Doomriders: A Campaign Journal

[starwoof]

Calling Morchana 'Mora' or 'Kana' or something makes her lose a lot of her evil sexy elf appeal in my opinion. Its like calling Sauron Ted.

[The_Werebear]

Calling Morchana 'Mora' or 'Kana' or something makes her lose a lot of her evil sexy elf appeal in my opinion. Its like calling Sauron Ted.

Meh, you know the boards. A question will be asked, or a concept thought of. After about three posts, all connection to reality and original purpose is lost and it becomes thought exercise.




Not to mention Evil Sexy Elf is a better identifier for the tactics and character than all of the others put together anyway:smallamused:

[Eldariel]

I don't get what the big deal is about trying to find nicknames for the characters. When people started calling me Lossie, I thought it was just a term of endearment; but if we are really getting to the point where typing eight letters is a chore, this is very sad.

Eh, the "8 letters is a chore" was just a bad attempt of a joke from me; using nicknames for slightly longer names is just something of a habit for many folk, yours truly included. So...yeah. Mayhap I should just shut up on the matter before I further bury myself.


@Morchana: Alt+0235 (on Numpad) for ë, provided the keyboard lacks the "¨" sign (as I've understood is the case). Just in case you find that more convenient than trying to copy-paste it always.

[starwoof]

Meh, you know the boards. A question will be asked, or a concept thought of. After about three posts, all connection to reality and original purpose is lost and it becomes thought exercise.

And the poster of the original idea is left sputtering and confused. :smallbiggrin: How did I forget? Its one of the most fun things to read.

[AtwasAwamps]

Morchana = Momo
Cade = Big C
Lossie = Lolo
Fluffy = Fluffster
Keito = Kiki
Fayd = Murgatroyd

I don’t see what the problem is.

[RdMarquis]

Calling Morchana 'Mora' or 'Kana' or something makes her lose a lot of her evil sexy elf appeal in my opinion. Its like calling Sauron Ted.

Don't you mean calling Sauron "Ron"? :smallwink:

[Morchana]

@Morchana: Alt+0235 (on Numpad) for ë, provided the keyboard lacks the "¨" sign (as I've understood is the case). Just in case you find that more convenient than trying to copy-paste it always.

Yeah. . . I know that code for a regular computer, but I have a laptop, and no numpad. . . :smallfrown:

Oh well!

[Eldariel]

Yeah. . . I know that code for a regular computer, but I have a laptop, and no numpad. . . :smallfrown:

Oh well!

Ah, right, laptop. *facepalm* Apparently I'm not thinking today. Well, it's still possible in some software and with some keyboard layouts; I've read at least Word recognizes ctrl+shift+: for ¨ (so at least old Word-versions allowed ctrl+shift+: followed by e to result in ë; can't vouch for this as it doesn't work on Scandic keyboard), and there's always Charmap... But then again, Charmap isn't much easier than copy-pasting it from somewhere, so meh.

[Tam_OConnor]

Righto, folks. So Fayd and I have determined a scientific way to keep this thread alive through the holidays, when we won't be having our regular weekly sessions. We should have sessions today (December 6th) and January 10th. The Sundays in between (Dec. 13th, 20th, 27th, and Jan 3rd), I'll be posting a map a week, along with the local atlas...thing.

The schedule:
Dec 13th: World Map
Dec 20th: Grand Duchery Map
Dec. 27th: Tiborem Varos Map
Jan 3rd: Cattlepoint and Mysterious Island (?) Maps

Hopefully I'll be able to churn these out according to schedule. Happy holidays, y'all.

[Snowstar]

I believe I have been very helpful. It's not much, but I made potatoes and found flowers. :smallsmile:

[AtwasAwamps]

It's not much, but I made potatoes and found flowers. :smallsmile:

Potatoes are the best thing ever.

[Tam_OConnor]

My name means potato-eater, therefore I am compelled to agree. And now I have to figure out who produces potatoes.

[RdMarquis]

Farmers. Or some fertility-earth-mother goddess. Actually, scientists say potatoes can be traced back to South America, and that explorers brought them back to Europe.

Don't ask how I know. You run into a lot of weird things when you're doing research for a paper.

[Colmarr]

Ah, right, laptop. *facepalm* Apparently I'm not thinking today. Well, it's still possible in some software and with some keyboard layouts; I've read at least Word recognizes ctrl+shift+: for ¨ (so at least old Word-versions allowed ctrl+shift+: followed by e to result in ë

My copy of Word produces the ë with ctrl+; followed by hitting e. It won't work directly into GitP, but you can prepare a post in Word then cut and paste the whole post across. Which is what I normally do to avoid losing things in page errors...

[Tam_OConnor]

Righto. Fayd's working on the Journal tonight, but I thought I'd start the massive overflow of information a little early. Today's entry: Deities and Demiurges

Deities:
Ashur: CE god of base cunning, predatory undead, slaughter and violent death
Brigii: NG goddess of fire, horses, loyalty and speed
Farkas: NE god of assassination, cold, gnolls and hunting
Femta: LG goddess of creation, magical craftsmanship, mining and smithwork
Gilgadar: CN god of gambling, greed, luck and thievery
Ibronka: CG goddess of the Gemstone Towers, magic, purity and true love
Ileni: TN goddess of color, dragons, existence, and nature
Kurush: CN god of human superiority, physical might, sunlight and victory
Larlon: NG god of healing, life, longevity and wisdom
Laeros: LG god of civilization, humanity, nobility and order.
Lo-Tenger: NG god of earthquakes, the Lovas people and lands, plains and oceans
Nunatii: NE god of black magic, fell deeds, fiends and undeath
Olanorn: TN god of battle, competition, personal prowess and warriors
Phoraduk: TN god of death, ending, graveyards and peace
Rihissa: LN goddess of execution, judgment, punishment and revenge
Sanselie: LN goddess of maps, strategy, tactics and vigilance
Silanihi: CG goddess of freedom, philosophy, the sky and the winds
Turmlar: LG god od courage, knighthood, obedience and valor
Tykanria: LE goddess of darkness, lies, secrets and silence
Tyntaragi: NE goddess of illusions, reflections, undermagic and vanity
Waerdun: TN god of commerce, labor, travel and wealth
Ylsilar: NE god of betrayal, libraries, madness and poison

Deceased Deities:
Igela: deceased CG goddess of elves, magic, self-discipline and wisdom. Slain by Tykanria and Tyntaragi, with portions of her divine essence helping Blur-Gar ascend.
Seseg: deceased LG god of celestial bodies, healing, just government and the Varaz people and lands. Slain by Ashur and Kurush, with his portfolio shared out between them.

Non-deific religions:
Church of the Perfected Self: benign meditative monastic atheism, geared towards transcendence.
Demonic Cults: followers of the non-divine, but still very powerful, Paragons of Stygia.
Kadashari Beast Cults: malevolent totemic animism
The Peri Ideals: benign social atheism

Demiurges:
The Fey Lords and Ladies:
The Seelie Court:
The Faerie Queen: TN ruler
The Maimed Lord: TN warlord
The Ocean Witch: CN seer
The Rhymer: N jester
The Remorseless Pursuer: LN hunter
The Unseelie Court:
The Queen of Air and Darkness: NE ruler
The Unbreakable Knight: LN warlord
The Spider Queen: NE seer
The Horned Lord: CN hunter
The Laughing Condemned: CG jester
Spirits of Beyond:
Danatk, hero of war: CE
Sarnath, hero of guile: NE
Blur-Gar, hero of spell: NE
Lhanken, heroine of race: LE
Doran One-Ear, hero of unity: TN

Dead Demiurges:
Unseelie Fey Lord:
The Knight Undying: deceased TN warlord. Slain by mortals, who later ascended into the Courts.
The Iron Lord: deceased LN demiurge of iron and vengeance against the fey. Slain by mortals, who were never heard from again.

And who the party follows:
Both Fayd and Keito worship Silanihi, the Wind-friend
Morchana might worship Tykanria. Neither one's going to tell.
Cade worships the divine couple of Brigii and Turmlar.
Lossëlen isn't all that religious, but at least technically worships Ileni.
Fluffy... let's just say that Fluffy worships food.

Most of the clerics that the party has encountered have been priests of Laeros (Karl, Peter and Archprelate Gaspar VIII).

Swift witnessed, metaphorically, a champion of Farkas fighting a champion of Ileni,which Fayd identified as a gnoll fighting a dragon.

Fayd made sacrifices at the shrine of Lo-Tenger in Cattlepoint, and was approached by a priestess of the Ocean Witch at the same time.

And this was the short version! I've got much more detailed write-ups for almost all of these, from sacred animals to myths to appropriate sacrifices. So if y'all have got any questions, feel free to ask. We need something to keep this thread alive through the holidays. :smallbiggrin:

[Count Dravda]

Whoo, awesome. You've got quite a setting written up. As I was reading Turmlar's entry, I was thinking to myself, "I'm willing to bet quite a bit that this would be young Cade's patron." No specific questions from me, but I'll gleefully read anything else you put up.

-Count Dravda

[flabort]

That Farkus guy... Huh. not good. And fluffy's probably bugged him, too.

[Fayd]

Well, from what I understand, we haven't done anything to tick Farkas off personally. I'll bet the Icy Gnoll follows Farkas, but...that's about it really.

[Snowstar]

Which one do I follow again?? :smallredface:

[Morchana]

Tam says you technically worship Ileni. . . Goddess of color and nature. :smallwink: Check the deity list and his comments thereafter! :smallsmile:

[Snowstar]

Long live Ileni!!!!! :smalltongue:

[Tam_OConnor]

Hey, that's just what Fayd told me. Let me know if he's wrong, and I'll change it so I'm right. :smallbiggrin:

[flabort]

So, Just to make sure, it was Lo-tenger and "the ocean witch" that fluffy ticked off?
so, Lo-tenger could have sent any number of earthquakes, and... Tyntaragi?... Tynkanria?... Rihissa?... could have... what?
or, is she in the Demiurges?

[Tam_OConnor]

Flabort:

One of Lo-Tenger's totem beasts is the dolphin, so killing one = bad juju. Now, does Lo-Tenger punish everyone who kills a dolphin? Don't be silly. But sailors are a cowardly and superstitious lot, and it's always better to sacrifice when you don't need to, than not to sacrifice when you do. Erring on the side of caution, as it were.

Yes, the Ocean Witch is one of the demiurges, a Fey Lady in the Seelie Court. She's Lo-Tenger's second lover, the one from whom all the nymphs are descended. Like, you know, the one the PCs slew for the Longpipes.

Some general deific relationships:
1st generation:
Ashur, Seseg and Kurush were all brothers, from oldest to youngest.
Tykanria and Igela were sisters.

2nd generation:
Farkas and Brigii are siblings, children of Lo-Tenger and Tykanria.
Ibronka and Tyntaragi are sisters, daughters of Igela and Larlon.
Waerdun, Olanorn and Phoraduk are brothers, sons of Femta and Gilgadar.

3rd generation:
Silanihi, Rihissa and Sanselie are sisters, daughters of Larlon and Ileni.
Ylsilar is the son of Tykanria and Ashur.
Laeros proceeded from Kurush.

4th generation:
Nunatii and Turmlar are brothers, sons of Laeros and Sanselie.

5th generation:
Brigii and Turmlar are married, but have not produced an heir.

[Snowstar]

Oh no, Ileni was the one I agreed upon with Fayd; I remember now. I should really learn to read entire posts before replying.

[Fayd]

Eh, happens to all of us. I'm particularly happy that I'm not going crazy though. :smallbiggrin:

[Fluffy the Orc]

So...

Who do you think would win in a fight?

Fluffy
http://i1014.photobucket.com/albums/af265/Fluffy_the_Orc/Fluffy.jpg

OR

A grizzly bear?
http://i1014.photobucket.com/albums/af265/Fluffy_the_Orc/grizzly.jpg

Please submit your vote to [email protected]; votes will be tallied over the next few days and I will post the results when work is not ripping out my soul and chewing on it. :smallsmile:

[Tam_OConnor]

Ugh, Fayd, we've been criminal about this. Let's be making up for lost time, no? Enter the backstory, and I go to flagellate Fayd over the Internet for not finishing the journal yet.

The World-map (really blighted huge):
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3078/worldv3.jpg

And a smaller one for reference. Still screen devouring huge, though.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2415/worldv2.jpg

Starting with the continents:
The dominant continent in this 'world' map is Illias, so named for the self-proclaimed 'most advanced culture' upon it, the Illian Kingdoms (Cade is an Illian, both racially and culturally).

On the eastern side of this map lies the continent of Berengia. The parts visible are mainly dominated by the Dhar people, with !chan lands lying off the map.

The south-western continent is Argonath, the homeland of the Connish peoples, and current host to the Tentacled Jungle.

To the extreme south-east of this map lies the Qen demi-continent, which is the only important part, according to certain rabid Imperialists.

On geographic features:
The Varaz Wastes are a relatively recent development, occurring as the result of the Great Orcish Invasion of 291. Most accusing fingers are pointed at the dracolich Azurebones and the high elf archmage Elowin the Traitor. The Wastes themselves are a cracked and brutal landscape. Rainfall is greedily absorbed by the parched earth, but no vegetation decorates the area. The demarcation line between Wastes and fertile ground is knife-sharp. At least one tree, bisected by the line, flourishes outside the Waste and is dead on the other half.

The Skög is but a sad remnant of the original Twilight Forest, destroyed in the Great Orcish Invasion of 291. Gnolls have been almost totally expunged from its depths, and the elves and half-elves who now dwell there are renowned for their silks.

The Erdö is a truly ancient forest, rumored to be the birthplace of the elves, the death site of the goddess Igela, or a multitude of other things. What is known is that no sentient species dwell within.

The central mountain range of the Illian continent has many regional names, most of which are woefully unimpressive or unimaginative. It is, if nothing else, an exceptionally rugged range, with few passes leading north/south. At its southeastern tip, it dominates the landscape almost totally.

The Twilight Forest is in fact the second of that name, replanted and regrown by high elves and flinds fleeing from the ruin of the original. It is divided into two main plateaus: the flinds occupy the northern, the high elves the southern. Generally.

The Tentacled Jungle, properly the Greater Tentacled Jungle (with the Lesser being destroyed in the Great Orcish...oh, you know) is home to the low elves and gnolls and the devourers (mind flayers, illithid). It is more than worthy of its name: the trees undulate towards visitors, vines snatch the ankles of the unwary, storms of flying flowers first launch themselves into, then grow on living prey. It is not a nice place. Sages debate whether the devourers control the forest, or whether they created it and set it loose, or even if they have lost any modicum of control over it whatsoever. The continued habitation by elves is positively befuddling.

On various bodies of water:
The body of water between Kadashar and Kungarike is variously referred to as the Kadashari Sea, the Kungarike Sea, the Northern Sea, even as the Varaz Sea or the Sea of Indar (mainly prior to the Great Orcish Invasion).

Whalesong Bay, as the name might indicate, is the mating grounds of number of various species of whales, who, with their staggered migratory patterns, all but ensure the bay continually echoes with their singing. Reactions are mixed, from expressions of indescribable beauty to annoyance at the off-key shrieking.

Silvershell Bay is home to a certain breed of sea turtle that extracts silver from seawater and uses it to plate their shells. The turtles can grow to a truly prodigious size, to the point of capsizing even large ships.

The unnamed stretch of water separating Illias from Qen deserves mention, if only because it was, until recently, land. It was sunk due to upsets caused among the Fey Courts by the death of the Knight Undying and the Iron Lord, and the Ascension of the Unbreakable Knight, the Remorseless Pursuer and the Laughing Condemned. Notably, this had nothing to do with the Great Orcish Invasion that occurred around the same time.

Between the southern coast of Illias and Argonath lies another body of water bearing a preponderance of names. The Central Sea, the Inner Sea and the Peri Sea are all popular candidates.

The Connish Sea, is, appropriately enough, dominated by Connish sailors, whether from the Independent Counties or the Thousand Kingdoms.

To the west of Illias and Argonath lies the Chromatic Ocean (though my scanner cut off the name). The name is appropriate, as the usual rules of water pigmentation don't seem to apply. Even to magical divination has not found land beyond the Chromatic Ocean, leading some to surmise that it flows directly into the afterlife and other planes. This is, of course, utter nonsense.

Countries:
Entry format is [Country Name: dominant human subrace(s): governmental system: other notes]
Hatalom: Lovas: monarchy: At this point in history, the Lovas have begun to settle into cities, primarily along inner rivers. The coastline is all but unoccupied, aside from the Gemstone Towers.

The Grand Duchery of Jharok: Conn, Lovas: monarchy (in all but name): Seceded from Hatalom during the recent interregnum. Originally part of Hatalom proper.

The Independent Counties: Conn: various and manifold: chaotic and unstable, the Independent Countries are a glorious training ground for mercenaries.

Drougant: Conn, Illian: monarchy: Founded as a kingdom by shipwrecked Kungarike sailors, Drougant is a relatively stable nation hemmed in by anarchies and barbarians.

Aurbesk: At this point, it's anyone's guess. Who invaded last week?: monarchy, but anarchy in practice: Much like the Independent Counties, but with a single crown, a relic of a powerful founder.

Illian Kingdoms: Illian (Huroc): monarchies (primarily; there are a few that could justly be called theocracies): over-large city-states with an inflated self-opinion.

Kadashar: Illian (Huroc): theocratic tribal, occasionally united by warlords: divided into various clan/totem holdings: Dragon, Shark, Snake, Tiger, Wolf and Bear are currently dominant.

Indar: defunct state and genocided people: it was: Varaz: theocratic magocratic monarchy: Almost racially exterminated by the necromantic magic of Azurebones, and with its land consumed by the Waste, Indar has fallen.

Kungarike: Illian (Dhar): monarchy, with extremely limited power: The earls are the ones truly in control.

Udenar: Illian (Dhar): tribal: Raiding is a popular past-time. As is drinking. This leads to both horrid atrocities and comedy gold.

Adenar: Illian (Dhar), Qen, !chan: anarchy: Caught between four martial traditions, the Adenar are consumed with the desire to know whose umzamo is stronger. Ergo, an awful lot of martial arts academies, monasteries, independent masters, etc.

Qen States: Qen: Imperial: Imperial authority is hardly absolute, and interclan warfare is common, especially between the remnants of Lion clan and Fox and Rat clans.

Narialeea, Sulvira, Leanace, Inzu, Kalamaln, Pirra-Nee and Weenayani are the Peri home isles, with little regard for such things as independent sovereignty. Peri are Peri, in their eyes, which leads to a tremendous amount of interconnectivity between the isles, and a more or less shared culture. They are all at least vaguely tribal, and seem to tend toward monarchies when threatened. They almost universally follow the Peri Ideals.

The Thousand Kingdoms: Conn: primarily monarchy, but even republics have been tried: Here, any man with a sword and the will to use it can forge a kingdom...and be killed a year later by his successor.

Questions are, as always, appreciated.

[Fayd]

To give you all an update (thanks for being so patient!) the next chapter is finished, with one set of revisions done, with 2 more to go. The next set of revisions is being done by Cade and he is rather busy today. I'm expecting a 2 day wait at the most.

[Cade Rentyr]

The next set of revisions is being done by Cade and he is rather busy today. I'm expecting a 2 day wait at the most.
Well, to be more explicit, I've a birthday (not mine), visiting grandparents, and of course Christmas to deal with. I can say with certainty the journal will be up between now and the 26th; at this point I'm just not sure when exactly.

[Fayd]

Lo and behold! The next chapter! In other news, both this chapter and the world geography that Tam has provided have been linked to the first page. As always, comments/questions/etc. are appreciated!

Chapter 12: A Morale Question. Or: Potato Chipper They Are Not.

That evening, we get back, start to talk, and do hit on one brilliant idea that we test. The ship’s supplies consist entirely of hard tack and potatoes. The latter turns out to be a quite helpful; Lossëlen and Keito both have access to plant magic, and thus they can multiply our supplies of potatoes. We run a quick test with a willing volunteer, and Captain Fearson bravely offers himself for the task. That, or he was half hoping the potato would get him high and he wouldn’t have to deal with this mess anymore. Lossëlen magically grows a potato plant from one of the ship’s potatoes on the beach, and I make a ranged touch attack to throw it to the Captain. And I crit…this is, incidentally, my first critical attack roll all campaign. We have dubbed this the “critato.” :smallbiggrin: The captain effortlessly catches the potato in his hat and begins to munch away. It doesn’t appear to affect him. This is good. Unfortunately, this is about the only productive thing we get done before we decide that we just have to rest. We hit the hay… er, brush… or sand.

Having confirmed the presence of headhunters, we’re obviously a bit more vigilant at this point; Morchana, Cade, and some sailors take shifts of night watch. Cade reminds Morchana to wake him if she sees anything. During her watch, Morchana spots some big…ape…thing in the shadows…She goes to alert Cade, but when they get back out, neither of them see anything. Distressing.

The next morning, we laid out the basic plan about what to do about our native ‘friends,’ that plan being to stay well clear of them unless we have no other possible recourse. Lossëlen and Keito devote their time repairing the ship and growing potatoes with magic. Lossëlen is also trying to improve the morale of the sailors, which is a good thing. We were going to discuss more topics, but Fluffy, bored as usual and high again from something he dug out of a hole in the sand, stomps off into the forest. Cade and I rush out to bring him back before he gets himself into more trouble (ape-men and tribals are chief-most on our minds) though he is clearing a very nice path for us. We have Morchana watch the camp while we are away, just to be on the safe side --our sailors, on half-ration diets, aren’t exactly the most attentive.

For her part, it’s a very boring job, with a couple exceptions. She does spot a monkey at one point making faces at her…so she throws a shuriken at it. The monkey does not appear again. She also sees something very big and tentacly off shore… later, she looks back out to see and quickly turns around saying “I do notsee a kraken fighting a whale, I do not see a kraken fighting a whale”… She chooses not to think about it.

Cade and I catch up to Fluffy. Cade decides that he wants me to keep watch on the natives’ camp, (to find out more about them or more importantly to have warning if they decide to go ‘hunting’…) so he tells me to go investigate as he tries to guide the delirious Fluffy back in the general direction of camp. He begins hacking at air with his butcher knife trying to kill…something…but thankfully he’s using the opposite arm from Cade, who’s keeping a wary grip on his chain collar, so there isn’t any trouble. --Not right now anyway.

Swift is still under the effects of whatever it is he ate…and it is becoming very worrisome. I decide that I’m going to ask our healers what can be done when I get back, as it isn’t passing out of his system easily. I fly up to the caldera of the volcano and try to be stealthy, hovering just over the far edge. I see what Cade and Morchana did before, a small-ish village with a line of heads on spikes. I decide to risk a closer look and fly to the other side of the caldera. My stealth roll…after the applicable modifiers…is 5. Oh well, might as well see what is to be seen. Not like anyone’s outside to see me anyway --the population looks to be wait out the squall indoors.

I am able to identify something important about the heads-on-pikes: they’re… not human. Even given the fact that they have shrunken, all of the ones I can see are far too large to be human. (My bet: our mysterious ape-men. Or giants sailing ships.) Also, based upon my knowledge of the culture, the living quarters in this village indicate it could house, well, anywhere from 20 to 100 individual natives. After taking stock of the situation, I fly back to give my report to the group.

Nobody is there. Well, mostly nobody. Keito is still working on potatoes and the ship. She’s made good progress. The ship will probably be able to sail in a day or two. But both Lossëlen and Morchana have apparently vanished, and Cade is just managing to drag Fluffy up to the camp. Cade is disappointed that I didn’t think to go back and inform the elves to stay put before my recon… We hold down the camp until Morchana and Lossëlen get back. I find out that Cade has basically been letting Fluffy stumble about in a controlled area, patiently waiting for him to sober up and using the meantime to search for signs of Morchana’s intruder from the night before. Cade says he’s uneasy with the idea of Fluffy-sized apes stalking near our campsite --particularly if the natives hunt them, as I seem to have discovered.

