The third night since their desertion is spent marching southward again through the thick forest of the Oytwood. Fortunately this part of the journey was uneventful and the group was able to make good progress throughout the night.

Shortly before dawn they finally reached the end of the forest and looked out upon the broad strip of grassland separating the Oytwood from the range of hills known as the Stark Mounds.

Much closer though, about 400 feet ahead of the group, is a rocky outcrop at the top of a small hill that looks like a naturally defensible position that might be a good place to camp and rest through the daylight hours.

OOC: Main game map updated.
Game Map for Group 0 also updated to show where the group has travelled so far (the numbers indicate the group's location at the start of day 1 to 4).

"Dat looks like a good place to sleep fer der light hours, easy ter defend n stuff" Minmorc will say confidently and will head straight into it, Vera in one hand and Helen gripped in the other one, just in case someone else has had the same idea.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 2):

"We'z be marching more then when the overseer'as be marchen us." Oopses says rubbing his feet.

"Not dyin' as much, though !" Dregz tries to look on the bright side.  Goblins don't have very long legs and his feet are sore too.

The priest eyes the hilltop with some misgivings, not sharing Minmorc opinion as to the defensibility of the chosen rest spot - give him a nice dank cave safely beneath the ground !  But with the enthusiastic Orc there, perhaps it will turn out alright.

"We must be nearly home by now ?" Dregz suggests optimistically, betraying a shocking lack of knowledge of matters geographical.

Jurz stays quiet as they travel, knowing that they are heading towards home and trying to work out what was going on back in the cave. At least he had been able to usher the big frog away from the rest of the group.  Who knows what effects killing a massive frog in a shrine of the frog god would have?

He will leave the details of the camp to the others, while he concentrates on his spells and how to use them. 

Eventually he will ask Bulldust for the frogs and start speaking to them.  "So which one of youse is Moffa?" he starts the conversation.

OOC: After a good sleep in the frog cave all fatigue is gone. Everyone is back to full hit points as well.

The clerics were able to spend time praying/meditating when you all stopped for supper after crossing the swamp, so they can renew their spell choices for today as well.

Jurz was able to question your two frogs there as well, but of course no one else understands the language of amphibians.

The group hasn't quite reached their chosen campsite just yet, though, so everyone roll d20 for a Spot check, please, as Minmorc leads you all toward the rocky outcrop.

 She grumbled about swamp water matting her feathers and making her clothes damp and stinky, but she came along with the others, wanting to get away from those frogs before she tried to eat one, and ate an ally! At least here she would know any frog here was likely a friend! She kept an eye out for a good camp spot.

10:28, Today: Raven rolled 16 using 1d20+4. Spot Check.

After talking to the twp frogs for a while Jurz turns to the group.  ”Dis froggy is Moffa and shes says it is a curse, like wid de princess.  But de curse swaps to de new person.  So no kissing eider of de froggies!” he says sternly ”And  did udder froggy is de one dat started it all.  Der froggy god gave him der special powers and told him to go do der kiss wid one of us sleeping in der cave.  And dey have done it before.  Maybe some of does udder froggies was peoples once?” he suggests as he relates  the stories of the two frogs back to the others hoping they will come up with some sensible questions he can ask.

---
22:14, Today: Rog rolled 11 using 1d20+5. spot the campsite.
22:14, Today: Jurz rolled 4 using 1d20+3. Spot the camp site

Riza marches along steadily with Minmorc and doesn't waste time when the outcrop is found. A defensive base that they can set up is definitely worth it considering everything they have gone through so far.

After hearing Jurz's update she pipes up "shame we can't use these frogs to kiss any enemies we come across"

OOC: rolled 17 spot check

Minmorc confidently marches towards the rocky out crop.

OOC: Spot check 9. I know naaasink, I know naaasink!
"Pokeball go, moffrog, I choose you, moffrog, use kiss attack!"

Jurz starts to smile as he builds on the idea.  "Yesss.  Next times we has a  fight we gets a Humie unconscious and Moffa can kiss it!" he says excitedly.

"Dat's one ways." he says still grinning, "What else coulds we do?" he asks hoping for something tha might be a bit easier and quicker.

"Dat's powerful magic," Dregz shakes his head, "'an hard to get rid of."

"Dat stuff we got from O'Baddy's hut was like dat too.  I'll have to look in der Holy Book an' see if I can find anyfing about it."

"Ties der frog to a long stick den poke der humie wid it. Jab! Frog curse on a stick."

About half of the group spot something up ahead at the rocky outcrop. Arlein is the first to spot it when she is 200 feet from the rocks, then Grakk when he is 110 feet from the rocks, then Dregz and Riza at 80 feet away, Raven at 70 feet, Oopses at 30 feet and Rog at 20 feet.

Arlein's reaction is either ignored or misinterpreted so it is Grakk who alerts the others.

You see a large head and shoulders poking up among a group of rocks where it is difficult to spot because of the shadows. Even at the distance of 110 feet you quickly recognise it because it looks so much like your dreaded overseer, Uberthud the ogre. There is no doubt that he has seen you and is watching you walk closer.

OOC: The terrain between the forest and the rocky outcrop is a gentle uphill slope covered in fairly thick grass about 2 feet high.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 14):

Correction, smelled.

Minmorc will stop at Grakks warning and will peer around until he sees the ogre. He'll plant the but of his spear on the ground and will sweep Helen around in a complex gesture, muttering under his breathe. He'll then rest Helen on his shoulder and call out "Oi, ogre, watcha doin up there?"

"Hmmm." Jurz muses as he makes sure he is towards the back of the group.  "Does anyones have de potions of flying?" he asks grinning broadly  "Den Moffa could fly up dere and kiss de ogre."

However, he does look around to see if  there are any bolt holes and to check if the ogre has any friends around.

In reply to Jurz (msg # 17):

Cowars behind Minmorc.

 "Shoot Moffy with da sling? Kiss da ogre? Make him into a frogre?" She gives a short hiccup of a laugh (think Sheldon's laugh). "Else, wat we do wit it? Poke it wit a stick?" Again the short hiccup of a laugh, but still she readied her weapon in case of attack.

The little goblin does not see the Ogre at first, but once alerted by Grakk soon manages to make it out amidst the shadows.  While Dregz has no doubt his tribe can easily slay the creature (assuming there is but one !) he's equally sure that some of them will bleed in the doing so ... and is cautiously optimistic that the Ogre might even be persuaded to join them, for life in a swamp on edge of the Elf lands can not be much of an existence.

"Ask 'im if 'e wants ter join us ?" he suggests to Minmorc, one hand shading his eyes as he peers upwards.

"Whaa... Err... Oi Ogre, join us or die!"

Riza is shocked at the appearance of the ogre and immediately draws her bow and will be prepared to fight and hide if anything happens.

While everyone else stops and stares at the ogre, Minmorc makes a show of waving his oversized weapons about and muttering madly before calling out to the ogre. Riza's immediate reaction is to ready her bow. After an unbiased glance around at the strange assortment of races that makes up this little group of deserters, Dregz suggests the ogre be asked to join them. Naturally, Minmorc translates this suggestion into a shout of, "Oi Ogre, join us or die."

The ogre just looks mystified for a moment before cracking a huge grin and shouting back, "Oh, dat's a good un! Me boss is Die-Arda. Me already joinded Die! Hur, hur, hur!" The he turns his head and shouts something over his shoulder. [Language unknown: "P, Ave! Trtrme pl mawe besena un it leie ac! Di p iouvorles verstiith ard ounencrutill i romvenint!"]

Moments later a second ogre comes into view between the rocks behind him, then a third and fourth. All four ogres squeeze out through the gaps between the rocks and form a ragged line in front of the rocky outcrop. The leader (O2) stares at the mismatched group in front of him and sneers.

"So what the carkin' 'eck are youz lot supposed to be, eh? If youz been sended to take over der watchin' from us, youz is carkin' late! Carkin' 'ells! Look at youz! Der bosses is really scrapin' der bottoms of der barrels dis time."

OOC: Main game map updated.

"Yep.  We's de best dey got." Jurz shouts up the hill.  "Dey says dey needs all der big guys for someting special."   he adds, hoping that will get the ogres out of the way, and that they might be able to by-pass this watch point before the next watch arrives.

Minmorc gets the feeling that the goblins are being clever and sneaky again and he really wants to help out. He will sheath Helen and will use Vera to stretch, and stretch and stretch until he's ten feet tall. "See, I'm wid Die Harda too, der goblins is der sharp eyes and err he needs you lot ter help him so er he sent me to to back dem up. Err, his message was go join him or die."

"I still says let dem kiss der frog and become Frogre princes! Den dey can go fights with Die Harda or die anoder day."
 She snickered a snickery snicker and looked around at the others then back to the ogres.
"I wonders which make de best frogre prince?"

The second ogre (O2), the one who did most of the talking before, is the one that replies to Minmorc.

"Youz big enough, so youz must be der leader of dis lot. Bad luck, dat. But me sees why. Youz not der smartest ork boyz me ever met. Youz not wid Die-Arda yet, orc boyz, cos me is Die-Arda! Oh, cark it! Just get youz sorry asses inna der rocks up 'ere an' we tells youz wot youz needs to knows, else der first elfses wot comes outa der forests gonna 'ave a field dayz wid youz buncha wimpses."

In reply to Die-Arda (msg # 27):

"I'z don't wants tah be eh puns toushin"

"Which one is 'Uz' ?" Dregz whispers perplexedly to Jurz.  The little goblin is struggling to follow the blatant straightforwardness of Ogre humour, but understands enough to know that the group is already onto Plan B and the subterfuge must be maintained !

"Wese plenty tough," he assures Die. "Wese already met some of dose Elf-boys in der forest an' lived tah tell der tale !"

"Uz sent us !"  A gods-given flash of inspiration, "Youse should join 'im an' wese'll guard 'ere. Er ... wot are we guardin' ?"

Minmorc snarls a little when the ogre insults him but settles a little when he realises the ogre is pretty much spot on the money. He'll glare at Dregz and say "Pfeh, look in yer book and see if it tells yer when ter quit tryin." Minmorc will glance at the tree line, nod and start walking towards the ogres. He will call out to Die Harda as he marches "We foughts a squada elves yesserday, got a few but der rest legged it. So der elves is back dat way" pointing over his shoulder "den wots dat way?" Pointing past the ogres.

Die-Arda looks like he took it for granted that you would all do what he tells you so he has no particular reaction when giant Minmorc starts to lead his followers forward toward the ogres and their watch post in the rocky outcrop.

"Dat's right, youz gonna take over der watchin' for us. Youz gonna stayz 'ere inna rocks an' keep watchin' 'til some one else gets sent to takes over from youz. Probly only about one week. Maybe two. Youz watcha trees in case der elfses comes out to attack. Dat's most likely cos its closest. Good fing youz killeded a couple already - dat's a couple youz don't gotta watch out for no more. Youz watcha dat way (he waves his arm towards the grasslands to the east) in case der yoomanses comes marchin' to attack. Probly gonna 'appen some day but probly not while youz 'ere. Back dat way's just der 'ills. (He points away toward the south where a range of hills darkens the horizon.) Yoomanses an' elfses don't likes der 'ills cos deys too rocky an' upsy-downsy an' fulla our mateses. An dat way (he points across the grassland to the west) is Gorna, 'bout a day's walkin' from 'ere. Dat's why youz keepin' watch 'ere. Elfses comes outa der trees or yoomanses comes 'cross der grasses, youz lights der big bonfire up 'ere inna rocks. It gots special stuff in it wot makes lotsa purple smoke an' dat's der warning signal wot dey'll sees in Gorna an' gets ready for der attacks. Dat's wot youz is 'ere for."

 She nodded as if she understood the instructions and why they had to guard the rocky area and send up purpley smoke as they headed toward the orces. She looked at the others as she kept behind the big guy, to see if they had any plans. She had her weapon readied for any chance she got and if her mates indicated they wanted to attack.
 "Purple smokes. Gottit."

Minmorc will walk until he's thirty feet away from Dies and will come to a halt. "So we's sets up ere and light der fire if we's attacked. Wots Gorna?"

Die-Arda grins. It isn't a comforting sight.

"It were der yoomanses city. Now it's a Gorna. Der mighty army of der giantses an' ogreses an' orcses an' gobboes an' der rest of uz - we smasheded it. Made it more betterer for uz. Yeah. Fun place for uz now. In fact, we'z gonna go dere now dat youz takin' over der watchin' 'ere for uz. So what youz gotta do now is dis. Youz gotta gives uz all youz shinies! Youz don't wants der elfses to gets dem if dey attacks youz 'ere, so youz gives all youz shinies to uz an' we make sure der elfses an' der yoomanses not gets dem!"

"Like dat's gonna happen." Jurz mutters to those closest to him.  "Bully, Gives Moffa to me." he continues softly with a fixed grin on his face.  "Shes more use dan Oopses is.  And we's can get Oopses back  after -  so long as we don't kill all of de ogres off."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:47, Sat 15 Nov 2014.

The prospect of guard duty is alarming, to say the least.  If the Elf-boys or yoomans attack and they light the fire, the reinforcements won't be best pleased to see the band of deserters.  "Even money on which side gets ter gut us," Dregz mutters unhappily.

Minmorc's tone seems rather unrespectful, and the little goblin priest cradles his sack-shrouded Holy Book in his arms as if seeking to comfort it.

Riza was disliking this situation more and more as the ogre talked, taking down überthaled was lucky. She very much doubted that they could take on 4 at once.

She hated the idea of them taking her shinies. As far as she was concerned they could have them when they pried them from her corpse. But she had an idea of how to mess with them... She just had to wait and see how the others would react.

Riza will move so she is 60ft from the ogres but will make sure Minmorc is between her and die arda, she will keep her bow ready incase things turn nasty...

In reply to Riza (msg # 37):

Hisses at the druid, and his little dog too.

Bulldust follows along a step or two behind and to the side of Minmorc. It seems the natural thing to do when he is that big.

Jurz's request confuses Bully a bit and he looks down at the little goblin blankly. But after a moment he tenderly lifts the little green Moffa-frog out of his belt pouch and holds her out to Jurz.

He shambles to a halt beside Minmorc when the oversized orc stops walking forward.

Grakk walked forward alongside Bulldust and stopped when he did. He shifted his greataxe to his left hand and pulled out a handful of gold coins from his belt pouch. They glinted brightly in the early morning sunlight and he stood mesmerised by the beautiful sight.

"Aww, do we have to?" he asks his companions. "I just got them and this is the first time I saw them shining bright like that."

OOC: Where is everyone located?

Giant Minmorc is 30ft from the ogres. Bulldust and Grakk are beside him 35ft from the ogres. Moffdust is in Bulldust's hand that he is holding out to Jurz, if Jurz is nearby. Riza has deliberately lagged a bit behind and is 60 feet from the ogres.

So, where is everyone else going to be now?

Jurz rides up to collect Moffa-frog and places her safely inside his a pocket.  "Youse be careful in dere Moffa frog." he says softly, "Cos we has got to fight dese ogres."

"Yous'll get Oopses back after." he adds, commenting to the cat as he withdraws 20 feet behind Bulldust and Grakk "Just we's might need Moffa's  spells." he says as he gets his scimitar and shield ready for combat.

"Tell him we don't have any spare shinies." he calls out to Minmorc from the safety of the back row.

Minmorc is overcome with emotion and sweeps Grakk and Bulldust to his sides in a big bro hug then wipes a big single tear from his big ugly face. "Cor, bless ya lads, bless yer both." Letting them go he'll point at the Ogres "yer hear that! We got loadsa shinies but none fer you girls! So Dies, COME ON DEN IF YER FINKS YER HARD ENOUGH!" He'll then give Dies the stinkeye, blow a raspberry and set Vera against the charge.

Dregz had been standing close by Minmorc, but with the sudden arrival of the heavy brigade and the revised forecast of a short but bloody period of violence and mayhem, the little goblin priest scampers back to cower near Jurz, the comforting hold on his book now a protective hug.  "Oh dears," he mumbles, plaintively.

Riza grins evily to herself.... Fun at last she knew Minmorc would not let this slide. She will hold her action until the ogres move, if they decide to accept Minmorc's challenge she will let loose an arrow at die arda.

 She wasn't going to give up her shinies easily, no siree! No siree bob! She just hunkered down behind the big guys so maybe they couldn't see her then backed up slowly, very slowly, just shifting from one foot to the other, like she was nervous, trying to seem natural like. She hoped to find a position where she could do something besides get squashed or stomped on, and not get her shinies stoled.
Then maybe she could find a place to shoot from.

In reply to Raven (msg # 46):

Oopses is afraid, we already lost a few people since he got dragged into rebellion, and now Jurz is chasing him waving a frog around while full grown ogres are looming.

When Die-Arda demands that the group hand over all their 'shinies', everyone in the group responds with a mixture of fear and outrage. Some show considerably more anger but in others it is fear that is clearly the over-riding reaction.

There is a lot of muttering among the ranks but in the end it is the giant Minmorc who shouts their defiant challenge at the ogres. He steps back a pace as he sets his huge spear Vera against the expected charge of the ogres, incidentally bringing himself in line with Bulldust and Grakk as the front line of their defence.

Riza, Jurz and Rog, Dregz, Raven, Oopses and Arlein all end up a further 20 feet back, 60 feet from the ogres. Riza has her bow ready to shoot and Raven ducks down in the waist-high grass to hide from sight. Riza is so short and naturally camouflaged that she easily blends in with the vegetation and is difficult to spot as well.

