How Sticky Fingers became Mayor

This is a continuation of the previous blog entry.

... So the Uprisers continued deeper into the mountaintop cave, past the intimidated halflings. One holdout fired a poison crossbow bolt but was frightened off by the cave being closed off by Driana (who was slowed by the small opening and pulled out by Foxy) followed by an onslaught of flaming oil from Willikers.

More trapped treasure was discovered by Sticky Fingers, exploding in his face upon examination and doing a bit of damage plus "embarrassment, save ends." similar to what happens with exploding cigars in cartoons. Beyond this point the cave opened into a much larger interior cavern, possibly an ancient natural caldera or volcanic crater with the appearance of having been expanded by giant (dragon) claws. Jorel lowered himself on a Tensor's disk then, remembered he could just jump down and land safely, while Shamash used his magic rope to ensure safe passage down for himself and anyone else wanting to use it. Jones flew down on his ritual/magical force griffin. Everyone else made their way down the 100' or so to where water glittered below.

Down below, the party discovered an ancient Koa-Toa spawning pool, complete with floating dragon feces, deer heads and bones. Various types of Koa-Toa fish people wandered aimlessly, muttering nonsense in deep speech. Suddenly out of nowhere The Enchantress (Elder Green Dragon) swooped in, gave a leering glare to bring everyone closer, and breathed her poison gas on the party (which would have had no effect on the metalic Jorel, who was still exploring the spawning pool nearby). She followed this up with her normal flyby attack, a tried and true hit and run tactic to wear down the group and then wear them down with her Koa-Toa underlings.

It would have worked too, if not for the fact that the drow rogue she attacked (Willikers) was bloodied, which activated an encounter power (Knockout I think). So in concert with Hadgi and Jones, she was knocked out of the air, flat on her back and unconscious for a round, slowed and pretty beat up. From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the party was able to slay her, though not before a great deal of damage on both sides took place.

Wikipedia Jones was lucky enough not to be effected by her Frightful Presence, which stunned almost everybody and would have given her a chance to get to a safe distance and regroup for another, more powerful attack -- even using an army of Koa Toa if needed. But Jones was the one person she would have needed to stun in order to move anywhere, since he was maintaining an effect that slowed her to 1/7 of her regular flying speed. But she got lucky and the round after her bloodied breath went off, her breath weapon also recharged. Meanwhile her Koa Toa allies began attacking the party, though several of them were taking their sweet time getting close enough to get into melee (they only have a speed of 6 and were not only naturally insane but also pretty infected with zombie rot so pretty dumb too). Their "Whip" however was able to nail the party with a Slime Vortex, which certainly didn't make matters any easier for the party.

Hadgi struck again and again though he was still reeling from the poison, fear effects and slime. Robrick Willikers III, who was most responsible for the current pained situation the Enchantress found herself in, was targeted often and at one point brought to well under half his bloodied value. But Willikers dished out a heck of a lot more than he took, and with the help of Aurora he never went down. Drina, (Willikers' Drow sister, a bard) used her Darkfire power to dish out some damage, and filled in a utility role as the battle went along. The Koa Toa, in Deep Speech understood only by Willikers, were muttering about entrail asparagus and the 49 tones of jasper, Lasavix Icespring and the Forgotten Waters of Korgill. Crazy talk. Sticky Fingers found an old rusty dagger, and threw his usual one at the throat of the dragon before stopping again to examine his shiny new find. Jorel of the Stars responded to the Frightful Presence attack by teleporting next to the Enchantress, going immediately from ignored to impossible to ignore. Aurora healed all who needed it, always in the right place at the right time, and dished out a few "turn dragon" effects too that turned heads. Speaking of draconic blood, Shamash was propositioned by the Enchantress to join her, and responded "No. You don't know who you're dealing with." and proceeded to attack and give his comrades in arms additional tactical opportunities while inspiring them to greater deeds with every successful action. It was Jorel and Aurora who dealt the final blows and in the end the Enchantress lay dead, no more lies or guile to spill from her lips. She had been responsible for the Halflings' civil war, and now the party was responsible for undoing the havoc she had created. Jones opened the decanter and dropped a drop or two into the ancient, filthy spawning pool and it immediately glowed blue and became pristinely clean. Jorel investigated an opening that went straight down and returned with a report that 2.1 miles below, there is a city of Kua-Toa, and the water there was glowing blue as well. Shortly afterward the water stopped glowing but remained clear.

After Jones brought her head to the annual bidding contest, he made a great diplomatic speech uniting the two factions immediately. The party, true heroes of the halflings, found themselves in the position of being able to have half-price henchmen if they wanted. Sticky Fingers was hailed as the greatest hero of 3 generations and elected mayor. Aurora lent her aid to local agricultural efforts. Rholain stopped by later, accompanied by a lot of locusts that he then helped deal with for a fee. Renowned for their cooking - especially baked goods and candies, the halflings are also well known for their brewing skills with wines second only to the elves and beers second only to the dwarves. For hard alcohol it is an open secret that the half orcs' stuff is strongest but not very palatable. Anyway, there are 6,824 halflings who live in and around the two shires, mostly in large self-sufficient family burrows with farms above. Transportation is by giant lizard and trade takes place in weekly open air markets with tents as needed.

Drina set up a household for herself and guests, built and staffed by halflings (at half regular prices).

Fizzy Feet, a 16th level halfling war mage, offered his services to the party should they wish to hire him at half price.

The previous leaders of the Shires of Ed's Hollow and Rackmonton got together with Sticky Fingers to coordinate how things will be run. The new city is not yet named but an agreement is in progress, though records of a pre-dragon national halfling boundary were brought forth. The halfling nation is called Green Fields.

Experience: The party's current XP should be 69,000 each, just at 16th level.

Treasure: one 18th level magic item and 17,500 gold pieces in monetary treasure. Please note however that XP and treasure were basically not awarded for about 3 sessions, so these are not typical levels.

Next game: we should be on for 3 pm in a couple Saturdays. I'll let you know. -D