So what is the Buzz?

[Brand Nar Gath]

I mean, what the hell are we doing out here?  Is it worth 6,000 gp (like we will deliver him alive) to lose our skins?

[Mr. Woodhope]

We may have to knock him out and restrain him, but I'm going to do my best to deliver the prince alive!

[Brand Nar Gath]

actually, he is now known as 'The insane freak formally known as The Prince.'

[Loken]

Oh is the Prince one of the mad heralds of the Beast now is that it?

[Mr. Woodhope]

That is what we beleive...with good evidence. He captured at least one of the guys, but failed to dispel the magicks. He has been squirreled away on Kael's celestial pony.

[Loken]

Oooh, so these disappeared peoples might all still be out there as some zumbi army for the beast.

Give me a brief run down o what happened last week.

[Kael]

OK Pete. So we go deeper into the forest until we find a ancient city of the horse people (different from the ones in the crypts) . and after looking around a bit we see a pathway which turns into a narrow downwad path. Eventually, even after spoken concerns from a cowardly paladin that it may be a trap (which it was), we became ambushed. After the fight, we caputre a couple of ragged but well armed men and realize that these guys are some of the body gaurds (maybe)  of the  prince. who have been charmed or enchanted to be there for some unknown purpose. We tie them to a tree and gaurd them with the rangers mutt and continue into what seems to be an old ruined gathering area with rubble of ancient building and a couple of statues. the area is completely open to the sky and there are some posts with shackles in this large pit. after we look around a while we come across a building which holds the remains of some previous adventurers and a their book which states that they were out to investigate and battle what ever evil had recently appeared in the forest. their last dated entry is five years ago.. the same time in which the elves started to offer sacrifices... and before the game ended i was coerced by all of my brave companions to push a button on the wall which in turn did me 14 points of damage... but it was worth the pain, becasue it opens a door to a tunnel... did i miss anything??  oh by the way.. i didnt squirl away the dude on my pony.

[Brand Nar Gath]

exactly.  you popped him onto your squirrel, which is when we all looked away.

[Kael]

so heres my guess to the situation...  

We are sitting in the feeding pit of whatever demon or monster has now inhaibted these ruins. also, i believe that someone, if not the monster, is enchanting people to either gather food for him on a regular basis ( so that the nasty monster doesn't wander off collecting food) or that the are enchated guys fresh food...  a way to preseve them and keep them around to feed the nasty...  live stock of sorts. i think the woodsman ranger guy we ran into at the elf city could possibly be the enchanter??? he was mention or atleast we think he was mentioned in the expired adventurers book.

i think we should study this book as much as we can. before setting off into the ruins. we should find out when it feeds or when it needs to be fed...  to  ambush it maybe.

[Kael]

one last note i will be at school from now on until 9:45pm on thursdays.... I will be there, but i might show up a bit late.

[Mr. Woodhope]

What did we do with the guy if you did not put him on your pony? The DM agreed to that and that is where I thought we left it. If not, please specify what we did with the unconscious tied-up guy that could be set loose to kill us from behind?

I think it is some powerful monster, demon or undead that enchants some of its victims to use as servitors. I would like to try to capture alive as many of the Clear Skies men as possible. Giving them a cosmic pony ride seems to be the best solution anyone has come up with.

[Loken]

Hmm? Very interesting. It does appear that this could well be the results of a force from a creature or creatures that are taking over the men and could control any larger beast as well. It may be akin to something like a group of mind flayers who are dominating man and beast alike to do their bidding and extend their influence above ground.
If they are already setting up traps and ambushes we should be careful and expect more, they are probably counting on more people showing up as a way to swell their army.
Any sign of the missing elves or towns people yet?

As to the guy being put on the pony I think that would be a bad idea. It's not like when Kaels horse disappears it ceases to be or goes into stasis, it just returns to it's own celestial plane. If dude should come off the horse in the other plane somehow then we'd probably never see him again. And would you really want to tie a crazy guy to you beloved steed, sooner or later he's bound to at least soil himself, and your horse too.

[Kael]

Yeah... Actually I was joking about tieing the guys to the horse. I don't think it's a proper use for my celestially granted horse, and Who knows what whould happen to these guys in another plane. Anyway, I'm not about to make my horse, being one of the few cool abilities i own and  which i can call only once per day,  a group locker for whatever we don't seem to need at that point in time. It's a war steed and it might turn out to be a very useful back up weapon.  I really don't want to have to untie these guys and deal with them in the middle of a battle. Anyway, as a paladin I doubt I would put my horse in that kind of peril to obstain from a lack of what to do by our blood thirsty group.

I thought the ranger agreed to leave his dog gaurding them while we went ahead. And i doubt that killing these dude would do any good either. Especially if they were the kings men or his right hand man. Not a good way to prove our respect and alliance to him. if we are able to kill what ever is enchanting these guys.. would the spell fade? or maybe we can take them back to the king and he has smeone to remove the spell.

[Mr. Woodhope]

Fair enough. Leave the dog to guard these guys and we will figure out what to do with the next guys we encounter. I still think you are crazy! I don't intend to use your pony as a Horse of Holding, it just seemed a humane way of dealing with these prisoners who are not in their right minds. I don't think a paladin would think this is neccessarily an improper use of his mount. You are, after all, keeping from leaving a helpless captive tied up and defenseless. His only crime is that he is enchanted. Would you be so quick to abandon him if he had been a defenseless maiden?

After we rest (at some point) I will bone up on another Dispel Magic (Magicus Dispellum) and take another shot at it.

We have seen no sign of the elves or townspeople, although two of our attackers were not from the Keep of Clear Skies. They could have been from Foldrens Settlement or some of the folks the elves feed to the 'beast'.

There probably will be more traps. Hopefully we will have a PC there who can find them for us.

[Anonymous]

Fear not, for my massive talents will be under PC control and will manifest themselves in all my paranoid granduer.

I'm ready to dungeon party.