Of Sound Mind the Halfling Way

[the Jester]

Hurricane

4/9/369 O.L.G., 3 p.m.

Our heroes emerge from the hidden trap door in the middle of the leaning stone slabs to fat drops of rain. “Maybe we can go back to the village,” suggests Sandy.

“Goblin village,” Jawbreaker points out, shaking his head. Though they slew a bugbear, two hobgoblins and five goblins, our heroes are fairly sure that there are plenty more below- not to mention S, whoever that is. “Stupid goblins maybe come back. We go to hut.”

It seems like a good plan, especially with a storm kicking up; but as our heroes head into the jungle the roaring of the wind is picking up even more. The clouds have turned black as Bleak, and Jawbreaker keeps frowning as he peers up at the sky.

“This bad storm,” he yells over the increasing scream of the wind. “We need cover!”

Visibility drops off markedly; the rain is coming down in torrents. The wind is so severe that several of our heroes are almost blown away. Finally, the halflings stumble back to the village, where several straw roofs have already been torn away from the little goblin huts. Huddling together to keep from flying off with the wind, our heroes struggle into a hut and do what they can to build it up against the storm. Water streams in through the gaps in the roof that continue to tear wider with the hurricane-force winds.

“We wait here!” Jawbreaker shouts over the storm.

***

4/11/369 O.L.G., 10 a.m.

At last, after two days, the storm abates. It fades into a heavy rain, with gusty winds, but the greatest part of its fury seems spent. “Well,” Sandy points out, “we’re right near the goblins still...”

Timothy says, “Maybe we should just leave the goblins alone.”

“What!” Sandy is astounded. “You’re- look, that’s absurd. Everyone knows that you don’t leave the goblins along. Never swim in the ocean and never leave the goblins alone.”

Timothy furrows his brow. “Well, it seemed like they were okay goblins, but their chief’s advisor was bad... they were scared of him. Maybe we can get rid of him and help the goblins.”

Jawbreaker snorts. “Goblins no need help, need axe.” He grunts.

Sandy says, “Listen, if you leave the goblins alone, the next thing you know they’re stealing babies! That’s no good.”

“Oh, no!” Timothy the ever-gullible exclaims. “We can’t let them do that.”

“Right,” Sandy says cheerfully.

”I hope the boat’s okay,” comments Beau.

***

Noon

So our heroes go on another foray, striking again into the goblin warrens. This time the goblinoids seem better prepared for them; they respond more quickly, and in greater numbers, but even with a dozen of them arrayed against our heroes the goblins are in trouble. Jawbreaker chortles gleefully as he hews through red-orange flesh, and soon they storm through a door and Sandy stumbles right into a brief one-on-one skirmish with a bugbear nearly as wide as he is tall. Sandy’s feeling awfully pressed while nobody else really pays attention, until finally Timothy takes notice and a shocking grasp ends the conflict. Then a final door falls, and our heroes find themselves facing a human in worn robes. He cries out as Beau shoots his breast with an arrow, and in seconds there’s total confusion as he lets several wildly-colored parrots out of cages and they begin flying around unleashing color sprays. A lightning bolt from the human scorches Jawbreaker, but Sandy leaps clear of the crackling electricity.

There’s utter confusion for a couple of seconds as the wild colors spray all across the room, but then one of them drops with a squawk, skewered by one of Beau’s arrows. He turns his attention to the other one, but it zigs when he counted on it zagging, and his arrow flies wide. Magic missiles race from Timothy at the wizard, meanwhile, and Sandy tumbles in. “Wait!” the human cries, but the stout’s longspear doesn’t hesitate: it plunges into the man’s belly, impaling him. The wizard falls, blood vomiting from his mouth, and twitches for a few moments. Finally, another volley of magic missiles finishes the color spraying parrot.

Wiping their brows, our heroes commence looting.

***

5 p.m.

“Maybe the storm changed their plans?” Timothy says hopefully.

Jawbreaker laughs mournfully. There is no sign of the ship.

***

4/13/369 O.L.G., 7 p.m., near the top of the island

Our heroes have found bits of flotsam and jetsam over the last few days- sailcloth, pieces of a mast, smashed timbers. Nothing promising; no sign of their ship- at least, not intact.

