Something Wicked, Part 1

Notes

Here Sammeal reminisces post-event about the beginning.

Action

To the best of my knowledge, the first direct encounter between adventurers and banaltra took place after Taistil the scholar's first lecture on the history of River's Rest.

When he finished his lecture, Taistil expressed a desire to step outside for some air.

The assembled crowd crankily rose from its communal duff and accompanied him outside.

After only a minute or two, the ground rumbled and shot forth a horrible grey beast. It had a tough knobbly skin as I recall, and had seven long and awfully pointy fingers on each hand.

Not something you'd want to meet in a dark alley, or, for that matter, a well lit meadow. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

A second beast followed the first, and made mean faces while the first one impaled Taistil with its claws.

There was one of those really loud clatters you only get when thirty people are all fumbling for their swords and shields.

I would have reached for mine, myself, were it not for the two pints of Winterberry ale I was carrying. The ale posed a problem. I couldn't very well put them down gently, and I CERTAINLY couldn't just drop them, so I did the only other reasonable thing.

I started drinking really fast.

One banaltra ran left, and the other ran right.

I followed the one on the left, sloshing a small amount of ale down my chin in the process.

Anyway, I finished my ales and drew my dagger right around when the thing bit it. I think Karly did it in after Dearlae bound it, but my memory of the incident is understandably foggy.

I ran off to find the other one, but it was already dead.

Returning to the scholar's carcass, I bounced on my heels a few times to get the ale to settle. Taistil was raised and provided some very meager scraps of insight into what in blazes was going on.

I don't know if the chanting started before or after that, but it was in the next few days that things started to get hairy.

We started to find piles of gravel and holes all around town, left when banaltra surfaced. Usually they'd just surface and grab some old fogey or child real quick, but sometimes they stuck around and fought us.

For a month or more, we had to walk around armed. We patrolled the streets with sword in hand, spent each night uneasily sleeping, with sword still in hand.

I swear, it's a wonder my dagger didn't get hand callouses.

Notes

Thanks to Alaviar for this log.

Action

Some children, elves and human, stroll into the area carrying baskets filled with wild berries. The boys try to impress the girls by tossing berries high into the air and catching them in their mouths.

You say, "Uh oh"

Jaxia shifts her weight.

Slightley gulps.

Sachein slings a diamond encrusted shield off from over his shoulder.

Avira exclaims, "Warn them!"

Abruptly the children drop their baskets. Their eyes go blank and their berry-stained faces become expressionless. They begin to chant.

Sachein exclaims, "no, go!"

Jaxia says, "No.."

Avira flails her arms about.

"Light soft wood, good good good.
Virgin blade on the branch is laid.
The stalk that heals a new side reveals.
Blossoms yellow, that's a good fellow.
In a big old pot, make it nice and hot.
With the water of life it could clear the strife."

Avira exclaims, "Children!"

Slightley exclaims, "run!"

You exclaim, "NO!"

All at once expression returns to the faces of the children. They blink confusedly for a moment and share an anxious glance with each other. They pick up their baskets as if to go on their way. The youngest suddenly boy utters a guttural moan and collapses on the ground. His eyes flutter a few times then roll up in his head. He dies before anybody can move.

A sudden rumbling is followed immediately by an explosion of dirt and gravel! When the dust clears...the boy's body is gone!

The children run for home as fast as their legs will carry them.

A dark grey banaltra pounds at you with its fist!
AS: +453 vs DS: +346 with AvD: +49 + d100 roll: +19 = +175
... and hits for 32 points of damage!
Large gash to your right arm, several muscles torn.
You are stunned for 1 rounds!

Avira flails her arms about.

Sachein exclaims, "please no!"

Jaxia says, "No.."

Jaxia gestures and utters a phrase of magic.

Jaxia gestures at you.
You are no longer stunned.

Sachein removes a blue crystal from in his veniom-threaded knapsack.

Slightley gestures and utters a phrase of magic.

Sachein rubs a blue crystal.
An invisible force guides Sachein.
His crystal suddenly disintegrates!

A dark grey banaltra swings a closed fist at you!
AS: +453 vs DS: +336 with AvD: +4 + d100 roll: +58 = +179
... and hits for 3 points of damage!
Blow glances off your shoulder.

Slightley gestures at a dark grey banaltra.
CS: +433 - TD: +333 + CvA: +25 + d100: +60 == +185
Warding failed!
A dark grey banaltra suddenly stops all movement.

Avira gestures and utters a phrase of magic.

Avira gestures at a dark grey banaltra.

Screams of terror echo through the town as commoners run for cover and safety. A mother picks up her child and dashes off yelling, "Call for the constable!"

A void rips open in the area, directly above a dark grey banaltra!
Rather abrupt decompression causes a dark grey banaltra to explode!
Billions and billions of tiny banaltra bits shower everything.
Quite severely dead.

Everything in the room seemed to stay in place. The void disappears without further incident.

Notes

It wasn't long before the banaltra started to arrive. They ran the spectrum in shades of white to black, black being the strongest. And soon it wasn't just children and elderly townsfolk that were being affected by the chants... it was our oldest adventurers, starting with those 100+ and sliding ever downward as the month progressed. All of a sudden our most capable adventurers would become slack-jawed and stunned, a great rumbling would knock everyone over and banaltra would pop out of the ground, leaving the unseasoned fighters to defend their elders. At time we'd simply hear a high-pitched whine echoing through the town, and would go on the alert, having learned that another banaltra was likely to soon arrive.

Icemule was safe, but in River's Rest, Solhaven, the Landing and Kharam-Dzu, going off one's guard in the streets was not recommended. Outraged posts littered the boards from players upset they could no longer go AFK in public, while others complained that Icemule was being left out. Of course, the banaltra kept coming.

Curious to us players at the time, we found banaltra meant "nursemaid" in Gaelic.