Navero 29
From: dparsons@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Daniel Parsons) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp Subject: Navero XXIX Keywords: Navero, of the Correct and Unalterable Way Message-ID: <4429@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Date: 16 Feb 90 01:01:14 GMT Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Lines: 354
The Ghasts and Ghouls stayed away for the rest of the night. I guess they
figured all those muscles would be too tough and stringy.
- Navero, male human cleric, 4th level
- Dania, female 1/2-elf MU, 4th level
- Kortul, male human fighter, 4th level
- Razuli, male human fighter, 4th level
- Arlor, male dwarf thief, 4th level
- Kory, male elf bard, 3rd level
- Topash, male elf druid, 3rd level
After fighting off the Ghast pack, and getting the paralyzed party members up and healthy, there were no further incidents. Over half of the sky was covered now, a black as black as black could be; the stars in the eastern half slid by normally, but were being squeezed out be the consuming forces of darkness. There was no rain, there was no wind, and the woods and grasslands were filled with moving shapes. We kept the fire burning extra- bright; nothing came near us.
In the morning, we continued on. The rising sun shone underneath the canopy of darkness, and illuminated the landscape, which immediately took on a fresher tone; but the sun "set" at about 10 am. After riding a while, the road turned northwards. We elected to follow it, rather than strike off into the wild lands, which even Topash was somewhat reluctant to enter. As we went northwest, a clearer patch in the inky cover became apparent, far, far ahead of us along the road.
Dania: "What's that up there?"
Topash: "I believe we should be far more concerned with what is around us right now."
Kory: "That, (makes Legend Lore role) I do believe, is Methigor, the smallest and westernmost of the capitals. It would also be a good place to go, seeing as how the sun shines there and nowhere else."
Navero: "I don't like it. That direction is a very bad place for us to be."
Dania: "Nav, be more specific."
Navero: "I don't know! It just feels... bad."
Topash: "I'm surprised everything here doesn't feel bad."
Razuli: "We'll be careful, kid. I'm always good at going where the sun never shines, right, magic-user?"
Dania: (Glares)
Topash: "Ah-hah. Quite appropriate that you bring that up when the topic of `feeling bad' is in the air."
Kory: "Or feeling badly. Sensitivity is required here! Sensitivity, and certain harmonies..."
Topash: "To bridge the dis-chords between us, bard?"
Kory: "Oh, no. The short and sweet of it is, of course, the short and sweet. Dania, DEAR; been having trouble sleeping at night?"
Dania: "No. I have pleasant dreams of you getting gelded. Fuck off."
Razuli: "Wizzerd-bitch, why don't you scout ahead and look for an ambush?"
Dania: "Shut up."
Kory: "Hmph! I'm starting to dislike her. She's usually fun, but GOD is she unfriendly! Maybe if we cut out her ovaries she'd be nicer."
Razuli: "Nah. Just find another priest of Gothard."
Kory: "Oh, that'd take care of the problem in a BIG hurry. How do you go about locating one?"
Razuli: "Well, first ya gotta get the right bait..."
The place up ahead, if it was Methigor, was peculiarly situated. The murky cloud cover above it was less dense, but not enough to allow any sunlight in. The land around it looked even darker and unpleasanter than where we were now, and we could see no green at all. We rode on until the sun had set, then camped and prepared for the coming night. Everyone was relatively quiet; the setting was somber enough to shut most anyone up. We collected a LOT of wood, and kept it burning brightly. Methigor was still far ahead - two or three hours ride, we guessed. Night deepened in the unpleasant lands around us. It felt as though we were being watched by unwholesome things.
Razuli: (...boring...boring...boring...boring...I hate watch...boring...)
(Suddenly, something falls out of the sky and lands in the fire. It turns out to be a big leather sack filled with water.)
*SPLOOSH!*
(Everyone springs up. Dania casts Dancing Lights, Kortul unsheathes Sun Sword, Navero casts Light.)
Dania: "Razuli, you idiot! Why didn't you see that coming?!"
Razuli: "Aw, fuck you, magic-user!"
Kory: "Now, now, you'll have to wait on that."
Razuli: "Shut up! Incoming!!"
(Great globs of sticky gunk are lobbed into the clearing. Kory and Razuli are hit, knocked down and stunned, and covered in goop.)
Topash: "Ah, slimeballs."
Dania: "I knew that already. What's the gunk?"
Topash: "A natural product of certain fungi that grow in unhealthy places. It is worth noting that it is strongly attracted to its own kind."
