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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cthuluftaghn" data-source="post: 223811" data-attributes="member: 4799">Session 0002Whitefire continued to walk along he lake, skirting the northern edge of a small clump of woods known as The Neth Stand.  He was discouraged by his earlier encounter with the strange fiery creature in the rocky pass.  He had been a student of the martial arts for over a century, and he had failed his first test against a real opponent.  The dwarf scowled... "Opponent?  For all I know, he could have been a friend to keep me company on my long journey.  I'll never make friends in this world if I put a shuriken in everyone's eye as soon as we meet!  I shall be nice to whomever I come across, from now on."Whitefire traveled for the rest of the afternoon until the woods began to fade away behind him.  As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but dry dirt and rocks along the lakeshore as it stretched out far to the east.  "I'm hungry," the dwarf thought to himself, and he decided to make camp.  He found a nice smooth length of beach protected from the wind by two large boulders, and a couple of trees.  The monk made a small fire and wandered off a bit to catch a rabbit for dinner.  Before long, he was relaxing in his first home away from home, eating the first meal he had ever prepared for himself.  A sense of pride and adventure started to replace the misery he had felt all afternoon.When he was done eating, Whitefire decided to wash off the dust and sweat of the day's travel by taking an evening dip in the lake.  He stood up and wiped the rabbit grease from his beard, and started to untie his belt.  At that moment, the peaceful night was shattered by a piercing, gargled scream.  With a tremendous spray of water, a man-sized creature came flying out of the lake to land with a splat just a few feet away from Whitefire's camp.  The monk watched stunned as the thing twitched a few times, and died.  He cautiously approached.  In the light of his fire, Whitefire could see that this was no ordinary man.  It had arms and legs, and obviously walked upright like a human... but this thing had scales and gills like a fish, and a large bulbous head like a frog!Not quite sure what else to do, Whitefire was preparing to push the body back into the lake and return to his camp when there was another disturbance.  The water in the lake bubbled forth in a massive eruption of foam, slimy green flesh, and blood.  A lot of blood!  A massive, tentacled creature floated to the surface, it's body pierced with a dozen spears.  Sticky blood oozed from yet a dozen more wounds across its back.  The leg of another one of the man-fish creatures could be seen protruding from this monster's beak-like mouth.  As the dwarf watched in awe, more bodies started popping up to float near the beast.  Five... eight... ten... there must have been at least fifteen more of the man-fish creatures out there, and they all appeared to be dead!  Whitefire imagined that this monster must have attacked them, and they had died fighting it off!Something about the imagined battle triggered a memory in Whitefire's mind.  "Kuo toa!" he announced triumphantly, to nobody in particular.  "These must be the water men that Master Qhan told me about.  Always at war with something... how sad that they all seem to die so violently."  As the dwarf stared out over the water, trying to remember more of his lessons, one of the bodies moved!  Off to his right, one of the kuo toa began to splash about in the water, trying to regain its balance.  "At last," thought Whitefire, "after such a tragedy, what a good chance to make a unique friend!"The monk let the creature regain his feet, and he called out to it.  "Hello," he said.  "My name is Whitefire.  It seems you had quite a battle."The kuo toa's head snapped around at the sound of Whitefire's voice.  The creature grabbed his spear and crouched into a defensive position, and it snarled in crude undercommon.  "Yooooou..... YOU brought the monssssster down on ussss.  It wassss yooooou...."Surprised at the hostile response, Whitefire acted immediately and flung a shuriken at the kuo toa's head, attempting to subdue it.  Being unprepared for battle, however, his throw was far off target and it splashed harmlessly into the lake.  In response, the angry sea creature flung his spear with great force towards the dwarf.  Whitefire dodged to the side, and the spear wedged itself into a crack in the boulder at the back of the campsite.  Angered further by missing his target, the kuo toa leapt from the water to stand in front of Whitefire, snarling viciously and hurling accusations.... "Yooooou killed my peoplessss.  Yooou musssst die landwalker."Whitefire came at the kuo toa with a series of low kicks and punches, but the creature was able to knock the blows aside.  More than once, the creature got a grip on the dwarf's arm and tried to bite into it.  However, the skilled monk was able to pull away with no harm done.  Growing frustrated at the fruitless melee, the kuo toa turned and dived back into the water.  Whitefire watched amazed as the thing swam around him with lightning speed and shot back up out of the water.  With a dive, a tumble and a flip, the creature was suddenly standing on the boulder behind him, his spear once again in his hands.Whitefire pulled out his quarterstaff and swung it at the kuo toa, but it bounced harmlessly off the edge of the large rock.  The creature laughed... a hideous sound coming from the amphibious vocal chords... and lunged downwards with its spear.  The sharp point pierced Whitefire's side, and scraped against a rib as it tore through his flesh.  The dwarf staggered back, crying out in pain.  He swung weakly at his attacker, only to hit the rock once again.Instead of finishing him off right away, the kuo toa jumped down from the rock and ran several feet away from the camp before turning back to face the wounded monk.  Seeing what appeared to be a chance to do some damage, Whitefire gritted his teeth and charged towards his enemy with his quarterstaff held high.  Just before he reached the kuo toa, the creature planted its spear into the sand with the point facing towards the charging dwarf.  Whitefire backpedaled and was able to sidestep the weapon, but the maneuver caused his own attack to swing wide and it only glanced off the creature's shoulder.As the monk went barreling past, off balance, the skilled aquatic warrior brought the butt end of his spear up and cracked it across the back of Whitefire's head.  The monk felt the pain of the blow.  Then he tasted sand.  With a grim chuckle, he thought to himself, "So much for making friends...."  And then there was nothing....To be continued....**The mini-adventure that I wrote for tonight's After Dinner Encounter can be found <a href="http://home.cfl.rr.com/rtttoee/afterdinner_files/0002.htm" target="_blank">here.</a></blockquote>

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