The session started five minutes after where the previous one left off. The party had just concluded its battle with the Khaasta's Bandit King and his pets. They had managed to search the throne room and take stock of the "goodies" to be had, but they need to come up with a plan of what to do next. After much discussion, it was decided to load up all the loot onto one of the lizardfolk's wagons before potentially risking more danger by exploring the upper floors of the tower. So, Rusteen and Zin (and his fern) went to the stables so the hunter could attempt to befriend a giant lizard rather than kill it and mount it as a trophy. This left the rest of the group to load the gear.

It took a while for Rusteen to befriend a giant lizard and get it to follow him back to the wagon. During that time, the rest of the group loaded the wagon, with Dr. Fever supervising to garauntee the maximally efficient loading of all the bottles of stolen beauty. (Shazarr supervised Dr. Fever when it came time to load the art to make sure that the modron didn't try to fold the valuable paintings.) As the party neared the completion of its task, Que noticed one of the khaasta observing them from above.

Que quickly advised Twig to get the rest loaded while he distracted the lizardman. Using his oddly entrancing gnomish dancing skills (i.e. a hypnotic pattern spell), Que managed to at least keep the khaasta from sounding an alert before all the treasure was loaded and the party gathered at the wagon. However, his spell did not last that long, plus a second khaasta appeared at the roof's edge to see what the heck was going on. Soon enough, ten khaasta stood on the edge of the roof and began to rain javelins down on the party. A few members of the party took some minor hits, but none of the treasure - especially the bottles were damaged.

It was at this time that things started to go even more wrong. As Que dropped a couple of the khaasta with a color spray, Dr. Fever responded to combat with his ususal plan of action - cast obscuring mist. Although this did spoil the lizard's aim, it made getting the party back together a bit difficult. It also made it rather hard for the group to respond to the attacks, as they couldn't see anything. As the bulk of the party waited for Rusteen and Zin to get to the wagon, Que dropped a couple more with a well placed sleep burst. Zin wisely ran like a little girl and got to the wagon in time for Dr. Fever to become stronger (via his faction's beliefs) and Twig to match, from a spell from Que. The two now-hulking party members began to pull the wagon and run for the portal out of the half-world.

Unfortunately, Rusteen was continuing to follow the original plan of bringing a giant lizard to pull the wagon. As a result, he got left behind when the party pulled out. To make matters even worse, an alarm gong had been rung, finally alerting the rest of the khaasta in the barracks that there was a problem - roughly 60 angry lizardfolk burst out of the barracks and began to chase down the party. About half of their number split to chase the cart, to try and stop it from reaching the portal. The rest decided to try and catch Rusteen. This resulted in a rather odd 4-way chase. The party in the wagon was running like mad for the exit portal, with a small horde of khaasta a few rounds behind them. Chasing said khaasta was Rusteen and one annoyed giant lizard. And chasing them was another small horde of khaasta.

The party hit the portal first, and made it through. They thought about blocking the portal somehow, but then realized that Rusteen was still on the other side. So, Shazarr and Ginaea stayed behind to try and slow up the khaasta long enough for Rusteen to slip past them and escape. In the meantime, Rusteen was rapidly getting trapped between two large groups of angry lizardfolk. So, he quickly pulled out a bottle of stolen beauty and broke it over the head of the giant lizard right before it charged into the midst of the horde. Rusteen then began to tumble his way through the crowd to reach the portal and escape.

Only ten khaasta made it through the portal with Rusteen. These were then summarily distracted by Shazarr dropping a beauty infected gem in their midst, and then Ginaea dropped almost all of them on their butts with a well placed telekinetic stomp. The only khaasta to remain a threat tried to attack Ginaea, but was soundly thumped on the head by her morningstar, and then cut down from behind by Rusteen. After this, the three PC's wisely decided to leave the area rather than deal with more combat.

Still wary of pursuit, the party left the titantic knot in Yggdrasil's branch and decided to head into the nearby tree-burg of Crux. It was here they hoped to identify their magical treasure, as well as possibly convert some of their art objects into cash. And, of course, partake heavily of any local taverns.

DM NOTE: Here is also where I now realize I made a major continuity error. In the last session, the party had freed about 40 slaves and sent them through the portal. Well, Crux is the only place they could go once they got out of the knot. As this was only a few hours before the party arrived in town, they should have still been there. As this was a pretty major event, this would be the talk of the town, and the arrival of the party would have made more of an impression - since it's a pretty easy guess that they were responsible.

Having completely forgotten about this, there are two important consequences that need to be addressed. First, in the eyes of the slaves and some of the townsfolk, the party really are heroes. On the other hand, most of the town is now very nervous. The town has never had problems with the khaasta before, but now there are concerns that they might be coming into town looking for their lost property and revenge. So, the party would be asked to finish up their business and very quickly move on, please.

For the most part, the town was a quiet place free from intrigue and a good place for the party to rest, relax, and get ready to head back to Heliopolis to finish off Augustus' mission. Of course, as is the way with all PCs, luck would step in to keep things mildly interesting.

First, Shazarr got a chance to prove just how good of an art dealer he really is. Even though the tiefling didn't know it, Crux is a major stopping point on the planar art circuit. It is home to a large number of skilled woodworkers. As such, wood-based art objects are produced in great numbers and are fairly heavily collected. As a result, there were a number of other art dealers in town to purchase the products of Crux. This meant that Shazarr was able to sell off the plundered art objects to these fellow dealers. In fact, he was able to Bluff the heck out of them and sell the art for more than it was worth.

Second, Rusteen's wood elf driven libido got him into a bit of trouble. There was a female half-wood elf in town, one that the group had met briefly back in Ironridge. She had travelled here on business and decided to drink with a few familiar faces. Of course, Rusteen used the opportunity to ooze as much charm as he had, and take her upstairs for a little fun. However, he passed out at some point doesn't really remember whether he had his fun or not. Upon waking, though, he did find a little reminder of the night. On his left bicep, Rusteen found a new tattoo - one that was mobile and labelled him, in the language of the Yugoloths, as a "plesaure slave". Que and Dr. Fever did decide that the object was "mostly harmless" and could be left on for the time being.

Finally, Twig, during her carousing in the bars and generally being chummy with fellow tree dwellers, stumbled upon something that concerned her a great deal. It seems that recently, the local ratatosk (the squirrel-like natives of Yggdrasil) have become more and more upset and agitated. A few weeks ago, one came into town and began shouting about doom and gloom from the rooftops. About a week later, a ratatosk was found slaughtered on the outskirts of town. Feeling a certain kinship with the squirrel-folk, as well as knowing that doom and gloom are not in the ratatosk vocabulary let alone nature and character, Twig decided that she was going to find the nearest tribe and try to discover what was going on - whether or not the rest of the party came with her.

After a bit of discussion, and after realizing that they couldn't complete Augustus' mission without her, the rest of the group agreed to spend more time on the World Ash and accompany her in her mission. The party spent some time stocking up on climbing gear for their journey up and across the immense planar tree.

Here endeth the session. The next session will start with the party's departure from Crux and their search for the nearest tribe of ratatosk.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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