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

Hi all:

Old Book, I bet your a great DM, your ability to bring this game to life is simply fantastic!
Please continue this saga when you are ready. I'm looking forward to reading part eight "Frogs and Spiders".

 

:grin: :grin: :grin:

 

Part the Eighth: Frogs and Spiders

Dionysia scowled and tightened her grip on her scimitar as she moved cautiously ahead of her so-called friends, making sure that the swampy ground would support the group. Her dog, a grey and nameless half-wolf brute, protectively hung close by her side.

The words that Dionysia muttered under her breath would have shocked her pious mother, but Dio couldn’t think of any more polite adjectives that adequately described her current feelings towards the lot of them.

She glanced back over her shoulder, not technically correct behavior while scouting, in the hopes that one of them at least would have noticed her angry silence. Well, silence apart from the cursing.

No luck. “Profane-noun-verb-pair noun obscene-gerund noun” muttered Dio. Her dog looked curiously upwards, and then returned to snuffling for interesting dead things in the swamp.

Dio continued to stare.

Reynard, her beautiful Reynard, was whispering and giggling with his new farm girl. “Noun!” Dio hissed.

They were standing close, and the part of Dio that was always in balance had to admit they looked natural together. Reynard, tall and lean, handsome face all grin, big brown eyes and shaggy red-brown hair. The farm girl, smiling, young and slim and subtle curves well displayed by the leathers he’d given her, leathers matching Reynard’s close cut robes.

Dio pulled her eyes away and forced herself to pay attention again to the swamplands. She patted the dog.

There was a suspiciously well maintained path, with swampy water on either side. The path lead to small fortress, the Moathouse, squatting in the swamp like a big, grey, squatting thing. A huge, grey green, fat, wet, squatting what?

“A frog!” loudly exclaimed Dio, “A giant frog!”

As Dio let loose this shout, a pair of huge creatures exploded from the water on either side of the trail. They were big, bigger than bears. Hairless monstrosities, covered in slime. They leaped forward impossibly, their hind legs enormous, their eyes like plates, and their mouths impossibly wide.

They looked exactly like giant frogs.

“Well spotted!” called Perry, charging forward between the rest of the group and the beasts, raising her shield and axe and then waiting for the creature’s approach. Jack and Bar leaped forwards as well, Jack bringing his long spear to the ready position and moving slightly behind Perry to her left, Bar un-slinging her glaive and positioning herself on Perry’s right.

Reynard gestured dramatically, spreading his arms wide and shouting out words of power. The magic poured from him and into Bar, swelling her muscles, distorting space around her. In an instant, Bar was suddenly a small giantess, over 10 feet in height, her armor and glaive larger as well.

Jack blinked. “I didn’t know you could do that!”

Reynard grinned. “Good, isn’t it?”

“Eyes on the fight!” shouted Kate. The blue-haired elf called up a protective second skin of magic, then strung her bow.

Dio realized that she had been watching when she should have been acting. Raising her own wooden shield and shifting her grip on her scimitar, drew energy from the ground beneath her feet to boost her speed, and charged forwards to just behind Perry. The dog ran behind her.

“What should I do?” called Meleny, the farm girl, even as she brought up her crossbow and loosed a bolt into the swamp.

“You’re doing fine, snooky!” called Reynard.

“I love you, my love!” called Meleny.

“You are the light of my heart!” called Reynard.

Dionysia snarled. The dog, catching her mood, whined.

One of the frog-things leaped at Perry, her shield barely deflecting its strike! Rolling back, the chain-mail clad Dwarf swung her axe viciously at the monstrous amphibian, but the blade turned on its slime coated hide!

The other amphibian ignored a glancing blow from Jack’s spear as it lunged at Dio, catching the girl in its massive jaws! Dio gasped with pain as bone bent and flesh tore, blood spilling into swamp water.

Jack re-positioned himself, braced, and plunged his spear deep into the side of the beast, drenching himself in its fluids.

