Post by David on Sept 24, 2009 14:17:22 GMT -5
The heroes (Maedhros, Torr, Idky, Squattingbeaver, Lowdog, Stephen, and Aine with Dresher) wake up in the mountains above Fleureville. 'Beaver speaks with spirits to learn more about the pearls in the area, gaining some insight into the magical ecosystem. The party then decides to walk down to the water's edge in order for the shaman to cast speak with greater spirit to question the river's spirit for the location of the peal. Unfortunately, the foliage has gone wild in the weeks since the party was last here. Amid the constant drizzle (the rain seems lighter here) Idky casts clear path to remove the troublesome brush from the party's way.
Now leaving a clear path in their wake, the group continues down the mountain side, headed for the Pearl River and Fleureville. The party notices that the waters have NOT flooded any more than before, but that the flow of the water has increased instead -- no doubt due to all the rain, but paradoxically not the expected behavior of water! It's clear even from the heights that the plants have completely engulf the drowned reamins of the city with now only patches of green sticking out from beneath the waters of Fleureville. En route down, the party sees several giant green dragonflies ahead. Using his spell of repel insects, Beaver keeps the lot of bugs at bay while the rest of the party slaughters the bugs with missile weapons. Lowdog studies the bodies and discovers that the chitin can be used by a witch to make antitoxin. The totemic warriror duly gathers two bugs-worth of the material for Aine.
The group then continues down the slop, later encountering serpents, but Lowdog asks them to leave and the snakes do. They don't have quite as much luck with the pack of 15 veggypygmies with two thornies hunting them. The plant-beings charge and 'Beaver activates his ring of plant control -- taking command of the majority. Some resist and attack, but 'Beaver makes the controlled ones pull off the others. The shaman asks the paladin what he thinks the group should do and a moral conversation ensues about death, murder, and ethics. A few party members are happy to kill the plant beings while Torr point out that they are not evil and could be reacting to the swath Idky's spell is cleaving through the forest of vegetation. Torr convinces the party to have 'Beaver line up the veggypygmies. If they attack after 'Beaver releases control, then he agrees that a lightning bolt from Maedhros would be reasonable. The shaman releases control but the plant-beings leave without a fight.
The party reach the shore and encounters a shambling mound, which 'Beaver attempts to control with his ring, but the monster resists. Maedhros unleashes a volley of magic missiles as it attacks Torr, nearly engulfing the hapless paladin. Aine uses a faerie fire to make the monster easier to hit and 'Beaver manages to lop off one of its legs with his magic dagger (amazing, truly, amazing!). Aine then pours oil on it as Stephan grabs Torr's flaming mace. That's when Lowdog kills the thing. Stephan tries to burn it anyway, only to discover the oil burn but not the slimey plant-monster's carcass.
Making it down to the water's edge, Beaver casts speak with greater spirit and questions of the river spirit. The entity manifests as a huge, bloated figure of water, gasping, farting, and moaning about being bloated. The shaman learns that the river will create a current that will lead the group to it, a water genie ("he's a dick") is guarding the pearl, and to beware of the "dead things". Stephan explains that the "water genie" is a marid, which is the toughest kind of genie-kind.
Idky and Squattingbeaver pass out free actions and water breathing spells while Lowdog also gets a negative plane protection. The group enters the water and follows the swift current. The turpid river/lake is difficult to see in with masses of dark green vegetation, both alive and rotting. It strikes the group that it is as if the plants were infused with too much nutrients and grew too large to support themselves. Now what's left struggles to light and life while the rest slowly decompose in the murky, fetid waters.
Maedhros senses someone try to charm him, and they notice a kelpie in the depths. Lowdog gets charmed and heads over to kiss the kelpie while sporting a boner. Aine lights it up the seaweed creature with faerie fire and the rest of the group swarms to the attack. Because of the water breathing spell, Lowdog is safe from drowning as he attempts to inhale water, but the starving kelpie also tries to extend it's root-like tendrils into the totemic warriors throat. Luckily, his body chokes at this intrusion and before the kelpie can try again, Torr kills it. Lowdog, releaved from the magic to ravage the kelpie, now understands that his fishook earring allows him to airwalk; he activated its power while trying to mount the plant-monster.
