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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2892148" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Twenty-eight, “The Stagecoach“, August 8th, 1018 Less than a mile ahead, the stagecoach soon appears in the distance. The road is too narrow at this location for Serita to come alongside of the stage, so she slows to a speed keeping with it while they reevaluate their strategy. She is instructed to come up behind it, keeping a few feet back, as Aradyn, Blake and Lono climb out onto the hood of the Jeep. The plan is to get Blake over onto the roof of the stage, and for him to then tie a rope for the others to climb across. Aradyn picks up the halfling, and tosses him up onto the stagecoach. The stage proves to be too slippery for him to get a grip, and he slips off, falling between the stage and Jeep. Aradyn looks back, not seeing any dead halflings in their wake. Lono leans over, and sees that Blake has managed to grab onto the log fastened to the front of the Jeep as a battering ram. Lono tells Blake to climb up the log and reaches out his hand for the halfling to grab onto. Blake starts to climb the log, releasing one hand to grab at Lono’s, only to have his other hand slip, and he falls beneath the moving Jeep (Blake‘s player was rolling really poor this night). He hits the ground hard, but has the good judgment to immediately roll to the side, so that he is between the two rear tires of the passing Jeep rather than under one of them. He lies on his back in the mud as the Jeep continues past. Razou and Timothy notice the still halfling lying in the road, and tell Serita to stop, that Blake got run over. “I didn’t feel any bumps,” is Serita’s compassionless reply, as she continues onward behind the Stagecoach. Razou quietly asks Timothy “Should we make her stop?” Timothy, clearly displaying his exceptionally high wisdom, answers Razou with “When she’s in mood like she is today we don’t make her do anything.” “Shall we try again?” asks Aradyn. “Sure,” says Lono, as Aradyn signals for Serita to move forward. The Jeep almost bumping the stage, Aradyn hoists Lono up, Lono managing to grab onto the top edge of the stage and pull himself up. He then secures a rope, tossing the other end down to Aradyn, who ties it onto the Jeep. Aradyn then climbs across, Lono pulling him up on top. Jaime the unties that end of the rope, and Serita backs off a few yards, complaining that it’s hard to see around such a big vehicle. With the heavy rains falling down, the enemy fighter driving the stage does not notice the elf and half-elf moving up behind him on the top of the stage. Lono gets in a good backstab, and the fighter now turns and sees them. Aradyn then also attacks. The fighter attempts to fend them off while still controlling the vehicle on the narrow roadway. The fight on the roof continues, with Lono taking a slash. Serita sees a spot in the road ahead that is wider, and guns the Jeep as soon she reaches that point, heading up and alongside the side door of the coach. Jaime uses her sword to smash open the window on the coach’s door, as Timothy quickly hoist her up and tosses her through it. Once inside the coach, Jaime sees two rather surprised enemies, a mage and a cleric. Guice and Isaiah are tied and gagged within the coach. The mage tosses Magic Missiles into Jaime, who is not deterred. Timothy starts to climb through the window after Jaime. Jaime strikes the Mage with the Rod of Cancellation to negate her spells (which the mage manages to save from). Both Guice and Isaiah, despite their being restrained, try to disrupt both enemies from casting any more spells. An invisible enemy thief then strikes Jaime. Timothy finishes climbing in, and engages the enemy cleric in battle. Serita sees the road narrowing ahead, so accelerates to a point parallel the horses to force them off of the road. The group comments about “another Druid trying to kill horses”. She manages to force the horses to the side, with the coach following and abruptly crashing into a tree. Both Aradyn and Lono barely manage to stay on the vehicle. Inside of the coach, the impact with the tree causes both Isaiah and Jaime to fall to floor. Isaiah gestures to the gag and the ropes binding his hands. Jaime drops a dagger by him. She stands to reengage the enemy, as the thief again hits her. The mage casts another spell, which Jaime successfully saves from. Isaiah manages to cut his hands loose, and pulls off his gag. He then casts one of the spells he still had memorized, Silence, to prevent further spellcasting by the enemies. A player comments about the irony of Isaiah, of all people, engulfing