Ghouls Aplenty

 

Kevin (Hubert Gesäss) had volunteered to do this write-up, but a dog ate his homework. So this is a quick summary.

Present: Bernard Lapin (Jamie), Cooper Chapman (Ian), Gazala Haddad (Richard), Gunter Oelschig (Jeff), Hubert Gesäss (Kevin), Jacob Palowski (Chris), Mezmer the Magnificent (Shane), 

Marmalading: Fleur Jardin (Steven), Wonton Noodle (Darryl)

Party's Mercedes 770

They did a drive-by of Augustus Herschel's compound. The blaze was out; the damage was severe. There were no brown-shirted ghouls left and no fresh ones wandering around.

There were quite a few ghouls wandering around town, in civilian dress. The ghouls were apt to follow cars, or maybe it was that they could sense the baby skeleton in the boot, so the party used the Mercedes to lure the ghouls to some well-placed army machine guns. This way, they got 96.

Next they drove to the Banque de Tunisie (on Rue de Turquie). There was a shell crater in the road outside the bank, presumably fired from the French battleship Bretagne moored in the harbour. They could only guess that this was an attempt by some LE (French Foreign Legion) forward observer to direct naval shells to hit groups of ghouls in the streets.

The bank door had been broken down, and there were bullet holes in all the walls and shell casings everywhere. The casings were examined by the group, but no-one recognized them.  

Cooper manned the Mercedes while the rest of the group went down to the bank vault. While they were away, some ghouls (not brown-shirted) approached the car and so Cooper had to drive off, with the creatures in hot pursuit. He tried to use the car to run some of them over, but failed his Drive roll and hit a building. He was lucky enough to be able to pull away. He lured the creatures away, and then periodically returned in case the group had emerged.

Censer of Baal

Meanwhile, down in the bank vault, Mezmer did a Detect Mythos. Some of the bodies where definitely positive. Gazala calmly decapitated them with her big knife.

Mezmer then got nervous, and he beat a hasty retreat to “guard” upstairs. The rest stayed below.

Down in the main vault, the party's personal vault was broken open. It was empty. The Censer was gone!

They did a cursory search, then went back upstairs - just as Cooper was driving past. So he picked them all up.

Next stop was the Calomnie de Tunis newspaper and the party's apartment. Up on the roof, the generator was on fire, with greenish smoke. The building was evacuated, so they went upstairs. There was a three-armed creature up top next to the generator fire. They fought it. It caused two bouts of Insanity to Bernard and Mezmer.

Mezmer collapsed into a gibbering fetal position, whereas Bernard loudly proclaimed the party secrets in a gloating frenzy: "Avant de vous détruire complètement, laissez-moi vous dire ceci... " ("Before we wipe you out, let me tell you this... ")

• "Nous avons le bébé squelette dans notre coffre, en sécurité dans une boîte doublée d'argent !"
• "Nos puissants mystiques, Wonton et Mezmer, vous vaincra avec leurs pouvoirs impies !"
• "Perdre l'encensoir n'est pas un obstacle. Nous allons bientôt le récupérer et vous détruire !"

(We have the baby skeleton in the boot, sealed in a silver box. Wonton and Mezmer are powerful ungodly mystics who will destroy you. We may have lost the censer, but we will get it back!)

[ Bouts of Insanity can have troublesome (temporary) effects. ]

Gesass and Gazala's shot at the creature and it leapt off the building (down three storeys) to the alley way below. They then blew it to bits with another hail of gunfire.

Cooper determined that the generator fire wouldn’t cause any more damage and would burn itself out.

They met the newspaper manager in the lobby on the way out and reassured him the damage was contained.

The party then drove to the last place where there was a column of smoke - the Saint Croix church. A battleship shell had hit down the road from the church. But no more had been fired. The church nave was empty but they could hear chanting from the undercroft. So they sneaked down, as quiet as they could (not very). 

There was a group of eight (armed) German soldiers facing away from them, and chanting towards a robed figure who was doing some ritual inside a pentagram.

They fired, but it wasn't very successful, and they ended up in a big gunfight against rifles, pistols and bayonets. The party did manage to vanquish the Germans, but suffered bad wounds themselves with Gazala and Gesass unconscious. Jacob’s First Aid was essential in surviving that encounter.

Below the undercroft was the crypt. In their current state, no-one was willing to go down there, so Bernard dropped some grenades down those stairs.

They then limped back to the car, and drove back to the army camp. Inspector Heroux was now there.

They spent two nights (and one day) recuperating and licking wounds. They also ordered a stone box to be made for the baby box (still in the boot of the Mercedes). The theory was that a few feet of stone (granite) was better at shielding it than the silver-sealed tool-box (or the car's boot walls). This box would take a few days.

Out of the Frying Pan ...

Having reached a conclusion in the Witches Coven adventure (Not a final conclusion, but some form of intermediate conclusion) the players have temporarily abandoned the Known World and have returned to 1930's French Tunisia on the African continent. 

We have picked up the characters colloquially known as La foule de Bernard (Bernard's Mob), employees of the the Tunis newspaper Calomnie de Tunis (Slander of Tunis). You may recall them:

Bernard Lapin (Jamie), a Journalist from Tunis.
Cooper Chapman (Ian), a Rogue from England.
Fleur Jardin (Steven), a Medic from France.
Gazala Haddad (Richard), an Explorer from Algiers.
Gunter Oelschig (Jeff), a Rogue from South Africa.
Hubert Gesäss (Kevin), a Soldier from Germany.
Jacob Palowski (Chris), a Jewish Medic from Poland.
Mezmer the Magnificent (Shane), a Mystic from France.
Wonton Noodle (Darryl), an Antiquarian from China.

Having (they thought) taken care of the source of the strange occurrences in the city of Tunis by sealing the evil words of power into the carved granite slab using molten silver and dumping them into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, they were returning back to Tunis from the isle Jaziret el-Monbasta (Plane Island). [Revision: The End?]

The Hotchkiss Machine Gun

A short distance outside the city of Tunis, they were stopped at a roadblock by a squad of 16 Légion Étrangère (French Foreign Legion) soldiers. Beyond the roadblock, four plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing up from locations spread across the city, and people were fleeing along the road and across the surrounding countryside. Occasionally, the chatter of the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun setup beside the roadblock would ring out, and one of the running figures would collapse to the ground. 

One of the soldiers rushed across to our Mercedes and peered in through the open window.

