Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

"It veered away with the torch light," Ran says while dividing his attention between the dark jungle and Mica's examination of the pack. "Let's build up the fire and stick an extra torch out for rest of the night."

Mica cuts the pack off the body and drags it back up the little rise where the tents are located.  Inside, packed tightly and rolled up in leather bags, are 50 days worth of preserved rations.  There is also a single stoppered vial of clear liquid with a red dot floating inside.  Occasionally, the red dot swells and colors the rest of the liquid red... before condensing back down to a red dot and leaving the rest of the liquid clear again.  

There are no papers, maps, or other clues as to who this elf was, where he came from, or what happened to him.

It was almost peaceful the way they were able to relax around the camp fire, set up the incense to burn and simply eat their dimetrodon (definitely as disgusting as Danica imagined) and rations while listening to Meili read Volo's Guide aloud to them. Smiling at Ran's question about small blue gnome like creatures they had just finished learning about she shrugged, "Who's to say? Old man could've lied about a quarter of the things in that book and not many would be able to prove him wrong. Seems fairly knowledgeable to me though." The peace wasn't as long lasting as they would've liked though as rain came in like a wave. She tried to offer to take watch but everyone else was quick to call watches themselves, the elf smiling in thanks as she nodded to her companions before retreating in her tent. Danica took her time with her nightly ablutions, changing socks, combing her hair out and maintaining her weapon, shield and armor before saying her nightly prayers, making a few more notations to her star charts and finally settling down in a cross legged position to meditate. 

Once more peace was snatched away from her. Was this what dying felt like? Nearly more suffocating than drowning, the sensation of being buried alive, complete sensory depravation, she could feel hear heart beating slower and slower. Trap? Magic? Her own mind felt filled with mud. At least before the voices began to bleed through. It was easy to concentrate on the voices and trying to understand what they said than, Danica latching onto them like a lifeline but left even more confused once they faded away leaving her only in darkness. When she awoke, it was with a violent start to find herself laid out on the floor of her tent, her chest heaving in gasps like she had been holding her breath. And it was then that she heard some sort of animalistic cry, prompting her to gather her things and exits her tent with scimitar in hand. Glancing about, she joins the others, still feeling shaky from what she just experienced. 

Seeing that they weren't being attacked and the others were handling the corpse that they had found should have set her at ease but still Danica felt off kilter and on edge. Looking around she asks, "Any sign of who he was with? Maybe we should have two on watches?" She also looks around for Inete, a fear niggling at the back of her mind. If she doesn't see the acolyte, the elf would try to peek into her tent to reassure herself that the other woman was alright. 

Danica, you find Inete inside her tent.  She is awake, but breathing heavily and she recoils when you pop your head in.  You see her eyes are wide and she is drenched in sweat.  "Is everyone OK?" she asks.  "I... I was having a nightmare, I think...".

Danica's eyes focus easily in the darkness of the tent, meeting Inete's wide ones with understanding. "Everyone is fine." She reassures first before probing, "Did this nightmare involve feeling like you were dying and then hearing voices talk about blinding "a little witch spy of the all seeing one"?" Perhaps this was a bit blunt but in her half rested state, the sailor didn't really know the best way to phrase such a thing. "Because same." She pointed to herself with a serious expression, trying to read Inete's for any indication that it rang any bells with her.

Insight: 10

Mica shares what he finds in the pack with the group. “Well, if you don’t like dinosaur meat, you are in luck.  Enough rations here to last us a good while when added to ours.”  He gives the potion bottle a little shake and hands it over to Danica the first chance he gets “Not sure what that is all about, but figured you or one of the others could study it.  No sign of where he was coming from or going though.”

He looks over to where they left the body, then back at Hew and Ran “What should we do with them?  Bury ‘em?”

"Burn, probably." Meili woke up to the noise when the gatherers returned with their trophy. "The dead do not stay in their graves on Chult." She looked at Hew. "Am I right?"

Inete looks at Danica, confusion on her face.  "No.  I performed a reading for Velan.  I... saw something unexpected... something horrible.  Just now I saw it again in my dreams."  She shudders.  "I can't get the sight of the abomination out of my mind."

"The All-Seeing One is Savras.  A spy?  Is that supposed to mean me?"

Danica:

Hew considers Mica and Meili's concerns.  He circles the corpse, not getting too close.  "Snakes," he says, as though it is the answer to some unasked question.  "Burn it... if we can."  He looks around, a sour expression on his face.  "Everything's so damn wet.  Let's see if we can get enough kindling to get it burning."  He helps the rest of you gather enough materials to get a proper blaze going, and the corpse is set alight, finally sending the last of the flies away.  

