World of the Lost, Session Three: A Camp-Fire Story

With the players for neither Everett, Gerald nor (formerly) Heinrich able to make the 3rd session the exploits of Dietrich & Baldwin were our focus.

That morning it was decided the Adventurers would head towards Akabo with the men working for Odafin, rather than try and brave the ants in the jungle they had come from before.

Dietrich felt as if the inexplicable idea that was squirming in his mind had somehow grown over the prior days, and displaced yet more of his consciousness. His body had become somewhat less graceful than it was before, but he also felt somehow more capable of moving with stealth and subtlety, though he had never had much knowledge of such a thing before. Curious.

In any event, Baldwin & Dietrich proposed a quick detour before they departed for Akabo: since the Sorcerers were thought to be nearby they thought they might try and find them.

The men at camp agreed to this, as they thought Baldwin & Dietrich would be quite capable of defeating the Sorcerers if they discovered them. Dietrich in particular had much impressed them with his arrival in the camp on a moving hillside, as they had never encountered a Magic-User before. They spoke with him of how such things were quite rare in Khirima, Magic was not often seen besides the strange remains of the long lost Sodality of Conjurers that were scattered throughout the city. Dietrich took note of this with great interest.

Everett, Qian, and Gerald had no objections to this plan, but could not come with them. The soothing spell Dietrich had performed on Everett, the one he learned back at the temple with the putrid demon, had waned: Everett was now once again being ravaged by a fever, and so had to remain at rest in camp. Qian had seemingly recovered from all illness, but he too remained at the tent with Everett as no one else could speak Chinese. Gerald was also feeling a bit drained, and so would remain there as well.

So only the two of them headed towards the jungle in pursuit of sorcerers, with Dietrich pausing a half-mile or so from the treeline while Baldwin continued on.

Baldwin, being well versed in woodland navigation, soon discovered a campsite. 3 tents with a good sized fire, placed near a rocky outcropping surrounded by trees. No one occupied them now, but it easily could be as many as a half-dozen men.

He climbed a tree beyond the outcropping, and situated himself among the lower canopy branches, keeping him well-concealed from view while allowing him to observe the camp. He waited to see who would return, and what their purpose was.

Meanwhile, outside the jungle, Dietrich was attempting to capture some of the local fauna so that he might Summon a great demon with a blood sacrifice. He prepared a ritual circle and then placed a bit of food inside it to act as bait. He then waited nearby, and in due time a large rat-looking creature emerged from the vegetation, and made its’ way towards the towards the trap. Upon reaching it the rat sniffed at it, and began to nibble.

At that moment Dietrich leaped upon it and tried to wrestle the creature into submission. The rat-ting bit at him to no avail, but then wriggled from his grasp. Dietrich gave chase, grasping at it while the rat snapped at him in terror. He took hold for only a brief moment before it once again slipped loose, and finally bit him too, before scrambling into the undergrowth. Bleeding but undeterred, Dietrich walked back to place a few fresh scraps in the circle and try again.

Baldwin, hidden within the tree, indeed saw six men return to the camp. One of them wore a traveling cloak and large, rather fancy sort of hat. The next was clearly a woodsman like himself, and the remaining four the standard sort of mercenary-looking types with swords and leathers.

They gathered about the fire, boiled some meat into a simple stew, played some games of chance, and discussed what must have been their intentions. All of this was in French though, a language Baldwin could not speak a single word of. Despite this setback, Baldwin continued to observe them. After a time the woodsman and the hat-wearer went into one tent together, and when the two of them emerged again the woodsman had been adorned with a strange symbol of some kind on his face.

The woodsman then walked in a circle, but for every step he took he seemed to cover two strides of distance. He circled around the campsite like a skittering insect and then dashed away from the camp into the jungle, in the direction of the hill and campsite the Adventurers were staying at. This very much impressed the mercenaries, and the man with the hat, now revealed to be a Sorcerer, returned to his tent while the armed men remained outside.

