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Post by Aileen on Jul 14, 2020 21:05:14 GMT -5
My parents once told me to never do drugs or get sucked into magic, else I would end up like the crazy old wizard in our town who would get drunk and set things on fire just about every week. Did I listen? No.
“I suggest you use fire!” Our new elven cleric friend shouts as the Hydra slips beneath the surface of the water.
We are getting destroyed, and clearly not making any dent on this hydra. Its damned heads keep sprouting, more and more each time!
“I don’t have fire!” I snap, panicking as I contemplate what I have in my bag. And then I remember.
Dragon’s Blood. Highly illegal, even more addicting, and much sought after. I have a dose, which I’ve been saving for a special occasion, but I think that time is now. If it does what I’ve been told then I may be able to cast spells like a sorcerer! With nothing to lose, I pull it out. It’s just a small little pebble of red resiny substance, and I was told to smoke it. So, I put it in a pipe that Morkris must have left in my bag, and light it up with flint and steel. It smells sweet and spicy, and burns my lungs a little when I inhale. A cloud puffs around me, and my friends and the crew all start looking a little dazed. I feel dumber already, but there is something else.... a strange power in my veins, begging to come to the surface. The hydra rises out of the water again, and I point my hand at it.
“FIREBALL!”
There is a massive explosion, and heat, and the Hydra goes back under after taking a nice bite out of my arm. I know it’s going to come back with more heads, so I prepare another one. Nothing. I prepare to cast another, my eyes scanning the water. Maybe we are moving past it? Suddenly we are all soaked as barrels of ale and potion bottles explode.
“I am so glad the healing potions are in the hole!” Morkris growls.
Meroni gives me some healing, and I keep prepping and losing spells. But if that thing comes back, I’m ready! And then my arm disappears. It doesn’t hurt, but it is mist. I try to move it and nothing happens. So I scream, flailing about and crying.
“Vanna, you’re fine! It’s okay!” Jackie tries to calm me, but I just look at where my arm once was and sob.
“Pull yourself together!” Snaps the cleric, and slaps me.
Finally I ready a chromatic orb, and we are all lifted ten feet in the air- even the boat! We all float for a few moments, and then everything and everyone goes crashing back down. I slam down onto the deck, Morkris landing on top of me. Luckily nobody is seriously hurt from the fall, and all we lose is a few empty barrels.
It is clear that we have killed the hydra. I head to our berthing and lay down, trying to calm myself, not wanting to cause any more damage. Today I learned drugs can be great fun, but everything comes with a price.
We are so getting more Dragon’s Blood.
🗡 Vanna
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Post by Aileen on Jul 21, 2020 14:18:54 GMT -5
“Get off my boat- please!” The captain begs of us, giving me a look of annoyance.
“Again, I apologize! I didn’t think all that would happen!”
“Just go, Ms. Whiteclaw! Good luck with your... habit.” He shoos me onto shore.
“It was just this one time!” I whine, watching them pull away.
We head up towards the air skiff, and two men pop up.
“Who goes there?” One calls.
“We’re armed!” Warns the other.
“Hi, boys!” I smile, making sure to stick out my assets as I step forward. “We’re just going to see the sights around here! We’re university students!”
“Well, not much to see. The hands are over there. I suggest you leave, there’s many more of us and they’ll kill you on sight.”
“More of you? What organization do you work for?” Asks Kaliban.
“The Emerald Claw.” Says one of the guys, proudly.
“No way!” I gasp. “We love the Emerald Claw! We’ve heard all about you!”
“Really?”
“Yes, a fine organization! You’re doing good work,” says Jackie. “What brings you out this way?”
“Lord Garrow has led us here, his business is his own.”
I shriek, jumping up and down.
“I love Lord Garrow!” I exclaim. “Is he really here?!”
“You know him?” One gives me a suspicious look.
“Yes! Well, I’ve seen him. I saw him on public transport once and I was like... ‘what a guy!’ I didn’t know he had such handsome guards working for him.”
They both blush, but one of them clears his throat.
“I’m sure you would love to meet him, but we are here on serious business and it is unwise to be here. I suggest you go fetch your boat before it leaves without you.”