The ogre (O4) at the eastern end of their line proves to be the most hot-headed of the bunch and with an angry shout he charges forward at Grakk and Bulldust. The ogre leader Die-Arda (O2) shouts something in a harsh tongue that few understand, [Language unknown: "Onsnotine, staec! And icate thsedi lind oulvorwer ofnepo int week ainias iohis lesi pre sison! Din ectastmen protiosti letaou ilai lo comdinticent thi u she nc ma k Nenoar!"]

Minmorc swings Vera around to greet the charging ogre. The greatspear's oversized head plunges straight through the ogre's heart and the brute crashes to the ground, dead before he even managed to swing his greatclub.

The other two ogre minions (O1 and O3) yell in fury and charge forward as well but Die-Arda stands back to assess how the battle progresses.

The western ogre (O1) charges straight at Minmorc and swings his greatclub in a wild blow that only just manages to hit his virtually unmissable target. It is still a mighty blow and Minmorc is grievously wounded.

The third ogre (O3) charges at Bulldust but his swing is even wilder and he completely loses his grip on his greatclub as he swings at Bulldust's head. The mighty club sails straight over the bugbear and minotaur then scythes through a swath of grass before coming to rest in front of Raven and Dregz.

Riza was ready to shoot at Die-Arda as soon as the ogres attacked but finding her shot blocked by the ogre attacking Minmorc she shoots at him instead, catching him by surprise. It is a serious wound but not enough to cool his anger.

OOC: Main game map updated.

Riza is determined to strike down the ogre but her shot goes wild, the sudden charge of 3 ogres has put her off incredibly.

OOC: rolled 8 natural 1 ouch

Having gutted one ogre Minmorc begins shouting "for the shinies!" But the hit from the next ogre in line considerably dampens his spirits. Taking a five foot step to the north east Minmorc will reach over the top of his treasured meat shields, I mean brothers in arms to take a jab at Ogre 3.

Jurz holds Moffa Frog close, but not close enough that she can kiss him "Youze gets ready to kiss Oopses. "  he murmurs "An I hopes you have learned da frog jumping fing proper." he adds as he reaches as low down as he can and flips the little frog behind him.

Looking Up he grins nastily and charges Rog straight towards Ogre no 1. 

---

08:49, Today: Rog rolled 6 using 1d20+5. att ogre 1 at chrage.
08:48, Today: Jurz rolled 6 using 1d20+5. Att Ogre 1 at Charge.

Oh well ......
This message was last edited by the player at 16:19, Sun 23 Nov 2014.

Dregz shrieks like an Elf having a bad hair day as the ogre's club lands but inches from him, but it seems that affront does not cower the little goblin, but riles him, for he places his Holy Book reverently on the ground before unfurling his sling and hunting in his pocket for a couple of the remaining metal slugs.  "How dare dey !" the priest demands.

 She ducked down flinching when the great club came flying over and nearly crushed them, but landing just in front of them. She used Dregz' scream of outrage to cover any whisper of sound she might make as she moved sideways then forward a bit to get a good target in sight. She loaded a bullet into her sling, then let it go aimed at the ogre next to the dead one hoping to cause some damage or at least distract it long enough that her friends could take it down.

01:08, Today: Raven rolled 5 using 1d4+1. damage if any.
01:08, Today: Raven rolled 19 using 1d20+4. ranged attack (sling).
01:07, Today: Raven rolled 21 using 1d20+7. move silently.

Grakk ducks as the ogre's greatclub sails overhead then he bellows his war cry and steps forward to hack at the ogre with his greataxe. Then he follows through by lowering his head and driving his horns into the ogre's gut as well!

Bully looks a bit undecided for a moment as he weighs his shovel in one hand and the longspear Minmorc found for him in the other hand. The longspear feels just a bit heavier, so he drops the shovel and jabs at ogre 3 with the longspear. All that thinking didn't help his concentration, unfortunately, so his thrust is not aimed very well.

OOC: Partial update ... Oopses, Arlein and Moffdust have not acted yet this round.

Riza tries to shoot at the closest ogre (O1) again but her fingers slip and the shot goes wild, narrowly missing Minmorc instead.

The grievously wounded Minmorc backs off a step or two behind Bulldust and jabs over the bugbear's head at the unarmed ogre (O3) with his greatspear Vera. He hits and seriously wounds the ogre.

Jurz drops Moffa-frog in the grass behind him then urges Rog onwards in a reckless charge at the westernmost ogre (O1). The ogre sees him coming and swings his greatclub low to meet dog and rider before they reach him. He shouts something in a harsh language as he swings. [Language unknown: "Ear!"] However, pure survival instinct kicks in and somehow Rog manages to bound right over the swinging club and avoid the devastating blow it threatened to deliver. The action puts dog and rider off their aim and both completely miss their target.

Dregz and Raven are both startled by the ogre's greatclub landing right in front of them. Dregz places his precious Holy Book on the ground and pulls out his sling but Raven scurries sideways with sling already in hand to find a better spot to shoot from. Her sling bullet flies true and hits the eastern ogre (O3) in the chest.

Grakk swings his greataxe as he quickly steps forward to attack the weaponless ogre (O3). His greataxe slashes open the ogre's belly and the great brute practically folds forward as he collapses right on top of the minotaur's horns. When Grakk pushes the ogre off and aside, the ogre crashes to the ground, obviously very dead.

Bulldust was just about to spear that ogre as well but when the ogre falls he swings his spear toward the western ogre (O1) instead and steps forward just far enough to lunge at the big brute. However the last moment change of plan throws off his aim and his longspear misses the ogre.

OOC: Main game map updated. Bless cast by Minmorc last round gives everyone +1 on attack rolls for 9 more rounds.

The little green Moffa-frog squats in the tall grass where Jurz dropped her.

"Brrrdup, brrrdup, brrrdup," she croaks [Language unknown: "Wer haeind, ndpome, watana!"]

In reply to Raven (msg # 7):

Oopses looses his round to trying not to get froggered.

With two ogres dead their leader calls and waves his arm, beckoning the other ogre back toward him. [Language unknown: "Oneartatiset, ac whi ssart! Ei virhiswhi atithuhas re!"]

That ogre (O1) scowls but does indeed disengage and backs away to rejoin Die-Arda.

"Orright, looks like youz is Arda-Nuff after all! Youz can keeps youz shinies," Die-Arda announces.

OOC: Main game map updated. New round – anyone can act now.

Expecting Minmorc to respond to the Ogre, Jurz moves along, behind the bigs, until he comes to the fallen ogres.  Dismounting he starts to inspect them for signs of life, death and anything interesting.

But most importantly he is looking to see if either of them are still breathing.  He still needs a live one for Moffa.

Grakk sniggers a bit when Die-Arda calls off the other ogre.

"His name is Ugleemug. Good name for him!" he tells his friends.

"Looks like we got a new name, too. We's Arda-Nuff!"

Both of the defeated ogres are dead. No joy for Moffdust there.

The goblin priest scowls at the two surviving Ogres.  The look is indeed one that might well kill ... but Dregz chooses to stay his hand at the moment in the hope that the pair will clear off. 

"Arda-Nuff," he echoes softly, vindictively.

Minmorc will shake his head angrily, pull a wand from his sporran and jab himself, saying under his breath "gettup". Glaring at Dies Arda he'll jab Vera over the heads of team Arda Nuff and will snarl "dat bloody hurt. Dies, give us yer shinies right now, else yer not leavin dose rocks alive."

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 64):

Oopses is still trying to take in evetything that's as happened in the past turn gawks as minroc challenges the ogres.

Die-Arda snorts with laughter.

"Youz ain't dat Ard," he chuckles. "Ain't got no shinies, anyways. Carkin' giant an' 'is pack of gnolls what was 'ere before us, dey took me shinies when we got 'ere. Dat's der ways it works, see? You wants shinies? Go dig inna carkin' midden in dere!"

He waves his arm back toward the rocky outcrop behind him.

"Dere's summat shinin' in dere, if youz want dat bad enough! Buncha elf junk from some what der giant an' 'is gnolls killed an' ate. Bah! Elf junk's no use. Can't trades it in Gorna. Nobody wants it 'cos it don't fit nobody. But youz wants to be pretty like elfses? Shiny like elfses? Youz can 'ave as much of dat shit as youz wants. We's leaving!"

Minmorc's demand suprises and delights Dregz, causing a snort of laughter to erupt from the little goblin.  "Youse got big stones," he tells the orc approvingly, moved to collect his Holy Book, tucking it under his arm and takes a step around the huge club to advance to Minmorc's side.  "Youse need a cure, big guy ?  Bargrivyek approves of youse !"

Minmorc snorts the snort of disappointment and scowls at Dies Arda. Glancing down Minmorc will grin at Dregz and nod. "Yerp, more Healy stuff'd be good. Der more godses dat likes me der betters, ders already a god dat likes me, if I wish real hard ee makes me stones bigger, just gotta figure out oo ee is so I can ask im fer more stuff." Minmorc will then go back to scowling at Dies Arda and will start the two fingers pointing from his eyes to Dies letting him know that Minmorcs watching him.

"Youse betcha !" the little goblin priest drapes his sling over his shoulder and pulls out the healy stick, muttering the holy words to invoke his god's aid as he touches it against the big orc's knee (being about as high as he can reach), before joining Minmorc in scowling belligerently at the surviving ogres.

"Ugly Mug!" Bulldust snorts with laughter when he finally gets the joke. "Youz sees, Moffa? Even his own muvver and favver finks he's too ugly for any uvver namesez to fits!"

Bulldust smirks as he takes a step back between Grakk and Minmorc. He plants the butt of his longspear against the ground behind him then waves the pointy end in the direction of the ogres.

"Ugly Mug!" he snorts again. "Didya getya looks from ya muvver?"

The little green Moffa-frog starts hop, hop, hopping through the grass toward her big bruvver Bulldust.

Jurz checks the two fallen ogres but finds both to be truly dead.

Minmorc applies a wand to begin to speed up the healing of his wounds. His challenge to Die-Arda reveals the ogres have no treasure other than the elf junk dumped in their midden heap. Dregz moves forward to offer Bargrivyek's help to close Minmorcs's wounds as well.

Grakk interprets Die-Arda's giantish instructions and chuckles as he translates the other ogre's name as Ugleemug. Bulldust can't ignore such a funny name and begins to tease the ogre about it. He also mimic's Minmorc's previous tactic of setting his spear in case the ogre gets too upset about the joke. Moffa-frog hops up to join Bulldust, perhaps hoping to impart a bit of sisterly advice before it is too late.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone else when Ugleemug the ogre (O1) finally snaps and charges forward with an angry roar. He charges straight at Bulldust. Bully levels the spear and skewers the ogre through his belly as he rushes forward. It is a grievous wound but not enough to stop the ogre and he still swings his greatclub at Bulldust as he closes in. The blow is on target but deflects off Bully’s magical black chainshirt armour, leaving the bugbear miraculously unscathed.

Die-Arda snorts in disgust, "Dey's all so carkin' dumb! Why's youz ogre boyz all too carkin' dumb to live?" He turns his back and retreats inside the rocky outcrop without a backward glance.

OOC: Main game map updated.

"Hur, hur, hur! So yer wanna play too, eh, Ugly! Well, eres Wilson, spike!" Minmorc will step forward back into position, will pull Wilson out of his bag and without letting go of Vera will ram the spiky ball into the ogres chest.

Minmorc lunges forward to ram the spiked ball he created into the chest of the grievously injured ogre. The spikes pierce through the ogre's heavy hide armour and he gasps for air as he falls back and crashes to the ground. He lies there unconscious with blood bubbling from his lips with each shallow breath.

Quickly Jurz runs across to grab the Moffa-frog and help it get to the ogre before it dies.  "Do da mouf kisses wid de ogre, Moffa." he says as he holds the little frog face down towards the ogres mouth.

A strange, oddly melodic voice echoes from Minmorcs mouth "Touch down team Ard Enuff, and the crowd goes wild! That was a magnificent play from the Ard Enuff quarter back, watch Tim, as we play that one back in slow motion..." Minmorcs mouth snaps shut with an audible snap and he will stare around in confusion for a little while.

"Good finking Minmorc, you killed him just a little bit so he can still fix Moffa!"  Bulldust drops to his knees to help Jurz.  He squeezes the ogres bloody lips together into a juicy pucker.  "Vat's it Jurzey, now administer ve prostrateogrekiss."  He makes inspirational kiss-kiss noises with his own lips, then looks around sheepishly to see if anyone saw him getting carried away over Moffa.

Jurz and Bulldust demonstrate unexpected coordination and teamwork skills to bring together Moffa-frog and dying ogre to administer the 'kiss'. The ogre instantly transforms into a little green frog and Moffa seems to reappear by magic. The fact that she is stark naked and still firmly embraced by Jurz's two hands is, well, it's a bit of an awkward situation, actually. The ogre's discarded gear is never going to fit her!

OOC: Main game map updated.

Minmorc will grin at Bully "yep, der gods in my head told me ter give im der ball." He'll then grin at Moffa. "Allo Moffa. You was a Moffrog, now we's got a frogre. Err, what are we gonna do with der Frogre?" While Minmorc is talking to the others he will pull out his Healy stick and give himself some more curing.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:22, Mon 08 Dec 2014.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 80):

"Youse took down tour ogras." Oopses stutters.

Minmorc grins at Oopses "Yarp, der gods liked us today much mores den dey liked dem. So, err.." Minmorc will start holding up fingers "... Dies is in der rocks, der might be some treasure in der rocks, Gorna is dat way, der froggy cave is dat way, I'm hungry and I wanna make camp ter sharpen stuff an tell der gods ter gimme more power. So, anybody gotta plan?" As the number of points doesn't even closely match the number of fingers you can bet Minmorcs plan won't be much more complicated then sit in rocks and eat pork.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 82):

Arlein slinks up the hill.

"Dat ovver Ogre has got der best spot !" Dregz complains.

Moffa shriekes "Clothses Bully!" She wriggles in Jurz's grasp and spits and wipes the ogre blood from her mouth onto Jurz's sleeve, "Pleff, pleff, bleug! Dat was horrible. But its nice to have handses again, thanks Jurzie. Does my breaths smells of flies?"

Jurz  drops Moffa like she was burning him, and then turned the same bright red that his might have done, if he had been burned for real. .  One second she was a frog, next second she was a naked girl shouting  and being held half facing down towards an ogre.  What was pointing straight at Jurz's face was something that he had never expected to see in quite that circumstance.  Although, to be honest, he had probably fantasised about something similar on a number of occasions.

"hrphumhum" he coughs deeply in  his throat as he starts walking up the hills.  "We's is supposed to takes over da guard up dere ..." he says waving up hill and reminding Dregz that the Ogre should be vacating the ring of stones, then indicates that Minmorc and Grakk should move forward with him.  "So we's should be insida da ring of stones ..."

"In't he hidin' up der ?" Dregz clutches the Holy Book and squints to try to see if Die Arda is still in the ring of stones or did in fact run off.

Better that than try to catch a glimpse of Moffdust with Bully around !

"Whoa!"  Bulldust shouts at Jurz.  "Jurz!  Don't look - vats my sister WIV NO CLOVES ON!!"  On instinct he reaches for the nearest thing to cover his sister, and that's Arlein the cat slinking past uphill.  "Nice kitty, will you cuddle up to Moffa while I find her cloves?"

He races back downhill to find Moffa's clothes in his bag then stumbles back uphill with his eyes closed and arms outstretched.

There is a lot of confusion and no small amount of embarrassment about Moffdust's current state of undress but at least some of the Arda-Nuff team begin to make their way forward toward the rocky outcrop at the top of the hill.

Die-Arda is tall enough to be visible above the rocks, so it is obvious to all when he hoists a heavy sack over his shoulder and squeezes out through a gap in the rocks on the western side of the rocky outcrop. There are several patches on the sack that are still damp with blood. The large, juicy leg sticking out the top of the sack offers a further clue that the sack is probably full of what an ogre would call 'trail rations'. The ogre leader just starts walking westward without even a glance back at his fallen comrades or the Arda-Nuff bunch that are now responsible for this lookout post.

Blood is still oozing from the gut wound in the belly of the Frogre.

OOC: Main game map updated.

"Bully?  Will youse finsh de Frogre off?  We's don't wants him suddenly waking up an being all cross wid us ..." he calls back down the hill.

Then shakes his head to try and get rid of the mental image of Moffa winking at him, before he starts looking around the rocky outcrop.

In reply to Jurz (msg # 90):

Arlein looks kinda like a stuffed animal being squeezed to death with a perturbed look on her face as the goblin manhandles her after the orc.

The goblin priest is much relieved to see the Ogre making a run for it, though the loss of what could have been a good meal is a bit disappointing.

Jurz' reminder that the Ogre still lives, albeit in frog form causes Dregz to lapse into silence as divine inspiration hits him and he ponders the potential for mayhem.

Imagine if a brave goblin walked into a room of bloodthirsty humans, carrying nothing but a cursed frog ... and then kissed the creature.  Goblin disappears.  Ogre appears. Frogoblin hops away.  Humans die horribly.  You'd need a supply of captive Ogres, but ...

Dregz shakes his head.  Effective as it sounds, something would undoubtedly go wrong.  It always does.  With a sigh, the idea of Toadal War is consigned to oblivion.

