The Heroes of Tanar (Triple Update!!! 7-17-02!!!)

[DM with a vengence]

Special Double Feature

I didn't give you an update yesterday, so tonight we have a special double feature. It's also sorta tomorrow's update, mainly because I'm a total rat-bastard who just loves cliff-hangers (not literally, I don't think I've every left anyone hanging on the side of a cliff, although rock climbing is a lot of fun.)

On the Road, Again

Milo lead the NGSPiT (Non-Gender Specific People in Tights, aren’t acroynms fun?) down Short street, keeping close to the wall and the shadows. He heard a ruckus up ahead, and dove into an alley, the rest of the party following him. They took positions behind crates and rubbish, and Milo signaled to prepare for violence.
“Why?” Nikki hissed.
As if in answer, a song came to them on the wind.
A wizard’s staff has a knob on the end
Knob on the end
Knob on the end
A wizard’s staff has a knob a knob on the end
a big knobby knob!
A trio of drunken watchmen stumbled by, signing and bumping into on another. Milo waited for a moment, and then took the NGSPiT out onto the street again, jogging toward the Setting Gate.

“Halt! who wishes to exit the city of Crayvaenn?” The guard shouted out from the top of the gatehouse.
The party looked around in a moment of confusion and terror before Ladinya called out: “Just some women, and a half--- child. Women and a child. Sorry.” She whispered towards the glowering Milo.
“Do you require an escort?” The guard asked. “The road can be dangerous at night.”
“No, we cannot have an escort because we are inflicted with a terrible disease.” Ladinya fumbled for words. “Leprosy, can’t go anybody because were all afflicted.”
“You know, the Temple of Pelor usually will do disease removal for free if you can’t afford it.” The guard said conversationally.
“That’s nice, but we’re off to fight, ah infect the forces of evil. Can we go now?” Nikki demanded.
“Sure, I’ll open a sally port. Just a moment.” The guard walked out of the gatehouse carrying a torch and keys. He unlocked a smaller door inset in the main gate and walked over to the NGSPiT. “Hey you don’t look very diseased. Oh!” The guard crumpled to the ground as Kit slammed the butt of her crossbow into his chest.
“And for your information, I’m not a kid.” Milo said, stepping heavily on the guard’s stomach as they walked out of Crayvaenn.

Interlude
And so, the NGSPiT left Crayvaenn, much to the relief of its honest citizens and police force. We rejoin them in camp a day later.[/I]


