"RYM: Sunlight" -- Journal of an RPG Campaign

RPG Campaign: "RYM: Sunlight"

Last updated: 09.8.4
Story: Orphans blessed by a sun goddess battle to save their dying planet from a race of necromancers.
GM: Kris Schnee and other volunteers.
# Players: Currently 5, GM included.
Game system: Freeform (no dice, no books to buy).
Setting: Rym, a setting developed by writer/artist Ollie Canal; fantasy with sci-fi elements.
Background info (some spoilers, obviously): link collection, races, "movie trailer" re: distant backstory
Campaign style: World-spanning adventure with a mix of combat, character development, and silliness.
Duration: Unknown; over 1 year so far!
Location: Online, IRC (irc.anthrochat.net, #RPG).
Status: Active.
Contact Info: Find "Snow" on irc.anthrochat.net.

Characters
Story So Far
Character Creation
Campaign Stats

Characters

Heroes of the Morningside Maiden

Name	Description	Forms	Weapons	Abilities
Ryker	He doesn't know where he got it, but he relies on his courage and sense of honor. He wants to understand the powers he's gained as a possible clue to his origins.	Wolf M, Skole M, Dire Wolf	Sword Swarm	Sword, sailing, basic healing
Hazel	Despite her frightening appearance and talent for lockpicking and poisons, she's a happy and enthusiastic adventurer. What's next for her?	Human F, Naga F	Fangs, Islander Crossbow	Flight, brawling, sailing, basic alchemy, pickpocketing
Harek	This former bookworm has become an adventuring mage, and now struggles to keep up with the others and earn their respect.	Human M, Lutrai F	Abbey Sword, Islander Wand	Water/air/healing magic, sword, sailing
Rollo	He gets plenty of practice with his healing power, considering how often he needs to save people with that and his fighting skill.	Human M, Koba M	Abbey Knuckles, Koba Knuckles	Brawling, sailing, healing magic
Aeia	This otter-girl left home in search of adventure. How will her strange new powers develop?	Lutrai F	?	Healing magic, time/space magic

Friends and Foes

Midland (Erdanis)
The southwest part of a large continent; a set of baronies ruled from afar by the Tamaran Empire.
The Abbey:
-The Abbot (Human M): the tyrannical, spiteful ruler of the Abbey. Preached doom and gloom due to a personal tragedy; maybe now he'll reform.
-Rog (Human M): an older kid, the most obnoxious bully in the Abbey. Eventually took up the adventuring life with his friends.
-Rithi and Rakkel (Human F, M): Rog's friends, neither of them nice.
-Geddy (Human M): One of the seven scullions running the Abbey; a fat and somewhat friendly cook.
-Luce (Human M): A vile scullion with something against Rog.
-Thaco (Gorg M): A young, relatively poor and lean Gorg merchant. Drives a sport utility wagon; recently bought a cool combat golem.

Southwind Cove:
-The Pasha: The Tamaran Empire's local administrator. Tasked with making sure the town pays tribute and hosts the Tamaran pirates stopping by.
-Barkeeper: A friendly and inquisitive local. A big believer in tofu.
-Marcus Ash (Human M): Junior member of the Ash monster-catching clan. After stupidly endangering innocents with stray water elementals, he skipped town.
-Jake and Jay (Human M, M): A father and son who learned boat-building from the Lutrai. Gave our heroes a free ride to Cekus.

Nol, Chithmarsh:
?

Cekus
An idyllic tropical archaepelago inhabited by the otter-like lutrai and the even more primitive, lizard-like koba.
Morningside:
-Osse (Lutrai M): The chieftain of Morningside. An old friend of Captain Jake, and a former member of the Clainbreaker network.
-Kiki (Lutrai M): The main healer of Morningside. Dresses conservatively in white and is the more serious one. Taught basic healing to Rollo.
-Akira (Lutrai F): The cheerful shaman of Morningside. Wears little but firey tribal painting. Claims to have once cast a spell called "Dragon Slave."
-Mokatalis (Skole M): A mighty ex-gladiator from Tamara who effectively adopted Ryker.
-Loril and Falco (Elf F, M): An elven couple that washed ashore here, known for music and archery.
-XXL (Machine): An ancient construction Machine adopted by the locals.
-Kale (Human M): A bodyguard for a fortune teller, nearly killed defending her from a pirate attack.
-Agatha (Human F): An elderly fortune teller who gave the heroes cryptic warnings after being rescued from pirates.
-Cpt. Jailbird (Human M): Leader of a pirate gang that invaded Cekus. The heroes killed him after a tough battle, and his men were killed or captured.
-Soli (Lutrai M): An apprentice healer studying with Kiki, determined now to accomplish great things in Whitestone.
-Flisk (Lutrai M): A young man who's not used to fighting, but played a useful role in the pirate battle. Respects Rollo especially.
-Fractal (Hoomiku F): A happily shipwrecked hoomiku who salvages technology. The lutrai just don't understand her obsession.
-Triskelion (Hoomiku F): A hoomiku girl who was rescued from pirates on Akaru Island. Has been working with Fractal.
-Typho (Lutrai F): A heavyset lutrai who does body-piercing anywhere you like.
-Aden (Human M): An armorsmith who bemoans the locals' lack of good materials.

South Koau (600 years ago)
-Lairu (Lutrai M): A lutrai knight who died defending the Solinar royal family.
-Astra and Selene (Human M, F): The young Solinar prince and princess. Murdered by cepn assassins.
-Nimril (Cepn M): A cepn assassin who refused to murder children, and died for that decision.
-The Laughing Man (Human M): An unknown man who stole a book from the cathedral.

Brightwater:
-Khua (Lutrai F): The chieftain, and a powerful water-magic shaman.
-Paka (Lutrai F): A shaman who explains magic in terms of maze-like drawings.
-Kelti (Human F): A shipwrecked girl who's been taken in by the tribe.
-Hoko (Lutrai M): The first black lutrai seen so far. His advice seems sarcastic, but useful. There's something odd about him.

Starfall region:
-M'Gzon (Koba M): A stupid shaman barely holding the support of his tribe in the chief warrior's absence. Shown up by Rollo in a magic duel.
-Rapanui (Lutrai M): A lutrai from Whitestone, consumed by grief for someone named Moai, demanding that the Spear of ruin be given him. Fate unknown.
-Tamook (Lutrai F): Sister of the Starfall chief. The practical one. Wears a broken manacle and has traces of scars.
-Flight (Lutrai M): Nominal chief of Starfall. The brilliant one. Teased as "Featherhead" for his obsession with wind and flying machines.
-Gojira (Koba M): A huge and mighty lizard warrior who planned to use the Spear of ruin against Starfall Village.
-Mylu (Lutrai F): A healer from the destroyed village of Whitestone, rescued from czath. Known for wearing nothing but white paint. Now rebuilding her home.
-Muck (Czath M): Prince of the czath. Disgraced and exiled for his lack of bloodlust, which indirectly caused disaster. Now seeking a new life.

