Back to Porn City

 Present

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Jamie
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• MARMALADING Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• Lois Price. Human Female Wizard of Porn City – Ian
• MARMALADING  Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

by Andrew

Captive witch

We last left the group, having finished with the canyon caves, in their hidey hole in one of the convenient copses of trees at the top edge of the canyon. They had taken the leader of the group, a witch, captive. She was safely stowed, blind and gagged.

They were worried about being followed, so the divine spell Obscure had been cast to perfectly hide any trackable trail.

 [ A future rod for our own backs? With 100% concealment of tracks, all the baddies we track from now on will do this trick too (if they have a pet priest). ]

"Without their leaders and half of them dead," Esme pointed out wryly, "do we really think that they will follow?"

"Gnolls are organized," said Willow. "We need to worry."

But, needing to recharge the party spellcasters (Cody, Lois, Esme, Jack, Willow, Arden) they had to stay another day and someone had to guard. Munch and Rock were marmalading, so that only left Tom by himself. He was too thick to be trusted, so Esme stayed awake too and forwent her recharge. 

They stayed the entire next day in the copse, hidden and unmoving. During the day, three gnolls came to to inspect the now empty pond, but there was no other movement down below.

The witch started to stir in her ropes. Tom just bashed her with his spikey mace, which brought on severe internal brain bleeding. Esme had to spend some precious spells to save her life.

They did a quick survey of the items they had taken from the witch's cave. Detect Magic showed these as magic. 

• The hex key - to open the portal under the waterfall (back to Greybank - hopefully).
• A magic longbow and arrows.
• A dagger
• A wand
• A comms device (a word was plucked from the air to name this: "phone")

Night travel

That night, the group the left the copse, and headed out into the plains. Even though orcs and goblins have dark vision, they were up against gnolls and ogres as well; these ones moved during the day. And during the day, you can see a long way...

Two more Obscure spells were cast, then they travelled all night until light-on, and found a gully.

That day, the spellcasters needed more rest. Those on watch, saw a suspicious murder of crows flying nearby. But the murder didn't head towards them.

They travelled the next night. A bunch of wolves and giants crashed around out on the plains. It was a clear night so starlight gave some limited vision.

They found a gully just before on light-on. So, they experimented with the witch's phone. Cody's Comprehend Languages revealed the names "Mayiar", "Amelia" and "Siobhan". Suspecting the witch was named Amelia, Cody phoned that name, and sure enough, her phone vibrated.

That night it was time to move again.

Four hours from light-on, two hours from Waterfall crater, the party's luck ran out. A large group of gnolls, wolves, ogres, and a giant attacked.

This battle raged on for a while [like, a good hour of game time]. The party prevailed. Mention in dispatches:

• The fighters, Tom, Esme, and Jack took all the attacks and kept the raiders off the spell-casters

  

  Willow's pwoor widdle dog

• Cody's drained all his magic with fireballs, aided by Lois's transfers.
• Ardern and Willow's healing spells kept the fighters going
• Jack fought with the light sabre (from the Le Brun pod), and discovered it has limited charges. He drained it.
• One of Willow's dogs was splattered all over a rock

After licking their wounds, and cure spells all round, they hurried off to get the crater before light-on. They did not want to be spotted by the garrison of nasties on the crater edge.

Down in the crater, they moved quickly to the waterfall pool. 

Behind the waterfall, there were hand-holds in the rock face which allowed you to climb up to the tunnel, which went down to the portal cave. 

Not wanting to risk anything, Cody cast Spider Climb, ate his live spider, and scurried up the wall, then threw down a rope. Tom followed and basically hauled everyone else up. [Many party members have crap DEXs.]

In the portal cave, it was exactly as the party left it when they were here a week ago. The circular portal shimmered, bathing the entire cave in dim rose-coloured light.

Portal

Cody got out the hex key and it slid neatly into the lock, fitting exactly.  The circular stone could turn to one of four positions. 

