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Post by Aileen on Jan 11, 2021 22:55:55 GMT -5
Wake up, slog through snow, sleep, repeat. The days are all blurring, interrupted by short little skirmishes with yeti and wolves and giants. Nothing stands a chance against us. The most formidable enemy is the cold.
At night I count myself lucky that I am married. I get to share body heat and get an extra hot water skin. He boils the water with his mind for all of us, and it definitely helps everyone sleep. I find that I don’t mind the mountains so much, it truly is beautiful and camping with the guys is more fun here than in the marshes. Oh Eylea, I wish I could forget you.
We travel for many days until finally the mountain is closer, after many dead ends and guesstimating a direction. We come across a dwarf who hails us and is immediately friendly. He asks for our help, for surely if we have survived these mountains we are hardy and capable adventurers. His miners have been attacked and a good number killed by frost giants, and he wants help killing them and taking back the mine. We agree to help, and they welcome us into their camp. They will show us the entrance to the mountain if we help them, so it’s a no brainer.
I love dwarves. These are my new favorite people- stocky, loud, and they love beer. Just like me! I’m not broad and bearded enough to be one of them, though. The next day we set out with them, and come to the entrance into the mountain. There in front are some giants and big wolves. Before we can formulate a plan, the dwarves charge in!
I run with them, quickly out pacing them, and attack a giant. Things seem to be going well until the dwarves start falling. One dies beside me, crushed by the giant’s mighty blow. They can’t seem to hit me with my magic cloak.
“Fall back!” I yell to the head dwarf. “Please!”
“I don’t take orders from you, little girl!”
Guess they don’t obey my authority here. I may be a Lady but I’m no dwarven noble. I just don’t want to see my new friends die. I hope they’re not vastly miscounting the amount of giants that they said are in here.
⚔️ Aevlin
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Post by dragonforgotten on Jan 12, 2021 14:38:25 GMT -5
The lightening para elemental didn’t cause us to much trouble in the end which left the rest of our day to March through the mountains where icy rain soaked us to the bone. Damn was it cold. With our birdman shaman were able to reach the an giant eagle messenger trying to stop us from going further. Nearly lost my s*** when one started talking to us through our minds. He tells us more about the spire from the head shamans fever dream. Apparently a wizard lived there. There long dead but maybe would find our sky fish there. Now that sounds interesting. A dead wizards home with all that free unclaimed s***, F*** ya. Oh The giant bird is about to leave with the shaman, i must have missed the rest of the exchange. But Then I remember something. “Oh wait, be careful not to fly too high about the dark clouds. There’s apparently a giant up there who’s sicking white winged baboons on people, destroyed there village.” The eagle just tilts its head to the side and says nothing. Don’t know what that means. Probably thinks I’m crazy. They Probably know already and is thinking ‘Why would a flightless humanoid tell them where to fly’. Well now they know if they didn’t. This is perfect. Now all we have to do is reach the spire in the top fo that mountain. I’m sure the eagles can help once they come back. Then it hits me. I lean next to Aevlin. “Are they going to be back soon?” “No jaris, they arnt.” “Not even to fly us to the tower?” “Nope.” I look back down the the mountain and I can already feel the ache in my bones. “So they took our guide to talk birdeaucracy amongst them?” “Pretty much.” “Damn...” ———————
The mountains are cold and hard to navigate. Everything looks the same and frost is starting to gather on the ground. There only rocky caverns and slops with bits of grass her and there. We avoided the storm on the first path but the paths just keeps twisting and turning as we run into monster on the road. Warmth is another thing. We have to huddle for warmth together under rocky over hands and shallow caves. Can’t complain much since now me and Aevlin are closer then ever. It feels nice and makes me a more chipper man for someone trying to keep the frost form stealing my fingers and toes. She’s been concerned me and Nylen would lose ear tips before we even reach the top. I was sleeping peacefully the first night when suddenly I feel agonizing pain strike through my chest! Oh gods! The spike pit! Not again! My eyes snap open to find I’m not in a bed of spikes but a a grey fanged deer head snarling and snorting with a face full of fangs, antlers inches deep in my chest. It drags and throws me across the ground snapping its teeth near my heart. “Oh for the love of the gods! Can’t a man get some sleep in the damn mountains without getting spitted!” I push it off me as it flaps wings. I quickly vanish from sight as Aevlin jolts awake and by instinct pounces on the offending beast. She’s cutting into it as I hack away at its wings. I think it’s almost dead and back off from it. She loses her mind “What are you doing?!” “Letting you have it, since you get mad!” She sputters, gesturing wildly as she’s cutting it to ribbons. “Jaris, I just want to sleep! Kill the damn thing!” I shake my head chuckling. Honestly!? first don’t kill your opponents, don’t help you fight. Then the next you want me to finish it. Please be consistent dear! I’m a simple man! I can only hope I’ve gotten better through the years. Next morning we found more trolls, some giants. The next days go I eventually fully besides some yetis, and other monsters. Aev flys to take a peek on if we’re going the right direction but it all looks the same. A snow storm starts to form and thicken. I hold onto her hand and her cloak in fear of a white out. We manage to find our old camp before the storm gets ugly. It’s starting to become obvious that we are off course as we start drifting away from the mountains. Much to our frustration we turn back. Days of walking now needs to be back track. We’re surprisingly up beat about this entire exhibition in the mountain dispite the cold. Guess our time being old made us appreciate being young and fit. One night we wake up to screaming to find Graven is being mauled by devil dogs. We just manage to wake up and kill them before it gets bad. Nylen starts harvesting the meat as Hans manages to find a flat rock for me to heat up to cook the meat on. I chance taking a swig of some water when I hear it. “You know, before I’d ask for it well done, but after being a weretiger I’m okay with it mostly raw.” I say. Hans laugh “We all know how Aevlin likes her meat.” Mutters Hans. “Stealthy?” I choke, coughing into my elbow as I can feel my face heat up. F***ing hell Aev! Privacy love! The next morning is not so different form the rest besides that it’s still butter outside. I find Aevlin and Hans doing push up and join in. When she offers to sit on my back to make it more challenging I told her to go for it and regretted it immediantly. I get four pumps in before I collapse face first in the snow. “Maybe you need to work out alittle now.” I huff, chuckling. “I’m a theif, not a mule. Four has to be a new record.” This earns a chuckle and her hands ruffling through my hair. The next encounter ends just as fast but Aevlin gets alittle crispy and takes an arrow in the back. I pour some of my secrete stash into the wound and find her trying to turn her head around. “Is that whisky?” “No dear, just water.” I tell her, secretly taking a swig. A few more monsters are killed along the road till it’s time to once again lay our heads. I set down our bedrolls for us and as she lays down I wrap the blanket around her and then wrap my body around her with a blanket snug around me. “Good night love.” “Good night, let’s hope tomorrow lead us up the mountain.” I kiss her and then hide my face into the crook of her neck. —————
We finially have encountered giants up these mountains, frost giants. I expanded to reach there exposed backs and was shocked today. I found out that while I am like this I am now taller then them. How much larger will I get? F***, I’m not going to be able to fit through caves at this rate if I use these extra muscles. I think to myself with the screams of agony ringing in my ears as the stupid son of a b*** dies. When there all bloody dead we loot there s*** and Hans finds some scrolls but can’t read them, peeks my interest. I still haven’t regretted learning magic. I take the brittle pages from his hands and let my eyes wonder over them. My eyes widen in shock. “Holy s***! These are keepers.” “What are they?” Aevlin asks leaning over my shoulder. “It’s the Good s***, too good. I’ll get myself killed if I attempt this c***.” “Awww, so no magic from you then?” “Not yet. Not yet. If you see me doing magic then truely we are all f***ed” I announce and roll up the scrolls and carefully placing it in my pack. Hope this is water tight. The last thing I want is melted snow getting to it. Once again we settle down for the night and as I’m shivering badly an idea creeps up on me. “Everyone pull out your water skins. I can heat them up.” They do and I concentrate on each one. I’ve gotten very good as focusing. It barely takes any effort on my part to boil water and light up paper. Aevlins practically beaming with pride as she looks on at the group when they asks if she’ll be warm enough at night with the snow and frost growing stronger. “I’ll stay warm, I’ve got a whole husband. Means I get two waterskins!” I blush, pulling her against me. “You flatter me too much.” We settle down to sleep, a water skin sandwiched between us as I wrap arms and blankets around her and me. Despite the cold Im certainty enjoying the trip now that everything is right again for me. Eylea is now just a bad nightmare that’s come and gone now. Besides the damn yetis attacking us in our sleep I could have mistaken this trip for a wilderness trip with how effectively we’ve dealt with our foes. Damn was that bad*** that Ogden cut that apes head off! The next day while we’re making progress we walk by an area with heavy snow mounds precariously sat on the mountains side. I have to tell everyone to shut the f*** up and stop the horse play before we end up buried. Surprisingly they listen to me and we make it through unburied. On the way up a steep path a blizzard starts up and I grab onto Aevlins hand again, Hans grabs the gnome when the force of the wind nearly rolls him off his feet. Aevlin sword lights the way with the flames flickering in the wind. When we break free I look through the sun clouds and spy a pair of griffons glide over head. I smile, squeezing her hand as we shuffle on. It’s nice when man eating beasts don’t eat you, makes you appreciate them alittle more. The next day we’re making more progress. I can almost feel it. Where nearly there but the path just seems to whind on forever. Suddenly a voice calls to us and a dwarf comes into view. “Hey! What are you doing up here?” “Ghost!?!” “Oh, sorry wait a second.” I take off my sword and reappear as the dwarf breaths a sigh of relief. He explains to us what he’s doing here. Him and his men were mining the silver deposited when they were attacked and driven out by frost giants and winter wolves. They killed a lot of his men and they were forced to retreats. They started giving up hope when they saw us coming up the mountain. Doesn’t seem like much trouble considering how string of successes. We agree on terms of good faith, revenges, and some guidance up the mountain. They know we’re the spire is which will save us some time. They take us back to there camp and for once we have a really shelter under our heads and entertaining stores to tell. I juggle for the dwarves and that gets them laughing in there hands and knees. When we go to bed that night it’s nice not to wake up with snow in your hair. With the approach of dawn we and the dwarves head towards the mines with them hooting and hollering up the hills. There confidences have been restored now that we are here and they want blood. Then we see them. Two giants, two white wolves. Simple. We charge and clash into a fight. I back up Ogden with the wolves as they snarl and bit at us. Suddenly they howl and a wash of fridges air washes over us, sapping the warmth and freezing my bones but I remain on my feet for now. Enraged I rush forward, cut the feet under the mutt and then slit his throat dead. Ogden fells his wolf and we rush in amongst the giants just as they have already killed two of the dwarves. Aevlin begs for them to run but they won’t. Dwarven pride most likely. As the giants start to hang on there last legs we feel the rumbling of the snow and I look into the caves. Oh hell. Looks like the dwarves are wrong about there giant count.
