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Post by whunyer on Mar 14, 2019 13:41:53 GMT -5
Well the town was so grateful for us undoing the smugglers they took our captured boat and a bunch of our treasure. Some of our party ended up with little or nothing, but it might be for good, they would just drink it all. Not, that I a known to turn down a good vintage, but these sloshes live for the drink. I feel the need to remain of a sober mind to avoid trouble.
I did manage to walk away with a decent purse and send a little to the monastery for the maintenance of my waifs and a few coin to care for my lady friends here in town. Older widows require so much less maintenance than the typical tavern strumpet. After, we pleased the hovel of Saltmarsh, they wanted us to head off to another godsforesaken bog to gain reconnaissance on a tribe of lizard men. Sort of a little kiss wet kiss after they boarded our aftdeck. They did offer a sizable sum. It seemed to simple just to poke around in a swamp. Now that we faced venomous snakes, thank Kruell those with archery skills killed it before it could strike, and were ambushed by Bullywug frog people, and more Bullywugs, - before even getting there - we understand why they offered a reward in gold.
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Post by Chris on Mar 14, 2019 15:34:42 GMT -5
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Post by Aileen on Mar 19, 2019 0:01:16 GMT -5
"Aevlin, we need help searching the ship when you're done puking!"
I spat once more over the side of the ship, and wiped my mouth on my sleeve. Jaris was just on time.
"I was keeping watch." I said.
"You can't even see out there, it's dark."
Damn half elves and elves, they're all better than I am at everything. I follow Jaris and the others around, searching every nook and cranny. Finally I find a hidden drawer in one of the chests Jaris had already checked- did I just out thief the thiefy one?! In it is a metal cylindrical tube and a book. I open the tube and find a scroll of meaningless writing, and then look at the book. Also meaningless writing, but on a sheet of parchment a word.
"Abricafabric?"
"What?" Ceyleen grabs it from me. "Abricafagic..."
"Wheres that wand we found?" Nylen asks.
"In here!" I take off my backpack and open up the magic bag inside of it. I fish out the wand, and hand it to the elf.
"Ceyleen, you want to try?"
"Yes! Aevlin, hold Patrick Sprayzee for me!"
My swamp elf friend passes the skunk over, and he takes his place on my shoulder. He is a strange creature, but the soft fur against my neck is oddly comforting. Him and I have been bonding ever since Ceyleen got him.
I follow Ceyleen back up on deck, as the others stay behind. She points the wand at the water, and says,
"Abricafagic!"
Nothing happens. She turns, wand held aloft, and passes it across me as she aims for the ropes coiled on deck. I hold in a scream as it points my way, but relax when I am not blown apart. Instead, I'm glowing. The glow emanates from my sheathed sword and the bag on my back.
"Its to detect magic!" Ceyleen calls out.
That thing will definitely come in handy. Too bad there's no real market for magic items around here. We sail the Sea Ghost back to town, and disembark to find a celebration going on in town. How did they know we would be successful in our mission, and plan a party in this short amount of time?
Jaris and I share most of the bottle of cider, and take as much free booze and beer as we possibly can handle. I was already drunk from the ship, so when they called us all up on stage during a formal ceremony I immediately fell off the side and spent the whole ceremony in the grass. Some guy from the town council gestures to the Sea Ghost moored at the docks and thanks us for our efforts in securing it for the town.
"Wait a minute... thassours!" I whine, using Jaris to pull myself up from the ground.
"Its fine, we cant sail it anyway." He tells me.
The next thing I know we are being dragged off by our crew. Ceyleen grabs my arm and steers me down the street.
"We going to the bar?" I ask her.
"Town council meeting. Try to act sober, we will talk later."
I sit trying to keep myself awake as the boring people tell us that there are reports of lizard men building an army, preparing for war. They are unsure if Saltmarsh is their target, but believe they very well could be caught up in the middle of things. A possible location has been identified on the coast, and we are asked to go scout it out for size, strength and intentions of the lizard man army. They offer us 5000 gold, which with all the training we still need to pay for, is not really enough but is at least something.
The rest of the evening we spend partying. Apparently it is actually Brewfest, and they may or may not have actually planned this party in our honor. Oh well, at least the drinks and food are free. Jaris, Ceyleen and I doted on my horse Stompy, braiding ribbons into his hair and covering him in what I thought was glitter at the time. In the morning I went out to say goodbye to him as our journey was on foot, and the poor palomino beast is coated in mud. I asked the stable master to take good care of my boy, and headed to the bar to join up with the crew. I notice I have a ring on my finger that wasn't there before, and vaguely remember Jaris putting it there... did I accidentally get engaged to the half elf when we were drunk, or was this just a gift? I wish I had clearer memories of the night's events. If it is an engagement... I didn't even know he liked me! I've had a crush on him since we first talked in the bar here, but I never thought it was reciprocated. I'm just a girl with a bow and bad business practices, I'm not nearly pretty or charming enough for a handsome half-elf!
It was a nice day out, but the marsh we walk through is filled with a thick mist that makes it hard to see. The sun burnt the mist off four hours into our hike, and then the insects were the biggest complaint. I kept slapping myself with my bow, trying to get the chiggers that kept landing in my hair. Ceyleen looks right at home and isn't bothered by the insects at all.
Our pleasant morning is interrupted by the arrival of a giant snake. It slithered right up to Wahruck, and I hear him yelling at me to shoot it. I turn, knocking an arrow, and pray that it hits the snake and not Wahruck. I loose the string, and feel the fletching graze my cheek as the arrow shoots away. It hits. I do it again, and It's a perfect shot, and takes the snake down. The sea elf Oceanus starts blabbering in elvish and claps me on the shoulder, and I just nod at him. I can't understand a word he says. Theres hardly a chance to take a deep breath before we see more enemies drawing near. Big. Freaking. Frogs.
Everything is madness as they attack. We are stuck on a narrow path, single file, surrounded by marshland. The frog people jump over our heads, attacking with swords and clawing and biting as they sail overhead. When they stop, we can shoot, but they move quick. I am shooting as best I can, but they keep getting me and it hurts. I've killed a couple before i see Ceyleen drop unconscious in front of me. I shoot again, and then go to help her. I am stopped in my tracks as I hear a voice in my head.
"I have her."
Who or what was that?! I obey, and keep shooting. I kill one of the big ones wielding a broadsword. This is actually kind of fun! You know, if they didn't keep drawing my own blood. Suddenly blood splatters me, and I look to see Oceanus on the ground with his leg missing at the knee. I freak out, seeing the elf rapidly bleeding out right in front of me, but he is beyond my aid right now. I have to help kill these frog things if it's the last thing I do.
Nylen and I are shooting left and right, taking them all down, as Wahruck fights with sword and shield. The rest appear to have fallen, and I hope nobody is dead. Finally there is only one left, and before any of us can take it out, it attacks me. The world goes to black.
I wake up to Wahruck standing over me, and he helps me to my feet. I'm definitely in bad shape, and woozy. Looking at the carnage in the form of dead frogs and a field of arrows, I feel an enormous sense of pride. I stood until the very end, and now I'm probably going to have to go back to town and rest. Jaris is about as well off as me, and is holding the sea elf up with the aid of Ceyleen. He starts talking to the imaginary dragon again.
"Aevlin, you're alive because of the dragon!"
"Was that the voice in my head? I was going to help you and it told me not to..."
Ceyleen nods.
"I can't see it, but he's there."
I turn to my thief friend.
"I think we went too hard last night, Jaris. But now I want to drink more after seeing his leg cut off."
"You can't solve all your problems with alcohol Aevlin!" Ceyleen scolds me.
