Year Two of the Game

The Game Thus Far: Year Two

Experience: All that work and excellent battle tactics vs. a group of orcs for a measly 365xp total. Not to mention all the paper and ink I wasted! I think next time the encounter program indicates that I have NPC monsters (like orcs) I'll edit the NPCs into something a little tougher that will be worth some xp. The positive part of the deal is that the party gained a total value in cash and equipment of over 2,000gp. A lot of this equipment was left behind, but the party is still considerably more wealthy than they once were. Because I don't use individual experience point awards, and story awards are far between since I don't really have a specific plot designed, I'm giving the magic xp and cash values of the items to the party as well. This gives the party a complete game total of 2563xp. This equals 233xp per share, of which everyone gets one (but S'Rang gets two).

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

One vote for Daranel "...and his st(oic/upid) fighter routine - never backs down from a fight and plods away till everyone is down." There was also 1 vote for El'Fross because "He just wants to watch L'Wen Watch."

Therefore, El'Fross wins this week's Player's Choice award of 120xp!
DM's Choice (60xp):

I should have gotten on this right away after the game. Now its Friday and I don't recall the game hardly at all. I think I shall have to split the DM's Choice xp between Daranel and S'Rang (and A'Ha, but he doesn't get any, so its just 30 for D and 30 for S) because Murray did such an excellent job of keeping the 3 personalities seperate from each other.

Daranel - 263 F - updated!
El'Fross - 118 F, 118 T, 118 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 78 F, 78 T, 78 MU - updated!
S'Part - 117 CL, 117 MU - updated
X'Ylo - 233 CL - updated!
L'Wehn - 233 F - updated!
S'Rang the former NPC - 88 F, 88 T, 88 MU - updated!
A'Ha the bear- 233 B - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Siroth the White Dragon- 233 D - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 233 S - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

23rd Goodmonth (cont...) The party is called back to Agald's tree by a servant or messenger boy of his. The party returns and Agald tells them that their request for a polymorph other spell tweaked a memory that the old wizard could not quite recall at the time. Now he remembers the legend of the "twitches", twin witches that live in the Troll Fens swamp area just to the ESE of the decimated village of K'Nee. The party recalls the legend of the twitches and their affinity to turn any who enter their domain into frogs, and also of the viscous two-headed troll that lives deep in the fens. Not to mention the various and sundry other trolls who make the Troll Fens their home. The group is not encouraged and decides their best bet is to perhaps head back to Unicks and await the wizard who dwells there. They thank Agald and head down the river, back toward Unicks.
There are no encounters of note that day or night.

24th Goodmonth
The party encounters a Wild Board that they leave alone. It trots off, not interested at this time in taking on several elves. Snf'L and El'Fross also note a human fleeing down river with rags upon its body and trailing chains. It smells quite horribly. They let it go. Once S'Part learns of the slave (as he assumes the human to be) he wants to help it, but El'Fross suddenly denies that he even saw such a thing, while Snf'L remains silent. S'Part eventually lets the matter drop, puzzled as to why his new friends have such a distainful attitude toward humans.
Eventually Snf'L, scouting ahead of the rest of the group, spots an orc up in a tree, apparently trying to be a lookout or some such. Snf'L drops the orc with a single arrow shot, then hunts for the others that must be about, "for orcs are not ever found alone". He finds two others and takes them out, but they manage to give a hue and cry. The rest of the party arrives just as the orcs converge on Snf'L.

Snf'L hacks at one of the orcs while A'Ha moves in, clawing and biting. S'Rang moves around, trying to find the place where his attacks will do the most good. Daranel slices at one of the orcs. S'Part decides to try one of the spells he is allowed to pray for but does not know what it does, Nystul's Blazing Beam. A beam of light streaks out and blinds the orc that S'Part had chosen for his target. Tikkel the spider, having climbed a tree, fires his web at and orc, but misses. L'Wehn hits and takes out another of their orcish opponents. Little Siroth breathes on an orc, but his frozen breath does not kill the ugly thing. El'Fross also hits an orc. Two of the orcs charge at A'Ha with their spears out, but the bear casually knocks their attacks aside. A'Ha growls deeply while L'Wehn moves next to her bear-brother to help him out. S'Rang has now tracked down the leader and moves in to attack. S'Part innately fires off a faerie fire on another orc who is moving in toward the cleric. Tikkel dismounts from the tree to intercept this (now purplish) orc. The odds swing in the party's favor as more hits are scored on all of the orcs. Tikkel keeps between the purple orc and his friend, and bite the self-same orc, injecting his poison into it. As more orcs fall, S'Part fires off a magic missile spell at one of the remaining orcs. The final orc tries to flee, and El'Fross chases it down, slashing it from behind and killing it. The party loots the bodies and finds much equipment and treasure, but no magic. El'Fross takes a liking to one of the swords and uses it to replace one of his acid-pitted swords.

