The bandit resists Xeria's spell!
Cindy plants her feel and glares at the bandit near her, trying to look as imposing as a little baby doll can.
While glaring, she leans a bit towards Snowball. "Eat meat later. Make more meat now."
Tina calls out, "Run Away. This is my land. I'll not have you bandits menacing the the town of Trogdale any more. It is under my protection. It is my dominion. We have already taken your leader. Run away, and tell all the other bandits of the danger they will face here. Run along now."
Ripper lands one solid blow and Xeria splashes acid on another. But the bandits manage to resist most of the ice breath, the nausea, and the spells directed at them.
The bandit attacked by Ripper stabs back while two others stab at Bob! Bob is missed twice while Ripper is stabbed hard (6 damage).
This time, the bandit fails to dodge Bob's attack!
As not-bob manages to cling on to one of the bandits, Tina begins summoning a spell from inside of her, the little lich pointing a finger at the other bandit standing beneath her feet.
Snowball looks back and forth between the single bandit and the pair standing a bit farther away. She decides that more meat is better meat and takes a long-leap/short-flight over to where she can put her breath to better use.
"Yay meat!"
"There you go, Gorthug! He's not expecting an axe swing up there!"
Then Goldslip casts a spell and lightly touches Ripper.
Gorthug...that was his name. That was his name! She was giving him good advice. But he was confused. It seemed like he was fighting humans? And where was he?!
With all of the skill that he possessed while alive, Gorthug swung his axe. It wasn’t the usual brutish swing of a zombie, but rather the timed attack of a trained warrior. As he did so, he saw his arms and hands. They were rotten! When did that happen? How did that happen? He vaguely remembered drowning...
Gorthug's axe slices through another bandit, dropping him lifeless to the ground!
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Cindy, even more frustrated now that two of her effects haven't ... well ... had any effect, crosses her fingers and tries one more time.
Ripper tears into the next bandit next to her.
+
Xeria follows it up with an acid splash.
Ripper and Xeria's attacks get unlucky this time and miss. The bandit that Cindy targets begins laughing uncontrollably! The bandits dodge the worst of Snowball's breath but are still damaged. The bandit then tries to break free from Cindy's spell and manages to shake off the laughter but is still prone. The bandit with Bob on his head is choking on acid and just stumbles across the campsite a ways. The bandit that Tina is trying to reduce resists the spell when it activates.
** spoiler omitted **
Ripper and Xeria's attacks get unlucky this time and miss. The bandit that Cindy targets begins laughing uncontrollably! The bandits dodge the worst of Snowball's breath but are still damaged. The bandit then tries to break free from Cindy's spell and manages to shake off the laughter but is still prone. The bandit with Bob on his head is choking on acid and just stumbles across the campsite a ways. The bandit that Tina is trying to reduce resists the spell when it activates.
Gorthug turned around, and stared intently at Goldslip. His voice came out low and raspy.
”Who are you? Where am I?” For the first time in gods knew how long he could think! He felt a link to Goldslip that he couldn’t explain. Was he dead? Was this the afterlife? It didn’t seem like one. And second by second he could feel his consciousness slipping away. It terrified him. He stayed by her like a drowning man clinging to driftwood.
"You should have left while you could! Know for the rest of your short lives that I gave you an option."
Tina zips over to Not-Bob, "Hey there. good jump. This guy seems real confused." Black energy envelops her hands as she smacks the bandit that Not-Bob is consuming.
The bandit is hurt by Tina and is too busy being terrified to resist her spell!
"Rawr."
Snowball climbs over a sleeping bag and begins biting one of the fallen bandits. She doesn't even limp, since the stab wounds from earlier have already healed shut.
Cindy begins the trek towards the Bob'd bandit. It is a long journey for little legs through a crowded campsite.
Goldslip looks at Gorthug with surprise at his intelligent words. She smiles and responds, "I am Goldslip, your friend. We're outside our home, which is Last Hill."
"These other little ones are your friends, too," she goes on, waving a hand around the clearing. "The humans here threaten our lives. You have been fighting ferociously in our defense. You'll continue, won't you?"
Gorthug looked at Goldslip in confusion. So...he wasn’t on Bloodmarch Hill? What had happened to his tribe? She was speaking common, so she wasn’t working with the tribe. And these were his friends? Who were they? He trudged decided that he might as well kill the humans and ask questions later.
The bandit that was laughing now stands up (provoking) and stabs at Snowball, striking her (5 damage)! The Bobbed bandit runs around, crashing into objects, accidentally gulping down swallows of Bob.
The minor stab wound heals almost instantly as Snowball bares her teeth.
She pounces.
It doesn't take long for the monsters to finish off the few remaining bandits, leaving most of them dead but the leader paralyzed on the ground, his frozen fingers gripping his powerful bow.
Cindy, not being interested in talking to paralyzed people, starts searching the other bandits for trinkets she can use to decorate dolls.
So...they really did think I was a bear, but they didn't do what I thought they would. I need to figure out these bears and how they work.
Maybe I should pay better attention to the wildlife on the way back home...
Gorthug planted his axe into one of the corpses, and scowling turned to look at the monsters that surrounded him.
When she hears Gorthug speaking, Cindy pauses in her search of bodies and looks over at him.
He's talking gibberish. I think he's broken... I wonder if I can get him talking normal again?
"Gorthug? Bear! Can you say bear?"
She then returns to looting.
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Bob detaches himself from the skull of the bandit and gives an internal shake that perhaps might be a burp.
"Tasty... these things are bigger than the rats by Not-Hat-Not-Bob's door. Is there more? Ah! That one there, looking temptuously scrumpiously....
