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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 1258" data-attributes="member: 63">Chapter Fourteen:  Veiling Flames, Part OneAllar arranges for the stablemaster in Milbourne to get horses for Bhurisrava, James, Harley, and Victorious so they can ride to Thurmaster.  Thanks to information gleaned from a prisoner who was delivering a message to an Orc tribe in the Great Rock Dale, they know now that a wizard named Limoges is involved with the theft of the Book of Darlakanand, and they infer that he might have a hand in the attack on the caravan coming into Milbourne.  The prisoner doesn’t know what the message was, because it was a letter written in Hereth, the Orcish religious language, but they do realize that Limoges was the same name that they saw on a treasure map Harley stole.  Now they’re returning to Thurmaster, where they saw the people who previously owned the treasure map.  Allar, meanwhile, lopes off to the Thornwood to ask the Druid Oleane to look for some place people could be hiding in the forest.  The prisoner says he doesn’t know how to find the building himself, but that it was on a cliff.  Allar plans to meet back in Milbourne in two days.  If either group isn’t back by then, Allar will go to Thurmaster after them, or they should come try to find him with Oleane.Okay, quick recap of ways my players butcher NPC names.First off, Nikal (pronounced nih-KALL) becomes Nikhail (ni-KALE) because it sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev.  Thus, Nikal is sometimes called “the commie,” because he has a communist name.Second, there’s Tauster, an old wizard.  He becomes “Toaster,” as in the thing you make toast with.  Of course, in his youth Tauster was kind of fond of fireballs, but the party didn’t know that when they started calling him Toaster.Next, Oleane, a druid who lives in the Thornwood, has received the loveable appellation of “anal leakage girl” because the artificial fat O’Lean was in the news at that time for causing anal leakage in those who ate O’Lean-made food.Then we have Shiraz, a female ranger who is very fond of birds, and who keeps tabs on the dam Goblins at the Eelhold.  Because Jessie (Harley’s player) couldn’t remember Shiraz’s name, she became “Shasta,” a popular soft-drink.And now, we have Limoges.  Oh, dear Limoges.  *sigh*  Again, somebody in the group forgot what his name was, so Nic (James’s player) offered a way for everyone to remember.  “Limoges?  Let’s call him . . . ‘lemon cheese.’”  And thus, now our party fears the day when they must face the wrath of . . . Lemon Cheese.Well, that’s what you get when you don’t charge for DMing.  You get just any old yahoo who wants to play, instead of the real gamers who are willing to fork over some cash for the privilege.Back to the story, though. The next morning (this is Harley and James’s 10th day in the Haranshire, Bhur’s 11th, and Vic’s 4th, and Allar’s 3,527th), Allar is gone before sunrise, just about as James wakes Harley up, knocking heavily on the door to her inn room.  Harley grumbles but gets ready quickly enough, deciding she plans to get a full night’s sleep tomorrow, even if she has to kill James.The general room of the Baron of Mutton is very busy this morning, filled with a lot of people who had been merchants or guards for the newly-arrived merchant caravan.  Amid the clamor, the party enjoys breakfast together, swapping a few stories and letting Harley fill Bhurisrava in on how they could have used his help against the spider.  Bhur puffs up his chest self-assuredly, apologizing that he could not be there to bless them with God’s favor.They’re about to leave when the front door to the tavern opens and Old Grizzler, the only Dwarf who lives within miles, comes in, carrying a multi-pocketed belt over his shoulder.  Harley smiles to him and the Dwarf nods back in reply, making eye contact with Harley, James, and Bhur, but not looking at Vic, who he doesn’t know.  Then Grizzler continues slowly to a far corner of the room.  The party politely waits for the innkeeper to come by and take their plates away, and after a few moments Harley’s head perks up and she looks over where Old Grizzler is.Roth and Old Grizzler are sitting across from each other, exchanging their individual brand of pleasantries while the Dwarf sets out an array of flasks, one for Roth, one for Grizzler.  Two for Roth, two for Grizzler, and so on.Harley grins, thinking that Roth had gone off some place without telling them, and she drags Vic over to introduce him to the scruffy woodsman.  Bhur is going to stay behind with James, but James says he can handle the bill himself, and that Bhur should go talk to Roth.  Roth and Old Grizzler are apparently both preparing a drinking contest, which has been a daily ritual since five days ago when they first met.  Grizzler smiles smugly.  “The man’s almost gotten his threshold up to three flasks.  I used to use that much to wash my mouth out when I had food stuck in my teeth.”Roth says that he was listening to their conversation, but he thought it’d be rude not to wait for Grizzler in the appointed place, so he just stayed at his own table.  He shakes Vic’s hand eagerly, honored to meet a spiderslayer.  Harley formally introduces them, then asks if Roth’d be interested in coming along, since he’s their friend, and she’s a little worried they might run into trouble.  Without a hint of smugness, Roth agrees he’d probably be useful if a fight came up.  He agrees to go along, if Old Grizzler wouldn’t mind, as soon as they finish their drinking contest.Vic inquires what kind of liquor is so tough that a big guy like Roth can only handle three flasks, and Harley and Bhur both chuckle, remembering how nice Dwarven spirits are.  