Lair of the Mountain King: Turn by Turn

Introduction

"Ours was once a mighty clan. Living in the mountains of the north had made us strong and cunning and we knew a great many secrets of those wild lands and the ancient magics that shaped them. Our lives were hard, but the mountains were rich with metals and magic and we learned to forge wondrous tools and weapons and treasures there. But the mountains were cold and barren and we were forced to trade with outsiders to feed ourselves as the clan grew in numbers, and slowly word of our tribe began to spread. Inevitably, people grew jealous of our wealth and wanted to take them for themselves. And so, they started coming adventurers of different species and talents all of whom believed that mere goblins were not worthy of such treasurers, even those we made with our own hands and wove with magic from our own songs. But, we were strong then and we had all the defensive advantages of a mountain riddled with caves and although we lost a few trinkets, we held onto everything of value. But that was before the Fall. It was inevitable in the end. An enemy came that we could not defeat, who knew something of the secrets of our magic and could turn them against us. In the end, we believe that the Chief and a small group of elite goblin warriors and magicweavers managed to lure the enemy deep into the caves, before sealing the

entrances, trapping him and themselves forever. No-one knows what happened to any of them, as no goblins ever returned to the mountains to find out. Without access to the wealth and protection of the mountain, we were forced further and further south, living hand-to-mouth as we tried simply to survive the passing seasons, selling off what little we had kept with us simply for a little food or clothing to last another winter. We few are now all who are left of our clan, and I do not believe there will be many generations after us unless we make a change. Though we have forgotten much of what we once were, I intend to take us back to the mountains of the north and we will reclaim them for our own. I am your Chief, the descendant of Chief Lost-in-the-Mountains who was lost in the mountains that day, and I will take back what is rightfully ours. Who will join me?"

RULES
This is a game somewhat in the vein of Goblin Defence, and contains a mixture of fighting, looting, exploring and puzzling to get through to the end. It is a much larger adventure than the Apprentices and has the potential for a lot more creativity in the way you play. Oh, and you'll have pictures all the way through Goblins all start with: 5/5HP, 1 ATT, 1 DEF (including the Chief) Otherwise, the rules are pretty standard. Each turn you get 1 move, 1 major action and 1 minor action and combat follows the normal formula: DAMAGE = ATTACK - DEFENCE. If a goblin hits 0HP they will be disabled and will die on the following turn if not healed immediately. As usual, entering a new area or attacking something will end your turn so plan your actions accordingly. Magic exists in the game, but you will need to work out how to use it for yourselves in-game. It will follow slightly different rules from normal though, and will require a bit of creativity to get the most out of it. I fully intend to be surprised by what you guys come up with

All goblins have ESP which they can also use to communicate with each other. Updates will be 2-3 times a week depending on my schedule, but I'll try and get them done Mon, Wed & Fridays whenever possible. I should also say upfront that it is possible that I may need to take unexpected breaks from the game every so often depending on my work (I'm a marine biology PhD student so occasionally get sent off on boats at short notice). I will however promise to see the game through to the end regardless of how long it takes. Missing the occassional update is ok (though I can't promise the safety of your goblin), but if you're going away for longer periods please let me know or arrange a subsitute player. Anyone who misses 3 updates in a row without explanation will permanently lose their goblin to another player.

Player List: The Clan of the Mountain Halls

1. M0rtimer: Burned By Flames (CHIEF)

At his naming ceremony, Flames was officially dubbed as Burned-by-Flames: and later on in his life, told what the teller had seen: surrounded by fire, trapped, that he would be one day. And worse of all, the teller couldn't say wether or not he lived through it: only that he would not come out the same way he went into it. One would expect such a fate to lead to fear of fire, always trying to avoid it. They would be wrong. Burned was a strong minded goblin: if asked how he could be so calm, maybe even enjoying looking at the fire, his reply would always be: "Hey, if it's gonna happen anyways, why run away from it? Besides- You don't think I'm gonna let some petty flames really burn me that easily, eh?"

2. Kurik: Splits His Focus

Splits is interested in tinkering with weapons, and magic. Making them, using them, playing with them, it's all good. It's close to being all he thinks about. (Magic and weapons, weapons and magic, magic weapons, weapons that shoot magic. Ooh! Magic that shoots weapons! Genious!) And he's eager to help reclaim the clans lost glory. And the stuff. Stuff is always good. You can use stuff to kill stuff and trade for other stuff... and junk, which isn't as good as stuff, but sometimes you can hook a bunch of junk together and turn it into stuff.

3. askstoomuch: Questions the Nature of the Multiverse

Questions has always been weird. He was always curious as a child, and seems to think understand something that most goblins can't, something about mysterious qualities creatures have called and how these qualities define how good those

creatures are at things. He's always been seen as moderately crazy, but perhaps that's just the way he examines tools closely to determine their "bonuses" before using them, and he says he functions on a different timescale, where simple actions that take seconds fill two days, sometimes more. In other words, Questions has a limited understanding of the fact that he is in a game. He is loosely based on a 4.0 warforged I play who was aware of the real time going by and of dice that landed on the grid. It was interesting.

4. Saithed: Envies Turtles

Forced into being the errand runner at a young ages Envy had had to run to and fro on others whims most of his life. His only solace was found sitting by the river when time permitted and watch the turtles play out their slow and relaxed lives. Envy desire if simply to have more control over his own life and choose his own path what ever it may be.

5. Quarg: Travels to the Mountain / The Quack

At the edge of the clearing stood one goblin, set apart from the others, since technically he was not part of the Clan. His slightly narrower, taller frame and the scar across his cheek all marked him as different that the Clan goblins he now lived with. The Quack's goblin common is sparse at best and that when he loses his temper he swears in unholy elvish, dwarfen, demonic, and a few other languages, has cemented his reputation as being a tolerated outsider. The only reason that 'The Quack' is tolerated is because he is a better healer than even the clan Teller herself, and a decent fighter to boot. He has proved himself several times in medicine by saving goblins, both sick and injured, that the Teller had all but written off. His first encounter with the Teller had given him the name 'The Quack' because he had worked on saving a young goblin with the 'Red Fever' without trying to use high magic. She had informed every goblin within shouting distance that any goblin who tried to use only potions to cure the 'Red Fever' was

a "Quack of the First Order". The name had stuck, mainly because the phrase "Da'haib la Ques Naraheim" ("Travels to the Mountain" in elvish) is a pain to say constantly. Although no one in the Clan knows it, The Quack, was born on a distant coast in the Clan of The False Isle. As a young goblin, he was named 'Travels to the Mountain' by his clan elders. The Clan of the False Isle lived on a stretch of land surrounded by water except for two small strips of land that connected it to the shore. Although the land was easy to defend from shore, it was difficult to defend from the sea. And it was the sea that claimed Travels and a few other of his clan mates one morning. On a balmy spring day, Travels was out in a small canoe with his fellow clan mates, Silver Lungs, Bites a Fox, and Regular Guy spear fishing in the shadow of Fish Rock. None of the group saw the tall masts of the Yanksee as she silently glided down from the north around a nearby headland. Nor did the goblin youngsters hear the muffled oars of her long boat as it crept up. No they noticed the dregs collection of dwarves, humans, elves, and haflings in their boat far too late to escape or call for help. After a moment of furry, Regular floated dead in the water while Travels, Silver, and Bites were in the grasp of the pirates from the Yanksee. The Yanksee had been traveling south down the coast grabbing humans, goblins, and other creatures to sell to the Lesser Thuntopia cinnabar mines. Travels, Silver, and Bites were thrown with the rest captured into a fetid hold filled with the accumulated offal and stink of goblins, hobgoblins, and humans. But fate intervened for Travels, less than a day after being thrown in the horrid hold, the Yanksee found herself engaged in a desperate battle. The battle was with the infamous pirate captain Greenhair. Many of the crew of the Yanksee were wounded or killed under the punishing attack of Greenhair. The elven wizard Uso, acting as ship's surgeon, grabbed Travels from the hold to act as a loblolly boy. Travels assisted in holding down men as arrows were pulled from their wounds, or while whole limbs were hacked from their bodies. He did the job well enough, and so many of the crew were injured after the battle, that Travels continued to serve as the loblolly boy. While his clan mates lay in darkness, filth, and hunger, Travels worked watch after watch, washing patients who fouled themselves, disposing of cut off limbs, feeding sick crew members, and grinding

up various components for potions. A few months later, Travels found himself considered a member of the crew, while his clan mates were sold to a Lesser Thuntopian merchant to work in the mines. As Uso's loblolly boy Travels learned much. He learned the art of healing using knifes, saws, potions and spells. He learned how to set bones and bandage wounds. He learned how to read spell books and alchemists notes. As a member of a pirate crew, even the lowly loblolly boy, he was expected to assist in the taking of prizes, so he learned how to fight with bow or a cutlass; at least enough to cut down other sailors. Travels also learned how to speak elvish and soon forgot almost all of his native goblin tongue, which proved to be a difficulty latter in his life. Fate again intervened in Travel's life when the Yanksee floundered off the nearby coast in a violent storm. Travels, and most of the long boat crew, were able to escape the sinking ship. On the shore, with no vessel to call home, the group wandered into the village of Low Thub. Since the villagers of Low Thub thought the only goblin was a dead goblin, Travels hid out in a barn while his crew mates went to the local tavern, The Crossed Arms. The Crossed Arms proved to be a disastrous choice for the surviving crew of the Yanksee. In the early evening, notified of their arrival, Lord Pompfree and twenty of his guards appeared, hauled the pirates out of the inn, and hung them from a large oak tree; revenge for a raid on the Lord's home some eight years prior by the Yanksee. Travels was left alone, to seek a new home in a foreign, alien land. Travels, aka Quack, came to the Clan when he stumbled into a hunting party sent out to deal with a wild boar. The hunters had tracked down and wounded the boar, but the creature had turned and fought rather than run and die. The pain enraged creature had already wounded two of the hunting party goblins. Quack intervened by catching the boar in a noose trap before it could injure or kill any more of the hunting party. By saving them he had earned a place, even one removed, in the clan.

6. Dusk9: Eaten By Rabbits

For his entire life, Eaten has, quite understandably, had a pathological fear of rabbits. The fact that rabbits are herbivores has done nothing to ease his fears, especially since Says-stuff-that-could-be-true-but-probably-isnt claimed one day to have seen a swarm of vicious rabbits take down an adult boar and strip it to the bone in seconds. He is also terrified of many other small mammals, including voles, hedgehogs and squirrels, however he is rather bizarrely quite friendly with foxes and other carnivores - his line of thought is that making friends with something that eats rabbits will help protect him. At first, Eaten was so terrified that he refused to go out, and grew up hiding inside as much as possible. However, that all changed one day when he was forced by his parents to go on a hunt into the forest. Unfit from years with very little physical activity, he was soon left behind by the other hunters, and, lost among the trees, stumbled into a clearing. Poking out of the ground in the centre of the clearing he found a small, circular clay talisman. However, when he looked up he immediately saw a dozen large and angry rabbits, advancing towards him with looks of hunger in their eyes (from his point of view, that is). When Eaten held up the talisman in a defensive gesture it vibrated, and the rabbits turned and bolted he took it as a sign that the charm had protected him, and since then has always kept the talisman close around his neck, reaching for it when nervous or scared. Since that day, Eaten has taken it upon himself to stop hiding from his destiny and face it head on, so that when it finally comes calling for him, he can at least go out fighting. He began by honing his combat skills, and eventually became a skilled wielder of twin daggers, perfecting a self-taught fighting style designed for facing lots of small foes at close range. Unfortunately, although it is highly effective against small opponents, its only of average usefulness against normal sized enemies, and pretty much unusable against larger foes - Eaten isnt too worried though, since its the small ones that are dangerous. Due to his preoccupation with destiny, and his focus on preparing for it whenever he can, Eaten doesnt have any close friends; however he does get along well with most other goblins, helping them when they require it. He is also quite smart, and good at puzzles, but he doesnt really enjoy them a lot if they are very complicated, preferring to let others look at them while he keeps an eye out for

furry ambushes. There are two reasons why Eaten wants to go on the mission. The first is to learn more about his talisman, since according to the teller, the symbol on it appears to be linked to Earth, but Eaten doesnt know much beyond that. The second reason is his desire to learn defensive magics he realises that such a small talisman can only have limited power, and wants to find more defensive options to help protect him from the demon rabbits.

7. Donnigan: Finds Truth

Finds has been searching for something for most of his life. He doesn't really know what it is, but it feels important. He hopes that heading to the mountain will be what his soul needs.

8. dlover: Tugs Tails

Tugs Tails was a hunter who focused specifically on vermin with large tailsSquirrels and such. He would catch them by finding where they nested and laying traps which would snag their tail and hold them fast until he came along to collect them. (Formerly Loves Danger)

Chapter One
Main objective: Find the Entrance to the Mountain Halls.

Turn One
And so it was that although many goblins volunteered to travel to the mountain with Chief Burned by Flames, only seven were eventually chosen as his companions for the usual arbitrary reasons. Leaving everything they ever owned behind in the care of the rest of the clan (in true adventuring style), the travellers set out northwards for the lands they once ruled over. After weeks of enduring indescribable horrors in the forests (during which time no-one learned anything or collected anything useful), the goblins eventually emerged from the great expanse of trees into the foothills of a vast mountain range. Thank the gods you never have to go back into those woods again! Shame about the rain, but at least you made it.

"So this is it? Where's do we find our fabled Mountain Stronghold then?" "Yeah, where's the entrance? It's damned wet out here. "...Ummm... Well, it's definitely around here somewhere. The map was a bit vague on specifics, but it's definitely... somewhere. Look, there's the forest to the south, the cliffs to the west and the river to the east - it's definitely in this area. We just need to find it... "And this is obviously the only bit of wilderness in the entire world fitting that vague descr- Holy shit a rabbit!

ITEM: [Clan Talisman] - Passed down the line of Chiefs for as long as anyone can remember. ITEM: [Rabbit Talisman] - Found by Eaten during his youth. Repels rabbits when used. ----------------------------------------

Turn 2
The rain eases off.

Chief Burned heads west with Travels, while Eaten attempts to understand the motivations of a small white terror-beast. "Alright, the most obvious choice would be to get as far as possible from the beast by heading east. However, what if that's what it wants me to think?!? It could be hearding me into an ambush! With the river on one side, and them on the other, I'd be trapped! Well, this is one goblin you aren't getting your filthy paws on, you monsters!" Eventually deciding that moving away from it is exactly what the Rabbits want him to do, he turns and sprints past the tiny creature, who (understandably) freaks the hell out and runs away. Eaten bursts out into the western area at full speed, just in time to spot ANOTHER goddamn rabbit sitting here too. The others, who are less freaked out by small, cute and fluffy animals with teeny pink noses, decide that this area is pretty boring. There is a dead tree at the edge of the forest though.

Heading north and higher into the hills, Turtles, Silver and Finds come across a bubbling mountain spring. How pretty! It's definitely getting colder up here though...

Following the forest to the east, Splits and Questions find a dead log and another rabbit.

Turn 3
Travels and Flames investigate the dead tree, while Eaten clutches his amulet in terror. It vibrates gently in his hand, seemingly sensing the presence of the rabbit. Travels breaks off a large branch which could be useful as a crude weapon if need be. Even despite all the rain, the dead tree seems really dry and would probably make a good source of firewood should you decide to start setting stuff on fire. "Well, my plan was to first meet with the cliffs, then head northwards, but I assume that if you guys want to-" "Oh Maglubiyet, they're eveywhere!" "Right. Let's head north first then." "All because you like his sister..."

Moving north, the Chief and his group head further up into the hills. It's colder up here than it was down at the forest, but not too bad yet. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be much of interest here. No rabbits though (hooray!). To the east, Turtles laments the lack of reptiles at this particular pool, while Silver searches for hidden treasures (sadly none) and Finds samples the water. It's crystal clear, ice cold and very refreshing. And wet. Obviously.

Moving north, the temperature drops even further and it becomes very cold indeed. You're pretty sure none of you are going to be able to stay up here for long without warmer clothes or a fire or doing SOMETHING to stay warm, but for now you'll cope. Oh hey, trolls! "Hey Brian, there's <sniiiifffffff> goblins come up the mountain." "Who cares, I'm probably dying. <cough cough cough> Shut up and pass me the snot rag." "You are nod dying, idiod. Hey you, goblids! How aboud we dob't feasd on your carcasses and you do us a fabour?" They don't appear to be in the best of health. Those blankets look warm though. Disgusting, but definitely cosy.

Back down at the forest edge, Questions tries to strike up a conversation with the rabbit while Splits investigates the log. There seems to be an odd clicking sound coming from inside... "Do you not see that some person is controlling your actions? It is my god, the Greater Master. The Master controls us all, through control of the lesser masters. They control us individually. But not you. I sense you are controlled directly by the Greater Master. Join me, small one." The rabbit twitches its nose and stares blankly at Questions. Inside the log, things aren't quite so cute.

WTF is that!?

Ah right. Giant centipede. What did you expect? The centipede rushes Split, inflicting 2 damage and bringing him down to 3/5HP. The rabbit freaks the hell out (seems to be their thing) and scarpers.

-------------------------------------ITEM: [Dead Branch]: +1ATT. 50% chance of breaking on impact. Also, here's a map

Turn 4
It starts to rain again... Sensing something bad is happening to Splits back at the log, the clan goblins waste no time in rushing to back to help him. At the trolls: "Well, that is not a nice way to ask for a favor. We might consider helping you if you ask nicely when we get back. However, at the moment, we have a comrade to save." "we will be right back i swear just a few bugs to sort out" In the foothills: "... You guys hear that?" "It's the sound of an insect that has no idea what he just walked into." "Let's go help out our friend!" "Dammit!" "Naha'ba Naba..."

Flames, Travels, Finds and Turtles all make it as far as the starting area this turn.

Keen to avoid the rabbits they passed on the way up the hills, Eaten chooses an alternative route to the log, and comes across a large pile of standing stones. There is something oddly familiar about this cairn, as though it's giving off some kind of energy that he's felt before. The feeling vanishes almost as soon as Eaten notices it, but he is left with the distinct impression that there is some sort of magic in those rocks. He is also certain (though he has no idea why) that the cairn is incomplete and missing a stone.

Back at the log, an epic battle is underway as Splits regains footing (and his ear colour) and launches a full-on fisticuff attack on the centipede while Questions wrestles with its mandibles. Together they manage to do a little bit of damage, but the centipede also bites Splits again, reducing him to 2/5HP.

Ouch.

Meanwhile back up the hill, Silver is oblivious to the problems of his clanmates back down at the forest. "Well that was rude!" "So, are you lot going to help us or not?" Since everyone else has run off, Silver decides that the Trolls aren't going to attack him and heads off to explore to the west. "Goddamn goblins..."

To the west, Silver finds very little of interest. Seems to be pretty much rocks and snow here. It's getting really cold though and he's starting to shiver. Next turn, he'll need to head for a warmer (lower) area, or spend a full turn warming up to avoid taking damage from the cold.

-----------------Ooh! Magic stuff!

Turn 5
The rain continues. Eaten contemplates the mysteries of the cairn briefly before being rudely awoken from his reverie by the battle cries of his clan mates... "Hmmm, interesting. Maybe I could-" "Hold on!" "How is this environment able to support a giant centipede? Also, logically speaking, something that large without an internal skeletal structure should just collapse in on itself..." "BLAAAAAAARRRRRGH" "Oh yeah, right, that was a thing we were doing......"

He runs to join in, just as everyone else arrives to do exactly the same thing and the centipede recieves a (nearly) full-clan ass kicking and is easily destroyed, but not before biting Turtles and doing 1 damage, bringing him down to 4/5HP. Splits retreats to the sidelines to avoid death. He is quite successful. The centipede is slain! Its corpse is yours to desecrate however you see fit.

To the west, Silver has made it back to warmer parts to the area with the dead tree. He is no longer in danger of freezing. ------------------Congratulations! You have slain your first creature of the game! As in my previous game, corpses will not disappear for no reason so you can deal with them however you like. Additionally, unless a creature is carrying some specific equipment you won't get 'loot drops'. The end result of all this is that you get a bit more freedom with what you can pick up after battles, though some things may require a bit more effort to make them useable depending on your ideas.

Turn 6
It stops raining again. Despite having been in the mountains only a short time and despite it being many generations since any living goblin of the Clan of the Mountain Halls set foot here, there is something familliar about the place, like some vague memory from a dream or half-remembered thing from childhood. It is a strange feeling, and though none of you are quite sure what to make of it, you all feel as though you are somehow welcome here... Anyway, back to business! Chief Burned gives some orders to his followers: "Hah, silly centipede. Anyways, I guess these scales could make for some quick, improvised armour: does one of you guys want to give it a shot?" "Others, we need to continue our exploring. I am going to check out what the three trolls want. I'll assume they will want a fire to keep them warm, so some of you should also go and get some wood from the dead tree. Even if only to warm ourselves later on." "What the remainder of you does doesn't bother me much though: we still have a lot of exploring to do, so feel free to split up a bit. But let's try to stick a little bit closer to each other this time, we don't want something like this happening again."

Saying that, he heads back towards the trolls and gets as far as the bubbling

mountain spring. The others more or less ignore his advice.

"Well, now that that's done...", says Eaten, who takes his leave and heads back to the cairn. As he examines the structure, he notices the strange feeling of familiarity is a little stronger here than elsewhere in the hills. After studying the cairn for a while, all he manages to learn is that the rocks appear to have been gathered from around the foothills, which is extremely unhelpful... Still, maybe he can use that strange force somehow? He doesn't have time to move east again this turn.

Silver meanwhile continues east and arrives at the log where some of the others are doing terrible things to a corpse. Turtles and Split get to work on the carcass while Travels attempts to check their wounds. He's pretty sure they'll both live, but there's not much more he can do for them at the moment.

"join a quest they said. Fame and glory they said. didn't mention anything about being elbow deep in a giant bugs guts" "Stupid bug. Nothing but crap left behind, not even any junk. Hardly worth the effo... hmm, auctialy..." "Stay there so I see if wounds do not go bad" Turtles attempts to collect the mandibles, but breaks one in the process. Ah well, at least he got one ok, and it looks like it will be useable as a makeshift blade. As he pulls out the mandibles, a foul-smelling ooze runs out of a sac in the creature's mouth. You're pretty sure it's poisonous, but with no way to collect it, it runs into the grass. At least no-one got poisoned during the battle! He and Splits then go about breaking up the rest of the carcass looking for meat and manage to collect 4 pieces. Of the 100 legs, they manage to successfull collect 33. They are too fragile to be any use as weapons and there is no food on them, but they're bound to be exceedingly valuable at some point so they get chucked into the inventory space. Unfortunately, the carapace (exoskeleton) and what is left of the head are completely broken up during this foraging exercise and are sadly rendered useless.

Questions and Finds continue to complain about the presence of a perfectly normal, if rather large bug, while apparently ignoring the paradox of their own existence. "Hmm...This whole digging into the viscera of a impossible arthropod is fasinating,

but I would rather explore a bit." "Why must the world have things taht exist soley to be killed by other things. That creature should not logically have attacked us. this world we live in is strange indeed." They head east to a new area. -------------ITEM: [Centipede Legs]: The walking limbs of a bug. You have collected 33. ITEM: [Centipede Meat]: Pretty disgusting. Might be edible if cooked. You have collected 4. ITEM: [Centipede Mandible]: Knife-type weapon, +1 ATT. 20% chance of snapping when used. You have collected 1.

--------------

Turn 7

Eaten pulls out his amulet and attempts to use it on the cairn, but it doesn't seem to have any effect that he notices. Unfortunately, the bunny behind isn't quite so lucky and is hit with the full force of whatever power the amulet uses. It is an exrabbit.

Eaten moves east and bumps into Finds Truth. Turns out the odd pattern on the rock that Finds wanted to examine was just a poor attempt at shading, nothing more.

Travels decides that the Chief could probably do with his help more than this lot, so heads up towards him and the trolls. He gets as far as the spring this turn.

Burned makes it back to the trolls and again notices how cold it is up here... "Hey look, another goblin. <hack hack> I reckon we should just eat this one and be done with the lot of them. "I apologize for my rude comrades earlier. We had a sudden unexpected event. Rest assured, now that is cleared, I am willing to hear what the problem is: and I'll try to help if possible. And of course, if the reward is acquedate." Heh! A reward! How aboud we dob't ead you and make your bones indo soub?! Is thad enough of a reward, goblid? <sniiiiiiif> "Ah, shuttit the lot of you, my head is splitting! Right goblin, like my friend here

says, you do us a favour and we don't eat you. In fact you can wander these mountains all you like without fear of <atchoo!> troll attacks. In return, you need to make us a cure for this damn flu. Sound like a deal? Bear in mind that if you refuse, we will kick your goblin asses, flu or no flu. So what do you say?"

Questions heads east and FINALLY makes it to the river bank. The river appears to be flowing extremely fast here and looks pretty dangerous. Oh look! Tiny terrapins!

