The Heavy Standard: The Daggerdowns

[Part of the Party Time journal]   

Bad Horse and a number of braves accompany the 555 back through their destroyed camp to the Southern cliff face where they, Eagle, Dr Qwek Qwek and Agrellon rappel down to a large ocean facing cavern. Juris opts to stay up top with the rest but turns them invisible for added safety. It is winter again now and they find five of the flying serpents (dragons) asleep in the cave. With much stress and good rolling all are assassinated simultaneously.

A crevice not big enough for the serpents to fit through descends deeper and following it they find evidence that there might be more: cracked egg shells and eaten corpses of... something. From the underground lake appears Lady Longwein offering another seed of water to solve this danger before vanishing once more. Bad Horse eagerly takes the seed of water but is convinced by the 555ers not to use it immediately (1 year) and what it will do (from past experiences).

Not willing to continue to hunt they all return to the surface where Bad Horse and his braves return to his camp while the 555 push East, into the misty forested hills of Daggerdown where they were warned dangerous beasts lived. It isn't long before they are attacked by them: angry silverback apes who have no limit to their number! They run and run until they find a tower to hold up in. Juris even does a detour to save a black bulldog he names "Niggi" en route which he finds also being attacked by the apes.

The towers residents let them all in and quickly shut the heavy gate behind them buying some measure of safety. Here they learn they are in the second of three "Daggerdown" towers which are actually connected by mines to the Argillatory prison up on the plateau where prisoners conveniently get "shafted" down to the mines. This particular tower is now home to only guardsmen, having eaten all the prisoners and are now running low on water thanks to something lurking down below. The further tower is controlled by prisoners while the tower closer to the plateau is controlled by apes. Seeing an opportunity to reach the plateau, it's clear to them which way to go...