24/03/2020 - Experimental Enchanting and Battling the Box

## **TL;DR**

* Met the pointy hat guy (Grand Archmage Singrid) who explained that they were in the astral plane and was generally very chill
* Returned from the other plane when they realised time passed differently there and met the rest of the group in the cathedral
* Rocky explained that he didn't remember much at all from the past few days
* Wizards said that the group could undertake a challenge to acquire the goddess Hecate’s boon
* Stayed in the wizard’s school overnight and then turned up at the cathedral for the challenge
* Fought and defeated a mimic
* Gained the boon of the goddess and bid the wizards goodbye

*We resume as our adventurers pass through the portal and come face to face with a crowd stood in a land of swirling purple...*

## **Astral Answers**

“Hello friend!”, Gimble blurted out as the pointy-hatted individual approached. Appearing cheerful despite the bizarre circumstances, the wizard introduced himself as Grand Archmage Singrid. In response to earnest questioning from Ves and Narko , the archmage explained that they were currently on the Astral Plane and had become stranded there after an experiment took a wrong turn. They transported the island there to escape the depredations of roving pirates and dragons, thus providing a safe haven for their work to continue. And also to see if it could be done, for science and shit. However, once the very blasé magus revealed that nearly a century had passed in real time over the 6 days that they’d been in the astral plane, they decided to make a hasty exit before the rest of the group literally died of old age.

As they returned through the portal and made their way up into the cathedral proper, Ves was still confused by the timeline of events. The quirky archmage explained further that there were three large blue crystals across the island around which the main towns were built. These provided a tether to the astral plane and had been used to amplify the planar shift spell that they employed to transport the island. However, in the process of trying to return, one of the crystals had been damaged by a colleague who was playing around with enchanting spells (hence the golem). In the middle of the explanation most of the group successfully navigated the perils of a staircase without so much as a thought, though the mighty Narko was once more laid low by his most fearsome nemesis. The wizard gave the centaur a curious and mildly concerned look before continuing.

## **The Gang Reunited**

Emerging into the grand chamber of the cathedral, they were greeted by the sight of a crowd of over 100 individuals, brightly clad in a spectrum of simple colours. Embedded in the centre of this veritable rainbow were the remainder of the group, 5 days older but no less themselves; the enigmatic duo of Elyan and Azurial  side-by-side, Bayul  stood rigid, straight and tall with trunk a-flop, and Rocky  looked mildly confused but also animated as ever.

Rocky  told his tale of the days since he fled into the night. Or rather, what he could recall of it; he spent around two days in a very comfortable bush before being found by Elyan and Azurial . Other than that, his last memory was of leaving Ilbidor. Bayul  inquired of ‘Mr PointyHat’ whether their magical shenanigans could have interfered with Rocky’s  memory but the wizard was at a loss. They also filled the archmage in on the 100 years of history that he’d missed, particularly the fall of the Iysgarthian empire to which he was, at most, ambivalent. The group rapidly realised that unless it involved tinkering with spells, the scholarly fellow had little interest in the affairs of humanity (or elvenity, dwarvenity, goblinity etc etc).

Getting down to business, Gimble  requested that the wizards share any artefacts with the group that might be of interest for their archaeological pursuits. The wizard put to them that, in addition to the paraphernalia that they’d clearly already helped themselves to from the manor, they could attempt to prove themselves worth of the boon of the goddess Hecate. While Rocky  and Ves pursued a valuable line of inquiry as to the ‘hotness’ of the goddess, Bayul  and Narko  shared a bemused glance. Satisfied by the wizard’s uncomfortable admission that she was in fact ‘beyond beauty’, and clearly with their own ideas of exactly what this meant fresh in their minds, the two lusty individuals relented. They took to reacquainting themselves following Rocky’s  amnesia (with Gimble assisting Rocky’s memory using the Narko -riding incident), and took a bet about whether Dr T was into guys or not. Meanwhile, Narko  and Bayul  found out more about the challenge. They discovered that the goddess Hecate was a patron of the arcane, though her reach stretched into all forms of magic, and her trial was different for every individual or group that attempted it. They decided to take the night to rest and gratefully accepted an offer of quarters in the wizarding school.

As they returned to the manor, Gimble asked Bayul  if he’d like to go to the garden. “For combat practice? Terrific idea Gimble !”, Bayul  responded and set off at once, a grinning gnome at his heels. They made their way out without talking and began sparring, Bayul laying down an even more ferocious attack when he sensed Gimble holding back. That evening, Narko  recounted the tale of the island's adventures to Rocky , while Ash  listened in and Ves composed her progress report for Dr T . Still worn down after his ordeal and soothed by Narko’s  dulcet tones, Rocky’s head soon began to droop. Blissfully unaware of the mellow mood, Ash  took that opportunity to whack out his bagpipes, providing Rocky with a deeply piercing and unpleasant wake-up. He made his way to bed and his baritone snoring reverberated through the walls within seconds of face-pillow contact. Out in the garden, a somewhat worse-for-wear Bayul  and Gimble decided to call it a night after both nearly lost limbs.

In the morning, a magical feast was laid before the group as they surfaced from the depths of slumber. This delicious nourishment soothed any residual aches and pains from the last few days of vigorous adventuring and they emerged from the manor fully refreshed. Even Rocky’s formidable appetite could not overcome his steadfast constitution and he both consumed and digested a banquet of chicken to himself.