Party is now nearing the shores across from Unicks. The question becomes, how do they get across?

From the diary of El'Fross:

No entry. What do you expect? I worked hard today...

Session Forty-Two

Experience: There was no battle this game, except for the shot at the wizard, but spells were cast and theif skills were used. I think the party came out of the situation wiser and more wary. I give the party a straight 360xp each for the gaming session. This number would have been higher had the party been able to recite the poem of the La'Tir, but would have been lower if the mention of La'Tir hadn't sparked a memory in the group's collective minds. At least you guys had a clue what I was talking about! :)

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

Two votes for El'Fross. One comment made was "...he could not resist hitting the drow....even to save L'Wenn". One vote for S'Part because "...I think Darryl is doing a good job of playing a character much different in personality than Xy'Lo". And one vote for Snf'L "for staying with the packs and refusing to consider trading L'Weh for L'Tir". And one player ventured: "honourable mention this week to Adam for attempting to play Siroth - a difficult task - tell him he's welcome to play anytime......" But the DM adds that the young fellow is NOT welcome to play with his computer without supervision for some time! :)

Player's Choice therefore goes to El'Fross! Thanks for everyone casting their vote this time!
DM's Choice (60xp):

The DM takes a few bows for (finally) making an exciting game session. I think I surprised the lot of you. My vote goes to El'Fross as well, for taking the bull by the horns and having fascination overcome laziness. We saw a new El'Fross this game, illustrating that when pushed hard enough (out of a boat perhaps) he comes through in the end.

Daranel - 360 F - updated!
El'Fross - 180 F, 180 T, 180 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 120 F, 120 T, 120 MU - updated!
S'Part - 180 CL, 180 MU - updated
X'Ylo - 0 CL - updated!
L'Wehn - 360 F - updated!
S'Rang the former NPC - 120 F, 120 T, 120 MU - updated!
A'Ha the bear- 360 B - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Siroth the White Dragon- 360 D - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 360 S - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

24th Goodmonth (cont...)
The river is about a quarter mile across to Unicks at this point. The party ponders their situation, and notice that there are two boats nearby. S'Rang wanders off to check on something he heard moving in the brush. Meanwhile, one of the boats hals the party back and approaches. There is a human aboard as well as a tan elf. Oddly, he is tanned from his hair to the "whites" of his eyes. He tells the party that his name is Uni (for obvious reasons). He offers to ferry the party across, but his boat is somewhat small. He suggests they go two at a time. As the party discusses who will go in the first trip, Uni says, Ladies first" to which the rest of the party agrees. El'Fross offers quickly to go with L'Wehn, beating out S'Part by only a few seconds.
Partway over the river, the tan elf's assisstant suddenly pushes El'Fross from behind, knocking him into the river. There is a scream from L'Wehn and the boat moves on with her captive! El'Fross must hail a nearby fishing boat (manned by an old fisherelf) which takes far too long to get to him. Uni's boat crosses with L'Wehn. The party madly scrambles to get themselves across to help L'Wehn, but by the time they get there, the boat is empty! Nobody nearby can recall seeing three elves, one a pale female, heading away from the boat. Convinced they must still be aboard, El'Fross rushes onto Uni's boat to find it empty!
El'Fross heads off to find a big axe. He has heard a noise in the boat and is going to tear it apart to find L'Wehn. The ruckus at the docks summons 3 guards who arrive just in time to see El'fross about to chop a boat to pieces. They try and stop him but he ignores them. This flusters them as they are not used to people refusing them. The fattish henchman of Uni is hidden in the boat and begs to be let out when the chopping begins. There is a hubbub as the guards try to sort things out and some other party members arrive. With too many elves and a big brown bear on the boat, it founders and sinks. All manage to escape, and the fattish elf is arrested by the guards. He claims he was paid 20gp by Uni to act as his henchman for this one exercise.
The party questions elves from the town about the tan elf. He worked at a bar called the "Angry Lammasu Tavern" and "makes a mean boilermaker". Witnesses claim Uni headed home East when he left the bar.

