Jhendor Forums

June 9th 2025

Oatton

On the outskirts of the village saw two villagers going through a mess of belongings that had been dumped outside two army tents. They said that the village had been invaded by Gamma soldiers from down south.

Lord Sven talked to the Gamma soldiers dragging a metal grille. They took against him so One Shot shot the arm of one of them and the other retreated to the village hall. Lord Sven tried his brand of diplomacy and gunfire broke out again. One of the defenders, under hard cover, was slightly winged. Jay took a more understanding position and they agreed to leave the village on payment of four bullets for One Shot, who wrote the names of the soldiers on these rounds, with a promise that if they try anything like this again, he'll deal with them. They'd deserted from the Gamma army and were looking to set up somewhere else. They went east.

Talking to the villagers, the group found out that the 29th expedition against the Imago is progressing the other side of Snek River to the east. They don't know about the Empress. To the north is Tack Town. The Matron lives there and she's very well informed of what's happening in the area, so that is the next port of call. They were warned that some of the fields to the north are still defended by their robot operators, notably Sniper-Crows, fixed towers with an automated long rifle (30 seconds between shots) and Flesh-Threshers, mobile units that harvest the corn and deal with intruders. They also talked about Headcutter, a folk tale about a being that stalks the corn leaving dead bodies in its wake.

A night was spent in the village resting. The group when both in the morning with the thanks and done did from the village

North

Travelling north they met some villagers fleeing Oatton for Tack Town, who decided to turn back, the soldiers having been dealt with.

Later that day, they found 8 farmerlings in a ditch armed with a few rifles and some tools, gearing up to attack a Sniper-Crow to reclaim a field. The group decided to help them out, they waited until dusk, shared some smokes and assaulted the field. Jay swapped some food for a sack of carrots the villagers had bought with them and enchanted three of them to help with the assault. He borrowed a sling-shot from a farmerling.

They moved out of the cover of the corn and into the opened ground round the tower. It's first shot took a farmerling's head clean off and three Flesh-Threshers moved out. Lord Sven's first shot hit the top of the tower and the gun blew up, leaving just the three machines. Jay fired his carrots which burrowed underneath a Flesh-Thresher and disabled it's movement. One shot hit another and wounded it. The third engaged with farmerlings. And then it was all over pretty quickly. The machines proved fairly ineffective. One was overturned by a shot and Jay stove in its workings with a statue and the other was also sharply despatched.

The carrots were sent to climb the tower and retrieved 21 long rifle rounds and a small container of pills (60). Jay sniffed these and fell asleep. Whilst he dozed the tower was searched, nothing much else in there except housing for the machines, a shute for harvested grain and a ladder leading down into the ground. One Shot had a short ceremony for the carrots and awarded each a medal.

All made camp, spirits were high, farmers had bought moonshine with them and there was some music and dancing. One of the carrots got pretty wasted and took a dump in Jay's ear. Sadly, around midnight, the carrots stopped being animated so One Shot buried them with honours.

June 16, 2025

After a brief run in with some farmers and a goose watch dog, some chalk and a bullet mold are obtained from a trader. Then the Headcutter is spotted and one of the farmers is bleeding. One Shot goes up on his pack squab and takes a shot of it. It departs, turning to look directly at One Shot before it fades into the shadows. Spoon collects some of the blood of the earth that emerged, even though the farmers thought it a very bad thing. The night is spent in the tent settlement near Tack Town, eating and drinking with the farmers who are particularly grateful to One Shot for warding of the Headcutter and sewing up the farmerling's leg. Lord Sven fires up his communication device and hears army chatter about the war but also mention of "OOBBastards in a stream of refugees near the Fort".

The next day in Tack Town Spoon talks to some Spore Priests and gets offer of a job taking a message to Penance Village in exchange for some spores. He also collects guano from the pack squab pens in exchange for another spore. Lord Sven meets the Council Head Grey Marv talking to the Matron about a planning an attack on the Lordlings who keep trying to conquer the town under the guidance of Tremire who was chucked out of Cloud City Delta for dubious political machinations. He makes some good points and the Matron invites him and One Shot for some refreshments. Lord Sven's manner upsets the Matron who treats him like a petulant child and offers him a lollipop. Matters come to a head and it almost comes to blows with everyone in the Cantina. Lord Sven cools off outside while One Shot finds out that the Empress did crash up north and has been wandering in the Thickwood and now the Weeds, where the 29th Expedition is fighting the Imago century brood. She possibly doesn't want to be saved.

