The Great Forge
Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Thundersword-Petunia, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Riddle, Claire's baby basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe. Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halftaur Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and mother of the Petunia clan; champion of the Living Dungeon
Astrid Rockham, the Longstrider Shifter Evocation Wizard
Calipso, Astrid's Lizard Familiar
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar
Flimflam Pebblehead-Petunia, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds
Arwenel, the Elf Scholar
Alfalfa Cover Petunia, the Centling Fighter, Rosebud's other half
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh met group briefly on route to Mantol Derith for trade
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian- became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla attacked the party at a gateway they found
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter- abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville attacked the party at a gateway they found
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny was raised by Mezzem and went missing, it is believed that Stool ate him
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver- grick kibble
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her- stayed in Blingdenstone
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil- dust in the wind
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Stool, the Myconid Child- stayed in Blingdenstone
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist- MIA after the Battle of Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Kazul, the Copper Platinum Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget was restored to life by her god- MIA after Astrid's wish
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout- MIA after Astrid's wish
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later- MIA after Astrid's wish, believed to be trapped in the Abyss
Friendly Fire: 232
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Nightal 4, Gauntlgrym
We were woken up this morning to a knock at our door- again. Apparently that's the morning wake up call in this damn city. There was a svirfneblin dressed as a smith at the door, who told us he was instructed to bring us to the Great Forge by Dwarvenforge.
As we were leaving, Alfie walked past Geophry, who tripped him and began giggling. The chair didn't want any competition as Rosebud's brother, so he despised the centling for being a potential threat to Rosebud's attention.
The Great Forge was just that- great. It was enormous, and fascinating to look at; I've never seen such an impressive forge before, and I've been to many blacksmiths in Cormyr. Dwarvenforge told me that his kin in Blingdenstone had told him to finish my shield- apparently he wasn't quite done with it when we left the city. He said that since he was already getting my shield done that he'd be willing to throw in some of the other's items, since he'd heard we were going to the Abyss- for a price.
Momma produced his Defender sword, Lith put in her whip, Rosebud put in the maul we'd gotten from the Dao, Geophry put in his Wings of Flying, Astrid added a ring, and Flimflam put in both his wand and his Pearl of Power- then asked Dwarvenforge if he could attach the two. Dwarvenforge produced from what appeared to be the box I had delivered, a phoenix feather for Chairy's wings. Those should be interesting when they're done. The spirit of Fidget, which was trapped in a piece in Claire's crossbow, briefly took Claire over, and a part was snuck into the pile.
Dwarvenforge told us that the forging would only take a few seconds, and we needed to be ready to fight anything. Astrid's ring was the first thing to come out, and as Dwarvenforge hit it, flames shot out and two fire snakes appeared- he asked us to deal with those. Unfortunately most of our weapons were in the forge- all Rosebud had was a gun, so I tossed him one of my spare blades. Alfie charged one of them and killed it instantly, and I dropped the other one with my stupid Defender sword.
Momma summoned an ice elemental in case anymore fire things popped out of the forge at us. Next up was my shield, and this time four fire snakes appeared. The elemental hit one with ice, and Flimflam followed up with an ice spell of his own, killing it. Momma, Rosebud, and I each dropped one on our own. About thirty seconds later four more fire snakes emerged. One of them began beating on Alfie pretty bad, and Rosebud killed it. I killed two more of them, and our ice elemental grabbed the final one and jumped into the water that Dwarvenforge was using to cool our items- flash freezing the tub and killing the final snake. Flimflam hurried to unfreeze it so the temperature wouldn't destroy Astrid's ring.
After that Dwarvenforge said he needed to take a quit break to let his anvil recover. Geophry started getting pissy and impatient during the wait, so Flimflam decided to give him alcohol... which Chairy them proceeded to puke up all over Lily. This family hurts my head sometimes.
The next item to come out of the Forge was Lith's whip, and six fire snakes came from it. Alfie actually hit one, I was quite proud of him in that moment- he so seldom hits anything. That pride was short-lived as I got surrounded by three of them. Rosebud charged up to the snakes around me and killed two of them; I killed the last one and moved to help the others with the remaining three. Turns out I didn't need to do that, as I got near Flimflam unleashed an ice spell that killed all three of them.
