New World Recap #12: Day 47-50 - It's a decent descent

In the pre-dawn light the group rechecks their belongings and heads out of the village. The bearded, dreadlocked Neanderthal gives the group a glare as they pass him. They meet the chieftain and several warriors on a ridge outside the village. The old man seems to stare down at the mass of people and has a quiet conversation to himself.

“Are we ready?” asks Siqua, not at all confident that the old man can survive the trek.

“Let’s move.” Says the old man.

The group settles into its usual formation and begins walking.

“The hell are you going? Get back here.” The old man complains. With a gesture the man casts a spell. Smoke begins to rise from the ground and takes the form of spectral elk. “Get on, we haven’t got all summer.”

For most of the group this is the first time they’ve ever ridden anything. The sensation is strange.

With these mounts, the typically seven day trek is completed in three.

As the group approaches the bison sculpture, Lion Sails the Sea dismounts and makes an offering of sage and tobacco. The group walks across the field of bones without so much as disturbing a stone. As the chief crosses, however, the bones quickly animate and swarm to the old man.

Fearing the untimely demise of either one power or the other, the group stares, transfixed.

The skulls nuzzle the decrepit old man and as he strokes the bones, flesh and fur fill in like water, leaving swathes of whole, white hide visible; muscle clearly moving beneath.

The group enters the cave and dons their heavy furs. Nugi and her two children – Siqua’s followers – make a makeshift camp under the slightly glowing spirit tree. Her eyes are wide, too much of the white is showing. Siqua and her eldest son calm her, but her anxiety returns as she watches Siqua walk through the “Ice” portal with the rest of the group.

The group walks through the barrier.  The old man hobbled through the portal, but the bear creature emerges from the other side. Across the trackless snow ahead of them the trunk of the great tree stands in the distance. Pkuma spots something moving amongst the roots again. It’s roughly the size of a man, though it’s difficult to tell what manner of creature it is. Once brought to the attention of the group, the bear creature points its bony snout toward the tree and says something unintelligible to the Neanderthal warriors. They turn and immediately cross back through the portal to the tree room.

“I need them back in the village. There is something alien here. I must destroy it.”

With that, the creature lunges forward flying down the hill on four limbs. The group struggles to keep up through the high snow, each adapting in their own way. Steam rises from the broken snow behind the beast and the vapors for semi solid wolves, fast on the trail of the bear. Pkuma grabs onto the fur of one the spirit creatures and clings for dear life as he is carried forward with such force the wind stings his face.

The group watches as the rump of the bear creature vanishes, swiftly followed by the three umbral wolves and the pygmy atop them.

The group comes to the point where the tracks vanish and find a great hole in the ground made by the space between the roots of the tree. From the claw marks gouged into the wood, it is clear the bear-thing jumped down and was followed by the wolves.

The group makes their way down the crevasse and follows the tracks while, Pkuma suffers the full effect of violence in the spirit world. The wolves he has mounted run in all three dimensions along vertical and upside-down surfaces. They stay close to the bear, which seems to be running on its own vector. To Pkuma’s horror, a creature like the one slain in the portal room rears up out of the woodwork and attacks the bear-thing. With one swipe of its paw, the bear-thing separates the underbelly of the creature from the rest of the carapace. Its intestines spill out and a deep, purple ichor splashes the wood in the tunnel.

The bear-thing did not even break its gait.

Eventually the bear-thing, the wolves, and Pkuma reach an entry way into a large chamber. Two stone pillars hold create a gap in the twisting roots and some kind of magical field prevents further travel into the depths of the tree.

The group arrives as the wolves’ spectral forms dissipate and return to the Aether and find the bear-thing clawing at the magic wall. As the group struggles to come up with an answer, they hear the sound of hundreds of tiny claws scratching through the boughs surrounding them. A gap, not much bigger than a dog, shoes another of the insect like creatures that attacked the group not long ago. 

Thinking quickly, Siqua ensnares the beast in the roots of the great tree and Poma and Pkuma go to work cutting it to pieces. The struggle is for naught, however, as the moment one Pkuma’s arrows pierces the creatures scaly hide, the fight ends. A violent sucking sound buffets the group and the creature collapses in on itself. After a quick red flash, nothing remains and Pkuma’s arrow falls to the ground.

“Well, damn.” Says Broken Clay. “Where did you get those arrows again?”

“They were just laying behind some of the roots in the tree chamber.” Replies Pkuma.

Looking closer, Broken Clay uses his spellcraft to determine the arrowheads have been enchanted to dismiss their target back to whichever plane they originated from. "This is serious magic... I mean whomever wove this spell knows what they're doing."

Sensing an opportunity, Pkuma touches an arrow to the magical barrier barring the path. With a whisper the field vanishes and the group passes into the chamber.

They look into the circular room and see that it is nearly perfectly spherical. The bottom of the chamber is hard stone, covered in loose bones. Standing in 15 foot increments are large touchstones like the one the Neanderthals were dragging. They are spread out in a grid, twenty by twenty.

There is little light in the area, and Melvi casts dancing lights, much as he did the first time he visited this room. Again, the lights float up and are absorbed into a ball of roots or antlers that act as a chandelier. As the light disperses to other chandeliers, the dim light outlines the movement of dozens of the black horrors on the curving walls, crawling into and out of the intertwined wood.

While the room is still too dark to see fully across, the outline of something massive shudders against the far wall, and a wet thump shakes the ground the group stands on…

New World Recap #11: Day 43-47 - Dialoguey Or: How I spent my summer staycation

The party is astounded. This is magic none of them have seen; their plan to easily usurp the great chief and implant their own puppet has fallen through.

“We can’t let him just kill Ogg, this is insane!” says Poma

“I’ve invested too much in keeping this sap alive, you’ll answer to me should harm befall him” shouts Jenga.

“Let it play out… This is what we wanted.” Says Grey Bear.

“Who wants to bed the hero? Lady – I think – Let’s get to it” Pkuma drags away an agog Neanderthal woman.

