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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 639" data-attributes="member: 63"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Nine: This is what it means to say, “I Pull a Roth”</strong></span></p><p></p><p>(The title is an homage to a Sherman Alexie short story.)</p><p></p><p>The party reaches the Hardlow Woods near the Great Rock Dale just as the sun is setting, so they set up camp and hit the sack, James, Bhurisrava, and Roth taking the different watches while they let Harley sleep. Their cooking fire attracts some attention, and each watchman spots some small shapes moving in the shadows of the nearby woods, but no Orcs or Goblins attack, and night passes uneventfully. </p><p></p><p>The next morning, James wakes up before dawn, says hi to Roth who fell asleep on watch, then proceeds to wake up everyone, stating that no one needs to sleep when there’s light in the sky to work by. Grumbling and looking as unflattering as possible, Harley crawls out of her bedroll and helps Roth cook breakfast while James and Bhur discuss the treasure map. The map is a tattered and stained piece of vellum, with crisp handwriting marking points all across a detailed sketch of the Great Rock Dale and the Hardlow Woods. </p><p></p><p>From the party’s vantage point, the Great Rock Dale is just a long canyon, about 200 feet across, that extends off to the horizon. Their own map of the Haranshire they got from Harlan Smith shows that the ravine is a good ten miles long, and so they estimate how far they’ll need to travel to get to the various places on the map that the treasure hunters the day before have not yet marked as taken. Most of the caves described on the map are labeled “Orcs” or “Goblins,” plus a number (like “Goblins 48”: they guess it’s the number of Orcs or Goblins), but one location stands out because it’s labeled “Bats 2 – lots of treasure.” Apparently it hasn’t been hit yet.</p><p></p><p>There are two more items of note on the map. One treasure location is in a bog somewhere in the Hardlow woods, and it is labeled “Ghost 1 – magic in the bog.” Additionally, there is a note that says:</p><p></p><p>I know that the object my employer wants is located in the Dale, owned by an Ogre according to rumors from the Goblins, but my spells cannot detect its exact location, which worries me. Use caution, but don’t waste too much time searching. Just bring back whatever treasure you find, and if we have time I’ll send you out again. Remembering, I know how much treasure is out there, so don’t try to cheat me.</p><p></p><p> -Limoges</p><p></p><p>After pondering for a little while, they decide to go after the ‘bat’ treasure. Though Harley is not too enthusiastic about climbing down into a canyon apparently infested by . . . they count the numbers . . . 500 Orcs and Goblins, she enjoys the group’s company, especially Roth’s stories about his trip from Kequalak, which they suspect might not be the whole truth of the matter.</p><p></p><p><strong>Background:</strong> Kequalak is a large nation to the north of the Nozama Empire (where the party is right now). The two nations are separated by the InnenOtdarasne Phuurst, the homeland of the Innenlesti Elves (Bhurisrava is one of these). Kequalak has a long history, once being the seat of the Caliphate of Dranko Coaltongue, ruler of the world. After Coaltongue was deposed, the land was home to the Kequalak barbarians, a mixture of humans and Orcs. Thereafter the Kingdom of Ragesia grew in the land, making slaves of all foreigners and many natives. For almost a thousand years Ragesia was one of the most advanced cultures in the world, until a few hundred years ago when the enslaved Kequalak barbarians led a revolt that eventually toppled the Kingdom. The new rulers kept all of the worst traits of the Ragesians, and abandoned the few redeeming ones. In hindsight, the only real positive result of the rebellion was the short-term freedom of many Elves who had been slaves of the Ragesians. Many of the enslaved Elves found a new homeland and became the Tundanesti Elves, but those who remained were again enslaved.</p><p></p><p>Roth’s background aside, he’s a fun guy to be around, so after they finish breakfast they ride through the edge of the woods along the ravine until they get near where the bat cave must be. Then they tether the horses and descend fifty feet down the craggy side of the canyon. Harley brings up the rear, untying the rope overhead and climbing down by hand, just to make sure no one tries to steal their rope and strand them. </p><p></p><p>After a brief search they find the entrance to a very large cave about twenty feet wide, that slopes downward into the side of the ravine, disappearing into the blackness in the distance. They weren’t prepared enough for the trip, and don’t have any torches. This isn’t a problem for Harley or Bhurisrava, since their Elvensight lets them see in pitch blackness, but James (a half-Elf) has a hard time seeing in the gloom, and Roth (a human) is all but blind. Roth solves the dilemma, however, when he pulls out his magical lighting device, a small silver rectangular prism whose top bends open to reveal a small flame.