| Character | Gender-Race-Class | Portrayed by |
| Ariel | Female Elan Wilder/Pyro | Rachael |
| Dara | Female - Half Air-Elemental Cleric | Miranda |
| Dylan (with Steve the badger) | Male - Half-Elf Ranger | Emily |
| Luminia | Female Black Dragon | Kate |
| Mikhail | Male Human Soulknife Warlock | James |
| Skyler | Male Half-Elf Half-Blue Dragon Cantor Seeker of the Song | James |
| Raven | Male Human Rogue now Assassin Rogue | Matt |
| Theron Prosper | Male Tiefling (Human) Warlock | Martha |
| Tveral Des-Ake | Male Human Fighter/Cleric | Tim |
| Vaeria Shikami | Female Human/Red Dragon Rogue/Sorcerer/Fan Dancer | 'Taco' |
| Silawyn | Dedrick | |
| Jennyanydots (Jen) | Martha | |
| Sorn | James | |
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Emily M. | |
| Eric | ||
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The GAMEMASTER!!!! |
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On the Gamemaster's right |
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On the Gamemaster's left |
Some few survivors of an Apocalyptic catastrophe have somehow found each other and are now wandering through a desolate wasteland that is like Mars but hotter. There is a quiet rustling ahead. Theron the warlock tiefling hits on Ariel the pyro Elan, and Vaeria does an interpretive dance. Ariel and Dylan the ranger leave the party to go investigate the rustling and see black and brown blurs shooting into a mound. Ariel goes back to report the findings to the party while Dylan stays to keep an eye on the hole. Something inside it is mumbling and hissing. The rest of the party is rather disinterested – Dara the half air elemental cleric goes on ahead, Luminia the black dragon flies in circles, and half-dragon Vaeria and Mikhail the soulknife dance. Raven the rogue goes to look, and Theron follows Ariel back to the site because he is attracted to her. Raven waves to Ariel and confuses Theron with hand signals. He wants them to go behind the mound and get on top behind the entrance; instead, Theron gets bored and eldritch blasts the mound.
Those nearby hear very angry hissing, and two dire weasels emerge. Mikhail sees them while jumping and dancing in the air. The weasels latch themselves onto the startled warlock. Raven throws a dagger, and Ariel heat deaths one of them. Theron fails to get them off and is being drained of blood and constitution, so Dara heals him some. Luminia flies lower and sings, and Dylan succeeds in hitting a weasel, although his blows have no effect. Raven tries again with a dagger but misses, Theron continues to take damage and fails to escape the weasels’ hold, Ariel heat deaths again, and Mikhail’s rod of wonder sends out a fireball. Dara casts blood to water on the brown weasel. Luminia decides that she wants some of the pretty fur, so she lands next to the brown one and attacks it to obtain fur. Dylan once again fails to have any effect; Raven’s dagger fares better. The black weasel detaches itself from Theron and latches onto Luminia, cursing and cussing at her for attacking his mate and telling her to get away from their lair. She tries to use her diplomacy skills on it, but it stays attached to her out of anger and spite. Ariel continues to use the effective heat death spell, but Mikhail’s lightning bolt fails to get through their spell resistance. Theron finally manages to flee the scene while Dara inflicts critical wounds on the brown weasel, which then latches itself onto her. Luminia bites and wings the one on her, Dylan still can’t hit anything, Raven scores a hit with his dagger, Ariel sends a firebolt…meanwhile, Mikhail has enlarged himself (while in midair, thanks to the rod of wonder). Spell resistance proves a problem as Theron casts an eldritch blast and Dara tries the spell harm. The brown weasel goes back into her lair while Luminia grapples with the one on her. Vaeria tries magic missile, Dylan once again fails to hit; after Raven throws a dagger at it, it finally dashes back to its lair. Luminia translates as the weasel tells us not to come back or more of the same will occur (it also says it will do nasty things to Luminia’s tail; she is rather abashed and insulted).
Mikhail and Vaeria think that the dire weasels are guarding something. Vaeria does a peace-offering dance with Mikhail assisting. The black one comes out and asks the black dragon to translate. They want to be friends now and are sorry for the misunderstanding; also, they will show the party something if everyone promises not to harm their lair. Everyone agrees and proceeds cautiously into the mound. Luminia burrows. Vaeria taunts Theron by shaking her ass. Everyone grovels past their brood so as not to get attacked by the dire weasels and their babies before reaching a secret door in the back. The party is told to go through and not come back, and the weasels pile rocks around the door after we enter. Raven, the sneakiest one, goes first. Ariel lights her hand on fire, and Vaeria casts light and slaps a handprint onto Mikhail’s now glowing face. There are two branches, and the party proceeds downward and to the left, although the rogue wanted to go off by himself (everyone followed him). They find dead bodies, apparently the result of a battle of minotaurs and Kagonesti that occurred before the apocalypse. Also down there are a vial with a sickly yellow potion, 6,000 steel pieces, a diamond (which Raven skillfully hides away), fifteen gems (the dragon takes the shinies), a very old scroll with teleport and suggestion still visible, a metamagic rod, and a ring of wizardry. Ariel snaps her fingers like a lighter. Dylan uses his friend the human lighter to light up a cigarette. They wait for everyone to divide up the loot.
As there was nothing else to be found down there, they go back up. Then the world turns upside down as the ceiling and floor both cave in and fall out from under them, burying the party under rubble. Between cloaks of arachnia, burrowing, teleporting, escape artistry, and fire blasting, they escape. Ariel accidentally hits Dara with the blast. Dara hates humans. Although Ariel is an Elan, she looks like a human. Dara hates humans even more. Everyone hates weasels.
The way up is blocked, but a natural tunnel continues onward. There are two flickering lights in front of them – two pillars of self-sustaining flame. Vaeria is dared to dance through them, and people exchange taunts. Ariel likes fire, so she walks up close. They converge on her, and Ariel is possessed by one of the pillars. The possessed Ariel sends a firebolt at the cleric. Dylan and Raven hide, and Theron and Mikhail run away. Ariel manages to get it out of her head. Vaeria sends magic missiles at it, and Luminia tries a dispel magic spell on it, but it does not work. Ariel is hit again and gets two negative levels. Dara the cleric thinks it might be undead, so she heal spells it for lots of damage. Dylan somehow thinks that they are toasters (but what are toasters?) and that Ariel is bread. Dara gets hit with its incorporeal touch and takes two negative levels. Theron effectively hits it with a cold missile, Vaeria swings gracefully, Luminia burrows in another direction, and Dara gets another two negative levels. She tries to turn undead but fails, and Dylan’s nonmagical sling bullets also have no effect. Raven moves into the next room via the ceiling. Mikhail runs, jumps, and hits – then they attack him. He gets four negative levels and is possessed. Ariel tries fighting fire with fire but to no avail. Vaeria dances in front of it, and Theron kills one with a cold missile. It goes poof. Vaeria crafts popcorn over Mikhail’s possessed head. Everyone waits for it to come out of Mikhail. Raven saps Mikhail until he falls unconscious. Ariel talks it into coming over to her; they all attack it, Raven drags the unconscious Mikhail out of the way, and Theron kills it. Theron is very pleased with himself.
*Important lesson learned: Toasters, whatever they are, are undead.*
Many people are in need of restoration. After Dara wakes Mikhail up, he takes everyone to paradise with his rod of splendor. Everyone heals, and they return to the scene of battle. There is a lot of dark energy – this was once a battlefield, and lots of hate is still around. Theron has to save against Vaeria’s seduction. He does and smirks. Raven hears wind and silently motions the party to stop. Theron loudly asks what’s going on. The wind gets louder. Theron is pushed to the front to use darkvision – some sort of necromantic magic is coming their way. All of them back up as a whirling of wind with flashing slashing blades hits the front five party members. Raven tumbles through it while Mikhail tumbles back through the party. Ariel warns everyone to stand back. Vaeria uses her breath weapon; Dara tries blood to water (doesn’t work). The thing they are fighting is a rage wind, an incarnation of all of the hate and anger of the former battlefield. It attacks Ariel eighteen times and doesn’t hit once. Mikhail fails with a fireball. Ariel does conflagration, better known as big boomy fiery death. Theron misses with an eldritch spear, Vaeria hits it with Melf’s acid arrow, Luminia hits it with her breath weapon and blender cone, and Dara tries to turn undead but can’t (not enough positive energy). It manages to hit Ariel a few times. Dylan moves forward and hits it while Raven on the other side throws a dagger but misses. Mikhail’s rod of wonder makes heavy rain fall. Ariel sets her sword on fire, Theron misses with an eldritch spear, Vaeria ghost-touches it, Luminia tries her eye lasers, Dara uses searing light but as it is incorporeal she misses, Dylan slices it, Raven daggers it, Mikhail causes grass to grow all around him in 160 square feet, Ariel hits it with her fiery sword, Theron does a blast, and Vaeria does a full attack and slices it to bits, after which she does a victory dance.
On the floor are twenty longswords and five of every nonmagical simple and martial slashing weapon in the player’s handbook. Dylan finds a helm of brilliance with one diamond, seventeen rubies, twenty four fire opals, and thirty five opals; he lets the dragon hang on to it. Thanks to the rod of wonder, the black dragon is now a green black dragon. There is one magical bastard sword in the mix – the blade is curved as if the smith was insane, and it gives off a strong chaotic evil aura. Theron, who found it, plays keep-away from Mikhail, who eventually exchanges 7500 steel pieces and a date with Vaeria for the sword. Ariel makes dirty jokes with shadow puppets and skulls. The chamber is not like a dungeon – it is not rocky enough. It used to be on the surface, as evidenced by the fossilized grass (not Mikhail’s grass, which is now burnt by Ariel’s fiery footprints). Theron pokes a fossilized tree in the wall, and rocks fall on his head. Raven slides behind it; then Luminia spits acid at the tree, and it falls on the party. All climb over the tree’s remains and continue onward.
Raven signals for a stop and goes ahead to investigate a grunting noise. There is an enormously fat ghoul with a distended mouth slashing at an invisible barrier in midair. It seems to have been trying to escape for a long time. Raven is distracted by sudden intense hunger pangs and goes back to the group to report. (While they waited for his return, Luminia sat on a tree stump stool and Dylan smoked). When everyone gets close they feel the hunger pangs. It tries to bite Ariel’s head off. Dylan attacks it while Raven tumbles through, getting hit in the process. Mikhail also tumbles and goes through the barrier. Ariel tumbles through as well, and Theron flees the scene to join the rest of the party on the other side. Vaeria runs through, and Luminia tries to fly through but is hit. Dara floats by as a gas. Having been abandoned by the rest of his party, Dylan spider climbs over. All reach the other side of the barrier, and Ariel heat deaths it and kills it, blowing it up into goo and rot and stick.
In the hallway is a glowing blue circle which seems very out of place. It is a teleportation circle that takes them back on the surface. As they go through one by one, each person emerges facing a row of long spears. After being asked, “Friend or foe?” they are prodded into barracks until the spear-holders determine the truth. Vaeria bluffs that her warfan is just a normal fan. All of their dangerous items are confiscated, and they are shut in a little room after being insured no harm would come to them.
Tveral Des-Ake, a human fighter cleric, was already in the barracks when the rest arrived. Two ogre guards stand aside as a short little kender comes through, radiating an aura of danger. Raven bluffs – look over there! – and tries to hide, but the kender notices him. “Who wants to be interrogated first?” Ariel volunteers. Ogres guard the rest while Ariel goes out. The guards ignore Vaeria’s dance. (They are gay and well disciplined.) Kender: “Who are you and why are you here?” Ariel: “I’m pretty sure my name is Ariel and I got here sometime yesterday because I think we got lost.” The kender explains: “You stepped in a teleportation circle. This city is a place for the survivors of the last cataclysm. Our leader (pause) Vidomina has set up teleportation circles throughout the world trying to lure the survivors in, but we haven’t received many, except for you. Ariel: “Vido…is she a dog?” Kender: “I have no comment.” It is pretty obvious that he hates the leader. He further explains: “We could send you away if you wish, you could buy food from us, or you could apply for citizenship in the city. Or you could just stay here for a time while you decide. What do you do?” She shows him fire, lighter style. “Interesting. I’m sure you have lots of self-control.” Ariel: “All the time, especially when I’m burning things. Especially people, they run around…only people I don’t like. Oh no, wouldn’t burn anyone in the city, unless they attack me.” Kender: “If you decide not to stay, you are given a day’s rations and sent out of the city.”
Calls “Next!” Vaeria is led out. “Who are you, why are you here?” Vaeria: “Who are you?” “I am Alton Ogrebane, captain of the guard.” Vaeria shares her story: “We got here after those weasels…pretty nasty, almost gnawed someone’s face off. We convinced them we weren’t going to harm them, but they led us into a trap.” He and his assistants think she is mental. “Can you work?” She offers to show him. “How would you demonstrate your planting finesse in this chamber?” She performs dance. The assistant drools, but Alton is nonplussed. “I suppose you could be an entertainer in the den. So, choice…city of the survivors, teleportation circles, blah blah…join us or no? This place is a reasonably safe haven.” Vaeria tells him that she is on a quest to find her father, so she’ll have to see. He smirks at her. “Would you like me to provide a guard for you?” She wants to stay in the city for awhile and accepts a guard (10th level female fighter). The she is led out and locked back in the room with the others.
