Return to Le Brun

 Present

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff

• 

  Lois Price

  Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• MARMALADING  Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

by Ian

As Lois finishes her breakfast in the morning, there is a note to go see Sally Price, (Lois's Mum) and she dutifully heads off. 

Sally asks if Lois is _SURE_ that the party has no more Slisher tech?? Lois admits to the comms devices and the party will use the two they have. 

"Ok, but please return them when you are back".

"Sure," Lois replies. "Happy to get those back to you."

Lois does not mention the several other items the party have. 

The party gather up and Lois tells the crew about the morning meeting with her Mum. The weather is overcast and colder, typical for this time of year. They manage to secure passage on the Bawdy Phaggot tramp cutter to Brokenmouth. The trip is uneventful.

They obtain a barge and horses and head up river. Again, the trip is easy. The weather turns miserable with cold, wet downpours. They reach the first village of Sloth and stay in the familiar Broad Bean tavern. Asking around there is no news of the gnoll activity klibwards. 

After drying out and resting, the party head off to another grey day. Another uneventful trip to the next stop, town of Cynic. They lodge in the Gnome Cravat and there is more talk of the Gnoll activity further up river. News that Le Brun has been fully sacked and overrun. No survivors.

Off to Vesper. Half a day in and the group on the barge notices a body floating face down in the water. They draw the barge near and its a small boy, very recently killed by gnoll arrows. The more observant notice a plume of smoke about two leagues away, slightly inland. This area is all farming so they suspect a farm.

Jack sternly insists that the party investigates whatever evil act has occurred. He sends the boy down river with an official Aquamarina funeral. 

The barge is anchored and the ever sneaky Munch and Cody head off toward the smoke.  About 15 mins out from the smoke, looking toward what looks like a farmhouse and grounds, Cody makes Munch invisible. Munch heads off to the house.

Munch observes the farm house is well alight and ransacked. A woman's body and three men (assumed to be workers) are strewn all over the place, littered with Gnoll arrows.  A horse is dead and half eaten by the stables. Munch spots what seems to be 7 or 8 gnoll tracks heading klibwards.

Munch realizes there really is nothing to do so heads back to Cody. He taps Cody gently on the shoulder and they both return to the barge for a de-brief. 

Journey continues to Vesper...

Vesper seems to be more alert and there is an obvious elevation in guards, defensive wall upgrading. There is a lot more town chat on the gnoll activity.

Last stop before Le Brun is Amist and the trip there is uneventful. Again there is a LOT more guard and defensive activity. The party check in to the Bicep and Torso. A lot of chat on gnolls and raids.

Le Brun

The party set off for Le Brun. They negotiate the Dead Falls effortlessly [party luck roll '1'] and one and a half hours out from the village, start looking for a safe barge landing spot.

While a terrific spot was identified, Jack makes a meal of the approach and hits the bank and submerged log, thus tipping the barge over and spilling everyone into the side creek they are navigating. Unfortunately the impact causes damage that Willow (the master builder) determines at a couple of days of repair at best.

"Perhaps there are abandoned barges in the village?" Lois optimistically suggests.

"Yeah, lets check and hope that there is a decent barge lying around"

The broken barge is well hidden and the team set camp.

As its about two hours before dark, Cody decides to cast Wizard Eye on Lois's cottage, located on a point on the stable roof that overlooks the grounds and front of the house. He sits and narrates what he sees.

There are gnolls moving around and loitering. They often leave and return to the stable. The house and everything looks ok. Over time, the count of different gnolls was at least 11. Could easily be more. 

There is a human woman walking around (no armour) and a man wearing studded leather and has short sword and bow. Another man appears and joins them. Again, wiry looking. 

The humans head into the house. No gnolls go in the house at all. The gnolls stay in the stable, grounds and on the cottage porch. The cottage has lanterns lit.  Around midnight the gnolls are shooed into quarters and all the lights go out. 

Le Brun in ruins

Cody eventually nods off at midnight and the Wizard Eye finishes. In the early hours, the party rouse and decide to get closer to the village. They get to 10 minutes away and locate a good hiding spot. At light, Cody turns invisible and heads into the Village. It is in ruin. Wooden buildings are burnt to the ground. Bodies lie everywhere. There are no gnolls to be seen. The only building that mostly remains is the Golden Tongue inn as it is made of Stone. Unfortunately no barges either.

Cody walks through the woods to the rear of Lois's cottage and the secret tunnel entrance. It is still
there. He enters and walks through. Everything is as was left weeks ago by the party. The small room at the end of the entrance tunnel was there with the door broken. The portcullises open. He walks through and [fails penalty perception roll] sees the old slisher body rotting on the floor. Eventually Cody gets to the strong double door that kept Unt's pet in its pen, and it is closed and barred from the inside. That was left open as the group left last time. It is as far as Cody can go so he heads back.

***

The Cottage Assault

After a short rest and recovery, the party move secretly to the hidden woods tunnel. They all move down and into the larger room. One thing that is immediately noticeable is that the thrumming that generates web snot is weakly noticeable.

"Hey Cody, did you not feel this?" says Lois.

"Nope - didn't feel a thing" Cody responds.

Lois, Tom and Jack all feel the web snot starting to form again.

At the barred double doors, Willow uses his druid Animal Form ability to turn into a mouse and he heads under the doors, to the room with the perfect hole in the floor (to the pod). He notices a really strong thrumming here. The mouse goes quickly through the room back to the kitchen cellar. Something smells really bad and it seems to be the meat store. Not much edible in there now! Through the cellar and up the stairs to the kitchen where he smells and hears the cooking of a nice meal. He also notices the presence of a small terrier dog. That is enough and he speeds back to the double door. As the bar is heavy and Willow is weak, he passes BACK to the group as a mouse, while he still can.

"Why didn't you open the door!" the party complain.

"Because it looked heavy and I would be STUCK if I couldn't lift it" - he replies indignantly.

"Fair enough" the party agree.

The Trap

The party pause and plan. Go forward and attack from the cellar? Go back and attack from the path? Perform more reconnaissance?

About 30 minutes after the party arrived, there is a noise behind the group and the opening behind them transforms into a solid stone wall! Tom tests it and it is solid, real stone. 

"It seems we have been spotted" 

Tom points into the corner of the room at a strange object that Cody confirms to be a Wizard Eye. 

As the decision has been made for them, Lois casts Knock on the door and the bar flies off. 

Munch volunteers to sneak down the perfect smooth tunnel, to the metal pod. He makes good progress...

Meanwhile the party are waiting and they hear a feint zzzzzzppppp and a muffled Munch groan "ooomph", along with something meaty hitting the floor. Munch fails to return.

Cody and Tom decide to investigate while the rest of the group form a defensive wall in the tunnel room. 

Cody and Tom do not see any sign of Munch or attacker. They are carefully walking along the flat tunnel when Cody perceives a flash out of the corner of his eye. He tries to dodge but is outclassed by an attack. A human male produces a magic stick light wand [light sabre] and hits Cody. Cody drops instantly with a significant wound.

