Submergences (Lars Bregan, X’ral)

[Grognardsw]

The X'rals of the Past nodded at the words of advice.

X'ral pondered the paradoxes of his temporal selves. If warned of the dangers, would his earlier self have avoided the children to begin with? Woudn't X'ral Present possess the memory of this encounter prior? Such mysteries perhaps gave credence to the lore of many universes, a rainbow of alternative realities from which the X'ral's were plucked?

"The mask of the dying human marks him a follower of Zardoz," said X'ral Future. "They roam the land in crusade against mutant-kind. Keep east two fortmoons and you'll come into the lands above Arakar, a subterranean kingdom. I have yet to find Lars." He faded away back to a future.

X'ral gathered up his scattered equipment and the large rifle of the Ancients (Mark VII Rifle, WC 14, R. 240, D. 8d6) that Mother was using. The mutant shaman looked at the cracked helmet:

[jemmus]

X'ral noted the names. Zardoz, mutant killers. Arakar, underground city. He took the rifle. Knowing that these ancient weapons need ammunition or a power supply, the same as a bow needs arrows, he looked around the room for anything like that. He put the cracked mask in his pack. Then set off east, toward Arakar.

[Grognardsw]

X'ral searched about for more ammunition for the rifle of the Ancients but did not find any. He set out east, hopeful at his future self's words. But how far in the future was that X'ral from? Had he ever found Lars? The mutant shaman tried not to dwell on such a thing.

The cold grew and the White was deeper. X'ral skirted a network of lakes.



In the distance he saw ruins of a structure.

[jemmus]

X'ral approached the ruins. Any place that might shelter, or once have sheltered, a mutant or a human could provide a clue about Lars. And the stone faced men. As he got closer, he readied the ancient rifle.

[Grognardsw]

The old structure was empty save for a bird's nest and a zakoon family. The White revealed no recent tracks of interest.

X'ral looked out the second story window, which gave a view across the White-covered fields to the northeast. He was surprised to see...

The were heading northwest.

[jemmus]

X'ral weighed the odds. Four mutant hunters vs. one mutant. But they appeared to only have weapons driven my muscles. No ancient powerful ones. Beter to eliminate as many of the stonefaced men as possible, to prevent more deaths and more Vigos and his son. He crouched and rested the rifle on the window frame for stability and sighted down the barrel.

If he has a good shot, he'll shoot at the second one from the right (the biggest one, just in case he has more HP).
[1d20]=15
[8d6]=27

[Grognardsw]

I should have specified distance in my last post. They are way too far away even for the 780' range of the rifle. You can keep that set of rolls if you like for the next occasion.

X'ral looked down the rifle scope and realized the men were too far away.

[jemmus]

X'ral noted the direction of the murderers travel. He was headed east, they northwest. So their village, town or camp was probably diagonal, behind his left shoulder. A thought occurred to him. "The shamans say that one's death is always waiting unseen behind the left shoulder. But this is just coincidence, these are just ignorant but dangerous men."

He watches the Followers of... who was it X'rel of the future said? Zadzov? He watches them ride on into the distance. Too far for a shot, even with the seducing Mother's ancient rifle. He sits on the top floor of the old house, takes out his pipe, and loads it with a bowl of Weed of Enlightenment. Then sits and contemplates a while, identifying and giving attention to his wounds for received in only the past few minutes. "Arakar. Not the Stone Faced men's camp, for now. We'll try our chances with Future X'ral's suggestion first." He ponders about whether his self in the future knew about the location of the mask-wearers, but chose not to say. "It's too much. Information about Arakar is enough for now. There must be a reason. We go to find Arakar, for better or for worse."

I have X'ral at 44/73 HP. Did he take that much damage in fight with the toddlers? No need to go back and do the accounting, Grog. But does that seem about right to yo?

[Grognardsw]

The 44/73 sounds right.

