(G246 07/08/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G246 07/08/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)


DAY 229 (26 Marpenoth) cont ...

Firstly we searched the bodies of the living and dead and piled all the loot up with the other stuff we were
dragging around with us. Weapons and plate armour mainly. At least we had another big strong fighter type with
us to help carry it.

I investigated the inner area of this platform which was up some steps. There was a sort of large cylindrical
bellows here that moved up and down rhythmically. It was made primarily of leather.

In the northern part of this platform was a grove of mushrooms that had grotesque faces on them. Sylvia informed
us that the faces were down to the strange properties of the region and that the mushrooms were perfectly edible.

Next we moved one of the guards round the corner of the steps and revived the other. Once revived he managed to
free himself from his bonds and disappear, but Drashnag stuck a spear in him and out he went again.

This time Mirabella did a proper job of tying him up and we healed and revived him once more. Gurudor slapped
the guard about a bit while asking confused questions, I could barely capture any meaning from what he said,
and the guard was knocked unconscious yet again!

I put my face in my hands, just about ready to give up, but Gurudor used some of his paladin magic to bring the
fellow round once more. He spoke a mixture of Chondathan and common.
'Well I've tried everything. You have questions for him Rollo?', said Gurudor.
I tried not to roll my eyes and I knelt down to talk to the prisoner,
'Ah well, anyway. What is your name?'
'Resra'
'Where are you from?'
'Your mother's backside.'
The nasty chap then tried some sort of fear magic on us, but the only person effected was Drashnag and he went
and skulked in the corner.
'I want to try to find a way so that this ends up with you alive at the end of it. Won't you parley Resra?'
All I got was abuse though.
He seemed like a dreadful fellow, all scars, tattoos and missing teeth, but there was always one last thing
that usually made people a bit more talkative and I let Mr Badger loose on his nether regions.
The strange, perverted individual seemed to enjoy it though! This angered Mr B who then gave him a really nasty
nip. The more he nipped though, the more the villain enjoyed it and it all ended well .. let's just say Mr B
needed to have a good gargle of water afterwards and Resra ended up unconscious yet again, bloody but smiling.

Unexpected and exasperating. So we dumped him in the corner and moved on to the next one. He was younger and
a little bit more forthcoming. His name was Zefron and he was from Wiglston and also spoke Chondathan.
He wouldn't give any details of how he came to be in the Plane of Shadows though. I pulled from him that he
had been a poor child and had joined this cult or whatever it was as a means of getting power and influence.

I wish I had remembered that Sylvia had Charm Person as a domain spell but it had slipped my mind. I blame myself
since from this one oversight all our other troubles bloomed.

Gurudor decided to untie the young man and kill him 'honourably'. I wasn't happy about this particularly, but
the paladin was now nominally in charge of this expedition and I remembered how badly things had gone with Destryl
when an argument over a prisoner had also got out of hand.
Also, much to my shame, I admit, killing the prisoners was the easiest option, especially since they were not
co-operating and obvious fanatics. What else could be done with them?

I wasn't expecting Gurudor to simply strike the fellow down as he was, unarmed and unprepared though. Drashnag took
this as a cue to slay the other one and drove his spear through Resra's chest.

My heart was heavy after that. I know I am no longer the young man that had all those exciting adventures around
Sassirine and Chult. It had been very dangerous, but I hadn't felt like I was loosing myself. Now I feel older, wiser
but also sadder. So much death and unpleasantness. I can feel my soul slipping away and I have such a strong urge
to get back to the real world and walk through nature once more. Every hour in this forsaken place is torture.

In any event, things then went from bad to worse.

Gurudor, a wild look in his eyes, decided he wished to bury the bodies of the slain. I knew this was a thing with
him from past experience. He always wanted to bury his foes. I've never seen the point, just prop me up against a
tree and let nature do the rest is what I have always thought.

So disgusted with the whole thing I went off to investigate the bellows. To see what would happen I cut the leather
and a lot of black shadowy vapour poured out then dissipated into the surrounding air. The bellows stopped puffing
and I had a peek inside. I saw lots of pipe work and was about to investigate further when cries from the doorway
drew my attention.

Gurudor had been carrying a body back to the huts beyond the construct's tower to find some soft ground for a
burial but was now being attacked by a large black dragon! It roared and beat its wings then breathed onto
the dazed paladin a long gout of shadow shards. We initially started running to help, but when the dragon attacked
Gurudor again the paladin was slain as dead as a door post and we all ran back for the safety of the platform.

The dragon roared a sort of evil dragony laugh and flapped off into the darkness.

