Into the Dark Continent

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Summary

Adventure: Into the Dark Continent - Nualis
GM: Jim
Session: Summer 817
Night: Monday
Location: New Windsor
Level: Medium

Party

Will not be at guild meeting, weird & extreme abilities preferred

1. Rahne - Stephen
2. Bromli - Nick M
3. Cronose - Ciaran
4. Boris - Mike H
5. Dellith - Clare
6. Lucius - Bridget

Employer

Giovanni di Crescenti, a nobleman of Tarquinia

Mission

Find and secure the Elephant's Graveyard, recover 200lbs Ivory

Reward

Papal indulgences for theft, adultery and murder.

A map to the Black Library of Alexandria.

25 tsg each

Scribe Notes

Abyss to Nualis

Duesday 1st-3rd Meadow

Meet with Giovanni, he would like us to find and secure the Ivory at the Elephant's Graveyard. There are likely to be others wanting the same thing:

• Holy Mother Church
• Templars - a small mobile group
• Poor Clares - The sisters of St Clare, secretive nun assassins
• Knight Priest of Challah - Necromancer based on the north African coast, possibly a pirate.
• Ibn Washaid - Islamic Mystic, Sufi.
• Queen Gudit of Aksum

He offers us 20tsg each, we negotiate up to 25 and loot/salvage rights, including ivory, excluding any Banes of Giovanni or the Eye of Discord, or the Blue Jade Dagger.

We are to deliver the Ivory to his people in Veii. He suggests we could get there via the west African port of Orra (Accra?). Establishing local trade contacts for him while there would be useful.

Frysday 4th-15th Meadow

Astral then flying/climbing down the cliff to the Abysss. A third of the way down we find a cleft, exploring within we find a Mosaic of a Serpent, deeper in we find a trickle of liquid which has enchantment of 'Master Plan' and originates from Victoria. We take samples, Boris gets some spilled on his left hand and cuts his hand off.

The next day we see the Chaos Wind approaching and flee sideways avoiding it but coming perilously close to the face pit. Resuming our trip we pass over chaos tainted Abyss. Boris' hand regenerates paler than before and his severed hand has escaped, Cronose' feet gain an odd pattern from the chaos ground.

Arrive at Kerberoth, makes purchases from the market. Lord Tirwh is away in the Empire of the East, we tell Lady Suneth of the cleft and masterplan beneath Alusia and ask her to pass the news on to The Master of Intrigue, the message will go with the next Caravan.

W'ansday 16th-27th Meadow

Back into the Abyss to Nualis via the Prince of Demons so we can leave a message for him about the masterplan.

Moonday 28th Meadow

We emerge from the rift in Aksum, speaking to locals we find someone who can tell us the rough location of the crater, about 700 miles west.

Deciding to fly with Lucius and Cronose as skin-changed mice, we set off west. Later in the day we sense trouble from the jungle below and divert north, smoke rises and spreads out into the shape of a Cobra. Safely distant most of us turn invisible and resume flying west.

Unable to find a clearing we manage to land at the top of a tall tree and settle in between the first and second canopies.

Insects and Hyenadons Bite

Duesday 29th Meadow

Our sleep is disrupted by swarms of biting insects, concerned about infection we take brandy for the bites which leaves Boris tired. We gather some local herbs for insect repellent then fly on.

Late in the day I spot a large spatial distortion ahead of us, closer to it we find an odd clearing and land. The clearing was made by Scarring Terrain. Further herb gathering, rest in Bromli's shelter, Lucius spends the night brewing insect repellent.

W'ansday 30th Meadow

Packing up and flying on to the distortion we see it is a 20 mile wide crater rising above the forest the inside of which is concealed by clouds. Landing in a tree at the base of the crater we climb up to the lip and start working on a way down the glassy vertical interior rockface. Bromli cuts down the trees, Boris turns them into ladders, I guide them down and Boris locks them into the fractures that Bromli makes.

Below the cloud we can see the extensive valley and clear skies above. At the bottom we search around and find some Elephant tracks which we follow south (which is 90° off where it was outside of the crater - strange and charm in play?).

We camp at dusk which is earlier (sun falling below crater rim) in Bromli's shelter. After midnight something is moving around outside, Bromli senses large undead animals, Cronose picks up several animal level minds and something smarter which is behind the Bromli-rowan tree. The rest of us have been donning armour and preparing spells.

The mage casts a noxious vapour mist, Bromli transforms and ambushes the Necromancer, the rest of us engage the petrified-undead-hyenadons. The necro and his pets are heavily armoured, one of them kills Cronose in one bite. The Necro hides in the mist while we work our way through the undead. Lucius holds off 2 undead in melee, Dellith starts ripping them apart with the strength of 10, Boris finds that Cronose is miraculously only mostly dead and helps him up. Lucius activates his enhanced senses to spot the Necro, we charge and he flees but Lucius gets a locate on him.

Boris recruits the undead to our side and we set off after the Night Priest, soon he moves out of locate range, we track him to where he has used a Spectral Portal to flee.

Th'rsday 1st Heat

Returning to our Elephant tracks, riding the undead, we follow them and find the Elephants a couple of hours later. No elderly and no obvious graveyard but we do spot another large spatial distortion in the distance that aligns with the direction the Spectral Portal was heading. We study the Elephants so we can find them later then head to the distortion which is a large crack in the crater wall. We see tracks of the undead coming in through the crack and decide to follow them back to where the Night Priest came from and presumably has fled to.

