Of Sound Mind the Halfling Way

The Crossroads

8/23/368 O.L.G., the road west of Wheat Creek

Our heroes are following the winding path west, towards- hopefully- the Sheriff. Why they are pursuing him, I’m not entirely certain, nor (I think) were they. But Lita, hoping to improve her burgeoning relationship with him, had already ridden her dog to death, and she was mule-set on following him. So that’s what our heroes were doing.

But now a crimp has settled in their plans, for they have happened upon a crossroads.

West is the direction they’ve been headed, and west they can continue; but another track leads away to the south. “The Asylum is more west,” Sandy says doubtfully. “I don’t know... which path would they have taken?” Jawbreaker looks for signs of passage, but his lore is in other areas, and he shrugs.

“Maybe we should scout it out,” suggests Federico, and Sandy and Jawbreaker head to the west while the others wait. They return about an hour later, and inform the rest of the group that the road to the west seems to drop into the Buzzing Fens. Why would a road go in there? And is that where Sheriff Barleybrew would have taken Manson?

“Summary justice,” moans Federico. “Or a secret prison.” His tail is tucked firmly between his legs.

The party gazes down the south path. It heads into the hills. “Oh, hills are dangerous,” the dog whines. “We’ve fought all kinds of nasty hill and mountain monsters- there are those bird-garen things that want to eat us, and the big spiders...” Federico shudders.

A most confusing discussion ensues, with some party members adamant about heading one way or the other, some suggesting they just return to Wheat Creek to wait for the Sheriff to return (with their reward for capturing Manson, no less!), and some suggesting they just wait at the crossroads. The only decision they can make is elevensies, provoked by Sandy (who got bored and went wandering), who cries out, “Hey you guys- I found something good over here!”

Three eggs, almost the size of a halfling each, in a large bird’s nest. Two of them are secreted away and the other is tapped, then cooked up. Soon the giant eagle egg omelet is served. As they munch on it, Federico sighs happily, “We should just camp here!”

“No, I want to find the Sheriff,” Lita insists.

“We don’t even know where he is,” Boddynock reminds her. “He could have gone done either path.” And the debate begins again. The group argues all day, and finally, about a half hour before dark, they agree to at least go check out the south path. They move down it briefly, but the sun sets and they are forced to make camp almost immediately.

While they’re setting up camp, Lita hears a great bird crying out in the distance: Scree!... scree! She points it out to the group. Unsettled, Naomi says, “We should flee!”

“No way,” argues Boddynock. “How would the bird know we took its eggs? It could be anything! There are orcs and goblins and stuff in these hills, right? It could have been them!”

“As long as we keep the other eggs under cover I think we’re cool,” Naomi says. Grinning, she adds, “And the evidence will be gone tomorrow.”

“Shh!” urges Sandy. “We don’t know how well it can hear!”

“Wait, why should the bird be mad at us?” Timothy asks ponderously.

“It shouldn’t be,” Sandy answers.

“Oh,” Timothy says.

***

8/24/368, 9 a.m., just south of the Crossroads

Our heroes have breakfast and get moving. They are mindful of the great raptor they heard last night, and especially with Naomi’s near-panicked goading (“We should flee before the bird eats us! Scree!! Scree!!”), the party gets moving south, away from the crossroads. The path is visible, but fairly overgrown. It is clear that whatever traffic flows up and down it is not too regular, but neither is it so rare that the path is lost to nature.

Suddenly Lita catches sight of something in the foliage. She cries a warning, but too late for her friends to react; suddenly a pair of javelins flies from the shrubbery, hitting Naomi in the arm and leg! She cries out in pain and starts to stagger back as two yellow-skinned orcs stagger forth, clutching axes.

The party moves into action as Boddynock leaps behind Timothy. The autistic kid cries out, “I’ll protect you, Boddynock!” He drops his torch and dagger and casts shield. Then he picks up his dagger and torch from the ground.

Meanwhile a rain of missile fire has ensued from the halflings, pelting the orcs and dropping both of them. There is a moment more of tension before the group ascertains that they are both dead.

Then they realize that something very weird is going on with the orcs. For one thing, they’re yellow- the yellow of a lemon. Very strange coloration for orcs. For another thing, there seem to be plants growing on them.

