10:47 am
After the group divided their spoils, Elessaria tells Galen that she is determined to be a ranger. He gives her a letter of reference to a highly advanced ranger who lives in the area who might take her on as a pupil and provide her with the training she needs. The ranger's name is Thunderstorm. She departs in search of her new mentor.
One of the patrons in the bar is a dour, cigar smoking dwarf in broad brimmed leather hat and thick poncho, fingering a medium crossbow on the table. The dwarf never speaks and to all of the locals he is known only as the Dwarf With No Name. As the only dwarf in the room, Selina clandestinely shows him the medallion that she picked up from the dead (undead?) dwarf in the Under-Tavern. He silently takes the artifact, and with a withering look, leaves the tavern. Knowing that the dwarf never speaks, Selina wasn't expecting any real explanation of the item's potential powers, but she likewise wasn't expecting it to simply walk away. Deciding that if the item had some great religious significance to dwarves, she's better off without it...though it might have been nice to have been paid for "liberating" it from the dungeon.While they eat and discuss the events of the day, Routunious figures out Selina's culpability in the zombie attack earlier in the morning. He suggests that a wedge of suspicion will keep him from trusting her in the future...she responds by implying that he might be wiser than she thought.
12:00 Noon.
Stago arrives back in Bug Tussle, but before going to the Fighter's Own, he stops by the Green Rajah's bookstore and finds... nobody. The shop is closed. Shrugging, he heads to the tavern.
The gnome and the priest of Gond have contentious talk about lowering the encumberance of the gold Tick-a-Tick is carrying. Routunious wants half the gold to be converted into jewels to relieve the weight burden on Tick-a-Tick. Stago insists that ALL the gold gets hauled back to his Mom's house.
He declines jewels, noting that his Mom mines gems out in the Dagger Hills and wouldn't be as impressed by them as she would the gold they represent. Routunious finally relents to make Stago shut up and get things going.
The distance to the gnome village is approximately 10 miles over rocky terrain. 3 hour walk minimum.
2:00 pm.
After walking into the badlands of the Dagger Hills for over an hour, the party is startled when they come upon a a figure lying prone on the ground. The party bickers a bit about what to do next.
"There's obviously nothing we can do, what has been done is already done. We should continue on. Aiding this person is an unnecessary diversion from my mission to deliver the gold to Stago's Mother." Routunious complains.
Selina sends her two cats ahead and creeps closer herself. Selina is able to sees that the figure is a woman in leather armor, much like her own, with a mask and cloak. Selina's knowledge of the East helps her realize tightfitting battle robes of some sort of monastic order--the type usually found in Kara-Tur. The woman is unconscious and looks as if she may have been in a tussle, though there are no obvious wounds. Stago tells Selina to check the woman's belongings, which she does, without revealing what she found in the pouch.Selina argues with Routunious about reviving the woman. "She can afford it," she tells Routunious. This argument finally persuades him to take the effort to work some healing magic on the masked victim of violence.
Routunious casts a healing spell (2 hp) which revives the woman, just barely. Selina entreats Routunious to make a healing potion and give it to the woman which has some positive effect (1 hp). To drink the potion, the woman had to remove her mask and appears to be of an exotic race unfamiliar to the party. She doesn't understand Common, or any of the Native Languages that Stago knows.
The woman looks warily on the party. Selina pulls a gold piece from the woman's money pouch and gives it to Routunious. He cries, "One gold piece? That potion's worth more than that!"
Through a long and difficult effort to overcome the language barrier (the woman does not seem to comprehend the Common tongue of the western lands), it is revealed that her name is Merle (Mee-yoo) Hitomi.
Through mime, the party tries to find out what happened to Merle that would leave her unconscious on the trail. Stago comments that it had to have happened within the last two hours because this was the route he took to come into town. Merle draws a picture of stick figures in the dirt with a stick. The picture indicated three figures with large heads. Two are larger with bigger circles for heads and circles indicating large bellies. One of the large figures appears to hold an ax (or flag or spatula or...) and a big nose. Routunious indicates Merle should come along. Probably out of sheer desire to get things moving again rather than any motivation which might include caring for the safety of the young woman. Regardless of the priest's motivation, the young woman accepts the offer and joins the party, at least temporarily.
2:42 pm
The party discovers a big green form, fallen on the ground. It's a monstrous looking fellow holding a kind of mace and wearing a chainmail loincloth. Selina and Stago look more closely. Intuitively, Stago guesses that this is an ogre. "This must be the one Merle drew holding the stick," says Stago."So, there's another one this size and a smaller one around." Reasons Selina, who starts to rifle the ogre. Closer inspection shows that the ogre was pommelled to death. If there was any treasure, Selina didn't reveal it. The party resumes the walk, anticipating what's ahead.
2:58 pm
The party detects movement over the hill, and they move to take cover. That is, except for Routunious and Tick-a-Tick. Routunious reacts by pulling his knife. The party hears an ogreish sound, but low and belchy. A large head peeps over the hill, a much larger ogreish looking bipedal monster w/a giant axe comes over the hill toward the party. Rocks from behind he hill come flying over the monster's head. Routunious attempts to dodge and only suffers half-damage from a glancing blow of a flying rock.Tick-a-Tick gets hit full on, but suffers only light damage. The monster makes it to Tick-a-Tick by the end of the round. Another giant ogre crests the hill but doesn't rush, just watches.
At the beginning of this round, Stago casts the spell color spray. Dazzling lights stun the monster. Routunious throws daggers, misses, throws once and hits. Merle gasps a lot from her hiding place some 25 feet away. Selina lassoes the creature, binding it, but is too small to bring it down. Tick-a-Tick hits the creature and does some damage. The round ends and the creature is still stunned.
One of Stago's war dogs attacks, but misses its mark. The cats attack and one manages to claw the monster. Tick-a-Tick strikes and kills the giant ogre with his next blow.
The other giant ogre at the top of the hill runs away, howling in fear.
The downed ogre is carrying 11gp, 60ep, 1 gem (black opal that only Selina knows is worth 1000gp), and a gold ewer which resembles a greek vase with curves handles. All earn 293 experience points.
It's a little after 3:00 pm and the group continues to the gem-mining town of Fleckstone.
(played May 22, 2006)
No comments:
Post a Comment