"Ello, êtes-vous La foule de Bernard?" he rattled off.
"Oui, oui" replied Bernard, "We are indeed La foule de Bernard"
"Inspector Heroux est seeking your elp" he stated, "ollow me"

The Shiny Mercedes 770

We moved the Mercedes off the road and parked up beside the soldier's large brown tent and followed him inside. He explained that he, Corporal Chauve, was in charge of this roadblock station under orders from Inspector Heroux, and that Inspector Heroux had asked him to watch out for our return. Corporal Chauve had heard that we were the experts in the issues that had been plaguing Tunis, and that Inspector Heroux had requested that we assist the Légion by investigating the compound of Monsieur Augustus Herschel, the German art dealer. Apparently, some of these possessed creatures that were being shoot down after issuing forth from the city were from his very own compound. 

"Isn't that where the closest column of smoke is coming from?" asked Gazala, having already identified the landmarks around the base of that particular column.
"Oui, oui" exclaimed Chauve, "Merveilleux, you are already on the case. Merci, merci"

Bernard noted that our armaments had been depleted and requested a resupply before we could "possibly take on such a dangerous mission on behalf of the Légion"

We still had four sub-machine guns with us, and Chauve provided a box of twelve grenades, a rifle for each of us, and a couple of boxes of ammunition. We were also carrying a few of the "magic" items with us from our previous adventures. Specifically, Jacob was wearing the Medallion (which controls the tracking skull, currently quiescent), Gazala had the Ghost Mirror and her Dagger, and the skeleton of the three-eyed baby was in the boot of the Mercedes, silver-sealed into an old tool chest.

As we were heading out from the tent to load into the Légion's transport de troupes, a rattle of machine gun fire rang out and a couple of the second class legionnaires dragged over a bullet ridden body, dressed in the typical German army "Brown Shirt" uniform. We had previously observed these "Brown Shirts" marching around in Herschel's compound. The body had a myriad of bullet holes across its chest, but no blood, and its fingernails were noticeably elongated and dangerous looking.

"Thees is wheet we are farcing" Chauve explained.

Gazala leapt forward, whipped out her Dagger, and sliced through the body's neck like a hot knife through butter. The Legionnaires staggered back, and as its head rolled across the dusty ground at their feet (again, no blood) Gazala yelled at them.

"Vous êtes des idiots. You must decapitate immediately, and then burn the parts"

Dusty Transport Truck

Then we all loaded into the back of the truck and the driver took off towards the city and the burning compound of Augustus Herschel. Gazala was still grinning at the dumfounded look on the faces of the two Legionnaires as we sped away.

The driver skidded to a halt some distance from the outskirts of Tunis and waved his arm in the general direction of the smoke. 

"C'est aussi loin que je vais" he grunted "This is as far as I go"

Columns of Smoke Billow up from Tunis

We leapt off the back of the truck, slung our rifles and machine guns over our shoulders, distributed the grenades and ammunition around, and made our way into the city. The stench of acrid smoke was everywhere, the northerly winds blowing the black clouds billowing up from Herschel's compound south across the city. 

There was hardly anyone around, so we easily made our way through the outer districts and soon arrived in the vicinity of Herschel's compound. Feeling like caution would be the safest option given the unknown situation ahead, Mezmer stripped off his clothes and sung his strange Invisibility chant and faded from sight. Gunter applied his Stealth skills and scouted a safe route to an abandoned warehouse building just across the street from the compound, Mezmer trailing him invisibly.

Looking down from the second level of the abandoned warehouse they could see that the smoke was billowing out from the roof of the two-storey main residence building at the far end of Herschel's compound. The whole compound was surrounded by a ten-foot-high chain-link fence topped with coils of barbed wire. At the far end, beyond the burning house, stood a tall steel lattice radio mast, while at the near end was a single storey building just inside the fence. 

Between the near building and the burning main two-storey residence was a large open courtyard where around ten brown clad figures could be seen lurching around the yard. They were staggering about aimlessly, and occasionally one of them staggered out through the gate and shuffled off into the city. Every so often, another similar brown shirt clad figure would stagger out of the burning building and join those within the courtyard.

Mezmer, still invisible, waited in the abandoned warehouse while Gunter snuck back to get the rest of the mob and lead them all back to the warehouse. Some discussion ensued, and it was concluded that a more subtle entry into the compound from the rear would likely be safer than using the front gate and passing all the possessed creatures.

"These might help" noted the invisible Mezmer, while a pair of wire cutters floated through the air.

We located another old warehouse, not so abandoned, but empty of occupants and full of grain, on the far side of the compound, and we all made our way safely over there. The view wasn't so good, but we could see the rear of the compound fence, and that there were no people, or possessed creatures, in sight. Just before we all moved to the grain warehouse, Mezmer reappeared, totally starkers, and calmly got himself dressed.

"What?" he exclaimed, "Never seen a naked man before?"
"Ewwww" winced Fleur.

We crept up to the fence at the rear of the compound, Cooper quickly cut out a small door flap, and we slipped through. We jogged past the radio mast and up to the rear wall of the burning two-storey residence. Cooper peered through a dirty window and reported some type of office inside.

"But the window is locked" he declared.

Bernard swung the wire cutters.

"La fenêtre is open" Bernard contradicted.

The room wasn't too smoky or too hot, so we climbed in through the window to the office. Gazala wasn't too keen to head inside, so she waited outside and stood guard, which turned out to be not as sensible as it sounded at the time. While we were rummaging through the office, looking for anything interesting in the cupboards, drawers, and files, Gazala let out a loud squeal.

One of the possessed ghoul creatures had come charging around the back corner of the house and launched itself at Gazala. She was quickly overcome and collapsed to the ground unconscious.

[Gameplay is based on a Simple Pulp Cthulhu (SPC) system. As Andrew states is his rulebook summary, SPC is an offshoot from Pulp Cthulhu which itself is a 2016 offshoot from Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu version 7 rules. CoC started in the 80s and has gone through 7 versions since then. SPC is a D20 “roll-low”, skill-based system. Character skills are initialised from archetypes only (not professions & archetypes like V7). 
Richard rolled for Gazala's attack against the Ghoul using her attack skill of fourteen but rolled a twenty. A fumble! Since a fumble is definitely not good, Richard spent two of Gazala's Luck points to "stop the fumble" and the attack became just a miss. Rolls are opposed, so the creature's successful role meant that Gazala was hit. Having already decided to attack, a Dodge of the attack wasn't possible, and seven damage was inflicted. Gazala has more than seven hit points so was still up and fighting at this stage, but seven damage is more than half Gazala's hit points, so the attack caused a Major Wound.
Gazala also has the Rapid Attack combat talent which allows Richard to spend two more Luck points for a second melee attack in the same combat round. Which Richard did, but the second attack also missed. In the next combat round, Richard again decided to attack, and spent another two Luck to gain two attacks in the round. The first opposed attack roll was not successful, and the creature hit for another four points, enough to knock Gazala unconscious. All attacks are effectively simultaneous, and Gazala's second attack as she fell did actually hit for one point of damage. Gazala was Bleeding as a result of the Major Wound though, and needed to make a roll against her Toughness stat at the end of every round after the wound, or die!]

