Death of Igbot

 Present: 

• MARMALADE: Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Elvis Ghenna (elf bard) - Shane
• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• MARMALADE: Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

The party

By Walton

We were outside Brian, now a plague town, camping on an ill-conceived camp-ground. 

First thought was to find a better camp - which we did - but then decided we actually needed to get a move on. Those verbena seeds will not plant themselves, and the longer we stayed out in the wild, the more danger we would be in.

But first things first. Igbot had a Major Wound. So I summoned up all my Vingt et Un luck and hit him with a Cure Major Wound spell [ That spell is level 2, so is harder to cast. I had to spend Luck. ]

So, we travelled for the day, deeper into the Oble ranges (around the Brian pass). Igbot found us a safe place for the night. And we got a clear night.

Brian region (scale: Lake Haglipe is 60km long)

The next day dawned overcast and drizzle.

Towards the end of the day, we crossed a ridge, and then paused at the dreadful scene below.

There were four naked humans - presumably adventurers, one woman and three men - hanging from trees by rope. Two had been skinned and presumably well-dead. The other two were blooded and whimpering. Dancing and capering around these wretches were twelve kobolds, beginning the grisly task of skinning them too. It was still thick overcast, so REAL's light didn't burn the kobolds.

One of the kobolds was dressed as a shaman and he was guiding the others.

kobolds!

Providence and Grace obliged us to rescue the hapless and helpless captives. But, the kobolds had bows, so Balder cast Protection from Missiles on Igbot and Donk, who then rushed down to engage. I followed them, using them as cover, followed by Red. Slim snuck off to the side; his plan was to sneak down and come around behind the shaman, like a ghostly (but noisy - not a good idea to sneak in chainmail) thief. Elvis bravely stayed behind to protect Balder, and look after the bodies of the marmalading Sophia and Malcolm.

However, the rescue proved all for naught, because the kobolds promptly killed the two living captives before we managed to engage. 

It was a swift and brutal battle. Slim managed to get down and take on the shaman while the rest of us fought the others. We prevailed in the end, but at great cost.

Poor Igbot the Barbarian went down in a flurry of kobold knives, and before we could engage the kobolds on him, they had killed him. Oh dear.

Deconstructed horse

There was a tunnel near by. It was a single tunnel which split. One path went to a cave with kobold-sized sleeping mats - so this group was a kobold travelling party rather than a family group. In here was a deconstructed horse - presumably of the dead adventurers. Down the other tunnel it led to a magical trap - which Red set off but it didn't affect him - and ended in a small chamber with a geothermal-fed fire pit. The top of this chamber exited up a chimney vent. 

It was near nightfall so we decided to stay in the kobold cave; it was easy to defend the entrance of it. Balder and I took grapes, so that knocked us out for the night.

During the night, a "fire lizard" came down the main tunnel, but went towards the fire pit. Those on watch were not so stupid as to provoke it; it was rather large.

Next morning, it was grey and overcast. Balder volunteered to take over the divining role and to try and find suitable verbena ground. He had a bit of herbalism skill.

Four hours into the day, we came across a large dead patch on some flat ground, a few hectares in size. We skirted it. Suspicion was that it was poisoned like the other verbena areas (way up near Toluene).

Then another half-day passed, and it was nearing nightfall. We passed by a hillock with a cave entrance, and skirted that beginning to climb. Balder had the urge that we were nearing our target, and sure enough, on top the hill, there was a large shaft, thirty paces in diameter, that went down about seven stores to lovely rich-looking garden area at the base of the shaft - a delicate stream running through as well.

"Oh my golly gosh," said Balder knowledgeably. "Dis looks like perfect place to plant de verbena seeds."

So, we all abseiled down to the floor of the shaft, except Slim who stayed up top to guard the rope anchors and the marmalading bodies.

The soil was rich, moist and fertile, as divined. Balder claimed that there was a micro climate here, with no snow or frosts. It was assumed that there was some warmth from geothermal activity as well.

But there were two tunnels going off this garden area, one klibwards and the other funkenwards off to the side. But! There were kobold and gnoll footprints near the tunnel mouths.

The first tunnel went in the direction of the cave entrance at the base of the hill (that we skirted). We estimated the distance from there to here was fifty paces.

Balder planted the verbena seeds while we kept watch.

Once the seeds were planted, we then had a noisy argument as to what to do next.

Slim wanted to go straight back to Toluene to collect our reward from Dimble, but the rest of us figured that Dimble would demand that his verbena was able to be safely harvested without the risk of being attacked by dark-spawn. So, it was expected that he would insist we return to clean out these caves.

The argument continued.