In the middle of the night, Judson awoke and sat bolt upright. His timer was beeping and showed three red bars. Within him the Beast stirred and swelled, bursting out of his body. On the other side of the room was Sonny, asleep on the bed. Beast-Judson flexed his claws; opened his maw and lumbered across the room …
The Beast roared “like an angry squid” and Sonny leapt out of the bed. He moved to block the door and tried to calm Beast-Judson; to no avail, a massive fist knocked him flying on to the bed and the Beast charged at the door opposite. In his maddened state he misjudged the charge and stuck himself senseless on the door jamb. For a brief moment, the darkness grew deeper.
Judson struggled awake from a nightmare to find he was lying in a pool of his own blood. There was a huge bite mark on his chest. Harrylock dragged him into his room and they sent for a healer. Meanwhile, next door, Galadiir awoke next to Leema and was horrified to find that she was obviously pregnant. *
Over breakfast they made plans. Judson and Sonny went back to talk to Ehvera; whilst Harrylock, Galadiir and Leema went to look at the burnt-out ruins of Millian’s rooms in the Challimone Building. Galadiir didn’t want to take Leema, but he finally decided that there were too many unexplained attacks on people in ‘The Queen’s Legs.”
Talking with Ehvera revealed some more information, including the fact that there was a beast in the catacomb tunnels beneath Mulen that was killing off the tunnel gangs. Sonny offered their help in tracking down the beast; Ehvera just laughed at this.
“If it is killing off my rivals, then why should I worry about it? **
“How do we get into the tunnels?”
“There are entrances everywhere; through manholes in the streets, or doorways in forgotten basements.”
“We are going to hunt and kill the beast.”
“What! This creature has killed off many of the Tunnel Gangs and you two are just going to go in and kill it?”
Sonny nodded. “Yes.”
At the Challimone Building, Galadiir and Harrylock went up to the fifth floor; leaving Leema to slowly follow them up the stairs. The floor was badly fire damaged; in the bedroom of Millian’s Galadiir found another Detonation Cypher; this was unexploded.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” came a voice from the door. The speaker was a small man dressed in gaudy clothing, behind him stood a large thick-set man.
“We are looking for a man named Millian. Do you know him?”
“I’m Millian, this is my brother Graun.”
“Apparently, you stole an item called the Revitalizer from someone called Ehvera and she wants it back.”
“I didn’t steal it; it was a gift”
“Well, she wants it back and Dracogen also wants it.
The colour drained from Millian’s face. “You work for Dracogen?” “We used to” Galadiir replied. “Don’t lie! Once you work for Dracogen; you always work for Dracogen. “
He turned and bolted for the stairs down; followed by Graun. Galadiir grabbed hold of Millian in order to restrain him; there was an intense burst of light in front of his eyes; when they cleared Millian was already two flights down. He had left behind a cypher that exploded in green cloud of choking gas. Galadiir avoided the effects of the gas and ran down after Millian, yelling for him to stop. To his surprise, he did and there was some negotiation about the Revitalizer (basically, Millian wanted an artefact in exchange and Galadiir was not willing to meet the price.) Finally, seeing Harrylock approaching Millian broke off and turned to run; Galadiir froze him with an Ice Onslaught; intending to immobilize him; he misjudged the power of the esotery and Millian froze to death. Graun vowed revenge and ran; Harrylock went after him but an intense burst of light in his eyes caused him to stumble. When they cleared, Graun was gone. Galadiir took the Revitalizer from Millian’s body and they waited for Leema to catch up with them (she was heavily pregnant and not moving so quickly.)
Judson and Sonny returned to “The Queen’s Legs” and scouted out the cellars; they found a door into the sewers/catacombs beneath Mulen. They lit a glowglobe and went into a labyrinth of tunnels leading in all directions. Eventually they came to a lozenge-shaped chamber with a large silver metal sphere in the centre. Judson went up to it and touched it; he leapt back with a curse, nursing a bleeding hand. Although it looked smooth; the sphere was covered in millions of monofilament hairs. As he turned towards Sonny the sphere moved; rolling with impossible speed across the chamber. Judson was struck a glancing blow, the monofilament shredding flesh with the slightest touch. They ran for the nearest exit that looked too small for the sphere to get through; Judson slipped and fell. Sonny jumped back and distracted the sphere away long enough for Judson to escape.
“Hopefully it can’t follow us into here”*** Judson peered out into the chamber; to see the sphere slowly deliquescing into a flowing silvery puddle. ****
“Run!!”
Back at “The Queens Legs” they all met and compared notes. They were undecided what to do with the Revitalizer; they didn’t want to give it to Dracogen or to Ehvera; but didn’t really want to keep it either. It was getting late and Judson headed out of town; to spend the night in the woods. They decided to sleep on the problem.
Just then, the tavern lights brightened noticeably and two bodies were found outside; a man and a woman, torn to pieces and covered in huge bite marks.
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* This caused much discussion around the table about parental responsibilities etc., with Matt (Galadiir) vowing to take care of Leema and the child. Hmm.
** There was more said but, again, no Spoilers!
*** No Spoilers here; I put this in. However; Ben and Jose were really freaked out by it
**** Ben’s fault – he said “I wonder if it’s like the Terminator out of Terminator II. So, of course, it was.”
***** Part of the reason that they want to leave
XP awarded = 2
GM Notes:
Judson and Sonny were really freaked out by the encounter in the sewers.
They have decided that Mulen is getting a little too hot and so they are going to move on.
Next adventure – Either ‘The Vortex’ or ‘The Key of Time’
Any comments on these write-ups welcome
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Uncanny Worlds 