The bear-creature plunges its blade into the ground. “Rise, Ogg, and claim your right!”

“Now hold on you illusory son of a bitch, you think you can just muscle people out of the way because you’ve got the Talent?” Melvi charges the stage, magical lights firing around him. "Ogg will challenge you and he’ll kick your ass. We’ll fuck you up!”

The bear creature plucks Melvi from the ground and raises him in a tremendous paw. “Is this true, Ogg, does your warband challenge me or is it only you?”

“We’ll cut you to pieces and eat your entrails, your shitty campfire visions don’t fool anybody! Fuck off, sugartits, it’s go time!” chimes Melvi.

Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear is enchanted by ancient magic and leads cavemen into war.

“If you are concerned about the outcome of this adventure, you should release Ogg from his bond and support us as we find the cause of the harm on your people.” Says Broken Clay. “We are not your enemy.”

“Do you mean you are my friend?” says the creature “Ogg, do you reserve your right for a later time?”

“YES!” shouts the group and Ogg in unison.

“Very well. What is it you ask of us? How do we eliminate this threat to the Blooded Moon?”

“We have found what we think is the source of the scourge.” Broken Clay goes on to explain the Bison spirits, the tree room, and the portals and destinations.

“I am familiar with these spirits. They were my friends once.

“We are too far south in this unrelenting heat to carry our furs with us any longer. You may help yourself to them and whatever other supplies you might need. Let me know when you are prepared to return and I shall join you.”

The group, narrowly averting what would surely leave them disemboweled, steaming carcasses on the steppe, warily make their way out of the center of the village. The citizenry give them a wide berth, none dare challenge them, and many offer up their furs, food, and beds.

Melvi finds what passes for the village tailor and commissions cloaks be made out of the wendigo hide the group purchased some time ago. The price is only 14 days’ rations and the remainder of the hide, and he easily appropriates the food from the village stores and passes it along. (The group gains two cloaks of Spell Resistance 12.)

“So what now?” asks Jenga “This thing is a threat to everyone. We should kill the old man in his sleep and Thunderbird the job’s done.”

“Seconded. Though if we ate of his body we’d have a portion of that power…” says Pkuma

“Have you not heard of wendigo? Seriously?” interrupts Broken Clay “Eating a man’s flesh, particularly this far north, will summon things we cannot fight and survive. They are the souls of cannibals turned feral. They stalk the skies on burning feet to prey on mortals. Besides, this is obviously a great ally to have on our side. Thunderbird did well to align us to such a power.”

“First, this tribe has clearly handled wendigo before – I doubt they traded for that hide over there.” Says Grey Bear “Second, odds are the two hundred year old man-that-turns-into-bear-god is what killed it. If we can’t kill wendigo, we can’t kill him. If he’s volunteering to come with us, we can let him do the heavy lifting and Thunderbird will free us to return home.”

“I agree, our priority should be fulfilling this request,” says Siqua “ I do not wish to be afield any longer than I need – I have a woman and children to return to my people.”

“Yeah, about them,” says Poma “Are they staying here or are we taking them back?”

Siqua eyes the few men wandering at the edge of the camp, “They’ll come along. The bison spirits should keep them safe.”

“So,” says Broken Clay, “We travel with this chief?”

The group agrees and they make ready for the trip back to the great portal.

"Are those your lady parts or two large hairballs?" -- Pkuma

New World Recap #10: Day 36-43 - The Nanurark Umik

The group makes the week long trek back to the Neanderthal camp. The stumble across some undead, but they lack the magical connection that seem to have powered the earlier bands of reanimated dead.

An uneventful trek brings the group back to the refugee town. Ogg leads the way to the center of the village – the survivors clamor to see the saviors of their tribe. Melvi and Poma begin telling stories of their adventure and the crowd begins to tremble with excitement. “Are we really free?” “Have they ended the siege?” “I can’t wait to bed the heroes!” (The last from a chorus of old men.)

Pushing their way to the dais, the group moves past the mounted trophies of wendigo and ahklut hides, and the blue-ish skins of several giants, their empty eye sockets staring blankly through the crowd. The old man sits upon his chair, several warriors surround him, conferring with a tall dreadlocked Neanderthal with a matted beard. The meeting stops when all eyes turn to the returning group. The bearded Neanderthal moves away from the dias and the old chief summons the group forward.

“What have you to say? Is the deed done?”

Ogg steps forward and kneels “Yes, boss! We have found the creature responsible and have a way for our mystics to find its mates and end this menace.” Ogg produces the skull of the creature and presents it to the old chief. With arthritic speed, the old man rises and takes the skull from Ogg’s upturned hands.

“That is good news Ogghul'tnsp'o! You have done well! What of the warriors that followed you?”

“They have all perished in the battle, chief. Only the stalwart that have entered the circle have survived the battle.”

“Impressive.” He turns to the crows crushing the circle reserved for leadership. “BEHOLD MY PEOPLE! Look upon that which would kill us! Look upon that which will eat our children!” Look upon that which will take our souls and force us to slay our beloved!

“It is dead! It shall die again! It and its ilk shall never live again so long as the Blooded Moon draw breath! We shall hunt them to the end of the stars and drink the blood of their children!”

The crowd goes absolutely insane. Mothers foam at the mouth, old men hit each other with their staves, children scream in murderous delight.

“Now, hero! Now, Ogg! Now, war chief! Rise! Challenge me and claim your right!”

The old man drops the insect-like carapace to the dirt raises his head and screams. Within half a heartbeat, his voice drops and the scream becomes a roar. Its tenor vibrates among the primal neurons of the party’s brains and in the bowels of their stomachs. The roar continues longer than anyone thinks the man has lungs for.

And they fear.

Almost imperceptibly the man begins to grow, then within the span of a thought the wizened old chieftain triples in size. His arms extend to the length of a man, his torso rockets up like a shoot of grass, and thick, mottled, white fur erupts out of his body. His face elongates and the skin pulls back exposing bone and muscle. In its place stares the runed skull of a great bear; cords of sinew connecting the skull to the bare, muscled flesh of its thick neck. The roar ends and silence prevails. The man turned beast reaches a long, taloned arm into the air and retrieves a great, hideous sword from the Aether.