From them.

“These,” grunts Jawbreaker, “are yellow musk zombies.”

“What’s a yellow musk zombie?” asks Lita.

“Yellow musk plant is plant that will plant seed in your head. Eat your mind. When it sprout, you die, become zombie under its control.” The barbarian smiles.

“Let’s go back,” the kobold begs. “Back to the crossroads.”

“Yeah, let’s go get paid,” agrees Sandy. “What are we doing out here anyway?”

“Good point,” agrees Naomi.

“If we just wait at the crossroads, the Sheriff will come back eventually, right?” suggests Boddynock, not for the first time.

Arguing amongst themselves, our heroes return to the crossroads. Once there, they turn to the east and head back towards Wheat Creek to await the Sheriff. As night falls, they cook up the other two eggs under the best cover they can find. They’re more than a little nervous about the giant bird coming to try to eat them, but an egg that big won’t keep, as Mama used to say.

They rest well, full of giant eagle egg, and travel for another day and a half before they see the Sheriff coming up behind them. So they turn around and head west again until they meet up with him. Lita embraces him and he gives her a rough kiss.

“Thank you for your help,” he says without preamble. “I’ve got your rewards, here, beginning with the gratitude of myself and the authorities in this area. Your assistance is recognized and appreciated.” He hesitates a moment, then goes on, “I have for each of you a medal. I know, I was surprised too; but that’s the way of it. Also a letter of credit to the tune of 2500 gold pieces and a gem.” He starts distributing these things to our heroes. The gems are small black stones, cut into an emerald cut. “The gem can be turned in for a favor at the larger temples of Bleak.”

The party murmurs and oohs and ahs over their new acquisitions for a few minutes, and Sheriff Riley Barleybrew spends a few minutes talking to them, especially Lita. Then he mounts his shaggy riding dog and bids them farewell.

“But what about us?” implores Lita. It is plain that she does not mean the party.

“I’m sorry, baby,” the Sheriff says, and perhaps there’s the merest hint of the glimmer of a tear in the corner of his eye, “but I travel a hard road.”

“But-“

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he repeats, “but my path leads me to places you cannot come, and duty must come first.” Regretfully, he tips his hat, and then he turns his dog away and urges it to a loping run. Lita watches the Sheriff recede down the path.

“Let’s go back to the crossroads,” suggests Boddynock.

Lita bursts into tears.

Next Time: Now what do our heroes do?

Quick recap on the party's current roster... expect a new party member in the next several updates sometime!

Naomi-- halfling psion 2; seems to be eager to eat humans
Boddynock-- gnome illusionist 3; CG
Phynal "Sandy" Sandybanks-- halfling rogue 3/fighter 1; LE
Jawbreaker-- wild halfling barbarian 2; CG
Lita Alexander-- halfling psion 2/rogue 1; CN
Federico-- kobold bard 3/sorcerer 1; CG; referred to as the clan's dog frequently
Timothy-- autistic halfling sorcerer 3; CG
Martini-- halfling ranger 1/fighter 1; CG

And I almost left out Ethel, Federico's riding dog!

Expect an update in the next half hour.

Poor Lita.

Those crazy halflings never stop.

What Now?

8/24/368 O.L.G., along the road to the Buzzing Fens

West to the Fens, then- though hopefully not into them- to find out just where the Sheriff took Manson.

“Maybe he was summarily executed,” Federico speculates, shivering like a small dog, his tail tucked between his legs.

“The Sheriff is too goody two-shoes for that,” Naomi complains. “He probably just locked him up somewhere.”

“Yeah, somewhere he’ll escape from again,” Lita adds, failing to note that our heroes were the ones to ‘escape’ him before.

The path winds along through the foothills. Just north, the hills rise into the Stern Mountains, which some of our heroes have traversed before; this was neither easy nor fun. “Let’s not climb again,” whines the kobold.

“We’ll try to avoid it, dog,” Sandy reassures him, fondly scratching Feddie behind the ears.

