Among the Mages

- Heading back to Barkridge's house, Sariel from the rear hears a noise and turns around to see a shimmering thing in the air about 8' above the ground and three human males fall out of it. They are wearing teal clothing and puffy pants. Two are wearing swords and one is wielding a long bow and he hangs back. (Think guards from Aladdin, but teal.) - Luca immediately maneuvers to the front of the group. - Neil calls out, "Can we help you gentlemen?" - They make a battle cry and run towards us. Battle Against Balloon Pants Men - Neil shoots Balloon Pants 2 with his long bow for 8 piercing dmg. - The Archer misses a shot at Sariel. Then he hits her for 9 piercing and 4 poison dmg. Then he hits her again for 6 piercing and 3 poison dmg. - BP2 moves adjacent to Sariel and slashes her for 9 slashing dmg. Then he slashes her for 30 dmg. Then he does it again for 16 slashing dmg. - Luca casts Bane on the enemies. (They all save.) :-) She then casts Compel Duel on BP1...

- Long time no see! - Luca, Sariel (as a Green Dragon), and Neil move the troll? corpses out of the halfling hive - Cornelius thinks they might be the same ones in the camp, but he isn't sure - In the process of moving the corpses, a small humanoid corpse falls out from between some of its fat rolls, and it has a coin pouch containing 200 GP (divided by 35 GP per person plus 25 GP for the group fund) - Zaril gets with Pell (elder) and asks if there's anything she can do to help with the dead that the group didn't manage to save - Once the trolls are taken care of, they move the halfling bodies to a place to be laid out respectfully for burial - They crash for the night, finally, inside another Hut with an Alarm spell set at the entrance to the hive - The next morning (late morning) after everyone has woken up and they're eating breakfast when Zaril gets a cold feeling up her spine like a feeling that she is being watched - Sariel casts Detect Good and Evil, bu...

- Dolphin inside a star wearing a cowboy hat! - The group awakes to a crash at the entrance to the halfling's hive - The roof starts to vibrate and debris starts to rained down. - The halflings immediately start to panic - There is a very large, fat, ugly, smelly creature banging on the roof at the entrance to the BATTLE OF THE HIVE - The halflings panic. - Neil Dashes as close to the entrance as he can and shoots the thing with his longbow for 10 piercing dmg - The halflings panic. - Zaril moves closer to the entrance and casts Vicious Mockery, but the creature is unaffected - More halflings panic. - Sariel moves closer to the Ugly Thing casts and then Conjure Woodland Being and a Darkling Elder appears - Acta casts Hex on the UT (Wis ST) and then misses shooting it with her bow - Neil orders Penny to protect the halflings so she moves forward grabs a halfling too close the the UT and then drags it backwards 10 ft - Luca dashes up to the UT - The halflings panic ...

- Wound care pro tips - Allergy shots did not go well. - The ukelele is back! - Arbitration, arbitration, arbitration, arbitration, arbitration. . . - Pockets!!! - The group leaves the village and quickly enters the uninhabited plains. The land is scrubby and open. - They travel for a few days. - Zaril says she was sent down from her sky city to look in on Barkridge. Specifically Barkridge. - Much discussion about Barkridge and his intentions. Mention of the ancient druidess of great power. Zaril couldn't get into the hidden, magical room under the stairs either. - During one of the rests Acta gets out her stolen book to examine in more closely. She studies the pattern of magic around the book, and thinks it needs an activation word to set the magic off, but she isn't sure what the effect of the magic would be when the activation. Could be teleportation or summoning or whatever else falls into the school of Conjuration magic. - Later that day the wind carries a foul ...

- Too many summer plans! - The red-headed woman tied to the wall behind the creeper dude seems to be naked and goat from the middle bit down. - Acta says "A room for rent?" - Sariel is all about getting the satyress out. She immediate moves that direction, but Thomas tries to block her. Penny easily tackles him. - As Sariel is beginning to saw through the ropes tying her to the iron rings in the wall with her scimitar, another woman shows up in the door behind us. - The new woman is very confused about the entire situation. - Thomas insists that the satyress ensorcelled his love away from him. The woman who just appeared in the door is apparently the object of his affections. She is named Megan. - Luca casts Zone of Truth on the room, Thomas and Luna pass the save, as does Zaril, but Megan doesn't. - Megan says Thomas has been infatuated for months, which she has been rejecting. She and Luna have been living together. Somehow he figured out Luna wasn't human ...

- Tiny ukelele! - Music theory lesson by Dan - Arson by Dan - Neil spends his few rest days in Barkridge's Library studying maps and naturey things. - Acta pokes around the manor and finds a couple of areas that are magicky. There's some Illusion magic and some Transmutation magic around in the rotunda at the entry to the house. - Zaril asks Barkridge about the group, he says he believe them to be trustworthy. - Sariel starts trying to cozy up to the bard to get to know her and feel her out. She turns into an owl and they enjoy a flight over the town. - After a couple of days, Barkridge has a Proper Dinner for the group to discuss their willingness to travel to the giant in the southern mountains. - They agree to the trip. The conditions: At least the 2400 GP in pay again, and expenses paid. - Barkridge mentions that he has no aptitude for magic, and Zaril definitely gets the feeling that he's not being truthful about his abilities or his interest level. - Barkri...

- Yay for friends with laptops you can borrow! - Barge wreck in Houston - Antonia's first time! - Neil consults with Luca (the paladin of Paladine, God of Justice) about whether or not he should use the bow - She comforts him that it is only a tool and as long as he doesn't use it to do evil or it doesn't have magic that compels him to do evil, there's no reason he shouldn't use it. - Acta Detects Magic on the circle and says it's old Conjuration magic - Neil and Luca step into the circle in the middle of the armory - the runes around the edge slowly begin to glow that then flashes outward and up - Acta feels a wave of magic with her active spell - Luca then steps out of the circle with no problem - Everyone shrugs and heads to the exit - Just a few steps from the entrance, the group hears someone call out "Who dares disturb my home?" - They turn around and standing there is a humanoid creature that looks like a man, but a man made of vines ...