- Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
- Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
- MARMALADING: Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
- Bush Tucker. Human Rogue from Spite Anti - Darryl
- MARMALADING: Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
- Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
- Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
- MARMALADING: Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
- Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven
by Jeff
........
Bush
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| My spot in the swamp |
My new cobbers were all bustling about down in the camp, getting ready to head on through the swamps to find the Juniper for that bossy sheila, Thursa. Unfortunately, it looked like they would be departing soon so I figured that maybe I should get myself up, grab some grub, and get ready too. These blighters would probably just leave me behind if I wasn't ready.
Pretty soon we were heading off, Dahma in front with Phoebe, and the rest of us strung out behind. I slipped into the chain near the rear, alongside Griza. If shooting is going to be required, having someone handy with a sword next to me will be important. But that wasn't necessary, and after a day of trudging Dahma led us onto another small rise where we set up camp for the night. I found a nice pair of trees and slung my hammock, ready for a decent rest. I had second watch with Griza, so I tucked in right quick after dinner and caught a few Z's before Griza woke me. The watch was quiet. Well, actually, it was noisy, all sorts of squawks, rustles, splashes, and other disturbing sounds from down in the swamp. Probably gators, but nothing that seemed threatening, or that approached our camp up on the hill. Pretty soon Griza woke Phoebe and Malcolm, and I was able to grab some more shut-eye.
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| A spear was still quivering in the ground |
Suddenly a ball of fire exploded out in the swamp. By the red glow I could see that it had engulfed a handful of those lizard men creatures, who were now squealing and staggering about dazedly.
Thursa was standing in the centre of our camp, hands extended towards the distant lizard men, and then she spun about to face the opposite direction and gestured towards the darkness. A small red glowing sphere raced out from her hands and exploded in the centre of another handful of lizard men.
Ahh, Fireballs! Balder will be so disappointed to miss this I figured.
Grabbing my bow from its handy hanger on the tree beside my head, and a handful of arrows from my quiver, I knelt up on the hammock and prepared to fire. A swaying hammock is not the ideal shooting platform, but it would only be a very minor inconvenience to me.
But by the time I was ready to let loose my barrage of arrows, all the remaining lizard men had hastily scarpered back into the swamp and disappeared. Phoebe called the all clear, and I hung up the bow and settled back to sleep. Hopefully still a few hours of sleep before the morning.
I woke again in the morning, disassembled the hammock, ate a hearty breakfast, packed up, and followed Dahma and rest of the crew out into the swamp. It wasn't long before Dahma had located the target juniper shrubs. No need for hill or tree climbing this time, these were just low shrubs.
"Juniperus horizontalis" explained Thursa, "A low-growing creeping version of the larger trees"
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| Juniper shrubs grew beside the swap |
She showed the others what to collect and it was all done in an hour. I stood watch, eyes peeled, while the others did the harvesting, and there were no problems. Then Dahma led us back to the same camp site as we had used last night, the two blackened fireball sites still gently smoking. And that wasn't the only smoking thing there. That little weird gnome Bobbin was also there when we arrived. He was puffing on his huge ganja pipe and was roasting a boar over a roaring campfire. It was sizzling away and smelling lovely. After re-establishing the camp, we settled down to a roast pork meal, and gnome stories.
I still had a handful of his tokes in my pack, but Napolean had mentioned there might be long-term, or even permanent, consequences of indulging so I had not lit up at all since that first smoke when Bobbin had handed over a handful. And I planned to keep it that way!
That night was uneventful, if you discount all the overly eventful and unlikely dreamtime tales that Bobbin babbled on about for most of the night. I retreated up to my hammock once I realised he wasn't going to stop yabbering, and used his background burble to lull me to sleep.
He was still going when I eventually woke in the morning, and he continued throughout the next day, travelling along with us. My gosh, shut up already!
Towards the end of that day he finally left and wandered off in a different direction.
"Look after him" he called, pointing to Malcolm, as he splashed off into the swamp.
That night we camped out again, on the same low rise we had used on the first night in the swamp, and the next day we continued on, arriving back in Peignoir before dark. The Green Avocado still had our rooms available, and we stayed overnight. Tomorrow we would travel on to Quek, where Thursa would explain our last off-road collection mission, before we took the final day's journey across to the Great Pillar. There our escort mission would be over, and we would get paid. Finally.
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| Simon's Pouch was near the edge of Quek |
But, so disappointing, apparently there is no Simon!
Napolean shot off out the door after we had settled in saying something along the lines of "You lot stink, I'm off to the Grove". I guess Quek has a druids' grove.