We find where the frog men have been living, and find some good treasure. It looks like more could come replace those we have killed, and we don't want to linger but have a lot of wounded. We spend the afternoon a little distance away, and in the evening when we wake, Ceyleen heals me up. I feel loads better, and have the strength to carry on fighting another day. As for Oceanus... yeah, I don't envy him. How is a sea elf meant to swim with one leg?
>>----> Aevlin, Best HUMAN Archer <----<<
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Post by whunyer on Mar 20, 2019 18:52:01 GMT -5
Well we found a cave that had many large lizard tracks coming out of it right after finding a wizard wandering in the swamp. We came to scout lizardmen. The tracks were definitely not humanoid, but that of a large lizard coming from the cave. The party seemed gung=ho to help the druid go new pet shopping, so I called for a blessing on the venture. We waited for the swamp elf to gain her pet. Turns out there was three giant monitor lizards and strangely enough none of them wished to be her pet. We went to work hacking them up and midst the battle one of the lizards just dropped.
Before we could even catch our breath javelins were flying at us - looks like we stumbled on to the lair of the lizzardfolk. The party did in the guards pretty quickly and the barbarian caught the last one before he could alert the others.
The barbarian found a sword he seems quite happy with and helped later with counting lizard folks.
We came to scout, but looks like we are going to fight theses things.
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Post by dragonforgotten on Mar 21, 2019 19:12:42 GMT -5
"Aevlin, we need help searching the ship when you're done puking!" I yell over to the sick woman.
"I was keeping watch." she belligerently yells across the deck.
"You can't even see out there, it's dark." I hear her mumble and i cant help my ear flick as i pick up on her feelings of inadequacy compared to the elves, probably the booze talking . Im a little sad to hear such talk coming from her. she is after all much stronger than i am and honestly my ears have been ridiculed more then praised in the past. There was a time i considered docking them. I am only a half elf afterall, my blood is too muddy to ever attempt to return to elf society.
I had off handedly mentioned my idea of a party boat. She pinched my check. "i knew i liked you." I still have my hand on my check rubbing it. Those words make me feel warm inside despite the dark cold night. She asks me to help polish off a drink and how am i to say no. Its good stuff. its ashame that my constituation is so high because i only feel a slight buzz.
Ive gone quiet but my eyes are trained on that small dragon. I know it's not me. I know its real! Why wont anyone beileve me! --- We return to the city as heros but sadly the boat was sold off to help reimburse the town. Thankfully dispite my buzz i could keep up apperance on stage. Cant say the same for Aevlin. That girl just cant hold her liquor or something. Im going to miss you Sea Ghost, my pirate dreams will come true eventually. Oceanius has joined us in this journey. He's a very interesting fello to talk to but it seem he only speaks elvish. He wants to aid us in stopping the threat to his ocean village and i can admire a man with guts. He seems lost in the small town so i take mercy and decide to be his tour guild. It was then i come to the realization that despite coming armed and ready he lacks the basics of basics in traveling. That cant do so i fitted him in leather, bought him a bag, food, water and how he's good to go. with that taken care of i'm suddenly pulled away by Aevlin.
"hey Jarsi, you love parties right? "Yes" "Then what are we still standing around for. Lets get wasted!" "YAH!"
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I woke up on the floor next to my bed with a killer headache, wrapped up in a blanket caccoon. the room looks like an explosion went off. bottles upon bottles are everywhere. What happened last night? I look over to the other bed to see that Aevlin had succeeded in making it to her own bed. As i'm sitting up i suddenly i notice my hand to find that folks mysterious ring is gone. I look about trying to find it till i spot it. It's on Aevlins ring finger. What the heck happened?! No way did she steal that from me. Im an amazing theif, something like that doesn't get away from me unless its a gift. If it's a gift then why. Unless.... Im already getting red in the face. My heart stops when Aevlin is shifts in her bed so i pull the blanket over my head and lie down pretending to be asleep. I hear her yawn and stretch, then walk out of the room. What am i going to do now!? I scan the room trying to remember what happened. How could i black out! I haven't gone on one of those since Joe.. I swallow the lump in my throat remembering him then focus back to my own crisis. Ok, heres the plan. We pretend like it never happened. It will blow over. Everything's going going be fine. I get dressed and walk down stairs but cling to the shadows as I peer down. She's already at the bar dressed and ready. The ring glaringly obvious on her hand. I can easily take it back. She doesn't seem to have noticed it yet. Just as i begin to move i watch her push a stand of hair behind her ear and something stops me. Guilt, nerves, fear, shame? I cant explain it but i reconsider and instead chose to slip by her unnoticed. That the hell was that?
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We depart through the swamps, we are ambushed by a snake but it doesn't give us much trouble. I believed we were good until the frogs attacked. The buggers attack with blinding speed that it takes all i had to remain breathing. From the corner of my eye i still see it. The TINY DRAGON trying to sting the frogmen but fail to land a hit. We are falling one by one. Ceyleen falls first and i being to worry that this may be the end but i will not stop fighting till my last breath. Oceanius gives me a curt nob as he impails a frog upon his spear. He may not be amazing with the crossbow but he is a master with that spear. We are holding off but my anxieties worsen when more of then jump into the fray. Suddenly a stray frogman slide between his legs and with one powerful slash it amputes his left leg at the knee. he falls down with a cry of agony. We all pale. Shocked. Never in my caeerer have i seen someone lose a limb "Oceanus no!" He is bleeding out bad but i cant stop. Its getting harder for me to focus, i am on even my last legs. and then everything grows dark...
Suddenly I bink awake to find the small dragon perched on my chest. It flicks its tongue "Speak nothing of this." I nod dumbly. I knew it was really! I am definitly going to rub it into Aevlins face. ---
We manage to find the cave that the frogs has been resting along with some gold and a couple of mysterious item. While investigating these items a wizard stumbled upon us. At last, someone that can tell us the stuff we care collecting is magical! Oceanius is not doing great. he cant even stand without my help. Aevlin joined my free side. "I think we went too hard last night, Jaris. But now I want to drink more after seeing his leg cut off." "You can say that again." I think Oceanius would agree this time. ---
We ran into some giant lizards in the cave and so ready to jump into the frey i forgot about our poor sea elf as i heard a wet thud hit the ground. I turn back around to see he's landed face first into the mud. "He meant to do that!" the new coward called across the marsh. "No i did'nt! Don't put words in my mouth!" I help him back up and apologize. He doesn't say anything. I think he feels ashame that a warrior as capable as him has been reduced to needing help from a reedy land dweller. Everyones been telling me to leave him outside but no. I refuse to abandon a comrade in need. Further in the cave there was a run with some lizardmen and after some digging through the mud Nylen found a sword that has a perference and can see through walls. In the next room there are a large number of them, some of them young, probably children. Warick wanted us to charge in and kill them but Nylen and the rest refuse and i agree. We are not monsters. even if it puts us in danger i will not strike to kill children parents if i don't have to. We approached the large metal gates before we are jumped by lizardmen. The wizard manage to charm one but the roars of many of them are coming from behind. ----------
We cleared out the nasties in a secret room and found its actually a great place to hide out. The coward seems to have take over my job and I'm not complain considering i have to keep Oceanius standing. We all start filing in, making ourselves comfortable. She was already beaten up from the previous fight, her ankle must have give out hobbles over to check out the loot. Hans has rejoined us and did his healing thing on her and i don't think much of it as i begin to set Oceanus against a wall. "Thanks, Hans." She said. "We missed you." Suddenly he leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. She's shocked and so am i that i nearly drop the poor sea elf again. A blade runs through my heart but i don't bleed. This feeling... is confusing. It hurts so bad but I do nothing to find out why it hurts so much. Hans and Aevlin are my friends. This shouldn't hurt. so why does it?! She glances at me and i freeze up turning my head away, pretending to be busy but from the corner of my eye i watch her glance at the ring. Did we really get engage? What does this mean now?