And here I sit writing, waiting until we can determine if it is safe to go and recover Gurudor's body.

What do I know about Black Dragons? I know not to summon crocodiles as they can charm them. I know it was large,
which means it was a young adult or fully adult dragon. I know they usually have acid breaths, I think, so this is
some kind of Shadow Black Dragon. I know if we try and go up against it then we are dead meat.
The only thing I can think of is to try and be a lot more stealthy than we were. Perhaps all this charging about we
have been doing has got us noticed.

What I really want to do is go home. With Gurudor gone we have lost all our motivation for continuing onwards. But
even going back won't be easy. I've told Sylvia to memorise all the divination spells she has and I'll do the same,
so we can at least keep an eye on this fell creature. I hope I can Skrye it. I hope we can hide here for a while
without the dragon finding us. Should we move on or stay put? Go back to the monastery? I don't know! They are all
looking at me for a plan and I don't have one!

(G244 10/07/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G244 10/07/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)


DAY 228 (25 Marpenoth) cont...

Spend the rest of the day relaxing, reading and listening to Sylvia's stories.

I hate this place. Gurudor is keeping the thing going, otherwise I think I would be suggesting we go back
again. I know Gurudor thinks that there are people waiting to be rescued, but I wonder about that. We've seen
so many bones on our way here and all the people we encounter seem to have been twisted into shadow beings, how
can there be anyone left alive?
Gurudor is definitely in charge at the moment, it is his fervour and enthusiasm that is keeping thing going. He's
good on motivation but not so good on strategy. I think I've come up with a plan to deal with the construct though.


DAY 229 (26 Marpenoth)

We've suffered a major set back. I've some time now to record what has happened today so far. I feel like I
am going to die in this horrible place where there is no light and nothing grows and that this diary will be
found on my corpse a hundred years from now.
Well let this journal stand as my record of how things went from bad to worse for us.

In the morning we managed to deal with the construct though, so that was something. I used some new spells
that were now in my power, 'Rock to Mud' and 'Mud to Rock' to capture it. The spells worked well, it was too
slow and lumbering to escape the mud and when I turned it to rock again it was caught right up to its neck.

This also made the southern walkway collapse, but that was a small price to pay. We rushed in and Gurudor
walloped it and I used a Rusting Grasp spell until the thing breathed its last.

Mirabella then proceeded to search the tower area and found a small cell were an orc was being held prisoner.
He was not violent but did not speak common very well. We learned that he was called Drashnag and that he
was an Eye of Grumsh, a bunch of lovely chaps apparently who in dedication to their one eyed god strike out
their left eye. Good job for them their god wasn't also missing his private parts I suppose.

Gurudor could speak orcish so after some conversation Drashnag decided to join us. Sylvia was far from happy
as Grumsh is an enemy of Sylvanus. I could see the sense of this barbarian joining us though, considering what
sort of danger we were going into.

I asked him how he came to be in the cell and he replied that he had been captured and was being kept by the
guards to 'replenish' the golem (construct) by whatever nasty means that was done.

After that anyway, we decided to explore down the steps which lead from the tower. They lead down a good one
hundred feet or so, down into a sea of bones. I saw animals of all kinds, humanoids large and small, aberrations,
all of which looked like they had been crushed and broken by the construct above. We began to delicately poke
about a bit, but with a certain inevitability I had come to expect in this place some of the bones began to
move.

Gurudor was set upon by a group of four skeletal wolves while we others were attacked by a two headed thing
and a horse type thing with three heads and wings. Sylvia answered them with a Turn Undead incantation which
destroyed the wolves. We finished off the others relatively easily, Drashnag doing good work and some of my
crocodiles helping out too.

It seemed prudent to get back above the bones and we returned to the platform were the remains of the construct
were. From there we took the southwestern bridge which lead to a platform were we were attacked by three grey
skinned guards. There was also some sort of priestess here, but I made very quick work of her with a lucky long
shot from a Hypothermia spell. Mirabella stabbed a guard in the back and Gurudor felled another. The other was
knocked senseless and captured. In fact we managed to take two of them alive.

Things seemed to be going as well as could be expected, but Gurudor, who to be frank always seemed to me to
be a bit odd, started behaving more and more erratically.

(G245 17/07/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 36

(G245 17/07/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 36

DAY 97 (thu) cont ..

2300 hours

Kirk was shown to his new home, a prison cell on board the Numiri destroyer by a female numiri
who introduced herself as Captain Kenk.

The cells were former airlocks, or something like that, and had entrance doors, but also airlocks
on the other side that when opened, vented the poor prisoner inside out into space.

