Return of the Lichemaster - Intermission

**"Return of the Lichemaster-Intermission"** is Chapter 11 of *The Vagabond Chronicles* series. The episode begins with our heroes experiencing weird dreams while hiding out from the storm in the shrine of Tal

## Summary

The party slowly falls asleep and finds they get weird dreams. *Teddy finds themselves back in his homeland of the Mute at the night of Joyful Remembrance, the time that his clan honours those that have passed into the great feast(the beyond). Except that he's alone as his own party. Teddy panics and whirls around but the table laden and carefully places chairs, the ice cream melts, the truffle starts bubbling and the summer rays start melting the ice sculpture he painstakingly put together. The vegetables begin to wilt in front of his eyes and even the quiche bubbles and boils. He realises too late that he posted no invites and was forgotten by the rest of his family, on this night of joy and remembrance...he soon realises that no one is coming.* Teddy wakes with a startled gasp

Bondo looks at Teddy before switching watch and finding a comfortable patch (turning 3 times before he gets comfortable). Bondo also has strange dreams. '***Man the cannon! Damn your eyes!**' the voice rips through his skull like a bolt as suddenly the dwarf that is standing over him, blaring out commands is lifted of his feet and spun round like a pinwheel. His neck bleeding as he tries desperately to gurgle out his last command. Shocked, Bondo fumbles for the lit fumble in his hand and rotate the army mechanism, but it jams! He kicks, screams and swears in anguish for this cannon to move for his last chance to hold back the horde, but nothing. An explosion rocks from the cannon station next to you igniting the armor dump and the world tumbles up and down and over and over. Teddy smashes his head hard and loses grip on the lit fuse as he lays there with the enemies screaming in his ear and trampling over his body. He realises with slow dread, no one is coming.* Bondo wakes with a startled gasp. Ziggy is looking at him quizzically just about to take over watch. 'Mein friend, you look more like schit than usual...are you okay?' Ziggy asks Bondo. 'Bondo has felt better'. Ziggy walks outside to take over watch

Rattigan's dream: *Again, the woods call out to Rattigan. Deeper and deeper he goes. The Squirrel King having assured him safe passage to a better life in return for the promise of a bounty of much nuts. It seems like a dream that slips like soil through your mingy arms. 'He tricked you' Rattigan says to themselves ' Or you tricked him'..Rattigan is confused as always to whichever way round things are. He now knows with great alarm that the Squirrel guard will be sent out in the King's wrath! Wandering wardens with wooden weapons woeful as lacerations of fur and teeth. Hiding, creeping, stealthing his way through. He lies still suddenly, breathing. When he'd done finally feeling safe, stepping forward through the final hedgerow out of the forest and into the outside world. Safe in the knowledge that no one is coming.* Rattigan wakes up and feels amazing. Standing over him is Ziggy, who was about to kick him awake but then does it anyways, kicking him in the ribs. Rattigan looks up at him and goes 'Much nuts, much nuts, where are the much nuts?!'. Ziggy replies 'and you're the wizard...' before walking off to get some sleep himself.

Rattigan's watch is mostly spent with Rattigan staring at his feet, with the ferrets entertaining him and completely forgot why he was awake. By the time that he realises what he was supposed to be doing, everyone was already waking up and moving about. It's now early morning. Rattigan and Teddy talk about their dreams to each other. Bondo adds that he doesn't like dreams, they aren't nice. Dr. Dasher walks in and says he also had bad dreams, saying they should probably get on the road. The war penguins look a bit Fritty, Bondo should have a look at them. They are about halfway through their journey, maybe another day, day and a half of travel and they should be at their destination. Rattigan runs after him, asking if they'll find the Squirrel King at La Maison Tal. Dr. Dasher puts a hand on his shoulder and says 'Listen, when I told you I used to be a doctor, I didn't use to be THAT kind of doctor.' before walking off towards the slay. The ferrets have popped out, nuzzling into him, giving him a flea bath. Noodle has something sticking out of the corner of his mouth, just chewing on it absentmindedly. Rattigan pulls it from Noodles teeth, with his own teeth, and it looks like the corner of the scroll. Rattigan checks if the rest of the scroll is still there, but he just sees bits of the scroll in his pack. Rattigan succeeds an initiative test and he notices that Noodle's eyes have changed colours but they keep rolling around his head a little bit and his fur is more fluffed out than before. He's a bit charged up. Teddy makes an amazing 'Ted-tacular-fry-up' , which gives everyone a +5 to everyone's characteristics for the rest of the day. Dr Dasher has foraged some herbs, Bondo helps him find some Marjoram and Rosemary 'Might come in handy, if we're using a testicle' (making a reference to Ballripper). Bondo draws a blank on Dr dasher's question about herbs, but Dasher is patient and shows him the new herbs, explaining them. The leftover food has been fed to the war penguins. The look well and rested again as they set out.

The country side is very boggy and muddy, that makes the wagon get stuck occasionally. It's very slow going and it's already afternoon. There's a large scarpment ahead, with a very high rise that looks like a winding path going back on itself and a steep fall all around. On foot it would be better but by horse it would be a tricky climb. Bondo rides one of the penguins. Rattigan fails a test and has no clue if the wagon could get up the mountain or not. As the group is talking amongst themselves they suddenly hear someone speaking up from besides them. Rattigan spins around to the back of the wagon, trying to find the source of the voice. There's a rather large halfling: Merry Leaf, with a green feather sticking out behind his ear. He has red and blue bright bridges and matching waistcoat and weatherbeaten boots that match his outfit. He's standing there with his hands on his hips and is asking 'Hey, how are you doing. Ey, now that i've got your attention big'ins, wondered if you could do me a solid. I'm desperate in need for some of you long legged striding beast to do me a favour. It's a bit embarrassing actually but I desperately need some help and you're the first people I've seen for days'. Bondo wonders what he's doing here as they start talking halfling dialect. Apparently he lost most of his possessions in the nearby forest. Rattigan comes over and says he found another child looking for help. Merry will pay the party 50G if they can retrieve the goods. The party heads off towards the forest. Dr Dasher is keeping an eye on the wagon and the slay.

