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"Look out! Behind you!" The apprentice shrieks before huddling up into a ball.
From behind Reginald, a young man covered in goop stands up the boxes up high, and throws an explosive onto the Wizard Oracle Doctor Door to Door Voodoo Salesman witch!
The bomb flies wide, and fails to hit Reginald, smashing into the wall above him!
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-0,Fine)
Gellion(-0,Fine)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine)
Popole(-0,Fine)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
Reginald tries to identify the insect.
"My word! That is a Giant Hook Fly! This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Beware its sting and know that Fire is less effective against it!"
As Anthelea moves up near Reginald, he gives the youth the stink-eye!
The Youth resists the evil eye, and is affected for only 1 round!
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-0,Fine)
Gellion(-0,Fine)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine)
Popole(-0,Fine)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
The fly avoids the attack from Anthelea, and Gellion attempts to throw a bomb at her!
His throw misses, and the bomb lands just to her north east side, splashing her and the wounded apprentice!
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-1,Fine)
Gellion(-0,Fine)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine) Identified
Popole(-0,Fine)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
"I will smite thee with my mighty blade."
Aaftab fails to smite him with her mighty blade.
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-1,Fine)
Gellion(-12,Fine)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine) Identified
Popole(-0,Fine)
(-0,)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
The hook fly presses the attack! It moves up to latch onto...
Reginald!
And it fails to latch onto the Used Magic Salesman Witch!
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-1,Fine)
Gellion(-12,Fine)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine)Identified
Popole(-0,Fine)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
Anthelea will smite thy foe, the young teen, with her mighty Scorpion Whip!
And thus Anthelea did smite thy foe, the young teen, with her mighty Scorpion Whip, and there was much rejoicing!
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Battlefield Conditions: Normal Light
Reginald(-1,Fine)
Anthelea(-1,Fine)
Gellion(-15,Evil Eyed)
Aaftab(-5,Fine)
Marrowtusk(-1,Fine)
Hook Fly(-0,Fine)Identified
Popole(-0,Fine)
Giant Hook Fly, NE Small Vermin. This enormous, horrifically bloated fly has a proboscis shapedlike a serrated hook. Its many-faceted eyes smolder like hot coals.
Gellion draws his rapier, and tries to attack the heavily armored Marrowtusk!
And his pathetic attack does not even hit Marrowtusk's armor!
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You tie up Gellion and start clearing him of the goop, which recovers his health. After clearing up the other apprentices, you take them all to the temple of Erastil. The priest does what he can for them all, but Gellion's insanity is still rather strong. It will take some time to have him recover fully.
Giving him a lesser restoration will expedite the process. Your inventory has one of those as a potion.
The apprentices reveal what happened, when Gellion influenced them all to private locations and captured them for experimenting with the goop.
You give a full report to the mayor, who is grateful that you managed to solve the issue. "Thank you for saving the apprentice. You have my full appreciation. I am certain, however, the denizens of Sarringallow will want Gellion to pay for his transgressions. However you believe his verdict, whether he is worth defending or must pay, I will support your answer."
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Aaftaab is glad that everything is over and that nobody died!
”I believe that any person can be redeemed! And I wish you and these kids all the best to come back together! But should you find out that this boy did all this intentionally and was not accidentally corrupted then I hope that you have the power to try to bring him back to the light and if you fail ... that you have the courage to execute him for the crimes that he committed!“
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"Oh, but hold up a moment with all that talk about redemption and beheading," Reginald says as he studies the unconscious boy. "I'm a wizard and not a physician, but I do believe he's not in his right mind. There might be a way to restore it - didn't we find a restorative potion earlier? That might hasten the process along, and perhaps he could provide some answers to all this purple goop nonsense."
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Gellion's fragile mentality starts to slow down after administering the potion to him. In time he should be able to recover.
The last frantic words of insanity you get from him, however, are "MY DEMISE ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING! THE WORMS WILL HAVE YOU! MOTHER WILL FEAST ON YOUR BONES! YOU WILL DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD! MOTHER WILL MAKE THIS WORLD BURN AND INFEST ALL OF YOU WITH THE WORMS OF YOUR APOCO-"
When the potion is forced down his throat he seems to mellow. Eventually he just goes to lay down on the bed and sleep away for a while.
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After some time relaxing and enjoying yourselves, the mayor calls you back to her office.
Golden beams of light stream into this comfortable-but-official room’s picture window, illuminating a cluttered wooden desk and an empty chair pushed haphazardly to the side. Between the window and the desk strides Mayor Sandra Trinelli, who, brow furrowed, has clearly worn a pacer’s path into the plush red carpet.
