(... continued from above)

After arriving near the village and quickly conferring with his plotting companions, Aylar agrees that if the Crew encircle the Grung from both directions, their chances will be better. Taking out his Locket, he looks into the mirror, seeing the walkway directly S of the red tent, just E of the single hut there. (roll dice) Aylar lands just as Queen Origi's smoke bomb goes off, distracting the Grung in the altar area. He takes the flask out of his coat pocket and uses himself and his bright red hair as a visual reference for Kyp, just as the Queen's magic missile and second smoke bomb goes off, drawing all eyes to the Chief's platform. Moments later the albatross glides in and Argy's cupcake blows the platform apart.

(roll dice) Gilius quietly follows Count Karnstein, blending into the foliage with his druidic senses. He stands near the main entrance, not far from the Count. (roll dice) As Queen Origi's first smoke bomb goes off and the guards turn to look, Gilius uses his Staff to command the vines nearby to entangle the three guards. (roll dice) The vines overwhelm the two machete Grung, pulling them down and constricting their throats, while the spear Grung is pulled off his feet. (roll dice) Turning up his Lantern and holding it in one hand, Gilius charges in with his Staff to cudgel them.

(roll dice) Count Karnstein swiftly takes the advantage to behead the entangled Spear Grung with a swift strike, then immediately runs down the walkway (roll dice) while the monkeys bombard the two Grung in the pond, hooting loudly while keeping their attention and preventing the Grung from exiting it. (roll dice) Up ahead the Count sees another Grung emerge from the hut to the west (left side) of the walkway and leap towards him, (roll dice) but the Count is not merely moving now, but dancing around the two near awestruck frogmen (one by the east side hut - right side of walkway), who surely never saw anything like it, while dealing wide and deadly slashes aimed at limbs and torsos. (roll dice) The Grung who leaps in finds himself landing without legs, (roll dice) while the other Grung becomes frozen in a bemused stance as Frostbite freezes his heart and blood. (roll dice) Count Karnstein is still by that hut when Argy's cupcake hits and the Chief's platform explodes. (roll dice) The hut luckily protects him from the shrapnel.

Pugwash is surprised when everything seems to turn to chaos. There is smoke covering two areas, but luckily a stun bolt doesn't need a sharpshooter's aim. (roll dice) Even though Pugwash knows Argy's cupcake has hit, he shoots a stun bolt into the smoke covering the Chief's group (1d4 = 4 turns vs Resist), hoping to stun any Grung that may still be a threat. He then begins to rapidly reload the crossbow with a second stun bolt bomb, intending to shoot it at the meal group by the red tent if Kyp and the others have not teleported in by then.

(roll dice) Taking firm hold on Bellandra and Grog'tial, Kyp sights on Aylar and the flask and teleports successfully. Once there he releases his hold and draws his rapier, ready to defend them as they prepare to stun their targets.

Orienting herself as quickly as possible, Bellandra sights her hand crossbow on the meal area, aiming for the middle of the gathering of Grung there, who are now looking away at the smoke enshrouded chief's platform and falling wood. (roll dice) Before the first of them can fully react, Bellandra shoots. (roll dice) The stun bolt hits and goes off, stunning 7 of the Grung (1d4 = 4 turns vs Resist). (roll dice) The machete wielding Grung closest to Bellandra spins around and starts leaping towards them. Drawing her cutlass, Bellandra moves to meet it.

Once Kyp and the others arrive, Aylar swiftly bounds over the woody walkway to the little pier to try to engage the spear fighter while it's still distracted by the commotion. He tries to be mindful of the blowdarter nearby while taking down his target. (roll dice) Aylar's cutlass cuts straight through the the grung's back, severing the shoulder and head from the rest of the body. (roll dice) The blowpipe grung had been blowfishing for snakes when the smoke bomb went off. He is running for the walkway intersection when he realizes where the danger is. As he brings up his pipe, Aylar rushs him while trying to avoid running or lingering right in front of the hut opening. (roll dice) Aylar jerks his head to one side, hearing the whispered whoosh as the dart barely misses his ear. (roll dice) Kicking the grung's legs out from under him, Aylar swiftly downstrokes, cutting it in two. (roll dice) Inside, Aylar hears the beginnings of a high-pitched vibrating chant.