Hew joins Mica for the last watch, spending the time staring off into the jungle.  A few times he mutters, "... a laughing ape..." to himself.

Dawn comes without further incident.

[Everyone can take a long rest.  The waterskins and barrel are all filled from the raincatchers.  The 50 rations weigh 100lbs.  They can be stored in the canoe but will need to be spread around your packs if/when you start to walk.]

When Meili was rubbing in the insect repellent, she thought that with countless bonfires (and especially after the burning of the corpses at the night) it was more of a ritual than of any practical use - everyone was reeking of ashes, no sane insect would come anywhere near such a stinking cloud. On the other hand, "sane" was not exactly the word to describe Chult and its inhabitants.

"What did you mean by "laughing ape?"" Asked Maili the guide. She was checking the paddle and readying the canoe for the journey but could not wait with the question. "I remember Girallon in the book. Though, the monster was described as a four-armed ape, not laughing. Other than that... Were there any more mentions of apes? Not that the book has to be complete, of course."

 He could see the images as Inete narrated her vision. He expected rage, bitterness, or at least disdain, but the memory didn’t bring him a single emotion. He knew that was nothing more than sophistry from the Crone just as much as he knew that to some extent, she was right. The life from before was no more and there was no use in thinking about it. Then she spoke of the creature. The description was too nebulous and nothing particularly came to mind. It sounded to him like something of the lower planes. Or, maybe, the far realms.

“Nothing comes to my mind and I will respect if you decide to not do further readings. I just ask that you consider that information may the only way to, hopefully, deal with something this dangerous.” That was the only thing close to certainty he had at that point. Whatever Inete saw was dangerous. But what relation could it have with him? The acolyte had mentioned to feel something watching her reading. Maybe it was the Crone. Maybe she showed the creature. She wanted them to get involved with it. If that was the case, then what Inete saw before made some sense. It could be her saying that was looking, tying him into that, but wouldn’t meddle. At least not yet.

Sleep came while his thoughts wandered, trying to decipher the intentions of the hag, and was interrupted by Ninlil’s alert. He rose fast and was ready to alert the others, but Ran had already done as much. After that they found a corpse with a fortunately valuable loot and he returned to sleep. With the morning he repeated his routine of studying the spellbook, applying Mage Armor and recovering the energy employed in the spell.

“I can try to identify the vial.” He suggests as they wait for Hew’s answer. “By the way, Danica, the spyglass is an antique, made as a wedding gift for Thayan nobility. It can probably fetch a good price in the Port. Considering what Wakanga told us, he may want it himself.”  

Danica mirrored Inete's own confusion as she described her own nightmare. "Huh... Not like mine after all then. I'm fairly sure I somehow....overheard?" She glanced at Velan as he approached while she hovered half in and yet half out of the acolyte's tent. "Or something magically similar. To a conversation pertaining to what I'm sure meant you. And a "foundling" with you? It's just a hunch but I'm worried it might've been those Sewn Sisters we heard mention of. It was hard to differentiate and tell if it was one voice or many but there was definite mention of blinding you. Or I guess whoever "the all seeing one's spy" was." Her hand rubbed her forehead as she tried to recall the rest, her eyes unfocused as she concentrated. "And...something else a name. Or title maybe? Ras Nsi. City wouldn't be breached and this Ras would honor a pact. And the intruders need to be wiped off the board so they couldn't report to Savras. That might mean us." Danica finally looked up to meet her companion's eyes, her brow furrowed in concern. The stakes were getting higher and higher. 

Nodding to Mica distractedly as he handed her a vial she was discomforted by the fact that they were so much in the dark and stared at the strange liquid and red dot before looking up at Velan's offer. "Please, by all means." Handing him the vial before tilting her head at the information. "Thayan ye say?" She hummed in consideration at his proposal before nodding, "Good idea. Even better if he can also trade me for just a decent plain one." 

Hew looks up when Meili asks him about what he was muttering.  "Oh... it was something Ran said about the creature last night.  I am stumped.  The closest guess I could make would be a su-monster.  They are cruel, predatory creatures and they resemble apes.  But they keep to the trees and you seldom encounter them at night."  He scratches his beard.  "I don't like being surprised.  And I don't like the thought of running into something unfamiliar out here."

When Danica mentions the name 'Ras Nsi', Inete makes a sour face.  "The unmentionable one.  Ras Nsi was one of Ubtao's paladins of old.  He is the traitor who raised an undead army... the same army which continues to plague the deep jungles centuries later.  But he is supposed to have perished long ago."  She looks tired.  "I don't know what to make of any of this.  It is a puzzlebox of horrors."