Spinning, green light shining from her skin, the now gigantic Barbara clove her glaive through the monster’s spine, showering Jack in gore, and in a continuation of the same blow brought the glaive down, deep down into the lower back of the other frog.

“Did you see that!?!” shouted Barbara. “Kord rules! Kord!”

“Praise Kord” muttered Jack, using his free hand to hurriedly wipe frog blood and swamp slime from his face and eyes.

“Courage, honey bunny!” Reynard called out to Meleny. He gestured, and energy flashed from his hands and eyes into Dionysia. Space seemed to shift and twist, and the young woman’s body and equipment doubled in size, adding a second human giant to the field.

Dio looked down at the remaining frog-thing, suddenly smaller in her eyes, and brought the blade of her now-massive scimitar down upon its back. The monster’s back broke; it croaked its last. Dio stood, confused, in the sudden silence. Fox had fed her strength. Her Fox had …

“You’re wonderful, my love!” called out Meleny, throwing her arms around Fox. “You did it!”

Dio, still gigantic, turned towards the farm girl, her eyes displaying murderous intent.

It was probably a very good thing that, just then, two more giant frogs hopped from the swamp.

Kate acted quickly. The Elf’s blue hair flew wildly as she charged forwards, calling out the syllables of a sleep-charm. The air seemed to ripple as one of the two charging swamp-beasts was forced into slumber.

Dio spun about, continuing to twirl as her scimitar smashed through the skull of the second frog-monster, showering her in gore as she killed the creature with a single blow.

Dripping with blood, both her own and that of the frog, Dio felt better. As Jack butchered the frog Kate had brought down, Perry stepped to Dio and whispered prayers of healing. Dio’s wounds closed.

“Is all well with you, my friend?” Perry asked.

“I’ve got to find some swamp lotus” muttered Dio, eyes downcast.

The party cautiously moved forwards.

Well, cautiously except for the dog, stubby tail furiously waggling.

“The pain of the heart is no less real than the pain of the body,” said the Dwarf, keeping pace with her currently enormous Human friend.

“Heart pain is body pain,” said Dio, smiling slightly, “you treat it with white willow bark and foxglove.” Her smile faded.

Yet another giant frog leaped from the swamp. Jack’s spear and Bar’s glaive held it back, while Kate’s fired an arrow that failed to find its mark.

“A little help here!” shouted Jack.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” shouted Dio to Perry, fumbling a scimitar swipe at the frog.

“Talk about what?” shouted Jack.

“What are we talking about?” Reynard asked, again twisting space and leaving the Dwarf, Perry, just over nine feet tall.

“Nothing!” Dio barked, blushing furiously.

Perry, employing her magically augmented mass and reach, landed a terrible blow to the side of the giant frog. “We were just discussing heart pain and its treatment!” She called.

“Jaroo says you treat heart problems with white willow bark and foxglove” said Meleny, firing yet another crossbow bolt harmlessly into the undergrowth.

Dio’s large dog lunged forwards out of the swamp water and tore into the side of the frog. The amphibian died.

As the seven adventurers and one large, wet dog entered the Moathouse courtyard, Jack raised his hand.

“Careful. There are bound to be …”

At which point, Dio’s dog charged into the courtyard, provoking an attack by hidden crossbowmen.

“Wait for it!” shouted Jack.

One crossbowman fired a bolt that struck the dog, leaving a bloody gash along its side. A concealed swordsman leaped from behind cover, charged, and struck the dog a second bloody blow.

“Dog!” called Dio.

“Hold!” called Jack, “For the gods sake wait!”

Jack, Perry, and Bar moved out into the courtyard, bringing the full area into view, revealing yet more bandits.

Dio gestured and called out, her cry charged with magic, and the world answered. A huge, snarling wolf appeared behind the swordsman that had struck at Dio’s dog.

