Wednesday, May 31, 2006
4 Alturiak 1373 - Breeding babies & Seakin city
This time we started in a run. Well, Babydoll started running. He's SO fast he caught the Kuo-Toan monk who was running to the breeding pool to warn them of the Reaver / sorrowsworn demon. He knocked the monk out, then caught a common 'Toan citizen and terrorized him (or maybe her) and then came back to let us know. Many of the citizens saw this happen and they ran to their city to warn the authorities.
We found ourselves in a large excavated cavern with a kind-of kidney bean shape. The place is full of the ancient Walktapoid city, but those remains are buttressed with an odd wood because it's loosing it's ancient, overwhelming magical aura. There are two portals here, obviously newer than the remains. One had written on it something like "This is to our most holy of birth places". It wasn't what we thought it was going to be.
We charged in, and twenty Goodhunters and five sorcerers later we owned the place. At least for a little while we did. Caulwen, who was still in Kuo-Toan form swam with the regular citizens and ...
Actually I'm ahead of myself there.
We rushed in through the portal like a dire rat running from a Holy Word. Except we were running toward the thing and it wasn't holy. It was kind of gross, actually, and probably actually unholy (or is that non-holy?).
Immediately in front of us were about a dozen Goodhunters. We took them by surprise. And boy did we. Lets see, it happened so fast it's hard to recall what happen in what order. There was a chop, and then another which chopped all the way and continued to chop into the next dish. That Flying Chef is really some fast fillet machine. He's a madman when it comes to cleaving people in twain. He made two more enemies out of one. A cone-shaped blast of cold which some dodged but most ate. Several daggers flying into fishy armpits. A columnar blast of holy fire. About eight angry arrows making monk kabobs. And then an electric spell that blasted one, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another to finish off all but a few of the original dozen or so Kuo-Toan Goodhunter monks. Somehow there were multiple balls of fire, which actually looked like some mad flaming elf god archer growing out of the earth and shooting an arrow into the midst next to him (I think it was a he. It's hard to tell with elves and the form was only from the waist up - but it was flaming) which exploded into another ball of roiling flames licking across the hot waters, and the steaming stone beach. There was mayhem everywhere. Well, not actual mayhem, but a lot of dead regular Kuo-Toans, and even more incredibly frightened ones diving off and swimming away like a frantic school of large silver fish. That was pretty much it for the monks.
Caulwen & Babydoll decided they needed a swim in that fish-head soup. They found a portal at the bottom with boiling water coming up from it (I think it is to the elemental plane of fire, and I think I'd like to go check it out sometime), Caulwen chased after and joined the fleeing regular 'civilians', and Babydoll noticed a small group of fish-faces standing on a chopped-off stalagmite, thirty feet in the air, and in the center of the centralized stone beach. I wonder if they have a building on the flipped-over top of that stalagmite flying around.
The last few Goodhunter monks were quickly, and easily, finished off by Celery and Thraxel. Bellumthain then gathered us all around him and dimention doored us over to the stone beach. It had pools all over it with Kuo-Toan eggs in them, and some of the eggs looked like they had little tadpoles in them. They are kind of cute in their egg/tadpole form. To bad they grow up to be mean Kuo-Toans who backstab, doublecross, and give preferential treatment to the drow (not to mention enslaving people and sacrificing them to their gods).
Most big folk, actually most folk all together, think of hin as children. A happy attitude, always smiling, and looking you square in the eye and laughing at your jokes as they pick you pocket. Well, some have been known to be such, but what people don't know, or actually what they don't think about, is the dualistic nature of being a hin. Sure we are happy, and small, and friendly, and we lighten the loads our friends have to carry - we are just nice, and pleasant that way. But we also have a mean martial side to us. Most know nothing about it because most don't even know hin have a country of their own (or they know but just don't think and realize that means we have rules and boundaries and such like anyone else). We have a need to protect just like anyone else. Now, it's one thing to be killed by your neighbor in a war (and when you live next to Dambrath that's always a threat), but to have your neighbor enslave you or sacrifice you to their god is a whole other matter. And that matter makes me mad. Really mad. As mad a hin can get ... and a bit worse, actually.