Tom misses the surprise attack, but quickly readies to smack the living daylights out of the attacker. However, there is no sign of him. He has already turned invisible again. Tom flails around randomly trying to cover the width of the tunnel. Tom also yells out they were attacked and there is an invisible person. 

The party hear and all move carefully toward Tom, Cody and Munch (wherever he is?). Eventually the party sees Tom in the distance. Lois casts Detect Invisible and there is nothing to see. They all meet up. Lois scans Cody with the scanner, and Cody restores to full health. Terrific device that. The scanner is really dimming now. Hope it holds out a little longer! 

"Surrender or your friend dies!!!" a voice emanates from the hole that the pod is in. 

Cody makes Tom invisible and Tom heads forward to the hole. The rest of the party engage the attacker to keep him distracted. 

WAARRRPPP, WAARRRPPP, WAARRRPPP - Tom steps closer and an invisibility screamer on the floor in front goes off. This guy has all the tricks.

There is another zzzzpppp from down the hole, a flash of light and the smell of ozone. Everyone rushes forward. They yell at Tom to move back to shut the screamer up. He does so.

The group pick up the invisibility screamer and head to the edge of the hole. That trick works both ways! Munch is splayed out on the roof of the pod. Lois scans Munch and he returns to full health and leaps up. There is a distant noise from the cellar direction that gets everyone's attention.

Cody and Munch again work together. Munch opens the door to the Pod using the code, Cody drops in a fireball, Munch deftly closes the pod door. Wuumpppfff. To be sure, they repeat the process.

They finally open the door again and Esme drops in. The screamer is not activating, so they do not suspect the enemy is invisible. There is no sign of him. Just in time, Esme notices that there is a familiar pink glow from under the floor. A quick look shows that the Pod portal is active. There is a new trap door to access the underside of the Pod, and the portal. They have been busy.

While there is a lot of smoke and mild burn damage, the pod is in tact and operational. The remainder of the party, except Tom, pile into the Pod. They notice that an active screen now shows 4 green dots. The guess is that each one marks the position of a pod:

- One at Porn City

- One at Grey Bank

- Two here at Le Brun, close together 

The party locate a new comms device in a drawer. It looks a little different. There is an image with a lightening bolt drawing on it. This disappears when lifting it up from the drawer. 

There are three icons on the glass:

- A person icon that Cody, with Comprehend Languages reads as 3 contacts:

- Amelia

- Maier

- Siobhan

- The drawing that you push to talk to someone

- A little drawing with a small '1' 

Cody presses the talk icon next to 'Siobhan' and THIS device vibrates. So this is Siobhan's "phone".

Cody presses the drawing with the '1' and a strangely familiar voice suddenly speaks out from the device, "They will be there in 6 days or so. Be ready for them!"

"Hey" observes Lois... "That sounds like my mother!!!!".

They repeat the message several times and Cody and Lois confirm that this is the voice of Sally Price.

"What the hell? We have been set up," Lois laments.

Lois checks the portal and there is no hex keyhole on this one. They prove that this is the side that you can enter and it is a one-way portal.

Cody casts a Fireball into the portal. It fires off and does NOT go through. Everyone (except Tom - Lois's coat absorbs 3 more points) takes damage. They won't do that again! [Lucky it was a bad roll! 5 on 3D6 ] A few rounds of curing occur. There has been nothing coming from the cellar direction, despite the noise.

Tom is summoned back and voids his Invisibility, and the screamer is picked up. 

Through the Portal

For some reason, the decision is made to all go through the portal, hoping that the exit point is that second green dot in Le Brun. They all file through ... and end up in a hot room with three wooden, iron-bound door on three of the walls, and a pink portal on the remaining wall. There is a lit fire pit in the middle of the room generating light and heat.

There is no sound from beyond the doors and none seem to be locked.

Munch investigates each door.

1. The straight ahead door. There is a passage that soon enters a room that has two very life-like statues of ugly warriors with large stone axes. He does not enter and retreats. 
2. Leads to a corridor with three alcoves either side of the passage. In each alcove is another stone statue of an ugly warrior with a huge axe. He does not move past them.
3. Short passage ends in a large room that seems incredibly hot. Munch cannot see into far into the room. He returns.

The party decide to send fighters into Door 1. Esme, Tom and Rock head in. The 2 statues wake and intercept. The fight progresses with successful hits that allow Jack into the room for a 4 on 2 fight.

While the fighters are performing extremely well, it seems that the solid stone monsters take very little damage. They respectfully retreat and the golems(?) return to their waiting spots.

Back in the starting room, the party notice that the pink portal (where they entered) is now gone. 

They decide to check out the sizzling hot large room. Munch sneaks further in. There is a channel to one side that has an active lava stream. No wonder this room is hot (50deg C).

However, Munch also notices three massive red, lizard like, creatures (salamanders?) basking in the warmth of the room. That is a no go...

Six alcoves

Next idea and Cody attempts Rock to Mud on the corridor with the six alcoves.

The spell works succeeds and the corridor and the 6 statues all melt into a blog of mud. [This fifth-level arcane spell affects 100 cubic metres of rock. ]

Esme bravely leads forward and steps through the mud. She luckily avoids a trap door collapse in the floor toward the end of the corridor. Looking down, it seems to be a long fall into a subterranean room. Piles of bones under the trap. Carefully stepping past, she gets to a room with a door on the other side. Unfortunately there are two firepits. Each has a wispy creature shape in the flames. Probably fire elementals. Darn.

The party explore all the areas they can navigate for secret doors or anything that the original attacker might have used to get past all these obstacles. Nothing.

Munch lowers his magic Rope of Climbing down from the trap opening, into the room below. He descends. There is a large stack of bones just below the end of his rope. Munch can't quite reach it. He also spots a very recent body that looks very much like the attacker in the tunnels under Lois's cottage. The body is lying off to one side. "Hey , do you lot have something I can reach the pile of bones with to check it out?"

Esme decides that her 2m long +2 magical sword is totally fine to lend to the weak Munch to hang off a rope and prod bones with. 

Esme's sword

Munch teeters at the bottom of his rope and dangles the fabulously expensive and heavy sword at the bones. A skeletal hand reaches out and grabs the blade. With next to zero resistance from Munch, the blade is taken and drops into the pile of bones. Esme screams.

Ardern leans over and casts Detect Evil and sure enough, mild evil in the pile of bones. Ardern successfully climbs down the magic rope and turns undead. Three skeletons leave the pile and head across the room to a far exit. One of them drags the sword across the ground. Ardern still detects evil in the pile. 

Cody steps in and drops a Fireball that was a bit limp. Casts another that smacks the pile of bones. No more evil from the pile.

Cody and Tom enter the room and inspect the body. It is indeed the attacker from Lois's cottage. The victim is withered and seems drained of all life force. Ardern checks again and there is a STRONG evil presence somewhere near.

