The Colony - Turn 50 - Clanky

Lots of players out on travel for work or vacation over the next couple weeks, so turns are going to be spotty and maybe short.


Start Date: August 21, morning
Start Status: Kla-KRUNCH
Start Location: Silverstream Mine

Adventuring: Rennard, Jinx, Mendel, Smoke, Zenobe
At the Tulip: Adrienne, Brigg, Hagan, Xon, Aaron

The Turn

The metallic crunking crunching noises alert the party to a potential approaching threat, so they back up to the entrance, establishing a fighting line about 15 feet inside the main tunnel mouth. The sound of the whatever it is seems to purse the party as they retreat, kla-krunch, kla-krunch, kla-krunch. Once they're in place, they listen to the approaching sounds. "It sounds like it's right around the corner, to the right," whispers Rennard. Several others nod in agreement. No one is surprised when the hulking figure swings into view. It is only in view for a few seconds as it rounds the bend and heads north into the large chamber ahead. Roughly humanoid, but big, at least 10 feet tall. It's blocky head almost scrapes the ceiling. Dull reddish-black hide or armor covers it from head to toe, and faint blue light glimmers around its head. It's hard to make out in the dim light (the thing is barely in lantern range for a few seconds), but it looks like it is carrying short, heavy blades or spike-like weapons in either hand.

Kla-krunch, kla-krunch, kla-krunch. The sounds fade away to the north, leaving the party scratching their heads a bit. "There's no way it didn't see us," mutters Jinx. He glances over his shoulder. "Come to think of it, setting up here backlit may not have been the smartest move. If these things can see in the dark, we're sitting ducks and our lanterns don't reach all that far into the tunnel.

The party waits another 10 or 15 minutes, but Smoke gets impatient. She pulls out a night-eye potion and quaffs it. "I'll check back in 5 minutes or so. I'm going to take a quiet peek in the main room. She disappears into the darkness beyond your lantern light up the main corridor.

She's back in just a few minutes. "This place is complicated. The main room ahead has four exits on the far side. The one on the right may double back to the wide passage we were in on the left. I didn't see anything we haven't seen before, more boot prints and those big marks, probably from whatever that was we saw. The digging noises are back too. I'm going right next." She vanishes again.

The party waits, 5 minutes, listening. You occasionally hear faint sounds, metal on stone, rattling noises, distant thumps and bumps. More time passes. "Something's happened," says Brigg. "We should go in after her."

"Should we?" asks Zenobe. "If she's hiding from some threat we could stumble into trouble in while attempting a rescue."

End Date: August 21, morning
End Status: Vanished in a puff of Smoke
End Location: Silverstream Mine