Colostle Season 2 Part 1: An Unexpected Beginning

 Hi!

Whee, two posts in a single day! I managed to play the first five days of my Colostle Season 2 adventure so thought I'd post it up now!

My Character is a Golem called EM-RY5 Addercap. I rolled him up randomly using my character generator and then filled in the character sheet for Colostle.

EM-RY5 (note he's taken a bit of damage in a scrap as he should have 4 for his combat)

EM-RY5's class is The Armed, essentially giving him a grafted Rook limb to aid him in combat. He's currently armed with a heavy mace that releases a bolt of electricity when it strikes home, causing serious damage to anything he hits (rules wise, the weapon and its abilities don't actually do anything but are included to add detail to how he fights in combat).

Calling

EM-RY5 was a lowly horticultural golem before being abandoned by his master to roam the Roomlands. Fortunately he found a home amongst the hardy inhabitants of Granite Orchard, a walled settlement to the north west of the Roomland of Lamporia. 

Granite Orchard is built upon the remains of a massive Rook and has been well fortified to protect it from bandits and marauding Rooks and contains a hothouse orchard that grows remarkable fruit that provides much of the settlements income but of late marauding Rooks have been increasingly approaching the settlement and it has been under almost constant siege.

EM-RY5 has had a vision of a far off Roomland with an impossibly tall tower that contains a weapon that will ensure the safety of the settlement that welcomed him and has set off on a quest to recover it.

Because of his abandonment, EM-RY5 is impatient, quick to anger and rather grumpy but has a genuine love of the inhabitants of Granite Orchard and would quite happily die for them if it meant their continued wellbeing.

Campaign Log Day 1

EM-RY5 leaves the settlement of Granite Orchard to begin his quest, the gardeners assistant, Moss Willow tucks a flower into his hat as a good luck charm and while he grumbles about it, Moss Willow smiles and notes that he doesn't move to take it off.

Granite Orchard

No sooner does he leave the village behind than two Rooks burst out of a nearby valley. Cursing his fortunes the brave Golem hefts his mace and prepares to sell his life dearly but as the two Rooks bear down on him, weapons swinging, a Gargoyle swoops from the distant rafters and plucks up EM-RY5 in it's talons and bears him away.

Cursing and struggling, the last our hero sees is the two rooks lumbering up the valley towards his home but he cannot escape the grasp of the Gargoyle. Fortunately it doesn't carry him up into the rafters and instead deposits him in a chasm a considerable distance from his home.

Campaign Log Day 2 

The second day of his travels has EM-RY5 wake up to find himself perched on a ledge some distance from the surface. As he looks up he can see tiny figures moving around a gantry of some sort that spans the pit and they proceed to hurl a number of objects down into the hole, narrowly missing our adventurer.

Roomland of Lamporia thus far explored. 

Realising he cannot climb back to the surface, the Golem decides to continue down following a narrow and treacherous path when he sees something glittering in the gloom ahead. Approaching with care he realises it is a journal of some sort and while faded, it is still legible. Reading the scrawled text is challenging but appears to have belonged to someone from the Roomland below and it informs him that the room is called Balconia and it's inhabitants have been trying to communicate with his own Roomland of Lamponia. Initially they'd tried sending up climbers but it was too treacherous an ascent so they'd recently experimented with hot air balloons but the jagged sides of the hole had prevented any successful manoeuvres.

 

Campaign Log Day 3

Resting for the night on a narrow ledge, our hero continues to read the journal. It appears that the inhabitants below, or Balconians as they call themselves have set up a net to catch the stuff that those above throw down but have been getting raided by bandits who steal all that is recovered and are now seeking aid.

EM-RY5 eventually emerges from the ceiling and gazes down at an open grassland that stretches into the distance far below. Not being willing to take an old journals word of a net being in place to catch him, he looks about until he sees the remains of one of the balloons he read about previously caught on a nearby outcrop. With a bit of tinkering it makes a decent, if crude parachute that should get him to the ground safely.

With some trepidation, the hero launches himself out into the clouds and plummets towards his destiny. Much to his relief the parachute works and he glides down into the great net that the Balconians set up. 

When he lands he is surprised to see the surroundings seem abandoned and glancing around is shocked to discover what he had thought was a large white rock outcrop is in fact a gigantic skull. Closer observation with his spyglass reveals that an encampment seems to have been set up next to it and as he cautiously approaches, he can see it is abandoned. Could this be the bandits encampment but why is it seemingly abandoned? 

He suddenly freezes as he realises that there is a slumped form lying in the centre of the camp. It is the body of a man. As he approaches the still form the ground opens up beneath him and he is forced to fling himself backwards, barely avoiding the spike lined pit that was obviously intended to trap whoever was foolish enough to investigate the body.

