Continuation of Session 17.
Meanwhile...
Milo, Alahandra and Amio are out in the woods. The tank just pulled out a little while ago, and they are sitting and trying to think of a plan to get us out. They saw a boat come out to the vans, and it looked like Orendil got off and picked up the dead bodies and heads. He got back on the boat and left. Milo suggested following the tank tracks to try and get in the back way. The only flaw was that it might be a guarded door. They see the boats coming and going every once in a while; maybe there is a way to sneak under the guns and get in through the front. Is there a wall there or is it open?
Alahandra scouts across the little channel and sees that there is a pier and some woods, but no wall and no major doors. She flies back and tells them. Then, they see another boat going out, and they see Wang on it this time. They are not sure what is going on, but they have to free their comrades! Milo suggests waiting until nightfall, swimming across the channel and then trying to infiltrate the compound. Then, once inside, they can determine what actions will be necessary to free the others.
Elsewhere...
Nick has taken Jhelai’s body and is bringing it to the Temple. The Three Frog Officer has offered him a chance to clean up, so he is led up to the Temple, but then diverted to the right. He crosses over a drawbridge and then is led to a small room where he is allowed to clean up. The room is small with very little furnishings; it might be where training priests live. When he is done, he goes with the officer back to the Temple. The officer tells him to take the body inside, and they will know what to do.
Once inside, he sees a large open Temple with a huge altar and many pews. There are six priests of various humanoid races up by the altar and they approach Nick as he enters. They inquire about the body and instruct Nick to place it on the altar. Then, they surround the body in a circle, and the head priest tells Nick to either leave or wait in the pews: this will take a long time. Nick, being curious, decides to wait in the pews and soak in the surroundings. He also listens closely to what is being said and figures out that they are not spell casting, but instead praying to the Great Frog in the Sky.
This lasts a long while, until they then pick up the body and swiftly take it behind the altar. Nick decides to follow as deftly and quietly as he can. They take the body upstairs and into a library where there is another priest, but this one looks different: he must be in charge. Right as Nick peers around the corner, he sees the high priest pull a device of some sort out of his robe. He uses this to revive Jhelai, who then starts moving and waking up! Nick runs back to the pews. After a few minutes, the priests come out from behind the altar with Jhelai in tow. He is a little dazed and confused, but otherwise he is OK. The priests say that all is done, and they are ready to go. The priests request that they come back the next day to see the service, take the tour and consider the Way of the Frog. On the way back through the Garden, Nick fills Jhelai in with the details from the past 8 hours since he died.
At the river...
The boat with Wang and the 5 soldiers pulls up to the beach where the vans ran into the flying jellyfish. They tell Wang to go get some evidence. Wang refuses. He says he can’t swim, and he would have to swim to the beach to collect the specimen. They think he nuts, but Wang sticks his ground. One of the soldiers then says, “Hey, the water is only 3 feet deep here!” Wang lost, but he made them tie a rope around him. He gets out and he soon finds some remnants, but he is not about to touch the stuff so he comes back. He asks for a container of some sort, but they didn’t have any. Then he asks one of the soldiers for his helmet. The guy thought he was crazy, but then Wang used some Zoltan Logic on him to convince him to give up his helmet.
As Wang is climbing back into the boat with the sample, he notices 5 flying jellyfish coming up from behind the boat and none of the others notice. Wang freaks and jumps back in the water and starts swimming away! They get mad and pull him back into the boat. He jumps out again. Finally, one of the soldiers mind blasts him and they get him back in the boat. Once Wang stands up, he yells “Jerryfish!” and immediately gets stunned by one of the jellyfish. The soldiers take care of the jellyfish very easily. Wang wakes up as they are on the way back.
Wang makes his way back to the Inn and meets Nick and Jhelai on the road. There was much rejoicing and they were greeted with cheers when they got to the Inn. Everybody was very happy to see Jhelai and Wang was telling stories about how he kicked jellyfish butt.
Start of Session 18.
A little later...
At the Inn, everyone has eaten and is now hanging out in the tavern. Zoltan and Wang have been drinking heavily
Out in the woods, it looks like it’s the right time. Everything’s real quiet. The plan is this: Alahandra will fly across and tell Amio and Milo if the coast is clear. Amio will swim across and Milo will try to use his ring of Water Walking. Milo offers his ring of swimming to Amio, but he doesn’t take; he thinks he can make it on his own. Alahandra flies across and gives the OK. Amio starts swimming and Milo starts walking over the water. Milo is totally thrilled that he can walk on water, but he doesn’t notice the side effect that he is coming under. Alahandra looks back to see if they are OK and notices that Milo looks really scary; he looks undead! She can’t believe her eyes once he gets to the shore. He has turned into an undead creature! As Amio is swimming across, he looks up for a split second and sees Milo too. He almost stops, but instead keeps going. Once he gets there he asks, “What happened to you?!” Milo isn’t totally sure but he figures it must be Wild Magic again. He feels totally OK; he doesn’t feel like he is undead, so he suggests going on with the plan.
