Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2817749" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twelve, “Scouting Around”, August 6th, 1018 2:00 P.M. Back on the island, with the higher-level group, Narg, Lannon and Mojo circumnavigate the northern base of the mountain, they find yet another branch of tracks, as an older set of approximately one-hundred-fifty monster-sized footprints, most probably hobgoblins or orcs from the look of it but also larger ones that the party concludes were made by bugbears. Back at the cabin on the Island, the spell-casters Immy and Timothy, with Adrianna as their fighter guardian, build their own version of a duck blind, about 100 feet north of the building, from which to launch spells from. Serita opts to stay in bird-form, and scout from above to alert the party of any approaching foes. Serita lands, altering the group that a small army of eighty to one hundred bugbears is approaching from the east on the old road, apparently having seen the flare shot up a half-hour earlier. Kruk, Narg and Mojo find good hiding spaces near the trail a few hundred feet away from the building. Serita lands on a perch atop a tree to watch from, and Lannon also takes a treetop position. Once the invading troops can be heard from a distance Immy casts an illusion of a huge sleeping red dragon, its neck, body, and tail lying in a wide oval that nearly surrounds the building. As expected, the bugbears in the lead stop at the tree line’s edge, rather than approaching the beast. Immy then has the dragon awaken, and stand threatening towards the bugbears. It launches a breath attack, causing the group of monsters to retreat. Once the rear third of this force is between them, the attack is launched by Narg, Mojo, and Kruk. They cut down many foes, receiving assistance from the dragon who Immy has head away from the cabin along the trail. After a few dozen are cut down the others flee quicker from the site. Kruk uses his Boots of Leaping and Striding to cut down the few retreating straggles. Lannon also launches an attack at some in the rear, only to have this small group set upon him. Kruk comes to Lannon’s aide, cutting these monsters down, and deciding that they are “two hit” foes. Mojo, watching this, comments to Narg about “this new guy only needs tights and a cape with a big “S” on it to complete the package.” Immy pulls out a figurine in the shape of a fly, and uses it to magically create a giant fly, on which he can ride. He quickly flies past the party’s fighters, causing Narg and Mojo to do a doubletake. "Was he on a giant fly?" asked Mojo. Narg just shakes his head and says "This surprises you why?" Mojo just shrugs. Immy decides to heads aloft above the trees. The DM asks the player “so he zips up?” The player replies yes, to which the DM comments “OK, he zips up his fly.” After the collected groan from the players, Immy continues to directing his illusionary dragon to pursue the retreating mob of bugbears. Serita also flies off in that direction. Immy lands the dragon in the midst of a large group of retreating bugbears, and launches another breath attack, dropping eleven. A group of seven is the next largest coalition of foes, so a third breath weapon is used on that group. After this, the remaining bugbears scatter individually in every different direction. Immy and Serita spend the next half hour each taking out whichever ones they can find in the immediate vicinity. The party gets back together, eventually managing to get Serita and Immy to come back to them. The party also is getting impatient with Serita not being able to communicate verbally, until Immy pulls out an Amulet of ESP to read her thoughts and translate for the party. Immy makes some suggestions, until Mojo says "Listen Bug Boy, it's kinda hard to have a serious conversation with you while you're sitting on a giant fly." They decide to not go back to the building, but instead to track the path that this group of bugbears took. The easy-to-follow trail heads east towards the mountain in the center of the island. In the woods two miles north of the school and one mile south of the cabin, the other group of adventurers stop after Blip spots movement in the woods to the east of them. Blip and Luekia investigate. Blip quickly returns to the party, telling them that it is the same group of enemies who had tracked her that morning near Milo’s cave. Since the woods and foliage are very thick in this location, and most of the enemy are invisible, they decide that this is not the best location to make a stand. They opt to hurry back to the school. Meanwhile, the higher level Silver Moon party reaches a point where their trail of bugbear footprints merges with an older group of tracks of another hundred tracks, half bugbear size, half smaller. The older group of tracks originate from the same direction, and head off on a more southerly path towards the lake and school. After a brief debate, they decide to continue following to the source of both groups (which, much to the DM's dismay, also eliminates any possibility of the two groups joining together and exchanging information anytime soon). As the higher-level group circumnavigates the northern base of the mountain they find yet another branch of tracks, as an older set of approximately one-hundred-fifty man-sized tracks join up from the same point of origin, this set of tracks heads up the north side of the mountain towards the city. Serita communicates her distress of enemies at her home, and wishes to investigate. Narg suggests that they go investigate the city atop the mountain. "Like there's a good change that the villains went up there to steal your dirty socks," comments Mojo. "If they did that then they're already dead by now," quips Lannon. Serita is adamant that she wishes to check the status of her home. Immy suggests that he accompany her, as the two can quickly fly up, assess the situation, and fly back. The other six agree to this, saying that they will continue to track the monsters to their point of origin. Immy cloaks himself in an illusion of a giant white eagle, identical to the form Serita is now in. The lower-level group continues to quickly retreated the two miles back to the school, along the path through the woods that they had made just before. From the higher spots along this path they can tell that their pursuers are following them. At the top of the mountain Serita and Immy investigate the cave of the cloud giant Herculean. Serita is distressed that he is not around, and that there are dozens of humanoid tracks present. They descend into the city, spotting a line of hobgoblins along the parameter of the bullywug’s swamp, weapons drawn. The sixty adult bullywug are all congregated around the home of the pond dragon Hokuru in the center of the swamp. Serita approaches the bullywug, and is surprised at their defensive violent reaction to her, as they thrust spears in her direction. Since a visiting large white animal is the signal for being Serita in animal form, she is does not know why they reacted to her in such a manner. She and Immy then discover that Hokuru, the pond dragon, is gone. Since the Bullywug consider him to be their god, it is no wonder that they are agitated. They debate returning but decide to first check out the rest of the city. Narg’s player comments "Half an hour to check out a marsh with frog-men, and only now they decide to go to buildings and homes as an afterthought?" They see the burnt out jeep and evidence of the fireballs that were thrown near the library. Serita becomes angry at seeing that a fireball had struck the southern grove park near her home. She and Immy next check out her home. After seeing the panther and gorilla guardians, Immy decides to keep a distance. Serita ascertains that her home is undisturbed. The only other occupants seen in the city are more hobgoblins, patrolling in groups of two, three or four. Immy and Serita decide to fly back to their party. They other group arrives back at the school, with only around ten minutes before the enemy will arrive. They decide to set up what they can for defenses, choosing the second floor of the main house is the best location to defend from. Lloyd, Jentile, and Razou take up a position in corner room. Luekia and Freyland go to the next room. Blip goes to the third room. The final room is taken by Tubur, Fiona, Parisi and Jerry. Parisi is untied, and the given his spell components for a single Fireball spell, with Tubur beside him, sword drawn, in case Parisi does anything other than he is told. They wait for their enemy to arrive, as Jeremiah goes to set traps on the two staircases to the second floor. Luekia lays out a trail of flour to detect footprints of any foes approaching under the cover of invisibility.</blockquote>

Verification