</p><p></p><p>Yes, Roth has a magical zippo lighter.</p><p></p><p>[meta: In the last game, in the fight with the church Goblins, Roth said he was going to light a molotov cocktail and toss it at some fleeing Goblins, to which I replied by asking him how he planned to light the thing. His player shrugged and said he’d just use his zippo, so since then Roth has had a magical zippo lighter that can produce a small flicker of flame at will. It’s been surprisingly useful.]</p><p></p><p>Roth lights his own way with a zippo in one hand and his bastard sword in the other, and they climb in as quietly as possible. Still, their light is probably fairly visible from a distance, and a desperate whisper comes from deep in the cavern before they are too far inside. Harley follows the noise, moving carefully through the downward sloping cavern. The ceiling stays the same height, but the floor dips down slowly, so by the time they’ve gotten in sixty feet the ceiling is about forty feet high. By this point they can all hear the calls of what sounds like a wounded man.</p><p></p><p>They approach him, finding him hiding in a pile of rocks and rubble at the base of the cave’s back wall, actually a small cave-in that seems to have separated the cave into two halves. About twenty feet up on the wall is an opening that leads to the opposite side of the cave-in. The man looks relieved to see them, but is apparently unable to free himself.</p><p></p><p>They pull him out of the rubble, and he tries to make sure they stay quiet. Bhurisrava heals the infected claw wounds on the man’s shoulders and arms, but cannot soothe all the man’s injuries. Slightly before passing out from exhaustion, the man introduces himself as Jeffery Stanton, part of a treasure-hunting party that came into this cave a couple days ago. He says they were attacked by a pair of huge bats, and that his friends fled and left him.</p><p></p><p>This crystallizes in the party’s mind that it was the right thing to do to steal the treasure map and come out here. Bhurisrava takes off his stole and adjusts it into a makeshift pillow for the resting man, and they cautiously prepare to deal with the creatures in the caves.</p><p></p><p>Harley tries to run away, saying that there’s no need to go after some giant bats if a group of eight armed men couldn’t deal with them. James grabs her by her collar and keeps her from heading off. Almost ominously at that moment comes a hissing growl from the ledge overhead, and James hushes Harley, telling her that there’s apparently a lot of treasure here, so they’re not going to give it up.</p><p></p><p>James forces Harley to climb up the ledge first and find a safe route, and then she tosses down the rope to help up Bhurisrava, James, and Roth. At the top of the cave-in the rocks have settled to make a rough, rubble-strewn tunnel about thirty feet long, at the opposite end of which Harley can see another wide cavern. To her dismay she can also see deep gouges carved in the rocks of the floor in the tunnel that connects the two rooms of the cave, gouges apparently dug by claws as big as or bigger than any bear or great cat. </p><p></p><p>When everyone gets to the top, James leads the way with sword and shield ready. They’ve barely even gotten into the tunnel when the growling gets louder, and then they hear a loud sniffing, followed by the heavy beating of wings. Before they can react, a dark winged shape nearly blots out the opposite edge of the tunnel and begins to fly toward them, gliding barely five feet over the floor, its wings spread out thirty feet to touch the sides of the cavern. It shrieks an attack cry, high pitched like an hissing eagle, and then dashes over them, clawing James on his armor as it flies past, but not hurting him. James curses and is about to turn to chase after the ‘bat’ when another set of flapping comes from the same direction the first one came from. </p><p></p><p>The second giant bat begins its strafing run toward them, but Bhurisrava calls quickly for the Lord’s holy power, filling the tunnel with bright light that surprises the creature. In mid-flap it stalls and clumsily lands on its strongly-clawed legs, trying to back away from the strange light. In the illumination they see it’s not a bat at all, but rather some type of reptilian eagle, with two legs, two clawed wings, a toothed beak, and a whipping tail tipped with some sort of barb. Gray scales cover its entire body, dark on top and light on the bottom, and as it rears up defensively they realize the creature must be at least fifteen feet long. </p><p></p><p>“We’re screwed!” Bhur shouts. “Is that a Dragon?!”