Jaris FJ
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Post by dragonforgotten on Jan 19, 2021 1:05:28 GMT -5
We can hear the angry screams of frost giants echoing and the snarling of wolves through the caverns. There coming and soon. I take my stance. Waiting for the flame strike when Aevlin rushes in fearlessly. I have to change plans. I focus and grow once again to giant height and rush in late with the rest of the gang. My heart hammers in my chest as I watch Aevlin surrounded by giants, a wall of winter wolves and more giants stand in our way. I almost don’t know who to hit first but I make up my mind and charge the wolves. There icy breath is far to dangerous. I slam into them with the force of a fire giant but they weave and dodge between each other that I can not tell who I have hit and who I have not. In a flash of fire and blades I spy Aevlin lop off a hand from one of the giants. He roars, clutching his bleeding stump before renewing the attack on her. Suddenly the wolves howl and an icy chill washes over me, Gravin, Ogden and I. I can’t stop shivering. It’s too cold. I won’t stand this for much longer but I must. The dwarves finally catch up to us, covering Gravins and Ogden’s withdrawal while Hans heals. It’s up to me. I must stay on the front lines till they are better. I make the mistake and glance up one more time at Aevlin. My blood runs cold. I watch as the giants bring Aevlin down and I am angry and losing hope. This ain’t good. We’ve been in dire straights but the situation has gone from desperate to hopeless. I glare at the offending beasts in front of me. The writing is on the walls, death is here. We were arrogant and now we are paying for it. Now all that’s left is just the silvers of faith we’ll some how come through, a silver of luck and balls. I growl in the back of my throat and breath. Wolves. Wolves delivered the killing blow to my ancestor. Fitting wolves will but the death of me now. I reel back, ready I for the beast. Well, I’m not going down without taking one of these f***kers with me. I just hope that if this really is it then I pray Olidammar reunite me with my wife again on the other side. Atleast shows me this small kindness. We launch at each other’s. My blade stinks into the wolf while his fangs but into my shoulder and his claws rake across my face. We crumple to the ground together into a heap, Lyon falling from my hands. My vision is hazy as I feel myself fading. “This is it for me. It’s up to you now Hans. Please.. just do what you must.” And that’s all I remember before succumbing to darkness. ...... ......... ...... “Jaris! Jaris please wake up!” I groan, my face stings as I come to the warring world to Aevlins sobbing. Holy s*** were alive... My eyes flutter to find her face bruised and eyes puffy. She immediately pulls me up from the floor and throws herself against my chest. I embrace her, thanking the gods that were both still alive but something isn’t right. This doesn’t make sense. I glance around behind her confused. “How are we?” I see him, sitting on the floor look worn and wear, ergo the wizard. “Ergo? What’s.” The I spy Hans, motionless on the ground. No. The tears but at my eyes but I choke them down. He could be an ass but he was our ass. I turn to Aevlin confused. “Aevlin what happened? I need to know.” She sniffles and her eyes grow wet. “He died trying to save us. Ergo drove the giants away but it was too late by the time he drove them away.” Aevlin begins to break down. “It’s all my fault.” I grab her shoulders and turn her head to look into my eyes. “No, it’s not. We tempted fate and lost the gamble. You did what you thought was right. Besides, He’s not lost yet.” I stand, helping her up. Refusing to admit defeat. When I died Hans did not give up on me. I will not give up on him. We respectfully strip dead Hans of his items. Placing the cloak back around my shoulder again feels like a solid reminder of my conviction to get him back, to steal them all back from death. You kept your promise so I’ll keep mine. Aevlin brings up teleporting the body and we find that it is indeed within ergos power. While Aevlin is writing a note to the kord scouts to not panick and keep the body safe I approach ergo and hold out the spell scrolls. “Take them.” “Why are those?” “Spells, the spicy kind. They are more potent in a real mages hand. I’ve learned to understand but it’s no replacement to a real wizard. If we find more come to me. I’ll read them for you.” “So your not angry anymore?” “I was but you saved our lives. My kind don’t forget good turns and we always pay our debts. It’s no time for pettiness after losing Hans. We need everyone. So long as you don’t touch my wife again we’re golden.” He takes them eagerly and I can see the gleam in his eye. We rest in the ruins of the giants lair once we bury the dead dwarves. Such a disaster. Far too many died today. The cost was too grave and it’s hard to stomach but we must carry on, keep our chins up and get to work. The leader of the dwarves. In his dying moments told us were to go. All we have to do is follow. We leave early. While Aevlin was asleep I added to her note. Of course she notices though the moment we are about to send the body back. She gives me the evil eye as a smirk. Just like that the body is teleported back home and we are off. It’s not long till trouble finds us. Some sick f*** decided owlbears weren’t deadly enough. They can f***king fly now. Ergo manage to shock them before they start to maul me. Everyone manages to kill it before it could do anymore damage to me. Trudging up the mountains we suddenly hear the flapping of wings. I thought it was a wyvern or another flying beast but when I turn around I see two giant, monstrous centipedes glide in amongst us on winged membrane sails along there necks. Ergo slows them, we hack away at there hides. These beast practically radiate there own heat. There backs are too blistering hot I don’t even risk stabbing it out of fear of burning myself. When our swords bounce of there backs we carve up there belles till they die. When the fighting down I’m left breathless and shaken. Another horror to add to my bestiary. Can’t let anyone not know about this s***t. Also another nightmare to file away to supreme later. Nothing in these giant beasts stomachs but there lair looks to have a lots of things. There’s a cluster of eggs, a scroll case, and a broken iron pot. I join Aevlin with the eggs and watch her smash them much to my cringe. Those could have been worth something on the back market. When I hear ergo messing with the scroll my heart stops as I realize how much I screwed up as memories of the exploding Spellbook comes back to mind. “Ergo wait!” Too late. There’s a click and I’m blinded, my skin burning as it’s over. Like that all the contents of the scroll case is destroyed. Ah f***. I should have know. Amateur mistake. Least there’s the gold and gem stones Graven will ease my soul.
Jaris FJ
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Post by Aileen on Jan 19, 2021 12:03:38 GMT -5
I dash into the cave as the giants outside fall, hearing something inside. My eyes adjust to the dim light, my longsword’s glow lighting my way. There’s seven giants and a few wolves!
I’m quickly surrounded by four giants, suddenly feeling very small. I look like a little girl holding a stick compared to these massive humanoids. The rest run out with the wolves toward my friends, who I’m sure are right behind me. They all try to attack me, missing thanks to my cloak. I take a mighty swing, and cut right through one of the giant’s wrist. The massive hand falls to the ground with a sickening slap, and blood shoots out of the stump. Its warmer than human blood, I realize as it hits my skin. I wipe my face on my cloak, and get back into the fight.
All it takes is one pound of a giant’s fist against my skull to send me reeling. They hit me again and again, the pain immense as my bones break and my brain rattles in my skull. I taste blood, and my vision begins to spout out. Another good blow takes me out.
—-
“Aevlin, my angel,” a voice whispers to me, stroking my hair.
I grunt, slowly coming to. Everything hurts, almost like I’ve been beaten down by giant fists. Oh, wait- I have. I open my eyes, vision blurry but slowly coming into focus on the person in front of me. Dark hair, neatly groom and ed goatee. That’s not my husband!
“Ergo?! Get off of me!” I try to swat him away, but collapse back down, my injuries all screaming. My sword arm is in a sling, head wrapped in bandages, my back and neck completely out of alignment. I’m utterly useless!
“Easy, Aevlin,” he tucks the blanket back around me. “Get some rest, I’ll watch over you all.”
“Did we win?”
“No, I found you all dying. The giants were going to eat you, but I drove them off. One of them lost a hand, so I’m sure he’s not long for this world.”
“That was me,” I say with a grin. “Is everyone okay?”
His expression becomes somber, and he shakes his head.
“Hans is gone. I have no way to bring him back.”
My dreams are dark and cold as these mountains as I drift in and out of sleep. Hans is dead. I can’t help but feel it’s my fault, I rushed into the cave thinking they would all be behind me, but we got separated. I thought I could take the giants, but I’m not the great hero I thought myself to be. I’m just a small woman with a flaming sword who has no idea how to be the noblewoman that I now am.
I don’t know how long we are in the cave, but my injuries are slow healing. We have no healer, and are depending on the mercy of time to heal us. Jaris was out for some time, and joins me to rest, holding me as I cry. It’s been Hans and I from the beginning, best friends since we met in Darkshelf. We’ve been on so many adventures, and now he is dead.
“Wait, Ergo!” I call out, sometime in the middle of the night. “Do you have that spell?”
“Gotta be a little more specific, Aevlin.”
“The transportation one? Can it be used for a body?”
He looks over at Hans’s corpse, laid out respectively by the cave mouth to keep him preserved in the cold.
“He will need to lose some gear, but yes.”
“Send him to the house!” I say. “The Kord Scouts can find someone to resurrect him! That is, if he wants to come back. I’ll write them a note! Can you do it?”
Turns out he can. I write an instructional note to the kids, and Jaris adds a note of his own. We take some of Hans’s gear, and send him on his way with just his holy symbol and the clothes on his back. I offer a quick prayer to Kord, unable to do push-ups in my state but asking him to send his soul back when called for. This world needs Hans Gunther Heinrich, and I will do anything to have him back.
We rest for what seems like days, and head out to where the dwarves told us the pass was. I guess one gave directions to the others with his dying breath. I feel horrible that none of them survived, this whole fight was for nothing. We head into the icy pass, and eventually run into some winged creatures flying down from above. Polar owlbears! Ergo lightning bolts and fries two of them, leaving one to dive down on invisible Jaris and another landing nearby. Graven the gnome and I quickly dispatch one and then he kills the one on Jaris. He’s scary for a little gnome.
I try some meat cooked quickly on my flaming sword, and it’s actually quite good. Then again anything tastes good when you’ve been living on rations for days. Oh, Hans, I wish you were here to pray for food!
We reach the ravine and immediately are faced with a horrid creature. It’s icy blue and has steam coming off it’s back, with leathery wings and insectile features. To our dismay there’s another one hiding behind it. We struggle to hit their tough carapaces, but discover when they rear up to strike that their soft under bellies are exposed. Using this method, Ogden and I kill one and then Ergo takes out the other with magic missiles.