Raven and Dylan are next. Explains, blah blah. They explain the short version of their story: they got trapped in a dungeon. Alton calls Dylan bad smelling and says Raven is sneaky. Dylan’s half-elf ears twitch. Raven questions him: “How many are in the city?” Alton: “Around 2,000 with new additions every month; you’re the biggest load we’ve had.” Raven: “What is your goal?” Alton: “To stay alive. You wouldn’t try to undermine the power structure of the city, would you? At least don’t attempt to stage a coupe and slaughter the civilians.” Raven: “I would never spend my time with such things. I might rob stuff, but that’s about it.” Alton objects to cigarettes. Dylan ignores that and introduces him to Steve the badger. He tells Dylan to go to the druid’s grove. Alton tells them that their leader caused crops to sprout from dead soil and that to stay in the city they will have to work two hours a week tending to crops in the field. Dylan: “What kind of person is leading this place?” Alton: “A half-elf cleric who claims she worships every god and spends all of her days praying.” Raven: “Is it possible for us to meet with Vidomina?” Alton: “That’s beyond my jurisdiction; you’d have to go to her dwelling place and ask for an audience.”
Luminia goes next. “You are a black dragon, are you not? That is, you’re supposed to be black…Care to share your story?” Luminia: “One of my careless companions hit me with a rod of wonder…I like nature, bunnies and butterflies, not your normal black dragon…I pulled a card and felt happy.” A guy comes in with holy symbol, nods, and leaves. Alton: “I assume you would not cause too much chaos in the realm. C heck out the Crying Jester in town for other dragons.”
Theron is next. He doesn’t move and grapples with the ogres to protest. In the room, he continues to protest, is shoved into a chair, and sits there sullenly. Alton: “Who are you and why are you here?” Theron: “Who’s asking?” Alton: “I am, and your fate is in my hands, so you should answer.” Theron: “I can sit here as long as it takes. Where am I, who are you, why are you in charge?” Alton: “I am in charge because I could kick your ass.” Theron: “Are you sure you don’t mean you could kiss my ass – you’re about the right size.” Alton: “If you want to try your strength against me, come by during training.” Theron: “Why do you get to be in charge of this place, little runt?” The kender manages to control himself. He replies: “All I want to determine now is whether you will burn our city or become a ‘productive’ member of ‘society.’” Theron: “…can’t I just leech and leave?” Alton: “That will earn you one day’s rations and a trip out the door. All you need to do to live here is work two hours a week to keep the body and soul of citizenry together.” Theron: “I’m not into necromancy.” Alton: “It’s growing food.” Theron: “Like growing shit?” Alton explains the cleric praying all day to make crops grow. Theron: “I heard all gods were ignoring us at this point.” Alton: “She seems to have made contact; I’m not going to question it. The rest of the time, you can do what you will. Anything more than food needed for survival you have to work for.” Theron says that it sounds like a good idea, but he really wants to find out about the god she’s made contact with to see if it is the same god that saved his life during the cataclysm. As far as Theron knows, Alton has bought his lie. Theron: “That sounds like a good deal, I can live with it.” Alton: “If you ever want to test your mettle against me…” Theron: “I’m more into blowing things up.”
He points to Mikhail and says “You, come here.” Mikhail the cautious is timid. Ogres hurl him out the door, and the kender goes nuts – “YOU ARE NOT TO ABUSE THE PRISONERS!!!” He kicks them both in the crotch, and they keel over and clutch themselves. Vaeria goes into hysterics. Mikhail doesn’t talk. Alton explains about being a productive member of society. Alton: “Swear that you won’t try to cause any trouble .” Mikhail: “Yep!” Alton: “Any place I can lead you?” He is relieved at finally getting some cooperation. Mikhail tells him that he is looking for a bloodstone on a golden chain. As Alton returns, the ogres cringe away, and Vaeria wets herself laughing. The others laugh, and Dylan smiles.
Clerics Dara and Tveral go next. Alton: “I see from your holy symbols that you are followers of two of the gods. It’s been awhile since we’ve had clerics here…it’s also been awhile since I’ve seen a kender.” He looks wistful for a second. “…anyways, since I see you are a cleric of Paladine…” He brings in the holy symbol man. Alton: “You wouldn’t charge evil?” Dara: “Well, I’d attack zombies.” Alton: “Please attack the zombies. I hope you realize that any attacks on city citizenry would be met by lethal force, so keep your bigotry to yourself.” Dara: “That is neither here nor there.” Tveral inquires about the Company of the Sword and is told to ask around at the Crying Jester. They are told that they can lodge in the barracks, but their best bet is the Crying Jester, though they are expensive.
Alton: “Well, the leaders of city will discuss your qualifications and decide whether they want you here.” The ogre guards are still clutching themselves. Ariel offers to cauterize their wounds for them. There is talk about burning out of prison. The anti-magic field prevents the spellcasters from doing anything. The ogres fight each other over Vaeria’s popcorn. Theron paces and chews on his thumb. The room is suddenly full of 600 large butterflies (thanks to the rod of wonder). Theron smacks them and yells. Dara runs around screaming. Ariel burns them one at a time. Theron: “Will somebody just let us out of here already away from all these nutcases?!!” Some functionary comes to the door, the butterflies all fly out, and Theron is relieved. Mikhail is now invisible. Then he realizes that the rod of wonder doesn’t work in the anti-magic field. It was a bad acid trip. The kender lets everyone out: “If you want directions, all you have to do is ask.”
Mikhail and Raven go to the mage tower: the whole place is crumbling, appearing as if either construction or demolition is going on. A guy with a staff comes out: “How can I help you?” Raven: “I’m looking for something in particular – a wand of golden strike.” The mage has to spend a night to prepare it. The cost is 200 steel pieces. Raven bargains, but the mage won’t let it go for less. Raven: “That’s fair enough.” Mikhail is also looking for something – it appears like an ordinary bloodstone, but it’s a powerful artifact that will extend the bearer’s life indefinitely. It is on a gold chain, and there are sparks inside the stone. The mage reports that the item has been long lost, and even so, the tower of high sorcery has collapsed and is in a sinkhole. Mikhail: “Just wondering if you’d heard of it.” The mage says that the tower at Palanthas is still haunted – “I doubt you would be able to get it.” Raven looks around the room. The guy looks young and naďve, but as the only real mage in town, he’s had to advance quickly and doesn’t know much about thievery. “Where are we?” The whole continent shifted so much after the second cataclysm that the mage has no idea. Raven checks out the guards…the population is peaceful, and they are mostly watching the food distributors.
Dara, Ariel, and Dylan go to the druid’s grove, and they pass rangers who see Ariel snapping her fiery fingers and alert the authority. They see what looks like a human hunched over walking towards them – a werewolf. Ariel: “Hi, are you Vidomina?” Werewolf: “No she’s in a palace. I don’t detect the scent of evil. Why are you here?” Dylan said that the kender told him to come; Ariel kinda wanted to come and didn’t want to make decisions. Werewolf: “Ah, you’re the new ranger.” Ariel is confused and asks Dylan: “You’re new?” Werewolf: “Culnamo has asked to see all of you. He’s the elder druid.” Ariel: “Sure, we can see Coldo.” They go to a grove of isolated trees. The werewolf approaches a druid in brownish robes who resembles an autumn tree. “Tamika, I have come to deliver these people to the elder.” Ariel tries to control her burning tendencies. The druids look at her suspiciously. They are brought into the presence of an aged elven druid, shriveled over and looking smarter than the rest of their companions. Elder: “Thank you, Ortinoth, that will be all for now. The spirits have told me of your arrival.” Dara: “What else did they tell you?” Elder: “Many things, most of which I may not share.” Dara: “Did they tell you I like fish?” Elder: “No. I have learned in my years that it is better to be blunt. You have come to this city to hopefully survive.” Ariel: “Not going to burn anything.” Elder: “You’d be trapped in ice if you did. Death is like an ex-wife, not something I prefer to talk about. Death is coming once too often, and it will someday claim me, but in the meantime I hope the planet will survive.” Dara: “Are you emo?” Elder: “No, I’m not.” Ariel: “Emus?” Elder: “Bad-smelling ranger, [Ariel interrupts – I burn him sometimes] I assume you are at least devoted to nature.” Dylan nods. “In this city, there is a grave threat to the balance of nature which may smudge out what remains of the life in this world. It is all around us, and it is so horrible and unnatural that the world may be torn asunder. Can you help?” Dylan: “How do we fight something we can’t see and is all around?” Elder: “Keep a close watch; not everything is as it seems. Watch for anything disrupting the balance of nature.” Dara looks under her foot. Ortinoth the werewolf comes back in. The elder asks him to please escort these people to the edge of the grove. “If they desire a service, provide it for them.” Steve was left outside playing with five year old kids. He’s perfectly content. Dara buys sock puppets of the werewolf and elder druid. Ariel is tempted to burn sock puppets; Dylan tells her that it’s not a good idea. The werewolf suggests a position at food storage for burning things.
Vaeria goes to Bohb’s House of Everything. She sees an old guy on the counter with a big staff. He glares at her. She intimidates him, but he still glares. She performs dance. “If you’re going to cavort about like an idiot, do it in the street and don’t distract paying customers.” Oddly, there don’t seem to be any paying customers around. Vaeria is looking for a change of wardrobe that is fire resistant. He suggests a leather outfit and goes into the back, shuffling and banging, swearing; he comes out, and on end of his staff is scanty black leather outfit. He thrusts it at her – “Is that what you’re looking for, you little hussy?” Vaeria: “Perhaps.” “That’ll be fifty steel pieces. Anything else?” Vaeria mentions that she is also looking for spell components. An expression of pain comes across his face when spell casting is mentioned. “Ok, what kind do you want?” His knuckles turn white as they grip his staff. Vaeria: “On second thought, I think I can hold off for now on that.” She gives him an extra 200 for his trouble.
Theron, Luminia, and Tveral go to the Crying Jester. On the way, Tveral gives Theron a mithral ring of shield other. There are two doors – a sad jester’s mask on one, a happy mask on the other. They feel slightly calmer as they enter happy door and then are hit with wave of sound – cheering and yelling and drinking sounds, and over top a huge ogre singing Trogdor’s burninating song at top of his lungs. An enormous brass dragon dominates entire room, taking up a whole corner. She shouts in a feminine voice: “Excellent work minotaur, I mean ogre.” She gives him a free drink, and he drinks it and eats the glass. Alton the kender of the guard is there acting more like a kender. Theron is mad because everyone is happy and he has headache, so he goes out and reenters through the sad face door. Luminia frolics over to the kender. Alton: “Hi there fat black green dragon, how are you?” He takes a swig from a mug twice as big as he is. “Quite well, quite well.” There is a call for more performers. Luminia goes up and sings and dances. She bursts out into a triumphant dragon song that leaves everyone awed. Lots of undergarments are thrown on stage near her. She puts the cleanest boxers on head. The brass dragon gives her free meals for a week. Tveral calls out a challenge of 100 steel for arm wrestling, best two out of three – a burly dragon accepts his challenge. The first one Tveral wins, she wins the second, and the third is a tie. They buy each other a drink. Tveral buys drinks for everyone and everyone likes him, including women.
Theron meanwhile has entered the sad room. There is total silence except for one person on stage talking about cruel life and reading bad poetry. An emo shadowdragon presides over the bar. [Emo is an alignment that overwhelms everything.] “Yes, what do you want?” Theron: “Give me a nice drink, not too expensive and not too strong, something to take edge off of the other room.” He is given a slightly carbonated beverage, like emo champagne. The dragon’s eyes are reddish as if he’s been bawling. Theron feels angsty calmness and moodiness. He also feels an urge to write bad poetry. The dragon looks pretty wise, like he knows a lot. Theron: “How did you wind up in a place like this?” Dragon: “I’m supposed to ‘defend’ the city from the ‘horrible invaders.’ Mostly I just run this place – my partner in the other room wanted to run an actual tavern. Glimmer is her name. Munwythrix is mine. What are names, really, but connections to this disgusting existence that we all share.” Theron: “Wow.” To be or not to be, blah blah blah. A depressed gnome on stage recites a suicidal poem and then pretends to kill himself with a dagger and has to be dragged off stage. Theron: “If you need some help with that I can assist you!” He gets a couple of glares. He turns and asks Munwythrix: “Know why this place has food and nothing else does?” Munwythrix: “They say that the cleric prays and makes crops grow. I know for a fact she is not a cleric, but the crops are growing, so the people are satisfied.” The dragon kills a bug with an inflict minor wounds spell; Theron grins from ear to ear and slips him 5 steel pieces. “The world sucks, I’m on your side, man.”
