Chapter 9, Part 1: "The Lurker in the Ornithopter..."

The Cast:

Buzz Brazelhatch - Australian Womanizer and Fighting-Man
Corporal "Radar: O'Reiley - Earth Man Rocketship Soldier
Dickie Dee - Bone Man Intoxicant Addict and Sorcerer
Kal-Mor the White Jackal - Hyperborean Bigot and Assassin
Kalervo - Cactoid Fighter
Monster Monagin - Earth Man Sailor and Bully
Rodan the Scrounger - Zermish Man Scavenger and Fighting-Man
Xarnagan Vrokk - Haasht Man Fighting-Sage

Hobab - Lhoyg (piebald) Mountain Man and Guide
Vrroomish - Tikalg Man Dandy and Adventurer
Two Nguamodons - Pack Lizards

&

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Part II Here, Part III Here, Part IV Here.

The party is lost in the Forbidden Mist Valley, with a couple of the fighters sorely injured by an unfortunate encounter with an aggressive giant fungal polyp. The steeply-rolling hills of lush green moss and the thick, cold, white mist conspire to thoroughly confuse the party regarding their orientation, and they have made several failed attempts to find the crashed flying saucer in the Forbidden Mist Valley that their guide, Hobab, told them of and attempted to lead them to. Their current dire straits being the results of their latest effort to loot the crashed space vessel of its energy weapons.

During the night, as horrid hooting and piping echo through the hills, they are able to determine approximate direction by the ghastly displays of green and violet light playing out in the mist miles above, the radiance of the nocturnal radioactive energy storms in the skies above the Glow Stain. The next morning they decide to abandon their mission and cut across the valley, climb and cross the Bornite Mountains, and make southwards for Jakay.

The downy gray Tikalg Man, splendid in his striking outfit of tight leather pants, billowing purple synthsilk shirt and a martial half-cape, complemented by his own yellow eyes and crest of long, curling white feathers, makes the grandiose gesture of sharing a bottle of fiery brandy, that he was saving for their celebrations upon looting energy weapons from the crashed flying saucer the party was seeking, with the party in order to "burn the damp chill of the Forbidden Mist Valley out of our bones," even offering one of the elegant tiny ceramic cups of liquor to the scapegoat Hobab.

They stumble through the cold, wet, obscuring fog and the steep mossy hills for most of the day before coming to a steep upwards slope. As they slog upwards they hear a loud thrumming sound approaching from above and behind. The startled adventurers freeze as a huge flapping form passes high through the fog above them disappearing from sight ahead before they hear a loud crashing sound.

Cautiously, with weapons drawn, the party scrambles up the mossy slope and espies a crumpled, broken, form of bronze, ceramic and copper with articulated wings, resembling the trashed remains of an Art Noveau dragonfly-helicopter hybrid. A rare flying technological marvel of the Ancients, an ornithopter. Two bodies lie motionless within the twin wire mesh globes located where the eyes would be. Strapped in the flight couch of one is the lifeless form of yellow Gresh Man in grey coveralls, a jagged shard of bronze running through his vitals. In the other is an unconscious Zermish Man clad in heavy ribbed armor and a conical helm, with the weapons of a fighting-man with his baggage.

Aid is applied and the Green Man awakens. Although he remembers his name, Thragg, and his trade, that of the warrior, the blow to his head in the ornithopter crash, which left a deep dent in his tall bronze helm, has left him unable to remember anything regarding the ornithopter or why he was in it. The Zermish fighting-man appears to be a capable and companionable sort, and the companions decide to let him travel with them, dubbing him Thragg "The Skyman."

After hours of tiresome climbing the mist begins to thin and the moss end revealing the iridescent copper, green and purple stone of the Bornite Mountains. The party proceeds upwards and finds a decent campsite with an excellent view of the Forbidden Mist Valley below and the mountains beyond.

Thragg the Skyman