Monday, June 26, 2006
Alturiak 5 or 6 1373 - Back in Suzail, eventually
I've never made political or military type negotiations. I find them quite interesting, in an odd way, I should add. Babydoll really helped me with the old advice thing. He's rather smart when it comes to military strategy & military negotiations. I need just a bit more training at this to REALLY be good at it. And I mean REALLY good. So good, in fact, that people would throw themselves in front of on-rushing danger, sacrificing themself for the sake of protecting me. That kind of diplomatic elan is well worth seeking. I think I might, possibly, want it. Hell, if it's wantable, I probably do.
I had to renegotiate with Joparg because my friends encouraged me to not hand over the key. We had a good bit of concern about him invading and killing all our future kids (which I plane to help make many of in the next bit of time. I wonder if I could make a Hinman. I, of course, prefere Hin ladies, but they are usually not able to handle me. Maybe in these northern lands of many different peoples the Hin ladies, the lightfoot Hin ladies, will be used to the humans and elves and therefore better able. I'll have to investigate this.)
So we talked about the issues, and eventually, because of Babydoll's forward ways, got 'down' to a certain, acceptable, level of 'honesty'. Joparg was all over the place in contradicting himself, between his statements and his implications (to be a trader of negotiations, he has not desired). It finally came to the front what it was we knew all along. Joparg said so, and we were on even footing. I'm not fond of being on even footing, though. I'd rather know what a person wants and intends, but have them lie to me and think I don't know what they want, so the game of trade can be played on more than just a few levels. That way it's much more interesting. I've become rusty, though, in the past five years. I have done little in the way of any kind of trade or negotiations. I look forward to Waterdeep and the opportunity to do some real business.
Not having been at the top of the game in this negotiation I am lacking in desire to describe it with more details. So let it be known, than, this: Joparg does not have the key, and will not be getting it any time soon. Trust is a BIG issue between us and them (being that we have reason to not trust them, and they are untrustworthy, which makes them not have any reason to trust us). If we could have handled this like a straight negotiation it would have been much easier, but maybe much more boring as well. We are 'welcome' back in Seakin, as we choose. We will develop, slowly, the trust necessary to facilitate real negotiations. We are, in theory, allowed to wander the city when we return. The common citizens are supposed to be okay with us, but the hierarchy is a bit warry of us (mostly Joparg, and I imagine this is so with all thse we have killed, or not killed only due to our kind nature, even though we could have and would have been justified in doing so). Joparg offered to trade us the key for the opportunity to let Desicrist study the Mythal. Desicrist was increadibly happy to hear about this. He says he was hiding his enthusiasm to fool Joparg, but Mr. Bluplip was busy reading our minds the whole time.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm kind of pissed. The negotiating table is no place for extreme emotions or personal vendettas, so I wasn't thinking like that at the time. But he is one deceitful, fish folk. I'm going to try to convince the group to my plan of action I am concocting at the present moment. But a little more research is due. I just need some way to get access to a library of natural knowledge. Maybe I can start with some nature clerics in the city ans see if they are interesting in letting me do some research (or just telling me).
So we left Seakin, and will probably not go back for some good time.
I was really hoping to just sell the key and be done with it. I'm of no real mind to go back to Seakin. But I'm not one to go back anywhere. It's borring to go back where you have already been. But then again, there is a kind of comfort in it; A comfort I have been lacking for a good long time now.
So we left Seakin, and decided to do so in two trips because the area we can teleport out of only allows for four people to fit (though it could probably fit 6 or 8 or maybe even 10 hin if it had to - they just take up to much space, too). The first trip went with Caulwen (& Nullum), Babydoll, Celery & Thraxel. Several seconds later Caulwen came back and was frantic about a 12 headed icehydra which was presently aiming to make meals out of three others. Bellumthain teleported us back to the surface so we could get there faster and ...
Abelalon Vo
SoM
I had to renegotiate with Joparg because my friends encouraged me to not hand over the key. We had a good bit of concern about him invading and killing all our future kids (which I plane to help make many of in the next bit of time. I wonder if I could make a Hinman. I, of course, prefere Hin ladies, but they are usually not able to handle me. Maybe in these northern lands of many different peoples the Hin ladies, the lightfoot Hin ladies, will be used to the humans and elves and therefore better able. I'll have to investigate this.)
So we talked about the issues, and eventually, because of Babydoll's forward ways, got 'down' to a certain, acceptable, level of 'honesty'. Joparg was all over the place in contradicting himself, between his statements and his implications (to be a trader of negotiations, he has not desired). It finally came to the front what it was we knew all along. Joparg said so, and we were on even footing. I'm not fond of being on even footing, though. I'd rather know what a person wants and intends, but have them lie to me and think I don't know what they want, so the game of trade can be played on more than just a few levels. That way it's much more interesting. I've become rusty, though, in the past five years. I have done little in the way of any kind of trade or negotiations. I look forward to Waterdeep and the opportunity to do some real business.
Not having been at the top of the game in this negotiation I am lacking in desire to describe it with more details. So let it be known, than, this: Joparg does not have the key, and will not be getting it any time soon. Trust is a BIG issue between us and them (being that we have reason to not trust them, and they are untrustworthy, which makes them not have any reason to trust us). If we could have handled this like a straight negotiation it would have been much easier, but maybe much more boring as well. We are 'welcome' back in Seakin, as we choose. We will develop, slowly, the trust necessary to facilitate real negotiations. We are, in theory, allowed to wander the city when we return. The common citizens are supposed to be okay with us, but the hierarchy is a bit warry of us (mostly Joparg, and I imagine this is so with all thse we have killed, or not killed only due to our kind nature, even though we could have and would have been justified in doing so). Joparg offered to trade us the key for the opportunity to let Desicrist study the Mythal. Desicrist was increadibly happy to hear about this. He says he was hiding his enthusiasm to fool Joparg, but Mr. Bluplip was busy reading our minds the whole time.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm kind of pissed. The negotiating table is no place for extreme emotions or personal vendettas, so I wasn't thinking like that at the time. But he is one deceitful, fish folk. I'm going to try to convince the group to my plan of action I am concocting at the present moment. But a little more research is due. I just need some way to get access to a library of natural knowledge. Maybe I can start with some nature clerics in the city ans see if they are interesting in letting me do some research (or just telling me).
So we left Seakin, and will probably not go back for some good time.
I was really hoping to just sell the key and be done with it. I'm of no real mind to go back to Seakin. But I'm not one to go back anywhere. It's borring to go back where you have already been. But then again, there is a kind of comfort in it; A comfort I have been lacking for a good long time now.
So we left Seakin, and decided to do so in two trips because the area we can teleport out of only allows for four people to fit (though it could probably fit 6 or 8 or maybe even 10 hin if it had to - they just take up to much space, too). The first trip went with Caulwen (& Nullum), Babydoll, Celery & Thraxel. Several seconds later Caulwen came back and was frantic about a 12 headed icehydra which was presently aiming to make meals out of three others. Bellumthain teleported us back to the surface so we could get there faster and ...
