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Child of Chaos -- The Continuing Adventures of Thundina Planeswalker. June 29 update
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<blockquote data-quote="Ealli" data-source="post: 3571027" data-attributes="member: 804"><p><strong>Chapter 3: The Beastlands</strong></p><p></p><p>The branch narrowed as it extended away from Yggdrasil. Almvig chittered and nodded, “See glow? That’s the Beastlands.” There was a glowing portal out near the end, where the branch narrowed to just a few feet across. Scyther led the party across the branch, followed by Thundina, Boris, and Talor. As Scyther stepped through the portal, the release of the juggernaut’s weight caused the branch to sway. Thundina and Talor kept their balance easily, but Boris was flailing wildly, trying to maintain his balance. Thundina reached out to steady Boris, but he had already fallen. Thundina and Talor watched Boris fall from view; past branches and wisps of clouds.</p><p></p><p>Thundina looked to Talor shocked, “Can we rescue Boris still? I can’t fly.”</p><p>Talor shook his head, “Even if I could catch him, I’m not strong enough to lift another in flight. I think he’s gone.”</p><p>“I ought to be sad, but I never really knew him. He never opened up to me. Did he ever tell you about his history?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina and Talor crossed through the portal in silence and arrived in a clearing in the middle of an extensive forest. A game trail led out of one the clearing in one direction with trees visible as far as the eye could see in every direction. They had arrived at night, the moon directly overhead providing a dim light.</p><p></p><p>Although no one was particularly tired, the party decided that it would be best to set up camp for the night and start the exploration of the Beastlands at dawn. Talor gathered wood and started a small fire for cooking and keeping beasts at bay. The fire burned down over the night, but the night did not end. The moon had barely moved across the sky but everything the party felt indicated they had otherwise camped for a full night.</p><p></p><p>The party decided that the path represented the greatest likelihood of finding people who could direct them to Thoss. A rustling in the bushes shortly down the path caused the party to halt. A huge displacer beast stalked closer to the party with several normal displacer beasts following in its wake. Two of the displacer beasts broke into a dash ahead of the huge displacer beast and began running directly at the party in a hunting stance.</p><p></p><p>Thundina stepped forward to engage the two displacer beasts running ahead. She took up a defensive position and forced them to slow down. She thought she had judged the range of huge displacer beast, but suddenly it was lashing, overwhelming her defenses. Thundina was bleeding heavily from the tentacle rakes.</p><p></p><p>Talor shot one of his acid-fountain arrows into the melee, this time he managed to hit the ground with the arrow in the way to activate it. The spurt of acid hit the huge displacer beast and one of the others. The displacer beast yelped and jumped away from the acid fountain, but the huge displacer beast held its ground. Talor finished his volley of arrows into the various displacer beasts and Scyther charged into the fray and engaged the huge displacer beast. Scyther’s initial strikes missed due to the displacer’s blurring and blinking, but he was able to draw the beast’s attention away from Thundina.</p><p></p><p>From farther down the trail, an armored man riding an unusual creature kicked his mount into a charge against the huge displacer beast. The man wore shining fullplate, but the helmet was unattached and floated just above the armor; the helmet, and presumably the armor, was empty. A well crafted hunting horn hung at his side, but he primarily wielded a ranseur against the displacer beast. The mount was just as unusual; a bipedal dinosaur with somewhat short forearms and a large rack of antlers.</p><p></p><p>The unmovable wall of Thundina’s guisarme and the harassment of Talor’s shooting was simply too much for normal displacer beasts who turned and fled into the woods. The greater displacer beast quickly decided that Scyther didn’t taste good and was too spiky anyway and it too fled into the woods. Thundina had maneuvered herself to next to the mounted warrior as part of the flow of combat against the displacer beast and she looked up at the rider to thank him for his assistance when he pulled out and trumpeted on his hunting horn. The sound of the horn affected Thundina and Talor at a deep level, filling them with the dread of the hunted, the need to escape from a dangerous predator, and the hopelessness with knowing that one is overmatched and soon to be tracked no matter how one might flee. Thundina snarled like the cornered beast and attacked.