A Tunnels and Trolls® play-by-post adventure run by khara_khang
The pulchritude of Desuma's wet leather is absolutely breathtaking, thinks the hobbit. Observing Jax give the vial to Martek, Shipy adds (not mathematically), "You know those don't grow on trees don't ya'? Favors erroow?" The Hobbit smiles as only a Hobbit can.
No longer able to stand, Martek lowers himself to the ground on the uphill sloping path. Martek willingly accepts the small bottle of healing elixir, opens his shirt and pours it on the wound as directed by the FDA instructions on the side of the small bottle.
"Ok, its time I told you what is really going." Martek looks up at everyone as his wound heals. "We are not here to kill some innocent lizard stripling or even steal anything, we are actually here to prevent someone from being killed. Thirty-two years ago, there were these two lizard brothers whom I played with as a kid. To be truthful, they were twins. One was named Cralthor and the other Ralathor. They were both heirs to Janrafihir the Lizardman king's throne, and where we are now, or not far from it, was/is their summer vacation spot.
"Being a very wise King, Janrafihir knew that if he raised both sons they would eventually grow up and fight over his throne. Since Cralthor was destined to be a warrior and Ralathor a wizard (as foretold by a swamp witch), he chose Cralthor. Ralathor was taken to Khazan and sold into slavery. But Cralthor never lived to become the wise warrior lizardman king that his father was: a two-headed lizard abomination took the boy off into the swamp near here and butchered him! Gutted him like a suckling pig!" Martek's eyes grow misty and he lowers his head.
"I watched it happen but I wasn't old enough to stop it. It is well-known that the Death Goddess ordered the death, throwing the once peaceful lizardman kingdom into the chaos it has known for the last thirty years. It's ironic that the Wizard Grutoss has unknowingly hired you to help undo something his boss ordered. I intend to stop the boy from being murdered, then return to our own time and toss the helm and dagger into the lake. If we are successful, thousands of people will not have died and no one will remember this ever happened except us, not even the Death Goddess. We do have some treasure taken from the temple. You can be with me or against me, it doesn't matter, but that's my plan." Martek stands up, now fully healed. With his hortatory oration ended, he holds his rope in one hand and looks at everyone.
Jax and Martek are healed. So far Bela has regained 4 STR points. What do you say?
Jax flinches as his flesh and sinew suck back into his thigh like some symbiont nestling into its receptive host. He looks up appreciatively at the towering, lanky Bela, "Wow, dude, thanks! You give elves a good name!" Jax wonders how many more of his prejudices will fall by the wayside as a consequence of his adventures. At this rate, there will be no good kindreds left to pick on! Well, not exactly: there are always Hobbits.
After Martek's revelation, Jax raises his (single) brow. "Whoa, brain pain! But who's to say that Cralthor won't become a belligerent despot who kills many more people than Ralathor? After we save his life, we should imprint on this young Cralthor some wisdom that he'll take with him to the Lizardman throne." The permutations are endless, and Jax's Haroouugh side races to figure out the most likely chronology.
The younger Dracon notices this. "Hey, bro, I think you swallowed too much lake."
While we're having so much fun playing with time travel, it is appropriate to remember this nugget of wisdom from Groucho Marx: "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a bananna."
"Your words are uncommonly kind for a Yrch, and your speech uncommonly wise," he says to Jax. Bela stands up, facing Martek. Now he seems even taller than before, and as he speaks, he seems brighter, and the sun glistens off the water in his long dark hair. (It's one of those elven things.) He speaks with the voice of authority he learned from his parents, "Martek, it would have been better had you told us this before. Yet I see that your cause is noble. Though I doubt your methods, nevertheless, I will help you stop this monster, even though it mean my death, for I spoke not lightly when I said that I disliked assassinations, and assassins even less."
"But hear me now. As we stand in your past, the future is like a vision. My people, too, have had visions of the future, and we have a saying. 'Visions show many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be, unless those who behold them turn aside from their path to prevent them. Visions are dangerous as guides of deeds.' These devices have damaged time, and it is my mission to fix it. And if I fail, then I fear also that your quest will be in vain. In return for my help, I must ask for the helmet, now. I do not swear oaths, for such is the start of many a tragedy, but know that my 'yes' means yes and my 'no' means no. I will not use it before this assassination has been stopped." Bela holds out his hand to receive the helmet.
