Season One / Session Seven - Season Finale!
Miasma opens her eyes and finds she has washed up on the sandy beach of a remote, tropical island. Beside her lies the lifeless sleleton of a giant shark, run aground in the shallows. Footsteps in the sand lead away from the skeleton, into the jungle. Miasma follows the tracks, but is stopped by a clockwork girl called Pinion, who warns her that the jungle is dangerous. Glorious Leader Tyrsientom has not maintained his guardian beasts and several have malfunctioned, attacking without provocation. Pinion offers to lead Miasma to Last Harbour, where she is reunited with the other Heroes.
The Heroes offer to escort Captain Tukvo's convoy to Tytsientom's workshop. The Ambuscade's cargo is loaded onto wagons harnessed to mechanical mules. Ezeke is dismayed when he realises there is no living game to hunt on the entire island, only clockwork critters constructed in Tyr's workshop.
The convoy sets off! Soon, the trail is blocked by a mechanical triceratops. It appears to be docile, but it is still in their way. Sir Henry edges forward warily, trying to shoo it off. Suddenly, the head of a huge, clockwork tyrannosaurus lunges from the jungle and bites the mechanical triceratops in half, showering Sir Henry with fragments of twisted metal! The tyrannosaurus turns its predatory gaze upon the convoy. Nimin the Perturbed mounts one of the mechanical mules and rides into the jungle. The clockwork tyrannosaurus gives chase, leaving a swathe of destruction in its wake. The Heroes thank Nimin for his sacrifice and continue on!
The convoy reaches Tyr's workshop. A bronze golem guards the entrance, but it recognises Tukvo and steps aside. Tyrsientom welcomes the Heroes in human form (resembling Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future). He gives the Heroes a tour of his tower, showing off the unfinished clockwork dragon he is working on. The chest cavity is unhinged, revealing a glowing red orb riding within. Darvin accurately guesses that the red orb is a Sphere of Dragonkind. Tyrsientom is impressed by the mage's knowledge.
But the Heroes didn't come all this way to admire fancy balls! They've got a cursed skull to destroy! Tyrsientom knows of a ritual to destroy the skull, but it requires the blood of a warrior who has bested the Orking in life. Sir Henry's grandfather (Sir Aelfred) was one of the twelve knights who felled Urim Rex fifty years previously. Tyrsientom acknowledges that his blood might do the trick. The ritual will summon shades of those twelve knights, whom the Heroes must overcome to prove themselves worthy of the power to destroy the skull.
Tyrsientom performs the ritual on the roof of the tower, using Sir Henry's blood to paint arcane sigils on the skull. The spirit of Sir Aelfred appears, accompanied by eleven other knights of Old Eastening. They fight!! Each time the Heroes defeat a knight, their spirit takes the shape of a sword hovering above the cursed skull. Sir Aelfred is the last to fall, smiling proudly at his grandson as he too takes the form of a glowing blade. The twelve swords blur and merge together into a single blade. Sir Henry grasps the hilt and swings the sword at the skull of the Orking...!
Suddenly, a portal opens behind Sir Henry, as Mazoga teleports onto the roof! She lunges for Sir Henry's unprotected back! Darvin throws himself between his old friend and the necromancer's blade! Mazoga's knife sinks into Darvin's chest! Sir Henry destroys the skull!
Darvin falls, Mazoga's knife embedded in his chest. The necromancer drops to her knees beside him, gathering up the shattered fragments of the Orking's skull. She is numb; after all her hard work, her plan has come to nothing, foiled by her idealistic brother and his selfless allies. Ezeke stands over his misguided sister and encourages her to repent. Between ragged breaths, Darvin tells Mazoga that he forgives her for stabbing him. Mazoga agrees to accompany her brother on his journey and seek atonement for her sins. Sir Henry is far from happy with this turn of events and warns Mazoga that he will end her life if she betrays the group.
While Darvin may have forgiven Mazoga, he is still dying. The blade she stabbed him with carried a powerful drow enchantment and his wounds cannot be healed with curative magic. Tyrsientom believes that water from the elfsprings in Drura could save the wizard. The Heroes decide to sail for the icy elven nation at once! Miasma also needs to return the Algorstone to her family in Jaanalume, so the Heroes can kill two dragons with one black arrow. Perhaps they can also find the means of returning Sir Henry to human form?
Mazoga animates the skeletal shark to tow the Ambuscade. The Heroes decide to leave without telling Sir Basil, stranding the shamed knight on Seasend Isle. Miasma later discovers Pinion has stowed away on the ship. The fate of Nimin the Perturbed is unclear, though rumours abound of a crazed gnome barbarian riding a clockwork dinosaur....
TBC
