"Who told you this? I just wish to be sure you are a friend rather then a foe. We all have traveled a long way and seen the destruction wrought by the Wastelords. Any man who would fight them is either a madman or a fool. Which are you?"
Rose words sounded harsh but it was all a test, he carefully poked at this newcomer to see whether or not he would react to such baiting. It seemed unlikely he was a spy but better to test the way ahead as they may be working closely together. He took lead sending Navarre a meaningful glance after he spoke before continuing to look for a leadership person.
Turgo turns to Rose and Navarre. "The council in Bazaar said to head this way if I want to fight the Wastelords." He rubs the handle of his greataxe. "I'm neither madman NOR fool. I figure I could earn some chromium while helping folks out. So what ARE you? Madman or fool!"
He stares at Rose.
"Both. To say otherwise proves false. But until the Wastelords take my life I will continue the fight. Welcome to the alliance."
As you approach a group of guards comes out to meet you with weapons drawn.
"Who are you and why are you here travelers?"
"We come from Spilunk through the haunted canyon. This other man comes from the bazaar. We come to rally forces to fight against the Wastelords. We seek your leader."
The guards look to each other and nod.
"Come with me" one of them says. The others go back to the gate after you enter.
Inside, Dry Fort is made up of another ring much like the outer wall. The only entrance is at the opposite side as the front gate, making any assault difficult, as the same shutters circumnavigate the inner wall, allowing the defenders to attack any trespassers with short bows kept on hand. This inner ring opens up into a central courtyard where the day-to-day life of the village occurs. The folk of Dry Fort live communally, with a large central fire pit. The inner ring is pierced on the inside with the curtained off arches leading into the private residences of the natives.
Your escorted into the central yard, where Captain Ulz is overseeing the construction plans for his commander, the warlord of Dry Fort. Ulz, who some of you met at the meeting of the Council of Three Towns, is surprised to see you, but will reluctantly set aside time to hear what they have to say...
Rose seems reluctant to constantly be the voice of the group but after seeing if he doesn't that nothing they wouldn't make it this far he speaks to Ulz. "We came from Spilunk from the haunted canyon. Buncha sand people cannibals were there ambushing folk. We killed them but lost the life of our companion Xoknus. The Wastelords are on the march, they already destroyed Ebb. We managed to get something they wanted and escape but we'll likely need to fight them sooner or later. Spilunk Elders are researching the artifact now."
Turgo turns to Rose. "Sorry you lost your friend Xoknus"
Rose looks to Turgo a moment his face blank. "He was a strong fighter but to call him friend may have been premature. We hardly knew each other more then a handful of days. His healing kept many of us from death through the waste travels."
Captain Ulz strokes his chin.
"You scags learn much in short time. This device…what purpose for it? What good I ask you? Nothing. Spilunk wastes time figuring it out. It junk, like other junk of Ancients. Worthless. Bah. And Bazaar’s busy counting its beans. They traders, not warriors. We are warriors. But we not ready. Storm season has done much damage to Dry Fort. What, we supposed to fight whole war by ourselves?!?"
"Now they send you to us. What good can you do? You little more than pups..."
He continues to rub his chin, apparently very disappointed at the state of affairs in the alliance.
"There may be something you scags can do. Maybe. We need our warriors here to build and keep lookout. If Wastelords attack, we need all our warriors here. But we need more iron to build up defenses. The scrap mine a day away in the dry forest. We go once each year to fetch scrap, but this year we cannot spare warriors to make trip.”
Ulz’s eyes glimmer.
"You will do this. You will take cart to dry forest, retrieve enough scrap metal, and bring back. Then defenses will be complete.
"Do this, and maybe you will earn respect as warriors of Dry Fort."
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Tomas has been quiet, lost in thought as the group reached yet another settlement. He nods to the newcomer and listens to Captain Ulz with an impassive face, masking his contempt for yet another leader doing nothing but talk and shovel his problems onto the party. "Nav's right. The bigger the wagon the more scrap we can get back here. No ammo and the scrap won't make it."
Left unsaid is his thought. "Leaving you caught with your pants down due to your piss poor planning oh great Warrior!"
"Where is the cart?"
Ulz’s nods. "We can spare little ammunition, not much enough for 1 clip each if you have shooters. Most of my men only use Axes and such and prefer to up close and personal!"
He points in direction of the cart with a single horse strapped to it's front.
"Get going and bring back materials to help us defeat enemies!"
Rose accepts a clip and hands it off to Navarre before he goes over to the cart and prepares to leave. It would seem he has little else to say to Ulz and the sooner they get this errand job done the sooner they can relax in some bar with drinks and other simple pleasures.
Turgo looks at the clips and shrugs and heads to the cart.
Metal pieces?
The “scrap mine” used by the people of Dry Fort is located some distance from that settlement, high up in the crag country that leads to more monumental peaks further north. The “mine” itself is located deep within the Dry Forest, an ancient hinterland of a unique kind in this part of the world for its trees and animal life.