Not wanting to see another one of our own consumed by these creatures, Cooper bravely leapt through the window to hold it off, and Bernard lowered his rifle onto the windowsill and took a shot. The bullet took the creature through the forehead for fourteen points of damage, but it was still "alive" and attacked Cooper. The creature swung its elongated fingernails towards Coopers face, but missed, and Cooper's return knife swipe cut into its neck, and fortunately killed it.

Cooper scooped Gazala up off the ground and passed her in through the window to Jacob, who immediately performed First Aid. Gazala groaned and sat up. [Richard successfully made Gazala's Toughness roll, Gazala didn't die that round, and Chris successfully made Jacob's First Aid roll and cured two points, stopping the Bleeding and bringing Gazala round]

We were all in the office now, the only door was closed, and a small trickle of smoke was curling through under the door and wafting across the room and out the smashed window.

Smoke filled the corridor

Gunter cracked open the door, peered out into the smoke-filled corridor and crawled out on his hands and knees. After a few minutes, he crawled back in dragging a body.

"This guy was stuck halfway through a door on the other side of the corridor up there to the right. The source of the fire is behind that door, but I've closed it now. Hopefully, the smoke should dissipate from the corridor now" explained Gunter.

The body was a male, dressed in a white lab coat, no wounds, and thankfully with normal fingernails! Gazala cut off his head anyway and tossed the body and head out the window.

"Just in case" Gazala grinned.

"So, what was burning?" asked Mezmer.

"Couldn't really see. Lots of machines and pipes and stuff" answered Gunter.

Once the smoke had lessened in the corridor, we explored off to the left. One other door on the left leading to another office, and one door to the outside at the end of the corridor. With just the one other door that led to the fire, we were missing the stairs to the second level.

We found them in the second office. A door we hadn't spotted in the corner of the room led to the stairs. All was quiet up there, although the crackle of flames could be faintly heard. Gunter tried to sneak up the stairs quietly, but old timber staircases are notoriously creaky. No exception here ... "creaaaak"

At the top of the stairs was an obvious radio operators' room. Desks covered in radio equipment, power cable snaking all over the place, charts on the walls, and papers over all the desks. The stairs continued upwards to what appeared to be a trapdoor out onto the roof, and there was one door that led towards the centre of the building.

Gunter quickly moved over to the door and checked for heat. Not much, so he opened the door slightly and peered through. Thick black smoke billowed in. On the other side of the door was an open balcony to the whole other half of the building. The deep orange glow of flickering flames could be seen through the dense acrid smoke that was billowing upwards and into the sky through a giant hole burnt through the roof. The crackles and pop of timber and metals being consumed by intense heat filled the balcony. Not good at all.

Gunter slammed the door closed and prepared to head back downstairs.

Meanwhile, in the office at the bottom of the stairs, Wonton heard a scratching noise from the door to the corridor and gave a yell. Bernard, Mezmer, and Wonton all aimed their rifles at the door, and Gazala drew her magic dagger and stood behind them.

The door was flung open, and a figure surrounded by smoke entered.

"Blam, Blam, Blam" rang out as the rifles all discharged.

A brown shirt ghoul fell into the room and lay unmoving on the floor. No blood.

Gazala rushed over and decapitated it.

The door to the burning laboratory was open again, and the corridor was filling with smoke. Gunter volunteered to crawl up and close the door, provided he was covered by the rifles as he moved. He got to the door and was just pulling it closed when an arm swung down through the doorway from the room beyond and raked Gunter across the back. Gunter hugged the floor while the brown shirt ghoul stepped through the door and prepared to shred him.

"Blam, Blam" and the ghoul fell back into the burning room. Gunter slammed the door and scurried back to the others. 

"If they keep coming through there" Hubert noted, "We'll need to set up a kill zone covered by the machine guns and rifles. We should be able to clean them out in no time"

"Can we use this rope somehow?" asked Mezmer. 

He had this uncanny habit of finding useful stuff. 

[Mezmer has the Resourceful talent; spend two Luck to find a certain useful piece of equipment]

The rope was attached to the door into the burning room, the machine gun was set up on the floor in a prone firing position, and Bernard was standing with the rifle. Mezmer also found a broomstick which was used to push the door open. Smoke did pour into the corridor, but also another brown shirt ghoul. A round of machine gun fire successfully took care of that one, but Bernard's rifle jammed up. 

While the door was open, Hubert tossed a grenade, hoping to take out a few more creatures inside the room. Unfortunately, he missed the door and the grenade rolled off down the corridor and exploded. Everyone had ducked back out of the way, but the blast damaged the walls.

We reset the door trap and lured out another of the creatures, but the door was getting quite blistered and charred. It didn't look like it would last much longer, so we all withdrew to the original office where we had entered. Fleur, Gazala, Jacob, and Wonton clambered out the window and raced for the hole in the fence. Mezmer bravely decided that he might be able to recover useful information from the upstairs radio room and raced for the stairs. Bernard, Cooper, Gunter, and Hubert waited in the office, covering the corridor in case any more ghouls emerged, util Mezmer got back.

He never came back.

Mezmer drops from the roof

The flames soon burst through the door and the damaged wall, and we were all forced to retreat out through the window and back to the grain warehouse. Mezmer joined us soon thereafter. He had got trapped upstairs by the advancing fire, climbed out onto the roof, and dropped off the edge of the roof two storeys to the ground below. He barely twisted his ancle in the fall. [D10 falling damage, which could have killed him, but he luckily only received two points of damage]

He did recover some notebooks filled with German script, but they turned out to be transcripts of pretty boring supply messages. There was nothing more to be done there, the fire had escaped the laboratry room and had engulfed the whole house. We could feel the heat from the door of the grain warehouse, so we decided to head back to the roadblock and recover our Mercedes. That would get us around the city to the other fire sites a lot quicker than walking, and there were no other vehicles nearby that we could commandeer. 

The Church of Sainte Croix

It only took us a half hour to get back to the soldiers, where Gazala exercised her feminine wiles on Corporal Chauve. He was more than happy to resupply our spent ammunition and grenades. He also provided a replacement rifle for the one that Bernard had effectively destroyed. We quickly loaded up the Mercedes and headed back towards the city. Our target was the next closest column of smoke, and it was soon apparent that we were heading for the vicinity of the ancient Sainte Croix church. The very same church that had been the source of the earlier "problems" we had encountered in Tunis.

The church wasn't burning, but some buildings just along the street looked like they had suffered a bombardment of artillery and were definitely ablaze.