Silver gestures to Turtle and together they try and move the dead log up the hill, but it's way too heavy for the two of them to move on their own all that way. Maybe if they had more help it could be moved? They both get some of the moss on their hands though from trying to push the log, which tingles a

bit. Turtles notices that the scratches on his hands from the fight and the logshoving have healed.

Splits meanwhile examines the log to see if it is any good for firewood and decides that it is probably the least combustible bit of wood he's ever seen. The wood is soaked through and rotten, but does appear to have some bits of fungus and moss growing out of it. Drier wood is probably better if you are going to start lighting fires. Splits heads east in the direction of the river. He can hear birds singing and tweeting here... Maybe there's a nest nearby? -------------------

Turn 8

Travels arrives to find the chief still in discussion with the trolls. He gets his stick out and tries to look menacing. "Oh, let's be honest here. If you guys were all well, then you would probally wipe me and my fellow goblins of the floor in a matter of minutes. Problem is that your sick. However, I'm a fair goblin, so I will help you. But, I will ask for one more thing in return: some information, if you could spare that. Does that sound okay?" "Hahahahahahahackhackhack <cough> <cough>. Ah, little goblin, you are a ballsy one! I wasn't aware we were bargaining about this, but fine. If you get us our cure, you can ask each of us one question, and we will answer to the best of our knowledge. I'll tell you this for free though - there's a snow bear that lives up here, and if you're all as poorly equipped as you look then you're better off running away. You know, cos it'll eat you, and then we'll stay sick. "Good! So we have a deal. I will look for a cure for your flu. Do you perhaps have an idea what we could look out for?" "Gods goblin, have a bid of patience... Here's a list ob the stubb you need. Pud id all in this boddle and boil id. We need to dring id hot uderstand?" Flames is given a [Metal Flask] and a scrawled list of items:

What nice handwriting the trolls have.

Flames moves to the east into unexplored territory. He is getting very cold, and will need to spend the next full turn warming up if he doesn't want to take damage from the cold...

Back down to the south, Eaten checks over the stones in this area to see if they fit the cairn, but he doesn't find anything that feels like it's giving off the same energy as the cairn did. "Stupid cairn....". FindsTruth arrives from the south, just as Eaten spots the rabbit and flips the hell out. Again. "Hello Eaten. How are yo- ...Goodbye Eaten." "Oh for Maglubiyet's sake, where the hell are they coming from!". Activating his amulet (with rather predictable results for the poor rabbit) he flees east, and Finds heads north.

*Nose twitch*

No rabbits here! Eaten makes it to the river and finds a rather large berry bush.

North-west of Eaten, Finds discovers a small cave in the rocks. It's also freezing cold up here. Turtles collects a [Handful of Healing Moss] from the log and departs, "Nice talking to you Silver. Lets do this again sometime. When we get a few more guys to help i will be more then happy to try again with the log, but for now lets try find something to cut it up maybe. I will head towards the river and try find a sharp rock or something"

Sensing that someone has found reptiles near the river, he hurries to the east. He hears birds singing in one of the trees at the edge of the forest.

Silver also gathers a [Handful of Healing Moss] and heads north, arriving at the cairn. He is suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of power coming from the stones which reminds him, in a not entirely pleasant way, of how he felt when he used first his voice against the wolves... The feeling quickly passes.

Splits continues east towards the river and arrives to find Questions attempting to domesticate the terrapins. It turns out they are quite docile little creatures, and seem quite happy to take scraps of food and be handled gently. That, or reptiles just don't function very well in cold mountainous regions. ------------------

ITEM: [Handful of Healing Moss]: Ingredient. Restores 1-4HP when boiled into a potion. ITEM: [Metal Flask]: Can put stuff in it.

Turn 9

Flames dances about in the snow, stamping his feet and hopping about to get his cold blood flowing again. He quickly warms up and feels much better.

Turtles decides to investigate the bird sounds, and after identifying the correct tree, climbs up.

He finds a nest containing 2 eggs and a metal ring.

FindsTruth summons up all his willpower and walks away from the cave. I guess he'll need to wait to find out what miraculous wonders it holds... Moving east again, he comes to the river bank. He can hear a waterfall in the distance and from here can see what looks like a cliff. Unfortunately, he's starting to feel the effects of the cold and must spend the next turn warming up or else take damage.

Travels takes the metal bottle and recipe from the trolls and heads south to the spring to collect some spring water. It should do the job nicely.

Meanwhile back at the river, Questions and Splits play with the terrapins for a bit, then head north. Questions brings his new bestest friend with him. They arrive just in time to see Eaten get attacked by a super-sneaky camouflaged berry-bush snake which bites him for 1 DAM and poisons him! He starts to feel really ill and loses ANOTHER HP to the effects bringing him down to 3/5HP... On the plus side, he did manage to grab 9 berries before the snake got him. Silver is so overcome by the memories of the wolf attack he spaces out completely.

--------------

ITEM: [Berries]: Purple berries, that look a bit like the snake's eyes. You have collected 9. ITEM: [Terrapin]: Question's new best friend.

Turn 10

Silver adds the dead bunny corpse to his inventory. It's got very soft fur - a few more of them and he could make some warm clothes. Next, he investigates the cairn is again flooded with a sense of magic coming from the stones, as well as a sense of incompleteness. Like Eaten before him, he is certain (though he doesn't know why) that the cairn is missing a stone. Unlike Eaten though, he also gets a sense that he has seen the missing stone already. He is sure that there is some magical presence trying to communicate with him here, but - damn, the feeling's gone again.

Questions asks Ptery if it can speak to its reptilian colleague about a truce, but I suppose if he was able to speak to the terrapin he could probably speak to the snake directly... As it is, the terrapin just nibbles his fingers a bit in what he

assumes is an affectionate manner. Questions and Eaten decide a more direct approach is therefore in order, and attackthe snake. Unfortunately neither of them is able to grab the creature, and their attacks can't get through its defence. The snake retaliates by biting Questions for 1DAM, but he luckily avoids being poisoned. Eaten is still feeling the effects of the poison and loses another 1HP. "OWCH!!! WHY IS ALL THE WILDLIFE HERE SO HOSTILE!!!!" Splits, not wanting to get directly involved in the fight, pauses for a cool refreshing drink of water. So lovely and refreshing! Then he selects a stone from the river bank and throws it at the snake. He misses everything.

Further north, Chief Burned isn't doing much better... "Now for checking this out..." Scrambling up the small rock face, he goes to investigate the small blue heap at the top in the snow. Unfortunately for him, it is not a long-lost treasure trove, but is in fact a Snow Beast. A grumpy one too, since it just got woken up. It attacks the Chief for 1DAM, and he takes another 1DAM from the fall... Oof.

Turtles is doing much better, and puts on the ring. Almost immediately he gets a strange sense that there is a 'space' inside him somehow just waiting to be filled... with... something? The strange familiar feeling of the mountain is also closer somehow, as if there were voices whispering nearby, but he just can't quite hear them. It's definitely magic... Could it be the ancient magic his ancestors once used? The feeling doesn't fade, but neither is he able to make any sense out of it. Maybe if he spent some time trying to focus on the strange energies he might have more luck? Hurrying to the east, he finally reaches the terrapins. Yay!

Travels heads back to the log and takes another bit of moss. There's not very much left but he takes a handful.

Finds dances about in the snow and warms up. He feels much better now! -----------------------

ITEM: [Handful of Moss] ITEM: [Ring]: ??? Seems to be magical. ITEM: [Rabbit corpse]: Does what it says on the tin!

Turn 11

Turtles speaks to the terrapins: ""hello turtles i spent a long time with some of your kin in a place similar but very different to this very place. you must be very unique and brave turtles to live in a harsh place such as this and if time permitted i would take time to study you and this whole area in fact. However i am on a quest and i do not have the liberty to do so .some day if i survive i will return if i am able too farewell until then" Then, he settles down on the rock and starts meditating. The peacefulness of the river and the terrapins help him relax and he quickly finds his thoughts drift to the strange magic all around him. The feeling is becoming stronger, but it is still vague. "RUN AWAY!!!" Eaten flees the snake south and comes to Turtles's rock, but does not disturb him. He loses another 1HP to the poison but now feels much better. Looks like the effects have finally passed. He tries nibbling the healing moss. It's bitter and makes his mouth all tingly, but doesn't seem to do much more than that. Seems like ingredients need to be cooked before they become useful.

Silver heads 2 areas west. Back at the snake-tree:

Finds moves and joins Questions and Splits in their attack on the snake. "Sigh...Why must my comrades get themselves into such combat..." Splits gets a lucky shot with another [River Rock: 1ATT], while the others continue to punch it. They STILL can't get through its DEF though... If only they had weapons of some sort. The snake is happy using its fangs though and bites Finds for 1DAM, but luckily doesn't poison him either.

Burned throws a small tantrum and then bravely absconds to the south and finds himself at the cairn. The snow beast does not follow him. "WHY DOES EVERYTHING I EVER SPOT HAVE TO BE A TRAP?!" "Everyone! To arms!" As he approaches the cairn, he feels a sudden and very strong sense of power emanating from the rocks, and the clan amulet begins to vibrate gently against his chest. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the sensation passes. Travels spaces out. ---------------------

---------------------

Turn 12
It starts to rain again.

Turtles continues to meditate by the river. As he does so, he feels closer to an understanding of the mountain's power. He can feel the channels swirling through the air and the river, and in the little terrapins and the rabbit beside him. He can even feel it swirling around him as if in response to his attentions. He tentatively tries to reach out to it, but can't quite manage yet... He's definitely getting close though. Close by Eaten collapses in an exhausted heap. He has had a hard day "So. Tired. Must. Rest." He rests for the full turn and regains 1HP. He is now at 3/5HP.

Questions tries to find a branch in the bush she can use as a weapon, but the snake is darting about in there and she can't find one without getting bitten! Splits throws another rock from the river bank, but misses again...

Finds flees west and looks for a rock to use as a makeshift club. He finds one quite easily and gains: [Rock]. Travels moves two areas east towards the berry bush and arrives here too. As he passes the cairn he gets the same sensation of familiarity as everyone else has been getting.

Burned investigates the cairn, touching his amulet to the rocks. It vibrates gently again, as though in tune to some unseen force, but nothing more happens. It does make him wonder whether the amulet might be magical though... Deciding there's nothing more to be done here, he heads west and arrives at the spring.

Silver moves back up into the cold region of the mountain again. He feels a vague hum of familiarity coming from somewhere here, but it's very vague. ---------------

ITEM: [Rock]: +1ATT

Turn 13

Eaten feels much better and heads west towards the unexplored frontier. He gets as far as the wet log this turn.

Burned also moves west and reaches a whole new area! Oooh! A cave!

Turtles continues to meditate. As he reaches out to the energies swirling around him, he feels them finally react to his touch and enter his mind, filling the space he felt was there ever since he put on the ring. Turtles has become a Novice Magician* and gains 1 Magic Point (MP)! As he feels the energies enter his mind, he also understands that the ring he found is indeed magical.

The battle against the snake continues to rage back at the riverbank. Splits takes a time-out and recovers 1HP, bringing him back up to 3/5HP, while Travels attacks with his stick, but it unfortunately breaks on impact.Finds picks up a second rock and takes it east where he gives it to Questions. He doesn't have time to attack himself, but the combined attacks of the others FINALLY manage to do a little bit of damage to the snake. The snake bites Travels for 1DAM taking him down to 4/5HP, but luckily he doesn't get poisoned.

Silver overcomes a moment of inexplicable gender confusion and starts looking for the missing cairn stone. The problem is, which one is it? Without any better understanding of magic, he can't tell which stone is the correct one so chooses one at random and hopes for the best. He starts to feel the cold though, and will need to spend the next turn warming up or take damage. ------------------

ITEM: [Magic Ring]: +1MP

Turn 14

The battle against the snake rages on. Turtles attempts to use his newfound magical abilities to sooth the snake, focusing on transferring calmness and peace from himself to the snake. It seems to work and the snake pauses in its attacks this turn, but Turtles finds himself suddenly overcome by a storm of emotions and attacks the snake in a fit of rage*. Questions and Finds watch Turtles attempts, then join in the attack with their sophisticated new rocks. All together, they FINALLY manage to do enough damage to kill the damn creature! Its corpse is yours for the looting.Turtles, Questions and Finds have first dibs. Splits ignores the chaos at the bush and chills out, watching the river burbling along. It's very relaxing and he regains another 1HP bringing him back up to 4/5HP.

Eaten attempts to avoid the rabbits by heading north then west. He is successful this time, and reaches the spring.

Travels heads west after Eaten and gets as far as the cairn. He gets that odd familiar feeling again coming from the rocks.

Silver drops the rock he had picked up and instead dances around to warm up again. He soon feels all toasty warm again, but doesn't have time to move this turn.

Burned heads north, into another new area. It is pretty cold here and he starts to feel chilly. --------

*Normally casting a magic spell counts as a full action for the turn; however, if there are consequences which you cannot control, they may well occur immediately. Incidentally, the red means 'rage', not some kind of weird demon possession

Turn 15

Silver heads west.

Flames heads east, and attempts to use his talisman to determine where the magical energy is coming from. He is drawn to a small pile of around 10 rocks, but he's going to have to check them individually somehow to find the correct one. He's also getting really cold now and will need to warm up next turn.

Eaten sprints as fast as he can to the west, but must have run into some kind of singularity en route, because he only ends up 2 areas further on than he was before. Looks like there's no way around that particular mechanic at the small cave. He arrives

Splits moves west and arrives at the cairn. He too gets the (now familiar) sense of magic emanating from the rocks, but it passes quickly.

"i don't understand it should have worked we were calm...... Well...I don't know if that was a spell or not, but is was interesting. Now who's our resident corpse desecrator?. Finds and Turtles set about harvesting useful parts from the snake. Finds very carefully attempts to remove the poison glands from the snake, which is tricky. He messes up one of them, but manages to get the other one out in one piece and gains a [Snake Poison Gland] and collects the [Snake Skull]. It will take a bit of work to turn into a bracer, but should be possible to do in a couple of turns. Alternatively, he could keep it as it is and use it as a slightly morbid glove puppet. Turtles uses his centipede jaw to skin the snake and gains a [Snake Skin]. It will take him a bit of time to craft it into a useful item, but should certainly be possible. Questions tries to judge the depth of the river, but can't see the bottom. He gets the distinct impression that attempting to enter such cold, deep, dark and fast flowing water would be best left to stronger swimmers than the goblins... The river is indeed impassable. Travels gives up chasing Eaten and walks all the way back to the berry bush. He doesn't have time to do anything else this turn though. --------------

[Snake Poison Gland]: Snake poison. Causes 1HP damage per turn for 3 turns; can be applied to potions or weapons. One use. [Snake Skull]: Skull and fangs from a berrybush snake [Snake skin]: Skin from a berrybush snake

Turn 16

Silver heads west into a brand new area. He finds himself on the edge of a ridiculously high cliff overlooking a vast ice field below. To the north, he can see another outlook at the base of a towering cliff, but right now he's getting cold and needs to warm himself up a bit.

Eaten is equally intrepid, heading south towards the forest again. It's new, but it's not very exciting...

Burned curses the cold while dancing around to warm up, and gets so carried away with it that the rock-picking has to wait until next turn.

Splits goes as far west as he can and reaches the boring area with two rocks.

The corpse-desecrating team is hard at work back at the berry bush. Turtles turns the snake skin into a crude (but ever-so-1980s) belt as a memento of his first-ever magic use. It uses up all of the snake skin. He also realises that using his magic cost him 1MP which hasn't restored itself yet (which was totally because of the rage and absolutely nothing to do with the GM forgetting to mention it... <ahem> :shifty:). Finds starts working on his snake skull bracer, but it's a more complex item than a belt so is taking a bit longer to finish. He should be able to get it finished by next turn though. Travels picks 3 [Berry Bush Berries] and adds them to water in the flask before stating, "Need Help..." and pointing SW. Questions becomes mezmerised by the river depths and spaces out completely. ----------------

ITEM: [Snake Belt]: Purely decorative, but awfully fetching!

Turn 17

Burned scoops up 5 of the 10 rocks as best he can (including the slightly square one which he has developed a (not at all inappropriate) fondness for and wobbles off south with them. He is delighted to notice that he carries the feeling of familiarity with him into a warmer area. Now he can check the rocks and not worry about freezing to death at the same time! Over ESP he helpfully recaps the potion ingredients to the rest of the group, "Travels, why did you put those three berries in there? We're trying to brew a medicine, and I do not think that it's one of the ingredients." "Anyways, we still need a lot of ingredients... The only thing that's in there that we need is the mineral water. We still need moss, ice berries, a brown mushroom, 3 beetles and some kind of heat force. Fire! Fire should be what we look for next." "Anyways, guys, if you have some healing moss pass it to Travels so he can add it to the flask to make medicine."

"i am so close i swear this could help us all if i understood it" Turtles settles down on a rock and meditates again. He recovers his MP and is back to 2/2MP. Unfortunately he doesn't really learn much more about his magic than he already knew, although he is aware that there is an overall sense of balance in the environment. Maybe if he could find someone to help teach him a bit more about it, or just practice a bit more and learn through trial and error? "I am sorry, Travels, give me a moment to finish this. It is almost completed." FindsTruth continues working and makes himself a kickass [Snakeskull Bracer]! Hellz yeah! Travels, perhaps offended that no-one wants to help him this turn, spaces out.

Eaten continues his intrepid explorations to the west and also finds himself at a cliff edge overlooking the ice fields. There is another weird fruit tree here, but getting to it is going to be *really* difficult and involve climbing over that precarious and slippery rock. One false move could see an unlucky goblin falling to their deaths down there... Maybe he should get some equipment for this? A rabbit sneaks in behind him.

Splits intrepidly heads west as well and finds himself at the cliff edge where he appears to have stumbled upon a shit-ton of rabbits and a rather large warren. The tan one seems to be watching him... Somewhere over the ESP he feels Eaten shudder in horror. Off the edge of the cliff he can see the ice fields far below and the mountains in the distance. To the north he can see the area where Silver is warming himself up.

Like so!

Questions snaps out of his reverie with a vague feeling that checking the river depth somehow took 4 days of his life. Weird. He hurries west and gets to the cairn where he feels the magical aura from the stones surround him. ---------------

[Snakehead Bracer]: +1ATT. 10% chance of breaking on impact.

Turn 18

Travels comes back to his senses, exclaiming, "Fuza Ne'hama!" "Bettle..." "I'm waiting for you..." "Alright, alright Travels. Let's go." And points south-west again. Turtles goes to follow Travels, but he doesn't move anywhere so they just stay at the bush.

Finds takes the initiative and heads south-west on his own to reach the log.

"Also, I know it's you rock. I saw that it was you from the very first look. Now, you and a buddy are coming with me." Burned drops the rocks, then takes 'his' [Pet Rock] and another one and moves west, where the magic feeling disappears. Damn, looks like he left the cairn stone behind.

Questions heads towards the warren and gets as far as the boring area with 2 rocks.

Silver heads back to the small pile of stones. Now that Burned has moved some of the rocks, he no longer feels any magic emanating in this area. Much more interesting things are happening at the warren... Splits stares back at the tan rabbit. (It blinks! Hooray! Splits wins!) Moving with kind of extreme caution that most goblins would use when approaching a sleeping owlbear, he slowly moves over to one of the rabbit holes and peers in. It's dark, but there appear to be rabbits in there. He's not totally sure what else he was expecting. Looking around at the rabbits, he isn't quite sure why Eaten gets so worked up about them...

So cute! Eaten meanwhile is gradually coming to a decision with some encouragement from the chief...

"Well Eaten, this is obviously it. You must face your destiny." "I'm just kidding mate, chill out! You've got your amulet, you could kill all of the little bastards at the same time if you wanted to. And it's not like they will actually try to eat ya. I think." Gripping his amulet, he charges north to the warren and is horrified by the sight.

Needless to say, he and Splits have rather different views about rabbits. "Must....run....away........" ".....No! Chief is right! If I don't face my destiny now, I'll be living in fear for the rest of my life." "Alright you monsters, come and get some."

He storms in amongst the rabbits and activates the amulet! It's ...sort-of effective... The rabbits immediately next to the force are killed outright, and many more appear stunned by the blast. All unaffected rabbits appear to be terror-stricken and flee into the warren. Well, almost all. That tan rabbit is still here...

After a brief lull in the battle, the tan rabbit stamps a rhythm on the ground and the warren erupts around the startled goblins! Eaten lashes out at the creatures as best he can, but he is quickly overwhelmed and completely cut from Splits who is held back by a separate large contingent. Held down by the tiny, terrifying beasts, Eaten struggles vainly to break free as the tan rabbit and another, very large brown rabbit approach. The tan rabbit jams something in his mouth that

tastes vaguely like carrots and rabbit poop which makes his head reel. After a moment, the brown rabbit hope onto his chest and speaks to Eaten's mind... "So my scouts tell the truth! You have returned, evil one, bending another pitiful hunter to your will... So be it, we must end this once and for all. "Eep!" You, hunter - can you understand me yet?" "Who, me?" Yes you! Now listen. The amulet you carry contains the spirit of great evil which will destroy all rabbit-kind if set free. Our kind defeated it once in the great cabbage-patch wars of 150 generations ago in lands far from here and the amulet was buried. However, my kind cannot touch the cursed thing so we cannot destroy it on our own and it seems you have brought it back to end us once and for all. This cannot be allowed to happen. So here's your deal, hunter. If you help us destroy the spirit contained within that amulet we will not only let you live, but we will reward you with one of our most powerful weapons. Do you agree? I assume you realise this is not really a request... ---------------------[Pet Rock]: Very loyal, but pretty slow...

Turn 19
Where were we? Ah yes... the rabbits! And chaos!

"Oh dear god what? Damnit! Hold on Eaten, I'm coming!" "Back ye foul beasts! Eaten, hang on, I'm here!" Chief Burned responds badly to the rabbits threatening one of his own, and wielding his trusty, faithful pet rock above his head charges to the rescue just as Questions also appears from the east. Questions however is more interested in the philosophical implications of finding a warren that seems somehow mystically linked to Eaten's fate. It's almost like someone planned this "CHIEF, WAIT!" "Help my clan mate... Play with the bunnies... help clan mate... play with bunnies... Eh, their just bunnies, no harm in pla... did that rabbit just shove poop in Eaten's mouth? Aww, that's nasty. Hmm, how to help... Ah, I know.

HOLY CRAP! IT'S FARMER BROWN! RUN!"

One rabbit is startled enough by Splits's outburst that it trips backwards over a small pebble. It might just be the most adorable thing he's ever seen. "....just......wait a minute..."

-Gulp"..." "Squueeeek, squeek, <click> squeeeek?"* "ee ee ee ee eee ee eeeee! Squeek squeeeeken squeek squeek. squeek squeek." "Squeek." His clanmates are now pretty convinced that Eaten has lost his mind in the trauma. Still, they decide to make the best of things and play with the bunnies while they wait for Eaten to stop rabbiting on (see what I did there? ).

In a slightly less insane part of the forest, Turtles, FindsTruth and Travels have managed to get themselves to the same place at the same time and get to work on the log. Unfortunately, it's still too heavy for them to move on their own, but it feels like it's starting to give way. One more goblin helper should do the trick. Travels takes the berries out of the flask and harvests some moss. Now the flask only contains water.

Silver continues on towards the cairn and gets as far as the babbling mountain spring. ----------[spoiler]Hooray! You've regrouped and I don't have to draw 8 different pictures while hungover! read on:[/spoiler] Also, if you're wondering what Eaten and the rabbit said,

*TRANSLATION: ......alright. Say I agree to this. Say...that I help you...destroy the amulet. There's just one thing I want.....though that ultimate weapon thing sounds pretty good too." "......if I agree, and kill whatever's in this thing...then I want your word that no rabbit will ever harm me. Ever. Again." "Ever." "..." "......so......" "Do we have a deal?" "Ahhahahahahahahaha! No rabbit will harm YOU again? Hunter, you showed up here in OUR hills and started murdering my cousins without even having the decency to eat them like a normal hunter would. Still, if you were driven by fear I suppose that explains things a bit. Still makes you kind of a dick though...