So there we are, sitting on a pleasant, though hard, beach/breeding area (and I'm all for breeding areas) when ... well, actually, I'm ahead a bit. The first thing was a cacophony of several fishmongers singing their songs of the catch of the day. I'm not to sure what happened but that tune made me think of home and get, actually, homesick. I'm glad it passed, 'cause I'm not going home for a long time - not until I have enough stories to tell for the rest of my years will I return to Luiren. But the tunes were distracting, haunting, melancholic, and not to bad musically speaking. And speaking of music and stories, I think I need to tell mine. Tell the stories of my travels these past few years, and perfect the arts of story telling so that when I do return home I'm good and ready to entertain the masses. I think I need some children, too. Enough of that, for now.
Then we popped over to the breeding pools area.
It's been a long time since I've actually been afraid for my life. A very long time. Not since we did not fight the three beholders and their pet manticore. And that manticore sure did have a prickly chin. ... But this time the shoes were on and being a hin I'm not as used to wearing shoes as most other people. There were five Kuo-Toa sorcerers or wizards (I really can't tell the difference) up on top and they just laid into us with the blasting of spells. First a giant wave, from this still pool, came rushing up and slammed into the group, knocking all of us into the water. Now even though I'm from the Hambone bay, I'm not a good swimmer. I'm actually a bad swimmer. Never liked it much. So I'm in a pool with killing in my mind, poison in my belt, anger in my eyes, the power of hate in my voice ... and I'm puppy paddling to the shore. Not very dignified, but it worked, kind of.
We all get back to the shore in various states and at various times. Celery's half dead and fully uncontious. Desicrist is healing him. Bellumthain is still in the water trying to get back, Babydoll swims like the Kuo-Toans, and Thraxel was ... I'm not sure where he was. Maybe off somewhere skulking in some shadow. But he was around. It all got fuzzy for me about this time, 'cause I was busy focusing on these little droplets of water which were dripping up out of my body. Not the water off my clothes, but the water in my guts. It was like someone transported a desert into my stomach and the water was escaping. I got pulled in every direction (even inward) all at once, and felt like a sponge being twisted for it's last drops of water. My mouth got dry, my tongue swelled up, my skin turned reddish (and bruised in areas), and all together I was not having a good day. I was close to not having a bad day either.
So, I did what any smart fella would do in a similar situation. I fell to the ground in unnatural exhaustion and played dead (not much acting was required). If Brandobaris ever did anything to help me help spread the word of his good deeds it was then. From above, or actually behind, me came a flying angel. Leaping high into the air with the most graceful arch I've ever seen a flying thing take, the demon-tinged angelic Flying Chef leapt on the top of the stalagmite and began his second course of the evening. Unfortunately, it was again, fillet of fish. But it was excellent fillet of fish. As always Celery made a great meal. We all owe him quite a lot for satisfying our hunger.
Lets see ... it was pretty much over then. The battle was, that is. Caulwen had followed the school of fish, and, I'm quite happy to report, found their city - The Kuo-Toan city of Seakin.
Abelalon Vo
Southern Hin Gentlemen
-------------------------------------------------
As Vo has relayed I followed the regular Kuo-Toas out of the breeding pool area. One of the Goodhunters had yelled for everyone to leave through another exit. I followed, and they led me to their city, Seakin. I'll have to say, it was, is, a rather magnificent place. It is one of the largest caverns I have ever seen in the world. And the pool of water on the shore of which the city stood next to is the largest collection of water I have seen anywhere. This water is cool and fresh. Clear and refreshing. Not like the other pools I have found. Those have brackish water, and are usually the same temperature as the surrounding rock. This one made me glad to be a Kuo-Toa, even for a small time, and not fully one, as I was.
But the city itself is quite a sight. There were many, many tall buildings of the same kind we had found being excavated. Multicolored block of a glass-like material towering high into the cavern. So high I could not see the tops. But these buildings had a less powerful, and identifiable, magical aura about them. This is the same magic used by the drow to make their ridiculous looking building stand up when any other would have fallen. The buildings were ringed in a helix pattern of open spaces allowing entry into them. No doors at ground level were apparent. Each spacing being several feet to a side and slightly taller than wide. There are dozens of buildings of this nature, all taller than I could see. Maybe even hundreds.
