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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7240124" data-attributes="member: 23">I'm seeing lost of view - I hope it's not just a Google bot or somesuch!   Anyway, there are 26 (I think?) sessions so we are making good progress, this will not last forever (but it does come to a conclusion, doesn't just trail off)  - keep reading folks <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I also wanted to post a bit more often but I've been on the road a lot lately.  I should be able to speed things up a bit soon <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />SESSION 13 I have been so busy for the rest of today that I almost forgot to write a log entry before sleeping! After my last entry, we decided to search the tower thoroughly. On the third floor, Suleiman spotted a slightly raised stone on the wall, with a hook on it. Torin pulled on the hook, removing the stone, and a firetrap went off in his face. Undaunted, we looked inside. The space inside was far deeper than it should have been; it would have extended beyond the outside of the tower. It was obviously some kind of extra-dimensional space. Inside were five tubes, several books on the planes, a book entitled Nelbar's Spellbook, a leather satchel (which contained the design of the plane-traveling device!), and a note with the tubes saying "don't take the one that doesn't belong". Each tube was numbered, one through five. We guessed that we shouldn't take number one (thinking that it was the "one" that didn't belong"), so Suleiman grabbed number four, removed a scroll from the tube, and read it. He fell asleep instantly. We couldn't wake him up, so we let him get some rest. I will have to cast remove curse on him sometime. Suleiman and I later surmised that four was the one that didn't belong because four is not a prime number. The other scrolls had protection from elementals, some wizard spells, and reincarnation on them. I remained on the third floor of the tower, going over the schematic of the device, and gathering up spare parts and papers from around the room (this wizard, Nelbar, was quite messy; I suppose his apprentices spent most of their time cleaning up after him). Blades examined some of the damaged metal parts of the machine, and realized that he could probably fix them, with the right equipment. He went in search of tools and other equipment. I soon heard a shout from the second story, and rushed down to see Torin extinguishing himself in some blankets, and blades squaring off against a three foot tall dancing flame. The flame had apparently leaped out of the fireplace when Torin had tried to ascertain how hot it was. Torin still had some oil on him from the fight with the zombies, so he caught fire quite easily. We quickly extinguished the flame, and Finis looked into the fireplace. A metal plate lay beneath a pile of rocks (there was no fuel--just the dancing flame). Finis pushed it aside to find a pouch, which also seemed to be an extra-dimensional space. A huge book of spells and a beautiful topaz gem were somehow crammed inside it. I returned to going over the plans and the notes, while Torin and Blades worked on repairing the damaged metal parts. Suleiman awoke after an amount of time roughly equal to one-third of a day passed. With Suleiman's help, we quickly figured out much of the machines ingenious design--and corrected a crucial error on the part of the designer. Atspes non fracta; dum spiro spero! Dinner was a pleasant surprise--the larder was well stocked with provisions that had not yet spoiled. After working into the night, I must go to sleep. Suleiman is not tired, as he slept through the middle of the day, so he will work on through the night. Tomorrow, we will attempt to reassemble an improved version of the device. July 11th Blades somehow managed to repair all the metal parts of the machine, although it was close. How he managed to work under such crude conditions, I do not know. He is a master of metals. As soon as he was finished, Suleiman and I attempted our reconstruction. There was only one way to test the machine. We shut off the time-shifting settings, and set the destination for the ethereal plane. Placing the power crystal in its holder, we turned the machine on. Finally, we threw open the shutters. The grayish light of the machine shot out through the window, and into the archway. It worked! Now, we had to find out whether we could travel back and forth through the planes. Suleiman stayed on the third floor to operate the machine, while the rest of us went down to the arch. I lay a rope through the arch, and pulled it back--it all came back this time! I suspect that the "time drift" of the machine is what severed the rope the last time I tried that. The rope got caught in a different time period, the machine's time setting drifted some, and the rope couldn't be pulled back. The machine was now firmly set on the present, so safe travel back and forth was possible. Torin ventured inside, and quickly backed out again, shouting. Suleiman closed the shutters and