"Anyway. Yes, fine we agree to your ridiculous deal. BUT, until you succeed, I'll be having you watched by a special squadron who have apparently developed a minor resistance to the amulet. We found that out right now when you tried to commit genocide Anyway, if you try to kill them, we'll use the Ultimate Weapon against you and your pack instead. When you least expect it! Mwah hahahahaha! Right then, off you go! "Wait, what? What the hell am I supposed to do?" "It should work if we release the spirit back into the bodies of the hunters from land, water, sky and spirit. But we need some kind of... token from these creatures for the ritual to work." ---------------------------

Turn 20

Questions attempts to introduce Pterry to a rabbit. They squeak and click* at each other for a moment before the rabbit hops off. "Er...ok. I may need a little bit more than just that. For example, where can I find these spirits? And what are they like? Are they peaceful, or will they try to kill me on sight or something? And ......sorry, about the whole.....attempted genocide.....thing. But...well....my name is Eaten-By-Rabbits....and, y'know, goblin destinies....and all that......" "Really, that's your name? Heh! You hunters are a strange lot! Anyway look, don't worry about the spirit stuff for now. Just fetch the other tokens and we'll deal with that when you get back. Anyway, duty calls! The brown rabbit hops off and is followed by most of the others. "Yup. Kid lost his mind." "Wait a second, is he getting rabbit pets? Oh well... Mr. Rock is still better anyways." "Okay guys, I'm going to check out that cave. Those of you that have enough to take down some grues which are probably inside that place, accompany me! Yes, I'm joking, there aren't any grues there." "Just a bear or two at most." "Hey, Chief. Long story, but the rabbits are (sort of) our friends now, and a couple

are just tagging along until I can do.....something.....for them......" "Anyway, we can probably just ignore them for now - they're only here for........insurance." "D'awww... silly little dumbass rabbit. Okay then, where we headed again?" Splits collects up the tiny fluffy bunny corpses and then follows Burned and Eaten east.

Once there, the goblins go to investigate the cave, but it's only big enough for one. The others bravely let their Chief go first... "We've totally got your back Chief!" "Yeah, right behind you!" Crawling, head first into a dark, dingy cave full of god-only-knows what terrible creatures...

Oh cool, it's only mushrooms! It smells pretty pungent in here...

Back at the log, the goblin team decide they've spent quite long enough in each others company and split up again. "Well, this has been less than productive..." Finds investigates inside the dead log and finds quite the insecty ecosystem inside. It's full of spiders, beetles, grubs, bugs and all kinds of tasty creatures, and

not a giant centipede in sight!

Turtles hands his moss to Travels then heads north to meditate beside the cairn. Almost at once he is assaulted by a powerful stream of energy coming from the stones, which start to resolve themselves into a pattern. Focussing using his newfound magical abilities, he is able to make sense of the message... It seems like something is trying to show him something... Something that it wants very badly...

Hmm...

"Barsu", says Travels as he points west. Then he heads off to the dead tree.

Silver watches the babbling brook and spaces out completely. ------------------------OBSIDIAN PORTAL NEWS: Starting to work on an Obsidian Portal page for this game so you can track what you have / maps etc. We'll see how helpful it is, but the link over is:http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/lair-of-the-mountainking. I've invited a few folk who I know are already signed up, and if the rest of

you would like to give it a go please do. I'm still trying to work out how to use it properly, but if you let me know your username I'll add you to the campaign. *TRANSLATION: ""Hey" "'Sup? Whatcha doing with the blue thing?" ""Dunno really. Got picked up and put in a really big empty space for a while, then I got shoved at you. Could be worse though, at least it's warm. ""Huh. The big things are weird. Oops, warren business calls! Best be off! Say hi to Fred if you see him! "Will do! See you"

Turn 21

Burned picks all the mushrooms and gains: [2x Red Mushrooms, 2x Brown Mushrooms, 2x Yellow Mushrooms]. He also takes a bit of the [green and red mossy stuff] for good measure. He also notices that there are little tiny baby mushrooms growing here, so hopefully there will be more big ones to harvest again soon. Much to his surprise, he isn't attacked by some random fungus monster, and he leaves the cave and heads east. Splits waits for the Chief to come back out the cave, all the while keeping an eye on the rabbit. It hops off after Eaten - must be one of his new guards. Questions and Pterry gleefully gallavant in from the west.

Eaten heads east, picks up the rightmost rock and carries on east again. He gets as

far as the stream.

Silver finally arrives at the cairn again, where he finds Turtles meditating. Although Turtles certainly feels it much more acutely, there is an almost overwhelming sense of desperation and desire emanating from the stones.Turtles can sense the energies are now almost entirely focussed on the rock in Eaten's hands.

Finds grabs himself a tasty, juicy grub of some description while he rummages around the log waiting for Travels. He also collects [3x Beetles] and pops them in his inventory. Oooh! Tickly! He waits for Travels for a really long time, but he's unfortunately spaced out again so nothing happens... ---------------

[Mushrooms & Moss]: Ingredients. Can be cooked and used in potions. One use; different colours have different effects. [Beetles]: Tasty snack! Also, ingredients (same as above). LOTMK on Obsidian Portal

Turn 22

Burned heads over to the dead tree where he finds Travels has succesfully found himself another (completely unique and not copy-pasted) [Dead Branch].

Splits & Questions rush east to reach the cairn where they suspect some interesting shit might be going down. Pterry looks like his little reptilian mind is being thoroughly blown by the speed they are moving. They run as far as the spring and will arrive at the cairn next turn.

Over at the cairn, Silver climbs up the rocks to see if there's any way to get further north than they've already been... "Maybe if we went over there... then the ridge... up the waterfall... hmmm... Yeah, that should do it!", he thinks to himself. Yup, looks like walking there should do the trick. Meanwhile, FindsTruth and Eaten arrive to *finally* restore the cairn to its former glory. Turtles meditates, ready to act as a conduit for the cairn-magic and the others as Eaten carefully places the stone back onto the pile...

Nothing happens. Oh wait, yes it does!

The four goblins are thrown backwards by a blast of powerful magic which knocks Silver off the cairn and batters Turtles straight out of his meditative state. Silver loses 1HP from the fall, and Turtles loses all his MP (2MP). Suddenly a very loud, very excited girly voice explodes in their heads:

"Ah hahahahahah! You did it! You repaired the stones! You have noooooo idea how long it's been since that horrible dwarf tried to dismantle my memorial and 'release my spirit'. I TRIED to explain I still had a job to do, but noooooooo he wouldn't listen and he managed to steal that little rock and tried to break the enchantments on me. I smited him good for that one, but I've not been able to speak to ANYONE in forever and I was soooooooo worried that whenever the clan came back I wouldn't be able to guide you like I was supposed to, but you did!! Yay! Will you stay and talk to me for a while? ...It's been sooo lonely being up here by myself for so long... You don't need to worry about speaking though, silver guy, I can hear you fine if you just think stuff. So the mystic spirit is a youngling. Wonderful. ------------------------[Dead Branch]: +1ATT. 50% chance of breaking on impact. I like to imagine that all the 'i's in the new girl's speech are dotted with little love hearts -------------------------

Turn 23

Chief Burned decides that speaking to the being at the cairn is sadly more important than collecting firewood just now, so he chooses to delegate the task to Travels... It doesn't go down too well. "Bu- But fire... Sigh. Leader duty calls." "Na'he Naboo Nacka Losa Nacka Frota..."* "Speak common if you want me to understand what your saying mate. Though by the way you said it I'm not sure if I want to know." "Anyways, I'd do it myself, but we need a fire for brewing that potion. And did you remove those berries out of there yet? Thanks." Sensing some degree of confusion over the status of the potion, the benevolent (heh!) GM provides a handy diagram for charting your progress. It will be updated whenever you change the ingredients or alter the potion. Calling it a 'potion' is somewhat generous at the moment.

The 2 goblins head off in different directions, but no-one collects any firewood. Again.

Burned gets as far as the mountain spring.

Travels heads over to the log to collect [three more beetles], even though Finds already collected some earlier**. Ah well, you can never have too many beetles!

Up at the cairn, there is faaaaar too much excitement about the appearance of a giant, mysterious, sparkly pink goblin girl for anyone to give a rat's ass about the potion right now. Splits and Questions arrive just as the others are starting to ask the strange new creature their questions. Turtles settles down to try and use his magic senses to read the creatures 'mojo', but the powers that be aren't particularly sure what mojo he is referring to. However, he gets a very strong feeling of happiness eminating from the creature, but also senses a deep sadness and loneliness beneath. The girl seems to be a

spirit and... it's hard to say, but it seems like she's been here a really long time... There's something else strange as well, but he's having trouble working out what it is... The others begin to ask their questions. "Wow, giant purple guy. Did not see that comeing. Hiya!" Ew! I'm not a guy, stupid!! I'm a girl! "Errrrr.....hi? So, I guess you're some sort of guardian, or something?" <sigh> Do you not listen? I TOLD you, I'm a GUIDE! Not a guardian. Guardians ask stupid questions and are serious and soooo BORING! Hey you're not a guardian are you? You definitely seem the type. I bet your name is Asks-Stupid-Questions too! Uuuuhhhh... no... I'm Eaten-by-Rabbits... "Sooooo anyway ...How long have you been here? What do you mean by guide us?" A flicker of sadness crosses the spirit's face for an instant and she suddenly looks very young... ...I.... don't remember how long it's been... I was really young when they left me here but... Look, that's none of your business! What matters is that you are goblins and I have to help guide you back to the city so you can get rid of that horrible monster that's taken over in there. Of course, I can't just let any old group of mongrels wander around the mountain - I need to see proof that you are from our clan. Don't you have a weaver with you or something or is it really just you lot? "Who are you, and how can you hear my thoughts?" About time someone asked! My name is... my name... I don't remember... You can call me Princess Sparkles! Everyone always said I'd be a great weaver one day, because I was so good at learning! That's why they brought me here and made me into a guide, because I was so good and smart with magic! ... I wish they didn't have to leave me here on my own though... It's cold up here and I miss my friends... Hey, will you be my new friends? I bet you will! And of course I can hear your thoughts! I'm a spirit stupid, it's not like I have ears or working vocal chords any more. How else would I talk to you? Gods! Don't you knowANYTHING? ?

-------I think I love Princess Sparkles OBSIDIAN PORTAL NEWS: FYI, I've been updating the Items page a bit, so if you've forgotten what your stuff is / does check it out. It's not quite complete as yet, but you can see what you're carrying in the Character pages and can always ask me if something's not up yet. *TRANSLATION: "Listen you son of a retarded, syphilitic donkey who was raped by a midget Orc, find someone else, I'm still working on this damn troll medicine you wanted...find someone else to go bang rocks together and make fire. Lead damn you...Lead!" Oh my! **M0rt made a pretty good ingredients summary a turn or two ago - might be worth recapping to avoid collecting multiple ingredients. Also, you can check what everyone's carrying on the 'Character' pages over at Obsidian Portal: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/lair-of-the-mountain-king. I update it every turn or two so will be pretty up-to-date.

Turn 24

The conversation continues up at the cairn, but Travels has absolutely no interest in deceased younglings and heads back to the dead tree in his endless quest for firewood.

"...What's a weaver? If you mean magic user, well, EnviesTurtles over there seems to have picked some up from a magic ring...Sort of. It's not working quite right yet. The Chief should be here soon. He has the Clan Talisman...Would that prove who we are?" Right on cue, Burned appears and joins in. "Greetings... Princess Sparkles."

"I feel sorry for your loneliness. It must be terrible to have been, well, imprisoned for so long. If there is any way that we can help, say so." "That being said, I am chief Burned-By-Flames, leader of the Clan of the Mountain Halls. This is our clan talisman, is it enough proof?" "And finally, whilst I would love to stay and chat... I believe that time is of the essence if what you say is true, and the remains of our old clan still live- even if terrorized by some kind of monster. So, please, help us in any way you can." "Oh, and for you other guys who have nothing else to do, get working on that potion! Travels is doing well on it, bring him ingredients if you have them! Or go and make some fire, since he didn't look like he wanted to do it. Pretty, pretty fire." Really? YOU'RE the Chief? And none of you know who the Weavers are? This is going to be MUCH harder than I thought. It must have been a really REALLY long time since we left the mountain if none of you remember the weavers or even have a simple magical understanding... Unless you're all just really stupid... But yes, the weavers are... WERE our most powerful magic users who could manipulate energy better than anyone else. They used to be soooo strong you know, and they said I would be just like them one day... Anyway, that amulet proves you are at least part of the old clan so I suppose I have to help you. I was really hoping you'd be more heroic looking, but I guess you'll have to do. Everyone else pretty much ignores the Chief's request for fire and continue asking questions. Except Splits who starts asking about firewood... Sorry, my bad. We need to make a fire, do you know where there's some good firewood? Or something we could use to chop down a tree? Or a magic weapon making forge? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You wander around on the edge of a FOREST for gods know how long and you're asking where you can find WOOD? Do I really need to explain this to you? Hang on, I'll draw you a picture...

Follow? Right. As for forges, there used to be an armoury up in the old Halls, but if you want to make magic weapons you need to learn how to use magic like the old smiths used to. You could probably make ordinary stuff if you wanted but, well, why would you? "Hey Truths before today i didn't even know i was capable of using magic. But yeah if you have any pointers sparkles I wouldn't mind a little tutoring my head still hurts from you intro. Also i don't mean to pry but i sensed something strange about you, is there something your not telling us??" Of COURSE there's stuff I'm not telling you! I'm an ancient bloody spirit with all the memories and stories and stuff same as everyone and we've been chatting for about five minutes, so OBVIOUSLY you don't know everything about me. Anyway, I haven't decided if I like you yet so stop being so nosy. As for your magic, it seems like you've at least tried to give it a go and I do HAVE to help you... So, I suppose, if anyone wants to learn how to start using magic like this green guy, I can teach you that. It will take about... three turns if I teach you. You can try and figure it out by yourselves anywhere you like, but it'll be MUCH

harder since you won't have the benefit of my brilliance. Course, if you can get into the right state of mind it usually goes a bit quicker too. Mushrooms are good for that. Once you're as good as the green guy (lol!) I can explain a bit more about how it all works, but you're really not going to get any better if you don't practice. Meditation and theory only go so far after all. Sometimes you just need to start smiting stuff! But I will try and answer your questions. As long as they're not TOTALLY stupid. "I greet you, Princess Sparkles. Can we actually take you with us? Or is your power seated in the rocks which make up this pile? Certainly I would welcome your companionship. I may not be isolated in space and time as you were, but it is certainly good to be able to speak to someone for the first time. But I think most important of all; what are you going to guide us to?" Princess Sparkles seems momentarily surprised by the idea... You want me to come with you? Really? I didn't think... Well I don't know... Wait! I know! It'll be difficult though... At the very bottom of the cairn is a little engraved box with a bone in it. That's what ties my energies to the cairn. If I put all my energy into that bone, you could carry me about, but I'd be much weaker and I wouldn't be able to speak to you all the time. Also, I probably couldn't teach you magic properly that way, it would be more like I could answer a couple of questions every so often which is NO good for learning. If you want to learn about magic first and THEN take me with you that would be fun, don't you think? It'll be like a proper adventure! "Errrr....sorry if I offended you?" "Since you seem to know a lot about the area, you wouldn't happen to know anything about any elemental spirits, would you? Only, I'm supposed to find them for some reason........" Elemental spirits? There ARE some living in the mountain, but what do you want them for? It's not anything to do with those rabbits and that thing round your neck is it? I dont' know what they've got you doing, but I can tell you right now it's

got nothing to do with elemental spirits. That rabbit will probably keep you right though, maybe you should just ask him? Questions spaces out. ------------------

Turn 25

"Would we be able to restore your power if we removed you from the rocks? Or would you be diminished forever? I certainly would not want to do that to you. Also, would you be able to train me to use my voice without destroying things? Well, I don't really know what would happen to me but it's SOOOO BOOOORING here I'm willing to risk it. How bad can it be? Anyway, if you bring the bone shard back here and rebuild the cairn I should be able to return to my full strength. But someone would need to bring the bone back here, so I'd be trusting you not to all die out here or leave me somewhere stupid. ... As for your voice, I'm really sorry but I don't think I can help you. I can teach you how to use magic same as the others, cos that doesn't need you to speak but your voice is something different. There used to be ancient powers in the Mountain Halls though that might be able to help if you can get to them. "Yeah, I suppose 'elemental spirits' isn't really the right name for them - the brown rabbit called them "bodies of the hunters from land, water, sky and spirit"? I'm supposed to collect 'tokens' from them, for some sort of ritual or something. I suppose it's fine if you don't know anything about it though. As for the magic thing: Yes please! I've always liked the idea of being a magic user - no way for anyone to truely disarm you if you've got magic at your finger tips." "Chief, what else do we need that we don't already have? Snow berries? Has anyone seen something like that around? Anyway, I would like to learn magic. It

would help me find out whats going on around here... I am FindsTruth, by the way." Finds and Eaten settle down to learn magic from Princess Sparkles while the others head off to complete other tasks. "Ok, settle down and make yourselves comfortable and empty your minds of all thought..." "Okay. Thank you for your help Sparkles. Maybe I'll come back later to learn, but for now I'm going to help with getting that potion crafted. I'd say that anyone who is interested stay here and learn. I'll come back later, learn as well, and then we will retrieve that relic, so you can accompany us. I think that will be a much better thing then to keep you left behind here." "Eaten, if you could give me some of those berries you have? I'll be going to the trolls and ask them if it's the berries needed for the medicine. If not, I'll ask them where we could find those." "Sure, Chief. Here."

Burned receives the three berries from Eaten and heads up to the trolls, where it is still cold. "Aboud tibe. Where's our cure?"

"We're working on it now, don't worry! Are these the right berries we need?" "Yuck! <cough> Where did you find that thing? <Aaaatchoooo> Ice berries grown on ice bushes, which grow out of ice. Kinda thought that even a bunch of goblins could have worked that out... I guess those aren't the right berries.

"smite stuff you say?? Well, thanks princess good luck with this lot" "Well, okay then. Dink." Splits, Turtles and Questions head south to look for sticks. They find plenty, but these are all fresh and really wet. They could try and store them somewhere dry for a while until they dry out, or try and collect some dead wood.

Travels is more successful and collects [dry sticks and kindling] which should

make a nice little fire, and sticks it all in his inventory space. Then he moves north and reaches the boring bit with two rocks. -----------------------[Dry sticks and kindling]: A ready-to-light campfire. Will last 3 turns.

Turn 26
Welcome back and Happy New Year to everyone who's playing / lurking! Let's get this game going again shall we?

Finds and Eaten continue learning. Silver and Splits arrive and settle down nearby to start learning too. "Relax your minds and allow the patterns of energy to form in your minds. Don't reach out to them yet, just follow them and learn their movements..." "Psst, Voice guy and purple ears - you'll need to wait till these guys are finished before I can start teaching you. Shouldn't be too long, but I can't teach two classes at once... Also, don't worry about me voice guy. If you lot really are the last of this clan I expect you could probably do with my help and if you all die I doubt anyone else will be coming after you. So no pressure or anything, but I expect you're the clan's last hope anyway." Damn. Seems like they'll have to wait until Finds and Eaten are finished their lessons before they can be taught.

Back at the wet trees, Questions continues to quest for branches. Assuming that means he wants to pick up some wet branches, it's super effective! Questions collects: [Wet branches]. Turtles comments to no-one in particular that the cave to the northeast might contain something useful or smiteable. "maybe there be something in the cave that could be useful or i can try kill with my magic".

Burned chats to the trolls a bit more. "Well, we have not yet encountered any bush of such kind. Do you perhaps know where we could find such a bush then?"

"There's usually a few <aaaatchoooo!> along the <hack> cliffs <cough> to the <ah> to the <aaah> to the <aaaaatchoo!> north. I'd try there <sniiiifffff>.

Burned heads north where it is very cold and finds himself at the base of a huge cliff. The amulet begins to tremble slightly, but he's going to need to warm up next turn or else take damage. It would be soooo nice if they could find some warm clothes or something...

Since there are no caves uphill (north), Travels heads west and looks in the mushroom cave.

Seems like it'll be a bit longer before any decent sized mushrooms grow back. There's still plenty of that red and green mossy stuff though. ------------------EDIT: Reminder that the game reverts to its normal schedule tonight. Update 27 will go up in approximately 10 hours. NOTICE: Guys, could you please try and be as specific with your actions if possible! I had to guess what a couple of you were wanting to do this turn, and obviously that's no good for you if I guess wrong. If you could try and stick to N, S, E, W or up, down, left and right with your directions too that would be a big help. Cheers!

Wet branches: Must be dried out before they can be burnt.

Turn 27
"Allow yourself to become one with the energies of the mountain... Feel them become a part of yourself. Know that you are merely an extension of the powers of the mountain and they are an extension of you, ready to be bent to your own purposes, but never forced. Imagine what you want to achieve and allow the energies to follow their own path to achieve what you want." As the goblins sit under the cairn listening to Princess Sparkles softly speaking instructions in their minds, they begin to understand what she is talking about... As she continues to speak, softly and gently, the goblins know that they are a part of something greater than themselves, and that all things in the mountain are bound together, from the insects in the ground to the birds in the sky and those bonds can be manipulated... Suddenly, as though a veil has been lifted, they understand.

Eaten and Finds have become Novice Magicians and now have 1MP each. Also, even though I totally forgot to mention it at the time, Turtles's MP has restored itself over time and he is back up to 2/2MP. It took 3 turns for each MP to regenerate. Honest. :nervous: "Hellz yeah! I knew I was good, but I still wasn't sure if I was good enough to train a bunch of losers like you lot are, but I am! Hahaha! Ok, that's all the training you lot need for now, but if you want to know any more, I'll teach you some basic theory and answer some questions about how you're supposed to actually USE your magic now you've got the fundamentals down. Or, if any of your other

friends want to learn from me, the maestro of magic, tell them to pop over and I'll see what I can do.

At the cliff, Burned does his warm-me-up dance and feels much better. The amulet starts to tremble more vigorously against his chest.

Turtles and Silver head north, but are stopped at the small cliff by the angry snow beast that Burned woke up earlier on. It stands and snarls aggressively at the goblins but doesn't attack. Yet.

Splits makes it back to the river bank. Questions is so pleased with his sticks that he spaces out, while Travels spaces out with his head in the mushroom cave. He starts to feel a bit high from the weird smells... --------------

Turn 28

Burned ignores his amulet's tremblings and heads east to a brand new area and finds himself at the mouth of a cave... Sounds like something is snoring inside.

Silver and Turtles look at the monster and then at each other. Silver nods and takes Turtles's centipede fang. It is on! "lets see what magic can do" Turtles focuses all his energy on harming the creature. Suddenly, he feels a searing pain in his chest as the energy is released (-1MP) and he loses 1HP. It seems to affect the creature at least though, which yelps in pain at the attack. Silver leaps forward, slashing with the makeshift blade, but he can't get

through the creature's thick fur. The snowbeast manages to hit him though, and does 1DAM. Both goblins are starting to feel the cold and will need to warm up soon or take damage.

A little further south and Princess Sparkles starts to explain some more about how to use magic. "So, what types of magic are there, exactly? And how do they work, in general?" "Using magic is pretty easy really once you get the knack. Soooo easy that even you (yes, even you!) can probably manage it without killing yourselves in the process, but there aren't TYPES of magic, stupid! It's all just MAGIC you know? The thing you need to remember is that casting spells is all about MANIPULATING the natural energies around you. You can't just say 'I'm going to cast a fireball' and WHOOSH! there's a fireball! If you want to cast a fireball you need to take the energy from somewhere first. If you can't find an external source, like a (really big) fire or something then you'll basically be using your own energies as the source for the spell and that's a pretty quick way to end up dead... Actually... ...Yup, the green dude just did exactly that. Moron. Magic is just a way of moving energy around: you can do ANYTHING you want, but every spell you cast has a

consequence and has to be paid for. Also, don't bite off more than you can chew. You're only novices, so don't start trying to channel the energy of the sun or something idiotic. Start small and go from there. Make sense? "Is it possible for you to teach me any magic of divining the Truth in someone statements, or finding a desired object?" "Well, that's... less stupid than I was expecting for question time... Finding STUFF is easy if it's magical cos you just follow its energy until you find it. 'Truth' isn't exactly an energy though is it? I suppose you could force your will on someone if you really tried, but you'd have to be prepared to pay the price of that."

Travels meanwhile heads back towards the cairn and gets to the mountain spring.

Splits checks the river bank for flint, but all the stones here are smooth and rounded. Good for throwing, but useless for starting fires cutting things with. He heads west again towards the cairn.

Questions checks the log, but it's soaking wet and rotten and is no good for drying out anything. ----------

Turn 29

The goblins gear up for a showdown with the snow beast, but then all change their minds at the last minute and scarper off to do other things. All of them except Questions and Finds that is, who bravely face down the monster alone. Questions attempts to use a wet stick to attack the creature, but it's no more effective than using his bare hands and he can't get through its defence. Finds has a little more luck and uses 1MP to draw some of the coldness from the snow around him and drive it into the snowbeast. The snow around Finds's feet melts as the temperature increases, and the beast growls in pain as the magical coldness hits it. It looks like it's nearly dead, but it's not out yet and manages to hit Finds for 1DAM, bringing him down to 3/5HP.

