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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3302048" data-attributes="member: 30035">Letter #2415 - 16 Reaping         Dearest brother;After our terrible battle with the centipede demon we were all in poor condition, especially Shishir, who has now seen the edge of the afterlife more times than I care to imagine.  He was able to revive long enough to tell his brother a little more about what the demon was doing.  Apparently he had been overcome by the evil of the shard and had taken it within his own body somehow.  While it can't be detected in the magic bag, once he carried it within himself the demon was able to find him. Any creature containing one of the shards can detect another such creature, although I'm not certain why Shishir didn't sense the centipede demon approaching.*  Ninad and some of the others immediately began searching the demon's remains for another shard.  Erasyne even employed her gem of seeing to look for it, but although the gem didn't help her she was the one who found it at last.  Thor asked Vogelyn* to handle the shard so that none of us would be exposed to its evil.I had gone to help set up a camp just off the road and didn't see any of what I now describe.  While the others were searching the demon corpse, they spotted a group of people approaching on the road.  This group turned out to be a knight, a young boy and a couple of servants on horseback, accompanied by 6 guards on foot.  The knight introduced herself as Tasra and the boy turned out to be Prince Hamad, youngest son of Sheik Azman.  It is Sheik Azman to whom we carried the message from the Malik.  Tasra and the prince had apparently been sent as emissaries to find out why Ceceliah hadn't come to meet her future husband.  Ninad and Thor explained to them that Ceceliah had entered the temple of Kumari, but even Thor was circumspect enough not to add that no one now occupies the temple.Prince Hamad seemed much more interested in our tale of being waylaid by bandits than our fight with the demon.  I suppose the mutilated remnants of the demon didn't look very impressive.  The prince seemed to think the bandits might be some famous group with "scarlet" in their name, although that sounded doubtful to us.  In any case they didn't introduce themselves before they ran off.  The prince was determined that in the morning his party should pursue the bandits.  We called upon Pheretima to prepare a fine meal for us and our guests, since that's one of the few things she's useful for.  Prince Hamad was very impressed with her.  The prince's party decided to camp beside us for the night and even agreed to stand watch so that we could get some much needed rest.  In the morning as we had our repast, Shishir suddenly announced that he would be returning to his order.  He felt that his failure to resist the evil of the black shards showed that he needed to "center" himself again.  Ninad took this better than I would have expected.  He offered to accompany his twin, but Shishir didn't want him to give up his own plans.  Liselle was left to decide whether or not to go with her betrothed and stay with her family in Highfolk while he was at the monastery.  To make matters worse, Liselle now announced that she was pregnant!I was so startled by this revelation that I didn't notice at first that the ground was trembling.  Then the earth cracked open near our camp and a huge creature emerged, covered with armor plating and shaped rather like an overturned boat.  I think such monsters are called bulettes.  The monster at once began devouring the remains of the demon.  Illtud ran out to interpose himself between our party and the monster, while Tasra and her men took the prince further into the forest for safety.  Shishir was convinced that the monster was after the shards and ran out to take up a defensive position, despite his injuries.  Thor leapt on Beaker and sped off, possibly trying to distract the bulette.  He must have called upon divine aid, because Beaker ran even faster than usual.  Shishir remembered the tokens the Lord of the Green had given us and cast a fey walnut shell down at the monster's feet.  It held a spell very similar to one Solonor Thelandira sometimes grants me, causing the grass and plants around the monster to wrap themselves about its' legs.  I doubted that it would have much effect on such a huge beast, as strong creatures can sometimes break free, but it held the bulette and allowed us to attack it.  I would have waited until it threatened us more openly, but Erasyne and Illtud began showering it with arrows so I turned my weapon on it as well.  My first spear thrust bounced off its armor even with my full weight behind it, which worried me.  Then Thor returned and called on the power of his god to strike the bulette with lightning, which worked very nicely.  