revision

acl.cool/site/writings/umbral0.5.dj

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ In the scant lanes of Venron, a _llama_ breathes the cool light of dawn; an orna
 
 Further on, Karmel[^karmel], a brightly-dressed human, snoozes under a tree, indulging in an early morning nap. His tightly-drawn ponytail lies splayed about him as it gathers subtle moisture from the dewy grass. A noise wakes him, and he plods off in search of breakfast.
 
-Across the road from where Warren now mans a stove, hunkered in Venron's cheapest and poorest inn, Almuth Cheerio[^almuth] sits down to "pancakes", a half-elf woman and a human man beside him. Is his usual way, the gray-haired, white-robed cleric of Eldath strikes up a conversation and begins to steer it casually toward the subject of his deity. His captive companions are unusually receptive.
+Across the road from where Warren is about to man the stove, hunkered in Venron's cheapest and poorest inn, Almuth Cheerio[^almuth] sits down to "pancakes". A half-elf woman and a human man fill the seats beside him. In his usual way, the gray-haired, white-robed cleric of Eldath strikes up a conversation that begins to turn, somehow, toward the subject of his deity. His captive companions are surprisingly receptive.
 
-By the town's northern entrance, Gottlob Graal[^gottlob], a satyr, chats with a lone town guard. Though the guard can get in little more to their conversation than the occasional nod or word of confusion, he is grateful for the aid staying awake near the end of his long shift. Still, as minutes threaten to become hours, he wearily wishes that this chatty goat and his obvious comb-over would find someone else to regale with pointless trivia and dubious stories of past revels.
+By the town's northern entrance, Gottlob Graal[^gottlob], a satyr, chats with a lone town guard. Though the guard can get in little more than the occasional nod or word of confusion edgewise, he is grateful for the aid staying awake near the end of his long shift. Still, as minutes threaten to become hours, he wearily wishes that this chatty goat and his obvious comb-over would find someone else to regale with pointless trivia and dubious stories of past revels.
 
 As the morning continues and the breakfast hour draws to a close, villagers and adventurers alike begin to take notice of a giant frog, apparently arrived undetected early in the morning. The monstrously massy amphibian perches with apparent ease, though presumed precariousness, over the mouth of the town's main well, which is adjacent to the inn wherein Warren now labors. A second guard, a half-elf, approaches Gottlob and his interlocutor for the changing shift. Drawing up close, he takes the helmeted head of the latter between his hands and turns it forcibly toward the frog; neither Gottlob nor his companion have looked down the road for some time. "That's becoming a problem now, ay!", the new arrival injects, but the tired and frankly overwhelmed human just stares, uncaring or uncomprehending. Gottlob, suddenly aware of the potential danger, abandons his conversation and heads toward the well--- giant frogs aren't unheard of on the prime material, but they are common in the Feywild. He casts "detect evil and good", furtively, a little embarrassed, but finds nothing to fear from other planes this morning. "Perhaps the frog is enchanted", he thinks, but doesn't bother with "detect magic", satisfied to know that if there is any threat, at least it's native.
 
@@ -30,15 +30,15 @@ As they near the lake, a swarm of birds can be heard above; Clementine uses magi
 
 As the lake begins to come into view, the terrain grows low and a thick miasma fills the party's nostrils. They abandon their charges for the moment, at a safe distance from whatever caused the great carrion slick they've just noticed over the water, and no doubt from which emanates this odor that clogs their every orifice. As they disembark, Clementine asks the frog what exactly it was that drove it from its home. "Big thing, many heads!", it answers. Forging onward toward the shore, the party spots what appear to be five crocodiles, just their eyes and nostrils breaching the surface. Clementine queries them--- do they know what's going on here? Why do they seem so unbothered? They divulge no helpful information, but the centaur gets her answer as the five crocodile heads are jerked out of the water by five necks, all joined at the base. A hydra! No wonder the place reeks...
 
-As the party is thrown into combat, Gottlob takes the first action, moving his steed laterally as he casts "moonbeam" on the monster's position. In the heat of melee, Warren does substantial damage with "guiding bolt", and the other party members make good use of the advantage it grants them. Karmel wraps the Hydra's many teeth in sheathes of water, dulling its bite and reducing the danger to his companions. Louisa casts "fireball", a foresighted choice against their many-headed foe, but the hydra attacks Warren viciously in response, nearly downing him. He fights on bravely, and the party manages to avoid most damage while striking reliably at their enemy's vitality, until Clementine is similarly attacked. As the Hydra bites the her, Louisa seen an opening. She reaches out to the weave and summons a trio of magic missiles. Sure that they will find their targets, she sends them hurtling upward, piercing through the hydras multitude of necks in a triple sextuple collateral. The monster crumples and splays, half floating on the lake, half lying on the shore.
+As the party is thrown into combat, Gottlob takes the first action, moving his steed laterally as he casts "moonbeam" on the monster's position. In the heat of melee, Warren does substantial damage with "guiding bolt", and the other party members make good use of the advantage it grants them. Karmel wraps the Hydra's many teeth in sheathes of water, dulling its bite and reducing the danger to his companions. Louisa casts "fireball", a foresighted choice against their many-headed foe, but the hydra attacks Warren viciously in response, nearly downing him. He fights on bravely, and the party manages to avoid most damage while striking reliably at their enemy's vitality, until Clementine is similarly attacked. As the Hydra bites her, Louisa seen an opening. She reaches out to the weave and summons a trio of magic missiles. Sure that they will find their targets, she sends them hurtling upward, piercing through the hydras multitude of necks in a triple sextuple collateral. The monster crumples and splays, half floating on the lake, half lying on the shore.
 
 ***
 
 Our heroic band of adventurers has slain a terror and lived to enjoy the rewards! In the following days, merchants and scavengers cart away the hydra--- a valuable prize--- and skim the lake of its refuse. The giant frog returns to its life as before, guarding its young in the lake's shallow sloughs just for a few more days, when they hatch dozens of new, tiny giant frogs into the world. The party members collect their gold in town and go their separate ways, but they worked well together. Perhaps they will meet again, someday.
 
-[^clementine]: A Centaur ranger
-[^warren]: A Harengon forge cleric
-[^louisa]: A Human (llama) wizard of the scribes' order
-[^karmel]: A Human bard
-[^almuth]: A Human peace cleric of Eldath
-[^gottlob]: A Satyr paladin of the Watchers
+[^clementine]: A Centaur ranger (5)
+[^warren]: A Harengon forge cleric (5)
+[^louisa]: A Human (llama) wizard (5) of the scribes' order
+[^karmel]: A Human bard (5)
+[^almuth]: A Human peace cleric (5) of Eldath
+[^gottlob]: A Satyr paladin (5) of the Watchers