DonTadow
First Post
Episode 31: ??? and ???? and ???? Oh My!!!!
The adventurers awoke to humid, still air. The night was not restful, as they were attacked by more strange black clouds. They managed to fend them off, but were starting to feel the events of the day. Immediately they noticed they had not felt as rested as normal, like they did not get any rest at all. In any event they decided to pick up and head along the road.
'Well, we need to look for Sardior, where should we begin', asked Vivian in a deeper than usual husky voice. 'I remember that voice...where is Vivian', demanded Nikylik. 'I have taken over to help you find Sardior. That incompetent woman' (he takes off her bra, feeling a little freer afterwards) 'has lost track of her God. I have to make sure that Sardior is returned to us, obviously Shiva and I can't leave that task to you bunch of misfits.' As he and Nikylik chat about that time when Vivian and Nikylik switched bodies, Rin notices rustling in the thick brush far off the path. She stopped, and the rest did the same.
'Shhh, listen", she said, as she crept along the path following the sound. Before the others could hear the noise, Rin jumped into the thicket and grabbed the woman that had been following them along the path. They stumbled onto the path, where the others could see them. As Rin tried to talk to the woman while wrestling with her, the others rushed to their side. Only Infrit could understand her.
'Who are you and why are you following us', he asked. The struggling woman broke free of Rin's grasp. Syxen immediately rushed in after, and helped pin the woman to the ground while the others drew their weapons and surrounded them.
'I am Sadiyah, and I was not following you', she replied in elven. 'I meant you no harm, until you tackled me to the ground and drew your weapons on me'. Feeling that the threat had been neutralized, Syxen and Rin let her off the ground. Where are you going', asked Infrit.
'I am delivering a message to someone in Hyvenshire', she responded. They continue their conversation in elven as the rest of the group appears impatient and frustrated, 'what are you talking about, who is she, where is she going', they demand, for none of them speak elven. The group looks at Infrit for translation.
'This is going to be a long road to Hyvenshire.' 'Hyvenshire, why are we going there, what’s in Hyvenshire', they ask, almost in unison. 'We need to look for Sardior. We are going to Hyvenshire, right?' as Infrit asks the question, the group hesitates until Nikylik answers reluctantly
'Yes, we are going to Hyvenshire.' Infrit translates to Sadiyah that the group wishes to travel with her to the small town and she agrees, while they continue along the path.
Sadiyah knows the dark clouds and humidity in the air spell trouble. 'There's a storm coming fast, we must take shelter immediately she tells Infrit, and leads the group to a safe cave to let the storm pass. While spending the night in the cave, Nikylik spars with Syxen with the new mace given to him by Omaro. He notices that it lights up when he strikes with it.
'Ooooooh, pretty', he says. Rin watches Sadiyah from afar, while Alexandra tries a new spell. Alexandra tries and tries, but the spell just doesn't seem to want to work. 'Curious', she says. Everyone tries to help figure out why, but to no avail. As the storm moves through, the group exits the cave and returns to the path toward Hyvenshire. Up ahead, Sadiyah spots a cage with an elf inside, yelling for help. The others hear the cries for help and wonder what they should do about it. Sadiyah is against helping, Nikylik is as well, but changes his mind when he thinks how it would be to the groups’ advantage to have a 'local' as a friend. They approach the meager cell. A 3x3 tangle of thorn covered branches.
'How did you end up in there', asks Rin.
'I came upon an adventuring group and their wizard thought it would be funny to leave me this way. Please help me, get me out of here'. Nikylik searched the cage for a lock or some opening to free the elf, but pricked himself in the process on one of the thorns and began mumbling incessantly about a ball of some sort. Syxen and Infrit take turns striking at the cage while the ash covered elf cowered inside, but their weapons did no damage to the cage. ‘How do we free you’ asks Syxen. The elf starts babbling and then he starts to make a little sense, like rhyming. Nothing like Jalentriel used to do in song, as they remembered, but something similar…at first it sounds pretty nonsensical, but then they realized it was a riddle that explained the item he needed to free himself..
After some pondering, Sadiyah determines that they need to find a nest to help the elf escape. Rin spots a couple flying creatures in the air, and gets a good idea of where they might be nesting. Nikylik, having gathered his senses, volunteers to go in search of a nest, and Rin follows closely behind. He climbs halfway up a humongous tree when suddenly he is pricked again by a thorn. This time he resists its poison, but decides to fly up the rest of the way and spies a nest out the corner of his eye.