The party continues following the current and sees four 20-foot long worms rising out of the murky mud. Lowdog quickly dispatches his two worms and Torr takes out his foe as well. The last worm latches onto Idky, sucking his blood. Before the cleric of Fharlanghn suffers too much, 'Beaver scores the killing blow on the last bloodworm.
Continuing on, the group comes to a 3-story Victorian with a veranda and multiple balconies. 'Beaver casts protection from spirits on himself, Torr, and Lowdog. He talks to the spirits to see if they can tell him anything about where the spook and pearl are, but to no avail. The group then decides to go to the back door and down the backstairs, because the runestones have usually been below ground. First, however, 'Beaver sweeps the house with ESP and detects multiple evil thoughts/memories in the house both above and below. What is strange is that these thoughts seem more like memories than actual, active minds.
That's when Maedhros casts detect invisibility and realizes that the marid is directly behind the party, trying to find a way past Torr's holy aura. It speaks in tongues and explains that the house and everything in it is under the marid's protection. It doesn't want to squash the pathetic mortals, so why don't they leave? 'Beaver gets the idea to read the water-genie's mind, but fails. In response, the marid creates a jet stream of water that blasts the shaman and sends him skittering out of Torr's aura. Before anyone can react, the marid interposes himself between 'Beaver and the party and demands a promise from them on their gods to leave, else the shaman's life is forfeit. Through a bit of talking, the party ferrets out that if Sidra were to die, the marid wouldn't mind and would let the party return. The immortal water-genie goes on to "casually" mention that Sidra is nearly seven feet tall with red hair and a full complement of rhion stones. She is a 16th lvl witch and powerful necromancer to boot. But, before the marid says anything more, he moves toward the shaman and repeats his requirement of a promise not to return. Lowdog, Stephan, and Aine agree.
Accordingly the party decides to continue on south past Fleurville -- as 'Beaver points out, why fight the mightiest of genies on its home turf when we don't have to...especially when a single dispel magic could drown everyone!
The party encounters 16 vegipygmies and 4 thorny dogs. Maedhros tries to blast them with a lightning bolt but the spell has no effect. Torr charges. Unfortunately, most of the rest move around the paladin, but not before Aine entangles nearly half of them -- the spell works QUITE well on veggypygmies, causing not just the plants but even each other to from a huge, tangled mass! Torr takes on two as the rest swarm the group. Aine gets stunned with one hit as Torr kills one of his. 'Beaver activates his ring of plant control, all but two off. The shaman gets them to clump together and Maedhros drops a wall of ice on them, killing all but the thorny dogs, who are seriously trashed. The fighters hack at the stragglers while still 'Beaver continues to dominate them.
The party has now nearly reached the foothills when while walking along, Maedhros, Aine, Beaver, Stephan, and Torr each get hit by a vine lashed out from the foliage. 'Beaver uses his ring again and controls the vine creature and makes it release everyone.
The party continues on and three more days walk under easy march puts them just outside of Calvados. At one point the group encountered more than two dozen giant ants, but with 'Beaver's repel insects spell, the group make very short work of them (the bugs refused to retreat). Similary, the group spies a bush of vampire roses, but the ring of plant control makes short work of it.
Arriving at Calvados the party finds the village deserted. Tracking, Lowdog finds the new village but Turquoise Rain is no longer there. The villagers tell the group that the night after the party destroyed the runestones, the "air came to life" and started talking saying that they were Sidra's subjects and carried off a bunch of people. François took his party to rescue the village folk. The whirlwinds came back every day for a while until a hedge witch of minor power used protection from evil to keep them at bay. The group discovered that after encountering such a spell, the air-beings simply left.
