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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1429442" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Foe They Couldn't Hurt!The next door opens to reveal a room with trophies- animal and human heads- mounted on the walls.  A few old, decayed weapons are likewise displayed.  “Oh, this place is so dirty, watch out, kids,” Mama chides, stepping in and looking around warily. Something moves with a metallic scraping sound, lunging from the shadows in the corner of the room.  Serpentine in form but clearly made of metal, it lunges at Mama, narrowly missing her!  She gives a dismayed yell- ambuscaded again!Federico starts singing in a warbling, yipping voice, helping his clan focus on victory.  Brother He leaps forwards, his hand chopping out at the iron cobra, but though he hits it he clearly doesn’t damage it!“Watch out,” he cries.  “It’s pretty tough!”  He dances around it, but it lunges not at him, but rather at Mama again, and this time its vicious bite hits with surprising force!  Mama feels a burning sensation as the snake’s mechanical fangs pump some sort of poison into her and she yelps with dismay.Federico starts trying to hit it with missiles, first hurling his dagger and then firing his crossbow.  Nothing he does- nothing any of them do!- seems to hurt it!  The snake lunges at Brother He, and he flips adroitly aside, dodging its blow.  “I don’t think we can hurt this thing!” he says.Mama scowls, pulling a large sack from her belt.  “There’s more than one way to skin a snake,” she says.  “Grab it!  We’ll tie it up in a sack and leave it under a rock!”Brother He nods, lunging at the metal snake.  It moves quickly, drawing back out of his reach and then striking in; but he is just as quick, maybe quicker, evading the cobra’s strike and snatching it about the neck!  “Got it!” he cries, wrestling with the writhing iron cable of its body.Quickly they manage to get it into the bag and tie it shut.  Then Brother He and Mama put a large piece of rubble on top of it, followed by another and another; and finally, it seems as though any danger of it getting out of the sack is past.A search doesn’t turn up anything worth taking; so our heroes proceed to the final door, which leads to an old bedroom.  It’s in pretty bad shape; again, there isn’t much worth taking (though they do find a few cheap glass gems and Federico takes some crushed velvet from within a drawer to attach to his hat).“I think we’ve explored this place pretty thoroughly,” Brother He comments.  “We should return to the old druid with Bromworth’s head and get Hamstring, the sword we came for.”  The others nod, and the group returns to the old druid’s cabin.  As they approach they can hear horrendous coughing; and once they go inside they find that the old man is on the very edge of death.  His rheumy eyes don’t see so well; he clutches Mama’s arm as she approaches his sick bed and wheezes something to her.  He seems to think she’s someone else. ”The map,” he gasps.  “Beneath the green stone.  At the well, south of Bellhold... cough cough...”  His licks his lips one last time, gives out a final gasp, and expires.“Uh,” says Trinia, “what about Hamstring?”A search of the old man’s cabin turns up a small rapier quite quickly; and it’s back on the road for our heroes, after a night’s stay in his cabin (they bury the body of the dead druid as a sign of respect, but being primarily kind of lazy halflings they don’t dig too deep).  In the morning they have a big breakfast before they leave; then, a few hours down the road they stop for elevensies.Well-fed, rested, content, our heroes set off whistling for Bellhold, since it’s on the way to the gathering site.Next Time: Brother He starts developing his own style of combat!</blockquote>

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