The Danger Gang Defeat Those Terrible Kukuth
Shortly after midnight, with return of newly made man Cormac, the Danger Gang decides they've earned a little rest. Zombres however, is worried about the fate of a tonight's hypothetical sacrifice. The gang figures that, even in their weakened stated, they can probably be back up to a fighting fettle by end of busines. Better than letting the Mertelians regain their strength. In any case, they start resting. Gershom, with his withered arm, is a little less effective as the party's healer, what with his one in four chance of casting Cause Light Wounds instead. Still, he turns out to be pretty lucky this time around, and gets most of the gang back into fighting shape. They start making plans around dawn as per how to handle these guys when a friendly face appears, walking on the winds off the port bow. It's their old aquaintance, Lart, the snake druid. Hey hey, another friendly NPC to help us solve our problems, the boys are thinking. Not quite.
Lart explains that he's actually working with the Mertelians. He says that, in exchange for a snake that craps coins that they were keeping captive, he agreed to watch the temple until the gang was gone. He and Karl then get in a long debate as to how we're really his friends and those guys are just a bunch of assholes and fuck them and that he should really betray them. Lart is all like, no no no, a deal is a deal. Karl makes him a pretty juicy counter-offer, by his estimations. He says he knows Baba Tomor, who is pretty big with the eagles and who has a vested interest in the outcome of their raid on the Church of St. Astius. If Lart were to aid them on their raid or at the very least, not oppose them, then they might be able to get the eagles to swear a besa to not eat snakes. Everybody wins. Lart seems interested in the idea, but incredulous. He agrees to give them nine hours to work it out with Baba Tomor. He'll meet them back on the ship then.
Zombres teleports them up to the peak of Mt. Tomor, then immediately starts resting again so that he can teleport them back. He brings Karl and poor Martialis with him. Karl immediately starts trying to sell him on the wonders of their plan; a single claimant to the throne of Albania; snakes and eagles, two of Albania's biggest things, teaming up to take it to their enemies. Baba Tomor, being a powerful NPC, is reluctant to get involved. His says he can't talk the eagles into it and, even more ridiculously, that the Kukuth have a legitimate claim to the throne. Karl argues that he'll never get the people to unite behind a duo of undead, dry humping, withering slags, but by that point, Baba Tomor is ready for his nap. He admires Karl's spunk, however, and he offers him up a potion of Super Heroism, before sliding into slumberland.
Karl grumbles about these wishy washy NPC's, then tells the other two that their going to raid the Monestary right now. Zombres will teleport them into the room with the Kukuth, they'll fight them, rest there until they can teleport out, presumably saving the woman in the process. People agree. Marty drinks a bit of the four arms potion, giving him two functioning arms. Karl knocks back the potion of super heroism and Zombres teleports them to the room.
Meanwhile, Lart has gone of to the Tigress. Barry and Gershom inform him that the others have yet to return. Gershom decides that now is as good a time as any to get the other side of the story regarding the serpent's role in man's being cast out of paradise. They start up a lively debate.
Meanwhile, Zombres attempt to Teleport into the dungeon has failed. Instead they find themselves on the surface, above the dungeon. Could have gone better, could have gone worse. A crowd has begun to assemble outside the church for the sacrifice. Karl booming, Super Hero voice clears thema path, and Zombres blows open the doors with a lightening bolt. With a Detect Invisible, Zombres helpsa great deal in spotting hidden priests and the like. The fight theirway through, down to the basement, where they take on the two Kukuth. One has a delightful robe of scintillating colors that ends up charming Karl after a few rounds. it proves to be too little, too late however. Zombres has been throwing around prayered up Magic Missiles and they prove to much for the undead ladies. The boys grab their rich stuff and start fighting their way out of there. Just as before, the Mertelians take position with bows drawn above the hole to the second level, and again Marty slithers out in snake form to distract them. This time, though Zombres is there to send a lightning bolt ripping through their ranks, and the weakened cultists lose ground in hand-to-hand combat. Marty is felled and returns to human form, unconscious, but this day goes to the Danger Gang (plus one). They bust back out the front door and announce to the crowd that they no longer have to sacrifice any one, then keep running back to the ship. Once there, they find Lart still engaged in conversation. Zombres tells them that the eagle deal is a go,and they'll talk to him more about it later. They then set sail.
Success. Everyone is happy. Zombres says that perhaps he'll hang out with them for their time in Albania, if they'd be interested in hacking a nearby Jewish dungeon with him. Perhaps they could find a way to patch up Gershom maybe?
But first, Marty is worried about the corpse in the basement. What if somebody wants to have sex with it? Will that make more monsters? Will those monsters be heirs to the throne of Albania? They agree to go check it out. Gershom tries his hand (yuck yuck yuck) at healing his associates some more, but has significantly less success than last time. So they grab Kolya for some extra muscle and tromp back to the Temple. Marty insists on coming, because, you know, a cripple might come in handy.
Outside the wrecked church, they find a dejected looking Lart. The boys tell him they're going to investigate, because they don't know what happened. Inside they start digging around. In the basement they find a little purple hairy weirdo locked in a cage. They bring it back up to the surface to show it to Lart, figuring he would know the local fauna. He scrapes off the purple fur, turns out it's a Beautiful Fork Tailed One. They tell it how great it is, and send it on its merry way. They head back down to the basement and dig around some more. Not much going on. They pry open the sarcophagus; inside there's a bunch half-turned-to-dust bones. It seems unlikely anyone will be making whoopee with these, but just to be safe, they burn 'em up. Back to the surface.
Marty has agreed to spend some time with Lart, since he's pretty jacked up anyway and won't be doing the party much good. And so they part ways. The boys get back aboard the boat, and Marty stays behind with his new friend.