“Challenge me and claim your right!”

Ogg has visibly paled. His furs are wet with his fear and the yellow of it pools around him.

“WHOA!” shouts Melvi, ”lay off our boy!”

New World Recap #9: Day 34-36 - Here Stood My Dreaming Tree

Ogg mourns the loss of his comrades - only one of the six neanderthal to accompany him is still alive, and only just at that. The man's gray flesh betrays illness and his limbs are too weak to carry himself, much less his gear. Each member of the band looks him over, but the malady is too confusing to diagnose. Rest, for the moment, is the best curative.

The group rests and many are plagued with nightmares.

Lion-sails-the-sea helps Ogg make the other bodies ready for burial, then prays over a small fire of sage to consecrate the area. Once the ritual is completed, the body parts of the slain creature sizzle and pop as if placed on a fire.

Pkuma finds a small longbow and a quiver of arrows tucked between the tree roots and the wall of the chamber.

Broken Clay examines the murals and finds that the same script that wrapped around the base of the touchstone. He breaks out his writing materials and copies the script that wraps around the room. After some work he deciphers the glyphs into what he believes says "All things, all places, all thoughts lead here. From here spring all things, all places, all thoughts. All this begets the Wilderness." The inscription is carved over each mural repeating the words save the last, uniquely identifying each mural with one of the following descriptors:

Jenga examines one of the portals and determines without going through it that it leads to the land of the dead.

"How do you know that?" asks Pkuma

"The same way I know we're currently in the spirit world. The magic just feels different." she replies.

Feeling secure in the warm glow of the magical tree and the protection afforded by the consecration, Grey Bear makes his way back outside the cavern with Melvi and Siqua. Standing just outside the entrance to the cave the trio awaken the skeletal bison once more. Siqua uses his calming spells and Grey Bear beings to talk to the protectors through his magic.

"Why are you here?" he asks.

"We are the protectors of the tree" the four skeletons answer in one voice. "It is our duty to watch over the dying lands and preserve the balance between the worlds. Our brothers perished bringing change to the world and we honor their sacrifice with our undying bodies."

• "What is this tree?" "This tree is the embodiment of the great spirit - the connection of all things."
• "What was the creature inside?" "It is not connected to the tree - it is not part of this world."
• "Can we ride you?" "No."
• "How can we stop the dead from rising?" "The dead live in the land of the dead. Something is driving their bodies through a connection to their souls. Much like us."
• "Can you call Thunderbird for us?" "No."
• "Can we walk out of here without you trying to kill us?" "If you leave peaceably without harming the shrine."
• "We killed that creature and seems like we restored that tree - that lets us do a little harm, right?" "No. You should put those dried flowers back... We like them." 
• "Can we get to the Land of the Dead / Freezing Chamber of my nightmares" "Yes, Yes. The Tree will take you these places."
• "Where can we get some phat loot cause that was a difficult encounter?" "You have access to a tree that can take you almost anywhere in the three planes. Don't push it." 

Lion wants to know the next plan. He and his two remaining gnolls can't get home on their own, so they're stuck with you, but he thinks "Wilderness" will link back to the touchstone Thunderbird carried away. He's ready to take his chances and get back to home turf - he owes nothing to the neanderthal and doesn't want to risk what could be a several year long trek to wipe out all of the zombies going back to the neanderthal home territory. "Not our problem. We need to hit the road. I've prayed on this and the clearest sign is you're not getting another airlift anytime soon. I prefer the devil I kinda know versus facing down another one of those beasts again in the hopes we find another touchstone and figure out how to use it. This can't be the source - the neanderthal would have solved it by now if it were."

Melvi, grand champion of intimidating logic, convinces Lion Sails the Sea to not only not kill Ogg and rampage through the Neanderthal camp, but to stay with the party until they can all get back home.

The group spends the next two days investigating the portals.

• The Sun (Red, South) gate leads to a high, arid plain with mountains ranging on the west. The stars indicate this is in the southern hemisphere.
• The Wilderness (Blue, West) portal leads to a damp, chilly ravine shrouded in evergreen trees. The stars indicate this is in the Northern hemisphere.
• The Sky (Yellow, East) portal leads to a wide open beach with white sands. The stars indicate this is near the equator.
• The Stone (White, North) portal leads to the high, frigid top of a mountain with stepped cuts into the surface. It appears to be a quarry. The frigid weather and volume of clouds obscures the stars.
• The Darkness (Red, South) portal leads to an underground tunnel. Upon some exploration, the narrow tunnel leads up, and is made of finely hewn black granite. 
• The Moon (Blue, West) portal sends off a particularly familiar magic to Jenga – it clearly leads to the land of the dead. The group investigates, and confirms that the portal does lead to Mictlan, the city of the dead.
• The Water (Yellow, East) portal leads to another beach, yet this one is a shrouded cove – stone circles around the cove blocking any surface access to the beach. In the center of the cove is what appears to be a deep, dark, blue hole. This seems to equatorial by the position of the stars.
• The Ice (White, North) portal leads to a shady, frigid land. Several miles off is the trunk of a great tree its branches reaching so high into the sky they cover the heavens. They reach down to the horizon, which seems to be exactly where the group marched out from. At the base of the trunk, among the roots sticking up from the heavy snow, the group spots someone that quickly disappears under the roots of the tree. No sky is available to determine which hemisphere.

The group decides to explore the "darkness" portal more. The tunnel continues on, occasionally turning to stairs but always leading up. After about 30 minutes of walking, the stone is covered in dust and dirt. Eventually, the tunnel ends. Lefty, the intrepid engineer, assesses the situation and proclaims it the result of a landslide back-filling the corridor. With some elbow grease and some magical manipulation, the group excavates the rest of the tunnel and finds an opening high on a mountainside overlooking lush tropical jungle. Pkuma recognizes the flora and something very close to home, and the group filters out into the bright equatorial sun. Standing on the steep slope, the group is surveying their position when Pkuma slips in the mud. The tiny ripple of the pygmy’s foot in the wet soil creates a reaction within the saturated earth and the group looks on in horror as acres of land liquefy beneath them and flow down the mountain overrunning the trees and fauna below. After several minutes, the landslide slows and just beneath them lays a large black carving. From their positions, they seem to be standing on the shoulders of some kind of tremendous sculpture. The group decides that, while interesting, is probably not the place that Thunderbird has sent them, and trek back into the darkness to find the portal.