We go into the cave and search the nest, finding two eggs, a broken pot and a carved ivory scroll tube. The pot has gems in it, which the gnome is a little too excited about, and Ergo is happy to get his hands on the scroll. I take a look at the eggs with Jaris.
“Think they’re edible?” I ask.
“No, they’re the offspring of those horrible things! Rehmorraz eggs!”
“Oh, gods!”
I quickly destroy them with my flametongue.
“Aevlin... those were extremely expensive!” Jaris whispers, a bit shocked.
“WHAT?!”
🏹Aevlin
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Post by Aileen on Jan 26, 2021 11:24:41 GMT -5
“Ergo, you magical bastard! What are you doing here?”
“Zinnie! I heard you lot were coming to this town and decided to come check it out,” the wizard says over his beer. “Weird town, the people are...”
“Kind of s***ty?”
“Yeah, that’s plausible.”
I sit at the bar with my old friend, and order a drink.
“I was with them but they went up to some aerie in the sky with bird people. I don’t do heights.”
“Bird people? You been smoking something?”
“Afraid not,” I laugh. “You came for Aevlin, didn’t you?”
The wizard sighs, absently rubbing his perfectly groomed goatee. His eyes glaze over a bit as he seems lost in memory.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“You still love her?”
“How could I not? We had something special, and then... taken from us by that old hag Nuala.”
“She was never yours, Ergo,” I say sternly. “You can’t take another man’s woman. It never ends well.”
“I know,” he drains the last of his drink. “Right, you want to join me? I’m sure you can locate them with your holy... people finding skills.”
“I can try. I know where that aerie is, but no way in hells am I going there.”
We set out from town, and in a couple days I get a lock on the group. They’re in the mountains, somewhere. The snowy, freezing cold, probably incredibly dangerous mountains.
Ergo and I start after them, making a good pace aided by his magic and my divine powers. We find campsites, long since abandoned and the coals frozen over in the fire pits. We find desiccated corpses of yeti, and giants, and winter wolves. I can only hope the blood stains in the snow are not any of our friends. Several days in I get a lock on Hans, but then... it fizzles out.
“Somethings wrong,” I say, trying to get a lock on Jaris. Nothing. Ogden, I get, but lose his trail too. “I think they’re in trouble! They’re near that big mountain peak!”
“I can teleport myself close to there!” Says Ergo. “I’m afraid I can’t take you with me.”
“Go! Save them! I’ll be alright.”
Ergo gives me a quick pat on the back, and with a murmur of arcane words he disappears. I draw my new fur cloak in around me, and start my trek in that direction. I’m alone in the mountain pass, but my will to see my friends safe and sound keep me moving on.
I get there a few days later, finding a cave with remnants of a great battle outside the mouth. Frozen dwarf corpses, arranged in a funeral pyre of sorts, yet unburnt. Blood stained snow, and more dead giants. Inside the cave there’s coals, and evidence of a fireball. Ergo must have made it just in time! The party, however, has moved on. I get a lock on Ergo, and proceed on.
I find them a day later outside a cave, having passed through an area that looked ready to let loose an avalanche. Luckily I don’t get buried alive out here alone. The party is standing in front of a wall of ice, Aevlin holding her flaming sword and the others waiting by her. I dash up behind them, trying to make non-threatening noise so Nylen doesn’t shoot me.
“Zinnie! So nice of you to join!” The elf calls out to me.
“You weren’t easy to find, friends! Ergo, glad you made it in time.”
He nods solemnly, and it takes a moment of looking around at the assembled party to realize there’s a missing face.
“Hans?” I ask.
“He didn’t make it,” says Ergo. “I sent his body back to Saltmarsh. Hopefully the Kord Scouts will bring him to a priest.”
“Dammit, I could have gotten him back!”
“It’s alright, he deserves a little R&R,” says invisible Jaris.
“If you can call being dead R&R...” Ergo grunts.
Aevlin tenses up, a pained look on her face as she examines the ice wall. Suddenly her flame is extinguished, and she turns away, sheathing the sword.
“I gotta go,” she says, brushing past us and running off toward the path to their apparent base camp.
Jaris runs after her, suddenly visible again, and comes back a few minutes later. Ergo, meanwhile, has taken the ice wall down with a booming fireball.
“What’s up with her?” I ask the half-elf thief.
“That time of the month,” he says. “She wants a day off.”
“Ah.” I ask no more questions.
We head into the pass, passing the smoldering corpses of the nasty insect creatures they slew, and find an icy lake with small writhing white worms shimmying about. Nylen takes a shot and they charge us. We have a fierce battle as they converge on us, and my buddy Ergo drops beside me. I try to get him up but the damned worms keep hitting me. Luckily Nylen finishes the last one on me off, and I get Ergo back to consciousness. No sooner is he back on his feet and the whole cavern begins to shake. We make a run for a tunnel, and hear an explosion of ice behind us and a terrible roar.
We keep running, circling about, and come back out into the same chamber. Just in time for a massive white worm to emerge from the passage we just came out of, it’s massive circular maw bursting right through Ergo’s wall of ice. We all take up positions as it attacks, and soon it is slain, our weapons and Ergo’s spell weakening it before it can kill us. A purple worm, it seems, but completely white! These mountains are a strange place!
We take time to gut the monster, finding a platinum chest with some decent treasure inside. The juice was definitely worth the squeeze. We head out the exit, coming to a lake of ice and a view of a crystalline tower in the near distance. Before we can even take in the view, another huge white worm bursts up through the ice. We take up positions, but before I can even attack the thing is on me. It’s massive mouth looms above me, plunging me into darkness as it swallows me whole.
And so I am inside a creature, feeling sticky, wet nastiness all around me. I hold my breath, the stench of this thing enough to make me pass out before I die, it seems. I try to think of a way to get out of this, but there’s no way my mace is getting me out of here. Fortunately before I can panic too much, the worm slams to the ground. I fall onto what I can only hope is it’s tongue, and soon the light of day shines in as a gash is cut into its hide. I crawl out, gasping for air, gagging and coughing. I’m absolutely covered in slime, but I’m alive, and that’s all that matters.
I roll in the snow, getting as much of the slime off as I can, and then join the others in tearing the thing open. Sadly no treasure inside. We head onward to the island and the crystal tower. Coming through the mist we come upon a horrible creature that I recognize as one of the things that killed Aevlin back in the Ffenargh. A crimson death! Luckily we kill it fairly quickly, a massive relief.
Finding a seemingly abandoned village, we are surprised by nine giants. We start a fight, but not too far into it they all up and run away. Seems odd for giants. I do some healing on my friends, and we proceed onward.
“Hello!” Comes a high pitched voice from ahead in the mist.
“A leprechaun?” I ask.
“That’s terribly racist! We’re gnomes!”
Sure enough there are gnomes ahead, nine of them. They say they’re out here looking for gold, and they really, really love gold. Still not convinced they’re not leprechauns. They also found a fountain they want to show us and warn us about a deadly green mist around the citadel. Deeming them trustworthy, we follow them to the fountain.
The fountain is in an overgrown courtyard, and the fountain is of a golden fish jumping out of the frozen water. Ergo is stopped from using burning hands to get through the ice, and the gnomes say they’re coming back with picks for us. They return a few minutes later with tiny gnome sized picks, which Nylen, Ogden and I grab. Suddenly, as we stand there trying to pick away at the ice, the three gnomes turn into giants!
“What the hells?!” I jump back, and nearly trip on a gnome that snuck up behind me. I feel something try to stab through my armour, but it slides off.
“You smell nice!” The tiny voice says. “Oh! I said that out loud!”
We are surrounded by giants, the little gnomes having been them all along. Ogden is taken down, and I find myself surrounded by four of them. Ergo goes unconscious, dropping like a sack of potatoes, and then I feel myself getting pummeled brutally.
I wake up on the ground, Nylen holding a potion bottle to my lips. I sit up, thanking him, and take in the scene. Nylen and Jaris were the last men standing, and there’s a bunch of dead Spriggans. My buddies are unconscious, and it seems I have my work cut out for me.