As the group passes a grassy depression, they spot movement, and hoping it will be something tasty, Lita approaches. Unfortunately, it proves to be the trap door of a large trap door spider. A short battle ensues, with magic missiles zinging out from Timothy and missiles flying from the others’ weapons. Ethel, Federico’s riding dog, manages to slay the beast as Naomi’s psychic attacks slough uselessly off of the mindless monstrosity.

I don’t like bugs, she thinks afterward.

***

The path leads directly into the Buzzing Fens. Our heroes stop there, unwilling to take the chance of contracting the Buzzing Bowels again.*

So they return to the crossroads.

“What do we do now?” asks Boddynock.

“Yay! This is fun,” Timothy exclaims. “We never got to go for such long walks at the place.”

“I think we should leave Strogass,” suggests Federico. “This place sucks. Everyone’s mean, and there’s too much climbing. We should go somewhere else.”

“But where?” asks Lita.

That’s a stumper, of course, as nobody knows anything about what’s outside of Strogass, but our halflings have never been stymied by little things like not knowing where they’re going! This possible course of action gives rise to an animated discussion; they may have trouble trying to leave, as they have not paid their fines to the courts yet, but then again, there seems to have been a fairly general breakdown of authority in the Empire... In the end, they decide to take their chances.

Unfortunately, the choice is then between the mountains and the swamp. “If we skirt the edge, where the mountains are lowest, we’ll probably have our best results,” suggests Martini. Thus the group moves north, hoping to find their way to a port city and thence another isle or continent entirely.

As they move along the flank of the swamp, they are constantly assailed by insects and the stink of the marsh gasses; and once about a half dozen fat black flies almost six feet long buzz out of the mists in the fen and attack them. The filthy monsters are dispatched fairly easily, but not until they have bitten Lita, Naomi and Timothy. Nonetheless, our heroes move on until they are away from the swamp, and set up camp to rest.

“Another thing about this place,” complains Lita. “A lot of the stuff we fight, we can’t eat.”

***

8/30/368 O.L.G., 11:50 p.m., in the Stern Mountains

Both Lita and Naomi wake up.

Something’s out there, making noise. Snuffling and shuffling about.

The girls struggle out of their bedding, nudging Boddynock and Federico to wake them, and in only a few seconds everyone’s awake, wide-eyed and quiet.

”Hooooo,” something calls from the dark. ”Hoooooo.”

That’s the call of an owlbear, thinks Federico. He starts to shiver, and Ethel woofs softly and begins growling. Suddenly it’s crashing forward from out of the night! Frantically, Federico wards Ethel with a mage armor, and then the dog leaps to meet the monster!

“Ethel!” screams Timothy.

The owlbear’s claws slam into the dog, who yelps and goes still. The monster grips Ethel tightly, then starts to retreat with her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!” cries Timothy, casting an acid splash at the beast. The others burst into action as well. This monster feels the bite of Namoi’s mind powers, and when Martini swings his little greatsword at it, he knows just where to strike. Boddynock hits it with a Melf’s acid arrow, and screaming in terrible pain the monster starts to flee into the night with Ethel.

“NOOOO!” cries Federico. Arms quivering with strain, the scrawny little kobold raises his crossbow and fires a quarrel into the owlbear’s retreating back. The creature shrieks one last time, stumbles and falls. Ethel is rescued! Still breathing, though badly wounded, Federico’s faithful companion remains with the group another day.

“I wonder...” muses Naomi.

“What?” asks Boddynock.

“D’you think it has eggs somewhere?”


Next Time: A ruined city in the mountains of Strogass! Well, that couldn’t possibly be interesting....


*A terrible disease that gripped several of our heroes when they traversed the swamp before. We’ll see it again soon.

9/1/368 O.L.G., in the Stern Mountains, Strogass

Our heroes spend the day resting and hunting for owlbear eggs. To their disappointment, they do not find any; but certainly it’s a worthy cause. Over the course of the day they discuss what they’re doing and reaffirm their desire to leave Strogass.

No eggs, eh? Well, they can certainly cook up the beast itself! Whistling, Martini guts it, skins it and cooks up great sizzling slabs of it. Though it’s gamey and tough, the meat is fairly flavorful, and our heroes spend some time discussing what herbs and spices it would require to make owlbear worthy of a feast. Throughout the day Martini smokes the remaining owlbear meat.

