Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
Beale Knight said:
Of Kane and Dumb Bear, which is played by which player of Killian and Madge?
-z
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Maissen: Shades of Grey [UPDATE 12/12, post 199]
- Thread starter Beale Knight
- Start date
Of Kane and Dumb Bear, which is played by which player of Killian and Madge?
-z
Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
alsih2o said:
Nice shirt, clay.
-z
Beale Knight
First Post
Lastelle Town
The Heroes left the tavern behind them and rode toward the nearby woods as the darkness of night fell. Once amid the trees, they lost sight of Lastelle town, but the trails ran in the generally proper direction and no one feared getting lost. Other fears were preying on their minds.
“How much do you think we can really trust Mirriam?” Bessie said. The thought had been stewing in the back of her mind for days. Now, comforted by the close presence of so many trees, the druid felt safe enough to give it voice.
“I think she’s got too many other priorities above Maissen,” Ren said.
“Do you think her deceptive, Bessie?” asked Aneirin.
Bessie shook her head. “I don’t know. It just bothers me that we were attacked twice so soon after getting the amulet from her – the one that lets her find us without any trouble. Do you think Idien could be using it the same way?”
“He can scry,” Kane said. “I’m sure of it.”
“Could that thing make it easier for him to do that?” Ren asked the elf. “What if Mirriam isn’t the only one that can use it to locate us?”
Aneirin cupped his chin. “It borders on paranoid, but I confess I don’t know arcanna well.”
“Should we get rid of it?” Ren asked. “The ocean isn’t all that far.”
Bessie shook her head. “I think that’s going too far. We could bury it somewhere in the wood here.”
“I don’t know,” Aneirin said. “We may end up needing it sometime later.”
“I’ll mark the spot,” Bessie said. “Subtly, so a druid could notice the mark, but probably no one else.”
The others tossed the idea back and forth for a few moments and agreed. Bessie rode off by herself for a few minutes to handle the deed. She returned a little later and nodded. Feeling slightly better, the Heroes rode on through the woods.
As they rode, the three humans bantered back and forth, wondering what awaited them in the city that bore the name of their nation's founder’s brother. They held to hopes of a peaceful meeting with questions on both sides finally getting answers. Filled with anticipation, Bessie sent her owl friend for a look ahead. A moment of sudden dread filled them as the owl plunged out of sight, but he returned safely to the druid with a fresh, fat mouse.
The two elves kept their thoughts to themselves, only occasionally saying something to one another in their own lilting language.
Whatever their expectations, when the Heroes reached the edge of the wood they were dashed. "Lastelle's Town" was a cramped wooden city build in steps up the steep mountainside, with a wide harbor at the bayside. Crude, ineffective fencing filled in the gaps between buildings at the fringes of the town, forming a makeshift wall. There was a defensive ditch around it all, and a single gate facing up the hill. At the gate was a scene of disaster. A stack of still burning bodies lay outside the gate, along with a cart and other carcasses.
The five Heroes sat slack jawed on their mounts, trying to take in and make sense of the scene.
“What could have happened here?” Bessie finally said.
“War,” said Aneirin and Kane, almost as one voice. As they looked at one another in astonishment, Ren said, “I’ll go up for a closer look.” He spurred Sandy and the war lizard strode up toward the horrific scene.
Holding his nose against the smell of still burning flesh, Ren carefully rode up to the gate. Claw tracks, like lizards walking upright, led in and out of the town’s entry. Heading inside the walls, Ren saw green smears coating many of the doors along the main street. Every building was severely damaged and virtually empty. Fighters and looters both had been here.
Ren turned a corner and found himself face to face with a rough barricade, a hastily thrown together pile of furniture, barrels, fencing, and other sundry bits and pieces of wood and stone.
“TRAITOR!”
A dirty faced adolescent rose from the other side of the barricade and threw a stone at Ren. “Get out of here, turncoat! Betrayer!”
Other youths rose up beside the first. They were armed, holding short bows armed with flaming arrows. Ren wheeled Sandy fully around and dashed away. Fiery arrows flew near him, but not close enough to be a threat. Ren doubted the youths could hit him in their best hour, but didn’t have the ego to test his theory.
“What’s the status?” Aneirin asked as Ren rode up. Ren related everything he’d seen and concluded with, “If it was lizard-people that attacked here – and I’d have to lay gold it was, they likely figured I’d thrown in with them because of Sandy.”
“We’ll have to go back in force,” Aneirin declared. “You hang back.”
With Aneirin and Avarshan in the lead, the five Heroes rode up and into the town. They weren’t twenty feet past the gate when they heard the whoosh of arrows.
