Name: Zoltan

Home Community
Zoltan's life on the frontier is Spartan and dangerous, but it encourages self-sufficiency. Most homesteads include only one or two families.

Climate
Zoltan's home included swamps, moors, and other low, wet areas. Zoltan grew up with cold winters, but warm summers. Zoltan learned basic wilderness survival skills.

 

Education

Zoltan learned farming and animal husbandry techniques. Zoltan spent time seeking animal skins or meat in the wilderness. 

Events

Flood, famine, plague, or another calamity struck when Zoltan was a child. Zoltan aided in the defense of the community against raiders or a marauding monster. Attacks from organized raiders menace Zoltan's home community over a substantial period of time. 

 

Family
Zoltan's family’s ancestors of note are unknown or forgotten. Information about them could be
revealed in a future adventure, however. Combat is a regular part of the lives of Zoltan's family. Most adult members are veterans of some combat, and martial weapons and training are commonplace. Sometimes Zoltan's family had to beg for food and shelter. They own no property and income barely covers basic needs. Zoltan's family holds to the letter of contracts and agreements. Zoltan's family has no specific political
stance. The male members control Zoltan's family. Zoltan's family’s ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Zoltan's family has a historical conflict with followers of a particular deity (player decides which) assumed to be disreputable. Zoltan's family is treated in general with contempt, but occasionally a family member has demonstrated positive qualities and earned respect. Zoltan's family are like most laborers and
servants. One or more local monsters view Zoltan as a threat, perhaps as a result of some minor encounter. Zoltan has 1d10 living relatives.  Zoltan's significant friend is dead or missing. Zoltan remember his grandparents, but they have passed away. A top-notch instructor taught Zoltan more advanced military, religious, or arcane techniques. Both of Zoltan's parents are deceased, and the player chooses how the parents passed away. Zoltan has a fraternal twin, identical twin, or two triplet siblings.

 

Player: JC

Name: Milo Fasthand

Environment
Around 450 halflings live in the shire where Milo Fasthand grew up. Milo Fasthand's feels comfortable with shipboard life and any island small enough that the dominant terrain feature is the sea that surrounds it. Milo Fasthand grew up with cold winters, but warm summers.

Family
Both of Milo Fasthand's parents are alive and healthy. Milo Fasthand has 3 older siblings and 3 younger siblings. Three of Milo's grandparents are living (his mother's mother died of an illness a few years back). Milo Fasthand has 2d12 living relatives.

Milo Fasthand's family is poor. Although they have never had to beg for food and shelter, they own little property other than their gunsmith shop and their income barely covers basic needs. Milo Fasthand's family holds to the letter of contracts and agreements. Milo Fasthand's family supports the current political structure and rulers. The male members control Milo Fasthand's family. Milo Fasthand's family’s ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Milo Fasthand's family has worshiped a patron deity (Yondalla) for years, but may not observe religious commitments consistently. In general, Milo Fasthand's family is upstanding, but one or more members of family are known to be disreputable. Milo Fasthand's father is an expert gunsmith (and the best marksman in the shire).

Milo Fasthand's great-grandfather was an artisan of unmatched skill who left a legacy of excellence that is still used as a standard gauge of quality. Milo Fasthand's family frequently use and improve their shooting skills and could be prepared for combat with a few days of last-minute preparation.

Education
Milo Fasthand learned basic wilderness survival skills. Milo Fasthand learned a craft -- gun-smithing. A top-notch instructor, Milo's father, taught Milo Fasthand more advanced small firearms techniques.

Major Events
Milo Fasthand took a two-way trip with his oldest brother on a new caravan route to a trade fair in the capital of his homeworld to learn about trade, caravans, firearms, and the world.

Milo Fasthand edged someone out in some affair of the heart, and they hold a grudge. Unfortunately, Milo is now leaving town and in his absence his rival may succeed in winning the favor of their common desire. Or will she wait for Milo to return?

Friends
Milo Fasthand doesn’t make friends easily, but Milo Fasthand is a good friend to those he has. Milo Fasthand has a few close friends.

Player: Mike

Name:  Syd Runwin

Environment:
Syd grew up on a small, urbanized natural satellite around the planet Laithe. He lived with his uncle who he was also apprenticed under. Between the two of them, they ran a small Spell Book and Scroll shop that had been granted them by their family. Syd is very comfortable traveling, as he often did between the satellite and the home world. As he spent most of his time in one climate controlled area or another, he doesn’t care much for natural weather.

Family:
Syd’s parents are currently alive and well. He has a brother, as well as several bastard siblings by his father. In addition to these, he has a number of other familial connections throughout House Runwin.

The Runwin family is a powerful family on the planet of Laithe. For generations House Runwin has possessed considerable Sorceress power. With that power came powerful political positions and sway over large areas of the world. Unfortunately, it seems that House Runwin’s luck has run out. Recent generations have produced no Sorcerers and the remaining ones are beginning to die out. Syd was expected to be the next Sorcerer Supreme of House Runwin as he showed a very powerful spark. When he was born, however, his family realized that although he had a powerful ability in magic, he would never draw upon the Sorceress arts.

A little known fact about House Runwin (in fact, known only to the Elders of the House) is that the Sorceress ability the House has been ‘blessed’ with for the past several generations is not, in fact, happenstance. Many, many years ago, Syd’s ancestor, Cile Runwin struck a pact with a daemon most foul. In return for some price unknown to this day, the daemon provided Cile with extraordinary magical abilities. Apparently these abilities continued on in his bloodline, because since then, most Runwins have shown some signs of the Power.

Education:
Syd was shuttled to the satellite Kitiin V in shame shortly after his birth. The knowledge of what he was proved too much for his parents to bear. Instead Syd was raised by his uncle, Lanir, who was likewise an almost Sorcerer. From Lanir, Syd not only learned much of the mystical arts, but he also learned Electronics, and Programming, in order to work at the small Spell Book and Scroll shop his uncle owned.

Major Events:
When Syd turned 19, he entered a small tournament on the home world that involved a mage competition. When he reached the final round, his opponent, Tyros Reffa, proved to be much stronger than him, and when Syd caught a Lightning Bolt in the face, he nearly died.

More recently, Syd returned from a visit to his place of birth to attend the wedding of his brother. Upon entering his shop, he found it ransacked and his uncle missing. Several days later found Syd preparing to leave world in order to track his uncle down, armed with his magic and the few things he could scrounge up from the shop. "I wonder why uncle kept a laser pistol in his dresser?" Syd mused as he boarded his flight …

Friends:
Syd doesn’t have too many friends, except perhaps his uncle. There are a few regulars in the store that Syd would occasionally meet outside for a drink, or perhaps a friendly spell duel, but they were all acquaintances at best.

Enemies:
Syd doesn’t possess knowledge of any enemies he currently has, nor does he know why anyone would want to hurt him. Even so, he has long suspected that Tyros Reffa meant to kill him in the tournament several years ago, and recent events have only reinforced his suspicions.

Player: David

Name: Orendil

Climate
Whether it’s a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant feature of the landscape, that makes Orendil feel at home. Orendil welcomes the cold all year long, although where he comes from seasons are still discernible. The length of day and night changes greatly from season to season.

Education
Orendil learned basic wilderness survival skills. Orendil has advanced studies in a formal church setting. Includes training as an acolyte or special functionary for religious practice. Orendil studied biology and geology.

Events
Orendil had an earthshaking brush with greatness, such as meeting a king or being contacted directly by a god. Orendil found a unique aptitude or talent such as extremely keen vision or a knack for ventriloquism. Orendil's home community is faced with a new faith recently created, a schism tears an existing faith apart, or a prophecy is announced.

Family
Sometimes Orendil's family had to beg for food and shelter. They own no property and income barely covers basic needs. The female members control Orendil's family. Orendil's family maintains a low level of readiness including a few weapons and an occasional discussion of how to defend against raiders or low-level monsters. Orendil's family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help others. Orendil's family’s ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Orendil's family has no specific political stance. Orendil's family is deeply committed to a patron deity (you choose which one). Orendil's family is known as stalwart companions. Orendil's family are like most laborers and servants. Orendil's family has no ancestors of note.

Relationships
Both of Orendil's parents are alive and healthy. Orendil is an only child Orendil's father’s parents are deceased. Orendil has other relatives out there somewhere, but doesn’t know who or how many. Orendil doesn’t make friends easily, but Orendil is a good friend to those he has. Orendil has a few close friends. A particularly good instructor taught Orendil the basic skills (choose alive or dead, note NPC details) Orendil has no known enemies, yet.

I was born into a poor elven family in a forest settlement in the northern regions of (insert location). I grew up amongst the evergreens and snow, learning how to hunt and trap from my father. My mother's grandparents taught me to follow the ways of (insert appropriate nature deity for setting). Although religion held little interest for me, I did my duty, learning my prayers and my parables. My parents, though respected members of the community, never achieved nor cared particularly for material wealth. It was during a foraging trip that an event occurred which brought change into my life. It was an extremely cold day, and the snow was coming down in large and numerous flakes. I was ready to turn back towards the settlement, but I saw something about 100 meters away in the snow. What it was, I didn't know, but it appeared to be glowing with a bluish-white light. As I approached, the glow diminished, but I saw what appeared to be an animal in the snow. It was a doe, and upon inspection it was clearly sick or internally injured. Killing doe was not allowed at that time of year. Not knowing how I could help, touched the doe's coat and said a quick prayer that my grandmother had taught me. As I turned to walk away, I felt warmth behind me. Turning around, the doe was gone. I confided in my grandmother the story. She insisted that I had the "Gift of (insert deity)".

Player: Ryan

Name: Alahandra Windchacer

Climate
Highlands, cliff dwellings, and any other rugged terrain makes Alahandra Windchacer feel at home. Alahandra Windchacer grew up with cold winters, but warm summers.

Education
Alahandra Windchacer learned basic wilderness survival skills. Alahandra Windchacer spent time seeking animal skins or meat in the wilderness. Alahandra Windchacer studied "defenses against the dark arts" and learned ways to fight monsters and battle the influence of black magic.

Events
Evil men came and took her from her family when she was a child. She attempted to aid in the defense of the community against the raiders but was forcibly taken prisoner and was used in one of the  bio wizard weapons. The last she saw of her village was her parents murdered in front of her. She does not know if anyone made it out alive.

Family
For some reason, Alahandra Windchacer's family's economic status was difficult to measure. Perhaps Alahandra Windchacer lived a solitary life on the frontier as a trapper or scout, living entirely off the land. The oldest members control Alahandra Windchacer's family. Alahandra Windchacer's family relies on magical protection. Alahandra Windchacer's family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help others. Alahandra Windchacer's family's ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Alahandra Windchacer's family has no specific political stance. Alahandra Windchacer's family is deeply committed to a patron deity (you choose which one). In general, Alahandra Windchacer's family is upstanding, but one or more members of family are known to be disreputable. Alahandra Windchacer's family is considered the "upper crust" of the home community. Alahandra Windchacer's family produced a wizard or sorcerer of some repute.