the group including himself in silence. Outside, Serita backs the Jeep up and blocks the road, to prevent the stage from being able to get going again. The fighter on top stands and continues to engage both Aradyn and Lono in battle, with multiple attacks into them. Lono is now in rough shape, and Aradyn also has taken much damage, so they decide to "stop fighting him on his terms”. They knock the man off the stage roof to the ground below. This puts him right near Serita, who casts a “Heat Metal” on his armor and sword. Inside the stage, Isaiah begins to cut Guice loose, as the thief fights Jaime and the cleric fights Timothy. This gives the mage time to smash open the rear window of the coach and climb out. She starts to head towards the woods. Razou sees her, and also recognizes her as the mage who had used the tracking device to find them earlier. He quickly tells this to Serita. Serita jumps off of the Jeep and runs in the mage’s direction, ducking under a sword swing from the enemy fighter. The mage notices Serita moving in her direction, and discretely casts a Haste spell on herself, then charges into the woods. With Isaiah and Guice both now free, they assist Jaime and Timothy in trying to stop the other two enemies. Jaime hits the enemy cleric with the Rod of Cancellation to negate his remaining spells (which he also manages to successfully save from, although still cannot cast any due to the silence spell). Now hasted, the enemy mage charging into the woods plans to get far enough ahead of Serita to have the time needed to throw a Lightning Bolt back into her, however with her own Boots of Speed, Serita manages to keep pace. Back on the road, the enemy fighter realizes that his armor and sword are getting hot, tosses the sword into the woods behind him, and starts to strip off his armor . Inside of the coach, the enemy thief and cleric, now outnumbered, exchange signals with each other, then both surrender. The others in the coach begin stripping them of the their weapons and other possessions. In the woods, the mage tries her best to loose Serita, climbing and running by branches, bushes and fallen logs, but Serita manages to avoid tripping over them. Lono and Aradyn see the two women running further into the forest, and decide to chase after to assist Serita, jumping down from the top of the coach. By now the smoldering enemy fighter has stripped down to the cloth padding beneath his armor, and runs off into the woods behind him. Isaiah and Jaime tie up their two prisoners. Blake is continuing to head up the road to catch up with the party, and hears the sounds of the angry bugbears coming up from behind. He uses his Boots of Speed to increase his pace. He soon sees the stagecoach and Jeep stopped ahead. He also spots movement in the woods nearer him, with Serita chasing an unknown woman, so heads in that direction to intercept them. Blake attempts to trip the mage. She manages to avoid him, but this slows her down enough for Serita to grab her, and knock her partially to the ground. The woman jumps up, and slashes at Serita with a dagger. Serita draws her scimitar, and the two spend a few rounds dodging each other’s blows, with Serita connecting once. During this melee, they converse. Serita orders her to surrender, saying this is her only opportunity. The mage asks for terms, to which Serita says “unconditional”, which is echoed by Aradyn as he arrives to assist. The mage arrogantly refuses, saying "Not good enough" to which Serita says; “You just blew it.” The mage answers “No, you did. You just don’t realize it yet.” Aradyn assists Serita, soon joined by Blake and Lono, the combined group knocking the women unconscious. Serita begins to search the body, when Blake reminds them that the bugbears are almost to where they are. They pick up the mage and hurry back to the stagecoach. They use the Jeep to back the stage up to get it back on the road, just as the angry bugbears come into sight down the road. Aradyn and Jaime lay down covering fire of arrows to help deter the attackers, although their arrows mostly miss due to being deflected by the driving wind and rain. Timothy begins to drive the stagecoach, while Blake, Jaime and Razou ride inside of it, closely watching the three tied and gagged prisoners. Both the cleric and mage are hit again with the Rod of Cancellation (to which she again saves, although the cleric fails). Aradyn, Guice and Isaiah join Serita in the Jeep. The first of the bugbears reach the vehicles, just as the party starts down the road. A few bugbears attempt to climb onto the stage, but are easily knocked off by Timothy. The group continues to proceed counterclockwise around the