(G242 12/06/2015 via Roll20 - Guru(GM), JF)

(G242 12/06/2015 via Roll20 - Guru(GM), JF)

Well, we sat and thought about how to defeat the construct, but after a while we felt like relaxing so we
asked Sylvia to tell us more of her tall tale of a place called Riverbek...

[GM note : Al not playing so Guru did some more 5th Edition with JF as the player]

''
So, some time had passed for Random. He was still robbing houses and things in Riverbek. Things were
going ok for him on the whole and after his last job with his boon companion, Skeldrog, he had enough
money to relax for a while.

He may have been a wicked rogue in many ways and have some pretty sticky fingers, but when it came to
his family he had a heart of gold. His wife, while not a nag exactly, liked to keep her husband informed
of the goings on with their children and she had been telling him that Tulip, their eldest had become
friendly with some other girls from a background that she as a parent did not approve of.

At first he didn't pay much attention to her, his wife's social climbing was well known to him. He was
more interested in how the twins, Wyvern and Naga, were getting along as apprentices to a teifling
warlock called Varus and how to shift a giant mirror he had stolen during a time recently when dragons
had been flying about and terrifying the citizens of Riverbek.

Random was also still heavily involved in Thieves Guild business with Kaleb, Varus as mentioned and
a female smuggler named Eon.

Still, his wife's constant reminders filtered down to him and when he reflected that his daughter's
delinquency could affect his standing in the Guild he decided to take matters in hand.

Now, in Riverbek there was a, what you might call, healthy population of Teiflings and one of these
was named Lady Shazuno, a priestess of Tutu (The God of Children and Wealth) and she, among other
things, was involved in an orphanage in the docks - and across the street from it - a brothel.

The orphanage, to a certain extent, supplied the brothel with employees and two of the young girls
who were headed that way were friends of Tulips. Fearful that her friends would lead her into an
ill considered profession Random decided to go check things out.

Not being able to lay his hands on Skeldrog, Random took a house guest with him called Tah'ran.
Now, not to go into the details too much, Tah'ran was a high elf thief, a refugee from the city of
Lot Tharel, recently destroyed by the dragons I mentioned earlier and an old pal of Random's.

These old friends turned up at the orphanage unannounced and were met by some of the children.
Random noted with approval that the children all looked reasonably well fed and not all that
scruffy.

Not long after their arrival a human woman in her mid twenties met them. She was Rosana and
worked at the orphanage and she had once been a member of the thieves guild and indeed had
once had a special understanding with Random if I can put it like that (and I'll just note that
she was far from the only woman in town that Random had special understandings with!).

Rosana was pleased to see him and took them both into the kitchen and offered them tea. She
discussed with them the orphanage and the brothel, which she deeply disapproved of.

After a short while Lady Shazuno arrived. It might surprise you to learn this fact, but despite
being both notable Teiflings of Riverbek, Random and Lady Shazuno had never met.

Random approved of her shapely figure but did not let that deter him from his task, namely,
finding out what was going on. Lady Shazuno answered all his questions with apparent honesty
though and Random felt mollified.
'Are you trying to lead my daughter into prostitution?' he asked bluntly.
'No, although I think it a reasonable enough profession for a girl of poor prospects.'
Random nodded but said, 'That may be true, but Tulip is no orphan. She has two parents and
a family. What of these other girls then?'
'Well, he friends are Juna, who has joined the thieves' guild and Edna who has gone to
work across the road.'
'I thank you for your candour.' said Random as they left.

Outside, he said to Tah'ran, 'What do you make of that?'
Tah'ran did not venture and opinion and when Random decided to enter the brothel 'for research
purposes' the high elf blushed and headed for home.

A scantily clad lady named Maxine met Random in the reception area. In the name of research Random
spent nine gold. Needless to say, nine gold bought him a great deal of research indeed!

Afterwards he asked for Edna to be sent to him, and his lusts sated for now he had nothing more
than a chat with the girl back in one of the common rooms. Edna was happy to talk and although
she was not particularly happy with her lot in life she felt that things could have been worse
for a girl born out of wedlock such as she.

Random noted that Kaleb and a couple of other lads from the Guild were in the brothel as well,
up to no good and hiding from their wives. Random was in no position to judge.

Content for now Random headed home and told his wife not to worry. Tulip was in no danger,
Lady Shazuno appeared to not be a pimp after all and all was good.

..

