Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2870799" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twenty-five, “Splitting Up“, August 8th, 1018Back at Crystull's cabin, Jaime and several of the children wake the party, having cooked up a fine breakfast for everyone.   During the meal Jerry passes out copies that he has made of this notes, detailing all enemy groups encountered [Mojo’s player complains that the handout isn’t in color-coordinated spreadsheet form, with cross-references and footnotes, to which the DM humbly apologies].   Back at the Silas home, a fully healed Valerie returned accompanied by another group of enemies.  The female mage leader, apparently named Jo-Ann, had some sort of device in her hand that scanned the possessions taken from Guice and Isaiah.  “Nothing,” she said with a disappointed look on her face.  She then cast “Detect Magic” and confirmed that both of their suits of leather armor, and the sword Guice had used, were magical.  The armor was given to the two thieves from Valerie’s party, referred to as Pat and Litock, who quickly put them on.  The fighter Donovan took the magical longsword.   Donovan asked Jo-Ann “Any word from him?”  “Not since last night,” was her reply, adding, “I wish he’d let us know where they have gone to.”The hobgoblins, and some bugbears, began to bring all of the group’s supplies outside.   The five hostages were then each picked up by a pair of bugbears and carried outside.    The other three were thrown into the back of Vincenzo and Jaime’s farm wagon.  Guice and Isaiah were then thrust inside of the rather ornate stagecoach, pulled by a team of four horses unfamiliar to the two of them.  Near each of these conveyances were large groups of both hobgoblins and bugbears.    Seated in the coach was an armored cleric.   Isaiah and Guice both also noticed an indention in one of the other coach cushions, where an invisible person was apparently sitting.  Jo-Ann then entered the wagon.   The cleric complained about traveling without his magical mace.  Jo-Ann told him “Barry, it’s too risky to keep it inside here, which is also too small for you to effectively use it in.  Besides, Ken and the bugbears will guard the outside, and we have our spells if we are attacked.”   The coach then started moving.  Jo-Ann immediately fell into a very deep sleep.  At Crystull's, Narg declares that “They’re all dead.  They’re on my turf!”  “Your turf?” asks Mojo, “Does that mean that they’re all dead drunk and under a barstool?”  Immy reminds the group that within the next hour he will be able to again use his Crystal Ball.  The group review Jerry’s notes to determine who to have him look for.  They deduce that the enemy ship Grand Enigma is most likely still near the island, as it would not have attempted to leave the anti-magic shell with all of the party’s stolen magic on board.   The enemies on board this ship had been closely seen by several of the ship’s crew, so Immy uses his Medallion of ESP to obtain images from the crew of these people.   His first two attempts fail, but the third reveals to him an enemy, wearing simple clothing, sailing the ship through the rainstorm.  This man is being drenched with rain, but is acting completely indifferent to the weather.  Immy sees a body of land in the distance behind the ship, but is unable to describe this land formation well enough for the group to determine where this is.   Aradyn asks to borrows the Medallion of ESP to draw this image from Immy’s mind, as Aradyn has flown all around the island on his Pegasus and knows what the different landmasses look like from all angles.  He is easily able to identify the land that the ship is sailing away from as Northpoint Island, which is immediately northeast of Silver Moon Island.  It is noted that there is no safe place for a ship to dock anywhere near there on the main Island, so the group decides to wait to better determine where the ship is going.Immy and Aradyn continue to monitor the image, as the group begins to plan out an attack.   Fifteen minutes later, they view the Grand Enigma sailing parallel to Silver Moon Island, and drop anchor.   They then watch as ten of the hairless hill giants with elephant feet and legs cross the top deck, and climb overboard.  Standing on rocks and in the water near the shore, these ten creatures form a line within arms length of each other, to cover the approximately 120 feet to shore.  They then pass overhand approximately two-dozen hobgoblins and bugbears to the shore, followed by six enemy adventurers.  Immy and Aradyn describe the six enemy adventurers to the others, with them concluding that two are the high-level mages who had escaped from the battles in the city and that two more are the human and the half-orc fighter that were captured on the Molly III and later rescued by their mage team leader.   That mage is also viewed, but he does not leave the ship with the others.  The other two people off-loaded are not recognized, but are described as both wearing metal armor.  The ten giants also then travel to shore to join the others, and the Grand Enigma pulls up anchor to set sail again.They continue to view the Grand Enigma, which appears to now be heading back towards Northpoint Island.  There is only one safe harbor on this island, with a single dock, so the group has a pretty good idea as to where the ship is heading.   The mage heads back below deck.  In addition to the man steering the ship, they only glimpse two other enemies on board, who both meet the crews descriptions of enemies from that ship.   The party decides that, while there are fewer enemies on the ship, it would be best to either attack it while it is still at sea, not knowing what reinforcements may be waiting for them at the dock.  Since there is still a quarter-hour left on the Crystal Ball usage, Immy and Aradyn continue to monitor the situation as the remainder of the group plans the attack.    It is also pointed out that another group should go monitor the group of forty enemies that have just been off-loaded, to make sure that this particular cabin isn’t their destination.Kale points out his seafaring experience, and suggests he might be of use.  Narg is annoyed at this newcomer interrupting his strategy session, and cuts him off, saying “You want something to do.  Fine, I have a job for you, we’re out of cocktail olives!”  