Noticing her visitors, she sighs in determined resignation and steps behind her desk, leaning over it gravely. “I’m glad you’ve arrived,” she says, a measure of relief creeping into her strained voice. “Sarringallow is dealing with its share of troubles right now, and this unknown menace beyond our walls has me the most worried.” She takes a deep breath as if composing herself, and sits carefully in her chair, assuming a self-assured posture that seems to come to her much more naturally.
“Specifically, we may have a goblin problem,” the mayor continues. “I’ve recently received reports of goblins lurking in the woods outside of town. There have been no attacks yet—only minor damage to fences and some stolen sheep, I’m told—but we can’t afford to let our guard down. Given how we suffered during the Goblinblood Wars, we can’t assume that these scattered sightings are meaningless when they might very well mean that a major warband is about to descend on our heads."
“Even worse, it seems that these goblins are covered in some unholy manner of filth—even more so than normal! If word about that gets out, well, folks might start to panic. We are a superstitious lot here in Saringallow, as I’m sure you know."
“In short, we need to move quickly and deal with these goblins before they become a larger threat. Sending members of the town guard out into the woods, though, could leave us open to attack. I’m sure you see my dilemma."
“This is where I’d like you to intercede, my friends. Find out where the goblins are coming from and who—if anyone—is leading them, then take out the threat. I can offer you a bounty of for each goblin you kill, for each goblin dog, and an additional bonus of if you bring me proof that you’ve destroyed their camp or otherwise dealt with whatever additional threat they pose."
“Most of the sightings have originated from the area northwest of town, particularly near the homesteaders out by Clover Stream. That’s probably a good place to start your investigation. Aside from that, I’m afraid I don’t have much else to tell you. Unless you have any specific questions?”
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Suddenly, you hear a knocking at the door of the mayor and after a few moments the door opens to reveal a frog like creature not more than 3 feet tall sitting on a bird.
The Grippli looks quite strange as the right half of his face is completely burnt and looks like black cool!
On top of the Grippli’s head you see the bones of a tiny animal which have been fixed like a crown or crude helmet to his head.
The medium sized bird is a Roc and its beak is hooked like an eagle’s and designed for slashing and tearing. The bird’s feathers appear black currently but seem to change colours.
When the Grippli starts speaking you can see that the right half of his burnt face is hindering him from opening his mouth properly.
”Can you believe this! Two agents with the same name within the society! And it is not even an Ifriti name!! Except of a Grippli, who else would ever think about naming his kid Aaftaab???! So instead of sending me to this mission from the beginning they accidentally sent this awful woman with whom I had to argue about the legitimacy of me being here! Of course I sent her home! And now that this misunderstanding has been clarified you can of course trust that I will be here for you until the end! The real AAFTAAB is here now!“
He then points at his Roc.
”This is PAR by the way! She will not hurt anybody... well, at least nobody that doesn’t deserve it!“ the real Aaftaab says with a stern look.
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"Bugs, frogs and goblins. What a mission. At least the pay is good..." Marrowtusk shows particular interest when the mayor offers bounties for the goblins and their goblin dogs. He seems extra anxious to begin this mission. "The more I smash the more I get paid? Today is a good day for ol' Tusky."
Marrowtusk stows away his new belongings from their last mission into his bag and starts warming up with some stretches, ready to head into the goblin infested areas with his crew. He puts away his fancy new custom boots, the free trail rations they received which should be enough food for the upcoming missions, a brand new courtier's outfit packed away next to his cold weather outfit, a coupon for a discount at Pricknettle's Potions, an elk antler wand of CLW (3 charges) along with I believe a map of the surrounding forest.
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The true Aaftaab is very happy to hear the mission involves smashing goblins.
”Ha, another Grippli! Good to see that this group has taste! And to the others and this group I can only say that I will not endure another Grippli joke! I can’t help it that you all look so strange and are as large as a boggard. Complain to your own creator!“
He then looks at the mayor while correctly positioning his bone crown and tries to turn his burnt face towards the mayor.
”Do not worry! You should see the other person that was involved in the fight where I lost half of my face! No one stands a chance against us! They will be destroyed!“ the true Aaftaab says with a strange undertone as he cannot open his mouth properly on the right burnt side.
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The journey through Saringallow’s outskirts is largely a pleasant one. The homesteads nearest to the city belong to farmers, who point you all farther down the road when you inquire about recent goblin sightings.
Eventually, the dirt roads give way to smaller, worn-down trails. Pastures thick with green grass and dotted with sheep and other livestock replace the rows of wheat and vegetables. Soon, you all can faintly make out the sound of running water nearby.
A young shepherd bolts across one of the nearby fields, clearly terrified by something behind him. He shouts and gestures frantically toward whatever he’s fleeing. “I saw them!” he screams. “Goblins! They’re in the woods! They took our sheep! You have to do something!”
Shortly afterwards, some sheep start coming up towards the you all and the shepherd.
The sheep have an unnatural gait about them... And then you spot flashes from under their skin.