Next they go to the salvage yards where the front man Grubby will supply bullets in exchange for some tank parts looted from the army in the east. Hot Hands Calvin the smith doesn't want to get in the army's bad books but Grubby reckons he can do something with the gun barrel. They go to the Plank, a sell sword bar and information brokers run by Gulliver the fence. She is talking to some Spike's people who want about the Order of the Broken Bread in exchange for information about Tremire. She doesn't like their deal but Lord Sven makes the deal with the information about the the Fort, Fort Snek by the Snek river.

Then a deal is done with Butterfly over the gun barrel which leaves the group up a net 15 rounds of ammunition with Grubby. Spoon offers to help Shrimp, one of Butterfly's gang with his difficulty in sleeping over killing his dad. He casts a spell to enter his dreams and it works.

Butterfly also mentions the Anti-Saint Genevieve who has gone to Fort Snek to try to end the war. Snek has a new commander called Papon. The 29th Expedition apparently is for trying to stop the imago swarming across the Breadbasket and eating all the grain.

June 30th, 2025

Leaving Tack Town, the group travels north towards Penance past the slime pits, a cooperative compost facility where the local farmerlings bring all their rubbish. Their are guards on duty with rifles, compost is taken seriously round here. But in the morning fog, they don't notice the group approach while they are playing dice. Spoon wants to join in but they are only playing for drinks at the Plank, maybe on the way back. The guards mention a group of 10 soldiers from the 29th Expedition passed this way recently, also heading north.

As they approach a village, they find tracks of the soldiers skirting round the village, and nothing coming from that direction. Gums see that it's deserted with white growth up some of the walls. Spoon recognises this as White Spore, a deadly fungus. It's getting late so they need somewhere to camp. Lord Sven notices a windmill east of the village on a ridge. Should be safe there. Gums finds some rations dropped by the soldiers. It's a nice fresh loaf of bread. No sense in wasting that.

In the windmill, General Lin finds an egg, as big as his head, resting on some old sacks. As he watches the, the egg rises in the air, bumps into the ceiling and falls back down. There is also some noise from upstairs. Lin goes to investigate. Meanwhile, outside Spoon sees something poking out of a high window, it's the face of am adult Imago. It seems to be trying to get out, but the window is too small. Lin pokes his head up and sees the Imago crash out of another window. It flies round the front of the windmill where Spoon tries to make friends with it, but its dander is up and his arm is somehow painfully twisted by it at a distance. Gums tries his whistle but this only inflames it.

Lord Sven meanwhile sets up his long rifle and shoots the Imago in the back, right through and out of the carapace, the blood hangs in the air like sharp clawed birds surrounding Gums and Spoon who are not enjoying the experience. Lin rushes out, grabs some chalk and casts a spell! A small flame appears in his hand, burning him, but a much larger flame erupts on the downy back of the Imago and it flies off, past the windmill and down the hill towards a river. Sven trundles over to the back window, takes another shot and the Imago crashes down. He jumps out of the window and runs down the hill. As the others catch up to him, he calmy finishes off the Imago with his smaller rifle - the big ammo is precious.

Just before it gets completely dark they loot the body, quite an amount of chalk, a weird bladder full of chalk infused liquid and a stiff carapace, some five feet by four. Gums puts together a travois so Spoon can drag the carapace behind himself, with the bladder sitting on it. Sven double bags the egg ready for transport.

The next day they encounter some Spore Keepers who are trying to scrape the White Spore Mould off an Imago. Gums uses his whistle and calms the beast long enough that they can scrape the mould out and spray the Imago with a fungicide. The group gets a spray for good measure. The two keepers go off in search of any more afflicted Imago and the group moves on to Penance. By the time they get there, Spoon is worn out from dragging the carapace all day.

They deliver the message to Abert from the Tack Town spore keepers and are paid in spores as agreed. Abert and his fellows have built a pyre from dead infected villagers and any mould they can find. Tomorrow they are going to burn Spike Head who they see as the cause of this devastation. The group talk to Spike Head who is quite muddled but they think he's possibly not to blame and get agreement from the Keepers that if Spike Head can cure an infection he can live. Trouble is, no one round here is infected anymore, no one alive that is. Abert says there's an old woman living in a house off to the south, Worm. They should go check on her and if she's infected, bring her back.

The next day they go find Worm, meeting some couriers on the way who explain to Abert a better way of carrying the carapace, using like a big umbrella to keep the sun and rain off. He'll need somewhere else to help but nobody seems keen. Arriving at Worm's little shack, she invites them in for tea and cake. She's quite doddery, the place is a mess and the cake has blue mould growing on it. Spoon notices quite a fancy incense burner on the mantlepiece.

