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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2914670" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p>Chapter Thirty-two, “Beware the Jabberwock my Son“, August 8th, 1018, 3:00 P.M. </p><p></p><p>In the skies, about a mile south of Araby’s cabin, the Storm Dragon Serita is startled by the sudden appearance of a Chimera darting out of the clouds towards her. Aradyn lets loose a few arrows, one of them striking it. The creature goes for an attack on one of Serita's wings, the chimera’s dragon head, lion head and goat head all missing, due to a sudden turn by Serita. </p><p></p><p>Serita, Fiona and Timothy are then struck by a Flame Strike, with them turning to see a rather large human in black armor riding atop a black dragon. They head for a direct assault, Fiona letting loose a Magic Missile into the enemy rider. The two dragons swing by each other, both missing. Serita rises back up into the clouds, obscuring them from the enemy. They continue onward to the southeast, looking out in all directions, but no seeing the enemies again. </p><p></p><p>Back at the Tavern, Immy and company watch as a group of over one hundred monster head off to the west, led by the flying Balrog. They wait a while until the enemy has left, before heading over to see if anything, was left behind at the tavern. They find nine enemies still at the tavern, the six wounded bugbears, one drunk bugbear who is barely conscious, and two unconscious drunk hobgoblins. Fritz and Immy have no qualms about dispatching these monsters, and then investigate the rest of the tavern, finding nothing particular of use. </p><p></p><p>Four miles to the southwest, Jerry is now rounding the southern rim of the mountain, being ever mindful that the survival of the children is dependent upon him reaching Crystull’s house prior to the army of monsters. He is very grateful that the horse he is riding is the one owned by Jaime, as it has been trained to ride with small children on it, and has little difficulty is carrying the gnome who is unaccustomed to riding a full-sized horse. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, seven miles south of Jerry’s current location, Serita continues to fly inside the clouds where Serita estimates them to be above Southpoint Island she descends. They land at the only point on the island where Aradyn knows there to be a cave system, as this cave had been occupied by a group of evil bugbears when the group first occupied the island, which Aradyn and Mark had then eliminated. </p><p></p><p>They land near the only known entrance to these caves, finding a series of tracks less than two hours old, left by the elephant-men and a dragon. Half of the party stays by the cave mouth, as Aradyn, Guice, Kruk, Lannon, Mojo and Narg follow the tracks. They continue on for half-a-mile, ending on a cliff near the ocean. They conclude that the creatures must have left the island from this point, probably through a magical door. They return to the cave.</p><p></p><p>Nine miles north, Jerry has now reached the intersection east of the mountain and the road to Crystul's house. He is relieved that there are no tracks from the enemy army. He lets the horse rest for a few minutes, and climbs a few hundred feet up the mountain, giving him a good vantage point to confirm that the enemy has not yet in sight, viewing a mile further up the road. </p><p></p><p>Seeing nobody, he climbs back down, gets on the horse, and charges down the road at full gallop, soon seeing the tracks left behind by the Jeep and Stagecoach five hours earlier. During this last three-mile stretch, he has to circumnavigate around four trees and multiple piles of branches that the increasing storm has caused to fall across the road since the time that the vehicles last came past. </p><p></p><p>Back on Southpoint Island, Serita stays outside of the cave in dragon form. Blake, Fiona and Mojo decide to stand guard near the cave entrance, as the other nine party members make their way into the caves. The first two rooms encountered have bedding and food scraps apparently left behind by the elephant-footed giants. A room is found with what appears to have been bedding for the chimera and dragon, with a small treasure pile of mostly worthless items. </p><p></p><p>In the next hallway Guice is overwhelmed by pain, and moves back. When he tries to move forward again, he finds his way blocked by an invisible barrier. Timothy comes forward, and identifies via his ability to sense evil auras, that the next ten feed of hallway is covered with evil. Others try breech the barrier as well, Aradyn and Vincenzo also being stopped and feeling great pain. Kharole and Narg, however, are able to pass through. Vinnie casts a Dispel Magic, which causes the barrier to blink out for a single round, during with he and Aradyn pass through. Lannon also is able to make it past the barrier, but Kruk and Timothy are stopped, each taking double-hit-point damage from the pain. The five who are through decide to continue onward by themselves. </p><p></p><p>August 8th 1018, 4:00 P.M.