Elves in the Temple - a Co8 FanFic and partial walk thru

Hmm not to mention that sexy beard on hers? ^_^

(hairy chests anyone?) :dribble:

 

Part the Fifth

The hardy band of adventurers strode purposefully across the greensward.

Well, more accurately, the small group of young men and women carefully negotiated their way across a cow pasture and towards a cabin, bickering.

“My friend,” said the comely female dwarf (well, comely enough by dwarf standards), “I must point out again that this witch’s scavenger hunt on which we are engaged is a most unworthy venture!”

Jack was not in a good mood. He was hot, and tired, and more than a little hung over. He gathered himself and tried to keep his voice calm. “Perry, we agreed that we would do all the little errands we could in the village before heading out of town. We’re not ready to face serious combat yet. We haven’t even found Black Jay to ask where the next leg of this search will lead us!”

“I thought we were going after some bandits” said Kate, a blue haired bow carrying elf in a fairly immodest corset.

“Yes, I thought bandits in that Moathouse place as well,” said Reynard, moving his spear from one shoulder to the other, “several townsfolk have mentioned it.”

“Look,” said Jack, “we don’t know that Tillahi went anywhere near those bandits. Even if we did, we’re not ready for them.” He drew a breath and continued. “It’s basic adventuring. We solve all the little problems of the townsfolk first, and then we tackle the wilderness. We only have two more townsfolk to speak with; this woodsman and that weird shepherd.”

“The one dressed all in black,” asked Kate.

“Yes,” continued Jack, carefully avoiding a bit of cow pasture closer to nature than he liked. “As to your objections, Perry,” now in a conciliating tone, “I understand. I want you to know that I’d never ask any of you to do anything actually Evil.”

“My lord,” said Perry, “you had us kill the weaver’s tenants.”

“They were goblins,” said Jack a bit defensively, “and it was self defense. The one in the pointy hat stabbed me!”

“You asked us to kill those spiders in the tavern,” grumped the normally quiet Dio, “and that talking rat.”

“The spiders were the size of dogs, and the rat must have weighed sixty pounds! They were giant vermin!” Jack felt that he was again losing control of this conversation. “We freed that ghost woman in the herdsman’s house from her torment! That’s a good deed!”

Perry’s voice, normally sweet, was showing hints of anger now. “It was a deed most foul, my lord, when you stole those scrolls from the Church. Had I seen you, I would never have permitted it.”

“We needed those. You used one to heal the leatherworker’s brother in law!” Jack took a deep breath. “We’ve helped two couples find love…”

“Three, maybe four” interrupted Reynard, smiling at the thought of a farm girl.

“Four!” Jack turned his full attention back to Perry. “Three or four couples, maybe. We’ve exposed three spies, sort of, when the time is right to tell the authorities. We’re practically saints to these people.”

“Sire,” said Perry, “you made a deal with a demon.”

Jack looked Perry straight in the eye. In his voice was perfect sincerity. “He wasn’t a demon. He just had a skin condition.”

Perry nodded her head grudgingly, and the group arrived at the woodcutter’s cabin.

End Part the Fifth

 

Going through all of the town quests would make for too much talk before the first real fight scene; it seemed easier to just sumarize them with some location clues and nods to the new content from Co8. Next up: Giant Spiders

 

Part the Sixth

“I’m poisoned!” screamed Reynard.

Persephone Stronginthearm, dwarfish divinity student, also known as Perry, shifted her grip on her axe. Just minutes earlier, things had been going so well.

The woodcutter of Hommlet had asked the young travelers to rid a grove of hideous, man eating (as well as, presumably, dwarf, elf, gnome and halfling eating) spiders. It was a very traditional sort of good deed, and came as a great relief to a dwarf who had found her faith in the inherent Goodness of her leader strongly tested in recent days. Kate had quickly scribbled off a few scrolls of Sleep, Perry had scribbled out a few scrolls of Cure Light Wounds, and off the gang enthusiastically (with the exception of Dio, who pouted a bit) went to explore the Deklo Grove.

