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Sagiro's Story Hour Returns (new thread started on 5/18/08)
- Thread starter Sagiro
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Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 182
The Company breaks camp and soon is flying across the snowy plains of Surgoil, Morningstar in the lead. But about half an hour later Aravis feels another odd twinge in his head and Morningstar (independently) comes to a halt.
“It’s gone,” she says, frowning. “I’m no longer sensing a direction.”
“I think the defenses of Het Branoi kicked in,” says Aravis.
“We’ve been going in a straight line all this time,” Ernie points out. “We should just keep flying.”
Kay assumes the lead position, having the best sense of direction in the group. They fly onward, high above the largely-featureless landscape, still speckled with giantish farms and villages. Twenty minutes after the find the path spell stopped working, Morningstar informs the other that it has come back on again.
“We haven’t passed it,” says Morningstar. She adjusts Kay’s trajectory by a couple of degrees and they continue on. For another hour this pattern persists, with Morningstar’s divination blinking on and off as it clashes with the mystical defenses of Het Branoi. Eventually the spell expires on its own, but they keep going.
An hour later they spy a particularly large giantish town ahead. Kay and Morningstar don’t think it’s precisely on the line indicated by the find the path, but it’s their best lead so far. A few party members are made to be both wind walking and invisible.
“We should be looking for places where an invisible tower might be standing,” says Dranko. “Lawns, courtyards, open spaces. We’ll signal over the Rary’s if we run into something.”
He means this last part literally. Moving at top speed, half the party flies over the walls and starts whipping through the giantish town, staying low and avoiding giants. They fly bodily through every likely open space they can find, hoping to smack into Het Branoi. For the duration of the invisibility spell they search but come up empty. Dranko has a moment of excitement when he rounds of corner and flies into a giant’s knees, but the giant merely looks around puzzled before continuing on his way.
They fly on for another hour before a second large town comes into view, and this one is directly in the path of their divination. More invisibilities are cast and another wind-walking sweep is made… and this time they find something.
It’s not an invisible tower but it sure is interesting, and more than a little disturbing. There is a courtyard in the town, surrounded by buildings on all sides. In the center of that courtyard is an enormous statue. The base is a thirty-foot-tall, ten foot diameter stone monolith, slightly wider at the base than the top. And atop this base is a enormous stone beholder, itself fifteen feet in diameter.
(The Company has seen beholders before. There was a mutilated beholder in a rare-creature zoo in Zhamir. The daughter of Ozilinsh’s old mentor had prepared an illusionary beholder to guard her library. And Solomea in the Crosser’s Maze had briefly taken on the aspect of a beholder. )
They fervently hope that if there are any real beholders around, they aren’t as big as this one!
An interior balcony twenty feet off the ground runs the entire perimeter of the courtyard. Two bored-looking giants dragging large clubs patrol this balcony, casting glances into the courtyard from time to time. Thinking that whoever is in the tower might have the means to see them, the wind-walkers withdraw to rejoin the others flying several hundred feet above the town.
Morningstar checks out the location in Ava Dormo. She is surprised to find that in the Dreamscape, the courtyard is empty. No beholder statue, no secret Black Circle tower, no nothin’. But that discontinuity itself is a sign that they have stumbled across something of magical significance. The Company withdraws a couple of miles from the town and takes the Divination Sink out of their bag of holding, to foil any attempts to locate them magically.
An hour later, Dranko and Kibi (both invisible) set out to walk back toward the city. No, they’re not planning an assault. When they get with a mile of the place, Kibi casts prying eyes and gives his little sensors instructions to spread out and stay hidden, scouting around the courtyard with the beholder statue. Come back in one hour to report. Off go thirteen little magical eyes.
Two of them return. Kibi holds them in his hands and absorbs their information, after which he and Dranko return to the camp. It’s dark by the time they arrive.
“Eleven of my prying eyes were dispelled,” says Kibi as the others crowd around to listen. “But the other two saw why. I think the entire courtyard area is inside a huge Divination Sink. There are four large round stones, one at each corner of the balcony. I caught a glimpse of blue light coming from inside these stones. As soon as a prying eye got inside the covered area it was annihilated. But two of the eyes watched from a high vantage point, up near the top of the beholder statue. I guess the Sinks don’t extend up that high. They watched from there for most of the hour, and saw several of the other eyes blink out of existence. They also watched those two guard giants make their rounds. From so high up it was tough to figure out what they were doing, but they may have been involved in some kind of ritual. They were walking in opposite directions, and making some gestures to each other as they passed.
“But that’s it. No one else came into the courtyard. No one walked out of the statue. The statue didn’t do anything. It was… boring.”
The Company talks for a few more minutes about the situation. They are collectively of the opinion that the statue is Het Branoi, and that there must be some secret entrance to it.
Ernie starts preparing dinner while the others wrap themselves in warm blankets against the wind.
“I hope the smell of my food doesn’t attract any of those fox-things around here,” he says.
The Company looks around nervously at the thought. Then Flicker pipes up:
“Say, Aravis and Kibi, if we do get attacked by a fox, couldn’t you guys use magic missile to kill ‘em? I mean, they’re super quick and dodge everything, but you can’t dodge a magic missile. Right?”
Everyone is quiet for a moment. Aravis stares at Flicker, which is always unnerving given the wizard’s star-field eyes. The silence stretches on long enough that Flicker starts to think he’d made some kind of faux-pas.
“What? It was just a sug…”
“Flicker,” says Aravis. “In the years to come, feel free to remind me of this moment, in case I ever get too sure of myself. Magic missile. Of course that would work! It’s the most obvious thing in the world! I have no idea why I didn’t think of it.”
“Maybe it was the sight of Kay getting eaten?” says Flicker.
“Maybe.”
“Don’t feel bad, boss,” says Pewter. “I didn’t think of it either.”
Morningstar sits down next to Snokas while they eat.
“Snokas, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Sure. Go ahead!”
“You’ve probably seen by now that our group makes decisions democratically. When there’s disagreement about our collective course of action, we take a vote.”
“I’ve figured that out, yeah.”
“I’ve noticed that every time, you’ve voted the same way as I have.”
“Yup,” agrees Snokas.
“Is that because you don’t want to disagree with me?” asks Morningstar.
Snokas scratches his head.
“No, I don’t think so. More likely, since both of us are serving Ell, we just see most things the same way. But if you want to me to vote with you when it matters, I would certainly be happy to…”
“No, no!” Morningstar interrupts. “What I’m trying to tell you is, I don’t want you to feel like you have to vote the same way I do. You’re a full-fledged member of our company. You should think for yourself, and decide for yourself how you feel.”
Snokas thinks for a minute.
“Yeah, sure. That’s fine with me. Thanks.”
An hour later the Company is sleeping soundly, safe inside Aravis’ rope tricks.
* *
An hour after that, the Company is treated to as rude awakening as there is; their rope tricks are dispelled out from under them! Whoomph! The party is greeted by the shock of cold night air, followed closely by the shock of falling six feet onto the snowy ground. Shaking off sleep with the efficiency of seasoned adventurers they start to scramble for weapons. Dranko and Kibi, the only ones able to see in the dark, cast quick looks around them. Where are their attackers?
