Day 13
Having spent the entire night drinking the cheapest homemade alcohol that the bar could provide Andy spends much of the morning vomiting into a corner of the room. He stumbles outside and stops again to vomit onto the pavement as a van pulls up in front of him. In his weakened state he puts up little fight as the gang surround him and the mountain giant pushes him forward into the back of the van. Alan awakens and makes his way downstairs to get ready for tonight when he is dues to travel to the nexus point in time for sunrise on tomorrow's summer solstice. He exits the building in time to see a van hastily driving away closely followed by a mountain giant driving a specially constructed motorcycle that still looks ridiculous with his enormous frame on top. Alan shrugs it off and continues with his day.
David becomes accustomed to his new surroundings in the prison hospital and it isn't long before he finds himself being questioned by the warden in regards to Ian's curious behaviour. They confess to him that they are a little unsure what to do with Ian, they aren't exactly equipped to deal with the mentally disturbed and he doesn't seem like a threat. That with his constant insistence that all he was trying to do was return the truck it seems like he is guilty of nothing more than "being a bit off" and with guidance could become a functioning member of society. David agrees with them, explaining he had no idea the truck was stolen and that in his experience Ian can be a little unpredictable.
In addition to this David decides he wants to sue Ian for his lose of leg (and general emotional damage). The prison authorities say they'll see what they can do. In speaking with Matt, David discovers how woefully under-equipped the prison hospital is and offers to build them some psychically powered devices out of the scrap they do have to help them out whilst he is stuck here. Under Matt's supervision he gets to work on this.
Alan picks up a few ritualistic supplies, candles and such like, before meeting the group of mages outside of the saloon where the guild meets. They have hired an armoured bus to take them to The Hunt Lodge where they will be flown by helicopter to the nexus point in the middle of the ancient jungle that fills the crater. Alan climbs on board and decides to get some sleep on the journey over so that he is well rested by the time they get there.
Earlier in the day Andy has been traveling in a similar direction. As the van makes it's way he makes one last attempt to escape and jumps at the two gang members guarding him. Unfortunately this fails spectacularly and he falls into them. He succeeds in surprising them but now lying at their feet they respond by unloading their shotguns into him, well aware that he can take the hit but only really trying to hurt him. Andy passes out from the pain and awakens some time later to find himself still in the van but tied to a chair which has been bolted to the floor.
He is facing the backdoor which sits open and the four man gang is standing outside looking in at him. An old man approaches who is recognisably the same old man who was being eaten by the giant spider before. He explains that he thinks Andy needs to be taught a lesson in manners and since he seems to think he's such a tough guy maybe that should be put to the test as well. He encases Andy in a forcefield of psychic energy and Andy hears the van start up, apparently by itself. The doors close and the van lurches forward and it is suddenly very apparent where they are as the van goes flying off of a cliff edge. It tumbles down the rock face, smashing itself to pieces for what seems like forever with Andy being kept relatively intact with the psychic forcefield before it comes crashing to a halt at the bottom, leaving Andy stranded and alone inside the crater, the mysterious jungle surrounding him.
Day 14
Alan awakens as they arrive at 'The Hunt Lodge'. The lodge is a lavish mansion bigger in itself than some of the settlements in the rest of the county. There are two other buildings, one on either side, an extensively stocked armoury and a vehicle bay equipped with a wider array of militarised vehicles than the army itself. Alan and the mage group board a combat helicopter and are joined by five heavily armed mercenaries from the lodge who make them all look pretty weak and pathetic by comparison. The flight sets off for the nexus, an hours journey over the dense jungle of the crater.
The nexus point is alive with energy as dawn approaches on the summer solstice, the ley lines converging into a glowing mass that is visible long before the group arrive. The chopper lands at a strategic position, weapons pointed square at the nexus and the mercenaries file out to scan the surrounding area for threats. Alan and the mages exit more cautiously and set themselves up around the nexus as the mercenaries take up sentry positions.
Ian is called in again for more psychological testing and given a proposition. Unfortunately the prison and the sheriffs office in general is extremely overworked and there's no place for treating psychological disorders (if there was half the people in the county would probably be candidates). Ian doesn't seem to deserve incarceration, but conversely they're not convinced he should be allowed back out on the streets unsupervised. To try and find a happy medium the warden offers Ian a job, sort of. Ian will remain on at the prison as a guard, unpaid but with a guards living quarters and free food, as well as supervised leave out of the prison within certain limitations. Ian only seems to have been half listening and agrees without any further questioning or putting much thought into it at all really. The warden and his guard team are apprehensive but glad that a compromise has been reached, although they watch Ian with suspicion as he skips away.
David is largely healed and working hard building a psychic diagnosis machine under Matt's supervision and since Matt's release is coming up in three days they decide to release David at the same time, the idea being that if David requires further care Matt can look after him as a condition of his release.
In the crater Andy awakens. He is badly hurt, barely living and still chained to the chair in the back of the smashed up van. Fortunately the chair has loosened itself from the floor of the van and Andy manages to break the chair free completely and shake free the chains that bind him. He clambers out of the broken structure of the van and sees his surroundings for the first time, one side dominated by the thousand foot cliff face and the other by the jungle with a small clearing between the two running the length of the cliff. Andy is too weakened to venture forth and risk coming face to face with any of the carnivorous life forms that might inhabit the jungle of the crater so he takes refuge in the van to rest up.
