Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2853001" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twenty-two, “Kale’s Message“, August 7th, 1018, 6:00 P.M.Immy then tells informs Aradyn that he is going back inside.   Aradyn finds a safe spot in the woods, and releases Blip and Luekia from the bag of holding. Aradyn, Blip and Luekia spot distant movement in the woods, and go to investigate, running into Jerry, Kharole and Jaime.   Jerry briefly explains how he got them out the back window.  “Let’s get back to that window,” says Luekia, and she takes the lead.Immy makes it into the front room, and casts an Improved Phantasmal Force, creating an illusionary group comprised of Narg, Mojo, and several burley fighter-types.    It takes a few rounds for Immy and his illusionary party to get around the confused hobgoblins and back to the door to the rear room.  Immy opens the door, to see that Guice, Isaiah and Furynick have been moved to the rear wall (and hit with another Hold Person spell) and placed alongside Beulah and Silas, and that four of the human enemies surround them.    Immy does not see the Mage, and starts to have his illusionary troops charge the room.    Just as Immy starts to go through the doorway, the invisible mage lets loose with a Lightning Bolt into the illusionary party, which Immy barely manages to dodge out of the way of.   He has the illusionary party react as if they were hit, and has a few of the fighter types drop.   The bolt also takes out several hobgoblins, more in fact than the party had during this entire encounter.The mage orders the party to stop or she will kill the hostages.   Immy tries his hand at brinkmanship, and has the illusionary Narg order the enemies to surrender instead.    “Take one more step and I kill hostages,” she answers.   By this point Luekia is at the back window, and hears this exchange.  Immy does not back off, having the illusionary Narg character press on.    The mage orders one of her men to kill a hostage, and one of her fighters begin to thrust his magical sword towards Isaiah.  The sword starts to cut into Isaiah’s neck before Immy finally realizes that she is not bluffing, and he then has his illusionary party back off.  The Mage orders Narg and his group to lay down their weapons and leave, that this will be their only chance.   Immy finally has his illusionary party do as commanded.    The mage has twenty hobgoblins clear a path to let them out.   As they and Immy leave, the mage tells them that any further attacks on this building will result in an immediate execution of a hostage, without any further warnings.The near-assassination on Isaiah had broken the hold on him, and the enemies permit him to cast Cure Serious Wounds on himself to stop the bleeding and partially heal the wound.    The enemies then tie and gag him to prevent him from being able to cast any more spells.   Guice and Furynick are also bound before the second Hold Person wears off.Immy makes it out of the door as his Invisibility spell wears off.  He finds his way through the woods, and reunites with the others.    They question Immy as to what has taken place during the past half-hour.   He apologizes for misinterpreting the original plan.   The group assesses that Jaime and Kharole are currently in no shape to be of much help, even though Kharole is in favor of mounting a full frontal assault on the building.   “So we gained two, and lost three” is Blip’s summary.  “And we didn’t even get a first round draft pick,” Guice’s player mutters.Jaime is very concerned about has happened to her children.    They relate to her that the children were taken away in a ship, but that Vincenzo was free, and followed after the ship in Merman form.  They also say that when they last saw her daughter Jentile, she was fine and with a lot of the rescued ship’s crew, and carrying Jaime’s magical sword (being careful to omit the fact that, as far as this team knows, that group is now missing).Immy says, “All may not be lost, I have a plan.”  Luekia cuts him off, saying, “You plans have sucked.  You almost lost the entire party.”   The group discusses the situation, and they conclude that they should probably fly to the tavern to meet up with the high-level party.    The comment being “Maybe we should regroup somewhere safe, like the Kralt Lordholding.”Immy volunteers to remain behind to watch this building.   The group shows some hesitation to this.  Immy emphasizes how the enemy may try to move the prisoners, and how he could still help to stop them.   Jerry interrupts him, saying “We’re not leaving you here Ryan, Mycroft or whatever you name is.”   Not getting Jerry’s reference to the two former party members best known for their incompetence, Immy starts to question why not.  Jerry tells him “No offense but I do not know you or trust you.”   Jerry concludes that someone with thieving skills should stay behind, and that he is in the best shape currently, other than Blip who has to play taxi, so he should be the one to stay.    Immy casts Invisibility on Jerry, and the rest of the party get into the bags of holding.  Blip picks up the bags and flies off eastward on the broom, again staying low and between the trees.Inside the building, Buella, Furynick Guice, Isaiah and Silas were moved away from the exterior walls of the building to the center of the room while still under the enemy’s second Hold spell.  The number of hobgoblin guards around them was increased and the other hobgoblins were assigned to peer out the windows, with a minimal number put into position in the now falling rain outside of the doors.  The enemies locked the door and stacked furniture in front of it.The female magic-user, which the others called Valerie, told the fighter called Donovan “I’m going to go get Jo-Ann’s team.  You are in charge until I return.   Kill two of the hostages if you are attacked again.”   