So they have once again climbed above the goblin village, heading to a high vantage point; but to no avail. There is no sign of their boat.

However, as the sun drops below the western sea, a lithe, beautiful figure steps out of the shadows and beckons to Beau. Staring at her pale eyes, Beau gulps. He feels as if he could fall right in to those eyes, those depths... Then he shakes his head. “Ahh!” he cries, “She’s trying to charm me!”

The beauty’s face contorts in rage. She hisses.

Beau draws his sword and stabs, but the blade glances from her form. He squeals in fear, and suddenly Jawbreaker is there, his axe swinging as he pounds at the pale woman. She snarls silently and falls back, but Jawbreaker is unrelenting. His axe slices into her head, and for a second blood sprays- but then it all turns to mist. The woman collapses into a vaporous cloud and is gone.

Worriedly, Jawbreaker pokes the vanishing mist with a stick.

Next Time: Two very important individuals become known to our heroes. Watch as they meet Dogtooth, whose name has since been there battle cry! See as they name a chief! And wonder- as Jawbreaker takes a wife!!!

 

[the Jester]

Enter Dogtooth!

4/14/369 O.L.G., 11:45 a.m.

Our heroes, at something of a loss as to what to do, have moved away from the island’s heights. The beauteous woman who turned to mist seems like a decidedly unhappy sort of thing to deal with. What if she comes back? What if she succeeds at charming or controlling someone? No- without a doubt, it’s time to head down slope.

The party is traveling along a gully, with Jawbreaker stopping to check for traps periodically. He does so now, actually dropping down and sniffing at the ground in one place, and frowning. Motioning for the others to follow him, he creeps off the gully and finds a small area enclosed by brush- within which is a ragged human wearing only a torn and threadbare pair of breeches.

“Human!” cries Jawbreaker, and the man scrambles up, picking up a stick as if he could ward off a barbarian halfling with it.

“Arr, who are ye?” the man scowls at them.

Jawbreaker laughs. “Who you be?”

“I be Dogtooth, arr! And I be here because of a shipwreck.”

“Us too,” says Timothy mournfully.

“This place is dangerous,” Dogtooth opines. “Arr, the center of the isles here eats ships like you all eat food. No good, no good at all. Arr! And how long have ye been trapped here?”

“Oh...” Beau furrows his brow. “Just a few days. You?”

“Arr,” says Dogtooth, “a little longer indeed.”

***

The group hits it off with Dogtooth, and besides, a salty dog like him might well be very helpful in making their way from these damned isles. The group gladly offers to allow him to join them. He tells them, in turn, that there are goblins galore on the island. “They aren’t too bad, arr, but ya never know, so’s I try to stay out of sight, ya know,” he declares.

“Maybe they have boats,” suggests Timothy.

“You trust goblin boat?” Jawbreaker guffaws.

“It can’t hurt to check.” Beau smiles. “Maybe they have a boat they took from someone else, and we can take it from them in turn.”

Our heroes set out for the coast, and then along it, looking for a village likely to hold whatever craft in boat making the goblins might have. Soon they spot a group of the ruddy-skinned humanoids in the distance, casting nets for fish. The party tries to stay somewhat out of their field of view for the time being, moving amongst the trees of the jungle.

Then a baying sound reaches our heroes as they advance. “Wolves,” Jawbreaker snaps, pulling his axe free. In seconds the noise of a woman screaming and crashing through the brush comes through to our heroes.

“Arr,” says Dogtooth, and shimmies up a tree. He is, after all, unarmed except for a stick.

The party readies themselves. Then a female goblin bursts out of the woods, shrieking in fear. Her eyes grow even bigger and more frightened as she takes in the view of our heroes standing before her with weapons ready. But there are wolves on her heels, so she doesn’t hesitate, she just rushes past them and starts trying to clamber up a tree of her own.

