by Paul "Grindin" Tilton
Naj, Temorse, and I go back, waaaay back to when we were Blue Falcons. We’ve since parted ways but those bonds aren’t so easily broken, so it should come as no surprise that we were amongst the many people who showed up to help Neden when Naj called for help. The Neden boys seemed to have something wrong with them- they were more glassy-eyed than usual and had affected all manner of hat, despite the sweltering heat.
We quickly uncovered that mind controlling slugs (purple, green, and red) had found almost an entire nation to infect. The gathered heroes of the Realms set about the wholesale slaughter of all the infected. We continued on this gory path for quite some time, until we found Duke Nymbous, who had also been infected. Then we killed him, scalped him, and brought him back from the dead. This appeared to have done the trick, but unfortunately we likely did not have enough call the souls to heal all of the infected… so we kept killing them instead.
Duke Nymbous told us of his uncle’s cabin which would likely contain some information on how to deal with the plague, so we slaughtered our way to the cabin where we retrieved information on which each slug type did: purple slugs could cast horrible spells, red slugs would berserk at the end of their host’s life, and green slugs could do something else, I don’t remember. We also received information on how to create the antidote: we needed baby slugs, scales, and vials of an elixir. We ended more lives until we got enough of the ingredients, then went to return to camp when we were beset by a “Breeder.”
This monster had a tentacled face, and threw acid bolts- by far the most nefarious of all of the destructive spells that were thrown at us. It was a hard-won fight, but in the end we prevailed. Beleaguered and extremely low on our reserves of magic, we were extremely pleased to see Naj, who said that we could call upon the gods to revitalize us.
While we were preparing for the ritual, Naj asked us for the ingredients for the antidote, so we placed them at his feet. Then Sir Tao plead to some God, and our prayer was answered- our magic was restored, but while this was happening, roots took hold of us and we were held in place… giving Naj the opportunity to remove his hat, reveal his own brain-slug, proclaim glory to the Breeders, and abscond with our ingredients. It seemed that the slugs had even gotten to my old friend.
Thus commenced a tremendous battle, with the gathered heroes of the Realms facing down the brain-slugged Neden Boys, along with various other brain-slugged foes. The fighting was fierce, and it was made even worse when it became apparent that yet more of our comrades were infected: only revealing themselves at the most inopportune of times. The fighting continued unabated, until someone somehow got the ingredients and created the antidote- I don’t remember this time, as I had become infected as well, and only regained my memories after having the slug removed from my neck.
Finally the day was won and we were able to return to camp, where Neden held court- announcing two new Knights of the Potentium (Sarix and Dalamar, if I remember correctly?). Additionally, Duke Nymbous announced that while we had succeeded in destroying the majority of the threat, there were still threats lurking in the woods in Neden, and that the Realms would be invited back to continue cleanup in just a few weeks’ time.