For visual note, he looks like a Bodak.
Alahandra scouts up a little further, while the other two hang back in the woods. She comes across an iron fence with a gate and two soldiers, a Gnome and a Human, on watch. She approaches and is halted at the gate.
Soldier1: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Alahandra: “I’m a fairy, and I’ve come to see the Temple.”
Soldier1: “Where are you from?”
Alahandra: “I’m from the forest: from Fairyland.”
Soldier1: “Why didn’t you come in from the town?” pointing to the town to the west.
Alahandra: “I came from the other way!”
Soldier2: “Hey, let’s kill it!”
Soldier1: “No, man. You need to leave now.”
Alahandra: “Why?”
Soldier1: “You shouldn’t be here. Leave Now!”
Soldier2: “Yeah, it will be good for target practice!”
Alahandra: “All right! Screw You!”
As she turns around and flies back, the soldier fires at her but misses. The other one then calls on the radio and asks for a scouting team. She gets back and tells the others. They consider sneaking into the town, but Amio said that he wouldn’t be able to swim that far. They were getting ready to try and sneak past the guards when Amio sees two scouts, a Dwarf and a Human, coming to look for them. The fairy decides to run a diversion while the other two hide.
Alahandra darts in front of the two soldiers and starts flying away from the gate and towards the town. They try to follow but she is too erratic. She then passes over a waterway, which they can’t cross, and into the town. Her first instincts, though, are to find a place to sleep and not to find a way in for the other two. She sees an Inn not far from where she is, which also has a lot of noise coming from it, so she decides to enter. As soon as she flies in, she sees the rest of the group. They all see her and yell out “The Fairy!” Quickly they rejoice and start asking where the other two are. She is totally thrilled to see that they aren’t in jail and then goes back to tell Milo and Amio the news.
Milo has meanwhile thought of a plan: They have seen the second wall and they can see the drawbridge, which allows movement between the garden and Frog Town. Milo is going to use his ring of Climbing to climb up the wall, move along the top, then climb down the wall, and past the guards who are going to be distracted by Alahandra. When Alahandra gets back, she informs them of the fate of the rest of the group. Amio is a little suspicious, and not being part of the plan, decides to stay there. Milo decides to continue with his plan and puts on his rings of Climbing and Feather Fall. He climbs up the first wall with no problems, and makes his way down the length of the wall. Then as he starts to climb down the wall over the drawbridge, he feels his climbing ability is gone and falls off. Luckily, his Feather Fall activates. But as soon as he start falling, a blade barrier appears right under him! Somehow, by the time he lands, he totally avoids being hit by using his great reflexes, and he jumps right into the river. The guards, and Alahandra, are just stunned looking at the blade barrier. Milo swims to shore and gets to the other side of the water. He sneaks through the gate right past the guards and he and Alahandra make their way into Frog Town.
They sneak their way through the buildings, not wanting to be seen. It is late, so there aren’t too many people out, and as they approach the tavern, they can hear the activity inside. Alahandra decides to go inside and warn everyone about Milo. She goes in and tells everyone about Milo’s condition, but not everybody listens: Zoltan especially. Zoltan, Wang and some of the locals have been drinking very heavily. Then she goes and brings Milo in, as there are gasps from the whole room. Milo says, “Hi, it's me. Milo!" Just to be sure, Jhelai casts Detect Evil on him, and tells everyone that he is not evil, but all of a sudden Milo’s shadow start moving on it’s own and making obscene gestures. Most people start laughing at Milo, and he gets a little confused. Then, Zoltan notices the undead creature that just came in the door, and refuses to believe that it’s Milo. Zoltan says, “What the Hell is That!?!?!?” Everybody says, “It’s just Milo; don’t worry about it.” “No it’s not!” Zoltan yells as he starts charging at the undead creature! Milo is even more confused as he sees a drunken bull charging at him. He aims his gun at him but doesn’t fire, and instead dodges out of the way as Zoltan goes right by him and out the door!
