Session 1: Axes, Echoes, & Aether
General Summary
Dawn Logistics
- Frelina & Captain Vale roused the camp’s 30 survivors and split them by skill:
- Foragers/Hunters — food & future scouting
- Smiths — fashioned coral-bladed axes and machetes
- Builders — felled timber and started shelter frames
- Laborers — general muscle, soon redirected to clay-digging
- Greyfoot and Scholar Lira remained at Frelina’s side as advisers.
- It is noticed that Sergeant Hollis and his Outpost Alpha settlement had worked overnight to build shelters, now ahead of Beach Camp in resources and survivability.
Sea Burial
- Overnight, master bowyer Matt Hew was found dead (suspected food poisoning).
- Vale led a torchlit sea burial on a makeshift raft; waves kept returning the body until flames and weight finally claimed it. Speech turned sorrow into resolve: “Let diligence keep us afloat.”
Bricks from the Beach
- Frelina proposed brickmaking. Five laborers sank synchronized shovel-teams into the sand, chanting as they dug until clay appeared.
- A builder cut a “measuring stick” the length of a standard brick; every clay ball was pressed against it for uniform size.
- Current fire — capacity 20 bricks, 2 hours per firing. Too slow → impetus to find ore for a second kiln.
- To learn more about the bricks, visit Clay Brick.
The Jungle Sprawler & Wailing Green
- Seeking bow-wood, Frelina trekked 200 yards inland and discovered a Jungle Sprawler tree: savanna-style giant with sapling understory.
- Cutting a branch produced a haunting, collective wail from the canopy—proof the forest “feels” harm.
- Improvised bowstring: water-soaked, braided vine fibers. Arrow fletching: Jungle Thrasher fur hardened by dipping. First test shot flew true.
Expedition Prep
- Seven backpacks woven from vine: two stuffed with Shorefruit rations, one with tools, four left empty for ore.
- Party roster: Frelina, Scholar Lira, Greyfoot, and five forager-hunters. Smith-made machetes in hand, they entered the green.
Tracks & Tragedy
- Deep in the understory they spotted dinner-plate talon prints.
- Scholar Lira’s stumble shattered the hush; moments later an Aetherhide Monitor thundered in, invisible among leaves.
- It trampled hunter Renn—ribcage crushed, life snuffed in a heartbeat—before the group fled into a sandy spring clearing.
The Reveal & Stand-Off
- Stepping onto uniform sand broke the creature’s camouflage; its emerald-bronze bulk shimmered into view.
- Arrows flew (Frelina’s strike drew first blood). The beast’s tail nearly felled Frelina in reply.
- Two wide-eyed juveniles waddled from the brush. Realizing the monitor was a mother, Frelina dropped her bow, opened her rucksack, and offered Shorefruit.
- Mother devoured one pack, demanded another, fed her young, then lumbered off—sated, not slain.
Night of the Pulse
- Campfire grief for Renn; shattered morale slowly mended.
- At midnight the ground liquefied, stones levitated, and the sky flashed cobalt-blue in time with distant mountain veins. Birds screeched, water rippled upward, then all fell still.
Morning After
Confusion reigns: Why does the jungle scream? What powers the sky-pulse? And can ore from Cobalt Mountain turn raw survival into industry before the wilderness claims more lives?
Notable Gains:
Standard-size brick mold, working longbow prototype
Losses:
Bowyer Matt Hew (illness), hunter Renn (trample).
Frelina
Report Date
29 May 2025
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