Roll call:
- Andrew
- Brandon
- Steve
- Brian
- Jason
- Matt
- Sam
The 17th of January, the team returns from recon
- Staff Sgt. Odd provides report and we are commended for our mission
- Our full platoon is asked to assist in finding a platoon that is lost, unheard from
- Don’t engage enemy; mission is only to find the platoon
January 21
- Craig and Keagan crest a hill and see a wall of darkness about 10 miles out
- Reminiscent of a storm coming in
- Craig believes it may be a sandstorm – spans horizon from left to right
- Continuing toward the storm, Craig notices what appears to be a man-made structure about a mile out
- Sarge directs us to the ruins as shelter from the incoming storm
- Craig and Keagan arrive first at the ruins
- Appears to be empty, walls about 30 feet high but no roof
- Craig and McVey check out the two doorways
- McVey climbs in and finds a 10-foot wide corridor
- Craig finds a similar corridor inside his doorway
- JT searches for any signs of human or animal tracks, finds his own bootprints
- Sarge directs us all inside
- Craig believes he sees some largish tracks – bigger than a small animal, possibly human
- Craig follows the tracks to the right and the corridor appears to get brighter in that direction
- The squad follows Criag and McVey
- The corridor opens up into a kind of courtyard
- Craig heads into the courtyard to investigate something partially buried in the sand
- There appear to be at least two corpses from the missing platoon, bullet holes are the likely cause of death
- We head back down the other corridor at the T-intersection we’d passed
- There are several rooms along the left side of the corridor
- Craig believes he sees some largish tracks – bigger than a small animal, possibly human
- After a couple hours, the storm has really picked up
- The sun is completely blocked
- After a bit, the group of us black out
- We awake to find ourselves in the center of the sandstorm
- Sand is biting us, we have no guns or grenades
- It seems like a dream
- McVey hits Ashley on the arm and realizes he’s wearing a breastplate instead of his uniform
- Our rifles have been replaced by spears, and we discover that we’re being circled by chariots in some kind of arena
- We engage our ancient Roman foes
- JT runs to a chariot and attempts to relieve them of their spears, but fails
- Ashley takes a hit from a spear
- JT jumps onto a chariot and hits the driver as Sarge plants a spear in front of the horse
- The horse impales itself as JT jumps off, and the chariot flips through the air and lands on top of the soldiers, crushing them like Roma tomatoes
- Big Ed precisely hurls a spear into the driver of the chariot that JT just jumped aboard, tearing a mortal wound through the driver
- Guido and McVey start driving one of the available chariots
- Craig jumps up with JT and they take out the remaining soldier -* another chariot liberated!
- The Insane Chariot Posse rams their chariot into a foe’s horse, but McVey fails to hit anyone with his spear
- JT takes over another chariot while Big Ed shreds Sarge’s opponent with another wicked spear throw
- Guido and McVey continue battling with the adjacent chariot
- McVey throws his spear, destroying his opponent
- Sarge distracts one of his many opponents and JT takes advantage of it to run him through
- Craig joins the fray and takes out another Roman
- Big Ed fires a dagger, killing a soldier
- Ashley turns his opponent into a shish kebab
- Sarge and JT team up to take out the last Roman – the crowd roars!