After a second Cane Rat approached the freshly baited circle Dietrich lunged at it as he did with the first one, this time choosing to instead swing at it with the butt of his dagger so that he might batter it unconcious. A brief fracas ensued, but it also fled from him. Dietrich followed, his leathers repelling many defensive bites as he tried to clobber the squealing rodent into submission. He nearly lost this rat as well, but after one solid blow was able to drag the thing back, and bind it to a tree near the circle while it was stunned and unresistant.

He baited the trap once again, as this one rat was not enough. He did not have to wait long: attracted by the scent of prey a long serpent, light green and lined with black scales, glided towards the helpless rodent. As sacrifices worked only when living, and desiring to neither lose his hard earned rat or his own life to unknown poisons, Dietrich drew his flintlock and blasted the serpent as drew closer, the bullet tearing the thing in half. He gathered the two portions of snake once they stopped writhing and placed them within his circle, improving the bait significantly. He reloaded his flintlock, and waited once again.

Baldwin could see that he was outnumbered, and facing a practitioner of the dark arts who wielded quite startling powers. In addition, the woodsman had returned after having clearly done some sort of reconnaissance in his ensorceled state. Baldwin descended the tree, and then circled around the camp, and then crept up behind another large tree between two of the tents; it was only a few yards from the roaring campfire.

The sorcerer was in the tent to his right, and the remaining men were all standing about the fire, quite near it, unaware of any danger. Baldwin pulled a bottle of lantern oil from his pouch. In one motion he stepped out from behind the tree and hurled it towards the open flames, then sprinted back into the jungle before it had hit the ground. The bottle shattered as it hit a large log in the center of the blaze and the oil ignited, setting the sorcerer's tent ablaze and scorching all the gathered men nearby. They scattered in confusion and panic, never laying an eye on Baldwin as he vanished into the trees.

The fresh, bloody meat Dietrich had acquired attracted a prize catch to: a dog-like hyena. It was ware of Dietrich and a cautious beast; it kept a good distance while eyeing the dead flesh hungrily. Dietrich hurled a chunk of the meat towards it, to tempt it closer. It approached, nervously, and gobbled it up. Dietrich then hurled another length of snake, and after a tense moment it approached this too, and ate it. It was much closer now.

Dietrich then charged it and swung, attempting to subdue it. The hyena snarled and snapped at him, narrowly missing his arm with its snake-bloodied jaws and filthy teeth. Reconsidering his approach, Dietrich drew both of his two pistols then fired them both. One bullet struck, and greatly wounded the hyena, but instead of demoralizing the creature it was sent into a rage. It lunged at him; Dietrich dropped his pistols, drew his dagger, and began stabbing.

After narrowly avoiding a series of bites he stuck the dagger deep into it, and after it yelped in agony and scampered away Dietrich followed it in merciless pursuit. The two went at each other, both missing as they stumbled closer to the jungle. The Hyena began to outpace Dietrich despite its injuries; he tried to throw his dagger in one last attempt to end the wretched thing, but his blade landed in the dirt and he abandoned the cause.

Emerging from the deep jungle, invigorated by arson, Baldwin saw an easy kill limping just a couple hundred some-odd feet away from him: a wounded hyena. Drawing back an arrow he lobbed off a shot, and narrowly missed. He sent another. This one went high and wide, off into the trees. He ran after it, and again had an infuriatingly narrow miss. As it began to enter the thicker jungle Baldwin ran, stopped, and drew one final arrow.. It sailed forth and struck true: the hyena fell dead at last. Baldwin gathered up what arrows he could find, slung the carcass over his shoulders, and marched back now doubly victorious to where he had left Dietrich.

Back at the ritual circle, with live rat and dead hyena nearby, the two discussed what had been seen in the jungle. A plan was formulated. Dietrich would make use of his sacrifice, and bring forth demonic assistance. Baldwin, a bit skittish around these dark arts placed a wide distance between the circle and himself and watched.

Upon completion of the incantations and presentation of the sacrificial cane rat there emerged from the bloody circle a most malevolent force embodied by a cone shaped cephalopod-like head. It almost glowed with a radiant, eerie blue color. There were 4 sphincter-like mouths in a diamond shape, out of which emerged a chorus of horrid scream-roars. It excreted a miasma of spores, and these seemed to wither and poison the things it fell upon; leaves crumbled around it. Below the head were a plethora of immaterial yet fully comprehensible and utterly obscene appendages, which it rested upon and used as a means of movement.

