Session29

**The Rescue of Marigold and The Return to Myth Coramanth**
 * 10-5-2013 **

Upon entering level 9 and hearing the loud ding, we take a look around. There are 5 18ft tall frost giants and a huge ice wolf gathered around 2 fires where Marigold is tied to a spit over one and an elven woman is tied over the other. A magical light reflects through the ice lighting up the area. It appears to be an outpost of guards, and looking along the path in the distance there are more outposts and way out along the edge of the horizon there appears to be some sort of icy city or town built into the side of a cavern with walls and towers made of ice. 4 of the giants carry enormous axes made out of ice and the fifth appears to be their leader and carries a giant mace, the end of which looks like a boulder with ice spikes protruding from it. Next to the leader stands a large white furred wolf who is larger than a horse! The giants turn to look at our lit up magical arrival. They're so enormous, towering 18 feet tall... Thorn only comes up their ankles! Erevin and Thorn move up together as Erevin launches one of the new searing arrows into the giant closest who turns angrily and boulders fly out from the giants! Two hit Erevin and Thorn and One of them slams into Mali's face, knocking her to the ground! She shakes it off, sending Melloran to hold one of the giants back. The leader slaps the large wolf, sending him in, "Kill!" It charges forward toward Erevin who quickly moves to intercept it's arrival. Seeing the enormous boulders flying through the air with one barely missing Wren, Kale steps protectively in front of her, "Stay behind me." She nods, weaving her magical armor up behind him and pointing up toward Thorn, "We need to get Marigold off of the fire." He nods, leading up toward her. Posy dashes forward and throws her axe, gashing into the giant lumbering toward Thorn as the halfling thief throws his dagger into it's leg, using it to port up to it's enormous feet. It smashes into Thorn with it's gigantic ice axe, gashing him open! Yuki calls out to him as she hurries up closer, whipping out her ribbon to caress Thorn with warm, fuzzy healing! Erevin sends Mari to help Thorn as he turns to calm the enormous wolf who tilts his head at the ranger and speaks with a low growly, "Fuck you!" Intelligence is in his eyes. The leader steps forward, scattering out snow around him as he says a prayer to his god, blessing the giants. Posy charges forward in a rage and gashes into the priest's knee! He rants and raves in giant speak pointing at her and his knee angrily! A giant slices into Melloran with his axe and the lion claws deeply into the other giant, mauling him mercilessly! Thorn tumbles under the giant's legs to slice into the back of it's ankle while Mari bites him, keeping him busy! Erevin tries again to talk with the wolf, convincing him we are not his enemy and he can take him away to a better life. The wolf looks at him warily and asks in his low growly voice, "Will you kill that one?" he motions over his shoulder toward the leader. Erevin nods to him, "I shall. That is why we have come." The wolf moves to stand beside him and nods, "He beats me." Two other giants close in a circle with the leader around Posy, all of them gashing into her. Yuki turned to run closer to the gnome, calling out her name. Wren and Kale continue toward Marigold as she throws out a spell to capture the leader and one of the other giants in black tentacles to give the gnome a chance to back out, but Posy stays in fearlessly fighting, whirlwinding in a rage filled frenzy, gashing into them gruesomely. The giant fighting Melloran strikes him fiercely twice, taking the big lion down. Mali, distraught over her companion... slams into the giant with her great armored head, bulldozing into it with a mighty blow! Yuki slips up behind Mali, using her for protection as she sends in her ribbon to heal Posy who is covered in blood! Thorn rapidly slashes with both of his daggers with powerful, amazing strikes, combined with a little help from Mari they take the giant down! Erevin sends in a barrage of arrows on the leader while Mali continues to go head to head with a giant, goring into it as it strikes her with it's massive icy axe. The three giants continue to wail onto Posy as she wobbles a little, barely still standing. She continues fighting on, swinging her axe into them mightily and biting another! Yuki sends out a wave of warm healing over Posy and Mali. Thorn turns and cuts Marigold free of the fire. Erevin sends a barrage of searing arrows into the giant on Mali, leaving it wobbling. Mari moves in to fight one of the giants on Posy as they strike her again and Posy falls to the ground! One of the giants breaks loose of the tentacles, heading toward Yuki. Kale moves in to take the priest while Wren flies up high, sending in an empowered bolt of lightning through two of them, dropping one of them and leaving the other charred horribly. Mali lunges forward, impaling her horn through the center of the giant, shaking it and dropping it's corpse to the ground beside Melloran. Yuki sends out another warm wave of healing, bringing Posy back to conscious. Marigold asks Thorn for a sword and he sighs, handing her a longsword from our treasure. She runs up to the giant, "Let's get 