The World of Telvar

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan. 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean
Donald, 1st level mage, 7 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)

Well, it's not an exciting session, but it gives a sense of closure on the year's gaming!

At the beginning of the real world year, we were a party of composition fairly similar to the current one-- the druid Quentin, the ranger Drew, the woodsman Darellon, the fighter Grison, the cleric Soldan, and the thief Annwvyn.

We met and sailed off from Teft on March 15, 2172.

Our fighting started early with a bandit encounter a mere 30 minutes outside of Barnacus. In the chaos of the early encounters, the party, still unnamed, developed a style that went down in infamy on the log-- "Stumbling vaguely away from disaster."

The initial plan was to tour the main cities of Lendore and look for stuff to do, since we weren't heavily directed. After a stop-off in Garroten (where the party first met a bunch of the people who were executed), we attempted to tackle the Dead Wood (where the mad wizard Telvar once reigned). This was suggested by the Lord Mayor. We failed miserably and barely escaped with our lives, and Quentin and Drew still bore grudges against her years later.

Then we arrived in Restenford. We liked the Baron, became deputized, and decided to hunt bandits. The party's composition fluctuated wildly.

The first casualty was not to a bandit attack, but by a natural creature. In April 2172, Annwyvn was grabbed and killed in his sleep and eaten by fungus beetles while the party was unable to stop it.

Later, we killed a wereboar and a bandit group and gained our first magic item, a short sword+1/ +2 vs. metal armored opponents.

Morgan and Ethan joined the party shortly thereafter.

In May 2172, the party was still subsisting but had virtually no money. Then we hit gold, in a tragic but climactic bandit encounter in which Grison, Soldan, and the woodsman Ethan were killed. The bandit group was trashed, and lots of money and some magic items were recovered.

The party had it's first downtime, and found new members. Felix the fighter and Celeste the cleric joined to replace the fallen, but our luck did not hold. We were ambushed by ogres in the night, Darellon and Celeste fell, and the rest of the party barely survived, though Morgan was of course uninjured. Worse still, the magic short sword was lost to a trio of bandits.

Having recovered in August 2172, we decided that further expeditions so unplanned would be disastrous, so we took a trip down to Benct to complete our tour. On the way we were nearly assassinated by the remnants of the vanquished bandit group, but survived. In Benct, we learned of several quests, including a haunted room in an inn. We picked up Tyveris the cleric and Gaston the fighter.

We then trained our first people to second level-- Quentin and Morgan.

Unsure of what to do next, help came to us. The Petethalian navy contacted the Baron and we took a mission to clear an isle with a remnant of the cult of Hindus, god of thieves. We trashed some skeletons, but were overwhelmed and forced to return the next year.

In March of 2173, we set off again, and this time we passed the skeletons on the beach, only to be captured by the cultists. However, we escaped with the help of one of the stranded people. We then returned, and with another defector's help, managed to take down everyone, and captured six of ten people.

This was a significant financial boon for us, and we trained Drew, Felix and Tyveris to 2nd level as well. Unfortunately, Gaston was injured badly enough that he stopped adventuring and went to work for the Baron as a dog trainer.

Somewhere in here the party gained a name: The Restenford Defenders.

In May 2173, the mage/thief Colin joined the party. Yet another indecisive foray into the wilderness resulted in disaster-- major permanent damage for both Morgan and Colin. This took Colin out of adventuring permanently, and left Morgan weakened for quite a while.

During the summer of 2173, the party returned to Benct and decided to tackle the haunted room at the inn. They picked up a specialist (scout) Perry, and investigated the room. Eventually, enough information was gained to make a reasonable hypothesis-- the room was haunted, but there was also a mortal here, searching for something, and using the three portals as access to the room for mintues at a time.

We captured the intruder, Zune Quog, an evil cleric. He was sent to the Petethalian navy as a pirate, but we were still curious about the room. A series of disasters coerced us into hopping through the portal ourselves, and we found ourselves on Moon Isle atoll.

Morgan was paralyzed and captured, and the party could only save him, and themselves, by killing Brinea, a hideous sea hag. Despite all odds, the party dodged a tribe of headhunters, a hideous tentacled sea monster "The Lurker in the Shallows" and a bunch of harpies and, incredibly, took down the sea hag despite being badly outclassed. In the encounter, the entire party was killed.

Morgan was rescued by the Hand of Fate, a Nevronian party, and the rest of the party was Raised, except for Tyveris who proved unwilling to return to life. There was massive training, and the party leaped toward 4th level.

Next, the party picked up two new members, the fighter Balinor, and the cleric Cassian, and then finished what it had begun on Abbey Isle. The ruins were cleared, the treasure retrieved, and the Defenders regained stable financial ground.

In October of 2174, the party then did a quest for the druid Almax, clearing out some troublesome burrow worms, and enjoying acid sprays, as well as a bizarre encounter with some ogre chieftain.

Finally in December 2174, the Defenders decided to help out another party, the Lightning, which had suffered massive casualties in several previous adventures. Together, the party took down a halfling bandit group and destroyed two wraiths. When the party tried to clear the place, they discovered a temple of evil below and left it alone.

