Session 7: The Anvil Report

The party makes their way into the dense morass of the dark jungle. Once again they hear the piercing roar tear through the trees, although nothing specific can be seen. They all find a hiding spot, and watch out onto the beach. The beast gives out a final roar and arrives near the ship.

The beast itself is eight to nine feet tall, and almost entirely comprised of muscle. It is a dark, malign beast with patches of fur across the body, with great limbs and a small head. It rushes over to the ship, and circles around the burning ship. It calls out again, but this time gets a response. That set the party’s blood boiling. They quickly cobble together a plan to move to the base of the mountain, moving from patch of cover to other patch of cover. Tristifer sends Cinder off to tell the captain to move to the base of the mountain, and hopefully also move slowly to the base. He arrives at the frazzled group, and tells them to move into the old hiding spot of the party once they’ve moved. With each phrase, the roars of the nearing beasts grows louder. A man rushes over to Cinder and grabs him, and in his panic yells into his face. This gains the interest of the beast, who begins rushing over to the forest. Cinder breaks from the group and begins to run just as the beast charges over them.

The party begins to move to the base of the mountain. However, in the darkness of the jungle they became quickly separated. Deiter and Tristifer remained together, Cinder rushed ahead, while Meliyeus, Dio, and Barbozar were left to their own devices. Dio does manage to find Barbozar in the darkness. Barbozar is infuriated that they didn’t attack the beast and kill it early.

A short while after, they hear a sound smashing amongst the branches before thudding into the ground. Cinder continues to run, although the sound of roars is growing in intensity. Meliyeus hears the same thud nearby. Tristifer and Deiter move forward out of their tree alcove. Whatever might have been hiding in the brush came over to the tree and began to paw at the rock as soon as it was released.

Meliyeus continues forward, and comes close to another one of those beasts. It rears up onto his hind legs and looks over to Meliyeus, then roars. The whole party hears it. The beasts begin to converge. In response, Meliyeus uses Vojûn to hurl fire into the canopy. The situation begins to devolve further as more beasts begin to move. Cinder finally bumps into Tristifer and Deiter. The beasts, now three of them, circle around Meliyeus and his Vojûn. He now notices that the things don’t seem to have eyes. They circle around the fire, but refuse to come in close.

Barbozar, Cinder, Tristifer, Dio, and Deiter all unite upon a rocky outcropping. It is sheer, and goes up about 15 feet. Cinder climbs upward with a rope to tie for the rest. Meanwhile, Meliyeus fought the beasts with his fire and attempted to keep them back. He attempted to fall back, but was smashed by one of the beasts. He was sent flying through the brush and smashing against the rock. Barbozar found him and picked him up, then moved him over. Barbozar blames Tristifer to a degree for the “death” of Meliyeus and all the other horror. Deiter almost falls down, but Tristifer and Dio save him.

Meliyeus is essentially dead, but not truly. He can feel pain, those around him, and other things, but he is entirely immobile. This is a result of him being the champion of Ácolitus in Everos. Deiter speaks to his spirit, which says that he is in a great deal of pain. Deiter relays it back. Tristifer puts his hand on his chest, seeing that he is stone dead. Shortly after, more roars of beasts beginning to pursue. Deiter might be the cause, it is not certain. The party splits into two groups, with Cinder, Barbozar, and partially Meliyeus as one and the rest as the other. They continue onward, but it becomes clear that the beasts are charging both groups. Tristier, Dio, and Deiter turn toward the other group for a final, lethal battle.

A beast bursts out and attacks Dio, who comes off relatively unscathed. Another attacks Deiter. Deiter blocks it, but is stumbled back. Tristifer rushes over to Barbozar, who had been hit by the beast at least one time before. His attack does minimal damage, and it counterattacks, and Tristifer is stumbled back. Barbozar gets up and slashes into the beast, cleaving it deeply. Cinder takes the opportunity to charge in with his blade and plunge it deep- causing the beast to collapse dead. The other beasts becomes incredibly angry and attempts to smash Deiter. In response, Deiter uses Eshara to bind the beast in place. However, Dio comes in and attacks it, which breaks the bind. The beast then knocks Dio aside with a spray of blood. Barbozar runs in and gets pummeled. Tristifer beckons Cinder over to light a fire, but the beast charges them. Tristifer blocks the attack, but Cinder it slightly hit. Barbozar slices it, then blocks an attack. Dio finishes the beast by plunging its sword through its neck.

Barbozar splashes the blood of the beast across his body, so that he is entirely covered. Barbozar begins to harvest the skin from the head of the beast. He succeeds in removing the skin. He then drapes it upon himself like a hood and cloak to continue the journey. Barbozar informs Deiter that he is a useful ally, and that he realizes it now.

They continue onward, and eventually reach a clearing in the midst of the gnarled jungle. In the center of this clearing is a log cabin with a thin wisp of smoke coming from it. Some people go to sleep, Deiter and Tristifer remain awake. Deiter then goes out to create a sanctuary barrier. While he is out, an ancient man comes out from the woods. He walks to the house, and suddenly there are seven beds instead of six. Turns out that the figure is Etalian, and quite old at that. He offers them drinks. He then walks over to Meliyeus and offers him a drink, at which point he wakes up and screams. Deiter asks “what is important” in response to the Etalian’s constant utterances of “that is not important”. He explains that such a question is the best question yet. He asks where they are going to, to which Tristifer counter-inquiries about where they Etalian thinks they are going. The figure responds with The Mountain. They continue to speak about places coming and going, and of the figure and his past. The man explains that he has a personal connection with this area of the Fringe. The man explains that he knows well the destruction of the Fringe, as he was there to see it. Turns out this figure is Vulred, the old King of Jequa during the Great Conflict. He explains that Bal’gorod, the old lord of Sutan and herald of Atûn, might return.

Vulred explains that the Etalians are after an “egg” of sorts, an orb of divine proportions. In Drakar, he had kept the pedestal for which the egg will rest. He said how he and his 100 had banished the “evil” back into the egg. It is a beautiful thing to behold, but it was a lie. The Etalians had fallen for that lie. Vulred offered himself to assist in the quest- somewhat astounding.