00-00 Motley's Dream "Manticore in the Shed"

After escaping Underdark Motley travelled a bit.... DROW no longer seen anywhere nearby and Motley want to kill them all. Especially the purple brain suckers. illithids! Death to evil DROW and ilithids! DEATH MOTLEY SAYS!

Motley settled down at the Old Skull Inn in Shadowvale and took a well needed rest.
Underdark stresfful. So Dark... and so..Under!

Motley had a strange dream that night... this what happened:

Motley and group (Remgrem, Fargrim Redbard, Becca Halfling, and new faces Cagalli, Gardrak, and the Artificer) all called forth by Bishop Benjamin. He very short. Short human. Like Motley but shorter! He was famous... He heard of us killing the DROW so he called for us... Black Marsh.... Glowright? He sending us on a mission for Church of Pelor. People have been turning from the Sun God... (No wonder. Sun is bright and fiery!). Bishop BenBen wants to know why why!
So we go...

We go to see the situation and after a while travel far from the Wagon’s Path. We found a signpost pointing in different directions. Fork in road. Fork in potatoe sound better.

One sign point to Cortai, the other to Corto... The names sounded familiar... Two brothers who were both blamed for murder then fled--ran ran away they did! Or were they sisters? Motley confused. All humans look a like to Motley.

Becca, in frustration stabbed the sign and it fell apart.

One of the siblings got killed by a Dragon. The other fell upon their own spear and died. So sad. So pathetic Motley think.

Hogswallow was our current destination... cannibals we hear of... we follow!

We came across old decrepit buildings along the road. Remgrem GobGob snuck over to a barn and peeked inside. He so curious. Gonna get himself killed again! Sure is! Night had fallen so it was dark... I see well...but Remgrem not so well in dark I think. Not sure.
He entered the barn alone and we waited. Ten...twenty..thirty moments go by. He not come out. I started to get worried.

Suddenly light flashed from within the barn. Fargrim Redbeard ran up to the wall and tried to break it, ready to kill flashy light! But he not able to hit the broad sie of a barn! Then BOOM BANG! The wall exploded outward showering him in splinters. Motley’s eyes went wide. A big man-faced-batwing-lion! A manticore!

Becca, crazy Becca, charged joyfully and poked it with her Pike. Teehee! It roared. Then she hopped back behind me telling me to protect her. As always. Gardak charged forward and stabbed it wit a sword. I got ready to defend and charged up myself. I swung but my warpick clanged harmlessly off of its tail spike... grr!

Remgrem popped up behind it, in the barn still and stabbed his glowing white sword into its backside. It roared and tried to take its anger out on me. Slash-Slash, Slashity-Slash! Under the pressure of its blows I skidded back a couple feet. So strong! It then lashed its tail around and shot spikey spikes at Motley’s head. I deflect, and it lifted into the air and flew above reach.

The barn was destroyed from the battle that far. Cagalli called for me to smack it. So I did as it was drawn back to the ground. I hacked into it, barely breaking skin. Tough Kitty-Man-Bat!

Artificer, who was Eladrin shot and he missed cuz Manticore deflected it with his ‘fist’.
Becca came running back up, Tra-La-La-ing and stabbed into its eye socket. She pulled back her pike and cried out in surprise as a lump of pink came with it. Manticore brain! Teehee!

Inside the farm house we found a box with gems. Meh. Motley not care about gems. Motley eat those with his breakfast. The whole farm was abandoned... everywone went searching arond. Motley was sad to say he found NO DROW. So farm not interesting to Motley.

We entered the main house and found bodies slumped around tables... fangey puncture marks in their throats. Looks like Rat bites. Rats killed these people? How so? No comprhend. Jumping rats?

Cagalli found a hidden basement under some boards.... Motley go down and Remgrem followed. Remgrem GobGob found a book and carefully looked--Silly Remgrem, can you even read?

I looked around awhile as he read.. “The Dead are restless!” was written in the book. We followed a small passage and smelled death... roots hanging from the ceiling? No they not smell like death!