"C'mon.. lesse what der Ogres left behind ..." the priest suggests, starting to trudge up the hillside towards the rocks.

Moffa plops down cross-legged with the dusk coloured tabby in her lap. She nervously gives the cat a pat on the head like a dog and says "Nice catses. Good catses. No clawsies please." As soon as Bully comes within grabbing distance the cat gets turfed from her lap and she wriggles into her clothes.

"I says squash de frogres - dey is dangerous!" She spits on the floor a couple more times to get the taste out of her mouth.

Bully helps Moffa reclaim all her gear from his sack.  Before heading uphill he picks up the frogre, carefully avoiding the mouth.  "Aw he's bleeding.  Huh, yeah, I'll squash im later ..." he says distractedly.  He puts his finger over the wound in the frogre's belly.

On the hilltop Bully will help search the area, even the midden that Die Arda thought to be ridden with elf junk.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:52, Sun 14 Dec 2014.

Minmorc will use his size to good effect while it lasts, he'll head to the forest and grab a couple of trees to make a good cooking fire. Let the others worry about Dies Harda, elves, bonfires, treasures... Minmorc has some very clear priorities and now that the fightings done its time to feast!

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 95):

Oopses still in shock, heads up towards the promised cave.

Die-Arda strides away toward the west, showing no signs of deviating from that direction.

Moffdust finally gets her clothes back and releases Arlein as she hurriedly gets dressed again. Bulldust gently packs the injured frogre away in the belt pouch where Moffa-frog had resided.

Giant Minmorc hurries off to fetch firewood from the forest before his spells wear off.

Before long everyone turns their attention to the rocky outcrop at the top of the hill and they all move up to examine their new refuge.

There is a cleared space about 40 to 50 feet across in the middle of the rocky outcrop. There is plenty of evidence of the ogres that used to be stationed here, including three heaps of animal furs that formed their bedding, and a bit of rubbish scattered around inside the clearing. They left nothing of any real value.

At the centre of the clearing is an unlit bonfire about 5 feet high. Near the top a small sack is visible among the logs and branches of the bonfire. The sack is stained purple over much of its surface area. A single tindertwig can just be glimpsed under the bottom edge of that small purple sack.

The midden heap is located just outside the southern side of the rocky outcrop. It is a foul mixture of broken bones, rotting meat and offal, excrement and other rubbish. Bulldust is the most determined to explore its secrets and his efforts – digging among the rubbish with his shovel – soon reveals an assortment of elvish gear including some armour and weapons, mostly rusted or damaged in some way. As Die-Arda had said, digging there eventually uncovers a couple of glowing items as well. These turn out to be a glowing longsword and dagger, both of the size and style favoured by elves.

OOC: Main game map updated.

"Careful wid dat," Dregz stands near the bonfire.  "If dat catches light den we're gonna be up tah our armpits in reinforcements lookin' fer der Elf-boys !"

"An' probably a loada Elf-boys thinkin' tah come tah 'elp der mates !"

Bulldust plonks down the armful of elvish treasures he rescued from the midden.  "Elf shinies.  I miss Nurzhan, he'd have cleaned vese up, look vis one's got ogre poo on it."  We can wash vem when we finds water."  He slaps at a mozzie annoying his neck, then puts the dead insect in his belt pouch.

Approaching the fire, Jurz carefully uncovered the sack with purple stuff and removes the tinder-twig from under it and carefully puts the little stick aside for later.  Then, assuming the purple stuff sack isn't too heavy, he will carry the bag over towards the midden and place it carefully amongst the rocks.

"Dere.  We's can't start de signal fire by accident now." although he  makes his way back to the fireplace and checks it out for any other  special smoke bags, just in case it was double loaded.

Minmorcs quest for a good feed will quickly become quite an epic saga. First he'll build a good cooking fire pit and some other fire pits cause he likes fire. He'll spread the boar skins over the rocks to give them a chance to finally dry out. He'll then go hunting at the edges of the forest for some more herbs and edibles, hopefully some mushrooms and root vegetables to make a good stew as a couple of days of hard travel has probably dried the meat out a lot. He'll then go through the midden looking for shields and helmets, anything that can hold water and he'll use the last of his water to clean out the worst of the muck. He'll then light up the fires and will place any containers he's found around the fires and then he will dance, a mad swirling and whirling demand for water. If his prayers are answered and the containers fill with water he'll use some to make a lot of stew, drink some, fill a water skin for him and Riza each and will offer whatever's left of the water and a share of the stew to the rest of the party. While eating and between belches he will volunteer to carry the shiny girly elf sword but reckons Bully or Jurz should carry the shiny girly elf dagger, though if there's no takers he'll be happy to add that to his growing armoury. Then, if nothing else goes amiss he'll curl up next to the fire and go to sleep.

Jurz only finds the one small purple sack (which only weighs about one pound) and one tindertwig. It doesn't look like there was any intention for the lookouts to stay around and rebuild the signal fire if it was ever necessary to light it. Perhaps the reinforcements it would attract would bring more to replace it.

Minmorc's efforts are successful and don't attract any reaction from any unfriendly forces in the forest. Everyone else has an opportunity to claim sword and dagger before Minmorc even sees them but there are plenty of other items in the midden heap. It looks like the arms and armour of dozens of elves (along with their well-gnawed bones) have accumulated in the midden over a number of years. This must have once been the base of a very formidable force of some kind to have signalled the doom of so many elves.

Minmorc finds plenty of elvish helmets to serve as pots once they have been cleaned out. There are a number of shields as well although they are too shallow to hold much water. Several chain shirts and suits of chain mail, although they are sized for elves and therefore too long or slim for most other races to wear. It all looks like the sort of elvish junk that litters a dozen battlefields around each of the forests in the Duchy of Geoff. How could anyone tell the difference between trash and treasure, anyway? Well, yes, that magical glow was a bit of a giveaway but lots of the evil humanoid forces in the Duchy are very superstitious about anything to do with elves and would prefer to bury it deep rather than ever let it see the light of day again.

Minmorc's plans to rest here do seem unusually sensible. This spot is very defensible and offers excellent sightlines in all directions.

Dregz refuses to even touch any armour or weapon of Elf-Boy manufacture, claiming that "dey're all cursed !"  Indeed, the priest looks very unhappy as he sits in the corner, arms wrapped around his sack and munching on a strip of wild boar, looking around nervously as if expecting the ghosts of the many dead to rise up imminently.

"If'd dose Ogres were expectin' replacements," the goblin whines, "den dey're probably already on der way 'ere, so best wese be gone before dey arrive."

Minmorc snores and moves a little in his sleep, looks like he's dreaming of chasing rabbits.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 104):

Resting in the dark of the monoliths cave oopses sighs and rubs his feet some more. As everyone else settles down(and minmorc leaves).
This message was last edited by the player at 14:25, Tue 16 Dec 2014.

Grakk snorts with laughter when he hears Jurz's fears.

"Ha, ha, that's a good one, that is! Youz should knowz by now, when the bosses sayz they's gonna sends replacements, that's just so'z youz'll stay and waitz a bit longer! Ha, ha, ha!"

After a bit of searching around the rocky outcrop everyone settles down to eat then rest through the day.

OOC: What precautions, preparations, further investigations does anyone want to do here? You have found a glowing elvish dagger and sword and an assortment of other elvish gear in the midden heap. What does anyone want to take?

Bulldust gives the shiny dagger to Moffdust.  "Take vis Moffa, its a elf dagger, so if you see any elfs you stick em wiv the pointy end."  He has no qualms about using elvish weapons but can't use a sword so leaves it for anyone else to take.

He takes the remaining assorted elvish gear to the forest and washes off the poo in a stream.  When he returns he arranges the gear on the hide-covered rocks like a museum display of the tragic short lives of elves.  Then he stuffs himself with Minmorc's stew like only a teenage bugbear can and settles down to sleep.  He still does not understand watches and taking turns but assumes someone will wake him if its his turn to do something.  Tomorrow he'll awake older and wiser ...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Fri 19 Dec 2014.

Moffdust sniggers as she paws over the elvish dagger, "Ooo its glowing, maybe dey is some goblinses around, he he he." She eats stew by the fire and laughs with the others about her adventure as a frog. "I did not likes being da frogoblinses, dey is just the wrong shades of green." She curls up to sleep next to Bully musing over what new spell she will learn tomorrow.

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 109):

Arlein just watches the group in the silent condescending manor of all cats, only moving to watch Bulldust as he rummages in the miden heap.

"Ise will pray to Bargrivyek and look in der Holy Book tah find out jus' what terr'ble curses are on dat Elf-Boy stuff," Dregz decides, resolutely.

The goblin priest is as good as his word, releasing his death-grip on the book and pulling it reverently out of it's sack-wrapping, flicking through the pages, muttering to himself.

Bulldust, sleepy, yawns "Is it true elfs live forever?"

In reply to Bulldust (msg # 112):

Oopses takes 10 cooking before minmorc poisones us all.

"Only til Minmorc finds dem." Jurz responds to Bully question as he stands looking around the campsite.

"Vats a big responsibility for Minmorc ven.  Its a good fing hes got us to help him find vem all."  He watches Arlein the cat in the quiet sleepy manner of a full bugbear who owes the cat for comforting his sister in her crisis.

Riza sits to one side watching the hustle and bustle of activity, preferring to keep out of everyone's way. She will rummage around the elf pile and see if there are any arrows she can salvage for Minmorc. Riza will look through the surrounding areas and will try and use anything the others can't use from the heap (mainly the sets of chain mail or armour, supported by swords or spears from the heap) to block up some of the gaps between the larger rocks fortifying the outcrop more. She thanks Minmorc for the food and water grateful for the gesture.

When the others comment on Minmorc's job to kill elves she pipes up "the only good elf is a dead elf, and we are an elf killing team" she will chuckle nastily and will discuss with Minmorc if he can teach her how to be a better fighter, impressed with his ability to get better when angry. She was never a fan of magic unless it was healing her.

Minmorc will tell oopses to take up his chop sticks and prepare to duel after even daring question Minmorcs extremely questionable cooking techniques.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 117):

Today: Oopses rolled 18,11,7 using 1d20+4,1d20+4,1d20+4. Culinary Skill battle!

Dregz is torn.  Oopses is his kin, but then Minmorc seems to be in favour with Bargravyek.  Besides which, the goblin priest has no culinary skills whatsoever, so it is debateable whether his assistance would help or hinder the chosen party.

Mumbling a quick prayer for his god to watch over both of them, Dregz decides to sit this one out ...

14, 13, 8, having somehow won two rounds out of three iron chef Orc remains undefeated against the challenger iron chef goblin in today's challenge of boar meataru!

The culinary masters of Team Arda-Nuff bustle about the cooking pots in this highly entertaining contest. There is a good deal of salting and spicing, as well as the requisite elements of assaulting (by Minmorc) and dodging (by Oopses) before the contest finally draws to a close with the obligatory taste test. The celebrity judges (the other members of Team Arda-Nuff, of course) summon their courage and raise the meat to their mouths, gingerly biting into the steaming flesh. Murmurs of surprise are followed by appreciative comments like, "Ah, this is good! Surprisingly good! It tastes like pork ... and yet ... not like pork! So good ... this takes me back to my childhood. My grandmama used to do such wonderful things with long pork!"

---

Meanwhile, Bulldust has laid out all the interesting finds from the midden heap. Arlein and Riza keep an eye on the process to ensure nothing is missed.  In addition to the things that a young bugbear considers interesting there are 12 suits of chainmail, 6 chain shirts, 8 sets of studded leather armour, 12 sets of leather armour, 6 large steel shields, 2 small steel shields, 20 steel helmets, 14 longswords, 2 shortswords and 4 daggers. All are of elvish size and styling. There is plenty of other gear as well but most is damaged in some way. The weapons are usable by medium sized humanoids and the helmets would be usable by goblins with a bit of padding to make them sit at the right height on a goblin head. No bows or arrows have survived intact and things like spears that would be immediately useful to other humanoids are missing altogether.

Jurz and Dregz both have the same idea and cast spells to detect any magical auras that might be present among the elvish gear. Not surprisingly the glowing longsword and glowing dagger both show up as magical. The exciting surprise is that one suit of chainmail, one suit of studded leather armour and one helmet also radiate magical auras.

"Hur, hur, hur, Oopses lost, I won! Righto Oopses, put on der magic hat." Minmorc will then chase Oopses with the Magic helmet until Oopses is in it.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 122):

Ducking and weaving, Ooppses can't compete with minmorc's raw brawn, esp after 3 days of forced travel, and gets deuced by him.

The elvish helmet slips onto Oopses head smoothly but is so long that it slides down over his eyes. It will need to be padded inside the crown of the helmet to sit at the right height on the goblin’s head. It looks very elvish but not ridiculous on the little goblin.

"Dey're all gonna need blessin'," Dregz shakes his head as he regards the pile of Elf-Boy trinkets.  "I needs ter read der entrails."

Assuming nobody brought along a handy animal sacrifice, the Goblin priest will set up crude snares fashioned in the main from woven grasses at a short distance from the outcrop, hoping to catch some unfortunate creature for the evening ceremony.

Bulldust chuckles as Minmorc chases and crowns Oopses.  The campsite is rowdy and sleeping is impossible, but the young bugbear is happy that he and Moffa fell in with such good company.  Mixed company but good.  He watches drowsily as Dregs worries over the remains of the elves. Curiosity gets the better of him and he asks sleepily, "Dregs can you teach me to say vat name, Barg-?"  Maybe he should say his prayers before he goes to sleep.

Minmorc will rap on the side of Oopses head. "Oi, any magic in der or is it just you... Did it eat yer head, you a froggy now?"

Moffdust picks her pointy teeth clean with a piece of bone when she finishes her selection of the finest dishes in the cook-off. She leans back against her drowsy brother and cackles in delight as Minmorc bullies Oopses. "Dere shoulds be jelly!" She snickers wickedly as she casts Grease under their feet.

It takes a few seconds for Minmorc to realise that the helmet is getting closer because his feet are sliding apart. With intense focus he will bring them sliding back together and will then carefully squat down to glare suspiciously at the floor. Dragging Oopses down too he'll rap on the side of the helmet again and say "bad helmet!"

Oopses rolled 14 using 1d20. balance.
Oopses rolled 6 using 1d20. relfex.
Oopses rolled 20 using 1d20. survivor's luck.

Between the grease and the oversized hat, oopses trips and somehow manages to catch his foot in a gopher hole and keep his balance, arms failing.

"Bar - grief - yuk," Dregz attempts to render his god's unholy name into something that a creature with such a mouthful of fangs as Bully might render without getting himself and a sizeable part of the nearby landscape blasted into tiny pieces.

The little goblin priest shakes his head at the foolhardiness of those who would trifle with Elf-Boy tainted objects before they can be properly cleansed.

 She looked over the items they had scrounged trying to figure out if anything would be useful to her. The best stuff was quickly snatched ((I think)) and the rest of the junk would be wearisome to carry around most likely. She shrugged, sighed and went to see if there were any leftovers to nibble on.

Minmorc will hoist up oops eps under one arm and will gingerly make his way out of the greased up area.  He'll set Oopses down on his feet, brush him off and lift up the helmet to give him a job well done thumbs up before dropping the helmet back down place. If no one claims the magical longsword, leather armour and chain mail he'll roll them all up and stash them in a sack.

"Bargriefyuk." says the young bugbear sleepily.  "I could learn to say dat."  He falls asleep with his head full of new words.

After eating his dinner and watching the kerfuffle with the helmet, Jurz grins annd finds a good place to sleep - Cuddled up to Rog, of course. Before he sleeps Jurz is happy to pronounce Nature's Bleesings on which ever one of the party is most injured.

--
OOC -  that is only a Cure Minor Wounds, I am afraid -  but one point is better than nothing at a pinch :)

Jurz suddenly remembers the bonsai tree he took from O'Baddy's house and collects up some of the water that Minmiorc made.  "I's'll  swap some of deses gold shinies for some of youse silvers shinies." he suddenly announces to the group at large as he pulls a few coins from his sack.

"Dis tree" he announces loudly "Wills make de silver shinies and der water in to der holy water.  And dat will be good ifn we's find any of dose undeaded fings! he says with the confidence born of knowing stuff.

Minmorc will pull his coin pouch from one of his back packs and start sorting the silvers from the golds by the light of the cooking fire. "So yer give der pee tree money and der pee kills zombies? Dats der most useful tree I's ever seen! Wot does der pee kill if you gives it coppers?" Minmorc will drop 25 silvers next to the little tree. "Come ter fink of it it's pretty funny, makes sense fer tree pee ter kill zombies since my pee kills grass, hur hur hur."

The little goblin hands over his stash of silver coins.  He's not fond of undead at the best of times, much less without an evil necromancer around to keep them under control.

She listened to the talk about the little tree, wondering how big it would get. She considered digging out silvers too, but drifts off to sleep before she could make a move. She fluffed her feathers up and ducks her head into her cloak as her eyes close. "Rak". she murmured softly.

Grakk spends a while thoroughly exploring the rocky outcrop before settling down to rest.

"You know what? I really likes it here. Plenty of grass here for me to eat. Good hiding spots with good views all around. I thinks I might just stay here. I'll be the new watcher on the hill! No elfses or humies will get past without me seeing them and lighting the purple signal fire."

He collects up the best of the three bundles of furs the ogres had used as bedding and shakes them out to get rid of the worst of the bugs that infest them. A small sack falls out and clinks when it hits the ground. Grakk opens it up, looks inside and gives a snort of laughter. He walks over and pours a small pile of silver coins at Jurz's feet.

