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| Post Fireball flames licked the cavern |
Present:
- 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
Napolean
I slowly opened my eyes after the intense heat had faded and peered around. Flames still flickered from various parts of the cavern as the results of Thursa's Fireball became evident.
"Tiny" I yelled, spotting Tiny curled up on the cave floor near my feet, his previously thick coat of fur burnt off, smoke still curling up from the singed remnants. Others were scattered around the cavern floor also. Joe and Galena were slumped around the edge of the cavern, blown outwards by the Fireball blast, both not moving, both still smouldering. Red was also on the ground, near the centre of the cavern, with Marmalade sizzling and flaring as it rolled down over his chin. Other silhouettes could also be seen in the orange flickering gloom, staggering around the cavern.
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| A webbed cocoon hung down |
Remembering the two large eyes that had appeared out of the dark above the party just minutes ago, I quickly scanned overhead while the flames were still flickering and providing some illumination. The bulk of the webs that had covered the upper half of the cavern were gone, but a mat of thick strands of web still partially covered the stone ceiling of the cavern, now mostly exposed. One thicker strand of web dangled down from the ceiling, supporting a large, web cocoon about five meters above the cavern floor. It swayed gently as the air pressure re-equalised within the tunnel/cavern complex.
"Phew" I thought, "Nothing alive up there at least. Now, are these two alive?"
Rushing quickly between the unconscious figures, I carried out a rapid triage,
Galena, unconscious and severely burnt, likely to die immediately if not treated.
Tiny, unconscious and severely burnt, likely to die immediately if not treated.
Joe, unconscious and partially burnt, protected by the film of marmalade over his face.
Red, unconscious, but barely singed, protected by the film of marmalade over his face.
Bush, ambulatory, but badly burnt and probably suffering from shock.
Phoebe, ambulatory, but badly burnt, alert and aware.
Griza, ambulatory, only lightly burnt, alert and on guard.
Malcolm, on the ground, curled up into his own nostril like a snail, but alert and peering about.
Thursa and Dahma, ambulatory, lightly singed, alert and on guard.
Balder, no sign!
Casting a quick glance up at the dangling cocoon of webs, I planned "Galena first, then Tiny", and began to chant, my hands moving in that familiar motion requesting Caribou Gorn's healing power be bestowed.
As the green glow of healing gently suffused Galena, I took mental stock of my remaining divine power. Drawing miracles down from God was an exhausting process, but fortunately, I would be able to manage a number more before handing the task over to others. One was enough for Galena though, and as she groaned and pulled herself to sitting up against the cavern wall, I rushed across to Tiny. Still alive thank Caribou. Two castings were necessary before Tiny whimpered and jumped up. He set about licking his burnt skin as I moved over to Bush, one casting for him, then onto Phoebe.
Two castings for Phoebe, at which point I waved at Thursa and called "Your turn"
Sitting down briefly, I watched as Thursa cast more Healing on Bush, Griza, and Galena.
"How can she do both Divine and Arcane spells?" I wondered.
"Could that be Balder up there?" I mused, looking up at the swaying web cocoon above.
Bush and Griza were also looking up, Bush grumbling again as usual.
"I'm not climbing up there" Bush moaned, "There are hidden areas around the sides"
Phoebe lit the area with a Continual Light stone, and I could see that Bush was right. The upper heights of the cavern disappeared in all directions over a shelf about five metres above the ground.
"Like a negative mushroom" I thought.
"I'll go" volunteered Griza, flexing his fingers.
I watched as Griza quickly scurried up the steep side of the cavern, his magic glasses perched on his nose. As Griza reached the shelf, he peered over the edge and called down.
"Just smoking burnt webs" Griza reported, "Although there is a huge crispy spider over that side"
"It looks dead though, not moving at all, burnt, and still steaming"
Griza disappeared over the lip of the shelf and out of sight. His voice echoed down from above as he reported his discoveries in a running commentary.
"Lots of dead spiders up here... I'll need to climb the upper roof...Hey, another web cocoon up here"
Griza appeared again, hauling himself through the web stands on the cavern roof. Pausing at the top of the web rope supporting the dangling cocoon, Griza looked down at us. "Make sure you catch this" he instructed.
Bush pulled a large cloak out of his voluminous backpack, and we all grabbed an edge. Stretching it out below the hanging cocoon we were soon ready. Dangling by one hand, Griza deftly drew his knife and sheared through the web rope, and the cocoon dropped towards us.
