Army of PCs Against the Giants

[perovskite]

Day 178: MAOG vs Frost Giants

For those of your following along in the modules, the fight in this session takes place in the four-way intersection between areas 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12.

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Frost giant ichor oozes around everyone’s feet. Anyone standing on top of a frost giant corpse notices that these giants have rather expensive looking gold and amber armbands (with ivory inlays!) depicting a bear.

Kochevnik strips the valuables from the corpses. He only acquires two armbands (one per giant), but they look like they’re worth...1200 gp each. A knowledge nobility and royalty gleans that…there’s nothing really special about the armbands, heraldry-wise. They’re by no means identical, and are well made, but don’t seem to indicate the wearers were members of a royal house or anything.

He hands them to Kat to carry. “We can figure out how to split these up later.”

Kat takes the armbands and stows them in her bag of holding. The two of them advance through the doorway Kat and Harvey’s fire elemental installed last time.

Escaflowne steps over the corpses and moves into the hall and watches the direction that Dragon ran waiting for everyone to be ready to move.

Dragon move to what will likely soon be the rear of the group, and watches their soon to be backtrail, in case there is a lone giant hiding in the guardroom.

Salach also moves into the hallway.

Zelda grumbles something about getting out the kink in her swords before turning invisible and heading down the hall. You can hear her muttering moving down the hall toward the left turn.

Escaflowne moves after her as best he can since he can’t see her.

Zelda gets to the first bend in the hallway. When she peers around she sees….nothing! The hallway is empty. She relays back quietly, “Clear so far.”
Kat and Kochevnik move up, Kat staying about 25 feet behind Kochevnik, as befits a squishy wizard and her <strike>meat shield</strike> bodyguard..

The hallway gives a fairly sharp curve to the right, and then is a not-quite straight shot from there into the Rift. Zelda can see blowing snow at the end of the hall when it opens up into a ledge, and one of those 5’ tall walls also at the end of the hall.

Zelda - “Looks like we’ll be going outside again.” just loudly enough for the closest couple people to hear. She moves heads to what appears to be a side cave and looks in.

Escaflowne says over his shoulder a little louder, “We will be going outside again.”

On the right side of the hallway is what looks like it used to be a guardroom, with a few supplies, a couple of frost-giant sized stools, and a pair of spears. The room is otherwise empty.

Zelda moves on, leaving it to one of the spellcasters to determine if there’s anything magical in there.

Kat pokes her head in the guardroom and casts a quick detect magic. Fail! There’s nothing magical here. She keeps the spell active for the next 11 minutes. Everyone in the party shines like Hogswatch trees.

Karla and Zelda both remember that last time they were here, the ledge up ahead was where some stone giants had thrown rocks at them from across the Rift. It’s as far as the party got before turning back and requesting reinforcements.

Zelda says to Esca “Stop here, this is where we got boulders thrown at us last time. I’ll go and see if they are across the way like before.” She moves forward, to the wall at the end of the hallway.

Escaflowne brings his sword up to a ready guard, “We are waiting here for our scout.”

Zelda peeks over the wall and looks across the Rift, but presently the snow is blowing too hard for her to be able to see anything on the far side. She grumbles a bit, then starts climbing over the wall.

Kat edges up next to Escaflowne, and looks toward where Zelda might be, examining the walls and ceilings for magic. More nuffin!

Zelda vaults spryly over the wall, and is not immediately hit with boulders. She hops down the other side. Since she can’t see the other side of the rift due to snow, she moves left to peer down the hall.

As promised, it is definitely a ledge, with another tunnel leading back into the ice away from the Rift. The distance Zelda can see out through the rift varies wildly from second to second because of the blowing snow, but it’s really hard to see farther than 70 feet.

Zelda steps into the hallway, which quickly branches off in three directions. She turns around and returns to the group, vaulting the wall. Once she reaches Esca, she dispels her invisibility.

Zelda - “So visibility is pretty poor out on the ledge, there, so even if there are giants on the other side of the rift, I doubt they’d be able to see us unless they have like an ability that helps them see through snow. It turns back into caves pretty quick.”

Escaflowne, “Do we want to take that wall down when we move forward?”

Karla - “It’s not like our earlier fight was particularly quiet, so it might be fine to do so.”

Kat “If it’s constructed the same as the last ones, I can melt the ice and the strong fellows can move the rocks. Unless Harvey can disintegrate it…?”

Harvey: “I can, if you’d rather, but I’ve only got two crumble spells.”

Kat nods and pulls out her burning hand wand.

Escaflowne, “If I kick it down we save spells.”

Kat “I’ve got a wand full of combat-ineffective fire spells.”

She advances to the barrier, keeping to the left hand wall. When she gets there, she starts melting sections of the wall, enough for two medium creatures to pass abreast. Four charges later, until it’s just rocks left, and then she steps back to let the brawn do the rest of the work.

Caboose puts his axe on his back starts to sprint towards the hole in the wall, then begins to slide on his stomach through the wall. “Caboose slide!” he says gleefully

Caboose slides straight into the wall. Somehow he manages to catch the rocks with his hands in just the right way that he bulldozes a 5’ wide gap through the wall. The rocks skitter over the ledge, while Caboose catches himself with his feet on the edges of the new doorway, avoiding any hilarious hanging by a hand over the cliff shenanigans.

Caboose gets up and grabs his axe off his back and says “Worth it.” with a smile on his face.

Zelda gets that frowny “unexpected, but I approve!” face and re-invisiblizes herself. “To the left!”

Escaflowne shakes his head and starts moving forward.

Salach can’t think of anything to say, and so just closes his mouth instead.

Escaflowne looks over his shoulder, “is the scout moving a head or am I taking point?”

Kat, looking for the glow of magic unaccompanied by a physical form, says “Zelda’s out front”

Zelda moves toward the left hallway.

Escaflowne, “so go straight?”

Kat: “Yes, but wait a bit.”

Caboose looks towards Escaflowne and wonders why he would want to walk into a wall in a confused look.

Zelda stops as soon as she sees giants in front and moves back. She almost bumps into Esca, since he was closer than she thought, but hisses “Sh!” at him and grabs his sleeve to pull him back with her.

Zelda can see three giants: two female frost giants, armed with shield and spear, and one hill giant, for some reason, armed with a club. They were talking quietly, until Esca’s clanking armor caught the attention of one of the females.

They whip around and start shouting immediately.

Round 1!

Escaflowne breaths on 1,3 and 4.

Frost Giant Shield Maiden 4 takes the brunt of the lightning bolt, enabling Shield Maiden 3 to avoid it partially. The hill giant also eats a whole lot of electricity.

Kat, not being in sight of a target, moves 15 feet  to the right-hand wall and holds her action. She motions the others forward and calls out. “Fighters advance!”

At the sound of a lightning bolt going off, you all hear the sound of an enormous horn being blown down the hallway to the right, as well as shouts coming from the hallway directly in front.

Dragon can’t do much except scoot up, so he just scoots up.
Zelda moves to stand 5’ away from the rear Shieldmaiden, readying her attack.

Karla, since she is next to Caboose, casts a healing spell on him, and then moves up.

Caboose feels the strength of the bull pulse in his veins and rages “MUCH RAGE N KILL GIANTS!” He shouts in anger!

Zelda notices that standing behind the two hill giants, is a frost giant who is apparently not wearing any armor or carrying a shield. She does have a spear.

Kochevnik Lays Hands on himself, using his full amount for the day. He then moves to the intersection of halls to the right, putting himself about 10 feet to Kat’s right and 5 feet in front..

Caboose sees Escaflowne “I Come ESCI!!” He rages in a shoutish way and moves forward 90 feet to catch up to him. “I kill gaints with you” He pants when he gets to Escaflowne.

Harvey wildshapes into a hunting bat, and flutters to the intersection. Fluff follows. Brb


Salach moves into the intersection cause he doesn’t like having a big open chasm at his back.

Ugh, finally the giants. First, five rocks sail out of the snow from across the rift. They’re not aimed very well, and one bounces off the lower lip of the ledge. The other four….all smack into the ice near Dragon, but he’s his local farm village dodgerock champion, and so avoid anything worse than ice bits.

The giants in front of Esca and Zelda….move to attack! Shield Maiden 3 moves right past Zelda’s face, and hill giant 1 conducts an accidental overrun attack. Zelda dodges his feet.

Since the shield maidens are carrying spears, they can stab at you from 20’ away. Suck it. One of the giants manages to stab Esca! It’s a decent stab, nothing to write home about.

The two hill giants move up behind the shield maidens, but can’t do anything.

The last one moves up just enough to see what’s going on, and then fires some magic missiles at Esca. All three go thump into his face!

Over in the intersection, a pair of shield maidens appear out of the hallway where the horn had sounded. One gets close enough to take a stab at Kochevnik, and hits him solidly.

Down the hallway that is actually to the front, a male frost giant appears, and it sounds like there are others behind him.

Round 2!

Escaflowne charges Shield Maiden 3. Shield Maiden 4 stabs at him as he goes by, but misses...barely. Esca hits solidly, but the women just shout encouragement to each other.

Kat turns around and sees giants advancing from both directions. She casts Scorching Ray at the male Frost Giant in the lead in the left hand corridor. Two of her rays hit the giant, and the third… well she’s lucky it didn’t hit her own foot.

The frost giant roars in pain and surprise, cause fire is hot!

Dragon activates travel devotion upon hearing the multitude of shouts and rounds the corner to see what’s up. He goes to fight the first giants he sees, who happen to be a pair of shield maidens, both of whom stab at him in route. He biffs his own attack, and receives….one stab in return.

Zelda moves around behind the giant that appears to be a spellcaster and stabs her in the back. She becomes visible.

The frost giant shrieks and starts yelling at the hill giants to come help her out.

Karla activates her protection devotion, and then casts Dragon Breath (Bronze) on herself. She moves to the center of the room.

Kochevnik charges at Shield Maiden 5 to smite her. He bashes her most grievously with his bastard sword, but the second rank shield maiden stabs him right back with her attack of opportunity! And she gets a critical hit, too. Happily, getting run through doesn’t kill him outright, but he is still in a world of hurt.

Caboose grips his axe and steps 10 feet forward and leaps charges shield maiden number 3 “DIE UGLY WOMAN THINGY!” he screams

Caboose leaps through the air (and gets stabbed while in the air for his troubles by Shield Maiden 4), but still lands a powerful blow on Shield Maiden 3. However, their obvious skill at fighting in formation keeps it from being a critical hit.

Harvey watches the carnage with a sigh, then tells fluff to stay. He flies so that he has line of sight on Giant 11 and casts impeding stones on the ground under his feet. Both he and shield maiden 6 (also in the area of effect) have to steady themselves, but neither falls over. And of course now frost giant 11 can’t charge.

Salach also decides that battlefield control is the name of the game, so he’ll cast...slow on shield maidens 5 and 6. Shield maiden 5 saves, but 6 does not.

And the giants!

The sorcerer-looking giant just decides to kick Zelda, but misses.

The two shield maidens fighting Esca and Caboose both drop their spears and pull out battle axes! Then they attack, and both hit.

One of the hill giants lumbers over to see what the sorceress is complaining about, but can only get one swipe in at Zelda, but misses.

Shield maiden 5 drops her spear, draws her axe, and takes a swing at Dragon. She misses. Shield maiden 6, too slowly, takes a stab at Kochevnik, cause she can see he’s down. And she runs him through again! He collapses and dies.

The other giants move up to the shifting rocks, and frost giant 11 manages to move 20 forward without falling over.

Round 3!

Escaflowne activates haste and uses rain of blows to open up on the Shield Maiden 3. Esca hits her once, twice, and the second blow kills her. Esca decapitates her as she falls.

Katreana casts one of her memorized Magic Missiles at Shield Maiden 5. Five missiles scream across the room and hit her in the face.

Dragon starts swinging at Shield Maiden 5. He gets one good hit, but then slips and can’t finish his attack routine.

Zelda reactivates her invisibility and moves to her left, silently.

The hill giant looks a bit surprised when Zelda vanishes, but the sorceress says what can only be described as a curse word.

Karla casts a reach version of Bull’s Strength on Dragon, and moves up to the moving hallway.

Skip Kochevnik, cause womp womp.

Caboose, full of rage and anger in soul, looks at maiden four “YOU DIE UGLY THINGY MCBOBBER!” and he goes full Caboose and does full attack on her

Harvey casts Mass Snake’s Swiftness and every ally except Esc and Dragon within 215 feet of him gets another ranged or melee attack. “Someone wanna shoot this guy for me?” he yells, gesturing at giant 11.

Kat, suddenly feeling a lot faster, pulls out her bow and shoots at Frost Giant 11. She hits it.

Salach casts charm monster on one of the shield maidens, but she shakes it off and its not affected.

Finally the giants!

A hill giant steps up and takes a swing at Esca, but misses. Shield maiden 4 swing at Caboose twice and hits him once.

The hill giant near Zelda doesn’t do anything, except watch expectantly. The sorceress, however...detonates a coldball right at her own feet. Zelda dodges, and the frost giant is immune, but the hill giant takes some damage, and shouts about it quite a bit.

The last group of giants slowly makes their way across the shifting ground, and are just about within hitting distance of Karla.

Round 4!

Escaflowne starts swinging at the hill giant. The hill giant drops after Esca hits him the third time.  Escaflowne takes a five foot step and uses his last attack on the Shield maiden.

Kat casts Summon Monster V and drops a medium fire elemental between Karla and the oncoming male Frost Giant. The elemental bitchslaps the Frost Giant. The frost giant jumps at the burn (ha), but doesn’t catch on fire, tragically.

Dragon once again attempts to get his attack on. He swings four times, and hits only three, but clearly kills the frost giant shield maiden.

Zelda attacks the hill giant she’s next to. Despite stabbing the giant in the gut twice, down to the hilt, it’s still standing.

Karla steps a bit closer to Dragon, to throw a lightning breath at the remaining shieldmaiden. The shield maiden sees it coming and hides behind her shield, avoiding the worst of it.

Caboose angry he didn’t hit the shield maiden this last time, again full attacks her! He kills the shield maiden. “DEAD UGLY THINGY NOW!” he roars in the bloodlust he has created

Harvey flies over to where fluff is, giving him a direct line of sight to the sorceress next to Zelda. He drops a huge fire elemental right behind her. Both giants go “Holy CRAP!” in their giant language.

The elemental slams the sorceress twice for lots of damage, and her clothes catch on fire as well!

Salach attempts to cast hold monster on the male frost giant, who also saves. “DAMMIT!”

The giants!

The hill giant near the fire elemental attacks the fire elemental and hits twice, but doesn’t nearly kill it.

The sorceress makes a withdrawal, and Zelda takes her pot shot at the sorceress on the way.

Frost giant 11 finally fails his reflex save and falls over. The frost giant behind him doesn’t. Gray frost giant 1 does, halting forward progress by the giants behind him.

Shield Maiden 6 stabs at Dragon with her spear, confident in her superior reach giving her an advantage, despite her magical slowness.. She gets him once.

[perovskite]

Day 178: More MAOG vs Frost Giants

(click to show/hide)

Round 5!

Escaflowne de-actives haste and looks to Caboose, “help our rogue,” then turns and takes off towards the rest of the conflict.

Caboose looks to Escaflowne, enraged still, goes to simply say to him “I HELP KILL UGLIES!” in his softest voice.

Kat, hearing Escaflowne coming up behind her, says “Help Dragon and Kochevnik!” She then whips her arm forward and snaps, sending a fireball down the corridor, and detonating it, right behind Frost Giant 9.

Escaflowne sees Kochevnik laying on the ground, not moving, with a couple of pretty serious spear wounds.

Escaflowne shouts to Dragon, “Can you hold?  There are quite a few coming down the other hall.” as he surveys the situation.

Dragon- “Yeah, I’m fine! Check on Kochevnik.”

Karla - “I’ll tend to him, make sure those giants don’t get to Kat!”

Escaflowne, “One dragon wall coming up.”

Kat’s fireball detonates, and the hall is quickly filled top to bottom with flame and with shouts of pain from people who don’t like fire! Surprise! There is much cursing in giantish. The fire elemental, on the other hand, enjoys the brief warmth.

To add insult to injury, Kat’s fire elemental slams Frost Giant 11. The frost giant looks on his last legs, and it also on fire. Which he does not like.

Dragon uses travel devotion some more and quickly attacks the shield maiden. She stabs at him misses terribly.  He hits with his first two strikes, but misses with the second two.

Zelda assess the situation, and decides that she doesn’t want to let that sorceress get away. She charges the sorceress. As she steps away the hill giant takes a swing at her and gives her a solid smack. She keeps going, and stabs the sorceress once she reaches her.

The sorceress, who is still on fire from Harvey’s fire elemental, yells in anger at her.

Karla, now that the exits are defended without holes, reaches down and uses cure minor wounds on Kochevnik. Nothing happens. When she notices, she mutters under her breath “Shit.” She pulls out her bag of holding.

Caboose eyes the hill giant in front of him, Musters his strength and begins to charge at him “YOU DIE UGLY!” He roars in approval. He leaps through the air at the giant!

Caboose hits the giant high in the shoulder and drives his axe most of the way through his rib cage. The giant drops dead on the spot, and Caboose is covered by a fountain of blood! Like Carrie amounts of blood.

“FATALITY!!!!!” Caboose screams in full rage and bloodlust “CABOOSE THE BLOODLUSTER KILLS UGLY GIANT FOR MOR’DOR!” He bellows`.

The fire elemental bellows with him in fellow feeling and lumbers after the sorceress. The sorceress is looking pretty desperate about now.

Harvey flies back to just behind the smaller elemental and casts arc of lightning between giant 11 and giant 1. Fluff moves a little closer to the exit and keeps an eye out.

Giant 11 collapses and dies in a smoking heap. The other giant also takes the brunt of the lightning arc, but still looks in pretty good shape. Giant 9 also can’t avoid it and looks pretty beat up.

Salach decides to pile in on the direct damage casting cause nothing else was working, so he drops a fireball way down the corridor as well. There is quite a bit of yelling from down the hall, and indicates that there are a couple more giants that you can’t see right now.

The sorceress is more interested in staying alive than fighting, so she just charges right past Zelda! Zelda steps to the side to as not to get stomped on, and gets one hit in as the sorceress runs.

Shield Maiden 6 sloooowly stabs at Dragon and somehow nearly gets another critical hit, but he manages to avoid that.

Frost giant 9 keeps approaching the medium fire elemental., and gets close enough to take a swing, which connects, and the fire elemental poofs out of existence.

Gray frost giant 1 scoots back out of the far side of the impeding stones, and the giants have a brief discussion of what to do.

Round 6!

Escaflowne charges 9. When he’s about 10 feet away from the giant, the terrain starts shifting under his feet. He doesn’t fall over, but it ruins his charge. The frost giant swings at him as he approaches but his swing is deflected by the divine power of Karla’s protection devotion, and breezes right by Esca, who connects solidly. This guy look like he’s about to go down.

Kat curses as Escaflowne gets right in her line of fire. She casts Magic Missile at the Shield Maiden fighting Dragon instead.

Dragon full attacks! He misses once, hits twice, and then slips...on the blood spurting from her arterial leg wounds! She falls over, dead.

Zelda chases the giantess, getting one attack in while she follows.

Karla decides that in case they need to flee, now is the time to pack up Kochevnik, so she opens her bag of holding wide and begins pulling it down over his body starting with his head.

Caboose sees the sorceress running for her life, “YOU RUN TO DEATH!” he shouts, leaps over the body of the hill giant, clears the giants body with ease and screams, “NOW I DRINK BLOOD OF NASTY UGLY!” he guttural screams, like a death metal singer!

Caboose buries his axe in her chest too, but no buckets of blood this time. She collapses, ded dead.

“FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATAAAAALLLIIIITYYYY!!!” Caboose roars with most approval of his second kill, “UGLIES DIE AND FEAR CABOOSE THE BLOODLUSTER!” he shouts intimidating others around him.

Those in the main intersection hear comments (in giantish) like, “Good Lord, what’s going on back there?”

The fire elemental fails to be intimidated, though he does appreciate the spirit behind the screaming.

Given a momentary reprieve, harvey flies back to fluff and casts animal growth on him, A sound reminiscent of an Italian plumber walking onto a large mushroom fills the halls, and Fluff doubles in size!

Salach moves over to the hallway near to Dragon. He calls back. “The hallway is empty past here! What are we doing? Pursuit? What?”

Down the hall, the giants appear to be withdrawing, although not running away.

Frost giant 9 makes a full attack against Esca, but can’t make a good swing cause of his lack of balance. Two misses!

Round 7!

Escaflowne uses rain of blows on Giant 9. Esca decapitates him neatly.  Then shouts over his shoulder, “they are retreating.  They might be trying to come at us from a different direction.”  He sets his feet against the weirdly moving hallway and watches for more attacks.

Kat looks around and notices what Karla is doing to Kochevnik. “Karla, what…?”

“He’s dead,” Karla says, flatly. She has a detectable note of anger in her voice.

Kat sighs and closes her eyes. “Damn it.”

Dragon moves over and stands just outside the impeding stones area. His head whips around at the mention of Kochevnik’s death. “Shit.”

Caboose comes jogging in from the murder hallway to rejoin the rest of the group in the middle of the hallway. He hears Karla’s words. “Warrior dead?” Caboose asks weakly.

Zelda is right behind him, both swords still drawn.

Harvey looks up from his perch on the now larger Fluff. “Well shit. How long do we have before we can’t bring him back?”

Caboose moves up to Koch’s body, touches his hand on the fallen warrior. His eyes weld up in tears. “No..” he mutters whimperley

Karla - “For me, ten days. Harvey may also be able to bring him back, probably something around the same time period.” She finishes stuffing him in the bag, and made sure his sword makes it in there too. “The giants are getting away. Should we go after them?

Salach- “Yes, we just made it like ten feet past where we ran last time. Plus, the more we explore, the more choices we have for teleportation arrival locations.

“That is an excellent point,” Harvey concedes. “Can we teleport out if we need to?”

Caboose gets angry all of a sudden, “NO, he died. He fought hard, and gave life for us. We bury him.”

Zelda - “Back that way is a dead end, so no need to worry about ambush from there.”

Escaflowne, “worry about what happens with him later Caboose, now we have Giants to worry about.  I think we need to keep after them.”

Karla - “Yes, I have one teleport available. Salach, you and I should both go into that dead end before we move on, as it would make a good teleport spot. The others can loot while we do, since it’ll be hard to say when we’ll be back here.”

“Watch out for my fire elemental,” Harvey says. He looks out towards the chasm. “And there’s still giants over there probably.” He flies over and starts looting the giants esc and caboose killed.

Now that you have a minute, you notice that all the frost giants around you had the same gold-ivory-amber jewelry on them as the ones in the guardroom.

Kat strips armbands from giant corpses as she listens to the discussion.

Salach- “I can take myself and four others. And yes, lets. Quickly.”

Esca and Dragon both see a giant pop it’s head around the corner briefly, and you can hear some discussion, but no movement.

Rounds 8-13!

Escaflowne looks to Dragon, “I can start that way and let you know if it gets bad.”

Kat activates her ring of spell storing to use Mordenkainen’s Lucubration. She recovers a fireball spell.

Zelda goes with Karla and Salach to the dead end room, so that she can loot the sorceress and make sure nothing happens to them.

Zelda gets the jewelry, which was pretty obvious, and also notices a large scroll case on the sorceress’ belt. She takes both.

Dragon- “I didn’t see how the hall got this way. Did we cast a spell, or did they?”

Caboose moves up to where Escaflowne is, sees the dead bodies, and just kicks one. “We bury honor dead.” he mutters

Kat - “It’s from the fireballs that Salach and I cast.”

Dragon- “No, I mean the floor. Its roiling like water.”

Kat - Oh, that was Harvey’s spell.”

Dragon- “So we can wait for Harvey to turn it off and then charge them.”

Kat - “Or we can leave it until it expires and explore the other corridor.”

Escaflowne raises his sword, “Coming back.”  Sets himself for the giant coming his way and yells down the hallway in giant “I am no longer your slave, come face me and see what you created.”

You all can see about half the frost giant standing at the end of the hall.

Kat pulls out her Magic Missile wand and fires off a charge at the giant, hitting whatever it’s exposing.

It shouts and ducks behind the nearest wall again.

Zelda only manages to find the obvious jewelry on the two shield maidens. The hill giants don’t have anything worthwhile that she can find. She, Karla, and Salach return to the junction.
,
Escaflowne looks over his shoulder, “Is anyone else watching down the other hallway, they might have away to get around.”

Caboose moves over to the fallen Shield Maidens and looks into the corridor to see movement. There is no movement, except for some blowing snow, in that hallway. “No uglies in hallway, Esca,” Caboose says.

Harvey flies back to the others, summoning the elemental to follow as he does. He also listens to whatever Caboose is looking at.

Escaflowne, “that doesn’t mean they won't be.”

Harvey vaguely hears some animal movement down that same hall, but it doesn’t sound like angry, aggressive animals. Like large amphibians.

Karla - “Before we move, who needs healing?”

Dragon, without turning around- “I do.”

 Caboose turns to face Karla, and raises his hand.

Zelda appears next to her with her hand raised. “Me! Then I can go scouting again.”

Escaflowne, “I could use a little, but can manage.  Why scout.  I see one down the hall right now.  Still watching us.

Kat, harshly - “Don’t be stupid. Get back to full health. So we don’t have to stuff your corpse in a sack too.” She moves across the intersection, toward the corridor leading to the rift, to get out of the way of Harvey’s fire elemental.

Karla heals Zelda, saying “Stay safe out there,” and moves to Dragon, since he’s closest.

Zelda disappears as soon as Karla is done. She says to Caboose as she passes by him, “I’m heading down this way, be ready in case I bring back company!” She pats him on the shoulder as she moves past.

Caboose looks confused as Zelda says this, “Who be company?” he asks. If Zelda weren’t invisible, he would have seen her wink at him.

Karla casts a spell on Dragon. She says to Harvey, “do you currently have any healing spells?”

He nods. “And a rod of lesser vigor if you think that would help.” He sounds very serious. “I did not have time to use it for Koch.”

Zelda heads down the hallway,. She can see the Rift ahead of her, but the hallway is empty.

Karla - “I have an ability that maximizes healing spells, if you stand near me when I use it, it will work on a spell you cast immediately after too. I’ll heal Esca next, you cast something on Caboose.” She concentrates for a moment.

Harvey casts Cure light wounds on Caboose then owls wisdom on himself.

She then casts her spell on Esca.

Escaflowne nods to Karla, “thank you,” Without taking his eyes off the giant down the hall from him.

“Okay, one more time, Harvey. You cure Caboose again, I’ll give Dragon one more.” She concentrates again, then casts another spell on Dragon.

Dragon- “Thanks, I’m as good as I’m gonna get.”

Harvey obliges, glad he’d stocked up a bit.

Kat looks across the rift behind the group and listens, trying to spot the giants over there. All Kat can see is the blowing snow. It’s well lit, but too windy.

Karla then moves over to Caboose herself, and casts 3 more weak spells. “Hoo, alright, I think we’re all in decent shape now. I only have a couple higher level spells left.” She sighs as she glances at her bag.

Harvey uses his wand to cast lesser vigor on Karla, just in case, and then casts cloud wings on himself.

Kat calls back “I’ve got some potions if need be.”

Once she gets out to the cliffside, Zelda cautiously moves down the path. This ledge turns to Zelda’s left, and quickly ends with a large rock blocking an otherwise obvious cave entrance. It sounds like several large animals are behind the rock, but they sound like they’re just milling around, not ready or anticipating an attack.

Zelda peers around the edge of the rock to see if she can tell what kind of animal it is.

One of them happens to pass through your narrow field of vision, and it looks like a horse-sided frog, but with a white pebbly hide.

Zelda sees an open ledge to the west, across the rift. It’s only about a 70 foot gap.

Zelda heads back to the group, and dispels her invisibility before just before she reaches Caboose, but still outside of his sword range, just in case. “Looks like the only thing this direction is an animal pen. They’re like, giant white frogs? I wonder what they’d be like to ride….”

Kat thinks they’re ice toads. Like everything in the world, there’s an environmental variant. They’re far more intelligent than animals, but not as much as people, and are oddly religious. They’re definitely carnivorous, and normally fairly aggressive. Kat relays this supposition to the rest of the group. “It’s better that we leave them confined, I think.”

Escaflowne glances over his shoulder at Dragon, “I am going to start moving forward slowly and see what this giant that is watching us does.”  Then starts moving forward slowly.

Karla - “Do you want Harvey to turn off the floor?”

Dragon- “I say yes, but I’m going with him either way.”

Escaflowne shakes his head keeping his eyes forward as the floor has not tripped him up yet.

Kat sighs “The two of you could come back here - or at least move to the walls -  and let the fire elemental go first, you know.”

Actually about this time Harvey’s fire elemental winks out of existence.

Kat: “... or not”

Escaflowne moves to the wall as asked.

Caboose looks around “We go fight again?”

Zelda walks up to the shifting floor and grins. “Here we go!” and dances out onto it. Harvy waves a wing and the floor calms before it can trip her. “Aw.” Zelda says.

Escaflowne starts to move forward again once he hears Dragon moving up.

Caboose follows Escaflowne into the hall. “Caboose Kiiiiiiillll”. he croons under his breath.

Kat starts toward the hall as well, wand at the ready.

Zelda disappears again as she walks.

As soon as the floor calms down you hear a giant hustling around a corner.

Escaflowne growls and carefully moves around the corner.

Harvey and fluff stay at the back now that Harvey is fast and Fluff is large.

Esca can see several of the giants, clustered relatively close together.

Round 1! (Again)

Escaflowne steps forward and breaths on 4 and 3. Frost giant grey four, who happens to be female, takes the brunt of the lightning bolt, mostly deflecting it for hill giant 3.

Kat drop a fireball right between Frost giant 4 and hill giant 3.  One of the frost giants drops.

Dragon moves up, even with Escaflowne.

Karla moves up so she can see what’s going on, but no farther. She re-activates her aura of protection.

Zelda follows Esca and Dragon, but does not move in front of them.

The remaining giants all throw rocks! There’s a whole volley of nearly a dozen, but they’re mostly pretty bad throws, and the only one to even get his is Esca.

Caboose yells an inarticulate battle cry and advances, but not quite far enough to attack.

Fluff stays near Kat, while Harvey flutters forward just a bit and Calls Lightining down on giant 10

Salach fires a couple of arrows at the giants in the back, but they both miss.

Round 2! (v 2.0)

Escaflowne glances at Dragon, “hit the one on the right, I will go straight.” then charges 4. The cleric looks like she’s about to collapse.

Dragon- “Got it.”

Frost giant 10 takes a swipe at Esca as he runs by, but misses.

Kat gets a bit closer to the action (Fluffy trailing in her wake) and fires Magic Missiles at the frost giantess opposing Esca.. She falls over, dead!

Dragon travel devotions himself up to the nearest frost giant, who takes a swing but misses, and then quickly kills him with three fast sword slashes.

Karla moves up to keep the fighters in her aura.

Zelda moves up toward the one remaining giant, but as she didn’t have a clear path for a charge, can’t attack. She moves out of the area right in front of him, though, as she doesn’t want to get run into when the fighters move up.

The last giant decides that discretion is the better part of valor and turns to run for it.

Zelda, who is standing right next to him, stabs him as he runs. She becomes visible.

He yelps and keeps running. He briefly disappears behind an ice and rock wall, and then can be seen fleeing the room, about to head down a hallway.

Caboose sees the fleeing giant as he comes around the end of the wall and runs after him, yelling “CAPTAIN CAAAABOOOOSE - MAAAAAN!” He catches up, and strikes!  The giant falls over, dead. Caboose places one foot on the dead giant’s chest and roars his victory.

Escaflowna, “he strangely reminds me a short armed dinosaur I once saw take down its prey.”

Fluff hoots in what sounds almost like a laugh.

[perovskite]

Day 178, still: Yet More MAOG, But Today they Fight Hill Giants

The fighting in this area is in areas 23-26 of the upper level, although I modified the tunnels a bit.

(click to show/hide)

Fluff’s hoot echoes a bit, and then the only sound you hear is the wind howling in the Rift and the faint thump-thump-thump of footsteps fading down the hallway.

Salach moves forward to inspect the whole room for teleportation-reconnaissane purposes.

Karla does the same.

Dragon looks like he’s figured out a couple of interesting new tricks. He moves up to inspect Caboose’s work.

Dragon- “Looks pretty good.”

Escaflowne moves to post himself as a guard for the path while waiting for everyone to decide what to do next.

Zelda peers over Esca’s shoulder. “Are we moving forward now?”

Escaflowne shrugs and glances at Zelda, “I figured people were going to loot the bodies, but I am game for looting after we kill all giants.” Before looking back down the hall.

“Caboose says we kill more Giants.” Caboose says,blood dripping from his face

Dragon- “Agreed.”

Salach finishes looking around. “Has anyone looted the giants yet?”

Zelda - “Not yet, looks like the fighters want to move on ASAP.”

Salach- “Welp, let’s hurry then.” He commences looting, tossing anything remotely valuable looking in Zelda’s direction. His short sword giggles. Zelda starts catching things and stuffing them in her bag.

Karla inspects the party and walks over to Esca, and heals him.

Escaflowne nods to Karla, “Thank you.”

Tragically, the only things these giants have that looks worthwhile is the same type of amber/gold/ivory jewelry, looking like it’s worth about 2000 gp per giant. The three frost giants are the only ones with jewelry, although the hill giant’s cloak looks like it’s worth a lot of money as well (but is the size of an area rug).

Zelda shrugs and stuffs it in the bag.

Caboose looks around the room and starts to wipe the blood from his face and spits out some from his mouth, “Giant blood nasty in Caboose mouth” he says dissatisfactory

Salach- “Does anyone know anything about frost giant religion?”

Karla can see that two of the giants were carrying holy symbols of Thrym, the god of frost giants. “Looks like those two have holy symbols of Thrym, the main god of frost giants. Were they casting spells?”

Caboose looks over to Karla, “If we kill their god, frost giants all die?”

Karla laughs - “I mostly hope we don’t run into their god, I don’t think we’d survive.”

Caboose gets a look on his face of determination “WE will kill god.”

Escaflowne, “You can do that by yourself.  We done looting?”

Zelda stuffs the holy symbols in her bag. “Might still be worth something.”

Salach- “We can probably start collecting them. Kat, you still have that one of Maglubiyet from many many years ago, right?”

Harvey is huddled onto the back of Fluff, and keeping a wary eye on the outside tunnel. He Suspects Something is out there but he’s not sure what.

Kat huffs a small laugh. “Oh yes, and a couple more. I’m making a collection” if the giants’ holy symbols are portable enough she’ll take them.

Zelda - “Alright, I’m heading forward.” She disappears.

Escaflowne, “I am something like right behind you.”

A voice says “Don’t get too close, otherwise there’s not much point in me being ahead.”

After only another 75 feet or so, Zelda comes across a T-intersection. Off to her left, the tunnel quickly heads deeper into the mountain and below the glacier (which you’re basically underneath at this point anyway. Her other choice is to continue straight, and looking that way, she sees a hill giant duck quickly behind a bend in the tunnel about 200 feet away.

Caboose is too busy cleaning blood off his armor spikes to see anything.

Zelda skips back to Esca. “Hold up, there’s giants straight ahead. I saw one hill giant.”

Escaflowne, “why not just go and hit them.  I can move up and breath again.  It is pretty effective at bringing them to use.  We just need to be ready for them to come at us from behind again.”

Zelda “Yeah, I’ll head forward, just wanted to make sure you all knew the direction and to watch out for an attack from the rear from the side tunnel.” She crunches westward, and then starts actually moving silently after she’s a few steps away.

The giant has vacated the area, but on the plus side, she notes that there are no other tunnels from which you could be ambushed (unless they’re well hidden).

Zelda waits for the others to follow, maintaining about a 60’ lead.

Caboose keeps pace with Escaflowne so they may strike together on ugly giants. Caboose looks over to Escaflowne and whispers “You think we kill more giants soon?”

Karla waits at the entrance to the side tunnel until everyone else passes.

Zelda, Esca, and Harvey can all hear multiple giants talking, even from here, and soon after the sounds of hurried packing (like stuff being dragged across the floor, etc).

Kat follows the group past Karla’s position until she catches up with Salach. She keeps pace with him after that.

Zelda can’t really tell from where she’s standing where the voices are coming from. She rounds a corner to her right (so the tunnel points back north), and it looks like it starts to branch off, after a fairly large open area.

Zelda moves forward to the tunnel straight ahead, since the other way has an ice wall.

Kat notices the same wall and passage on the right wall of the corridor. Karla joins her to peer over it.

That wall is 14 feet high, so she would have to climb it to look over, but it does indeed not go all the way to the top of the tunnel. And looks like it’s fairly recently built.

Kat speaks quietly: “We should come back here later.”

Harvey flutters near the top of it, just enough to peek over. Harvey sees at least three giants, one watching the wall, and a couple of others (one female, actually), dragging things around and piling them together. One of the two males in the room doing manual labor looks like the chieftain, and he and the female are shouting at each other in the manner any married couple would recognize as “argument while moving”.

However, the giant watching the wall points at Harvey as soon as he peeks over, immediately getting the attention of the others.

Round 1!

Harvey casts call lightning on giant 9.  He’s barely singed, and hardly notices.

Kat scoots back away from the wall and to the opposite side of the corridor, just in case the wall gets knocked down. Since she doesn’t really have any spells that are immediately useful, she doesn’t cast any.

Escaflowne looks to Caboose as he hears the sounds behind them, “Do you want to see what is going on behind us or guard this way?”

Caboose looks to Escaflowne and nods his head “Yes.” he says. He then moves up past him and towards Zelda.

Escaflowne nods and turns to move back to see what is happening and how he can help.

Dragon decides to hang out with Caboose, and moves up a little bit.

Karla backs up a bit as well, holding off on her last round of protection devotion. She’s still standing between the other spellcasters and the wall, though.

Zelda looks behind her, sees nothing has broken through the wall, and moves forward toward the giant at the end of the hall. She pauses at a slightly wider spot in the hall in case it decides to charge down the hall. The giant looks all sorts of prepared, but doesn’t see you, cause invisible.

Fluff sticks with Kat as ordered.

The giants all move around, but don’t do anything else, except for giant 9, who throws a rock at Harvey, but it bounces off the wall instead.

Salach doesn’t do anything except get wait for a giant to appear so he may attempt to kill it or whatever.

Caboose watches Escaflowne run to the rear of the group, he focuses on the tunnel ahead and moves forward down the hall, “Time to Caboose up or shut up.” and begins to enrage from the thought of giants. “TONIGHT CABOOSE DRINK GIANT BLOOD!” He shouts!

The two giants he can see just grin.

After a thrilling Round 1, Round 2!

Harvey sticks his tounge out at the giants, and drops a huge earth elemental on them, right between 9 and the rest. Then he ducks back behind the wall.

The earth elemental is cold and very unpleased with that. He bashes 9 and N both once.

Kat hears noises down the corridor where Zelda went, and runs over to the turn in the corridor so that she can see down the rest of the way.

Escaflowne moves up to the wall that Harvey has been playing with attempts to kick the wall down. He chips away a bit of the ice, but accomplished nothing else. Harvey looks down from where he is half clinging, half hovering.

“I can crumble that, if you really want to be overrun with giants, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.”

Escaflowne, “If you can keep providing support I will just climb over.” Harvey nods.

“Don’t I always? Watch out for the really big rock guy in there.”

Dragon moves up a bit, right next to Kat. “What do you think they’re playing at?” She notices that he appears to be practicing a couple of odd combat stances. (Activate Robilar’s Gambit, Activate Martial Spirit, Knowledge Devotion check!)

Kat raises an eyebrow at him. “Who, the giants or Harvey and Escaflowne?”

Dragon- “Ha. The giants.”

Kat: “Not a clue. Do you want to be giant sized for this battle?”

Dragon- “Nah, this tunnel is pretty narrow.”

Kat nods. “Alright. Let me know if you change your mind.”

Karla decides to cast Divine Power on herself.

Zelda moves up next to but off to the side of the giant in front, preparing for her attack next round.

Fluff moves a little bit, just enough to put himself between Karla, Esc and the corridor they’d come from.

Giant 8 huffs a bit, starts yelling, and charges! He runs down the hallway at Caboose and takes a powerful swing at Caboose, connecting and bashing him against the wall. Giants 5,6 and 7 are right behind him, but because the hall is so narrow get stacked up a bit.  Zelda has two hill giants within arm’s reach.

The giants surrounding the earth elemental all start taking swings. The chieftan guy takesa 5’ step, allowing his lady-friend to step up and take a swing as well. Between them they hit the earth elemental four times.

Salach hears the ruckus and still does nothing, cause no targets, and he wants to wait and see which side giants appear at first. Toe Cutter grumbles at this.

Caboose begins to get even angier”I MAKE YOU PAY” he shouts at the giant with ferocity. He steps up to giant 8 and full attacks him!!!! The giant looks bloodied but determined.



Round 3!

Harvey pops back over the wall to cast Arc of Lightning on giant 12 and giant 2, catching L and N in the line of fire as well. All four of them are most thoroughly electrocuted!

The elemental whacks at L and N. The punch on the chief is a solid blow, but he keeps fighting. The punch to the lady, on the other hand, is a thunderous strike; the sound of cracking bone echoes through the cavern, and she drops dead instantly.

The chieftan bellows in anger! (Probably. He bellows, in any case).

Kat opens an extraplanar gate right behind the second giant she sees down the corridor, and out pops a medium ice elemental! It slams Hill Giant number 5, but does not give it frostbite. The elemental pouts.

Escaflowne sheaths his sword and attempts to climb the wall. He gets nearly to the top, but slips and falls down to the ground. He twists his ankle.

Dragon moves down the hallway to see what’s going on, and also to get in front of Kat.

Karla casts summon monster,  placing a hellhound on the other side of the wall. It appears and spits a breath weapon at the nearest giant. It dodges as best it can, and half the flame misses it.

Fluff decides no giants are coming from the hallway behind them and trots over to Kat to see what she’s doing. He screeeches super loud in case that might freak out the giants.

Kat skritches Fluff under the chin. “Good giant chicken-lizard.” Fluff chirrs.

Zelda attacks the final giant in the hallway. The giant jumps as Zelda appears out of nowhere, slashing at it deeply! It doesn’t die, though.

The giants surrounding the earth elemental decide a repeat of the last round is in order. The chief misses. One of the other giants steps around him and takes a swing. Giant 12 takes a swing but connects once, and stupid giant 9 misses! Leaving the elemental alive, but not by much.

Giant 8 continues to execute Plan Attack….and overruns Caboose! Giant 6 does the same thing, pushing past Caboose. Giant 5 ignores both the elemental and Zelda, and heads toward Caboose as well.

The ice elemental lashes out as Giant 5 pushes past it and slams it super hard… for an elemental of its size. It inflicts a tiny bit of frostbite and nods in satisfaction. Zelda also stabs it from the other side. It’s extremely beat up, but still moving.

Giant 7 takes two swings at Zelda, but due to her super high armor class, can’t connect. Loser.

Salach still does nothing.