</p><p></p><p>At the next intersection, they head left, finding three rooms. The first two rooms have hay in one and food stored in another. The third is blocked by a door, which Lannon recognizes as an illusion. He walks through, finding himself face-to-face with a minotaur. Narg and Aradyn come to his assistance, and make short work of the monster. A search for secret doors reveals none (even though the room had one) so they head back to go the other direction. </p><p></p><p>This too is blocked by an illusionary door, which Narg walks through, to be faced with a creature of a type that he had not seen in twelve years, a Jabberwock. This creature is smaller than the one he faced on Thibaultia, but still a formidable opponent. Lannon and Narg both move in to attack it. The creature reaches his front claw towards Lannon. Lannon thrusts his sword through the palm of the creature’s hand, but is still grabbed up by it. The creature moves the hand up towards his mouth, apparently intent on consuming Lannon’s head. Kharole arrives, and casts a Web spell to pin the creature's arms, legs back and wings. The monster falls back in an attempt to break out of the webbing.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Narg strikes the creature’s torso with his Nargblade, almost getting caught in the web himself, as Aradyn fires arrows up into the creature (and Mojo’s player complains that Narg’s player is not letting anybody else play). Lannon pulls out his oil of slipperiness, pouring it between him and the creatures hand, while squirming with all of his might. This is successful, with Lannon dropping to the ground rather than being decapitated by the creature, which Lannon concludes has very bad breath. The oil also helps keep Lannon from getting stuck in the web. Aradyn, Kharole and Narg finish off the creature, as Vincenzo arrives. They burn off the remaining web, and decapitate the monster. They start to proceed down the hallway, encountering yet another invisible barrier. </p><p></p><p>Back on the astral plane, Cassie, Rainville and Hendry have spent an hour and a half unsuccessfully looking for the essence of Hendry Senior, during which they also discuss what might happen next, with Cassie suggesting that perhaps she could mediate between her friends and the Hendry family.</p><p></p><p>Back at Crystull’s house, Jerry rides up and dismounts at the front door. He blurts out that “An army of over a hundred monsters, including bugbears, hobgoblins, the elephant-footed giants, seven enemy adventurers, a centaur and a Balrog are marching HERE, and could arrive soon!” A near panic starts to break out in the cabin. Hydrophobic Freyland, who had been bordering on the edge of having a mental breakdown anyway due to the extremely wet weather as well as the stress from the current situation, finally cracks. He starts to mutter (in the Dustin Hoffman “Rainman” voice) “Very bad. Very bad. Gotta get outta here. Gotta get outta here.” </p><p></p><p>Jerry tries to calm everyone down, saying that the monsters are now still at least two miles away, possibly more, but that the group needs to move out NOW! The crew is alerted to get ready to move the prisoners. Adrianna helps to secure the prisoners together, as the children and hirelings gather up supplies and the unidentified magic items. The group debates leaving by Jeep, but conclude that since the only road it could go on is the one with the approaching monsters, it is best to just hide it behind the duck blind for now.</p><p></p><p>Fiona Sea Castle is abruptly woken up, Mojo asking her “Did you order a Balrog?” “Not that I remember” is her reply. She is informed that an army of over a hundred monsters is on the march, with their cabin as its destination. She is told that they do not know how soon this group will arrive, but it could be any time now. At this point Fiona has rested long enough to restudy her spells. A check of her magic items reveals that some more have now regained their magical properties. Items still not functioning are her Bracers A.C. 4 and her +2 Ring of Protection. She also brought a scroll, which still remains blank. She realized there was high risk to bringing a scroll through the barrier, but given the incoming storm and the fact that one of the four spells on it was Control Weather, she felt it worth the risk. The other three spells that were on the scroll were Monster Summoning I, Plant Growth, and Delayed Fireball Blast.