Turns out, Morchana saw a glimmer of color and decided to look, and Lossëlen went along with her. They found a very special plant, the origigert that we were looking for! Unfortunately, it is the wrong color, but on the plus side, it is also a VERY rare color. They harvest one or two blooms hoping that the group’s plant magic will be able to grow a small bouquet of them if we have to present a gift to the natives. Cade commends their good work, though we all agree we need to coordinate better --for a while there our healer was our only guard for our entire barely-conscious crew!

Throughout the whole day (and the next) Fluffy has been causing crew morale to sink inexorably down, like storm water swirling down a gutter. First, he juggles sailors…or at least tries. He fails before he can add a third. At another point, Fluffy’s drug-induced state has him seeing people’s words as they speak them. (Tam was apparently rolling off of a table…I didn’t know that he had tables for this!) Ironic, considering Fluffy cannot read. Just to be funny, I say something to him in the Storm dialect of Planar, and he sees me spitting sparks and thunder and falls into a quivering mass. Even later, Fluffy becomes convinced that the eyes are trying to eat him. All eyes, in fact, even those on potatoes. EVEN HIS OWN EYES! He’s justifiably freaked, and probably wants to get this stuff out of his system. So he takes a nap, instinctively seizing upon the Captain to be his teddy bear. Captain Fearson just hisses a sigh and asks someone to toss him a potato. Hoping to repeat my success from earlier, I toss a potato…and roll miserably. The potato still hits its mark…the captain just gets hit in the nose.

Of course, a thrown potato does no actual damage, in direct contrast to barbarian orcs high in the sky with diamonds; Fluffy’s sleep is disturbed by yet another hallucination, at which he ‘casually tosses’ Captain Fearson --twenty feet through the air into a tree trunk, inflicting a hefty amount of damage! :smalleek:

Thankfully, it was only a hefty amount of damage dice…Fortunately the actual damage rolls are on the minimal side and Cade is immediately at hand to administer healing. The Captain suffers no irreparable harm, though he does swear like a sailor for a good long time in a continuous stream spanning more languages than any of us know before climbing a tree well away from Fluffy, where he continues to mutter angrily until he falls asleep.
Tam wipes the ‘crew morale’ gauge down to its last mark.

(Sigh) In the meantime, I show Swift to Keito. The bird freaks out a little, but that’s just because he’s been exceedingly flighty lately (pardon the pun). We determine that Keito can perform something that will basically flush his system, but he’ll need some good clean food to recover. And clean food is not easy to find on this island. Recalling the report from Cade and Morchana’s expedition about the bay that probably has shellfish in it, I take Keito and a couple of sailors and go to the bay. I tie a rope around myself and tell them that at a signal—two sharp tugs—they should pull me back. I don’t need to worry about air, not having to breathe, so I could be down for a while. I step valiantly out into the surf…and immediately get re-deposited on the beach. This happens again and again—the sailors are slightly amused and slightly mortified. (“He’s one of the competent ones?”[i/])
I spend the next hour making swim checks to get some shellfish. At the far end of an hour (and over 20 rolls!) I finally flop out on the sand with exactly [i]four shellfish. Stupid penalties to STR! On the plus side, I did find a small pearl in one of the shellfish…it is worth almost nothing, but a souvenir is a souvenir.

Meanwhile, Morchana and Lossëlen go searching for more origigert, and do manage to find some, but only more of the orange. Very nice, but not the red we’re looking for. They have a bit of a scare at that point-- Morchana spots that same Fluffy-sized ape-thing that’s been everywhere, and it clearly sees them too… and hurries away deeper into the wood. :smallsigh:

The only other note about their day’s expedition is that Morchana manages to harvest a flask of a viscous poison from some really nasty, long thorns they find along the way. We don’t really know what she’s planning to do with it, though she’s really been getting antsy seeing these gorilla-men everywhere… (On that note: she’s not the only one!)

We session break here…and have our next session in January!

[Morchana]

For her part, it’s a very boring job, with a couple exceptions. She does spot a monkey at one point making faces at her…so she throws a shuriken at it. The monkey does not appear again. She also sees something very big and tentacly off shore… later, she looks back out to see and quickly turns around saying “I do not see a kraken fighting a whale, I do not see a kraken fighting a whale”… She chooses not to think about it.


I like this. Stupidmonkey. :smallmad: I HATE monkeys! :smallfurious:

Yeah. . . every time I tried to look out to sea Tam would show me some terrible sight like the kraken and the whale. :smalleek: I got scared, and soon was only looking inland.

[Fluffy the Orc]

The answer to: "Who do you think would win in a Fight?"


Fluffy!

http://i1014.photobucket.com/albums/af265/Fluffy_the_Orc/Fluffy.jpg

100% of votes

http://i1014.photobucket.com/albums/af265/Fluffy_the_Orc/FluffyVote.jpg

[Fayd]

No surprises there Fluffy!

[Snowstar]

How many people voted?

[Morchana]

*Morchana facepalms.*

But really-- who is actually surprised by that? I'm not!

[Cade Rentyr]

How many people voted?

I'm a bit skeptical too. Did voters outnumber party members? ~_^

Even if they did, though, I have to agree that I am not surprised either.

[Fayd]

Here to give this thread a little bump.

I'm going to be frank, I'm a little worried about our readership. As in: I am not sure we have any anymore.

[Tam_OConnor]

You and me both. I know my world notes are boring, but still...

The isle being explored:
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9927/unknownislev2.jpg

Not too much to say, really. The red dots along the stream are the spiked heads, the gray squares are the rockshaped homes of the natives.

[Alleine]

Well, you have at least one. I completely missed the notes and update somehow, but I find them to be very awesome. In your position I'd be extremely relieved not to have been attacked(well, by the natives at least) while everyone is weakened and fluffy is on a drug trip.

[Fayd]

Well, I've updated the main post! I put the map in the chapter section for the chapter regarding the island.

[Morchana]

Huzzah!!!

On a side note, I really hate monkeys. I mean really hate monkeys. They creep me out. They all deserve to die by shuriken. All. ALL!

That is all.

[Count Dravda]

WHAT?! No readers indeed. Pah! I check this thread every day and eagerly await updates. Should you abandon this prematurely, I will be most put out.

That is all. Resume lurk mode.

-Count Dravda

[starwoof]

I still check this every day! I'm just a natural lurker though.

[Fayd]

Aw. Thanks guys!

Break is nice. I've been doing a lot of reading, and from it, drawing a lot of ideas of nifty tricks... :smallbiggrin:

[Eldariel]

There are readers aplenty. I...just run out of things to try and comment on and don't feel like repeating myself so I end up not posting anything.

And I have to say, Tam, all that info? Yeah, it does help one follow this all, so it's not exactly boring in that sense. Though that map I coulda figured out for myself :smallwink:

[Tam_OConnor]

Yay, new decade!

The Grand Duchery:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8263/grandducheryv2.jpg

Bodies of Water and Waterways
The Chromatic Ocean ranges from subtly hued to looking like a painter spilled their most garish paints into it. In general, the colder the water, the more distinct the colors. It is known to be home to at least one dragon and a vast assortment of magical creatures, from storm albatrosses to prismatic trout (when not in the mating season). There is not a strong sahuagin or merfolk presence, and ocean-going trade is likewise rare.

The Connish Sea is plied primarily by Conns from the Independent Counties or the Thousand Kingdoms. The near constant anarchy makes smuggling, especially weapon smuggling, a profitable venue.

Stinging Bay is home to a vast assortment of poisonous jellyfish, sea anemones, fish, weeds, rocks, and so on. It is unnaturally warm in temperature.

The Prismatic River (also the Chromatic River or Rainbow River) is a central feature of the Hatalom plains, and the breeding area of prismatic trout. Schools of these creatures can hurl sprays of disorienting or even deadly light.

The River Adamant (pre-destruction of the Tentacled Jungle, the Hungry River) is the central river of the Grand Duchery. It is so named for the diamond mines from which one of the tributaries springs. The mines have since been overwhelmed by orcs, but even before that point, miners were falling prey to a strange illness.

The Emperor's River (also the Tyrant's Flow) is sadly unlabeled on the map, but is the river in the extreme southeast of the map. It indicated the furthest reach of the Grand Duchery, and references the delusions of the fourth Grand Duke.

Geographic Sites
The Broken Bridge was destroyed in the retreat to Smoking Mountain in 291. Despite being made of wood, the remnants of the bridge resist not only the ravages of time, but all attempts to remove them.

Smoking Mountain was the headquarters of the fight against the Great Orcish Invasion of 291. A dwarven stronghold, it was destroyed from within by the actions of Harok the Betrayer.

Erdö is a deep and mysterious wood. Animals shy away from entering it, as do the elves. To date, there has never been an attempt to settle in it.

Blueforest lies in a broad mountain valley. The pines within have a distinctive blued finish then polished, leading to the wood being highly valued as a luxury.

The Burning Woods is all that remains of the Northern Tentacled Jungle, destroyed around that same time that the Varaz Wastes were created. The undergrowth has been burned away, but the trees themselves are still host to a roaring fire. Even in their agony, the trees still seem to reach for those who draw near. Rumor places a tall tower within, home to the last devourer in the woods.

Political Sites
Hatalom is the homeland of the Lovas, united by King Tanos Fiendbane, and currently recovering from an interregnum. The current king is Tovacs György Elf-friend, who has established a silk trade with the the wood elves of the Skög.

The Grand Duchery of Jharok was originally under the dominion of Hatalom, bestowed upon Tanos' second in command, Tibor. Tibor and his daughter by Yavanna, Honoria, consolidated the Duchery, while later marriages with Connish warlords expanded the Duchery to its current size. During the Hatalom interregnum, the Grand Duchery quietly declared independence. Vellan IV is the current ruler, a pale imitation of his father.

The Independent Counties are the dominion of Connish aristocrats and warlords, continually hiring mercenaries to re-arrange the borders. The wood elves gleefully participate in said activities, and there are a large number of half-elves in the area (of which Morchana is certainly not).

The Ghost Dancer Clans are orcs who are even more indulgent in the usual ancestor worship. Their gray skin is frequently marked with orange and red war paint, and they are rumored to consort with undead.

the Glowaxe Clans are olive-skinned orcs who are even more primitive than normal. Many still use stone weapons, including the titular weapon of the clan, and symbol of chiefdom. (Fluffy's clan)

The Blacktusk Clans are red skinned orcs who paint their tusks black to honor their chief, the dragon called Blacktusk. Blacktusk has survived numerous attacks by adventurers, and is even now reaching his prime. Woe to the lowlands should his gaze turn that direction.

Laeros is a tiny flyspeck of a village, only notable as an annual gathering place for the Lovas. Rumor places it as the site where the last Wyrmbane Knight of Seseg died fighting Malconflagrat and Azurebones.

Blueforest is a small village of loggers harvesting the finest trees of Blueforest itself.

Tanos Var is the fort guarding the pass between Hatalom and Jharok, prepared by King Tanos as after the fall of Smoking Mountain. The size and strength of its walls are legendary.

Yavanna Var is the coastal fort between Hatalom and Jharok. Tanos renamed it after his fallen ally. Before the destruction of the coastal cities, it served as an early warning site in the event of seaward invasions.

Tiborem Varos is the capital city of the Grand Duchery, so far as such things go. I have to touch up the map, but I'll try to have the map up sometime next week.

Grayrock is a small hamlet upstream of Tiborem, the domain of the current Captain of the Duchal Guard, Andris.

Longpipe Farm ... I think y'all have been there.

River's Bend was a small but prosperous town, now a heap of ashes surrounding a small keep, defended by Karl of Laeros. It served as the proving ground for the heir to Aralt.

Aralt Var is the home of Count Aralt. Its walls have been tested numerous times by orcish invasions, and rebuilt every so often.

Fort Connaught is the home of Count Connaught, who could, by rights, join the independent counties, as their economy is relatively unconnected from the Grand Duchery's as a whole. For whatever reason, though, Connaught persists in his loyalty to Vellan IV.

Cattlepoint is the port by which Connaught cows and horses are shipped out to the Thousand Kingdoms and even as far as the Inner Sea. Baronet Connaught currently operates a mercenary-based anti-piracy operation out of it.

As always, questions are welcome and appreciated.

[Fayd]

The main post has been updated with these new maps!

[Morchana]

I was just informed by Fluffy that only three people voted in his last poll-- myself, him, and someone else. If all of you are skeptical, you should have voted!

If you don't vote next time he puts something like that up, then Morchana will track you down. . . :smallamused:

[Eldariel]

I was just informed by Fluffy that only three people voted in his last poll-- myself, him, and someone else. If all of you are skeptical, you should have voted!

If you don't vote next time he puts something like that up, then Morchana will track you down. . . :smallamused:

I think Fluffy getting angry is the immediate concern if that happens, since...well, we've all seen what happens with angry Fluffy. As I said, a very immediate, a very big concern.

[Fayd]

Always carry a cookie or two with you. That way, you can throw it down an alley for him to chase. Works like a charm!

[Morchana]

Or Bacon Chalk. :smallwink:

[Manticorkscrew]

Heya. Manticorkscrew here. I'm a long-time lurker. I don't often post- I've tried that but I ended up writing things that were stupid, banal or pointless and then I feel like a fool- so I leave the writing to people who are better at it.

I just felt that I had to log in and tell you how much I've enjoyed reading about the adventures of Fayd One-Eyed, Morchana, Cade, Keito, Fluffy and Lossëlen. (I was originally going to write "Fayd and the others" but I didn't feel like I could leave anyone out.)

This Campaign Journal needs some more love and support, and I wanted you to know that. Please keep up the good work!

:smalltongue:

[Snowstar]

Thanks, that's so nice of you! I'm sure the story will be even more interesting in the future. (Mine will be anyway) :smalltongue:

[Drothmal]

Hi! I just read the whole thing on one sitting. Simply amazing.

The only problem is that now I am tempted to device a plan for all of you to be locked away playing this campaign all the time so I get to know what happens next!

You should honestly consider making a book out of this

[Morchana]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

We should make a book of it. What a wonderful idea! :smallbiggrin:

[Cade Rentyr]

If you don't vote next time he puts something like that up, then Morchana will track you down. . . :smallamused:

Um, I think before you make that threat and expect it to work, you have to consider how many of our readers would actually look forward to it, Morchana...

[Morchana]

Yes, Cade, but it would mean certain death. . .

[starwoof]

Hmm... worth it.

[Snowstar]

I have actually very very seriously considered making an animated film about our adventure using Flash. The problem with this is that I am sort of a perfectionist and I would need a LOT of free time. Then there would also be the problem of voices and sound; I would want a studio...

[Tam_OConnor]

Just a reminder to the players: we are gaming this Sunday, which means that all you readers should be able to read the next episode sometime next week. Depends on how fast Fayd writes.

In the meantime: Tiborem! (Now with terrible inking!)
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9171/tiboremv2.jpg

First of all, you'll notice that only the noble district has unnamed buildings. Shh! I'm not done with this map yet, and the generic buildings always take a really long time, so.... Once I finish, I'll replace this map with the complete version.

Sites of Interest
The Chromatic Ocean: What is this, the third time? Go look at one of the other descriptors. I've got nothing new to say. Except to remind y'all that, unlike most seas and oceans, the Chromatic Ocean is surprisingly scare in both merfolk and sahuagin.

The River Adamant: The main waterway of Jharok and Aralt, the River Adamant is most often frequented by flat-bottomed grain barges.

Starry Lagoon: Technically, it isn't a lagoon, but the minimum of water movement leads to excellent reflections of the night sky. It has inspired many lines among the poets of the Sunset Conservatory.

Saint Dain's Crest: An artificial island, raised from the earth by Saint Dain himself, at the founding of the city.

I hope the district names are fairly self-explanatory.

Sunset Conservatory: An art institute, funded by unknown sources. Reputable artists include the sculptor Taliesin and the painter Marchioness Erin.

Gorvath's: A perfectly respectable eating establishment for upper class gentlemen, staffed by beautiful woman, who most certainly are not of negotiable virtue.

Ilona's Cosmetics: A small bathhouse and cosmetics parlor, run by the Lovas woman Ilona.

The Ivory Club: An elegant dining and gambling establishment run by a short, genial busybody named Hiriam D'Ivor. The building itself, naturally, is made of marble, and a vault lies below. Hiriam also makes loans to young nobles, especially for the purpose of funding expeditions and adventures.

Andromact Manor: Gabraal's home. His wife died several years ago, and his son has left the area to seek his fortune. The Andromacts are one of the oldest Connish families of the city, and their loyalty to the Grand Duke has never wavered, though they have never been as politically powerful as they are at the moment.

Tol's Haberdashery: The shop of a slightly odd haberdasher named Tol. The breadth of his selection has led some to suppose that he doesn't sleep at all.

Harbormaster: Administrative building. Ships docking at Tiborem are only subject to only a cursory inspection. ("Are they carrying hostile warriors or dangerous beasts? No? Get along, then.") The absence of a Ducal Navy is probably responsible for this lax attitude.

Repository of Knowledge: A gathering hall for sages, and a vast library besides. Rumors place it as a meeting hall for agents of secret societies and the Diamond Tower in particular.

Tiborem Var: The keep proper, and home to the Grand Duke, Duchess and the Ducal Guard, under the Marquis of Greyrock (currently, Andris). Superstitious peasants whisper of a secret chamber where the first Grand Duke communed with his dead wife, Yavanna.

Temple to Laeros: The central temple of the Grand Duchy, and home to the Archprelate (Gaspar VIII). There are rumored to be vast treasure vaults underneath, final resting place of all the tithes paid by commoner and noble alike. There is a small shrine to Turmlar within.

Temples to Lo-Tenger, Phoraduk and Waerdun: Smaller temples to the gods of earth and sea, death and wealth. There is a shrine to Brigii within the Lo-Tengaran temple.

The Red Bill: A well known and respectable inn, so named for the red-painted bill (polearm) acting as the inn's sign.

The Paltry Garter: A cheap whorehouse. What were you expecting, with a name like that? At least the girls are reasonably clean.

Agatha's: The home and shop of the resident witch. She deals primarily in medicinal herbs, as well as the odd potion. The house, nay, the block, reeks of felines. She hasn't had to turn anyone into a mouse for years now.

Osric's: A large festhall (tavern/brothel/flophouse) known for hosting boisterous contests, from wrestling to drinking to boxing to less reputable activities.

Wyrm's Head Tavern: Owned by a good-natured brewer named Marley. Famous for its spicy ale and scotch. Some alchemists have been interested in weaponizing it.

[Fayd]

The first post has been updated with the map of Tiborem Varos.

[Morchana]

Good thing we get to game again on Sunday-- I've nearly forgotten where we were!

(Good thing we have the journals to refresh our memory.)

[flabort]

Back from break... and only one extra eppisode? JK, you do have a skedule (sp?) you follow. I missed fluffy's poll, because our internet service was down, but it's great to know i'm not the, like, 3rd last reader left. Sunday, you say? tomorow?
Ok, i'm started to get angry at my spellchecker, so i'll just resume lurking.

[Fayd]

Aye, we game tomorrow. And assuming things work out right...I'll have the journal up Tuesday. My Monday is busy.

[Snowstar]

Never underestimate the Cold Snowy One. She has the power to sing you into a false sense of security and then overwhelm you with many pointy arrows! (but not necessarily all at once; she just has the power) :smallsmile:

[Morchana]

We bow down before your great abilities, O Cold One!




But seriously-- thanks for saving my butt.

[flabort]

OK, sounds like you just had an interesting sesion. no re-rolls, i hope? (knock on wood).
Morchana having to have her butt saved is an interesting mental image. sit on a stove coated in soverien glue?

[Fayd]

Chapter 13: Snipin’s a Good Job, Mate!
We rejoin our intrepid heroes in the evening as they hammer out a plan. Current weather conditions: Rain, subtropical temperatures. Forcast for the next week: Monday: Rain. Tuesday: Rain. Wednesday: Rain. Thursday: Rain, with a slight chance of precipitation in the afternoon. Friday: 99.9 (repeating) chance of rain. Saturday: Wet, Water likely falling from the sky. Sunday: …Rain.

The good cap’n does inquire why we are so nervous about the natives, as we can probably out-walk them. (Think Jack Sparrow post-rum.) Mostly, we’re just being cautious. The plan is to finish the ship and move it into a position where we can shove off at a moment’s notice. We also bump the sailors up to full rations. Morale Meter climbs to 2. I set warding circles in a sparse pattern around the camp, triggered to set off a bright blue flash if anything man-sized or larger steps in them. We set up watch, Cade having first, 3 sailors on second watch, and Morchana having third watch. Nobody sees anything unusual.

Fluffy awakens in the morning after a night of terrible dreams with 3 Wisdom damage, but after a natural 20 on the fort save, very, VERY sober… and a little twitchy. Thankfully, he is also not chemically dependent upon this island. He decides to take vengeance upon the isle by going out hunting. Not to eat, but to slaughter any offending animal, vegetable, or mineral in his path. Cade tails him so Fluffy doesn’t do anything TOO stupid. I send Swift out to scout the island, carefully instructing him not to eat any animals this time, and to be on the lookout for red oreigigert. Keito kindly gives him half a day’s rations to help tide him over.

Lossëlen and Keito spend most of the morning repairing the ship. After having one of our plant mages double our Orange Oreigigert supply, Morchana begins to distill an extract from the duplicates at my prompting. I figured it might be good to have a “gift” for the natives when we decide to approach them. I decide to use my knowledge and magic to aid her. The result of the first hour of work is a thick, almost porridge-like orange substance. One of the sailors, a man named Gregory, approaches us and asks to try our concoction. We balk a bit, but in the end, we both agree that a test subject might be helpful. The first sample appears to do nothing.
By the end of the second hour, the ship is finished. The Green Arrow (now a more appropriate name than ever, what with the leaves sprouting from the keel and masts) is complete! Lossëlen decides to sing a merry song to the sailors. With a lovely natural 20, the entire camp breaks into a Broadway musical, complete with sailors in a chorus line. They start off a little embarrassed, but ended up having too much fun. The song itself gets itself firmly stuck in their heads…all day. They don’t know the words, but it is stuck in their heads. . . la-la-la-la-laaaaaaaa.

By this point, the orange oreigigert has gone from a porridge-like state to a thick paste. Gregory tries this sample, and is almost immediately affected. He lies down, flowing over a log, almost as if he has no spine. He is dreamily smiling at the sky, trying to catch raindrops in his mouth. We have a hit! Morchana asks Lossëlen to double her supply of oreigigert plants again, adds the new stock to the pot, and proceeds to spend the next two hours distilling the oreigigert yet again.

Swift arrives from his scouting and delivers the report of what he saw: A red-haired, dark-skinned girl is gathering a strange green and purpley polka-dotted moss north of the village. Swift decides to tail her for a while…she dives into the ocean in an alcove just slightly farther north, eventually coming out of the water with 4 brightly rainbow-colored shellfish of some kind and heads back to the village. Oddly enough, Swift has a sample of the moss the villager was gathering on his leg. A couple of minutes later, Keito approaches me with something she found washed up on the beach—A clam, very much like the one the villager had grabbed, as food for Swift to help him recover.