</p><p></p><p>With Scyther, who appeared unaffected by the horn’s call, supporting Thundina in the face of the hunter, the hunter dropped his ranseur and directed the dinostag away. He unslung his longbow and fired a shot back at Talor. Talor called out what he know of the hunter; it was a dangerous fey called a wild hunter. Talor reached into his magical quiver for his cold iron-tipped arrows and returned fire on the wild hunter.</p><p></p><p>Thundina gave chase to the wild hunter and his dinostag. Scyther was just behind, but his chase ran into a ram from the dinostag. The ram temporarily slowed Scyther but he closed the gap anyway and slashed at the hunter. The wild hunter attempted to flee again and Thundina attempted to pull him from his mount, but the wild hunter’s expertise at riding foiled Thundina’s attempt completely. Once the wild hunter had gotten out of range of Scyther and Thundina, the hunter and Talor traded fire again.</p><p></p><p>Again Thundina and Scyther chased down the wild hunter. The wild hunter prepared to flee again. Scyther’s charge had all been about setting up a feint. Scyther’s backswing then punched through the floating helmet of the wild hunter. Thundina then swept the wild hunter off his dinostag. The stag maintained its previous orders to dash across the battlefield. It looked around a moment before it fled from the battle without its master.</p><p></p><p>Talor came up to Thundina and Scyther, applying a wand of <em>Cure Light Wounds</em> to himself. He began tapping Thundina with the wand as well and she kept on asking him to keep them coming.</p><p></p><p>After that encounter, the party had a very nice walk through the Beastlands. The night air was warm and filled with the pleasant scents of night blooming flowers. Small animals scuttled through the brush without disturbing the party. The moon slowly inched across the sky making it difficult to judge the passage of time except by the slow build up of fatigue from walking.</p><p></p><p>The trail became indistinct as it ran through a clearing. In the middle of the clearing a gnarled tree slowly, slowly walked down the lane. The tree’s spear-like branches moved independent of any breeze and stitched hide covered its main trunk. Weird lichen could still be seen under and around the hide. A snarling, slathering wolverine crept alongside the tree. The party approached the clearing and spotted a face on the tree. The tree creaked, “Demons?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina shook her head, “No. We haven’t seen any demons around.”</p><p></p><p>The tree creaked, “Kill demons.”</p><p></p><p>“Sorry,” Thundina said somewhat confusedly, “If you need help with demons, maybe we can come to some arrangement. Do you know about Thoss?”</p><p></p><p>The tree slowly advanced and creaked once more, “Demons!” It then threw a small stick projectile which harmlessly bounced off of Scyther.</p><p></p><p>“Right,” Thundina said with resolve. “You’re insane. Don’t much care for fighting plants, but I surely will take down your rabid dog.” Thundina charged at the wolverine and stuck it with her guisarme. Talor finished off the wolverine and began firing at the tree.</p><p></p><p>Scyther rumbled into the clearing and up next to the tree. The tree retreated before the juggernaut and raised its two largest branches. The minor bushes and all the grasses in the clearing began writhing and grasping; entangling Scyther but Thundina danced free. She closed in on the tree and began hacking away at it. Talor, also free of the entangling brush, continued to pelt the tree with arrows. The arrowheads were having very little effect on the tree, but the electrical charges the arrows carried were hurting the animated tree.</p><p></p><p>Scyther struggled against the brush before saying, “There seems to be an error. My motor skills are not responding in the expected manner.”</p><p></p><p>The tree looked at runes scribing on its arm and <em>Called Lightning</em> at Thundina, but missed by several feet as Thundina nimbly dodged away from the bolt. The runes on the animated tree’s arm faded as the bolt terminated in the ground. The shrubbery reached out for Thundina again. It latched on for a moment before Thundina wiggled free to advance on the tree again. Scyther broke free of the entanglement and cut off the tree from the other side. It’s nature depleted, the animated tree moaned more, “Demons. Kill demons!” Scyther broke the tree apart like a piñata ready to burst. Thundina collected the coins and precious gems which were the prize.