"You want silver? It's yours!"

Jurz stands the little tree up carefully and balances one of the special flasks to catch the holy water as it comes out.  Then he starts pouring water into the pot and feeding silver coins intro the slot at the back.

"I's'll take de first watch." he says as he settles down with Rog to watch the water accumulate.  "When I is ready to sleep. I's'll wake up Bully.".
This message was last edited by the player at 12:46, Thu 01 Jan 2015.

In reply to Jurz (msg # 141):


Oopses will just sleep after dinner if left alone sufficiently, Oopses likes the hat and uses it to block-out the fire.

Riza merely watches the other go about their business, she let's out a squeal of evil delight while rummaging through the pile of elven rubbish. "Many evil things to try now" she hisses

Very quickly though she tires of watching and coils up and falls asleep, while she enjoys Minmorc chasing the goblins sleep is what she needs now.

When everyone has eaten their fill of boar meat (roasted or raw, according to personal preference) they settle down and happily sleep the day away. Jurz stays up as first watch while he feeds silver coins and water to his tiny little O'Baddy tree and collects the resulting greenish holy water in the small flasks he collected from O'Baddy's hut two days ago.

An informal roster of watches sort of organises itself as each person gets tired and wakes someone else to take over for an hour or two. The day passes uneventfully and by the time the sun is starting to set everyone is fully rested and ready to go again. The various priests and other spellcasters spend a bit of time in meditation to replenish their stock of spells or select different ones, more boar meat is eaten, gear is packed away in sacks and backpacks and Team Die-Arda is ready to travel through the night once more.

As the sun sets Minmorc will become impatient to head off towards Gorna, he is now carrying a fair bit of extra gear and will grumble about stupid elf stuff weighing him down and chats with Riza about the sorts of things he might be able to buy in a big town.

With his military experience consisting mainly of digging holes, Bulldust still has no idea about watches.  When Jurz wakes him he pees in the midden (making sure there are no poisonous lizards there first of course) then looks around the sleeping camp, puzzled, no one has ever woken him up in the day before.  Everyone's asleep.  After a few minutes he wakes Dregz with a chat about Bargriefyuk.  After that he goes back to sleep next to Moffa.

Moffdust stretches after a good sleep. Minmorc is talking with Riza about the town of Gorna. "Whats is dere in Gorna? Has wes got a mission dere or is wes just lookin in de shopses? We hates shopping! Dos we has to go dere?" She shakes Bully awake.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:52, Tue 06 Jan 2015.

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 147):

Pleased to have not been chased off from the mwal oopses begins parceling out morsels in clearly uneven sizes. Cooked meat keeps so much better the raw.

Minmorc has been thinking about this very carefully for the last few hours and in that time has come up with a couple of thoughts. He'll point towards the forest, the way they've come from. "Out der is der elves an der green skins we's pissed off." He'll then point towards Gorna. "Dat way ders lotsa greenies dat don't know us. If ders lotsa greenies mebbe ders traders ter sell stuff, hammer boys dat makes stuff an witch boys dat magic stuff. Gets better stuff, get stronger, den leaves dis place an keep goin til I gets to a place where I can start a new tribe. Can't go back, won't hide here, I's goin ter Gorna."

Dregz screams loudly as Bully awakens him, flailing at the bugbear frantically (at least with but his hands, not the actual flail hooked into his belt) before wrapping his arms tightly around his precious book and backing away.  It is a long time before he calms enough to answer the theosophical question that Bully poses, but finally offers a surly, "Dat would be an ecu-men-icle matter !" 

The little goblin priest continues to glare at the bugbear throughout his morning prayers, biting savagely at whatever scraps of meat he can get his teeth on as he studies his book, though with frequent suspicious glances up at Bully.

Once he's finished communing with Bargrivyek (and with a disappointed aspect to his visage that his god has not seen fit, yet, to smite the bugbear), Dregz checks his snares, very much in the mood for a sacrifice !

 Dregz's screams woke her up rather abruptly and rudely, she jumped up grabbing her weapon looking around in confusion. Once she realized it must have been a nightmare of Dregz's that scared him, she unruffled her feathers and sat back down. She blinked sleepily for a few minutes then preened a bit before rolling her bedroll up, gathering her things to make sure none were left. She stood then and strutted over to grab some grub, gobbling down several bites of the well aged cooked meat. She listened to the discussion about greenies while eating, occasionally scratching under a feather here or there chasing itches while she thought over their ideas.
 "Gorna sounds like a good idea, sells the junk can't use, too heavy to lug around with us. Gets us come shinies too."

"We's got to cross da gap, if we's is goin to da horn wood." he agrees, "but I don't like da towns.  Even if dey is full of greenies dat don't know us. Dere is still too many peoples, and people dat will try to make us do stuff."  He says thoughtfully.  "Butz we's need to cross da gap, so dis is as good a place as any." he concedes.

"But we's need to go in, do da shopping and den comes back out again, before too many bosses gets too many ideas."

Bulldust wakes at dusk with the others and takes food portions for himself and Moffa, taps his thanks on Oopses helmet with his long claws as he passes the goblin.  The long sleep, good food and midday theology lesson with Father Jack have done him good - he's grown stronger and wiser and is already beginning to grasp the concept of taking turns on watch.

"Right.  Gorna it is den.  An if da bosses want ta put us back in da army den we'll kill em like we did wiv da ogres."  He busies himself with packing up his stuff, making room to carry his share of the elf loot once Dregs has finished purifying it.  He quietly slips Moffa's glowing dagger and his own favourite shovel amongst the tainted gear so they will get a blessing too.

Before they leave the hilltop, Bulldust will say farewell to Grakk.  "It was good fighting wiv you Grakk.  Hope you kill lots more elfs up here on your hill."

Dregz checks his snares when he wakes up and is delighted to find he has caught a rabbit in one and and a fox in another. He slaughters both and spatters their blood on all of the Elf-boy gear and any other items (such as Bully's shovel) that are presented. Then he stares at the entrails for a while before announcing that "Der omens are good fer crossin' der gap".

As the sun sets behind the mountains in the west, Team Arda-Nuff sets out to follow it westwards. Grakk is left behind but just 10 minutes later the sound of hooves pounding across the ground behind the group announces that he has decided to stay with them after all.

The group travels onward making good time across the grass-covered plain. Their progress is even made a bit easier as they are able to follow the trail beaten flat by the ogre Die-Arda half a day earlier. Before daybreak they see the glow of many cooking fires up ahead and soon they are able to make out the dark shapes of walls and buildings up ahead.

Gorna turns out to have been a walled city big enough to house thousands of humans. It is now in ruins with the walls breached in several places and most buildings destroyed by fire. However, from the number of cooking fires evident within the city it is obviously far from deserted.

As the group approaches the nearest opening in the city walls a goblin voice calls out to them from atop the wall.

"Oi, youz lot! Whatya bringin' all dem animals inna Gorna for?"

"Dat ain't an animal.  Dats Grakk de minotaur!" Jurz shouts back in response to the voice as he continues riding Rog forward.

Minmorc will continue to walk straight towards the breach, as he walks he will rattle the the sack of chain shirts he carries over one shoulder and the sack of weapons on his other. If he makes it to the breach unmolested he will call out "oi, little greenie, I wants ter talk ter yer. We wants a guide."

Though the omens were pleasing, Dregz wasn't happy about leaving Grakk behind ... and is pleased when Bargrivyek sees fit to move the minotaur to change his mind.  The little priest nods sagely as the cloud of dust resolves into their big friend, smugly assuring everyone that this turn of events is "in accordance wid der prophecy".

[Language unknown: "Ill lene virsetpreiou notentthi,"] Dregz provides his kinsman on the wall with a face-saving out - unless he'd rather dispute the point with Minmorc !

She hopped and hiked along with the rest, stopping now and then to gobble a tidbit of interest, or to scratch under her feathers. She freaked slightly when she heard the sound of hooves but then saw it was Grakk and heaved a sigh of relief.
 It was still too early in the day to fight. It was always too early to fight, but that was another matter.
 Once they came upon the ruins of the city, she was disappointed that it was in ruins, but maybe she could pick up something of interest here anyway. She became a bit indignant when she was called an animal, but that just added to her disgruntlement at the city being in ruins, even though the amount of fires indicated it wasn't abandoned.
"Who yous callin an animule?"

" Moew!"

Bulldust squats down next to the cat and scratches her between the ears with his long claws.  "Bet deres lots a rats in dere for ya Cat."

He stands and strides after Minmorc towards the breach with a javelin readied and the rusty longspear in his off hand.  At the breach he offers "I'm wiv da honourable gobbos.  We've fought wiv cloves an elfs an frogs, now come for some shoppin in da city.  An I'm hungry."

"He's always hungry." Jurz comments to those closest to him.

Riza stays with the majority of the group not wanting to be a target immediately should this all go pear shaped. She does pipe up "we ALL gots shinies to spend here let us in!" She slips a hand in one of her pouches and checks for something she has stored there.

She wanders up to Minmorc and nudges him gently. "I'm going to cause some trouble here as we leave gorna just so you know in advance" she smiles evily to herself

"Youse already caused trouble tellin' 'em we got shinies !" Dregz growls quietly.

"Honorary goblins?" the goblin on the wall cackles in great amusement. "Sure, no problems, youz can all comes in, no problems at all. Animals is always welcome in Gorna 'cos there ain't never enough to eat here, so youz'll be very welcome indeed! Shinies, too? Shinies is always welcome too. Yes indeedy! Youz wanna guide? Lucky, lucky youz. Youz found the right goblin, indeedy yes! Slipsnotz, that's me! Best damn scout in the wholes of Gorna, yes indeed. So what's youz gonna pays me to be youz gobbo-guide innaside Gorna?"

"We's start off wid a couple of shinies." Jurz responds, "Den, if youse takes us to all da right places, yous'll get more shinies when we goes." he offers as part of the bargain  "And we's won't let Minmorc plays wid yous, too much."  he adds as a final bargaining counter, and indicating the large Orc.

With that he rides confidently through the gap.

Rog can feel the tension in Jurz's knees and he knows that means to be ready.  So the big dog draws back his lips slightly, shows his teeth and accompanying that with a low, soft, continuous growl.  He is ready to engage in battle at a moments notice.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:32, Sat 17 Jan 2015.

"Ise a priest of Bargrivyek," Dregz warns their would-be guide, giving him a dark look as he slinks after Jurz, clambering over the fallen stones.

"Slipsnotz der gobbo guide huh? I needs ter find a trady guy wot buys elf stuff. Fer every twenty gold shinies dey pays me I gives you one, I gets a good deal, you does too. I gots magic elf stuff so maybe lotsa shinies fer everyone. And if we gets jumped fer our stuff, my big spear finds you first Gobbo guide. So, yous knows a good trady guy?"
Minmorc will nod at Riza, "til den keeps a sharp eye cleva Riza, sum fink bad happens we shoot first an fink of a plan later."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:10, Sat 17 Jan 2015.

"I can say Bargriefyuk too.  And ecu-men-icle."  Bulldust glares at Slipsknotz as he walks into the city.  "After we sell stuff, you show us where to buy different stuff."  He's getting a feel for this shopping idea.  "Like stuff to eat, and spiked gauntlets dat I could kill you wiv if I don't like da food."  First ever attempt at intimidation.  "And hair gel."  Oops, his real motive slipped out.

Slipsnotz finally climbs nimbly down from the wall to finish off bargaining for his fee.

"Makes dat one gold shiny each an' youz gotta bestest guide in Gorna for one day an' one night. An' dat includes me showin' youz a safe place to camps where youz won't gets no one tryin' to bumps youz onna heads while youz is sleepin'."

Minmorc's request and offer causes a bit of head scratching but the little goblin soon smiles brightly.

"Nobody wants elf stuff. It's mostly just useless junk what don't fit nobody. But magics is magics. Two-fer-one will trade anyfing magic, two for one. Youz gives him two magic fings what youz don't wants an' he'll gives youz one what youz does wants - somefing what is same amount of magics in it as one of the fings youz tradin'. Probbly takes him one days to gets what youz wants but he can gets most anyfing youz wants. He's been here tradin' like dat for years an' I never heared no one say he cheated dem, so I reckons he must be's the only honest traders in Gorna, an' the bestest! He only trades magic stuffs though. There's other traders for normal stuffs. I shows youz dem later, after we go sees Two-fer-one. Dat idea of one in 20 gold shinies ain't gonna works though, cos he don't pays no gold. So youz just gotta bargains with him youzselfs."

Minmorc clearly isn't happy with the news but he doesn't waste any time pulling his coin pouch out of his sack and offering ten gold to Slipsnotz. "Ders der gold, les go sees Two fer one." Once Slipsnotz starts walking Minmorc will ask "looks like ders lotsa diffrent skins round ere. Who's der big boss or is der lotsa bosses?"

Cities and towns are really not Jurz's thing.  Anything larger than a village or a den full of Gobbo's is way too big and feels uncomfortable at the best of times.  Even when he had been fighting with the army, he had stayed away from towns and big gatherings as much as he could.  Wolf Rider scout and messenger had been his role, as far from the crowds of other 'soldiers' as he could get.

Now he concentrated on holding himself erect and trying to look as hard as he could.  After all, these places were all about who you beat into submission -  and he really didn't want to look like an easy mark.  Minmorc or perhaps Dergz could do the talking here, Jurz would let them get on with it.  However, he would always be ready to leave at the drop of a hat.  Anybody's hat ....

Dregz would normally do his best not to be seen at all, for all the reasons that Jurz is thinking, but the little goblin priest is still in a foul mood, and besides Minmorc's presence alone is enough to dissuade most of the bravos and chancers.

While his kinsmen obviously have a presence here in Gorna, Dregz feels far more comfortable in the presence of his recently assembled tribe, and so sticks close to the big orc, keeping a watchful eye out for any threat that may loom.

The goblin guide happily accepts the ten gold coins Minmorc gives him.

"Big boss? Dat'd be Queen Moldavite. Youz musta heard of her. She's a ogre-mage priestesses. Real nasty-like if anyone don't do what she says her godses says. Bites yer heads off iff'n youz even look at her de wrong ways. Youz don't wants to meets her, ever!" Slipsnotz advises very earnestly.

"Yerp, ogre magi lotsa trouble. Let's see two fer and a coupla other folks real quick den."

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 175):

Oopses just tries to keep quiet, not touch anything, and stay close to Minmorc.

However true to name he trips and helmet falls flat over his face preventing him from completely eating dirt.

... and while the mention of the Ogre-Mage Priestess's less than progressive views on religious tolerance don't improve Dregz' mood, it certainly encourages him to hide inconspicuously behind the nearest large object (Minmorc) !

"Youse right dere." Jurz concurs with both Slipnutz and Minmorc.  However, he takes a good look around, just to see what else id going on while Slipnutz is distracting them.

Riza stays nearby Minmorc preferring the protection the big guy offers. "Hey slipnotz after we see two for do you know if there is anyone here who works with poisons? I need some stuff done"

She will keep an eye on the various groups that they pass and pay particular attention to the concentration of groups around the cooking fires or pots. She has plans oh yes

"Poisons? Oh, yes, lotsa dems here. Bestest poison-makers dis side a der hills. Murder merchantses what buys an' sells any type a poisons youz ever heared of, an' den some! Assassins, poisoners, drug sellers, druggies, I's can even shows youz a poison-roulette games if youz gotta death wishes! Winner takes all!"

Slipsnotz leads the team on a circuitous route through the city that showcases every type of slum and ghetto you could expect in a ruined city full of evil humanoids. Mostly, though, the inhabitants of these areas are more cautious than curious about this mismatched and heavily armed group and leave Team Arda-Nuff well alone. You eventually realise your goblin guide is obviously detouring around particular areas that you suspect would present serious threats to this group.

One of the few deserted places that he leads you past is a ruined temple surrounded by a graveyard. Slipsnotz points to the ruined temple as he passes. "Dat's where youz can sleeps safe through the dayz. Nobody else goes dere 'cos dey says der graveyards is haunted. Is, too! But I's knows a safe ways in an' innaside der temples is safe. Safe place, sleeps safe, yes indeedy!"

After about an hour of walking the group finally reaches what passes for the market square near the centre of the ruined city. Various dilapidated stalls and shops surround the square. The various merchants and artisans that occupy them look like the evilest bunch of traders ever assembled in one place but it looks like you should be able to find just about anything you want here. The goblin guide points out a poison-maker and a poison merchant to Riza when she asks.

Slipsnotz leads the way to a building on one side of the square. The building's roof has collapsed but all the walls still stand, making it one of the more secure structures in this part of the city. A painted wooden sign above the door depicts a great ram's horn with two glowing swords thrust into the wider end and one glowing sword protruding from the narrow end of the horn. Slipsnotz walks up to the door and knocks. He stands back and waits for about half a minute until the door is opened by a halforc clad in chainmail. He has a heavy mace dangling carelessly in his left hand.

"Dis is Two-fer-one," Slipsnotz cheerfully introduces him. "An' dese is customerses," he informs the trader. "I's tolds dem hows it works. Dey gives youz two magic fings what dey don't wants and youz gets dem one magic fing what dey does wants. Dat's about it, ain't it?"

