Using his forearm to block out the blinding sun, Bulldozer stumbles around on the road, grumbling incoherent nonsense to pass the time. When looking up to see if he was anywhere near the next town, Bulldozer spots an old, odd looking dwarf with his bow ready to fire.
""That's close enough, greyskin. What're you doing up here on the surface? Didn't think your kind came up here much, besides for the odd baby-eating rampage...there any more of you around here?"
Knowing to speak when spoken to, Bulldozer clears his throat. A deep and gravely noise emanates from his mouth.
"And so the dwarf fled the mineral rich lands below for the surface, thinking that he can rule the surface too. Well I'll tell ya somethin'. I was born a slave and worked my way up in an arena. Every moment of my life, I'm alive because I worked for it. I'm here in these wretched lands because I'm forced to. Why? Because I killed a man. Now I'm here, toiling away and wasting my life here. If you want to buy my contract as a hired arm, fine, otherwise, get lost."
Did...did you just offer to have us buy your contract? Because we must be rich and prosperous travelers, right?"
Steef gestures down at his grubby tunic.
"Look...mebbe I was a bit hard on ye. I know how it can be, gettin' kicked out, away from what you know. Especially for a young lad like yourself. You said you killed a man-chances are that means another greyskin, so cheers for that. Tell ya what-we don't have much money to pay you, but it seems like trouble finds this group of ours pretty much all the time. Chances are we're bound to get lucky and strike it rich soon enough...stick with us, leave me alone as much as you can, and don't kill or maim any of us, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't get a cut of whatever we find."
Steef lowers his bow.
"There's yer offer. Take it or leave it. I'm Steef, the mountain over there is Ezekiel, the padre's Azrin, and the furball's Moose."
"You've got yerself a deal. Got any paper or anything to write this out? Also, what's the deal with the fellow next to ya?"
Bulldozer points to Ezekiel.
"Got anythin' to say for yerself?"
"Nah, not really. I got no deal with me."
Bulldozer stares at Ezekiel in the eyes menacingly. Then he turns to slap him on the back.
"I think we'll get along just 'bout fine."
Utterly missing the menace - such concepts were expressed much more bluntly were he came from - Ezekiel nods. "I'm sure we will."
Another day ahead, and about a third of the way through your 100 mile journey to Lepidstadt, you encounter a caravan.
As you get closer, it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary caravan. It consists of a total of nine covered Varisian wagons, gaudily painted. One the side of each are pictures of several people, each more strange looking than the last, and a legend reading "The Crooked Kin --- Ustalav's Greatest Traveling Cabinet Of Curiosities!".
People, presumably the performers, since all match the images on the wagons, are huddled around talking in low voices to each ther. They seem agitated.
Azrin approaches the group, weapons sheathed.
"Hello! Do you folks need help?"
As Azrin gets closer, he notices two of the women, with remarkably thin heads, are crying their eyes out, while an exceptionally hairy young boy is howling like a wolf nearby.
A man missing both his arms and legs and an incredibly tall man (overtaking even Ezekiel by at least a foot and a half) with arms and legs like tree trunks are arguing with a hunched, appalingly dirty man and three clowns.
"We have to go and find her! Mount a rescue party!"
"Yes! We must help her!" the limbless man and the giant cry.
"I...I don't know, Trollblood." the hunched man says. "What if we send a rescue party and they don't come back..." he manages to get out, before you're noticed. Everyone immediately stops talking or making a sound, besides the hairy child who continues howling.
"Hello! Do you folks need help?" Azrin says, his words marring the awkward silence. Nobody answers.
The silence is soon broken, however, by a flamboyant albino man.
"Don't mind my compatriots!" he exclaims.
"I am Kaleb, the Ringmaster of the Crooked Kin, Ustalav's Greatest Traveling Cabinet of Curiosities. Most of us are understandably wary of strangers, you see. Most would pass us by without a second thought beyond 'What a bunch of mongrels I see', but I sense you might be different. We hate to ask for your assistance, but a member of our troupe, Aleece has gone missing this night. We were discussing what to do about it when you came along."
"We don't have much, but I did pick up a magical trinket, a dagger I could reward you with if you'd be willing to help us find her. We hope for the best, but fear the worst for her. These fens are not known for being kind to unwary travelers."
