Twenty-ninth Session (10 page pdf) – “Nantambu, Ruins, and Riches” – The PCs go to the uncomfortably civilized Mwangi city of Nantambu to find an old “friend” of Mitabu’s that can get them to a fabled lost Shory flying city. Getting there’s easy, you just have to shadow walk… The pirates all groan. “What?” asks Mitabu.
It’s off to Nantambu, the Song-Wind City, the peak of civilization and magical learning in this part of the Mwangi Expanse. It was founded by Old-Mage Jatembe and his Ten Magic Warriors, mythical figures among the Mwangi people. It’s Good, it’s democratic… And as a result our pirates are a bit ill at ease, especially after their recent bout of native-slaughter, though between natives Mitabu and Sindawe they are able to navigate the place just fine.
Now we’re setting up the adventure Crucible of Chaos, about a lost Shory flying city full of unfathomable riches and horrific dangers. When they meet the guy who had been there and he had mouths for eyes, that is an image from an old, old computer ad (a video card I think?) that creeped me out back in the 1990s. This really made the PCs wary, and then when they had to travel through the Shadow Plane to get there, they knew it was going to be a problem since phantoms and shadow demons from that plane are their archenemies. Only smart use of an Infamy Point (a gold coin that lets you fundamentally change the narrative) lets them escape 26 points of Strength damage at the hands of shadows (at the cost of only a negative level)… Eek!
But they make it to the Valley of the Gwangi and the crashed lost city of Ulduvai, or at least it’s within sight – let’s see if they can make it there!