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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 1238444" data-attributes="member: 2591">Adventure 12<a href="http://www.getkoob.com/about.html" target="_blank">Koob</a> KonspiracyMalcomb of the Vacomagi (Remi Truer)A bloodlusting Rogulkan is charging me. I’m surprised, but I’m not surprised, know what I’m saying? I avoid his attack and dismount my horse, I see that his little gnome friend is taking on Gudlag, whose horse does a good job of knocking her about. Hm, guess I should start at the beginning . . .We’d saved Haradroc from a bunch of fishy-frog-guys (I wrote a song about it somewhere, what were the words, again? Never mind), Sahuaguin or something. The Eorl suggested we check out some local culture, specifically a festival of Nott in some godforsaken little Dwarf fishing village called Adaroth. Still, a party’s a party, so we, Gudlag, Kopoc, and I, headed out there to see if we could rest a little before getting back to more serious undertakings.The trip was pretty dull. I mean, yeah, there’s some pretty breathtaking 200 foot drops to the sea and what have you, but their buildings have so little style, no color, no . . . verve. We get near Adaroth, pass through a small surrounding forest and . . . well, there’s no nice way to say this but it’s a pit. Sure, there’s a big dais and some votive images of Nott (lots of chariots being pulled by goats), but overall it’s just a grubby little village. We see a dwarf bossing folks around, turns out he’s the Sheriff, and he directs us to an Inn with a hand with too few fingers. We talked our way into the room, and as drab as the town of Adaroth was, the Inn was not. It was loud, and there were all sorts of weirdoes hanging around.There was a purple guy with tusks and fine robes, there was a blue skinned fellow doing tricks for children, a Cimbri in robes, probably another sorceror, a gnome sorceror (whom Gudlag pointed out had runic tatoos for Loki on her face), and, most obviously, a very loudly complaining orc. He shouted something about ‘Going back and killing them’ to his companions, a gnome, a dwarf, and a calm-looking Losalfar who seemed to be in charge. Gudlag sent Hal the Rat over, because we’re nosy that way.They were talking about stone giants, but Hal couldn’t really ascertain any more As reward he got to swim in the lutefisk that the Inn sold. I can’t stomach the stuff, so his little show didn’t really affect my feelings about lutefisk one way or the other. It’s a food fit for rat bathing. The part of four across the room had quieted down, and so we got down to the business of finding out what was going on in town. Turns out that there was going to be three contests. The main was Koob, a throwing game that’s apparently very popular. There would also be a blind fighting competition and a sorcery competition. Prizes and honor are great, but we asked the Innkeeper if he had any information on Stone Giants, that’s where our heads were at. He said he didn’t know much, but that Thusolo 6-finger, the Sheriff might know something, as might his mother, a mystic of some type who lives in a cave outside of town. Serious business done, we haggled about a renting a Koob set from the innkeep, intent on practicing before the competition. It’s not a terribly hard game, we’re gonna kick some ass come the competition.After practicing we talked to the Sheriff, he didn’t know anything. The old woman in the cave was amusing, and Gudlag seemed to enjoy whatever smokable was in the pipe she offered, but other than confirming that, yes, there were Stone Giants around, it wasn’t a terribly productive meeting.Once we came, blinking out into the sun, Gudlag decided to take a scout around, as an eagle, and Copoc and I headed back to the Inn.  There we saw the Gnome who had been with that loud Rogulkan earlier. An idea popped into my head. “Copoc, I’m going to pretend I’m intoxicated,” I said, and threw my arm around the lizardman and began to stagger. Copoc held me up, and we stumbled into the room.“Woo! That was some strong stuff, eh, Copoc?” I exclaimed. The gnome’s head shot up. “What kind of stuff?” she asked.“Some kind of pipeweed,” I replied, “There’s this old woman in a cave we went to visit, very nice, shared with us and everything! Wheeeeee!”It worked, she started talking to us. Turns out her name was Gen, the Rogulkan’s name was Varic, the Losalfar was Haken, and the dwarf was Mert. Gen looked Copoc and I over and said that there might be some work for us, if we were interested, and to talk to Haken about it. She then sped off in the direction of the cave to, I assume, acquire some of the old woman’s smokables.Gudlag returned, but had not managed to find the Stone Giants. We quickly discussed our plan of action, and settled on a bit of subterfuge. We sent Hal ahead to the room where Gen’s crew was staying, just so I’d know what I’d be walking in to. Hal reported Haken, Varic, and Mert were all there, arguing about something (apparently Varic had peed in someone’s boot). I quaffed a potion of Glibness and walked over to their room. When I knocked, the argument abruptly ended, and Haken answered the door. “Gen sent me, she said I should talk to Varic about work,” I said.