In reply to Minmorc (msg # 75):

Oopses rolled a 15 to attack the face eating bug before minmorc scares him.

Slipsnotz looks around as Minmorc climbs back in through the southern window.

"Dat's good, dat's good. All inna-side de temples. Now ducks down so de ghoulies don't sees youz!" he urges everyone. "De temples is de safes place. If de ghoulies don't sees youz no more dey's gonna forgets about youz and not comes lookin' inna temples."

Riza Ducks down immediately at slipsnotz advice keeping very quiet until the ghoulies have returned to their graves

Dregz sits quietly in a pile that encompasses his Holy Book (of course) the original black stick and the new, longer black stick that Minmorc so heroically recovered from the ghoulies, which he examines with renewed fervor and intent.

"Dis is two sticks !" the little goblin announces, in some surprise.  "Dey had two sticks an' we only had one !"

"Now we've got ... he pauses, doing the complicated math ... three sticks !  We win !!" he grins vindictively showing his teeth.  "Dat'll teach dem to have more sticks dan us !"  It seems being eaten by ghoulies is considered a suitable punishment for such affrontery in his eyes.

The priest holds one stick in each hand, his gaze flicking between the two.  Coming to a decision that can only be divinely inspired, Dregz sticks his tongue out and, eyes wide, attempts to join the one to the two.

Dregz has no trouble sliding the two sections of black rod together into a single 16-inch long, 1-inch diameter black metal rod including a 1-inch long, half-inch diameter tang at one end and a 1-inch bronze cap at the other end. There are just faint cracks at the joins where the three segments had been connected together.

A bit disappointed not to see the end of his pony and the ghouls' reactions when their meal (literally) disappears - Jurz jumps down from the Altar at Slipnotz suggestion.

"Dat's a good stick" he says sagely as he looks at Dregz new toy.  However, his brow furrows slightly   "Deres anudder bit to come." he says pointing at the tang at the end of the rod.  "We's had a tree god and der house of der sun god, maysbe dis belongs to der star gods?  Den dey will give yous a star to goes on de end of youse stick! he suggests happily imagining the little goblin waving a fairy wand about.

Dregz examines the pointy end, nodding his head with Jurz' suggestions, but coming to a different conclusion.  "Der's gotta be a piece for all der races," the priest speaks with absolute certainty.  Goblins an' bugbears an' orcs an' ..." he taps each segment in turn. "Der more we finds and joins together der bigger our tribe will become !"

Minmorc will sit down under the window and will pull Vera in out of sight too. "I'm gonna go ter der market at dark and get Twofer ter look at Helen. I reckon yer should gets im ter looks at der wand, stick like dat prolly has lotsa magic in it."

"Bugbears are goblins too!"  Bulldust announces happily as he comes down the ladder from the roof.  "Ya can have my bit fer da birdie girl or da lizzard girl." 

Raven looks a bit disappointed when Bulldust heads back down off the roof but she follows his lead and climbs back down the ladder into the temple too.

Moffdust pulls Bully down below the windows and shushes his to be quiet. "Slippy says if de ghoulies dont sees us den wes can goes shoppin."

Dregz nods eagerly at Bully's correction, pleased that the spirit of Bargrivyek is moving the Bugbear.  "Dat's one fer Raven, den," the priest agrees.  "Gonna need ter find some more, though fer der rest."

Minmorc's suggestion is met with far less enthusiasm.  "No," Dregz shakes his head emphatically.  "Dey will just try to steal der magic stick from us.  Better dey never see it."

Bulldust and Raven hurry back across the roof and back into the temple, Minmorc pulls his greatspear back inside the southern window and everyone ducks down below the window sills out of sight of the ghouls in the graveyard. That’s not hard as the windows are all 6 feet above ground level anyway.

There is a brief whinnying out in the graveyard as the pony lashes out with its hooves again at the ghouls then it all goes quiet apart from the moaning of the ghouls after the pony suddenly disappears, exactly as predicted by Jurz.

For several minutes afterwards there are various scuffling sounds outside the temple that give the impression that the ghouls searched around outside for a while before finally giving up and presumably, wandering away to their usual hiding spots.

Slipsnotz cautions against venturing out until nightfall as the ghouls are likely to remain restless for a while and most of the city (including the market place) doesn't wake up until nightfall anyway. So there is plenty of time for everyone who wants to enjoy another snooze so they are back to a proper nocturnal pattern again in time for the new night.

Sometime during the day someone uses Detect Magic to learn a little more about the magic items recovered from the victim's body outside in the graveyard. The shortsword, studded leather armour and 4 potions all radiate a faint magical aura. The shortsword and one potion (which is actually an oil for external application) have faint evocation auras while the armour and the other three potions (which are all different) each have a faint abjuration aura.

When nightfall finally comes Slipsnotz supervises the placement of the ladder out the northern window to give access to the safe path across the gravestones once again, to avoid disturbing the ghouls again as you leave the temple.

OOC: In summary, the magical items the party has now accumulated to trade (unless anyone actually wants to claim something as their own treasure) – excluding the black rod that Dregz is hanging onto, are as follows:

+1 shortsword (medium size),
+1 studded leather (medium size),
3 different potions (faint abjuration),
1 magical oil (faint evocation).

The party also still has the drow priest's +1 fullplate armour, so another visit to Two-fer-one in the marketplace is planned.

Does anyone have any other actions they would like to do during the day before we move on to another shopping / trading trip to the marketplace tonight? All spellcasters who need to will have had plenty of time to prepare/pray for / memorise new spells so everyone will be fully prepared by the time we move on. Does anyone have any other plans for things they would like to buy or do when they get to the marketplace again?