(Spectral forms and rotting bodies approach the campsite. The spectral ones were indistinct and easy to miss (Shadows, I believe) with all the corporeal ones running around getting in the way.)
Navero: "By the power of the Lords of the Correct and Unalterable Way, I doth Command thee to Depart!!" (Rolls a 2 on his dispelling check.)
Undead: (guffaw slightly)
Topash: "Hmph. To be expected, I suppose. Put your new mace to use, good boy, and see if you can do anything of note." (Cuts at a shadow.)
Kortul: "Useless priest..." (Cleaves a Ghoul.)
Dania: "#*!*&/!$%;\@!!" (Magic Missiles a Zombie.)
Arlor: "AHHH!!!" (Runs frantically about hacking with a short sword.)
Undead: "gibber gibber gargle snort drool" (Zombie claws Kortul. Shadow ignores Arlor. Shadow hits Navero. Ghoul hits Dania.)
Navero: "Where are they all coming from? What do they want?"
Topash: "They wish to kill us. Do something about it." (Slices a Ghoul.)
Kortul: (Mangles a shadow.)
Dania: "Urk!" (Shadow grabs her by throat from behind (Critical strike.))
Navero: "YAAHHHH!" (Charges to aid Dania)
Dania: (Oh, no, please Lords, don't let him fuck up AGAIN...)
Arlor: (Hacks Shadows knees out, it lets go.)
Navero: (Rolls a 3. Dents the ground.)
Undead: "gibber gibber gargle snort drool fuck you" (Kortul hit by Ghoul and Shadow, makes save vs. paralyzation; Topash is missed; Dania is coughing; Arlor is hit by a Zombie; Navero is missed. A Wight appears, and something large can be heard approaching.)
Navero: "Go away!" (Swings, rolls a 1 - critical fumble.)
Game Master: (Rolls dice) Navero, roll to hit Kortul.
Navero: (Rolls an 18.)
*CLANG!*
Navero: "Oops, sorry."
Kortul: "Grrr...." (Masticates a Shadow.)
Dania: "Navero, go heal wounds, or something!"
Razuli: "Whaa.....?"
Topash: "Wash the goop off with alcohol. Or burn it."
Razuli: "But I'm in the @$&$%!! middle of it!!"
Dania: (Bashes a Zombie with her staff.)
Undead: "gibber gibber gargle snort drool fuck you all" (Kortul is missed; Navero is missed; Dania is hit by Zombie, drops; Topash is missed; Arlor is missed. Big thing is getting closer.)
Wight: "Surrendur! Can hav posishun in armee!"
Kortul: (Purees Wight)
Topash: (Cure Light on Dania.)
Arlor: (Hides under a blanket.)
Razuli: "*^#!#*&@!*"|fuck}&*!&$@*!" (Struggles with gunk.)
Navero: (Why bother? He misses, again.)
Kory: (A ghoul approaches him with knife and fork.) (No, not really)
Undead: "gibber gibber gargle snort drool you in trouble now" (Kortul is hit three times; Topash missed; Arlor pulled from under blanket and clawed by Ghouls; Navero hit twice, drops; Razuli and Kory attacked)
Great Shape: (Approaching Big Thing appears from night. It's some kind of Zombie Giant. Many more undead accompany it, including Wights and Wraiths.)
Kortul: (This is no good place to die...) (Liquifies Ghoul)
Kory: "Owww....."
Navero: "By the Unconquerable Lords, please go away!" (Rolls a 5)
Giant: "AAUUUURRRR..... HEE HEE HEE HEE."
Topash: "Navero, I'm beginning to lose confidence in you."
Arlor: "Maybe we should run away."
Dania: "Where the FUCK are we gonna run to? We're goddamned <censored> fucking surrounded, IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE!! Where are the horses?!"
Arlor: "They ran."
Dania: "Shit. There must be a million of the fuckers!"
Razuli: "Well, at lease your fate is known, magic-user."
Kory: "Oh, my head... Wait! Something is chewing on me! And it's uglier than Razuli AND Dania! Yeuch, get away from me!"
Kortul: "Hold them a few minutes."
Dania: "WHAT!?!" (MM's a Ghast.) "What difference will that make?!"
Kory: "Oh, it's obvious! That's when the nick of time comes, and we'll be rescued by that troop of riders coming from the city! Dania, you really don't seem to understand the way the world works at all."
Dania: "What riders?! WHAT FUCKING RIDERS!? I don't see any goddamn riders!"