Caboose steps up to Giant 5 like a boss and screams “I EAT YOUR SOUL AND **** IT OUT!!!” and attacks him. He only manages to hit once, and the giant is still up!

Round 4!
Harvey does call lightning on 9 again just for shits and giggles.

Elemental whacks out at N and 2

Kat decides to risk shooting her ally in the back again and fires scorching rays at the oncoming giant 8. Two of the rays hit, and sear the giant. It falls over dead!
Kat breathes a sigh of relief that she actually hit her target.

Dragon- “Awesome! That guy was going to waste my time.”

Kat’s elemental chases after Giant 5, and tries to slam it from behind, but misses.

Escaflowne attempts to climb the wall again, and just barely makes it over the top.  Jumps off the other side and lands.

Dragon swiftly moves over the corpse of giant 8, and receives his attack of opportunity from the giant, but then cause he’s using Robilar’s Gambit, Dragon gets to attack the giant right back….and hits extremely well, his wounds heal just a touch, and then Dragon can full attack. The first hit is just Dragon ramming his sword into the giant’s gut, and the second is slashing it’s way out. The giant falls over, dead, and Dragon healed a little bit each time he hit the giant.

Karla’s hellhound attempt to attack, but misses. Karla approaches the hallway with the others.

Zelda attacks the remaining giant near her, and hits twice before slipping on the ice on her 3rd attack. The giant misses her when he attempts to take advantage. The giant looks like he’s about to fall over dead.

Fluff screeches encouragingly from his place next to Kat.

The giants fight back! Giant 5 swings at Caboose twice and hits both times. Caboose howls in pain.

Giant 7 attempts again to hit Zelda, but continues to suck.

Nosrna the Chieftain shouts in his rage at the elemental, and smashes it in it’s dumb face-torso! The elemental melts back into the earth.

The rest of the giants charge down the hallway, the first few ignoring the hell hound, and focusing on Escaflowne. Giants 11 and 12 decide to attack the hell hound, though, and smash it into oblivion. Giant 2 can make one swing at Esca.

Salach...at least moves over where he can be useful regarding the wall. Harvey looks down at him.

“I might have to take this down if Esc is in serious trouble. You okay with that?”

Salach- “Yeah, I say do it.”

Escaflowne, “I think summoning something else here would be better.” Harvey looks torn as he consideres the options. He’s clearly worried.

In the corridor, Caboose savagely attacks giant 5, hitting it twice.. After the first hit the giant collapses, dead.  Caboose hits it twice anyway. “YAAAAAAAAAAHHS!”

Round 5!

Harvey casts Ice flowers dead into the middle of the knot of giants in front of Escaflowne, careful to leave Esc outside the spell’s 20 ft radius. Giant 2 collapses, dead, and giant 12 looks like he’s about ready to die as well. Everyone else is still fightin’ angry.

Kat calls over to Harvey “We’re almost clear here. How does it stand over there?”

“At least five very angry giants and one Escaflowne,” Harvey answers. “I’m trying to back him up, but I think this wall may have to come down very soon.”

Kat: “Do you have the spell to do that?”

“I have a crumble spell,” Harvey says, glancing at the wall. “Whether it will actually work on something this high is up for debate.”

Escaflowne breaths on 9, 12, 11, 10 and N.  Then draws his sword. “I think the wall is keeping us more safe.  If someone else can get over here would be better.  Only four now.”

Harvey mutters something about overconfident lizards under his breath.

Escaflowne’s bolt of lightning knocks ice chucks off the ceiling. Giant 12 collapses, dead, while giant 9 keels over (but isn’t dead). The other three giants look like they’re ready to run.

Kat calls down the corridor to report. “Escaflowne is on the other side of the wall and may need assistance.”

Dragon- “Uhhh ok! Zelda, you got this?” He turns and starts moving to the wall, using another swift action move.

Zelda - “I’m fine!”

Caboose perks up “Esca need help?”

Karla - “Who is highest priority to get over the wall?”

Dragon- “Dibs!”

Karla activates her travel devotion to skip over to Dragon, and casts Fly on him. “You can fly now, that’ll get you over.”

Dragon- “Oh man, awesome!”

Zelda attacks the giant, and only hits once, but hard.

The giant keels over and dies. Beyond it, Zelda can see a cliff, and on into the Rift. There’s still a lot of blowing snow, and she can see a few piles of throwing rocks on the cliff edge as well.

Fluff whines, sensing Harvey’s worry, but stays near Kat.

Kat calls to Zelda “Can you tell if there’s a way around to the other side of that wall?”

Giant 9 swings at Esca and misses, while giant 11 moves up, swings at esca, and misses. The last two giants stay put and throw rocks at Harvey. One hits him. He yells.

Salach does nothing! He’s worthless this battle.

Zelda - “Maybe, I can see the rift from here and the path continues around in that direction.”

Kat: “Let’s go that way then, see if we can get to the others.”

Harvey glances at Fluff. “Go with them.” then looks at Salach. “Might be more giants that way, if you’re bored.”

Kat runs down the corridor toward Zelda… as best she can with all the dead giants in the way. She calls to Caboose as she runs by. “Come on, Caboose, giants this way!”
“CABOOSE  KIIIILLL GIANTS” Caboose cheers.

The elemental shrugs and moves along as well, outpacing the rest of the group.

Salach shrugs and takes Harvey’s advice. He runs after Kat and Fluff.

Round...what 6? Yup, Round 6.

Harvey whacks giant 9 with some lightning just for the hell of it. The giants’ whole body spasms and he dies, smoking gently.

Kat and her elemental keep moving. The elemental turns to the right and finds a couple other passageways curving back in the direction of Escaflowne’s location.  The elemental reaches the mouth of the second passageway and starts to wave and point as it spots a giant….cave bear!
Kat glances down the first passageway and sees nothing, so she comes to a halt about 20 feet behind the elemental.

It grows at you huffily, but doesn’t immediately attack.

Escaflowne steps up to 11, activates haste and uses rain of blows as he attacks. Esca quickly butchers the giant.

Dragon flies overhead and bypasses silly Esca and his giant sword. He closes in behind Chief Nosrna, who takes a swing at him, cause why wouldn’t he? Nosrna hits, and so Dragon hits him right back, and he falls over dead! And Dragon heals a little. The last hill giant is too far away for Dragon to do anything about.

Karla looks around and decides to try the long way, so starts jogging after the group.

Zelda catches up with the gesticulating elemental and yells. “UUUUUUH BEAR!” and activates her invisibility.

Kat mutters “Great.” Fluff catches up with her and growls low.

The last giant decides to go after the nearest target, so five foot step and two hits against Dragon. Dragon takes a five foot step in response and hits right back. He drops on the first hit.

The bear growls at anyone it can see. You all notice the giants didn’t get very far in packing. There are still large warming fires, several huge boxes, and each of the hill giants had an enormous cloak, just like the first one.

Salach and Caboose move up to catch up with Zelda and Kat.

Round 7!

Harvey, very relieved that Esc is not dead, gives him a high five as he flies by, heading for the snuffling growl he can hear around the corner. He mutters to himself like someone trying to remember a test, then hums lightly, drawing the bears attention. They study each other for a long moment.

The bear roars at Harvey, and gets up on his hind legs!

“I knew it!” Harvey wails, getting ready to flutter back. “A little help please?”

Kat comes around the corner and fires a lightning bolt at the bear. It hits.

It roars and looks like it’s about to charge Kat.

The Ice elemental advances toward the bear.

Escaflowne returns the high five and deactivated haste as he starts to move forward over unsteady terrain.

Dragon flies over to get in range of the bear, and takes a swing. He stabs the bear in the back, and it roars again!

Karla moves up to Kat’s position, and Zelda runs up to the bear, but is still too far away to attack it.

Fluff snarls, and runs past Kat, placing herself between kat and the bear, and next to the elemental.

Since Dragon is now the nearest target, the bear goes to town clawing and biting him! But Dragon gets his attacks in return, and kills the bear.

[perovskite]

Day 170: Team Elf!

(click to show/hide)

And now this log picks back up again as Rogue, Mav, Grenda, Navus, Kusab, Snaga and the five hapless drovers (1. Gustav, 2. Extra, 3. Peran, 4. Barbus, 5. Obiang) leave Oytmeet on the evening of Day 170. You’ve said your goodbyes, the sun is approaching the western horizon, and the drovers are getting antsy. Grenda has already cast mass snowshoes on everyone. Time to set off!?

Peran and Obiang are the ones who actually look like they know what they’re doing with a bow, FYI.

Rogue and Snaga discuss tactics and how to ensure she helps the party without endangering herself overly much.

Navus uses a laser pointer to keep Kusab occupied. It drives him INSANE.

Grenda giggles as Kuasb. “Well, shall we head out?”

Navus puts away the laser pointer, much to Kusab’s frustration/bewilderment/relief. “Yes, lets. The giants won’t kill themselves.”

Rogue nods his agreement, “I will take point.”

Snaga, “I will stay close to Mav if that is ok.”  And she does so, despite Mavs daze.

And so you set off, with Mav in kind of a daze (cause her player hasn’t arrived yet), and the five drovers looking a bit nervous, as if there could be a fire giant hiding behind every blade of grass. Turns out there aren’t and due to the mass snowshoes spell you all make good time. By the time the sun comes up on Day 171, you’ve covered over 30 miles (cause it’s pretty flat and mostly semi-fallow farmland. You’re able to find a hidden place to rest for the day, maybe 100 yards off the road.

Rogue, “I will take first watch, we should continue not having our Spell casters take a watch as long as everyone agrees.”

Navus- “Agreed. I’m not enough of a caster to count, and I cast nothing last night, so I’ll go second.”

One of the drovers volunteers for third watch. Doesn’t matter which, they’re mostly just bit parts. One of them will probably show up in a later session as someone else.

Grenda looks around for any herbs that could used for potions, and….comes up with quite a bit!

It’s otherwise an unremarkable day, and you’re all able to get some rest. The drovers talk amongst themselves, apparently deciding who will try to sneak onto a logging crew first.

“So obviously we have to wait for a crew with ogre foremen, cause the fire giants actually count the number of people on a crew.”

“Yeah, and don’t let that bloodthirsty elf try and keep you in the woods. And don’t forget about the trolls, either! They hunt at night, you know.”

Rogue makes his way closer to the group and whispers, “You all would already be dead if that is what I wanted, and if you keep talking so loud that all of us can hear you, then an enemy raiding party is likely to find us.”  Then stands and continues away from them.

Rogue does not make any friends with this message, but the group talks in much lower tones.

And so the sun sets without fire giants appearing from behind blades of grass, and you pack up and march into the night!

Rogue moves to take point again.

Navus has his bow out, as always. Kusab makes a habit of circling around the group, disappearing, and then suddenly appearing again. Because cat.

At about 2 am on Day 172, you all suddenly get a strong smell of rotting meat. You’re about a mile away from the stopover where you murdered a bunch of innocent orcs, ogres, trolls and a fire giant.

Kusab drools.

Rogue sighs and stops the party, “let me check around the area for any signs of travelers, then we will make our way around the stopover as best we can.”  Then steps off to check the area.  Moving quietly and hiding.

For those sitting tight, all you hear is the breeze moving through the grass, and the occasional squawk from the many, many crows you can hear having the banquet of a lifetime.

Rogue moves up most of the mile to the stopover, and  the smell of rotting meat becomes overwhelming. He even passes by several groups of wolves, and other predators who are sleeping off food comas.

Rogue avoids going close to the sleeping predators and uses the woods to get to the hill to look over the stopover.

Rogue can hear someone down there in the main building (what was probably the inn). It sounds like they’re just poking around trying to see if there’s anything left to loot, but are actually doing a decent job of staying quiet.. Also, he notices that there are all kinds of bones and entrails scattered all over the place between the hill and the inn. AND a bunch of crows complaining at him for interfering with dinner.

Rogue turns and starts back to the party, maintaining his quiet movements and keeping hidden.

He gets back to the party without a problem.

Rogue, “we need to move wide around this area.  I will continue to lead.  There is someone there searching through the destruction we left behind.  Also animals dug up the bodies and the smells only get worse.”

Navus- “Hmmm, Kusab will be disappointed. But that’s probably for the best.”

Rogue, “It is not a pleasant sight, and we left nothing worthwhile in that mess.”

Navus- “Lead on, then.”

Grenda grimaces. “That might mean the fire giants have figured out what happened. Hopefully they haven’t seen it yet.”

Rogue nods and starts to lead the party again.  Moving so that they maintain their current distance away from the stopover site and still are mostly traveling in the same direction.  Eventually working their way back to the road.

Naturally this slows you down some, cause it’s trackless, not a road. It’s approaching dawn by the time you make it back to the road, but happily, again, you find a decent little copse of trees to hide in. (Now the morning of Day 172!”)

Rogue, “I will take first watch again.”

As you’re all setting up camp, pretty much everyone hears someone step on a twig about 20 yards away from you.

Rogue draws his swords and signals for everyone to be quite looking in the direction and waves for Navus and Mav to join him.

Navus, as ever, has his bow out.

Rogue, Navus, Mav and Grenda all see one person right where the sound came from. It looks like a human male, average height, but pretty stocky. You all make eye contact with him awkwardly.

Rogue whispers to Navus and Mav, “Mav keep everyone close together in case there is more than just this one human, Navus try to make contact with him.  I will scout around to see if there is anyone else with him.”

Mav nods, and steps back, gesturing for the men and the others to collect behind her.

Snaga moves up to stand just to Mav’s left side prepared to cast a spell.

Twix, ever so cautious, sees the camp pulls his daggers out and says loudly to the group, “are you with the Giants from West Town, or just a bunch of people goofing off?” he asks loudly.

Navus has an arrow knocked, but not pointed at whoever this is. “We are definitely not with the giants.” He approaches close enough not to have to shout. “I’m Navussar, a giant killer. Who are you?”

Rogue steps off towards the right and starts to circle around the party and this human.  Moving quietly and hiding.

Twix begins to approach the encampment, sheathing his two daggers, but hands rested on them. “I am Twix, mistique, intrigued by why i see an encampment out here. And bit curious too.” As he nears he lifts his hands to show no harm.

Navus lets the tension out of his bowstring. “Are you alone?”

“Aye, I be alone out here. No one else but me i promise Navussar, giant killer.” he says with a weary smile “too long its been since i seen someone not allied with giants.”

Navus is a bit nonplussed. “You live out here?”

Twix points to the woods, “Mostly I just pick up and move, behind the giant’s front lines and don’t get seen. That is how I have to live.” he says

Grenda doesn’t get the impression that there is much in the way of ulterior motives from Twix, aside from general caution and distrust.

Grenda - “How long have you been out here on your own?”

Twix just points to his face and coldly states with a smile “Long enough to get these scars on my face from Pest’s Crossing.” his scars are deep,long lashes over his right eye and one on his right lip

Grenda - “Are you from Pest’s Crossing?”

Twix spits at the idea of living in Pest’s Crossing “absolutely not. I am from nowhere, yet somewhere. I mostly have lived in the Lost lands, travelling to and fro from town to town gathering what information I can since I was evicted from my home as a child.” he states.

Grenda turns to Mav and Navus, moving closer to them, and speaks quietly. “He seems sincere to me. I don’t think he’s a danger to us.”

Rogue puts away his swords when he completes his circt if he finds no one around.  Then continues moving silently and hiding to get as close to Twix from behind him as he can.

Twix raises his hands again to show no harm, “I promise you all that I have no intentions to hunt you all down and kill you in your sleep. Just a traveler with a wealth of knowledge of what's been going on in the lands.” as he says this, a sly smirk crosses his face.


Navus- “What would he gain by lying to us? Best case, he has useful information that anyone outside Geoff would pay well for. Worst case, he’s a bandit who is just trying to get by, and doesn’t want to get murdered and looted any more than we do.”

Grenda - “Might have useful info about Pest’s Crossing.”

Rogue stops about ten feet away from Twix and says just loud enough for Twix to hear him, “You are not very observant for someone that says they survive out here alone.”  His hands resting on the hilts of his swords as he watches Twix.

Twix not moving or turning around lets a sigh out, “Ah, so there's another out here with you. But you are right I am not as observant, but pays to scout things out from afar than close i would say, good voice.” he says calmly

Navus- “Well...we’re setting up camp for the day, care to join us for breakfast?”

Twix smiles at the thought of food, “Well Navussar, I would like to accept your request for breakfast, and shall join you all.”

A bizarre sound chimes through the air as TWIX JOINS THE PARTY.


Rogue steps close to Twix and waves for him to move forward and speaking just loud enough that the party can hear him, “he does not take a watch.”  Staying behind Twix as they move to join the group.

Rogue introduces the Party to twix and explains their plan to travel to Pest’s Crossing and help the humans get back to their home, avoiding topics of their plan to raid the city and kill giants at this time.

Twix turns to Rogue with a concerned look on his face, “so you tell me you, Grenda, Navus, Snaga, and Mav all plan to head to the town of Pest’s Crossing and liberate it from the giants there. That is correct i head it?”

Rogue, “I said nothing about liberating the town.  Right now all I said was that we are helping these people get back home.” point to the lowly humans.

“Permission to speak freely with you Rogue.” Twix asks

Rogue looks around for a second before answering, “No one said you need permission to do anything.”

Twix sighs ‘Okay good,” he says with sadness, “That has to be the stupidest fucking idea i have heard in a while. No offense.”

Snaga laughs, then holds a hand up over her mouth before going back to quietly watching the interactions.

Mav, deciding there is probably no danger for the moment, puts her weapon away and goes back to knitting, tutting quietly to herself.

Rogue signs, “Trust me, it is better than the alternative plans.”

Twix looks into Rogue’s face and knows what he says is true. He lowers his head and places his hand on his face, slowly letting it drag down and making an OK sign with his hand “One does not simply walk into Pest’s Crossing.”

Rogue, “well it is a good thing some of use are quiet and good at not being seen.”

“If only it were that simple my new friend, only if it were that simple.” he places his right hand on Rogue’s left shoulder. “I know too much on that town.”

Rogue looks at his shoulder then reaches up and takes Twix’s hand off and lets it fall, “Then tell us what you know.”

Twix smiles from ear to ear, “I would love to but I give my information at a price. Not in silver or gold, but in weapons and goods.” he pulls his daggers out slowly and shows Rogue. “You see i like to collect valuables and these weapons are nice but i would like nicer things in this life. So for information, I would like at least better than this with the same enchantments I have on them already, if you and the group are willing to bargain for it.” He says soothingly.

Rogue, “I will not speak for the rest of the party, while it is a good deal I have nothing I am willing to trade for it.  So you can keep your information.”

Navus- “I need my own weapons and armor, but I have a few potions I could trade you now for information on Pest’s Crossing.” He pulls out a pair of potions. “Both of these are potions of invisibility. Tell us everything you know about Pest’s Crossing. These drovers have yet to give us much of anything useful.” Navus places the two potions at Twix’s feet.

Grenda - “I’m afraid I don’t have any weapons to trade either, but I have other potions that might interest you. I’m afraid we can’t spare the box, though,” she says, as she pulls another roll from the food box.

Rogue, “maybe it would be better if you just came with us and took something of equal or better value from the giants.”

Twix nods in agreement, “while you offer me things now, i do not want your possessions you have now. If we go to Pest’s Crossing, I only ask for a percentage of all earnings we get from killing what we must kill there. Sound fair?” He says to the group.

Rogue, “Everyone that participates gets a share of what we take.”

Twix has a serious look on his face, “I only ask for a bigger share in it. With what I know and how we can combat it, I ask for a larger share over everyone else. My ass and along with everyone else’s ass will be in grave danger once we get too close to it.”

Rogue shakes his head, “equal shares.  There is room to negotiate if an item you want bad enough is of a higher value, but everything is shared equally to the benefit of the party.  We all take equal risk based on the skills we have.”

Navus reaches over and takes back his potions. “You would have to do something pretty spectacular to earn a larger share than anyone else, Twix, sorry.”

After this conversation dies down, and the morning passes. Around lunchtime, you all hear the thump-thump of creatures walking on the road, heading east. They’re speaking quietly enough that you can’t hear what they’re saying. They’re making no attempt to conceal themselves.

Your copse of trees is maybe 70 yards off the road, but clearly visible from the road.

Navus starts moving around, waking people up, as quietly as he can.

Rogue nods and listens, “let the magic users sleep.  Mav can stay here and you and I can sneak up to see what is going on.”

Twix rolls up and grabs his weapons “I am with you Rogue.” he whispers and heads out.

Mav happens to hear that the speakers are talking in giantish, and she clearly hears the words “Mogthrasir” and “Fimagul”, which strike her as names.

Mav hears one of them complaining about having to walk all the way to Pregmere and the Lea just to find a caravan that will inevitably be just late, probably because the ogres went on strike.

A few moments later a pair of fire giants walks into view. They slow and stop, and the conversation turns to lunch.

Rogue, “Change in plans, Mav please quietly wake up as many as you can and move quietly deeper into the woods.  Navus and I will quietly follow Twix and see how much noise he makes.”  Looks to Navus and Mav for their agreement.

Mav nods and does so, quickly and quietly. She’s very good and rounding people up because of her years as a child guardian/grandmother and she gets everyone herded deeper into the trees.

The five drovers are looking like they might just run for it.

Snaga moves with Mav and whispers to the drovers, “we need to be quite, we don’t want the giants attention.  Running would be bad.”

Mav puts a Very Firm Hand on the lead drover’s shoulder. “Do not put us in danger,” she says, low and pleasant, but she squeezes just a little too hard.

Grenda also whispers to the others, “You’ll be safer if you stay with us.”

Between the two diplomacy and one intimidate checks, the five drovers are cowed into not running into the trees. Or into the open fields. Or wherever.

Twix motions to Rogue, “Cmon,” he says in a whisper, “we need to see and hear what those fire giants are saying. If we are not noticed I will divulge some information on what they are saying.”

Rogue, “You stay here and Navus and I can go find out what they are doing and then when we get back we can come up with a plan for dealing with them.”

Twix does not like this “No I will come with you, I am rogue and can blend in well with my surroundings well enough. I need to hear what those two asses are up to.”

After having stopped for a moment, the two giants sound like the just agreed on something and walk straight toward the copse of trees. One of them it taking his sack off his shoulder. Neither of them appear to have noticed that anyone is in the trees. You get the impression they’re just stopping for lunch...as far as they know.

Rogue shakes his head, “you go by yourself and report back or wait here and let Navus and I go and report back.”

Twix scrunches his face, “fine i'll go alone then. I understand why.” and slowly begins to sneak towards the edge of the trees but no further.

Rogue moves foward but keeps ten feet between himself and Twix incase he is not as good a rogue as he states he is.

When the giants are about halfway between the road and the trees, one of them stops, grabs the shoulder of the other, and points out both Rogue and Twix. The other rolls his eyes, swears in giantish, and then they both draw their swords.

[perovskite]

Day 178: The MAOG Again, Ankle Deep in Giant Blood

You'll see three house rules in this session (kind of):
1. I created a native outsider reincarnation table.
2. I let wizards copy up to their caster level in spells into their spellbook in 24 hours, instead of one spell per 24 hours.
3. It won't actually be relevant until later, but the description of raise dead and reincarnate don't dictate that the level lost must be the most recent level gained. So the new house rule is that a multiclass character can choose which class a level is lost from, provided that all prerequisites for everything left are still met.

(click to show/hide)

The bear flops over, dead as a giant pile of bear meat, steaming in the cold.

Dragon- “Does anyone have any cure spells left?”

Escaflowne moves north to see if there is anything that looks like a possible approach for enemies.

Esca walks past what appeared to be the giants’ living room, in which several chests, boxes, and a roll of furs is stored, in addition to their clothing, bedding, etc. Past that is a cliff that opens to the Rift. There is a little bit of drifting snow coming in, but at this point the Rift is narrow enough to see across pretty well. Esca can see the cliff and the large rock behind which other people heard the large ribbits of horse-sized frogs.

Karla’s eyes bug out as she gets close enough to see his condition, and says “I do! Don’t move, I’ll come to you!” As she arrived, she says to Harvey, “Do you have any left? I can use my maximization ability while you cast as well if you do.”

“I have one more cure light wound spell,” Harvey says. “No potions though.” He flutters over to Dragon. “Do you want the cure light wounds as well?

Dragon- “Ouch. Yes, definitely. I do have some curing potions for emergencies, so if you both are out…” He drops his backpack and pulls out some Cure Serious Wounds potions.” Karla puts a hand on the potion. “Not out, just trying to figure out the most efficient way to heal you. You’re a mess!”

Karla activated her aura, and says to Harvey, “Now!” and then casts a spell on him herself.

A good number of the various cuts and bruises on Dragon heal, but he’s still pretty beat up.

Harvey looks around. “I say we loot and get the hell out of here. Come back after we’re stocked up again. My good spells are getting low, and we still need to raise the dead guy.” He suits the actions to the words and starts rummagiing around for things and whatnot.

Escaflowne returns from the rift and moves to take a post on the other end of the cave from where they killed the giants to watch for approaching enemies from there while people heal and loot.

Karla concentrates, activating the aura again, and casts another spell on Dragon.

Dragon- “Ha, wow, I feel much better now, thank you.”

Karla - “My pleasure.” She looks around the others. ‘Caboose, you don’t look so good.” She walks over to Caboose, activates her aura, and casts a spell on him as well.

Salach wanders in, looking a little both glum and thoughtful.

Havey, starting with the giants…. finds that they’re all wearing very high quality bearskin cloaks, but aside from their typical sacks of random crap, the giants don’t have anything valuable on their persons.

Zelda joins Harvey’s looting.

Karla - “That’s it for my aura, though I still have a few spells at each level left. If we decide to leave, though, I’ll want to preserve them rather than heal everyone the rest of the way now.”

Caboose thanks Karla, “Caboose feel good now.” And joins the looting.

Harvey espies four boxes in the giants’ living room: an impressively large iron box, a small coffer, another small coffer, a wooden chest, and a roll of furs. He opens all the things.

Zelda, moving down the hallway, also finds that those giants have nothing of value on them aside from the bearskin furs they’re wearing. She shrugs and starts lugging bearskin cloaks into the room with the dead bear.

Harvey discovers that the coffers will open, but both the chest and the iron box are locked. There are five giant-sized bearskin cloaks, plus one human-sized cloak.  Feeling grumpy and impatient, harvey uses Crumble on the iron chest and summons Fluff over, intending to stomp the wooden one into splinters.

Karla looks over to where Harvey is and her eyes bug out a little. “Uh… Harvey… we have a couple rogues you know…”

Harvey pauses Fluff, but has already cast on the chest. “Sorry,” he says. “Not used to working with the more…. subtle kind of  partners.” He waves a wing expressively.

Harvey’s spell doesn’t disintegrate the iron box completely,  but enough holes appear in it that a few platinum coins spill out and go clank on the floor.

Zelda walks close enough dragging a couple cloaks to hear what’s going on. “Ooooooooooh I haven’t picked a lock is so long!”

Salach, from two rooms away- “Wait, what? Neat!” He hurries over.

Harvey gives a polite, old fashioned kind of wave at the boxes. “All yours.”

Zelda starts with the wooden chest, inspecting it for traps. She doesn’t find any. She moves on to picking the lock with her tools. In not too long a time, she picks the lock. It goes “click” contemptuously.

Caboose becomes very bored and begins to spin in circles.

Zelda throws open the top of the wooden chest.

Bizarrely, there are only two items in here: a belt, and a shortspear. Nothing else.

Dragon yells from down the hall: “Did anyone find anything on the giants but their bearskin cloaks?”

She picks up the two items and shows it to the others. “Looks like that’s it…. Unless there’s a fake bottom!” She hands them off to the nearest person and starts inspecting the inside of the chest to see if it might have a hidden chamber.

The chest doesn’t have a false bottom or other hidden chamber. “Aww. Boring.”

Zelda moves on to the iron chest. “May as well see if I can open it in case there’s something big in here.” She checks for traps, and then picks the lock.’ Zelda finds no traps!

The lock goes click...and the chest shoots out some little darts! Zelda happens to not be in the way of any, though. It shot out several, and several more appeared to not work at all...on account of being crumbled.

Zelda - “Whoops.”

The box doesn’t actually have hinges; the lid just moves off completely. Inside you find….a crapload of platinum coins!

Zelda digs through them a little, just to see if anything else is in there. Doesn’t look like it, and they’re spilling out more vigorously as she rummages.

Also, the DM forgot to describe the contents of the other two coffers: one of them has a whole bunch of jewelry inside, and the other a bunch of gems.

Caboose walks up to Escaflowne and taps his shoulder.

Escaflowne, “Yes?” without looking over his shoulder.

“Caboose bored. Can we look down halls for more giants?” he asks Escaflowne.

Escaflowne shakes his head, “No, we can pull security here.”

Caboose goes to left of Escaflowne and puts his axe in the ground, then puts his hands under his chin, “okay” he says sadly.

Zelda looks around. “Who’s got a bag of holding with room?

Karla - “I’m not sure if mine does or not, what with Kochevnik and all. Anyone else?”

Escaflowne calls over his shoulder, “I have a good amount of room left in my Haversack.  Also I can carry a lot of weight if we don’t plan on sticking around long.”

Salach- “I have something that may be useful.” He pulls what looks like a toy treasure chest out of his backpack. “This is called a Leomund’s Secret Chest.” With a flourish, he makes a large treasure chest appear out of nowhere. It’s two feet by two feet by three feet...on the outside.

Zelda scampers over. “OOOOOOOOH! I forgot about this thing!”

Salach opens the chest, and it is, naturally, way bigger on the inside. There are a few odds and ends laying in the bottom.

Zelda - “I bet we could fit a bunch of dead comrades in here!”

Salach- “More if they’re halflings!”

Kat, who has totally been here the entire time, casts detect magic and wanders over to look at all the shiny stuff.

WELL. The giants’ cloaks are nonmagical, all your party members shine like Hogwatchnight trees, and… four items in the box o’ gems are magical, one item in the box o’jewelry, and both the belt and the shortspear (duh), and the human-sized cloak that’s with the roll of giant-sized cloaks.

Kat points all of these out to the others and keeps her sight going until she can figure out more information about the items.

Zelda starts shoveling platinum coins into the chest.

Salach- “We can probably get several of the furs in here too, if we roll them up tight.” He commences doing just that.

Dragon drags several more cloaks in as well.

Kat figures out that the sword is probably the most powerful item, followed by the belt, cloak, what turns out to be a pair of gauntlets, and four gems.

Karla says to Kat - ‘WE should probably try putting some cloaks in your bag as well, Kat. Harvey, your backpack will probably fit one.”

Harvey nods and takes a cloak.

“You could wrap one around Fluff too,” he says, only half joking.

Kat - “Of course.” She picks a likely-looking cloak and stuffs it in her bag

Karla starts inspecting the non-magical gems, looking for diamonds. “Zelda, can you appraise things well? Or Salach?”

Zelda - “Nope!” she says cheerfully with dumping a cloak on top of Fluff, and giving her a head pat.

Fluff seems pleased with her new rustic look.

Salach- “Not reliably. The person you want for that is Mordrek.” He finishes cramming a sixth cloak into the chest. You also were able to get all the platinum in there as well.

Salach- “Right, I’m sending this back to the Astral until we get back to Alzak Fortress.” He pulls out a scroll and starts reading.

Kat - “I’m sure there is a dwarf or gnome who can appraise them for us.” She then proceeds to carefully examine that room as a teleport location.

Of the 17 giant cloaks...fluff is wearing one, Salach has six stuffed into his Chest, a couple have gone into various bags of holding and haversacks...point is, assuming all the large people carry one or two, you can get all 17 cloaks out. The other room (as Salach failed to report) was a common sleeping area, and so the boxes in there only held foodstuffs.

Karla - “What do we want to designate as a teleport-in spot? I’m more inclined to head out now since we have so much stuff to carry. Unless you have a bunch of spells left, Salach?”

Assuming the Karla waited until Salach was done reading Leomund’s Secret Chest (which takes 10 minutes), he answers: “I’ve been pretty useless the last couple of fights. I need to get a couple of new spells and memorize a new set. Plus I have some gear I want to swap with Zelda, cause I’m not using it, and she will. So I say we leave and come back in a couple of days.”

While Kat contemplates butchering a giant bear…and totally screws it up this time. She scrubs her hands and knife with snow to get the blood off. And then she joins the others.

Dragon- “I’m good with pressing forward or returning, but if we’re out of spells, we should probably take a day and refresh.”

Kat - “I’d prefer to not wait too long to revive Kochevnik.”

Karla - “So back to my original question. Which spot in here is best for teleporting? Maybe next to the ice wall, so it’s not in view of the rift.”

Kat - “This complex of rooms seems a reasonable place to me.”

Escaflowne points to the side room, “I think in there or behind the ice wall are both good choices.”

Kat investigates the rest of the area, getting the lay of the land and whatnot.

Once Salach is done with his spell, he does likewise.

Karla - “The room with tables or the room the chests were in seem like good options too. I just don’t want us to all end up in separate rooms and not know what happened to each other.”

Salach- “Agreed. Oooh, we could also throw anything we’re not taking with us over the cliff, just to make the place a little better.”

Zelda pops into their conversation. “Did someone say throw things off cliffs?”

Kat - “... Does that include the giants?”

Salach- “Nah, who has that kind of time?”

Kat shrugs - “I’ve got three Enlarge Person spells I haven’t used yet. If nothing else that would  make throwing giant-sized tables around easier.”

Salach shrugs back. “Maybe if some of the weak mind strong back crowd wants to get involved.”

“That is literally the opposite of me,” Harvey says, and flutters to his usual perch on Fluff’s back, It’s nice and soft from the rug now, and he’s feeling relatively safe, so he drifts into a light doze.

Escaflowne, “Weak minded now am I?” Cracks his neck, “If we need to move things I can move them pretty quick.”

Caboose shrugs off Salach comments “Caboose like to see squishy fight giant like man.”

Salach- “That’s what we keep you around for, so I don’t have to. ”

Caboose just smiles

Kat “Here, let me embiggen you.” She casts enlarge person on Escaflowne, and calls over to Dragon. “We’re clearing this room, are you able to help?” 

Dragon- “Ugh, fine, yes. Embiggen me, please.” Kat casts her second spell on him.

Kat calls over to Caboose. “Caboose, would you help move heavy things? I’ll make you bigger and stronger to do it.”

Caboose’s energy picks up just as Kat says this “Bigger and stronger than Esca?”

Kat ponders briefly. “Maybe.” She casts the third Enlarge Person spell on Caboose. “There. Go throw tables and boxes off the cliff.”

Caboose, instead of walking to grab a box, walks up to escaflowne and flexes, “Me stronger now” he says proudly

Escaflowne shakes his head and points at the bodies, “we need to move quickly.”

Caboose goes over to the group and starts throwing stuff over the cliff “YEET!” Caboose yells out as he throws things.

While the intellectual types sit around debating philosophy and drinking tea or whatever, the Morlocks drag a bunch of furniture and whatever out to the ledge and throw it off.

Zelda grabs things that are small enough to really chuck, and proceeds to see how far she can throw them.

You clear out all the furniture easily, someone throws rocks and or ice on the fire, putting it out, and in a few minutes the giants’ living room is nice and clean. The last item you throw over the cliff makes a satisfying crash….which is answered by an angry roar from something in the bottom of the Rift. It sounds vaguely...insectile.

Harvey startles awake from his light trance at the sound and listens.

Zelda stares down below. “I kinda want to go see what that was… anybody have fly?”

Karla, immediately - “No. No flying for you.”

Zelda can see something large (maybe 20’ long) glowing red, but the blowing snow between the cliff and the bottom obscures any details. “Ooh neat, it glows red!”

Kat searches her knowledge skills and comes up with….remorhaz. Harvey comes to the same conclusion.

Escaflowne, “It would be a bad idea for only one or two of us to go down there.”

Kat sighs. “Let’s not. It sounds like a remorhaz, maybe. I don’t know that much about them. Harvey, how much do you know?”

“I know it can swallow us whole, it’s back is hot enough to melt our weapons and I know I am NOT going down there without a lot more prep and possibly a death wish,” Harvey says firmly. “It’s a giant ice insect with the heat of a fire elemental and the temper of Caboose when he hasn’t gotten to kill giants in a while. We’d need to kill it from a distance, with magic maybe, if we managed it at all.”

Dragon- “Hmmmmmmaybe I should get a worthwhile bow, then.”

“Make sure the arrows are melt proof,” Harvey says with a certain amount of gloom.

Kat - “Salach, Karla, let’s teleport back to civilization.”

Salach- “Yeaaaah, agreed. I can take me and four others.”

Karla- “Same here. Harvey, you should shrink Fluff down to normal.”

Harvey nods and takes the spell off of fluff, who shrinks, and is now wearing a comically oversized cloak. But it’s not big enough to trip up her feet, so Harvey leaves it be.


Salach- “Okay, I’ll land us right outside the bar where we met Caboose. Who’s riding with me?”

Kat volunteers, and ends the Enlarge Person spells on Dragon, Escaflowne, and Caboose.

Escaflowne, “I am going with Harvey and Fluffy.”

Salach- “Right, so Kat, Esca, Harvey, and Fluff, gather over here, please, we have to hold hands. Or clasp shoulders or something. In contact, whatever. Oh, Harvey, can you shrink Fluff more? Otherwise someone has to swap groups.”

“Hey Esc, wanna wear a giant cloak for a minute?” Harvey says, swapping out Fluff’s healing collar for a shrinking collar. Now fluff is small. She chirps sadly as Harvey hands her cloak to Esc.

Escaflowne does as asked.

Karla - “So that leaves Caboose, Zelda, and Dragon to circle up with me.”

Caboose walks up to Karla and stands next to her, “Caboose ready to go”

Salach- “Karla, just land yourself in the same spot relative to where we are. I’ll be like 20 feet out the front door of the bar.”

Karla nods. “Can do.” She grabs Caboose’s hand, and Zelda bounces up to grab her other one, while holding out her hand suggestively to Dragon and winking.

Dragon chuckles and takes her hand.

Caboose looks at Dragon and Zelda in a confused look. “Do you mate with her?”

Zelda - “Not if he wants to stay unstabbed by his wife’s favorite spear!”

Dragon- “That’s true!”

Salach- “Teleport!” BAMF!

Karla - “Teleport!” Second BAMF!
------------------

Both groups land where they want without problems, except for the crowds of surprised dwarves all around you. But since you don’t immediately start stabbing people, eventually they start ignoring you. A couple of constables run up as well, but after brief questioning, send you on your way, especially once you mention having just fought a bunch of hill and frost giants.

Caboose picks up a dwarf, “Where nearest Tavern!?” He shouts

Dwarf- “Agh! Right behind you!” The dwarf points to behind Caboose.

Caboose drops the dwarf and runs into the tavern! “Thank you mini person!”

Harvey settles himself and Fluff on Escaflowne’s now bear cloaked shoulders, content to follow the others for now.

Kat grabs Karla and starts asking what needs to be done to resurrect Kochevnik.

Escaflowne, “Maybe while you two take care of Kochevnik the rest of us will sell all this stuff we got, identify the magic and count the money so we can split it.”  Watches Caboose, “and maybe we send someone to follow him to make sure he doesn’t spend all his money on alcohol...or worse.”

Dragon- “Agreed, we’ll probably need to rent some dining hall considering how big these bear cloaks are. Buuut you all handle that, I’m chasing Caboose bye!” He follows caboose into the tavern.

Kat sags a bit. “Ah. We should do that first then. I don’t … currently have enough to pay for a resurrection.”

Karla - “I already have the components on hand, and I think there was enough in the loot as well, so we won’t be without an emergency set. Although, Harvey, you could do reincarnation with a lot fewer components, right? I could do a divination to see if Kochevnik would be fine with that or if he’d prefer a resurrection.”

“I can,” Harvey says, but I’ll need to do my Mystic Whatever to memorize the spell, and that’ll take an overnight rest.”

Karla  says - “I’ll need a day to pray for the divination spell/resurrection spell anyway.”

“Awesome.”

Escaflowne nods, “then the three of you work that, Salach, will you join Zelda and I in selling and splitting up the treasure?”

Salach- “Yeah, we need to line up buyers for the bear skins, especially. I’ll see if there is some place we can lay everything out at once. At least the nonmagical stuff.”

Escaflowne, “I am the guy to carry everything.  You or Zelda good at haggling to get a good deal?”

Salach- “That’s Zelda’s skill, not mine.”

Kat hands over to Escaflowne the 6 giant gold and ivory armbands and the bearskin(s) that were in her bag, so they can be properly disposed of.

Fluff whimpers and Harvey pats her. “I’ll buy you a nicer cloak,” he promises, and hands over the bearskin in his bag.

Everyone hears from inside the tavern “No Shit there Caboose was…” Caboose says loudly and a bit drunk.

Right then: Salach, Esca and Zelda head over to the main market and find an empty room they can cheaply rent and lay out everything. They also spread the word about having a bunch of fine bear skins and giants’ jewelry to sell, and get plenty of interest, especially since this is all recently looted from the lair of giants.

Once that’s relatively established, Salach buries himself in his spellbooks, and invites Kat to join him. He also prepares to cast Identify a bunch of times tomorrow.

Karla and Harvey go find whatever components they need for their various spells.

Dragon attempts to control Caboose...or at least keep him from barfing on passers by again.

The treasure you have so far:
2069 platinum pieces (each worth 10 gp) (20,690)
12x sets of giant jewelry worth 2000 gp each (24,000)
1x scroll mass fire shield
37x 100 gp gems (3,700)
13x 500 gp gems (6,500)
8x 1000 gp gems (8,000)
17x jewelry worth 500 gp each (8,500)
17x hill giant bear cloaks, worth 3500 gp each (59,500)
4x magic gems
Magic sword
Magic belt
Magic gauntlets
Magic cloak

Day 179!
Salach acquires some calcium carbonate and fabricates that into pearls, and then he gets DRUUUUNK identifying things.

So the magic items are:
4x lesser energy assault crystals: 1x each acid, cold, fire, electricity
1x belt of battle

Escaflowne pays to get the other items identified. He can the DM just needs to look up the cost.

The other three items are:
Transposer cloak
Gauntlets of throwing
Aaannnd….to be revealed pending results of Kochevnik.

Kat spends a bunch of money to get the materials to scribe Endure Elements(from the ook she looted from the half-fiend) and Disintegrate (from the scroll that Nifrege the dwarven merchant gave her) into her spellbook. She checks with Salach so make sure he doesn’t want or need any of the other spells in the spellbook, and then sells it for 700 gp.

Once he’s sober he copies mass fire shield into his spellbook and borrow’s Kat’s spellbook to get disintegrate from her. He also gets acid storm and chasing perfection from leveling up, and hands his spellbook over to Kat so she can grab what she wants.

Kat scribes Chasing Perfection, finds Acid Storm incomprehensible, and has to wait until she gets her share of the loot to afford the materials to scribe Mass Fire Shield.

Caboose wakes up hung over and thirsty from drinking 20g worth of grog

Since Karla can’t find a paragnostic assembly house, she settles for finding a room in a quiet inn. She asks Harvey to come by tomorrow with Reincarnate memorized. Once she determines that this space will work, she stops by the place the others are selling things.

Harvey takes the opportunity to get a room in the same inn, where he and fluff retreat to have introvert time and let Harvey do his spell meditiation thingy. They get dinner ordered in and take a nap as well. Then Harvey curls up with Fluff next to a fireplace and reads for the rest of the night.