Having explored their options, the group formulates a plan. Given that the undead troubles plaguing the Neanderthals stem from the north and that there was something at the base of the tree, the group makes plans to further explore the “Ice” portal. However as the cold quickly sapped the strength of explorers and seemed to be a hazard to their survival, the group needs to prepare for the environment.

During the exploration, the remaining Neanderthal trooper dies of his illness.

A plan is made to head back to Neanderthal camp and tell the chieftain that the undead are stopped. The group gathers it belongings together, scoops up remains of the freakish creature and leave the cave.

New World Recap #8 - Day 28-34 - Tracking the undead. Or: Follow your nose.

Setting out from the neaderthal refugee city, Ogg is given command of six warriors and they, the party, the pack of gnolls, and the party's followers set off to track the path of the settlement in order to root out the source of the undead.

The party spends several days in the wilderness when they are set upon by zombies. The creatures erupt out of the earth and ambush the group. Jenga, after being seriously wounded, casts disrupt undead and the zombies break apart. The magic users in the group detect a magical stream connecting the zombies to some distant location.

Upon regrouping, the party heads off in the direction of the stream.

Again and again, they are set upon by the undead; each time the zombies are magically connected to a trail of purplish magic when disrupted by Jenga's magic.

After about a week's worth of travel, the group comes to a rise over a river. The magic points directly into a bluff on the horizon. As you approach you see the trail leads directly into a twenty foot high sculpture of the head of a bison carved into the white wall of stone. In the rocky expanse between the bluff and the river lay the skeletons of hundreds of buffalo in varying states of decomposure. All of the animals seem to have died naturally, from a brief examination.

A whole lot more where this came from.

Spotting an entrance to a cave in the snout of the bison, the group crosses the river and makes for the cave. But as the cross the open area, several of the skeletons come to life and attack the group.

Poma tries to hold them off, but couldn't save Nugi (Let's hear it for Four-Fate-Points!) Siqua's slave-wife. Desperate to save the life of his woman, Siqua runs back into the fray from the safety of the cave and is quickly set upon by the skeletal bison. With no where to run, and little option, Siqua hoists the woman over his head and turns himself into a tree. The buffalo, eager to push interlopers out of their territory, ram the tree repeatedly but to no avail.

Seeking a way to mollify the creatures, Grey Bear uses his powers to calm animals and seems to keep the attention off of Siqua and company. After an hour passes with no change in the creatures' disposition, Poma steps out of the cave and flags the creatures down - they charge, and Siqua races back to the river with his bride. The party darts back into the cave and the creatures, with no invaders in their territory, settle back to the earth. Siqua and Nugi take advantage of the moment and sprint into safety with the rest of the group in the cave.

Once in the cave, the group marvels at the ancient cave paintings depicting the arrival of the first white buffalo to the earth. This event broke open the spirit world into the mortal one. Magic, gods, and monsters all poured into the world and man was introduced to the spirit animals, gods, and other denizens of the worlds of the spirit and the dead.

Following the murals deeper into the cave the group comes into a dead end - the magic trail flowing directly through a stone wall with a painting of a dead tree on it.

After some experimentation, the Melvi and Siqua realize the the tree absorbs light magic. With each subsequent spell cast upon it, the tree fills out into a three dimensional figure its roots glowing silver tendrils, it leaves blossom and flowers fill the air with a sweet pollen. As the fine yellow dust floats about the cavern, a noise is heard from behind - one of the gnolls has vanished - a smattering of blood drips from a crevasse above...

Within moments, the stone wall and magically blossomed tree fade away and the party enters a chamber roughly 40 feet high with a life size stone tree standing in the middle. At the base of the tree is carved an approximation of the large touchstone the neanderthal were carrying with them that the group gave to Thunderbird. The ethereal trail leads directly into the center of the touchstone.

Around the edges of the room are murals depicting the world tree connecting back into itself in different settings.

Melvi casts dancing lights and the magic is slowly lifted above the room and absorbed into a chandelier made out of branches and antlers. Each point in the hanging fixture blazes to life and the room is lit from above. Several of the group stare in awe of the trick (while Melvi shudders at the thought of what he saw in the last room with this fixture.) Some of the group notice while looking above a large millipede like creature on a branch of the stone tree.

"It's not awkward if we hug right now, is it?"

As the group readies its next move, bodies fall from the ceiling, another group of zombies pull themselves upright and move toward the heroes.

Melvi and Gray Bear test their magic on the tree and find that it absorbs both light and magic. After a few attempts, Gray Bear begins to Mend the tree and finds that the carving of the touchstone fills in with stony bark. Melvi begins casting light on the tree and it slowly comes to life like the mural.

Meanwhile the creature drops from its perch in the tree and falls upon one of the neanderthals, its vice-like jaws nearly snipping the man's neck all the way through. In a heartbeat, the creature begins committing back into the neck and chest of the neanderthal and releases him. The body of the neanderthal stumbles toward Poma and begins to attack. The same purple trail that flows out of the touchstone flows between the creature and this new abomination.

The group makes short work of the zombies while Poma, Pkuma, and the beast do straight into combat. Pkuma takes advantage of his size and strikes at the creatures underside while Poma keeps its attention.

Shortly thereafter, the group has the beast surrounded, though with each action it kills another member of the party. As the magic users work to "heal" the tree, the rest battle the beast, wearing it down. The group eventually fells the beast, and even after being chopped into pieces it struggles to crawl back toward the touchstone. The group beats it into pulp.