While this was a sight to be seen it wasn't the most impressive. The most impressive was the hundreds of Kuo-Toas flying around the city. They were flying as most would walk. Into and out of buildings, through the 'streets' and even hovering and discussing with each other in a leisurely manner. This was most impressive. Either magic runs through the veins of these Kuo-Toas or there is something about this city enabling them to do such. I think it's the latter, since they never fly when we have fought them.
I was in constant contact with the group becasue of a spell which Vo calls Bellumthain's Telepathic Bond, though the others call it Rary's Telepathic Bond - neither of which I have heard of. Though, since Bellumthain is the one who actually casts the spell I believe Vo is simply honoring him by changing the name to match that of the caster.
I relayed the information of what I was seeing to the group, and also told them of the many regular Kuo-Toas who were getting out of the water all around me, speaking some word under their breath, and flying high into the city. One ran in the opposite direction, behind me, and I turned to see an long, wide bridge crossing over the pool to an island in it's midst. On this island was a compound of other buildings, none more than 50' tall, and made of a mud brick, with no magical aura. There was one building of the correct shape and size to be the temple in which I was chained by the Kuo-Toas. I believe this island is their religious center, and that, like my own people, the religious center is their political center as well.
The one Kuo-Toa I saw run in this direction flew in the air and traveled this way along half the bridge, then landed and continued on foot. I followed him, though I was not able to hear the word they were saying so I could not fly. I was able to follow him into the complex and into one building, however, where he was franticly telling an officious looking Kuo-Toa about the attack on the breeding pool. Thraxil Invictus had made another illusion of the sorrowsworn demon near the end of the fight. I joined in and the two of us Kuo-Toas told the official how the "Reaver", as they call it, had entered the breeding area and attacked.
Interestingly the officious looking Kuo-Toa told us all was okay and he would send out two Clutches of Goodhunters to handle the problem. He sent us on our way, and that was really it. Except, when the Kuo-Toa who was with me ran half way along the bridge back to the city and began to fly and I did not he looked at me as if perplexed. I believe flight is a class issue, because some of them were walking around on the ground selling items, while the majority were flying, but not selling anything. Perhaps by not flying I indicated I was of the merchant class, and therefore should not have been in the breeding pool area at all.
Caulwen Silverthread (of the Threadfunnel family)
Chitine Silver Dragon Sorcerer
Cohort of Abelalon Vo
We found ourselves in a large excavated cavern with a kind-of kidney bean shape. The place is full of the ancient Walktapoid city, but those remains are buttressed with an odd wood because it's loosing it's ancient, overwhelming magical aura. There are two portals here, obviously newer than the remains. One had written on it something like "This is to our most holy of birth places". It wasn't what we thought it was going to be.
We charged in, and twenty Goodhunters and five sorcerers later we owned the place. At least for a little while we did. Caulwen, who was still in Kuo-Toan form swam with the regular citizens and ...
Actually I'm ahead of myself there.
We rushed in through the portal like a dire rat running from a Holy Word. Except we were running toward the thing and it wasn't holy. It was kind of gross, actually, and probably actually unholy (or is that non-holy?).
Immediately in front of us were about a dozen Goodhunters. We took them by surprise. And boy did we. Lets see, it happened so fast it's hard to recall what happen in what order. There was a chop, and then another which chopped all the way and continued to chop into the next dish. That Flying Chef is really some fast fillet machine. He's a madman when it comes to cleaving people in twain. He made two more enemies out of one. A cone-shaped blast of cold which some dodged but most ate. Several daggers flying into fishy armpits. A columnar blast of holy fire. About eight angry arrows making monk kabobs. And then an electric spell that blasted one, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another, and leapt to another to finish off all but a few of the original dozen or so Kuo-Toan Goodhunter monks. Somehow there were multiple balls of fire, which actually looked like some mad flaming elf god archer growing out of the earth and shooting an arrow into the midst next to him (I think it was a he. It's hard to tell with elves and the form was only from the waist up - but it was flaming) which exploded into another ball of roiling flames licking across the hot waters, and the steaming stone beach. There was mayhem everywhere. Well, not actual mayhem, but a lot of dead regular Kuo-Toans, and even more incredibly frightened ones diving off and swimming away like a frantic school of large silver fish. That was pretty much it for the monks.