As Kyp releases him, Grog'tial sees Bellandra already turning to shoot at the meal area as planned. There is smoke covering the chief's platform and wooden shrapnel falling around it. Good, thinks Grog'tial, one down, and his compliments to Argy's cupcake. He turns to his own target, the altar platform, and invokes several Dwarven curses under his breath as he sees the smoke there obscuring his shot. (roll dice) As he pauses to recalculate his shot, the spear guard steps out of the smoke to stand in front of the sorceress' door and the blowpipe Grung leaps from the smoke to the front of the altar. (roll dice) Grog'tial doesn't hesitate, he fires. The stun bolt goes off, stunning all three Grung (1d4 = 2 turns vs Resist). Grog'tial draws his dirk and rushs to kill the stunned Grung at the altar before they come out of it, urging Kyp to do the same and help Bellandra.

(roll dice) Just then another spear wielding Grung comes from the swamp water behind them and rushes to meet Kyp's rapier. While another with a blowgun appears from the furthest SE hut near Bellandra.

Listening to the music box, Mighty, Bone, Shorty and Captain Baldbeard make their way down to the village entrance. The 3 guards are dead, but Bone suddenly bats a coconut right into the head of the machete wielding Grung coming from behind a tree at the edge of the swamp just inside the entrance, stunning it. (roll dice) Mighty quickly cracks it's skull, then proceeds to charge toward the Grung being pinned down by the monkeys, followed by Shorty. The score, according to Shorty, is Mighty's Monkeys 1, with 2 pinned down, and Grung 0. ;)

Captain Baldbeard applies the fire oil to his weapon (4 turns) and makes his way towards the smoke enshrouded chief's platform. Unable to see through the dense smoke, he has no idea what he might find.

(roll dice) Seeing that Bellandra and Grog'tial have managed to stun the others, Pugwash switches his bolt in mid-reload to a standard one. (roll dice) Now he takes aim at the Grung with the blowgun who had come out of the hut near Bellandra. (roll dice) The shot hits, sending the Grung off into the bushes, but only wounding it. He begins to reload for the next round.

Durik had stayed aboard the Ship, having become suddenly ill from the aftereffects of the poison. Polly wasn't sure what it was, or why it was reacting that way with him, but now the Crew had another very good reason to want this mission completed well, as it looked like Durik would need the promised new healer to help him.

-----
Your current inventory can be found in Post 2 (loaner books are read and returned)

Argy = Ledge above village, 1 cupcakes left
Aylar = S of sorceress' hut
Bellandra = Southern E-W walkway, S of red tent, heading to meal area
Captain Baldbeard = Making his way to the Chief's platform
Count Karnstein = Main walkway behind hut next to Chief's platform.
Durik = aboard Ship, ill aftereffects of the poison.
Gilius = Entrance walkway near 1st intersection
Grog'tial = Southern E-W walkway, heading to altar area
Kyp = Southern E-W walkway, S of red tent, being rushed by spear Grung from S swamp
Mighty = charging to the Grung soaking pond
Pugwash = Ledge above village,
Queen Origi = ? Chief's Platform
Albatross = ? Chief's Platform

Grog'tial continues rushing toward the group of stunned enemies at the altar platform to kill them swiftly and efficiently with his dirk. He'll be careful when killing the first, to minimize danger from their poison, but once he's learned how to kill stunned Grung without risk to himself, he'll take care of the others as swiftly as possible.

If there are unstunned enemies targetting Grog'tial (e.g. any Grung suddenly appearing from the smoke cloud), they take priority, but if they're engaged with someone else, he'll ignore them. He'll also trust Bellandra and Kyp to guard his back (but his paranoia does mean that he'll glance in that direction every so often to make certain).

Once the three stunned enemies are killed, and assuming he's not actively engaging anyone else, he'll take a look at the altar / the sorceress' hut in his handmirror, specifically looking for traps, but not ignoring anything else special which shows up. If he doesn't spot any traps at the altar, he'll grab the idol, as well as anything else he thinks might be useful.

