What a pleasant surprise Nib, Bloodbeat, Mal and Killian are passing through on their way into the mountains. They are escorting some strange man who seems to be not of our time period and who doesn't seem to speak any language but all languages. He does seem like a great mystery and he does seem to indicate that his home is under threat of some kind. I try to take his measure to see how truthful he is being and decide he is being deceitful about something but without being able to properly question him I can't get a fix on what he is lying about.
My friends were still intent on following this man to his "home" and see what the threat is. Since I know that something untoward is likely to occur with this strange man I tag along to provide some additional assistance when things go sideways.
We eventually reach the mountain range that he has been anxiously leading us all to. As we get closer we notice a cave with a door in the side of a cliff face. Which looks very old and out of place here. We also notice several Ogres who have managed to pry the door open it seems. The Ogres don't seem too happy to see us and turn towards us with weapons raised.
Mal and myself start to fire at them while Killian rushes forward to meet them. Our "friend" starts to cast some spells but seems to be a rather poor caster as he can't seem to weave threads any better than I can. Luckily Nib and Bloodbeat are much more capable than he seems to be. Killian takes several shattering blows from the ogres as I maneuver around behind them and we start to drop the Ogres. Unfortunately Killian drops under the heavy blows once he was downed the Ogre split one after myself, one after our "friend' the last after our casters, Nib and Bloodbeat. We were able to evade the Ogre's powerful swings and pick them off before they could do too much damage to us. Our "friend" took a shot or two but remains conscious.
After the battle we enter the cave/home/??? to find several rooms a couple of bodies and one very sleepy Obsidiman. We quickly close the door and setup camp as several of us and poor Killian need to recover from our injuries. During the night nothing seems to happen though we do feel like we aren't alone in the cave. Once morning comes we find that we can't wake Killian and while we search the cave once again our "friend" slips away from us. There is one locked door that we didn't feel strong enough to investigate last night but we now suspect our "friend" has gone to.
Bloodbeat casts some magic that allows her to look through the door to see four creatures about dwarf sized cooking..?? She also sees several bodies on the floor which makes us wondering what or who they are cooking. Bloodbeat lays out some protection circles in front of the kitchen door and Killian starts to bash the now locked cave door down. After Killian bashes down the door we find our "friend" waiting outside and the four creatures, Pangoli, rushed out.
Nib who was closest to the kitchen door found himself surrounded by these Pangoli while our "friend" approached Killian, Bloodbeat and myself. Our "friend" turned out to be a much better caster today than he was yesterday and I left him to Killian and Bloodbeat while I assisted Nib and Mal with dealing with the Pangoli. Nib thought he might be safer closer to the ceiling but these strange creatures just used their claws to climb along the ceiling to reach him.
Once we had dispatched the creatures we discovered that our "friend" was a doppler. I think Nib should search the library for a Doopler finding spell of some kind. He also dispelled the magic that was keeping the Obsidiman, Archaeceliozome, asleep. After the fight he awoke and tried to communicate with us. But since he has been asleep since before the scourge it took some magic to allow us to communicate effectively. The doppler and the Pangoli had invaded this small Kaern just as the scourge started and had been feeding on Archie and his friends for years. Based on the kitchen they had also managed to find other victims to survive on.
Archie asked about his liferock, Gannagroth which we had visited previously as that is the same life rock that Killian is from. Archie offered us to take what we wished from his cave home as he no longer required anything from it and Killian took him to Gannagroth.
Nib needed a Dyre to carry all of the books and journals from the cave back to Throal. I imagine that finding a blank book would still cause him to swoon. During our investigation of the armory I came across a weird collection of dead ivy wrapped around some grey crystal stones. As I pushed it to the side it seemed to react and touch my hand as I moved it. After examining it closer it seemed like it might be some form of clothing. I have heard about living armor that requires water to function. I quickly dowsed the collection of ivy and stones in water and watched as it magically revived to form an Elven size armor. I asked Nib to take a look at it and he said it was awake astral and was magic in some nature. I took it with me back to Sosanopa for further study.
Killian and Archie headed off to their life rock while the rest of us headed back to Sosanopa and then for the rest of them on to Throal. During our travels I asked Nib to take a look at the armor for me.Statistics:Posted by redwraith — Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:04 pm
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