Tuesday session #4 29-31/7/2213 The Watchers of Meng 1 - Cannibals of Meng (PC level 3-4)

29/7/2213 Finnris wins his first pit fight at the House of the Fallen Star.
30/7/2213 Party travels upriver and into the Jungle of Zaal.
31/7/2213 Party encounters Hag, escaped slave, Oola, phase spiders, & the Degenerates of Meng. Kill 3 spiders & 15 Degenerates, free Oola's remaining slaves (12) & guards (3), and head into the Pyramid of Meng.

PCs
1.(Matt) Finnris, lvl 4 Dhari Outcast of the Narthan Highlanders (h-m), Barbarian-4
2.(Judith) Aeshma, lvl 4 Kalayan Golden Sea Corsair (h-f), Rogue-3/Fighter-1
3.(Bill) Vorstag Iceslider, the Frost Giant's Son, lvl 3 Goliath Ice Reaver of the Tjokren Glacier (g-m), Rogue-3 
4.(Jack) Zérda “The Defier” of House Saväschu, lvl 3 Atlantean Noble of Katagia (h-m), Fighter-3 EK
5. (James, fortnightly) Cassandra, The Bearer of the Black Book, lvl 3 Quodethi (h-f) Sorceress-3

NPCs
Kurturbal, a 7 Knives Underboss & Moneylender in Quodeth, friend of Randall
Valash, Pit Fighter Myrmidon owned by Bronak the Bald
Fat Gillan, 7 Knives Contact at the Red Tiger Inn, Ansulmo.
Old Ran - Green Hag of the Jungle of Zaal, with pet minotaur.
Oola, Mistress of the Whip - Renegade Slaver
Gungus, a middle aged male slave, with brand on left cheek
Ffion, a slave girl rescued by Vorstag from the Cannibal Degenerates

Ruins of Meng

Oola, Mistress of the Whip

The Cannibals of Meng - by Aeshma (Judith)

While the rest of us had been resting for a week, it transpires that Finnris has made an arrangement to appear in a Pit Fight at Urgak’s with a winner’s purse of 50gp. His opponent is to be the slave Myrmidon Valash owned by Bronnak the Bald. As neither is particularly well known, we’re offered evens should we wish to place a bet on our comrade. Finnris outlasts his opponent, finally taking him down with a pair of powerful strikes, and in the process earning us a fair amount of money.

Randall finds us at Urgak’s and checks we are willing to take on the job he’s offered us, to go after the Slaver Oola who has absconded owing thousands in gold to Kurtubal the Seven Knives’ money lender. We are offered 1000gp to return her - alive. Once we agree, Randall arranges transport to Ansumo where the most recent sighting of Oola reported her taking a slave coffle into the jungle.

It’s afternoon when we disembark from the barge, make some enquiries (including meeting up with Fat Gillan, Vorstag’s Seven Knives contact) and confirm that Oola had headed into the jungle with six guards and twenty-four chained slaves with the stated intention of taking them to Cheir to sell and so pay off the debt.

Zerda and Aeshma both recall hearing stories about the Jungle of Zaal through which they must pass: once the centre of an ancient possibly inhuman realm who were enemies of the serpentmen. Zerda remembered that it was called Meng and that a jewel called the Eye of Meng remains hidden deep in the jungle.

We decide that Oola will probably take a direct route through the jungle to reach the town of Rathenna where she will be able to pick up the ancient trackway to Cheir – a faster option that hacking her way through the dense jungle.

With Finnris in the lead we head off. Once beyond the cultivated area surrounding Ansumo and into the deep jungle we start seeing vine-covered structures and statues – the remnants of a long ago kingdom. We notice a recurring motif on the carvings: tall, cyclops-like figures with a single horn smashing down much smaller serpentmen beneath their feet.

Late in the second day, when we think we ought to be catching up with the slower-moving party of slavers, we instead come upon a clearing in which is a large hut lit by witchlights. Outside the hut stands a powerfully built minotaur who is soon joined by an impossibly aged green skinned woman. She negotiates for a bribe for her advice, but is soon disappointed at our inability to pay. Instead we offer her small but interesting objects that we have found on our travels.

She first points us in the right direction to intercept Oola’s party, then warns us of several hazards: the apparently chivalrous Great Ape; scattered tribes of beastmen; the webbed lairs of Giant Spiders; and even the Giant Sloth. She finally describes a group of devolved human cannibals known as the Degenerates.

We leave, following her directions, and within an hour we know we are back on track when an injured middle-aged slave careens down the track towards us wailing about the others getting captured by savages who want to eat them and take them inside a great ziggurat to be sacrificed to a demon. He declines to accompany us back to the ziggurat so we leave him some supplies and hide him up a tree.

Minutes later we hear a woman shouting out a challenge to her foes and see Oola standing on a fallen column, greataxe held ready, confronting a crowd of the cannibal Degenerates. Vorstag charges in, decapitating his victim in a blur of axe blades, and the rest of us follow. Oola proves to be a formidable fighter and soon the Degenerates are killed. Aeshma is the only one injured when she recklessly let one of them get too close. Oola says there are perhaps a hundred Degenerates in the area…

Degenerate of Meng

Not far back down the trail the jungle opens out into a vast clearing filled with scattered ruins at the centre of which is a large, squat ziggurat. Around the ziggurat, about 1000’ apart are huge stone heads carved in the same design as we had seen on the earlier statues, a one-horned cyclops. The heads are 10’ wide and 15’ high.

We approach cautiously, Aeshma and Vorstag hidden by the undergrowth, but the others in the open. At the edge of a stone platform three spiders appear out of nowhere and attack Finnris who is in the lead. Within seconds he is covered in bite marks and staggering from their poison. The rest of us hurry to his aid and the spiders are killed before they can try to finish off the ailing Dhari. While we clean and bandage Finnris’ wounds, Vorstag tries to remove the poison glands from the spiders for future use, but is confounded when they fade back into the aether. Amongst the spiders’ previous victims we find scattered gold: about 100gp in total.

Ffion, slave girl rescued by Vorstag from the Degenerates of Meng.

Near the base of the ziggurat about fifteen slaves and a couple of surviving guards are held in a pen while two groups of Degenerates consider which to eat first. We are pushed to act when a slave girl is dragged from the pen to provide lunch. Vorstag rushes in and cuts down her two attackers while the others are killed before the other group can get close enough to help them.

Cassandra’s magic blasts most of that group and the remainder are quickly killed. Taking advantage of the confusion of the melee, one of the imprisoned guards climbs the wall of the slave pen and dashes for the ziggurat in the belief he can shelter in its tunnels.

As we consider our options we can hear the sounds of other bands of the Degenerates in the surrounding jungle and conclude that if we try to escape with the slaves they will be able to easily run us down. Deciding it’s the best of bad options, we resolve to enter the ziggurat and hope the tunnels will stop us being mobbed by the Degenerates should they gather to attack in numbers...