Forgotten Realms Issue 21: Cannibal Girls (Won’t Yah Come Out Tonight?)

The issue begins with Ishi being crushed by scrap metal.

Just kidding.  Of course Ishi uses her mad acrobatic skills to escape.  She then climbs into some conveniently human sized ventilation shafts  and begins exploring the complex.  When she locates the kitchen, she discovers that Foxilion has been invited to dinner, just not as a guest.

Back in the prison, Agrivar is wallowing in self pity while Vartan futilely attempts to escape.  Vartan calls to the cell next door to enlist Foxilion and Omen’s assistance.  Unfortunately, since Foxilion is not there and Omen is unconscious, things look grim for our heroes.

At least Ishi is still on the loose.  Not surprisingly, she decides to interrupt the dinner preparations.  Ishi quickly dispatches the kitchen staff, but then Los and his entourage show up.

Ishi then uses Foxilion to beat them down and make good her escape.  Seriously, she just swings him around like a sack of potatoes.

This is really has not been Foxilion’s week, has it?

Back in the convenient ventilation shafts, Ishi manages to wake up Foxilion and explain the situation to him.  The pair spy on Los speaking with the Forgemaster about their current escaped prisoner problem.  The Forgemaster suggests using “the statues” to track them down, but Los seems reluctant.

At this point Ishi decides it would be best to split up.  She asks Foxilion to start a diversion so she can free their crewmates.  Personally, I would send the thief to break into the prison cells, but considering how ineffectual the rest of the Realms’ Master crew has been to this point I suppose I understand why she feels the need to do everything herself at this point.

This proves to be a good decision on her part, since she easily overcomes the guard and picks the lock to Vartan and Agrivar’s cell.  Omen’s cell proves a bit more difficult to open as the lock mechanism is broken.  While they try to figure out what to do, Omen wakes up an decides he has finally read enough of the new Player’s Handbook to try a simple Knock spell.

Well, I guess you can’t argue with success.  The noise attracts some more guards, but now that Omen is back in action a simple Lightning Bolt takes them out.

The crew’s escape path takes them back through the kitchen, which turns out to be a bad move since Agrivar fortifies himself with a jug of rotgut.  Ishi and Vartan are both concerned, but there really isn’t enough time to deal with it now.

Just as the crew prepares to enter the air vent, Los and his entourage interrupt again!  Agrivar grabs a meat cleaver to hold Los and his cronies off while the crew escapes.  Unfortunately, alcohol is not quite the performance enhancing drug Agrivar believes it to be and Los has no problem fending off his attacks.

Once the crew makes the vent Ishi screams for Agrivar to follow them, but things go from bad to worse.

Los sends his followers into the vent after the crew. This proves to be a mistake as Omen takes them out with another Lightning Bolt spell.  Los then turns his attention to the one crew member still in the room, but Karse informs him the paladin has died from his wounds.  Out of options, Los decides to head to the foundry in hopes of catching the Realms’ Master crew there.

Los’ plan to cut the Realms’ Master crew off works.  The crew barricade themselves in the foundry and Omen muses how it can’t get any worse.  Of course he doesn’t notice that the one of the special statues the Forgemaster was working on seems to be coming to life behind them!

Thoughts

• I am always glad to see Rags Morales on art.
• This is the issue where Captain Omen finally gets his mojo back.  Not a moment too soon either, as Ishi was getting pretty tired of doing everything herself.
• It certainly took the Akri long enough to start searching the air vents.  After all, it is not as if Ishi was very subtle about using them!