Ah. There they are. Above them. And they’re…
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Floating about thirty feet off the ground in a wide ring around the Company, are seven miniature beholders. Each has a mottled purple round body slightly bigger than a soccer ball, with eight wiggling eyestalks protruding from the top. Each also has a large central eye, and these are looking directly down at the party.
As one all seven close their central eyes, and the magic starts flying.
Each mini-beholder fires from the same three front-facing eyestalks. That makes seven white rays of dexterity draining, seven arcing one-target lightning bolts, and twenty-eight magic missiles. The magical artillery rains around the party, crackling and hissing. Significant quantities of damage are taken by various members of the Company.
There is almost no talk of fighting, though Kay quickly picks up her bow and slings her quiver over her shoulder.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” shouts Morningstar. “One more volley like that and we’ll start dropping.”
“Agreed!” says Dranko. “Ernie, can you give us cover?”
“On it!” answers Ernie. He casts obscuring mist.
“How did they find us?” wonders Flicker aloud.
“If they can see invisible people, they could have followed Dranko and me back after I cast prying eyes,” says Kibi.
“It doesn’t matter!” says Dranko. “But whoever’s in that statue must know that we’re here. Crap!”
“Gather up your stuff!” says Morningstar, her voice muffled by the fog. “Once we’re ready I’ll cast wind walk and the wizards can teleport us back to yesterday’s camp.”
[aside: it’s standard operating procedure for the wizards to study a safe ‘teleport here’ location at each night’s campsite before going to bed.]
“Or maybe angry giants will save us,” says Kibi.
A few seconds later the magical mist vanishes. The seven mini-beholders still hover above and around them, watching. All of their main eyes are open again. Kay takes aim and lets fly with an arrow; it sticks into the side of one of the bobbing creatures. The beast emits a small shriek.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” asks Flicker, as he grabs for loose items on the ground. “Oh, hey, Morningstar, I think this is your Ioun Stone.”
“Just stuff it in your pocket.”
“They can’t attack us,” says Aravis, “because they have us in an anti-magic field. If they drop the field to attack, the fog comes back and they can’t easily target us. It’s a stalemate.”
“Not quite,” says Kay. She shoots three more arrows, two of which find their mark. The mini-beholder drops out of the air and splats on the ground like a half-deflated volleyball.
“Either way,” says Dranko. “Keep picking stuff up.”
Hastily the Company gathers their belongings. As they do, the beholders start to let out strange keening noises.
“I think they’re communicating,” says Ernie.
A few seconds later the beholders begin to shift their positions slightly, drawing in one end of the oval. One Certain Step, at the edge of the party’s cluster, is suddenly enveloped in a small fog cloud of his own. Just as it dawns on the party what the beholders are doing, the three creatures on Step’s side of the oval fire into the fog with their dex-draining rays and lightning blasts. They can’t see him, but they’ve narrowed down where he can be to single small area.
“Augh!” shouts Step from his sliver of fog.
“Crafty little things,” says Morningstar. “They’re trying to isolate one of us outside of the anti-magic zone. But actually that’s just what we need if we want to flee. If everyone’s got their stuff, crowd into that fog, and leave enough room for me and the wizards.”
Everyone scrambles and jams themselves into the pocket of fog that’s outside the anti-magic field. Morningstar moves into it and casts wind walk on as many of her friends as possible, making the total weight of the party viable for mass teleporting. Then Aravis and Kibi move in, reach out to make contact with everyone else, and cast teleport.
Just like that they are miles away, at the encampment spot of the previous night.
“Sh*t!” exclaims Dranko. “I’m getting sick of fleeing from ambushes.”
“We’ve got it down to a science though,” points out Grey Wolf.
“To think,” says Ernie. “All those years I never cast obscuring mist, and now it’s saved our butts twice. It’s good to know we have an out.”
“We ran from baby monsters!” objects Dranko. “Baby monsters!”
“I hate to bring this up,” says Aravis, “but they found us once already, inside rope tricks. They could do it again. We even had the Divination Sink out. We must be cautious.”
Aravis casts Leomund’s secure shelter and the party piles inside, bringing the Divination Sink with them.
Ernie dumps his stuff next to one of the bunks and climbs into bed. As the Company falls asleep for the second time that night, he mutters, “I like beholders better when they’re selling us chess pieces.”
…to be continued…
The Company breaks camp and soon is flying across the snowy plains of Surgoil, Morningstar in the lead. But about half an hour later Aravis feels another odd twinge in his head and Morningstar (independently) comes to a halt.
“It’s gone,” she says, frowning. “I’m no longer sensing a direction.”
“I think the defenses of Het Branoi kicked in,” says Aravis.
“We’ve been going in a straight line all this time,” Ernie points out. “We should just keep flying.”
Kay assumes the lead position, having the best sense of direction in the group. They fly onward, high above the largely-featureless landscape, still speckled with giantish farms and villages. Twenty minutes after the find the path spell stopped working, Morningstar informs the other that it has come back on again.
“We haven’t passed it,” says Morningstar. She adjusts Kay’s trajectory by a couple of degrees and they continue on. For another hour this pattern persists, with Morningstar’s divination blinking on and off as it clashes with the mystical defenses of Het Branoi. Eventually the spell expires on its own, but they keep going.
An hour later they spy a particularly large giantish town ahead. Kay and Morningstar don’t think it’s precisely on the line indicated by the find the path, but it’s their best lead so far. A few party members are made to be both wind walking and invisible.
“We should be looking for places where an invisible tower might be standing,” says Dranko. “Lawns, courtyards, open spaces. We’ll signal over the Rary’s if we run into something.”
He means this last part literally. Moving at top speed, half the party flies over the walls and starts whipping through the giantish town, staying low and avoiding giants. They fly bodily through every likely open space they can find, hoping to smack into Het Branoi. For the duration of the invisibility spell they search but come up empty. Dranko has a moment of excitement when he rounds of corner and flies into a giant’s knees, but the giant merely looks around puzzled before continuing on his way.
They fly on for another hour before a second large town comes into view, and this one is directly in the path of their divination. More invisibilities are cast and another wind-walking sweep is made… and this time they find something.
It’s not an invisible tower but it sure is interesting, and more than a little disturbing. There is a courtyard in the town, surrounded by buildings on all sides. In the center of that courtyard is an enormous statue. The base is a thirty-foot-tall, ten foot diameter stone monolith, slightly wider at the base than the top. And atop this base is a enormous stone beholder, itself fifteen feet in diameter.
(The Company has seen beholders before. There was a mutilated beholder in a rare-creature zoo in Zhamir. The daughter of Ozilinsh’s old mentor had prepared an illusionary beholder to guard her library. And Solomea in the Crosser’s Maze had briefly taken on the aspect of a beholder. )
They fervently hope that if there are any real beholders around, they aren’t as big as this one!
An interior balcony twenty feet off the ground runs the entire perimeter of the courtyard. Two bored-looking giants dragging large clubs patrol this balcony, casting glances into the courtyard from time to time. Thinking that whoever is in the tower might have the means to see them, the wind-walkers withdraw to rejoin the others flying several hundred feet above the town.