Jaris
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Post by Aileen on Mar 25, 2019 23:55:10 GMT -5
A wizard joined us while we were resting. After Ceyleen healed me we went and introduced ourselves. His name is Elmarth I think. Of course Nylen tells him that he's the bow specialist of the party. That was always my job, I've always been the best in all the lands with a bow. I have no other purpose or drive in this life, other than maybe my side business. But it seems they replaced me when I was missing for so long. It hurts, but I just have to prove myself harder... even if it means my death.
We try moving in the dark through the marsh, but it's not long before I fall in a hole. I panic until I realize I'm just knee deep in water. Icy cold and enough to steal my breath for a moment. Ceyleen scared me by saying something would bite my leg off because I keep making fun of Oceanus. I pull myself out, boot sloshing with murky water, and suggest we stop until first light. It's too misty and dark to the point the glow of our swords do nothing to pierce the darkness.
We camp on the path, and have a surprisingly uneventful night. When the sun begins to rise, we move on. The mist eventually disappates and we see a new landforms in the distance. The marsh until now has all been flat, but ahead is a big hill that stands out against the rest of the marsh. We hurry towards it, noting we are actually getting pretty close to the sea... maybe we can drop Oceanus off?
We find the entrance to a big cave in the hill, and see rather massive footprints in the mud outside of its mouth. Ceyleen examines them, and turns to us with a wide grin on her face.
"Giant lizards!" She looks a bit too happy about there being dangerous predators nearby.
"Nock an arrow." Nylen tells me, nocking his own bow.
"Wait!" Ceyleen puts her hand up, and Phillip Seymour Squawkman flaps his beautiful bright feathers in alarm. "I want one of the lizards. Wait for me to cast animal friendship before doing anything!"
The swamp druid has gone off the deep end it seems. She has enough pets, does she not? What are we going to do with a giant lizard? Regardless, we agree to follow through with her plan. Ceyleen, Nylen and Garak go in first, and then theres a shout for backup. Guess it didn't work.
I move into the cave mouth, and shoot the first lizard I see. Ceyleen wasnt exaggerating when she said they would be giant, these things could eat a horse whole! Right after my arrow hits, the lizards move in. I put my bow on my back, drawing my sword and moving in. One of the lizards keels over, and I miss a swing at the one I'm fighting as I'm distracted by a shout from Jaris.
"Did you see that!? He just stunned it with his tail!" He's on about the dragon again... I still can't see it, but the lizard is definitely stunned.
The lizards all taken care of, we move into the cave. I go up next to the elves and the half orc, my sword blinding their night sight. Garak growls at me, but I'm not going to apologize for moving up to the fight. Especially when the thief, who keeps trying and failing to convince us hes a fighter, seems to just bury himself in mud or play dead when it comes to battle. Three lizard folk wearing garishly colored loin cloths attack from the darkness, and we make quick work of them. On their belts we find little strips of cloth with an oily substance on them, which we determine are used to set on fire... could end up being useful, so we all take some and attach them to our own belts.
Something glints in the mud ahead, and we go to investigate. A twisted, damaged metal breastplate. Nylen digs into the mud further and pulls out a longsword. It begins to glow in his hand.
"Interesting..." he hands it to me. "Try this!"
I grab the hilt, and feel strange. My arm tingles unpleasantly, and I feel slightly dizzy. I hand it back.
"I don't like how it feels."
Nylen raises an eyebrow. He passes it around, everyone having similar reactions. It physically pains Garak, and he nearly cuts my hear off tossing it back to Nylen. Nylen decides it's for him, and hands me his other glowing longsword to store in my bag. Perhaps I can give it to poor Gregolas, he needs all the help he can get with his strength sickness.
We go further in, and come to a pretty bare store room of sorts. Nylen has the sword out in front of him, and stares at the wall for a moment.
"This appears to be a family chamber." He mutters.
"What?" I have no idea what the elf is talking about.
"Oh!" He waves the sword. "I can see through walls with this sword. Theres a bunch of lizard folk in one room... looks like a nursery of sorts."
While Nylen examines the walls with his new sword and the wizard starts making a map, I watch Garak messing around with his new helmet. He puts it on my head, and we try to see if it does anything special. I secretly hope that the tabs that slide things over the eyes bestows night vision, but alas it does not. Too bad, I could really use that ability.
We move on, going past the nursery room, and come to an iron gate. We start going through and Ceyleen announces theres a secret door. Unfortunately, we are attacked by three lizard folk. These guys hit a lot harder than the last ones, and Nylen goes down almost immediately. I move in, shouting to avenge him, and am met by one of the lizard men attacking me. It starts talking in its weird lizardman language, and I realize its staring at our wizard.
"He's charmed!" Elmarth tells me. "And that ones held!"
"Come help me with this one!" Garak tells me, and I go to his aid.
The rest of the fight is over, and Ceyleen and Wahruck go to the side of fallen Nylen. He doesn't seem to be responding to healing, and I fear the worst, but soon his eyes snap open.
We are going to have to proceed with caution. Even our mightiest warriors go down on the smallest of enemies, and who knows what is waiting for us further in.
>>-----> Aevlin <-----<<
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Post by Aileen on Mar 29, 2019 13:34:09 GMT -5
Noises of more enemies closing in on us drove us to open the secret door. We had to get to safety or face the possibility of this entire place descending on us. Wahruck and Garak moved in, and we watched as the floor tipped backward, plunging them into darkness.
I swiftly drew my sword, and without thinking things through, jumped down into the hole. I couldn't see how far it went down, but I could hear Garak and Wahruck fighting something. The ground came up quicker than I expected, and my planned landing was ruined by my ankle rolling under me. I crashed to the ground, looking up to see the guys fighting off giant snakes.
"Thanks for dropping in!" Wahruck called, hacking at a snake. He didn't look too good.
I sprung to my feet, limping over to join the fight against the snakes. Garak and I dispatched them quickly, however Wahruck was badly injured and poisoned by them. He fortunately had a potion on him that seemed to stop it from killing him.
Jaris threw down a rope while we were fighting the snakes, so getting out of the pit was easy. We crawled up onto the other side of the room where a chest and some sacks lay waiting for us to investigate. The thief who kept claiming not to be a thief was working on picking the lock. Jaris, clearly a better thief, was a bit busy holding up Oceanus.
I was already beaten up from the previous fight, and my ankle gave out as I limped over to check out what we had for treasure. Hans did his healing thing on me once Wahruck was healed up, and my ankle instantly felt better. Maybe I'll buy some better boots if we get more money, if we make it back to town alive.
"Thanks, Hans." I said. "We missed you."
Hans had only just caught up with us in the cave after leaving town slightly behind us with the other new guys. I was a bit taken aback when he leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. Jaris glared at him.
"Stay safe, Aevlin."
I looked down at the ring on my finger and then up at Jaris. How could I explain to Hans that I may or may not inadvertently be engaged to Jaris the thief?
Nylen ordered me to keep guard, so I aimed my bow at the door while the others checked the treasure. Suddenly there was a thunk of a body hitting the floor behind me.
"Well... Sidewalker's dead." Said Hans.
I turned my head to see the thief with a tiny dart in his neck.
"That's why you don't mess with poison, Aevlin." Jaris said to me.
"Wasn't planning to. But I'm glad that wasn't you."