Theron and Raven then head to the temple. Theron gets there first. He sees a longhaired person with wavy brown hair offering up a bunch of meat to one of the many altars in the room. It looks somewhat like a pantheon. There is a mural on the wall of all the gods that looks like it was stolen from somewhere. The priestess is chanting. A couple of people are in corners praying. He walks near the high priestess, taps her on shoulder, and asks if she is that Vidomida chick. She turns as the offering burns on the altar. Her lip curls upwards as she sees Theron’s eyes, but she rearranges herself quickly. “Yes, my child, what can I help you with?” Theron rolls his eyes. She is not contemptuous because he is evil; she just doesn’t like him for some reason. Theron: “Any of these deities responding recently?” Priestess: “They are all responding, my child, you only need to know how to ask. Vidomina stays in her tower and prays, and power flows out from her and works chemicals to make the soil become fertile. Theron: “Which god is answering?” “All of them, my child. The evil gods are not as evil as they say; even evil wants to renew the world.” Theron: “Good for them.” Raven notices that this temple is arranged differently – the room is misshapen with a slight lump where neutral and evil clash. The priestess is like an aging hippie. Raven gives her gold for a wand of grave sight; she takes 200 for it, but just about 15 get offered to the gods (as opposed to 20, which would be the proper 10%). He turns around and walks out.
Ariel, Dylan, and Dara go to the food storage place. They open a door marked Food Storage and enter a wave of cold: the entire floor is a layer of ice. There are shelves and shelves and shelves of food. Ariel is unhappy with all the cold. She knows that it would be bad to set to food place on fire. They wait outside for a person to ask about cooking. A black bearded dwarf comes out and yells “Close the freaking door, asshat.” Ariel: “I’m just looking for a cooking area that’s not frozen.” “Yeah, it’s right in here.” He points to the door behind him. It is even colder in the next room. Despite the cold, the dwarf is in shorts and chainmail shirt. Ariel calls him crazy. Dwarf: “The cold is wonderful!” Steve the badger ice skates. The fire around her makes Ariel knee deep in water. The dwarf fires a ray of ice at her feet. She jumps free and firewalks. He’s pissed and shoves her through the door. “Why are you here?” “I’m here to help cook – I can do fire. You noticed the fire, right? Good, then I don’t have to tell you about it.” Dwarf: “There are plenty of things you can burn, but not here; this is food storage.” They are sent to a building nearby, and Ariel is shown how to make bread. She gets ranks in craft toast. She’s a toaster! No, she can’t be a toaster! [They’re undead, you know.]
They gather information around town and then sleep. Some sleep in the Crying Jester; Dylan stays in the grove. Something very heavy descends on the back of his head. A minotaur leaves and runs off when he jumps up. Although rangers were sleeping nearby, no one responds to his shouts. Then he gets hit again and goes unconscious. Steve finds someone, and they return to find Dylan knocked out. Everyone else in the grove area was either knocked out or had sleep cast on them. Dylan comes to with a werewolf snout in his face. “They took Culnamo, our druid elder. Help, please.” Dylan agrees to help. He goes to the Crying Jester riding on the werewolf’s dire wolf animal companion. They dash through the streets, barreling people out of the way. Ariel is sitting and meditating on the roof. “Breakfast is not that great, I had to burn it myself.” She firewalks off the roof and goes inside to get everyone else. “Wake up or I’ll burn your eyebrows off. Oh, you’re awake. Can I burn them off anyway?” The druid situation is explained. Theron: “What’s in it for me?” Ariel: “You can watch me be hot for awhile.” That works for Theron. Ariel likes the smell of smoke, so Dylan (cigarette smoke) and Theron (brimstone) smell good to her. They send a note with the dire wolf to Raven and Mikhail. They don’t care and ignore the note.
The rest of them return to scene of the crime. The symbol of a thieves’ guild was scratched on a tree and then hastily scratched out. The werewolf and wolf sniff the ground and track. Dara mocks Ortinoth with her hand puppet of him. They come to a blank wall, and the trail ends. There is a very faint magical aura as if some spell had been cast here – some sort of vamping. Something smells of alcohol, and there is a bit of broken glass, like from an ale mug. Dara is still moving her hand puppet. The wolf growls to Ortinoth that the alcohol came and went with the minotaur. Dara thinks it came from the other tavern in town because there is a “u” on glass and there is no “u” in Crying Jester. Ortinoth puts his paws on their shoulders: “I’m trusting you to bring our elder back; I have to take care of grove in his absence.” Luminia calls Dara an asshat.
Raven and Mikhail think about attacking the mage in the tower but then see rest of party chasing after a dire wolf and a werewolf. They come along.
All go to the Naughty Nimbler, which is in the seedy part of town where people ejected from the Crying Jester have gathered. Inside is drinking, sex in the corner, some mugs stolen from the Crying Jester… They hear thumping from upstairs. Theron goes up and sees a minotaur having rough sex with an elf. Theron tries to yell loudly but his voice cracks. Downstairs the bartender says that Steve is not allowed. Dylan puts him in his backpack. Vaeria convinces him to let Steve stay. Dylan goes up to check, but it is not the same minotaur as he saw last night. Raven sticks a dagger to the minotaur’s neck and checks his face, just to be sure. Fortunately no one is scarred for life by that vision. On his way down, Dylan pulls fourteen year old Mikhail along and discourages him from going to look. The elf doesn’t exactly look female (or male). Ariel wants to have sex with a fire elemental. Dylan asks the bartender about the old druid. He gives the party drinks and goes to check. Theron yells at Dylan for telling the bartender so openly. Drinks are set on fire. The bartender is still not back. They go to look in the kitchen. Others in the bar are enjoying flaming volcano drinks. Vaeria dances. Patrons of the bar swarm her. “Hey pretty baby…” She squirms out, but a mob of ten guys and one horny girl rip off ribbons and part of her new leather outfit. She runs to the kitchen, where she leans against a section of wall to catch her breath. It shakes. She manages to open the door without all of the pans going everywhere.
Tveral and Raven go in front, Mikhail and Luminia take the back, and the others are in middle. Luminia makes the pans crash as she comes through. They walk on down. A fireball goes off. Most avoid it. They enter a diamond-shaped room with two doors/passages. Both have been used sort of recently. They go left and walk into an area full of makeshift cell boxes. One of them has a desiccated corpse – it is checked, poked, and burned. Dylan thinks that everyone in town has been here recently. Mikhail finds a ring. Raven finds a loose brick and pulls it out; the rest look loose. Tveral bullrushes the wall. It opens like a door, and he trips over the rise and slides into a wall. It’s the Quintessential Secret Passage. They go down it single file and crawling. The dragon gets stuck but finally squirms in. Mikhail hears breathing: a huge minotaur with a great big falchion is outside the passage. He sneak attacks and smotes poor Mikhail. Ouch. Luminia slides in, encouraged by Mikhail’s yell and the splotching sound. Mikhail tumbles, and the minotaur disappears. The dragon scrambles through the tunnel with Mikhail on her tail, pushing everyone else in her way.
They come out of tunnel in a slightly dark room lit by a single torch with what looks like a hallway leading back to cells. There is a humongous black statue in front of them. It looks like it might belong in some kind of dark temple. It lurches into life and comes at Raven and Theron. Raven hides in the dark and sneaks around. Mikhail remains in the tunnel. Ariel stays a little distance away. Vaeria shenanigans it and doesn’t hit. Tveral charges in, gets bit, and glances it. Theron acid blasts it. Dara casts searing light on its head. It hits Vaeria with bites and claws Tveral. Luminia is trapped in the tunnel again. Raven tries to put out the light. Theron sees that it looks like a merging of three gods. Mikhail throws a mindblade at it but doesn’t hit. Ariel hits it with a firebolt. Vaeria tumbles full speed away. Dylan moves up. Raven sees someone else skulking in the shadows. Tveral full attacks with longsword and spiked gauntlet. Theron stony grasps it – a large stone fist comes up and tries to grapple but fails. Dara does another searing light spell, but the statue absorbs the spell and gets power from it. It attacks Tveral, who flies 10 feet away and falls prone, nearly dead. Luminia uses her laser eyes. Raven sees the minotaur; its eyes are fixed on Dara. Raven climbs up on the ceiling and takes out the torch, Ariel’s fire illuminates for those without darkvision. Mikhail throws another mindblade, but it sinks in and bounces off. Ariel does another firebolt. Dara sees the minotaur; it is bummed that she saw him. Theron does a brimstone eldritch blast. Dara casts ice flowers on the minotaur, but it dances out of the way. The minotaur attacks Raven. Dylan attacks the statue and gets hit. Raven moves along the wall above the minotaur. Mikhail tumbles over to Tveral, hits him with a staff of healing, and tumbles back. Ariel firebolts the statue again. Vaeria magic missiles the statue. It eats her spell. The minotaur attacks the pyro. Theron blasts it. Tveral is recovered but prone and casts cure on himself. Dara searing lights the minotaur. The huge statue materializes an enormous flail in all three of its hands and enters into a frenzy. Dylan gets hit and in pain withdraws towards Dara. Luminia backs into the tunnel and laser eyes the statue. Raven throws a dagger at the minotaur. Mikhail tumbles up to Tveral and heals him. Ariel uses her flaming rapier on the minotaur; it disappears into the shadows. Tveral is recovered and attacks the statue. Theron hits with a blast, and Dara casts cure crit on Dylan. It attacks Mikhail and Tveral. Tveral is back down again, but Dylan cures him for a bit. Raven throws dagger at the statue. Mikhail determines that it’s an outsider. Ariel hits it with a firebolt. Vaeria tumbles in with her warfan. Tveral cures himself. Theron kills it with another blast, it goes crash. The party killed the overgod aspect. A secret passage opens up behind it.
Those hit by the minotaur don’t heal due to cursed wounds from the falchion. They tromp along. Sitting at a table, totally oblivious, is the leader of thieves’ guild, gloating over stealing the elf away: not very smart for a thief. The minotaur appears, wounds healed, and backhands the guy, saying “You IDIOT, didn’t you see that they’re here? Now fight them, bitch.” He leaps over the table and charges at Raven, more afraid of the minotaur than all nine party members put together. AHHHH! Raven stabs with his dagger. Mikhail throws a mindblade at him. Ariel heatdeaths the fighter. Vaeria shenanigans him. The minotaur backs away, and there is a click and a roar; two dire tigers burst out and charge Theron and Vaeria. Tveral moves into the room past the fighter. Theron casts hellrime. Dara uses blood to water on one of the tigers: it looks really really weak now. From the corners of the room appear four rogues who take potshots. Dylan attacks a rogue. The fighter attacks Raven, and he sneak attacks him in return. Mikhail wards himself against ranged attacks and moves away from everybody else. The tigers attack Theron. Luminia hits the rogue on Dylan. Tveral attacks. Theron bashes the weak tiger’s head in. Dara flame strikes a rogue in the corner. Dylan’s rogue and the flame striked one run away. The others fire at Ariel. Deprived of his rogue, Dylan goes over to the fighter. Luminia picks on the fighter as well. Raven does a coup de grâce on the fighter. Mikhail jump attacks the dire tiger. Ariel focuses her psionic energy. Vaeria shoots a Melf’s acid arrow at the prone tiger. Tveral goes after a rogue in a corner. Theron blasts a rogue. Dara flame strikes a person in the corner, but it saves for nothing. Both rogues run away – they touch the walls and disappear into them. Luminia charges and bites a tiger; it dies. Raven coup de grâce the other tiger. Out of the shadows, the minotaur hits Tveral, who falls paralyzed and unconscious; the minotaur grabs him and attempts to drag him off. Ariel does heatdeath damage. Theron blasts him. Dara casts blood to water on him. Dylan slings bullets at him. The minotaur flees and passes out. There is still no sign of the druid.
Mikhail leaves the party and buys a vacant lot outside the city walls, where he sets up an instant fortress, in which he lives cautiously. Skyler the half-elf half- blue dragon cantor seeker of the song joins the party.
While waiting for the rest of the party to show…Raven buys poison from Bohb. Vaeria dances in front of his guards. Bohb tosses the poison at him; Raven catches it dexterously, says “Bastard,” and walks out. Bohb came from the ruins of a high tower of sorcery before it fell into a sinkhole. He came to town with a bag of holding, dumped the contents into a building, and opened Bohb’s Shop o’ Everything. He hates everyone and everyone hates him. Certain magical items attract the guy, including the rod of wonder. Raven picks up his wand from the gnomish mage. Then he tries to get in to see Vidomina but is turned away. Dylan wanders around looking for people he knows. Vaeria searches for a bag of tricks in the mage tower and is told to come back in three days.
Back down in the dungeon before any of the previous happened…they don’t find the druid, and the minotaur escaped. They loot everything. Dylan finds a bit of fur in a piece of full plate that looks like wolf-fur. He recalls that the elder druid Culnamo was wearing some wolf-fur. Ariel burns the bodies, and Vaeria dances around the fire. As they go down the hallway, Vaeria searches for traps; Ariel gets bored and goes on, falling into a pit full of poisonous spikes. Something else goes click, and all get hit with a prismatic spray. Vaeria goes insane, Luminia avoids going insane, Ariel enjoys the fire that hits her, Dara gets constitution damage and almost dies, and Dylan gets electricity damage. Dara heals herself and tries to fix Vaeria’s insanity…Vaeria hits Dara, but Dara heals her and makes her not crazy. Theron also goes insane, and Dara heals him. Mikhail goes insane and attacks Dylan. Then he poofs out and goes to live in his instant fortress. Back in the Naughty Nibbler, the people they gave the drinks to are drooling inner organs out onto the floor. The thumping is still going on upstairs. Vaeria flees. Ariel pokes a body with her foot, and it spurts out lung goo. Raven loots the bodies and catches filth fever, but he gains 50 steel and a silver ring worth 25 steel. They leave the bar. Raven alerts one of the guards, but they look like they don’t care because it’s the bad part of town. Ariel burns Vaeria’s hand at her request (she is fire resistant, and they both enjoy it).