While we were watching, Wonton noticed someone staggering out of the church building in priestly vestments, behaving exactly like the brown shirt ghouls from Herschel's compound. In fact, there were quite a number of "bystanders" that were behaving exactly like the brown shirt ghouls from Herschel's compound. When they all turned and started lurching in our direction, Bernard hit the gas and we raced off, towards the next distant column of smoke. The creatures followed until we were around one hundred yards from them, whereupon they shuffled to a stop and started aimlessly wandering about at random.

"A hundred yards" noted Wonton wisely.

The source of the next column of smoke was the Banque de Tunisie. The very same bank that had the vault. The very same vault that was storing our magical treasure!

"Mon Dieu" exclaimed Mezmer, "Mes affaires"

Ghouls were also spotted there, so we raced off to the fourth and last column of smoke.

You guessed it, the office of Calomnie de Tunis. Our own newspaper office, and our apartment.

"Mon Dieu" exclaimed Mezmer again.

Final Encounter

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Oliver [Jeff], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. 

Marmalading: Debbie [Steven] and Ouzo [Darryl].

Well, here we are, Dexter and myself, safe in the little hamlet of Hymer Saddle. We have no idea where the rest of the group ended up. Could be dead, eaten, in orc bellies. Could be slaves to the orcs, or impregnated by them [dark spawn can impregnate any creature, a la Alien]. Could be in the Saucy crater for all we know.

But let's take a step back...

We were in a corridor battle with some tough fighters who had struck from invisibility. The battle had used half my power, healing those who were damaged. During this fight, Oliver had found a secret door. Since the time we were in this complex, he was flipping from being possessed by his evil knife and sometimes not. At this very moment, the knife was stronger and he shot down a secret side passage, with Ouzo and Scuttle in hot pursuit. 

At my feet, Dexter suddenly woke up from his marmalade dreams. He was blind! I suspect this was a side-effect of Cellar (his cat) being killed. Well, no problem. I now had the Cure Blindness spell, so  ten seconds of casting, and he was right as rain.

As we could hear a group of orcs approaching (from the barracks we found earlier), and the last fellow had been dropped, I signalled to the rest of the group and we all took off after Oliver, down the secret side passage. Debbie had dropped with marmalade and was out of reach, so we left her to the orcs.

"Looks like honkey's back on the menu, boys!"

Down the secret passage, we stepped over the newly marmalading bodies of Ouzo and Scuttle, and entered a large Malechai shrine chamber, complete with an obsidian altar. There was a woman's body lying on it; I recognized her as Malechai witch Odette Pearson. Standing by the altar was Haley Price herself with a wicked dagger, and off to one side a third witch that I did not recognize.

This all took half a second, because in that time Oliver, boline in hand, pulsing black, stabbed it into Haley. I heard Tu next to me get off an arrow which hit the side witch.

Hayley screamed and then ... there was a mighty explosion.

"Oh no, not again," moaned Tu, who caught a massive chunk of the blast.

Bear copped a lot too, as did Dexter. And they all dropped like dead men. I was shaded by Tu and Bear so barely caught a zephyr. Surprisingly, Oliver, standing right next to the source, was unaffected - apart from being turned entirely black. Hayley and the other two were totally minced.

Tankard and Gillard were behind us down the passage, conducting a fighting retreat from the orcs who had just arrived. So they didn't cop any of the blast. And Ouzo and Scuttle were protected by marmalade.

So, I set to curing. Bear was brought up, which used most of my powers. Tu was too injured to even attempt, so the last of my Vingt et Un "resources" was spent on Dexter... and they fell short - not lucky today. I was now completely out of spells. What was worse, I could not get a link in this whole complex [ priests need to get a "link" to their gods to recharge spells ].

Bear ran down the passage to help Gillard and Tankard, just as Gillard fell. While he did this, I searched the bodies of the four near me and found our last heal potion on Scuttle. This was enough to at least rouse Dexter. 

Tankard and axe

Bear and Tankard managed to push the orcs back to the secret door, and slam it. And then the two could both hold it closed with their combined strengths.

Oliver found a secret door in the altar room. This led to a secret witch bedroom, so we searched that.

The orcs thumped and banged on the Tankard/Bear door for a while. Then it went ominously silent.

Scuttle began to stir, and then sat up [ Chris had arrived late ].

Tankard was very sick, so needed curing. Oliver had found a belt of small potions in the secret bedroom. One was a healing potion, so he claimed. He gave it to Tankard, who promptly collapsed. Was this the "evil Oliver"?

No time to wonder. There was another secret exit from the bedroom. It went to the magical room with shallow water (we passed this on the way in), so this was a viable escape path.

We made a plan to get me outside, to somewhere safe, where I could link up to 21 and recharge.

So, we all gingerly crossed the shallow water - only ankle deep but it reeked of magic. We all got across, except for Bear, who was carrying the unconscious Tankard; he suddenly sank into the water with no trace. He was shouting and we could hear him. It sounded like he was in the room, but nary a sign. He said he was in a dark deep pit.

Scuttle could hear the orcs down another passage (I guess they had circled around). So, we continued with the plan to get me recharged and, leaving Bear safe in the water room "pit", rushed outside. We found a rocky outcrop in the central canyon area, so hid the unconscious Ouzo, Gillard and Tu there. 

Scuttle sprinkled with
invisibility powder

Scuttle sprinkled the invisibility powder on himself, and used noises and taunting to lead the orcs outside, away from our "camp" and up the ravine (past the gargoyle sentinels). The hope was that the orcs would stay away long enough for me to get some spells.

 Scuttle reported back after about 25 minutes that the orcs were well away, at least for an hour.

Scuttle and Dexter kept watch over me while I recharged. I managed 90 minutes, which is about half. Oliver used this time to get some spells back too. 

The orcs were returning, so I quickly used all my spells to heal Gillard and Tu, bringing them both up. Then we all returned inside.

The orcs headed past the water room and off deeper into the caves. Maybe back to their barracks.

The material component 
of a Spider Climb spell.
This must be eaten whole, alive.

Returning to the water room, Oliver thumped on the floor with the staff he found in the witch's bedroom, and dropped through the water "floor" into the pit. It was three Olivers deep so his Armour spell saved him from the fall, and sure enough, Bear and Tankard were here. So, with a judicious Spider Climb on Bear and some rope, all three got out.

Tankard was carrying four healing potions himself! ("Where did these come from?" "Why did he not drink them himself earlier?" "Why didn't we search him earlier?"  "Did they just ... appear?") so we gave him two to get him up.

Tankard, straight away, attempted to attack Oliver for poisoning him, but a Charm Person sorted that. More evil behaviour by Oliver?

I needed to return outside again to fully recharge, so the plan was that I would take Dexter and Tankard as guards, and head back to our original camp (where the Price warhorses, gear, et al were). Oliver would need to help us get up the cliff wall with some more Spider Climb spells. 

Tankard loses his last two
potions

But Tankard didn’t make it to the top of the climb and fell, taking a massive amount of damage (which would have killed two normal men), but he survived. The fall smashed his last two potions too ...so Oliver claimed.

