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From humbug Tue Oct 5 23:00:09 1999
From: humbug
Subject: diddle daddles
Newsgroups: redbrick.rpg.board
Organization:
Summary:
Keywords:
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980202 (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (i86pc))
Status: RO
Content-Length: 12867
Lines: 213
Looking around, the party survey their surrounds. Greebo has confirmed
that the party have returned to the Prime Material plane, and Dersh
reckons that these are probably the Radlebb Woods. Unfortunately, Los is
nowhere to be seen.
The faint clang of metal upon metal stops conversation. Everyone
rushes in the direction from which the sounds emanate. The metal clad Gar
and the short legged Slate fall behind, and Dersh and Mongro (carrying
Greebo) arrive first. A small clearing in the forest lies strew with
bodies. Dersh motions to the others that he may listen for other sounds of
fighting, but hears nothing but some motion from the other side of the
clearing. Slate and Gar arrive a few moments later, and the party
cautiously examine the bodies. Moving towards the movement on the other
side of the clearing, Los is spotted, also on the ground, and seemingly
in convulsions. Slate and Mongro pick their way through the fallen zombies
(as recognised by Slate) and get to Los to get him to his feet. Los seems
uncharacteristically vibrant, and it is clear enough that he has resolved
his problem with needing to kill some undead.
Night is upon the party. A place to camp is found, and discussion
conducted. Los is satisfied that he has done what he needed to do, and
the party decide to head north-east, towards one of the (only) two
cities (Kelvin and Specularum) in the area that survived the war. Mongro
heals up Los before meditating for the night, and night turns into
morning.
As the party are breaking camp in the morning, Los announces
that he must head south, to Specularum. Los has been visited during the
night by Grasst, an Angel of Death. Los has been told to contact a man
(by the name of Inceb) in Specularum, and mentions the possibility of free
training for helping him out. It is decided. The party spend the day
heading south-west, hoping to reach the southern edge of the Radlebb
Woods, and hopefully then a good road to Specularum. Reasonable progress
is being made southwards, with Slate keeping the party in the correct
direction, when a shout sounds out from an unseen voice.
"Stand, and Deliver."
The party spread out, Slate and Los heading towards the front, and Mongro
bounding towards an open area at the back. Gar is thoroughly amused
by being asked to stand and deliver, and chuckles as he draws his sword.
Numerous figures are now to be seen in the woods around the party,
four or five carrying shortswords, advancing. Four more are further off,
with bows. Mongro is unlucky in that he immediately finds himself an open
target for two of the archers. He is hit by two arrows, but spots that
one of the archers broke a string, and sets about him with his axe.
One of the bandits is carrying two weapons, and giving orders.
The leader. Greebo calls out in Dwarven, to hide the actions of the
party, and Slate reciprocates, calling out to attack the leader.
Dersh turns to face one of the bandits coming towards him, which is
why he fails to notice another one of bandits dropping out of a tree
and driving a dagger into his back.
Dersh awakes with a stranger standing over him, recently having
finished healing him, it seems. Slate, Los and Greebo stand nearby,
along with what seem to be a couple of the bandits. Slate bids the
bandits and the cleric be on their way, and Dersh gets to his feet,
asking what has transpired. The details of the fight are not clear,
but the first thing that becomes apparent is that Mongro is dead. His
wounds were not grave, but the cleric's variable healing ability
failed to save him. Los also fell, but was healed. Why the bandits now
seem to be helping the party is unclear to Dersh, but Slate grumbles
over having to fork out gold to get people healed. It seems as though
money was also paid to recover Mongro's spellbook from the bandits,
but the book is currently of no use to the party, as Greebo is as learned
in the lower level of magic as he can be. The leader of the bandits
was killed during the battle, and Slate hands a scrollcase to Dersh.
It contains a list of names, possibly members of the band of thieves.
The scrollcase itself, upon closer inspection, appears to have
something written on the inside, or rather, is not a scrollcase at all,
but a rolled up map, sealed off. The map is of the Radlebb Woods,
showing various trails, and presumably ambush points marked thereon.
Slate has learned from the bandits that eastwards is the
quickest way to the main road to Specularum, and, come morning, that
is the direction in which the party travel. By early afternoon of
the next day the party are walking southwards on the road to
Specularum. The road itself is of top quality, and good progress is
made. The only thing of concern to the party is that they are one day
short of food for the full journey to Specularum. This is solved when
Slate buys a small keg of dwarven ale from a passing caravan, and the
party get to eat with the caravan when it stops for lunch.
The road south is well patrolled by mounted guardsmen, who seem little
interested in taking crap from anyone. Dersh has citizenship papers,
and the guards send the party on their way after taking their names and
giving a curt warning to stay away from Krakatos (an abandoned keep to
Dersh's knowledge).
As the evening of the next day is drawing to a close the party
arrive at an outdoor tent at a large crossroads north of Specularum.
Stopping in the beer tent seems a better idea than camping immediately,
so the party head inside.
A dwarf, a paladin and a parrot walk into a bar. Then Dersh and Gar walk
in, and everyone sits down and has an ale. It is busy enough, mostly
farmers, with one group of would-be adventurers in the corner. The
innkeeper greets the party, and offers hammocks, or pallets to sleep
on for the night, for a price. When asked about the keep the innkeeper
says that the powers-that-be found something of interest to themselves
there, and don't want anyone else near it. Greebo scurries off
to talk to the mage at the other table, but nobody really pays any
attention to a 2ft tall purple talking bird.