Not an Ambush, Most Definitely not an Ambush.
“Hey, look on the upside. At least the Spelunkers are coming.” Ladinya said, organizing spell component.
“Probably with warrants for our arrest.” Kit added gloomily.
“What!” Milo argued indignantly. “You’re the one who put the booze in their coffee, besides, that guard couldn’t recognize us. Hey, I think the rabbit’s done.” He took the clump of meat off of the spit and began to divide it up with an ax. “One for me, and one for everybody else, one for me, and one for everybody else. That’s fair.”
“No it’s not.” Nikki said. “Not to the cute little bunny, and not to the rest of us. You have as much as everybody else combined.”
Milo waved his haunch in the air, already chewing a bite. “Mwugle nuggle ftuggle.”
“Swallow, then make your moronic statement.” Kit rebuked.
“I said that its your problem with the rabbit not mine.” Milo added. Suddenly an arrow flashed out of nothing and knocked the meat out of Milo’s hand. “Bastards!” He shouted at the scrub around the camp site. “Who did that? Come out so I can kill you.” A wave of arrows rained down on the camp, sending everyone running for shelter.
“Stay here.” Kit called out as another salvo shredded the tent. “I’m going scouting. Lightening bolt where you see the fire.” She held up a flask of alchemist’s fire and pointed at it, then scuttled off into the bush.
Ladinya ran over to Milo in a crouch, muttered a few strange syllables, and touched him. “Mage armor.” She explained. “Not as good as your regular stuff, but it will help.” She dashed over to Nikki and repeated the procedure.
Ladinya hit the dirt next to Nikki, who fired off a bolt in the direction of the arrows. “Can’t see them.” She reported to Ladinya, who was digging in a pocket for something.
Ladinya pulled out a scroll and glanced at it, speaking a few more syllables in draconic. She aimed her own crossbow and fired. The arrow, aimed by more than human ability, darted unerringly into one of the archers, who yelped in pain. “Did you see that?” She asked Nikki.
“Yup.” Nikki reloaded her own crossbow and fired a bolt in the same place, but hit nothing but air.
“Kit, get clear.” Ladinya called out, ducking under some arrows that found her position. She sent a lightening bolt roaring in the direction of the archers, leaving nothing but the charred stumps off bushes in its path. Two men took it full on, and were fried to a crisp before they could scream. She aimed at a clump of bushes near her first strike, and sent a million volts into it. The bandit hiding behind it screamed as his skin burst into flames. He leaped out, fire leaping from his hair and pants, and stumbled towards Ladinya before falling.
The remaining bandits charged in a lose vee, lead by a man with a greatsword in studded leather with wild tattoos and spiked red hair tipped with white. From a flanking position somewhere behind, Kit triggered a burst of bolts from her new crossbow that stitched up one of the bandit’s leg and side, sending him toppling to the ground. Ladinya sent a lightening bolt at the remaining three, incinerating the two ordinary bandits, but leaving their leader little more than smoking.
Milo rushed from his hiding spot, an ax in either hand. The barbarian sliced at Milo head, but Milo ducked under and cut at his feet. The barbarian swung the blade around and parried the blade with a force that left Milo’s arm tingling. Milo slashed again at the other leg, but the barbarian checked the momentum of his massive sword with chilling ease and parried that stroke, bring the blade up in a backhanding swing across Milo chest.
Milo rolled out of range and flung an ax at the barbarian, hitting him in the arm. The barbarian gave as much notice to the blow as he would have a flybite, and charge again, bringing the greatsword down with enough force to cut a tree in two. Milo jumped right, spun, and flicked the ax at the barbarian’s Achilles tendon. At the last moment the barbarian skipped out of the way, he lifted his sword and swung it in a flat arc across Milo chest. Milo saw it coming, raised an ax, but the force of the blow simply sheared through the ax-head, ignored Ladinya’s mage armor and caught him at the bottom of his ribs. With a sickening crunch the ax ripped out Milo’s guts and sent him flying into a tree, blood spurting from his massive wound.

 

[Horacio]

Acroynms are fun!

Still ROFL, as usual

 

[The Furious Puffin]

I love this Story hour, this game, the characters and their players!

Huzzah!

Top stuff, the best one IMHO

Great trailer as well!

 

[DM with a vengence]

Nooooooooo!” Kit, Ladinya and Nikki screamed as one. Kit stood up and blazed away with her crossbow, catching the barbarian in a hail of bolts. Her brutal attack left him looking more like a pincushion than a man, but amazingly he was still standing. Ladinya fired a lightening bolt into him, but he just shook off the incredible deluge of power. Nikki screamed a wordless battlecry and charged, swinging her mace in a deadly two handed blow. The barbarian brought up his sword to parry, but it was too little too late. Nikki’s blow slammed into his head, shattering his skull and sending his brains splattering out in a 15 foot cone. He headless barbarian toppled to the ground, blood pouring out of his wounds. Ehlonna forgive me!” Nikki gasped. “Milo!” She dashed over and sent her most powerful blast of life into him, but it was too late, he was dead when he hit the ground.
Nikki began to wrap the corpse up in a blanket. “He was so short, I never thought that Milo would go this way. I was always counting on alcohol poisoning or injures incurred in a bar game, but never battle. It’s so sad.”
“No, wait.” Ladinya called out. “There’s still hope.”
“Who’s the cleric here? He didn’t respond to a spell that would do everything but bring the dead back to life, ergo, he is dead.”
“What about that scroll of Raise Dead we got for Sir Jadael?”
“I’ll try, but Ehlonna has not seen fit to grant me that spell yet. It might be tricky.” She unfurled the rool of parchment and began to read, the streams of celestial syllables hanging over Milo in a halo of light.
After about ten minutes the lights faded, and Milo opened his eyes. “That was the worst hangover I’ve ever had, felt like I died. Where the hell are we?”
“Somewhere between Crayvaenn and Tanar, at the site of a bandit ambush.”
“Aw poo on a stick.” Milo groaned. “It’s friggin real. Do you know those barbarian tales about how people who die in battle get carried to a big warhall in the sky by large breasted flying women.” Ladinya and Nikki nodded their acknowledgment. “They’re dead wrong.”
Kit joined them. “I found this on our friend over there.” She pointed backwards at the dead barbarian and uncrumpled a piece of paper, reading. “’Non-Gender Specific People in Tights, I hope you had a good time in Crayvaenn, sorry about the way back. Signed, Z.’ A certain barbarian warlord will pay, very dearly, or not I’m Kit Farcis.”