Upon returning to Restenford with lots of loot, the party continued to train. During this time we performed several counter-espionage missions, particularly worried about the bait shop owner. While the bait shop owner was in fact a spy for the Duke of Benct, this had nothing to do with assassination of Baron Grellus a few days later, on February 24th, 2175.

With Restenford in serious trouble, and enemies everywhere, the Defenders went to Garroten to sort things out. Dodging a bandit group along the way, the Defenders pressed into frightening territory-- the Garroten assassins' guild. Despite everything, the Defenders uncovered that the Baron's body was in the castle of the Lord Mayor of Garroten.

In one incredible night in early March, all but one of the assassins were caught and killed, and the Defenders and allies performed a bold and entirely successful assault on the castle, rescuing the Baron. A series of executions took down the leadership of the town, and many of the spoils went to the Defenders.

However, Sean is graduating and will not be returning to play. So Perry will remain under temporary control of Alan until the beginning of next year. The summer games will feature myself, Alan, Katherine, and Jeremy, and perhaps some new players, continuing the Defenders' adventures.

So next year, we will still have Balinor, Felix, Morgan, Quentin, but we will need replacements for Cassian, Perry, and Drew. We have managed to get most of Drew's abilities in other party members, though our ranged attack power is not impressive. We will need a new cleric of healing and spell support, and a new thief as well.

How this is resolved will be decided over the summer. I imagine there will probably be some trial period to get the new characters up a few levels, and then the higher level people will leave...

Financially, we are ok, but doing some quests would be nice. There are several options on the table, including an investigation of the ruins in the forest north of Trun (bandit territory). Also there is an area in the Khargish lands to explore.

There is Skull Mountain, near Barnacus, for treasure. Off Lendore, there are two possibilities-- help the Petethalian navy as special marines, like on Abbey Isle, or follow one of the Baron's treasure maps for a finders' fee of 25%.

There are several easier adventurers, like clearing out some bandits, that we can hold in reserve and use to get the new low level people up at the beginning of next year.

We currently have 27 magic items, 16 of which are permanent. These include:

1. Bracers AC 6/10 x2
2. Bracers AC 7/7
3. Ring +1 x2
4. Cloak of Protection +2
5. Chain Mail +2
6. Short Sword +1
7. Hammer +1
8. Chain of the Warlord
9. Tuning Fork
10. Dagger +1/ +3 vs. demihumans
11. Ring of Featherfalling
12. Rod of Thorns
13. Shield of the Wyrm
14. Wand of Paralysis
15. Potion of Flying
16. Half a Potion of Flying
17. Potion of Climbing
18. Potion of Extra-Healing
19. Potion of Gaseous Form
20. Potion of Invisibility
21. About 5 clerical scrolls, including a 12th level Raise Dead
22. A few low power wizard scrolls

We are currently owed about 5000 gp by the Baron, have about 1500 gp credit for goods and services in Barnacus, 3000 gp in training credit, and about 2000 gp in cash. The Defenders own a decent sized house in Restenford, with increasingly better furniture and a number of rooms. It has weird little Continual Light statuettes lighting the place. Gaston still lives there when the Defenders are gone.

Onward to the summer!

Joel/Balinor

Posted by Joel Green at 02:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee (Kyle this game)
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel Green
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan Turnquist
Cassian, 4th level cleric of Phaulkon, 27 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy Schichor
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Donald Collins, 1st level mage, 7 hp, NPC

The Restenford group: (all NPCs)

Gristla, 4th level mage (Peltar's student)
Colemac, mid-level fighter
Halco, human woodsman
Prellis, half-elf fighter

Also joining us:

Martin, high level ranger, successor to Probar, freedom fighter

We had last left our sneaky party near the room with the dragon head and magic doors in it.

We decided that we not yet checked out the entire castle and crossed to the other side of the gatehouse, hoping to eliminate everyone in the keep, then take the walls and finally the blockhouse, which presumably contains a number of barracked soldiers.

Unfortunately, one man spotted us opening a trap door leading down and managed to get off a yell before Colemac shot him to pieces with a really cool crossbow-- blue bolts and auto-recharge.

In addition, we stuffed all the warning bells so that they would be hard to ring. The yell apparently did not actually attract any notice, which was quite fortunate, since a guard dog wandered by at the moment.

In addition we knocked out two more men in the shrine to Kord, who were sitting there praying, with help from a Sleep spell from Gristla.

We continued exploring and discovered another magically locked door on the second floor. This would lead into the area of the second level we had not yet reached, and so Quentin Stoneshaped it open-- fortunately there was no one to hear or see it on the other side. There were several comfy chairs and a coffee table. We restrained Morgan from lying down.

We searched one of the walls for secret doors, but found nothing.

This room also ended in another magically locked door, and we had no way to get through it, so we decided to head for the one place we hadn't explored fully.

We noted earlier that there was a light on the top of the central tower in the keep, on the fourth floor. This is above the dragon head room, which we think is the Lord Mayor's bedroom.

Felix climbed up the ladder to the trap door, and opened it, Balinor following close behind.

Felix was slammed in the back by a zombie. On the zombie's neck was a ringing bell.

Uh oh.