Geophry's wings were next, and when Dwarvenforge grabbed them a large burst of flame came out, throwing him back; a phoenix rose from the anvil. Flimflam instantly released that ice spell again, but it wasn't nearly as effective on that as it had been on the snakes. The bird took a swipe at me and grabbed me in its talons... shit. As Rosebud swung at it I wriggled free from its grasp. Alfie charged at the bird, while Momma sent several magic darts of force at it, when suddenly Lith turned into some sort of fire fey, grabbed her whip from the water, and hit the phoenix.
Her whip looked like one of the fire snakes, but it was blue and radiating cold- the bird screeched in pain from her attack. Geophry used a spell that made it look like there were four of him, and Flimflam since he was sitting on him, and Flimflam tossed an ice spell at the bird. As a product of Flimflam's wild magic, Alfie was suddenly convinced that Flimflam's magic was out to get him. Alfie randomly charged Flimflam,and missed hitting him by a long shot. I wonder what the Hells is wrong with that child; aside from the obvious.
Momma unleashed more of his magic force darts at the thing as it lunged for me, and completely biffed it. At that Dwarvenforge grabbed the bird and began smithing it into the wings. Rosebud hurried to help hold it down for him. When he struck it, there was a flash of flaming energy, and he declared the wings done; putting them in the water with our other items.
Alfie was still going after Flimflam though, but this time he hit Geophry, who started yelling at him in his high-pitched shrill little voice. Geophry started going after Alfie, and declared he was going to eat him... What? How could he possibly eat him? Momma threw out a spell that made them calm the fuck down.
The next item was Flimflam's wand, and twelve of the snakes appeared for that one. Of course Flimflam went straight for his ice spell, but Momma seemed to be rather done with these things. He summoned a fire elemental and told it to deal with them, so it began to scoop the snakes up and swallow them whole. I managed to kill one of the two it didn't eat, and Rosebud grabbed the final one and held it over the wand so Dwarvenforge could add it to the wand.
Next up was Momma's sword, and only six snakes emerged from it to start. Rosebud scooped one up and whipped it back over to the sword- then pointed out to me after I killed one to stop that so we could add them to our items. I grabbed one of the snakes and brought it to the anvil. Flimflam summoned two Hands to help hold them on the sword, and somehow cast a lightning bolt in the process, which barely grazed my arm.
Salamanders appeared as we finished dealing with the snakes, and one instantly grabbed Alfie, burning him so badly that he went down. One began beating on Rosebud, but seemed to barely do anything to him. Geophry exclaimed that we had to put Alfie down because he couldn't walk- the kid seems to have a fixation with the idea of putting one of us down because they can't walk. That chair is so fucking weird.
Rosebud charged at the salamander that had dropped Alfie, completely ignoring the blows he received from the salamander he was walking away from. I grabbed the other salamander and drug it to the anvil, pinning the damned thing for Dwarvenforge. Flimflam unleashed a wide beam of multicolored rays, some of which hit Alfie, and he melted into a puddle, and then froze; Geophry thanked Flimflam for killing him. As I held the last salamander down, Rosebud turned his enraged eyes at Flimflam.
The halftaur punched Flimflam and demanded he pay for a priest to resurrect him. Flimflam placed a delayed blast fireball on Rosebud, and the only witness was Geophry. Geophry told Flimflam that Lily was going to be pissed and called him over to them so the fireball wouldn't strike him. Flimflam was acting guilty about something, and Momma instantly began questioning him. He admitted to hiding a delayed blast fireball on Rosebud, and once Rosebud found it, he drug Flimflam to him and held the fireball right between them. Momma dropped one of the Hut shields on us to protect the rest of us from the blast. At the last second, Flimflam tried to use his mist spell to get into the Hut, but failed miserably, and was hit with the full blast of the fireball.
Throughout all of this Dwarvenforge was working diligently on Rosebud's maul. Geophry was muttering about putting me down next, and I heard the little shit. When I called him out on it he started to argue with me, but our argument was delayed by a bright flash of energy; we were now on the Elemental Plane of Fire.
I felt a burning touch, and suddenly I could only see through a hazy smoke- I had been turned into a gaseous form... shit. Turns out that behind me was an invisible and huge fire efreeti that only Momma could currently see. He told Rosebud where to strike, and he definitely hit something. I flew over to Momma in hopes of interacting with him, but Geophry thought smoke was trying to attack Momma, so he started inhaling me. Momma told him it was me he was inhaling, and he spazzed out, completely disgusted about having inhaled me.
Momma dispelled its invisibility, and Rosebud was able to start attacking it. The efreeti was after his hammer for some reason. I was trying frantically to will myself back into my physical form, so I missed the bulk of the fight. But of course the boys beat the efreeti, and I became myself again right before we popped back into Gauntlgrym's Forge.