I pry open the clam with a nat 20 on an INT check so as not to break the knife I borrowed from Morchana—I like my kidneys right where they are, thank you. Cade and Fluffy have arrived by now and it is decided that because the ship is complete, we’re ready to move it and the camp. Fluffy helps the sailors move the ship by carrying the anchor, essentially pulling the ship along the shoreline. Lossëlen and Keito go with the crew to help set up the new camp. Cade, Morchana, Gregory, and I stay behind. I continue to aid Morchana with the distillation. At this point, the substance has become a slightly gelatinous substance, kind of like a drugged-up fruit-roll-up. Gregory, having shaken off the last dose (mostly) tries the latest version. He doesn’t collapse straight out, but tells us, yes, he is feeling something.
Tam asks Morchana for a Sense Motive… another nat 20. “He SO has the hots for you.” But he’s mostly keeping it in check, probably for his own good. I guess he likes his kidneys too. We distill once more, creating a powder. I carefully dispel my warding circles, and we head to the new camp.

Lossëlen and Keito have used their plant magic to create some simple wind-break structures for the camp, and Keito dumps the remainder of her mana into creating leafy blanket to keep the sailors nice and warm. The sailors’ morale has grown incredibly over the past day. As Cade, Morchana, and I arrive in camp and get ready to rest (with our now-standard watch pattern of Cade-Sailors-Morchana), I walk out a distance from the camp and set up four warding LINES, running in a near half-circle around the camp, and set to trigger a bright flash of blue light if anything man-sized or larger crosses them. Before I turn in for the night, I use my knowledge checks to identify the sample of vibrant green and purpley-polka-dotted moss that Swift brought me. From what I can tell, it is a gentle sedative, and is typically brewed into a tea. As far as addictiveness goes, it isn’t very bad.
Cade’s first watch is uneventful, as is the sailor’s second. Morchana is awakened by sleepy sailors letting her know that all is clear. She spends some time looking out to sea…nothing tentacly this time…and then focuses her attention inland. She sees a large shape off in the distance, and gets closer to investigate. She sees what appears to be the giant ape again. This time, to be absolutely sure, she gets a little closer. Tam asks Morchana for a Charisma check—17. Suddenly, the beast dashes at her, and she scrambles backwards and screams. Thankfully, the ape has crossed one of my warding lines, causing it to emit the flash of blue light. Everyone is asked to roll an observation check at -10. Thankfully, the DC is only 5, so… Lossëlen is awake, Cade is up, and I rise. Keito and Fluffy however, along with several sailors, sleep through it all. We all spend our first round jumping to our feet, drawing weapons, etcetera. As my weapon is my brain and therefore doesn’t need to be drawn or strung, I try to kick Fluffy awake. I fail. The ape lumbers forward and seizes Morchana…and she screams again, waking Keito and more sailors…but not Fluffy. Thinking quickly, Cade rushes forward and fires a binding spell, but it only manages to slow the behemoth, not immobilize. Keito gets up and tries to wake Fluffy, this time succeeding, and pointing at the giant ape. Tam also lets us know that we have not slept long enough to refill our mana. Keito is at 0 MP. Fluffy immediately flies into a Rage, bull-rushing everyone out of his way and pushing the ape back a step. To be clear: 7 people were in his path, including Lossëlen and Cade. Cap’n Fearson has drawn his cutlass and is praying he doesn’t have to use it.
So, at the first full round of combat: Morchana is being held upside down by the ape, showing the world her (sexy) elven silk undies, the sailors are waking their buddies and high-tailing it out of the area (some even into the water) and the party is already mobilizing.

Morchana draws her poisoned leg dagger, but cannot get a good angle to slash the ape’s arms, and Keito and Lossëlen both miss with their arrows. Fluffy slashes at the beast and gets shoved back into the sailors for his trouble. I fly out and hover above the camp, and summon a Large Storm Elemental formed from the current weather conditions behind the creature.

The elemental vaguely resembles this:

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/quiz/309000/309596_1257005408980_300_408.jpg

Yes, I nerded out. The elemental gives the ape a pretty nasty shock.
Cade rushes up to the beast and uses one of his class features, Spell Channeling, to attack the beast and cast a reversed healing spell in the same action. It has DR of some kind, which is frustrating our attacks a little… (double 1’s on the d8’s for spell damage doesn’t help either) and Morchana is flailing around uselessly again. Keito misses, but Lossëlen moves into position and makes a beautiful shot with a poisoned arrow…and her longbow is an armor piercing weapon and goes through the creatures DR! YES! The beast makes the save to avoid the DEX damage.

Fluffy slashes and gets backhanded by the creature. The giant ape, in its desire to keep hold of (and protect) its prize, is not fighting at optimal capacity, which probably is a good thing. I try to zap the ape with a ranged touch attack shock spell and fail. I command the elemental to try to herd the creature towards another line to try to possibly startle it again, and it attacks the creature from the new place.

Cade is in a beautiful flanking position and Spell Channels another binding. This time, the beast fails his save, and is bound by the golden chains. Morchana continues to flail uselessly, still more or less upside down. . . It’s so hard to see anything with one’s skirt in one’s face! Lossëlen is sick and tired of the ape, and she uses one of her newest feats: Arrow Storm. At her B.A.B. it allows her to fire 3 arrows as a full round action. Her first shot is beautiful, and hits the creature at the base of the skull. The second shot goes wide, but the third shot is a critical hit. The arrow sails true and hits the first arrow dead center, pushing the first arrow OUT of the ape’s skull and embedding itself in its place. The ape is killed outright, and Morchana is free!

With a quick thought of our native “friends” and their ape-head-pikes, I direct Fluffy to remove the head. He is a little confused as to why I’m asking (not the wanton destruction, but the fact that it was ME asking), but at the group’s insistence, he happily obliges. I redraw the warding line and collapse with the rest of the group at camp.

In summary: ‘Twas Beauty killed the Beast.

[Morchana]

In other words, to sum up the evening, one beauty charmed the beast, and the other killed it. And I made a love charm.

[AtwasAwamps]

Cade. A monkey hit on your woman.

You best watch out.

[Alleine]

I love your campaign. That is all.

[flabort]

Oreigigert sounds like an interesting plant. maybe the orange is a new strand based off the red? that may be what's causing the sailor to puddle, and fall in love with every passing lady.
And perhaps the Ape's been munching on the raw plant material.

Morchana, I feel sorry for you. A girl recently had a slip-up in my school, when her "skinny" jeans were a bit loose... almost all the guys in the school crowded around.

Fayd mentions how you found it hard to see anything with your skirt in your face. imagine how hard the guys found it to see anything with bare undies in the vicinity.

Edit: that moss sounds interesting as well. if it's colored as it is, in secondary colors, stuck to swift's leg like that, and has sedative properties, I could asume it's not a lichen, and so is a faster-growing moss. It wouldn't grow extremely fast, though, as then the sedative effect would knock out the famous Fluffy, if you boiled a single leaf in a pot big enough for the whole ship's crew. maybe the natives use it to help calm those who ate whatever foods set fluffy and swift on the kookoo?

[Fayd]

The orange strain combines the red and yellow strains with unpredictable results: Yellow tends to induce euphoria, and red lust.

And with the men on our team: Cade has an oath of chastity. Fluffy doesn't appear to want anything more than food, and Fayd (the character)...well...there's a multitude of reasons as to why that doesn't perturb or distract me. University was interesting, I'll say that much. :smallbiggrin:

[flabort]

euphoria and lust?
isn't euphoria similar to appathy? I'm too lazy to check a dictionary on the word.
Lust, however, I know what it is. "we" christians talk about it as the ultimate evil, and money even worse. at least, on the more extreme side of the scale. of course, I use the term "we" loosely, as I was born into it.
Were any of your character's born into thier religions? or were they given a choice?
Cause, really, it's more conflicting when your born into it.

Anyways, waking up here, focusing. so It's a labradoodle of plants? that's interesting. since it IS red your looking for, you could technichally use orange as a partial success, since it shows traits of the red. I wouldn't be the best judge, as i don't completely trust my understanding of euphoria...

but I don't trust my own judgement at the best of times.

[Flarp]

isn't euphoria similar to appathy? I'm too lazy to check a dictionary on the word.

Um.

No, it is not. Euphoria is extreme happiness or pleasure. For obvious reasons, this goes in hand in hand with lust.

[Keito]

Okay if you haven't read the lastest chapter (13), then here it is again, because good boys and girls read the chapter before party members provide great tie-in pictures from video games, especially when they are referenced in titles *ahem* or whatever. If you already read it again for the lulz.


Chapter 13: Snipin’s a Good Job, Mate!
We rejoin our intrepid heroes in the evening as they hammer out a plan. Current weather conditions: Rain, subtropical temperatures. Forcast for the next week: Monday: Rain. Tuesday: Rain. Wednesday: Rain. Thursday: Rain, with a slight chance of precipitation in the afternoon. Friday: 99.9 (repeating) chance of rain. Saturday: Wet, Water likely falling from the sky. Sunday: …Rain.

The good cap’n does inquire why we are so nervous about the natives, as we can probably out-walk them. (Think Jack Sparrow post-rum.) Mostly, we’re just being cautious. The plan is to finish the ship and move it into a position where we can shove off at a moment’s notice. We also bump the sailors up to full rations. Morale Meter climbs to 2. I set warding circles in a sparse pattern around the camp, triggered to set off a bright blue flash if anything man-sized or larger steps in them. We set up watch, Cade having first, 3 sailors on second watch, and Morchana having third watch. Nobody sees anything unusual.

Fluffy awakens in the morning after a night of terrible dreams with 3 Wisdom damage, but after a natural 20 on the fort save, very, VERY sober… and a little twitchy. Thankfully, he is also not chemically dependent upon this island. He decides to take vengeance upon the isle by going out hunting. Not to eat, but to slaughter any offending animal, vegetable, or mineral in his path. Cade tails him so Fluffy doesn’t do anything TOO stupid. I send Swift out to scout the island, carefully instructing him not to eat any animals this time, and to be on the lookout for red oreigigert. Keito kindly gives him half a day’s rations to help tide him over.

Lossëlen and Keito spend most of the morning repairing the ship. After having one of our plant mages double our Orange Oreigigert supply, Morchana begins to distill an extract from the duplicates at my prompting. I figured it might be good to have a “gift” for the natives when we decide to approach them. I decide to use my knowledge and magic to aid her. The result of the first hour of work is a thick, almost porridge-like orange substance. One of the sailors, a man named Gregory, approaches us and asks to try our concoction. We balk a bit, but in the end, we both agree that a test subject might be helpful. The first sample appears to do nothing.
By the end of the second hour, the ship is finished. The Green Arrow (now a more appropriate name than ever, what with the leaves sprouting from the keel and masts) is complete! Lossëlen decides to sing a merry song to the sailors. With a lovely natural 20, the entire camp breaks into a Broadway musical, complete with sailors in a chorus line. They start off a little embarrassed, but ended up having too much fun. The song itself gets itself firmly stuck in their heads…all day. They don’t know the words, but it is stuck in their heads. . . la-la-la-la-laaaaaaaa.

By this point, the orange oreigigert has gone from a porridge-like state to a thick paste. Gregory tries this sample, and is almost immediately affected. He lies down, flowing over a log, almost as if he has no spine. He is dreamily smiling at the sky, trying to catch raindrops in his mouth. We have a hit! Morchana asks Lossëlen to double her supply of oreigigert plants again, adds the new stock to the pot, and proceeds to spend the next two hours distilling the oreigigert yet again.

Swift arrives from his scouting and delivers the report of what he saw: A red-haired, dark-skinned girl is gathering a strange green and purpley polka-dotted moss north of the village. Swift decides to tail her for a while…she dives into the ocean in an alcove just slightly farther north, eventually coming out of the water with 4 brightly rainbow-colored shellfish of some kind and heads back to the village. Oddly enough, Swift has a sample of the moss the villager was gathering on his leg. A couple of minutes later, Keito approaches me with something she found washed up on the beach—A clam, very much like the one the villager had grabbed, as food for Swift to help him recover.

I pry open the clam with a nat 20 on an INT check so as not to break the knife I borrowed from Morchana—I like my kidneys right where they are, thank you. Cade and Fluffy have arrived by now and it is decided that because the ship is complete, we’re ready to move it and the camp. Fluffy helps the sailors move the ship by carrying the anchor, essentially pulling the ship along the shoreline. Lossëlen and Keito go with the crew to help set up the new camp. Cade, Morchana, Gregory, and I stay behind. I continue to aid Morchana with the distillation. At this point, the substance has become a slightly gelatinous substance, kind of like a drugged-up fruit-roll-up. Gregory, having shaken off the last dose (mostly) tries the latest version. He doesn’t collapse straight out, but tells us, yes, he is feeling something.
Tam asks Morchana for a Sense Motive… another nat 20. “He SO has the hots for you.” But he’s mostly keeping it in check, probably for his own good. I guess he likes his kidneys too. We distill once more, creating a powder. I carefully dispel my warding circles, and we head to the new camp.

Lossëlen and Keito have used their plant magic to create some simple wind-break structures for the camp, and Keito dumps the remainder of her mana into creating leafy blanket to keep the sailors nice and warm. The sailors’ morale has grown incredibly over the past day. As Cade, Morchana, and I arrive in camp and get ready to rest (with our now-standard watch pattern of Cade-Sailors-Morchana), I walk out a distance from the camp and set up four warding LINES, running in a near half-circle around the camp, and set to trigger a bright flash of blue light if anything man-sized or larger crosses them. Before I turn in for the night, I use my knowledge checks to identify the sample of vibrant green and purpley-polka-dotted moss that Swift brought me. From what I can tell, it is a gentle sedative, and is typically brewed into a tea. As far as addictiveness goes, it isn’t very bad.
Cade’s first watch is uneventful, as is the sailor’s second. Morchana is awakened by sleepy sailors letting her know that all is clear. She spends some time looking out to sea…nothing tentacly this time…and then focuses her attention inland. She sees a large shape off in the distance, and gets closer to investigate. She sees what appears to be the giant ape again. This time, to be absolutely sure, she gets a little closer. Tam asks Morchana for a Charisma check—17. Suddenly, the beast dashes at her, and she scrambles backwards and screams. Thankfully, the ape has crossed one of my warding lines, causing it to emit the flash of blue light. Everyone is asked to roll an observation check at -10. Thankfully, the DC is only 5, so… Lossëlen is awake, Cade is up, and I rise. Keito and Fluffy however, along with several sailors, sleep through it all. We all spend our first round jumping to our feet, drawing weapons, etcetera. As my weapon is my brain and therefore doesn’t need to be drawn or strung, I try to kick Fluffy awake. I fail. The ape lumbers forward and seizes Morchana…and she screams again, waking Keito and more sailors…but not Fluffy. Thinking quickly, Cade rushes forward and fires a binding spell, but it only manages to slow the behemoth, not immobilize. Keito gets up and tries to wake Fluffy, this time succeeding, and pointing at the giant ape. Tam also lets us know that we have not slept long enough to refill our mana. Keito is at 0 MP. Fluffy immediately flies into a Rage, bull-rushing everyone out of his way and pushing the ape back a step. To be clear: 7 people were in his path, including Lossëlen and Cade. Cap’n Fearson has drawn his cutlass and is praying he doesn’t have to use it.
So, at the first full round of combat: Morchana is being held upside down by the ape, showing the world her (sexy) elven silk undies, the sailors are waking their buddies and high-tailing it out of the area (some even into the water) and the party is already mobilizing.

Morchana draws her poisoned leg dagger, but cannot get a good angle to slash the ape’s arms, and Keito and Lossëlen both miss with their arrows. Fluffy slashes at the beast and gets shoved back into the sailors for his trouble. I fly out and hover above the camp, and summon a Large Storm Elemental formed from the current weather conditions behind the creature.

The elemental vaguely resembles this:

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/quiz/309000/309596_1257005408980_300_408.jpg

Yes, I nerded out. The elemental gives the ape a pretty nasty shock.
Cade rushes up to the beast and uses one of his class features, Spell Channeling, to attack the beast and cast a reversed healing spell in the same action. It has DR of some kind, which is frustrating our attacks a little… (double 1’s on the d8’s for spell damage doesn’t help either) and Morchana is flailing around uselessly again. Keito misses, but Lossëlen moves into position and makes a beautiful shot with a poisoned arrow…and her longbow is an armor piercing weapon and goes through the creatures DR! YES! The beast makes the save to avoid the DEX damage.

Fluffy slashes and gets backhanded by the creature. The giant ape, in its desire to keep hold of (and protect) its prize, is not fighting at optimal capacity, which probably is a good thing. I try to zap the ape with a ranged touch attack shock spell and fail. I command the elemental to try to herd the creature towards another line to try to possibly startle it again, and it attacks the creature from the new place.

Cade is in a beautiful flanking position and Spell Channels another binding. This time, the beast fails his save, and is bound by the golden chains. Morchana continues to flail uselessly, still more or less upside down. . . It’s so hard to see anything with one’s skirt in one’s face! Lossëlen is sick and tired of the ape, and she uses one of her newest feats: Arrow Storm. At her B.A.B. it allows her to fire 3 arrows as a full round action. Her first shot is beautiful, and hits the creature at the base of the skull. The second shot goes wide, but the third shot is a critical hit. The arrow sails true and hits the first arrow dead center, pushing the first arrow OUT of the ape’s skull and embedding itself in its place. The ape is killed outright, and Morchana is free!

With a quick thought of our native “friends” and their ape-head-pikes, I direct Fluffy to remove the head. He is a little confused as to why I’m asking (not the wanton destruction, but the fact that it was ME asking), but at the group’s insistence, he happily obliges. I redraw the warding line and collapse with the rest of the group at camp.

In summary: ‘Twas Beauty killed the Beast.

Good to those who read it once, twice, or many many times, Fayd really spends time working on it and then it is checked by at least 2 party members (Cade and Morchana). Now here is the picture of recap.

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=12645&d=1263353514

In the words of Sniper: Boom Headshot.

I don't know about Fayd, but I enjoy the comments we get so thanks to all who support this endeavor. Also thanks to Snoius who played Lossie in that screenshot.

[Eldariel]

Well, seems this beast didn't turn out to be a prince. Luckily there was a princess around for the rescue :smallcool: Really glad for our heroes that it broke the first warding line; things could've been very uncomfortable if it just picked up Morchana and waltzed away. Also, nice shot.

[Morchana]

Okay if you haven't read the lastest chapter (13), then here it is again, because good boys and girls read the chapter before party members provide great tie-in pictures from video games, especially when they are referenced in titles *ahem* or whatever. If you already read it again for the lulz.



Good to those who read it once, twice, or many many times, Fayd really spends time working on it and then it is checked by at least 2 party members (Cade and Morchana). Now here is the picture of recap.

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=12645&d=1263353514

In the words of Sniper: Boom Headshot.

I don't know about Fayd, but I enjoy the comments we get so thanks to all who support this endeavor. Also thanks to Snoius who played Lossie in that screenshot.


:smalleek:PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, SPOILER THAT PICTURE!!! :smallfurious:

(Like I just did.) I hate having to side-scroll to read things. . . :smallfrown:

But really, it's a great picture. How long did it take you to do that?

[Keito]

Picture has be hiden, cade was the one who advised me not to do that, since he didn't want people to gloss over it, but it has now be spoilered

[Keito]

eh, the picture took about 10 minutes to take, then it had to be emailed, and then I had to figure out a way to get it on the forums.

The annoying part is all pictures put on the forum must have an internet address, so no pictures fom harddrive. Tried facebook, fail, but then posted in the League of Legends forum with an attached picture and that worked (off topic section).

[Morchana]

Thank you very much, and yes, isn't it annoying how we have to have an internet link to post things?

Oh well. . .

[Fayd]

I have a photo-something or other account for that.

[flabort]

Ok, euphoria=extreme pleasure, good to know.
Yah, I can see why the sailor "melted" like that, then. too much yellow, not enough red.
Now just get this stuff into the water supplies of a city, and fun ensues...

...What? If you have a problem with that, do it in a place with a low population density. Problem solved.

[Fayd]

Well, to be honest, we were actually SENT to find the Red...for the Grand Duke. He's got some issues in the reproductive department. He has no heir, and his problem is likely psychological. So...

[Cade Rentyr]

Cade. A monkey hit on your woman.

You best watch out.
No no, you misunderstand. My woman shot the monkey. :smallwink:

[AtwasAwamps]

No no, you misunderstand. My woman shot the monkey. :smallwink:


WOAH NOW. WOAH. WOAH.

Woah.

You are ruining my fanfics, Cade.

CADECHANA 4 LIFE. DOWN WITH CADELLEN.

[Fayd]

I could say something...but it would probably drive you MAD!

Out of respect for your sanity, I shall remain quiet. :smalltongue:

[AtwasAwamps]

I could say something...but it would probably drive you MAD!

Out of respect for your sanity, I shall remain quiet. :smalltongue:



...Fayd + Fluffy?

[Morchana]

...Fayd + Fluffy?

No. Fluffy + Morchana. :smallbiggrin:

Wrap your mind around that one. . .

:smallamused:


Keep in mind that is an IRL relationship. In-game, Morchana is not looking for a relationship at all. . . Just a good time. She likes variety in her men. It makes life interesting. :smallsmile:

[Eldariel]

No. Fluffy + Morchana. :smallbiggrin:

Wrap your mind around that one. . .

:smallamused:


Keep in mind that is an IRL relationship. In-game, Morchana is not looking for a relationship at all. . . Just a good time. She likes variety in her men. It makes life interesting. :smallsmile:

Well, there's certainly variety within the party. Maybe that's why she hangs around with the bunch? I mean, there's a Half-Air Elemental Mage, an Orc Barbarian who likes teddy bears and a not-so-stick-up-the-rear stick-up-the-rear Paladin. Variety if anything :smallbiggrin:

Fluffy - Morchana does sound...umm...fun? I mean, both get bored easily and both can be quite impulsive (though Morchana less so, I guess) and...yeah, I could totally see it working out :smallamused:

[AtwasAwamps]

No. Fluffy + Morchana. :smallbiggrin:

Wrap your mind around that one. . .

:smallamused:


Keep in mind that is an IRL relationship. In-game, Morchana is not looking for a relationship at all. . . Just a good time. She likes variety in her men. It makes life interesting. :smallsmile:


::ignores the IRL statement so he can collapse into boundless, boundless laughter::

[Morchana]

::ignores the IRL statement so he can collapse into boundless, boundless laughter::

Exactly. . . For us, all of this shipping is just that. . . Completely hilarious, and not at all possible!

You make me laugh. :smallbiggrin:

[Eldariel]

Yeah, you know you've made it big time when people start shipping in your Campaign Journal. (no, seriously, this is the first time I've seen something like that happening)

[AtwasAwamps]

Yeah, you know you've made it big time when people start shipping in your Campaign Journal. (no, seriously, this is the first time I've seen something like that happening)

I was browsing TVTropes while I was reading this thing. There's only so much I can do. Plus it was just fantastic.

[flabort]

Sigh....
We gamers are a strange bunch...
especially the Role-players "Sub-species"

edit:
sorry, was just reading "rule 21:players will lot anything, & rule 22: dragons will {do} anything".... Sub-species is on the mind..

[Morchana]

Sigh....
rule 22: dragons will {do} anything"

That was partially my plan for defeating the dragon at the beginning, until we discovered it was simply a watery tart creating an illusion. :smalltongue:

[Fayd]

To be fair, humans are JUST as bad sometimes...though due to the way heritages work in this system, it's more Mortals in general than humans.

In explanation: I have djinn genes...probably. It's either that or some other elemental creature of air, and as I don't have wings, vestigial or otherwise, my best guess is djinn.

Fluffy has Giant ancestors.

Lossëlen comes from a long line of Cold Genasi, and based on her structure, probably had some cold-sylph equivalent starting her line. Though her group's gnolls don't appear to have the diaphanous wings, though that might just come from the sexual dimorphism already present in the elven species.

[Snowstar]

I thought that male elves were knolls because of a curse. And if it is ok with the game, male royalty does have wings, they are just hidden.

