Last thing I remember was falling unconscious across the river from the tentacle-infested former T'skrang caer.
In the intervening time: "Not a good day to be me" -Thwak "Given that the majority of our income was merchantile, and already processed under the laws of Travar, it is covered under section 32b paragraph 4." -Steven "Steven Mandrake the Tax Auditor" -Jesse "As you can see, I've had my sense of humor forcibly removed..." -Thwak "I could probably assemble a box of books, but I don't think I have anything at your friend's reading level right now" -Bigo Samwir to Steven Mandrake the Wizard
*thunk* Suddenly, Donk, Tristian and I appeared under a snowdrift, covered in papercut scars, "Let me explain. No, to long. Let me sum up. We ran from the horror, though not before we lost Kelios. Thwak started flying up, and ended up in Travar. An alchemist rescued Thwak, but he is only temporarily coated in heavyite. In order to get him permanently coated, we have to recover a staff and a box of books that the alchemist lost in a bad trade."
Thwak Tristain and Steven went to talk to Bigo.
"I've already had the shit beat out of me" -Thwak
"And put back in again" -Bigo Samwir
"Only iron-fortified" -Thwak
"Eat your Wheaties" -Samwir
They returned to the party and we started warming up. "So, how did Thwak end up in the sky?" "He pissed off Lochost, who caused him to escape from all bonds including the bond that holds him to the earth. He made a deal with an elementalist who infused the metal into him, but it's going to become more and more part of Thwak's pattern." We then went into a brief digression on how you make a passion not hate you, into whether Tristain had any tea, etc. Apparently Mr. Samwir and "George" are considering our offer. "They think he's a cantankerous old goat, and nobody should enter into an open contract with him. He's apparently not called "The Torturer" for nothing." -Tristain We camped near the caravan for the night and in the morning caught up with the caravan (since Gilad and a few others were still meditating as they left). I went up this time to the caravan with Steven, Tristain, and Thwak. "We've thought about it, and it's just too much of a hassle to do the paperwork for a deal like this on the road, and we have particular customers in mind for these, so we'd either have to go back or show up and look bad. Sorry. I can give you the names of a couple folks who might be able to sell you things like what you want. Goodbye"
We let the caravan keep going. Thwak tried to get everyone to leave him to "deal with the issue", but Gilad was afraid he'd break one of the laws of Travar, and I argued at length with Kenisha and Thwak about whether we should abandon Thwak and go back to Travar, as he asked. While we were arguing, Thwak took off sprinting. I took off after him--he got out of sight pretty quickly, but it's not like 9 ft Trolls don't leave tracks. I stopped and made myself some instant snowshoes, and then followed him. By the time I caught him, he was pulling trees and throwing them into the road to block it.
"Thwak, why are you doing this? Please stop..." *he ignores me*"It's not like we can hold Thwak down, not to mention it's IMPOSSIBLE to keep him prisoner given Lochost is still paying attention to him..." -Gilad
"Thwak. Don't do this" *he ignores me* I took a deep breath. "Thwak..." and cast the homing Ephemeral Bolt spell from my Purple Matrix to knock him out. It worked, so I sent a Green Olliphant mirage up to act as a signal to the party. It waved with its trunk and attracted both Kenisha and a flying fiery chariot with Samwir in it. He circled for a while as the party arrived. I explained that I knocked him out to keep him from attacking the caravan. Then, we argued about what to do with him, and Kenisha and Gilad berated me because I didn't have a Clever Plan before knocking Thwak out.
We argued at length about what to do with Thwak. Then, I woke him up and asked "What is your obligation to Jackson?" This lead into a long argument about whether or not it'd do any good for us to go to Travar, and somehow ended up in us going off to hunt the slavers.
"So, you're a scout. Go scout around and find the slavers" "I don't have a 'Detect Slaver' spell... That's more up your alley" "Who said anything about a spell?"Gilad then mentioned that he did see some manacles on the caravan last time...
Bigo Samwir then came down to about tree-level, and said "The caravan master asked me, as a favor, to tell you all to get lost" Then he and his fire chariot flew back to the caravan.
We argued a lot more, until the caravan caught up. Samwir boomed at us to clear the road, and when we continued to argue in it, he began clearing the trees by just forcing them to fly out of the way. We cleared the road, and the caravan passed (with the guards standing notably near us). As they passed, and Bigo Samwir grinned at us from the back wagon, Donk cane over to me and said "Jenna, how're you feeling?" I looked at him, tiredly, and gave him a Look. "Right." He decked me, and I passed out.