We went back to the villa and asked Seluna to reincarnate Alfie, and she said it was best done under the moonlight. We spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the Forge and waiting for our gear. When it finally arrived we used a teleport type spell to get to the hill that overlooks Neverwinter. Since Momma didn't have much of Alfie to use for the reincarnation, Seluna had to use some of Rosebud's blood.
I honestly didn't pay much attention to the ritual, I was too busy rolling in the grass and staring at the moon. I had often thought I wouldn't see this again, and finally being here felt like a triumph to me, even though I had lost my love during this journey.
When Seluna finished reincarnating Alfie, our little brother had halfling legs still, but his torso and head was now that of a crocodile; and thanks to Rosebud's blood donation, he was now a wererat too. We dubbed him a Crocling, and Seluna used a spell that made him somewhat intelligent. Awakening Alfie cracked his mind a little, and he now believes he's the best at everything, and cannot take anything seriously.
Momma decided we would spend the night here, in our Tower. I was so excited to show Riddle the surface! I spent the night in the grass, under the stars. It was magical, and the fresh air was nearly intoxicating.
Lith suggested that we dress Alfie up as a kobold, because he could kind of pass for one now. He did, but he's definitely the ugliest kobold in existence.
***** Nightal 5, Neverwinter
We decided to go shopping in Neverwinter today, we figured we'd have better luck finding things there than in Gauntlgrym. Momma decided we were going to sell some of the random stuff we've picked up through our travels, but first we had to have a family meeting. He pulled out two rings that might have the ability to control elementals, and told Flimflam that he needed to attune to the rings and test them out. It turns out they were both control elementals rings, and now Flimflam was one shy of being able to control all elementals.
The boys decided that Flimflam needed the ring that controls air elementals so that he could have all of them. Flimflam and Geophry flew into town on their own, with Rosebud chasing them by foot. The chair found a really shady back alley shop where literally everything cost $500,000 gold. He wouldn't tell us what any of the items were, and wouldn't let us identify them ourselves. Geophry produced his Deck of Many Things and offered him a draw from it- the shop keep vanished. Shadows began closing in around us, and only Alfie and Astrid had the time to grab anything before the shadows took everything away, leaving us in a barren room with a slumped over skeleton sitting where the shop keep had been. Alfie had grabbed a harp, but Astrid had gotten a Ring of Feather Fall, which may be the air elemental control ring that Flimflam wanted.
Flimflam demanded that Astrid hand the ring over to him, but refused to make it a trade, so she told him to piss off. Geophry said if she didn't give him the ring he'd do something bad, something he really didn't want to do. While they bickered Momma decided to plant a magic bean, and a hole opened up in the ground. Before jumping in the hole, Geophry told Flimflam his life depended on getting one of those rings.
We found ourselves in a 10 x 10 room that didn't have any visible doors. Flimflam started looking around and found a plaque that he thought might be a button, which he proceeded to press. There was a flash, and we found ourselves in a slightly larger room made from sandstone. Flimflam took off down the nearest tunnel; this place was nothing but a labyrinth of tunnels. Momma cast his lore spell, but he only got directions that circled back to where he cast the spell. At that, Lily realized it was an endless maze, and suddenly found himself in the room above.
Momma vanished, leaving me alone with the boys in this annoying maze. Flimflam was next to realize that it was an endless maze, and he vanished too. Lily gave Astrid a vial of his blood to use to pull him back with a spell, and went back into the maze for his lost children.
Geophry randomly announced "what Momma knows, I know," and vanished. I tried it and nothing happened. Geophry saw an opportunity to begin trying to convince Flimflam to kill Astrid and take the ring; but he didn't take the bait, which was good since Lith was also there and watching this discussion transpire.
I began a kind of chant of my own, "think like Momma, think like Momma," and it worked! I was suddenly back in that cramped room.
Alfie and Rosebud were the only ones left in the maze, and Alfie tried to think so hard that he literally hurt himself. Rosebud spent a couple of minutes trying to think like Momma before he figured it out. Alfie realized it a few minutes after that- but not before nearly killing himself from thinking too hard. By this point, Lily had been wandering the maze, unable to find his kids for several minutes. He sent Astrid a message asking if everyone was there, then thought himself back to the group.