Felix sliced up the zombie, but at the moment Balinor had gotten up, the trap door opened, and there was a tinkling sound.

Gristla threw her other Sleep spell on the top floor of the tower, hoping to hit anyone there.

A moment later, the area blew up.

Balinor and Felix both managed to save, but took some damage. Perry got slammed and nearly fell off the ladder, but survived. The fireball roared down and damaged almost everyone in the group.

Colemac pushed ahead and started climbing up to help, while Goodberries were being downed by Felix. The relatively uninjured Balinor charged up the ladder and smashed open the trapdoor.

Then he fell asleep from a spell, and fell down off the ladder and back onto the floor. The jarring woke him up. Fortunately, he didn't fall onto Colemac...

Felix got up and charged up again, getting desperate. Drew was pushing his way up as well, and the still invisible Perry was also climbing. In addition, Cassian got up to the third floor sometime during the combat.

The fireball had, of course, completely fried the zombie.

Felix scrambled up the ladder, and smashed open the trapdoor again. Suddenly, an axe was buried in his back, and he took major damage and a wound. Felix pulled himself out of the ladder anyway and looked around.

There was a man with an axe, the captain of the guard, who was still recovering. And then there was the female wizard in the corner, who we quickly realized was the Lord Mayor of Garroten. There was a telescope set up, and apparently they had been doing an astrology reading.

Felix staggered toward her, while downing a healing potion. As he was doing this, the Lord Mayor lobbed another grenade by him, which dropped down the ladder and blasted the people below.

Unfortuantely, in the middle of the action Felix was dropped by his wound.

At this point, Balinor crested the ladder, and missed the captain. Colemac managed to get up and shot the captain for some damage, but he was quite durable.

The Lord Mayor then Magic Missiled Balinor and Colemac, dropping Colemac onto the ground. Balinor was still fine, but it was looking bad.

Then Cassian managed to blind the captain with a Light spell, and Balinor turned and charged at the Lord Mayor. He ran at her and hit her once with a hammer blow, and Morgan came up the ladder to help save Colemac and Felix.

Balinor pressed in close, spitting out "Surrender, you idiots," but the Lord Mayor was able to get off a Shrink spell, turning Balinor into a 3 1/2 foot tall angry Northerner.

Morgan then turned and dropped the captain with another hit.

Abruptly, the Lord Mayor surrendered. She made a few threats about how we would be responsible to the Duke of Barnacus for this and yadda yadda. Balinor BARELY resisted the impulse to kill her, and threatened her in a high squeaky voice.

Colemac and Felix were saved by Goodberries and healing potions.

Balinor turned and managed to save the captain, who was brought to stable consciousness.

Colemac suggested then that we "get down!" before we all got shot by the fifteen people streaming out of the blockhouse down below. Uggh.

Fortunately, Quentin threw a nasty Entangle on them that caught almost all of them as the guards crossed the courtyard, and they surrendered in droves.

Next, we used ESP and interrogation by a disembodied voice (invisible Perry) to discover from Sangster (who was among the surrendering people) that the "Boss" of the assassins' guild was in fact the Lord Mayor's advisor cleric, Tellish. He turned out to be a very high-level half-orc Cleric of Kord/ Assassin. He was supposed to be back sometime that day.

Even Sangster didn't know that the assassins' guild had been contracted to kill the Baron.

Balmoro was able to catch the one assassin who escaped over the wall, some gnome pretending to be a kid (gee, why doesn't he and the fake gnome compare notes or something). In addition, there was a tough fight to capture the dwarf weaponsmith, who was selling unmarked weapons to them. After the dwarf had been shot repeatedly, and stabbed by both Felix and Morgan (and Perry had disarmed the sound trap on the back door), he said "Damn," and threw down his weapon.

It was an ugly fight, and Felix took permanent damage (1 comeliness point) when he was knocked down for the SECOND time that day.

After an hour, Balinor grew back to normal height and was willing to show his face again.

Horifyingly, we discovered from the Captain (I think) that Qualton, the Abbot of the PHAULKONIAN church in Restenford, contracted the assassinations.

This was VERY bad, especially since he had just married the Baron's daughter the day before.

News filtered in from Martin the druid (not the ranger, they're different) that the Baroness (his wife) had just been assassinated!

Oh boy.

Hopefully something could be done soon. But first we needed Tellish the assassin.

So we set Drew and Colemac up as "guards" so that Tellish wouldn't be suspicious upon his noon arrival. (By the way, Tellish had been out assassinating the Baroness, which explains a lot-- he did both assassinations)

Tellish snuck up to the secret door, and opened it to find a grinning Balinor waiting for him, with Morgan and Prellis as well, protected by a Silence spell from Cassian. In addition, Cassian had held a Hold Person for this moment, and released it. Amazingly, the cleric froze and Balinor simply knocked him out.

That was a roaring success.

We questioned the cleric and the captain. Oddly enough, the Lord Mayor appeared to have no thoughts, or alignment, or anything else. We got suspicious that she was using some kind of item to protect her, but there was nothing we could do.

Fortunately, the cleric of Kord revealed (through ESP) that the Baron's body was stored in a secret closet in the room we had SEARCHED FOR SECRETS DOORS IN. On the wrong wall; d'oh!

