Riverboat Gambler - Session Nine

 

Datura, Jack and Roddy set off on their Giant Bats to recover guano from the tomb. It was within walking distance but it was still night and the Plain was covered with undead. The tomb was on a hill surrounded by a thick stand of cacti that stopped the zombies and ghouls from getting in. The Gamblers landed their flying foxes atop the mound of rock.

 

Two blue flashes over the horizon lit the plain to the north. A moment later, two more. Two double taps for a total of four. The distant sound of thunder came later, indicating the source was leagues away. Four total blasts was more than a single Blue Dragon (which they had spotted) could fire in a day. Roddy suspected there were two, who each used their breath weapon twice and held the third in reserve. But where did the second one come from?

 

The courtyard outside the tomb, surrounded by the cacti, had a weathered statue of a jackal headed man. Jack took a silver ring off the stone sentinel's finger and pocketed it for later identification. He detected Cactus Cats hiding in the teddy bear cacti. The adventurers headed inside.

 

The tomb interior reeked of spices and flowers and dung. The Gamblers found an old chamber with a smashed-in curse door and stone tools used in the tomb's construction. A staircase led to a lower level with a floor coated in guano and heaped oolites. Roddy identified the likely denizens of the cave as Oxyxes, flying mammal-insects who ate nectar. They were nocturnal and wouldn't return until morning, giving the Gamblers free reign to loot the place. Even if they came back the worst they would do is lick them with their soporific spit, a minor inconvenience.

 

The Hsigo from the fort gave the Gamblers bags and entrenching tools, which they used to scoop up the batshit for use in Roddy's chemical explosives. Beneath the guano they found quartz and silver weapons left by the tomb builders. Jack grabbed as many of these as he could fit in his bag. 

 

A squelching sound came from the tomb entrance. Datura lifted her lantern and found five Cactus Cats. All five shot poison needles at her but only one hit through her coat of mail. She raised her pistol and blew the offender's head off. Roddy and Jack unleashed a furious assault and killed two more of the felines, driving the last two out of the cavern. This was unusual behavior for Cactus Cats. They didn't normally hunt in big groups or gang up to stack poison on single targets. The Gamblers heard the sound of rocks shifting overhead, followed by the distressed sounds of the bats. Roddy grabbed two of the plant/animal corpses and the Gamblers ran up the stairs to see what was happening.

Bader

 

Something had shoveled aside a heap of rocks in the top floor of the tomb, allowing the undead from the Plain to get inside. A Jackalwere poked its head through the hole and stared at Jack, mouthing meaningless lorem ipsum from its former life. He tanked its Sleep gaze and ran for the door, warning the others that it was time to leave. The Gamblers retreated before more monsters flowed in through the gap. Jack tossed stone and silver treasure as he ran to lighten his load. The skin of a Cactus Cat dangled from the outstretched hand of the animal headed statue in the courtyard. Datura grabbed it, narrowly avoiding the dogman's snapping jaws. The adventurers mounted the bats and took off.

 

Back at the Hsigo fort, the Gamblers reported their success to the flying monkeys. Roddy combined guano, piss and other ingredients to make an incendiary bomb, drying the mixture in an improvised gloom oven so it wouldn't catch a stray ember and explode. Datura examined the Catskin. It was like a little suit made from a cat hide, with holes so the wearer could see out. It would be very uncomfortable for a human-sized being to wear, like a nightmare of being trapped in a bag and acting like an animal. The Hsigo leader Erhman suggested that the being who wore it realized it had been identified and discarded its disguise to find another one.

 

Jack extracted poison needles from the cat carcasses, adding to the Gamblers' existing pile. It would take a whole lot of needles to bring down a single target, which is why they gathered so many. 

 

At dawn the Gamblers took off aboard their bats, carrying Roddy's improvised incendiary bomb. They flew over the dead forest on the west side of the river. On the east bank, Giant Woodpeckers were already had at work, pecking the earth and pulling up buried zombies to eat. The huge flickers shrieked challenges at the Gamblers. They shrieked a further challenge at the tiny shapes flying over the plain, headed south: A Blue Dragon and a smaller Blue Dragon, weighed down with something the Gamblers couldn't see so far away. Disturbing.

 

Roddy dove toward the dead trees and released the bomb. A cloud of Whipwhirls rose up to meet him. The bomb airburst in a cloud of flaming residue that the bark spirits flew right into, incinerating them. The Hsigo cheered from the fort. Then the Woodpeckers attacked. 

 

 

At first they went after Roddy, the smallest adventurer and the one that looked like food to them. Then the rest of the Gamblers joined the fray. A confused dogfight erupted above Mogart's Creek. The Woodpeckers were faster than the Giant Bats, preventing the Gamblers from isolating and concentrating damage on specific birds. The birds were ground feeders unused to taking prey in flight, and could only use their long beaks without the aid of their claws. Datura decapitated a single Flicker but the other seven pecked away, coming perilously close to killing the Bats even with Roddy fending them off using the Rod of Parrying.

 

Shamed by the bravery of the three adventurers, Erhman led the Hsigo into battle. Fifty chattering monkeys with swords could have turned the tide, but a cloud of mist rose out of the marsh below and engulfed the combatants. It mixed with the cloud of smoke from the dead trees and covered the birds' escape as they flew south to the mastaba.

 

The flying primates joined the Gamblers on the eastern shore of the marsh, in the trees where the Woodpeckers had lived. The apes celebrated by looting the skeletons in the undergrowth while their sergeants tried to control them and set up a perimeter. The Gamblers healed the bats' injuries and Jack grabbed a mysterious set of bagpipes from a dead body before the monkeys could take it. Datura spotted a creature in the water, a humanoid figure that raised a hand to cast a spell on her. She shot it with her rifle. It raised its other hand and hit her with Cause Disease before disappearing into the water. The Hsigo rushed forward and cast their darts into the water. Captain Erhman was furious. He hated Druids and the Druidic Mafia, archrivals to the Grain Cult and Iron Hand. Jack cured Datura's diseases. Roddy ate figs from the trees. The monkeys groomed the bats.

 

The Hsigo chopped the trees down. By the time they were finished, shoots and saplings were already emerging out of the muddy riverbank to replace them. The little primates retrieved the burned remains of several comrades killed by the whipwhirl from the torched forest on the west side. There too the plants were already growing back. The Gamblers convinced the Hsigo Captain that the Druids (if there even were any and it wasn't just a monster casting off the Druid list) were in the mastaba, and he should send a detachment of troops with them to clean the place out. By the time they arrived at the entrance atop the step pyramid it was day.