</p><p></p><p>James and Roth shrug and charge it, while Harley shakes her head. “No, it’s a wyvern. They can’t breathe anything at us.”</p><p></p><p>James and Roth dodge the wyvern’s snapping beak as they close in, hacking at its legs and torso. The creature looks like it’s already been wounded recently, probably from the treasure hunters, but James and Roth do a better job, hitting it repeatedly though not always hard enough to pierce its scaley armor. Harley flings Ricochet at the wyvern, but the drake bats it away with its thick wing, and the weapon clatters to the floor. Bhurisrava has his bow ready to fire, but he only gets off one ineffective attack before the beating of wings behind him alerts him to the return of the first wyvern. </p><p></p><p>The huge beast falls upon him, catching his leg in its claw and his shoulder with its huge maw. He cries out in pain and barely manages to dodge the wyvern’s barbed tail, which flings a smelly ooze as it impacts into the floor when Bhur had been a moment earlier. Bhurisrava starts to crawl away, moving his warhammer to parry a heavy claw stomp that could have shattered his chest. He calls for help, but James, Roth, and Harley are still trying to take down the second wyvern, which is beginning to stagger under their combined attacks. </p><p></p><p>Hearing Bhurisrava’s shout for help, however, Roth delivers one last smash to the second wyvern’s beak as he turns and glares at the first wyvern, which has pinned the priest. Roth’s eyes widen and his nostrils flare, and he roars ferociously at the monster. The wyvern is standing at the ledge, right at the entrance to the cave-in tunnel, tearing at Bhur’s arms with its flapping wings and scraping claws, but Roth’s roar diverts the creature’s attention. In fact, everyone pauses for a moment in shock as Roth charges the wyvern full on, continuing his roar as he sprints to the monster and leaps, bastard-sword-first, into its chest. Still shouting in anger, he drives his sword into the wyvern’s torso, flying forward with all his strength, driving the wyvern backward. The huge drake loses its balance and gurgles in pain as it falls backward off the ledge. Roth rides with it in mid-air, and when it smashes into the cavern floor of the first room, Roth rips his sword free and begins hacking downward repeatedly into the monster’s neck.</p><p></p><p>The second wyvern cries out in rage at the death of its mate, and it kicks James to the floor, then rushes past Harley through the tunnel, leaping into the air in the first room, where it circles Roth, preparing to strike. Harley rushes to check on Bhur, and finds that the priest is curled up in pain from a deep wound in his leg where the wyvern’s barbed tail struck him. Bhurisrava says he’ll be okay and prays for a spell to at least slow the poison.</p><p></p><p>Roth gives a war cry as he plunges his sword into the chest of the already dead first wyvern, but still has enough wits to dodge the barbed tail of the second wyvern as it circles low overhead, lashing down with its stinger. Harley recovers Ricochet, then runs to the ledge and hurls it at the wyvern, but the drake ignores the minor impact. James reaches the ledge as well and begins firing arrows at the wyvern, none of which do anything more than bruise the huge beast.</p><p></p><p>Roth cleaves off the tail of the first wyvern and tries to jam it into the tail of the second wyvern, but the monster appears to be immune to its own brand of poison, so Roth huffs angrily and goes back to trying to hack at it whenever it strafes him.</p><p></p><p>Harley throws her dagger which also has minimal effect, leaving her without anymore weapons to throw. She apparently has forgotten about the magical crossbow Roth gave her (since in 2nd edition you had to have a proficiency to use a crossbow), and so she plucks a dagger from James’s belt and waits at the ledge for the wyvern to fly near again, which it soon does. The winged beast swoops down and knocks Roth off his feet with its claws, but then Harley runs and leaps at the wyvern, landing on its scaley back. Scraping and sliding across its jagged scales, Harley tries to stab downward into the wyvern’s neck, but can’t reach.