It’s a nice quiet day about 2 ½ days into your journey and the sound of the horses’ trotting hooves brings a steady beat as you travel together on your way to Zadash. An interesting change of plans, since before meeting their new friends, Giaphant, Cheato, and Fawna; Malkey, Hung, and Sai’s next waypoint was Hupperdook. Cheato, not being one for silence, fills it by briefly telling of his large noble family in charge of Ice Haven but he’s not well adapted to the cold. So instead of wintering there, he’s making a name for himself as an adventurer and they’re lucky to have him because he always gives 110%, just like he showed in Alfield. He’s a learned wizard, studied at the Academy in Rexxentrum where he graduated early … well decided to part ways … well … got kicked out for breaking several rules and destroying a lot of property when out on a binger. It was strange though because when he awoke from his stupor, he found some torn pages of parchment in the pocket of his robes, had he been in the library? He didn’t remember, but when he read them it definitely piqued his interest. He was happy to have helped Alfield because he had an interest in searching the area between there and Trostenwald because the pages told of a hidden temple of Corellon, where a powerful mage by the name of Aryn Feyra who went missing before the completion of an important task. Unfortunately, nobody in Alfield had any idea what he was talking about nothing at all was between there except the open marrow valley and occasional farmland, so there’s that...
Cheato’s voice fades into a heavy silence after this last bit of information about the secret temple and Aryn Feyra. Looking around he can tell he’s said something of note. Hung breaks the silence, “Cheato knows a lot.”
“Cheato used to read a lot, but he doesn’t anymore because it’s time to put the knowledge into application!” Cheato responds with a confident smile.
Sai sits in uncomfortable silence as she feels Silken Spite bounce off her thigh in rhythm with the Mules hooves. That hidden temple is where she got the sword, where Hung got his bracers, and Malkey his boots. It’s where they found G and she was almost a meal for spiders. Aryn Feyra was definitely there, though not in a living state.
Cheato carries on sensing that something is going on, “Yeah I’m pretty sure there was an important task that he was doing and then it’s said that he just up and disappeared which is weird … Geez, everyone is looking at me right now, cool, ok. Something disappeared there. I’m looking for the mage, you know, it was something to do, and I thought it was kind of interesting.”
“I don’t know the question to ask, but I feel I have questions,” Hung says wisely under a furrowed thoughtful brow.
“What troubles you big guy?” Cheato asks.
“How did you hear about it?” Hung asks and Cheato goes through the whole thing again about how he found the information about Aryn Feyra, the great mage, and the important task he had to do, in his pocket after a bender while he was still in the academy. So, he figured after helping in Alfield he would take a look but then everyone he asked in Alfield had said there was no temple to Corellon anywhere near there.
More silence as Hung again weighs this information and exchanges glances between Sai and Malkey. Feeling confident now that he has this spear on his back he puffs his chest out a bit before asking, “What do you plan on doing if we find him?”
“I have no idea what the importance of this place is, or him. I just know it’s important somehow,” Cheato answers honestly.
This stumps Hung for a moment, he is concerned because he doesn’t know if Cheato should know everything that they know about this. Cheato watches as Hung pulls his horse around and rides over until he’s next to Sai and begins to whisper his concerns, occasionally looking over in Cheat’s direction.
“There’s no reason to keep it from him I don’t think,” Sai tells Hung, completely understanding the concern for trusting their new comrades. “Think of it as a way to find out more information maybe.”
“Maybe it will help me find my parents,” Hung nods.
Malkey is watching all this and making mental notes of the situation as Fawna and G just look around confused, “Well, this is awkward,” Cheato says, again breaking the uncomfortable silence. He goes back to focusing on the road ahead as Sai and Hung break off from their huddle keeping their thoughts to themselves.