As soon as Momma appeared in the room Geophry started trying to blame everything on Astrid. Flimflam tried to storm off, but in such an enclosed space, the effect was pretty much lost. He found another panel and tossed a dart at the button- nothing seemed to happen.
Geophry began pestering Momma to plant another bean, a request that both Flimflam and Rosebud vegan to echo. Astrid and I thought it was a horrible idea, but Lily is nothing if not indulgent to his children, and he gave in. He held up a bag and told us that most of the contents were pebbles, but one was an actual bean. We were all to take one and plant them at the same time.
They were all fucking beans.
*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
We were woken up this morning to a knock at our door- again. Apparently that's the morning wake up call in this damn city. There was a svirfneblin dressed as a smith at the door, who told us he was instructed to bring us to the Great Forge by Dwarvenforge.
As we were leaving, Alfie walked past Geophry, who tripped him and began giggling. The chair didn't want any competition as Rosebud's brother, so he despised the centling for being a potential threat to Rosebud's attention.
The Great Forge was just that- great. It was enormous, and fascinating to look at; I've never seen such an impressive forge before, and I've been to many blacksmiths in Cormyr. Dwarvenforge told me that his kin in Blingdenstone had told him to finish my shield- apparently he wasn't quite done with it when we left the city. He said that since he was already getting my shield done that he'd be willing to throw in some of the other's items, since he'd heard we were going to the Abyss- for a price.
Momma produced his Defender sword, Lith put in her whip, Rosebud put in the maul we'd gotten from the Dao, Geophry put in his Wings of Flying, Astrid added a ring, and Flimflam put in both his wand and his Pearl of Power- then asked Dwarvenforge if he could attach the two. Dwarvenforge produced from what appeared to be the box I had delivered, a phoenix feather for Chairy's wings. Those should be interesting when they're done. The spirit of Fidget, which was trapped in a piece in Claire's crossbow, briefly took Claire over, and a part was snuck into the pile.
Dwarvenforge told us that the forging would only take a few seconds, and we needed to be ready to fight anything. Astrid's ring was the first thing to come out, and as Dwarvenforge hit it, flames shot out and two fire snakes appeared- he asked us to deal with those. Unfortunately most of our weapons were in the forge- all Rosebud had was a gun, so I tossed him one of my spare blades. Alfie charged one of them and killed it instantly, and I dropped the other one with my stupid Defender sword.
Momma summoned an ice elemental in case anymore fire things popped out of the forge at us. Next up was my shield, and this time four fire snakes appeared. The elemental hit one with ice, and Flimflam followed up with an ice spell of his own, killing it. Momma, Rosebud, and I each dropped one on our own. About thirty seconds later four more fire snakes emerged. One of them began beating on Alfie pretty bad, and Rosebud killed it. I killed two more of them, and our ice elemental grabbed the final one and jumped into the water that Dwarvenforge was using to cool our items- flash freezing the tub and killing the final snake. Flimflam hurried to unfreeze it so the temperature wouldn't destroy Astrid's ring.
After that Dwarvenforge said he needed to take a quit break to let his anvil recover. Geophry started getting pissy and impatient during the wait, so Flimflam decided to give him alcohol... which Chairy them proceeded to puke up all over Lily. This family hurts my head sometimes.
The next item to come out of the Forge was Lith's whip, and six fire snakes came from it. Alfie actually hit one, I was quite proud of him in that moment- he so seldom hits anything. That pride was short-lived as I got surrounded by three of them. Rosebud charged up to the snakes around me and killed two of them; I killed the last one and moved to help the others with the remaining three. Turns out I didn't need to do that, as I got near Flimflam unleashed an ice spell that killed all three of them.
Geophry's wings were next, and when Dwarvenforge grabbed them a large burst of flame came out, throwing him back; a phoenix rose from the anvil. Flimflam instantly released that ice spell again, but it wasn't nearly as effective on that as it had been on the snakes. The bird took a swipe at me and grabbed me in its talons... shit. As Rosebud swung at it I wriggled free from its grasp. Alfie charged at the bird, while Momma sent several magic darts of force at it, when suddenly Lith turned into some sort of fire fey, grabbed her whip from the water, and hit the phoenix.
Her whip looked like one of the fire snakes, but it was blue and radiating cold- the bird screeched in pain from her attack. Geophry used a spell that made it look like there were four of him, and Flimflam since he was sitting on him, and Flimflam tossed an ice spell at the bird. As a product of Flimflam's wild magic, Alfie was suddenly convinced that Flimflam's magic was out to get him. Alfie randomly charged Flimflam,and missed hitting him by a long shot. I wonder what the Hells is wrong with that child; aside from the obvious.