Oliver fetched Bear and they carried him back inside to the altar room.

So, Dexter led me to our camp. I was expecting the orcs and wolves to have found and ransacked it, but no. It was fine. The warhorses were fine.

During the night we heard a large party of orcs and wolves travelling about, but they didn't find us.

So, fully charged now, we headed back to the canyon cliff edge, planning to meet Oliver one hour after light, who would Feather Fall us down the cliffs. But no. The canyon floor area there was deserted, but there were signs of disturbance, and fresh barricades had been built in the tunnel entrance. We assumed orc trouble in the tunnels had prevented Oliver from getting out. Or maybe, with no healing, they were all dead.

We returned to the spot several times during that day, but nothing had changed.

We stayed one more night in the camp. There were more patrols during the night, and they were ominously getting closer. In the morning we checked the canyon edge, and no sign of anyone. 

Rather than risk another night, we headed klibwards back to Hymer Saddle. So here we are...

Myrtle Rust

Afterword:

"Looks like half-elf's back on the menu, boys!"

Unbeknown to Myrtle & Dexter, the orc activity had got more intense in the caves. The orcs had been reinforced and were breaking in past the secret doors to the shrine area. During one bout of exploring, the rest of the party (sans Debbie) came across another teleporting picture. They ended up back in Toluene.

What happened to Debbie? Maybe half-elf flesh was back on the menu after all, and the orcs had a good time eating marmalade-flavoured bard? 

This is the end of this campaign.

The Caves of MALECHAI

Present: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Darryl], and Tu [Shane]. Only Dexter [Jamie] was flopping about in a "marmalade" state. The NPC Dwarf fighter Tankard was guiding us through the Oble hills and is included in the party this week. 

The charging Orc's of five minutes ago

"Well that was easy" boasted Tu, flicking Orc blood off his sword.
"Is it over?" asked Debbie, dazedly looking around at the Orc bodies scattered across the ground, their blood already washing away down the hillside in the persistent heavy rain.

It was only mid-morning and the ambush party of twelve Orc's that we had spotted had been dispatched. 

"Got to choose your battleground!" grinned Tankard, "Now, let's get going"

After a quick scout around the bushes where the Orcs had been lying in wait for us and finding nothing of interest, we continued on deeper into the hills and found ourselves a shallow concavity in the side of a rocky cliff to shelter for the night. The rain was still falling and visibility was minimal. Which turned out to be a really good thing!

During the second watch of Myrtle, Oliver, and Scuttle, a loud guttural screeching was heard out in the night. The sleeping party members were quietly awakened, and the magic Telescope was extracted from the Bag of Holding and setup at the mouth of our "shelter". The sound of wolves howling joined the screeching noises as we nervously donned armour and drew weapons.

"I smell Orc" whispered Tankard.
"I see Orcs" whispered Myrtle, as she peered through the Telescope. "And wolves, and probably goblins. They look like they are searching for something"

We watched about 20-30 mixed creatures for about twenty minutes until they moved off downhill, in the direction we had come from earlier. Thank heavens for the heavy rain!

They never came back, or at least, we never saw them on their return. Morning arrived with no more incidents occurring. But it only got a little lighter. Dark clouds were massed all along the ranges and the rain was falling even heavier than it had been overnight. After a cold and damp breakfast, we started off again towards the higher ground somewhere out there in front of us.

"Pretty sure I saw some lights up there last time I passed" mentioned Tankard. "Strange coloured beams of light stabbing upwards, about a mile from the actual Hymer Saddle"

Just after midday we found ourselves a good dry and defensible location where we set up a basecamp. After establishing ourselves there and having a quick lunch, we moved off to reconnoitre the area ahead. We were pretty close to Hymer Saddle and Tankard thought we should be in the immediate area of those lights he had previously observed.

A dense murder of crows approached

As we were dragging ourselves through the dense bush and up a steep ridge, Myrtle fortuitously spotted a Murder of Crows through the bush. Everyone ducked to the ground and attempted to hide amongst the wet undergrowth. They were sweeping along the top of the ridge, obviously on some form of patrol, but dropped down the other side of the ridge before they came too close to our location. 

"Phew" noted Ouzo, "Way too many to shoot down!"
"Now we follow them" instructed Tankard.

At the top of the ridge Myrtle and Tu cautiously raised their heads over the highpoint and peered between the bushes down the other side. The rest of us waited just below them.

"Telescope please" requested Myrtle.

The trusty magic Telescope revealed a large rock cliff face on the other side of a shallow and bush filled valley. A narrow ravine cut its way through the cliff face, and it could be seen that at the end of the ravine there was a large open area. And it appeared there was indeed a cave entrance there. 

"A cave" exclaimed Oliver, "Just like in my dream"

But, two large stone statues stood to either side of the ravine, about half way along its length. They faced outwards, towards us, and their arms were outstretched, palm forward.
[I'm sure you get the picture] 

The guardian statues

"S'tat u bro? chuckled Bear quietly.

Also, we could see that the ravens appeared to nest in there. Hundreds of them perched along the ravine and in the cliffs and the bush that we could see on the far side of the ravine. They were continuously launching from perches, flapping around above the cave entrance. 

We slipped back down from the ridge, stowed the Telescope, and retreated back to our basecamp. Once back there we fed the horses, fed ourselves, and settled down for the night and some heavy planning.

"Impossible to use the ravine without those "statues" sounding an alarm"
"We could circle round and climb down the cliffs"
"I can't climb down there"
"What about those climbing potions?"
"Or the Spider Climb spell"
"But the Crows"
"How about that Wall of Fog spell?"
"Or the Invisibility dust"

And on and on until ...

"My knife is vibrating" squealed Oliver, "Although, not like undead ... but just ... vibrating"
"And both your arms have turned black again!" accused Scuttle.
"And my Sword is glowing blue" exclaimed Tu.

Something was definitely up! With deft use of Tu's magic Sword [This was the magic Long Sword that glowed blue in the presence of undead creatures, or evil creatures] we determined that there was an aura of evil emanating from Cellar, Dexter's cat, that we had picked up from the basement of Ingrid Barnett in Penstoke. Suspecting some form of MALECHAI witch linkage, probably spying on us for ages, Scuttle took Cellar outside the camp for a walk while the rest of us held a brief council.

An aura of evil emanated from Cellar

"Kill it"
"But there might be some form of connection to Dexter"
"Kill it"
"The witches probably know all our plans now anyway"
"Kill it"
"We could capture it in a sack"
"Kill it"

Just then Cellar came flying back into the cave. Literally flying, well literally thrown in by Scuttle who immediately followed.

"The bloody cat attacked me" Scuttle yelled angrily.

