Day 19 continued - It's been a long day.

Trudge, trudge, trudge.... We wend our way through the forest companionably bickering amongst ourselves when WHUMPF.... a fireball!

You've got to be kidding. We scatter; I fling myself one way, Banipal dives the other way and both of us avoid being burned but the rest of our group are a tad singed. I roll to my feet and spot an elf standing off to one side with his arms flung out in the attitude of a spell-caster. I swarm up the nearest tree and am narrowly missed by some sort of big spider thing - I could have sworn it wasn't there a moment ago... ! Banipal, using his amazing speed, closes with the elf and stuns it; Rumbles, right behind him, cleaves it in two with his great axe. Norton casts his Invisibility Purge spell and a bunch of humans and half-elves appear around him and Damir; there's two leather-clad fighters - a man and a woman - right behind Damir and a human and another female half-elf; again wearing leather.... behind Norton. What's with the leather thing?? Either these people have NO sense of style and individuality or perhaps there was sale at the local tannery!!!

No time for whimsy, the elf behind Norton takes a swing at him with his sword and connects... that'll piss him off. Damir's besieged by two attackers; a half-elf and a human, the half-elf skewers him with a rapier - OUCH!!! That looked nasty. I pull my attention back to what I'm doing and slap the spider with a dose of Black Lotus extract to drain it's constitution - it curls up all its little legs and drops - I LOVE Poisons!!!! Meanwhile Banipal whacks his half-elf opponent making it's ears ring, split-seconds behind him, Rumbles charges across the clearing and barrels into the bitch with the rapier who'd hit Damir. She drops - dead as a Harpy! He spins and has a go at the human who's standing stupidly close, and takes a chunk out of him - he's like a big, mobile food processor. Norton flies into his opponent with his urgrosh nearly taking it's head off. Yuna casts stoneskin on herself and blinks out of sight, unfortunately the scum-sucking human attacking her did a fair bit of damage before she got out of range and she's looking VERY poorly. I fling a Bead of Force in an attempt to trap it but it's almost as dexterous as me and avoids it easily. Banipal comes speeding into the fray and gives it a little 'hello' whack as he passes, while Rumbles takes out another of the humans. Norton takes another swing at the half-elf and misses - it vanishes. "It's a Dimension Door..." he yells. The half-elf reappears briefly at the fork between the Inn of the Far Shore and the evil Inn, steps onto the 'other' path then vanishes - we let it go.

Everything appears to be under control, so I take the time to dissect the spider. A closer look shows it really was a Phase Spider so I harvest it's venom sacks - it's not as good as my trusty Black Lotus extract, but it'll do as a backup. While I'm busy the rest of the party strip the bodies starting with the male elf who fireballed us in the first place - they find a Wand; some scrolls, potions, a couple of flasks and some light leather armor. The female half-elf has a short-bow, leathers, a large wooden shield, two potion bottles, two scrolls, a rapier and a spell book. The other female half-elf had a potion; a scroll, a ring, a long sword, studded leather, a composite short-bow and a spell book. One of the humans had a long sword, studded leather, a buckler, a potion, a scroll, two wands, a short bow, spell book and a sealed envelope. The other male human (that appears to be changing into something grey and only sort of human-ish.. a Doppelganger I'd guess.) has a long sword, studded leather, a scroll, a potion, a ring, a composite short bow and spell book. We decapitate them and take the heads back to see if anyone can identify them.

We get back to the Inn- finally. I'm weary and sore and filthier than I have ever been before. I pause while we tell Bertrand what happened - he isn't pleased about it but apparently there's not much he can do unless it occurs on 'his' side of the fork...Though he has a few teams missing... maybe... or maybe they're just late returning (SURE) Bertrand said he's tried to scry for them but had no success. I suggest - with some sarcasm - that they may have been victims of the same ambuscade we just encountered.

"Recognise any of these?" asks Rumbles prepatorily emptying out the sack of heads and letting them bounce sploogily across the floor....

Bertrand frowns at the mess... "Fortunately no!"

The rest of the party are after a drink and something to eat but I'm off for a LLLLLOOOONNNGGG bath. Damir catches me on my way out and asks me to check the envelope for traps. I check it - find and remove the trap and give it back. I want my bath and don't care what's in the envelope! I get VERY grumpy when I'm dirty... and that's not good for other people.... Damir opens the envelope - the parchment within has a line or two of writing and two sketches...... MMmmmmmmmmmm........ Rumbles and I.... and they look familiar too - it's very like the penmanship on those partially destroyed documents I found in my gear when we first got here - shame I can't remember where they came from. It says.... "These two people may still be alive - Hunt them down and kill them...."

How rude.... they don't even offer a reward!!!!!!! I mean - really - that's just offensive.

Norton casts speak with dead on the heads and finally gets one to talk. Apparently Farside; the keeper of the Inn of the Far Side; is Bertrand’s brother; Ying to Bertrand’s Yang and for some reason best known unto himself, has put a contract on Rumbles and I! From what we can gather, Bertrand doesn't believe we could go up against him and live. Normally he and his 'opposite' just attack each others agents - they seem to think it's a game but now it's escalated to random assassination attempts - not that there's anything wrong with that. To top it off they have a sister whose insane...or chaotic evil - what's the difference... Apparently she makes psychopaths seem the soul of reason.

While I'm bathing and the others are quizzing Bertrand, Yuna casts her "Detect Magic" gaze over the loot - both from the Harpies and off those we killed after their stupid ambush. From the Harpies haul she finds 7x Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds; 4x Potions of Cure Light Wounds; a Necklace of Fireballs (type 1-Damir); 8x +1 bracers; 4x +1 bone clubs; Qualls Feather Token (Damir); Eyes of the Eagle (Trixie) and 5x small rubies (200 gp@).. plus the 11,000 gp from the Merchants and the Thieves Guild. From those we 'offed' after their abortive ambush we scored a Wand of Fireball (6 level caster with 14 charges-Norton); a Scroll of Lightning Bolts (Norton); a Scroll of Charm Person (Damir); 2x Potion Cure Moderate Wounds; a Potion of Charisma (Norton); a Wand of Alter Self (caster level 6 with 9 charges-Norton); 2x +1 Long Sword; a Scroll of Invisibility (party treasure); a Ring of Protection +2; a Mighty Masterwork Cross Bow +2; a +1 Composite Short Bow; +1 Leathers, a+1 Shield; a Potion Cure Serious Wounds; 2x Scrolls of Invisibility (Party Treasure); a Potion of Cure Light Wounds; a Potion of Charisma (Rumbles); a Scroll of Undetectable Alignment and a Wand of Alter Self (Level 6 caster with 32 charges-Trixie)

By the time I get back they've divvied up the haul and sold off the gear we didn't want. We kept all the Healing potions and shared them out (NOTE FOR THE DM - 9x Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds (1 each per party member +4 left over to Yuna) and 5x Potions of Cure Light Wounds (1 each per party member EXCEPT Norton) and Cure Serious Wounds (Banipal). The rest we sold off and came out with almost 3.000gp each in goods plus another 2,000 in gold and gems. I join the others at a table by the fire and talk to Bertrand about what and why and where and when....... He thinks we should go back to where we were when we all lost our memories - Lord Randal Morn. The party is divided (Fancy) some think we should go back to where all this started - the rest think we should go somewhere entirely unrelated and do something else.... Gosh what a surprise. I'm going to for a massage with the Ogre then off to bed... I've had enough for one day.

Back to The Inn of the Far Shore.