Kale immediately responds “Dude, use a small onion.”  Narg hesitates for a second, and says “Hey, the kid’s right, that would work.”   Kale interjects “Dude, my dad is an ambassador and diplomat, cocktail parties is something I know.”  Mojo suggests sinking the ship before it gets to the island.  Razou suggests waiting for it to arrive, and sinking the island.    The idea of sinking the ship by attacking it from below is debated, as Blip, Luekia and Vincenzo each have alternative aquatic forms, Serita could also transform into an aquatic creature, the group also has a Helm of Underwater Action, and they could also bring along the lizard man crewmembers.  Narg gives the whole group a rousing pep talk, about how they need to now pull together, work as a team, and go get the enemy.  Immy and Aradyn continue to monitor the enemy ship Grand Enigma through the crystal ball, as the crewmember guards outside notice somebody approaching.   It is the lizardman Freth, one of the three left to watch the Silas Estate.    He tells the party that an hour after dawn a horse-drawn stagecoach arrived at the building accompanied by approximately fifty bugbears.  Mojo has a great difficulty comprehending Freth, due to his accent, and mistakenly thinks he is talking about the play “Stagecoach.”Freth says they saw two enemy adventurers exit the coach and go into the building.  A short while later, the hobgoblins and bugbears looked to be preparing to leave the area, loading up both the stagecoach and the school’s wagon with supplies.   Mojo interrupts “Hold on, are you saying they’re putting on production of “Stagecoach” or “Paint your wagon”?”  “Will you shut up?” Serita asks. “Hey, how can I understand what he’s saying while he’s spitting,” comments Mojo, “There’s more viscous fluids flying around here than in a two-hour episode of ER”Freth continues, stating that the five hostages were then taken from the building, two loaded onto the stage and the other three onto the wagon.   At that point, the lizardman leader Haas decided to send the strongest of his group, Freth, to go tell the party, and that the other two would follow the enemy after they leave.  Freth says it has taken him an hour to an hour-and-a-half to reach them, first swimming several miles in the ocean, then walking the last two miles overland.The party discusses options, deciding to send a group out on the Jeep to intercept the stagecoach and wagon while they are still moving.   The group decides to also stick with the original plan of sending an assault team to the enemy ship while it is still at sea.  Another group will be sent out to  monitor, but not engage in battle, the forty enemies that had just been offloaded from the ship to the northeast end of the island.The ship assault team is assembled, comprised of Blip, Luekia, Mojo, Narg, Vincenzo, plus the lizardman crewmembers Lars, Spudnick and Ssam.    The group decides to go with the aquatic assault plan, giving Narg the Breathe without Air Ioun Stone and Mojo the Helm of Underwater Action.  Both fighters leave their armor behind, wearing the two pairs of recently identified Bracers of Defense.   Narg uses his Decanter of Endless Water to fill up a Bag of Holding with water.Narg suggests that once they take the ship, they should proceed on to the dock as if they are the people expected to be on it, to take anyone on shore by surprise.  Mojo says  “Ah, the old double sneak,” Narg interjecting “The switch-er-oo,” “The old McGuffin,” adds Mojo, “The Stature of Liberty Play,” Narg comments.  “Enough already!” Serita yells.Immy casts a Dispel Magic on Blip, Luekia and Vincenzo, the trigger to turn them into their aquatic forms of a Selkie, Triton and Merman respectively.   Narg comments “Geesh, I don’t even know you people any more.”  “Next time don’t take two years off,” is Serita’s comment.   Luekia, Vincenzo and one of the lizardmen get into the water-loaded bag, and Narg, Mojo and two lizardmen get into the other.   Blip reverts to her once weekly Gnome identity while in Selkie form (Editor's Note: Yeah, I know, it gets confusing for me too), climbs onto the Broom of Flying, grabs the bags, and flies off to the northern coast.Meanwhile, another group had been sent out to monitor, but not engage in battle, the forty enemies that had just been offloaded from the ship to the northeast end of the island.   Immy volunteers to transport this group inside of his bag of holding, as he can reach this area via his “Fly” figurine within the hour.    Jerry volunteers to accompany him.  Also selected for this group are three of the ship crewmembers: First Mate Fritz, Albert, and Bruce the Bugbear.   They leave immediately.Meanwhile, a next group had decided to head off on the Jeep to intercept the stagecoach and wagon while they are still moving.   This group is comprised of Aradyn, Blake, Jaime, Lono, Razou, Serita and Timothy.  Serita gets behind the wheel, with Jaime and Lono joining her in the passenger seat.  Aradyn takes position standing behind the roll bar behind the Jeep’s roof.  As before during the tavern assault the night before, the clerics Razou and Timothy hunker down in the back, this time joined by the halfling Blake (who is reminded to be careful around Timothy, given an unfounded rumor of him having a fondness for little men). They travel East four miles towards the mountain, before turning onto the road South, traveling counterclockwise around the mountain.   The storm has intensified, with strong gusts of wind, making for rather treacherous driving conditions.  At several points Serita has to stop the Jeep for Aradyn to clear fallen branches and trees out of the way.   Lono starts to complain “Are we there yet?”  Razou then starts to complain too.  Serita yells for them to “shut up, or I’ll light you both on fire.”  They comply as they think she is serious, which she probably is. Meanwhile, on the northeastern coast, Immy arrives at his destination, and lets the others out of the bag of holding for some fresh air.  The enemy tracks continue southward, which is a relief that they are not heading west in the direction of Crystull’s cabin.   Thanks to the heavy footprints on wet ground from the elephant-footed hill giants, the tracks are easy to follow, and the other four resume their place in the bag of holdings as Immy continues on his Fly.</blockquote>

Verification