May 07, 2005

Hook

T-Bone is hanging out at the bar and points the adventurers to the back when they enter. He is a man of about 25 years and looks under nourished. He wears a well worn leather jacket with many straps, buckles, and rings. On the top of his head is a multicolored mohawk.

Plot Synopsis

The adventurers show up pretty much right on time and are directed back to room 3. There, they find an older man deeply engrossed in a book, one which details studies done on some aquatic cultures. He explains that he is the leader of a small dig site on a different world, one which was apparently once covered with water, similar to Jaern, but it has all since disappeared to locations unknown. He and his team are attempting to learn about the culture that once existed on the world. However, his manpower is limited and investigating every interesting site the scouts report on would take a great deal of time, so he wants the adventurers to investigate a larger structure one of the scout teams noticed farther off, a large tower of some kind, about two days north of the base camp. He offers to pay them 400 sp each, as this mission will likely be very low risk, as absolutely no sentient indigenous life forms have been found on the planet. As Tovin put it, .There isn.t enough life on this dirtball to fill a Kurujo.. All he needs them to do is take notes and report on what they see.

The group agrees to the terms and follows Tovin to the portal. When they emerge on the other side, they realize just how lacking in water this world is, as immediately after they step through the portal, they can feel their skin drying out. The group departs the small base camp and heads north with various forms of flight, cutting the travel time substantially. As they travel, they see the planet.s single blue/white moon rise. However, this moon is either very large, or, more likely, very close, and strikes everyone as more than a little unsettling. As they travel, it shows its short orbital period by circling about seven times in a single day.

The party stops for the night a short distance from their intended destination. Once during the night, a single, dim blue light is noticed off in the direction they were traveling, but nobody takes much notice of it.

The next morning, the party approaches their destination, noticing a large, metallic structure on one of the large plateaus that dot the landscape. It is a tower, wide at the base but tapering to a narrower point, with a glowing blue point of light at the top. What is also unusual is the presence of a living tree next to the tower. As the group approaches the tower, Jenny notices something sitting on a small platform near the top of the tower. It looks like a miniature draco, though black with glowing red eyes. It keeps an eye on them from its perch as they climb the plateau. All attempts at communicating with it are unanswered. Paroli and several other languages are ignored. One of the groups spots what appears to be a skeleton at the end of the plateau far from the tower. It is reptilian in appearance, but also has a shiny metal stake driven through its back, and investigation suggests it was retreating from the tower.

Val approaches the tree, and discovers that it is a projection of some kind. As she reaches inside of it, the mini-draco takes flight and zeros in on Val, who catches it neatly in a blue field. Under the tree is a switch of some kind, which opens a door at the base of the tower. Jenny and Val investigate the area around the tower a bit more, and check the perch, finding another, more irritated mini-draco, who attacks them with claws and some metal spikes, like the one found in the skeleton.s back. After repeated hits, the metal creature dies, and then glows red, exploding a short while later. The group decides to poke around inside before another one of these things appears.

Inside the tower is an elevator, which lowers them to a circular room, with two other rooms branching off of it. The walls of the larger room are covered in glowing symbols, arranged on blocks, which change constantly, except for one section, which flashes constantly. Tyn pokes a section of blank wall, which changes to show a circle with a smaller circle moving around it, and a number of other pieces of unintelligible data. A search of one of the adjoining rooms reveals another smaller elevator, which displays an image of the tower from the side, and rows of orange symbols, though one glows red. A lot of elevator ups and downs ensue, and all the other floors contain a single room and a network of tunnels connecting a series of nodes, with a larger inaccessible shaft. Each node contains a cylinder with a white, glowing prism. Upon arriving at the floor labeled in red, it seems that a cave in has damaged many of the nodes and access tunnels, leaving the section dark. A search of one other floor locates a small room off of the main shaft which contains a display of some kind of countdown. At this point, the group decides that countdowns are rarely good and makes for the exit.

Upon exiting, the group is attacked by another improved version of the draco, which first drops exploding cylinders from altitude, and engages at high speeds with flame breath. They manage to destroy it, and decide to head back. The trip back is uneventful, and they present Tovin with a pack of notes on their encounters.

Noteworthy Postgame Events