We picked up where we had left off, with Rowyn, Rosencrantz, Nanoc, Aurian, Erlan, and Dresden standing at the mouth of the Garlstone Mines. Terth had mysteriously jaunted through a rock wall (not to be seen again), just as Vance arrived on the scene, mouthing threats against nymphs and assorted fey creatures that no one else ever seems to see. Turns out that he’d been tracking and fighting Black Hand assassins in Cormyr. Apparently Bargel, who Aurian never had the pleasure of meeting, is somehow behind these assassins and has them killing followers of Gond Wonderbringer, or SOMETHING. I’m not old school enough to get this. At any rate, it was all hands on deck. While in Cormyr, V-bomb also hit level 3 and decided to cash in with the automatic hit-point bump in lieu of rolling. An academic distinction! Since Vance can’t be hit. Exclamation point!
After making their way through the mines that they had previously cleared, the heroes arrived at the sketchy looking shaft which had halted their progress last session. After some discussion, Rosencrantz lowered the lantern (where are you, Terth?) to get a full diagnostic on the drop. It was 40 feet and there were metal rungs going all the way down.
Rosencrantz got ready to cast Feather Fall as Rowyn pluckily plumbed the depths of the pit, and whistled back to report that no foes were in sight. The descent continued, shockinly without incident. There was a 10 minute discussion about whether Rosie would hold the lantern while climbing down the ladder, or tie it to his back pack. The lantern went out in mid-step. We cogitated. The lantern was re-lit. Party members engulfed in flames: zero.
Our heroes ventured forth into the caves, zagging and zigging to illuminate as much ground as possible. Before long they hit a T intersection and some wall sconces, uproariously blazing. Roll for initiative.
Picture this: a dead orc. Nanoc happened to it. The orc’s partner, all by his lonesome now, had his axe shocked out of his grasp by Vance’s stalwart shield block. It sailed through the air and landed behind him dully. He’ll recover it a round from now when shit has hit the fan, but shit hasn’t hit the fan yet. Aurian prepares to fist pump if/as Nanoc mows down the remaining orc, since cheerleading is a less cliche way of gaining XP than “watching the rear.” Dresden is “watching the rear,” though, and it’s a damned good thing. He sees: a Ginger Haired Man. O fuck, we think. O Sune. You’re the one we’re looking for, Ginger–but how are you running so fast?
Suddenly, ancestral voices are prophesying war. A cadre of infidels, of Orcish bent, of Orcish persuasion and Orcish manners, are charging down the hall towards us. The bastards have evolved a pincer: one ragged claw is a Ginger Haired Gent who appears to be fucking hasted, the other a ravenous mob of assholes and (though our heroes don’t know this) a sinister priest to boot. The Round begins.
Subsection: What Happened in the Round?
In the round….Aurian cast Hold Person on the Ginger and it landed. The red rogue pulled his bow string half-way back for (SPOILERS) the last time and prepared to watch his prolonged, horrific and cosmically unfair slaughter at the hands of gooder peeps.
In the round….Rosencrantz threw a Web between our heroes and the mob, effectively cutting off somewhere between five and eight enemy combatants from the fight. Fuck yeah.
In the round….Nanoc charged towards the frozen Ginger, while Scott’s feet tapped and his eyes were lit with madness.
In the round….Dresden made a tough as nails save against a Hold Person spell and then loosed arrows at Dude, squire and servant of the Ginger. Aurian and Erlan made their saves too. Rosie didn’t, just as Jason and Rae expected 
In the round….We spent five minutes debating whether a hypothetical priest had line of effect through ten hypothetical feet of web. Turns out: yes, for now.
In the round….Vance hit the bricks and arrived on Ginger’s doorstep, in Nanoc’s footsteps, grinning at the impossibility of a whiff.
In the round….Rowyn hit a freebie sneak critical on our stiffened antagonist, for 3 luxurious damage. Hardy fucking har. Don’t feel bad, she kills the halfling later.
In the round….Erlan smote the left-over Orc with his moon’s hand, crushing his skull. Beginning: his hard-on for bloodshed.
In the round….Rosencrantz and the Ginger stood immobilized but cognizant, unable to pivot but able to petition their gods for succor as the rest of us smugly realized that we were about to fuck some shit up.
That was the ballgame, that one round. Dresden made it downfield in time to stick the pointy end of his rapier in Dude’s exposed throat with a savage thrust. Nanoc and Vance took turns hacking the helpless Ginger with their blood-soaked weapons. Fucker had about a million hit points, until Erlan finally, thankfully, reduced him to zero, with an undignified high angle face bash. The moon’s hand had fucked another were-bear, as they say.
At some point after Dude had been laid to rest but before the Ginger had, because it took rounds, a feisty halfling missed his backstab on Rowyn and was well abused as a reward, ending with his death at the hands of the elven rogue. All this time Aurian had been dragging Rosencrantz’s static form down the cave passage and away from the Web, defending his helpless friend as necessary. The mob burned down the web and Nanoc prepared to meet them head on. But when the smoke had cleared, they were gone.
The group formed up. With Nanoc watching the wide, main passage and Erlan watching the side, and with Rosencrantz safely in the middle, Aurian cast Detect Magic and started looking for goodies while Dresden cut off the Ginger’s head to prevent him from returning as a ZOOOOOOOOMBIIIIIIIIIEEEEE. Aurian appraised the party’s spoils as Jason set the Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare to playing on his iPod.
THE SPOILS:
1. A magic bastard sword, of the same strength as Vance’s (+2), which Nanoc was given.
2. A magic set of splint mail, which glowed fairly brightly, which Nanoc was given after a friendly discussion among those who lusted after it, and some dice rolling. Nanoc’s straight up splint mail was given to Erlan.
3. A potion of Extra healing which Nanoc was given. Good to note that at this time, Nanoc dished his standard potion of healing to Auri while Rosencrantz, unfrozen at last, gave up some of his to Dresden, Erlan and Rowyn.
4. A pair of magic boots with a 24 speed, which Rowyn was given.
5. A more powerful magic dagger (+2?) which Rowyn was given. Her other magic dagger went to Vance.
6. A magic long bow which went to Dresden, aka Dr. Bow.
Keep in mind of this shit came from the Ginger. I know, right? They got the blood on the whaaaaat?
After Vance had removed the Ginger’s armor and Nanoc had suited up, and everyone else had arranged their posessions, we decided to close shop a little early and leave things hanging, as more combat was indisputably ahead. XP was the floor but I think a pretty good time was had by all.
NOTES:
1. There is a second level priest spell in the Tome of Magic called Idea that I might use to help us find clues about Jileneth that we may have overlooked.
2. There is a first level priest spell in the Tome of Magic called Weighty Chest that I could combine with Love Bite to seriously fuck up any singular opponent we face. The spell could cause some item the opponent is wearing, for instance the pauldron on his sword arm, to suddenly weigh 2 to 5 times his own body weight. Yikes!
3. The last thing we noted was that the Ginger had the same fishy smell about him that we’ve been encountering among adversaries in the mines. A fishy smell, huh? Hmmm….smells fishy.
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