Somehow El'Fross manages to do what nobody else in the town has ever done: he gets to see the Wizard of the Tower. This only happens after much discussion with the Wizard's underling, named Myklo. This includes S'Part foolishly casting a spell which backfires on him. Myklo even has to bring out his wand in an attempt to clam El'Fross down, but it doesn't work - El'Fross grabs the hand instead. The wizard turns out to be a she, and she says she is known as "Lun-chin" in some circles. She agrees to help El'Fross and the other K'Needian Elves, in return for a quest. El'Fross agrees but doesn't know what he wants her to do. He leaves, vowing to return.
The party gets rooms at "Munton's Inn".
The party goes to check out the "Angry Lammasu", and find a tavern wench there named "Gladys" who claims to know where Uni lives. As they walk with her, Snf'L examines her closely and notices "she" is really a "he" an he is actually Sheh'Tep the bard, the other K'Needian Elf!
When the arrive at Uni's shack, S'Rang opens the door and is instantly enveloped in a dun-colored aura and cannot move! The other enter to investigate, and after awhile Uni himself shows up and confronts to party with his demands. He says he will return L'Wehn to them for La'Tir. There is some confusion in the party until they recall the Rote of the K'Needian Elves and realize that La'Tir is an artifact the drow wants. After a lot of smug stubborness on the part of Uni, El'Fross loses his temper and attacks with his swords. As soon as Uni is struck by the sword, he dissappears! The party is left to ponder their situation.

From the diary of El'Fross:

What have I done? We hailed a boat to take us across the river. A weird looking tan skinned elf stopped with a small boat, claiming he could only take two of us at a time. I volunteered to go first and the tan skinned elf suggested, "ladies first". We agreed and L'Wehn came along also.

Halfway across the river I found myself in the river (surprised and pushed in by a fat clumsy employee of the elf. I tried to swim on to the boat, but it continued to sail away, L'wen crying for help. I swam to another boat where a kindly and painfully slow old man agreed to pick up the others and take us to the other side.

By the time we reached the far side, the offending boat was empty. We found out through the old man and others on the shore that the tan skinned elf worked at a local tavern. S'Rang stayed with the boat and the rest of us made our way to the Inn. After asking around and searching through the Inn we came up empty. Frustrated and angry – I bought an axe.

Back at the boat I proceeded to attempt to sink it with the axe, finally going into the hold to bust a hole in the floor. To our surprise the fat adversary who pushed me into the river was hiding in a false bottom. After some gentle interrogation, he convinced us that he knew nothing about the whereabouts of the tan skinned elf.

The local constabulary had arrived at the behest of the harbour master who seemed to have a problem with me taking my newly purchased tool to the boat. We convinced them that the fat man had conspired to kidnap our friend and he was arrested.

Thinking perhaps that the tan skinned elf was the wizard that lived in the tower of Unicks, we proceeded to the tower. After considerable examination of the exterior of the tower, S'Part and I took a more forward approach and entered through the open door.

S'Part managed to knock himself out with a spell after not paying heed to the gentleman behind the counter who told him spells were not allowed in the tower.
After some conversation, I was called to the wizard's chambers and teleported there. As I vanished from site I snatched a wand that the elder gentleman had been waving in my face (just in case I was to come face to face with our tan friend)

The wizard turned out to be a female elf named Lun'chin. At least that was the form that was presented to me. (S'Nfl declared this form to be an illusion later when meeting her) Lun''hin agreed to help in return for a later to be named quest.
She instructed us to return the next day.

That night we went to the Inn again. S'Rang sent me outside to observe anyone leaving and boldly offered anyone in the Inn a reward for the whereabouts of the tan elf. A young female elf approached and told us she could help. S'Nfl saw through the illusion being used by the female elf and was surprised to see it was actually Sh'Tepp the K'Needian Bard we had suspected was still alive.

