Elevator Action

The GoG were ready to escape, leaving Daisy Grove behind but something held them back.  Zorak was insistent, and confident, about freeing his new pet hellhound, Lucky.  Sneaking up on the guards would be easy, the noise of the "bellowing beast" would cover their approach and Bastion could hide them from sight.  Zorak's assessment of his allies abilities was correct.  Using the element of surprise they quickly incapacitated a few guards and the rest surrendered.  The Guardians of Gog, finally, were completely reunited.

They backtracked to the river of lava.  Once they were clear of the deafening roar Kaszuk took the time to fill in the newly reincarnated Bastion.  Kaszuk was uncharacteristically verbose in telling the story of their hunt for the Dawning Unguent.  Storytelling was one of Kaszuk's favorite responsibilities as Shaman.  Bastion, a story teller himself, appreciated the sentiment and the two bonded over their love of stories.

A few days ago, when the GoG had first arrived in Daisy Grove, Kaszuk attempted to begin collecting the individual letters he was told were given the party by Clapham.  He secretively asked Kriskahn about it and she didn't know what he was talking about.  Tonight he shared a watch with Atreides and now asked him about the letters.  Atreides was also did not know what he was referring to.  Aggravated, and certain again that Clapham was  lying to and manipulating him, Kaszuk intended to have words with Clapham in the morning.

 During Vath's turn at watch Captain Blake from Dasiy Grove had tracked them down.  He had some advice, as well as an old tome.  His advice was to head to, or at least towards, Tecticlan.  If they intended to face Scourge, that was the best place to start.  The tome he offered, the Daisynomicon, was equally as worthless as his advice.  It contained old poems, town history, and governmental organization.  He had dogeared a few passages he felt would be useful.  Afterwards he left, returning to the grove.  In the morning, Vath shared this information, as well as the tome itself.

Morning came, everyone memorized their spells for the day and shared a meal.  While they were dining, Bastion, erupted with emotion.  He said he could keep a secret no longer and revealed that he had a letter from Clapham.  Kaszuk was stunned.  Then, gradually, everyone else, aside from Skia and Atreides admitted to possessing a letter as well.  Finally, Kriskahn admitted to having one as well.  Now, Kaszuk felt betrayed.

        Atredies went on to explain that he knew the correct configuration, he knew what the letters spelled.  Clapham had told him and he, also had kept it a secret.  So, now, not only was Clapham lying to us, but he was getting us to lie to each other.  If his goal was to sew mistrust, he was doing a fabulous job.  After some arguing, and some tense moments by the lake of lava, where Kaszuk nearly tossed his letter into the molten rock, things settled down.  For now, they agreed to keep each letter separate.

Suddenly, it seemed as if Atreides was in some kind of trance.  As if just the discussion of the completed name had some kind of effect on him.  As the healer, Kaszuk moved in close to inspect him.  When he got close and began looking him over Atreides spun, firing a ray of fire at the shaman.  Kaszuk saw red, he was ready to kill.  Atredides, immediately following the attack snapped out of his trance.  He frantically pulled out a healing potion, practically forcing in into Kaszuk's hands.  From behind, Vath knocked Atredies to the floor and Kaszuk stood over him, menacingly.

Atredies told them that he was having visions, that they needed to continue to avoid Tecticlan.  Kaszuk stood back and walked away.  To him, Atreides had lost what little respect and trust Kaszuk once had for him.  He was no longer interested in anything this pawn of Clapham had to say.

The GoG decided to move forward with their plan as it was.  They would travel back to Ogon'Ozero, either to find the Wandering Wizard himself or the location of The Wizard's Asylum.  They passed by Zagar'ratya, no need to enter the city, and on towards the lift.  Kaszuk picked at his scales as he waited outside the commission office with Zorak, Skia, Lucky and Shadowdiver, there was no need to repeat the events of their last meeting with the elevator officials.

    Having Bastian back was a great boon for the GoG.  Combined they didn't have the tact and charisma of Bastian.  He saw to acquiring passage on the lift and in no time they were on the elevator and ascending.  It was a mostly bare lift, a single mostly empty cart and three lizardfolk slaves.  While the elevator climbed the chain, Kaszuk read the tome that had been left by Captain Blake.

About an hour into their ascent a second lift appeared above them coming down and both lifts stopped.  Out of the side of the upper lift someone poked his head out.  The lift operator from the top of Klagnar's decent had come down.  The claw marks on his face left by Kaszuk had still not fully healed.  He hollered down, after their last encounter he had notified the forces of Scourge and was here for revenge.  With that, several constructs resembling Plex jumped out of the upper elevator and down towards the Guardians of Grog.  They were there to collect the truant Tecticlan participants.  Before the constructs had even reached the lower lift it's breaks exploded.

The elevator, and its inhabitants were in free-fall.  The GoG had assumed that the sentries would have wanted to collect them alive and bring them back to Tecticlan.  It was clear now, that they didn't intend for anyone to walk away from this.  The GoG were fighting for their lives as they plummeted hundreds of stories to the ground.