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From humbug Thu Aug 19 15:53:20 1999
From: humbug
Subject: more. (long)
Newsgroups: redbrick.rpg.board
Organization:
Summary:
Keywords:
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980202 (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (i86pc))
Status: RO
Content-Length: 12539
Lines: 189
Well, it seems I got 'round to doing this. Hope the formatting
isn't too nasty.
The fight with the bugbears is over, and the group gather their bearings.
Slate makes sure all of the bugbears are dead, and Nickos breaks their
axes as best he can, just in case. Everyone is in poor shape, and people
need time to heal/meditate. The first task seems to be to find Edward
(Anya's pony) who ran off during the fight. Nickos finds the tracks, and
takes the lead. Slate slings Chanti's body over his shoulder, that he may
be buried later.
At around midday a noise is heard from up ahead. A large creature steps up
out of the grass, with most of the party's stuff strewn about it. Its
mouth and chest are stained with blood, and it's seems likely that Edward
has just been eaten. Cautiously, everyone steps back, but Anya gets
hysterical, and rushes towards the creature trying to slap it. The
creature (resembling a bugbear, with patchier fur) grabs Anya, and holds
her up in the air, then throws her down. Slate, Nickos and Los are running
towards the creature at this point, but stop when the bugbear begins
talking. The bugbear tries to claim that he has brought the party its
possessions back, and says he knows nothing of the horse. Greebo tends to
Anya's injures, and Mongro is given a chance to talk.
He says that he was watching the party crossing the plains, and that he
thought they were lost when attacked by the other bugbears. Mongro doesn't
seem to like the other bugbears, and wants to leave the plains.
Unconvinced, the party ask Mongro if there is anywhere safe to rest
nearby, and he takes them to a shallow hollow that provides good cover.
Nickos requires almost a full day to recover all of his spells, and begins
meditating as the group talk with Mongro. Mongro appears to be a cleric of
some type, at least, and heals some of the party's wounds before sleeping.
As conversation continues Mongro outlines an interest in attacking some
goblins who are apparently on the way to where the party is going. They
are, it seems, holding a wizard captive, and there is some talk of getting
a ring in return for releasing him. The group set off, with Mongro in the
lead, heading for an area known to be patrolled by goblins. It is another
full day before the goblin patrol trail is found, and followed in the
direction opposite to that which the goblins are supposed to walk. From
out of the long grass fly five short spears. Mongro is struck once, and a
band of goblins attack. There are six goblins, and the one who didn't
throw a spear is seen to loose two wolves at the party. Slate's axe glows
magically, and he charges to attack the three goblins on the left. Mongro
and Los are left facing one wolf each, and Nickos and Greebo face three
goblins on the other side. Greebo runs towards them to get into range for
a spell, but doesn't cast. Nickos casts 'monster summoning' and three bats
appear, and then head for one of the goblins. Slate is still
attacking/being attacked by three goblins, but he is bringing them down
one by one. Los scores a critical hit against the wolf he is facing,
scoring triple damage, and leaving a very dead wolf. Greebo casts 'burning
hands' and kills the two goblins in front of him. The bats surround the
remaining goblin that was attacking the wizards, and at this point there
are only two goblins and one wolf left. The goblins flee. Los takes over
attacking Mongro's wolf and Mongro bounds after one of the fleeing
goblins. Meow kills one of the running goblins, and Los slays the
whimpering wolf. Slate, Mongro and Meow pursue the last goblin. Slate
maintains the pace as Meow and Mongro attack, fall back, and catch up. The
goblin is eventually killed by Mongro, who tears off a leg to eat as he
walks back to the party.
The plan (to pick off goblin patrols to reduce their numbers) is
thusfar going well. Mongro finds another place for people to rest, and
people meditate. The next two days are variously spent arguing, and
following the goblin patrol trails, but Mongro catches an antelope at the
end of the second day, and Anya cooks and prepares it. People who do that
kind of thing meditate, then sleep.
The party is woken to the sounds of Nickos' screams. Los, on
guard, is first beside him and sees a large tentacle like thing folding
over him and trying to pull him underground. Los attacks, but misses, and
the tentacle does more damage to Nickos. Meow changes to flying reptilian
form, and sends a 'magic missile' at the thing, but the small damage isn't
enough. The rest of the party take a moment to wake and realise what is
going on, and Nickos' screams stop as he is dragger further underground.
The tentacle is eventually slain by Los, but Nickos is not in good
shape. It is determined that he is on -10hp, and any attempt Anya or Los
could make at magical healing would slay him permanently. Meow, still in
lizard form, remains, and says, "I will help however I can". The only
option seems to be to continue with the mission to rescue the ring/wizard,
and see what turns up then. Nickos' body is tended to as well as possible,
and hidden a few miles off as the party head for the goblin village.
Meow flies ahead and sets fire to a hut with a lantern. Four goblins and
two wolves follow into the party's ambush, and a very large fight against
the goblin village ensues.
Los misses with both heavy crossbows, and charges towards the fight. One
of the wolves is killed by Meow; the other injured by Slate. Greebo moves
into position and casts the very effective 'burning hands', killing three
goblins. The remaining wolf is hit again by Los, and finished off by
Slate. Anya takes the opportunity to heal Slate a bit, but Meow spots a
large number of goblins heading towards the party.
The plan is for everyone to run in different directions, with
Slate being the one most likely to be followed. Slate runs one way, Anya
another, Los another. Greebo does his blend into the undergrowth trick.