</p><p></p><p>The party continued down the trail. Thundina wondered, “Do you think there will be a great wizard at the end of the trail? What other quests will we have before we find Thoss?”</p><p></p><p>The path terminated in a quiet glade. The moon overhead seemed brighter and the glade was full of a quiet reverence. The plant life around the edge seemed a deeper shade of green. A pocket lake filled the middle of the glade with a small island rising from the calm blue water. Talor shifted into his winged form and flapped out to the island while Scyther and Thundina simply waded their way across.</p><p></p><p>A bow hovered upright, slowly rotating, a moonbeam highlighting the bow. The bow looked like it was made of a stag’s antler, shaped into a bow. A deep pile of offerings of flowers and nuts surrounded the bow. Talor reverently approached the bow, and swapped his bow for the hovering bow. Scyther then picked up Talor’s old bow, “Waste not, want not. I am in need of a ranged weapon.” Thundina returned to the shore and made a small wreath of flowers to add to the pile of offerings.</p><p></p><p>A stone archway on the far side of the glade was decorated with a single tree carved into the stone. Before taking the portal back to Yggdrasil, the party did a quick check on their rations. “Right, we’re going to be in some trouble if its two weeks back as well,” Thundina observed. “I pretty much used up all my rations on the way here, especially once I began having to share.”</p><p></p><p>“Perhaps we can take a day or so to do some foraging before making the return journey,” Talor suggested. “If the two of you can assist, perhaps we can speed up the foraging.” Talor described the general plants to look for and what part of each of those plants would be the edible and nutritious portion. Talor gathered some fruits and nuts while also trapping small game. Scyther reported in, “I have acquired the consumable flora you specified.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina had to simply shrug, “I couldn’t find anything of what you described.”</p><p></p><p>Talor replied, “How about right there?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina looked around, “What? Where?”</p><p></p><p>“Here,” Talor said as he dug a tuber out of the ground. “I don’t understand, Thundina. In the Castle Ravenloft, you could notice any oddity in the stonework or the locking mechanism of a chest, but out here, you can’t what you’re looking for even if you were to trip over it.”</p><p></p><p>The party crossed through the stone arches and found themselves back on the branches of Yggdrasil. A squirrelman crouched on the branch, waiting. The squirrelman introduced himself as Fastmunder and said that he was to be the party’s guide. He chittered, “Did you bring the offering?”</p><p></p><p>Talor took out a ration’s worth of fruit and nuts and a piece of small game. Fastmunder ate the fruit and nuts, but handed back the small game. Talor sighed, “I guess I’ll be having extra meat with a meal.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina said, “How long have you been waiting?”</p><p></p><p>Fastmunder chittered a reply, “A day or so. Since my brother Almvig was caught by the evil branch.”</p><p></p><p>Scyther rumbled, “Fear not noble squirrel, he died for a noble cause.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina queried Fastmunder about the nature of the evil branch, but the squirrelman avoided most specific responses, repeating that the evil branch was very dangerous. Thundina and the party reasoned that since the evil branch did not appear to be an immediate threat to their mission of stopping the drow and did not sound as though it was a part of the drow plot the evil branch could be dealt with at a later time. The rest of the climb back to the Sigil branch passed uneventfully and the party soon found itself back in the Hive Ward in Sigil.</p><p></p><p>The party returned to the Styx Oarsman and to the booth in the back where Rule of Three had previously been seated. He was still there, in the same corner and appeared to even have the same cup of wine.</p><p></p><p>Rule of Three greeted the party, “Welcome back, about time you returned, blessed day.” Rule of Three went from looking conflicted to looking happy as he spotted Thoss. He warned party on Thoss, “Do not display it, do not show it, that is to say, it might offend some creatures here.” He offered a greasy blanket with which to cover Thoss.