It moved toward Shishir after he flung one of his orbs of cold magic at it, but it was still held by the entangling plants.  Ninad aimed an orb of sound at it successfully as well.  After Ninad hit the monster, it managed to rip free of the plants and turned toward him.  It pushed him back more than three of his body lengths. While it was moving I landed a blow on it with my spear.  Then Ninad, who'd managed to keep his feet, shoved his staff right up through the roof of its' mouth.  Evidently that was too much punishment for it, for the monster fell to the ground dead.  Shishir insisted it must have had a shard, which I doubted at first until I remembered that such monsters track their prey by vibrations in the earth, and the demon wasn't moving any longer when the bulette appeared.  We spent a while butchering it in search of the shard but we found nothing.  I feared that perhaps some more intelligent creature like the demon might have sent the bulette at us.  But before we could reflect on that possibility, Thor, who'd ridden off to check on the prince's party, returned to tell us they'd found a structure nearby.  According to Thor there were people in the structure, so we went to investigate thinking they might have something to do with the bulette.  We found a stone building atop a stepped plinth, all of it overgrown by the forest.  This appeared to be the bandits' base of operations.  Since Erasyne and Ninad were the stealthiest of our group, they snuck up the steps to eliminate the sentries we saw idly standing outside the building.  Once they had reached the top of the steps Shishir ran up to join his twin and they pummeled one of the sentries into submission.  I moved up to the bottom of the stairs and put an arrow in the sentry's ribs.  I couldn't see where Erasyne had gone as she was on the opposite side of the structure, but the building was mostly open on the sides and I caught a glimpse of her as another bandit appeared.  I shot through the building and was able to hit under his shield.  Once the sentries had been eliminated, Ninad found a descending stairway inside the structure.  It appears that the ruin was once a temple to the sun god, the same god whose shrine yielded Illtud's mace.  We crept down the stairs with Erasyne and I at the front because we can see better in dim light.  Tesra and her party took up the rear.  I kept my bow in hand because I feared the space below would be too cramped for my longspear.  I wasn't as stealthy as I would have liked, but not so loud that I alerted the bandits, thank the gods.  Erasyne and Ninad listened at a door, then Erasyne opened it and Ninad cast a spell at the man within.  He was holding a crossbow at the ready but I shot him before he could fire a bolt, and Ninad and Erasyne struck him down.  We repeated this procedure at the next door we came to, another small room that held a bugbear.  Unfortunately we were unable to bring him down as quickly and he shouted an alarm.  We heard noises from nearby.  Two men came around the corner of the hallway.  From behind us Thor once more called the lightning.  If I had begun my druidic training earlier I might be able to call upon Solonor Thelandira to grant me such a useful spell.  After he was struck by lightning it took only two of my arrows to eliminate the first man.  A third man appeared down the hall and flung a javelin at us that sizzled with lightning of its own.  Both Erasyne and Ninad ducked and the javelin missed them, sticking in a nearby door.  Thor then struck that man with a lightning bolt.  The third man tried to flee and then surrendered when Erasyne caught up with him.  He told us that there were 10 bandits in the abandoned temple, but I didn't believe him.  After I said so, he confessed that there was someone else in the room where the javelin had stuck, but he had never seen or spoken to that person.  Erasyne, Ninad and I went to open the door, with the rest of our group close behind.  As Erasyne flung it open we caught a glimpse of some snake-like creatures with human-like heads.  Then a ball of flame erupted from the room!I must pause now, but I'll continue my story in my next letter.Lothiriel*Shishir's player was absent the previous session. Although another player was running the character, the GM neglected to allow Shishir a Spot check to detect the approaching demon.*Vogelyn is a clockwork construct fairy the party found in the fey demiplane where they also found the black shards.________________________________Quips & Quotes:Zora: "Thor can put some goodberries in a bottle. Then he'd have Thyrothoruth' thoothing thyrup."Devo: "Shishir should give Liselle a shard. Better yet two, because she needs evil for two now."</blockquote>

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