Morningstar checks out the location in Ava Dormo. She is surprised to find that in the Dreamscape, the courtyard is empty. No beholder statue, no secret Black Circle tower, no nothin’. But that discontinuity itself is a sign that they have stumbled across something of magical significance. The Company withdraws a couple of miles from the town and takes the Divination Sink out of their bag of holding, to foil any attempts to locate them magically.
An hour later, Dranko and Kibi (both invisible) set out to walk back toward the city. No, they’re not planning an assault. When they get with a mile of the place, Kibi casts prying eyes and gives his little sensors instructions to spread out and stay hidden, scouting around the courtyard with the beholder statue. Come back in one hour to report. Off go thirteen little magical eyes.
Two of them return. Kibi holds them in his hands and absorbs their information, after which he and Dranko return to the camp. It’s dark by the time they arrive.
“Eleven of my prying eyes were dispelled,” says Kibi as the others crowd around to listen. “But the other two saw why. I think the entire courtyard area is inside a huge Divination Sink. There are four large round stones, one at each corner of the balcony. I caught a glimpse of blue light coming from inside these stones. As soon as a prying eye got inside the covered area it was annihilated. But two of the eyes watched from a high vantage point, up near the top of the beholder statue. I guess the Sinks don’t extend up that high. They watched from there for most of the hour, and saw several of the other eyes blink out of existence. They also watched those two guard giants make their rounds. From so high up it was tough to figure out what they were doing, but they may have been involved in some kind of ritual. They were walking in opposite directions, and making some gestures to each other as they passed.
“But that’s it. No one else came into the courtyard. No one walked out of the statue. The statue didn’t do anything. It was… boring.”
The Company talks for a few more minutes about the situation. They are collectively of the opinion that the statue is Het Branoi, and that there must be some secret entrance to it.
Ernie starts preparing dinner while the others wrap themselves in warm blankets against the wind.
“I hope the smell of my food doesn’t attract any of those fox-things around here,” he says.
The Company looks around nervously at the thought. Then Flicker pipes up:
“Say, Aravis and Kibi, if we do get attacked by a fox, couldn’t you guys use magic missile to kill ‘em? I mean, they’re super quick and dodge everything, but you can’t dodge a magic missile. Right?”
Everyone is quiet for a moment. Aravis stares at Flicker, which is always unnerving given the wizard’s star-field eyes. The silence stretches on long enough that Flicker starts to think he’d made some kind of faux-pas.
“What? It was just a sug…”
“Flicker,” says Aravis. “In the years to come, feel free to remind me of this moment, in case I ever get too sure of myself. Magic missile. Of course that would work! It’s the most obvious thing in the world! I have no idea why I didn’t think of it.”
“Maybe it was the sight of Kay getting eaten?” says Flicker.
“Maybe.”
“Don’t feel bad, boss,” says Pewter. “I didn’t think of it either.”
Morningstar sits down next to Snokas while they eat.
“Snokas, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Sure. Go ahead!”
“You’ve probably seen by now that our group makes decisions democratically. When there’s disagreement about our collective course of action, we take a vote.”
“I’ve figured that out, yeah.”
“I’ve noticed that every time, you’ve voted the same way as I have.”
“Yup,” agrees Snokas.
“Is that because you don’t want to disagree with me?” asks Morningstar.
Snokas scratches his head.
“No, I don’t think so. More likely, since both of us are serving Ell, we just see most things the same way. But if you want to me to vote with you when it matters, I would certainly be happy to…”
“No, no!” Morningstar interrupts. “What I’m trying to tell you is, I don’t want you to feel like you have to vote the same way I do. You’re a full-fledged member of our company. You should think for yourself, and decide for yourself how you feel.”
Snokas thinks for a minute.
“Yeah, sure. That’s fine with me. Thanks.”
An hour later the Company is sleeping soundly, safe inside Aravis’ rope tricks.
* *
An hour after that, the Company is treated to as rude awakening as there is; their rope tricks are dispelled out from under them! Whoomph! The party is greeted by the shock of cold night air, followed closely by the shock of falling six feet onto the snowy ground. Shaking off sleep with the efficiency of seasoned adventurers they start to scramble for weapons. Dranko and Kibi, the only ones able to see in the dark, cast quick looks around them. Where are their attackers?
Ah. There they are. Above them. And they’re…
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Floating about thirty feet off the ground in a wide ring around the Company, are seven miniature beholders. Each has a mottled purple round body slightly bigger than a soccer ball, with eight wiggling eyestalks protruding from the top. Each also has a large central eye, and these are looking directly down at the party.
As one all seven close their central eyes, and the magic starts flying.
Each mini-beholder fires from the same three front-facing eyestalks. That makes seven white rays of dexterity draining, seven arcing one-target lightning bolts, and twenty-eight magic missiles. The magical artillery rains around the party, crackling and hissing. Significant quantities of damage are taken by various members of the Company.
There is almost no talk of fighting, though Kay quickly picks up her bow and slings her quiver over her shoulder.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” shouts Morningstar. “One more volley like that and we’ll start dropping.”
“Agreed!” says Dranko. “Ernie, can you give us cover?”
“On it!” answers Ernie. He casts obscuring mist.
“How did they find us?” wonders Flicker aloud.
“If they can see invisible people, they could have followed Dranko and me back after I cast prying eyes,” says Kibi.
“It doesn’t matter!” says Dranko. “But whoever’s in that statue must know that we’re here. Crap!”
“Gather up your stuff!” says Morningstar, her voice muffled by the fog. “Once we’re ready I’ll cast wind walk and the wizards can teleport us back to yesterday’s camp.”
[aside: it’s standard operating procedure for the wizards to study a safe ‘teleport here’ location at each night’s campsite before going to bed.]
“Or maybe angry giants will save us,” says Kibi.
A few seconds later the magical mist vanishes. The seven mini-beholders still hover above and around them, watching. All of their main eyes are open again. Kay takes aim and lets fly with an arrow; it sticks into the side of one of the bobbing creatures. The beast emits a small shriek.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” asks Flicker, as he grabs for loose items on the ground. “Oh, hey, Morningstar, I think this is your Ioun Stone.”
“Just stuff it in your pocket.”
“They can’t attack us,” says Aravis, “because they have us in an anti-magic field. If they drop the field to attack, the fog comes back and they can’t easily target us. It’s a stalemate.”
“Not quite,” says Kay. She shoots three more arrows, two of which find their mark. The mini-beholder drops out of the air and splats on the ground like a half-deflated volleyball.
“Either way,” says Dranko. “Keep picking stuff up.”
Hastily the Company gathers their belongings. As they do, the beholders start to let out strange keening noises.
“I think they’re communicating,” says Ernie.
A few seconds later the beholders begin to shift their positions slightly, drawing in one end of the oval. One Certain Step, at the edge of the party’s cluster, is suddenly enveloped in a small fog cloud of his own. Just as it dawns on the party what the beholders are doing, the three creatures on Step’s side of the oval fire into the fog with their dex-draining rays and lightning blasts. They can’t see him, but they’ve narrowed down where he can be to single small area.
“Augh!” shouts Step from his sliver of fog.