Abelalon Vo
SoM
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Alturiak 5 1373 - talk, talk, talk, talk
Eff it! We had several hours prior to the sacrifice for us to mill. I hate milling. I'd rather be in Xanathuria than mill. Babydoll wanted to tango with the Kuo-Toan monks, he did this for a bit, and we watch his first two fish fights and left during the third. By "We" I mean Celery and me.
I wanted to go up to the keyed portal room to check out the tribute, because I did not trust them to have given us something worthy, real, and not trapped. I could find no traps, and pulled everything out of the chests in doing so. It turns out to be a lot less than I had originally thought. Only about 100 pounds or so in the two chests. I mean, I saw two chests and figured it was like 400 pounds of stuff and things of a magical and valuable nature.
We got about 400 gems ranging in an estimated value of 9 to 130 GPs each. Wow, a big hall there, I'd say. There were three cameos with elf heads on them, which Desicrist says are from Myth Drannor (& I wonder how such was got). They are valued at about 10k each. That's a good start, but it's also a bad finish. Beside those there was like as many mithril coins as it would take to equal my weight, a couple wands, and a couple rods (the rods I've never heard of - some web spinning thing, and a portal finder - not to interesting, I'll bet).
Now getting up there took quite a bit of convincing on my part. Babydoll was so uninterested in checking the treasure that he went sparring, and Celery just went outside with Caulwen (& Nullum) and someone else, though I can not recall who it was (no one seems to fit). But they were the easy ones. I had to argue with some fish-folk to let us go, pulling out the "I understand not being allowed in the city unescorted just yet, but if we can't go outside then we amount to not much more than prisoners" line, which seems to have gotten a positive response. But then my group decided to convince me to go in and have some drinks with the Toan monks to celebrate some odd thing or another. I was out voted by everyone present so I went.
I have a general policy to have my decisions and make them too, but when the entire group is against me I'll do what they want (I recognize I'm not always right, but neither are they). So we went to have some fish drinks. We all forgot about the Heroes Feast cast by Desicrist (we are just such heroes that we forget we are most of the time - well, I am, and so is Desicrist and Bellumthain, and Celery too, and I'll even say Caulwen and Nullum, but the rigged jury is hung on the other two), so Caulwen did a bit of silent, motionless casting to detect for poison and found, just like the food, that the drinks were poison as well. Unfortunatly she did not know what type of poison, and not knowing led me to believe the incorrect.
I thought it was just another of those Batrachi spice things where everything they eat is poisonous to the rest of us. Turns out it was malicious. Some fish-folk just can not be trusted. But because we forgot about the spell, we kept trying to weasle out of drinking and toasting, or figure a way to drink some and cure the ills. Then Babydoll was kind enough to remind the group of our hero status for a limited time, and we drank with the fishes.
The 'honey' mead wasn't 3/4th bad, I'll have to say. The poison gave it a particular ... odd ... but good, taste. It's made from some fungus they have laying around down here. seems like everything is made from this or that fungus down here. I guess with all the damp the fungal growth just can't be helped.
After a couple pints, our 'friend' & 'ally', Joparg Bluplip, Grandmaster, came running in (it's really, increadibly funny to see a bipedal fish run) and asked us how we felt. The others, the monks, the ... 21st plane, I can't recall what they call their monks. Must be my 53 years catching up with me. But they kept looking at us, and seemed to be wondering, too, how we were doing. This was an obvious sign we should have been looking for. Maybe it was the two pints (remember, two pints to me is like eight pints to a big person - which everyone but Caulwen and Nullum are), but I was not paying to much attention (as usual). In some ways I think I'll never wise-up to the evil ways of some. I just want to have a good time and make good friends, and do fun stuff, and see fun things, and meet 'interesting' ladies of all sorts (though I have to say I find fish, and pigs, and dogs to contain a paucity of interest to me). But everyone else seems to want to rule and conquer and kill and dominate.
Imagine what the world would be like if hin and gnomes were in charge and responsible. We have some bad apples, sure, but only a rare few. Even those are nothing compared to the machinations of the big folk. maybe being big makes them think they are superior or something. Who knows? Lord Ao probably doesn't even. but I bet Yondolla does, that's why she made us. The world needed some good clean fun, some happy-hearted mischief, and some positively lightly endowed explorations.
Anyway, as you may be able to tell, I am down trodden by these events, and that which came to follow. I'll recover soon enough, I'm a hin after all, but for now I'm all about depression.
It turns out the fish-folk we were enjoying a good imbibe with were trying to poison us. Not just regular honey-&-butter spices, but full-on poison. Like some of the stuff I, ... well it is something called lich dust. And it has to be eaten, I think, to be effective. But because of our epic ode status it just added ad- OH! Yondolla! I just realized ... I ate a lich. Ewh! That's totally, positively, definely gross. I think I need to ... I don't know, maybe eat some black lotus root to get the lich parts out of me. Now I'm a demon-tainted, lich-imbibed, strongheart hin misplaced in the north of the Realms. I think I need to go home and rest this one out. I'm like the illithid of liches. Like a ghoul grave-robber robbing cradles to get the tastiest bits and softest parts. My guts are like mummy guts, all petrified and dry, but stuck inside me and still churning away at the dust mites falling into my grave. When I pass on, Brandobaris isn't even going to want to have anything to do with me. Maybe I can get Desicrist to cure me, or fix my spleen, or something. I feel sick. I need a good double breakfast to push this out.
Oh, a double wake-up. I miss those days. Big folk, even gnomes, don't know how to eat. They just eat for sustenance, not for good, pure, wholesome lust. Can you believe Desicrist actually wears a magic item which keeps him from 'having' to eat, ever. Caulwen does to, and apparently when Nullum is in his pouch he doesn't have to either. What the gods must have done to some races to make them the evil lot they are is beyond me. But to not want to eat, is just as bad, well almost as bad, as being a beholder (and lusting after everything). Like I said, I'm not to wise about people and the whys and what-fors as to their reasons for doing.
Joparg was pissed, and not drunk pissed, but mad pissed (and being a fish he redrinks his, and other's, piss on a constant basis, which compounds his pissed-ness and makes it even worse). If these fish-folk didn't have such wide mouths filled with such prodigeous teeth they would be funny-cute doing nearly everything they do. But the teeth kill it for everything which requires an open mouth (or doesn't require it but commonly results in it).
We left the messy monk hall, with apologies from Joparg. He stayed inside and began yelling at those who did the misdead of mispoisoning us. He said some tough stuff, and I though it was just a show, but the future told me I was yet again wrong. It's funny how hindsight only works in one 'direction'. I wonder what it's called when it goes the other way. The group talked, and I decided to be upset, so Mr. Bluplip was told we were going to the keyed portal room (he couldn't say no without making us prisoners, and that seems to be not a desire of his. He's almost a good-nice guy. Almost. The word is Drapood had his monks try to capture us and make us more than what we were to become to the assembly of Ramonos later in the day.