[Morchana]

Crap, flying gnolls. That's just what we need. . .

[AtwasAwamps]

Crap, flying gnolls. That's just what we need. . .

It's like flying monkeys.

Only infinitely worse.

[Morchana]

Yes, because while flying monkeys can also carry you off, they're not likely to have decided that you need to bear their children. Flying monkeys are harmless compared to flying gnolls. :smalleek:

[AtwasAwamps]

Yes, because while flying monkeys can also carry you off, they're not likely to have decided that you need to bear their children. Flying monkeys are harmless compared to flying gnolls. :smalleek:

Also, bigger poop.

[flabort]

*face-palms*

A thought occured to me while browsing the supplemented drinks in my school's caffeteria today. Besides Red and Yellow, and of course thier hybrid Orange, what other varieties of Oreigigert are there? and what do they do?

Like blue, if it existed, I would assume is somewhere around the lines of a suppresant, meant to make you sleep. Purple might be some hot-dream maker, and green might make you dream about rainbows and gumdrops.

Other colors... well, wouldn't it be interesting if you found, say, Pink? Aqua Blue/green? white? Black? brown? Gold/silver/bronze?

Or is it just the three varieties?

[Morchana]

Well, there are other varieties, and each has its own properties, but I forget them all right now. . .

TAM?!?!?

[Fayd]

From the Keyboard of Tam:
"Speak of the Devil/Cao Cao/the DM, and he appears.

On the Gnoll/Elf division:
I'll cover it in the Monday session, and let Fayd relate it. Or rather, fill Morchana and Lossëlen in, and we'll see how well Fayd does on the relevant knowledge checks.

On Oreigigert, or Petals of Perilous Potency!
Red: Passion, usually in the sense of lust
Blue: Alters perception of time
Yellow: Euphoria, typically very calming.

The secondary colors (purple, green and orange) usually have a chance of producing the effect of either contributing color.

The colors encountered are almost universally vivid, with darker hues typically being more potent. The existent of pure white oreigigert, which would not induce any effects and black oreigigert, which would induce all effects, is theorized, but not known.

The Chromatic Methodology Over-Theory (CMOT) argues that, by their understanding of natural phenomena, a sufficiently advanced refinement of Oreigigert should lead to the following effects:
Red: Rage
Yellow: Light Emanation
Blue: Time Manipulation

Purple: Shadow Manipulation
Green: Shapechanging
Orange: Fire Emanation

White: Anti-Magic
Black: Raw Magic Manipulation

Of course, many scholars believe this is a load of crock, particularly the clergy of Ileni, goddess of color and being. The conservative and Ilenic doctrine is that, while colors may signify particular phenomena, they are not intrinsically limited as such. Like all of creation, they have a capacity to infinitely surprise.

Oreigigert is not for everyone. Imbibing multiple colors is not recommended. Side-effects of regular use may include skin discoloration, loss of appetite, weight loss, weight gain, chills, fever, headache, narcolepsy, insomnia, vomiting, anxiety, paranoia, chemical dependency, incarnation, incarceration, insanity and death. Consult your local Peri herbalist before starting Oreigigert."

[Morchana]

On the Gnoll/Elf division:
I'll cover it in the Monday session, and let Fayd relate it. Or rather, fill Morchana and Lossëlen in, and we'll see how well Fayd does on the relevant knowledge checks.



Hopefully that does get cleared up. I'm confused, but I wasn't before. That is simply not acceptable. :smallconfused:

[Eldariel]

Hopefully that does get cleared up. I'm confused, but I wasn't before. That is simply not acceptable. :smallconfused:

I'll bet not knowing such...rather crucial details about your own race can be a bit disconcerting.

[Morchana]

I have had it all explained to me before, I knew it all, or so I thought, then Losselen walzes in with "Gnolls of the North have wings." Crap. So I'm not sure if they do or not-- she's a northern elf. Then Tam comes in and says he needs to straighten us out. . .

I'm confused. :smallfrown:

[Fayd]

All will come to light in due time. And by due time, I mean about 31 hours from now.

[Fayd]

The last session was very interesting indeed...the chapter isn't done, but I thought I might as well post the little bit about the elves to whet your appetite.

Before the year 0, elves were normal. There were male elves, female elves, and they were happy. At least, as happy as any extremely long-lived species of intelligent humanoids can be. The elves worshiped 4 goddesses, 2 sets of 2 sisters. There are some gods, as well, but they aren't terribly culturally powerful as far as things go, but one of them is the reason there is a second set of sisters.

Long story short, Tykanria, elven deity of secrets and darkness and such things converted one of Igela's (elven deity of magic and elves) daughters to her cause, and caused a great battle to distract Igela. During this battle, both Tykanria and Igela's daughter backstabbed Igela, and some Orc war-hero-deity-thing caught Igela's fading essence in a scepter.

With one of their most important deities recently dead, the elves are very vulnerable to some big nasty who is angry at them for whatever reason. Someone, and it is unknown who exactly, caused the male elves to become gnolls, at least in the case of Wood elves, such as our Morchana and Lossëlen. In the case of Jungle elves, such as the lady Erin...the gnolls are more serpentine and tentacly, similar to Yuan-ti. The Drow gnolls are more bear-like than anything...though the Drow cheated. Through magical experimentation, the engineered their males back into their species. Some Drow women chose to live with the gnolls in...relative...harmony, becoming the Drey.

Theories for who caused this horrible change range greatly, with evidence to support most. Common suspects are Ashur, god of predatory undead, Farkas, god of wolves (and now gnolls), some powerful mortal (not as likely), the Devourers (Illithid), or some other nasty.

Lossëlen's group of elves, in the far north, have fared continued their species by breeding with the native ice spirits. The gnolls there have begun to breed...with dragons...So yes, it is quite likely they have wings. Great scaly, leathery wings...that tend to act as a very nice cloak when you're cold. There are rumors, legends, myths, what have you that the Elves of the North can trace their history back to a specific Outsider...that Outsider being the Queen of Air and Darkness, Fae Queen of the Unseelie Court, and powerful Demiurge (campaign setting word for Demigod)

Tam, if I made any factual errors, please let me know (or Morchana and Lossëlen, as you heard this as well)

[Morchana]

And this is why the species of elves as we know it is DOOMED.

Seriously? Tentacles? Wolves? No thank-you. I would take a lesser mortal any day over something like that!

[Eldariel]

And this is why the species of elves as we know it is DOOMED.

Seriously? Tentacles? Wolves? No thank-you. I would take a lesser mortal any day over something like that!

Hmm, but doesn't that mean half-elves will flourish? More specifically, since we're talking about elves breeding with...everyone, half-humans, half-gnomes, half-dwarves (ugh), half-halflings, half-half-orcs and umm...yeah, that sounds pretty bad.

[Fayd]

Actually, from what I recall, it's only humans and elves that can crossbreed. Outsiders, Dragons, and and other similar things are exceptions and they can and DO breed with anything. Humans and orcs are incompatible. Ditto with elves and orcs.

[Eldariel]

Actually, from what I recall, it's only humans and elves that can crossbreed. Outsiders, Dragons, and and other similar things are exceptions and they can and DO breed with anything. Humans and orcs are incompatible. Ditto with elves and orcs.

So no Half-Orcs? Well, I suppose that's a relief of sorts. So, a happy tribe of Half-Elves then. Btw, man do Drow get the easy way out of everything ever...

[flabort]

So, now you guys have got two Emo-elf varieties. Drow and Drey... interesting. Personally, My opinion of elves is to unleash the volcano on them when they come to whine about trees, but all of almighty Toady's men are like that. One variety of elf is good for me: dead.

But you guys have two elves who don't seem TOO bad... maybe it's because they most definitely have a defined gender, unlike most.

No half-dwarves? D;

[Morchana]

As far as I understand it, Drey is the plural of Drow, as in, multiple of them. I think.

And yes, in this world, all elves are female, unless you are Drow. (But they cheated. ) It makes things quite a bit easier. No mistaken or hidden genders, like some elves we could name. . . :vaarsuvius:

[Drothmal]

I know this was asked before, but just making sure... You guys play on Monday and the chapter is posted (whenever possible and with all due gratitude) on Tuesdays?

[Fayd]

The general plan (Thrown off by a long weekend due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day) is that we play on Sunday, I try to get it written by Monday, and have it edited and posted on Tuesday. Sometimes, due to homework, I get behind...

[Snowstar]

So no Orc/human combinations? It must be ok for Order of the Stick.

[Eldariel]

So no Orc/human combinations? It must be ok for Order of the Stick.

It's ok in standard D&D. In fact, Half-Orc is a PHB race. Seems Tam decided the Human-shtick of "breeds with everything" wasn't especially flattering or something. Now, of course, every Orc is a Half-Orc (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0555.html) so technically you've still got 'em. :smallwink:

[flabort]

Man, had to dig this up from the third page!
and the last post was only yesterday... that's scary!

Fayd, I've been meaning to ask, when you found the main component in that mace was "you", and you mentioned kidnapped, what was that about?

[Fayd]

Character backstory. It comes into play in the next chapter, actually...so I'll not spoil it before then!

[Cade Rentyr]

Now, of course, every Orc is a Half-Orc so technically you've still got 'em. :smallwink:
That sounds exactly like the sort of logic Fluffy would come up with, actually.

Also, a bit of a teaser perhaps, but I expect there will be a great deal more orc discussion in the near future...

[Fayd]

Chapter 14: It Was a Dark and Stormy World. Or: A Wrinkle in Space.
The group arises and Fluffy is gone. Again. Honestly, at this point, who’s surprised? We proceed as planned, save that I send Swift off to look for Fluffy. The rain has actually lessened slightly. Visibility is good on most counts. I noticed that Morchana seems a bit off put, and I inquire as to the cause of her distress…

She received a magical message from Connaught, informing her that Castle Aralt was under attack from three unified tribes of orcs…including Fluffy’s. :smalleek:

At this point let’s step back for some perspective, shall we? It’s not been exactly common for these orcs to band together like this, but it’s not too terribly hard to make them do so; all it takes is a sufficiently powerful figure to lead them --from past examples, part of the reason that the red Xs are all over the top of the world map (conveniently posted earlier), it has just taken a dragon. A big red dragon. :smalleek:

Connaught asked that we return at once, even abandoning the quest we are on to do so.

At the moment, there’s little we can do with Fluffy missing, so we decide to press on and meet with the tribe as we intended and make decisions from how that went. Suddenly, without any need to babysit our barbarian, we don’t need to split the party after all, so all 5 of us go to the village via a route around the beach. We have the sailors prepare to shove off at a moment’s notice. I walk, so as not to draw undue attention, and also carry the severed Giant Ape head on a pole, trying not to get gore all over my hands… or fall over from the weight.

We approach the village from the west side, down by the beaches. From what Keito could tell us with her Knowledge (Engineering) checks, the hut most likely to be inhabited by the powerful people would be the ones closest to shore. The huts are literally shaped out of the rock, no cutting involved. The doors aren’t doors as such, mostly just coverings, some with beads on cords or woven grass. The door at the first hut we try is the one of the artistic woven grass doors. Cade tries yelling for someone in his native tongue of Illian, (very slightly more likely to be known hereabouts) but we hear nothing in return. Morchana tries using Conn, one of the languages she picked up (it’s the language that the nobles around Tiborem prefer), which draws a response…we hear that someone is inside, and eventually, a youngish Peri woman (looks in her 20’s) pokes her head out. She has bright red hair —like, traffic light red—with a fairly dark, if normal, skin tone; par for the course, as far as Peri go. . . Actually, a little under par.

The group struggles to communicate with her, but eventually we get across the general message of “We do not mean you harm, and we are here to trade.” She appears to be a little bit out of it, and occasionally, her eyes roll up into her head as if it is taking great effort for her to remember the correct words, but she seems lucid enough to communicate. Tam has me roll an Intelligence check, and apparently, I do not beat the DC. When she notices the entire group (and not just Cade and Morchana,) I present her the head of the giant ape. She informs us, haltingly, that this lovely little speck of land is called “Eight Ape Island.” She takes us up the mountain and plants the head in line with the other seven, and back down to her hut, where we flounder to communicate for a bit. She invites us inside and gets short chairs for all of us to sit in while we discuss why we are here. Eventually, communications become easier as she begins to address each of us in our native tongue (or one that we speak, anyway) up to and including Conn for Morchana, the Storm Dialect of Planar for me, and inland Illian for Cade, all while translating into each other’s languages, and into Lovas for the people who aren’t speaking something specialized. I am awed by her linguistics prowess…it is actually a little freaky.

We communicate that we are looking for food and processed Red Oreigigert, and we present Morchana’s orange as something we can offer in exchange. The lady (whose name we never actually get) is not impressed…she examines it, and declares it: “good, but not finished.” Morchana inquires as to how she can finish it, but our islander host laughs in her face. That is SO not happening. She asks us “Which is more important…the food or the drug?”
I reply, “The red oreigigert, actually…if merely get a little plant based food, we will be able to subsist indefinitely.” By way of explanation, we pull out some of our orange oreigigert plants and multiply them for her (we also offer some of the plants) and explain that we can do this for food.

“Better explanation than most…” is her only reply. She then goes on to ask us why we need the drug. I try to explain that we need it for a “great king” to the north who has no heirs, and she interrupts by naming the current king of the land just north than the Grand Duchery (the country where the Gemstone Towers that I grew up in are located) and musing that he already had kids. Beginning to be genuinely startled by her breadth of knowledge (often following bouts of contemplative eye-rolling), we correct her and explain the general details concerning Grand Duke Vellen and our quest here.
To be blunt, she arches an eyebrow and derides us for it. “So, rather than stay and investigate any other possible cause behind this problem…” she turns to Morchana, leans close and sniffs her, “…such as one like you, only less… ‘principled’…” :smalleek: she flicks a languid glance over the rest of us, “…you sailed halfway across a continent during monsoon season to find a plant with which to drug him, is that right?”

Ouch. Understandably a bit irked and embarrassed, Cade edgily replies that we trust Captain Andris to know the situation, that coming here was a natural extension of checking up on Connaught Jr., and that in any case the actual cause of Vellen’s issue concerns us less than doing this favor for the Captain. So there.

The Peri just shrugs. Morchana, still a bit surprised by the woman’s instant and accurate evaluation of her, presses to know how she did that. The islander casually replies it’s much too easy to tell from the state of Morchana’s nails and recommends that she get a manicure as soon as she can, before asking us how much oreigigert we want. Since we don’t actually know how much we need, Cade asks “How much can we get?”

She pulls out a case, with some of every non-theorized color (i.e. no white and no black)…and we sort of assume that this is a packaged deal, so we begin to offer some kind of payment. She asks something from each of us. Our orange oreigigert turns out to be worthless in the deal, as clearly they know where to look and how to make it better than we do. Our healers offer their services against any illnesses, but the Peri rebuts that they have none they cannot cure themselves. I offer entertainment with my magicks, but she takes us down a sloping staircase like thing where we see many villagers sleeping soundly. “They will be like this until the…” and she struggles for a word, eventually coming up with the Storm equivalent of ‘monsoon’…“is over. No entertainment is needed.” Erm… Fair enough. Lossëlen offers to make ice for them, and produces a small icicle as a demonstration. The Peri is pleased; Lossëlen’s part is covered. Keito offers a healer’s kit complete with silk bandages, also a pass.

I flounder, having little to give that isn’t already being given (I can do ice too, but more isn’t as nice as the original offer) and ask how much I could pay using Lovas silver. The entire case comes to 5,000 Drachmae if we choose that “crude” method of payment. :smalleek: And then… I realize that I do have something to give --something very unusual. You see, Tam had me roll another Intelligence check, as we went down the ramp/stairs and saw the sleeping villagers and this time I beat the DC. “It would be…18 years ago now. A young Peri boy was kidnapped by a man in green robes…I know how protective the Peri are of their own…and I what I have to give is that…I am he.”

At this, Tam has the entire group roll a Sense Motive against our Peri host, and I get a nat 20. To those of us who rolled well, myself included, we realize that she is both startled, though she recovers quickly, and is definitely hiding something. (Keito’s player was the only one not to beat the DC; he was lying on a couch, and rolled the die right off the table on accident, saying “Fail…is that good enough?” Tam looked down and replied, “Yeah, pretty much,” showing Keito’s player the nat 1 that was rolled.)
I press the matter. “I can tell that you’re hiding something…please…let me know the truth…I want to know…please…”

She stares at me for a moment before walking over to me and clapping my head between her hands. I fail a Will save with a 21. I’m out cold, and told to wait in the hallway. :smalleek:

I “wake up” in a room with 4 doors, one in each of the cardinal directions (how I know this, I’m not sure) a well of some kind, and a hatchway leading up. I open each of the doors and take a close look before I decide to take a deeper look through any of them. Then I begin with the east door, for no other reason than its association with the zephyr. Through the door is the Gemstone Towers, the magic university where I grew up and was trained. The door to the west contains the instant where my eye got shot out WAY back in session 3. Through the north door is an amalgam of the Storm that is a part of my very nature and the storm that our poor ship was getting tossed around in. Through the south door is a warm tingly happy feeling. Very overpowering. Through the hatch up top is my connection to Swift, and he and I have a good conversation. He delivers his report that he followed Fluffy to some ape caves but lost track of him, and I direct him to head back to the group. If I have to, I’ll watch the proceedings from his eyes so I won’t get TOO out of the loop. Finally, I examine the well. It is…very dark. I try to cast some sort of light, but it is still dark.
Oh well, time for exploration! I head through the east door first, and am back in my long-term memory at the university. I recall that Gabraal mentioned that his son trained for a time there, and Morchana discovered that Gabraal the younger is a Lieutenant of the Doomriders, so I walk “18 or so miles” into my own memory to see what magicks Gabraal was learning. Turns out, he was learning Metal magic, which deals with evocations of metal shards and summons of metal Outsiders and other such nasty effects. Gabraal the younger did leave after a year, however, so he got little more than fundamentals.

Through the north door, I examine the storm, and watch as we deal with the ship and prevent its demise. There is nothing really terribly interesting, except for the fact that the island we’re standing on is nowhere to be found anywhere in the memory.

Through the West door, I got to admire the shot that the archer made that took out my eye. Really, it was an incredible shot, when you get right down to it. He was 200 yards out, and managed to hit a target like that. From a purely objective standpoint, I have to commend him on his accuracy. AAANNND we’redonehere.

To the south…The warm fuzzy feeling envelops me right away, but this time, I’m ready for it. I roll a will save to force some bit of clarity, and when my head clears, I see myself. As an infant. And MAN, was I an ugly baby. Blue and normal pigmentation was literally swirling all over me. It’s actually a little nauseating. At several points, I would be looking at my parents, then suddenly I would be looking at myself through my parents, and so on and so forth. I hobble outside (in tiny baby mode) and take a look around to see a bunch of other Peri, then suddenly, I am the crowd, looking at me. Then I am my father, picking myself up. All throughout this, all of my questions get repeatedly answered with “I’m Peri!”

Eventually, I tear myself away from this scene and investigate the well…and as it turns out, I can still hover in my mind. I hover down the well…and as it gets black, I create lightning between my hands for illumination. “I’m creating lightning in my mind…should be ok, so long as I don’t throw it…” At the bottom of the well is where all the muck and pain goes. Slime and muck is filling the well, but is not building up, so there must be an outlet somewhere…the muck is brown, green, white and all mixed and nasty…throughout, there are grasping green hands…

Character backstory time! You see, at the age of 3, I was kidnapped…or something else, (and in retrospect, I should have explored farther for that) by another Gemstone Tower mage. While I eventually studied at the Ruby Tower, which teaches battle magic and evocations, the mage who kidnapped me was Gunther of the Emerald Tower, which focuses on practical applications of magic and making magic items and constructs. They also study magical grafting…which is the entire reason for my kidnapping in the first place. Being a natural fusion of Outsider and Human anatomy, studying how I work --how I exist-- would lead to greater understanding of how to artificially fuse Outsider and human physiology.

Yeah, the first bit of life at the university was NOT fun. I would be cared for by some of the villagers and occasionally be taken for weeks at a time to be… experimented… on. Experiments to those ends aren’t fun… lots of scars, and not all physical. Gunther’s curiosity got the better of him fairly quickly. As I don’t have to breathe, and never really have, he tried to test this once. A small box, dark and slowly being evacuated of the air inside of it really freaks out young Air Genasi…what with the innate fear of the dark humans have and the primal elemental connection of the genasi. I was terrified, confused, hurting, and angry…and the weather responded in kind.
(I’ll do that occasionally. When I’m sad, it’ll rain… it’ll be sunny when I’m happy. It’s a bit give and take… for example, these continual storms have been rapidly fraying my nerves.)

The storm that was borne of my torment struck Gunther, and he was smote down by the storm. I was rescued (still had to get out of the box, after all) by the man who became my mentor and father figure, Martin of the Ruby Tower. He had become recently aware of what Gunther was doing, and he was furious, and tried to put an end to the experiments, but the Storm beat him to it. Unfortunately, Gunther’s notes were destroyed along with him, and all I ever had to go on about my original family was a scrap of paper with the word “South” written on it in Gunther’s hand.

Life went significantly uphill from here. :smallbiggrin: But that’s a story for another time. To explain my theory with the mace, though: to pass through Tiborem with a young captive and not arouse suspicion, Gunther would have needed to subdue me somehow, and transport me using the pretense of taking me for magical healing at the Sapphire Tower… and why not start experimenting right away? So, he extracted a piece of my soul, used it to enchant Andris’s Stormwrack (the mace) and gave it to the Grand Duke as a tribute while he stayed at the city to await better conditions (it was storming, go figure). I would hazard a guess that having part of your soul removed and put in a mace wouldn’t do great things to you, especially when you are young. The Grand Duke at the time gave it to the captain of his guard, who gave it to Andris when Andris got the job.

Anyway, back to my out-of-body-into-mind experience. I decide that I’d had enough of this mess the first time, and leave… I wander around the big central room again for a short while before coming to the conclusion that there is probably nothing else here to see without breaking down the walls, and I’m not sure I want to do that. I roll a will save and wake up with a monster headache, but that’s to be expected.

The first thing my party asks me is if I can get them off the island without a ship. I can, but still… What a first question! I respond with the affirmative, and then inquire what exactly happened when I was out.

The first thing I gather is that, immediately after I went down, our paladin nearly went into Holy Indignant Smiting Mode, demanding to know what she’d done to me.

The Peri met him with a shrug. “He wished to know…he is knowing. This is his part of the payment.”

Aside from that, I’m still not entirely sure on what exactly went down, but…they ended up coming to terms of an agreement. Morchana would use her poisoncraft to make a potion that would cause Captain Fearson and his crew to forget this island and everything about it, and Cade would destroy the map that brought him here. Apparently she wanted us to destroy the ship, but they managed to talk her to the current solution instead. The sailors would get provisions, enough for them to make the next port of call, and they would sail away none the wiser. (The ship has been…grown…back together and still has leaves, but the Captain is such an excellent story-teller…we’re certain he’ll come up with something.) The problem with the potion would be that any physical reminders, such as our party, would counteract the effect, so we could not depart with them.

Hence, why they need me to get them off of the island without the ship. After some quick thought, I realize that my Ritual Magic (feat) would enable me to teleport the party, even though my own power wouldn’t allow it yet. I would just need to draw enough connections between our current location and the destination. I toss out a couple of ideas, such as stone or dirt, and then remember… Morchana gave some of her hair to Agatha in her deal for…something…and we currently have the rest of it on her head. What’s more, Agatha lives in a hut, and we are currently in a hut! This won’t be, erm, too, difficult. Probably. The worst that could happen is dispensing the party over several square miles…in pieces…

Well! No time like the present!