The followers of Zardoz rode out of sight as X'ral smoked the weed of enlightenment and pondered his situation. Knowledge of possible futures always put the mutant shaman in a contemplative mood. Somewhere along his mental meanderings, perhaps while bandaging his many scratches and cuts from the mutant toddlers, X'ral remembered he had five packets of medicinal herbs.

Having decided to pursue Arakar, X'ral eventually set out again east. He followed a river for three days.



X'ral came upon tracks of zelks, rare beasts in his own village lands and known to be very flavorful. He followed the tracks to a large abandoned building of the Ancient Times...

[jemmus]

X'ral cleans his wounds with snow and salt. A human bite is bad, the wound can easily fester or even lead to gangrene. He applies salves and bandages to the bites and scratches.

When he sees the zelks, he slings the ancient rifle and nocks an arrow in his short bow. He'll not shoot at an innocent animal with the ancient weaponry. The creature deserves a chance to survive its encounter with a predator. He tries to tell which of the zelks is a buck. Better to harvest a male than a female. One male can breed many females, but one female is required per one doe. He takes aim and looses the arrow.

[1d20]=18

[Grognardsw]

Are the salves X'ral applies the medicinal type? If so, how many (of the five applications), and roll 1d6 for each.

X'ral took aim at the male zelk on the second-floor balcony of the ruined building. His arrow flew true and sank deep into the animal. Scared and in pain, it instinctually bucked and dashed forward over the edge. The zelk plummeted and with a thud lay dead on the floor.

The other zelk bolted away. X'ral had plenty of meat before him.

A quick scan of the ruined structure yielded nothing valuable.

X'ral continued his journey east. On the second day in a rocky region, X’ral came across a herd of traveler roots. The misshapen root structures, large as zelks, scuttled across the rocks in search of irradiated soil in which to plant themselves.

On the fourth day, the mutant shaman saw a great 20’ diameter pit filled with animal bones. He did not linger long, thinking it better to avoid whatever thing left the bones there.

On the sixth day, X’ral heard gutteral echoings that reminded him of zrogs. Than he saw one, but it was giant-sized at five feet long. It was followed by another, then quickly many. X’ral climbed a tree to avoid the leaping, hopping horde of zrogs. X’ral heard a story of this in his youth, how an army of green amphibizards migrated to distant feeding grounds.

On the eighth day, fog enshrouded the land. X'ral heard an unusual swishing sound of air coming from the sky to the northwest. It was unlike any animal sound he had ever heard. What was it? Visibility was low. The mutant shaman took cover near large boulders.

Winds blew, shifting the the mists, and revealed...

A gigantic flying head, its visage the same as the mask of the follower of Zardoz! It was several hundred yards to the northwest, flying slowly as a zule trots, about 200 feet above the ground. X'ral was astounded at the strange sight.

[jemmus]

X'ral remained in hiding, trying to appear as a pile of animal furs. Did the followers of Zardov worship an actual being? A god even? Or was this thing some kind of working ancient technology? He unfocused his eyes and let his mind travel into the near future.

Precognition - See 1 minute into the future.

[Grognardsw]

From his hiding place, X’ral reached his mind out into the future. He saw the giant head float by, not noticing the mutant shaman. It slowly continued northwest, eventually moving out of sight.

X’ral’s mind snapped back to now, as the Zardoz head followed the route the shaman had seen.

X’ral pondered if the head was a god or, somehow, a flying ship. He had heard legends from his grandfather, himself a shaman, about the flying wagons of the Ancients. The head was large enough to carry many men, being like a building size.

Have you seen the Zardoz movie with Sean Connery? It’s a pretty wild flick. Seeing it wouldn’t give any spoilers.