Back at the druid’s grove, they report to the werewolf; the fur did belong to the druid elder. Ortinoth the werewolf wants Culnamo back, as there is something going on involving nature that he can’t understand. He says that the portents are confusing, and he needs the elder druid to explain them. Dylan asks about burrowing through the caved-in tunnels. Ortinoth does not think that that plan will work, but he knows someone who knows the city very well. He sends a ranger to fetch Skyler. Dara: “I know where the elder druid is (pulls out hand puppet).” Ariel: “Why does he have a hand up his ass?” Dara: “He likes it.” Raven wants to arrange a meeting with Vidomina; if they rescue the elder, Ortinoth promises to do what he can. A druidess comes riding up on a unicorn (Ariel – Oh, she must be a virgin). She vaults off the unicorn, and the werewolf talks with her in hushed tones on the side. The unicorn comes up to Luminia. Then the druidess jumps back onto unicorn and rides off, and the werewolf follows riding his dire wolf. Before he goes, Raven asks him about his lycanthropy. Ortinoth has a different strain of lycanthropy…as if he had been born this way: “When I bite people, they don’t turn into werewolves.” Raven has Ortinoth bite him. Then Ortinoth goes to a stream and washes his mouth off. “We will reward you with nature’s blessings if you bring back the elder druid.” Dara wants pie.
They sleep either in the druid’s grove or in the Crying Jester. Ariel listens to loud annoying songs sung by a female kender and bobs her head to the music. The song is incredibly annoying, but the dragoness Glimmer loves it. Dara casts light on two sticks and raves. Vaeria and Ariel play with the torches to create strobe lights. Vaeria, Dara, Skyler, and Ariel get laid and keep right on going for awhile. Vaeria and Ariel get together. Ariel is really really sick in the morning but is very happy. Skyler and Vaeria feel sick too, but Dara feels like she could keep going. Luminia asks around about unicorns, but the only unicorn is the one that the druidess rides around town. Raven and Dylan had a peaceful night in the grove. Theron was in the emo side of the place and recited poetry about death and bloodshed…the first poem was good, but second was bad (which is good for emo). The shadowdragon offers to perform a service for him, a favor of sorts in exchange for the poetry. Dara goes around humping random bodies. Theron gets Klingon food and thinks it’s awesome. Ariel cooks it thoroughly; it explodes. They divide up the loot and then go to rescue the druid.
Dylan remembers that when the minotaur loomed out of the darkness and hit him over the head he had a noticeable scar across his forehead and cheek and onto his chest. Skyler asks around about the minotaur. Some of his hangouts are the Naughty Nibbler, Bohb’s Shop o’ Everything, and the Temple of All Gods. Skyler suggests that they go to Bohb’s. Theron gets bored and goes back to the Crying Jester to talk to the emo dragon. He calls in his favor and shows Munwythrix the shadowdragon the scepter. Munwythrix tells Theron that it is a warlock scepter with 34 charges. Back at Bohb’s, they throw the unwanted stuff on the counter. He offers half its worth, but everyone barters and it goes up to 65%. They ask Bohb about the minotaur. He says he doesn’t know. He’s lying. He likes button-pushing magic items. Skyler: “I’ve got a rod of wonder.” Bohb: “What did you say? For a rod of wonder, maybe I do know this minotaur. Well, I don’t know his name, but he is one of my best customers…[shuts windows, closes door]…last time he was here, he bought ginger, desiccated sea urchins, and several bottles of cheap wine.” Some of the spellcasters think he might be making poison. Bohb doesn’t know where he lives, but he says that he hangs out near the Naughty Nibbler. Bohb grabs the rod – “My precious” – and shoos everyone out. Then he goes to the back to enjoy it.
Next they try the temple. “Hello my children,” the priestess greets – “What offerings have you brought?” Skyler offers an amulet of health +8...however, it’s a fake. Luminia: “Why take things when there are no gods? I was there when they left us.” Priestess: “Perhaps your faith is not strong enough, my child. What do you want here?” Theron gets in front of her: “They’re present, but are they answering?” In response, she creates a statue – “I’d say they are answering quite well.” Skyler next offers a scroll of heroism. She tells him that the gods prefer steel. Theron tells her that they are looking for a minotaur. She will let them explore the temple, but they have to make offerings. Dylan throws a few steel pieces on an altar and goes off followed closely by temple acolytes, but Dara puts 150 steel on her god’s altar and is allowed to wander around freely. Skyler puts 146.25 steel on his and can also wander around freely. Theron: “The room’s shaped weird, why?” The priestess wonders that they can expect a square temple when it was created from ashes. Ariel sits down in front of the altar to the fire god and meditates. Dylan climbs up the wall with his spider-climbing cloak, and they get pissed. Vaeria dances and is booted out of the temple. Dara windwalks. Theron finds a secret compartment on one altar and grabs the book within, exclaiming loudly “Oooh, what is this?” The book is ripped out of his hands, and he is ejected. Dylan climbs out via the walls. Skyler fascinates the temple-goers by singing hymns to his god. He converts most of the people in the temple to the obscure elven music god. He then suggests that they let him examine the statue. The priestess looks pissed, so he walks out. Raven goes in to steal the book. He snags it, but one of them notices. Raven casts dimension door and gets outside the temple, where he gives the book to Theron. The book is in common: it is their budget, and it shows large donations from the palace. Skyler goes back in to worship some more. The priestess really hates him. He praises all the gods and performs nicely, so all in the temple go back to their own religions. Skyler looks at Paladine’s statue. It is odd-shaped, and there is a crack under the statue. He tries the spell mend and it doesn’t mend; it was built that way. He opens it a bit and sees the gleam of platinum before it slams down on his fingers. The priestess glares at him and asks that he please refrain from touching the altars. She says that this is where the excess offerings are kept. He offers platinum, and she thanks him muchly. Then she says: “Please take your crazy friends and leave.” Raven votes to rob the temple. Skyler says no. Ariel wanders out.
They finally return to the Naughty Nibbler, where bouncers hit them and throw them out. Vaeria diplomacizes while Raven disguises himself and walks in looking like a half-elf male. Dara turns into a gaseous form and walks in. Skyler walks in easily, as he was not with the party on the last misadventure. Luminia tries to make her own door and slams her head against the wall. Dylan hides and sneaks it with Vaeria’s distraction help, which involved her breasts in the face of a guard. Theron accidentally runs into a guard’s chest. The one guard says that if Vaeria gives him a kiss, he’ll let her in. Ariel offers to kiss Vaeria. The ogre guards would rather have kisses from each of them, however, and both French kiss Ariel and Vaeria sloppily; the two feel gross but are let in. Skyler learns that the barkeep might know where the minotaur is. The barkeep is a new one this time. The guards notice Luminia and converge on her. Vaeria bluffs that the dragon is her pet. As long as she is on a leash, they will let her in. Ariel put a shiny ribbon on her for leash. The ogre that was run into comes at Theron and bashes his head in very nicely. Vaeria crafts popcorn. Skyler learned to craft popcorn from Vaeria’s father. Dylan eats some of Vaeria’s popcorn as everyone inside enjoys the show. Theron blasts the ogre and yells that it was a freaking accident. “Out, out, get out!” the ogre bellows. He hits Theron again. Blasts again, bash again…the ogre hits himself in the knee and crumples to one side. The other guard is afraid of Theron and cringes away. Theron walks into the bar with a bit of a swagger.
All are now in bar. Skyler talks to the barkeep, who is friendly but denies knowing anything about the minotaur. He’s lying, however. The warlock intimidates, and they are pretty sure that the next drink he serves will be urine delight (he wets himself). “Don’t hurt me!” He stutters incoherently and faints. Everyone in the bar applauds and grabs drinks from behind the counter. Raven and Dylan notice a dwarf slipping out the front door. Theron suggests that Ariel torture him with fire. Vaeria claws him, and he wakes up. Theron calls him a wanker and tells him to talk. “Where is the minotaur…tell us and you walk out of here alive.” He is more scared of the minotaur, but getting blasted is the more immediate danger. He staggers up to the bar, gets a map, and says that the minotaur lives under the barracks while pointing to the granaries. “Now please just go away…” He throws money at Theron to bribe him to go away. Vaeria picks it up. Theron tells them to walk out. A bunch of the guys in the room leer and want Vaeria to dance. The bard converts everyone to his god again. Vaeria flees and drags Ariel with her. Theron: “We need to go to the inner city and the granaries.” Ariel, Dara, and Dylan warn the rest that it’s cold and there’s a dwarf there.
They get to the granaries and are hit with wave of incredible cold as they open the door. The dwarf comes out: “Close the freaking door!” Dara closes the door. They ask him about construction problems in basement like a hole or tunnel. He asks, “What’s in it for me?” Dylan: “We don’t burn the place down.” He looks incensed at this. Skyler offers him an amulet of health +8, but it is nearly shattered with his fist of ice. Theron offers a mithral ring so that they can just take a look around…the dwarf says that the ring plus 150 steel is a deal. He wanders out to the back room. There is a trapdoor through the bottom of the ice coating the floor. Ariel melts the ice. There is a colder room below full of food stuffs like dairy products. Another trapdoor is beneath the ice; Ariel melts through again. Dylan opens the door. Below is more incredible cold. Skyler finds another door as well as a couple platinum frozen under ice. They burn, open the door, and go down. When Dara opens the door, they see a layer of ice that blocks the next layer down. On this floor there are whole cows in big walls of ice. After Ariel burns through, Skyler dislocates his arm trying to open it. Theron was about to brimstone eldritch blast it when Skyler opens it suddenly. They go down to yet more freaking cold. Another door, same deal. Theron brimstone blasts it. Pieces come off, and a united effort gets it up. Semi- warm air rushes through. They tumble/climb/fly down.
People use darkvision or fire to go on in the darkness. The stone is rough- hewn, as if someone adapted tunnels beneath city to this purpose. Raven goes in front and searches for traps. They cross into the passage and hear a ding ding ding like an alarm spell just gone off. Three doors to the side all burst open, and guards come pouring out. Raven hides. Vaeria takes full defense, Ariel sets her rapier on fire, and Skyler begins to sing a burning melody, making everyone gain a fire resistance of15. One of the fighters comes charging out madly at Raven, hitting him with a bastard sword. Luminia prepares a blood spicket. A rogue hides behind the door with a crossbow cocked and fires at Theron. It doesn’t hurt him too much, and the rogue looks angry. Theron is also angry and blasts the rogue with an utter dark blast because he’s pissed and wants to blast his fucking head off. Dara hits the rogue with earth reaver. Two fighters charge Skyler with his displacement and greater luminous armor, but only one hits. Dylan flanks the one on Raven and hits. Two more hidden rogues snipe Dara. One chinks off her armor, and one hits. Raven sneak attacks with the flanking. Vaeria tumbles through and sneak attacks the fighter on Raven and Dylan. Ariel does an attack on a fighter on Skyler. Skyler adds the refrain of the burning melody and sends out a cone of fire, hitting party members too. The fighter crits on Raven – “I’m not going down alone!” Luminia tries to stab a fighter close to Skyler with a blood spicket but stabs Skyler on accident. One rogue runs away (the one that Theron blasted). Theron does a vitriolic blast for acid damage on another rogue. Dara changes blood to water on a fighter on Skyler. Two fighters flank Skyler and attack him. Dylan kills the fighter in front of him. Two rogues try to shoot arrows at Theron. Raven flanks a fighter on Skyler and hits it. Vaeria tries to attack another fighter. Ariel heat deaths a rogue…he blows up boiled from the inside. Skyler does another cone. Theron attacks one of the fighters with acid. Dara heals critical mass, and Dylan hits the remaining rogue, who runs away. Vaeria does a happy victory dance.
They enter the door in front that the rogues had fled into. Theron detects magic while Raven checks for traps. Raven opens the door to an empty room with a round table in the middle with cards on it. Skyler detects magic in the room as three big blades come out of nowhere and strike him: three minotaurs, one with red fur, one with tan, and one with black. As Raven tumbles through, one attacks him, and he attacks another by flanking it with Skyler. Vaeria tumbles, flanks another one, and hits it. One minotaur attacks Skyler again but misses. Ariel sends out a firebolt but misses. Skyler drinks a potion of invisibility and two take attacks of opportunity; he moves back. Luminia uses her eye lasers on one. Theron blasts the black one, who now looks weak. Dara searing lights the same one but misses. The other two minotaurs flank Raven, but both miss. Dylan brings the black one down and cleaves into the brown one. Raven tumbles out of their range and throws his dagger but misses. Vaeria crits on one. Ariel hits one with a firebolt. Skyler fires three arrows at them and does brilliant energy, and the red one goes down and dies. Luminia uses eye lasers again on the tan one. Theron attacks the remaining tan one, hits it, and blasts it. Dara searing lights it, and he dies. Vaeria performs coup de grâce on the black one on the ground. She carries around his trachea. From the minotaurs they gain three +1 chain shirts, a belt of giant strength +4, two gloves of dexterity +2, and a weird device, which turns out to be something for putting contact poison on blades. Vaeria grabs the slightly damaged deck of playing cards.