Merry says he was looking for some rabbits when he came across a weird place in the center there was a weird mount of something. So he put his stuff down and looked around trying to find the rabbits or herbs and he saw a sword and armour. As and he went towards it he heard a vicious noise and weird creatures from the forest. He just ran for it, cause he wasn't able to fight them. Rattigan asks if there were any squirrels with crowns on the head. Merry looks towards Bondo, who just says Rattigan is special. Teddy wonders if Halflings usually have wonderlust. They do get it and they just have to go out into the world, usually with young halfling. This is however very far out of the normal perimeter and it's still very dangerous. He fails an intelligence test and he doesn't know if it's weird or not really. Teddy just walks out and into the forest. Ziggy did a cool way to jump off (no one saw). The forest is very idyllic and the party doesn't feel like anything is amiss. the halfling is leading them to the clearing. Teddy fails an initiative test so he feels like something is off, but doesn't recall what it is. Bondo passes his initiative test as it suddenly occurs to him that Ziggy is missing..The party stops to look around but Merry says they should have enough time to look around. Every rolls initiative tests and Rattigan rolls a critical fail and thinks he sees Ziggy rushing towards him letting the party know he's seen him. As he falls and smashed into a tree (taking 1 wound). Ziggy just steps out ahead of the party, asking Merry if he can move quicker cause his ankles are chafing.

They step out into a clearing and the entire party fails an initiative test. In the middle of the clearing is a mound with a sword and armour in it and there's a pack at the bottom of it, probably Merry's. Merry said he got lost and is trying to find his way back to the empire. Teddy and Rattigan run towards it as Bondo stands back surveying the scene. Teddy realises how nice the sword is, it's definitely expensive. It's jewel encrusted and Teddy starts salivating as he grabs the pack and the sword. Bondo sees both of them disappear in front of his eyes. Bondo asks what Merry has done to them but before he can do that Ziggy grabs his arm and says 'Exactly what we're going to do to you, little man' as his eyes are glowing. Teddy and Rattigan are falling a 4-yard drop and there are spikes at the bottom of the pit. Teddy takes 4 wounds and Rattigan takes 6 wounds. They try to scream..but there's complete silence. Suddenly a green mist goes through the pit and they try not to breathe it in but can't escape it. They both lose consciousness.

Back at the clearing, Bondo makes a swing for Merry and hits him as it literally goes through him, not doing any damage. 'Nice hit, Lad' and after that he just vanishes. Ziggy is attacking Bondo and hits him for 3 wounds. Bondo misses Ziggy but notices a 'thump' as something darts into his neck. Bondo critically fails a toughness test as he pulls the arrow out and sees a bright green ichor. Bondo licks the poison as he collapses and the world goes dark. The party once again has weird dreams and see Ziggy and themselves standing over them. One by one they come to with the weird smell of cooking going on. They suddenly realise they are in a larger clearing where in the middle there is a hut and a tent marque. They then realised they are all strapped to stakes and are stripped of their belonging, with their arms restrained. Ziggy is there as well, also tied up, but they also see Doppelgänger Ziggy walking around doing chores. They see another figure who they can't identify, who's also tied up. The figure wakes up and asks who's there. He introduces himself as Vandor. There is a giant fire pit over which there is a massive pot. Another person is walking around but they can't see who it is. Vandor says he doesn't remember how long he's been there. Rattigan introduced himself as Elias P. Rattigan. Outside of the hut steps Merry, looking pleased with himself as he looks at the crew 'How are you? Alright then, you won't feel it in a minute anyway' as he walks off. Bondo calls him back and asks what he's done. Merry explains that they're gonna have a feast as he's smacking his lips. He looks at Teddy and says 'I'll start with the big'ins, first the appetiser' He takes the knife and rips it against his throat. Doppelgänger Ziggy starts dragging the body off and throw it into pot and chops up the legs and arms. Rattigan fails an initiative test and can't see where his ferrets are but he whistles, trying to summon them. Noodle and Mr. Spidge appear behind the tree. Teddy manages to loosen the ropes a bit. Rattigan asks the ferrets to chew through his ropes, freeing him. Bondo hulks out of his bondings. Bondo and Ratti notice a person walking around the edge and it's Doppelgänger Rattigan. The doppelgänger rattigan notices Rattigan and initiative starts. Teddy sees where there equipment is, it's on the mound of clothing. Teddy goes into the treelike and hides. Bondo breaks Ziggy free and Imposter!Ziggy turns around and makes an eldritch noise. Bondo and Ziggy go to the box of equipment. Ziggy managed to grab his shield and the spider sword. Rattigan uses Flight of Amar and flies off, hitting a tree branch. The halfling runs out to the middle and says 'No, No! You're supposed to be for the pot!' as he crushed something in his hands, as his whole body erupts as they see a giant red dragon that starts screaming at them.

## Quotes

Neil: '*Happy as vedge in a hedge'*

Neil: '*The Squirrel King who assured him safe passage to a better life in return for the promise of a bounty of much nuts.'*

\*all the lads going into a giggle fit over the words 'much nuts'\*

## Trivia

* This is the second episode that didn't have a hand colored piece of art like most of the episodes.
* Intro is 40 minutes long