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From humbug Thu Sep 2 03:35:29 1999
From: humbug
Subject: more.
Newsgroups: redbrick.rpg.board
Organization:
Summary:
Keywords:
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980202 (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (i86pc))
Status: RO
Content-Length: 13766
Lines: 211
Look!, another one.
Plans are thrashed out in the dwarven village of Dast. The Modron body
parts, preserved in a block of ice in Slate's backpack, have only about
one month before the spell ends and they start decaying like anything
else. The dwarves give Slate a rough map of the area, and options are
discussed. Travelling north, back across the Khanate, up to Boldavia then
down to Gallantry is one option. South across the mountains is impossible.
West, then south would take the party through the broken lands, and
everyone but Mongro sees this as an immensely bad idea. Skirting
eastwards, then south through part of Irrendi would lead the party to the
main road to Darokin and safer more familiar territory, but the overall
journey that way would likely exceed the one month limit. Irrendi, the
broken lands, or the Ethangar Khanate. The Khanate is chosen, at least it
is familiar.
Stocking up on supplies, the party set off northwards. Plans are discussed
with respect to heading northwest then northeast in an effort to avoid the
area where the trolls were last seen, but going directly northwards at a
good pace seems more expedient.
At around midday of the third day out, a large lumbering figure is seen in
the distance. It is probably within range of longbow or crossbow, but the
party wait and it wanders off. Somebody thinks it was probably an ogre. A
couple of hours later a group of large creatures are spotted in the
distance. The lone ogre now has friends. The party break into a jog, and
the ogres start running. The ogres are making ground, so the party turn
and ready themselves for the fight. Crowe has time to loose four arrows at
the onrushing ogres, but only hits once before they draw near. Los fires
once with his heavy crossbow, missing, and is still winching for his
second shot when the ogres close. Dersh, avoiding being stabbed when Los
unceremoniously passes it to him, is applying the oil of sharpness in
possession of the party to Los' 2-handed sword. Slate gets off two
crossbow bolts, and Mongro one sling shot, but they all miss.
As the ogres close four of them stop at about 100 yards and begin hefting
very large rocks at the party. The other two ogres head straight for
Slate, but one of them turns towards Greebo soon after two 'magic
missiles' impact into it. Mongro rushes forward to attack one of the
groups of 2 ogres throwing boulders, but is hit in the process and stops
before he gets there. Crowe mutters a curse as Mongro runs into the line
of sight for his first bow shot this round, and curses again when he
breaks his bowstring on the second shot. Slate fires the magical ring at
the now one ogre before it reaches him, catching the ogre at the side of
the small fireball, doing indeterminate damage. Los is hit by a boulder,
but takes relatively little damage. In the next round, Greebo, despite his
dexterity and comparative smallness is hit by the ogre facing him, and he
falls to the ground. Crowe moves to attack the same ogre, and is narrowly
missed by Los' crossbow bolt as he does the same thing. Dersh has finished
applying the oil of sharpness to Los' sword, and passes it to him. Slate
shows off his new fighting style. Grasping the chains on his axe he twirls
around and slams his axe into the ogre he is facing. Mongro has changed
his mind about attacking the rock-throwing ogres on his own, and runs back
towards the rest of the party. The ogres follow, leaving the five standing
party members facing one ogre each, Mongro with two behind him. Everyone
fails to hit the ogre in front of them in that round, except Slate who
scores with his second attack.
In the next round the party do a little better. Crowe hits his
ogre with his bastard sword, and Los slays one of the injured ogres with
his temporarily magical two-handed sword. Los doesn't seem quite himself
however, and is fighting with less vigour than usual. Both ogres behind
him hit Mongro as he rushes away from them to heal Greebo, and he too
falls to the ground. Los is hit by one of the ogres, and is now down to
four hit points. Dersh decides to use his tumbling proficiency to lower
his chances of being hit, but stuffs up, and is hit down to one hit point.
