The next morning, the party, Harthika's body, and Refugee C (who'd started picking up a priest class from Lorcan) set out for the Hollerith Library. The refugee, whose name was Cudjun, decided he needed a new name that evoked chaos; after a lot of brainstorming, Lorcan suggested Zoron. (Steve tells the story behind the name here.) Zenig tried the aid/weal-woe combo to get enough extra healing to go airborne, but he burned out the flask, which detonated and knocked Zoron unconscious.
- Dan:
- "Zoron could change to a Mortal Kombat name, like Sub Zero Hit Points."
The first day of the trip passed without encounters (though the party was reduced to Zenig's walking speed). That night, they heard some orcs near their encampment; according to Meldrim, they were lost and arguing about how to get to a rendezvous at an abandoned keep. (The nearest such place once belonged to Rogmikhal, an not-so-nice lord with undead in his basement.) Thorongil estimated that they were more than 100 yards away but had no idea how many there might be (and how many ogres would be along for the ride).
The orcs sent out some scouts, the party sent out some scouts, and eventually the two sides met and had a big fight. Since neither the orcs nor most of the party needed light, the non-blindfighting humans (Meldrim and Zoron) hung back to guard the horses. The orcs' scouts turned out to be skeletons...
- Zoron:
- "Should I try for a divine intervention?"
- Meldrim:
- "No, you should either get some light going or start beating on one."
- Zoron:
- "Cardinal Lorcan hasn't finished training me yet! Plus, I don't have any magical weapons."
- Meldrim:
- "You don't need magical weapons to hit a skeleton."
- Zoron:
- "Oh."
...who weren't much of a challenge for Meldrim but did manage to scare Asmodeus away, knock Zoron weekly, and start a small grass fire when Zoron's torch hit the ground with him.
The main force included a few zombies, a bunch of orcs, three ogres, two ogrillons in plate on trained warhorses (Khandar and Khandar's Arm), and a sixty-something one-eyed half-orc priest of Gruumsh (Ghoram). Khandar's Arm spoke elvish (though the best insult he could maange in it was "sap-sucker") but withdrew from combat after getting "too outnumbered" (he, two orcs, and an ogre vs. Thorongil and Frankel).
Zenig heard Ghoram start casting and knocked him out in a round. Unfortunately, Khandar decided that Zenig was a powerful extraplanar worthy of preferential extermination, applied a whetstone that made his broadsword crackle ominously, and moved in. While Zenig panic parried and Beeel tried to locate him in the dark, Zenig was surrounded by orcs, ogres, and horses (Ghoram's horse kept fighting even with an unconscious rider) and permatoasted a few rounds later. (Fortunately, Khandar criticaled and discharged his whetstone special on Ghoram's horse; the horse died, and Khandar got stronger.) Khandar would have been happy to keep pummeling Zenig's body (since everyone knows extraplanars regenerate unless you put them negative enough to knock them off the plane), but Frankel and Beeel arrived just after Zenig fell. Khandar retreated with several orcs and Ghoram's body, leaving the last ogre behind to delay pursuit.
- Frankel: [trollish]
- "You look lost, foundling of a homeless tribe."
- Ogre: [trollish]
- "You speak brother tongue?"
- Frankel:
- "I do. Let me pass, or be forever ranked among trollenemies."
- Ogre:
- "Where are you headed? Besides my tummy?"
- Frankel:
- "You overestimate yourself. Perhaps someday. I am headed to the place of promise, where we will plan wreckage on our foes. But I must go there alone. Do not think to follow me. You are not ready."
- Ogre:
- "I say I'm ready."
Frankel tried skirting the ogre anyway, and then Beeel zoomed in and killed it. Thorongil and Frankel started tracking the orcs while the rest of the party regrouped. Lorcan was able to revive Zenig by casting a cure serious wounds into the life-support necklace, and Ahlonna called Asmodeus back with her whistle (though it took a while for her to retrieve him).
The active rangers caught up with Khandar and Ghoram (plus the surviving orcs and horses). Thorongil turned on his minotaur helm, used invis to animals to keep Khandar's horse out of the fight, taunted the orcs, and took them out, while Frankel engaged Khandar.
- Frankel: [trollish]
- "Have we met before?"
- Khandar: [trollish]
- "Possibly. I have slain dozens of centaurs in my lifetime -- they all look alike to me."
- Frankel:
- "Yes, it's a useful camouflage technique. And as for dozens, I take leave to doubt your ability to count, birdbrain. Oh, sorry. I've spoken with many birds. They all show much more intelligence."