One more day on the road, and the party arrive at the north gate of
Specularum. Gaining entry is easy enough, and Dersh directs the party
towards an inn he is familiar with. The man Los is looking for is named
Inceb, but that is all he knows. Dersh contacts 'a man', and asks him
to find this Inceb. The rest of the party having nothing to do but
wait, and buy some supplies.
The next evening Dersh reports that he has found the location
of this man, apparently a wizard, and living in the high-quarter.
Dersh requires one more day to talk to some friends in Specularum, and
Greebo uses the time to see about selling Mongro's spellbook. Business
can only be conducted with the guild by members of the guild, and
Greebo decides to hold onto the book.
When all business in finished, the party head up to the
high-quarter, and to the house of Inceb. The door of the large black
house swings ominously inwards as the party walk up the drive, and
are greeted by Inceb as they enter the house.
Inceb has been expecting the party, and has been commissioned to cast
a teleport spell upon the party. It is Los' understanding that the
party are to be teleported to a place where there are undead, but there
weren't until recently.
Greebo sets about asking Inceb about teleport magic, and does he know
that it is messing up a lot of late. Inceb is aware of the problems,
but has been paid well to cast the spell, and has been assured it will
work as long as he incorporates a small verse of prayer he has been given
into the spell. The party agree, and Inceb casts his spell, ending his
incantation with "Was that meant to happen?".
In the void that is teleportation, the party are visited by
Grasst, the Angel of Death, who bestows upon the party the training that
each individual was capable of receiving. Dersh and Greebo are aged
by the process, Slate gains a few years, Los none, and Gar simply
disappears.
As the teleport spell finishes, and the party find themselves
standing on firm ground, they are filled with a sudden urgency and dread.
The party stand in a large room surrounding a wizard, who orders the party
to kill the creatures on the opposite side of the room, or the party
will die in the next few minutes as a result of a spell that has been
cast upon them. The party realise this to be the truth, and turn to face
8 creatures on the other side of the room. The little blue creatures
don't look too tough, and everyone rushes towards them. It is at this
point it is realised that there are two more people with the party. One
of them, a rather large fellow with a rather large axe joins Slate and
Los in attacking the blue creatures. The other just stands there taking
a shot from a flask. Before any of the fighters have reached the
creatures, Greebo casts 'magic missile'. He stuffs up. The spells impacts
into Dersh, and then impacts back into Greebo, who is left on only 1hp.
Slate and Los both hit the blue creatures in the first round of
combat, but they are more resilient than they look, and the little
critters remain standing. It seems like quite a task to the party to kill
all 8 of the critters in only four more rounds of combat. In the second
round, things are little better. Greebo uses 'magic missile' to good
effect this time, but doesn't fell the creature who is hit by both
missiles. Garth (the man with the axe) injures another, as does Dersh,
and Slate kills one.
In the next round it seems likely that the party will manage
it. Garth kills his opponent, as does Los, and the remaining blue guys
are being closed in. Greebo casts 'magic missile' again, this time at
two separate targets, killing an injured opponent, and injuring an
uninjured one.
The remaining blue guys are injured and surrounded, but Greebo finishes it
before the fighters have a chance to kill them. Dersh slays the one in
front of him with his shortsword, but before he has a chance to follow-up
his attack with his dagger Greebo has cast 'magic missile' again, this
time to perfection, killing both remaining enemies.
All heads turn to the wizard cowering in the corner. He seems
quite sure of himself, and fobs off the party's questions. He explains
that the party weren't really going to die, and that that was just an
effective part of the summoning spell he cast to bring creatures to him to
fight his enemies. The creatures summoned by the spell were, in fact, the
party, and the wizard prepares to end the spell to send the party back to
wherever they came from.
The wizard's expression changes slightly as he makes the gestures to
cancel the spell and it dawns on him that the party are no longer under
the control of the summoning spell.
Garth lumbers over to the wizard and gathering him up by his
thumbs presents him to Jeb, the tippling cleric. At this point a barrage
of questions are directed at the wizard.
The party are in a castle, in the quarters of the wizard. The wizard had
been casting a 'monster summoning' spell, to defend himself against the
blue creatures. The blue creatures were sent by another wizard in the
castle who seems to think it amusing to try to kill his colleague. The
party were caught up by the 'monster summoning' spell, though this should
not have been the case. The wizard is unable to return the party to where
they were, or where they were going. The wizard's name is Trikostor, and
his tormentor Fivok. Trikostor explains that the party are in the Sun
Palace, in the town of Hardby. He really doesn't know what to do with the
party, as the current situation goes beyond his magical knowledge. Los
presses for information on undead. Trikostor is familiar with clerical
healing, and even resurrection, but not the concept of undead. Even
Garth's description of "skillingtons" doesn't jog his memory. The party
are eager to extort as much as possible from this guy who brought them to
yet another unfamiliar land, and settle for the first step being dinner.
Trikostor sends for a meal, and faces more questions from the party.
Greebo presses him on teleportation and suchlike, but not much is learned.
It seems as though wizards are relatively rare in this land, with only
four residing in the palace, and any others in the town likely working for
noble houses. After a time the party allow
Trikostor to send for Warraf, a higher-ranking wizard in the palace.
Warraf is not much more help, and all he does is set the party up in an
inn in town for a week. With questions still unanswered the party head
through town towards the inn. The town appears to be all humans, which
leads to many stares for the party. Los is confident that the party have
been transported to the correct place, despite the upset of their arrival.
Wondering if this is the case the party enter the inn.
humbug.
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