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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2322411" data-attributes="member: 1210">The WarehouseThe human walks swiftly down the packed earth road.  He seems to be heading towards the warehouse district.  Ari- in the form of a large dog- casually trots half a block behind him.  The man occasionally glances behind him as if half-expecting pursuit, but he pays no attention to the mangy-looking stray.  He is watching out for halflings.  After all, he did spike their drink with poison.  The man slips into a large warehouse, shutting the door behind him.  Ari watches for a minute or two, and then hurries back towards the inn where his friends are anxiously awaiting his report.  Turning back into a halfling just before reaching the door, Ari breathlessly tells the others, “I followed him to a warehouse.  Should we go attack him?”“Who is this guy?” wonders Naomi.“There might be a bunch of them,” Erasmuz points out.Nara’s eyes roll back in her head.  She starts to shake and drool.  Everyone stares at her for a moment; then she comes out of it.  “We should do it,” she says, wiping her chin.  “It would be to our benefit.“I am a prophet.  I know.”***The party breaks into the warehouse.  The main part of it is a single large, empty room.  The back wall has four doors in it.  Our heroes cluster around the leftmost one.  Erasmuz backs away- there’s nowhere to stand near that door, with everyone else up in there- and heads to the rightmost door.  It’s not locked; he opens it-Three formidable looking humans are behind the door.  A greatsword slashes out and draws a crimson line across the backpedaling Erasmuz.  “Hey, buddies, can I get some help over here?” he cries, as the poisoner and another man, wielding a morningstar, leap out and move in to flank him.  “Help!” Erasmuz calls again.But the other door has led to a threat as well- a trio of foul-looking undead!  Two of them cast magic missiles at Jawbreaker, while the third rushes forward and attempts to gouge him with its claw.  He parries, and then swings his greataxe against the undead.  It leaps back, avoiding the blow.  “I can take care of these guys,” Nara says, and turns undead.  The wight at the front squeals and scampers back into the corner, cowering.  The other two undead fire more magic missiles, this time at the prophetess; but an instant later she turns them, too.  Then she spends the next few moments finishing them off.Meanwhile, Erasmuz is dodging and weaving as the three enemies attack him.  The greatsword wielder’s blow glances off the force screen the halfling manifests, while the morningstar and sap the other two are using he dodges away from.  Ari, hoping to aid his friend, starts summoning.  Seconds later, three thoqquas appear!  Jawbreaker engages the swordsman, and the two hew at each other, sword and axe dancing a dangerous dance together.  Each scores several telling wounds on the other.  Then the thoqquas moves in on the other side of the swordsman, surrounding him!  He grits his teeth and starts cutting through them.  Wolves bound in against him as well- Ari is pulling his customary ‘army of creatures’ trick.Meanwhile, Naomi drops the morningstar-wielding assassin with a recall agony.  She turns on the wounded swordsman, who has destroyed all the thoqquas and most of the wolves, and hits him with an augmented mind thrust.  He reels and falls.“Take the last one alive!” cries Ari.  “Let’s find out what they wanted!”The sap-wielder who poisoned them grimaces fiercely and attempts to back off a pace as the others surround him.  They try- they really do- but Jawbreaker cuts him nearly in two.  “I can speak with dead in the morning anyway,” shrugs Nara.  She takes the heads of the swordsman and the fellow who slipped the poison into the party’s beer.The party searches their adversaries, and already things get interesting.  The sword wielder wore a signet ring with a griffin symbol on it.  The fellow who had wielded a morningstar wore a ring of green stone shaped into a serpent, much like the serpent-folk monks that our heroes have fought in the jungle had.  The party wonders at the significance of this.  They become more interested when, while investigating the warehouse, Erasmuz finds crates of weapons and shields.“It’s almost enough for an army,” muses Naomi.They also find a letter in some kind of code or cipher.  This they tuck away for the present.“We should leave a note for Vrem about this, so he knows,” Ari says.  The party mostly agrees (though Jawbreaker just shrugs and admits he’s not so good with “funny lines on paper”).  They compose it and leave it for him; and then they snatch a few short hours of sleep.  Then, bright and early, they rise, gather their effects and leave, heading for the ship they’ve chartered and Zacradose.Next Time: The Return of Laodegan!  The return of Weeweerinwee!  And, as always, trouble at sea!</blockquote>

Verification