“I can do that!” Meleny let out her own call to nature, begging the world to hear her. The sky answered, and a small owl swooped down beside the wolf.

Dio refrained from comment.

Kate and Fox moved forward slightly, and each loosed a charm of sleep, Fox incanting from a scroll, Kate using magic held in memory. Instantly, two crossbowmen and two swordsmen fell.

Perry, Jack and Bar moved forward. Blood drenched work followed.

After the courtyard was cleared of bodies, Reynard’s space-distorting enchantments faded, and the conjured animals fled. Dio set out to search the swamps. Bar tended the dog.

Later, on Dio’s return, the news was not promising.

“No swamp lotus out there” Dio told Jack.

“I see.” Jack thought for a moment. “Did you check the frog’s bodies?”

“Yes. They swallowed a bandit or two, but no swamp lotus.”

Jack nodded, and looked around the courtyard. The doors to the Moathouse were inviting, but a small watch tower in the courtyard’s corner drew his gaze. “We’ll camp there,” Jack announced. “A roof to keep the rain off and we can bar the door.”

As the young adventurers entered the tower, a giant spider dropped from above, spraying them with webbing.

“I hate these things!” shrieked Kate, releasing the power of a Scroll of Sleep to down the creature. Reynard rushed forward to kill the slumbering arachnid, as the others examined their temporary home and prepared to make camp.

Much later, over a bubbling pot of frog and spider soup, Dio and Perry talked.

“We did well today, my friend” said Perry, offering Dio another serving of the night’s repast.

“Yes,” said Dio, “I guess we did.” Dio’s dog rested at her feet, worrying at a frog bone.

At least, she hoped it was a frog bone.

“We were a team,” said Perry. “This small band took down no fewer than six monsters, and eight hardened killers. We work well together.”

“Even the farm girl?” said Dio, looking Perry in the eye.

“Even the farm girl,” said Perry, meeting Dio’s gaze.

“I guess.” Dio looked down.

Perry gently placed a calloused hand on Dio’s shoulder. “Ehlonna, your patron, teaches that there is a time when all things pass. I know the pain in this, but always growth and pain walk together.”

Dionysia smiled, slightly. “So what does Moradin say a Dwarf should do if her boyfriend dumps her?”

Perry smiled in return. “Doctrine suggests hitting the wandering male with a large hammer, but in recent days there has been some debate on this.”

As the two women laughed, at the far end of the room, wrapped in Reynard’s bedding, the farm girl prayed to the deities of the Old Faith.

“Please,” Meleny whispered, “please, send me a companion, a guardian. I am a true follower; send me a sign.” The powers of land and sky seemed to listen; for an instant, within the tower, the world seemed to hold its breath.

With a surge of wind, a 12 pound hen, perfect in all proportions, appeared beside the farm girl.

“Cluck?”

End Part the Eighth

 

HAHA I love this stuff.

 

Giant frog legs I can believe (taste like chicken...), but spider soup? No, thanks!

Keep it up!

 

tarantula tastes like lobster apparantly

 

Make sure you prepare it properly:

http://barista.media2.org/?p=209
http://www.zetatalk.com/food/tfood12a.htm
http://www.rhymer.net/cutsE.htm

 

OB,

I don't say much here often, but I must say you are leaving me wanting more. I am well read, and that's a skill not many authors have. Thanks.

H

 

Part the Ninth: Rats in the Walls

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

We spent that night in the Moathouse watch tower. It was a pretty good night, too. Bar had a few of her Applied Violence 302: Quick Draw texts with her, and she let me work with them. She was doing a two-weapon drill half the night.

Long blade in her right hand, dagger in her left, she spun and danced through that cramped guard tower. Her muscles moved smoothly under fire-lit skin, her body and weapons working in beautiful and frightening harmony. Twice she accidentally kicked Dio’s dog. The dog ran and jumped around her feet after that.