- Zinethar the Wise
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Post by dragonforgotten on Jan 26, 2021 16:49:15 GMT -5
Zinny manages to catch up with us in the ramoraza cave, I think I got that name right. We had to break the news of Hans demise and deportation off of the mountain back to saltmarsh. He’s deeply saddened by the lost of his friend but not as Aevlin. She hasn’t been taking it too well. The moment his name is brought up she stiffens, brushing past us to stand outside while excusing herself. I go after her concern and find her crying around the corner in the snow. I simply knell next to her and pull her into my arms as she cries. “It’s all my fault.” “No it’s not. We lost the gamble this time. It was beyond us this time.” She sniffles into my shoulder and I use my sleeve to wipe her tears before they freeze on her face. “I need to sort myself out Jaris.” I nods my head. “Take as along as you need.” And kiss her forehead, smoothing back her hair and pulling the hoot of her furred Parker over her head. “Just be careful.” “I will. Don’t die next.” “I won’t. I’m too stubborn.” With that she leaves and I return inside to find ergo has melted the ice wall. Zinny approaches me concern. “What’s up with her?” “That time of the month. She wants a day off.” “Ah.” He doesn’t press anymore. We move on, entering the pass. It’s not long till we come across strange medium sized white furred snakes? Atleats I thought they were at first. The moment they attacked they bit and then reared around with a sharp stinger on there tails. That’s strange. It’s mouth isn’t poisonous. These can’t be snakes, but what are they then. We manage to dispatch them and crush the remaining eggs when the ground begins to rumble. “What’s going on!?” “Looks like moms on her way. We should run.” Nylen chides. “Mother!?” We run through a random passage and we can hear the sounds of the ice and earth breaking behind us. What kind of monstrosity is this!? We weave through the passage but it does us no good. We soon found us back in the nest, I giant crater in the ground. The rumbling is growing behind us. Ergo manages to stick an ice wall in the tunnels entrance but it does no good. I giant head bursts through with a deep whail, a mouth filled with hundreds of whinding teeth. “Sweet Kord! What the f*** is that!?” “A white worm. Just be glade it can’t use its tail.” Answers Nylen as he flays it. Everyone throws themselves at it. Beat at it with desperation till it shutters and drops to the ground dead. With a beast this big we cut open it’s gut and find a platinum chest. They hand me the box, feeling confident that it’s not trapped, why would random box in a giant monster be trapped I thought. But the moment I foil the lock and open the lid I hear the whistling of darts fly past my ears. Turning around I find three darts buried into the ice. “You got to be s***ing me.” I shake my head in disbelief and continue to check out the spoils. That’s what I get for being arrogant, the gods have thoroughly checked me again. I find a potion, some money and a beautiful broach. Aevlin would like this. I pocket the jewelry while Ogden chugs the potion and finds it’s a levitation potion. Zinny stows the box and we move on. We reach a frozen lake. It’s awe inspiring with the way the mist of light of the day shimmers on its surface. There in the distance stands the gleaming tower and a cluster of small decayed ruins on our right. Before we get to move an inch the ground begins to rumble and another giant white worm bursts from the lake and begins to charge for us. “Oh gods it’s Dad!” I scream out in shock. Ergo manages to scorch it as it launches at us. It’s swallows Zinny in one bit then swings it’s tail with its long rail spike of a stinger at Nylen which misses. We all rush in on it, cutting it to pieces. It try to lunge at me to my shock but I guess the gods have showed me some mercy. The worm misses, inches from my foot. Soon it drops dead and we are able to help pull Zinny free before he suffocates. Sadly there is no goodies inside this one. We move on and encounter a monster leering from the fog. I can’t do jack to it so I sit by and let the other finish it. Shuffling along we reach the ruins but before we can really uncover anything we are assaulted by nine giants. They sprig out of nowhere. They surround Zinny and Ogden and begin brutally beating them. One tries to assault me but misses. I’ve had it up to here with giants. I cut up his ankle, ducking and weaving as he tries and fails to flatten me. Then as suddenly as they attack they try to run. My opponent turns his back on me and seeing an opportunity I leap off his heel and cut deep into his spin, letting gravity carve deep and drag down his back before I kick off and land on my feet again. Sadly didn’t kill the b****d, he’s still running and vanishes back into the mist with his comrades. Zinny spends all his time healing himself and Ogden as we decide it may be better to just go to the tower then to tango with more giants. Just as were halfway there we hear voices call to us. It’s sounds.... annoying. “A leprechaun?” Zinny calls out to them. “That’s terribly racist! We’re gnomes!” And there they are. All nine of them singing in the mist. Oh gods! Not more! They say there looking for the wizards gold and I can feel my ire grow. I’m not sharing the wizards spoils. We’ve lost too much already, I won’t share with these little punks. They tip us off that the green mist near the tower is dangerous but they want to show us something. I’m in no rush and my curiosity is getting the best of me today. We follow after them. They take us to a iced over fountain in a aged courtyard amongst the ruins. Only three of them are with us now. “Where the others go?” Ergo asks. “Oh they’ll be with us soon. Not to worry.” I can’t help but raise a brow. There’s something written on the fountain but all this ice is in the way. Ergos about to use some magic again when he’s presented with a tiny ice pick instead. I watch them work, not really seeing the need to jump in when three people are already working away. Suddenly as they are working the gnomes grow! Then the missing still small gnomes try to shank my friends with there daggers with mix success before growing as well. What the f***!? Are they like me!? I glare at them all, feeling the fool. We walked right into a trap. They wanted us to come her so they could kill and raid us. B****ds! I focus and expand, rushing in on zinnies hoard of goons. I slam into one, gutting him before blinking back to invisibility. They don’t focus on me. They just keep whacking on those who are visible while I slash chunks out of them. Soon one by one my friends start to fall and I begin to fear that I’m about to face a repeat of events that killed Hans. I can’t stop though. I’ll either kill them or they get me. But I refuse to die here. Not while Aevlin is still alive. With only me and Nylen standing I rush a giant. He lunges, nearly pericing my throat as I weave around him and gore him brutally as he dies. The surviving giants rush to Nylen as he holds a very familiar amulet in his hands. I brace for the wave of pain but it doesn’t come. Two out of the surviving four giants scream in pain and I jump on there weakness and slash them to pieces. I slash wildly about till at least me and Nylen stand together, our foes dead. I sigh, dropping to my normal size and reappearing, hands on my knees. We did it. By gods we did it. “Sorry about that. Only Thing I had left.” “Naw,” I wave him off. “When s*** goes south, do what you must. But know this. I’m the better size changing backstabber.”
Jaris FJ
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Post by Aileen on Feb 2, 2021 14:52:17 GMT -5
I leave the boys for only a couple days and they get into trouble. Zinnie was eaten by a giant white worm, which I had the pleasure of walking by its nasty corpse on my way to find them. Luckily he lived. When I find them they’re all unconscious except for Nylen and Jaris, helping up a beat to s*** Zinnie. They seemed to have gotten in a scuffle with spriggans, nasty gnomes that can become giant.
We take shelter in a storeroom lit by a magic rod, and I sit around bored while the boys rest and Zinnie patches them up.
“Nice of you to join us, Aevlin.” Ergo says in a tone that I can’t tell is sassy or trying to seduce me again.
“Why are you saying my name like that, Ergo?”
After over a day of holing up in here, we go out to investigate the frozen fountain. Burning though the ice we find an illustration of the tower in the center of town and a door in its base. However, heading to the actual tower we find its base is enveloped by a mound of ice, and surrounded by a nasty green mist. Entering the mist we all start gasping and gagging, immediately running back out. Damned poison!
“I’ll try to jump through!” I announce, and before Jaris can stop me I take off running.
I jump up the embankment, and as soon as I clear the poison air I realize the air is fine. I see the others down below and beckon them up. They join me a few moments later coughing and groaning like the big baby men they are.
“Alright, start looking for a door!” Zinnie says.
We circle the tower but find nothing. So we start burning the ice, thanks to Ergo’s fireballs and burning hands. Zinnie slides down into the pit Ergo made, having too much fun on the way down.
“Found the door!” He shouts back. “Everyone slide on in!”
And so we do, and it’s as fun as Zinnie made it look. We go inside and find ourselves in a bare room, and are greeted by a flying ball thing. It welcomes us and tells us to have a seat and it will get its mistress. Slabs come out of the walls, fit for sitting on, and a table rises up out of the floor bearing a pitcher of wine and some glasses. The hall goes up through the hole in the ceiling, and we all take seats. I try to take the pitcher, needing wine more than any of these guys, but my assh*** husband won’t let me. He thinks he’s doing right by me but it’s my life blood!
We drink our wine and wait. And wait. And wait. The hall never comes back. So Jaris heads to the stairs, and we hear the unmistakeable sound of a body plopping into water a moment later. I go over to the stairs, and stick my hand right through it. They’re an illusion. Getting on my hands and knees I lean forward, sticking my face into the stairs, and can just make out a heat signature down below.
“Jaris?”
“I’m in the water!”
“Ok, I’ll lower a rope!”
I unravel the corpse of El Ropey, and lower it as I stand back to belay. He starts climbing and I very nearly am pulled in with him.
“Help!” I call out.
Zinnie and Nylen rush over and grab onto my belt, holding me back. Jaris climbs up and collapses onto the floor soaking wet.
“You dry off, I’ll fly up the hole!” I announce.
“Be careful!” He warns.
“Always am!”
I fly up with the help of my sword, and find myself in a room with another orb, this one blackened silver. It starts floating toward me, but so far hasn’t tried anything. I lean down over the edge of the hole.
“Hey, can someone come up here?”
“Be up in a second,” says Nylen.
Zinnie gives him a potion and Nylen comes floating up, misses the hole, and then uses the ceiling to propel himself in. He helps me get a rope down to the others, and they all climb up. The gnome immediately touches the orb, gets blasted with cold air from the wall, and then starts playing with a panel of buttons. Nylen and I go up to the next level.
This one has a life sized griffin made of glass and surrounded by a circle in the floor with writing. Strange words I don’t understand. A red and yellow sphere is in this room, and I’m sure the gnome will mess with it. So, we wait on the rope. Nylen and I go to the griffin and I start saying the words. The griffin changes between tiny and normal sized, the eyes glowing red and then going out depending which words I say. Some of the words do nothing. When we can’t figure anything out we lower the rope.
Of course Graven plays with the orb. A window opens up into the winter air, and then closes. The circle glows. Lots of unhelpful things happen, so I get bored and move on to the next level. This one is a library. As I walk around I hear a strange chewing sound, and Nylen confirms he hears it too. Ergo joins us and excitedly goes over to the lectern to read a book on it. As I’m searching for the noise, my husband looks through the shelves. I go over and touch the orb in this room.
“Hey, Aevlin, there’s something here for you!” Jaris calls. “I won’t touch it!”
“Hold on a sec,” I mutter. As I touch the orb, suddenly I see an image in front of my eyes as though I’m looking into the entrance room. “I think I found something.”
I touch it again, and see a glowing column of pulsating light. Another touch shows a the glass griffon and the crazy gnome messing around. I keep touching it over and over, cycling through the same rooms, until I see something else. A silvery manta ray, underwater. A dome of mud is above it. It’s massive.
“That must be what this is talking about!” Ergo says. “Remove the dome with Fil and Fire to free the sky fish!”
This is exciting, very exciting. But I apparently have something to touch for Jaris. I walk over to him and it’s just an amethyst paperweight. I grab it and bring it and the papers it was holding over to Ergo.
“That’s a really nice rock!” He says, snapping his fingers. “Chest!”
The magic chest appears out of thin air, and Ergo starts putting stuff in it. As I’m closer to him I realize the munching noises are louder.
“Let me see your backpack!” I say, taking it from him.
“Uh, sure.”
He lets me do anything, he’s still pining after me. It’s useful. I dump out his bag and find nothing. I listen to him again, leaning my head into his chest, and earning a death glare from Jaris.
“This feels familiar,” Ergo says. He’s digging his own grave.
At last Jaris discovers the source of the noise. Little tiny worms, eating away the words out of the big book! And unfortunately they have spread to Ergo’s spell book. The wizard is mortified, delving into grief. As he mourns, I go to the top level. Walking across the sheet of ice on the floor (and doing a near perfect spin, of course), I go over to the pulsating pole of light. The others start coming up as I examine it. Giving in to curiosity, I touch it.
I don’t see the creature until it’s whaling on me, hitting me hard with icy fists. I reel back, nearly eating s*** on the ice, but manage to steady myself and draw my blade. I hit it but it does nothing, and neither do the others’ attacks. So we dash out of the circle and take up defensive positions around Ergo as the cold blasts of air pummel us. Graven is taken down as we run. I go to get him, but I’m pummeled by a blast of bitter cold, and feel the last of my strength leave my body.
When next I awaken I’m bundled up in blankets and have Zinnie healing me. Looks like we all made it out a little worse for wear. We rest up in the bottom level, and then go back up. We’re going to try to blast away the ice and kill the creature. I fly up and find the creature is gone. I report back and now they want me to touch the pole.
“We saw how well that went last time!” I snap.
“It’s fine, just do it!” Ergo says.
I touch it. The creature comes back, and I bolt. Luckily it misses me.
