A Tunnels and Trolls® play-by-post adventure run by khara_khang
As the new day begins and the characters prepare to decide what they are going to do, a tiny beautiful Forest Fairy appears, hovering above you (just out of reach), a tiny smile of her face.
"I'm Felixia, I was sent here by Cobalt to assist you in your mission," says Felixia in a soft voice. Felixia can see a white male Wolf (Krandor), a male Hobbit (Shipy), a female Centaur (Chereva), a Goblin female (Freaketa), and two human females (Blodwydd and Jamara) in the group.
Carefully, the white Wolf gives Felixia a sniff, and then sneezes violently as he breathes in Fairy Dust!
"I'm... <achoo> honored to meet <achoo> someone with such beauty <achoo>"
Felixia smiles sweetly, her hands clasped behind her back as she swivels some from side to side while fluttering about. "That's very sweet," she says, her voice holding a bit of a melodic quality to it.
Blodwydd wakes to the light and sounds of the dawn, yawns, stretches, and ponders the fact that it's only been two days since she had a nice comfy snooze under a table in the Blue Frog, instead of a chilly hillside with scratchy pieces of grass getting into funny places inside her leathers. Grunting in annoyance, she quickly performs her morning routine of exercise, and checks and cleans her sword and dirk as best she can under the circumstance.
Rummaging through Chereva's saddle bags, she pulls out some more trail rations and begins gnawing away hungrily on the meager fare. She offers a hunk of pemmican to the Wolf with a hopeful, "Nice puppy?" but he sniffs it disdainfully, likely preferring a fresh rabbit.
Post breakfast, waiting for the rest of the party to complete their morning preparations, she settles down to the absorbing task of trying to untangle a nasty ball of weeds that has gotten woven into her hair. After worrying at it for a while, frustration sets in, and she uses her dirk to saw off the offending locks.
Ever the vigilant scout, she greets the Fairy's approach by announcing "Hey! Safairy!" loudly to nobody in particular. She approaches the tiny creature with rapt fascination, and witnessing Krandor's sniff & sneeze routine, she is overcome with impulsive glee. "Hey lemmee try!" she laughs, rudely shoving her nose at the small person and trying to take a good snort, causing Felixia to flutter back in light alarm at this bumbling approach by a rather large creature.
"Shorry," says Blodwydd, sneezing and recovering a shred of manners from somewhere about her person, and just as quickly losing it again as she wipes her nose with the back of her hand. "Is jusseye never smelled no Fairy befur! Skinda fun! Say, dyou guys sneezen stuff whenya kisser whatever?"
"I'm... <achoo> honored to meet <achoo> someone with such beauty <achoo>"
"So what does that make the rest of us fems? Chopped liver? Nice to meet you, Krandor," Chereva says, with a sensual pout and a wink toward the Fairy. "You too, Felixia."
Noting Blodwydd's hair troubles, Chereva fishes in her saddlebag for her brush, but alas, it's too late. She sighs, and begins to brush her own mane. "Shipy, could you help me for a sec?" She trots a bit away from the group as the Hobbit follows, a smirk on his mug.
"Ok, party leader..." Chereva says softly. The intermittent shafts of morning sun spearing through the partial cover of the wind-caressed forest play across her dappled flanks like monarchs in a field of milkweed. Shipy is momentarily stunned at the sight. "Trollworld to Shipy!"
"Wha-huh?"
"I've stashed you-know-what in here," she pats a saddle bag, "If Freaketa asks about it, suggest that she lost it during the flight. She's half of the deal, so it will be better to separate the package if the 'others' Shindorillimum mentioned get to her first. You took a big risk lifting it from her, and now we're going to have to deal with the consequences. The knowledge we hold---you, me, Krandor and possibly Freaketa---could be our undoing," she stares at him gravely until he nods humbly.
With a vigorous shake of her head and a faint whinny, Chereva lifts her well-toned arms to resettle her long locks behind her ears. When Shipy recovers, the Centaur's (very) human torso is leaning over him with a brush in one outstretched hand. She is suddenly all sweetness and charm as she says, "Now would you be a doll and brush the burrs out of my tail?"