Milo is now a little unsure of the drunken Zoltan, so he moves as far away from the door as he can. Nick is now a little pissed off at the buffoon, so he readies a Wall of Force spell to cast right in front of Zoltan in case he comes back in. Sure enough, Zoltan slams the door open, scanning the room for the creature. Nick fires it off, and Wild Magic takes it’s toll again; The wall doesn’t go off, and Nick, 5’5”, and Zoltan, 6’6”, then switch places with each other and are now wearing each other’s clothes! Zoltan screams bloody murder! Nick is wearing combat armor that is way too many sizes to large and Zoltan is busting out of Nick’s clothes. That was not the problem though: Zoltan was wearing Nick’s magic rings now!
Zoltan pulls off Nick’s ring of Spell Storing and is about to destroy it. Nick asks anybody for a gun so he can stop this imbecile, and Milo throws him a pistol. Milo warns Zoltan to stop what he is doing or he will get shot! Nick seconds the threat, but that doesn’t stop Zoltan. He throws the ring on the floor and stomps on it with all his might! Milo shoots him and gives him a minor flesh wound and Nick shoots at him and puts a hole in the wall. This doesn’t seem to deter Zoltan, though, so Orendil rushes up and tries to grab him, but can’t get a hold on him. Some of the bar maids run out the door screaming, while most of the other patrons and the bartender watch with zeal. Zoltan tries again to break the ring, and Milo threatens him a second time. This time, drunken Wang decides to get involved because they just shot his drinking buddy. He staggers up and tries to throw Milo out the door and ends up throwing himself out the door! Nick threatens Zoltan again, but can’t shoot because he doesn’t want to hit Orendil. Nick then announces that he will cast everything he’s got to stop Zoltan, and everybody scrambles. Syd gets ready to back Nick up, and Alahandra starts flying over to give Zoltan a piece of her mind! Finally, Orendil gets a hold of Zoltan, and he starts calming down. He gives up fighting except he pulls the other ring off and beams it at Nick, who is rushing over to protect his magic rings. They quickly start exchanging clothes as the remaining bar maids start giggling.
When they finally get all their clothes on and everything else is settled, Zoltan turns to Nick and says slowly, “If you ever cast magic on me again, you won’t live to cast again.” Nick returns Zoltan’s stare and with a sneer says, “I’ll be watching you!” The battle of wills had begun. Alahandra, hearing Zoltan’s threat, flew up to Zoltan and kicked him in the back. He returns the favor by spinning around and trying to swat her to the floor but misses. She gets really angry and casts Fairy Fire on him and instead teleports 50 feet away as Zoltan laughs. As she’s coming back, 5 town guards enter the tavern. Milo hides and Nick puts his hand over the blaster hole in the wall, trying to look nonchalant. They ask if everything is OK and the bartender just laughs. The guards leave, and Zoltan walks up to the bar and thanks the bartender for his good sense of humor. Zoltan orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar and gets a room for the night. Everybody else just tries to calm down. Alahandra gets back, and stays away from Zoltan. Outside, Wang finally gets up and, feeling embarrassed, he staggers off to another bar. He ends up right back at the same tavern, but he doesn’t realize it for 30 minutes. People start retiring for the night to get ready for tomorrow.
The Next day...
A little at a time, everyone comes down and gets some breakfast. Milo, thankfully, doesn’t look strange anymore, but his shadow still has a mind of its own. Jhelai and Nick say they are going to visit the Temple and most everyone else decides to join them. All of the drow techs, except for the Lieutenant, decide to stay behind and inspect their equipment. Zoltan says he is going to go fishing and he’ll see everyone later. After breakfast, everyone else proceeds to the Temple.
Zoltan goes back to the Fur Store and buys a wolf skin cape and tries to find a way to wear it. Then he goes to the pier and buys some fishing gear. While there, he asks one of the locals about the city, the walls and the guards. He really didn’t have any clue. Then, Zoltan asked about the people being led from the boats, and the local said that Slavery is a big industry in this town. They have slave auctions up in the town often. Zoltan asked who needs all of these slaves and the local didn’t know. So, he proceeded to the pier and tried his luck at fishing. As long as he didn’t see any jellyfish, he would be able to get some long needed rest and relaxation.
Everyone walking to the Temple soon got to see Milo’s aftermath from the night before; The Blade Barrier was still up and the guards weren’t letting anyone through. The guards suggested taking the ferry. They go down to the piers and find a ferry that quickly transports them over to the Garden. While walking through the garden and soaking up the scenery, they hear a whisper; it is Amio, and he is hiding in the Garden and watching and waiting. They tell him to stay put, and continue on to the Temple. When they get there, a priest meets them and they tell him what they want. The priest tells them that it is healing time, and anyone who wants to get healing can come in; everyone else will have to wait a little while.