We retreat back to the river, and then hide when we are out of sight. I volunteer to scout ahead and see where Gary’s forces may have gone. We need to get to the schema before him, and Maroni keeps pushing us to hurry up. I establish a telepathic link to Morkris, and then go up ahead.
Keeping to the tree line, I eventually come upon a large stone structure, which looks like a big temple. And by big, I mean giant sized. There’s a huge staircase that no average human could possibly climb, but also a smaller stairway. Looking that way I realize there are bodies all over the smaller steps, being picked apart by carrion birds. It looks like Emerald Claw soldiers and dark skinned elves with white hair.
Alright, Morkris. You all can go straight ahead through the woods the way I went. There’s a temple and dead soldiers. Be stealthy about it, I’m not sure where the enemies are hiding. Perhaps jump into the portable hole.”
I hear some grumbling and arguing in Morkris’s voice, and then nothing. After a few minutes, I see Jackie sneak into view. She puts something on the ground, and out pops Maroni, Kaliban and Morkris.
”Vanna, where are you?” I hear from Morkris.
They all are looking around, worried looks on their faces as I’m dead silent. I sneak up behind Morkris, and wrap him in a hug.
“Right here, you big oaf!”
They’re all mad about riding in the hole, but I’m sure it wasn’t that bad. I guess the healing potions were difficult to sit with. Oh, and Yermy Yermy turned himself into a ring and is supposedly on Jackie’s finger.
We head to the stairs, and I start checking out the bodies. Looks like there was a fight between the Drow and the Emerald Claw. So I guess the Drow could be potential allies?
“They’re watching us!” Whispers Kaliban. “A bunch of Drow up above.”
I scout ahead up the stairs, and as I reach the top I see them. Several Drow, standing and waiting. One of them has a hand on a lever of some sort. I look up and wave, but the guy with the lever pulls it. Suddenly a huge boulder comes rolling overhead, and I lean forward as it rolls right over me- just lightly grazing my back. I stand up, completely unharmed, and raise my hands up in a gesture of peace. They all start yelling in what sounds like elven, but of course I don’t understand a word.
“Are they offering peace?” I ask.
“They’re saying ‘kill the intruders!’” Yells Morkris.
“Oh. S***!” I pop my blades out of my palms as the Drow surround me.
They all start slashing at me with their strange knives with curved ends, and I’m getting completely cut up. Thankfully I’m able to escape with only a few more wounds, and get behind Morkris. Jackie walks along the wall in her cool climbing boots, and takes a beating, eventually going unconscious as her toxic cloud sickens the Drow.
I join Morkris and start killing Drow with him left and right. It’s a pity, they’re such beautiful elves, but they attacked first. Finally only the leader is left, and still standing after Yermy grabs his crotch and shocks him. Jackie knocks him out as he is beating on Morkris, and we take a moment to catch our breath before tying him up.
I scout ahead as the others see to raiding the bodies. This place is massive! Keeping to the pillars for cover, I come out to an amazing vista view of the surrounding lands. Clearly giants lived here at one point. I describe the beauty of this place as best I can to Morkris, but I just can’t put it into words. Finally I come to a muddy area that looks like tunnels, and decide it’s time to turn back.
We regroup and decide to head through a door in the interior wall. Neither I nor Morkris can get it open, so Yermy casts knock. Heading in, we find an empty dust filled chamber and another door. Morkris gets this one open with some muscle and a crow bar. I head in, and past the scattered coins on the floor my eyes alight on a massive scorpion hovering over a desiccated body.
“Oh F***!” I whisper.
There’s no running from this thing, it would be on us in seconds! I go in the corner of the room and throw daggers at it as the others come in. Morkris goes right up and engages it, and I’m a bit concerned when it grapples him in one of its huge claws. Kill it takes is one good pinch and he could get cut right in two.
And then, Jackie runs up and punches it right in the sniffer. It goes totally still, stunned by her blow! Morkris beats it down and gives Kaliban an opening to cut its head off. We actually beat the giant terrifying scorpion!
