Dramatis Personae
Runners
Lodestone aka Kealt Sanja
Thankyou
Rooster
UltraBoy!
“K”
Tobias Cheney
The team is woken the 2nd by another pack of circling cats. UB! launches a grenade in their direction, hoping to scare them off. The team decides to leave this site, and travels a bit further on. They then cover themselves in Tobias’ scent masking cream, and even convince K to strip out of his armor for the first time in months to do the same. Feeling stealthier, they fly on, and manage to get some sleep upon landing.
The next day, they see what appears (incongruously) to be a forest in the distance. KS confirms that that is where they are headed, following the diamong trail. He does a bit more astral scouting while K flies them there and discovers that there are 3 powerful astral signatures within the forest, all bearing some traces of the diamonds unique signatures. They decide to make for the closest of the three.
K touches down outside the forest, and they decide to walk in. K, Rooster, and KS are all feeling the effects of the low mana background count that they have been traveling through, and the rest of the team is feeling a little off as well. When they step into the woods (which begin abruptly- an immediate transition from Mars desert to full cedar forest) many of them are overcome by a sudden influx of magical energy. As opposed to feeling parched due to the lack of mana, they now feel they are nearly drowning in it- an equally disturbing sensation. TY refuses to enter the woods, and says he will stand watch at the edge. The team continues on.
Not being used to wilderness travel, they are attacked for reasons unknown by two large bears, who brutally maul R and KS into unconsciousness before being shredded by T and UB!‘s machine gun and flechette fire. After reviving their fallen comrades, they continue to follow KS’ trail. They eventually come to a small clearing, in the center of which is an old looking Middle Eastern style building. KS senses no life inside, and T notes that it looks oddly porous, but before they can investigate further, UB! takes the initiative and strides boldly forward towards the front door. He is only halfway across the clearing when he is rushed and enveloped by a huge swarm of bees issuing from the house’s pores. He turns to try and escape, but is ko’d by the poison after a few steps. The team watches in horror as his condition monitor shows he is entering anaphylactic shock.
T shoots some holes in the side of the house with his gauss rifle, and K launches a massive fireball inside, hoping to clear out any more unpleasant surprises. KS chucks a flashbang towards UB! to clear out some bees, with great success, while T scatters the rest with the backwash from his jetboots/hand stabilizers. K rushes down to assist UB! (who is near death), while KS enters the building. A fire rages inside, having scorched or destroyed most of the interior. However, a prominent chest sits mostly undamaged at the far side of the room. KS opens it, and catches a brief glimpse of a spread of diamons inside, which quickly begin multiplying. Sensing a trap, he quickly shuts the lid, and calls in K, who dispells it. They gather the diamonds, of which there are 13. KS senses that 3 of them are the ones he seeks, but that they are only part of the whole.
They decide to flee the forest, fearing for their lives, rather than chance another of the astrally powerful sites. Upon reaching the edge, UB! and R seem suddenly very reluctant to leave, and T actually turns and begins sprinting back into the forest. K manages to overtake him and haul him out, using his flying harness. He pulls R and UB! along as well, and the team heads back out after collecting TY. They do not tell him that there are 13 diamonds, fearing his superstitions. They fly as long as they can in the remainder of the day, and make camp.
Next: can they make good their escape?
Comments
(New York, 2091) Rooster is at a bar, talking to some friends about the good ol’ days.
“Haha, Tony, that’s pretty bad. I got one that’ll beat it, though. You want a drekked-up run story? Here’s one for ya.