Cody casts Detect Magic and notes:

- Magic Short Sword

- Magic Dagger

- Magic Ring

They also spot:

- Large red gem in the guys hand

- Metal Slisher attack tubes - one was Munch's

All gathered up. Meanwhile three skeletons enter the room. One still with Esme's sword. Rock and Jack join Tom and the skeletons are dispatched effortlessly. Esme gets her sword back.

Next week to decide what comes next....

Back to Porn City

 Present

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• MARMALADING  Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

by Andrew

Captive witch

We last left the group, having finished with the canyon caves, in their hidey hole in one of the convenient copses of trees at the top edge of the canyon. They had taken the leader of the group, a witch, captive. She was safely stowed, blind and gagged.

They were worried about being followed, so the divine spell Obscure had been cast to perfectly hide any trackable trail.

 [ A future rod for our own backs? With 100% concealment of tracks, all the baddies we track from now on will do this trick too (if they have a pet priest). ]

"Without their leaders and half of them dead," Esme pointed out wryly, "do we really think that they will follow?"

"Gnolls are organized," said Willow. "We need to worry."

But, needing to recharge the party spellcasters (Cody, Lois, Esme, Jack, Willow, Arden) they had to stay another day and someone had to guard. Munch and Rock were marmalading, so that only left Tom by himself. He was too thick to be trusted, so Esme stayed awake too and forwent her recharge. 

They stayed the entire next day in the copse, hidden and unmoving. During the day, three gnolls came to to inspect the now empty pond, but there was no other movement down below.

The witch started to stir in her ropes. Tom just bashed her with his spikey mace, which brought on severe internal brain bleeding. Esme had to spend some precious spells to save her life.

They did a quick survey of the items they had taken from the witch's cave. Detect Magic showed these as magic. 

• The hex key - to open the portal under the waterfall (back to Greybank - hopefully).
• A magic longbow and arrows.
• A dagger
• A wand
• A comms device (a word was plucked from the air to name this: "phone")

Night travel

That night, the group the left the copse, and headed out into the plains. Even though orcs and goblins have dark vision, they were up against gnolls and ogres as well; these ones moved during the day. And during the day, you can see a long way...

Two more Obscure spells were cast, then they travelled all night until light-on, and found a gully.

That day, the spellcasters needed more rest. Those on watch, saw a suspicious murder of crows flying nearby. But the murder didn't head towards them.

They travelled the next night. A bunch of wolves and giants crashed around out on the plains. It was a clear night so starlight gave some limited vision.

They found a gully just before on light-on. So, they experimented with the witch's phone. Cody's Comprehend Languages revealed the names "Mayiar", "Amelia" and "Siobhan". Suspecting the witch was named Amelia, Cody phoned that name, and sure enough, her phone vibrated.

That night it was time to move again.

Four hours from light-on, two hours from Waterfall crater, the party's luck ran out. A large group of gnolls, wolves, ogres, and a giant attacked.

This battle raged on for a while [like, a good hour of game time]. The party prevailed. Mention in dispatches:

• The fighters, Tom, Esme, and Jack took all the attacks and kept the raiders off the spell-casters

  

  Willow's pwoor widdle dog

• Cody's drained all his magic with fireballs, aided by Lois's transfers.
• Ardern and Willow's healing spells kept the fighters going
• Jack fought with the light sabre (from the Le Brun pod), and discovered it has limited charges. He drained it.
• One of Willow's dogs was splattered all over a rock

After licking their wounds, and cure spells all round, they hurried off to get the crater before light-on. They did not want to be spotted by the garrison of nasties on the crater edge.

Down in the crater, they moved quickly to the waterfall pool. 

Behind the waterfall, there were hand-holds in the rock face which allowed you to climb up to the tunnel, which went down to the portal cave. 

Not wanting to risk anything, Cody cast Spider Climb, ate his live spider, and scurried up the wall, then threw down a rope. Tom followed and basically hauled everyone else up. [Many party members have crap DEXs.]

In the portal cave, it was exactly as the party left it when they were here a week ago. The circular portal shimmered, bathing the entire cave in dim rose-coloured light.

Portal

Cody got out the hex key and it slid neatly into the lock, fitting exactly.  The circular stone could turn to one of four positions. 

Throwing stones at the portal was tested for each position. Two of the four positions allowed the stone to vanish through.

Lois volunteered to go through. So Cody chose position One. Lois's orders were to try immediately to come back, then wait ten seconds and try again. 

After ten seconds, Cody would turn it back to position Zero, and Lois would try again.

She vanished. Cody waited ten seconds. Nothing. Oh dear.

"Well, we all have to go now," said Tom.

This was agreed group dynamics. In cases of one-way portals, if one member goes through, everyone goes through. [That, or Lois is written-off and Ian makes a new character.]

Cody turned they key back to One again. Pulled the key out - lucky that worked.

And everyone went through.

And ... 

... the whole group was back in Greybank, in the Chi estate, all squashed into the metal pod.

"I couldn't get back," explained Lois. "Even after ten seconds."

There was another hex key hole in the floor of the pod, near the trapdoor hinge. 

"How, in Mister Quail's name, did we miss that when we searched this thoroughly?" complained Ardern bitterly.

The hex key hole had a similar four positions like the crater one. Cody left it as they found it: in one-way mode through to the crater from here. Presumably blocked at the far end.

The Chi estate had not been touched in the week the group had been away. So they spent the next few days resting, recharging and curing. Plus Cody and Lois cast a bunch of Identify spells on the recovered items. [Bow is +1, Arrows +1, Dagger +1, all to hit. The wand was Lightning with 5 charges.]

The witch was healed and then interrogated. She claimed she was called Sharleen, even though the group had her phone. She made up some nonsense to explain Cody's testing of her phone, and denied she was Amelia.

Esme wanted to kill her and use Speak with Dead - which always tells the truth.

"You will regret it if you hurt me," said Amelia, putting up a brave face.

"Tell someone who cares," said Esme, as she got out a knife. "Let's have a vote. Who votes for Speak with Dead on her?"

"I do," volunteered Tom.

"I am sure your temple-fighter of Aquamarina would have something to say about that, miss," said Amelia.

"Damn right," snapped Jack. "No killin' in cold blood here."

Aquamarina was a Good-leaning goddess. Killing in cold blood violates her precepts.

"Well, that's one," said Esme, surveying the room.

"I'm a No," said Cody.

"Me too," said Lois.

"And me," from Willow.

Ardern just smiled gleefully. Mr Quail was the god of Trickery and Deceit, so his priestess could go either way. But she said, "No."

Losing the vote, Esme sulked.

Cody stepped up. "Why did you kill Thackery? 

"The gnolls did that," said Amelia. "He was already dead when I found him."

This was probably a lie. Or else she ordered them to.

"Tell us about the cult you belong to."

"I don't belong to a cult."

"Why do you live with the orcs?"

