Castle Whiterock 11 October 2021: Inky, Inky, Inky, no Clyde

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

(Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior)

(Stonemaul, half-orc holy warrior)
(Mikal, human holy warrior)

What happened

Now that we've checked out the area with the inferno cats, we're ready to look around elsewhere. After some chatting, we walk right, beyond where we fought the cats, and when it branches, we keep to the left. However, something about ten yards down the tunnel stops my darkvision. "Garreth, can you ask Droning Booty what's making my darkvision to fade there?"

Garreth asks Bleu, who says, "Might be more spellruin ivy."

After some chatter, we learn from Blah that smoking it ruins magical aptitude and likely won't get us high, and it would dull non-orichalcum blades trying to cut it. This means that spellruin ivy sucks, so we choose to go another way.

I lean down to Logan and ask, "Hey, boy, smell anything?" He makes honking sounds and looks down a hallway to the right of the one with the spellruin ivy. We hear unhappy honking sounds coming from there, and I put on my ring. "Not more of these guys."

Bleu also hears the sound. "Ah, it sounds like destrachans, and also a certain squishy sound that reminds me of the Myrtatum Maximum Nigrum from the cafeteria. The destrachans sound rather frightened." We step a little farther down, and find four destrachans and the biggest black pudding I've ever seen.

Polly, as always, starts shooting, taking down two destrachans with head shots. Garreth starts trying to speed himself up, and asks Bleu about this black pudding. Bleu says this is like a normal black pudding, but it's as big as a big dragon, and thus has a hunger at least as big as a big dragon's. Its acid could eat up our weapons, and, if we hit it hard enough, it will bud off smaller puddings. The last two destrachans flee, honking at Polly and Logan, who get away from their cone of sound. Logan slams into the one by him, knocking it back.

That's the best thing to happen to that destrachan today, since right after that, the black pudding's pseudopods reach out at the destrachans, Polly, and Logan. Polly and Logan get out of the way, but the pudding slurps back the destrachans into its body after the destrachan that Logan hurt bursts.

I yell at Garreth, "Garreth, something tells me this is the wrong way!"

Garreth yells back, "I've been telling you this isn't the way."

Bleu casts Great Haste on herself, and Polly shoots three arrows at the big pudding, which does nothing other than making the pudding drop a few destrachan bits. "So, uh, back to the start?"

Garreth nods, then lets out a roar. The pudding stops, stunned.

We fly away. Bleu says, "With us flying it probably can't actually track us, the Myrtatum Maximum Nigrum hunts by taste of the ground when it cannot directly sense its prey."

As we fly away, we chat about now needed it is to kill the pudding. Bleu and I say that it likely has no treasure, which makes Polly sad, and deem it truly evil. Garreth agrees with Polly: "Loot destruction is evil."

I say we have to find other ways of killing it besides hitting it with weapons. Bleu says it can see, that slime-affecting spells work on it but are tiring to cast because it's so big, and it has magic resistance. I suggest luring it into lava, and Bleu says it's as smart as a wolf, so won't fall for that trick. We all do think that getting it into a pit would slow it a little, letting us drop big things onto it.

I look down the other tunnels to the right. One has more spellruin ivy, but another leads us to a statue of a broad-shouldered, tiger-like creature stands in the middle. It has top-notch craftsmanship, and looks ready to pounce. This worries me greatly, so I ask Blah about it. She says that it looks like an inferno cat under the effects of a Flesh to Stone spell or something like that, which is pretty much what made me worried.

Garreth says I need to check this out. I shake my head. "Logan, keep Garreth and Polly company. Pee on Bleu's robes if I don't come back." With that, I put on my ring, and fly a little farther.

Rising like an ill mist from the floor are three shapes of what I think are big men made of shadow. I fly backwards, and take off my ring. I'm pretty sure they saw me even with it on. "Looks like Nazgûl."

Other stuff

"Myrtatum Maximum Nigrum" is indeed Latin for "biggest black pudding." Kalzazz didn't do a bad job picking words, getting the last two right. I checked and found that "pudding" in Latin is "myrtatum" or "murtatum" (it's an obvious Greek loanword); "nigrum" might be redundant, since myrtatum is already a sausage with myrtle berries.

Castle Whiterock 13 September 2021: Cats and not-quite-dogs

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

Stonemaul, half-orc holy warrior
Mikal, human holy warrior
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

What they did

Garreth drinks something from his flask, and I make a sound like a dying giraffe. Then we hear the three destrachans honk and come at us. Thrognar takes up a spot in the foremost lines, while Mikal goes off to the side, near the ivy. I wait for one to come for me, but Logan flies forward and tries to bite a destrachan. Polly shoots one a few times and it drops. Thrognar focuses, and gets strong and fast, and Bleu casts Great Haste on Garreth.

Destrachans swell up as they breathe in. The giant stomps over shield first trying to smash Thrognar, and tries to overrun Logan as he does so, but both get out of the way. He makes it to Garreth and tries to smash him, but he parries. Once the giant stops, he swings his hammer at Bleu, but Garreth parries that, too.

Logan dashes towards a destrachan and bites it. Polly shoots three arrows at it, dropping it. Thrognar and Garreth swing a few times at the giant, taking him down and smashing in his skull. Some of the blood gets on my face. "Ewww, Garreth. You had to know I was behind him, man."

The last destrachan honks. Logan harmonizes with it, but the sonic blast hurts Polly. Stonemaul, however, steps out of the shadows and reads a Rune of Protection heal her pain. Logan bites more destrachan, while Polly peppers it with arrows, killing it.