 

[Horacio]

Funniest. Raise Dead. Ever

 

[DM with a vengence]

Revenge

Revenge

It was nearing sunset as the NGSPiT topped the last ridge before Tanar. As one the turned off the road and lead their horses along a small track to the east. After about an hour of riding, they saw the torches topping the walls of Zahn’s fortress, they rode up to the gate.
“Halt! Who goes there?” A sentry called out.
“Guests to see Warlord Zahn.” Kit answered.
“Okay, just let me open the gate.” The sentry climbed down and pulled open one of the pair of massive wooden gates. “Hey you guys look a little--”
Kit jammed the crossbow in the man’s stomach and pulled the trigger three times. The man fell face down into the mud with the bolts protruding from his back, surronded by a spreading dark stain. “Dangerous.” Kit finished, reloading her crossbow up to its maximum of 5 bolts.
Nikki walked to the inner doors into the hall and pushed them open.

The hall stretched away, at least 300 people were sitting at the long table, singing, laughing and joking. Dogs fought over scraps as fat dripped from a whole cow turning over the central firepit. At the head table at the far end, Warlord Zahn was laughing at something a thin man dressed in red and white robes was saying. The Non-Gender Specific People in Tights formed up into a line abreast and walked down the pathway between the trestle tables, armor clinking, scabbards slapping against their legs. As they walked down, a wave of silence seemed to pass with them, the merriment fading out. Ladinya whispered to the rest of the party. “Remember, if things go wrong, I get Milo, and Nikki gets Kit, then up and away.” The rest nodded as they pulled up before the head table. Zahn took a swig of ale and said in a booming voice that echoed round the hall. “Why, Milo Bookbender, I didn’t expect to see you. Ahehehehehe.”
“Have you ever been dead?” Milo said without pretense, pacing before the high table with his hands clasped behind him. “I have, and it’s a pretty unpleasant place. Unlike some bleeding hearts I know, I, however, would like to see my worst enemy there. Do you see this?” He lifted his mail shirt, exposing the long curving scar across his side where the barbarian had hit him. “This was given to me on the road back from Crayvaenn by a bandit, a brigand, coward lurking in the shadows. We killed him, but he is not the one I want dead. You see, someone else sent him, someone who happens to lead a large number of barbarians. Zahn, you are a coward! You fight through proxies! You have no future and no past, you are a nothing! I spit on you as I would spit on a cat! Come and let me see the edge of your blade, master of assassins!”
The challenge hung in the smoky air as the entire room registered their shock at seeing someone so brash as to challenge Zahn. He frowned, and then smiled. “Hohoho, Milo Bookbender, you do not become a leader simply by challenging and slaying. The first rule of ruling is to plan. Do you think I would not plan for this eventuality, how foolish you are.” He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. There was a sudden rustling around the room as several dozen barbarians pulled crossbow, bow, and throwing knife from under their cloths and seat.
“Airborne!” Ladinya scream as she tackled Milo and shot up into the air, spinning to throw off the archer’s aim. Kit grabbed onto Nikki’s arm as they rose off the ground at a slightly slower rate, arrows, bolts and knives bouncing off them, or missing and falling back into the crowd. The screams of those unlucky enough to be caught in this hail rose past the NGSPiT as they smashed through the boards in the ceiling broke onto the roof.
Milo jumped down, rolling lightly as everybody else settled themselves onto the thatch. “Okay, we leave the horses and fly back to Tanar, there’s still enough time on the spells for that.”
“That won’t be happen, warriors.” The man in the red and white robes was hovering above the hole in the roof. He kicked himself towards the party and dropped lightly. “I am Kava, and you won’t be going anywhere.”

 

[Horacio]

Re: Revenge

“That won’t be happen, warriors.” The man in the red and white robes was hovering above the hole in the roof. He kicked himself towards the party and dropped lightly. “I am Kava, and you won’t be going anywhere.”

Great line...

“I am Kava, and you won’t be going anywhere.”

Almost as good as that famous "I'm Iñigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die..."

