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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 5580384" data-attributes="member: 5675">14th May·    Having made it through the fiery forest, the chilly mountains, the stinky swamp and even smellier camp of refugees we find ourselves on the threshold of Seaquen and the Lyceum, our pouch of secrets as heavy today as it was when we first acquired it in gatepass.·    Our plan involves delivering the box entrusted to use by Erdan Menash to deliver to a “Dougan Rambousen” and then using this connection to leapfrog our way to a man of sufficient power that we can entrust to them the resistances stolen intelligence.·    As a group with many missions and interests we quickly descend into a squabble over what to do next, resulting in Tiljan heading off on her town to try and track down Ettan-Eefi (the author of the book she was studying) with little complaint from the rest of us. ·    Torrent wishes to track down her mentor to deliver her gift (the rather weird dolphin shaped Falchion she took from Erdan Menash back in Gate pass but is happy to join us for now, she wishes to see the Lyceum.·    Kane wishes to do a little shopping but it is late in the day and many of the shops we pass are already shut, it takes a little gold and a few quick words from brick to persuade a purveyor of magical wares to keep his shop open enough for the rogue to pick out a set of silk slippers, guaranteed to improve his acrobatic nature!·    With our shopping done it is starting to get dark, as we have no lodgings we decide to visit the lyceum in the morning and for now just find somewhere to stay. We overhear a town crier blurting out new from Gatepass, he tells of Gabal the leader of the arcane college in Gate Pass along with his allies attacked and killed two thousand or more Regesians in their camp outside the city before the inquisitor broke his magical defences and a massive Red Dragon incinerated them all. With his news told he starts to walk away, brick calls after him and ask if he can recommend any place to stay.·    The crier explains that most of the hotels and boarding houses are full. The first wave of refugees that arrived with their fortunes still intact secured long term residence and now there isn’t even a stable to rent in the place. He does say that we can try our luck at The Royale, a lodge outside of town that caters exclusively for adventurers. ·    The Royale certainly lives up to hits name, a huge multi-storey structure with many outbuildings and looks like a mixture of a camp retreat and luxury resort. A group of barbarians (or Vikings, or possibly both) are gathered outside in a massed throng, as we get close enough to see through the crowd two of their number are stripped to their skivvies and wrestling, busy trying to toss the other into a large heated pool. Within the crowd money and frothing tankards change hands with equal frequency.·    We head towards the main building and are confronted by a large gaudy sign that reads “you must be this hard to enter!” and an arrow pointing to somewhere not entirely discernable. Ever up for a challenge Kane rushes forward and crashes into the thing headfirst, splitting it in two. He picks up the two pieces proudly and stomps off towards what appears to the places largest entrance (on our way in however we see many doors leading to many differently themed bars, lounges, work rooms etc.)·    Inside a hulking brute of a man waits behind a busy bar, his head shrouded by a large hood. Kane dumps the sign down “I broke it, can we come in? oh and a dri..” but before he can finish his sentence the barman has produced the very drink the rogue was thinking of, a trick the man replicates for every patron to grace his bar, and soon we find ourselves in a rather one sided conversation where he both asks and answers our questions before we can ask them and we have rooms for the night.·    Around us the many adventurers in this bar go a little silent (and not just the hooded rangers in the corner looking broody or moody or possibly both) and even the bards stop slapping each others thighs by the fire, it would seem we have to prove ourselves.·    Kane draws his dagger and hurls it towards one of the many wooden targets hanging on one wall (full of knicks and dents from previous use), the flaming dagger sets the dry wood alight, he plods over slowly, yanks the blade out and douses the flames with the rest of his ale, a fresh mug awaits him on the bar.·    Brick is quick to take up the mantle and strides to the other bards, taking centre spot and begins to sing songs and twist tales of our glorious adventure of dousing the Fire Forest and for once mostly tells the truth, people are impressive (even if they still think its all guff) and he gets a round of thigh slaps from the other bards, all except one who quickly steps in where Brick stop and tells tales of the “Sextet of Significance” his adventuring troupe, who we spy only add up to six if you count the rangers owl.o    It’s during this song where the bards silky voice is drowned by a pitiful howling from the door, a mud splattered wolfhound sits at the threshold to the bar, pining. “DAG!” roars cricket and dashes across the bar, knocking more than few drinks aside as the barbarian is reunited with his dog and spends the night happily feeding as much meat and mead as the scruffy mutt can handle.