The Great Trees Session 1

The Great Trees:  These are rare, huge trees within  the Ba-Adenu Forest.  They are generally about ten times the size of the surrounding trees.  Most have entire villages living within their branches.

The Twin Trees:  The Great Trees generally grow very far from each other.  However there is a pair growing close enough together that the villagers living in them have built a bridge between them.

Starting place for the adventure

The Facility:  Beneath the Twin Trees are the ruins of an ancient facility.  The villagers believe it to be a medical facility of some kind. They have found many types of medications and a mechanical man who knows a lot about healing people. And, of course, the facility waking up to replace a woman's lost arm helped this conclusion along.

PC’s:

Alivia - Tree Native - One of the villages best hunters.  Her right arm has been replaced with a mechanical arm.

Corbin - Brought to the Great Trees to be a bodyguard for a nano that was going to assist in the exploration of the ruins below the Trees.

Natan - Found in the ruins buried beneath the Great Trees. Many refer to him as the mechanical man.  He has a great deal of knowledge about the human anatomy.

Feylor - Tree Native - Became very popular in his younger days but when his people tried to make him their leader he had to change the way they thought of him.  He is now mostly thought of as an entertainer.

NPC’s of note:

Margus - the leader of the village within what is known as the Twin Trees.  He is a good and well respected leader who is pleased that Feylor does not want to be leader.

Jarvin - a trader from outside the Ba-Adenu Forest.  He has an artifact that keeps him safe as he travels through the dangerous forest.  He is the only trader that makes regular trips to the Great Tree people.

Session One

Corbin and Natan both noticed that the people who had grown up in and around The Great Trees seemed grumpy and irritated.  When questioned most claimed to have no idea what they were talking about. A few knew they were on edge but couldn’t figure out why.  Along about mid-day the irritation changed to intense sadness.  This time everybody agreed they were feeling the sadness but didn’t know why. 

There was a sudden scream on the east side of the trees.  When people arrived to see what the scream was about they noticed on the eastern horizon one of the Great Trees was falling.  This was an unimaginable tragedy.

The Twin Tree's leader, Margus, quickly grabbed Feylor and asked him to take a small group of people over to find out what happened to make that Great Tree fall.  Out of habit Feylor immediately launched into his denial that he was any kind of leader that he was just a simple entertainer. 

Margus quickly cut him off with, “ We both know that’s not true but we don’t  have time to debate this.  We need to find out what’s going on. And take the mechanical man.  His healing skills may come in handy.”

While Feylor was gathering Natan, the mechanical man, Alivia and Corbin realized what he was doing and volunteered to join the group.

On their way out they find Margus talking to the trader Jarvin.

Margus states, “We know you have some way to survive the nights in the forest and we need to borrow it. It’s important!”

Jarvin looked like he had just been asked to give up his favorite possession.

Corbin was well aware of the force field dome tent that Jarvin used.  He had traveled here with Jarvin and had slept in it a number of times.

After a few moments of indecision Jarvin gave up his tent for the good of the mission.

The party headed off to what was going to become known as The Fallen Tree.  The journey would take approximately a full day.

When Natan was found he was ruminating on information he had just referenced from the computer system that had "repaired" Alivia.  There were many words and ideas from the language of computer's creators that didn't have any correlation in the human tongue.

He had found out that the repair system could have replaced or regrown Alivia's arm but it didn't have the proper "stuff" to do it.  The system needed animal material as differentiated by Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral.

As they traveled toward the fallen Great Tree Natan was explaining this to Alivia and Corbin came up with a very apt analogy.  "Put in a pig get an arm out."

This gave Alivia a great deal to think about as they traveled.

A few hours of travel later - First Combat

A large number of creatures were fleeing the commotion caused by the falling of the  Great Tree. Three hungry carnivores tired of running thought the party would make a timely meal.

Gorgeous art from Kate Pfeilschiefter

Natan had never been in or seen or even heard of combat. So when unfamiliar creatures ran up to them, Corbin and Alivia pulled out some of their possessions and Feylor floated up into the air he did the first thing that came to mind.  He turned on his oddity.