“Crafty little things,” says Morningstar. “They’re trying to isolate one of us outside of the anti-magic zone. But actually that’s just what we need if we want to flee. If everyone’s got their stuff, crowd into that fog, and leave enough room for me and the wizards.”
Everyone scrambles and jams themselves into the pocket of fog that’s outside the anti-magic field. Morningstar moves into it and casts wind walk on as many of her friends as possible, making the total weight of the party viable for mass teleporting. Then Aravis and Kibi move in, reach out to make contact with everyone else, and cast teleport.
Just like that they are miles away, at the encampment spot of the previous night.
“Sh*t!” exclaims Dranko. “I’m getting sick of fleeing from ambushes.”
“We’ve got it down to a science though,” points out Grey Wolf.
“To think,” says Ernie. “All those years I never cast obscuring mist, and now it’s saved our butts twice. It’s good to know we have an out.”
“We ran from baby monsters!” objects Dranko. “Baby monsters!”
“I hate to bring this up,” says Aravis, “but they found us once already, inside rope tricks. They could do it again. We even had the Divination Sink out. We must be cautious.”
Aravis casts Leomund’s secure shelter and the party piles inside, bringing the Divination Sink with them.
Ernie dumps his stuff next to one of the bunks and climbs into bed. As the Company falls asleep for the second time that night, he mutters, “I like beholders better when they’re selling us chess pieces.”
…to be continued…
Last edited:
RangerWickett
Legend
Sagiro said:
Cool stuff all around. I don't want to spoil the fun, but if the PCs know what's good for them, they won't bother trying to magic missile it. The blood fox already ate one of those mini-beholders, and so it'd just go crazy bullet-time fast and zap the magic missiles out of existence with its death ray antimagic eyes.
Me, personally, I'd cast animal friendship and try to make it my familiar. Make sure to keep a rolled up newspaper to bap it on the nose with when its being naughty, like when it eats Dranko's slippers. Or his head.
But first they'll have to find it. And the only way to find a blood fox, is to use a blood hound.
*deposits a quarter to the piggy for a bad pun*
Hi, Sagiro.
I've been lurking on this Story Hour almost since its beginning, several message boards ago. For a newbie DM, it's been an inspiration to see how it should be done -- not to mention providing a treasure-trove of ideas (I'm hoping to inflict some null shadows on my unsuspecting players in the near future...).
I've often intended to de-lurk and congratulate you in the past, and it was this line that finally pushed me over the edge:
Giggle. Ambushed by baby beholders. How embarrassing. I bet if Dranko ever tells the story to anyone else, the beholders will all be the size of that statue...
A couple of questions on the last few runs, if I may:
(1) When did the Eyes of Moirel take up residence inside Scree? That came as a surprise to me. I remember them shining in Kibi's hands, just before the world changed, but nothing about them after that.
(2) How much of all the dialogue in the Story Hour posts actually comes from the players "at the table", and how much is generated during the write-up? The recent posts have had a wonderful story-telling feel, with characterisation and dialogue more like a novel than a game session.
I've been lurking on this Story Hour almost since its beginning, several message boards ago. For a newbie DM, it's been an inspiration to see how it should be done -- not to mention providing a treasure-trove of ideas (I'm hoping to inflict some null shadows on my unsuspecting players in the near future...).
I've often intended to de-lurk and congratulate you in the past, and it was this line that finally pushed me over the edge:
Giggle. Ambushed by baby beholders. How embarrassing. I bet if Dranko ever tells the story to anyone else, the beholders will all be the size of that statue...
A couple of questions on the last few runs, if I may:
(1) When did the Eyes of Moirel take up residence inside Scree? That came as a surprise to me. I remember them shining in Kibi's hands, just before the world changed, but nothing about them after that.
(2) How much of all the dialogue in the Story Hour posts actually comes from the players "at the table", and how much is generated during the write-up? The recent posts have had a wonderful story-telling feel, with characterisation and dialogue more like a novel than a game session.
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
StevenAC --StevenAC said:Hi, Sagiro.
...
Giggle. Ambushed by baby beholders. How embarrassing. I bet if Dranko ever tells the story to anyone else, the beholders will all be the size of that statue...
A couple of questions on the last few runs, if I may:
(1) When did the Eyes of Moirel take up residence inside Scree? That came as a surprise to me. I remember them shining in Kibi's hands, just before the world changed, but nothing about them after that.
(2) How much of all the dialogue in the Story Hour posts actually comes from the players "at the table", and how much is generated during the write-up? The recent posts have had a wonderful story-telling feel, with characterisation and dialogue more like a novel than a game session.
Thanks for you kindly comments on the story... I'm glad you're enjoying it! To answer your questions:
1) I went back to find the passage you missed about the Eyes, and discovered to my shame that I never wrote it! So, for you and all other readers, what happened was: When the Company decided to leave Pyke Vale and head to the jungle, they wanted to take the Eyes with them. Kibi asked them (verbally) if they wanted him to carry them. In response they rolled out of their closet and hopped into Scree's body. Scree was startled at first, and creeped out as you might expect. But it wasn't painful or uncomfortable and he soon got used to it.
2) Heretofore not much of the dialogue in the Story Hour is precisely verbatim, though most of it is highly representational of what was actually said. Maybe 10% of the dialogue is actually quoted (including Dranko's line about baby monsters) -- when someone says something particularly funny or important, I write it down. Also, the sooner I write up the story after a session, the more dialogue I get right because it's fresher in my mind. But my memory isn't the best, alas.
I've made a conscious decision recently to write the Story more like a story, with more dialogue, and less like a dry journal. I want it to be more fun for people to read. Other Story Hours on the board have raised the bar is this regard; I'm just trying to keep up!
They are still extremely faithful to the game itself; I don't add anything that didn't happen, or make significant embellishments to the narrative. The last game I ran (still a few runs away story-hour-wise) I tried an experiment which worked pretty well: I audio-taped the game session! (I was tired of forgetting all the witty banter, and occasionaly forgetting important bits, like the Eyes deciding to travel in Kibi's familiar.
) As a result, the story hour post for that run will contain nothing but actual dialogue, and is guaranteed to be 100% complete. Oh, and I'll be posting another update later today... promise!
-Sagiro
thatdarncat
Overlord of Chat
Sagiro said:
Ummm any chance you'll be posting an MP3 of that?
I've thought about recording a game session a few times, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Good to know it works out so well
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 183
The next morning the Company prepares for an assault on the statue. The attack by the beholders is clearly a sign that the enemy – either the giants, or the Black Circle inside the tower – is on to them. The longer they wait, the more likely it is that they’ll be rediscovered, Divination Sink or no.
A plan is made and prep spells are cast: wind walk, invisibility, fly, and telepathic bond. The wizards will teleport back to the well-studied location of last night’s battle, and from they’re they’ll breeze invisibly in toward the statue. There’s a momentary setback when Aravis’s teleport goes awry, leaving half the party in a similar-looking but far-distant area. Fortunately Aravis always carries a spare.
