(Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20)
A.C.224.03. Cap'n sets off to find a new ship, leaving the crew at the Howling Gate- until Mayne the Leonine rogue arrives in an Arcadian Navy balloon. He needs their help in recovering the Cerulean, an Arcadian frigate supposedly taken by pirates!
Mayne and the crew make the days-long journey South-east to the Sea of Keys, where the pirates are rumoured to be. They survive becalming and storms, replacing lost rations with Tara's impressive fishing skills.
Once reaching land, the crew are beset by giant Dragonflies, but drive them off with skilled fire- until even larger Pterodactyls swoop in to eat anything moving! Cali's magic arrow draws them away with the tempting sound of Dragonfly, urged on by Tara's Fear spell.
Purket spots a sloop below called the Investigator, which Mayne claims belongs to the Pirates! No sign of the Cerulean though...
Purket scrambles down from atop the balloon, as Squalor attempts to use himself as an anchor.
The crew split up. Cali, Mayne and Griff skirt around swarms of snakes, and open a chest to find it full of... geckos?
Pressing on, Mayne attacks Lizardmen in their quarters before Cali and Griff can even determine if they are really pirates or not.
Meanwhile, Purket discovers a body clutching a map...
Squalor discovers a whole crew of Snake, Lizard and Alligator Animas: the self-proclaimed "Scale Brigade!" Kroff, the huge alligator, and his older sister Madame, insist that the crew are trespassing, and that their days of piracy are over. But the green glowing piles of Vitriol suggest they have found a new endeavor...
Meanwhile, Mayne has decided he's outworn his welcome, and heads back to the balloon without the crew. Until...
Out of the water, a massive, corrupted Behemoth looms, smashing the balloon to bits!
It stomps into the Scale Brigade's hideout, scattering anyone in its way.
The Scale Brigade and the Crew agree to run from the Behemoth, everyone crowding onto the Investigator to make their escape. As they sail away, the monstrous beast begins devouring Vitriol like candy...
A.C.2234.04. Vesper, the Scale Brigade's sorceror, suggests retreating to "The Last Resort", a nearby jungle cafe' and Inn he owns. As they approach the rustic wooden exterior of the Last Resort, an impossibly tall ancient tower ruin looms in the distance.
Squalor and Purket can't help but explore a shipwreck next to the resort, looking for materials and supplies.
On the other side of the resort, old Tara spots an overgrown toppled ruin similar to the distant tower. Cali watches over him as he clambers precariously on the ancient Aelvyn structure.
Everyone heads inside the Last Resort. "Wipe your feet, you're tracking mud everywhere!" Vesper hisses. The resort appears empty, windows left open, books and dishes scattered across the floor. Griff heads into the kitchen to cobble together a meal.
Exhausted, the Scale Brigade and the Crew settle down for much needed rest.
But noises awaken some of the crew - sounds of breaking glass and skittering feet. Raptors have broken in! They carry weapons, but attempts to communicate with them are met with only gleaming, hungry eyes and rasping carniverous breath. Cali is first to repel them, joined by others as they slowly awake. There's no sign of the Scale Brigade... did they flee in the night?
Squalor startles awake, just in time to catch powerful Saurans force their way into the front door. He improvises a barricade, but how long will it hold?
Tara awakes and evades the attacking dinosaurs by slipping out the back window, heading for the Investigator. He frantically loads a cannon and fires at the Saurans outside the door! The surviving dinosaurs flee into the jungle.
The only remaining Scale Brigade member, Kroff realizes the others must have been taken by the Dinosaurs- as food! Determined to get them back, and ignoring the crew's words of caution, Kroff charges headlong into the jungle night.
As dawn breaks, the crew prepare themselves and head after Kroff.
In the shadow of the distant tower, they come across overgrown ruins. Purket's tracking magic indicates this is the way.
Squalor discovers pools filled with Aquavita, a cloudy blue water with strange properties. Hidden in the pool are the remains of a previous explorer... and gold!