At which point, things plunged swiftly down ye old oubliette. Rather than facing the party fairly on open ground, the giant spiders of the grove had lurked in the trees. From ambush the creatures, nearly the size of horses, had dropped down and drenched the party in waves of sticky webbing.

Reynard had somehow managed to avoid entanglement. He charged forward, spear leveled, and skewered one of the spiders. In so doing, he had left himself well beyond the protection of his better armored friends.

Dio, Jack and Persephone herself struggled fruitlessly to free themselves from the sticky strands of twine-thick webbing, while Bar dropped her glaive and brought out her longbow, stringing it and loosing an arrow in a single motion. She missed.

At this point, the spiders struck again. The wounded beast facing Reynard leapt past his spear and sunk its venomous fangs into flesh. “I’m poisoned!” screamed Reynard, collapsing. The second spider charged swiftly across the web, sinking its own bite into Dio’s war dog.

As swiftly as things had gone bad, they got better. Bar smoothly released another arrow, and this time with it stuck the wounded spider crouched above Reynard, dropping that creature into unconsciousness (and, also, onto Reynard). Kate read off a Scroll of Sleep, and the second spider failed to resist its call, falling deeply into slumber.

The battle seemed to be over. The young travelers began the painful process of pulling themselves free from the sticky webs.

“My friends,” said Perry, “we happy few have won a victory here this day…”

She might have said more, but just then a gang of crazed kobolds swarmed the clearing.

As Dio had moved forward to check on the unconscious Reynard, a kobold Sergeant leaped at her from the undergrowth, barely missing with a cruel swing of its axe. Kobolds are small, sad, and rather comical looking creatures, bipedal dog-like lizards the size of a large human child. It is possible that their extreme hatred for all non-kobolds is a form of over-compensation.

This time the party was better prepared. Kate held back for a moment, allowing additional kobolds to leap from the woods before casting a spell of Sleep, dropping a number of them to the ground. Bar charged forward, putting away her bow and picking up her glaive with practiced fluidity, and struck the Sergeant a terrible blow than very nearly split him in two. Dio missed a scimitar strike at one of the remaining monsters, but Jack was able to spear both that Kobold and the one beside it in a single charge!

As swiftly as that, the fight was done.

Jack stabbed the sleeping Kobolds while Perry attended to Reynard’s wounds. Dio looted the body of the kobold Sergeant, making a noteworthy discovery. Bypassing Jack, she brought her find to Persephone.

“This is wonderful!” shouted Persephone, startling the still groggy Reynard (and making an unwelcome contribution to his spider-venom induced migraine). She displayed Dio’s discovery, a platinum ring, to the group. “This ring is inscribed ‘From Jay’; it is surely the property of the Elf Friend we seek! We shall return to Hommlet, present it to him, and prove our good intent!”

Jack nodded, a touch reluctantly. “Sounds like a plan. Now, help me check the bodies.”

End Part the Sixth

 

wonderful!

 

Thanks.

 

Great work Old Book! I am really enjoying this.

I have to agree with Daniel on this quote -- I literally laughed out loud when I read this part. I've never done that before while reading the Co8 forum (despite many humorous and witty entries).

 

hey I would have sworn I wrote that I burst out laughing too... weird! :scratchhe

Hey Old Book, just one very minor note if I may: I think it would be funnier if you elaborated some whacky metaphor instead of "we need to level up"... :blahblah: :mrhappy:

sort of the fighter saying "I need to learn to cleave tonight!" :lalala:


Meanwhile: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

Great reading. I hope the Old Book has many pages left to unveil to us.

 

Thanks, and yup, that was lazy. I'd planned a more detailed level up scene later; hope it'll work out.

 

Part the Seventh: Of Drinks & Druids

From the Journals of Jack B. Swift, Professional Adventurer, published 585, Greyhawk Press

Killing the spiders in the grove was a turning point for all of us. We were filled with a new sense of purpose and energy. We really felt ready to take things to the next level.

