(December 15, 2002) Chronicler: Tsuruchi Zenako
As requested by Ginny at the game and to let the Andersons know when they get a chance to read this, here was the net division of booty from the 3 raids into the goblin rat warren.
Zenako - Periapt of Wis +2, 2 CLW potions, 400 Gold
Hatori - Cloak of CHA +2
Isaku - Heavy Mace +1, with Mighty Smiting Ability, Scroll: CLW, 450 Gold
Zazu - 8 Diagram Coins (Augury 1/day), 3 Alchem Fire, 2 CLW Potions, Obsidian Dagger (worth 1302), and 450 Gold
Ashiko - Shugenga Scroll (3 spells): Bull's Strength, Cure Moderate Wounds and Tamori spell of Softern Stone, and an Obsidian Dagger (1302)
Noku - Gloves of Arrow Snaring (Deflect Arrow), 2 CLW Potions, 450 Gold
Mulan - 5 potions of CLW and 700 Gold
Gorvak - Amulet of Natural Armor +1, 3 CLW potions, and 146 Gold
Whispers - Obsidian Dagger (worth 1302)
Note: the Obsidian Daggers have a "book" values of 1302 gold, but should not be considered equal to cash of that amount. If you need to convert the Dagger to money you can probably safely do it for 50% of the value or 651 Gold. We were able to convert the two "dagger fangs" of the statue into 1000 Gold each, so that likely indicates the top end of the resale or trade value of the quasi magic dagger.
For the Andersons: Whispers was a "friend" Wu Jen" that Noku introduced us to. She was a Rat Hengioyki (sp) and seemed to be about our level of skill, based on the spells that she cast. (Entangling Scarf, Rain of Needles, Cat's Grace, etc). She came along when Noku went looking to see if she happened to have any scrolls he could have/borrow to assist in the return raid. She expressed an extreme distaste for the Rat Goblins and was eager to see them stomped, especially the shamaness.
The Goblin Rat Warren - Part 2
Our return journey down later on the afternoon of 8/14/1561 was uneventful. We had prepped up pretty completely (Bull's strength on Zenako, Gorvak and Mulan, and Gorvak again, Everyone was completely healed and had a resist Sonic damage spell cast on all of us from Great Aunt, Weapon Bless on two of Mulan's arrows vs the Shamaness (from a friend or ally of Isaku whom we did not meet). All the available Potions and Scrolls of healing were purchased (which is in fact where many of the potions in the above treasure distribution came from and a few were used up!)
The actual battle this time only lasted a full 6 rounds (plus a Surprise round in which Zazu got to act, (he was in the front of the line in any case)).
Our opponents this time were the Spell depleted Shamaness, 7 Goblin Rat "Champions" (These were more like corporals, than Champions, mostly they were from table talk 2 and 3 level types, while we had faced some 5/6 level types last time), the two remaining 2nd level acolytes and a few dire rats.
When we arrived, the priests were all trying to awaken the statue. The acolytes kept at it, while the shamaness turned to face (SHOUT) us down. (Sonic resistance comes in handy!)
In a rather remarkable sequence of initiative rolls, we all got to act in almost exactly the march order we were in! (It was rather weird).
Most of the Champions were all near various columns in the cave and pretty well scattered about. In the first moments here is what happened.
In the surprise round Zazu moved into the room towards the Shamaness, and got ready to hurl the Net we had purchased (20 gold in town). The Shamaness reacted a little and turned from the Alter and moved towards Zazu, and some of the champions moved slightly.
Whispers charged into the room a goodly distance, Mulan rushed up next to Zazu (using both moves) and formed a mini wall, Noku stepped into the room, and picked a line of sight towards one of the Champions and let go an Elemental Burst (EB) on the column next to the Rat. The Shamaness decided that this was a good time to SHOUT at us and gave varying degrees of headaches to Noku, Zazu, Mulan and Whispers. Now all of the champions on the field (5 at this point) closed to melee range (many of them had to Charge) and attacked Mulan and Noku. Noku gets bloodied but not bent, while the rat scratch is shrugged off by the Ranger. The acolytes keep chanting (to no avail). Gorvak hulks out and moves up to aid Noku and curses as his blow swings wildly. The area is crowded as Zenako moves around the corner into the room, and she decides to run past a string of 3 goblin rats (GR) who had been attacking Noku and Mulan to get within reaching range of the shamaness next time. 2 of the three AoO hit home, hard. Ouch. Isaku tumbles past the Gorvak/Noku/GR battle into the room and misses his stike at the rat. Raji Follows. Zazu moves a little closer to the Shamaness and hurls the Net, but lacking practice the toss comes up short (of course Dave rolled low).
