NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Chef BBQ" data-source="post: 825401" data-attributes="member: 1844">An Island in the Stream (run of 03-31-03)Unfortunately, the party left no one alive that could provide any useful information.  During the trek it had slowly dawned on the captives that this was no ordinary indentured servitude, and that they were leaving Vesh never to return.  They greeted their liberators with exhausted gratitude.  They had been fed and clothed with the bare minimum and were grateful to be alive, but too spent to be enthusiastic.  The Marja and Kenyan sat with them for a while gleaning what information they could and weaving a tale of themselves as travelers from Amalthea who just happened by at the right time.  Deke takes the opportunity to scour the Calastian belongings and finds a large trunk of gold coins.  He proceeds to dive into it like a bathtub.  Borin insists that $2,000 of the gold pieces be delivered to the Temple of Ankili as a sign that we are still determined to find the money that has been embezzled from them.  Kel is happy to deliver it.  In the morning, better fed and rested, the freed captives head back to town with Kel serving as a guardian.Marja scans the rest of the gear for magical items.  They find 2 bottles of healing potion and a bottle of a levitating potion.  They also find a wand of magic missiles.  It is a thin willowy wand which, after Marja retrieves it from Deke who stole it out of her pocket, she presents to Kenyan.  He has mixed feelings about it.  He is thrilled to have more fire power at his disposal, but would have preferred that the wand look more manly.The group heads cautiously up river.  They pass the section where they had found the large wooden planks and take a few moments to again study the strange markings on the canyon walls, but decide to head upstream before spending too much time on these mysteries.  As they travel upstream the river gets narrower, and the canyon walls get steeper forming almost a vertical enclosure.  There is just a small ledge to walk upon which is continually splashed by the river and is wet and slippery.  At one point Borin and Marja both loose their footing with Marja falling backwards into a small pool of water.  She is completely drenched.  Lucre is scandalized by how her wet clothes cling to her body and insists on walking directly in front of her, shielding her from public view, although what public might be around to view is dubious.  Kenyan takes up the position behind Marja for ostensibly the same purpose, but she questions if his motives are as pure.At any rate, the party continues on to a bend in the river.  Borin cautiously peeks around the bend and can’t believe what he sees.  Deke sneaks around and comes back with this news.  The river here has been widened by digging away at the canyon walls.  The debris from the digging has been piled into the middle of the river forming an island.  The front of the island is guarded by 4 20-foot wooden towers, each with a 7’ by 3’ slit on each side.  There is one small bridge across to the island.  It is directly below a large opening in the canyon wall from which they can here the sounds of snarling and crunching rock.  There is a pen on the island that looks like a livestock corral, but in it are several disheveled and downtrodden dwarves.  The party grows morose remembering the mutated dwarf body they found in the river.The party prepares to attack the guard posts.  Kalina casts circle of sounds so that the entire party can communicate with each other.  Deke, Borin and Lucre are invisible.  Lucre and Borin have spider climb.  Kalina takes Garnet from Marja and instructs Fang to take his cues from Marja.  Kalina then turns herself into a large pickerel, and with Garnet clinging to a fin, she swims across the river to the farthest guard post.  Once at the base of the post she transforms back and climbs the wooden structure.  Borin, Lucre and Deke make their way as quietly as possible across the bridge, through the camp and onto each of the remaining three guard towers.  Kenyan, Marja and Fang stay across the river watching from a high and hidden spot.Fang’s fur bristles.  He clearly sees something, but neither Marja nor Kenyan can tell what he’s looking at.  They send a general message of warning to the others.  Suddenly two enormous cats can be seen flashing in and out in the camp.  They have too many legs for normal cats and seem to glow with an eerie incandescence.  Borin and Lucre can see them clearly and report that they also have long tentacles coming from their backs.  While the cats can’t see the dwarves, they can smell them.  They launch an attack, but miss.The party springs into action.  Unfortunately, Borin, Deke and Marja (who is aiming at the cats) all miss.  So much for surprises.  Borin and Deke shake it off, however, and quickly dispatch their guards with little injury.  Lucre calls out that he hears someone spell casting.  A Man dressed in Black plate with a bloody mace covered with the holy symbol of Chardon steps out of the tent and casts an evil blessing.  Fortunately, it is quickly countered by Kenyan, his strong baritone cutting across the sound of the rushing river.Garnet slithers into the guard post and strikes at the guard.  Marja feels a jarring pain in her teeth as a whelping little snake says she forgot to check for chain mail.  Garnet slithers up inside the guard’s pant leg as Kalina strikes.  With the pain in her jaw, Marja fumbles throwing another ice knife at the cats and misses a third time as she hears the news that both Garnet and Kalina have missed their second attacks on their guard.  Finally, Garnet strikes greatly weakening the guard’s constitution.  Combined with the damage of Kalina’s initial charge, this is enough to kill the guard.  Borin prepares to jump from his tower and attack the Black Cleric when he feels a wave of cold spread across him.  His muscles freeze.  He is paralyzed.  Marja has one dispel magic scroll left from Morgaine.  She whips it out and casts, but fails again.  Ugh!  Poor Borin is left as a statue; fortunately he is inside the tower out of range of the cats.Fang can’t take the inaction and runs to engage the cats distracting them temporarily away from the party.  Finally, Lucre manages to kill his guard.  Even frozen, Borin gloats at killing his first.  Lucre tumbles from the tower toward the cleric.  Marja shoots a Melf’s acid arrow at the cleric, and finally hits dead on (a critical).  Kalina retrieves Garnet, turns into an owl, flies over the cleric and casts Genest’s far strike.  In the double attack the cleric drops his mace.  Lucre tumbles in, picks it up and throws it into the river.  Touching the evil weapon takes its toll, however, so Lucre activates vigor to keep himself going.Kenyan who is certainly proving himself valiant, inspires fear, and one of the cats runs away and cowers behind a tent.  Marja, Kalina and Lucre each get in another successful strike at the cleric.  Finally, Borin feels warmth return to his muscles.  He jumps from the tower, runs up to the cleric and slashes him with his great axe.  With a look of shock and dismay, he falls to his knees and dies.</blockquote>

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