The halforc sighs. "There's a bit more to it than that but, yeah, that's the gist of it. You give me two magic items and I'll deliver one item you want of the same strength of magic. Magic comes in six strengths, you see? Mostly items are just 'magic' but then there's 'better magic', 'plus-better magic', 'double-plus-better magic', 'great magic' and 'Gods-magic'. Say you give me a pixie-magic-sword and a giant's magic greatclub, I would get for you any one 'magic' weapon you want. If you had a 'better magic' weapon you could trade it for two ordinary 'magic' weapons of your choice. It's all about the value of the items, you see, but I don't expect you to really understand that too much. Probably the important part is that weapons are typically twice as valuable as shields or armour, so you could trade one 'magic' weapon for one 'magic' armour or shield. Not full-plate, though, that's more expensive. Most things I can get in a day or two, then we make the trade. So, what do you have that you want to trade?"

OOC: The trading is actually based on market price of items and can include any type of magic item you might want to trade in or acquire. Refer to the market price of magic items in the DMG as a guide. Two-fer-one doesn't simply sell magic items; he only trades items on a two for one basis as described above.

The explanation leaves Minmorc a bit cross eyed but he thinks he's grasped the basics of the system. He'll heave the sacks off his shoulder so that Twofer can see inside and he'll grab Oopses and dump him next to the sacks. "In dis sack I gots one studded leather, one chain mail and one longsword and on the goblin is a magic helmet. I reckons deys jus magic, not better magic, dey don't light on fire or nuffin and we needs ter go and find out from a shaman what der helmet does. But I wanna trade der two armours fer a magic breastplate wid big shoulders dat I can have me lucky number on and big spikes all over an I wanna trade der sword and der helmet fer a sack or pack wots bigger on der inside den it is on der outside. I knew a boss once wot had one and it was damn useful, didn't save him but up til he was eaten he found it damn useful."

 Jurz almost whispers to Dregz, before he turn to Slipsnotz  "And is der someone dat buys de normal stuff? I'se got some bows and a neat shield." he says indicating a small composite long bow, a small composite short bow and a small master-work light wooden shield.

Now he has seen that the Goblin guide appear to be trustworthy, well as trustworthy as any goblin that claims to be the best scout in the camp can be, he is prepared to risk a bit of bargaining of his own

In reply to Jurz (msg # 183):


Oopses holds tight to Arlein as he follows the group.

Oopses rolled 10 using 1d100. Clumsy percentile.

"Yeah, sure, you betcha dere is. Der gnoll over dere in dat shop will buys youz bows. An' dat goblin in dat booths is der best trader for armours and shieldses for us gobbos an' udder small boyz. Dere's a orcs trader over dere what buys an' sells weapons an' armour mostly for orcs but he'll deal wid udder bigguns too like youz udder boyz. Der hag over dere is der bestest for tradin' most udder stuffs. Dere's a dark dwarfs back down dat alleyway over dere what's der bestest trader for gemses an' dat sort of stuffs. Deys will all trades in coinses as well. Dis place an' a couples udder marketses is 'bout der only places where youz can use dem hoomanses coins, so spend 'em while youz can!"

Slipsnotz points out the traders he recommends for most types of deals.

"Like I said though, most elf gear is real hard to sells here 'cos it don't fit nobody else. Youz'll probably only trades dat stuff at ten for one, not two for one, 'cos dey can only breaks dem down for partses or melts dem for scrap."

Two-fer-one steps back and ushers Minmorc and Oopses into his shop and closes the door behind them so no one else is able to see what goes on inside.  They come back out a couple of minutes later.

"Yes, all just magic, not better magic. The magic helmet is worth about the same as the magic studded leather and nearly the same as the magic chain mail. The magic longsword is worth as much as any two of them. So, yes, you can trade the magic studded leather and the magic chain mail for magic spiked breastplate. That's easy."

"Now let's see. Magic longsword counts for two, magic helmet counts for one, so you have 3-magic to trade with. A 250 pound magic bag of holding counts for two or a 120 pound magic backpack counts for a bit less than two. You'd need 4-magic for the magic bag or a bit less for the magic backpack. I'll do you a good deal and trade you the magic backpack for the sword and helmet. But who is the backpack for? Do I need to locate one of goblin size or orc size? It doesn't affect how much the magic backpack can carry, just how comfortable it is for whoever is wearing it."

"Tell me when you decide what you want so I can get them in for you. I can get both for you by nightfall today if you tell me before noon."

A huge grin lights up Minmorcs big ugly face. "Deys both fer me, magic breastplate with big shoulders an spikes and der back pack wid lots o pockets wot holds heapsa stuff. I'll bring der four magics round tonight den. " The deal settled Minmorc will hoist his sacks back up on to his shoulder and head over to the Orc that deals with medium sized weapons and armour. As he gets close he'll say "I heard you can melt down elf junk and will pay a coupla shinies and I'm lookin fer sum spikey gauntlets fer me and me mates."

 She stayed near Riza and Minmorc trying to stay out of trouble, because she was sorely tempted by the shiny stuff all around. She waited until everyone did their dealings while she listened to what they all had to say. She didn't really have anything much to trade with anyways. She did hope they got a bit of trading though with the useless junk they had salvaged along the way.

Jurz heads across to the gobbo in the booth and holds up the masterwork small shield.  "Wats'll youse give me for dis?" he asks scowling down at the gobbo from Rog's back.

Riza watches the comings and goings with varied interest. She will shuffle off to find the dwarf that deals with gems and after striking a deal with him for the pretty stones she posses will source a poison maker, possibly picking up some more if he has any to buy. Once she has sorted that out she will see how much gold she has left before seeing the other available wares on offer


OOC: will the poison makers have access to all the poisons in the dmg or just a few?

Before Riza heads off Minmorc will pass her a couple of vials that he got from goblin archers four days ago. "Dunno waz in em." Shrug.

Trading turns out to be very easy in the market place of Gorna. Since the group is happy to accept coins to make the trading easier they even get reasonably good prices for their loot as well. Basically everything can be sold to a trader for half the market price that you would pay to buy a similar item from one of the other traders.

Minmorc's 6 elvish chain shirts only receive a tenth of their market price, se he ends up with a mixed bag of coins worth 150gp. Spiked gauntlets are readily available in all sizes and styles imaginable and will cost 5gp for a pair.

Jurz's small composite long bow gets him the equivalent of 50gp, the small composite short bow brings in 37 and a half gp and the small masterwork light wooden shield nets 79 and a half gp, which is a total of 167gp in mixed coinage.

Riza's trading with the dark dwarf gem-merchant is similarly lucrative and she returns with a nice little bag of coins too.  She finds that the poison-maker charges half price to manufacture a poison when Riza supplies the ingredients.  The poison-maker also has the full range of poisons for sale at normal market prices, as there is obviously no stigma associated with the sale or use of poison in this city.

Minmorc's two vials turn out to be 1 cure light wounds potion and 1 antitoxin, which Riza is able to learn from the merchants before she decides whether to sell them.

Anything that anyone wants to buy is available here at normal market prices.

[Language unknown: "Benees o strderwhi,"] Dregz replies to Jurz. [Language unknown: "Ecenss ntepa str ughamewitsan.  Iellce stman str hiat?"]

[Language unknown: "Admeit ousesttic ac ai ersthoers elilof ?"] he asks Oopses hopefully.

The little goblin priest has about 60 of the gold shinies. "Where'd I buy mice ?" he demands of their guide.  "Uncooked !" he points out, adamantly.

Minmorc will busy himself going from vendor to vendor, first emptying his sacks and bags, selling off Elven junk, boar hide and old weapons. He'll then buy an odd assortment of weapons, armour and once he returns to the group he'll show off a brand new masterwork cooking pot. Once he and the rest of the group have returned to Slipsnotz he'll step up to the goblin guide. "Yer did good wid der tradey guys, shows us dis safe rest place an yer can have some o Minmorcs new and improved big pig stew!"

"Can't buys mices," Slipsnotz states emphatically. "Someones catches a mices, dey eats dem straight away, before someone bigger takes dem an' eats der mices insteads. But dere's lotsa mices and ratses inna graveyards at der temples where youz gonna sleeps todays. 'Bout der only places where udder folkses is too scared to hunts dem," he chuckles.

Jurz moves around the market, looking to see what might be available.  There isn't all that much that takes his fancy, so he buys some fresh meat to give Rog a treat, and perhaps to share a bit with Arlein as well, Then buys a few preserved rations that might be used to pad out anything they find as they travel.  He makes sure he gets a good supply of silver coins in his change.  Then he goes  back and offers to buy gems from party members, so they have cash to spend.  If no one takes him up on his offer,  he goes to see the gem and jewellery merchant and see what he has. .

Dere's been a bunch of Gnolls checking us out." he everyone gathers together again.  "Dese not just bin doing a quick look, dese bin taking dere time and checking us out good." he tells the others "So youse all be on de look out for dem.

And he reminds himself that they really do need to set a watch here tonight, regardless of what Slipnotz says.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:50, Tue 27 Jan 2015.

"Gnolls, huh? I heard dog boys taste aright, bit stringy so yer gotta slow cook or stew em. Hey Slipsnotz, was der rules on guttin folk yer don't like in der city?" At this point he'll make a show of pulling on his vicious looking new pair of spiked gauntlets. He'll then reach into his sack and pull out two goblin sized heavy crossbows and will hand them to Dregz and Oopses. "Dose lil doggies gives yer a hard time an I'm sleeping, shoot em."

Riza will make some transactions with the poison makers in the town, she will also pick up a new spear, re-stock on her arrows, buying a few more healing potions, some acid vials, and small steel mirror if she can find one.


Her ears prick up at the mention of the gnolls, she smiles as Minmorc shows off his new spiked gauntlets, "don't worry guys they won't be a problem" she will busy herself if they have time applying the poison she has acquired to three of her arrows storing them separately in her quiver for future use.

Slipsnotz already warned the group that food is in short supply in Gorna. Jurz quickly discovers the truth of this as he is unable to find any food to purchase at all. Fortunately the boars that you killed 2 days ago provided enough meat to feed this group for about 10 days, although it is already starting to get a bit rancid.

Gems and even jewellery are readily available for purchase from the dark dwarf gem merchant. He seems to take a standard 10% fee on any transaction, so anyone who wants to will be able to convert coins to gems or jewellery worth 90% of the value of the cash.

Slipsnotz shrugs dismissively at Minmorc's question.

"Life's cheap in Gorna," he replies. "Folkses go missin' all der times. Summa der times der boneses is found. Mostly not. Everbody gotta eats summat, don't dey? Der markets is mostly safes enough but don't wanders off alones around der city. Sticks close to youz friends what youz can trusts, dat's der ways to survives in Gorna!"

Jurz frowns slightly when he sees Riza come back with arrows  "I has loads of arrowz." he says indicating one of the bags on Rog.  "Youse can have does when youse run out."

Goblin sized it may be, but the operative word is heavy !  Dregz visibly sags under the weight as he accepts the weapon from Minmorc, though some of his awkwardness might be due to his unwillingness to relinquish hold of his book.

The spoiling of the boar meat ... Dregz is confident that Bargrivyek will not allow him and his friends to starve, once suitable prayers have been offered up.

Gnolls.  No, nobody likes Gnolls.  "See if dey're brave enough tah come to our temple," the goblin priest chuckles nastily, already planning to put out a few snares.  He's sure his bat prefers mice, but reckons it might try dog-boy at a pinch.

"I gots some good stuff round here, like metal or leather gloves fer everyone so's we can all catch Wilson." Minmorc will pull out a crossbow bolt and will jab Slipsnotz with the feathery end as he passes it to Dregz. "So where's dis safe place o yers?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:29, Sun 01 Feb 2015.

Riza nods to Jurz, "thankyou I'll probably need to grab some of them in the future... Just needed to make sure my own supply is full before we continue"

In reply to Riza (msg # 204):

"Slipz, Ys dey fraid da cry... cri.. cremptze?"

After about an hour of trading and checking out the various stalls around the marketplace the dawn has arrived and the merchants are all closing up shop for the day. Everyone is ready for Slipsnotz to lead them to the promised safe resting place of the temple in the graveyard, so at last he heads back out the same way you came into the marketplace. You remember that he pointed out the ruined temple surrounded by its graveyard as you passed it on the way here.

"Youz'll be safe dere, righty-nuff! Der gnollses won't comes in der graveyards," Slipsnotz reassures you. "Dey's is sneaky but dey's is not braves enough to comes in dere. Dey's is more likely to tries to ambushes youz when youz comes outa dere tonights."

The group heads back toward the western part of the city along what was once a 20-foot wide main street until they reach the point where Slipsnotz had led them out of a 15-foot wide side street on the right hand side, which eventually runs past the ruined temple and graveyard.

Bulldust looks pleased with his new enchanted weapon, a wicked looking flail!  He's dipped the dangly bit in white ashes in honour of Bargriefyuk and proudly twirls it around in the air, but manages to get it tangled on his leg (still getting the hang of it).  He's had some piercings done too, well his ears are shaped like bat wings and still bleeding.

While crouching down to untangle his leg he glances back and spots a gnoll stalking the Arda-Nuff party.  "Hey youse.  Dere's a noll followin 90 feet behind us. It snuk into a doorway back dere when I looked back.  I fink we should go round da corner den wait for it.  So keep goin like wes not seen it."

Minmorc will adjust the sack he's still carrying and will rest Vera on his shoulder. "Hur, hur, hur, i gots a stick fer der doggies ter fetch. Cleva Riza, yer wanna scouts der temple or hide inna shadows an scouts der dog boys?"

Jurz adjusts himself slightly in Rag's saddle and grins slightly.  [Language unknown: Ulest redom la is nosimi Methu ivman asisssng]he says still grinning as he waits for the gnolls to show themselves.

Riza calmly looks around taking everything in, before speaking to the others in the group "The doggies plan to ambush us then, there is another hiding in a building just past where we turn to go to the temple" she turns to the others and smiles "you take care of the one behind us, the other one is mine"

She makes sure she is in the middle of the group, and shrugs off her bow and preps a normal arrow. "Hunting time". Doing what she does best she blends into her surroundings and sticking to the shadows moves as quietly as she can to get in a position to start the fun. She will try and keep an eye out for any more doggies that might be hiding on the way

OOC: rolled 15 spot check, rolled 21 move silently, rolled 29 to hide

Bulldust will stay at the the rear of the party to take out the gnoll he saw following them.  He will put away the awkward flail and just hold a javelin and longspear.  He's practiced this with Minmorc so, although its vastly more complicated than donging someone with a shovel, he's fairly sure he can handle it.  He checks over his shoulder frequently as he follows at the rear of the group.

Moffdust has a wand in each hand, the new one in her shootin hand. She whispers "If deys bad dogses den dey gets hurt." She stays in the middle of the group.

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 212):

Doesn't really have anything to do so he grips his scimitar not actually drawing It.

Jurz just starts to prepare a spell.

Before Riza and the others get too far away Minmorc will put his hand into the air in the middle of the group "gooooooooo, team ard enough!" Hefting Vera in his right hand Minmorc will head off to lead the party into the suspected ambush, woohoo!

 She went with the others, bummed that she didn't have any coins to shop with. She was going to have to start grabbing her share of loot! She skulked along behind the others, but when alerted to them being followed, she grabbed her weapons and prepared to help defend the group. She looked around for a good place to hide though just in case.

In reply to Raven (msg # 216):

Oopses(safest place is behind Minmorc)
Arlein(backs up rivka)

OOC: Main game map updated to show layout of the street and location of the two gnolls that have been spotted. The location of the group is shown before you started moving toward combat or toward cover.

OOC: can only see the old map of the hilltop (and the map of Geoff).  Is anyone seeing a street map?  What the heck, Bully would just lash out blindly anyhow!

Bulldust calls out "I got da rear!"  He hopes that sound sort of military, but keeps a bleeding ear out for sniggering remarks in case its not.  He prepares his longspear to receive a charge and waits till he can see what happens behind the party.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Fri 06 Feb 2015.

Bulldust now sees that the rear is a long way off and no gnolls are moving yet, so he moves quickly into a defensive position in the relative shelter of the alcove to the northeast.  He looks in the window then readies his longspear.

Everyone's running in all directions. Moffdust is thrilled by the chaos of the moment. She jumps and squeals "Wes coming if youses ready or not!" then runs with Bully to the nearby alcove and also looks in the window. "Boo! he he. Its de goblinses coming to gets youse!" She starts preparing a spell.

When the first two gnolls are spotted – one ahead and one behind – Team Arda-Nuff responds warily. Minmorc calls on the gods of the great game to bless his Team's efforts and everyone does indeed feel inspired and motivated by the subtle surge of energy that radiates out and into each of them.

Riza and Arlein slide away from the group and into a sheltered nook where one building is set back a bit on the southern side of the street.

Bulldust decides to guard the rear. He dashes back a little way toward the northeast into an alcove on the northern side   and sets his longspear against any potential charge from the gnoll (g2) following behind them. Moffdust runs with him and quickly casts a spell as soon as they are in position in the alcove. Dregz goes with them, ready to harangue the gnoll with a reading from his holy book if the canine is foolish enough to challenge them.

Minmorc then starts to lead the team forward, setting a slow pace so everyone can keep up. Most of the team moves forward alongside or behind him with weapons in hand, although Bull, Moffa and Dregz find themselves unintentionally left behind.