 

[DM with a vengence]

Playing with Matches on the Roof

Playing with Matches on the Roof

Nikki took one look at him. “I see by your dress that you are a cleric of Kord the wrestler. How would you like to try me?”
Kava ripped the robe off, he was wearing white shorts and nothing else. He stretched him arms, wipecord muscles rippling. “We shall see who’s god is stronger.” Nikki dropped he shield and mace and held her hands out in front of her, slowly circling. Kava darted forwards and grabbed her wrists, pulling her arms open, he bent his head forward and bit at her face, his mouth widening to cover half her face.
“That just isn’t right. I’m coming!” Kit pulled a punching dagger from a boot sheath and charged, moonlight glittering off the blade. Milo and whipped out a throwing ax and followed her in, screaming incoherently.
Ladinya turned, a group of barbarians had appeared on the roof towards the front of the hall, searing them in their tracks. A barbarian closed and she dropped a flaming sphere in his path. The body pushed through and toppled out, the burning corpse setting the roof on fire. One reached her and swung, she flew upwards and moved the flaming sphere beneath his feet. He screamed as he plummeted through the burning hole to the floor sixty feet below. Another barbarian clambered onto the roof and she sent a lightening bolt at him, cutting a neat semi-circle out of the roof and sending his body splashing into the mud. She landed and turned the grapplers. They had Kava face down on the thatch, with Milo doing his best to decapitate someone with a small throwing ax.

Milo slammed the ax down for the sixth time. “Die bastard!” He screamed, cutting through another inch of the cleric tough, almost rubbery flesh. The man’s head seemed to flare and bulge alarmingly, as if each little piece of skin was trying to grab something and rip it off. Milo felt something force its way into his mind, slowing him down, he tried to swing the ax, but fell backwards, his body slumping out across the roof. His head flopped sideways and he saw Kit lying next to him, then everything went black.
“Cheater.” Nikki grunted, trying to keep the surprisingly strong cleric down.
“You cheated first.” The man hissed. “One on one, it was.”
“And I’ll cheat last.” Nikki wrapped her arms around the man’s chest and took off, flying high over the ground. She flew up until her ears hurt, and then dove towards the burning lights of the keep, Kava’s scream thin in her ears as she plunged downwards.

“Milo, get up.” Ladinya shook his arm, trying to wake him.
“You can’t help him, all that works is time.” Warlord Zahn stood at the edge of the roof, arms crossed, cape blowing in the wind, his face a hellish color from the flames. “I find myself that Kava is a being of many talents. But now it’s just you and me, my dear Ladinya, and let’s see how well your spells fare against my blade.” He pulled his two-handed greataxe off his back, and charged across the burning roof, his ax glowing red in the reflections.
Ladinya dropped to the thatch and fired a lightening bolt along the rooftop. Zahn leapt the front of the blast of energy, ax raised high above his head. The lightening bolt faded into a crackle of static electricity as Zahn dropped down into the ten foot wide trench that the bolt had sliced out of the roof, his battlecry fading to a thin scream as he hit the floor of the hall with a meaty thump. He stood up, and fled the burning hall, limping along through the flame rimmed door and out into the night.

As Ladinya turned back to Kit and Milo, something screamed out of the sky and smashed through the largest clump of burning thatch, sending sparks high into the night. Almost instantly, wet splat was heard over the roaring of the flames, and Nikki burst through the roof with a grayish lump of flesh over her shoulder, green blood leaking from a crushed skull. “Sorry about that, Kava. All’s fair in love, war, and wrestling on burning roofs. What now?”
“Listen, we have to get out of there, I’ll take Milo, you take Kava, whatever the hell he is, and we’ll both carry Kit.” Ladinya said hurriedly as the roof shifted below them. Nikki and Ladinya grabbed everybody else. “All right.” Ladinya said. “On three. Hup… 2… 3… Lift!”

The roof collapsed in a avalanche of burning straw and timber that spewed burning rubble into the night sky. The abused warhall trembled, and then fell with a force that shook the trees for miles around.

 

[DM with a vengence]

Homecoming

Homecoming

The party walked into the Golden Dragon and slammed the door behind them. Zeebo Farstrider cut off his elvish wailing and equally poorly played zither. “What in the name of The Mother of Forests happened to you?”
The crowd took in their soot covered skin and burned clothing. “An accident at Warlord Zahn’s hall.” Milo said ladonically.
“Did anything happen to Zahn?” A well-meaning barfly asked.
“Yeah.” Milo said, white teeth blazing across his black face. “Us. Give us three flagons of Gunthur’s Best, a cup of Bloodrose red, our rooms, and stabling for our horse. And bring our stuff up to our room.” He tossed a pouch of lose change across the bar. “Make it fast.” Terrified servant rushed to do what he said, and soon the NGSPiT were roasting their feet at the fire and their brains with alcohol.