- Khandar:
- "Who do you work for?"
- Frankel:
- "I work for your horse. I believe I shall find it a much better master, yes?"
- Khandar:
- "Seriously, why are you after me? Who is it that you work for? How much are you being paid, bounty-hunter?"
- Frankel:
- "I'm supposed to clean up these parts, and you, sir, look like you could take a bath. Which I will give your corpse."
Khandar tried a fighting withdrawal, Frankel pressed, Ghoram slipped away, and after taking a swing at Khandar, Thorongil started after the priest. When Khandar fumbled a parry and nearly hit his horse...
- Frankel:
- "You've made me really mad now."
- Khandar:
- "Care to parley?"
- Frankel:
- "About bludy what? What do you have that I could possibly be interested in?"
- Khandar:
- "How will you know if you kill me?"
- Frankel:
- "We have ways. You'd better believe we have ways."
A few minutes later, Frankel had Khandar's severed head in a sack and Khandar's confused warhorse in tow. He didn't give the body a bath, though.
Meanwhile, Ghoram was acting under the impression that Thorongil had come to rescue someone called Cynth and was threatening to smash a small crystal globe that apparently held her.
- Thorongil:
- "You holding hostages from centaurs and minotaurs?"
- Ghoram:
- "No, of course not, idiot. The Organization has no interest in monsters such as you. But your masters may punish you for your rashness."
- Thorongil:
- "Masters."
- Ghoram:
- "The ones who sent their Extraplanar Minion to slay me, and to retrieve Cynth."
- Thorongil:
- "You can surrender now, and not necessarily be killed, or I can just follow you in your damaged state until you have to sleep. Khandar is not going to save you."
- Ghoram:
- "What are the terms of my surrender?"
- Thorongil:
- "Right now, just return with us to our camp. I do not necessarily wish to kill you, but you will not be allowed to wander freely. In the end, this land is governed by the Western Lords [whoever's left] and their law will decide. What do you think of that?"
- Ghoram:
- "You make a surprising amount of sense. I accept."
Ghoram got two more surprises that might: Thorongil was a wood elf (as opposed to a high elven operative like he'd expected), and a centuar was waving around Khandar's head. While Frankel went back to loot Khandar's body, Thorongil chatted with Ghoram a bit.
- Thorongil:
- "Were the rest of your band followers of Gruumsh?"
- Ghoram:
- "Not yet. In these modern times, the worship of Gruumsh is being sadly ignored."
- Thorongil:
- "Were they, Khandar at least, Ilneval worshipers?"
- Ghoram:
- "Oh Khandar believed in Gruumsh, but the lackeys were ... becoming soft. The double-edged lure of the Organization, as I'm sure you know."
Thorongil reminisced a bit about a priest of Gruumsh (fully orcish -- he found Ghoram being a Gruumsh priest "impressive") he'd worked with back in Zubberg ("the place of Yurtrus" -- this was during the drow assault on Zubberg in AK 578), and it turned out Ghoram had been there about when the party first started adventuring together (while the orcs were fighting the Spider Monks, around AK 575). When the party encountered them, he and Khandar were on their way to a ceremony marking Khandar's promotion to Associate Officer in the Organization.
Eventually the party reunited, and Ghoram introduced himself and asked who people were and who they worked for.
- Frankel:
- "I am Ben. And that would be telling."
- Thorongil:
- "I rarely work for anyone, but I work with many people."
- Zenig:
- "I serve the Champion of Good."
- Ghoram:
- "The Champion of Good? She is here? The Organization promised that we would not be bothered by her or her minions."
- Thorongil:
- "Well, then I guess you should get a refund."
- Ghoram:
- "Thus we are led into traps. Advancement for those of non-human blood is ever-thwarted. The glass ceiling of racial intolerence..."
Among Khandar's effects, the party found the following note, nicely lettered on good stationery:
Dear Khandar,
Your services have been recognized by the Organization and we are pleased to promote you to the rank of Associate Officer. The ceremony will be held at the Bastion of Renewed Hope three days before the coming Full Moon. Formal attire is recommended.
Faithfully,
Veil
Officer in Charge of Western Operations
Veil had also enclosed a map, though it didn't keep the orcs from arguing about how to get where they were going. Some of the party started worrying about the Organization sending people out to look for Khandar and wanted to somehow forge a message from him, while others saw no chance of doing that convincingly and figured they'd just handle whatever spare people the Organzation bothered to throw their way.
