The World of Telvar

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