5.07.2005
The Conclusion of "B3: The Secret of Grito" Part I
We now bring this chapter to a close. This is long...
Cinder, you backstab the hell out of the guard and he drops with a poisoned bolt in the back.
Dave, you swing on the other guard, hitting him in the cheek for 6 hp, shattering his cheekbone and collapsing his skull. That guy will need some serious plastic surgery to ever have a shred of normal life back. In fact, in the weeks to come, he'll lose his job as a guard because the townsfolk look at his deformed face in horror. They'll let him go at the station with a polite party, taking away his broadsword and his badge. Downtrodden, he'll make his way to Durth Mining City and beg for alms and apples, until winter comes and he almost freezes to death in a cold dark alley. But then a priest of "Isaac of the Jug" God of Pity takes him in, helps him recover some health, and by spring he's the new main temple guard. He even foils an attempt by the Blackwall Thiefs to steal Isaac's jug from the temple, which gets him lots of fame and even some pity trim. Two years from now, he pens "Guarding the Jug: A Five Step Plan Back On Track", makes 1000 gp, and buys a little ranch in the Durth mountains. With his new-found wealth he buys three cattle, but then a few years later, drinks some bad milk, gets the meningitis, and drowns in a well. So remind me that in two years, you'll get 20 xp for setting in motion a series of events that kill this guard.
Backing up a little, right as you swing, just riiight as you're connecting with the guard's cheekbone, Master Vrill enters! You're both doing bad... there's like a Clint Eastwood moment where you stare at him all intense, and he stares back, he opens his dry, parched mouth and raises a hand... and runs like hell. Dave, you stop and bandage Brogg as you said, and Cinder books after Vrill, up and up some stairs to the roof! You've got your bloody bolt and your leather pants half on; you're moving a little slow because the leather pants are kind of around your ankles by this point. Vrill says:
"You're a fucking moron, you know that? I'm so goddamn pissed at you, ASS. 'Oh yeah, we're the big heroes, we saved the day.' Well fuck you. You can't even get your pants on. Hasta la vista HERO." He spits that last word. You're all like slowly advancing on him on the roof of the Potion Guild high up, there's a chill wind in the air, one step closer, like a cat... a crazy bobcat. Vrill takes a couple steps back, to the very edge... He looks over his shoulder... you're about to make your move, when he leaps off the edge!
You rush over to the edge, and see that Vrill has landed in a cart that's taking off through town. He flips you off- both hands- and then gives you a Magic Missile goodbye... you take (1d4+1, 3 hp plus 1d4+1, 4 hp) 7 hp and all goes black, just as Dave makes it up there too.
Dave, the rest of it passes pretty quick, almost in a blur. You bandage Cinder, and get him back downstairs with Brogg. You're pretty quickly surrounded by like way too many serious guards... including one wearing familiar looking plate mail! Pretty soon Mayor Broderick the mayor shows up, demanding an explanation: "I demand an explanation! What the Asmodeus King of the Ninth Layer of Hell is going on here?" You're rounded up and led into what must be Vrill's office...
The office is a mess, it looks like Vrill was trying to get out of here pretty quickly. Dave, you see on the desk a potion bottle labeled "Antidote"; thinking fast, you grab it and throw it down Cinder's throat! Uh, the potion liquid stuff inside, not the whole bottle. The mayor stammers "What the?... What do you think you're doing SIR." You try to explain about the owlbears and the kobolds and the poison, but the mayor's not really paying much attention? He skeptically raises one eyebrow and looks at you like you're telling him about the great Bigfoot footage you captured until Bigfoot charged you and knocked your Super 8 into the river.
In your haste to give Cinder the "antidote"- which, incidentally, *didn't* seem to help- you knocked some papers off the desk. One of these reads "From the Desk of Master Julian Fryes" with "Master Fryes" crossed off and "Master Gregory Vrill" written in, and then in bold handwriting "Project: Grito". You quickly scan the text and know you've been vindicated.
Right as the mayor is proclaiming that the three of you are to be drawn and quartered that afternoon, you shove the papers into his hands. He reads them, skeptically at first. Then re-reads them. Then again, growing redder in the face. "Aah.... AAHH.... What madness has come over this town!?" He grabs another "Antidote" vial conveniently left right there and slams it down. He knocks away the broadswords surrounding you (violently gashing his left hand in the process) and gives you a big manly hug. "Friend! We have mistreated you and your brave companions! Guards! Release these HEROES OF GRITO! AAH MY HAND!"