Oliver, thinking quickly, let off a Magic Missile II spell, which zipped across the space and hit Cellar in the head. But the missile seemed to fizzz, no burn, no yelp, no apparent damage.

"That's impossible!" stammered Oliver.

Tu leapt for Cellar, taking a nasty scratch on the arm, but missed. The scratch almost immediately turned a nasty dark infected red colour, which started to spread upwards towards his elbow. Ouzo managed to slip a sack over Cellar and tie it shut. Cellar certainly didn't like that and hissed and growled from inside the sack. 

Ouzo tied the sack up from the roof of the cave, Myrtle gave Tu a Neutralise Poison potion which seemed to do the trick, and the arguments started up again.

"Kill it"
"But there might be some form of connection to Dexter"
"The bloody thing poisoned me"
"We could use it to pass disinformation"
"The bloody thing attacked me too"

Blood dripped from the sack

Ouzo thrust his sword through the sack, a number of times, until the hissing and writhing stopped. Blood dripped from the bottom of the sack in a steady stream.

"Oh, look at Dexter" exclaimed Myrtle, and rushed over to him.

Dexter had slumped to the ground just as Cellar had been killed, his marmalade now stained with blood. Myrtle immediately applied a Cure potion. Dexter was still breathing, but totally unconscious. Closer investigation revealed blood was leaking from the corners of his eyes, which had rolled back up into his head.

"Blinded" stated Myrtle, "There was some form of link to the cat after all"

The rest of the night passed without event. Dexter remained unconscious, Myrtle examining his eyes for hours. Oliver studied his spell book and muttered and grumbled about why his Magic Missile II spell hadn't seemed to work. Debbie quietly tuned her flute. Bear sharpened his axe. Scuttle played with the dead cat.

In the morning Scuttle was sent off to scout the cliffs around the cave entrance and see if the ravens were still there, and if they went off for regular patrols at all.

"Don't be too long" instructed Myrtle as he slipped off into the undergrowth.

He came back just as it turned dark! All damn day. But we hadn't been too too anxious.
Except for Myrtle, who had spent most off the afternoon pacing back and forward just outside the cave and regularly peering off through the bush, and muttering.

Scuttle reported that the ravens all flew off just after light, and were gone all day, returning just before dark.

"There was nothing there" Scuttle claimed, "I could have been down that cliff and into the cave in a heartbeat. But I just observed, as you asked"

Without the ravens present during the day, our climbing-in plan was going to work just fine, we figured. The night passed uneventfully, and the next morning we cautiously made our way through the bush, around the ravine location, to the top of the cliffs overlooking the open clearing and the cave. No ravens, the plan was looking good so far.

Potions of Climbing for the fighters, Bear, Gillard, Tankard, and Tu, and they headed off down the cliff face like it was a walk in the park.

Spider Climb spells for the non-climbers, Debbie, Myrtle, and Oliver, and they all scuttled over the edge and actually ran down the cliff face on all fours.

Ouzo looses his grip on the cliff face

Ouzo and Scuttle bought up the rear, like the professional climbers they are. And around half way down, they both slipped on the greasy bit (they claimed) and tumbled off the side of the cliff. If it wasn't for Oliver being so alert, they may have plunged to their deaths. But he saw their predicament as it occurred, and managed to cast two Feather Fall spells that dropped them both gently to the ground beside us.

"Wow" puffed Scuttle, "Can I do that again?"

But we just slipped into the dark cavemouth beside us and headed into the darkness. 

The cave immediately opened up into a natural chamber with two round openings ahead of us. Beside each opening stood a smaller version of the statues we had seen back out in the ravine. But these ones had their eyes open, and they were definitely tracking us as we moved towards them.

Oliver pulled out his cursed Boline dagger, which was once again humming with suppressed power, and was as black as a hole in the night sky.

Boldly stating "They are with me" Oliver held up the cursed Boline dagger and led the party through the right hand opening.

"Oh crap" muttered Scuttle, "Do we want to be with him?

After about twenty yards a round opening in the right wall of the tunnel appeared. A small room, carved from the rock by hand and lined with brick. The sheen of rippling water reflected across the entire floor to the door on the other side.

"Nope" noted Bear, and led us straight on till we encountered a crossroads in the passage.
"Which way now" Bear asked.

There were no tracks on the ground, no noises from either direction, and no drafts. And although Oliver's cursed dagger was still thrumming with contained power, Oliver wasn't feeling any pressure to turn either way. But he did put the dagger on the ground and give it a spin. It came to rest pointing into the wall. Ouzo wanted to search for secret doors in the wall, but Bear just turned right and continued on.

The tunnels led off into the distance

After quite a march we arrived at another crossroads, and this time there were faint sounds from the left. We went that way, and after some distance arrived in a man-made room, carved into the rock, that housed ten barred cells. All the cells were occupied, but only eight were occupied by the living. Their low moaning echoed around the room, a mix of emaciated humanoid creates huddled in the far corner of the cells. There was also a further exit on the far side of the room, which likely led back to near our starting location in this cave system.

"Larder?" queried Scuttle, peering in at a naked human female in one of the cells.

 Just then a booming sound echoed down the passage we had just arrived along, and then we detected voices speaking, and footsteps. Heading our way.

"Orcish" whispered Tankard, "Hide, and get ready to fight"

Tu figures that a rush down the unexplored passage would eventually bring him up behind whoever is approaching, so he and Oliver quietly bolt ahead, to get around behind.

Scuttle scampers straight up the wall and secures himself in the darkness above the passage opening.

Ouzo tries to follow, but slips off the wall and drops. Fortunately, he executed a mid-air cat-like twisty spin and landed lightly on his feet. So he slipped a short distance up the passage after Tu, and froze in the darkness. The non-fighters followed Ouzo into the gloom. Myrtle readied a Silence spell.

The fighters and Debbie crouched down on either side of the tunnel, and waited for the Orcs to arrive.

First into the room was a human women in long black robes. She was yelling and berating the three Orcs that followed her into the room. And they were all totally surprised by the Silence that descended over them, and by the swords that swung silently at them out of the darkness of their "larder". Suckers.

Bear swings a mighty blow into the witch's torso, but only inflicts two damage. Debbie, Gillard, and Tankard engage the Orcs. The witch was quick on her feet and managed to leap back into the tunnel and flee. The three Orcs block our access to the tunnel and fought bravely to allow their mistress to escape. Luckily Scuttle managed to evade the Orc's in the confusion and raced off after the witch, his little short legs pumping furiously to try and keep up.

Despite the overpowering odds and our initial surprise attacks, the Orc battle became quite drawn out. Debbie was quickly cut down by a mighty double strike [The Orc roiled a critical hit followed by a twelve on the critical table, two extra damage, knocked onto back, attacker gets a free hack at +4] and fell back, unconscious and bleeding.