Caulwen & Babydoll decided they needed a swim in that fish-head soup. They found a portal at the bottom with boiling water coming up from it (I think it is to the elemental plane of fire, and I think I'd like to go check it out sometime), Caulwen chased after and joined the fleeing regular 'civilians', and Babydoll noticed a small group of fish-faces standing on a chopped-off stalagmite, thirty feet in the air, and in the center of the centralized stone beach. I wonder if they have a building on the flipped-over top of that stalagmite flying around.
The last few Goodhunter monks were quickly, and easily, finished off by Celery and Thraxel. Bellumthain then gathered us all around him and dimention doored us over to the stone beach. It had pools all over it with Kuo-Toan eggs in them, and some of the eggs looked like they had little tadpoles in them. They are kind of cute in their egg/tadpole form. To bad they grow up to be mean Kuo-Toans who backstab, doublecross, and give preferential treatment to the drow (not to mention enslaving people and sacrificing them to their gods).
Most big folk, actually most folk all together, think of hin as children. A happy attitude, always smiling, and looking you square in the eye and laughing at your jokes as they pick you pocket. Well, some have been known to be such, but what people don't know, or actually what they don't think about, is the dualistic nature of being a hin. Sure we are happy, and small, and friendly, and we lighten the loads our friends have to carry - we are just nice, and pleasant that way. But we also have a mean martial side to us. Most know nothing about it because most don't even know hin have a country of their own (or they know but just don't think and realize that means we have rules and boundaries and such like anyone else). We have a need to protect just like anyone else. Now, it's one thing to be killed by your neighbor in a war (and when you live next to Dambrath that's always a threat), but to have your neighbor enslave you or sacrifice you to their god is a whole other matter. And that matter makes me mad. Really mad. As mad a hin can get ... and a bit worse, actually.
So there we are, sitting on a pleasant, though hard, beach/breeding area (and I'm all for breeding areas) when ... well, actually, I'm ahead a bit. The first thing was a cacophony of several fishmongers singing their songs of the catch of the day. I'm not to sure what happened but that tune made me think of home and get, actually, homesick. I'm glad it passed, 'cause I'm not going home for a long time - not until I have enough stories to tell for the rest of my years will I return to Luiren. But the tunes were distracting, haunting, melancholic, and not to bad musically speaking. And speaking of music and stories, I think I need to tell mine. Tell the stories of my travels these past few years, and perfect the arts of story telling so that when I do return home I'm good and ready to entertain the masses. I think I need some children, too. Enough of that, for now.
Then we popped over to the breeding pools area.
It's been a long time since I've actually been afraid for my life. A very long time. Not since we did not fight the three beholders and their pet manticore. And that manticore sure did have a prickly chin. ... But this time the shoes were on and being a hin I'm not as used to wearing shoes as most other people. There were five Kuo-Toa sorcerers or wizards (I really can't tell the difference) up on top and they just laid into us with the blasting of spells. First a giant wave, from this still pool, came rushing up and slammed into the group, knocking all of us into the water. Now even though I'm from the Hambone bay, I'm not a good swimmer. I'm actually a bad swimmer. Never liked it much. So I'm in a pool with killing in my mind, poison in my belt, anger in my eyes, the power of hate in my voice ... and I'm puppy paddling to the shore. Not very dignified, but it worked, kind of.
We all get back to the shore in various states and at various times. Celery's half dead and fully uncontious. Desicrist is healing him. Bellumthain is still in the water trying to get back, Babydoll swims like the Kuo-Toans, and Thraxel was ... I'm not sure where he was. Maybe off somewhere skulking in some shadow. But he was around. It all got fuzzy for me about this time, 'cause I was busy focusing on these little droplets of water which were dripping up out of my body. Not the water off my clothes, but the water in my guts. It was like someone transported a desert into my stomach and the water was escaping. I got pulled in every direction (even inward) all at once, and felt like a sponge being twisted for it's last drops of water. My mouth got dry, my tongue swelled up, my skin turned reddish (and bruised in areas), and all together I was not having a good day. I was close to not having a bad day either.