"They serve me. Plus, I am looking into the demise of Angel."

"Who were you talking to, on that ... talking-thing?" asked Cody. He held up her phone.

"Did you see that?" said Amelia genuinely puzzled.

"I sure did. You your bedroom. Your boudoir,"

"What? There?"

"Answer the damn question," he snapped. "Who were you talking to?"

"Um. I was talking to Mayiar. I have worked for her for many years. But I don't know really her. She belongs to the Halo Wizards' Guild."

Over the next few days, the group hired a barge and made their way back down to Porn City.

Lois and Cody took the captive Amelia to the Wizards' Guild, and handed her over to Sally Price, the party's patron and Lois's mum. Lois gave a full report. Sal demanded the group hand over all the non-magic but high-tech items. Lois only revealed Unt's phone and Jack's empty light-sabre.

"They may have got into your
summer house..."

"This is excellent, dear," said Sal. "I am very proud of you."

Lois beamed.

"In your absence, it would appear that a gnoll band lead by a woman known as Sophia, and her male sidekick, have raided and killed all the occupants of Le Brun. I am worried that they may have got into your summer home, and tampered with the sphere there. I want you to travel there."

Down the gurgler and other adventures

 Present

• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven

by Jeff

Munch snuck back into our hide sometime before dawn and reported on his discoveries. A potential back door into the enemy caves that will bypass the two watch towers and any patrols!

"It's perfect" Munch said, "And even Willow could fit through the tiny entrance."

"Well, we can't make it there tonight" noted Cody, "We'll keep a close watch tomorrow and can check it out tomorrow night."

Not much happened down in the enemy camp during the next day. The Woman and her two Ogre guards came out for water, some cooking was performed in the two fire pits just outside the cave entrance, and the two pairs of Orcs on watch in the watch towers were relieved by another two pairs of Orcs.

Everyone felt rested and energetic by the time night fell, and after waiting for a few hours to let the enemy patrols settle Munch led us in a large arc around the canyon to a small stream that meandered down from outside the canyon walls. Following the stream up towards the canyon, we found it soon entered a narrow gulch and then disappeared into a small dark opening in the stony hillside.

"I can't fit in there" exclaimed Willow, "Do you think I'm a tiny rat or something?" 

"You can" confirmed Munch, "I measured it last night and there is plenty of clearance"

And sure enough, Willow was able to squeeze his ample bulk into the opening, albeit complaining all the while about not being able to breathe and getting his trousers and socks all wet.

In fact, it was Ezme that led the party through the squeeze and into the cave. 

There was only room for one person to squeeze in at a time and Ezme was followed by Jack, Tom, Cody, Ardern, Willow, and Lois, with Munch bringing up the rear.

The cave soon opened out a bit, still narrow, but about 3m high.

We followed the cave, winding our way along between the rough stone walls, splashing through the water, for about a hundred metres before Munch pointed to a small ledge up ahead.

"Up there" stated Munch, "A small cave leads off away from the stream"

The narrow ledge sat about two metres above the stream, and once we climbed up onto it, we could see the small entrance in the cave wall that led off into the darkness.

"Bloody tight hole" mumbled Willow, "Do you all think I'm a rat or something?"

"Good idea" noted Ardern, "A rat will fit up there nicely."

"And you can check out if there are any enemies!" instructed Cody.

Willow used his ability to transform into a rat, then scuttled off into the opening.

"This is pretty nice water" declared Jack, (Aquamarina Priest!) "I'm going to explore up the stream and see if it leads to that small lake in the canyon"

"Why?" asked Tom, "We already decided we're not going in through the front"

"Just to see" answered Jack, "And, it's pretty nice water"

Jack lowered himself down off the ledge and headed upstream, his light slowly fading away until it winked out. Then his light winked back on and brightened, until he was back with us.

"Got a bit steep" Jack reported, "Give us a hand will you Munch"

So, while Willow was off ratting down the tiny tunnel, Munch and Jack explored upstream.

"What was that adage about splitting the party?" wondered Ezme.

But nothing happened. 

Willow returned safely out of the hole and reported that it wound along for some distance and then opened up into a much larger cavern, containing Orcs. There were about 20 sleeping mats there, with Orcs coming and going, between five and twelve present at any one time.

Jack and Munch returned safely from up the stream and excitedly reported that there was a magical pool of water in a grotto, which was the source of the stream. 

"Not sure what it does exactly" said Jack, "But it doesn't recharge magic points"

"And there is a water filled shaft that leads up to the canyon lake" continued Jack, "I'm sure of it"

"Magic" exclaimed Lois, "Lets go and check it out"

The party dropped down off the ledge and headed up the stream to the magical pool.

Except for Tom, he thought it was a waste of time.

"I'll be waiting here for when you come back" Tom grumbled.

"Me too" yawned Willow, "All this ratting has tired me out"

Willow made himself comfortable on the stone ledge and dropped off to sleep.

Tom tried to keep watch, but it was dark, and the gentle rumbling of the stream below quickly lulled him into a pleasant nap, and glorious dreams of mighty battles where he smashed his enemies into pulp with his new magical Morning Star. 

The rest of the party had scrambled up through the steep cascade of water towards the magic pool. Arriving at the edge of the pool, they all looked out over the still waters of the grotto. 

There was a slight sparkle to the water.

"Maybe Healing" suggested Cody, "You test it out Lois"

Lois drew her dagger and sliced it across her hand, drawing blood. Then she lowered herself into the pool and floated there for a bit. The blood dissolved and the wound slowly closed up.

"Healing" confirmed Lois, "And my web-snot infection had cleared up totally"

"Oh yeah" noted Jack, "Mine too. I hadn't noticed"

"Must be why that woman was bathing in the lake" declared Ardern, "I bet its magic up there too"

"I'll go up the shaft and check it out" declared Jack, "Cody, can you cast Water Breathing on me?"

"Snap" went Cody, and Jack dived silently into the pool and disappeared on his underwater adventure.

But he didn't return.

Some hours passed before everyone became concerned enough that a rescue plan was put into action.

Munch tested the rectangular communication devices to see if they could talk to each other. Sure enough, they could. The older one, Ugly Unt's, was able to open a channel to the newer one, Thackery's. And vice versa. Cody took one of them, tucked it into one of his multitudinous pockets, cast another Water Breathing spell on himself, and slipped into the pool, heading down to the submerged opening to the shaft that led up to the lake above.

Cody cautiously and stealthily pulled himself into the shaft. He spotted the side jet where the magic water was entering the shaft, seeping both upwards to the lake and downwards into the pool.

He pulled himself past there and continued upwards towards a faint glimmer overhead.

After ascending about twenty metres, maybe halfway to the surface he could see above, Cody felt an uncomfortable tingle pass down his body, like a weak static shock. Then a ton of rapidly moving water thrust him back down the shaft. 