Tankard proved the hero of the hour, his strikes eventually felling each of the three Orcs, although Gillard and Ouzo bothclaimed the respective kills.

Meanwhile back down the tunnel complex, Oliver had outpaced Tu and was barrelling along at his maximum pace, Tu puffing and panting behind him. The tunnels did indeed connect and they were soon racing down the third and final leg of the triangular loop when Oliver spotted a darkly clad figure running towards them. It was Ingrid Barnett of Penstoke, MALECHAI coven member, and right then, enemy number one!

A witch appears from the darkness

Without even a pause for thought, Oliver charged right into her and attempted to grapple her to the ground. He wasn't able to get a good grip though, but did prevent her from casting any spells. Tu followed right behind and swung his sword at her. There was a magical flash and Tu's three points of damage were somehow absorbed. The witch drew an evil looking dagger from her robes and Tu and the witch went at it.

Oliver tried to assist, but somehow only managed to get in Tu's way and distract him from the fight.

"Back off you clod" yelled Tu, narrowly dodging a slash from the witch's dagger. The blade was glistening with a sickly green substance which Tu wanted no part of. The skirmish went on for a minute with Tu and Ingrid trading blows, until Scuttle arrived and surprised the witch with a Backstab to the butt cheek, whereupon she stumbled and collapsed to the ground. Not wasting any time Scuttle fell on her and with a flurry of hacks and a spray of blood, separated her head from her body.

Scuttle stripped the body of all items, a necklace with MALECHAI's symbol, a glittering bracelet, a ring, the glistening dagger, and her flowing black cloak. Picking up the decapitated head, Scuttle started back down the tunnel towards the others.

"You bring the body" he yelled back to Tu.

Back in the cell room, Myrtle had Cured Debbie and was checking the various people locked in the cells. Not to free them, but just to make sure they wouldn't die while we cleared out the rest of the underground complex. Bear and Tu opened up one of the cells, with a dead occupant, and tossed in the Orc bodies, and the decapitated body of Ingrid. Scuttle threw in the head and slammed the door closed.

We decide that it might be safer for Ouzo to use one of the last Invisibility potions and head out to explore and map the rest of the complex. Surely someone will come looking for Ingrid or the Orcs when they fail to return, so time was of the essence. 

About thirty minutes later Ouzo returns and provides us with a rough map, marked up with a few notes.

Kitchen with 8-12 Orcs, Empty sleeping chamber - 3 empty beds only, Torture room with smelly pit, watery room, Pentagram passages, Centre area with no doors.

Suddenly we hear a slam, like a door closing heavily, from somewhere down the passage ahead and near the centre of the complex.

"Secret doors" nods Ouzo sagely.
"Um" whispers Oliver, "Can anyone else hear that chanting?"
"Keep an eye on Oliver" instructs Tu, "I'm sure he tried to attack me earlier"
"In fact, why not tie me with a rope so I can't take off suddenly" suggests Oliver.

Scuttle does exactly that, and secures a rope around Oliver's waist and takes a firm grip on the end.

We all move cautiously towards the centre of the map, and begin searching the "inside" wall of the passage for secret doors. We spread out a bit, with the fighters at each end of the search area and examine the walls.

Suddenly Ouzo yells and leaps to the side as a dark figure appears right behind him and swings a Short Sword at his back. 

"Beware" yells Ouzo as two other figures appear behind Tu and Gillard. Tu is caught off guard by a huge man wielding an axe, which bites into his back for one point of inflicted damage. Gillard is also caught off guard as another big guy swings a Long Sword overhand into her shoulder for one point of inflicted damage.

A mighty battle erupts, the three no longer invisible fighters against our fighters. Weapons flash, swing and smash and the passage is filled with grunts, curses, and the clangs of combat.

Oliver casts a Detect Invisible to check there is no one else waiting silently nearby to pounce, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. As Oliver peers each way down the passage, he spots an irregularity in the rock of the passage wall, walks over to it, and with two quick thumps on the rough protrusions, springs open a hidden door. He whips his vibrating dagger through the rope around his waist, and slips through the door towards the intriguing chanting drifting from just ahead.

Back at the battle, Tu lets off an inopportune fart and is distracted for a round [8 on the fumble table, Belch and fart, loose next rounds attack], Gillard is struck unconscious, and Bear knocks one of the fighters to the ground. Debbie hasn't even noticed there is a battle going on and continues to search the wall for secret doors.

Just to make matters worse, a loud klaxon starts to sound, its piercing screech echoing up and down the passages. 

Tankard gets in a decent blow with his axe!

But Tankard gets in a decent solid blow with his Great Axe and drops another of the attackers. Only one left now, the one with four points of armour absorption! The one that smacks Tu across the head with his weapon, dropping Tu to the ground and turning towards Bear with a nasty grin.

Scuttle has noticed Oliver's rope going slack, and spun around to see Oliver disappearing through the door. He yells to the others and gives Ouzo a shove towards the hidden passage.

"I'm too slow, get after the traitor" he shouts.

Ouzo draws an arrow from his quiver and steps into the secret passage. Oliver's back is just fading into the darkness ahead, so Ouzo looses the arrow which thumps into Oliver's back. There was a magical flash and Ouzo's three points of damage were somehow absorbed by Oliver's robe. [Oliver always maintains an Armour spell on his person at all times. Now that he has achieved level three and has the Armour II spell in his book, he uses that. This spell provides eight points of damage absorption before dissipating and needing to be re-cast. So three points gone from eight available] 

Oliver slips into a room at the end of the passage, and Ouzo can see an unknown female in black MALECHAI robes standing in front of a stone alter. Her hands are raised to the air and a low guttural chanting is issuing from her mouth. Across the alter slumps the emaciated and withered body of Odette Pearson - the inn owner and witch. Also standing at the alter was Hayley Price, the wizard from Penstoke whose husband we had turned over to the REAL Temple at Toluene.

Oliver strolled up towards the alter, and Ouzo skids to a halt before wantonly charging into the room.

Meanwhile, back at the battle in the passage, Myrtle has Healed Gillard and Tu, and Bear, Gillard, Tankard, and Tu are alternating attacks against the big guy. Gillard gets in some serious hits with her armour piercing blade. It will only be a matter of time before our hero's cut him down and take the battle.

But, Orc shouting can be heard from off down the passage, and the thumping of heavy feet are approaching! Time is not on our side it seems.

The dead body waits on the alter

Return of Tankard

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. 

Marmalading: Debbie [Steven] and Dexter [Jamie].

From Myrtle's diary:

Rewinding back a bit of time before Oliver's Hymer Saddle dream: while we were doing the post-battle tidy-up and licking wounds, Oliver was feverishly doing an Identify on the magical short-sword. In Oliver's case, this spell takes a whole day. This turned out to be +2 OV. Scuttle bagsied that.