The wolf pack bursts into view, a half-dozen strong. They rush forward, howling and barking, but Jawbreaker crouches behind a tree. As the first wolf lunges past following the she-goblin, he strikes out and hacks it nearly in two! Suddenly arrows are whizzing out from Beau, and Timothy has created a flaming sphere. Even Dogtooth, in his tree, throws unripe fruits at the canine heads of the party’s adversaries. The howling and harrowing barks are replaced by startled yelps and growls of fear and pain. The halflings tear into the wolves, and though they are outnumbered on the front rank, they strongly overpower the pack. Near the end of the battle, a small band of goblin warriors, pursuing the wolf pack, rushes into view, but they’re too late to do much work. Only one of the wolves so much as escapes.

The goblin woman shakily descends, crying out in goblin in a grateful tone. “She says thanks,” Timothy translates unnecessarily, but he’s interrupted by one of the male goblins. He seems very angry and he’s shouting in Jawbreaker’s face.

“What he say?” Jawbreaker is clearly annoyed.

”He says you’re trying to steal his wife,” Timothy translates.

Jawbreaker bursts out laughing. His voice dripping disdain, he says, “Jawbreaker no want goblin wife! Stupid goblins. They lucky Jawbreaker not kill them all!”

The goblin rants back at the halflings after Timothy translates this message to him. “He says he wants to fight you,” the sorcerer tells Jawbreaker.

”Bah!” In a single clean sweep of his axe, Jawbreaker decapitates the goblin. “There! Jawbreaker win fight. Stupid goblins.”

The she-goblin grabs Jawbreaker’s arm and looks down, biting her lip. She murmurs, in tongue of her people, “You are my husband now,” but only Timothy understands her.

Still, the message becomes clear soon enough. When it does, Jawbreaker can only repeat, “Stupid, stupid goblins.”

***

When the party goes to the goblin village they are feted, with Jawbreaker treated as their chief. Somehow this sticks, and from this point on, as often as not, he is referred to as Chief Jawbreaker. Timothy rapidly installs himself as the chief’s advisor- a brilliant move, given his incredible wisdom.*

The goblins were long afraid of a terrible vampire that lived in the volcano, but in recent times a stranger came and slew it. Still, the stranger missed some of the master vampire’s spawn. These deadly things still haunt the mountain, or at least one of them does. Timothy presses the group to check it out, but no one else really wants to aid the goblins. While the goblins set to building them a boat, the party explores some more of the island, fighting off another, larger wolf pack as they do. They head into the north half of the island, into a gravely land covered with sparse scrubs, where they discover that ankhegs are rather common. Our heroes easily fend off the pair of insect-monsters that come out to abuse them at various points as they explore, and in the middle somewhere they meet another goblin. This one is a little weird- he lives in a rude hut alone on this side of the island, he has bluish-purple skin and Grulka (that’s Chief Jawbreaker’s wife’s name) recognizes him instantly.

“He is named Red,” she whispers to Timothy, the only one who can understand her. “He has strange powers!” She makes a sign to ward off the evil eye.

Red, on the other hand, finds the party to be a little strange themselves; he’s never seen halflings, humans or anything quite like them. He is very curious about them; and when asked about his ‘strange powers’ he gladly demonstrates, forming a blade of psychic energy from his hand. This impresses the halflings, so our heroes, wanting all the help they can get, ask him to join them. He shrugs; at least briefly, he will do so.

***

4/23/369 O.L.G., 2 p.m.

The slope of the volcano rises before them.

Whisperclick, Martini and Timothy survey it gravely. “We’re taking an awful risk for some goblins,” Whisperclick points out.

“They are building us a boat. It’s not like they aren’t helping us.” Martini spreads his hands.

“Yeah- and besides,” Timothy says, “it’s the right thing to do.”

Jawbreaker shakes his head. “Chief Jawbreaker listen to advisor for now, but if advice turns out to be bad, may need new advisor.”

“No, it’s okay, Chief Jawbreaker,” Timothy reassures him. “Remember how easily you beat her before? It’ll be fine.”

Jawbreaker scowls. Our heroes begin their ascent.

Next Time: Into the vampire’s lair!

*Of 4, that is.

 

[Brain]

Ahh good ol' Dogtooth. Timothy's wisdom was 4 by that time I think (started at 3, stat increase at level 4) He got the advisor idea from the guy who was the evil advisor on the other island. He wanted to make sure that Jawbreaker had good advice rather than bad, like from that other advisor.

the Jester: Awesome job updating. I think you can catch up. Do it

 

[omrob]

4/14/369 O.L.G., 11:45 a.m.

