The Rainbow Chronicles: Mephistos and Laurence the Yellowlander

... as Dougal and Yolo enter our story the rest of the party had made it's way to a secret entrance at the back of Zhur Botu, an old dwarven mine.  We are tasked to route a camp of bandits under the leadership of Laurence the Yellowlander, and their camp happened to be around the front entrance. Zhur Botu had been abandoned after unearthing some strange horror in the depths (gasp!). What this horror was we did not know - but how bad could it be? So, instead of facing the bandits head on, the group had decided to look into entering the mine by this side entrance. Maybe we could turn that strange horror against the bandits? Maybe we could surprise them by entering their camp from the dungeon?

The secret entrance lead through a small grotto to enter a the dungeon through a cave system. The mines were deserted except for some strange sort of mechanically enhanced zombie. The dwarven machinery was of course still fully functional. Through experimentation we learned that the dwarven technological innovation here was spurred by a bureaucracy that shuns short lived media such as paper for their documents for words written in stone and metal. Delving into the mine we found our way to the main control complex. An unhealthy looking elf had taken up residence in these quarters. Assuming that is pallor and odd mannerisms were simply a result of an extended time being locked underground thanks to the bandits without and zombies within the mine we started a friendly chat with Mephistos. He was indeed happy to hear that we were panning to make our way out the mine and was happy to join us, as long as we subjected to a test: we must agree to be checked against corruption by the unholy machine god. We all passed his scrutiny except Grungar, the blood-thirsty fighter played by Konrad. He offered help to "purify" Grungar via a simple operation. Grungar volunteered, not wanting to be tainted by any strange machine evil. So he had his leg removed, and replace by ones that looked an awful lot like some steam-powered driven machine contraption. On the plus side the new leg doesn't get tired, so Grungar calls it a win. Yolo started suspecting that maybe not all was light and right with Mephistos.

We had also learned that the strange machine zombies emerged from a luminescent vortex deep in the mine. To aid our departure we played with the lighting system of the mine to guide the zombies to the main entrance. With minimal problems play one enemy against the other. Then the group together with Mephistos depart the mine. Yolo, feeling all is wrong here leaves the party and darts ahead to warn the bandits. Sneaking, or just running past zombie hordes Yolo makes it to the bandits a short time before the rest of the group. Met at first with skepticism he manages to convince the bandit leader, Laurence the Yellowlander (the Yellowlands are not Arabia, but rather more a spaghetti-western landscape, why not add spaghetti Arabia?). Laurence marshaled his forces just in time to meet Mephistos and the group. At this point it becomes clear that Mephistos is either a mage sufficiently powerful to turn into a dragon, or a dragon who had adopted a strange human. Judging by the time he must have spent in the mines, I choose to believe he is not human. Also he had pointed ears, silver hair, silver chainmail and silvery skin. Coincidence, I think not? At least there seems to be a metallic theme.


With this powerful "ally" we crushed the bandits. Yolo did manage to save and tame a mammoth that was kept by one of the bandits in the camp. With an awesome new mount we headed back to the Pueblo di Mesas. For your reference here is a map of the Yellowlands, all credit for the awesome map goes to Luka. We dropped off the few captured bandits to collect our bounty, though facing the uneasy truth that Laurence was a Robin Hood to the Yellowlands. Certainly an outlaw, but regarded widely as a freedom fighter. The same was true for many of his companions: there seemed plenty of evidence for their crimes of the past, but there were also many good things they did for the people. After some deliberating Sir Boring, our paladin of the Green god won through arguing that we had signed a binding contract to deliver Laurence and that we needed the money. Mostly so he could "invest" it for the party. Still not sure exactly what nebulous paper machination he employs to safeguard our monies. We did have an encounter with some Chimera's while our bandits had escaped (my memory is a bit spotty here). We defeated the mother chimera, and while having to put down one of her children, Yolo managed to tame the other. We were well on the way to make a better traveling zoo and freak show, rather than an adventuring group.

From previous adventures the party was in posession of a strange six-fingered hand. Contained in a jar, it was pointing the way towards the Oasis of Laurence ... where we would probably have to kep quite about our relationship to Laurence the Yellowlander. So after a respite at the Pueblo di Mesas we set off for the Oasis of Laurence, to see where the six fingered hand would lead us ...

The Rainbowlands

When I first moved to Geneva Michael and Carly introduced me to a group of gaming friends in Lausanne. I joined them for the seventh session of their 5th edition based game, a fondue featured Christmas special, and met a great group of gamers: Luka the DM and our host, Steve who introduced me to the session, and fellow players Ula, Konrad, Vincent, Oscar, and Alban. In the previous session the group had set up the world for the game, The Rainbowlands. As I joined the group found itself in the arid landscape of the yellow lands. Yes the world has a land for each color arranged around a central sea. Each such land worships a deity of that color, who are all aspects of the unicorn riding Jesus Thor who rules the skies from the great mountains rumored to be in the middle of the central sea. I took gleeful amusement from the open ironic take of religion: much like the pythonesque Gawds of Erf Chris threw together in his game, but also taking a piece out of the bigotry towards the LGBT community. Keep in mind this cultural and religious backdrop as our characters lean about the eldritch machine gods of order and chaos.