The tunnel opens up into a huge abandoned open chamber. Raven runs into the room, and nothing happens. They search the room: on the opposite wall is another hallway. On the northeast is a door. Theron finds a secret entrance like the one under the Naughty Nibbler. Some hear chanting behind the door. It is a scrying spell. Vaeria whips her trachea around and prepares. Ariel activates her nimbus, so she is fiery all over. Skyler starts singing. The singing within stops. Raven stands guard in the back. Ariel opens the door. Vaeria’s Melf’s acid arrow goes off and hits someone, and Ariel is hit by a spell from within and barely avoids getting disintegrated … part of her is turned to sand. Two fighters come out and attack her. Both miss. Dara’s firestorm goes off, and the wizard doesn’t save. Skyler uses his breath weapon, fells the wizard, and mops up the fighters. They had known that they were here. Since they can’t get in the secret room, they go down the hallway, which is filled with rubble. Across from the hallway is a cell containing the elder druid; his right leg has been chopped off with the cursed falchion. Dylan talks to him. Raven and Vaeria watch everyone’s backs. Dara holds up the hand puppets of the druid and the werewolf. Culnamo is ill-tempered. He says that they kidnapped him because he was a little too open about the fact that there was something unnatural going on in this city…someone reported his conversation with Ariel, Dylan, and Dara to the government, who set the thieves’ guild on him. The government is apparently not all it appears to be. They look in other cells and find an old tattered merchant guy with a goatee. Skyler lets him out, and he squeals. He is Kilraven. The last cell is empty, and they search it. Skyler and Dara go in, and the door slams shut behind them. Dara gaseous forms out. Skyler finds a ring in a pile of refuge, a ring of minor acid resistance. Raven gets him out. Luminia questions the druid: “Do you know the druidess Tamika with the unicorn?” They talk for a bit. Dara pokes him with the werewolf puppet, and he glares. There are signs of a hasty exit, most likely because the party killed everyone else rather quickly. The druid says that it would probably be good idea to go back the same way they came in. He looks pretty frail and rides on Luminia’s back. Skyler carries Kilraven.
They start going back; then the secret door comes open with a clang clang clang. They encounter a megapede. It crawls out and moves in to eat them. Raven hides and moves silently. Dara flame strikes but doesn’t overcome spell resistance. Dylan stays behind Ariel, knowing she is likely to implode. Skyler inspires courage with words of creation and moves to join Raven. Luminia moves to the back to get the old druid to safety. Culnamo casts mass bear’s endurance. Vaeria fails spell resistance on magic missiles. The megapede goes up and bites Skyler, draining con and dex. Ariel does a conflagration and explodes, damaging it. Raven moves up and flanks and hits it. Dara uses the spell ice flowers. Dylan gets hit with a tentacle and then hits it…only the shocking on his trident does much good. Theron blasts it. Skyler sings burning melody and the refrain, blasting it with a cone of fire. Then he moves back, and it hits him; Skyler is in great pain. Luminia tries eye lasers, but it’s not evil. She prepares her blender cone. Culnamo prepares an action. Vaeria tumbles through and uses her breath weapon. It attacks her. Theron does a dark blast. The megapede attacks Skyler with tentacles and bites. Skyler dies. Culnamo steps in and casts words of power…silken threads encase Skyler’s body in a cocoon; if he is raised, he’ll take no constitution or level loss. At the end of the week, he will be automatically reincarnated. Ariel firebolts it. Raven sneak attacks it, but not for much…it doesn’t take stabbing damage well. Dara does another ice flower. Dylan manages to do a little damage. Luminia breath attacks it with the blender. Vaeria flanks it and hits it. Theron tries to hit, but it resists his attack. It attacks Dylan. Dylan dies. Culnamo staggers out, and it hits him; he is almost dead, but he casts last breath on Dylan so that he is stable at -1. Ariel firebolts, Raven stabs it, Dylan is healed by Dara, and Dylan heals Culnamo. Luminia jumps in and guards the druid. Vaeria shenanigans and attacks but doesn’t hit. Theron blasts it. It is angry at Luminia for taking away its meal and attacks her, raking her with tentacles. Culnamo prepares a healing spell, and Ariel blows the megapede up. It dies. Vaeria dances in the gore. Dara casts cure poison on Vaeria. Dylan uses his tracking skills to get everyone out.
The druid grove rewards them for returning their elder, so they all receive blessings from nature. Vaeria trades sorcerer levels to druid levels. Skyler is reincarnated as a half-orc half-dragon after a week has passed. Luminia gets improved dexterity on her armor. Raven takes inflicted lycanthropy. Dylan has a contingent cocoon cast on him. Dara gets spell penetration as a bonus feat. Theron can wildshape once a day, Skyler has wings, and Ariel can shape-shift into a fire elemental once a day. Treasure: bracers of armor +6, amulet of natural armor +2, ring of protection +2, +1 shortspear, gloves of dexterity +2, headband of intelligence +6, 75,000 steel, 20,000 steel, three +2 greatswords, two sets of +2 full plate, three bracers of armor +4, three +2 shortbows…
Skyler the now half-orc half-dragon bard has to relearn to sing – La la la la…Everyone has to do their two hour stint in the field. Ariel tries very hard not to burn anything, and she is put in charge of burning chaff. Luminia has to pull plows. Things are beginning to change in the grove – there are more rangers keeping watch at night. Dylan helps keep watch. Steve performs tricks, and there is much rejoicing. All are summoned to the grove by the elder Culnamo. He is much improved – his leg has grown back. Vidomina is throwing a party to celebrate the survival of the city. He wants the group to secure an invitation for it and attend. (They have to prove to the government that they are powerful people who deserve an invitation to the party – or dangerous enough to keep an eye on.) Ariel: “All I need to do is walk near the fields.” (Too dangerous = assassination, according to the GM.) Dylan: “Be loveably dangerous!” Ariel: “We can talk to the dog-lady Fidomina.” There is much amusement. Luminia: “We can put a sparkly leash on her.” Luminia learns to rules of decorum: no weapons, only well-dressed armor. Ariel and Dylan go off to talk to Alton Ogrebane the kender. Before that they shop for fashion accessories. First they talk to Glimmer. She suggests they gain a local reputation. She will let them borrow some baubles for a fee. Theron goes to Bohb’s Shop o’ Everything. Bohb: “What do you want?” Theron: “Shall I remind you the customer is always right? Act a little nicer, asshole.” Skyler buys a cloak of charisma plus two. Vaeria goes to the glamorous place and meets a snotty person: “Are you worthy of a change of wardrobe?” Skyler sings outside Vidomina’s house. The guards try to drag him off but are struck by the beauty of his singing. Two hours later, an invitation is thrown out the window. Luminia gets her armor cleaned and professionally worked on and her crown fashioned. She also takes a mint bath and gets a scale massage. Dara goes to the richer part of town and looks for nice people. She tries to look pathetic – most of the nobles see right through her, but a gnome asks: “What’s wrong, little girl?” She says she’s in love with some guy that’s working at the party. He tells Dara to stage a disruption and then show up and save the day so that she will get an invitation. Ariel asks Vaeria to help her and Dylan in to the snobby place, and she gets them in and gets them clothes. Vaeria wants a bath; she gets one from a temple assistant. Skyler gets his armor shined. Theron’s in the emo bar, and the emo dragon has an invitation but isn’t excited about going. He tells him that Vidomina has given invitations to the city watch. Ariel and Dylan talk to the kender. He slips his hand into Ariel’s pocket, as he acts more kender-like in the bar. He gave all the invitations to the guards, so they have to talk to one of them. Dara tells her sob story to a guard, but he becomes suspicious. Vaeria does a pretty dance in front of one of the guards. She gets an invitation. Ariel goes up to another guard with flashy fire. She and Dylan get invitations, although the guard says that she is responsible for Dylan’s behavior. Luminia sleeps on top of someone’s roof.
The next day, Skyler performs “The hills are alive with the sound of music…” in the street and causes a traffic jam. Vaeria takes a mint bath, and Ariel and Dylan take a steam bath. Someone grabs Dara’s wrist and shoves an invitation into her hands. Theron demands an invitation from a guard. After some intimidation, he gets an invitation shoved in his hands. Luminia sweetly asks a guard if he has an extra ticket. Guard: “Look look look, a dragon in bright shining armor!” Dara looks for a pretty dress, but she is kicked out of the snobby store. A fifteen year old girl wants to be everyone’s herald.
All of their weapons are checked at the door. Beyond the gates is a short but steep rising path, flanked by nice exotic plants. Dylan knows that one is ginger. Luminia eats it. One of the guards shoos her off of the plants; they think she is a pet. There is a massive manor with gardens on either side. Glimmer and the emo dragon Munwythrix land in front of the terrace. With them is the ogre bard, who announces them. The fifteen year old girl screams at the top of her voice to announce the group. All hold their ears except for Vidomina, who laughs and says: “Introduce them again, more, more!” Everyone is annoyed with their group. Everyone else also has a gift. The gifts are worth about 2,000 steel each. Theron walks up to Vidomina and asks which god has been giving her an ear. She says that she serves an ideal: food. Vidomina, the ogre bard, servants, Bohb leaning on his staff and glaring (Skyler waves and mimics the rod of wonder), the food storage cold dwarf, Alton Ogrebane, Glimmer and Munwythrix, a hill dwarf, a handsome half-orc, the high priestess, and the head of the servants are all in attendance, among others. The ogre bard welcomes everyone: “You may now present your gifts to honor the lady!” The ogre is there holding a necklace and a scepter. Vidomina smiles at Theron, expecting a gift. Theron: “I’ll just give you some money.” Luminia smiles really big and gives her a scroll of phantom steed and an emerald tied together with shiny fur. Ariel apologizes: “I’m not very good at offering physical things, so I offer my services, my lady.” She doesn’t want pyrotechnics at the party. Dara gaseous forms out and runs to a store to find something. Dylan says his gift is coming later and pays some cash. Vaeria wants to entertain, but Luminia prefers something more material, so Vaeria gives her 8,000 steel. Skyler gives her a ring of lore wrapped in scrolls with a note: Her history should never be forgotten. She calls him out: “This is a proper gift!” Everyone else is jealous. Dara comes back with a basalt statue, dashes in and screeches to a halt. She accepts it and tells the servants to set it up in the art center.
After gifts, all are led to a garden on the left side. The ogre welcomes all to the garden of expecterance and the handsome slaughter of the curious avians. Vidomina takes her weapon (a crossbow) out and says that she’s feeling lucky; if any beat her, she will give them 1,000 steel. Colored birds fly out, and Vaeria is blinded. Vidomina brings down six of them. Dara: “Poor birdies!” Random crowd person: “Well, no one said she was a good cleric.” Theron also shoots and takes down five. Skyler lazily picks a crossbow up and then starts firing like crazy. He hits eight, and she looks upset. She wasn’t expecting to lose. Dylan hits seven, and she continues to be upset. Dylan and Skyler both give their 1,000 back and suck up. Dara has a flashback and is sad…Ariel says not to worry, they can burn the dead bodies later.
The next event is live sports and baiting. The rings held by a person control a cockatrice. They have to make rabbit statues with the cockatrice and then kill the opponent’s cockatrice. Luminia tries against Vidomina. Twelve cute little bunny rabbits are turned to stone…Dara cries. Luminia’s turns the most rabbits, so there is a cockatrice fight. Luminia’s petrifies Vidomina’s, and she wins a giant golden egg. Egg-like products are served. Dara cries. Ariel roasts some eggs for Dylan. Dylan and Luminia take bunny statues. Ariel burns a mustache onto Dylan’s.
