infantry up ahead,
Raal ran past the tank, sure that Salád & his uncle
had it under control. Shady dropped down into the forest
and became invisible, continuing at full speed toward the
infantry as well. Meanwhile, Salád pummeled the
tank with fireballs while Javeed fired on the infantry.
Salád briefly stumbled and nearly fell off the flying
carpet, but he grabbed the edge and Javeed navigated the carpet
into position for him to climb back on. Salád
slowed the carpet down from then on, so that it wouldn't happen
again.
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.
As
they did so, Raal stunned one of the Lieutenants with a "Pressure
Point" blow, capturing him for interrogation. Shady
continued slicing the fleeing stormtroopers, decapitating
4 more with amazing sword skill. Salád directed
his illusory T. Rex to chase down & chomp on the fleeing
stormtroopers, especially the uncaptured platoon leader.
Javeed sent another fireball into the midst of the fleeing
stormtroopers, blasting 3 of them to smithereens. Just
then, Salád & Javeed heard the hatch on top of
the tank's turret creak open and they saw a single scorched
stormtrooper pop up, reach for the gun mounted there &
swing it in their direction. Salád finished him
off with a "Molecular Disruption" spell. Shady
flew into the middle of another group of fleeing stormtroopers,
made himself visible & performed another spinning attack
that decapitated 4 more of them. Salád's T. Rex
chased down the remaining stormtroopers and chomped on them,
including their Lieutenant.
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.
 [5/31/09]
With the battle over, Raal, Salád, Javeed & Shady
returned to the Saurian village and joined the other RKs,
Nucleon & Dr. Hu in helping to put out fires and tend to
the wounded. Once the most urgent priorities were taken
care of, the RKs turned their attention to interrogating their
captured stormtrooper lieutenants. One of them had a picture
in his shirt pocket of his hero - Führen Jorgen Sage.
Keeping the 2 platoon leaders in separate huts, Salád
used his "Gnarly Nightmare" spell to create illusions
specifically based on their deepest personal fears. One
manifested as a large angry gorilla, the other as a 16' anaconda.
The first platoon leader, Lt. Schtumkopf, managed to resist
his inner fear of apes and braced himself for the coming interrogation.
Raal simply told him, "I was just going to mess with your
mind, but now I'm going to have to actually hurt you."
Shady telepathically enhanced his fears in order to soften him
up as much as possible. Moving on to the other platoon
leader, Lt. Reinschtatt, his fear of snakes caused him to panic
at the sight & sound of the anaconda and he fought to get
loose, but couldn't. Raal & Shady traded off interrogating
the 2 platoon leaders for the next several hours and had little
problem gaining the information they sought. 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 is 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 he 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.
Salád
activated his magically invested ankle chain and polymorphed
into a form with feathered wings, then made himself invisible.
Shady altered himself psionically, growing a tail & feathered
wings, but remaining flesh & blood rather than taking truesilver
form. He also gave himself 2-toed feet and went invisible
as well. Kendril & the other RKs, along with Dr. Hu,
Standing Bear & Nucleon, each activated his own method of
flight. Raal took sabretooth form, deciding to travel
through the forest while the others flew about 100 yards overhead.
And thus, at around mid-day, the RKs finally took off for the
Kronis Falls on the far side of the valley, their pace set by
that of Raal in sabretooth cat form (about 8mph.)
/\
BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS /\
 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.
After
traveling on for another 5 or 6 miles (or about 2 hours into
their journey,) the landscape changed once again and the RKs
noticed a distinct sulfuric odor to the air, as well as a
drop in the oxygen level. It became hard to breathe
without some sort of enhancement, so  Kendril
[now an active PC] obliged those
without their own means of breathing assistance & cast
several "Magic Breathing" spells. As they
continued on, the ferns became much thicker, the vines thicker,
and the canopy trees now had much broader leaves, giving the
area a more jungle-like feel. Even Kendril didn't know the
exact names of all the species of trees, since many of them
had been extinct in the known world for millions of years.
All the dinosaur species they saw were now much smaller than
before and most of them seemed somehow more "generic."
The topography became more hilly here as well, and they could
now see the small volcano spewing smoke and oozing lava a
few miles to their left (east.) Several other pillars of smoke
rising into the air to the southwest gave them the impression
that there were other volcanoes up ahead, too.
But
by the time the RoachKings had gotten that far, they were
enterng the domain of the Didacts
& Narpets . . .
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