So we basically finished the Puzzle Canal, nice job and fun gaming. Here's what happened:
The Black Fangs sent a beggar to Wyrmsjaw with a message that the family of Domas Trollpiercer (Arcus's resurrected man) was held captive and would die the next day if a certain item was not returned. The party gave the dagger back and the family returned safely.
You went into Puzzle Canal with the Coders and Tarranyr began mapping your journey. You first met a small gorp that you slew with disruptions before it got under your boat. On a small isle were some odd ape-things with bird beaks that smelled horrible. They seemed hostile but a few arrows slew enough to drive them off. They were hiding in weeds around some old ruins. You later came back and massacred the pitiful things. The ruins had little of interest but seemed to be old EWF/God Learner remains.
Next you went into a cavern where a hideous Vough (water hag) rose up and demanded blood tribute. Wily Tarranyr spoke well and convinced her to take only a little blood from him in return for no fighting, so you left, noticing a huge undine under your boat that was about to swamp it. You also noticed six brollachans (stretchy bags of flesh with big mouths) that the vough had spawned. And... hmm, Tison saw enchanted armor down there and maybe something else.
You avoided a few other islands and side caverns, heading straight for the center of the maze. At one intersection, you slew a swimming walktapus and did your best to burn it on shore. As your magics ran low, you thought of leaving but pressed on into the maze. Things got very strange down one canal. Space and time seemed warped, Tarranyr mapped frantically, and you rowed on and on. Then down a dead-end passage: a glowing golden painting at last! Yet closer inspection revealed it to be a ruse, it only had a golden smily face. You turned around to see a tongue coming from around a corner behind you, which retracted quickly. The painting disappeared, too. Hmm, odd tricks at play on Waterday of Illusion week!
You magicked up and followed the tongue down another passage, then a long tunnel. You frustratingly felt your magics vanish before you entered the grotto ahead. There lay a 2mx2m painting of Griffin Gate! As you closed in, you saw movement in the painting. A high-backed chair swung around to face you, revealing an odd creature smoking a pipe. It stepped out of the painting and walked over the water toward you, grinning ear to ear. The thing was SIZ 10, smooth black-skinned with outrageously long, spindly limbs, pointy ears and nose, huge toothy mouth, and twinkling golden eyes. You'd never seen anything like it.
It dropped its pipe in the water when it stumpled over a ripple and plunged into the water. Dripping wet, it stepped back on top of the water but seemed sad that its pipe was lost. Elohwyn dove in and returned the pipe. In return, it snatched Elohwyn's allied spirit out of her sword! Elohwyn kindly asked it for the spirit back, so it did return poor Kytilla. Then it snapped its fingers and swapped Elohwyn's sword with Arcus's spear. Tison offered it gold, which it threw in the water but gave him a glowing iron broadsword, shining with strong enchantments. It eventually responded to Darktongue and Auld Wyrmish, but didn't seem too shy to speak Tradetalk later. Arcus offered it silver, which passed through its hands. Tarranyr told a silly story that made it giggle, so it said "Lost? Follow your nose!" as his nose stretched far out of the cave.
It held up a glowing crystal, which Elohwyn got, only to find that it sucked magic points quickly, and tossed it into the water. Tison retrieved it and the crystal seemed to float around his hand. Arcus offered the creature a draught of holy water, which it urinated in and, umm, stirred, then handed back to him. Caernak took a sip (ugh), then slammed it, and his skin turned bright pink! Cheers! Elohwyn headed for the painting. Tison wrote it a short thank-you note and it kindly repaid him by sucking him onto the paper. Someone (Tarranyr?) convinced it to reverse this by stretching out the paper, creating a 2D Tison. With more encouragement it reinflated him, but he was left taller and thinner (went from SIZ 11 to 14!).
The painting showed the red moon over Pavis, with a dragon-shaped cloud moving to obscure it. There were campfires visible in Vulture Country through the gates. A vulture perched over the gate, and a skull hung from a string off the gate. More disturbing signs included a black dagger stuck in the wall, with blood dripping from it. A giant footprint lay inside the wall. Finally, there was a small depression inside the wall that held a great black eye surrounded by skinny trees, and bloody offerings around that. Bad signs.
