- Heph and Elias wake up in an unknown forest, briefly
disoriented about where they are and what is going on
- Heph checks himself for injuries, but can’t find any
- The fogginess he feels isn’t magic, but there is a magical haze around
- Elias examines the river, and it seems almost artificial in how
it is constructed
- There is a rough flat stone layer a few inches under the pebbles at the
bottom of the stream
- Wolves approach from the woods, and Elias pulls out his crossbow
- Heph sends Karrl up to take a look at things,
Heph gets a sense of disorientation from Karrl
- The forest is small and surrounded by buildings and people
- The wolves charge, and Elias looses a crossbow bolt at the left
wolf
- The wolf is severely injured by the bolt
- The left wolf bites Elias, but he manages to stay on his feet
- Heph blasts the right one with his lightning launcher, almost
managing to take it out
- Karrl circles the space, and Heph gets a sense of
just how small the space is, and that the small forest is in a giant city
- Elias tries to throw a dagger at the wolf, but misses
- The right wolf misses a bite on Heph, and Elias steps
up to the wolf, and attacks it with a rapier other than Jarles,
which Jarles is thankful for
- Elias disengages and hides behind Heph;
Heph steps back behind Elias and launches lightning
between his legs, taking the wolf down
- Karrl returns, relaying his psychic impressions
- Elias and Heph decide to follow the river upstream,
and arrive at a large rock wall that appears to be the source of the river
- Elias climbs the rock wall and gets an overview of the forest,
Heph does the same through Karrl’s eyes
- The two learn they are in a fenced in area, with walkways around the edge,
with a large number of people who are staring concerned into the enclosure
- The people are dressed in bright colors, with light airy fabrics, small
children being pushed around in wheeled wagons by presumably their parents,
people eating food out of flimsy bowls, some sort of porridge or smooth
liquid on top of a conical bread or cracker
- Elias and Heph head towards one of the corners of the
enclosure, there is a pit between us and the fence, and the people seem
surprised to see us
- They ask Heph if he is a doctor, and he says he isn’t
- While that exchange is happening Elias steals an ice cream cone
from a child, it is delicious and Heph also takes a big bite,
both get brain freezes and Elias throws the ice cream into the
pit
- Heph and Elias get the urge to get out, and with a
running start jump the pit and climb the fence
- The adults start calling for a manager, and Heph and
Elias decide to run from the “police”
- A few zookeepers follow, but Heph and Elias manage to
lose them and emerge from the crowd at a large gate with strange lettering
- After staring at the letters for a bit, it suddenly seems to rearrange
itself into a script we can read, and it says “Saint Louis Zoo”
- Realizing they are in a zoo, Heph says they probably won’t be too
happy with them for killing the wolves
- Elias swaps his cloak to red, and they realize there is no
magic, he then flips it to green
- There are children getting really excited and want him to make it purple
- He does, and they want it back to green
- Elias gestures for money, and says to the parents “I could make
it green”
- The parents hand Elias some green parchment, and he makes the
cloak green
- The zookeepers push through the crowd, and Heph uses some magical
tinkering to make some thunder sounds
- The crowd panics a bit, and the zookeepers say they need to call for the
police, Heph tells Elias we need to get out of there,
grab the sending stone so they can’t call for backup and let’s go
- Elias grabs the phone with Mage Hand, and also grabs a variety
of things from the guy’s pockets, including a cake thing, a folded leather
thing, some square flexible metal thing that has stuff in it, a ring of
keys, and the guy’s hat
- Elias puts on the hat and they book it out of there
- Elias hears a voice from the sending stone, and after a brief
exchange Elias says to Heph “I think I can speak
their language”, and into the phone says “I want to speak to your
supervisor”
- Elias is put on hold, and Heph and Elias
continue to run away from the zoo, and run into the biggest city they have
ever seen
- The buildings are incredibly tall, and there are metal beasts charging down
the street
- Heph steps out into the street, and one of the beasts blasts a
trumpet and the driver flips him off
- Heph and Elias decide to stay on the elevated
platform, i.e., the sidewalk, and keep running
- As they run towards a “Taco Bell”, they hear a voice calling to them from an
alleyway, and they see Mort, wearing very strange
clothes and a weird hat
- He tells us there is a great evil and we are the only ones who can stop it
- He tells us to make sure the Red Stockings warriors lose to the Red Birds
warriors at the stadium
- Before heading there, we head to the Taco Bell
- Heph and Elias don’t really understand how it works,
and cut the line right up to the person at the counter
- Elias tries to buy a taco with a gold coin, Heph gets
him to pull out the green parchment
- Elias buys as many tacos as one can get for $20, and the guy
asks if we really want that many, and then just gives up and takes the order
- Heph and Elias each grab a taco, and Heph
dumps the remaining 24 into the bag of holding on his belt
- The people inside seem surprised and then impressed by the magic trick, but
then Elias hands a child a dagger and they all withdraw from us
- Heph and Elias have no idea how to navigate the city or
cross the street, and keep getting stuck on blocks until people cross the
street
