Community

The heroes of Gravidy's Crossing had been attacked by some mischevious Gnomes who had set fire to some wierd powder that had blinded and dazed the heroes (apart form Booth [Toby's Half-elf Ranger]).

The flash bang that had temporarily blinded and dazed the heroes had (along with some time in captivity) taken its toll on Kadian [Jon's Human Paladin] who had to stop and take a rest while the rest of the party went on without him (Jon was absent from the session). Booth was the only one who had seen where the Gnomes had disappeared to and so followed them. As ever, the rest followed Booth.

The Gnomes had gone donw a hole which was the entrance to the halfling's home. The PCs went down some stairs and as they came to a room, Shane informed us that the ceiling was 5 feet high. It was pointed out that Hal [Sarh's Dwarven Fighter] would be the only one comfortable with that. This led to a discussion about the size of Hal's horns and whether size matters for a Dwarf.

We started to enter the room and some crossbow bolts were shot at us. They obviously didn't want us to feel at Gnome! The PCs, being the heroes they are, could see the Gnomes that had succesfully landed bolts on them. So they started kicking ass (and when I say "they", I mean Hal, Booth and Jess. Grunnarch couldn't hit anything - he was too busy wondering how the Gnomes did the invisibility thing).

Booth loosed off a couple of flaming arrows which made some dust floating in the air sparkle as it went through it. He managed to set one of the Goblins on fire with the arrow. By this time, Hal was in the centre of the room, wading into all that came his way. Jess summoned her spirit weapon and attacked the Gnomes.

The Gnome that was on fire ran over to the other side of the room. Unfortunately it was too close to one of the boxes as it set off the flammable powder inside and all the boxes in the room went up. Shane told Sarah that Hal could see the room was about to cave in.

Hal shouted to everyone to get out. Grunnarch didnt' need telling twice. The others had never seen anyone move so quick. They probably thought he had turned invisble like the Gnomes.

Booth wasn't sure about retreating. So I mentioned to Toby that this was the first time that Booth had ever seen Hal tell everyone to retret form a fight so he must know something was up.

Realising that the room we had just left was now blocked, we decided to see if there was another way in. Talking to the Halfling we had rescued form the Gnolls in the previous session, we asked him whether there was another entrance.
"We don't tell outsiders about the other entrance"
Jess suggested that he blindfold us and he agreed. Grunnarch put some leaves on his eyes and wrapped a piece of string around his head. Hal just turned his helmet round. We were led somewhere and unmasked and jumped down a hole. We found some more Halflings who explained to us that there were about 12 Gnomes. We told them (with big grins on our faces) that there were 4 or 5 less now. The Gnomes told us the layout of their home and where to expect the Gnomes. They told the PCs that the Gnomes had initially been nice and the Halflings were happy to let them stay, but the Gnomes had then taken over the place.

We crept slowly down the corridor and Hal heard a noise from what we had been told was the museum room. Going into the room we saw a Gnoll standing there. Hal` (being his usual diplomatic self), asked it "Eaten any halflings recently?". With no rpely forthcoming he attacked it with his hammer, only for it to pass through the Gnoll. Some Gnomes appeared as tehy attacked us and a fight ensued. Hal and Jess got in the Gnomes faces while Grunnarch struggled in the enclosed space. Booth waited in the corridor in case we got flanked by a second party of Gnomes.

Grunnarch ignored the enclosed space and wandered out to the centre of the room only to Thunderwave a gnome towards the tunnel. Once again, Hal was caught in the blast. Due to the frequency of being caught in Grunnarch's spells, Hal is no longer bothered byt it. Booth's decision to wait in the corridor proved to be the right one as the Gnomes did ideed come form the other direction. Booth handled them very well by himself.

The Gnomes were good at turning invisible making it tricky for the heroes to attack them, but they managed to and eventually the Gnomes surrendered. They promised to clear out and leave the place to the Halflings. This victory was due to Hal, Jess and Booth and certainly not Grunnarch who had been useless. Grunnarch's mind kept drifting back to something Pankas had told him long ago about the mightiest Wizards who were could bend the shape of their spells to their will. One day he would be that powerful.

Obviously the Halflings were extremely happy about having their home back and so gave us a flute. Finally, something Grunnarch was good at! Identifying magic items. Grabbing my D20 I rolled quite low, but that wouldn't stop Grunnarch who has a +12 in Arcana. Eagerly looking at Shane, he said:
"You know it's magical"
Before I could do anything else, I heard Jen (as Jess) say:
"So what does it do?"
The Halfling explained it to her. It was a magical flute that when played would delouse clothes or other items.

Grunnarch asked the Halflings about the orb they had mentioned earlier. They explained the orb was in the fountain and was the thing that had been shrinking people. They also mentioned that some people had tried to do something about it, but to no avail.

The Pcs went to the surface.
"Is Kadian here?" I asked Shane
"Yup"
Me (as Grunnarch, wanting to deflect attnetion away form his shortfalls in the fight) "You ****!"

With Kadian back in the fold, we set off to the fountain. We ended the session at the base of the fountain wondering how to reach it.