As we were having a nice dinner, Thursa declared that she wouldn't be coming on the final collection trip, but that Dahma would lead us as normal.
"You just have to collect a discarded part of Amortha" she revealed.
"Amortha?" queried Phoebe, "Like, an actual named creature? With a name!"
"What sort of discarded part?" asked Malcolm.
"Oh, anything" replied Thursa, "A scale, blood, teeth, bone, faeces. That sort of thing"
"Scale?" noted Phoebe, "What type of creature are we talking about here?
"A green dragon" Thursa quietly declared.
"A what?" I yelled.
"A bloody dragon?" I continued, "And you are just telling us now. No f'in way lady!"
"Look, you can't just charge in." Thursa noted, "But you lot are resourceful enough to get the job done safely. And Dahma will lead you there and back. No worries"
"You aren't paying us enough" I yelled, "Ah, ... what are you paying us again?"
"Whatever", I continued, "It's definitely not enough"
Then the freaking witch cast a freaking Silence on me, and I couldn't say anything anymore! I just stomped about a bit and went outside to cool down. Griza said it wouldn't be a problem, sneak in, grab some bit of said dragon, and sneak out again he reckons. Easy for him to say in his namby pamby light leather armour!
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| Galena's new hairclip |
"Nice" she declared. [A +1 bonus for all saving throws. Steven exercised his "top of the treasure ranks" status and claimed the hairclip for Galena]
The party decided that knowing a little more about our unknown magical treasures would likely be useful before heading into the forest to face a dragon, so we delayed another day in Quek so Thursa could cast another Identify.
After a party discussion, we chose some Amulet that the group had recovered from an undead woman back in Emerald. Before my time, and what good was an amulet going to do for me? I had voted for the sword. Unfortunately, this wasn't among the popular choices.
While Thursa did her magic thing that day, I went off for a small walkabout and fired a few arrows at some targets. Just sharpening up my skill with the bow, which had definitely improved since meeting up with this group of adventures.
When Thursa exited her room that evening, she was looking very stern. To be fair, she normally looked quite stern, but as she strode determinedly towards us, waving the Amulet at us, she was looking furious.
"Where did you get this?" she yelled, "This belonged to my niece!"
"Ah, that was from Emerald" replied Phoebe, "We recovered it from an undead creature in the basement of the apartment just down the road from the Velvet Glove"
"Arrgggh" Thursa screamed, "That was HIS apartment, where HE killed her"
It turned out that Thursa's niece, Selina, had married a wealthy necromancer, Loris Massimo, but that he turned out to be a very unsuitable husband, eventually killing Selina and imprisoning her soul in an undead form through some necromantic powers embedded in the amulet.
This was all before I joined the party, so everyone knew this already, all except me!
Thursa further explained that Loris was imprisoned in the great Tower of Quek, but that he was terminally ill. The purpose of this whole expedition was to gather the ingredients to create a magical elixir that would prolong his miserable life, so he could continue to suffer.
"For eternity!" she concluded loudly.
"Oh, and this amulet is called an Amulet of Resurrection. You can mix the blood of a recently dead individual with the powder in the amulet, and voilà, no longer dead!"
[Group discussion concluded that the amulet would stay with the party as a party consumable, to be used on the next character that died, with that players agreement. Balder was to carry it until required]
Then we all retired for the night. Sigh, going bush again tomorrow!
Napolean
Real's Light burst through the canopy overhead into my "room" in the local druids' grove, but I was already awake. The rooms here were amazing, like living in the actual forest. Magic kept the rain out (it rained a lot here) but otherwise it felt just like sleeping under the trees. So relaxing.
And so excited; today we would be heading back into the forest, in search of a dragon! Even though it was only a few days ago that we had exited the forest and arrived in Quek, and it was nice here in the guild and all, I was excited to be heading back into the actual wilds of the Emerald Forest.
I'm pretty sure Tiny was excited too; his tail was lashing the ground like a broom on steroids.
Yup, super excited to get away from Quek.
After a scrumptious breakfast in the guild dining hall, Tiny and I made our way over to Simon's Pouch to meet up with the rest of the crew. Thursa wasn't joining us this trip, but that sexy Dahma would be guiding us. I figured if I got another good look at her magic map thing, I could probably navigate the depths of the Emerald Forest a bit better. Maybe I could even get one of those somewhere? Now that's a good thought! Hmmm. Anyway, even if I only get a good long look at her backside and legs as she leads us all to the dragon, I'll be in heaven.