Alan sneaks off from the rest of the group to search the surrounding jungle in the hopes of something dead being nearby but isn't equipped to venture too far from the group and isn't lucky for anything to be nearby so returns to the camp that is being set up in front of the nexus. Several of the mages are busy preparing rituals but many of them have just come along for the ride are already busy building a barbecue and getting drunk as dawn approaches. Alan looks over the group and decides these probably aren't the people to help him further his magical studies.
Dawn arrives and with it the surge of magic energy that the group has been waiting for. The problem is that the surge also opens up a rift right on the nexus, a gateway that could lead anywhere with any number of unspeakable horrors on the other side. This wasn't an entirely unexpected occurrence, actually it was quite a high probability so the mercenaries are on immediate alert. For a moment the scene is quiet before a small group of humans exit through the rift and enter the clearing. They wander towards the mages who stand transfixed by what is now clearly a group of extraordinarily beautiful women.
As they approach the mages their abnormal presence doesn't go unnoticed by the mercenaries and one of them opens fire, blasting one of the women to pieces. The others freeze in place and utter an unearthly monstrous scream and proceed to morph into hideous demonic lizard creatures (succubi - although nobody in the group correctly identifies them). The majority of the mages scatter in fear, those that can fight prepare themselves and the mercenaries move in. Alan falls back and begins throwing magic nets into the fray. As the succubi pounce upon the mages the mercenaries unload laser fire into their opponents, and unfortunately mistakenly injuring some of the mages who luckily paid in advance. The only real slip up is when one of the mercenaries slips and unloads half a clip into the side of the helicopter.
Back in the prison Ian decides to strike up a conversation with Mouse who is surprised by his advance. Ian enquires as to the proposition Mouse was talking about in the cupboard before which confuses Mouse further since he took being locked in a cupboard as a sign of hostility. However, Ian seems quite friendly, almost disturbingly so. Mouse can't handle it and confesses his true motivations. The reality is that the man he works for likes him to identify new comers who are alone and vulnerable and can be exploited for cheap labour. However, after their previous encounter Mouse would rather not have to deal with Ian any further so tells him to just move along and they'll speak no more about it. Ian shrugs and walks away.
At the nexus the battle with the succubi continues but the mercenaries are winning and the mages retreat has saved them any heavy casualties. Eventually the succubi are defeated with only three deaths amongst the mages, one of which turns out to be merely a death trance, one of the mages pretending to be dead and allowing the battle to take place around him. He casually stands up and rejoins the group unscathed. Unfortunately there have also been half a dozen serious injuries amongst the group and it is agreed that once the the helicopter is loaded up and the handful of rituals underway with the shortest timeframe remaining completed the group will return to the lodge.
As the group pack up Alan looks over the battleground and sees all the dead bodies a young necromancer could want but no time to do anything about it. Not wanting to waste the opportunity he sneaks away from the group and on the pretense of helping pack up ransacks the bodies. He goes unnoticed as he manages to gather three arms and ten claws from the succubi corpses. He packs them in amongst his belongings and goes back to the helicopter whistling nonchalantly.
The helicopter returns to the lodge and as the day draws to a close Ian is greeted by the warden once more as his team prepare him for his new job and show him to his new guards quarters. Once this is done and Ian is donned in a shiny new guard uniform one of the other guards enters and speaks privately with the warden. The warden turns to Ian and asks if he remembers the prisoner by the name of Mouse, the one he locked in a cupboard once. Ian remembers and asks why. The warden explains that Mouse has just been found dead in his cell having apparently hung himself.
Ian seems shocked and the warden asks if Mouse seemed suicidal to him. He says no but explains what Mouse told him before about the man he works for. The warden nods, it doesn't seem entirely new information to him, but he and the guards have much work to do so they leave Ian in peace in his new chambers. Before going they explain that since Ian is a skilled driver they will see if they can fix him up with some work along those lines to keep him busy.
Back at the lodge the mages regroup and those of them fit enough to travel, including Alan, board the bus that brought them down the previous night to return to their homes in The Capital Fort. Alan looks over his gains, not massively impressive a haul but worth a pretty penny and could be just the windfall he was looking for, if he can find somewhere to sell it.
As nightfall approaches Andy feels his strength returning and inspects the van. The passenger door hangs on by a thread so he breaks it loose and enchants it with superior strength. He then pulls off the front bumper and does the same. He know has a shield and a weapon, sort of, and inspecting the area using his knowledge of the land he decides that tomorrow morning he moves north hoping the join the ley line that should be a couple of days journey away. Coincidentally, if his calculations are correct, his arrival at the ley line will coincide with David and Matt's release from prison. The two of them eagerly plan their next move and as David finishes up the psychic diagnosis machine and sees how impressed the warden is with his work he realises there could be some money to be made here once they are free to make their way in the world.
More to come ... Session Seven - Travelers Beware
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