Darkmoss region:
-Paluk (Lutrai M): A scarred lutrai chief with an unreasonably big axe.
-Medi (Lutrai F): As a jungle healer, she gets to learn all kinds of neat stuff about poisonous plants, venomous animals, and interesting diseases.
-Kaboum (Lutrai M): An earth-magic shaman worried for the fate of his favorite element.
-Laz (Koba M): An old, insane fighting monk who thinks the only good czath is a dead one. Knows the secret of a nearby dimensional gate.
-Zuraka (Koba M): A spindly koba who's taking over from Laz, with a more pacifistic attitude.
-Skala (Hoomiku F): A shipwrecked hoomiku who joined the heroes to get home to Southwind Cove.

Lotus Vale:
-Venti (Lutrai M): A tall maker of enchanted masks.
-Piki (Lutrai F): A lutrai girl with an annoying fairy companion, who brought disaster on her people.
-Shigi (Fairy F): A fairy queen obsessed with games. Murdered after she and Dour wrecked the island's peace.
-Dour (Fairy M): A fairy king obsessed with gambling. Grief-stricken after a disaster largely of his own making.

The Story So Far

Summary
Four orphans received power from the sun goddess, and with the help of a traveler have been exploring the ruined world and aiding in its recovery while learning about the forces still threatening it.

Prelude
The war orphans living at the Abbey knew little of the world, and the Abbot didn't much care to tell them. What the children trapped in that crumbling excuse for a home knew was that the world was dying, something that the Abbot didn't mind sharing endlessly during his sermons or the beatings he gave for infractions of his rules. The Abbey stood in a remote grassland caught between a rocky bay, to the southwest, and a desert known as the Creeping Waste opposite it.

Every so often someone would come to buy children. Sometimes it was a fat, grinning Gorg wearing gold chains and smoking sweet cigars; sometimes it was a czath, and those were much less pleasant. There wasn't much sight of non-humans except on those visits. The Gorg would trade away a few bags of rice or something, enough to keep the Abbey going, and get a new servant. Or snack, the rumors said. Nobody really knew.

The kids didn't much remember their lives before the wars between the various baronies of Erdanis sent them here. Life in the Abbey meant hard work sewing clothes for trade, doing all sorts of dull labor to maintain the place, and putting up with the Abbot's obnoxious gang of older kids, the scullions, barking orders at them. Still, not everything was bleak. There were stories about the outside world; legends of knights and necromancers and gods; glimpses of the blue and gold moons at night...

And somewhere nearby, waiting for someone to find it, a chance to start setting things right.

Episode 1: The Chained Chapel
In the Abbey, three kids -- Ryker, Hazel, and Rollo -- were lucky enough to befriend the resident cook and wrangle their way into getting their own room. The three worked together to fend off bully Rog and help out the bookish kid Harek while Hazel tried taking everything not nailed down. A flurry of spring cleaning led them to discover a key that had been forgotten on a shelf.

The key led Ryker, Hazel, Rollo and Harek to the locked-off, forgotten chapel, where they crept in that night. By the light of a single lamp they found a gleaming altar that sank into the floor, revealing a secret passage into the darkness. Though easily spooked, they soon were making their way through a forgotten set of tunnels beneath the Abbey.

Episode 2: The Goddess of Light
The orphans made their way through an underground facility that once belonged to an order of paladins serving Kij, goddess of light. Someone was watching them, proposing to use them as heroes against the monstrous Spiral necromancers. When the kids made it to the bottom of the facility, they encountered a figure claiming to be a Spiral adept named Strythus, who taunted and attacked them.

When he was defeated, Kij herself appeared and asked for their help. They gladly agreed, and were granted limited (and awkward, in Ryker and Harek's case) powers of transformation. They could switch between two forms whenever the sun shined on them! Kij warned that something dangerous was coming to attack the Abbey in a few days; was it the Spiral? Exhausted, the kids returned to the chapel upstairs and slept.

Episode 3: Children of the Creeping Waste
They woke before dawn. They confronted the cruel Abbot in his bed and demanded to know why he'd locked away such an important place, but it turned out their theory was wrong. He'd locked the chapel because years ago, he believed his son had abandoned the priesthood and stolen the family sword to run off and be a mercenary. Actually, the son had found the hidden passage and tried to be a hero, but died down there and wasn't found until now. The Abbot was reduced to tears, a rare sight, and let the would-be heroes essentially take over to renovate the chapel somewhat and begin an evacuation.

During the cleanup and packing, a Gorg merchant named Thaco arrived with his sport utility wagon and bodyguards. He had a sharp enough eye to see what was happening, and offered to sell some transportation or supplies in exchange for the Abbey itself or ownership of some of the kids. A fair trade, right?

Episode 4: Evacuation
The kids made a deal: hauling a combat-training golem out of the Solinar temple and trading it for a chest of holding. Everyone evacuated from the Abbey for fear of what was coming. They headed southeast along the coast towards the town of Southwind Cove, a pleasant place of clean white buildings under the rule of the piratical Tamaran Empire.

The locals were friendly and helpful, offering to build temporary housing for the orphans, give them a little work to earn their keep, and even supply some good food and much-needed baths. Our heroes traded the chest for a bag of silver and went on a shopping spree: Clothes! Armor! Travel gear! Lockpicks! Then they realized that they'd been planning to save more for buying ship passage to the Cekus Archaepelago. Oops. Meanwhile, the Southwinders seemed nice and curious to the point of being a little unnerving. Why were Rollo and Ryker at odds about the Abbot's son's sword? And why was Harek complaining about the sunny weather seeming foggy? Hopefully they'd be able to hire a boat to get them through Cekus' "Coral Maze" soon.

Episode 5: Interlude: Southwind Cove
After some uneasy dreams, our heroes went looking for ways to pass the time and make some money. Hazel discreetly changed to Cepn form and got hired to clean the town lighthouse, a fun task for her. Rollo found that a Lapix-crewed ship wouldn't be in till later, and joined Harek in some increasingly difficult scrivening and accounting work. Ryker chatted with a tavern keeper over tofu... And then all hell broke loose.

