Silvana decided it was simplest to introduce Zenig to the dwarves as a ranger from Whitemoon and Lorcan as a noble from Auramkil. Lorcan didn't say much of anything during his stay, since Nuket and the dwarves have never really gotten along.
Handing off the Alchemist's Dream and commissioning the shelter were straightforward transactions. The main piece of news was that the dwarves were offically at war with the goblins (again).
Some of the dwarven scouts had been keeping an eye on the valley where the centaurs had traveled, and they reported that several large oak trees had appeared there. There was also word that the centaurs had sprouted tentacles and were generally hostile, but they hadn't left the valley to go attack anyone. (At some point these cretaures were dubbed "tentaurs".)
Silvana figured there were probably some druids involved somewhere and warned Frankel that they might try to (a) recruit him, (b) lie to him, or (c) charm him. She figured as long as he stuck close to Thorongil and Good he'd be okay.
The next day, the party (sans Ganeth and Thorongil, since they probably weren't needed and their players couldn't make it for a few weeks) headed up to the valley they'd visited during their last trip. The first thing they noticed was that the floor of the valley was now covered with grass. The second thing they noticed were some oak trees growing down there; the largest was a bit over 20' tall and looked about a dozen years old. (This surprised Silvana, since age plant should have pushed their ages to at least 70.) The third thing they noticed was a creature hiding by one of the oak trees; it mostly looked like a centaur, but instead of arms, it had four tentacles sprouting from its shoulders.
- Lorcan:
- "Is this a `no mentioning Nuket and no loud noises' sort of place?"
- Silvana:
- "Nope. You can talk about Nuket all you want. And since we aren't being sneaky, bagpipes are fine."
- Lorcan:
- "Can I quote you on that?"
The party started walking down the path to the valley, with Zenig flying overhead. Near the infamous curve by the cave where the goblins and ettins (and the statue of Mother) had been based, Zenig spotted a pair of tentaurs armed with lances and javelins. Frankel called out some friendly greetings in centaur and got no reply; when he persisted, he heard them start stamping and pawing the ground. After a bit of precasting, the party rounded the curve and got their first good look at a tentaur.
Imagine Frankel with a vat of grey-green goo covering him from his torso up. The green goo sprouts four thick tentacles. The head region looks amorphous, with no recognizable face.
The javelin-wielding tentaur tossed its payload, the lance-wielder charged, and combat broke out. Several party members figured that the goo might be controlling the centaurs, so they tried making called shots on the goo and associated tentacles. It did start to look like the blobs were separate life forms from their hosts, but they also seemed to be sucking hit points from the centaurs as they took damage. And through the goo, Frankel got a glimpse of one of the cenatur's faces. You couldn't hear it, but she was screaming.
Frankel yelled out and asked the centaur to fight the plant on its head, and she was able to twist her torso around and mess up the tentacle attacks. Then she started thrashing and went prone as the slime sucked out her last hit point. The goo reached out with a tentacle, getting a chokehold on Frankel, dripping topical anesthetics down his throast, and generally preparing to transfer itself to his head.
- Frankel:
- "When you have a moment, could someone check her breathing?"
- Beeel:
- "We don't have a moment. Especially you."
The goop needed several rounds to complete the transfer, enabling the party to kill it, but it got to suck a bunch of hit points from Frankel on its way to dying.
Meanwhile, Stealth and Lorcan spotted four green puddings trying sneak up on the party. Two of them got to eat flame arrows (taking no damage from the physical piece), and then Lorcan penned the other two with a wall of fire (where they slowly roasted to death).
At the end of the fight, one of the centaurs (Cessilia) was at minimal hp (her goo had started jumping to Frankel before draining her completely). The other (Hessini) was bleeding to death, but Silvana stabilized her onto the weekly table.
Neither centaur spoke anything but the centaur tongue, and neither had much by way of memories, though Cessilia told Frankel to "beware the mound" (referring to a vague memory of a mound in a cave).