Old Grizzler seems to like Vic even less when he realizes that Vic couldn’t guess the identity of the drink, so Vic tries to make up for it by asking if he could have a taste of them.Old Grizzler chuckles.  “I thought you said you were going to be traveling today, friend wizard.  I don’t think you’d be in a condition to walk after you had a taste of Dwarf spirits.”“Well, if it’s too strong, I could just water it down,” Vic offers.“Oh, now you’re planning to commit sacrilege.  Dwarf spirits aren’t called spirits just because.  They house the soul of the Dwarven people.  You wouldn’t water down your friend’s soul, would you?”Harley convinces Grizzler to agree to a wager.  If Vic can handle half a flask, he can have it.  If he can’t, Vic promises to come back and join in the drinking contest with Roth and Grizzler whenever he’s in town.  Grizzler hands Vic a flask, and Vic, confidently, downs the whole thing.A second later, the effect sets in, feeling like a Dwarven smithy forge being bellowed in his his skull and down his throat.  Me, the DM, to Justin, Vic’s player:  “Okay Justin, make a Consitution check.”Justin gives me a crazy look, but I shake my head.  Vic downed Dwarven spirits in one big gulp, and apparently the spirits are having some fun in his head.  Justin rolls, and barely succeeds.  His eyes burn and unfocus, the inside of his mouth goes dry, and he almost sags to the floor.  But then, after a moment, the feeling settles into a warm, comfortable flame that soothes his entire body, and a smile spreads across Vic’s face.“I’ve got to figure out how to make this stuff.”   A few minutes of chatting later, James comes over and reminds them that they do have business to get to.  The drinking contest between Roth and Old Grizzler goes quickly, with Roth bowing out early after one and a half flasks because he promised to go with his friends.  Old Grizzler nods to him in thanks and tells him to keep two flasks for good luck on the trip, and then the party sets off.  Just as their saddling up to ride to Thurmaster, James tells Harley that she should know that their breakfasts will be free from now on at the Baron of Mutton.  Harley asks why, and James tells her that he just told the innkeeper a little about how they had saved the recently arrived caravan from an Orc attack.  Since all the caravan folks have been eating at the Baron of Mutton, increasing his business greatly, the man was feeling generous.  Harley realizes that James can be much subtler than she thought at first, and grins in appreciation of his economical talents.They ride out of town, Vic grinning dumbly as he leans low on his horse’s neck. After riding for a couple hours, they get to Thurmaster, where apparently a small thundercloud had just come by.  It sprinkled for a few minutes, then passed on, and now there’s not a cloud in the sky.  Roth admires the nice weather, but Harley admits that even though she hasn’t been home for over a year, she does miss the sight of huge trees overhead, lush green leaves highlighted by bright blue skies.James gets them back to business, reminding them they need to look for leads about the adventurers who had the map a couple days ago.  They go into the town’s small inn, where they learn Nikal is staying, and ask about the men who were there about five days ago.  The innkeeper just shrugs though, and isn’t very helpful, even when Harley offers a little money to jog his memory.  The guy honestly doesn’t recall much, but he knows they only stayed one night, and he hasn’t seen them since.  They ask if it’d be okay to take a look at the room they were in, and if anyone else has been in that room in the past few days.  The innkeeper says no, Nikal has been his only lodger recently, since Thurmaster is kind of out of the way for most travelers.Harley decides to go check on Tauster, so that she can avoid Nikal in case he sees them.  She goes with Roth, who wants to know what the wizard would trade for some Dwarven spirits.In the inn room, James, Vic, and Bhur don’t find much.  The place has been mostly tidied up, but there’s still some red dirt on the floor, and one of the beds is broken.  They ask if the innkeeper found anything, and the guy shrugs again, asking them to get off his case.  Bhur begins preaching at him, saying that a righteous man would not hinder the wants of his brother.  The innkeeper groans and actually starts arguing philosophy with Bhur, saying that the priest’s argument is weak.  While he’s distracted, Vic sneaks around his personal room.  He’s only in there for about a minute before the innkeeper comes in after him and yells for him to get out.  He says he’ll never let him stay at his inn again, and tells them all to get out.  Vic grumbles loudly, shouting, “It’s not like I found anything in there!  No reason to get so angry!”Meanwhile, Harley and Roth go talk to Tauster, who smiles and asks ‘Jenny’ if this is her fiancee.  Remember, Tauster’s apprentice Jenneleth is getting married in another two weeks to a man in Milbourne.  Sure, Jenny has black hair and is a human and Harley has red-brown hair and is an Elf, but . . . well, Tauster has bad eyesight.Harley says that no, it’s not her husband, but Roth, the man who cleaned his gutters.  They chat for a while, Harley hoping to maybe glean something of use from the man’s somewhat senile ramblings, but again, not much.  The only half-interesting thing that has happened lately was that Tauster heard a couple of young kids climb on his roof and try to break into his tower.  When they got fried by the minor ward he had there, they ran off crying.  Tauster had to apologize to their mother.Harley and Roth chat with him for a while longer, until Bhur bursts his way into the house, complaining loudly before he even comes inside about the stupid innkeeper.  