‘It’s pretty big, too big for me. I’ll have to let one of the others grab it.’ He flies down, tells Infrit, Sadiyah, and Alexandra about the nest he found, and Alexandra decides to summon her huge viper to retrieve it for her. The snake obeys, getting pricked along the way, and delivers the large nest to Alexandra, who in turn gives it to Syxen. Syxen goes out to the road and puts the nest on top of the cage. Instantly the cage disappears, the elf says a relieved ‘Thank you’ and flies away. Sadiyah notices that it appeared as if an angel had flown away. Nikylik investigated the area of the cage and finds a silver key with celestial elven markings on it. Infrit makes out the number ‘6’ and asks that he carry it. The group instantly feels as if they’ve had an entire night’s rest, and they continue along the path.
After traveling awhile, Rin and Sadiyah both hear another rustling in the thick undergrowth along the side of the road. Before they can act, they realize they are surrounded by many tiny claw-like creatures with flattened human heads as backs. The claw creatures attack Rin and Sadiyah, attaching themselves to both and began draining fluid out of their heads. Those that don’t attack begin making a bone chilling noise, like teeth chattering, that disturbs Nikylik to the point that he cannot move or speak. Infrit walks to Rin, grabs the claw creature off her head and bites it in half. Sadiyah struggles to remove the creature from her head, but cannot grasp it. The creatures advance on the party and attack Rin, Nikylik, Alexandria, and Clayton.
The rest continue to make the horrid chattering noise. Rin and Nikylik manage to grab the creatures off their heads, but Sadiyah cannot remove the one on her, and she is now starting to feel the urge to kill herself as the creature drains fluid from her skull. Alexandra creates a fire beetle swarm to kill the creatures on Alexandria and Clayton, and kills Clayton in the process. Alexandria is injured and is picked up by Syxen and carried off the path where he waits with her. A creature attaches itself to Alexandra and another to Nikylik, while the few remaining make the disgusting noise. They are easily dispatched, but one implants the ‘death urge’ in Alexandra’s mind. She tries to do harm to herself, but the others manage to hold her down long enough for the feeling to pass. Nikylik searches the surrounding area and finds several decomposing elf bodies and a few items and strange looking coins in the thick brush.
What does that key unlock?
Is the road to Hyvenshire filled with creatures like these?
Will the pc’s make it to Hyvenshire?
Tune in next week!
Enjoy images of the characters, NPCs and Villains on the characters page.
The adventurers awoke to humid, still air. The night was not restful, as they were attacked by more strange black clouds. They managed to fend them off, but were starting to feel the events of the day. Immediately they noticed they had not felt as rested as normal, like they did not get any rest at all. In any event they decided to pick up and head along the road.
'Well, we need to look for Sardior, where should we begin', asked Vivian in a deeper than usual husky voice. 'I remember that voice...where is Vivian', demanded Nikylik. 'I have taken over to help you find Sardior. That incompetent woman' (he takes off her bra, feeling a little freer afterwards) 'has lost track of her God. I have to make sure that Sardior is returned to us, obviously Shiva and I can't leave that task to you bunch of misfits.' As he and Nikylik chat about that time when Vivian and Nikylik switched bodies, Rin notices rustling in the thick brush far off the path. She stopped, and the rest did the same.
'Shhh, listen", she said, as she crept along the path following the sound. Before the others could hear the noise, Rin jumped into the thicket and grabbed the woman that had been following them along the path. They stumbled onto the path, where the others could see them. As Rin tried to talk to the woman while wrestling with her, the others rushed to their side. Only Infrit could understand her.
'Who are you and why are you following us', he asked. The struggling woman broke free of Rin's grasp. Syxen immediately rushed in after, and helped pin the woman to the ground while the others drew their weapons and surrounded them.
'I am Sadiyah, and I was not following you', she replied in elven. 'I meant you no harm, until you tackled me to the ground and drew your weapons on me'. Feeling that the threat had been neutralized, Syxen and Rin let her off the ground. Where are you going', asked Infrit.
'I am delivering a message to someone in Hyvenshire', she responded. They continue their conversation in elven as the rest of the group appears impatient and frustrated, 'what are you talking about, who is she, where is she going', they demand, for none of them speak elven. The group looks at Infrit for translation.
'This is going to be a long road to Hyvenshire.' 'Hyvenshire, why are we going there, what’s in Hyvenshire', they ask, almost in unison. 'We need to look for Sardior. We are going to Hyvenshire, right?' as Infrit asks the question, the group hesitates until Nikylik answers reluctantly
'Yes, we are going to Hyvenshire.' Infrit translates to Sadiyah that the group wishes to travel with her to the small town and she agrees, while they continue along the path.