·    After a good nights sleep in large comfortable beds we awake to the glorious smell of a hog roast and come down to find a whole boar slowly roasting on a strange spit contraption, two Halfling chefs take turns, one turning the hog by running in a tread wheel while the other bastes the pig.o    It’s over this bounteous meal that Torrent tells us that she’ll be departing for a while to catch up with her mentor and to follow a few leads of her own leaving us with just Eta’Ranth as a companion.·    With our breakfast complete we return to Seaquen and the Lyceum with the aim of tracking down Dougan, on our way through the town much of the gossip we overhear concerns the refugees. (Most comments are directed to the countries now inability to feed itself and the sheer amount of additional resources that must be shipped in).·    Soon we find ourselves at the gates of the lyceum, a huge walled building that lives up to every expectation of magical school for witches and wizards! Out side in a little guard hut sits a junior wizard busy trying to light his pipe unsuccessfully with magic, Kane is quick to seize the opportunity to make new friends by thrusting his flaming dagger towards the man and wiggling it back and forth invitingly, naturally the mage is slightly distressed but lights his pipe. ·    Brick quickly takes the lead of any talking and tells him that we’re here to see Rambousen, over eagerly assuming the role of Erdan Menash (rather than merely a courier for him), the wizard turns to a little shelf inside the hut holding ceramic statues of animals and taps his wand a few times on a tiny winged mouse muttering a few weird incantation and the little mouse comes to life, and then zips off into the building proper. ·    We’re left waiting for a while but eventually are shown into a reception area and are met by a stone faced matron who introduces herself as Rambousen’s aide, and after another exaggerated discussion with the bard, we’re left waiting as she promises to relay the information but “he’s a very busy man, it may take him several hours to find a gap in his busy schedule!” and once again we are left waiting.·    However not for long, barely five minutes later we hear a commotion from within the school, steadily approaching the reception area until finally the huge wooden door cracks, splinters and then is hurled across the room slamming into a trophy cabinet, in the now open doorway stands a very angry looking dwarf demanding “who here claims to be my good friend Erdan Menash!”, everyones eyes turn to Brick, sighing inwardly, another of his tall tales gone wrong. Quickly we explain ourselves and he seems less offended when we give him a glimpse of the box and we are whisked away to his laboratory so we can talk in private.·    His “lab” as such is a large study overcrammed with literally everything, books, science equipment, tools, cobwebs, dust and far too many dirty plates, cups and glasses. He gingerly shifts aside a few stacks of papers allowing us to lean against some desks rather than sit comfortably. We hand the box over and watch as he examines it, telling him about the dwarf and sphinx that we saw on the way here (prompting him to offer several possibilities including that the dwarf may have been him and the box gives control over time, space and of course sphinxes). ·    However, he explains that the thing seems to be broken so he has no clue what it does, he believes he may be able to fix it but it requires some specialised materials (in this case a rare magically infused metal). Things that he would normally have at hand but doesn’t at the moment, the school was expecting a shipment of “academical supplies” by ship but it seems to have gone missing, believed to have gone off course and run aground into the swamp. The supplies he needs (amidst other things) are on that ship.·    Taking a scrap of paper he begins scribbling things down, thrusting it into Bricks hands he explains that another professor here at the Lyceum, a Professor Bananamhen’Vett has been put in charge of trying to find people to find the ship and retrieve the supplies, he is recommending us!.o    We also mention the resistance intelligence that we need to give to the head of the Lyceum but he is clearly enthralled by the box and offers to introduce us only after we help him, we leave the information with him, giving instruction that should something befall us he must take it to the headmaster, he assures us he will and the pouch is tossed onto the pile of so many other odds and ends and we are ushered out the door before we can protest.·    Asking a few of the students we eventually find our way through the maze like place and reach the door of Bananamhen’Vett – Master of Extreme Zoology! We knock his door and end up having a bit of a chat, he isn’t entirely convinced by the recommendation note but beggars can’t be choosers, we are the only people to respond to his ad. He explains that he was expecting a shipment of “pouncers” a group of thirty wolf sized spiders for his students to study and dissect however its highly likely the crew didn’t take enough precautions and let them escape and that’s the most likely reason for the ship running around.o    He gives us the directions to where he believes the ship can be found, based upon information gathered from local sailors. Brick uses his silver tongue to negotiate the fee up to 40gp for every live specimen and 35gp for every dead one we can bring back.