Soon their morning rituals and victuals are through and Chereva speaks up, "So what's say we head north over the hill and find our Goblin King?"
Jamara glances at the little winged thing, then disregards it. "I do not think it is a Ju-Ju bird."
She did a lot of thinking during her watch. What is so important about the Goblin wench anyway? She doesn't think she is a princess. She's not all dainty and soft. She may complain like a spoiled brat, but from the looks of her, she seems to be either a hard worker, or a hard fighter.
A woman to be respected.
So why pretend to be a princess? Is she trying to marry rich? Or perhaps she is a decoy to protect the real princess? And what were the horse and the shrimp talking to the lizard about? She knows it has to be something bad. She felt it....
"No matter," she tells herself, pushing it all out of her head. All this thinking made her head hurt.
"I took job. I finish job. She be protected until we get to Goblin King. Nothing else matters."
She stares into the woods for a moment, stands, shaking her head and wishing suddenly that they'd not gone with the Dragon after all. The fight that would have met them would at least have been simple. Fighting at least, she can understand....
In the morning light, you see that the area of brush in which you encamped is set within a terrain of large hills, covered with yet more scattered brush, all within the backdrop of the huge looming Goblin Mountains. The sporadic brushy terrain offers ambushers a variety of places to hide. Prepared for anything, your group breaks camp and heads north. Cresting the nearby hill, you see yet more similar terrain, but with one unusually pointed hill, almost exactly a half mile away and directly to the north.
Sniffing the ground for a moment, Krandor looks back towards everyone, snapping unsuccessfully at a bothersome fly that buzzes too close. "I did hear what sounded like fighting last night, but it didn't last very long. Maybe Shindorillimum the great forest Dragon found himself a snack or two," he adds, before trotting ahead of the group.
Following Krandor down the opposite hillside, you continue walking for about ten minutes before you see something you can't believe, or can't believe you are seeing. Resting on its side, is the dead body of the forest Dragon Shindorillimum The Great. A quick check reveals Shindorillimum has been dead for several hours. His only visible wound is a single arrow wound to the chest. The arrow itself is gone.
"Why you thieving little Hobbit! You stole my necklace!" Before Shipy can put on his best innocent face, Freaketa leaps upon him and begins choking the life out of him. Her rage is clearly visible and her stout hands grip his neck tightly. The two tumble into the grass, rolling a few times before Freaketa ends up on top of the squirming Hobbit who begins turning a light shade of blue.
Hovering about thirty feet above, the tiny Fairy notices a single human male about a hundred yards away. He is crouched down doing something. Felixia also realizes she can only see him because of her altitude. The others could not see him even if they wanted too, due to the brushy terrain.
What do you do?
"Help! Ack, can't breath!" I turn a Smurf-like color.
Jamara calmly walks up to Freaketa, firmly gripping her shoulder. "Let him go. To attack one too soft and weak to defend himself brings you no honor."
Bowing lowly on his front paws, Krandor pays respect to the dead Dragon. "May the sky gods take you, magnificent one." Suddenly, his ears perk up as he sniffs something in the air. A second later, he darts out away from the rest of the group.
Felixia lets out an "eep" of sorts and then flutters down to the others. "There is a male, a human I think, 100 yards that way," she says, pointing. "He is doing something odd, it appears, crouching down he is," she says fluttering around them. "I saw him when I was flying high. This ground is far too covered to see that far---far too many obstacles," she says, nodding.
At the Fairy's warning, Blodwydd leaves off her enjoyment of the midget wrestling, and has her sword drawn and is scanning the ground in the direction Felixia indicated. Motioning to Krandor, she says "Cumon! Less getha bastiches!" and moves rapidly off in direction of the presumed hostiles, sword ready and eyes peeled.