At last, enough spells are fed into the tree and it blossoms into a vividly real tree. It's yellow flowers bloom ad again a yellow haze falls down upon the group. The bark begins to grow and cover over the touchstone carved into the trunk and the gossamer purple stream retreats into the carving as the bark covers it.

Roots roil the floor as thick bands of wood reach out to each of the eight different murals and begin to coil against them leaving what looks like a portal into each distinct painting.

The group barricades the room as best as possible and takes note of their surroundings.

New World Recap #6 - Day 14-21 - The one that got away

Regrouping, our heroes track down the one neanderthal to escape their grasp and find him despondent, gazing upon the river. He looks over as Poma and Melvi approach.

"Hoka hey, friend" says Melvi. "It's a good thing you got out of there. It was a grizzly fight."

"I'm glad to be out, but I'm afraid that now my people will not be able to escape the death that is hunting them." says the heavy browed near-man, Without the chief, no one will be able to stand against the dead."

""How long have you been chased by the undead?" asks Melvi.

"We have been running for several months. Our camp is protected by the big chief, he was wise enough to send out war parties to find places for us to live and protect ourselves against the dead. We thought our party would be best chance we had. Chief had found ways to keep the dead away. He was smart but he was frightening; several of us wanted to stop the sacrifices, but we weren't strong enough to challenge him and the sacrifices really seemed to work."

"We were strong enough to challenge him" says Poma, "Does that mean we're the chief now?"

"If you were one of the nation, yes. But you're not. You couldn't be chief."

"But you could." says Melvi, hatching a plan. "My name is Melvi and this is Poma. What's your name, chief?"

"Ogg. But I'm no chief."

"If you challenge me for the sword I will give it to you, you will be the strongest of any warriors in your nation with it," says Poma.

"You will be the strongest, and we will go with you. You will save your people from the undead Ogg." says Melvi.

"Do you really think I could do it?" says Ogg.

"Ha!" barks Poma, "With us by your side, you could challenge the big chief! You'll lead your people back to your homeland and fend off the dead with ease! Challenge me!"

Ogg grunts and shoves Poma back. Poma politely drops the sword and steps back.

As Ogg stoops to pick up the sword, but Poma swiftly sets a foot on the blade, making it difficult to pick up. "Remember how easy this challenge was - work with us and you'll be a hero. Challenge us again, and we won't back down."

"Your chief was a good fighter", says Poma changing the topic, "Where did he get this weapon?"

"He found it in a cave along the river. He and several warriors went to explore it after following the undead there. He came out alone, but he had great power - his horn, his armor, his sword... and the sacrificial stone." says Ogg.

"We'll have to go there and investigate later" says Melvi.

The group returns to camp and start searching the camp for materials.

In addition to the numerous hides, tools, and precious (for this part of the world, anyway) timber, the group comes across 100 wampum and 300 wampum worth of gems. Broken Clay investigates the horn carried by the dead warchief and finds that once per day, when blown, the horn will strike fear into the hearts of all who can hear it (120ft DC 15). Painting matching runes on a person will protect them from the effects. A set of bone armor pulled from the corpse of the warchief is equitable to Breastplate, and his sword is an impervious scimitar made from the tusk of a mammoth.

We've uparmored our barbarian.

Artist's Rendition

With Ogg having joined the party and the camp cleared of valuables, the group is faced with two immediate problems. The first is where to go next – back to the human village to contact Thunderbird and see if the diety’s wishes have been fulfilled or north to solve the root of the problem – Ogg’s tribe and the undead that are harrying them across the steppe. The second, and more immediate problem, is the existence of a large stone pillar that looks frightfully like an Anasazi touchstone.

Broken Clay examines the runes carved into the sides and finds they look similar to Anazasi. With some effort he makes out the word “Wilderness” and the number 1720.

The group decides to go back to the village to determine their next course of action.

Seeing as the Neanderthal warcamp had dragged the monolith with them over quite an expanse of territory, the group decides to similarly move the stone and use the detritus of the war camp to secure it and move it. Jenga orders the freed slaves to begin pulling, and is met with refusal. One slave bolts from the camp rather than touch the rope securing the stone. Jenga chases him into the grass and returns a few minutes later with his head.

“Run again, and this will happen to all of you.” She says matter of factly; throwing the severed head at the crowd of slaves. Stunned at the display of wanton violence, the group keeps quiet and assures the slaves that such a future will not occur.

While preparing the stone for transport, Melvi and Broken Clay accidentally touch the monolith and are immediately transported into a cold, dark place. Their memory is shaky, but they distinctly recall a chandelier of antlers absorbing their magic and the stone floor covered in a carpet of bone. Something there was chasing them, but after a few tries, the safely make it back to the warmth of the steppe before any violence could occur.

Don't go into the light

Eventually, the band of divine travelers hitch the stone to their amiable mammoth and head back to meet with the human cleric with the blackened face. Several uneventful days pass as they slowly haul the supernatural monolith across the steppe.

As they approach the village, they meet a group of Mississipian traders sailing down river to the city of Cahokia with several canoes of precious goods.

After some trading, the group convinces the traders to give up the hide of a wendigo in exchange for a few hundred wampum and a chance to see a thunderbird up close. The Wendigo are known for their resistance to magic – the hide pulled from the head and shoulders can grant magic resistance to those that wear it. There are rumors that those who wear the hide are stricken with nightmares, but that’s probably just an old wives tale.

The group meets with the cleric of the village and he says that Thunderbird will appear in four days.  The group rests over this time and prepares for the long journey North.

New World Recap #5 - Day 14 - Who knew Mastodons could dance?

The assault begins just before dawn, Pkuma sneaks into the camp and releases the slaves tethered to posts buried in the ground. He escapes unseen and the slaves quietly. Meanwhile, Lion-Sails-the-Sea, Poma, and the gnoll troop burrow beneath the camp and prepare to ambush a tipi of sleeping Neanderthals from below. Grey Bear and the human shaman, Siqua, skirt the edges of the camp making ready to attack from the cover of the tall grass. Melvi, Broken Clay, and Jenga all wait in the tall grass south of the camp waiting for the roar of the battle to start before joining the fray.