?I be Dogtooth, arr! And I be here because of a shipwreck.?

Let me be the first player to throw out "+1 for Dogtooth!"

 

[the Jester]

The Return of Thelonious!

3 p.m., most of the way up the volcano

Near the top of the mountain, Jawbreaker finds the lead our heroes need. “Tracks,” he grunts, and the group troops after him as he follows them along a loosely-soiled slope. Soon the group finds a doorway. Grulka and Dogtooth back away, leaving this part to the professionals, promising to wait outside. Grulka is beaming at her husband like he’s the biggest goblin hero of all time, except he’s a halfling and doesn’t really care about stupid goblins. Martini and Whisperclick move up next to the door and the ranger throws it open.

Unfortunately, a spray of flaming oil shoots out! Martini yelps in pain and surprise and the smell of burning skin and hair wafts over to the others. Naomi starts salivating. Whisperclick throws himself aside, managing to dodge away from the oil completely, but Martini ignites like a sheet of paper!

Beyond the doorway, hordes of rats start swarming out and towards our heroes. Martini, screaming as he burns, stops, drops and rolls, and the flames on him flicker and waver. Most of them die. He spasms and shrieks as he extinguishes the rest; meanwhile, Naomi directs a swarm of crystals The rats squeak and squeal as they are slain or dispersed.

The others help bat out the remaining flames on Martini. He gasps in pain, but stands ready to fight on. Beyond the door the party traipses through several claustrophobic rooms before finally arriving at another door. Again, Martini pushes it open- this time, half-expecting another trap, with a wince. But there is no trap.

Instead, her back to them, there is the beautiful female vampire our heroes fought once before. She is in the midst of a bedroom, standing before a mirror in which she throws no reflection. But our heroes do. Surely she can see them.

Martini rushes forward with a yell as Red steps in and his psychic blade extrudes from his hand. The others begin to push through the door as well.

Poised dramatically, the vampire spawn whirls and catches Whisperclick’s eyes with hers. She smiles a crimson smile, and the gnome’s eyes go blank. He whirls and attacks Naomi, who jumps back with a yelp. “Hey!” she shouts.

Meanwhile, Martini leaps forward with a great two-handed blow of his greatsword. He feels an eldritch resistance to his blow, and though it should have dropped a normal woman, she only grunts slightly. Then she leaps lithely on top of her bed and strikes at the charging Chief Jawbreaker. He yells, slamming his axe into the bed at her feet, but misses her legs; however, he throws her off-balance enough that she misses him too.

Whisperclick keeps trying to stab Naomi until she gives him a psionic suggestion to go kill the vampire. He swings away for a moment, torn by conflicting commands, and seems unable to make a decision.

Timothy hurls volleys of magic missiles at the she-vampire, then sets her bed alight with a flaming sphere. She leaps over Jawbreaker and swings at him again, but his armor takes the blow intended for his body. Martini thrusts in and stabs her again, then while she recovers he swings another mighty blow into her chest! Blood sprays all over the room, sizzling in the flames of the bed, even as Red cries out in dismay as his psychic blow fails to deal any damage to the woman that they’re fighting. Her mocking laughter taunts him. Then she whirls and lands a blow across Naomi, who winces as she feels her energy siphon away. The vampire’s wounds are healing noticeably.

“Ragh!” shouts Jawbreaker. He casts his axe down, lifts the flaming bed, and slams it into the vampiress, pinning her against the wall! “JAWBREAKER!!!!” he howls at the top of his lungs. She hisses, struggling against the raging barbarian’s strength, and suddenly Whisperclick steps in, stabbing harshly at the Chief. Jawbreaker howls in rage but keeps the vampire pinned long enough for Naomi to manifest a swarm of crystals on her. Then she dissolves into mist and reforms only an instant later, free of the burning bed. Jawbreaker lets it crash to the ground and scoops up his axe again, casually parrying another of Whisperclick’s stabs. “You stop,” he growls warningly at the gnome.

