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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1604170" data-attributes="member: 1210">A Little Jam Returns to Benjy PeachtreeOur heroes travel towards Blackwood.  They follow the remains of an ancient road let go to ruin until it leads to a depression.  The clouds begin to drop rain off and off throughout the day.  As the group descends into an area of lower ground, they find themselves moving through a boggy area.  The rainwater from the intermittent rain over the last week or two have run down and collected in this area, leaving the ground soft and muddy.  As the group proceeds, they find themselves stepping at times into ankle-deep mud or soggy deposits of moss.  Thus, it’s only natural that Phenol Sandybanks (called Sandy by his friends, including us) would leap onto a log to avoid a pool of mucky water; and it’s just plain unfortunate that, as soon as he steps off it and onto a nearby rise of moss and grass, it raises its long snout from the water and takes a bite at him with its sharp yellow teeth.“Crocodile!” cries Mama.The croc’s snap takes Sandy in the left leg and almost pulls him from his feet; but those Sandybanks are slippery, and he twists free and backpedals away from it.  His leg is bleeding profusely and he’s limping handily.  Mama Flapjacks frowns at the crocodile.  “You leave those kids alone!” she chastises.  Her hand gropes at her belt and she pulls out her mace.  Gripping it firmly, she gives the beast a stout blow to the nose!Federico dismounts clumsily, then casts mage armor on Ethel, his riding dog, who has already sprung forward bravely, snarling and snapping at the crocodile.  The reptile must be 6’ long, not even counting its tail!  It’s bigger than any of the halflings!The crocodile ignores a sling shot from Sandy, its legs churning as it bears down on Mama.  Water sprays violently as it snaps with its long jaws, this time seizing Mama Flapjacks about the waist.  “Mama!” screamed Federico.Mama struggles heroically as another sling stone whizzes harmlessly past her and the croc.  For a horrified moment, our heroes think that this is it; this is Mama’s last moment.  And then, with a terrific effort, she breaks free and rolls away, savaged but alive.  Federico springs forward, using his bardic magic to heal some of her wounds.  She stands and heals Sandy in turn.Meanwhile, Ethel and the croc have squared off, snapping at each other in a blur of bites and movement.  The crocodile clubs the dog with its tail, eliciting a loud yelp from her.  The dog’s strength is flagging, but suddenly, from the other side, a longspear crashes into the crocodile’s rear leg!  Sandy, thanks to Mama’s curative magic, has moved into melee- and into flanking.  Better still, his blow knocks the crocodile over onto its back!*  It scrambles to get up, but both Ethel and Sandy press the attack as it does, and Sandy skewers it to the ground.  It takes a few moments for it to stop moving, but then he jerks his spear free.  The group harvests the crocodile’s corpse; not only can Mama cook the meat and some of the organs up, several of our heroes take trophies and fetishes.  Then the group moves on.  Wary, of course, of floating logs.***The stars are just starting to peek out when the group reaches Blackwood.  As they approach- they can see a number of lights, either pouring from windows or fires lit outside.  As they approach, Federico suggests that they get their story straight. “Let’s say we tracked the kobolds down,” he begins.“And most of them got away!” interjects Mama.“And maybe they were working for some big bad guy or something,” suggests Federico.  “A demon, or a dragon or something.”“I say we know nothing,” Sandy opines.  “Try to keep it simple so that we don’t trip ourselves up.  We’re better off the less we know about them.  Let’s just say that we tracked them down and slew most of them, but that some got away; and we didn’t really ask what they wanted.  Why would we?  We were after the jam.”Everyone generally agrees that this course might be wisest, and indeed, about thirty minutes later when they find Benjy Peachtree at the Displacer Beast, that is pretty much what they intend to tell him.  They go to his room and knock at the door, announcing themselves and that they’ve come to return what they’ve recovered of the jam.The door opens and Benjy Peachtree scowls at them.“Here you go!” Federico says cheerfully.  “Um, and I think you should pay us or something.”Peachtree frowns at the small amount of jam remaining in the jar.  He glances up at the kobold and answers coldly, “You volunteered.”  He closes the door on them, and the sound of the bolt being thrown is clearly audible.  “No, wait!” cries Sandy.  “We didn’t mean that bit about paying us- ah, crap, too late.”  He sighs heavily and the group moves off. After some quiet discussion they decide to stake the place out and follow Peachtree to find out what he’s using.  It seems to be the only way; attempts to gain his trust seem to have fallen flat.  Sandy watches Peachtree’s window from the grassy area behind the building.  Federico takes a shadowed corner table in the common room.  Mama goes to purchase supplies in anticipation of pursuing Peachtree.  After she does, she keeps a discrete watch on the Displacer Beast’s front door from the porch of the Three Legged Blink Dog across the street, knitting as she waits.  Benjy Peachtree notices Sandy outside, surmises that he’s being watched, and exits his room, pausing only long enough to gather a few precious items- including the remaining jam.  As there’s nobody watching the hallway upstairs that his door opens onto, he’s able to slip downstairs and outside, right past Federico, unnoticed.Fortunately for our heroes, Mama sees him hurrying off, and after a discrete moment, she rushes across the street to fetch Federico, then signals for Sandy.  Together they follow Benjy Peachtree, trying to be subtle.Next Time: Where the heck is Benjy Peachtree sneaking off to?  What is the secret ingredient?  And how will the party deal with Benjy?  All the answers- and probably none that you expect!*Thanks to my ‘colorful critical hit’ system, where a crit deals a lil extra fun.</blockquote>

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