'em!" He chased after her, "Hey! Wait! My little sister is not going after a giant!" She cuts jaggedly into it's knee and as it bends down in pain, she takes it's head! Erevin fires the last of the searing arrows into the leader, combined with Mari's help, they finally drop him. Wren goes over and unties Marigold's elven companion while Yuki sends out a wave of healing. Mali fades to her halfling form, dropping to her knees sobbing against Melloran. He takes in a big ragged breath and he slumps against her. Mali screams out for Yuki as she sends out her own healing over him. While we're healing up, Posy notices in the distance another dozen giants and half dozen wolves running toward us. We turn and run as boulders fly through the sky! The big wolf goes with us. Wren, Mali, and Yuki putting heals on Posy as we run finally letting her come out of her rage. Thorn pushes the big double doors open as blades cross through, just catching him. We make it through and Mali summons a large bison to hold the doors closed while we run toward the exit. We pass through the empty young dragon lair and out the door, running up the stairs back to level 8 where we quickly re-board the ship! The ice wolf and the elven woman boarding with us. Marigold introduces her adventuring companion, Cyrene. They tell us that their other two companions had been eaten by the giants. Frostcoat, the wolf, says he's never been outside of the ice world before. His common is a little rough, but we all understand him. We get him down into Heroes' Rest through the mount entrance that Azarius had discovered before. Marigold turns excitedly to Thorn now that it seemed everyone was safe, "What are you doing here?!" "Looking for you!" He turns to her, and then points back at the dungeon, "What are you doing in there?!" She grins wide, "Kicking ass! ...and taking names!" She looks over the sword in her hands, "Wow this is a nice sword! I wish I would've had this BEFORE!" Thorn raises an eyebrow, "You didn't find one in level 8? That's where we got it." She shook her head, "No... I knew we should've brought along a rogue..." Wren stared at her wide eyed, "You didn't?" She thought about the countless traps Thorn got them through... How the hell did they survive?! Thorn stared at her, "You seriously went into the dungeon without a rogue?" Erevin turned inquisitively toward her, "Seriously?" With so many staring at her bewildered, Marigold answered a little uncertainly, "...yeah?" Thorn blinked at her, "And you made it to level 9? How many friends have you lost?!" She gestures at Cyrene, "She's a bard! They're almost as good as rogues." Wren bursted out laughing. Thorn stared at his sister in disbelief, looking a bit insulted, "I know you didn't... I just know you didn't." Marigold nodded happily, "She can sing!" Cyrene nodded, "But I don't have an instrument at the moment..." Posy chimed in, "Well... we'll just have to find you one." Thorn sighed heavily, "I need a moment... I can not believe you just said that." Erevin bought him a few extra minutes, smiling at Marigold, "It's good that you are alive and well." Marigold nodded to him, looking us all over and pausing as she took a good look at her brother, "You... don't look any different... than I remember... that was a long time ago... It's been 10 years!" Wren and Erevin nodded to her, "For us it's only been months." Marigold looked at them curiously, "That sure is some weird magic... well we should probably get back to grandfather." Wren nodded to her, "He's here on the ship... somewhere." Falco comes strolling up onto deck, delighted to see his granddaughter, "Marigold!" He embraces her in a reunited hug, "You're alive! Well, of course you're alive! We knew you'd come through!" Thorn nods from behind her, "Yes... I had full faith in my little... er ... big ... sister." He made motions to Falco as to how close she came to not making it back... Marigold nods, "The other two didn't make it..." Cyrene nods next to her, "May the dungeon take their souls." The group exchanges glances, apparently you CAN die in the dungeon... it must select those that it believes can get much higher in level? A tough weeding out process. Thorn raises an eyebrow at Marigold, "So... a fighter, huh?" She grins and nods at him, "Oh yeah! ...Wanna test me out?" He laughs, "Sure... just turn around." She waves her hands in the air, "No! None of that sneak attacking crap! No flanking buddy for you!" Thorn laughs, "Alright... then I call on my champion to fight for me." He points at Posy who raises her hands defensively, "No, no...I need some drinks first..." Posy is still badly wounded, though still tougher than most of us. Cyrene looks at Marigold, "Who ARE all of the people?" Marigold smiles at her and makes introductions, remembering to introduce her brother as Thorn. He nods appreciatively at her, "You get one brownie point back." Cyrene smiles at us, "Oh! So are you all from the other level one then?" A rounding chorus as everyone turns to her, "Uhhh .... noooo...." Thorn shakes his head at her, "We're from where..." he points at his sister, "she's from...originally." Cyrene looks a little surprised, "Oh... they're from that other place you told us about... all those years ago... We thought you were just lying." Marigold flails at her and points toward us, "See! See! I