We had the Lord Mayor open the door, and sure enough, there was Baron Grellus!

Amazingly, Harper the high cleric of Osprem had actually randomly taken Raise Dead, and the Baron was brought back to life. He took command, and sent Colemac, Prellis, and Halco to Barnacus for help from Duke Haermond.

Meanwhile, Relkin and some guards rushed the Baroness' body over to Garroten for Raising. In addition, it was reported that Qualton (the Phaulkonian abbot) had blown his head off with his own crossbow of disruption. It wasn't pretty.

The Baroness was Raised successfully, and was brought to the castle of Garroten until Duke Haermond's son, Commander Haermond, arrived.

After everything was sorted out (we'll actually do the grisly details next week), the Defenders were heroes and gained about 15 magic items, more than half permanent.

Unfortunately, the one person Colemac shot was actually a Barnacus soldier sent to help with the bandit problem. 500 gp was given to his family. Generally though, Haermond was quite pleased that we had avoided bloodshed.

Here's what happened to the people involved:

Fake gnome, and dog trainer-- low ranking assassins who reported to Captain Bazmar, and were killed in the inn.

Captain Bazmar-- reported to Sangster, a patrol leader for Garroten, and a very powerful assassin. He was killed in the inn.

Sangster-- high ranking assassin, knew the boss Tellish, and was in the castle when we captured it. He was hanged in Barnacus.

Tellish-- leader of the guild, priest of Kord and assassin. He was captured by us, then hanged.

Captain of the guard-- hanged.

Fake boy/ gnome-- captured by Balmoro. Officially, Balmoro was never there, and the boy was not charmed. Unofficially, the boy was sent to Barnacus for prison, along with all the disgruntled former bandit orc guards.

The bandits, it turns out, were hired by Garroten specifically to shoot our horses.

The other assassins in the castle were hanged as well.

The dwarf weaponsmith was given a slap on the wrist and told he could leave or be watched forever. He opted to remain in Garroten for now. He doesn't like us.

There was a gardener in the temple of Osprem who turned out to be the second highest ranking assassin, an old guy from an old generation. He had semiretired and was just sort of a spy. He vanished without a trace, and his whereabouts are unknown. We believe that he is the ONLY assassin who escaped the carnage.

There were a number of people in the castle who knew what was going on and helped cover it up. They were all hanged. The hanging toll came to eleven, I believe.

The other underlings such as some clerics of Kord and an apprentice or two were simply told to leave. They were not happy.

The Lord Mayor played innocent for as long as possible. Though it was clear she knew about this whole thing, she was instead going to be exiled, especially since they couldn't actually detect anything in her mind. She did her best to hurry the proceedings along, but failed.

That is, until about a week later the effect of her crown wore off and suddenly they could read her mind.

Hanged.

The saddest case of all was that of Qualton, the abbot. He had apparently once been quite good, but in 2148 he attempted to destroy a magic item and it corrupted him in some way. The item was gone, but he was scheming to take over the world. During his lucid moments, he was still good, but he was conniving at other times.

He waited until the bardic census of 2175, and then implemented his "plan." Qualton paid Tellish to assassinate the Baron (done using a cloak of Etherealness to get through the walls). Then he married the Baron's daughter, and had the Baroness killed. Using church funds, he hired the assassins, and when his plans fell apart, he finally committed suicide, just before the authorities in Restenford came for him.

Tellish was in fact grilling the Baron for information on his treasure, and it was at least partially discovered. Apparently the Baroness had something to do with it as well.

Now for the treasure:

We got 5000 gp in training credit from Haermond, and 5000 gp in delayed cash payment. We also returned the money taken by Tellish to the Phaulkonian church.

Cassian is interested in helping out (since she is the highest level Phaulkonian in the area now) until someone else is assigned as abbot. Since there's about to be a big downtime, that can certainly happen!

Certainly Balinor and Donald gain a level here, and perhaps other people. Donald will likely head to train with Wicker, and if Cassian trains, it will have to be in Teft.

Peltar was given the Lord Mayor's spellbooks! Donald gained the rights to copy one first, second, and third level spell.

In any case, magic items gained:

1. Ring +1 (Morgan)
2. Bracers AC 6/10, Bracers AC 7/7 (traded in Quentin's leather armor +1) (Donald and Quentin)
3. Cloak of Protection +2 (Quentin)
4. Chain Mail +2 (Cassian)
5. Ring of Featherfalling (Cassian)
6. Potion of Invisibility (Perry)
7. Wand of Paralysis (Donald)
8. Potion of Extra-Healing
9. Two wizard scrolls, one with Web on it for Donald (no spells above 2nd level)
10. Some clerical scrolls (was there a major spell on any of these?)
11. Short sword +1 (Felix)
12. Dagger +1/+3 vs. demihumans (traded in dagger +1) (Perry)

There was an intelligent longsword, but unfortunately it was Lawful Neutral and not interested in Morgan.

There were a whopping TWO MORE evil daggers (that makes three for us).

In addition there were a whole lot of other items (some +2 weapons, etc.) that were reserved for the NEXT ruler of Garroten.