“What the hell was Kava?” Kit asked.
Nikki took a sip of her wine. “I don’t know, and don’t really want to know. Whatever he was, it scares the crap out of me. He was all slimy and rubbery, and when he hit… I must have been going fast enough to pulp an ordinary human and he was mostly intact, it was like nothing we did could hurt him.” She shivered involuntarily. “I’m going to get some sleep. I hope. Goodnight.” With that, the party dispersed to their room for the night.

“… And after destroying his warhall and possibly killing Zahn, we recovered the body of his right hand man, Kava. Nikki, the body.” Ladinya said, concluding the rather highly edited summary of their actions in Crayvaenn and beyond.
Rudiger chuckled. “This almost becoming a tradition.”
Nikki put the corpse of Kava on the floor and unwrapped the blankets. With a scream, Zimmer jumped up, pushing back the heavy table and drawing his sword. Seeing the thing was already dead, he replaced his chair and sat down, apologizing for his actions. “Sorry about that, ma’am, sir. The sight of one of those abominations before me just…”
“One of what?” Lelanna Al’Veran demanded.
Zimmer paid no attention, his eyes closed as he lapsed back in reminiscence. “We were on the 5 level of an abandoned Dwarven city, on a routine scouting mission, when we hit one of those thing. Half of us were stunned before we could draw our weapons. Warmage Sudiner hit it with a fireball, but the thing just laughed it off, it wasn’t even singed. Major Bunner, he turned to us and said, ‘Why are you attacking my friend?’ Lieutenant Hardisson, it was his first mission, he was green as a leaf, he runs up to the Major and decks him cold. Now Stonespeaker Tabrat, he charges it with his mace. I’ll never forget what happened next. The thing just reaches out and blam! They’re both gone, we thought it was the end of that, but the next day we found Simpkins stretched out with a hole in his head and his brains gone. The after that it showed up and Major Bunner went up and hugged it, that was the end of him. We were three days under, and by the time we hit surface it had got everybody but me and Hardisson. That thing eliminated an entire squad of the King’s finest without trouble, it was just toying with us. It could’ve gotten us if it wanted to, but it didn’t. Those things are the worst creatures I’ve ever met.” Zimmer shook himself. “Mindflayers.”
“Thank god the Spelunker’s are coming.” Lelanna said. “They should be here today.”
“There is no should.” Zimmer said, “Either we’re saved or doomed, the die is cast, but by who’s hands.”

 

[DM with a vengence]