The party decided to continue on, using Idky's easy march to arrive at Marthasville three days later. They notice that the darkness clouds have shrunk considerably and the gloom barely enshroud their ships. The balloons looked like they were hit by some powerful force, possibly lightning, while many wide swaths of sunlight periodically broke through the cloud cover and patches of darkness to touch the ground.
What IS the party's next move?
Now leaving a clear path in their wake, the group continues down the mountain side, headed for the Pearl River and Fleureville. The party notices that the waters have NOT flooded any more than before, but that the flow of the water has increased instead -- no doubt due to all the rain, but paradoxically not the expected behavior of water! It's clear even from the heights that the plants have completely engulf the drowned reamins of the city with now only patches of green sticking out from beneath the waters of Fleureville. En route down, the party sees several giant green dragonflies ahead. Using his spell of repel insects, Beaver keeps the lot of bugs at bay while the rest of the party slaughters the bugs with missile weapons. Lowdog studies the bodies and discovers that the chitin can be used by a witch to make antitoxin. The totemic warriror duly gathers two bugs-worth of the material for Aine.
The group then continues down the slop, later encountering serpents, but Lowdog asks them to leave and the snakes do. They don't have quite as much luck with the pack of 15 veggypygmies with two thornies hunting them. The plant-beings charge and 'Beaver activates his ring of plant control -- taking command of the majority. Some resist and attack, but 'Beaver makes the controlled ones pull off the others. The shaman asks the paladin what he thinks the group should do and a moral conversation ensues about death, murder, and ethics. A few party members are happy to kill the plant beings while Torr point out that they are not evil and could be reacting to the swath Idky's spell is cleaving through the forest of vegetation. Torr convinces the party to have 'Beaver line up the veggypygmies. If they attack after 'Beaver releases control, then he agrees that a lightning bolt from Maedhros would be reasonable. The shaman releases control but the plant-beings leave without a fight.
The party reach the shore and encounters a shambling mound, which 'Beaver attempts to control with his ring, but the monster resists. Maedhros unleashes a volley of magic missiles as it attacks Torr, nearly engulfing the hapless paladin. Aine uses a faerie fire to make the monster easier to hit and 'Beaver manages to lop off one of its legs with his magic dagger (amazing, truly, amazing!). Aine then pours oil on it as Stephan grabs Torr's flaming mace. That's when Lowdog kills the thing. Stephan tries to burn it anyway, only to discover the oil burn but not the slimey plant-monster's carcass.
Making it down to the water's edge, Beaver casts speak with greater spirit and questions of the river spirit. The entity manifests as a huge, bloated figure of water, gasping, farting, and moaning about being bloated. The shaman learns that the river will create a current that will lead the group to it, a water genie ("he's a dick") is guarding the pearl, and to beware of the "dead things". Stephan explains that the "water genie" is a marid, which is the toughest kind of genie-kind.
Idky and Squattingbeaver pass out free actions and water breathing spells while Lowdog also gets a negative plane protection. The group enters the water and follows the swift current. The turpid river/lake is difficult to see in with masses of dark green vegetation, both alive and rotting. It strikes the group that it is as if the plants were infused with too much nutrients and grew too large to support themselves. Now what's left struggles to light and life while the rest slowly decompose in the murky, fetid waters.
Maedhros senses someone try to charm him, and they notice a kelpie in the depths. Lowdog gets charmed and heads over to kiss the kelpie while sporting a boner. Aine lights it up the seaweed creature with faerie fire and the rest of the group swarms to the attack. Because of the water breathing spell, Lowdog is safe from drowning as he attempts to inhale water, but the starving kelpie also tries to extend it's root-like tendrils into the totemic warriors throat. Luckily, his body chokes at this intrusion and before the kelpie can try again, Torr kills it. Lowdog, releaved from the magic to ravage the kelpie, now understands that his fishook earring allows him to airwalk; he activated its power while trying to mount the plant-monster.