After tossing Sidewalker's body in the pit and storing a fancy crown, scepter and collar in my bag, we carefully left the room and made our way back to the room with the benches. After regrouping, Nylen suggests we backtrack to the cavern where we fought the giant lizards. It's there that we find another door, which Jaris opens.
I walk in, bow drawn and arrow nocked, and see nine lizardmen being formed up by a boss lizardman. Theres mattresses all over the room and a bunch of chests. This looks like where they train the lizardman army. I keep shooting and missing, but its okay because they just can't seem to hit me with their javelins. Poor Jaris gets walloped by javelins and has to back off, but Nylen takes his place and starts picking them off. Hans threw a hammer up in the air, saying something I didnt quite catch, and I cringed momentary thinking it would fall on my head. Instead, the ghostly glowing image of a large hammer appeared above the lizardmen, and started hitting them.
Nylen killed the caster lizardman, of which we were all glad because who knows what he could have done to us. Garak, the new ranger and Elmarth were suddenly surrounded by lizardman, so most of us switched to swords and ran into the fray. I barely reached them before I saw Garak fall to the ground dead. Jaris shot an arrow, which looked like it ricocheted off the wall, but one of the lizardmen dropped.
"Yes, got him!" Jaris cheered. It was odd, the lizardman didn't even have an arrow in its corpse.
Suddenly more started dropping with no visible attackers... was it the invisible dragon? Hans and the magic user could both see it too, so it had to be real... and it talked to me that one time. The remaining lizardmen suddenly threw their weapons down in surrender. We killed them anyway.
Upon searching the rooms we found a little bit of money and a carving of a crocodile. Elmarths lizardman friend, somehow still loyal to him even after the massacre of his people, was babbling to him about the carving, but we couldn't figure out its significance.
With two of our people dead, we are thankfully reinforced by a new fighter coming in. We didn't know him, but he was pleased that I armed him with one of our magic broadswords and he swore to help us with our mission. We need all the brute force we can get.
>>---> Aevlin, Protector of Saltmarsh <---<<
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Post by Aileen on Apr 3, 2019 17:28:12 GMT -5
After our mass slaying of lizardfolk, we backtrack to the treasure room to take a nap. The magic users are tapped and want to regain some spells, and as much as I want to keep going we kind of need their healing. We are arguing over who is going to keep watch, and Ceyleen suggests Ricardo the dragon-that may-or may-not-exist can do it for us. Me and the new half-orc fighter, who is eerily similar to my dead friend Garak (his brother, maybe?), decide we can keep watch. Just then two newcomers walk in, a dwarf and a scrawny human in robes. Definitely a wizard, which could be good for us! They immediately see the pit with Sidewalker's body in it, all of us slumming around covered in blood and grime, a sea elf with a bloody stump leg, and Ceyleen with her menagerie.
“What is wrong with you people?” The dwarf asks. The wizard looks equally as confused.
“We just slayed a whole room of lizardfolk,” Ceyleen says. “We're napping.”
“Come in if you wish,” I say, sitting facing the door with my glowing sword laid across my lap. “We're standing guard.”
They come in and apprehensively take a seat against the far wall, muttering about us. Soon everyone but me and the orc are asleep. We spend the watch making fun of everyone as they sleep, and watch as Ceyleen wakes up, makes a bunch of gestures, and then goes back to sleep. Apparently she is a sleep walker. Sidewalker does not move from the pit, which is good, because fighting zombie fighters is not on my list of things I want to do. Four hours pass, and we move on.
I take the lead with the half-orc. Jaris is walking towards the back with Oceanus, so when we come to a door we have to ask him to prop up the sea elf, come up through the rest of the crew, and check it. He does everything except open the door, which the half-orc ends up doing. Jaris creeps back to Oceanus, and I wonder why he doesn't just pass him off to someone else and stay up with us since we will definitely need him. Especially with our other “fighter” lock-picker dead.
The half-orc goes in, followed by me. This room has no enemies in it, only decorative wooden and feather masks in two rows carved into lizard and crocodile faces. Elmarth points them out to his charmed lizardman friend, and it babbles to him in the language not one of us can understand. He gets no further information. The half-orc and Jaris go to the chest at the other end, and Jaris does his thing, speaking aloud with every step he does. Listening to the chest, cutting it, stabbing it, checking for traps... there's none. He picks the lock, but does not open it. The half-orc flings it open, and immediately the whole room is filled with a green gas. We all begin choking, and I nearly lose the trail ration I ate for lunch. Soon it clears, and I hear Ceyleen cry out as Phillip Seymour Squawkman falls off her shoulder, hitting the floor stiff as a board.
“No!” She casts something, and the bird squawks to life. She is breathing hard, barely keeping it together. “Aevlin, take him!”
Ceyleen places the large parrot on my shoulder, and doubles over to catch her breath. I watch as the contents of the chest are removed. A silver gong and striker, five silver bells, a curved wooden horn. Elmarth really wants to blow the horn, but we decide making noise is not a great idea... as tempting as it is. And then I remember what I found hiding in the bottom of the bag of holding, stuck in a mess of sausages and various coins.
“Wait, I have a horn for you!” I tell him, taking my bag off and rifling through it. Ceyleen hides a smirk as she sees me pull out the horn that had given her hell back at the house. “Here, we don't know what this does. If you want to blow something, blow this!”
The half-orc snickers, and I regret my choice of words. Elmarth looks excited, and puts the horn away for later. He goes up to the masks, and tries on the fanciest one. Nothing happens. He does the same to all of them, but Hans grabs the last one. Out falls a key.
“Does this go to the chest?!” The cleric exclaims, going over to the already open chest. The key fits perfectly in the lock.
“Of course it fits.” Jaris glares at the half-orc. “But would it have stopped the poison gas from leaking out?”
“We could put the gas back in, lock it, and then try the key!” I suggest.
Phillip Seymour Squawkman squawks loudly in my ear in disgust, and s***s on my shoulder. The others give me a look of disbelief, and I realize how stupid my suggestion was. We move on to the next door. After Jaris checks and opens it, we see a blue and green drape hanging in another door frame. The Half-orc goes in, moves it aside to look in, and turns back. He locks eyes with me and beckons me forward. I move in with him, bow drawn and arrow nocked. The cloying smell of perfumes and incense fills my nostrils, and I quickly observe that this is some kind of chapel of worship. Ahead kneeling at the altar is a lizardman in robes. It turns as the half-orc's armour makes a loud noise, and before he can do anything he sprouts two of my arrows in his chest. He falls over dead, and my orc buddy runs in.
A huge two headed snake comes slithering out of a hole in the altar, and he goes after it with his broadsword. The others rush in behind me, and I switch out my bow for the glowy sword before charging in. We all takes whacks at it, and soon it dies. Poor half-orc was bitten a few times, but is made of sterner stuff than that little b**** snake could kill, even with poison. With the enemies taken care of, we search the chapel.
Hans goes to one of the incense burners, snuffs it out, and takes the pungent incense stick. Lavender... maybe I should put it in the bag of holding to cover the stench of sausage and mutton? There are two tridents and nets on the altar, and I watch Jaris, Ceyleen and Oceanus speaking in elvish as they look at them. Judging by Oceanus's tone and the look of disdain on his face, Jaris said something that offended him. Jaris looks to me for backup, but I shrug. I don't know what the hell they are saying.
We don't find much else in the room, just a painting of some lizard god... I have had it with these reptile deities, I've already been the prisoner of one and would not like to repeat that. I switch back out to my bow, nocking another arrow, and we go through the double doors to the next destination. Passing through corridors, we end up back somewhere we have already been, and have to find a new path. Finally we get to a door we haven't been in, and Jaris does his thing. The half-orc goes in, and does a small cheer. It's a pantry, full of food and goodies! There's questionable carcasses hanging from the ceiling, and a cage full of water fowl on one side of the room. He opens the cage and they all come flapping out and making their fowl noises.