Esca, Dragon and Zelda spend the day telling embellished stories of their exploits and selling off their stuff. The event turns out to be the talk of the town, to the point where some local dignitaries show up and see what the hubbub is about.

Caboose starts wondering the market place in search of better armor or trinkets for him. Nothing jumps out at him today, mostly because everyone who is anyone is over at the jewelry-and-bear-skins emporium. Caboose punches the last table mad he can't find a better trinket or armor for him

Day 180!

Everything you all wanted to sell is sold! Whatever that turned out to be.

Karla gets up and meditates on the secrets of the universe. She then waits for Harvey to show up.

Harvey shows up rested and in a slightly better mood from not having to talk to anyone all night. Fluff scampers in after him and sits in the corner with Kat.

Kat shows up as well and sits quietly in the corner near the bed.

Around the time they started arriving, Karla started to pull Kochevnik out of the bag and arrange him on the bed.

Karla - “So I’m going to start with Speak with Dead. It won’t be talking to him directly, exactly, but since he’s also a divine spell caster his body should remember the costs and differences between Raise Dead and reincarnate enough to make a decision about which he wants.”

Kat nods. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Karla smiles. “We can also ask him 5 other questions but I don’t expect we need to pry into his deep dark secrets.”

Harvey mutters something about “ask him what the hell he was doing getting himself killed.”

Kat snorts delicately. “Of course not. Though perhaps it would be kind to ask if he wants to be brought back at all....”

Karla - “Good point, I will ask that first. He can always refuse the raising spells once we cast them, but it still costs the components in that case.”

So Karla casts Speak with Dead, and asks Kochevnik’s body “Do you want to be brought back?”

Karla gets the impression that he’s thinking about it, but she gets a (reluctant?) “Yes.”

Karla follows up with, “Would you prefer we cast Raise Dead or Reincarnation on you?”

More thinking…”Leave behind the past and seek ever to purify yourself.”

Karla turns to the others. “I think that sounds like he’d prefer reincarnation, don’t you think?”

“Sounds like,” Harvey says. He looks like he desperately wants to say more but is refraining.

Kat, quietly, “Perhaps. Ask him specifically “Do you want us to cast Reincarnate on you?”

Karla nods. “Do you want us to cast reincarnate on you?”

“Yes”

Karla - “Alright, Harvey, you’re up.” She deactivates her spell.

Harvey casts Reincarnate!

It takes ten minutes, and then….

Harvey finishes spreading the oils and salves over Kochevnik’s body and casts the spell. The corpse appears to decay rapidly, but instead of crumbling to nothing, his body and some local dust instead are rearranging themselves, and forming into a new body underneath the old. It turns into, not a tiefling, but a stocky human woman. The last of Kochevnik’s old body crumbles away and the woman inhales deeply and opens her eyes. She looks around uncomprehendingly for a few seconds and then breaks out into a huge smile and reaches out to grab whoever is nearest for a bear hug. It’s Harvey who gets crushed!

“Watch the wings,” he wheezes.

“Haha Thank y-why is my voice so high?” A brief look of panic crosses her face as she levers herself up. “What happened?”

Kat looks her over. “Reincarnate happened. I hope that’s… alright.”

Kochevnik shakes her head and levers herself up. “Yes, I was just not expecting, uhh to be a woman. Huh. Oh! Sorry, Harvey!” She lets him go.

“It’s fine,” Harvey says, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re pleased. And uh…. Welcome back and stuff.”

Kochevnik prods at the spear holes in her armor. “Thank you. Good grief. I need this fixed. Or just to buy something new entirely.

Karla - ‘Well, we killed another dozen or so giants after you died, so we have plenty of treasure to buy things with.”

Kochevnik gives kind of an odd smile. “Hang on, yep, I’m still dressed under this. Ummm I think I need some new clothes, so how much money are we talking here?”

Karla - “Well, there was a pile of platinum about this big… “ She spreads her hands out.

Kat - “Escaflowne, Salach, and Zelda are handling the disposition, so we’ll have to ask them.”

Kochevnik- “Ok.” She stands up from the bed. “Oh, I’m also eight inches shorter now. Ugh, yes, clothes shopping. Ummm I have no experience with shopping for women’s clothes, sooo a little help?”

Kat huffs a laugh. “Of course. Come with me. I’ve got enough right now to outfit you with clothes at least. And after that, we can talk to Salach about the treasure. There was a magical weapon that you may be interested in.”

And off they go!

[perovskite]

Day 180 MAOG

There was some out of character magic item and treasure divvying during the week.

(click to show/hide)

Caboose is interested in going shopping with Escaflowne because they are buff warriors and kill many giants. And grog is needed.

Escaflowne watches Caboose drink, but refuses to remove his helmet to drink anything.

Caboose has one drink, “Esca, Caboose question for him.”

Escaflowne nods to Caboose, “I have answers.”

Caboose points to a ring a person at the bar is wearing, “Caboose want shiny like that. He say it prodection rang. Caboose get one better than his here?”

Escaflowne, “Yes we can  go look at getting you a ring of protection.  It will make you harder to hit.”

Caboose looks deep into Escaflowne eyes with wide excitement. “Caboose harder to hit? For realsies?”

Escaflowne shakes his head, “You will be harder to hit.”

Caboose grabs Escaflowne and shouts “WE BUY ME HARDER HIT RING NOW!” and rushes out the tavern
------------
Dragon spends the day shopping for various magical thingies and purchasing the enchanting services of dwarven wizards. He burns through nearly all his money upgrading his shield (making it a +1 warning weapon), buying a new bow (+1 adaptive composite longbow), a few potions (fly, gaseous from, +5 barkskin), and getting another pair of magical boots (expeditious boots!)

Dragon does inquire with Harvey, though. “You’re still going to cast snowshoes on us while we’re fighting the frost giants, right?”

“I was planning on it!” Harvey says, barely looking up from his book.
----------
Karla - “Hmm, actually I should probably do it, since one of my abilities makes it so that everyone can move 20 feet faster instead of 10.”

Caboose rushes into the room and shouts with glee “Lookie Lookie at shiny ring! Caboose harder to hit!”

Karla - “Great! I always like my fighters to be hard to hit.”

Caboose grins from ear to ear, little drool from the side of his mouth. “Caboose want you to hit him hard as you can.” He says triumphantly
-----------------------
Salach- “Toe Cutter, I know you and I have had a good time over the past several months, but I have to admit something to you. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m not right for you. I don’t stab giants in the kidneys nearly enough to keep you happy. But I have found someone who is right for you, and I’m sure you’ll just be the happiest giant-slaying short sword in the world.”

Toe Cutter, slightly nonplussed- “Look, boss, we have had fun, but my purpose in life is to kill giants. So as long as this friend of yours kills giants, I’m happy.”

Salach- “I know, and that’s why I’m trading you to Zelda, whom you’ve seen fight giants hand to hand quite a bit.”

Toe Cutter- “Oh man, have I! Yeah, where is she?”

Salach purchases a magic bow with a wand chamber built into it, as well as a wand of Hunter’s Eye.

Salach finds Zelda. “Zelda, Toe Cutter here wants to be your favorite giant-killing sword, for you to have and to hold in your off hand, to kill giants, until death do them part from this mortal coil. Will you take Toe Cutter to be your off-hand sword?”

Zelda - “I’d love to! You do lots of extra damage to giants, right?”

Toe Cutter- “Yay! And hell yes I do!”

Zelda - “I probably owe you for him, huh. Hey everybody, anyone use long swords?”

Dragon- “Yeah, but I really like mine. Which are you getting rid of?”

Zelda - “The regen bane one, since we don’t seem to run into trolls all that often. If I can afford that handy haversack I’ve been wanting I might just keep it as a ‘just in case’ weapon, though. Unless someone else wants it!”

Dragon- “I’m spending all my money on other stuff, buuuut maybe later?”

Zelda - “Works for me! I have enough after buying Salach all his presents to get the handy haversack!” she says, after counting her remaining pennies.

Salach- “Yay!” And he takes Zelda’s giant wad of cash/bear skins/jewelry and gets himself a headband of intellect and a magic short sword (no intelligence, very plain.)

Zelda - “So I owe you 14000 still.”

Karla - “Don’t forget you owe me for that breastplate too.”

Zelda, sheepishly - “Oh yeah, that. I didn’t forget, I swear!”

Salach- “Suuuree.”

Zelda pouts. “Man, I really need to lean into the rogue thing and steal parts of the loot before you guys get to it. I’ll never pay you off otherwise.”
-------------

Harvey upgrades his periapt of wisdom to +4. This should cost about 12k gold.

--------------------
Kat, having seen Salach’s new bow, decides that she needs one too, but gets hers in a masterwork composite longbow, with a spot for a LEAC. She installs her Magic Missile wand in it for now, and attaches the fire LEAC.

Kochevnik: “I’m going to rearrange a whole bunch of my equipment. A lot of it is just not useful.”

Kat “An excellent idea. You should probably get better armor.”

Kochevnik- “Oh, definitely. And I’m going to start using a shield as well. Those shield maiden frost giants have some ideas I like.”

Kat smiles wryly. “Making the most of your unfortunate end?”

Kochevnik- “Of course!”

By this time they have entered the clothier/armorer district of the fortress (it’s not clear where one starts and the other stops), and find an establishment that looks promising. Kochevnik is able to sell her damaged breastplate (the dwarf woman demands the story behind this and is very much impressed with both Kat and Kochevnik), as well as pick up a couple sets of explorer clothes suitable for a burly 5’8” woman instead of a really burly 6’3” man.

Kat, as Kochevnik’s employer (more or less) picks up the tab for the clothes and armor.

Kochevnik- “Kat, this is great, thank you!”

Kat hums. “I’m just sorry we didn’t do this before heading in.... well. Availability of funds notwithstanding.”

Kochevnik- “What’s done is done. I’m alive. I can’t complain.”

Kat nods. “Anything else that you need? I’ve got to get scroll scribing supplies.”

Kochevnik- “No, I’m going to wait and see how the treasure bidding turns out before I get anything else. I have some ideas, though.”

Kat shrugs “Alright, see you at the inn, then.”

Kochevnik- “OK, later!” Kochevnik then goes to find Karla and/or Zelda to have questions about the birds and the bees answered.

Zelda gets a grin on her face that causes Karla to intervene and take over, kicking Zelda out to go play with Toe Cutter.
--------------------------------
Seeing that the rest of the treasure is claimed, Kochevnik claims the spear as her cut and is perfectly happy with it.

Kochevnik also mentions reshuffling all her gear, and the rest of the party jumps on the stuff she’s getting rid of like they’ve never seen magic items before. Koch therefore makes way more money than she expected. Nice.

Kat buys the portable shade, and Karla buys the Wand of Eagle’s Splendor. Dragon buys three potions of bull’s strength.

Kochevnik takes her new spear and goes out to buy just two things: a +1 light steel shield (with a wand chamber), and a wand of draconic might.

On Days 180 through 183...

Kat scribes scrolls of teleport! She lets others know that they exist, for if Karla and Salach get incapacitated.

Which means that Salach also has time to scribe a couple of scrolls. He also buys and scribes...cloud of knives!

Zelda goes out and buys a handy haversack, and stuffs all her various extra swords and such in it. “I’ve always wanted one of these!”

Zelda also starts practicing with Toe Cutter. “Man, this is such a change, using a normal fighting style….”

Karla - “Hmm, I’ve got enough left over money to get another raise dead worth of diamonds…”

Dragon- “Hopefully that is way too much. But also probably just enough.”

Karla - “Oh, I could also pick up a couple cure light wound wands, they’re pretty cheap. It’s the most healing per gp, and if I only use them while we’re camping the time isn’t and issue…” Karla wanders off the Cleric Shop to get way too much healing capability.

--------
Also during these days of spell scrolling, one evening over dinner, Kochevnik tells everyone that she will not be joining them on their next foray into the Frost Giant’s Rift.

Kochevnik- “Honestly, I’m a liability to you all, and more so now that I’ve lost a bit of the skill I used to have. I’m going to remain here for awhile, practice some of the techniques I saw the shield maidens use, and seek out another way to fight...against the giants.”

Kat sighs “I suppose so. I’d imagine that you need to get used to having a smaller body when you fight anyway.”

Kochevnik- “There are LOTS of things to get used to now. I can use the time.”

Kat “Thank you for coming along. I’ve enjoyed traveling with you. I wish you luck wherever you end up.”

Kochevnik- “Kat, you are more than welcome. I still owe you about 9 months of service, so I will find you when this is all over.”

Caboose, gorging on the food and grog, looks up finally, “who the lady?”

Salach- “I’ll explain it to you when you’re older, Caboose.”

Kat chuckles. “What, you don’t believe that he who dies, pays all debts? As you like. If we both survive, we’ll meet again.”

Escaflowne offers Kochevnik a somber nod.

Harvey pats her awkwardly on the elbow. “It was good working with you. Safe travels. I’m glad we didn't let Caboose throw you in the canyon.”

Caboose looks at Harvey in confusion, and then at Koch. “Koch was male warrior. This woman warrior. They not same.” he says. He then turns to Salach “What to explain. Men have thingy, women dont have thingy.”

Kat “It’s magic, Caboose.”

Caboose just nods and thinks everyone is crazy, “Caboose have drink with nice lady! Death to Giants, Lady Friend!” he raises his grog to Koch.

Kochevnik- “Death to Giants, Caboose! No need to make this maudlin. A toast to you all, both for your bravery...and for bringing me back. I owe you more than I could ever repay.”

Kat raises her glass “I’ll drink to that.”

Dragon- “As will I!”

Escaflowne, “How do you be anything other than maudlin?

Zelda - “Don’t worry, we’ll come back and drag you along again soon enough! Oooh, do you have any friends we could go convince you’re a ghost? Hmm, might need white face paint…”

Karla - “Like that, apparently. We’ll be back soon enough, and are just a Sending away if you need us.”

Kochevnik- “Thank you all, I’ll contact you if I need help.”

---------------
Day 184!
All the magic item swapping is done, spells memorized, character sheets updated (riiiight?), stuff sold, maudlin goodbyes covered with booze, it’s time to go back and continue with your home invasion of the peace-loving, totally innocent frost giant rift! (Only innocent of doing anything evil recently because to busy dealing with invaders to be out doing evil.)

Escaflowne when the party meets up to leave, “I have a suggestion.  We should work at staying tighter together as a group.  It might prevent some of the problems we have been running into when fighting.  I recommend that Caboose and I take the front with Zelda only being maybe 10 to 20 feet in front of us while invisible.  That and the rest of the party at staying within range of the armor and initiative devotions so that when they are active we all benefit.  This way we don’t have as far to go to provide support if giants come at us from multiple directions again.  This also means the Magic users can hit the giants faster and the fighters are not leaving themselves open by rushing ahead like we have been doing.”

Kat  -  “As long as you leave me a clear field of fire, you can do whatever you like. I don’t have that many spells that I can fire into a melee without the risk of hitting you.”

Escaflowne, “I think we can work that.  The front line will stay against the outer walls and push the giants between them giving you an alley to shoot down?”

Kat considers. “That might work. We can try it at any rate.”

“I’d like to keep Fluff as rear guard,” Harvey said. “My speed is quick enough I can stay near the back as well, as long as we stay in a group.”

Escaflowne, “I figure that works, this will just be us attempting to be more efficient.  After one or two encounters we will know if this works.  There are risks to staying close, but I think the benefits from those armor and initiative abilities will out way the risks.  Having Fluff as part of the rear guard is not a bad thing.”

Dragon- “I can probably play both sides, as fast as I am with these boots. Oooh Harvey, I assume you’ll still be casting snowshoes on us all, yes?”

Karla - “Should probably be me, actually, I’ve got an ability that doubles its effectiveness.”

Dragon- “Cool, as long as I don’t slip.”

Salach- “After that last fight with the hill giants, I’ve decided to change my tactics and be more useful. I’ll be doing a lot more sneak attacking with my handy new short bow, and I have a couple of mass fire shield spells memorized for when we need them. And a new spell, chasing perfection. It’s like bull’s strength but improves you in every way. And I still have the wand of endure elements.”

Caboose picks up his Greataxe and stands with it over his shoulder, “We kill giants or we talk all day?”

Salach- “Yah, he has a point. Are we all ready?”

Kat nods. “Ready.”

Escaflowne nods, “I am.”

Harvey flutters to Esc’s shoulder, while Fluff jumps to perch onto the other one. “Ready.”

Dragon draws his sword and readies his shield. “Yep, let’s go.”

Salach- “I have teleport memorized once, so you all know.”

Karla - “Same here.”

Salach- “So if we get in a jam then we use Kat’s new scrolls, and I owe her some money, I guess. To the hill giant’s chambers?”

Kat gives him the side eye and a half-smile “It’s for the party’s benefit. At least if it’s an emergency.”

Karla - “I’m ready.”

Caboose slams the greataxe into the ground and shouts “TO KILL GIANTS WE GO!”

And so you cluster into two small groups, Karla and Salach each cast teleport and BAMF BAMF!
----------------------

You’re back in the hill giant’s bed chambers. What do you do?

Caboose picks up the greataxe and claims “Be quiet. We huntin giants.” then giggles a bit in a half orcish way

Harvey quietly and quickly swaps out Fluff’s shrink collar for one of healing, and then waves his hand, summoning an ancient looking bottle out of thin air.

“Who can ride best here? I’ve got a smoke horse for emergencies.”

Zelda waves her hand in the air. “Me! Meeeee! I like smoke horses!”

Harvey smiles and tosses it to her. “Uncork that if you need to move really, really fast. And while you’re on it, don’t let go of the bottle, and tell the horse if you want to make a smoke trail to hide anyone, or confuse the crap out of people. Recork it when you’re done. It’s good for the next 24 hours.

Zelda - “Coolest. Spell. Ever!”

Salach moves around the party slowly, casting endure elements on everyone before we all catch cold. “Hmm, this wand is half empty, I’ll need a new one soon.”

Karla casts mass snowshoes on the group.

Escaflowne moves to the front and draws his sword ready to move forward.

As Esca moves toward the pile of hill giant carcasses on the west side of the chamber (away from the rift, on the bottom of the map), he notices that one of the carcasses is missing. He further sees, in the larger of the two chambers, the various bones and frozen entrails of both 1x hill giant, and 1x giant bear, as if some other predator has been scavenging the kills.

Escaflowne, “I think whatever was at the bottom of the rift came up to eat.”

Kat: “Good. Maybe it will be less likely to come after us.”

Caboose moves towards Escaflowne, “What eat giant, giant deserve worse.” he says coldly. “We kill giants today.”

Harvey scans the area doing many checks of things.

Zelda moves out in front of the group and disappears. “Eyes peeled, Toe Cutter. Or whatever it is you use instead of eyes.”

Harvey examines the carcasses and tracks professorially. The look to him...reptilian, both the bite marks and the tracks, and looking at the tracks it’s pretty clear that one set of the reptile tracks is marginally smaller than the other, which compares favorably with what appear to be two different sets of bite marks, thus indicating two dragons, one male, one female.

On the plus side, they don’t appear to be particularly large dragons, maybe in the range of thirty to thirty-five feet long, with proportional wingspans.

Harvey concludes his lecture.

Zelda - “Oh, those. How old does that make it?”

“No more than 200 years old, I’d say,” Harvey said. “Possibly younger.” He sighs. “Someone remind me why I’m here and not back in my own library right now?”

He casts Cloud wings on himself.

Caboose’s eyes get super wide with excitement “Caboose ride on dragon to kill giants!” hey says slowly and jittery.

Kat give him a look. “White Dragons are evil. They won’t help us.”

Caboose gets sad, “oh. Okay.” he says depression in his voice.

Karla - “Too bad we left our white dragon skin cloaks at home.”

Salach- “We can still cast resist energy spells.”

Karla - “Yeah, I have some prepared.”

Kat - “At any rate, there’s plenty for them to eat here, so we shouldn’t encounter them if we don’t hang around. Provided they aren’t down the corridors we plan to take.”

Escaflowne, “we should just be ready to run into them.”

Neither Kat nor Harvey can see far enough across the Rift to determine if the ice toads’ have escaped their lair. There wind in the rift is super loud, as normal, and so he doesn’t hear much of anything beyond that, either.

As you head out the most obvious door, you notice that there are drag marks in the snow, heading the same direction you’re going (ie, north-ish).

Kat: “...great.”

Caboose stays near Escaflowne, “We go down hall now?” he asks

When Zelda makes a hard left down the narrow corridor with four dead giants in it, she notices that only the one nearest the Rift has been chewed on, and the other three haven’t been touched. The drag marks continue straight past the narrow hall, down another hallway you haven’t explored.

Zelda, to those behind her - “Plenty of food left, looks like. Probably a bit crunchy at this point. I wonder if white dragons also break the enamel on their teeth if they eat ice?”

Escaflowne, “we follow Zelda’s voice.” then moves down the hall.

Kat sees where Escaflowne turns. “That way leads back.”

Zelda - “Oh, are we not going down the other corridor we passed?”

Escaflowne points towards Zelda’s voice, “what she said.”

Karla - “This looks like it goes back to where we came in on the other side of the valley. It’s probably best to clear it out first.”

Kat: “I didn’t memorize Enlarge Person this time, so good luck with that.”

Salach- “I’ve got mass fire shield, so anything that tries to hit us will just murder itself. We should be okay.”
Karla - “I meant clear out the area behind us, not clear the corridor. Zelda, are you coming back?”

Zelda’a voice, right in the middle of all of you. “Way ahead of you, sister!” You then hear some feet crunching down the corridor, which then goes silent.

Zelda sees another corridor on her right, and the tunnel ends in a T intersection, with a small chamber to her left. The floor of the tunnel is decorated with small bits of frozen entrails. Very homey. The drag marks turn right.

Zelda - “Cute.” She wait for the others to get within 30 feet or so.

Once they do, Zelda gets a good look down the hall, and sees that it connects to the ledge they started exploring waaaaaaayyyyyyy long ago. So now the party can run laps around the Rift. Yay!

The drag marks make a hard left at the next corridor, and then end in a pile of bones and frozen blood.

Zelda, quietly - “I’ll check if the dragon is down here to the left, stay a bit further back.”

Escaflowne looks over his shoulder and passes the message on, “we are going left, Zelda is moving farther ahead to check for dragons, we need to move slower.”

A game of telephone ensues. By the time Dragon gets the message, he hears, “Pizza is due on the 14th, don’t tell anyone.” Dragon, being Lawful Neutral, resolves not to.

Zelda can squeeze down the gap in the ice (that’s what you get for living in a glacier. It moves!)...and...the hallway opens up into a chamber that turns to Zelda’s left. The whole place looks too small for anything bigger than a human, currently. At the end of a short narrow hall, it widens out, and Zelda notices a rune carved in the floor.

Zelda moves back to the tight spot and says to Esca, “There’s nothing here but a rune in the floor. I can’t tell you anything about it because I didn’t read it in case it explodes. Probably need a mage.”

Escaflowne looks over his shoulder, “found some runes, do we have a mage that can tell us if they will kill us or not?”

Kat comes up. “It’s best to assume the answer is yes. I’ll have a look at it.” She casts detect magic and squeezes through the narrow spot.

The rune is nonmagical.

Caboose looks at Kat “Anything?” he asks.

Kat can determine that it’s a rune in giantish, but she can’t read it. She calls back to the group. “It’s non-magical and it’s in Giantish. I don’t know that language.”

Harvey, having cast cloud wings on himself earlier, VERY QUICKLY flies over, and pokes his head in.

Harvey reads the rune, which indicates a dire warning that no one should go past this point in the tunnel.

[perovskite]

Day 170: Team Dwarf

Gotta do some catch-up. For those keeping score, the Most Ancient and Original Group teleported into Alzak Keep a couple hours after Team Dwarf left.

(click to show/hide)

And so, having said your goodbyes to Team Elf, everyone except Tex (actually Tex could be there too, since she can only scribe stuff 8 hours a day) is sitting around the open air bistro discussing their next move with Shifty Jack and whatever orc-wives or orc-maidens are there listening in.

Erihild- “What should we do first? Now that the treasure is divided I don’t really have anything I would like to sell. Even though the thought of going home for a day or two is appealing.”

Tikkaer, “As Long as we keep moving towards fights with giants.  There were not enough giants around for the last few encounters.”

Tex looking at her spell book then speaks up “Well I am in the mood for more bloodshed, besides I have plans with some gems i need to collect. I am up for more mayhem.”

Beast replies to Erihild. “Unless we want better armor, maybe.”

Erihild shrugs. “I suppose I could sell this wand of Cat’s Grace I just got. I know Tex needs a few more days to scribe spells. What do you think, Beldren?”

Beldren - “Tex, I assume you can’t scribe spells on horseback?”

“Well, I am sure i can but just make sure its not a bumpy ride,” she replies to Beldren.

Beldren - “Oh wait, it was Snaga that made the horses wasn’t it? Well, never mind on that plan.”

Tikkaer, “I am pretty sure she wasn’t the one that made the horses.”

Beldren - “Oh, it was one of the other sorceresses? If that’s the case we’ll be best off using those for the first day, at least. I think it will be a good idea to report in at home, since we’ll be passing by anyway. Given that we don’t know what’s going on there, allowing a couple days at the location would be a good idea. Tex can finish her scribing there.”

Tex sits there and agrees “I think it wont take long to scribe the last of these spells in my book. It will cost me some money but ill be able to it.”

Beldren - “Let’s head out tomorrow morning, then. Tex, can you ask the sorceresses about providing us Mounts for tomorrow?”

Tikkaer, “Is it really smart to ask Tex to communicate with anyone?”

“Y’all gonna keep Skelly alive this time?” Tex answers angrily to the group

Beldren - “I’m sure they’re used to her by now, since she’s been helping them with spells. Also, we’ll do our best with Skelly.”

Brother Beast snorts softly and starts cleaning under his fingernails with the tip of his sickle.

Tikkaer, “Ummm, ok.” Then looking to Tex, “We are not going to go out of our way to kill Skelly if that means anything.”

Tex claps her hands together happily “Then i shall speak to my local oogidy boogidy people on providing us some steeds and mounts.”

Beldren - “Thanks, Tex. Everyone else, put in whatever preparations are needed.”

And so you all do just that. One or two of the orc-maiden sorcerers agree to cast mount for you the next day (and ask if you want to cross the river first, once you mention your plans), and whatever preparations you do are done in time for everyone to get a good night’s sleep.

Bingle bingle bing...beep!

Day 171!

Somewhere, just a few miles downstream, another group of adventurers is fighting a group of giants fleeing the attack on the elven village of Preston. The sun is shining, the breeze is refreshing, and the

Tex looks for Erihild to give her something.

Erihild- ”Uhhh, yes, Tex?”

“Erihild!” Tex says running up to her and hugs her. “I have something for you! Its a spell i cant use. Called Dispell Magic. Do you want it?”

Erihild, stunned at Tex hugging her, “Um yes, I guess. Thank you.” <uncertain emoji!>

Tex smiles and shouts with glee “Oh goodie! Im glad you can use it!” and then runs off.

Eventually everyone is collected, you’ve recrossed the Oyt River (once again on the southeast side of it), the orc-sorceresses cast Mount, and you all get ponies (cause you’re all short) instead of warhorses, but away you go!

Calculating times and distances, hang on….

On ponies, you all make twice as good time as on foot, and the ponies don’t even balk at Skelly, who I guess gets folded up into a parcel and rides behind Tex, since he can’t ride a horse. So you pass through Gorna around lunchtime. You just pass through, not bothering to tell anyone what’s going on, and continue your travels. Southwest of Gorna the road eventually starts to peter out a bit, but by the time you stop for the day (cause the horses disappear at the 8-hour mark), you’ve made 32 miles, are over halfway to Hornwood (the town), and are about 10 miles away from the eastern edge of the Hornwood (the forest). The terrain where you are is now hilly tending to mountainous, with the higher Stark Mounds (blending into <insert mountain range name here!>) standing out across the river.

Shify Jack says that at the edge of the Hornwood there is a bridge that crosses the river south, and a rough dirt track that goes to Alzak Fortress directly. All the roads in this area are looking pretty unused; Jack says as far as he can tell the giants have basically abandoned it.

When you camp, the whole area does feel kind of empty. Weird.



Day 172!

Nothing tries to eat you that night, nor does anyone steal your stuff, and so the next morning you set out again, tragically on foot. Thus, it’s early afternoon by the time you get to the intersection.

Tex has also discovered that the best she can do as far as spell scribing while on horseback is to waste pages scribbling ink. Joke’s on her.

When you do, Jack tells you that he won’t go with you to Alzak Fortress, but will instead head into Hornwood and tell his compatriots to prepare for your arrival.

Jack- “So how about I meet you back here in five days? That will give you plenty of time to get to Alzak Fortress, do whatever you need to do, and get back here, without a hurry.”

Beldren - “That sounds like a good plan. Good luck on your journey.”

Jack- “Thanks. I’ll see you all soon then.” He heads west, and you continue south.

The terrain gets rougher immediately when you cross the bridge, but there’s what amounts to a well-marked trail on the far side. You camp, get to enjoy the mountain breezes, and set out again on Day 173. It takes you most of the day to get to Alzak fortress, but you manage to without encountering anything but the occasional dwarf patrol, from afar.

Thus you arrive at the main gate!

Sentry- “Helloo, who goes there?”

Tex answers before anyone can answer “You’re mother! OH BURN!” she begins to laugh uncontrollably and manically

Sentry, quietly- “My mother is inside, what are you talking about?”

Brother Beast: “Ignore the necromancer, she’s insane. Beast Gherdzi, and Erihild Naloirc, of Clan Fireforge, with our companions in giant-hunting: Tikkaer, and Beldren Eregion of Clan Ironaxe, a Stonelord.”

Tikkaer, “Maybe we need a gag.”

Sentry- “Oh, Brother Beast! Erihild! Sorry, I didn’t recognize you. You can obviously enter, and Tikkaer, glad to see you back here again. Alright, so a halfling necromancer, that’s not illegal, and who is this huma---by Moradin’s beard it’s that’s a skeleton! Why do you have the undead with you!?”

Tex- “TOUCH MY SKELETON I SWEAR TO GOD I MAKE YOUR INNERS BLEED OUT YOUR EYES AND BACK SIDE! He is my minion and obeys all my orders. No harm will come to anyone. I swear” Tex shouts to sentry in defensive anger. “You know how hard it is to raise a undead skeleton? Very hard and long. Just ungodly amount of work.” she cools off after this

Sentry- “Wait, what? Can the rest of you vouch for this? Does the halfling really control the skeleton?”

Brother Beast: “Yah, she does.”

Sentry- “...huh. Hmmmm I doubt you’ll be allowed in here, but if you can park your skeleton behind this pile of rocks I’ll see that no harm comes to him. And I’ll send someone to see if bringing the undead into town is acceptable in this case.”

Tex gets an evil grin, a super evil grin. Then she turns to the sentry “Okay, I will leave my minion here behind on one condition. And only one condition. If brother beast would hug him ill leave him behind.”

Brother Beast interrupts: “Tex, shut yerself lest you be required to stay out here as well.”

Sentry- “That’s between all of you. In any case, the skeleton can’t go inside. Whether you do or not, Miss Necromancer, is up to you.”

Erihild smirks at this.

Tex becomes annoyed, “Skelly, go hide behind the rocks. Stay there. If anyone tries to attack you, eat this damn dwarf.” Skelly nods then walks behind the rocks.

Beast addresses the sentry: “If it gets stroppy, it’s not that hard to kill, but call for assistance anyway.”

Sentry- “Oookay.”

“Beast, my minion can still get kill someone, just saying.” Tex says quickly and sharply

Hopefully your argument happens as you walk in. There’s a decently long tunnel, and then you all get to observe the glories of a dwarven city. Huzzah!

Erihild looks pretty glad to be home, cause she’s been gone like 33 days. “Okay, so here’s everything you need to know about the Alzak Fortress!” She starts babbling like a tour guide, although eventually you all find your way to an inn. Not the inn that your average traveler (or, say, group of frost giant killing teleporters might frequent in about three days) would likely go to, but a better place that dwarves would enjoy more.

Tex turns to the group as Erihild’s back was to them and makes a talking motion with her hand and a crazy look on her face imitating Erihild.

Once you’ve all had dinner and have rooms purchased for the night, Erihild says she’s going to go say hi to her parents, and in the morning you can all go shopping (Shopping! )

Tex walks to the bar. “Give me a small glass of your strongest grog.”

Tex gets her grog, and it is very strong, and very delicious. Cause dwarf grog.

“Oh thats the good stuff. Ill have another.” Tex says with a hiccup.

Zedriq- “Well, I’ll give you one more, but more than that might kill you. Cause this is what we call scumble, and it’s made of...mostly apples.”

Tex screams delightfully, “Another round! WOOOO!”

Tex gets her round, and passes out on the floor!

Everyone else goes to bed like normal people. Beldren, being the responsible one, carries Tex to her room and puts her on her side on the bed so she doesn’t choke on her own vomit and die.

Day 174!

Erihild arrives at the inn around breakfast time. “Soooo I talked to my dad last night, and he said that he’s considering convening a conclave of dwarven elders. He’s trying to convince everyone to put the succession crisis we have here on hold so that the giants can be dealt with. Once the conclave assembles he wants each of us to testify for the conclave.You know, tell them what we’ve seen and done.”

Beldren - “I would be honored to do so.”

Brother Beast sighs. “Yah, if the elders say so.” He brightens “But we’ve got rendezvous in three days, so has to be soon.”

Erihild- “It’ll take at least a week to convince everyone just to show up, so we have time to go visit Hornwood. Plus he said that would make our case stronger, since the giants there are basically on the edge of our territory.”

Tikkaer, “A week and then we get to take the fight to some real giants?”
Erihld- “Huh uh. We can go fight giants for a week first, and then come back and speak to the conclave.”

Tikkaer, “I like that better.”

Erihild- “OK, good, I’ll tell him. But before that, shopping!”

Tikkaer, “yes, better equipment.”

Erhild leads you out into the clothing/armorer section (not that you can tell the difference...or if there is a difference for dwarves),and then sets you loose.

----------------
Brother Beast, meanwhile, buys another curing potion, and leaves the fortress to commune with nature, and see if there are any large powerful and dangerous animal who might want to be his friend. He spends time looking for signs of bears.

Erihild realizes a couple of the oils she has are pretty pricey, and so sells them and her armor to fund...a magic mithral chain shirt! It’s what all the stylish dwarf ladies are wearing this season.

Tex awakens from her drunk slumber covered in slobber. She cleans herself up and begins to scribe her spells into the spellbook of enchantment.

Tikk decides to shop around to see if he can get a giant hunting enchantment added to his glaive, and picks up some gloves of giantfelling.

Day 175!

Beast is successful and has a new pet bear! He sends a message to Erihild that he’ll meet them outside the fortress, and spends the day teaching his bear tricks.

Tex can finish scribing stuff today!

The others have nothing to do but wander around and/or drink!

Erihild spends the day updating her character sheet, and then gossiping with her girlfriends.

Beldren is browsing more magic items. He also asks Erhild to introduce him to her friends.

Erihild is more than happy to, so Beldren gets several uhhh...not phone numbers...hmmm. Mailing addresses, I guess. Contact information! Whatever that is.

After a successful day of things and stuff, you go to sleep! Erihild stays at home once again.

Day 176

You set off, early in the morning! Beast is waiting outside, hopefully he’s come up with a terrible bear pun for his new animal companion. Skelly is standing behind some rocks, looking like a skeleton.

The trip back to your rendezvous with Jack is quicker than the trip up to the fortress, cause it’s downhill the whole way, but you get there after dark on the night of day 176. The area seems clear, and so you set up camp, and presumably leave Skelly III and New Bear on watch.

In the morning….

[perovskite]

Day 172: Elven Raiders

I hope we can all learn something from Twix's example.

(click to show/hide)

Rogue signs and under his breath, “no plan survives initial contact,” then louder shouts to the party, “Mav take the one on the left, Mages support Mav.  Navus with me, we take the one on the right.  Twix fall back behind the line and move to flank the on on the right and help Mav.”  Then setting his feet and staring at the oncoming Giants while drawing his swords and says in giant, “Only one of us is going to survive this fight, and it is not going to be me.”

Round 1!

Rogue maintains his stance but pulls off one of the medium missiles from his necklace and throws it at giant 1.

The little gem hurtles through the air and detonates in a burst of fire between the two giants, who do nothing but smirk….until the one on your right starts chuckling at you. “Idioten”, he says.

Snaga pulls out her wand and casts Iceball on the fire giants, centering it so they are in the effective range of the blast.

A flash of blue energy detonates between the fire giants; both of them sidesteps the blast, but they shout something like “Herregud, den dar kull!” <oh god, that’s cold!>

Twix pulls out his daggers, “You hold that giant still and try not to die Rogue! I kinda wanna see tomorrow man!” then sprints to his right.

Mav moves up to about level with Twix and pulls out her greataxe, twirling it casually. “Hey, mind if we share?”

Twix - “Dont mind at all. Just hope we live long enough to see the moon rise.”

Grenda summons Spiritual Weapon, which looks like whatever Grenda’s spiritual weapon is, and uses it to attack giant 2.

The fire giants briefly discuss who is going where, and split off to engage the two groups the party is dividing into. The run up to take swings at Rogue and Mav, cause they’re closest. Sucks to be them.

Fire giant 1 swings at Rogue and...gets a solid hit. His compatriot charges up to Mav and takes a swing at her as well, also getting a solid hit. The first says something to the second along the lines of “these littles can’t dodge for shit.”

Navus decides that it’s probably worth using his potion of barkskin to survive this, so drops his bow and drinks that potion. Kusab lopes between the giants to get around behind the one Rogue and Navus are facing.

Round 2!

Rogue takes a five foot step and starts swinging at Giant 1.

Giant 1 says to his colleague, “Ja, men de slard dock hart” <Yeah, but they hit pretty hard, though.>

Snaga cast a Cold ball on giant 2 far enough out to not catch her party members with it.

The giant isn’t paying attention and so catches the brunt of the blast. “Av Surtur!”

Twix “Mav! Keep him busy I am gonna try to get behind him! Dont die by the way!” he screams. He moves around giant 2 and then strikes!

The giant sees Twix moving close enough to hit and so take an attack of opportunity at him!

Twix is smacked hard from the hit “HOLY CRAP IM GONNA DIE! MEDIC!” He screams in agony

Mav attacks giant 2 with a gleeful giggle that sounds more like an old woman at a tea party then someone wielding a giant fuck off axe. She misses and scowls.

The first giant starts swinging at Rogue, but tries to get all fancy and digs his sword into the dirt, ruining his attack routine.

Rogue breaths out a small prayer under his breath as he watches the giant miss him.

The second giant starts swinging at Mav, connecting all three times. Mav is severely injured, and her eyes start to take on the red bloodshot look of the beserker. She snarls.

Navus decides that Mav and Twix need more help, and casts a swift spell Lion’s Charge, and then so charges over there to take swings at the second giant. Only the first one connects.

Navus- “Dammit, waste of a spell.’

Kusab does the same thing to the other giant, but mostly his claws just scratch the giant’s half-plate. He does get in a good bite, though.

Round 3!

Rogue starts swinging at Giant 1 again.

Snaga cast cold ball on Giant 2, again aiming to miss the rest of the party.

The giant swears again at the blast of cold.

Mav hits the giant twice, and he finally collapses!

Twix watches the giant collapse and says “You stole my kill! I ran behind to get that kill!” then runs over to giant 1 still standing

The remaining giant sees Twix headed his way and takes a swing at him, decapitating the poor foolish guy.

Grenda moves her spirtual weapon to giant 1, and attacks once, she also moves up behind Rogue and pulls out her weapon.

The giant starts taking swings at elves (ie, Rogue), but only hits twice.

Rogue lets another small pray out beneath his breath.

Kusab attempts more scratching and biting, and manages to climb up the giant’s back and sink his teeth deep into the giant’s neck, at which point he sinks to his knees and falls over.

Navus walks over to the new dead guy. “Well he didn’t last long, did he?”

Rogue moves to stand with Navus and looks down at him, “He did not listen to me.” and then manafest Body Adjustment to heal himself.

Navus goes over to Kusab- “There’s a good boy, did you get to chew on a fire giant? Yes you did!” Kusab purrs, which sounds like a diesel truck starting.

Grenda goes over to cast cure moderate wounds on Mav, so she stops looking scary and murderous. It doesn’t actually work, so she gently presses on of Mav’s cure light wounds potions into her hand. Mav drinks it, almost robotically, and the bloodlust dies from her eyes.

Rogue looks from the body to Navus as he manfest Body adjustment again, “we should loot the giants and Twix and then move the bodies into the wood line and travel a few hours down the road to get away from this point and finish resting, maybe take an extra day to make sure we heal up completely.

Navus- “Yeah. Did the drovers run away?”

Mav looks at the dead guy. “Did he YELL at me?”

Navus- “Yep. I don’t know what he thought he was doing attacking a fire giant with daggers.”

Rogue, “I don’t think he did much of what he claimed to have done.  Though it is probably better if we...or rather I don’t speak ill of the dead.”

“Still a better decision than yelling at me,” Mav mutters. Her normal patience is absent, since her health is still dangerously close to beserker status. She shuffles over to Giant 2 and starts looting, and occasionally kicking the corpse. When she’s done, she moves over to giant 1.

Navus- “I’ll see what he has, if you two want to get started on the giants. Does anyone have detect magic?”

“I do,” Grenda casts it.

Grenda sees some stuff in the giants’ bags that glows, as well as Twix’s two daggers. She moves back to the forest to look for the drovers.

Snaga, “I can detect and Identify. Though I need alcohol and some expensive pearls.”

Navus takes the mithral chain shirt off of Twix, and grabs his two daggers. While rifling through his pockets, Navus finds a rather large bag of gems. “Wow, this guy was loaded.” He estimates that there’s nearly 7000 gp worth of gems in the bag.

Rogue, “that should make for a nice split.” as he searches the giants and starts getting ready to drag them.

Navus summons the drovers, explains Rogue’s plan, and gets them started on digging a grave for Twix, as well as butchering the fire giants.

A eulogy for Twix:
We didn’t know if he was the left or the right
We knew him all to briefly
For some damn fool reason he ran into a fire giants threatened area with 8 hp left
Hopefully everyone learned a lesson about that
What not to do.

Mav, between the two giants, discovers that they had all their personal wealth on them:

The giant that Rogue fought has: 190 platinum pieces, a large ruby (estimated at 1900 gp), what looks like a ceremonial dagger (cause it’s made out of electrum and has a small gem in the pommel worth 2700 gp), a scroll, a magic amulet, and a small iron box that turned out to contain a magic ring

The other giant had 400 gp, a bag of small diamonds (2800 gp worth), a kind of shapeless hat (also magic), and a human-sized magic mithral breastplate….and a note, written in giantish.

The note says:

<Walk from Pest’s Crossing to the Lea to Pregmere and look for signs of the caravan. Talk to the verbeeg in the Lea and our brethren in Pregmere to see what they know. If you find the caravan in good health, leave it and return to Pest’s Crossing and report back to me.- Hrymner>

Rogue takes one of the giant’s swords away from the group and practices throwing it with his gauntlets to see how that might work out. This may require some more experimentation on his part.  Keeps one just to experiment with for a while.  Could be helpful.