Relationships
Both of Alahandra Windchacer's parents are deceased, murdered at the hands of the collectors. She has an identical twin who was strangely absent the day of the attack. Alahandra Windchacer remembers her grandparents, but they have passed away. Alahandra Windchacer has few living relatives that she knows of. Alahandra Windchacer's significant friend is dead or captured. Master Willowtree taught her the basic skills of fairy magic, and a little sneaking about on the side. One or more local villains have chosen to direct their hatred toward Alahandra Windchacer, perhaps because of some minor adventure Alahandra Windchacer completed.

Player: Mandy

Name: Wang ?

Home Community
Unknown

Climate
Unknown

Education
Unknown

Events
Unknown

Family
Unknown

Picture not available

Player: Mark

Name: Jhelai Lajos 

Home Community
Unknown

Climate
Unknown

Education
Unknown

Events
Unknown

Family
Unknown

Picture not available

Player: Andrew

Jhelai is a male human Rogue Paladin. A former mobster who saw the light, Jhelai is a hostage negotiator and detective in the Royal Marshal Service paladin order.

Name: Nick Delozier

Home Community
Nick's family lived among the humans (see below).

Climate
Whether it's a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant feature of the landscape, that makes Nick feel at home. Nick grew up with cold winters, but warm summers.

Education
Nick showed an affinity for the arcane arts. Nick learned the skills of a healer or herbalist. Nick studied "defenses against the dark arts" and learned ways to fight monsters and battle the influence of black magic.

Events
War ruined Nick's community. Nick aided in the defense of the community
against raiders, but he and his family were forced to flee their home.

Family
Nick and his family are dependents of an officer in the military. This means little direct income, but the army provides for for Nick's needs. The male members control Nick's family. Nick's family has no consistent pattern of preparedness. Some members are very prepared for combat, but others are unprepared or unwilling to fight. Nick's family has neutral ethics or no consistent family ethical direction. Nick's family's ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Nick's family is a part of the system and supports it. Nick's family has no religious direction. Nick's family is known as stalwart companions. Nick's family is closely tied to a group that's generally well regarded by the community, the local version of the VFW. Nick's family produced a great military leader (his father Demus) who was eventually defeated.

Relationships
Both of Nick's parents are alive and healthy. Nick is an only child Nick has 6 living relatives. Nick has several friends who are companions or associates but who aren't intimately close. A top-notch instructor taught Nick more advanced arcane techniques, but the school headmaster looks on Nick with disfavor, due to his lack of manners.

Player: Keith

What????

Now, Now, Wait a minute! You mean to tell me that you don't remember a thing from the last 2 days!?!? Orendil, have you been fooling around with that damn wild magic again? I told you not to do that, buddy.

All right; Here goes: It all started a long time ago, on a planet far, far away with these big giant words flying through the cosmos to a wonderfully fanciful soundtrack! The New Hope was here, and it was US!...

 Note: We greatly apologize. The writer who has been writing the previous blurb has been sacked and has been replaced by someone with less flair for the dramatic.

Well, you see, there seems to be a menace, menacing a G'Banrak's little menacable planet. It's a 'Phantom Menace'!...

Note: We are extremely sorry. The people responsible for the sacking the writer who was just sacked have also been sacked. We apologize for any inconvenience.

On the other side was a silver room with a door at one end. When we looked out, we were met with quite an interesting sight. The wind was blowing and the clouds were really pretty. They were flying by pretty quick too. The only problem was that they were BELOW us. There was a narrow walkway ahead with no railings that led to a large silver globe on talllllllll tower. There were a bunch of these globes, all connected by narrow walkways. We were going to have to walk across. Milo was afraid he was going to get blown off. When we got to the next globe, we found another portal on one side and a door on the other. This went on and on, as we were led from one globe to another. I had the dead drow’s gear on my back and it was damn heavy. So, I rummaged through found all the stuff that I wanted, and told everybody else to claim stuff 'cause I was leaving it.

We then went over to a close-by town, and they brought you to a temple. They tried to get your level drain fixed, but it didn’t work apparently. Then, Milo found an antique magic store and cleaned them out. Apparently they had really cheap magic stuff, but he wouldn’t give any to me, that little pipsqueak! I went and found a store where I could buy an arm-mounted datapad. Oh, yeah. This is a planet full of wimps. No GUNS, Man! No weapons of any sort that I could find, short of a steak knife. It’s all something about a peaceful planet, or some other mumbo jumbo. So, we found a hotel and rested for the night.

Zoltan holds up Four fingers. Zoltan’s eyes get very big. We realized in session 17 that Zoltan can’t count.

It was fargin’ huge! With these big tentacles hanging about 100 feet off of the ground. Not knowing what to do, we went around. About 12 minutes later we came across another big floating thing. This one was not as big but it was singing. We sent the fairy out to talk to it. She said ‘Hi’. It sang to her. Then she asked it where it was from. It sang again. This time it didn’t stop. It kept on going and going and going and going… I bet it is still singing now. We didn’t get much out of it, so we kept on going. Not 5 minutes later, we came upon this big giant ‘MegaMaid’! Just kidding, but it might have been her vacuum cleaner. This looked like a big space vacuum, and it was sucking up a fifty-foot wide swath of land and trees. Not knowing what to do, we sent the fairy out again. She said ‘Hi’, again. It wasn’t to keen on responding. She asked more questions, and it just sucked more.

We went around it and in 5 minutes we came across the town of Boggy Bottom. Or at least what was left of it. The buildings that were left had massive scorch marks that look like they came from lightning bolts of some sort. The rest of the buildings were gone. Some people were running around all crazy like. We stopped one and he said that first this big 3 mile wide jellyfish shocked the crap out of the town, and then a big vacuum cleaner sucked up the rest of it. I figure he was a little loony. We got on the Drow radio and found some guy who said he was from the Temple of the Frog. Yeah, I know, it seems a little silly to worship a frog, but keep quiet about that. I bet these people don’t like wisecracks about the frog and the hamster, if you know what I mean.

Never mind. This guy thought that we were nuts, and he said they were going to send out a team to investigate. We said, screw that, and we moved on. You couldn’t miss the big trail that the vacuum cleaner left. So, figuring that the trail would lead us to the city, we just followed it. We soon came across a fifty food wide, paper thin, layer of goop on the trail. It was moving North. I didn’t like this. I was starting to get a real funny feeling, because I don’t like goop. I, driving the blue van, stayed a little ways back. Jhelai, driving the green van, got a little closer. Again, we sent the fairy. She threw some rations at it, and it just moved around it. Then somebody got the bright idea to throw some metal at it. So the fairy throws a gold piece at it. It then decides to start collecting itself. It quickly starts to shrink in width and get thicker. Soon, two tentacles looked like they were forming on the top. I yell at the fairy and Wang to get back in the buses, and I start moving! Wang had to jump in while the van was moving, and I was gone. Then, as we were passing the goop, the two tentacles shot out a good 50 feet at our vans! Luckily we were far enough out of the way and flooring it, or else it might have gotten more interesting! Nothin’ but gasps from the back seats.

At this point, I am getting a little pissed. A big planet full of wimps. No way to buy new equipment. And big freekin’ weird creatures! This sucks!

We kept moving and we got up to the mountain pass. We are still quite a ways away, when we see a green snake like creature with 8 pink tentacles coming off the sides of its head. Now, this didn’t really bother me, too much, except that it was 40 feet long. Then I hear from the back seat and over the intercom that these guys want to take it. I was in total shock. Somebody gets the bright idea to go up the road and wait for it to come by and ambush it. I was in shock, again. I actually did what they said. Nobody even listened to my plan, which was to stop, wait for it to pass, and move on behind it.

Well, we went up the road a bit, and hid the two vans about 10 feet off of the road behind a tree. The green van was parallel to the road and we were parked right next to the green van. We weren’t really hidden too well. Neither were we prepared to ambush it: We were still in the vans. A lot of people, including you, got the jump on me and got to attack first. Syd tried to cast something but he turned invisible instead. The only odd thing was that his clothes and gear didn’t.

Luckily, the snake got beaten up really quickly. Then something happened. Apparently, right before I blasted the crap out of it, it did a mind-transference on Jhelai. Then G’Banrak noticed it and yelled out that Jhelai didn’t look right: It was the creature! I didn’t hear that, though (Or Did I?), and blew Jhelai-in-Big-Snake-Body away.

Jhelai looked fierce, too. He had the Eye of the Tiger, and he was about to open up some real WhupAss on the green van inhabitants. Glad I wasn’t in there. As soon as G’Banrak yelled out, Nick was jumping out of the van door; He really likes jumping out of vehicles, I have determined. Moving or stationary, too. Kinda Cute. Then he tries to cast a web on Jhelai and gets his first taste of Wild Magic.

It’s OK, Big ‘O’. Everybody realizes once in his or her life that magic is truly unnatural and nasty.

Well, the web turns into some kind of stasis field, so Jhelai is frozen. He can’t move; he can’t do anything. So you know what they do? They keep casting! The Elf Female casts something and falls in love with Jhelai. Milo tries some kind of magic rod, and it starts growing 8 snakes out of it! Heh, Heh. I liked that one! Nick runs around the bus, goes up to the driver’s window and tries to grab Jhelai’s twin pistols. His hands get stuck in the Stasis field too. You try to go pull him out, and you almost pull his hands off. Nick also somehow ruined his amulet of spiked armor by casting something else. Now, I know these stasis fields don’t last too long, so I get in front of the bus and ready a shot for when he gets free. Somebody gets the bright idea of firing a blaster at him. It gets frozen too, just inches from his face. So, then everybody, but me, decided to frag the poor bastard, so that when he gets free, he will be turned into slag.

Sure enough, the next 30 seconds were filled with people pumping the stasis field full of blaster shots, and Nick almost soiling his armor; He didn’t want to get hit by a stray blaster. Stasis field disappears, you pull nick to the ground, and J gets turned into soggy bits. Nick and others loot the body, and the female elf, over there, starts crying. Now, I thought that blaster shots always cauterized the wounds that they inflict. But man, four or five blaster shots hitting someone’s head at the same time, and that sucker EXPLODES! Whoa, what a sight!

The next little while was a blur. Most cleared the soggy bits out of the front seat, while Milo decided to go cut off the snakes head. It was a big head. I mean bigger than Milo. Actually, it’s hanging out in the garden over yonder, we can go see it later, to see if it jogs your memory. You and Milo cut off the snakes head, and then we noticed that the snake was still moving! It was as if something was inside of it! Wait a minute, It’s a baby! Kill It! Kill It! Kill It!

