Post by David on Jul 12, 2011 20:02:10 GMT -5
The heroes (Idky, Torr w/Zayüß, Yavin, Ichi with JIP, and Arthur) question the orc about the old monk, Hu Hsen. He lies to them, but the party catches on. They leave him without weapons, with a warning not to harm any others. Idky casts footsore on the orc before leaving.
They continue walking the “dead zone” along the mainland, searching for the monk Hu Hsen. At one point, they find an area with lots of dolphins, flying fish and butterflies. Idky casts true seeing on this area, but nothing turns up.
They continue on through a very peaceful area. Six days later, while they are sleeping, ten men approach the party. They have no armor and have only clubs. Everything is covered with a deep frost around Yavin. They don’t attack but seem to want to talk. Idky casts tongues. As Idky casts, his spell is interrupted by magic missiles from nearby.
The men attack. Idky pulls out his darkness stone. Yavin and Zayüß start dropping the men. The rest start waking up. A cloud of insects appear around Idky but they don’t bother him.
After five or six drop, they all bolt in different directions. Arthur, with his robe of eyes, sees another man running off into the jungle. They start interrogating one of the men who was stunned. He explains that they were just simple fishermen defending their village from the “evil monsters from the forbidden forest.” They heal the salvageable men and tell them to go home, with apologies and some gems to give to the dead men’s families.
In the morning, the party heads back south into the “forbidden forest” looking for the monk. Every day for three days, they see a kraken surface about a half mile off shore. It seems to be tracking them. Yavin attempts to contact it telepathically. He lets out a scream and stumbles backward. It attacked him with a psychic crush. It is powerful and evil.
After some free actions, water breathings, and aids from Idky, Torr, Zayuss, Ichi, Yavin, and Arthur fly or airwalk out to take on the creature. The creature contacts Torr telepathically to try to tell him it isn’t evil. Torr detects evil, but the creature attacks with 15 tentacles.
Yavin tries to keep the monster busy psionically. Arthur casts magic missiles at its eye but can’t pierce its magic resistance. Ichi drops off the broom to attack it in the water. Torr starts severing tentacles.
Ichi gets stunned and cracked ribs. Torr plunges down to assist Ichi.
Yavin hits the tentacled monster with mind thrust and gets its full attention. It decides to angle itself and psionic blast the group. Zayüß gets caught and falls into the water stunned.
After coming out of the stun, Ichi swims to the body of the beast to attack it. Torr runs over to protect Zayüß and severs more tentacles. Ichi gets wrapped by a tentacle. The stunned warhorse starts to drown.
Ichi does enough damage to its tentacle to render it useless. He swims back to the body and attacks.
The kraken fails morale and decides it needs to bolt away. Ichi gets in a couple of parting shots, as does Arthur with magic missiles. It gets away.
Zayüß comes to and pulls Ichi up. Torr hops on Zayüß and races after the thing, but there’s no way he’ll catch it.
Four days pass: Yavin reports that the orc is nearby (Yavin found out that he had killed a family, raped and ate them). Torr takes off with Yavin to find the orc to kill it.
The remaining members see a large boat that takes position offshore.
Meantime, Torr and Yavin find and slaughter the orc. Unfortunately, they also run into a giant spider, which poisons Torr before he can kill it. Between a slow poison and anti-toxin, the paladin survives.
After a half hour, the rest of the party moves on, because the people on the ship don’t attempt to come to shore. It follows them as they go, though.
Ichi flies out on his broom invisibly to check out the ship. The men on board have bowmen and catapults trained on the party on the shore.
Ichi comes back to report. That’s when the ship catapults the party. They scatter.
At the end of the day, they cast create campsite on the beach and camp about 100 feet in the jungle. That night, Ichi smells something burning. He checks on the fake campsite and sees it burnt to the grown. He notices that the ship is still off shore. It is still there in the morning.
Using clear the path, they continue on through the jungle. By midmorning, the ship is gone, so they return to the beach. Torr and Yavin rejoin them.
Two more days pass, and they reach the area they first entered the “forbidden forest.”
Yavin telepathically hears a rumor (from one of the villagers) that the royal navy had killed the “evil monsters in the forbidden forest.”
They contact the shukenja who sent them. He tells them to continue doing what they’re doing. Seven days pass. While they’re sleeping, a giant lion with a human face and wings pounces down upon Ichi. Yavin yells out to wake everyone. Yavin telepathically communicates with him. When he hears that they are searching for Hu Hsen and that they are off-worlders, he wishes them good luck and that they will meet Hu Hsen the next day . . . and hopes they survive the experience. He then leaves them.
The next morning, a fiery red storm is on the horizon. They continue on into it. As they pass it, they see that behind it is a clear sky. They come to a clearing strewn with oni bodies who died recently in some great battle. They head into the clearing and find an old man rocking back and forth. A naginata is planted in the ground next. It bears a flag on it. The old man smells of alcohol and seems to ignore them. Ichi calls out “Hu Hsen?” He offers them some wine.