“We should probably get going,” Mav says, kicking giant 1 for good measure. “Let’s haul these into the woods and go somewhere safe.”

After spending a couple hours dragging bodies around and digging graves, the sun is on the western horizon, and you haven’t gotten enough rest to recover spells. What will you do?

Rogue, “we need to move up the road and find a new place to hide.”

The drovers think that this is an excellent idea, and all of them seem significantly more impressed with you now than before, on account of watching you kill two fire giants.

Rogue starts to lead the party through the woods adjacent the road searching for a new hiding place.

Once you get into the woods proper, you see that the woods are clear-cut for about 150 feet on either side of the road, but the trees were left where they fell, making that entire 50 yards incredibly difficult to cross (although also full of excellent cover and concealment up to maybe 10 feet from the road).

The drovers tell you that this is because the local elves were harassing caravans, and the giants go tired of it.

Rogue, “Do any of you know where the local elves are working from?”

The drovers only know that sometimes the elves will sneak up and talk to loggers. They know where the current logging camps are, and they figure that just stomping around in the woods in those areas will get the elves’ attention.

Snaga looks for the wine while they settle into the woods and gets ready to identify the items they found. Tragically, the field provisions box does not produce wine. Only water. No identify for you!

The slash piles (branches and logs, for those not familiar with tree cutting) are generally tall enough that you could stand at the edge of the clear-cut area and still not be seen from the road, so you’re able to find a secluded spot without any trouble at all.

Rogue, “we should stay here until we can get everyone healed fully and spells back.  Then make our way there and if we can get with the Loggers maybe find the Elves and find out what we can do to get things identified and information that will help us get the drovers home safely.”

Extra- “So are we still walking at night? Cause that’s pretty tough for us, and the loggers don’t work at night, the best time to contact them is during the day.”

Rogue, “Only a few more nights of this and we will make the contact during the day.  I understand it is difficult, but less chance of being seen moving at night.”

There is some grumbling from the drovers, but less than there would have been before today. After that, Grenda spends a whole bunch of healing spells to max everyone out on hp. You then sleep, wake up on the beautiful morning of Day 173! You sit around all day and set off at dusk.

[perovskite]

Day 173: Elven Raiders

(click to show/hide)

Rogue discards the large greatsword after practicing for part of the day and night deciding it is too cumbersome to use and still be able to sneak around.

As soon as the sun goes down, and you start walking through untracked wilderness (ie, woods) at night. Happily, both moons are full, so you can make time almost as well at night as during the day.  With your magically enhanced snowshoes speed, you make a full night walking 16 miles. Rogue estimates it’s another seven miles or so to the town of Pest’s Crossing.

Rogue, “I will find a good place to camp out of sight, then we can make the last seven miles and camp out until morning to try and make contact with some of the locals.  Maybe we can find a way to contact the Elves that are operating in this area and find a better way to get everyone home without causing too much of a stir.  Then after that maybe we look into that note and follow where the giants were supposed to be going.  We might be able to disrupt some of their supply channels.”

The finding a camp part takes really no time at all; you’ve been walking within sight of the clear-cut area the fire giants have hacked along the road (100 yards wide, with the slash left where it fell, remember), so all you have to do is walk deeper into the woods like 50 yards.

As camp is set up, Grenda exclaims “Oh moonless night! I’ve forgotten to send to Tamurel again. I’m going to do that right now.” She plops down and starts counting words for a message. “Anyone have an opinion on what I’m saying?”

Kusab does not.

Navus- “Just tell him what happened. The earlier the news about the orc-wives gets out to the humans and elves, the better. The last thing we need is another slaughter in Oytmeet, for no reason.”

Grenda - “Right. ‘Gorna and Oytmeet cleared of enemies. Gnomes hold Gorna, humans and female orc allies hold Oytmeet…”

Snaga, “It would be good to know if they want to or can send help if needed.  I can give you some phrases to use in case any of your allies want to go to Oytmeet.”

Grenda - “That’s a good idea. I’ll probably have to use two sendings, but that’s what I get for waiting so long to send info back. So, ‘Gorna and Oytmeet cleared of enemies. Gnomes hold Gorna, humans and female orc allies hold Oytmeet. Going to fire giant’s headquarters Pest’s Crossing to recon.’ That’s it for one message. ‘Oytmeet wants to ally with elves and humans. If you send a party...’ what’s one of those code phrases, Snaga?’
Snaga slowly pronounces the grunts used to tell everyone what was happening during the fight in Oytmeet.

Grenda - “Hah, they’ll love that. I wonder if any of them speak orcish. ‘Oytmeet wants to ally with elves and humans. If you send a party, say <orchish chant, 4 words> to show friendship.’ 21 words. Perhaps I should repeat the orcish phrase just in case, I have just enough words to do it.”

Grenda pauses. “Anything else I should add? I don’t think it’s terribly important to mention we ran into Beldren’s group. The elves’ll probably assume Oytmeet isn’t in imminent danger of invasion if I don’t say anything to that effect.”

Rogue, “Nothing I can think of.”

Grenda - “Alright, here we go!” Grenda completes the first sending.

She knows that Tamurel has received it and is composing a reply.

Grenda - “I’ll wait for his reply before sending the second one.”

Tamurel- “Preston cleared of giants; stragglers killed near Oytmeet. Female orc allies? Explain. Contact Baelsae elves, get population and type of giants. Identify allies in town.”

Grenda passes this on to the rest of the group.

Rogue, “I know those Elves.  More to the point I knew them a long time ago.  Their village was destroyed.”  Looks to the Delvers, “I don’t know where they are now.  Their village was destroyed long before I came back to join this war.”

Grenda - “Well, Tamurel did tell us they’d find us if we went into the forest, so hopefully that won’t be a problem. I’m adjusting the next sending a bit, especially since it sounds like they have a party near Oytmeet already. ‘Oytmeet orcwives rebelled, want to ally with elves and humans. When contacting them, say <orcish phrase> to show friendship. Baelsae related orders acknowledged.”

Navus- “Wait, Rogue, you’re from around here, or you’ve just been here before?”

Rogue nods to Navus, “From around here.”

There’s a bit of murmuring amongst the drovers along the lines of “I KNEW he had a Baelsae accent, I told you!”

After some more waiting….
Tamurel- “Are orcwives trustworthy? War makes strange bedfellows. Will attempt to make contact soon. Will notify gnomes and humans of situation. Report when able. Good hunting.”

Snaga sighs, “We are going to have a lot to do to prove ourselves aren’t we?”

Navus shrugs- “Orcs and elves have been at war since time immemorial.”

Rogue nods, “Racism dies hard.  You, however have nothing left to prove to me.”

One of the drovers starts like he just remembered something very important. Extra says, “Ummm we should probably travel during daylight from here on in, cause there is a pack of trolls that lives underneath the giants’ castle, and they only hunt during the night. We might be in their territory by now.”

Rogue, “How many trolls?”

The drovers consult- “Somewhere between eight and a dozen? The giants herd everyone inside the moat in the evenings, and if you’re outside the moat at night, you’re troll-food. So it’s not like we ever get an up-close count.”

Grenda - “I’m happy to torch some trolls, but I’m not familiar enough with them to know if that’s too many for us to handle. Perhaps something to take over the course of a few nights. Sounds like we should rest a few hours and then head out again.”

Rogue nods, “I agree.  We don’t want to raise any alarms here yet if at all possible and a full on fight with almost a dozen trolls will definitely lead to alerting people we are here.”

So you rest for awhile, take four hour naps or something, and set out again around lunch time...on Day 174. Which the DM only mentions so he can keep track.

After you set off, you only get about another three miles before you can see that the trees have been clear-cut, beyond which you can see acres of stumps, and beyond that, farmland. In the distance (like half a mile), there is a dark-skinned giant walking along, dragging probably some lumber.

Rogue, “wait here, I am going to scout deeper into the woods a little ways and find somewhere defensible for us to hold up.”

Rogue’s only option is really north (to the party’s collective right), as to your left is the clear-cut road area with all the slash, and before you (to the west) is the clear-cut soon-to-be fields area. But, he is soon able to find just what he is looking for: an low hill partly shielded by conveniently felled trees (died of old age, not saws).

Rogue leads the party to that area, “Ok.  So do we want to try and find the local elves first, or sneak into the village later and see if there is anyone that can direct us to the local elves?”

Some hemming and hawing amongst the drovers. “A four-mile run across open fields where trolls prowl? Not too interesting, says I” says one, while another agrees, “I used to work on the logging crews. The elves came to us, we never went to them. Our best bet is to work our way north along the edge of the trees until we find a logging crew. There the elves will likely be.”

Rogue, “It will not be everyone.  Describe the area where you usually run into the elves.  Then Grenda and I will head that way and try to meet up with them while everyone else sets up here and tries to remain defensible.” Looking to Grenda, “do you think you could sneak along with me and we could stay undetected from the city?”

Grenda - “I’m nowhere near as sneaky as you, but I do have a spell to help me with that. How long do you think it will take us to get there?”

Rogue, “We will take a long way around, a few hours.  You wouldn’t need the spell until we were coming back close to the city.

Grenda - “Works for me. Should I be an elf?”

Rogue, “From what I remember of the elves here they are pretty narrow minded so yes, it might be for the best.”

Grenda adjusts her hat, and renews her elf looks. “Of course, if anyone bumps into me they’ll be able to tell I’m stockier than I look. Nothing can be done about that, though.”

One of the drovers- “It’s about two miles from here to the nearest logging camp, and the camps are all within about half a mile of the work being done.”

Rogue, “Thank you,” Looks to Navus, “You ok holding the fort here?”

Navus- “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Rogue, “Ok Grenda, Lets go.  We will stay away from the local workers and see if we can find any elves.”  Rogue sounds less than excited about finding any of the elves that live here.

And so you split the party! Ugh. Rogue and Grenda set off, keeping their distance from the edge of the woods (at least enough that they wouldn’t be seen by someone out there), and sure enough, within about 30 minutes, start hearing the sounds of saws and axes hewing trees, along with the chatter of human voices...and the occasional much louder voice of a fire giant giving (probably unnecessary) directions to the humans.

Rogue whispers to Grenda, “Ok, time for that spell.  We are going to start searching for the elves.  Lets not get any closer than this to the logging and try to find the elves before they find us.”

Grenda nods and activates her ability. Grenda is suddenly sneakier!

Rogue nods back and starts to move silently and hide while searching for signs of anyone in the area.

You creep around for several minutes. Both Grenda and Rogue come across what looks like the former spot at which an elf was standing (and probably had lunch). Rogue notices that the elf moved away, likely in the last few minutes.

Several minutes later, Rogue hears the whisper of elven being spoken several yards deeper into the forest.

Rogue whisper to Grenda, “Elves,” and points.  Then starts moving that way.  Raises his hands so that they are just above waist level, and stops hiding, but is still moving silently.

Presently, an elf materializes from nowhere off to your right, with an arrow knocked (although you’d noticed him earlier, he still materialized well), and a second elf appears from behind a tree. Initially said elf’s expression is “who the hell are you”, but quickly changes to “what the hell are YOU doing here?”

Uthorim- “Corym, what are you doing here?”

Rogue, “My name is Collar Rogue.  I am here fighting a war.  More should not be said until we are somewhere less likely to be heard or moved in on.  I have a group that needs to get somewhere somewhat safe.  I will explain more then.”  He keeps his hands up and away from his weapons.

The elf to your right (not someone you knew well, you can’t remember his name) releases the tension from his bow at Uthorim’s signal. Uthorim gives him brief instructions, and he heads back toward the edge of the woods. Uthorim then signals Rogue and Grenda to follow him away from the loggers. You walk maybe a quarter mile before he stops.

Still keeping his voice low, “Well I’m glad you decided to come back”, and he clearly is not. “What is going on, and who is this?”

Rogue, “This is Grenda, a companion I meet while working to fight the giants.  You don’t have to lie to me.”  Narrows his eyes while looking at Uthorim keeping his voice low as well, then explains about what they have been up to the past week.

Uthorim looks impressed, and his tone softens somewhat. “If what you say is true, then a general offensive is being prepared. There hasn’t been that much activity in nearly two years. You can bring your human friends here...actually no, to the small glade half a mile east of here…” he gives directions to Rogue that rely completely on Rogue having lived in these woods. “I and another will meet you there and discuss what to do next.”

Rogue nods and looks to Grenda, “lets go get everyone else.”

And so you set off! It’s over an hour round trip to collect everyone else, but by midafternoon you are all happily ensconced in a sunny glade in the middle of the forest. The sounds of logging can be faintly heard when the wind is right. Mav sits cross legged in the grass and begins to placidly knit.

About 30 minutes later, Uthorim returns, with three other elves in tow: a woman named Yrathea, and two men, Losam and Aumrath. None of them looked super happy to being with, and those frowns get frownier when they see a dwarf and an orc in addition to the five humans and a half-elf.

Rogue at seeing their reactions moves to stand closer to Mav and Snaga, and crosses his arms over his chest. Mav is supremely unbothered by elves, but she also shifts a bit to be closer to Snaga. Her axe is lying next to her, within easy reach.

Navus already had his bow out, as always...and grips it a little tighter.

Uthorium is now pretty angry, and would be yelling if he didn’t have his elven racial reputation to keep in front of the humans.

Uthorim- “Corym, what in is Hanali Celanil’s blessed name did you bring an ORC here for?”

Rogue, “If you would listen to me you would know that my name is Rogue, and that I have a Dwarf and Orc in my party and that I helped liberate these Orcs from their Giant Oppressors and Snaga asked to come help free others from the giants.  Who am I to say no to someone that wants to help instead of sit around and just watch bad things happen to good people,” Leans in slightly towards Uthorim, “the gods don’t come down and help directly.”

There is some eye rolling and sneering from the elven contingent. Mav looks up from her knitting.

“What rude children,” she mutters, just loud enough to be heard, but low enough to be ignored.

The elves are aghast that a dwarf would say such a thing! Mav gives them her best stern grandmother eye.

One of them has the decency to look a little ashamed.

Losam- “Corym, I fail to understand just what you’re doing here. So you’re fighting the giants, hurray for you. Why could you not just stay away and fight them somewhere else? What do you want from us?”

Rogue, “I thought you were all dead, and want nothing from you.  I am here to help these people.”  Gestures to the five drovers, “get back to their families.  Since you know what is happening here and what the city is like I assumed that maybe you could get over being elves long enough to help them.  If not I will figure it out with my friends.”  Gestures to the party he has been traveling with.

Aumrath whispers something to Yrathea, whose face changes to “oh shit”, and then they both hurriedly whisper to Uthorim and Losam...both of whose faces adopt the same expression.

Uthorim- “Corym, for some reason we thought you knew what had happened to our village. Rest here the evening with your friends. You drovers can come with us, we will sneak them back into Pest’s Crossing.” He looks uncomfortable and then makes a few hand gestures an elf would recognize as being associate with Sehanine Moonbow, the elven goddess of death. “Your mother, father, and one of your brothers all passed when the giants attacked our village.” He makes some other gesture, also associated with Sehanine Moonbow. “But Raeran, Ara, and Shalheira still live.”

Rogue is not moved at the sound of his parents and brothers death, but stiffens visibly when he hears that he has siblings still alive.  He says nothing.

Uthorim- “We will send for them and have them meet you here tomorrow, so that you can grieve with them over your parents and brother.”

Yrathea has moved over to the rest of the group at this point, while Losan has collected the drovers. They drovers are excited to get back home, and there is some amount of hand shaking from them to you. They do dump most of their gear, though.

Yrathea gives the following odd offer- “Although we cannot allow outsiders into our new town, we will still help you. If you have need of new equipment, food, magic, or whatever, name it, and we will exchange what we have for what you have, so much as we can.”

Snaga, “Could use some alcohol.”

Navus- “I need a new bow. And we have loot from a pair of fire giants we need to divide.”

And so you spend the rest of the day dividing treasure, while the elves shuttle back and forth from their hidden town.

Grenda is looking through her backpack, and notices a bunch of stuff. “Oh, we never dealt with this stuff, either.” She adds it to the pile.

(178’ of rope), bag of salt, 2x wolf hides, a wooden tankard, 3 candles, a whetsone, and a tangle of thread. - garbage

The DM would like to point out that Twix’s untimely death has been very convenient for you. Also the notes from above, for your consideration:

It costs 4000 gp to have nonmagical armor enchanted to +2.
The twilight armor property has a cost equivalent of +1, and reduces arcane spell failure by 10%

Once Snaga tells the elves why she needs the wine, they’re like “Oooh….” mostly impressed at an orc sorcerer. She is able to identify all the magic items in one day...but should probably not go anywhere the rest of the afternoon.

Navus is interested in the mithral breastplate, and other than that just wants cash so he can get a much superior bow to his current model.

Mav wants the mug and cash so she can get her breastplate enchanted

Grenda - “Snaga should probably take the hat of disguise.”

The elves say that the trolls don’t go this far into the woods, so you all can sleep pretty soundly. The next day (175), Rogue’s siblings show up (one brother and two sisters), and the rest of you get the unique cultural experience of watching an elven memorial service, one that Rogue is not really excited about.  Though he was somewhat happy to see his siblings.

And then spend the rest of the day...SHOPPING!

Navus’ new bow turns out to cost him 4000 gp...it’s a +1 adaptive mighty (+5) composite longbow with a wand chamber, which might seem weird, but don’t worry, he’s got plans. Assuming no one else wants the mithral breastplate, Navus takes it and sells his mithral chain shirt.

Navus also offers to buy potions of shield of faith off anyone who has them. He buys one from Mav, and Rogue gives him one.

Grenda decides to get an iron ward diamond. “This thing gives damage resistance, so if one of you fighter types needs to borrow it, let me know.”

Grenda - “Also, I’m going to start brewing potions, so let me know if you all have any requests.”

Not needing any potions or magic items, Mav simply pays to get her breastplate enchanted +2, for 4k and buys an eternal mug of beer for 200. Then she sits and drinks and knits, making masterwork soft linings for armor or some such things. She also takes the whetstone and sharpens and cleans her axe and sells her shield of faith potion for 300.

Rogue sells his gauntlets of throwing, enchants his Elven chain to +2 spending 3,000 GP and Sends 3,400 to get a +1 Adaptive Composite Longbow.

Snaga spends 4,000 getting the mithral shirt enchanted to +1 Twilight.

That is how you spend the rest of Day 175, and so we now fast forward to the morning of Day 176!

[perovskite]

Day 173:

We now return to Sephira's Quest, which we haven't touched since May. Wow. I'm using the map from the DMG II, page 150, as the map for this thing. They start in area 67.

(click to show/hide)

Still Day 173, the same day that Team Dwarf arrives at Alzak fortress from Oymeet. Y’know, for some context. Preston was liberated three days ago, not that this group knows that.

Anywho….

The stairs creak ominously as you descend, and it’s still dark, hot, and smelly.

Blank continues to lead down the stairs head on a swivel looking for any sign of life.

Kara contemplates the stacked boxes and carefully tries to follow Kedri’s example in climbing to the top of one. Kara alights the stack of boxes easily, and can survey the whole room (although from a crouch, cause the ceiling is only about 12’ high, and the boxes are 8’). There are two doors on the south wall, and unless someone is right up next to the south side of the stacks of boxes, no one else is in the room.

Kara speaks quietly “The room appears empty.”

Syl pulls out his shortsword, preparing for any attacks.

Sephira - “To the doors, then.”

Blank nods and starts moving towards the doors checking once at what appears to be doors he checks for traps. There isn’t a trap there that Blank can find on the left door (from the party’s perspective).

Kara climbs down from her boxes.

Kedri sits on top of the box, staring at the more central door, until she suddenly gets bored and starts licking her side. “<These wings make taking a bath more difficult, you know. I blame you.>”

Blank looks around to see if the sliding track they had been following is down here.

Down here there is a mix of tracks and what are probably slither marks, mixed up enough that you can't really tell where the one your followed down here went.

Herzog squeezes between various boxes until he’s along the same wall as Blank and Kara (ie, the wall with the doors). He’s standing next to the unchecked door.

Blank slowly starts to open the door in front of him.

It’s locked.

Blank pulls out his lock picks and picks the lock. The lock is pretty good, but he manages to pick it anyway. The door opens to reveal….a hallway. Pretty narrow, only 5’ wide, and maybe 25’ long, with a room at the other end. It’s silent at the other end of the hall.

Blank looks to Saphira, “straight or other door?”

Sephira - “Try the other door first.”

Kara moves to the other door and tries the handle.

Blank winches as he watches Kara try the other door, “There could be traps.”

Kedri is now flying around the room attempting to catch moths. <I don’t need humans to lift me up to catch these any more!>” She eats one.

The other door is locked as well. Kara reports this. “Would you like to try this lock, Blank?”

Syl begins to whisper “We could just bust down the door and kill things?”


Herog scoots back to make room for the safecracker.

Blank moves to the door and picks that lock after looking to Syl, “not and keep everyone from knowing we are here at the same time.” This lock opens as well. And you also don’t die from the trap that isn’t there that you didn’t search for. Just saying.  Blank opens the door slowly and looks inside.

The door opens to reveal...a wine cellar! At least is used to be. The racks are still all there, but there is nary a bottle of wine to be seen. Everything is covered in dust, to the point where it looks like this room sees no traffic. Directly across from you is another door.

Sephira - “Blank, you and Kara check that room out, just to make sure it doesn’t have what we need. Syl and Herzog, keep an eye on the other open door.” She casts detect magic and stares around a bit.

Blank starts to search the room.

Kara does likewise, keeping an eye out for secret doors.

Syl slowly examines the room and looks for anything suspicious.

Blank and Kara make a quick search of the room and don’t notice any secret doors (elves), nor any sign of a partial ankh. Sephira’s detect magic scans reveal only the Herzog is more magic-poor than everyone else.

Sephira - “May as well try the other door while we’re here, though given the level of dust I don’t expect much.”

Kedri starts chasing dust bunnies.

Syl espies something humanoid creeping down the hallway toward you, obviously trying to be stealthy.

Blank moves to the door and searches it for traps. He finds none. While he’s there he hears someone on the other side of the door.

Syl whispers to the group “Hey guys, looks like we got a bogey on our front side… and im not a fan of it.”

Sephira moves a bit closer to the middle doorway and looks down the hall. “Hello,” she says.

Kara accompanies Sephira..

All she gets in response is a hiss and then it charges.

Round 1

Syl says loudly “so much for being quiet and not letting people know we are breaking and entering huh?!”

Black checks to see if the door is locked. It is.  Attempts to pick the lock. He’s successful.

Sephira summons a celestial black bear in the lizard’s face.

Imagine, if you will, a human…an emaciated human, with claws for fingernails, the scaled skin of a reptile, and the face of a reptilian bulldog. That is what you’re looking at.

The bear pops into being and takes a swipe at the lizard! It manages to swing wide and almost get its paw stuck in the wall.

The lizard-man-bulldog thing swings at the bear, and gives it a slash across the nose. The bear rawrs. The lizard man thing snarls right back.

Then the lizard makes his full attack on the bear, but also nearly buries his claw in the wall.

Next to Blank, someone yanks the door open from the other side, and a lizard-man-thing attacks him! A couple of claw-slashes get him, but he manages to avoid a bite.

Kedri yowls at Sephira, and Sephira senses there is danger in the dusty room! “They’re coming from the other room too! Someone needs to go help Blank!”

Herzog casts cat’s grace on himself.

Kara; “Syl, go.”

“On it!” Syl responds. He begins to move up into the room to help Blank out.

Kara pulls out her bow and fires over Sephira’s bear.  She misses.

Round 2!

There is some shouting from the room past the wine cellar and the hallway; it sounds like instructions: <“Pull back out of the hallway, idiot!”>

Sephira decides to drop a summon near wherever that voice was. It’s a celestial boar. It attacks the nearest critter, but misses.

<”Where the hell did that come from? Do they have a summoner or something?”>

The bear attacks as well! It claw-claw-bites its opponent! The bear mauls the lizard man thing to to death.

Blank draws his swords and attacks the creature in front of him. He gets in one very solid hit, and his opponent looks almost ready to drop. But not quite.

Herzog- “Soo are we going down the hallway or what? Or maybe I’ll head into the wine cellar since Sephira has this one held down.” He moves over to the wine cellar.

The lizards attack! Blank’s weakened opponent can’t hit him, but a different looking (far more intelligent looking) half-man half-snake thing (snake’s head, human male body) fires at him with a composite long bow, but can’t get a good shot in around his minions.

The lizard minion starts clawing at the boar. His leader steps to one size and starts swinging with a falchion. The last minon steps around and takes a swipe with a claw, but misses. The two claws hit.

Kara fires blindly over the bear again, and is rewarded with a howl of pain from down the hall.

Syl puts his sword away and pulls out his longbow and arrows “This is going to be fun…” he mutters. He fires at Lizard thingy mcbobber 2. The arrow whips neatly past Blank’s hair, ruffling it slightly in the process, and buries itself in the lizard’s face, accompanied by the crackle of electricity. The lizard thing drops.  “THREE POINTS YOU DIRTY WHORE!” Syl cries in approval!

One of the smarter things says, <”Shit!”>

Round 3!

More instructions from the leaders that Kara can hear, but can’t quite understand. They’re talking too quietly at this point.

Sephira peers down the hallway but decides that it’s better to wait until things move forward a bit. Black bear lumbers forward and attacks and Boar also attacks. The bear mauls a second lizard guy to death. It roars in triumph.

The leader swears in draconic. It’s pretty poetic, actually.

Blank takes a step into the door and attacks 4. The three hits wear the lizard down quickly, but he’s still up.

Herzog squeezes past Syl through the doorway and gets behind Blank, but not in Syls line of fire.

The lizards start clawing at Blank, but only one connects. The leader guy drops his bow, pulls out his falchion, and takes a swing, but just baaaarely misses. For the other group, there is a bunch of futile clawing and slashing at the animals, and the leader gets in two hits with his falchion to the boar. And then he takes a 5’ step back.

The boar looks like it’s ready to drop, but that just makes it angier!

The leader, having never encountered a boar before, is surprised at this.

Kara, not having anything else to do, fires another arrow down the corridor. But the string on her bow breaks and smacks her across the face.

Syl takes 5 feet in front of him forward and shoots two arrows at Grey 6 lizard man thingy! “Eat this Lizard thingy!” Syl says

Again with the just barely missing Blank with your electric arrows of death, but Syl hits twice and the lizard man bulldog dies, crackling with electricity.

“Another bites the dust!” Syl sings loudly

Round 4!

Boar and Bear step forward and continue attacking! Bear completely mauls another one! (His third kill of the day) Boar attempts to gore the one with a falchion but the creature dodges.

Blank starts his attacks with 4. The first hit kills him.  Blank shifts his remaining attacks to 2, and both hit him, but don’t kill him.

Herzog ninjas his way through the door behind Blank...and that’s it for now. “Ugh, shouldn’t have cast anything.”

The two leaders, for their part, decide discretion is the better part of valor, and both withdraw.

Kara spends the round re-stringing her bow.

Syl moves into the room next to Blank, sees the leaders running, then shoots off a shot at green leader 1. He hits the thing, but it doesn’t drop, and keeps moving.

Round 5!
Boar, enrages, chases and charges! It still misses its target though. Bear looks back at Sephira for instructions, and she tells it to follow. It starts chasing. Sephira walks into the room with all the bodies, as does Kedri. Kedri licks one of the bodies. “<Yuck, I don’t like lizards, too scaly to chew right.>”

Blank moves to the side and watches down the hall as the two animals chase the lizards. Blank is standing with four doors behind him and one to his right. There is also a door behind Herzog.

Herzog also moves up, feeling a bit useless.

The second human-snake thing gets away (or so it looks like), and the first one withdraws again.

Kara joins the rest of the group.


Sephira - “Let’s hold for now, don’t want to go dashing down tunnels we don’t know anything about.” She pats both animals on the heads and asks them to guard the tunnel entrances. “The animals will only last a few more moments. Everyone alright?”

Herzog- “Yeah, anyone need any healing?”

Blank raises a hand after putting his swords away, “I do,” then turns and looks at the doors, and goes to start checking them for traps, “Though I am not that bad off.”

Herzog cures some of his wounds. “Lets go with that for now, I don’t want to use everything just yet.”

Blank finds no traps on any of the doors.  Blank continues down to check all the doors.  Then checks to see how many of them are locked. All of them!

Kedri sniffs at the bodies, and finds that oddly, they don’t really smell like anything. They just live in garbage. They’re naked save for a few tattered rags, and have nothing worthwhile on them at all. Kedri yawns. “<These ones are boring.>”

Sephira - “Looks like Kedri didn’t find anything on the creatures. They sure look odd though, not what I would have imagined lizard people to look like.”

Blank starts working to pick all the locks not really paying attention to the other conversations. He can’t get the first one.

Herzog- “I think these things are called histachii. The yuan-ti kidnap normal people, feed them something, and they turn into these creatures.”
Sephira - “Oh dear, these might be the old owners of the house, then.”

Syl kicks one of the lizards body with a not alot of force “Wonder what they were feeding them is the big question.” he says morbidly

Taking his time (a minute per lock), Blank can open all of them. Behind several is nothing but storage closets, probably full of food at some point, looking at the dirt mounds there now.

Blank, “You know, this might make a great new home if we can clear out all the bad guys.”  As he works on the second to last door.

The animals disappear during this time, and Herzog’s spell ends. “Ugh, total waste.”

Kara keeps watch in the general direction of the corridors down which the snake dudes retreated, while Blank takes his sweet time with the doors.

Blank opens the door.  Looks down the hall then turns to go check the last door, “need someone to watch this door.  There looks to be another door at the end of the hall.  Then checks the last door in this room for traps and unlocks it.

He finds none, and the door opens. The room beyond is significantly cooler than the rest of the basement, and you can smell water. Along the walls are buckets (rotted at this point), and a well in the middle of the floor, covered in an iron grate. There is a rough tunnel on the far side, leading back into the darkness.

Blank looks to Saphira, “Lots of options.”

Sephira - “Let’s explore the area that appears to be part of the house still, rather than rough tunnels.”

Blank moves down the hall and checks both side passages before starting to move towards the new door.

Several of your can hear sounds of movement echoing through the hallways, and it seems to be generally moving from left to right (ie toward the top of the map).

Kara says “There is noise of movement.”

Blank checks the door in front of him for traps then looks back towards the group after hearing the sounds. He finds no traps.

Kedri thinks she sees movement on the far end of the room she’s near. She flies back the group. “<I think they’re in that room.>”

Sephira - “Kedri saw something to the right.”

Sephira sighs. “Sound like the corridors connect all over the place. Let’s move in a group, with a fighter in front and behind.”

Blank moves to take the front.
Kara takes up the rear.

This room looks like it used to be crypts for the family that owned the place, although they’ve been ripped open and checked for anything valuable long ago. At the far end of the room you can see doors on each side...both left wide open.

Blank draws his swords and moves down the room looking to both rooms and listens for the sounds of movement that he heard earlier. He hears more movement to his right (ie, the door on the right.)

Blank points for Herzog to watch the left and starts going towards the right.

Herzog does just that.

The door opens to a narrow hallway, with smaller rooms on each side. The doors here are broken open, and you can clearly see that the crypts of the warriors laid to rest here have also been broken into and looted thoroughly.

Blank moves down the hall checking in each crypt to make sure he is not missing anything as he moves past them.

A cursory, yet very thorough search, reveals that there ain’t shit here for you. The door at the end of the hall is also ajar.

Blank slowly pushes through the door.  As he moves to the center of the room he continues to listen for the movement he heard earlier.

There is still movement, and it’s coming from behind the the pair of double doors on the other side of the room, which look considerably more impressive than any other doors you’ve seen here.

Blank checks them for traps. He doesn’t find any.  Checks if the doors are locked. They are.  He puts away his swords to unlock the door. The door unlocks. Blank draws his swords and opens the doors and moves forward.

He’s greeted by a hail of arrows!

[perovskite]

Still Day 173, Still Sephira

(click to show/hide)

Surprise Round! The Party is surprised.

As the cluster of arrows hurtles down the hallway at Blank, he sees four of the half-snake looking yuan-ti standing in a large room (all wielding longbows, obviously). He can see a few of the emaciated rage-zombie histachii things milling about as well. He notes that a couple of the arrows that pass by without hitting him have the nose-burning smell of acid as well.

Four non-acidy arrows hit Blank, while four miss and go thunk into the door behind him.

Round 1!

Blank slams the door shut and turns to face everyone, “Four half-snake things and some of what appear to be zombies shooting arrows that might have some acid on their tips down about 50 feet of corridor.”  Looks to Saphira, “Maybe we could have a few monsters summoned between them before we try charging that long corridor.”  Also steps to the side of the door.

Herzog casts cure serious wounds on Blank.

Sephira - “In the middle of the group, or in the hall blocking the arrows?”

Blank, “Behind them I think.”  Looks to Herzog, “thank you.”

Sephira - “Alright, I need line of sight, so I’m ready whenever you open the door.”

Herzog- “Hang on, we have time to prepare some spells. Give me a few seconds.” He starts casting various things as you all discuss.

Blank waits for Saphira’s turn to open the door if it doesn’t get opened first.

Syl puts an arrow onto his bow “Well we could split the room in half, half of us on one side of the door, the other half on the other side, then wait for baddies to charge, then kill them?” he says with hope

Blank, “They have bows, they will probably wait us out.”

Karakaze moves up to the doors.

“So lets wait them out or try to flank them, I thought i read it once in a book about one half distracts while the other half flanks them on their side.” Syl objects with reason

Round 2!

Herzog casts call lightning, but doesn’t call any lightning just yet.

Blank, “We don’t know how to flank that room without going down the hallway.  Summoning monsters to distract them will work best, I hope.”  Looks to Sephira to see if she is ready.  “We will just crack the doors enough for you to see so that hopefully they can’t shoot anyone.”

Herzog- “I can cast mass lesser vigor and affect four of us. I’ll cast it on the rest of you.” He does so.

Sephira - “SInce you’re doing that, I’ll cast Mage Armor on whoever’s charging first. Blank, is that you? Wait, you have armor. Or Empty Wind? Ah, I’ll just do both Empty Wind and myself, since I’ll be a target after I start summoning things..”

Blank, “I will charge.”

Sephira positions herself near the door, so that she can step to the side as soon as she’s done with her summon spell.

Blank looks to Empty Winds and says, “On three?”

“Wait is it on three, or three then go?” Syl asks loudly

Kara answers Blank and ignores Syl. “On three.” She puts away her bow and pulls out her staff.

Blank counts to three and then opens the door just enough for Sephira to see down the hall.

A couple of arrows thunk into the door.

Sephira summons a fiendish ape as far up as she can get it, and steps to the side. The ape charges and claws at one of the archers! He hits, and there is some shouting from the rest of the room, particularly some loud snake-like shouting that sounds different than anything you’ve heard so far.



Round 3!

It turns out that there are a lot more enemies in the room than Blank originally noticed! In addition to the Yuan-ti archers standing 20 feet in front of the door and the nine or so histachii arrayed to either side of them, off to the left and away from the door is what looks like a giant snake with muscular arms.

Blank opens the door the rest of the way and starts moving quickly down the hallway, charging number 3. He gets all the way down there, but that particular yuan-ti dodges neatly.

Herzog casts bull’s strength on Karakaze, and then moves down the hallway using his 50 speed, so as to get through a vortex of arrows while there isn’t one.

The yuan-ti and histachii attack! The big red one (which basically looks like a giant viper with arms) says something in draconic and the histachii swarm the ape. And also Blank. All three hit the ape, and all three miss Blank.

The two yuan-ti archers on the ends take five foot steps back, and then they all fire at the fiendish ape. One acid- tipped arrow hits, as do four others. The big snake also fires arrows at the ape.

The ape grins menacingly (fiendishly?) the creatures who gave it its scratches, and its surprisingly long strikes one of the archers who didn’t move back far enough.

Empty Wind rushes in like the hero of shounen anime and aims an unarmed strike at the back of the histachi between Blank and the door. She hears the satisfying crack of bone under her fist, and the histachii stumbles forward (but doesn’t fall over).

Syl move close to the door leading to the hallway, aims with his bow “oooookayy, which little piggy wanna die today?” he asks himself, then aims at Green 4 and screams “FIRE AWAY!” and releases his shot!

Syl’s hand slips as he fires his arrow and it bounces off the ceiling of the hallway.

Sephira moves back around the door and is both briefly impressed at the pounding the ape is taking (“I should make more of those!”) and worried about Blank, who is trapped. She moves forward and summons another creature. The ape attacks the archer, since they appear to be the biggest threat at the moment.

The archer drops to the ground! The ape directs its other attacks to the creature next to him, shrieking angrily. The second ape appears next to it, and attacks the archers in front of her.

The histachii is wounded, but not down, and neither is the archer.





Round 4!

Blank turns and starts attacking 7, who is flanked...and doomed. He decapitates the histachii between him and Kara in one swing.  Blank shifts his two remaining attacks to 8 who is not flanked...and thus not doomed, yet.

Herzog...decides to start dropping lightning bolts on people, and so….histachii 13 is lucky winner number 1! But it’s poorly aimed and doesn’t do much, so histachii 13 is still alive.

The two archers near the second fiendish ape both drop their bows and pull out scimitars, but they suck and both miss on their attacks. The ape tries to take advantage, but swings her arm wide. The other archer takes another step back and fires twice at the first fiendish ape, hitting twice. The histachii decide they can’t bite through the ape, and start clawing only.

The first ape is looking really bad, but is still standing.

The other group of histachii starts clawing at Blank.

The lead yuan-ti takes a shot at the first fiendish ape, and drops it. So he takes a shot at the second one as well. The first ape disappears from this plane.

Kara takes a 5’ step to her right, drops her staff, and unleashes a flurry of blows on the next histachii, hitting it twice. Again with the satisfying rib- and skull cracking sounds, and the histachii drops dead.

Still cursing himself for the last shot, sly moves up the hallway to the door, and then shoots at Green 4 again! “EAT ARROWW!!!” Syl shouts! Syl gets a well placed shot, and that yuan-ti looks like it’s about to keel over and die...but not quite.

Sephira - “Yikes, I think we need some distraction…” She summons 3 celestial badgers, who run at various yuan-ti and co! They bite and claw at various ankles. The ape attacks one who use to be an archer, but can’t seem to land a hit.

Round 5!

Blank turns and starts attacking 15. He connects all three times, and the histachii looks about dead on its feet...but still alive.

Herzog casts a spell called brambles...and his staff grows a whole bunch of spikes!

The yuan-ti attack! Histachii 11 takes a step and starts trying to eat Herzog. It gets three hits. Two others attack the celestial badgers chewing on their ankles. Archer 2 takes a step back and pegs the badger attacking him with some arrows.
Two badgers die! The third flies into a rage!

Two former archers attack the fiendish dire ape. When the don’t do as much damage as anticipated, they start shouting at the big snake, and he moves over there. It focuses at the dire ape...which suddenly gets a massive fear of snakes and yuan-ti! Looking around desperately, it pushes its way through the yuan-ti and plants itself in the farthest corner of the room.

Empty Wind advances to flank the histachii facing Blank, and then punches its friend. It’s a solid punch, but the histachii doesn’t fall down. They both take swipes at you as you pass by, but both miss.

Syl quickly scans the room for some potential victims and sees Grey 11 and Grey 12 like they wanna take arrows to the face! He shoots off one arrow at 11 then a second one at 12 with rapid shot!

Both of them are still standing, but they also both look like they’re about to die.

Sephira - “Should we be retreating? I can summon some more cover if we need to!”

Blank, “summon more to keep distracting and see what we can do.  They might chase us if we retreat and then things would get worse.”

The last badger tears the face off the histachii it’s fighting, which collapses into a spray of ichor.

Sephira stares. “Well that was unexpected.” She casts another summon! Given what she just saw, she summons more badgers. And gets 3 more!

Archer 4, one of the new victims of badger attacks, falls over, dying! Histachii 12 is nearly dead, but not quite. The lead yuan-ti doesn’t care.

Round 6!

Blank starts his attacks on 15. He runs it through with his first attack, and it dies.  Blank then steps over to 9 and continues his attacks. He cuts histachii 9 to pieces!

Herzog swings at the histachii in front of him, and impales its head on his newly pokey staff. It dies.

Former archer 2 drops his bow and takes a swing at a badger with his scimitar. The critter survivese, but barely. Former archer 3 steps up to swing at Blank, and wings him. He also tries to bite blank, but misses.

Histachii 12 tries to eat the badger in front of him. The lead yuan-ti takes a swing at the badger nearest him.

Seeing that all the nearest enemies are handled, Empty Wind dashes to the other side of the battle, skirting between the door the party came in and the corpses. She gets just far enough to hit histachii 10 like it’s going out of style, but not nearly as hard as she would have liked.

Syl licks his fingers and points to Grey 12 and then to Green 3. “You my little pains in the ass die now.” he says wickedly under his breath. Then shoots off an arrow to 12 then one to 3! Histachii 12 dies horribly!

The two badgers that were hit fly into rages! Two of the three raged badgers attack the big Yuan-ti. The other charges the yuan-ti that approached it, and the fourth the archer that’s near it. Sephira steps forward juuuust a bit so that she can magic missile the big one.

The magic missiles fly through the air but dissipate the moment they touch the big yuan-ti’s skin. He immediately looks toward Sephira and says, in common, “There you are.”

Sephira - “Well, crap.”

[perovskite]

Day 173, more Killing of the Snake Men

(click to show/hide)

Round 7!

Blank uses tumble to get around behind 3 and flank it.  Once flanking it he takes a swing. Blank stabs that half-snake half human monstrosity right in the back. It shrieks in agony...but doesn’t die.

Herzog starts to take a step forward, thinks better of hit, and then hits the histachii in front of Kara with a bolt of lightning….but it barely does any damage.

In response...they all attack! Kara gets clawed, but not bitten. The next one to her right attacks the celestial badger, and claws it to oblivion!

The lead yuan-ti, the giant snake with arms, just takes swings at the nearby badger population. Blank and Syl notice that each time the big yuan-ti hits a badger, he heals a little bit. Kara and Sephira are too busy to notice this.

The half-human yuan-ti next to the big one picks up his bow (cause the badgers are both deadsies), and fires a shot at Sylaernae. He gets a decent hit on the elf.

Finally, the yuan-ti blank just stabbed...starts swinging with his scimitar, and also goes in for a bite! But he completely fails. Blank notices that then the halfbreed yuan-ti tried to bite him, that a pair of fangs (like a cobra’s) kind of popped out of nowhere.

Empty Wind used Flurry of Blows on the Histachii directly in front of her. It’s not very effective. She only managed to slap it once. That slap knocks it around, but it is still standing.

Syl is a little angry about getting hit “Okay thats it!” he exclaims, “No more mr nice elfy! Could have ruined my nice outfit with blood.” He step 10 feet into the room and shoots an arrow at Green 2.

The arrow pegs him in the leg, zaps him with some electricity and he yells insults at you in draconic.

Sephira - “How about this then!” She summons a giant bombadier beetle next to the large yuanti. It attempts to bite, but fails.