Orendil and Milo proceed into the Temple and they see some priests attending to some of the locals up by the altar. As they approach, one of the priests asks them what they need. Orendil goes first and he is directed to another priest off to the right. Here, Orendil tells the priest of his loss. The priest understands and proceeds to cast a Restore Level spell. It works, but all of a sudden, four different colored balls appear and start flying around the priests head. Orendil, dodging the flying balls, is very grateful to him and starts to back away, as he is a little confused. The priest is quite a spectacle; so one of the locals goes up to him and starts asking about what is going on. He is then hit by the Green Ball, which flies right through him and leaves him and all his clothes very Green.
Now that everyone has seen what the balls do, they are very wary. Milo goes up to him and asks him to fix his shadow, which is still making obscene gestures. The priest tries to cast something, but it doesn’t work; instead, in a 30-foot radius around the priest, shrubberies start growing out of the floor. Milo gets even more wary of this guy and walks out to the front to meet Orendil and everyone else. The other priests dismiss everyone and start trying to remove the plants before the next service.
Outside, another priest approaches and offers a tour for anyone interested in the Order of the Frog. Alahandra sneaks into Nick’s backpack, as Syd, Nick, Jhelai, Milo and the Drow Lieutenant accept the offer. They do a tour where they see the Temple and the Training Facilities. They are then led into a meeting room on the second floor of the Temple. The priest then explains the Way of the Frog and what it entails. The Drow Lieutenant does a scan of the priest when he is not looking, and she determines that he is not human. She whispers this to Nick who tries not to react noticeably. Milo then asks about the slaves and how they fit into the Way. The priest says that the slaves are there for testing, so Milo asks if there are any female Halflings while his shadow makes a particularly lewd gesture. The priest said he didn’t know, and he was starting to get impatient. He asked if anyone would be willing to join the order, adding that if they didn’t want to then they can leave, as he is a busy man. All but Nick seemed disinterested in the priest’s offer, so he tells them to leave. Nick wants to infiltrate the Order but he says he will think about it till tomorrow, so the priest escorts him out and says to come back tomorrow if he wants to join.
The group starts heading back, as they discuss what they have learned. G’Banrak gets very angry when she hears about the slaving of her people; she wants to do something about it. They tell Amio to stay put and take the ferry back to the other side, as the Blade Barrier is still in effect. They see Zoltan at the pier, and he actually has a half-dozen fish. They walk back to the Inn, Zoltan gives his fish to the Keeper and they go to one of the larger rooms upstairs to discuss things. Most of the party wants to leave the town and continue on the original mission. G’Banrak is extremely pissed because she wants to get to the bottom of this and stop the slavery. A couple of the others, like Nick, want to stay to investigate the Order further. Zoltan wants to get his weapons back, and he doesn’t think that they can use the vans to get up to the City of the Gods. Milo wants to see if they can get them fixed. Milo also wants to buy a slave to see if they would join us. Almost as soon as he says this, there is a knock on the door. Syd answers it and a servant says that they are wanted downstairs immediately.
As they get downstairs, they are greeted by many guards and a Two Frog Officer. The Officer reports that of the scouting team that went out to Boggy Bottom, only one returned, and he seemed a little crazy. He spoke of the town being destroyed with half of the buildings gone and no people, living or dead. The Drow Lieutenant offered up the videos of the scenery for viewing, and Zoltan told a quick rundown of the events. The Officer asked what they did in response and why they were there in the first place. They repeated what they said yesterday, and were asked, again, why they said they were tourists. The group, getting a little frustrated at the same questions, finally asked about the guy on the radio. All the Officer said was that he would deal with the radio man. Then, he added that they the group was not to leave the city until this incident was fully investigated. Protesting, Milo asked to see St. Steve. Maybe, came the reply. As the Officer was leaving, Zoltan finally asked the question he has wanted to ask since he got here:
Zoltan: “I have a quick question: Why do you have so many Guards here?”
Milo: “Zoltan! Shhh!”
Zoltan: “Why do you have such artillery and weaponry if all you are doing here is fending off crocs?”
Syd: “Zoltan!”
Zoltan: “Either your crocs are 3 stories tall...”
Everyone: “ZOLTAN!”
Zoltan: “Or you are hiding something!”
The Officer said nothing, but shot a steely look at Zoltan as he walked out with the guards following.