Polly looks a bit tired and rubs her arms. Logan keeps eating, then trots back to Garreth and me with some destrachan-flesh in his mouth. Logan drops the gnawed leg of the destrachan at Garreth's feet, and nudges it with his nose, as if offering to share it with Garreth, me, or anyone else. While Garreth is loath to try some at first, but when Bleu says that fried destrachan legs are a delicacy for swamp elves, he has to try.

After looting the bags of the giant, I start tracking the big cats. After a short walk, I find them. They look like a cross between bulldogs and tigers, then leap towards us. Garreth triggers Great Haste and Stonemaul drops the backpack and gets into a good spot. The inferno cats come to Logan and me. I put my knife in the eye of one, dropping it, while Logan claws the face of the other one. It breathes acid fire at us, burning us a little, but misses me with its claws. Polly shoots it thrice, and misses it thrice.

Stonemaul moves, and Garreth moves before he chops at the inferno cat. He wounds it, then Logan and I do the same. Polly shoots it in the eyes, dropping it. I fix my armor from the acid, and Logan rips the inferno cat to shreds.

Castle Whiterock log 16 August 2021: Cutting short

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

Stonemaul, half-orc holy warrior
Mikal, human holy warrior
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

What they did

I don't know how many times I wake up over the week to Logan licking my face and Garreth laughing about something I did. I mean, that's a common happening for me, but with F'thirya in town, this happens more than my wont. F'thirya sees to it that nobody else gets any work done, either. And unlike everyone else, I'm lucky to have a mustelid with me, and can handle it.

Seven days, fifteen slaps, twelve heaves, six dry heaves, eight kegs, six bottles of wine, five bottles of whiskey, and two projectile vomiting contests later, I find myself in the Slumbering Drake again, sitting with Garreth, Mikal, Thrognar, and Chauntessa. "And now we're on the next level, which is the 'Burning Maze,'" Garreth tells Chauntessa.

I chime in, "Yeah, we want salamander amulets for that."

Chauntessa nods and looks at us. "Please ask Miss Minyad to ship more beer, we seem to be quite low." Garreth and I look at each other and hold back our chuckles, and Chauntessa turns her head to the side. "Why does Ixnay have an egg that's glowing and levitating?"

We all turn and look and sure enough, Ixnay has an egg as big as a chicken's and a glossy golden color, that is also glowing and floating. Ixnay is wrapping his tail around it to keep it from floating off. We look at the egg in wonder. "Seems F'thirya liked Ixnay more than expected," I say. Garreth taps his sword and mumbles to it, then shrugs, saying nothing.

Garreth asks Chauntessa, "Where do we stand on the process to reverse the curse?"

Chauntessa says, "You still need to slay Benthorusra, and look out for info on the Sleep of Ages." She rubs her head. "I perhaps should not have drunk that dwarven vodka or at least stopped after the first keg. Can we discuss this later?"

Garreth nods. "Sure, just thinking ahead."

I buy a bunch of Salamander Amulets for the gang, and we try them out. Thrognar asks what they do, and I tell him to put it on. After he does, I pull down a torch and hold it under his arm. "Feel that?" Mikal makes a sermon about the goodness of Salamander Amulet, and gets one from his church, so we have an extra.

So we go through all the myriad duergar levels, then the Underdark after the duergar level, then past the slain ruins of the wall. The winding staircase draws us deeper into the earth. The heat is fantastic, and gets more intense the further down we go. After descending about one hundred and ten feet, the stairs terminate in a spacious, bow-legged tunnel. The cave structure down here is unlike anything we’ve seen previously. The walls are smooth, almost as if they were worked by spell or skill, but the floor is pockmarked and littered with fused rubble. The ground looks very rough to walk on, but no one is walking. Bleu casts some spells on us after some grumbling, while Polly casts some spells on us with zeal, and we go ahead.

I spot some tracks. Big cat prints lead one way, destrachan prints lead another, and giant boot prints lead a third. The giant boots prints have a short stride for boots so big. Garreth and I talk, and we choose to go after the giants. From ahead, I  make out the flickering light of a torch or small fire. I also hear a deep, basso profundo voice humming to itself. The humming is the popular drinking tune "Bloody Jack's Last Raid." Garreth starts meditating.

Many tunnels come together ahead, making a small opening. A small fire is wedged in a fold of the tunnel wall, and by its light I see a man, almost twelve feet tall, with black skin and a blazing red beard. He tends two strange creatures: hunched-over, hairless, eyeless lizard-monkeys with nasty, black claws and double-lobed ears. This makes me shiver.

One of the monsters looks at me somehow, even though it has no eyes. The giant asks it in Dwarven, "You hear somethin', Cutie?" I float back a bit, still keeping my sight on the giant. However, the beast honks, and the giant gets up, readying his hammer and shield. I fly back.

There, my friends are looking at what seems to be some ivy. Thrognar flies near the ivy and suddenly sinks, as if weight suddenly burdens him. Mikal goes near, and loses his active spells, and suddenly feels hotter. Polly shoots the plant with a cornucopia arrow, and it vanishes before it hits. They back away, and their magic items start working again. Mikal casts Continual Light again to bring back light. Thrognar says, "Seems we want to avoid this way." Garreth says it must be spell ruin ivy.

We await the giant, whom we can hear coming towards us.

Other stuff

We had to quit early as our GM was called away by his work.