Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book One, Chapter Five, the road to Ekbir

The Bane of Vecna, those present in this chapter:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard; "The Silver Tongued Siren;" who has more instruments than she can carry

Pharin, the Drow Wizard; "The Dark Conjurer;" summoner of demon bunnies

Skye, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter

Nanu, the NightmOrc Fighter who is late; slayer of innocent bystanders

Jayce, the Human Barbarian Warlock of Pelor

NOTE: Since these stories are being told by Aurora, notes in Italics will begin appearing in chapters. These are the interjections that Roe put in at the time she shared this tale, probably many years later.

A couple of days into their journey to Ekbir, the cultists attacked again. Pharin summoned his damned bunnies, while those who could shoot took up sniper positions at the windows. At first things were going well, the group was knocking the cultists out quickly, and soon there were only three left. When the three remaining cultists got close to the carriage they enacted a spell that caused them to explode in a vicious acid. The acid got on the wheels and all over the interior of the carriage. It had the same icky, necrotic, wrong feel to it that the cultist's magic had. The acid was also moving away from Jayce, most likely because of the positive energy amulet Pharin had made using Jayce as a positive energy battery of sorts; things as vile as the cult's magics are repelled by energy that positive. Try as they might, the party was unable to stop the acid from breaking the spell that created the carriage; in a only a couple of hours, their carriage was disintegrated. They found themselves stranded, and utterly unprepared for their four day walk to Ekbir.

Even during their trip on foot, Pharin continued to cast a spell on Nanu that made her feel like she was covered in itchy bug bites; this was part of the "curse" he claimed to be on the star metal she stole from him. Dervish knew it was Pharin causing this, but everyone found it amusing to see the foul foal being slowly driven mad by the phantom bites, and chose to say nothing about their origin.

Pharin and Skye decided to create a rotation for summoning mounts for everyone. Each of them summoned flying mounts for Pharin, Aurora, Dervish, and Jayce, while Skye wild shaped into a bird and Nanu walked- the NightmOrc was fast enough to keep up with the group and not build to ride a mount, though a horse riding a giant bird would have made a fantastic song. The mounts only gave them four hours of flight per day, but that was better than having to walk all day every day of their journey. It was odd for them to have to hunt for their food and set up a camp, the carriage had spoiled them; their wages had also stopped appearing in their coin pouches, apparently their payments were somehow tied to the carriage.

The cultists were persistent, constantly hounding the Bane. They were usually easy enough to dispose of, most of them being merely human and nowhere near as powerful as the party. One day there was a fight that didn't go very well, partly because the only person on the ground was Nanu, everyone else was in flight; but of course our heroes prevailed in the end. Those cultists managed to keep themselves under their shields for a good portion of the fight, which lasted several minutes- much longer than any fight they've had with the cultists before. Though fights lasting that long occur frequently in the tales, it just means we're becoming a great story. Pharin had already used his summons for the day to get mounts, and was unable to summon any bunnies- Aurora and Skye were pleased about that. Though this left Pharin thinking that he needed the bunnies against the cultists and couldn't fight them without the furballs of doom; every other time they had fought the cult he had bunnies and the cultists went down easily.

One night at camp the cult sent two assassins after the Bane, and they actually managed to sneak up unnoticed and stab Pharin and Jayce in the back. Once again there were no bunnies (Yay!). Jayce dealt with one of the assassins, while Pharin decided to use his sneaky innate drow abilities on the other. He dropped a globe of darkness over the second assassin and plunged in, attempting to level the playing field a little. While Pharin attempted to fight the assassin in his darkness globe, the other assassin managed to blind Jayce. Dervish and Nanu surrounded that assassin, with Skye giving air support (haha, yes I had to do that) to them, while Aurora healed Jayce. After a few seconds Pharin borrowed Aurora's fireball wand and threw a powerful fireball into his globe, hoping to hit the concealed assassin. Unfortunately that assassin was clever and had turned itself invisible to make its escape, which it succeeded in. The group did manage to kill one of the two assassins though, so at least they had a partial victory.

Pharin took the amulet off of the dead assassin, and using Jayce as a positive energy battery, he purified it. Pharin traded Jayce the new amulet for the one he had gotten off of a cultist back in Blackmoor and had purified via barbarian also. Pharin using Jayce like this for a second time ended up turning him into a Warlock... of Pelor. Jayce is not terribly smart, so him being a mage doesn't fit quite right (he's pretty much the worst warlock ever). The amulet Pharin took filled him with positive energy, which felt odd to the drow who is used to being negative, so he decided to store it in his pocket and only use it while meditating.

