The Danger Gang Escapes The Quicklings
The Danger Gang camps out off the coast of the Aegean. Lleryn and Martialis take the first watch, Arben the second with no major events. However, somewhere between Can starting third watch and Lleryn and Arben waking up in the morning, Can, Martialis and Peter have disappeared. All that remains is three clumps of toadstools. Lleryn is unable to find any tracks, and Arben is unable to recognize anything. When Lleryn ventures out aways to see if he can find anything, he sees a stranger rapidly approaching the camp on horseback. Behind him ride six other men dressed as soldiers.
The dusty haired stranger explains that he and his caravan were attacked by brigands, and those same brigands are now out for his blood. When said brigands ride up, Arben tries to smooth things over while Lleryn stands at the ready. Unfortunately, Arben's attempt at charm blows up in his face after an off-handed comment about elves that the Drow leader of the brigands takes the wrong way. They dismount, swords drawn, looking for trouble. A general sentiment of "fuck these clowns" is shared by Arben and Lleryn, and combat ensues. Arben whips a magic missile at the albino elf, but its natural magic resistance puts the kibosh on it. With an evil grin, the drow attacks Lleryn. The mildly-pointy eared stranger joins in the fray while Arben keeps throwing around spells to bamboozle these backwoods schmoes. Eventually, a gust of wind freaks out the burliest brigand of all, and he runs off. After an Enlarged Lleryn takes out the drow, the remaining brigands scatter.
Our boys bind the drow and take the time to find out about the new guy. He calls himself Ramble, and was travelling with a caravan when they encountered a group of soldiers claiming to be their escort. They turned out to be brigands. They slaughtered the caravan, only Rambler escaped. The six tracked, presumably, in an attempt to silence him. The only thing the didn't count on...is the Danger Gang. Unfortunately, they had been travelling with Rambler for the last four days, so they couldn't be responsible for the missing Gang members.
Still, maybe the drow has some answers, perhaps knowing the area better than our heroes. They dig through his stuff, finding a few neat things. Fifty feet of silk rope that Arben claims for himself (that regular rope: way too heavy). There's also a strange copper wire sculpture, remiscent of a spider's web; a clay jar; and a black dagger wrapped in cloth that smokes when exposed to sunlight. Neat stuff. They hang the drow upsidedown from a tree, and splash some water on his face. He growls at them, angry, wet, and upsidedown. They try to interigate them, but all he does is curse at them in Greek. The drow proves to be made of sterner stuff than expected and bites his own tongue off. "So much for that" they think. Ramble thanks the boys for their help, and Arben tells him that if they want to make it up to them, he can help them track down their missing comrades. It's then that Arben notices a falcon circling in the distance. "Hey, maybe that's Martialis's's's falcon friend. What say we track it down?" He says. They agree to rest up a few hours to len Arben re-learn his spells, and then they'll head west to where the falcon circles.
Before they can roll out, however, a raven pops up with a note on its leg. Lleryn grabs the note from it's leg, but then remembers that he can't read. He passes the note over to Arben. It's from Martialis, and it explains that they've been kidnapped by quicklings, and that they should follow the raven back to him. They mount up and follow the raven into the black heart of the woods. These woods are dark, twisted, and full of evil looking flying squirrels.
Unfortunately, the raven leads them no where. Ramble is seriously considering booking at this point, but the OG's of the DG decide to head over to where they saw the falcon.
Onward through the creepy forest they ride until the run into the falcon. The same toadstools from their campsite are everywhere. The falcon then leads them to a clearing with three floating wicker cages. Ramble hears the pitter-patter of extremely fast tiny footsteps off in the distance, and warns the others. They ride out to the Martialis, who passes through his basket like it aint no thing. He explains to them that the quicklings are nasty little jerks that want to turn them into shoes. Can and Brother Peter lie asleep nearby, nestled in their cages. Lleryn forces open Peter's cage and drags the big man out.
Unfortunately, this sets off a great cacophony of ravens. They try to break out Can, but this cage is a little more soundly manufactured and won't give. Next thing they know, two quicklings are upon them. Arben tries to calm them down, but to no avail. Lleryn and Rambler try to ride away, but the two quicklings give chase, stabbing their horses with their needle-like short swords. They return to the clearing, getting stabbed over and over. Lleryn's horse bleeds out. Arben shoots some magic missiles at the little jerks, but they keep on stabbing. In their injured state, they can't do mush against these quicksilver menaces. Ramble soon passes out. Even after figuring out that the copper spider web thingy controls thet spiders in the clay jar that the drow had, they just can't seem to hit the little buggers. Our boys give up: Brother Peter and Martialis clamber back into their cages, while Arben, Lleryn, and Ramble collapse to the ground. A third, Greek speaking quickling explains the caged three will be tortured to death so that their skin will be just right for shoes. "Tortured to death?" says Lleryn. "We just tortured this albino elf so much he bit off his own tongue, can we trade him for our friends?"
The quickling (or "utie" as he refers to himself) offers them one hour to bring back the brigands' corpses and they'll see what they can work out. After splashing some water on Ramble, Lleryn, Arben and he ride out to the site of their last victory. They snag some of the horses that were left their and ride back to the quicklings, who are, even now, readying their cobbling tools.
Even with the albino elf's rare lily white skin, (which Arben insists will be "the hot shit in 989) the quicklings are only willing to trade one of their captives for the two corpses. The boys figure they'll get Can out, since the others would be able to escape from their cages. As soon as they get a bit away from the cages, he'll cast web and trap the little buggers, leaving the Gang to stroll away at their leisure. Unfortunately, Martialis wasn't up on this plan, and he bolts to the West just as Can is casting the spell. Everyone looks around confused for a moment, until Martialis cries out "Run, save yourselves!" and they say "OK". The web spell ends up splitting the quicklings; two on Martialis's side, and one going after the rest of the party. Martialis dives into a briarpatch too thick for the quicklings to enter. Meanwhile, the quickling following the rest of the Gang stabs Brother Peter's horse over and over with his tiny knife. Luckily, Can takes him out with a burning hands. In spite of the fact that this forest is full of jerks, Can and Lleryn are worried about burning it down and stop to put out the flames.
Martialis, meanwhile, has set up an elaborate rope trap that successfully trips one of the quicklings into the web. Just then the rest of the gang rides back to lend a hand. Arben uses his magical spider control-thingy to have the spiders chew out the eyes of the entrapped quickling in an attempt to intimidate the other one into running away. It stands fast though, but after a lucky hit from Martialis and Brother Peter, it falls. Everybody is happy, even though they've been stabbed countless times. Peter snags the tiny tools of the quicklings, and everyone rides out.
On their way out of the forest they encounter a pair of beautiful ladies; one on a stag, the other on a unicorn. Martialis recognizes the two as Dryads, and addresses them in their native tongue. Their names are Maeta and Stana. They thank them for taking on the quicklings, and offer the Gang a place to rest and sips from their healing spring. Martialis asks them of the history of the quicklings in this forest and their war with the dryads. They warn them of the dangers of this forest, but tell them that they should be safe their for the night.