“F****** chickens!” I shout as one pecks at my leg, flapping its wings. It's clearly some kind of duck.
The new wizard checks out a wicker basket, and I recognize the contents as cherries. I reach in and grab a handful.
“This is good stuff!” I exclaim. “These cost me a fortune back home!”
I put some in the bag of holding, and check out the other barrels that my party members are opening. One has herbs, and sadly they are for cooking not... other activities. I even asked Jaris if they were smokeable, and he shook his head and sighed. The half-orc rolled some up in a piece of parchment and tried to light it, but both of us started coughing when we tried to take a drag. Oregano- fooled again! There's apples, pears and nuts in some of the others, and I am beside myself with excitement. This is stuff I spend so much money on to run my business, and here it is free for the taking! Now maybe I can actually pay Gregolas, Laragorn and Rick! I shove bunches of them in the bag of holding. Aevlin's Edible Deadibles is going to come back stronger than ever! They open another barrel, and I catch a glimpse of white granules.
“Cocaine?!” I rush over, and pick some of it up in my hand. The half-orc and Ceyleen pocket some.
“You don't know your drugs, Aevlin!” Jaris scolds me.
I busy myself with packing up the produce I am taking with us while Jaris checks the next door. He listens for a moment, and then turns to us concernedly.
“There's chefs on the other side!” He whispers.
“Oh no, not chefs!” I say in feign horror.
The dwarf goes in, then comes back out.
“I'll be right back!” He says, and goes back in shutting the door behind him.
After a moment of nothing happening, Jaris peeks in. He then holds the door open for us and waves us in. We enter the kitchen, and there are female lizard folk manning spits of meat. They are dressed in jewels, expensive looking, and don't seem too concerned with our presence. They are chatting away in their lizard language, and look to be complaining as kitchen staff are wont to do. I eye a really nice looking necklace.
“Aevlin, no.” Jaris warns me.
“What? I wasn't going to do anything.”
“I saw you looking at the jewels, we are not going to kill them or take anything.” He says. “If we are going to work, then we need to come to an agreement.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know.” His eyes shift to my hand with the ring.
“No, I don't!” Flustered, I walk away. Now I am really concerned about what may or may not have happened the other night.
The lizardwomen make weird gestures at us, motioning to the meat on spits, and then leave the room. None of us know what they mean, but there was no fight so we aren't too worried. The dwarf goes over to one of the roasting meats, and takes a small chunk off with his dagger. He chews on it, and it's hard to tell if its any good by his expression. Jaris is talking to Oceanus again, trying to divert his attention away from the skins under the table... one looks vaguely humanoid, the other fishy. Maybe they were cooking a fish person. Jaris says something to us about Oceanus's cousin being eaten by them. It seems a bit far fetched.
“Idea!” I exclaim, a plan suddenly dawning on me. “Maybe we should take the meat and go serve it in their dining hall... and then- surprise! We kill them all!”
“That's not a bad plan,” Ceyleen says, trying some of the meat. She grimaces, taking another bite before tossing the meat aside.
“No, this is rude. We shouldn't be eating their food that they're trying to cook!” Jaris says.
“It looked to me like they were quitting their jobs,” I say. “I've seen it happen many times. Why do you think Gregolas runs my store?”
So we continue on, not executing my brilliant dining room slaughter plan, and somehow wind through corridors all the way back to the pantry. We backtrack, and come to more double doors. They aren't ones we have been through before, thankfully. Jaris does the thing, the half-orc barges in, and we find ourselves in a huge ceremonial hall of sorts. There are pillars on either side, and the room is massive. On the walls are rows of mounted heads, of beasts such as a giant crayfish, lions, tigers, bears, and ohhh my. At the end of the room, a throne on a dais, beset with glittering jewels. And in the middle of the floor, two lizardfolk children.
Jaris is ecstatic to see kids, apparently in his caravan back home children are very valued and he has a soft spot for them. I just see future evil lizardmen. They perk up as we walk into the chamber, putting their hands up and babbling at us. I draw my bow, ready to strike lest they attack or have their families laying in wait.
“Don't hurt them!” Jaris snaps. “They are children, they're innocent.”
Ceyleen tosses them an apple, and they start playing and fighting over it like it's a ball. Jaris then looks up in the air, at nothing.
“No, don't hurt them!”
“Ricardo, not them!”
I shake my head. That invisible pseudo-dragon is starting to stress me out. I wish I could see it, then I wouldn't feel crazy every time something happens with it. Everyone else starts walking towards the throne, and I accompany them with my bow ready to attack if something happens. The throne is super shiny and sparkly, and the gems are very enticing. Ceyleen goes back to Oceanus and helps him over, the sea elf speaking to the swamp elf in obvious agony. He looks extremely grateful when Ceyleen lowers him onto the throne, as he has been walking around the place with Jaris's help and falling over quite a bit. Ceyleen searches behind the throne, around it, and then gets back to the seat.
“Aevlin, hold Oceanus!”
“What? Is he okay with that?” I lower my bow, ready to lift the elf to his feet, but the half-orc grabs him and lifts him effortlessly out of the seat. Oceanus groans.
Ceyleen searches the seat, and finds a key! Oceanus is visibly relieved to be set back down. We let Oceanus rest on the throne while we go back to try to communicate with the kids. Jaris has been trying to talk to them, and break up their fighting. Ceyleen walks over with the key dangling, and points to it and tries communicating to the kids to ask what it goes to. One of the children gets excited, reaching for it with grabby hands. The swamp elf lets him take it, and before any of us can stop him it puts the key in its mouth.
“No!” I yell, jumping into action. I force the kid's mouth open, and reach a hand in. I don't feel any metal, only slightly sharp teeth gnawing into my hand and disgusting lizard folk spittle. It starts wailing in between trying to bite my hand off, and I yell as the nasty fangs dig into my flesh. The child's screams are sure to draw all the adult lizardfolk in the area, and I immediately regret my decision. Jaris pushes me aside forcefully, and I nearly fall on my backside.
“Give him to me!” He snaps.
“Take it, I don't want it!” I yell, wiping my bloody and spit covered hand on my cloak.
“It's okay!” Jaris tries to console the crying child. “She didn't mean it.”
As the thief talks to the children, who obviously don't understand him, the rest of us discuss what to do.
“We can kill them.” Elmarth says.
“We're going to have to cut it open.” I say.
“I like the way you think.” The half-orc agrees.
“No! Absolutely not!” Jaris is livid.
“Oh! There's that maneuver you can do when someone is choking!”
I perk up, remembering seeing it done once.
“We call that the Gregolas Maneuver back home!” I say. “Someone once choked on a chocolate covered strawberry in my store, and he saved them!”
“Think you can do it?” Ceyleen asks.
“Of course!” I grab the child from Jaris. “I got this!”
I position my hands on the kid's ribs, just as I saw Gregolas do all those years ago. It doesn't weigh very much and is tiny, so this will be easy. I press in, nothing happens, so I squeeze harder. The kid screams, cries, and I press again. The snapping sounds are a bit alarming. I lay the child down on the ground, and blood is pouring out of its mouth. Jaris freaks out, screaming at me, and brings the child over to Hans. I can only look on in shock as I realize what I've done. I was only kidding when I said to cut it open, I didn't mean to hurt it.
“What have I done?!” I say, looking at my hands. Hands of a child killer, apparently.