Cinder, you backstab the hell out of the guard and he drops with a poisoned bolt in the back.
Dave, you swing on the other guard, hitting him in the cheek for 6 hp, shattering his cheekbone and collapsing his skull. That guy will need some serious plastic surgery to ever have a shred of normal life back. In fact, in the weeks to come, he'll lose his job as a guard because the townsfolk look at his deformed face in horror. They'll let him go at the station with a polite party, taking away his broadsword and his badge. Downtrodden, he'll make his way to Durth Mining City and beg for alms and apples, until winter comes and he almost freezes to death in a cold dark alley. But then a priest of "Isaac of the Jug" God of Pity takes him in, helps him recover some health, and by spring he's the new main temple guard. He even foils an attempt by the Blackwall Thiefs to steal Isaac's jug from the temple, which gets him lots of fame and even some pity trim. Two years from now, he pens "Guarding the Jug: A Five Step Plan Back On Track", makes 1000 gp, and buys a little ranch in the Durth mountains. With his new-found wealth he buys three cattle, but then a few years later, drinks some bad milk, gets the meningitis, and drowns in a well. So remind me that in two years, you'll get 20 xp for setting in motion a series of events that kill this guard.
Backing up a little, right as you swing, just riiight as you're connecting with the guard's cheekbone, Master Vrill enters! You're both doing bad... there's like a Clint Eastwood moment where you stare at him all intense, and he stares back, he opens his dry, parched mouth and raises a hand... and runs like hell. Dave, you stop and bandage Brogg as you said, and Cinder books after Vrill, up and up some stairs to the roof! You've got your bloody bolt and your leather pants half on; you're moving a little slow because the leather pants are kind of around your ankles by this point. Vrill says:
"You're a fucking moron, you know that? I'm so goddamn pissed at you, ASS. 'Oh yeah, we're the big heroes, we saved the day.' Well fuck you. You can't even get your pants on. Hasta la vista HERO." He spits that last word. You're all like slowly advancing on him on the roof of the Potion Guild high up, there's a chill wind in the air, one step closer, like a cat... a crazy bobcat. Vrill takes a couple steps back, to the very edge... He looks over his shoulder... you're about to make your move, when he leaps off the edge!
You rush over to the edge, and see that Vrill has landed in a cart that's taking off through town. He flips you off- both hands- and then gives you a Magic Missile goodbye... you take (1d4+1, 3 hp plus 1d4+1, 4 hp) 7 hp and all goes black, just as Dave makes it up there too.
Dave, the rest of it passes pretty quick, almost in a blur. You bandage Cinder, and get him back downstairs with Brogg. You're pretty quickly surrounded by like way too many serious guards... including one wearing familiar looking plate mail! Pretty soon Mayor Broderick the mayor shows up, demanding an explanation: "I demand an explanation! What the Asmodeus King of the Ninth Layer of Hell is going on here?" You're rounded up and led into what must be Vrill's office...
The office is a mess, it looks like Vrill was trying to get out of here pretty quickly. Dave, you see on the desk a potion bottle labeled "Antidote"; thinking fast, you grab it and throw it down Cinder's throat! Uh, the potion liquid stuff inside, not the whole bottle. The mayor stammers "What the?... What do you think you're doing SIR." You try to explain about the owlbears and the kobolds and the poison, but the mayor's not really paying much attention? He skeptically raises one eyebrow and looks at you like you're telling him about the great Bigfoot footage you captured until Bigfoot charged you and knocked your Super 8 into the river.
In your haste to give Cinder the "antidote"- which, incidentally, *didn't* seem to help- you knocked some papers off the desk. One of these reads "From the Desk of Master Julian Fryes" with "Master Fryes" crossed off and "Master Gregory Vrill" written in, and then in bold handwriting "Project: Grito". You quickly scan the text and know you've been vindicated.
Right as the mayor is proclaiming that the three of you are to be drawn and quartered that afternoon, you shove the papers into his hands. He reads them, skeptically at first. Then re-reads them. Then again, growing redder in the face. "Aah.... AAHH.... What madness has come over this town!?" He grabs another "Antidote" vial conveniently left right there and slams it down. He knocks away the broadswords surrounding you (violently gashing his left hand in the process) and gives you a big manly hug. "Friend! We have mistreated you and your brave companions! Guards! Release these HEROES OF GRITO! AAH MY HAND!"