Sadiyah knows the dark clouds and humidity in the air spell trouble. 'There's a storm coming fast, we must take shelter immediately she tells Infrit, and leads the group to a safe cave to let the storm pass. While spending the night in the cave, Nikylik spars with Syxen with the new mace given to him by Omaro. He notices that it lights up when he strikes with it.
'Ooooooh, pretty', he says. Rin watches Sadiyah from afar, while Alexandra tries a new spell. Alexandra tries and tries, but the spell just doesn't seem to want to work. 'Curious', she says. Everyone tries to help figure out why, but to no avail. As the storm moves through, the group exits the cave and returns to the path toward Hyvenshire. Up ahead, Sadiyah spots a cage with an elf inside, yelling for help. The others hear the cries for help and wonder what they should do about it. Sadiyah is against helping, Nikylik is as well, but changes his mind when he thinks how it would be to the groups’ advantage to have a 'local' as a friend. They approach the meager cell. A 3x3 tangle of thorn covered branches.
'How did you end up in there', asks Rin.
'I came upon an adventuring group and their wizard thought it would be funny to leave me this way. Please help me, get me out of here'. Nikylik searched the cage for a lock or some opening to free the elf, but pricked himself in the process on one of the thorns and began mumbling incessantly about a ball of some sort. Syxen and Infrit take turns striking at the cage while the ash covered elf cowered inside, but their weapons did no damage to the cage. ‘How do we free you’ asks Syxen. The elf starts babbling and then he starts to make a little sense, like rhyming. Nothing like Jalentriel used to do in song, as they remembered, but something similar…at first it sounds pretty nonsensical, but then they realized it was a riddle that explained the item he needed to free himself..
After some pondering, Sadiyah determines that they need to find a nest to help the elf escape. Rin spots a couple flying creatures in the air, and gets a good idea of where they might be nesting. Nikylik, having gathered his senses, volunteers to go in search of a nest, and Rin follows closely behind. He climbs halfway up a humongous tree when suddenly he is pricked again by a thorn. This time he resists its poison, but decides to fly up the rest of the way and spies a nest out the corner of his eye.
‘It’s pretty big, too big for me. I’ll have to let one of the others grab it.’ He flies down, tells Infrit, Sadiyah, and Alexandra about the nest he found, and Alexandra decides to summon her huge viper to retrieve it for her. The snake obeys, getting pricked along the way, and delivers the large nest to Alexandra, who in turn gives it to Syxen. Syxen goes out to the road and puts the nest on top of the cage. Instantly the cage disappears, the elf says a relieved ‘Thank you’ and flies away. Sadiyah notices that it appeared as if an angel had flown away. Nikylik investigated the area of the cage and finds a silver key with celestial elven markings on it. Infrit makes out the number ‘6’ and asks that he carry it. The group instantly feels as if they’ve had an entire night’s rest, and they continue along the path.
After traveling awhile, Rin and Sadiyah both hear another rustling in the thick undergrowth along the side of the road. Before they can act, they realize they are surrounded by many tiny claw-like creatures with flattened human heads as backs. The claw creatures attack Rin and Sadiyah, attaching themselves to both and began draining fluid out of their heads. Those that don’t attack begin making a bone chilling noise, like teeth chattering, that disturbs Nikylik to the point that he cannot move or speak. Infrit walks to Rin, grabs the claw creature off her head and bites it in half. Sadiyah struggles to remove the creature from her head, but cannot grasp it. The creatures advance on the party and attack Rin, Nikylik, Alexandria, and Clayton.
The rest continue to make the horrid chattering noise. Rin and Nikylik manage to grab the creatures off their heads, but Sadiyah cannot remove the one on her, and she is now starting to feel the urge to kill herself as the creature drains fluid from her skull. Alexandra creates a fire beetle swarm to kill the creatures on Alexandria and Clayton, and kills Clayton in the process. Alexandria is injured and is picked up by Syxen and carried off the path where he waits with her. A creature attaches itself to Alexandra and another to Nikylik, while the few remaining make the disgusting noise. They are easily dispatched, but one implants the ‘death urge’ in Alexandra’s mind. She tries to do harm to herself, but the others manage to hold her down long enough for the feeling to pass. Nikylik searches the surrounding area and finds several decomposing elf bodies and a few items and strange looking coins in the thick brush.
What does that key unlock?
Is the road to Hyvenshire filled with creatures like these?
Will the pc’s make it to Hyvenshire?
Tune in next week!
Enjoy images of the characters, NPCs and Villains on the characters page.