He led us to a small hut that the tan skinned elf had told Sh'Tepp was his home. The place was trapped with some sort of magical ruins. S'Rang attempted to disarm the trap but set it off, freezing in place.

The elf invited us in. He introduced himself as a hated Drow Elf and demanded an object called L'Tir, which of course we recognized from our Legend. He described it as a globe containing powerful magic. He offered to trade the object for L'Wehn who apparently was still alive (thank Sehanine). I thought I might be able to subdue him with a surprise attack, but he disappeared as I struck.

The next day, S'Rang was still frozen in place as S'nfl and I went to visit Lun'Chin. She told us she could get a message to L'Wen and we could hear her answer however if she might not be able to answer if the tan skinned elf was around. I gave the mage L'wen's dancing shoes, as she wanted to also attempt to scry her location. We went back to the others to decide our next move.

If it comes to it, I wonder if I would trade L'Tir – apparently a powerful magic item guarded and by our village for years for L'wen's safety. I might if I thought for a second that Drow could be trusted.

Session Forty-Three

Experience: Not much experience. You guys are working toward a solution and there is a variable story experience award waiting at the end depending on how well you do. A straight 100xp each for excellent role-playing and an enjoyable game.

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

2 votes for Snf'L, but Fred didn't vote, so the xp goes to the two who voted.
DM's Choice (60xp):

I have to go with Snf'L. You did the truth-telling thing to the nines.

Daranel - 100 F - updated!
El'Fross - 53 F, 53 T, 53 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 53 F, 53 T, 53 MU - updated!
S'Part - 63 CL, 63 MU - updated!
X'Ylo - 0 CL - updated!
L'Wehn - 0 F - updated!
S'Rang the former NPC - 0 F, 0 T, 0 MU - updated!
A'Ha the bear- 0 B - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Siroth the White Dragon- 0 D - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 0 S - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

25th Goodmonth
Luna's full moon
El'Fross and Snf'L go to visit the wizard in the tower. They are both teleported up to see "her". Snf'L's keen sense of illusion sees through her as though she were not there, but she does not react to his reaction. She says she has given some thought to their predicament and wants to use sending to send a message to L'Wehn. The K'Needian Elves are to decide on a message and return to the tower. They are also to bring a personal item of L'Wehn's so Lun'chin can do a magic mirror.
Snf'L and El'Fross return to the party to discuss the message they want to send and discuss plans. A message is agreeed upon and they go back to the tower. Lun-chin is sent up L'Wehn's shoes and presumably casts her spell, using L'Wehn's dancing shoes to focus in on her. A reply from Lun-chin arrives in the lobby saying, "L'Wehn is in a wooden room, dirt floor in a cage - gagged and cannot answer. No windows."

El'Fross gets a brilliant idea to get his magic rock placed in a crystal globe as a decoy La'Tir to use as a trump card. He hits the marketplace and finds a crystal shop, "Myranel's Crystal Shop". After some heated bartering, the crystal globe will be ready the following day and will cost 400 gp.
Snf'L takes his turn in getting the action going. On his suggestion they hit a few taverns, buy a few drinks and find out about a place where a guy can buy a little "information". At a tavern down by the docks, they are told to head south and look for a guy named "Teur".
As they head toward the seedier area south of the docks, they pass a windowless warehouse. El'Fross is intrigued and he and Snf'L make a stop. The two scam their way in as "warehouse inspectors". They find nothing suspicious.
They find a shack down by the docks that someone points out as belonging to Teur. As they are investigating it, Teur arrives. He is a High Elf about 5' 2" tall and weighing about 120 pounds. His skin is fair and his hair is brown. His eyes are green. He tells them he can get their info for a price. They agree.

The party is mostly present that night and Uni makes another appearance. He tells them he will meet them on neutral ground to do the trade. S'Part discovers that Tikkel is charmed, and so is Sheh'Tep. Sheh'Tep's charm is very strong. Slowly he manages to inform all of the others of Sheh'Tep's charm without alerting Sheh'Tep or Tikkel.