The Amber road, they’ve noticed is a lot more traveled than the Gilded roadway that they’ve been on thus far. Cheato keeps his eye out for traveling merchants, he’s got some spells in mind that he needs to gather materials for, ruby dust specifically. Up ahead he doesn’t see traveling merchants instead it looks like a roadside farmstand. They get closer and see a nice couple selling fruits and veggies and Cheato reins in the wagon for a pit stop.
“Perfect,” Gia says as she pulls up and jumps down from her Mule, and approaches the stand.
The old woman speaks up first from her stool, “Hello travelers what can I get for you?”
“Yes, good afternoon, would you happen to have some apples?” Gia asks hopefully, she never did get those apples from that tree she was in before the spiders.
The woman gets up from her stool and pulls out a cone to amplify her voice and calls out, “Apples son, we need some apples,” before settling back down onto the stool. What they had thought was a couple indeed was not so because she had called him son. She must be really old!
The old man picks up a burlap sack and starts feeling around on the fruits until he finds the apples with his hands, “How many did you need?” He asks with a shaky voice.
“I’ll take four, anybody else?” Gia asks her group politely taking their apple order. Fawna wants a couple and so does Sai, “6,” she shouts out at the man, not having a cone to project her own voice. The old man fills the sack with the six apples and they watch as he uses the staff he was leaning on to feel the ground in front of him as he moves with a stiff limp towards the sound of Gia’s voice.
She notices that he is blind and as he reaches out about a foot to the left of her and drops the burlap sack of apples, “Here you go.”
Gia’s quick observation of his condition and her quick reflexes, she catches the bag before it hits the ground. As she straightens herself back up, she sees the man holding his hand out for the coin. Cupping his hand in hers, steadying it, and confirming to him her presence she puts the coins in his hands and closes his fingers over them. “Thank you very much,” he says as he sidles off in the direction of his mother and stops as his staff clicks off a leg of her stool. He then turns and goes back to his original spot by the stand.
“Anything else we could get you?” the old woman asks.
“A bit of news maybe, we’ve seen a lot of travelers coming past leaving the city,” Cheato suggests.
“Indeed, indeed,” the old woman replies as her eyes brighten up at the prospect of gossip. “What are you looking to hear, just the regular …”
“Well, any idea why everybody is leaving?” Cheato asks.
“Mmm, I don’t think so… well, there’s some since the war of Ash and Light that don’t agree with the mixing of communities so they’re looking for more secluded neighborhoods. But…” she leans in, “there is big news I heard out of Zadash.”
“What sort of news,” Sai asks.
“Please share,” Gia adds.
“You don’t get the paper?” the old woman asks looking around at them. When she realizes that they clearly don’t know what she’s talking about she lets them know that for 5 copper a month, an owl delivers the Marrow Valley Gazette to you. Maybe something to consider. The gang appreciates the information and assuresIshort-terma her that it’s something they’ll look into. “Yeah recently a passerby showed us, apparently the Cerberus Assembly is looking for a member of theirs. Wanted for treason and theft can you believe it? Or was it treason and left …” she continues.
Cheato laughs uncomfortably and stutters, “No, I can’t believe that! One of them, never!”
“But anyway, she’s on the run so be careful out there,” the old woman warns.
“Does she have a name?” Malkey yells out from the back of his pony.
The old woman thinks hard for a moment, “ehh, i don’t remember. Unfortunately, my short term memory isn’t what it used to be.” She brings out the cone again and calls out to her son, “Do you remember her name? The girl wanted by the assembly?”
“Was it Jenna by chance? Irresor?” Sai inquires expectantly.
“Ahhhhh, yes I think that was it!” the old woman replies slapping her bony thigh. “Yeah, pretty girl too, I saw the picture.”
“Why does that name ring a bell?” Gia thinks out loud standing next to Sai.f
“She has a hobby of kidnapping people,” Sai hints at their prior conversations on the road about this woman.
Gia nods understanding as the old woman says, “Oh so then it’s more than treason and left. Treason and theft because kidnapping, that’s a kind of theft.”
