Present:
Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – AndrewGolf clap - an instance of deliberately
restrained clapping, expressing
sarcastic approval but can
ironically be used for appreciation- Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
- Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
- Red Leicester. Human Wizard from Spite Anti - Darryl
- Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
- MARMALADING Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
- Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
- Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
- Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven
By Phoebe Lacrosse
Poor Sushi
Jo, Red, Griza, and I stood over the still-warm body of Sushi. Killed by the basilisk.
Actually, that was a wicked lie. The basilisk had no direct blame in Sushi's death. Sushi had impaled himself on the handle of his own club. Not only had he caused a sucking belly wound with his club handle, but he completely snapped off the reinforced hard-wood handle, and embedded it deeply behind his rib cage, so deep that it came out his mouth, and gashed open an aorta.
It was a rather impressive sight, and the basilisk would have been grateful to do as much damage - with its MERE razor-sharp teeth, goring claws and petrification gaze.
We left Sushi's impaled messy body off to one side, and continued the search for the basilisk's owner, the mage.
Slyth's Cave
Napolean, Balder, Galena arrived on the sorry scene and prepared to sneak into the cave.
"Balder?" I wryly suggested. "Why don't you cast Invisibility on Griza? And then he can go explore the cave. We will all wait out here."
"Unless he wants to impale himself on his sword handle," someone mused.
Balder dutifully cast his Invisibility spell. There was a loud fizzzzzztt! and shower of sparks, and, instead of Griza going invisible, suddenly Balder, Griza and Joe shoved to the ground, forcing them flat on their bellies; twice their weight. Balder had fumbled [ "Bizarre Gravity" fumble - the AoE was a 3m circle centred on Balder. Griza was the target, so he was automatically affected. Everyone else got a Luck save to be out of the way. Only Joe failed. ].
Golf clap.
"The magic user may be dead or unconscious," said Balder, wheezing as he lay on the ground, trying to regain some face.
Impatient to get on with things while the three lay squashed on the ground, we formed a line, two abreast, and entered the cavern: Red, Phoebe, Galena, Napolean, followed by the crawling slowbies.
In the first cave, were two stinking sleeping areas - where the two basilisks had presumably rested.
Across the exit of this cave, Red spotted a shimmering magic screen. We suspected it was a Glyph of Warding, or something equally dangerous.
We waited a bit for Balder to regain his composure. Balder was out of magical power - it was all expended to flatten him to the floor, you see. So, Napolean donated some of his magic energy to Balder [ there is a 1st level spell called Transfer where you can gift D6 of your magic points. Casting Transfer costs a point, so there is no free lunch. The laws of magical Thermodynamics are as tough as reality. ]
With his new power, Balder cast a Dispel Magic spell on the shimmering with great difficulty [ He failed; no Fumble, but it cost him 5 Luck to succeed ] and eventually the shimmering sputtered out.
Golf clap.
In this next cave was a small small cooking fire. We scanned about; there was no-one here - the mage had plenty of time to exit while we were fighting the basilisk, mourning Sushi, and golf-clapping, but there was an escape tunnel.
I rushed down and it ended in a wall ladder through to a ceiling hole. It was a difficult climb in heavy armour, so Red collected Napolean and Joe and they hurried outside to find the top of this chimney outside on the hill.
I, wearing only stylish barbarian leather armour, easily climbed up and met up with them outside in the woods.
Someone brought some of the rags from below, and that allowed Tiny (Napolean's dog) to be let loose with the mage's smell. Tiny found a track, but it wasn't long and it soon stopped.
 |
| Fine-tooth comb |
Red wanted to satiate his Hob desires and burn the forest here. Napolean said no !
We all returned to the two caves and got down to a more thorough search. Significant finds were an elf skeleton, a bag of 300gp, and a bow. And a half-burnt letter:
Balder still had some power left, so cast Detect Magic ... and fumbled ! Suddenly, Balder glowed with a blinding light, bright as the sun. We all shielded our eyes - no-one could look direct at the glowing gnome lest their retinas be burned. But it did help to search out each nook and cranny of the cave.