He assumes that Aylar will engage the sorceress, and has seen enough of Aylar's fighting prowess that he trusts him to do alright with that. However, if he hears any sign of trouble, he'll step toward the sorceress hut and will blow his shell, intending to mesmerize the sorceress as well as any other Grung within range (opening the door, or moving slightly south if he feels it necessary to make certain the sound will penetrate toward the sorceress). If after blowing his shell he still has reason to believe Aylar can't kill the sorceress, Grog'tial will observe what caused this, take appropriate measures to prevent a similar fate to himself, and will engage her himself.

If he observes any cluster of 2 or more unstunned grung within range of his crossbow - and if he's not busy doing any of the above things - he shoots them with a stun bolt (assuming he can do so without risking any crew mates).

If Aylar is doing fine with the sorceress, but at any point during the mission he judges himself in immediate danger of any enemy within 6m of himself (e.g. darts being blown / spears being thrown at him), he'll blow his shell, and then treat all mesmerized enemies as highest priority stunned targets.

For all actions engaging enemies, where all other considerations are equal, Grog'tial's priority is blowpipe-wielder first, then spear-wielder, with machete-wielder last.

Kyp seeing the approaching Grung puts himself in a defensive position ready to defend and kill against the oncoming attack.

Kyp while waiting for the enemy to approach uses his senses to feel for any nearby marine life that may be in the waters.
Kyp has great luck senses an old pal, the snapping turtle. (according to GM)
Kyp calls out to his friend to help assist in the fights against the enemies and requests that the turtle comes and helps the fight against the Grungs.

Bellandra rushed towards the machete-wielding grung between her and the meal area, slashing at it quickly with her cutlass or firing a regular bolt at it from her hand crossbow, whichever is quicker to do. She planned to get past that grung as quickly as possible in order to get to the seven stunned grung in the meal area, and in there, since they are all close together, she would slice their necks in a single continuous motion of her cutlass while running past them. If for any reason that failed she would turn and slice again, still aiming to dispatch the stunned grung as quickly as possible.

If she heard the whistle of a blowpipe dart being fired at her from the wounded grung that landed in bushes, she would quickly dodge it while continuing her movement.

If she were to see the smoke clear from the chief's hut area and the grung there were not stunned, she would fire a stun bolt towards them.

During her run over the meal area Bellandra might have clear line of sight to the sorceress (while Bellandra is south of the altar and the altar-area smoke cloud). If the sorceress seems to be chanting at the expected phase, and particularly if Aylar is engaging her, Bellandra would not change her plan. However, as before, if she saw the sorceress casting a spell faster than expected, and the sorceress was in range of her sextant, or if she saw the chief activate any magic device or if any dread foe appeared, Bellandra planned to use her sextant to freeze that foe. However, she would only do so if the danger was great, otherwise she would spare the sextant to use it to buy time near the end of the sorceress's spell.

Captain Baldbeard is aware that just as he cannot see anyone, others cannot see him either. He beckons any followers to stay put for a moment, until they hear the first frogger squeal, and uses his keen other senses to avoid stepping off the platform, avoid the other froggers, and simply walk up to the most important smelling frogger (likely the chief) and cudgel him in his strongest smelling (probably barest) area. If time and opportunity permits, he would make his cudgel sing and dance on the flesh of the other froggers, avoiding their possible blind blows as best he can, making use of the two stakes he still carries if he sees some advantage in doing so, and then if thing seem dire, calling upon his spectral friends.

When/if his mini-encounter is resolved, he will step out of the chief's area, and see which other group of froggers would best benefit from a good spectral sharking: the blowpipers, the separate group to the east, or those around the sorceress's hut and altar. He also realises he still has some holy water, and has a mind to see if it does anything to the sorceress, so he would make his way there.

Aylar gauges the distance between the walkway he's on and the opening in the sorceress' hut, then throws his Garlic Grenade in - he be hoping it might distract her, giving him a chance to attack, and maybe even break her concentration on the chant (he be listening for that). If he be confident he can take the leap and vault in through the opening without any problems, using the explosion as a cover for himself, he'll do so; if he be not sure and suspects there might be complications, he'll take the hut door route, dashing past the stunned guards and maybe taking an easy kill along the way.