“I am Cheato De Russo the Savior of Alfield, we’ll be alright,” Cheato assures the old woman and her warnings.
“Ohhhhhh, I heard of you! You’re the bandit guy!” The old woman says excitedly making sure to pull up her cone and yell over to her son that the bandit guy was right here!
“Well I hope you guys stay safe, what do you guys do out here to keep safe?” Sai asks concerned for the senile country folks. They reassure her that they’ll be ok and show her the anti-theft mechanics of their farmstand (The sides come down covering the fruit and locking into place). Sai and Gia help the old man put the shutters back in place after he shows you.
“It’s getting kind of late but you guys should know, up that way a little way, you’ll probably arrive around sunset, but there’s a place where travelers stay up that way, it at least has a roof,” the old woman suggests. “Maybe you’ll meet some other travelers there and gather more news. And make sure you tell everyone you know about Homegrown ok?”
They all nod and thank her for the news and Cheato tosses her 9 copper pieces (he doesn’t want to be bothered with copper). The old woman’s shock is apparent, “Holy shitake, I can’t believe this, I just can’t be a savior if,” she looks up at who is handing her the coin, “.... yep, it’s the bandit guy! Thank you so much!” Cheato slaps the reins and onward they go northward up the Amber Road of the valley.
After a while, they see the shelter that the old woman had told them about. It is a large platform with a roof and all the sides are open. They get closer and take a look around noticing the shrine to Selune on the altar, and the bamboo panels that can be drawn down the sides of the platform for more comfort and privacy. In the center, there is a firepit above which the roof has a hole for ventilation. “Yeah, I think we could stay here for the night,” Cheato pulls up and stops the cart giving the horse its rest as well.
They discuss watches, 2 people 2 hours each, while Malkey and Gia look around to see if any travelers left anything behind, but there are no nooks or cranny’s to leave anything behind in it is such a simple structure and kept relatively clean. They settle in. “Cheato and I will take the first watch,” Malkey says decidedly.
“OK, I hope you know songs,” Cheato says with anticipation.
“I guess we’ll do next watch then, “ Sai says as she gathers dried leaves and grasses for the fire. Malkey, seeing a good opportunity to help sends a firebolt into the firepit almost lighting Sai herself aflame but luckily it had just singed her brows. “Really Malkey? You couldn’t wait just a second?” she asks incredulously.
“Nope,” Malkey replies with a grin as Sai sighs. Everyone settles in nicely as Cheato goes around letting down the bamboo blinds. Fawna takes a look at the altar and doesn’t know much about these things from her upbringing but is familiar enough with the deities to recognize Selune the deity of travelers. Though she knows who this is, there’s just something about altars that creep her out and she moves across the platform and away from the fire to make her bed for the night. Hung stares into the fire and the sound of chewing is in the air as they eat either their rations or the fresh apples from the Homegrown farmstand and one by one drift off to sleep. Fawna makes sure to meditate emitting a luminescent green glow as she does so.
Malkey makes a sentry round along the outside of the perimeter of their camp sending Nutbag on a larger perimeter and they don’t see anything out of the ordinary but they definitely hear Cheato loudly proclaim, “It’s crazy, they knew who I was I love that! The news of me is spreading, it’s great, wonderful even!”
Malkey, settling in by the fire pulls out a strip of torn red cloth and tosses it over to Cheato, “What do you think of this?”
Cheato recognizes the fine well-made distinguished material, “Well, I sure wouldn’t be caught carrying this.”
“Well that’s exactly what happened to me, I got caught wearing it because it was a blindfold!” Malkey explains.
Cheato finds that odd because that would have meant that they would have ripped their robes … “Let me get this straight, there’s now publicly a member of the Cerberus Assembly that is apparently treasonous. You and your party have had awful run-ins with this person, I mean you guys said something about poisoning a well? Did you say you were around here?”
