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Adventure Logs XIII - XIV
As scribed by Galahad
Weighted down with the now statue-like Marion and other goods, we headed towards Dabberden. While en route we found evidence of another crash, smaller than the sky boulder. A vehicle of strange metal and
no wheels was there, wrecked. Many more strange devices were scattered about. Fine paper, pouches of odd material with foreign lettering, an adjustable, double-eyed, spyglass, and a corpse of a
monkey-like man. Grolsch determined this to be another of the "outer-space" people. Grolsch used his last special scroll that allowed him to Speak with the Dead...from the conversation he
learned, "Another rebel against the imperial dragon, full of contempt for us and little useful information. More of the same mysterious nonsense." We gathered what we could and made ready
to continue. Then came ambush. Yakov and Brenner. We took our licks, but with a single blast of Maze's big Ray-bow, they made to flee. Yakov escaped, but Brenner was tricked to returning and
captured. Alas he is a pathetic moron. He knew nothing of why he and his brother were here and fighting us. Good for his sake, he had knowledge of who his brother had spoken with - the monks of the
Temple of the Celestial Sai. He further knew that they had a child, and were about to move him. Further - lengthy and roundabout - questioning garnered that the child was likely the kidnapped prince of
Avalon.
The monks must be punished. The method matters less and less. Good by chaos is better than evil by law.
We released Brenner, taking his magic rope as forfeit, but returned his
weapons and equipment. He is not an evil man, merely stupid and misguided.
We continued. The Dabbers were rejoicing. They'd been saved destruction. They had a new device, decorated as an altar. We
discerned this to be the signal device that the "space-elf" had spoken about. We stayed with the dabbers but briefly. The monastery remained our goal, but some of us were distracted.
Kessan felt compelled to leave and study the "outer space' crystal. Kracken was drawn away by an unworldly foe inadvertently called. Though reduced in number we continued. A dabber named
Cooter guided us through the shortcut, and chose to remain. He guarded above ground as we descended. In the outer yard, we found active vines. Those we cleared away yielded a box with the Temple of
the Celestial Sai's emblem. A potion was within. Unlabeled, it went unopened. A dead spriggan was beside the foul water fountain. Maze took a vial of the stuff for its potential. A staff in three
sections, an ancient monk weapon, was also found in the yard. Below ground, we soon were met with combat. More of the foul Roach infested Vermin Folk that we had fought here before, one had been a
female. She and another like it were soon dispatched, and we found on her an Iron Flask. Those devices are known to contain Outsiders. And there was tapping from within. Surely this was a prison of
some evil devil. The tapping continued as we ventured to the unexplored part of the place. Deep within we were faced with a devil in chains. It showed me its face, which was my own - the one I was
born with. Our attempts to battle it were resisted; we could do no damage. We retreated.
After debate we opened the flask. It contained no devil nor demon, but a man from another place. Jules
by name, he was trained as a cook and a monk. Sent by his order to infiltrate the Celestial Sai, which had been sponsored incursions into his world, he and a female aid had been captured and
punished. Her punishment was to be made one of the Vermin Hosts, and carry Jules' prison. We welcomed his company. His enemy was ours. We returned to the task of the devil. Utilizing the scimitar
Skineater, we were able to weaken him. Jules knew how to entrap Outsiders with the flask, and so we did. Victorious, we continued deeper. There was a squared circle of a hall, lined with cells.
There we battled zombies and a teleporting demon. Close examination found nothing to lead us any deeper. Further examination of our map showed no more avenues unexplored. We had finished this
place. We returned to the small room of alms and slowly gathered every coin we could find. We also gathered what we could of the rotting dragon corpse, weeks old, and fought off the ghouls that were
still there. Also recovered was a small statue of Yondalla and a small silver mirror. Exiting, we found Kessan and Kracken, back from there adventures. After small trouble with Kessan and his smart
crystal, we continued. Cooter has decided to stay with us. With me particularly.
At Dabberden, they welcomed us again. The dabber chief alerted us to an odd dream, related to the same uneasy sleeps we had experienced. She said: Beware the walker of the foul. The sleeper has awakened.
The dark taker has created an abomination of us all. A warning with all to familiar mystery to it. The mystery was soon solved. Approaching Deeptown the next day there was a foul scent on the wind.
The fishing camp on the west side of the lake was destroyed, mounds of foul, mud-like stuff was everywhere, and seemed to be the instrument of the buildings' destruction. At the last hill before the city
we felt a rumbling. We heard sheep. Before we could crest the hill a
stampede of sheep very nearly overran us. We ran to see the cause. From the hilltop we saw it. A huge, man shape pile of what
could only be excrement. In a flash we all deduced what the mysterious "turd-burglar" had been planning all these months. The foul thing was slow moving and there was ample time before it would
reach the city. Deeptown's martial defenses are few and unused in the quarter-century since the gnoll invasion. At the walls Letha Antak led a party attempting to make the aged ballista work again.
Sir Gay tried to inspire the futile attempts of two of the Red Shirt Order. After some hurried running and planning we each devised a way to fight. Kracken ran ahead to aid in the siege defense and
pieced together an explosive attached to the ballista missile. Jules, after our rushed explanation, deduced the Turd Burglar would likely be nearby, watching his creation at work. He raced into the
city and it's highest vantagepoint -the Bell-Tower of The Church of the Creator. Grolsch and myself engaged the thing directly. Grolsch with conventional weaponry and his spiritual axe, myself with
Skineater, for it had enchantment enough to overcome the thing's resistance. Kessan greatly aided us by using his mind power to cause the dung golem to trip and fall again and again. Kessan also
endowed my person with protection that proved crucial. Maze noticed the bits and pieces Grolsch and I chopped away were slithering back, and she set them to the torch, eliminating that threat. She also
saw where more creatures were coming for us from the lake, dung encrusted fishermen, somehow animated by the conductor of this foul battle. To prevent us from distraction and getting surrounded,
she engaged them with her bow skills. The Turd Burglar had been indeed watching from the very spot Jules deduced. And he saw his creation being slowly chopped down and had caused these extra things to
come out to stop us. Suddenly it all came to an end. Kracken and Letha had the missile and explosive ready. Jules approached close behind the distracted Turd Burglar. Grolsch and I had delivered
much damage to the golem, which Kessan had knocked down every time it stood, and Maze had kept the golem from regaining lost bits and healing up, and had started hurting the animated "Fecal
Minion" fishermen. Then in the same moment the ballista missile was launched and an explosion all but finished the undead fishermen, Grolsch and I dealt the last damage to the dung golem,
Kessan and Maze finished off the surviving undead, and Jules ambushed the man who had started it all, knocking him from the tower, riding down with him - kicking him three time before coming to a soft
landing as the corpse of the Turd Burglar crashed on the street outside the Church of the Creator.
We had won. It was a grand and total victory in the full of the pubic eye. And none of us had
been killed.
We worked well together. We each played to our strengths. We have become a fine team, even the newest of us.
I believe we could take on the challenges of Quasqueton.
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