The World of Telvar

So said Cassian, roughly. While drinking some water, Cassian instinctively offered some to the philosopher. He gestured, and suddenly there was green muck in the water, which she dropped.

Cassian decided to accept a vision from the philosopher, asking questions about what had happened in the past that had caused him to die, and what decision he was pondering.

The sum total of the visions given to Cassian was:

A group of highly decorated Kharg facing some humans, likely pirates, in a diplomatic summit on the beaches. There are hordes of siege weapons and ships. Off to the side is another group of Kharg, with the living form of the grey philosopher arguing heatedly.

In another scene, crusaders from the painting (another faction in the attack) are killing Kharg and trashing the city. The philosopher is standing in the city somewhere, and has a gnarled staff. Right as a crusader raises his sword to smash open the case to a golden harness, clearly an important item to the Kharg, the philosopher raises his staff… and the city blows apart. Everything dies… buildings topple over…

And Cassian reemerged from her state with exploding pain in her head, bleeding. Quentin managed to heal her quite well, though.

The decision seemed to be one of two things—whether to destroy the city like that, or whether to ally with the pirates or not.

Clearly the Kharg were in trouble. The attack by the crusaders was succeeding, and they could not handle a two-front war. The question is, could we resolve the question somehow, and have the philosopher go away, and perhaps allow us to live?

At one point Cassian angrily yelled at the philosopher, “You can’t test that with a bunch of skeletons!” The philosopher pointed and a thought whipped toward her. Felix threw himself in the way and took the damage instead, getting a vision of all of us withering away at the philosopher’s hands. Then he started looking vacant again.

Clearly this was not a monster to trifle with. Perhaps we were being asked to act out a part in this drama? But who? On the tapestry, it became clear that among the crusaders were adventurers and such. The skeletons were the Kharg, we were the crusaders, and the pirates were out on shore.

It was suggested that maybe, if this was going to be a fair fight, the ghost ships were manned only by skeletons and such.

Balinor asked, do you control the ghost ships?

He had a vision of a spectral half-orc captain on the deck of one of ships, along with a first mate. He sensed about a dozen wights on the ships, and also noted that everyone there hated everyone else. It was clear that the half-orc was the head honcho.

Clearly there was nothing we could do to fight the ghost ships. Allying with the philosopher and his skeleton army was insanely dangerous, and perhaps not even possible.

There was one question remaining to be asked, by Kodo. The philosopher had shrugged earlier when we asked if he would let us go if we killed the skeletons. Wanting a more definite answer, Kodo asked, “Under what conditions of defeating your skeleton army will you let us go?”

Kodo had a vision of the skeletons coming up the stairs and killing us, while the philosopher blasted us with thoughts, and while two HUGE skeletons (a LOT like the one from the Hafney Hill crypt) came at us from the two archways. Kodo took permanent damage in the vision, losing an intelligence point permanently!

Realizing that it had become inevitable and that we had to act quickly, Balinor gave his holy water to Narahn, and Felix gave his to Alduin. Felix passed Balinor the +2 dagger. Morgan took holy water in his off-hand.

A blue glow began to emanate from the philosopher’s direction. The moment had come.

Without a word, Balinor took off toward the philosopher, Morgan and Felix right behind. Donald threw a huge Web behind us, catching the two huge skeletons in it! Cassian, Alduin, and Narahn hurled holy water at the thing, splashing it and hitting it.

Thoughts zinged down at the party, spreading out. They were phenomenally clumsy and took a long time to hit people, despite striking every other segment. Apparently Morgan’s luck had extended to the entire party…

Kodo and Narahn attempted to kill the thoughts, which could be hit by non-magic weapons, as we later discovered. Kodo was having an awful time, and it took Narahn a long time to ready his weapon, so this had little effect early on.

Meanwhile, the fighters had closed with the thinker. His staff whipped out, on its own, but missed Balinor. All the thoughts missed the fighters initially, but soon after both Balinor and Felix were bleeding from multiple wounds. Morgan was, of course, missed.

