Episode 26
"Yours Truly, the Ripper"
(c) 2001 by Matt Grossman and J. Sage Schreiner

Tron Malkaszar, an irreverant elf -- Matt Grossman
Norel Bolderdash, hulking woodsman of the Adri forest -- Tom Morin
Nigil Palom, noble from a far-distant land -- Kevin Osborn
Aran, a newly remade Paladin from Tenh -- AJ Drexel
Sapphire nee Tika, a courageous gnome -- Corey Paganucci
All others -- Sage Schreiner

The party is debating a course of action.

Tron: But it's suicide to leave the city!
Aran: A knight of Hieroneous never abandons a woman in distress!
Jan: What is this all about anyway?
Rhahid: We are rescuing your daughter!  Now be quiet or we will kill
you!
Tron: We're not rescuing anybody!
Norel: Ahem.  (slaps the table with a gauntleted fist) Here's what
we're going to do.  We'll kill this ripper guy, but we won't attack
the shipyard.  Instead, we'll head upriver to Jhavek's castle and
rescue the girl.  Then we'll come back to the town, pick up Jan here,
burn the ships, and escape.
Aran: That's what I was saying.
Tron: It's suicide, but I guess we'll all die together.

They meet up with Helge and he leads them to the Ripper's lair, a
block of run-down buildings in the swampy area of town.

Helge: He's got two secret exits.  One opens on the street there, and
the other one opens inside that building.  Both are probably trapped.
Aran: So we go in the front way.
Tron: Hey, I can disarm traps.
Nigil: Sure, Tron.  Like that one in the cathedral.
Tron: Hey...

They decide that Thorwolf and Rhahid will stay outside and watch the
exits.  Norel uses his rangerly magic to lay a snare near one of the
exits, just in case.  As they are preparing to go inside...

Tron: Psst, Norel.  There's a guy hiding in the doorway across the
street.
Norel: Hmm, I see him.  I'll go talk to Rhahid.  Stay cool.

Rhahid makes Norel invisible, and the ranger crosses the street and
sneaks up on the the watcher...

Norel: [grab]
Watcher: Mmmph!  Mpph!

They tie him up and take him into an abandoned hut.

Norel: What were you doing?
Watcher: I was keeping an eye on the street!
Tron: Who do you work for?
Watcher: The ripper... aaack. [spurt... thud]
Tron: [wipes the blood off his sword] What?
Norel: Tron, you got blood all over me.
Tron: Whatever.

Leaving Thorwolf and Rhahid outside, the rest of the party forms up
outside the sturdy door to the ripper's headquarters.  Helge stands
safely in the rear and watches as Norel flings himself at the door.

Norel: [thud] Ow.  [thud] Ow. [thud] Ow. [crunch] Finally!

By the time the party breaks through the door, the guards on the other
side are ready.  However, this doesn't help them much...

Sapphire: Yaaaaaa! (charges the guards)
Guard: Huh?  What is that thing?
Sapphire: [chok]
Guard: Aaargh, my leg!
Nigil: You mean your head. [chop]
Guard: (starts ringing an alarm bell)
Tron: Save your strength for screaming! [stab]
Guard: Ow!
Norel: [hack]
Guard: [thud]
Tron: Hey, you got blood all over me!
Norel: Heh.
Nigil: [behead] There's a trapdoor in the corner!  Tron, take point!
Tron: (flings open the trapdoor)
Aran: Wait! What if it's... never mind. (jumps down)

The party goes through a tunnel and emerges in a room.  There are some
chairs scattered around, an overturned table, and an open door in the
west wall.

Aran: Cowards!  They're running away!
Guards: (hidden behind the table, they shoot him with their crossbows)
Aran: Ow!  Could we have some light here?

Skanda has cast Light on her holy symbol, and the party charges into
the room and melee with the guards.  Norel is shot with a crossbow
bolt from the western door.

Norel: Ow!  Hey, this bolt is poisoned!
Tron: Ow!  Oooh, I need to sit down...
Nigil: [cleave] That's the last of them.  The Ripper must be through
that door!
Tron: Careful, he's got a crossbow and he knows how to use it.

All of the party except for Tron and Skanda go through the door.  They
find themselves in a corridor.  In the middle of the corridor is a
pit, with spikes at the bottom.