We headed back to town, told the woodcutter he could head back into the grove, and learned that his daughter was ill. In part as a peace offering to Perry and Dio, I agreed to talk with Jaroo (the local High Druid) about it. Jaroo told us to keep an eye out for something called a Swamp Lotus. Dio knows plants, so I figured she’d know it if we found one.
OK, technically I “hoped” Dio’d know a Swamp Lotus if we found one.

After meeting with Jaroo, headed up to the Tower of Burne, the “Mage of Hommlet”, to do some shopping.

Kate scribed and traded huge numbers of scrolls containing trivial cantrips for some of Burne’s collection of more powerful Wizard spells. Once again, the ravens came in handy; no merchant can concentrate on deal making while staring into those horrible, beady little eyes.

Bar was chatting with Pishella, Burne’s apprentice, while I tried to avoid talking to Burne or Rufus (his bodyguard).

I guess I should explain why I didn’t want to talk with them.

Part of the reason Perry was getting snippy with me was that we’d uncovered spies in the village. Two of the town traders were in the pay of someplace called the Temple of Elemental Evil. I used that information to force the traders to reveal the location of the local bandit’s lair, and tried to use it to get them to tell us where the Temple was. Perry thought we should just turn them in to Burne, but I wasn’t so sure. I thought we could get more out of them.

Perry was pissed about other things. We’d killed some goblins lodging in the weaver’s place. OK, they were legally there, but one of the little buggers stabbed me. No regrets. We’d also borrowed a cup of sugar from a really big guy with serious skin problems.

OK, so he was probably a demon. What were we supposed to do? If we’d jumped him, he’d have killed us.

I did feel bad about killing the talking rat.

After we were done with Burne we headed over to talk to the shepherd in black. Turned out he was Black Jay. We gave him his ring and solved a problem for him, and he pointed us again towards the Moathouse. It was clear where things were headed.

We headed towards the tavern for one more night’s preparation and drinking before setting out.

So like I said, there was this sense of energy in the air. We were almost ready. Bar got herself into a drinking contest with a couple of tough looking mercenary types and a couple of townies, and Fox got himself into a nasty argument with Dio.

“Dionysia, please, try to understand” Fox was saying. Then she punched him. Good shot, too. Took him clear off the bench.

“You are not bringing your farm girl along!” She stomped off to sit with Perry. I helped Fox up.

“That didn’t go well,” he said.

:”You think?” I replied.

“I’m sorry things went this way. I really am,” he said.

He was looking at me with worried eyes. He was either telling the truth or pulling a better con than I’d ever seen him try. He went on.

“Look, Dio was just a friend. Meleny …” he paused, and looked away. “Meleny is something really special. She’s interesting, and cute, and she laughs at everything I say.” He looked back at me, trying to make the sale. “She’s a Druid, and she knows the area. She’d make a great addition to the group. We can always use another spell-caster.”

“Funny,” I said, “she doesn’t look Druish.”

Fox just stared at me. We’d been buddies forever; I saw he was serious.
“So, you’re dumping the cute Druid you were dating foe a cuter Druid you’ve just met, and you want to take the new girl along?”

“Yes,” said Fox.

“OK,” I said, “I’ll have a talk with Dio. Kate, Perry and Bar should be OK with it. Kate and Bar won’t care much, and Perry thinks you’re a bad influence on Dio anyway.”

“Thanks” said Fox.

I thought it would be a good move. Meleny was OK, Fox was a friend, and I’d never seen him this flipped over a girl before. Besides, that farmer had a sword hanging over his mantle that looked magical. If we played our cards right, Mel’s father might throw the sword in as part of the deal.

Maybe Perry was right about me. There comes a time in each mans life when he must ask “Am I Good, or am I Neutral?”

I was thinking more than was good for me when Bar staggered over, having lost the drinking contest again. She was looking good, and the fire light and alcohol flush were combining to make that Gladiator Armor even more distracting than usual. She gave me a boozy smile.

“I can’t decide” she said.

“Decide?” I pulled my head up and fixed my eyes on her face, despite calls from certain parts of my brain to let my gaze drift down.