So we’re riding along, and off in the distance we notice a blurry humanoid figure walking straight toward us. Everybody wanted to stop but me; I wanted to buzz him and scare him a little bit. So we stop about 100 feet away and he disappears. See, that’s what you get for not having any fun. We didn’t know what happened so we kept on moving. Then in the green van, G’Banrak yells "There’s something in the back seat!". Everybody in the green van starts freakin’. Nick was ready to jump out of the van, even though it was moving 115 miles per hour. See what I mean? You were wondering what the hell they were talking about, and so were we. You couldn’t see anything there; it must have been invisible. It was actually funny to see everybody up in the front seat. We yell out over the intercom to try and talk to it. The fairy says ‘Hi’. Nobody else says anything. I tell the drow to start scanning the other van, to make sure that they aren’t going nuts. They actually detected some kind of humanoid presence sitting in the back seat, next to the bodies. It was not from this planet.

But, nobody wanted to do anything, so we kept on moving to the Temple of the Frog. A couple of minutes later, while traveling over the river, 7 or so blobs start rising out in front of the water in front of us. We were able to dodge most of them, but we each hit one dead on. SPLAT! Pink blob guts all over the windshield. Yuck!

We kept on moving. We were coming upon a line of trees to our left. Then, BLAM! A massive blaster shot hits each van dead on. All we could tell was that they came from over the tree line. Totaled each van! Yours pretty much started to quit right there; hell, you didn’t even have much of roof anymore. I couldn’t tell where it came from, but I knew it was high up, and I wanted to get under it. Pedal to the Metal!

Right down the beach at 115 miles per hour! I wanted to whip around that line of trees and get right up to it. My passengers, on the other hand, wouldn’t hear of it. But, I didn’t care! I was going for it anyway! 10 seconds to the turn. Milo says, "STOP!" 9 seconds to the turn. The Drow go crazy mad! 8 seconds to the turn. Wang says, "Your Clazy!" 7 seconds to the turn! Everybody yells, "STOP!!!" It was so loud, that it actually got to me, and I had a change of heart. Knowing that I had to stop quick, I slammed on the brakes. As soon as it stopped, I jumped out and went running into the line of trees that are covering us, so I could get a better look. Nick, Wang, Milo, Syd and a couple others join me, but you stayed behind to guard the Drow. That creature was still in the back seat.

We saw a huge wall, 30 feet high, with giant turrets up on towers on the corners. There were people with binoculars trying to look for us. These turrets were massive, like large anti-vehicular blasters. The wall went on down to the south for hundreds of feet. Milo, who always learns the hard way, tried to jump using his ring of jump. He went up a good 35 feet, and was immediately shot at by the turret. Then, he was lucky, I think, that he had his ring of featherfall on, except that when activated, it permanently made him unable to taste apples. I bet he’s sorry he used magic now!

Then the Drow noticed a tank coming many yards down the tree line. We all tried to hide in the trees and swampy bushes. Oh yes, it was quite swampy out there. Nick actually tried to dig a hole and got filthy. Milo got on the radio while the tank was getting close. He talked to the same guy again, and the guy asked if that was us in the vans. Well, Yeah! Meanwhile, the tank then stops right in front of us. It aims its gun at one of the vans and fires; it fell short with a thump. Milo asked the guy why they were shooting at us, and he replied that we were flying real fast towards the temple and they thought we were hostile. Then he asked us again if we were tourists. Finally, Milo told him that we were hiding from the tank. He asked why, if we were tourists, we were hiding in the first place!

At that point, I placed my assault blaster on my back and walked out of the trees up to the tank with my hands up. Almost immediately, somebody pops out of the hatch and levels a gun at me. He got me to drop my guns and then grilled me about what I was doing here, and so on. He spotted 3 others in the trees and asked everyone to get out. Wang was trying to sneak around back of the tank to sneak up on the guy, but he wasn’t too graceful about it. Finally the soldier asks me how many are in our group. After thinking about it, I said 10. With that he got more people to come out, including you, and got them to drop their guns. They were a little taken aback by ‘Syd the Invisible Man’.

Then we noticed a boat pulling up down by the vans, and two soldiers getting out and coming our way. One of them had this really wicked looking gun, and both of them had at least two backup guns. They came up and ordered us to the boat. Most of us went to the boat. I stayed behind to ask the guy about his weapon. He wasn’t too thrilled. The two soldiers collected all of the gear and put it up in the tank. The tank commander then saw another 3 people in the woods. He asked me why I said there were ten of us. I told him the truth: I can’t count. Wang then asked the tank commander why they didn’t actually blow up the van with their gun earlier. He said the plain and simple, obvious truth: "We missed."

OK, don’t let anybody know it, but Milo, Alahandra, and one of the Drow are still out there hiding in the woods. We got on the boat and took a trip to the garden, which is inside the walls. It was here that we explained our side of the story. We also found out about this place. This is the Temple of the Frog, and it has been here for a very long time. In the past, the walls were built to protect the town from the denizens of the swamp: crocs and other nasties. It all seems a little overblown to me. Their rep is a Three Frog officer in the local militia. They answer to a dude named St. Steven, who is a Ten Frog General. We asked if we could see this Ten Froggy dude, and he said he might let us see him. We asked about the patrol that was sent to Boggy Bottom and they said it hadn’t returned yet. He asked which of us was the one using the radio. Knowing that Milo wasn’t here, I said it was Wang, who at the exact same moment was saying that he didn’t know how to use a radio and pointed at me. We quickly changed the subject.

So, the guy then asked us where the body was to get resurrected. Uh, it’s in the van still. He was a little miffed. You volunteered to go back to the van to grab the body parts and the heads. While you were there, you noticed the invisible dude was still there, but you couldn’t make him leave. When you got back, you waited there with the snake heads, while Nick went with Jhelai’s body to get it resurrected. I think he was going to get cleaned up too. Some guards came out and videoed the heads, and you left the heads with them. I think that they might try to hide the evidence, but no biggie.

The rest of us took a jaunt across the wooden bridge into Frog Town: A small, old time village with wooden huts and buildings. It was quite a change from the high tech guards who have guns coming out of every orifice. Oh, and there are guards everywhere, as if this place is hiding something. I don’t trust them at all, but I want to get some weapons from them. Just a few minutes ago, Wang went with some more soldiers on a boat ride to show them the blobs that we saw down the river. And we also just saw a boat pull up with some prisoners who were led into that building across the street.

Oh, you ought to go check out the animal skin shop down the road. That’s where I got this nice rabbit skin for my helmet.

Zoltan points to the rabbit skin affixed to his helmet.

So, that’s about it. Does any of this ring a bell? Ahh, well just stay away from those magic users and you’ll be OK. Lemme buy you a drink.

Nick has taken Jhelai’s body and is bringing it to the Temple. The Three Frog Officer has offered him a chance to clean up, so he is led up to the Temple, but then diverted to the right. He crosses over a drawbridge and then is led to a small room where he is allowed to clean up. The room is small with very little furnishings; it might be where training priests live. When he is done, he goes with the officer back to the Temple. The officer tells him to take the body inside, and they will know what to do.

The boat with Wang and the 5 soldiers pulls up to the beach where the vans ran into the flying jellyfish. They tell Wang to go get some evidence. Wang refuses. He says he can’t swim, and he would have to swim to the beach to collect the specimen. They think he nuts, but Wang sticks his ground. One of the soldiers then says, " Hey, the water is only 3 feet deep here!" Wang lost, but he made them tie a rope around him. He gets out and he soon finds some remnants, but he is not about to touch the stuff so he comes back. He asks for a container of some sort, but they didn’t have any. Then he asks one of the soldiers for his helmet. The guy thought he was crazy, but then Wang used some Zoltan Logic on him to convince him to give up his helmet.

As Wang is climbing back into the boat with the sample, he notices 5 flying jellyfish coming up from behind the boat and none of the others notice. Wang freaks and jumps back in the water and starts swimming away! They get mad and pull him back into the boat. He jumps out again. Finally, one of the soldiers mind blasts him and they get him back in the boat. Once Wang stands up, he yells "Jerryfish!" and immediately gets stunned by one of the jellyfish. The soldiers take care of the jellyfish very easily. Wang wakes up as they are on the way back.

Wang makes his way back to the Inn and meets Nick and Jhelai on the road. There was much rejoicing and they were greeted with cheers when they got to the Inn. Everybody was very happy to see Jhelai and Wang was telling stories about how he kicked jellyfish butt.

Out in the woods, it looks like it’s the right time. Everything’s real quiet. The plan is this: Alahandra will fly across and tell Amio and Milo if the coast is clear. Amio will swim across and Milo will try to use his ring of Water Walking. Milo offers his ring of swimming to Amio, but he doesn’t take; he thinks he can make it on his own. Alahandra flies across and gives the OK. Amio starts swimming and Milo starts walking over the water. Milo is totally thrilled that he can walk on water, but he doesn’t notice the side effect that he is coming under. Alahandra looks back to see if they are OK and notices that Milo looks really scary; he looks undead! She can ’t believe her eyes once he gets to the shore. He has turned into an undead creature! As Amio is swimming across, he looks up for a split second and sees Milo too. He almost stops, but instead keeps going. Once he gets there he asks, "What happened to you?!" Milo isn’t totally sure but he figures it must be Wild Magic again. He feels totally OK; he doesn’t feel like he is undead, so he suggests going on with the plan.

Soldier1: "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Alahandra: "I’m a fairy, and I’ve come to see the Temple."

Soldier1: "Where are you from?"

Alahandra: "I’m from the forest: from Fairyland."

Soldier1: "Why didn’t you come in from the town?" pointing to the town to the west.

Alahandra: "I came from the other way!"

Soldier2: "Hey, let’s kill it!"

Soldier1: "No, man. You need to leave now."

Alahandra: "Why?"

Soldier1: "You shouldn’t be here. Leave Now!"

Soldier2: "Yeah, it will be good for target practice!"

Alahandra: "All right! Screw You!"

As she turns around and flies back, the soldier fires at her but misses. The other one then calls on the radio and asks for a scouting team. She gets back and tells the others. They consider sneaking into the town, but Amio said that he wouldn’t be able to swim that far. They were getting ready to try and sneak past the guards when Amio sees two scouts, a Dwarf and a Human, coming to look for them. The fairy decides to run a diversion while the other two hide.

Alahandra darts in front of the two soldiers and starts flying away from the gate and towards the town. They try to follow but she is too erratic. She then passes over a waterway, which they can’t cross, and into the town. Her first instincts, though, are to find a place to sleep and not to find a way in for the other two. She sees an Inn not far from where she is, which also has a lot of noise coming from it, so she decides to enter. As soon as she flies in, she sees the rest of the group. They all see her and yell out "The Fairy!" Quickly they rejoice and start asking where the other two are. She is totally thrilled to see that they aren’t in jail and then goes back to tell Milo and Amio the news.

