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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4275847" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 34, "Jabberwocky", Day Twenty-eight (April 20th, 1006 / September 26th local): Towering far above him, the golden hued monster dives toward the fighter. Phuddi charges back, the monster chasing after him at a far faster a pace than one would have imagined. The monsters hind legs and tail go crashing into the wagon, reducing it to splinters and the two merchants to pulp. The sound of the crash alerts the rest of the party, who had just sat down to eat a short distance away. The monster swipes its clawed hands at Phuddi, slashing holes into the fighter’s armor and knocking him around like a rag doll. Narg and Phraakeese charge to their friend’s assistance, only be treated like annoying insects, the monster batting them away with its hind legs while continuing to grab towards Phuddi. Kharole tosses a few Magic Missile spells into the beast, while Serita attempts a number of spells which appear to have no effect on the behemoth. Klaaze and Mark begin to fire arrows from their bows up towards the monsters head, as Freyland lobs sling bullets in that direction. The creature continues to focus its attention on Phuddi, who has now been reduced to a mere dozen hit points. Phuddi continues to take several swipes of his Vorpal Blade at the monster, which attempts to grab the sword. The monster’s right claw gets cut several times and skewered once by the blade, but none of this deters him. Kharole is the first to connect what they are all seeing, yelling out “The Sword! It wants Phuddi’s Sword.” “Of course,” Serita exclaims “A Vorpal Blade is the nemesis of the Jabberwock. It must have sensed the presence of its adversary.” Kharole finishes the through “Which is why it came to the city, and then that village we saw burning. It’s been following the sword!” At this point both Narg and Phraakeese have been trying to keep the monster from grabbing Phuddi by inserting themselves between the two. Both fighters have stabbed the creature several times, but have taken far worse than they dished out in its counterattacks, each now to below half of their hit points. “More Fight, Less Talk” Narg yells back at the women. The creature’s left claw then swings around, grabbing Phuddipeduzh and lifting him high into the air. Phuddi is helpless, his arms and the sword pinned to his side by the fingers on the creatures claw. It squeezes the fist holding the fighter to the point where Phuddi is on the verge of passing out. The Jabberwock then opens its mouth wide, bringing the fist up to its gaping jaw, to bite the fighter’s head off. Phraakeese jumps up onto the monster’s right knee and uses it as a springboard to bounce even higher. Holding his magical sword with both hands, Phraakeese buries it deep into the Jabberwock’s left shoulder, which causes the monster’s left arm to go limp, dropping Phuddi to the ground, becoming unconscious. The monster uses its right claw to bat Phraakeese away, sending him flying so twenty feet and landing in a unmoving heap. The monster balls its claws into a fist, and prepares to pound the life out of Phraakeese’s unmoving body. The Jabberwock suddenly yells out in pain, as a well-thrown pointed bullet from Freyland’s sling finds its way into one of the monster’s eyes. Narg alone stands before the wounded beast, although his greatest concern at this moment is not his own safety but that of his friends. To stop the monster from stepping on and crushing either Phraakeese or Phuddi the fighter decides to lure it away from them. Narg drops his own sword and grabs up the Vorpal blade, running away from his allies. The wounded beast pursues, and quickly catches up with the half-elf, grabbing him up with the right claw as he had done with Phuddi. There is however, one key difference, as Narg saw the shadow of the claw reaching towards him, and raised his arms and the sword up in order to keep them from being pinned. As the monster squeezes its fist and lift Narg high into the air the fighter moves his arms back, preparing to swing the sword with full force in the same way that a baseball player swings a bat. Narg waits until he sees the monster’s teeth before him, his own head just entering the monster’s mouth, and lets the sword fly. This allows a perfect swing of the Vorpal Blade directly into the monster’s neck. [Chronicler’s Note #48: The player had just barely beaten the DM with an initiative roll. The DM informs the player that while he only needs a “12” or better to hit the creature, a “17” or better will be required for the Vorpal Blade to actually decapitate the monster. Otherwise, it will be Narg who will find himself decapitated this round. The table is totally silent as Narg’s player lets the dice roll. It lands as a “19” and the entire table erupts in a resounding cheer so loud that others in house of that week’s host come to see what the commotion is all about.] The sword cleanly slices through the neck of the creature, which falls backwards. The rest of the party arrive, and have to help pry the barely conscious Narg out from the death grip of the monster. Serita casts healing spells on Narg, Phraakeese and Phuddipeduzh. Narg decides to check to see if there is anything of value in the monster’s stomach, and slices it wide open. A magical net is found, along with the partially digested remains of what Narg hopes are cattle, but suspects otherwise. Meanwhile, the others search through the wreckage of the merchant’s wagon, finding a map with writing on it in a language they cannot understand. Narg decides to head down to the river to wash himself and the net off. The others decide that cleaning up sounds like a good idea, and follow. They arrive at the river, seeing an old human with assorted fishing equipment. He yells at the party “Are you the ones making all that ruckus up the hill! I came here to fish, and that roaring has scared all of the fish away!” Phraakeese exclaims “Hey, don’t blame us. It was the Jabberwock’s idea to come to your fishing hole, not ours.” “Jabberwock? The same one that attacked the city yesterday?” the man exclaims. “Yeah, we just killed it,” Narg states. “Sounds like a mighty big fish story to me, I’ll have to see it to believe it” the man replies. The man introduces himself as Old Man Hawkins, and starts to tell them some mighty big fish stories of his own. After Narg and company clean up they bring the man back with them to see the Jabberwock’s body. They also show him the map, and he is able to translate the writing. He tells them is a poem which reads: “In a Castle of Old, In a Casket of Gold, Is the Basin of Time, Without Reason or Rhyme, You Appear Where it’s told.” He says it refers to a mystical basin rumored to be able to transport people to other worlds. “How convenient” Phraakeese’s player interjects. He is very impressed at seeing the body of the Jabberwock, saying “It sure looks like the same one that attacked Specularum.” “Hold on, if you saw it there how did you get her so quickly?” Kharole asks. He says that he has a teleportation device, which he uses to get to his favorite fishing spots. He offers to use it to bring the party back to the city the next morning. He states “I’ll be a witness to the fact you killed it. That will make you heroes and the King will have to honor you.” [Chronicler’s Note #49: The DM informs the players that his other group had reached the city of Specularum during their game the night before. It is now necessary for the Silver Moon Adventurers to return to the city, and for the two groups to meet each other and find out about what they need to do during each of the their games the following week, with the combined group climax game scheduled for two weeks later. The players decides to go along with that plan, as many are now anxious for this module to just be over and done with.]</blockquote>

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