WARWICK AND BUCK STRIKE A BLOW FOR PHAULKON
And the Follow-up Adventure (it was only a matter of time!)
The dynamic duo returns in an escapade worthy of godly notice:
WARWICK AND BUCK STRIKE A BLOW FOR PHAULKON
On their first adventure in possession of the new Windsock, our heroes were last left
dividing up treasure:
The survivors of the Rakshasa attack were Marriat the ranger, Warwick the ranger,
Buck the fighter, Tristan the druid, and Lanoi the Phaulkonian cleric.
The rakshasa wagon had burned, but spectular treasure was recovered, as recounted in
the official summary for the previous game. Here are some of the results:
The Regeneration scroll was used on Buck! Shockingly, Andy rolled an 01 (on my dice)
and the scroll failed!!!
Uggh.
On the good side, I also rolled Leon's Reincartion. Incredibly, (05) Leon came back as
a GIANT EAGLE! So now Lanoi feels really cool, walking around with a giant eagle.
Warwick growled at the thought, but Skylltor offered 550,000 gp for the circlet of the
white mage (+1 spellcasting level). Gring refused.
As Warwick said, "It only works on GOOD mages..."
While Leon was getting used to his new body, Warwick decided to get the 1500 XP he
needed for 7th level by attacking... the frost giant nation. Alone.
With the Windsocks.
Tristan and Lanoi waited a few hours away while an invisible Warwick snuck up on two
frost giants, two wolves, and an ogre (from the air).
A point-blank targeted near maximum damage shot brought down a frost giant (-2 and a
wound). The other frost giant hurled a boulder for a bit of damage, but the ogre whipped
out a quad-crossbow.
The ogre fired four times. Four hits, more than 40 points of damage. And a wound.
Warwick downed an invisibility potion, then half a healing potion. He nearly hit the
ground during the segment he was at -1/2 hp, but he recovered in time to dodge the
leaping wolves and fly away.
Moving the camp, Warwick decided to try again the next day.
He jumped a lone frost giant ski patroller. His target shot was off, and he merely inflicted
a point-blank shot, complete with wound. The giant blew its horn to warn its compatriots
and hurled a boulder, striking Warwick with a wound as well. Warwick shot him down,
but found nothing of interest on the body before the ski patrol hit him 10 segments later.
He
got away.
The giants were alarmed by the flying madman with point-blank bowshots, enough to
cast two Divinations. Since Warwick was wearing the Windsocks, he was a Divination
beacon, and was identified by the giants. Not that they didn't know him already.
Warwick became claustrophobic after bonding with the socks for awhile, and it was
discovered that was a permanent side effect (penalities indoors). Warwick moved his
room on the roof of the Academy building.
After the class of 2185 departed, Warwick decided to head for one of the X spots on his
various treasure maps (claiming it was a third-generation X). An astrology revealed that
"The sign of the Scythe is passing above the sign of the Cornucopia." Warwick didn't
seem to care that death was imminent and formed a party to set out in February 2186,
after training to
7th level under Marriat the ranger. (Warwick rolled a 7 on a d8 and now has 60 hp--
more importantly he has the speed reduction)
So, the party was:
Warwick, 7th level ranger, 60 hp, claustrophobic killer of frost giants
Buck, 5th level fighter, 44 hp, "A Wild man and his ring"
Jean-Luc, 6th level thief/4th level cartographer, 45 hp, backstabbing lawyer
Tristan, 4th level druid, 26 hp, doesn't care much about nature
Lanoi, 3rd level cleric, 16 hp, possessor of the Windsocks
Leon, 2nd level ranger, 28 hp, is a giant eagle but still annoying
Nuangola, 1st level dwarven fighter, 13 hp, crossbow specialist
Moosic, 1st level dwarven fighter, 9 hp, short sword specialist/lasso
(The dwarves were named after small towns in Pennsylvania that Mark and Andy passed
through on the way up. The dwarves were generated in the car.)
So they set off, roughly toward Thorizdun (the X is relatively near there), from
Hoch-och. You may recall, perhaps, that the path to Thorizdun involves going through
the Dim Forest.