Throwing stones at the portal was tested for each position. Two of the four positions allowed the stone to vanish through.

Lois volunteered to go through. So Cody chose position One. Lois's orders were to try immediately to come back, then wait ten seconds and try again. 

After ten seconds, Cody would turn it back to position Zero, and Lois would try again.

She vanished. Cody waited ten seconds. Nothing. Oh dear.

"Well, we all have to go now," said Tom.

This was agreed group dynamics. In cases of one-way portals, if one member goes through, everyone goes through. [That, or Lois is written-off and Ian makes a new character.]

Cody turned they key back to One again. Pulled the key out - lucky that worked.

And everyone went through.

And ... 

... the whole group was back in Greybank, in the Chi estate, all squashed into the metal pod.

"I couldn't get back," explained Lois. "Even after ten seconds."

There was another hex key hole in the floor of the pod, near the trapdoor hinge. 

"How, in Mister Quail's name, did we miss that when we searched this thoroughly?" complained Ardern bitterly.

The hex key hole had a similar four positions like the crater one. Cody left it as they found it: in one-way mode through to the crater from here. Presumably blocked at the far end.

The Chi estate had not been touched in the week the group had been away. So they spent the next few days resting, recharging and curing. Plus Cody and Lois cast a bunch of Identify spells on the recovered items. [Bow is +1, Arrows +1, Dagger +1, all to hit. The wand was Lightning with 5 charges.]

The witch was healed and then interrogated. She claimed she was called Sharleen, even though the group had her phone. She made up some nonsense to explain Cody's testing of her phone, and denied she was Amelia.

Esme wanted to kill her and use Speak with Dead - which always tells the truth.

"You will regret it if you hurt me," said Amelia, putting up a brave face.

"Tell someone who cares," said Esme, as she got out a knife. "Let's have a vote. Who votes for Speak with Dead on her?"

"I do," volunteered Tom.

"I am sure your temple-fighter of Aquamarina would have something to say about that, miss," said Amelia.

"Damn right," snapped Jack. "No killin' in cold blood here."

Aquamarina was a Good-leaning goddess. Killing in cold blood violates her precepts.

"Well, that's one," said Esme, surveying the room.

"I'm a No," said Cody.

"Me too," said Lois.

"And me," from Willow.

Ardern just smiled gleefully. Mr Quail was the god of Trickery and Deceit, so his priestess could go either way. But she said, "No."

Losing the vote, Esme sulked.

Cody stepped up. "Why did you kill Thackery? 

"The gnolls did that," said Amelia. "He was already dead when I found him."

This was probably a lie. Or else she ordered them to.

"Tell us about the cult you belong to."

"I don't belong to a cult."

"Why do you live with the orcs?"

"They serve me. Plus, I am looking into the demise of Angel."

"Who were you talking to, on that ... talking-thing?" asked Cody. He held up her phone.

"Did you see that?" said Amelia genuinely puzzled.

"I sure did. You your bedroom. Your boudoir,"

"What? There?"

"Answer the damn question," he snapped. "Who were you talking to?"

"Um. I was talking to Mayiar. I have worked for her for many years. But I don't know really her. She belongs to the Halo Wizards' Guild."

Over the next few days, the group hired a barge and made their way back down to Porn City.

Lois and Cody took the captive Amelia to the Wizards' Guild, and handed her over to Sally Price, the party's patron and Lois's mum. Lois gave a full report. Sal demanded the group hand over all the non-magic but high-tech items. Lois only revealed Unt's phone and Jack's empty light-sabre.

"They may have got into your
summer house..."

"This is excellent, dear," said Sal. "I am very proud of you."

Lois beamed.

"In your absence, it would appear that a gnoll band lead by a woman known as Sophia, and her male sidekick, have raided and killed all the occupants of Le Brun. I am worried that they may have got into your summer home, and tampered with the sphere there. I want you to travel there."