Nothing bad about to happen here. No ma'am.

With a mighty trumpet, Tanka storms into the camp and immediately tramples a tipi full of warriors. The shaking earth signals the gnolls to burrow out of the ground and swiftly cut the throats of the dozen sleeping warriors around them. Siqua chants to the great spirit for protection and the tall grass in the center of the camp, cut to bits and trampled flat comes to life, grasping out at anything it can in revenge for the humiliation. The grass anchors the majority of the camp in place rooted to the ground they slept on while the mammoth tramples tent over tent. On the outskirts of the camp, patrols come running into the fray and are caught short by the gnoll pack, protecting the pachyderm while it does its grizzly dance across the screaming Neanderthals, now awake in horror as they hear the bones and drying shrieks of their comrades. Most of the slaves bolt into the grass, but a few remain to mete out justice on their captors.

The spellcasters join the fray and Melvi and Jenga provide ranged support as a few surviving stragglers crawl from beneath the ruined masses of their huts and take arms against the even-browed attackers. Jenga wears her attackers down with acid summoned from the ether and Melvi struggles in hand to hand combat with an assailant. With some quick thinking and no small amount of magic and charm, Melvi convinces his attacker to flee or die. The Neanderthal takes the opportunity and sprints into the tall grass.

A mighty blast erupts from the center of the camp. A large, ornate tipi shudders yet nothing emerges. A ripple of fear erupts through the hearts of our warrior band and many of their number turn to flee as the echoes of the sound sink into their hearts chilling the blood and stilling the fervor of their attack. The wave of panic passes quickly though, and many of the afflicted regain their composure and rejoin the fray quickly.

The mammoth begins a second pass at the camp bowling through the patrol harrying the movements of the gnoll pack. Bodies go flying and the gnolls find themselves suddenly outnumbering the remaining Neanderthals. They make short work of the thugs and charge toward the field of flailing grass.

A furious, bestial shout comes from the center of camp and a massive Neanderthal emerges from the central tipi, soon thereafter he is joined by a comrade. They struggle against the grasping plants and pull entire plants – roots and all – along with them as they move towards the attackers. Soon, however, the grass gets the upper hand and entangles them fast to the ground.

Grey Bear, Siqua, Jenga, and Melvi begin to pelt the enraged Neanderthal leader with spears, stones, and magic while he’s strapped to the ground. With a mighty roar, the evolutionary dead-end tears himself from the ground, great clumps of sod clinging to the plants still constricting his arms and legs.

Poma stands to his challenge, slavering in his fury and meets the leader head to head. The neanderthal’s great ivory sword slices the air with a slight whistle wounding Poma but providing the perfect opportunity for the gnoll barbarian’s axe to bite into the proto-human’s neck.

The blow cleanly takes the head from the shoulders of the Neanderthal leader and his body slumps to the ground. The camp, like the body of its fallen leader, crumples into a heap as the mammoth continues to trample the tipis until shouts can no longer be heard.

F@ck the hip-POLICE. Not really related, but I had to say that.

Like all momentous things in life, the battle only lasted a few heartbeats, and in the span of those several breaths, so many things would change forever after.

New World Recap #4 - Day 11-13: Steppe Up

Tasked with bringing the Neanderthal threat in hand by Thunderbird, the eclectic group of heroes traveled on wings of lightning and thunder to the great steppe landing in the shoulder-high grass a few miles outside of a human village. There, they encountered a pack of gnolls sponsored by local clans also in search of the Neanderthals.

After discussing the situation with the chief, a man whose face had been painted black, the group learns that a force of Neanderthals have been raiding all of the villages within a three day walk. His assumptions, backed up by those of the gnoll-pack, point to the main contingent of the Neanderthal force coming from North of the river. (For reference try: Ponca, NE.)

The troop stays the night in the village and sets out the next morning to reconnoiter the area and find the source of the Neanderthal raiders. After some searching the group meets, and swiftly defeats a small band of warriors, and trails them back to their main camp. They are joined by a small group of humans, led by a shaman and his opossum companion and a friendly, if overly pungent, mastodon.

Business in the front, party on the back.

Bedding down near the river, the group finds a pack of dogs eager to take scraps from the camp. Reactions vary among the troop from friendly – giving scraps – to hostile – scaring them away. The prevailing emotion is apathy, however, and no coordinated effort was undertaken to encourage or dismiss the beasts.

Come morning, a large stock of the group’s supplies is missing.

Perturbed by the theft, each clique within the troop accuses another, but little comes of it when a cacophonous trumpet echoes across the skies and into the souls of those in camp. Shocked, several of the warriors flee, only finding their courage after several miles has been put between them and the camp.

Come afternoon, the warriors have regrouped and are silently stalking through the tall grass. Winding their way through the brush, they are set upon by a pride of saber-toothed lions defending their kill. Most of the group, high on the shoulders of Tanka the mammoth, cast magic and stones down upon the heads of the beasts, but the fighters of the group take quick and heavy casualties. One of the humans is quickly pounced upon and killed by the giant cats, and the gnoll druid, Grey Bear, takes a grievous wound as he’s raked by a lion’s claws but is saved by his own magic as his rent flesh knits together like the deeps roots of an aspen tree.

Must be Tuesday.

Melvi recognizes the magic of the Nunnehi and sees a masked figure chatting with a lion. The lion runs off, and the man, at least what seems to be a man, charges into the fray batting at the remaining lions with a set of ornate clubs.

The pride is turned away, the mysterious stranger vanishes as quickly as he appeared, and the troop moves on through the grass.

After an afternoon's march the troop comes across signs of the camp. Several trails are found through the tall grass and smoke appears over the tall fronds of green.

The group is surprised to come across a small band of neanderthal warriors pulling a tether of human slaves behind them. A fight ensues and one lone slope headed miscreant nearly escapes.  Pkoma, the pygmy hunter downs the fugitive just outside of the camp, but too late. The corpse is swiftly found by the neanderthals and the alarm goes up around the camp.

