The Worst Party woke in their makeshift bunker, picked their spells, healed, and considered where to go next.

They thought about exploring the building that they were in, but then they remembered the centipedes. They considered going to the Gnomonics Institute, but the way there that Jeumes knew involved an underwater passage. So, they decided to hit up one of the two unvisited buildings in Veros.

A receptionist informed them that they were at the Body by Bodymaster School of Massage at Veros. He said that classes were not in session right now and that Massagemaster Gedjan was busy. The PCs ushered themselves in anyway.

Awnzo broke out the Hypnotism, which sped up the receptionist's acceptance of the PCs as cleaners who needed to clean the _entire_ school.

In the basement, they found a closet with a single chest in it. Cedric and Eunice raced to open it. Cedric stepped in first, triggering the collapse of the ceiling onto him.

Eunice mustered up every last bit of her 6 STR to haul a slab of ceiling off of…the chest.

She opened it to find a black opal and a severed hand with a ring on it.

Makalbly Jane found the office down the hall, where she and Beffa enjoyed the office furniture. In the desk, they found Body by Bodymaster School of Massage Certificates of Massage Certification granting the bearer entry to Advanced Training at Vania Castle.

Though grievously injured, Cedric pressed on down the winding hallway. At the end, he dodged another falling ceiling.

The PCs went though a hidden passage Eunice had found earlier. They found a ladder going down. They descended into a room with a single locked door, which Eunice could not unlock, and Cedric could not force open.

Fortunately (but ultimately, unfortunately), they found an illusory panel, which they punched out to reveal a well-appointed room with a throne-like chair. A single bat hung from the ceiling.

The Worst Party entered planning mode. Awnzo would make everyone invisible, it was decided. But who would strike first? Should it be Eunice with a backstab or Beffa with the Emerald Cross?

Cedric decided that it was a wise time to take a break from Valiance and went back up a floor. After some back-and-forth with his colleagues, he was convinced to come back down for the attack.

Huddled together so that they'd stay in Awnzo's 10' invisibility radius, the entire Worst Party shuffled through the punched-out panel, into the room, and executed their plan!

Unfortunately, they lost the initiative, and the bat struck first. He assumed the form of an old elf man and cast a lightning bolt that arced through half of the room before bouncing out into the ladder chamber. Awnzo, Beffa, and Oika were able to avoid the worst of it, but Makalbly Jane and Eunice were taken down by the bolt.

Cedric, in his weakened state, became no more.

In shock, the remaining PCs acted. Beffa hurled the Emerald Cross but missed. She failed to catch it upon its return and hurt herself in the confusion. (Invisible) Oika gathered up Eunice (unconscious but still invisible) and hauled her out of the room and up the ladder. (Invisible) Awnzo cast Jump on Beffa, and beat a quick retreat up the ladder himself.

Beffa acted before the old man when she next had the chance. She found Makalbly Jane and Cedric's invisible bodies and hauled them up. With the power of Jump, she leapt up a floor and out of the enemy's sight. From there, the Worst Party scrambled out of the basement of the school and through the receptionist who was overwhelmed by Beffa barreling through while miming the hauling of bodies.

Outside in the daylight, the Worst Party, while on vampire watch, brought Makalbly Jane back to the conscious world, who then revived Eunice.

The priest of the Good Moon came out invited the party into the church. Some proselytic jousting ensued, but ultimately, the PCs accepted his moon-based healing

Awnzo summoned Cedric's Phantom Steed, Valiance, and Cedric's body was mounted for his last ride.

The steed rode off west across the water and disappeared from view as Cedric's spirit ascended into the celestial heights of Mount Valiance.

Having had quite enough of Veros, the Worst Party boarded a ferry captained by a robed skeleton. He seemed to have a thicker (proverbial) skin about the party's skeleton jokes. As they rode down the Dead River, they shared stories about Cedric, his Valiance, and his pants.

No one welcomed them at Aljibo because everyone left in the town had boarded themselves up inside their homes.

They found an inn whose two occupants were suspicious but starving. By promising food, the PCs gained entry.

