Continuation of an adventure following the script put forth by Lewis Carroll...

The party rested through the remainder of the night without incident. With morning, the party headed upstream to find the Whimsey Caves, wisely giving the mysterious tree a wide berth (even if a couple of party members had no idea why). After a couple of hours' walking, the group arrived at the entrance to the Caves.

The Caves were located behind the waterfall which was the source of the stream the party followed. However, the male members of the party were briefly distracted - with Rusteen being more than briefly - by a nude woman swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall. Although Rusteen became pretty much useless as he tried to figure how to "connect" with the woman (mistaking her for a wood elf, apparently), the rest of the group managed to compose themselves enough to talk to her. They found out that the beast, known as a jabborwock, was currently asleep in the Whimsey Caves. Zin, being a Seer, quickly verified that the aquatic maiden's words were correct.

So, as with all good adventuring parties who have the drop on a nasty monster, they buffed the hell out of themselves. Every spellcaster cast several improving spells, and an actual battle plan was created. Once preparations were complete, the party charged in to do battle.

The battle, while tough, wasn't as dangerous for the party as advertised. While Shazarr was affected by the monster's burbling, everyone else managed to beat it into submission while suffering only minor wounds. (The jabborwock couldn't really hit anyone's AC, and when it did, several layers of magical damage buffers were in place.) Once the creature was unconcious, Vhawn was then able to use her vorpal sword and cut off its head, thus completing her (forced) quest.

The Astral Deva, Toves, appeared shortly thereafter to congratulate the tanar'ri on her task. He also then asked if she had made her choice - to stay as a foul demon, or to be reborn as the paladin she once was. Vhawn demanded to be healed and then returned to her unit in the Blood War. Although appearing disappointed, Toves fulfilled her request - mostly. In an act of deviousness seemingly unbecoming of an uptight force of goodness, the Deva caused to Vhawn to be reborn as a bariaur anyway - because his heavenly healing magics "wouldn't work on such a foul being as a tanar'ri". Vhawn was... not grateful. "Extremely pissed" would be more appropriate. She hoofed Toves in the groin before storming out of the Caves in a huff - and earning the admiration of about half the party with the same act. Toves disappeared in an embarressed puff of smoke, but not before grudgingly bequeathing to each member of the party a golden ring with which they could make a limited wish.

With the main quest completed, the party quickly explored the rest of the Caves, sealing the portal from which the jabborwock had emerged and finding a long-forgotten treasure horde that had been hidden in the caves long before the monster's arrival. Satisfied that they'd been amply rewarded for their time and effort, the party left Bytopia and headed for greener pastures to relax (i.e. get very drunk).

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

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