He noted later that it felt like it had gone from a barely perceptible current to a thundering torrent in less than a second. Driven back down the shaft, Cody thumped and crashed along the stone walls, got pounded into the rocks at the bottom of the shaft, and was forcibly ejected from the pool as water erupted from the pool and thundered off down the cave.

As Cody dragged himself up the banks of the pool, bleeding from numerous cuts and contusions, [nine hit points of "falling" damage inflicted after failing his Swimming roll] he was certain that the barrier holding back the lake had failed, and the lake was rapidly draining down through the shaft and flooding into the cave system. 

As the torrential flood gushed up from the pool and cascaded off down the cave system, Munch looked on with horror as the water picked Ardern up from the side of the pool and carried her away. [Ardern suffered thirteen points of damage, was knocked unconscious, and carried some hundreds of metres down the cave system. In a stroke of Luck, she was deposited face down just metres from where Willow and Tom, by then very much awake, were watching anxiously as the water rushed past just below the ledge they were on.]

Lois was also surprised by the sudden upswelling of water and was blasted off the side of the pool and smashed into the walls of the grotto and then dumped high up on a small stone ledge above the flood line. [Ian failed his Perception roll, eleven damage, knocked unconscious, but made his Luck roll and didn't get washed away down the cave]

Ezme noticed the initial upswell of water, managed to jump clear, and was essentially a startled bystander as everything unfolded in front of her. She watched as Ardern was dashed away and Lois was forcibly thrown into the grotto wall. Then Jack shot out of the pool, carried by the torrent. He flipped through the air like a leaping dolphin and landed beside Ezme.

“Cool, aye?” he beamed. “Where’s Ardern?”

Ardern was at that point being pulled out of the flood by Tom and Willow. They pumped the water from her lungs, checked her breathing, and slipped her into the recovery position, and wondered how the others were getting on.

Jack explained to Ezme that after diving into the magic pool earlier he had emerged into the lake, explored around a bit, then attempted to return. But was blocked halfway down the well shaft by some solid barrier and couldn't get back to the party in the underground grotto. It wasn't until a few hours later when a whirlpool formed over the shaft and the lake water level began to drop that he had swum back out to the shaft and dived into the swirling water to shoot down the shaft like riding a hydro slide.

"Ah yes" commented Ezme, "Cody removed that barrier, so you could return"

As the water levels at the pool subsided, Cody rushed off down the chute to see what had happened to Ardern. Lois and Jack slipped back into the calming pool. The still-magical pool healed their Major Wounds and restored two hit points each.

"Back to the magic pool" commanded Cody when he arrived at the ledge where Tom and Willow waited with Ardern's unconscious body. And off they went, everyone once again together in the grotto at the side of the magic pool, returned now to its peaceful still state. Cody had noticed that his session in the magic water had cured him of all his lice and tics and apart from his still weeping sores and cuts, he felt refreshed.

A flurry of Healing spells were cast, and serious discussions were had.

"I guess someone will notice the lake is gone"
"It's still dark out there"
"Let's bugger off out of here"
"Let's attack through the orc tunnel now"

"Let's not"

Plans quickly gelled and the party went to work.

Munch scouted the stream exit to see if anyone, or anything, was investigating the flood. Nope.

Cody cast an Invisibility spell and snuck off through the orc chamber to scout the cave system.

The rest of the party sharpened up their weapons, counted their spell points, and prepared for battle.

Cody returned and reported that he had found Thackery, as dead as, hanging from the ceiling of one of the caverns, gutted, and partially eaten. But he had also found the woman, in a side cave, talking on a rectangular communication device to someone. About us!

"She's by herself there" sneered Cody, "And Thackery's pile of equipment is there too. Just a bunch of Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and a couple of Ogres to get through and we'll 'av her!"

"I reckon Fireballs" said Cody.

"With a Silence, so no one hears" suggested Lois.

"And I'll charge" declared Tom.

"Me too" said Ezme eagerly.

"And I'm in" said Jack.

"I'll guard the rear" stated Munch, "So ya don't need to worry about things sneaking up behind ya"

And it went to plan. Mostly.

Cody used his Invisibility (still running) to position himself in the perfect spot to include the occupants of the orc cavern in a Fireball, then triggered the attack by rolling a pebble across the floor.

As the four Orcs and two Gnolls casually turned to look, Lois cast her Silence just beyond the cluster of creatures to ensure no sound exited the cavern to the rest of the cave complex, and Cody dropped his Fireball into the centre of the creatures.  [Twelve points of damage, all the Orcs and one of the Gnolls failed their saving throws, and all of the Orcs went down in piles of smouldering skin] Of course, his Invisibility switched off when he "attacked".

Tom, who had dropped into the room after the Fireball went off, charged forwards towards the two remaining Gnolls, Ezme and Jack dropping down from the cave entrance right behind him. 

Tom's mighty swing connected with the first Gnoll's head, dropping it instantly.

Their wild return swings passed cleanly over Tom's head, hardly disturbing his hair.

Tom and Ezme engaged the last Gnoll in that first chamber and dispatched it effortlessly.

Simultaneously, Cody sent another Fireball into the next chamber where a collection of Goblins were milling around and cleared that room. But no Silence to mask the explosion, and surely the rest of the complex occupants would now know we were here.

Most of the party were down in the orc cavern at this point, barring Willow who was still struggling to make the two-metre drop from the little cave opening.

Munch, skulking about towards the rear of the orc cavern, warned Cody that a group of five Goblins were sneaking up from a rear passage and Cody cast another Fireball towards them.

"CRUMP", five more enemy Goblins scorched!

Willow finally arrived with the group and cast his Bless spell. This would add a one-point bonus to our saving throws against all things damaging. And we moved forward. Cody already knew that there were two chambers down that passage where a bunch of Gnolls and the two Ogres had been situated earlier and had warned the others what to expect. 

Cody cast his last Fireball along the passage before Tom, Jack, and Ezme stepped up. 

[The Fireball managed to catch the two Ogres and four Gnolls up ahead in its area of effect]

Tom and Ezme led the advance down the passage, Jack at their shoulder with the strange mini crossbow [a pistol by any other name] pointing forward past Tom's ear.

Tom stepped through into the next chamber and found himself face to face with a scorched Ogre, another standing just behind it, both scowling nastily at him. With a deft swing of his magical Morning Star, Tom's strike passed the first Ogre's defences, dealing a critical hit to its chest region. One down!

[A 1 on the initial D20 attack roll, followed by another successful hit roll, means a critical hit with additional effects off the critical hit table. In this case ignoring its armour, an additional D8 dice roll of damage, and negating its attack in the next combat round. Perfect]

Jack simultaneously pulled the trigger on the crossbow, and the tiny metal bolt shot off into the chamber ahead, past Tom and the two huge Ogres, and ricocheted off the stone walls to no effect. [His chance of hitting is quite low, but marginally better than his chance of hitting an ally! And the potential damage is significant]

Having dealt to the first of the Ogres, Tom and Jack pushed forwards into the chamber. Beyond the remaining Ogre were a cluster of three dead and still smoking Gnolls, with one still alive and heading their way brandishing a huge club.

