We met Derek and Kelly, who played Aeris and Prosper respectively, and stuck with us for the rest of the campaign. Aeris was introduced as a wizard dedicated to science who had been pressed into service on the Hedgepeth. Prosper is introduced below.
Having surveyed the compound from the bluff, the party went back down to attack it. Coming near the shore again on the way there, they heard screaming, and were shocked to find a thirsty, hungry, and cold man inexplicably yelling from the water - Prosper. Pulling him out of the water, they found him:
...a bit touched. It hasn't occurred to him that people might accept his help more readily if he shaved, or bathed, or stopped wearing his trusty, but filthy, cloak. The rusted chainmail from the dead soldier he wears and the somewhat menacing driftwood staff he still carries with him everywhere don't help, either.
Who Prosper was, and how he got there, were a mystery. Despite his dramatic introduction and his initial disorientation, Prosper immediately joined the party. Picking up Aeris from the Hedgepeth, they continued to the compound.
Hardened guards attacked the party between the shore and compound - a leader, duelists, and snipers. During the fight, the party noticed that their new friend Aeris used a magic implement hidden inside a conspicuous burlap sack. Defeating the guards, they continued into the compound by following an ore cart track from the shore into the compound. They investigated the low flat building they'd seen from the bluff, and found it full of centrifuges refining masses of green salt into Greencake, a fine powder with a distinctive smell.
They decided the stone tower had the loot they were looking for. Exploring the tower's basement, they found the first boss of the campaign, the superpowered dire wolf Muninn.
The characters enter a 110 x 125 foot room through a door. When they shine their lights into the room, they see two things. First, there's a vault-like door at the far end. Second, a lone wolf was sleeping by the vault and the light has woken him. Watching him get up, you see he has thin scraggly fur that's matted in some places and missing in some others. Through the fur you can see that his body is gaunt with age. But, he's grown large over many years and he has cruel looking yellow fangs. He could be the patriarch of the other wolves you've seen.
He takes a few seconds to study the characters, and shakes off his sleep and age. Then he starts to pace back and forth with his tail down. You're disturbed to notice that he doesn't call out to any other wolves.
Muninn had these abilities in addition to his dire wolf abilities.
Muninn easily overpowered the party, knocking both Beowolf and Aeris unconscious. While unconscious, Beowolf had a vision.
You're on Apogee looking down on Braddock. The stillness of the air is unnatural and stifling. You see a flashing down in the city. Suddenly, a tornado comes over the horizon and touches down right in Braddock. Matchsticks that used to be buildings are flying everywhere. Then after the tornado lifts off, in the blankness left by the tornado, you see two women suddenly exposed, not sure which way to turn or how to escape being seen.
And, Aeris had a simpler vision.
There's a big cart stuck in a hairpin turn and no one can get it out.
As the rout became obvious, I silently started to skip using Muninn's powers, and the party ultimately defeated him, with Kasskar delivering the killing blow. In true barbarian style, Beowolf claimed Muninn's pelt to make a +1 helmet, which he affectionately called the Wolf Helmet.
With Muninn dead, the party opened the vault, and found two cigar-box-sized boxes of Greencake.
Later in the campaign we decided that Muninn was an ancient friend of Hilde's barbarians, the Inkeri, so Beowolf's Wolf Helmet became a political liability when he tried to rally the Inkeri to his side.
