Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 556501" data-attributes="member: 1210">Ifthonia is a much smaller town than Pesh City.  It’s about 26 miles from the city, perched on the edge of the Spicewoods.  As our heroes catch sight of it in the distance a faint smell of spices wafts to them.  The woods are well-known for being home to a host of strange plants, everything from food plants to spices to healing herbs, poisons to plants used to dye things in bright colors, insect repelling leaves to bloody-smelling flowers.  The aroma is strange, exotic, exciting.  Ifthonia boasts a population of almost 1000, but it was once much larger before druidic eco-terrorists scared many of them off.  Now the logging is down to a level the druids find less objectionable, and the people are allowed- more or less- to work unmolested.  Our heroes make their way to the first inn they can find, called the Milkwood.  They rent a room and make themselves comfortable, having just made it to town about an hour and a half before dark.  Zeebo hurries into the common room, looking for a woman to help him relieve the swelling pressure in his gnomish groin.He finds a young lass working the bar who he talks into giving him a hand (so to speak), though she’s inexperienced and unwilling to do much more than that.  Still, the pressure of the Chaos-induced enormous fertility is eased, and the Mayor hopes that she won’t tell anyone what they did together.  Even if she does, he thinks, I’m sure I can talk my way out of trouble... and besides, she needs to learn some important lessons about life.The next day, Zeebo and Sybele make inquiries about the formian infestation.  The local woodcutters mutter curses about the damn bugs and tell of several missing people, as well as a number of attacks.  Furthermore, there are areas in the Spicewoods that the outsider insects have clear-cut, stripping them of all their resources.  At noon in his room, Lester pulls out a card, cold to the touch, and concentrates upon the image on its face.  The picture depicts a scene in a castle in faraway Var, on a continent called Dorhaus.  This is literally thousands of miles away- the castle of his good friend King Malford the Magnificent.  But it isn’t Malford he’s looking for.  The image gathers depth, seeming almost to swim before his eyes, and finally he sees the hall almost as if he were there.  Standing there waiting is a human with short brown hair, a goatee, and an amulet depicting an eye over an open book- the Eye of Boccob.  This is Orbius, Lester’s cohort, a divine oracle and wizard.  “Hello, Orbius,” the L says with a smile.  Every day at noon they make contact in this fashion.“Hello, Lester.”  The Eye, as Orbius is called, smiles at his friend.  “How are things?”“Oh, they’re fine,” Lester answers, his bat wings flexing.  “We may need your help soon.  We’re going into the Spicewoods to fight some sort of extraplanar bugs, and your magical abilities might be crucial.”  He extends his hand.The Eye purses his lips, then nods.  “Let me gather my things.  Contact me again in half an hour and I’ll come to you.”  Half an hour later, Lester reactivates the trump card and extends his hand again; this time the Eye reaches to him, grasps his hand and steps through the card.  There is a prismatic rainbow of color for an instant and then he is there, in the L’s room.  “You set up here and we’re going on an initial foray,” Lester tells him.  “We’ll be back by tonight.  Try to find out what you can and we’ll see what we can find out in the woods.  Tomorrow we’ll all go in together.”  His cohort nods, wishing him well.  After a round of introductions- he’s never met any of the other party members- the group, minus Orbius and Sybele, who remains to make sure nothing bad happens to the Eye, departs.  Meeting him makes Horbin think of his old shield-bearer, Till, and wonder how he’s doing with his training.Armed with the locations of two attacks, our heroes head into the woods....</blockquote>

Verification