Having successfully recovered the schema, we confidently headed back up to Frellwit's waiting cart only to discover that he and the wolf pack had disappeared, along with Arad's undead horses and the trebuchet. Exiting the cave quickly revealed a possible explanation, though, as we were confronted by four four armed, four headed giant skeletons and their apparent cloaked master astride and undead looking dragon thing. Garos, as she called herself, demanded the schema we had just recovered but Aramel, speaking for all of us, quickly fireballed her and some of her minions while Arad's skeletons and i charged into melee range.
In hindsight, given that we did have two copies of the schema AND these giants had four of everything AND Garos was riding a dragon, we probably should have handed the schema over without resisting, but that simply isn't our style. Ultimately the battle proved to be completely one sided as the giant skeletons shrugged off all of our attacks without faltering. After one exchange with the skeletons I was on my last legs and was thinking it was high time for a tactical withdrawal when I realized that I would have to contend with the black tentacles and web spell that Aramel had just cast to hinder the skeletons' progress. As Tara and Arad pulled Kaellana's unconscious form to safety, I heard Aramel call out, "Sorry", as they headed deeper into the cave. A moment later a skeletal hand clove into my side and I crumpled as darkness took me, but not before I had the pleasure of experiencing the burning sensation as another of Aramel's fireballs was unleashed in my vicinity, killing me.
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I'm not sure how long I wandered, though I was later told it was three days, as my soul was set adrift on ephemeral currents once it was released from my body's grasp. What I experienced is impossible to describe, and even harder to remember as the memories fade from my mind. I do remember feeling a tugging at my core as I drifted that pulled me back from the nether, back to Eberron. When I first opened me eyes, things seemed slightly off, though I was relieved to see Kaellana looking down at me with Tara prowling in the background. As I stood, I realized that something was drastically wrong, as my eye level only came up to Kaellana's waist... WHICH MEANT I WAS ONLY TWO AND A HALF FEET TALL!!!
I had conflicting emotions while Kaellana explained that the rest of the group had escaped the Mournlands and after reaching Ruuqan Draal, she had reincarnated me. Which was why I now found my soul in the body of a deep halfling... Feeling the urge to celebrate my renewed life, despite its height challenges, I asked Kaellana if she wanted to help me out... though she declined most rudely. Leaving her in the dust, I went around knocking on doors, whilst completely naked I might add, until I found Aramel and Arad. Though they were initially surprised, once they realized it was me, Aramel gave me some boots and a cloak, and Arad gave me his halfling identification papers for one 'Alton Goodbarrel'. Learning that Worsa and her pack were hanging around outside of Ruuqan Draal, I quickly sped off, careful to keep my cloak shut so that I wouldn't cause too much excitement at my passage.
I reached Worsa and struggled to get her to recognize it was me, though my new form proved quite a difficulty. All i really wanted was to let her know not to eat people and stick to the wilds where she and her pack would be the safest.. (teardrop on page) And then she sped off to the north, saying something about seeking colder lands.
After that I returned to the inn the party was staying at after picking up a small greatspear and chain shirt. I had the delightful experience of learning that Garos had returned to my body, taken all of my magical or useful belongings and then cut off one of my original body's hands, so I was forced to resupply with the funds I had remaining, which she somehow missed. We soon sought out a message post and found that Lady Ellandre had left us word telling us to look for a ship at the docks that would return us to Sharn.
We found it quickly enough and the bugbear captain led us to the elven historian that owned the yacht. We learned that she and Lady E were colleagues and that our names had been passed on because we were supposed to be good at obtaining items, though the whole returning with them was another issue altogether. Apparently her estate in Sharn had recently been burglarized and a marble hand had been stolen with her defenses and magical traps all skillfully circumvented. The only clue she had was the body of one of the supposed thieves, a Raver from the Fallen district, a devastated slum that had been mostly destroyed when one of Sharn's floating towers randomly fell out of the sky a century ago and crushed it. We had already failed at our other task and figured that doing this was better than nothing, and agreed to look into the matter.
The days passed uneventfully though I did befriend a hobgoblin general who agreed to spar with me on the aft deck. I think he underestimated me because of my size, but I still retain most of my attributes and abilities from before I died and managed to knock him out with our practice swords. Oddly enough I never saw him again after that first night and when I asked anyone about his whereabouts they became upset, saying that they hated hobgoblins and that one would never be allowed on the ship.
We eventually reached the Fallen district and met our contact, a sister from a Chapel of the Silver Flame, and I tried to be as civil as possible considering that I frelling dislike those zealots, though she actually seemed to be fairly sane and nice for a believer. With her direction, we headed towards Raver territory where we were quickly ambushed in a narrow alley strewn with barricades. There were only about a half dozen raves, but their annoying tactic of trying to grapple us into submission quickly proved to be extremely effective. Arad was pulled into a three way while everyone else had to contend with their own partners. Thanks to my size, I had considerable difficulty, though Aramel managed to save the day by polymorphing into a huge multi-limbed creature that could eat the ravers one by one.
With the way this past week has gone for us, things do not look well.
-A.N.-
aka ~ Alton Goobarrel
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