They party rests another night in the same location, eating more owlbear in the evening (spiced up with wild onions this time- a definite improvement, but it makes several of them think of poor old Mama Flapjacks). The next day they continue their trek into the incredible Stern Mountains. Though the going is hard and they slip and slide down the scree from time to time, by early afternoon they come upon what is unmistakably an old track, overgrown by weeds. Excitedly, Martini points out the signs that it once saw a lot of traffic- but not for decades.

Naturally curious, the halflings follow the trail up the mountain. As evening settles in the group makes camp on the shoulder, but Naomi spots something ahead and below, in the general direction the track is headed: a faint green glow.

***

9/3/368 O.L.G., 8 a.m., on the trail

Boddynock wakes up feeling terrible. Nauseous... he drags himself out of his bedroll and stumbles behind a nearby collection of bushes to relieve himself. Federico, on watch, glances at him as he moves away, then scans their surroundings again, sniffing the air.

Suddenly, from behind the bushes, there’s a strangely familiar flapping, buzzing sound.

“Oh no,” Federico calls out, “you caught the buzzing bowels!”*

Martini strides back to camp: he’s already been out for a look around in the light of dawn. “There’s a ruin,” he announces.

“Oh boy! Like a building, or a ruined temple?” Federico asks excitedly.

“No- a ruined city.”

***

11 a.m., the ruined city

The ruins show the signs of having once housed a small folk, about halfling sized, and if the remaining artifacts are any evidence, basically humanoid. Most of the buildings have fallen into disrepair and many have even collapsed. Near the center is a large ziggurat, climbing several stories high.

After considerable animated debate about the virtues of cowardice (though usually phrased ‘prudent’ or ‘cautious’ or ‘careful’), Lita and Naomi move together towards the stepped pyramid. (It is at this very moment that the pair of them are christened ‘the fine girl and the fat girl’ by several other members of the party.) The two of them have been building a fast friendship over the last few weeks.

They ascend the ziggurat without mishap, so everyone else follows them up to the top, where there is a strange slab of stone blocking what appears to be an entrance. Before it, in the ground, is a hole. Some examination indicates no sign of traps, but the hole does seem to be connected to some sort of mechanism. After some thorough examination, the party concludes that something needs to be inserted into the hole.

“We need some kind of key,” Federico announces.

The party searches around for quite some time, especially in the ruins of a nearby temple. They soon uncover a secret trap door and descend a ladder to a fairly small chamber, about 15’ square, bisected by a wall. On the far side, the sharp-eyed ranger catches sight of movement and hears the sloshing of water.

“Watch out,” he calls to the others. “I think we’ve got a water monster.”

The group moves into the room and watches the wall for a moment. Being halflings, they are too short to see over it; but they can hear movement. Lita whispers, “I’m going to look,” and before anyone can stop her she scampers up to the wall and then climbs up on top.

“I don’t see anything,” she says after a moment. Near the wall is a barrel, with a ladle; curious, she hops down and opens it. “Blood,” she says in surprise, her nose wrinkling. She glances at the ladle, glances at the wall, and visibly has an idea. She scampers back up the wall and reaches out to grab the ladle.

“Maybe that’s not a good idea,” Timothy says as Boddynock rejoins the group, more than a little green in the face.

But Lita’s not really listening to Timothy. He’s crazy anyway, right? She dumps the blood in the pool.

Almost immediately, a terrible creature stands up before her, hissing. It’s some horrible undead creature, with long jagged nails and broken, sharp teeth. Its limp hair dangles in front of its face. Its tongue is black and swollen and cracked.

“Gross,” Timothy comments. He’s very nervous.

“I think it’s friendly!” Lita says excitedly, and then a sickly grey claw swipes out at her. She gives a cry of fear, pinwheels her arms, and jumps back off the wall. Martini draws steel and moves up next to the creature. A single solid blow slices its arm off and it falls back dead with a hiss and a splash. But Martini cries, “There are more of them!” and stands ready.

Lita gleefully springs back to the ladle.