“You didn't mean it, you were trying to help!” Ceyleen pats me on the back.
“I killed a child! I saw Gregolas do it that one time and he saved a guy, what did I do wrong!?”
Hans heals it, and its eyes open. It looks over to me, shaking in fear. I keep to myself as the others search the room, avoiding looking at the lizardfolk children. I sometimes don't know my own strength nor my deadliness... there's a reason I'm a fighter, not a healer. At least Hans was able to bring it back.
“Over here, I found a door!” Elmarth calls. We go over, and Jaris checks it for traps. Everything looks fine, and he opens it.
There is a passage in the floor, a tunnel going down with metal handholds going down. We decide bringing the kids along is important, seeing as one of them still has our key inside of him. It's going to have to come out at some point. Elmarth charms the one I nearly killed, and it comes running and grabs his leg. He waves the crocodile figurine at the other one, which approaches him, and then he grabs him in his arms. They are lowered down to the others who went down in the passage, and the magic user follows. I crawl down after Wahruck, and watch as Jaris tries bringing Oceanus down. Oceanus falls, hitting the ground hard, and is bleeding out and unconscious. Wahruck heals him, and the elf wakes up and starts pleading for something in elvish. He's miserable, in pain, and clearly doesn't have the will to go on. Elmarth goes to him, and slips a dagger in between his ribs, killing Oceanus. We all stare in shock. Did Oceanus ask to be put out of his misery? Wahruck groans, healing the elf again. Oceanus wakes up sputtering, hands held up in surrender and babbling.
“I thought he wanted me to mercy kill him!” Elmarth says, wiping the blood off of his dagger.
“No, he wanted someone else to carry him!” Ceyleen clings onto Patrick Sprayzee in shock.
“I'll take him. I can't trust any of you anymore.” Wahruck lifts the now even bloodier sea elf from the ground, and Oceanus clings to him shaking.
That business taken care of, we head down more passageways, and come to another shaft with handholds to climb up. The half orc goes up, popping his head into the room, and then climbs all the way in. We hear a door open, and footfalls entering the room as we wait down below, looking up the shaft.
“Come,” A heavily accented voice says. “All talk. Head man.”
A lizardman appears at the shaft, looking down at us.
“Come. Safe.”
We have no reason not to believe him in this moment, as our orc is still alive. All of us climb up, and the lizardfolk children run to their own people. There are a couple with javelins, five with morning stars and shields, one with a broadsword wearing a fancy collar, another in a necklace. The lizardkids are babbling at the adult lizardfolk, and it sounds like they are being scolded back. They are not actively trying to attack us, so maybe we are okay... maybe they do just want to talk. The kid that I almost killed turns and looks at us, and raises one arm. He points his finger straight at me, and all the heads turn and look at me. I see Ceyleen out of the corner of my eye take a handful of the white granules, and snort it. Wahruck begins muttering a spell, and in that moment I know that I'm in big trouble.
“You little s***!” I gasp. “I was trying to help him!”
I am so dead.
>>-----> Aevlin, Not a Babysitter <-----<<
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Post by Jeffrey Pettengill on Apr 3, 2019 20:22:39 GMT -5
After our mass slaying of lizardfolk, we backtrack to the treasure room to take a nap. The magic users are tapped and want to regain some spells, and as much as I want to keep going we kind of need their healing. We are arguing over who is going to keep watch, and Ceyleen suggests Ricardo the dragon-that may-or may-not-exist can do it for us. Me and the new half-orc fighter, who is eerily similar to my dead friend Garak (his brother, maybe?), decide we can keep watch. Just then two newcomers walk in, a dwarf and a scrawny human in robes. Definitely a wizard, which could be good for us! They immediately see the pit with Sidewalker's body in it, all of us slumming around covered in blood and grime, a sea elf with a bloody stump leg, and Ceyleen with her menagerie.
“What is wrong with you people?” The dwarf asks. The wizard looks equally as confused.
“We just slayed a whole room of lizardfolk,” Ceyleen says. “We're napping.”
“Come in if you wish,” I say, sitting facing the door with my glowing sword laid across my lap. “We're standing guard.”
They come in and apprehensively take a seat against the far wall, muttering about us. Soon everyone but me and the orc are asleep. We spend the watch making fun of everyone as they sleep, and watch as Ceyleen wakes up, makes a bunch of gestures, and then goes back to sleep. Apparently she is a sleep walker. Sidewalker does not move from the pit, which is good, because fighting zombie fighters is not on my list of things I want to do. Four hours pass, and we move on.
I take the lead with the half-orc. Jaris is walking towards the back with Oceanus, so when we come to a door we have to ask him to prop up the sea elf, come up through the rest of the crew, and check it. He does everything except open the door, which the half-orc ends up doing. Jaris creeps back to Oceanus, and I wonder why he doesn't just pass him off to someone else and stay up with us since we will definitely need him. Especially with our other “fighter” lock-picker dead.
The half-orc goes in, followed by me. This room has no enemies in it, only decorative wooden and feather masks in two rows carved into lizard and crocodile faces. Elmarth points them out to his charmed lizardman friend, and it babbles to him in the language not one of us can understand. He gets no further information. The half-orc and Jaris go to the chest at the other end, and Jaris does his thing, speaking aloud with every step he does. Listening to the chest, cutting it, stabbing it, checking for traps... there's none. He picks the lock, but does not open it. The half-orc flings it open, and immediately the whole room is filled with a green gas. We all begin choking, and I nearly lose the trail ration I ate for lunch. Soon it clears, and I hear Ceyleen cry out as Phillip Seymour Squawkman falls off her shoulder, hitting the floor stiff as a board.
“No!” She casts something, and the bird squawks to life. She is breathing hard, barely keeping it together. “Aevlin, take him!”
Ceyleen places the large parrot on my shoulder, and doubles over to catch her breath. I watch as the contents of the chest are removed. A silver gong and striker, five silver bells, a curved wooden horn. Elmarth really wants to blow the horn, but we decide making noise is not a great idea... as tempting as it is. And then I remember what I found hiding in the bottom of the bag of holding, stuck in a mess of sausages and various coins.
“Wait, I have a horn for you!” I tell him, taking my bag off and rifling through it. Ceyleen hides a smirk as she sees me pull out the horn that had given her hell back at the house. “Here, we don't know what this does. If you want to blow something, blow this!”
The half-orc snickers, and I regret my choice of words. Elmarth looks excited, and puts the horn away for later. He goes up to the masks, and tries on the fanciest one. Nothing happens. He does the same to all of them, but Hans grabs the last one. Out falls a key.
“Does this go to the chest?!” The cleric exclaims, going over to the already open chest. The key fits perfectly in the lock.
“Of course it fits.” Jaris glares at the half-orc. “But would it have stopped the poison gas from leaking out?”
“We could put the gas back in, lock it, and then try the key!” I suggest.
Phillip Seymour Squawkman squawks loudly in my ear in disgust, and s***s on my shoulder. The others give me a look of disbelief, and I realize how stupid my suggestion was. We move on to the next door. After Jaris checks and opens it, we see a blue and green drape hanging in another door frame. The Half-orc goes in, moves it aside to look in, and turns back. He locks eyes with me and beckons me forward. I move in with him, bow drawn and arrow nocked. The cloying smell of perfumes and incense fills my nostrils, and I quickly observe that this is some kind of chapel of worship. Ahead kneeling at the altar is a lizardman in robes. It turns as the half-orc's armour makes a loud noise, and before he can do anything he sprouts two of my arrows in his chest. He falls over dead, and my orc buddy runs in.