Griff winds through the narrow passages and stumbles on what could only be a Needle of Lament- like the one Cali found years ago embedded in the back of an Auran titan...
Purket also makes a discovery. Amongst the remains of an ancient explorer, he finds a Chagrine- a strange magic artifact that is only visible by the radiance it gives off. It seems to interfere with other magic, and magic items, but Purket hasn't noticed- yet...
Meanwhile, Cali finds a cache of magic arrows... then notices a tall, wiry, strange figure in the trees. Who is this magic man?
Griff also sees the man- could it be an ancient Aelvyn? The figure nods to Cali and disappears into the trees. Griff dismisses it as just another crazy vision.
Suddenly, a huge, armored Spinecone plant bursts out of the trees! Cali hits it with deadly arrow fire, but each hit triggers a retaliatory spray of spine seeds.
Purket sprints past the Spinecone, when suddenly a club wielding Tyranosaur crashes onto the scene! Griff approaches the Spinecone...
...and deftly uses a Break Wood spell to detonate the Spinecone, directing the blast away from the crew.
The deadly seed shards shred the Tyranosaur to bits.
Squalor has discovered that by filling a central pool with Aquavita from other pools, a portal forms, leading down to the source of the magic Purket detected. Squalor jokes, "It's a pour-tal. Get it?"
One by one, the crew take the plunge into the pool, sinking below the surface with no clue where it leads. "I triple-cat dare ya!" Griff exclaims, before leaping in.
As they sink below, they suddenly fall into open air, landing in a cage.
Cali lands directly on top of Kroff- the Scale Brigade are here too!
The cage rests in a flooded subterranean chamber, lit by Vitriol and filled with dozens of savage dinosaurs, roaring, eating, and sparring with each other. Even if the crew escaped the cage, there appears to be no way out of the chamber...
The crew and the Scale Brigade argue over what to do to avoid becoming dinner for the dinosaurs. At least their gear wasn't taken from them- only their food and water.
Eventually the lights in the chamber dim, and the dinosaurs fall into fitful sleep. All except one- a shaman who approaches the cage and whispers cryptic, desperate words to the crew.
"You have to find a way out, before the others eat you. The tower- the tower is in pain, and it's screams tear at my mind... It's only a matter of time before we all end up like these savages." He gestures to the other carniverous, inarticulate dinosaurs. "I beseech you- go to the tower, and make it right again."
Hoping to find an escape, Purket fiddles with the Chagrine he found earlier... and it reacts violently with the healing amulet young Tara had made. Suddenly, young Tara appears!
"...aaaand the Amulet should be complete! Did it work? Oh- Purket, Cali, Squalor, hey... Uhhh, who are these lizard people? Wait... where ARE we?" Purket tries to explain... "So, you vanished, and then we met an Old version of you with a peg leg..." Then realizes the truth could be too confusing or even dangerous! Instead, he says- "Uh, yeah, an old guy named.... Gram...blarr. He's watching the boat for us, yeah!" Little does Purket know, his last magic mishap turns lies into truth...
Quickly changing the subject, Purket spots a drainpipe in the ceiling that might be an escape. Squalor throws Purket up, but he falls short, about to land on a sleeping dinosaur! He uses "step" magic to hurl himself up the rest of the way. The spell works TOO well, warping Squalor up with him!
From his elevated position, Purket spies a drain that runs under the cage, and signals Kroff to pry up a floor tile to expose the drain so the others can escape.
Everyone washes down the twisting dark passage, dumping them outside in a heap.
Kroff spots a chunk of Vitriol growing just outside the drain, and... smashes it with his axe! Everyone shouts "what are you doing?!", until he bends down and picks up a white hot glowing core from the shards, and pockets it. "What? Easier to carry this way."
The party then sets off in the direction of the tower, not knowing what they will find there...
ON TO PART 13!
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