</p><p></p><p>Rule of Three then continued, “The next step, move, procedure is to visit the Demonweb and get a report, an account, a record from Lyssandra. She is a drow who has no love of Lolth. As well, please deliver this to her.” Rule of Three placed a satchel of books on the table. “Once we know what she has learned, Lolth’s plans will fail, fall apart, that is to say, bear no success.”</p><p></p><p>Thundina then asked, “Where will we find Lyssandra? I have no desire to wander Lolth’s domain asking for a drow which opposes the demon goddess. On that point, how can we move about the Demonweb?”</p><p></p><p>Rule of Three explained, “Lyssandra lives near the Ironwaste portal. However, the Demonweb changes, modifies, alters. In the Demonweb you will need to imitate other servants, fight other creatures, and that is to say, combine stealth and strength. I have some scholarly friends, acquaintances, compatriots who know much about the planes and may be able to give you further advice, recommendations, that is to say, strategies. Is there anything further you need?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina considered a moment, “That’s all well and good, but aren’t you forgetting something?” When Rule of Three did not answer, Thundina prompted, “How do we get there?”</p><p></p><p>“Ah, my apologies, regrets, that is to say, I’m sorry. The portal to the Demonweb is accessed by crushing a spider’s egg at the guildhall of weavers.”</p><p></p><p>From the Rule of Three, the party went to a fine darkwood house in the Lady’s Ward. The door was answered by a gnoll dressed in a fine outfit who spoke very formally, “Good day. May I help you?”</p><p></p><p>Thundina said, “Yes, Rule of Three sent us to speak with some scholar at this residence.”</p><p></p><p>The gnoll bowed, “Please, come in.” He directed the party to a waiting room with a nice table and a roaring fire. “I will inform the masters of your visit. If you will wait here a moment.”</p><p></p><p>Shortly after the gnoll left, two large hound archons, one male and one female, in silver-threaded robes entered. The male hound archon spoke, “My name is Kimmit and this is Gbimizola. Please come with us to the next room where we can better speak of what you wish to learn and the appropriate donations.”</p><p></p><p>They all gathered around a table in the next room and the gnoll butler brought wine for each person. After a few sips, Gbimizola said, “Knowledge is expensive to acquire and whatever excess profits we make from sharing what we learn we then use to fund charities. We can tell you about the portals of the Demonweb for a donation of 400g, the creatures which roam the Demonweb for a donation of 750g, or the nature of demon lords like Lolth and her enemies and allies for a donation of 500 g.”</p><p></p><p>The party huddled a moment to discuss what information would be most useful and cost effective to buy. As they had turned, Kimmit spoke, “Is that Thoss I see you are carrying? Certainly a powerful bow, but information about it is hard to search out. We happen to know some and for a donation of 2300g, can share with you this specialized knowledge.” Gbimizola excused herself to check on Argent the butler.</p><p></p><p>“Do you have money?” Thundina whispered to Talor.</p><p>“A little,” Talor replied.</p><p>“Well I’m flat broke. How much exactly do you have?” Thundina asked.</p><p>“I don’t know that telling you is really all that wise for me. You’ll just spend it all.”</p><p>“Oh come on, I wouldn’t do that.”</p><p>“Yes you would. Anyway, it’s 900g.”</p><p>“The gems we have from that tree creature from back in the Beastlands are worth about 2300, so what do you think we should ask about?” Thundina said.</p><p>Talor replied, “I want to learn about Thoss. The portals and the demon lords then sound like sound investments. I can probably identify most creatures we encounter.”</p><p>Thundina nodded, “That’s basically what I was thinking. We’re set then.”</p><p>“Just one problem,” Talor sighed. “You’re spending all my money.”</p><p></p><p>Kimmit described the properties of Thoss and the way to bind the weapon. His description of the portals did not elaborate beyond what Rule of Three had already told the party for free, which made Thundina somewhat frustrated, even more so when Kimmit offered to say more but only for a further donation. The only worthwhile secrets Kimmit shared, in Thundina’s opinion, was the description of the aspects of Lolth and details of Lolth greatest demon enemy. Talor too must have found that interesting because he asked, “Should we attempt to ally with Graust in opposing Lolth?”</p><p></p><p>Kimmit looked shocked, “Graust is a demon lord; a ruler of the Abyss on the River Styx. Alliances with demon lords are an unholy thing.”