So, I went back, actually a bunch of us did, to the keyed portal room. Caulwen, Celery, Nullum, and (I think) Babyface went outside while I inventoried what we had been given. I seem to be the only one ever concerned with such things. It's not that I'm greedy or anything, I just have an organization to fund, a lot of mouths to feed, and not much in the way of income. So it's important. I mean, I'm not poor are anything (any hin with 1k GPs in his pocket is definetly not poor), but I have expensive needs, and tastes which cost quite the coin (women can be expensive).
Anyway, Cel-Cal-Nul-Bab whent to the surface (just a short ten foot jump from the room) to see the sky and breath the fresh air and, hopefully, see the sun (well Caulwen and Nullum were not to interested in seeing the sun), and they encountered some beast and it's hearder up there. Now that Sourface is gone life seems to be returning to the marsh. Desicrist told us (or maybe Belli did, sometimes I just can't keep straight which one told what to whom, when and how which was told to those who listened) there are marsh drovers here who, usually, heard these beasts called cattle-bleepus, which have some milk the drovers make into death-cheese (called so because ye ald bleepus just look at a folk and a folk becomes a firm form).
Bleepus be had, one drover kill another and take a bleepus away to a home. Homeward bleepus bleeps but not looks at our homely heroes who fly at night up top above, all capped and caped with a bat by the moon. No drover see them, though them see twin drovers. One twin say, and the other say back. One twin say, and the other hit back. One twin a folk, the other is mad. Mad twin make folk twin a sad twin to behold. All for the sake of a bleepus to hold. And moon bat swings & sings to them pests. So pests make him full and happy to nest.
Back in the fishery we found ourself attending the sacrificial ceremony, as prommised by his grand excellentness who fell to us twice. Joparg made a mad rousing speak (well, maybe fishy-folk find it firming, for I found it flat). He went on with his newly made-up tale of the wonders of us heroes, and convinced his folk we had good hearts to their cause (even though they ironically want to conquer, convert & destroy our peoples). The one fish-guy we 'spared' to spread the sorrowfull word of our affairs was drowned in a pool made by the actuated arm and hand of a full-sized statue of ald Ramonos as he was.
We were then blessed with the presence of Ramonos as he is, who scooped up that fresh fillet and chomp, chomp, chomped it down. Gross fish bits (and some not so small) got flung about and the fold got a nice rain of former friend. Blood & guts, blood & guts, I say sometimes not enough. Next it was time for a further sacrifice (and I feared for our lives at this junction), as just called for by Jopargus. This was an amazing sight to have seen. Dozens of fish-folk-future-fillets volunteered their fins for a fiendish finish as afore mentioned provided to the firstly, freshly flooded 'fortunate' fish-man. Fecund must be these fish-folk, for they form quite a feast for their fearsome, false forefather.
Then Jopargus Bluplipius proferred a pile of pious pieces of piscine 'pork' to their present deific pestulance. 'Ramonos' made with glee an extended meal of Drapood's clutch of fish-folk fist-fighters, and again portions of these got tossed back and to, and peppered the audience in the rows. Luckily we, the heroes, were high and back far enough away to avoid the distressing, disembowled detritus. Desicrist did hide his displeased coutanance in disgust and dispair. And he's the one who wanted to see all this.
Ramonos that is made a speach too, and seemed, to my discerning eye, a little displeased at the presented procedings. He scooped up Drapood, and dove into the deepths of the lake - interstingly not eating this one favored amongst the rest. I suspect Drapood and the leviathon are in league to rest the sceptres of power from Joparg and dominate these poor fish-folk people. It's sad, but I was happy I was not ate.
Joparg convinced the gathering, two-thousand strong, that we are fish-friends, and honored us with a touch from each of 2k fins slapped on our chests and leaving a stench. I could not hold it in. I had to say something, so I did so with food. Oddly, the fish-folk I said this too appreciated my honoring his presence by acknowledging his present with a gift of my own. Fish-folk are funny, and funny is strange. Funny how my life finds itself involved with such funny tales. Eff it.
On the mundane magic front, Desicrist was able to contemplate and understand the makings of a sceptre. Apparently this craft is lost to us above, and from a time long past. He has mentioned how sceptres are like wands except they hold multiple spells of greater power. So I wonder how many, and just how powerful. We can use this knowledge to set up shop in Waterdeep and sell sceptres to citizens from several sources. Belli as he is (not as he was, as he was ending at the belly) got ahold of many spells from Joparg's spell library (apparently Joparg is a wizard as well as grandmaster). He has copied them from the metal (possibly mithril) plates on which we found them, and seems to be pleased with the results.
By the way, the 'first artifact' that I took out of Joparg's 'safe' has been excitedly reported as holding two augmented spells. It's got a maximized Shocking Grasp, and an extended Lightnigbolt (I think those are the right terms). I forget who it was, but the person was damn excited about this. I guess it's a big deal. Show's how much I know about good ole magic stuff.
I'ma gettin' near to the end so stay a bit longer. I didn't think there was much to say, until I got started and found I had a difficult time quiting. Just get me started on story telling, and you'll be sorry if you don't have a couple hours of excess time that needs some trimmin'.
After cleaning up a bit (a big bit) Joparg took us on a personal tour of the city. it's a very interesting place, and guess what, to his chargin I now know the secret word needed to allow myself to fly. I'm pretty damn excited about it. I can't wait until I get the opportunity to use it. I've got it here somewhere ... damn, I don't think I can find it presently. Now where the hell is that word?
Oh, yea, Joparg showed us around. The city has two Mythals in it. So now every city I go to that only has one will be like "Oh, only one mythal? Gee that's to bad. Hey who are those ladies over there? Oh, she runs the place? Well great, she's just the kind of person I'd like to meet. Stop boring me with you're one-mythal city and make some introductions, please & kindly." The mythals allow the people to fly, and other things Joparg wouldn't say (He thinks he can keep secrets from the ears and eyes of this hin. I spent four damned years of my life growing from young to mid-aged mostly in the enslaved profession of 'watch, listen, learn & report'. And that was for abhorrent beholders.)
The mythal was pretty, and is quite powerful, I'm sure. Aside from that, just looking at it is kind of boring. For some reason Bellumthain and Desicrist don't seem to excited about the mythals. Seems to me they are more impressive than dumb old sceptres, and a bunch of spells written on mithril plates. To each there own, I guess.
Joparg showed us his trash dump. Kind of seems like a mundane thing to show a visiting body, but I suppose trash removal gets to be a big deal down here. Caulwen seemed interested in it, though. Her people train carrion crawlers to do stuff and guard things and dispose of unwanted bits and pieces. They don't look like agreeable beasts to me, but she is part insect, and has a bat for a best friend (Though Nullum is quite cute, if one can get past the leathery wings and the legless-like way he walks around. It's god-awful cute seeing him talk whole words and sentences and actually make sense. Maybe I should let him write some stuff in this log. Now that would be interesting, indeed). Joparg was impressed with the idea that carrion crawlers are trainable. One probably has to be part insect, or what ever they are, to really get down and do some serious training, though. I wonder what those feelers feel like when they touch you. Hmm? Maybe Joparg will let me pet one of them.