"Say no more, lad-we just had one humdinger of a time in a positively hostile place to travelers. We've got some idea of how it feels to lose one of your own. We'll find your missing girl. Let's go, men-greyback, now's your time to prove yourself."
He begins trudging off before realizing he has no idea where to go. "Say...which direction did you say you lost her?"
"We're not entirely sure. She wandered off while nobody was looking."
"Mate, there's tracks going into the brush like...right next to you. Literally, they're right there. These are so fresh, it looks like she made them while you were talking to us."
"Well I'm not exactly a woodsman." he says irritably.
"Well, no point wasting time. Let's go."
The tracks lead about half a mile into the marsh before becoming difficult to follow, in the midst of a shallow bog.
Ezekiel and Steef are able to find the tracks, however. It looks as though she stopped walking and was dragged at this point.
They lead another hundred yards or so into a small clearing filled with dismal looking gray flowers.
The panicked cries of a young woman ring out from the north.
"Looks dangerous. What do you want to do? Could be a trap."
Ezekiel
Steef
Bulldozer
Azrin
The screams sound a bit...off, unnatural.
"Something's amiss. Be careful."
Azrin casts Protection from Evil, Communal on everyone.
Steef draws his bow and moves a bit further into the clearing.
Ezekiel draws prepares his hammer.
"Something's not right about that scream. Sets my tail twitching."
Ezekiel draws his hammer.
Almost immediately, a strange creature appears in front of him, a spider the size of a horse, with a woman's face, fangs dripping a thick purple liquid.
It bites him, hard, and then disappears once again.
Bulldozer grits his teeth and gets ready to give a powerful swing with his trusty Dergar as soon as the monster pops out.
Azrin readies to shoot it with his crossbow.
Ezekiel
Phase Spider
Steef
Bulldozer
Azrin
Ezekiel readies himself to smack the spider, gritting his teeth with fury at such treacherous tactics.
The Spider pops into existence next to Bulldozer this time.
Everyone swings at the creature, but get tang;ed up in each other. No blow connects hard enough to deal any damage.
The poison does its nasty work on both of the big burly men as the Phase Spider pops out of existence once more.
Steef narrows his eyes and clears his mind, waiting for the spider to come back.
Bulldozer concentrates again on delivering a perfect blow, this time using accuracy and not power. He also gets ready to leap away from the spider if it happens to get too close.
Ezekiel repeats his previous strategy.
The Phase Spider pops back in again and bites Steef. Everyone once again attacks, but miss, though Bulldozer and Ezekiel just narrowly do so.
Thankfully, the attack on Steef misses. The Phase spider hisses in frustration, and blinks out again.
The poison continues to course through their veins, though Bulldozer's mighty constitution shrugs off the ill effects, for now.
Bulldozer continues with the same strategy.
Azrin keeps using his baby weapon for people who can't use a bow.
Azrin becomes the first person to strike a blow against the creature, to everyone's amazement, including his own.
Steef, amazed that Azrin hit the thing before he did, resolves to hit it over twice as hard as the cleric did.
Azrin casts Bless.
Ezekiel eviscerates the spider. With a blunt object.
When the spider pops back into existence next to Azrin, it is immediately whacked by both Zeke and Steef.
Nevertheless, it carries out its bite on Azrin and poofs out again.
Azrin manages to shrug off the poison, and Bulldozer's mighty constitution throws off its ill effects as well.
Ezekiel, however, is not that good.
Ezekiel crushes the spider.
The spider appears back in front of Ezekiel, rearing up to strike, but is laid low by the mighty Barbarian's attack.
Once the danger has passed, Azrin's keen eyes notice a number of trinkets lying around...as well as Aleece's body, lying not far outside the clearing. She is unmistakably dead, nearly drained of blood and a pale green foam coming from her lips.
-A potion of Fox's Cunning
-A magnifying glass with a gold handle, worth 100 gp
-A small wooden box containing a set of brass weights. With Ezekiel's help, Azrin finds that it has a flase bottom, which contains 3 silver ingots worth 100 sp (10 gp) apiece.
-A walnut traveling case, containg 3 Superior locks and their keys.
-A jar of pickled garlic cloves
-Lots of skeletal body parts.