Our Brave Band of Adventurers the Crimson Lotus:

• Charisma, a “human” -mutant- sorceress whose power source is Gamma Radiation which she was exposed to as a child.  As a child of the Atom her hair goes green in the presence of radiation and she progressively gets greener the more powerful spells she casts (and as she gets angry).  She has no love for the Technic League.
• Heidt, a ranger who has traded an affinity for nature for an affinity for machines.  This android has mastered cybertheurgy as well as the lasgun.  Has chosen the mechromancer archetype (blog post at some later point!).  Seeking to learn more about his history he has become an archaeological expert on all things related to the Rain of Stars.
• Rikku, an elven rogue who was adopted by Khonnir Baine when he found her wandering the wasteland near Torch more than a decade ago.  She claims to be a blood elf from a far-away land.  Her history is tied up with a nearby ruin.
• Sylvanus, a dark elf monk who escaped the clutches of mind flayer slavemasters in the area of the Scar of the Spider after a daring raid by surface dwelling heroes freed her.
• Brokthor, a human fighter who was raised by dwarfs and thinks he IS a dwarf.
• Tufast, a human cleric who serves the unpredictable goddess of thunder and lightning Dorana.  Much like his barbarian family he hates technology and has a particular spite for robots.  He sees the cleansing power of Dorana as the perfect antidote to the curse of the robot infestation of Nimmeria.

The Choking Tower

Session 14

By Rikku Yuffina Kyrus

       We see a big tank like thing ahead of us. Hiedt says it’s a Rhino. It says its name is Cortina and it wants us to identify ourselves. Brocktha says he is the Lieutenant Cornel and Tufast is Major Lightning. It opens its doors and says, “My name is Cortina.” But it only lets Tufast and Brocktha in. Brocktha says Hiedt is his helper and the rest of us are his prisoners. Cortina lets all of us in and Brocktha names her Thomas the tank engine. We drive outside to the Scrapwall streets. Brocktha calls from inside the tank and asks if any bard would like to follow him. A Half-elf bard named Gleeman would like to join us. He hops in as a prisoner and we drive to Chesed. There are no interruptions during the drive and I get a parrot, name it Mr. Squawkers, and teach it bad words. When we get to Chesed we see some Technic League members eying Thomas greedily. We lock him up, put him on defence mode, and enter the city.

This city is the largest and the busiest I’ve ever seen. We hear merchants calling out there wares and some dirty beggars in rags in a dark and abandoned alleyway. We look from stall to stall and finally find one that has a list of magic healing spells hanging from the side. We wait for at least a dragging thirty minutes until the clerk can talk us to. He says only the High Priest can do resurrection and if we really want the spell will have to line up for forty minutes at another stand. Finally we get to this clerk who signs and puts some papers in order. When he’s done he says we have to line up at a magic counter. Grumbling we line up. After an unbearable thirty minutes we speak to a priest who says we have to book an appointment to see the High Priest. We agree and the earliest he can book us in for is in two weeks! We look at him with gaping mouths and explain that Sylvanus would have been rotting by then so we argue from impatience and annoyance. Another cleric comes up and asks what the matter is. The booking cleric explains and the other cleric turns to us and says the High Priest can see us now. We follow him and he leads us to a big building. He opens the door, speaks to the female dwarf High Priest, and leaves. We turn to the High Priest and she motions us to sit down on the surrounding chairs. She asks what we want and we say we want a resurrection spell to heal our friend. She says, “Yep no problem. You just need to pay 10,000 in gold and we’ll be done.” We stare at her in astonishment. We disagree and ask if there is anything else we can do or if she can lower the price. She there has been some demon totally destroying a certain trade route. The last caravan that has come reported that the thing that attacked them was a fiendish red winged monster. She wants us to investigate and stop the problem. We accept and she casts gees on us so we stick to the promise or we die. Then she resurrected Sylvanus. She thinks the source of the problem is in an old winery inland, which used to be a base for robbers. Maybe this is their base. We thank her and go to Thomas. There are two dead Technic League members near Thomas. He tells us they tried to robojack him. We get in him and start driving to the winery.

We are interrupted twice during our journey. The first time a blue and gold starlight dragon swoops down to have a look at us then flies off with lightning speed. Then a T-rex, looking up from its meal sees us and, charges thinking this a strange sight. When his shadow is cast upon Thomas, Hiedt fires the gigantic gun on Thomas and the rest of us either jump out or stay on the back extension. Charisma, Tufast and I shoot or cast spells. Brocktha runs to the enemy and then the T-rex bites him! Hiedt shoots a bolt, which kills the T-rex. We recover Brocktha, heal him, and get back in Thomas.

At midday we reach a high tower standing next to a river. It seems abandoned and very old. Thomas rams a big hole in the wall and we see no sign of life. We get out and enter. This was obviously a winery. Bottles of old wine stand or lie everywhere. Winding stairs lead up onto a platform and narrow stairs lead into darkness. We climb up the stairs of the ruined watchtower. No one is here and we find a bag of gems. We make our way down. I send Stuart Little (cranium rat familiar) down the narrow stairs. Near a turn in the flight of stairs he hears squeaky little voices. They are fighting among themselves and are calling each other imps. Sylvanus and I sneak down. One of the voices says, “SHH! Sh! I heard something.” Then another voice says, “I’ll go check it out.” Sylvanus rolls a grenade down the stairs. The same voice says, “AHH! Get em boys!” and a quasit appears in front of us wiggling its fingers and sneering. We stab him to death and call for help as one more appears. Charisma missiles him to death and we descend the stairs. Five Quasits surround a dug up hole in the wall (a tunnel). One of them disappears into it. We kill or scare the others off and go through a hole. After a few hundred feet we come to a crude ladder leading up. We can hear chanting above. I shoot a bow near the ladder with the emergency beacon on it. And we crawl back out.