Episode 6: Wreck of the Dandelion Meadow
An incoming ship suddenly rolled crazily, damaged at the harbor mouth. When the crew tried to evacuate, the water itself seemed to be attacking them, battling with vicious waterspouts and undertows. The four kids hurried to help, and with feats of swimming, climbing, gliding, diving, slashing, wrestling, and fast-talk, chopped one small water elemental to droplets and trapped three more in a crate. It turned out that a passenger was trying to smuggle the monsters to sell them to the Tamaran arenas. The kids tried to salvage some cargo and patch things up between the captain and the smuggler, earning a letter of recommendation from both.

They'd not been very discreet. They were tired enough to miss the sunset, leaving Harek and Rollo stuck in Lutrai and Koba forms for the night, and Hazel had been seen transforming back to human in midair. While stuffing their faces at the inn, the ruling Pasha came in with her guards! She was grateful, but suspicious of the now-known shapeshifters. Harek thought they owed the Pasha an explanation, but the more wary Hazel kept them from saying very much. They spent a long time at the inn that evening worrying about their goal -- reaching Cekus to find out more about Kij's followers -- and how to do it without either giving the Tamarans an easy way to enslave the natives, or getting themselves smashed on a coral reef. A boat came in that looked capable of getting them across, but the captain didn't trust Hazel's claim that her group was looking for temples of Kij. When Hazel tried to borrow Ryker's sword to show off its sun-sign markings, Ryker refused and Hazel angrily left the inn for the night.

Episode 7: Sails and Wings (GM: Hazel)
The heroes were just waking up when a young man appeared: Jay, who'd heard of the incident yesterday and offered them a ride to Cekus. He and his father, Jake, had learned ship-building techniques from the lutrai, and wanted to go there to see the annual races. After some suspicion and last-minute shopping, the heroes went along with them.

The sailing was amazing aboard the catamaran... until a Tamaran "chain ship" appeared, part of a blockade against Cekus. The ship launched a squad of cepn assassins who attacked from the sky with arrows, wing-blades and daggers! After a deadly brawl the assassins were all killed and the catamaran escaped.

Harek's gouged shoulders were tended by Rollo, who felt a strange energy as he did so. Rollo himself had been stabbed in the back. The others' wounds were more psychological. Hazel was horrified that she'd defeated a gliding archer by biting out his neck, while Ryker was furious with himself for not being able to accomplish more in the battle and for accidentally wounding Rollo. They all talked, trying to calm down and reassure themselves on the way to Cekus.

Episode 8: Beyond the Coral Maze
Our heroes sailed around the island of Akaru, gaping at the greenery, the giant lizards, the orchards, and finally the village of lutrai, the otter-people. The lutrai overwhelmed them with questions. The village had several non-lutrai residents including a mighty skole named Mokatalis, who soon sparred for fun and training with Ryker. The healer, Kiki, and the shaman, Akira, befriended the others and started to show them some tricks of their trades. Rollo seemed to have a talent for the healing arts.

The lutrai mentioned that if they were worried about being chased by necromancers, they might try climbing a nearby cliff to meet the Phoenix. First things first, though: beach party! The night passed with drinking and dancing on the sand. Something that Akira and Kiki had said was foreboding, though: Kiki had had a vision that today, something really good would happen, and something really bad. He was worried that he hadn't seen the bad thing yet.

Episodes 9, 10, 11: Pirates! (GM: Rollo)
A badly wounded man staggered towards the village. Hysterically he demanded that our heroes rescue a fortune teller he'd been guarding, who'd been kidnapped by pirates -- and that the kids not tell the lutrai about it. His story was fishy enough that the heroes went warily, bringing a squad of armed lutrai; besides, a serious pirate invasion of Cekus was their problem too. Unfortunately, the backup squad ran off to attack the pirates' ships, leaving the heroes to face the group that had taken the captive to a cave network. At least they had Mokatalis the gladiator and XXL the construction robot along. An unexpected addition was Triskelion, a hoomiku girl who'd been a captive of the pirates.

Harek tried to create a distraction outside the cave, and made a fool of himself by flubbing his lines. Inside the cave, things turned horrifying: dozens of pirates surrounded our heroes in a three-way intersection, forcing them to fight for their lives with swords and bags of stinging herbs. Only a lucky discovery of a box of healing potions, plus Rollo's healing abilities, plus a rudimentary healing spell by Harek, kept everyone alive as they were viciously stabbed and slashed.

The pirate captain "Jailbird" was the toughest of the lot, wearing armor and wielding twin flashing swords, even a pair of pistols. Even attacking him all at once, the heroes could barely touch him! Harek, in lutrai form, went berzerk chasing him after seeing how many people had died in her presence; lutrai have both a slight empathic sense and an ability to sense life energy, so being around such violence in the first real fight of her life was doubly awful. Ryker slashed, Rollo punched, Hazel dropped on him from the ceiling, and Harek ended up maniacally stabbing him while Jailbird breathed his last, oddly content with his fate. Harek then collapsed and was barely revived by a supportive Rollo and Ryker.

GM Note: Cpt. Jailbird holds the record for Most Awesome Boss.

Episode 12: Fortune and Friends (GM: Rollo, Harek)
The rescued fortune teller, Agatha, offered to reward the heroes. They were more interested in relaxation, and spent several days recovering, partying on the beach, and getting in some valuable training. Harek finally got to learn some magic from Akira the shaman, while Rollo improved his healing abilities. Hazel learned more about sailing and trained with Triskelion and the local hoomiku, Fractal, in alchemy and electronics. Ryker sparred with Mokatalis and Rollo in a series of well-attended fights. The group also did some hiking and climbing, in preparation for trying to visit the cliff-dwelling phoenix.

After that time off, the group visited Agatha. She took each person aside and gave them some cryptic, dire warnings that left them shaken but determined to go on with their quest. Triskelion was told that she should come along, and the others happily accepted her into the group.

They traded for one of the captured pirate boats and renamed it the Morningside Maiden. A nice ship; though mistreated by the pirates, the village elders took it for a ~~joyride~~ spiritual purification and pronounced it usable. Our heroes loaded up their gear and took one of the "radio" devices Fractal had built; Triskelion was too uneasy about boats and sailing to come along. The trip's goal was to visit a shipwreck to the west in search of treasure, especially alchemical gear for Triskelion and a gemstone for Harek to make a magic staff with. They brought along Kiki and Flisk, a young fighter and navigator. The villagers saw them off...

