They call me MISTER Tibit.

FrdNwsm

Well, the stalwart group of heroes looking to relieve the Siege of Sara's Tush had gotten some advice from the crazy old hag living in the (semi) abandoned Temple to Bhaal, but was it correct? She didn't seem like the sanest of people. A Bhaalspawn who was totally invulnerable because he had ripped his own heart out sounded like the delusional ravings of a total lunatic. Best to check it out; perhaps the siege could be lifted the old fashioned way ... straightforward mayhem.

Leaving the old temple area, the group headed west, toward the camp of the besiegers, rather than east toward the Marching Mountains. Unfortunately, attempts to approach stealthily were total failures, and the heroes began experiencing attacks as soon as they trod upon the bridge leading to town. Nothing too extreme; a few fire giants, some Yag-Sototh troopers ... but they kept coming in at all angles, climbing up the sides of the bridge, and coming from both fore and aft. It was impossible to secure the flanks in order to advance, so they contented themselves with keeping summoned critters as flankers to hold the foe at bay while pushing forward.

Amidst the clangor of the fray, the embattled group reached the far end of the bridge, where good old Brother Yaggie approached. My, he seemed glad to see them! A little too jolly perhaps, so they sent their staunchest ally, a planetar, forward to test him. Hmmm; he totally shrugged off the damage. OK, so maybe the crazy old hag knew something after all. Tossing the remainder of the summoned cannon fodder in as a rear guard, the party beat a hasty retreat.

"When danger reared
it's ugly head,
brave MC turned
away and fled ..."

Bah. OK time to head to the Marching Mountains. MC wondered aloud why they were called that, since having no legs, they couldn't possibly move ... or could they? "Maybe they have ... FOOTHILLS" said MC. This verbal sally was met with the deadest of silences from the others. Hmmph; tough audience.

FrdNwsm

The Marching Mountains proved quite immobile, as MC had rather expected. Also hot, dusty and inhospitable, and shot through with lava flows. In other words, the fire giant equivalent of prime beachfront real estate. The main inhabitants seemed to be fire giants (no surprise there) and also some obnoxious beast called a "burning man"; their outlines were obscured by flames so their real nature was unclear, but they were fearsome to look upon, driving several comrades into paroxysms of mindless terror. OK, memo to self : pack lots of remove fear spells. Hmm, they hadn't needed that remedy for quite a wile.

Having learned that lesson, the group rested to redistribute their spell choices, and probed on. Several more encounters followed, following the same pattern. Except for one very strange meeting. In an out f the way section were four figures, who referred to themselves as Bhaalspawn, were upset to see us, and promptly attacked with no explanation. Their names were Toop the Brave, Tibit, Merlinus and Chinchilla. Well, Chinchilla wasn't REALLY a chinchilla, of course, that was just his nickname.

He was a chicken.

Ahem ... Dad, how drunk WERE you that night?

In any event, these sad byproducts of divine miscegenation were fairly easily defeated. Soon afterward, the party located the entrance to an underground lair, seemingly of substantial size. Off to the pocket plane to prepare for the invasion! Needless to say, lots of resist fear and protection from fire would occupy prime spots on the spell lists.

FrdNwsm

The underground lair of Y-S was moderately well defended; it was a good thing most of his troops were away at the siege, though! Sheesh. Not to go into excruciating detail, but MC and Co. encountered just about every type of fire creature imaginable. However, most of the group was fire protected to a greater or lesser degree, and while fire giants are capable of dishing out massive amounts of damage, whirlwinds from MC and Keldorn, supported by Anomen using DUHM and improved haste (plus the inevitable planetar) proved to outdo them in this regard. Group by group the defenders fell.

After the upper level had been cleared of all obvious resistance, Imoen remarked about the distinct lack of cold spells/attacks in their arsenal. The group had run out of wands of frost long ago and none had been available for purchase in Sara's Tush. The two cold spells she had, cone of cold and ice storm, were difficult to use without clobbering friendly party members. "Everything is fire and lightning" she complained. "What we really need here is a cold equivalent of Melf's Minute Meteors, or flame arrow." And indeed, tossing dragon breath spells at fire giants sounded rather unproductive; they didn't even bother trying.

There was also the problem that the stair upwards was blocked by a force field of some type. Clearly some sort of mechanism needed to be activated to remove the obstacle, but what? The solution would have been actually fairly obvious, except that MC had forgotten the descriptions of the first two rooms they had entered. Doh! Upon re-examination, the answer was apparent; the puzzle was similar to half a dozen others from Watcher's Keep and other such places. Just put the appropriate items into the proper receptacles. This activated a few more defenders, but nothing that they couldn't handle.

Viola! The force field came down, and the way was open. But that expedition could wait until tomorrow.

Arunsun

Chinchilla is no chicken, it's a Were-Chicken. Which makes your questionings about good ol Dad evenings even more legit.