June 4, 2011

The Pincer Maneuver!

Having slain Shalma the medusa queen, the Crew makes it out of the castle, avoiding the remaining traps and spiders, and exit through the courtyard. They camp near the castle, outside of the courtyard.

During the third watch, Lieralyn and Malouf hear ogre chanting coming from the north. Malouf rouses everyone except Brecaryn and Josy.

For the first time ever, this group manages to successfully execute a pincer maneuver. Alana, Klute, Flerm, and Lieralyn form the front line, putting themselves between the ogres and their still-sleeping teammates. Malouf takes off east into the woods to circle around the ogres while Snow goes west. Oliver disappears unseen into the night.

Ogre #1: I smell the blood of Common people.

Ogre #2 (in a loud stage whisper): Then we'd better be very careful. We're very afraid of Common people.

Ogre #1: Here we come!

The ogres charge towards the camp. It's a massacre. Oliver shoots fireballs, Snow picks them off with Distance Death, Lieralyn chops off legs - the coup de grace happens when Klute shouts "Voltagon!" and lightning falls from the sky, striking down four ogres at once.

Checking out their tracks, the ogres are coming from the mountains in the north. The same mountain range the group is headed for. More chances to practice the pincer maneuver! Yay!

The rest of the night passes quietly. In the morning, Lieralyn spots a rainbow. Everyone knows Josy has a spell that requires a rainbow. Nobody remembers exactly what that spell is supposed to do, but they do know whatever it is could only work in their favor. So, in no time at all, Josy finds herself startled awake, surrounded by the entire party shouting "Rainbow!" at her and excitedly pointing at the sky.

Following this excitement, Brecaryn feels someone calling to her from the mirror.

Leento: You left a message with my monkey?

Leento reattaches Josy's arm withe ease using the troll blood. As the group rejoices with Josy over her ability to use two hands now, Leento pulls Snow aside to speak to her privately. Apparently, there's a slight chance the troll blood could turn Josy into a troll. He doesn't appear overly concerned about it, but cautions Snow to keep an eye on Josy for the next couple of days and to try to keep her level of stress low.

Snow: Keep her stress levels low??!! You do remember what our lives are like, right?

Leento: *shrugs*

Leento departs back through the mirror, stating that anytime anyone wants to come and help him with digging out Kopru artificats, he'd appreciate it.

Bobbing Fireballs, Flying Halflings, and a Spot of Tea

Now with everyone's limbs intact, the Crew makes for the waterfall behind the courtyard. Behind the falls are old crates and barrels and a tunnel opening. Brecaryn recognizes the crest on the crates - the Brutelle family existed during the early days of Chumera. They sided with the Great Pumpkin and lost. Inside the containers are rotten grain, stale water, rotted clothing, swords, long bows, full quivers, and gold divided into small pouches. It's clear these provisions had been placed here in case the Brutelles needed to escape the castle.

The tunnel appears to go towards the mountains. Rather than explore it, the group decides to go back to Bryn Sturges first and return Melinda to Old Bart.

On the way there, Malouf spots a fireball floating in the sky. As unusual as it is to see a floating fireball, this one is even stranger - it has a face and beard. The party stops, fascinated. As they watch, the fireball bobs up and down. When it gets to a low point, they hear a maniacal laughter and see a halfing flying through the air towards the fireball. As he flies through, he swings his sword wildy before falling back down to the ground.

The Crew look at each other, wondering what to make of this spectacle. Malouf, Snow, and Josy decide to investigate. They see four people injured and lying on the ground. The tents and surrounding ground show evidence of fire damage. As they watch, they see a human throwing the halfling into the air. The fireball tries to blast them, but the human manages to dodge out of the way. The halfling gestures obscenely at the fireball, impervious to its attacks.

Josy casts fire resistance on her party members, and then they approach the two strangers. It would seem one of their mages summoned a fire elemental (the fireball with the face), and they can't manage to banish it. The halfling's immune to the fire attacks due to a magick ring. Josy offers to cast fire resistnace on the human while Malouf runs off to get Brecaryn's help.

While they wait, the fireball blasts them again. Snow is able to pull Josy out of the way of the blast, but the human gets hit.

Dugall: So much for that resistance spell. It still hurts.

Snow: You're not dead, are you?

Dugall: *sneers*

Malouf: Come, Brecaryn! There is magick afoot! Come! There is a fire elemental!

Malouf proceeds to pick Brecaryn up and carry her to the elemental.

Brecaryn casts Hold Monster to prevent it from blasting them with anymore fireballs. Snow takes aim and kills it with Distance Death.