Slate kills the ogre he is facing, and the two who felled Mongro move in
on him. Four ogres remain. Two are attacking Slate, who has yet to be hit,
and has more health than the rest of the party combined. Los is facing one
ogre on his own. One infuriated ogre is attacking Dersh as Crowe dances
around it attacking with his bastard sword. Both Los and Slate hit their
targets, doing only average and minimum damage respectively. Los is hit
again, and like Dersh, down to one hp.
Slate is beginning to take some damage from the two ogres
attacking him, but Los slays another ogre, moving to help Dersh and Crowe
with their target. The party are gaining the upper hand. Slate slays
another ogre, and the 'too stupid to attack the guys attacking with
swords' ogre dies too. The final ogre takes to its heels. Slate delivers a
parting blow, and all of the ogres lie dead on the ground. Crowe slits
their throats to be sure.
Greebo and Mongro lie dead or unconscious. Nobody can tell which, and only
Los can heal once by laying on of hands. Mongro, if restored, could cast a
healing spell on Greebo, but the party are unsure just how badly injured
Mongro is. Greebo, on the other hand, could determine and maintain
Mongro's condition if restored, and is considered less likely to be beyond
Los' healing ability. Los lays his hands on Greebo, who was merely
unconscious. Greebo, in turn, determines that Mongro is also only
unconscious, and the party wait for him to recover. By morning of the next
day most people are back to near full health thanks to Mongro's 'cure
light wounds' and Los' laying on of hands. Slate only needs a few hours
rest to recover from a battle. The stench of ogre corpses presses the
party onwards.
Slate and Crowe keep the party heading northwards, hoping to reach
the strange military encampment at the river crossing point. Los is
getting weaker, and is slowing the party down, but is silent as always
when pressed for information. The next four days of travel are gruelling.
Los needs to be helped along by a person on each shoulder, and offers
scant words as to why he feels like he does. Everyone is quite confused.
To most peoples knowledge paladins don't get sick, ever. Greebo's healing
proficiency is useless through plate mail, and Los never takes off his
armour, ever.
The party cross some barren rocky ground as they head northwards, although
the same patch of land was not encountered on the journey south. Crowe and
Slate still figure they're going in the correct direction.
The party trudge slowly on, making about one half of good walking speed.
On the tenth day out, people are getting worried that the river should
have been reached by now, even at the slower pace. Crowe is first to spot
a dust cloud in the distance, and Mongro reckons it is a small herd of
some kind, likely to pass close to the party. As time passes a group of
six mounted horsemen come into focus. Mongro and Greebo hide in the long
grass, and Crowe and Dersh call out in common. The horsemen are not very
friendly at all, and draw to a halt in front of the party. The leader of
the horsemen questions the party and demands tribute be paid for crossing
their lands. Just then Mongro is spotted in the grass and the horsemen
draw their shortbows. Crowe offers 5gp as tribute to the leader, and is
separated from the rest of the party. Dersh does the same, and then Dersh
and Crowe pay for the remainder of the party. Slate is a little agitated
at having handed over so much gold, but a day later the party reach the
river, escorted by the horsemen. It then comes to light that as far as the
horsemen are concerned the party have no permission whatsoever to cross
the river or the Khanate northwards. This doesn't really help things.
Eventually it is decided to head westwards towards the river-fork
encampment previously encountered by the party. Slate lets it be known
that he has some gems, and hopes to use them for bribery and horses to
cross the Khanate.
After one day of travel west the party camp for the night. Dersh
is on guard when he notices that Los isn't there anymore. Waking the rest
of the party apart from the meditating Mongro, people puzzle on what could
have happened. Dersh swears there is no way someone in platemail could
have walked off without him noticing, and Crowe sets off to look for
tracks. Crowe finds nothing, and there is no sign of Los apart from the
flattened patch of grass where he was lying when he went to sleep. With no
other option the party get back to sleep, and Dersh resumes his watch.
As the party wake that morning, somebody notices that Los is back where he
was. Los doesn't know why he disappeared, but reluctantly tells the party
that he now knows what is wrong with him. His strength has been restored,
but if he doesn't get down to slaying some undead before the next month is
out, he will die. With time now an even bigger factor than before, the
group press on westwards.