There are many questions about Martek's story, but clearly Martek believes it himself, so this is not the time to bring them up. I agree with JaxDracon's comments, and add this: Why would the Goddess let her part in an assassination be known, why would she not try more than once (thus making this rescue fruitless), and why would any major power want to destabilize a peaceful political situation in the first place? I have found that the first impulse of managers and leaders is to put out fires. Fire starters act either out of fear or out of self-interest. I don't see that the Goddess would have anything to fear from the lizardmen or that she would have gained anything by killing an heir to someone else's kingdom. Furthermore, Martek's idea is to stop a killer in his youth. Perhaps that was what the monster was for? And what kind of warrior would be raised by a man who would sell his son into slavery? I do not believe that Martek's story is the end of our story.
Whether or not Martek surrenders the helmet, the following happens.
Bela steps back, and now just seems to be a tall, lanky, and wet elf. "Very well, then," he says, "Now, let me tell you how we might kill this large creature. Your rope is as strong as steel. If we could get it inside of the creature, it could destroy it from the inside, like a giant steel tapeworm."
Bela has not forgotten that he is working with a team, but his mission parameters are different from the others. Thus, he still thinks of fixing the time problems as something he will do on his own. Let's hope he's wrong.
Snapping out of it, Jack says, "So we don't really give a damn about the siege and Khazan and all that anymore, yeah? So this is all about your residual guilt? Hell, what about my feelings? Sheesh!
"So how far in the past are we anyhow? I'm crap with numbers."
"Good idea Jax! Ok Bela, its yours!" says Martek, tossing The Earth Dragon Helm into Bela's hands without a second thought. "Forget the tape worm idea; it won't happen. Thirty two years Jack," says Martek standing up.
The Hobbit eyes Jax, then Taran (wondering why he can't talk) and then Bela. "If you break that thing you're going to be in a lot of trouble Bela!"
Heading up the path, Martek jogs at a good pace.
As Martek meets Taran's gaze, Taran bares his tusks in a sinister grin. He never trusted the Swamp Rat, and still doesn't. Turning to Jax, Taran opines, "Brother, if we're thirty-two years back, we better be careful about how much we muck with time. We're not even born yet!" Taran scratches his hairy Orc-head in confusion. "Who gives us the right to muck with time anyway? I don't like this, but for now it seems we gotta go along just to get back to the present. Er, uhm, I mean the future. Ughn nughn," Taran says, poking Jax in the chest. "YOU figure this out and get back to me." With that, Taran squeezes the last of the water from his tunic sleeves and follows Martek. He loads his over-and-under crossbow and picks up the pace to a jog to keep up.
"I'm sounding more like my father every day."
"So, even your animated rope has a sense of dignity?"
"Well put, but that's the risk any holder the dragon helm takes, and I'm being paid to do this."
Bela glances at Domina and Desuma, wondering why they have nothing to say. He fastens the helmet to his pack with a bit of rope and then, boots still squishing, follows Martek.
"He's right!" (indicating Taran) "This whole deal just seems to get lamer and lamer. I feel like we're totally getting taken for a ride here. What's the compensation for all this daring do? What's in this for me? I tell you, I'm not going anywhere until I'm guaranteed of some serious booty for my valuable time and suffering. Like the sole rights on this Dagger, for example," he says, getting pretty cranky. He folds his arms, stamps his foot and walks off in the opposite direction back towards the lake side.
OK, people, its time we turn up the action up a notch for the last hurrah. May death come quickly to those who fail.
Trotting behind the lanky elf Shipy says, "Its times like these when I miss being a sommelier back at The Blue Frog Tavern!"
The Swamp Rat pauses and nods yes to Bela. Then looks back at Jack. "Be a bone head Jack! I guess your choice is ineluctable. Oh, and you can keep that dagger too! Tell your friends I said 'Amrediane,' Jack." Grinning, Martek dashes off into the forest (leaving the path) at a full sprint, jumping anything in his path like a forest deer.
You have split up into two groups:
Unless someone states otherwise, only Jack, Desuma, and Domina head back down the path toward the lake because they disagree with the idea of following Martek. Halfway back down the path to the lake (about ten minutes later) 10 lizardmen appear, each riding a vicious-looking dinosaur. They cannot be outrun, and you can see that they are from Khazan's elite mounted strike-force. Others can be seen exiting the forest and cutting off your escape. What do you do?