Morchana sets to brewing the potion, and I use my magicks to assist. Offhandedly I ask Cade if he wants to pour some mana in as well… He gives me a hard stare and replies flatly, “No. I will not Bless a potion that robs men of their memories.” Apparently our current bargain is still chafing at him a bit, but he’s holding his peace because “at least it’s better than destroying their livelihood.”

So instead, he goes to load up as much as he and Lossëlen can carry back to the camp, and they make their way back. There they come across Fluffy, waving at the ship. He has apparently been doing this for hours, as the captain keeps switching out the guy waving every couple of minutes. (Studiously avoiding any sort of motion that would encourage the orc to try coming aboard.) He also has a new large sized small sword (a long sword to everyone else) somehow. When Cade and Lossëlen approach, he says “HEY GUYS! Look what I can do!” He concentrates for a bit, and suddenly green tentacles burst out of the ground at their feet, binding himself and Lossëlen in place (Cade makes his save and can move at half speed out of the area). Cade walks around the tentacle patch, and tries to cut Lossëlen free…the tentacles re-grow as quickly as they are cut down. Shortly thereafter, the tentacles stop moving, and dissolve into goo which quickly evaporates.

“Fluffy, where exactly did you get that sword?” Cade inquires.

Fluffy explains: “Fluffy could not sleep. FLUFFY WANT TO KILL APE-MAN BY HIMSELF! So Fluffy climb up to ape cave on mountain. Pointy lady said ‘You cannot have the treasure.’ Fluffy give her a hug. She throws sword into jungle and Fluffy runs after it.”

Cade stares for a beat. “You know? Comparatively, that makes perfect sense.” He encourages Fluffy to keep practicing his new trick up the beach away from anyone else, and then boards the ship himself. We found out later the double-motive behind this trip; Cade frankly and honestly described the exact arrangement to Fearson in private, so that at least the good captain knew and willingly agreed to the forgetfulness potion we were giving him and his crew.

His conscience thus assuaged, Cade returns to the beach and asks Fluffy if he will help them move food to the ship. Which might have been a grand stroke of idiocy, had Cade not already had a plan to dangle a carrot. “Fluffy, if you are bad and eat the food, we won’t buy you a new greataxe in town…” Fluffy’s eyes bulge and he prepares to smash Shiny Guy over the head. “But! If you’re good and eat only as much as we say you can…we’ll make it a Large-Sized Masterwork weapon.” (He and I had already discussed this plan, but Fluffy didn’t know. :smallwink:)

The orc’s eyes go from fiery to shiny. “Fluffy be good. Eat only one crate. Cross Fluffy heart and hope to never eat again.” Considering this is the strongest oath Fluffy can possibly make, we take him at his word. They lead Fluffy back to the hut, where he carries ALL of the supplies for the men back to the ship in one trip. Cade and Lossëlen take the completed memory potion to the ship, and deliver the potion to the captain. Cade and Fearson shake hands, and when the paladin returns to shore they hear the Captain yell to his crew:

“Rum rations boys! It’s Peri swill, but it’ll do! Push out and drink up!”

This is the last we have seen of them.

Meanwhile, I prepare the Ritual Magic that will teleport us halfway around the known world to Tiborem.

Keito assists with her enchanting magic by, I kid you not, braiding Morchana’s hair and spending mana. I get the circle and candles set up, and prepare a delayed cantrip (bumping the cost up to the maximum I can cast, but whatever, it’s courtesy) to clean up the ritual when it finishes so that our host won’t have to lift a finger to clean up after us.

Cade, Lossëlen and Fluffy arrive, and I get everyone arranged in the ritual correctly, and get ready.

“If anyone wishes to pray to any deities, now is the time.”

Fluffy gives me a level glance, saying solemnly and gravely, “Fluffy hungry.” Cade meanwhile mutters a prayer to Brigii, and on second thought, pours all the mana he can into it to make it a blessing spell, hopefully aiding my chances of success.

“Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Ready? Good. Three…Two…One…”

The following line best explains how the experience felt:

@#TNO!-191IOJR!182%@!lk1520158lk153@251%#@!15ioiwfj#%%!#D Fi3k1#1o3258@#^Oghou2$#T^Ilk243oi6@^#Iht2i36#LKIHO I326#@^OIJLKoih236ug6fg26is#6&#@h973$^iyc#^.

Tam’s exact description was as follows: “It’s like you’re being stretched in every possible direction while simultaneously being compressed into a tiny little sphere. This sphere is bounced against the floor for a while before being splattered up against the wall. The wall with you painted on it is then rolled up and used as a baton for a relay before being unrolled, dumping you out onto the ground in a very fine dust that’s scooped up and poured back into molds of yourselves.”

Midway through this, Tam has me roll a d20. No reason given, just to roll one. The party is justifiably freaked (my rolls at critical times…don’t always go well) but I roll a 19. :smallbiggrin:

We land safely in Agatha’s shop in Tiborem, though all of us appear on top of a cat. Well, almost all of us; Fluffy appears on top of nine cats. (He fell over.)

“Hello Agatha!” I cry, half from exhilaration that it WORKED, and half to get a reaction. That reaction being a slightly annoyed twitch. (She’s not the only one; once he’s recovered his wits Cade levels an accusing finger and an exasperated glare at me. “NEVER. AGAIN.” S’pose I can’t really blame him --that was a WEIRD feeling.)

We explain that we have the oreigigert for her, and she gives Morchana back the lock of hair. “Morchana, if I may?” I then sever any connection from the hair to her (if there was one) and burn the hair with a minor fire spell. Keito leads Fluffy outside with an illusion of a floating ham and begins to heal any cat that wasn’t flattened, and Cade, Lossëlen, and I head for the door. Morchana sets to bargain with Agatha over some potent form of poison, and how our oreigigert batch is worth ‘one more dose’… until they realize that we’re all (save Fluffy) still in the room. Both women shoo us out; Tam asks Cade how he feels about attack cats. The paladin regards the four or five cats advancing on him with the sort of soul-piercing Evil Detecting stare that he has; 24 Intimidate. According to Tam, “The cats are backing down, not because they’re scared of you but because they want to. Like all other cats.”

As we step outside, Tam informs us of the current atmospheric conditions: “Wasn’t the weather supposed to get…better?” It’s raining at least as hard in Tiborem as it was on the Island. I twitch angrily and lighting cracks overhead. “Easy, Fayd,” Cade says. The rest of the party catches up and accompanies us to the keep to look for Captain Andris.

We notice that the city is, by and large, dead for activity, apart from the screams of ‘Oh no, not again!’ and ‘Quick! Hide the pies for dinner!’ at the sight of Fluffy. Most shops are closed, and there aren’t many people in the streets. We press on and ask for Andris at the gate to the keep. The guards recognize us at once and inform us that Andris is not in. We asked what happened, and the guard is surprised we haven’t heard. Cade: “’Fraid not, we only just got back into town.”

It turns out that Aralt and Connaught are both under siege from the orc tribes, and Andris has left the city to gather his men and go to their aid. He’s been gone for about five days now (about when we crashed into the island) and he did not to their knowledge leave any instructions for us. Of course he didn’t; that would be too easy.

From here, the party splits. Keito goes off…somewhere…and Morchana and Lossëlen go to find us an inn. We are NOT camping one more night! I go off with an extremely impatient Fluffy to get his axe…and suddenly, I recall that a Masterwork weapon takes time to commission. I carefully explain this to Fluffy, “Fluffy, the longer you wait for a weapon, the better it gets…we want to wait just a little bit for your greataxe so that it gets EVEN BETTER! Do you want the greataxe to be better?” He readily accepts, and we go to the smithy to get the weapon commissioned. I explain to the smith what we want, and drop 10% right now for it. The smith starts taking all kinds of measurements for Fluffy, and I leave them to go handle an investigation of something that has been nagging me for a bit now…

Sorry the update took so long to write...it's a little longer than normal, but my schoolwork was attempting to eat my soul, and I had another very important project I had to work on.

Enjoy!

[Morchana]

She received a magical message from Connaught, informing her that Castle Aralt was under attack from three unified tribes of orcs…including Fluffy’s. :smalleek:

Imagine getting this just after a brush with a giant ape. Worst. Night. EVER.

“So, rather than stay and investigate any other possible cause behind this problem…” she turns to Morchana, leans close and sniffs her, “…such as one like you, only less… ‘principled’…” . . . Morchana, still a bit surprised by the woman’s instant and accurate evaluation of her, presses to know how she did that. The islander casually replies it’s much too easy to tell from the state of Morchana’s nails and recommends that she get a manicure as soon as she can. . .

I'm getting a manicure soon. I swear it. And a new dress. Definitely a new dress. :smallwink: I'm thinking raw silk, for an upgrade over the old linen, but still dyed black.

We explain that we have the oreigigert for her, and she gives Morchana back the lock of hair. “Morchana, if I may?” I then sever any connection from the hair to her (if there was one) and burn the hair with a minor fire spell. . . Morchana sets to bargain with Agatha over some potent form of poison, and how our oreigigert batch is worth ‘one more dose’… until they realize that we’re all (save Fluffy) still in the room. Both women shoo us out. . .

I'm free!!!

Shooing was quite necessary at this point. Morchana rarely shoos, but when she does, you'd better move! :smallwink:

I really need a day at the spa and a good rest. Really, being in the rain on an island is quite terrible, especially with monkeys, apes, rain, mud, and no good men! (Cade and Fayd were the only two decent ones there, and they don't ever seem in the mood at all to have fun. :smallfrown:) I wonder if the Ivory Club will be open later at all. . .

[Cade Rentyr]

Okay, really folks. It's no fun doing this if no one will banter with us or make fun of us or raise general hoopla. It gets a tad dispiriting (for Fayd especially) when five posts in a row are just us bumping our own thread.

Even if it's just one sentence, please give us some feedback. If we suck as storytellers, give us some pointers on what's dragging it down. If you're enjoying it, well, Fayd could use a pat on the back every now and then --he's sharing our campaign to entertain, after all.

[Alleine]

What a twist!

So Fayd is the love child of one of the strange island dwellers and an air outsider? Interesting... how does that happen? Air outsiders just swoop in and give some lovin' to the mother while no one is looking?

The Peri are straaaange. :P

[Fayd]

What a twist!

So Fayd is the love child of one of the strange island dwellers and an air outsider? Interesting... how does that happen? Air outsiders just swoop in and give some lovin' to the mother while no one is looking?

The Peri are straaaange. :P

From the sounds of things, I'm actually the grandson. I got to see my parents, and from what Tam said, they were Peri.

There are all sorts of methods though, Summonings, Plane Shift, and yes, the method you mentioned...an Air outsider looking for a good time. I'm really not sure of the exact method...and I'm not sure I want to know.

Of course, I don't know WHICH island I'm from. It could be ANY of the Peri Islands, though Eight Ape was pretty standard as far as Peri Islands go.

The Peri are interesting. They are basically the potpourri race. Anywhere from 4-8 feet tall (and some outliers from there) and any skin color or hair color imaginable is not uncommon. It isn't uncommon for a family to have the Jolly Green Giant and an Oompa Loompah be twins.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I find fluffy's antics quite ammusing. I wouldn't mind at all if he "persuaded" another scribe to take notes for him. What exactly is keito again? Race wise I mean. And just because my mind is this squicky, do any female elves still mate with the "new" male elves?

[Eldariel]

'twas quite the trip. I think Fayd could make a business out of people looking for...out-of-body experiences and "trips" by teleporting people around. Ever considered that line of work? Also, he's a remarkably...functional person for his childhood; that kinds of experiences seem potentially scarring.

[Manticorkscrew]

And this is why the species of elves as we know it is DOOMED.

Seriously? Tentacles? Wolves? No thank-you. I would take a lesser mortal any day over something like that!


I find fluffy's antics quite ammusing. I wouldn't mind at all if he "persuaded" another scribe to take notes for him. What exactly is keito again? Race wise I mean. And just because my mind is this squicky, do any female elves still mate with the "new" male elves?

Hey, just because male elves in this game world don't confirm to your standards of beauty.

Isn't real beauty supposed to be on the inside, or something? (What? They were just lying to make me feel better? :smalleek:)

Oh, and dare I link to Tv Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreBetter)?

By the way, I'm still reading and enjoying this game. Keep up the good work. :smallsmile:

[Morchana]

And just because my mind is this squicky, do any female elves still mate with the "new" male elves?


Yes. There are female elves who mate with the "new" male elves, but mostly it is out of an obligation to preserve the race. Or sometimes, it is not really consensual. :smallmad: You'll find out more when Morchana's backstory actually comes to light. :smallwink:

[Fayd]

'twas quite the trip. I think Fayd could make a business out of people looking for...out-of-body experiences and "trips" by teleporting people around. Ever considered that line of work? Also, he's a remarkably...functional person for his childhood; that kinds of experiences seem potentially scarring.

Well, the teleporting is dangerous, and setting up a business puts myself at considerable risk. The only reason this worked was Morchana's deal with Agatha, and the fact that both the Peri and Agatha lived in "huts"

And the out-of-body thing wasn't me...I'm not sure HOW I could induce it in another, but from what I DO understand, it is classified by the Gemstone Towers as Black Magic. (For the curious: The 3 Black Magic Spheres are Charm, Illusion, and Necromancy)

Also: Yes, Fayd is remarkably functional, but there was a small detail I only alluded to: It didn't last very long at all...at the very most, a year. From there though, I had considerable talent, and Martin was a very kind and nurturing man. That said, some of the more lasting effects: I don't really trust magical items, and small, dark spaces bother me. I do not like the color green. And Fayd keeps himself distanced from possible relationships, as they haven't...worked...well. Friends are fine. Anything more? Difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

[flabort]

What a story!
I take it you game again to-night....

But seriously, some people (you guys, SilverClawShift...) should really get their stories published into books. Like, high priced politzer awards books.

And should you guys hit epic levels...

What's Fayd's (the charachter) craft(story) level?
'Cause the real Fayd seems to have a level along the lines of 37...

[Fayd]

What a story!
I take it you game again to-night....

But seriously, some people (you guys, SilverClawShift...) should really get their stories published into books. Like, high priced politzer awards books.

And should you guys hit epic levels...

What's Fayd's (the charachter) craft(story) level?
'Cause the real Fayd seems to have a level along the lines of 37...

Aye, we did game again. The story tonight will be short...we spent the first 3/4 of the session updating our characters and the system to it's newest iteration. The system is beautiful, glorious...and needs to be thoroughly reviewed and tested.

That said, it's Tam's Craft (Story) that's the major factor here: It's high. He's got a very good stat mod, and he's got ranks. It's my Perform (Storytelling), Morchana's Profession (Editor) and Cade's awesome Aid Another checks that also play a part.

Also: Epic level won't be hard. It's 2 levels away (we leveled up to 4th tonight.) Yes, epic levels begin at 6th.

Again, Also: Thank you very much for the compliments.

[Drothmal]

Epic begins at 6? I guess I am a bit confused on the system that is being used then.

Do you guys have a link to the rules (sorry if this was already posted and I'm missing it)

[Tam_OConnor]

The rule system is my unholy abomination, starting with 3.5 and bouncing around from there. The '6th level is epic' is drawn from this essay (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html) and the accompanying rules for Epic 6th, or E6 (http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=7764859&postcount=1). Once I get past the beta stage of the rules, I'll try to post them in the Homebrew section, and post a link in this thread.

[Fayd]

Thanks Tam!

And thanks for the patience, Life™ came up, and the writing has been slowed. Which is actually fine, because the chapter is so much shorter than normal.

[flabort]

And here i thought it was 3.5e...
but, E6 works.

I've always wanted to find a system along the lines of E100, by the same naming standards as E6: Epic 100. All systems I can find but E6 and D6 hit epic at 20, which is way too soon.

[Snowstar]

I don't get why everyone (Cade/Fayd mostly) is so concerned with our readership. I have a feeling we have more fans than we realize, and when they do post, they are enjoying the story immensely! We shouldn't need others to back us up, because our story is special to us and fun to play.

Also, my race of elves, aside from breeding with the occasional ice spirit, has consistently bred with the gnolls. Much of this might be because, being sheltered in caves, we are unaware of other options. I am for the most part a pure elf and my father is a gnoll, who is rather kind.

[Anonomuss]

Hey guys, thanks a million for sharing your various adventures. I'm really glad I started reading. I would do almost anything to be able to construct this sort of story myself for my group, and Fayd's journal entries do a great job of keeping me interested and eagerly anticipating the next installment. Looking forward to your next entry!

[Cade Rentyr]

I don't get why everyone (Cade/Fayd mostly) is so concerned with our readership.
Mostly I'm digging for comments so Fayd will quit bugging me to bump the thread. :smallwink:

[Morchana]

Me too.

By the by. . . I finally finished typing up Morchana's backstory. It is a tale of twisted shadows. . .

And yes, I am teasing you. There will be no spoilers. All will come to light in due time.

:smallwink:

[Dimers]

I don't get why everyone (Cade/Fayd mostly) is so concerned with our readership. I have a feeling we have more fans than we realize ...

The page-view count agrees with this sentiment. It's over 2000 more than the current incarnation of Test of Spite ... almost triple the views of the "notable threads" sticky ... the fourth most viewed thread out of the first 500 listed, and one of those is the "common abbreviations" thread. I think you can take that as evidence that you're doing something right. :smallsmile:

Kinda like it myself. :smallwink: I just don't often have anything to contribute regarding other groups' gameplay, since that's so people-specific ... and I feel a little silly posting without making a contribution. So here's my contribution: hard evidence that people continue to find your game very interesting. :smallbiggrin:

[Fayd]

...oh.

Wow. Ummm....To be honest, I've never noticed that number before. I'm honestly shocked and quite humbled.

Wow. Thanks guys! Back to work with me. I'll try to finish up the chapter today, have it edited and posted tomorrow...get you all ready for the next week. It sounds like it might be a doozy.

[flabort]

So you don't have to worry about your readership. You've just got about 200x more lurkers than other readers. Yes, bumping occasoinally may be required, but only because the lurkers are too lurky to do so.

[VampireRot]

Indeed, flabort speaks the truth! This is now on my list of "things to check for an update". :smallbiggrin: In fact, it's at the top of said list. Keep up the good work and don't worry about readers! Now, back to lurking for me. :smallwink:

[starwoof]

My bookmark for GitP is my UserCP page, and I have you guys subscribed so I see the new posts every single time I come to GitP (which is literally once every few minutes when I'm on my computer!). This thread is one of my top priorities here.:smallamused:

[RdMarquis]

I don't know why I took so long to get back to this thread. I've just finished re-reading the entries I missed and I have to say, this is getting good. :smallsmile:

Especially since I'm a little starved for D&D, with school and all.

[Fayd]

Chapter 15: Overhaul
Apologies in advance, this chapter is shorter than usual. That reason being: we converted our characters and such to the next iteration of Tam’s system. Doing so took a while. Lots of us, and we’re newbs. Important new toys though: Swift can speak with me now. Only me for now, but that’s fine. A major rework to the class system means many new points, more stat points to spend, refunded/altered feats… as the title suggests, massive overhaul. Morchana got some minor spellcasting capability and EVERYONE, except me, got some capability for martial maneuvers.

So, we begin, and I depart from Fluffy (perhaps my most unwise decision in… a long time) to go investigate the whereabouts of Talesin, the sculptor. Y’know, the one that disappeared and is probably maybe likely a dragon? First though, I try to fix the weather by thinking happy thoughts and rolling a will save. I roll so abominably I feel depressed for a bit instead.

I head to Gorvath’s the… “Pleasure Palace” as they prefer to call it… that Talesin frequented. I am immediately asked if I have an invitation, and I bluff that Talesin was a good friend of mine. I try to get any information about his disappearance, but I am told “We take the confidentiality of our clients very seriously.” I roll Diplomacy (well) and decide to bribe the attendant. “Sir, we do not sell information about or clients.” Stare. “However, we DO rent information for say… 30 drachmae?” It’s steep… very steep, but I’m on a roll with unwise decisions so I decide that I need the information. My questions include: Has Talesin been seen lately? What are the recent rumors about him? Are there any, erm, next of kin?

Answers to all? No. It’s assumed he died in the collapse of the Conservatory. And there are no known “next of kin” of any kind, euphemism or not. (Their “companions” are protected by spell and alchemy. Redundancies for minimal chance of failure, and all of that.)

About this time, Swift returns to me, relating that our two elves have rented 3 rooms at the middle-class inn called “St. Dain’s Rest.” The inn is actually surprisingly full, for what it is worth. Apparently the Archprelate has called a conclave, and the ENTIRE inn is full of priests of Laeros. Swift also informs me that “She smells nice.” I am unsure of which elf Swift is referring to. In a way, it could refer to either. Raw pheromones vs. “Minty Fresh.” Or, as Cade’s player puts it, ‘sort of a refreshing wintergreen.’

Speaking of, I send Swift with a note round town to inform Cade and Keito of the inn’s location. Once he returns I immediately sic him on Fluffy’s whereabouts, finally realizing my mistake in leaving the oaf unsupervised… in the middle of town… …shut up. If Fluffy is nowhere to be found in an hour, Swift is to find Cade, and direct me to him.

In the meantime I fly off to investigate Talesin’s home. The building is still locked, there are no signs of any recent activity, and there’s a layer of dust building. Oh, and as I’ve said, the door is still locked.

Now, I’m no rogue. I don’t have Disable Device in any great capacity. My odds of getting the lock open are minimal. Fortunately, the lock won’t hold when it’s not in the door anymore. I melt the lock out (carefully) and open the door.

What? I’m not lawful-- I’m pragmatic.

Dust everywhere…but nothing. I Detect Magic, and find nothing in addition to the wall that would open with the proper command word (which I don’t know and can’t force without UMD). However, interestingly, there’s this perpetual haze of magical energy floating through the house, like a fine mist.

INTERESTING. It’s the haze that would develop around a magical creature that’s lived there a long time. I leave and fuse the lock back in place. It’s not keeping anyone out anymore, but apparently no one cares anyway.
Down in the cave beneath the area, the same magical haze is present, (and the same wall whose codeword I don’t know) and this time, I roll a knowledge (Arcana) to figure out the type of creature that would cause this haze by habitation. It’d be something connected with the sea or the mist, probably. Maybe a sahuagin, maybe some wraith like creature… or maybe a water dragon. My vote? That last one. It seems to fit with everything we know of the situation.

Well, nothing more to see here, so I connect with Swift. He hears some person dressed in livery say the name “Cade” down in the market district, so I head off in that direction. Before I get there it occurs to me to have him actually check the inn. (Duh.)

On arrival Swift immediately spots Cade through the window of what I assume is our room, and swoops down to the sill to say “HI!” Cade visibly startles, which is odd for him, but eh, whatever, this stormy weather’s been having me on edge for a while now too. I change course for the inn.
As I enter the room Swift saw, Cade is in the midst of a summoning. I slink in as quietly as I can so as not to distract. He has summoned an archon of Turmlar, god of knighthood, to seek out Captain Andris and deliver a letter. For the record, the archon is vaguely sword-shaped with a hazy glowing aura, and it departs by shifting out of this plane and speeding away. With the supernatural business finished, Cade lets me know the general plan: The messenger is going to deliver the message, telling Andris effectively, “We’re here, where are you, and where do you want us?” and we will wait. We will arm ourselves as best we can, and get ready for a big fight. As “arming myself as best I can” involves getting 8 hours of sleep and little more, I’ll try to give us something better than any weapon: Allies. I have a plan of how to get some help. But it’ll have to wait for next session, as we ran out of time then. After the summoning and discussions, Cade looks out the window and visibly jolts, ducking quickly out of sight. I ask what is bothering him, but he is strangely evasive, and won’t let me near the window…

What of the rest of the party? Fear not! Their story shall be told! Morchana and Lossëlen, after renting the rooms at the inn, went to buy new dresses. At the dress shop, they were immediately surrounded by a veritable clan of teenage girls, pulling them farther into the shop, taking measurements the whole way. They place their orders with the apparent clan matron, and are pampered for the next hour with all kinds of special considerations, up to and including champagne. They spend the next four hours or so at the local spa, getting pampered more, Morchana with the deluxe package, and Lossëlen with the standard. Bathing and washing one’s hair has never felt so good, not to mention getting your nails and hair done! (Thus sayeth Morchana.)