“No, I”m from Hupperdook,” Malkey replies as Cheato nods recognition of the town of gnomes that he’s wanted to go someday to check out because it’s definitely known for its parties.
“So then how did you get on the bad side of this,” Cheato starts saying holding up the strip of cloth. Malkey snatches it back and tucks it away in one of his many pockets.
“I didn’t think I was on the bad side, I just know that this is what’s going on,” Malkey admits telling Cheato how he suspects that Jenna Irresor stole him for his own benefit, whatever that means, at least that is the current speculation.
Cheato looks at him confused, “Oh, you’re serious? I thought you were joking that this was one of your …”
“No,” Malkey shakes his head. “...No.”
“So she stole you for your own safety,” Cheato takes a moment and thinks about this.
“But yeah, something to do with prophecies and cross-breeds and just wanted me to get out of there. It doesn’t help that my wife is probably dead, my business is destroyed … you know, good times,” Malkey says sarcastically. “On a bright note, I woke up in a pit in handcuffs, so something good might have happened!”
“Yeah, you know I think that going to this next city is our best bet to find more public knowledge about this. I mean, they’re putting it in the newspaper that this woman is treacherous.
“Treacherous against the assembly maybe but does that mean that she's not … let’s say she’s being honest for one second, why would it be treacherous against the assembly to save somebody who’s part of a prophecy? Do you know anything about prophecies … half-blood people …?” Malkey looks at Cheato to gauge his reactions but it doesn’t seem to elicit any recognition.
“I did read this book about a half-blood prince once, but besides that, uhhhh,” he thinks. “There are lots of prophecies out there you know, they throw out 100 ten of them stick. Divination is not real, it’s all a scam,” Cheato says matter-of-factly.
“Oh, I’m with you on that,” Malkey agrees. “That’s some horse shit ain’t it? Forget the future, see the past …. Oooooooo.”
“They say we evolved from a prophecy, like from 8 people,” Cheato adds.
“Well now you’re just talking crazy talk,” Malkey says.
“I know right, it’s stupid. Why would they foretell that? But listen if she’s bad against them but trying to help you, I wouldn’t … hmmm,” Cheato stammers a bit.
“Is she trying to help me,” Malkey interrupts “based on the circumstances it doesn’t seem that way?”
“No, it doesn’t, it sounds like she’s trying to help herself in some kind of way,” Cheato suspects. “On top of apparently poisoning a well which also doesn’t sound like a good thing.”
“Well, we don’t know definitively she was poisoning the well, we know that the leader of the town was trying to poison the well, and there’s a loose association … It’s a thing, it’s a thing,” Malkey tries to explain.
“Oh, ok. Again, I think our best point of action is to find out the information they’re publicizing. Like if they’ve put out warrants for her or said anything about why she’s treacherous,” Cheato reasons.
“Yeah, but aren’t you people associated with the government, wouldn’t that make it easy for them to lie? Because you know the government lies. Taxation is theft!” Makey brings up trying not to offend the young wizard.
“What do you mean you people?” Cheato asks.
“Your former people, you went to school with these people,” Malkey reminds.
“I have no association with them anymore,” Cheato looks at Malkey quizzically.
“But they continue to have an association with the government don’t they?” Malkey asks.
“I’m confused, you’re being a bit abstract here. The academy I went to is not affiliated with the government,” Cheato explains.
“No, but the assembly is,” Malkey continues.
“The Cerberus assembly is, yes,” Cheato confirms trying to follow what the gnome is trying to say.
“Who essentially runs that academy,” Malkey goes on.
“Well, yeah they pick people from there,” Cheato corrects.
“Why do I feel like the conspiracy weirdo,” Malkey takes off his hat. “See, no tinfoil I swear!”
“Maybe you need to add tinfoil,” Cheato jokes.
“So I’m just saying, even if there’s a loose association with government, wouldn’t they be able to lie about why she’s … treacherous?” Malkey tries to clarify.