- We look up to a covered area in the stands
- Someone who looks like a leader gestures with his hand and the crowd cheers
- One of the darker skinned fellows makes eye contact with us and nods to us
- The gates beneath the covered stands open and guards march out, forming a corridor
- The squad follows Sarge into the corridor
- The corridor leads through a few sets of doors and eventually onto a cobblestone street
- Outside the area
- A man greets us, congratulates us, and hands each of us 10 coins
- We inquire about the man who nodded at us, but the man who paid us doesn’t know and assumes he is an advisor
- Sarge, Craig and Big Ed pay three talents to get back into the area
- They leave their weapons with the rest of us and head up some stairs
- Craig asks someone about the “advisor” and is told he may be Chidike Taha
- We set out to find this Taha fellow after getting the general direction in which he headed
- Sarge orders us to execute a search pattern to find him
- Craig eventually finds someone who can direct us to Taha’s residence
- Upon our arrival, McVey knocks on the door, which is opened by Taha
- Taha mentions that he has “the vision” and foresaw our arrival and that we came from far away
- He doesn’t know how we can get back, but knows that there is a way for us to get back
- His visions told us that he will have to help us find our way home after we find something to aid in our struggle
- He explains his vision
- He would recognize us and needs to help us find our aid
- The “aid” we need is in the Casnian path and is on the south side of the highest hill
- He has not heard of the Casnian path
- The cave can only be accessed with something called the Prophet’s Blade
- After we’ve gained whatever aid we need, Taha is supposed to help us return whence we came
- Sarge asks Taha to check for maps or anyone who is familiar with the Casnian Path
- We prepare for a trip to the Kasserine Pass, in case this is the Casnian path to which Taha referred
- Taha will supply a cart and mules
- A week of food / water costs about 1 talent
- Taha supplies a few maps, but none show a “Casnian path”
- We sleep for the night, hoping that we’ll awaken in the 20th century
The morning of Januarus 14, 608 AUC
- We awaken, still in Taha’s home in ancient time
- We head out on our quest
- First day is uneventful and we break for the night
- Aside from some animal noises, the night is uneventful
The next morning
- We arrive at the Kasserine Pass after about half a day’s travel
- We head toward the highest hill
- On the south side of the hill, we see a darker, shadowy area, which may be a cave
- As we approach, we see an ornately designed door with a gap about the size of McVey’s scimitar
- McVey sticks his sword into the gap and the doors open
- We prepare to enter
- A musty, old smell emanates from the cavern… along with the smell of death
- Just inside the door, there appears to be the remains of a body
- A couple of the squad believe they noticed some movement inside
- Craig begins his way into the cavern
- The corpse appears to be an ancient, dessicated body clad in robes
- As Craig pokes at the corpse, a star-shaped bronze item, with a small copper loop on the back, clatters to the floor along with a primitive short sword
- The tunnel turns toward the right a bit and narrows
- He believes he hears, ever so faintly, something like unintelligible voices or chattering
- We continue, as a group, farther down the tunnel
- The tunnel continues branching and Craig continues to track the noise
- We notice that the walls have cave paintings on them
- Ancient paintings with dark / brownish pigments of hunting scenes, like your stereotypical cave paintings
- Craig finds a room at the end of a tunnel that has an unnatural red light coming from a small spot in the air toward the far end
- The room is occupied by a fairly large number of small, toothy, sexless creatures with leathery, red skin and a darker spot on their foreheads
- The creatures appear to be applying their own feces to the walls, climbing atop each other to reach higher places
- The creatures notice Craig and begin to approach, as Craig retreats and warns the team
- We engage in battle against these shitty little beasts
- When Guido sees the creatures, fear overcomes him and he acquires a phobia of germs
- We take down two of them fairly quickly
- Sarge notices that the spot on their foreheads appears to be a 5-pointed star
- After dispatching a couple more of the beasts, JT notices a skeletal form on the ceiling, which jumps at him but misses
- Big Ed takes down the animated skeleton with a single arrow
- McVey slices one of the beasts completely in half with an amazing slash from his scimitar
- McVey is scratched by a creature, but shrugs it off
- Craig takes down the last red beast and the illuminated red thing disappears, but we hear a clink like something metallic hitting the ground
- We find a metallic ring with a pentagram emblem on it
- We commence searching the room
- The cave paintings in the room have been defaced by the red beasts’ feces
- The paintings appear to be of smaller brown people fighting much larger black-painted people
- The cave paintings in the room have been defaced by the red beasts’ feces
- We begin exploring the rest of the cave system
- There are a hell of a lot of branching tunnels with a couple larger rooms
- We eventually find another room of cave paintings, seemingly depicting normal life
- Another larger room contains a large square stone box
- When McVey gets within 5 feet of it, the top cracks open and a figure rises out of the box
- The figure stares unblinking at us and says “my wait has been long but the rewards appear to be succulent”
- Sarge and JT are afraid
- Battle with the big bad guy
- He’s tough and despite a couple of really good hits, he shrugs off our attacks
- The seemingly evil incarnation waves his hand around and speaks some words, conjuring up a blurry, shimmering shield over himself
- Big Ed manages to get in a hit past the mysterious shield, shaking Mr. Evil
- Sarge also gets a really solid hit, but he continues to avoid wounds from our attacks
- Mr. Evil deals a devastating blow to JT, who surprisingly suffers only one wound
- McVey performs a stunning fumble and ends up throwing his scimitar across the room
- Sarge steps up his game and destroys the incarnation of evil
- The robed figure collapses and disintegrates, leaving only a pair of leather gloves behind
- The gloves appear sufficiently normal but for particularly grippy patches in the palms
- In retrospect, Sarge and JT believe that when they recovered from being shaken, they felt a surge of confidence that seemed to be tied to McVey