Then we came to a stone door and Remgrem GobGob went up to it... I walked up to the door as well...maybe DROW beyond it!? Something inside door-room whispered word, “Visitors”.
Then Ghoulish humanoids appear in the misty shadows.... they wanted fed.

Remgrem leapt into the room stabbing at one in a bright flash of white light. Everyone rushed past Motley and into the room. That’s when I heard the Ghouls behind us. Motley turned and saw them climbing over a wall and a crevice. I got ready to defend, moved into the room with the group and the Ghouls and swung my warpick. It sunk into its elbow and it just looked at me and smiled. In anger, I reached into its mouth, grabbed its tongue and hacked into it.

Remregm popped out of the room and popped up behind us and killed the Ghoul right beside me then popped somewhere else and killed anotehr Ghoul. The smelly rotty humanoids were dropping like flies buzzing around their heads.

A ghoul had been set on fire in the confusion so I moved up and hacked and hacked, caving in its skull. Killing the final Ghoul.
With that done we followed the Catacombs.... and found an ancient bag of silver coins.

After moving on forawhile and wasting big moments of time, we came to a swampy area where something was skittering in the water. Hmm... Lizard Men. They spoke to Remgrem Gobgob. The Lizard Men telled Remygremy about a swamp giant. A huge purple humanoid with one eye... wait.... Motley know what that is-Fomorian! No! They almost as evil as DROW!!!!
There was one in the swamp nearby...

Motley got distracted by a shiney thing. Gold coin? New weapon? No--just a gold tooth.
Motley turned and realized we were by a bridge and had found the Formorian! It was talking to us.... so we tried to reason with it, but it smacked us and sent us flying across the bridge.

We made it to Glowbright after nursing bruises from Formorian... surprising he let us go. The town was pretty destroyed... Buildings collapsed everywhere... snell of something unsettling in the air.

Remgrem once again wen toff and approached a house where he heard something scraping. I watched in the eery silence... a sense of dread washed over Motley and what looked like the others. Artificer Eladrin and Fargrim Redbeard went up to the building with Remgrem. Cagalli and I walked closer and Cagalli said “Well met” to a digging creature! It looked like a ghoul but was digging and talking... inside a house... in its hand it held a cross...

We ignored it since it ignored us and we moved on. Inside another house were the bodies of children and a woman... horrible murders everywhere! Bodies in each and every house... were DROW responsible? I walked down an alley and found a big fissue in the ground and a statue of an angel... draped around the base of the statue were dead babies... oh my....  would DROW even do such a thing? Was there evil greater than Spider Kissers!?

As we walked past a house Fargrim was suddenly grabbed by muscular bone-white arms and pulled in a doorway! Eeek! Creatures with antlers and stubbs for feet floated toward us from all directions. One locked eyes with Motley and float-charged at me screeching a horrid sound. Surprised I got smacked backwards, the wind leaving Motley’s lungs. I swung back and hit but it had little effect. More began to show up... crap on a potatoe in the month of the moon! One comes at me and clawed into me, and I couldn’t blocked before white blocked my vision then everything went dark...

…

Motley opened eyes and a “Tall One” from what my allies were yelling was standing right over Motley. It leaned down and chomped into my neck! Yeeeouch! I pushed it away and hopped to my feet and catch my breath, then became like the stone beneath my feet. Then I hacked into the skull of the Tall One beside me on the ground, killing it for good I hope. The head that had separated started to mold back together with the body, but Remgrem blasted it into oblivion with a spell. Yay Remgrem GobGob!

I charged after the third and final standing Tall One and hack into its hip. It ignored me and slashed at Cagalli, knocking her out.  Remgrem blasted its head off its body and Becca came running and leaping in the air crushing the head before it could reconnect!

Suddenly Motley opened eyes and I was back at the Old Skull Inn.... strange strange dream... Motley no like undead... very creepy... Motley looked around, rolled over and went back to sleep.