Once successfully inside the hut, he will engage the sorceress, considering her a priority target until her death; he'll defend from any grung reinforcements, if there happen to be any, and accommodate any Crew that join him in the assault.

If the luck and time turn out to be on their side and the sorceress dies especially quickly, he be wasting no time checking her possessions and her dwelling for anything that might be useful or suspicious; anything he might consider cursed or otherwise dangerous / not worth taking or bothering with will be avoided. That done, he will dash out of the hut to rejoin the rest in the general frog-killing, prioritizing any stunned targets first.

There's not much else to do there on the ledge for her, so Argy heads to the village entrance, to see if she can do anything to help her mateys clearing the way out of the village. She will try to sneak to attack lonely grungs, or flank them if they are already engaged with other crewmates. However, if she has time to get nearer the center of the village, she might use her remaining cupcake against the band of grungs near the SE part if they are in range.

Gilius swallows his potion of poison resistance and positions himself at the intersection between the N-S-E walkways (just slightly south of where Karnstein was) so that he can watch both the chief's area east, and the sorceress hut south. As soon as the smoke dissipates, if he sees 3 or more enemies still alive and dangerous, he will call again for roots and vines to grab and strangle them, prioritizing the chief (or even the witch should her appear ?). If there are less than 3 enemies remaining, he will rush and cudgel them.
Once there are no enemies left, if he can spot Origi and / or her albatross in the area and if she and / or he is still in one piece, he will rush to her / him and check their status.

Pugwash notes that only Bellandra is approaching the stunned meal tent grung and considers evening the odds, but is ultimately satisfied by how stunned the grung look. Pugwash trusts that Bellandra will be able to dispatch them before the stun wears off.


If Pugwash can see the wounded blowgunner, Pugwash will shoot it again, hoping to actually kill it this time. If he takes the shot, Pugwash will rapidly reload.

Surveying the scene, Pugwash notes that the ground assault party seem to be rushing past the two grung between them and the chief's hut. Unless he sees the Mighty and friends attack the grung, Pugwash will fire two shots at those northernmost grung, rapidly reloading after each shot.

Should Pugwash have failed to shoot those earlier targets, pugwash will shoot the westernmost machete holder. It is the furthest grung so Pugwash is concerned that ground party may not have time to kill it should the grung flee before them.

Mighty

Mighty is trying to move within the radius of Captain Baldbeard’s music box. He is also urging cannibals to do the same.

As they approach to the clouded area - waiting for Captain Baldbeard to take scent of frog people - he will ask cannibals to attack from distance two machete wielders in the pond on their left. He does not want to enter the pond, but if they will approach them he is ready to crack few skulls.

If monkeys returned and are near, he will ask Monkey to tell them to distract Grung from the roof of chieftains hut once they will see them.

Mighty will follow Captain Baldbeard in defense stance, once he will be able to see enemies in the cloud hw ill attack the nearest one and will ask Bone, Shorty to do the same.

Mission 3, Grung Village Turn 3
*CurrentTurn will end 3AM UTC, 02 November*

Deadly Dance

Grog'tial continues rushing toward the group of stunned enemies at the altar platform, planning to kill them swiftly and efficiently with his dirk. (roll dice) As he comes onto the altar platform he notices the air seems thicker, smells earthier, the scents of deep earthen tunnels remind him of home. (roll dice+Luck card) The dirk in his hand suddenly tingles, as if alerting his nerves and the black pearl begins to slightly glow. (roll dice) Grog'tial shakes off the disturbing images and realizes the smoke and stun bombs have disturbed the ground and thousands of spores are now floating in the air around the platform. He goes to kill the stunned blowdarter grung as quickly and efficiently as possible, but also being wary of their poison. (roll dice) He sees the slimy skin and realizes the dirk may not be the right weapon, his blade and hand will most likely get slimed. (roll dice) Grog'tial reassesses quickly and grabbing the sharp leaf-headed spear from the next stunned Grung, uses it to slice open that Grung's throat and the one next to it before turning and stabbing the spear through the heart of the blowdarter. Before he even touches that altar, Grog'tial uses his mirror to look at it, not trusting the possiblility of magical or other traps. (roll dice) He hears an echo of the sorceress' chant and through the mirror he sees a darkness vibrating in rhythm with the chant. The entire base of the altar glows a dark blood red and the bones of various creatures there are slowly being drawn together, as if trying to assemble some horrific doll. Only the Monkey idol looks in any way normal. (roll dice) He swiftly looks away from the mirror and grabs the idol. Nightmares of spiders are quite enough, he doesn't need some weird voodoo doll added to them!