Whispers, noting that the GR near her had all used up their AoO on Zenako and Isaku, moves past them to get into range on the Shamaness and Casts an Entangling Scarf spell on her which succeeds! Things are going much better this time. Mulan also being in close range tries to sink the blessed arrows into the GRS (Goblin Rat Shamaness), but both shots fall short (by goodly amounts, mid-single digit d20 rolls). Noku fires off an EB on some of the many GRs near us, and wounds many of them some more. The GRS then to the surprise of some moves past many of us (out of AoO reach) towards the far side of the cave. The 5 Champions are augmented by 2 more that arrive near the GRS, while the first 5 continue to melee us. Zenako is the target of a 2 or 3 of them and accumlates more wounds (now at 33/34!). Noku and Isaku also take some more attacks (Isaku is down to 2 HP left!). The Acolytes keep chanting, Gorvak now next to a GR, takes a full rage attack round and hits and drops the GR near him. Zenako with a mighty blow, (hits one of the GR near her for 20 (putting it at 0), Isaku, with one of his foes dropped by Gorvak has a clear path to step away and use a CLW scroll on himself, and Raji follows along. Zazu hurls a flask of Acid towards the GRS and does some minor damage (quick debate about acid and damage absorbtion of GR's).
Whispers moves slightly and "nails" the GRS with Rain of Needles and sticks her a bit. Mulan drops her bow and pulls out the Axe to attack the GRs nearby. Her swing connects and a GR drops. Noku drops an EB nearby and another GR drops. The GRS moves to the 2 new GRs and has them try to get the Scarf off of her. The GRs try to free the GRS and the other 3 GRs still standing debate whom to attack. They move to go after the wizard Noku who is blasting them with EB's. One hits, but the other misses, and Noku still stands. The other GR tries to move that way as well, but gets an AoO from Zenako who flattens that GR with another powerful blow. Gorvak takes this opportunity to introduce a GR to the blessings of his blade and the GR drops. The two acolytes decide that the battle is going even worse than a few hours ago and give up on the chant and morph into rats and scurry away (not to be seen again...) Zenako swings at and kills the GR near her and moves up towards Isaku (the source of healing). Isaku again moves to a more central position and reads another CLW on himself. Raji follows. A small horde of dire rats show up near Whispers and seem to be protecting her? Zazu moves into range and hurls a flask of Alchemetical Fire in the General Direction of the GRS and the 2 new GRs and splashes them with small amounfs of fire.
At this point the forces are well in our favor. The initial five GRs are down, the 2 acolytes have fled, and we have entangled and wounded the GRS a bit. The GRS seems to be out of spells perhaps.
Whispers tries to drop the GRs with a Sleep spell and one of them succumbs and falls. The dire rats seem to be milling about her. Mulan charges across the chamber in the direction of the GRS. Noku drops another EB on the 2 GR and GRS. The GRS moves up to Mulan and blows a powder in her face and Mulan becomes immobilized (Held). The standing GR charges Whispers, and cannot quite reach her. Gorvak CHARGES the GRS and takes a position next to Mulan. His swing connects and wounds the GRS. Zenako moves across the chamber and ends up next to Isaku as she dirnks a CLW potion. Isaku seeing a worthy recipient of more healing, casts another CLW from a scroll on Zenako getting her up to 8 HP now. Isaku also moves towards the GRS battle and takes a position opposite Mulan and Raji follows. Another swarm of dire rats emerge from the back walls and move towards the GRS battle, a couple of them nip at Raji (the only one they could reach). Zazu moves swiftly over and joins the battle and tries to trip the GRS. His attempt is not successful, nor is hers in return.
Whispers casts a Iron scarf at the charging GR and drops it. She takes a step in that direction, while many of the dire rats swarm over the downed GR. Mulan is held. Noku drops an EB on the GRS and Zazu and Isaku. Both monks avoid the flying shards. The GRS attempts to Melee and stikes at and slightly hurts the Berseker Dwarf who had just hurt her. (All other Goblin Rats are dead or sleeping at this point.) Gorvak takes his two swings and misses both this time. Zenako moves and charges into one of the few open spots about the GRS and hits thanks to all the bonuses in play. The GRS still stands. Isaku reads another CLW scroll on Zenako and heals her significantly this time. Raji is now faced with some Dire Rats to fight and chomps down on one, killing it. The rats move to attack people and have limited success. Zazu again tries to trip the GRS without much success.
Whispers moves over to the downed GR near her and makes sure it is dead, and her rat swarm stays in that area. Mulan is still held. Noku drops an EB on the swarm of hostile Dire rats and drops one or two and wounds many more. The Shamaness tries to move away from the battle, fleeing into her Dire Rat swarm, however she cannot avoid incurring at least some AoO, and Gorvak succeeds with his strike and she collapses. Gorvak moves near her and in his own attack slays a couple of dire rats. Zenako also moves that way and dispatches another rat. Isaku casts a CLW on Noku, the wounded Wu Jen. Raji again chomps on a rat. The rats sensing their leader/master haven fallen, turn and RUN away into the walls, leaving the field completely free of active opponents.
The GRS is not dead and we stabilize her. Using the Net we bind her and then wrap her in the net (but not before removing all items from her fallen form.) (magical Cloak, Gloves, Periapt, Heavy Mace) and mundane Leather Armor.