Round 8

Blank takes continues is assault on number 3. He runs that yuan-ti through and then decapitates if for good measure. It is super, duper dead.

Herzog decides to risk getting physical injury, so moves up and takes a swing at the yuan-ti Kara is fighting. It swings at him as he approaches, but misses, and he bashes it’s face in with his spiky staff.

The other histachii tries to eat Kara, but only hits with one claw, missing with the other and it’s bite.

The halfbreed archer takes two more shots at Syl, but only wings him once.

The lead yuan-ti points a finger at Sephira and says- “Baleful polymorph!” Sephira feels the magic try and turn her into a little garter snake, but she manages to resist it….juuuuuust barely. The yuan-ti curses loudly. Sephira looks relieved.

Kara takes a step forward and punches the last living histachii. She manages a light love tap, because apparently she didn’t eat her Wheaties this morning.

Syl sees Grey 14 “Today, you leave this world, and i live to see tomorrow.” He shoots two shots, the first he uses such DEADLY AIM… at it. The halfbreed neatly dodges both arrows and laughs at you.

The bombadier beetle attacks again, and the remaining badger charges. The yuanti dodges both of them, however. Sephira waits to see what’s most needed.

Round 9

Blank charges 2. He hits, and the guy looks like he’s in pretty bad shape.

Herzog decides to run up and start swinging at the big yuan-ti. However, while he’s in route, the yuan-ti’s eyes get all swirly. It says “I SUGGEST you sit down and stop doing anything.”

Herzog grits his teeth and keeps charging. He swings at the big one and….misses. The big yuan-ti swings back at him and hits.

The last histachii continues to try and snack on Kara, but she sidesteps both claws and a bite in a most monkly fashion.

The halfbreed says, “run!” and very briefly disappears...only to reappear 20’ away. It fires an arrow at Blank.

Empty Wind strikes at the histachii again, using flurry of blows (It has a punchable face.) She finally hits it hard enough to leave a mark. The mark is that it’s skull collapses under the power of her tiny elven fists.
Syl is still made at the ugly he missed, he aims at Big Red 1, and shoots!...nearly right into his own feet.

The bombadier beetle and badger attack again, and the badger stumbles. Sephira, seeing that they are starting to run, fires a magic missile at the fleeing halfbreed. The missiles go thump into the halfbreed repeatedly, and it collapses.

Round 10!

Blank moves behind 1, tumbling to get into place and attacking him from behind. The Yuan-ti roars!

Herzog swings at him but misses.

The yuan-ti whirls around and decides to try and eat Blank. But first, two swings with his falchion (which he uses with one hand, cause Large). He hits Blank once. THEN he tries to bite blank. Same as with the half-breed, big ol’ viper fangs pop out! The bite connects! But there’s more! The fangs are dripping with both poison and acid!

Sephira - “Kara! Don’t move! I’m going to switch you with Blank!”

Empty Wind holds her action until Sephira does whatever magic thing she’s doing.

Syl sees whats going on, moves up 5 feet and shoots at the snakey. After dropping Blank, the yuan-ti whipped back around and was rearing up to strike Herzog, but Syl threads one arrow right through it’s eye, and the other straight into its mouth. It dies instantly. “Oh my deity and your deity!!! Did you see that?! I AM AWESOME!!!” Syl shouts excitedly and in a high pitch voice.

Sephira pauses her spellcasting. “Or not. Herzog, get to Blank!”

Herzog- “Yup!” He runs over and casts detect poison on Blank. “Okay, so he’s definitely still poisoned, and I don’t have neutralize poison memorized, soooo...he casts cure moderate wounds on Blank, followed immediately by a pair of cure light wounds.

Blank sits up and slowly looks around, “Ouch.”

Sephira - “I’ve got a healing kit if you want to try the non-magic poison cure.”

Herzog- “Yeah, bring it over. Blank, don’t move, the poison is going to hit you again pretty soon.”

Kara glides over and hands Herzog her healing kit, and offers her assistance.

Blank nods to Herzog and sits still not saying anything more.

Syl runs to the group and looks gravelly at Blank. He says nothing.

Sephira realizes the bombardier beetle is still there, staring at them. “Oh crap.” She starts to move toward it, and then thinks better of it. She dispels all the summons from where she is.

About a minute later, Blank feels the effects of the poison again. Kara attends to him. The combination of Blank not being a namby pamby wimp, plus some help from Kara, keeps him from taking a bunch of constitution damage. He vomits all over the place, but feels fine after that.

Blank after emptying his stomach looks around, “I am hungry.”

Empty Wind cleans her hands on the garments of the nearest dead body, packs up the rest of the healing kit, and stands up. “Sylernae, excellent shooting.”

Herzog- “I think we could stand to do some research on yuan-ti. I had no idea they had so many magical powers.”

Syl high fives Kara. but says nothing.

Sephira - “I was assuming the big one was just straight up a mage, but you could be right that it’s species based powers.”

Herzog- “That one over there (he points to green 2’s dead body) teleported. So either they’re all wizards, or they can all do strange things.”

Sephira - “Very true. Okay everyone, what do you think are the chances of that being the last of them?”

Empty Wind: “A guess made from ignorance is less than useless.” She starts searching bodies for anything interesting.

Blank nods agreement, “we need to operate on the assumption that there are more of them.”

Kara finds that all the histachii have...absolutely nothing.

Sephira - “Perhaps we should retreat to the upper levels. The tracks never went to any of the upstairs rooms, so they might be a good place to hole up.”



Herzog casts detect magic. “Hang on, I’ll see what they have….” He starts pointing to things. He finds that green two has magic boots, green one has a magic gem attached to his bow, green three has a magic amulet, and green 4 has magic bracers. The big yuan-ti has a magic gem attached to his falchion.

Blank, “This room looks like a dead end.  Let's look around to make sure then I suggest holding up here instead.”

Empty Wind: “Search for secret doors” She paces along whatever wall that Blank isn’t searching, and retrieves her staff from the floor where she dropped it.

Sephira and Kedri start grabbing magic items as the others look around. Kedri knocks the gem off the bow and starts pawing it around on the floor.

Now that you have time to actually look around the room, a cursory inspection reveals that this used to be a temple to Pelor (why it was underground….don’t ask), but the big concave section on the end now has a statue of a big snake-like thing on it.

Sephira - “Herzog, anything magical in that statue? Seems like a good place to stash magic tokens.”

As Empty Wind walks around the edges of the room, she finds….nothing!

Blank also starts to search the room.  Starting from the entrance and working his way clockwise around the room searching all the walls and then starting to search the floors as well.

Behind the idol, Blank finds a secret door.  Blank checks the door for traps. He doesn’t find any.

Empty Wind addresses Syl: “Sylernae, stand guard, please. We shall return.” She follows Blank, since there’s no guarantee he’ll escape death thrice if he runs into trouble.

Blank places his ear against the door and listens for a while to see if he hears possible enemy beyond. He dunt hear nuffin.

Syl stands guard, but says nothing.

Blank, “I think maybe check down the secret passage, see where it goes.  Might be a better place to hold up.”

Sephira - “Just don’t get into any fights without back-up.” She goes and closes the double doors they came though. She then checks the bodies for anything useful that isn’t magical.

Blank looks to Empty Wind, “to our death?” and reaches up to open the passage waiting for her answer.

Kara gives him a subtly amused look. “Preferably to their deaths.”

Blank, “sounds good to me,” and he opens the passage.

The door opens to reveal a small, narrow, rough-hewn passageway (about 8’ tall and 5’ wide), that curves around to your right.

Kara and Blank proceed with caution.

The hallway ends in a circular room about 30’ wide. A small shaft of light bored down from ground level illuminates...several boxes, a large leather roll, a scrollcase, and...what appears to be what you would get if you bisected an ankh from top to bottom.

Blank starts to search for traps. He finds none.

Kara calls for Herzog.

Herzog- “Yah, on my way!” He hurries down the hall. “Ooooh some more magic stuff here, hmmm….” He stares for a few moments. “Okay, so something in that leather wrap is magical, so is something in the scroll case, and something in that box...and oh look, half an ankh, which radiates very, very faint conjuration. Sephira!”

Sephira - “Well, at this point we might as well all go. Come on, Kedri, Syl.” She stops piling up gear and heads down the hall. Kedri manages to pick up the gem in her mouth and follows.

Once Sephira walks in, Herzog says- “I think we have found what we need.” He shows her the ankh.

The ankh is laying there, on a box. Totally anti-climactically.

Sephira - “Blank, have you checked for traps?”

Blank, “I have checked everywhere.”

Sephira stares at the ankh. “Well, okay….” She walks over to the ankh, and slowly reaches for it. She pauses. “Was there anything else we should take here? I’m half expecting this place to collapse the second I touch it.”

Herzog- “There are a few magic items in the room, but we haven’t opened anything yet.”

Sephira - “Let’s do that first, just in case. We can just toss stuff in my bag, or if anyone else has a bag of holding or haversack, theirs too.” She sees Kedri walking toward the ankh, and picks her up, taking the gem away from her in the process. “<Awwwwww, but I wanna touch it!>”

Blank offers the use of his bag of holding, and to carry it our right if necessary since he is kind of strong.

It takes maybe ten minutes, but you’re able to recover all the masterwork armor and weapons from the dead yuan-ti, plus a small box of gems (one of which is a magical pearl, you find, cause it’s not locked), the scroll case, various boxes full of gold coins, and the whatever it is that is wrapped in a sheet of leather. All that remains untouched in the room is the ankh and the box it is sitting on.

Sephira - “Wow, we should be set for a while on traveling funds.”

Blank, “well I hope this doesn’t bring the place down.  I think a feared island is a great place to use as a base of operations.”

Sephira - “Okay, everybody be ready to run. Or hide. Or defend ourselves.” She grabs Kedri firrmly to prevent her from touching it first, and carefully picks up the ankh piece.

SUDDENLY! Nothing happens. It weighs about what you’d expect.

Sephira waves it around a bit, just to make sure. “I think we’re okay. Someone want to check if there’s anything in that box?” She puts the ankh piece in her bag.

Blank goes to check the box, first checking for traps.

It appears to be a box. Without traps.

The entire party stands around staring at the box, suddenly suspicious of it...for some reason.

It sits there inoffensively, but incorrigably box-like.

Kara sighs softly and tries to open it. It has silver coins inside. She motions over whoever hasn’t yet filled their extra-dimensional storage space.

Someone piles the silver in their extradimensional storage, and now the room is sadly empty.

Kara: “This area is perhaps safe, but the presence of so many corpses will not make for easy rest.”

Sephira - ‘We could just stay in the secret room. It seems large enough. Or I’m still all for using the actual bedrooms upstairs, myself.”

Kara: “The decision is yours, quest-leader.”

Blank, “We are clear here with only one entrance.  We go back to the bedrooms without clearing everything else there might be more of those things we run into on the way.  This is a one way in and out.

Sephira - “Sigh, alright, we’ll be sensible. At least we have some light here. Just be sure we can open the hidden door from this side before you close it.”

Blank goes to check that he will be able to open the secret door from this side.

Yep, you can.

Blank offers to take first watch.

Kara takes second watch.

Herzog- “I definitely need some sleep after this.” He also proceeds to use up all the rest of his spells curing people, and then rests.

You spend the rest of the day, as well as the whole night, relaxing, poking at your treasure, and doing not much. Nothing tries to break in to eat you, and in the morning, you are all refreshed, rested, and totally alive and not in some cosmic extra-dimensional hallucination horror demiplane.

Day...174, I think? Yup, Day 174

Blank, “So can we finish exploring the place, no living bad guys means a new base of operations.”

Sephira thinks. “Let’s see, we told the guy with the boat to come back 3 days later, right?”

Herzog- “That was two days ago. I think they’ll come for us tomorrow.”

Blank, “so I take point again?”

Exploring the rest of the basement is both tense and dull: the whole place looks like a bunch of savages lived here for years. One odd thing you do finds is several rooms (the new, rough hewn ones) that have a whole bunch of smashed eggs in them. But smashed long ago. You can’t tell whether this is from the eggs getting stepped on, or from hatching.

Blank, “You think these eggs might have been the monsters destroying their own young?”

Sephira - “This whole Yuan-ti thing is weird. Where did they even come from in the first place?”

Empty Wind shakes her head, mystified.

Blank, “maybe there were not Yuan-ti.  Instead shapeshifters that killed them and wanted this place,”  Looks around as the presumably get ready to leave, “well now I want it.  Can we tell the guys that come to pick us up that we got chased away by the monsters and barely escaped with our lives.  Let them think it is still dangerous here until we or I can come back to properly take hold of it?”

Herzog chuckles- “Sounds hilarious. I don’t mind having a vacation house anyway.”

Sephira - ‘At this point I’m assuming that some crazy rich people bought a bunch of yuanti eggs because they’re crazy rich people and got eaten. I think we can claim the place as the, uh, liberators.  Eventually I should learn teleport, and then we can come back. Or those steeds that can walk on water. Something.”

Empty Wind: “We have no guarantee that we killed all of the creatures on the island. If you are intent on keeping it, that will be enough to tell the fishermen.”

Sephira - “There we go, even being partially truthful. Well, we may as well stay here until tomorrow, and leave for the beach first thing in the morning. Just be sure not to go off alone, in case there are still things in the jungle.”

Day 175

Happily, again no one wakes up eaten, and you can make your way to the beach without incident. Around noon, the ship arrives as promised and circles the island. You signal them, they signal you, and you get picked up as promised. That afternoon, you’re back in the town of...Kilppig, much to the amazement of the locals.

[perovskite]

Day 176! Sephira

(click to show/hide)

Your stuff is identified, now get on to divvying! Also the locals are curious as to how you survived and what’s on the island.

Blank explains to the locals that there are snake monsters that very in size from 6 feet to 18 feet.  At least 2 dozen and they barely made it off the island with their lives.  A good healer and rogue are the only reasons they were able to avoid having all the monsters attack them.

The locals are aghast and fascinated and this confirms all their superstitions. They nod sagely to each other.

Blank asks Saphira what she has for reasonably upgrading equipment.

Sephira - “Not much that I’m able to do myself, but we’ll definitely have to look into it at our next large town. We’ve certainly got the cash for it.” She does not say this part in the presence of townspeople.

Blank nods, “was asking funds wise.  More of what would be reasonable without breaking the bank.”

Presumably you rented a large room in which you won’t be disturbed. At least, the DM presumes this.

Herzog hems and haws and decides he would like one of the masterwork heavy shields.

Sephira - “Great, better that we use it, since it’s not like we’re gonna get a great price reselling things. Looks like….” she does some mental math, “we’ve got about 14,000 gold worth of funds. I want to keep two thousand for traveling money, so that leaves enough to get some mythril chain and maybe a specific magic item or two, maybe more, depending on what we’re looking at.”

Herzog- “I would like to upgrade my armor once we get back to a large city, but that’s all.”

Syl looks into his bag to see how his arrows are”Well, i will need more arrows before we set out again. Other than that i will get more armor, maybe another bow, and the women will love the story of the killing of the snake beast we had.”

Herzog nods, knowing that there is nothing that impresses women more than the tale of shooting a monster in the eye.

Blank, “Except you have to say that you did not kill them, because we barely escaped with our lives.  We want the locals to think they are still alive so that we have a home no one will try and contest.  Especially if any of the original owners are somehow still alive.”

Sephira - “Well, I suppose we can say we killed a few, but yeah, be careful not to spill the beans unless you don’t want to have a nice vacation home.”

Herzog- “Okay, so we pool our money like always, but who is taking what of the magic items?”

Sephira - “Other than the stuff that’s pretty much only useable by one of us, you mean? I think it makes sense to spread out the crystals a bit. Syl, I assume they won’t stack on your bow’s lightning, and Kara and I don’t really use weapons, so one going to Herzog and one to Blank makes sense.”

Empty Wind, having already claimed the ki straps, it practicing with them in the corner, trying to determine how they improve her strikes.

Sephira - “I already have an amulet, and it sounds like the other fighter types will be getting new armor soon, so Kara should take the amulet.”

Empty Wind takes the armor amulet. “This will be useful.”

Blank, “I would prefer life drinking crystal to the acid one.”

Sephira - “Sounds good. Let me take a look at that acid crystal… Oh wait, it does look like it’ll work with the lightning bow. So we have left the acid crystal, the teleport-y boots, and the counterstrike bracers. I think Herzog is probably the best one to get the boots, since his job can require moving all over the battlefield. Although you are pretty fast already, and Blank has been getting himself into trouble a bit…. Bracers should go to Kara or Blank, since they’re usually front line fighters. Do both of you have bracers already?”

Empty Wind replies: “I have.”

Blank, “I do not.”

Sephira - “Okay, bracers for Blank then, acid crystal to Syl.”

Herzog- “I can move pretty fast, thanks to Fharlanghn’s blessings, so maybe the boots should go to someone else. Plus, that pearl of power is tailor made for a cleric.”

Syl agrees to what the party has spoken, nods in approval, but says nothing for now.

Sephira - “Blank can have the boots then. Man, you’ve made out pretty well this time. And then we’ve got armor to buy on the list for Syl, Herzog, and Blank, I think. I can always sell the stone salve if needed too, it’s pretty pricey.”

Blank, “I was not expecting to be the one to use the bracers, but after last run they could help a lot.  If we are buying armor I can wait to see what is left at the end of it all.”

Sephira - “I need to consider what’s useful for me to get, too. I’ve pretty much got every magic protection there is, so I’ll have to think about it.”

Sephira pulls out her map. “So, we are here, and I believe the other half of the ankh was listed as being somewhere south of the desert over here.” She points to the other side of the sea.

Blank looks at the map, “So the question is what will be the fastest route for getting there?”

Sephira - “Well, the steeds I can summon will be able to walk over water soon, but they can’t yet. So a boat seems like it might be best.”

Kara frowns: “I see no large city there in which the others can be outfitted.”


Sephira - “Returning to Hiasport and getting a ship from there to the town on the south side of our destination might be best.”

Blank, “And not spending any more money here would be best so they don’t think we got anything from the island after leaving it.  Should wait to sell anything too.”

Sephira - “Agreed. We have the space to carry it.”

Blank, “I think we go to Hiasport and then get the fastest boat we can hire.”

Herzog- “Sephira, you’re taking the dismissal and shadow walk scrolls, right?”

Sephira - “Yes, I am. Unless you have a use for them?”

Herzog shrugs- “Not anymore than you, although Fharglanghn will bless me with the ability to cast shadow walk later.”

Syl speaks up from no where “let me see what I can get from our local peons.” Syl walks up the local men, “hello and excuse me gentlemen. I need to know what is the fastest ship in the port and who is the captain to hire around here?”

Sephria - “Yes, we should check with them to see if there’s a better route to the Bendit Hills than through Hiasport. Let’s reconvene after asking around.”

And so you...split the party…but only to go talk to locals and see what they know.

Syl is able to find out the following: Hiasport basically monopolizes trade in the part of the Sea of 1000 Islands. It is possible to hop from island to adjacent island by hiring local boats, but there’s no telling how long that would take, cause there aren’t any regularly travelled routes. The next ship headed to Hiasport leaves in...hang on….in three days, and it’s a two day trip to Hiasport. But it’s guaranteed (ish. As guaranteed as sea travel ever is).

Blank finds out that there really isn’t much trade with the Kingdom of Gamaro (the country on the west end of the Sea of 1000 Islands), but honestly, no one here knows why. There aren’t that many good harbors, which is one reason, but aside from that, no one here knows.

Sephira finds out that there is passenger travel from Hiasport to a port in the Kingdom of Gamaro (the person she talks to doesn’t know the name), and that there are a series of small fishing villages that ring the entire Sea. If you’re tough enough, and could walk fast enough, you could just walk.

Kara and Herzog didn’t roll, so no one wants to talk to them.

Once the party reconvenes…

Sephira - “Looks like Hiasport is the way to go if we want to make sure we hit a major city along the way. Then we can decide to either take a ship to Gamaro or walk along the coast. I’ll go book us passage on the next boat.”

Syl chimes in “We got three days before the next boat, and provided once we get to Hiasport, we dont get roped into their tyrant ways of domination of controlling the ports, we should be good.”

Sephira - “I wasn’t planning on it, but you know how adventuring goes….”

Syl sighs “Why yes i do know how it goes. We either mind our own business or get into a huge squabble fight. Hopefully not the latter this time.”

Sephira books passage for everyone on the next boat, and then we spend time chilling on the shore! Kedri becomes as much of a menace as you would expect a flying cat to be.

Herzog takes walks around the island each morning to keep from going stir crazy, but otherwise passes the time also chilling on the beach.

Empty Wind mediates a lot, on the highest and loneliest promontory she can find.

Turns out that this place would be a nice resort town if it got more traffic. And so, on Day 179, you board a ship, and the ship does nautical things, and in the early morning of Day 181, after only a little bit of seasickness and possibly a kraken attack (don’t worry about it) you arrive back in Hiasport. What do you do?

Syl jumps off the boat with gear in tow, “well we can stand on this dock and squabble around mindlessly, or we shall venture to the nearest tavern and tell the story of how a giant snake like creature died and I saved Herzog from certain death. And all the ladies will love me.” he says with an optimistic smile

Blank, “And we will all say you are lying and share the story of us almost dying and not killing very many of them and barely escaping with our lives.  We should sell the excess items we don’t need, buy new stuff, and get on another boat.”

Sephira - “Fortunately, those two stories aren’t actually incompatible. I’m going to go check out passage to Gamaro. Herzog, can you take care of selling the mundane items?”

Herzog- “Sure, no problem.” He somehow carries the giant pile of sellable stuff to the market.

While Herzog and Syl trade goods for money, Sephira inquires about booking passage to Gamaro, accompanied by Kara as a silent shadow.

Sephira learns that the next ship headed to Gamaro leaves in two days. It’s a sixteen-day trip, with no stops in between. The port (which happens to be the one you were looking at earlier) is named...hang on….the Citadel of Blackwater Bay. The fare would be 35 gp per person

As far as the land route: to get to the particular mountain range Sephira wants to get to, it’s about a 370 mile walk. The terrain is pretty easy until you get to the Goblin Mountains, which is controlled by a kingdom of Hobgoblins, with tribes of other types of goblins living in the area as well. There are rumors the place has a peace treaty with the kingdom to the north of that (called the Principality of Nyrond’s Gap), but the person Sephria talks to doesn’t believe such nonsense.

Past the Goblin Mountains is the Great Sulphur Desert, but you’d just be walking along the coast, so that wouldn’t be so bad. There are supposed to be a string of fishing villages along the coast, but who knows how far in between them?

If you survive that, then the Bandit Hills separate the Great Sulphur Desert from the Kingdom of Gamaro, which Sephira’s source of information doesn’t know much about.

By the evening of Day 181, you have all reconvened at Big Phil’s House of Drinks. Syl and Herzog turn the money over to Sephira.

Herzog- “So what’s the plan boss? We only sold stuff, I still need to go buy new armor.”

Sephira - “We’ll go shopping tomorrow. As for our route, we can either take a 16 day boat ride and then have to travel north for 200 miles or so, so another 5 days. Or we can risk travelling along the coast, which would take 10 days if conditions are ideal, but there are mountains and desert along the way so the likelihood of ideal are low.”

Syl drinking from his mug “well i will take the 16 days conditioned we are good. Not the travel by foot and risk dangers.”

Herzog- “I’d rather walk, myself.”

Blank, “Little more control walking.”

Kara: “Sailing risks the kraken again.”

Herzog mutters- “Ooof, yeah, I do not want to deal with that kraken a second time.”

Syl - “then bring on the kraken! I fear not this mythical creature. We killed many things and this will only add to that list. We can take one!”

Kara raises an eyebrow. “Irrepressable, despite what it did.”

Kedri starts throwing up a hairball in the corner. You suspect that it has something to do with her opinion on the matter.

Sephira - “Well, I just need to work on improving my spellcasting a little bit and then I can summon mounts that can walk on sand just fine. It sounds like the overland route has the votes. We should look into magic items that might help with a desert crossing as well.”

Syl takes another swig “all i am suggesting if we are worrying about the kraken, we get a ship master here, cause we know Hiasport has a bajillion of them, with a small frigate like ship, run up close on the shallow ends of the sea, not too close to land or the deep sea, and avoid that problem easily.” then takes a final swig “Just saying.”

Herzog- “So charter a ship instead of taking a regular route?”

“Precisely. We pay maybe a few extra gold, take the kraken out of the equation, and completely shorten the trip if the mountains are covered in snow or worse, bandit travellers.” He grabs another mug of mead and takes a swig. “It's not ideal, however it’s a route most others wouldn't look into.” Syl suggests

Blank, “Traveling by foot also gives us the opportunity to work on training more of our skills as long as we are careful.”

Sephira - “How about this. We’ll start shopping tomorrow, and Syl can see if he can find a ship willing to take this charter. We’ll meet up two hours after we start, and if he isn’t able to, we’ll go overland. I almost forgot, the new mounts are also way faster than the ones we’ve been using so far, so that should help.”

Syl offers up his cup “here here, I will agree to this!” then drains the mug of its contents.

Kara nods. “Don;t stay out too late impressing the ladies. Negotiation requires wit.”

Day 182!

Herzog request 2000 gp to upgrade his new shield and his mithral chain to +1 each. Sephira passes along the money for that. Herzog also trades his magic staff in for a magic club for some reason. It looks like it’s designed to also serve as a walking stick.

Empty Wind accompanies Sephira on whatever errand she’s running, and unnerves recalcitrant merchants by staring through their heads, as needed.

Blank requests 3,000 to upgrade mithral shirt from +1 to +2 if funds remain after everyone else is done.

Syl looks into finding a captain for a ship on who would be willing to take a group up the shore, not venturing into deep sea and at a decent price.

Tragically, Syl isn’t even able to find such a person. That’s what he gets for rolling a 7 on gather information.

Syl is defeated in his quest. He just re stocks up on arrows for now.

Sephira is browsing around, and finds some supplies. It’s 200 gp each for evefull mugs, and magical tents range from 5k to 9k. “Hmm, that is a lot, but they sound so nice….”

Kara restocks her healing kit and rations.

Sephira buys a Personal Oasis and 3 everful mugs. She lets the others know the oasis includes some water, so we shouldn’t need as many mugs.

Once the survival stuff is purchased, Herzog asks for money for a periapt of wisdom.

Sephira - “That seems reasonable. Blank, we’ll make sure that you can improve your armor next time around.”

Blank, “next time works for me.”

And so you convene again at Big Phil’s Drink Haus (he changed the name during the day), suitably prepared for a day of hard horsey riding tomorrow.

Herzog- “Syl, how did it go?”

Syl sits and just sounds miserable. “It did not go well my friend. I was unsuccessful in my mini quest.” he sighs “and because of me someone died.”

Herzog- “By Fharlanghn’s boots! Who?”

Syl looks up with a slight grin “My motivation died. But not my inappropiate jokes.” then winks.

Kara looks like she can’t decide exactly what to say. She stays silent.

Blank just shakes his head in disgust.

Sephira pulls out the books again, checking on our next destination to see if any further preparations should be made before we go. She’ll hand out the other books if anyone wants to browse those. The Codex Codex might have something.

After an hour of nerding, nerds, you’re unable to find any new information that would help you in this particular case.

What Sephira has found in her previous readings of Edophus’ book, plus what your prior research revealed:

“Being A Treatise On The Nature And Location of That Most Honorable And Esteemed Divine Race, the Holy Ambassador and Defender of All That is Good and Right, the Lammasu, and Their Greatest Champion, the Auran Bulwark, As Researched and Compiled by Edophus the Sage”

- The book appears to be over 100 years old, if not older
- The temple is located in the southern Dry Lands (which, by the by, don’t appear on the Duke’s map), in the central part of the continent.
- This particular temple was for centuries a known gathering place of the lammasu, and was the residence of a very old and powerful lammasu that, in this book, is known as the Auran Bulwark. His temple was attacked by a cabal of evil clerics when the Auran Bulwark was there alone (between the regular conclaves the lammasu held there), and so the clerics were able to both imprison the lammasu there, and curse the area such that the lammasu had to abandon it.
- The temple is hard to find, both because it is very remote, and because it simply disappears for long periods of time. Edophus (the author) speculates that this disappearance and reappearance can be triggered, but he doesn’t know how.
- Some lammasu bestow honors upon those who serve them honorably.
- Some of those honorable servants join an order called the Lammasu Servants.
- The Auran Bulwark was thought to be a friend to air elemental type creatures as well, which is a bit unusual for a lammasu.
- The cabal of evil clerics were the followers of Meershaulk, the evil god of the yuan-ti, who (at the time of his writing) were known to inhabit several islands in the sea to the south of Hiasport. He includes a map with the major islands identified and a couple of them circled. He speculates that if there is a ceremony by which the temple could be summoned, the yuan-ti would know how to do it.
- Indications that it requires two magic items, one held by the yuan-ti on their island, and a second item which is apparently held in the mountains to the north of the nation of Gamaro, for some reason.
- List of people whom Edophus thinks have gone to the temple and never returned- about 50 people, although some only have descriptions.
- the temple is known to be have magical traps and tricks, and casting divination spells can cause physical harm to the caster.
- Speculations about what would be necessary to summon the temple (turns out it’s not something only a cleric of Meershaulk could do, and isn’t evil, either.)
- Ritual to summon some kind of earth elemental thing to raise the temple for your for a while. It would only work for 48 hours. It’s unclear if the earth elemental is summoned when the temple rises, or what.


What You Learned from the Higgle the Sage in Goldport:
- Edophus the sage was not well regarded, and many of his scholarly works are now considered to be fanciful exaggerations at best, and outright fabrications at worst.
- The Cartographer’s Guild in Goldport may have old maps she could pay to look at.
- In the town of Greyscape in the Land of Shadow there is a library, but many who visit it never return. The sage says that they might check there if they’re serious about their journey, but to be cautious.
- The land of shadow is a strange place, with only one settlement of any size, the town of Greyscape, which is apparently ruled by an enigmatic figure known as L. C. There is also an old castle/estate on a bluff overlooking the town, but there is virtually no information on it.

What You Learned In the Cartographer’s Guild in Goldport
 -Locations of both yuan-ti temples and the sinking temple (where the Auran Bulwark actually is). One temple is on Turmeltunut island in the Sea of One thousand Islands, while the other is in the mountains between the Great Sulphur Desert and what is now the Kingdom of Gamaro.
- The sinking temple is in an old lammasu gathering place at an otherwise unremarkable spot in what is now the Great Sulphur Desert

What You Learned in the Library in Greyscape in the Land of Shadow
- The Dry lands were formerly a semi-arid section of land in the middle of the continent, but they suddenly dried out and became the Great Sulphur Desert some years ago. No one knows what happened to cause this.
- Due to the speed with which the Dry Lands turned into the Great Sulphur Desert, the region is littered with abandoned structures; it may take a long time to find the right one.
- Sephira comes across a reference of a type of enchantment that can be put on weapons called “truebane”; it was developed by clerics of Kostichchie, the evil god of frost giants. What it does is give the bane property to the weapon, but bane’s focus switches to whatever creature was last hit by the weapon.
- Other people searching come across references to the scro “militant spacefaring orc monks, with guns!”
- Other people find information about incantifers- wizards who prolong their life by consuming magic.

Sephira - “So it is a yuan-ti temple, so we should probably do more research on yuanti. We know some of them can poison us, let’s find out what else they can do.”

Empty Wind racks her brains about yuan-ti, trying to remember temple lessons she slept through. Kara is pretty sure there should be a sage who knows something about yuan-ti in town. Meershaulk was apparently into transforming people into snakes, and yuan-ti were originally kind of weird human-snake hybrid. They have all kinds of magical powers, mostly regarding fear, snakes, and poison. They’re usually led by clerics. That’s all Kara knows.

[perovskite]

Day 184: Most Ancient and Original Group.

(click to show/hide)

Zelda, Esca, Kat, and Harvey stare at the rune in the floor.

Dragon tries to poke around in the snow with the toe of his boot, and is dismayed to see that he can’t make any marks in the snow, on account of the mass snowshoes spell.

Escaflowne stops staring at the rune and instead stares down the hall waiting to see if something bad starts coming their way. He doesn’t see anything.  Looking over his shoulder, “The rune mentions not going this way because of danger.”

Kat: “Does it specify what kind of danger?”

The rune is not specific on what kind of danger. It’s definitely the giant equivalent of a big red button labeled “Do Not Push Under Any Circumstances”.

Escaflowne, “I get the impression that the giants are very much afraid of this hallway.”

“I mean,” Harvey says dryly. “There’s some dragons around, and a giant ice worm thing down in the chasm, so take your pick I guess.”

Kat sighs: “I see.” To Harvey: “Do you want to fly down the hall and see what it might be? If not, we could just… leave.”

Harvey gives her a long look. “We’re here to kill giants, as I understand it. And there aren’t really any giants down there. Whatever is down there can wait until we’ve cleared out this jarl, as far as I’m concerned.”

Zelda looks from Harvey to Kat with a look of astonishment on her face. “You want to just… not go down it?”

“I would like to not leave the majority of our party to descend and fight a worm who can melt weapons and swallow me whole, yes.” Harvey says tartly.

Zelda squints at Harvey. “Do you mind if I do?”

Kat considers for a moment. “I wonder if the floor is entirely stable, so it might be better to just come back for this one. Maybe block it off.”

“Did I mention they burrow?” Harvey says. “Because they do. They burrow. Up from underneath.” He makes a sort of munching gesture intended to communicate getting eaten Tremors style.

“If you want to go, I’ll cast Pass without Trace on you, but honestly, there are better ways to tackle this thing. Like magic from above for instance.”

Escaflowne, “really shouldn’t go alone.  If we go this way it needs to be all of us and moving like we have been.  Especially if it turns into those worm things.”

Kat clap her hands once, decisively, but quietly. “If the giants have decided that this area is too dangerous for them to enter, we can save it for later. Back to the rest of the group.”

Zelda pouts. “FINE. But only because you’d get in trouble without me if I ditched you guys to have cool adventurers with the worms. Or whatever is down there.”

Kat smiles, not at all looking like she’s humoring the crazy thief.  “Yes, we would.”

Harvey smiles a little. “We do need you. I’d be quite put out if you died.”

This little splinter group files back to the main corridor.

Kat tells Salach and the rest about their failure to be proper adventurers “... So let’s keep going this other way.”

Salach is mildly aghast, but isn’t too concerned, cause it’s not like the glacier is going much of anywhere...too fast.

Zelda shakes her head at the whole thing.

Dragon, who has been standing around pulling guard- “I think there’s a staircase or ramp over there that heads down into the rift.

Kat “That’s good to know. We’ll have to keep an eye on it.”

Zelda - “We’ve got more to explore to the left first.” Zelda reactivates her invisibility and moves in that direction.

You all move as a mob toward where Zelda was when she went invisible. Sure enough, the tunnel opens up to a cliff that drops straight into the Rift, and so the gusts of wind and blowing snow obscure anything outside about 40’.

Immediate to Zelda’s left are a pair of boulders pushed together to block off a tunnel, although only for something that can’t climb 10’. She and Esca both notice large grooves in the floor and walls of this cave, consistent with a large reptile….thing.

Farther along is an open cave.

Escaflowne, “I might be able to move one of those out of the way.”

“We should probably peek over first if we want to do that,” Harvey says, looking at the claw marks.

Escaflowne walks up to one of the boulders and looks to see if there are any hand holds or other things used to move them in the first place.

Nope, not that he can see. They have a decent layer of snow and ice on them, too.

Harvey sighs. “Maybe i can wildshape into something tiny and skitter up there.

Caboose puts his hand over his eyes and peers out, looking in the opposite direction everyone is looking.

Caboose doesn’t see anything that bothers him...unless seeing nothing bothers him.

Kat move to the other side of the second passage, the one not blocked by boulders. She peers carefully down the open passage as she goes by.

Kat sees a few bits of wood, and she gets the impression that something has been through here that liked to just break things for the fun of it.

She calls to the others. “Shall we try the open passage first?”

Dragon moves up and looks down the same hall at a different angle. “Just looks like the place was trashed. Wasn’t this a sleeping area the first time we were here?”

Salach- “Uhhh, yeah, it was, actually.”

Kat crosses the corridor to look around the corner perpendicular to the hall Dragon is looking down.

More of the same: a few large claw marks, more (lots more) chunks of wood, what appear to have been mattresses, and some frost giant bones that look like they’ve been gnawed on by something with big, sharp, pointy teeth.

Kat says to Dragon: “I think it’s become either a lair for the white dragons, or a playground for the remorhaz.”

Dragon- “It was full of frost giants the first time we were here...although we killed them all.”

Kat: “They’ve become food.”

Escaflowne, “This gets better and better.”

“My guess would be the dragons,” Harvey said. “The remorhaz tends to swallow it’s prey whole. Could be wrong though.” Harvey flies over to the bones and examines them. Definitely a large reptilian kind of beast gnawed on these bones, but not until after the flesh was frozen solid.

“Yeah, probably dragon,” Harvey mutters.

Zelda saunters down the hallway to see if the tunnel connects on the other side of the boulders.

Zelda also remembers this area as having been kind of a barracks area for some frost giants. The whole place looks like something has come through, eaten a whole lot of frost giant bodies, and then tore everything apart for entertainment. Chunks of wooden chests and bunks chewed on tossed everywhere, etc. Like a giant, malicious cat. But the DM repeats himself.

Zelda - “Welp, good thing we got to it first.” She continues to check around, to see if anything more interesting is about. She calls to the group over the boulders. “Hey, I’m on the other side of the boulders, you can just walk around.”

Harvey flutters down the corridor to join her, but bangs into a low hanging piece of ice and fails to notice anything else.

Zelda notices a spring in an alcove of the largest cave. It’s just a pool of water a couple feet deep, but obviously feeds from somewhere.

Zelda - “Anyone want to turn into a small fish and go exploring the spring?

Zelda notices a whole bunch of shiny rock crystals in the bottom...they look like they’d be worth a bit of money. “Ooh, shiny.”

Harvey looks pensive. “Is the water poisonous?” Then he shrugs. “Aw well,” and turns into a dire racoon. He wades into the water and starts fishing out rocks with his agile raccoon paws. He has to wash them first before handing them to  Zelda of course.

Kat searches the dead end between the spring chamber and the dead end closest to the boulders. She doesn’t find anything! Except more frost giant bones and destroyed bedding.

Escaflowne moves back a ways and guards the entrance.

The water is, naturally, fricking cold, but you have endure elements on, so ok. It takes only 278 tosses, so like 20 minutes or so, but you get a nice pile of rock crystals, probably worth 10 gp each.

Zelda - “One these is totally going in my collection, “ as she puts them in her bag.

Meanwhile, Kat searches the loop on the opposite side of the barracks. She finds more of the same, ie a treasure trove if you’re into frost giant bones and destroyed furniture. She joins the rest of the group back at the entrance.

By this point, when in between gusts of snow, you can see the ledge where you fought your first group of frost giants on this set of forays into the Rift

Zelda - “One more spot to check!” She heads to the last area we haven’t explored on this expedition.

Harvey reverts back and follows her. He seems concerned she might get herself into trouble.

Zelda looks down the hallway to her left, and sees what looks like used to be a large cat den, now dusted over with snow, cause perhaps the former inhabitants were killed by the party several months ago. A pair of snow leopards, perhaps. It’s silent and empty, regardless.

Zelda - “Maybe Harvey can train a snow leopard for me as a pet…” she heads to the last cave.

Harvey doesn’t respond except to sigh and follow. He brushes past Zelda touching her with his wing and casting snowsight.

Escaping hot air from somewhere beneath filters into this place, making is full of damp, cold mist. You can only see about three feet into the hallway.

Dragon goes over to inspect the top of what turns out to be a frost-giant sized staircase down into the rift. Each step is about three feet high.

Kat follows, getting ahead of Escaflowne and Caboose, who had moved up to the entrance of the snow leopard lair.

Zelda can suddenly see into the room clearly. The floor slopes slightly down toward an obvious crack in the floor, from which the cold mist issues, and probably coats everything with very, very slick ice (that obviously wouldn’t be a problem for you on account of Snowshoes). The cave is otherwise empty.

Zelda has a delightful time not slipping on the ice as she goes to peer into the crack. She also sees if she can form animal shapes in the mist while she’s walking.

The crack is rimmed with ice for a few dozen feet before she can see some stone, but after that it’s obscured by not being a shaft straight down to the center of the planet.

Zelda heads back to where the others are. “Just a big hole in the ground. Not big enough to jump down, though.”

Kat: “It’s just as well. So. This means that the way forward is not found on this level?”

Escaflowne, “there is a path we skipped when chasing the hill giants.”

Zelda - “Yeah, it looked like where the big bad would hide, so we skipped it. Not gonna lie, I’d rather go back that way that climb down those stairs. They look exhausting.”

Kat replies to Escaflowne: “There is? We should go back then, see if there’s anything useful.”

Escaflowne, “If we are being thorough here, we should there too.”

Zelda starts heading back to the other corridor, not that you can tell, until she walks past Karla and says “So you have Fly, right?”

Karla - “I do, but I’m going to use it on whoever needs it most, which is not necessarily you.”

Zelda - “Aw.”

And so you tromp your way back to the other end of the rift. You have to squeeze down some hallways and climb over some freezing frost giant carcasses (un-nibbled on, you notice), and finally arrive at the long, straight hallway that had that T-intersection you skipped while chasing hill giants. It takes a solid 20 minutes or so, cause you’re not running or anything.

You all pile around the corner to the unexplored tunnel to find….a wall. A new wall. Constructed of large rocks and ice. You’re pretty sure it was built in the last four days, maybe while you were away at Alzak Fortress getting Kochevnik reincarnated, cause it sure wasn’t here when the giants were running through it. You can’t tell how thick it is, but it goes all the way to the ceiling (about 30’ up).

Zelda - “How dare they make preparations.”

Kat walks up to the wall, and, first, detects magic.

It is not a magical wall.

Kat casts Disintegrate on the wall.

A 10’x10’x10’ cube of rock and ice poofs out of existence. Kat dodges backwards handily as a good section of the wall collapses. There’s still a pile of ice and rock, but you can climb over it now.

Zelda - “Me first!” She starts climbing.

Kat muses “I wish that had left less debris to climb over…”

Zelda scrambles to the top of the pile, and peers down the hallway to see...50 feet behind this wall is a second one. “Ugh. Second wall ahead.”

Escaflowne follows ready to provide support.
Kat shrugs. “That was my only Disintegrate. The best I could do now is summon a fire elemental and have it make holes. Harvey?”

“I can do Rockburst,” Harvey said. “Once. And everyone will need to stay like 20 feet back.”

Karla - “It is not a spell that we may need to save for the fight ahead?”

Salach- “I could cast disintegrate as well, but I agree with Karla.”

“Hmmm,” Harvey studies the wall. “I do have Crumble, but I’m not sure how effective it would be.”

Karla - “We have magical methods of retreating, so climbing over the wall might be the best method.”

Zelda - “I’m on it!”

Caboose begins to hyperventilate “caboose broke something!”

 The others hear her crunch toward the wall, which she must be doing on purpose, given the snowshoes spell.

Karla - Caboose, what did you break? I may be able to mend it if it’s important.”