Dietrich realized he lacked any sort of magical influence upon the creature despite all his preparations, and that it was uncomfortable in this world and hatefully furious about being brought into it. Dietrich then sprinted for his very life and soul in the general direction of the sorcerers camp, while the demon rushed after him intending to punish him lethally for what he had done. Baldwin trailed from a distance.

At the campsite the badly singed and dispirited mercenaries quietly gathered around a newly built campfire, and the sorcerer fumed over the damage done to his possessions. He had escaped his tent alive, but much had been lost, and the burns were painful for all.

Perhaps while wondering aloud what could possibly be more unbearable than this, he was interrupted by a sprinting German who blurted out a short greeting as he flung himself over the campfire, stumbling a bit when he landed beyond it.

Before any could react to this a neon-blue cone shaped squid of sorts carried aloft by an aural embodiment of obscenity ripped through the melting foliage and screamed at them in four distinctly inhuman voices and prepared to annihilate them. His wits still about him, the sorcerer acted quickly, and unleashed a magical assault. A jagged iridescent cobweb spit out from the center of his forehead to enmesh the roaring fiend, crackling all over it's visible body and causing it great distress. It reared back screaming and startled by the pain.

Baldwin had ascended the rocky outcropping just behind the demon moments before, and just as the glowing energies dissipated he unleashed an arrow that pierced the throat of the sorcerer who fell dead before the now twice-enraged monstrosity from beyond.

The four mercenaries drew their blades and ran towards it, screaming half to embolden themselves and half out of fear. At this moment Dietrich pulled each of his two flintlocks, and fired upon the two nearest ones. One of them fell dead from the wound, while the other but was surely quite hurt by it but did not fall.

The two remaining mercenaries swung fruitlessly at the horrid thing, their pitiful swords unable to pierce its partially unreal, semi-magnetic body-form. Baldwin quickly circled around the burnt wreckage of the camp, and facing the back of their woodsman sent an arrow towards him as he readied his own bow. Weakened by his burns, he was killed with a single shot.

The mercenaries screamed again, but only in terror, as the cerulean nightmare rained down a cloud of malignant dust on them: microscopic particles that would soon ravage and destroy their earthly bodies like salt does slugs. Not wanting to deprive the demon of all things besides themselves to kill, Baldwin and Deitrich both ran into the jungle at top speed, to wait until the creature was expelled from our reality.

When they returned it was a grisly scene searching around those uniquely mangled and destroyed bodies impaled by unknown appendages and partially dissolved by unearthly dust. They gathered a half-burnt spell-book, several swords, and a set of cooking pots from the dead, as well as the woodsman's longbow. In addition, they plucked a skull-topped signet ring from the sorcerer as proof of his death, as well as his pipe to keep as a souvenir. In his pocket was a map too, with Akabo smeared with a black spot, and a faraway side of the plateau marked with a simple X. They returned to camp victorious, and prepared for Akabo.

The next morning Dietrich persuaded them all that travel by hill was both safe and reliable, and that there was no need for them to arduously hack through the trees or even trudge through the jungle. They all ascended it, and with Dietrich's’ persuasion it carried them about a dozen miles. After they descended the hill to prepare for nightfall they saw a human figure shuffling through the vegetation towards them. It was a man, a priest, from Akabo.

His name was Esige, and he was bleeding, wounded terribly, sweating and near-hysterics. Akabo, he said, was burning. It was destroyed, they had destroyed it, and he had only escaped them because of the soldiers, who certainly died defending him, and even then he nearly died anyway. The dead walked in Akabo, he said. Necromancers had come, and cursed the place. It burned. They bound his wounds, and gave him water and food, but even then he still raved: they were following him here, they must run. Night was falling fast, and they would not be able to go far.

They moved away from their loyal hillside to set up camp near the base of the plateau, so as to limit the direction from where trouble might emerge if it did. They strung their various lengths of rope between the trees some distance from them, and along those they hung their scavenged blades and cookware to create a set of crude chimes, to act as alarms. They then rested as best they could, while all took turns patrolling in pairs, and listening.