## **Trial by Combat**

They arrived at the cathedral to a waiting crowd arrayed across the pews and the Archmage at the head where the challenge would occur. He organised them around the star symbol laid into the floor before the altar and stepped back. Fires on either side of the altar flared up, and crystals surrounding the star began to glow and pulsate as a form began to shimmer and coalesce behind the party. When the shimmering subsided, a sturdy chest wrapped in thick metal chains lay before them. Ves immediately set to work on a ritual to detect magic, while the others looked more closely. Bayul  and Gimble inspected the central padlock but found it to be merely cold steel. Narko  and Ash  spent several minutes searching for hidden keys in the vicinity, while Rocky got increasingly frustrated with the lock and chains. When the key search proved fruitless, Ash  converged on the chest and, as Rocky ‘declared this padlock fucked’ and heated the metal to red hot, Ash  instantly cooled it with the contents of his water skin. The metal hissed and screeched in protest but held firm. Rocky checked with Ves but, upon finding out that the ritual would be several more minutes, hurled Rosie directly at the padlock. With an ear-shattering clang, the solid metal cracked in two and the chains slumped to the floor.

Satisfied, the goliath reached out to lift the lid but found his hand stuck to the surface. Bayul  whipped out his new sword and began to pry it open instead, but instead found it spring open of its own accord. Nobody had time to react as a vicious jaw appeared and bit into the side of the attached Rocky . To a normal individual it would have been a savage wound, but Rocky merely chuckled as its razor-like maws glanced off his robust exterior. Thus began the real challenge.

Upon seeing this development, Ves cut off her painstaking ritual with a sigh that said 'why does nobody listen?', manifested a knife of jagged ice and sent it whistling towards the chest. It erupted just beside the box, sending wicked shards of ice into the box, as well as Bayul  and Rocky . Narko  galloped in a magnificent arc to flank the creature and, his muscles bulging with the might of the giants, struck a deep gash with his glaive as he galloped by. Picking an ice-splinter out of his trunk, Bayul  set himself into a combat stance and rammed it with the blunt of his shield, though it was too heavy to knock over. Rocky attempted to free himself of the tacky surface but found it moving too fact to get a proper hold. Instead, he focused on the alternative and inspired Ash  to ‘kick the box’s wooden arse’. The box responded to his sass with another vicious bite but Bayul  was able to protect Rocky with a well-timed block. It then seemed to leap with an agility entirely uncharacteristic of a box, straight past Narko’s  swinging glaive, on top of Bayul , getting him stuck to its surface like Rocky .

Ash  took that opportunity to pound into the thing's exposed rear but succeeded only in getting his hand stuck. However, with his second hand he channeled all of the vigour of Rocky’s motivation and hit too hard and fast to be stuck, while also injecting it with an astral burst that caused it to slide 10ft away, thus freeing its grappled victims. Meanwhile, Gimble lined up his shot between Rocky’s legs. A fiery orb grew in his palm and he charged it for a few seconds before releasing it in a burst of arcane energy. Unfortunately, it sailed past the surprisingly swift chest and he cursed. Ves projected a second ice knife and this time it exploded closer to the target but still sent shards lashing into the side of Narko  as well as the bitey box. Feeling somewhat guilty for wounding the party, she summoned a spectral puppy who danced around and healed people’s minor wounds, beginning with Rocky .  Narko  and Bayul  undertook and flanking manoeuvre and started chopping into the wood with their blades, while Rocky spat a globule of phlegmy blood and cursed the chompy chest. Despite this adversity, the jaw of the thing found purchase on Bayul’s  leg and anchored itself deep into his flesh while pouring acid into the wound. He trumpeted an emphatic cry of pain and anger while Ash  used the butt of his dagger to once more disengage the toothy trunk, much to Bayul’s  relief. He then almost lashed out at Ves’s puppy as it moved around to heal his leg. Gimble’s little legs could not carry him into battle fast enough and he sent yet another fiery orb at the creature, this time blackening a portion of the wooden structure.

Giving the creature a taste of its own medicine, Ves raised her hands palms-up causing vines to erupt from the solid ground and restrain the rapid receptacle. It wriggled to no avail as the enormous forms of Narko  and Bayul  loomed over and began the wooden box equivalent of systematically disembowelling it. Finally freed, Rocky asked Bayul  to move over slightly. Their hours of death hammer paid off as Rosie whooshed past Bayul’s  slightly cocked head and struck the box with a resounding and satisfying thud, causing it to finally fall still. With a flourish, Rocky caused Rosie again, there her into the air and struck a pose as she teleported to his belt once more.

## **Good Boon and Good Bye**

While standing there feeling fabulous, Rocky noticed a glint inside the box and pulled it out. All gathered around as he held a beautiful golden orb encrusted with gems and engraved with mysterious runes that Narko  didn’t recognise. In a moment of divine inspiration, he moved back to the centre of the star before the altar, and intoned "Oh incredibly fit goddess, please assist me I’ve found this ball and I don’t know what it means, I require your godly assistance please”. Clearly Hecate heeded his plea as words in common began to glow by the runic symbols; 'for what you need most, take me to the sea’. Gimble put in that he needs friends.

Rocky asked the Grand Archmage what he should do now he’d got the goddess’s ‘poon’. The Archmage filled them in on some of the potions and artefacts they’d acquired, but said that the '**boon'** of the goddess spoke for itself; he did not know. Rocky declared that he would continue to look after it for now, and finally asked the wizard about enchanting Rosie with chicken-cooking abilities. He was disappointed by the quote of 5000 gold, and even more so when the wizard declined his proposal of a ‘shiny orb discount’. At that, they bid the gathered wizards goodbye and began to make their way back to the ship.