The World of Telvar

Finally we spotted a 3.5' hole in the ground which the beetles were living in. Unfortunately it was far too late for poor Anwvyn, who was lost to the digestive juices of the fungus down there.

We thought about blocking the hole, but then realized that there were at least a dozen such holes and clearly more around. So we simply marched away from that area as fast as possible, cutting our losses.

The next day we surprised a group of five armed men. Some people thought we should parlay.

Darellon assumed they were bandits, and reacted appropriately. With a wild yell Darellon charged straight at one of the archers. He missed, but Drew dropped him as he ran. Grison felled another one with his spear. The third archer was quickly skewered. That left a man in banded mail with a falchion and a man in banded and shield with a short sword. Darellon turned and dropped the falchion man dead in one hit (he was a 2nd level fighter!).

Grison turned to attack the short sword wielder, who swung and dropped Grison to the ground with a single hit. Gulp.

Darellon attacked and missed, while Drew started shooting. Soldan threw a Command spell at him-- to which he responded...

...by laughing. Uh oh. Drew took the hint and switched to silver arrows. Darellon meanwhile took a major hit, but was still standing when the short sword man, clearly a specialist, clocked him again and knocked him to the ground. Darellon's unhittable streak was over.

At that moment the _Entangle_ spell by Quentin went off, trapping the man in the plants. Drew continued pummeling him with arrows. After taking more damage than would have dropped anyone in the party, he started breaking free of the entangling vines. Drew blasted him again, and a startling event occurred-- his banded mail exploded and the man was revealed as a wereboar!

Queasy feeling confirmed.

The wereboar started ripping through the _Entangle_ at a horrifying rate toward the frantic Drew, who continued pumping him full of arrows. While it was clear he was being hurt badly, it was also clear that Drew would not likely kill him before he escaped.

Quentin went into hyper-mode, throwing two more _Entangles_. The first one was resisted, but the second one caught the wereboar and halted him temporarily. Drew shot his last silver arrow, and the wereboar fell over.

Everyone was saved afterwards-- fortunately the Entangle went away fast enough to save the ensnared and unconscious Darellon and Grison.

We divided up the treasure, including some weapons, bows, exploded banded mail, a dwarven battleaxe, and what turned out to be a low magic sword (the short sword the wereboar was using) Hooeee! First magic item! We also found around 100 gp and a gem.

A _Detect Evil_ revealed nothing on any of the weapons we checked, so we hope it isn't cursed.

We returned to town and paid salvage tax (the gem was appraised at 50 gp). We then picked up a new spear for Grison at Falco's. So no one has damaged weaponry.

Darellon kept the falchion, which was slightly substandard but a useful backup. We also kept a few more silvered weapons.

The current party cash went to about 65 gp-- so we are in fine shape now for many weeks.

Then we talked to the Baron, who gave us an official procedure for capturing bandits. We should try to demand their surrender and attack them only if attacked (sigh). We were given armbands to wear identifying us as deputies of the Baron. In exchange we will receive a salvage tax reduction and an occasional reward for exceptional service. Our first priority has become actually capturing some of them.

Grison had the exploded banded mail pieces resized and fit to him-- so he is now in dwarven banded mail. Darellon also scooped up a large shield.

Finally, on a weird note, the dwarf at Falco's (is that Falco himself? I don't remember) said that the ancient dwarven battleaxe was cursed. The markings on it do look threatening-- but it didn't detect as magical, so we were left with faint uneasiness. Judging that nothing cursed happened to Grison later, we think it's ok so far.

While in town we picked up two new party members: Morgan (played by Alan, an elven fighter specialized in long sword), and Ethan (played by Kyle, an ugly human woodsman specialized in... harpoon).

We set out again a few days later. We traveled back to the same area to check on the small cache of stuff we had left behind from lack of carrying room earlier (including the falchion fighter's damaged banded mail). Unfortunately we were caught by surprise by the well-planned 10-bandit ambush that awaited us by the cairn we had erected.

In fact, in a twisted turn, four of the bandits were actually the cairn for the previous bandit group as cover.

Darellon charged that way, followed by the whole party in sequence.

It was a desperate run (reminiscent, perhaps of Gettysburg) as 10 bandits shot at us for over a minute as we charged. But there was one critical difference-- none of us dropped (though Quentin came close).

Grison sprinted ahead at the last minute and ran straight into the long sword specialist waiting for him. Grison swung missed, and was clobbered into the ground. Gulp. Does this seem a tad familiar?

Drew sprinted ahead and shot down one of the archers. One of the two crossbowmen was having major trouble not breaking his quarrels, which was helpful.

Every shot at Darellon was a total failure-- in fact the volleys were fairly pitiful in general.

The fast moving Morgan charged and skewered a bowman as the party advanced.

At last the party closed on top of the long sword man. Ethan and Darellon reached him first. Ethan missed, but Darellon mauled him, holding him at bay. The man then struck back and dropped Ethan to the ground. Darellon called for help, and clocked him again-- still he stood.

In the meantime, the unlucky crossbowman actually managed to shoot and kill one of his own men. Waving his thanks Morgan turned his attention back to Darellon and the long sword man.

Morgan turned and missed the man, who whirled and dropped Morgan. But Darellon would not give up his advantage and slammed him again, dropping him to a stable-zero on the ground. Darellon then turned to look for other targets.

All six bandits remaining broke and ran.

The clerics worked frantically and brought Morgan and Ethan back to health. They let the bandit slip to a state of bleeding unconsciousness before they could help him-- but he survived, albeit delirious. His first response was, "Butterfly." Hmm.

We picked up more gold, weapons, and armor, including what turned out to be a low magic silver ring! Item #2!

We traveled back to town and are about to deal with the salvage tax, having sent the prisoner bandit into the castle for confinement and interrogation.

Overall, an extremely successful game session with one tragic moment. But our party has become extremely specialized-- 2 front line warriors, 2 2nd row warriors, 1 archer, a cleric, and a druid. In the future we may diversify, but for now the bandits will fall beneath our steel.

And now we have two magic items. Of course we can't afford to identify them, but we can probably test out the sword pretty easily. We're not sure about the ring yet.

Thanks to Kyle for joining us this weekend and lending us his wisdom and experience!