Saturday, June 14, 2014

Aftermath of Golden Heroes (B Team)

The B Team vs monstrous ape temple guardians. Minis: Dave Pierik
Photo © Dave Pierik

Hive

Long ago, the Golden Heroes defeated an arch-villain named Jaramon, who was bent on transforming the world through polymorphic magic, mutation and other means. His passionate commitment and philosophy of change brought him many enemies but also a cultlike following. The heroes defeated him and his cult at his Temple of Transformation. But not before Jaramon was able to breed many new monsters in his failed attempts to sculpt the perfect creature. The heroes declared victory, left and went on to many other adventures.

Now, there are still some problems. 

In the remote desert village of Madhu, somewhere in the Sikglo desert of Ganis, a gnome known as Sod is effectively the Mayor, however reluctant he is to fill that role. 

At one time Madhu had a couple of dozen businesses and serves as a minor waypoint along the caravan routes. Points of interest include Broken Fountain, the Wall Tower Inn, the Hex-Side Temple of Aspirations, a Temple to Pelor and another to Kord, and a few temples shared by clerics and priests when they visit. She-Deal's Supplies, a Statue of Dhuma, a Gambler's Hall, the Rally Station (where the town militia trains to prepare for emergencies) the storm tunnels, Desert Flower & Fashion, Mystical Mel's, Gerchon's Kitchen, The Madhu Madhouse tavern, a General Store, Flute's Rake and Shovel Shop, Cork-Screw & Grape wine shop, Applonia's Pineapple, Lookout Tower, Well & Ration House (Sod's business, he controls the water) Fardham the Great's Apothecary, Slingee's House of Gemstone, Love of the Witch Potion House, Desert Farm Supply, Mel's Camels and Crynyor's Alehouse. 

Now, take the first half of the above list and keep it. The second half is mostly gone. It may perhaps return in some form but the owners of most of those businesses (with the exception of Sod and Mystical Mel) are deceased. Visitor's have slim choices in terms of food, drink and entertainment. Cactus juice and expensive water quench thirst. Ale is cheaper than water. Ostrich eggs, cashews, butterflies and blue-green ants are the main things people eat around here.

This oasis owes everything to Sod the Gnome, who refuses to actually run it as a town. People take turns volunteering to do what needs to get done such as creating and enforcing laws. All the places that were built here, including the Wall Tower and the Storm Tunnels, came about this way.

The previous session, the B Team fought giant mutated wasps after finding people in town covered in cocoons. The town population were being turned into insectoid monsters one by one. Fortunately the party found the gigantic hive and burned it. So the population Madhu went from about 200, to about 12. Now, after caravans of refugees came from the South, it's back up to about 200 due to settlers.

In the most recent game session, the Temple of Kord was rescued from temple guardian apes by the B Team. Gnoll visited the local taverns to gather information, Tiger Lily did some exploration and Nightshade did a bit of gambling, got herself kicked out and returned in disguise to do some more gambling.

The party ventured South by sandskiff and fought intellect devourerers on their way to Dron's hometown , Long Ridge, in the northern part of the Mantix Mountains of Ganis. The plan is for the party to continue South against the tide of refugees, through Demynville, to Barren Heights. Mel Mel is hoping to rescue her lost love Tim Duncan there. She finally learned of his location from a Madhu wizard who happens to be named Mystical Mel.

Long Ridge is a hidden mountaintop dwarven keep and most of Dron's family live there. Dron's cousin Felix went mad some time ago after an encounter while hunting intellect devourers and now roams the area with madness and luck on his side. Dron's father, Gurston the Gurston is a stern traditional dwarf and head of the clan but his mother and her friends were very accommodating for the B Team in light of the fact that it was they who brought Dron safely home to visit. Gurston almost smiled a couple of times even though the group includes an elf, two humans, and even a half orc. But this is a time of strife and the Gurston clan welcome all the help and allies they can get.