🚀 go-pugleaf

From: dparsons@jarthur.claremont.edu (Daniel Parsons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: More Humerous Situations: Navero II
Reply-To: dparsons@jarthur.UUCP (Daniel Parsons)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Keywords: The adventures of Navero, of the Correct and Unalterable Way

I believe that the last time I posted, I had just reached the point where
Navero and Dania joined the party, which is now comprised of five people:
Navero, Dania, Rizudo (a fighter), the Cavalier (whose name I do not recall)
and an Assassin.  They set out on horseback (our DM was kind enough to let
starting characters have horses :-) for a small keep to the north, in the
middle of a swamp, which was roumored to be having troubles with Orcs.  Of
course, getting there was half the fun...

	From the very first, we all hit it off like Nitro and Glycerin.
Ever since that time, I have always felt that intra-party fighting should be
normal at first.  People who go out adventuring tend to be confident in
themselves, and as such do not work well with others, at first, if they feel
thay can do it better alone.  There are, of course, exceptions, and this
strongly individual streak should wear out in time as the party members get
to know and trust each other.  But at first, for the party members to work
together well is not realistic, and our party was no exception to this.  The
first day we were togethor, there were three actual fights between members -
weapons drawn, and once blows exchanged.  We hurt ourselves more than the
monsters would for a week.

	Anyway, we were travelling North to the keep, and found our first
"real" combat.  This is the first time Navero got to strut his stuff in a
fight, and it's not a coincidence that it is the first time he nearly died.
We had passed through a very poor hamlet, which an old woman told us was
poor because of a ravenous beast that would periodically descend from the
sky, and slay and eat and carry off children.

The Cavalier:  "A DRAGON! It must be!  At last, a foe worthy of my mettle!
		We must leave at once; these impoverished people's lives
		depend upon the aid we can give them.  The beast must be
		slain, and its treausre looted."

Navero: "Well, we should help, of course.  Do you think we can just convince
	it not to eat the villagers?  I read that Dragons can talk.  That
	would be a much better way to take care of the problem, and then
	maybe it could eat fish or something and everyone would be much
	happier."

(A short pause ensued.)

Rizudo: "I don't know about this, kids.  Dragons are dangerous, ya know.  Why
	 don't we all just go away and let them sort things out?"

Dania: "Because Dragons have lots of money."

Rizudo: "Well, I guess that settles it.  We should get to know each other
	 better, babe.  Your'e a chick after my own heart."

The Assassin:  "With a large knife..."

	And so our heroes bravely rode forth to do battle.  Of course, they
first had to find their opponent, which proved somewhat difficult as they
were in a swamp.  Time passed, and evening came, and the Cavalier waxed
sorley pissed.

The Cavalier:  "Where is the beast?  One might almost think it afraid of me."

Rizudo: "Maybe it's female.  Women run away from you, ya know."

At this point, we all heard a great flapping of wings, and looked up to see
the evening sky blotted out by a great leathery shape... It was a dragon, or
something very closely akin, although it had only 2 legs and was lumpy about
the head.  Whatever it was, Navero was quite horrified, his arms felt weak,
his heart fialed, and he began uttering prayers to the Lords of the Correct
and Unalterable Way.  It was an instinctual reaction, one born of the years
of his cloistered life, and of course he made his prayers as long and as loud
as he could...

Dania: "NAVERO, SHUT UP!!  IT'LL HEAR YOU...  oh shit."

	One beady red eye cocked in our direction.  Slowly, with ancient
grace, the thing turned in midair, and came shrieking into the middle of the
party like a bat out of hell.  The Cavalier charged foreward to meet it; Rizudo
ran away; Dania popped off a magic missile and ran away; The Assassin was
long gone.  Navero remained; his horse had thrown him and run, leaving him
on his butt in a puddle staring at the monster coming right at him.  He
suddenly remembered that today was St. Kilgurian's Day, and he had forgotten
to say the proper prayers that morning.

	The great Beast slammed to the ground, by some miracle not landing
on anyone, it's leathery wings about it, covering the road in smelly shadow.
With a mighty shout that sounded pitifully small to Navero, the Cavailier
charged the beast with his lance; it broke.  A crossbow bolt came out of the
bushes, and struck it in the flank; it seemed annoyed.  Realizing that the
beast was the implacale embodiment of all that was evil in the world, Navero
roused himself and took out the flanged mace Father Gilliam gave him, and
aimed such a mighty blow at its ridged back that when it bounced off, it hit
Navero square in the face for 1 point of damage. (Critical fumble.)  The
beast tried to bite the Cavalier, but it missed; it's tail strike did not
miss, but killed his horse and stunned him.  The thing then looked around at
Navero.

Rizudo: "We can't let it kill the medic!  Wizard-bitch!  Zap it again!  And
	 you, whats-her-face, do something or get your ass out of here."

Dania: "Fuck you, asshole.  Get in there and do something with that sword."

Rizudo: "You want to see my sword in action?  Now is harldy the time, but 
	 I'll take you up on it later.  What do you use that staff for,
	 anyway?"

The Assassin: Considers killing Rizudo, decides against it.

	The Cavalier roused himself, and once again valiantly took to the
fray.  He struck twice, with two longswords, and miraculously both found
soft spots in the thing's scarred scales, wounding it!  Navero struck again,
and this time merely hit the ground beside it.  The beast then tried to bite
Navero; it succeded beyond its wildest dreams, inflicting 13 points of
damage to an otherwise inoffensive young priest.  Navero dropped with a
thump and heard no more of the mighty battle.  He woke several hours later,
to the sweet voices of his comrades in arms.

Rizudo: "Look, kid.  Don't ever go charging in like that again.  Your'e
	supposed to be healing US.  Or do you have a thing about swinging
	your stick around?"

Dania: "Yeah.  Leave the fights to the experts."

The Cavilier: "Good advice under any circumstances.  While your presence may
	      have served as a possibly useful distraction, I really did not
	      require your aid to defeat the monster.  After my first
	      strokes, all the fight seemed to leave it, so powerful was
	      my thrust."

Rizudo: "Yep.  There was also that poisoned dart we found in it mouth, too."

The Cavalier: "Tut.  Dragons are immune to poison."

				*  *  *

Our "dragon" was actually a very old Wyvern, that had lost an eye and its
poison tail barb in past fights.  It was preying on the villagers because it
was to decrepit to catch anything else.  But to a first level party, such
beasts would seem as dragons indeed.  We found no treasure, and soon went on
our merry way.


Dan Parsons                     "I didn't know Dragons were that rubbery."
NAVERO II
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