A pair of soldiers, breathless, woke them an hour or so before sunrise. Something was coming, through the jungle. They acted fast, grabbed all they could, and with two of them carrying the wounded Esige they all ran through the brush, back towards their hill so Dietrich might provoke it to carry them once more. Looking over their shoulders as they fled they saw the shuffling, gruesome figures pour into where they had set camp, dimly lit by their abandoned fire. They ran until exhaustion, stopping only when they had reached the top of the hill and Dietrich let loose the spell. The hill gladly obliged, slowly groaning about the foul corruption around it as it glided away, swarms of birds rising from the trees in the morning light.

Unfortunately the spell did not last very long;the hill came to rest just a few miles away. This was at least somewhat near their previous path gouged by it, and though it was now filled with rainwater they were able to walk along its edge and use it to guide them back to Khirima.


When they arrived Esige was most thankful for being saved by them, and he repaid this kindness by telling them where he had seen the very Necromancer who had cursed Akabo go to, and how she carried a strange dagger, and great sums of money as well. He left them then to go back to his family, but they encouraged him to speak with the head of the guards as well.

After this they went to Odafin. They entered his chambers at the Guild of Merchants with their unexpected companions, who still carried the snake they had delivered to them. Odafin was confused by all this, but quite pleased to see them all nonetheless.

When they told him of Akabo though, and how it had fallen to the dead, his mood clearly changed. He sent out all his men, so that he could be alone in his chambers with the Adventurers. He then cursed the name of Ishola, the King, and he spat out that he had failed the kingdom, and was an incompetent fool unfit to be a ruler. He said Ishola cared not for the people, only his foolish superstitions like the damn Temple, and its’ wasteful tribute.

Odafin told them that Ishola had refused to send aid to Akabo despite the rumors of sorcery, so preoccupied was he with his silver. Now the dead walked the earth, and there were rumors of even the hills walking the earth, and hordes of baboon torn to shreds in the night, with perhaps even more horrors to come! He told the adventurers that they may speak freely: of why they came, and what they thought of Ishola, and why they had come to Khirima at all. Was it for the Temple?

Indeed it was, they said. For various reasons, they came for the Temple. They asked if any others had gone before them. Odafin said yes, some had, certainly. He said that many had surely tried, but none had returned, at least that he knew of. He had not seen the Temple himself either, but he knew the entrance. He would now take them there though, when they were ready, and that they could do what they wished to that foolish temple once they arrived.

They wished to make preparations first, and Dietrich also mentioned his interest in the relics of the sorcery throughout Khiria. Odafin said there was such a thing nearby; The Fountain, it was called. He gave simple directions to it, and said it would be obvious to them once they had found it.

Wandering through noble square they came to a wide open plaza, clear except for a few shade trees. In the middle of this plaza was indeed a fountain. It floated high in the air, with a ring at each compass-point around the circumference. Each of these ropes trailed down to the earth, stopping just before touching the dirt. Baldwin stood off to the side, and observed, while Dietrich approached it.

Dietrich ascended the rope with little trouble, reaching the rim of the fountain after climbing about 100 feet into the sky. He stood carefully on the edge, as it was only a foot or so wide. The fountain was made of a smooth white stone, and was about 20 feet across. In the center of it a tapered column topped with a single stylized depiction of a hand. The five fingers of this hand were pointing upward, with the palm facing forward. Each finger was almost the full length, except for the final inch, which was a large ant that spat out of each and fell into the pool of them below, creating a churning, writhing mass of gnashing pincers and crawlings legs at least a half-yard deep. Further down the base of this ant-spewing column rested a thick rounded band, a sort of armlet or some other accessory made out of polished brown stone.

Dietrich contemplated the situation before him, and then proceeded to cast the Ravening spell. The magic he brought forth seized control of 8 of the already sizeable ants, and sent them into a cannibalistic frenzy. After devouring many of their fellows 5 of these ants were miraculously doubled in size, to two horrid inches with proportional pincers. 3 of them continued to enlarge, and the unnatural growth left them larger than a guard dog. Made utterly insane by this transformation as well, they proceeded to attack the sea of ants still around them.

