The Heavy Standard: The Painted City

 [Part of the Party Time journal]   

With the tower guardsmen now supplementing the 555s (along with the reluctant elves, dogs and 4 froggies) they use the main underground tunnel to make their way underneath the "ape tower" and onwards to the main shaft - a deep spiraling hole with many smaller tunnels branching off in every direction, at the bottom of which is another long corridor that ends in... a collapsed section dead end! They didn't run into anything on their way here but now trapped they here the unmistakable "laughter" of the apes as the army of monkeys flank them in the tunnel.

There's nothing to it but to fight their way out, and Eagle and the elves roll fantastically - easily clearing the path back to the spiral shaft. Here the apes, now coming from every orifice and throwing boulders from the high ground have a massive advantage and mercilessly kill every single elf in the unit before Juris puts up a wall of dust to aid in their escape. They exit at ape tower and encounter a huge silverback sitting on a throne of bones but Eagle shoots it in the eye and it just scampers off. They do the same as the barricades they put behind them are sure not to last very long...
 
Continuing Eastward they descend from the misty hills and find a great river controlled by a group of kappa bandits but Juris easily nullifies them by freezing the river, granting them passage to the Painted City - a society of artists, musicians and crafters who all worship the Painted Lady as their goddess, all safely tucked away behind a massive wall of a moving mural.

The only way forward is through but they aren't allowed to bring any weapons or armor through the city so they bargain with the Painted Lady, who agrees to provide them with equivalent gear after they convince some fishermen down at the docks to return to being faithful to her and not to listen to the voice of Lady Longwein telling them they are trapped in a painting. Agrellon still gets a seed of water from this exchange (they were meant to plant it in the Painted Lady's palace), and Juris also gets another deal with the Painted Lady of regaining some youth in exchange for forgetting his magic. He accepts.