(roll dice) Aylar gauges the distance between the walkway and the opening in the sorceress' hut, then throws his Garlic Grenade in, hoping it might distract her, giving him a chance to attack, and maybe even break her concentration on the chant (roll dice) Instead the chanting goes on as two machete Grung emerge, intent on Aylar's threat. They leap to immediately flank Aylar on each side of the walkway. (roll dice+Luck card) Remembering a new move from the swordfighting technique book, Aylar spins, flaring the tail of his longcoat to slap one Grung in the face with it while using the momentum and his natural agility and swiftness to parry and leap behind the other Grung, (roll dice) then beheading it. (roll dice) The other machete Grung wipes his blade on his chest, sliming it, and leaps to charge Aylar, swinging the blade viciously. (roll dice+Luck card). Aylar parries again, then barely dodges a wild slice which rips into his ascot. (roll dice) Ruthlessly taking advantage of the opening the aggressive wild swing has left him, Aylar lunges and quite literally cuts the Grung in two, then carefully shakes the excess slime from his blade. The sorceress' chanting continues.

The sudden explosion nearby abruptly knocks Count Karnstein off stride. "Now that's a proper party! Bring 'em on!" he shouts excitedly, feeling like one of his (real or imaginary?) forefathers. He sees smoke both on his left and ahead. Seeing the crew mates behind him concentrating on the chieftain's platform, and knowing (or thinking) he's faster than most of them, the Count decides to ignore it and run straight ahead. (roll dice) From the sorceress' hut comes the sound and rather distinctive scent of a Garlic Grenade going off. Two machete Grung suddenly appear at the N opening, and lock on him as a threat. Another machete Grung is on the walkway directly to his right. As it becomes obvious the three are preparing to surround and flank him, Count Karnstein enters the smoke. (roll dice) The scent of smoke invokes more memories (real or imagined?), the smoke of battles, the game of shadows, the scent of earth, the centuries of acquaintances (real or imagined?), the lineage of his blood .... (roll dice) The Count comes out of the smoke near Grog'tial, who grabs the idol and quickly spins in a defensive posture while backing away from the altar. (roll dice) Count Karnstein shakes his head, realizing he forgot to turn. Now is not the time for memories, it is the time to act!

(roll dice) Taking a swift glance at the altar he quickly ascertains what has disturbed Grog'tial. (roll dice) The threat of the voodoo rising clears his head and the Count spins to confront the first of the machete Grung as it charges from the edge of the smoke, (roll dice) but he cannot see the others. (roll dice) Stepping into the charge, still a bit high on the memories of the past, Count Karnstein dodges and engages, keeping the Grung off Grog'tial. (roll dice) The Grung leaps high, seeking to come down on the Count's off hand. (roll dice) Once again the Count dodges, then presses the attack, (roll dice) striking off the Grung's own limb. (roll dice) He is about to finish it when a second Grung emerges from the smoke, slashing with fury. (roll dice) Once again inspired by the book, the Count enters the deadly dance of parry and strike. (roll dice) Slice a limb, block and spin, step forward - a thrust to the heart, one dead, and whirl away. Stepping in and out of the edge of the smoke Count Karnstein keeps the Grung's attention on him, not what may be happening in the sorceress' hut where he hopes the grenade means Aylar is attacking. (roll dice) A final step and fourish and he satisfyingly beheads the second Grung ... only to see the limb from the first slowly begin to crawl towards its dead owner.