Visitors

Visitors

The day had turned out to be a series of slowly progressing rain showers, concluding in the massive thunderstorm that currently drenched Tanar. It was only early evening, but by the darkness of the sky, it could have been night for all anybody knew. The Golden Dragon was mostly empty, as almost everybody had gone home before you would start needing a boat to navigate the muddy rivers that passed for streets. Despite the storm outside, the Golden Dragon was warm and cozy, with a huge fire burning on the hearth. Zeebo Farstrider, having given up on music with constant interruptions of thunder was telling stories supposedly from his youth.
“And so I told Flutter that we best avoid going into that cave, because it looked like the cave of the dread Dragon of Derath-Tiur, but we went in anyway. It was the cave of the dread Dragon, and he ate the entire Free Company up in one gulp. He was about to eat me, but I took out my lute and sang such a lay that he spared my life and gave me the choice of anything from his horde. I got the Fabled Sword of Silver, but I lost it to the Yuan-Ti of the Emerald Jungle in a game of cards shortly after. I would’ve won, but the snake-people kept cheating.”
“How were you with Flutter?” Kit asked. “From what I heard, he was a xenophobic dwarf who would just as well chop an elf into pieces as look at him.”
“And didn’t Flutter and his Free Company die in 556 AK in an accident involving a Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion and an unidentified Portable Hole.” Ladinya said. “Now demons and dragon can be rather unpleasant, but the things that can come out of extra-dimensional rift just shouldn’t be. It was lucky that the Arch-Chancellor of the University happened to have a Disjunction on him, because otherwise the things might have eaten the entire city of Crayvaenn.”
“And wasn’t the campaign against the Yuan-Ti of the Emerald Jungle completed by 518 AK.” Milo said. “I heard that the entire tribe was killed to the last man, woman, and snake-man. I don’t think there was enough left to hold a deck of cards, much less play.”
“And the Fabled Sword of Silver,” Nikki elucidated. “Was created by an Avatar of Heironeous for the Paladin Prator, and presumably it still lies in the Blasted Ground outside Dis, where none good enough to hold the sword may approach it, and none evil enough to approach it may hold it. It would not be in the hands of a Dragon, even the dread one of Derath-Tiur.”
“Who are you going to believe, me, or several wise and learned sages.” Zeebo demanded. “I may have embellished the truth a little on that one, but this one is real. I had joined up with the Fangino expedition, when the planeshift went wrong and I got hurled into this strange plane. I met a group known only as The Party and decided to join them for the time being. These enigmatic heroes and I were raiding an orc encampment when we see tentacles rise out of the ground, one of then reached out and grabbed Cleric, that was his name and as Cleric was dragged into these things I saw an…” As if on cue, the door slammed open and lightening flashed, silhouetting a short figure in a cloak. A roll of thunder that shook the windows rattled through as he stepped inside, followed by eleven other humans and dwarves. Deep hoods covered their faces, rain ran off their black cloaks, forming a sodden puddle on the floor, and a trained ear could here the clink of weapons and armor as they moved.
The leader stepped up to the bar and said in a low raspy voice, “I desire four of your rooms for a week, along with stabling for a dozen horses. I would also find it conveinient if no questions were asked.” He plunked down a heavy bag. The innkeeper gingerly picked it up, and spilled out its contents onto the bar. A dozen gold coins, of which only a few were the familiar Mark of Crayvaenn, clattered across the wood. He studied an octagonal coin with a strange head. “Yes, of course sir, I’ll see to it myself.”
“No need.” The stranger intoned. He turned to the group of humanoids. “Stable the horses and bring the items up to our rooms. Frenkel, Balderk, check the room the innkeeper has asigned us. Go.” He turned back to the innkeeper. “Show these men to our rooms, and then return, I have some questions for you.” For the next five minutes the cloaked men tramped through the common hall, carrying in several large wooden chests and strange things wrapped in oil cloth. Their spokesperson and the innkeeper had disappeared into a backroom. Soon, the innkeeper was back behind the bar and the strangers had taken up two tables, where they sat silently. The party ceased talking, instead examining the strange group surreptitiously, but finding nothing new.
After a few more minutes, Zeebo Farstrider walked up to the stage. “Hello, I’m the house entertainment, and tonight I’ll perform the first 500 stanzas of the great elvish epic, the…”
“No.” The one of the cloaked strangers said.
Zeebo cocked his head inquisitively.
“We do not like elvish music. We find its caterwauling annoying.”
Zeebo ignored him, and began to tune his lute, humming softly to himself.
“Perhaps you did not hear us. Stop. If you continue we will be forced to sing our own songs. How do you like the dwarven epic Tale of Stone?”
Zeebo winced at the mention of the dwarven song. “Have it your way sir.” He slung his lute back over his shoulder, and returned to the NGSPiT. “So where were we? Cleric had just gotten pulled into the tentacles, and I saw this blue skinned ogre. I told Wizard, and I’ll never forget what he then said to me, mainly because it made no sense. “Oh my God. That’s an Ogre Mage, we have no chance against one of those things at our level. Screw the loot, let’s get out of here before that things kills us and pick up a new Cleric back at The Tavern.” That was another funny thing about that place. There was only The Town and The Dungeon, and in The Town there was just this place called The Tavern where people told us to go to The Dungeon and kill stuff. I finally got out of that place when Wizard III caught me in a bad fireball and I couldn’t dodge. I went unconscious, and when I woke up, I was back where I belonged.”
After a bit, the cloaked people went up to their rooms, and the innkeeper joined them. “They’re the oddest guests I’ve ever had here. That one, the leader, he asked me the strangest things, like who ruled here and if there were any nearby caves. I couldn’t see his face, but it felt like he was looking straight through me. And look at this coin, is it like any other you’ve ever seen.” He held out the strange octagonal coin. The gold had odd greenish sheen, as if it was coated in a thing layer of slime. On one side were three dots, each trailing four wiggly lines, and on the other an ellipse with four wiggly lines hanging from one of the long end. There was an inscription around the edge of the second side in a script that no one can read. “Strange people, don’t like them a bit myself. As soon as this infernal rain lets up I’m going to see Commander Zimmer about getting them removed, money or no money.”