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November 11, 1995

Stone Soules Summary VII: A preliminary response

This is a preliminary to any larger summary we put out, just to let the
people not at Cornell have a good quick idea of what happened.

We set up an ambush for the marauders tha proved completely successful.
We then came up with a further idea and demanded in a message that they do
not raid on any human settlements in the area. The next night they stole
some pigs. We then responded in kind with an Eli/Dari attack based on the
old "Invisiblity/Call Lightning scheme" that completely decimated the
marauders at their camp in siege at the Fire Giant city. The marauders
thought the attack on them came from the city and they tried to attack it,
and the Fire Giants from the city came out and stomped them. We then sent
the Fire Giant city Bardic Mail claiming responsibility for the attack. The
cavaliers hoped that they would be owed a debt of honor, but they said that
they were grateful, but refused to owe a debt of honor to lesser beings and
so sent us 5,000 giantish gold as "mercenary pay" instead.
This allowed us to train more (=10,000 human gold).

The Little People arrived in Middle (halfling heroes from Petethal) seeking
to fight back the lesser ones, based on reports of increased activity in
human areas by the lesser ones on pressure from Horan (the same guy that
SMART was interested in). Apparently the normal GO ("Abominations") take no
interest in human affairs but Horan is proactive and seeks to disrupt human
society. These Lawful Good adventurers are here to gather information in an
attempt to hunt down and slay Horan.

[And the highlight of the entire evening was the Fire Giant ambush, in which
a cavalry charge was an integral part. After dodging numerous cows and
speeding up to reach the giants and ogres before they got away, Henry and
Ceydric had an interesting experience.

Henry tried to attack an ogre or giant, I don't remember which, and fumbled.
He fumbled his lance and got it stuck in the ground. This caused him to be
propelled forward, off his horse, while breaking his lance and smashing into
Ceydric. Ceydric was unseated from his horse and both Henry and Ceydric lay
stunned on the ground for 3 segments. From this whole action, the giant got
a free attack against Henry but chose instead to run for the hills.

Though no damage resulted to either of them, the terminal embarrassment of
being taken out of an important part of the combat has made Henry blush
since the stories first telling...]

Kyle

November 04, 1995

Stone Soules Summary VI: Just when you thought it was safe...

While awaiting questioning and staying in Jonhalom...
Star was possessed and killed Alegra during her sleep with a 6-segment kill,
then went over and tried to kill Letier during his sleep with a 6-segment
kill/poisoned dagger from the "potion" we had taken. Letier was not
instantly killed but killed by the poison. Some kind of explosion tipped
off the Duke and Xavier, who came in. Duke restrained Star and Xavier read
the slow poison scroll from Alegra to revive Letier.

Star was dragged to the temple of Chelsian (sp) and the possession was
dispelled (note that none of Kergul's gear was around. Our "civil rights
were being violated under subparagraph C1, article five of the judicial code
JON-34a3..." (we were "Know Alignment"ed as near as I can tell). Kergul was
not there. The armor, which had detected as evil earlier, had been taken
for examination by the mayor, a mage. When he returned to his house to
examine the armor, the soul was not there (it being in Star at the time,
presumably). When the possession was dispelled, the soul returned from
miles away (obviously a VERY powerful magic jar) and tried to possess the
mayor. The armor was then attacked with very powerful heat magics to melt
it down, and presumably Kergul is now building material in one of the lower
planes of existence. [A Commune from Alegra years later determines this to not be true--
Kergul is alive and well, but not very interested in the Stone Soules in particular.]

Later, Alegra was trained, the library was purchased for the Middle Church,
Xavier was trained two levels. We returned overland from Teft, and we
received the +2 crossbow/auto-reloading for Aria, a potion of climbing, and
some gold. The Koralgeshians were kind enough to pay for half of Alegra's
raising...

The group in Dunthrane/Secton:
Theo was trained. Sahrak failed to make much money telling stories.
Nym was trained two levels. Theo learned a [insert proficiency here]
Faranyn was trained and picked up two crossbowmen men-at-arms.
They returned home.

The group in Middle:
Cassana was trained, purchased equipment to train woodsmen, and trained
Jerem. Canstin learns bastard sword and stealth, starts sleep on the go.
Fire giants and ogres begin stealing cattle and chickens. We set up an
increased patrol and finally stopped them from large scale grabs by a
cavalry charge on the marauders. Though we only took down one ogre, they
have stopped trying ot steal ten-twenty cows at a time. There is a group of
Fire Giants and Ogres facing the gate, at the head of the ridge, towards the
mountains (presumably where the Fire Giant city is). They appear to be
laying siege to it, though the limited reconn we have on it is not clear.
It could be some bizarre defense system as well. Either way, that group
appears to be resonsible for our cattle thievery. We have reimbursed the
farmers in full, and are currently mulling over what to do about the problem
(we can't move fast enough to stop them).

Kyle