She then teleported away.  The enemy cleric, called Machelle, exhausted her cures healing himself, the monk and the two thieves.  Isaiah was then forced to use his own remaining cures on these enemies, upon the threat of the execution of Buella if he did not cooperate.Back in the city, the group in Phormosah's house plans what to do next.  Kale enters the building through its front door, into a room with a long hallway and two interior doors.   Listening at one of the doors, he hears voices on the other side.  Peering through the keyhole, he sees adventurers who match Ki-Geloryn’s descriptions of Narg and Timothy.   The party has stripped all three of the dead and unconscious enemies of their possessions, and is discussing what to do next, when they hear a knock on the door and voice yell out  “Yo, Silver Moon Dudes!”    They open to the door, to see the odd-looking man that Blip had seen in the city two hours earlier, discovering that the blue and green striped fur hat that Blip described is actually the man’s hair.   His armor is a shiny gray, to which Mojo comments that “I’m not sure, but I think that he skinned a heating duct.”Weapons drawn, they party lets the man enter the room.   He says “Like, I’ve been trying to catch up with you guys.”  He starts to explain that Derieki and Ki-Geloryn had sent him, but  mangles the pronunciation of both names, calling them Del Rickey and Key Grain, which takes the party a few minutes to figure out who he means.  The man introduces himself as Kale, and says that his father and Derieki had previously adventured together, and that Derieki sent him to give them a message. The game shifts back to the group back at Crystull's house, the DM describes it as being Vincenzo with a house full of thirteen children.   “Sounds like the sixth level of Hell” is Mojo’s player’s response.   It is decided that this group will stay put where they are for the night.Moving on to the next group, Blip continues to fly in a roundabout manner, avoiding all buildings during her flight to the tavern.   The suggestion is made that while flying on her broom she should spell out the message in the sky “Surrender Morgarth”.  Blip’s player points out that she has nothing to use to write such a message, and it suggested that she take Razou with her, as he has lots of ways to create interesting smoke.  She stops in the woods near the tavern.  The other group does not appear to have arrived yet, which concerns Blip.  She lets out the majority of the party, leaving Immy alone inside of his own bag of holding.  Lono's group continues on their path towards the Silas family home.   Along the way, Lono checks out Fiona’s house, finding it surrounded by bugbears.   They eventually arrive in the woods near the Silas home, at which point Jentile’s hobgoblin-detection sword starts to glow, causing Lono to exclaim “Dare’s hobgoblins in dem dare woods.”   Lono moves forward to scout out the building, hearing a voice say “Lono, it’s Jerry, I’m invisible.”  Jerry asks Lono who is with him, getting the answer “I have most of the Green Bay Packers, who do you think?”   Jerry asks what he has for spellcasters, to which Lono, after thinking of D.C.,  replies “about all I have is a Kheogten’s rocket launcher.”  The two exchange information, then Lono has Jerry accompany him back to the others.   Jerry becomes concerned when he sees that they have three prisoners with them, fearful that the prisoners might make noise to alert the other enemies nearby.  Jerry is also concerned about Jentile, and says that they should get her back to her mother Jamie.  “But then she’ll want her sword back,” is Jentile’s comment.   Jerry asks Lono “Have you figured out where we will spend the night?”  Lono answers “Gee Jerry, usually I like to be romanced a little before we get to that.”  Jerry slowly counts to ten, then says “I meant the group!  We now have thirty people, which is way too many people to fit into Freyland’s cave, where I’ve spent the past two nights.”  Jerry suggests that three of the lizardmen crewmembers stay to scout out the building, as the rapidly approaching rainstorm won’t effect them much, and that they can also quickly escape via the ocean if necessary.  The lizardman Haas is put in charge of this trio, due to his prior experience adventuring with the party.Lono takes charge of the rest. It is decided that he will lead them to the school, where they can stock up on supplies, then move on to Crystull’s house, which Kruk confirms appeared to have been vacant when the party teleported in the previous day.   It is felt that this building is in an isolated enough location that the enemy won’t wander upon them, allowing the group to rest up for the night.  (Which the DM is happy to say will finally get all four groups together in one place, to hopefully help relieve the player confusion of “who knows what” that has been developing during the module).Jerry volunteers to travel to the tavern to inform the others of the plan to go to Crystull’s once they finish there.    While still invisible, he approaches the small barn near the Silas estate, and quietly makes off with one of the party’s horses that the enemies had stolen, being careful to stay out of the line of sight of the hobgoblin guards back by the cabin.  Back in the City, in Phormosah’s house, the high-level group is dealing with the odd man named Kale.  They ask about his odd-colored blue and green striped spiked hair.  “This is my doo,” he answers “like, this is the way it is done.”  Lannon comments that “You look like a rabid raccoon is on your head.”  “What’s a raccoon?” he asks.  A few more cracks are made at his expense, to which he says “Dudes, you’re mocking me.”  Narg comments “Get used to it.”   Fiona states that “Either Alton’s gonna love him or..”  “smoke him,” Mojo interjects.  Narg says to Kale “Let me offer a bit of advice, get a little less flashy.”   