The final location of the tour of Seakin was a tavern. My kind of place, though the ladies were a bit thin in the picking category. Come to think of it I have no clue which are ladies and which are men. That's pretty funny. If I was REALLY experimental I could end up making a mistake of the kind something only the big folk do. Beside the obvious, that's a down-right gross though. I have to stop thinking on that now. Thanks.
With the abscence of discernable women, the tavern lost much of it's appeal, but it still seemed like a good place to have some poisonous pints and make prayers to a false godling. So we left. Plus I don't understand Kuo-Toan, and talking through an interpreter is funcional, but highly not personal.
Last, but most certain on the top of the list of interesting things to have happened was the deal I struck with Joparg to sell him the key. Then I spent about two hours arguing with the group about the wisdom of doing such a thing. Looks like I'm going to have to renegotiate with Jopargiot on this whole key thing. He won't be to happy about it, but I'll make him happy in the end (I have a way of doing thus) (& I don't mean the end like humans mean the end, that's only for big, dirty folk).
The kind of end a hin appreciates.
Abelalon Vo
Luiren Strongheart
Demon Master
Beholder Bewatcher
Lich Eater
I wanted to go up to the keyed portal room to check out the tribute, because I did not trust them to have given us something worthy, real, and not trapped. I could find no traps, and pulled everything out of the chests in doing so. It turns out to be a lot less than I had originally thought. Only about 100 pounds or so in the two chests. I mean, I saw two chests and figured it was like 400 pounds of stuff and things of a magical and valuable nature.
We got about 400 gems ranging in an estimated value of 9 to 130 GPs each. Wow, a big hall there, I'd say. There were three cameos with elf heads on them, which Desicrist says are from Myth Drannor (& I wonder how such was got). They are valued at about 10k each. That's a good start, but it's also a bad finish. Beside those there was like as many mithril coins as it would take to equal my weight, a couple wands, and a couple rods (the rods I've never heard of - some web spinning thing, and a portal finder - not to interesting, I'll bet).
Now getting up there took quite a bit of convincing on my part. Babydoll was so uninterested in checking the treasure that he went sparring, and Celery just went outside with Caulwen (& Nullum) and someone else, though I can not recall who it was (no one seems to fit). But they were the easy ones. I had to argue with some fish-folk to let us go, pulling out the "I understand not being allowed in the city unescorted just yet, but if we can't go outside then we amount to not much more than prisoners" line, which seems to have gotten a positive response. But then my group decided to convince me to go in and have some drinks with the Toan monks to celebrate some odd thing or another. I was out voted by everyone present so I went.
I have a general policy to have my decisions and make them too, but when the entire group is against me I'll do what they want (I recognize I'm not always right, but neither are they). So we went to have some fish drinks. We all forgot about the Heroes Feast cast by Desicrist (we are just such heroes that we forget we are most of the time - well, I am, and so is Desicrist and Bellumthain, and Celery too, and I'll even say Caulwen and Nullum, but the rigged jury is hung on the other two), so Caulwen did a bit of silent, motionless casting to detect for poison and found, just like the food, that the drinks were poison as well. Unfortunatly she did not know what type of poison, and not knowing led me to believe the incorrect.
I thought it was just another of those Batrachi spice things where everything they eat is poisonous to the rest of us. Turns out it was malicious. Some fish-folk just can not be trusted. But because we forgot about the spell, we kept trying to weasle out of drinking and toasting, or figure a way to drink some and cure the ills. Then Babydoll was kind enough to remind the group of our hero status for a limited time, and we drank with the fishes.
The 'honey' mead wasn't 3/4th bad, I'll have to say. The poison gave it a particular ... odd ... but good, taste. It's made from some fungus they have laying around down here. seems like everything is made from this or that fungus down here. I guess with all the damp the fungal growth just can't be helped.
After a couple pints, our 'friend' & 'ally', Joparg Bluplip, Grandmaster, came running in (it's really, increadibly funny to see a bipedal fish run) and asked us how we felt. The others, the monks, the ... 21st plane, I can't recall what they call their monks. Must be my 53 years catching up with me. But they kept looking at us, and seemed to be wondering, too, how we were doing. This was an obvious sign we should have been looking for. Maybe it was the two pints (remember, two pints to me is like eight pints to a big person - which everyone but Caulwen and Nullum are), but I was not paying to much attention (as usual). In some ways I think I'll never wise-up to the evil ways of some. I just want to have a good time and make good friends, and do fun stuff, and see fun things, and meet 'interesting' ladies of all sorts (though I have to say I find fish, and pigs, and dogs to contain a paucity of interest to me). But everyone else seems to want to rule and conquer and kill and dominate.
Imagine what the world would be like if hin and gnomes were in charge and responsible. We have some bad apples, sure, but only a rare few. Even those are nothing compared to the machinations of the big folk. maybe being big makes them think they are superior or something. Who knows? Lord Ao probably doesn't even. but I bet Yondolla does, that's why she made us. The world needed some good clean fun, some happy-hearted mischief, and some positively lightly endowed explorations.
Anyway, as you may be able to tell, I am down trodden by these events, and that which came to follow. I'll recover soon enough, I'm a hin after all, but for now I'm all about depression.
It turns out the fish-folk we were enjoying a good imbibe with were trying to poison us. Not just regular honey-&-butter spices, but full-on poison. Like some of the stuff I, ... well it is something called lich dust. And it has to be eaten, I think, to be effective. But because of our epic ode status it just added ad- OH! Yondolla! I just realized ... I ate a lich. Ewh! That's totally, positively, definely gross. I think I need to ... I don't know, maybe eat some black lotus root to get the lich parts out of me. Now I'm a demon-tainted, lich-imbibed, strongheart hin misplaced in the north of the Realms. I think I need to go home and rest this one out. I'm like the illithid of liches. Like a ghoul grave-robber robbing cradles to get the tastiest bits and softest parts. My guts are like mummy guts, all petrified and dry, but stuck inside me and still churning away at the dust mites falling into my grave. When I pass on, Brandobaris isn't even going to want to have anything to do with me. Maybe I can get Desicrist to cure me, or fix my spleen, or something. I feel sick. I need a good double breakfast to push this out.
Oh, a double wake-up. I miss those days. Big folk, even gnomes, don't know how to eat. They just eat for sustenance, not for good, pure, wholesome lust. Can you believe Desicrist actually wears a magic item which keeps him from 'having' to eat, ever. Caulwen does to, and apparently when Nullum is in his pouch he doesn't have to either. What the gods must have done to some races to make them the evil lot they are is beyond me. But to not want to eat, is just as bad, well almost as bad, as being a beholder (and lusting after everything). Like I said, I'm not to wise about people and the whys and what-fors as to their reasons for doing.
Joparg was pissed, and not drunk pissed, but mad pissed (and being a fish he redrinks his, and other's, piss on a constant basis, which compounds his pissed-ness and makes it even worse). If these fish-folk didn't have such wide mouths filled with such prodigeous teeth they would be funny-cute doing nearly everything they do. But the teeth kill it for everything which requires an open mouth (or doesn't require it but commonly results in it).