Zelda climbs about halfway up the wall, but then slips and falls. You all hear a thud as she bounces off some rocks. “No one saw anything, nothing happened.”

Caboose looks to Karla and says “I don’t know.”

Escaflowne standing close behind Zelda, “nope, still can't see you.  I did see some rocks shift and fall.

Zelda - “Good. Because nothing happened.” She starts up the wall again.

This time Zelda gets to the top of the second wall and discovers that the rocks go all the way to the ice ceiling, and are frozen to it. “They’ve, uh, sealed themselves in. That can’t be a good sign.”

“Are there any gaps at all?” Harvey asks. “Like rat sized ones?”

Escaflowne climbs over the wall after Zelda. He gets to the top and discovers the same thing she did.

Escaflowne, “how thick do we think that wall is?”

Neither Zelda nor Esca find any gaps in the wall at the top, but neither are they impressed with the workmanship.

Zelda gets down from the wall. “Well, it won’t be winning any architecture prizes, but no gaps big enough to see though.”

Escaflowne drops down as well and pulls out a portable ram, “this could help, and save spells.”

“Hey there you go,” Harvey said. “Other options, we can have a fire elemental burn a peephole through the wall, or I can just transmute the whole thing to mud. But I can only cast that once, so we may want to wait.

Kat calls over the pile of rubble: “Here, move aside. I’m going to summon a fire elemental”

Zelda moves aside, and informs Kat. “I moved. Don’t hit me with anything.”

Harvey tugs Escaflowne back, who is busy rummaging through his pack.

Kat tries to climb over the rubble but slips and falls before she gets anywhere. She tries again, taking her time and picking her hand and footholds very carefully. When she gets to the top so she can see where everyone (except Zelda) is…
 She calls down: “Is everyone on the left hand side of the corridor?”

Zelda - “Yes!”

Kat drops a medium fire elemental next to the wall on the right side of the corridor. “Alright, melt the ice in that wall. Get to the top if you can.” It starts to climb the barrier, melting all the ice it can reach.

It takes the elemental three rounds to get to the top of the wall, and therefore to the ice in the ceiling, but then it starts melting through.

It will slam things if that would help it get rid of the ice faster.

Kat watches it go for the next minute.

It manages to bore a hole big enough for a human to crawl through, at the top of the wall, by the time it disappears.

Kat “Alright, scout’s turn. I can summon another one to melt more if need be.”

Zelda - “On it!” She climbs up to the hole. Harvey lurking behind her in the air.

Zelda looks through the tunnel in the ice and sees...a third wall. Another 50’ or so down the hallway. The second wall is about 10’ thick at the top, she also sees.

Zelda - “Guuuuuuys, there’s another wall.”

Presumably there is much groaning from the crowd.

Kat “The stairs are looking like a slightly better option, perhaps.”

Zelda - “Man, if they set up these walls and just left I’m going to be so pissed.”

Salach- “They can’t have set up too many more. They only had four days.”

Harvey pokes his head through the hole. “I can transmute it to mud, which would be great if there’s not another blasted wall there. But if there is….”

Kat: “I have a spell to transmute stone to flesh that I could use. The ice would still have to be melted from around it, of course.”

Zelda - “Ew.”

Salach- “If there is a fourth wall, I can waste a disintegrate opening a tunnel at the top.”

“The problem is,” Harvey says. “If I turn this wall into mud, and there’s enemies on the other side, then there’s mud between us and them, which is good. If there’s another wall, then we just have to cross a bunch of mud for no reason, which is not good.”

Kat: “We can wait for the mud to freeze. It shouldn’t take that long.”

Harvey ponders. “That’s true. Anyone else in favor of some mud?”

Dragon- “I say do it.”

Harvey gives a deep sigh. “Here goes nothing,” pokes his head out of the peephole and casts the spell on the third wall.

From the far side of the second wall comes a sound like a burp, then a splash, and some muddly splattering, followed by some rocks clattering around. The silence.

Harvey peers down the corridor.

A big portion of the third wall is gone, but beyond that...is the fourth wall.

Harvey sighs. “I say we wait for the mud to harden, climb through and take a rest. We can get more spells that way.”

Karla - “I’m not sure it’s wise to wait that long, but certainly until the mud hardens.”

Escaflowne nods agreement.

And so you wait an hour or so until the mud hardens, then you take the whole afternoon setting up lines and ropes and such for the non-skilled climbers, and all climb over the first wall, through the second wall, and park yourselves between the third and fourth walls.

[perovskite]

Day 185: An Interlude

The one player who has characters in all the parties couldn't make it, so we assembled one out of spare parts and nearly finished a short module. Escaflowne's player (who also plays Blank, Logan, Rogue, and Snaga) DM'd.

(click to show/hide)

A tall (6’5”) humanoid with tanned skin and fiery red hair sits in a corner booth of the bar.  He looks unnatural and the dwarves around the bar are giving him furtive looks from time to time though seem like they are used to his presence.  The man is sitting hunched over a book with a pen in hand and is slowly writing without appearing to look around at anyone.  There is nothing on the table beside his book, pen and ink well.

Kochevnik enters the bar and has a seat at the table that has become her favorite since Katreana and Co headed back to the Rift...yesterday. Once a wait-dwarf comes over, Koch gives her dinner and beer order.

Koch- “Who’s the new guy?” She nods in the direction of the jolly red giant.

The server looks from Koch to the red head and back, "no one knows.  He comes in here, sits down and looks in that book.  He never orders anything.  It is weird."  Then the server notes the order and moves off.

Koch minds her own business for the moment, and just watches the guy out of the corner of her eye while eating whatever it is you can get in a semi-underground dwarf city.

Eli looks up from his book and looks around the room.  His eyes an eerie silver.  His eyes catch Koch's briefly, before he quickly looks down to his book again and starts writing.

Koch uses her blazing powers of holy righteousness to very subtly detect evil on the writing red giant.  She does not detect any evil from him or anything he is doing.

Koch waits for her dinner, eats said dinner, and finishes her first beer. Once she has her second beer, she heads over to the silent red giant and sits down. She considers test driving feminine wiles, but decides against it.

Koch- “Well met, stranger. What brings you to this remote part of the world?”

Eli looks up at Koch and blinks a few times then nods politely to her.  Then pulls out a piece of paper and starts writing before sliding the paper over to her. “Hello, I am Eli.  Just traveling.  No specific reason or destination.”

Koch, slightly noplussed- “You don’t speak?”

Eli nods and takes the paper back.  Writing again and returning the paper.  “I am mute”

Koch- “Pardon the personal question, but have you always been? Or did it happen on your travels?”



Eli blinks and scratches his chin, then writes on the paper, "kind of always.  If you want a better explanation maybe sit and join me.  If you are willing, I have a better way to communicate."

Koch gives him a wary look. “Okay, I’ll give it a try. What is it?”

Eli manifest missive and Koch feels a presence and then a voice in her mind, "I can send short messages straight into your mind."

Koch, out loud- “Whoa! That’s pretty neat. Er, can you read other people’s thoughts or just send messages?”

Eli manifests again, "Just send messages, reading thoughts is a different power."

Koch smirks. “That’s good to know.”
---------------

Day 187

Kochevnik and Eli sit at their normal corner bar when a figure obscured by a full cloak walks up to their booth.  Pulling a seat from a different table and sitting down without making a single noise.  They see him sit, but can’t remember seeing him come into the bar or approaching their table.  He looked from one to the other before stating, “You appear to be the type of people that would be willing to take up an adventure.”  Derek is sitting a few booths away in the bar and can just barely hear the conversation going on.

Kochevnik takes a sip of beer and detects evil on this guy. No evil detected.

Eli looks from the figure back to Kochevnik and raises an eyebrow questioningly.

Kochevnik- “Depends on the kind of adventure. Who are you?”

Talon answers, “My name is Talon.  The port of Shibboleth is currently having a problem.  A sea witch and her minions have taken over the lighthouse that allows for the port to run.  Without no goods can come in or out.  I would have stayed to help, however I am already on a mission.  It does not take much time for me to stop and ask others who might be free to go back and help the people there though.”

Kochevnik exposits, “And Shibboleth is the main port for Gran March, so no port means their supply lines for the war...against the giants...get strangled. I agree, that is a problem. What is this sea witch?”

Talon cocks his head watching Kochevnik then shrugs, “I don’t know.  I did not stay to ask questions.  If you go I would suggest taking more than the two of you.  There was word of quite a few Ogres supporting the witch.  I would offer you something to help, but there was a disagreeable swashbuckler that told me he would work on it that got my potions of water breathing.  I suggest you be ready for the possibility of going under water if you do go.  I will be on my way.”  Stands and nods to the both of them, “good luck if you go.” He turns and starts to walk away.

Kochevnik waits until he’s gone. “That was weird. What do you think?”

Eli manafest missive to Kochevnik, “Yes, weird.  Not against helping people.  Have nothing better to do.”

Kochevnik drums her fingers and stares into space for a moment. “I left my old group because I felt I was more a burden to them than a help, so if this can help me better myself, then I should go. AND, it’s the right thing to do. Right up my alley and all that.”

She gets up and walks over to the barkeep. “Hey Circed, do you know of any mostly trustworthy and probably reliable adventurers who are looking for work?”

Circed, “Not really.” points to the half-orc sitting a few tables away from theirs, “he is new here.  Just wondered in today.  Looks the type you might want to talk to.”

Kochevnik detects evil on the half-orc sitting there. Detects no evil. “Here goes nothing….”

Kochevnik walks over to the half orc and sits down. “Greetings, stranger. You’re new here.”

Eli closes his book and puts it away.  Then stands and goes to stand next to where Kochevnik is sitting and gives the half orc a polite nod in greeting.

The half-orc, who rose politely from his seat when Kochevnik took hers and then sat again after she did, replies. “Good evening, mistress.” He’s wearing very well-tailored clothes, all black.

Kochevnik is impressed with his decorum, and then feels a little weird for being impressed.

He nods at Eli, idly runs one hand through his short-spiked hair and continues. “Did you have some business for me?”

Kochevnik sits up a bit straighter. “Actually yes. I assume you saw the odd cloaked gentleman a few moments ago? He notified my compatriot Eli” <she indicates Eli> “of a monster who is keeping the port of Shibboleth from receiving goods, which means no supplies to the war effort in the lowlands. It is my duty as a paladin to seek out and destroy such evils, and I feel that going solo would be unwise. You strike me as a competent type, so would you be interested in joining us?”

The half-orc frowns a bit. “That sounds rather… public spirited, mistress. Appropriate for a paladin, of course, but I use my skills strictly for business, I’m afraid.”

Kochevnik- “I began my career as a thug and a murderer, but through some happenstance realized that there was more to life than money. So I understand your attitude and reasoning.”

A faintly offended look crosses the half-orc’s face at the words “thug” and “murderer”.

Eli manafest to Kochevnik, “Could possibly negotiate reward to pay for half-orcs services there.”

Kochevnik- “I would take on a task like this for free, but I also have to eat. You would obviously get a fair share of any treasure the monster has, and any reward the city of Shibboleth offers us.”

The half-orc stares into space a bit. “Please understand that it’s not mere money. It’s professional pride. The rate always depends on the difficulty of the inhum… er, task. What kind of monster did the cloaked fellow say it was?”

Kochevnik- “He didn’t have much useful information, beyond that it’s a ‘Sea Witch’ and ogres. Oh, and that we should buy potions of water breathing.”

The half-orc says, “Sea witch? Perhaps he meant a sea hag?”

Kochevnik- “I’ve never had the opportunity to run into hags...well...not the actual monsters, anyway.”

The half-orc laughs a bit. “Very well, I’ll join you for a ‘fair share’ of the treasure and any reward. A sea hag, hm? Fortunately I specialize in wet-work.” He smiles as if at some private joke.

Kochevnik chuckles at his pun, and gives him a winning smile. “I’m glad to have you along.” She offers her hand. “I’m Kochevnik.”

The half-orc stands, take her hand and bows over it. “I am Derek.” He straightens and offer a handshake to Eli.

Eli takes the and gives a firm shake and another polite nod.

Kochevnik- “Oh! Eli doesn’t talk. Don’t take it personally.”

Derek nods “I am used to working with silent partners.”

Day 196

After traveling to Shibboleth port the party is directed to a merchants guild where there is a man named Roth who can give them information about sea witch and what is happening.  When they arrive at the merchants guild they are lead to a room and enter to find a haggard looking human who is looking over papers and trying to do difficult math.  He waves a hand around them vaguely offering them the chairs in his office.  “What problems do you have?”

Derek leans himself against a wall where he can keep the doors, windows, and all other persons in view.

Kochevnik- “I’m Kochevnik. My compatriots and I heard that a sea witch has seized the lighthouse and this is keeping ships from entering the harbor. We are here to help if we can, and were told that you have information that would be useful to us.” She attempted a winning smile, but probably has some lunch between her teeth.

Roth looks up at the group and his eyes lighten a little bit.  He sounds to have a hard time hiding his excitement, “I had almost given up hope.  It has been almost a month since it all started.  The first group that went out was seen and killed before they could get up to the lighthouse.  Apparently the sea witch, “Black Molly” she is called, has a group of Ogres with her.  They locked the door and have been shooting down at people that approach.  Anyone seen has her nasty powers used on them.  She is holding the lighthouse ransom unless we can give her 100,000 gp.  The city doesn’t have that much gold to spare.  How did you hear about our plight?”

Kochevnik- “We were actually in Alzak Fortress on the other side of Sterich, and some cloaked man approached us and told us about it. Then he left. I thought it was odd, but, if you need help, you need help, so here we are.”

Roth grumbles “at least the asshole was honest” under his breath before speaking up again, “well I will offer you the same thing we offered him.  5,000 gp to kill the ogres and Black Molly.  Anything you find during the adventure is yours to keep.  We can offer some provisions you might need before going, within reason.  Also we have some small boats you might be able to use to make a stealthy approach to the lighthouse.  Do you have more questions?”

Kochvenik- “Is the lighthouse on an island, or a peninsula? Do you have a map?”

Roth, “It is a small island just off the port.”  Points to a map on the wall behind him.  “You can see that there are no other islands close to it, but while it is a small island it still is lined up straight with the port.”

Kochevnik walks around the desk to take a closer look at the map. She looks for things like distance to the island, the closest point on the mainland, any indicators of current (not that she knows anything about boating).  Looks to be about one mile to the island from the closest point on the mainland.  Nothing to indicate current.

Kochevnik- “You said the ogres were shooting people. So they weren’t throwing rocks?”

Roth nods, “they were using crossbows from what we have heard.  They all appear to be pirates.”

Kochevnik snickers at the mental image of ogre pirates. “Next it will be ninja golems,” she mumbles.

Eli snorts at her comment.

Roth blinks and looks from one to the other, “Please tell me you will still take the job.”

Kochevnik turns around and gives the People’s Eyebrow to her companions. “Well? I’m still for it. What say you two?”

Eli gives her a cross look at her choice of words then smirks and nods.

Kochevnik looks momentarily aghast. “Eli, I’m sorry, I completely forgot!”

Derek nods.

Composing herself, Kochevnik- “I think we have a deal then, Mr. Roth. Who should we talk to about the boats?”

Roth, “I will lead you to the boat you can take across.  It is a dark boat so it will make getting here easier.  Anything else you need before going?”

Kochevnik- “I’m embarrassed to ask, but I don’t have the money to buy potions of water breathing, which is something the cloaked man said we should have.”

Roth blinks and then nods, “yes, there are caves under the lighthouse that the sea witch might try to escape too.  There is air in the caves, but not on the way.  We can give you three.  You will have to move quickly if you have to go down into the water.”

Kochevnik- “That will have to do, then.”

Roth, “anything else?”

Kochevnik- “I have nothing I want to ask.”

Eli nods his agreement with Kochevnik.

Roth leads the party out and on their way to the port they receive the three potions of water breathing.  Once at the port he leads them to a boat and points them in the direction of the lighthouse.  The overcast skies and late hour make it hard to see it, but they can just barely make out the lighthouse.

Kochevnik stares out at the lighthouse for a few moments. “I wonder if sea hags are nocturnal. If so we should attack during the day.”

Roth, “I don’t know.  They always seem to have someone awake there.”

Kochevnik- “Hmm.”

The part is able to get the boat to the base of the island and up to the lighthouse without being seen.  There is just enough light for them to see figures at the top of the lighthouse and make out that there is a way for them to relatively easily climb up the side of the lighthouse.  There is no sign that they were spotted on their approach.

Kochevnik’s nine-foot long spear suddenly contracts into a convenient-to-hold shortspear. She slings her shield over her back. Quietly, she says, “I’m not as good a climber as I used to be, but I think I can do this. Should I go first?”

Eli shrugs unsure of the answer.

Derek: “Allow me.” He gets out his climbing kit and ascends. 
Derek is easily able to make it up the wall.  With the use of the kit Derek is also able to help the rest of the party get up the wall quickly and relatively quietly.  At the top everyone sees for Ogres at about the same time the Ogres see them.

Eli is in the middle with Derek to his left, and Kochevnik to his right.  Ogres 1 and 2 are to the right of the glass walls of the light, and orges 3 and 4 are to the left.

Everyone sees that the Ogres are lazy and have their large heavy crossbow’s sitting against the walls.  They have shocked looks on their faces as they see you and appear to have sheathed cutlasses at their waists.

Round 1!

Eli manifests Death Urge on number 4. Using wild surge.  Ogre fails his save.  Does nothing until his turn.

Derek rapidly fires three arrows at the foremost ogre to the left, ogre 3. All three arrows fly by its head and are lost. Derek curses.

Ogre 1 and 3 pick up their set aside crossbows and fire.  1 at Kochevnik and 3 at Derek.  They both miss horribly as well.

Ogre 2 picks up his crossbow and runs to stand next to Ogre 1 and shots at Kochevnik as well.  Misses horribly.

Ogre 4 draws his cutlass and attacks himself twice.  He somehow manages to cut his own head off.

Kochevnik’s shortspear turns back into a longspear, and she executes a power attacking charging smite on ogre 1.  He looks to be within an inch of his life.  Barely standing.

Round 2!

Eli pulls out his bow and takes aim at Ogre 2.  Hits, but doesn’t seem that effective.

Derek again shoots rapidly at ogre 3, this time hitting it twice.

Ogre 1 and 2 drop their crossbows and draw their cutlasses to attack Kochevnik. Only one of them manage to hit.

Oger 3 reloads his crossbow.  Forgetting how long it takes.

Kochevnik uses a turn undead to empower her attacks, and stabs at ogre 1 again.  His last bit of life leaves from the only hit point he had being brutally removed by a massive spear thrust.

Kochevnik- “Sorry ogre, I know how that feels.”

Round 3!

Eli manafest a 10 point mind thrust at number 2.  The Ogre fails his save and then falls over dead from the attack.

Derek fires two arrows at ogre 3, again hitting twice.  The Ogre staggers slighty, but remains standing.

Ogre 3 finishes reloading and then shoots at Derek.  Misses horribly. Derek sneers at the creature’s terrible aim.

Koch, having no enemies nearby, jogs around the backside of the lighthouse, and ends on the side opposite the other two. “Ugh, I should have looted the ogres. Silly me.”

Round 4!

Eli turns and takes a five foot step next to Derek and fires his bow at Ogre number three.  The Ogre staggers again and looks on his last leg.

Derek shoots it again. It falls dead. He goes over to retrieve his arrows from its corpse. While he’s at it, he loots the corpse. “Well, that’s one.”

Eli lowers his bow and looks around before moving to see if he can recover any of his arrows.  Finding none in good condition.

Kochevnik finishes her lap around the top, checking for obvious doors as she goes.  She only sees the one door going in and stairs through the glass that lead down into the lighthouse. Once she sees one of the others, she stops, and turns to loot the nearest ogre corpse. She takes her time, so as to not miss anything.

Following is found on the Ogres:

80pp
Gold and Topaz Bottle Stopper (900gp)
Metal Rod
4 huge cutlasses
4 large heavy crossbows
4 suits of shitty hide armor

Kochevnik, being an aboveboard sort, lets the other two know what she finds. She detects evil on the metal rod, cause why not? It’s free. No evil. No surprise.

Kochevnik, quietly- “Most of their gear looks like crap, but we’ll split the rest when we’re done.” She keeps the money, bottle stopper, and metal rod.

Derek brushes some dust from his shoulder. “I do trust a paladin to be honest about such things.”

Eli simply nods and then moves to look through the glass and down the stairs.

Derek goes over to the door as well and inspects it for traps or locks.  He does not find any traps and the door appears to be unlocked.

He carefully opens it and looks around for stairs.  Stairs are easily seen in the center of the room. He leads the way down the stairs, moving silently.

Kochevnik shrinks her longspear to a shortspear, and dons her shield as well. She moves as quietly as she can, and give the stealthy type a bit of space.

Eli stays with Kochevnik giving Derek the space since he is not stealthy either.

As they move down the stairs they come to a door that least to the next level, and the stairs continue to go down.

Derek listens at the door.  He does not hear anything on the other side of the door.
He carefully and slowly opens the door a sliver, looking into the room.
Half a dozen great copper cisterns litter the room.  Copper pipes connect to the cisterns leading up through the ceiling to the room above.

He opens the door and steps carefully into the room, keeping to the wall near the door. He sees the whole room and that there are two doors on either side of the room.

Derek quietly calls the other into the room.

Kochevnik creeps up to the stairwell side of the door, and turns left once she’s inside the room.

Eli moves into the room with Derek.  Looks around then motions to the two seperate doors as if asking which way.

Kochevnik, quietly- “They always said in my home temple that evil is to the left.”

Derek nods. “Seems legit.” He stalks to the left hand door and listens at it.  Hears what sounds like a female voice talking to herself about an amulet what should be around here somewhere and the sound of what might be books hitting walls and then the floor.

Kochevnik creeps around and searches behind the cisterns.  She finds nothing behind any of the cisterns.

Derek crosses back to where Kochevnik is and motions to Eli to join them.

Eli moves to the door with Derek.

Kochevnik follows as well. She whispers, “What did you hear?”

Derek replies “Female voice, talking about an amulet. We can probably ambush her.”

Kochevnik creeps up to about a foot from the door. Very quietly, she says, “Hang on.” She then faces the door and starts detecting evil for nearly a minute. There be evil behind that door.

Kochevnik relays this to the other two. “If its her, she’s alone in there, or at least any minions in there aren’t evil. If we’re going in now, give me a minute to cast a spell on myself.”

Eli sets his bow down and pulls out his book and pen.  “If we crack the door and I see her I might be able to do the same thing to her that I did to the Ogre upstairs.”  Showing them the book and what he wrote.

Derek examines the door to see which way it opens. “Let’s set up like this: Kochevnik will open the door, I will kneel with an arrow nocked, Eli will stand behind me and do his mind trick. I’ll fire, then we can burst in.”

While Derek is explaining this, Kochevnik pulls out a wand and casts a spell on herself. She becomes noticeably better looking and more magnetic personality wise. Also stronger and tougher, but they don’t see this.

Eli puts away his book and pen and nods as he picks his bow up again.  He readies himself to manafest.

Derek positions himself appropriately and readies his bow.

Kochevnik prepares to open the door. “Everyone ready?”

Derek nods. “Ready.”

Eli nods.

Kochevnik opens the door as fast as she can!

In the room you see an ungly hag and a huge water elemental.

Surprise round!

Derek fires arrows rapidly at the hag, missing all three times. Two of the arrows hit the elemental instead.  It seems that the Arrows did hardly anything to the Elemental.

Eli manafest Death Urge on the Hag. Hag fails her save.  Eli avoids the dangers of over manifesting.

Kochevnik uses a free action to activate divine might, her swift action to cast rhino rush, and her full round action to charge the hag. Suck it.  The hag is hit by the charge and body goes flying back into the wall before slumping to the ground unmoving.

Round 1!

Derek is suddenly 20’ inside the room. He fires one arrow at the elemental, but misses.

Eli manifest Energy burst at the Elemental sending Electrical energy at it.  He uses his full wild surge in the attack, and manages to not daze himself.  The Elemental appears to have avoided some of the attack.

Elemental moves forward and attacks Kochevnik.

Kochevnik hits it right back, and then takes a 5’ step backwards.  They appear to be mostly solid hits despite the toughness of the Elemental.

Round 2!

Derek is suddenly another 20 feet into the room to the elemental’s side. He shoots an arrow into its side(?). But misses.

Eli manifest a full wild surge mind Thrust at the elemental.  Avoiding the dazing himself again.  It fails to save.  The Elemental looks positively livid...for having no face.

Elemental charges over Kochevnik and slams against the wall as it attacks Eli.

Kochevnik sidesteps as the wave crashes past her.

Kochevnik uses divine might again full attacks the elemental, but only hits once.

Round 3!

Derek, since the elemental so kindly put itself between him and his allies, shoots it in the back(?)!

Eli staggers slight from the hit and then manifest another full wild surge Mind Thrust at the elemental.  Still avoiding dazing himself.  Elemental fails his save.  Elemental looks like it is starting to fall apart and barely still there.

Elemental splits its attacks between Eli and Kochevnik. 

Kochevnik drops her shield, uses turns the shortspear into a longspear, and then uses lay hands on herself and heals 40 points of damage.

Round 4!

Derek shoots at the elemental, but misses. He’s starting to look dissatisfied at the results of his attacks.

Eli steddies himself and releases another full wild surge mind thrust at the Elemental.  Manages to not daze himself.  Elemental fails his save and disperses in a cloud of water that washes over everyone and the room.

Kochevnik tries to hop out of the way, but probably still gets her feet wet.

Derek growls slightly and runs his hand through his hair,  slinging the water to the floor. “Well done, Eli. What a frustrating enemy.”

Eli takes a knee and looks a little out of it before he pulls out a cure moderate wounds potion and drinks it.  Then looks up at Derek and nods somewhat apologetically at him for the water.

Kochevnik trots over to look at the hag...and to search her corpse for treasure. 

The following is found on the hag and in the library:

Rapier
Studded leather armor
Cloak
Bag
Bowl
2x Potions
2,000 gp
3 gems, (50 gp, 70 gp and 130 gp)

Derek starts looking at the books.  Books are soaked and hard to read anything in them in their current state.

Kochevnik detects evil on all of this, and then heads over to Eli. “I’m going to cure us a bit, eli, hang on.” She uses another turn undead, and she and Eli both get fast healing 3, that lasts for 6 rounds.

Eli nods thankfully to Kochevnik before standing up again and looking around.

Kochevnik activates her pearl of power and regains rhino rush.

[perovskite]

Day 196, Interlude Part II

(click to show/hide)

Day...sure. Still evening of Day 198? No! 196!

Kochevnik inspects the various things that look more important than the random crap laying around the room. She also looks for the amulet the hag was talking about.  There is nothing that has anything to do with the amulet that Kochevnik can find.  There are a lot of books, but the water damage has made them all nearly impossible to ready and it would take hours if not days to organize and dry out the books.

Kochevnik is not much of a bookworm, so she’ll leave those be.

Kochevnik- “Do either of you know how to detect magic? Cause I don’t have it prepared today.”

Eli shakes his head.

Derek says “That’s not among my skills.” He proceeds to cut off the hag’s ears, wraps them in a black cloth, and stores them in his pack.

In that case, Kochevnik gathers all the things that looked important and stuffs them into her backpack….somehow. The suit of studded leather armor gets strapped to the outside.

Kochevnik tries to open the bag and see what’s inside, hoping it doesn’t eat her or send her to another dimension.  Doesn’t see anything particularly cool, but when rooting around it seems a little larger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

Kochevnik- “Perfect.” She stuffs all the loot that doesn’t fit in her backpack into the bag, and then the bag into her backpack.  Amazingly it all is fitting.

Kochevnik- “I’m ready to go, what about you two?” She shrinks her spear back down to a shortspear.

Eli nods.

Derek looks around for a container but gives up. “Pity there’s no good way to prove the death of an elemental. And I forgot to get the ogres’ ears.”

Kochevnik- “You do have two witnesses...and...have you been collecting ears for a long time?” She looks a touch disgusted.

Derek curls his lip. “Collecting…. Gods, no. It’s proof of death.” He waves his hand dismissively. “And using your own teammates as witnesses never works to convince a client.”

Eli blinks a few times and gives Derek a funny look, then shrugs.

Kochevnik, having long in her past, worked with people like that, decides to drop it. She shrugs. “Ok, fair enough.” She moves over to the second door in the room and motions Derek over.

He joins her at the door, listens carefully through it, and checks it for traps.  Does not hear anything in the room or find any traps on the door.

He carefully opens the door, and slips through.

Inside the room there are multiple sacks and bins of varying sizes all appearing to be full of sand.  There are also three unconscious humans bound and gagged littering the floor in the room.



Derek checks then just to make sure they aren’t dead (not dead) and then goes back to get Kochevnik and Eli. “Looks clear. Actually, do you mind if I nip up and just go get those ogres’ ears…? It won’t take but a moment.”

Eli shrugs again and moves to help untie the unconscious humans.

Kochevnik enters the room and immediately detects evil on the whole place. She detects no evil. THEN she’s off to check on the bound and gagged humans.

Derek dashes (stealthily) back out through the sodden library, up the stairs to the top level and spends several minutes collecting trophies. Derek is easily able to get his trophies.

Kochevnik manages to wake them up with her heal checks.  They look startled and are rubbing their arms and legs looks around with shock and fear easily read on their faces.

Kochevnik, quietly- “Hello, my name is Kochevnik. My friends and I have just killed the hag, and so we’re going to get you out of here. What are your names?”

Alcom, “I am Alcom, this is Gerreth and Nobar.  We are the lighthouse keepers.  Did you get them all?  We were just tending to the lighthouse when a boat came out of nowhere and they attacked.”

Kochevnik- “We killed four ogres and the hag. Do you if there are others?”

Alcom, “I know there were more than that...but we were not able to count.  I would say at least a dozen.”

Kochevnik- “Hopefully less than a dozen now. Can you get to a boat from here and get away from the island?”

Alcom, “Ummm, is the entire lighthouse clear?  We don’t want to run into anything trying to get to the dingings, if they are still there.”

At this point, Derek slips in again and skirts the edge of the room to get to the next door. He checks it for traps and listens carefully to make sure nothing hostile is on the other side.  Derek hears nothing and the door doesn’t appear to be trapped.

Kochevnik- “We climbed the outside and came down from the roof, so the top is clear, but not below us.”

Alcom, “I think we will just wait here until you tell us everything is safe.”

Kochevnik- “Okay. Bar both doors behind us when we leave. We’ll give you a particular knock to let you know it’s us.” She proceeds to hum- da dadadada...da da.

Alcom nods and then they move off and get ready to block the doors and hide in a corner.

Kochevnik- “Oh, do you have keys to the whole building?”

Alcom, “we don’t have locks.”

Kochevnik chuckles- “Okay, are there any strange rooms we should know about? Is there a holding cell or anything?”

Alcom shakes his head, “well that depends on what you mean by strange.  It is a lighthouse...we just have lighthouse rooms.  Kitchen, bedroom, stuff to keep the light on. Few store rooms.”

Kochevnik- “What’s in the next room? Or at least, what should be?”

Alcom, “The oil store room.”

Deek, carefully opens the door to the next room.

Derek sees a small room with Large clay urns sealed with wax and protected from blows by thick rope wound tightly around them.

Kochenik, to the lighthouse operations technicians- “Are you all good? Sit tight, we’ll be back as soon as we can.”

Alcom nods.

Kochevnik follows her partners in not crime, cause she’s a paladin. She also detects evil in this room, too, cause it’s free, so why not?  No evil.

Eli smiled reassuringly to the lighthouse keepers before moving with the rest of his party.

Then the party heads back to the main staircase and descends again!  The party descends another level and comes up to another door.  The stairs do continue down.

Kochevnik motions for Derek to do is sneaking stuff.

He leads the way, sneakily, down to the next door and listens through it.  Hears nothing on the other side.

He slowly and carefully opens this door too, and looks around the room.  This looks like a pantry, except any food that was in the room is gone and eaten.  There is trash everyone in the room.

Kochevnik steps up to the door and detects evil! Again, cause it’s free. No Evil.

Derek slips inside the room and stylishly stealths himself to the left-hand door, yet again listening.  Hears nothing on the other side of the door.

Kochevnik stares through the door and detect evil again! She stares long enough to bore through the door and detect whatever else is in the room beyond. Unless the door is lined with lead.  Detects no evil

Derek murmurs. “Shall we check the other door first, just in case?”

Eli shakes his head and points around and makes a circular motion.  Suggesting that the entire floor is a circle anyways.

Kochevnik- “I say it can’t hurt.” She moves over to the other door and stares through it for a little while. Detects no evil. She pantomimes there being no evil behind door number two, and moves back to door number one.

Derek nods and says to Eli “That’s exactly why we should check it.” He carefully opens door number 1, and peeks into the room.  This room has more sand in barrels and bags.

Derek proceeds to the next door and listens through it Hears nothing on the other side.
Kochevnik stares through this door too while Derek listens. Detects no evil. She also shuffles through the sand a bit to see how deep it is.

Derek open the door and peeks into the room.  This room looks like it use to be a bedroom.  However, all the furniture is smashed and the room is in complete disarray.

He motions to the others and proceeds to the next door. Door opening procedure: lather rinse repeat.  Evil is detected and there is a loud commotion going on.  Sounds like surprised Orgers, something else and a fight starting.

Kochevnik- “Want to open the door for me this time? Be a gentleman, and all.”

Derek grins “Ladies first. “He opens the door quickly and fully.

Round 1! This happens before Kochevnik, Derek and Eli open the door.

Leroy and Arvin appear in the middle of what appears to be an eating hall.  There are 4 Ogers that all looked straight at Leroy.  The moment they appear Arvin’s stomach revolts and she bends over emptying her stomach on the floor and is not able to do anything.

Arvin crawls under a table once the fighting starts so she won’t get trampled and can dry heave in peace.

“Matey,” Leroy says annoyingly, “Are you serious? Now of all things land lubber you get sea sick?”

“Not a landlubber”, Arvin gasps. “And your spells are trash.” She goes back to being sick.

“I do not do spells Matey, I am the great Captain Leroy Sparrow, wooer of women, conqueror of the sea, and ravishingly good at killing of Ogres.” he says withouth glancing back. “AVAST YE MATEYS! Ye be walkin the plank of life once I be done with ya.” Leroy looks at Ogre 8, “Taste me Rapier, Ye ugly beast!” and attacks him!

Ogre 7 and 8 draw their greatclubs and attack Leroy.  Ogre 5 and 6 move up to help if 7 and 8 are not enough.



Round 2!

Derek rapidly fires arrows from his bow, at the rear-most of the ogres, Number 6. Two of them hit, and Ogre 6 looks pissed as he turns around and stares daggers at Derek.

Kochevnik still has her Paladin Vision (™) running, so that she can identify who needs stabbing.  All the Ogres are evil.

Eli manifests Death urge at Ogre 7 using his Wild surge.  Managing to not daze himself.  And the Ogre suddenly has a distant look in its eyes.

“Matey, you hit well, for a land lubber, but ye will have to try harder to kill the great captain Leroy Sparrow! LEEEEEEEEROOOOOYY SPAAAAAROOOWWW!” He lunges at Ogre 8!  Ogre 8 glares at Leroy and looks like he is on his last leg. Leroy wickedly grins “ye be meetin my mistress of death next blow.” he chuckles

Kochevnik sprints through the door courteously opened by Derek, and charges at ogre 5. She resizes her spear to a longspear while in route, and does an awesome charging smiting power attack at him (which also is a trip attempt!). Ogre 5 staggers forward and turns now to also face their attackers.  He looks in bad shape.  The Ogre manages to remain standing despite the trip attempt.

Ogre 8 attacks Leroy. Leroy grimaces “I will take ye head off for that!” He grits through his teeth

Ogre 7 attacks himself, and falls unconscious after hitting himself twice.

Ogre 5 and 6 attack Kochevnik, and both hit, cause she’s not using her shield and she just charged.

Round 3!

Derek moves into the room, staying against the wall to the left of the door he came through, and shoots ogre 6 once, very close to the jugular or some other critical vulnerable area.  Ogre 6 looks an inch away from dropping.

Please note that a crocodile with a collar on has also transported into the room and is under the table with Arvin, snapping at any feet that get too close.

Eli steps into the room as well and shoots an arrow at Ogre 6 as well.  Which is enough to finish that Ogre.

Leroy brings his sword to his face “Now, Ye die!” and slashes at Ogre 8!  Ogre 8 staggers more but is still standing. “WILL YOU JUST DIE ALREADY MATEY!” Leroy shouts in anger.

Kochevnik notices Leroy’s impressive mustache, but focuses on killing the ogre in front of her. She spends a turn undead to add divine power to her attack, changes her spear from a shortspear to a normal one, takes a five-foot step and stabs at ogre 5.  Ogre 5 drops like a rock as he dies.
 
Ogre 8 attacks Leroy missing the fact that all his buddies are down. Leroy glances the blows with his sword. “This one is all mine!” Leroy shouts as he notices the others.

Round 4!

Derek fires twice at ogre 8, hitting it both times.  Ogre 8 jerks from the hits and falls flat on his face.

“Matey!” Leroy says grittingly, “He was me kill! I appreciate ye help but this land lubber was to be me kill. Valiant effort of his, but i would have bested him.” He puts his sword away.

Kochevnik shrinks her spear back to a short spear.

Derek straightens and runs his hand through his hair. “Nothing personal, but we’re being paid to get rid of these fellows.” He gets out his dagger and proceeds to relieve the three ogres that his team killed of their ears, wrapping them carefully in a black cloth with the others he’s collected. He keeps a careful eye on the moustache dude.

Eli cautiously walks in the room as he watches the two new people and the croc.

Leroy begins to run his fingers over his macho glorious mustache. “Ye be paid? Then ye be on the same quest as me.” Leroy says surprisingly.

Arvin, seemingly recovered from her fit of puking, rolls out from under the table, followed by her crocodile. “I don’t care who’s getting paid for what as long as these guys are all dead.” She’s a small boned human with blue tinged skin and very dark hair braided away from her face. Her eyes are dark green and she rests her feet on the scaled back of her croc as she slumps down at the table, head in her hands. “I could be home in my nice cool grotto but no, I wanted to go adventuring.”

Leroy watches Derek, then with a quick whip of the sword, he severs the ear off the ogre and tosses it to Derek. “I should be thankin ye for ye help.” then he smiles cooly.

Derek adroitly steps aside from the thrown ear, letting it smack wetly to the floor, straightening his lapels as he does so. “Not at all.”

Kochevnik has by this time moved around the pile of bodies. “Are you okay?” She asks with a bit of a smirk of the blue human. She doesn’t get close enough for the croc to feel threatened.

Leroy examines the group, then to his human blue friend “Where be me manners,” he says invitingly, “My name be Captain Leroy Sparrow, this companion of mine be named Arvin. She is blue.” He then points to her, then says seriously “do not give that croc a clock.”

Arvin rolls her eyes. “He has made that joke approximately 14 times since we met. And I’m fine thank you. Magic travel takes a bit of getting used to, I guess.”

Kochevnik- “I’ve only ever seen a clock once in my life, so….no problem?”

Leroy turns his attention to Koch, licks his finger, runs it over his eyebrows and grooms his mustache. “And what would a fine lass like yourself be doin around these parts?” He asks sweetly

Eli walks up next to Kochevnik and manifest missive to her, “Did he just call you an ass?”  While looking at Leroy with a confused look on his face.

Kochevnik, who probably has ogre blood covering her entire right arm and shoulder- “He might have? I didn’t quite hear him.” to Leroy- “Well, killing ogres, for one. I’m Kochevnik, pleased to meet you.”

Leroy walks up to her gingerly and a smile on his face, “Nice to meet you Kochevnik. Like i said I am Captain Sparrow, Captain Leroy Sparrow.” really emphasizing his CAPTAIN portion.
Kochevnik, pretty clueless as to what’s going on- “Er, does that mean you have a ship?”

“Aye, I do have a marvelous ship,” Leroy croons to her. “It is a very big, impressive ship.” he adds to it.

Kochevnik finally gets what Leroy is up to. “Oh my goodness! Sorry, look, um, see until about two weeks ago, I was a man, and I really haven’t figured out how much of, er, uh, life works from a woman’s perspective, so thanks for your interest, but I’ll have to pass for right now. Sorry ” She gives him a conciliatory pat on the shoulder with her blood covered hand.

Leroy gets a very surprising look on his face “well if you used to be a man you don't have a..” he pauses and looks down then back to her face. He twinkles his fingers “A thing still, correct lass?” he asks weirdly

Eli shakes his head and manifests to Kochevnik, “He talks to much, there might still be Ogres.”

Derek glides past the group  to check the far door, amusement very poorly concealed on his face.

Kochevnik- “Ummm no, like totally a woman now. Physically, at least. The mental portion...is in progress, I guess.”

Derek speaks up to spare Kochevnik further embarrassment. “Curse, or reincarnate?” He listens at the door.  He hears nothing and doesn’t find any traps.

Kochevnik- “Oh, reincarnation. I was killed by a frost giant. Stabbed in the chest right about here-” she points to a place on the left side of her ribcage, just above her floating rib, “and even this body has a scar for some reason.” She sounds a bit relieved.

Leroy has regret on his face for asking. “Well matey’s shall we continue with killin of these ugly landlubbers or squabble and daddle all day?” he asks hurryingly

Derek pauses before opening the next door. “Captain Sparrow, who did you say hired you to clear this place out again?”

Leroy turns to Derek and shrugs “Can’t say. The lad was cloaked, said was on a gran adventure. Didnt have the time. So he gave me some potions and didnt pay for me rum.”

Eli blinks and looks from Leroy back to Kochevnik and Derek raising an eyebrow.

Derek absolutely does not roll his eyes. “Mistress Arvin, did you and your companion
happen to speak with Harbormaster Roth of the Merchant’s Guild before coming here?”

“Nope,” Arvin says. “Came straight here from the dwarven city with that stupid map of his, and boom.” she makes a motion. “Orcs. Or ogres or whatever these were. Not what I was expecting when he said demonstration.”

Derek, looking entirely half-orc (though more stylishly dressed than the average) and slightly incredulous that she wouldn’t recognize them, states: “Ogres. Orcs are no larger than humans.”

“But ye had fun transportin, aye?” Leroy says to Arvin

“It was certainly a way to get about quickly,” Arvin says, with an obvious effort at diplomacy. “And I did ask to see the water again.”

“That may cause some difficulty in the matter of payment for this contract.” Derek says to Kochevnik and Eli.

Kochevnik, obviously happy to have something else to talk about- “Yes…..shall we leave that discussion for later, though? That was eight ogres, which means there are at least four more.”

Derek nods “As you wish. They aren’t on the other side of this door, happily. But I am remiss.” He briefly introduces himself, Eli, and Kochevnik to Arvin.

Kochevnik- “Oh yeah!” She stares through the door, detecting evil!  No Evil.

Leroy peers through the door on the other side of Koch. Then looks to her. “What ye be doin?” he asks interestingly

Kochevnik, without looking at him (but not in a ‘deliberately not looking at him’ way, more of a ‘I’m busy doing something and so I can’t look around’ kind of way)- “Searching for evil. I’m a paladin, so I can detect it anytime I feel the need.”