The normally perky Centaur is striken with grief at the grisly tableau. It's not every day that one sees the death of Nature's most perfect hunter, and indeed Nature itself is speechless: the air in the glade is frozen with the stench, silence and solemnity of Death.
But then, in utter disrespect for the erstwhile magnificent beast, and apparently unaware of the implications of his demise for their own safety, Freaketa launches herself at Shipy with reckless abandon. Before Chereva can shake herself from the majestic Wyrm's interrupted grimace, a vision no doubt that will haunt her for years to come, Jamara has halted Freaketa's assault, Felixia has delivered her warning, and Blodwydd and Krandor have left to investigate.
That leaves her with the awkward task of addressing the rightfully indignant Goblin "princess." Should she reveal the broader context of their mission---that information formerly privy only to Shindorillimum, who possibly died for his knowledge, and to Cobalt, who, for one reason or another, left it out of his briefing? It is a burden that the unemployed tavern bouncer is loathe to bear, and yet equally loathe to share, for her comrades' safety's sake. "Shoulda never kicked that Hobbit through the wall. I'd still be employed at the Crazy Wyvern, woulda never gotten drunk that night, woulda not been caught urinating in the street, woulda...." the thought trails off as she realizes the futility of playing the "woulda" game.
She first checks that Shipy is alright. He's a little blue in the face, but breathing. "Oh dear," she says to him as she helps him up, her gloom somewhat dissipating, "blue is definitely not your color! Ok, Hobbit. Game's over. Do you have her necklace?" she suddenly demands firmly for all to hear. The Hobbit blanches and shakes his head slowly in the negative. After a long pause as she taps her free hand with her oxtongue and stares him down for Freaketa's sake, Chereva nods, "I believe you, Shipy."
She then turns to Freaketa, whom Jamara still restrains with a firm grip. "Is it not also possible that you lost the necklace during the flight, Your Highness? We don't have time for infighting. Whoever killed Shindorillimum might also be interested in us as well. We should get you to your groom."
At this point, Krandor leaves the group to head off on his own. No one except possibly Felixia (if she were high enough) could see him, and he moves far too fast for anyone to keep up with him.
Having paid your reverence to the great Forest Dragon Shindorillimum, you (Krandor) catch the scent of a new human nearby and dart away with great speed toward it. Your size, agility and maneuverability allow you to cover a hundred yards in nothing flat. From the sanctuary of some thick brush, you stealthily circle behind the human, which your nose has pinpointed. He is sitting on his knees doing something and you are about fifteen feet away. The smell of human urine is strong in the air, as if he has recently taken a leak nearby.
What do you do Krandor? Attack? Wait? Observe? Return to the others? Please explain in detail.
With some words from Jamara and a firm grasp on her shoulder, Freaketa releases her choke hold on the Hobbit's throat. Blodwydd, who is ready to leave, is forced to hold off for a few moments as Shipy and Freaketa don't seem to be ready, and worse yet, Blodwydd's words to Krandor fall on deaf ears as she looks around to see Krandor already gone. Only Blodwydd seems to be listening to Felixia's warning.
If I misunderstood you Blodwydd, and you did go off alone. Please clarify it in your next post. If you did, I will make a special post for you.
"We can't go on! I can't go on! Without the necklace, I can't face King Snorkin." Placing her hands over her face Freaketa stands confused as what to do next.
Chereva is lost in her acquaintance's death, Freaketa is enraged, and the Hobbit only seeks fresh air and distance between himself and the so-called Goblin princess. Precious time is being wasted.
The Hobbit listens to Chereva's questions, to which Shipy knew Chereva already knew the answers, all the while being helped onto her back and testing his reddened neck. He says nothing, only shaking his head slowly in a negative fashion.
"Is it not also possible that you lost the necklace during the flight, Your Highness? We don't have time for infighting. Whoever killed Shindorillimum might also be interested in us as well. We should get you to your groom."
Pulling her hands from her face and glaring at Chereva, she spits, "No it's not possible I just lost it, and I'm not going to King Snorkin without it! One of you stole it! Why don't we just search everyone and see who has it?"
