New book

With a silly title :

Drummond the Intergalactic Man Servant


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015LEW8U4

(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.

(G243 19/06/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 35

(G243 19/06/2015 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP) 35


DAY 97 (thu) cont ...

It was now 1515 hours. What remained of the Aeroshuttle crew did there best to get organised.
Paterson went through to the crew area to get a replacement uniform, which made an embarrassed
Rumbleton scuttle through to the cockpit.

Ensign Kirk felt he could really do with the help of Ensign Kevek, but the vulcan was still in a daze,
using all his concentration to keep Meion's spirit from nebulising in his mind.

Kirk next asked Crewman Dell for a status report and it was far from a good one. The Aeroshuttle was
barely hanging in there. Systems had been damaged after ramming into the Numiri mountains and after the
interference during its capture.
Dell went on to mention that Munro's plan had been to find the Banean double agent from amongst the three
spies and squeeze the Missile Defence codes from them.

Kirk saw the sense of this. They had not achieved the primary mission of getting to Major Midscht, but
if they could get off the planet and back to Voyager then at least part of the secondary mission would
be accomplished.

He started by using a medical scanner on the three Banean spies just in case one of them actually was a
Numiri, but they were all as expected, i.e. Banean's disguised as Numiri.

The snow was beginning to ease off a little so Kirk ordered Paterson to move the AS to the north and
follow the storm. When they landed again he tried the scanners, but quickly turned them off again when
he realised how much scanning activity was going on in the area, all looking for them.
It dawned on him that they were now up against the clock, it was only a matter of time before the snow
storm blew out and they would easily be discovered.

Dell tapped into the local weather reports and found that the storm was moving east so Kirk had Paterson
'valley hop' east, staying low as possible. After a couple of hops though Paterson's lack of experience as
a pilot lead to her pranging the AS against some rocks and it was an hour of frantic repair work before
they were fit to take off again.

By 1930 hours they had found as good a spot as they could and as darkness fell they shut down as much
as possible on the AS to be state of 'darkness'.

Kirk had another of his waking dreams as shown below:


''
You are in a crowd. A tall figure in a cloak is pursuing you. You run and push through the
crowd but just as you think you are getting away, the cloaked figure shoots you in the back.
You feel a searing pain, but then nothing more...
''

Kirk called a meeting of the remaining Starfleet personnel. He proposed just flying up into
space as quickly as they could and forcing the traitor's hand. Once the missiles started coming for
them the traitor would have to hand over the codes to save his own skin.
Dell thought it was a bit of a gamble and Paterson proposed interrogating the spies. Rumbleton agreed
and added that they had a few hours at least to give something a try.

At first Kirk wanted to put the spies into stress positions, but the Baneans were tough customers and
simply refused to be interrogated. Dell, Paterson and Rumbleton had not been trained in interrogation
techniques and were simply not very intimidating.

Kirk had had some basic training but referred to the Starfleet manual to check what he was and was not
allowed to do. Basically he was permitted to talk to them and nothing more.

So, for lack of a better approached he talked to them individually and promised this; he would drop the traitor
off at a friendly planet if they handed over the correct codes.

Yona Hoom said it sounded like a great offer but he wasn't the traitor. Wijy Kone, the female, said that the others were
the traitor, while Bras Gorom said he thought Wijy was the traitor and that all he wanted was to go home.

He then called them all together and said,
'I'm modifying the offer. Whoever the, lets say, misguided agent is may not trust me. I'll give all three
of you a communicator and a phaser, I'll leave you all on a safe planet once we get off.'

But perhaps fatigue was setting in for Kirk, because as Yona pointed out, 'This still has the same problem as the
first offer, in that the traitor has to take you at your word.'

In exasperation Kirk then got them to write down on a bit of paper in private either the code or 'This is not the code'
and drop it into a box in the darkened lab area. When he went to the box though it had three bits of paper in it
that all read 'This is not the code'!

Tired and stressed Kirk cried, 'Fuck it! We take off in five minutes! The traitor better get that code ready!'

As they got ready to go Dell talked to Kirk privately, 'Is there nothing else you can think of?'

Just as he was about to reply Kirk had another vision, shown below:

''
You are in a darkened room. A shadowy figure enters holding a gun. You cannot see their face.
You step backwards in fear and hold your hands up in surrender. The figure pulls the curtains
across the window to their right hand side and shoots!
You slump to the floor and then darkness..
''

Dell was concerned and helped Kirk back up to his feet, 'Are you ok sir?'
'Just another whacky dream.', he growled, 'We take off in three minutes.'

But despite his resolution, Kirk's first 'take off' was a ruse to try and fool the traitor into
showing his hand. Whoever the traitor was though had nerves of steel and the plan failed.

It was still dark and still snowing, but by 2200 hours Kirk had had enough and ordered Paterson to
take them to 5000 feet. Passive scans showed a flight of three jet fighters heading towards them so
Kirk ordered the AS straight up into the atmosphere.

The ancient Preserver Tech Missile Defence System detected them and began to fire volleys of three
missiles in their direction. The AS went as fast as they could but after several hits they were down to half
speed and then after a couple more just 6% of impulse.

Kirk ordered all power to be cut and to simply drift in space. Luckily for them the MDS no longer
saw them as a threat and stopped firing at them. What was left of the scanners though revealed that
a Numiri patrol craft was on its way to pick them up.

Kirk sent a microburst of information to Voyager, appraising them of the situation and requesting help
(At the point Voyager was still in orbit around the Banean homeworld). There was also a small fleet of
Banean destroyers just beyond the range of the MDS and Kirk messaged them.

A quick calculation told him that it would take 65 minutes to drift at their current velocity towards
the destroyers and to try and cut down this time he used the manoeuvring thrusters to narrow the approach.

This was enough to trigger the MDS again though and another missile struck them, turning the AS into a lifeless
hulk. Kirk ordered them all into EV suits and they abandoned the shuttle, setting off the self destruct sequence
as they went.

After five minutes of going as fast as they could away from the AS it exploded, blown to tiny fragments, the
remains of Meion and Munro scattered forever to the void.

Try as they might, the EV suits did not have enough thrust to get them to the waiting Baneans in time
and in 15 minutes they were picked up by the Numiri patrol vessel.

'Get in the airlock or we will shoot you!' came the order and Kirk saw no option to comply. Himself, Dell,
Paterson and Rumbleton, as well as the three Banean spies, were prisoners of the Numiri once more.

(Incidentally, dear reader, if Kirk had but known, his dreams were in fact clues to the identity of the traitor.
Someone back on Navamore (for reasons that yet remain a mystery) had put the murders committed by the traitor
into the minds of Kirk and Captain Akar. The dreams revealed that the traitor was tall, male and left handed.
Thus Wijy Kone was ruled out as she was female and Yona Hoom as he was right handed. This meant that in fact
Bras Gorom was the traitor as he was met all three criteria!)

(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.