Not long after this though Random happened to be in his back garden, an area that backed onto
the Crusty Crab and noticed that there was a hole in it.
When he asked his wife about it she rolled her eyes and said,
'I told you about that days ago! Ask the twins.'

Random called in Wyvern and Naga and asked them to explain themselves. The whole story came out.
'Who dug the hole?' asked their father.
'A bird man and a weird druid.'
'How were you involved?'
'We didn't help or anything!', pleaded the twins, 'We didn't help try and rob the Crusty Crab
or anything!'
'We'll see about that.' said their paterfamilias.
Silently Wyvern handed over a drawing she had done. It was a drawing of a bird man holding
a large staff in the shape of a snake. It sparkled with magic.
The world closed in on Random and a single quiet, but commanding, voice seemed to speak in his
head, 'I .. Will ..  Have ..  That .. Staff.'

With the drawing folded up in his pocket Random went to see Kaleb at the Crab and was shown
the basement.
'Yeah, so you can see Random, old friend, old bean, old boon companion, they dug in here. They
were after my treasure. Didn't get it though, I had to get the Gauntlet out. In the end it was a
stand off and we came to an agreement.'
Random rubbed his chin and surveyed the destruction,
'They dug up my garden. They involved my kids. I can't let that stand.'
'I appreciate that, old spoon, but I made a peace pact with them.'
'I've made no pacts. Where can I find these jokers?'
Kaleb simply smiled and took a feather from the leaves of a nearby book then handed it to
Random.

Now, as luck would have it, Random had a second high elf lodger in his house called Lumiel. She
was an enchanter and using her magic she charmed the feather to always point in the direction of
the bird man it had come from.

Random sat at his kitchen table looking down at the feather as it quivered and pointed northwards.
He carefully unfolded the drawing and looked at the staff.
'It will be mine..' he whispered.

(G240 24/04/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 34

(G240 24/04/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 34


22/05/2015

DAY 98 (fri) cont ...

1435 hours

Kirk shot at the Numiri Combat Bot as it came down the corridor on its four spider-like legs.
It returned fire with a volley of four grenades, one EMP, two frag and one tear gas.

Kirk ducked behind the wall at the stairs then shot again, this time aiming for the grenade
launcher. It was well armoured though and it would take more than one shot so as it opened up
with its twin autoguns he ran up the stairs to warn the others in the main hall.

They didn't have much time to prepare though as it came through the main doors to the hall
which had been left open. As all Starfleet personnel and the Banean spies opened fire on the
Bot the Numiri officers took their opportunity to flee.

Kirk concentrated his fire on the Bot's grenade launcher and took it out of action. It continued
to fire its autoguns and chewed up the furniture a bit, but it was an easy target for the rest
of the crew and it was soon knocked out.

After it was destroyed they gathered together and headed for the door that lead to where
Mioen had said Paterson and Rumbleton were being held.

Kirk tried to bluff his way in but the guards on the other side of the door were not falling
for it. Things went from bad to worse as small flying Scout Bots appeared to kept a watch on them.
Next small rockets came down the corridor, able to turn corners, and started exploding around
them. Under  fire and in danger Kirk used up two clips of phaser ammunition burning a hole in
the door and in they went.

The guards had retreated to where Paterson and Rumbleton were being held. Mieon took her
turn at burning down doors, but unfortunately for her the guards were waiting, crouched
behind two coffers in the room beyond and as soon as they saw her they fired.

Poor Mioen was killed by the two shots that hit her and her body fell to the floor in
a bloodied heap. To the others she was dead, but the shock of it made her spirit leap
out of her body and she began to Astral Project in a ghostly form.

Inside the dungeon chamber, once they had stunned the guards Kirk and his team found Paterson
unharmed but Rumbleton unconscious.

Deciding to leave Rumbleton for now they headed back to the main hall, it was imperative to
get to the shield generator that was somewhere in the complex so that they could beam out.

In a room beyond the main hall as they were trying to get their bearings they were attacked
by two squads of Numiri Special Forces. They managed to knock out two of them as the Numiri charged
into the room, but the others that came behind shot them down like stalks of wheat. Paterson
went down with a nasty wound, the three Banean spies were taken out and Munro was shot dead.
Dell was shot and fell and finally Kirk. Kevek, the last man standing, put up his hands and
surrendered.

Meanwhile the spirit of Mieon had been flitting around in the castle and had luckily come across
the shield generator. An officer, two NCOs and three Numiri soldiers were guarding this area and
one by one she tried to Suggest to them to lower the shields.

