Gaming: This time, Illustrious GM Sherilyn and her
family came down here, so we only had to travel a short distance to
play...
Amazon Sextet of Justice XIIIc: "You Call That A Plan?! Into
The Spider Caverns For Daniel!"
Now that the Amazons have the
moonstone in hand, the remaining components for the detentacularization
ritual are not difficult to obtain, and Queen Ditte is soon closeted
with Stephen and assorted physicians and priests of Pelor (who,
incidentally, still wonder what happened to their paladin).
(During this process, the Amazons are informed that the steel-cage
death match has been delayed, as all impartial referees are otherwise
occupied.)
Marika and Natalya rejoin the others, and the Sextet can turn their
attention to the impending drow civil war. The standard technique of free
shipping in exchange for a letter of introduction gets them to Darkport,
where they try to make contact with Samuel's agent. This leads them to a
drow bar, where Gabrielle goes in to give the password to the drow barmaid
Elenia while the rest of the Amazons cool their heels in the bar across the
street (just like everyone else who sends their most diplomatic character
into the drow bar to make contact with someone). Contact is made without
difficulty, despite the assistance of Elenia's idiot brothers.
The Amazons are conveyed by secret ways to a small storeroom in the
underground city of the drow, where they meet with Samuel and his
revolutionary cabal. Samuel's plans do not take illithid into account, and
he is not happy about changing them. He also thinks it's better to wait to
rescue Daniel until after ousting the current tyrantess, so that Daniel
will bow to necessity and take the throne. His failure to engage with
reality is interrupted by two vampires who slip vaporously through the
wall behind Amaryllis and Marika and suck the life force from their
shapely bodies!
Despite the inauspicous start to the encounter, the vampires are soon
driven off. Gabrielle follows them through the wall and immediately
returns saying something about a giant spider, but that isn't enough to
keep Our Heroines from pursuing the gaseous fiends. One is immediately
trapped in a bubble of force by Amaryllis and the other, already
disabled, begins drifting slowly in the direction of its coffin. The
giant spider is quickly paralyzed and dispatched, and the englobed
vampire never really stands a chance. Alyra follows one invisibly while
the conspirators and the rest of the Amazons relocate to another
safehouse, but is soon discovered by the illithids and has to retreat.
The vampires and their treasure will have to wait.
Samuel eventually persuades himself that it would be best for the coup
and Daniel's rescue to take place at the same time. The Sextet seize the
opportunity before it vanishes and, seizing Elenia's idiot brother Frizz't
as a local guide, set out for the location where Fresa's visions indicate
Daniel and the illithid provacateurs are hiding. A lone man walking through
those parts of the city would be in danger, so Marika disguises herself as
a drow soldier and orders him around, while Alyra snickers invisibly. The
rest of the Amazons hide in the pocket dimension and appreciate Natalya's
excellent cooking.
The tyrantess's press gang hassles Marika, but when she decks one
without breaking a sweat, they decide to let her find her own way to the
barracks. All goes smoothly until Marika and Frizz't turn a corner and
come face-to-face with two elephant-sized spiders and their big
brothers. The larger spiders shove the smaller ones out of the way so
they can get first crack at the tasty morsels.
Frizz't runs like a bunny rabbit, but Marika holds off the giant spider
while Alyra opens the pocket dimension. Marika, Alyra, and Fresa, who
engage the spider in hand-to-palp combat, are bitten and poisoned, but
finally Amaryllis gets into the fight and walls off the tunnel leaving only
an arrow slit. In fairly short order three of the spiders are dead and the
wounded one remaining scuttles away into the darkness.
Surely nothing more can go wrong before Our Heroines reach the
illithid hideout!
* * *
(Due to exciting issues with children and other people who need
wrangling, that was all we had time for this session.)
Food: Barbecue from someplace called (I think) Uncle
Frank's. It was pretty good!
Visual Entertainments: FAILURE.
Silly Computer Games: Well, of course. You didn't
think I was going to do anything productive with my time, did
you?
Cats:
Sometimes, Aspen will let me close enough to extend my finger toward her
nose. She will then crane her neck to sniff my finger, and look somewhat
disconcerted when I beep her.
Writing: FAILURE. No brain left. Current status: 3
days ahead.