With all the weekly people in the crew, there was no way the entire party could get to the Hollerith Temple in time for Nomistrus to raise Harthika. So Thorongil and Meldrim took Harthika's body ahead at 24", while the rest of the party struggled to manage 12" (with poor Ghoram riding along on Brand). The advance team slept in 4 hour shifts (not enough to regain spells or thief strikes, but sufficient to avoid combat penalties), and on the first night they were attacked by a pair of trolls. Meldrim used the last of his paralytic arrows and stinking clouds in delaying tactics, Thorongil used timewarp, and the end result was Harthika's horse dead and Thorongil's horse at 0. By feeding his healing potion to the Thorongil's horse (funny how he never gets to drink one himself), Meldrim kept their movement at 16" (by doubling riders on his own horse) and got Harthika to the temple before her expiration date.
Back with the slow folks, Ahlonna asked Ghoram about Cynth. Ghoram clearly wasn't someone who took halflings seriously, but when Frankel kept insisting on her question being answered, he said that Cynth was a moon fairy who was intended to be a gift for the Organization.
- Ghoram:
- "Oh please, Gruumsh strike me down! What have I done to become the travelling companion of a halfling?"
- Ahlonna:
- "That reminds me of a great story. Do you know the tale of how Brandobaris borrowed Gruumsh's broad sword, just before his fight with Corellan?"
- Ghoram:
- "What are you saying? You lie!"
- Ahlonna:
- "This is a really classic halfling story. Gruumsh has this nasty black broad sword that he was planning to use during the fight."
- Ghoram:
- "He used a flaming spear, not a black sword."
- Ahlonna:
- "Well, of course! Duh! Because the broad sword was missing."
- Ghoram:
- "Argh! No, that's now that I meant at all!"
- Ahlonna:
- "Maybe if he had it, he wouldn't have gotten his eye poked out..."
- Ghoram:
- "Hey!"
- Ahlonna: [indicating Zenig]
- "We have a fairy too."
- Ghoram:
- "That's not a fairy -- that's a ... planetar. No fairy would defeat Ghoram."
- Zenig:
- "I think there's a difference in size someplace."
- Ahlonna:
- "I see. A fairy is like a halfling from Whitemoon, and a human is a planetar? Hey, you have a halfling captive! Release it!"
- Ghoram:
- "Wait. Who's in charge here?"
- Lorcan:
- "Embrace Chaos."
Some hawks flew overhead doing recon for Drusius, and Frankel started talking with them. He tried finding them some mice to eat, but all he came up with was a mole (which they passed on) and some eggs (which he cracked open and fed to the them). (They also scored some meat from Ahlonna.) At Zenig's request, Frankel asked to report that Zenig was doing fine (since a knack for dying repeatedly probably isn't what Drusius had in mind for his daughter's wielder).
Nothing interesting happened that night. The next day, Ghoram expressed some reservation about meeting the Champion of Good (since orcs and elves get along so well) and offered to buy his freedom instead. When he started going through his pouch, he realized that the globe holding Cynth had somehow turned into a small rock.
- Ahlonna:
- "Maybe your moon fairy flew away."
- Ghoram:
- "She stole my moon fairy! Are you going to report the crime to the Champion?"
- Ahlonna:
- "Capturing a moon fairy?"
- Ghoram:
- "Last time I heard, stealing was a crime and punishable in the West."
- Frankel:
- "Ah. But think what interesting things a centaur could do to torture you, given leave so to do."
- Ghoram:
- "Aren't you punishing the wrong person? I'm the victim here. That's the thief. She went through my pouch and destroyed its trap. I demand punishment for the halfling, reimbursement for my pouch and the return of my items. I demand it!"
- Frankel:
- "To my mind, someone who owns a slave cannot be stolen from, and cannot be a victim, when that slave is freed."
- Ghoram:
- "What about my pouch? Look it's ruined! The expensive trap is gone!"
- Frankel:
- "Pity."
- Ghoram:
- "What about that vandalism?"
- Ahlonna:
- "If you keep carrying on like this, I'm not going to let you ride my horse."
- Ghoram:
- "I hope that your horse contracts a rotting disease and dies painfully under Yurtrus' loving care.
Ahlonna blew her whistle, Brand threw Ghoram, Beeel bandaged Ghoram, and Ahlonna relieved Ghoram of the rest of his stuff (including a strange black giant spider eggcase). Ghoram spent the rest of the day on Frankel's back and had an exceptionally uncomfortable ride.