They ask Kale what his message was, and he relates the following (again, mispronouncing most names):“This morning, in the Thenossian coastal city of Halla, Lord Kindor called a meeting with himself,  the Jawlt Lordhodling leader, the Thenossia Lordholding leader Queen Jennifer, the Aldorn Lordholding leader Lord Aldorn, Lord Aldorn’s magician daughter Aldoria, and four of the eight Jawlt Council members: Army Commander Tenbar, Navy Commander Waller, Security Chief Melito, and Diplomatic Liaison Ki-Geloryn.”  “Pretty much everybody except us,” Serita comments.Kale continues: “Ki-Geloryn told them what he had discovered about Morgarth’s threats yesterday to the Silver Moon in the city of Cantage.  All eight present at the meeting agreed that they needed to help the Silver Moon.  Attempts were made first to magically view the Silver Moon party, and then to teleport to the island itself, which both proved to be unsuccessful.  They concluded that Morgarth had erected a magical barrier around the island.    After a short debate about strategies, a plan was put into action.  The news of the impending substantial hurricane ruled out sending troops directly to the island, as the ships would not be able to reach their destination prior to the storm.  It was decided that Ki-Geloryn would teleport himself, Tenbar, and Waller on to the Jawlt Lordholding town of Gelorynth, where Ki is the ruler.  From there, Tenbar and Waller would each begin to mobilize the Jawlt Army and Jawlt Navy respectively, moving them to Gelorynth, the closest community in Jawlt to Silver Moon Island, sixty miles northeast of the island.  The Jawlt military would then set out for Silver Moon Island once the storm passed.   Queen Jennifer had no formal military of her own, but anticipated being able to quickly muster together in Halla a contingent of 250 to 300 troops comprised of Halla city guards, retired soldiers and mercenaries.”  Mojo interjects “Plus a few old lovers and a cranky Boy Scout.”Kale continues “Jennifer immediately commandeered four large merchant ships currently docked in the city.   Along with her own warship, Thenossia’s Pride, she planned to then sail these forces east to the Thenossia town of Grammel, sixty-five miles northwest of Silver Moon Island.  Once the storm passes, they also will set forth for Silver Moon Island.”    “Kindor realized that these reinforcements might arrive too late, so the other four at the meeting embarked upon a different mission.  It was decided that Aldoria would teleport herself, Aldorn, Kindor and Melito, to Modvicton, the capital city of the Zalpar Lordholding.  Lord Kindor and Lord Aldorn would then set up a meeting with the Zalparian leaders to apprise them of the return of the Zalpar Lordhodling’s long-time enemy Morgarth, and then work with the Zalpar Magicians Guild to try to ascertain his current whereabouts.   Aldoria and Melito would pursue a parallel strategy, attempting to find whatever current information they could about Morgarth through their own contacts within the city.”   “Great,” comments Narg, “I hope they find him.  I want to clean that guy’s clock once all of this is done.”Kale goes on: “Ki-Geloryn teleported his trio to Gelorynth.  He made arrangements for temporary housing for the Jawlt military troops that would soon arrive.  He also realized that it was important to try to get a message to you dudes, the Silver Moon.   Working with the town’s resident Mage and long-time Silver Moon ally, Derieki, they discovered that the anti-magic shell extended out twelve miles beyond the island itself.  They were fearful that sending anything magical through the shell would either fail completely, or send out an alarm to Morgarth, so needed to come up with a non-magical means to quickly get word to the Silver Moon.”“That’s when they got a hold of me” says Kale.  “Derieki and my dad had adventured together, and Derieki knew dad was an excellent sailor.  Dad wasn’t home when Deriki arrived so I volunteered to come instead.  He teleported my sailboat right outside of the barrier around six hours ago, and I sailed in and trekked up here.”   Narg asks what else he saw.  He tells of the group of enemies who had the prisoners, describing them as a group of lizardmen and a bugbear with a few humanoids.  To this Serita interjects  “That was us you stupid idiot!”  Kale is taken aback by the insult.  Freyland apologies for her, telling Kale “You have to understand, she’s had a really bad day.”   “How can you tell if she’s having a bad day?” asks Mojo.   “On a good day, her anger is only directed away from the party,” answers Narg.  Kale then goes on to describe his encounter with Blip, the “short Dude riding a broom.”  “That’s Blip, the teenage gnome,” is Mojo’s answer.  Freyland asks about the shiny gray armor Kale is wearing.  Kale explains that is was made from sharkskin, and that he is from a water-world (leading to comments disparaging all films that Kevin Costner has made during the past decade).  Freyland comments that “You’re entire world is made of water?  You’re from Hell?’  Narg says “let me introduce you to Freyland, our resident hydro-phobic.”   The group concludes that since Kale knows a lot about sailing that he might be useful as a member of the crew.  Kale goes on to describe how he is well known in his world’s boat-racing circuit, their major sporting event.  Razou comments  “Eh, Mahn, I like this guy.”  “You would!,” says Mojo.Narg says “Let’s head down to the tavern.”  “You always say that,” comments Mojo.  “Hey, it works,” answers Narg.   “Can I go with you Dudes?,” Kale asks.   “Sure, once you sign a waiver,” says Mojo, adding “pay special attention to the Vincenzo clause.”  Fiona says to Kale “You realize that if you do stay, you have to sleep with the lizardmen.”  “Their heads are at least the same color,” comments Lannon.</blockquote>

Verification