</p><p></p><p>Another arrow flies out from James, shot too high and almost catching Harley, so James adjusts his tactics and begins trying to shoot at the monster’s wings to tear them up. The wyvern, busy trying to shake Harley off, flies high out of Roth’s reach, so the raging man slumps in frustration, looking around for a ranged weapon of some sort. </p><p></p><p>The wyvern tries to scrape its back on the ceiling, but Harley rolls to the side and hangs on the monster’s thigh, dangling thirty feet in the air. Another arrow flies into the wyvern’s wing, and Harley gets an idea. Wincing in pain as the wyvern’s wings buffet her, she leaps and grabs onto the wing’s shoulder, then drives her blade into the joint. The wyvern’s flaps begin to lose strength, and as it glides toward the floor Harley leaps back onto the ledge for safety. The second wyvern crashes almost directly atop the body of the first, nearly crushing Roth, who was standing on his kill. Roth finishes off the second wyvern with a few strong blows to its head, and then slumps to the floor, his blood cooling after the exertion. </p><p></p><p>Harley cheers Roth, and Roth downs a drink in honor of her, and then James and Harley help get Bhurisrava down to the floor so he can rest. As Roth offers Bhurisrava something to drink, Harley and James scour the second tunnel for the supposed treasure. There is surprisingly little to be found, mostly just a lot of Orcish trinkets. It appears that the wyverns usually dine on the nearby Orc tribes, or on wildlife, not on well-paid people. In the front room of the cave, however, they do find a finely-made backpack tangled up with a marvelous platinum and steel helmet that is covered with Dwarven runes. Inside the backpack are just some spoiled supplies and a scroll tube with its seal cracked. </p><p></p><p>They later learn from the man they rescued, Jeffery, that his friends had found a large pouch of Dwarven gold bars in the backpack, but had only been able to escape with that when the giant bats attacked. It had been too dark to fight effectively, so they’d fled and left him for dead. As for the scroll, they’d opened it, but all the writing was in Dwarvish, so they left it too. The party decides to take the helmet and scroll case to Milbourne, to talk to the Dwarf there named Old Grizzler. They think that perhaps the wyverns ate the Dwarf’s nephew, and Harley says it’s the right thing to do. </p><p></p><p>Roth, wanting to be thorough, guts the two wyverns and pries through their stomachs and intestines looking for any Dwarf remains. He finds bones of a well-digested human or Orc in both, but no bones that match Dwarf size. </p><p></p><p>They rest for a few minutes, and then the stench of wyvern innards drive them out of the cave. Harley keeps one of the stingers as a trophy (and Roth says the poison might be useful), but otherwise they want nothing to do with big dead things. They wearily climb back up to the top of the ravine and discover to their relief that their horses haven’t been stolen by Orcs yet. Roth walks, giving his horse to Jeffery so the wounded man can ride, and they head back to Milbourne, feeling a mixture of pride for their victory, and disappointment that the other guys apparently got all the money so far.</p><p></p><p>Bhurisrava realizes that he needs to prepare more healing spells. He’s never really been a warrior, but he trusts that the Lord had a hand in their arrival, since without them, Jeffery would have died from starvation.</p><p></p><p>James realizes that he already dislikes Dragons, having met Inzeldrin and now these two wyverns, neither of which were worth the trouble of dealing with them. He wants to get paid by Allar as soon as possible, and then go back to Lyceum and get paid by Harlan.</p><p></p><p>Roth has done his good deed for the day. He remarks that the life of a normal person isn’t enough for him, and he only really feels alive when he’s in danger.</p><p></p><p>Jeffery’s unconscious.</p><p></p><p>Harley wonders why she did what she did, leaping onto the wyvern. She tells herself that must’ve been trying to get to the exit, and the wyvern just got in the way. She doesn’t mind playing the part of a guard or adventurer, but the idea of actually getting into that much danger worries her. Her previous experience had always taught her to flee danger, so she decides that the safest thing to do is to leave as soon as possible. If Allar were nearby to protect them, she might feel safer, but the only reason she even considered staying in the Haranshire was because Allar had said it was safest with him. </p><p></p><p>Bhurisrava seems to guess what Harley’s thinking, and says openly that he doesn’t trust Allar, and that he suggests they all keep an eye on the ranger.</p><p></p><p>When they finally do reach Milbourne, Jenneleth (Tauster’s apprentice) tells them that Allar came by looking for them earlier in the morning. He said he’s going to need them for a job in another two days to protect a vital incoming caravan.</p><p></p><p>“Yeah, whatever,” James says, fully intending to leave as soon as they get a chance. There’s one more thing on the map that interests him. “Ghosts 1 – magic in the bog.”</p><p></p><p>*****</p><p></p><p><strong>Pull a Roth:</strong> <em>intr. v., colloquial.