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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7351778" data-attributes="member: 23">SESSION 22 August 16th We are in Earmark's Haven, or rather, we are just outside it. The smell of smoke heralded its presence as we approached. It looks to be a pirate town, or at least a town of thugs. It was decided that Corwin, Suleiman, and Urym should go into this dilapidated, run down, smoke-filled hole-in-the-wall and inquire about inns and ships. The rest of us waited outside of town. Kellindel made it clear that he did not like the looks of the town. While we waited, Finis and Kellindel discussed the ranger's plans and goals, as well as his falcon. Did I not mention he has a trained falcon? It has only shown up recently; apparently they have some kind of bond. Much, much later, Suleiman, Urym, and Corwin returned. Upon entering the town, they had immediately noticed a statue of a 14' tall man, with a surprised look on his face--it was obviously some kind of giant that had been turned to stone. The entire town had a smoky smell to it, and the first tavern they passed had almost been destroyed by fire, forcing it to shut down. They entered the second tavern, the Last Tooth, finding ogres and men inside. They talked to a man named Sebastian, who told them that "The Boss" had created the statue. The man was Iago, the former head of the town, and The Boss did not like the way the town was run. We all agreed that, based on Sebastian's comments, The Boss was a beholder! While Suleiman talked to Sebastian, Urym walked around the tavern trying to gather information. Sebastian pointed them to some sailors working on the Siren's Song, the only fully functional ship in town (Sebastian's ship had been destroyed as a result of a "misunderstanding" between The Boss and the captain). Suleiman and Corwin began talking to crew of the Siren's Song, when Urym's backpack was cut open, spilling its contents onto the floor. There was a mad dash for the coins that fell out, but Suleiman leaped onto a table and announced the location of the two chests full of bronze that we left up the river. This instantly emptied the room, as men made a mad dash to be the first to find it. He also explained that we had defeated the minions of a wizard bent on taking over the forest, and possibly the town, which attracted the attention of two ogres that worked for The Boss. They told him that they were going to tell The Boss, and that he had better not leave town, in case The Boss had questions. The crew informed Suleiman that the Siren's Song was headed straight for Anarchopolis, so they went to arrange passage with the captain. The captain, who insists on being called Duke Northton in his native tongue of Pembrook, is from Leinster. He's something of a fop, but he sounds as though he must be competent. After some haggling, they agreed on the outrageous price of 200 gold for our entire party. The ship leaves at dusk tomorrow. When they returned to our rendezvous point outside of town, we discussed our plans for the night. It was decided that we ought not to stay in the town's inn, the Flying Pig, as the town looked like trouble. Also, Kellindel does not enjoy cities, and Finis would like to take this last chance to stay in a "normal" forest. As we prepared our camp, and Kellindel went about catching mice to feed his falcon on our long trip, Suleiman suddenly stood up straight and looked around. He said that there were lines of force emanating from the woods, and that they seemed be trying to locate Finis. He followed the lines and spotted a pair of eyes in the dark. We soon saw them as well, and sprung into action. Unfortunately, we should have coordinated our actions more carefully. Finis attempted to entangle, it while I, assuming that it was some kind of magical creature sent by the Children of Light, cast dispel magic. Of course, I ended up dispelling the entangle, and it tried to fly away. Fortunately, Suleiman struck it with a magic missile, bringing it crashing to the ground. We ran up to it, finding a small, winged creature with needle-sharp teeth and black eyes, melting into a pool of slime. Uncertain of what we had just done, we returned to our camp. Once camp was set up, the original members of the Pentachromata (Suleiman, Finis, and myself) had a discussion about what to do with Kellindel. He is interested in traveling with us, to learn from us and to gain allies in his fight against the wizard threatening his forest. We decided that he is a "trial member" of the Pentachromata; he will be inducted as a full member once he proves himself. The food from create food and water tastes a little better tonight; I will take that as a good sign. Kellindel and I are keeping~~~ Excuse me! Kellindel was about to tell me something, when suddenly our camp was charged by a giant creature with the body of a bear and the head of an owl--an owlbear! I tried and failed to blind it with a light spell, but Corwin stepped up and struck it soundly. Unfortunately, it wrapped him in its powerful arms and began to squeeze. We managed to kill it before it crushed Corwin. We will track it in the morning, in hopes of finding its lair. Now, back to my watch. Let us hope the rest of the night is peaceful. August 17th Our day started with a long trek, following the swath left by the owlbear. In the afternoon we found bloody scraps of cloth on the trail, and continued on. We were just considering turning back when we came upon a clearing created by combat, with the grisly remains of four men scattered around. Strangely, one seemed to be burned, although none of the ground or plants around are burned. We