= Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 11 =
2-1-05

The group continues on, passing by the same fishing village they originally found Kaira in.  Sarai wonders how Kaira feels about this, but her mood is difficult to determine, as she is currently a small lizard.  The group continues on, past the village, and at nightfall, they come across an abandoned cottage.  It is uninhabited, although the front door has been wrecked.  They decide to use it as a camp for the night.  Akili reaches into his bag of Chaos for his square of orange carpet, and discovers a small metal rod.  Figuring Sarai could use it as a spell component, he hands it over.  She determines that it's a wand of some sort, but can't figure out how to trigger it.  Akili gives it an attempt, and turns a nearby rock into a small leather pouch.  Sarai investigates, and finds that the pouch is full of sand, but of a different-covered sand than in the nearby area.  Frowning, Akili tries again on a bush 20' away.

The group rolls initiative, as there is a very crocodile-ish creature now there, approximately 7' high and 15' long.  Combat ensues, and they soon defeat it, although Oy-hat has a big chunk taken out of her shoulder.

She glares at Akili, and he looks suitably apologetic while Sarai collects scales from the slain crocodile.  They finally camp for the night.  During her watch, Sarai puts together her spell idea to locate Salorvin, plays with it to see if it's actually working, and her watch ends.

Akili flips through his book of Chaos again during his watch, somewhat randomly, and has an epiphany.  He feels his magical horizons expanding (MP goes up by 2)... and when he looks down, the book is now entirely blank.  Somewhat shellshocked, he ponders over this development for the next few hours, and then goes to bed after waking Andune for her watch.

After a mostly uneventful remainder of the night, the group continues down the trail, and encounters a small troop of Slavaakian troops - of about 100 members.  The party sneaks down to the cliffside adjoining the shoreline, and hides in various nooks and crannies while the troop passes by.  The decision is made to try to steal the horses, and the group tries to figure out how to steal the horses safely.  This takes a long time, but eventually a plan is made.  In the event of disaster, plan B is also created: Oy-aht would climb into his Kwalish, circle around the campsite, and barrel straight through the center of camp, causing a great deal of mayhem.  While the remains of the army (ideally) would chase after him, he'd lead the army a little ways down the road, then down to the shoreline, and into the ocean.  As the Kwalish is watertight, this would not present any problems for him.  And while the army would be stymied by this development, the rest of the group would saunter in, take the horses they needed, and run off.  Fortunately, it never came to that, and here's what actually happens.

Oy-aht borrows Andune's ring of invisibility, sneaks in, and casts an obscuring fog spell, and proceeds to deck the current guard before he can react.  Then she hands the ring back over to Andune, who comes in, and Andune goes over to the horses, and attempts to free them.  Another guard becomes curious, and wanders over to Andune, who he can't see, and makes a comment.  Andune casts the 'comprehend languages' spell, and hears a general query for someone's name.  Although she doesn't have the ability to speak that language, she nevertheless manages to bluff the guard into thinking that he's found the person who he's looking for.

Then Andune casts Darkness, and although the guards do notice that, she manages to make off with the horses.  She is quickly pursued, and she sprints away, back to the group.  They all manage to get on the horses - even Akili! - and sprint away.

The game is paused here.

CategoryCrystalQuestAftermath