Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn. After side-quests, distractions, blue surges of strange auras, and beings definitely from around Riverbend, they've taken some quick but much-needed rest, and are ready to complete their journey.
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Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend. He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters. Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust. Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock. He had recently received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers. Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"
Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places, and finding it often. He has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair. Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge. Also pregnant for the third time, and due to deliver badly out of season
Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest.
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Everyone woke up from their naps, including Sonny who (a) was on guard duty and (b) doesn't sleep since he's a sunflower. No one discussed anything, packing up their gear and moving
Pete was still coming down off his curry overdose, washing off his fur in the Big River, promising that it wouldn't happen again. He took the point going down the narrow trail, giving him a second to take another snort.
"Blue auras... don't they know I'm color blind...."
For the rest of the group, the tone was jovial, with Squiggles regaling all, particularly his children Speedy and Poppy, with his stories of his adventures, and the time on Farmer Yulius' farm. Poppy asked if Farmer Yulius was always a good man.
Squiggles: “He paid in bread and soil. That’s good enough for a song.”
The river path did not seem to connect with anything, but Pete did quick work of the surrounding brush and vines, allowing the whole crew, plus the stagon, to travel without much discomfort.
By midday on the second day of traveling, the were walking alongside a tremendous bend in the river, far more massive than anything around their namesake home town.
As they cleared the turn, the massive structure jutted out from the old growth trees on the other side of the Big River....
It easily towered 30 or 40 feet about the trees... and in reality, this massive windowless building actually stretched for kilometers.
Sonny pulled out the spyglass, Pete had the binoculars.
Sonny: I don't believe it... upon closer inspection, that thing is so much larger than it appears... It makes KIA look like a hut!
Pete: Is this where Lathar's dad located.?
Squiggles: You're telling me that would be a place called the Wildlands.
Sonny: I don't see anybody manning the top. Could it be abandoned???
Pete: That's man-stone, it's too clean to not be occupied. Got to be living metal in there at least.
Sonny: Man-stone? What is it, some hero out of Squiggles' shanties?
Lathar: I'm so using that name next time we need to sneak into somewhere.
Squiggles: Do you mean the Ancients' softstone?
Sonny: Honestly, for once, I don't care what the term is... I'm game for going over there and exploring.
Pete: How are we getting across? The river's like 500 meters across!
Sonny: We're almost by Lathar's dad, we're gong to half to cross the river eventually...
It was decided to wait further downstream... and the opportunity stretched itself over the Big River.
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| The Hanging Spine |
This large stone bridge looked largely intact, even if the approach on this side had collapsed, and the other side disappeared into
Squiggles: Perhaps we should inquire with the people with the boats below the bridge... even if their trolls!
The group emerged from the woods and traverse carefully over the rocky approach.
A lone woman appeared out of the shack, unarmed. She sized up the group before bellowing back inside....
"Pritch??? We've got visitors" |
| Mara |
No one even needed to ask. Lathar walked up and tried to schmooze the woman, Mara.
Mara: "Visitors? You're not flying over head, or blowing up the fish with dynamite?
Lathar: What do you mean flying? We're just looking for a crossing...
Mara spoke about flying machines. She mentioned Otters from Parr that refused to swim in the river, but stayed in a building constructed on the bridge deck. They never went any further.
An older man with a blunderbuss burst out of the shack "You're not stealin' the last of my women!"
Mara, her old man, Pritch, and the adult sun, Lio, all live under "The Hanging Spine" fishing, and scavenging on this side of the river. None of them had been across the river in years.
Pritch: "Scavengers went across a generation across, pick the Sin Bin clean."
Lathar: "Sin Bin?"
Pritch: We've been calling that since I was a kid, nothing but trouble, and no treasure. Nothing but animals over them.
Lathar did mention they were looking for his father, and his father should be somewhere on the other side, although it was further downriver.
Lio answered questions to the massive building further inland. "That Screaming Box is a gateway to hell... I'd avoid it."
It was Sonny who negotiated with Pritch, using his massive collection of an "Assortment of springs, screws, and gears." to transport them all across the river... and further down a bit. The Explorers spend the night camped outside the shack. Food was shared, stories told, and the following morning they all woke to Pritch putting small walls on the raft to keep No-Name safe. Before lunch, they set off.
Pritch explained that there were plenty of small villages doting the riverside. Most were very far inland and were not perceptible from the river, which was just fine to them.
They actually took two days down the river, some basic fishing, no sight of civilization.... but by the end of the second day, Pritch steered the raft and Lio moved the boat along the marshy edge on the other side of the river.
"Welcome... to the Black Reeds of the Wildlands"
Next: #132 - Welcome to the Wildlands....
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