It took her several attempts, her powers were weaker now that she was dead, to get a guard to
do as she bid. Eventually much to the surprise of the others one of them went over to the control
panel and hit the emergency shutdown button.

As Kevek was being frisked for weapons by the Special Forces he was amazed to see Kirk suddenly
transported away. He reasoned that if it had been the Aeroshuttle's Kirk Alpha 1 program kicking
in to rescue him then the shields must be down!

'One to beam up!' he said calmly as he tapped his badge and he too was returned to the Aeroshuttle.
Next he beamed up everyone else and the bodies of Munro and Mieon.

Many of the others were dying so he grabbed a first aid kit from the wall and one by one stabilised
them.

Finally he went over to lay Mieon to rest and as he reached down to close her eyes he sensed her
presence. Lightly touching her temples he made contact with her spirit and began to communicate
with her.

Kevek decided to attempt a rare form of mindmeld with Mieon and transfer her Katra (as the Vulcans
call the soul) to himself. It took a few minutes, but he managed to bring Mieon into his own mind.
Time would tell if he would ever come to regret joining such a wild and adventurous spirit to his
own.

(G241 29/05/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G241 29/05/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 229 (26 Marpenoth) cont ...

And what a battle it was. Up until recently I'd not had much dealing with golems, but my brother
has. He and his partner in trouble Fenrir, once fought a stone golem (or living statue if you prefer)
and when they were in 'Darknessdeep' they had a flesh golem ally called Fred and they encountered a wood
golem while there as well.

Way way back in Sasserine, in Castle Teraknian myself and my poor dead friend Raz once encountered some
snake constructs. There was a huge construct in Renkrue, the work of a gnome artificer called Willy Reach,
but I was not there when it went berserk and the crew of the Sea Wyvern did battle with it.

After this battle though I'll certainly of had my fill of constructs! As my brother had warned me
they are tricky things to deal with. We'd found that out back at the Monastery when fighting the Gloomgolem
and had the lesson reinforced here.

We started with a wave of crocodiles, which did some damage, but not enough to inconvenience it greatly. Mirabella
fired off a few arrows to begin with, but when she saw that they were merely bouncing off she sat down with
Badger and in a grumpy fashion took out a pack of cards. Whatever she was up to though I was too busy marshalling
my crocodile forces.

Gurudor waded in and managed to get a few good hits in, but every time is appeared damaged the red liquid from
the big crystal in its chest flowed out and seemed to repair all the dings and dents.

We had to come up with a new plan and between ourselves we shouted out our strategy. Mirabella was to lure the
thing out over the bridge where I would use woodshape to hopefully plunge it to its doom. It was a rather desperate
plan considering how much damage its whirling arms could do, but it was the best we could do.

Gurudor jumped to it and Sylvia was to cast Sanctuary on Mirabella before she tried to duck past the golem and make
her way to the other side of the room. But she had misunderstood! She leapt down off the stairs and rush towards
the golem.
Sylvia cried out, 'Sanctuary is a touch spell you fool!'
Mirabella stopped in her tracks in confusion and was stuck down by a blow from the golem and landed in a crumpled
heap at the foot of the right hand stairs.
With a silent prayer Sylvia leapt over the banister and went to help her fallen companion.

Gurudor, rather confused, tried to lure the golem away but it was too intent in what was going on by the stairs.
I managed to get it interested in the crocodiles though, long enough for Sylvia to get Mirabella up in her arms
and run back up the stairs.

Gurudor then calmly sauntered past the golem and joined us in the retreat back to the other side of the bridge
where we healed up and got poor Mirabella back on her feet.

We needed another plan! It was barely 10 in the morning, but we settled down to rest and think.

Minecraft - Main Area

(G238 17/04/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G238 17/04/2015 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 228 (25 Marpenoth)

The monastery compared to the rest of the Plane of Shadows was an oasis of calm, well once we'd cleared
all the monsters out of it anyway. The rooms were comfortable and their was a good supply of food and drink.
I had no wish to leave, but we had to make progress.
As Gurudor kept reminding us, there were unknown amounts of captives out there in need of rescue, and some
kind of plot to turn the Vast Swamp into an area of 'dead magic' afoot that definitely sounded like it was
in need of thwarting.

I was beginning to loath this land, as a druid it was a bad place to be, and I just wanted to do what we
needed to do and get back. I was looking forward to getting back to the Vast Swamp and really getting to
know all about its flora and fauna. Everything on this Plane seemed to be either dead or wrong in some way.