There was also a vid screen and this buzzed into life and Kenk spoke to him.
'Let me demonstrate how these rooms work.', she said, then the screen changed view to show Wijy Kone
and Yona Hoom together in a similar cell.
A red light flashed and the airlock swept open. Yona managed one single anguished scream before
she and Wijy were blown out into space and certain death.
'We'll deal with you soon enough.' said Kenk as she took Kirk's comms badge from him.
'Er.. what time is dinner?' asked Kirk as his stomach rumbled.

DAY 97 (fri)

0400 hours

Kirk was woken from his fitful dreams by the ship suddenly lurching as if it had been struck by
something. The an even bigger movement went as far as warping the walls of the room he was in.
Simultaneously the Anti-Gravity went off, a panel popped open and a spool of wire unwound into
the cell. A 'pshhhh' noise from somewhere signaled the escape of air.

His mind racing, Kirk took some 20 metres of wire and tied one end around his wrist and the other
end around the bolted down leg of the cell's bed.

Wondering what to do next his attention was drawn to the flickering of the vid screen. It showed the
cell that had recently held the two Banean agents, its cell door open and the airlock door half
off its hinges. A plan started to form in Kirk's mind but it would be a gamble on how far away the other
cell actually was.

Looking at the airlock door of his own cell he found a small red handle tucked away in the door frame
that looked very much like a manual release.

He could tell he was running out of air anyway so he took a few big deep breaths then expelled all the
air from his lungs and opened the air lock. He wafted out into space on the escaping air and grabbed onto
a handle on the side of the ship. Looking frantically around he spotted the open airlock just two
doors away and clambered across to it.

With his lungs burning he pulled himself bodily into the open cell and through the open door. At the
other side he pressed the close button and the door closed enough to let Kirk breath again. He did so,
huge lungfulls of blessed air.

He wasn't out of danger yet though. There was no gravity, there was smoke everywhere and only emergency
lighting to see by. Kirk pulled himself into a nearby cabin where he met a numiri who was getting ready
to escape. The grappled for the only phase pistol in the cabin and after a desperate struggle Kirk knocked
him out and claimed the gun.

From there he made his way down several more corridors and encountered more numiri personnel which he shot
at and killed. Eventually he turned up in a local command centre where the numiri were bringing on line an
AI they had captured from another alien race.

The AI seemed to go berserk though and its physical avatar grabbed a weapon and started shooting them up.
Kirk saw this and stayed out of its way. When he found his way into a side area of the command area he
came across Crewman Paterson, who was the prisoner of Captain Kenk. Kirk got a few good shots in on
Kenk who then fled and summoned some armoured guards to cover her retreat. With luck, Kirk spotted his
coms badge on a console so he grabbed it.

Kirk and Paterson made there way back to the cells where they started to change into the armour of
some slain numiri guards, but the rogue AI followed them and the ongoing chaotic firefight found its
way to them. A single numiri crewman was calling in reinforcements all the time but eventually he
was discovered and dispatched as he lurked around in the cabins.

The AI seemed to see them as non threatening though and it signaled and said that it wanted to find
and secure its Core, which was being held in the Captain's personal shuttle craft. It also introduced
itself as 'James Adam'.

Sensing that this might be a way off the destroyer Kirk decided to follow the AI. Before they did
that though Kirk released Crewman Dell from the cell next to his and he joined the escape party.
They went down some more corridors and discovered the semiconscious Kevek and brought him along
with them.
They continued past the local command centre and came to a large airlock.
Gaining entrance to the rear of the shuttle they shot down two of the guards and made their way
to the cockpit. This shuttle was a lot larger than the Aeroshuttle and in its centre, the engineering
area, the AI Core was situated. Captain Kenk was in the cockpit and frantically trying to undock from the
destroyer but Kirk got to her first and shot her in the ensuing fire fight.

With everyone on board they launched the Captain's shuttle and sped as fast as they could from the destroyer
as it was dying in a series of explosions. Working out how to operate the sensors they soon saw that a
decent sized space battle was in full swing. The Banean's had ducked in under the Missile Defence System
to get a few shots off at the Numiri, disabling some of their ships. The fighting then continued on the
very edge of the System, the Banean's trying to take pot shots from a safe distance. Faster, smaller attack
craft ducked and weaved between the larger ships and incoming missiles.
Kirk spotted Voyager cruising with the main body of the Banean attack force and plotted a course towards it,
making sure to inform everyone in the area that this Numiri craft was now under Starfleet control.

0645 hours they arrived and fell into position with Voyager.