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"Retake the Island" - Concluded!
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2881788" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-seven, “Bowling for Bugbears“, August 8th, 1018</strong></p><p></p><p>While the group with the Jeep is traveling around the base of the mountain they encounter several places where the rain runoff is beginning to wash away the road. Twice they have to navigate around mud and rocks that have washed into their path. The stream by Blake’s home, usually less than a yard across, has swelled into a raging river, fifteen feet wide. They are able to drive through it, with the water rising up to the doors and splashing into the vehicle. </p><p></p><p>Blake comments about dreading the thought of eventually revisiting his nearby Hobbit hole, as he had built it alongside the stream to allow for easy water access. “What you complain about,” says Razou, “A little water not hurt anybody.” “It’s not a little water that I’m worried about,” answers Blake, as he watches a chair from his living room float by.</p><p></p><p>At the northern end of the island the tracks that Immy is following through the woods intersect a little over a mile later at the point where the hundreds of enemies had first arrived on the island via a Dimension door, that Immy and the “big guns” had tracked to two days earlier. The tracks continue southward along the road to the tavern. Knowing where this road leads, Immy takes the faster route above the trees, heading towards the tavern and town. </p><p></p><p>Back at Northpoint Island, the ship is almost at the dock. Most of the group hide, but docking proves to be uneventful, with nobody there to greet them. They tie the ship up to the dock, and Blip heads off on her broom to scout out the island, with Mojo offering to loan her “his ring”. She files off as the others secure the ship, and have the lizardmen set up guard positions.</p><p></p><p>The Jeep eventually reaches the fork in the road on the southeastern side of the mountain, where the road from the buildings west merges in. Aradyn heads out and checks for tracks. Lono comments how, with the now soft ground and very obvious ruts from the stagecoach and wagon that had recently come by, even a blind man could find these particular tracks. Aradyn tells him to “Be quite, I’m working,” leaning down by the road as he studies the ground immediately in front of the Jeep. Lono tries to hit the gas petal, Serita stopping him, and saying “Cut it out or I’ll pretend you are a helicopter.” Aradyn concludes that both the stagecoach and wagon have recently passed by this point, to which Lono sarcastically states "No, you're kidding, good thing we pay you the big bucks."</p><p></p><p>Blip soon discovers that Northpoint Island itself is rather small, approximately one by two miles in size, and mostly covered with small trees and shrubs. As the storm intensifies, she continues to look for anything unusual. Near the highest hill on the island she finds a small cave entrance, covered by recently cut tree limbs. She lands and makes her way through the improvised barrier and into the cave itself. She walks through the cave, which is barely tall enough for her gnome size. After about sixty feet, the cave opens up into a chamber, from which she hears voices in a language she does not understand.</p><p></p><p>Peering into the room she sees four creatures. One is a fox, the other is a humanoid badger wearing clothing, and the other two are oriental humans in armor similar to that of the Silver Moon crewmember Toshiro Mitsubishi. One human is definitely too tall to have entered through the cave. Behind them, randomly strewn about, are the magic items taken from the other members of the party. The two humans and badger-man continue to talk among themselves, with the fox appearing to comprehend what they are saying. Fearing detection due to keen animal senses, Blip slowly and carefully makes her way back out of the cave, and flies back to the ship.</p><p></p><p>The Jeep group continues eastward around the base of the mountain, stopping three miles later at the next fork, where the tracks of the two enemy conveyances branch off into different directions. The wagon and hobgoblin tracks continue east towards the town, while the stagecoach and bugbear tracks continue to the north on the road around the mountain. They decide to head after the stage, which causes Lono to complain about wanting to go back to the tavern instead. </p><p></p><p>Inside the Stagecoach, the previous two hours were uneventful for Guice and Isaiah, without any conversation from the enemies in the coach, the only sounds being from the rain and wind hitting the vehicle, which moved along the road at a rather slow pace. The coach eventually stopped, and the cleric Barry shook the mage Jo-Ann, taking her a while to wake up. The door to the coach then opened, with Valerie entering, her leather cloak being drenched with rain. “Well?” Valerie impatiently asked Jo-Ann. Jo-Ann answered “All is going according to the plan. The others have landed. Proceed to the destination, and they will meet you there. We’ll see you later this afternoon.” Valerie then left, and the coach