Something still has to be done about this magical killer statue/golem of Kord in the front of the castle. In addition, sorry about the door!

We get to resolve juicy details like XP and more specifics next week, but the Defenders have firmly settled into the mid-levels, and gained fame and favor to boot!

A massively successful adventure, and a fine game! Thanks for the challenge, Edwin!

Joel/Balinor
Log Supplement X: Other Details

A couple of corrections:

Martin was the one who shot the captain, not Colemac-- a masterful composite longbow shot that allowed Morgan to take him down.

Balinor was in fact nailed from behind by the captain while he was attacking the Lord Mayor-- this dropped him almost unconscious and with a wound. He downed a healing potion to remain upright (though small).

The fake kid / gnome was extradited to the Gnomish Kingdoms where he is wanted for various crimes. He apparently came to Lendore to "lay low" for awhile....

Joel (and Kyle)

Posted by Joel Green at 02:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I must admit that a mischievous streak hit the collection of people
at the game. While a devastating fight between the evil Borglyn and the
forces of good made good copy, the reality was a bit different

Party Roster:

Konrad, 10th level paladin, 94 hp, played by Rodger
Tanique, 7th level fighter, 71 hp, played by Kathryn Klawiter
Ceydric, 8th level cavalier, 65 hp, played by Joel Green
Warwick, 7th level ranger, 60 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Klogwort, greater orc, 54 hp, played by Rhonda Jones
Xavier, 8th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Ludo, 9th level thief, 43 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Eli, 9th level mage, 39 hp, played by Zack Hubert
Tarplin, 8th level druid/ 5th level mage, 29 hp, played by Alan Jones
Fred, 7th level monk, played by David Chappell
Risha, 7th level cleric, 23 hp, played by Kyle MacLea

Our party, composed of members from the Duchy of Estwurl in the Southern
Waste and Dunadorian knights, from the Cromwellian Academy Teams, from the
disbanded Stone Soules, and from other sources familiar to the other stalwart
adventurers, gathered in Dunthrane City in 2187. (There was some interesting
updating done on many of the characters.)

(Sahrak remained with his traveling circus so that it would remain intact
and his henchmen wouldn't desert him, and realizes that his adventuring
career, at least for the moment, is over.)

The party then performed a Divination, Astrology, and Commune. The
Divination resulted in knowledge of a moderate force of Lawful Evil, and
a slumbering but very powerful supernatural force of Neutral Evil. There
was "subjective" treasure. The influence of the nine dark moons,
representing unstable or unknown magic, was undeniable. Our lucky number
was 5 and our unlucky number 162. The color gray was important.

A Commune spell revealed that Borglyn KNEW WE WERE COMING, the mission
did not have a "reasonable chance of success." It was shown that Borglyn
did have a magical means of escape, and that the chances of angering the
forces of Neutral Evil were "moderate." There were thoughts that the
Neutral Evil represented a slumbering or contained evil, possibly undead
or from the Outer Planes.

All in all, it was a depressing result. Somewhat dispirited, but not put
off, the party decided to proceed anyway.

Since surprise through the front was impossible, it was hoped that the
Stone Giant druid would provide us with help of some kind, or at least an
alternate way in. The party decided to march off the road, without
stopping at Fort Halfred or Northford, and would look for the Stone Giant
druid in the region.

After several days, Tarplin tried to contact the druid. He did so, and
we discovered that the druid had not even lived in Borglyn's valley
originally, and so was rather uninterested in the whole business. He
wished to remain uninvolved in our mission. He warned us that there were
an immense number of undead in the valley and that a night attack would
almost certainly prove fatal. However, he noted that Borglyn might not
know we were coming. The druid informed us that Borglyn's means of
magical escape was a candle that when lit would transport him elsewhere,
to someplace unknown to the druid, presumably connected with the ancient
ruins. He told us that there was in fact a back entrance, but that it
was quite difficult to reach.

We had been sleeping in Leomund's Secure Shelters due to Eli, when we
heard a knock at the door. An old man was there, and he sold Eli a
couple of brushes (Eli was wearing the Robe of Grime) and told us
"information." For 1500 gp, he told us that Borglyn expected us and
hoped to avert hostilities. He indicated that he was a Sphinx named
Bartass, and had been hired by Borglyn as a diplomat. When we initially
ignored the request, we discovered that the Sphinx could read minds and
would surely be reporting everything we knew to Borglyn, for money of course.

Realizing that our situation was grim, we continued to march and reached
the edge of the valley. Our one hope was to use the back door, but
unfortunately the task proved impossible. The winds were too heavy, but
even with our plan, the ash would prove fatal to any remaining in it for
too long.

Borglyn sent back a message through the Sphinx, ordering us off his land,
and hoping to repair whatever grievance we felt toward him. Chono
indicated that he wished to remain uninvolved and stay in the place
regardless of what happened. The undead would NOT be cleared.
Furthermore, we could take up the issue with the cloud giant embassy in
Hochland, a distant city-state north of the Realmish coast. Obviously he
figured this would delay us.

With some slick maneuvering and Konrad's influence and Eli's spells, a
response from the cloud giant embassy was gained in six days! They
ordered Borglyn either to stand trial with the cloud giants or accept
exile from their lands. Borglyn chose exile, and then challenged Ceydric
to a duel for determination of further rights, insulting him in addition.