“Well yeah, I’m not saying she is or she isn’t, I’m saying I just want to know what they’re saying, what their claims are. See who they’re making claims against so we can check it out and confirm. Let’s say they’re saying, ‘oh, she burnt down this entire village,’ then we can go check out that village to figure that out,” Cheato concludes.
“Oh, so you’re a facts base thinker here. Yeah, we can’t work that way,” Malkey shakes his head.
“That’s ok,” Cheato nods, he’s used to people not being used to such intelligence.
“So you got nothing for me on any of it, ok,” Malkey sighs.
“Well, there was meant to be this important task that wasn’t completed at a temple I was gonna look at, and the moment I mentioned it sai and hung got really quiet and completely went over to the other side of the road to talk about it,” Cheato offers.
“You gotta be more specific because they’re not always forthright with me about everything from books and especially when it's in other languages that I can’t speak. They just don’t immediately share that information even when I ask,” Malkey replies, sharing his experience with his comrades.
“Oh, it was for a hidden temple of Corellon between Alfield and Trostenwald,” Cheato repeats even though Malkey had surely heard him before. Sai and Hung did, and Malkey was surely there.
Immediately knowing what this is about Malkey rolls his eyes, “Oh look at that, I bet you that was in a book diary somewhere.”
“Yeah, Aryn Feyra,” Cheato continues.
“Yeah they know about him, just saying,” Malkey responds and fills Cheato in on the hidden temple, the study of Aryn Feyra, and all the books in elvish. How they took some books and unlocked the chest to find sai’s sword and his boots.
“I figured they knew something, I’ll certainly ask them first thing in the morning,” Cheato decides. “You know what, I’ll give them next watch and I’ll ask them when I get them up for it.”
“That’s blunt and forward, I like that, but tell me more about that temple,” Malkey requests.
Cheato re-tells about the paper he found in his robes, “I wasn’t trying to read while I was high on power you know. I didn’t go to the library. It was interesting.”
Finally, it is time for their watch to end and Cheato goes to Sai to change shifts as Malkey sits and watches how this is all going to play out.
“Oh, is it time for watch then,” Sai asks groggily as Cheato gently nudges her to wake.
Looking for a reaction, Cheato asks in elvish, “Do you understand this?”
Sai’s face turns a bit red as she looks at him before responding in kind, “I take it you have questions?”
“Listen, I have no problems with people having their secrets and stuff like that, it’s cool, it’s your information and I’m new, I get it, they called me the bandit guy,” Cheato continues in his fluent elvish.
“Hey if you’re gonna talk in your codes and gibberish jibber jabber you should know that little guys feel left out when these things happen,” Malkey calls out.
Switching it up back to common Cheato continues, “You have to be a little less conspicuous when you know something that you don’t want other people to know. And it's ok, you don'tit'sI’m wanna tell me its ok, I’m just trying to put all the pieces together.”
“Well, I’m sorry,” Sai says feeling a bit shameful for their blatant earlier behavior that their new friend sees right through.
“You don’t have to apologize,” Cheato reassures her.
Sai goes over and goes to reach into Hung's pack when Malkey grabs her hand, “He’s an angry fella sometimes, let’s not just steal, let’s wake his ass up.”
“I wasn’t going to give it to him, I was just going to show him but yeah ok,” Sai instead calls out to the sleeping half-orc. “Hung!”
Hung sits up as if he were sitting up out of a coffin and in his low gravelly voice says, “You all are very loud tonight.”
“We should probably show him the diary,” Sai tells him, getting down to what this is all about. “He probably knows something about this Aryn. Do you have it? Where’s it at?”
“We don’t know much,” Hung says looking between Sai and Cheato as he hands Sai the journal from his pack.
“So, what do you know about this Aryn Feyra,” Sai asks Cheato as she holds out the book to show him.
Alright look I’ve explained this three times, it’s ok …” Cheato recounts how he came across the name and what he knows.