Silver reluctantly flees south to warmer climes with Turtles, who uses his

remaining 1MP to draw the life energy out of the grass at his feet. He manages to regain 1HP, but the grass around him withers and dies. The ninja rabbit is visibly upset and drums a complex beat on the ground with its hind foot. Eaten continues to probe Princess Sparkles about using magic, "Ah, I see......what about manipulating physical things, like earth, water, or air? Does that involve transferring movement energy, and if yes, how exactly does that work? Also is it possible to convert energy - turn fire to lightning, light to sound, that sort of thing?" "Well, it depends on the situation really... Air is the easiest to manipulate because you just need to alter the natural movements of the wind and there's nothing to stop it. Water is a bit harder, but can be done, and moving the earth will take a LOT of power because there's so much resistance there naturally. But that's if you want to shift the really big stuff - if you just want to throw a small rock, but can't be bothered using your arms, then you can mess around with the gravity near the rock. Every time you use a different type of energy, you need to spend more MP on the spell though, so try and keep things simple when you can." "Ok, last things you need to know... Ummm... Ok. If you need to store energy to use later on, you can, but you need something to store it in. In my time, we used to use special metals.. They were kind of... well, SHINY, I guess. I don't really know how else to describe them, but different types were better than others... Hey, like that ring the green guy has - that's one! Some fabrics could store magic too, but... Bah! It was SUCH a long time ago I can't remember properly...! Oh well, you'll just have to work that stuff out yourselves. "Oh right, one last thing. Sometimes it's worth combining your powers to cast one really big spell. It takes a bit longer because you have to focus on each other's energies before you can start on the spell, but it can be worth it if you do it right..." Splits arrives and starts looking for a stone he can work into a sharp edge. "Psssst! Over that way!"

In a remarkable display of helpfulness, Princess Sparkles points him to a likely looking pile of stones and he finds a few that look suitable. Splits chooses one, then sits down and begins to work on sharpening the stone into a sharp edge. It's slow going, but he makes a start. Travels also arrives at the cairn and waits to start learning about magic. "You guys next, huh? Well, if you want to try... Are we ready to begin?"

Up at the cliff, Burned decides that fighting the snow beast is not worth it at the moment and heads east to explore a bit further, where he finds another berry bush. He's getting cold again though and will need to warm up next turn or take damage. -------------------

EDIT: Ok, so it looks like Questions is getting hit in that image cos I messed up the colouring, but what is ACTUALLY happening is that he's been knocked out of the way while the beast charges at Finds. Totally, definitely what is happening there. No art errors to see here... None. :shifty: EDIT EDIT: Yes, Silver and Turtles are now warm.

Turn 30

Burned warms himself up, delighted in the knowledge that they have now found all the ingredients for the potion. Probably. Now... how to get up there?

To the south, Finds and Silver rejoin the battle with the snowbeast while Questions spaces out. The snowbeast manages to hit Finds again for another 1DAM, knocking him down to 2/5HP but the goblins combined attacks are enough to finally finish it off. The corpse is yours for the looting, but Finds and Questions are starting to get cold and will need to warm up next turn. The melted snow has frozen into ice.

At the cairn, Princess Sparkles is starting her next set of lessons with Travels and Splits. Travels spaces out again, but the others shove him into a seat and the lesson begins. "Relax... Clear your minds of all extraneous thoughts and emotions..." Eaten also spaces out while another couple of rabbits appear. They have what appears to be a quick conversation with the ninja rabbit then disappear again... Turtles discovers that meditating does indeed speed up his MP regeneration, and regains 1MP. --------------

Turn 31

Eaten makes his way east then north to meet up with Burned, and gets as far as the little cave. The tempting, tempting cave.

Turtles also heads towards the chief, but chooses to go via the large cave. Seems like whatever is inside is still sleeping at least.

Burned meanwhile, attempts to jump and climb his way towards the berry bush....

...but he slips mid-climb and lands awkwardly, losing 1HP and bringing him down to 2/5HP. Still if there's a reward for falling off stuff, he's got to be in the running!

At the cairn, Splits continues to learn, but he's having difficulty letting go of his annoyance towards Princess Sparkles. "Come on purple ears, focus on the sounds of the wind and the drops of rain... Let go of all your internal thoughts and emotions and feel the energies of the outside world weave around you..." Unfortunately it looks like Travels has completely spaced out to the point of falling asleep. He drools gently down his shoulder. Looks like he'll need to restart the lessons if he wants to learn anything... Finds hurries down from the north to warm up and feels much better once he reaches the others at the cairn.

To the north, Questions spaces out again and is getting really cold. He takes 1DAM from the effects of the cold and starts to shiver more violently. He is now at 3/5HP. Silver gets to work skinning the snowbeast and makes a bit of progress, but it will take a bit of time to finish. He starts to feel the cold though and will take damage next turn if he doesn't warm up soon. ------------

Turn 32

At the cairn, Splits continues to meditate, allowing the surrounding energies to fill his mind with colours and push away all thoughts of stupid, annoying Princess Sparkles. Well, almost all. As he allows his mind to drift, he can almost sense a pattern forming amongst the energies but it's so faint... Travels jerks awake beside him. "Rise and shine, purple guy! I think you relaxed too much!" "So, as some damn human warlock tried to inform me once, the energy of spells is derived from our surroundings...but as an old badger, the talking variety, once said that all matter is energy...so can I just take energy from a material to use in a spell?" "What the hell were you doing listening to a badger? They talk nothing but nonsense you know - the owls make them jealous and then they try and make themselves look smart by making up words like 'entropy' and 'thermodynamics'. It's a vicious spiral of nonsense, you shouldn't listen to THEM! ...Anyway, you can take energy from wherever you like really, but the stronger the source the easier it is to manipulate into something useful. Assuming that you have the ability to control it of course! You need more magic to take energies from a large area, or from a powerful source usually. * " "That was less than enjoyable...Princess, is it possible to heal oneself without doing damage to the surrounding wildlife?" "Well, you don't have to target the wildlife, but all spells have a price..."

Finds ponders her answer.

"God I'm an idiot." While Burned picks himself up, Eaten and Turtles prepare themselves for some GoblinStack TM action and whips off his snakeskin belt. "you know my stylish belt may be of use in this" Eaten focusses his attention on the icy air around him and uses his magic to try and direct a blast of wind at the berry bush. A fresh breeze puffs at the bush for a moment, but the berries, sadly, stay firmly attached although the air is now noticeably, oddly still. I guess a lot more power is required to direct energy from such a large area... Eaten is now down to 0MP. Fortunately, he has far more success at GoblinStackingTM. Turtles hands his belt to the chief to use as some sort of berry-whip, then climbs onto Eatens shoulders so Burned can reach the berry bush. It's a bit wobbly but so far so good... Burned grins at the mighty stack of goblins before him. Surely nothing can stop him reaching those berries now!

"Wooaah - easy Chief!" "Uh Chief? I think my grip is going..." "Uh oh..."

"dammit guys." Except gravity I guess... Eaten lands awkwardly from the fall and takes 1DAM, but fortunately no-one else is hurt. Unfortunately, everyone is getting really cold now and need to warm up.

Just as Silver is starting to wonder if he will need to gently shepherd his vacant companion back to safety, Questions snaps back to himself. The pair of them spend a happy turn warming up.

--------* Ok, this is where my knowledge of physics starts to get really stretched! I'm happy for you guys to try anything you like with the magic, but you'll need to be explicit with what you're trying to achieve so I can work it out (use spoilers or an OOC message if you like, but let me know your energy source and the intended effect as a minimum if you can and me and the dice will figure out if it works!). I'll try and accomodate as best I can, as long as it fits the game.

Turn 33
Everyone diligently gets to work this turn.

Silver and Questions get to work on skinning the snowbeast and make good progress. One more turn of work should be enough to remove the skin.

Burned, Eaten and Turtles pick themselves up and focus on warming up, group hug style!

"Now, follow the patterns with your mind and just gently reach out to them. Try and move them now... gently! If you're careful you can manipulate them to your will. That's it!" Splits lets his mind empty, and follows Princess Sparkles's instructions allowing the patterns to fill his mind. Carefully reaching out, he tries to change the direction one band is flowing and manages to nudge it off course. He tries with another, and another and suddenly it all falls into place and he understands how to begin to weave magic! Splits is now a Novice Magician (+1MP). Travels settles down to learn as well. He needs to wait until next turn to start so Princess Sparkles can focus her attentions on teaching him, but it's good to be prepared! "Be right with you purple guy! Let me just finish off here..." Finds attempts an experiment and tries to channel the stoniness out of a nearby stone and into himself. It feels to him as though it might be possible to use magic to turn one thing into another if the magician was really powerful, but he doesn't understand how to do it himself yet. He's also not entirely sure that physically transmuting himself into a rock is the best idea and thinks it might be worth trying future experiments on a different test subject... He now has 0/1MP. --------------------

Turn 34

Questions spaces out again, but Silver manages to finish removing the hide from the snow beast! If you had some proper tools there's probably enough material for a couple of warm tunics, but as it is it can be worn by one goblin as a rudimentary cloak. They are both getting cold though and will need to warm up soon or take damage.

To the north, Burned, Turtles and Eaten reorganise themselves for another assault on the cliff and reform the GoblinStackTM. "Okay guys, let's try this again... If you really want to use your majyks on trying to help, maybe you can try to bend the wind away from here, so we can't get knocked over by it? Since that is obviously what happened previous time and has

nothing to do with my clumsiness." Turtles uses his magic to divert the wind around the GoblinStackTM, and seems to be successful. It's hard to tell though because there wasn't much wind to begin with, but hey ho, every little helps! "there we go burns that should help you stay uipright this time" Eaten meditates while standing very still and recovers 1MP. He is now back to 1/1MP. Burned climbs the stack.

...

""please please please please please please please please....

....

SUCCESS! This is what it must feel like to be king of the goddamn world! Burned grabs 2 berries and climbs back down.

At the cairn, Travels begins his lesson with the now-familiar spiel from Princess Sparkles. "Ok purple guy, let your mind empty..." Finds meditates, and regains 1MP, bringing him back to 1/1MP. While he does so he allows his mind to ponder the nature of things... Can the properties of one thing be transferred to another? There doesn't seem to be a reason why not, although what would become of the original thing? And what would become of the target? The answers to those questions are too many to be clear to him just

now, but he realises that he will need a great deal more power before he could attempt such magic without risking serious damage to himself or his comrades... Then again, reckless experimentation is always interesting. Splits tries to divert the raindrops around him, but it's stopped raining so he doesn't bother. "So if I were to create an item, do you have any idea how I would go about placeing magic effects into it?" "Well, like I said before, there are only certain materials that can 'accept' a magical charge, like special metals and stuff, but they're difficult to work with if you're trying to make something from scratch... After that though, it's just a case of concentrating your magic and transferring some stored energy into the item. You should try and see if the old forge is still working... You know, if you lot ever ACTUALLY manage to find your way inside the mountain..." ---------------[Snowbeast Hide]: Can be worn as a rough cloak by one goblin or crafted into smaller items. When worn, it provides +1DEF and protection from the cold. [Berries]: Ingredient. Can be eaten or used to make potions.

Turn 35

"Allow your mind to reach out to the patterns in the world around you and soar alongside them..." Travels continues to meditate, allowing his mind to wander, free and empty of all questions (at least until the lesson ends ).

"Ahh, Princess Sparkes, how do we go about getting into the mountain again? "Well, I don't know do I? ...I was just supposed to wait here until the day that someone from our clan came back to the mountain and make sure I helped out. Personally, I think that letting you know you're on the right hill is plenty good enough!" "I thought you were supposed to be our guide?" "Ok, look... They... PUTTING me in this cairn was pretty much the first thing they did to safeguard the mountain. The only people who know the safeguards are those who stayed inside. I was just a lookout really, to stay here and wait. It's been really lonely... They wouldn't tell me anything ok! Happy now?!" Princess Sparkles trails off, looking almost on the verge of tears. There's an uncomfortable silence. Ummm... Soooooo.... are people one of the things that can accept a charge? Could

I for instance, channel my magical energy into Splits here to give him more to work with?" "<sniiiiffff> Well... You can use spells against people like by channeling energy at them to heal them or hurt them or whatever even if they're not magicicans themselves, but you can't just donate your power to someone else. It doesn't work like that. You CAN work together on the same spell to make it more powerful though. Like, if you want to draw the energy out the grass again for healing, you'll get about twice as much out if two people cast the spell. You can only target it at one person or thing if you do that though..."

Questions warms up, complaining at how quickly they seem to cool down up in the mountains. Silver avoids the problem entirely by wrapping the hide around himself and securing it with a couple of small bones to use as makeshift pins. He immediately feels much warmer, and can now travel around in the snow without needing to warm up constantly. Hooray! He then loots the rest of the carcass and manages to retrieve 2 [Snowbeast Fangs], 5m of [Snowbeast sinew] (lucky!) for making thread and a selection of [Various-sized bones]. Splits arrives from the south, and proposes a bold plan to screw over the trolls. The chief doesn't approve. "I have an idea, I don't know if anyone would want to do this, but I have an idea if we don't want to give the trolls the healing soup stuff. Maybe we could have a few people pull their body heat out of them and maybe someone else could turn the heat into fire and burn them with it. I mean, maybe we don't want to do that to

them, it's kind of a dick move, but it's an option. And maybe not a bad group combat thing if it can work. They may turn out to be allies, could be enemies, or anywhere in between, so I thought I'd just mention that I think we could maybe take them. If we wanted to." "So, Splits, what you are basically suggesting is that we try to take on the three trolls by ourselves, who indeed might be sick, but will still be able to put up a fight, when we've been having trouble defeating just a single animal, finally have gathered all the ingredients, and said trolls agreed to answer some questions? Your a bit bloody late with that proposal then." "Well, it's just an idea, and it only just came to mind. I'm not saying we SHOULD do it, I'm saying it COULD, possibly, be done. If you don't like the idea, then we scrap it. No harm, no foul."

To the east, the berry-collecting group have moved south to investigate the little cave. Turtles asks for his belt back, but the Chief doesn't respond so he settles down to meditate and regains 1MP. Burned and Eaten check out the cave....

RAWR!

A wild snowbeast appears and tries to attack Eaten but misses! All three goblins are starting to get cold now though and will need to warm up or take damage. Perfect timing eh? -------------

Crafting Items: [Snowbeast Fangs] [Snowbeast sinew]: 5m [Various-sized bones]

Turn 36

Let battle commence! "Why are these things so angry all the time!!" "Ah......well,I've been wanting to try out this trick for a while - might as well give it a shot now." The two novice apprentices both attempt the same trick of draining the heat from the snow beast into their own bodies. It is surprisingly effective, and they immediately warm up while the snowbeast shudders violently and growls. It looks pretty beaten up already. Turtles is now at 1MP and Eaten is at 0. Questions asks for the fang-blade, but Silver doesn't give him it, so he charges into the combat with his trusty rock instead. Unfortunately, Burned needs to warm up this turn so can't attack and Questions attack isn't enough to get through the creature's tough hide on its own. Extra unfortunate for Burned is that the snowbeast chooses to attack him while he's otherwise occupied and does 1DAM reducing him to 1HP! If he hits 0 he'll be disabled! Finds rushes to help, but he doesn't have enough actions left to cast a spell this turn.

Back at the cairn, Travels continues to meditate and contemplates the sound of one hand clapping... He discovers the answer is really quite simple... "Now, reach out to the energies and try to weave them to your will... Don't force them, just gently... That's it!" Congratulations! Travels is now a [Novice Magician]! He gains 1MP. Since no-one shouts for his help, Splits settles down and resumes the work on his rock and manages to create a [Stone Blade!]. Silver moves back to the cairn to ask Princess Sparkles for advice on crafting... "Quiet guy, I KNOW I'm awesome and a veritable font of knowledge, but you want a TAILOR for that stuff. I'm a WEAVER. You know, of MAGIC. Like what I've been trying to teach your friends for the last... well, aaaaages! Easy mistake I suppose..." ---------[Stone Blade!]: Can be used for cutting softer materials, but will go blunt quickly. +1ATT, 50% chance of shattering on impact. NB: You can't take stuff from another player unless they specifically give it to you...

Turn 37

"OH GODS DAMNIT. THAT'S IT, YOU DID IT, NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOUR MAKING ME DO!" The goblins rally to their Chief and hurl themselves into the attack. Burned, spurred on by sheer anger, thumps the beast over the head with Mr. Rock and manages a critical strike! Eaten attempts to protect the Chief whilst attacking and Questions attempts to prevent the creature from making a successful attack. Unfortunately, Questions doesn't manage it this time, but does at least take the brunt of the attack in place of Burned. Questions is now at 3/5HP. Sadly, their combined efforts STILL aren't enough to get through its tough hide... Turtles and Finds step up to end this once and for all, and both attempt to cast spells at the creature. Turtles gets in first with his spell though and manages to successfully transfer 1HP from the snowbeast to himself. He is now at 4/5HP and 0/2MP. The snowbeast shudders violently and collapses in the snow, finally defeated and thoroughly lacking in life. Finds attempts to draw the remaining heat from the creature, but since it is already dead, the spell is less effective than normal. He doesn't feel like he's got any colder this turn, but doesn't feel any warmer either. Oh well. He is now at 0/1MP. Travels arrives to help with the battle, but it's already over by the time he arrives. The corpse is yours for defiling.

Back at the cairn, Splits and Silver start getting crafty. Splits uses his stone knife to start skinning one of the dead rabbits. It's not the best tool for the job and it's tricky work, but at least he is able to make a little progress. The live rabbit seems quite pleased that the corpse is finally being put to use for something and hops off. Silver meanwhile uses his centipede fang to start cutting the hide into pieces so he can make 2 new jerkins. The fang isn't the best for delicate work, but he manages to chop up most of the hide this turn. Princess Sparkles has, for the first time since her appearance, nothing to say. ---------------

Turn 38

Eaten ignores the cold and sits down where he is to meditate. He is now back at 1/1MP, but is getting cold and will need to warm up next turn. The rabbit sighs noisily and starts to look quite impatient. Finds boldly goes where no goblin has been before and cautiously enters the small cave... Questions spaces out and also starts to get cold.

Huh! It's pretty cosy in here.

Travels starts to drag the snowbeast towards the cairn, but because of its bulk he can only move through one area. Turtles follows him south to warm up, shouting after Burned that he wants his belt back. He still doesn't get a reply. Oh well! At least he can meditate and recover 1MP (1/2MP). ""you know i didn't give you that thing to keep""

"Raaah rah rah... Rah... Okay, I'm done now. You guys feel free to get all crafty and check out what is in that little cave. I'm going to "Princess Sparkles" for

lessons." Burned double moves back to the cairn ready to begin lessons next turn. "Ooooh! Another student eh?" Splits continues to skin the rabbit and manages to get most of it free in more or less one piece. There should be enough pelt to make one glove or similar sized item if he's careful. He also chops the feet off for good measure, but has no idea how to tell if any of them are particularly lucky... Silver is so stunned by his craftsmanship that he simply stares at the pieces of fur in wonder. --------------

Turn 39

At the cairn, Splits hauls another rabbit carcass out of his inventory and begins butchering it with his sharp rock, while Burned settles himself down for some magical learning with Princess Sparkles. Travels shows up with another bloody corpse to chop up, and Turtles comes and takes his belt back. "Empty your mind of all conscious thought and let yourself drift away..." It's all very peaceful. When suddenly:

SQUARK! Out of nowhere a giant bird (seriously it's huge, just, you know, far away) appears from the sky and dives at Silver Tongue! Staring in horror at the enormous beast that is rushing down on him and his clanmates, he does the only thing possible and runs to put himself between his clanmates and the enormous bird.

For the first time in years, he opens his mouth and speaks.

The bird is thrown backwards and utterly destroyed by the force of Silver'svoice, but the power is too much for the young goblin to withstand. All that remains of the brave, silent warrior is the small pile of things he had in his inventory*... Remarkably, no-one else was harmed by the explosion, which have been some weird dimensional thing or something. "Holy crap! Did you see that?" "I suspect we could have used that sort of talent... Oh well." "And that's why you need to learn this stuff. Now shoosh and empty your mind!" ELSEWHERE...

"No way are those guys leaving me behind! I was made for this stuff!" Loves Danger finally manages to track the goblins through the forest and stumbles out of the trees to find himself looking at 2 rather boring- SQUIRREL!!

Further north, Eaten joins Finds in the little cave and they cautiously investigate the bag. Fortunately for them, although it's a big cold and dried out there's nothing inside that tries to attack them. In fact, it seems like there are some

throughly useful items in here. They find: [Tinderbox and flint], [A Rusty Hunting Knife], [A Journal], [5m of Old Rope]. They ignore the corpse itself for now.

Outside, Questions continues to space out and loses 1HP from the cold. He is now at 2/5HP. Ouch! ---------------------Silver Tongue's Dropped Inventory Items (free to be picked up): Handful of healing moss: Ingredient, can be used to make potions. Rabbit corpse Pieces of Snowbeast Hide: Can be crafted into items of warm clothing. Too small to be worn on their own. 2x Snowbeast fangs 5m Snowbeast sinew Small collection of assorted bones Centipede Fang (knife-type) [Journal]: For reading [Tinderbox and Flint]: For firestarting [Rusty hunting knife]: +1 ATT [5m Old Rope]: A short piece of fairly worn rope

Turn 40

Eaten takes the rusty knife from the sack, and takes the clothes from the skeleton and puts them on, revealing what looks like a nifty chainmail shirt underneath! Some might say that wearing the untested clothes from a corpse is just asking for all kinds of diseases and nasty things, but not Eaten! The clothes are waay too big for a goblin, though the shirt can be worn like a dress without any work. With a bit of tailoring though, you could probably fashion a couple of sets of goblin-sized clothes from the shirt and trousers if you wanted to. He gets a [very large shirt] and [too-big trousers] Finds is far more interested in the journal to worry about possible zombiediseases from the corpse, and after grabbing the remaining contents of the sack, settles down beside the small firepit and starts reading the journal. It's written in the common tongue, so you can more or less work it out, but it's slow going. First readable entry: "Dear diary, Finally after all this time I've finally found the mountain that old elf was talking

about! I guess they really don't forget much after all... I've found a little freshwater spring today and managed to shoot a rabbit for dinner - real meat for the first time in weeks! This is going to be a good trip!" The next few pages are waterdamaged... "Dear Diary, I swear the rabbits have started following me! Strange little creatures that they are... Still no progress finding the entrance to this stupid mountain kingdom though. There MUST be some knack to it, I just need to find out what... Those bears I ran into the other day haven't made any more appearances, but I've moved my camp to a little cave just in case so I can at least get some sleep. I'm pretty sure they won't be able to fit in here... Not the big ones at least. Damn. It's started raining again." Phew. Translations are hard. There's more there to read, but you'll need more time to get through it.

Splits continues to work, and gets himself another rabbit hide! He also takes the dead rabbit Silver had been walking around with and the centipede fang. He's about to take the collection of bones as well when he realises that a green goblin has beaten him to it, and it wasn't Turtles... "Holy shit, it's you! Well, you've certainly got good timing. Glad to have you with

us!" "Heh. No way you guys were leaving me out of this suicide mission!" Burned exercises every last ounce of self-control he has to ignore the distractions that are blowing up all around him and continues to learn magic...

Travels abandons the snowbeast carcass and picks up the healing moss (he now has 5 handfuls of it) and the pieces of snowbeast hide. Turtles tries to take the snowbeast cloak, but not only does it not exist any more, butTravels beat him to the bits that were left of it already. He then heads to the cave with Travels with the intention of reading a book that is already being read. Questions starts to feel very strange, like some fundamental change is about to happen which will alter the very nature of his existence forever... -----------------*Sign-ups will close on Friday at 12 noon (GMT) when I will announce the new player. [Very large shirt]: Protects the wearer against the cold. +1 DEF. [Too-big trousers]: Too big to wear, but can be crafted into a couple of suitablelysized outfits if the 'shirt' is also chopped up.

Turn 41

Burned continues to study, allowing his mind to roam out freely amongst the rabbits and terrapins and grass and begins to feel a sense of belonging. With a little effort he finds he is able to exert some control over the forces which bend to his will as if welcoming back an old friend. It feels incredibly natural to him. "Well that was easy!" Burned has become a [Novice Magician!]. He gains 1MP and for the first time can feel the magics in the talisman around his neck. It feels powerful. Splits lends Danger the [Centipede Fang] and they set to work skinning the snowbeast. It seems that many hands do indeed make light work and they manage to remove the [Snowbeast Pelt]

Turtles heads north then east and discovers a very scenic new area! He's getting cold though and will need to warm up next turn.

