Socket, Florida Man, Butch and Ray gathered what they needed for an extended trip tot he south to find the SEEGA settlement leaving Kage and Lexington to runt he first of the 'tours' that would be coming through the area.
They walked for an entire 12 hour day to the south stopping when they neared a pool of fresh water. By the edge oft he pond they saw 4 travelers who were dressed in a fashion that identified them as 'not from around here'.
As they approached they found the individuals to be friendly and were pleased to make the acquaintance of Professors Darlington, Locke and Heart, along with a well armed man named Justin.
The employees of Dinotours Excursions LLC spent some time conversing with the group. Ray learned some more about the local fauna from Prof. Heart while Socket interfaced with Prof. Darlington's data pad and learned of the crew's adventures to this point.
Apparently they were a group of researchers from Char that were investigating rumors of a new strain of very aggressive Seep Fern. They were one part of two that had been taking a broader course north after going far to the south where the swamp got very thick. In the Professors notes, there was mention of a very large settlement about 40 miles more south which somewhat matched a possible description of the SEEGA encampment. The two groups of travelers parted ways on good terms after Justin mentioned they had to get going and the employees of Dinotours made camp for the night.
The following morning they headed out for another leg of the lengthy trip south. Socket and Butch moved as fast as they could with Florida Man, being as board as can be heading far off ahead of the group and Ray wandering east and west along side the general southern travel direction.
As they traveled they found a few more nice areas where it seemed dinosaurs were nesting and spending a lot of time and Socket continued to make tour notes. Ray discovered some more ruins in the distance that looked interesting on a number of occasions and Butch was carefully keeping an eye out for large predators.
Again near the end of their 12 hour day, they noticed three barbarians in the distance. Socket, always leery of people, began to advise approaching with caution but Ray being his pleasant excited self called out a boisterous hello and grabbed the barbarians attention.
The three men were tribe-less nomads who lived in these woods. Ray told them about their settlement to the north and explained there may be an opportunity for trade or work up there if they were interested. The subject of the SEEGA came up and the barbarians explained there was indeed the SEEGA settlement another two days south roughly. The barbarians also warned of a large herd of sauropod in the area that should be avoided if possible.
The following day the journey south continued and about half way through the day they began to encounter extremely large crater sized foot prints. they moved cautiously through the area remembering the Barbarians warning from the day before. Suddenly there was a lour roar and then they ground began to shake as large necks quickly raised from the surrounding forest and then began to move with haste toward Ray, Socket and Butch.
Socket activated his techno wizard boots of speed and in a surprising display of agility, weaved in and out of trees and crashing dinosaur legs to get clear of the stampede. Ray processed the situation a little slowly and narrowly avoided being smashed by grabbing a hold of one of the creatures tails as it thundered past while Butch attempted to stand his ground. With a mechanical whirring sound Butch's minigun came up to speed and he did his best to saw one of the charging creatures legs off. The monster whose leg was damaged very badly collapsed and began to roll toward Butch causing him to fling himself into a footprint as three trees collapsed over him to make a kind of shelter. The creature rolled over him coming to a stop a few hundred yards away and the source of their terror revealed itself to be a pair of Allosaurus. The DTE crew spent a little while catching their breath and then Ray went off to harvest the tail of the collapsed Sauropod.
That evening they made camp near another pond with a massive structure visible int he distance to the south. The following day after they had been traveling for a good 10 hours, they encountered a group of children harvesting nuts and berries wearing distinctive mono colored robes of vibrant purples and reds who identified themselves as members of the SEEGA clan. Ray got an idea for a Raspberry beverage while Butch realized that these plants would be useful back at their settlement and collected a bunch of seedlings and cuttings. They thanked the children for their kindness and then traveled the rest of the way to the SEEGA settlement.
The SEEGA settlement was a very large structure with a huge pit in the middle of it. It was obviously an arena of some kind and there was a thriving civilization occupying it.
When they arrived, Ray traded the dino tail for a large sack of local currency and then started thinking of some kind of gadget to make a frozen treat. Socket was marveling over the amount of tech he was seeing and Butch was just taking it all in.
10 minutes later they watched the evening bout between two T-Rex that were being somehow controlled by a pair of men on either side of the arena. The monsters fought ferociously and after a few minutes one was declared the winner. The crowds abandoned the high seating and made their way into the village that surrounded and intertwined the massive structure. Butch and Socket found comfortable lodging while Ray went and hid in a nearby lake. Sounds of revelry could be heard through most of the night but were not such a disturbance that Butch couldn't rest.
The following day Butch went outside to see if he could find anything interesting while Socket tried in vain to find a waterproof watch and Ray spent most of the day constructing his frozen treat machine to make something he called 'Ice-cream' . After a while Socket decided to try and pursue the reason they were there and found his way over to one of the dinosaur handlers.
Alderic immediately identified Socket as a practitioner of 'The Craft' and was enthusiastic about showing him the control suit they used to do the dinosaur fights. Socket was able to identify that it was part techno-wizard and part something else that he was not 100% familiar with. He was able to interface with the technological portions of the device but was baffled by the rest. At the end of the conversation, Alderic invited him and his cohort to the daily after bout party to discuss a possible business arrangement.
Meanwhile, Butch was observing the village and noticed a group of Kopar barbarians being lead into a n underground passage. They had been bound and appeared to be prisoners. When he attempted to investigate he was stonewalled by the guards. He proceeded to ask around the village but no one was really willing to say much. He found his way to a bar and spoke with a drunken villager who eventually divulged a deep seeded tribal enmity between the SEEGA and the Kopar and who explained the Kopar were often raided and then taken to Sauron specifically; what happened then, he did not know. Butch took great moral objection to this and met back up with the others at the brontosaurus vendor. There he learned a tiny bit more but was still no wiser as to the fate of the Kopar, but easily assumed they were being fed to the dinosaur. The Bronto vendor did not appear to have a moral issue with this and this further disturbed Butch.
While waiting for the evening meeting, Butch tried somewhat in vain to explain social and moral responsibility to Ray and Socket again went off in search of a waterproof watch.
ReplyDeleteDespite having been injured for the first time in his young life (by the ghosts the other day), Ray appears to have retained his firm conviction that harm is something that happens to other, less magical individuals, as evidenced by his willingness to hail the barbarians.
He was fairly proactive about not being stepped on by a stampeding sauropod though - but since this involved his grabbing a passing tail and being swept through the air several times until he was pitched into a tree, it's hard to say if this represented progress.
One way or the other however, his parentally implanted mercantile instincts remained keen enough to see the potential in large quantities of fresh meat and fruits as well as leveraging his instinctual mechanical sense into a way to turn a profit from the ever-pervasive local heat.
The discussion between Butch and Ray was perhaps marred somewhat by Ray failing to understand why Butch had changed his mind about it being okay to kill people if you want their stuff, or might want their stuff, or it looks like they might have interesting stuff coupled with the young dragon not really following the politics apparently concerning the Northern mercenary. Progress here was not, sadly made.