We left the messy monk hall, with apologies from Joparg. He stayed inside and began yelling at those who did the misdead of mispoisoning us. He said some tough stuff, and I though it was just a show, but the future told me I was yet again wrong. It's funny how hindsight only works in one 'direction'. I wonder what it's called when it goes the other way. The group talked, and I decided to be upset, so Mr. Bluplip was told we were going to the keyed portal room (he couldn't say no without making us prisoners, and that seems to be not a desire of his. He's almost a good-nice guy. Almost. The word is Drapood had his monks try to capture us and make us more than what we were to become to the assembly of Ramonos later in the day.
So, I went back, actually a bunch of us did, to the keyed portal room. Caulwen, Celery, Nullum, and (I think) Babyface went outside while I inventoried what we had been given. I seem to be the only one ever concerned with such things. It's not that I'm greedy or anything, I just have an organization to fund, a lot of mouths to feed, and not much in the way of income. So it's important. I mean, I'm not poor are anything (any hin with 1k GPs in his pocket is definetly not poor), but I have expensive needs, and tastes which cost quite the coin (women can be expensive).
Anyway, Cel-Cal-Nul-Bab whent to the surface (just a short ten foot jump from the room) to see the sky and breath the fresh air and, hopefully, see the sun (well Caulwen and Nullum were not to interested in seeing the sun), and they encountered some beast and it's hearder up there. Now that Sourface is gone life seems to be returning to the marsh. Desicrist told us (or maybe Belli did, sometimes I just can't keep straight which one told what to whom, when and how which was told to those who listened) there are marsh drovers here who, usually, heard these beasts called cattle-bleepus, which have some milk the drovers make into death-cheese (called so because ye ald bleepus just look at a folk and a folk becomes a firm form).
Bleepus be had, one drover kill another and take a bleepus away to a home. Homeward bleepus bleeps but not looks at our homely heroes who fly at night up top above, all capped and caped with a bat by the moon. No drover see them, though them see twin drovers. One twin say, and the other say back. One twin say, and the other hit back. One twin a folk, the other is mad. Mad twin make folk twin a sad twin to behold. All for the sake of a bleepus to hold. And moon bat swings & sings to them pests. So pests make him full and happy to nest.
Back in the fishery we found ourself attending the sacrificial ceremony, as prommised by his grand excellentness who fell to us twice. Joparg made a mad rousing speak (well, maybe fishy-folk find it firming, for I found it flat). He went on with his newly made-up tale of the wonders of us heroes, and convinced his folk we had good hearts to their cause (even though they ironically want to conquer, convert & destroy our peoples). The one fish-guy we 'spared' to spread the sorrowfull word of our affairs was drowned in a pool made by the actuated arm and hand of a full-sized statue of ald Ramonos as he was.
We were then blessed with the presence of Ramonos as he is, who scooped up that fresh fillet and chomp, chomp, chomped it down. Gross fish bits (and some not so small) got flung about and the fold got a nice rain of former friend. Blood & guts, blood & guts, I say sometimes not enough. Next it was time for a further sacrifice (and I feared for our lives at this junction), as just called for by Jopargus. This was an amazing sight to have seen. Dozens of fish-folk-future-fillets volunteered their fins for a fiendish finish as afore mentioned provided to the firstly, freshly flooded 'fortunate' fish-man. Fecund must be these fish-folk, for they form quite a feast for their fearsome, false forefather.
Then Jopargus Bluplipius proferred a pile of pious pieces of piscine 'pork' to their present deific pestulance. 'Ramonos' made with glee an extended meal of Drapood's clutch of fish-folk fist-fighters, and again portions of these got tossed back and to, and peppered the audience in the rows. Luckily we, the heroes, were high and back far enough away to avoid the distressing, disembowled detritus. Desicrist did hide his displeased coutanance in disgust and dispair. And he's the one who wanted to see all this.
Ramonos that is made a speach too, and seemed, to my discerning eye, a little displeased at the presented procedings. He scooped up Drapood, and dove into the deepths of the lake - interstingly not eating this one favored amongst the rest. I suspect Drapood and the leviathon are in league to rest the sceptres of power from Joparg and dominate these poor fish-folk people. It's sad, but I was happy I was not ate.
Joparg convinced the gathering, two-thousand strong, that we are fish-friends, and honored us with a touch from each of 2k fins slapped on our chests and leaving a stench. I could not hold it in. I had to say something, so I did so with food. Oddly, the fish-folk I said this too appreciated my honoring his presence by acknowledging his present with a gift of my own. Fish-folk are funny, and funny is strange. Funny how my life finds itself involved with such funny tales. Eff it.
On the mundane magic front, Desicrist was able to contemplate and understand the makings of a sceptre. Apparently this craft is lost to us above, and from a time long past. He has mentioned how sceptres are like wands except they hold multiple spells of greater power. So I wonder how many, and just how powerful. We can use this knowledge to set up shop in Waterdeep and sell sceptres to citizens from several sources. Belli as he is (not as he was, as he was ending at the belly) got ahold of many spells from Joparg's spell library (apparently Joparg is a wizard as well as grandmaster). He has copied them from the metal (possibly mithril) plates on which we found them, and seems to be pleased with the results.
By the way, the 'first artifact' that I took out of Joparg's 'safe' has been excitedly reported as holding two augmented spells. It's got a maximized Shocking Grasp, and an extended Lightnigbolt (I think those are the right terms). I forget who it was, but the person was damn excited about this. I guess it's a big deal. Show's how much I know about good ole magic stuff.
I'ma gettin' near to the end so stay a bit longer. I didn't think there was much to say, until I got started and found I had a difficult time quiting. Just get me started on story telling, and you'll be sorry if you don't have a couple hours of excess time that needs some trimmin'.
After cleaning up a bit (a big bit) Joparg took us on a personal tour of the city. it's a very interesting place, and guess what, to his chargin I now know the secret word needed to allow myself to fly. I'm pretty damn excited about it. I can't wait until I get the opportunity to use it. I've got it here somewhere ... damn, I don't think I can find it presently. Now where the hell is that word?
Oh, yea, Joparg showed us around. The city has two Mythals in it. So now every city I go to that only has one will be like "Oh, only one mythal? Gee that's to bad. Hey who are those ladies over there? Oh, she runs the place? Well great, she's just the kind of person I'd like to meet. Stop boring me with you're one-mythal city and make some introductions, please & kindly." The mythals allow the people to fly, and other things Joparg wouldn't say (He thinks he can keep secrets from the ears and eyes of this hin. I spent four damned years of my life growing from young to mid-aged mostly in the enslaved profession of 'watch, listen, learn & report'. And that was for abhorrent beholders.)
The mythal was pretty, and is quite powerful, I'm sure. Aside from that, just looking at it is kind of boring. For some reason Bellumthain and Desicrist don't seem to excited about the mythals. Seems to me they are more impressive than dumb old sceptres, and a bunch of spells written on mithril plates. To each there own, I guess.