"BOING boing ... b g"
It bounced a few times and soon we had Balder cut out from the webs. I watched as Griza moved swiftly across the roof of the cavern and cut into another cluster of webs anchored to the roof.
"It's a body" Griza called down, "With gear. But its right above the huge spider. Oooh, it's still alive!"
Suddenly, Griza dropped from the roof and fell into the darkness beyond the shelf, a knife in each hand.
After a few grunts and splurting noises, Griza's head appeared over the edge of the shelf.
"It's OK" Griza reported, "It's dead now. Watch out, I'll drop the body"
Griza pushed a cocoon wrapped shape over the edge of the shelf, then scuttled down the wall after it.
Inside was a skeletal figure, wooden finger bones still clutched around a long sword, clothing long rotten away. A silver ring in the form of a feather glittered around a wooden finger bone and a rotten quiver full of pristine arrows was draped over its wooden shoulder bones.
"Elf" noted Phoebe, "And how about a Detect Magic Napolean?"
"Good idea" I thought, and cracked off a Detect Magic spell.
The ring, twelve arrows, and the long sword all glittered with the purple hue that signified magic. Gathering all the magical items into my backpack, I turned to follow Dahma and Phoebe who were heading out of the cavern through the tunnel opposite where we had entered. The others followed.
Phoebe
I could see a faint trace of natural light from somewhere down the tunnel beyond Dahma. It would be nice to get out of this stupid tunnel with its stupid spiders. What was Thursa even thinking when she let of a stupid fireball in a stupid small underground cavern. So stupid!
We had made our way down the tunnel for about forty metres before the light intensified and an exit appeared ahead. Dahma was leading, just in front of me, and I could hear the others making their way along behind. Bush was still grumbling from the rear. Some things never changed; but it did help confirm that he was still with us.
Dahma stopped just before the tunnel exit and cautiously looked around.
"Nothing" she reported and stepped out into more of the stupid dead forest. Stepping out beside her, I took a quick look at the map she had so religiously been following for this whole journey. Lots of notes in an unknown language, with a red dotted arrow in the centre of the page. Stupid, it didn't look like any map I'd ever seen before, but it seemed to tell Dahma where to go well enough. I guess we can leave the navigation safely to her.
"Although" I thought, "She has led us through an undead graveyard and a spider infested cavern so far!"
As the others spilled out of the tunnel behind us, Dahma looked up and set of determinedly towards some low hills in the distance. She hurried on for at least an hour, slowly climbing up into the hills, past lots of the strange dead, stunted, and twisted tress before we spotted an actual grove of flat-topped living trees ahead. Stopping before the grove, she turned back and beaconed Thursa forward.
"This is the Myrrh grove" whispered Thursa, "But keep a close watch, there may be guards nearby"
"Guards" squawked Bush from behind me, "No one said anything about any freaking guards!"
"They may not be here" replied Thursa, "But it's best to be alert, and quiet!"
"What type of guards" I asked quietly.
"Maybe a Gorgon" Thursa stated.
"A what?" yelled Bush.
"Sssshhhhhh"
As the party moved cautiously forward, I kept a close watch on the ground. There were definitely some tracks around here, like large cow hoof prints. Fortunately, nothing looked particularly fresh. We set a small perimeter around a bunch of the tress, and Thursa went to work with a small tool. Kind of like a corkscrew with a cup, which she used to collect sap from the trees by screwing it into the trunk and waiting for the sap to flow out. That progressed for an hour or so until she said that her collection was done. And off we went, Dahma leading us back the way we had come, down the gentle hills, and back to the spider caves where we stayed the night.
"I'm not going back in there" squawked Bush.
"No problem" I replied, "Just wait here for us till the morning"
He followed us in!
Sometime during the night we were woken by the noise of some large creature rampaging around outside the tunnels. I looked over at Bush and gave him a wink.
"Lucky we aren't out there, ay Bush"
Exiting the spider tunnels in the morning, Dahma led us on a different path, one that avoided the fields of undead, and towards evening we exited the dead zone and entered the more normal forest. Dahma found us a nice camp site and we set up watches for the night. I was on the third watch with Malcolm, the Priests and Wizards choosing to take their chances with power point recovery Wafers and Grapes.