Golf clap.
By the light of Balder, Napolean - one of the few of us who could actually read - read the half-burnt letter:
"A. They good. Especially the wee gnome. Will join with Sylvia, signed Slyth."
The ink was fresh.
"Who do we know that starts with an A?" I asked.
"Alexandria Montrose", cried Napolean.
Hmmm.
In a pouch, we found four ruby gems (these were of the 100gp size - Identify gems), plus a miniature golden box, and an unburnt, but sealed, letter.
Balder stopped glowing. He was still insistent of getting off his Detect Magic, but Napolean stepped in and did it himself.
The bow glowed, and the little golden box too.
Griza bravely broke the seal of the sealed letter and that allowed Napolean to read:
"Slyth. Test them. A"
So, was the mage Slyth, and was A our patreon?
Did we wreck the test, by wiping out the tester, looting his home, killing his pets?
Would there be any ramifications on doing this?
We hurried back to the road and our wagon.
We had only been gone a few hours, and our wagon was as we left it, next to the petrified driver, other petrified horse, and our dead horse. We lifted the petrified driver onto our wagon, to sit up front and accompany our driver. I think he will be long dead, but we can leave him at the next town. Not our problem.
What of Sushi?
He was forgotten in the rush to catch the mage. Sushi's club-impaled body still lies by that deserted cave to this day.
To paraphrase Rupert Brooke: "There is a corner of a foreign forest that is forever Sushi's."
Off to Spite Battle
 |
| Spite River delta Torbin & Koalt bottom right The pink circles are star-fall remnants |
We stayed the night at the Polite Frog (rather than the Frigid Monkey). And made futile enquiries about Slyth.
"That's an unusual name," was the most common reply.
"Aye, Miss, that name not be from the local name generator, to be sure. Foreign muck."
Next day was peaceful and we arrived at the coastal town Koalt.
Here we stayed at the Fist and Hammer (not the Monastery). Koalt had a small dock, so I checked if there were any ships due that would be heading along to coast the Spite Anti or Spite Battle, our destination. But, no.
Next day was a peaceful trip along the coast to Sular. Quiet night in the Chaste Monk.
The next day we made Spite Anti; this is a big city, 34,000, full of half-elves mainly. But plenty of elves. There are regular ships crossing the Spite river delta between Spite Anti and Spite Battle, so we booked passage on one for the next morning. (If you don't want to travel by boat, you can make the long road trip around the delta roads up to the main city of Spite itself, and then down the other side, but that trip takes two weeks.)
We stayed the night in the Wanton Pug.
Red Leicester
The next day we went to the docks and boarded our barque Celestial Wave-cutter for the trip to Spite Battle. This is a two day trip.
Other passengers of note:
- A weedy human wizard in velour called Red Leicester
- A big muscled barbarian man, Otto Turner.
Four elves: Elysia Young half-elf, Melog Elitsia elf, Tored Dubious elf, Manus Stormcaller, elf wizard
Red Leicester
Red Leicester approached us. [ Darryl's new character ]
"I am looking for work, " he stuttered.
"That is a rather gaudy outfit, " proclaimed Balder in an interesting way to greet a stranger. "Anyone can wear velour now, I see!"
"Gauche," said Red. "You are gauche. And no they can't. Velour is reserved for the Wizards' Guild."
"We have a 'Red' in our group already," I sniffed. "We can't have two. We will have to call you 'Lester'."
"Red. Lester. All are fine." said Red Leicester.
"Our Red marmalades a lot," I added. "So we can call you Red when that happens. I can't ever see THAT causing confusion."
The rest of the trip went past peacefully. The other significants on the boat didn't cause any trouble and neither did we. Red Feuersturm managed to keep his Hob burning lust under control - a wise move in a flammable wooden sailing ship.