Back in the cave, Finds is starting to get creeped out by the ninja rabbit sitting on the corpse all the time... ""Eaten, I know those things follow you, but could you get it to stop perching upon the corpse like that? It doesn't really matter, but...Hmm...Can you talk to them? They might know more about this fellow, since they followed him as well."" "Sure, no problem. Excuse me Mr Ninja Rabbit, but do you happen to know anything about the creature you are sitting on? Such as what it was doing when alive, and how it died? Any information that you can spare will likely help me and my friends, which will in turn indirectly help in banishing/killing the creature in my talisman. Also, could you not sit on the body any more, please? My friend finds it a bit......disconcerting. Squeek squeeken skree squick!* I see. Interesting. Eaten settles down and starts to cut up the clothes with his knife. He makes a reasonable start at it, but doesn't have time to loot the chainmail. Fortunately, Questions, who appears to have recovered from his minor crisis

enters the cave and takes it, knocking the rabbit off. The rabbit glares at him for a moment then hops back on top of the skeleton. He receives [Shiny Chainmail]! There's something strange about it, but Questions can't tell what it is... Questions is cold, and will take damage if he leaves the cave without warming up. Finds continues to read... Dear Diary, It's been nearly a month now and there's still no sign of the goblin stronghold... I'm starting to think that the map must be a fake. Still, I'm here now and there's plenty of food and water around so I might as well make sure. There is certainly a mystical quality to the place which is very peaceful. It's strange to think that such an evil race once tainted it with their dark arts and strange goblin magics. Assuming they existed at all of course. The next few pages have crumbled away... ... drowned today. I'll not be swimming in the river again, that was too close today. What the hell was I thinking? There's a scrawling mess over the next few pages, which is almost entirely illegible, but the next readable entry reads: Dear Diary. I licked a mushroom yesterday and spent the rest of day listening to colours. It was very odd, and yet made me feel somehow connected to this place... I'll need to continue my 'experiments'! Phew. You're getting there, but that's as much as you can translate for now...

Outside, Travels spaces out and starts to get cold. --------------------*TRANSLATION: "We have a general policy of tracking the predators who come through our lands which has existed for generations. It provides peace of mind to the warren to know that the ones we lose still play their part in the circle of life. As for who this one was, who knows? Who cares? He's dead and that means one less mouth to eat us. And no. I will sit here because it's comfortable and MAYBE it will encourage you to get a move on with your quest!" [Shiny Chainmail]: ???

Turn 42

Turtles does the warm-up dance, but sadly has no more time to try and detect magic this turn.

At the cairn, Splits takes the snowbeast pelt and pulls out another rabbit corpse for skinning, while Danger scavenges some more bits from the snowbeast carcass. He gains [3m of Sinew] and [3x Snowbeast fangs].Burned decides its high time those trolls got their medicine and announces instructions to the clan. "Allright guys! It's time to finally get a show on the road that should have hit said road decades ago! I'm coming to get those ingredients from your hands, and they will go all nicely into that little flask Travels has! Travels: add one handful of moss and three beetles. Get in that cave, It'll be a good place for making a fire and

warming up. I'm coming myself, and I have the brown mushroom and two berries to finish the potion. Others, there was some stuff to make fire, no? Get one started if you can, Travels has some dry sticks you could use." He is ignored. As usual.

Back in the cave, there is more crafting happening as Eaten continues to work on the clothes. He's doing pretty well at getting the cloth cut down to size but it will take a bit more time. He idly wishes he had better tools, but there's not much he can do about that. Finds continues to read... Dear Diary, Still no sign of the bloody goblins, and I nearly got caught in a bloody avalanche as well. The snow's really starting to come in up here, but I think I'll be ok for another few weeks. There must be something up here. I've been trying to distill out the chemicals in the mushrooms to make them more potent and I'm getting close I know it! If only I could understand what the visions mean!

... Several pages have been ripped out then one final entry. Dear Diary, I should have left here while it was still summer... A snowstorm hit the mountain nearly a week ago and I'm trapped in my little cave. It's so cold... I've run out of water, but I think it will be the cold that does the job for me. Whoever finds this, know that the mountain goblins were a lie. There's nothing here and no great treasure. May the goblins of this place be cursed forever. A curse on all you damn creatures! There is nothing more written in the diary. Questions looks at the armour questioningly and licks it. It tastes of metal and corpse dust. Ew. He puts it on.

"You dare defile my body? After everything I lived and died for, you DARE!!" Questions does not look healthy...

Questions attacks Eaten with his rock and does 1 DAM, knocking him down to 2/5HP! This can't be good!

Travels spaces out again and loses 1HP to the cold.

Turn 43-44: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 45

Splits gets all of about 10 feet away before Princess Sparkles starts freaking out, so he goes back to set things straight before all hell breaks loose. "Hey! Don't you freak out on me. We have a clan emegerency going on right now, we don't need you snaping just because you're left alone for a few minutes. And I for one would have thought after spending so much time alone you'd have come up with ways to entertain yourself. Jeez, you're like a puppy, you think if we go away for a little bit that we're never comeing back. And don't try to say that it's because the anchients left you here and never came back, they stuck you in a pile of rocks and abandoned ship, I'm going to try to help someone in a cave 50 feet that way, there's a difference. Now if you're really that lonely, I can stick some rabbit bones in your rock pile, see if you get a little fuzzy ghost- " "YESPLEASEIALWAYSWANTEDARABBITI'LLBEGOODISWEAR! ...Just please come back..." "Uh. Right then" Splits leaves the rabbit bones in the cairn and lets Princess Sparkles do whatever she needs to do to make herself a ghostpet.

He finally reaches the little cave, inside which all kinds of nonsense is going down.

Danger continues to hug Questions while Eaten kicks the rock away and tries to pull the chainmail off him with the help of Travels and Finds. Unfortunately, it's still virtually shrink-wrapped onto him and there are no obvious fastenings to release... You're definitely not getting that thing off easily... Burned watches his clanmates struggle with the chainmail for a bit then sets

about reviving Questions, who predictably kicks off again, snarling and struggling to break out of Danger's grip. He's held securely for now though and isn't going anywhere.

Turtles meanwhile settles down and tries to meditate, but he's still too shaken up from his attempts at manipulating the waterfall to focus. Still he feels much calmer and should be able to try again now. --------------

Turn 46

HEY! If you keep resisting you will never get to see the great mountain halls! "LIES!! I know this mortal's mind as well as my own and you have no more idea of where the Halls are than I did! LIES! LIES!!!" Since talking went so well, everyone except Splits (cos he's got better plans) and Turtles (cos he doesn't have time) joins in jamming the angry Questions into the sack. He struggles ferociously against his captors, but stuck in Danger's grip and without the rock to bludgeon his friends with he's no real threat and he gets bundled unceremoniously inside without too much trouble. Splits meanwhile attemps to determine whether there is any link between the thing possessing Questions and the bones. It seems likely that it is in fact the spirit of the dead guy that is currently causing so much trouble, but his energy appears split between the bones and the armour somehow... Splits can't tell any more than that though before he loses his concentration and the link to the spirit. ------------------

Turn 47

"All right, let's get this chap to Sparkles... Meanwhile, you guys can desecrate that guys cor- ... Finds. Give me the tinderbox. Travels? sticks. Hand me that flagon, one handful of moss and three beetles whilst your at it. We're gonna have a nice ceremonial burning, with a little bit of potion brewing on top." "Right, Chief." "You know, it's your own fault you're dead. WE didn't make YOU go looking for OUR hidden city". Just for a change, the goblins actually listen to Burned and set to work, while Splits meditates. He recovers 1MP and is back at 1/1MP! Travels sets out a nice little fire in the firepit with the sticks he collected waaaaaay back at the start of this adventure in the mountains, but keeps the flask and the rest of the ingredients he has for now. Burned takes the tinderbox from Finds but doesn't use it yet. Finds, deciding that he isn't needed anywhere else, stays to help the Chief but doesn't actually do anything this turn.

Finds is delighted to notice that his MP has naturally restored itself. He is back at 1/1MP.

Danger and Eaten are able to manage the bagged Questions easily enough between them and start heading down to Princess Sparkles with him. They get as far as the boring rocks. Eaten however, is equally delighted that his MP has also restored itself and is back at 1/1MP.

Turtles leaves the others to their respective tasks and heads east towards the river, grumbling as he goes about some higher being screwing with his magic schemes. As if THAT would be possible! "i dont know how i got here it almost as if i mis communcated my actions to a

higher being of sorts........nah that sounds like something more in questions thinking" He gets to the river without incident. -----------

Turn 48

Danger and Eaten haul Questions-in-a-bag back to Princess Sparkles who is looking awfully pleased with herself. "Hey Sparkles. Sorry for leaving you alone, but we had a bit of a problem. Still do, actually. Have you ever heard of a dead guy enchanting his armour with his mind, so whoever puts it on becomes possessed by his spirit or something? Cause that's what's happened to Questions here. And he hit me with a rock, which wasn't very nice. Also, do you think burning the bones of the previously mentioned dead guy would be a good idea? Or is it very, very bad? We know it will be one or the other, but do you - HOLY SHITTING CRIKEY WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" "It's Mr. Fluffikins! Isn't he adorable!?" <urk>

Eaten freaks out* and flees south**.

"Well that was rude wasn't it Mr. Fluffikins?" .... "I quite agree! Anyway, I suppose YOU'RE still interested in your cursed companion? Well, it won't do you much good, I really don't know anything much about curses... If it's a dead spirit causing you trouble though, you can usually find some sort of physical THING that's binding all the magic together. Could be his bones I suppose... The only way to get rid of it would be to destroy the link and fire's probably as good as anything." Questions attempts to escape, but is foiled. Pesky kids... I mean bag.

Splits rushes off to try and catch up with the others, and gets as far as the boring rocks.

Turtles heads south and attempts to use his magic to control a terrapin. He gets lucky*** and finds one that is particularly compliant. Unfortunately, he can't maintain his own consciousness through two bodies simultaneously, and finds, strangely that he is only able to experience the world through the terrapin's senses.

The link is difficult to maintain though, and he's already feeling the strain of the spell. It probably won't last much longer...

Back in the little cave, some serious preparations are underway. "Allright Quack, you need to add a handful of healing moss, and three beetlesHave these berries and a mushroom to finish it. Hold on for a moment before you make that fire though..."

Travels lays out the various ingredients that he has collected on the floor. They are: [Metal Flask] [1x Handful of Healing Moss] [2x Berry Bush Berries] [3x Beetles] He then consults the recipe to decide if anything is missing:

Finally, deciding that he doesn't wish to die in an unholy inferno, he heads outside to wait at the cave entrance.

Back inside, Burned hauls the skeleton onto the fire pit and Finds settles down to watch the show. "...This might not go as well as planned, but even failed experiments need observing." "Quack, mind if I take the honors?" "Ahem- Dear adventurer, whose spirit rests in anger and hate. Know that no anger shall be kept, for forgiveness is one of life's greatest gifts. I hereby wish to relieve you from your curse. May you rest in piece." Burned lights the fire. The dry bones catch fire surprisingly easily and the skeleton is soon completely alight.

Back at the cairn, Questions lets out a (rather muffled) ungodly shriek

FOOLS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Before falling silent. "<murfle sprfff? Mhumgf?>"

A few seconds later, Finds feels the angry spirit charge back into the bones with enough force that he can almost feel it physically. Alarmingly, this appears to skeleton starts attempting to claw its way out of the fire pit... This is unlikely to be a good thing. --------------------

Turn 49

Splits skids to a halt and hoofs it back to the cave, where the others are battling the skeleton. Finds attacks with his rock and tries to attack with a fang but doesn't have one any more... Unfortunately he can't break through the skeleton's physical defence on his own... Burned meanwhile discovers that one measly MP is plenty if you're creative, and uses it to make the fire flare, burning hotter and brighter than it was before. The skeleton screeches in pain and rage at the inferno around it but is unable to escape as Travels manages to temporarily force it back down into the fire pit with a large rock. Luckily, he doesn't burn himself in the process... The skeleton swipes angrily at its attackers and grabs at Finds, doing 1DAM and bringing him down to 2/5HP. Causing the fire to flare uses up the last of the wood in the process and the fire under the creature dies out. The skeleton keeps burning for now, although it's starting to go out too... It's looking pretty beaten up, but it's certainly not dead yet!

Back at the cairn, Questions wonders why the hell he's been put in a bag and decides he would quite like to not be in it any more. Sadly, he is no better an escape artist than he was last time and he remains in the bag. If only someone was really nearby who could help him... Danger is far too distracted by Princess Sparkles and the rabbit though. Deciding that dangerous-looking rabbits should definitely be hugged, he spreads his arms wide and goes in for a cuddle. It works exactly as effectively as might be expected and Danger simply passes through the giant creature, ending up with no hug and covered in a lot of ectoplasm. It smells like rotten carrots and rabbit poo. Turning back to Princess Sparkles he asks, "My friends ask, ehm, how they can become more experienced magicians, oh beautiful princess." "How to get more EXPERIENCE? of MAGIC? Really? How do you THINK you gain experience? <sigh> I was so hoping that the stupid questions were a thing of the past... Why don't you explain Mr. Fluffikins?" ...... "Exactly. Not too difficult is it?"*

To the south, Eaten gives in to his fear of giant zombie ghost-rabbits and hides himself inside the foosty old log. While he's in there, he drains some health from the trees on the edge of the forest. He isn't powerful enough to spread the effect very far though and a couple of the trees look a little browner for his efforts. Still, at he does at least regain 1HP, bringing him back to 2/5HP.

Turtles kidnaps a terrapin and heads north again towards the waterfall. He gets as far as the cold hilly bit. It's cold. ----------------

Turn 50

Danger lets Questions out of the sack, explaining that it's entirely his own fault that he ended up in there in the first place. Questions, having had quite enough excitment for right now, decides that what he really needs most is a wee sit down. On the plus side, the resting does him some good and he recovers 1HP. "Care to teach me your secrets Beautiful?" "Well it's about time someone noticed! I AM beautiful amn't I? Of course I will teach you magic, won't we Mr. Fluffikins? Good, then settle down and empty your mind..."# Danger does as he's told.

Eaten composes himself and heads back towards the cave, taking the nonzombie-rabbity route. He also tries to meditate while he walks but after stubbing his toes 3 times and tripping over a bush, remembers that it requires all his actions in a turn to restore MP and he definitely can't do it while walking.

Turtles belatedly decides to ask the little terrapin if it minds being abducted for a little forced labour, but unfortunately they can't understand each other without the mind link. Even then, you're not sure if it would really be a conversation with the terrapin or if you would just be talking to yourself in something else's head... He gives up and continues to the waterfall, where he is now cold and needs to warm up. The terrapin also looks pretty chilly and hides inside its shell.

Back in the little cave, the goblins are spurred on by Burned's success with the flames and Splits, Finds and Travels all attempt to cast their spells on the skeleton. However, Splits gets in first and is so successful at flaring the flames that it is enough to kill the skeleton without the others' assisstance (so they keep their MPs)! The skeleton is vanquished and you can FINALLY see how good that armour is that Questions is wearing. Burned yells for a bit, but by the time he manages to cram the ingredients into the flask, the battle is over... Still, as far as you can tell the potion is now complete and ready for cooking! The potion now looks something like this:

-------------------[Shiny Chainmail Shirt]: +2 DEF, +2 MAGIC DEF (MDEF), 1x [EMPTY SLOT]. Ooooh shiny!: 'Shiny' metals are capable of holding magical energies if placed there by an experienced enough weaver. Effects are variable. 1 'slot' = 1 MP's worth of energy.

Turn 51

Burned meditates in the little cave and recovers his 1MP, while Splits sits down nearby and starts skinning another rabbit. Eaten arrives, accompanied as always by the little ninja rabbit.

Travels and Finds head off to the dead tree to collect more firewood, with Finds making small talk as they go. They reach the bit with the boring rocks.

"Well, I am glad that that worked...It appears that we need more wood. I shall accompany Travels to the source of the burnable material, so that we can procure more than is necessary, as more is always better that not enough. So...What exactly do you speak anyway? I have yet to decipher it.". Back at the cairn, Danger is rather jealous of Question's pat from the giant zombie rabbit so he shimmies over to join in the gelatinous hug. It's probably for the best the rabbit is mostly incorporeal or else they'd probably be having some pretty major breathing difficulties about now... Hearing Questions request to learn magic too, Danger agrees to restart his training so they can both do it at the same time. How generous! "Ok, whatever. Both of you, stop pestering Mr. Fluffikins and empty your minds of all thought... shouldn't take too long..."

At the pool, Turtles does a weird warm-up dance to try and warm the little terrapin up as well, but it's not very effective... It looks a little warmer, but you can feel it cooling down again already. You guess reptiles weren't really cut out for freezing mountain climes... Turtles recovers 1MP. ---------------

Turn 52

Danger and Questions keep studying, helped along no doubt by ghostly rabbity fumes...

Splits continues skinning the rabbit and gains another [Rabbit Pelt] and Eaten restarts his work on the clothes. He finally finishes cutting them up into goblin-sized pieces all ready to be stitched back together.

Finds and Travels continue walking and chatting. "Speak I words of Sea...not of your tribe...Questa Nah'a De'sa..." ""The Language of the Sea? Interesting. I take it you are from that area. That must have been a long Journey. I Wonder all that brought you hear. You are called Travels though, so that may have had something to do with it. I remember the hunting party bringing you back. What brought you into contact with them?"" They reach the old wet log.

Burned leaves the cave and heads south, reaching the boring rocks.

Turtles carefully puts the terrapin in the water at the edge of the pool to see if it's warm enough for it. It doesn't seem to be and the little terrapin stays hidden in its shell. Sadly, Turtles heads south to put him back with his companions...

Turn 53

Questions and Danger continue their training... "Allow yourselves to feel the energies of the mountain flow around you... Reach out to them. Touch them. Bend them to your thoughts..." With a last final effort, the goblins are successful! Both have become [Novice Magicians], just like the rest of their clan and now have 1/1MP!

Travels and Finds continue walking and talking, and finally reach the dead tree but don't have time to start collecting wood yet. "Hunting food...clanhe points at Finds Truth indicating his tribe.Hunt tusk pig in

woods too...but tusk pig corner one who hunts...I help...they bring me back to clan...better than hiding from tall flat ears...Questa ne'ha lema neckra sen'csaca...." "Yes, there is a general safety in numbers, at least from the humans and other "Civilized" races." I wonder what we shall discover if we ever get to the Kingdom."

Burned keeps trying to catch up...

And Turtles returns the little terrapin to its group to regale them with exciting tales of the frozen wastelands so very far to the north.

Splits keeps skinning rabbits, making a start on his 5th rabbit corpse. He helpfully leaves the previously-skinned rabbit on the ground in the cave so someone can butcher it for its bones. Eaten attempts to sew the snowbeast hides together using nothing but willpower, but the attempt (unsurprisingly) fails. ------------------

Turn 54

Splits finishes skinning the last rabbit! It's a momentous occasion! Eaten spaces out, glaring at the pieces of hide on the floor in front of him.

Burned meditates, drawing life energy from the plants around him to restore 1HP. He is now up to 2/5HP and down to 0/1MP.

Finds and Travels keep chatting while they gather dry wood. They each collect a [Bundle of dry sticks]. Know Not...Your tribe...Tales of this place you have Yes? "Not very much. Most of it boils down to we were awesome, then these guys came and beat us up. Then Chief Lost-In-The-Mountains and some other awesome goblins forced them into the mountain and sealed themselves in there with them. Then we all pretty much devolved into what we were when you found us."

Turtles turns round and heads back to the waterfall again, lamenting lost friends. On a happier note, he regains his last MP and is back at 2/2!

At the cairn, Danger spaces out and Questions attempts to focus his magic into the armour. Nothing happens. "<SIGH> Blue guy, you need to be specific with magic, you can't just shove 'energy' around! You need to focus on a specific source and type of energy you want to move around, like the others have been doing otherwise it won't work. Vague spells are messy anyway." ----------------

Turn 55

Turtles makes it all the way back to the waterfall enjoying his full-powered-ness! However, the walk through the cold has cooled him down and he will need to warm up next turn or ELSE!

At the cairn, Danger recovers from his daze and james the bag in his inventory. Then he pulls out the snowbeast teeth and some sinew and sits down to try and make a necklace. It's pretty tedious work since he has to scratch a little hole through each tooth, but at least the bone isn't very thick near the roots so it's not too bad. Out of the 5 fangs he has, he manages to thread 2 of them onto the sinew. Questions heads off south...

And arrives at the rather edge of the (rather abused forest). He settles himself down and uses his magic to draw the life energy from one of the trees and store it in the armour. Sadly, removing so much energy from one single tree appears to have killed it. Happily however, the spell has temporarily granted the armour an additional +1DEF!

Back in the cave, Splits magically discovers another rabbit corpse and starts to skin it*, while Eaten uses his rusty knife to start butchering the skinned rabbit

from Splits. After a little rummaging, he manages to cut out a suitable bone but ruins the rabbit meat in the process. It will take a bit more work to carve the bone into a needle shape though as the big hunting knife is hardly the best tool for delicate work and it's slow-going.

Burned heads towards the others who are still gathering wood and chatting. He doesn't have time to get anything else done this turn. "Learn words on paper...tell people in future what we find...like tall pointy ears..." "Learning to write? That's not a bad idea. And you mean the elves?" --------------------

Turn 56: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 57

Burned, Finds and Travels keep walking back to the little cave, while Finds complains about the weather. Miraculously, it stops raining.

Questions attempts to siphon some power out of the trees and use it to levitate a terrapin, but he can't find a way to make it work... Defying gravity just doesn't seem a very tree-like thing to do... Maybe he should try targeting a different energy source to counter the animal's gravity than the forest? He does learn a little bit more about the energies in the tree though - he can sense life in the trees, as well as strength, and a love of the sunlight. They also feel very slow by comparison to the energies you've felt in the animals. He uses up his 1MP, but at least he's learned a little more about his magic.

Back at the pool, Turtles uses 1MP to try and get more information on the location of the magic item, but he unfortunately isn't able to deduce anything else about it. He then uses his remaining MP to test the force of the waterfall. It's clear that there is a huge amount of energy crashing around here and that it would require far more skill than he has at the moment to manipulate it all at once. However if he's careful (and a bit lucky) he might be able to move part of the flow for a short period of time.

As he lets his mind flow around the waterfall, he feels a strange sensation, like he

is beginning to understand the workings of his gift a little better... The gentle sensation he feels in his mind every time he casts a spell feels stronger too, like a warm glow. Hooray! Turtles has achieved the rank of Adept Magician. He now has 1/3MP!

Danger puts on his necklace and starts heading towards Turtles, getting as far as the river this turn.

Inside the cave, Eaten attempts to harvest enough sinew from the rabbit to make a decent amount of string, but rabbits don't have very much of that... They do have guts though and after some rather disgusting fiddling, he manages to extract 2m of Rabbit Gut which should do the job. Splits meanwhile sits down to start marking out patterns in all 6 rabbit pelts and the 1 snowbeast pelt. This will definitely make things easier when it comes to stitching it all together...

As he marks out the hides, he notices how intuitive this work has become, and suddenly realises something... He's gained a skill! Splits is now a Novice Cratfsman! -----------------------------------Adept Magician: Can cast stronger spells requiring 2MP at a time. Now has base 2 MP. Novice Craftsman: Gains a bonus when creating ordinary items from wood / hide.

Turn 58

Burned, Travels and Finds all (finally) reach the little cave this turn. Burned is delighted to discover that his MP has regenerated during the walk (it happened last turn in fact, though obviously you were too busy walking to notice and it had nothing to do with me forgetting all about it. Nope. Definitely not). Already well settled in to the little cave, Eaten has started making the first goblin-sized shirt out of the dead guy's clothes, but he has some problems with it and he doesn't get very far... Still, at least it's a start!* Nearby, Splits cuts one of the rabbit pelts into the correct shape to make a pair of shoes, ready to be sewn.

Back at the river, Danger tries to kick the rabbit into the water, but it bounces easily out of the way and disappears. Danger then heads north, making it as far as the cold hills.

Turtles, overcoming the desire to go mad with power, settles down and meditates to restore 1MP, bringing him to 2/3MP! Unfortunately he's getting cold again and will start to take damage next turn unless he warms up.

Further south, Questions has a (rather one-sided) conversation with Pterry before deciding to meditate. He can't simultaneously restore AND use his MP though, so he settles for restoring himself back to 1/1MP. ---------------------Since it's been a while, here's a reminder of the map as you've discovered it so far:

Crafting Note: Ok, I've decided to make an alteration to the way items are crafted. Essentially, from now on an item will have a 'score' which you need to reach in order to successfully complete it. You won't know what the score is, but your progress will be determined by dice rolls and any bonuses you accumulate. Previously it was based on an item taking a set amount of time, but I think this way feels like it makes more sense with skill bonuses. The average times will be similar, but now there's a bit of luck involved.

Turn 59

Burned gives the tinderbox and flint to, Travels, while Finds places one of his bundles of dry sticks into the fireplace and Travels lights it. That is quite a convoluted way to start a campfire, but it's at least effective! Finally, after so very, very long, Burned places the little canteen containing the potion ingredients into the flames. It heats up quite quickly thanks to the metal container and should be ready next turn. Meanwhile, Splits organises three of the rabbit skins into the correct size and shape for a pair of trousers. He makes good progress on them and should hopefully be able to finish them off next turn. Eaten makes good progress with his goblin-sized shirt and makes a start on the stitching. He should also be finished next turn.

Danger catches up with Turtles and starts to shiver with cold. He'll need to warm up next turn or take damage. Turtles, who is busy warming himself up, outlines his crazy scheme to get the magic thing in the pool. "hey danger i got a plan and you being here will make things alot smoother. my plan is i use the power of the waterfall to punch the magic doo hickey out of the water. if you could catch it with a bit of wind magic or heck grab it with your hands we could finally get this thing" At least it seems a little more sensible than jumping unaided into the uncrossable, fast flowing, freezing cold river...