Episode 13: A Clear Goal and a Dapper Hat
On the way to the shipwreck, a pod of friendly dolphins swam alongside them, and talked a little. They warned about some kind of "Stranger" in the water, a weird dolphin with "shining water." That didn't deter our heroes from going on. They found the wreck and dived using some air-generating necklaces Kiki provided.

The wreck seemed to have been a ship carrying supplies to Tamara. After an encounter with a dangerous plant and a big eel, the heroes retrieved some loot: the captain's fancy clothes and dapper hat (soon claimed by Ryker); jars of black and white powder; navigational instruments; the captain's journal; a scroll; and a strange dark sculpture that gave Harek the willies. Kiki was alarmed by the black dust. It was "chith," an opiate used to make people into docile slaves. The other items, he couldn't identify. The scroll turned out to be a license for a "Captain Garrett Fox" to visit Tamara. The journal, what was legible of it, hinted at the captain's plan to convince the Tamaran Empress to do something about "the threat." What did it all mean?

While the heroes regrouped and Hazel slept, the "strange dolphin" appeared. Harek, Rollo and Ryker were curious enough to dive in to greet it. The dolphin revealed itself gradually as Oceanus, avatar of Mera, the dead goddess of water! Oceanus said a whole lot of other confusing things and had a long list of tasks set out for our heroes, boggling them. The heroes were skeptical of this creatue and its sad, lonely personality. There wasn't much of a way to get Oceanus to prove itself in terms of its sincerity and virtue, but it at least offered some advice on how to proceed against the Spiral and a new target: Nigh's master, an ancient artificial god called the City Mind.

The heroes climbed back aboard their ship and talked things over once again, with more questions than answers. What was the meaning of the legend about "darkness and light" uniting? Or the talk of the heroes' spirits growing together? Or the ancient Creators and their relationship with the gods? Or the shattered coral soul of Mera, trapped inside Ios, the Plane of Water, with a god-slaying machine? Or the tower of VAUZ, an underwater fortress of the Spiral? The information was overwhelming and the tasks ahead looked daunting. But the heroes now had a clearer sense of purpose... and a nice hat.

Episode 14: Interlude: Near Akaru
The heroes simply talked that night, filling Hazel in on the encounter.

Episode 15: Phoenix Cliff
The heroes climbed the cliff near Morningside, finally. The climb was arduous, but they eventually reached the nest of a gigantic bird who spent her days cowering in a cave for fear of Nigh, the Godslayer. This phoenix, Quixl, revealed the terrible truth about the Spiral's method of conquest: destruction of the life energy of the planet. The Spiral were vulnerable to life energy itself, and so were terraforming Rym to be a more hospitable place for themselves. There were hints at how the Spiral might be battled, but no gifts of mighty magic from the poor, depressed, weakened bird. She did give them a free, exciting ride down, though...

Episode 16-18: Scion Cathedral
The ship took them from Morningside after a fond farewell from Morningside. The heroes reached the island of South Koau, to the southeast. Unfortunately, the rumor of a guardian turned out to be true: a lion statue of made of metal and topaz, attacking with terrifying roars and beams of light.

Just as the kids retreated with Rollo and Ryker covering Hazel and Harek's backs, Rog and his friends showed up! Rog admitted that they owed the heroes one, since the "sea god" had saved them and the rest of the orphanage and destroyed a Tamaran ship in the process. Something must've happened back there in Southwind Cove! Rog's gang distracted the island guardian long enough for the heroes to slip by, and reach a ruined cathedral.

The cathedral was empty, but for a sleeping bear, some bats, and the skeletons of three cepn. There were two graves underground, and a gleaming sword that called out to Rollo and Ryker. When Ryker claimed it, wind swirled around them, and suddenly they seemed to be in a ghostly, surreal montage from six hundred years ago. The broken fragments of images showed them how a lutrai knight fought to the death to defend a Solinar prince and princess from a squad of cepn assassins. It was frustrating that there was nothing to be done to prevent the murders, but the heroes did learn some things from the details of the attack. Most directly useful was a flashback to when Lairu taught a magic sword technique to Prince Astra; there were also some books to salvage from the ruined library, rescuing them from the past in hopes of translating them. More subtle was the information that a man had arrived after the assassins to steal a holy book, and that the assassins had fought among themselves, with one leaving behind a medallion with an important message on it. "Show them," the assassin said as he died. He seemed to see Hazel. "Make them see the markings. They'll know the lie we were told." But the medallion itself was gone when the flashbacks faded; someone had taken it, and left in its place a necklace with a shark's tooth and a couple of feathers.

This scene of carnage was disturbing in a number of ways: the murder of the young prince and princess before their eyes, Hazel's link to the murderous cepn, and the frustration of not being able to prevent it all.

Episode 19-21: In Search of Peace and Strength
The ship them on to Brightwater, a large village to the south. On the beach of the shallow, peaceful Bay of Light, the lutrai danced and the heroes took a much-needed break. (They dropped off Rog's bewildered gang as well, glad to be rid of them.) A lutrai named Hoko warned that the villagers were on edge about something. Knowing about the rumor of a fire to the east, the heroes made contact with the locals. Hazel and Harek dozed together on the beach. Meanwhile, Ryker and Rollo went to the local Cave of Spirits, hoping for a vision that would guide them.

The pair went deeper and deeper into the cave, seeing increasingly ancient paintings hinting at the lutrai race's past. Rollo began to despair at signs of a war against the Spiral; maybe they really were the strongest force in the world. And maybe this would be a good time for him to obey the voices in his head, and kill Ryker... No. Rollo fought off whatever-it-was and slept uneasily in the cave. He and Ryker had two visions: a white mechanical thing yearning for a final battle, and a horrible tree with a spear in it, calling out with promises of power and slaughter.

This was the Spear of ruin, said chieftain Khua and the elders who helped her run the village. Legend told of the Spear having once ignited a war among lutrai and koba that lead to massive, senseless death -- and even worse, when the Spear broke and released the bloodthirsty demon inside. The Spear had been sealed away within the tree on North Koau, an island the heroes had passed, guarded by hallucinogenic flowers and smothergourds.

Khua didn't explain all this immediately. The morning after the visions, she called for a ritual of strengthening the five local "greenstones," mossy pillars that were said to gather and amplify earth and life energy. The ritual consisted mostly of running around the village looking silly. Especially Hazel, as the elders insisted that the sacred "crab hat" belonged on the most beautiful maiden in the village.