With the immediate threat neutralized, Malouf starts to question Dugall about their reasons for being in the area. Dugall refuses to give any answer, saying if they help the group, Tremblaine (presumably their leader) can explain.

Josy goes around reviving Dugall and Ringo's party members - Tremblaine (fighter), Glynnis (cleric), Jwoww (fighter), and Silevran (mage). Jwoww stalks over to Silevran, shoving him and calling him an idiot until Tremblaine is able to get her to calm down. By this time, the rest of the Crew has wandered over to see what's going on.

Impressed with the Crew's ease at handling the fire elemental, Tremblaine invites them to join his group. They have heard of a mine in the mountains that is usually guarded by Phantar's knights. However, with the war in the south, all of the knights have been pulled from their post, leaving the mine unguarded. Tremblaine expects to find magickal items in the mine.

Klute, shaking his head vigorously at Snow, points at himself and the mountains. Snow makes soothing gestures at him as she declines the invitation.

Oliver is able to get a bit more information from Dugall, though not much. Rumor has it an extra-dimensional behing died in the mines. Dugall equates this with finding lots of gems.

As Tremblaine and his party depart, Snow pulls Malouf aside and shares Leento's warning about Josy and the troll blood.

Malouf: Then why'd you let her fight a fire elemental?!

Snow: How was I supposed to know it was going to be an elemental? And by the time I did know, it was too late! We just need to watch her for one more day. She seems fine.

Malouf: I know how to make a sedative tea. That should help.

Joining the rest of the party, Malouf tells everyone he's going to make them a nice cup of tea as part of the noon meal.

Suspicion abounds. Everyone looks at Malouf and asks if he's possessed again, but they drink the tea anyway. As they're eating, Flerm remembers to ask Josy to remove his cursed ring. She warns him the ring is still cursed so he must be careful not to put it on again.

To Bryn Sturges and Back

Soon afterwards, the group is on their way again and finally arrive at Bryn Sturges. As they near the town, they hear sounds of chiseling. The odd noise would normally worry them, but they can see the townspeople farming outside of the city walls and everything appears normal.

They gather at the inn and Old Bart is brought to greet them. Brecaryn takes Melinda out of the mirror and after confirming with Old Bart that it really is her, they use the softening potion to restore her to flesh. Father and daughter are ecstatic to be reunited. Klute, eying Melinda in the flesh and liking what he sees, sidles over and offers to buy the two of them drinks.

Now that he is back with his daughter Melinda, Old Bart plans on going to Betaya to find work. If he decides to leave Betaya, he will leave word at the Inky Inn for the group of his whereabouts.

After a night in Bryn Sturges, the group leaves for the medusa's castle once again. They arrive back at the waterfall with no mishaps. The tunnel is only wide enough for one person so the party walks through single file.

After about an hour, they see a light up ahead. The tunnel's exit is blocked by a block of ice. Brecaryn is able to melt it. They walk out into a snow covered mountain area. It's a good thing they purchased winter gear in Betaya.

Between the book Mirror of Thought that Brecaryn found at the castle and this tunnel leading directly to the mountain where Klute was originally transported, Klute suspects the Brutelles were in possession of the mirror he came through. They probably intended to use it as a means of escape if things went badly for them in the war. The provisions at the head of the tunnel suggest they might not have had a chance to use their escape, though.

If the Brutelles planned on using the mirror to escape, there ought to be a path leading to it, but as they all look around, they see nothing remotely like a path. Malouf and Brecaryn see if they can detect an illusion but don't. Josy casts a Detect Magick spell. One of the mountain peaks starts radiating magick. Josy reaches out to touch it, but it feels solid. Knowing where to look, Malouf tries again, and this time he sees the illusion and is able to walk through the mountain. Klute, Snow, Josy, and Brecaryn can easily see the illusion now. To the rest of the party, it looks like their friends are walking through a solid mountain. Josy dispels the magick so they can all see the path markers bearing the Brutelle crest.

At the end of the path Klute thinks he remembers the area. He starts digging in the snow and finds the mirror buried there. Klute is excited and immediately starts asking Brecaryn to send him home. Brecaryn explains that she can't send him "home" until she knows where that is and can connect with the mirror there.

Klute thought he would be able to get back once they found the mirror. Brecaryn tries to assure him that they will do what they can to try to get him home, but he is unable to hide his disappointment. He was going to be stuck in Chumera indefinitely, it seems.

The party suddenly realizes that while they've been discussing the finer points of mirror travel, they've been surrounded by ice trolls. These trolls seem easier to fight than regular trolls, shattering when hit. But they also seem to regenerate more quickly. The group is able to destroy the nine trolls with relative ease between fire spells, flaming swords, and anti-regeneration swords.

