While the Survivors of the Tel were beset by legal troubles, a different group of barbarian foreigners sought into the underworld of the Tel al Safina seeking their own gold and glory. Not organized under any one banner, this smaller party intended to follow up on their adventure some weeks prior, by sneaking back into the giants' lair in the caves near the Colossian Oracle.
Included amongst their number was Persephone, sometime companion of the Survivors, fellow Kantor-associate of adventurer-tinkerer Durham; after the previous expedition, she devoted some time investigating the giant creatures that they had encountered, the dzor, which were also depicted on columns outside the chambers of the Oracle:
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| Dzor-column by the Oracle |
According to these investigations, Persephone learned that it is a unique point of pride of the Forbinii priesthood, those who maintain the Oracle, that they have somehow managed to subdue to their will a tribe of dzor, which are otherwise incommunicative and untrainable by men, and they use these creatures as a kind of temple-guard for the Oracle. Ten or so feet tall, the dzor certainly make terrifying guards ...
Reporting these findings to her comrades, Persephone and the party made ready to return to the Temenos by acquiring several handcarts and filling them with the roasted meat of three hma, along with great casks of dark wine, hoping that even if the dzor were unable to speak intelligibly, perhaps at least they would understand the wordless language of gift-offerings. And so they set forth along the Pallbearers' Way, braving the incessant rain:
- Lars Fangripper (magic-user 1)
accompanied by Stark the Wandsman (fighting-man 1) - Arngeir (fighting-man 1)
- Persephone (fighting-woman 4)
accompanied by Finbar (renyu)
The group returned by the same road, carts emptied of meat, but loaded down with quite different freight, including certain ingots, a strange insectoid carapace, and the corpse of a weird humanoid warrior. Fangripper wore new scars upon his barbarian hide, and Persephone too was injured. This curious "caravan" made its way through the streets into the harbor district and there feted Durham in his workshop, the Ringing Anvil.
An agreement was struck, such that Durham would hold onto certain items--ingots of a familiar but still strange metal, in particular--while the common metals were to be sold at fair price. Fangripper, meanwhile, haled the corpse of the warrior creature to the Confraternity of Issa, hoping that the beastmasters there might know something about it, or at least be able to discover something more enlightening about its nature. The creature's appearance prompted much curiosity--generally human-like, it was thickly muscled, its face reddish-purple with great black eyes, while its body was covered with a thick skin of dark green hue, cut in places by the adventurers' weapons and encrusted there with a dried ichor of yellowish color ...
The Lucre
- three ingots of a strange green metal
- three smaller ingots of copper and tin (500 gp)
- swords and harness of the defeated creatures (60 gp)
- the armored thoracic carapace
- corpse of the bestial humanoid (taken to the Confraternity)
The Learning
- 159 xp from "greyling" (150 + hp)
- 326 xp from the warrior (300 + hp)
- 560 xp from treasure
- 160 gp to each player-character
80 gp to Stark - 348 xp to each player-character
175 xp to Stark - the green ingots
- the carapace
- anything sold "to the right buyer" would increase both gold and xp earned
The scribes' notes for this session are spotty, they would welcome any corrections.
Also, of course, any write-ups or art, etc., are worth 100 xp per level to the player-character providing such
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