- Courtesy of HN
Ahhh, am just coming down off another night of an excellent Dungeons and Dragons adventure.
Mrs. Jones engineered this evening's adventure...she has not been the boss since before the holidays (cf. post of December 14, 2008).
Before I launch into tonight's quest, let me first regale you with the menu:
Cheeseburger Chowder
Bread
Two kinds of deer sausage
Cheese & crackers
Crudites and dip
Jalapeno jelly and cream cheese
Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and banana muffins
Yeah. Good stuff.
So, this adventure began where the other left off. We'd been kicked out of the town of Kenby, because Qui (the monk) had pissed everyone in town off, accusing the sheriff of "selling people for food."
We safely made it to the outskirts and camped for the night, all the while remonstrating Qui for opening his mouth, and forbidding him ever to do it again, especially as the mouthpiece for our group.
After that, the journey began south. To a bunch of kingdoms. Which awaited our skills, no doubt.
The first kingdom we came to was walled and appeared to be very wealthy. However, the guards at the gate were rather lax and indifferent and only showed the slightest interest when Qui asked them if it would be OK if we came back later and kicked their ass (so much for Ixnay on the OuthpieceMay).
For ten o'clock in the morning, the town of Asatira seemed rather quiet. Almost too quiet. We entered the Poisoned Apple Tavern...as everyone in the medieval world knows, the life and soul of a village dwells within its tavern.
Everyone in the bar seemed depressed. Turns out the princess of this kingdom had disappeared, and a royal decree had been issued, asking for any and all smart, brave, and old persons to report to the castle at once. Immediately, we perceived this as our chance. Well, entrance to the castle was much the lackadaisical affair as entering the kingdom. Very suspicious to the cleric at the time, but, as there were other fish to fry, it was no time to consider this in depth.
Off to the castle to prove our mettle. We were divided up to take tests...the gnome fails to answer a supremely easy question, the monk and barbarian drink something that is NOT poison, and the fighter fails to impress the judge with her childhood story. So, two of us are "in" and two of us are "out". Well, we don't work like that, and after some pleading and cajoling with the judges, they let us all go together to see the king (supposedly very depressed since the disappearance of his daughter).
As is expected, the king needs our help and proceeds to tell us what he knows. His castle fell victim to a recent bandit attack, which was thwarted by the Royal Advisor, Mordred (keep your eye on this guy...his name alone creeps me out). After this attack, the king finds a scroll that enables protection of any of the royal children. Imagine how convenient that information was a couple of days later, when the bandits attack again. The king rushes his daughter, Florissa, to the library, activates the scroll, and POOF! never sees her again. Somewhere here in this interchange, Mordred appears and pulls the king off to a private conversation...much to the indignation of us party members with whom he was speaking first. Naturally, we all do Listen checks, which we pass superbly, with the exception of Boof the Suddenly Deaf Barbarian. Turns out Mordred is against us going to look for whats-her-face (suspicion increases). King tells Mordy off, and he leaves (Mordred, that is, not the King).
We are then escorted to the library, where we have free rein to poke around. The cleric casts Detect Magic, locating an entire magical book/scroll section, and a faint ring of magic in the far corner of the room. Putting two and two together, the group surmises this is the magical portal through which Princess Florissa disappeared. Boof cannot read at all, and contents himself with looking at the pretty pictures in books he randomly pulls off the shelves. He becomes particularly attached to a book with a lovely woman on the cover, and before long, has secreted himself in a corner, doing who knows what. Suspicions soon arise that Boof is pleasuring himself, using the book cover as inspiration. Ew.
A search turns up another scroll that appears to contain the instructions of locating any missing royal children (how lucky for us). The scroll speaks of the Worthy One, the one who frees the princess, thus earning the right to marry her. This appears to be the key we're looking for. Problem is, even the cleric doesn't know enough magic to activate the scroll. Enter the scribe who had been sent to fetch drinks for us. Because of a SERIOUS lapse in judgment, the monk proceeds to freak the scribe out with tales of a sheriff in a neighboring city who SELLS PEOPLE FOR FOOD. Much monk chastising ensues.
The fighter escorts the way traumatized scribe to the king, who comes to the library at once to activate the scroll and send us off on our quest.
Part Two to come later...
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