SESSION 264: Dance Like You Have Eight Legs
Back in the hex-clearing saddle and back to reviving old, and forgotten, vendettas.
The following has been proven to be untrue: However, before that happens we must find out what Ding-We saw in his Palantir….
We continue to dance with the possibility of a temporal paradox.
Team C - Day 219 CONT (Liwil): Carla and Charles muster a squad of bodyguards for the inaugural trip to Dry Gulch.
Team D - Day 219 CONT (Blind Basilisk Barracksà15.21/0307/0407/0408): Let the hex clearing recommence! With the late start to the exploration day the ‘D-Team’ did not have a lot of time to look for lairs and creatures to clear. Not much noted beyond sings of deer presence. They returned to the BBB for the night.
Day 220 (Blind Basilisk Barracksà15.21/0306/0305/0304/0205/0206): Clear and cold. Today they got a full day of clearing in with only one potentially fatal encounter. Yes, when a tree falls in the forest it makes just enough noise for a murderhobo to dodge. Continuing north Saffron with her arial advantage spotted a mighty stone chimney.
It was a the remnants of a crumbling lodge. The leftovers of many years in the past. Once palatial now largely collapsed but it had strong bones - A laid stone foundation wall, ten feet tall, thirty wide, and nearly eighty feet long. Facing south was the doorway set into the foundation. With the door long rotted away it opens up into the interior of the place, a crazed jumble of fallen timbers, slate shingles, and sapling trees growing through the debris. Rising above the north wall is a still impressive stone chimney, fifteen feet wide, ten feet deep, and rising thirty-five feet into the air. Bimbles had a vision himself lounging in such a place, “We should get the meeples out here and clean up the joint so we can see what we have to work with”.
Moving along the day offered only the mundane, more deer sign and they surprised a trio of wild boar that would be brought back for a BoarBQ. Less mundane and more magical, was a three-pack of unicorns. Saffron tried to parlay with them but it seemed that they were on a mission of their own and were not interested in dilly dallying with a screwball fairy. This put our little nightmare in a foul mood which she took out on Bimbles. Back to the barracks they earned some cheers from the garrison for bringing fresh pork for dinner.
Day 221 (Blind Basilisk Barracksà15.21/0406/0505): Aggressive snow and winds slowed the start of the exploration day by a few hours. They found the boar lair/ wallow and bagged another six of the ornery buggers. While looking for more, following a very obvious trail, they discovered a still flowing stream - crystal clear and delicious.
Day 222 (Blind Basilisk Barracksà15.21/0505/0605/0606/0505): To expedite the exploration they decided to set a base camp along the stream. A squad of horsemen along with some packhorses with supplies joined the expedition. Limited clearing today but also no challenges. They did see sign of the unicorns moving through the main hex on a southeast trajectory.
Day 223 (15.21/0505/0506/0507/0608/0707/0607/0505): Today much to everyone’s enjoyment, the day was unusually warm (+10 degrees). Made hiking wet and mushy but did not require the burdensome winter gear. A lot of clearing, nary the trouble but Saff did observe some old “spider-ropes” going either NW or SE in a patch of trees. Not much thought was given to this. Really.
Day 224 (15.21/0505/0706/0806/0805/0705/0605/0505): The Spring like temperature persisted today. They moved to the eastern edge of the hex and discovered an grove of high grade white oak trees. That would be the high point of a day that goes quickly down hill an hour or so later. The spider sign from the previous day would pay off as they approached a dense copse of trees.
Giant Tarantulas. Nine of them but this was not initially clear. They could see three on the ground nesting in the dark hollows within the roots of the gnarled trees. The other six moved expertly overhead dropping like bombs onto the group. The fight was on and the spiders bulky nature belied their lightning fast attack speed. Tarantula venom is funny stuff. It doesn’t kill you outright or make you vomit out your guts. Nope, it makes you dance in the most spastic of manner. Like a marionette being controlled by a puppet master having a seizure. To make matters even more fun it is contagious.
Nara and Lester spazzed by venom and then Dolec caught sight of them, “Ahhh!! What is happening I cannot stop dancing. I got a rhythm I cannot shake…I need a cowbell!!!”. Fortunately mighty Dolec did not immediately get jiggy until he had already chopped up a trio of spiders. Even though their neurological controls had gone goofy they still could with great force of will they could act, it was just real difficult. Lester provided evidence of such when he tried to throw his axe. The release was a mess and the axe ended up buried in his thigh. Lester took his macabre dance to the ground spraying important fluids all over the place.
The paladin was out. Bimbles, Bunny and Saff continued to successfully fight off the hairy buggers and with the added support of the two active members of the goof -troop they were able to defeat the arachnids. The reward was puny just a withered sack with silver coins. The spiders seem to mostly dine on game. Bimbles was able to neutralize the bizarre poison and get Lester back on his feet. It was time for a tactical retreat. “Back to camp”, declared the high priest of Spinning Stars and Moons.
They were perhaps a half mile from camp when the Curse of Arachnida kicked in. Fortunately it was not at full power. Three more tarantulas and related shenanigans. Nara and Dolec were once more affected by the dance party poison. However, this time when the spiders had been defeated Bimbles could no longer neutralize the poison and remove curse had no effect. They had no choice but to let the poison run its course. They resumed the march to camp with the dance duo in the rear so as not to contaminate anyone else. The going was slow and the dancers ended up collapsing not far from base. They were dragged the rest of the way then tossed onto their bed mats and left for dead. They would not rise again this day.
That evening Bimbles, Bunny and Lester reviewed their map. Saffron had better things to do with her time, what it was only a maniac would know.
Barring any serious derailment another two days would be required to clear the hex.
The D-Team: Bimbles, Bunny, Saffron, Nara, Lester & Dolec
The C-Team: Carla, Charles & a squad of horsemen
ROLECALL
Bimbles the High Priest of GSS (C10) 318111 xp +5% <400001> CRT 1d12/III
+2 save to poison and internal body things; Double eat (gotta feed my baybay)
Bunny the Thief! (T10) 309721 xp <400001> +10% CRT 1d24/II
Light wound: permanent loss of pinky finger, off hand
The Henchmen
Saffron the Mad Fairy Queen of Ribbits (FY7) 196882 xp <200001> CRT 1d10/III
Moderate wound: Scar on abdomen
Lasting injury: -1 STR, mashed guts
Nara the Nearly Naked Purple Swami Girl (PS7) 111411 xp +5% <125000> CRT 1d16/II
Wraith Drained: -1 CON
Dolec Da the Champion (F7) 69998 xp +10% <120000> CRT 1d20/IV
Missing five teeth
Lester Flanders the Guardian of Oceana (P6) 47258 xp <95000> +5% CRT 1d16/IV
RESERVES
BoB, Rhags & Alamender are lawn ornament for the Basilisk Knights.
Chung Li needs 12 weeks (74 days) and a stack of coin to rewrite his lost spell book.
Elapsed: 53 days (from A-Team calendar) -INTERRUPTED-
Elapsed Campaign Time
660 (633) days at beginning of session (also applies to recuperation)
Join us for session Two-Hundred-and-Sixty-Five when we ask the questions:
Why so many damn spiders?
Does anyone remember being the recipients of the Curse of Arachnida?
With the bones of a forgotten lodge intact do we build?
Beating a dead hobo -Will we pull off a temporal paradox and if so how the hell would we fix it?
Tale of the Tape
Biff recovering post death (2 weeks): Elapsed 6
Potion Brewing 42 days (started Day 194): Elapsed 24
KILLS
Boars (9)
Tarantulas (12)
LOOT
770 sp
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