Then, suddenly, another swarm of crystals is all around him. It blasts Jawbreaker, Whisperclick and the vampire, and when his eyes clear, only he is still standing.

“Oh no!” cries Timothy, “Whisperclick!” He rushes to bind up the gnome’s wounds, saving his life- albeit barely.

“Quick, we need to find its coffin,” says Martini. “Everyone knows you need to stake a vampire in its coffin.”

It takes our heroes less than ten minutes to find the coffin in question. Within it, eyes closed, still as death, is the woman. A jagged wooden stake is quickly pounded into her chest. Her eyes bulge open for an instant, and then she is still.

“We’re pretty beat up,” gasps Naomi, limping from the stabs that Whisperclick had delivered to her. “Maybe we should go back to the goblin village in case there are more of them.”

“But the goblins told us that there was only one left,” Timothy objects.

“And it’s a hell of a climb,” Martini points out, wincing as he bandages his own wounds.

The party searches around but finds no sign of any other living (well, existing) vampire. Timothy, as the chief’s advisor, advises resting here; Jawbreaker announces his decision. “We camp here,” he tells his tribe.

***

4/24/369 O.L.G., 8 a.m., the beach near the goblin village

“I wonder what all the commotion is this morning,” remarks Beau.

Woken a little early by a lot of goblin chatter, our heroes have trooped out to the beach to see what’s up. There is a body washed up on shore- a human! As our heroes watch, it twitches and moans, which sets the goblins to murmuring fiercely. A few have their spears cautiously readied.

“It can’t be,” murmurs Martini, “but I think it is- Thelonious?”

With a groan the human drags himself upright. “Martini?” he gasps. “Then you’re alive! I was so worried...” He nearly collapses.

“Let’s help him to the village,” Naomi snaps. “Some food will do us good.” She’s salivating again. “I mean, him.” She picks at her teeth.

Thelonious, it turns out, has been a few weeks behind our heroes for months. He reached Ulborey a few weeks after they did, and left a few days behind them. But then a hurricane came up- “We know the one you mean,” Naomi assures him- and his ship was dashed to splinters. “I feared the worst,” he groans. “So many of my clan have died- it’s terrible- I want to help protect you all, my adopted kinfolk.”

“Well, you’re just in time,” Timothy says. “The goblins are building us a boat... we’ll be leaving in a few days!”

“Thank the gods,” Thelonious sighs. “I was getting so tired of trying to catch up with you!”

“Well,” says Naomi, “you’ve caught up. Now don’t get killed or anything, or we’ll have to eat you!” She grins and chuckles as if joking.

Next Time: A gnome on a rope! Will Whisperclick survive??

 

[the Jester]

4/27/369 O.L.G., 2 p.m.

Timothy and the goblins keep screeching at each other in that hideous tongue that the goblins use. Disgusting, thinks Naomi, but keeps it to herself. She feels another pain in her chest. Psychosomatic, no doubt- a symptom of what she has lost. She can feel the void where it used to be within her; powers she can no longer use, things she had understood that now have slipped away...

She curses the vampire under her breath.*

“Oh, Naomi, the goblins can’t help you,” Timothy reports at last. Naomi feels crushing disappointment wash over her. “But,” he goes on, and hope kindles, “they say that there is a strange temple to the ancestors where strange things happen, and maybe they can help you.”

“Where is this place?”

“On the next island.” He smiles. “And they’ll be done building our boat tomorrow or the next day!”

“Great,” she mutters.

***

4/28/369 O.L.G., 3 p.m.

“I think there’s a ship out there! Hey, I think I say a ship!” Beau is very excited. He gathers his friends quickly. “It was behind one of the other islands, but I swear I saw it!”

“Could be, arr,” agrees Dogtooth. “I’ve seen several vessels in the time I’ve been here. But beware! Arr!! Ain’t no good reason to be here, and any man savvy enough with a ship t’ navigate these waters is bound to be formidable, if ye gets my drift.”

“Uh,” answers Timothy, “what?”

“Pirates, lad,” Dogtooth growls. “They be pirates.”

Beau’s enthusiasm wilts at that.

***

4/29/369 O.L.G., 6 a.m.

Bright and early our heroes set out across the water in their goblin-made canoe. It has outriggers on either side to add stability, but it was built by goblins. Our heroes doubt whether it will last too long in a storm.