A huge two headed snake comes slithering out of a hole in the altar, and he goes after it with his broadsword. The others rush in behind me, and I switch out my bow for the glowy sword before charging in. We all takes whacks at it, and soon it dies. Poor half-orc was bitten a few times, but is made of sterner stuff than that little b**** snake could kill, even with poison. With the enemies taken care of, we search the chapel.
Hans goes to one of the incense burners, snuffs it out, and takes the pungent incense stick. Lavender... maybe I should put it in the bag of holding to cover the stench of sausage and mutton? There are two tridents and nets on the altar, and I watch Jaris, Ceyleen and Oceanus speaking in elvish as they look at them. Judging by Oceanus's tone and the look of disdain on his face, Jaris said something that offended him. Jaris looks to me for backup, but I shrug. I don't know what the hell they are saying.
We don't find much else in the room, just a painting of some lizard god... I have had it with these reptile deities, I've already been the prisoner of one and would not like to repeat that. I switch back out to my bow, nocking another arrow, and we go through the double doors to the next destination. Passing through corridors, we end up back somewhere we have already been, and have to find a new path. Finally we get to a door we haven't been in, and Jaris does his thing. The half-orc goes in, and does a small cheer. It's a pantry, full of food and goodies! There's questionable carcasses hanging from the ceiling, and a cage full of water fowl on one side of the room. He opens the cage and they all come flapping out and making their fowl noises.
“F****** chickens!” I shout as one pecks at my leg, flapping its wings. It's clearly some kind of duck.
The new wizard checks out a wicker basket, and I recognize the contents as cherries. I reach in and grab a handful.
“This is good stuff!” I exclaim. “These cost me a fortune back home!”
I put some in the bag of holding, and check out the other barrels that my party members are opening. One has herbs, and sadly they are for cooking not... other activities. I even asked Jaris if they were smokeable, and he shook his head and sighed. The half-orc rolled some up in a piece of parchment and tried to light it, but both of us started coughing when we tried to take a drag. Oregano- fooled again! There's apples, pears and nuts in some of the others, and I am beside myself with excitement. This is stuff I spend so much money on to run my business, and here it is free for the taking! Now maybe I can actually pay Gregolas, Laragorn and Rick! I shove bunches of them in the bag of holding. Aevlin's Edible Deadibles is going to come back stronger than ever! They open another barrel, and I catch a glimpse of white granules.
“Cocaine?!” I rush over, and pick some of it up in my hand. The half-orc and Ceyleen pocket some.
“You don't know your drugs, Aevlin!” Jaris scolds me.
I busy myself with packing up the produce I am taking with us while Jaris checks the next door. He listens for a moment, and then turns to us concernedly.
“There's chefs on the other side!” He whispers.
“Oh no, not chefs!” I say in feign horror.
The dwarf goes in, then comes back out.
“I'll be right back!” He says, and goes back in shutting the door behind him.
After a moment of nothing happening, Jaris peeks in. He then holds the door open for us and waves us in. We enter the kitchen, and there are female lizard folk manning spits of meat. They are dressed in jewels, expensive looking, and don't seem too concerned with our presence. They are chatting away in their lizard language, and look to be complaining as kitchen staff are wont to do. I eye a really nice looking necklace.
“Aevlin, no.” Jaris warns me.
“What? I wasn't going to do anything.”
“I saw you looking at the jewels, we are not going to kill them or take anything.” He says. “If we are going to work, then we need to come to an agreement.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know.” His eyes shift to my hand with the ring.
“No, I don't!” Flustered, I walk away. Now I am really concerned about what may or may not have happened the other night.
The lizardwomen make weird gestures at us, motioning to the meat on spits, and then leave the room. None of us know what they mean, but there was no fight so we aren't too worried. The dwarf goes over to one of the roasting meats, and takes a small chunk off with his dagger. He chews on it, and it's hard to tell if its any good by his expression. Jaris is talking to Oceanus again, trying to divert his attention away from the skins under the table... one looks vaguely humanoid, the other fishy. Maybe they were cooking a fish person. Jaris says something to us about Oceanus's cousin being eaten by them. It seems a bit far fetched.
“Idea!” I exclaim, a plan suddenly dawning on me. “Maybe we should take the meat and go serve it in their dining hall... and then- surprise! We kill them all!”
“That's not a bad plan,” Ceyleen says, trying some of the meat. She grimaces, taking another bite before tossing the meat aside.
“No, this is rude. We shouldn't be eating their food that they're trying to cook!” Jaris says.
“It looked to me like they were quitting their jobs,” I say. “I've seen it happen many times. Why do you think Gregolas runs my store?”
So we continue on, not executing my brilliant dining room slaughter plan, and somehow wind through corridors all the way back to the pantry. We backtrack, and come to more double doors. They aren't ones we have been through before, thankfully. Jaris does the thing, the half-orc barges in, and we find ourselves in a huge ceremonial hall of sorts. There are pillars on either side, and the room is massive. On the walls are rows of mounted heads, of beasts such as a giant crayfish, lions, tigers, bears, and ohhh my. At the end of the room, a throne on a dais, beset with glittering jewels. And in the middle of the floor, two lizardfolk children.
Jaris is ecstatic to see kids, apparently in his caravan back home children are very valued and he has a soft spot for them. I just see future evil lizardmen. They perk up as we walk into the chamber, putting their hands up and babbling at us. I draw my bow, ready to strike lest they attack or have their families laying in wait.
“Don't hurt them!” Jaris snaps. “They are children, they're innocent.”
Ceyleen tosses them an apple, and they start playing and fighting over it like it's a ball. Jaris then looks up in the air, at nothing.
“No, don't hurt them!”
“Ricardo, not them!”
I shake my head. That invisible pseudo-dragon is starting to stress me out. I wish I could see it, then I wouldn't feel crazy every time something happens with it. Everyone else starts walking towards the throne, and I accompany them with my bow ready to attack if something happens. The throne is super shiny and sparkly, and the gems are very enticing. Ceyleen goes back to Oceanus and helps him over, the sea elf speaking to the swamp elf in obvious agony. He looks extremely grateful when Ceyleen lowers him onto the throne, as he has been walking around the place with Jaris's help and falling over quite a bit. Ceyleen searches behind the throne, around it, and then gets back to the seat.
“Aevlin, hold Oceanus!”
“What? Is he okay with that?” I lower my bow, ready to lift the elf to his feet, but the half-orc grabs him and lifts him effortlessly out of the seat. Oceanus groans.
Ceyleen searches the seat, and finds a key! Oceanus is visibly relieved to be set back down. We let Oceanus rest on the throne while we go back to try to communicate with the kids. Jaris has been trying to talk to them, and break up their fighting. Ceyleen walks over with the key dangling, and points to it and tries communicating to the kids to ask what it goes to. One of the children gets excited, reaching for it with grabby hands. The swamp elf lets him take it, and before any of us can stop him it puts the key in its mouth.
“No!” I yell, jumping into action. I force the kid's mouth open, and reach a hand in. I don't feel any metal, only slightly sharp teeth gnawing into my hand and disgusting lizard folk spittle. It starts wailing in between trying to bite my hand off, and I yell as the nasty fangs dig into my flesh. The child's screams are sure to draw all the adult lizardfolk in the area, and I immediately regret my decision. Jaris pushes me aside forcefully, and I nearly fall on my backside.
“Give him to me!” He snaps.
“Take it, I don't want it!” I yell, wiping my bloody and spit covered hand on my cloak.
“It's okay!” Jaris tries to console the crying child. “She didn't mean it.”
As the thief talks to the children, who obviously don't understand him, the rest of us discuss what to do.
“We can kill them.” Elmarth says.
“We're going to have to cut it open.” I say.