</p><p></p><p>The group debates what to do with the prisoners. Lono decides to take this matter into his own hands, and heads outside. He orders the crew around the front of the cabin, in order to have privacy during which to kill the prisoners. Isaiah figures out what is about to happen, and heads outside to prevent it. Isaiah and Lono get into a very heated argument about what to do with the prisoners, Lono threatening "To kill you too!" </p><p></p><p>The lawful good cleric eventually wins due to the intervention of other party members. (Unbeknownst to Lono, Isaiah’s confrontation has also saved his life, as the enemy cleric had the building under observation, waiting for an opportunity to rescue the prisoners. Any attempt by Lono to kill a prisoner would have made him an instant recipient of a Flame Strike spell.)</p><p></p><p>The party debates whether to travel south to the school or northeast to the ship Molly III. A discussion follows as to the ability to sail the ship in this weather. Lono suggests taking it to the city. It is pointed out to him that sailing a ship up a mountain in not very feasible. They talk about having the non-combatants, the children and tavern help, taking the ship across the channel to Mickey Mouse Island. Several of the older children are insulted at being called “non-combatants” pointing out that they were the ones who retook the Molly III in the first place. Lono mutters “This is like a filthy version of Space Camp.” Since the group is unsure about where a safe location on Mickey Mouse Island would be (as well as the risk of re-igniting the ongoing debate of exactly how large this particular Island happens to be), they decide to head south to the school.</p><p></p><p>Back in the cave on Southpoint Island, Both Narg and Kharole make it through the second barrier, however Aradyn, Lannon and Vincenzo are unable to. Vinnie even tries to toss the bag of holding through, with Lannon and Aradyn inside of it, without success, the bag stopping at the barrier as though it were a solid wall. Narg and Kharole continue onward, when a pair of arrows fly out at them from a side wall. Narg moves forward, causing a female archer to pull back. Narg pursues, with Kharole behind him. The woman continues to retreat behind the curved wall, throwing more arrows, until she moves out of sight.</p><p></p><p>Kharole activates her Ring of Invisibility and scouts ahead. She sees the woman change weapons to a sword. Meanwhile, Narg gets backstabbed for thirty-six points of damage. He cries out and staggers slightly, while swinging the Nargblade around and into his opponent, a human in leather armor holding a longsword. </p><p></p><p>Hearing the sounds of battle and Narg crying out, Aradyn, Lannon and Vincenzo briefly debate whether the sounds indicate that the two have either run into enemies or are having a sexual encounter. “Knowing those two, it could be either one,” comment Lannon. Aradyn points out that Kharole is intelligent enough to not cross Vallessa, so it must be the enemy. Lannon hurries back to the previous intersection, yelling for those on the other side of the first barrier to get the others to come help. Timothy hurries back with that message to those guarding the entranceway.</p><p></p><p>Back in the hallway, Narg and the man exchange a few more blows, one of Narg’s connecting. The man calls out, and the woman then charges at Narg from the other direction. Kharole lets loose a Magic Missile Spell into her, as Narg swings a sword back in her direction. The woman again retreats, Kharole becoming invisible again, as she sees another woman join up with the fighter.</p><p>Kharole heads back down this side corridor to where Narg is while the two women head the other direction, this passageway linking up with the main passage where the man is fighting Narg.</p><p></p><p>Back at Crystull’s cabin, the first of three groups are sent out. This group is comprised of the six adventurer prisoners, six of the ship’s crew, Isaiah and Adrianna. They head south through the woods. (The enemy cleric, watching this, goes to organize his troops. He has his forces set up an ambush a quarter mile ahead of where this group is heading). Jaime organizes together a group comprised of herself, her horse, Fiona's pegasus, all fourteen children, seven of the crew and the nine tavern and inn employees. They start to head westward, to travel a short distance before heading south. </p><p></p><p>Back on Southpoint Island, hearing Timothy’s emergency message, Serita turns back into her half-elvan form, and heads off with Blake, Fiona and Mojo. The four of them, with Cassie’s owl, attempt to breach the first barrier, with Blake, Fiona and Serita succeeding. The owl and Mojo stay behind with Guice, Kruk and Timothy. Kruk decides to tunnel his way past, and pulls a shovel out of his backpack to start digging (a rather futile gesture, but hit keeps him occupied).