23 Life Finds a Way

Session 23
Life Finds a Way

Aug 27-28, 861

Foreword
    A session that was just for the fellas

Session Report
    The players wanted another session into mapping the Jungle. The two players brought along nine hirelings to handle any Lizardmen that cropped up. An hour or so in, the party encountered a small flock of chicken-sized dinosaurs. The party panicked, but the dino's weren't really interested in them. The miles rolled by. Just before nightfall the party encountered 4 Lizardmen with bulging loot sacks, and broad-bladed bronze spears.
    It was an efficient battle. The archers discharged a volley. The first rank of footmen came to grips. The rear ranks of footmen flanked, surrounded, and pressed in on the Lizardmen, killing them all.
    Now for the loot. The 5017 gp the Lizardmen were carrying would be too heavy for any one party member, so the players decided to split the coin evenly amoungst the eleven party-members.
    Another mile or two, and it was time to make camp, and allocate the watches. While this happened I quickly rolled to determine encounters for the night, and there were none, what a shame. Then Rafnan spoke up.
    "Actually I want to wander over there to that big tree, and cast "Spider Climb," and make my way up 30 feet into the canopy, and sleep there."
    Brilliant! This clearly constitutes a separate encampment, and deserves it's own encounter rolls. Dice indicated an encounter just before sunrise. The roll on this encounter table for this part of the Jungle turned up "Roll on the Dinosaur Sub-Table." Rolling on the Dinosaur Sub-Table indicates... Antrodemus (Allosaurus). Oh Boy.
    "You wake up eye-to-eye with this large reptilian creature."
    "You mean it's on the branch with me?"
    "No, it's standing on the ground."
    "So it's looking up at me?"
    "No."
    "I'm 30 feet in the air!"
    "Yes."
    "Oh. oh."
    Here the session bogged down for a few minutes with "Alaskan Bull Worm" jokes. When we got back on track Rafnan had a plan. If he was eye-to-eye with this thing, he figured, it should be a small thing to hop down from the branch onto the Antrodemus's shoulder. A successful roll indicated that yes, he was able to avoid the jaws of the beast and land on it's shoulders. At 6d damage per 10 feet of fall, jumping from the Antrodemus' shoulder wasn't a live option, and this player wasn't dumb enough to try to rodeo ride a bucking dino. Only one option remained:
    "I want to Fred Flintstone down this thing's back and tail."
    And the same dice that had delivered me this beautiful sheila now seemed hell-bent on denying me the carnage such a beast truly deserved, as Rafnan made it safely to the ground and lit out toward the other camp screaming to wake up, mount up, and ride out.
    Of course, this would take a round or so. With a terrific roar, the Antrodemus crashed into the scrum of horses and adventurers, landing two claws and a bite on the Gallant of Barsoom Apollodoris. Apolodoris was unconscoius and bleeding, but not dead. Marius, one of his hirelings, tried to tie their horses to each other so they could ride out together. The Antrodemus got him too. Rafnan shouted to the survivors to scatter. He hoped to draw the Antrodemus away from Apollodoris, so that he could circle back and heal Apollodoris and Marius and get them all safely back to town.
    Apollodoris, Marius, Rafnan, and his hirelings Poul and Edgar made it back to Falkirk on the 28th. Due to the Oracular Power of the Dice, however, none of the hirelings that scattered made it out of the Jungle, or even out of the path of the Antrodemus.
    The Antrodemus now wanders the steamy depths of the Jungle with 2736gp clinking away in it's stomach.
    
Afterword
    You'd think a score like the players garnered from the Lizardmen would be grounds to turn back to town (~15 miles away) to bank the loot before doing any more mapping.

Dramatis Personae
    Dunsany, Human Light Footman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    Howard, Human Light Footman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    Gregory, Human Light Footman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    Bede, Human Light Footman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    Eliade, Human Shortbowman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    Winston, Human Shortbowman, Level 0, Aug 28th 861, Hunted down by the Antrodemus
    
    Rafnan, Half-elf Prestidigitator-Acolyte of the Moon
    Apollodoris, Gallant of Barsoom
    
    Poul, Human Shortbow men
    Edgar, Marius, Human Lightfootmen