Spite Battle
We arrived in Spite Battle. It's a little smaller than Spite Anti, with a population of 32K, and in spite (that joke never gets old) of this, is the poorest and roughest of the three Spites. Spite Battle has the largest standing army. This is to fend of trouble from the Wild Coast (battlewards). The temples here are REAL, IMAG, Aquamarina, Mr Quail, Gelding, Kliban, Smackwater Jack, and Soixant Neuf.
Following the tradition of the other cities in the magic-rich Spite-Emerald region, there are four Wizards' Guilds here: The Normal UGW, Guild of Apothecary (potions), Under-Guild (necromancy), Guild of Truths (Illusions).
We headed for the Jolly Jester inn, which was our destination to meet Lyra Silvermoon. She was an elven barmaid ("bar-elf"?) here and arranged to meet us after work that night.
Balder presented her with the (unopened) package.
"I zee you 'ave not opened eet," she observed.
"We are not stupid."
"I weel return at sun on with your money."
"Do you know of a Slyth or a Sylvia?" Napolean asked.
She thought for a while then said "Sylvia is a common name, but zis Slyth, is rare. Non, I 'av not 'eard of eem."
 |
| Balder's Identify attempt |
Lyra quickly unlocked his door, and Joe and I rushed in.
Balder was sitting on the floor in his gnome undies holding the magic bow (from Slyth's cave), surrounded by crushed ruby. The room was full of sulphur smoke, and there were still sparks and pin-wheels and various other fireworks going off around the room.
Eventually the fireworks stopped.
"I... I was just looking at this bow," stammered Balder.
[ Balder was doing an Identify on the bow. He had fumbled AGAIN. How we laughed. ]
Golf clap.
We hastily diverted Lyra and calmed her and the inn guards down: "No need to summon the Militia."
Then returned to Balder.
We gave the bow, and a ruby to Red Leicester and he spent the rest of the night to Identify it. It was a bow of Elven-kind: +1 (to hit) bow.
In the morning, we got our payment from Lyra, as agreed: 400 per each of the eight survivors.
I am not sure why Alexandria Montrose didn't use Gnome Post. Maybe the package contained powerful magicks, explosives, or live creatures after all.
"Maintenant, *I* 'ave a travail for vous!" said Lyra. "Une letter is to be delivered back to Mademoiselle Montrose."
The deal was similar payment, so we agreed.
"Mais, will not be ready for few days," said Lyra. "Quatre days."
The next day we stayed in at the Jolly Jester, and Red Leicester Identified the little gold box (also Slyth's cave). It was a consumable magic box - four doses of invisibility powder (same as spell).
While Red spent the whole day doing the Identify, (it takes eight hours), Balder, worried about his seemingly common fumbles, took himself off to the Spite Battle WG (the normal one).
He returned later that evening and told us that he'd seen the head of the local WG Elowyn Frostglobe. She had done various experiments on him with needles and such. The gist was that he reports as very evil (we knew this) and still seems to have some of the Blue egg curse on him. (This was a previous adventure a year ago) We thought that was all fixed. Elowyn suggested he go see Owen Sunfire and Matilda Fletch in the WG in Spite city itself. Or go to see Falmor Archaea in the Wizard's tower (a week's travel klibwards of Emerald city).
 |
| Phoebe at the Spite Battle docks |
While Balder and Lester were busy that day, I went looking for work down at the Spite Battle docks. Lyra's letter would be another three days, so we had some time to kill.
Here, I got the usual cat-calls and hooting - the usual fare for barbarian women - but found a job for us through the Fishermen's Guild. It was in Murch (one day down the coast road, half way to Quoll). "Adventurers wanted. Problem with dead fish. Contact Eric the Hook. Murch."
So, next morning, we headed to Murch. It was drizzling.
Murch Lighthouse
Murch was a little fishing village with a single tavern Rambling Shark.
We found Eric the Hook, and the pay was 200gp each. Eric showed us lots of dead fish washed up on the near beaches. It was localized to this bay and had started happening two weeks ago, so Napolean didn't think it was algal bloom or any such environmental problem
Galena and Napolean cast Detect Poison - no poison on the fish. And there was no magic.