I saw Perry talking with Dio, probably a good thing. Somehow Perry got Dio laughing. The two of them got out Perry’s port-a-desk and Perry started working Dio through some basic scribing.

“What are you reading?” Kate asked me, putting her hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her face. It took me a while; she was still wearing that corset, and my eyes got caught for a bit on their way to her eyes. Kate was grinning when I finally met her violet gaze.

“Some of Bar’s books,’ I said, “basic fighting stuff.”

Kate moved in front of me, putting one hand on each shoulder. Avoiding letting my eyes wander became a struggle. Her grin got wider. “So you’re interested in fighting?”

“Among other things.” I tried to pull her down; a light kiss, and then she pulled away.

“You really think the Princess Tillahi is somewhere in here?” She looked serious.

Over in the corner, where Fox and his new girl were bedding down, there was a sudden loud squawking. The biggest chicken I had ever seen was jumping up and down among the blankets. Dio’s dog, already over-excited from playing with Bar, took after the chicken like a shot.

That chicken sure could move.

The two of them raced in circles, the room full of yaps and squawks and flying feathers. Up they went over the short watchtower stairway, down again across the floor, banking off the walls, the dog knocking over first Perry’s port-a-desk and then the soup pot. Frog and spider soup spread in an unappetizing tide across the floor, and then the dog and chicken ran through it on their next pass.

Finally Dio called her dog over and got the thing under control, and the chicken went back to stand squawking by Meleny’s feet and glare with offended chicken dignity at the dog. The soup was already soaking into our bedding.

“I wanted an animal companion” Mel explained, near tears.

Fox held her and started in with soothing noises (“It’s OK, pumpkin” type of thing) while Dio grinned like a mad woman and helped Perry get her port-a-desk back together. The rest of us cleaned up the sleeping area as best we could. The bedding would smell like soup for a long time.

“You never answered my question” said Kate as we finished up.

I was still tired from the days hiking and fighting, and more so from the great dog and chicken battle. Still, I answered as best I could. “I don’t know.”

Kate just looked at me.

I shrugged. “We’ve talked to everyone in town. The rumors lead here and maybe to that Temple. So, we go in here and see what we can find. If we’re lucky, Tillahi will be somewhere inside. If not, maybe we’ll learn where the Temple is. If we don’t get even that far, it’s still a chance to make the area a little safer and help ourselves to a small fortress full of bandit loot.”

“I love it when you talk all Adventurer” said Kate, and crawled under the blankets.

The next morning, we headed into the Moathouse.

“Achoo!” Barbara sneezed. She was a healthy girl with strong, capacious lungs, and she had a sneeze that’d make a veteran jump out of his boots. “Sorry,” she said, “allergies.”

The Moathouse was filthy, rubble and garbage everywhere. Imagine a mulch pile in high summer after a three day rain; now imagine eating it. That’s the stench of the Moathouse.

Rats the size of large dogs pushed trails through the muck. They ignored us.

“Try talking to them” suggested Reynard.

I looked at him.

“You talked to the one in the Tavern.” He was grinning.

I considered throwing some muck at him, but decided that wouldn’t suit my role as party leader. Also, I didn’t want to touch it. I settled for a glare, but it didn’t have much effect.

There was a big pair of double doors, two single doors and a hall visible from the entrance. I stalked forwards cautiously through the room, in part trying to stay quiet, but mostly because I didn’t want to get any more rat droppings and other assorted filth on my clothes than I had to.

“Try the double doors,” Bar suggested through her sniffling, “bound to be something nasty through there.”

“I’m being stealthy here!” I barked, and then felt like an idiot. I straightened up and opened the door on the south wall.

Snake. Big snake. Very big snake and many blood sucking birds.

One dead very big snake and many dead blood sucking birds later, we tried the door on the south west wall.

We entered a disused barracks.

Kate let out a shriek and a string of curses as a tick bigger than a human child lunged for her leg. A scimitar blow from Dio and a poke from Fox’s spear took care of it.

