So there they were…
Stranded in the ruined city of Kalazart.
After their fight with a monstrous aberration and its equally odd shelled affiliates, the party had abandoned the lightning rail and the wide central market, for higher ground, wary of fighting the oncoming “differently abled” mutant horde that had seen their approach and had been following their path through the city. The party had fled to the warehouse district, with Kylar and Comfort tossing Firebolts into the sky in a desperate attempt to catch the attention of their cleric Francis and their compatriots back in the party’s fiery airship.
The party had taken their lumps traversing the city and trying to summon help. Many hours had passed, and now, at dusk, they found themselves beleaguered atop a sagging warehouse roof, clearing up the latest band of mutants to cross their path…
Rubble was strewn around the city, with ruined buildings collapsing out into the streets and narrow alleys. Direct travel was quite difficult, but the rubbly occasionally opened up unorthodox routes to places. Comfort stood over a collapsed wall, the rubble spilling out and joining the other debris in the alley. While on the roof of a two-story warehouse, it certainly didn’t seem so. The rubble made ramps, and the mutants would reach them soon.
The tiefling twins Firebolt, and scorches two of the mutants scrambling over the rubble. She then withdraws from the edge, leaving the breach to the held by the fuming barbarians. The roof groans as she steps onto a sagging area, but holds, thankfully.
Kylar peeked over the edge himself and cast a spell. A mess of squirming, grasping black tentacles spring from the rubble to help protect the ramp leading up to the party’s position. As they spring into existence, the weapons of the party start to emit light – a side effect of chaotic side effect of casting in the Mournland. The wizard joins the sorceress near the back of the group…
The group nearest the ramp was already charging as the tentacles writhed up. One of the three was restrained by the tentacles, blocking the way for a second. The third of the nearest group made it through the mass though, and charged up the ramp at Gnofulk. The mutant’s axe swing and his tentacle arm flailed, but neither attack hit the gnome, and his angry rebuttal cleaves the mutant attacker in two.
Nearby, Ula advances, taking position on the top parts of the ramp with Gnofulk. Also quite angry, the half orc swings down at the injured (and restrained) mutant. The tiefling’s fire and wizard’s magic had softened the creature, and Ula’s axe strikes had ended the horror. The barbarian then positions her massive tower shield in front of her to hold the line with her fellow raging barbarian.
The second group of mutants had begun charging soon after the first. Again, one was impeded by the tentacles and restrained, but two managed to break free and scramble the last steps up the ramp. Fighting uphill proved a bit too much though, and only one attack wormed its way around Ula’s huge shield.
In the flight away from the rail station, Turnin had taken numerous blows, and was well bloodied by now. Atop the roof, the monk had paused, hearing more mutants coming but saw none (living) in the immediate alleyways. He moves to help repulse the second charge, expending Ki and pummeling to death one of the mutants on the ramps. Three remain in this onslaught.
In between strikes, the party has kept an eye on the skies. They are about as high as one can get in Kalazart. Each member of the stranded party swore they saw their cleric approaching minutes ago, but as they look now, he is not appearing over the rooftops…
Before they can question their senses too much, Francis arrives.
Since his last spotting, the dwarf had taken the skiff high, and was now coming straight down into the battle. Weapon glowing with extreme radiance, Francis knocks a rope down, and then leaps from the skiff.
Mid-fall, the dwarf is wreathed in flames, and he casts a boosted Scorching Ray. Three rays streak from the dwarf. The bearded face scrunching harder, a fourth ray pops out as well. Three of the four hit home, crisping the two most threatening mutants on the ramp. The magic took a toll however, and the dwarf winces as the magic wounds his psyche. Still falling, he blesses Ula, holding strong behind her massive tower shield, and soon bubbles are floating from his mouth.
As the dwarf nears the ground, Kylar notices that he isn’t wearing the typical Wingies of Featherfall, and the wizard casts it to save the dwarf. Both the wizard and dwarf wink out of existence, appearing a few moments later, after the final mutant has been dealt with.
The party is relieved to be rescued, but more mutants are coming, and they need to climb that rope to bring the skiff back down… its descent stalled at around 30 feet up when Francis jumped.
Comfort is ready to get going, and jumps up at the rope. She doesn’t make it far. Feet dangling inches off the ground, she slowly spins in place as the noise of the mutants gets closer and closer, echoing menacingly through the ruined streets.
Gnofulk tries, and deftly ascends. As the noises get louder and louder, the gnome pilots the skiff down. The party piles in as bands of mutants round the corner of the streets in view of the party, and they can feel the mutants strike against the hull of the skiff as it ascends out of range…
This second skiff came with a half-orc. The barbarian party member Ula. This is her “bunk” on the ship and honestly, she’s even a bit surprised the thing is actually sky-worthy. No one thought to check it before today.
The skiff is spacious, and easily accommodates the party and her meager belongings. However, her magnificent bear pelt blanket is weighted down by… probably a hundred empty beer bottles. The party is nearly knee-deep in bottles here.