Leroy turns around on his heels “HAHAHA!” he laughs triumphantly, “Arvin ye hear that? I be no evil pirate!” he stands impressed and proud of himself.

Arvin blinks. “I assure you Captain, evil was not on the list of words I would use to describe you. But that is reassuring.”

Leroy just gets a stinker look across his face at Arvin’s remarks.

Eli shakes his head, disapprovingly.

Derek opens the door and looks into the next room.  He sees a ransacked kitchen.  Nothing looks too damaged in this room though.

Derek says “It’s clear.” He proceeds into the room in which they started, and heads for the stairs.

The party moves down to the ground floor.  The stairs end this time at the door.

Kochevnik- “Finally the bottom.” She detects evil!  No Evil. “Nothing evil past the door...but that doesn’t mean nothing’s there.”

Leroy sighs “i always hate the bottom.” he says softly

Kochevnik snorts, but quietly.

Derek listens, and as always checks for traps.  He doesn’t hear anything and doesn’t see any traps. He carefully opens the door a sliver and looks through.  He sees another store room.  This appears to be large items that are not easily moved upstairs.

Derek enters the room, and proceeds first to the right hand door, where he listens.  He doesn’t hear anything.

Leroy follows Derek.

Kochevnik follows, and detects evil as well.  No Evil.

Derek goes over to the left hand door, repeats the procedure. He doesn’t hear anything.

Kochevnik also detects evil.  No evil.

Leroy pulls out his map to check for the location of the treasure. Map shows treasure just outside the lighthouse.

“HMMM…” Leroy mummers to himself. Then puts the map away.

Derek waits for the rest of the group to catch up, and then quietly opens the left hand door. He sees a bathroom.

He proceeds to the door on the opposite side of the bathroom, listen, search, repeat. He hears nothing and doesn’t see any traps.  Kochevnik also detects evil at each door as Derek listens. No evil.

Through the door!  This looks like a guest bedroom.  Surprisingly not smashed up.

Kochevnik looks for any amulets that may be sitting around.  No amulets.

Derek heads to the next door.  He hears nothing and finds no traps.

Leroy mosseys up towards Derek and stands by

Kochevnik detects evil through the door.  No evil. She relays this to Derek.

Derek nods. Next room!  Equipment all over the place.  Looks like maintenance and emergency equipment.  In decent repair, but scattered.

Derek ignores the junk and opens the next door immediately, having already checked it from the other side.  Finds the entrance room, There is the door that leaves the lighthouse.  There is a metal rod floating in air against the door that looks like the metal rod they found on the first group of Ogres they fought.

Kochevnik searches through the junk for the amulet. Once she doesn’t find anything, and sees the floating rod- “That looks like the rod we have. Arvin, Leroy, can either of you detect magic?”



Leroy points to himself and goes “Me? Nay lass. I am just a humble captain.”

“I can,” Arvin says, and does so.  The rod holding the door closed is magic.

Kochevnik rummages though the probably a bag of holding and gets the other rod. “Here goes nothing” and taps the floating door-stopping rod with the one she has.  Nothing happens.

Kochevnik- “Paladin saving throws, help me out.” She grabs the floating rod and attempts to just drag it out of the air.  Nothing happens and the rod does not move.

Leroy takes his sword out, and gently taps against the rod with it.  Nothing happens.

Derek steps up, and with his Knowledge Devotion examines it closely.  There is a button on one end of the rod. “Hmm,” he says. And examines it for traps.  No traps. He wracks his brains for any scrap of information he might know.

Kochevnik goes up to examine the rod and uses her knowledge arcana to see if she can figure out what it is.  Can’t tell what it is, just that there is a button that can be pushed.

Arvin holds up a hand. “Okay I can push the button from far away if we need to.”

Kochevnik scoots back.

Derek steps aside.”Please do.”

Eli just watches.

Arvin summons a wood wose, a small green forest spirit. “Go push against that end of the rod,” she tells it. It nods and does so. The rod falls to the ground after the button is pushed. Arvin moves forward and picks it up. “Doesn’t seem dangerous.” she puts it in her pack.

Kochevnik scoots back to the equipment room and looks at the identical metal rod she already has, specifically for the button.  There is one on that rod too. She presses it.  The rod is stuck wherever it was when she pushed the button. She presses the button again.  Now the rod moves again. “Huh. Hey, look.” She demonstrates this to anyone around. “This is all the rod does.” Then she puts the rod away.

The party now realizes that when pushed the rod ether becomes unmovable or is released and can move.

Derek murmurs “How odd,” He listens at the door.  He hears wind, and thinks he might have heard a little whispering. He relays this information to the group.

Kochevnik moves up and detects evil! She stares long enough to get a count of the number of evil creatures in the next room.  There is Evil.  10 creatures.

She grimaces and relays this information to everyone else.

“We can send Boots out first if you want,” Arvin offers. “He’s pretty tough.”

Kochevnik continues to stare long enough to get rough locations for the ten evil things, relative to her.  Roughly straight ahead past the door.

“He make a great pair of boots…’ Leroy mutters under his breath.

Kochevnik pulls out her wand of draconic might and buffs herself with it.

Derek says “Yes, we’ll send … Boots out first.”

“Someone needs to open the door as he charges,” Arvin says. “If he’s not out of the door by the time he’s done growing, it’ll be bad”

Derek unslings his bow. “Alright. Is everyone ready?”

Eli nods and gives two thumbs up.

Arvin leans down and whispers to Boots who makes happy croc noises, They are terrifying. She puts a hand on his collar, and looks at whoever is going to open the door. “Ready?”

Derek grasps the door handle and pulls the door open. “Go.”

Arvin whips off the collar and Boots starts running, growing bigger with every step until standing outside the lighthouse is a huge giant croc. Arvin follows at a run, a healing spell at the ready.

Once outside they see ten Ogres standing around and discussing.  As the door opens they all turn surprised to see the party.

Kochevnik moves outside as well, but doesn’t execute a guided missile attack just yet. She resizes her spear to longspear. “Ugh, this could get rough.”

Surprise Round.

Eli manifests Death Urge using Wild Surge at Ogre 4.  He manages to not daze himself and Ogre 4 takes on a dazed look.

Leroy sprints towards Boots. “Argh, Ye best be watchin me when i do me magnificent thing.” He says

Derek  goes into a whirling frenzy and fires four arrows at the ogre on the far right of the group, only hitting with two, alas.

Arvin runs up from behind Boots, her hands sparking with electricity. Her eyes have gone the deadly dark of sea storms. She casts arc of lighting between ogre 9 and 0gre 7, catching the other three in the crossfire. Ogres look pissed.

Kochevnik uses a full round to focus her paladin-y healing skills and spends a turn undead to give everyone fast healing 3 for 6 rounds. Eli, Kochevnik, and Leroy all heal just a bit. Y’know, in case you fall unconscious. All the friendlies are effected, but the ogres are a little too far away.

Round 1!

Eli manifests Death Urge with wild surge on Ogre 5.  Eli manages not to daze himself and the Ogre takes on a blank look.

Leroy says a quick prayer to Venca “I swear if you get me through this, I will continue to loot n plunder.” He jumps up and runs over the back of boots and jumps off of him and attacks Ogre 6!  Ogre 6 doesn’t look that impressed. “Totally pulled it out!” Leroy shouts suprisingly

Derek moves up closer to the fight and fires another arrow at Ogre 7, which hits.  Ogre 7 looks to be within an inch of life.

Arvin casts another Arc of Lightning between 9 and 7, and as soon as they stop smoking, boot lunges forward charging over their dead bodies, heading for oges 1,2 and 3

Kochevnik just moves up 60 feet, to get within charging range of the second rank of ogres.

Ogre 1 shots a crossbow bolt at Kochevnik. Misses horribly.

Kochevnik- yells something insulting in giantish. She, Eli and and Leroy all heal 3 hp.

Ogre 2 and 3 shoot at Leroy.  Miss horribly.

Ogre 4 and 5 attack themselves.  Somehow they both manage to stab themselves twice in their most vital organs and both die.

Round 2!

Eli shoots at Ogre 1.  The Ogre does not look impressed.

Leroy jumps over the dead ogre body and moves to Ogre 3. “Taste me blade!” he shouts.

Derek runs around to the rear of the fight.

Arvin holds a spell in reserve in case it’s needed and yells an order to Boots in Aquatic. The croc lunges forward and bites Ogre 2

Kochevnik activates her last power attacking charging smite and runs at Ogre 1.  Ogre 1’s body goes limp and flys back ten feet and rolls.

Ogre 2 and 3 drop their crossbows and draw cutlasses and attack.  2 attacks the croc and 3 attacks Leroy.  They both miss.

Round 3!

Eli starts moving forward but does nothing else.

Leroy steps up to Orge 3 and unleashes his full fury on him!  Ogre 3 looks to be on his last leg. “Look alive landlubber, Captain Leroy Sparrow looks to send ye to Davey Jones Locker!”

Derek, still in a frenzy, fires four arrows, one at ogre 3 and the rest at ogre 2.  Ogre 3 falls face first down ontop of Leroy.  Ogre 2 staggers forward and falls into the croc before landing hard on the ground.  Leroy is flattened by the Ogre 3 and can not seem to move the ogre off himself at the moment. “FER THE LOVE OF THE SEA! YOU SMELL HORRIBLE! I rather take a kraken than this thing on me!”

Boots looks like he might munch on Orge 2, but Arvin yells another command, so he just gently picks up the corpse and shakes it like a dog, before dropping it.

Arvin gives another command and Boots picks up orge 3 off of Leroy, shaking it and dropping it again. But not on Leroy. “Thank ye me hearty matey!” Leroy says and stands up.

Derek, seeing no more enemies, huffs and growls furiously and then starts doing breathing exercises to calm down.

Kochevnik stops casting rhino rush and doesn’t know whether to be put out or not that all the ogres are dead. She then proceeds to see if the nearest ogres have anything worth taking.

Kochevnik finds the following on the Ogres:
5 huge cutlasses
5 huge greatclubs
10 large heavy crossbows
10 worthless pairs of hide armor
4,400 gp,
9 gems (30gp, 1,100gp, 400gp, 70gp, 50gp, 70gp, 1,500gp, 400gp, 120gp)
Pale lavender stone in an ellipsoid shape

You can see their pirate ship anchored out about 20 yards from the lighthouse.

Kochevnik- “Moradin’s beard, these guys were rich.” She calls each item out as she finds it.

Eli walks up to the rest of the party and looks over the dead ogres.

Leroy looks to Eli, “Well, lets get to Lootin Maties!” he shouts.

Eli blinks and just stares at Leroy before shaking his head slowly.

Leroy looks at Eli again… “Ye creep me out, but ye be a good soul?” he asks as not to offend the Eli

Eli shakes his head again at Leroy and moves to stand next to Kochevnik as she gathers the loot.

Derek, once he has calmed down, combed his hair, and straightened his cravat, proceeds to take the ears off all the ogres. He separates out the ones that were killed by Arvin or Leroy, and wraps them up separately from the one that his party killed.

Arvin leads Boots around the area, letting him gobble up delicious ogres as soon as they’ve been looted and de-eared. He wuffles at her like a friendly dog. He doesn’t eat all ten, but does take the remainder of the bodies into the water, coming back without them.

“We are takin the ship, Aye?” Leroy says to the group

Derek replies “You may, if it suits you. We need to report to the harbormaster.”

Leroy smiles at Derek’s words. “Then it seems we have a bargin, Master Derek.” he turns to Arvin, “What say ye to our new ship?”

Arvin grins. “Back on the water? Hell yes.” She whistles for Boots, and puts his collar back onto him, transforming him into a slightly smaller than average-sized crocodile.

Kochevnik- “I’m going to go tell the lighthouse workers the ogres are all dead.” She heads back inside to do just that, and presumably returns a few minutes later with them in tow, so they can see the dead bodies the GIANT FRICKING CROCODILE hasn’t yet eaten or dragged into the deep.  They are relieved but refuse to come out until you and the crocodile are gone from the island

Kochevnik also goes over to congratulate Arvin. “I worked with another druid before, and you have done as well as he did. I’m relieved that you showed up when you did.”

Arvin smiles a real smile for the first time. “Thank you, paladin. It was a pleasure working with you, you guys really got us out of a mess.”

Kochevnik- “Oh, that was nothing. I’m Kochevnik, by the way, I haven’t introduced myself yet.”

Arvin gives a strange looking little bow. “A pleasure to meet you Kochevnick. And if I may say so you seem to be adjusting to your new circumstances quite well.”

Kochevnik smiles. “Aww, thank you!”

Leroy quickly scans the area for a jar.  He finds nothing.

Kochevnik- “Did we get all the loot there is? We can divvy it up when we talk to the harbormaster.”

Arvin frowns when she mentions loot. “I’d hate to ask you to divvy it up here, but well. I’m far from home and was hoping for a share. Not of the bounty on the ears, but of the money.”

Kochevnik- “Oh, yes, that’s what I meant, you and Leroy are definitely included. The harbormaster is just in that town over there.” She points to Shibboleth.

Arvin sighs in relief. “Oh thank you. I’ll make sure we get there once we’ve secured the ship, if I have to get boots to sit on the good captain.”

Leroy walks into the light house and searches the room for a jar.  Every jar he finds is shattered. Leroy curses and walks back out.

Kochevnik goes to find the boat.  The boat is right where you left it.

On the boat, back to shore, to hand Roth all the ears he could possibly want! And maybe the hag’s head. Which would be gross. No? Fine. Be that way.

Roth is very happy and pays you the 5,000gp to hand out as you see fit, “you can also get your mundane items replaced.  We have people here that can help you identify all you found on the island if you want.”

Leroy ponders the name of his new ship, “What ye think? The black diamond or somethin,” he asks the group.

“Sea Skater?” Arvin suggests

Leroy claps his hands together “I got it! Ye will name it Sea Boots!” then looks at Boots, “This does not mean ye get a clock.” in a serious tone.

Arvin makes a mental note to find a spell to make Boots tick for a short time. Just in case.

Roth, “did you use the potions I gave you?”

Kochevnik- “I don’t think anyone did.”

Roth, “well if you want to keep them that is fine, it will be 200gp each item to identify them.  If you give them back I will get them all identified at no cost to you.”

Kochevnik- “That sounds like a bargain to me.” She returns her potion.

Total loot:

5000 gp to be argued over later

80 pp
900 gp gold and topaz bottle stopper
2x immovable rods (not that theyv’e been identified yet) (Arvin would like these.)
6,400 gp (or 1280 each)
12 gems (30gp, 1,100gp, 400gp, 3x 70gp, 2x 50gp, 130gp, 1,500gp, 400gp, 120gp)
+2 rapier
+2 Studded leather armor (arvin might also like this)
Cloak of resistance +2
Bag of Holding Type 1
Bowl of commanding water elementals
Potion cure serious wounds
Potion of darkvision

After the treasure has been distributed later and any spending is done while the group is sitting around a table at a bar Leroy feels his map tingling at him.

Leroy feels the map tingle and whips it out! “The map, it calls for me.”

“Oh no,” Arvin groans.

Eli blinks and stares at the map as Leroy fiddles with it.

Leroy shoots a look of disapproval to Arvin, “Lets see where more treasure be!” and looks at his map

After Leroy opens the map there is a tugging sensation.  Then suddenly the entire party falls on their collective asses in the woods somewhere not the city they were just in.

Arvin does not throw up this time, but she sits down on Boots and looks a little green.

[perovskite]

Day 198, Interlude III

More sidequesting with Kochevnik and her newly assembled team. The person who plays Escaflowne, Logan, Blank, Snaga, and Rogue is still DMing.

(click to show/hide)

Day  198 or so.

Everyone falls to the ground as they appear in the woods next to a road after having just been sitting around a table at a bar.  Everyone but Arvin manage to make it through the teleport without losing their lunch.  Immediately after arriving Arvin sicks up.

Kochevnik stands up, dusts herself off, and looks around. She also scans for evil in all directions, cause it’s free!  No Evil.

Derek curses quietly before he stands. He digs around in his pack for a clothes brush, and quickly removes the dust from his black clothing. He then pulls out a small mirror and makes sure his hair doesn’t need adjusting. All of the stuff goes back in his pack and stands, nonchalantly scanning the surrounding area.

Leroy gets up from falling and brushes himself off. He opens up the map to check their location and the location of the treasure. “Well Matey’s, that was a bit of doozy if ye dont mind me sayin,” he says with a smile on his face, trying to lighten the mood up.

Eli blinks as he stands up and looks around with a puzzled look in his face.

Derek remarks casually (but with murder in his eyes) “A bit of warning would be polite, old chap.”

“Ah yes Derek, next time I shall warn ye of the map. Seems when it tingles and i Open it, She sends me on my next adventure to find treasure.” Leroy responds

Derek frowns slightly “With no chance to see where you’re going?”

“No chance at all, sadly.” Arvin rubs the bridge of her nose. “Hey Leroy, how were you planning on keeping that ship we’re now really far away from?” Her face goes even paler and she suddenly turns to puke into a nearby bush. Faint curses in aquatic can be heard from the foliage.

Leroy’s eyes get suddenly huge and face full of rage “CURSES! Me ship is unprotected! I swear Kalipso or Davey Jones be thrusting their huge waves up me bum! We will get back to her Arvin, This me swears” he says angrily. He begins to calm down then talks to Derek. “Well matey, where be ye sense of adventure if we plotted a course then set out? This not be the sea.” He says gleefully

“Thrusting,” Arvin mutters to herself, still in the bush. “Oceans preserve me, I’m stuck with a mad man.”

Kochevnik dons her shield and makes sure Fjolhaefur (her spear) is enshrinkened to a shortspear. And she looks around for an obvious trail.

Derek replies dryly “You know, they taught us in school that proper prior planning prevents premature passing on.”

Eli points to the trail that is a few dozen feet away from them.

Leroy just smiles some more “We will live. We will do what I do best when it comes to plannin,” he states proudly.

Derek pulls his hood up over his head. “I’ll scout ahead. Stay here. I’ll be back in about 5 minutes” He glides gown the path that Eli pointed out.  There is nothing obvious for the five minutes he travels.

Kochevnik- “I detected for evil all around us, so there’s nothing within rock throwing distance...at least nothing evil.”

Everyone sees lights to the north along the path.

Derek returns after 10 minutes. “The way is clear.” He heads back out on the path, staying about 30 feet in front of everyone else.

Kochevnik proceeds with caution, pausing occasionally to scan for evil in the trees to each side. “I should really have this armor enchanted to be more stealthy. Hmmm…” she muses.

Kochevnik moves forward anytime Derek says the path is clear, and stands scanning for evil in the immediate vicinity when he’s scouting ahead.

Leroy pulls out his map and keeps looking at their position and the location of the treasure as he follows the group.

Arvin, who’s recovered faster this time, if no less grumpy, follows as well, Boots flumping behind her.

After about thirty minutes of traveling the forest begins to thin slightly.  The dirt path winding through it becomes wide enough to be defined as a road.  A small, crudely painted sign by the side of the road reads ‘Welcome to Deepwood.” Along the bottom, someone has carved a few addition words: ‘As far from anywhere as you’ll ever find.” 

A newer and less inviting sign of human habitation hangs from a nearby elm tree.  A human corpse dangling from a noose.  It is dressed in rags, and a placard reading ‘Murdering Dog’ is affixed to its shirt.

Arvin wrinkles her nose. “That’s not a dog,” she points out.

Kochevnik- “That’s not very inviting.”

Leroy takes a bow at the body “they didn't deserve such a death.” then bids the body a fair adieu with two fingers salute

Kochevnik gives Leroy a Look, and quietly says, “How do you know?”

Leroy looks at her then lowers his eyes to the ground “Cause lass, nobody deserves to hang n die like a dog.” he retorts quietly

Kochevnik decides not to start an argument on the merits of capital punishment, so doesn’t say anything.

Derek gives the body a professional and considering glance. “Don’t be absurd. Of course a murderer deserves to hang. Especially if he’s foolish enough to get caught.”  Unsure how long, but doesn’t think that it has been up there more than three days.

Arvin is sitll looking at the body. She is pretty sure the body has been up there no longer than a day.  “Can’t be as sure as I want to be,but it looks like this happened less than a day ago. If it was a water death, I could tell you more.”

Kochevnik detects evil on Derek….just to make sure.  No evil.

Leroy says shortly to Derek, “Mate i have met them all in my adventures on the sea. Pillaged and plundered the cities. No man or woman…” he stops “Or child deserves the hang man’s wrath” then moves on from the body.

Derek shrugs and walks past. “I suppose a headsman would be faster.”

Kochevnik follows them.

“Sharks are usually pretty thorough about that sort of thing too,” Arvin offers. “Although we used poison mostly.”

Derek gives her a curious look and starts conversing with her about the types of poisons used by water-dwellers. Arvin is happy to talk about something related to home.

As the party moves into the town of Deepwood they note that it is a collection of shacks, cabins, and one or two fancier buildings nestled in a large clearing in the forest.  Smoke wafts from many of the chimneys, hinting at a goodly number of residents, but none of them are visible.  The streets are empty, and all the windows are shuttered.

Kochevnik’s hackles are raised, but she just looks for the local inn/bar/public house.   The closet to a public looking place is what appears to be a Temple. A temple to whom?  Can’t tell from the edge of the town.

Kochvenik proceeds toward this place, and wracks her brain for religious knowledge.

While moving towards the temple they suddenly hear a voice, “Greetings, strangers!”  A tall, thin man stepping from one of the cabins, “I am Edvard Kititch.”  He says, casting a wary look about him.  “Welcome to Deepwood.  Please forgive our lack of hospitality, but the town has been languishing under the shadow of a terrible tragedy.”

Kochevnik greets him. “Hellow Edvard, I’m Kochevnik.” She detect evil on him! She tries to look like she’s not boring through his soul.  No Evil. “Is there a public house or an inn around?”

Edvard, “I am afraid there is not.  Though you can come into my cabin while we talk so as not to be out on the street.”  Moves to hold the door to his cabin open for the party. 

Kochevnik attempts a dazzling smile. “Thank you, that is most kind.” She proceeds to the house.

Leroy follows the Edvard into the cabin.

Derek glides through the doorway, nodding politely to Mr. Kititch.

Eli moves into the house as well and then just stands off to the side. Arvin slips in as well, with boots

“Thank ye for your hospitality, Mr Kititch. Me name is Captain Leroy Sparrow. May I inquire the nature of the body that's hangin outside of town?” he asks politely

Derek comments “It’s dead, Captain. You saw that for yourself.”

Leroy shoots Derek a look as in don't ruin the chance to get some info from the man.

Edvard shots a nervous look at boots before closing the door and coming in.  There is enough space for four people to have seats and he offers them as a woman comes in, “This is my wife Lilly, please keep your animal calm and towards the door if possible.”  Lilly proceeds to offer everyone drinks, water or tea.

Kochevnik requests tea, and attempts to be friendly and nonthreatening to Mrs. Kititch. When Mrs. Kititch is dealing with other people, Kochevnik detects evil on her as well.  No evil.

Derek also accepts a cup of tea and surreptitiously tastes it for poison.  No poison.

Arvin sniffs the water and wrinkles her nose, but sips it.

As Lilly hands out drinks Edvard sighs and says, “Yes the body is hard to miss.  That was Trammil Nimman.  He was found as a werewolf in the Temple of Ehlonna half beaten to death bleeding next to the body of the priestess whom everyone assumed was killed by him.  He protested that another werewolf killed her and he was innocent and was just trying to protect the town from the other werewolf.  He was not believed and was hung.”

Leroy looks grim at the mere mention of werewolves. “Aye, werewolves ye say?” he stops and thinks The towns folk didnt believe him then hung him. Then why would he be half beaten to death if he did kill the priestess in werewolf form, me wonders? he says to himself

“Hanged” Derek mutters into his tea.

“Your land priestesses must be well trained in the art of combat,” Arvinb comments mildly. “To have damaged a werewolf so badly before death. What did she use as a weapon?”

Edvard looks from Leroy to Arvin, “Well the priestess had no weapons.  His wounds didn’t appear to be made by any weapons.  Both him and the priestess appeared to have been attacked by animals.  That does not mean he did not attack the priestess.  I don’t know why he would have tried to point in someone else's direction.  We are having problems with trust now.  We found a ledger in his home that we are now keeping at the temple.  We cannot read it, but believe that it has a list of the other werewolves in the town.  We do not believe he was the only werewolf.”

“I can’t imagine why you’re having problems with trust, if you hung a man who claimed he was innocent,” Arvin says to herself very quietly. “So curious.”

Derek speaks up “Ah, so that’s why everyone is hiding, even though the known werewolf is dead, then? What is it about the ledger that makes you think it’s a list of werewolves?”

Edvard shrugs, “What other secrets would he be hiding?”

Leroy smirks, “Matey, do you know who be Vecna is?” he asks Edvard.

Derek gives the man a Look “A list of embezzlements, the names of all the girls he’s seduced, a list of secret family recipes, perhaps? The possibilities other than ‘a list of werewolves’ is nearly endless.”

Edvard glares at Leroy, “why would you wish such evil here?  We have enough of it already without evil gods coming to heap more on us.”  Then turns to look at Derek, “This is a small town, there is hardly enough money moving through the town for anyone to be embezzling anything, and if he was seducing girls it would be rather obvious.  I am not sure how he or anyone else is hiding the fact that they are werewolves, but that would be easier than sleeping with another mans wife.  He wasn’t much of a cook...though I take your point.  We won’t know until we translate the ledger.”

Derek snorts rudely. “Gather everyone in the town square and hand each of them a silver coin. Then you’ll know.” He mutters something uncomplimentary about ignorant inbred yokels under his breath.

Arvin hums a song in Aquatic, sounding both innocent and slightly judgemental at the same time.

Leroy glares back at Edvard but bides his time to respond.

Kochevnik- “May we look at the ledger?”

Edvard sighs and then turns to Kochevnik, “Yes you can, I am the Mayor for the town, I would love to have outside eyes look into this and maybe solve the problem of whether Trammil really did the murder or not.”

Derek comments “Rather too late for that to make any difference, my good fellow.”

Edvard, “It will make a difference if there is a murder who got away and might kill more of my neighbors.”

“Kill all the neighbors, problem solved,” Arvin says to her water glass in Aquatic.

Leroy elbows her lightly, shoots her a look, as in behave.

Kochevnik finishes her tea. “Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Lilly.” She attempts to be friendly, but apparently fails.  Lilly offers a polite smile then talks to her husband quietly before leaving.

Kochevnik- “Shall we go look at this Ledger?”

Derek nods to the mayor “Master Kititch, thank you for your hospitality.” He opens and holds the front door, waiting for the rest of the group to exit.

Arvin bolts, but politely, Boots slithering out the door behind her. She starts complaining to him in Aquatic.

Edvard nods, “I will take you to the temple and show you the ledger.”  Following out and waiting to close the door once they are all out and take them to the temple.

Kochevnik heads out the front door with a polite thank you to Derek, who is always a gentleman. She then pauses on the porch long enough to detect evil.  No evil.

Kochevnik sighs and steps out into the darkness. “I used to be able to see at night. Oh well.”

Leroy gets up and moves towards the door, then stops next to Edvard. “Mr. Edvard, a moment please?”

Edvard once outside glares at Leroy, “Yes?”

Leroy glares back at Edvard, his lips curling agaisnt his Glorious Mustache “There be a reason I mention Vecna,” he says lowly enough only the two of them can hear. “I worship the deity. If there is a secret your hiding and dont tell us, I shall summon him and reveal the secret. Now be ye chance to say it before I find out.” he says angrily

Edvard still glaring at Leroy turns to look at the rest of the party, “So you all come here worshiping evil gods to what, kill the rest of us.  Did you all help with killing our priestess?”

“They dont worship him, I do. We just landed in the woods not too long ago.” He pulls out his map “This map takes me to treasure. I aint walkin into a death trap of a town if I can help it, Savvy?” he says pressingly.

Derek sneers “Don’t be absurd, man. I don’t worship any god, and the lady over there is a Paladin. We don’t even know where this village is. Ignore the moustachioed braggart.”

“This is getting absurd,” Arvin sighs. “Someone wake me when it’s over. Boots, bite the legs off any stranger who touches me.” She curls up on the crocodile’s back and closes her eyes.

Edvard seems a little calmer when Derek mentions that Kochevnik is a Paladin.  Looking to Kochevnik, “Will he be a problem?”  Then gives Derek a slightly thankful look.

Derek nods graciously.

Kochevnik- “What? Oh, no, I don’t think so.”

Edvard grumbles about evil gods and werewolves and how his town used to be peaceful while leading them to the Temple.  The exterior of this Temple of Ehlonna seems to be made of brick, but the building is so thickly covered in ivy that it is difficult to be certain.  Inside, most of the space is taken up by a large nave.  The ivy grows through the buildings many open windows and covers the interior walls nearly as thickly as it does the outside.  Six rows of benches fill the center of the room, and a slightly raised platform equipped with a lectern stands at the far end.  Behind the platform is a single door.  Two women are sitting on the benches closest to the lectern.  One of them is Lilly.  Edvard leads the party to the ledger and gestures for them to look at it.

Kochevnik follows Edvard, and detects evil on the new woman and the ledger. She gives it a look to see what language it’s in.  No evil, She does not recognize the language.

Kochevnik- “Hmmm, I would have guessed that this would be in draconic...or something else. I can’t read it. Anyone else want to give it a go?”

Derek takes a look, but unless it’s written in Orcish, it’s all Greek to him. He shrugs and looks around the temple to see if anything jumps out as out of place.  Everything appears to be normal for the type of temple.

Leroy looks at the ledger to see if it's written in common, Giant, or Elf.  He doesn’t recognize the language. Leroy shrugs then moves away from the Ledger.

Eli looks at the book and shakes his head to indicate he doesn’t understand it.

Arvin wanders over. For some reason, she hasn’t got a bonus language yet, (as if someone far away is being lazy) but she speaks aquatic and druidic, so she looks at the book.  She doesn’t recognize the language.

Derek returns to the ledger and stares at it some more to see if he can recognize it anyway.  He feels that it is not a normal language, but can’t quite figure it out just yet.  After taking another thirty minutes to discover that it is a shorthand script.

Kochevnik pokes around in the corners of the temple while Derek looks at the ledger.

Leroy walks to the second woman sitting on the bench and quietly asks her, “Lass, do you know what the ledger says?” he asks

They both ignore Leroy and continue to pray.

Leroy gets up and moves away from them.

Derek is able to determine from the ledger that Tarmmil use to be the leader of the Deepwood werewolf pack.  A new werewolf came into town and took over the pack and no one knows who he is outside of his werewolf form.  The new werewolf has been using the werewolves to collect gold from a cave and have been getting five to fifteen pounds of gold from the cave each night.  The gold has been buried somewhere called the ‘Vale of the Silvery Moon’.  Gold can be found under mounds that bear the mark of the pack.  There is nothing to indicate what the mark of the pack is or who the other members of the pack are in the ledger.

Derek closes the ledger without relating any of this to the rest of the room. “Mistress Kochevnik, do you happen to have any silver coins on you?”

Kochevnik has by this time moved up near the lectern. She rummages around in her coin purse. “I have nine of them.” She feels a little strange being called “Mistress”, but decides she’ll probably just have to get used to it.

Derek “Very well Master Kititch, is there a place where we might lodge for the night?”

Edvard, “The only place with space is here, unless you want to split up.  I might be able to convince some of the towns people to take you in for the evening.”

Kochevnik, quickly- “I think we’ll be fine in here, if it’s all the same to you.”

Derek continues: “Oh, and I am sorry to disappoint you, but this ledger contains no mention of other werewolves in this town. You’ll have to find them some other way.”

Leroy looks Kochevnik, “Aye, I agree to that lass.”

Edvard sighs, “well it was worth trying to find out.  Thank you.  Yes you can have the temple for the night.  Please keep the ledger under guard.  We still don’t want anyone stealing it.”  With that he gathers his wife and her friend and they leave you to the temple for the night.  “We will come with breakfast in the morning.”

Kochevnik- “That would be wonderful, thank you.” She attempts a friendly smile. Once they’re gone she closes the door and looks for something to bar it shut. “Ugh, I don’t know if I can get used to the social expectations of ‘women are friendly but not too friendly’ ”.

Leroy smiles gingerly “Fake it till you make it Lass. That’s how i do it.”

Kochevnik checks for something to wedge the door shut. “Hey, do we have something to keep the door shut?”

“Immovable rods” Derek calls from the podium.

“Oh good idea,” Arvin says. She puts both rods up against the door in whatever configuration is sturdiest and pushes a button.  Then she gestures for Boots to wedge himself up against the door as well.

Then she looks around for other exits, and windows.  Nothing that wouldn’t require a lot of noise to be able to break in. Arvin curls up on Boots with her bedroll and does her nightly druid meditation thing and then sleeps.

Eli shakes his head and finds the most comfortable looking pew for himself.

Kochevnik then makes a thorough check of the building for other entry points (low windows, other doors not in the main worship hall, etc.  Nothing that wouldn’t require a lot of noise to be able to break in.

Once Kochevnik is satisfied that she knows where all the likely entry points are, she positions herself toward the blocked main door (so as to have plenty of room for charge run ups), extends her spear, and lays down.

Derek has in the meantime settled himself in a corner. “How would you like to arrange the watches?” he asks the room at large.

“I’m a wall,” Arvin says. “Walls don’t do watches.” Then she relents a bit. “But I can do a late watch once my spellcasting recharges if we need to.”

Leroy turns to Derek “I will take the first watch, two hours a piece, Savvy?”

Kochevnik- “Do the casters need to refresh themselves? I’ll take the second watch either way, but if they need to sleep, I can take the fourth watch as well.”

Eli indicates he is in no need of replenishing his abilities.

Derek “I’ll take third watch then.”

Leroy looks to the Koch, “Ill take the fourth watch, you can get the fifth. Gives you more time to sleep.”

Koch- “Thanks.” And off to sleep she goes!

[perovskite]

Day 19...9? Interlude the IV, in which we continue to follow Kochevnik around.

(click to show/hide)

Nothing happens through the evening.  Everyone wakes up rested and ready to go.  Derek has not shared what he learned from the book yet.
Kochevnik opens one eye and is a little surprised no one broke in and tried to murder them all during the night. She sits up and surveys the room for evil, cause why not?  No evil.

Arvin sits up and stretches, shaking out her arms and running a hand through her short hair. She pats Boots on the head, and he growls friendly like. “Did anyone manage to read the book? I didn’t want to ask with the others around.”

Derek runs his hand through his hair and finishes straightening his cravat. “I did manage to decipher it.”

Kochevnik stands up. “What does it say?” She walks over to hear his answer, cause that’s one of the curious things that curious people do.

Leroy stretches out and yawns. He grabs his rapier and stuff and stands up. “I prefer a nice bed over ye sleepin on a pew of a monastery.” he grumbles.

Eli moves to stand with the group waiting to hear about the book as well.

Derek looks around and says “It appears that the werewolf hanging at the town entrance is the victim of a turf war. Another werewolf took over the local pack and they’ve been hauling out gold from some cave and hiding it somewhere in the hills.”

Leroy’s ears perk up. “Gold aye?”

Kochevnik, to herself - “In them thar hills. Heh.”

Eli pulls out a piece of paper and writes on it before showing it to everyone else, “Do we need to worry about the gold yet?  What of this leader that took over, shouldn’t we be worried about trying to find him?”

Leroy speaks up “Well i know a way to find the gold! It will be easy with me map i have er.” He says excitedly

Kochevnik- “Eli has a point, the gold is not going anywhere. The werewolves will only multiply until they’re stopped or they infect everyone in town.”

“Aye, lass that be true, but if we find the gold, we find our werewolves i propose.” Leroy says with a grin

“I mean, if we take the gold we probably will be hunted by werewolves, this is true,” Arvin says. No one can tell if she’s being sarcastic or not.

Kochvnik stares at the ceiling. “That would probably be more efficient than trying to hunt them down one by one.”

Eli writes, “What if the dead ones home has some clues?”

“I like that idea,” Arvin says.

Leroy eyes the paper, “well we could snoop there and find out if there is anything there.”

There is a loud knock on the door of the Temple.  Boots gives a grumpy roar but does not budge. Arvin goes over and lays a hand on his head.

Kochevnik turns and heads over to the door, but doesn’t get so close as to irritate Boots. Without removing the immovable rods, she says, “Who is it?”

Edvard answer, “Edvard.”

If Edvard doesn’t sound like a werewolf, Kochevnik will deactivate both rods and open one door. Arvin gently guides Boots enough out of the way.  She sees Edvard standing there waiting.

Kochevnik- “Good morning. What’s going on?”

Edvard, “Just came to invite you to my place for breakfast and ask how you want to start your investigation this morning.”

Leroy stares at Edvard, “What ye be cookin? And will ye need assistance to make breakfast?” nicely as he can from yesterday

Edvard ignores Leroy.

Kochevnik turns to gets some consensus from everybody. “Well? Breakfast?”

Arvin shrugs. “Sure. Boots doesn’t need anything so don’t worry about him.”

Eli nods.

To breakfast!

Kochevnik again attempts to diplomacy Mrs. Edvard, just to be friendly. She greets Mrs. Edvard in a friendly manner, but says something totally gauche instead. 

Lilly offers a friendly smile and waves for everyone to take a seat.  They have managed to move in enough tables and chairs for everyone to have a place to sit.

Edvard while everyone is eating, “where would you like to start today, my wife and I will be helping led you through the town and introduce you to anyone you need to talk to.”

Leroy sits and eats his meal and eyes Edvard in a mildly disgusted looks every once in awhile.

Derek pats his mouth with his napkin. “I’m not sure that we need to speak to the townfolk.”

Edvard nods, “Ok, where would you like to go then?” as the discussion starts Lilly is cleaning up the area from breakfast.

Kochevnik- “Eli suggested that we start with the house belonging to the gentlemen decorating the town entrance which I think is a good idea.”

Edvard nods again, “We can take you there right now if you all are ready.”

Kochevnik- “If everyone else is ready, yes, we can go now.”

Eli nods.

Edvard leads the group to Tarmmil’s shack. 

Kochevnik walks slowly as they cross town, continuously detecting evil as she goes.  No evil.

Once inside they see a single room of the small shake is a terrible mess.  Whoever searched this place was none too delicate about it.  Clothing lies everywhere, and personal possessions have been tossed about with some abandon.

Kochevnik- “I wonder if they were looking for what we have. Hmmm…”

Leroy just eyes the place, “Well if he were on me ship, he walk the plank for bein so dirty. I run me a tight ship.” he says low under his voice.

Kochevnik starts looking around for Clues. Does not find anything significant. Arvin however finds a small diary that is in the same shorthand as they found in the ledger they read.

Eli starts to half heartedly poke around at things.

Kochevnik- “Derek, can you try to read this?” She steps outside to people watch while Derek does his thing.

Derek accepts the  diary from Arvin and looks it over. He takes his time studying it.  The start of the diary talks about mundane details of hunts with the pack, the animals they have seen and the weather.  As you get farther into the diary it starts to talk about the packs’s interaction with the new leader and a full description of the date and location of where they fought and how the bigger werewolf took over (not important for the story except that the new leader has been in charge for only a few weeks.)  The last few entries explain how Trammil was working to find out the new leaders true identity so that they could outs him from deepwood.  The diary gives the impression that the pack has been a part of deepwood for as long as there has been a deepwood and that until the new leader arrived the pack was not a danger to the common citizens of deepwood.

Derek reads all of this out as he deciphers it. “Sounds as though the only who really needs inhu… taking care of… is this new leader.”

Kochevnik considers this for a moment. “I think you might be right.”

Kochevnik, Derek and Eli notice that Edvard looks mortified by the news of werewolves having lived there for so long, they also notice that Lilly is shifting uncomfortably.  Kochevnik and Eli are positive that Lilly has something she is hiding.

Kochevnik- “Lilly, are you okay?”

Lilly blinks and looks from Edvard to the party and starts to look more nervous, “why...why do you ask?”

Derek interjects “Mr. Kititch, have you lived here long?”

Edvard looks curiously at his wife then to Derek, “since the town was founded.”

Derek makes a considering noise, but says nothing more

Kochevnik- “Lilly….” Kochevnik positions herself directly out the door, so that she could intrecept anyone attempting to head out. “You look worried. Werewolves are dangerous, so if you know something, we need your help telling us what’s going on.”

Leroy eyes Edvard very curiously, keeping his hand near his rapier.

Lilly backs against the wall and then looks to Edvard, “I am sorry...We wanted to protect everyone from the stigma that comes with being werewolves.”  She lowers her head and looks to the ground, “We don’t want to hurt anyone.  We just want to live in peace and enjoy our hunts.”

Edvard blinks and drops to his knees.  His eyes wide and a look of shock crossing his face.

Derek claps his hands together once. “Well, this is convenient. You can tell us who the new pack leader is and we’ll kill him. For an appropriate consideration, of course.”

Lilly, “Trammil couldn’t find out who he was.  None of us have been able to find out who he is.  If we knew we would have already talked with our friends and family that are not werewolves and gotten the entire town on the same side to get him kicked out of the town.  We don’t want to dig his gold for him.”

Derek frowns “That’s ridiculous. How can you not know who he is? Does he never come into town in human form?”

Lilly, “No one in the town smells like he does.  If he does, he somehow doesn’t smell like a wolf in his human form.  We don’t see him change from wolf to human ever.  We have tried.”

Kochevnik-- “If he’s not new to town as a human, that leaves a newly infected werewolf. In either case, we can go make it known we’re going to take his gold to try to draw him out.”

Lilly, “No newly turned werewolf is as strong as he is.”

Edvard seems to come out of his stupor and looks from Lilly to the party and back to Lilly again, “Why didn’t you talk to me.  I might have been able to help.”  Then looks down and blinks a few times, “wait, Bistle has not lived here that long.”  When Edvard says that name Lilly appears shocked, “but he doesn’t smell like a werewolf.”  She says.

Derek asks “How long has he lived here?”

Edvard, “Two or three months.”

Derek “And is there any one else who has moved to town within a similar time frame? Or has everyone else lived here for a year or more?”

Edvard, “No just him and his manservant.”

“Could be the manservant too,” Arvin says. “I have no idea how a werewolf shields his smell, but it’s a decent cover.” She pauses. “Or both. Have any other new werewolves shown up? Besides the leader I mean.”

Leroy looks to the group, “Welp, we now know where to start lookin, Savvy?” he says outloud

Edvard, “He has the largest house in the town.  He was rich when he moved here.  We can go there now.”  He gives his wife a side long look but seems to not want to bring this up right now.  She just lowers her head and moves to stand behind him, looking pretty ashamed.  Lilly looks to Arvin, “There has only been one new werewolf.”  Then she looks down again trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Derek addresses Edvard “Well, then, please take us there, Mr. Kititch.”

Edvard and Lilly lead the group to the manner and when they reach the front he waves to the door, “If he really is the new werewolf I would rather not be between him and you all.”

Kochevnik- “That’s probably safe.” She looks like she’s psyching herself up for something. Fjolhaefur extends from 5’ to 10’ long.

Derek clears his throat “Mr. Kititch. There is the small matter of our compensation for … taking care… of this threat to your village.”