</em> Lunge forcefully at an obviously physically superior foe head-on, leaping directly at its chest, often with the intent of knocking the foe off a ledge. </p><p><em>exclamation, colloquial.</em> A request for aid, given by gamers to the House Dice Gods, intended to alert the gods that the forthcoming roll is very important. Only used in conjunction with the verb form of this phrase.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 639, member: 63"] [size=3][b]Chapter Nine: This is what it means to say, “I Pull a Roth”[/b][/size] (The title is an homage to a Sherman Alexie short story.) The party reaches the Hardlow Woods near the Great Rock Dale just as the sun is setting, so they set up camp and hit the sack, James, Bhurisrava, and Roth taking the different watches while they let Harley sleep. Their cooking fire attracts some attention, and each watchman spots some small shapes moving in the shadows of the nearby woods, but no Orcs or Goblins attack, and night passes uneventfully. The next morning, James wakes up before dawn, says hi to Roth who fell asleep on watch, then proceeds to wake up everyone, stating that no one needs to sleep when there’s light in the sky to work by. Grumbling and looking as unflattering as possible, Harley crawls out of her bedroll and helps Roth cook breakfast while James and Bhur discuss the treasure map. The map is a tattered and stained piece of vellum, with crisp handwriting marking points all across a detailed sketch of the Great Rock Dale and the Hardlow Woods. From the party’s vantage point, the Great Rock Dale is just a long canyon, about 200 feet across, that extends off to the horizon. Their own map of the Haranshire they got from Harlan Smith shows that the ravine is a good ten miles long, and so they estimate how far they’ll need to travel to get to the various places on the map that the treasure hunters the day before have not yet marked as taken. Most of the caves described on the map are labeled “Orcs” or “Goblins,” plus a number (like “Goblins 48”: they guess it’s the number of Orcs or Goblins), but one location stands out because it’s labeled “Bats 2 – lots of treasure.” Apparently it hasn’t been hit yet. There are two more items of note on the map. One treasure location is in a bog somewhere in the Hardlow woods, and it is labeled “Ghost 1 – magic in the bog.” Additionally, there is a note that says: I know that the object my employer wants is located in the Dale, owned by an Ogre according to rumors from the Goblins, but my spells cannot detect its exact location, which worries me. Use caution, but don’t waste too much time searching. Just bring back whatever treasure you find, and if we have time I’ll send you out again. Remembering, I know how much treasure is out there, so don’t try to cheat me. -Limoges After pondering for a little while, they decide to go after the ‘bat’ treasure. Though Harley is not too enthusiastic about climbing down into a canyon apparently infested by . . . they count the numbers . . . 500 Orcs and Goblins, she enjoys the group’s company, especially Roth’s stories about his trip from Kequalak, which they suspect might not be the whole truth of the matter. [b]Background:[/b] Kequalak is a large nation to the north of the Nozama Empire (where the party is right now). The two nations are separated by the InnenOtdarasne Phuurst, the homeland of the Innenlesti Elves (Bhurisrava is one of these). Kequalak has a long history, once being the seat of the Caliphate of Dranko Coaltongue, ruler of the world. After Coaltongue was deposed, the land was home to the Kequalak barbarians, a mixture of humans and Orcs. Thereafter the Kingdom of Ragesia grew in the land, making slaves of all foreigners and many natives. For almost a thousand years Ragesia was one of the most advanced cultures in the world, until a few hundred years ago when the enslaved Kequalak barbarians led a revolt that eventually toppled the Kingdom. The new rulers kept all of the worst traits of the Ragesians, and abandoned the few redeeming ones. In hindsight, the only real positive result of the rebellion was the short-term freedom of many Elves who had been slaves of the Ragesians. Many of the enslaved Elves found a new homeland and became the Tundanesti Elves, but those who remained were again enslaved. Roth’s background aside, he’s a fun guy to be around, so after they finish breakfast they ride through the edge of the woods along the ravine until they get near where the bat cave must be. Then they tether the horses and descend fifty feet down the craggy side of the canyon. Harley brings up the rear, untying the rope overhead and climbing down by hand, just to make sure no one tries to steal their rope and strand them. After a brief search they find the entrance to a very large cave about twenty feet wide, that slopes downward into the side of the ravine, disappearing into the