As Hu Hsen talks to them and asks if they wish to help with the Dragon Claw threat, reddish lightning strikes nearby. From the smoke materialize two huge oni. Ichi charges. Idky casts aid on Torr, who is detecting evil. Hu Hsen sits back down and makes a pot of tea.
They party scatters so they can’t cast cone of cold on them all. Yavin catches one with mind thrust. Ichi realizes as he engages one that these are crack troops of the heavenly army. They regenerate as trolls.
Arthur lightning bolts the mind thrusted oni, doing little damage.
Torr realizes they are not evil, so when he rushes up he says “If you wish to fight us, we will oblige you. We only slay evil.” Ichi stuns and knocks down his oni. Arthur magic missiles Torr’s oni but the creature's magic resistance repels the spell.
Idky backstabs Ichi’s, killing it. The other one tells Torr “You must die!” and continues to attack. Ichi finishes off Torr’s oni with an eagle claw.
Hu Hsen is almost impressed and offers to teach them his martial art. He suggests that they gather supplies (enough for months) and blow a whistle he gives them when they are ready. He will show up...sooner or later.
They decide to head back to the Rising Star monastery three days later. They find the monastery has been destroyed by the Dragon Claws. Inside are Dragon Claw members.
They learn that they have killed the Rising Stars and taken over the monastery. Ichi challenges their leader to a fight to the death. Twenty-six people come out to watch the fight.
Ichi eagle claws the leader with the first hit. He should have stunned him but didn’t. Obviously, he is enhanced and cheating, as expected. During the battle, he monk heals himself, removing the concussion he got from Ichi earlier.
He finally, after over two minutes, drops Ichi. Torr launches in on the monk as he goes to kill Ichi. The remaining monks swarm the party, claiming that they cheated.
Idky and Yavin pull out their darkness stones to blanketing the area in darkness. Invisibly, Arthur sneaks around behind the mass of monks.
The monks swarm in and can barely land hits on the party members. Arthur levitates up and looks for opportunities to magic missile monks who haven’t dived into the darkness globes. After he kills all of the ones outside the darkness, he turns invisible again and starts looting the bodies.
It takes some time, but they whittle away at the monks. They all seem to share health, so they died in a cascading fashion as the fight dragged on.
They find out that the Dragon Claws had repeatedly sent new masters over time until the monastery was defeated. The monastery was defiant to the end, and they were holding out for the heroes to return to help them.
Kraken eeps: 1050 each
Oni eeps: 4,400 each
Monk eeps: 13,360 each
They continue walking the “dead zone” along the mainland, searching for the monk Hu Hsen. At one point, they find an area with lots of dolphins, flying fish and butterflies. Idky casts true seeing on this area, but nothing turns up.
They continue on through a very peaceful area. Six days later, while they are sleeping, ten men approach the party. They have no armor and have only clubs. Everything is covered with a deep frost around Yavin. They don’t attack but seem to want to talk. Idky casts tongues. As Idky casts, his spell is interrupted by magic missiles from nearby.
The men attack. Idky pulls out his darkness stone. Yavin and Zayüß start dropping the men. The rest start waking up. A cloud of insects appear around Idky but they don’t bother him.
After five or six drop, they all bolt in different directions. Arthur, with his robe of eyes, sees another man running off into the jungle. They start interrogating one of the men who was stunned. He explains that they were just simple fishermen defending their village from the “evil monsters from the forbidden forest.” They heal the salvageable men and tell them to go home, with apologies and some gems to give to the dead men’s families.
In the morning, the party heads back south into the “forbidden forest” looking for the monk. Every day for three days, they see a kraken surface about a half mile off shore. It seems to be tracking them. Yavin attempts to contact it telepathically. He lets out a scream and stumbles backward. It attacked him with a psychic crush. It is powerful and evil.
After some free actions, water breathings, and aids from Idky, Torr, Zayuss, Ichi, Yavin, and Arthur fly or airwalk out to take on the creature. The creature contacts Torr telepathically to try to tell him it isn’t evil. Torr detects evil, but the creature attacks with 15 tentacles.
Yavin tries to keep the monster busy psionically. Arthur casts magic missiles at its eye but can’t pierce its magic resistance. Ichi drops off the broom to attack it in the water. Torr starts severing tentacles.
Ichi gets stunned and cracked ribs. Torr plunges down to assist Ichi.
Yavin hits the tentacled monster with mind thrust and gets its full attention. It decides to angle itself and psionic blast the group. Zayüß gets caught and falls into the water stunned.
After coming out of the stun, Ichi swims to the body of the beast to attack it. Torr runs over to protect Zayüß and severs more tentacles. Ichi gets wrapped by a tentacle. The stunned warhorse starts to drown.
Ichi does enough damage to its tentacle to render it useless. He swims back to the body and attacks.