</p><p></p><p>Blake, Fiona and Serita quickly reach the Jabberwock room, and this same trio then successfully breaches the second barrier. Hearing the sounds of battle ahead, Serita and Blake both go into high gear via their Boots of Speed, leaving Fiona behind. At the intersection ahead, Narg gets in two good attacks on the man, causing him to stagger and nearly drop. Just then, both enemy women move in to attack Narg. The one in loose cloth clothing attacks him with a jo-stick, which Narg is able to dodge. </p><p></p><p>She pulls back, to the wounded man leaning against the passageway wall, as the woman engages in battle with Narg. The other two enemies quickly retreat down the passageway behind the fighter. The woman proves to be a formidable opponent for Narg, and gets in one good blow to the two that she receives, the damage not effecting her much. She then starts to withdraw down the hallway after her allies, parrying Narg’s attack as he presses onward, followed shortly thereafter by the invisible Kharole. </p><p></p><p>At a four-way intersection the woman moves off to a side passageway, turning and running. Narg runs after to catch up. While this is going on, the first two enemies to retreat from the battle make their way through a secret doorway, into a room with the unconscious bodies of Hendry, Rainville and Cassie. The woman heads over to the unconscious two men, grabs their hands and yells for them to “come back”. </p><p></p><p>On the astral plane, Hendry senses this signal, and informs Cassie and his brother that they need to go back. The three immediately move back to the location where they first were, and Rainville says “I now feel it too. I’ll go, you stay with her as promised.” He then vanishes, leaving Cassie with Hendry. They immediately see a whirlwind of crimson dusk stir up, and surround them. Cassie asks “What is happening?” She is not comforted by his answer of “I don’t know”.</p><p></p><p>Rainville regains consciousness, seeing his sister-in-law Lisa beside him and a very wounded brother Carl standing against the wall, consuming a potion of extra healing. Outside of this room, Carrie continues to run through a side bedchamber, kicking a bed into Narg’s way to slow him down. She exits the room, into the central dining chamber. He follows her to that room, seeing her disappear through a secret door in the far wall. Carrie enters the room with her brothers and sister in law, telling them that “That half-elf fighter is right behind us. What should we do?” Rainville says “I think Hendry and I can salvage this. Let me go back for him and the prisoner.” Rainville then mentally exits.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2914670, member: 8530"] Chapter Thirty-two, “Beware the Jabberwock my Son“, August 8th, 1018, 3:00 P.M. In the skies, about a mile south of Araby’s cabin, the Storm Dragon Serita is startled by the sudden appearance of a Chimera darting out of the clouds towards her. Aradyn lets loose a few arrows, one of them striking it. The creature goes for an attack on one of Serita's wings, the chimera’s dragon head, lion head and goat head all missing, due to a sudden turn by Serita. Serita, Fiona and Timothy are then struck by a Flame Strike, with them turning to see a rather large human in black armor riding atop a black dragon. They head for a direct assault, Fiona letting loose a Magic Missile into the enemy rider. The two dragons swing by each other, both missing. Serita rises back up into the clouds, obscuring them from the enemy. They continue onward to the southeast, looking out in all directions, but no seeing the enemies again. Back at the Tavern, Immy and company watch as a group of over one hundred monster head off to the west, led by the flying Balrog. They wait a while until the enemy has left, before heading over to see if anything, was left behind at the tavern. They find nine enemies still at the tavern, the six wounded bugbears, one drunk bugbear who is barely conscious, and two unconscious drunk hobgoblins. Fritz and Immy have no qualms about dispatching these monsters, and then investigate the rest of the tavern, finding nothing particular of use. Four miles to the southwest, Jerry is now rounding the southern rim of the mountain, being ever mindful that the survival of the children is dependent upon him reaching Crystull’s house prior to the army of monsters. He is very grateful that the horse he is riding is the one owned by Jaime, as it has been trained to ride with small children on it, and has little difficulty is carrying the gnome who is unaccustomed to riding a full-sized horse. Meanwhile, seven miles south of Jerry’s current location, Serita continues to fly inside the clouds where Serita estimates them to be above Southpoint Island she descends. They