“Arr, and don’t forget- the waters in the center of these islands chew ships like tabaccy,” Dogtooth growls. “Arr.”

It takes our heroes about six hours to make it to the next island, but the weather is fair and they snack extensively on the way. Dogtooth teaches them some old sea shanties, and the group sings happily on their way.

It starts to sprinkle a little when they finally reach the next isle. The party spots a large goblin village but chooses to avoid it for the time being. Dogtooth steers their little boat around an extrusion of the shore and along a cliff, hopefully out of view.

“I wonder if we’ll find those spices,” Beau says suddenly.

“Yeah, and isn’t there a big diamond or something somewhere on these islands?” Naomi adds.

“It’s a lot of land to search,” Whisperclick points out.

Naomi shakes her head. “I just want to find these ancestors and get healed.”

***

4 p.m.

The party circumnavigates almost the entire island, and to their chagrin the only place where a landing could be attempted is near the goblins. “Arr, that be no good,” Dogtooth remarks. Grulka, cringing next to Jawbreaker, keeps her goblin hand on his arm.

The party elects instead to attempt to send a man up the cliff. There are mangroves with their great roots; the rise in only about 30’. Dogtooth does his best to steady the boat, though the sea is getting rougher here. The party debates who is going to climb up first to secure a rope. “Halflings always die when we start climbing,” objects Thelonious. Whisperclick first volunteers, then chickens out. Finally, Thelonious, annoyed with the level of indecision, starts clambering up. He ties the rope to himself and then swims over to the cliff. The sea threatens to pound him against it, but he manages to clamber up and out of the waves. He reaches the top of the little cliff and fastens the end securely to a stump.

Then a terrible spider monster attacks him from behind, and he has nowhere to go. He fires his bow as it closes on him, then begins a dance of steel with the hideous orange monster. “Hold the rope below! Monster! Hurry, help!!” he shouts.

Whisperclick, meanwhile, studies the situation and starts to clamber up the rope. Unfortunately, he slips into the water with a splash! “Fool, you should let me secure it first!” Naomi cries, tying off the lower end with that salty dog Dogtooth’s help.

The others start firing bows and clambering up the rope. Thelonious darts around, firing arrow after arrow at the creature at point blank range. It squeals and hisses, rushing in to take more and more bites out of the human ranger. And then- just as it moves forward to attack the archer again, Jawbreaker darts in, crashing into the monster’s side with a heaving blow of his axe. Black ichor spurts everywhere, and the thing spasms, then curls up and rolls over like a dead spider.

“Sheesh,” says Thelonious shakily. “That... that could have killed me.”

“I’m so sorry,” says Whisperclick. “I should have gone first.” A strange lassitude seems to have come over him since he donned Martini’s old helmet.

***

6 p.m.

Our heroes move upslope towards the center of the island, having already noted the presence of some ruins near the center. They slay a goblin on the way up, and eventually must take their rest as the fat summer sun goes down and night opens its eyes.

***

5/1/369 O.L.G., Noon

Finally, after several days of travel, our heroes reach the ruins of the ancestors. For some strange reason, the gnome ties a rope to himself before entering. The single good-sized building that still stands reveals its secrets to them. Empty except for rats and glyphs of warding, which harm but do not kill our heroes, the danger is nonetheless enough that Whisperclick attempts to flee up a nearby set of stairs. Amused and annoyed both, Beau grabs the trailing end of the rope that Whisperclick had tied around his waist and pulls him down the stairs, which proves to be a painful and humiliating fall. At the bottom, Whisperclick staggers to his feet angrily, and he and Beau come to blows; but Timothy separates them with a flaming sphere, which also burns through the rope, and Jawbreaker bonks the gnome over the head with the flat of his axe, trying to stun him into submission without killing him.

Beau, on the other hand, feints; and as the gnome tries to parry the fake blow, the halfling rogue slips through his guard and stabs him in the vitals, putting him down.

“Oh no! Whisperclick!” exclaims Timothy in distress. “Why were you guys fighting?”

“He was being a coward!” Beau cries. “I didn’t want him to run away again!”