“Fireball, Ergo!”
He fireballs the ceiling. It does nothing. So, I grab him and fly up. The creature is gone again. Ergo burning hands the pillar as I hold him. That melts a little, but we need more firepower. I fly up a bit more, and he fireballs. The ice melts away in the intense heat, leaving just the fold circle. I set Ergo down, and he touches the pillar. The creature lashes out at him, and I hit it with my sword. It actually takes damage!
“Ergo, get back!” I shout.
Unfortunately he’s not fast enough, and drops. I attack, and with a couple well placed hits drop the horrid creature. As I look on, the column changes, looking less solid. But my friend the wizard is hurt, so it can wait. I see to Ergo, stopping his bleeding, and fly him back down.
“It’s done! I killed it!”
⚔️ Aevlin
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Post by Aileen on Feb 9, 2021 12:21:09 GMT -5
I walk into what was once the pulsating light beam, and find myself underground. Above me, a dome of ice and mud. Below, a pool of water and the strange silver manta ray we saw. The others soon join me, standing on the platform.
“Ergo, what did that passage say about the dome? Fire and fil?”
Suddenly, as I spoke, the dome starts rising. Water begins pouring in the base, and with it several fishlike/humanoid creatures.
“I think we need to use fire on the dome...” he says, looking up.
“Right! Hold tight!”
I draw Maragbur and wrap my free arm around Ergo, then begin to fly upward past the flowing water to the top of the dome. The others are all scrambling... down? What, why? They’re trying to get to the sky fish, but they’re going to just drown?! Not my problem. Ergo and I fly to the top, and he casts fireball. Nothing happens.
“S***! Um... dome!” I yell.
The dome starts to slowly descend, the water still rushing in but clearly closing up at the bottom again. We land on the platform, and the others start swimming toward us. Everyone’s out of the water, that we can see, by the time the dome has finished closing. The water is sucked out, leaving the fish men surrounding a spot on the ground. Our newly found friend, a druid who stumbled into us resting in the tower, fairie fires them. There’s a body outline on the ground- clearly my husband.
We start shooting as the come up, the druid Fergie steps in front of us to cast spells, and Zinnie makes a run for my husband. It doesn’t take us long to destroy the creatures, and Zinnie and Jaris come running back. Jaris is freaking out about his eye, but he literally just has a scratch near the lid. Could have been a lot worse.
We all take a breather and then go check out the Skyfish. There’s a door, and it appears to be some sort of structure. Going inside, we find an open compartment with some benches and panels. Ergo takes a seat.
“Fire!”
A beam of energy shoots out one of the eyes on the exterior, and hits the dome.
“Woah!” His eyes widen, a broad grin taking over his face. “Aevy, raise the D word!”
Jaris glares at him.
“Aevy? D word? Do you want me to kill you, man?” He hisses.
I stand in the opening and declare to the world,
“DOME!”
The bottom of the dome begins to rise, the water flows in.
“Um... rise? Float?” Ergo demands.
The skyfish begins to float, slowly upward as the water flows in. The compartment fills with water, and I’m ready to swim out when I accidentally get a mouthful and realize... I can breathe! However, the ceiling is getting real close, threatening to crush us as we ascend. Luckily, the dome disappears, and we break through, ascending up through the lake and into the air. The water pours out, and we are floating in the air in a giant manta ray.
“Forward!” Ergo says.
He takes us for a spin around the tower before dropping the rest of us off and taking the gnome for a ride. We go back in the tower and Nylen turns the glass griffin into a real griffin with the halter we found in the ship. We rest up, and the next day all pile back in the Skyfish and head out. Zinnie casts continual light on the nose of it so we can even travel at night!
We are sailing through the clouds when there’s a horrible cacophony of shrieks, and more of the demon monkey things attack! Nylen, flying on the griffin next to the Skyfish, is attacked, and some come for us. I grab Maragbur and fly up, meeting one in the air. Killing that one I come back and fight the ones inside. We destroy them after a fierce battle, and it doesn’t seem there’s any more.
We proceed on, heading for the nest of the Aarakroka, but are stopped again when we see more creatures flying at us. As we approach, we see Aarakroka and a giant eagle! They inform us the giant eagles were attacked, and there’s only three of them left- a huge tragedy. Following them they lead us to the rest of the Aarakroka and the eagles, and we are brought before a council.
The Skyship is lauded as a gift from the gods, of course. It’s clearly man made and powered by magic, but I don’t shun others beliefs. The shaman’s vision was accurate, so who am I to disbelieve? They tell us that the storm giant used to be a friend to all of them, but now he is siding with the evil demons, and using the castle against them. They want us to go to the sky castle and stop him, but try to save him. Not an easy task, but we are not easy people!
“Rest here tonight,” says the shaman. “Tomorrow you will take the Skyfish to the castle!”
This should be fun!
🏹 Aevlin
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Post by Aileen on Feb 15, 2021 22:46:36 GMT -5
The Skyfish rises into the sky, all of us save the gnome who is riding the griffon standing in the bridge. The Ba’atun fly forward in endless waves, coming in to exchange blows before flying back, only to be replaced by more. My bow proves ineffective in this battle, and I switch to Maragbur instead. I think he’s happy to bite into these vile creatures, his blade humming with flame.
My arms are getting tired. Ergo is keeping us in the air, but he’s taking a beating. Zinnie keeps him alive in between hitting ba’atun. Jaris is even in the thick of it, fully visible for once. I smile at my husband as I strike one of the creatures, earning a grimace from him as one claws the sh** out of me. At least I hit it! He’s doing pretty well considering he’s not a warrior like me- he’s the brains of our partnership, I’m the beauty and the brawn.
At last we draw near to the castle, and Ergo maneuvers the Skyfish onto a platform. Rocks hit the side of the Skyfish, threatening to break him, but we aren’t dead in the water yet. We land, and see a giant looking out at us, ready to take us on.
“I need to get to the cloud giant,” says Zinnie. “Whatever it takes, I need to exorcise him!”
“We will get you there if it’s the last thing I do, Zin,” I tell him. “And if anything goes wrong... well, I guess we will get me my castle!”
⚔️ Aevlin
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Post by dragonforgotten on Feb 16, 2021 17:15:43 GMT -5
Aevlins returned just as we’ve gotten Zinny somewhat on his feet again. It’s gotten light but thank the gods that a light lead us to the cellar, the gnome giants hide out. With a quick investigation I wave everyone inside and gos se the cold out as we settle into the small room. We find a weird glowing rod with a fish attached. Me and Nylen comb through the floor and walls and we manage to find a box of goodies. Sipping it I’m happy to find it taste like brandy and my bruises healed up. Yes! I found a healing potion which I nearly dropped in shock when I see that Nylen has transformed into a dog before snapping back to his original shape. Damn, I’m starting to think I picked the less cooler choice. We stay in this tiny cozy room, healing from our commonly occurring near death experience. While Helping Aevlin comb the knots out of her hair I pin the jeweled broach to her cloak. “I found this for you. Do you like it?” She smiles, lifting it to view it fully. “I love it.” She leans in to kiss me and I pull her in close to me “Get a room!” “Buzz kill.” I mutter as we settle for just holding hands and huddle together for warmth. I spent the day redressing my wounds and braiding Aevlins hair back so it doesn’t fall into her eyes again. She also did the same for me but I only let her put three thin braids in my hair before stoping her there In the morning we check the statue again with Aevlin melting the frost off the placard. It depicts a massive tower over a lake with mountains in the back. Where’s the snow? There’s no snow in this picture. I file this away for later. We March back to the glowing tower, immediately I can sense something is off about it. It seemed... taller then what we saw in the placard. The one thing I wish wasn’t there was the damn green mist. Well, those gnome giants must have been lying, right? The moment we step in we’re choking. Oh damn! Why couldn’t that have been a lie! Getting our barrens we start discussing about getting around the cloud when Aevlin charges right in! Oh gods! We run in after her when she manages to run up the steep hill at the base of the tower. My lungs are burning by the time we reach her. I’m very worried we’ve been made fools of as it begins to dawn on me that the enterance to this place has been buried by decades of ice and snow. A few fireballs and burning hands later and the door is unearthed to the world. The glow fish rode is used and we are let inside. The interior is memorizing. We can see the outside but everything glows with the dim starlight. We step in cautiously to be greater by a massive stable. the inside of this place is rather nice. Finally I’m not cold anymore.suddenly a crystal orb floats before us with a golden eye in the center, I back off wary till it speaks. “Welcome to Devels tower, please wait while I notify them of your presence. The servants shall take your cloaks while you wait.” With that they eye zooms off and crystal goblet and decante appears on the table. Then something pulls at my cloak, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin. I have to pull it back to me In order for the invisible servants to give up finally. Pulling up a chair I manage to snag the decanter full of red wine before she can inhale the entire batch. She scowls at me with a look that could turn men to stone if she was a Medusa. “I need that! I’ve gone too much in one week!” “Love we need to toast. You’ll get some but it’s important you share. We all need one and we need to honor Hans memory.” She huffs, slumping in her pull up seat while I pour her, me and everyone a glass. I raise it high. “Toast to Hans, friend to all. Your still an a***hole but you are my a***hole. May you your god allow you to return to us stronger then ever. Cheers.” I can already tell Aevlin has finished her drink by the time I’ve drank from my goblet. With some of the goblets I wet the rim and being tracing the rim and can hear it sing back in harmony. Hmmm, genuine crystal. Fancy. I think to myself, moving mine into my bag before taking everyone’s when they were paying attention and then the decanter. “Jaris, why don’t you check the stairs over there for traps while I search around.” I look up from my nonsense to Aevlin and shrug. “Alright.” Sauntering over the stairs I can’t help but notice the temperature drop as I get closer to them. That’s odd. Why is it getting colder? There’s no windows in this place as far as I can see. I examine the stairs carefully but don’t see anything that would suggest there rigged like the last pair of steps I ran into. Next I place a foot on the first step-. Suddenly I’m falling through them then! I flounder about weightless then my face slams into a solid sheet of ice. I lay there dazed till it gives way and I’m plunged into icey waters! The shock wakes me fans I begin