land at the only point on the island where Aradyn knows there to be a cave system, as this cave had been occupied by a group of evil bugbears when the group first occupied the island, which Aradyn and Mark had then eliminated. They land near the only known entrance to these caves, finding a series of tracks less than two hours old, left by the elephant-men and a dragon. Half of the party stays by the cave mouth, as Aradyn, Guice, Kruk, Lannon, Mojo and Narg follow the tracks. They continue on for half-a-mile, ending on a cliff near the ocean. They conclude that the creatures must have left the island from this point, probably through a magical door. They return to the cave. Nine miles north, Jerry has now reached the intersection east of the mountain and the road to Crystul's house. He is relieved that there are no tracks from the enemy army. He lets the horse rest for a few minutes, and climbs a few hundred feet up the mountain, giving him a good vantage point to confirm that the enemy has not yet in sight, viewing a mile further up the road. Seeing nobody, he climbs back down, gets on the horse, and charges down the road at full gallop, soon seeing the tracks left behind by the Jeep and Stagecoach five hours earlier. During this last three-mile stretch, he has to circumnavigate around four trees and multiple piles of branches that the increasing storm has caused to fall across the road since the time that the vehicles last came past. Back on Southpoint Island, Serita stays outside of the cave in dragon form. Blake, Fiona and Mojo decide to stand guard near the cave entrance, as the other nine party members make their way into the caves. The first two rooms encountered have bedding and food scraps apparently left behind by the elephant-footed giants. A room is found with what appears to have been bedding for the chimera and dragon, with a small treasure pile of mostly worthless items. In the next hallway Guice is overwhelmed by pain, and moves back. When he tries to move forward again, he finds his way blocked by an invisible barrier. Timothy comes forward, and identifies via his ability to sense evil auras, that the next ten feed of hallway is covered with evil. Others try breech the barrier as well, Aradyn and Vincenzo also being stopped and feeling great pain. Kharole and Narg, however, are able to pass through. Vinnie casts a Dispel Magic, which causes the barrier to blink out for a single round, during with he and Aradyn pass through. Lannon also is able to make it past the barrier, but Kruk and Timothy are stopped, each taking double-hit-point damage from the pain. The five who are through decide to continue onward by themselves. August 8th 1018, 4:00 P.M. At the next intersection, they head left, finding three rooms. The first two rooms have hay in one and food stored in another. The third is blocked by a door, which Lannon recognizes as an illusion. He walks through, finding himself face-to-face with a minotaur. Narg and Aradyn come to his assistance, and make short work of the monster. A search for secret doors reveals none (even though the room had one) so they head back to go the other direction. This too is blocked by an illusionary door, which Narg walks through, to be faced with a creature of a type that he had not seen in twelve years, a Jabberwock. This creature is smaller than the one he faced on Thibaultia, but still a formidable opponent. Lannon and Narg both move in to attack it. The creature reaches his front claw towards Lannon. Lannon thrusts his sword through the palm of the creature’s hand, but is still grabbed up by it. The creature moves the hand up towards his mouth, apparently intent on consuming Lannon’s head. Kharole arrives, and casts a Web spell to pin the creature's arms, legs back and wings. The monster falls back in an attempt to break out of the webbing. Meanwhile, Narg strikes the creature’s torso with his Nargblade, almost getting caught in the web himself, as Aradyn fires arrows up into the creature (and Mojo’s player complains that Narg’s player is not letting anybody else play). Lannon pulls out his oil of slipperiness, pouring it between him and the creatures hand, while squirming with all of his might. This is successful, with Lannon dropping to the ground rather than being decapitated by the creature, which Lannon concludes has very bad breath. The oil also helps keep Lannon from getting stuck in the web. Aradyn, Kharole and Narg finish off the creature, as Vincenzo arrives. They burn off the remaining web, and decapitate the monster. They start to proceed down the hallway, encountering yet another invisible barrier. Back on the astral plane, Cassie, Rainville and Hendry have spent an hour and a half unsuccessfully looking for the essence of Hendry Senior, during which they also discuss what might