Joparg showed us his trash dump. Kind of seems like a mundane thing to show a visiting body, but I suppose trash removal gets to be a big deal down here. Caulwen seemed interested in it, though. Her people train carrion crawlers to do stuff and guard things and dispose of unwanted bits and pieces. They don't look like agreeable beasts to me, but she is part insect, and has a bat for a best friend (Though Nullum is quite cute, if one can get past the leathery wings and the legless-like way he walks around. It's god-awful cute seeing him talk whole words and sentences and actually make sense. Maybe I should let him write some stuff in this log. Now that would be interesting, indeed). Joparg was impressed with the idea that carrion crawlers are trainable. One probably has to be part insect, or what ever they are, to really get down and do some serious training, though. I wonder what those feelers feel like when they touch you. Hmm? Maybe Joparg will let me pet one of them.
The final location of the tour of Seakin was a tavern. My kind of place, though the ladies were a bit thin in the picking category. Come to think of it I have no clue which are ladies and which are men. That's pretty funny. If I was REALLY experimental I could end up making a mistake of the kind something only the big folk do. Beside the obvious, that's a down-right gross though. I have to stop thinking on that now. Thanks.
With the abscence of discernable women, the tavern lost much of it's appeal, but it still seemed like a good place to have some poisonous pints and make prayers to a false godling. So we left. Plus I don't understand Kuo-Toan, and talking through an interpreter is funcional, but highly not personal.
Last, but most certain on the top of the list of interesting things to have happened was the deal I struck with Joparg to sell him the key. Then I spent about two hours arguing with the group about the wisdom of doing such a thing. Looks like I'm going to have to renegotiate with Jopargiot on this whole key thing. He won't be to happy about it, but I'll make him happy in the end (I have a way of doing thus) (& I don't mean the end like humans mean the end, that's only for big, dirty folk).
The kind of end a hin appreciates.
Abelalon Vo
Luiren Strongheart
Demon Master
Beholder Bewatcher
Lich Eater
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
5 Alturiak 1373 - woops, wow & wadda you know
Things really got out of hand. Out of a lot of people's hands. It didn't go the way I thought it would, at all. Not one bit. Not one bit at all. I don't know if anyone else thought it would go this way (and this way isn't finised yet, so I'm keeping a look out for fishy smelling daggers behind me), but I sure didn't. Did not at all.
To begin with we started off by begining our time by starting to argue over the merits of raising Joparg or not. I was fully against it - I didn't want to spend our money to raise him. I had thought to raise him previously, and was kind of excited by the idea of it, but at the time all I could think of was that we had nothing to show for this whole debaucle, and we had lost a good deal of equipment (in what Caulwen carried), and we had lost Caulwen. I was happy just to trade his corpse back so they could spend their own money and raise him. But everyone else was against what I was against. So I let them raise him. And it was only then that things became interesting for me.
We decided to let Celery talk to him and flex his wings to try to intimidate him into submission. That didn't work to well. But raising him naked did a good job of putting him off his guard. So we questioned him and showed him the Reaver and showed him how we could make it smaller and make it able to get through the smaller hallways to attack his people. That's when the bargaining began. At first he just said his people didn't care if he lived or died and we would get nothing from them, so we said we would just kill him (again) and be done with it, but he wasn't fond of that idea (most usually aren't). So we talked some more and figured out what he could give us, and what we would give him. We were willing to give him back to his people, and take the Reaver with us to go terrorize a drow city (we discovered these Kuo-Toas are most definetly not drow friends, they are isolationists who do not worship their normal god, Blipdoolpoolp, and actually have designs on taking over the entire world for their own). And what we wanted was Caulwen, her stuff (all of it), and tribute for us to go away (basically). He complained that they had paid tribute to no one in the past 17,000 years, and all that, but he agreed to it in the end.
Then we started in with the cultural questions. It turns out Bellumthain has a curious sense on humor (like myself), and that Desicrist is culturally curious as well (again, like me). The difference with Desicrist, I think I have ascertained, is that we have been traveling in places of a mundane nature to him. We have been traveling in human lands with well 'documented' peoples. But now we are in fish-folk lands, in a place with absolutly no documentation at all. And for me, all the human lands I have traveled in have been interesting because humans are so different than hin, yet I find myself to be more like them than the hin I grew up with. Maybe I'm a lightfoot in a strongheart's body. And, actually, Deicrist, I think, likes to watch cultures and make notes about them (and probably write books about them), and I just want to be in and live the cultures (so in the case of one which sacrifices people to their god I'm not to inclined to participate).
All that aside, beholders still suck.
So Joparg spills his guts, after covering his folds, and we start in about the hows and whys of the whats and whos of his people. We give him a bit of information, but mostly get more from him (he is, after all, planning to invade, take over,and destroy all non-Ramanos Kuo-Toans and everyone else. Even though Desicrist sees nothing wrong with it since it's a false god, I still don't want to encourage it.
This is when the best part happens (and of course it's my idea, 'cause I seem to be the only one who thinks this way). I suggest to Joparg that we use the Reaver (which we have subdued into serving us) to improve Joparg's position in his Kuo-Toa land. We make it appear as if he is able to banish the Reaver somehow (even though he knows it is really under our control and will come back if we want it to). The way to do this is through the 'tribute' paid to us. Joparg basically buys protection from us, by purchasing the 'magic ring' that controls the Reaver (really Thraxel's protective ring). This puts us in a better position becasue it makes it so that the Reaver is still alive (to them) and is under their leaders control (to most of them), but really under our control (to Joparg) and helps keep him from doing anything bad to us. Also, (and also a great idea) Thraxel had Joparg publicly declare us honered guests of these Kuo-Toas for our part in removing the Reaver - and therefore making all this killing really just a big misunderstanding (which it really was, on there part anyway {the misunderstanding being that they could actually defeat us}).
So, now, being honored members of these Ramonos worshiping Kuo-Toas, we have to go watch the sacrifice of a failure, to their god (the failure being one of the guys we left alive to propogate the myth of the Reaver being in their area and killing their people & unhatched children). I winder if Kuo-Toan infants would qualify for the Fulgar tea set, 'cause I really don't feel like they qualify as infants in the same way a hin or human infant would. And these people don't mind sacrificing to their god, so maybe it would not be to much of a difference to sacrifice one infant each year in order to keep the Reaver away.
We had, during our negotiations with Joparg, mentined taking him to the surface, just so he could see it. I think I would like to do this, and possibly take more than just him, to show them what it's like up there. I'm not sure what effect that would have, or how wise it is, I just like giving people things to make them happy (and like me more). 'Cause people who like me are less inclined to kill me.
We did see their mess hall, for a bit. I know why this one is called a mess hall. It should be 'The Hallowed Hall of Messyness', because it's the messyist hall of eating I have ever seen. They eat these clear fish which are fried and battered in spices (which Caulwen said are prety much all poison, so I guess Kuo-Toas are immune to poison - good thing I did not try to use any black lotus root on them, that would have been a waste of 4,500 GPs).
Well, off to the sacrifice I go ...
AV
To begin with we started off by begining our time by starting to argue over the merits of raising Joparg or not. I was fully against it - I didn't want to spend our money to raise him. I had thought to raise him previously, and was kind of excited by the idea of it, but at the time all I could think of was that we had nothing to show for this whole debaucle, and we had lost a good deal of equipment (in what Caulwen carried), and we had lost Caulwen. I was happy just to trade his corpse back so they could spend their own money and raise him. But everyone else was against what I was against. So I let them raise him. And it was only then that things became interesting for me.