“Where?” Aneirin shouted.
“Kane pointed to a nearby roof. “There. Right. High.” He fired a shot at something small and greenish.
Ren followed suit and watched as a child sized body, two arrows sticking out from its chest, fell from the roof. Ren stared at the corpse, green and scaled like a lizard, then looked to the others. “Dragon halflings?”
“Enemy,” answered Aneirin. He’d pulled his bow out and now shot at another one up on a different rooftop as Bessie shot her bone crossbow. Dumb Bear looked this way and that, then shouted something in elven. Kane spun in his saddle as a small arrow whizzed by his head. The elf shot at a third small lizard-man and it fell from its rooftop position.
Just like that the ambush was foiled. Ren slid from Sandy and trotted to the last lizard-person to fall. He pulled his sickle and quickly cut the head off the body, then stuck it atop his spearhead. “Maybe this’ll let those boys know we aren’t on the side of these lizard people.”
A few moments later they reached the corner. Ren waited out of sight as the others rounded it and approached the barricade.
“What the - - ?” came cries from the other side of it. “You folks, come on! Hurry over before the monsters come back!”
Aneirin held his hands palm out toward the youths. He counted six, but there seemed to be more milling about out of sight on the far side. “We’ve killed a group of the monsters just now, so we’re safe for the moment.”
A lanky, tallow haired adolescent shook his head. “The big ones are coming back to town. They already sent out a scout.”
”One that we scared away,” boasted a raggedy girl.
Aneirin smiled. “That was our scout. Let me assure you he is not in league with the monsters. He even now waits out of sight with the head of one on his spear.” He looked over his shoulder. “Ren, come on forth.”
Holding the head loaded spear ahead of him, Ren walked into sight, leading Sandy behind him with his other hand.
“See?” Aneirin asked. “He is not your enemy, and neither are we. Indeed we would be interested in lending aid if we could. But we need to know what ill’s befallen your community.”
The youths in sight atop the barricade looked at the warrior as if he were mad. “You don’t know?” the leader asked at last. “How can you not know?”
“We aren’t from here,” Bessie said. “We’ve ridden from far to the south and weren’t aware your town was in trouble until we saw it.”
The youths again looked at each other in disbelief. “You didn’t feel the ground quake down where you were?”
“When we were with the dwarves,” Bessie whispered to the others. Aneirin and Ren nodded, as did the elves after Kane translated for Dumb Bear.
“That caused a big problem around here,” the youth said. “It ripped open a hole up in the mountain there.” He pointed up beyond the forest to the mountain that rose from it. “Since then we’ve had raids by the lizard people, little ones and big ones, and the drakes too. Big versions of normal lizards, kind of like what your friend there rode up on, but with more scales and different colors.”
“The lizards came from inside the mountain?” Aneirin asked.
The youths nodded. “There’s some temple or tomb or something up there that got opened up in the quake. The lizards have been coming ever since and we’re all about wiped out.”
“What are your leaders doing?” Bessie asked.
The leader youth snorted. “Nothing. Nothing worth it.”
“Can we talk to them?” asked Aneirin.
The tallow haired boy thought about it a moment, then nodded. “Your horses, and that, will have to stay here. We can’t open up the barricade to let them through.”
Ren frowned. “You promise you aren’t going to do any harm to Sandy here, just cause she’s a lizard?”
“Mister we’re not even going to get close to that thing.”
“Good enough,” Ren said with a smile.
He and the others dismounted. The raggedy girl, her hair matted with mud and dried blood, led them through the back streets that hadn’t been ravaged by war – yet. She brought them to a large stone building that looked something like a three big wheels set atop one another, smaller atop bigger. There were no guards at the door, nor in the massive, tiled entry chamber inside. The girl led the Heroes across there to a stairway at the rear. It rounded up the bend to the highest floor and ended at a heavy looking wooden door that she effortlessly pushed open.
Inside was a single large room, virtually the entirety of the floor. The room was dominated by a large table, which had a large contingent of old men holding their heads in their hands. These men looked up almost as one as the three Maisseners and two elves entered, and the look of relief on their faces was astonishing.
“You are heroes!” they said. “Our prayers have been answered. We have been expecting you.”
Next - Lizard-People Post 142
Soon - The Mysterious Temple
The Heroes left the tavern behind them and rode toward the nearby woods as the darkness of night fell. Once amid the trees, they lost sight of Lastelle town, but the trails ran in the generally proper direction and no one feared getting lost. Other fears were preying on their minds.