Since Luka, our kind and merciless dungeon master, runs an old school campaign where death is a likely consequence of an adventurers life-style I was encouraged to create two characters. Dugal is an aged fisherman who attended an arcane university late in life. Dugal did not enjoy the cloistered life at the university and his teachers frowned upon his dismissal of authority and dangerous ideas about the arcane. So Dugal went off to learn the interesting corners of the arcane arts he was forbidden to study at university. For my second character I imported Yolo "#Swag" Tumblefoot character from the  games at the Penny Arcade Expo and Caitlin's practice sessions back in Victoria. Yolo is not exactly greedy, but certainly in the adventuring business for the money. Think like a half size Conan with extra attitude to make up for the size difference.

As we begin our story paladins of the rainbow gods had tasked us with rooting a camp of bandits, who were camped outside an old dwarven mine ...

Rebuffat

Geneva, much like the rest of the world it seems, has been very warm of late. To escape the heat Dorota, Pawel, Gianluca, Kacsper and I decided to head up to the Aiguille du Midi and hang out on the Mer de Glace. Sitting on some ice, we agreed, should help to cool off. Kacsper and I planned to climb Rebuffat, the south face of the Aiguille. Since we didn't have any pressing plans for Sunday we also agreed to camp out on the ice field for the night, allowing us lots of time for a relaxed climb. Since Dorota, Pawel, and Gianluca climbed Rebuffat in the past they set off for another peak, Gianluca with the plan to head home that evening.

Since Gianluca and Kacsper and I were feeling pretty relaxed we dallied a bit while the other took off quickly. We dropped out gear off by the camping spot on the ice and packed out things to climb. I decided to take along my ice axe and the big camping backpack, plus 1.5L of water and some snacks. The rest of the food and gear we left in bags and packs reserving ourselves a spot. From there we went off to find the start of the climb, just at the bottom right of the rock face in the picture. We quickly found that while some gear was in place it was good we had brought, nuts, cams and friends. Since I have no experience placing gear, Kascper had to lead the whole way. Good thing he is a fantastic climber :)

Once of the ice, even exposed to the breeze, it was hot up on the rocks. Since most of the 9 pitches had a rating between 3-5 (camptocamp) I expected this climb to be fairly easy. Turns out the climb was harder that I expected for a few combined problems: my big expedition backpack kept getting in my way, the ice axe and crampons were extra weight and also in the way, and I got winded quickly climbing in the high altitude. All of this together stressed me out and after taking a tumble on the 6a (think low 5.10a-b by the North American scale) it took me a moment to get my nerves back in order. Even with some scrapes and bruises this was a really great climb, and thank you to Kacsper for leading all the way. He was smarter than me, bringing only a bare minimum of gear in a more compact pack.

We could see that we were going to be fairly late with our climb by the fact that half way through the route we encountered a friendly couple who were rappelling down, past where we were climbing up still. We also had the Rockface more or less to ourselves, which made the climb very enjoyable. I had feared that there would be a lot of traffic since we could see many climber on the route while we were dropping off the camping gear.

 

Once art the top of the climb it is easy to abseil down to a tourist platform on the other side of the rock face.  By the time we had gotten there the station on the Aiguille du Midi had closed down and there were no tourists around. So we spread out and soaked up some evening sun while having a little lie down on the platform. A great climb indeed!

Eventually the sun started hiding behind some mountain peaks and we found it was time to make our way to the camping spot. Unfortunately the doors to the gondola station were locked, and we could not get to the exit leading to the ice field. Having a look around we spotted some other climbers who had come of the Cascade des Cosmiques and where in the gondola station on the other side. With some waving we got their attention and they let us in - I don't know your names, but you guys saved us from miserable night in the cold without food or shelter, thank you! After having a friendly chat with the three guys that let us in, we made our way to the ice field. Here we had an entertainingly hard time setting up Kacsper's tent, and snacked on some bread, cheese, and meat we brought along. Dorota and Pawel, the intrepid campers they are, had already had a warm supper and made us some tea on their stove. Gianluca was also hanging out with us since he had missed the last gondola off the mountain. He had a spot in Pawl and Dorota's tent but without a foamy and sleeping bag it must have been a miserable night for him.

Kacper and I slept in the next morning and lazily broke camp. We stopped at the Aiguille du Midi for our first breakfast and in Charmonix for second breakfast. We found a fantastic little bar/restaurant here. Google says it is called "The West" but there is a different place in the same spot now. I can't recall the name. They made an excellent pulled pork eggs Benedict. Since I had a craving for a Cesar I was trying to explain how to make one to the friendly bar staff. They countered by offering me the Bloody Mary they make there: a concotion very similar to a Cesar since they add some ghost pepper sauce. Very spicy, very tasty. After lounging for a while we took off with the goal of shopping for some gear. On of the waitresses advised us to check out the aptly named "Mountain Store" in Sallanche. Since we were on our way to Sallanche to visit Au Vieux Campeur anyway we decided to stop by there also. Turns out on a Sunday they are both closed x.x

Having failed in our shopping desires we slunk back to Geneva. It was still as hot there as we left it. Kacsper had some pland involving a man with a GPS unit so he dropped me off at home and went on his way. I enjoyed the end of the afternoon relaxing by the shore of lake Geneva. What a great weekend :)