Session 17: The Freehold of Grantz and the Electric Monk Report

General Summary

Previously

Arriving on the planet of Paraxis, the group decides to investigate a settlement with natural lights on the same continent as the massive runestorm centered on the former site of Agaddon, but not *too* close to the storm. They find a rough, walled town where the inhabitants seem to consist of metal men, mobile plants, humans, and animal men. While BN Sue stays with the crew to organize a party to help them blow off steam, Prax, Zayer, Windy, Hunter and Jessa head into town and are greeted by a trio of town leaders atop the wall (a human wearing furs with distorted features, a cranky metal man and a mobile plant that communicates via quivers). After some parley, the human tells them that if they come in peace and have items to trade, they are welcome at the Freehold of Grantz. The town itself seems to be an odd combination of rudimentary building materials and scavenged, more high tech parts. The group enters, and spends the day exploring the town, and learning about it's situation.

The Freehold of Grantz

Highlights:

Generally, the inhabitants of the town (called the Freehold of Grantz) seem to have very little information on their world's history. As the group pieces together from various conversations, the area emerged from some sort of Dark Ages a couple of hundred years ago. This settlement, and several others (some smaller, some larger) are tied together in a rough trade network. The level of technology and shape of society (with some notable exceptions) seem quite familiar to the party in many ways.
There seems to be little knowledge of what preceded the Dark Ages, but the people are generally aware that there must have been some greater civilization in the distant past. The landscape is littered with old buildings constructed in ways far beyond those of the current inhabitants, and these old sites are scavenged by the brave, the foolhardy and the desperate for items of value, power and wonder. Collectively, the ancient devices and gear are referred to as runeware.
There are some who are somewhat familiar with these old wonders, based mostly on trial and error and tribal knowledge. These "spell-engineers" as they are called (based on some ancient term) help keep society functioning as best they can. They tend old devices, including ground and an occasional flying vehicle, farm equipment, lights, mills, etc., which help make the lives of current inhabitants a bit better. They have little to no idea of how the gear actually works, but are able to do basic repairs in many cases.
As such, the flying ship the party arrived in is a source of interest and wonder (being far larger than the couple of small flying craft the town maintains), but not of massive shock. However, some are intrigued by the story that the party "is from another world". It seems that there have been other strange visitors over the years as well, and the townsfolk are used to encountering things they cannot understand. They are almost blasé about the party's story.
The town itself is an interesting mix, of metal men, mobile plants, humans, and animal men. The inhabitants seem to have banded together for safety, and make little distinction between the types. The metal men repair themselves, and craft new robots when they have the materials, but otherwise live peacefully with the organics.
Zayer is unable to find anything resembling a library or scholar. He is told that there is an oracle and wise man (named, for some reason, the Electric Monk) a couple of days journey through the heavy forest nearby. While no one has seen the Electric Monk, Grantz (and other nearby settlements) often bring questions to his jade pagoda in the forest. The Electric Monk advises them on various matters, and seems quite knowledgeable of runeware.
Prax learns that the town is run by a council representing each of the major factions: human(ish), animal men, plant men and robots. The current mayor and leader of the council, Bradger the Wise, is the (mutant) human who greeted them atop the wall. The others who greeted the party are also members of the council--the plant man (Temrance) and the metal man (Sona).
Prax and Jessa quickly learn that many of the mundane items that they retrieved from the Vlerryn and the shuttle, like the tools and flashlights, are quite valuable here in Grantz. All the tech (runeware) here is old and repaired, having been handled and passed down for perhaps centuries, and so the pristine gear the party found is quite desirable. Prax is able to easily barter for a full resupply of the ship's stores.
Jessa is able to talk to one of the local spell-engineers, Rylan, who (for a few choice items from her stores) is able to provide some information about where much of the town's gear was scavenged from--mainly old sites of runeware.
When Hunter talks with the local felines, they seem to also have little knowledge of their history. They welcome Hunter, and are happy to spend time talking with her. They do tell Hunter that yes, there is danger outside the walls. There are roving bands of bandits and abhumans (which seems to be a term the townsfolk use to refer to those of all types who have reverted to a more bestial existence) which attempt to prey on the various settlements. They recommend the party be watchful of their ship and crew beyond the walls (presumably, Hunter alerts Prax to this info as soon as possible)
When Windy talks more with Sona (the cranky metal man), he learns little more than the others did. However, Sona does appreciate the gift of tools (though he seems a bit suspicious of Windy's motives).
While BN Sue's party/bonfire/luau proceed, some of the townsfolk drift out to amiably join them--and again, seem little surprised by the eclectic mix of humans, goblins, kzinti and syllix.