Cade and Keito were not forthcoming with what they were doing, which is distressing coming from the Paladin, but rather par for the course for Keito.
Fluffy though… leaving him alone was a massively foolish move. He wanders out of the blacksmith’s shop and realizes that he is hungry, so he heads to the Wyrm’s Head Tavern, which has been completely gutted and looted. All of the food is gone, all of the alcohol is gone... it’s a wonder some of the furniture remains. Very bored, Fluffy takes “that one chair with one of the legs that’s shorter than the others” and throws it through every window remaining in the building. Then he smells food coming from the houses nearby. (facepalm) He knocks on the first door and an older woman answers. “Fluffy hungry.” He picks up the poor woman under one arm and helps himself to their meal, while the children scream “MAKE THE GIANT GO AWAY MOMMIE!”

After finishing all of the food, he sets the woman down and heads to the next house, and repeats the process. This continues four or five more times, and if the door is not answered, it is knocked off of its hinges. After a while, the city watch catches on to his antics. A captain approaches Fluffy and demands, “‘EY YOU! OGRE! WHAT YOU DOIN’ ‘ERE, EH?!”

Fluffy describes in exact detail what he clearly sees as a reasonable exercise.

“IF YOU WONT FOOD, LEAVE THESE POOR FOLK ALONE AN’ GO PAY FOR IT!”

Huh. That hadn’t occurred to Fluffy. “Ok!” He picks up the captain and begins to carry him off. (Facepalm) The rest of his squad begin trying to beat Fluffy with their cudgels. Only one sap manages to hit him, and twice at that. Fluffy idly backhands the guy, and he sails twenty feet through the air and hits a building. The poor watchman would have died had he not rolled maximum on his HP roll. As it was, he was hurting -- bad. Still mobile though, as he and the other watchmen are quick on the retreat.

At the nearest tavern, Fluffy buys four meals and ale for himself, and six flagons of ale for the captain, who resigns himself to drinking them before eventually sneaking away. The local guard (guardsmen now, not the watch, so they have actual lethal weapons and decent armor) comes striding in, and… somehow doesn’t recognize Fluffy. Tam has a “Reputation” system, and Fluffy has only won both the wrestling and pankration contests at the Tournament, cleaned up the situation at the docks, terrified the crowd with his speech at the banquet, and is an orc in the midst of human lands pushing the bounds on being 9 feet tall. But… no recognition. New recruits maybe? Out of town at the wrong moments? Who knows. The captain quickly confirms the report, and Fluffy is arrested. They’re cleverer than the watch, however, and they get Fluffy to come along to the guardhouse --eagerly, no less-- by telling him they’ve got a pile of food there that needs to be eaten. Very, very clever guardsmen.

They put Fluffy in his cell, which is suspiciously devoid of food… “Oh, it’s in there,” they assure him. Going with a gut assumption, Fluffy begins to twist off the bars of his cell and gnaw on them. The guardsmen’s eyes bug out, and they quickly evacuate the dungeon, closing the door behind them but not stupid enough to lock him in, (mostly they’re just praying he stays put) and assign some unlucky sap to keep an eye on the orc’s general vicinity.
Several hours and about 20 bars later, Fluffy is tired of the hard chewy stuff and asks the guard on duty where the food is.

“It’ll be here in the morning.”

“FLUFFY HUNGRY!” Fluffy yells, utterly failing his intimidate check.

“Uh, huh. That’s nice. It’ll be here in the morning.” Fluffy gets angry and starts yelling. Tons of guards start swarming in and he is transferred to a new cell after being beaten to unconsciousness with non-lethal damage.

0_o

Yeah, we were surprised too. Don’t mess with the guard, apparently.
Fluffy’s player rolled a d20 to see if Fluffy would respond with deadly force, and Fluffy does not. Fluffy does struggle against being beaten up, and only a few guards are knocked nearly to negatives in single blows. (FACEPALM) But he doesn’t kill anyone and isn’t killed, and he spends the rest of the night sleeping and moaning. In the morning, when his food is delivered, the guard giving him the food nicks Fluffy’s coin purse to pay for damages. So: Fluffy is a complete pauper, but alive and will be released next session. To quote everyone’s favorite orc, “Fluffy do hard time. Prison change Fluffy.”

Morchana and I will NOT be pleased when we find this out. We are considering some sort of magical punishment. Possibly turning him bright fluorescent pink, and his armor bright lime green with purple and orange Hawaiian flowers covering it via Persisted Prestidigitation…or something far more sinister. Any thoughts, Playgrounders? I have access to Planar, Cold, Fire, Shock, Wind, and Protection magic. Morchana has magicks of her own, (thank you Overhaul) but they may be too… dark… for my own tastes. I, the player, know exactly her magicks… but Fayd does not. And Fayd would not approve of some of them.

And with that, our adventures continue...I know significantly more than Fayd does about what's going down, and I can reasonably say that next session will be...interesting...

Also, I am sorry for doubting the readership. I am truly honored and humbled by this incredible silent majority. Enjoy!

[MountainKing]

Well, you could certainly mess with him a little; make apples taste like bread, bread taste like cheese... no, worse, make the bacon taste like pineapples! :smallbiggrin: He'd still get to eat (and eat and eat and eat and...) but nothing would taste right. I bet that'd learn him, especially if you spun it properly ("Now Fluffy, what have we learned?" "If Fluffy bad, food no taste right."). :smallbiggrin:

[starwoof]

Make his coke taste like pepsi.

[Fayd]

Make his coke taste like pepsi.

You fiend!

[Cade Rentyr]

Make his coke taste like pepsi.

Make his Root Beer taste like Diet?

[starwoof]

Diet Pepsi!:smalleek:

[Fayd]

Make his Root Beer taste like Diet?

I SAID I WAS SORRY ABOUT THAT!

:smalltongue:

[Morchana]

Make his Root Beer taste like Diet?

I think I second this one. Diet = Nasty. It's not actually sweet. Muah-ha-ha!!!

And Fayd, I forgive you, as I'm sure Cade does. But please, never again!

[Fayd]

I just failed at observation! I meant to get the regular kind, I just didn't read...or actually take a good look at it in the first place. I saw the brand, and assumed.

NEVER ASSUME!

[AtwasAwamps]

I just failed at observation! I meant to get the regular kind, I just didn't read...or actually take a good look at it in the first place. I saw the brand, and assumed.

NEVER ASSUME!

I actually willingly drink diet soda and my gaming group has issues with this. I think they're pretty sure I'm an alien.

[Morchana]

I think you are. Yick. :smallyuk:

Run away!

[Fayd]

I actually willingly drink diet soda and my gaming group has issues with this. I think they're pretty sure I'm an alien.

I'm actually with you on this one...diet was all my family ever got, so I was used to it. I was buying the Root Beer for Cade, and anyone else who wished to partake, and they aren't diet drinkers.

[Cade Rentyr]

I'm actually with you on this one...diet was all my family ever got, so I was used to it. I was buying the Root Beer for Cade, and anyone else who wished to partake, and they aren't diet drinkers.

Eh. I'll drink it to get rid of it. It just tastes kinda weird.:smallsmile:

[Keito]

First of All, Root Beer is the most sacred drink on earth, and those who invented a "diet" root beer, are using necromancy to make ugly zombies out of bishojo (aka hot japanese chicks).

I (Keito's player) am a guy, and figured when your a spider person you need anything to help you survive, including being a woman with magicks to make yourself appear in a way to not give the idea of lets stab/blugeon/burn the abomination in front of us

Second of all, I know it's a late response


And this is why the species of elves as we know it is DOOMED.

Seriously? Tentacles? Wolves? No thank-you. I would take a lesser mortal any day over something like that!

Response: But that would ruin ALL of the Good Elf Fanfiction! :smallsmile:

btw, I'm going to get hit by morchana for that later, but was sooo worth it.

[Keito]

First of All, Root Beer is the most sacred drink on earth, and those who invented a "diet" root beer, are using necromancy to make ugly zombies out of bishojo (aka hot japanese chicks).


Then again, I probably, don't want to mention zombies, because TAM zombies suck, and he won't let me use a shotgun on them. :smallfrown:

[Eldariel]

Diet anything...:smallyuk: Maybe you should make his next meal taste like rubber...or, I guess rubber hasn't been discovered quite yet, so rusty iron bars? Maybe a little reminder of his "hard time" would help him be a changed Orc. :smallbiggrin:


Response: But that would ruin ALL of the Good Elf Fanfiction! :smallsmile:

That's...an interesting view on "good Elf fanfiction".

[VampireRot]

Punishment for Fluffly? Heh, I have an eeeeevil idea. Use a Permanent Prestidigitation on his tongue. Make it so he doesn't taste anything. That will surely teach him a lesson, though be sure to change it back after hes learned said lesson, as a half-orc might go crazy and kill everyone under that kind of non-tasting strain.


Root Beer is sacred. Anyone who desecrates such a holy drink by making it... diet... should be forced to drink a 12 oz bottle of rabies-laden moose urine through a funnel. :smallfurious:

[Fayd]

Diet anything...:smallyuk: Maybe you should make his next meal taste like rubber...or, I guess rubber hasn't been discovered quite yet, so rusty iron bars? Maybe a little reminder of his "hard time" would help him be a changed Orc. :smallbiggrin:



That's...an interesting view on "good Elf fanfiction".

The iron is a thought. It doesn't terribly help that orcs can digest and get nutritional value from practically anything. I... I'm not sure he can actually... taste. Or can taste much at least. It's a thought at least.

And... Keito... Odd... Yeah...

[Eldariel]

The iron is a thought. It doesn't terribly help that orcs can digest and get nutritional value from practically anything. I... I'm not sure he can actually... taste. Or can taste much at least. It's a thought at least.

If he doesn't have a taste, giving him an extra-sensitive, cultivated elven sense of taste would probably be just about the best/worst thing you could do. That might actually control his appetite somewhat too.

[RdMarquis]

This may be a little excessive (and slow the game down a little), but is it within your abilities to make his food talk to him and fight back?

I just think it would be hilarious for him to have to roll initiative (however short the fight may be) every time he wants a snack. :smalltongue:

Failing that, make everything have the consistency of a liquid (we'll see how he likes drinking every meal), or that gunk that the zion rebels eat in the Matrix.

[MountainKing]

...This is Fluffy. He loves to smash things; how does turning all of his meals into both a toy AND food a punishment? :smallconfused:

[Fayd]

...This is Fluffy. He loves to smash things; how does turning all of his meals into both a toy AND food a punishment? :smallconfused:

Hrm. Not much of one, as it were. Changing his sense of taste probably falls under the purview of Charm magic, which is considered "Black Magic" by the Gemstone Towers -- where I got my magical training. That, and most of the Good-aligned clerics agree with it.

So I don't have access to the spells, and won't. I say nothing of the... less scrupled... members of the party.

[Morchana]

I say nothing of the... less scrupled... members of the party.

Did someone call my name? :smallbiggrin:

[Cade Rentyr]

Did someone call my name? :smallbiggrin:

"I check for traps." :smalltongue:

[Snowstar]

This is great! I knew we had more readers than we realized. Although, I wonder what the page view count actually means; does it count each separate user as one, or does it measure each separate log in regardless of whether that individual has logged in previously? The actual number of dedicated readers may have been overestimated. Nevertheless, I would hate to disappoint even one dedicated reader!!!

[Eldariel]

This is great! I knew we had more readers than we realized. Although, I wonder what the page view count actually means; does it count each separate user as one, or does it measure each separate log in regardless of whether that individual has logged in previously?

It is the number of visits in the thread; same user's multiple readings are registered multiple times, et cetera. That said, given the number of reads, this doesn't really matter; you've got infinite people reading this.

[Fayd]

Yeah, when you get up to 18,000 views, that means...a LOT of readers. A whole lot. It'd be terrifying to be in front of that many people, if this story wasn't so fun to tell! (And play, for that matter!)

I'm glad y'all are enjoying this. I might post some fun informational tidbit later today, who knows, but...next session is Sunday, and Tam has told us that it will be very "Social." His eyes had a gleam to them that this might be... dangerous. YAY! :smallbiggrin:

[MountainKing]

Of course it'll be dangerous. Social + Fluffy = Fluffy hungry. :smallbiggrin: Looking forward to the next episode!

[Fayd]

I decided, because the chapter was so short, that I would provide you with a little something Tam wrote. It's an interesting little tidbit.

On Black Magic

The Gemstone Towers argue that the use of particular spells is immoral, not for the magics themselves, but for the probable intent of the caster. Therefore, they feel that a properly trained and morally upright person is capable of casting most of spells from the Charm, Illusion and Necromancy spheres (primarily the short term spells intended for battle). However, they hold that certain spells, regardless of intent, are unrelentingly evil in purpose, and the clergy of good deities unanimously agree with them.

Charm spells, by their very nature, twist the minds of those affected by them. Normally, the changes are fleeting. However, certain effects have long term results, and should be avoided. The charm and geas lines, as well as modify memory, are seen as extremely suspect, not the least because charm person + alcohol = bad. Dominate person is the only member of the Charm sphere to bear the [evil] descriptor, for the simple reason that one is subverting another's will.

Of the Illusion sphere, the central moral dilemma is presented by the invisibility spells, and a philosophical discourse said to be drawn from events in one of the thousand kingdoms. None of the spells themselves have the [evil] descriptor, but any item that produces an invisibility effect will be viewed with extreme prejudice.

Necromantic magics, in addition to suffering under the stigma of being 'Black Magic,' also have a well deserved reputation for being slightly icky. Necrotic energy, while not explicitly evil, also has connections to the gods Ashur and Nunatii, and so bears a theological stigma. Priests of deities opposed to them (read: most of them) will object to undead and necrotic elementals on general principle. Despite that, most of the spells are no more evil than, say, lighting someone on fire and watching them run around screaming. In fact, the only truly [evil] spell is magic jar, and that is because it crosses the typical necromantic boundary of the physical, and deals with souls, in a similar manner to dominate person. Because raise dead requires the consent of the soul to be raised, and slay living does nothing to interdict the soul, such spells are not [evil]. Unethical, or a violation of nature, maybe. But not [evil].

DM Note: I love all three of these spheres. One's imagination allows one to produce much greater effects than the strictly mechanical ones of evocations. But, let's face it: charm person is the date-rape spell, we should all be familiar with the Ring of Gyges (or derivatives like Well's Invisible Man or Tolkien's One Ring), and mucking about with souls is never a good thing. Therefore, Black Magic. It's not to say that one can't use these spheres with good intent, but if there were spheres that could easily lead to evil, these are it.

[Morchana]

But, let's face it: charm person is the date-rape spell. . . if there were spheres that could easily lead to evil, these are it.


And this is why Morchana has Charm. . . :smallamused:

[flabort]

Buhhh...
Morchana...? Uhgn...

*snaps out of it*

Boosting will save, now.

[Fayd]

She has vays of makingk you talk.

[flabort]

So, if Tam (is that short for something) said the next session is going to be more social, and he had a dangerous look in his eye, look out for conversational landmines!

[Morchana]

She has vays of makingk you talk.

When was it ever said that I am a German milkmaid? I'm pretty sure I missed that. . .

Next session is going to be so much fun. . .

[Fayd]

So, if Tam (is that short for something) said the next session is going to be more social, and he had a dangerous look in his eye, look out for conversational landmines!

Tam is short for Tam OConner, our DM's forum name here at the Playground. Thank you for your warning.


When was it ever said that I am a German milkmaid? I'm pretty sure I missed that. . .

Next session is going to be so much fun. . .

When did I ever imply anything? I was merely being silly. It's the Drow who sound like German milkmaids... one small specific section of them anyway.

You probably think I'm kidding...

[Morchana]

No, I don't think you are joking. I have heard Tam explain this before. It was odd, and slightly terrifying.

On that note, I do not sound like a German milkmaid. And I am not Drow. :smallamused:

But, I do have ways of making people, particularly men, talk.

[flabort]

*shudders*
I'm sure you do, and I'll bet your character will do best tonight, if it's truly social... what with charm and all.

[Fayd]

Well, indeed the prophecy was correct. The session was very "social." I will begin journaling tonight probably, and hopefully will finish quickly, as our schedule is getting thrown off again. Due to a competition Morchana's player is attending, we will be gaming Friday night instead of Sunday.

Oh, and to reassure those worried: There weren't any PC deaths.

[Morchana]

It's kinda funny though. . . As 'social' as last session was, I think our next one is going to be even more so!

Happy fun times!!!

[Fayd]

Well: To give an update. The Chapter is about 60ish percent written, and should probably be done tomorrow if school isn't trying to eat my soul. I like my soul. @ school: Please don't nom my soul.

[Keito]

For those who want more information on Keito, especially with more detail than "I'm doing sneaky stuff" everytime I go to town. There will be a listed chain of events being released soon (ever since the start of the game, including player background). Mainly I'm waiting pretty long on revealing it to the party ever since the last time... ugh, well more on that later!

[Manticorkscrew]

Well, you've got me on tenterhooks, as always. :smalltongue:

[Fayd]

To give you all an update: Cade is editing the journal for last session, and I am going to be writing the one for the session we just had. One should, in all likelihood, be posted tomorrow/today.

[Snowstar]

Cade missed my concert. :smallfrown:

[flabort]

wow, I was half expecting one to be up by now. Oh, well. lots of dialog will make for a long story. so, it's not too bad. still no PC deaths last night, either, I hope?
Now, I hope no NPC's got assasinated, either.

[AtwasAwamps]

Cade missed my concert. :smallfrown:

Kill him with icicles.

It's the only answer.

[Fayd]

Chapter 16: Say Uncle! Or: So This Fat Guy Jumps Off This Barn…
We pick up in the evening of that day. I send off two Planar messengers, one to my master, and a specially chosen water one to ferry a message to the dragon that may be Talesin, who I recently learned might be aquatic. Cade begins enchanting his scale mail, with the intent of removing its penalties to his skills and DEX mod. I go to bed early, as I have a big day planned tomorrow: research, research and more research. Fluffy will be in prison until noon. (None of us know this yet.) Keito, as usual, who knows? She disappears frequently in towns. Probably something important, at the very least. Morchana and Lossëlen head to the nobility’s night club and gambling establishment, the Ivory Club. A bouncer who looks like he could look Fluffy in the eye and tell him to go home (and retain limbs) welcomes them into the club. The décor is white marble with ivory accents. They are ushered upstairs, where they notice, and are noticed by, Gabraal. The two elves are beckoned over to the table, where they are greeted by Gabraal, Lady Erin, and what might be called a bear of a man (if the term wasn’t woefully understated), who introduces himself (loudly) as Thezzick Rentyr. He looks… very familiar. Introductions are made (Morchana using her alias “Elena” while amongst the nobility, while Lossëlen is introduced as “Princess Lossëlen”) and Thezzick informs them that he is looking for his nephew, and quickly asks if they know him. Now: all of the players know the truth. You can probably guess the truth by now yourself, too. Both elves were asked to roll Deception checks (and Lossëlen would have failed hers!) before Cade’s player quickly reminded everyone that he never shared his last name with anyone. (You’ll see why this was a dodged bullet soon enough.)

“Eh. That’s all right,” Thezzick replies, trying not to look as irritated as he clearly feels. Gabraal reassures him that what resources Tiborem can spare are helping in the search. Thezzick nods, and then suddenly roars, “I just can’t believe they left ME to stew in town --ME! My brother’s the thinker, I’m the DOER!” When Morchana asks who he’s referring to, he begins to describe an enormous clan on the move. “Ethan and Torin prowling about the countryside, little Mia gone off with that Andris fellow, and me here-- --Do you know that someone back home started a war on somebody?” he exclaims indignantly. “I mean really, starting a war without me --the sheer gall of it!” He angrily drains his wine glass and calls for another (to join the couple dozen in front of him). The girls are not sure what’s been in these glasses, but it is definitely NOT wine. Not that whatever it is has any effect on Thezzick…

Morchana asks why they’re searching for him, to which Thezzick replies, “That’s just it! We don’t know! He just up and left, and no one knows why! He was always such a nice boy too. It’s just so baffling.”

“What did you say his name was?” Morchana asks.

Thezzick slaps his forehead. “Didn’t I mention it? His name is Cade!”

Ah-hah!

“What will you do if you find him?” asks Morchana.

Thezzick waves dismissively. “Well, mostly we just want to ask him what’s got into him, and see if we can’t convince him to come back home.” He raises massive shoulders in a shrug. “And, you know, maybe slap him around a bit.” …Oh.

The conversation then meanders, and skirts by the topic of the ruined conservatory, the destruction of which and cause thereof carefully avoided, as the whole gnoll thing makes such conversations… awkward… around elves. Morchana sighs and says what a pity it was that the conservatory was destroyed, and asks if there are any plans to rebuild? “Well, we lack the funds for that,” Gabraal says.

“Why don’t you just kill a dragon and take its hoard?” Thezzick asks, puzzled.
“There aren’t exactly many dragons around here, Thezzick,” Gabraal explains patiently.

The big man sighs rather wistfully. “There are no dragons where I’m from either . . . anymore . . .” (Tam: ‘Roll Sense Motive.’ Success. Tam: ‘He killed them.’ :smalleek:)

Morchana proposes that there be a gala to raise funds for a new conservatory. “Lossëlen could sing, and we could display art and have some of the other local talents perform for the nobles. I’m sure we could raise quite a nice sum for the conservatory!” Lady Erin thinks this is a wonderful idea, and Morchana, Lossëlen, and Erin make plans to meet the next day to figure out plans and talent. Gabraal is ambivalent, but after a little bickering with Lady Erin agrees that we should talk to Hiram, a quite successful financier, who may be out of town, but is due back any day.

Thezzick is bored. Extremely bored. He mopes into his cup, nearly tearing up. “Why did he leave? I just don’t get it...” He pushes his cup away, and calls to a servant. “Hey, could I get something a little lighter? Say, a hard ale?” The servant scurries over, puzzled, because servants here are not supposed to be seen or heard. He takes Thezzick’s cup and scurries away from Gabraal’s dagger-glare. The servant returns with a nice tankard, which Thezzick drinks from, then dips his fingers in and stares in wonder. It is eating his skin away. “What is this stuff?” He calls to the servant. Gabraal glares at the servant. The servant looks back and forth between Gabraal’s malevolent gaze and Thezzick’s expectant one, and hesitantly replies, “I believe they call it ‘Marley’s Dragon’s Breath Brew’, sir. It’s made in a tavern near here, sir, called the Wyrm’s Head, if I recall.”

“Excellent! I’ll have to go there and get some to take home!” Thezzick exclaims. (The tavern’s current state might prove to be a rude shock.) The servant cracks under Gabraal’s glare and flees, leaving Gabraal to coolly recommend against it. Thezzik scowls at the other man. “You’re just not going to let me get into a good tavern brawl while I’m here, are you?” At Gabraal and Erin’s stone-faced, silent stares his face scrunches up and he pays them closer scrutiny. “So that’s a… maybe?”

Gabraal ignores him and turns to Morchana and Lossëlen. “What about that rag-tag group you were travelling with, your bodyguards? Wasn’t the champion of the pankration and wrestling tournaments with them?”