</p><p></p><p>“Easy for an angel to say,” Thundina said indifferently. “Life is more complicated for those who have to go out and act.”</p><p></p><p>As Gbimizola saw the party out at the end of the meeting, she said, “One piece of free advice, beware of the ten-thousand spider swarms in the Demonweb.” She closed the door without further explanation.</p><p></p><p>With all the information they needed for the next leg of their quest, there was only one thing left to do. Thundina smiled as she looked pulled out her wish list; she was going shopping.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ealli, post: 3571027, member: 804"] [b]Chapter 3: The Beastlands[/b] The branch narrowed as it extended away from Yggdrasil. Almvig chittered and nodded, “See glow? That’s the Beastlands.” There was a glowing portal out near the end, where the branch narrowed to just a few feet across. Scyther led the party across the branch, followed by Thundina, Boris, and Talor. As Scyther stepped through the portal, the release of the juggernaut’s weight caused the branch to sway. Thundina and Talor kept their balance easily, but Boris was flailing wildly, trying to maintain his balance. Thundina reached out to steady Boris, but he had already fallen. Thundina and Talor watched Boris fall from view; past branches and wisps of clouds. Thundina looked to Talor shocked, “Can we rescue Boris still? I can’t fly.” Talor shook his head, “Even if I could catch him, I’m not strong enough to lift another in flight. I think he’s gone.” “I ought to be sad, but I never really knew him. He never opened up to me. Did he ever tell you about his history?” Thundina and Talor crossed through the portal in silence and arrived in a clearing in the middle of an extensive forest. A game trail led out of one the clearing in one direction with trees visible as far as the eye could see in every direction. They had arrived at night, the moon directly overhead providing a dim light. Although no one was particularly tired, the party decided that it would be best to set up camp for the night and start the exploration of the Beastlands at dawn. Talor gathered wood and started a small fire for cooking and keeping beasts at bay. The fire burned down over the night, but the night did not end. The moon had barely moved across the sky but everything the party felt indicated they had otherwise camped for a full night. The party decided that the path represented the greatest likelihood of finding people who could direct them to Thoss. A rustling in the bushes shortly down the path caused the party to halt. A huge displacer beast stalked closer to the party with several normal displacer beasts following in its wake. Two of the displacer beasts broke into a dash ahead of the huge displacer beast and began running directly at the party in a hunting stance. Thundina stepped forward to engage the two displacer beasts running ahead. She took up a defensive position and forced them to slow down. She thought she had judged the range of huge displacer beast, but suddenly it was lashing, overwhelming her defenses. Thundina was bleeding heavily from the tentacle rakes. Talor shot one of his acid-fountain arrows into the melee, this time he managed to hit the ground with the arrow in the way to activate it. The spurt of acid hit the huge displacer beast and one of the others. The displacer beast yelped and jumped away from the acid fountain, but the huge displacer beast held its ground. Talor finished his volley of arrows into the various displacer beasts and Scyther charged into the fray and engaged the huge displacer beast. Scyther’s initial strikes missed due to the displacer’s blurring and blinking, but he was able to draw the beast’s attention away from Thundina. From farther down the trail, an armored man riding an unusual creature kicked his mount into a charge against the huge displacer beast. The man wore shining fullplate, but the helmet was unattached and floated just above the armor; the helmet, and presumably the armor, was empty. A well crafted hunting horn hung at his side, but he primarily wielded a ranseur against the displacer beast. The mount was just as unusual; a bipedal dinosaur with somewhat short forearms and a large rack of antlers. The unmovable wall of Thundina’s guisarme and the harassment of Talor’s shooting was simply too much for normal displacer beasts who turned and fled into the woods. The greater displacer beast quickly decided that Scyther didn’t taste good and was too spiky anyway and it too fled into the woods. Thundina had maneuvered herself to next to the mounted warrior as part of the flow of combat against the displacer beast and she looked up at the rider to thank him for