RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

Ciddar and Shaven, with their magical darksight, hacked their way through the dense undergrowth of the jungle. They found that it opened up inside, with lots of tall, thin trees of various sorts forming a canopy some 10 meters overhead, and enough space on the jungle floor to walk around with only a moderate amount of hewing vegetation. So the others came in, and you headed south along the shorter axis of the island, rather than forge straight ahead east and deeper into the heart of the jungle and island of Alatan. There were hundreds of fist-sized, annoying little frail bugs that flew into your faces and crawled on you, but they seemed harmless.

After 30 minutes you pitched a simple camp and drifted off to sleep, exhausted, wounded and beleaguered. It wasn't long before something awful happened. The Baronet was on guard and heard a fast movement, then saw one of the former slaves, a merchant chap, rise into the air, limply twitching. He woke the others and they saw that something had impaled deeply through the man's head, splattering some people below with blood as gurgling sounds came from it.

But you could not make out what was doing the horrible act- there seemed to be something there in or near the canopy, and movements all around you, but nothing distinct. Maugis cast a glow spell on a leaf and it helped you see each other, but not really to see the foe. Ciddar fired his crossbow into a shadow and was not sure what happened. One of the other peasant slaves ran off screaming into the jungle in an utter panic, and you did not expect to see him again. Yet soon enough the first man's body was flung down, stone dead, into your midst, then a humming breeze bathed you as you inspected the corpse. Whatever had done this was no elf, as Ahappi had gotten you worried about with his tales earlier as you hiked. And this was soon confirmed as a great shape explosively launched itself into the air through the canopy, opening up a hole there through to the night sky, and with a burst of humid air it vanished upwards.

You waited around, feigning sleep in wary preparation for something to return. The body was left for burning later. But nothing came anytime soon, although at one point there were movements that startled you. Then, as Ahappi waited on guard, it sprung its attack. A sailor/slave was impaled through the chest, screaming in pain as the thing began to lift him, but Ahappi sprinted over and leapt onto the impaling-thing, knocking the dying man's body back onto the ground in a sickening mess. Ahappi held on as the long, thin, bumpy appendage tried to thrash him off, and dealt what looked like the big head attached to the nasty proboscis a horrible blow, then fell off, holding desperately onto the harpoon's rope.

Meanwhile, the monstrosity had tried to brush him off its proboscis with a long, tree-trunk-like camouflaged leg, but stumbled and revealed more of its body and legs, which surrounded you like a cage of spindly, chitinous bars. The creature defended itself as the others grabbed weapons and hewed at the legs, but they were tough and surprisingly nimble, kicking away attacks and only suffering slight wounds.

Soon enough, Ahappi wrenched his spear free of the thing as its wings began to whir above, and it stumbled in a daze but then launched itself away to safety. Suddently, silence descended and you alone again, in jungle of “thirsty trees”, and fears that there either might be more of these terrible things, or they might return. You reflected on how there seemed to be little living in this jungle other than the plants and the small and titanic insects– the nighttime quiet was eerie, except for the fluttering of tiny wings and scampering of tiny, curious legs and bodies. How much longer could you hold out? The giant creature(s) had shown cunning and immense stealth, and a murderous intent to suck your fleshy husks dry of blood. Who would be next?

© Copyright - 2000-2024 - John Hutchinson, Tim Evans, Pete Nash, Colin Driver and Gordon Alford