Inside, the wonder of bland and massive food cubes summoned by Makalbly Jane won them over. The party soon learned that the ghoul population in Aljibo has exploded recently and that the town is overrun.

The next morning, they ventured out, and sure enough, they ran into a gang of ghouls, who they turned. Thank the Goat.

They went into a warehouse that had four 10' high orange cones, each of which had a label that said “DO NOT MOVE CONE”. They projected energy fences between them, and a wooden box sat in their midst.

Oika received Jump magic from Awnzo and attempted to leap the barrier. She hit the ceiling and bounced back down. Next, she jumped into the barrier and got an unpleasant shock, but she at least fell _inside_ the barrier.

In the meantime, Eunice did in fact move a cone. It emitted some gas, and she was minorly poisoned.

Oika attempted a jump shot to get the box out, but it hit the rim and bounced back in. Next, she jumped with while holding it, hit the barrier again, but again fortuitously fell down where she wanted to land. It took many jumps and many shocks, but the Worst Party got the box outside of the cones.

After another night barricaded at the inn, the PCs continued to the Town Hall, which they found mostly empty.

Until it wasn't! A gang of ghouls was feasting at a table. Makalbly Jane turned many of them, but a few decided to stick around and do some adventurer-battling.

The PCs' massagemaster escaping, food bartering, ghoul repelling, and box obtaining earned them 10,725 XP!

Current XP totals:

Oika

Makalbly Jane

Awnzo

Beffa

Eunice

Bret

48978

50034

50415

49441

48466

43739

Cedric was an adventurer and fighter who believed strongly in the concept of Valiance.

His Valiance lead him to drink liquids found in dungeons upon first sighting, which sometimes poisoned him, and sometimes allowed him to do things like fly his adventuring colleagues, the Worst Party, down from towers. In fact, in general, he desired decisive action and would sometimes leave discussions to open a door.

Though appearing to be a fairly simple person, more than a few mind-bending experiences added complexity to the Cedric blend. In a fateful encounter with time squirrels, Cedric both went back in time and followed his past self and obtained a Time Clock.

He never quite got over the Time Clock's expiration and sought to recreate the experience of wielding a working Time Clock for the rest of his life.

Cedric's desire for superhuman magical experiences later lead him to literally crawl through fire in order to obtain the Flame Buddy Sword Assistant, a magical weapon/data collection device.

One of his other interests was jumping really high. His teammate Oika once found a pair of itchy red pants in a house in Refreshment's Hole. She gave them to Cedric, who came to believe they would allow him to jump to superhuman heights.

Though many of his jumps failed to reach the record books, he did once jump out of a speeding rail cart and onto a ledge just in time to avoid flipping into a pit and having the cart land on him, which the other occupant of the cart did not avoid.

Other hobbies he enjoyed were:

- Rope use - Rope-adjacent weapons like nunchaku and the 'Bliterator - Creating insecurity among wizards by holding them to popular-media-perpetuated standards - Ointmenting in battle - Singing with Slorbs (he had a remarkable sense of pitch, discovered late in life)

Hobbies he did NOT enjoy were:

- Getting struck by lightning, which happened to him at least three times - Spending eight harrowing hours in a stone box without airholes - Being asked to take his armor off for massages

Cedric had a talent for collecting armor, which eventually made him fairly invulnerable in normal battles. He was great at interviewing and had landed admission into the Body by Bodymaster School of Massage at Svanetia.

He was dedicated to mentorship and spent many hours team-building with hired goblins, building up the confidence of a wayward Kuo-Toa named Jeumes, and training his dog Snoopy to become a falcon.

Snoopy's death by flying Blood Cat was hard on Cedric. It was one of the few times his natural exuberance was suppressed.

Soon, he sprung back, but alas, soon after, he had his final encounter with lightning.

Oct. 23, 2016:

“CEDRIC THE VALIANT has joined your party He's fun at a party and good in a fight, he just isn't the brightest crayon in the box”

What, if anything, is in the box? And will anyone join the Worst Party to fill Cedric's big harmonizing shoes?

Come by on Dec. 17 to find out!

Jim