From RainGamersWiki

Episode 8 – Dec 27 2009

After a long rest, Kohana calls a bird to send a message back to the Council. We discuss what the message should say and what to do on our current mission. After some discussion and debate, we decide the best course of action is for Kohana to send the bird to his great-grandfather for counsel.

A crow retrieves the message and flies away.

Suddenly there is a high pitched shriek from the nearby rubble! It's not bad, really, but Kohana cries out in pain. A canid Little Brother made of metal runs forward. Kohana's burst of ice does not slow it. It emits a burst of sound which cascades off of Kohana's mystic defenses. Inyan moves in and whacks it.

I summon the blood charge and spear the metal man. Kohana moves up and blasts them multiple times with some effect. The dog creature strikes at Inyan. The metal man shrieks at the vanguard, dulling our senses. A number of us wail on the metal beasts some more.

From repeated blasts with the sound makers, Inyan goes down! Through concentrated effort by Lucan, the canid beast finally falls, while Sadian manages to revive Inyan. We gang up on the big thing. Inyan goes down again. After beating on it some more, and driving it back, it finally puts me out.

Thanks to the blessings of the Raven Queen, I rise to fight on, and I issue the Mark of Death upon this beast. But it puts me down again! Lucan manages to dispatch it at last.

After we regroup, Inyan is acting upset. Sadian sings us a song of rest as we recover. Kohana says the metal creatures have symbols of death upon them. Lucan begins firing arrows into the sky. He says a beast of some sort is circling. We move toward the shore. Lucan continues firing at it and it keeps following us.

We move under the trees and peek out. There's a flash of red from the bird and it still seems to be tracking us. A bird comes with a message from Kohana's great-grandfather, advising us to send rats back but stay away. Kohana sends “reply hazy; will send rats later”.

Lucan spots some flashing from Isla Anheles. Sadian interprets it as a message in Felinid to ships at sea. Then there's some sort of explosion on the island!

We decide to evade the winged hunter by separating. But more of the hunters come to follow each of us. So we head for a sewer entrance and hide for an hour, then Lucan emerges to check on the hunters. We come out and find an entrance to a building. It is some form of utility storage room with metal containers of all sorts, nothing functional. In the next room are containers attached to the walls. Some are open with the contents scattered. The unopened ones have rotten, smelly clothes and old paper. We open a door and there are small tables with chairs attached, a large table at the front. Drawers in the table hold assorted junk.

When we emerge, Lucan says the winged hunters are not following us. Outside is a large field with a metal staircase. We proceed toward the center of the old city. Huge metal den shells stand here, with a mix of real birds and the winged hunters circling around.

A screeching roar echoes through the canyons of metal, and a great shadow alights, the largest thing we have ever seen. Kohana says it is a “dragon”. We decide to leave it alone.

We head west until we reach the shore, and we find ourselves at the container graveyard. Sadian and Kohana spot signs for the underground tunnels named “bart”. There is a station above ground, but it is unsafe. Kohana studies the maps. There is a “community center”, so we go to that. It is completely wrecked.

We head to another item on the map – “FD”. Next to it is a building with working lights – named “ost ffice”. It is made of small fitted stones and smoothstone. The doors are open, and debris is piled inside, around a huge mobile den with many boxes and a ladder attached. Sitting in the seat of the mobile den is a skeleton. It wears undamaged clothing, which Sadian removes. Another human skeleton is in the rear, and more are around the building. We loot the place.

The building across the street seems to be named “post office”. We rest here.