Next they come to a pavilion with tables. The ogre hands Vidomina a skull painted black. The rest are also given skulls. Skyler performs Shakespeare. The skull chucked the farthest wins. Vidomina’s and Luminia’s get close, but Skyler’s wins, and he gets a skull and ruby necklace. The servants pass around gingerbread men without heads. Ariel burninates…Mmm charred gingerbread man. Theron: “This is the greatest party ever!” The pavilion is filled with art, much of which features Vidomina herself. She stands at the head of the table and gives a speech. Servants serve food. All are given a small covered silver goblet. Inside is a body part. Dylan and Ariel trade. It’s a tradition. Dylan has Ariel cook his ear, and she cooks some of the others. They’re not actually humanoid body parts, though…they’re tasty. Vidomina tells them that everyone should remember those who have perished. The ogre tells a story of a fat ogre chief who fell down and crashed through the walls of a city. Dara tells the story of a slaughter at the cleric place. They don’t like her story much. Vaeria tells the story of her daddy. Ariel tells a story about searching for a key, and Dylan helps. Skyler also tells one. Theron stands up and can’t speak, and then sits down and looks embarrassed. The next course is a giant pie; a dwarf hauls a greatsword off his back and cuts open the pie, and the avians come swarming out of it (just illusions). Vaeria does a mental pie dance. They eat the pie and drink wine. Dylan gets slightly drunk. Steve is drunk by association, although he is back in the druid grove. Vaeria is tipsy. A little gnome comes up to Ariel, looking nervous: “Will you marry me?” He shoves a necklace in her hands. Ariel: “I’m already married, I’m sorry.” She points at Vaeria: “She gives really good head. But if I ever get divorced, I’ll marry you.” Theris the gnome now dislikes Vaeria. Skyler chats with the shadowdragon: “I swear I killed you with the coup de grâce.” Theron talks to the ice dwarf about the fiendish warhorse he made a gift to Vidomina. They get friendly. Alton is sitting next to Vaeria. “How did you get an invitation?” Ariel: “She probably seduced them because she’s really hot.” Alton confides in Dylan that he is dissatisfied with Vidomina and will support other rulers, perhaps him and his friends. Now for the third course: wybasarrirge, an entire wyvern stuffed with basilisk steaks, arrowhawk breasts, and sturges with olives. It tastes pretty awful. It’s sent back for a burning. Dylan learns that there’s a war between the druid grove and the thieves’ guild. Skyler chats about history to Vidomina. The fourth dish is tasty purple worm pudding. Dylan abstains from more wine. Vaeria is drunk off her ass. The half-orc talks about how he killed all these minotaurs. A bragging contest begins! Alton is the best braggart of them all. Theron continues talking to the dwarf, trying to find out about Vidomina. The dwarf asks Theron to be his business partner in food storage; Theron: “That sounds boring as hell.” Theron asks Vidomina’s status: she is single, but she hates distractions. The fifth course is a massive massive massive cake that looks like an angel. Theron: “I want the breasts.” Little figures were made of all of the guests, holding their hands up to Vidomina. Then the cake falls. The fake Vidomina’s head lands in Dylan’s lap. He takes a finger of frosting. Vidomina looks like she wants to execute the entire cooking staff. The ogre saves the day. Dylan and Theron eat her head, and Vaeria and Ariel eat each other.
The dinner ends, and there is rowdy dancing. Vaeria does a cake dance. Skyler performs. Dara gaseous forms and makes it seem like her figure is talking. Vidomina and the dwarf have slipped off. Dylan tracks to the locked back door, gets bored, and comes back. Skyler goes off and then comes back. Theron and Luminia try to find her. Vaeria tries to teach Dylan to dance. All the party goers leave. Dylan, Theron, and Dara feel sick. A bit of blood comes out of Dylan’s mouth – ginger and cheap wine. Some people’s food was poisoned. Theron is also puking bits of internal organs. Dara restores them. An elf passes by, fearing that he offended Vidomina. He barfs up his innards and falls on the ground dead. Everyone goes back to the druid grove and reports the poison to Culnamo. Theron: “Kill her and steal her stuff!” Culnamo: “So, you want to depose Vidomina?” Time…planning…armies…She is enslaving the people with food. Ariel gets Culnamo to marry her and Vaeria. He conjures thorns and cuts them, then holds their hands together. A sprout comes up from the ground where their blood fell and blossoms. Culnamo gives all of them boosting spells.
They return to her manor house and all get inside the wall ok. Dara floats through the back door and unlocks it for everyone. Darkness, light, darkness, light (spells)…they enter an art gallery full of disturbing and uplifting pieces of art. They go left again, and there’s a bed. Theron (invisible) bounces on the bed, and it squeaks. There’s a door in all four directions. Dara spins her stick with light cast on it, and they end up in the kitchen. To the right is the dining chamber. They go into the other lower class dining chamber. They go to the right into a big big audience chamber. Theron detects magic and senses an aura to the left behind a door. There are voices. Vidomina and a very very deep voice are speaking – the minotaur. Theron blasts the door, but a fireball blasts him through the door. Vidomina and the minotaur pound a brick on the wall, and they disappear into separate secret passage ways.
Theron, Dara, and Luminia go after Vidomina. Theron blasts the wall and degrades it. As they run down the passage way, they are hit by Evard’s black tentacles and are grappled. Vidomina sneak attacks with electricity. Theron flees the scene to right behind her. She tumbles past him and into the next room. Dara turns into a gaseous form and floats away ten feet. Luminia breaks free of the tentacles. Theron goes into the room and doesn’t see her. Everyone is back in the entryway via secret door. Vidomina shoots Theron from behind some furniture. Dara dispels magic, but there was nothing to dispel. Luminia flies by and lasers the couch. Theron sets the couch on fire. Vidomina is still hiding. Theron feels rumbling from behind him, and a suit of armor falls on him, pinning him. Vidomina is behind it, but she ducks into the shadows again. Dara heals Theron. Luminia moves the armor off of him. Theron stands up and blasts at the spot he saw her last. Luminia hears footsteps and tumbling. She points it out like a pointer dog. Theron blasts that area. There’s a scream, and footsteps dash out into the hallway. Vidomina attacks Dara next as she runs past into the art gallery. Dara opens the door: it’s pitch black. Luminia blindsenses and shoots with her lasers; they dissipate against Vidomina’s skin (she’s not QUITE evil). Theron peers up over the dragon’s shoulder and blasts but misses. Vidomina moves back. Dara casts ice flowers. Luminia notices that she’s moving between art pieces. Theron summons chilling tentacles in that general area. She tumbles out of them, and Theron’s staff gets stolen. Theron takes his waterskin and splashes it into the general direction; the water becomes invisible, but they have located her. Vidomina makes a mad dash for the nearest door, and Theron hits her with his morningstar as she goes by.
Ariel, Skyler, Vaeria, and Dylan go after the minotaur. They find the brick to open the secret door, but they are also grappled by tentacles. Skyler and Dylan avoid being grappled, but Ariel and Vaeria are. Skyler slogs his way through the tentacles. Dylan casts freedom of movement on himself and gets out of the tentacles. The minotaur slams a table against the door and traps them in. Vaeria is still grappled, but Ariel gets out. Skyler makes it up to the door and listens but can’t hear anything. Dylan also listens but can’t hear anything. Vaeria breaks free and squirms towards the door. The tentacles keep trying to grapple them. Arrows fly out from the door, hitting Skyler, Vaeria, and Dylan. Ariel gets over to the door – she blasts the table with a firebolt. Skyler fires brilliant energy arrows at the minotaur. Dylan breaks through the table with a full attack. The minotaur moves into another room, and there’s another table against the next doorway. Ariel firebolts it again. Skyler flies up and listens, and Dylan hits the table. Ariel hits the table again and blows it apart. Ariel and Dylan taught those tables who was boss. Skyler starts up the dirge of frozen loss. Dylan tries but can’t find the minotaur and takes cover. Vaeria hears breathing in the next room: she breath weapons it. He evades, however. Ariel moves closer to the door. Skyler hears where he is. Everyone prepares and takes total defense. Ariel hears a sudden roar and hands grab her and throw her on the ground. She is scared to death. The minotaur disappears again. They hear footsteps out, but Skyler sees him and blasts him with cold. Vaeria and Dylan are quite pissed that the minotaur killed their wife/friend. Dylan spring attacks. The minotaur retreats into the next room, and they see the rest of their party.
Deemer’s the minotaur’s name. Dara gets sneak-attacked with a shortbow. Dylan guards the only other door in the room so they can’t run out again. Skyler sings to give everyone resistance to fire and cold, and he blasts Vidomina with cold. Dara puts dispel magic around Vidomina, and she is visible. Deemer goes after Theron, and he is thrown on the ground and attacked. Luminia flies up and misses biting Vidomina. Vaeria attacks Vidomina but misses. Theron tries to cast, but it fizzles. Vidomina screams “Ah, master! Help me!” and tumbles past Dylan into the next room. Dylan spring attacks the minotaur but doesn’t hit. Skyler attacks Deemer and adds the refrain, dealing more cold damage. Dara casts ice flowers into the room. The minotaur tumbles past everyone and into the next room. Luminia senses him in the next room and eye lasers but misses. Vaeria tumbles into the room. Theron stands up gingerly. Inside the room are bloody footprints going into a secret door.
Ariel is revived by Dara. She hugs Vaeria; Dylan hugs Ariel. They see a staircase going down. They go down, the bottom drops out, and grease sprays out. Dylan grabs the wall with his cloak, Skyler uses his wings to slow himself, and all end in a chamber with an enormously fat dragon: “Ah ha ha, room service has been kind to me.” Gluttony grabs Luminia and grapples her in his mouth. Next to Gluttony are the two rogues, who have been sucking down healing potions. Vidomina goes after Skyler, and the minotaur applies poison to his blade. Ariel activates her nimbus ability and gets up. Skyler inspires courage and does his dirge of cold. Vaeria shenanigans. Luminia is swallowed. Theron stands up blasts Vidomina with an eldritch spear. Dylan moves up. Dara casts blood to water on all of the enemies; Gluttony doesn’t have his fast healing feat any more. Luminia claws and bites to get out. Vidomina retreats behind Gluttony and surrenders. Deemer turns invisible and dashes out. Ariel firebolts Gluttony; the fire encounters a magic shield and dissipates. Skyler blasts the fleeing minotaur. Vaeria shenanigans. Gluttony attacks Vaeria, and she is stuck in Gluttony’s mouth. Ariel: “Wifey!” Theron tries greater dispel magic, gets attacked, and fails. Dylan tries to hit and fails. Dara casts blood to water again. Luminia attacks from the inside again. Ariel tries heat-deathing, but he takes no damage. The minotaur has run away. Skyler shoots Gluttony. Vaeria gets swallowed. Theron dispels the superior resistance but not to cold or fire, although he does dispel electricity. Dara casts blood to water again. Gluttony looks angry at Dara. Luminia continues attacking from the inside and gets outside. Skyler uses his breath weapon (electricity). Vaeria attacks his gizzard. Gluttony attacks Dara, hurts her badly, and grapples her. Theron dispels magic again on the fire and cold. Dylan still fails to hit (he’d need a nat20…). Dara gaseous forms out of his mouth. Luminia laser eyes him. Ariel is bitten and grappled, but she explodes in a fiery burst in his mouth. Skyler hits him with a ray. Vaeria is dying in his belly. Gluttony uses his breath weapon. Theron tries an utter dark blast and hurts him. Vaeria dies and goes and becomes the lord of tricks over her daddy. Ariel gets swallowed. Theron does a brimstone blast but fails spell resistance. Luminia hits with eye lasers. Ariel is in his stomach. Skyler freezes him, and Ariel falls out of his stomach; they have killed the first of the seven sins.
Vidomina begs for mercy. She is looking horrendously weak. Theron: “Just what are you willing to do to get spared? You can hang around and be my woman.” She agrees and looks scared of Theron. She looks quasi-sexy with the scars…not the pampered lady from before. Gluttony ate the warlock scepter, though. Theron cuts Gluttony open…there are rolls and rolls of fat to get past. Since Luminia is immune to acid, she slices it open with her claws. She gets damage from a sonic breath weapon that Gluttony had prepared. However, she gets a permanent +2 armor bonus and +2 resistance to dragon breath and dragon spells. Skyler cuts through to the heart. He takes damage as well. They find Vaeria’s head (which Ariel spends the rest of the session mourning over) and the corroded scepter. The warlock scepter works, but it’s kind of damage. Theron still sticks it in his pack. Skyler eats the heart, and he gets bloodlust (red eyes glowing out of depths of the dragon carcass…dun dun dun). Everyone hides; he attacks the body of Gluttony and Vaeria’s body. After eight minutes, he passes out in a pool of acid. Raven rubs his face in the acid.
Enter Silawyn Gulstrae, a half-brass dragon monk/sorcerer. She gets mobbed coming into the city.
They sleep. They are awoken by a dull roar from above. Theron casts spiderclimb on himself, and Dylan uses his cloak to climb up. The couch on fire from the day before caused the manor house to be gutted. The rest make their way up. Skyler flies above the building, and arrows and rocks are thrown at him. All of the area around the city, where the fields used to be, is dead (as Gluttony is dead). The city is in an uproar. Vidomina’s mansion and all of their food is gone. Dara turns into gas and floats up. There is an ice fortress around food storage. Fires are everywhere. People are being lynched…mass chaos. Dara sighs and casts hero’s feast on the town, although it’s not enough. Skyler starts throwing food down from the everlasting feedbag, and a mob bursts in the gates. Dylan jumps on Luminia’s back and they fly off for the druid grove. Theron shoves Vidomina out in front: “Here she is!” They try to beat Theron and drag him off to be lynched; Vidomina (unrecognized) is shoved out of the way. Raven changes into a wolf/dog and escapes. Theron flees the scene, and he and Vidomina run like hell. Dara floats over to the druid grove, and that’s where Theron and Vidomina run as well.
