Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for August 2, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), and Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered a massive room with ropes and a pulley system.  A huge platform had been lowered into the room by the Keepers, placing a ravenous alpha tyrannosaurus between them and the Dawn Seal fragment.  Blazing Sun’s firehawk swooped in and was immediately swallowed up.  Soon, Singing Mammoth’s velociraptor was also snatched up.  Singing Mammoth was angered at the sight of his friend in the jaws of the beast and unleashed a multishot.  Unfortunately, all three arrows slammed into the raptor!  The t-rex then swallowed it.  Night Watcher closed in and unleashed a flurry of blows.  Blazing Sun was outraged about her firehawk and leapt into action.  She slammed her axe into the head of the dinosaur, killing it instantly!  The team cut their companions free and recovered the final Dawn Seal fragment!

The team then set out for the Shining Gate.  First, they used their rafts to cross the Lake of Tears where they were constantly attacked by sharks.  Next they traveled through deku scrub lands where they were pelted by hurled nuts.  Once in the plains, they had to capture some wild horses and ride to the badlands.  In the badlands, they had to stay ahead of the Keepers and their hurled spears.  Finally, in the highlands they had to avoid roaming packs of mountain giants!

As they traveled through the mountains toward the Shining Gate they were approached by pinkish purple flying creatures with a single massive eye.  These flyclops revealed the ability to flash blinding light at their foes.  This blinding Night Watcher who tried to use his keen hearing to locate a foe.  He heard a sound and closed in!  He pummeled his target into a pulp on the ground, the sound of its spine shattering and heart mashing to sludge music to his ears.  Unfortunately, it was Singing Mammoth’s velociraptor he smashed to death.  To death.  Grief-stricken, Singing Mammoth unleashed a barrage and took down another flyclops.  Quickly the team dispatched the monsters.

The team nearly reached the Shining Gate when a mountain giant tracker caught up to them.  It came roaring from the woods swinging a massive macuahaitl longer than a man!  The firehawk swooped in and was hit so hard only a splatter of blood and feathers ever hit the ground.  Blazing Sun charged in to avenge her fallen friend while Night Watcher moved in from behind.  The giant caught Blazing Sun with a mighty chop and felled her in a single blow.  Blood splattered as she lay dying on the ground.

The giant lunged toward Singing Mammoth who fell back as Night Watcher moved in to engage.  He tripped over his own feet and fell off balance, but the giant over swung and shattered its macuahaitl upon its own back in a spray of gore!  It jerked a stone knife from its belt and began viciously stabbing Night Watcher as he unleashed a battering flurry of punches and kicks.  Singing Mammoth kept up the volleys of arrows until one struck true and killed the giant!

Meanwhile, as Blazing Sun lay dying:

As Blazing Sun’s sight began to fade to black, she remembered the last thing her orphanage nanny said to her as her last breath escaped, “Blazing Sun… always remember… eat red with the web to escape the dead…”  As Blazing Sun’s last though of her nanny drifted she noticed a spider’s web spun all around the plant in front of her face.  It clicked… red… web… could it be?  Blazing Sun rolled slightly closer to the web and took a bite of the spider’s home.  It was like magic!  The red tioye that she was still sucking on, that she was saving in her cheek of her mouth mixed with the web.  Just as her nanny described.  Blazing Sun began to feel life return to her veins.

Thus did Blazing Sun cheat death; however, her allies soon began to notice a slight change in her behavior…

Game summary for July 26, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Little Spirit (Tsanta Human Soldier played by Andrew Renfrow), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team delved further into the dungeon and found a great cave-gnawer ghula and a half dozen ogre maulers.  The cave-gnawer began to rend Standing Bison’s bear and nearly killed it, and Singing Mammoth’s raptor also nearly died.  The team rallied and spread out, taking down ogre after ogre.  Finally, Wolf Spirit and the wolf landed a critical hit to kill the ghula.

The team then found a mural-decorated room filled with armed carnivorous apes.  The simians hurled spears from afar and charged in swinging with their fists.  Wolf Spirit took the brunt of it, but the team quickly rallied and brought down the ape.