Grog'tial spins, holding the spear defensively as Count Karnstein suddenly appears soundlessy from the smoke, his eyes looking dazed. The Count focuses briefly on Grog'tial, then shakes his head, his eyes clearing. After a quick glance over the altar, Count Karnstein engages two machete Grung who also appear from the smoke. (roll dice) Grog'tial starts to breathe a slight sigh of relief then stops himself. The remembered look in Count Karnstein's eyes impresses upon him the time and the danger of the spores being disturbed and kicked up even more into the air by their actions. Grog'tial then smells the distinctive scent of the Garlic Grenade coming from the sorceress' hut. but the chanting continues.

(roll dice) Mighty is trying to move within the radius of Captain Baldbeard’s music box, and urges the cannibals to do the same. One of the monkeys returns to Monkey for orders. Mighty asks Monkey to tell them to distract Grung from the roof of chieftains hut, (roll dice) but the monkeys are running out of coconuts and cannot keep the two Grung in the pond pinned down much longer. (roll dice) Mighty then asks the cannibals to attack from a distance the two machete wielders in the pond and continues to follow Captain Baldbeard closely while also trying to keep an eye on the pond Grung.

(roll dice) Kyp assumes a defensive position, then while awaiting the approach of the enemy, Kyp uses his mer-senses, picking up the faint feeling of an old friendship. Deep within the swampy waters he recognises the thought patterns of a snapping turtle, the only one of his turtle allies which could withstand the toxins of these waters ... and are notorious frog eaters. (roll dice) Kyp quickly sends a out a call for assistance and from deep in the muddy waters the snapping turtle begins to rise to Kyp's call. (roll dice) The spear Grung leaps to the attack just as Kyp comes out of the slight trance. (roll dice) Kyp's rapier parries the spear thrust barely in time. (roll dice) He is driven backwards a few steps, but continues to defend Bellandra's back, looking for an opening past the thrusting spear. (roll dice) Finally seeing one, Kyp knocks the spear to one side and steps in with a thrust to the Grung's throat, twisting his blade savagely before withdrawing it. (roll dice) Kyp turns and sees the blowgun Grung sighting on him. (roll dice) Using his rapier to bat away a dart, he rushes to press the advantage against the wounded blowdarter. Kyp slashes through both the blowgun and the Grung's throat. (roll dice) Feeling a slight sting, Kyp looks down to see the dart in the Grung's other hand, and the few drops of blood on his pants. Too late he realizes that he never took his poison resistance potion before the fight. (roll vs Resist, Kyp now has 6 turns to be cured of poison.)

(Continued below ...)

(... continued from above.)

(roll dice) Pugwash notes that only Bellandra is approaching the stunned meal tent Grung and considers evening the odds, but is ultimately satisfied by how stunned the Grung look. (roll dice) Surveying the scene, he notes the blowgunner has aggravatingly disappeared into the bushes for the moment, while the the ground assault party seem to be rushing past the two grung between them and the chief's hut. (roll dice) Pugwash is about to shoot one of the Grung in the pond when a movement catches his eye. Count Karnstein has just finished off the second machete Grung, but nobody seems to have noticed the westernmost machete holder now using the other side of the smoke screen to sneak up on the Count. (roll dice) Pugwash's shot pierces the Grung straight through the heart. It is dead before it has a chance to drop. Pugwash is already reloading, as his attention is drawn by a disturbance in the water beyond the sorceress' hut. From his vantage point Pugwash can see the deeper waters of the swamp are beginning to bubble in several places in an encircling wave slowly drawing inwards toward the Crew below.

(roll dice) Captain Baldbeard is aware that just as he cannot see anyone, the enemy cannot see him either. He motions for the others to stay put for a moment and uses his keen other senses as he carefully approaches the platform. (roll dice) The scent of the spores here is exceedingly strong and he realizes that thousands must be saturating the air having been blown there by the force missile, smoke bomb and Argy's cupcake. (roll dice) The overlapping scents of blood, gore and death, mushrooms, dirt and spores, stun powder, explosives and smoke and an underlying bitter tang that must be the poison secreted by the Grung confuse everything, and the facial covering and fungicide just complicates it more. (roll dice) To get a true trace he would have to forego the mask, or risk breathing too deep. A slight squelchy sound from diagonally ahead to his left has him spinning towards an area where the scent of blood is lighter, but living. (roll dice) Captain Baldbeard brings up his cudgel just as a leaf spear head comes out of the smoke and flashes by his face. (roll dice) The butt of the spear comes around and thumps him soundly in the gut. (roll dice) Grunting, Baldbeard knocks aside another spear thrust and starts to step forward (roll dice) only to realize the platform is no longer there.

