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Experience:
Exclusively a role-playing experiece this game. Everyone gets a straight 25xp for role-playing, except as noted below for Role-player of the week.
Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (100xp):
Two votes for Daranel, as "Murray had the freaked out son role down pretty good" and "It's hard not to vote for Daranel, so why try".
One vote for S'nfl, but no accompanying comment was made.
One vote for El'Fross. "Only he could figure out a way to narrow down the L'Wen wannabe's in her pants. I just hope Daranel forgives him."
Daranel wins Player's Choice!
DM's Choice (50xp):
Daranel, no doubt about it. From the run back to town to the horrific battle with his 1st level Aristocrat father, sheer role-playing fun all the way!
A'Ha - 25xp - was at 6,140xp - puts him at 6165xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
Daranel - 175xp - was 6,290xp - puts him at 6465xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
El'Fross - 25xp - was 14,320xp - puts him at 14,345xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
Snf'L - 25xp - was 14,340xp - puts him at 14,365xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
S'Part - 25xp - - was 9,740xp - puts him at 9,765xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
L'Wehn - 25xp - was at 6,140xp - puts her at 6,165xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
X'Ylo - 0xp -
S'Rang the NPC - 0xp - Where has he gone?
Siroth the White Dragon- 0 xp - updated! - cannot earn experience, but alters the level of the group and takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider - ..DEAD..
4th Harvester (cont...)
Party discusses their next action. Do they get "Gettin' Ettin", as El'Fross insists on calling it? Or do they continue on and investigate the well, the green glow and what lies beyond? El'Fross is tuckered out from the illusions of the Green Slime protecting the chest that contained Snf'L and L'Wehn's magic, and he offers to return to the cell area and get Snf'L's opinion on their next move, give Snf'L his magic boots, and maybe watch Teur for a bit while Snf'L joins the party, if he is feeling up to it.
A bit later, Snf'L enters the room silently, happy to be prowling about in his elven boots once again. He complains about how he feels and says he's dying. L'Wehn looks at him with a little female scorn and says, "Oh, Snf'L, you are NOT dying. By the way, could you stand over there a bit further, please?"
Standing in the large area where the Ogre statue sits, the party discusses their options some more. Luckily they only have two, otherwise the discussion would have gone on much longer. As it is, a half an hour goes by before they (sort of) agree that going after the Ettin eye for the Wizard is the best idea.
A'Ha goes to ask El'Fross one last time if he is in agreement with what the party has decided, and finds the not-so-energetic K'Needian asleep on Uni's bed, where Snf'L lay languishing not long before. Behind El'Fross, the cell that formerly held Teur is empty, and the door is open! A'Ha kicks El'Fross awake and calls him a few choice names. A'Ha tells him that Daranel is not going to take the new very well. They go back to the others.
Sure enough, upon hearing the news, Daranel loses it. He storms out of the dungeon (somewhat stumbling, since he does not have a source of light) and S'Part decides to follow him, although at a less active pace. The others stand around in surprise. Several party members chastise El'Fross, and another debate ensues, with Snf'L and El'Fross saying its better to let the thief go and trust him, while L'Wehn and A'Ha disagree that you can't trust thieves. When it is pointed out that A'Ha is himself a thief, the argument breaks down a bit as L'Wehn sways over to the other side. After all, she trusts her brother, so why should she not trust this guy if he is also a thief?
At length they decide that perhaps it would be prudent to head to town and make sure that Daranel doesn't go after Teur. The high elf would likely die and get the rest of the party into a little hot water as well.
Meanwhile, Daranel runs the entire quarter-mile back home to Unicks. He immediately heads home, and his mother is overjoyed to see him. She invites him to breakfast and to have some tea, listening to the elf's explanations of "There's thieves and they have a guild and they are going to kill you" with interjections of: "That's nice dear, but you haven't touched your bacon" and such. S'Part arrives and tries to explain Daranel's actions as the elf runs off again, this time to hire a cart and horses and a boat. He plans on getting his parents out and away before midmorning. He locates Landor the Cartier and rents a cart and tries to get his mother and father into the cart to get them out of town. His father, a 1st level aristocrat,
tells him to smarten up. Daranel tries to grapple his father and wrestle him into the cart. What ensues is a father/son wrestle fest: "Oh, so you think you can take the old man, eh?" Daranel's father knows how to get the young lad to make the wrong wrestling moves and he quickly turns Daranel around and wrenches hsi arm up behind his back. The son struggles to get free, and finally maneuvers out of it. Grondigar (Daranel's father's name) says, "Come on, have you
had enough already?" Daranel wades in, but his Dad was ready for it and wrenches the arm iup behidn again, this time quite hard. "Don't make me hurt ya, son," he says. Daranel struggles out of the hold once again. He is still determined, so when he comes at his Dad this time, Dad goes for the pin. Daranel is flipped heavily to the floor and the wind is knocked out of him. By now L'Wehn and A'Ha have arrived and are watching in amusement. After a few more minutes of this, Daranel finally gets his Dad in a sleeper hold, and the old man instantly passes out. Bruised and dazed, Daranel loads his father into the cart and tells his mother to join them.