You left the chamber with the Thing still on the boat's prow, but it seemed unhappy and began inflating itself with its thumb stuck in its mouth. Elohwyn pulled the thumb out and it whizzed off like a popped balloon, so you left and followed Tarranyr's nose. Moments later you were out of the maze, but Tarranyr was left with a 6" nose. Caernak's skin remained neon pink, and Tison remained SIZ 14. Yikes! On reflection, you inferred that the thing was none other than a legendary Boggle, an ancient being of Disorder. Its race was on the frontline of defense when Chaos came into the world, and was almost eliminated. These things are very, very rare and it is odd to find one here.
Back to the camp, you said. You met the Coders and went over the day's events. They had mapped about half of the maze and only had encounters with bandits and elves, who did not cause them many problems. They did find a water dragon guarding one cave, a gorp pond in another, and a grating that seemed to lead to Tanian's Grotto in a third.
Oh, I didn't say anything about your first night in the camp, but the marines on the perimeter fought off some giant, leaping, flightless mosquitoes that had chameleon powers. One marine of the 14 was sucked dry. The marines said that they saw a flock of giant bloodbirds during the daytime. The next day another marine was killed by a mob attack of these birds.
You rested up and went to Tanian's Grotto. Caernak protected the canoe with Fire Shield and Extinguish, which worked well enough for him and Pachala to gather flaming water and water ash in clay jars. Most interesting was the ceiling's depiction of a green fire goddess (clearly Firshala) embracing a pillar of water, attended by robed men. You think this reveals the mystery of Tanian's origin: he is the spawn of a fire goddess (Firshala) and a sky/water god (Sky River Titan, aka Lorien), created by the God Learners to destroy the Waertagi navy.
River elves appeared down another passage so you avoided it. You went back near the Painting Room to an unexplored cavern and fought off water-lizards and a shiny metallic water demon/lizard-thing that created a whirlpool that almost smashed the boat (prevented thanks to Caernak's boating, Arcus's Repair, and Tarranyr's Glue). In the cave you found a rhino-hide breastplate with beast and disorder runes on it. It is a Rhino Rider (not Storm Bull, sorry) item enchanted with Vigor 4 and Shimmer 4, and is 8 AP, fits any SIZ 11-15.
Finally, you explored a cave near the canal entrance. A great turquoise toad with red pustules, tendrils over its body, and black circular horns rose up to greet you. Chaos beast, you thought! But it spoke calmly to Caernak in Boatspeech, revealing itself to be the river spirit called Blue Toad. It told its story of how it lived in the Great Darkness and hid from Chaos by mimicking chaos features. It offered its Entropy rune magic to those who would worship it. Caernak and Tison joined the brief ceremony (croaking the tale of the toad) and could sacrifice for Entropic Feature (3 pt rune magic, grants a temporary chaos feature without a chaos taint). [We are leaving that decision up to Chris: do you want a neat spell but go down to POW 11?] The spell could be regained by contacting the Blue Toad at a Zola Fel High Holy Day (brief quest) or, word has it, there is a shrine to the Blue Toad in the middle of the Devil's Swamp by the Block....
So, you regrouped at camp and talked with the Coders, who had an interesting experience with the Boggle.... more to come. The mission is complete if you wish to stop. If so, you can pay for Analyze Magics to be cast on the items you've found (you don't know about the rhino breastplate or Bogglesword yet).
Well, that sums it up for 8hrs playing time. Looks like Tarranyr proved his usefulness in mapping and talking, and.... has a nose for adventure! Tison has finally passed puberty and hit his growth spurt, and Caernak, well, Caernak... he's just tickled pink about the mission's success.
January 11 is the next gaming time. You will finish the mission and probably pass a little time. Bendrath of the Pavis cult has hinted that if your mission went well he had another, more personal mission in mind for you. Also, next season you will have info on the Dyskund scrolls, the Flintnail door in Wyrmsjaw, etc.