The Danger Gang And Kodmelos Both Bid Adieu To Samothrace

Eorl, Martialis, Leo, Nicephorus, and Helena arrive at the isle of Samothrace. As they hit the shore, an islander runs up to them asking them if they can take a look at something. He leads them to a dude who is in bad shape. He mutters, "b-b-b-bu-bu-bu". Marty casts a Cure Light Wounds on the guy, and he seems to be a little better; still a little out of it, though. They agree to come back. As they wander through the woods en route to the Forbidden Valley, they are suddenly assaulted by a pack of Gripli. They get the drop on our boys, and some of them fall to a Stink released from one of their anal glands. One of them snatches little Helena up in a net and drags her off while the others are distracted. Marty morphs into a lion which ends up freaking some of them out. They runway. Marty is the only one that isn't on the floor gagging, so he starts stalkling the elusive Gripli, but not before Leo ties a string to his paw so they can follow him. Soon, the others are free from the effects of the wretched stink. Nicephorus agrees to Fly off to the valley to track down the Danger Gang. Leo and Eorl soon catch up with Marty.

Martialis tries his best to follow the Gripli, but begins to lose the scent. One of Helena's cats comes by and tells Lion marty that they were back that way. Leo quickly gets knocked out by the little frog men. Eorl rips off the iron bead from his Necklace That Lets You Turn Into Things. The Gripli are a little freaked out, but one of the grabs the passed out Leo and makes threatening, coup de gras motions. Eorl drops his weapons and Marty reverts to human form. He quickly snags a nip from his Invisibility Potion, however and runs away. Eorl tries to smile, but the world's ugliest elf now made of iron does not make for a friendly face. The Gripli decide to cut their losses and cut out.

Marty soon finds a net with a big hole in it, and nearby, he finds Helena with a hood over her head, crying for help. Marty comforts her as best as his curt disposition will allow, and they begin wandering back to the valley.

Meanwhile, Eorl and Leo decide they should stop waiting for Marty and Eorl helps the wounded librarian hobble towards the valley.

Meanwhile, Nicephorus has been flying above the valley, looking for the Danger Gang, but has had no luck. Everyone is underground hanging out with Kodmelos.

The others soon find eachother outside the valley. Martialis casts Invisibility to Animals on them and they head down to Kodmelos' room. He also heals poor Leo back up. Once they get down their Eorl is clearly really excited. Karl has dug a hole up to the surface and a fresh breeze blows in. Eorl lays out bowls of cured meat, milk, and honey for Kodmelos. Arben glad hands the new arrivals, and pulls Eorl to the side and asks him why he brought the little girl. Eorl proudly proclaims that he has even brought a young virgin to comb the knots out of the gods beard. Kodmelos regretfully informs him that if Helena, or indeed, anyone touches him, the odds are good that they will die instantly. The best laid plans. Still, Kodmelos seems to be in a pretty good mood, so Eorl starts questioning him.

Basically, he's looking for a time frame for the history of the world. Abner helps with the calculations and Leo records the dialogue while trying to stay conscious. The results can be viewed here.

Meanwhile, Eorl has asked Nicephorus to paint the night sky on the ceiling. Kodmelos claims it looks all wrong, and not just because there's only one moon. The stars used to be all kinds of different. It's not just that things shifted, it was totally different. Everyone takes this opportunity to debate what stars actually are; holes in the sky, will-o-wisp stuck in the ylem, gems placed by Garl Glittergold, etc. They do not come to an agreement.

Kodmelos also reveals what he knows about KUPASPISTAN, specifically that it is one of the names of the big two gods.

He also knows that Kabar Hadra went to Rome after meeting with El Cooter, The Evergreen One. He doesn't really know who that is though.

Arben off-handedly asks how the trip down to Samothrace was and Eorl gripes about the Gripli attack. Kodmelos is shocked, and claims there are no more Gripli. When the party begs to differ, he calls shenanigans. The party will broker no false shenanigan calling, so they head out to track down the Gripli. Zahrah follows their trail out to the beach, where it seems to lead into the water. Gripli hate salt water, so they figure they must be on a boat. Marty changes into an Eagle and flies off to track them down. He soon spies their little weird boat and snatches one up on his second dive. He flies him bag to shore and they lead him back to Kodmelos.

Kodmelos sure is surprised to see the little guy. They rap a little bit, and Big K relates the history of the Gripli. Now, this Gripli seems a little bit wary of the humans, but other than that he seems like an OK guy. Arben quickly lightens the mood with some capers and japes, and the Gripli soon thinks they're OK.

The Danger Gang has a quick conference and decides that if the Gripli worship this guy, he can't be all bad. He's been a stand up guy with them; very friendly. Why not reunite these people with their lost god and vice versa? They put it to him like this: they know he has the ability to Know Alignment, and he likes to eat people. They'll agree to let him out if he agrees to only eat Chaotic Evil people and animals that belong to no one. If they get any word that he's causing trouble, Gershom has his true name and won't hesitate to use it against him. Kodmelos agrees, though he still won't let them get a Know Alignment on him. Fair enough. They grab some quick shut eye.

Upon waking, they tell Karl what he's been waiting to hear; go pry out those emeralds. Karl greedily rips them free and Kodmelos leaps from the altar for the first time, well, probably ever in the history of time. He seems pretty happy and everyone is glad that he hasn't instantly murdered them. They work up a harness so Kodmelos can carry his little Gripli without the Gripli falling to his death touch. Eorl tells Marty to have a Neutralize Poison ready, then gives Kodmelos a big scratch behind the ears. Kodmelos picks up the Gripli and flies out the hole that Karl made.

"Goodbye Kodmelos! Be Good! We'll never forget you! Tell everyone about the Danger Gang!"

They split up the loot and everyone gets a really sweet take (the emeralds are worth 1000gp a piece). They gather up their stuff and head back to shore. Once back in civilization, they find the ailing sailor. He seems a little better, and introduces himself as Botomites. He was on a ship that was taken by Barnacle Bashim. His crew got taken down pretty bad by Bashim's crew (including Black Rachelle and her two sons). Everyone seems a little nervous about running into this dude; he seems like pretty bad news, especially with this fancy Trident he has. They offer the plucky sailor a crew position on the Kivot, and he said he didn't have anything else going on.

All that's left is to bury old Beau. Arben delivers a breif eulogy and sings a dirge. Eorl keeps muttering during the ceremony what they should look out for while in Lemnos, the next stop on the Danger Gang world tour.

After the ceremony, Arben bids the party adieu. He'll be returning with Eorl to Chrysopolis. Can is in charge, god help us. But really quick Arben looks at the amulet that Can got from the Homonculus. He says is has the same properties as a Scarab of Protection.

Then they really really part ways.