“Yes.” Morchana replies.

“There you go!” He exclaims and turns to Thezzick. “You can fight the orc!”

Thezzick face positively beams. Morchana tries to caution him, “He is quite large, you know. . .”

“I LIKE a challenge!” Thezzick yells, and calls for more ale. Morchana shrugs and says she’ll be able to arrange something.

The conversation wanders some more, and eventually turns to a rash of robberies in the upper middle-class area of town. Thezzick can’t understand this, posing that the bodyguards should be able to fight robbers off. Once it is explained to him that most middleclass people have no guards, he becomes only more bewildered. “Wait, the nobility can’t fight for themselves?!” he exclaims as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Morchana begins to pose the question to him of “Well, what would happen were there only a lady like myself at home and--” He interrupts her with a booming laugh. Yes. His mind immediately went somewhere it shouldn’t have.
After a few more minor turns of the conversation, the group decides to go home. Thezzick, finally showing the effects of all that alcohol, needs help to walk out. Gabraal and Erin heard him off toward the manor where he’s staying with them.

Morchana and Lossëlen depart as well—without bodyguards. Shocking!
The next morning, Morchana and Lossëlen go next door to my and Cade’s room. “Do you have an uncle named Thezzick Rentyr?” Morchana asks Cade abruptly.

Cade gives her a sharp glance. “…Why do you ask?”

“Because I just met him, and he says he’s looking for you.”

Our paladin explodes. “YOU SPOKE WITH THEZZICK?!” Everyone but Lossëlen jerks at the outburst. Seeing this, he tries to reign himself in a bit and demands, “What did he say? Specifically?”

Blink. Blink. I decide I should get going to the Repository of Knowledge (basically, a privately funded and HUGE library.) I cut into the conversation, saying that I should probably go. …Have you ever felt like a bug under a magnifying glass in the desert sun? I’m getting the distinct impression from Cade that my decision to leave is a good one. “But, er, well, the thing is-- --well there’s the admission pri--”

He mashes the money into my hands and shoves me out the door. (Fayd technically left the scene here, but the conversation wasn’t kept secret.) Cade stomps back to the elves (Keito is still absent and Fluffy is snoring next door).

Morchana is still taken aback by this sudden intensity. “Why are you running away from your family?”

“I never said they were my family!” Cade rebuffs hotly.

“You have his eyes,” Lossëlen says abruptly. Conversation derailed once more as everyone stops and stares again. The paladin is decidedly less glare-y though and more dumbfounded. She just smiles serenely back at him.
Eventually Cade shakes it off and repeats his question to Morchana. She recaps the evening for him. In particular he seems interested in the fact that Thezzick is alone --he specifically asks after the whereabouts of the other family members, and she obliges him with all they’ve learned; Cade’s parents (“I never said they were my parents!”) are off searching the seas and towns further down the coast. Thezzick came here to Tiborem with his other two nephews and his neice; the brothers are combing the countryside, and Cade’s sister (“I never said…” “Yes, but Thezzick said Mia. . .” . . .You get the idea) has departed in the company of Captain Andris.

At this point Cade’s head slumps to the desktop and he mutters a mild oath. His player explained this to me a bit later: Mia Rentyr is currently in the company of Captain Andris --the very same Andris that Cade sent a message to, signed with his own name. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
Apart from that bit of sour news, however, Cade seems largely reassured by what he’s heard. He apologizes for his edginess and for coming across harsher than he meant. “Look, whether they’re my family or not --and I never said they were-- it should be clear to you that I have history with these people. I’ve never asked you about your past; I beg you, stay out of mine. And believe me when I say this: for your own safety, stay away from them.”

By now Morchana appears to be in full control of her nerves. “Paladins?” she asks coolly.

“Some of them,” Cade affirms. “Many of them, but not all of them. Some of them don’t need to be. Aethan for example…” But he trails off and shakes his head. “Regardless, they are… formidable. You say they’ve started a war with somebody? I wouldn’t want to be on the other side.”

“I see,” purrs Morchana. “But you know, I have already agreed to arrange a fight between Thezzick and Fluffy. It seems unlikely that I will be able to avoid speaking with him again.”

Cade grimaces. “…If it’s just Thezzick you should be fine,” he says. He hesitates, then adds, “Just be absolutely certain you do not let him catch you doing anything…” He searches for the right word. “…immoral.”

“And what sort of things would this family view as… immoral?”

The paladin issues a mirthless chuckle. “Murder? Pick-pocketing? Arson? Cheating at cards? It’s all the same to them. Just be careful.”

She promises that she and Lossëlen will be, and asks if there’s anything else before they leave again. He stresses to make certain the fight between Thezzick and Fluffy remains entirely non-lethal, “for Fluffy’s sake.” :smalleek:

During my investigations in the library I turn up all kinds of information about orcs (Keito assists me for this portion before running off on her own mysterious errand) and dragons, and the areas where we will probably have to fight an orcish horde. Meanwhile I have Swift interrogate the local bird population (he gained Speak with Master and Speak with Kindred this level) for more information about the Icy Gnoll. His only social skill is Intimidate, which functions most effectively against creatures of tiny size or smaller, and he uses it to great effect. The first species interrogated are the ravens: “Not dead. Not care.” They do show him a patch of fresh ice that is floating just out of the lagoon though. He’s still alive, and still in the area… good to know. Next up, the sparrows: “Run away! RUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAY!” Right. Something that scares them… asking about something that scares them. Not the best plan. How about a predator? They tend to be a little more on the smart end of the scale. Swift manages to find an osprey, (a fish eating bird of prey) and they discuss hunting, which has gotten really poor as of late. The osprey has been reduced to eating dead fish, as everything upstream of the lagoon has been killed and mostly frozen. Location confirmed. To dig for more information, we try the seagulls. Their answer? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AdSn_YE0VQ Well, after concluding that I have enough information about the Icy Gnoll, I turn to the doves to get information about the Archprelate’s location, if he’s in town or what. Now, you have to dumb down questions to creatures with an INT of 1, regardless or not if you can communicate in their language. So, we ask “Fat guy. Good target. Where?” and Swift spends an hour flying around with this dove to the houses of dozens of “fat guys” before both he and I get bored, simultaneously roll our eyes, (all 3 of them) and leave that dove behind.

Meanwhile, Morchana and Lossëlen go on a few errands. First stop—Gabraal’s manor to talk to Lady Erin. They hash over details of the gala, and figure out the performers and decide that Morchana and Lossëlen will talk to Hiram, while Erin will contact the local artists. That done, they go on errand number two. They start asking people in town if Hiram is back in town or not. Turns out, he is just getting back, and will be checking on the Ivory Club shortly. So, Lossëlen and Morchana go to the Ivory Club to wait for him. Shortly, a carriage arrives, and out steps a short man with curly dark brown hair and very expensive clothes. Morchana steps up to him. “Excuse me, but we were sent here by the Lady Erin to talk to you.”

“Oh, of course, of course, come on in!” Morchana and Lossëlen are led up to the same table they sat at the night before, and offered seats and sweet white wine. “Excuse me, but whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?” Hiram asks. He is very loud with his hands, and rather charming.

“I am Lady Elena, and this is my friend, Princess Lossëlen. We were sent by Lady Erin to discuss plans for a gala to be held here, to raise funds for a new conservatory. She said you have great ‘financial acuity.’”

“Your accent,” he asks Morchana. “It sounds Connish. Where are you from?”

Morchana dodges the question. “Oh, from the east. . .”

“No, where?” He presses, smiling. “I might know.”

“Oh, it’s a remote forest. You probably have never heard of it.”

Morchana changes the subject back to the gala, and plans are made to have the gala at the Ivory Club, with Hiram’s financial backing, the next evening. As we will in all likelihood be leaving a day or two after that, it is as late as it can be. Morchana and Lossëlen take their leave, promising to see Hiram the next evening at the gala.

Errand number two done. Number three, arrangements need to be made with Thezzick for the brawl against Fluffy. Lossëlen and Morchana return to Gabraal’s manor, simply to be told “He has not risen yet.” Hangover. Morchana leaves a note that they came by to discuss the fight, and leave.
Meanwhile, due to his desire to remain hidden, Cade is stuck in the inn. All day. He does grab a lunch after carefully checking for relatives. The only people in the inn are the Priests of Laeros. Who are telling stories and anecdotes about their parishes. AGAIN. Actually, it’s getting rather odd. For starters, they’re all wearing battle knives… While it’s not necessarily uncommon for Laeros’s clergy to be armed (as far as Cade knows) it’s the uniformity that arouses his suspicion. He notices that certain phrases keep popping up amongst different groups. The clusters are subtly shifting around too, so that all of the stories get told and repeated again… and again. The most commonly repeated story is that of a fat parishioner who thought he could fly, and jumped off of his barn. Cade listens for a while to what has become apparent is some kind of code. Cade tries to approach a group, but doesn’t respond with the proper code phrase, and is slowly but deliberately edged out of the conversation. He knows better than to try again and goes back up to his room.

Swift, somewhere in the midst of his investigations, spots Fluffy. Fluffy surprises us all by actually recognizing Swift. I instruct Swift to guide the ogre to the inn (ogre is actually the technical term for what he is now) where the two are greeted by a very surprised employee. Unfortunately, the attendant did not recognize Swift (unsurprising) and asks Fluffy who he is with. “Shiny guy.”

“What is his name?”

“Shiny. Guy.”

“I need his NAME.”

At this point, Fluffy Rages and roars. Cade hears this easily (that roar of anger is surprisingly familiar by now) and rushes downstairs to rescue the poor porter. Fluffy’s ire disappears instantly. “Shiny guy!” he shouts happily.
“Oh thank the heavens! He’s with you?”

Cade responds in the affirmative --he’s the reason for the third room we’ve booked. Immediately Fluffy declares that he’s hungry (as the prison breakfast was not enough for him). The porter begins to ask what he’d like to eat, but Cade cuts him off.

“Anything.”

“Really? Anything at a--”

“Yes, anything! Just quickly!” Cade presses them, mindful of Fluffy’s meager patience.

The inn seats him in a far and dark corner, where he is brought an immense amount of cheap porridge. Fluffy is happy, and even gets close to feeling full. Cade, meanwhile, is trying to figure out a way to scan the crowd for evil without being noticed. He thinks for a time… and walks over to the kitchen. He requests a large sausage and a very good one while he’s at it. He catches Fluffy’s eye, waits until the right moment, and hurls it across the tavern to the far corner. If you are not distracted by a happily roaring orge chasing a lovely peppermint sausage, then something is wrong with you. Cade scans, and reveals evil in the area in the first round. He decides to try for the second round, and reveals that Fluffy is not evil, he himself isn’t evil, and the wait-staff isn’t evil. Some four or five of the ‘priests’ in the crowd are, but he doesn’t get to pinpoint them, as he is immediately forced to roll a Reflex save, which he makes and ducks behind a door before people can notice him.

Soon, Lossëlen and Morchana return, and fill Cade in on the details of their day’s work. They are talking just inside the inn, when suddenly they hear a voice both assassin and paladin recognize--Thezzick. Morchana rushes outside and intercepts him with a hug, chattering about how glad she is to see him, while Cade scrambles upstairs. Arrangements are made to turn the fight into a paid-admission event to raise funds for the conservatory, much to Thezzick’s delight. “I always love an audience!” Lossëlen offers to make an ice wall around the arena where the jousts and pankration were held last time we were in time, and we arrange to meet Thezzick there about noon the next day. Success!

After my time in the Repository, I head over to the Temple of Laeros to ask what is up with St. Dain’s Rest and the priests gathered there. (I’ve gleaned Cade’s suspicions through Swift’s presence at the inn.) I find the “unhelpful” secretary, who is by now actually quite helpful… and still sitting at his desk… and he informs me that this is rather early for people to be gathering for the midsummer festival in about 3 weeks. I ask about the whereabouts of the Archprelate, and he tells me that the Archprelate is still out. The conversation goes for a while longer without any major new revelations, and at the end, I am asked for a sense motive, and he appears to be honest. It also looks like I might have made a friend here. (I roll abysmally, but oh well.) At about the time that I return to the inn, the planar messenger I sent to my master, Martin, returns. I’ve asked that he ask the diviners to keep an eye on the region, and to keep me up to date on what they learn. He’ll do what he can, but with internal politics in a magical university, it may not go anywhere. He is also rather surprised about the mace as well, and he asks me something I’ve considered: extracting my essence from the mace. It’s possible, but… I’m not sure how much good that will do. A previous knowledge check didn’t make the prospect seem helpful. Now? I don’t know.
In the evening, we discuss amongst ourselves what might be going on with the “priests” downstairs. Lossëlen with a Knowledge Religion check, points outs that the type of weapon on a priest of Laeros tends to indicate the class of citizen they minister to. Unarmed? The poor. A longsword for the upper class. These ripping knives that we’ve seen? Indicative that these priests serve the middle class. Basically, bigger blade, higher class. Yes, very Freudian. Considering the region, there are far too many for their demographic…

Morchana goes amongst them, armed with the knowledge that this is a code and our suspicions (and the fact that this clergy does not demand celibacy) and proceeds to chat in a code she doesn’t understand for about an hour. Thank goodness for excellent Deception and Language checks! She manages to glean one helpful fact about the conversation: The “Fat Parishioner who jumped off of the barn” isn’t a parishioner. Furthermore, it becomes uncomfortably implied that he may have been ‘helped’ into his jump. More importantly, the only important fat guy we know about is… the Archprelate. The impression she is left with is that this isn’t a guild of thieves-- it’s a guild of assassins, who might have pulled off some small-time robberies, and their next, or last, target is the Archprelate. Morchana heads back upstairs, and lets us all know of what she discovered.

I head off to Talesin’s cave (A little later than I meant to, but…) and while there, as there is no response, I send off 2 more planar messengers: A response to Martin, and a warning to Karl, informing him of the plot against the Archprelate. Of course, my gut tells me he’s in on the plot. All the same, he’s the only person in the area I know who I’m reasonably certain is alive. My only qualm about this situation: This is all so OBVIOUS. Something tells me that this isn’t quite… right.

Coming in the next 5 minutes: Updates to the main posts, with more NPC listings and the link!

EDIT: Some corrections were made. Several things were represented incorrectly, and out of order, and they were caught and dealt with.

[Cade Rentyr]

Kill him with icicles.

It's the only answer.

That may not work so well in a level or two...

[Fayd]

I'm writing the bulk of the next chapter tonight, and will edit and such (hopefully) as quickly as possible. Especially because some advice from the playground will be really helpful.

I will say: Plans and plots galore.

[AtwasAwamps]

That may not work so well in a level or two...

How can it not? They are cold and pointy. It is the worst of both worlds.

[Snowstar]

I would NEVER hurt sweet, sweet Cade. And I only resort to icicles when I have run out of poison arrows, to which I am sure Cade may also be immune.

[Morchana]

There's your cue, folks! Start shipping!!!

[AtwasAwamps]

There's your cue, folks! Start shipping!!!


Hrmmm...Cade is immune to ice...and poison...soo...obviously

Cade + Snow Gnoll

It's only slightly better than Morchana + Giant Ape Thing

[Morchana]

Not exactly. . . :smallyuk:

[Fluffy the Orc]

Hahahahahahahaha!

[AtwasAwamps]

Not exactly. . . :smallyuk:

Cade and Talesin, then?

[Cade Rentyr]

Hrmmm...Cade is immune to ice...and poison...soo...obviously

Cade + Snow Gnoll

It's only slightly better than Morchana + Giant Ape Thing

Cade and Talesin, then?

...
Oh look, there's that BLT from dinner again. Please stop making my food pay me second visits.:smallyuk:

[Fayd]

Also, Morchana and Cade fixed some errors in the last chapter. The next one is well on its way and might even get edited tonight.

[AtwasAwamps]

...
Oh look, there's that BLT from dinner again. Please stop making my food pay me second visits.:smallyuk:

I'm sorry, are you saying Gnolls aren't sexy?


http://wizards.com/d20modern/images/d20m_gallery/610_088190_90.jpg


Sweet Papa Yellowfang disagrees.

[Morchana]

DO. NOT. WANT.

(I just have to keep reminding myself of rule 36 to keep my sanity. . .)

[Keito]

Seriously, we're moving into the yaoi (guy+guy) parings now, *tisk* *tisk*. IMO only females can pair dudes together, and at least there needs to be a mutual link, but that's the same for girl+girl pairs as well...

no.

I said NO, stop the pairings its melting my already warped personality!

On the plus side fort saves rock, as proved in the next section.

[AtwasAwamps]

Seriously, we're moving into the yaoi (guy+guy) parings now, *tisk* *tisk*. IMO only females can pair dudes together, and at least there needs to be a mutual link, but that's the same for girl+girl pairs as well...

no.

I said NO, stop the pairings its melting my already warped personality!

On the plus side fort saves rock, as proved in the next section.

Keito + Hulk Hogan

[Fluffy the Orc]

*Fluffy Facepalm*

[starwoof]

This thread is so great. :smallbiggrin:

[flabort]

Fluffy, I don't think facepalming is the best idea for you. your dealing large amounts of damage with the flick of a finger, I think a facepalm would deal about 4d6, maybe 4d10 damage to your skull. not a good idea.

[AtwasAwamps]

*Fluffy Facepalm*

Fluffy + The Rock

Let's be fair, who else could handle Fluffy?

[MountainKing]

...But it's *Fluffy's* face/skull. I'm pretty sure he'd be fine, so long as, say, Fayd didn't put his face in the way.

Besides, Orcs are tusky; I don't think Fayd wants to risk his one good eye that way. :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: The Undertaker could totally take Fluffy.

[AtwasAwamps]

EDIT: The Undertaker could totally take Fluffy.

No, see, The Rock got to be in the Doom movie. Where he was able to shoot BFG.

Rock. Always. Wins.

[Cade Rentyr]

Fluffy, I don't think facepalming is the best idea for you. your dealing large amounts of damage with the flick of a finger, I think a facepalm would deal about 4d6, maybe 4d10 damage to your skull. not a good idea.

'Fraid I have to agree with the Mountain King here, you've forgotten to take into account the tremendous density (and thus DR) of Fluffy's skull. And from all the stuff we've seen him do, we all know that skull has to be pretty darn thick. :smallwink:

[MountainKing]

Only against paper. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWeWMKfa3g) :smallbiggrin:

In any event, Doom was a horrible movie; the kind of thing you watch to laugh at the horribleness. The Rock as a wrestler? Totally not as awesome as Undertaker. :smallwink:

Although, I bet Fluffy would still stomp Undertaker into the ground; a better match might be good old Andre.

[flabort]

OK, yeah, thick skull, true.
But if you let Fluffy know just what you mean by "Thick skull", you'd better watch out. 'cause he'll use your face in his next facepalm...

[RdMarquis]

If you want to figure out what the facepalm will do, I suggest testing it. Roll as if Fluffy was attacking himself. :smallamused:

[Snowstar]

Cade, all my bandages fell off. Can you do it again? :smallbiggrin:

[Morchana]

*Facepalm*

Well, Cade, you heard the lady!

[Fayd]

A little update as to what is going on with updates:

I currently have 2 chapters written, but they still need reviewing. Our reviewer is currently VERY busy and hopefully things will calm down in a day or two. The third chapter must yet be written, but it will probably be shorter than most.

[Morchana]

The third chapter must yet be written, but it will probably be shorter than most.

This is mostly because no one got much accomplished, and no one but Morchana did anything, if you get my drift. . . :smallwink:

[Fayd]

This is mostly because no one got much accomplished, and no one but Morchana did anything, if you get my drift. . . :smallwink:

I take offense to that. I bought jewelry from a Dwarf. To kill orcs with.

[Morchana]

I take offense to that. I bought jewelry from a Dwarf. To kill orcs with.

Okay, so you bought jewelry. So you got something accomplished. But, did you do anything?

[MountainKing]

This is mostly because no one got much accomplished, and no one but Morchana did anything, if you get my drift. . . :smallwink:

And with that, a thousand 'shippers just cried out in agony as their imaginations shifted into a *higher* gear. :smallamused:

[Fayd]

Okay, so you bought jewelry. So you got something accomplished. But, did you do anything.

I uncovered and then lost a magical beast lurking amongst the citizenry of the town, formulated a plan to undermine a traitor at home and abroad, and coordinated the forces of at least 3 merc companies.

So no, in fact, I did not do anything.

[Dimers]

I uncovered and then lost a magical beast lurking amongst the citizenry of the town, formulated a plan to undermine a traitor at home and abroad, and coordinated the forces of at least 3 merc companies.

Oh, you tease! How can you post that without the full version?! :smallwink:

[Cade Rentyr]

Oh, you tease! How can you post that without the full version?! :smallwink:

My fault, sorry --I'll try my best to get the editing done soon so we can get the show on the road.

[Dimers]

My fault, sorry --I'll try my best to get the editing done soon so we can get the show on the road.

Pssh. I love reading great stuff for free, and I have no serious objection to waiting for it. Unless you're an IRL paladin of Calliope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope) or something, there's no "fault". :smallsmile:

[RdMarquis]

Pssh. I love reading great stuff for free, and I have no serious objection to waiting for it. Unless you're an IRL paladin of Calliope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope) or something, there's no "fault". :smallsmile:

Hmm. You know, a bard would probably better fit the profile of someone who works for Calliope. That said, I think I have a new character concept.

And yeah, take your time. I always enjoy your party's campaign journal (at this point, I'm tempted to write a few myself), and the more work you put into it, the better it'll turn out.

[Fayd]

Chapter 17: The Tangled Webs We Weave.

In the middle of the night, we are told to roll Observations, and only Keito succeeds. She is woken up by shuffling feet outside the door, and sneaks over to investigate. When she determines that whatever person was making the noise is still out there, she whips open the door… to startle a small servant girl. A small terrified servant girl. Morchana wakes up to the noise, clutching a dagger. Paranoia, much? The girl apologizes profusely. Keito also apologizes for scaring her, and Keito and Morchana go back to sleep.

Morning breaks, and the group has breakfast together… by ourselves. The “priests” are not present, and the inn staff haven’t seen them around. Morchana informs me that she would like to ask me to perform a fireworks display for the gala that she is planning with the Lady Erin.

:smallbiggrin: I spent years studying evocation, and my master was a fire specialist. On the spot, I even come up with the finale for the show: Creating a false sunset with magic! Fitting, as the entire evening is dedicated to the construction of a new “Sunset Conservatory.”
We set a general plan for the day; we will have the fight between Fluffy and Thezzick starting at noon, and then the gala, for those attending. Lossëlen will make the arena, and I will provide “security,” for what that’s worth. Mostly, Swift and I will be staying on the lookout for the Icy Gnoll. After breakfast, Morchana pulls me aside, apparently startled by my choice of finale. She informs me of her plot to get as much information from Gabraal as she can. The entire gala and the fight and all have been a plot for her to get in bed with the most powerful man in the country. In more than one sense. Her plan is to slip some love potion concoction into Gabraal’s drink at the gala and then lead him out to a quiet place, and work her ‘magic.’ The quiet place being Talesin’s hut, as the lock there no longer works --(WHAT? I’m not a rogue!)-- and it’s a good distance away from, well, everything.

Once she’s gotten what she wanted (I’m hoping she means information) she’ll use a memory potion similar to the one we gave the sailors to wipe his memory (and give him a terrible hangover). She’ll also use some sleepy-dust and the memory wipe on the poor sap of a commoner she hires to row her and Gabraal across the lagoon and back.

The problem? If I time my fireworks wrongly, she and Gabraal could be silhouetted on the island. So, she needs a signal. I told her my second-to-last spell would be my signature performance spell, summoning the spark-phoenix. I also told her to be careful. This is high treason. Necessary, but high treason. (But you can only be charged with treason if you get caught!)

