You recall that some of our characters were involved in getting the Horn of Plenty and stashing it on the Plateau of Statues. We got a receipt from the Earth priestesses for it. Well, apparently, the Dragon Bean Prefecture carried out some kind of divination and discovered that we had succeeded and where the Horn was. [The Dragon Bean Prefecture is a part of Kralorela where we had helped the locals fight off the pig men. But the war had devastated the crops, so they were starving. We went off to find the Horn of Plenty, but then mostly died.] So they sent some intrepid citizens to fetch it back. So, just as we emerged from the dungeon [underneath a city in Kareeshtu, in which we emerged after a long hero quest to obtain the heart of a demon], Rich and Grant (the only characters who survived from then) were whisked away into the hero plane. The intrepid citizens had arrived at the Earth temple and used some mojo to summon the heroes who had helped them. Spencer's old character also showed up, since he's still alive.
The Dragon Beaners explained who they were -- the Dragon Bean Prefecture actually has a shrine to the great company of heroes who went to get the Horn of Plenty! So, Rich promptly forked over the receipt for the Horn. (It was still on his character sheet!) Spencer did some healing on them. Then Grant [who plays an evil Orathonri sorcerer] asked whether anyone wanted "gifts" from him. Three said yes, so he gave each of them one of his curses [which he had received when fighting some horrible critter that cursed you on a successful attack]. The first is slowly turning into a toad. The second and third curses had been cancelling each other out on Grant's character. One was petrification and the other was liquifaction. Apparently, even Grant's character can feel remorseful -- or maybe he just wants living worshippers -- because he spent several rounds using neutralize magic to wipe out the last two curses. He finally succeeded after only a little cosmetic damage was done. One guy looks like he was melted; another looks a bit like the Thing. The toad curse is still on. No doubt the three of them will end up living in the temple.
I figure that the poor Dragon Beaners must be saying something along these lines:
"When those of us who survived finally arrived at the temple, we found that the great company of heroes had protected the Horn of Plenty by requiring that the priesteses there receive a safekeeping charm. While this was unwelcome news, we decided to call upon the great company of heroes, to guide us to this charm. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams! Three of the great heroes -- no doubt the only ones whose spirits survived the hellish chaos wastes -- came down from the second heaven to answer our prayers.
The first who spoke asked who we were. We told him how we overcame our travails to find the Horn. He gave us the charm that released the Horn and saved the people. He is the rewarder of virtue.
The second who spoke asked who was hurt. While we told him of them, we asked for nothing. He healed those who were hurt and warned us to avoid the Boggles. He is the giver of gifts.
The last who spoke asked who wanted a gift. Three of us, overcome by greed, asked for his gifts. Let this be a lesson to you! For he was the scourger of sin. He gave curses to all who had such greed in their hearts. When two of them repented their sin, he removed the curse with great effort, for they were mighty curses for mighty sins. But this toad here lied about repenting his sin, so he will live in the shrine as a constant reminder."
Chris
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