November 2, 2013

Everbody -- Meet Your New Friend

Instead of things settling down after dealing with the werewolf Drembla and seeing the merchants Neese and Balfool off to Armynth, the Motley Crew is immediately thrown into more crises.

Although it seems the most Malouf would suffer from his encounter with the shaman construct was blue skin, a few days later he falls seriously ill. Leento comes to help, but cannot cure this toxin. Malouf would just have to let the poison run its course and rely on his strength to survive. At least now, having had first hand knowlege of this toxin, Malouf could mitigate its effects in the future.

While Malouf convalesces, a diplomatic situation arises. The kingdom of Rowan Dee accuse the Crew of stealing a shipment traveling to them from Galewin. Karzda sends a messenger from Galewin to warn them of Rowan Dee troops making their way to Gelfini. Luckily, violence is averted when soon after the missing merchant caravan turns up in Galewin.

When questioned, the merchants could not recollect why they turned around and headed back to Galewin instead of completing their trip to Rowan Dee. The Crew had heard reports of others exhibiting the same behavior when they traveled through a certain area of the forest. Investigating this is added to their ever-growing "To Do" list.

Over the course of the next two weeks, more and more people move into the town of Gelfini. Some are from the Disputed Territory seeking the greater protection provided by the town, like an elderly mage couple named Tribble and Trei. Some are immigrants from Chumera. The sudden appearance of graffiti saying "The sun will rise again" indicates at least a few of the new residents are worshippers of Aten. Zargyble asks Brecaryn to take him on as an apprentice. She gives him a book to study from instead.

Feeling more himself, Malouf is up and about by the time a package from his brother arrives containing a serpent's tooth and the message

Thanks for the chicken dinner. Next time, send potatoes.

While Malouf decides whether or not to be impressed by the tooth, a wizened old lizard man shaman named Sridthirr is brought to the group. He is accompanied by an elf and a barbarian Malouf recognizes from his tribe.

After enthusiastic greetings are exchanged between Malouf and Titus-Will, Sridthirr explains the reason for his coming. As Sridthirr tended to his people's temple, the elf Kurtis suddenly materialized there. Apparently, Kurtis had triggered something while exploring a different lizard cave and was transported here. According to their legends, the coming of an elf would signal the waking of the Lizard God.

Sridthirr asks the Motley Crew to prevent this. They would need to locate a special egg in an old lizard cave nearby and, using the dagger he's given to Kurtis, destroy the egg before it's too late. (What is it with this country and the prevalence of malevolent animal gods hatching from eggs??)

The group readily agrees to this quest, having a natural aversion to destructive gods emerging. Besides, cleaning out the shambling mound swamp was on their list.

Swamps - Very Dangerous. You Go First.

Leaving the mirror with Snow and Thrain, Kurtis travels with the rest of the Crew on horseback, She-Tan leading the team.

Kurtis: (to Lieralyn) Can I trust you to keep my secrets?

Lieralyn: If you're going to travel with this group, you'll need to trust them. When they see you fight, they'll know what they need about you.

Kurtis: I'm good at fighting.

Brecaryn: We'll see.

Kurtis: Why's she lame?

Lieralyn: You need to watch your tongue.

At the edge of the swamp, they leave the horses to She-Tan's care, proceeding on foot. They rely on Malouf's knowledge of swamps to guide them safely through.

As they move cautiously through the misty swamp, Adarra senses a strong evil corrupting the area. She begins moving towards the source of the feeling. Before she gets too far, a Shambling Mound appears. Malouf immediately attacks it, but his axe becomes stuck in the muck that makes up the creature's body.

By casting Cloudburst and Purify Water, Josy and Adarra are able to erode the Shambling Mound enough for it to be destroyed by Alana's arrows. But before the party can savor this victory, the "log" behind them suddenly stands, swinging its large arms and engulfing Josy. Only her legs are still visible.

Flerm: We should have Lieralyn pull on her legs!

Lieralyn: Oh my god! That was one time*!

Smaller Mounds rise up and surround Kurtis. He tries to defend against these "Twigs" but instead stabs himself. Thankfully, the battle skill of the rest of the group plus Brecaryn's Tiki medallion enable them to defeat the Shambling Mound and its little brothers fairly easily.

Moving on, they then encounter giant insects disguising themselves in the water as floating leaves. Malouf is immediately suspicious of them, observing there were no trees with leaves large enough to produce the ones in the water. Even with though Malouf's warning alerts the party, Flerm suffers quite a bit of damage from one of the insect's pincers and probiscus. He politely returns the favor in kind.

Kurtis, unable to resist the mushrooms abounding in the swamp, collects several along the way. His diligence in collecting mushroom samples is paid back when one of the mushrooms he grabs turns out to be a shrieker. The giant mushrooms around them start shrieking as well.

Before Josy is able to mask the noise with a Silence spell, it draws the attention of a shambling mound. Worse, it wakes a black dragon!

Lieralyn loses her armor (again!!) to the dragon's acid breath attack before Flerm, Malouf, and Alana can kill it. At least the dragon's breath also takes out a shrieking mushroom.