Meanwhile, El'Fross and Snf'L go to talk to Teur. They run into an old man near the docks and tell him they want to see Teur. The old man leads them to the caved-in front of a warehouse and lets them know that he is Teur. They give Teur his stuff back, and Snf'L makes a token effort to mend Teur's armor. Teur agrees to leave Uni's lair alone for now in return for a small tithe to the guild of anythign they find, say 10% El'Fross is not impressed with this deal, but Snf'L agrees and gives Teur a few gems as a good will token. Teur wants to know if the party decides not to explore the lair of Uni, because then they are going in for a piece. Snf'L and El'Fross agree.
Snf'L and El'Fross go and ask around to find Daranel's place. They get there and find L'Wehn and A'Ha, still snickering about some fight Daranel had with his father. They decide that Daranel has cracked and they would just let him go, but the problem is that S'Part went with the family. The remaining K'Needian elves head down to the docks and find Daranel struggling to get a cart and horses onto a barge-like boat with an old man (who looks very familiar to El'Fross) instructing Daranel on various things about sails and anchors to get underway. S'Part comes over and joins the party, and they wave goodbye to the Daranel clan as they sail (drift?) off down the river. S'Part has promised to let the guild of which Daranel's mother is the head know that she has gone away on vacation.
The party returns to Uni's in-town shack to check on S'Rang. Little Siroth is in there playing with Mac, Snf'L's new pseudodragon. Mac flies up and cuddles on Snf'L's shoulder while Siroth explains that Sheh'Tep never did come back and S'Rang said he was going to look for the bard. Snf'L spends some time communicating with Mac, who is not very responsive to questions, but sure likes to get patted on the head. S'Part takes the cue to try and speak to his raven familiar. He asks "Rave" (his name for the Raven) if he knows "Daranel", the party's "friend". Rave, who speaks elf somewhat, does not seems to understand "friend". S'Part points to different members of the party and calls each of them "friend", then proceeds to go around again and name them with a different term. The raven apparently gets confused and lumps everything together as meaning the same thing. Hopefully the communication with the familairs will improve over time...
The party decides it is time to rest up and have some R&R. L'Wehn runs to get into her green dress and the party heads down to the bar for an afternoon of drinking.
While they are on the way to the bar, S'Part stops and spends a gold piece on a quill, some ink, and a piece of paper, At the bar, S'Part writes a letter to Daranel.
4th Harvester
Daranel
I hope you can forgive all of us for not coming with you when you thought your parents were in grave danger. We honestly thought Teur wouldn't take the chance in harming your parents, but in truth we weren't positive. That's why El'Fross (the reliable one) and Sn'Fl went and talked to Teur. They wanted to make sure he didn't want to hurt any of us. Teur could have killed the two of them if he wanted to, but he didn't. Also, he could have killed El'Fross when he was alone. They gave his stuff back and he seemed embarassed that he was taken out by a bunch of kids. He agreed to forget the whole incident if we did. I think you and your parents will be safe in Unix. I am leaving 200 gp at my church for you, to make up for some of the losses you took due to El'Fross' screw up. We are planning on coming back to Unix with the eyeballs. If you still wish to adventure with us, please tell us where we can find you, if you won't be in town. Really sorry for all the trouble El'Fross caused you.
S'Part
PS. Daranel. El'Fross here. S'Part blames me for this mess, so I had to remind him that it
was you who beat up your father, loaded everything on a wagon and sailed off into the wild blue
yonder.
