[adrr.com  > Stories for Heather > Five days in Ostend]   --  [Heroes, Swords, Other Tales]
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Dear Diary,

Well, we ended up spending five days in Ostend.

Slime demons are interesting, I guess. I thought that I would describe them, since they've showed up several times in my story.

Slime Demon They work as follows:

  • Int 2d4+4
  • Con 2d3+6
  • Pow 2d6+6
  • App -(2d6+12)
  • All other characteristics at 2d4+5
  • d3 points of armor
  • 1 level of poison touch
  • 1 level of acid touch
  • digest d3 points of size per turn (not round)
  • Pow+App vs. Int+Pow attack, but the attack is modified by the victims, er, level of experience, so to speak. For most of us that meant the demons would have had no chance at all, for Tinda, if he had been here ...

The attack causes victims not to resist being digested if it overcomes the resistance, and the victim sees the slime demon as having an App of Pow-(real App) -- somwhere in the area of 4d6+18.  I think they are still disgusting. Ick. I'm glad Tinda's father has nothing to do with them..

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I'm wondering what to talk about first. The market, especially with everyone off the ships and stuck in the harbor waiting to get out and trying to make some use of the time?  The dwarvish delves (Parakyle took me into one for part of a day)?  Seeing my first great troll on patrol outside the city gates (this picture, painted on sandstone)? Visiting the house kept by the five families as a sort of embassy in Ostend and getting a letter of introduction for when we came to the islands of The Crown of Tears? Standing next to Ari and Amber as they talked with a fire mage who wasn't happy to see a female fire mage or a master of cold magic, but who recognized me as blue lodge and suddenly bit his tongue?

My first shapechanging vulture?  I'd have slain that Couranth in a heartbeat if Kore hadn't warned me that it would be a breach of the peace.

The great dome, glowing bright in the day and gently at night? The walls, still strong, solid and dwarfwork at its best? The sea trolls, merfolk, sliding through the water, green scaled and powerfull?

Sparring with Wolfie and running through the forest on the day after the trolls insisted it was clear.  The feral troll we ran into -- and the way Wolfie took it down in a stand up fight (that's my Wolfie) while I watched to see if anything else was going to happen.

So much. I can't decide. It was a busy five days.

I did try to catch Kore's trail, just in case I could offer something to her since we were here longer than expected. No luck, though I did not press hard.

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The twins spent some time with the local fey folk.

I would not have expected them to get along so well, given their history, but they did. Guess they have a lot in common, in some ways, with the sidhe.

I sometimes wonder if the time change magic they were twisted by didn't make them part elven on top of everything else.

I guess time will tell. They sure are beautiful to look at though, and they don't look completely human now that I think about it.

I did overhear them talking about trying to decide what they were and what they were going to become, but when I realized I was listening in on something private, I quickly walked away. Sometimes I wonder if I should not have listened more, guess I will find out.

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The Crown of Tears is about another seven hundred miles out from Ostend, once you have rounded around the horn. We made good time in a cramped boat, and were glad of the fresh food we had picked up. Being up in the air sure is a safer way to travel, though the seas are not as dangerous as they once were. The deep sea, especially, is calm as there is little there to support the great creatures that might threaten a ship.

We passed several ships unseen, though the ships that sail this part of the sea are larger and more of a cross between a warship and merchantman.

We also saw one of the great warships. Fifty giant water elementals to a side carrying it through the ocean, almost a barge, with walls and a castle and turrents. It was magnificent.


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