After the ritual, instead of the village being protected by wholesome energy, it was attacked by a huge earth elemental! The thing came shambling from the east, and to the extent it could talk, it said something about "koba," "revenge" and 'M'Gzon," apparently a koba name. Rollo and Ryker had to climb onto the big stone creature to do battle with it while Hazel helped evacuate the village. Working together, the heroes killed the thing just in time to prevent Nigh the Godslayer from laying waste to it and everything around it. The black mechanical bird screeched and gouged the earth, leaving behind a single "feather" of black material. The village had been saved from the double threat of Nigh and the elemental, but now what?

Ley Lines
Ryker tried once more to obtain a vision of his presumed totem animal, Wolf. Instead he seemingly woke up with no effect... only to climb from the cave into a surreal dream of the koba-like czath race, planning an attack on Cekus. One of the Brightwater elders knew the magic dance by which the koba could enter the "Earth Trail Garden," a network of paths allowing rapid travel across parts of Cekus. The elder taught this dance to Hazel and Rollo using a set of arrows drawn on the ground. Based on the talk of the Spear, and the mention of the koba, the party decided to investigate the koba settlement said to be to the east.

The Earth Trail Garden was a bizarre set of translucent tunnels through which some kind of green space was visible. With only minor encounters with dangerous mud and sand elementals, the party traveled to the east. Along the way, though, they found several other exit points. One of these was a cave contining what appeared to be buildings and other artifacts from the ancient Creator culture! Ryker revealed that he'd taken an artifact from Brightwater's Cave of Spirits: a strange card with unknown writing and a picture of what appeared to be a lutrai's face. The card unlocked a door in the cluster of buildings, revealing a room full of preserved supplies: high-tech tools and parts, clothes, and cyan gems. It looked like there had been fighting in this cave, long ago.

The koba village proved to be more of a sleeping place. The one in charge was M'Gzon, a very unhelpful shaman who planned to attack Brightwater (again) and get revenge for a supposed attack on the koba. It seemed that some lutrai had fought them, wielding a spear... M'Gzon would have been happy to fight the heroes to prove his superiority, secure his tenuous leadership, and show up his rival, the warrior Gojira. But Rollo challenged him as a rival shaman instead, using his wits to "transform" and "control" Ryker. When M'Gzon leaped atop a magic pillar surrounded by spikes, Rollo applied some real magic, channeling divine power into a "sun strike" learned from the ghosts of South Koau. The pillar shattered, the shaman toppled, and Rollo got his tail crushed. Ryker was upset, realizing that Rollo had been able to perform the "sun strike" while Ryker had failed.

Averting Ruin
The party hurried along to Starfall Village, a lutrai settlement along a river in the jungle. Along the way, they met Rapanui, a ragged lutrai who said that the koba had killed someone close to him named Moai. Rapanui wanted help in fighting the koba and retrieving an "amulet" stolen from him. In Starfall, though, there was little time to do anything before the koba themselves arrived... with a war party. The leader, Gojira, wielded the Spear of ruin.

The party, along with the tribe's chief Flight and his sister Tamook, had the enraged Rapanui tied up so that he couldn't retrieve his real goal, the Spear. Gojira and his warriors were prepared to destroy Starfall in retaliation for the supposed attack on the koba! The party managed in a few tense minutes to convince Gojira to put the spear down, nearly snapping it with his foot, for long enough to explain what he thought had happened. Even this simple act of calm seemed to weaken the threat, so that the truth started to become clear to all. The czath, raiding from beyond Cekus, had attacked Rapanui's village of Whitestone; Rapanui somehow obtained the Spear due to his grief and desire for revenge, but mistook the czath for koba and attacked a koba village; the koba mistook the demonically armed Rapanui for a whole party of lutrai, took the Spear from him, then went to attack the lutrai villages. Gojira demanded proof of this theory, and with the Spear stowed under a boulder and guarded by a combined lutrai/koba force, the party went with him to the ruins of Whitestone.

The valley town had been burned and smashed. Hazel heard several czath talking on the jungle's edge, looking for someone. The party didn't react well enough to realizing it was upwind and within earshot, and ended up charging into an ambush by six czath! Three had axes, three had throwing knives. The fight was short and brutal. Ryker discovered he could create some sort of green energy with his swords, doing a mighty strike with them, but the others were too busy stabbing, blasting and biting to notice. Gojira, at least, was convinced that the czath had been behind the mess.

On the way out, the party found a timid, unarmed czath whom Ryker recognized as the czath prince, Muck. He was horrified at what had happened: he was sent from home, Moorfang Island in the east, to attack the lutrai. He had no desire to fight or kill anyone or to use the rage-inducing white dust, awsil, having somehow developed unusual intelligence and a love of poetry in complete defiance of his kind's violent tendencies. He fled from his own group of warriors, who he claimed would eat him for his cowardice now that they realized it. The party brought him back to Starfall and wrung from him the information that the rest of his group was probably heading back east with the slaves they'd captured.

The heroes hurried farther east, to the coast, again using the Earth Trail Garden. There, they led a whole party of lutrai and koba warriors who now knew who the real enemy was. Unfortunately, the czath on the ship there included a powerful warrior (his title being "trogdor") and a shaman who manipulated the heroes' allies and even Gojira into seeing demons everywhere and fighting among themselves. Ryker beat some sense into Gojira while Hazel snuck into the ship, saw the prisoners, and was nearly killed. Rollo and Ryker fought two more czath on a nearby raft before reaching the ship and helping Hazel. The prisoners were grateful as the party led them back to Starfall.

Demons and Demigods
Prince Muck got words of encouragement from Ryker, who said that he could find a way to be strong in his own right. Rapanui broke free and had to be tackled and tied up again, his ultimate fate unknown. That left just the Spear to deal with. Harek seemed less bothered by the fighting this time, and had to be pulled away from doing mudslide stunts with the locals. But what should be done with the Spear? Would it be safe to simply return the thing to North Koau, considering that Rapanui got his hands on it last time? On the other hand, wouldn't any attempt to break it risk unleashing the demon inside?

Some help came in a series of notes sent by the Phoenix, Quixl. Quixl could "lock" the spear so that the demon couldn't escape for a while, and then Oceanus could use his own might to smash the accursed thing so thoroughly as to kill the demon forever. One hitch: Quixl needed sunlight do play her part, but was afraid to leave her cave due to Nigh. Harek thought that the party might need to draw Nigh's attention with another elemental, but Hazel had an idea less likely to end in an atomic fireball: borrowing a "sun-grabber glass" from Flight and using it to help Quixl bask in the light. In a series of rapid journeys the party visited Starfall, Brightwater, and Morningside and met with Quixl and Oceanus.

