Stone Soules Summary XXIV: Finishing Some Easy Tasks
Greetings one and all, we have an interesting story to relate today, one
of fame and fortune, but also of infamy and loss.
We started the evening in the library. There were a couple of things
that were brought up in email to try but both Jack and I didn't want to
get bogged down in the library again, so we took off to explore the city.
In one of the blocks, was a rather run down old Inn. Ludo detected a
secret panel in one of the walls, fairly well hidden. Xavier checked to
insure that Ludo was successful in determining there was no traps. Since
there were none, Ceydric opened up the panel. TAKE TWO.
Out of the panel flies a purple glowing ball, another Will-o-the-wisp. Being the
sturdy cavalier that he is Ceydric pummels the thing, while everyone else
is readying the weapons they will need to hit it. Eli leaves the
building (so he can cast a spell without him seeing it) and lets off a
Limm, near max damage. Canstin hits, Jerem hits, lots of 20's rolled.
Eli tries a burning hands and slow, both have no effect. The clerics are
busy healing and aiding Ceydric, the target of all its attacks. Eli
blasts it with another Limm and the thing takes off into the city.
Unfortunately, due to Eli's 4 segments recovery, it got away. So Ceydric
goes back over to the panel and some skeletal hand reaches out and starts
grabbing for his throat. He begins to pummel it, Eli limms it, the
clerics try to turn it (no avail). It is muttering in a very old dialect
of dwarven that Claude understands..'stay away from my money'. So,
eventually it hits Ceydric, grabs his neck, it proceeds to drain hit
points from Ceydric's total, kind of sucked but we managed to kill it.
The hit points returned. The skeleton had +1 leather armor (dwarven
sized), a Ring of Feather Falling, and a Bucknard's Everful Purse. We
grabbed those, and then, thanks to Jerem, we decided to grab the
nonmagical stuff too. Amongst the nonmagical stuff were 100 realmish
platinum and ... about 65000 in assorted jewelry. We return to Middle to
store away such treasures. At this point, the party is worth 100k :)
We again venture into the city, but as we leave Middle, marked on one of
the barn's is, "give me back my treasure - the behir", damn will-o-wisp,
we should have finished the job. The people are panicked but we assure
Faranyn that it is just a will-o-wisp.
We go to the plaza area (right next to the library) and explore the
central over grown portion. There are a couple of fountains and then in
the middle, a rather cool little building. Outside of it is a large
statue of a man on a big platform...non magical. We go inside the
building, brass pipes, wheels, gears, a mess of engineering, a water
runoff ramp, oh, and SMART stenciled in big letters on a huge cylinder.
We descend down some stairs and find a huge room with a stone cylinder
rising through the center. This, Eli guessed correctly, is a battery.
On the ground were two fuzzy, grey things. We weren't sure what they
were so brave Xavier went down with speak with animals and got within
30'. Ludo threw a rock to wake one of them up. It started to quiver,
slowly rise up, extend a huge hairless tail, open these big insect like
eyes and make straight for Xavier, it was a Volt. Several sleep magicks
went off and the things hit the floor. We left.
We decide to destroy the hornets. We go to Temple street and Ice Storm
their nest. A couple dozen fly out of the building and act confused,
they complain about high winds (thanks to 4 dust devils) and then
eventually notice our party. The swarm comes out...too many to count but
on the order of 40 or so. Xavier in his ultimate charm manages to
convince them that we didn't cause the winds. We take off, and decide on
a war of attrition against these guys.
I think the same day, but I could be wrong, we are heading back to the
library when Jerem fails to alert the party of a closing monster (Jen was
rolling terrible surprise checks, unfortunately it mattered this time),
trundling out of its camouflaged location, a Banshee Beetle gets within
range of the party and shreiks. Ludo, thanks to his insane dex, gets out
of the way (negated all three surprise segments) and is unaffected.
Unfortunately almost everyone drops. Standing is Claude, Henry, Canstin,
Ludo, and Jerem. Ludo hurls the dart of the hornet's nest (yes, it
looked that bad) and pummeled the beetle with 12 +2 darts, Canstin starts
attacking, Jerem attacks, Claude administers potion to Eli, Henry gets in
its face and starts thrashing it. Henry deals the killing blow and then,
oh, Gram was up too, Gram assesses the damage. Deirdre is worked and in
need of serious attention, potions are administered left and right to
prevent permanent shock damage. In the end, everyone is dandy except
Deirdre (Xavier's magic user buddy), she needs a month of bed rest.
We return to the library, Eli asks everyone to cover their wounds as they
head back to Middle so we don't look toasted. Unfortunately it didn't
work, at base camp we are attacked during first shift by the
will-o-wisp. Ceydric hits several times, Henry yells for the party to
awake. Henry gets toasted and runs with negative function to awaken
Alegra. Eli wakes up and hammers it with a 23 point Limm. Naturally, it
goes for him. Eli gets hit and falls over as if he were dead. Canstin
tags it, Eli rolls out of combat. Ludo hits, Xavier hits, Eli stands and
Limms it again. Max damage. Eli runs towards the party as it goes for
him. Within the next 3 segments someone hits it and causes it to flee
again, due to the night cover, it gets away.
We get back to middle, Eli acquires Magic Missile (limm is too slow
against the will-o-wisp). And then we head back to Tan-El.
The behir is in the city and we have a difficult time getting to the
people in the library but we do.
That is all!
Questions, comments, omissions?
-Zack Hubert-