his assistance when he pulled out and trumpeted on his hunting horn. The sound of the horn affected Thundina and Talor at a deep level, filling them with the dread of the hunted, the need to escape from a dangerous predator, and the hopelessness with knowing that one is overmatched and soon to be tracked no matter how one might flee. Thundina snarled like the cornered beast and attacked. With Scyther, who appeared unaffected by the horn’s call, supporting Thundina in the face of the hunter, the hunter dropped his ranseur and directed the dinostag away. He unslung his longbow and fired a shot back at Talor. Talor called out what he know of the hunter; it was a dangerous fey called a wild hunter. Talor reached into his magical quiver for his cold iron-tipped arrows and returned fire on the wild hunter. Thundina gave chase to the wild hunter and his dinostag. Scyther was just behind, but his chase ran into a ram from the dinostag. The ram temporarily slowed Scyther but he closed the gap anyway and slashed at the hunter. The wild hunter attempted to flee again and Thundina attempted to pull him from his mount, but the wild hunter’s expertise at riding foiled Thundina’s attempt completely. Once the wild hunter had gotten out of range of Scyther and Thundina, the hunter and Talor traded fire again. Again Thundina and Scyther chased down the wild hunter. The wild hunter prepared to flee again. Scyther’s charge had all been about setting up a feint. Scyther’s backswing then punched through the floating helmet of the wild hunter. Thundina then swept the wild hunter off his dinostag. The stag maintained its previous orders to dash across the battlefield. It looked around a moment before it fled from the battle without its master. Talor came up to Thundina and Scyther, applying a wand of [i]Cure Light Wounds[/i] to himself. He began tapping Thundina with the wand as well and she kept on asking him to keep them coming. After that encounter, the party had a very nice walk through the Beastlands. The night air was warm and filled with the pleasant scents of night blooming flowers. Small animals scuttled through the brush without disturbing the party. The moon slowly inched across the sky making it difficult to judge the passage of time except by the slow build up of fatigue from walking. The trail became indistinct as it ran through a clearing. In the middle of the clearing a gnarled tree slowly, slowly walked down the lane. The tree’s spear-like branches moved independent of any breeze and stitched hide covered its main trunk. Weird lichen could still be seen under and around the hide. A snarling, slathering wolverine crept alongside the tree. The party approached the clearing and spotted a face on the tree. The tree creaked, “Demons?” Thundina shook her head, “No. We haven’t seen any demons around.” The tree creaked, “Kill demons.” “Sorry,” Thundina said somewhat confusedly, “If you need help with demons, maybe we can come to some arrangement. Do you know about Thoss?” The tree slowly advanced and creaked once more, “Demons!” It then threw a small stick projectile which harmlessly bounced off of Scyther. “Right,” Thundina said with resolve. “You’re insane. Don’t much care for fighting plants, but I surely will take down your rabid dog.” Thundina charged at the wolverine and stuck it with her guisarme. Talor finished off the wolverine and began firing at the tree. Scyther rumbled into the clearing and up next to the tree. The tree retreated before the juggernaut and raised its two largest branches. The minor bushes and all the grasses in the clearing began writhing and grasping; entangling Scyther but Thundina danced free. She closed in on the tree and began hacking away at it. Talor, also free of the entangling brush, continued to pelt the tree with arrows. The arrowheads were having very little effect on the tree, but the electrical charges the arrows carried were hurting the animated tree. Scyther struggled against the brush before saying, “There seems to be an error. My motor skills are not responding in the expected manner.” The tree looked at runes scribing on its arm and [i]Called Lightning[/i] at Thundina, but missed by several feet as Thundina nimbly dodged away from the bolt. The runes on the animated tree’s arm faded as the bolt terminated in the ground. The shrubbery reached out for Thundina again. It latched on for a moment before Thundina wiggled free to advance on the tree again. Scyther broke free of the entanglement and cut off the tree from the other side. It’s nature depleted, the animated tree moaned more, “Demons. Kill demons!” Scyther broke the tree apart like a piñata ready to burst. Thundina collected the