“No!” cries Timothy, but he’s too late. She flings more blood into the water, and three more of the undead rise from the water. Suddenly the room is all crossbow bolts and swords; Boddynock’s magic missiles streak into the creatures. Claws and snarling yellow teeth lash out; and in less than thirty seconds it’s over, with the monsters defeated.

“We should search the water!” Lita suggests cheerfully.

“What, while you ladle more blood in?” Martini snaps. She smiles at him.

“No, no more blood,” moans Timothy.

“Well, maybe they had treasure,” offers Federico.

“Fine, I’ll search,” Lita huffs.

A good cold wet half hour later, the group has found some coin, an ankh-shaped item that just might be the key they need, and a helmet.

“A helmet!” exclaims Martini. “Does it look good on me?” And he slips it over his head.

“Hey, that’s party treasure,” says Naomi.

“No, it’s mine,” Martini says.

“Uh...”

“It’s my pick.”

Suddenly Lita plucks it off of the ranger’s head. Without an instant’s hesitation, Martini whirls on her, whips out his greatsword, and buries it in her face.


Next Time: Whoa! What just happened there?? (I’ll bet any veteran dnd player can figure it out pretty easily, actually...) More important, what happens now?? Not telling, you’ll see.


*The buzzing bowels is a terrible intestinal disease. The pcs were exposed in their fight with the flies (barely mentioned above ) Boddynock was the only one to catch it, however.

Whoops! I'm working on the next update, and I realized I mixed a few things up on the last post- fixed it, but I thought I'd let everyone know.

Expect an update later today.

Into the Ziggurat of Doom

A wave of blood splashes across the stones as Lita falls limply to the ground. A sickening suck-pop sound accompanies Martini’s greatsword as he pulls it free from her face.

“NOOOOO!!!” screams Federico, rushing forward to see if Lita yet lives.

”You don’t hit my sister in the face!” shrieks Naomi, and a mind thrust bursts into Martini’s head like a white-hot needle. He grimaces, snarls, and picks up the helmet and pops it back on his head.

“It’s mine,” he insists dangerously, and wipes off his sword as he stalks away to the other side of the chamber.

“She’s alive,” whimpers the kobold, casting one of his minor healing spells upon Lita. She groans and twitches. Her face throbs in agony; her cheek bones are shattered. She groans again.

”Stupid halflings,” groans Boddynock; then he staggers to the corner of the room, caught in the grips of the buzzing bowels again.

***

1 p.m.

The halflings make peace. Everyone is shocked by Martini’s strange behavior, but he waves their concern away. “I’m fine, better than ever,” he insists brusquely. “Now let’s get organized.”

Now that the group has something to try at the top of the ziggurat, they advance again to the top of the pyramid. The inverted ankh is indeed the key they need, and the stone slab blocking entrance at the top level of the pyramid sinks away with a grinding sound as the ankh is inserted into the hole before the slab.

Cautiously, Martini leads the way.

Beyond the slab is a dim room, illuminated only by the sunlight entering through the opening that our heroes have just revealed. Something within the room hisses, and Timothy steps forward, crying out, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!” A comical battle with a tiny viper ensues, lasting a few moments as it strikes at the pot-bellied sorcerer and he defends himself and blocks the entrance. Finally Martini manages to squeeze in past him and cuts the viper in two with a single blow.

”Thanks, Martini,” Timothy says cheerfully.

“No problem, Tim,” Martini replies gruffly.

The chamber at the top of the ziggurat is strewn with sand. A few cobwebs cling to the corners, and bugs crawl in the shade. A pole drops down from the ceiling, exiting through a hole in the floor. “Hey, that looks like fun!” Timothy exclaims, and slides down the pole out of sight.

“Timmy, wait!” cries Federico. “It could be dangerous!”

His voice floats back up from below: “I’m all right... it’s neat down here! Hey, what’s that?”

“Don’t touch anything!” Martini and Federico cry out together.

“Okay...”

In the back of the party, Boddynock groans and says, “I’ll catch up in a minute...” He scampers outside for a moment, needing to deal with the symptoms of his illness.

The others slide down the pole after Timothy. The chamber below is bigger than the one above, but not very large. There are shelves along all the walls, painted with various bits of imagery. After a few moments of investigation, it seems that the images, as a whole, tell the story of the city’s founding and rise. There is no commemoration of whatever destroyed it, however.