I confirm the body is Emerald Claw, and we collect all the ancient coins off the floor before moving on to the next room. Looks like this is a room where offerings for that beast are kept- food of all kinds sits here going to waste. We head outside and wake up the Drow leader, and Morkris questions him while Yermy Yermy creates subtitles for us non-elvish speakers to read. Turns out he is from another tribe of Drow and they came here to help the ones that lived here with fighting off the Emerald Claw. The Emerald Claw slaughtered most of them. And sadly we slaughtered his men.
Amoxtli is actually a very nice guy, and I feel horrible for murdering all those innocent elves. Sadly that’s what happens when there are misunderstandings in who people are and their intentions. We let him go, but before he leaves I hand him the hookah as a peace offering.
“Morkris, tell him to smoke this with a group of friends and that it’s fun, but don’t freak out! Tell him I am sorry and that I hope we can be friends!”
He speaks in elvish again, as the elf bows to me holding his smoking apparatus.
“He says this is a very good offering and thanks you.”
Amoxtli leaves with the warning that more Drow could be coming and may not be so friendly, and we proceed on. I suggest we go to the Northern stairs, so off we go. As I begin to climb them, we are ambushed by Gary’s men!
🗡Vanna
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Post by Aileen on Jul 28, 2020 11:00:15 GMT -5
The Emerald Claw soldiers put up a good fight, but we are victorious against the five of them. Yermy Yermy put on quite a show with lightning shooting out of his crotch, and Morkris and I wrecked three soldiers with our amazing team tactics. After mopping the floor with them, I take a look at the mechanism they had sticking into the doors- some kind of winch to pry them open. I want to check out what is inside, but Morkris makes a point of saying that if they haven’t gotten in there yet, Garrow is probably not in there.
We head to another set of stairs, this one a lot steeper. Two soldiers are at the top, and we immediately engage them. I’m a bit miffed when my Dagger of Betrayal fails to charm one of them, as I wanted to get info on Gary’s location. However, we kill them fairly quickly. The massive double doors at the top of the stairs are ajar, so Yermy Yermy sends his gecko in to investigate. It’s not long before we hear raised voices inside, and Yermy says his Gecko is dead. We take up position alongside the doors and wait to ambush them. They never come out.
’Alright, lets smoke this joint!’ I think to the others using my telepathy.
’No! No more drugs!’ replies Jackie.
’Not what I meant! Go in!’
We rush the room, and I’m a bit taken aback by the big ziggurat on the far end. There are a few guards, a bunch of tents and camping gear at the base of the Ziggurat, and a glowing light at the top where a guy in bandages examines some glyphs. I try to hit the guy at the top with my wand of light, but it completely bounces off. Some kind of force field protecting him!
I start climbing up the huge steps of the Ziggurat as Jackie goes ahead of me, effortlessly climbing in her cool boots. I want a pair, it would make my job so much easier! Good thing I have relatively good upper body strength, because these steps are no joke. Jackie pushes one of the soldiers off the wall as I get pelted by the other one, and she makes it to the top to tangle with the mummy guy. Finally I make it to the top, panting and exhausted, and can hear Morkris killing the guys behind me.
“Backstab him, Vanna!” Shouts Jackie.
“Yeah... give me a second!” I gasp, catching my breath.
And then the mummy stares right into my soul with his dreadful glare, and I cannot move, paralyzed by fear. I hear a clanging sound behind me, and then Yermy Yermy appears. Morkris joins soon after. Jackie trips the mummy, and I come back to my senses. A quick glance to the side reveals that Yermy somehow acquired a ladder and used it to get to the top. The little guy is full of surprises.
The mummy tries to glare at me again, but I steel my resolve and glare right back. He punches Jackie, who suddenly doesn’t look very good, and then she dashes away. I try my best to hack at the mummy with my psionic blades, but something is making him shimmer and be half invisible. He scares my Morkris with his glare, and tries to hit me, but I get right back at him. At last Yermy Yermy slays him with a witchbolt, and the mummy turns to dust.
We all rest at the top, and discover that poor Jackie has mummy rot. I’m glad I don’t have it, it’s probably one of the worst things one could possibly be infected by. If we don’t get her cured there is a good chance she will die. As we get ready to head down the Ziggurat, off to try to find Gary once more, two massive apes with strange skin flaps come running in, bellowing loudly.
🗡 Vanna Whiteclaw
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