If Ceydric won the duel Borglyn would stand trial for his crimes in
Dunador (and lose, most likely). If Borglyn won, all past injuries and
grievances would be forgotten on both sides.

Ceydric nominated Konrad as his champion, choosing to ignore the insults
from Borglyn, and maintained his honor. There was some brief
contemplation of Fred the monk challenging Borglyn through cloud giant
rules (unarmed combat-would have been interesting), but the idea of Fred
trying to stun the 20 foot tall giant was a bit much for us. When we
pushed on the issue of the undead and Chono's occupation of Borglyn's
place, something interesting came out. Chono angrily insisted that he
remain in control since he had been expelled from ELVEN society already,
and was hunted for his powers. In his current form, he would be dead in
sixty years and would turn over his lands at that time.

With little choice, the party agreed. Konrad met Borglyn in his lair,
and they fought honorably. Chono was noticed by Ludo, hanging invisibly
over the combat.

The problem of reach was a great one for Konrad. Rather than use his
scimitar, he drew out a very powerful lance and fought the 21 foot tall
cloud giant from a distance. However, Borglyn used a marginally LONGER
weapon and thus was still able to hold the paladin at bay. Konrad got in
the initial swings, doing plenty of damage, but then Borglyn seemed to
gain in confidence. Borglyn slammed Konrad six consecutive times and
forced the paladin to yield grudgingly. Borglyn indicated his great
respect for the paladin, after throwing a further veiled insult at
Ceydric, and the party received some money for its trouble, and was
forced to leave by the agreement.

Warwick had a gleam in his eyes, but for the moment the mission was
dead. It wasn't a complete failure, but it was an unfortunate end to the
mission. However, honor was preserved!

Of course, the Sphinx came out reasonably well, and hoped that no ill
will was borne toward him. It should be noted that no one ever detected
Bartass scanning them, so perhaps he did not do so.

Joel/ Ceydric

(With assistance from: Jack, Kyle, and Zack.)

Posted by Joel Green at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"There are games which are so awesome you simply have to share.
And then there are games like this one."

Giants, Ogres, and So Much More!

Party Roster:

Konrad, 10th level paladin, 94 hp, played by Rodger Henson
Tanique, 7th level fighter, 71 hp, played by Kathryn Klawiter
Ceydric, 8th level cavalier, 65 hp, played by Joel Green
Warwick, 7th level ranger, 60 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Klogwort, greater orc, 54 hp, played by Rhonda Jones
Xavier, 8th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Ludo, 9th level thief, 43 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Eli, 9th level mage, 39 hp, played by Zack Hubert
Tarplin, 8th level druid/ 5th level mage, 29 hp, played by Alan Jones
Fred, 7th level monk, played by David Chappell
Risha, 7th level cleric, 23 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Sahrak, 5th level illusionist/ 6th level thief, 21 hp, NPC

Our party, composed of members from the Duchy of Estwurl in the Southern
Waste and Dunadorian knights, from the Cromwellian Academy Teams, from the
disbanded Stone Soules, and from other sources familiar to the other stalwart
adventurers, gathered in Dunthrane City in 2187. (There was some interesting
updating done on many of the characters.)

The party then performed a Divination, Astrology, and Commune. The
Divination resulted in knowledge of a moderate force of Lawful Evil, and
a slumbering but very powerful supernatural force of Neutral Evil. There
was "subjective" treasure. The Astrology revealed the sign of the
Wanderer heading toward the sign of the Cornucopia, but was intersected
by the sign of the Four Brothers before the Four Brothers entered the
sign of the Void. The influence of the nine dark moons, representing
unstable or unknown magic, was undeniable.

A Commune spell revealed that although Borglyn did not know we were
coming, the mission did not have a "reasonable chance of success." It
was shown that Borglyn did have a magical means of escape, and that the
chances of angering the forces of Neutral Evil were "moderate." There
were thoughts that the Neutral Evil represented a slumbering or contained
evil, possibly undead or from the Outer Planes.

Despite this, the party decided that if Borglyn could be caught by
surprise in his lair, it was possible that we could win the day. The
party decided to march off the road, without stopping at Fort Halfred or
Northford, and would look for the Stone Giant druid in the region.

After several days, Tarplin tried to contact the druid. He did so, and
we discovered that the druid had lived in Borglyn's valley originally,
but had been driven out. He wished to remain uninvolved in our mission.
He warned us that there were an immense number of undead in the valley
and that a night attack would almost certainly prove fatal. However, he
noted that Borglyn might not know we were coming. The druid informed us
that
Borglyn's means of magical escape was a candle that when lit would
transport him elsewhere, to someplace unknown to the druid, presumably
connected with the ancient ruins.

We had been sleeping in Leomund's Secure Shelters due to Eli, when we
heard a knock at the door. An old man was there, and he sold Eli a
couple of brushes (Eli was wearing the Robe of Grime) and told us
"information." For 1500 gp, he told us of a secret back door entrance
that would be quite difficult to reach. There was an area that was
constantly full of ash, but if we could get someone over the mountain,
and near line of sight, Eli could Teleport there without much trouble and
the party could be transported to the back. The man revealed that in
fact he was the local Sphinx, named Bartass, and he was willing to help
us reclaim the valley by telling us how to get through the back door.