Yeah so we found this diary somewhere that sounds like the place you were looking for. She opens the journal of blank pages. In elvish she activates the spell revealing the text within, “Show me.” She continues in common, “Maybe that task or ritual you’re talking about is on the Night of Ascension, which is about 7 months away on the 13th of Corasar. And there are 3 artifacts that he talks about, and how he was chosen by Corellon…”
Cheato’s eyes grow wide as the ink appears on the pages and he realizes that he’s looking at the writing of Aryn Feyra, the great illusionist mage. “Can I just … read that?” Cheato asks hopefully. Sai looks at Hung and Malkey feeling unsure. Cheato picking up on their trepidation says, “Look if I do anything, there are 1, 2, 3 of you guys I’d have to deal with.”
Hung pulls out his spear and feels along the shaft lingering longer on the section of it that gets all of the attention before he presents in front of Cheato so that he can see, “It’s not just a shaft, there is writing on it. If you know of the ritual and you know what’s needed.”
Cheato sees the orcish writing and casts comprehend languages on the intimidatingly beautiful and skillfully made weapon. He sees the hymn of Gruumsh burned into it, the eye carved into the ivory that seems to be missing its pupil. In awe Cheato finally responds, “Have you guys taken this to anybody to get looked at yet?”
“No, just you,” They respond in unison.
“We’re allowing you into the inner circle, and if you cross out of that circle you die, oooooo,” Malkey says.
“Malkey will haunt your dreams,” Sai nods.
“You break the seal, we break your neck,” Hung adds.
“When we get to the city, I’m going to need to find a pearl so I can Identify these,” Cheato replies. He is then presented with silken spite by Sai and sees the connection between the two.
“Now you know, you belong here with us,” Hung says and then lays back down to go back to sleep.
“Hung, no you don’t," Malkey kicks him. "It’s your shift buddy!"
“It was my shift regardless,” Sai goes outside to walk a perimeter leaving her shadow behind inside and Cheato’s eyes widen again.
“Oh, that’s normal, all is good. Just another Miresen,” Malkey assures Cheato regarding Sai's shadow then goes to the altar to see if it would make a good bed at all, but it wasn’t like he thought it was going to be so goes into the corner and lays down setting Nutbag outside on alarm mode on top of the post. Looking around before going to bed, he sees that Hung is back to sleep again! He gets up and goes back over, he shakes his friend and in orcish says, “You know, it might be cool if you watch these guys, we just gave them some hefty information.”
“That one said we could kill him if he crossed us,” Hung points over at Cheato.
“Yeah but if I said that and i still wanted to cross you I still wouldn’t want you to kill me. It’s not gonna be that simple,” Malkey says.
“People need to be more straight with me,” Hung complains.
“I agree,” Malkey replies as he hands Hung some jerky trying to smooth things over. “We good?”
“Fine,” he paces and stomps around the perimeter of the inside of the building, not really considering the others that are sleeping around angrily munching his jerky as Malkey retires back to his corner.
Gia feels the vibrations of Hungs footstomps through her bedroll and she awakens, ‘what in the world is that?’ she looks around trying to find the source and setting her eyes on Hung. She fixes herself and turns away trying to go back to sleep.
Sai walks around the structure, the night is peaceful. She checks on the horses and contemplates herself. It’s so very strange how someone you just met speaks the name of the person you have the journal of which you found in a hidden location. At the same time, she’s kind of used to strange things happening to her at this point in her life. The night passes on and she goes over to Fawna and wakes her up, “It’s time for your watch, sorry it’s a bit later than was planned.”
“Oh, it’s ok,” Fawna replies sleepily as she gets up to her feet using her tail as leverage since her arms were full of the precious egg that she protects with her life.
Gia, tossing and turning and hearing that the watch was changing figures she’s not sleeping anyway and sits up grumpily. She sees Hung now taking his stomping feet outside. She stretches and goes to the fire to warm up a bit and sees Fawna, “How was your rest?”