The party continues following the current and sees four 20-foot long worms rising out of the murky mud. Lowdog quickly dispatches his two worms and Torr takes out his foe as well. The last worm latches onto Idky, sucking his blood. Before the cleric of Fharlanghn suffers too much, 'Beaver scores the killing blow on the last bloodworm.
Continuing on, the group comes to a 3-story Victorian with a veranda and multiple balconies. 'Beaver casts protection from spirits on himself, Torr, and Lowdog. He talks to the spirits to see if they can tell him anything about where the spook and pearl are, but to no avail. The group then decides to go to the back door and down the backstairs, because the runestones have usually been below ground. First, however, 'Beaver sweeps the house with ESP and detects multiple evil thoughts/memories in the house both above and below. What is strange is that these thoughts seem more like memories than actual, active minds.
That's when Maedhros casts detect invisibility and realizes that the marid is directly behind the party, trying to find a way past Torr's holy aura. It speaks in tongues and explains that the house and everything in it is under the marid's protection. It doesn't want to squash the pathetic mortals, so why don't they leave? 'Beaver gets the idea to read the water-genie's mind, but fails. In response, the marid creates a jet stream of water that blasts the shaman and sends him skittering out of Torr's aura. Before anyone can react, the marid interposes himself between 'Beaver and the party and demands a promise from them on their gods to leave, else the shaman's life is forfeit. Through a bit of talking, the party ferrets out that if Sidra were to die, the marid wouldn't mind and would let the party return. The immortal water-genie goes on to "casually" mention that Sidra is nearly seven feet tall with red hair and a full complement of rhion stones. She is a 16th lvl witch and powerful necromancer to boot. But, before the marid says anything more, he moves toward the shaman and repeats his requirement of a promise not to return. Lowdog, Stephan, and Aine agree.
Accordingly the party decides to continue on south past Fleurville -- as 'Beaver points out, why fight the mightiest of genies on its home turf when we don't have to...especially when a single dispel magic could drown everyone!
The party encounters 16 vegipygmies and 4 thorny dogs. Maedhros tries to blast them with a lightning bolt but the spell has no effect. Torr charges. Unfortunately, most of the rest move around the paladin, but not before Aine entangles nearly half of them -- the spell works QUITE well on veggypygmies, causing not just the plants but even each other to from a huge, tangled mass! Torr takes on two as the rest swarm the group. Aine gets stunned with one hit as Torr kills one of his. 'Beaver activates his ring of plant control, all but two off. The shaman gets them to clump together and Maedhros drops a wall of ice on them, killing all but the thorny dogs, who are seriously trashed. The fighters hack at the stragglers while still 'Beaver continues to dominate them.
The party has now nearly reached the foothills when while walking along, Maedhros, Aine, Beaver, Stephan, and Torr each get hit by a vine lashed out from the foliage. 'Beaver uses his ring again and controls the vine creature and makes it release everyone.
The party continues on and three more days walk under easy march puts them just outside of Calvados. At one point the group encountered more than two dozen giant ants, but with 'Beaver's repel insects spell, the group make very short work of them (the bugs refused to retreat). Similary, the group spies a bush of vampire roses, but the ring of plant control makes short work of it.
Arriving at Calvados the party finds the village deserted. Tracking, Lowdog finds the new village but Turquoise Rain is no longer there. The villagers tell the group that the night after the party destroyed the runestones, the "air came to life" and started talking saying that they were Sidra's subjects and carried off a bunch of people. François took his party to rescue the village folk. The whirlwinds came back every day for a while until a hedge witch of minor power used protection from evil to keep them at bay. The group discovered that after encountering such a spell, the air-beings simply left.
The party decided to continue on, using Idky's easy march to arrive at Marthasville three days later. They notice that the darkness clouds have shrunk considerably and the gloom barely enshroud their ships. The balloons looked like they were hit by some powerful force, possibly lightning, while many wide swaths of sunlight periodically broke through the cloud cover and patches of darkness to touch the ground.
What IS the party's next move?