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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM with a vengence" data-source="post: 207092" data-attributes="member: 1679">VisitorsVisitors 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.”</blockquote>

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