turned off the machine. Almost immediately, three Xil appeared around us. One of them grabbed and paralyzed Finis and disappeared (Suleiman had opened the shutters again, and hit it with his thorndart spell, but it was not effected). As I was fighting one of the remaining two, a white blur shot toward it from the side and a large white lynx tore into the Xil. Suleiman had activated his figurine of wondrous power, and wondrous it was. But the Xil ignored it, and grabbed me, paralyzing me. Fortunately, the efforts of Torin, Blades, and the cat (who is named Tanvil), brought the Xil down before it disappeared with me. While I stood there, frozen in place, They killed the last Xil. Suleiman reactivated the doorway, and Torin charged through in pursuit of the Xil holding Finis. Blades stood outside the arch, trying in vain to get the owl, Falstaff, to go with them. It is very frustrating to be frozen like that; I could only listen and hope everything turned out all right. Blades gave up on the owl, and went in after Torin. Torin did quite well on his own, as he took care of two Xil by himself--one carrying Finis, the other carrying Rinver. He and Blades carried them out, and Suleiman shut the gateway. A short time later, we were released from the paralysis. Quickly, I asked for Prometheus to cure disease, removing the parasites from Rinver's stomach. A cure moderate wounds eased his pain. We fetched the magic pillow, and he almost instantly went to sleep. The pillow seems to make it possible to sleep through almost any noise, although it only took a nudge to wake Rinver up. Suleiman and I had a chat with Tanvil, the lynx. He is completely devoted to Suleiman, and has no will of his own. He does, however, have a limited amount of time that he can stay active on this plane, before he must return to rest. Suleiman dismissed Tanvil with the dwarvish word for "sleep", and the large cat shrank into the small statuette. It was still early in the morning, so after Rinver had rested some, we explained the workings of the device to him. While he seemed interested, he was much more complimentary and friendly than before--it was obvious that he was very grateful. Several hours after lunch, while we were still explaining the device to Rinver, Suleiman suddenly fell asleep again. Tomorrow, I will try a remove curse on him. For now, it is time to sleep. We are going to bed early, so that we may leave early. With our provisions restocked from the larder, and our party once again whole, it is time to resume our journey. I should have known that Prometheus would provide. Why did I ever doubt? July 12th We reshuffled some of our items this morning. Finis gave Suleiman the magic armbands, Suleiman gave Torin the ring of water walking, and I removed the power crystal from the device. I cast remove curse on Suleiman, crammed as many of the books, including the encyclopedia, in to the bag of holding as I could, and we returned to our boats. Rinver and I shared a rowboat during an uneventful day's travel. At night, just before camping, we spotted several large, dark shapes swimming upstream towards us. Finis said that they were giant river otters, and proceeded to talk to them. Apparently they wanted to play, and we were afraid that they would capsize our boats while cavorting. Instead, they let us get to shore (in fact, one of them pushed the rowboat far faster than I could have paddled it), and we played with the otters on the river's banks. It was a welcome bit of fun in what had so far been a dangerous, painful journey. The otters, having short attention spans, soon lost interest and went off in search of other things to play with (although they took a block of our cheese with us--they're fascinated by it). Rinver estimates that Prolingmur is three days away. The river seems to narrow ahead, so maybe we will reach it more quickly. The sooner, the better. July 13th The river did speed up again, as we exited the Loch and no more islands appeared. It was, thankfully, a peaceful day of ~~~ I'm sorry, I was in the midst of writing that sentence when our camp was attacked. Two large, winged, two legged, snake-like creatures with barbed tails flew out of nowhere and surprised us. Rinver says that they are called Wyverns. One of them struck Finis with its poisonous tail, and he nearly succumbed to the poison, but Prometheus slowed the poison. The Dwarves savagely attacked the beasts, and with the aid of Rinver's magic missiles, the creatures were quickly driven back. Torin took one down, and Blades finished the other. Finis was able to neutralize the poison, much to my surprise--I did not know that was within his ability. I succeeded in removing some of their poison, keeping it in jars from Nelbar's larder. Inside the stomach of one of the Wyverns were the remains of some unfortunate man. He had a magical ring on his finger, and Blades volunteered to try it on. Blades apparently thought he was invisible, although he was not. He also found that he could not remove the ring. A remove curse allowed him to remove it, and we buried the cursed ring with its last