“I’m in charge,” said Haken, unamused.“Look, me and my friends could seriously help you out with your little giant problem, but we were told to talk to Varic, and that’s who my friends want to deal with.”We went back and forth, but I could see that Haken really, really needed the help with these giants. He finally acquiesced to my demand, and I took Varic with down to the common room to meet with Copoc and Gudlag.I noticed, above Varic’s head, a shimmering patch of air. I tossed a stone at it, but to no avail, it remained. Guess these guys didn’t trust their Rogulkan comrade. We set to questioning Varic. They had been searching for something in the woods when they were set upon by a couple of Stone Giants. The Giants were small, and Varic and his party managed to run them off. Varic mentioned that there were some kids there, and, “Just as I was about to put the boot to them,” the big Giants showed up, killed one of their horses, and ran the party off. Now they were looking for help to kill the giants. We asked what they were looking for, Varic started to answer, but was interrupted by the thump of men coming down the stairs. Mert and Haken rushed into the room, and managed to quiet Varic before he blurted anything out.Haken informed us that, yes, they were indeed attacked by the Giants, and they were looking for help.“What were you looking for in the mountains?” Gudlag asked, “We need to know everything if we’re going to work with you.”It went back and forth, and finally Haken acquiesced. He hurried us outside, looking around for unseen spies. When he had us out of earshot of anyone, he told us that they were looking for the tomb of an old Gnome sorcerer, inside of which was a reservoir of Wyrd. Wyrd is basically a liquid form of ‘free spells’ for Sorcerers which allows them to cast any spell they know without depleting their daily supply. Haken made it clear that he was hiring us to help get past the Stone Giants, and that he expected us to the leave the tomb to him and his party. We agreed, as long as we got the loot from the Stone Giants, convinced as we were that they were mindless killers.At that point, a Druid from a nearby town came running by. Apparently some plague had struck the town, and he was looking for Adaroth’s Druid to help out with containing the spread of the disease. The Druid had promised to oversee the Sorcery contest, and seeing Haken (who had already been asked to be a judge) talking to Gudlag, the Druid asked Gudlag to take over for him. Gudlag accepted, and the Druid ran out of town.The plague was carried in blood, and killed by creating large, open, bloody sores all over a person or creature’s body (the plague had apparently first struck the town’s cows). It sounded like a messy and unpleasant way to die, simultaneously, slowly, bleeding out and rupturing from within. Haken wanted to use this plague to weaken the Giants. Gudlag, Copoc and I voiced concerns that the plague might spread if we poisoned their water supply, but Haken assured us everything would be fine, and sent Mert and Varic out to get a haunch of infected meat. Varic was equipped with a Periapt of Health borrowed from Haken, and he also had a large, sealed waterskin to transport the infected meat to its intended targets.This made up my mind. I had gone from disliking to deeply distrusting Haken. He was endangering an entire village, and possibly more, for his greed. Even if it was a stinkhole village with no pizazz, lack of fashion sense is no reason to be killed by irresponsible sorcerers on a power kick. I suggested that we attack Mert and Varic as they returned to Adaroth with their poisonous cargo, but Gudlag and Copoc wanted to wait and see if we could understand their true purpose in all this. So Gudlag, in the form an eagle, followed Varic and Mert as they headed toward the plague town. As we left the common room, where we had discussed this course of action, I noticed Gen hiding behind a table, trying to listen in. I don’t believe she could hear us, but it made me a little nervous.Gudlag did not return until late that night. Things had taken a strange turn. He told us that he had seen Mert and Varic, after they had retrieved the plague meat, steal into the Giant’s camp, and drop some of the vile beef into the Giant’s water barrel. When they had left, Gudlag took a chance and approached the Giants, trusting in his skills, spells, and innate toughness to get him out of there if the situation got ugly. He told the Giant’s leader that their water was poisoned, and that he and his friends would help the Giants fight their poisoners. When faced with the piece of meat in their water, the Giants agreed to help us, but only if Gudlag presented Copoc and I in a day’s time to help the infected Giants. The Giants also revealed that they were looking for a deposit, said to be in the area, of a substance that blocked the aura of magic. This substance could be used to create magical gear that would not appear magical, a truly great treasure. Gudlag opined that perhaps this deposit had something to do with the placement of the