Between the noise the shriekers and his companions are making and having his hands firmly over his ears, Dregz can't hear much of anything, though the bright light flaring behind him does attract his attention.  Like Jurz, the hairy little goblin is surprised and confused to see the Kenku at the other end of the corridor.

"Is dat Raven ?" he asks the druid, in some puzzlement.

"Oh Grakk is  being fine, and is being sleeping. Was Being sleeping too until however I woke up on roof not in my tree!How about that?"


I got him home ok.

Bulldust does not hear the conversation with Raven, which is a shame as he'd like to have heard news of Grakk.  Having noticed nothing of concern in the northern room he returns 15'to the entrance to the shrieker room drawing his goose-hook as he comes, drops his flail and attacks the volent fungus V2 while staying safely out of reach of its tentacles (14HP dmg should finish it off).

Moffdust peeks around the corner and aims her fire wand again at a shrieker and scores 10 HP. "Shuush nows! Youse'll wakes de deadses!"

In reply to Moffdust (msg # 71):

Threats of violence shake off Oopses gut reaction at the horribly disfigured screaming goblins.

""Wooo argh!" Minmorc will step into the remains of the first violent fungus and will lash out at the last shrieker with even more enthusiasm then his previous attack. If the blow lands he will ask "any of yous knows a good recipe fer scream of mushroom soup? I want sum scream of mushroom soup."

Jurz has some suspicions about Raven, what she is saying doesn't sound quite right - nor does the way she is saying it.  So perhaps it is time for a more testing question.  "Did Grakk's feathers grow back OK?" he calls back to raven

 "Awk, Grakk happy happy, yes. Hims feathers all okay now. He not see any hoomans only see me! Den I sleep and wakes up on roof here! How dat happen I don know. All smoky ashy burn eyes and hurt throte. Den Iz sees you and came qwik qwik!"

 She bobbed her head up and down then on it's side, looking at them from one eye then the other. Then turned her head up and down and squawked.

 "Awk, what dat horrble noise? An what you do heres?"

"Whaaat?!"  Bulldust didn't hear the question.  No loss, he wouldn't have known the recipe anyhow.  Boys can't cook, everyone knows that.

Well dat give it away Jurz thinks hard for a moment, and then calls  "We's come looking for youse.  We's wanted to makes sure youse was alright.  Us gobbos and birdys has gots to stick togevver, hasn't wes?" he calls back.  "Dats Moffa plaing wiv a mushroom.  You'se wanna come see?"

Riza moves in with her spear, determined to silence the vile thing giving her a monster headache.  She deftly skewers  the shreiker

Ears ringing Minmorc will yell back at Bulldust "WOT?!"

In reply to Jurz (msg # 77):

 "Why youz looking fer me herez? Youz knew Iz going to big oak. I stopz at Grakkz place check if he seez any hoomanz but him not see any."

  She look at him strangely as he were being silly or forgetful!

For a moment, absolute confusion reigns in Jurz head, before  he blurts out "Cos de stick said. So why's youse here an not in der big oak wiv Grakk?"

"Me don know how! Was sleepin in da tree an dreamin den Iz herez! Sat all me knowz."

She shrugged her shoulders unsure how she got there.

"Youse dreamed youse wuz 'ere !  I dreamed dat too !"  Obviously having his hands over his ears wasn't proving very effective, as he responds to Raven's explanation with enthusiasm.  "It's der magic stick !  It must've brought uz all 'ere !"

Mystery solved to his complete satisfaction, the little goblin becomes aware that most of the party seem to be in mortal combat with something that's making a lot of noise dying.  "Mebbe we should help dem," he ponders reluctantly.

"I's watchin der rear!" Jurz says defiantly.

"Awk awk, could be dat iz true! Don want me go home, want me herez wit youz."

 She hopped a couple of times then goes closer to the others. She bobbed her head up and down then looks at them with one eye.

 "So, what wez doing? Wez making Mushroom Zoup? Or singin?"

"Mebbe Mimmorc is singin' ?" Dregz nods thoughtfully - while he'd assumed there was some sort of fight going on around the corner, Raven's suggestion is indeed most plausible.

"We should go an' take a look," he decides.  Even if the latter proves true, the big Orc will undoubtedly insist on everyone learning the words, so best to get a head start on that.

"One of us should stay with Jurz - you wanna go see what's goin' on, or should I ?"

"Rog and me is good." the little goob responds.  "We's can do it on our owns."

He says knowing that mounted on the large dog, and with the spells available to him, Rog and his rider as about the quickest people around here.

Jurz and Dregz turn their attention to the unexpected arrival of Raven behind them. They question her about Grakk the minotaur and how and why she is now here, but she seems even more confused than they are. The last she remembers was dreaming of this group here in the ruins in a desert of ash, then she woke up here and came quickly down to join them.

Meanwhile, Bully swings into action with his goose-hook to finish off the second violet fungus(v2), Moffa fries the shrieker (s2) behind it with another scorching ray from her wand and Minmorc shrugs off the effects of the violet fungus’s attack to leap in at hack apart the other shrieker (s1) with his greataxe. Moffa’s fried mushroom is still shrieking (although it now sounds more like a punctured gas bag) so Riza leaps in to finish it off with her spear.

Finally there is silence, broken only by the excited chatter of Team Arda-Nuff speculating on whether the magic stick was responsible for Raven’s sudden arrival and other, more important topics like the best recipe for Scream of Mushroom Soup.

OOC: Main game map updated. Room 19 has several writing desks pushed into the corners and numerous empty shelves on the walls. Room 18 is bare except for a few wooden racks that might once have held weapons and wooden frames that might have supported archery targets or something similar.

Everyone has the benefits of a Bless spell previously cast by Minmorc (+1 to hit and +1 on saves vs fear) for 13 more rounds.

Grumbling about the welts left by the lashes Minmorc will draw a wand and give himself a jab. As the wounds fade a little he will call out "Yodregz, use der force o der rod! Where's we goes now?"

Now that all the shouting and yelling and screaming has stopped, Dregz can clearly hear Minmorc shouting and yelling and screaming his name, thus ending the debate with Jurz and Raven over 'should-wese-shouldn't-wese'.

Hastening to the big Orc's side, the little priest calmly ignores the aftermath of the battle and dutifully sets the Magic Rod to seeking out its missing bit.


OOC: hey, Dregz likes Shriekers ... they're fun guys.

Jurz and Rog follow Dregz into the big room, assuming that raven will now keep an eye out behind them -  or at least scream loudly in warning if she is attacked.  As the priest does stuff with his magic rod, Jurz bends down and cuts a slice  from  one of the shriekers.

Lifting it to his nose, he sniffs delicately, then takes a good sized bite.

Bulldust is surprised to see the kenku again, but Dregz and Jurz seem relaxed about it so he grins and says "Hi Raven."  Seeing what Jurz does, he takes a slice of shrieker too and tries it, then slings the goose-hook and retrieves the flail he dropped as he peers back up the passage to the north.