to flounder and thrash about. I swim, breaking the water as I scream in pain and panicking. Cold! Cold! It’s too cold! I try to climb out but the walls are too slick. I slide back into the bitting water, my strength leaving me as I try to get out. “Help! Aevlin help! I’m in the water!” “Ok, I’ll lower a rope!” A rope then falls next to me and I latch onto it. Slowly I’m lifted out of the water and I flop onto the ground like a drowned rat shivering. She draps her fluffy cloak on me while I shiver in the warmer part of the room. “You dry off, I’ll fly up the hole!” She announce. “B-Be careful!” I tell her, teeth chattering. “Always am!” She kisses my cheek before flying up through the hole in the ceiling. I sit there drying off, slowly regaining my warm till a rope is thrown down for those who can’t fly. We ascend up the wizards tower. Poking and probing things. Gravins left to his own devices for awhile while me, aevlin, and Nylen mess with a glass griffin. Further up we reach a ancient libaray, a irritating sound echoing though out the room. No one knows where it’s coming from and so far nothing is attacking us. We leave it be in favor of searching and looting the place. I look over Ergos shoulder as he reads from a chewed up journal bound in white dragon skin. Apparently I have Dervel to thank for the damn flying owl bears. Thank you for making an abomination fly. You son of a b***. The journal is disjointed, words are missing or not finished but we take some information from it. There’s instructions about the sky fish, it is actually a machine, not a real fish and it does gos se. There’s also instructions to unleash it but there’s also an account here. They fought against a black demon, like those white flying monkeys outside. The wizard fought it and then trapped it. I don’t understand though. What does this have to do with the giant? What was the complete sentence to ‘Pos’. What word was the wizard trying to write? I file it away in my mind and go explore some more when a glint catches my eye. Something shimmers near the book case. Turns out to be a gem but it’s an amythes to my disappointment. I don’t like them. Once Aevlin finishes playing with the towers spy lenses she comes to investigate the gem along with ergo who immediately begins to try to experiment with it to see if it is. The sound is getting louder. This attracts Aevlin attention away from the books and begins to pull off ergos bag. “What are enough doing.” “The noise! It’s coming from you bag now!” This gets everyone’s attention. We turn through his bag but don’t find anything but still the sound is there. Where is it coming from!? It’s when ergo checks his Spellbook he begins to scream. “Some of my spells are gone!!” I rush to his side and can see darkness and detect magic is missing from his book and the words on the page are still fading!! I snap into action, diving for the scrolls to see that they to are gone, barely legible. I’m not sure what to do till I get an idea. If this doesn’t work I have no idea. I take a torche and light it, letting the light illuminate the page and I see it. Worms, small shadows of worms crawling all over the page. “There insects.” “What??” “Ergo insects are eating your spell book!” Knowing the cause we shake his book and carefully brush them off the pages, saving the book except for detect magic and darkness. That’s going to suck. One problem down we ascend to the next room only to have a deadly battle with a practically unkillable ice elemental. It takes a retreat another day and a new plan to finally kill it. With our enemy out of the way we run into a new member of our group. A Druid. He followed our trail and found this tower and us in it out of curiosity. He already found some loot we missed as well. He seems alright. Through the teleported we are placed into the holding area of the sky fish, which turned out to be a giant shiny manta ray. I follow Nylen down to it’s location when water starts to come pouring through the ceiling! I look to Aevlin to see her hands clamped over her mouth. I continue my way and dive into the water, activating the cloak. It’s cold but I can make it with my speed but it’s then I discover I’m not alone. Water trolls, or something like them savage me in the water. I almost lose an eye to one before I manage to swim away but I don’t get far. They rake up my spine and I blacked out with the bitter cold closing in. I come to coughing and wheezing to Zinny hovering over me and the Druid besides me. “It happened again did it?” They nod and I grumble standing up, surprised that the water is now gone but not as surprised that my friends and wife have killed the trolls. We explore the cockpit but before we can look around Aevlin mutters the magic words again and water begins to flood in. I pull my hood up, arms wrapped around her as I suspect us to begin drowning but instead as the water covers our heads we find we can breath. Ergo then commands the fish to fly while shooting lightening from its eyes. We break free from the lake in a rush of water and air as we find ourselves in the sky. Amazing! We don’t get far though as Nylen discovers a silver bridal and wants to test something on the glass griffin. Returning to the tower we learn the griffin can actually become a living one. It takes a lot to not show my avaricious and I can see Aevlin struggling with it as well. That’s pretty cool. Resting we take off to the sky to rejoin the aracrocrak but not before I grab the dread journal. Got a lot of laughs spooking the wizard with it. We’re attacked by more snow demons and are met with our birdmen companions and three giant eagle. They come barring bad news. The eagles have also been attacked and only a small number of them remain. Not only that but the sh***y lynching town has also been attacked and have fallen. Seems everyone is having a bad day today. We land back in the last haven of the birdmen. They tells us how the giant use to be peaceful, that this entire change of personality is not like him. They would like us not to kill him but if he must die to protect these lands and their people so be it. I pull out the journal and present the information and I understand. The giant is possessed by the black demon. How it escaped is beyond me but it falls to us to kill it. We prepare and take to the skies, ready for a war as we take off
Jaris FJ
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Post by Aileen on Feb 23, 2021 13:41:17 GMT -5
We dash out of the Skyfish and toward the nearest castle. I boot open the door and run straight into a big room with two giants. A cloud giant and a hill giant. The hill giant and I run at eachother, and to my utmost satisfaction he trips and falls on his face. I almost feel bad killing him. The cloud giant runs, heading down some stairs, and we waste no time following.
We follow the noise to a chamber off the stairs. I go in first, finding oversized children’s toys broken all over the place and three ogres. One sits playing with a giant top, and when we enter he looks up giggling horribly. With a great spin, he unleashes it toward us. We all dodge out of the way, and they charge. I can’t see Zinnie or Jaris until after Nylen and I have killed two of them, and the last one scrapes Jaris before we drop it. It’s clear this was a distraction, and we head back to the stairs.
Coming to a dead end we enter a chamber which appears to be a trashed music room. A massive harp lays in the corner, and we hear a strained “help me!” Come from it. Thinking a person might be trapped, we go over and find it lifting up, either by Jaris or Zinnie.
“Never mind! Apparently with the power of my mind I can lift myself!” It says.
“You talk?!” I nearly s*** myself.
“I sing, too!”
“Have you seen a cloud giant? Did he go this way?!”
“No! Oh, the giant. I was his harp, but he does not play me anymore! He has changed, for the worst!”
“I’m sorry, friend, it is rather sad not having your strings plucked once in a while. Am I right?” Fergus says, winking at us.
“He was so peaceful! And now... oh, I lied! He did pass through here!”
The harp tells us there’s some stuff hidden under the stairs, and I send Jaris to check it out. He comes back with two potions which we identify as heroism and healing. Then we leave the depressed harp and proceed through the door.
This is a massive hall, with a huge table and chairs. A deafening bellow comes from the wall, and I look up to see several enormous beasts snarling at us. It takes me a minute to get my heart rate under control and realize they’re just taxidermy, and by that point there’s already spears flying our way. Nylen dashes under the table, and I stand stunned for a moment before charging down the length of the room toward the two skinny giants, the source of the spears.
I see the cloud giant in the corner as I lock into combat with the smaller giants, but we need to get him separately. One of the bean poles hits me really hard, and I’m a bit shocked they are that strong for how skinny they appear. The others join me in melee as Ergo and the cloud giant have a magic fight, and as soon as the verbeegs die the cloud giant is already running. We make chase after him.
Heading through the misty doorway we come to a large, mist filled garden of dead flowers. There’s the sound of escaping steam, and as we push on through the mist I see a fountain spraying the mist out. To the right is another door, and we dash in there.
This room is a kitchen, and we are immediately set upon by the dead eyed corpses of some villagers. One of them is the priest from Lurnsley, that gods awful Burnhardt. Behind them are some nasty pink headed demons seemingly controlling them. Zinethar holds his holy symbol aloft, and his lips move in prayer but no sound issues forth. I can’t hear a damn thing, and by the look of defeat on his face neither can anyone else.
With a mighty leap I jump right over the zombies, heading for the demons. Suddenly I can hear again. I go to attack them, but one reaches out with a nasty taloned hand and touches my wrist. I’m gripped with fear, pure terror, and I know I have to get the f*** out of here!
I jump right back over the others, head for the door, and tear back through the misty courtyard. I jump right past some poison ivy spores, in through a door, and keep running. My heart is pounding out of my chest, and I keep looking back over my shoulder to make sure I’m not being followed. I run right through a room full of ogres and six hobgoblins, and keep going. Finally I come to my senses, all fear leaving my body, and stop dead in my tracks. It seems the hobgoblins and ogres followed me, because they come up and stop, catching their breath, then draw their weapons and attack. I jump over their heads, getting a sword to the leg, but I make it over and start running back the way I came.
Back into the misty courtyard I go, passing the poison ivy once more, and I see shapes moving toward me through the mist. It’s my friends! Nylen, Fergus, Zinnie and Graven! Not sure where the others are, but I’ve got other things to worry about, and I am flat out of breath.
“I brought friends!” I shout, running up to them and swinging back around.
The ogres and hobgoblins run toward us, shouting and brandishing their weapons. Still panting, drenched in sweat from my run, I run into the kitchen with the others. They start filing in, half of them immediately killed by Ergo’s burning hands spell. One hobgoblin kills itself attacking Zinnie, and the rest us fighters take down. There’s one left, but judging by the friendly chatter coming from it and Fergus, our druid has made a new friend. Charmed, I’m sure, but we’ve had a hobgoblin companion before. Oh, Rudy- you deserved so much better!