“How much do you think we can really trust Mirriam?” Bessie said. The thought had been stewing in the back of her mind for days. Now, comforted by the close presence of so many trees, the druid felt safe enough to give it voice.
“I think she’s got too many other priorities above Maissen,” Ren said.
“Do you think her deceptive, Bessie?” asked Aneirin.
Bessie shook her head. “I don’t know. It just bothers me that we were attacked twice so soon after getting the amulet from her – the one that lets her find us without any trouble. Do you think Idien could be using it the same way?”
“He can scry,” Kane said. “I’m sure of it.”
“Could that thing make it easier for him to do that?” Ren asked the elf. “What if Mirriam isn’t the only one that can use it to locate us?”
Aneirin cupped his chin. “It borders on paranoid, but I confess I don’t know arcanna well.”
“Should we get rid of it?” Ren asked. “The ocean isn’t all that far.”
Bessie shook her head. “I think that’s going too far. We could bury it somewhere in the wood here.”
“I don’t know,” Aneirin said. “We may end up needing it sometime later.”
“I’ll mark the spot,” Bessie said. “Subtly, so a druid could notice the mark, but probably no one else.”
The others tossed the idea back and forth for a few moments and agreed. Bessie rode off by herself for a few minutes to handle the deed. She returned a little later and nodded. Feeling slightly better, the Heroes rode on through the woods.
As they rode, the three humans bantered back and forth, wondering what awaited them in the city that bore the name of their nation's founder’s brother. They held to hopes of a peaceful meeting with questions on both sides finally getting answers. Filled with anticipation, Bessie sent her owl friend for a look ahead. A moment of sudden dread filled them as the owl plunged out of sight, but he returned safely to the druid with a fresh, fat mouse.
The two elves kept their thoughts to themselves, only occasionally saying something to one another in their own lilting language.
Whatever their expectations, when the Heroes reached the edge of the wood they were dashed. "Lastelle's Town" was a cramped wooden city build in steps up the steep mountainside, with a wide harbor at the bayside. Crude, ineffective fencing filled in the gaps between buildings at the fringes of the town, forming a makeshift wall. There was a defensive ditch around it all, and a single gate facing up the hill. At the gate was a scene of disaster. A stack of still burning bodies lay outside the gate, along with a cart and other carcasses.
The five Heroes sat slack jawed on their mounts, trying to take in and make sense of the scene.
“What could have happened here?” Bessie finally said.
“War,” said Aneirin and Kane, almost as one voice. As they looked at one another in astonishment, Ren said, “I’ll go up for a closer look.” He spurred Sandy and the war lizard strode up toward the horrific scene.
Holding his nose against the smell of still burning flesh, Ren carefully rode up to the gate. Claw tracks, like lizards walking upright, led in and out of the town’s entry. Heading inside the walls, Ren saw green smears coating many of the doors along the main street. Every building was severely damaged and virtually empty. Fighters and looters both had been here.
Ren turned a corner and found himself face to face with a rough barricade, a hastily thrown together pile of furniture, barrels, fencing, and other sundry bits and pieces of wood and stone.
“TRAITOR!”
A dirty faced adolescent rose from the other side of the barricade and threw a stone at Ren. “Get out of here, turncoat! Betrayer!”
Other youths rose up beside the first. They were armed, holding short bows armed with flaming arrows. Ren wheeled Sandy fully around and dashed away. Fiery arrows flew near him, but not close enough to be a threat. Ren doubted the youths could hit him in their best hour, but didn’t have the ego to test his theory.
“What’s the status?” Aneirin asked as Ren rode up. Ren related everything he’d seen and concluded with, “If it was lizard-people that attacked here – and I’d have to lay gold it was, they likely figured I’d thrown in with them because of Sandy.”
“We’ll have to go back in force,” Aneirin declared. “You hang back.”
With Aneirin and Avarshan in the lead, the five Heroes rode up and into the town. They weren’t twenty feet past the gate when they heard the whoosh of arrows.
“Where?” Aneirin shouted.
“Kane pointed to a nearby roof. “There. Right. High.” He fired a shot at something small and greenish.
Ren followed suit and watched as a child sized body, two arrows sticking out from its chest, fell from the roof. Ren stared at the corpse, green and scaled like a lizard, then looked to the others. “Dragon halflings?”
“Enemy,” answered Aneirin. He’d pulled his bow out and now shot at another one up on a different rooftop as Bessie shot her bone crossbow. Dumb Bear looked this way and that, then shouted something in elven. Kane spun in his saddle as a small arrow whizzed by his head. The elf shot at a third small lizard-man and it fell from its rooftop position.