(roll dice) Mighty has been following Captain Baldbeard and pauses as the dwarf motions for him to wait as the other cautiously stops at the edge of the smoke searching for something. Mighty sees the spear head barely miss Captain Baldbeard, then the butt of the spear striking him. To the right of the Captain and straight ahead, Mighty sees a shadow in the smoke. (roll dice) Mighty charges in, stumbling as the edge of the platform disappears beneath him (roll dice) but that does not stop Mighty the Mighty Companion of the son of the great Three-headed Monkey god.™ Mighty knocks away the machete and crushes an already damaged leg before he realizes the Grung before him is standing stunned. Mighty brings his Mighty cudgel around and staves in the Grung's ribs, (roll dice) then crushes its skull for good measure. (roll dice) He turns to help Captain Baldbeard and finds himself striding through feathers as another stunned Grung appears ahead. This Grung is missing half its arm, and bleeding badly. (roll dice) Mighty brings his cudgel down on top of the Grung's skull, driving it into the shredded mushroom and blood soaked dirt.

With Mighty disturbing the dirt and mushroom spores even more near him, Captain Baldbeard sincerely hopes the music box works. (roll dice) His sense of scent badly blunted, he tries to use his ears and years of battle experience to avoid the spear thrusts as best he can. (roll dice) Finally the Grung spearman limps slightly out of the smoke and Captain Balbeard can finally let his cudgel sing and dance on the flesh of the frogger. (roll dice) He blocks another blow by breaking the spear, and then repays the gut blow with one of his own. The Grung actually spits at him, right before Captain Baldbeard cudgels its head from its shoulders.

(roll dice) Gilius swallows his potion of poison resistance and positions himself at the intersection of walkways between the chief's area to the east, and the sorceress hut to the south, where he can call upon the vines if needed once the smoke dissipates. (roll dice) He blinks and shakes his head as motion out in the swamp to his right attracts his attention, as if a wave of disturbance is slowly moving ashore from the swamp. (roll dice) Gilius' mind momentarily goes to the tunnels and the Kraken, but a mere swamp shouldn't be able to contain that beast ... so what is this?

The monkeys had run out of coconuts and the Grung begin to rise from the pond behind the hut near the chiel's platform where Gilius can not now see them. Later he might wonder if the spores had affected him after all ... for hadn't Polly taught him never to leave an enemy undisabled at your back? Luckily Mighty had set Shorty and Bone on them for just such an occasion. (The book really does work!) Shorty hopes the little halfling is watching as he demonstrates the perfect use of his bat. (roll dice) Shorty's coconut scores a direct head hit and one Grung sinks back down, out cold. Bone follows with a hit to the other Grung's chest, knocking it backwards.

Pugwash had reloaded. He sees the danger, and before Bone can try another coconut, Pugwash sends a bolt through the Grung's brain. Coconut, shmoconut - nothing beat a good crossbow at range! That was Mighty's Monkeys at 3 dead, 1 KO and Pugwash with 2 dead, 1 wounded and a goodly number stunned with a single shot, thank you very much. ;) Pugwash begins another reload.

(roll dice) Bellandra rushes towards the machete-wielding Grung between her and the meal area, slashing at it quickly with her cutlass as she had not had time to reload. (roll dice) The Grung falls, cut off at the legs. (roll dice) Bellandra doesn't slow down as she plans to get past that Grung as quickly as possible in order to get to the seven in the meal area while they are still stunned. Trusting Kyp and Pugwash to have her back, Bellandra slashes the throat of one spear Grung, then rotates her wrist joint so her cutlass is lying along her forearm and adjusts for height. (roll dice) She sweeps past two more machete Grung, slicing their necks. (roll dice) Turning with the intent to do the same again to the four left, Bellandra stops short at the sight of the legs she had cut from the Grung on the way here slowly crawling back towards the upper half of the body. (roll dice) The memory of the zombie doctor aboard ship and Polly's warning about the parts suddenly hits her. Zombies! These were the same spores! (roll dice) As the sorceress' chant begins to intensify, Bellandra swiftly turns and cuts the heads completely off every throat she's slashed. (roll dice) She turns to shout to Kyp to hurry and help her, then she notices he is limping slighty as he moves away from the blowgun Grung's body, and beyond Kyp the water of the swamp is rising.