Donk then turned to Thwak and said "Go" . Thwak proceeded to attack the caravan. Steven tried to make a "Dispell Magic Missle", but Samwir knocked him out with ice manacles, causing him to lose the spell. *Then* Gilad got involved. He started shooting at Bigo Samwir, but his damage seemed to go into the staff. "This *is* the staff with the yellow gem, *right*? -Merry "Yeah, so it might not be a great idea to break it but whatever. I just want to kill him" -Andy
About an hour after he went up, Thwak came back down. The flaming chariot of Bigo Samwir appeared to aim him, and shouted "RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN!" and then aimed at him: a flaming fireball. Jenna took 14 points of damage and fell unconscious again.
Gilad shot and killed Samwir, causing him to fall out of his chariot
About an hour later, he party woke me up. I'm not clear on what happened, but it appears that the elementalist is gone. I healed a few of the party, and then an invisible person appeared. It was the swordsman from the caravan. He revealed that he was a deputy for the City of Travar, and was arresting us (as a party) for stealing and for the murder of Bigo Samwir.
Murder? What happened while I was out?
Gilad talked back to him, and so he went invisible again and hamstrung Gilad. Then, he arrested us and took us into the caravan, single file and hands on heads The swordsmaster left to go tell the caravan master that he needed to turn the whole thing around, and instructed the guards:
"If any of them try anything, SHOUT BLOODY MURDER, *then* do something."
As soon as he was gone, Thwak walked up to the guard and jumped at Bigo. Yet another fireball goes off. Through being very very lucky (again), I survived, but passed out.
"We've already killed him once..." -Gilad Bigo cast "Curse of Forlorn Ensystment" on Thwak as a last-ditch effort, binding him in the ground, and was carried away put in a wagon. As the others began assessing damage, Thwak came back up out of the ground, freed of yet another bond by Lochost. Once he came back up, he managed to take out both the swordsmaster and the weaponsmith, at which point Gilad realized that he was obligated to arrest the person who had just attacked and killed a Deputy Sheriff of Travar (while under arrest). Gilad shot Thwak's arms in the elbows. Thwak finally passed out at around -400 points. At this point, T'Karish woke Jenna.
I woke to T'Karish with smelling salts. Burned and bloody, I went to wake Steven, and was stopped by the Caravan Master.
"You'll help my people first."
"All right. Let me wake this one, though-(indicating Steven)-he's a doctor too."
"Okay, go ahead"
Together, we started taking care of the injured and wounded. Both the adepts are dead. I asked the Caravan Master if he knew what might have happened to the Last Chance seeds that the Swordsmaster mentioned. Bigo walked around the wagon, saying "We'd have them if your people hadn't stolen them."
"Where were they last? Do you have any way of finding them? What do they look like?"
"I don't have the power for that right now. I bought them in Travar last week--I don't even have a receipt. I found it earlier--nearly dropped your Troll on it--start looking there."
"How long do we have?"
"No more than a few minutes"
T'Karish offered to try running to the place where Thwak fell, but Bigo stopped her.
"You'll never make it in time at that speed"
T'Karish then suggested an olliphant. I sent it off to look, but Bigo said it would have to be brought back by something physical.
"Damnit! Kenisha???"
*no answer*
I sent up an Olliphant as before, waving to get Kenisha's attention, but she did not come. I fear even if she lives, she will not come in time to save these two. I continued aiding the other casualties.
Suddenly, Bigo spoke. "Fuck this, I'm not going to let them die because of him."
He walked over to the three bodies and took out a gold coin, pointed at the swordsmaster and said "heads". He flipped the coin, looked at it, put his hands on Thwak and the smith and began to sing softly. Gilad pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow, aiming at Bigo. Gilad said, "Stop, now. That would be murder."
Bigo ignored him, but T'Karish and I shouted at Gilad to put the bow away.
Gilad let loose an arrow at the arm Bigo had on Thwak. It hit his elbow, knocking the arm away and knocking Bigo backward, on the ground by his comrades.
I ran over to see if he lived, but, as I had feared, it was not so. I turned to Gilad and shouted, "You killed him! He's DEAD! How could you...."
At the same time, however, the Caravan Master came over, picked up the star-medallion that the swordsmaster had shown us as proof of his deputyship, and said " I'm the only Citizen here, and the highest ranking person. I hereby take on the duty of a deputy of Travar." Then he turned to Gilad. "You are under arrest for murder." He indicated Thwak, unconscious but still breathing somehow.
"Kill him. We don't have room to take him back with us."
Steven and I continued dealing with the injured and dead, arranging with the Caravan Master how we'd get everyone back to Travar in the wagons.