“Stupid gnome,” Jawbreaker mutters.

“We could eat him,” Naomi offers helpfully.

“Nobody’s eating anyone,” declares Beau.

“How about sacrificing him to the ancestors?”

“No!” Timothy interjects. “Chief Jawbreaker, as your advisor, I advise you not to sacrifice the gnome.”

“Welllll...” Beau chuckles.

Jawbreaker cuts off debate. “No killing. If he not be nice when wake up, we leave him on island.”

“Fair enough,” Beau nods.

“Yes! Listen to Chief Jawbreaker.” Timothy smiles enthusiastically. “No killing!”

“Bah,” mutters Naomi.

***

4 p.m.

The ancestors are long-gone, apparently; but when Naomi cuts her hand and drips blood on their altar, she finds herself in a weird state of communion with something. A spirit? Perhaps a long-passed ghost? Who knows? Whatever it is, Naomi walks away from it with a restoration and a quest.

“There’s an idol,” she tells her adventuring companions. “It belongs here, but someone took it. We have to find it and bring it back.”

“Okay, fair trade- idol for your powers,” Jawbreaker nods. “Where idol?”

“On one of the islands, probably the next one.”

“We’re makin’ the rounds, arr, sure enough,” Dogtooth growls.

The party begins trekking down towards the sea. Evening is setting in, and just before the chief is going to call a halt they are fortunate enough to be attacked by dire bacon- that is, a dire boar. They slay it with magic and blades, and soon they’ve begun roasting it.

“I like these islands,” Beau sighs. “They have lots of things to eat on them.”

Next Time: Death strikes our happy little group!!


*That’s right, she lost a level when she failed to throw off a negative level. Ouch! That’s the worst!

 

[the Jester]

Heh... so I'm now only 26 collective games behind in my story hours (not counting the Early Years- heck no! ). "Only" 26 games behind is a lot better than the roughly 30-35 behind I was until my recent massive flurry of updates. Expect More!!!

I'm trying to get caught up enough that I can actually keep up with each game and post it across the week between sessions. That's my dream, but I'm not sure it's realistic. If I can pull it off, though, there will be some cool rewards:

1. The updates will be much more accurate, since the memory will be fresh rather than, oh, 4 months old or so.

2. The players will be able to find out pretty much exactly what happened last game if they missed all or some of it.

The drawback is (at least in the Epic story hour) I don't know if I can show as much 'off-screen' stuff. Maybe make it more 'face hidden in shadows' kind of stuff...

Anyway, that's my dream.

 

[the Jester]

A Tragic Loss

5/4/369 O.L.G., 11:30 a.m., in an outrigger canoe just off an isolated tropical island

A pleasant light rain falls upon our heroes as they move towards the next island. It often rains in the afternoon here. Naomi fairly itches to retrieve the idol of the ancestors. The others are more than willing to help her. Dogtooth pilots the vessel adroitly, and the canoe starts to skim across the waves away from the island when suddenly a red streak falls from the sky. Dogtooth cries out a hoarse surprised curse and staggers. He’s bleeding.

“What in Bleak’s-“ he cries, then shouts in dismay, ducking and covering his head with his arms as another two blood-red birds slash down at him.

Bows and crossbows come out; Martini draws his greatsword and stands ready.

“Dogtooth, are you all right?” cries Timothy. He blasts one of the hawks from the sky with a volley of magic missiles. A few arrows fly at the hawks, but they dodge quickly and then make another pass, flying down-

Martini swings, cutting one of the deadly birds in half in a spray of blood.

The other hawks flash by, dragging trails of crimson gore in Dogtooth, dealing a ripping blow to Martini’s shoulder and slashing Whisperclick across the face. As the hawks wheel away again, Martini can feel his strength flagging. Those claws are vicious, he realizes. I’m bleeding severely... looks like the gnome is too. Gritting his teeth, he casts down his blade and unlimbers his bow. He starts firing arrows, sinking one after another into the scarlet-plumaged birds. They wheel in again, but Naomi dives behind cover and Martini dodges aside as well. Several of the birds have fallen, but the others, oddly, seem intent on fighting to the end. Combined with the color of their plumage, Martini abruptly realizes, These are blood hawks! Very dangerous, very vicious... and carnivores. He continues firing arrows- there are only three birds left, and then two, as another round of magic missiles blasts another down and wounds another so severely that it spirals down onto the water. Martini fires another arrow, and with a squawk another blood hawk falls into the sea! And a final one- Martini is quite good at firing rapid shots- and the last bird dies.