Exhausted from the day's ordeals, the group marches away from the enemy encampment and makes plans to attack the following morning based on the gnolls’ scouting reports.

After discussing with the slaves being brought to the camp, it appears that this camp, a large force of over 100 warriors cannot be the only such forward base spread out across the steppe.

New World Recap #3 - Day 7-11 From the Bottom to the Top

After recuperating from their harrowing experience in a secluded human village, the group decides to travel to a nearby Gnoll village to resupply, buy some materials, and figure out how to get home.

Upon entering the village – or at least the scattering of huts outside of the mine – the group learns that the mine is under a heavy tax and cannot meet its targets – undead, which have been trapped in the stone far beneath the surface, have been attacking unwary miners and dramatically diminishing output.

In order to pay for their stay, the group decides to aid the village chief and its foreman in investigating the cause of the incursion in addition to other odd jobs around the village.

Pkuma spends his time aiding the late blacksmith’s wife constructing tools in trade for some equipment, and the group works to heal a miner who was attacked by the undead and is suffering from a seriously infected wound. With a little magic and some steady hands, the group manages to amputate the near-ruined arm and return the young gnoll to health if not wholeness.

Soon, the group traverse into the deepest part of the mine following a seam of iron deep into the earth. The foreman shows the group the pocket the zombies crawled from. With some trepidation, the group enters and discovers the pocket to be part natural cavern and part man-made room with brilliant paints covering ancient brick. With some effort, the group breaks through the brick into a separate room, laid out with some near crumbling wooden furniture. Along the wall are several bookshelves some of which still contain their charges – ancient tomes in Anasazi script.

With some effort, Broken Clay manages to use his professional scribe skills and preserves a book from the shelf. Jenga, sensing an opportunity also attempts to procure a codex, but fails and the ancient leather and paper crumbles to dust in her hands.

With some more investigation, Gray Bear breaks through another couple of walls and discovers two new rooms – one with a strange living statue constantly repeating the same set of movements and a great hall with an ornate door.

In investigating the room with the statue, the group finds the skeletal remains of a body still in its finery collapsed in a corner a large metal rod in its hands.

Moving on to the great hall, the group discovers the door covered in a relief depicting animals moving toward a large golden sun set high in the door.

Upon trying the door, they find it locked – no problem for Pkuma – who unlocks the door deftly.

As the door opens however, the relief changes – the animals change into humans and the golden sun turns silver.

With the door fully open, the group climbs a large stone staircase bringing them outside. Jenga knows this place well, it is the land of the dead.

Moving forward in search of answers, the group heads down the dirt path surrounded by dense, thick jungle. Coming upon a village, the groups is initially shunned by its inhabitants. With some cajoling, the group manages to meet the man whose corpse was in the chamber. He has no idea what had happened to trap him in the dark, but he explained that he worked in an armory and that the door they came through was used to send people to the other realms  - either the land of spirits, or the land of dead.

As they pick the dead man’s brain, a disturbance from outside draws the attention of the group. Deep within the well, a strange almost purple light shines. The residents of the dead village cannot perceive it, and those of the group that stare into the abyss see a fractal nightmare of nauseating incomprehension.

Raised by the bad omen of living in the land of the dead, soldiers appear to determine the group’s intentions. Upon noticing the well, however, the head of the soldiers begins to cast spells into the well and screams for the soldiers to get aid.

With every spell cast into the well, the light intensifies, and soon it crystallizes, giving form to the formless writing energy. The light grows and the earth shakes. The group, ready to quit the village, makes ready to flee, but finds that half are interested in moving to the city of the dead, Mictlan, half for returning the way they came.

The power emanating from the well now reaching out into the surrounding ground the majority flee for the door they came through passing a man in strange garb. Those that stay see the god for what he is – Xipe Totec – the flayed god. Wearing the skin of a man over himself, the god walks to the warrior by the well and places a palm on his shoulder. A strange energy courses over the man and into the well. The earth begins to violently shake and Jenga, lingering to see what unfolds, is beckoned over by the god.

“Aid me.”

She reaches out her hand and a similar energy courses out of her body and into the god. Weakened, she struggles to break free of the bond, and flees with the rest of the group.

A strange whispering over takes the air around the group as they strain themselves to close and bar the ornate door through which they came. With some effort the door is closed, but the whispering grows stronger. Fleeing the mine, the group finds that the dead, broken pieces of zombies from an earlier battle are quivering and straining. The group emphatically beats and pulverizes the bodies again and makes haste out of the mine.

Warning the village chief of what lies below, the group stay one more night in the village and leave at dawn walking into the rising sun.

As a detour, the group stops by the shrine of Thunderbird high on the summit of a mountain. Upon reaching the cairn they meet a man in buckskins and facepaint. He shares a meal with them and they trade stories. As the firewater is passed about, the clouds around the summit part, and tall, dense forest is laid out before them. Not long after, two gargantuan birds – wingspans more than 100 feet  - deliver a dead bison then settle and roost at the top of the trees – they had uprooted an entire stand of trees to build their nest.

The group eats their fill, and when asked how to get East, the stranger offers to take them, but they must do him a favor – help his friends fend off some Neanderthals.

When asked by Broken Clay to point on the map where they are, and where the group is currently standing, the man looks it over and folds the map many times in an intricate pattern, “We’re here. You’ll go here.” The points are immediately next to each other.

As the sun rises, the group is scooped up in the man sized talons of the great thunderbirds and plummet off the mountain tops. Within a few flaps, the birds right themselves and the expanse of the steppe reaches out before them. Mastadons, bison, elk, saber-toothed lions, all scatter and storm away at the sight of the great bird soaring overhead.

The group is dropped, relatively gently, in some tall grass. A campfire is quickly scouted out and the group heads in that direction. Upon arrival, they meet a man in black face paint – the leader of this tribe – and he explains that the Neanderthal have been raiding from the north – across the river.

As you all discuss the situation, the local warrior pack of Gnolls appears in the village – to some alarm.

