Beneath Two Suns - Episode 3

So, here we are again.  As a quick reminder, here are your players:

Crom the human barbarian (Travis)
Arnie the human cleric (Alex)
Vanya the human monk (Me)
Tordek the dwarf fighter (Capt)
Eva the human sorceress (Kerri)
Gary the human ranger (Spencer)

As you'll probably remember (or read in the last post), our group of players were in a tower, where scorched and dead guards littered the stone floor.

After a quick Listen check, it is discovered that more groups of federal wardens are converging on the tower, presumably to investigate the extremely noticeable plumes of flames and sounds of dying emanating from there.  However, since the group has had the taste of sweet freedom, they will not be going quietly into the silent night, as it were.  Gary and Eva go up top, where they can rain arrows and fireballs down from above.  Vanya, Tordek, Crom, and Arnie remain downstairs to battle it out in melee combat.

Things proceed like this:

1. Gary fires his bow, hitting one.
2. Eva fireballs a squadron for 21 points of fire damage; Gary manages to put one of the scorched out of their misery shortly thereafter.
3. In the room below, everyone is Kung Fu fighting as Vanya punches the first guard who enters through the tower door.  But then...

Tordek Critically Fumbles...twice in a row.  His axe ricochets off the stone tower wall into his own chest, and he takes 10 points of self-inflicted damage.  And the axe falls to the ground.  There are several seconds of 'Are you shitting me?' as this happens.

4. Arnie is placed on Dead Body Patrol.  Essentially, he is responsible for clearing out the corpses so that Vanya, Tordek, and Crom have room to pile up more.

5. Kills: Crom - 4, Eva 1 + a batch, Gary - 1, Arnie - 1, Tordek - 2.  At this point, the guards wise up and spread themselves out a little, preventing them from being such an easy target for the party members up above.  Eva and Gary spot more squadrons approaching in the distance and shout this news to their brothers-in-arms below.

6.  Gary's wild idea includes just throwing a bunch of arrows down onto the guards, until others persuade him of its ineffectiveness.  He then harnesses his chi enough to roll a 20, giving one guard 20 points of arrow-to-the-brain damage.

OOG: Yours truly states that this guard, suffering from such head trauma, reminds her of Johnny Ringo dying after being shot in the head by Doc Holliday in the 1993 movie, "Tombstone".

7. Eva notices airboats hovering in the distance. ("Airboats???")

8. Vanya Stunning Fists a guard, Crom chops him, and Arnie drags him away.  By the way, Arnie is an extremely sensitive cleric as he apologizes to each dead body as he hauls them off.

9.  The drivers of the two airboats are now close enough to yell to the party to jump on and ride to safety.  However, the flyers refer to them as 'slaves', which the players don't care for.  Pretty soon, the fighters below hear Gary screaming, "Hey!  Get your butts up here!  There's flying boats!"

10.  The prudent thing to do here is to retreat, which the lower-level fighters prepare to do, but first, Vanya, Crom, Arnie, and Tordek must prepare the Meat and Wooden Table Barricade, which will buy them some time against the advancing groups of wardens.

11.  Gary, with no reservations whatsoever, leaps onto the first aircraft.  Eva, the smarter one of the two, wishes to driver to identify himself.  The flyer responds with something vague like "No time, slaves.  We must get to safety."  Eva's Sense Motive check turns up a genuine response, so she too leaps aboard.  She attemps a Charm Person spell on her driver, to no effect that she can perceive.

12.  After a bit more hacking and axe-dropping, the fighters below clamber atop the tower, where they see two flying DeLoreans...I mean, airboats waiting to be boarded.

13. Vanya rolls an extremely high Jump check, and resembles Legolas from "Lord of the Rings" on her leap into the boat.  Arnie, obviously weighed down by guilt from the recent massacre, rolls an 11 and clumsily stumbles onto his boat.

Eva is unable to retrieve any answers from her driver, and eventually, the boats land in a courtyard.  Fighters of all kinds are practicing their arts, and a man wearing burgundy armor makes his way towards the company (metal armor signifies nobility).  It is duly noted that he DOES NOT request the party incline to him.

This man declares himself of the House of Campbell, prompting Eva to ask about soup.  He then offers the group 100 gold pieces to join his cause and offers to remove the slave brands from their arms.  It is quickly being realized that some kind of bookkeeping is in order to help keep track of all the jobs this party is being hired to do.

Campbell wishes for the party to journey to a thieves' swamp to rescue a recently abducted woman.  Vanya inquires if this is the Princess Nadima, and Campbell appears to be surprised that the group knows of the abduction.  From the man's demeanor, the group surmises Princess Nadima is on Campbell's Enemy list.  And as Tordek and Eva comment, "any enemy of the enemy is our friend."

The group decides to take the job, and soon, it's off to the swamp.  En route, the group runs into a giant 10-legged spider, which freaks Travis out, but not his alter ego, Crom.  The party dispatches the psuedo-arachnid like this:

1. Vanya attempts Stunning Fist, only to find Mr. Spider is immune.
2. Eva Shocking Grasps the critter.
3. The spider successfully enters into a Grapple with Vanya.
4. Arnie Critically Fumbles.
5. Gary does some damage.
6. Tordek misses.
7. Vanya frees herself from the grapple.
8. Eva casts Magic Missile...not into the darkness, but into the spider.
9. Crom Critically Fumbles, and nicks the squishy sorceress.
10. Tordek hits for 15 points damage.
11. Vanya punches it.
12. The spider successfully grabs Eva and retreats.
13. Eva is paralyzed by the spider's pincer gunk.
13. Gary nails Mr. Spider with an arrow as it scurries away up the tree, killing it.
14. Six-foot-two Arnie rushes forward to catch the falling, paralyzed Eva.

The true definition of irony comes in the form of Eva's predicament during this whole episode:  Being the only sorceress in the party, only she has the ability to cast both Feather Fall and Detect Poison, both of which would be very, very useful in this case.  However, being immobilized prevents her from doing so.

Upon reaching a swamp-like area, some hippopotamus-type creatures emerge, identifying the party as "Bad man things".  Gary the Ranger does his animal-calming thing, attempts to pet the hippos, and pretty soon, the hippos' hostility has been assuaged.  They gesture for the party to follow them, and as wise Tordek says, "Always follow the talking hippo."

***Details here are on the sparse side, as the Monk/Scribe was preparing the Party's supper.***

The hippos lead the group to a trail, and several yards down the way, footsteps appears to diverge from the main path, only to reemerge many feet beyond.  This would seem to indicate a trap of some sort, and so the group follows suit.  Gary's Elf Eyes spot a small castle in the swampy distance.  Eva suggests a reconnaissance mission.  She casts Invisibility on Vanya, who, after several minutes, reports back that there are three entrances, one main one, and two swampy ones.  Roughly ten guards are posted on every wall.  In the center of the castle are shacks and one larger building near the center.

Theories abound, but gentle questioning and prodding of the DM seem to indicate that if indeed the Princess were here, that centrally-located building might be the locale.

It is here that the group decides to camp for the night and 'storm the castle' in the morning.  Oh, yeah, and rescue whatsherface too.