“This place is disgusting!” Kate continued cursing, now in Elvish (a great language for rhyming cleanliness related profanity).

As we entered the storage room at the end of the hall, I spotted a gigantic lizard before it was able to spot us. Just as I was about to move in and deal with it, Meleny whispered “Please, let me help!”

I looked at her, and then nodded.

Stepping into the room bold as brass, she began calling out “Who is a little snuggle lizard? You’re beautiful! You’re mommy’s little cuddle woo, yes you are!”

I fully expected the giant lizard to kill her.

Instead, eyes shining, the huge thing wandered amicably over and rolled onto its back by her feet. Meleny kneeled down and started scratching its belly.

“Who’s a little cuddle boy? You’re such a sweetie, aren’t you?” Mel cooed. The creature made a happy lizard noise, its eyes still showing that odd glow.

I smiled and went to work on a chest on the south wall. The rest of the group wandered in, glancing over at Mel and the lizard. Fox was smiling so wide I thought his head would drop off. Even Dio looked grudgingly approving, which was more than I’d expected.

“Have a look!” I showed the gang the loot. One very nice crossbow, a valuable suit of armor, some silver tipped crossbow bolts, and some cash.

“Catch” I called to Mel, tossing her the crossbow. I met Perry’s gaze and she nodded. Mel smiled like I’d just given her a medal, checked and wound her new crossbow, and passed her old one to Fox.

The whole party got ourselves together and headed back to the entrance chamber, five humans, one Dwarf, one Elf, one dog, a giant lizard (still following Mel) and a large chicken.

Perry opened the double doors on the north east wall. We sent the giant lizard in first.

What followed was quick.

“Wall!” I called, moving forward and bringing up my spear. I saw Perry take a step back and start muttering prayers. Bar stepped forwards, raising her long blade and bringing up a wooden shield while praying herself.

Two of the bandits rushed forwards and slashed ineffectually at the giant lizard. A third charged past the monster, taking a vicious bite to the leg in the process, and swung at Perry.

Fox and Kate chanted, and the biggest of the bandits fell unconscious along with one of his crossbowmen. Dio brought up her shield and completed the wall, while calling out another prayer; a large wolf appeared by the fallen bandit leader. Mel stood back and let out her own prayer, and a smaller wolf appeared.

“All this singing,” said Bar, “it’s like an Elven Council meeting!”

“Verb you” said Kate.

The bandits were now trapped in a small room with two wolves and a giant lizard. Their leader was down. I and Fox had our spears, Kate had her bow, and Mel had her new crossbow. It was a slaughter.

After the battle ended, we were tired but more confident. It was a good feeling.

“Sire,” asked Dio, “shall we continue our search for the Princess?”

I shook my head. “We need some rest. We’ll come back and clean this place out tomorrow.”

Mel in particular was looking proud of herself, and with reason. She’d even managed to shoot one of the bandits. “May I keep Mister Lizard?” she asked. Before I could answer, Dio spoke up.

“Yes,” said Dio, “but he sleeps in the corner with you and Reynard.”

“Thank you!” cried Meleny, “Oh thank you! He’s such a funny lizard! I’ll take good care of him!”

Dio was struggling to hold back a grin as we headed back to the Moathouse watch tower.

That night, after we bedded down, the odd look went out of the eye of the lizard, and it took a good sized chunk out of Fox before we were able to put it down.

I spotted Dio grinning ear to ear as Meleny panicked. Perry and Barbara prayed over Fox’s wound until it closed.

End Part the Ninth

 

On another board, a poster asked me about why this wasn't a more standard Click-Here-Answer-#3 Walkthru. Thought it might be good to re-post my answer here:

This is a fan-fic walk through concentrating on new material added by the Circle of Eight mod to the ToEE CRPG. It follows a group of characters through the full game pretty much area by area, and contains hints as to one or two ways to solve most of the game's puzzles. Those hints (as in the case of Redeming Clarice or finding Black Jay's ring) are in the form of short scenes where the characters deal with the problem.