told you!" She turns back to us, "So... we should probably get back to level one." Erevin nods in agreement and asks Whitestrake to take us up. Glancing over the edge of the ship, there appears to be a glow coming from below. Asking Yuki again what she seen when she "died"... she tells us about a giant ruby crystal about 30ft across pulsing in a vast cavern... floating around the crystal, connected by arcs of energy, were 20ft crystals with giant figures inside that radiated divinity... and then sort of on the edges of the cavern there were hundreds of adventurers dressed in shiny armor. As we continue to rise up, Wren hears the beating of leathery wings. Looking over the edge of the ship, she sees 3 enormous dragons flying toward the ship. Her mouth drops open and she reaches back, grabbing onto Kale, "Ummm we have a problem!" The others peer over to see a black, a blue, and a white dragon advancing toward us faster than we're rising. Wren continues to stare over the edge, awestruck, "Look how big they are! Amazing!" Thorn looks at Erevin, "Do we have anything else we need to do here?" Erevin frowns, "Well... it would be nice to free the gods and all of that down there..." Wren nods, "And we have to do SOMETHING to get out of this world... something that will make the black hole come back to let us out... and I'm guessing that's going to have to be..." but Gregori interrupts her as he joins us, "That's not precisely true... we actually don't need to fly away. We can use the ship's travel ability and can activate it from anywhere. The ship makes the hole wherever it is." Erevin nods to him, "If we can do that... then I think we should get out and make plans to return later." Everyone agrees. Mali glances over the edge, "The dragon I met wasn't really that bad... I've never met a gigantic white or blue or black dragon before..." Wren turns to her excitedly, "Me neither!" Gregori heads off to help Azarius engage the ship to travel. Erevin turns to both of them, "I know this. You know how I know this? ...because we're speaking. You're still alive." Wren frowns at him and looks back over the edge, calling out to the dragons growing ever closer, "I've never got to meet a dragon in person! You're all so beautiful!" Erevin looks at Kale, "Can't you do something with your girl?" Erevin calls back after Gregori, "Azarius... did he say faster? I meant NOW!" Azarius yells back, "I'm working on it!" Kale looks over at Wren who is now slightly trembling, her heart beating fast as the wave of fear washes over her from their great ancient power, even at 300 yards away. Everyone feels the wave as their massive presence fills the air, terrifying! Wren backs up, to clutch on to Kale, "Umm Azarius... now would be good!" All three dragons breathe out and we see a bright glow heading for us! Erevin shouts back, "Azarius! Right Fucking NOW!!" The glow gets brighter and we can smell the ozone and sulpher just as everything fades to blackness... and then we see the glimmer of the astral sea and everyone breathes out with relief as they look back to see the dungeon sphere beginning to fade behind us. The scent of the dragon breath still lingers on the air. Cyrene looks around, "This isn't level one..." Everyone sort of looks around at one another. Thorn nods to her, "Looks like you get to come with us..." Erevin nods, "We're going to show you where we're from." Cyrene looks excited, "What level?" Erevin shakes his head, "Our world doesn't really work that way..." Cyrene looks at him curiously, "That's strange... Alright." Thorn shakes his head, "There's no dungeon to provide." She turns to him concerned, "Well... how do you eat?" Posy and Erevin explain that we grow and hunt our food or pay others who do so... when she seems confused about not placing gems and gold on the altar in exchange for food, Mali explains it's like that except it's to a farmer instead of an altar. Wren melts back against Kale, "I think I'm sated with dragons for awhile..." He puts an arm around her, "Those were huge... I've never seen any that big before." Erevin nods his agreement, "Me neither." Kale whispers to her quietly, "I don't think even HE is that big..." She whispers back, "Really?" and continues to remain close. Erevin takes some time to work with the giant ice wolf. He picks up common better. He's not used to hunting and tracking, so Mali and Melloran come in to help. Cyrene is given an instrument from the artifacts aquired on the ship and she sings with a beautiful elven voice. She sings of the great adventurers of the dungeon. Heroes of the taverns who made it down to level 20 who brought great prosperity for the village for a decade. Those who reach level 20 never come back... but the tavern they come from is rewarded by not having to send in new adventurers for awhile... the dungeon will provide. Such a great honor. Travel for about a week to return to our sphere. Thirteen is a great cook. Cyrene takes to the bar well since it seems more of a familiar environment. It's our hangout... and it gets busy when everyone is in there. We have acquired quite the crew on the ship. Shri comes into the tavern and takes a seat on Erevin's lap, leaning her back against him. He smiles, "M'lady... how can your prince serve you today?" She leans back, nuzzling him, "Certainly not as vigorously