happen next, with Cassie suggesting that perhaps she could mediate between her friends and the Hendry family. Back at Crystull’s house, Jerry rides up and dismounts at the front door. He blurts out that “An army of over a hundred monsters, including bugbears, hobgoblins, the elephant-footed giants, seven enemy adventurers, a centaur and a Balrog are marching HERE, and could arrive soon!” A near panic starts to break out in the cabin. Hydrophobic Freyland, who had been bordering on the edge of having a mental breakdown anyway due to the extremely wet weather as well as the stress from the current situation, finally cracks. He starts to mutter (in the Dustin Hoffman “Rainman” voice) “Very bad. Very bad. Gotta get outta here. Gotta get outta here.” Jerry tries to calm everyone down, saying that the monsters are now still at least two miles away, possibly more, but that the group needs to move out NOW! The crew is alerted to get ready to move the prisoners. Adrianna helps to secure the prisoners together, as the children and hirelings gather up supplies and the unidentified magic items. The group debates leaving by Jeep, but conclude that since the only road it could go on is the one with the approaching monsters, it is best to just hide it behind the duck blind for now. Fiona Sea Castle is abruptly woken up, Mojo asking her “Did you order a Balrog?” “Not that I remember” is her reply. She is informed that an army of over a hundred monsters is on the march, with their cabin as its destination. She is told that they do not know how soon this group will arrive, but it could be any time now. At this point Fiona has rested long enough to restudy her spells. A check of her magic items reveals that some more have now regained their magical properties. Items still not functioning are her Bracers A.C. 4 and her +2 Ring of Protection. She also brought a scroll, which still remains blank. She realized there was high risk to bringing a scroll through the barrier, but given the incoming storm and the fact that one of the four spells on it was Control Weather, she felt it worth the risk. The other three spells that were on the scroll were Monster Summoning I, Plant Growth, and Delayed Fireball Blast. The group debates what to do with the prisoners. Lono decides to take this matter into his own hands, and heads outside. He orders the crew around the front of the cabin, in order to have privacy during which to kill the prisoners. Isaiah figures out what is about to happen, and heads outside to prevent it. Isaiah and Lono get into a very heated argument about what to do with the prisoners, Lono threatening "To kill you too!" The lawful good cleric eventually wins due to the intervention of other party members. (Unbeknownst to Lono, Isaiah’s confrontation has also saved his life, as the enemy cleric had the building under observation, waiting for an opportunity to rescue the prisoners. Any attempt by Lono to kill a prisoner would have made him an instant recipient of a Flame Strike spell.) The party debates whether to travel south to the school or northeast to the ship Molly III. A discussion follows as to the ability to sail the ship in this weather. Lono suggests taking it to the city. It is pointed out to him that sailing a ship up a mountain in not very feasible. They talk about having the non-combatants, the children and tavern help, taking the ship across the channel to Mickey Mouse Island. Several of the older children are insulted at being called “non-combatants” pointing out that they were the ones who retook the Molly III in the first place. Lono mutters “This is like a filthy version of Space Camp.” Since the group is unsure about where a safe location on Mickey Mouse Island would be (as well as the risk of re-igniting the ongoing debate of exactly how large this particular Island happens to be), they decide to head south to the school. Back in the cave on Southpoint Island, Both Narg and Kharole make it through the second barrier, however Aradyn, Lannon and Vincenzo are unable to. Vinnie even tries to toss the bag of holding through, with Lannon and Aradyn inside of it, without success, the bag stopping at the barrier as though it were a solid wall. Narg and Kharole continue onward, when a pair of arrows fly out at them from a side wall. Narg moves forward, causing a female archer to pull back. Narg pursues, with Kharole behind him. The woman continues to retreat behind the curved wall, throwing more arrows, until she moves out of sight. Kharole activates her Ring of Invisibility and scouts ahead. She sees the woman change weapons to a sword. Meanwhile, Narg gets backstabbed for thirty-six points of damage. He cries out and staggers slightly, while swinging the Nargblade around and into his opponent, a human in leather armor holding a longsword. Hearing the