As they advance a whole pack of gnolls step out from the side streets and alleyways ahead and behind them. In total it looks like there are 14 of them. All of them have battleaxes although half have shortbows in hand (g3 to g8 and g14 are the archers). The others have battleaxe and shield ready for trouble. The gnoll (g1) that Riza spotted up ahead walks forward to the middle of the intersection ahead of Team Arda-Nuff and barks his demands.

"Youz stops right dere. Don't moves or we's shoots youz dead! We's gots youz surrounded! Gives us all youz foods, right nows!" Then he points directly at Jurz, mounted on Rog. "And der hound, too! No dogs oughta be's a slaves to no carking goblins!"

Just as he finishes speaking a dog suddenly appears up at the edge of the roof above Moffdust and Bulldust. Several of the gnolls spot it immediately and look rather startled by its sudden appearance in such an unlikely place.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.

Minmorc cast Bless. Everyone is at +1 on attack rolls for 9 more rounds.

The buildings on both sides of the street are all gutted by fire but the walls still stand. Every door along this street is open or broken down and every window is smashed, so it is easy to enter any building if anyone wants to. Inside the buildings count as difficult terrain (half movement rate) due to debris from fallen roofs, broken furniture, etc.

Minmorc will casually stroll forward and diagonally north west thirty feet til he's sheltered in the entrance to a building, will drop his sack and will brace his spear against the charge. "Looks like yer noticed dat we gots some plump legs a ham an some uge juicy sides o bacon wot we smoked ter ave a rich smokey flavour. An yer done a good job standing on yer back legs an begging. Tells yer wot, meet us at der market tonight an yous can ave our scraps, but only if yous is good little doggies." As he is talking Minmorc is getting bigger, and bigger until he's not so much leaning against the wall but on it.

Jurz glances up, very briefly at the dog, but then ignores it  "I's'll ask Rog, but I don't finks he wants to come wid youse." the little druid shouts back to the gnoll leader, as he fidgets in the saddle and a flaming blade appears in his hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:51, Fri 06 Feb 2015.

Feeling the nudges of Jurz's knees, Rog walks backwards, before turning to face the rear.  Altogether he travels nearly 40 feet.

"Nah.  Ise doesn't fink he wants to come wid you." Jurz shouts over his shoulder to the gnoll leader.

Seeing the sudden surge of gnolls show up Riza twitches slightly. The arrogance of these dogs is unacceptable!

She takes a step out of her alcove and fires off a shot at gnoll 1 as he doesn't seem to want to shut up.

OOC: rolled 15 to hit gnoll 1, rolled 4 damage

It looks like clever Riza has concluded the negotiation phase nicely. Moffdust grins baring her pointy little teeth "Sic em Rex!". The celestial dog will cross the roof and jump down onto g13 all snarley and bitey and landing in the alley behing it. She moves east 15' to the next doorway and draws her dagger and points her wand at g2 and says "Play nicely." to try to charm it.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:49, Sat 07 Feb 2015.

Bulldust moves out into the street level with both g13 and g2.  "Stinky dogs!" he taunts as he sets his longspear hoping they charge.

The little goblin priest elects to sit down on the ground so he can load the bolt that Minmorc gives him, straining to turn the winch to draw the string back, but eventually managing it, though the juggling act continues as the party head back towards the temple.

Finding himself in the middle of an ambush, Dregz sticks close to Moffa and Bully, reluctantly leaning his precious book in the corner of the inlet where the three have taken shelter, biting down on his fears concerning the dog that appears above as his two companions seem untroubled, but breathing a sigh of relief when the beast obeys Bully's order (though quite what being sick on the Gnolls will accomplish is beyond him).

As he tribe begins its preemptive defense against the dog-boys, Dregz stands in the relative safety of the corner position and raises his crossbow, ready to loose the bolt at the first of the foe to come near.

 She tried to sneak back down the street so she could slip into the alley and circle around... but she ran into G12 so she attacked it as quickly as possible! She slashed at him with her sword as fast as she could!
"Take that you slimey slug!"


00:04, Today: Raven rolled 4 using 1d6. sneak attack?
00:02, Today: Raven rolled 19 using 1d20+2. attack.

In reply to Raven (msg # 231):

Oopses is ignorant of G10,G12 waits on Minmorc/Gnolls.

Minmorc walks forward a bit until he is leaning in the alcove where one building is set back a bit behind the others. He sets his greatspear against any gnoll foolish enough to charge at him. His words seem to make him bigger in everyone's eyes – no, wait, he is really getting bigger! He quickly grows to twice his original size!

Jurz declines the gnoll's invitation to surrender Rog to them and instead invokes a flaming scimitar to warn them off. Rog responds by backing away from the gnolls, carrying Jurz with him, 40 feet back towards the rear.

Riza steps out and shoots an arrow at the gnoll leader, just to make sure he got the message. Her arrow barely manages to pierce his leather armour (thanks to the pre-match Blessing) and the minor wound just makes him snarl louder.

Moffdust orders her celestial dog to attack and it leaps down from the roof to attack the nearest gnoll (g13), biting deeply into its leg. Meanwhile Moffdust waves a slender stick in the air calling the gnoll (g2) that was following the group to come and "Play nicely!" The gnoll bounds forward and skids to a half right in front of Moffa, then crouches down with its tongue lolling out as it avidly watches the movements of that lovely little stick she is waving about.

Bulldust steps out into the street behind Moffa's new friend but after a moment's consideration he turns and stabs at the gnoll (g13) that the dog attacked. His longspear stabs clean through the gnoll’s belly and it collapses to the ground unconscious.

Dregz waits with his crossbow ready but Moffa manages to persuade him not to shoot her new gnoll-friend. He looks around for a more threatening target instead.

Raven slips back along the southern wall of the street to duck down a side alley but finds it blocked by another gnoll (g12) instead. She catches it by surprise and swiftly stabs her shortsword into its chest. The gnoll looks shocked and barely whimpers as it staggers back from the unexpected attack.

Grakk bellows a challenge at the nearest gnoll (g11), hefts his greataxe and charges forward to attack. His axe bites deep in the gnoll's shoulder and it howls once then falls down unconscious.

Oopses stands still just staring at everything going on around him, especially the incredible growth spurt shown by Minmorc. Arlein stays close behind Riza. Slipsnotz simply ducks through the nearest doorway and hides.

The gnoll leader points at the giant Minmorc and barks a command at the six archers gathered near him. Then he charges at Grakk waving his battleaxe in one hand and a handaxe in the other. His battleaxe hits and cuts deep in Grakk's thigh.

The six gnoll archers follow their leader's instructions and all shoot at Minmorc as the biggest obvious threat. Fortunately only one manages to hit him as most of the arrows ricochet off the walls of the buildings around him.

The next closest gnoll (g9) charges out from a northern alleyway to join its leader attacking Grakk. Again the battleaxe bites deep into Grakk's flesh and suddenly the minotaur looks grievously wounded.

A bit further down the street another gnoll (g10) charges out of another northern alleyway to intercept the goblin who dares to ride a dog! It swings its battleaxe at Jurz, hitting and slicing goblin flesh.

Dregz retaliates by shooting his brand new, heavy crossbow at the gnoll attacking Jurz. He narrowly misses the gnoll and the crossbow bolt thuds into the wall just above Riza's head!

The grievously wounded gnoll (g12) that Raven stabbed has had quite enough of this fight and backs away down the alleyway to safety around the corner of the building.

At the eastern end of the battlefield a lone gnoll archer (g14) seeks revenge of Bulldust and shoots him in the back. The arrow hits Bulldust in the back but the bugbear is saved from harm by the blackened, magical chain shirt that he wears.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.

Minmorc's Bless spell gives everyone  +1 on attack rolls for 8 more rounds.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 233):

Oopses moves to aid grakk, healing stabbing or moving depending on availble  actions in that order.

(Move cast, charge, or run)

Minmorc has a war time flash back, seeing an Orc riddled with Elven arrows. He didn't particularly like the Orc but he really hates cowardly archers. His eyes glaze over, he starts frothing at the mouth and he charges down the street, ignoring Grakk and the Gnollish melee and ends toe to toe with the line of archers, Vera lunging and scooping in a reckless street gauging thrust. He is bellowing something barely coherent about leaving less legs on Legolas, if that makes sense to anyone?

"Ow!" Jurz exclaims as he swings  at the Gnoll with his flaming blade, then urges Rog back five feet.

--
18:22, Today: Jurz rolled 21 using 1d20+4. Flame blade att vs Touch AC.
18:23, Today: Jurz rolled 4 using 1d8+1. Flame blade Dam.
18:23, Today: Rog rolled 8 using 1d20+6. Bite.  (at least his teeth didn't critically fall out :)

Riza is determined  to put the dogs out of their misery, she pops out again and fires another shot at the leader.

Attack gnoll 1 rolled 16
Damage gnoll 1 rolled 3

The heavy crossbow proved useless, and now is worse than useless as Minmorc gave him but one bolt.  Throwing it aside, Dregz stands protectvely over his Holy Book, warily watching Moffa's pet Gnoll as he fishes out a narrow strip of leather from one pocket and a metal slug from the other, whirling it round his head before loosing it at the Gnoll that menaces Jurz (G10).

Moffdust is delighted her wand and dog spell have worked so well. She ruffles the fur on the head of gnoll G2. "Good doggie doggie dog. Now go hurt dem udder gnollses." she commands pointing at G10. Then she points at the archer G14 and commands the celestial dog "Sic em Rex!" It trots up to the gnoll but misses hopelessly. Lastly she points at the gnoll leader G1 and fires two magic missiles (10 HP). She grins wickedly at Dregs "Wes nasty goblinses, he he he."

Bulldust charges at g14.  Its a short charge, but long enough, and there's a dog in the way but his longspear can reach over it.  "Goblins rule!" he bellows and spits the gnoll for 27HP dmg.  He looks around to see if there's any more 'rear' he needs to cover.

"Dat wun won't mess wid us again !" the little priest displays his teeth, joining in the excitement.

"Dats my liddle brudda." Moffdust says proudly. "Cmon Dregsie, lets get closer to dem gnollses and give em heapses." She waves goodbye to the celestial dog and walks 15' west along the ruined housefronts.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:58, Tue 17 Feb 2015.

Moffa's new gnoll-friend tilts its head happily as she pats it but just looks a bit puzzled when she talks to it and when she points at another gnoll. When Moffa walks westwards the gnoll lopes along behind her, just happy to stay close to his new friend.

 She headed down the alley toward G12 to check how badly injured it was.
 She almost felt sorry for the terrified gnoll laying injured nearby. She reached down and patted it's arm then took one step back as she looked for another surprise visitor. She kept an eye on the injured one too just in case.
"Sorry, you wants me to kill you, or do you give up and ask fer help?"

...OUCH

Moffdust rolls her eyes at the charmed gnoll. "Aw cmon! Poor Jerzies gettin all choppded up, youse gotta kill dat one!" She makes cutthroat signs and points at G10. She looks around for inspiration and sees Raven looking concerned. "Does youse speaks to gnollses? Tell dis one to gets busy!"

 She hopped closer and bent to look into the gnoll's eyes, listening to the creature mumble or dither around. She stretched her mouth...or beak as it were then gave out some light squawks and twitters, sounding somewhat like the gnoll. She tilted her head and twittered some more, sounding closer to what the gnoll said. It even sounded like the gnoll's accent, but it meant nothing to Raven, perhaps even sounding strange to the others. Finally getting nonsense out of the gnoll, she shrugged and gestured for the gnoll to get busy by waving her hands around and jabbering at it loudly.

"Get work you!"
00:44, Tue 17 Feb 2015: Raven rolled 21 using 1d20+3 ((18)).
00:44, Today: Raven rolled 21 using 1d20+3. Bluff/Mimicry.

"I c'n speak to der Dog-boy," Dregz comes to der the rescue.  "Dunno if he'll lissen to me, though ..."  Despite his misgivings, the little priest makes the attempt:

[Language unknown: "Her nengus-fofo atistrame neoune e elfion ome niin we ll,"] he points at the gnoll bothering Jurz.  [Language unknown: Se ei acain siacio acofne ofreli eausa iockss !  Lar urwa !]
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Wed 18 Feb 2015.

Moffdust stares in awe as Raven talks with the gnoll. "Youse sounds jus like de gnollses." Then she hears Dregz gabbling something completely ridiculous in some yappy dog voice, and she laughs "De gnollses won't understands dat, silly!" She gives the charmed gnoll a shove in the direction of G10 to reinforce Raven's message.

The charmed gnoll stares first at Raven then at Dregz as they try to talk to it. Then it starts yapping back at Dregz, gesturing at Jurz. It ends by standing protectively in front of Moffdust and yapping loudly at the other gnolls out in the street. [Language unknown: "Ta, she eeilos. Hasvorvor ort virnotstaforons habut toinpa. Ure ofnapl sti iost ingeauday ic notlinhat er lo ove unset. Ev ndeonstio conencrut ac ver! Ssdius anterabut, me me of be lahesi m oulpreencvirwil. K ecilun ate tiha." Tifo u tealre n prnot tishe lesainast waadnt, "Hiremi oress leusie rini lochwi, staoretho? Eraforand and!"]

"E's guardin' you, but won't fight 'is friend," Dregz helpfully translates.  "E's not gonna be happy if we start killin' 'em either ... p'raps you could get 'im tah Fetch somefing ? "

Moffdust follows Dregz gaze to her precious charm wand, the same wand that the gnoll was drooling over. "Aw nah. Youse makin dat up Dregsie, youse cant speaks wid dogses. You cant means dat Dregsie. Dis isnt no fetch sticks fer dogses. Dis is whats keepin im friends wid us. You cant wants me ta throws it Dregsie. Pleeese!" Eventually, inevitable she sees the futility of her situation. Her friends are going to make mince meat of his friends, then he'll turn on her and they'll turn on him... She sighs "Good doggie, fetch!" she hurls the wand through a broken window.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Fri 20 Feb 2015.

Sure enough, the gnoll howls joyously and leaps through the window to fetch the stick.

Dregz puffs out his cheeks in relief, but quickly turns towards the druid in concern. [Language unknown: "Oun, Ainha !  Ndsi Eenven'comilloul onsiveted noen nceughour ulhihi i ati !"] the little goblin shrugs his shoulders.

Seeing Grakk outnumbered, Oopses taps an unsuspected resource of inner bravery and dashes forward to help the minotaur. He is too far away to run in, catch his breath and cast a spell so he charges in with his scimitar to attack one of the gnolls (g9) instead.  His feeble slash is accurate but barely cuts deep enough to draw the gnoll's attention away from Grakk.

Minmorc responds an instant later, charging past Oopses to skewer one of the gnoll archers (g3) at the intersection, slaying it instantly. However, his charge took him past the gnoll Oopses had attacked and the gnoll was delighted to swing his battleaxe at the giant orc as Minmorc dashed past, although luckily the blade just glanced off Minmorc's chain shirt armour.

Jurz cries out in pain at the injury he received but lashes out at the gnoll (g10) in return with his flaming scimitar, searing through fur and flesh on the gnoll’s arm. Rog tries to bit the gnoll but can’t get a grip on the gnoll's leg, so he backs away from the fight when Jurz signals him to do so.

Riza takes another shot at the gnoll leader and actually manages to hit his left arm as he waves his axes back and forth in front of Grakk.

Dregz abandons his new heavy crossbow in favour of his trusty old sling and hurls a lead bullet at the gnoll (g10) attacking Jurz. Unfortunately his technique is hampered by the holy book clutched in his other hand as the sling catches on the book and the shot falls well short of its target.

Moffdust orders her summoned celestial dog to attack the gnoll archer behind them (g14) but the dog's bite misses this time. Then she chants a brief incantation and sends a pair of magic missiles to slam into the gnoll leader. She walks another 15 feet closer to that target. Then it is time to teach her pet gnoll a new trick; fetch the magic stick! The gnoll (g2) delightedly leaps through the window behind her to search for the wand she threw for it to fetch.

Bulldust charges at the eastern gnoll archer (g14).  It's a short charge, but long enough, and there's a dog in the way but his longspear can reach over it to spit the gnoll through the chest, killing it instantly.

Raven follows the injured gnoll (g12) down the alley and speaks to it. The gnoll reacts angrily and lashes out feebly with its battleaxe. It might be grievously injured but it is not ready to lie down and die just yet. Fortunately the swing is wild and just chips stone from the corner of the building where it is hiding.

Grakk is the last to act but he reacts angrily to the savage attacks against him. He swings his graetaxe down on the gnoll leader’s head, slicing off his ear and staggering the gnoll from the force of the blow. As the gnoll leader staggers back a pace Grakk lowers his head and attempts to gore him with his horns.

The gnoll leader shakes his head to clear it then attacks savagely, swinging his battleaxe at Grakk again. Luckily for Grakk the effort is too much for the gnoll and the battleaxe slips in his hand as he strikes so only the flat of the blade hammers into the minotaur without any further harm and the gnoll leader collapses face down at Grakk's feet.

There is a sudden howl of dismay from all the other gnolls as their leader goes down. As one they all turn tail and flee from the disastrous battle that has already claimed five of their pack. Minmorc lunges with his greatspear, skewering and killing another gnoll archer (g4). Oopses and Grakk both slash at the heir other gnoll but both miss and the gnoll escapes down an alleyway to the north. Raven stabs at her wounded gnoll but this time he ducks under her blade and bounds away down the alleyway towards the east. All the rest of the gnolls scatter in all directions away from their disastrous ambush site and quickly disappear out of sight down alleyways and into ruined buildings. Only Moffdust's charmed gnoll (g2) remains, still happily searching for the stick she threw.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.