mountain, leaving the group of angry bugbears well behind. Isaiah and Guice ask for an “information dump” about what has been happening with the rest of the Silver Moon. They then tell Aradyn and Serita about what has transpired during the sixteen hours since being captured the previous evening. The four of them then discussion about exactly who the “he” might be that both Donovan and Jo-Ann referred to. Back at the tavern, several hobgoblins and bugbears have been sent outside into the rain to guard the doors and doorways. Since he is wearing armor and holding weapons that match those of the enemy, Bruce the bugbear is sent out to “blend in and see what you can discover”. Fritz tells him to be careful, and to say as little as possible. “And don’t try to get a date,” adds Albert. Bruce avoids the other bugbears, heading to a door guarded by hobgoblins, which move aside to let him in. Once inside the first floor of the inn, a human fighter stops him, asking, “What were you doing out in the woods?” Bruce answers “Saw something moving in the woods, but was just an animal.” The man tells him to go join his friends in the tavern, Bruce heading in that direction. Once at the tavern, he sees that the elephant-footed giants have raided the beer storeroom, and all ten are now “chugging” kegs. The bugbears and hobgoblins gathered in the room are also consuming beverages. They pay no more attention to Bruce than they do the rain and wind blowing through the doorways. He picks up a small keg and several mugs, and heads outside to offer it to the others guarding the doors, which happily accept it. He then says, “Isn’t that a pig?” “Where” asks a bugbear guard. “Makes good eating. I’ll get it,” says Bruce and he rushes off into the woods waving his sword. Once out of sight, he doubles around to Reginon’s house to tell the others what he saw. Immy decides that he needs to get a message back to the rest of the party, but had not studied the spell that he needs for this. He says that he needs to rest for a few hours before he can study it, and not to wake him, heading into Reginon’s bedroom. The Jeep reaches the intersection of the road back to Crystull's cabin. Seeing other tire tracks on the road Lono blurts out “Oh my god, they have a Jeep too!” “Those are our tracks from a few hours ago you idiot” Serita exclaims. Once past the fork, they stop, and the group to spend the next twenty minutes covering up their track, to give the impression that they have continued south around the mountain along their previous tracks. They then head the remaining four miles back. Once back they turn the prisoners over to their crew guards. The group enters the cabin, and tells the others what has transpired. The Sea Castle Fiona continues to fly around the Island. Eventually, the pegasus is able to pick up the Silver Moon Fiona, and they fly in that direction. Fiona senses that her Pegasus in nearby. Several members of the group move outside, to see the animal come in for a landing, being ridden by…Fiona. The Silver Moon Fiona immediately recognizes her alternate-reality counterpart from the Sea Castle Adventurers. The others are a bit surprised to see both of them together. Sea Castle Fiona immediately passes to the party Cassie's owl familiar and Kharole's cat familiar. Fiona Sea Castle relates to the party how the ship Silver Moon was rescued by the Sea Castle Adventurers. She tells of her party leader and four of the other Sea Castle team being currently en route to the island with their crewmember Hans. "Which others?" asks Lannon. She says "Our leader, the magician Aurora, the Viking fighter Torvald, dwarf fighter Flashis, and our Razou.” "Great, just what we need, two Razou's" comments Lono, "Not that either of them will probably notice." She goes on to explain that when she struck the Anti-magic barrier, all eight of her magic items ceased working, and all spells were wiped from her memory. A very exhausted Fiona Sea Castle, having been up most of the night, first rescuing the ship Silver Moon and then getting to the island, is then given a bed to rest in. Before going to bed, one of her magic items regains its magical properties, her Ring of Feather Falling (a useful item to own when you have a Carpet of Flying). Meanwhile, back on the ship the Grand Enigma, the party is having a rough time sailing through the storm. A flare goes off in the distance over Northpoint Island, briefly lighting up the sky. Narg begins to now complain about having to take orders from the Lizardman. Luekia points out that Ssam is the most experienced of them at sailing a ship, and for Narg to just shut up.</blockquote>

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