The group was finally five miles from Ekbir when they saw another group of cultists approaching. Pharin decided to do a "magical experiment," and used Leomund's Tiny Hut to grant shelter while he set up a ritual. Dervish made a sarcastic comment about someone volunteering to get splorted, and Jayce, not understanding sarcasm at all, ran off. Dervish, understanding Jayce better than anyone else, was able to call him back long enough for Pharin to activate the Hut, then the fighters stepped out of the circle, leaving Skye, Aurora, and Pharin in its safety.

*****
Aurora

I decided to stay back and keep Pharin inspired, so he could get his ritual done quickly. This is what I consider to be one of the largest mistakes I've made in my one and a half centuries of life. I knew he was trying to do something big that would help us against the cultists, but I wasn't expecting what that bloody imbecile did...

We watched the cultists approaching, and the plan was to keep them busy until Pharin was done with his spell; he was trying to do a ritual in less than half the time it normally takes to do one, but I didn't know what the purpose of this was. Suddenly, the cultists were gone, just vanished, and I felt a slight vibration under my feet that I recognized as a giant worm moving underground. The fighters went to investigate, while Skye and I stayed behind with Pharin. They found that the cultists had fallen into a hole made by a purple worm, who had then collected his meal and devoured our enemies for us. They called to us to tell us this, but Pharin did not stop his ritual. He later claimed he didn't hear anyone tell him the cultists were gone, which the others were far enough away that he may have been telling the truth, but drow always lie so you never know with that wizard.

I was watching the others make their way back to us when Pharin finished his ritual. Behind me there was suddenly a thirty foot tall bunny! I may have overreacted a little... I screamed, used my fireball wand to scorch the horrible monster, and leapt backward. But looking at this giant monster, even in my terror over seeing such a horrid beast, I wondered breezily why I was afraid of bunnies; then the stupid thing reminded me exactly why by attacking me and throwing me backward through the air. Not only was I facing the source of constant emotional torment, but I was also facing a giant happy bunny intent on killing me. Apparently bunnies, no matter how happy they are, don't like having fireballs thrown at them... imagine that. Then the daft wizard decided to climb and ride the stupid thing, and invited Jayce to join him; he said something about frolicking, but who in the hell would want to frolic with that damned thing? Before the monster could destroy us, Dervish activated his paradise again, taking everyone except Pharin. I hugged him and thanked him profusely.

Nanu doesn't seem to understand any emotions except for anger and cunt (I know "cunt" isn't technically an emotion, but there's no other way to accurately describe the pony's other mood). She flipped out at me, and then at Skye when she tried to defend me. The stupid horse doesn't listen and refuses to hear any opinion that doesn't match what she seems to think is relevant. Apparently the pony has never heard of phobias before, or manners, or being nice to people... I'm getting off track here... I told her to piss off and refused to argue with her. To distract the stupid horse, Dervish finally told Nanu that Pharin was the cause of her bites, which she was not happy about (shocking, right?). I looked forward to seeing her confront, and hopefully smash, the stupid wizard about this later.

I didn't used to be terrified of bunnies you know, but Pharin constantly summoning them has fucked with my head a little. I keep having this dream about a bunny outside of a cave, the ground littered with bones, and a group of knights trying to ascertain how to get around the bunny alive... There's talk of needing some holy weapon to destroy it, but they don't have it with them; things get hazy from there and I can never remember past that point when I awaken. The dream didn't start until after the demon bunny incident, and I fear it may be a glimpse of what is to come.

Anyways, after a few minutes of pointless arguing at the hooves at that stupid nightcunt, Dervish brought us back out of his paradise. Pharin was nowhere to be seen, and there was no evidence of his death. The damned thing could have eaten him, I'd rather hoped it did, but alas, I was not that lucky.

*****

While the rest of the group was in Dervish's paradise, Pharin decided to ride his giant bunny the rest of the way to Ekbir. The bunny he had summoned was one of pure positive energy, that made everyone around it (except me) feel happy and at ease. Supposedly the horrid hare was only defending itself from Aurora's attack, something so pure and positive does not attack for no reason. When he reached Ekbir, hours before the others, the elf guarding the gates made Pharin send the rabbit away. The giant happy bunny now frolics in the Vesve forest, and Pharin and Jayce plan to visit it eventually. Pharin was taken to a meeting hall to wait for the others to join him.