continued onward. Jo-Ann again fell into a deep sleep. </p><p></p><p>Half-an hour later she abruptly woke, yelling for Barry to “Stop the coach”. He pounded on the roof, and it came to a stop. The door opened a few minutes later, and the fighter from her team entered, drenched with rain. With concern in her voice, she told the fighter “He needs our help. Some of the adversaries are with him. Quick, double time back to the first entrance.” The fighter asked “What about the bugbears?” She answers “Tell them to catch up as quick as they can. Hurry.” He leaves, and in a few rounds later the coach takes off again. It then makes a 180-degree turn, traveling back a quarter mile, before making a sharp right turn. It now continues at a much faster pace than before. Jo-Ann remains awake this time. </p><p></p><p>Shortly thereafter, the Jeep reaches another fork in the road a mile later, seeing stagecoach and bugbear tracks going in both directions. Aradyn confirms that they first went northeast on the road to the tavern, then came back and headed north on the road around the mountain base. He also confirms that the bugbear tracks north are now fresher than the stagecoach’s, and indication that the stage came past here separate from their support troops. Serita guns the engine, in that direction, while also killing the lights.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Immy and his team arrive at the tavern. From a distance he sees smoke coming from chimneys of Jerry’s Tavern and Inn. Immy also sees several hobgoblins and bugbears through the now door-less entranceways into the tavern, as well as light coming from rooms inside the adjacent inn. He circumnavigates around the building from a distance, heading towards the nearest building to it, the home of the crewman Reginon. Once inside, he lets the others out of the bag and they take up surveillance of the tavern and inn.</p><p></p><p>Approximately fifteen miles to the east, flying above the worst weather, and with a strong tail wind from the approaching hurricane, Sea Castle Fiona had made record time, and at approximately 9:00 A.M. reaches the magical barrier. Upon striking the barrier, the carpet immediately stops working, and the Pegasus and ropes enlarge to their full size. The owl Deanna grabs the carpet to keep it from falling into the sea, and Fiona struggles to climb up the ropes and onto the Pegasus.</p><p></p><p>Having never ridden a Pegasus before, Fiona has considerable difficulty for the first few minutes. However with her telepathic echo to the animal, creating a form of empathy that allows her to anticipate its movement, plus her previous experience flying with the carpet as well as riding experience on horses, she is soon able to work out the mechanics of flying this type of mount. They continue their northwestward trek, occasionally dropping below the storm clouds to get their bearings. They descending upon Silver Moon Island and continue to circle around the island, staying low near the treetops to avoid being seen by the enemy, although with the reduced visibility from the storm, the probability of them actually being seen is minimal.</p><p></p><p>At Northpoint Island, Blip arrives back at the ship. She tells the party about what she has seen, and they discuss strategies, the three alternatives being (1) to teleport in (via a one-time teleportation item of Blips) and fight them; (2) to smoke them out, or (3) to try talking to them. The group, not knowing exactly what these creatures are, are somewhat cautious. Luekia favors talking, but is overruled. Rather than using the magical smoke jar, they decide to fire in one of the signal flares. </p><p></p><p>They get into the bag of holding, and Blip flies them up to the point near the cave. Blip suggests going in alone, as the cave is rather narrow. Mojo answers “Hey, an hour ago I was a swan, I don’t mind crawling.” Luekia and Mojo get into the Bag of Holding, with Narg and Blip making their way through the cave about half-way to a point where the flare can be sent into the chamber. The flare is launched, exploding into red fireworks, some of which fly back down the cave and hit both Narg and Blip. Narg then sees a Panda Bear charging directly at him through the cave, taking up most of the cave itself as it runs. Narg grabs Blip, yelling “go”, with her teleporting them into the room. Unfortunately for them, the fireworks are still ricocheting off of the walls when they arrive, and some hit them. All creatures have exited the chamber, them hearing the last of the creatures moving up the cave with the sound of banging metal. A loud explosion then follows, deafening them. </p><p></p><p>They recover quickly, and let Luekia, Vinnie and Mojo out of the Bags of Holding. The group then begin to fill the bags with all of the stolen magic. They decide that, with the enemy creatures still on this island, it is best to not leave the ship and the three-lizardman crewmembers behind. They debate crawling out of the cave, but decide that wounded animals are not something to deal with, and instead use Kharole’s Helm of Teleportation to get back to the ship. </p><p></p><p>The group reviews an island map, and decides to head for the inlet at the north-central point of the main island. Luekia tells the others that her home is near there, that she knows the channel well. “Fine, you can be the navigator,” The lizardman Ssam tells her. Ssam begins to give all present instruction, asking Blip and Luekia to untie the ship from the dock and for Mojo and Narg to assist Lars and Spudnick with striking the sails. The storm continues to intensify as the ship begins to leave the dock. Vincenzo watches the unconscious magician prisoner.