Some of the party heard a young centaur screaming from somewhere just out of view. Silvana suspected it was something like a leucrotta trying to draw people off, so Beeel and Zenig flew up to take a look. Sure enough, they saw four leucrotta (talking critters somewhere between a deer and a badger, from the mean-spirited branch of chaotic evil) on top of the cliff. Zenig noticed that they were all wearing black silk collars (blending with their coats) with red inset gems.
- Leucrotta:
- "We were sent to help you fight Arberos. We're on the same side, pal."
- Beeel:
- "Sent? Sent by who?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Jagrmund. We will lead you to the Green Gem. The centaurs are our fee."
- Beeel:
- "Your fee?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Mercenaries don't work for free."
- Beeel:
- "Do you have something against centaurs?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Nope. I've always wanted to taste centaur flesh. I've heard it tastes as good as a horse, but screams as sweetly as a human."
- Beeel:
- "I'm not going to make you any promises. Stay right here and I'll inform the boss what's up."
- Leucrotta: [with a nasty smile]
- "Your wish is our command."
Down below, Frankel was talking with the rescued centaurs, who were quite impressed by the lineup of rangers plus unicorn. The main point of interest was that their stallion, Kantor, was acting strangely when he led the tribe into the mountains, he hadn't been gooped with the rest of them, and now he was "in the cave with the shrine, getting his dark rewards."
As the puddings trapped in Lorcan's ring of fire sizzled to death, the other puddings and tentaurs in the area backed off. Silvana figured there was some sort of governing intelligence at work, and it had decided messing with the party wasn't such a good idea.
The party (plus rescuees) walked back up the path, while Zenig flew back up the cliff to occupy the leucrotta.
- Leucrotta 1:
- "Hello again, my little morsel. What message do you bear?"
- Zenig:
- "Sorry, but the boss, like, told me that we wouldn't be, you know, needing your help. But if you want to fight against Arberos on your own, I guess you can."
- Leucrotta 1:
- "Who is this `boss'? What is its name?"
- Leucrotta 2:
- "Hopefully it's not a centaur."
- Zenig:
- "Well, um, no, actually."
- Leucrotta 1:
- "Go tell your boss that our boss would like to arrange a meeting to discuss some matters of mutual benefit."
- Zenig:
- "That's the Gander guy?"
- Leucrotta 1: [sighing]
- "Jagrmund."
- Zenig:
- "Jaggermund. Okay."
- Leucrotta 1:
- "And by the way, don't talk to the centaurs. They are insane."
- Zenig:
- "Well, they did look kinda weird."
When the party reached the top of the path, the leucrotta were waiting for them. Silvana cast an aura of terror and rode in on Pepper. ("We do not welcome the intervention of Jagrmund.") The leucrotta were somewhat offended ("Hey! We're all on the same side here! Look you stupid heroes! Don't reject help when it's offered!") but eventually decided to retreat (taking their patented turn, kick, and flee shots, of course -- "Blood for blood!") and come back when the party was in a better mood. Silvana took some bowshots at them as they fled; one of them cried out in elvish that it was a polymorphed elf, but nobody was buying.
- Cessilia:
- "Wow. That was incredible. What happens when everyone pitches in?"
- Frankel:
- "We get in each other's way."
Out of the corner of his eye, Lorcan noticed a phase spider fading away.
Silvana and Pepper sprinted off to chase down the leucrotta spokesthing, who surrendered and was herded back to the main party. (It certainly smelled bad enough to be a real leucrotta.)
- Silvana:
- "Okay, start talking. Who is your more immediate master? Certainly you don't report immediately to Jagrmund."
- [The leucrotta starts crying, realizes nobody cares, and stops.]
- Leucrotta:
- "Nehassa."
- Frankel:
- "Gesund'heit."
- Silvana:
- "And what is Nehassa? Green hag, druid, demon, what?"
- Leucrotta:
- "She's listening! She'll kill me if I squeal!"
- Silvana:
- "We'll kill you if you don't."
- Leucrotta:
- "That's hardly an incentive. Do you promise to protect me from her wrath? After all, she could hardly be a match for heroes of your might. I'll even promise not to eat the centaurs till they are dead."