🏹 Aevlin
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Post by dragonforgotten on Feb 23, 2021 16:59:24 GMT -5
I’m just about to board the fish when I’m stoped by Zinny. “Jaris. May I swap foot wear with you? I need to be able to hide while I perform the exorcism on the giant.” I hesitate. Buking at his request, my natural reaction to tell him no. These are mine, the first gift Aevlin gave me before I married her but I am smart and I know that anything that can insure our survival I’ll do. Tough choice. “I really don’t know...do you know what your doing?” I answer “Of course I do. Please Jaris.” “Hmmm.. fine.” I sit down on the steps and we trade shoes. His shoes are not comfortable. He’s slightly a larger size then me and they have terrible arch support. The my battle was ferce. So many enemies Dive bombing the sky fish as we cut them down as they fly. With the protective aria of the fishes cockpit I’m able for once to drop my invisibility and go all out without being worried of getting beaten an inch from my life. I can tell Aevlin appreciates seeing me. I would more often if it wasn’t so hazardous to my health. As we begin to make progress, the wind elemental , giant eagles and birdmen fighting amongst the chaos a streak of lightening comes out of one of the castle windows, striking the wind elemental! My eyes go wide and my mind starts turning. Spellcaster but who? At last we manage to break into the defenses and land the fish in the castles garden while hill giants rain boulders down on us. The moment we land a dome of angry clouds form all around the castle and over our heads, cutting us off from the battle raging outside. We rush to one of the castle and find the cloud giant and and a hill giant. The hill giant drops like a daisy but then we are sent running after the cloud giant. He got a good head start of us but we are also making good progress, following the sounds of his heels. Hearing sound coming from a nearby room we burst in only to stumble upon a destroyed children’s play area, giant broken toys and furniture littering the room. orgers huddled in the back with a massive top. With glee they let it go and it barrels towards us as we manage to roll out of its path. I stalk behind one, minding my feet now that I can hear my own footfall now. An alien notion since I’ve barely ever take them off. I get a wack in the ribs and ergo nearly burns me alive but in the end they lay dead and we are left scrambling, trying to pick up on the giants trail. Coming to a dead end we enter a chamber to what looks like a dusty old music room. A massive harp lays in the corner. A beautiful harp that peeks my interest and makes my habits itch. Stepping further in we hear a strained pled for help Come from the harp. Holy s***. A talking harp, just like the stories of Jack. Is there a golden goose as well here? Then yes please I’ll take that as well! I lift up the harp as it jabbers to itself “Never mind! Apparently with the power of my mind I can lift myself!” “No you don’t.” I say to it, reappearing. “You talk?!” Aevlin gasps. “I sing, too!” “You sing?!” I ask more excited then I should be. It really is like the stories! “Have you seen a cloud giant? Did he go this way?!” Aevlin asks “No! Oh, the giant. I was his harp, but he does not play me anymore! He has changed, for the worst!” “That’s tragic.” I throw in. “I’m sorry, friend, it is rather sad not having your strings plucked once in a while. Am I right?” Fergus says, winking at me and Aevlin. I cough into my fist blushing. “He use to be so nice. Him and his family.” “Family?” I ask. “What happened to them?” I don’t get a answer, the harp caught up in its mourning. “He was so peaceful! And now... oh, I lied! He did pass through here!” The harp tells us there’s some stuff hidden under the stairs. Im sent out to check and I do come back with a potion of heroism and healing. We give the gnome the heroism and set off, leaving the harp behind. I want that harp but I can’t steal something that will scream and call me out as I cart it away. I’ll need to sweet talk it later. We burst through another door to find a foyer of sorts, a massive table in the center of the room. The giant is here! Me and Nylen rush in as suddenly cackling demonic faces appear ahead, startling the rest of our band except for me and Nylen. We rush under the table and manage to get into position. Everyone snaps out of there shock and rush the two strange giant creatures on the opposite side of the table. I run for the cloud giant, preparing for Zinny to do his things “Oh no! I can’t do the exorcism! It will take to long!” “What!?” I shout. Unbelievable! I hear ergo begin to chant his Mumbo jumbo and I watch with dread as lightening charges in his hand directed towards the cloud giant. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What happened to keeping him alive! The cloud giant then steps through one of the cloudy entrance out of sight. Ergos hand wavers as the battle get more confused. He’s going to hit me. He’s going to strike me with that. F***. Fine let me have it. I know how this goes. Let me have it you b*****ds called misfortune. It doesn’t. Ergo unleashes the bolt through a second misty doorway and the force of it colliding against glass is earth shatteringly loud but does not bounce but to him. I wipe the sweat off my forehead, thankful it wasn’t me. The verbees finally die and we on the hunt again. We set into a decaying garden, the flowers dying and wilted. This fog is as thick as the smog in the bandit kingdoms. We tread lightly and fast through the area, careful not to lose each other using the fountain we stumbled upon as a way point. We step into the nearest door only to come face to face with zombies, one of them a familiar face as the face of the dead a***hole preist in Lurnsley, bloated and twisted. Two snow demons stand in the back with pink heads. So. They not only killed the residences of that town but made them undead. Economic. Sick but very cost effective if your looking to grow a army that is. The undead encircle us before we can act, Zinny appears raising his symbol in prayer only for no sound to come from his lips. B****ds! We are focus to cut through the bodies while Aevlin leaps over there head. They did something to her. A look of terror washes over her face and she back over our head sand out the door before we can stop her. S***! F***! I want to stop her. Drop everything and ran after her but I know I can’t catch her. She’s far too fast with the damn boots. I need to finish this. Now. I capitalize on Nylens deadliness to cut a way through and start running for the ugly f***s back there laughing. I slash enraged at one but my aim is off. They touch me and pain rips through me but I keep the assault, focusing there attention on me. I just manage to cast a glance at the party to see them start to run towards me when everything goes dark. Those sly b*****ds-! I don’t get to finish my thought. Pain erupts in my upper thigh, right in my pelvis and I scream in agony. “Oh sorry.” “You f***ing son of ***! You happy knife wilding Misaligned, hapless F*** idiots!” I rant and rave forgoing all stealth and decorum in my rage and I paint all kind of horrible and unspeakable words that could make any goodly preist blush with shame hearing it. In the height of my rage I come to the point where it’s not worth it. It was a accident. The gods just turned there misfortune on me for haven missed being burnt or zapped by ergo. “Know what! F***k it! I’m going! Stab me again an I’ll flay you alive and salt our wounds with your own tears!” I stagger away, following Fergs voice while holding my stab wound. It looks like he wants us to follow down the stairs but I can’t. I need to find Aevlin. I don’t care if he escapes. I need to find her first. There’s a chaos of plans going on between everyone. In my confusion I end up waiting outside the door with all the fog, ergo inside the kitchen while a group goes find Aevlin. I would have gone as well but you can’t just leave a wizard alone. I stumble upon a dark thought while I’m Waiting. I could get my revenge now. No one is here to witness it. I wave it off. Maybe the old me. As I am now I can’t just go shanking my wife’s friends because they irritate me. I have better things for him. Also, someone has to be around to help him. He’s still useful and frankly before he turned into a tiger and then a a*** he was a friend. So I’m stuck with my **** of a wizard. They found Aevlin. And she brought friends. Not good friend either. The tall ugly kind. We kill them mercilessly except for one which Greg has charmed. I’m getting a sense I’ve seen this before.
Jaris FJ
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Post by Aileen on Mar 2, 2021 12:24:16 GMT -5
Running down the stairs the devil ran down, we come to a room covered in a watery sludge. Upon closer expert inspection I discover it is in fact wine.
“Oh, no! Such a waste!”
“Don’t Aevlin, it might be poison!” Ergo warns.
“I wasn’t going to lick it! What kind of person do you think I am?”
“A beautiful one?” Ergo winks.
“Hey!” Jaris glares at the wizard.
“Relax, Jaris! Ergo and I are friends! I’d never leave you for him- no offense, Ergs.”
I totally was going to try some floorsludge wine. We do find a basin of the best tasting water any of us have ever had, but it’s no wine. Oh gods I need wine.
Proceeding onward we come to a great stone door, which Jaris opens onto a cell containing three small cloud giants. One is clearly dead, the other two malnourished. Zinnie gives them lots of healing, but they do not rouse. We try giving them water, and Jaris drags them into the hall to see if it’s something with the room, but nothing works. Perhaps they just need time.
The next room has two beautiful spotted lions, who drag themselves mewling towards us. My heart breaks seeing the poor kitties in such a state- I was a tiger not too long ago, I had cat friends of all sizes before the powers were taken from me by Nuala. The poor things are severely dehydrated. We bring them to the basin room, and they perk right up. Fergie and I are beside ourselves, cuddling on the floor with the massive cats, and when we go to leave they accompany us.
We explore for a bit, still searching for the giant. A manticore den filled with coins, dead aarakroka and humans, one set of doors leading to a wall of pure cloud. At last we come to a room of strewn, broken furniture, and we find him! The cloud giant! Nylen and I charge in, the lions staying back with hackles raised and growling. The giant swings and misses me, and we all converge on him with our weapons, holding our hits so as to not kill him.
“Why are you hitting me?!” He bellows.
“Do you have a demon in you?!” I ask.
“No! She ran away!”
“Where did she come out?!”
His eyes are clearly still black. Zinnie discreetly slips out of formation, going invisible. Exorcism time!
Suddenly the giant shudders and collapses, tendrils of black vapor seeping from his body. The vapors form into a black snow demon- it’s her! Yesorkh! It flies away, leaving the giant laying on the ground. The lions run in and start licking him, clearly beloved pets of his. Zinnie pours healing into Lachlan, but the giant is clearly in shock. He needs time, time we don’t have to wait around. Poor Zinnie is a bit disappointed that he never got to do his exorcism, he had been so excited! I’m just glad the demon is out of the poor cloud giant- from what we’ve heard of him, Lachlan is a sweet soul. I pray that we can get his family back on their feet, but unfortunately we can’t do much for the deceased one. Yesorkh will put for what she has done to these giants, and the poor people of Lurnsley!
Off we go, me in the lead just picking directions and doors at random. Bedrooms, furniture strewn everywhere. More dead ends, thanks to the cloud shielding outside the windows. Eventually we end up going downstairs through the kitchen. I’m happily running down the stairs when suddenly I’m shocked with the feeling of lightning running through me. I yelp and go forward a bit more.
“Watch that spot! I just got-“
“Ah!” Jaris’s voice comes from behind me. They’re all getting shocked now.
I go forward and come to a door.
“Jaris, check this bad boy out!”
That bad boy is not trapped. He opens it onto a massive chamber with a statue on the far end, looking like a giant preying mantis with red eyes with a pile of bones in front of it. The chamber is absolutely teeming with skeletal monsters. I run in, and they charge. The chamber fills with a horrible screeching sound, and poor Nylen freezes in his tracks in the doorway, blocking the others from coming in. Luckily the skeletons aren’t getting many hits in on me, and a moment later nine of the twelve explode. Glancing over my shoulder I see Zinnie in the hallway, the symbol of Zilchus raised in his hand and a grin on his face.
Darkness envelopes the entire area, and even my ring doesn’t let me see through it. I close my eyes, and listen. I can tell where the skeletons are, and I keep striking. I hear friends join me in battle, and judging by the muttered swears Zinnie is not having much luck. He’s handsome and heals well, but he’s never been much of a fighter. Unfortunately these things are harder to damage without a bludgeoning weapon, and he has one. I’m hit a couple times, but otherwise not much worse for wear. Soon we finish the bastards off, and good timing.
“Help! There’s snow demons out here!” Calls Ergo.
I follow his voice, running to his aid. We make quick work of the two snow demons. Meanwhile, Fergus is looking at the statue. He climbs halfway up it and suddenly freezes. We go to his aid, and he turns back to us
“Yesorkh is through that door!” He says, pointing at said door.