Two of the group see one of her fingers fall of with a puff of white dust, and then quickly reattach itself. There's a bit of a panic but Spoon who has a spore prepared lets the others leave and unleashes it, causing himself and then after a bit, Worm, to fall asleep. Gums creeps round the back and spots some sheets through a window. That'll be good for carrying her. Sven drags Spoon out of the sleeping gas and Lin notices that Worm's hand is missing. Gums goes in through the window to get the sheets but he's attacked by the hand. He manages to avoid it and Sven comes barrelling in, slams a flower pot over the hand and it shatters. It briefly manages to grabs his tunic but he shakes it off and traps it in a thankfully empty chamber pot. Lin goes in to tie Worm to the chair, but this just makes her limbs fall off. They retreat and set fire to the shack, having secured the hand in old pressure cooker. As the flames rise higher, Spoon notices a disturbance in the Slip, a ghostly hound is forming inside the flaming shack!

July 7th, 2025

There is some kind of ghostly hound forming in the flames engulfing the house, so Spoon makes friends with it, primarily by throwing some chalk which it eats and becomes more solid, and then some chalk dust which makes it take solid form. Then it's back to Penance. Worm's hand is tested on Spike Head and he does indeed cure it from spore infection so they Spore Priests decide not to kill him. The next day, the group goes off towards the crash site. It's a bit of a mess but there are signs that two people have been round here. There are also two juvenile imago chewing parts of the crashed barge. Sven shoots one and almost kills it and the other scarpas. Spoon has a look at the screaming imago but decide to investigate the barge instead. One Shot puts it out of its misery before it can attract any adults. Inside the barge there are lots of mess, 8 cans of anchovies and some letter written by lordlings to the Empress asking for their hearts desire, things like bring my dead son back from the dead, or grant me dominion over Gamma City. One Shot finds an abandoned Camper Van which serves as shelter for the night. The two couriers who were last seen taking ashes to Tack Town come by late at night, expecting to stay in the van. Space is made for them and they give some indication of what's north of here, including a town of brood monks.

The next day, Lord Sven looks after any pieces of Imago that might upset the Brood Monks while Spoon and One Shot go see them. They are seem to have injured limbs, not in any obvious way but they just are disabled. They venerate the Imago and try to ensure the safety of their eggs and juveniles while cloudling hunters use them for sport. As Spoon is fond of Imago, they teach him a spell to disable hunters - Detonate Limb (the blow back is that it disables 6" of limb for every d20 damage done to the target. Spoon doesn't do a very good job and is wounded as his hand partially explodes. One Shot stitches him up but the wound has filled him with overconfidence.

The next day as they are traipsing through the wood they meet a flock of wild pack squab. Their lead parades in front of Waffle, One Shot's squab, who is put in his place. But Spoon commands his dog to placate the flock and it works, to the extent that they are completely docile. Spoon takes advantage of this and spends the whole day training up four of the flock and does an excellent job. They aren't harnessed to fly but they will carry loads and people. That night, as the group rest up in an ancient Imago husk, some Lordling hunters come by and try to carry off the squabs as hunting bait. There's a debate and in the end they purchase one squab in exchange for a flame bellows for Spoon. The hunters had seen two people, a woman and one with a skull mask heading east from here.

On the morrow, as they get to the Snek River, they meet one of the couriers again. His friend has been taken by soldiers to the east and he worries that he's dead. The group say they are going that way and will see if they can find him. The courier promises 9 rounds of ammunition if they do. They find a trail with a sign saying Work This Way for Chalk, and then a mile on down the trail, another sign next to some hazmat suits saying Suit Up if You Want to Live. From his squab, One Shot sees that there's a ruined Giant statue thing in the woods that way. Lord Sven scopes out a camp at the end of the trail, and Spoon goes in to talk. There's only one person in the camp, but there's gear for several more. The woman says that she's hiring people to repair the giant. Spoon asks about visitors and she mentions patrolling soldiers come past from time to time. She's holding something back but as Spoon doesn't want the job, she asks him to return the hazmat suit, and sends two droids with him, using her flute to command them. Spoon tries to remember the tune but doesn't quite get it right. His overconfidence finally fades.

The others decide to go in, and are more forceful in the questioning. It turns out the soldiers bring her "recruits" for which she pays in chalk, and they brought her the other courier. They persuade her to release him. She also tells them that she's seen Skull mask with another person but they didn't come into the camp.

They reunite the couriers who are very grateful and show them a place where there is a weird frozen waterfall. As they are looking at it. Some people come through the forest ...