We decided to let Celery talk to him and flex his wings to try to intimidate him into submission. That didn't work to well. But raising him naked did a good job of putting him off his guard. So we questioned him and showed him the Reaver and showed him how we could make it smaller and make it able to get through the smaller hallways to attack his people. That's when the bargaining began. At first he just said his people didn't care if he lived or died and we would get nothing from them, so we said we would just kill him (again) and be done with it, but he wasn't fond of that idea (most usually aren't). So we talked some more and figured out what he could give us, and what we would give him. We were willing to give him back to his people, and take the Reaver with us to go terrorize a drow city (we discovered these Kuo-Toas are most definetly not drow friends, they are isolationists who do not worship their normal god, Blipdoolpoolp, and actually have designs on taking over the entire world for their own). And what we wanted was Caulwen, her stuff (all of it), and tribute for us to go away (basically). He complained that they had paid tribute to no one in the past 17,000 years, and all that, but he agreed to it in the end.
Then we started in with the cultural questions. It turns out Bellumthain has a curious sense on humor (like myself), and that Desicrist is culturally curious as well (again, like me). The difference with Desicrist, I think I have ascertained, is that we have been traveling in places of a mundane nature to him. We have been traveling in human lands with well 'documented' peoples. But now we are in fish-folk lands, in a place with absolutly no documentation at all. And for me, all the human lands I have traveled in have been interesting because humans are so different than hin, yet I find myself to be more like them than the hin I grew up with. Maybe I'm a lightfoot in a strongheart's body. And, actually, Deicrist, I think, likes to watch cultures and make notes about them (and probably write books about them), and I just want to be in and live the cultures (so in the case of one which sacrifices people to their god I'm not to inclined to participate).
All that aside, beholders still suck.
So Joparg spills his guts, after covering his folds, and we start in about the hows and whys of the whats and whos of his people. We give him a bit of information, but mostly get more from him (he is, after all, planning to invade, take over,and destroy all non-Ramanos Kuo-Toans and everyone else. Even though Desicrist sees nothing wrong with it since it's a false god, I still don't want to encourage it.
This is when the best part happens (and of course it's my idea, 'cause I seem to be the only one who thinks this way). I suggest to Joparg that we use the Reaver (which we have subdued into serving us) to improve Joparg's position in his Kuo-Toa land. We make it appear as if he is able to banish the Reaver somehow (even though he knows it is really under our control and will come back if we want it to). The way to do this is through the 'tribute' paid to us. Joparg basically buys protection from us, by purchasing the 'magic ring' that controls the Reaver (really Thraxel's protective ring). This puts us in a better position becasue it makes it so that the Reaver is still alive (to them) and is under their leaders control (to most of them), but really under our control (to Joparg) and helps keep him from doing anything bad to us. Also, (and also a great idea) Thraxel had Joparg publicly declare us honered guests of these Kuo-Toas for our part in removing the Reaver - and therefore making all this killing really just a big misunderstanding (which it really was, on there part anyway {the misunderstanding being that they could actually defeat us}).
So, now, being honored members of these Ramonos worshiping Kuo-Toas, we have to go watch the sacrifice of a failure, to their god (the failure being one of the guys we left alive to propogate the myth of the Reaver being in their area and killing their people & unhatched children). I winder if Kuo-Toan infants would qualify for the Fulgar tea set, 'cause I really don't feel like they qualify as infants in the same way a hin or human infant would. And these people don't mind sacrificing to their god, so maybe it would not be to much of a difference to sacrifice one infant each year in order to keep the Reaver away.
We had, during our negotiations with Joparg, mentined taking him to the surface, just so he could see it. I think I would like to do this, and possibly take more than just him, to show them what it's like up there. I'm not sure what effect that would have, or how wise it is, I just like giving people things to make them happy (and like me more). 'Cause people who like me are less inclined to kill me.
We did see their mess hall, for a bit. I know why this one is called a mess hall. It should be 'The Hallowed Hall of Messyness', because it's the messyist hall of eating I have ever seen. They eat these clear fish which are fried and battered in spices (which Caulwen said are prety much all poison, so I guess Kuo-Toas are immune to poison - good thing I did not try to use any black lotus root on them, that would have been a waste of 4,500 GPs).
Well, off to the sacrifice I go ...
AV
Monday, June 05, 2006
5 Alturiak 1373 - Joparg's in the Bag
It's difficult telling what day it is down here - there being no Sun and all. But I feel it is the 5th of Alturiak, so I'll call it the fifth of Alturiak. It's the Fifth of Alturiak, officially. Vo Officially.
There we were sitting 60 feet in the air on the inside of a glass block building waiting for the proper time to strike. Caulwen had decided to go after Nullum, traps be damned, since she could and dearly wanted to. So she did. And we waited, and waited, and then fully realized she was not coming back. Not that she had left us. We just thought she had been captured. For the life of me I can not recall who said it but someone had the idea that she must be in an anti-magic area. The reason being because we could not talk with her using Bellumthain's Telepathic Bond. I didn't even know there were anti-magic areas. So there are Wild Magic areas, Dead Magic areas, and Anti-Magic areas. Oh, yea, and the Shadow Weave. With all those areas to fix and keep from being made you would think she could do her own work for herself and not pawn it off onto Azuth, or the lich-god Velsharoon. Maybe it's really not that important.
By the way, who is Rary? And for that matter who's Otoluke, and Bigby, and Mordenkainen? I hear those names tossed about like a salad but no one has ever said who they are. I've never heard of them (though, I never heard of Vangerdahast or Halister or Khelban before I came north). Why are there no spells called "Elminster's This & That"? Isn't he like the most powerful living arcanist presently around?
So we set about to make a plan to do something about our present predicament. Details aside, because they are not important, I wasted a grand amount of time trying to be like Babydoll and develop a plan of attack for the upcoming attack on the Kuo-Toans. I should have gone with my guts and done what is best - what Brandobaris would have done - and played it as it came. Simply put, do recon (scrying) and see what happens from there. Let luck be as it should (which is good) and play it like a lute.
After wasting this good amount of time (I mean taking a short break to allow the real plan to develop) I decided we would continue with the original plan and ignore Caulwen's capture for the moment. In other words, be where they were not looking (that's the best place to hide, by the way). Then I changed my mind, kind of, and thought we should go after Joparg and use him to trade with for Caulwen. Then I changed my mind again, cause nothing else had changed so far, so I had to change my mind to keep the continuity of the ever changing Weave and remove the possibility of all things in all places not changing for ever more. So by deciding we should go after Nullum instead I actually saved all of Toril for ever present stagnation.
But I think I confused everyone else (it's easy to confuse big people, though, they are kind of slow). What we actually did was fail at a scry of Joparg Bluplip, and then succeeded with a scry of Nullum, which , fortunately, included Joparg since he was standing right next to Nullum (who wasn't really standing, not like we stand anyway).
