Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

Months have passed and after a massive Aetherstorm, part of Ironhaul was destroyed. Listens was lost under the city but the spirits calmed down. Ironhaul signed fealty to the Duke. The team has spent months relaxing when an ambassador team to Cinderfrost Terminal has disappeared on the way. They were assigned to head there with more ambassadors consisting of Altan, the former tax collector, and a new member: Tiro. The team have been working their way to the terminal by foot, a long dangerous journey. A blizzard has occurred and the team has had to take cover in an old Kani crystal mine and barricade the entrance.

Morning Meditations

Keel-Breaker, Rhum, Trapper, Tiro, and Unit 7
Abandoned Kani Crystal Mine
Windsday, Ust 14th, 2,982 Fourth Reckoning, 4th hour of the Sun
Outside Cinderfrost Terminal, Western Span

Trapper sniffs out the caves and the three further caverns, smelling old minotaur scents, and Ferno kani crystals and the scent of bears that have been around over the past couple weeks. Trapper relates it to their new team lead: Rhum. Rhum tries to give the Servant of Bones a clipboard and order it to do something useful such as tallying supplies which causes the Servant to look confused at Trapper who basically shrugs. Eventually the Servant of Bones may do something useful.

Rhum also checks to make sure that supplies are good to go. Make sure that the entrance is taken care of. The Servant of Bones and Trapper are arguing about doing something useful. Tiro and Altan are together, with Altan discussing at large about his experiences dealing with things and doting over his two chickens. Tiro, in the meantime, extracts some spare wood pieces from the wagon to craft cots via woodshaping. Tiro pulls out some maple sap mead and looks to make himself useful in camp due to his inexperience.

Tessikai is on the wagon doing patchwork and eventually The Servant of Bones ends up walking down the far left passageway to mine some ferno crystals keep fire going. Rhum give Tessikai some fish jerky and heads off to speak with Altan, who seems to be reading a novel he doesn’t want to share, which Rhum assumes to be a ledger which he compliments Altan on and asks where Tiro is. Altan finds him weird and extremely nice and Tiro is getting wood and making food and burning food. Tiro apologizes to Rhum for burning the bacon while Altan insists that Tiro eat the bacon to not waste food. It’s somehow simultaneously soft and crunchy. And Tiro does not feel good after trying a piece.

Trapper rescues the ruined bacon, takes over cooking by taking Rhum’s fish jerky, some snow, a large pot, and some root vegetables to make a sort of fish chowder using the overcooked bacon as a stock. Tessikai helps heal Tiro’s malady, suggesting that he sit down and rest, which Seven is very concerned about as his new orders are to protect the diplomats with a secondary objective of protecting all the members of the party. Once at Cinderfrost, he’s going to be assigned solely to protect Tiro while a secondary takes over protecting Altan. Seven moves further into the cave to investigate the passages and start standing guard from anything that might have been further in.

Seven senses something down the middle passage, immense magical energy that also seems to be trying to hide itself. Seven alerts Trapper, pointing a spear in the direction that it senses the emanation from. Trapper still only smells bear, taura, and kani crystals. Rhum, meantime, makes sure he positions himself between that spur and the rest of the party as a last line of defense. Trapper slips into the shadows and walks down the passageway.

The light gets brighter, there’s signs of struggle and fighting. . . and then a giant kani crystal of something that is unable to be noticed. And the corpse of a giant Span Bear that looks vaguely eaten. . . by the crystal. Something shoots past Trapper’s head that he barely dodges, the projectile smacks into the wall where it embeds itself in the wall and turns semi-liquid. Kani ghost, a type of sprite, that lives in mines around Kani crystals, semi-liquid, someone thinks that they look similar to Kani Crystals. Larger ones tend to envelope prey and devour them. They’re not particularly weak or strong against attacks except for weakness again wind magic.

Trapper moves back, informing the group that the mine is haunted as a scraping, tinkling sound comes from the passageway and the large Kani Ghost comes down the passage like liquid glass that is shattering and slithering at the same time. Seven seems to malfunction for a second, stating that the group is dealing with a Crystal Sprite and starts to cast, it’s metal body vibrating as it sings, causing sympathetic vibrations within the Crystal Sprite causing it to explode into smaller pieces. And then Seven slumps over, looking more alive than Cog.