The only sign of the miniature beholders is the corpse of the one they killed. It lays on the ground, motionless and slightly collapsed. The Company spends a minute debating whether it would be worth casting speak with dead on the body, but decide to press ahead with their assault on the statue. Moments later the whole Company is high-flying toward the giantish city. As they approach they see several livestock enclosures on the town’s outskirts – giant cows and sheep, mostly, but one pen holds enormous giant-sized chickens!
“Hey Flicker,” thinks Dranko over the mind-link. “We could steal one of those for you as a mount!”
“I have no desire for a riding chicken,” Flicker thinks back at him.
Unseen, the Company soars high over the stone walls and settles on a rooftop near to the central plaza with the beholder statue. Morningstar is well-prepared for the next stage of the plan. She comes out of wind walk but is still flying and invisible. She drifts above the courtyard where two giants (a different pair from the ones seen by Kibi’s prying eyes) are walking patrol up on the balconies. For a minute she just watches them. Twice on each circuit they meet up, walking in opposite directions. When they do, the two giants raise their hands and give each other a “high five” with varying numbers of fingers raised. Is it a game, or a secret signal? Are there Black Circle priests watching from inside the statue somehow?
There are spots along the balconies where the four Divination Sinks probably don’t cover. When the two giants are approaching one of these she swoops down and casts three silent thought captures.
The first reveals a general feeling of boredom.
“That’s about to change,” thinks Morningstar to herself.
The second reveals a specific thought: “I sure can’t wait for dinner.” The third is similar in tone; the thought is: “I can’t believe I got this crummy assignment twice in one week!”
“They don’t tend to think about their job, or about the Black Circle, or about the statue,” Morningstar reports over the telepathic bond. “It seems like they’re just grunts.”
She casts a silent detect thoughts and waits for one of the giants to walk past. The creature is humming, and its thoughts match the humming. It’s a tuneless little ditty, and the giant smiles as it hums.
“Grook pak braaaag, Grook nish florg. Grook blug dekker etter snog snog plorg.”
It sounds like the giant is making up a song! Continuing with her plan, Morningstar casts a silent comprehend languages to learn just what the giant is singing. Maybe it holds a clue…
“I saw me a boulder, looking like a house. Even had a chimney and some little pebble cows. Saw me a boulder, looking like a jug. Went to take a drink, but I didn’t have a mug…”
It continues like that; it’s a ballad about a giant who goes wandering and sees boulder in various shapes.
The giant’s thoughts change as the other giant approaches. Now it’s thinking:
“Odd. He’s going three fingers I’ll bet, so I’ll go two. Ok, here he comes… Ready, up, and…”
The two giants slap hands. Morningstar’s giant does so with two fingers raised, and says “odd”; the other giant has four finger’s raised. The second giant laughs, and Morningstar’s giant thinks: “Dang. That’s four in a row I’ve lost! Boy, I’m hungry.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” thinks Dranko upon hearing Morningstar’s report. “It’s time to move in and get a better look at the statue.”
All of the Company who are invisible fly over to the top of the statue, congregating next to the huge stone beholder.
“Wait, back off for a minute” thinks Morningstar. “I have a couple more silent thought captures. If this statue is really Het Branoi and there’s a way in, I could get some useful thoughts up here.”
Both the thoughts she picks up are by Dranko and Flicker. Oh well.
Upon close examination the beholder statue is an exquisite work of art. The stone is crafted beautifully, each eyestalk cunningly carved. The body’s stone surface shows the patterned mottling of its skin. Each tooth in its open mouth looks razor sharp.
“Maybe it’s an actual giant-sized beholder, turned to stone,” thinks Flicker.
“The strange thing is, it’s not weathered,” thinks Dranko. “I mean, it’s windy and cold up here. It must hail and sleet sometimes. But there's not a scratch on this thing. It could have been sculpted yesterday.”
He ponders for a moment.
“In fact…”
Dranko disbelieves that the statue is real. A few seconds later it fades (to him) into a background translucency, revealing a stone tower of about the same size and shape, just inside the statue, like a weapon in its sheath.
“Bingo!” thinks Dranko. He conveys his discovery to the others, and soon they all see the reality. The beholder statue and its huge pedestal are an illusion, masking a tower whose surface is just beneath the surface of the illusion.
Unfortunately the tower has no visible doors or windows.
“It’s like Abernathy’s tower,” thinks Kay.
“But full of evil stuff,” adds Grey Wolf.
“We shouldn’t be dawdling out here,” thinks Morningstar. “They’re probably watching us right now. We still need to get in.”
“I’ve got something to try,” says Aravis. “If it doesn’t have a door, I can make one with passwall."
The others agree that this is the best plan. They can be inside the tower before the giants know what’s going on. They all fly down near the tower’s base, ready to enter Aravis’ magical entrance. He waits until the two giants are far away and on the opposite side of the statue, and he casts his spell.
WHOOMPH!
The entire party is enveloped in a burst of hot energy that blisters their skin and knocks them backward onto the grass! Worse, there is no sign that the passwall had any effect save to set off the magical blast.
With her comprehend languages spell still up, Morningstar hears the two giants up on the balcony.
“What was that?” cries the first.
“Holy Sh*t!” cries the second.
Both giants are staring down at the base of the statue.
There is panicky mental discussion over the telepathic bond.
“What do we do?”
“We can’t let them raise an alarm.”
“Should we kill them?”
“We can’t just kill them; they haven’t done anything.”
“I kind of like them.”
“We still have to keep them from bringing other giants.”
“We can fight to subdue.”
“I can trap one of them.”
“If we do something about those Divination Sinks, we might spot a way into the tower.”
“I’m on it.”
“Ok, let’s do it.”
Aravis flies to one corner of the raised courtyard walkway, where one of the Divination Sinks squats in its stone casement. He knows it won’t be possible to remove the Sink itself (as it’s set deep into the stone) or to move the stone casing itself (it’s a boulder almost five feet in diameter). So (still invisible, mind) he polymorphs into a giant himself!
Flicker, mindful of what happened when Aravis tried to passwall into the tower, tentatively reaches out toward its smooth stone face with his hand. He winces at the moment of contact, but when nothing painful occurs he busily sets out searching the tower exterior by feel. Ernie and Kay join him.
Up on the wall, the giants move a bit closer for a quick confab. Morningstar, still under the effects of a comprehend languages, relays their discussion.
“Do you know what that was?”
“Hell no! I mean, yeah, we have to guard the statue, but everyone knows nothing ever actually happens to it.”
“It flashed!”
“Yes, I saw.”
“I guess we should go get Eigomic then.”
“Yeah.”
“But…uh…one of us should stay, right? In case anything else happens.”
“Good point. You stay, I’ll go tell Eigomic.”
“I think I should go. I’m faster.”
“Fine, you go, I’ll stay. Hurry up!”
“Wait… what’s that sound. Someone down there is talking!”
The giants listen curiously to the sound of Kibi, invisible to the last moment, casting confusion on them. Miraculously one of them shakes it off, but the other clutches its head and then looks around stupidly. The unaffected giant’s eyes widen as Kibi pops into view down in the courtyard.
“Hey! There’s a tiny little…”
He’s cut off as he becomes trapped in a constricting lidless stone cell; Morningstar casts wall of stone and confines the unconfused giant to a box five feet on a side and fifteen feet tall. It would be a roomy enclosure (relatively speaking) for a human, but for a fifteen foot tall giant it’s terribly cramped.