Not-Hat-Not-Bob appears to be making up words again as he plants himself right onto the head of the paralyzed yet still living bandit leader and begins to acid ooze him to death.
”No Not-Bob! Not that one. We need that head. You can have the rest of them, but that’s the one that gets us paid.”
Tina pulls a flask off of one of the corpses, scoops a hand in, and tastes the contents. She scrunches her face and dumps the flask onto the ground. ”Hey, Gorthug’s using words! How do we get him to use real words?” she says, as she also helps looks though the contents of the camp.
Snowball looks up at Gorthug from a nearby bandit and swallows.
"Gorthug say bear. Bear is real word."
She scratches her long neck with her right hind foot.
Goldslip shakes her head and replies, [spoiler=Orcish]"We didn't curse you, Gorthug. Don't you remember us? We and you have lived in the dungeon of Last Hill for years now. We live under the rule of the Mistress. But this is the first time I have heard you speak more than a single word."
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Gorthug’s eyes twitched when Goldslip said ‘mistress.’ A flash of memory. Drowning. The pain, the fear. The zombie visibly shuddered. At length, he looked at Goldslip. ”...I...think...that I remember. When I am close to you my mind feels cleared.” The others were speaking...human? It sounded like human. He could speak human. So why was it so hard? He focused on Goldslip. Being close to her made him feel real.
He was terrified, but he couldn’t admit it. That was not the way of his people. Weakness was despised. It was crushed and it was broken. Only the strong prospered. But all the same, he was scared. ”Did she curse you as well? Has she also stolen your soul? Why do you stay?” He barely remembered. But mostly, he just didn’t want her to go. Because if she did, oblivion waited.
Cindy finds a beaded bracelet and a silver necklace (worth 10 sp). Less interesting to her is the other gear she finds on the bandits that they have no doubt acquired through their raiding.
(+1 chain shirt, masterwork falchion, composite longbow (+2 Str) with 20 arrows, cloak of resistance +1)x5
+1 chain shirt, +1 composite orc hornbow (+2 str), cloak of resistance +1, wand of clw (24 chrgs), wand of gravity bow (50 chrgs).
I will allow you to resize some items with the appropriate craft or profession skill or by paying someone to do it for you.
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Not-Hat-Not-Bob pulls himself off the bandit leader's head before ruining their chance at a bounty, and instead oozes the neck away so the head falls loose.
"Sigh. Not-Hat-Not-Bob does not like the neck. It tastes not good ; not tough just very boring. Oh. We need the head, you say? Okay, Bob take it."
Without really even realizing he is doing it, Not-Hat-Not-Bob reaches his not-mind out toward the bandit's head and levitates it into the air.
"Ok, now Not-Hat-Not-Bob has the head. Let's get shinies for Snowball."
Tina looks more surprised than concerned when she see the head floating towards her, "Oh, that's new. But thank you, Not-Bob." Tina wipes off the head with a cloak and points at another bandit, "This guy's head looks pretty good, I guess. I'm not sure what your tastes are."
She starts moving things around, dragging the Bandits' equipment into a pile, and bundling it together. "Gorthug, could you be a dear and carry this stuff back to the cave for us? These fools aren't using it any more. They should have run away while they could. Would have been better for everyone."
Tina takes a long pull from her own flask, much more satisfied this time, and says "We might as well get back to the cave. We can take this head into town next we go in, but I suspect that Sevren wants to get back home."
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Gorthug turned to the fey. She knew his name. And she said...carry...and cave? Yes, without a doubt. It was that human tongue. Didn’t he know it? Maybe? It seemed like he barely did, and for some reason it felt like he should know more. He didn’t know where this cave was, but he felt a compulsion to go there. As if though he was meant to be there. Nodding, he began gathering everything up. And as he did so looked at the bandits’ Equipment. His axe was dull and rusted to the point of being more akin to a hammer. Perhaps something here would suit him better?
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By concentrating on the head, Not-Hat-Not-Bob suddenly realizes that he is in fact moving it, and not only that, moving it through air. With a start he drops it on the ground!
"Not-Hat-Not-Bob... can move it? But Not-Hat-Not-Bob does not have hands like you others. Never before could that have happened.. Can Not-Hat-Not-Bob pick up other things?"
With an effort, his mind forms invisible aether strands that raise up a rock and spin it, and then catapult the rock against a tree with a smash. "Hee hee! Hoo hoo! Again!"
On his next attempt, he tries picking up Snowball and launching him into the air. Launching! One tiny lizard! Whoosh! Hee hee! Bob can do things now! Bob is... Launch-Bob! Launch! Goldie!"
He tries to launch Goldslip into the air next.
Feeling not quite right due to the 5 lbs of propulsion offered by Not-Bob's net of aether, Snowball decides to take flight at exactly the same moment that Not-Bob mentions launching a tiny lizard.
She looks around.
"Launching tiny lizard? Is it tasty?"
Goldslip feels the application of the lifting force, but it's not quite enough to lift her into the air.
"Oh my!" she exclaims out loud with a laugh. Then she switches to willing her thoughts toward the little ooze. "That is an impressive new talent you have, Launch-Bob!"
After picking up her two new trinkets, Cindy sits quietly, completely oblivious to the activity around her. Ever since her attempt to put the bandits to sleep was interrupted she felt a little strange, almost as if the spell had backfired even though she couldn't sleep herself.
She sits, completely motionless, staring into the woods. To a casual observer she might seem to be merely the doll whose body she inhabits, to those who know her she almost seems dead.