</p><p></p><p>Ssam speaks to the entire group. He tells them that he is well aware that his usual role is that of their employee, and that he is not even an officer on the Silver Moon. However, if they want him to be able to get this unfamiliar ship safely to harbor, given both the severity weather and the rocky coastline on this side of the island, they need to all understand that for the next hour or two hour he is their Captain and they are his crew, period. Nobody disagrees, and the ship sets sail to the west.</p><p></p><p>Back with the Jeep, Aradyn is the first to spot a group of approximately fifty bugbears marching on the road ahead, and quickly tells the others. “Do it just like my cousin Mojo taught you,” comments Lono as Serita accelerates, bringing the Jeep up to about sixty-five miles-per-hour by the time the reach the enemy. With the heavy rains and winds, the bugbears do not hear anything until the Jeep is almost upon them, at which point she turns on the lights (on high-beam) while simultaneously hitting the horn. The Jeep plows into the enemies like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins, for a perfect strike.</p><p></p><p>Several bugbears go flying in all directions, and many more fall beneath the vehicle. A few get jammed between the right side of the Jeep and the two right hand tires and fender, stopping these tires from turning. The caught wet bugbear bodies atop the wet muddy ground, while the two left tires are still spinning, cause the Jeep to slide to the right, ending up off the side of the road, where Serita brakes before hitting a tree. </p><p></p><p>Before any of the other bugbears can react, Serita throws the Jeep into reverse, dislodging the bugbear bodies, then forward again. She strikes the middle group of enemy bugbears while traveling diagonally across the road. She runs down several more before going off the road on the other side, coming again to a stop. </p><p></p><p>She floors it once more, pulling back on to the road into the bugbears at the front of the line. Leaving the carnage behind in her wake, she proceeds down the road at high speed. Aradyn looks back, estimating that she killed around a third of them and wounded another third. The ones that appear relatively unhurt chase after the Jeep, but are soon left well behind. She again turns off the lights.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2881788, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Twenty-seven, “Bowling for Bugbears“, August 8th, 1018[/B] While the group with the Jeep is traveling around the base of the mountain they encounter several places where the rain runoff is beginning to wash away the road. Twice they have to navigate around mud and rocks that have washed into their path. The stream by Blake’s home, usually less than a yard across, has swelled into a raging river, fifteen feet wide. They are able to drive through it, with the water rising up to the doors and splashing into the vehicle. Blake comments about dreading the thought of eventually revisiting his nearby Hobbit hole, as he had built it alongside the stream to allow for easy water access. “What you complain about,” says Razou, “A little water not hurt anybody.” “It’s not a little water that I’m worried about,” answers Blake, as he watches a chair from his living room float by. At the northern end of the island the tracks that Immy is following through the woods intersect a little over a mile later at the point where the hundreds of enemies had first arrived on the island via a Dimension door, that Immy and the “big guns” had tracked to two days earlier. The tracks continue southward along the road to the tavern. Knowing where this road leads, Immy takes the faster route above the trees, heading towards the tavern and town. Back at Northpoint Island, the ship is almost at the dock. Most of the group hide, but docking proves to be uneventful, with nobody there to greet them. They tie the ship up to the dock, and Blip heads off on her broom to scout out the island, with Mojo offering to loan her “his ring”. She files off as the others secure the ship, and have the lizardmen set up guard positions. The Jeep eventually reaches the fork in the road on the southeastern side of the mountain, where the road from the buildings west merges in. Aradyn heads out and checks for tracks. Lono comments how, with the now soft ground and very obvious ruts from the stagecoach and wagon that had recently come by, even a blind man could find these particular tracks. Aradyn tells him to “Be quite, I’m working,” leaning down by the road as he studies the ground immediately in front of the Jeep. Lono tries to hit the gas petal, Serita stopping him, and saying “Cut it out or I’ll pretend you are a helicopter.” Aradyn concludes that