blackness in the distance. They weren’t prepared enough for the trip, and don’t have any torches. This isn’t a problem for Harley or Bhurisrava, since their Elvensight lets them see in pitch blackness, but James (a half-Elf) has a hard time seeing in the gloom, and Roth (a human) is all but blind. Roth solves the dilemma, however, when he pulls out his magical lighting device, a small silver rectangular prism whose top bends open to reveal a small flame. Yes, Roth has a magical zippo lighter. [meta: In the last game, in the fight with the church Goblins, Roth said he was going to light a molotov cocktail and toss it at some fleeing Goblins, to which I replied by asking him how he planned to light the thing. His player shrugged and said he’d just use his zippo, so since then Roth has had a magical zippo lighter that can produce a small flicker of flame at will. It’s been surprisingly useful.] Roth lights his own way with a zippo in one hand and his bastard sword in the other, and they climb in as quietly as possible. Still, their light is probably fairly visible from a distance, and a desperate whisper comes from deep in the cavern before they are too far inside. Harley follows the noise, moving carefully through the downward sloping cavern. The ceiling stays the same height, but the floor dips down slowly, so by the time they’ve gotten in sixty feet the ceiling is about forty feet high. By this point they can all hear the calls of what sounds like a wounded man. They approach him, finding him hiding in a pile of rocks and rubble at the base of the cave’s back wall, actually a small cave-in that seems to have separated the cave into two halves. About twenty feet up on the wall is an opening that leads to the opposite side of the cave-in. The man looks relieved to see them, but is apparently unable to free himself. They pull him out of the rubble, and he tries to make sure they stay quiet. Bhurisrava heals the infected claw wounds on the man’s shoulders and arms, but cannot soothe all the man’s injuries. Slightly before passing out from exhaustion, the man introduces himself as Jeffery Stanton, part of a treasure-hunting party that came into this cave a couple days ago. He says they were attacked by a pair of huge bats, and that his friends fled and left him. This crystallizes in the party’s mind that it was the right thing to do to steal the treasure map and come out here. Bhurisrava takes off his stole and adjusts it into a makeshift pillow for the resting man, and they cautiously prepare to deal with the creatures in the caves. Harley tries to run away, saying that there’s no need to go after some giant bats if a group of eight armed men couldn’t deal with them. James grabs her by her collar and keeps her from heading off. Almost ominously at that moment comes a hissing growl from the ledge overhead, and James hushes Harley, telling her that there’s apparently a lot of treasure here, so they’re not going to give it up. James forces Harley to climb up the ledge first and find a safe route, and then she tosses down the rope to help up Bhurisrava, James, and Roth. At the top of the cave-in the rocks have settled to make a rough, rubble-strewn tunnel about thirty feet long, at the opposite end of which Harley can see another wide cavern. To her dismay she can also see deep gouges carved in the rocks of the floor in the tunnel that connects the two rooms of the cave, gouges apparently dug by claws as big as or bigger than any bear or great cat. When everyone gets to the top, James leads the way with sword and shield ready. They’ve barely even gotten into the tunnel when the growling gets louder, and then they hear a loud sniffing, followed by the heavy beating of wings. Before they can react, a dark winged shape nearly blots out the opposite edge of the tunnel and begins to fly toward them, gliding barely five feet over the floor, its wings spread out thirty feet to touch the sides of the cavern. It shrieks an attack cry, high pitched like an hissing eagle, and then dashes over them, clawing James on his armor as it flies past, but not hurting him. James curses and is about to turn to chase after the ‘bat’ when another set of flapping comes from the same direction the first one came from. The second giant bat begins its strafing run toward them, but Bhurisrava calls quickly for the Lord’s holy power, filling the tunnel with bright light that surprises the creature. In mid-flap it stalls and clumsily lands on its strongly-clawed legs, trying to back away from the strange light. In the illumination they see it’s not a bat at all, but rather some type of reptilian eagle, with two legs, two clawed wings, a toothed beak, and a whipping tail tipped with some sort of barb. Gray scales cover its entire body, dark on top and light on the bottom, and as it rears up defensively they realize the