(Continued below ...)

(... continued from above.)

The sorceress' chant was building now. (roll dice) Aylar feels the hair on the back of his neck rise as he feels something tug at his senses. (roll dice) His fey blood also rises, resisting the proximity to the sorceress and combating the foreign magick which seeks to call him. Casting a swift glance over his shoulder a distinct chill comes over him as he sees the swamp waters behind him begin to bubble in many places with disturbance. Then he sees the first zombie begin to make its way up to shore.

Captain Baldbeard and Mighty begin to search the platform for the chief as the smoke slowly begins to dissipate. It is not yet fully gone (technically early in the next post) when they finally find it, along with what little is identifiable as Queen Origi's remains. The force missile had hit, just as she'd intended, but Origi herself had been snatched adjacent to the Chief, who had bitten her head off just as the missile hit and ripped them both apart. The mangled body of the albatross was nearby, and feathers, various body parts and shredded platform pieces were everywhere. Argy's cupcake had not killed her fellow halfling, but it had made a complete mess of the bodies. There was not enough left to take back to the Ship. (roll dice) Mighty crushed the chief's skull anyway, just to make sure.

(roll dice) There's not much else to do there on the ledge for her, so Argy heads to the village entrance, to see if she can do anything to help her mateys clearing the way out of the village. She arrives to see Shorty's KO, Pugwash's hit, and Gilius staring at the swamp. Following Gilius' gaze Argy sees the disturbance in the water and feels the threat as another zombie rises and heads to shore. (roll dice) Hearing something behind her, Argy turns to see the dead Grung with a caved in chest slowly fighting the vines trying to get up. (roll dice) Swiftly she brings up her Pan and wallops it in the face several times until it stops moving, (roll dice) Then she takes her butcher knife and chops its head off. She makes sure the other guard's head is truly caved in, and sees that the spear guard has been beheaded properly. (roll dice) Argy is about to run to Gilius to tell him what is happening when she sees another Grung coming from the sorceress's hut, sneaking from the open N side to the NE corner where it stops and throws its spear.

(roll dice) Not wanting to take chances with what he's seeing, Count Karnstein beheads the other Grung as well, then turns to do the same to Grog'tial's kills, starting with the dead blowgun wielder close by. (roll dice) He is doing the same to the spear wielder Grog'tial took the spear from when the tip of a spear suddenly protrudes from his chest, nicking his heart. (roll dice) The Count staggers forward and falls, feeling himself bleeding out with every beat of his living heart. How strange, he thinks as a cold feeling starts to come over him.

(roll dice) Grog'tial is using the mirror on the sorceress' hut door area, checking for traps, when in it he sees the spear head suddenly penetrate Count Karnstein's chest from behind. (roll dice) Spinning around, Grog'tial sees the Count stagger and fall, and sees the Grung at the corner behind and realizes if not for Count Karnstein, that spear would have been aimed at him as his back was turned.

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Your GM would like to thank you all for posting in such a timely manner!

Your current inventory can be found in Post 2 (loaner books are read and returned)
Argy = 1st walkway intersection past the village entrance, unaffected, 1 cupcake left
Aylar = S of sorceress' hut, unaffected
Bellandra = meal area near red tent, unaffected
Captain Baldbeard = Chief's platform, unaffected
Count Karnstein = Altar platform near Grog'tial, somewhat affected, gravely wounded
Durik = aboard Ship, ill aftereffects of the poison.
Gilius = Entrance walkway near 1st intersection, slightly affected
Grog'tial = Altar platform near Karnstein, somehow repelled being affected(?)
Kyp = Southern E-W walkway, S of red tent, unaffected, poisoned
Mighty = Chief's Platform, unaffected
Pugwash = Ledge above village, unaffected
Queen Origi = deceased
Albatross = deceased

S in the sorceress' hut = the Sorceress