Act quick we did. And it was so quick it was almost (almost) over prior to beginning. Which makes me wonder if magic can do that. I used to think magic could do anything, with the right spell, or whatever. But since traveling with Desicrist and Bellumthain & have come to realize magic is much more limited than I thought it was. Though even limited it is still quite powerful. Quite capable of doing what it does, though not doing what it doesn't do as well (which could be said of anything anyway, so is probably not really worth saying). The point being, and yes, I do have a point, sometimes, that I believe this may be what I have been lacking in my travels. A way to do things I could not normally do. And I have been thinking of taking up the profession of telling stories - as is common amongst the hin. I think I may like a simpler life ... maybe someday, but for now I'd like a life with fewer deaths, more ladies, and just enough coin to comfortable set me up in 3, no, 5 cities around the world. I don't want a lot. I think I want some children too (and not for lunch). Some kids of my own to raise. Now where can I get some of those?
But back to the quick acting. Lets see, this is how it happened; Bellumthain teleported us to where Nullum and Joparg Bluplip were. Desicrist made the room silent. Thraxel fired three perfectly aimed arrows straight into Jopargs chest (each splitting the shaft of the previous), I hit him hard with my holy dagger and my sap, and Celery hit him even harder with the broadside of his ice ax. So hard in fact he turned him into a twist-off cap. All-in-all, under five seconds. We tried, we really did, to not kill the old chap this time, but even trying we still managed to slay him. To bad for him that we are just that powerful.
But the best part was the riches we found. We tele-popped into Joparg's study/sanctuary. He was alone, except for Nullum, and reading a piece of flat metal. He had two large shelves just stocked full of these sheets of metal with writing on them. Of course we have them now, and another ancient scepter I found under a trapped door under his table (must be REALLY powerful). We took the table and chairs too. Oh, yea, I pored a flask of acid and a flask of holy water into his unholy water font. This is spiritual warfare, and I am to displease.
We then shot back to the first portal, the one with the key, and casually walked back through, putting us in relative safety (hopefully they can not teleport to us). So the metal sheets have got to have something good on them, like the walktapoid/Kuo-Toan history, or info about magic stuff, or just something fun to read. So if we are in good shape we have (1) their leader, (2) their history, (3) another of their ancient scepters. We are definitely winning this game. But we still have to be careful to not anger them to much so they don't kill Caulwen. And once we get her back, those fish people are going to wish we were a crew of Aboleths and Illithids.
Abelalon Vo
There we were sitting 60 feet in the air on the inside of a glass block building waiting for the proper time to strike. Caulwen had decided to go after Nullum, traps be damned, since she could and dearly wanted to. So she did. And we waited, and waited, and then fully realized she was not coming back. Not that she had left us. We just thought she had been captured. For the life of me I can not recall who said it but someone had the idea that she must be in an anti-magic area. The reason being because we could not talk with her using Bellumthain's Telepathic Bond. I didn't even know there were anti-magic areas. So there are Wild Magic areas, Dead Magic areas, and Anti-Magic areas. Oh, yea, and the Shadow Weave. With all those areas to fix and keep from being made you would think she could do her own work for herself and not pawn it off onto Azuth, or the lich-god Velsharoon. Maybe it's really not that important.
By the way, who is Rary? And for that matter who's Otoluke, and Bigby, and Mordenkainen? I hear those names tossed about like a salad but no one has ever said who they are. I've never heard of them (though, I never heard of Vangerdahast or Halister or Khelban before I came north). Why are there no spells called "Elminster's This & That"? Isn't he like the most powerful living arcanist presently around?
So we set about to make a plan to do something about our present predicament. Details aside, because they are not important, I wasted a grand amount of time trying to be like Babydoll and develop a plan of attack for the upcoming attack on the Kuo-Toans. I should have gone with my guts and done what is best - what Brandobaris would have done - and played it as it came. Simply put, do recon (scrying) and see what happens from there. Let luck be as it should (which is good) and play it like a lute.
After wasting this good amount of time (I mean taking a short break to allow the real plan to develop) I decided we would continue with the original plan and ignore Caulwen's capture for the moment. In other words, be where they were not looking (that's the best place to hide, by the way). Then I changed my mind, kind of, and thought we should go after Joparg and use him to trade with for Caulwen. Then I changed my mind again, cause nothing else had changed so far, so I had to change my mind to keep the continuity of the ever changing Weave and remove the possibility of all things in all places not changing for ever more. So by deciding we should go after Nullum instead I actually saved all of Toril for ever present stagnation.
But I think I confused everyone else (it's easy to confuse big people, though, they are kind of slow). What we actually did was fail at a scry of Joparg Bluplip, and then succeeded with a scry of Nullum, which , fortunately, included Joparg since he was standing right next to Nullum (who wasn't really standing, not like we stand anyway).
Act quick we did. And it was so quick it was almost (almost) over prior to beginning. Which makes me wonder if magic can do that. I used to think magic could do anything, with the right spell, or whatever. But since traveling with Desicrist and Bellumthain & have come to realize magic is much more limited than I thought it was. Though even limited it is still quite powerful. Quite capable of doing what it does, though not doing what it doesn't do as well (which could be said of anything anyway, so is probably not really worth saying). The point being, and yes, I do have a point, sometimes, that I believe this may be what I have been lacking in my travels. A way to do things I could not normally do. And I have been thinking of taking up the profession of telling stories - as is common amongst the hin. I think I may like a simpler life ... maybe someday, but for now I'd like a life with fewer deaths, more ladies, and just enough coin to comfortable set me up in 3, no, 5 cities around the world. I don't want a lot. I think I want some children too (and not for lunch). Some kids of my own to raise. Now where can I get some of those?
But back to the quick acting. Lets see, this is how it happened; Bellumthain teleported us to where Nullum and Joparg Bluplip were. Desicrist made the room silent. Thraxel fired three perfectly aimed arrows straight into Jopargs chest (each splitting the shaft of the previous), I hit him hard with my holy dagger and my sap, and Celery hit him even harder with the broadside of his ice ax. So hard in fact he turned him into a twist-off cap. All-in-all, under five seconds. We tried, we really did, to not kill the old chap this time, but even trying we still managed to slay him. To bad for him that we are just that powerful.
But the best part was the riches we found. We tele-popped into Joparg's study/sanctuary. He was alone, except for Nullum, and reading a piece of flat metal. He had two large shelves just stocked full of these sheets of metal with writing on them. Of course we have them now, and another ancient scepter I found under a trapped door under his table (must be REALLY powerful). We took the table and chairs too. Oh, yea, I pored a flask of acid and a flask of holy water into his unholy water font. This is spiritual warfare, and I am to displease.
We then shot back to the first portal, the one with the key, and casually walked back through, putting us in relative safety (hopefully they can not teleport to us). So the metal sheets have got to have something good on them, like the walktapoid/Kuo-Toan history, or info about magic stuff, or just something fun to read. So if we are in good shape we have (1) their leader, (2) their history, (3) another of their ancient scepters. We are definitely winning this game. But we still have to be careful to not anger them to much so they don't kill Caulwen. And once we get her back, those fish people are going to wish we were a crew of Aboleths and Illithids.
Abelalon Vo
