Ultraviolet Grasslands (with 12 year old boys) - episode 19

24 July 2022

The Kenku (Shgalana), Eladrin (Stanton) and Gnome (Namfoodle Nackiestumble) scout closer to the Porcelain Citadel. Shgalana's keen eyesight is able to see from afar, the Great Head flying afar to the south. They discuss whether to attack it but decide it would be suicidal. The next day Shgalana sees bird riders from the head arrive at the Porcelain Citadel, where defences are being created and walkers  and slaves are working to beef up defences. It looks like some sort of alliance between the Big Head and the Porcelain Princes is underway.

They return to the revolutionary army of the Last Serai and report what they've seen. They propose an attack or a capture of the Big Head. The general agrees, and they are given possession of a ground to air shoulder mounted missile. Sadly as both Shgalana and gnome are tiny, they would need both of them to fire it. They give it to Stanton to carry.

They travel out into the Limelands again and suffer terrible itching and rashes from the static storms. As they push their way through the dry grasses they encounter a patrol - three porcelain shareminds and two armed slaves. They immediately drop prone as do their enemies. There is a standoff but Shgalana and Gnome, suing their small size, jungle crawl around and flank the patrol. With the aid of surprise, Shgalana blasts one polybody from existence - leaving only a smoking boot. He quickly takes out the second polybody with the help of elecrical blasts from Namfoodle, but the final polybody blasts Namfoodle with their energy rifle, knocking him back and leaving him a smoking spreadeagled unconscious figure in the long grass. The two slaves flee and Shgalana manages to kill the last polbody, even after his energy rifle runs out of energy and becomes dead weight.

They surmise the polybody is probably in contact with the rest of the hive mind, so they retreat about a kilometer away for a short rest. They see a walker arrive and load up the bodies. They debate attacking it but they are too badly hurt and the porcelain walker lopes off way before they even decide to make a move.

They decide to find the Big Head and take it out. After a few hours though they see, flying high above, ignoring or immune to stuckshards in the sky, a purple bird of ultraviolet hue, so it drops in and out of their visible wavelength depending on how the light hits it. As it flies south, the dry yellow grasslands beneath it become a luscious green, and the see ghostly figures of the rich and vibrant civilizations and people who once lived here, before the great war. As the bird passes overhead they hear a voice ask them if they wish to walk the paths of the past - they both say yes.

They wake up lying in the long grass in the same location. They have no idea how much time has passed. They remember amazing adventures and pleasant travels in the distant past, but only as if in a dream, and the memories fade as quickly. Shgalana holds a solar powered laser pistol in his hand, and Namfoodle has a datapad containing a wikipedia of the ancient grasslands (comprehensive but several thousand years, at least, out of date).

The journey changes their priorities. No longer interested in the petty war between Princes and Dwarfs, they decide they want to follow the path of godhood, and complete the great ceremony of the sandwich to become gods themselves. They also decide they want a base to call their own and they review the datapad for likely locations, and also any references to god nearby to reduce into a god paste for the ceremony.

They find that at the Last Serai there is a Demiurge knwn only as the Rebuilder whose temple is a building the recognise as the shunned 'Ignored Tower'. They find several interesting references to underground installations neaby - a quarry, the Glass House, the Autofarm, and the Chromium Dome. 

They decide on the Dome as the most likely location, and set off immediately north onto the badlands adjoining the Death facing Passage. Straight away a dark and thick Hazestorm engulfs them, and travel is slow and vicibilit poor, but after four days they enter a gulley choked with scree and rubble, and find the dome - less shiny than it once might have been and covered in dust, lichen and rubble. Nearby are three black creatures - enormous feral lions with huge bat wings. Shgalana, with the aid of Namfoodle's jump spell, does a huge war leap to scare them off and intimidates them - they slink away. They appear mostly only interested in keeping safe and warm from the storm. They approach the great silvery dome....