Just like that the ambush was foiled. Ren slid from Sandy and trotted to the last lizard-person to fall. He pulled his sickle and quickly cut the head off the body, then stuck it atop his spearhead. “Maybe this’ll let those boys know we aren’t on the side of these lizard people.”
A few moments later they reached the corner. Ren waited out of sight as the others rounded it and approached the barricade.
“What the - - ?” came cries from the other side of it. “You folks, come on! Hurry over before the monsters come back!”
Aneirin held his hands palm out toward the youths. He counted six, but there seemed to be more milling about out of sight on the far side. “We’ve killed a group of the monsters just now, so we’re safe for the moment.”
A lanky, tallow haired adolescent shook his head. “The big ones are coming back to town. They already sent out a scout.”
”One that we scared away,” boasted a raggedy girl.
Aneirin smiled. “That was our scout. Let me assure you he is not in league with the monsters. He even now waits out of sight with the head of one on his spear.” He looked over his shoulder. “Ren, come on forth.”
Holding the head loaded spear ahead of him, Ren walked into sight, leading Sandy behind him with his other hand.
“See?” Aneirin asked. “He is not your enemy, and neither are we. Indeed we would be interested in lending aid if we could. But we need to know what ill’s befallen your community.”
The youths in sight atop the barricade looked at the warrior as if he were mad. “You don’t know?” the leader asked at last. “How can you not know?”
“We aren’t from here,” Bessie said. “We’ve ridden from far to the south and weren’t aware your town was in trouble until we saw it.”
The youths again looked at each other in disbelief. “You didn’t feel the ground quake down where you were?”
“When we were with the dwarves,” Bessie whispered to the others. Aneirin and Ren nodded, as did the elves after Kane translated for Dumb Bear.
“That caused a big problem around here,” the youth said. “It ripped open a hole up in the mountain there.” He pointed up beyond the forest to the mountain that rose from it. “Since then we’ve had raids by the lizard people, little ones and big ones, and the drakes too. Big versions of normal lizards, kind of like what your friend there rode up on, but with more scales and different colors.”
“The lizards came from inside the mountain?” Aneirin asked.
The youths nodded. “There’s some temple or tomb or something up there that got opened up in the quake. The lizards have been coming ever since and we’re all about wiped out.”
“What are your leaders doing?” Bessie asked.
The leader youth snorted. “Nothing. Nothing worth it.”
“Can we talk to them?” asked Aneirin.
The tallow haired boy thought about it a moment, then nodded. “Your horses, and that, will have to stay here. We can’t open up the barricade to let them through.”
Ren frowned. “You promise you aren’t going to do any harm to Sandy here, just cause she’s a lizard?”
“Mister we’re not even going to get close to that thing.”
“Good enough,” Ren said with a smile.
He and the others dismounted. The raggedy girl, her hair matted with mud and dried blood, led them through the back streets that hadn’t been ravaged by war – yet. She brought them to a large stone building that looked something like a three big wheels set atop one another, smaller atop bigger. There were no guards at the door, nor in the massive, tiled entry chamber inside. The girl led the Heroes across there to a stairway at the rear. It rounded up the bend to the highest floor and ended at a heavy looking wooden door that she effortlessly pushed open.
Inside was a single large room, virtually the entirety of the floor. The room was dominated by a large table, which had a large contingent of old men holding their heads in their hands. These men looked up almost as one as the three Maisseners and two elves entered, and the look of relief on their faces was astonishing.
“You are heroes!” they said. “Our prayers have been answered. We have been expecting you.”
Next - Lizard-People Post 142
Soon - The Mysterious Temple
Last edited:
Greylock
First Post
Dude, we miss you, too. I'm doing my best to keep teh funny going at the table, but I'm far too droll. And Walther is a beast to play. I couldn't figure out what to do with him two sessions back when we hit on a small battle, so I decided to have him search the walls for secret doors while Pascal, Syl and Ariel fought mech-zombies off. Son of a bitch actually found a secret library with a Djinni bottle. Fun stuff.edge3343 said:I miss you guys!!!
Oh and the dog's name is Dakota and he belongs to me!
Beale Knight
First Post
Greylock said:
That was fun for me to DM. The others were nowhere NEAR the hidden alcove with the secret door (mech-zombies - they had metal plates attached to their chests (because they're zombies and kept losing the armor)). Greylock put you as far away from the fighting as possible with a busy work task that I was able to totally exploit to lead you folks to the McGuffin (it was getting late in the night and pushing was needed or we would have ended without a cliffhanger).
We do miss ya' too. Now with Alish2o and wife moving to WV, GL's going to be the old man of the group!
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