DnD:MayaJ13

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Paladin's Log, session 13

There is a round disc in the ceiling which speaks the human tongue. Kohana speaks at it with the human words. We help Sadian with the ritual so he can speak back to it. But Lucan and I hear the buzz and click from the voice in the ceiling go away.

A door opens and a creature emerges! Very tall, taller than Lucan. It wears white full clothing of plastic and covers its muzzle with a mask. Sadian greets it, and Kohana translates. They talk about The People. Lucan and Kohana worry about our secrets.

It has not seen another human in over a hundred seasons. It has lived for over 200 seasons. The plague was 320 or more seasons ago. It only seems to affect humans and turns them into monsters, like the harpies and mushroom people.

It wants “apples”, which are some kind of food food from trees. It controls the “servitors” – the metal men – in the building, but not elsewhere. It calls spirit boxes “PDAs”. It speaks of nets and blue teeth, very confusingly.

Sadian introduces us, and it calls itself “Char-lz.” We discuss what to do for or against this human. It wants prey food. It wants “vitamins”, which are minerals from the ground. There is a garden in “Golden Gate Park”. It has a map and a piece of paper. It calls the map item “weekee”. It responds to the touch of Sadian's pawpads like the spirit box from the UPS room. Kohana makes the map go small and the world looks like a ball. They discuss peter projection. We are to go to the garden to retrieve the items.

Kohana draws a picture of the harpy. The human worships not Tyvek nor Ikea but another god – “Atheist”.

Kohana sends a messenger to the Council about what we have found – specifically to Shinte. He sends a message back. We camp. Then we prepare for travel and leave.

Along the road path, all of the mobile dens have been pushed to the sides. We make our way up the hill and see a forest ahead. Lots of prickly bushes. Many birds fly about, including big ones. We move in.

There were roads through the forest, but they are damaged. Forest houses are also destroyed. We hear the sounds of prey mammals and fowl, and many birds and insects.

We hear a clanging of great metal on metal. Inyan climbs a tree to look for it. He spots two towers. Lucan shows us bear sign on the trees which he thinks are a few months old. We move into the main forest. There are no roads, just paths. Moving between two tree lines, Lucan spots some creatures ambushing us!

They appear to be stumps wrapped in vines, but they move toward us. Lucan alerts us, and Sadian makes us ready. We move up. Kohana freezes both, but one burrows into cover. Inyan smashes my divine target. The others move up. The creature grabs me and chomps, filling me with poison. The other surfaces from the burrow and grabs Kohana. Sadian blasts its mind and the poison clears.

Much action occurs. I get whomped good. The other one gangs up on me and I go down. Sadian utters a majestic word which brings me back. Inyan hammers on them. I pursue my opponent and it sucks some life out of me. Sadian blasts the other one and says the word to me again. Lucan and Kohana steal the life from one. The other still has me. Sadian approaches, saves the battle standard, and heals me. Everyone teams up to take down the final one.

We take a short rest.

We spot some buildings nearby which are fairly intact. We top a ridge and see a break in the trees and a swamp. The paper map says “Stow Lake”. We go around it and through old roads and buildings.

We make our way into the flat land and spot a herd of great creatures called “bison”. There are cheetah and other predators as well.

We move into the grass land and pass by the creatures, toward another depression, also swampy but regular. Finally we find the garden, overgrown with plants of all kinds. We take many of them into a bag.

Sadian locates a type of herb and goes wild for it. We can't keep him away from it. It seems to affect him like Tree-of-Life but not negatively. As long as it keeps him away from the spirit box for a while.

We collect some rabbits and other game on the way back. We head back to a building of grey stone covered in ivy. A sign says “-----ORNIA ACAD--- -- --IENCES”.