Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
The party continued down the mountain, following the twists and turns of the road. Soon, the road straightened out and followed the smooth top of a ridge. Suddenly, images of wraiths popped out of the ground and flew up to the sky, darkening it for miles around. A voice boomed out "your breath defiled this mountain. The price for trespassing is your souls." After a few moments, the wraith images stopped, and a group of real wraiths appeared. Ike fired several arrows to kill one, and Flynn began singing to inspire everyone. Nate fired a crossbow bolt, and Jakob's Wolf Fang Strike dropped a second wraith. The third wraith struck the wagon driver, and the fourth couldn't land a decent strike on Jakob. Lotus put a bolt of lightning on the wraith Nate had shot, killing it.
The voice boomed again, this time with an evil laugh. Four more wraiths and two dread wraiths emerged, and the ground rumbled. Ike's 50-cal severely wounded one of the dread wraiths, and Jakob pounded on the other, while using his defensive rebuke to draw the attention of both it and another lesser wraith. Flynn hasted the party, and Nate unlucked all seven enemies. The caravan's mercenaries fired a few shots at another wraith, leaving it nearly dead. The wraith swarm continued attacking, but only one dread wraith landed a solid blow, draining some of Ike's life force. Lotus' arc lightning passed beneath the wagon and shocked both dread wraiths, killing them.
Two colossal nightcrawlers and several more wraiths emerged from the ground, and this time the voice boomed from a huge and intelligent wraith -- obviously, this was Vash. He brought Ike under the effects of a spell that left him emotionally unstable, laughing and crying. Flynn barely resisted the spell due to Nate's subtle manipulation of fate, and Flynn was able to counter the maddening voices to break Ike out of his insane state. Jakob triggered a searing blade and pounded on one of the nightcrawlers, but his strikes were not as effective as hoped. Nate reached out to Jakob and Flynn and yelled "I didn't get to be 187 by fighting tough enemies on their terms. Let's get out of here." He teleported the group to Lonely Sparrow, and let Minellin know the pass should be closed even to powerful adventurers -- a group of nightcrawlers and a powerful wraith are not to be trifled with. A few hours later, the party teleported back and Jakob pulled the wagon off of the mountain. Once it was safe, the merchants continued on their way.
Jakob recieved a sending from Brother Lawrence at Jade Feather, saying that Jacob Newfellow had delivered news of the outside world and that it was now clear Jakob was to take over Brother Michael's quest. Knowing that it was customary to walk to Jade Feather, Nate teleported the group a short distance away and they walked for the final mile. The monks were not fooled, but appreciated the gesture. Brother Lawrence presented Brother Jakob with two notes. One said that Brother Michael hoped to make sense of his quest on the road, and that Brother Jonathan (who made his home at the Red Scorpion monastery) knew where the quest would lead. The other was the original oracle given to Brother Michael:
Shortly thereafter, Minellin contacted the party to let them know Enigma was in trouble. Serpenti had been betrayed, and she was fleeing westward through the desert. The Ninja Mongoose Rockstars were to disguise themselves as marruspawn and provide escort. The party teleported to the edge of Serpenti's teleportation shell, and with the wind at their backs from Lotus' spell, they quickly approached. Near the banks of the river, the sand began to boil over, and a hairy octopus-like creature (a Crawling Apocalypse) approached. Ike nailed it with three arrows, taking out a far-off squirrel with the fourth. Flynn sang a song about the coming of the horsemen and the end of the world. The apocalypse writhed its way over and through the sand and slapped Ike with a tentacle. Jakob pounded the beast with searing fists, and was surprised that the beast seemed overly sensitive to fire. Lotus fused the sand around it, leaving it completely immobilized and giving Ike a clear shot that he took to kill it. A few moments later, Ike started feeling sick, and Flynn was sure he'd caught Mummy Rot. Flynn was able to overpower the curse that made the disease so hard to cure, and Lotus was able to remove it and heal Ike from the harmful effects.The party waded across the river and soon located enigma, who was grateful for the protection. She wasn't really trained for wilderness survival, and the nasty beasts that roamed this area were likely to shred her. Back at the river, Ike saw the tracks of a crocosphynx, and was able to track where it was hiding under the banks. Flynn hasted the party and began singing, and Nate cast telekinesis, planning to push the crocosphynx away when it showed itself. Jakob jumped in the river and the crocosphynx lunged at him, but he deftly tossed it aside. Ike and Jakob quickly turned it into a corpse, and Jakob dug some treasure out of its lair.
Shortly thereafter, a cloud of dust approached. Ike thought it was likely a sand dragon, and began ineffectively firing arrows into the dust cloud. When the dragon got closer, Ike finally landed several arrows, including one directly to the eye. Flynn began singing "another one bites the dust". Nate cast feeblemind, crushing the dragon's intellect and personality. The dragon, having lost its sense of danger and its keen understanding of when it's time to run away, flew through Lotus' attempt to bind it to the earth, and blasted a breath of sand at the party. This was painful, but not nearly so painful as the punches and kicks Jakob used to bring the dragon first to its knees, and then to its death. The party continued onward to the edge of the teleportation shield, and then headed back to Lonely Sparrow with enigma.
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