as you did last night... not in front of all of these people." There's some brief discussions about how much furniture seems to be acceptable to break... She continues, "I'm glad we're getting back... though I still can't shake the feeling that there's something wrong with my sister." He looks at her concerned, "What bothers you? This is the first you've mentioned about it." She shakes her head, "I can't say there's anything I can truly point out as out of the ordinary... but when you grow up with someone and you know them for many years... you just get a feeling... I can't say that she's done anything that's out of the ordinary... but ever since we spoke about those drow... I mean I understand that it brings back painful memories." Erevin nods, "And I'm sure that she... at some level... is conflicted." Shri nods to him, "She grew up in that city... and we were always hounded... and ostracized for being worshipers of Eilistraee, those that admitted it. Eilistraee is Llolth's daughter, but her priestesses do not hold the authority of the spider queen or even any of her more ... trusted lieutenants. There is too much of Eilistraee's father in her." Erevin frowns, "I can't even imagine what it was like to grow up there." She nods, "I fortunately grew up in Myth Coramanth... she's the only one who has those memories... and I never knew my middle sister." We decide we'll open three more bags. We talk to the 5 that have been out to see how they're all doing. Elcos Ravendart, t he sea elf, would like to see more of our world... and actually sailing on the sea. We talk about connecting him with Corsha and Throndir. Jalen the shifty human would like to purchase some dogs. He used to breed dogs in his other world as hunting hounds for nobles and wealthy patrons. He says he hopes the good pair he had lived good lives after he was thrown in the bag. Raising, training, and breeding dogs is one of the few things that I enjoy that I sense wont get me into trouble with you lot. He seems to be fond of them. He describes different breeds that we're unfamiliar with, though some are similar. We agree to set up a space in Heroes' Rest as a kennel area and to look into finding someone who has dogs available for purchase. Thirteen the troll seems quite content to hang out and cook and serve in the bar. His intent in his other world was to set up his own tavern. He's happy here, though he misses talking to other trolls. Saben the red-haired human is also content here. Her family used to make fine wines. We talk about possibly setting up a vineyard for her... possible that the area would adapt to be a good climate for it. She wants to go to a few bars to sample some of the alcohols of our world. Sir Reston, the appercitus, knows that he's likely the last of his kind and seems to have made his own peace with that. He's pretty happy go lucky. He's latched onto Gareth the dwarf and become a lieutenant of sorts to protect the ship. He's very chivalrous and protective of the women on the ship. He doesn't have a desire to go out into the world, he seems a little fearful that he wouldn't fit in being the only one of his kind. He's happiest when everyone is on the ship together. Cpt Whitestrake, Gregori, and Vhoori appear whenever we need them but otherwise don't seem to float about much... though we see Gareth more often as he's generally patrolling the ship. We arrive back in our sphere in the forest of Myth Coramanth. It looks the same as when we left it. We take everyone off the ship to stretch their legs a bit with the exception of the few who elect to stay behind such as Thirteen, Sir Reston, and the ship's ghostly heroes. Uther, Ursus and the others have been on the ship for weeks and are very ready to get out. Shri does a long, sensuous stretch off of the ship and coyly glances to Erevin, "Race you to the ranger's hall." He grins at her and nods, "You're on!" As she takes off running, he hangs back behind her watching her. Yuki is thrilled to return to her princess bed as everyone else returns to the palace. Minastes, the leader of the rangers is happy to see the return of Erevin and Shri and tells Erevin that Attalicus wants to see him. Kale and Wren go to see Yienshul, his sister. Aspen is there as well. Erevin goes to the tower and greets his mother warmly. She and Attalicus tell him that they found out more from the High Priestess of Eilistraee. He tells him that he's also been investigating the tentacled creatures that formed the mind control masks that Erevin brought to him before... they are definitely not of this world. He says they don't seem to from any of the planes he's familiar with either. Perhaps where Ghaunadaur makes his home? He's still continuing to study them and requests that he bring him more if we find any. High Priestess Queelest called him in to look at some of the corpses of the drow and they discovered that two of them... the Priestess of Kiaransalee and the Sorceress of Ghaunadaur ... their bodies were sculpted magically, fakes altered to look like those two people. The assassin was truly dead, though Queelest recognized him as a high ranking assassin of Vhaeraun back in the drow city that they escaped from all those years ago. She did not know any of the others as they seemed to be younger and born after the Eilistraee drow left the city.