- The eventually figure out how to cross the streets, but are completely lost
- Heph tries to get Karrl to help us navigate, but is
super disoriented and can’t really navigate
- Elias manages to see a sign pointing towards “Busch Stadium”
- Elias sees a guy waving from across the street, in reality
hailing a taxi, and Elias steps out into the street to wave back
- Elias is clipped by a car as it flies past and takes 12 damage
- The phone drops by his head and he hears the supervisor come on the line,
and Elias says he is hurt
- Heph gives Elias another taco and heals him for 8
health, and Elias says nevermind to the supervisor
- The supervisor asks if he still wants to log a complaint, Heph
reminds him about dispatch’s tone, and Elias lodges a complaint
against “dispatch” and hangs up
- There is a small crowd gathered, and Heph and Elias are
insistent they need to get to the stadium
- The guy calling a cab comes over and offers to help us out, and
Elias gives him all the green parchment from the folded leather
- He asks us to buckle our seatbelts, and Heph and
Elias are quite confused, and the guys decides to just help us
strap ourselves in
- He offers to help Heph, Elias mage hands it on, and
the guy freaks out a bit but we convince him to take us there
- Frank the taxi driver informs us the game is almost over, and turns on the
game on the radio
- We convince Frank to absolutely break every traffic law and get us there as
quickly as possible
- On the way we pass the Arch, and see Mort absolutely
high tailing it away from a vendor who he stole burgers from
- Arriving at the stadium, Heph and Elias cut out of
their seatbelts and bang on the window to be let out, with a sigh Frank opens
the door
- Elias pulls out his crossbow, and Frank basically runs away and
gets out of there as quickly as he can
- We head towards the entrance, Elias with his crossbow out, and
the guy manning the entrance says we need tickets
- He is quite intimidated and lets us through, but pulls out his phone to call
someone, but Elias grabs it with mage hand and throws it on the
street where it gets smashed by a car
- Elias and Heph briefly strategize and decide they need
to round up and disable the red socks, Elias enters “stealth mode”
and flips his cloak around to a Cardinals logo
- Some random people walking by are excited about his cloak, and
Elias uses prestidigitation to make the beer taste better
- Running out the end of the hallway, we emerge into the bleachers, along the
third base line
- Heph sees a red sock about to throw a stone at the cardinal, and
launches some magic missiles to hit the pitcher, catcher, and ump
- The pitcher gets hit for 5 damage, but doesn’t seem as injured, and makes
eye contact and his eyes flash briefly red
- Heph and Elias charge through the commotion that has
started to charge the mound
- Weirdly all the combatants on the field are checking on the injured
combatants, except the one on the mound
- That one has eyes locked on Heph and Elias and is
walking slowly towards them to meet them
- He says in a deep and unnatural voice that they will win the game and we
won’t take it from him
- The white pillows glow, and red lines form between them, like some runic
construct coming to life
- Heph launches another magic missile attack at level 2, but he
blocks it with shield
- Elias runs forward, and while waiting for him to get within
range, draws a card and summons an Archmage and mage apprentice as a
distraction
- The guy is not distracted by the illusion, but David Ortiz was trying to be
a hero and is freaked out by it and turns and flees
- He declares the game a forfeit, and energy starts to build up over the mound
- Elias vanishes and hides behind him, waiting to strike
- Heph uses catapult to launch David Ortiz’s bat at him, dealing 14
damage
- In response to this, he raises his hand and sends a fire mote at
Heph, which explodes into a fireball, dealing 30 points of damage
to Heph
- Elias sneak attacks him from behind with Jarles,
Jarles is surprisingly okay with this and tells him to aim for
the kidneys, Elias does and deals 22 damage
- Elias uses his off-hand to try to dagger the other kidney, but
misses badly and the guy grabs the dagger
- Heph tries to lightning launcher the guy, but he blocks it, and
Heph dives into the dugout to hide
- It happens to be the red socks dugout and they all wail on Heph
with their bats, and Heph takes 3 damage
- The pitcher looks angrily at Elias, and hits him with lightning
for 10 damage
- The energy ball grows larger, and seems to be reaching out towards the moon
- Elias pulls out Jarles again, and
Jarles yells “batter up!” as Elias swings it at the
pitcher, and hits him for another 13 damage
- Elias takes his ear off, and behind it he sees swirling mist,
and he stabs his dagger into the hole, dealing an additional 2 damage and
finishing him off
- As he explodes, the dagger flies off and kills Manny Ramirez
- Curt Schilling crumples and collapses on himself, leaving behind a crumpled
mess of red sox clothing
- The energy ball glows brighter, then explodes and dissipates, and the red
color of the moon fades as the lunar eclipse passes
- A mighty wind picks up, knocking over Elias, Heph,
and the baseball players attacking Heph, and picking up sand from
the field
- A red light glows in its center, and then the light blasts out and blinds us
both
- Heph wakes up in a familiar bed in the dormitory of the alchemist’s
guild, feeling jolted awake by a dream, but the details are fading quickly
- Elias wakes up to a yellow dawn in the Nor’Southern
Isles, weirdly like he was sleeping, rather than in a
trance, but the details are fading from his memory as well