The locals had a number of theories: creature in water, warmer water, lights at point, algal bloom, orc faeces.
 |
| Murch lighthouse |
If the lights were the fish killers, why aren't the dead fish out there?
Maybe they are, but no-one goes there to check.
"If the lighthouse used to be functional, what is stopping the ships running aground now? The cliff and rocks are just as dangerous."
"We don't get many ships in here," said Eric.
"Did you ever?"
"No Miss."
"So, why build an expensive lighthouse?" I asked.
"Maybe it was a folly, Miss. Some rich toff."
"Don't you know?"
"No Miss, I'm just an NPC fisherman."
But it was our best lead, so we headed there.
There were nine crows sitting on the tree too. Balder, Lester and Galena had the hairs on the back of their necks stand to attention.
Beyond the suspicious tree, 200 paces in the distance, we could see the lighthouse. It had a single door and a low shed next to it with two doors.
"Don't shoot the crows," suggested Balder facetiously. "That will cause the friendly local wizard to be angry with us."
Detect Evil revealed the skeleton to be evil. Balder registered evil too, but we had come to expect that. Galena could detect undead (with her innate ability). Napolean confirmed that the skeleton was male (pelvis size). And Balder did a Detect Magic. He surprisingly did this without using a spell, or a fumble.
Golf clap.
Napolean volunteered to cut the skeleton down. So, Balder gave him a live spider to eat, and then cast Spider Climb. No fumble! So Napolean scurried up the tree and cut the rope.
The skeleton fell and broke into a thousand pieces. The crows took off, cawing at the wind. Not magic now!
Golf clap.
With no foe to block our egress, we went to the lighthouse shed. No tracks. No traps. First door was a woodshed. Second, a long-drop. It was freshly used, by the smell. There was a suspicious trapdoor in floor of the woodshed.
We'd been there an hour and someone looked over at the tree. The skeleton was back, exactly how it was when we arrived ! Oh dear - powerful magic indeed. The nine crows were back too.
"We will deal with that later," I suggested.
There was a shaft down three storeys into a cave.
So, we all went down and explored. It looked like an old smugglers' cave, with a few tunnels. Some went under the lighthouse.
Tiny was left up in the woodshed to guard. Napolean did not want him with us. I suspect that was a wise move.
 |
| Ghouls' greeting |
Down in the caves, we preserved our marching order: Griza, Phoebe, Joe, Galena, Red Leicester, Balder, Lester, Napolean.
Galena detected undead. In one room there was the long-dead body of a giant lizard. She saw some suspicious moving behind it, and, as expected, three grey corpse-like creatures suddenly leapt out and charged us, fast as can be.
Griza stumbled back, Joe and I whipped out our magic weapons, and Galena wrenched out her dice holy symbol and screamed "Get ye hence, ghouls !"
To her surprise [ 3 in 20 ], they were held at bay, growling and clawing the air in futile rage.
Golf clap
Galena's Turn Undead ability allows her to keep the ghouls at bay long as she concentrates. So, I stayed with her to guard, while the rest of the group took off to explore the other tunnels. This lizard cave had two exits plus the way we came in, and these branched further to keep them busy. Salient points of this reconnaissance:
- The sea may have been in here, years ago.
- Balder's blue egg dust grants him the ability to detect undead, he discovered. There were some more undead down another passage. They wisely avoided them.
- There was a glyph to block ghouls (probably to keep them in this cave). But Napolean blew this glyph away with a Dispel Magic.
- A passage heads down towards sea.
- A storage room - smugglers?
- There was a rusty iron grill with a padlock. Balder used a Dispel Magic on it; he dispelled the rusty illusion to reveal ... rusty iron beneath. That is sea corrosion for you.
- Griza could not pick the rusty padlock.
- So, Balder blew it apart with a Knock spell. Golf clap.
Plenty of loose ends now.
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