Meanwhile...
Milo, Alahandra and Amio are out in the woods. The tank just pulled out a little while ago, and they are sitting and trying to think of a plan to get us out. They saw a boat come out to the vans, and it looked like Orendil got off and picked up the dead bodies and heads. He got back on the boat and left. Milo suggested following the tank tracks to try and get in the back way. The only flaw was that it might be a guarded door. They see the boats coming and going every once in a while; maybe there is a way to sneak under the guns and get in through the front. Is there a wall there or is it open?
Alahandra scouts across the little channel and sees that there is a pier and some woods, but no wall and no major doors. She flies back and tells them. Then, they see another boat going out, and they see Wang on it this time. They are not sure what is going on, but they have to free their comrades! Milo suggests waiting until nightfall, swimming across the channel and then trying to infiltrate the compound. Then, once inside, they can determine what actions will be necessary to free the others.
Elsewhere...
Nick has taken Jhelai’s body and is bringing it to the Temple. The Three Frog Officer has offered him a chance to clean up, so he is led up to the Temple, but then diverted to the right. He crosses over a drawbridge and then is led to a small room where he is allowed to clean up. The room is small with very little furnishings; it might be where training priests live. When he is done, he goes with the officer back to the Temple. The officer tells him to take the body inside, and they will know what to do.
Once inside, he sees a large open Temple with a huge altar and many pews. There are six priests of various humanoid races up by the altar and they approach Nick as he enters. They inquire about the body and instruct Nick to place it on the altar. Then, they surround the body in a circle, and the head priest tells Nick to either leave or wait in the pews: this will take a long time. Nick, being curious, decides to wait in the pews and soak in the surroundings. He also listens closely to what is being said and figures out that they are not spell casting, but instead praying to the Great Frog in the Sky.
This lasts a long while, until they then pick up the body and swiftly take it behind the altar. Nick decides to follow as deftly and quietly as he can. They take the body upstairs and into a library where there is another priest, but this one looks different: he must be in charge. Right as Nick peers around the corner, he sees the high priest pull a device of some sort out of his robe. He uses this to revive Jhelai, who then starts moving and waking up! Nick runs back to the pews. After a few minutes, the priests come out from behind the altar with Jhelai in tow. He is a little dazed and confused, but otherwise he is OK. The priests say that all is done, and they are ready to go. The priests request that they come back the next day to see the service, take the tour and consider the Way of the Frog. On the way back through the Garden, Nick fills Jhelai in with the details from the past 8 hours since he died.
At the river...
The boat with Wang and the 5 soldiers pulls up to the beach where the vans ran into the flying jellyfish. They tell Wang to go get some evidence. Wang refuses. He says he can’t swim, and he would have to swim to the beach to collect the specimen. They think he nuts, but Wang sticks his ground. One of the soldiers then says, “Hey, the water is only 3 feet deep here!” Wang lost, but he made them tie a rope around him. He gets out and he soon finds some remnants, but he is not about to touch the stuff so he comes back. He asks for a container of some sort, but they didn’t have any. Then he asks one of the soldiers for his helmet. The guy thought he was crazy, but then Wang used some Zoltan Logic on him to convince him to give up his helmet.
As Wang is climbing back into the boat with the sample, he notices 5 flying jellyfish coming up from behind the boat and none of the others notice. Wang freaks and jumps back in the water and starts swimming away! They get mad and pull him back into the boat. He jumps out again. Finally, one of the soldiers mind blasts him and they get him back in the boat. Once Wang stands up, he yells “Jerryfish!” and immediately gets stunned by one of the jellyfish. The soldiers take care of the jellyfish very easily. Wang wakes up as they are on the way back.
Wang makes his way back to the Inn and meets Nick and Jhelai on the road. There was much rejoicing and they were greeted with cheers when they got to the Inn. Everybody was very happy to see Jhelai and Wang was telling stories about how he kicked jellyfish butt.
Start of Session 18.
A little later...
At the Inn, everyone has eaten and is now hanging out in the tavern. Zoltan and Wang have been drinking heavily
Out in the woods, it looks like it’s the right time. Everything’s real quiet. The plan is this: Alahandra will fly across and tell Amio and Milo if the coast is clear. Amio will swim across and Milo will try to use his ring of Water Walking. Milo offers his ring of swimming to Amio, but he doesn’t take; he thinks he can make it on his own. Alahandra flies across and gives the OK. Amio starts swimming and Milo starts walking over the water. Milo is totally thrilled that he can walk on water, but he doesn’t notice the side effect that he is coming under. Alahandra looks back to see if they are OK and notices that Milo looks really scary; he looks undead! She can’t believe her eyes once he gets to the shore. He has turned into an undead creature! As Amio is swimming across, he looks up for a split second and sees Milo too. He almost stops, but instead keeps going. Once he gets there he asks, “What happened to you?!” Milo isn’t totally sure but he figures it must be Wild Magic again. He feels totally OK; he doesn’t feel like he is undead, so he suggests going on with the plan.
