Present:
- Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
- Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
- Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
- Kosha Pickles (human rogue) - Darryl
- Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
- Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
- Grizo Muso (human thief) - Jeff
- MARMALADE: Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
By Walton
We were a two days out of Pugsville, near the shore of Lake Mamba. After escaping from a graveyard. Red had picked up a magical ruby ring which he refused to take off; from this, we assumed it was cursed, but the effects of the curse had not made themselves known.
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| Joe the (light) warhorse (sans Joe Manco) |
Finally, Balder and Gandhi still glowed a light shade of blue - another curse that we did not know the mechanics of. They were both wearing un-identified magical medallions, neither of which could be removed.
We headed for Pugsville. Kosha and Griza took up forward scouting positions. Joe, now the only pure fighter in the group, took up the rear. The day was uneventful, so was that night.
Around noon the next day, we came across the unpleasant sight of an apple tree by the side of the road with the bodies of three children hanging from the boughs. They were well-dead; days probably.
I looked at Sophia. "Let us see if Vingt-et-Un wants us to help."
Priestess Sophia nodded solemnly and said "Praise be to Vingt-et-Un!"
She got out her blessed die and rolled it. "Evens we help. Odds we ignore them."
The die showed a five.
"Vingt-et-Un has spoken!" Sophia decreed.
"They've been rotting there for days now," said Red pragmatically (or was he relieved?). "This is a major road. No-one else helped. Why should we?"
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| Arbitrary Saxophone |
That night was quiet. The next day we joined the shore of Lake Mamba, and headed up into the town of Pugsville (pop 850).
There were a few inns to choose. We chose the Arbitrary Saxophone. The place was abuzz with rumours from Lakeside.
- "The dead walk the street of Lakeside!"
- "Lakeside is burning! People are fleeing."
- "Lakeside's rulers are possessed."
"Well, send in the Militia!" I retorted. "Unless you want to send a Gnome-post message to the Duke of Furness. This area is under his jurisdiction, no?"
After our run-ins with both the lizardmen and the weird people of Lakeside when we were last there, we had no intention of going anywhere near Lakeside. We were headed in the opposite direction: klibwards to Mungo, and then to cross the slave line (where legal slavery ends), and eventually to Hackerton, the first major city of the Free Coast.
The next day, after a good restful night in the inn, we stayed the whole day in Pugsville so that Balder could have a clear eight-hour stretch of time to cast Identify on the magical cloak.
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| New covered-wagon (in the back ground) |
Joe spent the day, under supervision, and managed to finally ride Joe [ Joe Manco's ride skill was 10 ].
"You now only need a lance," quipped Balder - after he had finished with the cloak.
The cloak turned out to be a Cloak of Disguise. It could change height and weight of the wearer by 10%, and appearance too. Gandhi bagsied it.
We stayed another night and left first light the next day.
After a few hours of travel, we came to a ford. There was a dwarf in chainmail and man fishing in the river. They waved us down and introduced themselves as Gavin Oakenshield and Charlie the Rapier. They were travelers from Attle city, also headed for Hackerton.
"May we join you, for protection?" they asked. "We can fight."
I looked at Sophia. "What does Vingt et Un say?"
It was a four.
"Welcome aboard, travelers!" I said. "Many hands make light work, many swords cut many bandits."
But Kosha Pickles was suspicious and churlish: "Why are we taking strangers, we can't trust?!"
"Well, we accepted you and Griza, utter strangers," I said. "Besides, they have Vingt-et-Un's blessing, and we don't want to scorn HER."
The day passed peacefully.
But that night, during second watch which was Gandi and Griza, both Charlie and Gavin, who were also on watch, suddenly attacked Gandhi and Griza, and then rushed out into the darkness.