Game summary for July 5, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Little Spirit (Tsanta Human Soldier played by Andrew Renfrow), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), Sunrider (Kau Human Martial Artist played by Mark Belda), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team got lost in the jungle and skirmished with spear-wielding carnivorous apes.  They eventually found a group willing to provide guidance to the river.  Once their they discovered most of the jungle trees would not float and had to scour the area for raft materials.  Out on the rafts they were attacked by deku scrubs in the rapids!  Past the rapids into the salty lake they were attacked by sharks trying to capsize the rafts!

On the island they found another encounter with carnivorous apes.  The team made short work of them but struggled a bit more against a gray widow spider and a deku scrub mob.  Standing Bison was terribly injured and nearly killed, but Wolf Spirit shoved red tioye down his throat to revive him.

Finally, the team entered the new dungeon and discovered a large chamber occupied by an ogre and several fanged vised plants.  The lashing vines ripped into the team as they tried to advance on the ogre.  The vines hurt badly, but the team hacked through and dropped the ogre.  Now in the temple, where will they find the shard?

Game summary for June 28, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Stands-on-Spiders (Dwarf Priest played by Parker Harmon), Sunrider (Kau Human Martial Artist played by Preston Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team succeeded in freeing the seventh Dawn Seal fragment from the crackling electrical energy keeping it hovering over the alter.  They then performed rituals, buried, and burned the bodies of the sacrificial victims to prevent them from becoming marbaq.  The group then entered the jungle and captured a Keeper yaqyachi.  They were able to learn the eighth fragment was sent to Atliztatl in the Lake of Tears.

The group set out through the jungle toward some rivers leading to the lake.  Along the way, they stumbled upon a ravenous tyrannosaurus rex!  The dinosaur’s massive teeth impaled Wolf Spirit’s wolf, killing it instantly.  It then swallowed it whole.  The team moved in to the attack, the dinosaur also ate Singing Mammoth’s velociraptor!  Arrows flew, axes swung, and fists slammed bringing the dinosaur down.

Further into the jungle the team was ambushed by plant-like deku scrubs and skulltulas!  The dekus spit high-velocity nuts through the canopy that battered and bruised the team.  It didn’t take long for the team to rally, but they suffered a number of injuries.  They discovered a small wealth in treasure lying among the bodies and jungle.

Game summary for June 23, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team discovered a room wherein captives had been held.  One had been used as an example and was pinned to the wall with spears and disemboweled.  His corpse teemed with flies and maggots, and as the party approached, shuffling dusty forms emerged from alcoves around him.  Still wrapped in ancient linens, these undead priests attacked.  They unleashed swarms of scarabs that scampered over the party.  They tried to inflict their deadly mummy rot, but the team was too resilient.  Singing Mammoth discovered his arrows were very ineffective, so he lit a torch and used it to burn the enemies.  It did not take long for victory.

The team then discovered the horrible altar upon which the Keepers were sacrificing slaves in the disenchantment ritual.  The marbaq yaqyachi, Teomiqatl, stood with an obsidian knife and cut the hearts from the innocent.  A swarm of wights converged on the party to keep them away.  Above the altar, a Dawn Seal fragment crackled with blue lightning.  The team fought quickly, allowing Wolf Spirit and the firehawk to get through and up to the priestess.  Amazingly, the team was able to take her down in moments and mop up the rest of the wights.  However, the disrupted ritual ripped a temporary hole in this dimension to release a fireback ghula!  The flaming monster pounded on the party, driving the team back on their heels and sprawled on their faces.  It nearly killed Blazing Sun before falling beneath the team’s onslaught.

Game summary for June 7, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), and Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team fell through the jungle floor into a chamber occupied by a mob of wights!  When the marbaq touched the living, the chill of the grave drained a bit of their life force.  The party pets tore into the wights readily, and the team dispatched the group with little effort.  Searching the cavern, they discovered an old stuffed dwarf which they decided to dress up and take with them.

