Road to Kiev, Chapter Four

Little People, part I
Friday, September 9, 987 AD

Edward takes Detect Magic to find the Flail. When his magic eyes do see it, he notices it is walking away. The party runs after it right into a hedge. Reynaldo tries to climb the hedge as he sends Isabela under the hedge after to see what she can see. Reynaldo gets hopelessly tangled in the hedge as everyone else tries to cut the hedge down. Isabela gets attacked by the thieves, small, two-foot men with very high voices. She darts back as Thorvald forcefully pulls Reynaldo out of the hedge. Many Brownies show up with tiny bows and arrows pointed at us. The Elder of this tribe comes out and speaks with us in Greek. We agree to barter for the Flail and we end up giving them a bloodstone and a broach for it back. The Elder insists we feast upon the occasion of a wonderful transaction, so we do. Thalia hunts pheasant, and the Brownies give us chipmunks. The Elder warns us about Quicklings to the north, evil, super-fast Brownies who eat manflesh. We bid farewell and walk north. We hit a river and decide to rest before crossing it. Before bedding down for the night, the party sees campfires across the way. We think they're Bulgars.

The Witch's Son
Saturday, September 10, 987 AD

We walk east, parallel to the river and away from the camp across it. Most of the party is farther away from the river, but Thalia and Isabela wind their way on the coast so that they can keep an eye out on the other bank. Thalia sees a bunch of Greek civilians running into the river, seemingly scared out of their minds. She tells Isabela to get Reynaldo, and he runs up. He listens to them shout, in Greek, "Woe unto the Greeks! Woe unto the Greeks!" The plight of these people tugs at Reynaldo so that he shows himself to them and has Thalia toss a rope across the river. They tie it to a tree on that side while she ties it on our side, and the Greeks begin crossing. Reynaldo stops one asks him what is going on. He identifies himself as Eugenides and says that they are fleeing their home, the city of Mesembria, because a Finnish witch has placed her ogre of a son there to eat the brains of all the children. The party agrees to help the city dwellers. Everyone crosses the river (including the Greeks) and they run towards the city, especially after a Greek is found full of Bulgar arrows.
Once at the city, Reynaldo proves that they are not Bulgar spies by showing them the orders given to them by Constantinople detailing exactly where they were going and what they were doing (instead of the ID papers because he had a brain fart). The city guard believe us and finally let us plan our attack against the witch's son. He can apparently multiply himself if attacked by more than one man, and he is covered in eldritch symbols from head to toe. His main weapon is a large tree trunk. The party decides to try and trap in an alley and tag team it until it goes down. Gunther lures it into said alley and fights valiantly. He must however withdraw and tag in Wong, who in one deft move, beheads the creature and steals Gunther's kill. The city dweller's celebrate, except those who have lost children; they mourn. Edward goes to church and the provisional leader, Colonel Alexander, bids us all rest.

Rest and Relaxation
Sunday-Monday, September 11-12, 987 AD

Mimicking the ways of the truly decadent, the party stays in Mesembria for two days, resting and healing. Edward helps repair the church and is gifted carpentry tools for his services. Reynaldo and Catarina copy spells from each others' books. Nicolae makes chains which he attaches to his javelins.

Press Gang
Tuesday, September 13, 987 AD

As we leave the city of Mesembria, the locals warn us about giants and dragons past the Varna region. They're probably just kidding. During the days travel, we come across five Bulgar thugs who want to impress us into service. Gunther tells Reynaldo to show them the document that we stole from the commander to them. They read it and leave us be. We walk until nightfall.

Crossing Water and Scared Peasants
Wednesday, September 14, 987 AD

We reach another river. The party crosses it by first sending Reynaldo across (nice and naked) with a rope. He ties it to a tree and everyone commando crawls across, except Thalia who brings up the rear. She unties the rope from the other side and swims across.
Later, we encounter cultivated fields and a small village. We pantomime to a very scared peasant if we can sleep in his barn. He fearfully acquiesces, misunderstanding us at first and attempting to take himself and his wife to the barn, and we pay him five gold, two copper, and a bag of grain that Gunther had purchased earlier for five silver for the privilege.

