Book 2, Chapter 3, Verse 9 - Travel Mimosas

Whoever came up with the name "Club Fun Times" clearly didn't understand the nomenclature of clubs. Our heroes find themselves stuck inside a prison of their own design. Are Darib's abs hard enough to meditate on from this far away? What will our heroes do with Neddy? Where is Bodil? We should find out the answer to that last question in the first couple of minutes right? Find out the answer to the rest of these questions in today's verse of Weal or Woe.

** SPOILER ALERT **

We left our heroes questioning Chief Gorfang where Bodil is and so Joey realises he has to respond to that question. We find out that Bodil came here to have the baby but fled to the safety of the Dragonspine mountains to the east. The baby is in some kind of no claimed land between good and evil, mixed between the Fey and the demon of Sabux blood and the orcish nature of Bodil and it could go either way. Sabux is concerned because they know that the Vez are headed in that direction. Sabux flies up to look around to see if anyone is coming and can't see anything.

Mona heads over to see if she can get the gate open and the orcs throw Neddy into the room they were in previously. Ani is still tinkering around with the towers lock and he pops it open, he comes across two guards who throw down their weapons and surrender to walk downstairs. He looks out over the courtyard and reaches out for the torches on the tower and throws them down. He's getting everyone to light fires. Mona is at the portcullis testing it to see if she can lift it. There's something wrong with the mechanism so it doesn't lift.

Sabi and Gorfang head into the room with Neddy. He says that he was just following orders from Stephanos, that he was to detain them until reinforcements arrived. Gorfang tells Sabi that it is for "The Annihilator" to decide if he's a good man or a bad man. Sabi allows him to leave with his life but must leave this place and travel with them and pull his weight. Ani also discovered that the gate is fucked from up on the wall and Neddy confirms that there is no other way out. Back together they chat about how they have between 3 and 7 hours before reinforcements turn up and no easy way out. Sabi rips his spine apart and a tail whips out to throw a spell at the wall. It rips a cube in the wall and everyone sits there and processes that for a second.

Provisions have been gathered and they decide to leave the prisoners tied up. They deceive Chandler to believe that if they say where they went, they'll explode. They march in a way to cover their tracks and Gorfang warns of the Frozen Flame, a creature attracted to vibrations that attacks from underground that has no weaknesses and cannot be destroyed. Sabi floats the idea of splitting apart with the three of them and Gorfang splitting into groups 15ft apart. Razormar speaks a bit of common, so is going with Mona as she doesn't speak orcish. They travel for a few hours and they start to get tired. In the middle of nowhere in the open, they decide to dig down in their groups to find some kind of shelter so they can rest. Mona digs the best dug out with her nat 20, and it's a sweet group shelter. Ani actually rolls a pretty sweet shelter too only Sabi left who nails it too. (Some percentile rolls happen and I'm sure that won't matter later.)

Mona and the Disaster Boys chat about what just happened and the fact that they really should be more suspicious. Sabux shares his concerns about Bodil and the visions around the baby. The crew regathers and supports each other at the end of a tough day. They have an idea about the Frozen Flame and attacking the Vez. They discuss making a vibration that could cause the creature to attack. Then they realise they have this sending stone that they could potentially manipulate somehow. James cracks it open with ease and they figure out how they're going to use it. Mona reminds everyone that the Vez know not to walk in formation. James questions it. (JULZ: They literally JUST covered that James. hahahaha where were you?) They decide to do this plan in the morning after setting a watch. Ani snuggles up with Nesi and speaks about this other goblin and whether they trust him as they go to sleep.

Sabi outlines the plan. They bury the sending stone with a timer set in it. The orcs groups walk over it and continue on. Then the discuss changing the plan. Decide to go back to the original plan. Ani opens it and sees how the wavelengths of the whisper works. He packs it with a snowball to slow the signal for 2 hours and an orc drills into the snow. Ani whispers into it "Come and Find Us." they cover it with snow and get a hustle on.

Sabi uses spells to keep the crew warm in these freezing temperatures of Rash Qiyah but leave Neddy to suffer. They trudge through the snow thinking deeply about things. Ani is annoyed at himself for not figuring out how to make the potions to keep them warm. Sabux is deeply worried about Bodil and thinks fondly of his own bed and better times at the Nine Hells. He hopes that he'll be back with Sunki listening to some spoons again soon. Mona is trying to keep warm in other ways, meditating on Darib's rock hard abs to give herself wet dreams at night. They keep going. It's hard work, running irregularly and everything looks the same. They're constantly fatigued from the constant cold and movement, day after monotonous day. Mona has run out of travel mimosas and everything is miserable. They're fighting off the feeling of getting nowhere and finally they start to see the mountains getting closer. Gorfang warns of being unfocused and tired and this is when the danger really kicks in. As he says this, Ani is paying no attention to anything and doesn't realise but he's been walking regularly for a while and the ground shakes because there is something coming.

ROLL INITIATIVE! Mona gets some orcs and animals off the field, steps forward and ready's an action. Sabi readies a flamestrike on where the shaking is coming from. Ani creates a thunderstone ready to throw when it comes out. And it does!. This colbolt blue scaled and horned serpentine creature with a red underbelly erupts from under the ground in a spray of ice, snow and rock. Mona strikes out with a critical hit and heat floods out of it. Sabi's spell triggers and the flames surround it, not doing as much damage as you'd expect. Ani hits it with sonic damage from the stone and it's back to the serpents turn. It tries to bite Mona and lashes with it's tail at Sabi and both miss. Mona feels the heat as it radiates off the creature and tries to hit it and manages to do it one time. Sabi floats rolling a disintegrate spell, Joey's not keen on it but manages to roll a save. The serpent takes a massive hit but it's still up. Ani rolls a cold damage spell and nothing happened. Ani is pretty shocked and rolls an arcana check to check on some stuff about it. We know that the serpent can breathe fire, swallow a man whole and thrash like crazy and that it's immune to fire and cold out of that. After that he throws an acid flask *Joey eats a HP* and tries again *Joey eats another tasty HP* and on the third time hits. The Frozen Flame strikes out to bite at Ani and hits but Mona calls out to him to "Wiggle" and he takes less damage and now has to roll to escape. He rolls it up *Joey eats a HP* and tries again *Joey eats ANOTHER HP* and this time nails it and gets to take a step. The Frozen Flame in a fit of frustration whooshes out a cube of flame and the mounts take some serious damage. Mona takes some more heat as she tries to swing, and gets it on only the second swing. Sabi cracks his spine open and whips a green orb out and casts a critical hit. He takes this Frozen Flame down to a frenzy of cheering from the orcs. (JULZ: didn't even seem hard. Undefeatable my ass. Give them something harder! ahaha)

We leave Mona and the Disaster Boys in celebration within sight of the Dragonspine Mountains and we'll have to find out what happens next on the next verse.

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