owner. We moved our camp away from the wyvern carcasses, so hopefully we will get some rest. July 14th The river went very quickly today. By lunchtime, a road was visible, following a parallel course, not far from the riverbanks. We have set up camp by the road tonight. July 15th Finis awoke us early today, and without his usual Song to the Sun (which was a pleasant change). He heard something large coming this way, and whatever it was, it was doing a very bad job of trying to hum a song. We hid behind some trees. A fourteen foot tall, misshapen figure emerged into the moonlight--it is a full moon now, so we had a good look at it. An extra foot grew from one shoulder, an extra mouth mouthed the words of the song from near a kneecap, and two extra ears lay upon its head. It was armed with a huge club. It heard us whispering, and came toward our hiding place. Blades stepped out to speak to it, and it crushed him with its club. We surged from our hiding places to attack it. Torin was knocked flat on his back, gasping for breath. Blades, despite his injury, managed to take down the beast, once again with help from Rinver, and Suleiman's daggers. It took a great deal of healing magic to repair our injuries, but we did. Finis and I suspect that it was a Fomorian Giant, one of a race of creatures that inhabited this land before the Great Kingdom was formed. The giant kept a large pouch, and in it we found several objects of interest: A gold torc, a gold bicep ring, a ruined (but once beautiful) harp, and a magical otter pelt. Finis donned the torc, and Suleiman put on the torc (which makes him look even larger, if that is possible--I think he must be one of the largest human wizards of all time). I took the ruined harp, hoping that it might be repaired. I cannot play it, but maybe I can learn. Suleiman donned the magic otter pelt, and tried swimming in the water. Much to our surprise, he turned into an otter (the normal kind, not the giant kind we saw the other night)! After leaving the water and shaking off, he returned to his normal self. We decided to give the pelt to Blades. The dwarves wear heavy armor, so they need some kind of protection sinking to the bottom of the river. I have noticed this morning that my wit and wisdom seem noticeably increased--I suspect that the magical stone has finished working its magic upon me. I don't feel too different, although I do feel that I can channel a little more power than before. Once again, we returned to the river. In the afternoon, Suleiman heard bagpipes in the distance. Soon, we all heard them--they were playing a battle song, and we could hear the sounds of men shouting and metal ringing. We decided to simply wait until we could see something. As the river rounded a bend, we could see a battle between two very different groups, near the road. One group was wearing the plaid (a solid color, often red, with thin stripes) clothing of this area (but no armor), while the other group wore nothing but blue paint. We quickly realized that the blue warriors were of that strange breed known as berzerkers. One member of the other group, however, also had a strange ability, called "Reistarte", or the "warp fury". His features distorted, and he went mad, cutting down the blue warriors left and right. Having no idea who was right or wrong, we decided to simply watch and wait. The blue warriors were victorious, and Finis and I offered our medical assistance. Their leader said they didn't want any, despite the fact that many of his men were lying on the ground moaning, and he bled from many cuts. If he wants to die from infection, it is his choice, I suppose. As the warriors went around collecting their foes' heads as trophies, we continued to speak to their leader. First, he asked if I was under Finis' protection. I said that I was his friend, but that was all. He seemed wary, but satisfied, and he said that they were the MacFinden. They had defeated the MacMane, who stole some cattle. Some of the warriors pointed at the dwarves and chuckled--apparently they found wearing armor humorous. Torin and Blades were ready to challenge them (to a fight without armor) but we managed to talk them into leaving. By late afternoon, we reached the town of Prolingmur. This is a rough place--the people are rugged, hardened cattle herders and farmers of the MacFinden tribe. All the natives of this area seem aggressive; they fight at the drop of a hat. Unlike many parts of Aragon that I have visited, the men of this region occasionally wear plaid skirts called "kilts". We are staying at an inn called the Battered Shield. A large dirt mound, topped with a wooden palisade, is the town's "castle", called the Dun. The town (really only six buildings--the Inn, a smithy, temple, a general store, and some residences) is arranged around the Dun. I paid a visit to the general store looking for spell components (I found a few). While I was returning to the inn, the war party returned, led by Connel McGwern. The severed heads hung by their hair from the chariot.</blockquote>

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