Crowe is, as usual, ranging off to one side of the party to give himself
room to fire his longbow when he shouts out for help. Around six large
centipedes are attacking him. Before the rest of the party get to him
Crowe is bitten. He remains standing, but at the end of the round he
shudders, and falls to the ground. Slate grabs one of the centipedes, and
in flinging it away throws another one of the scrambling creatures with
it. Greebo moves in to see if he can stop the poison in Crowe from
spreading, but he too is bitten, and also takes extra damage, but remains
standing. Los grabs and throws one of the centipedes, and Dersh kills one
of the centipedes that Slate threw away with a thrown dagger. Some of the
centipedes scurry off at lightning speed, but two of the thrown ones rush
back in. Greebo and Mongro are attacked. Both centipedes miss, and Los and
Slate move to attack them. Dersh recovers his thrown daggers. Greebo
attacks the centipede on him with his spellstaff. He hits and kills it.
Los is not quick enough to pull back his attack on the dead centipede. He
misses it, and drives his dagger into Greebo's chest. Greebo slumps to the
ground. Slate finishes the last centipede and attention is turned to
Greebo. It is certain that Greebo is on negative hit points, and seeing as
nobody has natural healing, magic must be used. Greebo survives the shock
to his system, but the resurrection process is too much, and he remains
dead. Los is not pleased.
Crowe is healed by Mongro, and survives. In accordance with Greebo's
wishes it is decided to bring along his corpse to sell at a future date.
Apparently his fur is quite valuable to magic users who use them as flying
carpets. The skinning is left to a later date, and the corpse put in Los'
backpack.
Dersh, who is still carrying the envelope that himself and Crowe were to
deliver finds himself getting curious. Weighing the possibility of it
being trapped against what he has seen recently of magical items and what
they can do, as well as the fact that the owner of the item transported
him to troll infested plains, Dersh decides to open it. Then he decides to
ask Slate to open it. Slate obliges, and tears open the leather envelope
with his dagger. Dersh is satisfied that it isn't trapped, and draws a
deck of cards from the envelope. Certain that this is something more than
an ordinary deck of cards Dersh shuffles through them and begins placing
them in front of himself. As he does so he gets more and more caught up by
a strange sense of magic, and doesn't really notice a blue glow around
where he is sitting. Dersh draws a knight, the moon, the joker, a key and
a balance. As he finishes drawing the last card Dersh realises that a man
very similar to the knight on the card is standing beside him. The knight
asks how he may serve, and explains what is going on. Dersh has been
fortunate in the cards he drew. The knight tells Dersh he shall serve him
'till death. The moon can grant Dersh two wishes, to be chosen now, and
the knight warns Dersh not to be greedy or extravagant. Dersh wishes for
Greebo to be alive and well, and for Slate to able to see as before.
The joker enabled Dersh to draw five cards instead of four, but reduced
his intelligence permanently. The key, after Dersh's choosing was a fine
looking shortsword. The balance signified nothing.
The knight explains that he has the power to move Dersh and the party to a
point of his choosing, and that he must choose quickly. Dersh chooses
Rimskigrad, and calls for the rest of the party to quickly join him in the
blue glow. Crowe is reluctant, but joins, and the party find themselves
standing in a town square. Dersh has scant time to explain what has
happened, even to a very surprised Greebo climbing out of Los' backpack,
or Slate, with a moving gemstone instead of one eye, before the party are
beset by town guards pointing crossbows. A captain of some sort arrives,
and isn't pleased at the apparently continual habit of magic users to
blink into existence as they please. The party are led off towards
barracks of some sort, and Slate being the only person with any money is
nudged into offering one of the gems to the captain. The captain raises an
eyebrow, and upon receipt of a second gem agrees to allow the party to
leave town without arrest. The group are ushered out of Rimskigrad, and
Boldavia, and find themselves standing in the Scotch Breach, a passageway
between two mountains, leading two days southwest to the road to, and the
country of Gallantry. Dersh decides to call the knight Gar, and the party
head south into the Breach.
humbug.
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