Chapter 11: The Parallax Reality

[jemmus]

Praise be the Professor, it's dead!, Mungo cries, causing the dead bloodsucker hanging from his snout to swing back and forth. He holds Maskelyn's face above the water with his left, hurriedly wades over to Connak, and pulls the cat-man's face above the water too.

[Bluetongue]

Sheriff Yul vs a five headed regenerating monster doesn't look so good. It can swim and attack so he can't even escape so carries on fighting underwater.

Sheriff Yul bastard sword melee [1d20]=7 damage [2d8]=7

[SilverBen]

Connak swoons from blood loss and comes off the rock shelf and plunges down into the pool below! SPLASH! The voracious parasite is still fastened tight to his flesh!

(Action #1 from preceeding round) Finver gasps in dismay as Connack falls unconscious and disappears over the edge towards the water. Even before the sound of water breaking Connak's fall, Finver calls out with concern "Cat-man!" and bolts to the edge. Finver drops his backpack behind him and leaps in to retrieve his fellow, armed only with his illuminated dagger.

(Action #2 for the current round) Following behind Connak's descent into the water, Finver tries to bring Connak back to the surface of the water and behead the eel with his dagger.

[Rex]

Draupadi

Draupadi attacks an eel.

Mace [1d20]=8 to hit [1d6+1]=2+1=3 damage

[jemmus]

Mungo leaves Maskelyn in the care of the distraught Altrusian and Connack in the care of Finver and Ambrose. He debates whether to take the time to remove the squashed eel from his snout or scale to rock to battle more of them. There's no time, he starts climbing. I am definitely taking a long nap after this, no matter what, he mumbles to himself.

In case he can try to hammer a lamprey thing at the end of the climb. THAC0 18 [1d20]=9 [1d8+3]=2+3=5

[Urson]

Maskelyn

Elsewhere
Maskelyn shakes The Bugs' hand. Yes, a masterful prank. Two of my biggest fears, both together. Well done, as always.
Maskelyn hesitates only a moment before accepting The Trickster's gift. He knows it's prone to be another prank, but one does not refuse a gift from their god.

[Inferno]

The City of the Sleestaks, Deep Beneath the Forbidden Zone
The Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Ten. Night? April 5th, 912 CY





Unconscious, Maskelyn the gnome dreams...

...that in the Elysian Fields, the Grey One gives him a strange and wondrous gift.

..and Connak the cat-man dreams...

... of his litter mates.

Unfortunately, all their friends are still trapped in a nightmare.



Insidious eels drink the blood of Connak and Fiefo! (-1hp each)

Finver leaps off the cliff into the pool below! SPLASH! He pulls Connak from the water and carves the bloodsucking serpent from his face, killing it!

Mungo scales the cliff, illuminating those above with his lantern-helm! There, a heinous land lamprey bores into Ko-Nan's ankle! (-1hp)

It and another crawling worm escape Ko-Nan's ax and Draupadi's mace, as Fiefo cuts in two the swollen thing clamped to his throat, slaying it in a spray of his own blood!

Meanwhile...



...submerged, Yul thrusts his sword at the multi-headed horror but the water glides his blade off course!

Then the fang-filled jaws of two misshapen toad heads rend his body asunder! (10hp damage)

In the City of the Sleestaks, the surface of the subterranean lake roils red, and then goes still.


Actions?!


Map Detail:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.
PCs are purple. Altrusians are orange. Sleestaks and Eels are green. Doppelgangers are blue. Ambrose is brown.

Behind the DM Screen:

Initiative: Party: [1d6]=3, Monsters: [1d6]=5 Monsters win.
Affixed eels drink the blood of Connak and Fiefo: [1d3]=1, [1d3]=1
Eels attack Draupadi and Ko-Nan: [1d20]=8, [1d20]=15, damage: [1d4]=2, [1d4]=1 Ko-Nan is hit for 1hp.
Two Toad-Hydra heads bite at Yul: [1d20]=17, [1d20]=15, damage: [2d4]=5, [2d4]=5 Two bites hit for 10hp.
Water breaks Finver's fall.
Finver automatically hits an eel affixed to an unconscious body, for max damage.

PC Status:

Connak: Cat-Man Fighter/Thief 2/3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: -2/19, Saber
Draupadi: Human Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 17/34, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl
Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 8/26
Finver Karstlander: Dwarven Fighter 3: Move 6", AC: 2(1), HP: 10/31, Dagger
Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 11/39
Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 3: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: -1/14, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Mungo: Mole-Man Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: 6/34, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl, Lantern
Sheriff Yul: Cyborg Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: -2/38

PC Magic:

Light (Draupadi): Target: Finver's dagger. Duration: 82 rounds.

Player Resources:

End of the World (game description)
Strange New World (maps and realms)
Memory Tapes (the story so far)
Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[Rex]

Draupadi

Attacks another eel.

Mace [1d20]=17 to hit [1d6+1]=3+1=4 damage

[jemmus]

For the second or third time, Mungo has had more than enough of the bloodsuckers. He flies into a blind rage. He forgets to curse the things in Common and reverts to Mole-man language.Huh huh hun hund hunnd hud huh; huh huh![/i]* The syllables are similar but they're yelled out in 13 different pitches from low to high. He grabs a leech with his left hand and brings his hammer down on it with his right, the dead one still attached to his snout wildly whipping around.

