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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1149314" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 6, “Back to the Pass”, September 12th, 1019, 6:00 P.M.As Cassie talks to Kela and Teakas, Narg asks Gellyath about how it attacked the settlements.  Gellyath says that his team arrived after the initial attack, and goes over to get one of the refugees with the most mental stability to talk to them.    The man describes how during the attack on the village the monster opened its fanged gaping mouth to a full thirty-foot diameter and then swallowed whole an entire corral full of cattle.  Alton comments, “Yeah, I guess that my hoping it was a herbivore was asking too much.”  Cassie also now questions the man for a full description of the beast, finding that Teakas’s memory of it being a half-mile long was an exaggeration, its full length from head to tail tip being in the 400 to 500 foot range.   The caravan and the Dragon Stalkers then depart.  The party breaks into a discussion of strategy.  Mark asks, “How are we going to stop something that large?”   Mojo says, “The answer is obvious.  We put out a giant trip wire.”  “Made of what?” Alton comments.  Mojo replies, “Hey, I’m just the idea man.  You guys can work out the details.”     Alton speculates that based upon the description the monster might be an enlarged and slightly mutated version of a Catoblepas. Mark asks about the consequences of not stopping the creature.  A continent map is produced, showing that if the monster continues in a westerly direction it will cross into the heavily populated parts of the East, Zalpar, and Thenossia Lordholdings.    Cassie comments, “Hey, if it attacks Zalpar I might finally be able to get into their Mage’s Guild library.”   Mojo states, “You’d allow this creature to cause thousands of deaths and millions of gold pieces of damage just so you could steal a book?”  Cassie thinks for a minute and then replies, “I guess that would depend on the book.”  Assuming that she is only joking, the party continues discussing how to stop the monster.   Narg again reiterates the stupidity of gnolls, and how somebody else must be behind it.   They speculate that since there is a house atop the monster’s head that is probably where it is being controlled.    An idea is thrown out about allowing the creature to swallow the party whole to attack it from the inside, but nobody is willing to volunteer for such an assignment.   They discuss making the creature change direction, with Mojo commenting “If we can keep it in western Kralt there isn’t much of value for it to destroy.”   “I think the people of western Kralt might disagree,” Purge comments.   “Forget them, I say we let it just go on a rampage around Kralt,” Mojo states.  “How is that any different from what it is doing now?” Mark asks, adding, “It’s already destroyed three settlements and caused thousands of gold pieces worth of damage.”  Mojo says, “Are you kidding?  Did you look at the condition of the garbage those refugees had on their wagons?  And that was the stuff they thought was worth keeping.  You’d better revise that estimate to tens of gold pieces.”  Cassie reminds Mojo that several of the Silver Moon Adventures are originally from the western Kralt town of Byr.  Mojo replies, “Yeah, but we left all of them back on our Island, so who cares.”    “We can’t let it destroy Kralt,” Purge unemotionally restates.    Narg interjects, “Yeah we will.  Calm yourself down Pajama Boy.  We just need to figure out a way to do this that won’t get us killed.  It sounds like the Dragon Stalkers idea of a direct assault is right out.”  Alton interjects, “Even we aren’t that stupid.”   Cassie says, “Well, some of us are, which is why you brought the rest of us along.”Further brainstorming concludes that the mountain pass is probably the best place to attack the creature in.   Cassie and Alton mention to the others that some sections in the pass were fairly narrow, with high hanging ledges along the cliffs, which would allow the party to get close without being seen.   Mojo tells Alton, “Saddle up Captain Bonghead, we’re heading back to the pass.”   Alton complains again about being sick of flying.   Cassie points out to him that it would be easier to go now rather than later, as the now setting sun is still creating hot thermals for him to ride.   The party gets back into the Bag of Holding as Cassie and Alton again take to the air. During the flight north Alton continues to complain about how exhausted he is.  Cassie replies, “Earlier you said it was fun being a wyvern.”  He replies, “That got old a few hours ago.”   About an hour later they begin a slow gradual descent towards the area of the mountain pass.  While still a few miles out and thousands of feet up they determine where the path appears to be the narrowest, about four miles in from the eastern side, and fly towards that spot.   They land on a large flat ledge area overlooking the pass, and the party is let out of the Bag.  Alton remains in wyvern form, lying back and immediately falls into a deep sleep.  Before they completely loose the last glimpses of sunlight Purge and Mark carefully find a way down to the roadway 150 feet below and check for tracks.    The most recent tracks are those from the caravan that went that went through that morning.    They return back up, and report back to the others that the creature still hasn’t reached this location yet.    Mojo and Cassie contemplate trying to collapse the cliffs on both sides to block the path.   They eventually decide against it, as they have nothing to use to cause such destruction.   Cassie reminds them of their dwarven mining associates from the orient, Clan Ming, who have mastered the use of a special powder that causes great explosions.   Unfortunately, the party has no immediate way to teleport to the city of Chunming to get these demolition experts and their powder.  They decide to wait until morning to do anything, especially since it is unlikely that they would be able to get Alton to wake up.  Watches are set up, although Mark points out that “We’ll probably hear that monster approaching long before we ever see it.”</blockquote>

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