Giving the crossbow up as a lost cause, Jack slipped it into its holster and drew out the second of the shock rod devices that Munch had handed over. This one had two buttons, and Munch's testing had discovered that each of the buttons generated some kind of glowing blade, one equivalent to a long-sword and the other equivalent to a short sword. [A light sabre, for those in the know]

With Tom engaging the last Ogre directly, Jack had the perfect opportunity to use his shock rod weapon. The glowing blade shot out as he pressed the activation button, a strange hum emanating from it, and he swung the blade at the final Ogre's arm. It passed straight through it, the arm dropping to the ground in a spurt of sizzling blood, and the last Ogre collapsed to the ground, dead.

But then a streak of red shot towards us from somewhere ahead.

"Duck" yelled Cody as an enemy Fireball exploded in our midst.

Of course, there was no ducking from a Fireball, and eleven points of damage was dished out to those in the combat; Tom, Jack, Ezme, and Cody. [Tom and Ezme made their saving throws and received a half dose, six points, less some absorbed by whatever armour they were wearing, none in Cody's case!]

Ezme had also engaged a creature, the last Gnoll standing. But not standing for long. One decent strike and the Gnoll toppled back to the deck, its skin still smoking from the previous Fireball, and blood and guts spilling from the large wound Ezme's two-handed sword had opened across its stomach.

Those still standing spotted the woman, standing by the cave system exit out to the canyon, and she was in the process of casting another spell. 

Lois, wearing her cursed magical cloak, [This cloak absorbs magical effects, points equal to the level of the cast spell being deducted from the cloak's capacity (was originally 20 points, but slowly dropping). We had forgotten about this previously as no spells can be cast on Lois, such as Healing, Bless, etc. and she can't remove it due to the curse] charged forward, confident that no spell would cause her any harm.

A Fireball would still engulf the rest of the group though, so prayers were offered. Luckily, the woman cast a Lightning Bolt which crackled and fizzed harmlessly around Lois as she barrelled straight into the woman, both of them falling to the ground in an odd parody of a wrestling match.

Tom, Jack, and Ezme rushed forward after Lois, and Ardern slipped into the chamber and cast a Healing on Cody, who had slumped to the ground in a smoking heap. The woman drew a dagger and managed to slice Lois across the arm, drawing blood, and causing a nasty stinging wound that rapidly darkened, some type of poison spreading quickly.

Tom brought his Morning Star down on her head, and Ezme threw herself onto the woman.

"Don't kill her you oaf" she shouted at Tom, who was raising his Morning Star for another blow.

Jack cast a Slow Poison spell on Lois, which seemed to slow the advancement of the poison effects. With his Morning Star still poised for an attack, Tom glanced around for any other enemies to engage. Nothing. They were all down. He reluctantly lowered his Morning Star.

"There might be others outside?" he questioned hopefully.

"There are for sure" replied Ezme, "Lots. But let's deal with this one first"

The woman, now unconscious following a gentle tap by Tom, was dragged back through the cave complex to where Cody had first spotted her talking on the communicator, and we thoroughly searched her and the room. A Detect Magic spell was cast over all the assembled loot. The woman's communicator didn't detect as magical, which aligned with what we knew of the others we had collected, but her dagger definitely was. As was the bow and quiver from Thackery's belongings, and the large ornate looking lock on the heavy chest in the corner of the room.

As Munch considered the lock with a thoughtful frown, a Cure Major Wounds was cast on Cody, and Lois cast a Knock spell on the lock. Unfortunately, the Knock spell failed, and in fact failed critically, generating a deafening noise booming out from the lock. Lois and Munch staggered back as the sound blasted on for a full minute, during which time it was impossible to think or cast any more spells.

Lois was then out of magical power, and the lock was still locked.

"I ain't touching it" warned Munch, "Not with some magic trap thing going on"

So, Jack cast a Transfer spell, depleting his magic reserves but successfully transferring some power over to Lois. Lois then tried again with the Knock spell, almost depleting her magic reserves too. But this time the spell was successful, and the lock sprang open with a snap and an electrical fizz.

A hexagonal key, a small wand, a bunch of gold, and some minor trinkets.

Then we left, back through the caves to the stream. A brief diversion upstream to the pool for a Healing bathe, and then down the stream to the outside. [Spell points for all the casters were pretty much exhausted, so Heals were strictly rationed. A few points for some Remove Tracks spells were held in reserve]

The dip in the pool healed up Lois's wounds, but the tingling cold from the dagger's poison was still present. Dragging the unconscious woman with us, we made our way cautiously back to our hide.

We knew there were plenty of creatures still out there in the wild, including the two pairs of Orcs on guard in the watch towers, the patrolling wolves down in the canyon, and the hunting party of Goblins, Orcs, Gnolls, and an Ogre. They were in for a surprise when they returned to their base!

Would they be cowed by the devastation we had left, or would they set out on a hunt to inflict vengeance on whoever had attacked and killed their friends and taken their leader?

We hoped for the former!

The Pinky Portal

  Present

Munch

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• MARMALADING Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

by Munch

Well there's we all stand, in a hole underneath a destroyed Shi Estate, no sign of Thackery, a vibrating orb around us, a hatch in the floor which we ain't seen before and in the open hatch a pinky coloured portal with a stick pushed halfway through it. 

Now what is on the minds of most of us? With this group of folk I have been with for some time now there is never a plan B, and usually not even some remote form of alteration of a plan A, so we all knew despite the back and forth discussion, that we would  always go through the portal. But we did the usual um and ahh like stuff before we traipsed our way back into the destroyed Shi mansion and settled down for a session of healing and general getting spells and stuff like that. 

Light-beam sword

I don't do none of that spell like stuff so instead got out the new spiky wand prong thingy and had a good shifty at it. Longer than the short one I already had, and this one with two buttons rather than one, must be twice as good. I press on one of the buttons, making sure me other arm was out of the way. There was no way I was gunna test this on meself or even anyone else in the party. Slap a dash and out comes this light-beam about the thickness and length of a short sword blade. Pressing the button again and it disappeared. Pressing the other button the same light comes out but this time the length and width of a long sword. I reckons if anything touches that light, whoopsey blam bingo and that's gunna hurt. But I ain't no good at those sorts of long weapons so reckons someone else might like to have a bit of a crack at this thing. Maybe someone will ask about it at some point.

Anyhow we all gets back up to fighting fitness and down we goes all ready for jumping through the portal.

The pinky portal looks back at us as we all stand around and Tom and Cody hatch a plan. Tom holds the end of a normal rope, no ways they're sticking me magic rope down that, and Cody slides down and through. Once he disappears Tom can no longer feel any vibration or movement on the other end, so of course we assume all is good and fine and one by one without hesitation we slide down the rope and through the portal, Tom securing the rope and coming down last.