Dylan and Luminia see a familiar dire wolf running in the opposite direction…he whimpers, acting like Lassie. A skeletal dire tiger barrels out at him and claws him. Luminia eye lasers the undead tiger. Dylan slings at it. The tiger rips the wolf some more, and the wolf hits it back. Luminia uses her eye lasers, and Dylan “heals” it. Luminia hits the tiger and blasts, killing him. Dylan heals the wolf, who then tugs on Dylan’s clothes, and they follow him. They get through the town, but the druid grove is in flames. The area is littered with dead animals, dead rangers, and dead druids. The wolf charges into the flames, and Dylan follows him, as does Luminia after activating her circle of evil. They see a blighter making druids explode (the same druidess that was riding a unicorn)…the unicorn is tied up nearby and looks like he’s about to become a burnt offering. Culnamo is lying off to the side, and the werewolf is attacking the blighter. Dylan runs over to check on Culnamo. The werewolf Ortinoth charges the blighter. She hits him with a harm spell. Luminia charges for Charles the unicorn and slashes the ropes. Dylan runs up to the werewolf and heals him a bit. The werewolf casts brilliant blade on his spear. The blighter casts horrid wilting and evaporates the blood of the werewolf, Dylan, and the wolf. Luminia uses her eye lasers, and Dylan tumbles around and hits the blighter. The werewolf hits her three times. She casts poison on the werewolf. Luminia gets closer and uses her eye lasers. Dylan hits her several times; the werewolf staggers back and heals himself. The blighter implodes Dylan. He dies but is wrapped in his cocoon. Luminia charges in but misses. The werewolf charges in and kills the blighter. Then he goes to save Culnamo. They’re in a burning forest. Then Dara arrives, as do Theron and Vidomina. Luminia drags the good people out. She also destroys the body of the blighter by eating it. Theron blasts cold to put out fire. Then Theron feels slightly sick and has flashbacks to being molested by his uncle, but it passes quickly. Dara creates water all over the druid grove and puts out the fires. Steve pokes the cocoon, looking forlorn and irresistibly cute. Raven animates an undead tiger with a scroll. Luminia nurses Charles back to health. Silawyn reenacts the second Matrix movie and moves through lots of Mr. Smiths. Skyler tries to poke the cocoon, but Steve bites his finger.
Dara goes to the temple to ask for a diamond in order to raise Dylan from the dead…but there’s a dull roar. She changes into air. Raven and Skyler also go to the temple. Skyler takes to the air and gets rocks and arrows thrown at him. Raven gets grappled by the mob. Dara floats into the temple. Raven uses dimension door and casts greater invisibility on himself. Skyler drinks a potion of invisibility. The mob chants for their death. Vidomina and Theron hide in an alley. Dara gets flamestriked as she enters the temple. The priestess is fully armed and dangerous. “Pathetic half- blood tool! You will discover the impotence of your pathetic god now! Attack!” The mob swarms over Dara and grapples her. She gaseous forms and floats up to the ceiling. The mob parts, and the priestess walks up with her flail and whacks her. The priestess is a bigot and hates demihumans. The mob gathers by the entrance and waits under her. She floats up some more, but she gets a dispel spell cast on her and falls down on the mob. Dara hits herself with a wand and heals herself. Skyler and Raven show up, but they’re both invisible. Raven sneaks up to the temple, activates spiderclimb, and tries to go up to a window. Skyler casts silence on himself and lands on the roof. The mob continues hitting, Dara hits herself with her wand to heal herself, and the head priestess looks shinier. Raven casts freedom of movement on himself, runs through the mob, and grabs Dara. Dara and Raven try to get out, but they don’t break free. Raven dimension doors out of the temple against the wall and casts greater invisibility on Dara. The priestess yells “They’re invisible!” and casts true seeing on herself.
She looks up and sees Skyler. He ducks away from the window and starts flying away. The mob starts to follow him out. The priestess comes out, looks up, and casts blasphemy. Dara heals herself some more. Raven runs off towards the druid grove. Skyler is dazed and begins to descend. Theron and Vidomina keep making out in an alley. The priestess takes an attack of opportunity, but she hurts her hand. The mob gets closer to Dara. The priestess hits Skyler with a touch attack, but he fortunately isn’t cursed. Skyler takes a five foot step back and casts innervation, but it doesn’t work. Dara tries to run away from the mob, but the mob hears her. The priestess attacks Skyler with her flail and injures him. Dara gives up on being quiet and runs like heck down the alley, clanking in her full armor. Skyler flees into the air, and she hits him as he flies away. She casts slime wave and screams bad words at him. Then she turns and stalks back toward Dara. Dara casts earth reaver on the mob and knocks them prone.
Silawyn shows up and sees a very angry mob screaming “Death to all halfbreeds!” She charges in and attacks. Theron (as he has sex in an alleyway): “She’s not my sex slave; she’s my unwilling girlfriend.” The mob moves over Silawyn. The priestess strolls casually around. Dara casts firestorm on the priestess and ducks down another alley. Silawyn goes crunch crunch crunch and breaks up the mob. The priestess starts laughing: “Isn’t this a righteous day today.” She casts poison, but it doesn’t affect Silawyn. Dara does a radiant assault, hitting both the priestess and Silawyn (she doesn’t know who Silawyn is). Silawyn shenanigans the Ur-priestess. The Ur-priestess invokes chilling tentacles around Silawyn’s feet. Dara wants the Ur-priestess to die faster, so she does chain lightning. Silawyn tries to grapple out but fails and takes cold damage. The Ur-priestess heals herself. Dara does searing light on her. Silawyn does her breath weapon. The priestess casts freedom of movement on herself. Dara does searing light again. Silawyn grapples and breaks free. She heals and comes towards Dara, who flame-strikes and moves back. Silawyn tries again to hit her. She casts chilling tentacles at Dara: “Oh, I love that tiefling’s spell.” Dara is entangled in the grappling tentacles. Silawyn hits with an orb of fire. She turns and casts chilling tentacles at Silawyn again. Theron and Vidomina notice that a mob is coming in their direction. They pull clothes on and prepare. Dara tries to escape, as does Silawyn. The priestess holds a harm spell in her hand and goes up to Silawyn. Dara tries to escape and fails, but Silawyn manages to escape. The priestess turns and aims at the cleric. Silawyn stumbles back into the tentacles. Dara uses her last gaseous form and floats out, and the priestess curses her. Silawyn is still grappled, and she wanders back towards Silawyn as Dara floats away. Silawyn punches her. The priestess keeps trying to touch Silawyn with her spell. Dara is on the other side of the tentacles. Silawyn hits her again. The priestess tries finger of death. Dara casts searing light on her, and Silawyn channels a spell into her fists. The priestess takes a five foot step back and word of recalls herself elsewhere.
Skyler flying hears a mob and a wailing: he sees a half-white dragon with a humming sword confronting the mob. Skyler dives down to help her out, as she’s Kisha, his half sister. Skyler starts singing. Kisha wades in and swings, whirling and raging. She kills the mob. She loves her weapon. She and Skyler talk. She needs to talk to the leader of the city. Skyler: “You’re looking at one of them.” She doesn’t think he’s quite right in the head.
Raven gets on the tiger and goes to get Luminia. He’s hailed by a signal of his guild. He follows a woman down to the end of the alleyway. She was the chief servant in Vidomina’s household (Erica Fade, hired as an infiltrator). The thieves’ guild is still very active in the city. It was she that marked the symbol on the tree. Deemer keeps control, but he always has a front (a person seemingly in charge whom he dominates). The thieves’ guild is in charge of the rioting. The only place they haven’t infiltrated is the Crying Jester because of the emo dragon. They don’t want anyone in charge and want everyone else to fight amongst themselves so that they can take over. Part of the guard has joined the riots, and the others have tried to take over food storage. Raven mounts back up and heads to the druid grove.
One of the druids reincarnates Dylan…fortunately he’s still a half-elf. Culnamo regains consciousness. Luminia, Charles (who is very affectionate toward Luminia), and Dylan and Steve follow Raven to the temple. They find Dara and Silawyn there. Skyler also heads there with Kisha: two very charismatic half-dragons. Silawyn (also a half-dragon) waves; they’re second cousins twice removed. A little paper slips out of Kisha’s armor, and Dylan picks it up and hands it to Raven, who can read it. Kisha: “So, are you the leaders of this city? I’ve had a very hard day.” Theron jabs Vidomina with a thumb and points her out as the former leader. Kisha’s come to warn them that they had better get this city under control or else everyone is going to die horribly. Two more sin dragons are coming: a golden one and a pitch black one.
Raven puzzles out that the note is draconic. He shows Skyler. Luminia grabs the note, but Skyler keeps hold of it. They talk about it being a funny joke. Kisha looks bemused and tucks the original paper away. Silawyn tries to grab it too, but Skyler eats it. Apparently the joke’s too funny to be shared with nondraconics. Luminia tells the joke to Charles.
Kisha was spying on the two dragons and their large armies. Skyler suggests sacking the city first. She doesn’t want to reveal her plans in this chaotic city. Another city sprouted from the ground using force to get food, but mostly they’ve been stealing items that create food. Kisha manages to avoid killing the party’s divine spellcasters (she apparently hates them). “Take charge of the city, it’s the only way to survive.” She recommends enthralling/calming the mobs. The werewolf Raven on the undead tiger intimidates. Theron goes off to screw with Vidomina. Silawyn suggests leading them all into one area and enrapturing the mobs.
Dara goes to talk to the ice dwarf. There are huge walls of ice and frozen people. When she calls for him, she is greeted with a rock heaved at her head. She says she’ll give him food and casts create food and water. Then she explains a plan to cast ice wall around people: food and sex slaves! He wants money instead, however – 10,000 steel and the position of second in command. Ballarak the ice dwarf wanders down and lets Dara in.
Dylan goes to look for the kender Alton Ogrebane. He and a bunch of his men are trying to create an area of calm around the Crying Jester. The emo dragon and Glimmer are helping, blasting a perimeter. Dylan is relieved of his weapons and taken to seen Alton and the two dragons. He convinces them to help them out against the mobs, but doesn’t do too well impressing the guards. Dylan gives the dragons the jeweled ring and the jeweled crown and gets their aid and a free identify. All return…dinner time, and people are eating dead bodies near the druid grove. Theron wants the tablet identified, so the emo dragon looks at it. It is more powerful magic than he has ever seen in his life. It can kill people at 12,000 ft.
They sleep (or those who can ignore the din outside sleep)…they’re crowded all into one room. People carve and draw things on Skyler (‘kick me’ and ‘chaotic stupid’ on his butt and tail and a smiley face on his head). Kisha has her sword set for warding, standing in a corner. The next morning, Theron kicks Skyler’s butt as per the directions. Kisha casts refreshment on Dara and Silawyn, who could not sleep the night before. Raven hides and sneaks to the temple…they want to kill whoever “killed” the high priestess. Raven melds into the mob and starts yelling: “I saw them, they’re in the Crying Jester!” Silawyn bitch-slaps Skyler awake. Kisha holy wails at him. He takes 37 damage and is panicked. He jumps out the window. Raven takes charge of the crowd, and they follow him towards the Crying Jester. Dara goes to get the dwarf. As she and the dwarf return, they see Skyler fall out of the window screaming. Raven picks other crowds up along the way. Dara and the dwarf climb up on the roof of the Crying Jester. As everyone tromps up, Alton goes “Holy shit!”
Raven is leading 480 people. Silawyn casts flare to make it look like there are torches everywhere. Alton suggests getting the wall up. Dara and Ballarak cast walls around the Crying Jester and around the outside perimeters of the crowd. Dara, Skyler, and Kisha cast calm emotions. All of the mobs are calmed. Raven also feels very calm. The big emo dragon lands in the middle and calms them further. Kisha stands up and gives a speech, and Silawyn also gives a big speech. The mob is fine until the calm spell wears off and they freak out about the news about the coming armies. Kisha and Skyler sing praises to their gods. The crowd calms down again as Silawyn diplomacies. Raven: “We have food to offer, and if all just go back to being calm, we can provide food in an orderly manner…” Theron: “Vidomina was only giving you food by the power of an unholy creature.” Silawyn makes the mob enthusiastic about being calm: “Yay, we’re going to be calm!” They dispel the walls. The remaining druids show up and produce a big pile of goodberries and created food and water and hero’s feast.
Raven goes back to the temple, and no one is there. The place is ransacked. Skyler comes too, and they look in the now-empty statue with an obscene cartoon of a certain half-dragon and a certain air-elemental. Raven sees something behind an altar that he can’t quite reach. He finally gets his hand hooked into a very dusty cloak. It’s nothing they’ve ever seen before. However, it’s pretty strong evil magic. Skyler throws it on…he takes three negative levels for being demihuman, a divine caster, and good. Raven yanks the cloak off and puts it on himself. It gives him a bonus to his saving throws equal to his charisma modifier (a vile bonus). He gives it back to Skyler. Skyler puts it back on just to spite it. He runs out the door, but Raven dimension doors in front of him. Skyler takes to the air, and Raven grabs the cloak. Skyler goes unconscious. Raven takes it off his body, and he’s conscious again. Raven slaps him upside the head. Silawyn cleans it. It’s a mantle of stolen grace. Raven designates Alton as Captain of the Guard. Kisha explains of what she knows of the battle plans: they will bring the army up against the walls and then create a distraction to bring savage humanoids to the other side. However, it’s an army of six thousand…the entire population of the city is only two thousand. Fortunately those two thousand are fanatics for Silawyn’s cause. They also might dig underneath it and collapse the walls.