The broken crag country you have traveled through finally ends at a wall of trees. Dry and naked, the trees resemble stands of kindling waiting to catch fire during the next lightning storm. Fallen husks of tree trunks vanish into tall stands of golden grass, and weird fungi of white and orange colors sprout all over the upper branches of many of the trees. The distant calls of birds echo through the dry woods, but beyond these odd sights and sounds the forest seems eerily…dead.
Captain Ulz of Dry Fort said the scrap mine is to be found at the heart of this ancient woodland. Though there are trees everywhere, enough distance between each withered trunk means your wagon can pass easily into the forest. On your guard, you proceed with caution.
Further in there is evidence that someone has been building some kind of wall, digging holes in the forest floor and placing fallen tree trunks upright to create a makeshift barrier.
The forest thins as it approaches a clearing, where apparently some primitive tribe of people has created a village motley huts and lean-tos made from fallen tree limbs, trunks, and leaves. The smoking remains of campfires offer evidence that the village was recently occupied…
Rose rests his hand on the hilt of his katana as he scans the area looking for where the village primitives might be hiding. He also looks for anything of interest in tracks or around the village.
Tomas takes the offered clip, he makes sure his gun is cleaned and reloaded. Storing it away out of sight when done.
When they reach the village he sighs. "Nothing is ever easy is it?"
Turgo looks around for signs of trouble.
As you approach cautiously you see the occupants of the village in the various huts or around the dwindling fires, cleaning the carcass of unidentifiable animals, making twine and leather from the same, or using stone tools to create spears, spikes for their pits, etc.
"Greetings..." Rose walked toward the people gauging their reactions to try to avoid starting a fight unless necessary.
Turgo holds out his hand palm out.
"Hello.."
The villagers look a bit surprised when you approach them from out of the woods. Most back away from your group with a few of the older men moving fowrard with their farm tools in hand.
"Who you? Wy you here?" one speaks in a broken Unislang dialect.
Rose slows to a stop as the villagers confronted them and decided to talk. He removes his hand from his hilt and speaks again as his eyes move back and forth among those around them. "We come from Dry Fort. We travel toward the scrap mines to collect some metal for the fort. We have no business with you all unless you have some with us coming and going."
The villager eyes Rose cautiously.
"You no take our sacred shrine. It's holy place."
Rose just arches an eyebrow and stares at the man talking as though he was an idiot.
Tomas groaned quietly. Here we go again.
"It's important for other villages. No offense"
They villages look a bit taken aback.
"You no defile our sacred winged god! You should leave now!"
The villagers do not look to impressed when Navarre takes to the sky. In face they appear to become more irritated.
"You leave now else we sacrifice you to the winged sky god!"
"Funny how Captain Ulz neglected to mention this. I'll thank him when we return to Dry Fort."
Rose gives one more attempt at reopening diplomacy, addressing the people.
"What if we ask to make a pilgrimage to the winged sky god and pay our respects? We wish to share in the same communion you share with him. Soon we will be attacked by the evil Wastelords and I for one would like to be blessed by one chance to see this god before I die. Will you deny us this chance?"
If any of the villagers came to grab him or his companions however they would meet their god themselves.
"What you have to give to the sky god as tribute?"
The warriors stand down a bit as Rose speaks.
Rose produces the swiss army knife and shows off its many small tools and such to the natives hoping this would impress them.
The villagers look at the trinket in amazement as Rose presents it.
"This good sacrifice to sky god! Give me and we go see sky god!"
Up ahead a cairn of stones stacked one on top of the other seems to mark the spot of the scrap mine. You find its presence a bit odd, since Captain Ulz never mentioned a cairn…
Beyond the cairn the forest dwindles into a broad clearing bathed by the sun, wherein rests an enormous metallic hulk, longer than any metal structure you have ever seen, left bare and naked to the elements by the lack of trees. Rusted over in many parts, and much of its surface overgrown with dry vegetation, it is a truly impressive sight.
Atop the carin rests a small wooden bowl.
Turgo looks around the remains of the plane for signs of danger. But just sees the hide boots on his feet.
Rose looks it over looking for the best choice pieces they might take back to the Fort if they can pry them from these primitives.
The closest piece of the plane is a huge metal object, almost as large as a house, sits here exposed to the elements. The metal casing of the thing is torn and battered, and the heat of some ancient fire seems to have burned it black. Twisted debris extends from this point on; the growth of grass and wild flowers throughout seems to indicate that this wreckage has been here for generations.
It looks like there are 2 ways into the bigger part of the thing that is probably where they wanted you to go to get scraps. (Bomb Bay and Front Section)
While you observe the area the villagers place your sacrifice inside the bowl on the altar and begin to light kindle on fire around it not paying to much attention to you as they worship their sky god.
Rose will see if he can wander off a little unnoticed to enter the plane.