Minmorc's Bless spell gives everyone  +1 on attack rolls for 7 more rounds.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 255):

Oopses rolled 7 using 1d8+2. Cure Light.


"Your not suppast lets dem hitz ya." poking around the minotaur's wound.

Minmorcs feverish eyes are fixated on a pair of fleeing backs, with a snarl Minmorc will sprint after them with nothing but murder in mind.

Jurz almost growls in irritation as the gnolls  turn tail and flee.  For a moment he considers following Minmorc's example, and chasing one of the G nolls down,  After all, he hadn't had a chance to try out that new battle tactic he had thought out yet.

Instead he encourages Rog to rear up and growl at the back of a fleeing Gnoll, helping vent his anger.

"Strip them." he calls as he goes to the nearest dead Gnoll and starts stripping it of its gear, weapons and any treasure that it has.  Once he is done he will mark the dead gnoll with his flame blade and leave it as a warning for the others, should they think about returning.
This message was last updated by the player at 09:39, Tue 24 Feb 2015.

Riza shoulders her bow once again, she was disappointed with the doggies they weren't as much fun as she thought but they had turned tail and run. She picks up her spear and moves over to the gnoll leader, with a snort of disgust she plunges the spear into the gnolls throat and twists for good measure. She will then set about looting the leaders corpse as per Jurz's advice.

She makes a note of the direction Minmorc ran in, she wasn't worried about him but she would check up on him if he wasn't back by the time she had thoroughly looted the leaders corpse.

Bulldust picks some titbits of gnoll off his longspear and throws them to the celestial hound.  "Good dog."  He sets about looting the dead.

Moffdust enters the ruined building to help her friendly gnoll search for the wand, and not bite it too hard. She leads the gnoll back into the street and sits down with him, their backs to a wall, as they wait for Raven to come back from the alley before calling out "Dis way Raven Birdie Girl! Can youse talks to dis gnoll and asks it where dey keeps all dere shinies?"

"We won !" Dregz shouts out in triumph as the Gnolls turn tail and flee.  "As it wuz written !" he adds with no small measure of satisfaction, patting his Holy Book comfortingly.

Gloating done, the little priest moves to help Bully with the looting of spoils from the two dead Gnolls down their end of the road.

 She followed Moffdust and her pet gnoll until they sat down to wait. She ruffled her feathers and squatted down beside the gnoll, giving it a pat on the head since it was acting like a good little dogie.
"Good boy! Yous done good. Can you lead us to the shinies? Pretty lovely shinies, yes?"

Bulldust is impressed with Jurz branding the dead.  He thinks it over for a while. "Dregz, can we do somefing to dese nolls to praise Bargriefyuk?" he asks as he unbuckles the dead archer's quiver. "Like poke out dere eyes or eat up dere hearts?  Maybe deres somefing in your book about dat?"

"Thanks Birdy Raven!" She looks expectantly at the gnoll.

Bully raises a very good point, and goes someways towards redeeming himself in the goblin priest's eyes.  Leaving the looting to the Bugbear, Dregz reverently removes the Holy Book from its protective sack and thumbs through the pages, while of course being careful to conceal the sacred writings from the unsanctified. ¹

His eyes dart back and forth as he searches the divine text, finally alighting on the relevant passage.  "Dat's it !"

The book snaps shut and is quickly returned to the safety of its sack.

"We must cut der tongues out !" he informs Bully, fervently.


¹ That would be everyone except himself

"Tongues it is den." confirms Bulldust, craning his neck to see if there are pictures, until the book is snapped shut.  He doesn't own a knife so he uses a wickedly sharp claw and holds up the grizzly trophy.  "So now wot, does someone haf ta eat it?"

Dregz looks panicked for a moment before enlightenment comes over his warty green face.  "BURN 'EM !" he yells triumphantly.

Minmorc's pursuit of the fleeing gnoll archers is soon thwarted as they split up then dart through narrow alleys and the narrow doorways of ruined buildings where the giant orc is unable to follow them at speed. With far better knowledge of the layout of the city they soon manage to evade him and disappear among the ruins.

Meanwhile, with so many of the group searching the 6 dead or dying gnolls (including the gnoll leader) there is little chance for items to 'accidentally' get slipped into the pockets or backpacks of individual characters. The loot gathered from the 5 ordinary gnolls includes 5 sets of leather armour, 2 heavy steel shields, 5 battleaxes, 3 shortbows and 3 quivers full of arrows. Their leader's gear was of better quality – a masterwork battleaxe, masterwork handaxe, masterwork shortbow and quiver of 20 masterwork arrows.  He was also wearing a jewelled collar and had 4 gems in a small purse tucked inside his armour.

And not forgetting Bulldust's grisly collection of six gnoll tongues, as well.

The charmed gnoll sits happily with Moffdust but doesn't understand what she or Raven say. It is a little while before they all figure out that Dregz is the only one in this group able to speak the gnoll's language. When Dregz finally translates Raven's question the gnoll is happy to answer.

[Language unknown: "Oulerehou? Ounpreate manatider, atar, inniei, sonicahat teilme? Andtheantoulrut, icawitoul ce stad entbutpro est eidiec, wa ee o ek ill k isal not k oveat. Mimaio verll ho entesa anous vor. Ni seivha oulbe werin, urre un ho io ou ilte tefo orticahou hasainant asni. Nt is ha itee staut me iticiead a i i manstrver but a ectillill aspa houdi isss ad ic."]

Minmorc will make his way back to the group, smash his way into the most intact looking house and vent his rage on its furniture.

Riza will rummage through what she found on the gnoll leader. 'Let's bring everything to the graveyard, or church or whatever, we can dive it all up then' she reaches down and grabs the jewel collar 'this is mine... You guys can sort through the rest'

She will then head towards slipknotz and signal for him to keep showing the way. She needed a rest and was unusually on edge after the fight. She will not wait long for the others and will continue in the direction of the designated sleep spot slipnnotz was leading the group too... Spear in hand
This message was last edited by the player at 10:44, Wed 04 Mar 2015.

"Hang on, hang on," Dregz says, brow furrowing painfully as he tries to make sense of the Moffa's pet gnoll's yips and snarls.

"Der boss," the little goblin priest jerks his thumb towards the very dead leader of the dog-boys, "he hadda big box of shinies back at der camp."  He shrugs his shoulders, looking towards Jurz and Minmorc. "What d'yer reckon ?  We can take 'em ?"

"We can take dem all.  Give Minmorc somefing ta hit.  I want dat box a shinies.  And a cook fire for dese tongues."  He waggles the handful juicily then stuffs them in his pocket.  "Moffa, tell im ta lead us to da camp."

Minmorc will thrust his head with its shiny new helmet up through the (what I'm hoping is a thatched) roof and will glare at the party "I's wanna kill things!" Then he'll look over at Riza "sleeps good!" Then he'll look back at the party "killing better!... Mmmmm... Gnoll tongues..."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:12, Wed 04 Mar 2015.

Jurz is aware that his Flame Blade is going to run out soon, and wonders if Minmorc is going to shrink back to normal size again soon as well.  "Dere's gonna be de undeads wotz wakes us up in der night ..." he reminds the others that it might not be a good idea to use up all their magic and abilities before they sleep.  "An if'n dere is no undeads, den we's might well get a visit from some of the over guys aroun here dat aren't scaredy by the stories of de undead.  Cos dey will have been dere to look already ..." he adds half expecting Slipnutz to be setting them up.

The charmed gnoll looks back and forth at everyone as they debate attacking the gnoll camp. Obviously he doesn't understand a word of it and is just happy being close to Moffdust. It looks like he would do just about anything for her.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 277):

"Iz don't wants ta fight ghosties."
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:01, Thu 05 Mar 2015.

Riza stops walking off as she hears the new plan. She throws her head back and let's out a loud sigh. Once she makes it back to the rest of the group she is visibly tired and irritated. 'Well make up your minds what we doing or I'm going to loose it and rip someone's face off' anyone looking at her can easily see she is not just being figurative in her speech and is close to loosing it and attacking someone.

She looks at the others expectantly 'well?'

"E's not gonna want ter fight 'is Dog-brothers," Dregz points to the Gnoll, "'an won't like us fightin' dem either."

The little goblin priest finds Riza's rip-yer-face off look more than mildly disturbing and sidles away, hoping to use Minmorc for cover.

Minmorc roars his approval and thrusts an arm and Vera through the roof. "Tear der faces... OFF!" Minmorc seems to gain a moment of clarity. "So Dregz, oos face is we tearin off, gnolls or sumfink smaller?"

"Lizzie Rizzie shes right, wes gotta make up our plans an all sticks togever!" She stands up and stamps her little foot and flexes her claws in the most threatening manner she can manage, scary like a Chihuahua. "Wes beat dese nolls fairses an squarsies an now wes gonna takes dere shinies! Dats de ways it works. An wes gonna do dat right now cos Twinkie wonts be so helpin in anover hour." she gives her pet gnoll a scratch under its chin. "An hes not gonna bite youse Dregsie, cos Is gonna make sure hes busy. So now youse can tells Twinkie ta take us dere!" She glares at Dregz hiding behind Minmorc.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:38, Sat 07 Mar 2015.

Moffdust calms down a little, then yawns. "Wes can sleeps in da nolls places when deys all dead." She glances over at Jurz and Oopses. "An Is not wanna sleeps in no graves eiver, not were deres umans runnin aroun all overs da places an all dead an corpsified."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Sat 07 Mar 2015.

Dregz ponders.  Might not be so hard to make the dead humans do what you want, same as Moffa's made the Dog-boy her pet.  Something to consider ... when there are not more pressing matters such as Riza and Minmorc being ready, willing and able to rip faces off.

[Language unknown: "Aiof ie comkorwhe Taprof m wil aconek koryinive yinstrany naof, whi hou whecwa thiichest sa tiis acwh alshe foni, O ?"] he barks at the Gnoll.

Moffdust frowns and scolds Dregz "Youse mustnt bark at Twinkie like dat, youse scarin im, youse gotts ta talk nice and gives im a pat on is headses like Birdie Raven does, cos es not gots long ta live." She points to the spot right there on top of the gnoll. Then she grins wickedly and explains "Cos when wes get dere es gonna stands up fer me an get imselfs all fulla arrows from is nollsie friends, he he he!"

The charmed gnoll looks worried when Dregz barks instructions at him. He huddles in close to Moffdust with his arm protectively around her and barks an answer back at Dregz. [Language unknown: "Trawerica wepr armemail. En leac ulhian dintr omtra an ilnd ospa ivble thi elar res st i. Ec lainom k ntiut lo Nc onewerlat her ndfoet p ons. Lat hasta n roel om ratfo!"]

Dregz tries to keep all hint of expression from his face (but somehow the zealous gleam in the eye just can't be concealed).

"Yer Dog-boy's worried about youse, not himself !" the priest tells Moffa. "'E says der other Dog-boys will eaten youse up. 'E says 'e'll go gets der shinies an' bring 'em ter youse."

Moffdust shakes her head slowly. "No dats not gonna works out Dregsie, cos dem ovver nollses deyll kill Twinkie and keeps da shinies. Wes all goin togevver. So tell im ta gets goin an wes all gonna follow an es gonna keeps me safe. An Bullys gonna keeps me safe. Youse all gonna keeps me safe! Den we shares out da shinies."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:22, Sun 08 Mar 2015.

The brief discussion between Dregz and Moffdust, with Dregz barely betraying his excitement and Moffdust showing her doubt all too clearly, is enough for the charmed gnoll. He didn't understand a word of it but Moffdust's doubt is enough to galvanise his determination to prove himself to her. He leaps back, barks a determined response at her [Language unknown: "Ri ome e at! Earvornde ssnt! Red pl ousan proingill os aneen, ndesonard mahire whiventho as estprotio! Ec tinon re. Ceit ev int nath. Llmang men!"], then he dashes off to the intersection and away down the southern side road.

"What's dat Lassie, ders shinies down der well? Follow dat doggie!" Minmorc will burst out of his play pen, grab his dropped sack of magic elf junk and chase after the guide Gnoll.

She followed them and stayed close to Moffdust trying to help where she could. Moffdust was so small, maybe she needed a bit of help and protection from time to time.
"I help too if you needs it."

Bulldust is running in Minmorc's wake, longspear at the ready.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:44, Tue 10 Mar 2015.

"Den follow dat noll!" Moffdust grabs Raven by the wing and pulls her along the southern side street at a run and a cackle. "C'mon hobbitses! He he he!"

Crazy gnoll¹ !  There's naught for it now but to stick with his tribe and hope for the best.  Pausing only to stoop and snatch up a pinch of dirt which he throws over his shoulder, mouthing some suitably arcane phrase (probably a prayer), Dregz joins in the fun. 


¹ most definitely NOT 'Grassy knoll' if anyone in a black suit and sunglasses is asking

Riza hurries after Minmorc spear in hand. Gonna kill some doggies

The charmed gnoll dashes off down the southern side road on his self-appointed mission to fetch the shinies for his favouritest goblin girlfriend in the whole world. And Minmorc, still as big as a giant, leads the enthusiastic pursuit with everyone else following along as swiftly as they can. Fortunately the chase only goes one block to the south before the charmed gnoll ducks into an eastern alleyway leading to a relatively clear space at the back of two rows of buildings. If there were ever any fences separating the area into individual lots they have long since been removed.

As the pursuers reach the alleyway they are able to see the gnoll camp of about half a dozen tents scattered around this backyard area. About 150 feet away a campfire is burning and about a dozen gnolls are gathered around it, yapping at each other in great agitation. Two or three of them are already wounded; one quite badly, and they are the ones that occasionally gesture toward the north as they yap at the rest of them. There are also two hyenas prowling around this group like pet dogs.

The charmed gnoll has headed straight towards a large shed just south of the eastern end of the alleyway and has not attracted the attention of the rest of the gnolls around the campfire.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.

Minmorc's Bless spell gives everyone  +1 on attack rolls for 2 more rounds.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 296):

" toof, phours, fives, tix.. dats lotsa tents."

While he is still giant sized Minmorcs eyes have regained their focus and his mind has cleared. He will quickly take stock and quietly snarl "bloody doggies has had der walkies, now dey can plays dead. Dey ain't runnin from me again." Minmorc will take off at a jog, continuing South down the road then turning the corner and sprinting East.

Riza will set off after Minmorc, but will stop at the building just south of the camp. She will check the doorway to make sure she can gain access and will make her way in as quietly as possible. She will try to keep herself hidden and will try to see if she can find a good vantage point to fire off shots from inside the building.


OOC:  07:48, Today: Riza rolled 20 using 1d20+10. Move silently.
07:47, Today: Riza rolled 36 using 1d20+19. Hide

"Oopses can count?!"  Bulldust whispers in astonishment.  Seeing that Monmorc and Risa are moving around the houses to the south, Bulldust will look for a flanking position on the north side of the gnoll camp.  "I'll go froo dis house and creep up on dem on da norf side of dere tents."  He enters the doorway east of him and picks his way through the burnt out building and out its other door to the north.  He tries to move silently but instead makes a din moving through the rubble.  Sorry!
09:47, Today: Bulldust rolled 9 using 1d20+8. move silently -2 for rubble.

 She follows Riza and Bulldust, trying to move quietly and hide in the rubble and behind Bulldust and Minmorc as best she can without tripping or shooting off an arrow accidentally. She hoped the others stumbling over rubble doesn't give them away.

23:47, Today: Raven rolled 21 using 1d20+7. hide.
23:46, Today: Raven rolled 11 using 1d20+7. move silently.

Moffdust sighs as she hears Bully crashing through the rubble of the house. "Bugbearses is sposed ta be quiet." She enters the same doorway and moves to the window facing towards the tents where she can peer over the sill and watch Twinkie. She does not bother with trying to move silently. She casts Ghost Sound to make a house wrecking racket like a dozen Bullys moving silently come from the shed that Twinkie is heading for. She murmurs wickedly "Oops, youse is such a clutses Twinkie. He he he."

As he rides, Jurz casts barkskin, letting the spell effect trickle down and protect Rog as well.  He isn't overly keen on this particular excursion, but if it going to happen, it needs to happen in a way that benefits his little group.

Seeing Minmorc head south and some of the others disappear into a building, Jurz rides Rog north intending to move down the first alleyway into the camp.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Sun 15 Mar 2015.

In reply to Jurz (msg # 303):

Arlein moves up to Oopses who is obviously peering around the cornerStanding in the alleyway.

Grakk's head turns one way then the other as the group rapidly splits up and moves off in different directions. In the end he follows the closest group, which is Bulldust and Moffdust, into the building immediately to their east. Then he follows along behind Bulldust as he starts creeping around the northern side of the tents.

The little goblin guide-turned-rear-guard sighs and follows Bully, Moffa and Grakk into the ruined house. But he decides to stay with Moffdust at the window where it is probably a lot safer than out there with the bugbear and minotaur.

Moffdust glances over at Slipsnotz as he arrives beside her at the window. "Chaos." she breathes over the din, her eyes alight with glee. "Wes just cant say whats gonna happen next."

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 307):

Refreshes Bless spell before everyone is out of range.

 She followed Riza into the building south of the campfire to guard the small female's back, and if she got a chance, she'd use her sword on one of the camp's denizens, if any got within reach of her blade!
"I'z gots yer back Riza!"