·    With the deal shook upon we leave the Lyceum and head back to the Royale to fetch the wagon and along with Eta’Ranth we head into the swamp following the badly scribbled map given to us by the professor. Things are going well as we follow our map until we reach the little pencil triangles doodled on the paper, we quickly discover these to be a bunch of tumble down and plant covered ruins, which our targeted creepy crawlies have settled in.o    Of course naturally we don’t fully realise this at the time its only when a dog sized spider bounces out from a bush that the gravity of the situation hits us, much like a dog sized spider hits Kane and knocks him over.·    And so starts our first fight of the swamps, in which Kane entertains himself by swinging about on vines pretending to be Tarzen while we battle big spiders (that we find out are only the young ones…) and are harassed by a creepy looking vine monster later identified as a “Hexing Creeper”, something an evil druid turns into when he’s killed by lightning.o    <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50151.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50151.jpg</a>o    With them defeated and our ego’s only slightly bruised we load up the carcasses on to the wagon and push deeper into the ruins, up ahead is a distinctly cobwebby looking ziggurat.·    At the ziggurat we find a few more of the young pouncers and lurking near the entrance of the stone pyramid is an adult size one which indeed rivalled Dag in size (or would if the dog would come near it for comparison, but he spent most of the time near the wagon barking like the coward he is!).·    And so the battle begins with Cricket charging in and soon finds there was more than one adult pouncer and quickly finds himself once again used as bait as the arachnid menace (perhaps foolishly) surrounds him, only to be engulfed in fire, lightning, blinding powder and whatever else we can throw at them. ·    It’s during this spider butchering that something odd comes stomping from the swamp to join the fray, and can only be described as a giant rotting tree stump that clomps by on its roots.o    <a href="http://www.ff14news.com/wp-content/gallery/2010-06-15-trailer-from-e3/ffxiv_e3_2010_trailer-26.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.ff14news.com/wp-content/gallery/2010-06-15-trailer-from-e3/ffxiv_e3_2010_trailer-26.jpg</a>o    With the spiders and stumpy put in their place, we start loading the bodies (but not the stump) aboard the wagon, leaving curious Kane to investigate the pyramid entrance, which he does and finds no treasure but a bunch more spiders and quickly sneaks out to warn us. We retreat to a safe distance and prepare ourselves for a journey inside to tackle what we believe to be the nest!·    Inside the pyramid we find a long dark corridor into what was once some burial chamber, now a pantry for the Attarcops, it would appear they disturbed a few more things than dust as we also find ourselves battling the undead as well as the arachnid. Ghouls with their parazlying touch join the fray along with Elven Runefire Skeletons (fancy name) who streak about the place as ghostly fire things, setting the floor alight.o    Things do not go well for us, hemmed in a tight corridor the spiders and ghouls whittle us down as the skeletons zip about the place burning, oh so much burning and poor Elisha is killed, left a charred husk. It’s only with the timely assistance of Eta’Ranth that we survived to tell the tale. o    In grim silence we load the dead spiders and our lost companion upon the wagon, thankful that the ship isn’t too far and the majority of the pouncers are accounted for.·    After a little more wandering the ground turns more bog like, we’re nearing the coast and thus the ship, wedged between two trees she still looks like she’ll float but we have neither the manpower nor inclination to try and put her back to sea.·    Clambering aboard we search the ship finding the supplies for Dougan, and the remains of the crew, several bound and cocooned about the ship, tiny spiders feasting upon the bloated flesh (which we kill with fire!).·    Most of the other crates within the hold are smashed but we do find one very sturdy looking crate intact, emblazoned with many “FRAGILE – CONTENTS DANGEROUS – THIS WAY UP” messages and the moment someone gets near it the whole hold is drowned in a thunderous buzzing sound.·    Finding the manifest we discover that this crate contains many Stirges, a blood sucking flying insect bat like thing, highly dangerous and almost certainly of dubious legality to ship.o    <a href="http://images.wikia.com/forgottenrealms/images/d/d2/Stirge_-_Lars_Grant-West.jpg" target="_blank">http://images.wikia.com/forgottenrealms/images/d/d2/Stirge_-_Lars_Grant-West.jpg</a>·    The shipping address says that they were bound for the Royale and sensing a chance to make a little money on the side we decide to complete the delivery, gingerly we drag the crate to the wagon and we load the thing as much as possible, taking with us the Stirges, a dead elf and 16 dead spiders spread across the wagon and dragged along by Cricket and Kane on hastily made sleds.·    It’s quite late in the evening by the time we reach the Lyceum but the place is locked up tight. Kane tries knocking on the door but gets nothing but an electric shock for his trouble. WE continue on to the lodge, sending the bard in first to make contact with the barman about his missing Stirges, he directs Brick to a piratical looking shady dealer who guides us to one of the more secretive stable areas of the lodge and we help unload the Stirges for him, earning ourselves a nice bonus of 300gp.