The next chamber was some sort of ossuary, and a shambling masked ReDead shuffled forward and screamed at the team, but no one fell victim to paralysis.  Meanwhile, skulltulas descended from the ceiling and bit several of the party.  The poison never set in, and the team quickly took them all down.

The group soon was captured by Keepers and lashed to each other.  After a bit of time, the team figured out a way out of the bonds and were able to slaughter their captors to escape.

The team began slipping past groups of marbaq by slowing their own heartbeats and covering themselves in gore.  They found clues to where sacrifices were being held and en route found a huge number of penned mindless marbaq!  They tricked a dire white ape into blundering into the pens, and many of the marbaq were destroyed in the chaos.  They then dug through a collapsed tunnel to find a back way into the sacrificial area and slipped past numerous guards, freeing captives along the way.

Game summary for May 31, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The party began the trip back from Fire Mountain to the camp of Rides-the-Moon and were attacked by a pack of assassins led by a soul-eater!  They defeated him, and right before his death they were able to get some information from him.  He told them their victories would soon be for naught because Teomiqatl, a fearsome yaqyachi, has figured out a way to disenchant a Dawn Seal fragment!  If successful, the seal could not be reassembled!  The team set out to capture more Keepers of the Gate to learn more.

They discovered their original route through the mountains was now blocked by a roving pack of marbaq.  They sought another way through the mountains and entered the territory of a dire white ape!  The enormous beast burst into the area and began pounding upon the party.  Arrows flew, axes swung, and fists flew.  Blazing Sun’s firehawk swooped in for an attack and was gulped down in a single swift bite!  The team was momentarily stunned but rallied quickly and brought down the massive threat.

The team pressed on through swarms of botflies and roving Keeper war bands.  The team was able to interrogate prisoners and sneak into camps to learn more information.  They learned of an old dungeon in the jungle that was partially exposed to the surface during an eruption of Fire Mountain.  It caused a great earthquake and left the dungeon is a mixed ruin of exposed rooms, collapsed chambers, and underground mazes.  Through this dungeon run a number of ley lines, focuses of magical energy, and here the Keepers plan to sacrifice as many people as they can in a foul ritual to destroy the Dawn Seal fragment!

Into the dungeon the team crept only to come across some Keeper thugs and a terrifying new foe, a reDead.  This emaciated marbaq wore a wooden mask behind which glowed two red eyes ablaze with light like fire.  It revealed a devastating power, the ability to paralyze foes with its scream!  It was able to freeze Wolf Spirit and the wolf in place first.  It then caught several others and proceeded to attempt coup de grace attacks to kill the party.  Fortunately, enough of the team remained active to take out the Keepers and the undead!

Game summary for May 24, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Little Spirit (Tsanta Human Soldier played by Andrew Renfrow), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team discovered caverns filled with slaves harvesting obsidian for use in Keeper weaponry.  Ogre slavers kept them at task and attacked when the party entered.  The fighting was fierce and bloody, and a whip-wielding slaver entangled Singing Mammoth and pulled him in close.  He then used his screaming club as a bludgeon against the party.  The rest of the team dispatched the other ogres and came to the elf’s rescue.

In the next chamber, the team found a cave-gnawer ghula and a group of Keepers finishing a sacrifice.  The party closed in, but the Keepers stood their ground long enough for the ghula to engage Night Watcher and nearly disembowel him.  Meanwhile, Singing Mammoth’s velociraptor, Clever, missed a leap and hurled herself into the lava!  Standing Bison’s bear fished her out before she could be consumed.  Standing Bison forced red tioye down Night Watcher’s throat before moving in to fight.  Wolf Spirit, armed with a heartstone axe closed in as well.  Night Watcher was able to get back into the fight while hovering at the threshold of death’s door.  He managed to land a lucky blow and kill the ghula!

The team traveled on and balanced across narrow ledges beside lava flows and floated on mineral barges in rivers of molten rock.  They ran from Keeper hordes for hours, get more and more tired.  They successfully navigated around noxious thermal vents, with only a few of the party being harmed by the poisons.  They tried to negotiate some grey tioye from a merchant but instead ran him off.