Momma unleashed more of his magic force darts at the thing as it lunged for me, and completely biffed it. At that Dwarvenforge grabbed the bird and began smithing it into the wings. Rosebud hurried to help hold it down for him. When he struck it, there was a flash of flaming energy, and he declared the wings done; putting them in the water with our other items.
Alfie was still going after Flimflam though, but this time he hit Geophry, who started yelling at him in his high-pitched shrill little voice. Geophry started going after Alfie, and declared he was going to eat him... What? How could he possibly eat him? Momma threw out a spell that made them calm the fuck down.
The next item was Flimflam's wand, and twelve of the snakes appeared for that one. Of course Flimflam went straight for his ice spell, but Momma seemed to be rather done with these things. He summoned a fire elemental and told it to deal with them, so it began to scoop the snakes up and swallow them whole. I managed to kill one of the two it didn't eat, and Rosebud grabbed the final one and held it over the wand so Dwarvenforge could add it to the wand.
Next up was Momma's sword, and only six snakes emerged from it to start. Rosebud scooped one up and whipped it back over to the sword- then pointed out to me after I killed one to stop that so we could add them to our items. I grabbed one of the snakes and brought it to the anvil. Flimflam summoned two Hands to help hold them on the sword, and somehow cast a lightning bolt in the process, which barely grazed my arm.
Salamanders appeared as we finished dealing with the snakes, and one instantly grabbed Alfie, burning him so badly that he went down. One began beating on Rosebud, but seemed to barely do anything to him. Geophry exclaimed that we had to put Alfie down because he couldn't walk- the kid seems to have a fixation with the idea of putting one of us down because they can't walk. That chair is so fucking weird.
Rosebud charged at the salamander that had dropped Alfie, completely ignoring the blows he received from the salamander he was walking away from. I grabbed the other salamander and drug it to the anvil, pinning the damned thing for Dwarvenforge. Flimflam unleashed a wide beam of multicolored rays, some of which hit Alfie, and he melted into a puddle, and then froze; Geophry thanked Flimflam for killing him. As I held the last salamander down, Rosebud turned his enraged eyes at Flimflam.
The halftaur punched Flimflam and demanded he pay for a priest to resurrect him. Flimflam placed a delayed blast fireball on Rosebud, and the only witness was Geophry. Geophry told Flimflam that Lily was going to be pissed and called him over to them so the fireball wouldn't strike him. Flimflam was acting guilty about something, and Momma instantly began questioning him. He admitted to hiding a delayed blast fireball on Rosebud, and once Rosebud found it, he drug Flimflam to him and held the fireball right between them. Momma dropped one of the Hut shields on us to protect the rest of us from the blast. At the last second, Flimflam tried to use his mist spell to get into the Hut, but failed miserably, and was hit with the full blast of the fireball.
Throughout all of this Dwarvenforge was working diligently on Rosebud's maul. Geophry was muttering about putting me down next, and I heard the little shit. When I called him out on it he started to argue with me, but our argument was delayed by a bright flash of energy; we were now on the Elemental Plane of Fire.
I felt a burning touch, and suddenly I could only see through a hazy smoke- I had been turned into a gaseous form... shit. Turns out that behind me was an invisible and huge fire efreeti that only Momma could currently see. He told Rosebud where to strike, and he definitely hit something. I flew over to Momma in hopes of interacting with him, but Geophry thought smoke was trying to attack Momma, so he started inhaling me. Momma told him it was me he was inhaling, and he spazzed out, completely disgusted about having inhaled me.
Momma dispelled its invisibility, and Rosebud was able to start attacking it. The efreeti was after his hammer for some reason. I was trying frantically to will myself back into my physical form, so I missed the bulk of the fight. But of course the boys beat the efreeti, and I became myself again right before we popped back into Gauntlgrym's Forge.
We went back to the villa and asked Seluna to reincarnate Alfie, and she said it was best done under the moonlight. We spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the Forge and waiting for our gear. When it finally arrived we used a teleport type spell to get to the hill that overlooks Neverwinter. Since Momma didn't have much of Alfie to use for the reincarnation, Seluna had to use some of Rosebud's blood.
I honestly didn't pay much attention to the ritual, I was too busy rolling in the grass and staring at the moon. I had often thought I wouldn't see this again, and finally being here felt like a triumph to me, even though I had lost my love during this journey.