Topash: "Those ones over there. Now resume thrashing, young lady."
Undead: "gibber gibber gargle snort drool aw shit"
(Riders arrive (in the nick of time) and race through camp, beating back the undead. Many clerics were in their midst as well; they drive the legions of darkness before them, etc. etc. Party is picked up at a fast clip.)
The ride back to town was relatively relaxing. The riders were very grim-faced, and did not talk at all. Nonetheless, they acted with surprising single-mindedness, thoroughly professional. They smelled strange, like decay combined with perfumes. This was somewhat unnerving, despite the rescue, but as we raced towards the city, we realized that EVERYTHING around here smelled of death and decay and rot. It was as if every churchyard occupant for miles had come here for a convention, and brought all their friends with them.
Methigor was very small; a low castle on a hilltop, with only a few outbuildings. Most of these had been razed. The place was crawling with undead of all kinds, but the swift riders got in safely, and once inside, we met with some high dignitary in plate mail, who greeted us with all of the warmth and respect we were accustomed to. It was very gracious of him, that even under these trying circumstances, he took the time to speak to us.
Dignitary: "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WERE YOU IDIOTS DOING OUT THERE!?!?!"
Topash: "Hail, fellow! Well met! I am..."
Dignitary: "YOU ARE INSANE!!"
Kory: "Here now! Not all of us aspire to that condition!"
Dignitary: (Blood vessels in forehead throb incontinently) "WHO THE ^&^%!!&*!*#&^#@!!!)]'!! DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!"
Kory: "I think I am The Incredibly Famous Kory Silvertongue, Master of Music, Keeper of The Faith, and general studmuffin. Whom do I have the great honor of addressing?"
Razuli: "Who's Faith?"
Kory: "A girl I met in Minneapolis."
Dania: "SHUT UP!! Sir, we are truly sorry, it won't happen again..."
Dignitary: "I'LL SAY IT WON'T!! ROG! CARMEN! THROW THIS LOT IN THE BRIG!"
Kortul: "Grrr..."
(Rog and Carmen appear. They are Hill Giants.)
Kortul: (Pauses to consider how many hit points he still has.)
Razuli: "Does this brig have a lock on the door?"
Dignitary: (Eyes bulge dramatically.) "WHAT!?! O' COURSE!!"
Razuli: "Good! Kids, lets go to that nice safe dungeon where they can't hurt us! Ok, Big and Ugly, take us away!"
Dignitary: "Not so fast!" (Crafty look creeps into his piggy little eyes.) "Now, what WERE you doing out there, camped in the middle of an undead army?"
Dania: "We were trying to find out what all the clouds in the sky meant, so we came out here."
Navero: "Truly and honestly, sir, we never had any attention of risking your men or any others. We didn't know."
Dignitary: "You must be stupid."
Kory: "Now, now, don't leap to the obvious conclusion. We are but..."
Dania: "SHUT UP! We came in complete ignorance to see what was happening, and got caught in the middle of it. Simple."
Dignitary: (Stares for a while.) "You are stupid."
Navero: "We're sorry."
Dignitary: "Sorry.... SORRY?! THREE OF MY MEN DIED ON THAT! WHICH ALSO MEANS THREE MORE IN THE ENEMY CAMP! AND YOU'RE SORRY?!?"
Kory: "Oh, this could be cleaned up in but a moment. All you have to do is call for The Three..."
(Entire party turns and jumps on him before he can complete the sentence.)
Topash: "I think not."
Navero: "Surely there is some other way. I think they would not stop with the enemy."
Dignitary: "Oh, hell. Get bandaged up and man the wall. Maybe we can get some good out of you. His lordship The Duke will want to see you tomorrow night."
Dania: "Why not in the daytime?"
Dignitary: "He's a day sleeper. We all are, here, `cause they only come at night. Now GET THE #*&^%($* OUT OF MY SIGHT!!"
We got wounds bandaged, quaffed healing potions, had the priests heal, and generally tried to restore our strength as quickly as was possible. The things outside the wall snarled, wailed and proved very difficult targets. The soldiers on the wall were untalkative - they stared out into the night, and either ignored us or looked through us with what seemed like contempt. Everything smelled sickly-sweet, from perfumes and oils that were doing a terrible job at covering the smell of rotting bodies. The dead army did not attack the castle, but it was a long and unpleasant night.
Dan Parsons
"This place gives me the creeps. And Lord knows there are enough of them in this party already."