coins and precious gems which were the prize. The party continued down the trail. Thundina wondered, “Do you think there will be a great wizard at the end of the trail? What other quests will we have before we find Thoss?” The path terminated in a quiet glade. The moon overhead seemed brighter and the glade was full of a quiet reverence. The plant life around the edge seemed a deeper shade of green. A pocket lake filled the middle of the glade with a small island rising from the calm blue water. Talor shifted into his winged form and flapped out to the island while Scyther and Thundina simply waded their way across. A bow hovered upright, slowly rotating, a moonbeam highlighting the bow. The bow looked like it was made of a stag’s antler, shaped into a bow. A deep pile of offerings of flowers and nuts surrounded the bow. Talor reverently approached the bow, and swapped his bow for the hovering bow. Scyther then picked up Talor’s old bow, “Waste not, want not. I am in need of a ranged weapon.” Thundina returned to the shore and made a small wreath of flowers to add to the pile of offerings. A stone archway on the far side of the glade was decorated with a single tree carved into the stone. Before taking the portal back to Yggdrasil, the party did a quick check on their rations. “Right, we’re going to be in some trouble if its two weeks back as well,” Thundina observed. “I pretty much used up all my rations on the way here, especially once I began having to share.” “Perhaps we can take a day or so to do some foraging before making the return journey,” Talor suggested. “If the two of you can assist, perhaps we can speed up the foraging.” Talor described the general plants to look for and what part of each of those plants would be the edible and nutritious portion. Talor gathered some fruits and nuts while also trapping small game. Scyther reported in, “I have acquired the consumable flora you specified.” Thundina had to simply shrug, “I couldn’t find anything of what you described.” Talor replied, “How about right there?” Thundina looked around, “What? Where?” “Here,” Talor said as he dug a tuber out of the ground. “I don’t understand, Thundina. In the Castle Ravenloft, you could notice any oddity in the stonework or the locking mechanism of a chest, but out here, you can’t what you’re looking for even if you were to trip over it.” The party crossed through the stone arches and found themselves back on the branches of Yggdrasil. A squirrelman crouched on the branch, waiting. The squirrelman introduced himself as Fastmunder and said that he was to be the party’s guide. He chittered, “Did you bring the offering?” Talor took out a ration’s worth of fruit and nuts and a piece of small game. Fastmunder ate the fruit and nuts, but handed back the small game. Talor sighed, “I guess I’ll be having extra meat with a meal.” Thundina said, “How long have you been waiting?” Fastmunder chittered a reply, “A day or so. Since my brother Almvig was caught by the evil branch.” Scyther rumbled, “Fear not noble squirrel, he died for a noble cause.” Thundina queried Fastmunder about the nature of the evil branch, but the squirrelman avoided most specific responses, repeating that the evil branch was very dangerous. Thundina and the party reasoned that since the evil branch did not appear to be an immediate threat to their mission of stopping the drow and did not sound as though it was a part of the drow plot the evil branch could be dealt with at a later time. The rest of the climb back to the Sigil branch passed uneventfully and the party soon found itself back in the Hive Ward in Sigil. The party returned to the Styx Oarsman and to the booth in the back where Rule of Three had previously been seated. He was still there, in the same corner and appeared to even have the same cup of wine. Rule of Three greeted the party, “Welcome back, about time you returned, blessed day.” Rule of Three went from looking conflicted to looking happy as he spotted Thoss. He warned party on Thoss, “Do not display it, do not show it, that is to say, it might offend some creatures here.” He offered a greasy blanket with which to cover Thoss. Rule of Three then continued, “The next step, move, procedure is to visit the Demonweb and get a report, an account, a record from Lyssandra. She is a drow who has no love of Lolth. As well, please deliver this to her.” Rule of Three placed a satchel of books on the table. “Once we know what she has learned, Lolth’s plans will fail, fall apart, that is to say, bear no success.” Thundina then asked, “Where will we find Lyssandra? I have no desire to wander Lolth’s domain asking for a drow which opposes the demon goddess. On