26th Goodmonth
Sheh'Tep claims he has to work, so he alters his form to that of "Gladys" and heads off to work. The party waits till he is gone and discusses their plans somewhat. Then Snf'L tracks Sheh'Tep and finds him in a back alley behind "Barrowight's Goldsmithy" talking to someone who cannot be seen. There is lots of talk about what to do, and about La'Tir. Then Sheh'Tep returns to Uni's shack and announces that he does not have to wrk after all.
The party pretends they are out to look for more information, and S'Part and Sheh'Tep are invited along. At the first tavern, the "Angry Lammasu", S'Part pretends to get drunk and Sheh'Tep (disguised as "Gladys") actually does do so. This gives El'Fross and Snf'L an opportunity to go and get information from Teur, as well as pick up the decoy globe that El'Fross had commissioned.

The party gets the drunken Sheh'Tep home. When he passes out they check under the gloves he wears and they find a ring. A black ring.
That night when Uni arrives to check on the party's progress, they check him for a black ring. He wwears one similar to the others, but with a big black stone in it. The others are plain black metal bands. Then some sort of fit seems to seize Snf'L. He starts to rant and rave about how Uni will never get La'Tir because the party would rather die first and he grabs Uni. Both of them dissappear!

From the diary of El'Fross:

S'Nfl has gone insane. He completely snapped yesterday and paid a terrible price for it…

We continued our struggle to find and free L'Wehn from the tan skinned drow named Uni. The Wizard sent a message to L'wen and attempted discern her location with some fancy schmancy spell. We discovered that L'wen was alive, but tied and gagged in a cage and unable to respond to our message.

S'Nfl and I (this was just as his insanity began to show itself) made our way to find a man name Touer. He was known to have his fingers on the pulse of the town – at least the shady side of it. He told us to come back later and he'd see what he could find out.

After another visit from Uni, S'part noticed that the Spider and Sh'tep had been charmed in some way. We later discovered that the Spider was charmed only in the presence of the Drow and that Sh'Tep was wearing on of those damned black rings we have encountered in the past.

The next morning we feigned inaction as we waited for Sh'Tep to go to work. When he left, I followed him. He walked into an alley near the bar where he worked. I watched him have a conversation with an unseen person, whom I assumed was Uni. He was obviously instructed to remain with the party.

I followed Sh'Tep back to Uni's house, which we have set up as our base for the time being. S'Rang is a better adventurer than he is a lawn ornament, but remains the latter for the time being outside the house.

S'Part took Sh'tep to the tavern on the pretense of looking for clues. S'Nfl and I went to the crystal shop where I had left my magic rock the day before. The man in the shop had done a lovely job of encasing the magic stone in a solid globe of clouded glass. I commissioned this work in the event that we need a decoy globe. The problem will be protecting L'Tir and saving L'wen. Trickery will be our ally more than brute force dealing with this obviously powerful mage.

After I retrieved the globe, we went to visit Touer who gave us some information after considerable gold was exchanged. Apparently Uni has several townsfolk under his control. He has been seen at the caves and that even a couple of Touer's aquaintances were working for him. We asked Touer to set up a bribe if possible to discern the whereabouts of our friend.

After getting Sh'tep completely drunk, he passed out and we checked his fingers for rings. We were unable to remove the ring – I suggested my tried and true method. The rest of the party wasn't crazy about the idea. Of course, I was only being sarcastic, as I think it might be a good idea to let Uni think we are unaware of the ring – it may give us an opportunity to trick Uni later.

Uni showed up yet again. We noticed this time that he was wearing a black ring himself – this ring was thicker with a jewel in it. I deduced it may control the others. Before we could make an arrangement to trade L'Wen for L'Tir, S'Nfl in an act of sheer stupidity, er, honesty proclaimed that Uni may as well kill him now for he would never trade L'Tir for L'wen. Our friend then rushed the Drow attempting to tackle him. They both disappeared, leaving us to wonder what became of our friend.

So if two of us are now held hostage, do we have any other choice but to hand over L'Tir. And there are no guarantees any of us would survive the trade in any event. This is getting nastier by the minute. The good news is, a plan is beginning to form in my little brain involving many of the locations that we have explored previously. The bad news is, I'm a terrible planner.