For visual note, he looks like a Bodak.
Alahandra scouts up a little further, while the other two hang back in the woods. She comes across an iron fence with a gate and two soldiers, a Gnome and a Human, on watch. She approaches and is halted at the gate.
Soldier1: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Alahandra: “I’m a fairy, and I’ve come to see the Temple.”
Soldier1: “Where are you from?”
Alahandra: “I’m from the forest: from Fairyland.”
Soldier1: “Why didn’t you come in from the town?” pointing to the town to the west.
Alahandra: “I came from the other way!”
Soldier2: “Hey, let’s kill it!”
Soldier1: “No, man. You need to leave now.”
Alahandra: “Why?”
Soldier1: “You shouldn’t be here. Leave Now!”
Soldier2: “Yeah, it will be good for target practice!”
Alahandra: “All right! Screw You!”
As she turns around and flies back, the soldier fires at her but misses. The other one then calls on the radio and asks for a scouting team. She gets back and tells the others. They consider sneaking into the town, but Amio said that he wouldn’t be able to swim that far. They were getting ready to try and sneak past the guards when Amio sees two scouts, a Dwarf and a Human, coming to look for them. The fairy decides to run a diversion while the other two hide.
Alahandra darts in front of the two soldiers and starts flying away from the gate and towards the town. They try to follow but she is too erratic. She then passes over a waterway, which they can’t cross, and into the town. Her first instincts, though, are to find a place to sleep and not to find a way in for the other two. She sees an Inn not far from where she is, which also has a lot of noise coming from it, so she decides to enter. As soon as she flies in, she sees the rest of the group. They all see her and yell out “The Fairy!” Quickly they rejoice and start asking where the other two are. She is totally thrilled to see that they aren’t in jail and then goes back to tell Milo and Amio the news.
Milo has meanwhile thought of a plan: They have seen the second wall and they can see the drawbridge, which allows movement between the garden and Frog Town. Milo is going to use his ring of Climbing to climb up the wall, move along the top, then climb down the wall, and past the guards who are going to be distracted by Alahandra. When Alahandra gets back, she informs them of the fate of the rest of the group. Amio is a little suspicious, and not being part of the plan, decides to stay there. Milo decides to continue with his plan and puts on his rings of Climbing and Feather Fall. He climbs up the first wall with no problems, and makes his way down the length of the wall. Then as he starts to climb down the wall over the drawbridge, he feels his climbing ability is gone and falls off. Luckily, his Feather Fall activates. But as soon as he start falling, a blade barrier appears right under him! Somehow, by the time he lands, he totally avoids being hit by using his great reflexes, and he jumps right into the river. The guards, and Alahandra, are just stunned looking at the blade barrier. Milo swims to shore and gets to the other side of the water. He sneaks through the gate right past the guards and he and Alahandra make their way into Frog Town.
They sneak their way through the buildings, not wanting to be seen. It is late, so there aren’t too many people out, and as they approach the tavern, they can hear the activity inside. Alahandra decides to go inside and warn everyone about Milo. She goes in and tells everyone about Milo’s condition, but not everybody listens: Zoltan especially. Zoltan, Wang and some of the locals have been drinking very heavily. Then she goes and brings Milo in, as there are gasps from the whole room. Milo says, “Hi, it's me. Milo!" Just to be sure, Jhelai casts Detect Evil on him, and tells everyone that he is not evil, but all of a sudden Milo’s shadow start moving on it’s own and making obscene gestures. Most people start laughing at Milo, and he gets a little confused. Then, Zoltan notices the undead creature that just came in the door, and refuses to believe that it’s Milo. Zoltan says, “What the Hell is That!?!?!?” Everybody says, “It’s just Milo; don’t worry about it.” “No it’s not!” Zoltan yells as he starts charging at the undead creature! Milo is even more confused as he sees a drunken bull charging at him. He aims his gun at him but doesn’t fire, and instead dodges out of the way as Zoltan goes right by him and out the door!