There we all stands, in a cavern about 15 paces in length and a large pillar in the middle. This here pillar looks right out of place being sort of carved and man made like but nothing else around. Also in the side of the pillar is some sort of hexy hole cut into it and some smart bugger reckons some sort of key-thing would probably fit into it quite well. There is a thunderous sound in the distance and a sort of damp feeling in the air, so Willow changes hisself into a little bird and flutters off to check things out.

Meanwhile Cody decides to have a bit of a play with the pinky portal in the side wall of the cavern, you

know, the one we jumped through. He sticks a couple of things into it and is able to pull them back out but there is a problem, they have been cut off up to the point where he had pushed them through. Looks like going back through the portal could be a little risky on the staying-alive front.

Birdy Willow returns turns hisself back to human like and says there is a big waterfall what is in our way but there is land and the like beyond. Lucky we has Cody with us cause he has some fancy spell that will let us pass through the waterfall and not get washed away by it (Airy Water), so Jack volunteers to go through and check out what is on the other side.

Whilst he is away some of the party do various hand wavy stuff, magic all good and priests can connect with their god so we must be some ok'ish like place. So we all decide to go through the waterfall and find ourselves in a large crater.

Jack returns from his squizzing around and tells us all we is in a big crater with high walls and some sort of interesting hole right in the middle. so we wander off to this hole and there is one of the sliding

spirally tunnels like we have seen before with an orb at the bottom of it. So down we go but this time there is no orb at the bottom just a bit of old metal lying around, though the metal looks a bit like the stuff the orbs are made of. Nothing else of interest so back up the spiral tunnel we goes.

We head up to the top of the crater a bit of a struggle but we is all in good health so no real probs. Just below the lip, we stops, and Cody, the best sneaker we has, heads off to check out what is up there. He pokes his head up over the lip and spies a bit of a prob, a bunch of nasties in some sort of small camp. 

We is talking right nasties, Gobbos of course, some orcs, even gnolls but worst off some right major big bugger too (ogre or giant). We knows we is going to have to be right careful, so as to make sure we are not invited to their next barbeque, if you catch me meanings.

Cody is being real careful like, and it a little concerned so he decides to put his thinking cap on. Not only is he a pretty good sneaker he is one of them wizardy boys with all sorts of brainy like abilities, so he figures out that we are now about 1,000km clib (north) of where the other side of the portal is, and that there are a couple of towns not too far away from us, named Angel and Halo. After thinking and

scratching his chin for a bit he reckons Halo is a fair distance away and that the crater we are currently hiding in is at exactly the location of the town of Angel. Something mighty big has exploded here

and what was the town of angel is no more.

He knows he needs to find out some more so he sneaks up closer to the nasties to see if he can dig up more dirt on these boys. he casts one of his spells that lets him understand other languages (Comprehend Language)  and hears the following:

"What a waste of time, why are we here? We caught the black guy. We have to listen to the human black bitch who tell us to wait around, then she tortures and kills him. then tells us to wait here and guard, bugger this I am so bored and we is running outs of them good brub." 

Good info thinks Cody but then he notices some wolves a little way a way, who are also part of this band, and starts getting that puckering feeling in his nethers. Wolves can smell real good like and his current invisibility and sneakiness is no match for them noses. So he buggers back off to us, and it don't take us long to realize that plan z is the best option here so off we scarper as quietly and quickly as we can.

This we do successfully and soon the crater is well behind us, with me and some of the others making sure our tracks are well-hidden so we is feeling pretty good we can't be followed.

We are a bit confused after an hour so we stops and does a bit of talking like so as to work out what is going on. We works out some woman has killed Thackery and there is a blood trail that we are following but we don't know whose blood or why. Also Cody notes the sky-angle of REAL, and calculates that we is back in time, 7 days!

This makes me brain hurt, how can it be last Monday when I have already had last Monday. I reckons to just leave all this weird shit to them brainiacs. We reckons our best course of action is to use our dogs to just follow this blood trail, it is all we have left as a plan anyway.

As we follow the blood trail, these dogs of ours are right good at this stuff, we come across a figure in the distance strung up to a tree. We close on the slowly swinging figure we see it  has its guts and all

hanging out like, and it is a woman. On closer inspection we recognize her. It is Mage Till, one of them women from Greybank that was part of the weird cult up that way, and she looks like she has been dead for about a week. I tells you she was pretty ripe so I didn't get too close and we decides to just leave her swinging in the breeze what with none of us brave enough to get too close and what with us having no qualms with leaving the dead unburied. 

But there is more than air and sawdust between some of our heads so we decide to use more spell-like stuff Speak with Dead and have a bit of a chin wag with her before we heads off. It is some sort of complicated spell, we can ask 5 questions but she can only give us 1 word answers. What a palaver it took us for bloody ever to works out what we wants to ask but finally we end up with the following:

1. Were you following Thackery? yes
2. What does the woman want with Thackery?  Mayiar
3. Where were you headed? Thackery
4. Who is your leader? Thackery
5. Where is the hexagonal key for the pillar? Thackery

Off we goes following the trail in a battle direction, travelling at night and hiding out during the day. On the second night the trail begins leading down into a canyon and we decides to find a good hidey hole and watch and get a good shifty on things before going down too far. 

Well only after some bright bugger thought that maybe Willow doing his animal change thing would be a good idea, and he turns into an owl and flies around and through the canyon, seeing a large wooden outpost with figures and wolves in it, a large cave entrance and a nice hidey hole like copse of trees and bushes.

So with me great night-sight ability, I lead the rest of the party to the copse, we make ourselves nice and hard to see and begin a bit of a watch and see plan. Dawn does it's usual hitting one on the head and we observe quite a bit before we start thinking about what we do next. 

There is a spring in the middle of the canyon with a small lake around it but there is something not quite right with it. The brainiacs in the party reckon that it looks impossible as the water needs to flow out of the canyon but there is no stream or river leading out. In addition we notice that the wolves that Willow saw at night are not around during the day. the place is guarded by ogres with one at the entrance to the cave mouth and a couple by the spring. Cody does his invisible sneaky thing and hunts around above the cave mouth looking for a chimney or some way in but finds nothing.

Lady in the pool

Discussions in whispers are held as usual and the usual plan A comes to the fore. After a whole day of watching half the boys and girls are bored and want to do the usual charge thing right into the cave mouth. However it is decided to wait at least one more day which we do having a quite night of repose and then the next morning we sees this woman come out of the cave entrance head down to the spring and have a bathe and stuff. I was too far away to see much but I reckons she enjoyed it as much as I did. whilst I was keeping a close eye on this woman just to make sure she did no bad stuff of course, Cody does the sneak bit again and heads up towards the cave entrance. 

He pokes his head into the entrance and sees a bunch of gobbo guards and realizes it might be a little tricky to go further so returns back to the rest of us. Whilst he was away I reckons I only blinked twice whilst I kept me eyes on the woman, I took me responsibilities very seriously.