The return to Morningside was a happy one, with Harek pouncing Kiki and Akira, and Rollo wanting to retire there after their quest was over. The long-neglected Triskelion proved to be alive, and wandering off on her own while Fractal, the other hoomiku, was glad to finally discover that her valuable radio hadn't been destroyed and the party killed along with it. The party was busy making arrangements for the Spear while Harek filled Kiki and Akira in on their adventures so far.

That evening the party set sail a short distance from Akaru Island to find Oceanus again and deliver the Spear to him. Oceanus was disappointed that the party showed no interest in visiting the ocean realm of Ios, but was eager to destroy the Spear, apparently knowing something of its nature. With all the power of an angry ocean demigod, Oceanus began to gather the waters and tersely tell the heroes to get away. A whirlpool formed and clouds gathered. The Morningside Maiden hurried back to shore and the party stood on the beach to watch. The water washed down the beach, receding suddenly. Kiki noticed this, thought a moment, then yelled, "Run!" Then, thousands of tons of water shot into the air! Everyone raced inland as the water smashed down onto the Spear just offshore, creating a tsunami that then roiled up the beach, crushing huts and flattening trees. Shocked, the heroes pried people out of the rubble, stared at the half-destroyed village, found their ship's mast broken and its hull damaged, and yelled curses at Oceanus. What had they done?

Traps (GM: Rollo)
The heroes tried to earn forgiveness by helping to rebuild the village. The lutrai helped repair the ship, noting that thanks to Kiki's quick thinking, no one had been killed. "The village" wasn't really harmed, as they lost nothing but some of their stuff. Besides, the heroes had helped finally destroy an ancient evil.

The heroes spent a few days of training in first aid and fighting. Hazel worked on building a crossbow, while Ryker showed Mokatalis his new energy-sword trick. Mokatalis was puzzled, comparing it to a "Flame Rune Strike" used by highly-trained skole warriors.

A woodcutting party found a cave that had opened up due to the tsunami. The heroes felt obligated to follow Chief Osse's request that they investigate. The cave turned out to be an obstacle course built by the koba and lutrai, then at some point taken over by the czath. Though long gone, these new owners changed the harmless playground into a deadly gauntlet. The heroes made their way across a trapped bridge, past swinging logs and ropes, over a yawning pit, and up a cliff. Just as things settled down, Hazel and Rollo were riddled with darts from a heavily trapped room! They were barely able to crawl to safety; good thing healer Kiki and his apprentice Soli were along. Harek flatly refused to help clear out the remaining traps until everyone went back to Morningside to rest. The next day they made it through the rest of the cave. Not only had they cleared the place out, making it safe for its intended purpose; they got some old prizes out of it too. Inside a "bag of holding" were a mask that could apparently turn the wearer into a human three times, a wand usable for enhancing magic, and a pair of good punching-knuckles.

Disaster At Sea
Ryker sought out some armor to supplement his loincloth, finding none to his satisfaction. Harek questioned the usefulness of the wand, having thought that only the maker of a lutrai wand could make use of it, but was told that it was more a matter of gaining experience with the thing and putting his heart into it.

Finally the party set sail to investigate the radio signal coming from the southeast part of Cekus. They dropped off apprentice healer Soli in Brightwater, as he'd been wanting to have some adventures of his own; going to help rebuild Whitestone would be a chance to ~~meet that healer who wears only paint~~ do noble service for his people.

While south of Cekus' central Bay of Light, a storm struck under a red morning sky. A freak wave lifted the whole ship, then threw it down and hurled Rollo overboard! Harek panicked and tried to turn the ship in search of him, but Hazel and Ryker insisted that they get past the storm first, and that Rollo was a good swimmer wearing the breathing necklace he'd gotten. He'd be fine, right? They'd find him in no time, right?

Instead they found a different castaway: Skala, a hoomiku girl who aimed a rifle at them before reluctantly accepting the "barbarians"' help. They'd lost one ally and gained another, it seemed.

GM Note: These events marked the departure of Rollo from the party, due to events in his player's personal life; and the arrival of a new player. Harek: "Oh, shoot, there goes our healer!"

Manifold Breaker
They reluctantly sailed on to their planned destination, hoping to meet with Rollo in the process. That spot was easy to recognize when they reached it: the Sea Tower, which the lutrai called the Really Old Metal Tree. It stood like a scaffold of black metal on a tiny rocky island, studded with machinery. As expected, the tower was the source of the radio signal the heroes had been tracking. Skala recognized the ancient Trinary language, and recited the phrase that it uttered: "Citizens, remain calm. Victory is at hand!" Over and over, for thousands of years. At the tower's base was a hatch that responded to the Creator keycard.

A ladder led them down into a room with musty skeletons. A listening post of some kind, with three soldiers and a well-dressed figure who apparently killed each other. The computers and weapons here were ruined, but the party found another keycard and a number of ancient magazines depicting, along with human women, lutrai! With a sense of foreboding they opened the door at the back of the room and descended again into a much larger underground facility.

It was called the Manifold Breaker, Skala decided, based on more written materials salvaged from a reception area. The base consisted mainly of a series of tubes, increasingly huge circular and linear pathways lined with pipes and machinery. What was the place for, though? Control Center Alpha looked like a battlefield; uniformed soldier skeletons lay near a faction with an unknown insignia. Trisk worked on learning to use the bank of intact computers, which referenced the City Mind as a central point for data storage and processing -- and added that the main link to the City Mind was disconnected. The computers showed a map of the Continent of Axis, apparently a lush and populous place -- unlike the cratered desert on Kij's updated map. Also here was an unexpected treasure, possibly the most well-equipped bathroom on the planet.

Security robots attacked the party as they explored the tunnels, using energy beams and bolt guns. Ryker was pleased to commandeer an ancient electric cart for one of the miles-long pathways, taking the group to a crossroads. Here, rubble and a whopping Level 9 security door (raised to that level for the duration of whatever emergency happened here) blocked the way to a second control center. A huge set of doors led past it to the largest tunnel circle yet, lined with tiers of catwalks and partially flooded with murky water. While Harek and Ryker searched ruined security mechs, Hazel and Skala entered the flooded chamber and began climbing and walking through it. There was a gleaming machine of some kind lining the pipe network, and the skeletons locked in struggle nearby (one apparently a cepn) had a dangerous-looking cylinder marked with symbols of flame. Just then, a monster rose up from the water: a serpent made of junk, held together with balls of energy. The heroes slew it, with the party being soaked with the foul water and Skala battered and stunned. During the battle, Rollo returned! He'd found his way to the island and gone in search of his friends.