·    ·    Brick ever in the mood for illicit fun asks about saunas, massages and other relaxation services offered by the lodge… *nudge nudge, wink wink*. The pirate looking fellow says ok to the first two, the lodge handles though, but if we’re looking for something more “adventurous” he knows of a place within the town. Only Brick is interested and the man writes down an address on a small card and hands it to the Bard, our business concluded he escorts us back to the main lodge.·    The rest of us preferring a more “regular” relaxation make use of the lodge’s facilities and get good nights sleep… Leaving Brick to head into town alone, returning the next morning looking a little worse for wear, perhaps a lot more world weary and a deeply unsettling look across his face that is quickly wiped aside by a wry conspiratorial grin.A night of adventure – as told by Brick, bard of great renownAfter returning the Stirges to the Royale, Brick works his charm on the owner for an increased reward. The first thing he tries is to get an upgrade on his room; unfortunately all the rooms on the second floor are unavailable. Ever one to try his luck he suggests that rooms on the third floor would also be acceptable. The barkeep thinks for a moment and says “i don't think that you would fit in well with the people upstairs". Never one to back down easy, the bard tries a change of tact, asking about massage. The bar keeps thinks for a moment before writing an address on a piece of paper saying “go to this address and tell them that I sent you". Brick quickly gets himself in order before eagerly trotting his way to the address. When he finally gets there he knocks on the door and a hatch opens up at head height revealing a pair of eyes. "What do you want" the face asks. Brick reaches into his pocket and fishes out the letter he was given. A hand snakes through the hatch and takes the letter. It slams shut and there is the sound of multiple locks being unbolted. The door opens and Brick steps inside and now able to see the doorman, he sees strangest thing brick has seen for a while. The ogre that stands before him has really hunched shoulders giving the impression that his head is actually in his chest. The door-ogre leads him through to the next chamber, and where the first room was dingy and smelly, the second is set out in complete luxury. The door shuts behind him soundlessly and before him stands an old woman, who asks "what can we do for you then?” Brick fishes into his pocket and gives her the note. Her eyes glance quickly over the paper “you must have done something really special for him to give you our services. What sort of things do you have in mind? Something normal or perhaps you’d like to try shall we say something a little more adventurous". The goliath finds himself with an important choice, atop his shoulders rest the conjurations of his conscience, the left speaks "if we must be here just choose something normal so we can leave quickly!” the right counters immediately, his voice brimming with excitement "are you crazy we can have anything we want, choose the adventure and all our pleasures can be seen to!", spurred to action the bard realise his mouth is moving before his brain has fully decides its option, and he has agreed. He fells an odd feeling in his stomach as a little bit of his goodness slips away. "I’ll go for the adventure".The old woman smiles, a look of sincere confidence on her face as she reaches towards a desk removing two ledgers, handing it over “So what do have in mind, we can cater to all manner of tastes. Where do yours start, Man or Woman?” concern floods the bards mind, but he responds quickly “woman”, the old continues he smiles and hands the red ledger to him. “Now you choose” she says, bony fingers opening the book in his hands, each page filled with imagines of “women”. Brick opens the first one and is amazed by the images he sees. The people in the pictures look like they have been created for specific purposes. One picture shows a girl with many orifices for pleasuring more than one partner, while another has got two mouths. Some of the orifices have teeth while others don’t. Others have tentacles, Brick flicks through the images until he gets to a picture of one he likes the look of. The old woman replies "excellent choice just step through the door opposite. Roughly thirteen hours later Brick arrives back at the Lodge with a limp in his stride. His companions try to find out what happened last night but he replies by saying "You wouldn't believe me if I told you". Later that day he thinks back to his encounters last night and it occurs to him that the prostitute that he spent the night with had been mentality dominated into being willing and waiting. The thought stays with him for just a moment and quickly flutters from his mind, forgotten or un-dwelled-upon. He feels a sudden cold breeze pass through him, almost like a little piece of his soul cracked off and been blown away. The smile returns to his face and goes on through the rest of the morning grinning as if in a dream. His thoughts turn inward, to himself and how he should find a way of changing his own body in a similar way to increase his pleasure even more.</blockquote>

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