Session Forty-Four

Experience: Again there is not much experience. Snf'L gets 100xp for things that happened before the game began which I will not reveal here. Everyone else gets a straight 50xp for good role-playing, but remember we ARE working toward a story goal at the end that will be worth the slow experience rewards at this point.

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

One vote for El'Fross, "...cause he is such a leader and a man with a plan." One vote for A'ha, "...back to his old self again - immediately calling El'Fross Lazy even though [he] saved his sorry ass from a bear's life."
A'Ha's player did not vote, so the award goes to El'Fross!
DM's Choice (60xp):

My choice is for the newly manifested A'Ha - brand new out of the box and grouchy as a bear! There you go, Murray, a few xp to get you going!

A'Ha the K'Needian Elf- 55 F, 55 T, 0 MU - updated!
Daranel - 50 F - updated!
El'Fross - 57 F, 57 T, 57 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 33 F, 33 T, 33 MU - updated!
S'Part - 25 CL, 25 MU - updated!
X'Ylo - 0 CL - updated!
L'Wehn - 0 F - updated!
S'Rang the frozen NPC - 0 F, 0 T, 0 MU - updated!
Siroth the White Dragon- 0 D - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 0 S - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

26th Goodmonth (cont...)
Snf'L has dissappeared after grabbing Uni, and the rest of the party is frozen in shock. In a few seconds it seems like maybe four weeks have passed...
El'Fross decides to go to the tower of the wizard. He finds it locked but knocks anyway. There is no response so he knocks again. After a bit he knocks again. Finally he is told, "We're closed! Go away!"
A brief discussion through the door with the desk guy. El'Fross goes home.

27th Goodmonth
The party spends the night in the cottage of Uni and the night passes uneventfully.
A'Ha the bear and El'Fross return to the tower. El'Fross insists that A'Ha needs to be changed into an elf. The desk clerk sends the message and one comes back saying that El'Fross already owes for the last favor. El'Fross insists and another message says the quest will become more difficult if this favor is granted and El'Fross again agrees. He is sent down a scroll, which he takes back to Uni's hut. El'Fross cannot read the scroll and realizes he needs read magic to read it. He goes back to "MYranel's Crystal Shop" and buys a crystal prism for 81 gp that is unbreakable, so he can cast read magic and read the scroll. El'Fross discovers two important facts at this time:

The scroll is a polymorph other scroll, which he assumes he must use on A'Ha.
He has A'Ha's prism in his belt pouch.

El'Fross, heedless to the danger of trying to control powerful magic when you are still not so powerful yourself, reads the scroll with A'Ha as his target, and making him a K'Needian Elf as his goal. A'Ha is transformed into a K'Needian Elf, but his features are plain and he does not look the same. He is the same old A'Ha they sson discover, and El'Fross begins to wonder why it was that he was so anxious to get A'Ha back...

Uni arrives yet again, smugger than ever. He demands La'Tir for the return of L'Wehn and Snf'L. He threatens that there is only another week before he will likely decide to kill Snf'L and then begin to send parts of L'Wehn if the party does not get La'Tir to him. The party agrees to the trade (El'Fross is the new spokes-elf) but El'Fross wnats it to happen at the ruined castle at the south shore of Lupien Dross in two weeks time. L'Wehn and Snf'L must be alive and unharmed. Uni agrees and says he will meet them there on the 13th of Harvester. Uni then asks someone to hit him. A'Ha complies, "with pleasure", and the uni-colored elf dissappears.
El'Fross prepares for the eventual freeing of S'Rang by writing on the outside of Uni's shack door "13th Harvester: Castle". Before bedding down for the night, A'Ha heads to the nearest tavern for a beer (bear?).

From the diary of El'Fross:

S'Nfl is gone – he attacked Uni in a fit of honesty and now remains a captive of the Drow. So with S'nfl gone, S'rang frozen, A'ha a bear, X'ylo dead, and L'wen kidnapped – I guess that leaves me in charge. I immediately formulated a plan.