That night, Team B camped not far from a pair of charred troll bodies. During Beeel's watch, a torch appeared in the distance. As the party awakened, the torchlight came closer, carried by a woman in a red robe with vaguely elven features (general delicate appearance and slightly pointed ears) who wanted to talk to Ghoram. Her smile was some sort of charm attack, her arm could turn into a snake, she had stoneskins, and she turned out to be a mage of at least 9th level (upper bound 15th, but probably not that high). While the snake was grabbing Ghoram's pouch, Ahlonna got Frankel to shatter the globe, releasing an area-effect stun and acloud of luminous smoke. The woman didn't realize the connection between the stun effect and the globe, killed Ghoram with a barrage of magic missiles ("No hard feelings, I trust?"), and teleported away with the pouch (and the nice rock Ahlonna had left in it).
The luminous cloud coalesced into a being similar to Zenig, apart from looking like a nineteen year-old woman, bleeding to death, and having no equipment or possessions. A quick bandage stabilized her onto the weekly table (a new experience for Cynth, but so was everything else), and an endure cold from Lorcan solved the climactic exposure problem (along with Ghoram's cloak, when she wasn't tossing it away). She spoke Eastern and Western Common, wanted a long bow and a two-handed sword (which nobody around her had; Frankel offere her a knife), was a paladin (who discovered that being weekly prevents laying on hands), and was supposed to be with Anachron with Banzeel doing something against Rakni. (So now we know where Anachron ended up after Dustplane broke open.)
- Cynth: [looking at Ghoram's body]
- "Is that Anachron?"
- Beeel:
- "No. That's an evil priest named Ghoram. He's dead now."
- Cynth:
- "Oh, Evil? May I touch him? I've never seen Evil before."
Cynth seemed to have gotten a crash course in Banzeel basics: When Beeel told her that they were going to see some friends named Silvana and Nomistrus, who'd be able to figure out what had gone wrong, she asked which merchant house they were with. Ahlonna thought that Cynth might have some wishes to grant (since they'd freed her from the gem) and started composing one; Cynth didn't know anything about wishes, but said if she was supposed to grant one, she would.
- Cynth:
- "I'm supposed to be very powerful, and Wishes are powerful. Therefore, it's not inconceivable that I could have a Wish. And if I did, I would certainly grant them to all my friends."
- Beeel:
- "People tend to confuse all sorts of creatures with wings, so don't be surprised if you're incorrectly called a fairy, or a harpy, or a sprite, or a roc. Although someone would have to be really confused to call you a roc."
- Cynth:
- "Thanks for the advice. I may stick around with you until I find Anachron."
The party traveled on, and during the full moon, Lunis arrived to pick up Zenig. Unfortunately, he couldn't transport Zenig while he was wearing the necklace ("these gold necklaces are...unsettling"), so it looked like a plane shift from the Hollerith altar would be needed to get Zenig back to Fzzzz for repairs. Lunis didn't know where Tylerion was but figured he was resourceful enough to get back from wherever that happened to be.
- Lunis: [to Cynth]
- "As for you, time is probably the best healer. Your mission's been blown."
- Cynth:
- "What? Someone else defeated Rakni?"
- Lunis:
- "No. Just wait and I'll get back to you."
- Beeel:
- "Do you have any background information? Is there something to do in Banzeel now?"
- Lunis:
- "Banzeel is in a state of total chaos. The city has been burning for days. My advice to you would be to fortify yourselves for a storm. Major chaos is afoot. Don't head towards Banzeel. Until the storm abates, stay indoors."
- Beeel:
- "You mean a literal storm?"
- Lunis:
- "Only literal on the ethereal plane."
- Beeel:
- "Hmmm. Well, I'm sure you'll give a complete description to Silvana."
- Lunis:
- "Actually, I won't. Extraplanars such as I are an inefficient source of information. Confidentially, it's not worth the cost."
Lunis continued about his monthly rounds, and an hour later, Beeel received a sending from Silvana.
- Silvana:
- "Beeel: Return immediately. Harthika team back at temple. Do not split up. Keep the devas safe. Avoid the druids and their spies. Silvana."
- Beeel:
- "See you on 2229, hopefully morning. No news here since we saw Lunis. Find a long bow and sword for Cynth before we get there."
The party reunited at the Hollerith Temple without further incident, and Harthika was successfully raised.