As they ascend, the mutants start throwing stones and rubble. Comfort responds with bottles.
They confer quickly. Kylar wishes to camp on a roof for the night and explore the city. He is quickly overruled after Francis relates the occurrences on the ship.
After the party had departed for kalazart, the fiery airship had been attacked by living spells. This time a pack of Scorching Rays. With no method of summoning help (the “away team” didn’t nab any Sending Stones), the crew had repulsed the attack on its own, but at a cost.
Montgomery Dwarf, the engineer had been conferring with Rhogar at the helm when the attack happened. The dwarf had been wounded trying to make it below deck and had lost his leg in the battle. The day crew goblins Yip and Yap had both been grievously injured. The night crew goblins Chester and Strudel, along with the roguish human Ruth all took minor injuries in the battle. To help defend the ship, the warforged Chef had released the captive warforged Dirk, the latter of whom has subsequent gone missing.
The party return to the fiery airship, and now the Last Supper looks to be scrawled along the bow. Before Ula’s house skiff could even dock, Turnin jumps over to the deck, and marches towards the galley, where he begins arguing with the warforged. Gnofulk checks on Nutasha (alive and well), and Kylar checks in on his kobold Kaz. The little guy had been assisting Montgomery Dwarf, and gleefully informs the wizard that he had avoided most of the battle. The kobold had learned this tactic from the wizard…
Chef defends his actions to the monk as best he can. Dirk’s treatment amounted to torture. Once released, he and Chef went above deck, where Dirk did help defend Chef and the ship, albeit briefly. Dirk had jump-stabbed a passing ray and disappeared.
Turnin is still a bit angry and bummed. The monk had insisted on coming out here to find the Perpetual Legion, and now the party’s only link to the Legion has slipped away. The monk visits both Ruth and Rhogar, but neither can recall exactly where the battle with the Scorching Rays took place. They were busy fighting at the time. After the battle, the ship had continued puttering around, per the party’s instructions.
Fortunately for the monk, there was one other generally well-regarded person on the ship at the time. Francis. But the monk is concerned with the spiritual well-being of the monk, and will only share his knowledge if Turnin agrees to participate in a ceremony with him. Turnin agrees, with some hesitation.
The monk changes into some red vestments; a vest and pants. However, these are the vestments of the dwarf… they are a little snug on the human. After a prayer, Francis asks Turnin to recount and confess his sins.
This proves to be more difficult than expected. Turnin admits to kidnapping a warforged – Francis was there – and then his recollection gets a bit spotty. In time, Kylar presses his ear to the door, and whispers answers.
It’s a mixed bag. The monk has indeed kidnapped a warforged. Likely killed a bunch of bad guys. Probably accidentally killed a dwarf whilst fleeing a town way back when. However, the monk is quite chaste. Francis’ feelings are hard to gauge, but it seems the biggest strike against the monk seems to be a lack of tithe to the Silver Flame. Shucks.
After Turnin has changed back into his monk garb, he and Francis make their way to the bow of the ship, and Francis gestures to an area off to one side. The cleric thinks the battle occurred mostly over there. The party can search in the morning.
Night passes, thankfully, without incident. The party rests. Their wounds linger, but their abilities replenish.
Chef brews up some fantasy coffee, and Gnofulk spots some scorch marks on the landscape ahead. He, Kylar and Turnin ask to borrow Ula’s skiff. While Gnofulk and Turnin untie it, Kyllar attempts several spells. His familiar was destroyed yesterday, so Kylar attempts to summon it, but runs into difficulties. His first attempt was an abject failure, the magic consuming far more that expected, and failing to-boot. The second attempt succeeds, but the Mournland blight harms the psyche of the wizard.
The trio descend, and fan out, Investigating several patches of burn marks. The wizard and monk find some warforged tracks heading towards Kalazart. That makes sense to the gnome. The circular city is the only real landmark around and the warforged would need to get his bearings to survive. The trio soon return to the fiery ship, and finish breakfast with the rest of the party while discussing the move for the day.
Chef inquires why Turnin is so dead set on pursing Dirk. Turnin explains that Dirk is his only clue to the whereabouts of the Legion, and he needs to get back at Skullbuddy, whose sudden departure from Sharn apparently broke the monk’s heart or something. Plus, the monk’s second-best friend Gofer is there with the Legion too.
The party are moved enough to agree to track the warforged back to Kalazrt.
They pile back in to Ula’s house skiff, and depart, heading back into the city. Gnofulk and Kylar cast foggy illusions around the skiff, the former starting to explore his new ranger abilities. In muffled tones, they follow the tracks and regard the city. Still numerous clusters of mutants can be seen sifting through the rubble.
As they get closer, Kylar becomes ensorcelled in magic armor – though as it springs into place, something shifts within the wizard, an after-effect of the spell being cast in the twisted land. The wizard’s brow furrows as his strength waxes and his intellect wanes…
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