July 14th, 2025

The people approaching the frozen waterfall turned out to be Mother Turnip, a brood abbess and a bunch of monks. She had sensed a terrible evil in this area, injurious to people and Imago. Spoon concurred that there was something hinky behind the ice. The monks chipped it away to reveal an open doorway with some writing on the broken door. Lord Sven said it was something about treasure.

A steep slope behind the door dropped away into darkness but it was the only way to go. It was around 100m deep and at the bottom some forlorn 29th Expedition Cloudling soldiers were keeping watch. They were easily tricked and bound. They had encountered some other Farmerlings in the complex, and their leader Commander Thurston was off investigating, they knew not what. The first chamber visited contained a mess of racks and shelves, an armoury, mostly looted, and some shrieker mushrooms, but these were easily avoided. One Shot opened a door into a corridor containing a metallic web and a cow sized spider. He shut the door before it could approach. The other exit opened to show a young Farmerling who was coaxed out and tagged along. Far off gunfire was heard and traced to the room across the entrance way from the armoury. The brood abbess and her monks were being fired on from the next room. After General Lin opened another door from the entrance room into the same room, he spotted the soldiers, with crates for cover, a door behind them they'd been cutting into and another exit into the spider room. He quickly shut and locked the door, and the soldiers did the same on their side. Spoon had a spoor which burnt through a door and another explosive one was chucked at the soldiers and set off with a puff of his flame bellows, this also ignited a heat cutter which finished off the rest of the soldiers and the door. General Lin activated some strange panels in the first room and turned on viewing panels given a view of the whole complex. When the smoke had sufficiently settled, Lord Sven and One Shot rushed in to find Commander Thurston opening some kind of weird vault. One Shot vapourised him with a heat cutter. They were set to just shut the vault but Mother Turnip was horrified and said the horror should be destroyed so the vault was opened and the concentrated fire of everyone barely scratched the horrific man thing inside, all the while it was thawing and coming to life. Spoon took some psychic defence mushrooms which worked too well and knocked him out. So the decision was made to shut the vault. The young Farmerling rushed forwards to help but then his hand got caught in the vault so One Shot lopped it off, but too late. Spoon could see his spirit escaping, a body hopper, and entering into the Lord of the Goneaway in the vault. Mother Turning revealed that the writing outside had said that the place contained no treasure and just misery and death. Spoon and Mother Turnip both sensed a build up of energy in the slip, like a volcano and had to be carried outside. As the group walked back through the forest to the place they'd slept some nights before, there was terrific explosion. The next morning there was an enormous crater, half a mile across, just scooped out of the ground with very little debris, and filling with water from the Snek river.

There had been a bit of treasure in the vault, a heat cutter, two chalk rifles each with two rounds each (General Lin, also had two sticks of chalk), and a four revolvers, each with six rounds.

The Snek was crossed and the tracks of the Skull man and horned woman picked up heading south through a swamp to a village.

July 21st, 2025

The day finishes in the village of Daffodil where the only two people left are Mitch and Matilda who spend their evenings watching the lights strobing across the forest from the giant's hill. It might even have been moving. In one hut in their mostly abandoned village are two soldiers who are very ill from "chalk fever". But it is ascertained that the blue pill they've been taking to cure it is actually causing the illness. It accumulates in their bones. It seem Cmdr Papon is using this to poison his men, and then feed them to the Imago. Spoon trades for one of the pills. Mitch and Matilda had seen the Empress a few days previously so the decision is made in the morning to head East towards the Rust Bucket rather than south to find out what Papon is up to.

There's a ferocious battle going on at the Eastern Feeding Grounds so this is avoided. Further on a mass on dead imago have been burned and many adults arrive. The group take shelter in a bunker all day and listen on the radio. The giant is on the move. The next day three members of the Order Of the Broken Bread, Shakes, Grumpy and Clown, are heading towards the bunker, on one of their patrols. They too are opposed to the 29th and regularly use the bunker on their way to look at the camp to the South. At one point some ghostly figures drift across the broken ground, do a strange twirling dance, and waft off in the same direction as before. On inspection, they have stripped the face of a corpse.

