June 1998 | The World of Telvar

Defenders Log Entry #31: There’s Always Room for Jello

Seeing no other option, Morgan went up to the creature with a torch and swung, injuring it somewhat. It struck back, but even black puddings are affected the Morgan Magic, and it missed. He ran back.
We were up against a wall, with no options left. The banzai attacks that have always led the Defenders to great things spurred us on, and we began our last stand.

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Aaron
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, played by Donald
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
The party was last left standing in front of a weird door with symbols on it. Some numerology and other things were attempted, and in the end Morgan, then Quentin, and finally Cassian put the pieces together and discovered that the indented symbols represented negative numbers, and the protruding symbols were positive, and the moon was zero. Summing this to the top symbol (2), this solved the problem of having an 8 digit code instead of 7 since 2 was the starting position, and took the 3-dimensionality into account. In any case, it worked, and instead of being blasted, Felix was shocked to discover that the two symbols on the top, a moon and a sun, were glowing.
Felix touched the sun. That’s when the wraith thing came out of the door.
Felix fell over immediately, shivering with cold and convulsing. Balinor swung Maiden Basher at it, and hit, but THE WEAPON WENT THROUGH IT.
Cassian’s turning attempt had no effect. Then it hit Cassian, and she crumpled as well.

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Defenders Log Entry #30: Knock on Stone

Lifting the grate Narahn climbed in and had to stoop to walk down the corridor (he’s a halfling). Suddenly a Light glyph went off, but he managed to avoid being blinded. Then the lanterns and continual light pouches began to fade, and darkness overtook everything, destroying infravision as well. In the darkness something was moving, and something tried to shear Morgan’s finger off…

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Aaron
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played Jeremy (Joel this game)
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
When we last left the fairly beleaguered party, they had just trashed 25 men at no loss to the party. Upon scouting ahead, it was discovered that there were at least 7 more people remaining, apparently evacuating the area. Deciding that we couldn’t risk a direct confrontation without loss, we held back about 6 hours for healing. We killed all the people in the Web and those asleep. An item search revealed:
1. Thunderstruck, the long sword wielded by Morgan’s opponent
2. Bracers
3. Small shield
4. Potion
and a non-magical quality bastard sword and a quality scimitar, and some weird bluish lockpicks. Quentin replaced his scimitar with the good one, Balinor is holding the bastard sword and put the potion in his potion box, Cassian took the shield, Alduin is carrying the bracers, and Morgan has wrapped up and is carrying the long sword, Thunderstruck.

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Defenders Log Entry #29: A Well is a Well (oh hell, oh hell…)

Though we were being cautious, it seemed impossible to tell what was down there except by lowering someone down. Lynore volunteered bravely and was lowered down slowly by Kodo and Felix (in great Ludo tradition). He immediately spotted the handholds on the side leading down the well.
The roar of the water made it impossible to hear him as he neared the river area. Suddenly, there was a horrible jerk on the rope.

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (various people this time)
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine (Joel for this game)
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
The party was last left staring at a rutted track leading up the path we suspected was on our “treasure map.” We headed up the trail for about 20 minutes before tripping a trip wire and setting off a bell in the distance. After nothing immediate happened, we scouted out the area and discovered pipe with running water leading up the hill under the ground a few feet. The trip wire went through this, and was untraceable.
I may have forgotten to mention this in the last summary, but there was a an eagle and hawk that had nearly killed Cassian’s bird during the trip up here. We thought that was weird at the time.
At this point, the “eagle” swooped out of the sky and ripped Quoth, one of Quentin’s crows, to pieces (Quentin�s Note: Dammit!). We got a decent look at it, and Donald identified it as a hobgoblin warbird, a trained killer.
Shaken, we retreated back to the bottom, then set up a camp. We sent Lynore and Narahn to remain hidden near the trip wire to see who came, and sent Alduin to scout farther up.

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Defenders Log Entry #28: Traveling Through Forest Without Bandits

Lynore ducked behind a rock quickly. He rose up, took two more hits, shot his crossbow and took one down. Then he bolted down the slope for his life. He dodged several more shots and came bleeding to the party.

Not a particularly exciting game session, but progress was made.
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Joel (for the summer)
Balinor Buckannah, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo Buckannah, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
First we set out from Port o’Carse, and traveled along the road to Tulan. Setting out south from the town, we traveled along the south side of the mountains, running through a series of encounters.
First, we saw some hobgoblins with weird paint on them, nodded and went separate ways.
Later, Quentin talked down two giant weasels planning to attack Morgan.
Then, we encountered some weird spectral figure, politely claiming to be a caretaker of the land, and asking for some shiny objects to help replenish it. We paid 30 gp.
After that, we ran into what seemed like an amazing 40 plus bugbear ambush. The leader demanded that we put down our weapons and pay 50 gp for passage. He specifically demanded that we put the money in a sack and lay it on the ground in front of us. Despite heated and enraged protests from Balinor, the party realized it was badly outnumbered and gave in.