Mongro and Meow stand their ground. A volley of spears fly at Mongro, he
is only hit by one, but takes full damage. Mongro manages to kill a couple
of the goblins before he falls, the party not yet back from having
realised that drawing the goblins away hasn't worked. Slate and Los return
to the fight. Greebo mostly remains hidden in the grass, the sounds of
combat all around him. When he does get up he casts 'burning hands' twice.
The spell fizzles the first time, but kills three goblins the second. An
armoured goblin and a mage type goblin stand out amongst them. Slate hacks
his way through the ordinary goblins, magical axe still glowing. Greebo
casts 'colour spray', and Slate moves to finish off the reeling goblins.
Los slays the armoured goblin, and soon after the mage type goblin.
The odds are changing in the party's favour from 'overwhelmed and likely
to die' to 'only a few goblins left'. Slate slays the second unconscious
goblin, and Greebo moves to check Mongro's condition. Two remaining
goblins flee, but no pursuit is given. Mongro is on -4hp, but no magical
healing is available to the party for the moment. Slate recovers a ring
from the goblin shaman. It is red, with a switch on it. Meow flies
overhead and confirms that the village is empty of goblins. There is a
wizard tied to a crucifix type thing in the centre of the village. The
wizard is on -8hp, and there is a small chance that Anya can heal him
after meditating. Anya and Los pray for their healing abilities, and
everyone holds up in a hut in the now empty goblin village. The next day
Mongro is successfully restored, and Anya makes the attempt at healing the
wizard, but fails. With the wizard dead the party have no new options for
restoring Nickos. Meow says, "I fear my master is dead", and flies off.
The party move quickly southwards, Mongro doing his best to cover
the party's tracks behind them. The next ten days pass relatively
uneventfully. The party don't really know where they are, but are trying
to find marshy ground to get back on track. Mongro spends part of each day
hunting, enough to keep the group going for that day. Los is as scary as
ever, and one day pulls out a snake that had crawled into his armour, and
throws it away as though nothing had happened. The group continue their
trek southwards (they hope) when, one afternoon, Mongro is hit in the back
by a crossbow bolt. Everyone hits the deck, and Mongro tries to heal
himself, but the spell fails. Anya pulls the bolt from his back. The group
see a party of dwarves attacking, but they slow down when they spot that
Mongro is with humans, and dwarves, when Slate stands up and calls out.
The dwarves start talking.
The dwarves are from Tree Fires, hills way to the north. They are heading
south to the Dwarfgate Mountains to see what's left after the war. The two
groups join up, and start heading south. Two days later the river is
reached, and the 'We'll worry about crossing the river when we get there'
problem has presented itself. There is a settlement of some sort across
the river, but it appears to be empty. Various plans are discussed for
crossing the river, mostly involving Greebo getting wet. Very makeshift
air bladders are constructed from emptied out waterskins, but seeing as
evening is approaching it is decided to wait until morning to try
anything.
Preparations are still being made in the morning when someone calls out
from the far bank. It is a soldier of some sort, and he has a nice line of
archers standing behind him. It is made clear that the party only want to
cross the river, and the soldier punts over to discuss it. After
extracting an exorbitant price (which is forked over by the dwarves) the
soldiers give the party leave to cross. Soon enough the party have crossed
both rivers blocking their way southwards, there being a bridge on the
second.
In the evening of the same day Mongro spots some big tracks. More than one
humanoid creature it seems, but the party press on. Slate (rather wisely
as it turns out) decides that three people should be guarding at any one
time, due to the larger size of the party. Sure enough, this proves
useful. Two 10ft tall, quick as hell, large, green, snarling, 3 attacks
per round, regenerating, long-armed creatures attack. Someone works out
that they are trolls.
Los, Slate and one of the dwarven fighters are on guard. The dwarf has a
signal whistle, and soon enough all but a snoring Mongro are awake. The
trolls are soon surrounded by Los, Slate, the three dwarven fighters, the
dwarven cleric, and Greebo standing in the grass behind them. Anya stands
back, not liking the situation one bit. Los hits one of the trolls for a
good 15 points of damage, but as the same round ends the troll's wounds
are closing up, and everyone is quite scared. The trolls attack with both
of their arms, seemingly independent of each other, and bite too. The
dwarves take the brunt of the attacks, and Slate is hit round after round
by one of the trolls arms. Greebo casts 'burning hands', hitting both of
the trolls, who's flesh seems to recoil from the fire, and doesn't seem to
regenerate afterwards. The next two castings of 'burning hands' fizzle
however, and Greebo takes to hiding in the grass, not risking 'colour
spray' with so many comrades in close quarters.
The dwarven cleric heals Slate twice, but Slate continues to take
damage. Mongro moves to take Los' place attacking the trolls, and Los
heads to get a branch from the fire. Mongro is hit, and steps back to heal
himself, but the troll follows up, and attacks again. Anya is now in reach
of one of the trolls, and hopelessly waving a flaming branch doesn't stop
her from getting hit. The party are definitely losing at this point, and
Los abandons the flaming branch idea, and returns to attacking with his 2
handed sword. Anya is hit again, and falls to the ground. Slate too is
hit, one time too many, and he falls. The dwarven fighters and cleric
start to take the damage, but one of them lands a good blow to one of the
trolls, and surprisingly it goes down. One of the other fighters was
attacking the same creature, and continues to do so for that round, even
though it has fallen.
The remaining troll isn't stupid; it grabs its fallen comrade, and takes
off at great speed.
Slate and Anya are down. Slate is revived easily, and Anya too receives
the necessary healing to return her to health, unfortunately the shock of
revival is too much, and she remains quite dead.
And that made 3 characters killed in the Ethangar Kanate (the
silly big plains).
humbug.
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