Leon flew over the forest and waited for Warwick and Buck to emerge on the other
side. But plans don't always go as planned.
On the second night, with Tristan, Lanoi, and Nuangola on watch, Warwick came to the
sudden realization that perhaps the Windsocks might draw the undead to them, as the 35
ghouls ran at the party.
Lanoi attempted to turn, while Tristan and Nuangola woke people up. Warwick shot
down three ghouls but there were many more to go. Lanoi turned one, but the other 30
or so kept coming. The lions, Warwick, Buck, Nuangola, and Moosic held the line
attempting to keep them away from Lanoi, Tristan, and Jean-Luc as it turned out.
The ghouls then hit the party, leaping through the air. About ten stopped to munch on the
two lions, and five more landed on a paralyzed Warwick. Both dwarves went down as
well. Lanoi, although automatically able to turn
them, managed to drive only a single one away again. Things looked really bad. Buck
was slicing them to ribbons, and Jean-Luc was holding his ground, but otherwise it
collapse everywhere.
Lanoi's third turning attempt and his divine intervention went off at the same time. Twelve
ghouls took off, and in fact all the feasting halted and they hovered out of the light spell
range. Had the divine intervention worked?
Apparently not, since although there was a lull, the creatures were not dispersing. The
party patched up Nuangola and Moosic enough for them to stand. Tristan began casting
Call Lightning.
Warwick recovered, and so did the dwarves. Time passed.
"Ring, can you teleport us out of here?" Buck demanded.
"Well, let me try." Buck grabbed the two dwarves and prepared himself.
They Dimension Doored right into the middle of the ghouls.
Running for their lives, Nuangola got struck by a ghoul, made his saving throw, but was
dropped to zero. Staggering back, taking massive permanent damage, he fell into the
circle still alive. His leg was useless for the moment though.
Getting desperate, the party started a group-prayer session. Jean-Luc, complaining the
entire time, managed to roll an 03 and Nevron reacted. Suddenly, the Ring of Berber
coughed out a potion.
"That hurt! It felt like someone smacked in the back!"
"Should we drink it?" asked Warwick, referring to the potion.
Buck downed it. Suddenly he had control of 16 of 18 ghouls out there. He was suddenly
aware of the 10 wights as well.
He sent the ghouls at the wights, and the ghouls perished, unable to affect their
adversaries.
That was a start, but they still needed help.
Warwick tried to light a fire, but the trees started inching closer suddenly. He put it out.
They stopped.
Every time Buck looked away, they seemed to advance.
"Look, ring. If we don't get out of this, you're never going to jump off of anything, or
party ever again!" Buck yelled.
"Oh all right, maybe this will help." A huge buzzsaw burst out of the ring, mangling
Buck's fingers. The ring started gurgling.
The trees started backing away. Tristan blasted one of the two spectres that had
appeared after a particularly bad (96) divine intervention roll.
Finally, they decided to retreat through a gap in the trees. Fifty feet down, they ran into a
confused cloud giant.
"Mwa hwa. Wha? Doig pengit gid! Moogawa." it said, pointing up. It grabbed
Nuangola and stuffed him in its pack and flew into the air toward a cloud. Apparently it
came into the Dim Wood through a hole in the trees created by Tristan's bolts.
Apparently Lanoi's first attempt at divine intervention had been successful. The cloud
giant just was unable to find them.
The buzzsaw went down suddenly. The ring declared it would never do that again even if
it could, and the trees tried to kill Buck as he levitated out, but couldn't quite finish him
off.
The party was transported via cloud to Hoch-och, where Leon had pronounced them
dead several days earlier. The giant told them to do something a bit easier, like maybe
taking on a single hill giant.
The good news was that while in the cloud Jean-Luc was able to make some decent
maps of the forest and noticed a river running through it.
Hey, no one actually died! Buck's fingers were repaired perfectly, but Nuangola moves
1" slower than before (slight limp).
Hope you enjoyed my commentary!
Joel (and occasionally Leon)