sounds of battle and Narg crying out, Aradyn, Lannon and Vincenzo briefly debate whether the sounds indicate that the two have either run into enemies or are having a sexual encounter. “Knowing those two, it could be either one,” comment Lannon. Aradyn points out that Kharole is intelligent enough to not cross Vallessa, so it must be the enemy. Lannon hurries back to the previous intersection, yelling for those on the other side of the first barrier to get the others to come help. Timothy hurries back with that message to those guarding the entranceway. Back in the hallway, Narg and the man exchange a few more blows, one of Narg’s connecting. The man calls out, and the woman then charges at Narg from the other direction. Kharole lets loose a Magic Missile Spell into her, as Narg swings a sword back in her direction. The woman again retreats, Kharole becoming invisible again, as she sees another woman join up with the fighter. Kharole heads back down this side corridor to where Narg is while the two women head the other direction, this passageway linking up with the main passage where the man is fighting Narg. Back at Crystull’s cabin, the first of three groups are sent out. This group is comprised of the six adventurer prisoners, six of the ship’s crew, Isaiah and Adrianna. They head south through the woods. (The enemy cleric, watching this, goes to organize his troops. He has his forces set up an ambush a quarter mile ahead of where this group is heading). Jaime organizes together a group comprised of herself, her horse, Fiona's pegasus, all fourteen children, seven of the crew and the nine tavern and inn employees. They start to head westward, to travel a short distance before heading south. Back on Southpoint Island, hearing Timothy’s emergency message, Serita turns back into her half-elvan form, and heads off with Blake, Fiona and Mojo. The four of them, with Cassie’s owl, attempt to breach the first barrier, with Blake, Fiona and Serita succeeding. The owl and Mojo stay behind with Guice, Kruk and Timothy. Kruk decides to tunnel his way past, and pulls a shovel out of his backpack to start digging (a rather futile gesture, but hit keeps him occupied). Blake, Fiona and Serita quickly reach the Jabberwock room, and this same trio then successfully breaches the second barrier. Hearing the sounds of battle ahead, Serita and Blake both go into high gear via their Boots of Speed, leaving Fiona behind. At the intersection ahead, Narg gets in two good attacks on the man, causing him to stagger and nearly drop. Just then, both enemy women move in to attack Narg. The one in loose cloth clothing attacks him with a jo-stick, which Narg is able to dodge. She pulls back, to the wounded man leaning against the passageway wall, as the woman engages in battle with Narg. The other two enemies quickly retreat down the passageway behind the fighter. The woman proves to be a formidable opponent for Narg, and gets in one good blow to the two that she receives, the damage not effecting her much. She then starts to withdraw down the hallway after her allies, parrying Narg’s attack as he presses onward, followed shortly thereafter by the invisible Kharole. At a four-way intersection the woman moves off to a side passageway, turning and running. Narg runs after to catch up. While this is going on, the first two enemies to retreat from the battle make their way through a secret doorway, into a room with the unconscious bodies of Hendry, Rainville and Cassie. The woman heads over to the unconscious two men, grabs their hands and yells for them to “come back”. On the astral plane, Hendry senses this signal, and informs Cassie and his brother that they need to go back. The three immediately move back to the location where they first were, and Rainville says “I now feel it too. I’ll go, you stay with her as promised.” He then vanishes, leaving Cassie with Hendry. They immediately see a whirlwind of crimson dusk stir up, and surround them. Cassie asks “What is happening?” She is not comforted by his answer of “I don’t know”. Rainville regains consciousness, seeing his sister-in-law Lisa beside him and a very wounded brother Carl standing against the wall, consuming a potion of extra healing. Outside of this room, Carrie continues to run through a side bedchamber, kicking a bed into Narg’s way to slow him down. She exits the room, into the central dining chamber. He follows her to that room, seeing her disappear through a secret door in the far wall. Carrie enters the room with her brothers and sister in law, telling them that “That half-elf fighter is right behind us. What should we do?” Rainville says “I think Hendry and I can salvage this. Let me go back for him and the prisoner.” Rainville then mentally exits. [/QUOTE]
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