hypothesized that they may have run into a wizard, then the owlbear. Or perhaps the wizard killed them, and the owlbear just toyed with their remains. There was no time to investigate further, so we returned to town. We decided to skirt the edge of town, in an effort to avoid all the ogres and other unsavory characters in it. We passed the town dumping ground, and were attacked by an otyugh, but Finis wisely advised that we leave it alone. It is probably The Boss' waste disposal system. We retreated, and after several cure disease spells, we continued on our way to the Siren's Song. The first mate, Isaac, let us aboard, and I tended to some wounds he said he had received while being robbed. We paid the captain, and Suleiman left with Finis to get some bow-making equipment for Kellindel, as well as some barrels into which he will put the mice he has caught thus far. While they looked for barrels, two ogres came up and told them to go with them to see The Boss. I overheard this, and followed behind them. I caught up to them as the reached The Boss' headquarters, and two more ogres joined us. Finis used his magical scarf to suggest that The Boss didn't need to question us. One of them apparently found this persuasive, and walked off. One of the ogres, confused by his departure, dispatched another ogre to chase down the one that left, leaving us, once again, with two ogres. They took us into a room that strongly resembled a cell (complete with bars on the window), and we began to wait. We waited for what seemed a very long while, and finally became concerned that the ship might leave without us. Suleiman used the wand of polymorph to change us into seagulls, and we flew out the window, and back to the docks. Suleiman quickly purchased a barrel, and we clambered aboard. Our timing was excellent. No sooner were we aboard than the boat shoved off. We are sailing towards the moon Faeros, straight out to sea. Kellindel has been training his bird to become accustomed to the sea--in fact, all of us are trying to get used to the shifting deck. Suleiman and I are experienced in sea travel, but the others, especially Corwin, haven't got their sea legs yet. Corwin has been working below decks, the part of the ship that moves the least, helping with the cargo. Not long after leaving Earmark's haven there was a commotion from below, and soon Corwin emerged with a large, squirming sack, tied at the top. I went to get the captain, and with the crew gathered around, Corwin pulled back the sack. A bizarre creature was revealed. It had a horse's body, a hawk's head, wings, talons on its fore legs, and hooves on its hind legs. Our encyclopedia says that it is a hippogriff, and that such creatures are quite valuable. This one must be young indeed. After much negotiation, Captain Northton agreed to allow us to keep it (he wanted to toss it overboard) for sixty gold, and a share of the price it fetches in Anarchopolis, if we can sell it. We took it below, to our cabin, and tried feeding it. It nibbled at an apple, but seems to like mice and fish very much. Now we have two creatures to feed: the falcon and the hippogriff. Finis and I have busied ourselves catching fish. The falcon doesn't seem to care for fish very much, but we are trying to convince it to eat them, if only to extend our supply of mice. It is nice to end the day out at sea; I think that I can confidently say that this will be an interesting voyage. August 18th The hippogriff seems to have taken a liking to Corwin, probably because he is the one that feeds it. He and Suleiman are the only ones strong enough to handle it if it gets out of control. Unfortunately, Corwin is still very seasick, and is unable to bring the creature up to the deck for exercise. Urym is also feeling very queasy, although he did manage to sing a song for us on his magical lute. Much to our surprise (and Urym's, as well), the lute caused him to begin levitating, and he hovered over the deck as the ship passed below him. Luckily, he slammed into a mast--otherwise we may have left him floating over the ocean, behind us. Like my voyage to Aragon, this trip is fairly uneventful. Those of us who can stand and move about are trying to help with the ship's operations. I will simply skip days which are uneventful enough not to warrant a log entry. August 19th Suleiman has begun tanning, his skin turning an even darker, brownish color. Poor Urym and Finis, both whom are fair-skinned, are burning rather badly. Still, I think they are getting more used to the rocking of the boat. The hippogriff has taken to sleeping next to Corwin on the floor (he is too large to fit into hammocks, like the rest of us). Perhaps it will become some kind of unusual pet. August 20th My skin has begun returning to its normal, darker Ionian tint. Corwin, who has ventured on deck a few times, has begun taking on a bizarre, mottled appearance, as some parts of his skin tan and others burn. Finis has been teaching me about fishing (although he admits that he has no experience with salt-water fishing), and I've been continuing my lessons in Ionian. I think that they should all be ready by the time we reach Anarchopolis. August 21st Uneventful. August 22nd Uneventful. August 23rd Uneventful. August 24th Uneventful. August 25th My eyelids are heavy, and this hammock is so comfortable, but I will not shirk from my duties. Here is my account of this day. Land was sighted this afternoon. We have arrived at the island of Asturi. Asturi is a small island, with a farming village consisting of thirty or forty buildings. The entire island is perhaps twenty square miles in area. We ventured ashore as the crew restocked the ship's