The team has to start destroying the Crystal Sprites. Rhum and Seven slams them with shields while Trapper attacks from range, the final strike from the spring bolt brace causing it to malfunction with a mechanical issue. Beyond the Crystal Sprite, there’s a very, very large creature that looks almost like a taura, except with a leopard print and four arms. Rhum pushes Seven forwards while Tessikai holds a knife for protection.

Seven pokes the giant taura with the butt of its spear, waking it up from a very, very long spa day. It’s confused with its current situation, only able to identify the Gremian in the party and waves hello. Trapper notices movement in the belly of the Span Bear, noticing that it was trying to give birth when the Sprite got it. He’s immediately suspicious of it considering how long ago the scents were, the bear had been being eaten alive by the Crystal Sprite for almost two-three weeks, so anything alive inside it is suspicious. Rhum spots Trapper and Tessikai and moves over to investigate, drawing his knife to slice open the belly. Tessikai objects and insists that she does it since she’s the healer, despite Trapper’s dislike of the situation.

She slices through the belly of the bear, ripping them from the womb. There are two baby bears inside there, living, damaged from the Crystal Sprite. They’re around the same size of medium sized dogs. And there’s a third bear cub that has died. The taura, meanwhile, is holding its hands together, sitting back with interest and intrigue on its face. Watching everything. Altan is shocked at the size of the Span Bear as Rhum hauls the two living cubs towards the camp, just in time for the Servant of Bones to come down the passageway holding a bucket of Ferno cyrstals. Trapper ends up shaking his head at the servant, asking why it’s never useful much to the Servant’s annoyance.

After dealing with the Crystal Sprite and the Span Bear giving birth to cubs. They determine that the giant taura is a Life-Forged creature that was done really, really badly. It’s definitely some kind of mutant. Tessikai, meanwhile, is attempting to nursemaid the bear cubs.

Aftermath

Rhum attempts to speak first to the giant minotaur mutant in Tauran language, asking what the minotaur’s name is, whose response is Keel-Breaker. He asks where everyone else went, asking if they saw anyone on the way in. Looking around, sniffing. When questioned why Keel-Breaker was there, there’s not much he can remember. He was with friends, helping them, and then not remembering much more than that. It’s obvious that Keel-Breaker is about as intelligent as a very smart potato.

Questioning Keel-Breaker’s name, he explains that he’s too large for boats and tends to break them. Rhum explains that he’s chosen hand to the duke that owns The Green Span. Keel-Breaker understands around a fifth of what he was told, causing Rhum to sigh and explain things to childish terms.

Seven = no sleep, guard good.
Trapper = Gremian, hard see, but good.
Altan = Tax man, good heart, loves coins too much.

What Keel-Breaker comprehends is that he has a new party. It’s basically everyone that he’s supposed to know. Except for the metal man: Seven. Keel-Breaker must lick him, but Seven keeps away from him. Seven requests that Keel-Breaker keeps away from the diplomats as Rhum approaches. For Tiro, it’s a very weird day with mutant minotaurs and crystal monsters and giant bear babies.

Keel-Breaker pulls out some waterskins to hand over to Tessikai without moving from the spot. Tessikai insists that Keel-Breaker comes to help and tells the rest to put their weapons away as Keel-Breaker scuttles away towards Tessikai. Tiro is trying to figure out what to do, trying to keep away from the bear cubs, trying to tend the fire using the Ferno crystals that the Servant of Bones gathered.

Looking on the ground, Tiro sees a crystal sprite on the ground, they retreat from each other. He tries to decide if it’s a weird day and if he should be impressed or weirded out and settles on impressed before going to stand by Unit Seven to keep himself protected. Keel-Breaker keeps trying to help with the baby bears. Seven keeps moving the diplomats away from danger. Trapper repairs his spring bolt bracer while getting recruited into helping stabilize the bear cubs. Keel-Breaker manages to help really, really well with stabilizing them.

After Action Report (GM)

Being a GM again after so long was weird and felt like I was playing dress up in adult clothing. it was good, I had fun – I think my players did too! – but it’s still very raw right now and I have little to say. Being a GM has always been hard, but also dealing with survivor’s guilt tends to put even more on you then you could know until you faced it.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“Who Will Save Your Soul” by Lexxi Saal

“All Along The Watchtower” by The Forest Rangers (Instrumental)