both the stagecoach and wagon have recently passed by this point, to which Lono sarcastically states "No, you're kidding, good thing we pay you the big bucks." Blip soon discovers that Northpoint Island itself is rather small, approximately one by two miles in size, and mostly covered with small trees and shrubs. As the storm intensifies, she continues to look for anything unusual. Near the highest hill on the island she finds a small cave entrance, covered by recently cut tree limbs. She lands and makes her way through the improvised barrier and into the cave itself. She walks through the cave, which is barely tall enough for her gnome size. After about sixty feet, the cave opens up into a chamber, from which she hears voices in a language she does not understand. Peering into the room she sees four creatures. One is a fox, the other is a humanoid badger wearing clothing, and the other two are oriental humans in armor similar to that of the Silver Moon crewmember Toshiro Mitsubishi. One human is definitely too tall to have entered through the cave. Behind them, randomly strewn about, are the magic items taken from the other members of the party. The two humans and badger-man continue to talk among themselves, with the fox appearing to comprehend what they are saying. Fearing detection due to keen animal senses, Blip slowly and carefully makes her way back out of the cave, and flies back to the ship. The Jeep group continues eastward around the base of the mountain, stopping three miles later at the next fork, where the tracks of the two enemy conveyances branch off into different directions. The wagon and hobgoblin tracks continue east towards the town, while the stagecoach and bugbear tracks continue to the north on the road around the mountain. They decide to head after the stage, which causes Lono to complain about wanting to go back to the tavern instead. Inside the Stagecoach, the previous two hours were uneventful for Guice and Isaiah, without any conversation from the enemies in the coach, the only sounds being from the rain and wind hitting the vehicle, which moved along the road at a rather slow pace. The coach eventually stopped, and the cleric Barry shook the mage Jo-Ann, taking her a while to wake up. The door to the coach then opened, with Valerie entering, her leather cloak being drenched with rain. “Well?” Valerie impatiently asked Jo-Ann. Jo-Ann answered “All is going according to the plan. The others have landed. Proceed to the destination, and they will meet you there. We’ll see you later this afternoon.” Valerie then left, and the coach continued onward. Jo-Ann again fell into a deep sleep. Half-an hour later she abruptly woke, yelling for Barry to “Stop the coach”. He pounded on the roof, and it came to a stop. The door opened a few minutes later, and the fighter from her team entered, drenched with rain. With concern in her voice, she told the fighter “He needs our help. Some of the adversaries are with him. Quick, double time back to the first entrance.” The fighter asked “What about the bugbears?” She answers “Tell them to catch up as quick as they can. Hurry.” He leaves, and in a few rounds later the coach takes off again. It then makes a 180-degree turn, traveling back a quarter mile, before making a sharp right turn. It now continues at a much faster pace than before. Jo-Ann remains awake this time. Shortly thereafter, the Jeep reaches another fork in the road a mile later, seeing stagecoach and bugbear tracks going in both directions. Aradyn confirms that they first went northeast on the road to the tavern, then came back and headed north on the road around the mountain base. He also confirms that the bugbear tracks north are now fresher than the stagecoach’s, and indication that the stage came past here separate from their support troops. Serita guns the engine, in that direction, while also killing the lights. Meanwhile, Immy and his team arrive at the tavern. From a distance he sees smoke coming from chimneys of Jerry’s Tavern and Inn. Immy also sees several hobgoblins and bugbears through the now door-less entranceways into the tavern, as well as light coming from rooms inside the adjacent inn. He circumnavigates around the building from a distance, heading towards the nearest building to it, the home of the crewman Reginon. Once inside, he lets the others out of the bag and they take up surveillance of the tavern and inn. Approximately fifteen miles to the east, flying above the worst weather, and with a strong tail wind from the approaching hurricane, Sea Castle Fiona had made record time, and at approximately 9:00 A.M. reaches the magical barrier. Upon striking the barrier, the carpet immediately stops working, and the Pegasus and ropes enlarge to their full size. The owl Deanna grabs the carpet to keep it from falling into the sea, and Fiona struggles to climb up the ropes and onto the Pegasus. Having never ridden a Pegasus before, Fiona has considerable difficulty for the first few minutes. However with her telepathic echo to the animal, creating a form of empathy that allows her to anticipate its movement, plus her previous experience flying with the carpet as well as riding experience on horses, she is soon able to work out the