that point, how can we move about the Demonweb?” Rule of Three explained, “Lyssandra lives near the Ironwaste portal. However, the Demonweb changes, modifies, alters. In the Demonweb you will need to imitate other servants, fight other creatures, and that is to say, combine stealth and strength. I have some scholarly friends, acquaintances, compatriots who know much about the planes and may be able to give you further advice, recommendations, that is to say, strategies. Is there anything further you need?” Thundina considered a moment, “That’s all well and good, but aren’t you forgetting something?” When Rule of Three did not answer, Thundina prompted, “How do we get there?” “Ah, my apologies, regrets, that is to say, I’m sorry. The portal to the Demonweb is accessed by crushing a spider’s egg at the guildhall of weavers.” From the Rule of Three, the party went to a fine darkwood house in the Lady’s Ward. The door was answered by a gnoll dressed in a fine outfit who spoke very formally, “Good day. May I help you?” Thundina said, “Yes, Rule of Three sent us to speak with some scholar at this residence.” The gnoll bowed, “Please, come in.” He directed the party to a waiting room with a nice table and a roaring fire. “I will inform the masters of your visit. If you will wait here a moment.” Shortly after the gnoll left, two large hound archons, one male and one female, in silver-threaded robes entered. The male hound archon spoke, “My name is Kimmit and this is Gbimizola. Please come with us to the next room where we can better speak of what you wish to learn and the appropriate donations.” They all gathered around a table in the next room and the gnoll butler brought wine for each person. After a few sips, Gbimizola said, “Knowledge is expensive to acquire and whatever excess profits we make from sharing what we learn we then use to fund charities. We can tell you about the portals of the Demonweb for a donation of 400g, the creatures which roam the Demonweb for a donation of 750g, or the nature of demon lords like Lolth and her enemies and allies for a donation of 500 g.” The party huddled a moment to discuss what information would be most useful and cost effective to buy. As they had turned, Kimmit spoke, “Is that Thoss I see you are carrying? Certainly a powerful bow, but information about it is hard to search out. We happen to know some and for a donation of 2300g, can share with you this specialized knowledge.” Gbimizola excused herself to check on Argent the butler. “Do you have money?” Thundina whispered to Talor. “A little,” Talor replied. “Well I’m flat broke. How much exactly do you have?” Thundina asked. “I don’t know that telling you is really all that wise for me. You’ll just spend it all.” “Oh come on, I wouldn’t do that.” “Yes you would. Anyway, it’s 900g.” “The gems we have from that tree creature from back in the Beastlands are worth about 2300, so what do you think we should ask about?” Thundina said. Talor replied, “I want to learn about Thoss. The portals and the demon lords then sound like sound investments. I can probably identify most creatures we encounter.” Thundina nodded, “That’s basically what I was thinking. We’re set then.” “Just one problem,” Talor sighed. “You’re spending all my money.” Kimmit described the properties of Thoss and the way to bind the weapon. His description of the portals did not elaborate beyond what Rule of Three had already told the party for free, which made Thundina somewhat frustrated, even more so when Kimmit offered to say more but only for a further donation. The only worthwhile secrets Kimmit shared, in Thundina’s opinion, was the description of the aspects of Lolth and details of Lolth greatest demon enemy. Talor too must have found that interesting because he asked, “Should we attempt to ally with Graust in opposing Lolth?” Kimmit looked shocked, “Graust is a demon lord; a ruler of the Abyss on the River Styx. Alliances with demon lords are an unholy thing.” “Easy for an angel to say,” Thundina said indifferently. “Life is more complicated for those who have to go out and act.” As Gbimizola saw the party out at the end of the meeting, she said, “One piece of free advice, beware of the ten-thousand spider swarms in the Demonweb.” She closed the door without further explanation. With all the information they needed for the next leg of their quest, there was only one thing left to do. Thundina smiled as she looked pulled out her wish list; she was going shopping. [/QUOTE]
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Child of Chaos -- The Continuing Adventures of Thundina Planeswalker. June 29 update
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