The adventure

It all sounded suspiciously like the entry forms for the USA back at home. Lying was clearly unanticipated, and Margreet liked to do the unexpected, so on behalf of all of them she answered "no" to all three questions.
"I need to know" Private Panrack replied, as if anticipating some objection to the questioning. As the first Umpani they had met, they tried to ask him something more, about the Destinae Dominus and the Dark Savant, but his replies were
"That's probably classified" and "Oohhh, that's definitely classified."
They left the bipedal rhino watching the gatehouse and the outdoor patrols, and walked inside. Set in front of the mountain's sheer face were two giant cabins, like the porta-cabins from home, but a little larger. The face itself had a black entranceway at the base.

They tried the recruiting centre first, bumping into an exceptionally stupid Trynnie recruit called Sparkle.
"Duty, Power, Victory!!" she cheered, her voice so high-pitched that it seemed it might go beyond the range of hearing. She explained how the camp was laid out, but was good for little else, so they spoke to Sergeant Balbrak, and agreed to work for the IUF (Imperial Umpani Federation). Margreet managed to make him let slip about a third device akin to the Destinae Dominus, called the Astral Dominae. As they quizzed him further about places, he had little of interest to say: the Higardi seem nice enough, the Rapax are interested in killing, and that's about it..
They found on a table behind him maps of the Mt. Gigas caves, including areas marked 'unexplored', underwater caverns, marked 'recon parties lost', and plans for attacking Marten's Bluff. As part of recruitment he demanded that they pass the obstacle course, and gave them a pass to give to the sergeant in charge, called Rubble.

They raided the other side of the cabin, which contained bunks, lockers and chests, Salva getting considerable practice at his now well-practised skills of lock-picking and trap-disarming, and then tried the other cabin.
This contained the comissary, where a distinctly unfriendly Sergeant Kunar sold them some more ingredients for their potion-mixing, sold them an Umpani flag and bought some of the things they'd picked up on their travels. They bought some mesh jackets and leggings, for those members of the party who didn't wear armour: Karen and Vi were happy with metal clothing, and Shu Ting had her special samurai armour.
The other half of the cabin was called the 'Roadhouse', and was a bar. They spoke to Saxx, an easy-going musician who would have been playing had there been a crowd. Saxx sold them a rumour that the path to the Destinae Dominus led via Marten's Bluff to some caves somewhere, but not the Mt. Gigas ones. The barman was brisk, but happy to talk when his palms were greased; he explained that the giants rats that Sparkle mentioned sounded like Rattkin to him... he started talking quite a lot, about an old planet and mission called Guardia, where they had tried to get a device called the Astral Dominae, but the Rattkin, whose home planet it was, had given them a trouncing, the T'Rang had been there and fought them too, and the Dark Savant had run away with the device.
They eventually left his reminisces and did the obstacle course, a dangerous run between falling spikes, over planks suspended above lava and ending with fights against some training dummies.
When they returned to Balbrak he told them to scout Marten's Bluff and bring back evidence that the T'Rang were there:
"Get me something, anything, 100% T'Rang." They couldn't get into the rest of the base, the main entrance requiring higher-ranking security clearance, so off they went again.

As they passed through the wilderness they crested a hillock to find themselves facing 6 soldier ants and a queen ant. As always, the life on Dominus seemed unusually large. The soldier ants charged and died quick deaths, but the Queen could fire some very hot acid, and a few squirts, as they closed on her, splattered the friends, and burned away through Margreet's exposed face and brain. Shocked by her sudden death the girls fought pathetically, and Quentin had to squish the Queen with his mace. He scrabbled through the collected pouches of loot that sat in the bottoms of their kitbags, and eventually found some more resurrection powder. The inventory was interesting itself: they had plenty of flash and sneeze powder, which Margreet had discovered could be combined into something that felt much more powerful.
With the right queen alive the friends hiked back to Arnika, killing some predatory plants and some mites on the way.
Here they killed some more Savant drones (floating orbs with nasty, strength-sapping energy bolts) and sold some more of their renewal potions to He'Li It seemed that she just couldn't stockpile enough of these things; no-one on the continent could make them, and although they didn't heal in the normal way of things, they were good for curing some of the potent curses and soul-draining effects of darker magic. He'Li promised to match the price of anyone else if they'd sell only to her. Since she already offered top money, they agreed. In Arnika they rested awhile, Quentin practising his magic, including by using a spell he'd learned to identify magic. Margreet mixed their powders and Quentin identified them before they sold the pandemonium powder to He'Li.
Lord Braffit charged the mana stones that Quentin was using to replenish his reserves of magic, and then they set off once again for Trynton.

