Session 7: Searching for a master

We carry on further into the mountain and encounter another angry Deer monk near a river that flows through the basin. They are angry about the way that some of the other monks have capitulated to the blasphemous behaviour of the Roach masters. We explain that we are here to try and fight the roaches and ask about the various factions. We ask the monk to take us to one of the masters who is also unhappy about the corruption of the Boulder school.

He fords the nearby river and takes us south-east to another temple complex, the fish are bloated and and unpleasant looking, another sign of corruption.

We are taken to meet one of the masters, called Atta, a pangolian slightly shorter than a man but powerfully built. He seems lost in contemplation with the stone arm of one of the guardians discarded nearby. His acolytes seem rude but not aggressive.

We need to impress the monks in some way so Yarold puts the skills he learned in the city to demonstrate his control and endurance with one of the rubber balls that the monks seem to use in their games. Given the threat of the cockroaches and the dangerous atmosphere in the mountain this seems a slightly ridiculous task.

It works however and the master stirs themself to talk to us. They seem to be in a mild depression due to having broken the rules of this place in attacking a guardian. He tells us the guardians will be drawn to him until they are re-enchanted so his ability to confront the rogue monks is limited.

It seems the monk who can reset the guardians has descended the stair to commune with a spider guardian or god spirit. It seems unlikely that this journey has gone well based on what we saw coming up the stair.

As Master Atta questions us about our travels it seems that he is very concerned about the Relic Hall guardian and is very concerned about her well-being. It seems that no matter where we travel in or under this mountain everyone thinks we are barbarians.

There is no time to dig further into this relationship, the master leads out of the training hall and back to a temple structure that we passed on our way here. The temple is full of nesting birds which is atmospheric but triggers memories of the guano filled cave.

Within this temple is a powerful artefact, an arrow of certain death! If only one of us had a bow this would make it much easier to deal with the renegade master. Perhaps we will be able to borrow a bow on our way.

We pick up the deer monk but Master Atta is very determined to move swiftly to confront the corrupted Boulder school.

Together we climb up a path towards the Boulder or Roach school, there are improvised barricades but they serve more as warnings than genuine barriers. Nothing serious impedes our journey. Maybe this is overconfidence, a lack of organisation or perhaps a justified sense of being able to handle intruders. The roaches capriciousness and arrogance has certainly helped us before.

We encounter some young monks who are laughing and giddy, they have small roaches swarming over their bodies. Whether this is what they want or not we are here to break the hold that the roaches have over these people so we seize them with intent to kill the roaches and to see if what is in their minds once they have been freed of their malicious influence.