So, with Warwick walking over the mountain on air, Eli Flying, and Leon
the giant eagle leading the way, the group was successfully transported
over to a safe point on the other side. Risha remained there as backup
for the party should they return in need of healing. With rags dipped in
water created by Konrad, the party moved through the ash and reached the
back door. (Though we wasted a lot of time discussing a plan involving
elaborate zip lines to reach the door, the low-tech version was
eventually favored. The Sphinx had told us how to bypass some sort of
keycode-like thing, and the door opened.

Warwick remained flying outside and scouted the area, looking for other
possible escape routes.

We moved down the long corridor, and noted a room to our right that held
in it what we suspected was the transport candle. The room was dark and
haunting, with a huge ash-gray candle dominating the center of the room
and a rather defensible position at its entrance. Tanique remained
behind to guard the passage in case Borglyn should escape that way.

After much time spent carefully scouting the corridor (mainly through
Xavier's Find Traps) we emerged into a large cavernous room that the
former Soules recognized from their last visit to the lair. Then we
spotted Borglyn up ahead, eating at a large table. He was about 20 feet
tall and had a sword and a baton, as well as some nice armor on.

Though members of the party favored negotiation with evil giant, the
paladin and knight would not be dissuaded from their righteous course.
With a yell of challenge, Ceydric and Konrad led the charge toward the
cloud giant. Sahrak had cast Dispel Exhaustion on them, and they moved
quickly. Xavier began a Prayer spell. Borglyn rose to meet the knights,
when disaster struck from another quarter.

Chono, hiding invisibly in a nearby corridor, appeared and fired the
dreaded wand. Weirdly colored things shot out, striking the back half of
the party. Tarplin was saved by Klogwort, who took huge damage and
rotting wounds by jumping in front of his friend. Xavier was also
struck, but got away lightly, the weird green and blue shapes being
somehow largely averted by his armor. Fred was unaffected. However, the
unfortunate Sahrak was not so lucky. While he stared in terror, his head
turned a bizarre color, and then literally melted off his shoulders,
hardly recognizable. Though Xavier rushed to his side, there was nothing
that he could do and so the cleric turned sadly to vengeance.

Finally, the rest of Borglyn's minions jumped from hiding. A giant
baboon emerged from one of the other corridors leading into the room and
jumped at Ludo, who was carried off by its momentum. Apparently Borglyn
had restocked his pets!

Meanwhile, back at the candle transporter, Tanique felt a slight rush of
wind from the corridor leading toward the back entrance. Before she
could think or react, she inhaled some sort of Sleep gas effect and
collapsed. There was a rush of feathers and a startled gasp, but the
rest of party never heard or saw what happened.

Tarplin began to heal himself and Klogwort. Xavier's Prayer had been
disrupted by the wand's damage and possibly by the evil ground, so he
tried Command spells, but they didn't seem to work on the giant.

Borglyn swung his baton at Konrad, which had an incredible effect: when
it hit, a dramatic spray of lightning shot from the baton and engulfed
Konrad. But Borglyn had not anticipated the paladin's resistance.
Instead, the effect was repelled, but had no effect on Borglyn either.
Ceydric struck with Scythe, and hurt the giant.

There was a bizarre rumbling sound from down the hall, but no one was
really able to pay any attention to it. Tarplin looked concerned.

No one wanted to see what happened when Chono fired the wand again.
Seizing the moment, Fred raced at Chono and with a swipe of his hands,
grabbed the wand! The ogre realized it was in trouble, and ran down the
corridor with Fred, Klogwort, and Tarplin in hot pursuit.

Konrad and Ceydric slammed Borglyn for major damage, and he realized he
was in serious danger. He activated some sort of item, and it Teleported
Ceydric, Konrad, and Borglyn out of the combat.

The rest of the party wasn't sure what to do, but then it heard the cries
from the down the hall where Ludo had vanished with the giant baboon and
Tanique was standing guard.

Meanwhile, Ludo had been smashed some distance down the corridor by the
baboon, but when it caught up and tried to slam him against the wall, he
slipped free thanks to the ring of free action. Quickly, Ludo downed a
Potion of Firebreathing, searing the creature at close range for a lot of
damage!

Suddenly, there was a horrible cracking sound, and a large section of
floor swung up, crushing the baboon against the wall. Ludo deftly
avoided the sliding stone and glanced down, seeing a room of some sort.
He tried to stir Tanique, and then he went down to investigate while the
groggy fighter stood up.

It was a circular room, with weird shadows flickering and rather
well-done but horrifying paintings of ghastly things being done to
humanoids. Perhaps this was the subjective treasure?

There was also a sarcophagus in the center of the room, with the lid open
and slid down toward the door. Ludo and Tanique moved forward, and
looked over the edge of the rail around the sarcophagus

They had an instant where they noticed two things. First, the body of
Sphinx Bartass lay on the floor on the other side, apparently drained of
life. Then they noticed the skeletal creature skulking on the other side.