*By Verne, Wells, and the Professor: I will smite you mightily and end your pathetic and parasitic existence in this world, so that you may affix yourself to people and animal-people no more, and produce no more vile and irksome progeny like yourselves (assuming you have already produced some) and send your soul (assuming you have one, however so tiny and mindless) to whatever bloodsucking plane it maygo to; so let it be written, so let it be done!

THAC0 18 [1d20]=19 [1d8+3]=8+3=11

[ravenn4544]

Ko-nan continues to eviscerate the foul slugs with his axe.

Attack: THACO (18): [1d20+2]=19+2=21 / Damage: (S/M: [2d4+3]=7+3=10 / L: [3d4+3]=7+3=10)

[Urson]

Maskelyn EDITED

Elsewhere
Maskelyn is knocked ass-over-teakettle by the "gift", and sits there for a moment, blackened and stunned. He forces a smile and a laugh. Thank you, Lord.

[jemmus]

[Inferno]

The City of the Sleestaks, Deep Beneath the Forbidden Zone
The Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Ten. Night? April 5th, 912 CY







The nightmare maws of the vampiric eels greedily work to drink more blood from their repulsed hosts!

But suddenly, by ax, mace and hammer, Ko-Nan, Draupadi and Mungo hack and bludgeon the last of the land lampreys to bits!



The loathsome, crawling onslaught is over. All is quiet.

Lifeless jaws remain death-gripped onto Fiefo, Finver, Mungo, Connak and Ko-Nan.

Finver binds Connak's wounds, stopping him from bleeding out.

Of Yul, there is still no sign. The cyborg cowboy was last seen in the subterranean lake of the City of the Sleestaks, whose inhuman denizens were urgently searching for the adventurers!


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.
PCs are purple. Altrusians are orange. Sleestaks and Eels are green. Doppelgangers are blue. Ambrose is brown.

Behind the DM Screen:

Initiative: Party: [1d6]=5, Monsters: [1d6]=1 Party wins.

PC Status:

Connak: Cat-Man Fighter/Thief 2/3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: -2/19, Saber
Draupadi: Human Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 17/34, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl
Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 8/26
Finver Karstlander: Dwarven Fighter 3: Move 6", AC: 2(1), HP: 10/31, Dagger
Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 11/39
Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 3: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: -1/14, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Mungo: Mole-Man Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: 6/34, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/4 2nd lvl, Lantern

PC Magic:

Light (Draupadi): Target: Finver's dagger. Duration: 81 rounds.

Player Resources:

End of the World (game description)
Strange New World (maps and realms)
Memory Tapes (the story so far)
Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[ChubbyPixie]

Fiefo reels in disgust, feeling like he may vomit. Then, in case the efforts from the barbarian and cleric are not enough to finish off the vermin, he'll pick up his scimitar from where it lays in the sand and do his part hacking at the remaining worms:

Attack with Scimitar (THAC0 18): To Hit: [1d20+1]=5+1=6 Damage, s/M/L: [1d8]=1

He cannot even locate one, though, it turns out, in the dust cloud generated by his companions' frenzied attacks.

[ravenn4544]

Ko-Nan sees no further advancing slugs. He scans the area. Seeing the cavern open to darkness to the west and south he moves quietly in that direction to secure the unknown.

[Rex]

Draupadi

"Nasty things." She will check everyone's wounds and make sure they are clean and bandaged well.

[jemmus]

Mole-man cleric Mungo removes the pulped worm from his snout and exhales a long sigh. We're not a very pretty sight, are we? Two knocked out, one missing, and the rest of us hardly in any shape to go looking for him. Sleestak City has been rough on us. I think we have no choice but to rest here on this ledge for a while and lick our wounds. Well, maybe the humans and dwarf won't do that. But, I mean, no choice but to rest, eat and heal up as best we can. What do you say, all?

[Rex]

Draupadi

"Unfortunately, I agree."

[SilverBen]

Finver wrings out the water from his beard and joins in the party discussion. He shakes his head and winces from his injuries, "My guess is, if we sleep here, we'll have more and more of them eels keep comin' ta feast on us until we don't have a drop a' blood left unless we figure out if that's a nest of sand eels." He points with a stout finger west into the cave in Area #19.

"I'll go ta inspect it." He pulls his backpack up and removes a torch from it. He lights it with flint and steel, explaining, "I never seen nuthin' like those blood suckin' eels back in Karstland, even though we got some pretty nasty critters of our own. At least tha sand eels we got back home hate water so much, all it takes is a drop or two ta send them slitherin' away. Not these though, they're tough little critters. They're indifferent ta water, just look at tha one I cut off Feifo. But one thing most creatures hate, is fire."

He'll cautiously approach Area #19 to epxlore it for more sand eels, waving the torch in front of him in a wide arc as he proceeds.

[Inferno]

I think we have no choice but to rest here on this ledge for a while and lick our wounds. Well, maybe the humans and dwarf won't do that.