In time they made it to a chamber and found the otomi warrior, Tepoizcat!  He swung his iron-edged macuahaitl with authority and precision.  Using wolf pack tactics, he and his thugs dealt a lot of damage to the party.  The team whittled away at his allies until only he remained.  He could not stand against the combined might of the entire party.  After slaying this wicked Keeper, they discovered the 6th Dawn Seal fragment!

Game summary for May 17, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

After dispatching the base camp, screeches rent the air as crimson raptors hurtled into view.  Their riders slipped to the ground and drew forth deadly obsidian blades as the dinosaurs circled out running low and ready.  One of the riders strode confidently toward the team, a smirk upon his face and hatred burning in his eyes.  The man, an elf, had a tall blue Mohawk and pale white skin with sharp bone spikes piercing his flesh in intricate and painful patterns.  A dozen scalps bounced about his waist, tethered by still-attached hair.  He smiled revealing teeth filed to sharp points, and declared a fight to the death, winner eat all!  Nemtlac the Cannibal had arrived!  A velociraptor ravaged Singing Mammoth and nearly killed him.  Standing Bison took a barrage of hits from raptors and Nemtlac.  Wolf Spirit and the animals began tearing into foes and weeding through them.  Soon only Nemtlac remained, and he brutally slashed the party with his obsidian blades before the wolf ripped out his throat.  In the aftermath, they found another Dawn Seal fragment and a magical toothed necklace.

The group returned to the camp of Rides-the-Moon and were dispatched to Tletltepetl (let-ill-tep-i-til), the Fire Mountain.  They were warned an otomi warrior named Tepoizcat had taken the sixth fragment there and guards it with his iron-edged macuahuitl.  The dungeon is near the City of Skulls and hordes of ravenous marbaq.  The team set out and overcame many dangers before discovering a little-used entrance into the dungeon.  Within they found part of the floor had collapsed about five feet down and ten feet across, and the stone nearly glowed with heat.  Wolf Spirit and the wolf took a running jump and crashed headlong into a sheet of glass on the far side!  Rather than bounce off into the hole, their combined weight smashed through.  Both suffered lacerations, but that was far better than the burns they would have suffered.  With the trap now revealed, the rest of the team was able to safely leap across.

Deeper in the complex, they found the heat had partially melted the walls and floor.  In places molten rock bubbled into view.  Ahead a massive one-eyed magtail, a cross between scorpion and centipede, awoke.  The team found its hard shell very resistant to bladed weapons, but with some persistent clubbing, they were able to overcome.

Game summary for May 10, 2016, Savage! campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Blazing Sun (Kau Human Sage played by Kaliegh Belda), Night Watcher (Ogre Martial Artist played by Casey Scruggs), Singing Mammoth (Elf Soldier played by Taylor Averdick), Standing Bison (Giant Soldier played by Peyton Harmon), and Wolf Spirit (Kompache Human Priest played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team continued through the plains, and their horses caught the attention of Scar, the alpha bulette!  It burst from the ground and ate Wolf Spirit’s horse right out from under him!  The team closed in as the bulette swallowed the horse and attacked the team.  Several moments went by with some wounds landing on both sides; however, Night Watcher landed the killing blow.

After recovering and moving on, the team came upon the supply line and base camp of the Nightmare Company.  The team smelled a meaty aroma and discovered several large fire pits burned down to coals with spits above.  Men and elves hung above the flames cooking in the heat!  A skyclad yaqyachi woman chanted a spell and animated the cooking corpses as she cut them free!  The roasted shamblers let out shrieks and lurched toward the party.  The team moved to engage.  Much to their chagrin, they discovered the shamblers exploded upon their death in a shower of bones and gore!  It did not take much to take down the marbaq, the undead, but the yaqyachi and Nightmare rider proved a bit more resilient.  The rider shattered his macuahaitl upon the ground in an epic miss against Standing Bison.  Meanwhile, Wolf Spirit deftly avoid curse after spell from the priestess.  Soon, the team had defeated all of the enemies and began to search the camp.