Before using what they'd found out (the hard way) was a spare bomb to open the second control center, they took advantage of the Showers of the Ancients. Ryker's loincloth was a casualty of the vile, acidic water; Skala was too afraid of water in general to clean herself up, and her fur began falling out while she engrossed herself in working with the computers again. The others investigated Control Center Beta, recovering a box of documents apparently designed to be preserved and found. It looked interesting, but wasn't translated yet. Skala tried to gather as much data as possible by re-establishing the facility's link to Axis... which meant alerting the City Mind. Skala announced that now would be a good time to leave. More and more robots attacked, causing a high-speed battle on the cart and finally a fighting retreat that left everyone but Hazel clobbered.

Rollo returned. An interesting point here is that the facility beneath the listening post doesn't exist in the official materials; the mysterious door to the base was an addition.

Darkmoss
The heroes took stock of the situation. They weren't in obvious danger now once they'd returned to the ship and forcibly dunked Skala to get the acid off her. Harek pounced Rollo in greeting; Ryker slept; and the group took a breather. Skala realized that they'd salvaged documents, artifacts and raw scientific data that would be very valuable if she could get them back to the Hoomiku high command, whose location she was hesitant to reveal to the barbarians surrounding her. Getting there would involve returning to Erdanis. For now, the party decided to head for the nearby village of Darkmoss, deep in the jungle.

The village was subdued, the home of brave lutrai dealing with occasional czath raids and a jungle full of venomous plants and animals. The lutrai were suspicious at first, but welcomed the travelers on realizing that it was they who destroyed the cursed spear. Soon the heroes visited the nearby koba settlement of Blocks, a stone pyramid, where Muck was held captive. He had wandered the jungle in search of training to become a more worthy prince, and fallen into the hands of vengeful koba. The senile chief Laz believed that the only good czath was a dead one, while his younger rival Zuraka believed in nonviolent resistance to the bloodthirsty raiders.

The heroes found a mysterious gate that the lutrai shaman Kaboum was interested in. Laz supposedly knew the ritual to open it, but wasn't coherent enough to explain. The solution? Merciless chili peppers, grown deep in the jungle by the koba of a fighting tribe. This odd solution allowed Ryker, Hazel and Rollo to delve into a dream-world shared with Laz and try to learn his secrets. In the process of some... odd experiences getting at the ritual, they learned that Laz' hatred for the czath stemmed from his having once been captured by them and delivered to the Spiral.

Laz's soul was somewhat calmed by the dreaming experience, and the heroes were able to use the ritual to reach Lith, the Elemental Plane of Earth. Unfortunately there was little they could do there other than gawk at its bizarre geometry and fascinating glowing cloud. Kaboum thanked them for showing him the way to enter, and said he would investigate the place further and whether there might be a way to restore what he saw as a fading force of earth magic on Rym.

The heroes set sail for Lotus Vale, where there were said to be all sorts of wonders: magic masks, a temple to Kij, and possibly armor. There was a minor incident with a kraken along the way.

Fairies' Fall
The island of Lotus Vale seemed deserted at first glance. The lutrai turned out to be magically snared by an insane, idiotic debate between a fairy king and queen. Who would be elected to help repair the Fae Modulator, treasure of the island's fairies? Incidentally, which was better, games or gambling? Game theory or statistics? Red or blue? Change or progress? His hat or hers?

The heroes interrupted the debate by jump-kicking the king and queen. After being briefly transformed into mice, the heroes explained that they'd meant well. The fairies were grudgingly grateful; they, too had been trapped by the rules of their endless debate. The lutrai were finally free to return to their lives.

The heroes wanted mainly to see the rumored temple to Kij. It turned out to be a cargo-cult imitation of what the nice humans had once built. Even so, Kij made herself visible there to give some answers. What was Ryker, really? Kij suggested looking into a group of human "were-skoles" she'd once known. Why was Harek a female lutrai now? If he'd been a male one, he would've been too distracted to appreciate the lutrai as people, and would've skimped on magical studies, with lethal results. And what was happening to Rollo, who was having bouts of rage? There were things that happened in darkness, beyond even Kij's view. Kij made the party an offer to swap out their sun-granted shapeshifting powers, but only Hazel took her up on it: Hazel became able to shift to a snakelike naga form, much to Harek's chagrin.

The party consulted with the lutrai, who had been subject to too many of the fairies' dangerous games. It soon became clear that the chief herself was under a spell, convinced that the fairies were the only thing preventing the island's long-extinct volcano from exploding. Some of the lutrai were for kicking the fairies out, while others saw them as friends.

Rog's gang from the Abbey was back, snared too by the fairies' magic. Rog and Rakkel were all right, but Rithi had been more-or-less kidnapped and kept as a princess in a glittering palace, in a barrel, in a pond. When the heroes went to rescue her, they found she didn't want to leave; all her life she'd lived in poverty, and now she was surrounded with nice things. Meanwhile, Skala comforted Rakkel, the boy everyone else knew as a worthless brat; it had been a very long time since he'd been hugged, and he looked up to her intelligence and mechanical skill.

Rog didn't accept "his girl" being bewitched and taken from him. After the party ignored a warning that he was planning something, Rog murdered the fairy queen Shigi with a silver shiv. In the process he was hit with a muted version of the fairies' curse, giving him a mouse's ears and tail. The heroes helped him drag Rithi away from there. The fairies confronted the lutrai and humans at Kij's temple, saying that they couldn't see Kij themselves. "Creatures of darkness," said Kij. Narrowly averting open fighting, the heroes hurried away from the island, and left the people to work out their troubles themselves.

"Starting a New Journey May Not Be So Hard..."
The heroes were glad to get away from Lotus Vale intact, and willing to ferry Rog's gang of stowaways back to Morningside. There, in the place they'd started to think of as home, they reluctantly planned to leave Cekus. Harek was the least eager to go, having come to identify with Morningside's people. As a lutrai she eavesdropped on shaman Akira wondering about Harek's talents and future. The others partied, trained and worried for their own futures.

Soon, they saw lutrai hurriedly preparing for an expedition back to Southwind Cove. Alert! The Chainbreaker abolitionist movement had gotten word of a massive Tamaran fleet massing there to attack Cekus! The heroes volunteered to join in an assault on the main ship, a reef-breaker with a weak point. It was packed with explosives.