“Krag!” shouts the giant, alarmed. “There’s a midget magic guy down there. Get Eigomic! Get help!”
Near the opposite corner, over a hundred feet away from the giants, Aravis sets his giantish shoulders to the stone block and heaves. Strong though he is, the stone is too much for him. It moves less than an inch before the wizard pulls up, panting.
“Damn,” he thinks to the others. “Still too heavy. I’ll need help.”
Dranko flies up to stand near the trapped giant’s prison, ready with his whip in case the giant tries to climb out. Grey Wolf, near the statue, flies straight up and keeps a constant watch on all of the entrances to the courtyard.
The confused giant looks up, looks down, looks to the right… and then looks right at Kibi, who’s the only visible member of the Company. Filled with a sudden rage the giant leaps down from the high balcony, landing awkwardly and wrenching his knee. He stumbles toward the dwarf. Alarmed, Kibi flies around the statue, putting it in the way of the giant’s line of sight. Then the dwarf uses his staff of conjuration to call forth a small xorn.
Still wind walking, Step and Snokas fly over to and then swirl around the giant, who now becomes really confused. It swats vaguely and ineffectually at the two of them.
From inside Morningstar’s wall of stone come the sounds of a struggling giant cursing the lack of elbow room. He can’t get any leverage to even try smashing the stone. Giantish fingers appear, curled over the top lip of the box. Dranko cracks his whip with an expert touch, the fingers vanish back inside the box, and the cursing continues.
Morningstar casts memory read, and moves a bit closer to the confused giant, which is waving its club menacingly as it limps toward Kibi.
“Still could be a problem touching it,” she thinks.
“Aw, what the hell,” thinks Aravis. “Hold on.”
Leaving the stone housing the Divination Sink, Aravis (still in giant-form) flies straight across the courtyard and plows into the giant. They fall to the ground and start to grapple.
“That’ll make it easier,” thinks Morningstar. “Just don’t roll over at the last minute.”
Kibi finishes summoning his xorn. He speaks to it in Terran.
“Mr. Xorn, if you wouldn’t mind, we’d like you to tunnel your way into that tower. The statue is an illusion, and the tower is right inside.”
“Yes,” rumbles the xorn. It reaches out and pushes its body into the tower, expecting to glide through the stone as though it were water. It fails.
“The stone resists,” grumbles the xorn. “It’s not natural.”
“I though it might be,” sighs Kibi. “Sorry.”
“Maybe it can help with the Divination Sinks,” suggests Aravis over the mindlink.
The giant in the box tries to climb out again. This time it gets an elbow up onto the ledge and pokes its head out the top. He peers at Dranko (now visible). “Gooka ruk takka blarg skiblish?” it asks.
“It wants to know what we’re doing here,” thinks Morningstar, translating.
“A ha!” cries Flicker. “I’ve got something! It’s a seam, like there’s a doorway cut into the tower. It’s got a keyhole and everything. And the door is human sized, not giant sized.”
“Can you pick the lock?” thinks Dranko.
“Not likely,” answers Flicker. “I may be good, but I can’t pick locks by feel. I need to see it, but the whole doorway is invisible.”
“With those Divination Sinks, no one’s seeing anything,” thinks Step over the mindlink.
Kibi looks at the little xorn. He looks up and across the courtyard to the nearest Divination Sink.
“I want you to try moving that rock,” says Kibi to his summoned creature.
“I can’t reach it,” it rumbles. “It’s off the ground.”
“I’m going to pick you up and fly there. It’ll only take a few seconds.”
“What does that mean?” asks the xorn suspiciously. “’Fly?’”
“I’m going to lift you off the ground. We’ll move through the air.”
“You’ll WHAT? No! I can’t leave the… hey… put me down. What’s… aaah….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The xorn’s terrified cry sounds like a tiny little earthquake, as Kibi wraps his arms around what passes for its waist and flies up to the balcony. He quickly drops it onto the stone walkway.
“Never. Do. That. Again,” the xorn threatens.
“I know how he feels,” says Scree sympathetically.
“Sorry! Now, please, can you try moving that stone?”
Dranko can’t understand giantish, but he can motion easily enough. He brandishes his whip, making it obvious that attempted escape from the little stone prison is going to be very painful.
“Back in the box!” he adds.
The giant looks conflicted for a few moments, and then drops back down inside the enclosure, muttering in giantish. To show there are no hard feelings, Dranko takes his wineskin and tosses it in with the giant.
Morningstar steps forward to the grappling giants; the actual giant has gotten the upper hand, having rolled over on top of the Aravis giant. This makes Morningstar’s spell easier; she touches the true giant and casts memory read, looking for the memory of “the time Eigomic divulged the most information about this area.” But through force of giantish will, or maybe because he’s confused and cannot remember, she gets no memory of the event. Damn!
Aravis and the giant continue to roll around on the ground, wrestling. Pewter scrambles onto the giant’s back and bites.
“Got ‘em, boss!”
“Did the giant… oof… notice?… ow!”
“Doesn’t look like it. I’ll keep trying though.”
There’s some quick mental discussion; they need to talk to the giants, not just listen to them. Kibi activates his Ioun Stone of tongues, and begins acting as translator.
“How you doing in there?” Dranko calls to the giant in the box.
“You little guys are gonna get in big trouble!” answers the giant.
“From you?” asks Morningstar, leading him on.
“No, from the chief, and from Eigomic. You shouldn’t be messin’ around with the statue!”
“Does someone have a way I can see the door and the keyhole?” asks Flicker impatiently. “I’d love to get started picking this lock. We can get in before this Eigomic character shows up.”
Kibi looks over at the xorn, who’s having no luck with the Divination Sink.
“Too heavy,” it complains.
“Wait, how about this?” says Kibi. He flies down to ground level, tells everyone to back away, and casts glitterdust on the side of the tower with the door and keyhole. Tiny flecks of reflective glitter coat the area. Flicker moves in for a look.
“Better. Not great, but better. It’s still going to be tough. I’ll need some time. I’ll check for traps first.”
“I hate to…ow!… bring this… oof!… up,” thinks Aravis, “but I’m not making any… ouch!… headway here. This giant’s a better wrestler than I am, and as long we keep fighting, we’re just wasting the last few rounds of the confusion. I could use some help in subduing him.”
Morningstar starts in attacking the giant, taking great pains to inflict only subdual damage. Dranko flies down to join her, using his whip. It then occurs to Kibi that this might be a good time to try out a long-held magic item that they’ve never used – a deck of illusions. He fishes out the 20-card deck, deals off the top, and flings the card down near the giant.
A huge red dragon springs up.
…to be continued…
The next morning the Company prepares for an assault on the statue. The attack by the beholders is clearly a sign that the enemy – either the giants, or the Black Circle inside the tower – is on to them. The longer they wait, the more likely it is that they’ll be rediscovered, Divination Sink or no.