Milo is now a little unsure of the drunken Zoltan, so he moves as far away from the door as he can. Nick is now a little pissed off at the buffoon, so he readies a Wall of Force spell to cast right in front of Zoltan in case he comes back in. Sure enough, Zoltan slams the door open, scanning the room for the creature. Nick fires it off, and Wild Magic takes it’s toll again; The wall doesn’t go off, and Nick, 5’5”, and Zoltan, 6’6”, then switch places with each other and are now wearing each other’s clothes! Zoltan screams bloody murder! Nick is wearing combat armor that is way too many sizes to large and Zoltan is busting out of Nick’s clothes. That was not the problem though: Zoltan was wearing Nick’s magic rings now!
Zoltan pulls off Nick’s ring of Spell Storing and is about to destroy it. Nick asks anybody for a gun so he can stop this imbecile, and Milo throws him a pistol. Milo warns Zoltan to stop what he is doing or he will get shot! Nick seconds the threat, but that doesn’t stop Zoltan. He throws the ring on the floor and stomps on it with all his might! Milo shoots him and gives him a minor flesh wound and Nick shoots at him and puts a hole in the wall. This doesn’t seem to deter Zoltan, though, so Orendil rushes up and tries to grab him, but can’t get a hold on him. Some of the bar maids run out the door screaming, while most of the other patrons and the bartender watch with zeal. Zoltan tries again to break the ring, and Milo threatens him a second time. This time, drunken Wang decides to get involved because they just shot his drinking buddy. He staggers up and tries to throw Milo out the door and ends up throwing himself out the door! Nick threatens Zoltan again, but can’t shoot because he doesn’t want to hit Orendil. Nick then announces that he will cast everything he’s got to stop Zoltan, and everybody scrambles. Syd gets ready to back Nick up, and Alahandra starts flying over to give Zoltan a piece of her mind! Finally, Orendil gets a hold of Zoltan, and he starts calming down. He gives up fighting except he pulls the other ring off and beams it at Nick, who is rushing over to protect his magic rings. They quickly start exchanging clothes as the remaining bar maids start giggling.
When they finally get all their clothes on and everything else is settled, Zoltan turns to Nick and says slowly, “If you ever cast magic on me again, you won’t live to cast again.” Nick returns Zoltan’s stare and with a sneer says, “I’ll be watching you!” The battle of wills had begun. Alahandra, hearing Zoltan’s threat, flew up to Zoltan and kicked him in the back. He returns the favor by spinning around and trying to swat her to the floor but misses. She gets really angry and casts Fairy Fire on him and instead teleports 50 feet away as Zoltan laughs. As she’s coming back, 5 town guards enter the tavern. Milo hides and Nick puts his hand over the blaster hole in the wall, trying to look nonchalant. They ask if everything is OK and the bartender just laughs. The guards leave, and Zoltan walks up to the bar and thanks the bartender for his good sense of humor. Zoltan orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar and gets a room for the night. Everybody else just tries to calm down. Alahandra gets back, and stays away from Zoltan. Outside, Wang finally gets up and, feeling embarrassed, he staggers off to another bar. He ends up right back at the same tavern, but he doesn’t realize it for 30 minutes. People start retiring for the night to get ready for tomorrow.
The Next day...
A little at a time, everyone comes down and gets some breakfast. Milo, thankfully, doesn’t look strange anymore, but his shadow still has a mind of its own. Jhelai and Nick say they are going to visit the Temple and most everyone else decides to join them. All of the drow techs, except for the Lieutenant, decide to stay behind and inspect their equipment. Zoltan says he is going to go fishing and he’ll see everyone later. After breakfast, everyone else proceeds to the Temple.
Zoltan goes back to the Fur Store and buys a wolf skin cape and tries to find a way to wear it. Then he goes to the pier and buys some fishing gear. While there, he asks one of the locals about the city, the walls and the guards. He really didn’t have any clue. Then, Zoltan asked about the people being led from the boats, and the local said that Slavery is a big industry in this town. They have slave auctions up in the town often. Zoltan asked who needs all of these slaves and the local didn’t know. So, he proceeded to the pier and tried his luck at fishing. As long as he didn’t see any jellyfish, he would be able to get some long needed rest and relaxation.
Everyone walking to the Temple soon got to see Milo’s aftermath from the night before; The Blade Barrier was still up and the guards weren’t letting anyone through. The guards suggested taking the ferry. They go down to the piers and find a ferry that quickly transports them over to the Garden. While walking through the garden and soaking up the scenery, they hear a whisper; it is Amio, and he is hiding in the Garden and watching and waiting. They tell him to stay put, and continue on to the Temple. When they get there, a priest meets them and they tell him what they want. The priest tells them that it is healing time, and anyone who wants to get healing can come in; everyone else will have to wait a little while.