It noticed them as well.

Some sort of very powerful magical effect hit the pair. Ludo was saved
by Thurmond's resistance, but the unfortunate Tanique fell over clutching
her throat with one terrible scream, apparently dead. Ludo ran back up
for help.

It was unnecessary, as everyone had heard Tanique's death scream. The
party moved down the corridor and spotted the creature emerging from the
room. It was identified as a lich by the sweating Eli.

This was looking quite bad.

Ludo came running back, while Xavier began an Implore. Eli faced off
against the hideous undead creature. The thing threw a Magic Missile
battery of TEN missiles at Eli, but thanks to his Brooch of Shielding he
was unaffected. Eli fired back an Ara's Aura spell, choosing Fire and
seemingly injuring the creature. Then the lich retorted, using a Power
Word Blind spell against Xavier, whose Implore failed due to the
dampening effect of the evil ground.

Xavier hurled Beads of Force at the lich, which forced it to dispel the
force cube, gaining precious seconds. Then Xavier pulled out the Wand of
Wonder. He pointed it at the creature and hoped and a line of songbirds
flew straight out of Xavier's mouth! They dropped weird berries on Ludo,
Xavier, Eli, and Tarplin, healing each of them of some of their wounds!
The lich was unaffected.

The lich dispelled the Force, but Xavier fired one more time. This time,
red bolts of force struck the lich, though it was not apparent whether it
had any effect.

Then a huge lightning bolt erupted from the lich, which streaked down the
corridor. Xavier was killed instantly. Ludo was hurt but alive, Fred
dodged the effect completely, and Tarplin was protected by his spells.

Eli threw up his newly acquired Fire Shield, and was immolated in
purplish flames, dancing off his robes and lighting the corridor in a
bizarre mixture of gloom and fire.

Eli cast a Blowtorch spell and closed with deadly creature. The lich
used some sort of Blink effect and moved down the hall. The party
charged, but it gave the lich time to release some sort of Time Stop
effect, which caught the hapless Tarplin. The lich then attempted some
kind of Soul Capture attack, but it failed against Eli's resistances.

Finally the lich got through Eli's defenses and struck him for massive
physical damage. Although the lich was hammered by his own damage
(thanks to the Fire Shield) he pummeled the elven wizard to the ground,
killing him instantly.

Without hesitation, Fred handed the wand to Ludo and charged the
monster. Fred began an open-hand attack routine, realizing that he was
the only one left who could affect the lich. Amazingly, it worked, and
his punches seemed to have an effect. However, for each attack, he
needed to resist an energy drain! Fred was losing levels, but was
desperate to kill the creature. Though he wished to destroy the creature
with his weapons, it appeared that only the open-hand attack had any effect.

Finally, Ludo figured out how to fire the wand (after several misfires)
and the weird multi-colored hues hit the lich, turning its skull an odd
color. Fred's fist then smashed the skull, and it shattered! But Fred
had fallen to 1st level (at least temporarily)!

Meanwhile, Chono had emerged through a secret door in the side of the
building, but ran into the waiting Warwick. The ranger fired and the
ogre was struck for tremendous damage, but didn't fall. He took to the
air and closed with Warwick, smashing him with a large sword.
Unfortunately, Warwick couldn't get away from the ogre and was forced to
swing his sword to save himself. The ogre hit Warwick three times for
huge damage (and one wound). Warwick finally connected and sent the ogre
reeling. Realizing they were both in trouble, Warwick downed a healing
potion and swung at the ogre. Both of them connected, and Warwick fell
from the sky and hit the ground unconscious, but the wound was gone
thanks to the potion. The ogre was dead. From her safe place in the
Ashmire, Risha saw the fall and ran to help.

In other news, Konrad and Ceydric emerged in the candle room disoriented,
while Borglyn lit the candle (with a token or something? It was awfully
quick). A black gate appeared in the far wall, which Borglyn ducked
through and the knights followed. They emerged in an old ruin, sightning
a fleeing Borglyn and several fire giants appearently using the ruin as
an observation post. They defeated Borglyn rather easily and had
discovered they were in a nearby cave with several fire giants. It was
brutal, but the two knights took down the other giants and moved outside
to return to the party.

The party regrouped and the Rod of Resurrection was used on Eli, who then
used Reduce and Teleport to save everyone. Warwick lost ANOTHER point of
comeliness from the fall before Risha could save him. Unfortunately,
Sahrak's body was unraisable. A Speak with Dead on Sahrak revealed that
he wished to be Reincarnated if at all possible. Tarplin's scroll was
successful. Strangely enough, Sahrak came back as a giant mongoose.

Treasure division will be done over e-mail soon.

Some of the motivations were revealed to us. Talks with the sage
brotherhood revealed that the Sphinx Bartass was in fact an Anarchist
renegade, and was trying to cause chaos by freeing the lich. He used the
party as a distraction so that he could get by Borglyn, but the lich
killed him upon waking.

Perhaps this had something to do with the inviolate realm of Horbani?

In addition, it was discovered that Chono was in fact some kind of
steward for Borglyn.

A tragic adventure, but an exciting and bizarre one!

Joel/ Ceydric

Posted by Joel Green at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)