"It'll be a two-day trip" Dahma stated, "Follow me"
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| Dahma guides us through the forest |
Oh yeah baby, I'm right behind you!
Tiny and I slipped behind Dahma as she glided off into the forest, the rest strung out behind us.
It was an uneventful day's travel, but the views were great!
We made camp in a small clearing, with Dahma and Galena taking first watch.
Dahma woke me soon after I fell asleep, her gentle hand on my shoulder.
"Sshhhh" she whispered.
I was thinking that she had finally succumbed to my natural charm and stunning personality and was looking for a night-time dalliance, but she gestured out to the forest and told me to quietly wake the others. Sigh.
There was a series of loud crashing noises from out in the darkness, some squealing cries, and lots of bumps and thumps. Something was out there. A lot of somethings.
Pushing my disappointment over unrequited affections aside, I quietly woke the others and crouched down beside Tiny, who was doing the low growl thing from deep in his chest. One hand on his shoulder, we waited to see if anything would launch at us from the dark. Straining my ears, I thought that I could identify the sounds of horses, a quiet whinny, the rumble of sets of hooves, and then a sudden squeal of a creature in pain echoed across the camp site, followed by a deep silence.
And nothing happened. We all went back to sleep. I dreamt of Dahma's thighs again.
In the morning, we investigated the location where we had heard the noises during the night. Lots of smashed and broken bush, a trail of pig tracks, coming, but not going, a large pool of drying blood, and the tracks of four horses both coming and going from the location. I knew it, horses!
"Nothing to worry us" declared Dahma, "Let's be off"
And she led off towards some distant hills, Tiny and I right behind her of course, the rest following.
Consulting her magical map, Dahma told us that the first of the small hills ahead held the dragon's cave, around on the far side from our direction of approach, and that we would set up a camp some distance away from the base of the hill, on the side away from the entrance.
"Then you lot can make a plan to glean some dragon stuff" she concluded.
A cautious reconnoitre of the entrance to the dragon's lair was proposed, but it was a good few hours away overland and there was no way this group could be stealthy across that distance, not even Griza. So, I proposed that I transform into a fast bird using my druid abilities, dart over to the cave, have a quick scout about, then back to report. Simple.
"How long does your transformation last?" queried Phoebe.
"A full ten minutes"
"And how long to fly all the way over, or around, that hill to the cave?"
"Mmmm, about five minutes"
"So, there and back no worries?"
"Yup"
"Sweet, go for it then"
Reaching deep down into my soul I attuned to my inner animal spirits and found the hawk. Wrapping my consciousness around the hawk spirit, I called on the powers of Caribou Gorn and willed the transformation. Fortunately, there is no pain in this process, although some discomfort as my body shrunk, face elongated and formed a beak, arms morphing into feather clad wings, and feet rearranging with three toes forward and one back. I never think about where the tail might come from!
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| Napolean cases the cave entrance |
We decided that the whole party would search around the back of the hill the next day to see if there was a less obvious entry into the dragon's cave. I thought that we should just rock up to the front of the cave entrance and take our chances, but the more cautious (everyone else actually) thought that could be a bit risky when dealing with an ancient green dragon. Cowards!
Early that night, that strange gnome Bobbin rolled back into our camp, preceded by his typical cloud of ganja smoke, and began chatting.
"So, what the heck are you all doing round here?" he asked, "You know there is a dragon, right?"
"Um, yes, we are looking for him actually"
"Oooh, well, be cautious, he can be very cantankerous" warned Bobbin.
Bobbin stayed with us all night, telling stories of the forest and his wandering exploits. He was totally fascinating. Who knew the forest held so many wonders and experiences, what a truly magical place. Sometime before dawn he jumped up and with a final wave, strolled off into the forest and disappeared. I was able to grab a short nap before it was light, and then we we moved off to explore the back of the dragon's hill.
Moving slowly and "quietly" we first located the small stream I had spotted from the air, and we followed it towards the base of the hills where we found that it sprung from a small fissure in the hillside. A narrow little cave ran into the hill beside the stream, which we noted for later exploration before moving on. Sometime later we found a second small fissure in the hillside, no stream this time, which we also noted for later exploration.
But it was getting late, so we all made our way back to the campsite for the night.
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| Griza heads into the cave |
The next morning, we returned to the stream and its narrow cave entrance into the hill. Griza slipped on his magic spectacles, lowered himself into the knee-deep water, and disappeared into the cave to explore. We made ourselves comfortable and settled in to wait. But it was only a half hour later that he slipped back out and reported that the stream led to a deep pool about fifty meters in. There was a waterfall cascading into the pool, and an even smaller tunnel led on deeper into the hill, but this was from a small ledge about three meters above the pool on the far side from the stream.