A plan is made and prep spells are cast: wind walk, invisibility, fly, and telepathic bond. The wizards will teleport back to the well-studied location of last night’s battle, and from they’re they’ll breeze invisibly in toward the statue. There’s a momentary setback when Aravis’s teleport goes awry, leaving half the party in a similar-looking but far-distant area. Fortunately Aravis always carries a spare.
The only sign of the miniature beholders is the corpse of the one they killed. It lays on the ground, motionless and slightly collapsed. The Company spends a minute debating whether it would be worth casting speak with dead on the body, but decide to press ahead with their assault on the statue. Moments later the whole Company is high-flying toward the giantish city. As they approach they see several livestock enclosures on the town’s outskirts – giant cows and sheep, mostly, but one pen holds enormous giant-sized chickens!
“Hey Flicker,” thinks Dranko over the mind-link. “We could steal one of those for you as a mount!”
“I have no desire for a riding chicken,” Flicker thinks back at him.
Unseen, the Company soars high over the stone walls and settles on a rooftop near to the central plaza with the beholder statue. Morningstar is well-prepared for the next stage of the plan. She comes out of wind walk but is still flying and invisible. She drifts above the courtyard where two giants (a different pair from the ones seen by Kibi’s prying eyes) are walking patrol up on the balconies. For a minute she just watches them. Twice on each circuit they meet up, walking in opposite directions. When they do, the two giants raise their hands and give each other a “high five” with varying numbers of fingers raised. Is it a game, or a secret signal? Are there Black Circle priests watching from inside the statue somehow?
There are spots along the balconies where the four Divination Sinks probably don’t cover. When the two giants are approaching one of these she swoops down and casts three silent thought captures.
The first reveals a general feeling of boredom.
“That’s about to change,” thinks Morningstar to herself.
The second reveals a specific thought: “I sure can’t wait for dinner.” The third is similar in tone; the thought is: “I can’t believe I got this crummy assignment twice in one week!”
“They don’t tend to think about their job, or about the Black Circle, or about the statue,” Morningstar reports over the telepathic bond. “It seems like they’re just grunts.”
She casts a silent detect thoughts and waits for one of the giants to walk past. The creature is humming, and its thoughts match the humming. It’s a tuneless little ditty, and the giant smiles as it hums.
“Grook pak braaaag, Grook nish florg. Grook blug dekker etter snog snog plorg.”
It sounds like the giant is making up a song! Continuing with her plan, Morningstar casts a silent comprehend languages to learn just what the giant is singing. Maybe it holds a clue…
“I saw me a boulder, looking like a house. Even had a chimney and some little pebble cows. Saw me a boulder, looking like a jug. Went to take a drink, but I didn’t have a mug…”
It continues like that; it’s a ballad about a giant who goes wandering and sees boulder in various shapes.
The giant’s thoughts change as the other giant approaches. Now it’s thinking:
“Odd. He’s going three fingers I’ll bet, so I’ll go two. Ok, here he comes… Ready, up, and…”
The two giants slap hands. Morningstar’s giant does so with two fingers raised, and says “odd”; the other giant has four finger’s raised. The second giant laughs, and Morningstar’s giant thinks: “Dang. That’s four in a row I’ve lost! Boy, I’m hungry.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” thinks Dranko upon hearing Morningstar’s report. “It’s time to move in and get a better look at the statue.”
All of the Company who are invisible fly over to the top of the statue, congregating next to the huge stone beholder.
“Wait, back off for a minute” thinks Morningstar. “I have a couple more silent thought captures. If this statue is really Het Branoi and there’s a way in, I could get some useful thoughts up here.”
Both the thoughts she picks up are by Dranko and Flicker. Oh well.
Upon close examination the beholder statue is an exquisite work of art. The stone is crafted beautifully, each eyestalk cunningly carved. The body’s stone surface shows the patterned mottling of its skin. Each tooth in its open mouth looks razor sharp.
“Maybe it’s an actual giant-sized beholder, turned to stone,” thinks Flicker.
“The strange thing is, it’s not weathered,” thinks Dranko. “I mean, it’s windy and cold up here. It must hail and sleet sometimes. But there's not a scratch on this thing. It could have been sculpted yesterday.”
He ponders for a moment.
“In fact…”
Dranko disbelieves that the statue is real. A few seconds later it fades (to him) into a background translucency, revealing a stone tower of about the same size and shape, just inside the statue, like a weapon in its sheath.
“Bingo!” thinks Dranko. He conveys his discovery to the others, and soon they all see the reality. The beholder statue and its huge pedestal are an illusion, masking a tower whose surface is just beneath the surface of the illusion.
Unfortunately the tower has no visible doors or windows.
“It’s like Abernathy’s tower,” thinks Kay.
“But full of evil stuff,” adds Grey Wolf.
“We shouldn’t be dawdling out here,” thinks Morningstar. “They’re probably watching us right now. We still need to get in.”
“I’ve got something to try,” says Aravis. “If it doesn’t have a door, I can make one with passwall."
The others agree that this is the best plan. They can be inside the tower before the giants know what’s going on. They all fly down near the tower’s base, ready to enter Aravis’ magical entrance. He waits until the two giants are far away and on the opposite side of the statue, and he casts his spell.
WHOOMPH!
The entire party is enveloped in a burst of hot energy that blisters their skin and knocks them backward onto the grass! Worse, there is no sign that the passwall had any effect save to set off the magical blast.
With her comprehend languages spell still up, Morningstar hears the two giants up on the balcony.
“What was that?” cries the first.
“Holy Sh*t!” cries the second.
Both giants are staring down at the base of the statue.
There is panicky mental discussion over the telepathic bond.
“What do we do?”
“We can’t let them raise an alarm.”
“Should we kill them?”
“We can’t just kill them; they haven’t done anything.”
“I kind of like them.”
“We still have to keep them from bringing other giants.”
“We can fight to subdue.”
“I can trap one of them.”
“If we do something about those Divination Sinks, we might spot a way into the tower.”
“I’m on it.”
“Ok, let’s do it.”
Aravis flies to one corner of the raised courtyard walkway, where one of the Divination Sinks squats in its stone casement. He knows it won’t be possible to remove the Sink itself (as it’s set deep into the stone) or to move the stone casing itself (it’s a boulder almost five feet in diameter). So (still invisible, mind) he polymorphs into a giant himself!
Flicker, mindful of what happened when Aravis tried to passwall into the tower, tentatively reaches out toward its smooth stone face with his hand. He winces at the moment of contact, but when nothing painful occurs he busily sets out searching the tower exterior by feel. Ernie and Kay join him.
Up on the wall, the giants move a bit closer for a quick confab. Morningstar, still under the effects of a comprehend languages, relays their discussion.
“Do you know what that was?”
“Hell no! I mean, yeah, we have to guard the statue, but everyone knows nothing ever actually happens to it.”
“It flashed!”
“Yes, I saw.”
“I guess we should go get Eigomic then.”
“Yeah.”
“But…uh…one of us should stay, right? In case anything else happens.”
“Good point. You stay, I’ll go tell Eigomic.”
“I think I should go. I’m faster.”
“Fine, you go, I’ll stay. Hurry up!”
“Wait… what’s that sound. Someone down there is talking!”