They sneak their way through the buildings, not wanting to be seen. It is late, so there aren’t too many people out, and as they approach the tavern, they can hear the activity inside. Alahandra decides to go inside and warn everyone about Milo. She goes in and tells everyone about Milo’s condition, but not everybody listens: Zoltan especially. Zoltan, Wang and some of the locals have been drinking very heavily. Then she goes and brings Milo in, as there are gasps from the whole room. Milo says, " Hi, it's me. Milo!" Just to be sure, Jhelai casts Detect Evil on him, and tells everyone that he is not evil, but all of a sudden Milo ’s shadow start moving on it’s own and making obscene gestures. Most people start laughing at Milo, and he gets a little confused. Then, Zoltan notices the undead creature that just came in the door, and refuses to believe that it’s Milo. Zoltan says, "What the Hell is That!?!?!?" Everybody says, "It’s just Milo; don’t worry about it." "No it’s not!" Zoltan yells as he starts charging at the undead creature! Milo is even more confused as he sees a drunken bull charging at him. He aims his gun at him but doesn’t fire, and instead dodges out of the way as Zoltan goes right by him and out the door!

Milo is now a little unsure of the drunken Zoltan, so he moves as far away from the door as he can. Nick is now a little pissed off at the buffoon, so he readies a Wall of Force spell to cast right in front of Zoltan in case he comes back in. Sure enough, Zoltan slams the door open, scanning the room for the creature. Nick fires it off, and Wild Magic takes it’s toll again; The wall doesn’t go off, and Nick, 5’5", and Zoltan, 6’6", then switch places with each other and are now wearing each other’s clothes! Zoltan screams bloody murder! Nick is wearing combat armor that is way too many sizes to large and Zoltan is busting out of Nick’s clothes. That was not the problem though: Zoltan was wearing Nick’s magic rings now!

Zoltan pulls off Nick’s ring of Spell Storing and is about to destroy it. Nick asks anybody for a gun so he can stop this imbecile, and Milo throws him a pistol. Milo warns Zoltan to stop what he is doing or he will get shot! Nick seconds the threat, but that doesn’t stop Zoltan. He throws the ring on the floor and stomps on it with all his might! Milo shoots him and gives him a minor flesh wound and Nick shoots at him and puts a hole in the wall. This doesn’t seem to deter Zoltan, though, so Orendil rushes up and tries to grab him, but can’t get a hold on him. Some of the bar maids run out the door screaming, while most of the other patrons and the bartender watch with zeal. Zoltan tries again to break the ring, and Milo threatens him a second time. This time, drunken Wang decides to get involved because they just shot his drinking buddy. He staggers up and tries to throw Milo out the door and ends up throwing himself out the door! Nick threatens Zoltan again, but can’t shoot because he doesn’t want to hit Orendil. Nick then announces that he will cast everything he’s got to stop Zoltan, and everybody scrambles. Syd gets ready to back Nick up, and Alahandra starts flying over to give Zoltan a piece of her mind! Finally, Orendil gets a hold of Zoltan, and he starts calming down. He gives up fighting except he pulls the other ring off and beams it at Nick, who is rushing over to protect his magic rings. They quickly start exchanging clothes as the remaining bar maids start giggling.

When they finally get all their clothes on and everything else is settled, Zoltan turns to Nick and says slowly, "If you ever cast magic on me again, you won’t live to cast again." Nick returns Zoltan’s stare and with a sneer says, "I’ll be watching you!" The battle of wills had begun. Alahandra, hearing Zoltan’s threat, flew up to Zoltan and kicked him in the back. He returns the favor by spinning around and trying to swat her to the floor but misses. She gets really angry and casts Fairy Fire on him and instead teleports 50 feet away as Zoltan laughs. As she’s coming back, 5 town guards enter the tavern. Milo hides and Nick puts his hand over the blaster hole in the wall, trying to look nonchalant. They ask if everything is OK and the bartender just laughs. The guards leave, and Zoltan walks up to the bar and thanks the bartender for his good sense of humor. Zoltan orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar and gets a room for the night. Everybody else just tries to calm down. Alahandra gets back, and stays away from Zoltan. Outside, Wang finally gets up and, feeling embarrassed, he staggers off to another bar. He ends up right back at the same tavern, but he doesn’t realize it for 30 minutes. People start retiring for the night to get ready for tomorrow.

A little at a time, everyone comes down and gets some breakfast. Milo, thankfully, doesn’t look strange anymore, but his shadow still has a mind of its own. Jhelai and Nick say they are going to visit the Temple and most everyone else decides to join them. All of the drow techs, except for the Lieutenant, decide to stay behind and inspect their equipment. Zoltan says he is going to go fishing and he’ll see everyone later. After breakfast, everyone else proceeds to the Temple.

Zoltan goes back to the Fur Store and buys a wolf skin cape and tries to find a way to wear it. Then he goes to the pier and buys some fishing gear. While there, he asks one of the locals about the city, the walls and the guards. He really didn’t have any clue. Then, Zoltan asked about the people being led from the boats, and the local said that Slavery is a big industry in this town. They have slave auctions up in the town often. Zoltan asked who needs all of these slaves and the local didn’t know. So, he proceeded to the pier and tried his luck at fishing. As long as he didn’t see any jellyfish, he would be able to get some long needed rest and relaxation.

Everyone walking to the Temple soon got to see Milo’s aftermath from the night before; The Blade Barrier was still up and the guards weren’t letting anyone through. The guards suggested taking the ferry. They go down to the piers and find a ferry that quickly transports them over to the Garden. While walking through the garden and soaking up the scenery, they hear a whisper; it is Amio, and he is hiding in the Garden and watching and waiting. They tell him to stay put, and continue on to the Temple. When they get there, a priest meets them and they tell him what they want. The priest tells them that it is healing time, and anyone who wants to get healing can come in; everyone else will have to wait a little while.

Now that everyone has seen what the balls do, they are very wary. Milo goes up to him and asks him to fix his shadow, which is still making obscene gestures. The priest tries to cast something, but it doesn’t work; instead, in a 30-foot radius around the priest, shrubberies start growing out of the floor. Milo gets even more wary of this guy and walks out to the front to meet Orendil and everyone else. The other priests dismiss everyone and start trying to remove the plants before the next service.

Outside, another priest approaches and offers a tour for anyone interested in the Order of the Frog. Alahandra sneaks into Nick’s backpack, as Syd, Nick, Jhelai, Milo and the Drow Lieutenant accept the offer. They do a tour where they see the Temple and the Training Facilities. They are then led into a meeting room on the first floor of the Temple. The priest then explains the Way of the Frog and what it entails. The Drow Lieutenant does a scan of the priest when he is not looking, and she determines that he is not entirely human. She whispers this to Nick who tries not to react noticeably. Milo then asks about the slaves and how they fit into the Way. The priest says that the slaves are there for testing, so Milo asks if there are any female Halflings while his shadow makes a particularly lewd gesture. The priest said he didn’t know, and he was starting to get impatient. He asked if anyone would be willing to join the order, adding that if they didn’t want to then they can leave, as he is a busy man. All but Nick seemed disinterested in the priest’s offer, so he tells them to leave. Nick wants to infiltrate the Order but he says he will think about it till tomorrow, so the priest escorts him out and says to come back tomorrow if he wants to join.

The group starts heading back, as they discuss what they have learned. G’Banrak gets very angry when she hears about the slaving of her people; she wants to do something about it. They tell Amio to stay put and take the ferry back to the other side, as the Blade Barrier is still in effect. They see Zoltan at the pier, and he actually has a half-dozen fish. They walk back to the Inn, Zoltan gives his fish to the Keeper and they go to one of the larger rooms upstairs to discuss things. Most of the party wants to leave the town and continue on the original mission. G’Banrak is extremely pissed because she wants to get to the bottom of this and stop the slavery. A couple of the others, like Nick, want to stay to investigate the Order further. Zoltan wants to get his weapons back, and he doesn’t think that they can use the vans to get up to the City of the Gods. Milo wants to see if they can get them fixed. Milo also wants to buy a slave to see if they would join us. Almost as soon as he says this, there is a knock on the door. Syd answers it and a servant says that they are wanted downstairs immediately.

Zoltan: "I have a quick question: Why do you have so many Guards here?"

Milo: "Zoltan! Shhh!"

Zoltan: "Why do you have such artillery and weaponry if all you are doing here is fending off crocs?"

Syd: "Zoltan!"

Zoltan: "Either your crocs are 3 stories tall..."

Everyone: "ZOLTAN!"

Zoltan: "Or you are hiding something!"

The Officer said nothing, but shot a steely look at Zoltan as he walked out with the guards following.

Luckily Syd and Wang had moved to another table earlier and escaped the
explosion. Everyone else had a couple of burns on their feet and everyone
involved got weird looks from the rest of the bar.

Later that day Zoltan went and matched his rabbit hat with rabbit shoes
though, so its no big worry.

Milo: "All this discussing is worthwhile, but G'Banrak may not have much
time. We really need to decide QUICKLY on a single, coherent plan for
taking out the temple gang, AND have someone who calls the shots on the fly
when things start going wrong, as they always do. Syd's the genius here;
why don't we let him lead this mission?"

Orendil: "I agree with Milo. The situation demands immediate action, and I'll defer to Syd's planning skills."

We don't have any of our stuff back yet, unfortunately. The Zoltan blowing
buildings up comment was somewhat assuming that we will find our stuff
somewhere along the way.

Your boots exploded for some mysterious reason Zoltan was unable to
decipher. He suspects Magic was afoot so to speak but is unable to prove
anything.

G'Banrak went out to scout for information at the same time as Jheli, Alahandra, and Milo. Alahandra and Milo scouted the base out physically and Milo actually got into a fight with some frogmen.

Jheli and G'Banrak went to other establishments in the area and tried to
gather some information from the natives. Jheli managed to meet up with a
waitress slave who gave him a ring that she claims will
unlock some of the doors in the temple. G'Banrak never came back.

Jheli and Wang tracked G'Banrak to a bordello. Thinking that she may have
been pressed into service, they both went upstairs and took in various peep
shows (Wang even spent a little time with a special lady) before leaving a
little happier and several hundred credits shorter.

Ao went off on his own later on, after we told the drow to stay together in
pairs, in order to buy a rabbit hat. He was never seen again.

North of Frog Town is what amounts to a military base of about double the
size of Frog Town. The amount of soldiers is uncertain, but if even half of
the buildings are living quarters the Temple has a sizeable force.

The walls around the entire complex are studded with turreted auto-cannons.
There are a few of the size of the ones that took out our vans, but most are
smaller. Still, they are probably extremely deadly.

While we discussed the Wild Magic a little more, we currently have no
solution. Somewhat hard to get Remove Curse cast on you when the spell goes
wild when cast in your presence.

Alahandra suggested we try splitting up at a later date to try and see if
only one person was exuding Wild Magic and to determine what its maximum
range is. While this would be a great help, Syd doubts we will get a chance
to devote the time this would take (not to mention the amount of space it
would need) anytime soon.

Syd, Orendil, Milo, and Alahandra have retrieved Amio from his hiding
spot within the garden. He has loaned one of his assault blasters to Orendil
but refuses to let anyone use his backup (he has three total.)

Milo tried to get him to give it to you (since three maniacs with assault
blasters is better than two) but he was adamant on keeping it (he said he
would rather shoot Milo than give it to you.)