Recovering, EM-RY5 scans the surrounding area and sees a path leading towards what appears to be a small settlement and cautiously follows it, wary of any further traps. Like the bandit camp, the settlement seems abandoned and while there are signs of a struggle, there is no further clues as to what happened. 

The Golems search does yield some success when he finds an old Cog Bike in a shed. It is a three wheeled vehicle made from Rook components and while it has seen better days, it appears functional. EM-RY5 mounts up and sets off at increased pace to try and catch up with the bandits and find out the fate of the villagers.

Campaign Log Day 4 

As he pelts along through the countryside on his recovered Cog Bike, EM-RY5 begins to see signs of travel, a discarded shoe here and a split sack of flour there. He increases his pace, the Cog Bikes dynamo churning furiously as he powers on until he sees a bloodstained figure lurching from a stand of trees ahead.

Only as he slows does EM-RY5 realise he's fallen into a trap! Figures burst from the undergrowth and rush the startled golem. Doubly shocking is the realisation that the armour the figures wear has an icon that matches the Rooks that have been troubling his home. Launching himself from the saddle, EM-RY5 crushes the head of the first attacker with a sweep of his mace but the rest overwhelm him and a blow renders him unconscious.

Consciousness  returns slowly and the adventurer wakes to find himself looking up at a small black dog. The dog is wearing a red collar and likes his face. Grunting and groaning, EM-RY5 pulls himself upright and the dog lets out a happy bark and wags its tail. Absently patting the dogs head, the golem looks around. Both his bike and the attackers have vanished but he now knows his enemies are here in another Roomland. Thinking to the confrontation, the masked figures were small and bearded but burly and he realises that they were in fact Dwarves.

Realising that daylight is fading and pushing on would be foolish, EM-RY5 decides to camp amongst the trees and fishes around in his pack where he finds a piece of jerky which he feeds to the dog, who happily eats it. Looking at the name tag, the golem realises the dogs name must be Liran and calls it by name and the dog perks up before sitting obediently. 

Campaign Log Day 5

The Roomland of Balconia so far...

Setting off first thing in the morning in pursuit of the Dwarves, the adventurer emerges from the treeline with Liran sniffing amongst the leaves that litter the ground. Ahead he can see a stepped valley descending into the depths as far as the eye can see. Set near the trees is a sturdy building with a large wheel emerging from the roof. The golem realises that it is a cable car station that will allow passengers to traverse the steep valley quickly.

Suddenly Liran freezes and begins to growl in the direction of the wood behind the station and the trees begin to sway as a Rook lumbers out. It is squat and heavily built and carries a large shield from which a snub nosed cannon emerges. EM-RY5 quickly calculates his position. He could dodge past the Rook and descent using the narrow switchback path he can see as the construct cannot follow him but it will delay his pursuit of the Dwarven bandits by several days, possibly allowing them to escape.

The Bombardier Rook

With a battlecry, EM-RY5 hefts his mace and charges, the small dog Liran hot on his heels. The Rook braces itself behind its shield and the cannon belches fire with a roar. The shot flies wide and before it can reload, the furious golem is upon it.

The first blow from EM-RY5's mace is caught on the machines shield but the thunderous discharge of electricity makes it stumble and the second blow connects with its shoulder and rips off the entire limb, sending it crashing down into the valley below. As the Rook stumbles past EM-RY5's third blow crushes its head and destroys its cortex. The Rook collapses to the ground.

With a victory cry, the adventurer waves his mace in the general direction of the bandits for good measure before searching the fallen Rook, Liran sniffing the fallen machine curiously. The gun arm would have come in handy but it is currently lying further down the valley so EM-RY5 shrugs and heads into the cable car station.

It appears that his foes don't have a high opinion of his skill as they have failed to disable the cable cars, obviously figuring that the Rook would deal with any pursuit and it doesn't take long for EM-RY5 to figure out the simple controls and leap into a car as it leaves the station with his small canine companion under his arm.

The trip down is peaceful as EM-RY5 looks out the window, noting the Rook's arm is stuck in a tree smouldering as they trundle past. Liran seems to find the journey hugely entertaining, spending much of the time sniffing out the window.

As evening approaches, they near the second cable car station and EM-RY5 leaps from the car with his companion before it reaches the station, mindful of the treacherous Dwarves penchant for setting traps and settles down for the night and begins to read further into the journal in search of clues...

Conclusion

Well that was an action packed start to an adventure and I'm finding myself really enjoying playing Colostle. I will need to get some more artwork put together for future posts but the storytelling and journalling nature of the game has been brilliant fun and I can't wait to see what happens next!

All the best!