“Still waking up,” Fawna replies before she leaves to go outside and starts pacing around the perimeter of the exterior making sure to keep a wide berth when she nears the statue of Selune.
Hung stomps around outside for a bit but comes to a stop and looks up at the stars. He feels a rumbling under his feet that he’s never felt before. He looks around and hears the earth moving as well as feels it and sees it too! He follows its path. Fawna sees it as well and also follows it. Then notice that it seems to be going around and around the building. “I think it's best that you go inside,” Hung says looking at Fawna and her egg.
Fawna looks like she is having an inner struggle with what to do with the situation, “I have an idea. I want to go down there but, the egg. OK,” she resigns. “Should I let the others know that this is going on?”
“Everybody,” Hung replies as she enters the tent and sees that the dirt piles are getting worse and worse. As Fawna enters the building the NW corner splinters apart and lurches downward into the hole in the ground that was made causing her to lurch forward onto the floor. Careful not to land on the egg she turns as she falls causing her to slam onto her back. The commotion comes at the same time as Fawna was about to alert everyone. Cheato and Malkey roll out of their bedrolls and onto their feet as if they deal with this kind of thing every morning. Gia easily steadies herself and Sai starts hurriedly packing up and gets knocked onto the floor. Erupting from the hole of freshly broken and splintered wood a humungous mole-looking creature with skin thick as armor covering the entirety of its body. Nutbag starts to ‘cuckoo, cuckoo’.
Hung hears all this from the outside and runs in through the bamboo curtain walls to see what happened, sees the creature and charges, coming down with his spear, but its skin was too thick to pierce. He puts his spear under his arms, grunts, and pops out his spectral arms from his body. Sai moves her shadow over to the beast before, snap, she switches places with the shadow and attacks with silken spite but she sees the same thing as hung, this thing is hard to pierce! Cheato lowers his staff pointing at the creature sending 3 energy flames from it, 2 going wide and one connecting with the creature. The creature retaliates, taking its anger of the flames out on Sai, biting her in the arm. Fawna stands up and tries to slip the creature up and creates water from a single drop from her waterskin and with a wave of her hand and an utterance from her lips she causes a raincloud to form above the creature causing a downpour into the hole hoping to collapse its tunnel before retreating a bit. Nutbag flies in from his post and lands on Malkey’s shoulder and sends a small shock through Malkey granting him guidance. Malkey points a finger out and a sparking arc of lightning erupts from his hand, slamming into the oversized armored rodent. Gia yells out ‘carajo’ and sends sick green energy of sickness towards the creature causing it to grab its stomach and starts heaving and retching.
Hung moves around the creature and goes into the whole feeling the mud between his toes, he flips his spear around and swings it like he used to with the other boys at the monastery where he had to hit a ball with a stick but the creature moves out of the way just in time. Feeling a little disheartened he comes back around with a right hook and elbow attack making up for the spear miss and pummeling the creature twice. Sai pulls the blade of silken spite to her lips and speaks to it in abyssal and poison starts to coat the blade, she swings to attack and it dodged out of the way. She tries again, but it's like trying to pierce really tough rubber. Cheato focuses in and sends more scorching rays but the chaos in trying not to hit his allies causes his aim to be off with the first ray but the next two connect again singeing the creature and the burning flesh starts to boil up in blisters. At that moment, the creature dives back into the tunnel getting beaten down on its way under by Sai and Hung. Simultaneously, another of the same type of creature erupts through the floor on the other side of the building causing Fawna to fall again and again hurting herself to keep the egg safe. She gets back up, breathing heavily, and disengages moving away from the second beast. Taking her staff from her back, she puts it by her side and the tip glows green, and light flings off it going to the center of the firepit, and almost as if it's coming through the ashes the spirit of a unicorn comes from it and whinnies its arrival as it stands in the burning coals. Nutbag zaps guidance into Malkey and protects him with a shield of faith as Malkey sends a clap of thunder soundwaves in the direction of the beast and pushes it back with the force. Gia moves to get a clear view of her target as she takes a deep breath then sends forth a stream of acid 5ft wide and 30ft long covering the creature as the animal's armor starts to melt and sizzle.