The rest of the group arrived much later that night, since they had to walk the five miles instead of riding a giant bunny, and were brought to the same meeting hall as Pharin. The guards at the gate were disappointed to see that they did not have another happy bunny in tow. Our heroes were met by one of Oryn's agents, a druid named Aerathema, who wanted to know why they were there. They explained that they were following the direction provided by the Fang, which had pointed south. They planned on stopping here to resupply and then they would be heading to Zeif, another coastal town that was a little further south. At Zeif the group planned to enact the rite again, to see which way the Fang wanted them to go; putting their backs to the coast while doing this could help them get a better handle on exactly where they needed to go. It was clear Aerathema wasn't happy the Bane was here, but that could be because of the stupid rabbit, and that she wanted them to leave as soon as possible. They were given lodging in her hall, and left to have a free evening. It was far too late to do any shopping, so Aurora, Skye, Dervish, and Jayce went drinking. Pharin decided to find the black market so he wouldn't have to wait to do his shopping.

 Once alone, Nanu confronted Pharin about her bites. While Pharin never admitted that he was the cause of them, he didn't outright deny it either; he used the typical drow double-talk. After confronting him, Nanu stopped being itchy the following morning; she had stayed awake all night and apparently the spell Pharin had been using only worked if someone was sleeping. (I was curious if he would resume the spell the next time she slept, if he did he could really screw with her head; make her think that sleep was the true cause of it and not a spell. I don't think the stupid horse is smart enough to figure out that the curse is only castable when someone is unconscious.)

After trying a smaller bar first, the group eventually ended up in a crowded, rowdy bar that was full of jovial fights. Dervish got into a few fights, and by the time Aurora and Skye got there, someone had made the mistake of hitting Jayce- sending him into rage. The drunk, raging barbarian was taking bets on if he could hit people with the unconscious imbecile who hit him and instigated this. After that round of bets was over, and Jayce was done hitting people with that guy, he threw the now-dead body across the room. The group tried to get him to leave, but he liked it there, punctuating that by punching out another guy so he could throw him.

Aurora decided to charm Jayce, which was easy enough to do since he isn't very smart, but even charmed he still didn't want to leave. (For the first time Jayce actually noticed me, but I couldn't take advantage of his while charmed, he can easily kill me. Besides, I wouldn't have actually succeeded in the challenge I had issued myself of getting Jayce in the sack if it was under coercion, that's just cheating and I only do that at cards.) Dervish convinced him that they needed to go back to the building they were lodging in because the guards there wanted to fight him. Unfortunately, there was a group of guards waiting right outside the doors that Jayce was expecting to fight. Aurora then had to make Jayce confused with another spell, while keeping him charmed, and that combined with her and Dervish's persuasive powers got Jayce back to his room. He passed out as soon as they got him to his room, and he didn't remember a thing in the morning.

While everyone else was drinking, Pharin found the Underdark bazaar, and a merchant who kept appearing where Pharin was. Lyathfikash, the drow merchant, had sold to Pharin in Blackmoor and Eru-Tovar, and now he was in Ekbir (this is too many locations to be coincidence). Pharin noticed while in the Underdark that there seemed to be a lot of empty houses, as if the people had left in a hurry. When he inquired about that, he was told that the drow thought the druids from the Vale were attacking, because of the giant bunny (shouldn't that mean that drow fear bunnies and Pharin shouldn't summon them?). After Pharin finished his shopping, he happened upon a group of looters, and decided to kill them and take their earnings for himself; they were weak and he dispatched of them quickly.

Among his prizes he found a bag of devouring. He, of course, had to test it out, so when he got to his room he summoned a monkey and put it in the bag. This ended up becoming a ridiculous struggle, the monkey was strong and really didn't want to be eaten; it screamed so loudly that it roused Dervish and Nanu and they went to investigate. It took much effort on Pharin's part to keep the monkey in the bag long enough for the bag to eat it. Dervish burst into Pharin's room in time to see the bag severing the hand the monkey had gotten out of the bag before being eaten (he was lucky it wasn't Skye, she may have attempted to kill him for that offense). Pharin mummified the hand with some new item he got, which also turned the monkey's blood into a diluted marble. Pharin kept the mummified hand for himself and gave Dervish the marble of blood.