Baldwin, standing below, was pelted with these ants, along with several onlookers. They all took to stamping the ants and placing some distance, but none fled too far as this was quite the sight to be seen.

One of the dog-sized ants, whilst tearing its smaller brothers into pieces, flung itself off the edge of the fountain and fell to the earth below; its’ carapace shattering and innard splattering into the dust, with noxious chunks and gibbets flying through the air. Dietrich at this time shimmied down the rope, and stepped back, lest the ants notice him too. Shortly thereafter the two final beast-ants, locked in mortal combat, also plummeted into terra firma and were reduced to a dirty paste. Satisfied with this result, Dietrich then ascended the rope back up to the fountain's edge.

There were many fewer ants now, but still some. There was only a sparse layer along the base of the fountain now, but still some emerging from the fingers of the hand. To cope with this he flung out a bit of lamp oil and lit it, the flame driving them away from where it burnt and creating a small pathway. He dashed over to the armlet, and raised it up quickly as the emerging ants began to cover him. He pocketed it and descended the rope as they began biting into him in earnest. As he dismounted the rope covered in his own blood he began pulling ants from his flesh, and a long time resident of the Noble Square approached him with a smile. He told him he was quite brave and clever to retrieve a relic of the Conjurers in such a way.

Baldwin and Dietrich then went to the Holy Square, a place packed with shrines and temples, to seek out a reward for slaying a foul necromancer. They knocked at the door of one, a deep earthy red colored building, squat and sturdy looking. They were welcomed in by a robed man whose face was entirely covered in a fine crosshatch of evenly spaced scars. This man was a Dibia, he said, a priest of the Edo faith. The temple was dimly lit inside, and warm.

They presented him with the ring, and he was quite gracious and thankful for what they had done. He gave them a great heap of cowry shells, and manila for performing this good deed. Upon seeing the many wounds on Dietrich the priest asked if he might wish to receive a blessing of restoration and healing through joining the Edo faith. Dietrich seemed interested, but wished to know more of this faith before he join it.

As the Dibia told it, all of creation was a combination of the Agbon (or visible) world that we humans inhabit and the Erinmwin (or spirit) world created by the great god Osanobua, or Osa. Osa created the other deities: Olokun the goddess of oceans, and of wealth. Ogiuwu, the blood drinking death god. Obiemwen, the Mother of All. Iso, holder of water and of light. And Esu, the patron of coup d’etats, power and cunning. As he explained these gods he made many gestures, and it could be seen that he held what appeared to a sort of small tool in his hand, a small blade that seemed quite sharp.

Dietrich questioned the standing of demons in this faith, and who they were the purview of. The Dibia laughed, and said the Plateau was the place for demons. Dietrich laughed as well, a bit less, and clarified that he meant to ask which god governed them. The Dibia nodded gravely then, and said there was also Bashonie The Father of Fiends who made the Sins of Men into Form. He spit when he said his name, and stamped on it. None worshipped him, except the most wicked. This was of great interest to Dietrich.

The Dibia then asked again if Dietrich wished to join the faith, and he now said yes. He beckoned Dietrich to lie flat upon a nearby slab, and to brush his hair back and away from his face. As he closed his eyes the Dibia began chanting to the gods, and began his work.
Beginning at the temples the Dibia used that small blade to cover the entirety of Dietrichs face from hairline to jawline in a crosshatch-like pattern made of hundreds of thin cuts, drenching he, Dietrich, and the slab in blood as he worked over the next hour.

Once this agonizing process had at long last finished Dietrich was overwhelmed with a spectacular vision: a spectral column of ants ascending to the heavens, spiraling away into the infinity of space. When he arose his wounds were healed, although this left him with extensive and permanent facial scarring indicating he was a member of the Edo faith. The Dibia asked Baldwin if he would also like to receive a boon by joining the faith, but he declined. The two then left to rejoin their companions, and determine how they would best prepare for their arrival at the Temple of Ages That Are Not.