You follow Martek at what can be considered breakneck speed through the woods. Martek stops behind a tree and points. Little over a dozen yards away, a two-headed lizard creature comes walking down a path leading a lizard stripling, talking to him as it walks. Bela regains 2 more STR points. What do you do next?
"I will use this stick to hang up your entrails little one!"
"Yes, I miss my home, too. I haven't seen it in many years."
Technically, Jack is a bonehead! ;-)
Hmm. Lizardmen on dinosaurs, not demons? And from Khazan? Does Khazan's right hand know what its left is doing?
"That's not what I was picturing, Martek. Those look like two intelligent heads, and cruel ones at that," Bela says. He begins to cast Little Feets on Taran with his own power, then stops, remembering Taran's totem (and that it's nice to ask before doing these things). "Taran," he says, as he holds up the totem for him to see, "how would you like a doubling of your firing rate?"
"Excellent! That's at least... umm... that's a lot of shots. Jax? You figure it out. Yeah, Bela, hit me."
Bela casts Little Feets through the totem. [He adds a level and thereby doubles the duration.] Turning to Martek, he adds, "He'll be able to give you the higher firing rate for twenty minutes." Again, Bela is awed by the power Taran had been carrying absentmindedly in his pack. He would have to reach the advanced level of his father before he could easily do such feats on his own.
Little Feets, level 2, can be increased in duration by increasing the level of the spell. Paraphased from the book---casting Little Feets at higher levels doubles the duration of the spell for each level higher but the cost is increased by just 8 STR for each level added. At level 3, it costs Bela 8*2-3=13, and at level 4, it would cost him 8*3+1-3=22, considering his level and his staff. The totem will only provide 20 points of strength, so Level 3 is the max level of the spell Bela can cast with the totem. If he were level 4, he could have quadrupled the duration. There's no substitute for experience.
Jax whips out his bich'was and puts on his bagh nakhs. "Time to see what these babies can do!" He regrets that Desuma wouldn't be here to see him try out the weapons she recommended to him back at Mr. Toad's. Frak, that seemed like another era! Oh well, he might be invisible anyway.
Addressing the other-wordly elf, he asks, "Say, Bela, you got some magick on that stick that can make you guys see me if I go invis? I don't want Taran here poking me full o' holes, especially now that you've souped him up!"
Jax turns to the brooding Martek, "Just say when, dude, and I'm all over 'Zaphod' over there, unless you got something sneaky in mind."
If Taran is enabled to see invisible, Jax will pull on his hood, thus activating his InvisiCloak™.
"Jax, trust the power of Arahk Gnahk!" Taran says quickly, tapping his quiver of enchanted bolts. "Besides, when have I ever missed before?" Taran speaks through tusks bared in a grin. He lines up his sights and defers initiative to Martek. If Jax is yielding to the swamp rat, Taran will, too. "A coordinated attack is best; sometimes it confuses your enemies," Taran whispers under his breath, recalling a proverb passed along by his father Oother.
Taran will use his speedy self to target one foe at a time, taking it down and the proceeding to the next. However, he keeps an eye out for Jax. If a well-placed shot would help or save his brother, he'll switch targets to do just that.
"Right-o T," the elder Dracon responds, donning his cloak's hood and flickering out of sight.
A voice from thin air, sounding uncannily like Jax says, "How about this, Martek. We use a diversion, then a multi-pronged simultaneous attack. Jack, would you care to volunteer your finely-honed thespian skills for the diversion? I'll circle around (invisible) to the other side of the path, and attack when I see you guys attack---all this after Jack distracts the beast."
"A spell to see the invisible? What an oxymoron. Hmmm. I'll have to get back to you on that one. Something let the demons find us though my Hidey Hole. Maybe I could write a paper on it."
Whoopsie! Jack is still at the lake. He couldn't hear Jax's request. Also, Taran has only one target, unless you count both heads.
Hidey Hole works like this: A wizard casts it on him/herself and nearby companions. All of these can see each other, but are invisible to others. Anybody moving too far from the Wizard becomes visible, again, but regains invisibility if they move closer. That is what I have read is Ken's interpretation. Hidey Hole would fit the bill and help the whole party, but Bela would have to get as close to the enemy as Jax, and Cralthor would not see his helpers. I think it's an illusion, not real invisibility.
