Last night's session begins a little over a week since the last adventure. The colonists have been in the new world for two weeks now, and still there's no sign of the missing third ship. Milly has helped fortify the defense wall, Rassmus has helped map the surroundings and find food, Ulrik has been plagued with dreams of the slain beast (and stopped drinking alcohol), and Atallah has been tending to more political matters as translator between groups.

At the session's kick-off, the new heroes of the Bava Udaris colony were spurred to action by the frantic pleas of a desperate Northwardik woman named Inga, whose daughter Hanna had just gone missing while playing on the defense wall during the first hours of the new dawn. Inspection revealed large bipedal tracks leading away from the colony and into the massive (and spooky!) northwestern forest at a fast pace. The heroes instantly set forth, grabbing little in the way of preparation (which would definitely bite them in their hinies later).

The first obstacle on their journey was a massive ravine with a river far far below (think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and an ancient, enormous tree laid across it as a bridge. Crossing the almost 8-foot-thick, 60-something-feet-long tree-bridge was really no problem at all, but on the opposite end of it was a trap! A concealed pit trap that emptied out just below the other end of the tree-bridge and, when sprung, caused the supports to fall out and drop the tree far far below into the rapids. After some moments of tense climbing action, the heroes caught their breath and picked up the trail again.

The second obstacle (more of a side encounter) on their excursion was when taking a quick breather 9this thing moved far and fast!) in the forest beyond. Ulrik had grown tired of his slightly crippling sobriety, and as he took a swig of a horn of meade, he noticed a figure standing a few strides away: a Northwardik soldier. In fact, the figure wore the helmet of Hjorvaard, his second-in-command! He ran to embrace the man, but when he spun the soldier around he saw a twisted evil monstrous visage and engaged in a perilous struggle. For a few tense moments he was lost in combat, until he was piled upon by the other three fellows, who separated him from the tree he was attacking in delirium.

Shaking off that moment of awkwardness, they moved on, and shortly afterwards found the deep dark lair of the creature they'd been following. With but a single torch and a short length of rope between them, they climbed down into the oppressive darkness. The shadows from the torch only made things worse, hiding any numbers of nooks and corners from which foul evils could deliver murderous intent. It was as if the very earth were trying to press them down into nothing.

In the foul belly of this dark cave they found the remains of the beast's many meals - mounds and mounds of bones covered what seemed to be a vast underground cavern, surrounded by a great foul mire of fetid, excrement-befouled stagnant water. Literally thousands of bones lay here, remnants of many dead creatures great and small, with several human-like remains found among them. Nearby was a separate pile of other stuff, including furs and cut hides, a variety of weapons weird and primitive, and a battered, aged Northwardik shield, with the leather bits mostly rotted off.

While sifting through the bones and "loot", the creature attacked them. It was a fearsome battle, and both Rassmus and Atallah were nearly vanquished. Yet despite massive strength, sinister darkness-blending abilities, and a nigh-unholy regeneration capability, they managed to defeat the... Man-Beast? After it's death, its body decayed with an alarming speed, and soon all that was left was a large, crumbling man-shaped skeleton.

A little girl was rescued, but not the one they were expecting. A strange girl came at them out of the darkness, almost dead from serious wounding. She was obviously of mixed Ahzali and Northwardik blood, and maybe something else too, but definitely not from the Colony. Atallah fumbled his attempt to heal her with magic, and instead reversed their healths, and almost killed himself in the process. Hanna was found, but alas, it was too late for her, as her body had been torn in two.

They traveled back home in silence, taking the long way around by following the river to the harbor. They arrived shortly after nightfall, and found the colony already in a stir about something completely different. The new girl was brought in separately, the remains of Hanna were given to her quite hysterical mother, and the heroes quickly went to see what was up with the commotion.

An old woman of strange heritage had been found outside the colony, lying unconscious at the treeline! The session ended there.

Observations...
The Story Bennies mechanic worked quite well, and the newer players took it and ran, which was definitely awesome.

I think my decision to get both a potentially group-breaking secret and an important past decision from each character was a good one. The secrets are all excellent, and having each player know them helped the game out quite well. The Past Decisions are all pretty good too, and will most certainly give me some good fuel for future game session ideas.

The Secrets:
* Drake/Atallah: He and the Vizier both know what happened to the other ship (Drama!).
* Alex/Ulrik: Years before the voyage, he killed his son's gay lover. His son saw this and killed himself in shame. Ulrik made it look like the lover killed the son, and then the lover's family was ostracized. Rassmus is a distant member of that family, and has suffered from the shame.
* Scott/Rassmus: Not only is he secretly courting Ulrik's daughter, but he has impregnated her as well!
* Evan/Milly: Milly is secretly an agent of the Cape Jaine Mercantile Company. She works for them willingly, and is serving their interests by giving all of their secrets to Murik ver Bagden, the representative on this Colony (Murik is also the only non-human in Bava Udaris).

Some Administrivia...
* House Rules were stated and clarified
* Drake and Evan changed their characters up a bit, and in the end decided they were definitely more enjoyable