The next morning I went to collect from the Wizard. She provided me a scroll to read which cast a spell on A'ha, making him a K'Needian Elf again. I had to agree to "upping the ante" with the Wizard, which I presume to mean I more arduous quest once she has chosen it. The truth is I would have agreed to almost anything to have our friend back. Hopefully we are able to complete the rescue of our friends before

After a brief, emotional reunion with A'ha, we refocused on our immediate problems. After providing some clothing and a sword for A'ha, Uni came back to state the obvious – that he now had two of us held captive and expected L'Tir in exchange. I agreed to meet him at the Black Giant's Castle for the "exchange".

Now the tricky part. We have to convince Sh"tep that the fake L'Tir is the real l'Tir, rescue our friends, protect the real L'Tir and avoid getting killed in the process.

I'm really feeling like a nap.

Session Forty-Five

Experience: We had a good visit, if not too much of a gaming session. With S'Part's player having the poor taste to go and have an anniversary on a gaming night and Snf'L the character now in the clutches of the evil (?) mage: only 2 players, the DM and a few beer showed up. 0 game xp (but see Roleplayer bonuses below).

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

Split evenly between A'Ha and El'Fross.
DM's Choice (60xp):

I'm giving this to A'Ha. This is clearly a guy who has been itching to *DO* something about what has been going on for some time.

A'Ha the K'Needian Elf- 60 F, 60 T, 0 MU - not yet entered/updated
Daranel - 0 F - not yet entered/updated
El'Fross - 40 F, 40 T, 40 MU - not yet entered/updated
Snf'L - 0 F, 0 T, 0 MU - updated!
S'Part - 0 CL, 0 MU - updated!
X'Ylo - 0 CL - updated!
L'Wehn - 0 F - updated!
S'Rang the frozen NPC - 0 F, 0 T, 0 MU - updated!
Siroth the White Dragon- 0 D - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 0 S - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

27th Goodmonth (cont...)

El'Fross and A'Ha head to Teur's place. While near the shack, an old drunk elf comes toward El'Fross. He stumbles into El'Fross but El'Fross asks him where he might find Teur. This not only sobers up the elf, but gets back a pouch (with cut strings) that the elf had lifted from El'Fross. Teur shows up and is given El'Fross' garnet to bribe the thieve's with who work for Uni. El'Fross wants to know when Uni is leaving, who he is taking with him, and what he is taking.

El'Fross and A'Ha discuss the plan - they have to try to fake out Uni into thinking their fake La'Tir is the real La'Tir.
They wait until morning.

28th Goodmonth Party pools money to get some rations and other supplies for the journey. Muranel gives A'Ha 50gp back for El'Fross' prism. It is recommended they visit "Terry's Tavern" for iron rations. They also hear that "Old Man Ratik's General Store" is a good place to get equipment, if they happen to have stuff in stock that you are looking for. A'Ha goes to visit Rassmusen the tailor, who appears somewhat effeminate. They are directed to "Misseel's Flower Shop" for veggie biscuits. She sells them for normal price unless large quantities are purchased. Teur is about to give information on Uni's activities when the game ends.

From the diary of El'Fross:

We spent the day outfitting for the adventure before us. Shovels, rope, swords for A'ha and food (S'Nfl was carrying most of ours) were procurred by A'ha and Sh'tep. A'ha seems to have a better head for dealing than I do, so I stayed behind. He also managed to get 50 gold pieces for the crystal I paid 80 gold for the day before – I think I'll stick to fighting and sleeping.

I met Teur again, looking for the possibility of bribing someone close to Uni to get a feel for what we'll be up against in the wilderness. It will take another evening for him to get the information. Once we've learned all we can, it will be time to put the plan into action.

Somehow we've got to convince Sh'tep (and through him, Uni) that the fake La'Tir is real and then trick Uni into tricking us into giving up the fake. It may require us switching the fake la'Tir for a counterfeit 'fake" and hiding the original fake while attempting a switch with the new fake. What if we accidentally find the real La'Tir – then we'll be forced to protect it and the fake while offering the "fake" fake and tricking Uni into tricking us out of the fake. Ouch…. The trouble is if we give up the fake too easily, Uni may become suspicious. Any snafu could also result in the death of one or both of our friends.

Hmmm, I hope S'nfl isn't squirming too much against L'Wen – lucky bastard. I should have attacked Uni – then I'd be tied up with her…..

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