“I like the way you think.” The half-orc agrees.
“No! Absolutely not!” Jaris is livid.
“Oh! There's that maneuver you can do when someone is choking!”
I perk up, remembering seeing it done once.
“We call that the Gregolas Maneuver back home!” I say. “Someone once choked on a chocolate covered strawberry in my store, and he saved them!”
“Think you can do it?” Ceyleen asks.
“Of course!” I grab the child from Jaris. “I got this!”
I position my hands on the kid's ribs, just as I saw Gregolas do all those years ago. It doesn't weigh very much and is tiny, so this will be easy. I press in, nothing happens, so I squeeze harder. The kid screams, cries, and I press again. The snapping sounds are a bit alarming. I lay the child down on the ground, and blood is pouring out of its mouth. Jaris freaks out, screaming at me, and brings the child over to Hans. I can only look on in shock as I realize what I've done. I was only kidding when I said to cut it open, I didn't mean to hurt it.
“What have I done?!” I say, looking at my hands. Hands of a child killer, apparently.
“You didn't mean it, you were trying to help!” Ceyleen pats me on the back.
“I killed a child! I saw Gregolas do it that one time and he saved a guy, what did I do wrong!?”
Hans heals it, and its eyes open. It looks over to me, shaking in fear. I keep to myself as the others search the room, avoiding looking at the lizardfolk children. I sometimes don't know my own strength nor my deadliness... there's a reason I'm a fighter, not a healer. At least Hans was able to bring it back.
“Over here, I found a door!” Elmarth calls. We go over, and Jaris checks it for traps. Everything looks fine, and he opens it.
There is a passage in the floor, a tunnel going down with metal handholds going down. We decide bringing the kids along is important, seeing as one of them still has our key inside of him. It's going to have to come out at some point. Elmarth charms the one I nearly killed, and it comes running and grabs his leg. He waves the crocodile figurine at the other one, which approaches him, and then he grabs him in his arms. They are lowered down to the others who went down in the passage, and the magic user follows. I crawl down after Wahruck, and watch as Jaris tries bringing Oceanus down. Oceanus falls, hitting the ground hard, and is bleeding out and unconscious. Wahruck heals him, and the elf wakes up and starts pleading for something in elvish. He's miserable, in pain, and clearly doesn't have the will to go on. Elmarth goes to him, and slips a dagger in between his ribs, killing Oceanus. We all stare in shock. Did Oceanus ask to be put out of his misery? Wahruck groans, healing the elf again. Oceanus wakes up sputtering, hands held up in surrender and babbling.
“I thought he wanted me to mercy kill him!” Elmarth says, wiping the blood off of his dagger.
“No, he wanted someone else to carry him!” Ceyleen clings onto Patrick Sprayzee in shock.
“I'll take him. I can't trust any of you anymore.” Wahruck lifts the now even bloodier sea elf from the ground, and Oceanus clings to him shaking.
That business taken care of, we head down more passageways, and come to another shaft with handholds to climb up. The half orc goes up, popping his head into the room, and then climbs all the way in. We hear a door open, and footfalls entering the room as we wait down below, looking up the shaft.
“Come,” A heavily accented voice says. “All talk. Head man.”
A lizardman appears at the shaft, looking down at us.
“Come. Safe.”
We have no reason not to believe him in this moment, as our orc is still alive. All of us climb up, and the lizardfolk children run to their own people. There are a couple with javelins, five with morning stars and shields, one with a broadsword wearing a fancy collar, another in a necklace. The lizardkids are babbling at the adult lizardfolk, and it sounds like they are being scolded back. They are not actively trying to attack us, so maybe we are okay... maybe they do just want to talk. The kid that I almost killed turns and looks at us, and raises one arm. He points his finger straight at me, and all the heads turn and look at me. I see Ceyleen out of the corner of my eye take a handful of the white granules, and snort it. Wahruck begins muttering a spell, and in that moment I know that I'm in big trouble.
“You little s***!” I gasp. “I was trying to help him!”
I am so dead.
>>-----> Aevlin, Not a Babysitter <-----<< OH MY GOODNESS! Nylen becomes incapacitated and the party turns to killing children and gutting an innocent aquatic elf!
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Post by Aileen on Apr 3, 2019 20:25:49 GMT -5
It has become lawless wasteland without any Lawful Good around 😅. The failed heimlich was purely accidental. The stabbing a total misunderstanding (although we all thought the same thing) lol
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Post by dragonforgotten on Apr 4, 2019 0:04:40 GMT -5
It has become lawless wasteland without any Lawful Good around 😅. The failed heimlich was purely accidental. The stabbing a total misunderstanding (although we all thought the same thing) lol The dropping of Oceanius was my bad for having butter fingers and bad rolls. The stabbing took me off guard. I was best dad.
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Post by matthewkusza on Apr 4, 2019 12:12:57 GMT -5
Elmarth is feeling quite horrible about misunderstanding Oceanus’ last request. In hindsight, he should have relayed the request to the group and discussed it first. He should have offered Faris the opportunity to help Oceanus cross over peacefully to the Undying Lands since Faris has been so involved with his care after the wretched Bolliwog decided to eat elf legs for dinner. (Perhaps this was the Bolliwog’s way of protesting the proliferation of frog leg eating in certain regions of the realm of United States???) Nevertheless the chaotic and impulsive nature of this elf got the better of him. Apologies to the group and Elmarth is eager to make ammends.
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Post by Aileen on Apr 4, 2019 12:18:35 GMT -5
Elmarth is feeling quite horrible about misunderstanding Oceanus’ last request. In hindsight, he should have relayed the request to the group and discussed it first. He should have offered Faris the opportunity to help Oceanus cross over peacefully to the Undying Lands since Faris has been so involved with his care after the wretched Bolliwog decided to eat elf legs for dinner. (Perhaps this was the Bolliwog’s way of protesting the proliferation of frog leg eating in certain regions of the realm of United States???) Nevertheless the chaotic and impulsive nature of this elf got the better of him. Apologies to the group and Elmarth is eager to make ammends. It was hilarious. Except maybe for Oceanus 😂
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Post by dragonforgotten on Apr 4, 2019 12:44:16 GMT -5
Elmarth is feeling quite horrible about misunderstanding Oceanus’ last request. In hindsight, he should have relayed the request to the group and discussed it first. He should have offered Faris the opportunity to help Oceanus cross over peacefully to the Undying Lands since Faris has been so involved with his care after the wretched Bolliwog decided to eat elf legs for dinner. (Perhaps this was the Bolliwog’s way of protesting the proliferation of frog leg eating in certain regions of the realm of United States???) Nevertheless the chaotic and impulsive nature of this elf got the better of him. Apologies to the group and Elmarth is eager to make ammends. you'r good. I was just shocked and Oceanius should have been more clear about his request lol. Jaris has been slowly losing patients with him as well.
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Post by Chris on Apr 4, 2019 13:04:34 GMT -5
Elmarth is feeling quite horrible about misunderstanding Oceanus’ last request. In hindsight, he should have relayed the request to the group and discussed it first. He should have offered Faris the opportunity to help Oceanus cross over peacefully to the Undying Lands since Faris has been so involved with his care after the wretched Bolliwog decided to eat elf legs for dinner. (Perhaps this was the Bolliwog’s way of protesting the proliferation of frog leg eating in certain regions of the realm of United States???) Nevertheless the chaotic and impulsive nature of this elf got the better of him. Apologies to the group and Elmarth is eager to make ammends. you'r good. I was just shocked and Oceanius should have been more clear about his request lol. Jaris has been slowly losing patients with him as well. Wow, losing patience with the guy that lost his leg.
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