An uneasy truce is brokered, and the humans, gnolls, and our ragtag group of god-sent vagabonds make a plan. Find the raiders, follow them back to their camp, and destroy them.

The human offers up his scouts and Tanka.

“What’s a Tanka?” Melvi asks.

A thundering trumpet is the reply…

Rules Change: Climbing

In order to make climbing statistically possible for characters trained in or strong enough to do it, I've revised rules ever so slightly.

If you pass the DC, you continue on at regular pace.
If you fail the DC by less than 5, you continue on at half pace.
If you fail the DC by 6-10, you do not move that round.
If you fail the DC by more than 10, you fall - normal rules apply to damage and saves.

It is my hope that characters with training or high strength will be able to take ten through most climb checks and pass without trouble. For those PC's that can't handle the strenuous task, you'll at least be less likely to plummet to your doom.

Recap #2: Day 5-6: Beasts of 2 legs and more

Another day, another feast of horrors pursing their fanged orifices in anticipation of your arrival.

Session Two Recap:

After the magical arrowhead delivered the group to the sinkhole and the bard Broken Clay springs up from the ground to join the group, a troop of strange creatures ambushes our heroes and lead them to their “creator”, a man dressed in strange white robes - just like the one featured in the nightmares of several of the group.

Edsala’ansh, who claimed to be a wizard in the Anasazi University, has lived, trapped, in the sinkhole for such a long time he cannot remember when he actually arrived.

He is also revered by a large number of the “Pilzvolk” as he calls them – strange looking creatures that are more plant than humanoid. Only “Ed” seems to understand them, though, and they have no way of speaking that the group can discern.

Spending some time with Ed, the group discovers that the source of the frightening roars within the sinkhole is, in fact, what the Pilzvolk call the “Beast God”. This terrific creature hunts and slays the Pilzvolk that do not bring it sacrifices and on some occasions does battle with the man in white over the hearts and souls of the fungal villagers.

As the group chats with Ed, quizzing him on his supposed past, the beast attacks and the aged wizard leaps down from the dais and unleashes a salvo of magic upon it. The two combatants are flung far and wide across the sinkhole and are soon out of sight despite the loud and somewhat disturbing noises from the battle.

In the day that passes, the group investigates the old man’s house. They find an interesting apparatus that seems to be distilling oil from somewhere. With some detective work, the group finds a censor of the same oil and a device that creates a small flame to light it. As the smoke wafts from the censer, a room can be seen through the haze. With enough smoke released, our heroes walk into the strange, stone room and stare at the creature laid out on a slab, its blood draining into a small silver bowl. After tearing the place up, Poma chops the creature in half. Whatever was sustaining its half-life now broken, the creature dies and the last of the blood drains from its corpse.

Outside The fighting seems to die down and some brief scouting finds that the man in white is being eviscerated by the beast only to slowly regenerate and be torn into again.

The beast notices Grey Bear watching it and attacks. The distraction is enough for the man in white to teleport into a room back in his home to recuperate.

The group, having determined that 1) the gods have sent them here to kill the man, and 2) anything that would do such a thing to a living creature should probably be killed go about vivisecting the former professor and trying to find ways to permanently silence him. After hacking him in to tiny pieces and dropping them into vials of acid the whispering voice of the man fades away. Feeding the remainder of the corpse to the beast god, mollifies it as it accepts the sacrifice of the party.

The party then hacks apart the giant mushroom in a search for what else might be connected to the magical apparatus somewhere inside. The group gets assistance from the beast god, its rage now pacified and with some effort is able to communicate to the party.

Having destroyed the gargantuan fungus, the party and the beast god return to the fissure that Broken Clay escaped from.  Searching for some kind of stone, the party begins to dig. Soon after, the beast god aids a paw and turns up great boulders of limestone. Finding a small opening, Gray Bear rappels into the cavern to investigate the river flowing through.

The rest of the party, safe above ground are rocked by explosion of water and air bursting forth from the fissure. The beast god is flung into the air and slams with the sound of shattering bones into the ground.

The great horned serpent Uktena looms above the party. In a flash, the god sinks its fangs into the wounded beast and wraps its coils about it. A nauseating minute passes as the still struggling body of the beast is swallowed whole by the giant serpent.

Its meal complete Uktena sinks silently back into the cavern below.

Bewildered, befuddled, and anxious to be away from this mad place, the group descends into the cavern.

There Uktena greets them in the form of an Axolotl.

He recommends touching a stone in the room just off the cavern to return home.

Jenga – the Aztec priestess familiar with the ways of the dead - senses that the area around the stone is at once real and solidly planted in the world of the dead.

Faced with no alternative, the group touches the stone and is immediately transported to a great chamber. Within the chamber’s domed ceiling is a magical representation of the inside of a mountain. The magic plays tricks on the eyes and is perceived to be on the inside of the mountain looking out, through the snow and stone and into the sky above.

The room is lined with eight pillars that seem to be part of the mountain itself – each with a label on the ground before it representing a compass point. The group deciphers a mysterious glyph on the wall – one that seems to be a map with several dots on it and decides to touch the pillar that says NW. They find themselves in a small dark room, fairly different from the one before.

Poma begins to play with the touchstone as part of the group travels down a dark corridor to find an exit.

Suddenly the rooms turn bitterly cold, and undead wretches appear in the room as if by magic. The scouts are also ambushed by the undead, leading to a narrow escape by the heroes. Battered and bruised, they make their way from the haunted corridor and into the bright sun of day.

They find themselves not far from a human settlement in the mountains Gray Bear has traversed before.

With a few nights to rest and recuperate, they learn that the undead occasionally stumble into the village and are swiftly dealt with. No other relevant details are known by the humans, but they happily share their lodges and meat in trade for stories and entertainment.

The next morning the group decides to move on, but not to where. The Gnoll village to the West? The Viashino city to the South? Go North and find the hunting grounds of the Neanderthal? Perhaps there is time to stop by the shrine of Thunderbird on the summit of a nearby mountain?