Interlude interrupted by occasional prophecy and rhinoceri

[kiya]

• Session 16: Man Bites Dog
  
• Session 17: She's closing her eyes, she's starting to dream, she's pulling the strings. . .
  
• Session 18: When Dwarves Hurry. (Hoom hum.)
  
• Session 19: 'Scuse me, looking for a cliff to hang from.
  
• Session 20: Wallops and Castor
  
• Session 21: Let's Split Up. We can do more damage that way.
  
• Session 22: Shamantic Disposition
  
• Session 23: Wherever It Wants
  

So we kept going towards Xenecal's fortress and everything.

Along the way Wren met a big cat and had a conversation with him. He'd been sort of keeping an eye on us and killing renegades because they'd chased all the prey out of his territory and that kinda made him feel grumpy. So he peered at us a bit, and looked at me funny, and then he went wandering off again. Cats are like that.

Eventually we got to a part of the land that smelled scorched, like a fire had run through it. Wren spent some times looking at some of the trees that had survived the fire and taking care of them, and we looked at things, and we kept going until we saw the line of fire coming on the horizon, which sort of slowed us up a bit.

So we thought about the line of fire, and it kept getting closer, and Wren went up to look at it from the top, and it kept getting closer, and then we blindfolded the horses and ran and jumped through them and there was no fire on the other side, and the fire that was there kept running away. It was not as exciting as I was afraid it was going to be. (Though fire burning when there isn't anything left to burn is exciting in its own way, I guess.)

So then we heard kordaro, a whole bunch of them, out on patrol. And it was dark and we couldn't see them, and I don't know if they could see us, but Wren could hear them well enough to shoot them, and they tried to surround us and trample us, so we didn't let them.

"What is it with you and bad things to eat? First beef jerky, now the fallen bodies of your enemies . . . ."
- Adosar to Karas

"I would like to cast the adventurer non-spell 'Detect Loot'."
- jikharra

And we kept going, and then we could see the fortress and everything, and Alar still seem to lair in very large rocks. So we spent some time thinking about what we were going to do, and thinking, and thinking, and I thought hard and I said to myself, "The keep is warded against foes. The master is guarded and aware. He chafes at his bonds; while not yet fully free, he is no longer fully bound. Powers gather and confer. A storm grows in the east. Beware the stone guardians."

So I told everyone that that was what I thought, and they were all interested and stuff, and Adosar said "Hmmm," and asked if we had enough supplies that he could take a day and make me a new weapon. And he asked me about what sort of fighting I knew how to do and how to do it and everything, and said, "Hmmm." The giant sword we'd gotten from the giant we couldn't do anything with, really. But he spent some time thinking, and then he went off and talked to an earth elemental, who brought him a stone out of a hill, and we got ready to keep an eye out while he made a new sword. (Session Quote: "Warning: Severe tire damage. Do not back up." -- keshwyn, on subject of making magic items and not being able to lose levels by it)

He put a hole in the middle of a hill with a spell, and the hill sort of whimpered at me. I patted it, but I don't think that made it feel any better. But we hid there for a while. And we tried to decide what we wanted to do.

We thought about doing something to one of the patrols that was going around outside, but decided that that would be probably too messy. Because then they'd know we were there. I mean, Xenecal probably knew we were there because my sword wakes up Alar and stuff, but that doesn't mean that he knew we were there. And making him know-know might make for a problem. ("I can believe he hears it too, that doesn't mean it's not going too far." -- Adosar [I think this quote goes here, ish.])

And we thought about all the renegades and kordaro and giants and other things he had, and whether we'd have to fight all of them too, and that could get awfully messy real fast and we'd have to run away a lot and that gets really tiring. So we prodded at things and made plans to try to avoid getting into fights with everything in the rock. It was a big rock and all. Better to kill the Alar and see what happens afterwards.

"I was going to say if you cut off the head of the snake, but then I saw Shae, if you cut off the head of the rooster. . ."
"It'll run around wildly."
- Karas, Renn

So we lurked in our very small rock. Well, hill. And we made plans, and Adosar worked on making the sword.