We left for Toluene with the two charmed (Animal Friendship) Price warhorses and captive Thomas Price himself (husband of Malechai witch Hayley Price). This trip would take three solid days and two nights on the road.

Dotted line our path: Penstoke to Toluene,
then back to Penstoke, then to Oble hills

REAL Priest Ingbot Mosley of Penstoke had sent dispatches to Toluene REALs. As these were sent by Gnome Post, they would arrive at Toluene in one day (far faster than us).

It was a quiet day of travel in light drizzle. The first night was at a way-station stockade, but was uneventful.

The next day was clear and quiet, and we stopped at a way-station in a small wood. Again, we were the only group there. This way-station building had glass windows; luxury.

Halfway through the night, twelve glowing balls, the size of squash balls, started bouncing against the windows, like firefly moths. Three came under the door. Tu, Ouzo and I were attacked by them and were electrically zapped. So, we resorted to using hessian sacks to block the gap under the door. Then more sacks to catch the ones inside, which we funneled outside.

During this encounter, Cellar (marmalading Dexter's cat companion) took off up the chimney and was gone. Not wanting to go outside with these dangerous things around - I identified them as will-o-wisps - we cowered the rest of the night inside.

The next morning, the wisps were gone, but Cellar had not returned. Scuttle climbed into the roof of the way-station, and spotted a tower off to one side in the wood.

We investigated the tower on the off-chance that Cellar had gone this way. It was four storeys and very old. But there was a newer door on ground floor. Arrow slits on storeys three and four.

The door was trapped and locked, but our thieves took care of that. Just inside were the rotting corpses of two orcs, a couple of days dead. We could hear cackling upstairs.

Sparrow

So, we forayed up. There was a bedraggled, but very attractive, woman. She introduced herself as Sparrow, a sage. She knew a lot about us: our names, our quests, our histories. She was rather disparaging of Oliver "That one reeks of evil". 

There were a bunch of the will-o-wisps floating around her room - her pets. She offered one for me to stroke, but all this achieved was one hell of a zap. Tu too. But the wisps seemed to take to Gillard, and she never got zapped. Sparrow gave Gillard a blue wisp as a pet.

 

In a cage off to one side was Cellar. I asked for her and Sparrow nodded, but upon opening Cellar's cage, he shot out the room's arrow slit and down the side of the tower.

Sparrow then claimed - well, boasted - that she could easily cure Oliver's curse, but it would result in him losing his boline knife. This was too much for Oliver who took off, downstairs, out the door, and into the forest.

Tu organized a party conference. He suggesting that we all take Oliver by force, but Tu wanted all of us to agree. I certainly agreed - that boline knife was part of the Malechai prophesy so better gone than not. But Tu insisted that one naysayer (apart from Oliver!) would be enough. 

Sure enough, contrary Gillard refused. So much for that idea.

Later, when we were all outside the tower again, Scuttle threw a stone at the tower and it went through an arrow slit into Sparrow's room. This act enraged her and she zapped him.

I returned to Sparrow to see if I could get any more info about Oliver, but.. Sparrow had forgotten all about Oliver's curse. Mad as a march hare? Strange...

REAL High Priest Brian Crabb

So, we left Sparrow and headed back on the road to Toluene, arriving a couple of hours after dark-fall. Oliver left for the Wizards' Guild. The rest of us went straight to the REAL temple (Oliver's evil knife prevents him from going anywhere near REAL properties. so good thing he had left us anyway). Here, we got a late-night audience with he REAL big-cheeses High Priest Brian Crabb, Priest Pitt the Procrastinating and Paladin Michelle Journee (but not Alistair Katala, the REAL "Pope"). Sure enough., the dispatches from Priest Ingbot in Penstoke had arrived two days before, and a cleansing squad had been sent off already. (We should have passed them on the road - but we didn't. Maybe they passed while we were with Sparrow.)

I relayed the story of Sparrow, but they didn't know about her. They did however offer to cleanse Oliver: "We can certainly get rid of that cursed knife of his," but the High Priest told me that it was doubtful that frail Oliver (with his low CON) would make it through the cleansing. Boiling holy-oil enemas and blood distillation is seldom survivable.

Thomas Price was taken into REAL custody. He would be magically questioned by the REAL staff. 

"We will contact you when we have an answer," proclaimed High Priest Brian.

Ouzo then got us, via the Toluene Thieves' Guild, a secret apartment to stay a few nights.

Two mornings later, we got summoned. Thomas' interrogation had revealed all: his wife Hayley Price and some other witches were now in the Oble Hills near Hymer Saddle. This agreed with Oliver's dream, which was a small consolation. Hymer Saddle was the next most klibwards crossing of the Oble mountains range (from the Toluene Pass). It was two or three days travel from Penstoke.

Oliver's cursed boline knife

So, we left that day, headed for the Oble Hills. It did cross our minds that the prophesy (confirmed by Oliver's dream) said that Oliver was one of the Malechai witches and that the boline knife he was carrying was THE sacred item required for the ritual! But never let a prophesy get in the way of a determined party. 

The REALs had a mercenary called Tankard the dwarf. A superb strength-fighter and clad in heavy armour. He knew the Oble ranges, so they insisted we take him.

The three day trip back to Penstoke was uneventful. We passed by the Price farm to see if the REALs had visited. Sure enough, it was just a blackened smoking hole. Flame Strike and Sunray does do quite a bit of damage.

Then we headed towards Hymer Saddle. The first day and night were uneventful. 

The second day was overcast and drizzly. We entered the foothills. About noon, with the aid of the magic telescope, we spotted a squad of 13 orcs. They were out during the day, which did not bode well.

Tankard now took the lead. He guided us up trails through the hills and told us when to hide and when to move. Apparently, there were bands of orc scouts all about - not that we saw any....

... until later that afternoon. Tankard spotted a large group ahead. Ouzo, doused in the invisible powder (20-30 mins) went to investigate invisibly. There were 12 orcs in an ambush position. We are a large party and not very quiet with our armoured folk, so this was expected, I guess.

So, let them come to us. We chose a good ambush position, let them see us deliberately, and they did come to us.

It was a relatively big battle. After a few arrow shots (which dropped one orc), Tankard, Bear, Tu, and Gillard took on two orcs each. Ouzo and Scuttle hid so that they could back-stab. The remaining three orcs took on Oliver and me (Oliver fought with his new Armour 2 spell, so he wasn't too worried, despite being so frail). And Debbie and Dexter marmaladed.

Apparently we are strong enough to take on 12 orcs with not too much risk. Gillard was dropped, a few of the group took some wounds, but after a bunch of my cures we were right as rain. That said, my spell reserves were halved, and this was not a safe space for a long rest.

Onwards and upwards, Malechai here we come!

Myrtle Rust