The hovering Fairy notices a small black and white spotted bird (no larger than a human's thumb) perched in a nearby bush. The bird almost seems to motion for Felixia to follow it, and then flies away slowly over the brush, slow enough that Felixia can follow if she decides.
What do you do?
Felixia looks to the others. "Birdie," she says and flutters after it some, trying to keep her distance in case it turns on her and tries to eat her or feed her to a bigger friend....
Slowly, Krandor positions himself in such a way as to see more clearly what the human is doing, and yet also remain unseen himself. If it looks to be an ambush, Krandor will be able to spring to the attack.
Yes, Blodwydd was hoping Krandor would follow her, but wasn't waiting for anybody else in the group. She was heading in the direction that Felixia pointed, looking for the person that Felixia saw. She has her sword ready.
Jamara calmly takes the hammer off her back, standing where she is and searching the vegetation for any sign of attack. "I think we have other problem now. Stay close. I keep you safe."
As of now Krandor is off by himself, as is Felixia and Blodwydd. Jamara, Shipy, Chereva, Freaketa and Stark are about a hundred yards away.
Using the gifted stealth of a Wolf, you (Krandor) move among the sporadic brush effortlessly until you position yourself to view the crouched individual. The second that you view him, you see that he is doing a repetitive motion of programmed magic. Your hair instantly stands on end as the saplings around you weave themselves into a prison. The image disappears and a nearby bush changes into that of an elven woman.
"Hi pooch. Stupid move leaving your friends who would have backed you up. Your loss, our gain."
Holding a small pink rose, she tosses it onto the ground and it disappears. As it disappears, so goes the sound in your area (in and around your cage). Waving her fingers, she moves away and changes back into a bush. No amount of howling yields even the faintest peep of sound and the sapling cage is far too tough for you to escape in less than a day of chewing, minimum. You are trapped. Your sharp eyes count six total bushes which are exactly alike.
Following the birdie for a good distance, you (Felixia) are lead on a wild goose chase until you circle back into a small clearing. The birdie suddenly disappears. To your left you see Blodwydd (alone). As you flutter over to her, she stops for a moment (sword in hand), somewhat surprised to see you. In the brush to your left, you see Krandor trapped in a prison of saplings, his howls making no noise. Before you can move to him, six bushes change into adventurers:
All six are in position to block off any retreat by Blodwydd. The two females prepare to cast spells. Felixia recognizes them as Take That You Fiend spells (if they cast them).
The very heavily armored warrior speaks, "Give us the necklace and we will leave. Your actions decide your fate!"
Almost a hundred yards away from the others, Jamara, Shipy, Chereva and Freaketa debate what they should do next. With a smile, Shipy turns all of his pockets inside out, yet no necklace is uncovered.
"You do realize what I am saying, don't you? Without the necklace, our mission is over. We might as well go back to Khazan. King Snorkin would kill me if I showed up without it!" Growls Freaketa, her face still red with rage.
Jamara readies her hammer as a tall human male with long black hair and beard appears from the brush somewhat disheveled, stopping to pry some briars free from his dark green robe with a large wooden staff. He also examines his new briar battle scars. You see he wears a pack and a dagger hangs at his belt.
"Hi ladies, Stark's the name. No fear, I'm more friend than fiend. Nice terrain huh?"
"Hey! I'm not a lady!" snaps the Hobbit with furrowed eyebrows.
"I don't know you well enough to make that comment or not," quips the wizard, shocking the Hobbit a second time.
"What the frell™! Pardon me, lost-in-the-briars-Stark-Simpleton, but I'm a male hobbit."
The traveling wizard smiles.
What do you do?
Stark waits, and nods to each member of the group. "I appologize for my disheveled appearance, but I spent the previous night scrounging for material components, for I am a Wizard seeking adventure in these parts!"
"I could not help but overhear some talk of a necklace or amulet. Perhaps I could use my gifts to help you locate it?" Stark leans his large frame on his quarterstaff with a wary look on his face.
