Brief Recap: Last turn the party fought with the panther who was Bibi...

The Beast Subdued

Humphrey's strength spell goes off and Bronk is infused with strength far beyond that of a normal human, greater even than the strength from his magical belt. He punches the cat repeatedly, trying to knock it unconscious, while Bardock does the same on the cat's hind quarters. [I am keeping track of the panther's hit points. She is not near death yet.]

Pocketing Bibi's amulet, Ghotu whips the his magic net from his shoulder where he wears it, tightly twisted. It unfurls automatically and is ready for use in an instant. The panther escapes from beneath Bardock and Bronk, the cat rending Bronk badly [Bronk takes 16 damage, down to 83/112]].

Just as the panther struggles free of the Rashemen, Ghotu flings his net at the cat, holding onto the fine silver chain. The panther tries to dodge, but is captured, the magic net tightly wrapping around her. She screams in fury, struggling against the mesh, trying to tear it with her claws without success. Enraged, the great cat tries to stand. Bronk and Bardock fall on her again, this time with much more safety. The panther cannot bring its claws or teeth to bear against her captors. They lay atop her as they did before, pinning her to the ground under their combined weight. Even bound as she is, the fighters have a hard time holding her down.

Mog climbs down from his horse and says, "What do we do with her?" None of the party knows how long she will stay in panther form. They also know that they cannot stay where they are, for enemies are about, as shown by the fact that they were just ambushed. The human fighters are still unconscious.

Blade will use the hilt of his silver dagger(which is also made of silver) to thump Bibi-Cat into unconsciusness by striking her in the head. If thgis seems not to be having any more effect tahn a regular dagger hilt would have, he will stop and suggest tying a noose arounfdher neck to cut off her air supply, causing her to go unconscious temporarily.

The party begins to shiver, the sweat from their exertion chilling them in the winter air. The temperature has dropped considerably in the last two days, and winter is fully upon the Northern Kingdom. No snow falls at the moment, but the sky is dark gray, threatening a storm.

"Quickly, gather her up and put her over this horse," Humphrey says, pointing to a horse. "Mog, can you cast a sleep spell on her, to knock her out. Do you have such magic?"

Mog answers, "No, Mog does not have such magic. But Mog can try to communicate with her." Mog casts a spell briefly and moves to stand next to where the panther that was Bibi lies bound on the ground, still struggling. After a few moments Mog says, "She is not a normal animal. Mog can feel the human girl within, but she is suppressed. And the beast is mad. It will not be calmed." As if to attest to this, the panther renews its struggles, adding a caterwaul that carries loudly across the morning air.

Humphrey continues: "We must be away from here. Bardock, put some salve on one of these guards--the biggest. We will take him with us. We cannot save them all. Load him up after doing so. Ghotu, you must kill the others. We cannot allow the Githyanki to know of our presence. I am sorry." Humphrey looks at Ghotu, hoping he will understand the gravity of the situation.

Ghotu looks back at the old mage in disbelief.

Humphrey continues, "Blade, gather the supplies from this downed horse. Judging from the sky, we are going to need them. We must be away from here, before we are discovered. No doubt this patrol will be missed soon, and our child here is making much noise." Humphrey prepares to cast Invisibility 10' radius on the party, as well, though he surveys the surrounding situation before doing so. [ and does not cast it until he gets a description of what he sees].

"Gather them yourself old man, I don't take orders from anyone. Least of all you. Let's not forget that you'd still be a mindless shit stained vegetable if not for me."

Ghotu asks Bardock, "Bardock, you have enough salve for a year, do you not?" Bardock nods in agreement, already removing the small jar of ointment from his pack. Ghotu continues. "Then we will put it on all of them. Better that they should die with us in service to the Kingdom than...this." He glares at Humphrey, daring the mage to challenge his decision. "When we once again make our way south, to the mages guild, we will get more salve from Oorialith." Ghotu does not wait for Humphrey's response before he and Bardock begin administering salve to all the human fighters. Bronk helps them, holding down those fighters who are still in condition to refuse.