“I can’t decide,” she said, still smiling, “whether to let myself get in touch with my inner rage, or to open myself to the Divine.”

At this point I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but considering little Dio and Fox I didn’t want another member of my party getting in better touch with her rage. “Opening yourself sounds good,” I said, and then immediately wished I hadn’t.

Bar laughed, got up, tripped a little, and patted me on the shoulder.

That really was good armor.

“Rage will give me speed,” she said, “but I’ve always wanted to give myself to Kord. I think I need to go to bed.” She headed off to her room.

I wondered who Kord was at the time. Later, when I found out, it put the conversation in a different light.

The next morning, when we headed to the Moathouse, we were a stronger team. Perry, Kate and Fox had scrolls in their packs, and Bar was wearing a chain with a miniature two-handed sword around her neck. Perry and I had talked with Dio, and it seemed very unlikely she’d kill Fox. We picked up the farmer’s daughter, Meleny, and headed out of town.

End Part the Seventh

 

LOL! Love that :aaaa:

On the other hand I feel like the first half was rushed... take your time man, don't feel urged to please us!

 

How do you redeem clarisse? I have tried spells and scrolls, Terjon and Jaroo are of no help. Damn I feel like an idiot but I just cant figure this one out!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Interlude: The freeing of Clarice

The unquiet spirit wailed. “A blessing! A blessing from the temple! A blessing from Cuthbert!”

“Well enough,” said Reynard, “we’ll just pop on off to the temple then and…”

“Wait!” said Perry.

“What?” asked Reynard.

“Why Cuthbert? He is a most unsympathetic deity, and is well know to be unpleasantly tall and prone to violence. Why not the blessing of a proper deity, one of a kind disposition and a more respectable height?”

“Yondolla?” suggested Bar, but she was grinning.

“Garl Glittergold?” put in Jack with a wink to Bar.

“Respectable deities, I grant you,” continued Perry, “but not deities who know what it is to labor all day over a hot forge, to turn in an honest days labor. Not, to be blunt, deities who understand the lot of the common worker.”

“Wait, isn’t Yondolla some sort of house wife? Also, what?” asked Reynard.

“No,” said Perry, “and as to which deity I speak of, it is none other than my own beloved patron, Moradin, the Soul Forger!”

Dramatic music or the sound of thunder failed to be heard at this point.

After waiting for a moment, Perry turned to the ghost. “Poor creature, I offer you the blessing of Moradin, the World Smith!” Blue light filled the room, flashing from Perry’s sacred axe (dwarves tended to prefer Holy Symbols with a practical side to them, though this meant that the clerics of Spud, Lord of Root Vegetables, often found themselves mildly embarrassed). The entire party felt the blessing of Moradin descend upon them.

The ghost, who had once been named Clarice, continued to wail.

“Bugger” said Perry.

“Well,” said Jack, “it’s not a problem. I saw that Calmert up at the temple had some Scrolls of Bless for sale. We can just go buy one, bring it back here, and give it to the ghost.”

“Wait!” Shouted Perry. “Scrolls? Just a moment.” Perry quickly took her stylus, ink, and a sheet of parchment (actually a page from the 575 Miner’s Almanac with the ink mostly scrubbed off; dwarves hate to waste paper), and scribbled down the blessings of Moradin. A touch of her sacred axe finished the process; the Scroll of Bless was complete.

“Here, spirit,” declared Perry, triumphantly handing the scroll to poor dead Clarice, “take now the blessing you seek!”

“At last,” declared Clarice, “Praise Cuthbert!” The spirit vanished.

“No!” shouted Perry, “Praise Moradin!”

The party shuffled from the room.

“Another miracle of Cuthbert” said Bar.

“Yes,” said Jack, “Praise Cuthbert.”

“Stop it!” said Perry, “Just stop it! Praise Moradin!”

As the group left the herdsman’s shack, Perry shifted her knapsack. “Why is my pack heavier?”

In the pack now rested a crystal skull.

“Don’t play with it,” advised Kate, “it’s probably a quest item.”

End Interlude