Stone Soules Summary: Bugbears, Vines, & Mites, Oh My!
[Much of the action begins April 5th, 2173]
From before April 5th, Eli gets a henchman named Claude, a dwarven bodyguard. Though a bit fauning and certainly a neat and orderly person, he seems nice enough. Also, there was a "kickin'" birthday party on the 1st for the whole town of Middle. Star revealed his poem about the original demonspawn encounter; it is fifteen pages long and his best yet!
The Daring "Dozen" lost three members to the Sphinx in the GOC, because they tried to run without paying his extortion money. They were "dissolved" into nothingness or at the very best some kind of slime. The ones eliminated were the ones carrying the treasure the Sphinx wanted. They had not agreed on a new name, but did seem pretty shaken. I think that they decided to avoid the city as much as they could thereafter. They also paid taxes for what they recovered. Fifteen days later, they paid more taxes from a point beyond the city.
On the 15th of May, we headed to the GOC ourselves but decided to discover whether the transporter room went elsewhere if the magnet was turned around. Also, whether from the other side, when reversing the magnet, brought us to the same place or a different place was a question. From inside the first transporter room, reversing the magnet brought us to a place just like it.
The Sphinx's gargoyle-type creatures attacked us. They can meld into stone, unlike real gargoyles, so what they are escapes us. Something nastier apparently. They attacked Snag and we barely managed to escape safely. He was greviously wounded. The second question was answered easily enough. It leads to the same place. The gargoyle-type creatures, the stonegoyles, did not follow but licked up Snag's blood off of the ground. Needless to say, staying was not an idea we treasured.
We decided next to check out the castle, though I must admit that its proximity to the beithir did cause me some small amount of fear. But Phaulkon's hand is holding us all gently in his protection. As a result of this uneasiness, though, we did send out a couple of scouts (Canstin, Dari, Cassana) to determine whether the beithir was in the city. Cassana said that he was. We in the end decided to explore the castle anyway, but not the rest of the city until the beithir is gone. The scouts encountered giant ants along the way, but Dari ordered them away.
In the castle courtyard, our first scouting mission with Snag revealed a large carnivorous or otherwise hostile and mobile vine-plant. Eli told us a story about the Bards destroying one by starving it for three years and then burning it; it apparently was bred at a Bardic School but the experiment failed. This one was much smaller but still very nasty.
A combination of Dari's entangle spell and Eli's burning hands, along with other helping hands from the whole group allowed us to kill it in just over a day.
We found a door into the castle, but there were dungeon mites (fast mites) there. They stole Faranyn's magnet and tried to get Ludo's before we could get back to the gate where stood Aria and Gerald. Gerald was keeping it open but guarding it so we could get back. Eli's comprehend languages spell allowed us to stop several attempts on Ludo, but the final one Eli caught the words a little too late. They knocked part of the battlement-wall above the door down. All they said was "wedge." They got away with the magnet, but we managed to stop them and get it back and inside. During the interlude, they managed to steal Star's Holy Symbol, as they seem attracted to magic items. They will have to pay for that transgression, however! We must recover that Symbol.
--ended 16th May, 2173
(Snag: "You never know with carnivorous vines.")
[also note: letter to Gram was mailed by Alegra in Teft]
Alegra Falconer