To the south, Questions spaces out...

Turns 60-61: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 62

Turtles meditates and recovers 1MP while Danger attempts to channel the coldness from the air into the water around the magic thing. He is successful with his spell, but just doesn't have enough strength to maintain a layer of ice around the item for long enough. You do get the impression though that it's pretty firmly stuck into the bottom of the pool and that it will probably take more than floating ice to get it out. Whatever you decide to do, you're going to need a lot more magic! Questions arrives from the south and sticks his hand into the water... Yup it's definitely very cold. All three goblins are getting cold now and will need to warm up next turn or take damage.

Back inside, Travels eats half the rabbit and recovers 1HP bringing him up to 4/5HP. He is now nice and full. Eaten continues to craft and makes a little more progress. He reckons he's probably about halfway done with the vest. Splits has run out of furs to chop up, so he uses 1MP to investigate the ninja rabbit. It is difficult to get a good reading though, a bit like trying to keep hold of something slippery... Damn! He lost it! Splits doesn't manage to learn anything... Burned uses 1MP to scan his clan amulet... Interesting! The amulet vibrates strongly against his chest as he starts to focus his magic on it... Hmmm! Looks like the amulet can detect goblin magic! He wonders what else it can do... But no time for that now! Burned hurries outside to catch up with Finds.

Meanwhile, Finds wraps the canteen in the snowbeast pelt and heads outside, hoping he can keep the potion hot enough for the trolls... ----------------------------

Turn 63

Turtles, Danger and Questions dance like maniacs to warm up.

Splits meditates to restore his MP back to 1/1 and Travels meditates to try and expand his mind. Unfortunately, like Turtles's early attempts, he isn't successful without anything to focus his magic on and his magic drifts away into the ether. He is now at 0/1MP. Eaten makes fairly decent progress on the shirt and just needs to sew it all together now.

Finds hurries off to the trolls with Burned following along on auto-pilot. The flask still feels pretty warm under the fur pelt, but you can only hope it's good enough for the trolls! "Well loog who fibally showed bag up! You toog your sweeb tibe!" --------------------------

Turns 64-65: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 66

Questions heads off to get a blanket and meets Burned and Finds on their way to the waterfall. They give him a blanket, which he wraps around himself because he's cold and doesn't have anywhere else he wanted to go.

Burned and Finds continue back to the waterfall and make it as far as the cliff where Travels has spaced out. Travels is getting cold up here though and will need to warm up next turn. "Well goblins. We are starting to arrive at the point we are running out of things to explore, things to do. But that magic item? I say that we're gonna see and find out what a whole lot of goblin magic can do! Who's with me? Let us all gather there, and we'll control the entire waterfall to our will! It'll be glorious!"

"I had not realized how absolutely disgusting these blankets were... But, yes. We should see what goblin magic can do."

Turtles and Danger do the warm-up dance again. "I am having doubts as to the power of goblin magic at this point" "Don't doubt, we are just starting with using magic. I understand the Chief is trying to get everybody together and see what we can come up with all together. I actually think that could be quite impressive."

Back in the cave, Splits and Eaten are still busy. Eaten uses 1m of rabbit gut to stitch the trousers together and finishes them comfortably, gaining a pair of [Rabbit-skin trousers] -------------------------------[Rabbit-skin trousers]: Partial protection from the cold. Provides some camouflage in the snow.

Turn 67

Chief Burned-By-Flames heads to the waterfall with Finds and makes an announcement: "Onwards! To ADVENTURE! Wait Shush, bear nearby" "Listen, I want everyone to listen up for once and do as I say. Finish what your doing, and start making your way towards the waterfall! I want everyone to work together on this, so that even if we fail we'll be sure it's actually impossible to do, and not having to do it all over again just to be sure. Besides, you wouldn't want to miss out, would you?"
"Everyone got magic training by now, right? Yeah, should be."

The other goblins hear their Chief's call and start heading towards the waterfall. Already there, Danger uses his 1MP to try and channel the wind to cut an ice blade out of the iceberg. While he is successful in driving the wind, there's nothing to stop the iceberg and it just gets blown onto the bank. Turtles meditates.

Splits grumbles about having to leave the cozy little cave and heads north. He makes it as far as the iceberry bush, where he bumps into Questions who is hurrying to the waterfall.

Travels decides it's way too cold to be outside and heads back to the little cave for some clothes. He's still cold and won't be able to leave without warming up, but at least the cave is sheltered.

Eaten decides it's about time for an experiment and attempts to draw the hardness of a rock into a scrap of wool. Concentrating hard, he focuses his mind on one of the little rocks by the hearth and searches for the energy that gives the thing its rigidity and hardness... It's hard work, but just as he feels his strength slipping away, he finds what he's looking for! There's no time to transfer any energies out of the rock, but it should be easier to find the right strand of energy next time. Eaten is now down to 0/1MP. ---------------

Turn 68

The goblins continue to gather at the waterfall, as Splits and Questions arrive to join the others. Burned gives his blanket to Turtles and dances around to stay warm, and Questions, Turtles and Danger all meditate to regain 1MP each. Finds tries to give his blanket away, but no-one wants it, so he keeps it and stays warm. Splits is getting cold now and will need to warm up next turn or take damage.

In the cave, Eaten pulls on the pair of new rabbit trousers and gives the new wool shirt to Travels. Eaten then meditates to regain 1MP and Travels dances around to warm up. The new shirt will help him stay warm a bit longer in the cold, but he'll need to wear something else with it as well if he's going to keep completely warm in the mountains. Still, it's definitely better than nothing! ----------------

Turn 69

Eaten stays in the cave and attempts once again to transfer the hardness from the hearth stone into the shirt he's wearing. Concentrating hard, he focuses on the stone and manages to quickly find the energy he's looking for. Keeping hold of that focus, he attempts to shift his attention to the shirt, but trying to keep his attention on two things at once is difficult enough never mind trying to join up the energies from two completely different sources. He tries to mesh the two together, but every time he feels like he's about to make a connection it slips apart... Still, at least it feels like he's making a bit of progress.

Travels leaves the cave and heads to the waterfall where he finds the others attempting some en-masse magic. Slipping into their trances, the 6 goblins allow their magic to bind together, like strands of a tapestry then, as one, turn their attentions to the waterfall and attempt to redirect its flow. Amazingly, under Turtles' guidance, what had felt like an impossible task for the individual goblins becomes straightforward and the goblins find they can alter the course of the waterfall with barely any effort. Turtles shows the rest of the clan where the magic item is located in the stream and with a final effort they drag the water out of its normal channel and use it to force the item free of whatever has been holding it down, and shove it towards the shore. All 6 goblins use up their MPs in the effort, but it's enough! The magical thing that has taken so much effort and time to get now lies in the shallows at the edge of the pool as the waterfall goes back to normal. It looks like a weapon of some sort... ------------------------------

Turn 70

Turtles uses his last MP to scan the item under the water but doesn't sense anything particularly untoward about it, it all seems pretty safe. Danger heads to the edge of the pool and picks up the new magic item and pulls out a vicious looking [Harpoon]. Coolio! He hands the snowbeast sinew over to Splits. Burned, Questions and Finds meditate to recover their MP back to 1/1. Travels spaces out. Everyone who's not huddled in a blanket (except Travels) is getting cold and will need to warm up next turn or take damage.

Splits heads back towards the cave. He's really cold now and takes 1HP damage, dropping him down to 3/5HP.

In the cave, Eaten meditates and recovers 1MP. ---------------------------[Harpoon]: 2 ATT; increases to 4 ATT when used in water. 2 magic slots (0 full).

Turn 71

Danger squees! Turtles grabs his blanket and warms up and he wraps it around himself. Then he settles down to meditate and recovers 1MP. "Hmm...Danger, I believe we should consult the princess on the properties of this item." Burned addresses the goblins again while he warms up: Hey, your heading to Princess Sparkles? Man, I hope she hasn't had some kind of nervous breakdown whilst we were away or anything... But, about that, I think we are about ready to get her transferred into that pendant thingie so she can come with us, right? Turtles, your the mage, so I'd probably want to have you there- But for now I'm just gonna head there and see what it's all going to need to get this done. After I warm up ofcourse... Crafters, keep up the good work. If you have leftovers, maybe you could try making a rope? I could see that becoming very useful. And a more silly thing, I need someone to lick these mushrooms. What? Stop looking at me like that. Remember that diary? They're supposed to give

visions or something like that. Come on. They probably taste pretty good even!" Burned passes off a brown mushroom to Danger.

Finds & Danger head towards Princess Sparkles (heading left and down according to the dice since no-one specified a route) and ends up at the cave. Unfortunately, since Danger hasn't warmed up yet, he takes 1HP damage from the cold. Travels follows.

Questions leaps to his feet and sprints off south along the river, attempting on the way to draw the magic out of his armour to get some extra speed, but since he filled the slot with life energy from a tree it's not much good at speeding him up and between running and concentrating, he only makes it one area south and

uses up both the magic in his armour and 1MP. He does recover 1HP from the process though, so at least it's not a total waste!

Splits enters the cave and pulls out the pelt. He can't warm up without spending a full turn on it, but in the shelter of the cave he's at least not taking damage any more. Eaten is still there, and attempts to pull the energies out of the rock and into the fabric again. He finds the energy out the rock pretty quickly and again tries to fit it to the structure of the fabric, carefully manipulating the two at the same time to try and mesh them together... Just as he feels his grasp of the spell slipping he finally spots the similarities in the two energies that should allow this to work. One more attempt should do it! --------------------

Turn 72

Eaten meditates and regains 1MP, while Splits empties his (ridiculously large) pockets onto the floor of the cave and warms himself up. Since he doesn't really specify exactly what he wants to drop, he keeps the centipede stuff in his inventory and drops everything else, which is: 7.5m Snowbeast sinew 1x skinned rabbit corpse Sharpened rock (knife-type, +1 ATT) 1x piece of charcoal On the floor already is: 1x Marked snowbeast pelt 2x gutted rabbit corpses Enough wool to make 2x large items of goblin clothes (e.g. trousers, vests etc) or 4x small items (e.g. gloves, socks, hat etc.) 1x pair of rabbit skin shoes (to be stitched) 1x rabbit skin jumper (to be stitched)

Burned double moves south along the river and reaches the terrapins. It's much warmer down here.

Danger and Finds arrive back at Princess Sparkles who has apparently been busy... "Oh! You're back! I've been giving Mr. Fluffikins a makeover! Isn't he handsome now?" "Wow. That's... colourful..." "Hello, Madame. We appear to have found a rare magical weapon, and were wondering if you may have any insight into any of it's properties or uses." "Oh the smiths used to make those kinds of things all the time. You weren't a warrior of the clan unless you fought with SOME sort of magic weapon or armour

or whatever. Still, I can't tell you much more about it that you don't know already, at least not until you've filled up some of those slots. ... Why are you wearing a blanket covered in bogeys?"

Questions meditates.

Outside the cave, Travels spaces out, and Turtles arrives from the north-east. ---------------------

Turn 73

"The blanket there because I still yet have flesh which is susceptible to temperature extremes, such as those found in the north. The Bogeys are because we gathered these blankets from some rather sick trolls after we cured them." Burned meets up with Danger and Finds at Princess Sparkles's cairn. Danger puts his harpoon down on the ground and takes out his brown mushroom and licks it. It tastes common, but ambitious and makes his tongue go all tingly, but not much else happens. You probably need to eat it to get the full effects. Finds settles down to try and transfer some wind energy into Danger's harpoon. It's a near thing and he nearly loses his concentration several times, but eventually manages to fill one of the slots successfully. Just.

Back inside the little cave, Splits feels considerably warmer and gets back to work on the pelt. Since he doesn't specify what he wants to make, he chooses at random and goes for another pair of trousers. He makes a start and doesn't do particularly well, but thanks to his experience still manages to get nearly halfway finished. Travels arrives at the cave and starts building up another camp fire. It will be ready to light next turn. Eaten laments how long it seems to have taken to meditate for that last MP, and wastes no time in spending it trying to finally master his spell. Settling down on the floor, he concentrates on the rock and the fabric simultaneously and searches for that common thread linking them together. He finds it! Eaten has created a scrap of Stoneskin! The fabric feels strangely unchanged to touch, but the colour has changed to dozens of shades of grey which seem to swirl on the surface of the wool. Weird! Turtles arrives, complaining about how long it took to get to there.

Somewhere else, Questions snoozes and regains 1HP. It's a good thing this isn't the kind of mountain with bears wandering around in it. Yup, definitely a good thing.... ---------------------

Turn 74

At the cairn, Finds meditates on his success and recovers 1MP, while Burned tries to remember why he came all the way out here... "... I forgot what I was coming here for. Oh. Wait, right! Sparkles. I believe everyone of us has now learned about magic- And whilst final preparations are still being made, soon enough it may be time to move onwards- Well, as soon as we actually find the entrance. I have some ideas for that though... But, this means that, if we wish to take you with us, we should do this ritual you spoke of- A little box or something I believe you said it was? How would we go about doing that? Oh, and I don't think I have asked yet, should have... Does this amulet I'm wearing look familiar to you?" "Well it's about time! I've been waiting forEVER for someone to come along and do something interesting! The box is somewhere in my cairn, so you'll need to get digging. And don't forget Mr. Fluffikins! As for your amulet, is that a trick question? Of course it looks familiar, it's the talisman with the clan sigil on that EVERY Chief in FOREVER gets given when they inherit the title. It's got a special magic in it, but it'll only work for the Chief. Which is you. Obviously." Danger contemplates for a moment, then decides that eating strange mushrooms is definitely what makes life worth living. He consumes the Brown Mushroom and... it's not a hallucinogenic one. Actually it tastes pretty good, and he recovers 1HP! Excellent!

Back in the cave Splits continues making the new set of trousers and is able to finish cutting them out. Now they just need to be stitched and they'll be ready to go. Eaten meditates and recovers 1MP. Turtles spends 1MP to examine the little piece of enchanted fabric but although he can sense that there is an element of both the original fabric and the rock in the creation, he is unable to figure out how they fit together. He'll need to spend a bit of time on this or get Eaten to teach him. Travels spaces out staring at the firepit.

Somewhere else, Questions spaces out. It looks just like sleeping, but it's actually completely different. -------------------A note on magic & mushrooms:
So there are a few things from the last couple of updates that I thought I would clarify: 1. I double checked the past posts, but I'm pretty sure you didn't know what any of the mushrooms did before this update so I carried on with the description I had in my notes. The effect described above is the intended one though, so consider anything else a mistake 2. @ Dusk9: Since you started practicing with the scrap of fabric, you had to finish learning on the scrap too. But now that you've learned the spell you can use it on any other similar piece of hide / wool. It was a good idea to use a test piece though 3. Magic spells are intended to be completely flexible, but I figured I'd start giving the more complex ones names so we can all refer to them easily without getting confused.

Turn 75

"Ah, yes, of that I'm aware... But, you need to realize, most of our ancestors knowledge has been lost- I didn't even know this thing had powers until recently I'm afraid. I managed to figure out on my own it can detect goblin magic, but do you perhaps know of any... Other things it might be capable of?" "No, but there was a lot of stuff that only the clan Tellers knew. They were supposed to be advisors for new Chiefs, so you'd be better off asking them don't you think?" "That would be great, but we haven't had a clan teller for generations." Really, but then how do you know anyth- Oooooooooh! That explains a LOT. I guess you really, REALLY need me to come with you then! He then quickly turns to Danger. "Huh, I really thought it said those were hallucinogenic... At least we now know that those could heal us! Maybe the red ones are hallucinogenic, if you still want to try those?" Danger takes the mushroom and eats it while Burned continues to talk to Sparkles. "Of course I won't forget about Mr. Fluffikins. Now, once I have collected this box, will anything else need to happen? I want to make sure we are fully ready for thisIf it isn't as easy as just getting that box suggests, we might lose you. And whilst

ye may be a little brat at times, I'd rather not lose you." A BRAT?! Well at least I'm not a stupid, ugly red goblin who can't do magic! Humph! Just hurry up and dig my box out of this cairn. Assuming that all means it's safe to carry on, Burned to dismantle the cairn. Princess Sparkles and Mr Fluffikins vanish immediately, but the rock pile is huge. This is going to take a long time if he's going to do it alone. Danger continues to experiment with strange mushrooms and discovers that the red ones aren't hallucinogenic either... As the mushroom hits his stomach, he notices two things: firstly, he feels a lot tougher than he did a moment ago, and discovers that he has gained a temporary +1 boost to his defence. Unfortunately, the effects don't last very long at all because the second thing he notices is that he feels suddenly, violently ill and vomits up the mushrooms in a red and brown mush. It seems that eating lots of raw mushrooms in quick succession is a bad idea, but at least you learned something else about them. Unfortunately, the whole affair means he doesn't have time to try and assimilate Mr. Fluffikins this turn. Finds ignores all of them and decides to try and fill the 2nd slot on the harpoon with lightning energy. He clears his mind and searches the rain clouds for the spark he is looking for. Unfortunately, he completely screws up trying to transfer it into the harpoon and manages to electrocute himself instead, doing 1 DAM and bringing him down to 1/5HP. Ouch*!

Back in the cave, Travels lights the little fire which makes it lovely and warm inside. Eaten casts 'Stoneskin' on his shirt while Turtles meditates and 'watches', and he successfully creates a [Stoneskin Shirt]! Turtles is pretty sure he follows most of the process, but will need to try it out himself to be sure he really understands the spell. Splits takes the bone needle and 2m of rabbit gut from Eaten and starts cutting out a shirt from the remaining hide. He's in the zone for this one and manages to finish cutting it out in one turn! Now it just needs sewing up and it will be done.

Questions continues to sleep and regains 1HP bringing him back up to full health. Somewhere far to the north a distant roar interrupts his dreams... ---------------------------[Brown mushroom]: If eaten raw will restore 1HP. [Red mushroom]: If eaten raw will grant a temporary +1 DEF boost [Mushrooms]: Cannot eat more than one raw mushroom in 6 turns without vomiting the whole mess back up. [Stoneskin Shirt]: An ordinary shirt imbued with the strength of stone; +1 DEF. Cool *Guess who rolled a 1? Also, bear in mind that since no-one's actually picked up the harpoon (Danger put it down and Finds cast his spells while it's been on the ground), you don't know what the spell effects are yet.

Turn 76

Burned continues to deconstruct the cairn. Somewhere to the north, there's another roar. It seems much closer than last time... "Hmm. Why do I have this urging feeling it might actually not be us who brings the trouble soon? Oh well, I'm sure it is nothing... Also, none of those are the right mushrooms?! Well, I also have these yellow mushrooms, so those must be it. Though, you don't look like you wany any more mushrooms for a while... Danger picks up his [Harpoon] and gets an update on its stats. Danger then meditates to search for the bones of Mr. Fluffikins which tells him that they're somewhere in the cairn. Well, that wasn't very helpful.

"I believe further experimentation at this time would be inadvisable. Chief, would you like some assistance, or would you mind if I make my way back to the cave and rest up for a spell. I seem to made myself into rather poor health.". Since he gets no reply, he grabs his blanket and heads off towards the cave to recuperate (heading east then north since it wasn't specified). Arriving outside the cave he can hear a loud growling coming from somewhere to the west...

Safe (probably) inside the little cave, Eatenis positively glowing with smugness as he meditates to recover his MP. Splits stitches up the snowbeast-hide trousers, which he auto-completes thanks to his skills as a craftsman. He now has a completed pair of [Snowbeast Hide Trousers] Turtles decides to try and make his own stoneskin stuff and tries to cast the spell on one of the unfinished rabbit skin boots, which turns out to be successful! He now has an [Incomplete Rabbit-Skin Boot]! Travelsspaces out.

Questions yawns, stretches and trundles off towards the forest. Presumably towards the log? He gets as far as the boring forest.x ----------------[Harpoon]: 2 ATT; increases to 4 ATT when used in water. 2 magic slots. Slot 1: Wind : Harpoon can be used as a ranged weapon in air (75% chance to hit). Slot 2: Empty. [Snowbeast Hide Trousers]: Trousers made from thick snowbeast hide. Provides partial protection from the cold. [Incomplete Rabbit-Skin Boot]: Pretty useless as it is, but imbued with the strength of stone.

Turn 77

In the little cave, Eaten worries about the bear while Splits dooms everyone (and finishes the first shoe). Findsenters the cave (not a moment too soon) and roasts one of the rabbits creating another [Cooked Rabbit], whileTravels spaces out (again), and the little campfire starts to die out. Turtles meditates and recovers his MP back up to 2/3MP (one from meditating and one from time passing). ........was that a roar!? ...bears live in caves, don't they....................shit." "Nah, a bear would have gotten rid of the who knows how old dead guy when they moved in. It's probably just a... ok nothing good, but we have fire, if it comes in here we burn it." "Err....wasn't there another....bigger....cave?" "I dunno. But we're three magical goblins in a tiny cave with only one exit, what could possibly threaten us?" "I...Do not believe myself currently up to extended combat..." "We have three magic goblins that are low on magic. I am speaking for my self here but i got nothing else to fight with really so i am going to get some magic back before i face what could be one giant ass bear"

A hush descends over the cave as a low growl is heard from outside the cave entrance...

At the cairn, Burned and Danger have a similar (if one-sided) conversation: "...Sonofacrap. I was right. It's the damn bear! Shit shit shit... And we haven't got the box yet! Alright guys, we need to plan and regroup here- But first we need that box! Either we'll all have to face this thing together, or... Well, I've been having this nagging suspicion that the entrance we're looking for is somewhere in that cave."

Both goblins return to the task of dismantling the cairn with renewed vigour.

To the south, Questions begins his own magical experiments with rocks, but it's going to take some time to learn the spell. Using all his focus, he concentrates on finding the hardness within the stone amongst all its other properties. With a bit of luck, he finds it almost immediately and is able to separate out its unique energy before his magic runs out. That's a good start! -------------------------

Turn 78

Things inside the cave are getting pretty tense. The goblins inside can hear the creature pawing at the entrance of the little cave and growling in frustration. It seems to know you're in there, but it also looks like the entrance is too small for it to come and get you. Splits decides to try and scare it off. He quickly discovers that his magic isn't strong enough to draw any energy in from outside, but the little fire is producing enough air movement (like a chimney) to do a similar job. Focusing his energies on that, he takes a deep breath and roars, trying to amplify his voice around the little cave. The spell works, but unfortunately the results are not particularly impressive and don't seem to worry the bear too much. "well this bodes well for our future health and well being" "Hmm...Would anyone like my snake-tooth armlet, as I do not believe I am able to fight at my current health." "..........eep." Turtles and Finds both make attempts to recuperate before throwing themselves

into battle. Turtles recovers 1MP by meditating (bringing his total to 3/3MP) and Finds eats the cooked rabbit, recovering 1HP (his total is now 2/5HP) and 1MP (from time passing). Eaten composes himself and casts Stoneskin on Split's trousers, giving them a +1DEF! (target was chosen at random since it wasn't specified).

Travels decides to try and get a better look at the creature outside and throws the remaining raw rabbit carcass just outside the mouth of the cave. Unfortunately, all he sees is a large white paw scoop the carcass out of the cave entrance and take it away. Seems you can't see into another area without going there. How annoying! The little fire dies out. Outside, Burned and Danger decide to leave the little cairn for the time being. ""... Shit. They're with the others Danger. We won't be able to finish this before they actually get in trouble. I'm sorry Sparkles. I'm not sure if you can hear me, but... I promise we'll be back. That bear is about to taste the wrath of one MP of furious goblin wrath... And Mr. Rock. Let's go Danger."

Burned tries to move based on where the monster is, but since he's got no way of knowing in advance where it might be, he and Danger keep going and arrive outside the little cave...

...Where they find a giant snow bear. It looks up from the rabbit carcass and growls menacingly at them.

Way off to the south, Questions feels an existential crisis looming, but meditates anyway and regains his 1MP. --------------------------

Turn 79

Outside, Danger and Burned face off against a sleepy, grumpy, hungry bear. The goblins glance at each other and sprint for the cave. The bear chases to intercept them and swipes at Danger as the goblins dive into the little cave doing a whopping 5 damage and knocking him down to 1/5HP. Ouch! Fortunately, he's pretty philosophical about it all, pointing at his old scars: "Seems like Danger found us. Last time I met one similar, it gave me this. But then I went into a cave to find it, now I went into one to escape it, so let's hope the other results are better as well."