Well anyway, so we set off in the morning towards the lights we could see in the distance. After about
an hour we arrived at a new place. There was a hut beside a bridge that crossed over a waterfall.

I cautioned the others about just charging in, having nearly died in the last encounter I had no great
desire to repeat the experience. Mirabella nodded and skulked off to have a look about. She disappeared
into the darkness but her skulking abilities must have failed her as she was spotted by and attacked
by two long tongued monsters.

Badger heard the cries and made a dash into the darkness but I lingered a while to summon up my usual gang
of crocodiles. Sylvia followed along after the badger, as did Gurudor. The monsters, whatever they were,
had massive powerful tongues and they had no problem in lashing up both Sylvia and Gurudor and near swallowing
them hole!
Gurudor was paralysed but Sylvia managed to break free.

Flanked by crocs I joined the battle and cast 'Babua Slime' on Gurudor which I hoped would make the
creature spit him out, but it had no effect. Meanwhile, Mirabella, Sylvia and the crocodiles managed to kill
the other one. After that Mirabella snuck behind the remaining one and stabbed it in its vitals making
it jump up in alarm and run off into the river.

Sylvia cast Entangle and I cast Sudden Stalagmite which stopped and killed the creature. It did also have
the effect of further injuring Gurudor and near drowning him. In fact, we laughed about this later (well, when
I say we, I mean everyone except Gurudor), it would have been an unusual death had he not survived, swallowed,
then drowned and impaled by a skewer of rock - quite a catalogue of disaster!

We did manage to fish him out though, before he died and Sylvia healed him up and patched up everyone else
that had been injured.

After getting our breath back we moved on. From the hut we cautiously crossed the bridge which lead to a
tower. From here some steps lead down into a room where some sort of large construct or golem spotted us
and attack.

Here we go again, I thought, as I cast Barkskin on Gurudor and summoned up more crocodiles. This thing,
whatever it was, advanced on us, its flailing limbs lashing out like some kind of whirlwind of death.

To battle once more!

(G237 10/04/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI, TR) 32

(G237 10/04/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI, TR) 32


DAY 97 (thu) cont ...

It was 1230 hour Voyager time.

Ensigns Kirk and Kevek and Crewman Mioen were now back on board the Aeroshuttle having escaped from the clutches
of Major Strank.

Kirk got to a console and raised the shield and locked the doors. Looking out the shuttle cockpit windows he saw
that they were inside a hangar and that a squad of soldiers were getting very animated about the situation outside.

Next Kirk tinted the windows opaque and took a look at the science console but it was fairly well shot up.
Mioen was in the back crew quarters searching the prisoners, but returned to the cabin to talk to the technician
that was still in there albeit rather stunned.

A voice from a loud speaker outside demanded, 'Surrender or Else!'

Kirk ignored this and ordered the numiri technician prisoner to remove the intrusion device that was wired into
the main shuttle control console. The numiri tried to communicate with outside though and spotting this subterfuge
Kirk stunned him in the back of the head with his rifle.

Cursing Kirk closed down all comms and pulled out the plugs from the two numiri devices wired into the shuttle.

Mieon returned to the crew quarters and scanned the mind of the second unconscious technician that had been shot
back there.

The next moment there was a heavy clunk on the main entrance door to the right of the cockpit and thinking it
might be a shaped charge Kirk opened it in an attempt to shake it off. It wasn't as sophisticated an attempt
to breach the air lock as that though, it was just a burly looking tech with a sledgehammer.

Kirk quickly closed the door again and went back to getting the Aeroshuttle back on line. Between them they
managed to get it moving again and Kirk was just wondering if his basic piloting skills were up to the task
when the hangar doors opened and a tank shot at them.

It was firing rail gun flechettes that sent ripples across the shields.

Mioen reached out with her mind and managed to stun one of the crewmen in the tank and Kirk used the transporter
to move a chunk out of it but after a few tens of seconds it was back in action again.
Meanwhile Kevek was at a console in the science lab using the scanner on the tanks looking for weak spots and
passing the data along to Kirk who soon gave up on the transporter and turned to the shuttle's Phase Cannon.

Another tank rolled up just as they disabled the first one, and then another. Kirk decided to leave as quickly
as they could and piloted out into the air field and staying as low as he could flew out into a snow storm.
The shuttle was badly shot up by now, the shields were off line and the hull plating badly damaged.