- Silvana:
- "What a kind offer."
- Leucrotta:
- "Fine. Nehassa is a hag. But she told me explicitly not to tell you that."
- Silvana:
- "Tell me? You came to talk to us."
- Leucrotta:
- "She still wants us to work together for a common cause. What say you to that, eh?"
- Silvana:
- "And what is this common cause supposed to be? Why do you think we're even interested in Arberos?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Arberos has great wealth. Heroes like you love wealth, even if you don't like hags. You get Arberos' wealth, and you leave. No problem. We get your leftovers. No problem."
- Silvana:
- "And what is it that we're supposed to do?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Arberos gets what he deserves. Arberos and Nehassa have an old quarrel. Seeing Arberos defeated would make my master happy. You get all the treasure. Not a bad deal is it? Plus you get me as a pal."
- Silvana:
- "And Arberos is a druid?"
- Leucrotta:
- "Arberos was a druid. Now, Arberos is insane. Like these tasty, I mean friendly, centaurs."
- Silvana:
- "What type of religion do they worship in the cave down at the end of the path?"
- Leucrotta:
- "There's something in the cave: An old statue with a green gem eye."
- Silvana:
- "What is the source of this insanity?"
- Leucrotta:
- "The insanity comes from worshipping the statue. Which I'm sure you guys wouldn't do."
- [turning to Lorcan]
- "Think for yourself, pal. What do you think?"
- Lorcan:
- "The thing is, they think I'm mad anyway. So they probably wouldn't listen to me."
- Leucrotta:
- "Oh."
- Lorcan:
- "How much are we talking about?"
- Leucrotta:
- "So, you like riches? The gem is worth thousands."
- Lorcan:
- "Green-eyed. Hmm... What colour is the statue?"
- Leucrotta:
- "The statue is made of grey clay."
- Lorcan:
- "Oh. That's a pity."
- Leucrotta:
- "Umm...what color did you want it to be?"
- Lorcan:
- "Yellow, of course."
- Leucrotta:
- "Did I say grey? I meant ochre...kind of yellow really."
- Lorcan:
- "No, ochre's not really good enough, I'm afraid."
- Leucrotta:
- "Well, not really ochre. More like a mustardy yellow. The dim light made it look ochre you see."
- Lorcan:
- "Tell you what, why don't you go and get a sample to show me? Then we can decide whether it's right."
- Leucrotta:
- "With your bright light sources, why, the statue might even look golden. Imagine! A statue made entirely of gold. Wouldn't that be something?"
- Lorcan:
- "No, yellow, not gold."
- [Silvana waves into the gem on the leucrotta's collar.]
- Leucrotta:
- "Don't do that! You don't want to annoy her!"
- Silvana:
- "Go back to your coven of hags. You and your pack are not to touch the centaurs. You might be able to kill them, but rest assured that you won't live long enough to eat them. Arberos will answer to us for what he has done, but we will strike no bargain with filth. Go home."
- Leucrotta:
- "It is heartening to see you speak forcefully against Arberos."
- Silvana:
- "Go, before I change my mind."
- Leucrotta:
- "I'm going! I'm going! Sheesh. I thought that we were just getting to be friends."
- Frankel:[to C&H]
- "This is the amusing-but-not-vital part of our adventures, where villains try to convince us that we have common ground."
Zenig and Frankel searched for tracks near where Lorcan had seen the phase spider. They found some faint tracks, leading toward a rock about a hundred feet away. On see unseen, Silvana noticed an invisible goblin hiding behind that rock, so she had Stealth drop a glitterdust there, outlining and blinding the goblin, who felt the glitter was distinctly unnecessary. She was dressed in chainmail, carried a wand and a shortsword, thought elves had entirely too much magic, and said she was Hex the spy. She had a ring (black with a silver spider design) that let her change into a phase spider ("We goblins have always enjoyed good relations with spiders."); when the situation between the party and leucrotta started looking tense, she decided phasing was a good idea, so that's what she did.
- Hex:
- "When the dwarves hire some elves, you know that strange things are happening."
- Silvana:
- "We weren't hired by the dwarves."