Silawyn glomps Kisha before she goes off to the druid grove to practice. Poor Ariel is still sitting next to the little tree from her and Vaeria’s wedding. The gnome is trying to comfort her. She sees the half-dragon Kisha, and Ariel mumbles about knowing a half-dragon once. Kisha forbids any jokes about her glowing shining sword: “Let’s get this over with right now. I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. And no, I’m not going to ‘handle’ it. And while we’re at it, there will be no force jokes, no probe droid jokes, no Jedi master jokes, and I will not play in your scarlacc pit. Got it? And stop staring at my butt!” She continues to chop at the trees, pruning the dead branches with her light saber-ish sword. Kisha used to know Vaeria’s father, and she is also Skyler’s sister, and Silawyn is her second cousin twice removed on her mother’s side. Ariel: “I married into a crazy family.” Kisha explains to her about the army. Ariel comes into the Crying Jester to meet the rest, red-eyed from crying. Dara pats her on the back, and Dylan gives her a hug.
Battle plans...? Ariel: “Burn everything!” Theron: “Take all the useless people and shove them into the inside of the city where they are out of the way.” Dara and Theron argue about grammar in and out of character. Protecting things is no fun. They get into a talk about families, and the kender wants them to get moving. Silawyn and Ariel talk about fire. Dara: “Cast long-range spells at them!” Create undead? Pour oil on the battering ram and set it on fire? Silawyn goes to talk to the dragons about ale…ale is flammable. They get many barrels of cheap ale. Bohb comes back with a couple barrels of oil. 50 barrels of ale, 4 barrels of oil: their stockpile, for now. Silawyn asks Bohb for alchemist’s fire: he has 30 vials. Theron works on crafting siege engines (ballista) with the help of conscripted people. Ariel: “Ballista Navidad…” Luminia found something shiny and glomped elsewhere. Theron wants the dragons to fight the dragons…Glimmer: “Have you seen those dragons?” She has encountered them before but only escaped because of her natural immunity to heat: Wrath and Pride are two combat machines. The two dragons will be the bombers, however, as long as the other dragons aren’t in the air. Dara: “I’ll cast wall of stone in front of the door so that Silawyn’s explosion doesn’t destroy the door!” Kisha leaves the city.
The army approaches, but the dragons are not in sight. There is a general, clad in very garish half black, half gold armor. Silawyn buried too many barrels in front of the gate (which means they might explode their own gate). The battering ram starts on the gate in the morning. A bunch of strong minotaurs charge at the gate. Ariel hits the battering ram with a firebolt…fortunately the trap doesn’t go off. A bunch of ballista bolts come flying at her. Theron casts chilling tentacles right under the battering ram. Ballistae also target him, and he loses the spell. They aim their ballistae at the other ballistae. Silawyn resonating bolts the battering ram and manages to avoid ballista bolts. Dylan aids with the ballistae. Dara fire storms a ballista, and she gets hit five times. The battering ram keeps hitting the gate. Ariel attacks the ram with fire again, and she sets off the trap. It blows an incredible hole in the ground below the battering ram. Most of the people on it are dead, but there is now a big hole, and most of the people swarm in through the undermined gate. It did kill all of the minotaurs on the ram, however, and Silawyn performs an incredibly annoying song: “Burninating the battering ram…” Ariel is happy with the big explosion.
The ballistae reload. Lots of people swarm into the guardhouse. Theron puts chilling tentacles in the guardhouse, filling it completely and ensnaring those lots of people. Silawyn runs into the room after the guardhouse to pick off stragglers, as does Dylan. Dara creates walls of stone and stacks them as wide as the door is. More minotaurs run in and hoist the battering ram. Ariel fires with fire at the ram again. Ballistae fire at her. Theron attacks one of the heavy ballista with a vitriolic spear. Silawyn casts a sonic weapon. Dylan stands with her and shouts up for them to dump oil on the battering ram. Their ballistae fire at the other ballistae. Dara fire storms another ballista and kills the crew of it. Ariel pops up, fires off more fire, and gets hit again. Theron attacks another ballista with a blast. Silawyn does more sonic, Dylan casts freedom of movement on himself, they dump oil on the ram, and the ram keeps beating on the wall. Dara uses flame strike on a ballista. Ariel sees something covered with flammable oil (a.k.a. the ram) and burns it. Theron attacks another ballista with his blast, and he has fun. More ballistae target him. Silawyn makes Dylan’s trident better—it can now do sonic damage. The remains of the gate is about half destroyed. Dylan kills five of the entangled people and cleaves into six more. Theron has an evilgasm as more pour in and see the tentacles and fear. Dara casts flame strike and kills half the minotaurs on the battering ram. Ariel firebolts again and deals extra oil damage. Theron sings a happy little song and blasts the ballista. [Dedrick: I love blast, I love chain, I just love to cause some pain, with a vitriolic blast into your eye, now I think that you must die.] They have abandoned that ballista now…they don’t want to touch the acid, and they keep being blasted into oblivion.
The dragons grab the barrels and launch into the sky, and they aim at the ballistae. Dylan kills fourteen more people. Silawyn blasts more stuff. Some of the ones out in the field are scared of the dragons. Ariel and Theron are hit by ballistae again. Their ballistae smash some more. The enemies swarm in, trying to overwhelm the tentacles. Dylan has a big battering ram in his face. Silawyn slaps herself in the face with a fly spell. Dylan swings his trident and shatters one of the chains of the ram and then gets out of the way as they swing the ram at the remnants of the gate. The enemy forces are hyped because they didn’t expect the gate to come down so quickly. Dara casts wall of stone behind the ram crew. Ariel firebolts some random poor soul and explodes him. The army retreats, seeing their ram is gone. She and the cyro do a contest…he builds up walls of ice to cut off the retreat, and she blasts the trapped people with fire. The ballistae are doing defensive fire. Theron knocks a light ballista out. Silawyn flies up to see what she can see. Dylan shish-ka-bobs a minotaur and cuts off another chain. They all attack him, and one hits. Dara burns more people to death. Ariel keeps picking people off. Theron blasts another light ballista. Continue, defeat! The opposing general took her helmet off, and there was a familiar half-white dragon: Kisha.
They all go to rest for the night. Ariel feels a slightly warm hand rest on her shoulder: she sees a somewhat familiar half-red dragon…her old wife! She embraces her: squish squish squish. They go to the Crying Jester together. Those in the inn look at her suspiciously. Luminia: “I thought you were supposed to be dead.” She pulls out Vaeria’s head. Vaeria smashes her own head. Ariel: “What, I thought you liked head!” Theron wants to blast her. Ariel: “She’s not dead yet, she’s getting better.” It is Vaeria, but her fangs sink into Ariel and drain her levels. Ariel keeps going, however. Vaeria keeps draining her blood. Theron goes up to the door, kicks it in, and blasts Vaeria, pissed at having missed before. Ariel: “Hey, if you wanted a threesome, you could have asked.” Vaeria shrieks obscenities and flies into a rage. Theron: “She’s killing you, dumbass!” Ariel: “Yeah, isn’t it great!” Dara is upset at the loudness and swearing from above, and she tromps up the stairs. Ariel tries to hit Theron with a firebolt, but she scorches a wall. Theron blasts her again. She hits with claws, making Theron take negative levels. Ariel blasts another hole in the wall. Theron attacks again but misses, and there’s yet another hole in the wall. Vaeria giggles madly, and Theron takes more negative levels. Ariel tries to blast Theron again. Dara bursts in; Theron: “Vaeria is undead, kill the bitch!” Dara casts mass heal on all three, and Vaeria looks very hurt. Dara bluffs that she thought it would heal her. Vaeria grabs Ariel by the face and drains more levels. Theron runs away. Ariel tries to heat death Dara. Dara casts searing light on the vampire but misses. Vaeria drains another two levels from Ariel. Ariel yells at Dara for hitting “wifey.” Dara tries searing light again but misses. With the acid damage, however, Vaeria looks about dead. Dara still can’t hit with searing light. Vaeria keeps sucking more levels, and Ariel can’t do much any more. Dara hits her with searing light, finally, and she poofs into her gaseous form and flees. Ariel: “You killed her!” Theron: “She was already dead, you dumbass!” He slaps her upside the head. Dara restores everyone their levels at dawn as they fight amongst themselves.
Meanwhile, Dylan and Silawyn are wandering through the grove. They hear the sounds of battle in the city. They go to check it out and see their own troops in a desperate battle with each other. Seven troops go down. In the middle are two tall armored creatures, each with a spiked chain and huge red oozes that blaze with fire. Rage walker one moves near Dylan and Silawyn and causes Dylan to go into a blood frenzy. Three glitterfires begin to mow through the troops, and they slay 23 more of them. Silawyn decides that Dylan can’t hit her, so she tries to charm a rage walker. Another rage walker walks up. The troops go down another 24. A rage walker attacks Silawyn and misses. Silawyn goes up to punch. Walker two comes up to hit Dylan with spiked chains. Another 21 people die. Dylan actually manages to hit Silawyn. They attack Silawyn as well. The glitterfires take out another 9 troops. Silawyn flurries and misses. Walker two misses Dylan. Dylan goes full out on Silawyn and hits her once with his offhand. Eleven more troops go down. Silawyn channels a spell and power attacks, but misses. Walker two puts a blade barrier between Walker one and Silawyn. It also attacks Dylan.
Alton comes in now. Silawyn gets attacked again, but the living fireballs claim ten more lives and begin to move on to the rest of the city. Silawyn casts resonating bolt at one. The second walker attacks Dylan. Dylan attacks Silawyn and suddenly snaps out of it. The kender charges in and hits. Rage walker one realizes that attacking Silawyn is dumb, so he instead attacks Dylan, but he tangles his spiked chain about himself. Silawyn smacks them both with her breath weapon. Walker two slices at Dylan again, and he is hurt badly. Dylan heals himself. Alton goes up and flurry of blows. The werewolf comes in now and charges and attacks with a spear and bites. Rage walker one attacks the druid but misses. Silawyn stuns rage walker one. Walker two attacks Dylan, who heals himself and tumbles out of their range. Alton and the werewolf attack. Ortinoth casts brilliant blade on his spear. Rage walker one is annoyed and attacks the kender. Silawyn uses a lesser orb of electricity. Rage walker two comes up and attacks Dylan and the werewolf. Dylan tumbles back further and heals himself, and the werewolf and the kender keep hacking at them. Walker one heals a little damage, and it blocks Dylan’s retreat with a wall of fire and then attacks Silawyn. Silawyn hits with more orbs and slays one. Walker two confines the rest in a wall of fire. It attacks the werewolf. Dylan heals himself and gets hit by the wall. The kender punches again. The druid charges and hits it. Another 26 people die throughout the city. Silawyn does another orb of electricity. Walker two heals himself and attacks Dylan. Dylan runs up, hits with his trident, and runs away. The kender attacks, and the werewolf attacks. Silawyn tries an orb of cold but doesn’t do much harm. The walker attacks the werewolf but misses, and Dylan attacks it. The kender full attacks, as does the werewolf. Silawyn uses another orb of cold, and the walker dies.
Dara dispels the wall, and they are greeted with a burning city. They come across three glitterfires. Silawyn uses ice storm with her staff of evocation. Dylan and Silawyn get engulfed in the flames as they hit it, and Dylan is covered in fire and glitter and is grappled. The kender slings at it and kills it. They finally kill them all.
The city is burning, however. One hundred thirty-two people die. With some work, they put the fires out. Morning comes, and they get stories from the others. Theron notices that Vidomina is gone when he wakes up. He wants to go kill some things. There are a bunch of people gathering around a wall. The crowd parts in horror, and Vidomina, looking like herself again, is the object of the crowd’s attention. He notices that her head is separated from her body: her body is staked to the wall, and her head is on a spear. There’s a threatening note scrawled in her blood: an ungrammatical threat to whoever dares to oppose the besieging army. Her death has destroyed the moral of the city. Theron gives the people a speech and rallies them somewhat: “We have to kill some people for doing this to our Vidomina!” Silawyn comes in to help, and she rallies them very nicely. They turn them into raving fanatics shrieking for vengeance. From outside they hear rustling and see what looks to be a black shape, but it disappears.
Raven talks with his cohort to try to take care of the thieves’ guild and get them to help fight. Raven, Silawyn, Skyler, Dara, and Dylan (and Theron) head to the manor house and go down the greased tunnel. Raven slides out, skips like a stone, and splats on Gluttony’s corpse. Dara pees on Gluttony’s corpse. A claw comes right out of the corpse and hits Dara, draining her negative levels. She jumps away and sees a half-red dragon female burst from the corpse. Silawyn: “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in that thing?” Dylan shoots her with his crossbow and doesn’t do much damage. Skyler sings b