"Could be more of der Dog-boyz in der tents !" Dregz hisses urgently.  All options here look bad, so the little goblin priest decides to trail after Moffa and Bully, his footfalls silent as a cat, so unlikely to detract attention from the racket the bugbear is making.

With the enemy in sight, or at least a camp full of gnolls in sight, Team Arda-Nuff swings into action like a well-oiled machine. Oopses chants a blessing on them all so they will all fight bravely against the gnolls. Arlein the cat rubs against his ankles supportively. Then the rest of them scatter in all directions, rather like that well-oiled machine is suddenly flying apart!

Oopses and Arlein are watching from the alleyway west of the camp.

Minmorc, Riza and Raven are moving into position to attack from the southern street.

Jurz and Rog are moving into position to attack from the northern street.

Bulldust, Dregz and Grakk have gone through a building west of the camp and are moving around the north side of the tents.

Moffdust and Slipnotz are hiding in a building west of the camp looking out the window toward the camp and watching the charmed gnoll as it pulls open the door and goes into a shed at the western end of the camp. As Bulldust makes enough noise to attract unwanted attention Moffust decides to cover it with an even bigger distraction, using her magic to cause a great clattering and banging from the shed her charmed gnoll has gone into.

But only Moffdust , Slipsnotz, Oopses and Arlein reach their final positions before the gnolls react. Even as far away as they are three of the gnolls hear the noise from the shed and start yapping questions at each other. Then one of them spots Oopses and Arlein and the yapping gets much more excited. [Language unknown: "Oerlarpro lo whiureica? K et ivome o? Andionted na adeiei m ee Thperoitil osni! Ul, ticaom tr wilartthi venproart elsias? Latbleall art somessant ne thacpo ter wilthaint e u! Ilfo, ilpo ateto pa nti! Sanandera o! Acome t!"]

The gnolls all pull out weapons in excitement. Most of them hesitate and look around as though expecting danger but four of them (three archers and an axe-wielder) start moving west toward the noisy shed and the alley where Oopses and Arlein are standing. The two hyenas soon follow and quickly take the lead, obviously heading straight at Oopses and Arlein.

OOC: Main Game Map updated. Note that most of the doors and windows of the buildings are open or broken. The shed the charmed gnoll went to had one of the few closed doors in this area.

Oopses' Bless spell gives everyone  +1 on attack rolls for 2 minutes.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 311):

"EEEeek!" turns and 'Runs' around the corner.

, Today: Oopses rolled 6 using 1d20. initiative.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:25, Sun 22 Mar 2015.

Minmorc hears the clamour as battle nears, the rattle of arms and armour, the howls of the gnolls, the laughter of the hyenas and his savage toothy grin stretches from ear to ear. With a straight stretch ahead of him Minmorc opens his stride and launches himself up the road, past the first alley. As he passes the second alley he will point down it, a clear signal for those that follow and will continue running. When he reaches the third alley he will swing into it, Vera leading with vicious intent.

"I tink dey've heard yous ... us," Dregz informs Bully worriedly, listening intently to the yaps and snarls of the Dog-boys.

Moffdust weighs options in the rapidly unfolding chaos outside the window. She calls out to Oopses "I's gonna summon a good doggie ta stop da second big bad doggie, but I tink da first big bad doggies comin down da alleys for youse. Youse can come in here an hide if youse wants."

She loads her small crossbow and passes it to Slipsknotz. "If any doggies comes in da windas or da doors den youse shoots dem wid dis." She waggles a finger at him. "But donts shoots no gobbos, or catses."

Lastly she readies a spell, muttering "Good doggie, youse sics em Rex." but waiting until the hyenas come in range.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Mon 23 Mar 2015.

Bulldust grins stupidly at Grakk then continues along behind the tent then peers into the gap.  He waits for the hyenas to pass then moves into position between the tents, keeping his longspear out of sight until he can stick a gnoll with it.

OOC: Just answering a couple of questions and filling in a few other details...

The gnolls are all wearing leather armour. None look like they are better equipped or bigger and stronger than the others.
The gnoll archers (g7, g8, g18, g19 and g20) have shortbows and a battleaxe as a backup weapon (no shield).
The other gnolls all have battleaxe and shield.

There is no sign of movement from any of the tents and no sounds from them either.

 She waited with Riza ready to have her back and attack quickly as it became possible.

Grakk catches up to Bulldust and follows along right behind him with his greataxe ready to start lopping heads off gnolls as soon as they get close enough.

The goblin priest worries that Bully and Grakk are the sorts to attract trouble in the form of a pack of dogs falling upon them at any moment ... the minotaur in particular is having trouble with the word 'quietly'.

Waiting until the pair have passed him by, Dregz mutters a prayer to Bargrivyek and pulls a dagger from his boot, using it to open a small slit in the back of the tent.

Seeing Dregz and Bully at the end of the alley he is close to, Jurz tuns in towards the clearing.  He will stay hidden by the tent, if he can, ready to launch a mounted attack on whatever takes his fancy.

Riza shoots down the second alley Minmorc pointed down. Once down the alley she will wait for the mass of gnolls to pass, spear at the ready.

Once the majority of the gnolls have gone past she will unleash a mini tornado of hell

 She followed Riza but stayed out of her way as Riza unleashed some elemental tornado on some gnolls. She herself whirled up her sling with a stone bullet to throw at a gnoll at the end of the line as the gnolls went past.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 04:27, Sat 28 Mar 2015.

The race for best position is on. Oopses looks set to flee but somehow curiosity proves stronger and he delays his departure so he can see which way things will go.

Minmorc sprints eastward down the southern street and skids to a halt when he reaches the third alleyway leading north.

Bulldust and Grakk move into position between the northwest tents ready to ambush the gnolls when they get close enough. Then as they wait Grakk pulls a vial out of his belt pouch and gulps down the potion it contains. Some of his wounds from the previous battle with the gnoll pack leader heal up a bit but he is still moderately wounded.

Dregz decides that being out in the open with them is no a safe option, so he slits open the canvas wall of the northwest tent and slips inside.

Jurz rides Rog down the first alleyway from the northern street and takes cover behind the northwest tent where he can watch Bulldust and Grakk without the glow of his flaming scimitar giving away his position.

Moffdust hands her crossbow to Slipsnotz and begins a magical incantation.  Slipsnotz readies the crossbow and takes a position at the window beside Moffdust

Riza and Raven race along behind Minmorc but skid to a stop at the second alleyway where he pointed.

Then Moffdust's charmed gnoll ('Twinkie') emerges from the nearby hut (which still sounds like a troop of bugbears are clattering about inside it) and drags a big wooden chest out toward the western alleyway.

The three leading gnoll archers hurry a bit closer but pause beside the second-last tent to shoot an arrow each at the goblin and his pet cat before they can escape out of the western alleyway. The leading archer (g7) shoots at Arlein and the two behind him target Oopses. Mysteriously, one of the arrows suddenly deflects upwards in mid-flight and soars high before thudding into the ground near the gnoll archers. However the other two arrows are on target and both Oopses and Arlein are hit.

That is quite enough for Oopses and he dashes back around the corner with Arlein close on his heels before the hyenas can arrive. They dart into the closest doorway where Moffdust had called them to join her moments before and Oopses slams the door and leans against it to hold it closed. The two hyenas are close behind them and snarl outside the door as it is slammed in their faces. The door itself is already damaged so the hyenas, goblin and cat can see, hear and even smell each other on opposite sides of the door.

Meanwhile, the leading archer's position places him within reach of Bulldust's longspear and the bugbear seizes the opportunity to lunge at that gnoll (g7) just as it shoots at Arlein. Sadly Bulldust's enthusiasm is greater than his skill and the longspear tangles with the tent instead. It rips the canvas and shakes the tent violently before Bully can pull the spear free again.

The noise and excitement is fanally enough for the rest of the gnolls around the campfire and they all hurry westwards with weapons in hand. The first of the axe-wielding gnolls (g17) rounds the corner of the tent and comes face to face with Bulldust. It barks sharply in surprise then snarls and readies its axe and shield to fight the bugbear and minotaur intruders.

OOC: Main Game Map updated. The gnoll archers (g7, g8, g18, g19 and g20) have shortbows and a battleaxe as a backup weapon (no shield).  The other gnolls all have battleaxe and shield.

Oopses' Bless spell gives everyone  +1 on attack rolls for 2 minutes.

Oopses Breaths a sight of relief as he removes his point of damage, as the hyena's jostle the door like rabbid Cujo's behind him.

/cast cure minor.

"Ba.. ad   Vult... ture... daggs!" between impacts.

Minmorc stalks up the alley, ready to pounce upon the Gnolls at the campfire... Only to find they've buggered off. Growling under his breath he will make a quick dash west to crouch behind a tent and will take a moment to enjoy the chaos.

Geting a sense of the way the battle will pan out, Jurz lets Rog drift to the west end of Dregz'z tent.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:14, Sun 29 Mar 2015.

Dregz trembles with fear as he sees so many Dog-boys rushing to the attack !  But the little goblin priest refuses to abandon his mish-mashed tribe.  Sneaking close to the open flap at the front of the tent, Dregz yaps and barks urgently in the Dog-boys' own gutteral tongue before ducking back.

[Language unknown: "Ie poer !  Astoutint not m din thpangalio atelative m ver olniad her.  Astoal nt somna weca !"]

Moffdust grins as Oopses and his cat scramble in with arrows sticking out of them. "Dats good youse takin dem for de Arda Nuf team! Now let's kill dem big bad doggies."

Her summoned celestial dog finally arrives 10' south of h2 and charges to attack but misses.

She casts magic missile at h1 through the cracks in the door. 7 hp damage. "Youse can finish it off wiv dat crossbow Slippy." she nudges Slipsknotz towards the door.

She returns her attention to the scene outside the window and sees Twinkie dragging the chest for her. She chuckles delightedly "Oooo youse a good boy Twinkie." But she has not yet finished with him. She dismisses the ghost sound coming from the shed. In the sudden silence she screams out the window "Eeeeeeek! Twinkie!" and gestures frantically for him to join her through the window. In case Oopses and Slipsknots are alarmed she covers her mouth and giggles "I's jus messin wiv his headses."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:37, Sun 29 Mar 2015.

Slipsnotz hurries over to the door as Moffdust instructed. He lines up the crossbow at the hyena through a gap in the door and presses the trigger.

"Cark it! Missed!" he exclaims.

Grakk steps forward alongside Bulldust and swings his greataxe at the closest gnoll.

"Die, dogface!" he bellows.

OOC: Rolled 22 to hit, 8 damage. (Not enough to kill the gnoll)

She followed Riza  and Minmorc to the alley entrance then stopped to see if Riza followed Minmorc to the tent area. If she did so would she, to see if there were more gnolls there, and to search for shinies.

13 on search for gnolls
21 on search for loot
(Tablet won't cut and paste, sorry).

Bulldust grins at Grakk.  "Dats it Grakk, chop im!"  He tries to finish off the gnoll g17 with a punch from his spiked gauntlet, but misses.  Ever the optimist, he waves his longspear menacingly at the archers in front while peering around the tent where more gnolls are running up from their campfire.  "I wonder wot dey have fer dinner?" his tummy gives a rumble of anticipation.

Riza will move 40ft down the alleyway and will set her spear against a charge for this round and wait and see how the gnolls react, although it looks clear she isn't thinking like her usual self

In reply to Slipsnotz (msg # 330):

"Youse can try again Slippy. An youse too Oopsie, hurt dem big bad doggies." She drops her case of bolts next to Slipsknotz.

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 335):

Oopses is clearly pissed that moffdust shot at him.

Oopses manages to hold the door shut against the hyena that scratches and snarls at it outside. He even manages to cure the small wound he got from the arrow out there in the alleyway. Arlein the cat sits beside him with an arrow through her back leg looking very sorry for herself and perhaps a bit irritated that he is looking after himself and not paying attention to her.

Moffdust finally finishes her spell and a big dog appears from nowhere out in the street behind the hyenas and attacks immediately, though without success. She also hurls a pair of glowing magic missiles past Oopses' nose and through a crack in the door to wound the hyena outside. She sends Slipsnotz with her crossbow to have a shot at the hyena too but sadly he misses the target. Moffdust passes him her case of crossbow bolts so he can reload. Lastly she screams out at her charmed gnoll (Twinkie) and beckons for him to come in through the window. The gnoll might not understand her words but her gestures are clear enough and he drops the heavy chest he was dragging and races over to leap through the window to join her.

Meanwhile the giant Minmorc squeezes though a narrow alleyway then stomps up behind the south-eastern tent to watch the battle unfold. Just as he settles into hiding he suddenly shrinks back to normal size, which certainly makes the hiding a bit more feasible.

Jurz lets Rog wander around to the western end of the western tent where he too has a good view of the battle. Then Jurz begins an incantation.

Suddenly a gnollish voice yaps out from just inside the tent flap on the southern side of the western tent and about half the gnolls turn and look back in the direction of their campfire. But just when it looks like some of them are about to start running back that way Jurz completes his spell and the trampled grass and weeds suddenly start to wriggle and thrash about across an 80ft wide area in the middle of the camp. Ten of the gnolls and Minmorc are within the area of animated vegetation. The plants reach no higher than a foot above the ground but the plants wrap around their ankles as though determined never to let them go.

The animated weeds grip and pull at anything in the area, including the tent pegs and ropes anchoring five of the tents in the gnolls' camp. One by one those five tents all totter and collapse as pegs are pulled out of position. Minmorc's hiding spot is revealed for all to see, if anyone was still looking his way.

Riza and Raven advance up one of the alleys from the south but find their way blocked by a sea of thrashing weeds before they can exit the alley.

The gnoll (g17) in front of Bulldust is the only one outside of the area of entangling weeds and Grakk is quick to step forward alongside Bulldust and swing his greataxe at the gnoll. The heavy blade slashes through the gnoll’s leather armour and seriously wounds the gnoll. With his longspear in one hand Bulldust tries to punch the gnoll in the face with his spiked gauntlet but he misses, so he grips his longspear tighter and looks for an easier target among the gnoll archers.

The gnoll (g17) steps over in front of Grakk snarling and slashes back at him with his battleaxe but misses completely. Three of the other axe-wielding gnolls manage to avoid entanglement and wade forward through the sea of weeds. Two of them (g9 and g12) are already wounded and stand back a bit for the moment but one (g16) rushes forward to get at Bulldust. Bully sees him coming and thrusts savagely with his longspear, seriously wounding that gnoll too. The other 7 gnolls struggle to break free of the entangling weeds but only one (wounded axe-wielder g10) manages to tear his way out of the spell area and clambers across one of the collapsed tents to get at Bulldust and Grakk. Once again Bully sees him coming and in a remarkable display of combat reflexes he thrusts his longspear to greet that gnoll as well. His time he skewers the wounded gnoll through its belly and it drops on the tent, still bleeding profusely.

OOC: Main Game Map updated. The gnoll archers (g7, g8, g18, g19 and g20) have shortbows and a battleaxe as a backup weapon (no shield).  The other gnolls all have battleaxe and shield.

Oopses' Bless spell gives everyone +1 on attack rolls for 2 minutes.

Jurz surveys his handiwork and grins, then allows Rog to move along the side of the tent towards G17 and swings his flaming scimitar at the dog-man.  Rog, following his master's lead, snaps at the creature as well.

-

16:38, Today: Jurz rolled 10 using 1d20+5. Jurz attack G17 (flanking).
16:39, Today: Jurz rolled 2 using 1d8+1. Damage g17.
16:40, Today: Rog rolled 10 using 1d20+8. Rog attacks G17 (flanking).
16:41, Today: Rog rolled 8 using 1d6+4. Unlikely, but damage to G17.

Not to self:  DO NOT buy a lottery ticket tonight.

Bugger! I forgot to add one for the Bless?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:26, Fri 03 Apr 2015.

In reply to Jurz (msg # 338):

With twinkels in the ruins, Oopses let's the door he was bracing against the hyena get pushed in.

Snarling angry hyenas now infront of the 'distressed' Moffdust.

In reply to Oopses (msg # 339):

Moffdust shrieks an entirely more convincing shriek this time seeing a hyena in the now open doorway. Fortunately she now has a gnoll to hide behind. She ducks into the corner behind Twinkie and takes a flask from her cloak, drawing the stopper between her pointy teeth. She spits the stopper and mutters an incantation.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:17, Thu 02 Apr 2015.

There is a split second of comic confusion as Minmorc first shrinks (cue super Mario bloop bloop bloop) then has the tent simply fall away from in front of him. The tickle of much too friendly foliage seems to spur him into motion and the born athlete he is Minmorc leaps forward, high stepping over roots, twirling through flailing twigs and guide ropes to land near the snipers amongst the grassey Gnolls, Vera neatly impaling the closest Dog boy. His chosen war cry right now sounds something like "whacka Gnoll, whacka Gnoll, a hah hah!"

OOC: Minmorc will charge through the vegetation to end up 10ft East of Gnoll 15, a Gnoll which he has hopefully put a decent hole in.

In reply to Minmorc (msg # 341):

Bulldust is almost hopping with excitement  at this latest turn of events.  "Ooh ooh!  Fanks Jurz!  And deres Minmorc too."  He's humming Minmorc's tune when he punches g17 with his spiked gauntlet, taking advantage ok the flanking from Jurz and Rog, and grateful for the bless from Oopses.  The punch hits for 5hp.  He points his longspear at the entangled archers ready to AoO them if they move or shoot.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Fri 03 Apr 2015.