Wyrd, and agreed that if we found the Wyrd, and this substance was there, we would leave it for the Giants.Gudlag had also seen Varic bury the rest of the infected meat in the ground near the camp, in case something went wrong. A flamestrike later and Gudlag headed back to tell us what had happened. Gudlag saw, on his way back, that Mert and Varic had a camp in the woods outside of town.After hearing this story, we resolved to meet the Giants as soon as possible. Copoc and I walked out of town a ways and then Copoc flew us to the Giants, while Gudlag flew ahead to make sure we’d be welcomed. We meeting with the Giants was fairly quick. I didn’t have much to add, because it was mostly talk about healing the giants in case they got sick, strictly Gudlag and Copoc’s area of expertise. They cured who they could, and vowed to have enough spells to cure the rest of the Giants the next day (there were 12 or 13 of them, of all ages). We agreed to ride with Haken and his party, but when they attacked the Giants, we would turn on Haken’s group, and drive them off or kill them. We left the Giants, and made plans of our own. We hoped to catch at least a few of them checking on the Giants health, and so Copoc and I camped out in the woods, hidden, in hopes of an ambush. Gudlag headed back to sleep in our room.The next day was fairly uneventful. Copoc flew us back to Adaroth under the last cover of night, and we all passed out from exhaustion. Hal, whom we had left to spy on Haken’s room before we left, had nothing to report. I slept while Gudlag and Copoc returned to the Giants to finish curing their affliction. When they returned, it was almost night, almost time for the festival.I have to admit, Copoc may be a freakish lizardman who hails from a strange land beyond my experience, but he is one hell of a Koob player. He singlehandedly won us the Koob championship, and did it without breaking a sweat. I entered the blindfighting contest, and after easily besting my first opponent, I went toe-to-toe with the purple Rogulkan, and lost in a real heartbreaker of a duel. He was a truly valiant foe. The last competition was the Sorcery competition. It was your usual display of wizardly flash. Fireballs, disintegration, that sort of thing. After the festivities, Haken said we should ride for the Giants, take them by surprise. I was a little surprised by this myself, but didn’t see how we could turn Haken down without arousing more suspicion. He claimed that Varic and Gen would meet us at their camp in the woods, and so we set out. The forest was dark, and as I squinted through the inky blackness, I thought I heard a twig snap. Suddenly, out of the brush, Varic leapt at me, bellowing, his Rogulkan face twisted in rage. Gen ran towards Gudlag, and Mert dismounted and leapt towards the Druid as well. They had really and truly gotten the drop on us, not that it was terribly surprising. One of them had probably seen Gudlag flying in and out of our room’s window, and Gen had tried to overhear us talking in the common room while we planned what to do about following Mert and Varic, so it was probably her. No time to think about that now! There was a battle to be won!I faced off with Varic, each of us trading savage blows. I concentrated on him so thoroughly, that I barely noticed when Copoc was set upon by wolves, or that Gudlag was in a spot of trouble. They were clearly trying to kill Gudlag first. Being a Druid his word would have been their death in town, and Haken and his crew couldn’t risk that. My greataxe sang, and buried itself deep in Varic’s flesh again and again. Finally he looked like he had been wounded to horribly to stand, but still his rage pressed him on. I landed a final blow, tearing his chest asunder, and as he dropped, I ran to help Gudlag, who looked to have taken heavy damage. A blow from Mert had dazed him slightly, and it looked as if he would not be able to cast a spell against Haken, who had teleported into a copse of trees away from the road, and was hurling lightning bolts into the fray. I whispered to the Gods of luck, and Gudlag straightened, and fired a tremendous gout of flame towards the trees, followed quickly by a  localized ice storm.Copoc finished off the wolves, but Mert managed to drop me with a swift blow from his axe. I was almost unconscious, but a few seconds later I heard both Gen and Mert fall along with their allies, and I was quickly brought back to health by Copoc’s wand of healing. We looked over the grim sight of the battlefield, and knew we had been lucky to survive this. Both Copoc and Gudlag’s spells had been depleted badly while healing the Giants, and it was our potent combination of luck and skill that had gotten us through the battle. We searched their bodies, and headed towards the Giant’s camp. They thanked us for helping them, and revealed that they had found a door, unseen on previous explorations, in the cliffs near their camp. We set out to explore this door, and hopefully find the fantastic treasures that Haken had been willing to kill a good and honorable, if extremely large, people for.</blockquote>

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