“We were hired by some guy to go look for some kinda valuable gewgaws that everyone was real tight-lipped about. No, I ain’t gonna tell you what it was. Sure, it’s been years, but some folks got long memories, and I ain’t about to stir that pot. Anyway, we were tracking ‘em down, and it ends up being out in the crater. This was back on Mars, by the way, back when it was REALLY hard to get in there. I’d just joined this crew, and I was sure that they were solid. Turns out that I was half-right, they sure as hell were solid as a rock in the city, but I figured that since these bunch of Martian Cowboys were such hot shit, a week in the wilds would be nothing to ‘em. I figured they were nine kinds of prepared. I certainly wasn’t. I was out of my element! I’m a face, man, and I’d recently talked my way into a lonestar cop shop and out with some valuable info, all without even bringing in a gun. AND lonestar still loved me. Had no idea that I’d sweet talked ‘em so hard. So I can talk my way out of anything. You know, when there’s someone to talk to. You know what there ain’t in the wilderness? Any drekkin’ thing to talk to. So I was useless out there. These buncha chummers, though, these guys were pros.
“So we go along, looking for the gewgaws, and we finally make it to a forest, after spending a couple days on the plains, getting attacked by these weird spidercat things. What’s the first thing that happens? BAM! Almost get my head taken off by a bear. No, I swear to god, a fucking bear! I’ve still got some pics of the scars I had, if you don’t believe me. I wasn’t the only one down, too. There was this dandy detecto-mage there, a good guy for a pointy-ear, and his arm was basically off. Fortunately for the both of us, we had this weird legless mage who was johnny on the spot with the magic healing. Put the elf’s arm back on, and made it so my neck wasn’t squirting pints everywhere. Our heavies put a stop to the bears doublequick, but god DAMN was that ridiculous. I later found out that Mr. Detecto had forgotten to scan for life signs. Considering that we sure as drek weren’t gonna be hit by drones, it seems like it woulda been a decent idea to have on, but whatever. It’s not like I was helping in particular out there.
“Anyway, we decide to take to the trees, which was one of our damn few GOOD ideas during that run, and ultimately come across an honest to god CASTLE in the middle of the woods. Detecto only saw tiny amounts of life inside, and so one of our heavies, the psycho ork with the boom fetish decides to walk on in. Our other heavy, rich-boy tourist human (the man made SCULPTURE fer chrissakes) stops boom-boom and suggests that I go knock on the door. Me, the guy who hasn’t even fired a single shot, and who just a couple of hours ago was lying on my back, feeling my life-blood pour out my neck. I lay on the “no way, jose” pretty thick, and was even gonna kick it up a notch, when boom-boom gets bored and feels like busting the door down. Rich boy (wanting to make the first move in EVERY situation, I’m sure you know the type) fires his gauss rifle straight through the side of the castle. you know what came out of that hole? Bees. Millions of bees. Boom-boom thinks ‘hell, I’m a big heavy, I’ll just wade through and check out the building. Bees ain’t shit.’ Well, turns out he was allergic, or somethin’, ‘cuz he gets stung half a dozen times and falls right over. Almost bites it right there. ’Cuz of BEES. Seriously. Bees.
“Legless wonder flies down and sends a fireball through that hole rich-boy’d punched, and from what I can guess sends about half a billion damn bees straight to hell. Rich-boy, not wanting to be outdone, flies down with some crazy jetpack, and has the idea that he’s gonna use the rockets to cook the sonsabitches. It kinda worked, too, even though it was the craziest damn thing I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, detecto has good idea number two of the run and tosses a flashbang. Wipes out the rest, pretty much, with rich-boy doing some cleanup. What was I doing that whole time? What the hell could I do? I was basically perched up in a tree, scouting around with a minidrone. I felt kinda useless, but it beat the hell out of being stung to death.
“Anyway, we get boom-boom somewhat patched up, we walk in, toss the place (it’s pretty much all wrecked ‘cuz of the fireball) and pop open a chest. We grab the gewgaws and get the HELL OUT. Well, rich-boy has one more good idea. Or bad idea. Depending on who owns the chest. He sticks a damn mine in there, rigged to go off next time someone opens the thing. Kind of funny, if you ask me, but only really good for taking out chumps. Whoever owned that chest? Probably not a chump.