The giants listen curiously to the sound of Kibi, invisible to the last moment, casting confusion on them. Miraculously one of them shakes it off, but the other clutches its head and then looks around stupidly. The unaffected giant’s eyes widen as Kibi pops into view down in the courtyard.
“Hey! There’s a tiny little…”
He’s cut off as he becomes trapped in a constricting lidless stone cell; Morningstar casts wall of stone and confines the unconfused giant to a box five feet on a side and fifteen feet tall. It would be a roomy enclosure (relatively speaking) for a human, but for a fifteen foot tall giant it’s terribly cramped.
“Krag!” shouts the giant, alarmed. “There’s a midget magic guy down there. Get Eigomic! Get help!”
Near the opposite corner, over a hundred feet away from the giants, Aravis sets his giantish shoulders to the stone block and heaves. Strong though he is, the stone is too much for him. It moves less than an inch before the wizard pulls up, panting.
“Damn,” he thinks to the others. “Still too heavy. I’ll need help.”
Dranko flies up to stand near the trapped giant’s prison, ready with his whip in case the giant tries to climb out. Grey Wolf, near the statue, flies straight up and keeps a constant watch on all of the entrances to the courtyard.
The confused giant looks up, looks down, looks to the right… and then looks right at Kibi, who’s the only visible member of the Company. Filled with a sudden rage the giant leaps down from the high balcony, landing awkwardly and wrenching his knee. He stumbles toward the dwarf. Alarmed, Kibi flies around the statue, putting it in the way of the giant’s line of sight. Then the dwarf uses his staff of conjuration to call forth a small xorn.
Still wind walking, Step and Snokas fly over to and then swirl around the giant, who now becomes really confused. It swats vaguely and ineffectually at the two of them.
From inside Morningstar’s wall of stone come the sounds of a struggling giant cursing the lack of elbow room. He can’t get any leverage to even try smashing the stone. Giantish fingers appear, curled over the top lip of the box. Dranko cracks his whip with an expert touch, the fingers vanish back inside the box, and the cursing continues.
Morningstar casts memory read, and moves a bit closer to the confused giant, which is waving its club menacingly as it limps toward Kibi.
“Still could be a problem touching it,” she thinks.
“Aw, what the hell,” thinks Aravis. “Hold on.”
Leaving the stone housing the Divination Sink, Aravis (still in giant-form) flies straight across the courtyard and plows into the giant. They fall to the ground and start to grapple.
“That’ll make it easier,” thinks Morningstar. “Just don’t roll over at the last minute.”
Kibi finishes summoning his xorn. He speaks to it in Terran.
“Mr. Xorn, if you wouldn’t mind, we’d like you to tunnel your way into that tower. The statue is an illusion, and the tower is right inside.”
“Yes,” rumbles the xorn. It reaches out and pushes its body into the tower, expecting to glide through the stone as though it were water. It fails.
“The stone resists,” grumbles the xorn. “It’s not natural.”
“I though it might be,” sighs Kibi. “Sorry.”
“Maybe it can help with the Divination Sinks,” suggests Aravis over the mindlink.
The giant in the box tries to climb out again. This time it gets an elbow up onto the ledge and pokes its head out the top. He peers at Dranko (now visible). “Gooka ruk takka blarg skiblish?” it asks.
“It wants to know what we’re doing here,” thinks Morningstar, translating.
“A ha!” cries Flicker. “I’ve got something! It’s a seam, like there’s a doorway cut into the tower. It’s got a keyhole and everything. And the door is human sized, not giant sized.”
“Can you pick the lock?” thinks Dranko.
“Not likely,” answers Flicker. “I may be good, but I can’t pick locks by feel. I need to see it, but the whole doorway is invisible.”
“With those Divination Sinks, no one’s seeing anything,” thinks Step over the mindlink.
Kibi looks at the little xorn. He looks up and across the courtyard to the nearest Divination Sink.
“I want you to try moving that rock,” says Kibi to his summoned creature.
“I can’t reach it,” it rumbles. “It’s off the ground.”
“I’m going to pick you up and fly there. It’ll only take a few seconds.”
“What does that mean?” asks the xorn suspiciously. “’Fly?’”
“I’m going to lift you off the ground. We’ll move through the air.”
“You’ll WHAT? No! I can’t leave the… hey… put me down. What’s… aaah….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The xorn’s terrified cry sounds like a tiny little earthquake, as Kibi wraps his arms around what passes for its waist and flies up to the balcony. He quickly drops it onto the stone walkway.
“Never. Do. That. Again,” the xorn threatens.
“I know how he feels,” says Scree sympathetically.
“Sorry! Now, please, can you try moving that stone?”
Dranko can’t understand giantish, but he can motion easily enough. He brandishes his whip, making it obvious that attempted escape from the little stone prison is going to be very painful.
“Back in the box!” he adds.
The giant looks conflicted for a few moments, and then drops back down inside the enclosure, muttering in giantish. To show there are no hard feelings, Dranko takes his wineskin and tosses it in with the giant.
Morningstar steps forward to the grappling giants; the actual giant has gotten the upper hand, having rolled over on top of the Aravis giant. This makes Morningstar’s spell easier; she touches the true giant and casts memory read, looking for the memory of “the time Eigomic divulged the most information about this area.” But through force of giantish will, or maybe because he’s confused and cannot remember, she gets no memory of the event. Damn!
Aravis and the giant continue to roll around on the ground, wrestling. Pewter scrambles onto the giant’s back and bites.
“Got ‘em, boss!”
“Did the giant… oof… notice?… ow!”
“Doesn’t look like it. I’ll keep trying though.”
There’s some quick mental discussion; they need to talk to the giants, not just listen to them. Kibi activates his Ioun Stone of tongues, and begins acting as translator.
“How you doing in there?” Dranko calls to the giant in the box.
“You little guys are gonna get in big trouble!” answers the giant.
“From you?” asks Morningstar, leading him on.
“No, from the chief, and from Eigomic. You shouldn’t be messin’ around with the statue!”
“Does someone have a way I can see the door and the keyhole?” asks Flicker impatiently. “I’d love to get started picking this lock. We can get in before this Eigomic character shows up.”
Kibi looks over at the xorn, who’s having no luck with the Divination Sink.
“Too heavy,” it complains.
“Wait, how about this?” says Kibi. He flies down to ground level, tells everyone to back away, and casts glitterdust on the side of the tower with the door and keyhole. Tiny flecks of reflective glitter coat the area. Flicker moves in for a look.
“Better. Not great, but better. It’s still going to be tough. I’ll need some time. I’ll check for traps first.”
“I hate to…ow!… bring this… oof!… up,” thinks Aravis, “but I’m not making any… ouch!… headway here. This giant’s a better wrestler than I am, and as long we keep fighting, we’re just wasting the last few rounds of the confusion. I could use some help in subduing him.”
Morningstar starts in attacking the giant, taking great pains to inflict only subdual damage. Dranko flies down to join her, using his whip. It then occurs to Kibi that this might be a good time to try out a long-held magic item that they’ve never used – a deck of illusions. He fishes out the 20-card deck, deals off the top, and flings the card down near the giant.
A huge red dragon springs up.
…to be continued…
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