“We haven’t even seen many bodies,” Boddynock remarks after rejoining the group.

“How are we getting out of here?” wonders Federico. “I can’t c-climb that.”*



Egress from the room seems to be in the form of a slide. “Oh, yay!” Timothy exclaims. “A slide!” And he leaps on, followed by Boddynock. The others can hear the halfling gleefully crying, “Wheeeee!!!”

But then suddenly, Timothy’s gleeful shout turns to a blood-curdling scream of pain as something goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Oh no! Is Timmy okay?? What’s down there? And what happens next??


*For god’s sake, whatever you do, don’t forget Federico’s strength score of 1. This actually benefited him at one point, since he was immune to ray of enfeeblement.

At first, Timothy thinks the slide is going to be great fun. It is steep enough that he’s moving very quickly, spiraling downwards. When the huge, razor-sharp blade comes into view he only has time to gape; and then it’s cutting up into him, between his legs.

***

For a long time he floats in blood-red darkness. Finally, when Timothy comes around, he shifts his body slightly and screams in agony as the terrible jagged gash in his pelvis twists a drill of pain through him.

“Timothy! It’s okay, you made it,” reassures Martini, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Pull yourself together!”

The autistic sorcerer whimpers in pain.

”Don’t worry, Timmy, we’re resting for a couple of days,” Boddynock says brightly. Timothy moans, clutching himself.

***

9/6/368 O.L.G., 9 a.m.

“I managed to throw myself off the slide before I hit the blade,” Boddynock explains as Timothy stretches carefully. The wounds are mostly healed. “Then we dropped a rope from above and everyone else climbed down. But it’s a dangerous climb- if you fall, you might hit the razor. So we didn’t want to climb back up and down unless it was necessary. So we’ve been resting here the last few days.” The gnome groans. “But I can’t shake these damn buzzing bowels!”

Indeed, the small room stinks of excrement. “It wasn’t until we cleared away the poop that we found the secret door,” Federico pipes up.

“Well, let’s check it out!” exclaims Lita.

“You keep saying that, and I keep telling you, we have to wait until Tim is rested,” Martini growls. The two lock eyes for a moment in a stare of hate.

“I think I’m ready,” Timothy says.

Carefully the group clusters around the secret door. In one swift motion, Martini throws it open; and below them, the group hears a sloshing and churning.

“There’s some kind of pool down there,” Martini comments, and Timothy casts a light below.

A nightmare creature is revealed: an eerie translucent worm-like creature, with a huge number of tentacles surrounding a central maw. The halflings (and kobold and gnome) can see its organs within its quivering, tube-like body. The creature is huge, probably 30’ long; our heroes gape in horror at it. Suddenly it jerks upright and thrusts its body up through the trap door. With a hostile screech, it lunges at Martini.

Next Time: Our heroes fight the terrible translucent monster!! One of them won’t walk away!!!

The huge serpentine creature lashes out, the many tentacles surrounding its central maw end in cruel barbed hooks. Bluish slime spatters around the group as the creature slashes Martini with one of its deadly tentacles. Within the horror, organs pulse and fluids flow. It is gruesome to look upon and terrifying to face in battle.

Screaming shrilly, Naomi stabs at the creature’s mind with her psionic attacks, but to no avail. It ignores her, its tentacles writhing out and trying to grasp just about all of our heroes in a flurry of slime-covered grasping! Even as it strikes at him, Federico manages to shoot a bolt into the monster’s body! Boddynock blasts it with a magic missile, too; and then Martini lands a blow in the monster’s alien vitals! A high-pitched sound emanates from the creature, and the pair of tentacles that Timothy is struggling against tear him nearly to death! The autistic sorcerer screams in pain and collapses nervelessly to the ground. The monster gives another high-pitched squeal, releasing him to batter at the others. Boddynock reels as a blow tears across him, and Federico yelps as the worm-thing tears his belly open. He cries out in agony, shaking in fear and pain as he japes at sings at it, trying to inspire confidence in his friends.