Everyone was roused and the two assailed us from the darkness. It was a rather confused battle, made worse by the fact that the two strangers could take on the likenesses of any of us. They were doppelgangers, and there was a third one too. But with judicious use of Detect Evil spells, we could spot who were fakes and who were not. This normally wouldn't work with real doppelgangers - you can't detect them with such a trick, so these must have been cursed ones. [ DM Richard made a boo boo - lucky for us! ] We managed to keep them at bay - not defeat them - until the morning, so no-one got much sleep.
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| Mysterious rider |
"Look's like you were right, Kosha" I said. But that would mean Vingt-et-Un was wrong, so obviously Sophia interpreted 21's sacred signs wrong.
The next day passed quietly, but we kept a weather-eye out for the doppelgangers all day.
Just before dark, who should appear, but our Guardian Angel - i.e. the mysterious rider who had been following us since Toluene. He tossed us a sack.
We opened the sack, and out rolled three heads; the heads of Gandhi, Balder and Griza. But they only held their shape for a few minutes and then melted back into non-descript grey doppelganger jelly (contains hyaluronic acid - good for the skin). This was, of course, further evidence that these creatures were doppelgangers.
The dark rider then made a sibilant whisper.
He said "Keep it safe", then rode away.
We didn't know what "it" was. Gandhi and Balder were glowing blue again. It faded after a few minutes.
That night, Balder had disturbing dreams: one of him, now a maggot, in a piece of doppelganger meat.
Towards the end of the next day, we arrived in the town of Mungo, (pop 1800). We had a choice of inns, including Gandhi's Rest - which turned out to be a real dump. So, we stayed at the Flaming Buttock.
Next door to the inn was a Hob temple, so Red went there. The priest told him that his magic ruby ring was cursed. But this temple did not have the necessary spells to remove the curse (Remove Curse a very high-level spell).
A woman approached us in the Flaming Buttock and asked if we could help her.
"My son! My dear son!" she sobbed. "Can you get him back?"
I looked at Sophia.
"Vingt-et-Un will decide, Madam," she said, curtly, eyes on Kosha.
The die roll came up with a two.
"We would be happy to help you, Madam."
Kosha just scowled.
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| Mungo bell-tower |
He had gone missing from an old bell tower, half an hour out from Mungo, towards the Krondyke Hills. The bell tower was used as a watch tower and an alarm a hundred years ago, during the Krondyke Insurgency. Back then it had a bronze bell that, when rung, could be heard in the town. The tower was supposedly just ruins these days.
So, we went off, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
It was a three-level tower surrounded by an old ruined keep. The walls of the keep were crumbled and broken, but the tower itself was fine and strong. And the oaken door at its base was solid.
Balder used a Knock spell to blow it open, which was rather over-the-top because it turned out it wasn't even locked.
We found tracks of a boy, presumably Barnaby, but also, very disturbingly, giant feathers.
So, the theory that we came up with was: Barnaby rang the bell (hence the fresh rope), and the "Dinner Bell" summoned something large and feathered. Maybe a giant eagle, a gryphon, or some harpies. And this feathered thing grabbed him and flew away to its lair.
We formed a cunning plan to try and track down this feathered thing, in a similar way. The ruins around the bell tower were numerous and secure, so we spread ourselves into good hidey-holes, with clear views of the horizons all around. We would ring the Dinner Bell, the feathered thing would fly in, poke about a bit, find nothing, and then fly home. We would then follow it, so the plan decreed, and find the boy. What could be easier?
Gandhi, being the best at hiding, then went up, attached an even longer rope to the bell rope, and then he yanked it.
The old bronze bell pealed loud and clear.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I've been leaving on my things
So in the morning when the morning bird sings
There's still dinner on my dinner jacket
'Til the dinner bell rings
Experimental bird
Salivating bird
Good bird
Waiting for the dinner bell to do the bell thing
Dinner bell, dinner bell ring
Sophia retorts "Bad luck is as useful as good luck in the eyes of Vingt-et-Un. It was luck that put those strangers in our path, until they attached us. We have been blessed by Vingt-et-Un."
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