Inside, the ninja rabbit hops over to Danger and looks at his wounds and sniffs cautiously at them... Then gets very excited about something and starts squeaking excitedly at Eaten "Squeak squeaken squeeeeeeek squee!" "Aw crap. Seriously?" Eaten tries to clear his mind and he and Splits meditate to recover 1MP. Finds tries to put on some warm clothes, but none of the skins are ready yet (everything on the floor needs to be sewn together still). Instead, he watches Turtles casting Stoneskin on his blanket (which is successful and makes a Stoneskin Blanket)and tries to follow the spell as it's cast. He could learn faster if he was being taught, but he still manages to pick up some of the main ideas. It'll take some more watching though before he's ready to try it himself. Travels puts a bundle of sticks into the fire pit and lights them with the tinderbox. A campfire springs into life and the little cave immediately warms up.

Way off to the south, Questions spaces out. ** -------------*TRANSLATION: "That's it! That creature out there is a land hunter! Get a token from it for the ritual!! Go! Go! Go!" ** Asks has headed off on holiday for a week, so please vote for Questions' actions until he gets back to take over Stoneskin Blanket: Provides +1 DEF, protects against cold. If worn, one hand must be used to keep it wrapped around the wearer since it has no clip or ties.

Turn 80

Turtles casts Stoneskin on Eaten's trousers since they're the only complete items of clothing left in the cave while Finds keeps watching. He feels like he might be ready to give the spell a try for himself. Turtles tries to use his belt to fasten the blanket around him, but while it sort of stays on, he'll need something a bit more sophisticated if he's going to fight in it. Splits and Eaten both try to sew some clothes, but Splits has the only needle so Eatenis left guarding the entrance in case the bear comes in. He can hear it growling outside, but it seems to be too big to get in. Danger spaces out. Burned meditates and recovers 1MP while dreaming of a bearskin pimp suit...

Travels meanwhile throws caution to the wind, grabs a burning stick and runs out of the cave to throw it at the bear. The bear looks briefly surprised by the attack, but is completely unhurt by it. The stick fizzles on the ground and goes out.The bear growls and swipes Travels, knocking him out cold (0/5HP!) Travels needs to be revived next turn (and probably rescued from the hungry bear) or else he will die. Far to the south, Questions continues to space out. ---------------------------

Turn 81: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 82

"Of course, it figures that none of us are strong enough to survive one hit of this damn beast! and now we'll never retreat safely inside!" "times like this i wish i had a shell!!" Questions arrives from the south, ready to protect the clan! He uses 1MP to transfer health from the bear to Turtles... He very nearly messes up the spell, but thankfully it *just* works and Turtles stabilises. He is now:[Disabled: Stable]. Burned wants to help Eaten back into the cave, but Eaten seems quite happy outside for now. Finds runs outside and manages to drag Turtles inside the cave to safety. Eaten attempts again to distract the bear, by throwing his rusty knife at its face. He doesn't completely miss, but the knife bounces off harmlessly into the snow. The bear roars angrily and swipes at the goblins with a paw, hitting Questions and knocking him down to 3/5HP.

Back inside, Splits grabs the rabbit gut off the floor and finishes off the rabbit skin trousers. Danger rests and recovers up to 2/5HP. Travels moans a about the pain he's in, and drags himself to the cave entrance... Except he's already inside, so he doesn't go anywhere. --------------------

Turn 83

Everybody retreats inside the cave, while the bear growls and grumbles outside. The ninja rabbit gives Eaten a long reproachful look and follows him back inside with a sigh. Once inside, Finds and Turtles stretch out to rest, and recover 1HP each. Burned also rests, but because he moved this turn he doesn't recover any HP. Splits sews up the rabbit-skin shoes, which appears to be the last thing needing sewn up! There's still enough pieces of wool to make two pairs of trousers (or similar-sized items) but they need to be made up from scratch. Travels and Danger space out. Again. ------------------------

Turn 84

Everybody sleeps.

After some time, a few start to wake up and make themselves useful, going about various tasks. By the time everyone has woken up, Splits has made a start on a pair of wool trousers, but doesn't manage to get very far due to some extreme cocking-it-up. Fortunately he's skilled enough not to completely ruin the material, but it's a close thing. One more turn should be enough to finish cutting the trousers out though. Probably. The growling and snuffling outside seems to have stopped... Huh. ----------------------------------You were asleep for 4 turns.

Turn 86: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 87

Inside the cave, after a lengthy conversation doesn't bear retyping, Danger attempts to cast Stoneskin on the harpoon, but since he doesn't know the spell yet he has to try and learn from scratch. Unfortunately, he doesn't do very well and loses focus almost immediately. Stupid magic is hard. Questions meditates and recovers 1MP. Turtles is less than impressed with his shiny belt, and attempts to pull the 'metalness' back out of the belt and into something else. Unfortunately, he realises immediately that he won't be able to separate them now without destroying the belt. Guess he's stuck with his stupid bling. Burned tries to follow someone casting a spell, but no-one's managed to actually cast anything this turn. Travels spaces out.

Splits keeps working on the last shirt and does a masterful job! He creates a [Fine Woollen Shirt]: Partial protection from the cold. Expertly made. He's getting pretty good at this! So good in fact, that it seems like all the practicing has paid off! He is now an Adept Leather Craftsman and is even better at making items out of hide and leather than he was before! Hooray!

Eaten and Finds decide to be brave and leave the cave. There is no sign of the bear here (phew), so he heads west, where there is still no bear (phew!).

---------------------------Adept Leather Craftsman: Gains a bonus when crafting items out of hide or fabrics.

Turn 88

"WooHoo, bow in awe of my leet crafting skills." "... I asked for a few moments of waiting! Whatever. Let's hope for the best. Okay, those of who are going to stay here and make themselves useful crafting something do so. Oh, alternatively, I have this here mushroom... If one of you crafters wants to try that. Alright, all the rest, follow me to the cairn!" Danger meditates and regains his 1MP, alongside Questions who spaces out.

Everyone else heads out towards the cairn.

Eaten and Finds arrive at the cairn, where Finds starts pulling more rocks down in the hunt for Princess Sparkles. Eaten draws energy from one of the rocks and casts Stoneskin on Finds' snotty blanket. Somewhere off to the west they hear a distant roar. Sounds like the bear wandered off this way... Hopefully he'll keep going! ----------------------------

Turn 89

In the little cave, Questions casts Stoneskin into his armour, filling one of the slots and giving him a temporary +1DEF boost. Damn, looks like slots only give temporary boosts. Danger manages to follow the whole spell, and is probably ready to try it himself.

To the south, most of the others set to work dismantling the cairn, and manage to

clear most of the stones. They still don't find Princess Sparkles, but they must be getting close. Eaten meditates to recover 1MP and Travelswatches the others work. You can't hear the growling any more. ---------------------------

Turn 90

Splits, Turtles, Burned, Eaten and Finds all continue to dismantle the cairn, which is really no longer a cairn so much as a scattering of boulders. "Hey! I found something!" At the bottom of the cairn, Eaten finds a little wooden box with silver banding around it and Burned collects himself four fist-sized rocks.

In the cave, Danger attempts to try and cast stoneskin into the harpoon, but he loses track of it midway through and the spell fails. Badly. The shock of the spell failing is enough to stun him (duration: 2 turns) and he won't be able to use his MP or regenerate it until he's back to normal. Questions meditates and recovers his 1MP.

Travels meanwhile heads north and arrives back up at the cliffs outside the cave which seems to be completely silent now. It's cold up here, but his woolly shirt

helps to keep him a bit warmer at least. ----------------------------

Turn 91

Questions decides it's about time some exploring happened, and leaves the cave to follow Travels. He heads north and reaches the cliff with the iceberry bush. It's cold up here, but his blanket keeps him warm.

Travels heads west. As he passes the blank cliff wall he gets a very strange feeling like something is watching him, but it quickly passes. Moving on, he reaches a brand new area and arrives at the bottom of a long crack in the rock face.

""Hey look Mr. Rock, I got you some friends! Wait, wh- No, of course I'm not replacing you?! Why would you even think that?! Erm, I mean... Good job guys. Turtles, your the most skilled one of us- You want to take a look at it?" "if i get stunned again i will not be a happy goblin" Turtles uses his magic to check the little box and can clearly feel the energy of Princess Sparkles and Mr. Fluffikins swirling inside it. He wonders vaguely how the rabbit got in the box, but figures it must be a magic thing. Splits keeps looking for Mr. Fluffikins, but Turtles already found him. "Did we get Mr. Fluffikins bone as well? Though I guess that rabbit is just praying to be left dead or something... She can't hear me say this, right? Right? Anyways guys, let's continue with the plan- First to the forest, get some wood, then we return that stuff to the cave for crafting, then we go exploring. Maybe even hunting..." "Hmm...Does anyone wish to attempt to recover that snowbeast corpse we raided for materials before and perhaps use it's bones as well? They could be used for many things." Finds waits for anyone else to head off, but since they are all busy talking and looking for things he stays put. Burned picks up the [Spirit Box].

Eaten heads south to the forest and arrives at the log.

Danger spaces out in the cave. He will be stunned for one more turn. -----------------------

Turn 92-93: Lost in the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 94

Despite the cold, Travels focuses his energies on the cliff in front of him. A voice suddenly booms in his ears "The Mountain Gate is closed to all who do not hold the key. Begone!" Travels will need to warm up next turn.

In the big cave, Questions examines the bones. They appear to be the rotting remains of some carcass dragged in here by the bear. From the smell, it seems like they've been here a long time. Ew. Eaten arrives from the south.

Finds and Turtles arrive at the little cave.

"I was just making sure you were all right. Though I guess now that I can talk to you for just a bit, one of the other goblins discovered this drawing A mountain, with on the left and right side a moon, and on the top a crown. Sounds familiar?" "Are you seriously telling me you don't know the crest of your own clan? Gods, goblin! Don't they teach you ANYTHING?! We used to use crest seals to travel instantly between the city and the most important places. Of course, the seals

could only be activated by weavers - you don't want any old riffraff just popping up!" Princess Sparkles fades from Burned's mind. Burned and Splits head north.

Tugs Tails meditates and recovers 1MP. ---------------

Turn 95

"Heheh. Just as I expected. Seems like our entry into the city is sooner then expected. Even still, there is that bear however..." "Goodie, I can't wait to see what kind of stuff is there." Burned and Splits continue north and arrive just outside the big cave...

...where Questions is jumping up and down on the seal. Nothing very exciting happens, but it's a great aerobic workout! Eaten checks out the skull. It seems reasonably sturdy still, but would need some work to craft it into a helmet. Then he uses his magic to scan the seal under Questions, but can't detect anything. Maybe it's broken? Travelsquickly discovers that he can't warm-up and move at the same time, but since the cave is nice and warm he just heads straight there.

Back in the other cave, Turtles attempts to draw static electricity into his belt, but unfortunately it doesn't seem able to accept it, like there's no space for it to go into. He's left with a crackly blanket and a feeling that all the hairs on his body are standing up.

Finds stacks up his pile of wood to dry and heads back outside.

Tugs meanwhile heads back north again, to where he's just come from. -----------------------

Turn 96

Up at the waterfall, Tugs settles down and attempts to transfer some of the coldness of the water into his harpoon. He does spectacularly well, and charges the harpoon with a boosted [Frostbite] power: +2 cold damage (one use). Nice one! Without any warm clothing though he is starting to get cold and will need to warm up next turn.

Finds and Turtles keep heading towards the big cave where the others are hanging out.

Eaten sits down with the skull and starts carving it into a workable helmet-shape. He gets on ok, but it'll need a fair bit more work to be useable. Splits enters the cave and attempts to channel his MP into the seal on the stone, but he can't make it work. It's as if (magically speaking at least) the seal doesn't exist. Burned wanders around the cave with his amulet in hand, testing to see if anything sets it off, but it remains quiet. Travels takes a more physical approach to the investigations and pulls the ring on the front of the stone. With a rumble, the stone pulls away fairly easily, revealing a vertical shaft leading down into the ground.

Questions spaces out, apparently exhausted from all the jumping around. --------------------------

Turn 97

Eaten continues working on his skull helmet and manages to carve it into roughly the right shape. Now all he needs is some hide or leather to pad it out and add a strap and it should be useable.

Everyone else leaves him to it and piles down the ladder.

Tugs warms up.

And Turtles keeps moving up to the cave where everyone else is. -----------------------

Turn 98

Tugs heads west twice and arrives outside the big cave.

Everyone else heads down the ladder, as Eaten collects the [snowbeast pelt] from Finds. Unfortunately, no-one notices the broken rung or the wire below it, and as Questions steps on the broken rung, four sharp blades shoot out of the sides of the pit into his legs. Fortunately, his high defence means that he takes no damage from the trap (though he loses his +1 DEF bonus). Unfortunately, he is so startled by it that he loses his footing and falls the rest of

the way down, taking 1DAM from the landing.

The others avoid the trap and arrive safely into the cave, but it seems that Questions' noisy arrival has woken up some of the resident... rocks? -----------------------

Turn 99

Turtles scans the cave for magical things, but doesn't find anything. He wonders why it took so long for that to work and quietly curses the powers that turn the things he wants to do into actions...*

Tugs hurries into the cave and down the ladder.

"Fascinating." Unfortunately for everyone else, it seems like the little rock beasties aren't too pleased at being woken up and attack the goblins. Two of them jump up and headbutt Burned doing 1DAM. Splits manages to pick one up before it can attack and he chucks it towards the water. Unfortunately the bridges are wider than the pools and the creatures bounces harmlessly across and into the other rock. Which also wakes up. "Cool new pet I'm gonna Call you mr rock!" "...Mr. Rock look, it's your friends! And you don't get to have a pet rock, I already had a pet rock! Anyways, damn about that trap. I should have noticed it. Feels like ages I had a good rest. Anyways, I hope these things are peaceful... I'd hate to have to kill Mr. Rock's friends." "Mr stone then?" "Alright, as long as you make sure he's a STONE. Not a rock." Questions tries to pick up the rock closest to him, but it leaps upwards and smacks him in the face. Fortunately it can't get through his defence though. Burned attempts to stomp on one of the rock beasties on the ground, but it doesn't appear to have any effect. Eaten throws his own inanimate rock at the creature on the wall, and hits it, but doesn't seem to do any damage either... He also tries to do something fancy with his magic, but since he's already attacked he can't do anything else this turn. The

little creature retaliates by flinging itself at Eaten but can't get through his defense. The whole battle seems a bit of a stalemate. Travels checks the bridge for traps, but doesn't spot any** so continues over towards the blue square. The two little rock creatures intercept him and headbutt him, but they don't manage to do any damage. They do however get thoroughly in the way scurrying about underfoot and neither he nor Finds are able to get past them. How annoying! ------------------

Turn 100!

Eaten attempts a complicated portal-esque attack on the rock beast below him. Clearing his mind, he tries to focus on the energy from his own fall as he steps off the ladder. Unfortunately, he's going to need a lot more practice at not-thinkingabout-what-he's-doing while throwing himself off stuff straight at the pointy, rocky ground and the spell fails. Luckily though, he's got enough defence to land without doing himself any damage. Of course, it doesn't damage the rock beast either... Splits tries to grab one of the creatures in an attempt to get at its soft and squishy underbelly, but it sees him coming and jumps up hitting him in the face. It's too weak to damage him though. ""Rock beasties, I see how it is... Near impervious to getting kicked, punched, clawed, bitten or danced on, I bet. Luckily, we have something that DOESN'T fall under those categories- Magic. ...Mr. Rock I am SO sorry." Burned decides that magic is the way forward and focuses himself to draw the life force out of one of the beasties. Unfortunately for him, he can't seem to focus his mind and the spell fails before it gets started. Dammit! "Capture and make fire...cook...might taste good...crawlng shells taste good from great salt water."

Travels attempts a similar thing with his magics. Unfortunately, he also struggles and his concentration breaks just as he's starting to probe at the little creature. It snaps him violently out of his mental state which is enough to stun him! Arg!! The effects will wear off in 1 turn. Tugs moves down the ladder, but forgets to avoid the tripwire trap and the spikes get him in the leg as he climbs down! Luckily only one of them makes contact, which isn't enough to get through his defence. When he finally arrives in the cave, he attempts to stab one of the creatures with his harpoon, but even with the enhanced cold attack stored in the weapon he is unable to get through its rocky hide. What the hell are these things made of?! On the plus side, it seems like the cold attack slowed the creature down a bit and it isn't able to attack this turn. "should we try capture of of these things we could do some experiments on it and see if we can learn a few tricks" Turtles follows Tugs down into the cave to show everyone how magic is supposed to be done, but also forgets to avoid the tripwire. Luckily, only two of the spikes get him and it's also not enough to get through his defense. At least some goblins are getting a bit of luck! He concentrates on hurting one of the stone beasts, using his own HP to try and damage it. He feels a familiar stab of pain as his own energy leaves him (losing 1MP and 1HP) but as he tries to force the energy at the monster, it feels like something is blocking it... Some of the force certainly gets through, but not as much as you were expecting. Still, at least it finally seemed to do something... He tries again, this time attempting to draw health out of the creature, using another 1MP but gets blocked again at the same weird barrier thing. Dammit again! It seems like these things have evolved some kind of defense against magic as well as their ridiculously tough shells... Maybe a stronger spell would work?* Finds also attempts to draw the magic out of one of the rock creatures, but encounters the same problem as Turtles and finds something is blocking it from being effective. Seems like some kind of strategy might be needed to kill these particular problems. Two of the creatures jump up and attack Burned, reducing him to

3/5HP. Eaten, Finds and Questions also get attacked by one rock beast each, but they're too weak to do any damage on their own. Questions spaces out. -----------------------------*Remember that Turtles can use 2MP per spell if he wants to because he's a higher level. Unless you state your using 2MP though I'll assume you're only using 1MP per spell. Ah, nothing like a good puzzle monster In case you were wondering, all attacks happen simultaneously (i.e. there's no initiative rolls) except in the case of a death, and then I make a roll to see who attacks first (and who gets harmed / benefits, if anyone). Writing out goblin actions before monster actions doesn't actually mean anything, it's just easier for me to keep on top of. Also, this room is too small for all this action.

Turn 101

One of the creatures leaps up at Splits again, but this time he's ready for it and catches it as it bounces off his face. With a grin, he smacks its exposed underside off one of the other monster's shells, doing almost enough damage to kill it (but not quite). Turtles tries to just grab one of the creatures, but it's too quick for him and leaps up and out of his grasp, smacking him in the face for his trouble. It probably doesn't help that he's trying to catch it one-handed... Questions tries to draw some of the creature's 'hardness' out by magic, but he's not powerful enough to get past its magical defence either. His MP is reduced to 0/1. "Wheeeeeee! Well, that was fun. Now, do you guys want to try a group spell? To get past their magic resistance?" No-one else has enough magic for a group spell just now so Eaten grabs the chilled rock monster and tries to stab it in the belly with his dagger. It's super effective! The rock creature seems to be pretty close to dying too, but it's not quite dead yet. Unfortunately, Eaten's rusty knife snaps during the attack, leaving him with: a [Knife handle] and [Rusty knife blade pieces]. Unless he can get it repaired it's going to be pretty useless...

"Damn it! These rocks are assholes! Being stuck in a cave for so long must have made them all grouchy! I need to meditate Eaten, but it's a good idea. You try that whilst I'll go and recharge my mana to help in taking out the next one if it works." Burned retreats up the ladder a short way to meditate and recovers his 1MP. Tugs also meditates and recovers to 1/1MP. Travels recovers from the effects of the failed spell. The remaining rock creatures attack Travels (for 0 damage) while the other one joins in the attack on Turtles, doing... absolutely no damage.

"Ohh, bother. This is ridiculous..." Finds gets exasperated with the whole affair and climbs back up to the cave (avoiding the trap).

Turn 102

"Aww, crap! How am I supposed to finish that helmet now!? " "I kind of feel bad about killing these little guys, their cute and completely pathetic in a fight." Eaten and Splits both easily kill the helmet-shaped rock creatures they're holding, while Eaten grumbles at the lack of a decent local milliners. Travels tries to pick up the rock monster in front of him, but it squirms out of his grasp at the last second and he drops it. Damn slippery bastards! He inspects the pale blue, glowing grate on the wall instead. It turns out it's a notice, which reads: "Caution! No admittance to unauthorised goblins or other humanoids. Appropriate protective equipment must be worn and permission obtained from the beastmaster before entering the hatchery." "Hmm... I'm ready to try and see if we can roast one of those things with magic, but hitting them in their bellies seems to work just as well." Burned nudges one of the creatures with his foot until it leaps up at him and then catches it mid-air. It wriggles its legs hopelessly. "if i let go of the blanket i can attack but if i do i get attacked and hurt. screw this. "your lucky i dont have magic right now or interstings things would be

happpening to you" Turtles talks to himself while attempting to pin one of the creatures to the ground, but it leaps out the way as he hurls himself at it. Seems they're fast as well as slippery! Now that all the rock mosters are occupied, Tugs crawls under the blue writing (just in case) and inspects the flame on the wall. It turns out it's just a drawing, but he can't really tell what it's showing... Some kind of tree or something? Who knows... Questions takes a less subtle approach... "AGH I'VE HEAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF&*ING ROCKS, ON THIS MOTERF&*ING CAVE " Charging the length of the cave, he slams into the door on the far left and tries to haul it open. He has absolutely no success - it's far to heavy for one goblin to open on his own. The last unoccupied rock creature bounces harmlessly off Eaten's leg.

Upstairs, Finds meditates and recovers 1MP. -----------------------------------

Turn 103

Tugs attempts to orchestrate a mass magic attack on one of the little rock creatures. "Right, let's do it this way then. Everyone behind me. Anyone who's got any energy for magic, it would be nice of you to provide it, and some body heat." Tugs, and Eaten attempt to burn the creature, but Eaten loses his focus and his spell fails. Luckily he doesn't get stunned. Tugs manages to cast his spells, but creature's magic defence is too high for it to do any damage. He does manage to cool themselves right down though and will need to warm up next turn or start taking damage. Finds doesn't arrive in time to help, but at least he remembers to avoid the trap. "Guys, I got one! Try to hit it!" Burned is largely ignored (as usual) so takes matters into his own hands and smooshes the creature in his hands against another rock. He nearly kills it, and although it wriggles around a lot, he manages to keep a hold of it. Splits guts his rock monster and decides that with a bit of padding and a strap or two he could make a pretty reasonable helmet. He now has a [Rock Monster Shell] and [Rock Monster Meat (raw)].

"Words say not open door..." Travels attempts to pull Questions away from the door, but it seems he is entirely unable to interfere with the other goblin or alter his actions in any way. It doesn't really matter though, because Questions has stopped trying anyway and sat down to meditate. He regains 1MP. Burned, Tugs and Finds all get hit by the creatures, but none take any damage.

"we need more weapons and not ones that break after a few stabbings" Turtles heads upstairs (avoiding the tripwire). -------------------------

Turn 104

"This is getting annoying..." "And here goes another blow!" "Bad creature...goblins before warn..." Burned kills his rock creature with one last smash, while Splits gets lucky and catches another one. Finds isn't so lucky and gets hit in the face (again) for no damage. Meanwhile Eaten meditates and Travels tries to warn Burned about something terrible hiding behind the door which Questions is preparing to open, by sapping the strength out of Tugs. Questions temporarily gains 1ATT while Tugs loses 1ATT. Wonder when that'll wear off... The last rock creature bounces harmlessly off Travels' leg.

Upstairs, Turtles meditates and regains 1MP. -----------------------

Turn 105

Finds FINALLY manages to catch the rock monster and punches it in the belly with his snakeskull gauntlet, getting a lucky crit and killing it outright! "Relax Travels. Whatever place this is, it was kept by the previous beastmaster, right? Meaning that, well, everything that was in there is probably dead by now. Unless they've been reproducing and getting a food and water source from somewhere, which is kind of a scary thought... And there might be vermin like these... But even if it is actually dangerous, we're going to have to enter anyways. Besides, chief comes over beastmaster and you have my permission, so there. Right now though I just want to kill these buggers. Traitors to all rock-kind." Burned attempts to sneak up on the last remaining rock beast, but it springs out of the way and he misses. Splits tosses his sharp rock to Eaten and smacks his rock beast into the shell of the dead one which almost kills it.Tugs finishes the job with his harpoon since he's still currently as weak as a kitten. "Right, you guys can probably take down the last two, can't you? I want to finish off this helmet...." Eaten settles down and cuts a pelt lining for his helmet. A couple of straps now should finish it off. Questions spaces out.

Travels has a minor panic about whatever is hiding behind that big door and flees up the ladder. Of course, no-one goes anywhere near the door this turn so he's left to worry.

Turtles continues to meditate and gains another 1MP. ---------------------------

Turn 106

Eaten chops a couple of strips and ties the hat-lining together, finishing his [Padded SKULL Helmet] which he immediately tries on. It's... rustic. Burned meanwhile has clearly been praying to the dice gods and manages to catch the last living stonebeast as it jumps him just in time for Tugs to skewer it. All the stonebeasts are dead! Splits and Finds both gut their creatures, acquiring more raw meat and shell each, then Splits heads to the door to help Questions open it. Unfortunately, even with Questions' boosted strength they aren't strong enough to open it, although they do feel it start to give way. It probably just needs more people to help. "great i get my powers back and every thing is already dead. I will at least I am ready for what ever is behind the door" Turtles heads back down the ladder, but forgets about the tripwire trap and takes 1DAM from the spikes. Whoever put that trap there is certainly getting their money's worth out of it!