The biggest drawback to this approach from a fiction point of view is that you can really hear the dice rolling in the combats. I'm working on that, but it's tricky. I don't want to completely drop the D&D style of the fights. Of course, the best TSR Authors do just that, so maybe I should just give.

Go-here-kill-that walkthroughs of the game without the Co8 content are available, but I'm not interested in writing one.

If you're at all interested in ToEE, or if you tried the CRPG and gave up on it, I highly recommend the Co8 mods. They improve the heck out of what was a very flawed game.

All feedback more than welcomed.

 

He He

Most entertaining............

 

Part the Tenth: Rob Zombies

Fire blazed from the hands of Hekate of Celene, destroying a creature of living slime and the animated corpse beside it. A second fungal creature fell from the ceiling, splashing across her pale skin, its acids burning her. The noxious mildew reek of the thing warred with the stench of roasted flesh and the background swamp-stink of the Moathouse. The resulting odor made one profoundly distrustful of the entire idea of the nose.

All was chaos in the large chamber, three adjoining rooms that had served as dungeon, torture chamber and storage area when the Moathouse had been a working fortress. Most of Kate’s companions were scattered through the area, chasing down the place’s fleeing animated corpse-guardians. Kate herself now staggered in front of the entry stairs, together with Reynard’s farm girl, Dio’s dog, and the farm girl’s own attack chicken.

As the slime-thing gathered itself for a second surging attack on Kate, Dio’s dog lunged at it, canine jaws inflicting significant injury. The farm girl herself held a small sphere of fire in her hands; she released it, boiling away more of the slime creature in a puff of fetid steam. Even the attack chicken got in a noticeably nasty peck.

Kate pulled herself back and loosed an arrow into the creature’s semi-liquid body, to little effect. The thing struck again, narrowly missing. As it gathered itself for a third strike at Kate, Meleny the farm girl released a second fiery sphere. The flame struck, and, with a hiss of putrid gas, the unclean thing stopped moving.

Meleny gave Kate a proud and frightened smile. Kate, black corset contrasting with slime drenched white skin and blue hair, forced herself to smile back.

“Gods,” muttered Kate, “I need a bath.”

The two young women, and the dog and chicken, moved towards the west end of the chambers and rejoined their friends.

Meleny sent a venomous glare towards Dio; Dio, currently engaged in dismembering a still-animated corpse, did not appear to notice.

Kate joined Jack Swift, the group’s nominal leader, in the north west corner of the room. Jack was using the point of his spear to search through the rags covering a well preserved corpse.

“What,” asked Kate, “do you expect to find in a zombie’s rags?”

Just then, Jack’s spear point clinked against something metallic concealed in an inner fold of the dead man’s wrappings.

Jack smiled like a shark as he flicked away a length of rotting cloth and picked up a small, silver box.

Kate tried to hide her surprise.

“Always check the bodies,” said Jack, examining the miniature chest. “Business 115, Prof. Garrote. Good class.”

Jack turned to Kate, holding out his prize. “You think this is magic?”

Kate took the small silver chest, barely the size of a big human’s hand. Despite gods-knew-how-long in the possession of a walking dead man, the thing shone as if freshly polished. “Looks like it,” said Kate, slipping it into her belt pouch, “I can check later.”

Kate and Jack joined the others in the small torture chamber to the south west. Perry approached her.

“Are you injured, my friend?” asked the Dwarf, already checking the damage the slime beast’s acid had done to Kate’s skin.

Kate smiled slightly. “You can start praying for me any time now.”

Perry did so, the magic in her words easing pain and healing flesh, as Kate looked with interest at the fairly obvious secret door concealed in the western pillar.

Jack spotted it a moment later. “Hey, look at this” he called proudly, opening the door and revealing a concealed ladder. Kate said nothing; her human was cute when he thought he was clever.

