Zoom 2022-12-20 21:00

In the opening, pre-credits scene of this Zoom session, Umar is seen to take a goblet from 'the box', and then jump behind Laeromir and whack him over the head with said goblet. Astonished and bewildered looks all round, and cue the opening credits.....
==Zoom Session 20th December 2022: '"A hole in Wun"'==
Umar is now pictured looking accusingly at the goblet which is singularly failing to start burning as would be expected if it had just hit one of The Five. He explains that Nawer had inveigled his way into our camp and accepted our hospitality in a very similar way to Laeromir, and that Twoo had mentioned that Laeromir just wasn't holding his wings in the way that an Ariel normally would - as if he didn't know what to do with them. (Though strangely, Laeromir seems to have now improved his posture). So Umar assumed that Laeromir was one of The Five and acted accordingly.
As no further offensive action is taken by Umar, or retaliatory action by Laeromir, we all settle down again - and Laeromir demands a cure for his sore head.
Caradoc insists that we should (a) properly identify "the box" and (b) put the daggers and all Lizardmen acquired items into the box to stop us being tracked through them. He notes that the writing on the daggers is changing (and is currently illegible). He wraps them up and puts them in the box once Garaf has finished.
Garaf identifies the box as:
* A box of holding (surprise, surprise.)
* It has magic and time suppressing effects.
* There is a way of making it expand - it can become very much larger, but the mechanism is unknown.
* There are runes written inside - a Comp Lang translates it as "To keep something safe."
Laeromir insists on going to sleep without answering any more questions. (We did manage to confirm that he could speak Ariel before he went for his kip.) As he sleeps, Twoo casts a Det Magic on him - but the only thing showing as magical is his longsword.
The party turns in and sets normal watches. During the second watch, Laeromir starts suffering from convulsions - so the party is woken and Wun starts trying to treat him. Then the following happens:
*Laeromir stops convulsing.
*Umar hits Laeromir with his axe. [There is a pattern beginning to develop here - Ed]
*Wun tries to hit Umar with his bare hands
*So Umar turns and hits Wun full on with his axe (18 points damage)
*Twoo casts an ESP spell to find out what the hell is going on: Wun is mentally screaming "They're here! They're here!...." in Lizardman.
*Wun runs out of the camp, pursued by Hamish, Dougal and Brokev
*Garaf casts a Web and Joshua casts Entangle. Wun's flight is stopped, Dougal is slowed by the spells and Hamish is completely unaffected. Umar jumps into the Web/Entangle to get to Wun
*Wun draws his knife. It looks as though he is going to slit his own throat
*All party members that can pile into Wun - spells, staves, axes, spears - you name it, they've got Wun's name on them. Wun is brought down to -1 hit points before he can kill himself.
The unconscious Wun is brought back to the campsite and we prepare to break camp - we reckon that we need to get out of here fast. Umar explains that he saw a Lizardman claw reaching out from Laeromir's stomach towards Wun, and that something moved from Laeromir to Wun - so he hit Laeromir first. We examine Laeromir (who is now in a deep coma) and there is no sign of anything having physically emerged from his stomach. Twoo mentions that Wun's thoughts of "They're here!" probably referred to inanimate objects rather than people.
We start heading North - Wun is carried by Eric and Laeromir by Umar. After about 4 hours Francis halts the party to avoid a group of Lizardmen (4 'thugs', 2 wounded) who seem to be marching to a destination rather than patrolling. We carry on once the Lizardmen have gone past. After a few more hours we find a 'convenient' cave to camp in before it gets dark - hex location 131.088. The cave is large enough for the whole party (including our horse, Eric) and goes back far enough that we can safely light a fire.
The party prepares to camp for the night - hitting Wun over the head every so often to keep him unconscious, and also blunting his knife but leaving it with him - in the hope this would give us an extra round or so if he woke up and tried to kill himself again. During first watch a signal fireball is seen to go up from roughly the location of our old camp (about 10 miles away.)
During second watch (with Caradoc and Umar on duty) Eric suddenly bolts out of the cave - down into the valley and then south. Caradoc follows Eric, and sees him fall and brake a foreleg. On the assumption that Eric is now possessed by whatever previously possessed Wun and Laeromir, Caradoc kills Eric with slingshot. As Eric dies, Caradoc sees a spectral Lizardman form emerge from the horse. Normal and sliver slingshot don't affect it, and it starts slowly trundling southwards - with Caradoc following. It possesses the first animal it finds - a fox - which Caradoc despatches with a (normal) slingshot. A somewhat disgruntled spectral Lizardman emerges from the fox and goes to attack Caradoc - who isn't affected at all by its ghostly pawings. It, however, does take damage from Caradoc's sharp and more importantly, magical short sword. So it starts moving away - straight upwards. Caradoc has one magical slingshot, which he uses against the fleeing spectre - and successfully finishes it off with this single shot. The spectral form dissipates.
End credits start rolling over shots of an incredibly smug Caradoc returning to the party and telling his tale, and of Wun being cured up from his -1 hit points and asking 'Where am I?".
Post-credit scene shows Wun explaining that Laeromir needs to be shocked out of his coma, whilst various party members look suspiciously at Caradoc as though he might have been possessed...