The heroes sailed their ship, the Morningside Maiden, back to Southwind Cove. There, they crept aboard the breaker ship and prepared to light a fuse. Just then, they were attacked in the hold by a pirate captain and his henchman. Hench-otter, that is: Rose, a lutrai held mentally captive by an enchanted slave collar. They subdued her and her thorny whip and stuffed her into their much-abused bag of holding, beat the captain, and fled just in time to see the ship and half the pirate fleet explode behind them. And much of the village. Skala was horrified. Unknown to them, Southwind was not just her home, but a hidden underground base of the hoomiku! She fled the party and took refuge in a police box that carried her to safety, away from the people who devastated the surface of her town.

Skala left the party.

To Erdanis
The Maiden sailed northwest around the continent, then east into Blacksail Bay. Here on the south tip of the bay stood Veccas, a festival city ruled by the young Baron Koto. The heroes were surprised to learn the ruler was one of the children playing in the palace, and about the many pointless offices and games he seemed to be spending the city's money on. The boy baron was intelligent and a skilled wind-mage, but seemed caught up in pointless things instead of being a proper ruler. At least his people were happy. Hazel got hit on by a gorg, but the feast Koto held proved more exciting than that, when an assassin attacked. The heroes at first assumed that the cepn was to blame, but she was actually one of his bodyguards. The real villain was getting away! They chased the guy into the palace's maze of hallways. He flung weird shadowy blades across the halls right in their path, but they avoided these and caught him. Koto was grateful and extended his hospitality further, also asking a favor: could they bring him a "Wind Totem" from the desert-dwelling Cactus Skole to the east?

Next was a visit to the city north across the bay: Keipan, city of bridges. The heroes met some of the locals and did some exploring of the place's unusual solution to a political problem. Religious practice was banned by order of the Tamaran Empire, in the city, so the locals had built countless shrines on a webwork of bridges above the water. There were teenagers in black following a Spiral-themed religion, vicious bake sales between the Church of the Five and Church of the Four, and Ryker's recruitment offer from the Church of Saiyanology. More troubling was the presence of Stone, who seemed to be an actual Spiral agent operating openly as some sort of doctor. He insisted that the Spiral weren't really amassing an army of undead to annihilate all life on the planet.

Worse yet, the vulpine owners of a hardware store reported their adopted son, a skole boy, missing! He wasn't the only one, either. Someone was kidnapping children throughout the city. There were also sightings of gargoyles flying through the city and attacking people, culminating in a burglary. The heroes investigated and learned the horrible connection: a struggling wine merchant was using a spell to turn kids into short-lived monsters to do his bidding. Now there was good cause for another break-in, to attack that man and rescue the skole! The murderer and his henchman got away and burned their shop, but the kid was saved just in time.

The Forest's Master
They set out from Keipan, following a rumor of a temple of Kij deep in the Touenwood, to the northeast. This was a place that the Solinar had thought safe from the Spiral forces, centuries ago. Technically the Solinar were right; when the attack came it was from the Spiral's czath and cepn allies. Now the ghosts of the slain haunted the forest, but there were stranger and more dangerous forces there too. Soon the heroes got attacked by a tribe of fox-people, who'd turned to banditry after being driven from their land by a cruel new human nobleman. After a battle in the forest, the robbers reluctantly let the intruders go, and lent their cleric as a hostage. Together, the heroes and that man went deeper into the forest, where they found something very different than a Solinar-era ruin.

To be continued.

"Throw Them In the Dungeon!"
The heroes tried hiring a guide from a shop of elven woodcutters to help them with a quest given by the Baroness, a decadent woman named Alizarin. With her shirtless henchmen Roy and Sigfried by her side, she asked them to quell strange rumors of a dragon in the area by deliberately releasing some "Pernese fire-lizards" in the nearby mountains. On the way, though, there was an earthquake that revealed a cave. A cave with a hoard of... clothing, mostly?

Updates coming soon:

The Cactus Tribe

The Anti-City

"...Which Leaves: You."

Character Creation

Things You've Probably Heard (But That Aren't Quite Accurate):

-A long time ago there was a war against a force of hideously evil necromancers called the Spiral. The good guys lost. There was a battle not too far from here, in the desert.
-Even longer ago, a race of evil beings destroyed the world through their sin and blasphemy, using extremely powerful magic to create a false God.
-Occasionally a gigantic black bird is visible high in the sky, leaving trails of smoke. You may have actually seen it; it's some kind of ancient relic. In the sky there's a golden moon, and a blue moon with storms and (if you squint) a faint blinking light.
-The desert (to the NE) seems to be gradually growing. Occasionally sand blows towards the Abbey, and it's not just annoying but somehow creepy. The Abbot doesn't let anyone outside when that happens. Or in, if they're too late coming back.
-There are various non-human races, but you haven't seen much of them. There haven't been any visits in the last few months. It's the equivalent of February or so, and the weather's been unpleasant. Spring's coming, though.

Other Info

-The heroes started out as adolescents. No weapons, no armor, no amazing powers. However, an early plot even granted them the ability to shapeshift between two forms.
-The world overall is roughly late medieval. Slavery is widespread. Most people have seen little magic or technology beyond steel tools and the local shaman or cranky magic hermit. Several races/civilizations are at a Stone Age level, several have access to techno-magical Information Age gear, and there are some relics of an even more advanced civilization.
-There are no formal character sheets or classes, but depending on what you try to do, you can expect your character to get new abilities as appropriate. Want to be a wizard? Fine; roleplay discovering your hidden talent for it.
-A short descripton of the game's major races:

Elf	Hippie trehuggers with prehensile tails, sometimes hyperactive
Hoomiku	High-tech leopard-people from another planet, brilliant but somewhat frail (as PCs you've never heard of them)
Lutrai	Primitive, friendly otter-people with a holy aura where their common sense should be
Koba	Very primitive, tough lizard-people
Cepn	Bat-people (frail, capable of gliding) whose culture is devoted to Woeful Deadly Scary Gothy Doom
Skole	Primitive, mighty, honorable wolf-people tribesmen
Gorg	Big, fat-but-muscular hippo-people, typically "monumentally greedy" merchants and slavers

Campaign Stats

-Toughest foe defeated: Pirate Captain Jailbird
-Most valuable loot (known) earned: Solinar Blade "Starfire"
-First spell learned: Cure Hangover
-Known gods/Demigods met: 3
-Worst typo: " Although they are kinda weird... HEY Wait who in the village here is really good with dong piercings?" (for "doing piercings")
-Most foolish action: Flubbing your lines both IC and OOC while trying to distract pirates, and ending up trying to explain things in terms of a "giant purple kraken eating the hoomiku."
-Suggest your own stats!

Art credit: Arien