Other distractions: A TTYF would be very distracting, but they seem to kill the caster in Khazan. That arrow would be even better. Yelling might help. Oh-Go-Away would be really effective, though extremely dangerous. Then there's...
"Jax, you're right. We can't let Taran fire until the child has escaped." [Bela doesn't know about Taran's super bolts.]
"Martek, if I can get within about ten paces (30'), I can give that creature an uncomfortable distraction it will not soon forget."
Dohbusted!
"Jack.... JACK??" Jax looks around for the quondam actor. He shrugs.
"Oh for *#@%! sake!!" He pulls out the Dagger of Time (sheathed) and holds it out in front of him for everyone to see.
"I don't know what the hell you people want but any funny business and I'll whip this out and send you into the Mesozoic! Capiche?"
The mounted lizardmen laugh at you (Jack) threatening them with the dagger.
"I doubt these guys know what the Dagger of Time is, Jack. Besides, I've seen those lightning spears in action before!" says the Gorgon.
"That's not the Dagger of Time, Jack! Martek must have pulled a bait-n-switch on you!" barks the demoness.
Drawing the Dagger of Time, you (Jack) see it has no dragon emblem on the blade. Now you are completely surrounded. What do you do?
Bela regains 1 more STR point.
Martek bounds out from behind the tree and rushes the two headed lizard abomination. "When, Jax!" yells Martek when he is already half way there. Martek tosses his rope to the ground and it speeds away in a different direction like a black racer snake (dragging something with it). The Swamp Rat snatches the lizard stripling from the unprepared abomination's hands and keeps running.
Taran fires two super bolts at the two-headed lizard abomination. Both stop short of their target and fall to the ground.
With his vorpal blade in hand, InvisiJax™ charges the abomination from behind. Like running into a brick wall at full sprint, Jax slams into something invisible and solid. Stunned and his face instantly covered with his own blood, Jax crumples to the ground (his hood slips off and he loses his invisibility).
The two-headed lizard abomination looks at Bela, points a finger and one of its heads says, "Fire spire, strike that elf a funnel pyre!" A bolt of fire explodes from the abomination's hand, but before it can strike Bela, Shipy runs from his hiding spot to Bela and the bolt catches him square in the back. The hobbit falls lifeless and quipless to the ground, dead.
(NEW ROUND. EVERYONE HAS ONE ACTION.) What do you do?
"Well it most certainly appears that ye ol' Deus ex Machina has showed up just for the expressed purpose of #@$*! ol' Jack de Crampon, about to be soup stock. Curses come home to roost eh?" he says.
He stares off into the vastness of the afternoon sky, discerning powers far beyond himself, the inscrutible clockworks of the world gone mad, a world which allows talking lizards and walking skeletons, which allows them to live, die, live again, and presumably to die again. A fly buzzes around his head like a halo, and a magnolia sprouts forth from his eye sockets like a tear. He raises a graceful arm to his forehead, "Well, before y'all tear me to shreds would you give me a little space for some last words?"
Bela's strength is now 11, and probably won't go up any more. The wizard assassin must have cast Protective Pentagram with one head and Blasting Power with the other. Taran's Little Feets would last ten rounds (twenty minutes), and one has been used, so he should get two moves a round for the next nine rounds. Next round, he should be able to reload and get another shot off.
Protective Pentagram is supposed to stop all spells and weapons, but some interpret that the effect does not stop spells or missiles from being cast from within. Either that interpretation is being used here or this wizard has modified the spell. PP is a level four spell.
"Fuin gurth, hothdolthaur!" Bela screams as he sees yet another friend die in this tragedy. "Guliath tel!" he shouts, as he casts a 4th-level Dis-Spell (the most the totem will allow him, and just barely, at that). The totem has now been used thrice. Hopefully the PP is broken. It's too bad he didn't have time to cast Little Feets on himself.
"Attack!" he shouts to the others. Bela is outgunned, outclassed, and only his word (that he would stop the creature no matter what) holds him to this suicide attack.
My guess is that the creature was sent by the Goddess to kill us as well as Cralthor, given the extreme power used to kill a practically defenseless child. Perhaps Martek has lied again, and the stripling is really Ralathor? It's a good thing for the others that they have the get-out-of-trouble tokens [From their previous adventure, Goblins in the Mist --ed.]. If they live though this, they'll need them.