Travels decides to inspect the pictogram for himself. It looks like an image of humanoids of some sort gathered around a fire with an oval-shaped thing in it. There's something above the fire too, but he's not sure what... Maybe some kind of animal?* Questions feels his strength fading as Tugs begins to feel stronger again. Seems like the spell wore off. ----------------[Padded Skull Helmet]: +1 DEF. Because it's carved from old bone, there is a small chance of the helmet shattering during battle. *As I'm sure you're aware, you get info on stuff based on D20 rolls, but you're welcome to draw your own conclusions as to what you're looking at here.

Turn 107

While the others busy themselves with the door, Eaten decides that enough is enough and carefully cuts through the annoying tripwire to disable the trap. He is utterly successful, but the spikes remain thoroughly lodged in the wall. Damn.

Burned and Tugs have a rather entertaining exchange while attempting to open the door with most of the others. "Hmm... To me it almost looks like it's some kind of egg with a big bird coming out of it? A phoenix? Wow, that'd be... I'd say interesting but also probably very very dangerous." "That being said, we need to find our old mountain halls, and this is the closest resemblance to any structure we found so far so... Let's try to enter and thread lightly." "A beast rising from fire, with what looks like an egg within the fire? The beast also seems to have wings, so perhaps this beast is some form of firebird? A phoenix? "That's what I said. But, thinking about it, it might be something else... A weird mythical creature, known to us goblins only under the name of... Squarks." "Wait, what? Was I here when you said that?" "I'm... Standing right here? Hellooo... *waves* Now I get why everyone ignores me, I'm apparently invisible to you guys. Sadly that doesn't count for enemies trying to tear me apart." "Stop abusing my inability to see backwards through time!" With a rusty creak and a screeching of hinges the five goblins are JUST able to drag the door open, while Travels and Finds helpfully space out nearby. Phew. On the other side of the door is a smoke-stained and thoroughly scorched passageway. The group is also hit immediately by a rush of cold wind which

rushes through the open doorway like air up a chimney. Huh, that's ominous. ---------------------------

Turn 108

""There's been a fire here... I think I might like this place..."" Destiny senses tingling, Burned leads the goblins down the burned-out tunnel into a burn-out cave. Well, until Questions elbows him out the way and charges into the room first that is. Tugs hands his harpoon off to Turtlesthen follows the others into the new room. Where there are apparently a lot of dead people. Eaten says a load of mean things about the recently deceased tripwire trap, but avoids a smiting.

Turtles takes the harpoon up to the ladder and attempts to siphon the 'sharpness' out of the spikes, but try as he might, it turns out that sharpness is a physical property of the spikes, not a magical one. Oh well, nice try though! --------------------------

Turn 109

"Hmm...Is this an egg?" Finds examines the nest... Strangely, it seems like it's been here, untouched for a really long time. The sticks are old and brittle and if the inside was ever lined with feathers, they look more like dust now. Everything is covered in a fine layer of snow and ice. Turning his attention to the skeletons, he discovers that they are also apparently very old - the bones are brittle and crumble easily and have apparently been burned at some point in the past, but whether that's what killed them or not, he's not sure... Travels takes a moment to inspect the bodies for loot, but after a quick search doesn't find any weapons that haven't rusted or melted. He does notice that several of the larger skeletons appear to have been wearing shackles around their ankles, but there's nothing like that on the goblins. "Who else votes we don't touch anything and never come through here again?" oh, that looks bad scary egg thing, and bodies and whatnot. why don't you guys look at it while I explore "... Let's not make too much heat near that egg, yeah? It looks like it's sitting on more of a pyre than a nest, which means it may be what was in that image, and I don't think we're ready to face that, since we couldn't handle a bear. .. Does anyone else find it funny that there are goblin skeletons here and what appear to be human skeletons? If there had been a battle, then surely the winning side

would have buried their dead, which means it was no fight. At least, not between goblins and humans." "...This may or may not have been a terrible idea. But let's just carefully move onRun at the first sign of trouble. AND DO NOT TOUCH THE EGG! yet" Everyone else decides that this cave is a Bad Place to stay, and, being extra-super careful not to touch the egg, move on to the next room.

Which takes them back outside to a ledge on an otherwise sheer cliff. -----------------------

Turn 110

""Hmm... So whatever creature lived here, it's long gone... So is this really all there is?"" "Well, this has been... Uneventful," Dismayed at the lack of a Mountain Kingdom at the end of this cave, Questions contemplates hurling himself off the cliff, but decides that is probably a Bad Idea and heads back inside with most of the others. Burned andEaten decide to investigate the ledge a bit since there doesn't seem to be much else to do. Burned doesn't find any paths leading up or down the mountain, and staring off into the distance doesn't tell him too much that he didn't already know. The vast tundra below stretches as far west as he can see, and the mountains to the north look much like any other mountain range as far as he can tell. The two moons look nice though, and he vaguely wonders how many other people are looking up at them too. Eaten notices some old gouges in the rock floor that could be claw marks, but they're old and extremely weathered.

"This is most interesting..." Back inside, some of the others are exploring the nest room a bit more. Finds examines the egg. It feels cold to the touch and extremely hard, but he finds no more clues about what creature might have laid it. Questionssearches the floor for shiny things and finds an old, scorched metal plaque which reads: "...TCHERY RUL... ... VERY HOT ... ... not hatch naturally, hatching can be induc... ... EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! Use a fuse and... ... return to mountain ... The rest appears to be illegible. Travels looks around the base of the nest, and something shiny catches his eye. He has found a [Gold earring] with a small red stone in it. It's warm to the touch. Turtles gives the harpoon back to Tugs decides to get his magic on and scans the egg. He can't tell too much about it, but there's still something alive inside...

Splits and Tugs head back to the Room of Bouncing Rocks. -----------------

Turn 111

"Hmm..." Finds sits down and tries to scan the egg to see if it can be infused with magic, but it doesn't seem so. Oddly though, he feels a touch of something's consciousness brush against his own - whatever's in that egg is cold and... lonely? Questions tries a bit of spit and polish on the plaque, but it remains stubbornly unreadable. Travels decides to pretend he's a hobbit (whatever that is) and forces the pin of the earring through his earlobe. Immediately he feels a sense of warmth wash over him as the earring activates. He has gained a [Ring of Heatproofing]: Grants a +2 DEF bonus against fire-based attacks. Awesome! "Well...This thing being like here, unguarded and all... It's like it's BEGGING us to try and hatch it. But we can't even take a boar at this time, so whilst I definitely think we should come back, there's a lot of other stuff we could be trying... For example, I should probably head to that one door and see if the door is more willing to talk if I show it the clan amulet. And brewing, mushrooms... Actually... Oh damn, why not." Burned noms the yellow mushroom and FINALLY discovers which of the batch is hallucinogenic! He feels like he'd be good at casting spells right now, but probably

not good at hitting stuff... largely because of all the little pink pixies dancing around his feet.

Travels then heads to the bouncing rock room.

Tugs and Splits head upstairs. In a quirk of terrible timing, they can hear a low growling from just outside the cave.

Eaten spaces out outside with the view. -------------------------[Yellow mushroom]: Gain a bonus to spellcasting abilities. -1ATT (you REALLY don't want to step on the magic hallucination pixies). [Ring of Heatproofing]: Grants a +2 DEF bonus against fire-based attacks

Turn 112

"Nope nope nope." "runawayrunawayrunaway" Splits and Tugs flee the upper cave and return to the room of bouncing rocks, where Travels is swearing but otherwise doing nothing.

"Oh my god... Guys... Guys you need to see this. These mushrooms man, they're magic! They summoned fairies for me! Look! Look at them dancing and twirling and... What's your name little buddy. And my god, I almost feel like... They're lending me their power! They're making me their king!" "Man this is the stuff..."

"Guys! Guys you know what we totally should do? We should totally light that nest. Like... Travels, gimme me that tinderbox. And like... What did that thing say? A fuse? Fine let's use a damn fuse... Hey Finds, you cut of a piece or rope or something? Or maybe we should... Use a piece of clothing or something... Or that sack we used to kidnap who was it again? Actually, can't we just lob a lil flame near it and then run or somethin'? I wanna do that. Let's do that." "Also, like, some of you guys are carrying so much stuff you could be wearing. Even if it's only against the cold man. Actually, I want some of that stuff. Gimme gimme." "Eaten! Look man! Look at the beautiful fairies... Man, this is amazing... We need these mushrooms for everyone man..." "There is something inside this egg. Something alive. I believe it may help us against the bear, perhaps. Our ancestors seemed to be involved with it, anyway. It requires warmth however...And most of our wood is stacked in the other cave..." "What your talking about? Look at all this beautiful wood right here! We'll never run out! But seriously though... All my clear thinking right now is saying that it's a great idea to just light this thing, but there's this little annoying voice that's also telling me the whole place will blow or something? Yeah, we should probably, like... Have a fuse or something, and run like hell... Heeeey, maybe catch that bear up there in the shockwave or something! It'll be beautiful man... We'll be eating snowbear for like... Three days." Burned decides that being high on yellow mushrooms is an excuse for talking a lot while doing absolutely nothing, but sadly all good things must come to an end and all too soon his dancing fairy friends disappear back to wherever they came from. His attack and magic abilities are returned to normal. Eaten heads back to the egg room where he does... nothing. Questions searches around and finds a [Brittle Bone], and Turtles finds himself some [Rusty Metal]. Finds attempts to send comforting thoughts to the creature in the egg, but he's

run out of MP so... doesn't do anything. -----------------------Well that's a whole lot of nothing done this turn.

[Brittle Bone]: +1 ATT. 50% Chance of breaking on impact. [Lump of Rusty Metal]: A rusty lump of long-melted metal. Probably not very useful.

Turn 113-114: Lost to the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 115

"Wait! Wait! This is not good! We shall find you warmth! In a moment! You are killing me! Please stop!" Ignoring Finds's problems for the time being, Tugs and Turtles meditate and recover 1MP each. "Alright, so... Woah, what the hell?! Finds! Snap out of it! We will free you! But leave him alone! We cannot help you if you do this!" Burned physically shakes Finds and tries to drag him away from the egg, but is as effective as yelling at it. Which is to say, not at all. Eaten reaches out towards Finds and can feel the bond between him and the creature, but that's all. He's going to need more time or magic to figure out how to break it, and in the meantime, the effects on Finds are getting worse! The increasing cold drains 2HP from him, reducing him to 2/5HP and he's still trapped in the bond, meaning he still cannot act. The others had better act soon or this is not going to end well for him! Questions ignores the egg problem even more thoroughly and searches the room (again) for loot. He can gather as many brittle bones as he wants from the skeletons, but there's nothing else here that's even vaguely worth taking.

Next door, Splits draws the heat out of the pool again which creates a thin layer of ice again. Unfortunately he has nowhere to store the energy (need to put it into an item with available slots) and so he releases it into the other pool. Travels spaces out. The quiet, rhythmic rumbling continues upstairs. -------------------------------

Turn 116

"Let go of him damnit!" Burned punches the egg to absolutely no effect. Turtles focuses his energies on transferring body heat from himself to Finds. It costs him 1MP and 1HP from the cold, but seems to offset a little of the damage Finds takes this turn. Turtles now has 1/5HP and 0/3MP. Tugs uses his magic to attempt to attack the creature, and spends 1MP and 1HP to do so bringing him to 4/5HP and 0/1MP. Unfortunately, it seems the attack is ineffective and in fact only serves to draw the creature's attention to him and the whole process starts again! Tugs is now trapped in a mental link with the creature.

Splits, Eaten and Questions lift Finds and manhandle him out of the room.

Unfortunately it isn't quite enough, and the unhatched creature drains him again, knocking him to 0HP. Finds is now disabled and will die next turn unless someone helps him! On the plus side, the link between him and the creature seems to have been severed, although whether it's because he was moved or because he passed out is a mystery. The last thing Finds feels as he blacks out is a wash of panic and coldness from the creature and a desperate longing to be hot again...

Travels climbs up the ladder and attempts to salvage what he can from the tripwire trap, which isn't much. The spikes are well and truly embedded in the walls and can't be reached, but he does collect the bits of tripwire:[12 inch length of Twine] x2

Turn 117

Travels decides to try stealing bits of the nest for some undoubtedly nefarious doings, but he doesn't have enough actions to do anything other than arrive at the nest room, which everyone else is in the process of leaving.

Splits and Eaten continue their goblin-removal service and carry Tugs next door. It seems like the effects of the mind control spell are weaker further away from the nest, but the link is still intact and Tugs loses another 1HP! His attempts to meditate are unsuccessful. Turtles flees the egg room. He doesn't have time to rest this turn, but finds himself a comfy little dry area which should do quite nicely as a bed next turn.

Questions does what he can for Finds and stabilises him. Finds is now at 0HP, but is STABLE and no longer at risk of dying (unless someone hits him). He needs to be healed before he can act again. The rhythmic grumbling continues from up above them.

Burned heads back outside to the dragon's head and examines the burn marks on the rocks. It seems that whatever fire caused them was inside the cave, as there's not really any scorching on the ground. There are a few large scratch marks though, as if something large and clawed used to use this as a way in and out of the cave. Interesting stuff. ------------------------

Turn 118

Burned re-enters the nest room and formulates his master plan. "Alright guys... It's time to slowly put into motion my most brilliant plan yet! Travels, I will need that twine- We'll use it as a fuse to light this place up! Who has the tinderbox again? Anyways, the most brilliant part of the plan- It is hard to guess just how big the blast will be, but let us presume that it'll go all the way to the surface... Where there just happens to be a very angry boar. "So, we'll engage in heroic battle against the boar- I will stay down, and light the fuse, whilst you make sure the bear gets stuck over the hole. With any luck, we'll have some tasty bear ribs. "We're gonna have to take down that damn beast sooner or later anyways. We've been running from it for far too long now! He then checks the room and decides that the nest is almost certainly the most flammable thing he's ever seen. He also decides that there's nowhere in here that he would be able to hide from a fire should it take over the room. That's probably what the really heavy door was for. Travels grabs a handful of sticks from the creature's nest which goes entirely unnoticed and exits to the bridge room. Despite Burned's repeated request, he still doesn't hand over the bits of twine though.

Tugs tries to focus on blocking the link with the egg, but since he has no MP left there's not much he can do. It's a good idea though that might well work against magical attacks in the future. Sadly there's not enough plant life anywhere in this cave to act as a single source of healing, never mind an infinite one. The damage from the egg hits Tugs for 2HP despite the distance, dropping him to 1/5HP. He is STILL stuck in the mind link though and he can feel it getting stronger. Questions spends one of his own HP and MP to heal Finds by 1HP. Finds is back to 1/5HP and is free to act as normal again. Splits and Eaten meditate and recover 1 MP each. Eaten also checks he's still got his helmet on, which he totally does. Honestly, who would forget to draw a masterpiece like that every turn? "look i woild love to help but i of no use to anyone right now. i will just put my head down for a bit. try not to light this room on fire for a bit, and some one wake me up if the bear gets down here.i dont want to die from mauling in my sleep" Turtles naps and recovers 1HP. The rhythmic grumbling continues. --------------------

Turn 119
Burned realises that he searched the wrong area last turn, but also realises that if he HAD searched outside for a place to hide from the fire, he would only have found shelter by climbing down the side of the cliff a little way. It wouldn't be a difficult climb, but it's high enough up that if he slipped and fell he would certainly die. So I guess you have to ask yourself: do you feel lucky? Just like what is probably going to happen to Tugs... "Damnit, he's gonna pass out as well... Just let it happen, it'll break the bond and then we can heal him. I'd still like that twine Travels. And who has the tinderbox? We should rest up a bit, and then get ready. Unless anyone has a better idea?"

Tugs makes a final attempt to retreat into his mind, while Splits attempts to move the heat from the water into him, but the water is too cold to help and with no way to protect himself from the creature it draws out the last of his strength and knocks him out. Tugs is now DYING and must be stabilised next turn or he will die. Splits is at 0/1MP. "Will someone just light that bloody pile on fire already!" Finds, Questions and Turtles settle down to snooze and each recover 1HP while the others consider the problems of the fire and the bear a bit more. Mostly by yelling through the cave to each other...

"Bird of Fire not go into cave of ball of white fur...Fire not go into cave of white fur...No strong wind go out of bird of Fire cave to kill ball of white fur... We put fire in cave with ball of white fur...make smoke from wet things on fire...smoke make white fur leave... Unless you think you can lead Bird of Fire not to eat Travels..." "Travels, that ain't too bad of an idea as well... But we don't know how far the fire is going to go, so it's not that unreasonable to think we could end up with some roasted bear! And your idea isn't bad, but... Well, we'd still have a damn bear to deal with! It'd just wait outside and then we're still stuck down here. Also, you'd have to make the fire down here unless you actually want to get into it's comfort zone or somehow do it on the ladder... Also, won't the smoke just go outside? As for the thing being hostile... I doubt it honestly. It seems very lonely- It wants to live. Well, technically it's already living, but... The only thing dangerous about it at the moment is that it's so clingy, and what is going to be one huge fireball once we light that thing. Not that it'll actually tries to attack us. If anything, I think it might help us. This place was made by our ancestors, and they must have done this for a reason, right? I'd ask Sparkles, but she seems to be in the dark about a lot of things... Ah well. "And Finds, I'd love to, but if your going to nap there whilst I light it then you'd be toast. Only reason this place isn't covered in ash is because of that door there, and we barely even managed to open it. Also, Travels refuses to hand either twine or flint and tinder, so I can't do anything. "...If you guys are really against my plan, we can go with the standard- Lock the door again. But we'll need a lot of people pushing up this door to close it, and I'd rather make sure we actually have enough force here to do so before even bringing fire close to that nest." "Fire not travel to ball of white fur place...to far....if it does, then we be skeletons... "Natha estrara ke'naha busa neve masutudra kevasolo mulicanate...." "It's not fire, it's an explosion. Of sorts. I mean, you saw the cave Travels, are you really going to claim that was just an ordinary bonfire? Weren't it for the door at least this place would be completely covered in ash too."

"Now, with my own knowledge of fire... Depending on how powerful the explosion would be, it's either going to make it all the way, which would be part of my plan, or it won't, in which case it doesn't matter since we'll have to kill that damn bear sooner or later!" "If we're careful, as you should always be with fire, we shouldn't even get hurt- Or not majorly hurt- Unless this thing is going to be so big it'll melt the entire mountain. Because the pressure the fire would travel with, through the stairway... You heard about those gnomes and their guns? It's like that. The pressure would be so big it wouldn't engulf the entire room up there, it'd just spew straight up and hit the ceiling- Incinerating the bear if it would stand on top of it. And as I said, unless this thing is really, really big that fire shouldn't start coming back down and hurting you guys as well." Eaten looks at the door and tries to estimate how many of them would be needed to close it again, but without actually trying it it's hard to say. It took five of them to pull it open though so probably at least as many will need to close it, unless they can loosen up the hinges somehow.

Eventually, Burned decides it's time to consult the Princess... Her disembodied voice floats into his head. 'Sup red guy? Where are we now?

"Hey, Sparkles? We found a cave here that seems to be the hatchery of what I believe is a phoenix or some other form of fire-bird. I'm also mighty suspicious that our old clan has something to do with it. You know anything more about it?" "Oh wow, look what you found! The elders told me about the hatchery under the mountain, but I'd never been allowed to see it before... They used to tell me stories about a great monster made of fire which would come to the aid of the Mountain Clan if we ever needed it, as long as we did our part... which was... Um... Actually I've got no idea. I don't think they ever told me that part... " "And now we're talking anyways- One of my clan members found a hidden, semisentient door alongside the cliff-face. Looks like it's the door we need to enter the mountain halls, but it spoke of a "key" of some kind... You got an idea what that might be?" "Hmmm... I don't know anything about that. Must be some sort of new security system... There was nothing like that when I lived there, just the usual sigiltransporters. Anyway, if that's it I'd better go. See you, red guy!" Princess Sparkles fades out.

Travels heads up to the bear cave, where he finds the large bear fast asleep and snoring. It shifts in its sleep as he climbs out of the shaft, but (luckily) doesn't wake up... He'd better be quiet though!

Over by the entrance, he spots the ninja rabbit glaring at him. Great! I bet Eaten will be delighted to know he's still alive.

Turn 120

Burned talks some more and mostly to himself. But as soon as Finds gets Tugs stabilised, he heads to the room with the others and spends 1MP and 1HP to heal Tugs back up to 1/5HP. Burned is now at 2/5HP and 0/1MP. Eaten volunteers to heal Tugs, but no-one takes him up on his offer and he's out of danger now anyway so Eaten keeps his HPs. "Alright, that confirms my belief this guy will be friendly... Travels whatever your doing up there be careful. We might be able to get in a surprise attack on that thing if we're careful. And take the bunny back down since Eaten obviously misses him. Alright guys, as some of you don't seem to be too fond of my wonderful plan... Let's try to get that door up to see whether or not we'd actually be able to do it. If we'd go with my plan I'd just hide beside the cliff, meaning we wouldn't have to go through the problem. Just... Miles up. Above ground. With one little slip being my death. oh god. "Oh, wait, right- Some of you are still down on health. Err, some of you might actually die without help. Here"We should really try to cook these mushrooms! I've been dying to try some roasted mushrooms for ages. Also, you need to try the yellow mushrooms once. I kid you not, they are the best thing ever.

"...Travels, I'm really sorry, but what do you hope to achieve by that besides waking up the bear? I mean, it'd be a better idea to try and get something sharp and stabbing it in the throat whilst it sleeps." "mmmrmrmrm" Turtles naps to regain 1HP while Splits meditates and regains 1MP. Questions spaces out.

Upstairs, Travels decides to get shit done the pyromaniac way. He starts setting up a small fire beside the hole, but his hand slips and he knocks the little pile of sticks over with a clatter. The bear snorts in its sleep and opens his eyes with a growl, but Travels is already back down the hole and hiding. Damn!

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Turn 121

Everyone bunks down to recover all their lost HPs and MPs (with help from Eaten) and awakens fully refreshed, invigorated and ready to do exciting things! Hopefully. Upstairs, it seems like the bear has fallen asleep again and is snoring noisily in its cave. Nothing else appears to have changed... -----------------------------

Turn 122

"Alright, let's just kill this thing already, and be done with it." "Wait! Let us group together and do a major magic at it!" It's time to take down the bear! Half the group charge straight up to the bear cave to attack it right away (which they can't because it takes two moves to get there). Of course, five goblins charging in gung-ho without making any attempt to keep quiet is more than enough to wake up the bear. And since waking up only takes one action, it attacks. It's on (again)! Travels is pleased to see his campfire is still there though. The bear attacks Turtles, swiping him with his paw and dealing 3DAM, bringing him down to 2/5HP!

"...Travels, could I have that flint and steel? Also, may I very kindly remind you guys that we still have to move up that ladder before we're actually with the bear, and I doubt we'd actually be able to attack it and just end up all standing around it if we head up there straight away?" The goblins who were paying more attention to action counts smugly hang out on the ladder, ready to attack next turn. ----------------------------

Turn 123: Lost to the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 124

The battle rages on! Eaten gets undressed and runs naked to the far side of the cave where he combines his powers with Tugs' and Finds' to draw health from the bear and into Splits. Unfortunately, it's easier to draw it into yourself than to send it to someone else and most of the health gets lost somewhere in the ether between them and Splits... Guess they'll need a bit more practice at that one! Splits is healed for just 1HP. Burned gets dressed into Eaten's gear and carefully applies Mr. Rock to the bear. Splits applies his own sharp rock to the problem while Questions attacks with another [Brittle Bone] which doesn't break either and Findsapplies his boot to the bear's arse. Between them they are able to deal a little damage and the bear roars in anger. It's looking pretty beaten up now! Travels tries to throw some of the ash from the fire into the bear's face, but it mostly misses and just makes it angrier! The bear swipes at Splits again (really, what ARE the chances) and knocks him out completely! He is now Disabled (Dying) and must be stabilised next turn or else he'll die. He also MUST NOT take any further damage until he's above 0HP or else it'll kill him. -----------------------------------

Turn 125: Lost to the Great Forum Apocalypse 2013

Turn 126

"...Whilst I guess I'll understand if you ran away now, as I said... We need all the help we can get. Now die you stupid bear!" Splits limps to the far side of the cave with Turtles where they meditate and try to keep out the way of the bear. They each recover 1MP. The bear meanwhile continues to ignore its exciting repertoire of attacks in favour of continuing to swipe at the goblins and hits Finds this time, knocking him down to 2/5HP and completely shredding his snotty blanket! Stupid lucky bear... Questions helps Tugs onto the bear's back, but he still can't keep hold so instead they attack the bear with the others and are finally able to bring it down! The bear is defeated and there is much rejoicing. Travels breaks his brittle bone, but Questions doesn't. The ninja rabbit reappears. -----------------------------