[Consuming a recovery Wafer or Grape renders the user unconscious for a twelve-hour period, unable to be woken, and lets them recover 2D4 points of power. This is twice the recovery rate of a normal twelve-hour sleep period but takes the user out of action for the period. The player needs to make a risk/reward call before bed. In this instance, power points were very low, and the risks were judged to be minimal.]
But before that, Galena's Major Wound was healed, Bush and I received Cures, and Napolean and Galena cast Cures on themselves. And then we went to bed. Malcolm and I were woken for the third watch, and we enjoyed the peaceful early hours until Light. Although Malcolm kept asking me about my underwear, what a weirdo, even for a Gnome!
The next day we made it back to the road, our two wagons still sitting there waiting for us, and we continued towards Burq. Dahma told us that there would be two more nights on the road before we arrived at Burq, then we would travel on to Peignoir for our penultimate off-road diversion, for Juniper this time.
We had a small night encounter with the Emerald Mists again, but no one was seriously affected and nothing attacked.
Arriving at Burq, we took rooms at the Rabid Monkey Inn.
Bush asked about the monkey but was again disappointed that it was just a name, there was no actual monkey, rabid or otherwise.
During the evening meal, I noticed that Dahma was looking around suspiciously, as though she sensed something that made her uncomfortable. Eventually she slipped away from the table and went outside. This seemed quite uncharacteristic to me, so I gave her a minute and then followed her outside. Slipping through the front door on the Inn, I spotted Dahma at the end of the veranda, in a somewhat heated discussion with a small and wiry man.
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| A hood hid his face |
"Hi Dahma, everything OK?" I called.
"Yes" she responded angrily, "Go away"
With a suspicious glace back, I went back inside and joined the others.
Malcolm
I woke to the delicious smells of frying bacon wafting up from the kitchens of the Rabid Monkey in Burq. If possible, I preferred the rooms over the kitchens, so much more pleasant than the other smells which often wafted around the rooms in Inns, like BO and damp boots and feet, gross!
We would be off to Peignoir today, a relaxing two-day journey on the wagons along the main road between Spite and Quek. No doubt Thursa would want me sitting up on her wagon again, she has some strange fixation with me and keeps me close. But that's fine, she smells nice, with a mix of floral scent that she must apply each day, and her natural elven odour. Not that I like the elven odour all that much, like that Dahma, she smells of sweat and anger, ugh. At least Thursa tries, and she sure knows her flowers, herbs, and spices. Pretty nice underwear too. Beats Phoebe's hands down!
It didn't take any time to throw my kit together, slurp down a tasty breakfast, and bounce outside to the wagons. Bloody drizzle again though. The wet just released the rotting forest odour from the ground and stunk out the travel. I'll just have to sit up close to Thursa I guess, she'll mask the rotten vegetation smells nicely. It was fun riding in Thursa's wagon, she and Dahma kept it out front, so I had the best views. Napolean and Phoebe normally strode out front, Tiny racing ahead, darting off into the forest, then back to Napolean. Tiny generally kept up his constant Brownian motion all day, probably covering five times the distance we took on the wagons. Tiny had a strange musky smell, so it was good that he kept his distance. I made sure cousin Balder was tucked safely and comfortably into the back of the wagon, and off we went.
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| A wagon blocked the forest road |
Tucked behind the woman was a man, tall and wiry, dressed in a dark robe and hood that coved him totally. He smelt like steel and mountains. Scary! One to watch.
The woman raised her hand, palm towards us, in that well recognised gesture that normally meant stop, but seemed to me like an invitation to check what she was wearing around her wrist.
"Stop" she cried, "I need to talk to you"
Well, pretty sure she didn't need to talk to me, so I checked out her wrist. Sure enough, a glittering bracelet with stones wrapped in white thread. Nice, I wonder if I could get closer?
"What do you want Valeta?" sighed Thursa, the prickly smell of caution overpowering her normal odour.
"I need him" the woman, Valeta, replied, her finger extended directly towards me!
"He is with me. What do you think you want him for?" replied Thursa.
"He must not disturb the fates" Valeta responded, "I will take him to Spite"
"No, we need him" Thursa stated forcibly.
"I'm right here" I muttered.
Turning her piercing gaze down towards me, the woman asked, "Will you stay with me?"
"Not likely" I replied, "You don't even smell nice, although I like your bracelet"
"You will regret this" she shouted.