Erevin recalls meeting 8 original drow in Lyrabar... one seemed to be a sister and apprentice to this assassin. Their seemed to be a master and an apprentice pair devoted to each of the main Drow gods. Other than this discovery, things seem to quiet. The High Priestess is disturbed that her past has come back to haunt her... the other priests and priestesses are worried about the threat of the drow coming to take their revenge on the traitors. They were assured that the drow that were causing problems were dealt with. Horitsu has notified the Clan of Eisenhammer dwarves to keep an eye on their halls for any dark dwellers coming in. Attalicus says that he has people working on the mythal, but it is very difficult and complex to attune it to keep out people based on faith. He would like to start with attuning it to the creatures instead. There is a small celebration held for Erevin's return. We find out that we've been gone for a month and it's now just early fall... though the trees aren't changing colors quite yet and there are a lot of pines. Attalicus tells us that the Temple of Sune has summoned Axton back to Lyrabar for some temple business, though they don't say what that is... Mali, returning to Myth Coramanth seems to have a lot of bad luck... tripping on tree roots, pine cones falling on her head, a fly in her soup! She goes to Thorn with her two fist-sized aquamarines. He agrees to take them to a jeweler to sell them for her. He sells them for 4k and keeps 10%. The next morning, Mali find the aquamarines back in her pack. One of palace guards escorts Thorn to the jeweler and tell him the jewels disappeared last night. He says he will not be falsely accused! They believe him since he is a guest of Lord Erevin. The queen reimburses the jeweler. Mali polishes her little shiny gems... so pretty! Thorn talks to her about selling them again, "I have to know though... how are you doing it? Because I didn't steal them." She looks up at him, "I don't know... they just appeared. I didn't steal them either... but look at them... they're so... pretty." Thorn raises an eyebrow, "Yeah... I think I'm going to go talk to a priest." He ponders who to go to for help and settles on talking to Crowe... "What can I do for you, Mr Thorn?" She raises an eyebrow at him. He frowns thoughtfully, "One of my companions..." She looks at him, "Wren?" He shakes his head, "No... Mali. Maliumpkin." The tattooed witch looks relieved and nods. Thorn continues, "She acting strangely in regards to a couple of large gems that she has which were recently removed from her possession and are now suspiciously... back?" She raises an eyebrow at him, "And did you have a hand in this returning?" He shakes his head, "Actually no..." She frowns, "Did Wren have a hand in it?" He shakes his head again, "To my knowledge no... she's busy stroking her orb. (WHAT?! I AM NOT! LOL!) and Mali is acting awfully possessive of them... she keeps saying they're so pretty." Crowe nods, "Well it does sound like they could be cursed..." He nods to her, "Yeah... could you do something about that?" Crowe ponders, "Are you asking me to kill her? She seems like a nice young lady..." Thorn blinks at her, "Yes, she is nice. I'd like to keep her nice.... maybe a little less cursed though." Crowe nods, "Alright... well if you can bring her to me with her cursed jewels, i might be able to do something about it. ...though you might have to restrain Mali... most people under curses don't really like for you to take their things." Thorn nods, "I'll bring restraints." He goes to Posy asking for her help in holding down Mali. They cook up a scheme with the barbarians to have Ursus take her on a "date"... delicious dinner, fine elven wine, romantic walk in the woods where they happen to meet up with Posy and Uther who take them to see Wren and Kale at Raven's Nest for welcoming tea. Crowe and Thorn are there too with a little fire. Everyone looks at each other and all of the sudden Uther, Ursus, and Posy leap onto Mali while Thorn pulls the gems out of her pack! Crowe weaves her spell over the gems and Mali. A weight lifts off of Mali's mind... they're not quite as shiny as they used to be to her now. A shriek and a crack as the gems shatter open, Thorn dropping them to the ground as black tentacled monsters crawl out of them!! "Don't just drop those anywhere!" Wren quickly captures them into a case and locks it up. Give Mali some tea and enjoy the fire. She seems to be feeling a lot better. We discuss what to do next and Wren votes to rescue Loch and Yuki votes to rescue Rue and Ori... Wren concedes to Yuki because she has already been lucky enough to rescue Kale and Yuki hasn't been able to rescue either of her lost friends. The List of Need To Do... Rescues ... Loch, Rue, Ori, and Esme Lingering question of the Drow Mind Breaker and Raven who is still missing Prophecy of the littlest bear and the clan Waterdeep Unicorn The cult activity The chimaera creator Possible issues with the leader of the thief guild who managed to escape. Raven is a powerful witch capable of moving herself around at will magically... difficult to locate her. She has not responded to the scrying pool. Perhaps a powerful mage could track her... like Attalicus or Silvermane. Erevin says that it's up to Yuki whether we go to Waterdeep or to rescue Rue and / or Ori next.