As soon as the door swings open, Tauster is up on his feet, his hands reaching for spell components.  The old man stops, though, when he sees the priest come in, and he sheepishly sits back down, apologizing that old reflexes die hard.After a little more talking they decide to go outside and try to canvas the rest of the town.  Roth tries to trade his Dwarf spirits for something, but Tauster is afraid he’ll die if he drinks that stuff.  Vic offers to trade in exchange for it, but he only has money, and Roth doesn’t want money.  After some finagling, though, they arrange a three-way deal, where Roth gives Vic the spirits, Vic lets Tauster take a look at the water mage’s spell book, and Tauster agrees to prepare a potion of some sort, as a thanks to the both of them.  It will take a couple days, though.They check out the rest of the town, talking to almost every one of its less than one-hundred inhabitants.  Around mid-afternoon Harley slyly asks James if they should stay the night in Milbourne, reminding James that they were kicked out of the inn.  Frustrated that they have no leads (and cursing the DM for forcing them to roleplay instead of kill, grr!) they mount up to go back to Milbourne so they can get to the inn before sunset.  As they ride off, they spot a carrier pigeon flying overhead, heading toward the Thornwood.  It looks as if the pigeon came from somewhere inside the swamp, and beyond the swamp is mountains, so its unlikely it came from beyond the swamp.  A quick discussion later they decide to try to shoot it down, but it’s too far up, and it flies over the river so they can’t chase after it.  Realizing they can’t keep track of it, they instead tell both Tauster and Nikal to be on the lookout for more carrier pigeons, and that if Inzeldrin (the green Dragon who lives in the Shreiken Mire) comes to town, tell her someone is probably hiding in her domain, and that she can find them by flying after the carrier pigeons.Having done all they can, they ride with modest haste back to Milbourne.  They get in as the sun is setting, and since Allar isn’t back yet, Harley is finally able to get to sleep early, threatening to harm James if he wakes her up before sunrise.  She doesn’t plan to get up until mid-afternoon, unless Allar shows up. Harley wakes up feeling well rested and refreshed.  She gets ready to go to the wash house and take a nice, cleansing bath, getting out a cotton robe that she bought in the city of Seaquen, that she hasn’t worn for a long time.  When she takes the secondary staircase that leads out to the bath house, she realizes it’s still dark outside.  Groaning, she realizes that James has acclimated her to waking up early.  Despite her frustration, she goes on with her bath, realizing at least she’ll have privacy.  And when she finishes, dries off, and gets dressed, she goes to wakes up James, getting to him only ten minutes too late.  James calls her an ingrate for not appreciating that he was going to let her sleep.The day develops peacefully, and the morning’s drinking competition primarily is a face off between James and Roth (James wins).  Old Grizzler admits that he has built a miniature brewery under his home, but how he manages to make so much Dwarven spirits every day is unknown.  Since Allar isn’t due back until the evening, though, they’re content to relax, Vic and Bhur thinking up magical tactics they could use together.Little happens for the rest of the day, and everyone boredly awaits Allar’s return.  Then, around the time when it should be getting dark, someone points out that the sky to the south is brighter than it ought to be.  The party is curious, but they don’t bother to look until later, around sunset, when someone outside starts shouting.  They rush outside into the dimming light and see a red haze on the southern horizon, as if the sun were somehow rising beyond the Thornwood.  Then they realize what everyone’s really in the commotion about.  Oleane has arrived, standing on the far shore of the Churnette River.  Her body and gear are burnt, and she’s sorely wounded, having to lean on the side of her wolf companion for support.Harley and Roth rush out to try to help her cross the river, while James clears the crowd away.  Bhurisrava waits at the shore, preparing to heal her if she’s seriously injured, but with the foresight that he might not be able to spare it if they’re about to be threatened themselves.When they finally get her to the near shore, Oleane begins to panic.  Too weak to run away, she cowers nervously beneath the stares of so many people, more people than she has probably ever seen in one place before.  James yells for everyone to back off, and Harley’s able to calm Oleane down enough that the Druid is able to state, in jagged speech, “Allar and I were . . . attacked.  Fire monster.  Allar was hurt.  I took him to my home, but the forest is on fire.  Fire monster . . . burned everything when it died.”Oleane’s information passes through the crowd, and someone shouts in horror, “Jenneleth and John are in the woods!”  They quickly learn that apparently Jenneleth (Tauster’s apprentice) and her fiance had gone into the forest to collect materials for Jenneleth’s potions, and that they might be in danger from the fire.  After a few moments longer of talking to Oleane, they figure out that the monster that attacked was some sort of imp or demon with wings, that attacked, then exploded when Allar managed to kill it.  Oleane managed to drag Allar back to her grove, where he lies horribly burned and near death, even after she tried to heal him.  She was too weak to carry him any farther, so she came for help.  The fire will reach the grove by morning if it’s not stopped.</blockquote>

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