Aran: Careful, the real trap might be on the far side.
Norel: Stand back!  (leaps over the pit)  That was easy. [click] Huh?

The ranger is splashed with acid.

Norel: Owowowowow!
Aran: Told you.

The corridor ends in a bedroom.  There is a desk, a chair, some
bookshelves, a bed, and a mistress.  There is also a slender man of
indeterminate age trying to operate a secret door mechanism.

Nigil: The Ripper, I presume?
Man: Correct.  I might have known Helge would hire some bunch of thugs
to kill me.  I have no interest in knowing your names; you won't be
alive long enough to matter. (drinks a flask of liquid and turns
invisible)

Meanwhile, Aran has climbed down into the pit.  His armor is too heavy
for him to jump it safely.

Aran: Wait for me!
Nigil: He can't attack us, or he'll become visible, so... Ow!
Norel: I don't see him.
Nigil: Sapphire!  Get some light in here!
Sapphire: (grabs Skanda's holy symbol and runs to the pit)
Aran: Can't... climb... out...
Sapphire: Aran!  Catch me! (leaps into the pit)
Aran: (catches the gnome and throws her up onto the far side of the
pit)
Sapphire: (tosses Skanda's fiery holy symbol into the room and charges in
after it)
Skanda: Did she just do what I think she did?
Tron: I feel sick... ooooh... why do I always get poisoned?
Skanda: (shakes her head)
Nigil: Ow!
Norel: Over there! [swish]
Nigil: No, over here! [swish]
Sapphire: [swish] Ow!
Aran: Stand and die, coward! [swish]
Norel: [chop] I think I hit something!
Sapphire: Don't move! [swish]
Nigil: There! [stab gut kill]  I think I got him.
Ripper: (falls to the ground and becomes visible)
Sapphire: Yes!  Loot the body!

The Ripper's mistress is cowering on the bed.

Aran: Fear not, madam.  I am a knight of Hieroneous.
Nigil: Hey, he had a pouch of coins.
Aran: Give me that. (tosses the pouch of coins to the woman) You had
best leave now, madam.
Woman: (leaves) Ow!
Nigil: That would be the acid.
Woman: Whoah... ow... ow...
Nigil: And the pit.
Norel: You just gave her our money.
Aran: As a knight of...
Sapphire: Whatever.  You can read, right?  What do these papers say?
Aran: "Ulvang Haroldson: A Young Man's Life" What is this?  "It was
the best of times, it was the worst of times." blah blah blah...  It's
some kind of story.
Nigil: That's no good then.  And I don't see any other treasure around
here except for the money you gave to that woman.  Let's go get Helge.
Tron: A poet? I knew he was a wuss. (Nods off from the poison)
Nigil: Skanda, aren't you going to heal him?
Skanda: Nope, he'll get better eventually. I think.

The party rests for the next day in the thieves guild HQ, while Helge
conducts business around them. Rhahid looks through all of the Rippers
books and papers.

Rhahid: Nothing here of use to me. He was writing some kind of weird
story, like an epic, but with psychological accurate representations of 
people, and without verse. His other books are just poems and verse and things. You
easteners are so primitive.

The following morning they leave the city with Helge's aid.

Aran: We'll be back soon, and when we come back we want access to the
shipyard like we agreed.
Helge: Sure.

The party heads up-river.  At this point the river is broad and
thickly iced over, so the party is able to make good time.  Morogh
accompanies them.

Tron: These snowshoes sure are handy.
Norel: No sign of any wendol yet.
Hooter: Hoo.
Rhahid: Hooter says that there are only a few, and they are mostly
just staying in the forest, not venturing into the open.
Thorwolf: Doubtless they fear my prowess with the bow.
Sapphire: (panting and clanking as she waddles through the snow)
Morogh: Jhaveks' castle is just a days march upriver.

It is very cold, and the party is keenly aware that to sleep in the
open would be certain death.  However, as afternoon is drawing on...

Tron: Hey, there's somebody up ahead.  Not a wendol, but something's
wrong... he's not wearing enough clothes.
Norel: That's no human... that's a frost giant.
Thorwolf: I have never heard of one coming this far south...

They approach cautiously.  As they get to within about two hundred
yards, the giant starts tossing a rock in his hand.