“So it’s leave time, and legless wonder zips us through to the edge of the forest. As we walk through, things get a little cloudy. Some kind of spell. Me and detecto just kind of stand there, and rich-boy wants to go back inside the damn place! Can you believe that? Of course, he was the only one to walk through without a scratch, but still. Dude’s nuts. If I wasn’t half-dead from the bear and more or less stuck in place, I would have talked him out of it with a VERY stern voice, believe you me. Eventually we have to strap him to legless wonder and just fly him away.
“So yeah. We went through the wilds with no supplies, no knowledge of the place, no effective gear, and not even some damned bug spray, and we almost get killed by bears and spidercats and bees. See, I told ya that was a more poorly-planned run! Oh, and here’s the kicker: we only got a few of the gewgaws. The rest was even crazier. But that’s a story for another time, and my throat’s awfully dry. What say you buy me another round, eh?”
The Tale of the Forbidden Woods (con’t.)
The party continues along the next day, with Jack well-rested and everyone else tired from the fight. Jack was as kind as he was clever, though, so he offered them some tips on how to hide themselves when they are sleeping, so that they would not be attacked in the night again. He even offered to take the first watch the next night, because he was very, very kind indeed.
As they are continuing their trek, they came upon a deeper woods, full of very strong magic. The Grey Paladin was very afraid of this place, as even his prayers were not reaching his gods, and so he offered to guard the way that they came in, should it be needed.
Inside the darker, deeper woods, the party walked. Strange noises surrounded them, and they were all afraid except for Jack, who was as brave as he was clever. Suddenly, they were beset by bears out of nowhere! The Huntsman was attempting to summon his beast ally, but he was surrounded by 5 bears. Jack, sensing that his friend was in danger, rushed over to defend him, roaring like a dragon. The roaring scared off the bears, but in their panic, they swiped at Jack and The Huntsman with their mighty claws, and they were both sorely injured.
Fortunately, the Shrouded Wizard was always prepared, and he used powerful healing magic to heal his friends up as good as new, while the Firey Barbarian raged and hacked away at the bears with his axes, and the Spring-heeled Bowman feathered the fleeing bears with so many arrows that they looked like birds.
Everyone was glad that Jack and The Huntsman were healed from their grievous injuries, and they continued upon their quest for the jewels.
The forest was too dense to fly through, so they walked along, considerably more careful about looking for bears in the woods. Eventually, they came upon a strange castle in the middle of the woods. This castle was very strange indeed, and it looked as though it was made out of paper. The Shrouded Wizard and The Huntsman both agreed that the jewels were likely inside.
The Spring-heeled Bowman used his mighty legs to leap high into a tree, and watched over the scene with his bow drawn. The Firey Barbarian says that he will tear down the castle by himself, and strides across the small clearing to do just that, his twin axes clashing against each other.
Jack tried to warn him, but it was too late. Out of the castle poured many bees, and they stung the Firey Barbarian badly, and he had to run around to avoid their stings.
“How can we fight bees?” said the party.
“Bees will die from fire,” Jack said, “and if there are more of them in there, which there probably are, we could probably burn them all up with one of the Shrouded Wizard’s mighty spells. Bowman, if you are able to put a hole in the window with your arrows, surely the Wizard will be able to burn them.”
The Spring-heeled Bowman saw that this was wise, and he shot an arrow that sailed right through a window, breaking any enchantments that might have protected the castle. The Shrouded Wizard then sent a mighty fireball in through this window, and slayed whatever bees were left, as Jack helped find some salve for the Firey Barbarian’s stings.
After the danger was eliminated, they entered the castle and found a treasure chest. Jack was able to spot and disarm a trap, and opened the chest. Inside, there were only but a few jewels.
“I have a feeling that there will be more to find than just these,” Jack said, “and that they are more important than simple jewels!”
The party then left the woods, and met up with their friend the Grey Paladin, who had so valiantly guarded their escape. The Shrouded Wizard then summoned another carpet, and they flew quickly back to where they entered the Forbidden Woods, hoping never to have to return.