So, I did what any smart fella would do in a similar situation. I fell to the ground in unnatural exhaustion and played dead (not much acting was required). If Brandobaris ever did anything to help me help spread the word of his good deeds it was then. From above, or actually behind, me came a flying angel. Leaping high into the air with the most graceful arch I've ever seen a flying thing take, the demon-tinged angelic Flying Chef leapt on the top of the stalagmite and began his second course of the evening. Unfortunately, it was again, fillet of fish. But it was excellent fillet of fish. As always Celery made a great meal. We all owe him quite a lot for satisfying our hunger.
Lets see ... it was pretty much over then. The battle was, that is. Caulwen had followed the school of fish, and, I'm quite happy to report, found their city - The Kuo-Toan city of Seakin.
Abelalon Vo
Southern Hin Gentlemen
-------------------------------------------------
As Vo has relayed I followed the regular Kuo-Toas out of the breeding pool area. One of the Goodhunters had yelled for everyone to leave through another exit. I followed, and they led me to their city, Seakin. I'll have to say, it was, is, a rather magnificent place. It is one of the largest caverns I have ever seen in the world. And the pool of water on the shore of which the city stood next to is the largest collection of water I have seen anywhere. This water is cool and fresh. Clear and refreshing. Not like the other pools I have found. Those have brackish water, and are usually the same temperature as the surrounding rock. This one made me glad to be a Kuo-Toa, even for a small time, and not fully one, as I was.
But the city itself is quite a sight. There were many, many tall buildings of the same kind we had found being excavated. Multicolored block of a glass-like material towering high into the cavern. So high I could not see the tops. But these buildings had a less powerful, and identifiable, magical aura about them. This is the same magic used by the drow to make their ridiculous looking building stand up when any other would have fallen. The buildings were ringed in a helix pattern of open spaces allowing entry into them. No doors at ground level were apparent. Each spacing being several feet to a side and slightly taller than wide. There are dozens of buildings of this nature, all taller than I could see. Maybe even hundreds.
While this was a sight to be seen it wasn't the most impressive. The most impressive was the hundreds of Kuo-Toas flying around the city. They were flying as most would walk. Into and out of buildings, through the 'streets' and even hovering and discussing with each other in a leisurely manner. This was most impressive. Either magic runs through the veins of these Kuo-Toas or there is something about this city enabling them to do such. I think it's the latter, since they never fly when we have fought them.
I was in constant contact with the group becasue of a spell which Vo calls Bellumthain's Telepathic Bond, though the others call it Rary's Telepathic Bond - neither of which I have heard of. Though, since Bellumthain is the one who actually casts the spell I believe Vo is simply honoring him by changing the name to match that of the caster.
I relayed the information of what I was seeing to the group, and also told them of the many regular Kuo-Toas who were getting out of the water all around me, speaking some word under their breath, and flying high into the city. One ran in the opposite direction, behind me, and I turned to see an long, wide bridge crossing over the pool to an island in it's midst. On this island was a compound of other buildings, none more than 50' tall, and made of a mud brick, with no magical aura. There was one building of the correct shape and size to be the temple in which I was chained by the Kuo-Toas. I believe this island is their religious center, and that, like my own people, the religious center is their political center as well.
The one Kuo-Toa I saw run in this direction flew in the air and traveled this way along half the bridge, then landed and continued on foot. I followed him, though I was not able to hear the word they were saying so I could not fly. I was able to follow him into the complex and into one building, however, where he was franticly telling an officious looking Kuo-Toa about the attack on the breeding pool. Thraxil Invictus had made another illusion of the sorrowsworn demon near the end of the fight. I joined in and the two of us Kuo-Toas told the official how the "Reaver", as they call it, had entered the breeding area and attacked.
Interestingly the officious looking Kuo-Toa told us all was okay and he would send out two Clutches of Goodhunters to handle the problem. He sent us on our way, and that was really it. Except, when the Kuo-Toa who was with me ran half way along the bridge back to the city and began to fly and I did not he looked at me as if perplexed. I believe flight is a class issue, because some of them were walking around on the ground selling items, while the majority were flying, but not selling anything. Perhaps by not flying I indicated I was of the merchant class, and therefore should not have been in the breeding pool area at all.
Caulwen Silverthread (of the Threadfunnel family)
Chitine Silver Dragon Sorcerer
Cohort of Abelalon Vo
# posted by Matthew : 4:38 PM