On the road they met a group of piercer modais led by a sige. Salva shot her dead at long range with a feather dart, for which achievement he permitted himself a modest smile, and the piercer modais died in short order without their trainer and mistress. The friends cut a couple of intact claws from the animals, recalling that Antone used them for some of his custom items.
Soon after they encountered a similar band of enemies; this time Quentin killed the sige with a withering energy blast, again leaving the piercer modais undirected and easy pickings.

As they passed through the forest floor of Trynton, they met another 5 rapax patrolmen. Having found the last 4 easy, they waited with confidence against a giant root as the hooved monsters marched towards them. This time, however, the patrol was not caught by suprise, and was much more focussed. They directed their attacks at Quentin and Salva, killing Salva in a whirl of blades. They took the punishment meant to keep them down and it was only Quentin sending them insane that stopped them downing him too, as two turned on the other two. When he found the time to immobilise them it was their end, and Karen and Shu Ting chopped them up, Shu very happy with her new sword. Quentin acted as Salvador's saviour, seizing him from death and dragging him back to the world.
They continued on, passing and killing a giant mouth on legs called a swallower, and entered the swamp. Vi cautioned them about the place, saying that the creatures here grew to be very oversized. Shu Ting was outraged.
"Why couldn't I have grown up on this planet?"
"We like having two dwarves with us" Salvador said, as he smiled down on her.
They followed what passed for a path, meeting some rather pathetic swamp frogs and some more worrying giant flying insects called blood drinkers. Eventually they came to a more wooded area, in amongst the mangroves of which they found some delicate blue flowers and then, looming out of the mists, a wooden shack.
Inside was a creature, although it looked more like a wizened husk (of a strongman), which called itself Crock. They chatted, Crock revealing himself to be not only an eccentric loner, but also a bit of a former crook. In particular, they found his motivation for curiosity alarming; when asked about the Mook, he answered
"I seen me one or two, but I don't figure they's good eatin'."
A hefty bribe induced him to explain that he had known Marten, making him well over a century old and explaining his greyness. If Marten were still alive, he said, he was to be found in the sea caves, which were beyond the island of Bayjin. He then revealed that he had quite a stash of precious items for sale, including another amulet of healing. They bought one for Shu Ting, in the hope that she wouldn't die quite as often, and also purchased a few spell-books, a doubleshot sling for Quentin and a rather special, powerful sling-type device for Margreet which Crock called a wrist rocket. It required some explanation of how it worked, and it fired stones more like Salva's omnigun than a sling. The strangest thing that they bought, however, was Crock's sepcial sale item for the moment, which was perfume. He was a little embarrassed when he first mentioned it, but the idea of Rapax perfume caught their minds. If nothing else, they could try using it to get better prices from Antone.
After their spending spree they wandered outside and attacked 9 picuses, none of which seemed to have an egg available for Antone, and a Steelhide crocodile, whose hide they knew Antone was very keen on. As they skinned it inside its giant hollow log they were attacked by some bats. The log provided good shelter, and the bats left not a scratch on the friends.

Further wanderings in the swamp introduced them to 15 soldier ants and another queen. They were more careful this time, and when Quentin and Margreet had taken care of the soldiers with a fireball and firebomb they used a tree as cover to rush the giant ant. Perhaps the ant was also distracted by the appearance of a monstrous suit of black armour and a stinking cloud of acid that appeared with it. The creature remonstrated with the group, asking if they thought he'd be fooled by the fake, and asking where the real one was. He was extraordinarily angry, and when he raged even harder because he realised that they were completely surprised by his words and appearance he vanished again, leaving them confused. They picked up the 'fake', which on closer inspection they found was labelled 'Astral Dominae'.