She also informs me of a fact about Gabraal Jr. that she had forgotten to tell me. He is currently stationed in orc territory, in perfect position to drive the orcs towards either of the castles of Aralt or Connaught. I don’t approve of her method for getting more information tonight, but it WILL work, I have to resign myself to that fact. With that, Morchana heads out into the town to do some shopping. First stop: Agatha’s to pick up some. . . items for this evening. With all of the dithering, bickering, and negotiating on prices, this takes a long time. Eventually Morchana walks away with a potent love potion, a powerful forgetfulness potion, and some sleepy dust. In the market, she picks up some non-descript black travel clothes for the upcoming journey. She decides to wait on the rest of her shopping until later that day, and heads to the competition.

Meanwhile, at the old tournament grounds, Lossëlen spends every point of mana she has to make an ice CASTLE. Complete with a moat that she glaciated out of the landscape and drawbridge to go over it. Constructed out of ice. All of it. Inside the castle is a large courtyard for the peasants to stand in, and a 10 foot tall raised platform with columns at each of the four corners. There are towers, with some small seating areas in them at each of the 4 major corners of the castle. Oh, and she included fire exits in case the ice castle catches fire. (To be fair, I CAN do that. So could my master, who actually specialized in fire magic.) Fluffy comes along to play bouncer when the castle is complete. Peasants pay 2 obols to get in, and if they try to get by Fluffy without paying, he gets to toss them in the moat. (This actually happens to a couple of them.) Nobles are encouraged to make a “suggested donation” of 5 drachmae to get in (6 obols to the drachma, by the way) meaning that we get exactly 5 from each. And not an obol more. Swift’s and my observations prove fruitless, which is a good thing.

As the castle is completed and fills with paying peasants, Thezzick walks up, accompanied by the Lady Erin. I fly down to negotiate the first round. We agree on wrestling, and Fluffy and Thezzick walk in together, with the drawbridge closing behind them. I fly up to the top (The castle is open-air) and use minor wind cantrips to still the wind in the arena and amplify my voice to become the event’s emcee.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Welcome to this CLASH OF TITANS! In this corner, we have Sir Thezzick Rentyr! In this corner, we have… FLUFFY! The first round will be wrestling! Are you two ready?”

“Fluffy have to go potty.” And he proceeds to. Into the crowd. *Facepalm*
“Ready now?” I reintroduce the fighters and they begin their brawl. During the whole affair, Swift and I are flying around the arena providing “security.” In reality, I’m keeping my eye out for the icy gnoll.

First round of fighting is a bit of a long, drawn out mess where neither combatant can pin the other. Fluffy rages right at the start. Fluffy pins Thezzick for a round, but Thezzick quickly frees himself. Each of them is taken down at least once more. Eventually, they just start throwing each other around the arena. Yes, Thezzick is throwing Fluffy. After a long and difficult fight, Thezzick asks (while pinned) “What say we back off for a breather, eh?” Fluffy responds by sitting on Thezzick’s head. “That’s a no then.” Thezzick manages to get up and away and rushes Fluffy so that the ogre ends up hanging half on and half off of the platform. Thezzick, however, was still in range of Fluffy’s apish arms. “MY SPLEEN!” a commoner screams as Thezzick is hurled from the platform and Fluffy (barely) wins Round One.
There is a brief intermission while our combatants recover from the last fight. Someone has taken advantage of the massive crowds… “FRESH FRUIT! FRESH FRUIT HERE! ONLY SLIGHTLY ROTTON! FRESH FRUIT!”

:smallyuk: Meanwhile, Morchana speaks with Lady Erin about the gala tonight, informing her about hiring me for fireworks and convincing her to paint another sunset. Morchana suggests that she paint the conservatory as it always appeared in her mind’s eye. Morchana has accidentally invented impressionism. Yay.

During this time, Cade begins to investigate the robberies while he knows that Thezzick will be… otherwise occupied. At the first house, a house firmly in the middle class, he asks the housewife for any information she may have about the situation. There’s really not much to be said. The thieves broke in using an adhesive on the window (to prevent glass mess) and made off with the silverware while the owners of the house were out on one of their two expensive nights on the town per year. Cade asks if they have seen any priests of Laeros around lately, and she’s oddly quiet as she denies seeing any around… one sense motive later, and we find out that they are not exactly regular about their church attendance, and she’s rather nervous, what with Cade being very obviously a knight of the church and all that.

Round Two! I call the crowd’s attention back to the ring, and Thezzick and Fluffy begin their boxing competition. Fluffy hits HARD, but so does Thezzick. They trade blows for a while, Thezzick opening with a miss. After a time, Thezzick Rages. Apparently he had levels in barbarian, surprising us all. Fluffy manages to get a lucky max damage crit, and it looks like he might win for a bit, but sadly, he cannot. After a lot of back and forth punches, Fluffy is DOWN. Even after Fluffy’s damage resistance from being a barbarian and his chain mail’s DR. By the way, Thezzick is wearing no armor at all. Nothing but wrestling shorts.

Midway through the fight, Lossëlen, Swift, and myself roll observations, and Lossëlen and Swift notice something. Lossëlen notices something with her cold-sense, and Swift notices motion. Uh-oh. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to detect anything concrete. I have Swift try to narrow down the area.
Cade investigates another manor, where he talks to servants who actually saw the assailants. The man was large, garbed in gray, and smelled… funny. Like fish. He heals the two servants a bit and heads off to the docks.

Round three is more boxing, but things get a little interesting. Fluffy cannot hit for a good long while, even while raged, and Thezzick is giving Fluffy’s kidneys a good pounding. Fluffy, eventually tiring of missing, grabs Thezzick and throws him off of the platform. (“MY ARM!” A commoner screams) Thezzick makes a jump check to try to get back onto the platform by “wall jumping” and would have succeeded more had he not rolled a nat 1. Ice is slippery after all. Thezzick is on the ground, and Fluffy tries to stomp on his head in an intimidation roll. The intimidation roll becomes an intimidation duel as Thezzick aims a blow for Fluffy’s “Sensitive Regions.” Fluffy is getting rather ragged at this point, and Thezzick takes advantage of the opportunity, throwing Fluffy into one of the towers around the platform, head first with a Nat 20. Fluffy’s rage ends, which reduces his HP level to a point where he would be unconscious. Thezzick wins round three!

Meanwhile, Morchana decides she is bored of this fight, and decides to go finish the shopping she began that morning. Lady Erin asks if she can come with. Sense motive on Lady Erin: She’s here, watching two muscular men wrestle. Or something like that, when one considers Fluffy. While it is all very fascinating, she and Morchana have had enough, and they venture out (through the icy fire escape) into the city to shop.

With the unwitting aid of Lady Erin, Morchana selects a nice bottle of wine, and also picks up a decent basket, some candles, and two weeks’ worth of iron rations. In response to Lady Erin’s horrified reaction to iron rations, Morchana replies that they are better than nothing, keeping in mind their last trip, and explains that one never knows what will be needed on a journey. Shopping done, Morchana and Erin part ways until the gala, despite Lady Erin’s suggestion that they go to the spa. Morchana is spending money today, but not that much money.

Morchana goes back to the inn, drops off a couple of items, then goes back to the market area to run a few more errands. She goes down to the docks, and finds an old man with a small boat, and asks him if he would be available this evening to row her and a friend over to the island, offering him 30 drachmae to do so and keep silent about it. Sure, he would be glad to do so, and she needn’t worry about him telling anyone, because no one listens to him anyway. At least, that’s what she gets out of it. He is nearly impossible to understand, as he has no teeth. In fact, he is ecstatic about the price she is offering to pay: “Ah’ll finahlly bshe abshle tchew getch shnew tcheetch!” She pays half down, with the promise of more later, and goes on her way.

Next, Morchana takes the ferry over to the island, and goes to Talesin’s cottage to tidy the place up. She makes the bed, ensures the wine glasses are clean, and leaves the candles she bought earlier that day around the room in candle holders, and the wine on the table next to the wine glasses, already mixed with the forgetfulness potion. That done, she goes back to the inn to get ready for the gala that evening, putting on her sexy red dress and some nice perfume, fixing her hair, etc.

Meanwhile, Cade arrives at the docks and begins trying to gather information, but it isn’t going well. Probably because he looks like an elite SWAT officer --residents of Petty Crime Central aren’t exactly forthcoming. Getting impatient, he randomly selects a warehouse and enters its office. The man behind the desk jumps and definitely does not thrust an illegal-contraband-sized box out of sight as he walks in. (Quick, readers, roll Sense Motive. DC: 1.) Cade scowls, but ignores it for now. Put simply, the meeting is entirely unhelpful; the manager flat out denies any involvement or knowledge about either the thefts or the ersatz priests (and he’s immensely relieved that the FBI agent has come to ask about something he can deny). He tries to sic Cade after one of his competitors, but a successful Sense Motive leads to a very effective Intimidate… which also comes up empty. The guy has no idea who to investigate, either… Cade rolls to confirm his suspicions about the man’s box, but opts against wasting time on what looks like simple smuggling.

He picks another warehouse and tries again, with little more success. This manager is more composed and smooth than the last, and it’s pretty clear from the get-go that he’s looking for a bribe. Soul-piercing Detect-Evil-fueled Intimidate checks puts an end to that nonsense, but he still doesn’t seem to know anything. On his way out, Cade grasps at his last straw and mentions the first manager and the package he had. …The fellow drops the name of another warehouse. From the sounds of things, he’s not sure whether it’s connected to our concerns, but it’s the place he knows of to hire muscle.
Cade stops by there, but he’s not finding anything outside and he’s not foolish enough to barge in on his own. Besides, he’s definitely starting to worry about running out of time…

A valid concern, as back at the tournament, Round Four is a last minute decision on the part of both fighters. When I ask Fluffy how he’s feeling and if he’s up to another one, he responds “Fluffy hungry” rather groggily. I get some “fresh” fruit from the fruit vendor, and he feels better and ready to go. Fluffy and Thezzick consult about what they are going to DO this round. They feel a little too worn down for another boxing match, but they agree on wrestling again. They begin to decide on the rules (3 rounds for a pin) and I ask the crowd “Throw out for the win?”

A grand and unified “NO!” is my response.

After being unable to spot the icy gnoll for a good two hours, I relieve Swift and allow him to go get dinner. I suggest he find the same dove that led him on the wild goose chase yesterday. He happily agrees, and one successful survival check later… that dove is dinner.

Round four begins with a staredown. Thezzick readied himself, but Fluffy learned from last time, and it came down to a paired intimidate checks, which Fluffy wins. Fluffy flying tackles Thezzick, but ends up pinned himself. Fluffy attempts and succeeds a reversal maneuver, and Thezzick tries to do the same, but fails. Fluffy keeps the pin for another round, but Thezzick breaks out of the pin before he can win. Fluffy pins Thezzick again and Thezzick cannot break free. Fluffy even Nat 20’s his last grapple check, and the match is over. They get up, and give each other a bear hug… which Fluffy rolls a nat 1 on, and Thezzick rolls a nat 20. Fluffy had some bad gas there, probably from the “fresh” fruit.

After the final wrestling match, Fluffy and Thezzick walked, surrounded by a crowd of commoners. They decide to go to a tavern to celebrate, and Keito tags along with them. “Hey Fluffy! Do you know of any good places to drink in this town?”

“Yes. Wyrm’s Head.”

A commoner pipes up to tell Thezzick that the tavern has been destroyed. “Fluffy help redecorate!”

They go to the Red Bill instead, which was the tavern where Fluffy got arrested a while back. (They almost run into Cade on his way back :smalleek: but he spots them first and ducks down an alleyway just in time.) There, they are urged by the commoners into a drinking contest, to which Keito joins in. They are served LARGE shots of something with a very high alcohol content. They didn’t stop to ask what exactly it was. Fluffy is the first to drop to 0 WIS from the alcohol, (5 drinks) with Thezzick lasting a significant amount of time longer. Thezzick, in fact, only passes out after his 18th drink. Surprising us all, Keito outdrinks them both. In fact, she didn’t have to start ROLLING saves until her 11th drink. (Her saves vs. Poison are so high she can use cyanide as a garnish if she felt like it) She did succumb to the alcohol enough by the end that she dropped to a negative WIS mod and became unable to cast spells. She decided to leave when someone noticed her clicking and drunkenly put his arm around her saying “You’re the COOLEST BUG PERSON I’VE EVER SEEN!” before passing out. She is told to roll Wisdom rolls every couple of hours to see if she can remember the “important thing” she is supposed to do. She does not, until the very end, when it is too late anyway.

I do not join in on these shenanigans as I have an important duty to perform yet tonight (read: I get to show off. Massively.) Instead, I go to the blacksmithing district to buy some metal shavings for the fireworks tonight. I rolled successfully on my knowledge check that said “different metals burn different cool colors.” They only have iron and copper, but that’s better than nothing. I get 2 bags of copper and one of iron and go back to the inn to clean up.

Morchana, Lossëlen, and I walk together to the gala. I fly off ahead to go set up my components, and the guards mercifully don’t shoot me. And I meet the Grand Duke and Duchess, who are both very sickly and unstable. It appears that they need each other just to stand up. I am invited to have dinner with them some time during the evening. I agree to join them, happily. I warn them that I may be late, depending on what happens at the gala, but they appear to be fine. They also insist on being on the tower with me while I work. I warn the Grand Duke that it will, in all likelihood, be quite loud, but he shakily responds “I… I think we could both use… a little… excitement…”
They are SO being poisoned.

At the gala, I approach Hiram right away to get a time ready for the fireworks, as I will have to leave the gala early. We both agree on midnight. From there, I am seated at the high table with Lady Erin, Gabraal, Lossëlen, and Morchana. Swift is with me, as I am eccentric enough to get away with it. Shortly after the first bit of entertainment, a large dancing group, Morchana convinces Erin and Lossëlen to go on stage to perform with their various talents. Lady Erin begins painting, and Lossëlen sings a sweet lyrical song, rolling a nat 20 on her perform check. All of the nobles are nearly in tears. Some are holding it back better than others. I have one thought in my head preventing myself from dissolving: “It can’t rain tonight… it can’t rain tonight…”

I strike up a conversation with Gabraal. “By the way, I actually remember your son now. Something on my recent journey jogged my memory. He was working with metal magic, wasn’t he?”

“Working with steel has always come easily to my family,” Gabraal replies, putting his hand on his rapier “but the magic is a different direction. He had a dream of wielding a twenty foot long rapier.”

A good portion of our group got mental images straight from some derivative of FFVII.

I ask Gabraal if the magic came from him, and he replies that it did not… I inquire if it might have come from his late wife, but apparently it is still a sore subject with him. I understand and silence myself for a bit. Lossëlen changes song to an upbeat dance tune, and several nobles spontaneously get up on stage and start dancing. Meanwhile, Lady Erin’s painting is coming together, and it looks like she is painting the conservatory. I roll a diplomacy check to get some ideas for conversation, and the conversation actually turns to dueling for a while. Dueling is something Gabraal is quite passionate about. He noticed that the magical duel I had with the Archprelate didn’t have the edginess of one of the more traditional martial duels, which was quite true; neither of us wanted to kill the other. Of course, there ARE magical duels to the death, and… here we cut off, as Morchana’s plan came to fruition. She rolls a Sleight of Hand (epically well) and slips a love potion in Gabraal’s drink. Gabraal rolls abysmally on both the Observation to notice her and the Fort Save to resist the potion (nat 1’ing the save) and slowly, I am edged out of the conversation. Which suits me just fine. I request a paper and writing implement from one of the (very overworked) wait staff, and write a quick note to Lossëlen, suggesting a sweet romantic tune for the next number. She agrees, and performs splendidly, as we have come to expect.

Gabraal takes another sip, another fail, and is DEEP under Morchana’s spell. She decides to move to a more appropriate location for the next phase of her plan, and they suggest that they go outside for some “Air.” I’m left at the table alone, and decide that I shouldn’t keep the Grand Duke and Duchess waiting any longer. I don’t want them to starve to death. I leave a short note to Lossëlen and Erin explaining where I went, and to please forgive me for being so sudden. By this time, Lossëlen has gotten to her fourth number, an epic sweeping song, (also with really high rolls) Before I leave, right as I approach the door, I scan the building with detect magic, not even trying to be subtle. I get 4 distinct sources, and 3 of them are people. One is the safe. The three people that ping are Lossëlen (expected,) Lady Erin, and… Hiram. With the turn of focusing, I examine Hiram, and instantly recognize his aura. It is the exact same aura that was in Talesin’s house and the cave beneath it. Draconic evidence test: Positive. I turn and leave.

Dinner with the Grand Duke and Duchess is… both awkward and bland. They’re polite enough, but really quiet. Not daring to miss the opportunity, I inform them that my companions and I plan to go reinforce their army, and that some of the services I can provide, which would give our forces a significant edge, are rather… expensive. One Diplomacy roll later, I have a blank (technically unagreed on) check to the country’s treasury. SWEET!

Morchana is having a massive success. The old fisherman rows her and Gabraal across the lagoon to St. Dain’s Crest, where they take a walk to Talesin’s hut. There, the candles are easily lit with a minor cantrip by our assassin, and after the two evil people are done having their fun, Morchana draws questions out of him like a skilled fisherman. Morchana asks him more about his son, which is apparently a good topic-- Gabraal is very proud of his son, who is now a captain in the Doomriders. (Last we knew, he was a lieutenant.) Not only that, but the Doomriders are the ones behind the orc invasion and the sieges at Castles Connaught and Aralt. Gabraal, not surprisingly, is behind the Doomriders. In his words, “It’s like a game of chess-- except I am playing both sides!”

So, Gabraal thinks he is playing chess against himself, does he? That’s against the rules --let’s see how well he plays with opponents!
Information gathered and high treason committed, Morchana asks if Gabraal would like a glass of wine, he agrees, and shortly becomes quite loopy. She takes him back with her to the boat, and the old fisherman rows them back. Once they are ashore, she throws some of the sleepy dust in the old fisherman’s face and helps Gabraal back to his manor, slipping away into the shadows before anyone comes to the door. With any luck and the way he is walking, they’ll simply assume he is drunk, which will be confirmed by his terrible hangover the next morning.

That done, Morchana goes back to the dock where she left the sleeping fisherman, steals her money back from him, and wakes him up, asking if he is all right. “You seem to have fainted-- Here, have some wine to refresh yourself.” Forgetfulness potion. Now the fisherman doesn’t even know he rowed over to the island that night, and he doesn’t even have the money in his pocket to remind him. (Poor guy. He’ll have to wait for those new teeth, I guess.) Morchana leaves and goes back to the inn, where she quietly retires for the night, not wanting to go back to the party where there is probably a very disgruntled Lady Erin. In fact, it might be best she stay out of both Gabraal’s and Erin’s way for the rest of our stay in Tiborem.

Meanwhile, Keito has managed to stumble her way back to the inn, where Cade has been killing his boredom by putting the ‘keen’ enchantment on the Weeping Blade. (+2 crit range) He manages to get out of the inebriated priestess that Thezzick and Fluffy are still passed out at the tavern, so he knows he’s safe to go to the gala. He missed all of Lossëlen’s songs, but he sits with her and Lady Erin until the finale. Speaking of which…

Midnight rolls around and I take my position at the castle tower. I have used no mana all of today. I have the Ritual Magic and Spell Shaping feats. I have some optional material components to save on mana. Magically, I’m no lightweight. This show is going to ROCK OUT LOUD. I start with basic fireworks, primarily red and green, (iron and copper) with other colors thrown out there for effect, some lightning (of course) striking up, down, left, and right. This continues for a while, until I decide that the time has come for the impressive stuff. I pull together elemental power and retell a story from history: That of Tibor and Yavanna, heroes of the Great Orcish Invasion of 291, fighting the great red dragon Malconflagrant. (Tibor would go on to “found” the Grand Duchery, and rule it. Kind of. The situation was complicated.) Yavanna has been unhorsed and is slicing repeatedly at the red dragon swirling around her as Tibor, on horseback, is running round the dragon firing whole strings of arrows into the beast. Eventually, the beast falls, and shortly after, so does Yavanna. As the sparks (electrical sparks, mind you) of the scene begin to fade, they fall together and coalesce into the shape of a phoenix. It flies out over St. Dain’s Crest, “dying” and falling into the sea, and from where it fell, a SUN rises out of the water and creates the vision of a sunset over the conservatory.

That done, I collapse into sleep, absolutely exhausted, right on top of the tower. Completely out of mana.

Oh, also, fun fact. Remember back when Cade beat Captain Andris at the joust? Well, in this time and setting, that sort of martial prowess is assumed to accompany military prowess. Cade’s request for instructions from the Captain return tonight. The contents? A bubbly ‘Found You!’ note from Mia Rentyr… and commission as Marshall of the Grand Duchery (second under only Andris), free run of the national armory and treasury to outfit himself, any companions and any mercenaries he can hire, and orders to proceed directly to River’s Bend to take command of half of the country’s army.

Folks, I think we’re going to war. :smallbiggrin:

[flabort]

Oh, thank goodness. I'd thought the thread had died.

Of course, I haven't been on for a few days.

[Dimers]

Chapter 17: The Tangled Webs We Weave.

WOOHOOOO! :smallbiggrin:

Also:


Morchana goes back to the dock where she left the sleeping fisherman, steals her money back from him, and wakes him up ...

"Steals her money back from him" might have been totally expected for you, but I cracked up so hard when I read that. Best laugh I've had in a couple weeks (which included seeing three comedians' routines). :smallsmile:

[RdMarquis]

Alright, another entry.

...Wait, Fluffy drank himself to 0 wisdom? As in, good bye all five senses for today?

Oh, and you may want to invest in a diaper for him. You really are all like his babysitters, aren't you?

As always, this was awesome and a lot of fun to read. How are you going to handle Cade commanding an army?

[Morchana]

"Steals her money back from him" might have been totally expected for you, but I cracked up so hard when I read that. Best laugh I've had in a couple weeks (which included seeing three comedians' routines). :smallsmile:

Surely you wouldn't really expect Morchana to do something like that?!?

It was a grand scheme, and it worked beautifully. I'm glad I could make you laugh at Morchana's shenanigans. She's always got something up her sleeve. . . :smallwink:

[flabort]

Alright shippers! what's up her sleeve?

[Fayd]

Mostly? Daggers. And daggers. Some shuriken. And more daggers.

There's a reason I will (OoC) refer to her as "Queen of Blades."

[flabort]

*holds breath*
*makes face*
*holds breath*
*makes face*
*holds breath*
*makes face*
*needs to breath in*
*breaks into maniacle laughter*
Pant... Pant... Alright, no shipping material there...

[Eldariel]

So...seems like your position just grew a tad more important. Playing chess against opponents is even more fun when they don't know you're playing at all :smallcool:

[Snowstar]

Best laugh I've had in a couple weeks (which included seeing three comedians' routines).

Wow, that's a pretty huge compliment! :smallsmile:

Look, I found more smiles: :mitd: :roach:

[Morchana]

*holds breath*
*makes face*
*holds breath*
*makes face*
*holds breath*
*makes face*
*needs to breath in*
*breaks into maniacle laughter*
Pant... Pant... Alright, no shipping material there...

Sure there is. . . What did you find so funny?

I like my title. :smallsmile:

[Fayd]

Are you SURE you want to be encouraging this?

Of course we do. It's activity after all.

[Morchana]

Oh, yes, I'm sure! It's so entertaining!

[flabort]

You... don't want to know what was so painfully funny.

[Eldariel]

You... don't want to know what was so painfully funny.

By the sound of that, you're gonna tell anyways. Save us all the excitement and speculation.

[flabort]

No, Really. You don't want to know.
Use your immagination if you still do.