If you have questions, feel free to ask. Like I said, the summary was just
that, pretty short and lacking of a lot of details. In fact, I didn't even
mention Wang in the whorehouse with the prostitute. Quite a funny scene.

Syd and Orendil went into the barracks area to meet up with Guard
Captain with whom we had made the deal to get our weapons back for
fighting the menace (or whoever he was - I wasn't present that night).
He claimed that he didn't remember us, and a sense motive check
indicated that he was telling the truth. Because of this, Orendil
believes that the frog priests may have the soldiers under some sort of
enchantment.

Milo says, "Maybe their mind-control enchantment is the 'gift' they received from St. Steven."

Syd replied, "We can only hope. Much better for them to be mind controlled than for them to have abilities we know nothing about."

"I think it's obvious the Temple plans to keep us here and disappear us one
by one. If we sit here and wait for them, I doubt any of us will be alive or
free within the week.

Obviously their barracks area is too well protected and staffed for . We have to hit the temple. I suggest we all enter any assault in order eliminate our guide and roam the temple freely. We should go to pray, or perhaps receive healing. Once inside we can try to find Saint Steven and find out what is really going on within the Temple.

If they are truly feeding slaves to these frogmen, we cannot let them continue. At the most extreme we can use Zoltan's explosives to level a few buildings while we make our escape. We need to try to avoid taking on the entire base at once, however, so something a little less obvious would be preferred."

Alahandra shrugs her shoulders indifferently. "I really don't care as long as Zoltan isn't the leader."

Zoltan: "I should Lead! All you magical fools do is get us into trouble!"

Zoltan Thinking: "Wait a minute though. That would mean that I would be in a position of deciding what is best for magic users. Hmmm, I don't like that! I don't want to be responsible for these bums!"

Zoltan: "On second thought, I will let someone else take charge. But don't you sissies think that I am going to take any orders from ya! If I don't agree with what you want to do, then I'm doing my own thing!"

"I like this plan, though. I would love to kick some ass and get some extra crap. But, what exactly happened today, again?"

Zoltan: "Screw slavery. Like I care about that... I just want to find out what there really hiding back there. Money? Guns? Frogmen? See, Frogmen just doesn't seem to fit, unless these are some bestiality freaks or something. I think there is something powerful back there. I want to get my hands on it or destroy it!"

Orendil said, "I meant that Syd is the guy who comes up with the plans, but you're not going to be able to completely stop the group from expressing their 'judicial opinions' or using their 'veto power' if the plan is something they strongly object to."

Jhelai: "If we all go to the temple together, I think we have a good
chance at taking it. It's well-guarded from the outside, but once
inside the walls there's only a few guards in the temple itself. We
don't have many weapons now, but it shouldn't be too hard to take out
the few guards inside the temple with some automatic blaster fire.
Then we can scavenge weapons from them and hold up the priests. They
will be at a disadvantage because their spellcasting will be
disrupted by the wild magic field. Now, we need to plan this out.
I've been on raids like this before, so I think my experience can be
applied here. How does this sound:

"First thing in the morning, we assemble in the garden. Once we're
all together, we head down to the temple, claim that we wish to
recieve healing, and go inside. We should enter the temple and close
its doors behind us as soon and with as little noise as possible. We
should bar them or lock them if we can. Then, someone should open
the door to the room that Milo saw the guards in while someone sprays
automatic fire into the room. It hopefully won't take long to take
out the guards this way. Someone else should keep the priests busy,
preferably not actually shooting them unless they make the first
move. Once the guards are down, we take as many weapons as we can.

"Now, I have a few problems with just going in there and blasting
everything. I'm opposed to using violence unless it furthers justice
somehow. I don't see how killing the priests will help free the
slaves. I'm also not convinced that the frog soldiers are being mind-
controlled. Killing the priests might just make the soldiers angry.
I'm going along with this because this place is dangerous and we need
to take decisive action to get out. Self-preservation is the other
circumstance where violence becomes reasonable, so here we are.

"How does the plan sound to you all?"

"I think you may be underestimating the priests in allowing them to live.
Even with Wild Magic, they can be very, VERY dangerous. Remember the Blade
Storm that even now is blocking the first bridge?

Imagine that appearing around all of us. I don't like killing without reason
either, but in this case I would say we are justified. These are priests of
a religion that feeds slaves to some kind of frog, afterall. I find it
unlikely that any of them are truly innocent."

Milo: "Sounds to me like Syd's got a good general plan so far, and
Jhelai's got some good tactical suggestions. How are we going to
convince them that we ALL need healing without raising suspicion?
Perhaps we could claim that we've all come down with some sort of common
sickness that we must have picked up out in the wilds? Maybe some sort
of painful stomach nausea? They might just let us all in at once
without suspecting trouble if we look like we're barely able to walk.
We might even put Ameo on a stretcher for good measure -- and he could
hide his weapons more easily under the blanket."

"If we claim we need healing, however, we might also need a back-up
plan. We might get there and they'll tell us they're not doing any
healing (because they're still trying to figure out the wild magic
problem). So maybe then we tell them that WE have figured out the wild
magic problem, and we'll trade our knowledge for their healing? Or
maybe we just ask to pray as a group in the temple? I don't know..."

"Or, here's an idea -- instead of pretending to need healing, maybe we
tell them that two of our drow want to get married in the temple, and
that all of us want to attend the wedding! But then, we don't know if
they even do weddings..."

Syd: "Instead of requesting healing, perhaps we should all tell them we are
interested in joining. Last time, they were quick to let us all in when we
said we might join."

Lt. Val: "I like the idea about asking to join. They were very
accomodating and we can get in a room with one Brother of the Frog.
Apparently they aren't from this planet anyway." "Two may enter a
few minutes later and bar the door and take out the front door
guards."

Zoltan: "How many guards were inside the temple? Outside? Where
were they positioned?

Since Amio won't give me a weapon, I suggest that Amio and Orendil
focus fire on one guard, while myself and others run a distracion.
Then when the first guard falls I can get armed and help take out the
rest.

Was the door bar-able? Were there any electronic locks? Do we know
of any other ways into the temple?

Hummmm, wait a minute...

Does anyone know if there is a passage between the barracks and the
Temple? We might not be able to secure any part of the temple,
especially if there is a quick passage from the barracks to the
temple. If we go in and bar the doors, we might be able to take out
the few guards in the front REALLY easily. But then we might just be
surrounded by guards from the inside, and the rest is history.

So, on second thought, I like the plan to go join and get into the
upper levels. Then we might be able to find our way to St. Steven,
and if he is captured or killed, then we might have more bargaining
power. All assuming that St. Steven is even in there.

By the way, Amio, I hope you are as good a shot as you make yourself
out to be! I don't know your reason for not giving me a weapon, but
I am the best shot in this party. Don't be surprised, if the tide
turns against us, for me to grab your backup and show you how to
really shoot it! And remember, these guards are better than your
basic little Githyanki peons. They look equivalent to the Knights
that we faced, and are even more dangerous if they have automatic
weapons. Two good shooters, and Milo as backup, might not be enough
to overpower a large group. You casters need to keep casting to a
minimum, too."

Orendil: "I think the idea of asking to join the order sounds most promising, but the "gift of the frog" worries me. Last time a magic user gave me a gift, it left me reeling for days."

Milo: "If I remember right, they let all of us who said we were interested
in joining into the interview room on the first floor, but then they said
they would only take us one-by-one to be formally inducted into the order
(wherever they do that). That's the point at which Nick and I said we
needed more time to think about joining. So saying we want to join seems
like it should have a good chance of getting us in the main door, and into a
first floor interview room, but I think that's all we should expect."

Alahandra: Well, I have been good at creating distractions lately, buzzing the guards and whatnot. I could always try to get them to chace me again.

Syd: "Thats all I think we need."

After hearing the following from Zoltan...

"By the way, Amio, I hope you are as good a shot as you make yourself
out to be! I don't know your reason for not giving me a weapon, but
I am the best shot in this party. Don't be surprised, if the tide
turns against us, for me to grab your backup and show you how to
really shoot it! And remember, these guards are better than your
basic little Githyanki peons. They look equivalent to the Knights
that we faced, and are even more dangerous if they have automatic
weapons. Two good shooters, and Milo as backup, might not be enough
to overpower a large group. You casters need to keep casting to a
minimum, too."

Amio snarls something under his breath and leaves the tavern abruptly.

Amio does leave an Assault Blaster for Orendil with 3 power packs of ammo.

After a brief discussion, the party started to enact their plan and entered the Temple saying we were there to join. Amio had never returned after he left the night before, so the party didn't have his help.

As soon as everyone was inside, Zoltan and Milo began to shoot the guide who was leading us. Wang ran and locked the large double doors shut. Unfortunetly, the Drow that was supposed to kick in the door for Orendil to blast the guards was caught off balance and Orendil did nothing (pretty much all of the Drow had 1's for Init.)

The guide Zoltan and Milo were shooting proved to be a highly armored and trained Fighter and he whipped out a Blaster Rifle and proceeded to lay some smack down himself. Nick noticed that there was a halfling guard sitting in the pews.

Orendil tried to kick the door in but failed. He then opened it using the handle. Syd started casting at the guide who was putting up a really good fight between Zoltan, Milo, and Alahandra. Nick started shooting at the guard in the pews. This was when Keith left.

Keith, the round after you left Nick was dropped to 3 HPs (technically he went to negative something, but Manny was nice and let him live. Don't let Mandy play your character.) Nick began to cast spells at the guard at this point.

The guide finally went down and Milo and Zoltan were able to turn their attention to the guard. He was much harder than the guide. Wang charged the guard as Syd continued to cast.

The guards in the room began to fight Orendil and Jheli. At one point, they launched a grenade into the middle of Alahandra, Syd, Milo, Zoltan and Wang. The grenade managed to kill the Drow Liutenant.

Wang tried to grapple the halfling guard but found himself easily bested. The guard continued to blast everyone. Syd and Nick continued to cast spells (they cast a spell pretty much every round.)

Zoltan fired a full burst into the halfling guard but one of Syd's Wild Surges had made all damage the guard took transfer to Syd. Syd was now at 0. Wang punched the halfling guard and did 12, killing Syd.

The halfling guard finally began to run and Wang chased. Nick cast a spell and the Wild Surge caused him, the halfling guard, Wang, and a gnome commoner to change places.

All of this time, Orendil and Jheli were still fighting two guards in the small guard room Milo had found on his first trip.

Zoltan, Milo, and Alahandra began to shoot at the halfling guard who was now in Nick's clothing. Nick's magical amulet caused a Wild Surge that turned a nearby column into a Stone Golem. The Golem wapped the halfling guard as he ran away, then began advancing on Nick.

Zoltan opened up on the fleeing halfling (after nearly shooting Wang, who was in the spot the halfling had been in) and managed to kill him. Wang had pulled a grenade from all of the stuff he had teleported into (the halfling guard's gear) and already activated it.