- Hex:
- "Oh, don't give me that."
- Silvana:
- "We're snooping independently."
- Hex:
- "What are you here for?"
- Silvana:
- "To free the centaurs."
- Hex:
- "Yup, that's a good cover story."
When Lorcan gave his name, Hex was taken aback: she was also a worshipper of Nuket ("Nuket seems like a very adventurer kind of deity. Boons and all that good stuff."), and Lorcan had appeared in her dreams. Her other ring was iridescent glass with a gem that looked like a soap bubble, and it allegedly brought her luck.
- Hex:
- "Still alive, so can't complain. For all I know, it sucks luck from my friends -- they're all dead. Speaking of which, can I join your group?"
- Lorcan:
- "The others have, erm, views about Nuket. You'd have to ask them."
- Silvana's surface thought:
- "A Nuket worshipping goblin...I can just imagine the dwarves' reaction to that..."
- Hex:
- "I need some people who can smuggle some explosives into the dwarven caves. Are you guys up for the job?"
- Silvana:
- "I didn't even hear that. If you keep discussing that, we might have to kill you."
- Hex:
- "Faux pas. I meant, I'm interested in freeing some centaurs and amassing wealth."
- Silvana:
- "That's better."
In Hex's dream, Lorcan had butterfly wings and frog legs (reminiscent of some of the side-effects of Tremere's old boon) and was on a crusade, dressed all in white (Lorcan's wom outfit, though he'd also painted his armor bright white to fit the theme) carrying a holy club (the wombat, which Lorcan showed her).
- Hex:
- "Ahh!! Yes, exactly! Is that the Cuthbert?"
- Lorcan:
- "No, this is a Wom-bat. The Cuthbert is altogether more ostentatious."
- Hex:
- "Just checking. Don't want to be following the wrong artifact by mistake."
- Silvana:
- "In any case, you can't stay with us because we're staying with the dwarves, but we might see you here tomorrow if you're still here."
- Hex:
- "How about Lorcan? Surely the dwarves won't let him into their cave?"
- Silvana:
- "We stay outside."
- Lorcan:
- "So why can't she stay with us?"
- Silvana:
- "For utterly pragmatic reasons. It will take six months for the dwarves to build that shelter for us and we can't afford to anger them until they do it. Consorting with goblins is on treacherous ground since they are at war with them. If the dwarves get cross at us, they will keep the payment and we'll get nothing for our efforts. So she's not staying with us."
- Hex:
- "Ah...but what if I'm not a goblin? I can be an itsy-bitsy spider. I can spin a little web and no one will know I'm even there. Surely no one has anything against that? I could do useful things like catch flies. Spiders are useful creatures that perform a great service for farmers etc. etc."
- Lorcan:
- "A spider isn't a good idea. They have even more views about spiders than about Nuket."
- Hex:
- "Really? You guys have a problem with spiders? No way."
- Silvana:
- "It's close. Right now spiders are extremely unpopular. You're probably sponsored by the chaotic branch of spiders, who are secretly plotting to overthrow the lawful branch. We have less of a problem with those guys, except for the fact that they are in sympathy with the drow..."
- [Hex looks completely confused.]
- Lorcan:
- "You wouldn't believe how complicated this can get."
- Silvana:
- "...and of course we have a spider-slaying ranger."
- Hex:
- "You do? You mean that people dedicate their lives to fighting bugs? Sounds really... unambitious."
Hex and Lorcan had a quiet little aside, and then they parted company, with a vague plan to meet at the same time the next day. According to Lorcan, Hex was on a mission from Nuket to stop the war between the goblins and the dwarves. The theory was that if the dwarves could be distracted from the war, the goblins could be persuaded to play wom, and everything could be settled peacefully. Unfortunately for this notion, genociding goblins happens to be one of the commandments Moradin handed down to the dwarves, so there's not much chance of this working out.
The party got back to the dwarven caves, where Thorongil and G had spent a quiet day. Since the party was going out full-throttle next time and Hessini couldn't be left alone, the party paid for her to stay with the dwarves for a few days.