According to the Feathergale, The Queen Mother is the true heir of Tyr. According to me, I don’t really care. These guys seem OK, and they offer us membership to their group, but that’s not really our style.

Membership? Not so much. An Alliance? That’s much more our speed. They don’t seem to be as into that, but I don’t really care. We do agree that there’s another manticore in the area that needs slaying, so in exchange for gear, we agree to smite it.

There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly killed manticore in the morning. Seriously, it’s pretty foul.

While heading towards a suspected cave, we’re surprised by Gnolls. Of course. More of a pain than anything else. We’re able to dispatch them (~15AC), and find some decent loot, and here’s my take:

• 1 gallon of water – each!
• a glaive (ooh, reach weapon!)
• their leader had a ring with an odd symbol on it, something like this: >-|>

Well, we continue on, and come across the manticore cave. We try to sneak in, and get about halfway in when *snap* I break some bones under my feet. To be fair, there are a ton of bones. Time to fight, I guess – fine by me!

This one was quickly dispatched (~17AC) – thankfully it never took to air. And, I have another crystal for my collection. There’s a god bit of loot here – crates of ornate crystal candlesticks, cutlery, and silks. But, the most important takeaway? We now have a name for our party:

The Manticorps

And if we can secure it, a cave / home base in friendly territory! We return with some of the gear, and I with the head. They agree to make capes from the silk (they provide Featherfall once per day!) and a helm for me, made from the scalp of the manticore. And my new splint mail! It’s nice and surprisingly light!

We return to Kled (and get some odd looks). Time to stock up for our trip up North to Dragon-something-or-other. Wasn’t really paying attention, and don’t really care, as long as there are baddies to kill.