creature must be at least fifteen feet long. “We’re screwed!” Bhur shouts. “Is that a Dragon?!” James and Roth shrug and charge it, while Harley shakes her head. “No, it’s a wyvern. They can’t breathe anything at us.” James and Roth dodge the wyvern’s snapping beak as they close in, hacking at its legs and torso. The creature looks like it’s already been wounded recently, probably from the treasure hunters, but James and Roth do a better job, hitting it repeatedly though not always hard enough to pierce its scaley armor. Harley flings Ricochet at the wyvern, but the drake bats it away with its thick wing, and the weapon clatters to the floor. Bhurisrava has his bow ready to fire, but he only gets off one ineffective attack before the beating of wings behind him alerts him to the return of the first wyvern. The huge beast falls upon him, catching his leg in its claw and his shoulder with its huge maw. He cries out in pain and barely manages to dodge the wyvern’s barbed tail, which flings a smelly ooze as it impacts into the floor when Bhur had been a moment earlier. Bhurisrava starts to crawl away, moving his warhammer to parry a heavy claw stomp that could have shattered his chest. He calls for help, but James, Roth, and Harley are still trying to take down the second wyvern, which is beginning to stagger under their combined attacks. Hearing Bhurisrava’s shout for help, however, Roth delivers one last smash to the second wyvern’s beak as he turns and glares at the first wyvern, which has pinned the priest. Roth’s eyes widen and his nostrils flare, and he roars ferociously at the monster. The wyvern is standing at the ledge, right at the entrance to the cave-in tunnel, tearing at Bhur’s arms with its flapping wings and scraping claws, but Roth’s roar diverts the creature’s attention. In fact, everyone pauses for a moment in shock as Roth charges the wyvern full on, continuing his roar as he sprints to the monster and leaps, bastard-sword-first, into its chest. Still shouting in anger, he drives his sword into the wyvern’s torso, flying forward with all his strength, driving the wyvern backward. The huge drake loses its balance and gurgles in pain as it falls backward off the ledge. Roth rides with it in mid-air, and when it smashes into the cavern floor of the first room, Roth rips his sword free and begins hacking downward repeatedly into the monster’s neck. The second wyvern cries out in rage at the death of its mate, and it kicks James to the floor, then rushes past Harley through the tunnel, leaping into the air in the first room, where it circles Roth, preparing to strike. Harley rushes to check on Bhur, and finds that the priest is curled up in pain from a deep wound in his leg where the wyvern’s barbed tail struck him. Bhurisrava says he’ll be okay and prays for a spell to at least slow the poison. Roth gives a war cry as he plunges his sword into the chest of the already dead first wyvern, but still has enough wits to dodge the barbed tail of the second wyvern as it circles low overhead, lashing down with its stinger. Harley recovers Ricochet, then runs to the ledge and hurls it at the wyvern, but the drake ignores the minor impact. James reaches the ledge as well and begins firing arrows at the wyvern, none of which do anything more than bruise the huge beast. Roth cleaves off the tail of the first wyvern and tries to jam it into the tail of the second wyvern, but the monster appears to be immune to its own brand of poison, so Roth huffs angrily and goes back to trying to hack at it whenever it strafes him. Harley throws her dagger which also has minimal effect, leaving her without anymore weapons to throw. She apparently has forgotten about the magical crossbow Roth gave her (since in 2nd edition you had to have a proficiency to use a crossbow), and so she plucks a dagger from James’s belt and waits at the ledge for the wyvern to fly near again, which it soon does. The winged beast swoops down and knocks Roth off his feet with its claws, but then Harley runs and leaps at the wyvern, landing on its scaley back. Scraping and sliding across its jagged scales, Harley tries to stab downward into the wyvern’s neck, but can’t reach. Another arrow flies out from James, shot too high and almost catching Harley, so James adjusts his tactics and begins trying to shoot at the monster’s wings to tear them up. The wyvern, busy trying to shake Harley off, flies high out of Roth’s reach, so the raging man slumps in frustration, looking around for a ranged weapon of some sort. The wyvern tries to scrape its back on the ceiling, but Harley rolls to the side and hangs on the monster’s thigh, dangling thirty feet in the air. Another arrow flies into the wyvern’s wing, and Harley gets an idea. Wincing in pain as the wyvern’s wings buffet her, she leaps and grabs onto the wing’s shoulder, then