Tron: (in Fruztii) You may regret doing that.  We have no quarrel with
you, but if you attack us we shall kill you.
Giant: (in Fruztii) Hmmph.  I'm not _that_ hungry now, but I'm not
scared of a bunch of humans, an elf, and a...  thing. I'm just down from
the mountains, hunting with my dogs.
Aran: Tell him that we're mighty warriors.
Tron: (in Fruztii) We are mighty warriors, who have slain many
monsters.
Thorwolf: (in Fruztii) I killed a wyvern. Yar.
Sapphire: Tell him we're pointy.
Tron: (in Fruztii) You may find us hard to digest.
Giant: (in Fruztii) I am Ulfrick!  I think elf is tasty! (throws rock)
Aran: [clang] Ouch!  Die, monster!  Yaaaaaaa... (starts charging
through the snow towards the giant)
Giant: (starts throwing rocks at the paladin)
Tron: [twang twang]
Norel: [twang twang]
Giant: Ow! (throws more rocks)
Aran: Yaaa... [clang]... aaaaaa... [clang]... aaaaargh!
Norel: I wonder if he realizes how long that will take...
Nigil: (heads towards Rhahid)  Rhahid, cast fly on me!
Rhahid: Sure, after I cast Mage Armor on myself.
Giant: Fenris!  Tibor!  Kill!
Morogh: (cowers)

Suddenly two giant wolves charge from the snowy woods and attack the party.

Fenris: (gnaws on Sapphire) [clang clang] Huh?
Sapphire: I have a tough hide, and sharp teeth too! [stab]
Fenris: Yipe.

Tibor: (gnaws on Thorwolf) [chomp]
Thorwolf: Oh yeah? [twang twang]
Tibor: Yipe.

Rhahid: (casts Fly on Nigil)
Nigil: (starts to circle around the giant)

Tron and Norel exchange missile fire with the giant, while the rest of
the party tries to deal with the wolves.

Tron: [twang twang]
Norel: [twang twang]
Giant: (throws one rock at Tron, then quickly follows it with another)
Tron: (dodges first rock) Hah! [thud] Ooooh...
Giant: (out of rocks, he charges the party)

Fenris: (breathes frost)
Sapphire: Sit! [stab] Stay! [stab]
Aran: What she said! [hack]
Fenris: [thud]

Tibor: (breathes frost)
Thorwolf: You'll have to do better than that! [twang twang]
Tibor: Yipe. [thud]

Giant: You... you killed my doggies!  Waaaah! (flees into the woods)
Norel: Hah!  Get back here you bitch!
Tron: (in Fruztii) All your base are belong to us!
Thorwolf: Huh?
Nigil: Make your time, bitch!
Tron: Oh wait, that's the wrong declension...
Nigil: Well, he's certainly gone.  We can't catch him.

The fighter flies upriver to scout as the party continues on foot, and
soon returns with the report that there is a stockade and fort on a
hill up ahead, with a small, abandoned village nearby.  The party
decides to spend the night in the village.

Norel: It looks like this was wiped out by a wendol attack.

They pick the strongest looking hovel and fortify it.  Then they
start planning.

Aran: So tomorrow morning we'll walk up to the castle and start
hacking, right? If we kill Jhaveks, that would probably put a crimp
in his plans.
Norel: No, how about tomorrow night me and Tron sneak in and extract
the girl.  Then we can escape downriver by night.  With my ranger
magic and Skanda's clerical powers, we can be untrackable and
unaffected by the cold, and Rhahid can make Tron and me invisible.
Tron: Cool! Just like we did with Scarvo's house in Bellport.
Nigil: Wow, that actually sounds like a good plan.
Tron: Ok.
Aran: Sure.
Sapphire: Wow, they actually agreed on something.
Skanda: (shakes her head)
Thorwolf: Yaaar!
Morogh: (grunt)
Norel: Tron and I will scout around the woods tonight and see if there
are any wendol abroad.  That would be the only problem with our plan.
Aran: Ok, let's do it.

Later that night, Tron and Norel sneak out of the house that the party
has fortified and scout around the woods.  They are invisible and
untrackable.  They find only a single wendol, shivering against a
tree, and it does not seem to notice them.  After about an hour, they
return.

Norel: It looks like the operation is a go.

TO BE CONTINUED...