The storm helped them evade detection but also made it harder to manoeuvre and as he flew along the valley
he clipped a snow bank that caused them to plunge dangerously into a ravine and land with a thump in a
snow field. Mioen took over and although her piloting skills were little better she managed to get them to
a hidden spot where they hoped they would be safe for a while, overlooking the castle and village.

Kirk stuck to the consoles and scanned the castle's shields. They were of the type that would stop fast moving
projectiles and energy weapons but allow slow moving objects through.

Meanwhile Mioen and Kevek decided to see what they could get out of their prisoner known as Private Rocket.
Kevek used a mind meld on the soldier and got what little he knew about the castle from him. Although he
had never been there he knew that prisoners being taken to it were always guarded by an officer and a four
man squad.

Kevek then performed a mind meld on Kirk and relayed everything he had got out of Rocket to him.

Rocket, who presented himself as a simple farm boy turned soldier requested that he could take the personal
affects from the dead bodies of his officer and fellow private and Mioen nodded approval.

Kirk continued to scan the castle and the shields. They discussed various plans mainly involving Kirk (who you
should remember still looked like a numiri and was dressed as an officer) acting as if he had taken Kevek
and Mieon prisoner.

As they talked Kirk noticed that the cable car that ran from the village to the castle was moving. A plan
suddenly formed in his mind and he quickly put it into motion. Acting quickly he transported the five
occupants of the cable car into a field ten miles away. He also then transported out all the prisoners
and bodies cluttering up the shuttle.

They then transported themselves into the cable car just as it passed through the shield. Spotting
a security camera in the car Kirk smashed it with the butt of his gun. He hoped the operator had not
seen them but then the car lurched to a halt and stopped.

Mieon reached out with her mind and found the operator down at the control room in the village and
suggested to him that he send on up the cable car.

The cable car started moving again, going on up to the castle and whatever dangers waited up there...

Synopsis for Kevek

Synopsis for Kevek

You were part of the Voyager crew when the Caretaker moved the ship to the Delta Quadrant. However, you were not
moved with the crew but kept on the Caretaker Array for study by the Caretaker. With no way of contacting Voyager you
managed to escape and land on the Occampan homeworld.

By this time though Voyager had left and since then you have been trying to rejoin them. Traveling mainly as a medic
on board Talaxian trade vessels you finally caught up with Voyager as they entered the Rivo System.

You were welcomed aboard and found that the Emergency Medical Hologram had been running almost constantly as there
were very little in the way of medical personnel.

An away mission had recently brought in Enroll, someone from a 'lost tribe' of Kreetassans who was also medically
trained, but he left Voyager not long after when they entered the Banean home system and he met up with a Kreetassan
trade ship.

You were anxious to prove yourself to the crew of the Voyager and the caustic EMH and volunteered for the next away
mission. Tuvok, a fellow vulcan, was quick to supply you with one. Tom Paris was in trouble on the Banean home world
and had been punished by having his brain implanted with the last memories of his supposed murder victim. This
was slowly killing Tom though and Tuvok was in charge of proving his innocence. While Tuvok investigated at Banea
he also assembled a team to go to the Numiri home world to follow up on some interesting leads there.

The Aeroshuttle was originally designed as the captain's barge but had recently been refitted to fly combat away
missions. The original commander had been Ensign Paul Kirk, but had been dismissed for his ruthless destruction
of alien patrol vessels during a battle in the Rivo system.

The crew now consisted of :
Ensign Munro - A human female tactical officer
Crewman Dell - A human male operations specialist
Crewman Paterson - A human female operations specialist retrained as a pilot
Crewman Rumbleton - A human male science officer
Crewman Mioen - A female orion comms crewman

You joined them on the mission to Numiri but it was doomed from the start. The Banean spies that were your contact
were riddled with traitors and you flew straight into a trap.

The Aeroshuttle was moved to a snowy mountain location on the Numiri planet and you were all taken prisoner and moved
to a nearby barracks.

The next day you were taken away from the others and without any explanation bundled into a truck. Through the
back door you could see that you were been taken up a steep sided valley to a village.

As the truck entered a yard behind the main square a fight seemed to break out beside a building that looked like
a tavern. Two numiri officers ran out into the yard returning fire to a whole gang of soldiers. The officers seemed
to be expert marksmen and were shooting down the soldiers with the brutal Numiri phaser weapons. Blood was slashing
all over the snow outside.

Your two guards jumped down from the back of the truck to see what was going on. You were unguarded! This was your
chance!