Walking
Thursday, September 15, 987 AD

Not as a decadent as before, but still pretty decadent, the party does nothing but walk towards their destination. Nothing attacks us or anything.

Solemnity and Swamp Things
Friday, September 16, 987 AD

After two hours of walking in the morning, the party stumbles upon kneeling peasants. We skirt around them as they seem afraid of us and notice that we may have interrupted a funeral or an offering. They were kneeling to a crude cross staked in the ground with a piece of cooked pork in front of it. We leave them behind us encountering yet another river. We walk towards the east parallel to it, believing that these may be tributaries of the Danube and not wanting to miss the ancient Elven city.
Nightfall comes and we bed down. Unfortunately, during first watch, a trio of eight foot tall, sickly green, broad, slimy monsters attack us. Everyone is awoken and a superb battle is fought. Reynaldo summons insects and large rats with a spell recently acquired. Only Thalia goes down after a valiant effort. Edward brains one with the Flail, Reynaldo downs one with a more powerful magic missile and takes out the last with a mighty swing from his Minotaur's Axe. Thorvald, ashamed mightily of himself, does not make a single hit, and once again Gunther is totally robbed of his kills. The party rests, sleeping in the next day.

The Inevitable Return of the Great Winged Hope and Little People, part II
Saturday, September 17, 987 AD

In the late morning, Thorvald notices something large whiz across the sky and all hear a loud crash towards the west. Thalia and Reynaldo sneak towards the crash, and find a battered female, naked and with gossamer wings. Reynaldo is taken by her beauty and asks her in Greek if she is all right. She turns her head to look at him and Thalia recognizes her as Ielanthe. Reynaldo wraps her in robes and she is brought back to the party where she promptly tells us she is sorry and passes out. Gunther tells all us newbies about her. She was found in a Greek dungeon far north of Kiev. She stayed with the party for long while before departing suddenly. Gunther and the others had assumed she left because she was tired of them getting her into trouble.
Upon awaking, she tells us that she has been the captive of tailed-people for many months. She was captured when Gunther and the others thought she had left of her own volition. After enduring much torture, she finally divulged our location to the tailed-people after learning it from a passing bird. Thorvald and Gunther tell crazy stories about tailed-people in something called the New World. Apparently, when one crosses the mighty sea that goes on forever, one does not fall off the world and instead finds more land. Right.
We stay where we are and make camp as we do not want to move Ielanthe in her condition. During the second watch, Wong and Nicolae notice a whizzing blur nearby. They wake everyone up and wait. Nothing happens so everyone goes back to sleep. During our third watch, a hole opens up under Wong who deftly leaps aside. Unfortunately, the hole opens up very largely and the sleeping Thalia falls in. Bright colored blurs begin attacking us all en masse. For brief seconds, we can see that these blurs are actually two-foot tall men with large ears. The Quicklings we were warned about. Nicolae manages to sleep many of them. Gunther and Edward kill the leader (or so they think; he was the toughest of the all) and the others are killed by various other mighty party members. Three manage to escape after downing Reynaldo and Thalia. All the sleeping ones are killed. Another hole opens up under us, but we are able to avoid it. The party moves away from that area to rest.

Little People, part III aka The Wuss Bluff
Sunday, September 18, 987 AD

At sunrise, in high-speed, high-pitched voices, the Quicklings tell us to leave in five minutes (then amending it to seven after we ask for more time) or face another attack. Reynaldo (unable to perform magic or even lift a dagger) calls them liars and challenges them to come now. The Quicklings laugh, but they never come. We are able to finish our rest and then cross the river in much the same way as before.

End Chapter Four
Previous: Road to Kiev, Chapter Three
Next: Road to Kiev, Chapter Five