Hung quickly assesses the situation and runs over to the one that popped up on the other side of the room, but it did not pierce through the armor all the way so he punches it in the face with his spectral arms, the knuckles connect but the energy from it doesn’t go deep enough through the natural armor. Sai runs across the room after Hung and then swaps with her shadow again in the blink of an eye. Cheato rushes forward and steps in front of Fawna, throwing out 3 magic missiles towards the creature, all connecting and the skin continues to singe as it’s bombarded with flames and force and acid. Another rumble and the original creature erupts from the center of the firepit, through the unicorn spirit making it look kind of like the creature is riding it. Cheato and Malkey fall to the ground as the creature lashes out with its teeth. The room goes dark as the firepit is destroyed and ash and ember go flying. One tries to bite Hung but misses as Fawna backs up against the wall and throws out her hand causing a vine of thorns to come out of it, unfortunately, it sees the whip coming and is able to move out of the way. Fawna then sends a healing spirit over to Hung in the form of an elk. Hung feels a sense of a loving spirit around him and the protection of the great elk moves through him creating quite a visual with spectral arms and now huge spectral antlers as well. Malkey uses a misty step bringing himself to a location where he has a clear shot for his fire bolts. He gets his firebolt ready and feels it divide within him as he feels it divide into two within him through that ancient fire that burns deep inside as it erupts from his hands, one hitting true, the other unfortunately missing. Nutbag goes in to bite the one by the spent firepit and pumps poison into the being but it doesn’t take. Nutbag goes flying away and the jaws lash out to bite at him, teeth crunching through the metal and spitting the construct onto the ground, “Noooooooooo!” Malkey screams. Gia’s jaw drops as she sees Nutbag fall, she jumps over Cheato’s prone body, quarterstaff held in two hands over her head bringing it down heavy, breaking through the armor and splitting it enough to expose the fatty layer under the thick armor.
Hung hits with one spectral arm, then uses his spear and it erupts with shocking lightning as it pierces the flesh. He comes around on the other side with his opposite spectral fist right in the eye which immediately starts to bruise and become bloodshot. Sai throws out four bulbs of light in the corners of the room illuminating it for all and then flanks with her shadow swinging hard with silken spite, slicing through the armored beast. Cheat stands up and tells Gia to stand still as he reaches out his hands and flames erupt from his hands molding themselves around the black dragonborn and scorching the oversized rat, it’s starting to fall, the wounds becoming overwhelming. It goes to bite Sai but she blocks it with her shield. The other one goes after Gia and she feels the canines puncture her shoulder. Fawna collects the healing energy from the unicorn and elk and activates them healing her allies, including little Nutbag whose spark of life returns to him. Malkey yells and sends witch bolts split in the direction of each creature, hitting one; missing the other. It is clear that the large rodents are losing the fight. Gia confidently walks up to it and grabs it by the face sending a shock of energy through her claws into its body, taking its life.
Seeing the beautiful black dragonborn take down one of the enemies, fires him up a bit and he runs up, grabs the last living beast by its buck teeth and shoves the spear down its throat like a skewered frog over a swamp fire and follows it up with a punch to the face. The creature starts to struggle and when Hung lets go of the spear the spear tears itself out of the beasts esophagus, returning to Hung’s hands. Sai comes in with another strike of silken spite, with the team effort, the enemy finally falls and they are left, chests heaving.
Malkey starts to triage Malkey, mending what he can of the construct. Cheato walks over to the altar of Selune, drops in 2 gold pieces,, and utters, “...oops.”
***If you'd like to listen to the audio of this session, click here!***
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