Plan A was still near the top of the party's agenda, so it was time for me to put on me big boy trousers and use me great ability at seeing in the dark and have a right good shifty at this spring and why there is no stream leading out of the canyon. So that night I head around to the funken side of the canyon and sneak towards the spring. I comes across a little stream and follow it a bit. It leads into a very small hole in the side of the canyon, just big enough to crawl into. So in I goes and crawl along with the water only a foot deep. I crawls along for a bit and it opens out into a small cave and I can see another exit on the

other side of the cave. 

Perfect I thinks to meself, not only not plan A but a potential entrance into the cave complex down that there passage and much safer place for the party to hang out and observe.

So that is where I is gunna finish this part of me memoirs, with me heading back in the dark to tell the rest of them buggers we now might have another option other than a full on charge at the front entrance.

me next entry might fill ya in on what happened next.

Return to Greybank

  Present

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane

  

  Cody Dieback
  (Reimagined)

• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

by Cody

Downstream with Dogs and Gnomes

"We're going back to Porn City," Lois declared, packing her inherited cottage's silverware into a sack. "Mother needs to know about Wilbur."

"And I need to not be in Le Brun," I added, watching Willow coax his three charmed hounds onto the barge. The dogs—now our official mascots—took up most of the deck space. "Also, we're giving away the horses."

The horses, left over from Julius's stable, were distributed to grateful Le Brun locals who didn't ask too many questions about why we were fleeing in such haste. 

Downstream travel proved blessedly uneventful. We passed through Amyst (staying at the Bicep and Torso), survived the Dead Falls without any undead aquatic incidents, and collected Fillet Homeshoe, the gnome stoner, who was waiting on the riverbank looking for passage to Brokenmouth. 

That evening we reached Vesper and stayed at the Wyvern and Husk.

Gnolls vs Flame Strike

The next morning, gnolls attacked from the riverbank. Our barge bristled with spellcasters—myself, Willow, Ardern, Jack, Esme, and Lois all cast Protection from Normal Missiles. We needn't have bothered; Fillet waved us off and obliterated the poor bastards with what looked like Flame Strike, but it stank of arcane. The gnolls never stood a chance.

Cynic (Gnome Cravat inn), then Sloth (Random Broadbean), then finally Brokenmouth and the Emancipated Siren. We bid farewell to Fillet, who wandered off muttering about "finding his center" or possibly "finding more weed," and caught a coastal tramp ship to Porn City.

Reporting to Sal

Sally "Sal" Price

We stayed at Swallow's Demise—a name that always struck me as unnecessarily final—and Lois dragged me to the Wizards' Guild to meet her mother, Sally "Sal" Price.

Sal listened to our report about the Methuselah cult, Ugly-Unt, and the spy Wilbur infiltrating the Throak guard. She didn't blink.

"Go to Greybank," she ordered. "Find Thackery. Kill him. And see if there's another metal sphere there."

"Just like that?" I asked.

"Just like that. Lowest Price Guaranteed."

Lois and I stayed at the Guild that night. Tom collected his new chainmail—three points of armor, shiny and un-bloodied for now. 

Esme checked on our hidden communication device at Soixante Neuf; still there, still blinking.

Upstream Again

We rented another barge (and heavy horses) for upstream travel, and passed through Bodkin, Pestard, Wittenburg, and Thrumming Brook without incident. Seven weeks after our first visit, we found the same little creek where we'd hidden before, two or three hours' walk from the Shi estate.

"Wizard Eye," I muttered, casting. The cultists' clearing (where the egg hung last time) looked deserted—abandoned, even. The same devastation was still there when the creature hatched and ran amok. The Shi mansion sat in the distance, brooding.

Munch, Willow, and the three dogs went forward to scout.

Unfortunate horses

The Shi mansion's door was smashed inwards by something big and strong. The barn was even worse. That night, we explored as a group.

Several horses lay in the barn, ripped open and six weeks dead. Inside the house, something violent had rampaged through: doors smashed, furniture destroyed, a trail of chaos ending in the kitchen. We found an old woman's body in pieces—Horatio Shi's wife, perhaps?—likewise six weeks decayed.

In a trapped study desk (needle trap detected, Munch's thumb poisoned, Neutralize Poison potion consumed, magic detected), we found a bag of coins, two healing potions, and another communication device.

The Tunnel and the Creature

The kitchen cellar led to a wine rack, then a secret door, then a meat cellar with rotten provisions. Beyond that, a narrow tunnel—too narrow for the tentacled creatures, thank Real.

We camped there, rested, then pressed on. The tunnel ran 120 meters with alcoves containing gargoyle statues. Noises ahead. At 40 meters, it opened into a room.

In the floor: a three-meter pipe descending into darkness, and a banging from below. On the far side, a heavy door smashed inward from outside.

Then it hit us—literally. Another mind-flayer type creature, tentacles flailing, psychic scream building.

I hit it with Cone of Cold. The fighters charged. It screamed.

Everyone dropped except Munch, Lois, Ardern, and Rock. We were outclassed, outmatched, and about to be dinner. Ardern managed to rouse Tom with a healing spell, but the creature turned back toward us—until Munch pulled out his metal wand-prong, the one that had withered his arm.

The creature recoiled. It knew what that thing could do. It scurried away down the pipe like a frightened rat.

Round Two

We recovered for a day, licking our wounds. 

The second fight went better—Willow cast a Bless on us beforehand. Tom and Rock led the charge. Jack fired the strange "crossbow" gun. I hit it with another Cone of Cold.

The creature dropped mighty Tom in one savage blow, then screamed—dropping only me this time. Apparently it can only manage one scream per combat, or perhaps one per day.

Round Two

Then Willow did something brilliant. He pointed the glass scanner device at Tom. Not only did Tom wake up, but he was on full points and undamaged.

Ardern tried to get me up with Cure Major Wounds and fumbled spectacularly, collapsing into a terrified ball. 

Rock went down too, but the Scanner brought him back.

With all fighters engaged, we finally brought the beast down. Decapitation followed, then the standard precaution of pulping the remains.

The Third Sphere

Down the hydro-slide tunnel (as we're calling it), we found another metal sphere. This one had an 8-digit code: 1 2 4 7 1 _ 2 9 _ 6. We tried 6 and 7 .

It worked.

Metal eggs

Inside: lights on, web-snot present but manageable, and treasure. Munch found another wand-prong—this one with two buttons. A communication device. And some strange metal eggs, chook-sized, with levers and rings.

The communication devices showed four names: Unt, Julius, Thackery, and Mayiar.

Cody and the one-way portal

Unlike the other spheres, this one had a floor hatch. Beneath it: a cloudy portal, pinkish-hued, one-way. Cody pushed a stick through—easy enough—but couldn't pull it back.

The priests analyzed blood on the inside of the hatch. Fresh. Dried, but only two days old.

Thackery—or someone—had been here. And recently.

Next time: Do we follow through the pink portal? Do we hunt Thackery? And who the hell is Mayiar?