Minmorc will stack the loot on the central alter and will build a fire in one of the fireplaces. He'll then set up his cooking pot and will slow cook a big serving of Pork stew. For the rest of the afternoon he will sit and stare at the fire, seemingly meditating amidst the aroma of woodsmoke and bacon.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:22, Mon 04 Jan 2016.

Jurz isn’t much good at working out what magical stuff does, so he leaves that to Dregz and Moffa who do seem to be quite good at it.  Instead he takes himself off to sit quietly as he thinks about nature, gods and the way things work.  As he regains his spells, he plays with the charms he brought in the market, decorating the O’Baddy tree with some of the smaller ones and sets it on the painted wooden sun.  It all helps him remember that O’Baddy is the tree god and that the god of this place is the sun god.  Nature gods.  Gods of things he holds imporant.

Eventually, he will ask Dregz ”Who is der god of dis place?  Dis sun god dat has been protecting us from der goolies.  Does he have a name?”
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Mon 04 Jan 2016.

Dregz spends the day sleeping like one of the dead.  The real dead, lying quietly in their graves, not the restless souls that roam around outside lying in wait for any living creature foolish enough to venture near them.  Though that is not to say his sleep is serene, for the little goblin twitches and moans but does not awaken until night has fallen ...

... whereupon the priest comes too, eyes springing open wide as he gazes upon the black rod with the sort of religious fervor normally reserved for his Holy Book.

"Tank you, Bargrivyek !" he whispers.

"Dis stick ... I saw ... der man stoled it from anudder man, an' den he said ... he said a Holy Word an' it brought him here," he pauses thinking hard  upon the revelation his god has gifted him.  "Der first stick found der one we had !"

Reverently, Dregz holds the stick out in one hand.  "Hold on jus' a minute ..."

Riza has a chat quietly with slipnnotz before heading back off to sleep again. She sleeps soundly waking only as night arrives and she moves over to help Minmorc with the stew, chatting casually about the game and any visions he has had.

When dregs wakes up and starts playing with the staff she moves over and collects her gear and pockets the potions if no one else objects. Just to be prepared.

Minmorc has had troubled dreams now that the Monarch who will arrange the games has stolen his colours, however he has decided he will stay red until he has formed a whole team. He will however get Riza to paint two thin white stripes on his helmet from front to back. He'll then get Riza to write "ARDANUFF" in common on the front of his breastplate, "MINMORC" on the back and a big "1" on the front, the back, and both shoulders. Once stew has been cooked, shared and eaten Minmorc will leave the breast plate and helmet to dry, will stash the studded leather and short sword with the full plate in his pack to take to Twofer and will head off to the market.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:31, Tue 05 Jan 2016.

When Jurz asks about the sun god that this temple was dedicated to Slipsnotz thinks hard and finally says, "I hearded a hobgobbo priest say what dis place was once. Can't remember what the names was but I remembers it started wiv a P cos of all der hobgobbo warriors laughing about udder fings what starts wiv a P or ends wiv a P. Mostly just taking de piss, of course!"

Dregz's experiments with the black rod end with him swinging the rod around in various ways but always ending up pointing westwards, no matter where he stands in the temple at the time.

After supper, when Minmorc leaves his freshly painted breastplate and helmet, loads up the party's magic treasures and announces it is time to visit Two-fer-one in the marketplace, Slipsnotz and most (if not all) of the rest of the group accompanies them. Riza loads up the 4 potions to take them along as well.

In reply to Wyrm of Wyrd (msg # 94):

Arlein leaves to go hunting while the party sleeps.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:22, Wed 06 Jan 2016.

Riza is quite pleased with her work painting minmorcs armour. Once they all head to the marketplace she will tag along with everyone

On the way to the market Minmorc will scramble to put a plan in place. "So... Errr... We gots two magic armours and one magic weapon... Errr... So we can trades fer two more magic armours or one magic weapon or mebbe even some more magic sticks. Anyone wants some magic stuff?"

The little goblin cackles in delight as the stick seems to be pulling him westwards.  "Der's anudder stick dat way !" he calls out excitedly. "An' der best bit is, we don' have ter walk der ... not wid der magic word !  An' I knows der magic word !!"

"We can find der rest of der sticks like Bargrivyek wants us to and den unite der chosen races," a familiar light shines in the priest's eyes.  "An' as we go we can find more an' more players for der contests wiv Wilson like der Queen told Minmorc !"

Dregz is feeling too religious to go shopping and is happy to remain behind in the temple where he can search his Holy Book for any significant passages, and pray to his god. 

Speaking of which ... "Dey've taken all der trappin's away," the goblin answers Jurz enquiry on the back of Slipsnotz brave attempt.  "But I'm guessin' it was one of der yooman's gods wuz 'ere first.  P'raps Faultin' ... but more likely dey worshipped Pearler.  Terrible shinin' god ov der fiery sun whose light blinds all der children of darkness."  He shakes his head sadly.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:18, Thu 07 Jan 2016.

"Pearler?  De god of de Sun!  Dats a nature gods doh." Jurz declares adopting Pearler as one of his own personal pantheon of nature gods, just as he has done O'Baddy.  He makes sure that he has quick look around the temple, just to see if he can find something of Pearler's to add to his collection  of god stuff, or whether he will have to stick with the painted wooden sun".

"I'se could do wiv some magic armour" Jurz offers, as he thinks about how much he has been getting stuck into combat recently.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:12, Thu 07 Jan 2016.

"Dats right an proper dat, yer been killin stuff good wid dat fiery sword fing yous got. Oi Moffa, yer wanna magic stick?"