We closely examined the Idol and conclude that we will leave it for now and seek more counsel before messing with it. The GRS is brought to the Chief Constable and left for "questioning". All of the borrowed items that were nor used are returned to their lenders. (Wand of EB back to Zenako's Great Aunt, Magic Long Arrows back to the Constable, Magic Dagger back to Whispers).
We spend a few days (up until 8/19/1561) learning the properties of the magical items and during that interval, Zazu and Noku advance to 4th level, and increase their skills and stats. Treasure is divided, and Noku locates some information on what we might possibly face in an animated statue. General Damage resistence of 8 points is a likely first obstacle.
Goblin Rat Warren - Part 3
Noku has mastered Bull's Str and casts his 2 spells on Zenako and Mulan in preparation for taking on the Statue. Isaku Weapon Blessed everyone's weapon. We trekked back down, the statue had not moved. We surrounded it and Zazu tried to extract one of the Onyx eyes. He felt waves of magic roiling over him, but he avoided any effects, other than that of the statue coming to life and biting him that is! We then proceeded to attack the statue. Zazu swung at it, hit with his sword, but rolled minimum damage and failed to penetrate the protections. Noku cast a magic missile and blew off some pieces. Zenako took a mighty swing (would only have missed it on a 1 in this setup) and connected. With pumped Bull's STR, Ki Frenzy and Weapon Bless, she cleaved the statue for 23 points and it crumbled, pissing off the Koroborkuru to no end. Statue Battle over, but not the encounter!
A few moments later, a small human appearing baby appeared sitting in the middle of the rubble!!! It was making baby noises and crying a little bit. Then it dissappeared for a few moments, then it came back. It reached out for one of the Onyx eyes and looked like it was going to eat it or something at which point Zenako reached out and snatched the stone from the baby's hand. (About this same time Zazu reached out and picked up the Obsidian Fangs to protect the baby from hurting itself on them! at least that is the story we are telling.) She also picked up the baby and dropped her sword. (Like stealing candy from a baby, yeah I know!) At this point, Zenako got a chance to experience what Zazu had avoided. Zenako knew that the Stone was very nice, that her intellect was severely impaired (a -6 to INT) and to others she appeared to just stop and do nothing about half the time. Zenako's honor overcame her instincts and she knew that she must pick up the blade, but she didn't want to relinquish the stone, so looking about, she called for the other lady to take the baby and handed the child to Mulan, while she picked up her blade and sheathed it.
About this point, Mulan was getting into holding the baby, when they BOTH dissappeared for a few moments. When they came back, a few hexes away from where they popped out, Mulan being the wise Ranger she is, suggested that they probably went to a spirit realm kinda like what happened to Hatori with the Tree Spirit. Gorvak reaches over and grabs the other Onyx eye and achieves a state similar to Zenako. Mulan pops out to the spirit realm a couple of times, but manages to calm the baby and it falls asleep in her arms (perhaps all of her animal Empathy skills came into play here.)
The technical assessment offered by our wise Wu Jen and Shaman is that this is fricking weird. Zazu, Noku and Isaku lead the three warriors (two with pretty gems and one with a spirit rock baby) back up to town, which takes a while and they pay a visit to Great Aunt Shugenga. The group had learned a few days previously that she has amongst her spells the spell of Remove Curse, as well as Dispel Magic.
Her assessment of the situation when she gets the details, is that this is fricking weird. At the suggestion of someone, she convinces Zenako and Gorvak to put the gems down on a table and casts remove curse on both of them, which succeeds in both cases. We still have a baby to deal with. At this point it is sleeping, but seems to still want/need the gems. Upon a suggestion that perhaps the baby is cursed, she removes curse on the baby and within moments we have "teenager" amoungst us. A rock (nature) Spirit teenager.
After some talking, a letter is drafted by Great Aunt, and Zenako and Isaku ride off to visit the Abbess of Waterstone to present the situation and seek her insight. She is most intriqued and offers to come back with us to meet this being. In the meantime the other people keep the rock boy spirit from getting into too much trouble.
The Abbess evaluates the situation and concludes that this is fricking wierd. Now I know why I never went to Arcane Schools, everything is "fricking wierd!".
The Abbess determines that the stones are part of the spirit, but that they have been corrupted (not unlike what happened with the tree). That if we had smashed a stone, then that would have likely damaged or killed the spirit. She does manage to lift the curse on one of the stones and it seems to help somewhat, but the Nature Spirit is going to need the careful tutoring of the monks at the temple to achieve its destiny. The Abbess offers to take the Nature Spirit back to the temple and mentor/care for it. In recognition of our efforts she gifts us with an Amulet of Natural Armor +1. (Obtained it seems from around the neck of the monk who came with her...) She also offered us 2000 gold for the Obsidian Fangs, which we are most happy to accept.
Zenako and Isaku escorted the Abbess, her bodyguard Monk and the Nature Spirit back to the Temple and then we returned to Marike on 8/24/1561 and are ready to sit down and think about what this all means.
Spirit Realm stuff just gets tooo fricking wierd says this Samurai. Time to go crack some Bakemono and Ogre heads....