Our heroes are sorely pressed now. Martini swings again, but he can’t get close enough to land a good blow without the monster tearing at him again. Lita, her concentration shattered by several wounds, spends several precious moments trying to recover herself. She winces as the gnome is smashed down by the terrible creature’s tentacles. Naomi jabs her spear at it despairingly as Boddynock groans his way into unconsciousness.

Our heroes are faltering. Both Timothy and Boddynock have fallen! “Careful!” shouts Martini, groaning from the pain of his own wounds. “Watch out, dog!” But his warning comes too late. Federico shrieks as another tentacle lashes out, striking him senseless as well. “Nooo!” shouts the ranger. “You can’t have him!!!” He leaps forward, his greatsword a blur, and he lands a telling blow right in the creature’s mouth, shattering it!* With an agonized squeal, the great worm-thing jerks back and falls through the door in the floor. With a cry of joy Martini heaves the trap door shut and stands up, shaking.

Naomi and Lita are trying to stabilize the dying. Strangely unconcerned, Martini cleans his sword.

”I couldn’t save him,” groans Lita, ”he’s dead!”

“Good, we can eat him,” exclaims Naomi.

”We aren’t eating anyone!” Martini retorts grimly, glancing at the three prone forms. Which one is dead? His heart is harder than he would have expected; but nonetheless he hopes it isn’t his clan dog.

”Why not?” Naomi asks. “It isn’t like it’s cannibalism or anything. He’s not a halfling, after all.”

“Are you kidding?” Lita snorts. “He was sick. He’d probably get us sick. He’s had the buzzing bowels for the last few days, remember? I don’t want that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” snaps Martini. “Nobody’s eating a companion.”

Naomi grumbles, but she goes along.

***

Even if Boddynock wasn’t a halfling, he was a friend. Martini is slightly guilty about having not even attempted to save him when he could have; but you can’t unburn bread, as they say. Done’s done.

Rest is the first order of business, and doing something with Boddynock. But getting out of the ziggurat won’t be easy, especially with several people unable to move under their own power. Resting in the chamber strewn by Boddynock’s feces is an unattractive proposition, but it’s better than trying to rest in the slime below with the translucent worm thing.

Martini and Naomi find the monster dead; its last exertions were too much for it. Searching around they find some coins, worth about 700 gold pieces. Then, exhausted, they return to the chamber in which they are, reluctantly, resting. A deep sleep ensues.

***

9/7/368 O.L.G., 10 a.m.

When he struggles up after finally awakening, Federico immediately uses his bardic magic to heal himself and Timothy. The two of them are much more distressed over the loss of Boddynock than Martini, Naomi or Lita. After some weeping and tearful eating, the group discusses what to do with the gnome’s body. To their distress, they determine that they can’t really do anything with it, given the deadly razor trap. They leave the corpse to rot in the pyramid as they retreat from it.

“Let’s get out of here!” exclaims Federico. “These ruins aren’t friendly at all!”

The group quickly moves away from the ruins. Federico’s tail is between his legs. The group heads due north and promptly gets lost in the Stern Mountains.

***

4 p.m.

The party stumbles upon a campsite that shows some signs of disturbance. While poking around, they find another halfling. He claims that it is his campsite and that it was somewhat disturbed by another group.

“A group of what? What’s your name?” Martini demands suspiciously.

“Beau- Beau Highhill,” the halfling introduces himself. “Hey, there they are again!”

Our heroes turn to see another group of individuals coming through the scattered trees towards them. The leader is a halfling on a riding dog. Following him are a number of thuggish-looking men and half-elves, as well as a gnome. Grimly the halfling smiles at them. “So!” he calls out. “I’ve found you at last!”

“Hey, why’s he nocking an arrow?” asks Federico.

“Surrender Airhead Ed Flapjacks to me now, for her crimes against Benjy Peachtree- or prepare to be taken!”


Next Time: Halflings vs. halflings!


*Critical hit just when you need it the most!

Following the end of the fight, Boddynock's life force had not quite diminished, but Matini was too busy wiping the blood off his sword and hence Boddynock died. Had Martini tried to save Boddynock he would have been successful. (the player rolled a 15, a what if, in case he had tried to stabilize his fallen comrade)