Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers travelling to Level A, Inc to the Restorationists.
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Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout looking for trouble
Sneaky Pete: a mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.
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.
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After following the northern tributary from the River Bend River and encountering a flute-sounding chromatic orb of the ancients, the De Facto Explorers had few problems working up the riverbank.
This river was nothing compared to the Great River that River Bend bordered on. The river was shallow at all points, the other side could be reached by a good rock throw, and even Sonny could work upriver fighting it's light current.
On the second day, the group reached a set of ancient ruins in the distance. The walls of these buildings were still standing, and some buildings had makeshift roofs of sticks and other detritus replacing the ones that had collapse. Further investigation netted sights of tents and tarps used in and on other buildings.
There was no sign of any activity within the buildings but closer to the shoreline there was a commotion.
Investigating the noise, the group discovered four snake-men (no wings, but) surrounding and threatening a lone human.
As Lathar rode No Name towards the commotion, one of the snake men knocked the human down and turned towards the Lathar, brandishing a flintlock. Another ignored the charging human, brandishing a whip and tried flaying the human on the ground.
The scouts split in opposite directions to find a better bead on the creature.
Amid the cracks of the whip the man could only plead to his oppressors, "Stop! In the name of peace, stop hitting me!"
Pete thought he had a bead on the one snakeman holding a whip, until the creature dropped it on its own. Pete then realized it fell because the snakeman no longer had hands!
Lathar was just about to reach the scrum and hit one of them, when he witnessed the transformations. All of the snakemen were losing their limbs and shrinking, until they were nothing more than regular snakes, slithering off into the woods, looking for a place to hide.
Even with Lathar atop his steed mere feet away from the man, it was Pete who spoke out first.
"Are you okay."
"Yes, yes, yes. I'm alright, although I've technically been flayed. First time for everything, your know."
"Who were they?"
"A quartet of Hissers I'm afraid. The rest of the village lives in these old ruins. Usually won't bother a soul, but those four youths were looking for trouble.
"And who are you?" as Lathar offered him a hand-up.
"I am Artemus of the Brotherhood. Pleasure to make everyone's acquaintance..."
Artemus was a member of the Brotherhood of Thought, an alliance of pacifists. Normally he travelled with three similar but different travelling companions, but an encounter with wandering Knights of Genetic Purity left him a lone survivor.
Pete seemed troubled, "Wait, your a pacifist? What happened to the Hissers?"
"I simply reduced them to their core essences, it's a special power I've been granted to deal with unnatural presences."
"Remind me never to piss you off."
"So noted."
Artemus was traveling west to a town called Janius to a Brotherhood lodge, and was willing to travel with the group only to leave the Hisser enclave in a timely manner.
Lathar did not trust their short-term traveling companion, more for the well-being of his mutant friends. He kept his distance as they travelled.
Artemus only reported a mixture of forest, fields, and rolling hills in his travels. He immediately wondered why this area in particular had not been settled by more than the Hissers.
The Knights who attacked his group had been seen quite ahead. The Brotherhood simply could not outrun them.
After lunch, they bid adieu to Artemus who hopped across to rocks to the opposite bank of the river, and continued following the river towards Level A Inc.
In the last hours of sunlight, they veered away from the river, and soon encountered a large structure sticking out of the ground. On top of a hill in the distance was a large dome. Closer inspection netted a series of glass window climbing up the dome in specific increments.
Squiggles and Pete split up to take opposite approaches to the dome to meet in the back.
- The dome was on an extremely gradual, groomed hill, with open area 100 meters in all directions, save a random bush or tree.
- One of the spaced out windows on the dome was actually broken.
- No tracks to or from the dome were detected.
Sonny the mutant sunflower was the only other to detect anything wrong with at the top of the hill, and advised everyone else to catch up with Squiggles.
By the time they reached the broken window, Squiggles had already walked away to reconnoiter the far side of the dome again. This time it was Sonny's turn to stick it's head and take a peak. For the sunflower, it saw a distinct feline head in the shadows, a large pair of glowing eyes, and a growing scream coming from the darkness. "Oh my! We're under attack. Doom! Doom, I tell you! The plants are here!"
Sonny could only wave at the creature with its leafy fronds. "No, no, we're friendly. No need to harm anyone."
Lathar pulled back his plant friend. "What's going on?"
"It's some form of jaguar creature, I appear to have startled it. But there's so much potential treasures."
They assembled their rope and debated who exactly should go down first. Lathar decided to poke his head in for his own good look, before climbing down. It was quiet.
Lathar was encouraged to a formerly introduce himself as he climbed down.
"Greetings, I am Lathar of the Hills, an Original Man who means no harm."
He reached the bottom, hands outstretched, "I am here in peace, hopefully to help."
Dead silence rang through the room, before the a collection of low, animal growls could be heard. Fear welled in Lathar's eyes. A giant jaguar head, at least 15 foot tall, emerged from the shadows and one word could be heard in Lathar's mind...
"Run."
Squiggles, Pete, and Sonny could only see Lathar climb the rope back up, much faster than he climbed down, and once he reached the top, continued to run down the hill.
Pete was impressed by his athleticism, "The boy can run!" but when looking down, could feel the giant jaguar head, forcing him to follow the human down the hill as well...
GM Notes: Quote of the Night: While assembling rope to descend into the dome -
Next: #3 - Artificial Offers
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