Edvard looks to his wife, “do you think we could pay them with the gold you have been digging up?”  He seems to be hurt, but trying to reach out to her.  She nods in the affirmative to his question.  The then looks back to the party, “Well I am sure we could get you a good compensation from that.”

Derek smiles thinly “Then we will let you know how much trouble he gives us, and adjust our rates accordingly.”

Arvin smiles. It’s not a reassuring smile. “Hey Boots, time to get big.” She reaches down and whips off the shrink collar, and Boots becomes huge.

Leroy pulls out his rapier from its hilt. “Argh, it be werewolf smashin time.” he says grinning from ear to ear.

Derek orc-fully refrains from rolling his eyes and walks up to the door. He knocks firmly on it.

The door opens and a man steps out, “hello, can I help you.”  He slowly looks over the party.

Derek addresses the fellow. “Good morning, we are here to see Mr Bistle.”

Kochevnik, to whoever is nearby- “Please don’t stand between me and the door.” She positions herself about 20’ away.

Darby nods, “I am Darby, his man servant.  Please come into the Parlor and wait, I will go get him.”  He holds the door for everyone and waits until they are inside before leaving out a side door.

Arvin stays outside with her huge crocodile, and keeps watch.

Derek replies “Thank you.” He waves the rest of the party forward and steps into the parlor.

Kochevnik positions herself toward the back of the room. She looks around while they wait for the butler to return.

Derek and Eli notice a well crafted, but only partially hidden secret door that leads out of the parlor.

Derek quietly points this out to the others, so that no one is surprised by any sudden entrances through it.

Darby and Mr. Bistle come in shortly after that, “I am Armon, how can I help you?” asks Mr. Bistle.

Kochevnik detects evil on them both! Darby not Evil.  Armon...Evil...Very Evil.

Derek addresses Armon “Good morning, Mr. Bistle. We’ve been hired by Mr. Kititch to take care of this village’s werewolf problem.”

Armon, “And what do I have to do with that?”

Derek “We were hoping you could assist us in finding the werewolf who has been terrorizing the place. Apparently the trouble started around the time you and Darby, there, arrived in town.”

Armon, “Because I am rich I know who or have been involved with these werewolves.  I don’t know anything about it.”

Kochevnik, Leroy and Eli all know he is lying.  Derek is bluffed.

“Matey,” Leroy starts, “Who ye be foolin? Not Captain Leroy Sparrow thats not who.” he says

Kochevnik- “A simple denial isn’t very persuasive, Mr. Armon.”

Eli manifest missive to Armon, “I can read your mind liar.”

Derek looks confused, since all his companions are calling this totally honest RICH man a liar.

Armon looks around then shouts, “Kill them,” before suddenly transforming into a large Werewolf.

Despite both making a really good sense motive roll AND knowing Armon is evil, Kochevnik takes her sweet time prepping to attack.

Round 1!

Eli manifests Death Urge at Armon.  Wild Surge to max it.  Fails at the wild surge and is dazed.  Armon makes his saving throw.

Kochevnik- “Arvin! Get in here!”

Leroy gets up to Armon, “Now you fiend, TASTE ME BLADE! FOR ME SHIP!”  Armon looks like he is going to laugh at Leroy for that weak attack.

Outside Arvin hears the commotion, and prepares to run in. She dashes through the door and sees the werewolf, and proceeds to summon a water elementite swarm. The tiny water elementals start to swarm the werewolf and try to fill his lungs.

Derek teleports behind the werewolf and rams into Darby, trying to push him through the doors.  Darby hits the door, pushing it open and rebounds down the hall in the room beyond.  He appears to be unconscious by all appearance. Derek nods in satisfaction and turns to face the werewolf’s back, drawing his sword as he does so.

Armon attacks Leroy with two claw and one bite attack. “YOU DIRTY DAWG!” Leroy screams as he is hit.

Two more Werewolves come through the secret door and look around.

Kochevnik turns to look at them. “Charging smite is off the table, then”. She spends a turn undead attempt and actives Divine Might while power attacking attacking werewolf 3.  The werewolf doesn’t appear too happy about the hits.

Is Kochevnik still a paladin? Yes? Perfect.

Round 2!

Eli still dazed stands there and does nothing.

Leroy is angry with the werewolf, “Now I take your life filthy mongrel!” and fully attacks the werewolf! (also applies Dodge against the wereworlf)  Armon appears to have taken no damage.

Arvin looks at the situation and decides Armon is the bigger threat. She casts Blackwater Tentacle at him. A tentacle of dark water appears about ten feet away, reaches over and grabs at the werewolf.

Derek stabs the werewolf in the back, missing twice! He curses foully.

Armon attacks Leroy, but biffs badly and misses all three attacks.

2 and 3 attack Kochenvnik, both missing badly.

Kochevnik takes a 5’ step back and attacks wolf three again, spending a Divine Might while she does. She stabs once at werewolf three again, and seeing that he’s not dead, she uses an demolishing smite for her second attack. Werewolf 3 looks to be on his last leg.

Round 3!

Eli now being recovered uses wild surge to manifest psychic crush on Werewolf 2.  He manages not to daze himself and werewolf two fails the save and falls to the ground unconscious and somehow bleeding.

Kochevnik glances at Eli. “Huh.”  Eli just smiles at Kochevnik.

“Matey I am taking your life i swear this!” Leroy shouts angrily at Armon then swings twice!  Again Armon doesn’t appear to take any damage.

Arvin casts arc of lightning but only on Armon.  He looks none too happy about the hits, but not that damaged yet.

Derek again stabs at the Werewolf’s back, hitting him once.  Armon growls in pain but continues to look forward.

Armon attacks Leroy again. “I HATE YOUR SOUL FOUL BEAST!” Leroy shouts.

Werewolf 3 attacks Kochevnik after moving foward.  Missing horibbly.

Kochevnik takes another step back and stabs twice more (also spending a Divine Might)! The werewolf falls over dead. “Hmmmm finally.” She turns her attention to the big werewolf.



Round 4!

Eli watches the other werewolf go down then turns to the big werewolf and manifests a full wild surge mind thrust at him.  Manages to not daze himself.  Armon makes his save and takes no damage.

Kochevnik- “Leroy, get out of my way!”

Leroy, covered in blood trails, realizes he cant keep this up “Welp, me is gonna get out ye way, no sense me dyin today.” and backs up really fast. Boots, leans over him protectively, at Arvin’s command.

Arvin, tired of Armon’s durability, casts Dispel Magic on him to see if she can get rid of any buffs or damage reduction spells he might be carrying. Nothing appears to happen from the spell, that you can see.

Derek stumbles as he tries to make his attack and nearly stabs himself in the foot.

Armon turns to attack Derek. 

Kochevnik quickly casts rhino rush, and then with a powerful yell, performs a demolishing power attacking charging smite.  Armon screams in pain, staggering slightly but remains standing.

Kochevnik- “Moradin’s beard!”

Round 5!

Eli manifests Mind Thrust again with a full Wild Surge.  Manages not to daze himself.  Armon fails his saving throw and falls over dead.

Arvin dismisses the elementites and the tentacle, and sits down. “Well damn. That was a thing.”

Derek straightens up, and wipes his sword off before sheathing it. “How troubesome.” He pokes at his wounds and growls in pain. Arvin casts cure light wounds on him.

“Thank you, Mistress Arvin.” His voice is still strained.

Kochevnik- “Are we sure they’re all dead?”

Leroy moves to one of the werewolves, then with his sword swipes down on the head of it to chop it off. Arvin casts cure light wounds on him as well. “A mighty thanks Arvin.” he smiles weakly

Just as Leroy finished making sure the werewolves that had by now turned back into human form are dead Edvard and Lilly walk in looking around the room then at the party.  Lilly, “thank you so much.” a look of deep relief on her face.  Edvard says, “we need to discuss how to pay you with the rest of the village, if you are willing to give us some time.  We can start by saying you can search his house and take anything you find, then when you come out we will be better ready to say how much we can pay you.”

“Do you have any healing potions stronger than light?” Arvin asks. “We could use a top up.”

Edvard shakes his head, “I am sorry, we don’t have any magic to sell here and our priest is dead.”

Derek grumbles under his breath “This is at least a ten-thousand gold job.”

Kochevnik- “Hang on.” She concentrates for a moment, and suddenly everyone fast heals for about 25 seconds. Once it fades, she does the same thing again. Kochevnik then enshrinkens Fjolhaefur to a shortspear.

Derek nods to Kochevnik “My thanks, Mistress Kochevnik.” This time he fingers the tatters of his coat. “This, I think, is a complete loss. Should have had a spare made.”

Edvard nods to Derek having barely heard the comment, “we will see what we can do.”  Then he and his wife leave to discuss with the village.

Satisfied everyone is healing, Arvin puts Boot’s collar back on, sits down again, and casts Lay of the Land, giving her an overview of the surrounding 50 miles.

A search of the house and the dead enemy shows the following:
 4,800gp
900gp emerald
2x 700gp silver comb with Moonstones
A Clasp - Magic
Bracers - Magic
Dagger- Magic
Cloak - Magic
Amulet in the shape of a fang - Magic

Kochevnik muses about going by a new name as the party ransacks Armon’s house. “Aurora? Sonia? Hmm.”

You also find a hidden room with a journal that belonged to Armon that appears to talk about some of the items he had.  On the table in the room is a little statue of a white rabbit.

Derek searches the room for traps, as he’s been doing the entire time. No traps detected. He grab the journals and looks for any reference to the statue.  There is nothing in the journal about the rabbit.

“Should I summon a wood wose to touch it?” Arvin asks dubiously.

Eli leans over the table looking at the statue then looks back to Arvin and shrugs.

Arvin summons the wose, who looks at her waiting. “Go touch that rabbit please,” she says, then backs away a bit.

The wose goes and touches the rabbit, then comes back and nothing happens. “Okay, who’s next?” Arvin says.

Kochevnik has detected evil on everything the party has found. “Arvin, can you detect magic on all this as well?” No evil.

Arvin casts detect magic  There is a faint magic aura, but she can’t quite make out what type.

Derek grabs the statue off the table. “Well, whatever. Let’s get our pay from the mayor.”

The moment Derek picks up the white rabbit a blinding light envelops the room, then utter blackness and everyone is falling.

The party has been falling, falling endlessly, but suddenly, it seems as if the party’s fall is slowing, as if a feather fall spell has been cast over all of you.  The shaft still goes down and down, but you are drifting gently now.  After a few minutes you detect a golden light far below, which, as you watch, comes nearer and nearer.  It is the end of the shaft at last! With a gentle thump you land, all in a heap, atop a pile of twigs, brush, and leaves.

As you look around, you note that you are in a strange chamber, some 60’ wide and 120’ long.  You can see its size easily, because the polished wall panels reflect the light of the dozens of candles set in sconces along the length and width of the place.  You are confused by the strange fall, but it seems as though you are in the southern portion of the room.

The walls are paneled in some sort of glowing wood.  The reddish material is well cared for and polished to a lustrous finish that reflects the flame from the candles.  Five doors made of the same wood are on either side of the hall, and a pair of great double doors at its far end.  Just a few feet from your vantage point atop a pile of rubbish, you note a small, finely crafted table.  Upon its crystal top rest a metal object, a flagon of some sort, and a salver with an unleavened loaf atop it.  Nothing else is visible except a small portal beyond the table.  This doorway is about 1’ tall and half as broad.  It is closed by a door bound with betal.

The ceiling overhead is arched and beamed:  The rafters are some 15’ above, the arch is another 10’ abovere that.

[perovskite]

Day 182: Sephira's Quest

(click to show/hide)

Episode XVIII
Day 182, The Evening.

To recap: you have recently returned to Hiasport from the islands in the Sea of One Thousand Islands (plus or minus), carrying what you hope is part of a device that will allow you to summon a building (or something). You have sold off a bunch of stuff, failed to get any useful information, and so now are sitting around in Big Phil’s Haus of Drinks (the proprietor is naturally Cedric, cause duh), trying to decide whether to do more research tomorrow, or just hop on a horsey and head out.

Blank leans back slowly sipping at his drink, “so what is next?”

Herzog- “I say we get going in the morning, although if you need to do more research I can tolerate not moving around for one more day.”

Blank mumbles about finding something interesting to do late at night if that is the case.

Sephira - “Empty Wind mentioned a sage, let’s try to find them.”

Empty Wind nods and puts her mostly untouched drink on the table before standing. “Perhaps early would be better than late, if one seeks a sage.”

Herzog- “Kara has a point, Sephira.”

Blank, “Ummm, don’t sages usually stay up late reading books and what not?”

Kara actually looks somewhat surprised “Is it not more sage to read when the sun gives light? It was so at the monastery.”

Sephira - “I’ll see if I can’t find out a location, anyway, so we don’t waste time in the morning.”

She hops up from the table. Kedri, who wasn’t paying any attention at all, suddenly jumps into the air, startled, and decides to fly after her. Sephira heads to the bar, and looks for the bartender. She orders another drink and asks, “I’m looking for a sage who studies yuan-ti, have you heard of anyone like that?”

Cedric takes the money you presumably offered him in exchange for a drink and stares off into the middle distance for a minute. “You know, I think there might be a gnome who studies strange and otherworldly creatures. What was his name….ah, Bergeron is what he goes by amongst humans, he says his real name is too long to say. Yes, Bergeron the Small.”

Sephira - “I was just thinking it sounded like an awfully short name for a gnome. Is he here in town?”

Cedric- “Oh yes, he lives on Something Or Other Street…” Cedric gives you directions to Bergeron’s home on Something or Other Street.

Sephira - “Thank you for the info!” Kedri yowls loudly in her ear. “Um, I don’t suppose you have meat I could purchase for my cat?”

Cedric- “Certainly!” He disappears for a moment and then returns with just the kind of things a cat would love: gristle and marrow and actual meat scraps.

Sephira pays for the food and brings it back to the table, physically holding Kedri away from it until she can put it down.

Herzog- “What did he say?”

Sephira - “We have a name and an address with directions! He’s a gnome, and his name is Bergeron the Small.” She grinds her teeth a bit when she says his epithet. “We can head that way tomorrow morning, unless Blank wants to go check if he’s available now. I sort of don’t want to wait until morning only to find he gets up a noon…”

Blank, “I will go check if you want, but sending me by myself might not help.  I don’t know what all to ask him.”

Kara sit down again as she replies “His hours of operation.”

Sephira - “Pretty much that. I’ll send Kedri with you and she can let me know if we should follow.” By this time, Kedri is licking the plate, making an annoying rasping noise. “<Ooh, a night hunt!>”

Blank nods, “alright.” then finishes his drink before standing up and waving for the cat to join him.

Kedri hops into the air and follows. Since Blank doesn’t have anything interesting for her to bat at, she flies up about 10 feet as she follows.

Cedric’s directions are fairly easy to follow, and so in a few minutes you find yourself in front of a dwelling sized for a human, but with a gnome-sized door installed in the human-sized door. In the dim light, Blank can see a sign that reads, “Bergeron the Small. Research by appointment only. 100 gp and a joke”.

Blank can see that there is some light coming through the large-ish window.

Blank knocks on the door. Kedri lands on his shoulder, digging in her claws a bit for balance. She’s sure he doesn’t mind.  Blank glances at his shoulder, “Just don’t rip the clothes please.”

Blank hears the squeak of an opening window at about hip height, followed by a small curse, someone dragging something across the floor, some stomping, and another small window opening at about his head height. A small (even for a gnome) face looks at him.

Gnome- “Yes?”

Blank, “I am sorry to inconvenience you.  I could have bent over.  Anyways, when can I set an appointment to get some research done, or get time with Bergeron to answer some questions a friend of mine has?”

Gnome- “Right now.”

Blank smiles, “well I will send the cat to get them, if you will let me in I will pay for a drink and start with a few jokes if you would like while we wait.”

It looks like there’s something wrong with the gnome’s face, and he says, “Oh, no, you need to make an appointment first.”
Blank nods, “well then what appointment times do you have available?”

The gnome looks like he’s trying very, very hard not to laugh. “I’m free now, actually.”

Blank shakes his head, “well then let me set the appointment, we drink and tell jokes.  The cat gets everyone else.”

Gnome- “That sounds fabulous. How many other people are we talking, and how big are they?”

Blank, “One halfling, one human, and another two elves.”

Gnome- “Mmmmmm I think they’ll all fit. I shall prepare for their arrival. Please knock when you’ve assembled, I must tidy up a bit.”

Kedri turns on Blanks shoulder, smacking him in the face with her tail as she takes off toward the inn. She sends impatient vibes to Sephira.

Blank looks around to see if there is anything of value close by that he can appropriate while waiting for the party to arrive.

Blank finds a pair of unloved silver pieces laying in some mud.

Blank sighs and leaves them unloved still.

Assuming Syl hasn’t caused an international incident while Blank and Kedri were gone, the flying cat returns and delivers her message to Sephira with no incident.

Kedri - “<Lots of books, definitely gotta be some mice in there somewhere.>”

Sephira - “No hunting other people’s mice unless you ask first.” Kedri sneezes and pretends not to hear Sephira as she cleans her flank.

Herzog- “So is he open, or what?”

Sephira - “Yep, he’s preparing for us now. Let’s head out.”

Cedric’s directions work just as well for everyone else as for Blank, and so in a few minutes you find him standing outside a house. And then you all see the sign demanding 100 gp and a joke.

Blank knocks on the door, “he seems relatively friendly.”

There’s no sound of response, except the click of a lock popping open in the door.

Blank, “that is not ominous.” and then reaches to open the door.

Beyond you see a small (approaching cramped) waiting room with a table and several chairs. Everything is of high quality (if cluttered). You notice various items floating around being put back on shelves, and a tea service floats out from a small door on the other side of the room and alights on the table. There are dainty little cucumber sandwiches and everything.

Eventually a gnome, short even for a gnome, walks in. “Greetings! I am Bergeron, please make yourselves comfortable, have some tea, etc. Who all are you?”

Sephira - “My name is Sephira, and these are my traveling companions Herzog, Empty Wind, Blank, and Sylaernae.” She sits down and takes a cup of tea. Kedri sits in her lap and stares at the cucumber sandwiches. Sephira pushes her down a bit so that she’s not right in front of Sephira’s face.

Blank takes a seat, starts drinking some tea and takes one of the cucumber sandwiches and sneaks it to Kedri. Kedri grabs it, puts it down on the arm of the chair, and starts sniffing it all over, giving it an experimental lick or two. You can hear her crunching on the cucumber. She starts purring.

Empty Wind takes a seat as well, but only takes tea.

Herzog also takes some tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Syl pulls up a seat and drinks some tea “This is mighty fine tea,” he says sipping it. “What kind is it?”

Bergeron- “Hmmmmm the kind made from dried boiled leaves, I think. Anyway, what brings you here?”

Sephira - “Our current quest has caused us to run into Yuan-ti, and we expect to run into more of them. We’ve already had a run in with their poison, and so I’m looking for more information on their capabilities to make sure we’re prepared. Also, our actual destination involves lammasu who apparently had a disagreement with the yuan-ti, since it appears their meeting ground was sealed by them, or something similar. If you have any information about that, I’d like that as well.”

Bergeron has been nodding and taking notes. “Mmm hmmm, mmm hmmm. Well, as we are now down to business, I presume you saw my sign out front regarding payment. Obviously I require half up front, and the other half upon delivery of the information you require. So: tell me a joke.” He looks at you expectantly.

Blank, “what is the first thing elves learn in school?  The elf-abet.”
Empty Wind makes a noise that might be part of a laugh.

Syl does not find the joke amusing.

Kedri makes some noise. Sephira translates - “What do you call a pile of kittens? A Meowntain.”

Bergeron seems to take down notes as you tell him these jokes. He does not laugh. “Excellent, thank you….” and he disappears into his mountains of books.

Sephira, after pulling out 5 platinum pieces and placing them on the table, “Should we wait here while you research or return tomorrow?”

Bergeron’s head appears from behind a stack of books (naturally nowhere near where you last saw him). “Excellent question! Please return at first light tomorrow! This will take some time!”

Sephira - “We shall do so, thank you. If it helps, the lammasu we’re looking for is named Auran Bulwark.” She stands, dumbing Kedri on the floor, and lets the others leave first as they’re closer to the door.

Bergeron calls something approximating “Okay, thank you!” As you see yourselves out.

Herzog- “Huh. I don’t know what to make of that.”

Sephira - “Well, I suppose he seemed all business. I’m hoping that means he’s not going to sell the information of where we’re headed to bandits.” Kedri makes a scoffing noise and starts cleaning one of her paws, extending all claws as she does so. “Kedri’s probably right, it’s not like we can’t handle them.”

You get back to the inn, the screen goes black, and you wake up at dawn on…

Day 183! (48 HOURS REMAIN…. Not really)

Somewhere else, by which the DM means Alzak Fortress, the Most Ancient and Original Group is preparing to say goodbye to Kochevnik and go kill some more frost giants.

You wake up, unattacked by the Kraken, eat a continental breakfast, and are ready to go...right back to Bergeron. It’s the same deal: you knock, no one answers, but the door unlocks. Inside you find him sprawled, asleep, amongst stacks of books, buckets of tea, and probably not enough cucumber sandwiches.

He wakes up when you walk in. “Ah, you’re back! I note you left half of the monetary payment last night! I appreciate that, even though that’s part of your final payment.” He sits up and dusts himself off.  “Right then, shall we start with yuan-ti?”
Sephira - “Sounds good to me.” She takes her seat. Kedri starts stalking through the stacks.

Bergeron takes a sip of tea and waxes professorial. “Yuan-ti are the descendants of humans who, thousands of years ago, worshipped an evil snake deity named Meershaulk. He blessed (or cursed) them to mix with snakes, and so ever since then the descendants of those humans have exhibited trait of humans and snakes to varying degrees.”

Bergeron- “Yuan-ti are highly intelligent (the dumbest of them are easily smarter than the average human) and very organized. They come in five to six varieties, depending on how you categorize them, to wit:

The Histachii are their near-mindless slaves whom the yuan-ti have attempted to transform. The fight with their claws and are good for nothing but manual labor. They look like the hunched lizard-dog-people.
Tainted ones are those who succeeded in their forced transformation; They look mostly human.
Purebloods are still nearly human in appearance, but not quite as much as tainted ones.
Halfbreeds will exhibit some characteristic of snakes, like scales, a snake’s head, or a snake’s lower body instead of legs.
Abominations are those which are far more snake than human, and may only appear to be a giant snake with humanoid arms.
The anathema are either an advanced form of abomination or another type unto themselves (my information was inconclusive). They would appear as a giant abomination, but with six or so snake heads instead of a single head.

All yuan ti have a bite that is both poisonous and acidic. Most of them, except the tainted ones and histachii have spell-like abilities. These typically revolve around controlling snakes, polymorphing into snakes, causing fear, manipulating poison, charming their opponents, controlling plants (the druidic spell entangle).”

He pauses for a breath. “Any questions so far?”

Sephira looks at the others. “So it sounds like we ran into Histachii, some tainted or purebloods, and was the big one snake enough to be an abomination, do you think?”

Empty Wind “The descriptions match. Do their spell-like abilities involve polymorphing others into snakes?”

Bergeron- “The abominations can cast baleful polymorph, yes.”

Sephira - “Do the anathema with multiple heads require special techniques to kill, like hydras?”

Bergeron- “That, unfortunately, I don’t know. I could not find solid evidence that one has ever existed on this planet. Any other questions?”

Syl raises his hand “I have one. If you have all this information, why do you require a joke be told to you?” he asks seriously.

Bergeron- “Jokes are vital to gnomish culture” he says gravely. “Garl Glittergold grants a chosen few of his clerics the ability to execute what they call a ‘killing joke’. Obviously some of Garl’s divine power is involved, but I’m curious to see how much of the killing jokes’ power comes from humor itself. Thus, collecting every joke I can is research into this. Any other questions? If not, I’ll continue with what I could find on your lammasu vis a vis yuan-ti.”

Sephira - “Please continue.”

Bergeron inhales deeply. “I was not able to find as much as I would have liked on the relationship between yuan-ti and the lammasu you seek, the Auran Bulwark. I could find no motive for the yuan-ti to sink his temple into the sands of the Great Sulphur Desert, beyond that ‘we’re evil and they’re good and therefore a threat’. For specifics: I have identified a point in the desert, about 40 miles from the coast, where his temple was last seen.”

Sephira - “That’s excellent news, we only had a general location for it and I was not looking forward to scouring a desert.” She pulls out her map, and unrolls it. “Can you mark the location for us? And are there any landmarks?”

Bergeron- “Hmmm the Land of Shadow is a different shape on your map than mine. Anyway, yes…” he marks the location. “Unfortunately, beyond some mountains to the east, not really. The whole region has been swallowed up by sand dunes...which also means, by the way, that there are plenty of ruins ripe for looting, if you’re into that. And you seem like you might be.”

Sephira smiles - “Possibly, if we have time.”

Empty Wind speaks again “Is the shore at the end of the eastern mountains passable?”

Bergeron- “Mostly. There is a string of fishing towns along the coast to the west of Hiasport, all the way to the Goblin Kingdom. I suspect the goblins fish as well, although I can’t vouch for their skills at it. If you do not present yourselves as hostile, you may be able to pass through the Goblin Kingdom as travelers, without...too much...risk of being seen as food.”

Sephira - “We did hear the goblin kingdom was at least semi friendly with the humans around there. I admit I was skeptical.”

Bergeron- “Semi friendly and semi civilized are not the same, but apparently it is not as dangerous as the normal tribal-based anarchy. Have you any more questions?”
Sephira - “Anyone think of anything?” She looks at her map where the other yuan-ti spot is marked, trying to decide if we have enough information on that.

Empty Wind shakes her head.

Blank also shakes his head.

Sephira points to the spot on the map. “We’ve been told by the Cartographer’s Guild of Goldport that there is a yuan-ti temple here, in the mountains between Gamaro and the desert. Do you have any more specific location information on it?”

Bergeron peers at the map closely. “Hmmmm the only item I recall, without further research, is that the yuan-ti didn’t build that temple, but only attacked, seized and took it over. I couldn’t even find out who built it originally.”

Sephira - “Still, it’s good to know that it won’t look particularly snake themed. I believe that’s everything I have, anyone else?”

Herzog- “I don’t.”

Sephira, before Syl can come up with something - “Thank you very much for your time. Here is the remainder of your fee. You have been most helpful.”

Bergeron- “Indeed. May Garl grant you safe travels.”

A few moments of polite goodbyes later, you find yourself on the streets of Hiasport.

Sephira - “Where’s Kedri?”

Sephira and the group hear a yowl from the other side of the front door.

The small door opens enough for Kedri to escape. She rubs the doorframe as she walks out.

Sephira - “NOW we can go.”

[perovskite]

Day 184, Most Ancient and Original Group

The Quasi-Penultimate Battle for the Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Begins!

(click to show/hide)

Day 184, still:

Salach stomps around in the frozen mud a bit, and then heads over to ….the fourth wall to listen at it.

Dragon kind of stands around, and assists in whatever collecting and coiling of rope is required.
Caboose huddles down and looks around for a place to sit. “I have idea.” he says to the group

Dragon says to himself, “Huh.” And out loud- “Okay, let’s hear it.”

Escaflowne crosses his arms and watches Caboose waiting to see where this goes.

Caboose looks at Dragon and Escaflowne, “We searching for something big, So Me think we stay here till it comes.”

Escaflowne shakes his head, “we are searching for the giants that have probably locked themselves behind these ice walls they have created.  We need to get through this one, preferably without using up too much of our magic.”

“Agree, though me like idea of waiting, and attack like Zelda, be sneaky rogue.” Caboose says with a smile on his face

Dragon- “Who says they don’t have multiple entrances to the mountain? It would be silly not to, so maybe they can just seal off the top level and wait until we get bored and leave. So I say we keep up pursuit.”

Caboose shrugs “I try to add to group. Camp good idea. It legit.”

Escaflowne, “I don’t think anyone needs to camp.  Though if we want to save spells I can try and use my portable ram on this wall.”

Salach, who by this time has climbed up the wall as far as he can without making climb checks, says “Shhhh!”

No one but Salach and Harvey can hear anything, but Salach says quietly, “There’s someone on the other side.” That’s all he can determine.

Harvey can tell that it’s multiple large creatures, and they sound like they’re talking and moving rocks. Possibly also hitting rocks with metal implements. 

“Many someones,” he says softly. “Large and they’re busy doing something.”

Escaflowne, “Possibly building another wall?”

That is what it sounds like to Harvey. He nods.

Kat “What if we make small holes and fire through them at the builders?”

Escaflowne, “I can use my breath weapon every few rounds if we do that.”

Salach- “I say do it, that’ll save us a lot of spells. Although we certainly won’t surprise anyone.”

Escaflowne, “Portable ram to try and make the hole or a spell?”

Kat: “I think both. I’ll use my burning hands wand to melt spots at the top, then you can ram them.”

Escaflowne, “Let me climb up and get settled where you are going to melt the hole.  If it is big enough for me to see I will start my breath attacks, if not I will use the ram.”  then starts climbing.

“I can cast spells through holes too,” Harvey says, fluttering up to the top to wait.

Escaflowne, “Hold the spells until they are running away or out of range of my breath weapon.”

Zelda - “I’ll stand here and be useless.”

Dragon- “The life of a non-spellcaster.”

You all get settled into this plan, while the rest of the party stands around uselessly.

Kat uses her wand on a spot at the top of the wall until it looks mostly melted, then moves to another spot about 7 feet away and does the same thing. She repeats this until there are four melted spots.

Since burning hands creates a fan-shaped flame area, not a line, the holes she melts are much wider than she would like (like two feet wide)

As soon as the first hole is open Escaflowne looks through to see what he can attack. 

Harvey peers through the second.

Caboose leaps through the third hole created by Kat. Caboose has to worm his way through the hole, but as he punches through the ice at the end, you all hear a frost giant yell “SPRING!” and immediately followed by the sound several sets of stomping feet running away. By the time Caboose is out of the whole and on his feet, the sounds of giant feet echo down the tunnel.

In the growing silence, Caboose can see that the giants were indeed working on a fifth wall, so there’s a pile of rubble about five feet high and ten feet wide, with a few boulders frozen together. The frost giants dropped their mining tools, though.

Caboose can also see that the tunnel is only straight for another 50 feet or so, and then makes a sharp turn to the left, so the frost giants were out of sight nearly immediately.

Caboose looks through the holes to the party “Caboose clear hallway. All good.” he says with a slight smile. Caboose feels special for making gaints run away.

Harvey looks torn between laughter and frustration. “Well that’s one way to do it,” he says. “But if we want to catch them before they find another barrier we should get moving.

Dragon- “Wait, so the giants ran just cause we broke through their wall? Hrm!”

Zelda - “Wimps.”

“We have killed almost 30 of them,” Harvey points out. He flies through the hole.

Escaflowne, “we should try and catch up soon and stop giving them opportunities to build too many more walls.”  Climbs down and looks at the hole Caboose went through.  Then use the portable ram to hit it attempt to make it a little wider.

Caboose just flexes for the group on how he scared away the giants “They scared of me. Caboose the Bloodluster will kill more giants.” he says confidently.

It takes a few minutes of work, but Esca widens the hole enough for everyone to crawl through easily.

Dragon and Salach therefore crawl through easily, and start climbing across the rubble field on the far side.

Zelda jumps through nimbly, landing with a somersault and flourish. “Me next!”

Fluff scrambles through, further widening the hole.

Kat follows Fluff. “At least this is a cheaper way to get through these barriers.”

Escaflowne offers to go through last.

Karla moves through, grumbling about having broad shoulders.

Harvey and Esca hear a faint but sharp bang echo up the tunnel from down below. Then more silence.

“I don’t like that,” Harvey mutters.

Escaflowne, “we should follow, just cautiously.”

Within another couple of minutes everyone has crawled over the rubble pile on the far side of the fourth wall. Beyond it the tunnel slopes downward noticeably, and (again) makes a sharp switchback about 50’ beyond the downhill side of the rubble pile.

“Do you think they control that monstrosity in the crevice?” Harvey wonders out loud. “Because I’m not excited about fighting it.”

Zelda - “It’s not like it would fit. Unless they have a separate entrance for it.”

Kat “... We can’t discount that possibility.”

“I mean, it’s more likely we’ll face dragons, I suppose,” Harvey says with an air of gloomy resignation.”

Dragon- “We’ll never find out just standing around here.”
Escaflowne moves to take point behind Zelda’s invisible sneaking around.

Caboose stands near Escaflowne for any baddies who want to show up. Fluff falls back to be rearguard.

Zelda - “Oh, yeah, I should be in front and invisible, huh.” She disappears and moves out front. You assume.

Zelda moves up and peeks around the corner, where she sees...more empty hallway. The slope continues down, a little steeper, and she can see a second switchback maybe 100’ down the hallway. Zelda walks 50’ down the hallway, and nothing else happens. There is silence down the hallway as well.

Past the second switchback is more of the same: empty hallway for a long way, followed by another switchback. This continues for a couple of iterations, before the hallway finally bottoms out and opens up into a large (but relatively long and narrow cavern. Like the hallway it is intermittently lit by continual light torches or something. So it’s dim, but even the humans, with their substandard senses, can get by just fine.

Harvey estimates that your net travel north-south is approximately zero. IE, you’re almost (but not quite) directly below where the walls were, but a couple hundred feet down. He tells the others, who I assume are less than interested.

Kat frowns. “We are going into the crevasse then. Do you suppose we missed a hidden door?”

Harvey has determined that you’re below the Rift.

“We might have,” he says. “I heard what might have been a door shut. And if we’re below the Rift, that means we’re in that thing’s territory and it can tunnel.”

Kat hums, considering. “We can either continue, or go back and look.”

Zelda - “Aren’t you elfen types supposed to notice hidden doors?”

Kat “Better than humans can, at any rate. But it’s not a sure thing.”

Harvey also remembers that the remorhaz couldn’t tunnel through rock, just ice, and you’ve been walking through rock tunnels for like ten minutes. He’s very relieved but still nervous.

“I don’t mind being a bat,” he says outloud. “In fact, I rather like it, But being a flying creature in an enclosed tunnel deep underground make my spine all jittery.”

Escaflowne shrugs, “Not an elf.” he states.

Kat did not spontaneously notice any secret doors in the hallway.

Kat flexes her fingers, loosening them up in the cold. “I suppose we may as well explore this place. We’re well supplied, and unless there’s some anti-magic about these tunnels, we can always leave and come back to a different location.”

Escaflowne nods agreement and draws his sword before starting to move forward again.

Dragon had his sword and shield out already (bla bla bla no breath weapon bla), and Salach has been carrying his bow around since he sold Toe Cutter to Zelda (who still owes him 14K gold pieces, don’t think he’s forgotten. AHEM.)

Caboose has his axe on his shoulder ready to swing it at giants.

After moving forward approximately 30 feet, nothing happens.

Kat peers down the side tunnels as she proceeds. She sees nothing on the side tunnel to the east (top of the map).

Zelda  - “Looks like both tunnels go to the left. I’ll go down the first one.” Zelda neither sees nor hears anything interesting down the first tunnel. She returns to the main area and looks down the other one.

Kat notices a hidden door on the west side of the tunnel (to the bottom of the map). It appears to be just a boulder rolled into place, but is cleverly concealed.

Kat “Oh, there’s a secret door here. Someone get Zelda’s attention before she gets too far ahead.” She starts searching the wall to see if there’s a way to open it. Nothing Kat can find...but she’s not a trained rogue, either.
“Salach! I need your help here.” She calls.

Salach trots over. “What’s up?”

Kat “Secret door. From about here, to about here.” She indicates the extents on the wall. “I can’t find any latch.”

Salach eyeballs the thing. “Oh, that’s pretty well concealed.” He pokes and prods around for a minute or so. “I don’t find any switches or anything either. I think it’s just a big boulder.”

Zelda and Esca look down the next corridor and see….not much. Just an empty corridor.

Kat “Alright. Dragon, Caboose, … oh, he’s off down the corridor.”

Caboose is chasing down Esca and Zelda. For reasons

Kat calls after Caboose and Esca “Caboose, Escaflowne. We need muscle. Probably.”

Escaflowne looks to Caboose then forward, “Come back Zelda.”  Then moves to go be muscle.  Once the door is pointed out to him he pushes on it. He gets the boulder to tilt juuust slightly, and it bangs back down. It didn’t feel like it was stuck, just tha Esca is weak.

Caboose runs back and forth between Zelda and the group. For reasons.

Karla - “Should I help? Or cast Bull’s Strength on anyone?”

“I’ve got Crumble,” Harvey offers.”

Dragon- “I’ll help, and Bull’s strength will help me help him.”

Escaflowne points to his belt, “Bull strength won’t help me, just let me try a few more times.”  Nods to Dragon and waits for him before pushing again.

Karla casts the spell on Dragon.

Kat is carefully observing how the boulder moves while the muscly-types are exerting themselves.

Zelda has ignored everyone being STRONK and continued down the hall. Not that anyone can tell.

Esca and Dragon both push on the boulder. It feels like it was juuuust about to tip over and open, but not quite.

Dragon- “Why is caboose not over here helping?”

Escaflowne, “He is probably confused.  Again?”

Caboose runs up to Esca and Dragon and begins to push on the boulder. For reasons.

Right about your third attempt, Esca, Kat, Karla, and Salach all hear the tone of a deep horn being blown. This sound comes from behind the rock. BUT! The boulder finally rolls forward about ten feet.

Zelda again finds nothing. She wanders back to the other split of the path. Zelda rounds the corner and sees at least two giant white toads sitting there waiting.

Zelda - “Eep.” She backs away slowly, and then starts to run back to the group after she’s moved a reasonable distance away.

Zelda doesn’t hear the frost toads ribbiting after her.

As soon as the boulder rolls back, a pair of male frost giants throw rocks at...say...Esca and Caboose, cause they’re the biggest.  Escaflowne side steps the rock and gives the frost giants a disapproving look. Caboose becomes enraged from being hit.

Round 1

Zelda rounds the corner about to shout at the others, and then pauses. “Really?” She runs toward battle, swords already drawn. When she’s near the middle of the group, she says “sooooo there are also ice toads behind us down the hall. Just thought you guys might like to know.”

“Hooray,” Harvey says, only somewhat sarcastically.

Kat “Well, as long as we know they’re there.”

Dragon steps toward the giant, activating Robilar’s gambit and martial spirit while in route (he doesn’t use travel devotion yet). The giant swings at him for his AoO, and gets a whack against Dragon, who then gets close enough to get his robilar’s attack and his normal attack. He hits twice, and heals a tiny bit each time.

Kat fires Scorching Rays over Dragon’s head at the giant to the right of the boulder, Number 13. She hits with all three. Dude looks like the nearly dead already.

Harvey casts Animal Growth on Fluff, and tells her to watch their backs. When  its her turn, she moves to stand between them and the corridor Zelda came down

Caboose presses his belt once then does a leap/pounce/power attack on the frost giant number 12! Caboose bashes the giant a couple of times, but he isn’t quite able to kill him.

Escaflowne also charges 12 and attacks. Esca splits the giant’s skull down from the top of his head to about the middle of his chest. The giant dies.

Salach uses a skill he calls impromtu metamagic on himself and casts extended cloud of knives. A swarm of knives appears around him, looking sharp and dangerous.

Giant 13 starts taking swings at Dragon, cause he is nothing if not optimistic. He lands two more solid hits, and dragon swings right back at him, and drops the giant.

Dragon- “Man, that guy hit hard!”

Karla was going to guard against possible toad attacks, but since Fluff seems to have a handle on that, she moves toward the middle of the group and activates protection devotion.

The giant in the back (who happens to be female) casts a spell, but you all don’t see anything happen. She then backs up. The ogre standing right next to her just backs up.

Round 2!

Zelda moves forward, but doesn’t make it close enough to the giants.

Kat moves up toward the boulder. “Still more?” She casts Magic Missile at the giantess.

They can both see the female frost giant and the ogre on the far side of the room.

Female giant- <Thrym something something!>” She is clearly enraged for some reason.

Dragon retreats over to Karla. “Karla, I just took a severe beating, could you cure me a bit?”

Harvey has no targets this round.

Escaflowna moves up and breaths on the giantess. She doesn’t move a muscle as the bolt of lightning blasts her in the chest, but as soon as she’s hit she screams out another curse!

Fluff continues to guard!

Salach decides to cast extended greater invisibility aaaand...disappears!

Karla rubs her hands together and says to Dragon, “Boy did you. Good, I wanted to try this spell out anyway.” She casts Heal on Dragon. His wounds heal completely.

Dragon- “Oh man, that’s great!”

Those of you in the main hall hear a strange sound, and a tunnel opens in the wall near Fluff. Three giants crawl out of said hole in the wall.

Dragon- “That’s not so great.”

Harvey narrows his eyes. “Naw, I got this. Don’t get too close to them.”

The ogres in front of Esca just kind of….wait. The frost giant has hidden herself behind a column.

Round 3!

Zelda chases the giant and her ogres, and gets pretty close. Off to her left she sees a crapload of ogres, just waiting for a chance to bull rush and/or overrun something.

Dragon- “Hmmm we have the spellcasters back here, frost giants appearing, Salach is invisible, fluff is over there… Caboose! We got frost giants behind us! Go kill them!” And then he takes off running to help Esca (and Zelda, though he may not know that.)

Kat “Don’t go too far forward! I’m going to use a fireball!” And she does just that, detonating it between the giantess and the ogres (and hoping that Zelda isn’t actually in the radius).

Kat hears shouts of pain, sees one ogre flop over (the other two stagger around looking nearly dead, but she also hears uproarious laughter from behind the rock (where the female frost giant is). She considers what protective spell the giantess might be using.

Harvey casts impeding stones on the corridor the surprise giants are in, making sure to leave Fluff just outside the radius. Tragically for harvey, those three particular giants all manage to stay upright.

Harvey yells. “Caboose, get your butt over here and hit these giants. We have more of them.”

Caboose runs up towards where Escaflowne, still in a complete rage of life and for reasons.

Escaflowne charges forward and attacks Ogre 7. Esca chops the ogre in half through the rib cage. The ones nearby gasp in horror!

Fluff backs off slightly and waits for the giants to emerge from the stones. She also screams SUPER LOUD AT THEM, to intimidate them.

The giants look a little wary, but not too much. She does not intimidate them.

The three giants who were already outside the tunnel manage to cross the rocky area without falling, and two of them get close enough to take a swing at Fluff. A fourth giant crawls out of the tunnel, but can’t stand up in the shifting terrain. Two giants swing at Fluff and both connect powerfully.

Two ogres charge at Esca and swing at him. But they both suck, and therefore both miss. A pair of mail frost giants squeeze their way out of a small opening toward Zelda’s front, and Esca, Zelda, and Dragon can hear the mass of ogres behind the ones near Esca. A pair of shield maidens has formed up down the hall, behind the main combat.  The female frost giant casts another spell, but nothing happens to anyone.

Escaflowne gives the Ogres the same look he gave the giant that threw a rock at him.

Salach moves up invisibly toward the giants attacking fluff, uses his wand to cast hunter’s eye, and fires a cloud knife and two arrows at giant 16. The knife misses, not that you can see this. The arrows, though, both stick in the upper chest of giant 16.

Karla calls down a flame strike in the middle of the giants.

All three scream hideously, and giant 16 collapses, dead.