Later on a camp on fire has been attacked by Farmerlings dressed in Imago armour, they are frenziedly killing and eating Cloudling soldiers, many Imago are streaming across the sky to the North East. The camp is avoided, especially as four Imago break off from the main flight to investigate. From his Pack Squab One Shot sights some observation balloons near another camp to the south, and the to the North East, a massive fireball and mushroom cloud ignites. They take cover, but apart from a bit of wind, there is no damage here. That evening they get to the Rustbucket, a city in ruins. They have been warned about the two most common kinds of robots. Servitors are insect like drones which will take orders, Disposables are more independent and sometimes explode. On his radio that night, Lord Sven finds out that it was probably the Giant which exploded after being mobbed by Imago, likely attracted by its chalk reactors. In any case, a large area centred on Daffodil is now on fire. They find an abandoned factory to spend the night and Gums finds a dragonfly like ornithopter which he halls in and finds some passing servitors which someone manages to order to repair the device. Spoon finds a new spell, which electrifies hand weapons and manages to learn it. By the morning, the servitors have managed to repair the thopter and once it's fuelled up with chalk, he takes it for a spin round the local area. There's a space elevator protected by sword wielding Disposables, carrying platforms loaded with dodgy meat up into space, a building being dismantled by Imago, and a group of sell swords camped out in a ruined cafeteria.

The group sets off to talk to the sell swords but on the way, Gums is interrupted by a servitor that leads him to an abandoned restaurant. There's a woman in there who is looking for some people to help her raid a lab. She has also seen the Empress's companion, a few days ago, near a pile of robots further south. They decide to help her and she shows them a spell she found, but no one can make sense of it. They go to the lab and find a woman in a lab reading a strange old book.

July 28th, 2025

Not quite going to plan.

Investigating the lab, they find that there are extensive genealogical records, including those of the Empress who comes from a very mundane Rustbucket family. Aeyana says she can programme a servitor to lock on to the Empress's DNA while the others search the facility for Sorisha. On the ground floor there's a lab set up to test the moral compass of subjects. There are washing facilities so One Shot has a shower.

On the next floor down, there's a biolab but also the strangely attired Detrix, head of the Rustbucket Rejuvenation Cult. She's wondering why this building suddenly became active with a few pairs of people having been seen leaving it. She and Sorisha look at the records while the group look into the kitchen. There's a replicator, low on power, but Detrix had used it to make a passable pistachio macaron. Behind this is a greenhouse area with six seemingly empty areas. Spoon finds a single live shoot in the last one and thinks it might be a good place to plant his tree. However this is a strangling vine which erupts out of the ground and attempts to throttle spoon. It misses him but he sprays it with his flame bellows and sets the whole thing alight. He gets out of the door but doesn't close it in time. Fortunately General Lin severs the burning vines and they imprison it and retreat. While One Shot is watching this he hears the kitchen door open and turns to find a man, seemingly himself!, advancing on him with a knife. Fortunately he'd warmed up the heat cutter to deal with the plant and makes light work of the doppelganger, cutting it clean in half. It's teeth are perfect, the skin on its feet is soft and it doesn't have a belly button. It must be a clone.

On the bottom floor, there's a corpse on an operating table. It's desiccated and has sat here for ages. Spoon compares the skin thickness on the bottom and top of its feet and ascertains it must be a clone. There's a neat dormitory room where one bed has recently been used, and, finally, a cloning chamber with eight blanks set up. General Lin attempts to use a console and the upshot is, one of the waiting blanks takes on his features. He walks into the room, waiting for it to develop and be birthed, when two more clones take on the features of Spoon and One Shot. General Lin shoots his in the face, mortally wounding it, One Shot shoots his but only wings it. Spoon rolls a mushroom in which his clone gives to the dying clone. There is a discussion and the clones seem friendly and the group agree to leave them in peace as long as they don't use the same name, Shroom agrees as does One Shot's clone. The machines had already refilled with blanks. It was apparent as they were talking that the clones had starting taking on the mannerisms of their originals. The locals stay behind and the group moves on, following the servitor which has a trail. It leads them to a handprint on a pile of robots under which they find an energy shield, all it needs is some chalk. They all look round for somewhere to spend the night and the only place is an old sewer. There are already 4 Farmerlings in there. They fled their village in Rustbucket as it became infiltrated by clones who killed and replace their originals and enabled more clones to do the same. The groups realises that they have possibly left the way open for a wave of General Lins, One Shots, and yes, Spoons to flood the area.

The next day they are lead to this bitter, solitary humanoid sitting in a plaza adorned with Greco-Roman pillars. His rotting body is being tended by two servitors, one of which annoys him so he grabs it and squishes it to lifelessness. He is Vanni, the servant of the Factory God. He is 482 days past the end of his service date but his replacement has not arrived and he is compelled by his makers to serve and feed the god. He has a sack full of deer-dog meat for this purpose and entreats the group to do this duty. When Spoon is disrespectful Vanni says something which causes blood to spurt from Spoon's mouth. One Shot pulls his rifle but before he can shoot, Vanni's words cause his body to twist and bleed, near killing One Shot. He will be limping for a week, even with the best health care. They must comply and deliver the food. In any case, the Empress's trail leads down the hole.