Suddenly there fish swimming all around the combat.

This caused a bit of confusion on both sides of the combat. So it all evened out.

The party defeated the meal-seekers with only minor wounds and continued on.

As night fell the party made use of Jarvin's tent artifact. The force field dome that covered them was opaque and apparently camouflaged from the outside view because nothing bothered them throughout the night.  They did notice that off to their north was some randomly moving and flickering blue lights.  In the morning it was decided that investigating the blue lights would have to wait since they were on an important mission.

About mid-day the party approached the area of the Fallen Tree. They could hear a great deal of noise from a very large predator.  Corbin had heard stories about these huge beasts before him but he had never actually seen a Jiraskar before.  It was trying to get into the branches of the Tree. They could hear screaming and yelling from the people trying to escape it.

Feylor had a cunning plan.  He had a cypher that would make a wall of intense cold.  He floated up into the air upwind of the jiraskar and let the wind push him toward the beast. He dropped the cypher so that the creature would be standing in the damaging cold. The instant the wall came on the jiraskar seemed to know exactly where Feylor was floating.

While the Jiraskar was trying to figure out how to get the tasty morsel in the air Alivia fired an arrow which also had cold related cypher on it.

Between the cyphers and attacks from range and the damage that had already been done to it by the people hiding in the trees, Corbin ran up to the jiraskar just as it died.  His disappointment was immense.

We start our adventure in a tribal village that lives in the branches of one of the tallest trees in the forest.  There are not many more than a dozen of the giant trees.  Their inhabitants call them The Great Trees.  These Great Trees can exceed ten times the size of the average trees around them.  Some of the people living in the Great Trees actually worship their Trees. They claim they are their protectors.

Our starting village is actually a pair of the Great Trees. Most of the Great Trees are far apart sometimes taking days to travel between them. But these are close enough together that a bridge has been built between them hundreds of feet in the air.

This bridge was built using very strong cables found in an ancient ruin beneath the Great Trees.  This ruin was found when the Great Trees roots tore it open. Over the course of a few days there were very loud sounds of big things breaking beneath the ground. When things quieted down a hole in the ground was found that led into the ruin.

The worshippers of The Great Trees ranks swelled.

The ruin seems to have been a medical facility of some sort. They have found numerous types of drugs and one of the villagers got her arm replaced by the machinery. 

The worshippers of The Great Trees ranks swelled.

An Intelligent Jack who Controls Gravity - Feylor

Grew up in the Trees. Has become an entertainer mainly because he enjoys being into the public eye but does not want to be named village leader.

Connection: Was trying to impress a girl and tried lifting the newly found mechanical man but inadvertently dropped it from the Tree.

A Mechanical Nano who Talks to Machines - Natan

Was found in the facility below the Trees.  Is actually a sentient blob of liquid metal that is inhabiting a mechanical humanoid.

Connection: Finds that 'Gravity Man' has a terrible relationship with machines.

A Rugged Glaive who Controls Beasts - Corbin 

Was brought to the Trees by the one trader from the outside world that has been able to visit the Great Trees.  He was originally hired as a bodyguard for a nano that was brought here to study the facility under the Great Trees.  But that foolish nano managed to get himself killed just three days after arriving.

Connection: His animal friends find the mechanical man disturbing.

 A Swift Glaive who Hunts with Great Skill - Alivia

Grew up in the Trees. A very good provider for the tribe. She's fast. She often will run down her prey until it is exhausted making for a safer easier kill. Or she may let a carnivore chase her with the same result.  She recently lost an arm in a bit of a hunting accident. When she was placed on a bed in the ruins the area started working and replaced her arm... with a mechanical one.

Connection: Feylor once saw her seem to specifically kill a carnivore that was about to pounce on a, often referred to as, cute herbivore. The cute herbivore would have been thebetter meal. Alivia fears he may harm her tough reputation by revealing her soft spot.