Teur has given us his personal assurance no harm will come to your family. Really, had S'Part
not attacked him with a spell, Teur wouldn't have felt threatened enough to fight back, forcing
the rest of us to pummel him. Had we been given the opportunity to negotiate with him, none of
this would have come about. His threat to your family came out of desperation - surely you can
see that. Well, come to think of it - obviously you can't. Hopefully over time you will.
Sure it's easy to "blame El'Fross". Why not? He's an easy target. "Oh it's ElFross' fault
for letting Teur go!" "It's El'Fross' fault that Tickell was killed!" "Why did you let Uni
throw you in the river and kidnap L'Wehn, El'Fross?" "Why can't you be more like SNF'l" (That
was S'Roth's favourite line). But it's not that simple. I let my conscience make choices for
me. Often we only have a few moments to do what's right. I believe had we kept Teur locked up
for a couple of days, we would have made an enemy for sure. Letting him go makes him indebted
to us - or at the least somewhat grateful - rogue or not.
So blame me if you must, but remember you have a free will and made your decisions based on a
rash and knee jerk reaction. (Not that it's a bad thing - my best moments are often born out
of a similar state of mind). I hope this note finds you and your family alive as I fear the
dangers of the road are far worse than anything you would encounter here in town.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience I've caused. I was only doing what I thought best. Perhaps
our paths will cross again, perhaps not. You've been a fine ally (if not the brightest torch
in the dungeon)
Most sincerely,
El'Fross
From the diary of El'Fross:
I've been feeling a little guilty. I've treated a few people and creatures around me rather badly the last little while and today found a wonderful way to make amends for my shortness of patience and respect.
While the others continued searching the areas past the secret door in Uni's stronghold, I volunteered to watch Teur so SNF'l could help with the searching. After speaking with Teur and getting some assurance that we would have free passage in the town, and be declared "off limits" to members of the thieves guild, I decided to let him go.
I realize this was against the wish of the majority of the party, but I figured everyone would have come around to this way of thinking eventually, so why prolong the inevitable. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, even though I had paid him everything I (or rather the party) had for information necessary to rescue L'Wehn and SNF'l. Truth be know, I would have paid more had he asked. Though I was down to around 50 gp's so he really couldn't have asked for much more.
Anyway, I let him go and I'm glad I did. A'Ha came back to find me shortly after that, disturbing a perfectly nice nap. Apparently the party had come to some sort of impasse and needed my sage advice to proceed with their lives. Not that I'm complaining – its nice to see that my fellow K'Needians look to me for guidance and wisdom.
As A'Ha and I proceeded back to the others, Daranel was a little more disturbed than I thought he would be. He ran off, with S'Part following. Hmmmm, come to think of it, S'Part's concern for Daranel seemed a little excessive, given that the latter was non-K'needian. After all Daranel is a big boy and perfectly capable of defending himself. I may have to quiz S'Part about that later, though certainly any affection he may feel for Daranel is no business of mine.
After a time, we decided to head back to town, afraid that Daranel might decide to kill Teur. I certainly didn't want the responsibility of either of their death's on my shoulders, so we made haste. Snf'l and I made contact with Teur while the others made their way to Daranel's Parents' house.
After giving Teur back his gear, we went back to the house to find the rest of the party. Upon arriving we discovered a mostly empty house, with signs of a struggle and L'Wehn in a very amused state. Apparently Daranel had attempted to physically remove his parents from the house and his father had pummeled him to near unconsciousness before the much larger and stronger fighter managed to overcome the little guy.
We proceeded to the dock where Daranel was loading his family and their belongings onto a boat for a extended trip away. Daranel's face was bleeding and badly bruised and his mother was tending to her unconscious husband. I tried to explain that Teur was relatively harmless and wasn't about to start killing innocent townspeople, however Daranel wouldn't have any of it and proceeded to sail away. I wished him luck and waved good bye.
If there is anything good to come out of this, its Daranel getting to spend some quality time with his parents. Perhaps his father will decided at this late stage in life to take up adventuring now that he knows how easy it is to thrash an experienced fighter. I do hope to see the young elf again some time, providing he doesn't hold a grudge.
Back at Uni's hut (the one in town) we found Siroth and Mac the Pseudo dragon playing around. Sh'Tep was gone and apparently S'Rang had gone to find him. It seems that we're back to five members to the party – if you don't count the two dragons, the hawk and the raven.
I'm feeling like dancing – oh yeah and Ettin hunting – but first dancing.
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