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Defenders Log Entry #27: New Directions and Faces

One highlight: In an Armor shop inside the walls the party came across some weird black armor that seemed to provide chain mail protection or better, but be really light. The owner of the shop wouldn’t reveal what “stuff that works” that it was made out of. But he did say, “I can’t tell you what it’s made out of, but I can say that a lot of them died to make it.” It looked really cool.

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex Hubbard (this time by Kyle
MacLea)
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel Green (committee this session)
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan Turnquist
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy Schichor
Cassian, 5th level Phaulkonian cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Donald Collins, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)
Departing Members:
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Perry, 6th level thief, 17 hp, played by Sean Guarino
New Members:
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
(ugly Northerner, uses two hand axes, knows Balinor)
Narahn, Hairfoot, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
(hairfoot halfling, uses short bow, from Lendore Isle)
Alduin, 1st level elven thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
(half-elf, very charismatic and handsome)
Another not-so-exciting adventure for the Restinford Defenders. I like to think about it as “Transition.” You can think of it as you will.
When we last left our happy party, Drew and Perry were arranging to leave the party and enter the employ of the Baron and Kor-Al-Gesh respectively. Drew has become a Phaulkonian, interested in participating in Holy Quests, and, knowing Perry, he is interested in Korian Holy Quests as well. However, not everything had been completely resolved in terms of party share, treasure division, etc. It has been recommended that Perry’s bracers and invis. potion go to Drew and Perry can take the Tuning Fork and Dagger +1/+3 vs. demi-humans. This has not yet been agreed upon, the chief complaint being lack of stuff going to Drew, a charter party member.
The party has decided to investigate some of the Baron’s treasure maps. He had five available, and the party would have to pay 25% salvage tax at point of entry, and then the Baron would get 50% of whatever the party brought back. The five options were:

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Daring Dozen Summary #2: City of the Gods

After the first panoramic view of the alien city of the Ancients, the Dozen decided to explore further. We headed down the causeway, and descended into the thick mists, reducing visibility to about 30 feet. The walkways (and for consistency, virtually everything else in the city) was built about of black stone, volcanic rock. It was noted that the water was warm and bubbly, and we could see weird shapes flying somewhere above us.

The Daring Dozen return in Episode Two!
Party Roster:
Tobull, 8th level fighter, 103 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Jessica, 8th level fighter, 79 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Laire, 8th level fighter, 73 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Nara, 8th level cleric, 64 hp, played by Joel Green
Gram, scholar, 56 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Rangorn, 6th level woodsman, 56 hp, played by Joel Green
Hildebrandt, 8th level mage, 39 hp, played by Sean Guarino/ Alan Turnquist
Nief, 10th level thief, 36 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Feagle, 7th level druid, 33 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
After the first panoramic view of the alien city of the Ancients, the Dozen decided to explore further. We headed down the causeway, and descended into the thick mists, reducing visibility to about 30 feet. The walkways (and for consistency, virtually everything else in the city) was built about of black stone, volcanic rock. It was noted that the water was warm and bubbly, and we could see weird shapes flying somewhere above us.
We reached the tower in the center of the lake. Thanks to Jessica’s engineering knowledge, it was decided that it was impossible to build a structure like this tower, since it was ridiculously thin for its height. About 50 feet across, it rose entirely out of the mist and high into the air.
There was some sort of window, or arrow slit, about 40 feet above us. We also noted a small hole, 1/8” thick, by 1” deep. We moved on.
Around the tower, we could travel toward the city, or toward the hillside. We decided to check out the area away from the city first. We reached an archway similar to the one that said Tan-El where we came out. Near it was a neatly stacked totem of skulls, which we believed to be dwarven (dark or not). As we approached, a huge column of black flame came out of the causeway and passed over Jessica and Tobull. Fortunately they were able to remain unlit, and merely took moderate damage and wounds. They reported that they had felt negative material energy pass over them.
It was noted that below us on the shores of the lake was a perfectly intact dock, with a perfectly intact single square sail ship.
Discouraged by the powerful trap, we turned back and headed toward the city. Suddenly, the walls loomed before us. They were 30 feet high, out of the same volcanic material. The door itself was a pair of huge single slabs of rock. On them were all sorts of scratch marks and weird runes, which were definitely not in any known language, as Nief determined.

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