Summary XXXVII: Returning to Middle and Research Results
Hey all!
Here's what happened (in brief):
1. Raven turned down his potential druid henchman who was a total weirdo
(and probably fanatical).
2. Alegra picked up a henchman bowyer-fletcher named Frank and a
Phaulkonian Ranger henchman named Sean, who happens to have both an 18/33
strength and an 18 intelligence. He's really cool. Frank specializes in
crossbows. Frank will soon be Phaulkonian. :)
3. Info on Deathstealers is BAD. Basically, they ARE major devils. Powers
include: deathstealing, fast regeneration, level, hit point, and power drain
(i.e. ability to drain the ability to cast spells and then use the spells
against you). They also paralyze in a large radius and are very hard to
hit. They are usually served by vassal minor devils and semi devils and
hordling creatures. They have VAST treasure, but it's usually on the outer
planes. Prot. from Evil doesn't work. Prot. for Paralyzation did work
against the paralyze effect. Deathstealing may take as long as 1 minute to
recover from. The one party recorded to have fought ONE managed to kill it
through highly magical weapons striking it repetitively. They lost 75% of
the party in the battle. They also generally have "armies" of ghouls and
ghasts to fight. Lorm offered to "take care of the problem for us" for all
(almost) of the money, but we would have to stand for 10 segments while he
abjured them back to the outer planes (he has an artifact).
4. Way back from teft, two major encounters:
a. Ship is attacked by a Roc, loses main mast. We are becalmed basically.
b. A ghost ship attacks us while we are becalmed. Several beings are
killed by Eli, then they try to attack him (an insubstantial captain figure)
and us (a ghastly figure). Eventually both creatures remaining are
destroyed, but not before they drain Eli of two levels and Alegra of one
level. Later, we discover that though Alegra made her save by a good bit,
Eli only BARELY made his. The levels later returned. The captain figure
was a spectre, the other a wight. Eli recovered treasure from the ship
before it capsized. How much money was recovered: a lot, but I don't
remember the total. The ship was a sight of carnage and destruction,
probably a mutiny or somesuch action.
Without us, our ship would have suffered the same fate.
We finally reached shore just south of Carse. The Captain stayed to salvage
his ship when we reached a nearby village, but we headed north and over to
Middle.
5. Rangorn was accepted as a full party member.
6. Key info. was gained though Edwin did not yet get it to us.
7. Bugbear numbers were estimated in reconn (using Sean-the-Ranger's
mathematics X3 statistical sampling techniques, as applied by Deirdre the
mathematics X2 mage):
500-600 bugbears
200-300 fighting males
100 slaves: elves, humans, other
12 or so ogres
1 giant in Battle Armor
1 witchdoctor
probably more we are not aware of.
8. First owlbear attack: pretty interesting but not a whole lot of damage.
9. Second owlbear/Call Lightning attack not very successful. We fell back
and the bugbears pursued. We are now at the border of Elven lands with a
war party of about 50 bugbears in pursuit, pondering the best ambush options.
That is where we left our party...
Later!
Kyle