Since the halfling was dead he threw at the Golem. He missed and the grenade bounced a little bit. It went off damaging the Golem, as well as Zoltan and Nick. Nick, being seriously wounded from earlier, fell over dead. (Wang killed not one but two, yes TWO, PCs tonight.)

Zoltan managed to blow the golem to little bits and Orendil and Jheli finished off the two guards. In the guard room they found two prisoners, at least one of which seems ready to grab a gun and avenge his capture. There is also a wounded guard who was scared by one of Syd's Wild Surges and is trapped in a room.

The party has not left the first floor, but Alahandra knows for sure at least one more guard is one the second floor. The Temple has at least four floors.

Currently, most of the party is seriously wounded. Zoltan is out of Fast Healing for the day. I think Milo may be out of patches, although Syd still has a good bit. Ammo is beginning to become a problem for several party members, especially those who are using guns looted from bodies. Nick and Syd are both currently dead, although Milo knows about the Ressurection device.

The party is still on the first floor and most likely cannot leave the Temple (we passed seven guards on the way in.)

People on the 2nd floor if not others on the 1st floor.
Yes, there is still at least one guard upstairs praying (pretty
sure he was a ... UBER Halfling! :) Maybe an UBER pixie!

Healing ... Plenty of Healing, but is there time?
Yes, Orendil would not have surrendered mere health patches
Yes, Syd's corpse has patches

Gathering Equipment
Yes, Wang is definitely carry some stuff
Yes, I believe Wang is rifling through Syd's stuff
Yes, Jhelai searched the 2 guards in the room
Yes, The male prisoner is now wearing a guard uniform and cloak
Yes, Eniavio the Drow, has the Recruiter's stuff
Yes, Blaster cells are the same for all Blaster DS weapons
Correct, no one has searched the guard quarters yet, just the guards and the cells

Other items of interest
Yes, you can now here people banging on the bronze doors from outside
No, the halfling was not that powerful, he had plenty of armor
There is noise coming from behind most of the doors in the temple 1st floor

Fun and Follies
3 Drow rolled 1's on INIT
1 Drow rolled a 2
Milo missed the recruiter and hit Alahandra who had just popped out of Nick's knapsack
The Lt. Drow burned to a crisp by a grenade
Wang punched the halfling right after Syd cast the ice knife with damage swap, therefore killing Syd
Wang tossed a grenade at the Stone Golem, missed and nearly killed Zoltan, Alahandra, but he didn't miss Nick

Wild Magic and who caused it....I can't keep up
Syd's ice knife did cause the damage swap with the halfling and himself
Nick's fireball did cause the positional swap between Wang, the halfling, the frog town member, and himself
The halfling wearing Nick's amulet brought about the halfling sized Stone Golem
Syd lit himself up like a wild magic show
Syd's and Nick's spells caused all kinds of calamities
Nick enchanted something in the temple with the ability to cast lightning bolts
Nick changed all gold coins and credit chips within 300' to have his likeness stamped on them (therefore now unacceptable currency)
Syd's electricity protection ring went off and cursed him moments before he died.
Syd's ring also made an image of his mother appear scolding his dead corpse for 3 rounds.

Orendil proceeded up the stairs first with Jhelai right behind him.  A guard was waiting for them with an automatic rifle.  Orendil and Jhelai each took a good dose of lead.  Orendil retreated downstairs as Wang ran by to attack the guard.  After Alahandra accidentally hit Wang with a blaster shot, Wang and the others finally killed the guard.  

Orendil went downstairs back to the first level and found Milo running towards him.  Just then, they heard many doors starting to be unlocked and opened.  Milo quickly jumped to the 2nd floor balcony, and this caused the area to be overcome with a big top band music, spot lights, and the smell of popcorn, candy apples, and cotton candy.  The area had a distinct circus feel.

Orendil backed up to a strategic location near the stairwell and started firing grenades like a "Zoltan."  Orendil blasted groups of guards who were running towards him, while the others, Zoltan, Alahandra, Milo layed down deadly fire from above.  Milo through a bunch of tanglefoot bags to prevent the guards from accessing the stairwells.  

One guard came close enough to the stairwell and was trapped in the tanglefoot goo.  Upon firing his weapon, 39 kittens appeared around him, and they also got stuck in the tanglefoot goo.  Alahandra flew off the balcony and fired at the stuck guard, she killed 7 kittens.  Orendil was a little less subtle and just placed a set grenade in the goo and immediately ran up the stairs.  Kitten guts went flying, Alahandra was covered with kitten remains.  The guard dropped what appeared to be a special blaster pistol.  Orendil picked it up to realize it was a Lawful Good Intelligent blaster.

Jheli and Wang spent some time searching for a way to the next level.  Jheli and Wang tried to dress themselves up as priests of the frog but really, REALLY didn't pull off the look.  Two guards quickly saw them for who they were and attacked.  

Wang managed to keep a grapple with a dwarf using a blaster. The dwarf kept
breaking out, but Wang would just reel him back in. Eventually everyone else
gunned him down.

Zoltan took many shots and rested to be healed up to near max (low 90s) but he is down to 6 shots left in his Blaster.

Most of the other party is still badly wounded, and ammo is becoming a major
concern. Unfortunately almost all of the mooks are downstairs and the stairways are currently blocked by tanglefoot bags.

The group is currently on the second floor in a room to the left. The room itself has a stairway leading to it from the first floor (but that stairway is blocked by a tanglefoot bag.)  It also has some stairs leading up to the next level.

There are 4 mooks left alive on the first floor, but they are ammo less (unbeknownst to the party.)  Orendil fired a wave grenade into the lot of them.  The mooks retreated back to the room they came from.

Oh, and I think everyone banging on the door from outside is about to bust in.

After many rounds of combat.... the results were about 12 or so dead mooks. Many of them were from Zoltan, although they were softened up considerably from Orendil's grenade barrage (one barrage for 18d6!) as well as Alahandra's rampant sneak attacks (3d8 + 4d6 three times a round!) 

39 thoroughly dead kittens.

The group remains in a cloak room awaiting orders and resting.

Alahandra flew down and collected a large amount of ammo for the party, Milo set fire in the stairwell leading to the third floor.

Leaving the drow to guard our backs, the rest of the party went up to the third floor and got into a fight with a man wielding a double orc axe and another with a blaster rifle. The man with the axe nearly killed Alahandra, forcing her to run away.

Milo's use of his bolas proved very effective and the party dispatched both opponents. Alahandra meanwhile was on the fourth floor, attempting to pick a lock.

The group investigated the third floor while Jhelai went upstairs to see if his ring could open the door Alahandra was at. All of the doors on the third floor are locked, requiring Jhelai's ring. Milo still manages to pick open one door, but all that is inside is a bedroom.

Milo and Zoltan move up one set of stairs while Orendil and Wang join Jhelai and Alahandra in the other stairwell. Jhelai opens the door Alahandra has found and that group enters inside.

Wang issues a distress call that the party is under attack. Zoltan and Milo quickly begin running towards them. Orendil inspects a pool of water in the room while Jhelai looks at another door in the room.

Opening the door, Jhelai sees two men with guns.

"Who are you!" they shout.

"Jhelai" says Jhelai.

"Plumbers" says Orendil.

"New recruits" says Orendil.

"Where are your robes?" say the guys.

"We were looking for them." says Orendil.

"We lost them" pipes Alahandra.

"Where did you get that ring?" say the guys.

"Grandpa left it to me." says Jhelai.

"You should have told them that Wang gave it to you" says Mike.

"You should have said you took it from a corpse" says Ryan.

The guys open fire.

There are actually four guys in the room and they lay down heavy fire on Jhelai and Alahandra.

Zoltan and Milo arrive. The guys begin throwing flash-bang grenades. The entire party is stunned.

The four guys begin trying to bull rush the stunned party into the fountain. Zoltan rolls a 1 and goes straight in. All of his gear gives him around a -60 to swim. Zoltan sinks like a rock. Wang is standing next to the pool. He gets pushed right in too.

There were two other guards in the room next to the room with the pool of water. They kicked our asses, pretty much with Flash-Bang grenades. 

Most of the party were thrown into the water, and got sucked into a cavern. A dark cavern with lots of frog sounds. 

Milo remained and fled the room.  He sovereign glued the door shut and went back for the 3 Drow waiting in the stairwell.

Jhelai, Orendil, and Milo resist their attacker. Jhelai begins to fire back as he comes out of the stun. 

And for the record, Jhelai did try to use his wand of cure wounds when he was dropped down to 0 hit points.

Not knowing what was down the well, except that the guards were throwing
party members in there, Jhelai tried to cure himself with his wand. He instead knocked himself unconscious and was summarily thrown in.

The guys shoot Jhelai and knock him to 0. Jhelai attempts to heal himself, fails, and goes unconscious. They drag Jhelai to the water and throw him in. 

The water begins to be sucked out through a bottom tube. The entire party realizes they are being flushed down a huge toilet.

They grab Alahandra and throw her in. Wang puts on his ring of water walking but is instead slowed. He slowly begins trying to remove the ring.

Orendil and Milo begin to fight with the guys. Orendil's sword gets stuck in one of the guys.

Zoltan tumbles out into a small cavern. Its dark so he puts on his night vision goggles. He hears frogs all around him.

Wang puts his ring of water walking on again. He is surrounded by a prismatic sphere. He tumbles into the room with Zoltan. As does Alahandra and Jhelai. Jhelai is barely alive but Zoltan applies two of his cure light patches to him, bringing him back to consciousness. He then uses his last patch on himself. Selfish bastard.

Orendil and Milo continue to duel with the guards. Milo starts floating when he activates his rod of fire extinguishing.

One of the guys is killed, but Orendil is seriously wounded. Throwing an incendiary grenade, he jumps into the water.

All the bad guys get blown up by the grenade. While they are on fire, Milo runs out of the room and sovereign glues the door shut. He is going back for the drow.

The rest of the party is in a cave in parts unknown, with some kind of frogs in the area.

There were four bad guys, but one was killed, so three are left. Most of
the party was pushed or thrown into the water.  Orendil jumped in because he
was seriously hurt and by that time we knew people were surviving on the
other end. Orendil did manage to throw an incendiary grenade at the remaining guards.

It's not clear what Milo's going to do. The pool room had a second door, but it is locked. Could be the three guards in there will come out at some point and leave a door open.

The group proceeded to open a door that led to a long hallway that ended in another set of doors.

Jhelai said, "Three words: we need healing."

"Four words: we need healing badly."

"Five words: we need healing REALLY BADLY!"

Jhelai was horrified when he tried to heal G'Banrak and she turned into a cloud of smoke. He thought he'd accidentally killed her! Naturally, he won't be trying anymore magical healing until the wild magic is gone. It's a real shame; he has a fully charged (well, one charge short of fully charged, but I digress) wand of Cure Light Wounds, the whole party is down on hit points, and we're nowhere near finished this adventure.

And that's about where he left off.

Wang found another guard hidden behind a curtain and eliminated him too.

Wang went into a room down a hall and eliminated yet two more guards. Other guards began running for it. Gordon and Orendil chased them down where they were shot and or stabbed. I think two or three still managed to escape.

The party was in a hallway with several locked doors. Jhelai opened a large door and found a huge room with two hover tanks, 15 mooks, and several crates of stuff.

We slammed the door shut, got Wang over to it, opened it back up, then slammed it shut behind him.

Wang ran around killing guards with his prismatic sphere. One guard had a magic item, though, and wild magic made Wang's sphere start filling with water. Very quickly Wang was drowning!  The paradox was that Wang still wore the ring of water walking.

The two tanks began driving away while Wang started asking the party for help. Jhelai convinced him to remove his stuff, and when he took off his Ring of Water Walking, the Prismatic Sphere came down.

Gordon and Zoltan chased after the two hover tanks. Blowing open the hatches, Gordon killed the driver while Zoltan let his driver go (not for lack of trying to kill him. He was just out of ammo. He did stump knife the second driver a few times.)

Heading back to the room, Alahandra began opening all the crates. Very quickly the group realized all of the crates were trapped. Unfortunately, no one was skilled enough to really disable the traps and so the party had to fall back on simply setting them off.

However, the last trap proved to be a crushing ceiling trap and the group only had enough time to pull out two crates before the rest were crushed under the ceiling.

Inside of the two crates were Syd and Zoltan's weapons as well as Ao and Thamio's sensor equipment. Everyone else's stuff was smashed by the ceiling.

The group is now at the back of the Temple with two operable tanks and no way to get back in. Milo is at another exit on the Eastern side, I believe.

What we do next is still unknown ...

Milo thought Gordon already handed Zoltan back his stuff. It resulted in Zoltan having two assault blasters, so he loaned one to Orendil.

Strangely enough, Gordon already has an Assault Blaster that Zoltan gave him earlier. So he's not really concerned with the stuff Zoltan has just recovered.

He's pretty dissapointed about not recovering his stuff though.

"I think we should go back up, get Milo and the drow, and penetrate the cult's inner sanctum. We've done pretty well so far, in spite of the terrible odds and the obstacles in our way. There's likely not much left of the Frog Cult's muscle, and the frog priests will be hampered by wild magic. If we can find medicine in the temple, we'll be good to go."

"On the other hand, I can understand perfectly well if some of you, or even all of you, just want to get as far away from here as possible. We've been pretty badly hurt, we've had a few scares, and we've been badly outnumbered. So I'll go along if the rest of you want to go."

"Now let's take a vote. Who wants to clean this place out, and who wants to get out of here?"

Gordon said, "I would feel safer if I knew those wackos weren't still out here kidnapping people. And I wouldn't mind a little pay back. I say we should head back in. Hell, we have tanks. Might as well use 'em."

Jhelai said, "Anyway, planning. What I've got so far is, send Alhandra out to see how many of the turrets have a direct line of fire on out escape route. Then we could man the tanks, two people to a tank (pilot and gunner.) The pilots would drive the tanks out while the gunners would have the guns turned in the direction of the turrets and would
have actions readied to fire on the turrets as soon as they're in sight. If the turrets are manned by gunners who are out in the open and unprotected, Milo may be able to snipe one. Gordon already offered to take one out. While Jhelai isn't sure Gordon can do that single-handedly, he's seen the stranger's powers in action and is
willing to give it a try. But first we need to decide if we're just going to escape, or if we're going to try to take down the frog cult. If we choose the latter, we have to go back into the temple first. The tanks might be able to go in the front doors, but they
certainly can't get up to the third and fourth floor where the priests are likely to be."

Milo said, "I'm up for ridding this world of these awful frog worshippers while we can. I think I can get back into the main part of the temple and scout it out a bit -- I might even be able to open the front doors for you. And I'm willing to sneak out the temple, up the walls, and capture one of the turrets, if that fits your plan -- but that would have to be done at night. Just let me know what you want me to do."

Gordon was for planning ...

Is it possible for the majority of the party to re-enter the Temple through the exit we have left from? Or is the ceiling essentially creating a wall blocking us from the there?

How far is it to the wall from where we are? How high of a climb would it
be, and how hard does it look?

Gordon wants to head back in, although he understands the group has had a rough time in there. He thinks he may be able to climb up the wall and kill some of the guards manning the turrets, although he wants to appraise the situation a little bit before attempting to do so. Perhaps it would be best if he waited for night.

Maybe Jhelai's ring could help us get back in?

Orendil said, "As much as I'd like to take down these slavers, I'm not sure we're properly equipped to do it at this point. I'm pretty wounded and low on ammo, and I don't think the rest of you have fared much better. I think our first priority is to get Milo out of there. He's tough, but I'm still concerned for the little guy. Those worthless drow won't be able to save him in a fight. Zoltan, did you find your explosives in that chest? Maybe we can use them to take down the temple with as little risk to ourselves as possible. Just remember, it doesn't help those slaves, or this planet, if we die."

Basically, Orendil doesn't like the odds of a frontal assault. We already tried that once and we ended up getting flushed.

Alahandra said, "I think that Zoltan should use his reclaimed plastic explosives and blow the temple sky high."

Wang, you're back to full health. Zoltan, if you are cursed with permanent Wild Magic, you can't actually get uncursed without losing your powers. I've never thought of it before, but curses are just downright deadly to Forsakers. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Alahandra's Wild Magic test results discover ....

1st Item Found - Orendil's clothing Alahandra becomes a Half-Fiend Alahandra gains the half-fiend template for 3 days. 

2nd Item Found - Alahandra's Bracers of Defense Greater Spell Failure The mage gains a greater spell failure rate. 2d6x5 %. The effect is permanent. GM rolled 25% spell failure. We let Mandy Roll 2d6 Mandy rolled 6 Alahandra now has 30% spell failure from this point forward.  

3rd Item Found - Alahandra's holdout laser pistol Cause Plague Many plagues and storms descend on the region and lasts 1d20 weeks. No one will be able to trace it to Alahandra.  GM rolled 17 weeks Mandy rolled 10 weeks

4th Item Found - Zoltan's combat armor 

Zombies All dead creatures within 1d8 miles that died in the last month animate as zombies. This includes the entire town of Gillian. Yes, 77% of the towns people were killed, and 95% were animated.

GM rolled 4 miles Mandy rolled 7 miles

Fairie Fire still worked and Alahandra had no knowledge of the Zombie incident, so she continued casting.

Sex Change Caster changes sex permanently. Mandy rolled a 7 and Alahandra failed her save.

Alahandra returns to the group feeling depressed.

As soon as Alahandra returns with Zoltan's armor, the group starts to notice that many of the destroyed buildings are moaning. They also notice that the gravesite mounds are moving. The group may also make a spot check from the tavern or wherever they are to see a group of zombies approaching the hover tanks.

Zoltan, totally exhilarated: "Yahoo! YES! Oh Man! I can't believe it. I LOVE THIS ARMOR! Woo-Hoo! I am never going to give it up! I can just stay close to a magic user and I can kick his ass because of the wild magic!"

He immediately puts his armor on, and notices that the surroundings are starting to look like a bad horror movie!

Zoltan says, "Oh great. Zombies! Well, there goes the neighborhood"

Zoltan says, "Hey guys, I'm not in the mood for 'Return of the Living Dead 6,000'! I say we get the hell out of here. No need to waste ammo on this crap!"

Jhelai, hearing moaning sounds, knows that there is trouble going down. He isn't interested in finding out what happened, but he knows what caused it.

He sees Alahandra flying back, and as she (now he) arrives he yells, "You!" As Alahandra gets closer, Jhelai sees there's something different and looks at her sort of sideways for a moment before continuing. "I tried to tell you this was a bad idea. Now we've gotta get out of here!"

Jhelai will try to get everyone together and into the tanks to escape the huge numbers of undead. He'll try to get the cleric to come along, too. He knows that this will make one of the tanks crowded, but he's not about to leave someone who has helped him behind when the town is overrun with zombies.

Alahandra- Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Alahandra - "Remember Zoltan, that armor may have been cursed by magical means..."

Gordon says "Just hope that what's causing the Wild Magic isn't a spell in itself.
Forsaker abilities and magic armor don't mix."

Gordon says, "We can't just leave these people to be eaten by zombies. Something has to be causing this infestation. Better to find it and stamp it out before we leave. After all, undead armies seem to have a habit of growing larger with
every victory. Better to end this army here."

Alahandra determined that some items were cursed with a Wild Magic Surge.

After "Al"ahandra, the Half-Fiendish Male Faerie reported which items were cursed, the party noticed the horde of zombies coming towards them. 

Alahandra animated over 5000 recently deceased and they became zombies. The zombies were closing in on the city of Gillian. She actually affected two cities.

The group drove the two tanks out of Gillian with the cleric on the hood blasting through zombies.  Jumping into the tanks (with the Cleric) the party zoomed off, running several zombies down while the Cleric threw out Turnings from on top of the tank.

Storm clouds followed the group.

The group went to a town just south of Gillian and dropped Orendil's love off.  At the next town there was a tearful farewell between Orendil and the Cleric (who had fallen in love from an earlier Wild Surge.) The rest of the party went shopping and bought a bunch of items while a gardener trimmed one of the tanks (which had grown a profusion of grass as the result of another Wild Surge.)

Al cast a spell at Zoltan which caused plants to overgrow the tank. Everyone bailed except Wang. Milo tried to poison the plant with Syd's old cloak. Jhelai paid someone to throw a herbicide grenade in the tank to clean it out, after Wang got out.

This town looked like it was in one piece. Milo led the group on a shopping spree. They forgot healing patches again.

The group left after Zoltan blew the horn in the tank to hurry them up.

Armed and armored, the party set out for the City of the Gods. At one point a large red cloud was spotted. Gordon opened fire with the tank's cannon but the cloud seemed undamaged and simply settled around the tank Gordon was in. Since the cloud didn't seem to be doing anything, the party drove on.

The group drove a few minutes east to encounter a red storm cloud. Gordon and Orendil shot at it. Orendil hit Zoltan's tank accidentally. The red cloud hovered around Zoltan's tank. They kept going, it didn't hurt anyone.

The group sees what appears to be the remains of a city totally leveled. Ash and soot cover the area.

When the party got to Freeth (Frieth?), they found the city completely leveled. And then they found the thing that had done it. A Black Cloud of Vengeance descended on the party and began to attack.

After Orendil accidentally shot Gordon's tank, the tank was completely totaled by the Cloud and the passengers had to evacuate.

Orendil and Gordon fired the tank's cannon, while Milo kept putting out the fires that the cloud created.

A black cloud attacked the group with wind and fire. It nearly destroyed both tanks. Zoltan's tank was burnt to a crisp. Milo tried to extinguish the flame, but lightning bolted the crew. Milo killed the 2 drow Thamios and his buddy. Milo created a 10' wide pit. G'Banrak caused an earthquake and Zoltan fell in, luckily he had his jetpack ready and he narrowly escaped. Everyone's hair turned bright orange when Milo tried to repair the remaining tank. It was badly damaged.