“Should we head down?” asked Reynard.

Jack shook his head. “We still haven’t checked those rooms to the north, or the one to the east. We’ll come back later.”

The group gathered by the stairs back to the surface, while Jack moved out, quiet as a cat, to check the other rooms.

Kate noticed that Meleny, Reynard and Perry were clumped together, speaking softly, while Barbara cleaned her glaive and Dio, affecting cool disinterest, checked the animals for wounds. Kate approached Bar.

“How long will this keep up?” she asked the warrior woman, nodding her head towards the two camps.

Bar gave a small, tight smile. “By the Teachings of Kord, the stages of grief are Block, Strike, Dodge, Retreat, and Surrender. Dio has been through Block and Strike. She only has three moves to go.”

Kate briefly considered this. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Jack returned, taking some pride in getting right into the center of the group before anyone spotted him. “Nothing of interest in the rooms to the north except a chest full of these things.” He handed around some rather nice (well, mildewed and moth eaten, but they’d been nice at one point) black cloaks, each decorated with a yellow emblem on the back.

“I think it’s meant to be a talon” said Jack, indicating the emblem.

“It could be a pitchfork” said Bar.

“It looks like an alchemical symbol” suggested Kate.

“Might be a lizard print” offered Dio.

“Why would anyone wear a cloak decorated with a lizard print?” asked Reynard.

“I don’t know,” said Dio, “maybe they like lizards.”

Meleny’s stone cutting glare suggested that mentioning lizards had been a poor move on Dio’s part. Dio, rather than glaring back, turned slightly away.

“Dodge” whispered Bar to Kate. Kate nodded.

“People!” shouted Jack. “It does not matter what the stupid emblem means!”

Kate bit down on a grin. Jack was cute when he was exasperated.

“Look,” said Jack, “just past that room” (he pointed to the room to the north) “is a full grown ogre. The ogre is in front of a staircase. It is large, it has a very large club, and it is clearly a guard!” He paused and looked around, pleased to be holding the team’s attention for once. “However, I have a plan. We put on these cloaks, and we pass ourselves off as bandits. We position ourselves in the room, and then kill the ogre before he knows what’s happening!” Jack held his head high, proud of his plan.

“No” said Bar.

Jack’s jaw dropped.

“I have allergies” said Bar. “This cape is dripping with mildew. I’ll sneeze my head off.”

“Agreed,” said Kate. “I’ve already had green slime flowing over bits of me that I’d rather not talk about. I’m not putting on this moldy old cloak.”

Jacks jaw snapped his jaw shut.

He started to speak, and then stopped.
He started again, but couldn’t quite manage it.

Jack finally managed to speak. His voice was a level growl, and quite intimidating. “We will put on these cloaks, and we will kill that ogre, or we will pick a new team leader.”

Fox, Meleny, and Dio quickly put on the cloaks. Bar hesitated, and then pulled on her own cloak and let out a sneeze. Kate thought about it, and then pulled on the last of the cloaks, smiling. Jack was especially cute when he was being threatening.

Jack put on his cloak, and the group entered the room to the north east.

In the next room stood an ogre, a huge, man shaped humanoid, heavy boned, over eight feet tall, one quarter ton of muscle and anger clutching a spiked club.

Kate looked at the huge thing, and told it a short, magic enhanced joke.

The ogre collapsed in helpless laughter.

Its execution was somewhat anti-climactic.

As the group spread out in the room, Jack opened a door to the south.

It was a tiny storage room converted into a cell, containing two gnomes and an elf.

End Part the Tenth

 

OB, you're #1 in my book...Guess we'll have to start calling you Master Kenobi...Get it...? OB-1?

HELP! I need a magical enhancement for this joke, PLEASE!!!

:aaaa:

 

Hi all:

Old Book, I look forward to Gnome man's land:dance: :largeclap

 

Thanks guys. The feedback is greatly appreciated.