"Whoa! That hurt!" Jax attacks the two-headed lizardman again, betting that Bela's magick has dissipated the invisible barrier. [The Revisionist has been here! Jaxdracon originally had written that Jax switched to his bich'wa/bagh nakhs, weapons which the Orc would have known he couldn't ably wield. --ed.]
It's much to late to correct this now [Heheh, behold the power of the Revisionist! --ed.], but it should be noted that to use multiple weapons, you must have DEX equal to the sum of the DEX required for each weapon. Jax has DEX 13, so can use the scimitar (12d6+pers adds) or two bich'wa, but since each bagh nakh requires 10 DEX, he would be more likely to hurt himself with them than someone else. To use two sets, you would need a DEX of 10+4+10+4=28. That is why the bich'wa-bagh nakh combination is so unusual.
Wow! Dohbusted! Calenril_i, you make the Archivist/Revisionist's job a pleausre and a challenge! Thanks for the rules reminder. I know where I'm putting my next level bonus....
GM, if we can assume that Jax is smarter than his writer, he would have just stuck with his trusty, (but not rusty) vorpal blade in the first place.... Jax doesn't even have enough DEX to weild one bich'wa/bagh nakh combo, much less a scimitar (DEX req'd = 11) and a bagh nakh (DEX = 10).
So why such a high DEX for the tiger claws? Any clues?
The hilt of your weapon allows for some flexibility in your grip.
Bagh Nakh: "Four or five curved iron spikes affixed to crossbar; held in hand, the spikes extend in front of fist. Holes or rings at end of the crossbar allow a good grip." Sort of like Wolverine.
"Bich'wa were sometimes built to include Bagh'nakh."
Jax could not hold one and his sword in the same hand. I can imagine a bich'wa made for detachable tiger claws, though, thus enabling him to stow them away.
The spikes would stick out between Jax's fingers, thus reducing the flexibility of his grip. This would also make his hands a danger to himself, thus requiring greater care in use.
"Frak, what am I, destined to miss every two out of three shots?" Taran spits under his rushed breath. He recalls each shot he's made with the enchanted bolts in a flash of memory as he quickly reloads the double crossbow. "Pardeloop, that was a hit." Taran whisks two bolts from the quiver. "A couple of goblins..." He stretches the bolt cages back. "Vortex, er, technically a miss but a hit anyway---ahh poor Shippy!" Taran interrupts his own thoughts and actions for a moment to glance shocked and saddened at the demise of the poor Hobbit, but resumes his loads. "Goblin Wizard, technically a miss, but ah, these things really hurt, I know!" Taran clacks the first bolt in place. "Taly rider---a miss." Taran clacks the second bolt in place. "Demon warriors, got them..." Taran aims. "Two headed baddy---two misses."
At this point, Bela sounds a second call for attack, and Taran happily obliges, firing both bolts at one of the heads. <TWANG! TWANG!> "Come on, I need to up my hit-ratio!" he thinks. "And avenge my fallen furry friend!"
Taran watches the bolts speed toward their target and suddenly realizes Jax isn't invisible anymore. "Ah, Jax!"
Combat for the new round takes place in this order.
Taran fires more super bolts at the two-headed lizardman abomination. All stop short of their target and fall to the ground (unused). (Note: I did not aim to short you on shots; I just assumed you would stop firing when they would not hit!)
Bela casts Dis-Spell on the two-headed lizardman.
It points a finger at Taran and says "A flitter a flatter, your mind will go splatter! Now Take That You Fiend!"
Taran collapses to the ground like a fallen tree, his over-broiled brains now well scrambled, oozing freely from his ears. Taran is dead by the time his face hits the grass at his feet, falling but a few feet from where Shipy fell.
Jax swings his EverSharp™ blade in one mighty downward stroke, splitting the two-headed lizardman abomination (in two separate pieces) from its neck to its butt. It crumples to the ground dead. To Jax's eyes its death is like a young cygnet taking flight for the first time! [Oblique reference to "swan song?" --ed.]
Steps out from behind a nearby tree with the lizard stripling Cralthor hiding behind him (if it is Cralthor). His rope now in hand and the Dagger of Time hanging openly from his belt, he says, "It's time to go home!"
What do you do or say next?
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