As evening falls, the party regroups by the bonfire, to discuss and share what they've learned. They are concerned by the potential threat of abhumans and bandits, but intrigued to potentially seek out this "Electric Monk". However, that would entail a ground journey, since the townsfolk of Grantz tell them the jade pagoda is not visible from the air, due to the heavy forest canopy. After some discussion, the party agrees that they will journey to visit the monk, and leave the next morning. Hunter will remain behind, to manage the crew and protect the ship. As the party is talking, one of them notice that the moon has changed--the blue-green stripe running across its middle has disappeared. When they question Rylan the Spell engineer (who is nearby, marveling over the shuttle strapped to the Surprise's hull), he tells them that this is a regular occurrence. The stripe is visible about 3/4 of the time, and seems to disappear and reappear without a clear pattern. No one knows why (or what the stripe is). A small group has gathered around the shuttle, where Baragor (the former boar crew member), is talking to a couple of women from town (and staying well away from the "pig" roast). When he asks, reluctantly Jessa allows Rylan to see inside the shuttle. He immediately starts running around excitedly, recognizing some bits, not others. When he focuses on a particular machine that Jessa hasn't been able to determine the function, and starts furiously pushing buttons and pulling levers, Jessa strongly objects. However, Rylan continues, and suddenly the machine products piping hot, delicious muffins. Jessa is not impressed, but the rest of the party (now watching from the shuttle's hatch) are quite impressed. Zayer in particular is delighted. When Rylan goes on to make a steak, and then hors d'oeuvres for the party, he becomes quite popular (and Jessa gets more and more irritated). The crew speculates about whether they can convince Ryan to join their ship as the chef. The owners also discuss further what to do with the syllix. There are various viewpoints, with Jessa just wanting them off the ship ASAP, Prax wanting to leave them somewhere where natural predators or competition will keep their population in check, and Zayer wanting them to have a fair chance somewhere. The decision is deferred for now. As the party is wrapping up, the group notices a few pairs of eyes glinting in the woods, and Jessa's Farsight shows that they are 3 bipedal jackal men. The party tries to approach them peacefully, but the figures fade back into the forest. After that, BN Sue rousts the rest of the crew back into the ship, knocking a few heads as needed, to make sure the crew is functional (if hungover) the next morning.

Journey to the Electric Monk

As the party prepares to leave the next morning, Zayer advises goblin grandpa ("My name is Zreestrarm, dammit!") to be ready to take the ship into the air if there is a threat; Jessa locks up the shuttle and advises Hunter to not allow anyone from town aboard the Surprise or the shuttle. The journey to the pagoda of the Electric Monk will take nearly two days. The first day's travel is uneventful, and (despite being on a strange planet, with strange flora and fauna), the party is glad to be off the ship for a while, breathing fresh air and getting some exercise. That night, when the party camps, they are stalked and attacked by strange humanoid creatures. Each creature has a gun in place of one their arms that shoots blindingly bright beams of light. (Raptor men with freakin' lasers). Jessa is badly wounded by a shot, but Zayer manages to heal her quickly. Windellian leaps into the air to weave among the branches to spot where the shots are coming from, and Zayer casts his prodigious armor spell on the group.

Unexpectedly, Windy deploys the Cinnabon Maneuver, deploying warm muffins (with crumbles!) from a hidden drawer, and a fan to blow the scent towards the attackers. The party manages to mollify the raptor men with gifts of muffins, and they withdraw.

The Jade Pagoda of the Electric Monk

The rest of the night and the next day's travel passes uneventfully, and the party arrives at what must be the jade pagoda of the Electric Monk, which appears to be a relative small structure attached to a sprawling set of ruins, mostly collapsed and overgrown by the forest. Zayer cannot sense any divine presence here, or anything that feels of religion. The party passes through the open doorway, and down a short hall. In the walls, rainbow streams of energy seem to flow and shift. Beyond, they enter what appears to be an audience chamber or temple, with a throne-like seat on a dais on the far side, glimmers of light that play within the far wall, and various other (closed) doors leading off. The lights on the far wall get more active, and a disembodied voice (as played by Roddy McDowell) welcomes them. Before they can speak, bright rays of light streak out from a point just above the throne, seeming to probe each of the unusual group. The Electric Monk welcomes them again, and listens as they tell of their journey from another world, and eventually share the information that Zayer learned from the ghost captains of the Resolution and the Vlerryn. He also asks them a series of questions, trying to gauge their magical vs. scientific knowledge--and eventually settles on explaining things in magical terms, much to Jessa's irritation. While this conversation goes on, spider buddy climbs down from Windy's shoulders, and scuttles over to a corner, where he appears to plug into a small port. (The Electric Monk seems unconcerned, and says that the servant droid presumably needs charging). The Monk tells the party that he is a remnant of the ancient civilization here, though his memory has degraded over time, and he has done what he could to help the nearby settlemetns. He confirms that the hurricane-sized runestorm circles the spot where the once the capital city Agaddon sat, says that he believes that Agaddon may still exist, beyond the rift. He goes on to explain that there was a research station on the moon, that may still hold a device that can close the rift. (When asked, he also tells the party that the moon appears to be temporally unstable, shifting back and forth in time, and advises them to land when the green stripe is visible). The party will need to use the shuttle to land there, in order to trigger the automatic docking systems. When the party agrees, the monk provides (via a panel that slides up) some parts and instructions on the use and repair of the shuttle (much to Jessa's delight). He also describes what they are looking for, where it hopefully is, and what to do with it when they find it. (Details to be provided for next session). Unfortunately, unbeknownst to all, spider buddy carries the Mozck virus (which the ghost captain of the Vlerryn told Zayer about). While this conversation has been going on, Mozck has started to subvert the electric monk's systems. His voice starts to change and waver, with snatches in the same voice they heard from the small orb they found (and left) on the Vlerryn. The monk tells the party to run, which they do--except for Zayer, who attempts to use his healing magic to help the monk, casting on the wall of lights. The lights, which had been turning red, partially revert to their previous colors, but still flashing furiously. A mechanical voice says "Virus containment engaged, 35% successful." The monk, in a strained version of his normal voice, thanks Zayer for giving him a chance, but advises him to quickly withdraw, just in case. Zayer does so, and the party quickly heads back into the forest, wondering what they may have unleashed here.

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists