When fire doesn't work, use more fire (fixed)

[calair.livejournal.com]

Usual back-in-town shopping. Ric, er Nic, discovered a new merchant, and went out happily spending money on a tube for looking around corners and other such gadgets. (OOC Trans: Ric's player got hold of 'Arms and Equipment'.) Leirel thought about names for her wolf, eventually settled on 'Kita' in keeping with K-theme of our animal companions.

Heard reports that dwarves of Snow Point have been attacked again. Name 'Calair Dwarf-Widow' appeared in print, in latest Delros Chronicle. Mixed feelings: on one hand am annoyed by continued harping on the whole accident of marriage thing, on other have newspaper advertising my heroism. Will think on this before deciding whether to incinerate Chronicle offices. Since were planning to head down thataway anyway, hired on as escorts with merchants travelling to Sorphos.

Neil summoned to Temple of Silverlight at dawn, after a night spent making silver lightning bolts to offer by way of penance (don't ask me, is a paladin thing, or maybe a gnome thing). Reminded of why am druid - have access to divine power without gods making me get up early in the morning. Although, since only need to meditate four hours/night, is not such an issue, and so went along with the others. On way to temple engaged in a spot of coaching, pleasantly surprised to discover Neil now remembers his god's name.

Went to temple. Stood around while Neil talked to priests, who asked him questions like "What is the true sacrifice a paladin should offer?"

CHELETH (OOC): "Phone a friend!"

Neil sort of muddled through and was given a quest: to retrieve the Orb of Silverlight, stolen many years ago.

PRIEST: "A true paladin will know the orb when he sees it."

ANDREW, CALAIR, CHELETH, LEIREL, NEIL, AND RIC (together): "Well, we're screwed then."

Neil is allowed to ask one question of the temple's Oracle. After fiasco of last "ask one question of a mystic oracle" episode, this time we put a bit more thought into choice of question. Suggested "Who's the prettiest?", but would have been a waste of time since answer already known, so ended up with Neil asking "Who is the guardian of the Orb?"

Some delay. Upon peeking, observed Oracle consulting a rhyming dictionary. Honestly! Eventually given usual cryptic poem, gist of which is: probably near Silverdale Mountain to the west, guarded by a hydra. Note to self: stock up on fire and acid. Neil given until midsummer to complete quest or die in the attempt. Silverdale is vaguely in direction we were headed, so no problem there.

CHELETH: "My Little Celestial Warpony?"

Set out with merchants and children. At first stop, two children ran off into bushes, promptly killed by ankhegs which also had a good try at eating our horses (none killed, but several bolted and had to be caught by yours truly.) Andrew experimented with new combative technique, i.e. hurling sword in opposite direction from foe, which at least achieved desired end of not interrupting Kanaye while latter stuck to old-fashioned "argh grr smash" combat paradigm. All horses recovered and healed, but children still dead.

Decided to rest for the night, and get started on reincarnating children in morning, after giving parents legally-required warnings on risks involved in said process. Neil took opportunity to make jokes about this. Nice going, Mr. Paladin.

Could have done both reincarnations at once, but elected to leave one until the day after to avoid leaving self dangerously low on defensive spells. During night, noticed repulsive smell of decaying flesh - assumed it was dwarvish cooking, in morning heard the first watch had been attacked by two foolhardy ghouls.

Performed necessary rituals of reincarnation, waited with eager parents until their daughter showed up as... a dryad. Started to celebrate having brought child back in form with opposable thumbs, then remembered Important Fact About Dryads and started going "oh f*ck oh f*ck" instead. Then had pleasant task of explaining to parents that, see that lovely big oak tree over there? Well, your daughter will be spending the rest of her life within three hundred yards of it. Then wandered off for a bit while parents and daughter had conversation along lines of "look, we'll come back to visit you often". (Though with way urban sprawl is headed, tree may well be within Delros in a few decades or so anyway.)

Ended up staying with dryad's parents for rest of day, teaching them useful expressions in Sylvan (always useful to know more words for "leaf") and building rudimentary treehouse in branches of aforementioned oak, while rest of party headed on towards Sorphos. Brought back their other child, this time as a wolf - no thumbs, but at least portable. Left them to sort out their lives, and after a few hours on eagles' wings caught up with rest of caravan.

Next evening, around nightfall, five wolves appeared from the darkness ahead of us. Clearly unnatural creatures, blazing red eyes and sulfurous smell. Didn't stop them dying like flies in a web of briars and sharp thorns. Go me!

Since such creatures do not occur naturally in the great forests of the land, suspected something amiss and suggested Neil should see if he sensed more evil ahead. Yes indeedy, something nasty. Flew ahead to scout: three cloaked humanoids with eyes glowing an evil red. Forewarned, Ric donned his ring of invisibility and circled behind them. Cheleth and myself hammered them with magical fire (having unpleasantly little effect) and Neil charged them on my warhorse, only to be thrown when it panicked at their presence.

It was a hard fight, since the three spirits were quite insubstantial and our weapons often went straight through them. Neil used his holy powers to good effect; Ric fought well, tipping holy water on one (amused to see he has gone from fear of water to using it as weapon) but was badly hurt by one - he is almost a shadow of his usual hearty self. Seeing him in dire straits, I leapt forwards to strike the other one a ferocious blow with my scimitar. It touched me also, but I am made of strong stuff, and laughed at its chill grasp, especially because I could see Neil charging it with holy energy in his fingertips.

After destroying the wraiths and confirming that no others lurked nearby, we camped for the night. A rather ill and ragged fellow staggered into camp pleading for help - inspection showed a poisoned wound on him. Ric donned his ring of invisibility once more and scouted ahead, only to be captured AGAIN (honestly!)

Interesting discovery: The enchantment on Ric's ring is not a strong one, and the 'invisibility' it generates swiftly becomes less-than-absolute, which explains a few things.

We rescued him from his captors, who proved to have been hoodwinked by a charlatan going by the name of "Gerald Evilkiller" using the old "if this poison kills you, you're a witch" scam. Wanted to keep the poison, but Neil got all snooty about it, bloody paladins trying to butter up their gods and all that. No matter.

Arrived in Sorphos. Will probably wait here a few days for a visiting priest to restore Ric to health.

In other news, am beginning to learn trick of taking some of the larger animal forms. Can now turn into polar bear, or tiger...

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So what happens when you reincarnate someone as a dryad and there aren't any trees or plants within 300 yards, because you're hiding in a secret passageway in the middle of a large, sprawling temple of evil?

(well, other than 'the GM fudges', of course)

[calair.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been wondering that too :-)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

There's always assassin vines and assorted molds.

Can't you just see it - twenty years later and the poor thing is stuck, in the dark, companion druid to a green smear on the floor.

Or she's attached to a tree that's 100 yards up on the surface, but all available routes take her too far away from it to be safe (even with the min 4 hours away allowed).

Or she's attached to an assassin vine and then ten minutes later the party destroy it...

Believe me, a good DM has ways around this.