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Dramatis Personae
Player Characters
- "Hire" – a gruff, serious ranger-for-hire who wonders if he might be the only one actually paid to be here
- Van Krinkel – a near-sighted deep gnome thief who inexplicably found himself aboard The Ikaruss after a night of drinking, and has no memory of coming aboard
- Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
- Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire
Non-Player Characters
- Captain Jeremiah Hawthorne – minor gentry way in over his head
- Captain Washu Cha-Jai – A muscular, brutish-looking member of the short-statured, horned "phon" race. Has a face crossed with battle scars. Suspicious of everyone and talks fast.
- Karasa Ganilla – a dejected jewelry merchant of the bird-like "ornivir" race
- Kand Resto – a big game hunter and member of the black-skinned, red-haired "damyana" race
- Constable Shelim – a truculent phon security officer
- Romz deZemler – a smuggler of the leonine "lirovan" race. Tall and athletic, with a mane of golden hair. Missing one ear. Wears a fine yet functional vest embroidered with battle scenes. Friendly, if sarcastic and cynical.
- Shem Ong-Ya – Male phon, leader of the resistance. Muscular, brutish appearance and extremely thick eyebrows over wild-eyes. Wears a fraying and poorly maintained work uniform. Hates the status quo, and leads a band of other disaffected youth from their hideout in the tunnels. Actually pretty lazy.
Summary
With their ship badly damaged, the heroes were approached by a rocket ship bearing an insignia of a yellow-and-black 9-pointed star. A voice announced that they had entered the airspace of "The Phon Dominion."
Soon they were boarded by three diminutive humanoids, of a race known as "the phon." They were roughly gnome-sized, with curved horns on their brows, pointed ears, gray skin, and long black beards. They wore gray jumpsuits and body armor of soldiers.
Seeing their predicament, the phon captain, Washu Cha-Jai, agreed to tow their ship to the main settlement of the phon, Shanjin. In short order they arrived to find a massive, 10-mile-diameter mountain, slowly rotating around a small, red Sol. The outer surface was dedicated to farming, and the phon lived and worked in the tunnels dug within, where they mined out the precious Heavy Elements. They docked their ship, and Captain Hawthorne proceeded to negotiate how they would pay for repairs.
Meanwhile, the heroes were taken to "the Foreign Quarter," a resting place for foreign travelers. There they met interesting characters such as Karasa Ganilla, a dejected jewelry merchant of the bird-like ornivir race. Though she couldn't help, she referred them to another traveler: Kand Resto, a member of the black-skinned, red-haired "damyana" race.
Resto listened to their quest to find a new sun, and mentioned that his homeland, called "Trinellonde's Lantern," was a magical city built around a caged Sol. If they were to go there, he said, they might find a wizard who was an expert in the nature of Sols.
Captain Hawthorne joined them shortly thereafter, and he was accompanied by the phon Constable Shelim. Shelim informed them of a rebel group that sought to overthrow the established order, and had a hideout somewhere deep within the unexplored tunnels within the mountain.
Shelim offered to help the players repair their ship, AND outfit it with a special device called an "orchemical sieve," which is designed to siphon the valuable and mysterious "heavy elements" out of the air. In exchange, he asked the players to enter the monster-filled tunnels beneath the mines and kill the rebel leader, Shem Ong-Ya.
Afterwards, however, a foreign smuggler named Romz deZemler approached them and offered an alternative: he would forward the coin to repair their ship if they helped him smuggle a load of dissidents out through the caverns. The heroes had found Shanjin to be a dreary and oppressive dystopia, so they readily agreed to deZemler's terms.
As they sought the rebel hideout, they were attacked by a gang of four tiny elf-like creatures, two apples high with black skin and eyes of opal. They could hypnotize enemies with their gaze to make them hold still and deal devastating damage. The heroes were badly wounded, but survived.
They found the rebel base and met the rebel leader Shem Ong-Ya. He paid them in two measures of the valuable heavy element "lazul," as well as giving them custody of nearly two-dozen phon refugees. They made their way to the next cavern without incident, but soon found a hard choice: to reach the exit, they could rappel down a vertical chimney, but that could end disastrously for the elders and children among them. They scouted out an alternate path to try and find a way around, but happened upon the lair of a monster which cloaked itself in magical darkness. The heroes decided not to risk an encounter with an unknown monster and quickly returned to where they left the refugees.
Thus, the heroes prepared to rappel down the chimney, the success of this endeavor unknown.
TL;DR
The players found the land of Shanjin, home of the diminutive "phon" race. However, it turned out to be a dreary dystopia. They were enlisted by the smuggler Romz deZemler to help smuggle refugees out in exchange for him fronting the cost of repairing their ship.
The players found the rebel leader in the depths of the monster-infested tunnels, took their payment, and navigated their way through the tunnels. They were attacked by strange, tiny black elfin creatures, and they encountered an unknown monster that cloaked itself in magical darkness. Not wanting to face the monster, they instead opted to rappel down a vertical chimney to reach the rendezvous point, which would be risky for the women, children and old people among the refugees.
Concluding Thoughts
This was the session where I realized I have a tendency to majorly over-prepare. The characters ultimately explored less than half of the caves I mapped out.
And on the off chance anyone recognizes them, I did adapt some of the monsters from Pars Fortuna, by John M. Stater. I just happened to discover this book at roughly the same time I was preparing for this session and I was inspired. I ended up using the "black ouph" and the "zavvo" as described in his book.
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