When Milo tried to extinguish the fire on Gordon's tank, a Lightning Bolt shot out instead and killed the two drow inside. G'Banrak attempted to extinguish the remaining tank's fire, but in the process a Wild Surge turned everyone's hair bright orange. Eventually the Black Cloud passed and Milo tried to repair the other tank, which was likewise badly damaged.

In the process he caused another Wild Surge, creating an earthquake in the area. Zoltan fell into a deep fissure, and only escaped death by managing to activate his jet pack in time.

The cloud left for the city the group had just left.

The group continued towards the CotG. Zoltan flying and Gordon running along side the remaining tank driven by Jhelai.

The group encountered a DeepSpawn or something and it shot at and disabled Jhelai's tank. The crew luckily didn't take any damage. Zoltan opened up and blew the thing to bits. Orendil scraped up the remaining gold pieces. These did not have the likeness of Nick.

With Zoltan flying (via the jetpack), Gordon running, and Wang riding on top, the last tank moved into the mountains toward the City of the Gods.

Partway through a pass, a deepspawn ambushed the party, toting two huge guns.

Taking fire, the deepspawn quickly finished off the last tank, just before Zoltan blew it away from the air.

The group rests the night in the mountain pass. It had been a long day.

Several smashed robotic bodies and a few minutes later, the party came upon a colossal Witchlight Marauder.  For those unfamiliar with the beast, the Marauder is a Colossal slug-like creature. Just the sight causes horror and disgust (and vomiting in all but Gordon, Zoltan, Jhelai, and Alahandra.)

Rumbling down the mountain towards the party, the Marauder takes a good bit of damage as the party unloads into it.  Then the Marauder disgorges six mini-Marauders which rumble down the mountainside as well.

G'Banrak's magic has unlocked and opened everything in a 60 foot radius, including Wang's demon in a bottle.

Will Gordon flee?

What happens now that the last Drow is dead?  Will Antiphiphia be angry or upset?

Stay tuned...

Wang died along the way, and the demon in the bottle was released.

Alahandra was nearly swallowed, but her new lover, G'Banrak, managed to teleport her from the Marauder's mouth.

The demon was destroyed and the Marauder began to retreat due to grievous wounds (and excessive time consumption.)

Amio drove up in a tank and most of the group jumped in, hoping to use the tank cannon to destroy the Marauder. Unfortunately, the tank cannon was broken. As everyone started to drive away, Gordon blew away 4 mini-Marauders before running after.

Upon reaching Qom, the party learned that the City of the Gods is protected by a force field that is being projected from the Tower of Glass. But there appears to be a hole in the force field that the party may be able to exploit.

Everyone rested and feasted and shopped in Qom. Next week we begin trying to break through the force field to reach the City of the Gods.

Jhelai: "Well, I'm glad that someplace on this planet hasn't been
blown away. Now we need to figure out how to get to the City of the
Gods.

"We basically have to options: find a tunnel to the Tower of Glass,
or fly around the force field to the break near the CotG. If we
choose the second option, we'll probably have to fight a lot of
invaders. Judging by the strength of that last thing we encountered,
I don't think we would last long. Of course, we could just run away
if we enocounter anything that nasty again. It might be a long trip,
but we'll be real close to the CotG once we get around the force
field.

"The tunnel option is a big unknown. I don't know anything about the
underground of this planet, what kind of dangers we would encounter
in the tunnels, or if the invading creatures have gotten underground
yet. It may or may not be a direct route, and we may or may not be
able to bring vehicles down there. Maybe we can ask around this
place for more information."

Gordon:  I wouldn't discount the hole in the Tower's force field automatically.

If the insides of the force field is swarming with monsters, crossing from
the Tower to the City of the Gods could be as hazardous as trying to force
our way through the opening.

Not to mention that none of us has any experience spelunking (that I am
aware.)

Alahandra has the intelligent blaster pistol.

Orendil says that you have plenty of money if we cash in the many
gems we stole from the frog cult.
Amio has quite a bit of gems and equipment as well. He looted the
entire frog temple, found the 3rd tank and tried following the
group. He was a few days behind the group, and was slowly catching
up when he found your tanks. Amio found and buried the two Drow left
in Zoltan's tank. He wasn't too happy about you guys leaving the
bodies. He also wasn't happy to leave Valasial's body near the
Witchlight Maurauders either.

Milo can probably finish his gun if he concentrates and takes it easy
for the next 9 days while the rest of the party shops, gets healed,
gets spellware/cybernetics etc...

Gordon gives Milo his gun back.

G'Banrak suggests the group tries for the break in the force field.

Amio suggests the caverns to the tower.

The city guide shows the group that the city is mostly carved into
the face of the mountain. Most of the buildings on the surface of
the mountain are destroyed by fire, acid, or electrical damage.

The Magistrate can provide the group with 4x4 vehicles (heavy duty
jeeps) that can hold 4 people each, comfortably. They are working on
the tank, but it might take a while to fix without the proper
parts. "Where did you say you got this tank from?"

Zoltan can get the gun from Gordon if he likes.
Milo could possibly repair any jammed or broken guns.

The city doesn't have too many suits of armor available, and the vest
Gordon seeks is definitely not found.

The town magistrate informs the group that the force field
surrounding the City of the Gods is not usually up and it appeared
less than 2 weeks ago. It is probably an automated defense
mechanism.

The storms around the mountain, those Alahandra summoned, continue to
rain down on the city of QOM. Hail, snow, and sleet shower on the
city for days following your arrival. The upper level roads are all
but washed out.
The storms are causing massive power outages throughout QOM. The
power gets restored, but is out for multiple hours each day. QOM has
massive battery backups, but they need consistent charging to keep
working regularly.

People are scared and are looking for help from the group. G'Banrak
finds a relative.....

Wild Surges appear to happen around any magic store or shop. Even
those the party doesn't visit. Most store owners are scarred to open
their doors.

The group can purchase cure patches, healing potions, and anti-
venom. Almost any medical device can be found here.

They do have personal shields, but they seem to be malfunctioning
near the massive field output from the tower.

The magistrate asks the group if they want some help, as in man-power?
The men would have to be armed by the group, "Doesn't the group have
extra weapons?" Amio frowns at this once again.

Amio tells Gordon that he has underground experience, he's a Drow of
course. He originates from a dark world.

Gordon:
I don't think we need any extra help. More over, we probably shouldn't strip
this town of what limited defenses it has. After all, considering the
creatures wandering the wilderness, they'll likely need every gun they can
get.

I still think we should try for the hole in the shield. Even if you have
experience in this area Amio, I am wary of entrusting everyone's survival in
the hands of one person. If something went wrong and we lost you, we would
all be in trouble then ...

Zoltan still tries to find all of the items on his list. If he can't
find the Combat Hardsuit, then he will buy basic Combat Armor. If
that's not available, then he will try to buy any type of Heavy
Armor. He takes off his current armor and destroys it as soon as
they are safe in the city. He definitely wants to buy an energy
shield, even if they don't work; the strongest one he can find. He
can use it later or if the shield goes down. Since you mention it,
he buys 5 items of Anti-venom.

Zoltan: "I think we should go for the hole in the shield. And if we
see any gigantic creatures coming out, then we HIDE and IGNORE them
until they pass. Besides, if we go underground, who knows what we
will find down there. Hell this shield might even go into the ground
as well, and we will just waste time."

Before leaving, a strange four armed man named Super-Commie joined the group. While he has evinced no Clerical abilities, Gordon suspects that he worships some god named Lenin.

The Magistrate of Qom burdened the group with a guide and the party went into the tunnels.

Passing through the old city, the group soon came to deep caverns, an area the guide apparently didn't know (some guide.)

Coming to what seemed to be a huge compost heap (think several hundred feet across) the party set up camp on the edge.

Twice during the night Super-Commie thought he saw something moving in the heap, but both times nothing was found.

In the morning the group set off across the muck and it was then that several large mounds rose up out of the mush on the floor!

Slamming at the party with large compost pseudo-pods, the creatures managed to get a few good hits. Not only that, but their over powering stench caused everyone in the party but Gordon, Amio, and Orendil to begin retching helplessly.

Another large blob of goo seemingly rose out of the ground and managed to engulf the retching Zoltan, Super-Commie, and the guide.

G'Banrak, Alahandra, and Jhelai managed to hobble out of the area of the blob of goo.

Currently the party is surrounded by several mounds, and a large pile of goo has engulfed Zoltan and Super-Commie (it engulfed the guide too, but he bit it.)

Everyone is still retching (and will be for some time yet.)

Several members of the party retreated, attempting to get away from the massive beasts.

Zoltan and Super-Commie remained trapped beneath the massive Flesh Jelly, as it tried to consume them. They tried to resist, but in their nauseous state they could barely fight back.

Gordon gunned down one of the blobs facing him while Milo began climbing to the top of the pillar with a blob climbing after him.

Gordon, being seriously wounded, ran off to rest and heal, and began applying patches to himself.

One of the remaining blobs struck Orendil down while Zoltan found himself finally absorbed by the massive Flesh Jelly.

Jhelai, overcoming his sickness, began to help Amio fight off the blobs that were attacking him. G'Banrak, also feeling better, released a Cone of Cold, killing the Flesh Jelly and saving Super-Commie who, while still trapped on the inside, no longer was being absorbed.

Gordon gunned down the blob climbing after Milo while Amio and Jhelai finished up the blobs by them. Orendil, who had been dead, suddenly found himself alive as G'Banrak uttered a Wish.

Finding the monsters dead, but their party decreased in numbers the group started running forward. It wasn't long before they realized there were yet more blobs surrounding them. Running past, the party soon came to a door.

Throwing out several grenades to hopefully slow the blobs, Gordon slammed the door as they all went off.

Moving down the cavern, the group came to an end of the filth, as well as a metal step. Emanating from the step was a force field that the group could not penetrate.

And then another blob began moving towards the party. 

The voice complied and the group made their way through the field onto the platform. Moving along a long, spotless metal corridor, the party soon bumped into a cleaning robot that was apparently responsible for lowering the field.

He offered to let the party ride up to the hatch to above ground and on the way answered some questions.

Apparently he had been here for longer than he could count, and his job was simply to clean. No organic life forms lived above, only robots, and armed ones at that.

Finally climbing outside, the group found themselves accosted by an apparently higher ranking robot. Demanding a pass-code or for the party to turn themselves in  and relinquish weapons, the robot nearly provoked Gordon and Super-Commie into a hopeless battle.

At the urging of the rest of the party, however, Gordon and Super-Commie turned over their weapons and the party was taken to an interrogation chamber. The group was pumped for information, but proved to be lacking in much.

They did discover that both the Tower of Glass and the City of the Gods were large storage areas in which nearly anything technologically imaginable was stored. Unfortunately, both were restricted areas, and the future fate of the party remains unknown.

Adventure 31

Continued on D20 Future Spring 2003