The pass leads out to the Dark Continent some distance from where we found the crater, while looking around we spot a Spectral Hound, a tracker like Boris uses. Reacting quickly we chase it, box it in with Necro counterspells and then kill it so it can't report back.

Necros Like Poisons

We resume back tracking the Hyenadons, then Bromli and I find a pit trap with poisoned stakes the hard way, Dellith and Boris steps in to assist. While pulling ourselves out of the pit, the Necro strikes again. An Undead snake gets amongst our mages and Undead monkeys charge towards us through the trees. Things are getting messy until our fighters manage to engage the snake and a Balrog Fire Wall reduces the monkey charge to ashes.

Lucius spots the Necro hiding at the back and gets a locate on him, we follow as he flees and this time we manage to corner him when he attempts to hide in magical darkness.

Bromli, Dellith and Boris engage the Spectral Knight the Necro summons so I can get past it to the Necro and disrupt his casting. After a few painful blows, the Knight is dismissed with a counterspell then the Necro goes down as we all pile in. Then we turn to meet the large dangerous thing that has been stalking Lucius and Cronose through the trees but it moves away, we never see it but get the impression from tree damage that it is huge.

Looting and patching wounds, we continue following the tracks and find ourselves back at one of the Scarring Terrain clearings. With nothing more to find here we return to the crater, looking back we see a Roc descend into the clearing we've left and decide to move faster.

Back in the crater we head to one of the villages and talk to the locals. We share dinner and spend the night in their village, they can't or won't direct us to the Elephant's Graveyard, we warn them of others like the Necro who may be hunting it which spooks them into migrating the village elsewhere.

In the morning is a scream, one of the men died during the night. We investigate and find he is not quite dead, a multi-part ingested poison has turned him into a living Zombie. Asking questions we find this has happened to others, usually young men in their prime. They buried these 'dead' young men, checking the graves we find they are all empty. It seems someone is selectively taking their young men for a super-zombie army. It also implies he was poisoned while we shared a meal with him last night. We try healing the poison but it is well beyond our capabilities.

Reference

Places & Locations

Dark Continent - Nualis

Local Languages are: Berber, Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian.

North-East: Aksum Queen Gudit.

North-NE: Kemet

North: Nubia

West: Ghana King Suleiman

Elephant's Graveyard - crater 20 miles across, rising out of the jungle. About 700 miles west of Aksum.

Logistics

Mil Sci

Daily Pattern

Sleep/Camp 11 Hours (4/3/4hr). Travel 10 Hours, Meals 2 Hours, Rituals 1 Hour

Watches

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Rahne			Bromli				Dellith
Cronose				Lucius				Boris

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Default Rahne (Scout) Bromli Boris Cronose Lucius Dellith	Double File Bromli Boris Cronose Lucius Rahne Dellith	Single File Bromli Boris Dellith Cronose Lucius Rahne

Astrology

Lucky Numbers

Boris	Bromli	Cronose	Dellith	Lucius	Rahne
74		73	63	72	86

Astrology (Rahne)

Boris	___________________________________________________________
Bromli
Cronose
Dellith
Lucius
Rahne

Buffs

Long Duration - always on

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Bo	Br	Cr	De	Lu	Ra
Ench Armour (R)	13	+28% Def +1 AP 4 DR vs Phnt/Nmare.	7 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Greater Ench. (R)	20	+21% to Res, Mag, Com, S&S.	5 days	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
-
Self Only
Mind Shield	6	+22% vs M.Att.	13 hrs			Y			Y
Sense Danger						38			49

Short Term - Cast as required

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Bo	Br	Cr	De	Lu	Ra
Ench Weapon (Rahne/Lucius)	10	+11% SC +4 Dmg (+2)	15 mins						Y
-

Enhance Enchantment (R) rank 10: 65 seconds (L) rank 12: 75 seconds.

Share Talent (Lucius) rk 10

Empowers 1 entity with another's talent up to rk 10. Duration 5.5hrs (10.5 enhanced)
Boris	Sense Danger
Bromli	Shaman Sight
Cronose	Necrogeny
Dellith	Witchsight
Lucius	Treasure Sense
Rahne	Necrogeny

Loot

Treasure Page

Loot, Purchases and Expenses

Item	Qty	Effects	Bo	Br	Cr	De	Lu	Ra	X
Purchased
Blank Phylacteries	5
Plover Stones	9		1	2	2	2	2
Pentecost Potions	2					Y		Y
Inc: Wall of Dark - Solid	1	Can take 10+rk dmg per pulse. 3,000sp						1
Inc: Whitefire - Res Half Damage	1	Resist for D+Rk. 6,000sp
Inc: Fire Arc - Translocation	1	8,000sp
Looted
Herbs: Lillies Orange Flowers	3 21	Insect Repellent
...

Calendar

Summer: Meadow (1) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
		Beltane Full Moon	1	Guild Meeting Seagate, Brastor, Blackshore					4	Astral, Abyss...
	7	...
	14	.. Kerberoth. Market			16	Abyss to Damien
	21		22	Abyss to Nualis
	28	Full Moon Aksum => west. Tree Camp	29	West. Clearing camp.	30	West => Crater. Night Priest.	1	Tracking...	2		3		4
Summer: Heat (2) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14	Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17		18
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30		1		2
Summer: Breeze (3) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	3	Day of Death	4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24	Full Moon	25		26		27		28		29		30