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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1814129" data-attributes="member: 1210">Bugbears in the Ruins8/1/369 O.L.G., 11:30 a.m., in the Brown HillsPicture three figures, two walking and one on a kocho.*  The two that walk are small, dwarfed by the riding bird.  The third of them is larger, still smaller than the kocho but not by much.  The bird darts its head this way and that, always on the lookout for trouble; but the travelers laugh and joke as they move along, stopping periodically for the big one to check the trail they’re following.  They trade off; the little ones sometimes ride, sometimes the big one.  The three figures reach the rest of our heroes not long before noon, and they are greeted cheerily.  Martini and Timothy were expected; but the appearance of Thelonious is an unexpected pleasure.“Where did you get the kocho?” asks Lita, amazed.“The asylum.”  Thelonious explains that, since they got separated near the Buzzing Fens after their journey through the Underdark, he was down with the buzzing bowels for some time, then made his way to the Asylum for Advanced Mental Treatment.  It had been some time since the group raided it and set all the inmates free, and word had already come that the party was on trial; so Thelonious, anticipating that he might be able to aid them from within, signed on as a guard.  When Martini and Timothy had been evaluated (with Timothy eating his food of wisdom that had been given to him by a waterfall faerie immediately beforehand), they had both come out as being all right.  “The trick, I figured out in the middle,” Martini comments, “was to answer like a Bleak worshiper.”  The others nod in understanding.  “The doctor said I’m getting better,” Timothy mumbles.  “Sure you are, Tim,” Martini says comfortingly.***3:30 p.m.The group finds some tracks in the gully they are traveling through.  “Humanoid,” nods Thelonious, “but bigger than us.  It might be some of the crazy people.”The group sets out to follow the tracks, and follows them right into an ambush.  The trail leads them up to the edge of the gully, to a path along the side of a mountain that seems to lead to the ruin of a town, and then suddenly arrows rain down on them from above!  Timothy gives a terrible warbling yell as two shafts sink into him, and he stumbles and almost drops to the ground.  Instead he stumbles into the brush and drops down below the level of the bushes, hoping to conceal himself.  He crawls, bleeding, over the edge of the path, and drags himself into a completely covered position, whimpering and groaning.The arrows are coming from a ruined building atop a plateau on the mountain.  Bugbears are within it!  Most of the party slips from shadow to shadow, from cover to cover, but Boddynock starts shooting his crossbow at the window through which the bugbears are firing.  His first bolt glances off the window.  Martini is taking a more direct approach, running forward full tilt- and then he reaches the window, and his greatsword thrusts out and stabs deep into the first bugbear’s chest!  Martini rapidly finds himself beset by a pair of bugbears with morning stars, while the last continues firing arrows at Thelonious, who is hanging back and shooting a steady stream of arrows at the foe.  Lita keeps darting in for a sneak attack or to lob alchemist’s fire and then leaping back around a corner to hide, and the bugbears seem to be becoming daunted by the fierce opposition these little halflings are mounting.  Surely they weren’t expecting that!A flaming bugbear leaps out of the ruined building, howling, and dives into the brackish water of a fountain that is a few dozen feet further into the ruin, extinguishing the flames.  Unfortunately for it, Martini has just hacked down another of its buddies, and Thelonious finishes the one in the fountain itself off with aplomb.  The final bugbear gives a last scream as Timothy magic missiles it to death.  Seeing no reason to stop when they’re ahead, our heroes quickly advance and slay several more bugbears.  Unfortunately, several of them are already wounded, and by the end of this fight, both Timothy and Boddynock are unconscious, with Timothy about as close as you can get to death without actually shaking his hand and moving in to his house. In the ruins near the fountain is a well with a large bucket and winch apparatus attached- a bucket big enough to haul a bugbear up or down.  Tossing it down the well, followed by a flask of oil, Lita observes a tunnel at the bottom.  Interesting, she thinks, and then frowns.  The oil will probably alert any other bugbears that might be in there, but at least their bucket won’t be able to haul ‘em up.  After a moment’s thought, she tosses the chain it road on to the bottom of the well, too.“I bet the other bugbears come after us,” Sandy says nervously.“What other bugbears?” asks Lita.“What do you mean, ‘what other bugbears?’  There’s always other bugbears!  Trust me on this, I’m a seasoned adventurer.  There are more.”Probably, Lita concedes inwardly.  “Well,” she says after a moment, “what do you say we trap the hole?”They both look at the well.  And smile a very halfling smile.Next Time: Bugbears in the well!*Kocho are riding birds.  They are flightless, mean carnivorous critters commonly used as mounts.</blockquote>

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