Bandaluthia Session 38

Bandaluthia: Session 38

As N’Thaal-Dar grew impatient with the Animals, they continued to procrastinate over the journey to Jonger. After much deliberation and potion finding along with camping equipment, the Animals were ready. Coolio was the only original Animal to travel. He was set to go with Tyler, who had cleared it with her supervisor, Negri and Dreizach. Lupa was also determined to go, even though she was not yet recognised as an Animal. (Lupa is far closer to being an animal than the rest!) N’Thaal-Dar teleported the five along with Lupa’s ‘brother’. (who was also her familiar, a wolf.)

Kijiji is the nearest village to the jungle bowl where the Resurrection Temple lay. It lies about fifteen miles from the Western edge of the 300 mile crater where the jungle held the hidden Temple. The Animals gather their wits and head toward the village only to find a not so welcoming party. Six hunters, all armed with spears shout at the Animals and appear to be angered by the wolf. After much talk, but no understanding, the hunters push the Animals to their village. In the village, they meet the witch doctor, who can speak common tongue albeit very little and a lot broken.

It takes the rest of the day to hire a guide to find the Temple within jungle bowl. Or Hekalu Pango Mji Waliopotea as the locals call it. The Animals set off at dawn the following day. The guide, known as Shetani, shows them to the craters edge, but refuses to go further. Coolio casts comprehend language and manages to glean that his tribe are not allowed in the bowl, and the witch doctor had bartered for him to guide them to this point. The Animals are left frustrated and angry and this emotion leads to the next few mistakes by the Animals. The edge of the crater sees a drop of 300 feet below to the jungle canopy. Thick vines creep down all around the edge, and after brief discussion Dreizach decides to go down via the roots. He sets off, but as soon has he is over the lip, he slips and falls, crashing through the canopy and into almost three foot of marshy water. Although taking much damage, Dreizach had the wits about him to try and secure the area.

Negri saw how not to do it, and followed. Unfortunately, Negri followed Dreizach’s lead and plummeted too. Un-armoured, the necromancer took much less damage. Tyler gave her rope to Lupa and briefly told her to make a harness for her wolf. During this time Shetani had come back to see them get down. He was chuckling to himself. As he watched Coolio descend properly, (and without falling) Tyler jokingly pushed him toward the edge. A startled hunter turned and stabbed Tyler through the stomach with his spear. Tyler pushed him again, but this time for real, and the hunter beat Coolio to the bottom. Tyler then tried to climb down, but whether the incident at the top had affected her judgement, we’ll never know, but the Bandaluthian City Guard showed that she too has no business in the jungles of Jonger and fell. At the bottom, Dreizach and Negri did not stop Shetani, but Tyler had choice words for him about the painful hole in her stomach. The Kijiji Guide did not stop to argue, and he started to climb out. Lupa stood staring at the rope. The druid had no idea what anyone had said about harnesses. So she tied the wolf to the rope and lowered him down. The rope slid up to the poor canines shoulders, and the wolf was not happy. Shetani intercepted the wolf, took the weight of the poor beast and cut the rope, just as Lupa slipped and fell the last two hundred feet. Coolio glared at the hunter as he climbed past, and Shetani returned the wolf to his sister, but empathic links proved that the wolf was perhaps a little less trustful at the moment.

Coolio had to be carried out of the swamp. The five city dwellers stumbled through the quagmire. Snakes and other unseen slippery creatures slithered past in the murky depths of their legs. Monkeys watched with intrigue and the flies were swatted away. Only the leeches caused any real issues to the Animals. After seven hours of gruelling trekking, the Animals found dry ground. A camp was made and watch was set. Tyler had been on for about an hour, and she guessed that the time would be about 2 in the morning. A branch, or at least an appendage of vegetation smacked her in the face, then a raw and weirdly guttural roar ripped through the camp. A tendriculos was attacking. The other animals jumped to the defence. Swords, flaming tridents and crossbow bolts ripped into the huge mass of vegetation. Negri cast new spells from a relatively safe distance. The tendriculos was a fierce foe. Two massive spiked arm-like appendages swung and battered the Animals. Tyler seemingly taking the brunt. Then its wicked maw opened and started to bite. Tyler soon fell. Dreizach protected her body and Lupa and brother wolf attack too. Coolio could not seemingly get his bolts to stick in, but the magical energy damage seemed to work. Eventually the tendriculos stopped fighting, but at the expense of not just Tyler, but Negri and almost Dreizach. Coolio started to cast spells of healing, but these seemed not to work as they should. It was enough to get everyone conscious again, and Tyler feeling almost healthy. Coolio’s wand however was a different matter. It caused damage to Tyler after initially healing Negri. The Animals decided that magic was being affected and decided to camp up for an extra day in order to heal up.

Without a guide in the jungle, will the Animals find Hekalu Pango Mji Waliopotea?
All will be revealed in the next installment of Bandaluthia.