Though Lieralyn mouths furious curses at having her armor melted off, the Spell of Silence protects the rest of the group's sensibilities. Her tirade is halted when Josy and Brecaryn point to an armed group comprised of fighters, spellcasters, a metallic bull, and a female elf flanked by two gargoyles heading towards them.

A cloaked male waves his hands, dispelling Josy's Silence spell.

Merc Leader: Well, well. Here's the group that was going to clean up this area. All softened up by a dragon.

Looking to Alana for guidance, Kurtis finds her pulling off and stowing dragon scales, completely unconcerned by the interlopers.

Kurtis: Uh...are these bad guys?

Alana: (shrugs) They're talking tough, but I think they'll be easy. (keeps pulling off scales)

Taking this as an OK to attack, Kurtis lets fly an arrow, blinding the cloaked magic user.

His compatriots attack. Lieralyn is set on fire. Josy gets backstabbed. Malouf is brought down by a red-haired monk-like fighter.

Having lost her armor, been set on fire, and caught in a net, Lieralyn has had enough. Enraged, she rips through the netting. One of the mercenaries hits her with a poisoned dart, but Lieralyn is so angry the poison is ineffective. She goes on the rampage.

Flerm knocks out the elf with the gargoyles.

Alana drops a barbarian with a syringe of Medusa blood.

Kurtis drops himself into the muck.

Seeing the situation is devolving rapidly, a dwarf holds up his hands.

Dwarf: Parlay, parlay! This isn't going to end well for any of us if we prolong it. Let's just take our people and walk away.

Both sides agree to call a truce for today. The dwarf's party leaves with their wounded.

Malouf: I was not impressed with my performance.

Klute: I was impressed.

Malouf: Thank you. You must come from a slower dimension.

Corrupted Badger Don't Give a Shit

After patching up their wounded, the group continues through the swamp, finally arriving at the lizard cave. The entrance is carved in the shape of a massive lizard's head, its gaping maw the entrance to the cavern. Inside, the walls and ceiling are covered in terracotta tiles. The mud-covered floors are dotted with puddles. The air is dank and fetid. It's clear these caves have not been disturbed in some time.

Without Snow to check for hidden traps, Flerm, with his vast knowledge of underground construction, is elected to lead the way. He visually inspects the first door they encounter. Finding nothing, he holds his breath and pushes the door open.

Nothing happens.

Flerm: I've cleared the traps!

A stronger stench of rot and mildew wafts out of the open door. Inside are three shambling mounds. Flerm quickly shuts the door and moves on to the next.

A group of badgers is within. It's immediately apparent that there is something wrong with them, twisted twigs protruding from their backs, black ooze dripping from their mouths.

Flerm: Hey! There're some weird badgers in here. Adarra, you want to talk to them? (pulling her forward)

Adarra: Oh, hey, weird badgers! Um...what's wrong with you?

Badger: What do you care? You think you can just talk to us? Think that makes you special? We don't give a shit.

Adarra: Have you seen an egg? A magic lizard egg?

Badger: Maybe. But we don't give a shit about an egg. We're corrupt. You think we give a shit?

Adarra: Oh, no. Not at all. But why are you corrupt?

Badger: I don't know. There's muck. We're gonna kill you.

Adarra: Oh! So, we should kill you, too?

Badger: Yeah! Let's give it a shot!

Adarra: (to Flerm) Ok. We should kill them now. They're definitely bad. (smiles)

The ensuing fight goes a little awry with Josy first hitting herself with her mace and consequently getting flung into a wall. In the spirit of comraderie, Flerm slices into his own leg with his sword. Malouf, eager to redeem himself after his poor performance against the mercenaries, kills two of the badgers in a spinning cleave before losing his grip on the axe, sending it flying across the room.

Flerm attempts to keep one badger alive for further questioning, but the corruption is too great for Adarra to maintain the link. In the end, they kill all three badgers in addition to a couple of stray twigs that came ambling around the corner.

Moving to the door opposite from where they entered, Malouf pulls it open. There's a burst of blue gas immediately in front of the door. Malouf, recognizing the same poison that afflicted him earlier, warns the group to stay well back.

Once it dissipates, they walk in and see two more doors (one wood, one stone) on the far wall and a corpse in the corner. More puddles of water dot the ground. Sensing magick, Malouf moves towards the corpse. Alana calls out to stop him, but he ignores her, chopping up the corpse and the magic arrows.

They hear a click. The door slams shut, locking them in. Luckily, Brecaryn is able to get both it and the wood door open with a Knock spell. Unluckily, red, armadillo-like creatures with feathery antennae scuttle through the open wood door and attack the party.

As soon as one of their feathered stalks touches a piece of metal, it rusts into powder. Josy loses the bands on her boomerang. Alana and Flerm lose their armor.

Rust monsters! The newer members of the group had heard the veterans complain about them vociferously, but they had never seen one before. Now the group is down two more suits of armor. The prejudice against them is obviously well-deserved.

Before anymore damage is done, Brecaryn fireballs a few. Alana reaches out and touches two rust monsters standing in water. An electrical buzz is heard as they fall down dead.

Aaaaand that's about when the Dungeon Master called time out.

 
*And what a time it was.

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