Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 19
11-13-05
The party gathers back together after making their purchases, and discusses where to go from here. Various plans are brought up, and it is decided to head to Starn's Stronghold, although what they're going to do there is further discussed.
Sarai comes up with the clever idea of stealthily taking over the stronghold, and then start poisioning the supply line. Arsenic, being the least expensive and still very effective, is finally chosen. One other is found that will cripple Intelligence, and they decide to mix it up with that. (200 doses of id moss [Int poison] and 918 of arsenic). They pretty much spend all of their money on this, after scouring the city.
Thusly prepared, the party leaves Davos castle on horseback.
Four days of travel later, the party comes across a group of goblins. Atheele kills four of them, and Akili follows up with a Wild Rain. Weird... stuff... falls from the sky. Sarai attempts to burn some of it, to little effect. Andune samples a few bits, and has to fight off nausea after sampling something blue and gooey. She refrains from trying anything else. The falling bits of stuff cloud visibility to the point where the remaining goblins get away, and everyone kind of grumbles at Akili. He shrugs apologetically, and the party moves on, leaving the storm behind them... which, fortunately, only lasts for five minutes or so.
While still travelling, Akili explains what he has discovered about his 8-Ball - that it's not from this world, and that he thinks he can activate a link to where it came from. However, the nature of the link and how it'd work is completely unknown. Akili confesses that he wants to try it, but he's been holding off because he doesn't know what will happen.
Therath eyes the campfire the goblins were gathered around distastefully, and grumps at Akili. He was intending on using that campfire for himself, but all the stuff that has fallen in the fire from the sky stinks terribly, so the party moves on to set up their own camp. Sarai starts creating a new spell, to return an object to its home.
Some time later, the party finally reaches the mountains, and starts ascending. Some time later, shortly after Sarai and Akili discuss the new spell she's creating to help with the link effect Akili has discovered on the 8-Ball, most of the party notices that there is a line of archers up ahead, all getting ready to fire at the party. Akili doesn't notice; he's too busy studying his toenails. Andune fails to notice, also. Oy-aht reacts first, invoking the powerful version of her Staff of Striking, then announces the archers up ahead.
Thus warned, Akili invokes Stampede. A lone adventurer runs from one portal, and fires a pistol into the line of archers a few times, then grins smugly, looking very pleased with himself. Then a portal opens on the other side, and a crowd of 50 or so guys in loincloths, wielding spears and blowguns, run towards him, attacking everyone along the line indiscriminately. The adventurer's face falls, and he spins around and runs for the far portal. The crowd of loincloth-clad fighters dive into the far portal, and both sides close, leaving only a few stunned archers behind... which Andune easily takes care of with a well-placed lightning bolt.
After the fight is over, Akili realizes that the group is being scryed upon. They discuss how to handle this, but Akili decides to go to the top of the ridge. Unfortunately, it is not the top of the mountain... but Akili *does* spot the magical 'sensor' that is being used to scry. He wanders over to stand directly underneath the sensor, and Andune casts Dispel Magic located about 100' off the ground. She thoroughly dispells it, and the party makes a break for it.
While still sprinting, Sarai casts Sanguinary Deception on herself, followed by Akili. Now two living corpses are riding horses, and are completely disgusting everyone else.
Eventually night falls, and the party decides to go just a little bit farther, in an attempt to get off of this vulunerable path as quickly as possible. They push an additional hour into nightfall, and they still haven't reached the top of the mountain. Sighing, the party finally makes camp to settle in for the night.
After an uneventful night, the party moves on, and shortly before noon, they find an old encampment that the archers had probably been using. They poke around the leftovers, and underneath a largish stone under a cot, Sarai finds a tunic... with a symbol of Matro on it. This is puzzling, since Sarai and Akili were thinking that Matro and Koron were working together, and this implies that maybe it wasn't the case.
Around noon they finally reach the top of the pass. Akili is still unable to detect any more scrying, so the group continues traveling, eventually reaching the forest at the base of the other side of the mountain, heading towards the stronghold. The party sets up camp, Atheele sets his Alarm spell, and a watch is kept.
In very early morning (around 2am), Atheele is awoken by his Alarm, while Sarai is still watching. They try to quietly wake up others, but Akili is fast asleep. Sarai, Atheele, and a few others start fighting some zombie-ish monsters that emerge from the bushes... and Atheele finally has a chance to shout "Monsters!" which awakens the rest of the party.
The battle concludes even before Akili finishes waking up... and after a bit of discussion, and the discovery of another scrying sensor that is subsequently dispelled, the party finishes sleeping. The next morning, they wake up, and finally arrive at the stronghold.
The game is paused here.