mechanics of flying this type of mount. They continue their northwestward trek, occasionally dropping below the storm clouds to get their bearings. They descending upon Silver Moon Island and continue to circle around the island, staying low near the treetops to avoid being seen by the enemy, although with the reduced visibility from the storm, the probability of them actually being seen is minimal. At Northpoint Island, Blip arrives back at the ship. She tells the party about what she has seen, and they discuss strategies, the three alternatives being (1) to teleport in (via a one-time teleportation item of Blips) and fight them; (2) to smoke them out, or (3) to try talking to them. The group, not knowing exactly what these creatures are, are somewhat cautious. Luekia favors talking, but is overruled. Rather than using the magical smoke jar, they decide to fire in one of the signal flares. They get into the bag of holding, and Blip flies them up to the point near the cave. Blip suggests going in alone, as the cave is rather narrow. Mojo answers “Hey, an hour ago I was a swan, I don’t mind crawling.” Luekia and Mojo get into the Bag of Holding, with Narg and Blip making their way through the cave about half-way to a point where the flare can be sent into the chamber. The flare is launched, exploding into red fireworks, some of which fly back down the cave and hit both Narg and Blip. Narg then sees a Panda Bear charging directly at him through the cave, taking up most of the cave itself as it runs. Narg grabs Blip, yelling “go”, with her teleporting them into the room. Unfortunately for them, the fireworks are still ricocheting off of the walls when they arrive, and some hit them. All creatures have exited the chamber, them hearing the last of the creatures moving up the cave with the sound of banging metal. A loud explosion then follows, deafening them. They recover quickly, and let Luekia, Vinnie and Mojo out of the Bags of Holding. The group then begin to fill the bags with all of the stolen magic. They decide that, with the enemy creatures still on this island, it is best to not leave the ship and the three-lizardman crewmembers behind. They debate crawling out of the cave, but decide that wounded animals are not something to deal with, and instead use Kharole’s Helm of Teleportation to get back to the ship. The group reviews an island map, and decides to head for the inlet at the north-central point of the main island. Luekia tells the others that her home is near there, that she knows the channel well. “Fine, you can be the navigator,” The lizardman Ssam tells her. Ssam begins to give all present instruction, asking Blip and Luekia to untie the ship from the dock and for Mojo and Narg to assist Lars and Spudnick with striking the sails. The storm continues to intensify as the ship begins to leave the dock. Vincenzo watches the unconscious magician prisoner. Ssam speaks to the entire group. He tells them that he is well aware that his usual role is that of their employee, and that he is not even an officer on the Silver Moon. However, if they want him to be able to get this unfamiliar ship safely to harbor, given both the severity weather and the rocky coastline on this side of the island, they need to all understand that for the next hour or two hour he is their Captain and they are his crew, period. Nobody disagrees, and the ship sets sail to the west. Back with the Jeep, Aradyn is the first to spot a group of approximately fifty bugbears marching on the road ahead, and quickly tells the others. “Do it just like my cousin Mojo taught you,” comments Lono as Serita accelerates, bringing the Jeep up to about sixty-five miles-per-hour by the time the reach the enemy. With the heavy rains and winds, the bugbears do not hear anything until the Jeep is almost upon them, at which point she turns on the lights (on high-beam) while simultaneously hitting the horn. The Jeep plows into the enemies like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins, for a perfect strike. Several bugbears go flying in all directions, and many more fall beneath the vehicle. A few get jammed between the right side of the Jeep and the two right hand tires and fender, stopping these tires from turning. The caught wet bugbear bodies atop the wet muddy ground, while the two left tires are still spinning, cause the Jeep to slide to the right, ending up off the side of the road, where Serita brakes before hitting a tree. Before any of the other bugbears can react, Serita throws the Jeep into reverse, dislodging the bugbear bodies, then forward again. She strikes the middle group of enemy bugbears while traveling diagonally across the road. She runs down several more before going off the road on the other side, coming again to a stop. She floors it once more, pulling back on to the road into the bugbears at the front of the line. Leaving the carnage behind in her wake, she proceeds down the road at high speed. Aradyn looks back, estimating that she killed around a third of them and wounded another third. The ones that appear relatively unhurt chase after the Jeep, but are soon left well behind. She again turns off the lights. [/QUOTE]
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