"No getting in there" Griza concluded, "Unless you were a gnome"
All eyes turned to Malcolm.
"As a last resort" he stammered, "But only as a last resort!"
We continued our search for possible opportunities but returned to the camp that evening unsuccessful.
"We'll check across the top of the hill tomorrow" declared Phoebe.
"Yes" confirmed Malcolm, "There's bound to be something up there ... that would be ... drier!"
The next morning, we set off to explore the upper part of the dragon's hill. Malcolm was confident that we would find something useful, and I was just loving being in the forest, but the rest of the group were getting a little despondent. This was now the third day exploring around the dragon's hill.
As we were exploring along the top of the hill, Tiny suddenly started to growl. We all stopped and dropped into cover behind the bush and undergrowth. Griza slipped silently ahead to see what was there. He was back in only a minute.
Right up on top of the hill in front of us, almost equally located between the small stream Griza had explored yesterday and the main entrance to the dragon's cave, Griza had spotted a ring of stones surrounding a small clearing with an old stone table alter. Griza said he couldn't see or hear any opposition, so we moved forward to thoroughly check it out.
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| An ancient magical and scary alter |
Raising my hands, I cast a Detect Magic.
All the usual items, plus the table alter and the stones lining the shaft.
I also noticed that the stones around the shaft were heavily scratched, as though many fingernails had dragged their way across the stones before dropping into the shaft.
"I think we should be going" I declared.
No one argued, and we hastened back to our campsite for the night.
I was on second watch with Griza and Bush when the smell of ganja wafted through the campsite. Bobbin appeared shortly thereafter.
"Hush" he whispered, "Something has been aroused up on the top of the hill there"
Pointing out towards the hill and the strange magical alter we had discovered, Bobbin stated
"And I don't think it's the local dragon! Keep quiet here and I shall investigate for you"
And before we could even respond, he was gone again.
And he never came back.
In the morning, we made our way up to the top of the hill to check out the alter.
Peering through the trees just outside the stone ring, Griza reported that everything was much the same, apart from a skeleton laying out on top of the table.
"A what?" exclaimed Bush.
"It's not a gnome though" clarified Griza.
"I sense the presence of undead" noted Galena.
"I think we should be going" I declared.
And we retreated. We did spend the rest of the day exploring the far side of the hill, which we hadn't quite got to the previous day, but we didn't find anything that even looked like it might help us get into the dragon's cave. So, we again retreated back to the campsite for another night.
Our options were exhausted. As we discussed our actions for tomorrow, the cave beside the stream (gnome-sized only), the other small fissure (gnome-sized only), or the main cave entrance (dragon-sized), we heard the beating of wings, large ones!
Ducking down into cover, I peered up into the skies above through the tree canopy.
A large shape eclipsed the stars, moving swiftly from the dragon's hill, and heading away.
"Ah" exclaimed Phoebe, "The cave is empty"
"But" declared Bush, "It's over an hour away, and who knows when that thing will be back"
"I can fly" I reminded them, "And an owl can see well in the dark"
"A bit slower than the hawk, but I could be at the cave in five or six minutes" I explained.
"Would probably need to walk back, but as you say, the cave is empty now"
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| A rough plan of the dragon's cave |
No sign of any dragons fortunately, and no signs of anything useful, like a scale or a tooth.
Oh well. Time was running down, so I pulled a sharp 180, and exited back to the forest. I had just a short minute left in the transformation, so I started to fly up the side of the hill. Not towards that nasty alter though; and landed on the ground just before my involuntary return transformation to human form.
An hour later I was up near the top of the hill when I heard the noise of large wings beating overhead.
I hastily dived into some thick scrub and pulled my cloak up over my head.
.........
I peered up through the thick scrub that I had dived beneath. The night sky was an even deeper pool of black overhead than the cursed bush I had been battling through for the last hour. I figured I was pretty much on top of the hill now, the entrance to the dragon's cave down behind me somewhere, the campsite somewhere ahead on the other side of the hill, and the nasty alter somewhere off to the right.
The continued beating of large wings overhead drew my attention back to the night sky, and I watched the silhouette of the huge dragon pass above, heading back to its cave. Its two feet each clutched a dangling form, possibly deer.
I knew that I had to get back to the others, to let them know what I had seen inside the dragon's lair. I was the only one that knew, and they were counting on me!