With that little distraction out of the way, the Crew digs the second mirror out of the snow and starts testing it out. Brecaryn's able to pass through one mirror and come out of the other with no problems. Through trial and error (and seven orcs who just happened to volunteer their services), they discover Brecaryn can teleport something from one mirror to any other mirror she's able to sense. The only catch is the "something" has to be animate and looking at its reflection.

As a final test, Brecaryn tries to teleport an orc from one mirror to the second mirror while the receiving mirror is covered. The orc disappears into the first mirror, but doesn't reappear at the second until it is uncovered. The orc stumbles out disoriented. He has no memory of the last teleportation. It sounds very much like what Klute experienced. Which leads to another question - just how long was Klute stuck in limbo before he stumbled out of the mirror into these mountains? And who teleported him in the first place? Brecaryn suspects Beeblebrox had a hand in it, but she keeps this to herself. No need to upset Klute further.

Not! One! More! Fish!

Taking their new acquisition, the group returns to the castle and their old campsite. It's evident that ogres have been moving through this area regularly, always north to south, and their campsite is smack dab in the middle of an ogre thoroughfare. Rather than deal with another night of interrupted sleep, they camp further west.

Now that the most urgent part of their journey has been completed (obtaining the mirror), the party decides to check up on Tremblaine and his group. They find Tremblaine's tracks easily. It leads them very close to the edge of the Nara forest. The elves in the party alert the rest that they are being watched from the forest.

The Naran elf gesture and Alana returns it. At this, he comes out of the woods and exchanges information with Alana.

The elf has heard that Lord Miles' people found a nest of vampires with a bloodstone.

Flerm is outraged. He suspects Miles is taking credit for what the Motley Crew did when they uncovered the Orb of Undead Control.

Alana peppers the elf with more questions that he is unable to answer. When she's satisfied, the group moves on, getting to the Forbidden Mine at nightfall.

On the third watch, Lieralyn and Malouf hear maniacal laughter coming from deep within the mine. Nothing comes out of the mine, so they ignore it as best they can.

The next morning, they head into the mine entrance. A grinning face with a long nose and bearded chin appears briefly before them and then disappears. Footsteps can be heard running down a side corridor.

Brecaryn feels a prickle on her neck and turns around. Behind her are two monsters that look like giant heads with two faces and legs. The first head runs up to Vain, opens its mouth, and swallows him, making loud slurping noises.

Everybody: Ewwwww!

The second head tries to eat Snow. She's paralyzed for a few seconds, but manages to shake it off and steps out of the way just in time. The head falls over and proceeds to happily gobble the dirt. Snow suddenly remembers she's left her rabbits back at the camp and needs to go back and check on them.

Brecaryn attacks both heads with lightning. Malouf and Klute run up to attack the one attached to Vain.

Malouf: Flerm, I don't mind that you wear my pants, but I wish you would tell me first!

Klute (whispers to Malouf): I bet you wish we had that donkey now.

The first is dispatched and as it falls, Vain comes out of the other mouth . Lieralyn kills the second head while it continues to chomp on the ground.

Lieralyn (while hacking the head with her sword): Not! One! More! Fish!

While Lieralyn proceeds to hack Vain free, the group debates whether or not they should continue into the mine. Malouf, Klute, and Lieralyn remember what they said during the fight. None of them think what they themselves said was odd, but definitely agree that what the other two said was strange.

Snow insists on returning to camp to check on her rabbits before going any further. Alana and Malouf try to convince her no such rabbits exist, but it's clear to Snow that whatever's happening in the cave is affecting their minds. Malouf did say that very odd thing about his pants, afterall.

Flerm insists he's the only one completely unaffected by the cave's psychic attack. If the party continues on into the mine, he feels they can trust his judgement on things. After much back and forth, they decide to leave the cave and see if their perceptions change.

As expected, as soon as they walk away from the cave, they realize something had been affecting them.

Alana: See? I told you you didn't have any rabbits.

1) Mangar's Wood - do we want to go and check on Willie's cabin with the whole group? We're sort of in the area. Mebbe Brecaryn can melt a way through the ice so we can see how Gloiterwome made it through the portal

2) According to the second bulletpoint in Recap 35.1, we learned the name of the town the Oblivion King originated in. Brecaryn, do you have this info cause it's not in the recaps?

3) Need to stop off in Roesh to dump all the statues we collected from Shalma's castle

4) Need to pick up better desert equipment. Definitely a big tent this time, too.

5) We should prolly ask around about Aten cause we might have to deal with him before he gets too powerful

for those of you who don't regularly read the main blog:

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/2011/06/a_tribute_to_my_dd_players.shtml