"Indubitably" I sighed, "I do already"
There was much argument and fierce stares, Bush was particularly vehement, but eventually the Valeta woman moved her wagon off the road, and she and her cloaked man stood aside and watched as we passed. Phew, the stench of frustration and marginally controlled violence billowed from them both as we rumbled slowly past them and hurried on. Thursa and Dahma were obviously upset, the smells of anger and frustration slowly dissipating as we moved on.
The rest of that day was uneventful, the drizzle fading out during the day, and the light of REAL even making a brief appearance in the afternoon. The smells of the forest, and the party, slowly returned to normal, and by the time we made camp all was well. I was on the first watch with Dahma, and I asked her about the woman Valeta. She just grunted and didn't comment. The night passed.
I awoke the next morning curled around Thursa's travel bag in the back of the wagon. Hmmm, she even scents her clothing I realised, so pleasant. Taking a large sniff, I sucked the backpack aroma through my sensitive nasal passage and grunted happily. The odours of Dahma's breakfast cooking made their presence known, and I opened my eyes and tumbled off the wagon to join the others. Off to Peignoir today, and the Juniper collection trip! I recalled that Juniper was supposed to smell super strong, like a sappy pine with a bitter fresh feeling. Never smelt that one before so I was looking forward to finding some.
That night Thursa offered to Identify one of the magic items we had collected recently, noting that knowing what we had might prove useful in our collections over the next few days. There was a big debate about which item to identify, but we eventually settled on the ring, which turns out to be a Ring of Feather Fall. Quite a useful item for those sneaky climbers I figured, but I wasn't much interested as I didn't like climbing and wasn't particularly good at it. There was much debate about who might want such a powerful treasure, but no one could make a decision, so it was put back in the treasure sack for later debate.
The next morning, we left the wagons at the Green Avocado and headed out into the swamps that skirted the anti-fringes of the Emerald Forest, between the forest proper and the plains of Quek. Like most swampy areas, it stank of rotten eggs and decay. Sigh ....
Dahma led us into the swamp, slowly picking her way across the firmer ground, and we wound our way deeper and deeper into the swamps. Towards nightfall, Dahma led us up a small rise and onto a mound where we set up camp. There were lots of night noises, and during the first watch Griza woke us all up told us to be alert.
"There's something out there" he said.
I took a deep breath and tasted the air. Lizard men I figured, based on the aroma of eggs and meat that was very common among Lizard men warriors. But they would work it out themselves once the Lizard men charged in. Sneaky big bastards though, so I made sure to watch in the direction opposite all the noises from out in the swamp. And sure enough, I spotted two of the green scaly blighters crouched out in the swamp behind some scrubby bushes. Ducking down, I had just decided to call out to Phoebe, when the scent of Ganga smoke wafted across my olfactory senses from off in the swamp. Before I could even take a breath to alert the others, the two Lizard men up and raced off, splashing away at pace into the swamp. Good riddance I reckoned; any fight avoided is a good fight.
"What was that?" asked Bush as he peered out from his hammock slung up in trees.
"A Lizard man" Dahma replied.
"A what?" cried Bush.
A few minutes later that very strange Gnome fellow Bobbin smooched out of the swamp in a cloud of smoke and headed up our rise towards us.
"Hullo" he called, "Don't be shooting your good friend Bobbin by mistake"
He figured he had scared off the Lizard men for us, and who were we to argue. They had certainly left. He sat down with our watches for the rest of the night, puffing contentedly, and telling stories of his wandering in and around the Emerald Forest. When I awoke in the morning, he had already gone, just a faint trace of his smoky Ganga lingering about the camp site. There was no trace of the Lizard men either, for which I was grateful. Nasty stinky creatures.
.........
Napolean peered up through the thick scrub that he had quickly dived beneath. The night sky was an even deeper pool of black overhead than the cursed bush he had been battling through for the last hour. He figured he was pretty much on top of the hill now, the entrance to the dragon's cave down behind him somewhere, and the party's campsite somewhere ahead on the other side of the hill.
The beating of large wings overhead drew his attention back to the night sky, and he watched the silhouette of the huge dragon pass above, heading back to its cave. It's two feet each clutched a dangling form, possibly deer.
Napolean knew that he had to get back to the others, to let them know what he had seen inside the dragon's lair. He was the only one that knew, and they were counting on him!
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