Orendil and Milo proceed into the Temple and they see some priests attending to some of the locals up by the altar. As they approach, one of the priests asks them what they need. Orendil goes first and he is directed to another priest off to the right. Here, Orendil tells the priest of his loss. The priest understands and proceeds to cast a Restore Level spell. It works, but all of a sudden, four different colored balls appear and start flying around the priests head. Orendil, dodging the flying balls, is very grateful to him and starts to back away, as he is a little confused. The priest is quite a spectacle; so one of the locals goes up to him and starts asking about what is going on. He is then hit by the Green Ball, which flies right through him and leaves him and all his clothes very Green.
Now that everyone has seen what the balls do, they are very wary. Milo goes up to him and asks him to fix his shadow, which is still making obscene gestures. The priest tries to cast something, but it doesn’t work; instead, in a 30-foot radius around the priest, shrubberies start growing out of the floor. Milo gets even more wary of this guy and walks out to the front to meet Orendil and everyone else. The other priests dismiss everyone and start trying to remove the plants before the next service.
Outside, another priest approaches and offers a tour for anyone interested in the Order of the Frog. Alahandra sneaks into Nick’s backpack, as Syd, Nick, Jhelai, Milo and the Drow Lieutenant accept the offer. They do a tour where they see the Temple and the Training Facilities. They are then led into a meeting room on the second floor of the Temple. The priest then explains the Way of the Frog and what it entails. The Drow Lieutenant does a scan of the priest when he is not looking, and she determines that he is not human. She whispers this to Nick who tries not to react noticeably. Milo then asks about the slaves and how they fit into the Way. The priest says that the slaves are there for testing, so Milo asks if there are any female Halflings while his shadow makes a particularly lewd gesture. The priest said he didn’t know, and he was starting to get impatient. He asked if anyone would be willing to join the order, adding that if they didn’t want to then they can leave, as he is a busy man. All but Nick seemed disinterested in the priest’s offer, so he tells them to leave. Nick wants to infiltrate the Order but he says he will think about it till tomorrow, so the priest escorts him out and says to come back tomorrow if he wants to join.
The group starts heading back, as they discuss what they have learned. G’Banrak gets very angry when she hears about the slaving of her people; she wants to do something about it. They tell Amio to stay put and take the ferry back to the other side, as the Blade Barrier is still in effect. They see Zoltan at the pier, and he actually has a half-dozen fish. They walk back to the Inn, Zoltan gives his fish to the Keeper and they go to one of the larger rooms upstairs to discuss things. Most of the party wants to leave the town and continue on the original mission. G’Banrak is extremely pissed because she wants to get to the bottom of this and stop the slavery. A couple of the others, like Nick, want to stay to investigate the Order further. Zoltan wants to get his weapons back, and he doesn’t think that they can use the vans to get up to the City of the Gods. Milo wants to see if they can get them fixed. Milo also wants to buy a slave to see if they would join us. Almost as soon as he says this, there is a knock on the door. Syd answers it and a servant says that they are wanted downstairs immediately.
As they get downstairs, they are greeted by many guards and a Two Frog Officer. The Officer reports that of the scouting team that went out to Boggy Bottom, only one returned, and he seemed a little crazy. He spoke of the town being destroyed with half of the buildings gone and no people, living or dead. The Drow Lieutenant offered up the videos of the scenery for viewing, and Zoltan told a quick rundown of the events. The Officer asked what they did in response and why they were there in the first place. They repeated what they said yesterday, and were asked, again, why they said they were tourists. The group, getting a little frustrated at the same questions, finally asked about the guy on the radio. All the Officer said was that he would deal with the radio man. Then, he added that they the group was not to leave the city until this incident was fully investigated. Protesting, Milo asked to see St. Steve. Maybe, came the reply. As the Officer was leaving, Zoltan finally asked the question he has wanted to ask since he got here:
Zoltan: “I have a quick question: Why do you have so many Guards here?”
Milo: “Zoltan! Shhh!”
Zoltan: “Why do you have such artillery and weaponry if all you are doing here is fending off crocs?”
Syd: “Zoltan!”
Zoltan: “Either your crocs are 3 stories tall...”
Everyone: “ZOLTAN!”
Zoltan: “Or you are hiding something!”
The Officer said nothing, but shot a steely look at Zoltan as he walked out with the guards following.
