Post-session #4: "Croaking Bullywugs"

[Snarg of Wildpaw]

"Croaking Bullywugs"



Armania stood in the forest, curiously observing Karl as he inspected one of the trees. He had been looking for the General's mark for several hours now. She was almost sure they had been walking in circles at this point.

"Hey, I think this is actually the place," he squeaked, "looks like we'll finally get some food and sleep." Stepping back, he straightened himself and addressed the tree. "We're here! Someone come out! It's Karl!"

After a moment, the tree twisted and stretched, forming a small doorway at its base. Armania looked curiously at the opening doorway, but saw nothing through it except darkness. "Some kind of druid magic?" she asked Karl.

"I dunno," he shrugged, "some huge tree gave it to us a while ago. I didn't really ask. Come on, let's go." With that, Karl put one foot in to the doorway and was sucked inwards, disappearing from sight.

"Uh huh," she said uncertainly, but stepped through after him. The next thing she knew, she was deposited on the ground in another part of the forest. After taking a moment to collect herself, she looked up and was met with a multitude of blades. A large ring of humans were surrounding her and Karl, keeping them at arms length with their swords.

"Easy now," one of them said, "hold still while we check you." A gap in the ring formed to reveal a woman in white, priestly vestments. She stepped forward and began delicately examining their bracers. "Oh, these are fake," Armania quickly explained, "look, I'll take them-" before she could finish, the priestess found the hidden latch and Armania's bracers dropped off to the ground.

Armania paused. "Oh, you have done this before," she said, with a bit of surprise, "I suppose you have to check this thing quite a bit."

The priestess nodded and moved over to Karl, performing the same actions on him. With that, she turned back to one of the Humans and nodded. "They appear to be safe," she said quietly, "I don't detect any other arcane traces on them either. I'll take them back for rest."

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Several minutes later, Armania and Karl were scarfing down some fresh food in a small tent. Karl was mixing some alchemical components while he ate, making small explosions every now and then.

"So... you know anything about the ruins they were heading to?" she asked Karl, "your necromancer friend pointed them towards it. They seemed real interested in whatever was there."

"Oh! Really? They went there?" Karl smirked a bit as he poured some smoking concoction into a bottle. "Hah, that place was a wreck the last time I saw it. We got out of there pretty quickly after-"

Before he could finish, the tent flaps flew open and a red-scaled, winged Kobold marched in. Without so much as a greeting, he pointed a scaly finger at Karl. "You! What happened there?!? Mindi came back without you and now I hear that my adviser is dead?"

"Hey now," Karl retorted, "we'll tell you what happened when we're through here, 'grand Meepo.' Why don't you go do some more stuff with that scroll of yours?"

The Kobold snorted and turned towards Armania. "Were you there with him?"

"Uh... yes, but-" before she could finish, the Kobold shot his hand out and placed it on her forehead. Her mouth hung open as she felt her mind being invaded by another presence, going through her memories like one would a book. "He-hey! Stop that!" She finally found strength and swatted the Kobold's hand away.

"I see now," the Kobold said to her, "so you were with the same ones who I saw during my recent visit to Pharasma's realm. It seems that she has indeed wronged me yet again. She'll pay for that in time. Pity that they didn't come back with you, I could have..." he looked at Armania hesitantly before continuing,"...used their help. Very well, I will call you if needed." With a slight glance behind Armania, the Kobold turned and left the tent. Armania heard a hiss behind her and jumped. A slight pressure she had not noticed until now lifted from her back. Another red Kobold, this one wingless, emerged from around behind her, sheathing a dagger as it followed quickly behind the other Kobold.

"Visits from the 'Grand Poobah' are always so nice," Karl snarked, "you'll get used to it if you stick around here."

[Kolson]

Cool. I wonder what the winged kobold will do now?

[Rory]

Thanks for the picture, I couldn't imagine how that hole was supposed to look.

[Archengeia]

I gotta say I really like these Meanwhile, Elsewhere's that you do.  I've done similar things in the past but honestly I'm not that good at it, I couldn't imagine doing it for Primus... too many Elsewheres to pick from, plus I don't want to spoil things now do I?  Also, you're a better writer then I am.

[Snarg of Wildpaw]

I'll try to get my scanned notes/map in here when I get back tonight so you can get an idea of the area you were in. Sorry about that, I know my description wasn't really that great of the area.

[Snarg of Wildpaw]

Okay. This will either clear it up or make it even more confusing. Here's a page from the notes when I was thinking out the ruins:

[Rory]

And I said I really wanted to get down there, thinking that the ruins were supposed to be down there. Maybe we would have drowned or starved to death if we let it close up on us, but now you gotta make this a thing.

[Snarg of Wildpaw]

Huehuehueh, you'll see. You actually did the exact thing you needed to do to find the ruins.

[Archengeia]

Which is funny because I honestly figured, in character AND out, that we were doing something unrelated to the ruins themselves.

[Kolson]

Heh, that would have been funny. There we are looking for the ruins and instead we find the Cthulhu Murder Hole or some such thing.

[Snarg of Wildpaw]

I mean, I CAN make it a Cthulul Murder Hole if you really want it to be.

[Rory]

While I get and thank you for the Bulletstorm reference, I think we should save the Dark Lord murdering for later.

[Kolson]

As you wish, Rory.  

[Rory]

You actually did the exact thing you needed to do to find the ruins.

Well good. Cuz if that turned out to be a waste of time and all we had to do was just search for them, Deke would have been even more frustrated. And if the ruins entrance really had been just right there and we walked past them out of interest in the pool, I would have been upset and have had to channel it into Deke's frustration out of curiosity satisfied to a fault.

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