"Huh?" responds Blodwydd intelligently. "I gotta kuppel gole peeces n halfa baga trail mix, butta ain't got no neckless... HEY, whatcho dunta Wolfy there?"
Realizing she is outnumbered and outgunned, Blodwydd makes no agressive moves, but she does circle slowly, keeping a close eye on the adventurers around her, hoping something might distract one of them and let her make a break for it.
Chereva smiles fleetingly at Stark, "I'm Chereva, but let's postpone the introductions and magic shows. Jamara smells trouble, and that means we'd all better move."
She turns on all four hooves and kneels her front legs before the obstinate Goblin. Shipy is caught off guard, loses his seat and falls smack into the back of the Centaur's (very) human torso. It's as unyielding as brick. "Your Highness, please, I beg you," she holds out a hand to help her up, "hop on. We are vulnerable here. You won't be any good to 'Snorkins' dead, with or without your necklace. Don't you think your enemies---the ones who threatened your life on the Sea Sprite, the ones who perhaps killed Shinorillimum---would have followed us to get the job done right?"
As she awaits Freaketa's answer, she levels her oxtongue warily toward the north, and shoots an anxious glance at Jamara. "We should head over that hill, Jamara. The others know where to find the lake and will catch up."
Felixia looks at the others. "Calm down, calm down. What necklace are you looking for? I don't have any, but maybe we've seen it," she says, fluttering some.
Stark leans far forward and pulls the straps of his pack up with a grunt. Standing ready to travel, he scans the surrounding area for anything out of the ordinary.
As of now, Krandor, Felixia and Blodwydd are near each other. Jamara, Shipy, Chereva, Freaketa and Stark are together about a hundred yards away and moving.
Having played his part almost perfectly, Shindorillimum opens his eyes and withdraws from the Dragon hibernation in which he placed himself to appear dead. There is no one nearby and he is free to continue as planned. The wound in his breast is real, but it is self-inflicted and far from life threatening. His ruse was needed to draw into the open those people who wish to steal the necklace for themselves. Shindorillimum needed them to make their moves above ground, where he can deal with them, rather than below in the tunnels, where he cannot. He reasoned that if the opposition were to believe their greatest threat dead, then they would have no incentive to remain hidden. Shindorillimum suspects this has happened as predicted, though he regrets being dishonest to his new friends. Stretching his great wings, Shindorillimum leaps into the air and takes flight.
"I could help?" offers Stark.
"Yes, but for now just try to keep up!"
Freaketa chooses to remain silent. With Shipy and Freaketa on Chereva's back, and Jamara and Stark at her sides, the group uses their best speed to race toward the distant and unique hill. Following Jamara's lead, the group weaves among the sporadic brush as fast as they can. Minutes later, the brush clears and the group races up the hillside breathing heavily.
After enduring everything you have had to endure, you are more than a little happy when you see a sign pointing to the Goblin Lake entrance, and the actual entrance yet farther up the hill side.
The entrance itself is nothing more than a darkened cleft into the side of the hillside. You pause for a moment to look over your shoulder and into the small valley behind you... and you are stunned by what you see!
Like an heroic knight coming to the rescue, Shindorillimum lifts above the brush and swoops down into the small valley, gaining speed all the while.
Noticing the huge Dragon winging it towards them, Felixia responds the only way a Fairy can: she flies away as quick as a hummingbird.
The others are not so lucky. Shindorillimum swoops in and snatches Blodwydd from the ground with such force that it almost knocks the wind out of her. The moment she is grabbed, Shindorillimum fills the entire area with a great belch of fire. All of the adventurers who surrounded Blodwydd are instantly engulfed in flames.
On the up swoop, Shindorillimum rips the brush apart which trapped Krandor, who just barely escapes ahead of the inferno. Shindorillimum continues to the distant hill and lands near the entrance to Goblin Lake, where Jamara, Shipy, Chereva, Freaketa and Stark now stand in awe.
What do you do?
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This page updated: Mon Jan 09 14:22:15 2006
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