Velan:

Once the gear is packed away again, Hew turns to face the rest of you.  "Some of you mentioned an idea about cutting through the jungles to avoid the Order of the Gauntlet camps upriver.  It will make for a very long walk, and I don't recommend it... but if you want to go that route, this is as good a place as any to start.  The river winds and doubles back on itself for a long stretch.  We have another 2 days before we would hit the ruins of Camp Righteous if we keep to the river.  Then another day to Camp Vengeance, and then another day on foot to M'bala.  If we cut through the jungle... we could hit M'bala in 8 days.  Or 7, if we make good time."

"I recommend we keep to the water for now.  But I wanted to be sure of what you want to do."

Meili was already packed at least part of the camp into the canoe thinking the question was closed yesterday. "Eight days through that jungle versus four days on the very treacherous abut somewhat familiar water. Tough choice but walking does not sound like a shortcut or a safe path. Maybe we stick to the water?"

"That's good.  That's good.  Just checking to make sure."  Hew joins in getting the last of the gear packed into the canoes.

Danica hummed with a serious expression at the information Inete imparted. "Maybe this Ras Nsi isn't as perished as people thought if he's being mentioned by others about pacts n such. If he's still around then that might explain why there's even more undead now than before. More n more people going into the jungle and less leaving. Just getting added to this undead army." A shiver ran through her body. "Horrors indeed."

When Hew fairly brought up their options again, the elf nodded along as Meili spoke up. "I'm of the same opinion personally, but what does everyone else think?" Glancing around to her own canoe and then Hew's. 

@All

Ran looks down at the water and then at the jungle.

"Maybe these boats are growing on me," Ran says, "but I'm board. I'll take the crocs over whatever the hell that creature was last night."

He looks back up the river.

"We haven't seen my sister's canoe anywhere either. She's sticking to the river to get to Mbala and no sign of failure so far."

 1

Inete is also anxious to keep to the river as this will get her to the Aldani Basin the quickest. 

After the rough night everyone had, Hew encourages you by reminding that you are past the Bloody Beaches.  "While you cannot let your guard down, we should only run into trouble today if we have some bad luck."

His words prove prescient, as the first half of the day passes without danger.  Three different storms pass through, darkening the skies, dumping rain on you, then clearing.  One after the other.  After checking it for snakes, Hew has the group park the canoes on a treed island in the middle of the river and you are able to grab a bite to eat.  Hew mentions there are sometimes small, edible snails in this area but despite turning over rocks he is unable to find any.  In any event, you have a large pile of extra rations now.

Ninlil continues to keep watch in the treetops, but the only sounds are birds and insects.  You might be able to fool yourself into thinking you were vacationing in a tropical paradise, if only for a little while today.

Once everyone has had a rest, Hew prods you to get back in the canoes and begin the afternoon paddle.

Mica grumbles as Hew prods them back to the canoes.  Basking in the warm sun with a gentle breeze, he almost felt at peace for a moment.  Then it was back to the cursed boats.  “I still cannot wait to get into the jungle, it is hard to maneuver or fight  inside these boats.  Still, if this helps us reach our destination faster, all the better.”  

He looks over at Ran “No sign of your sister’s canoe, or the wizards either.  Maybe the Order will have more to pass along.  Did your sister know you were following, would she leave a trail for you?”

“Our mystery vial is a potion of diminution.” He said finishing the ritual spell. At first, he thought everyone would understand the meaning of that, then he remembered how usual magic potions were. “For one to four hours whoever drinks it get his or hers dimensions halved and weight reduced to a eighth of the usual. As a collateral one becomes substantially weaker. Any weapons carried during the drinking gets reduced too and lose some damaging capability.” Meaning that Ran should be the last person to drink the thing. As far as the wizard could tell, the fighter was the kind of warrior that focused on power rather than agility. “It may come in handy during ruin exploration or we could feed it to some enemy.”

The last part would be harder, but possible all the same. Worst case scenario they could sell the potion to Wakanga too. The merchant prince was sure to know someone interested in purchasing such oddity and more than likely to profit from reselling the thing.

“The creatures and even the undeath may be acting strange because of the sisters. Their kind deal with magic as dark as those used by the Red Wizards, and older.” Velan said while telepathically commanding Ninlil to keep her watch. “When it comes to Ras Nsi, well, if he raised an army of undead I would not be surprised if raised his own corpse and lingered on it.”

It wouldn’t be far fetched to imagined him allying with whoever is causing the curse. A thought he kept to himself while agreeing to return to the water. Vecna or Arcerak, he thought starting to reflect on the last days of the journey. Was there any indication of which of them could be?

“I’m more worried about how the Order would react to us." He mentioned after Mica’s comment. Velan’s hopes of information resided on the Chulteans. “They could be hearing the whispers on the sisters and be…Less than pleasant to meet.”