“No,” Naomi’s voice comes to him, choked with emotion. Fearing the worst, Martini turns.

Naomi is weeping over Dogtooth, whose eyes are wide open, staring sightlessly into the distance.

”NOOOOOO!!”

Our heroes weep and moan over their fallen friend. “Dogtooth was our best buddy here,” opines Timothy. “He knew so much, and even when he didn’t have a weapon he’d throw a coconut or unripe mango at a bad guy!”

His tale grows in the telling. “Remember that time when Dogtooth saved us from the goblins?” sighs Beau. “Ahhh, Dogtooth!” He wipes his eyes.

Eventually, it gets kind of creepy staring at his corpse in the boat with them.

“We can’t just dump him,” Whisperclick exclaims.

“It’s a burial at sea,” Martini replies. “That’s what you do when someone dies at sea.”

“Can’t we just take him with us to the next island?” Timothy asks, then looks at the corpse and blanches. “Wait- never mind.”

After a considerable debate, Martini and Jawbreaker heave the corpse overboard, but through a quirk of fate the currents generated by the boat draw it behind our heroes until they reach the next isle.

***

The party spends a few days investigating the island, but finds nothing of real interest. On their way to the next isle, a group of sahuagin rises from the sea and demands tribute for safe passage; in return, Jawbreaker intimidates the hell out of them and they flee without a fight and with far less than they demanded. It’s very impressive, and when it’s over, Jawbreaker declares, “Fish-men smart. They know leave Jawbreaker alone.” He guffaws.

Soon enough our heroes reach the next isle. Timothy keeps an eye on the waves, half-afraid he’ll see Dogtooth- and, more than once, in the distance, he’s convinced he does.

***

5/7/369 O.L.G., 2 a.m., the next island

Beau wakes Martini up. “Your turn to watch,” he murmurs. Martini nods and sits up. He takes a moment to stretch, then pulls out his bow. The low embers of their fire gives out more than enough warmth for a night like this. Beau hunkers down, putting his gear away- and pulling something out.

“Hey Martini,” he says, “I forgot to give this to you- it’s yours. I saved it for you when you died.” He proffers Martini’s helm.

The ranger stares at it for a moment.

“Well,” Beau says cheerfully, “good night!” And he crawls into his bedroll, leaving the helm next to the fire.

Martini stares at the helm some more.

Some days back, after fighting the vampire, the party had found a magical gem. When they diced for it, Martini won. After a moment, he puts the gem in one of the helmet’s settings. Then, slowly, biting his lip, he pulls the helm over his face.

Next Time: Our heroes start to find themselves in some trouble with the locals. Watch out, halflings! There are some pretty bad dudes on this island!

 

[the Jester]

I don't think words can express how funny the whole Dogtooth thing has become. This game took place almost 5 months ago, and Dogtooth was only in 2 or 3 games, yet he is invoked probably every single game by my players. That +1 for Dogtooth listed above? I hear that every time we game. For Dogtooth! has become the party's battle cry. They even named these frickin' hidden lil islands they've been tromping around the Dogtooth Islands!!

 

[Brain]

Anyway, that's my dream.

I fully support your dream. Let me know if I can do anything to help.

I don't think words can express how funny the whole Dogtooth thing has become. This game took place almost 5 months ago, and Dogtooth was only in 2 or 3 games, yet he is invoked probably every single game by my players. That +1 for Dogtooth listed above? I hear that every time we game. For Dogtooth! has become the party's battle cry. They even named these frickin' hidden lil islands they've been tromping around the Dogtooth Islands!!

Part of Dogtooth's mystique is that he had a little too much insight into the ways of pirates, but yet he was a benevolent friend to the halflings. So in short, he had piratey goodness without all the piratey badness (at least from my point of view).

Dogtooth lives on, and I'm sure he is awaiting us in the promised land.