[jemmus]

X'ral's curiosity was piqued. Was the head a kind of alien demigod, or an ancient flying craft. He felt that it was the latter. Or hoped so, at least. If that kind of spirit had managed to physically manifest itself on Earth, already bad things could only get worse. He weighed the options of going as swiftly east as possible to try to find the underground city and Lars. Versus learning more about the Zardoz people, which would surely help counter them in the future. He takes out his pipe and loads it with a bowl Weed of Enlightnment. "What would big little brother Lars say to do?"

After a while, he gets an answer that's sure in his mind. As sure as if Lars was looking straight into his face, with a smile. "Go on and fight against the badness, big brother. Take care of the people, and especially the funny-looking ones among them." X'ral knew by that that Lars meant the mutants. He contemplated a bit more, then rose and stomped through the snow, along the pathway of the flying stonefaced men's god's flight.

[Grognardsw]

X'ral trudged across plain and forest.



He jogged at times to keep the giant Zardoz head in sight.



It was slow but inexorable.



On the second day it stopped and lowered to the ground.



A group of a dozen masked men emerged from cover of woods. They had spears and a few horses. They started filing into the mouth of the giant head.

It made it on Rick & Morty, so it's become a science fiction gonzo touchpoint.

[jemmus]

X'ral silently observes. He fears that the stone-faced men are embarking on a mission to commit atrocities. If the thing launches again, he'll follow it to its destination.

I'm watching Zardoz on Amazon Prime. Really good! I notice that the number of bullets in Sean's bandolier seem to change from scene to scene, even though he hasn't done any shooting.

[Grognardsw]

In a few hours the Zardoz head lifted into the sky and floated along the northwest. X’ral was exhausted, this being the second day of his following the flying head. While the speed was usually slow, it never stopped in day or night. The forced march through the night was taxing. X’ral couldn’t rest for long lest he lose sight of the head. It could not be tracked given it was flying.

The sun was setting now and the head moved still.

Make a 4d6 Con check for staying on your feet tonight. Tomorrow morning it’ll be a 5d6 check.

It was a wacky movie.

[jemmus]

X'ral feet feel as heavy as lead. He's bone weary, and trudging through the snow and ice don't help. He doesn't know how much longer he can keep this up, if at all.

Con 15 [4d6]=18 Is has the head been moving in a straight line toward a destination, so that he can continue in that direction if he has to stop?

[Grognardsw]

X'ral eventually collapsed, unable to keep up with the unending pace of the floating Zardoz head. It had been flying in a steady northwest direction.

The mutant shaman was relieved that direction was not where his own village lay. But it was also not where his brother and the underground land of Arakar lay - "Keep east two fortmoons and you'll come into the lands above Arakar, a subterranean kingdom" his future self had said.

What did you think of the movie?

[jemmus]

X'ral was indecisive. He'd earlier been sure that Lars would want him to go after the persecutors of the mutants. But now he had second thoughts about his decision. If Lars was still alive, he would need help. And what could he do against so many Zardoz men? Hope for a miracle, and for just the right set of conditions to fall into place to let him make a difference? And if he could join up with Lars, it would be twice as many against the stone faced men.

"Now you're just trying to convince yourself with justifications," he thought. "Just give it up and go where your gut says to go." He looked to the the distant northwest, noting the landmarks here and as far away as he could see. Then turned to the direction and tried to reckon where Arakar might be, after two days of walking northwest and not east. He regretted the time and many footsteps lost. He remembered an old saying. "A dog chases a rabbit. Then, then it spots another, closer rabbit, and switches and chases that. It doesn't catch either one." He sat down and loaded his pipe with weed of enlightenment and smoked on it. Then stood and started walking to the southeast, toward Arakar. Or in its direction, at least. The World would provide better directions along the way.

Zardoz was great! I didn't get to finish it during the Amazon Prime 48 hours rental, so had to read an internet synopsis. Seems like some very good plot writing, pretty complex and with a lot of unexpected twists.
The "smoke on it" quote is from "Little Big Man," the film. I don't think it was also in the original book. A little inside joke with some the audience members from the 1970s film makers, I think.