We quickly get some healing, and scavenge the bodies. They have a couple creepy holy symbols, which Zinnie grabs one of. Hopefully it doesn’t do anything nefarious in our cleric’s hands. Jaris checks the door. It opens onto stairs, which we go down into another passage, and another door. This next room is still large, and most importantly there’s a snow demon in it. Yesorkh is surrounded by a globe of shimmering magic, and has some guard lizards in front of her. She grins evilly at us, and suddenly there are four of her. At last, we have come to our final battle!
🏹 Aevlin
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Post by Chris on Mar 2, 2021 12:26:23 GMT -5
Running down the stairs the devil ran down, we come to a room covered in a watery sludge. Upon closer expert inspection I discover it is in fact wine. “Oh, no! Such a waste!” “Don’t Aevlin, it might be poison!” Ergo warns. “I wasn’t going to lick it! What kind of person do you think I am?” “A beautiful one?” Ergo winks. “Hey!” Jaris glares at the wizard. “Relax, Jaris! Ergo and I are friends! I’d never leave you for him- no offense, Ergs.” I totally was going to try some floorsludge wine. We do find a basin of the best tasting water any of us have ever had, but it’s no wine. Oh gods I need wine. Proceeding onward we come to a great stone door, which Jaris opens onto a cell containing three small cloud giants. One is clearly dead, the other two malnourished. Zinnie gives them lots of healing, but they do not rouse. We try giving them water, and Jaris drags them into the hall to see if it’s something with the room, but nothing works. Perhaps they just need time. The next room has two beautiful spotted lions, who drag themselves mewling towards us. My heart breaks seeing the poor kitties in such a state- I was a tiger not too long ago, I had cat friends of all sizes before the powers were taken from me by Nuala. The poor things are severely dehydrated. We bring them to the basin room, and they perk right up. Fergie and I are beside ourselves, cuddling on the floor with the massive cats, and when we go to leave they accompany us. We explore for a bit, still searching for the giant. A manticore den filled with coins, dead aarakroka and humans, one set of doors leading to a wall of pure cloud. At last we come to a room of strewn, broken furniture, and we find him! The cloud giant! Nylen and I charge in, the lions staying back with hackles raised and growling. The giant swings and misses me, and we all converge on him with our weapons, holding our hits so as to not kill him. “Why are you hitting me?!” He bellows. “Do you have a demon in you?!” I ask. “No! She ran away!” “Where did she come out?!” His eyes are clearly still black. Zinnie discreetly slips out of formation, going invisible. Exorcism time! Suddenly the giant shudders and collapses, tendrils of black vapor seeping from his body. The vapors form into a black snow demon- it’s her! Yesorkh! It flies away, leaving the giant laying on the ground. The lions run in and start licking him, clearly beloved pets of his. Zinnie pours healing into Lachlan, but the giant is clearly in shock. He needs time, time we don’t have to wait around. Poor Zinnie is a bit disappointed that he never got to do his exorcism, he had been so excited! I’m just glad the demon is out of the poor cloud giant- from what we’ve heard of him, Lachlan is a sweet soul. I pray that we can get his family back on their feet, but unfortunately we can’t do much for the deceased one. Yesorkh will put for what she has done to these giants, and the poor people of Lurnsley! Off we go, me in the lead just picking directions and doors at random. Bedrooms, furniture strewn everywhere. More dead ends, thanks to the cloud shielding outside the windows. Eventually we end up going downstairs through the kitchen. I’m happily running down the stairs when suddenly I’m shocked with the feeling of lightning running through me. I yelp and go forward a bit more. “Watch that spot! I just got-“ “Ah!” Jaris’s voice comes from behind me. They’re all getting shocked now. I go forward and come to a door. “Jaris, check this bad boy out!” That bad boy is not trapped. He opens it onto a massive chamber with a statue on the far end, looking like a giant preying mantis with red eyes with a pile of bones in front of it. The chamber is absolutely teeming with skeletal monsters. I run in, and they charge. The chamber fills with a horrible screeching sound, and poor Nylen freezes in his tracks in the doorway, blocking the others from coming in. Luckily the skeletons aren’t getting many hits in on me, and a moment later nine of the twelve explode. Glancing over my shoulder I see Zinnie in the hallway, the symbol of Zilchus raised in his hand and a grin on his face. Darkness envelopes the entire area, and even my ring doesn’t let me see through it. I close my eyes, and listen. I can tell where the skeletons are, and I keep striking. I hear friends join me in battle, and judging by the muttered swears Zinnie is not having much luck. He’s handsome and heals well, but he’s never been much of a fighter. Unfortunately these things are harder to damage without a bludgeoning weapon, and he has one. I’m hit a couple times, but otherwise not much worse for wear. Soon we finish the bastards off, and good timing. “Help! There’s snow demons out here!” Calls Ergo. I follow his voice, running to his aid. We make quick work of the two snow demons. Meanwhile, Fergus is looking at the statue. He climbs halfway up it and suddenly freezes. We go to his aid, and he turns back to us “Yesorkh is through that door!” He says, pointing at said door. We quickly get some healing, and scavenge the bodies. They have a couple creepy holy symbols, which Zinnie grabs one of. Hopefully it doesn’t do anything nefarious in our cleric’s hands. Jaris checks the door. It opens onto stairs, which we go down into another passage, and another door. This next room is still large, and most importantly there’s a snow demon in it. Yesorkh is surrounded by a globe of shimmering magic, and has some guard lizards in front of her. She grins evilly at us, and suddenly there are four of her. At last, we have come to our final battle! 🏹 Aevlin Good for 10 points!
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Post by dragonforgotten on Mar 2, 2021 17:06:59 GMT -5
Charging down the stairs after the pink head demon we immediately step into something... squishy. I feared it was going to be blood but thankfully it’s just food and wine trampled into a red brown paste. Disgusting, a waste, but I’ll live. In the corner there’s a fountain that turns cloud vapor into water. How economic. With no idea we start wondering through the castle while I check any door that’s not made of magic water vapors and fog. Open the last door I was not prepared for what I was going to find. Inside is obviously a dungeon. What I wasn’t prepared for was it to contain three cloud giant children chained in the cells with one of them being dead. Beaten and malnourished I drop my invisibility and rush to the doors, throwing it open. I free there chains and they drop to the ground and I see that they were just left here. They were tortured as well. The scene is not for the faint. That f***ing giant b*****d. How dare he do this to his own kids, he better be f***ing possessed or it will not be pretty. “Zinny! Get your a*** in here! I need help!” He heals him but they still don’t wake. We run about trying to figure out what’s wrong with them. “We need to move them. Maybe it’s the cell. To bad none of us are strong enough to move them.” “Ya to bad.” Everyone stares at me. “What?” “Jaris. You can become a giant.” “A fire giant. Is that even strong enough to lift out kid cloud giants?” “Worth a shot.” I sigh. “Fine. Hold my s*** Aevlin.” “Pardon.” “Oh Sorry love. Please hold my s***” I take off my armor, belt, and anything else and expand. I’m still amazed that even with my size and strength there still taller then me and the fact I’m atleast able to drag them out. Nothing happens and I end up dragging them back into the room. Safer there then they would be out for them. I strap by gear back on and approach a door, open it and feel dread as two spotted lions appear in my view. “Oh gods! Lions!” I back up but to my suprise they don’t run up and start eating me alive. They crawl towards me, mewing and baying, looking starved and thirsty. There so weak they can’t even stand up. Aevlin and Farg Begins to fawn over them while I fish for the crystal goblets. We pour water out for them to lap from the cup, feeding them rations till they are strong enough to take them to the clouds into drinking water fountain. They certainly are grateful for it as they purr and rub against our sides. Aevlin’s ecstatic. “Jaris! Can we keep them!?” Ummmm... I start to imagine us back in saltmarsh as the lions begin to use me a chew toy while Aevlin coos and babies them. “Umm, I don’t know. There lions love. Not cats. I know you love animals but we can really care for them.” I don’t hear anything else after. We search through rooms, slowly irritating my itch to loot the rooms as we pass everyone till at last we find him! Lachlan! The cats roar and growl at him, hackles raised and the situation obvious. I charge him invisible while attacks rain down on him. Skidding behind him as I expand. I’m about to start slug him in the face when he shudders and drops to his knees. A shadow separates from his skin. Taking the shape of the black snow demon Yesorkh before fading away with her evil eyes glaring down at us. The giant collapses as his lions rush to his side. Licking his face. Zinny tries to heal him and awaken the giant but he is out, the shock of having a evil spirit leave your soul and body must be a lot. “Well. Looks like we didn’t have to do the exorcism after all. Alright, hand them over sneaky preist.” I tell Zinny, throwing his shoes at him. He throws me my boots and I feel complete again. We begin running around the castle. Checking every room as we hunt for clues or indications on where Yesorkh had vanished to. Aevlin triggers a trap as the stairs downstairs to the basement shocks her. It shocks us all as I can’t find where the bloody hell the trigger is hiding. Bloody magic. I check the door and it opens into a massive underground... church? Sacrafical ballroom? Demon summoning, met and greet, underground citidal. I don’t know what the f*** you call this room. Point is there a massive bug man statue at the end of this room holding werid black stuff and there’s a s*** to of skeletons with some more pink head white demons. Aevlin manages to squeeze into the but before Nylen can shuffle past me the demons begin to scream again and he freezes mid stride, blocking the door as I just cover my ears annoyed. God will they just shut the f*** up already! The skeletons converge in Aevlin but suddenly half expose in a shower of of bone fragments, leaving only the sad four. Suddenly it gets dark. The demons still screaming. I charge through it. Hoping to at some point come out the other side. When I do I find that farg and ergo have also taken the charge as well. I also freeze up in place when I hear ergo begin to cast and he zaps one for the demons while I continue with farg as he makes a beeline for the werid shadow thing the statue is holdings. My plans change rather quickly as the one for them take the opportunity to freeze me and farg. He keeps going and I turn back around to charge his face. We duke it out. Me dodging and weaving, disappearing and reappearing as I feel myself reach my limit as he starts getting the upper hand. Thankfully don’t have to wait too long. The fighters come screaming out of the shadows and begin to kill them ruthlessly. I’m alittle peeved when Ergo helps himself to the loot while I’m distracted with ferg. The crazy b****d. He’s gone and stuck his hands into the shadow fire and it bleeds into his skin. He flinches then looks at us. “Umm. Ferg. You feeling alright there pal?” “The black demon. She’s beyond that door.” “And you know this how?” “I just do.” “Righhht.” I creep over to Zinny. “Looks like your spell will come in handy after all.” We continue to the next room. The room with the black demon. I check the door and can feel my heart jump in my throat as I see her With giant lizards and she suddenly duplicates into three. I regret my decision of being door opener now.
Jaris FJ
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