The Eye of the Serpent

This continues the tale of half of the Pre-Fosweld party.

The Eye of the Serpent (UK5) by Graeme Morris

The huge birds deposited the party in a massive nest on a high peak in the mountains. Once the two rocs were satisfied that their captives were secure in the nest, they flew off.

This was when the party realised they were not alone! There were four humans already in the nest - Ovlov, Ollopsio, Scobby and Catoink. What now? Here begins The Eye of the Serpent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_the_Serpent).

Chapter 1 (14.04.2024) - Escape from the Nest

The four NPCs already in the nest were not best pleased at the arrival of the six new people in the nest. After a bit of arguing, during which time Ollopso blamed Catoink for everybody's plight and Scobby complained quite a lot, the party - now ten of them - introduced themselves to each other.

Scobby complained more, Catoink seemed nervous, Ollopso told everyone they were doing everything wroong and Ovlov sneered. However, the whole party started searching the nest to see what they could find and looted it of useful items, as well as the copper sheet that was the note to Ji from Arne.

Xymiton read the note to the others and everybody pondered its meaning. Ollopso told him how he could have read it better. Also during the search of the nest, Scobby put her hand in something disgusting and wanted to wash it off, but Ollopso told her not to waste water and wipe it off on Catoink's cloak.

Catoink didn't like this idea very much, and Pinimpy kindly offered the use of her cloak instead. Both Scobby and Catoink were grateful for this. When Tikarada found and started emptying the sour wine from its skin, Ollopso again told him that was the wrong thing to do, so he kept half of it.

Scobby now complained about a headache and a splinter and wanted some of the healing potion that had been found in the nest, but she wasn't given any. Tunaxicon kept it safe for everyone. Especially himself.

The party begin their escape from the nest.

Retty had taken out his 75' long rope and when they found a ledge that was only 40 feet or so down, he and Pinimpy started lowering everyone down onto it, before the rocs came back. Tikarada went first, then Xymiton, the two dwarves and the four NPCs.

Retty then lowered Pinimpy down and used the rope they found in the backpack to tie securely so he could keep his longer rope. He managed to climb down and the party set off down the steep, rocky, icy path, Pinimpy and Retty at the front.

Shortly after they encountered a pair of hungry wolves who attacked. Retty scored the first hit, Pinimpy missed, and Scobby, who was in the second row, pushed her way between the dwarves who were behind her to get out the way of the fight.

Razadar's mighty blow didn't just finish the wolf, it was sent flying off the mountain. Tunaxicon picked up the other defeated wolf and threw that one after it. Ollopso told him how he could have thrown it better.

Tunaxicon and Scobby had a bit of an argument about Scobby pushing backwards and not fighting, but nothing came of it. The party changed their marching order so that the two dwarves were now in the second row, Scobby and Xymiton in the middle, then Ovlov and Ollopso, with Tikarada and Catoink guarding the rear.

Chapter 2 (15.04.2024) - Plop!

The party were on the move again after the wolf encounter and soon had to make a choice - follow the snowy, rocky trail or climb down an alarming but not too treacherous series of ledges to the ice lake area below. The party chose to climb down.

Once everybody was safely down, the party continued and were soon set upon by a snow leopard that they had disturbed. Retty scored a hit with his sword and then Razadar finished it off with another almighty blow from his axe.

Ovlov said the pelt was valuable, but Razadar took out his 10 foot pole and prodded the dead cat across the ice until it plopped into the lake. Ovlov was very disappointed at the unnecessary loss of the valuable pelt, but the dwarves giggled and the party continued on nevertheless.

Xymiton attempted to carefully cross the ice using a lot of lengths of rope, but the ice sheet was about a mile wide and the party did not have a mile of rope. After a bit of dithering and confufulation, everybody made it across the icy wasteland by walking carefully.

As they circled clockwise around the ice lake, everyone managed to jump over the stream that led up the valley where the herd of musk oxen live. Pinimpy used a luck point to avoid falling into the icy water. The party did not go further up the valley and continued across the ice sheet at the south end of the lake.

When the lacedon burst through the ice from where it had been hiding, Pinimpy managed to one-shot it with a single decisive hit from her longsword, having avoided a bite with more Luck Points. The party looted the lacedon's gold bracelets and saw a dagger in its jewelled sheath resting at the bottom of the lake in the clear waters below.

There then followed a discussion about how to retrieve the items on the bed of the lake. They were only about five feet down, but somebody would have to dive in. Xymiton tried hooking the dagger out with the crooked end of his staff, but that just caused the scabbard to disintegrate.

Ollopso was all in favour of Catoink jumping in, and Ovlov too. Catoink didn't fancy it much and a few of the others took his side. Eventually Tikarada dived down to retrieve the gems and the dagger. Tunaxicon ended up keeping the dagger and the party were ready to move on again.