Episode 121 - A Polymorph Puzzle

With the very real threat of actually infiltrating this Gnoll Death City looming ahead, the party must noodle this whole “How do we sneak into an evil city of evil monsters??” It seems impossible, but little Bucky must be saved. Luckily, the gang has Zird, the master wizard and plan maker. Nothing should go wrong at all. Zird is a good wizard whom everyone loves. This should be as easy as returning the Brazier of Worlds, just walk in with your head held high.

## **Story**

Jaela, Steve/Thom, Harper, and Aludra congratulate Zird the Arcane on his good thinking by saving the Griffons last episode. They contemplate checking the church-temple, but Zird thinks they're probably fine to just scoot. So they do that. They fly all through the night and Jaela and Aludra share a tender moment in the dawn's early light. They do find a fresh mountain stream, perfect for a bathing sesh. It's around mid-April-ish, so it's starting to warm outside. Thom is sleepy, so he sunbathes. Harper walks on water. He also fishes. Zird makes them invisible because Harper asks him to for some reason. After a taunt by Zird, Harper once again brings up his dark past.

After 24 minutes of bullshitery, the gang remembers they have to rescue Bucky from the moving city, and speculate as to what their plan should be. There are vrocks flying above the city. Zird suggests getting close to observe it before making any solid plans. They all individually agree to do this. Harper makes another one-way cloud. They notice an evil looking caravan approaching the city. They quickly formulate a plot to pull a Hector from Westworld and ride into the city under the guise of the caravan. They fly toward it. It seems to be a large caravan, 120-ish carts and it seems to be re-supplying the city with goods and things. It seems be configured of many different gnoll-like races, such as goblins and hobgoblins and whatnot. Zird does have hair that the others could use to disguise themselves as evil gross creatures, and it is NOT FROM HIS BUTT, SO STOP ASKING ABOUT IT! Upon hearing that they want to make gnoll disguises, however, he reveals that he could simply polymorph them into gnolls, temporarily. So they do it.

Thom tells the rest of them that he is now "over" the fact that he has a gnoll stuck in his head, that they have been talking and grown closer together. They remark that he has grown. It's a nice moment. Harper suggests sneaking into the caravan as gnolls and rolling up on the moving city, and we'll see how that goes next time!

## **Trivia**

* Tim Lanning "hosts" this episodes
* Tim brings up the actually kind of accurate point that "Do we trust Jaela?" She did just kind of show up...
* Zird apparently has the ability to make everyone invisible, but only until he sneezes

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - Lord Titus Harper
* Jennifer Cheek - Aludra Wyrmsbane
* Mike Bachmann - Thom Vidalis / Steve Meloncamp
* Nika Howard - Jaela

### **Quest Log Updates**

* [On-hold] - End the Demon Apocalypse / Kill Fennekin
	+ [On-hold] - Destroy the Demon Portal device with the Hammer of Sundering
* [On-hold] - Find Adira Harper
	+ [On-hold] - Investigate the "Devil" situation northwest of Mastwick
* [Active] - Rescue Bucky and Ros
	+ [Active] - Infiltrate Yeenoghu's Moving City
* [Optional] - Clean up Drunkeros
	+ [Optional] - Investigate the Mind Flayers in the Swamps of Ichtaka
	+ [Optional] - Investigate Pyre ruling Mastwick
	+ [Optional] - Investigate the Church of Bahamut's army
	+ [Optional] - Recruit the assistance of the Dwarves in Deephome
	+ [Optional] - Recruit the assistance of the Elves in Galanthis
* [Backburner] - Find a way to get Steve Meloncamp out of Thom's head

### **Quotes**

**"As much as I hate to say it, gnoll fur very closely resembles old man butt hair."** ~ *Steve. The gnoll.*

## **Rolls**

* **Recap**
	+ Nika - Nat1 - Reverse Bapped
	+ Bachmann - 7!!!
	+ Tim - Didn't roll
	+ Jennifer - Didn't roll

* **Jalea** rolls a *~~Charisma~~ ~~Deceptions~~ Diplomacy* to share a tender moment with **Aludra** - 25
* ~~Aludra has to roll a *Will* against it~~

* '*Harper* rolls a *Fishing Check* (actually Bluff) to catch some fishes - 5
	+ He catches a fish, shoots fire on it, then yums it down.

* **Harper** rolls *Arcana* to create another one-way cloud - 30
	+ Success

* Everyone rolls *Perception* while examining the caravan
	+ **Harper** - 18
	+ **Thom** - 2
	+ **Jaela** - 25
	+ **Aludra** - 22
		- They many evil races in the caravan

* **Aludra** rolls *Nature* to see if Gnoll fur is, in fact, similar to old man butt hair - 29
	+ Success - It would work, I think?