We picked up on 29 Nov 13 at Milburn Hall, but I'd frozen time between games to allow the party to take care of some business that time would have made impossible. Our cast of characters for the game:
The game started off with the characters regrouping; Dave the thief paid to have Draco the Mage resurrected, and the rest of the party pooled resources to bring back Gilder the fighter. They purchased as much rope as they could, and then set off for the cliff they discovered south of the dragon's lair.
Their journey through the swamp was uneventful. As they neared dry land near the end of the second day, though, they heard the howls of wolves off to the east. The party decided to ignore the howls and upon reaching the cover of the forest, continued south another couple hours before they made camp. During the night, the guards heard something off in the trees to the west, loudly sniffing, and rumbling, "I can smell you!" They quickly woke the group, and faded off behind the trees east of the path. Shortly there-after, a 12 foot tall humanoid lumbered into the camp. They attacked it from cover, and after a few rounds, it fled back the way it came. During the second watch, the red dragon they've encountered before flew overhead, but ignored them.
The next day, they continued south through the mountains until they came to the southern cliff. Looking out over the gap, they noticed the mountains continued east and west and then curved around to the south on both sides, forming a huge gap many miles wide, and continuing south to ocean. Three hundred feet below them they could see greenery.
Pulling out their rope, they took the time to tie four hundred feet together and then knot it every few feet to make the climb down easier. They tied the rope off to a huge tree to the left of the path where they found the pegasus cave last time, and dropped it over the edge.
Dave the thief led the way down. On the way down, they passed five additional caves, but only explored one of them long enough to find it contained a gigantic empty nest of some sort. Two hundred feet down, Dave noticed a green shimmer in the air, forming a layer from the cliff outward as far as he could see. they weren't able to see it from the top of the cliff, since they were looking through it to the greenery below. Dave didn't want to touch it, even though the rope went through it, so Weeder climbed down first, and passed through the glow. Beneath, the air was noticably warmer and more humid. The party continued downward, until they reached what they now saw was jungle canopy. They were able to make it through, then climb down the last hundred feet on a huge tree.
At the base of the cliff, they decided they wanted to head due south to reach the city they had seen from the cliff-top. As they worked their way south, they found the going tough, and very slow. The raucous sounds of the jungle were loud all around them, and the heat and humidity oppressive. Suddenly the jungle went silent, and a bat with a twelve foot wingspan swooped down, attacking Reaper, and attempting to haul him away. The party rallied and killed the bat, and Justin healed Reaper. The party decided to make camp for the night, and began clearing an area when they found an ancient stone cairn with a symbol of Law inscribed on the top stone. Rudy realized it was an ancient shrine and took it upon himself to clear it completely, so he could use it. Blart, upon seeing the symbol of law, struck it with his club, shattering the scribed stone. Rudy then attacked him, and dispatched him easily for defiling a Shrine of Law. No other party member interfered, and Blart's body was tossed into the jungle after being looted. The party then bedded down for the night.
During the second watch, a giant adder crawled slithered through the camp, over John, who freaked out a bit, and attacked it. They easily dispatched the snake, and spent the rest of the night without incident.
The next day, as they continued south, the jungle again went quiet, and the party quickly drew their weapons and looked up in time to see another giant bat. Since they weren't surprised, they easily dispatched it without damage to anyone. Shortly thereafter, they encountered a halfling, dressed only in a loincloth. He urged them not to go to "the shining city," and when asked, told them his ancestors had lived in other cities before "the shining city appeared and our cities were cursed." He told them one of the lost cities was due east of their location, but urged them to avoid it as well. He then did an acrobatic leap into a tree and swung off, tarzan-like, to the west. Pikachu successfully attempted the same, and followed the halfling off into the jungle. Caterpie, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander set off after Pickachu.
Meanwhile, Pikachu lost track of the halfling tribesman, and then lost his hold on the vines, falling to the ground and getting the wind knocked out of him. As he recovered his breath, a skeletal hand reached out of the ground litter he was sitting on, and grabbed his ankle. He leapt to his feet as three skeletons stood up and attacked him. He managed to hold them off for two rounds, when the other four of his companions arrived, and together they dispatched the skeletons. After the battle, they decided to bed down for the night, while the rest of the party bedded down where they were.
The night passed uneventfully for the smaller group, but during their second watch, the larger party was attacked by a tall humanoid with greenish-grey rubbery skin. They managed to kill it, then, while John Grammatikis was searching the body, it sat up and attacked him. At that point Dave recognized it as a troll, struck it dead again, and called for a torch so they could burn the body.
In the morning, Dave turned east, and said, "I'm gonna check out that lost city," and headed off. The rest of the party argued about what to do, and ended up splitting into two groups: Tiny Tim, Reaper, John, James, Annie, Bellatrix, Angara, Anja, Ockhena, Batman, Joe Dirt, Noris, John Grammatikis, Sparticus, Dollf, Stewy, Mr. Cob, Stoner, Enteri, Kaza-Rune, Brock, Gilder and Gimli followed Dave (Group 1) east, while Rudy, Draco, Richard, Justin, Stewi66, Weeder, Fred, Blart, Pinkie, and Rose went west to find Pikachu and the others (Group 2).
Three hours later, the jungle around Group 1 went suddenly quiet, and they all ducked down under cover while looking up to see what had arrived. With much loud screeching, 5 giant flying dinosaurs circled overhead, but couldn't get low enough to find any of the characters. The party stayed under cover until the creatures gave up and flew off. Meanwhile, Group 2 met up with Pikachu and company, who had been working their way back east. As they greeted each other, twenty giant centipedes erupted from the vegetation around them, and attacked. The battle was short-lived, with only one casualty: Squirtle was bitten, and died from the centipede's poison.
Several more hours passed, with Group 1 continuing east, while Group 2 decided to head further west before turning back to head east. Once again, the jungle around Group 1 went silent and four great carnivorous dinosaurs leapt from the jungle and attacked. The creatures were fast and attacked both by clawing and biting, and before the party was able to kill them, Stoner, John Grammitikis, Dollf, and Noris lay dead on the ground. Group 1 bound their wounds, and found a small clearing twenty feet across with yet another small stone cairn dedicated to Law, where they bedded down for the night. Group 2, meanwhile, arrived back at the larger clearing the whole group had made when they found the first stone cairn, and they chose that spot to camp for the night.
Again, I chose to freeze time between this game and the next.
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