The kraken fails morale and decides it needs to bolt away. Ichi gets in a couple of parting shots, as does Arthur with magic missiles. It gets away.
Zayüß comes to and pulls Ichi up. Torr hops on Zayüß and races after the thing, but there’s no way he’ll catch it.
Four days pass: Yavin reports that the orc is nearby (Yavin found out that he had killed a family, raped and ate them). Torr takes off with Yavin to find the orc to kill it.
The remaining members see a large boat that takes position offshore.
Meantime, Torr and Yavin find and slaughter the orc. Unfortunately, they also run into a giant spider, which poisons Torr before he can kill it. Between a slow poison and anti-toxin, the paladin survives.
After a half hour, the rest of the party moves on, because the people on the ship don’t attempt to come to shore. It follows them as they go, though.
Ichi flies out on his broom invisibly to check out the ship. The men on board have bowmen and catapults trained on the party on the shore.
Ichi comes back to report. That’s when the ship catapults the party. They scatter.
At the end of the day, they cast create campsite on the beach and camp about 100 feet in the jungle. That night, Ichi smells something burning. He checks on the fake campsite and sees it burnt to the grown. He notices that the ship is still off shore. It is still there in the morning.
Using clear the path, they continue on through the jungle. By midmorning, the ship is gone, so they return to the beach. Torr and Yavin rejoin them.
Two more days pass, and they reach the area they first entered the “forbidden forest.”
Yavin telepathically hears a rumor (from one of the villagers) that the royal navy had killed the “evil monsters in the forbidden forest.”
They contact the shukenja who sent them. He tells them to continue doing what they’re doing. Seven days pass. While they’re sleeping, a giant lion with a human face and wings pounces down upon Ichi. Yavin yells out to wake everyone. Yavin telepathically communicates with him. When he hears that they are searching for Hu Hsen and that they are off-worlders, he wishes them good luck and that they will meet Hu Hsen the next day . . . and hopes they survive the experience. He then leaves them.
The next morning, a fiery red storm is on the horizon. They continue on into it. As they pass it, they see that behind it is a clear sky. They come to a clearing strewn with oni bodies who died recently in some great battle. They head into the clearing and find an old man rocking back and forth. A naginata is planted in the ground next. It bears a flag on it. The old man smells of alcohol and seems to ignore them. Ichi calls out “Hu Hsen?” He offers them some wine.
As Hu Hsen talks to them and asks if they wish to help with the Dragon Claw threat, reddish lightning strikes nearby. From the smoke materialize two huge oni. Ichi charges. Idky casts aid on Torr, who is detecting evil. Hu Hsen sits back down and makes a pot of tea.
They party scatters so they can’t cast cone of cold on them all. Yavin catches one with mind thrust. Ichi realizes as he engages one that these are crack troops of the heavenly army. They regenerate as trolls.
Arthur lightning bolts the mind thrusted oni, doing little damage.
Torr realizes they are not evil, so when he rushes up he says “If you wish to fight us, we will oblige you. We only slay evil.” Ichi stuns and knocks down his oni. Arthur magic missiles Torr’s oni but the creature's magic resistance repels the spell.
Idky backstabs Ichi’s, killing it. The other one tells Torr “You must die!” and continues to attack. Ichi finishes off Torr’s oni with an eagle claw.
Hu Hsen is almost impressed and offers to teach them his martial art. He suggests that they gather supplies (enough for months) and blow a whistle he gives them when they are ready. He will show up...sooner or later.
They decide to head back to the Rising Star monastery three days later. They find the monastery has been destroyed by the Dragon Claws. Inside are Dragon Claw members.
They learn that they have killed the Rising Stars and taken over the monastery. Ichi challenges their leader to a fight to the death. Twenty-six people come out to watch the fight.
Ichi eagle claws the leader with the first hit. He should have stunned him but didn’t. Obviously, he is enhanced and cheating, as expected. During the battle, he monk heals himself, removing the concussion he got from Ichi earlier.
He finally, after over two minutes, drops Ichi. Torr launches in on the monk as he goes to kill Ichi. The remaining monks swarm the party, claiming that they cheated.
Idky and Yavin pull out their darkness stones to blanketing the area in darkness. Invisibly, Arthur sneaks around behind the mass of monks.
The monks swarm in and can barely land hits on the party members. Arthur levitates up and looks for opportunities to magic missile monks who haven’t dived into the darkness globes. After he kills all of the ones outside the darkness, he turns invisible again and starts looting the bodies.
It takes some time, but they whittle away at the monks. They all seem to share health, so they died in a cascading fashion as the fight dragged on.
They find out that the Dragon Claws had repeatedly sent new masters over time until the monastery was defeated. The monastery was defiant to the end, and they were holding out for the heroes to return to help them.
Kraken eeps: 1050 each
Oni eeps: 4,400 each
Monk eeps: 13,360 each