provisions, and went out to stretch their legs. News soon reached our ears of a massive creature that had been terrorizing the town. It is apparently some kind of giant multi-headed reptile, which attacks from the other side of a hill behind the town. The captain has offered us until noon tomorrow to kill the beast, and the townspeople have offered us fifty gold if we kill it. These poor villagers don't stand a chance against such a beast; we resolved to do our best. Our best barely turned out to be enough. We locked the Hippogriff in the cabin (it squawked sadly as Corwin shut the door), and set out on the creatures trail. Finis says he can sense that nature is badly out of balance here. Soon we heard the creature bellowing. I started a prayer to Prometheus, and Urym sang an inspiring song to urge us on. It came roaring at us, and it was apparent that the beast was indeed a hydra. Suleiman struck it with a fireball, but the fireball did not seem very effective. In fact, nothing seemed very effective. We tried cutting heads off, but two grew back for every one we cut. The main body of the beast seemed impervious to our blows. Too late, we realized that we should cut off its heads and cauterize the stumps with fire. We decided to flee. I covered our flight with a darkness spell, and we barely escaped alive. The hydra could run only very slowly, so we gained ground on it easily. What had been a ten-headed hydra now had twelve heads. Suleiman was nowhere to be seen, but he suddenly reappeared in our midst. We laid out another plan of attack, equipping ourselves with torches, and turned to face the monster. It charged us mercilessly, and once again, we found that we were not very effective. We were too badly wounded to stand against it for long, and we were forced to retreat once more. Suleiman, once again, was nowhere to be seen. Kellindel and Corwin were badly wounded and barely able to walk, so Finis cast an entangle on the hydra to slow it down, while we gained ground and cast healing spells. We resumed our flight from the hydra, and it eventually gave up the chase. Soon, Suleiman appeared in the form of a raven, and returned to human form clutching a shield and a staff. He said that he and Tanvil had located the creature's lair, in a cave, and retrieved a few items. Unfortunately, he had used the last of wand of polymorph's charges in his escape from the hydra. Finis took the staff, and it vibrated, coursing with magical power. Finis, Kellindel and I used the last of our healing magic, and we planned again. I cast Forethought, and Prometheus (or his servants) advised us that items from the hydra's cave would be useful against it, in the right hands. It was decided that I would use my candle of invocation, granting me the ability to cast more powerful spells against the beast. Corwin took the shield and Finis' hero's spear (which, you will recall, has a flaming tip), and we marched up to the beast's cave. This time, we were victorious. As I ended a prayer, Suleiman and Kellindel fired arrows into the beast, luring it toward us. Corwin prepared to stop its charge, and I cast produce fire on it, burning it badly. We stabbed at it viciously with our torches and weapons--Finis discovered that the magical staff is a staff of striking--and, soon had it down to only a few heads. For the first time, I felt holy rage swelling inside me, and the Fury of Prometheus unleashed itself upon the beast. With a few more blows, the creature was no more. Or so we thought. Although all the heads had been cut off, and the creature's body lay unmoving, one head continued to writhe. Any injury we did to the head was instantly healed. Amazingly, we seem to have defeated a Lyrnian hydra--they are, in a way, immortal. I was aware that the blood of such a creature can have magical properties, so Suleiman poured some into a wineskin. We are concerned that the beast might be able to grow a new body, so Finis cleverly used stone shape to encase the head in a large rock, which we will cast into the ocean. Although we were growing very tired by this time, we nonetheless searched the hydra's cave. Three eggs lay inside, and we destroyed them, lest the island be terrorized by more hydras. We were much more excited by the trove of items we found inside--there was no coin of any kind, but the cave was filled with magic. In addition to the staff and shield Suleiman had shown us, he had found a magical wand which casts various fire spells. Also in the cave were magic incense, a magic longsword, a potion of sweetwater, a potion of delusion (which Urym thought made him a giant), a potion of heroism, a scroll of protection from demons, and various spell components. Finally, twenty-two ivory plaques lay, face-down, on the floor--the dreaded Deck of Many Things. We stumbled back into town, exhausted. The townspeople were ecstatic, and went about collecting our reward. They made a great show of scraping to find fifty gold, so we let them keep their money. Upon returning to the boat, we found that the hippogriff had broken into the barrel and eaten all the mice. Kellindel will have to catch some more on the island tomorrow. So, we have returned to the ship, victorious and devoid of any energy. The people of this town will not soon forget the Pentachromata, I am sure. I am curious; who will be the first to draw from the deck of many things? I am not sure that I want to take the risk. What shall we name the hippogriff? What dangers await us in Anarchopolis? I am too tired to ponder these questions; I cannot keep my eyes open. I will stop now before my handwriting becomes illegible.</blockquote>

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