drives her blade into the joint. The wyvern’s flaps begin to lose strength, and as it glides toward the floor Harley leaps back onto the ledge for safety. The second wyvern crashes almost directly atop the body of the first, nearly crushing Roth, who was standing on his kill. Roth finishes off the second wyvern with a few strong blows to its head, and then slumps to the floor, his blood cooling after the exertion. Harley cheers Roth, and Roth downs a drink in honor of her, and then James and Harley help get Bhurisrava down to the floor so he can rest. As Roth offers Bhurisrava something to drink, Harley and James scour the second tunnel for the supposed treasure. There is surprisingly little to be found, mostly just a lot of Orcish trinkets. It appears that the wyverns usually dine on the nearby Orc tribes, or on wildlife, not on well-paid people. In the front room of the cave, however, they do find a finely-made backpack tangled up with a marvelous platinum and steel helmet that is covered with Dwarven runes. Inside the backpack are just some spoiled supplies and a scroll tube with its seal cracked. They later learn from the man they rescued, Jeffery, that his friends had found a large pouch of Dwarven gold bars in the backpack, but had only been able to escape with that when the giant bats attacked. It had been too dark to fight effectively, so they’d fled and left him for dead. As for the scroll, they’d opened it, but all the writing was in Dwarvish, so they left it too. The party decides to take the helmet and scroll case to Milbourne, to talk to the Dwarf there named Old Grizzler. They think that perhaps the wyverns ate the Dwarf’s nephew, and Harley says it’s the right thing to do. Roth, wanting to be thorough, guts the two wyverns and pries through their stomachs and intestines looking for any Dwarf remains. He finds bones of a well-digested human or Orc in both, but no bones that match Dwarf size. They rest for a few minutes, and then the stench of wyvern innards drive them out of the cave. Harley keeps one of the stingers as a trophy (and Roth says the poison might be useful), but otherwise they want nothing to do with big dead things. They wearily climb back up to the top of the ravine and discover to their relief that their horses haven’t been stolen by Orcs yet. Roth walks, giving his horse to Jeffery so the wounded man can ride, and they head back to Milbourne, feeling a mixture of pride for their victory, and disappointment that the other guys apparently got all the money so far. Bhurisrava realizes that he needs to prepare more healing spells. He’s never really been a warrior, but he trusts that the Lord had a hand in their arrival, since without them, Jeffery would have died from starvation. James realizes that he already dislikes Dragons, having met Inzeldrin and now these two wyverns, neither of which were worth the trouble of dealing with them. He wants to get paid by Allar as soon as possible, and then go back to Lyceum and get paid by Harlan. Roth has done his good deed for the day. He remarks that the life of a normal person isn’t enough for him, and he only really feels alive when he’s in danger. Jeffery’s unconscious. Harley wonders why she did what she did, leaping onto the wyvern. She tells herself that must’ve been trying to get to the exit, and the wyvern just got in the way. She doesn’t mind playing the part of a guard or adventurer, but the idea of actually getting into that much danger worries her. Her previous experience had always taught her to flee danger, so she decides that the safest thing to do is to leave as soon as possible. If Allar were nearby to protect them, she might feel safer, but the only reason she even considered staying in the Haranshire was because Allar had said it was safest with him. Bhurisrava seems to guess what Harley’s thinking, and says openly that he doesn’t trust Allar, and that he suggests they all keep an eye on the ranger. When they finally do reach Milbourne, Jenneleth (Tauster’s apprentice) tells them that Allar came by looking for them earlier in the morning. He said he’s going to need them for a job in another two days to protect a vital incoming caravan. “Yeah, whatever,” James says, fully intending to leave as soon as they get a chance. There’s one more thing on the map that interests him. “Ghosts 1 – magic in the bog.” ***** [b]Pull a Roth:[/b] [i]intr. v., colloquial.[/i] Lunge forcefully at an obviously physically superior foe head-on, leaping directly at its chest, often with the intent of knocking the foe off a ledge. [i]exclamation, colloquial.[/i] A request for aid, given by gamers to the House Dice Gods, intended to alert the gods that the forthcoming roll is very important. Only used in conjunction with the verb form of this phrase. [/QUOTE]
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