When Seluna finished reincarnating Alfie, our little brother had halfling legs still, but his torso and head was now that of a crocodile; and thanks to Rosebud's blood donation, he was now a wererat too. We dubbed him a Crocling, and Seluna used a spell that made him somewhat intelligent. Awakening Alfie cracked his mind a little, and he now believes he's the best at everything, and cannot take anything seriously.
Momma decided we would spend the night here, in our Tower. I was so excited to show Riddle the surface! I spent the night in the grass, under the stars. It was magical, and the fresh air was nearly intoxicating.
Lith suggested that we dress Alfie up as a kobold, because he could kind of pass for one now. He did, but he's definitely the ugliest kobold in existence.
***** Nightal 5, Neverwinter
We decided to go shopping in Neverwinter today, we figured we'd have better luck finding things there than in Gauntlgrym. Momma decided we were going to sell some of the random stuff we've picked up through our travels, but first we had to have a family meeting. He pulled out two rings that might have the ability to control elementals, and told Flimflam that he needed to attune to the rings and test them out. It turns out they were both control elementals rings, and now Flimflam was one shy of being able to control all elementals.
The boys decided that Flimflam needed the ring that controls air elementals so that he could have all of them. Flimflam and Geophry flew into town on their own, with Rosebud chasing them by foot. The chair found a really shady back alley shop where literally everything cost $500,000 gold. He wouldn't tell us what any of the items were, and wouldn't let us identify them ourselves. Geophry produced his Deck of Many Things and offered him a draw from it- the shop keep vanished. Shadows began closing in around us, and only Alfie and Astrid had the time to grab anything before the shadows took everything away, leaving us in a barren room with a slumped over skeleton sitting where the shop keep had been. Alfie had grabbed a harp, but Astrid had gotten a Ring of Feather Fall, which may be the air elemental control ring that Flimflam wanted.
Flimflam demanded that Astrid hand the ring over to him, but refused to make it a trade, so she told him to piss off. Geophry said if she didn't give him the ring he'd do something bad, something he really didn't want to do. While they bickered Momma decided to plant a magic bean, and a hole opened up in the ground. Before jumping in the hole, Geophry told Flimflam his life depended on getting one of those rings.
We found ourselves in a 10 x 10 room that didn't have any visible doors. Flimflam started looking around and found a plaque that he thought might be a button, which he proceeded to press. There was a flash, and we found ourselves in a slightly larger room made from sandstone. Flimflam took off down the nearest tunnel; this place was nothing but a labyrinth of tunnels. Momma cast his lore spell, but he only got directions that circled back to where he cast the spell. At that, Lily realized it was an endless maze, and suddenly found himself in the room above.
Momma vanished, leaving me alone with the boys in this annoying maze. Flimflam was next to realize that it was an endless maze, and he vanished too. Lily gave Astrid a vial of his blood to use to pull him back with a spell, and went back into the maze for his lost children.
Geophry randomly announced "what Momma knows, I know," and vanished. I tried it and nothing happened. Geophry saw an opportunity to begin trying to convince Flimflam to kill Astrid and take the ring; but he didn't take the bait, which was good since Lith was also there and watching this discussion transpire.
I began a kind of chant of my own, "think like Momma, think like Momma," and it worked! I was suddenly back in that cramped room.
Alfie and Rosebud were the only ones left in the maze, and Alfie tried to think so hard that he literally hurt himself. Rosebud spent a couple of minutes trying to think like Momma before he figured it out. Alfie realized it a few minutes after that- but not before nearly killing himself from thinking too hard. By this point, Lily had been wandering the maze, unable to find his kids for several minutes. He sent Astrid a message asking if everyone was there, then thought himself back to the group.
As soon as Momma appeared in the room Geophry started trying to blame everything on Astrid. Flimflam tried to storm off, but in such an enclosed space, the effect was pretty much lost. He found another panel and tossed a dart at the button- nothing seemed to happen.
Geophry began pestering Momma to plant another bean, a request that both Flimflam and Rosebud vegan to echo. Astrid and I thought it was a horrible idea, but Lily is nothing if not indulgent to his children, and he gave in. He held up a bag and told us that most of the contents were pebbles, but one was an actual bean. We were all to take one and plant them at the same time.
They were all fucking beans.
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| Photo from the "Gauntlgrym" novel by R.A. Salvatore |
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| Photo owned by Wizards of the Coast, artwork by Jared Blando. |
*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
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