Gameplay Date 11-04-07
Players present: Mordek, Taneus, Brynn
The road to Bumfor
I woke up with one hell of a headache, still lying on the ground with one foot caught up in the cords I had tripped over last night. I disentangled myself, then took a minute to get my bearings. Then I slowly got to my feet and started heading to the Inn. Taneus, Brynn, Kiri and Corny were all gathered at a table having breakfast, though Corny still looked like he was suffering from last night's drinking binge. "'Bout time you turned up! Where have you been? You never came back last night." Oh, whoa... not so loud. I told them I was holding a prayer meeting at the Temple of Moradin and that it ran long. Taneus told me I better eat some breakfast quick and get my gear together, as they were all ready, and waiting on me so we could stop by the Temple of Pelor before leaving town. I ordered some food from Kaela, then ran upstairs to grab my stuff and brought it back down to the table with me. I quickly cleaned off my plate and washed it down with a mug of water. Then we paid Kaela for our meals, returned our room keys and bid her well, thanking her for her hospitality.
Once we were outside, we started heading for Briar's Stable to retrieve our horse and load it up with our supplies. I suddenly remembered that I had left something behind. I told the others I'd catch up with them at the Stable, then headed over to the "Temple" of Moradin. I started winding up all of the string and put it into my pack, then pulled up the stakes to return them to Kelper's shop, and finally grabbed the shield I had put out as a marker. On the way to Briar's, I quickly stopped at Kelper's and dropped off all of the stakes. The others were finishing up as they tied our extra gear to the horse's saddle and saddle bags. Adding my own extra gear to the horse, we settled up our bill with Briar, then led the horse across town to the Temple of Pelor. The priests were waiting for us when we arrived, and they motioned me forward so they could complete the spell. A few words of prayer to their deity... and it's over? ... they say I'm cured. Don't know why, but I was expecting something more... like when they exorcise demons outta people. We paid them for their services, thanked them and then went back outside. We'd said our goodbyes to Luvana yesterday, so now we wished Corny well and made our way out of town to start heading for Bumfor.
It was going to be a couple of days of walking before we'd get there, and thankfully, the fresh sea air was helping pass the effects of last night's drinking binge. By late afternoon, it started to get much darker, as the sun was setting behind the mountains and casting us into shadows much sooner than normal. Out to sea, there were storm clouds closing in on us, so we found an overhang under which we could make camp for the night. We huddled there as the rains started coming down, until we heard a really strange sound. "Wharrgarble! Wharrglblaarglflrrrngnaarble!" A few flashes of lightning revealed a writhing mass of grey flesh covered with dozens of randomly placed eyes and mouths, all of different sizes and shapes, sliding down the mountainside toward us. What the hell is that thing?!? It continued making it's way closer into the light of our campfire, gibbering incessantly from all of it's mouths, as Taneus, Brynn & Kiri started slinging spells and shuriken at it from beneath our overhang. It got close enough to loose a stream of spittle that ignited on contact with the air. It flashed brightly, but we managed to avert our eyes enough to keep from being blinded. One of it's mouths even lashed out and attached itself to Kiri. I started swinging at the tentacle to sever it as Taneus & Brynn fired off a few more well placed spells and finally that thing fell silent. Kiri had some acid damage where it had latched on to her, but other than that, she seemed fine. We pushed the mass over the cliff edge so as not to draw any more predators to us, then went back to our campfire to heal Kiri's wounds and eat some rations before turning in for the night. We set a watch order for the night, and fortunately, nothing else came calling.
The next morning, it was still dark, cold and windy as we gathered up our camp and got back on the road. We walked until it was nearing noon, when we spotted a few pebbles and stones fall down a nearby slope. A big cat-like creature came into sight... and man is it ugly! It's four or five feet long, has a shaggy, spotted coat, a bristling mane along its spine and a long bushy tail. It also has a long narrow head, but it's like all the fur on it's face was pulled back to it's ears revealing the muscles and bony structure underneath. It cut loose with a loud screech, which made us all start heading away from it. It hopped down from it's rocky perch to give chase as we headed back along the way we had come only to find 3 more of the creatures as they jumped out in front of us. What happened next was all a blur as the 3 new ones surrounded me, sinking their teeth and claws into me. I was a bloody mess when my friends finally managed to kill off the last of them. Brynn came over to heal some of my wounds with her magic, and wrapped up the rest saying I'd heal better with some rest. She even thanked me for keeping those things... Krenshars, she called them... busy and off the rest of the group. I quipped back, "Well of course they were gonna go for me! You three are too scrawny... no meat on your bones!" To which Brynn replied, "Yes, but we taste sweeter! We're a delicacy!" and I couldn't keep the smirk off my face, shaking my head in amusement.
We continued on until it got late again, and we found a decent spot to make camp. After eating some more rations, the others let me turn in without having to take a watch so that I could try and heal up by morning. When I finally woke, all of my injuries had healed up nicely. We ate some more rations for breakfast, then packed up and got back on the road again. After about an hour, we met a group of 7 dwarven riders on ponies as they were heading from Bumfor to Nerom. They came to a stop as their leader recognized me. He got down from his pony, came over to me, pulling out a piece of parchment from his coat, and asked me what in the blazes this was about. I took the note from him... the one I had sent by courier pigeon... and turned to my companions to introduce them to Arda Sparkburst, a cleric of the Temple of Moradin in Bumfor. I then told him about the trouble that had been going on in Nerom, and how I had concocted plans for a Temple of Moradin to be built in Nerom, as a way to get close to the troublemakers, and had sent the message in order to make it look legitimate, in case they were watching me... but now that the problems in Nerom had been dealt with, I was on my way to Bumfor to explain all of that to the Temple elders, and clear up any confusion. Arda just looked at me with a "not another wild scheme" look on his face, then said I'll have a lot of explaining to do once we got back to Bumfor. He then remounted his pony, turned his group around and escorted our little group the rest of the way back to Bumfor.
To be continued...
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