"Very well Ghotu, but they are your burden." Humphrey says, returning Ghotu's scowl. Flames can bee seen dancing in his eyes as the magic swells within him, threatening to unleash. Sweeping his hands in front of himself in a wide arc, Humphrey says "do not any of you recognize the gravity of our situation? The world is overrun! Overrun! If we fail at this quest, then not only do these men die, but so to do their families, your families, your wives, your children alive and that have not yet been born, even those you know nothing about"--looking at Blade. Have you considered that a party of twelve, six with litle power, will draw more attention. Have you considered the King's edict name each of us, NOT these men. And, tell me, Noblemen... do we share the cream with the next six we run across too? What about the six after that, or after that? Perhaps we can field and army of men, though they will last but a day, as there are certainly limits to how far the ointment will stretch.

Each of you looks at me and sees evil. I see children who lack vision. It saddens me to think that innocents must die in the service to this quest. That I might bear the sword that smites them. I justify it with thinking that a preserve those peoples line and the race of man. Each burden we add only puts us further from our goal, not closer.

Slumping down as if the weight of the world rests upon his shoulders, Humphrey suddenly looked venerable and weak to the party. Quietly he whispers, the others barely able to hear "We are doomed."

Ghotu says, "I am sorry we appear as children to you, old man. Mayhap I haven't learned to sell life so cheap as they do where you come from. And with Crom's blessing, I never will."

[How far are we from our destination? Is it night? What are we near? I know, I know, I could go back and check out the other posts, but I don't have time. Must go to bed.]

[DM ANSWER: We just left Heklamar, we are still in sight of the city walls. We escaped the way we came in--a mountain pass. Now we are a few miles outside the city in rocky, slightly hilly, slightly wooded terrain. We are not in a forest, though there are trees about. It is early morning, and the sun is just rising (behind us). We are many days journey from our destination, which is an island off the coast, west of us. We have papers from the King which order any vessel within the Kingdom to take us wherever we wish without question. But we must reach a town first, and the one we are headed to is still many days journey away. The Githyanki army is before the city, but we are obviously near enough to encounter patrols and guards.]

* * *

Later...

...Egmund sits in his tower, watching the githyanki through his crystal ball. Heklamar is completely overrun now, and the Dark Queen has installed one of her Generals to be lord of the Northern Kingdom. King Ozrik fled the city with many of his men, though they now trek through the mountains east of Heklamar, a dangerous land with little to subsist on.

Egmund directs his vision north, to Snurre's mountain--or what once was Snurre's mountain. Now it is a Githyanki stronghold housing thousands of gith. And still they pour through the rifts there, night and day. More rifts are under construction, one of them very large. Egmund rubs his eyes. He feels the world is doomed. The Githyanki will reach the Southern Cities and Galay in probably a month. Then those cities too will fall.

But Egmund has made preparations. He has perfected a spell allowing him to shrink his Time Machine so that he can travel with it. It is the only hope for the Wurld. But the device will not allow him to send anyone through time without a very potent power source--the Obsidian Stone. Egmund hopes that the adventurers are able to find it, hidden deep within an ancient tomb, the object of their current quest. Once the Stone is incorporated with the Time Machine, Egmund will be able to send the adventurers back in time, to change the course of events. He doesn't know what will happen to the adventurers after that. The Time Machine only creates a temporary "bubble" in time, allowing those within to move freely through time. But the bubble is not permanent. And Egmund does not know what will happen to those within once the bubble dissipates. They may have only a short while to complete their mission back in time.

_______

[OK, please post your plan for (1) taking care of Bibi/pantherchick, (2) taking care of the human fighters who attacked the party. We discovered they have tattoos similar to Bardock.]

Posting Instructions:Please post two rounds of combat. Everyone rolls initiative separately for this combat, so you may want to state your intent as "if...then..." statements.

Humphrey is 15 feet in the air above his horse. The red "X"s are the brigands we subdued.

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