Of the 12 thoughts circling the philosopher, only 8 had actually attacked—the rest seemed almost traumatized.

Morgan yelled “Thunderstruck” and slammed the philosopher for huge damage (about 30 points). Balinor and Felix also pounded it. It became clear that edged weapons were doing severely reduced damage, and blunt weapons were still not doing full damage. Fortunately, though, the hammer+1 and short sword+1 were able to effect it.

Balinor, Felix, and Morgan continued to attack for awhile, but suddenly more thoughts whipped from the cloak—7 of them. Cassian and Quentin were desperately trying to hold themselves and the rear of the party together with healing spells.

Donald hurled his two Magic Missile spells at it, to some effect. Out of spells, he pulled out the Shocking Grasp scroll.

However, two more thoughts attempted to attack Cassian. Realizing that she would die from such an attack, Alduin lunged in front of her, despite already having a wound, and killed one and took the other, staggering back.

Narahn shot one, but another thought came screaming at him, and wounded him. Another one pounded him, and he was about to collapse.

The staff swung itself again and missed Morgan.

At that moment, Felix stabbed the creature… and there was no effect. +1 weapons no longer hit it. Realizing the holy water was what had weakened it, Morgan hurled his holy water at it and the attacks began again in earnest. Balinor continued to hit it with dagger+2 and hammer+1, inflicting good damage again. Felix hit it with his short sword, and the holy water had indeed weakened it again.

Then the staff swung again, and this time it hit Morgan. He took a good deal of damage, and then suddenly collapsed in a heap. With few options, Balinor and Felix continued to attack. Cassian realized that Morgan was paralyzed and pulled out the Remove Paralysis scroll.

Kodo took a wound fighting the thoughts, but finally took one out. Quentin was still running back and forth healing people, and saving Donald from his wound. Donald advanced toward the philosopher with the Shocking Grasp spell cast.

Five more thoughts emerged and began circling, leaving Balinor with two wounds, and Felix with three. The holy water effect vanished again, and Balinor stabbed it with the dagger. Then the staff swung out again, and Balinor fell over, paralyzed as well. Felix grabbed the dagger +2 from Balinor’s fallen body and attacked, slicing it.

Cassian changed the target of her spell, and brought Balinor back up. Balinor swung with the hammer, but it had no effect. Frustrated, Balinor turned to paste the thoughts.

Quentin cast a Flame Blade, then turned around to find that the big skeletons were breaking through the Web! Out of options, Quentin raised the Rod of Thorns and cast Wall of Thorns out of the staff, a 6th level druid spell!

The little skeletons were stupid and kept moving, destroying all of them, or at least dozens and dozens. The big ones took good damage but weren’t destroyed. However, the Wall of Thorns is a HUGE area of effect, and is immensely thick. It would take the skeletons at least a few hours to break through!

Donald closed with the philosopher, but missed with the Shocking Grasp. The staff swung at Felix, but missed.

Quentin then charged the philosopher with the Flame Blade. He swung with all his might, and hit the thing for major damage, driving it into the ground.

The philosopher collapsed.

Nearly the entire party had wounds, but we managed to save everyone without expending much in the way of resources. Narahn was left in sad shape, but using one dose of the ointment, we were able to bring him back to health. At the end, we were left with no curative spells left, and a party with about the power the Defenders had when they first started, but still alive.

However, we were trapped inside the building, with some skeletons that would break free in a few hours.

Seeing no better way, Balinor began bashing the wall with Blunt to try to widen the window enough for everyone to get through. Alduin searched the room, and found a gold plaque, a magic ring on the finger of the philosopher, and a magic shield on the wall. In addition, the bones of the philosopher were still magical, and the staff was highly magical. We had an idea there:

Cassian cast Dispel Magic, but couldn’t dispel it. However, Quentin was successful, and the staff suddenly broke and a wispy spirit thing came darting at him in a retributive strike—but it had no effect as Quentin saved.

Quentin sent his crows to find the druid of the Argo Forest, and ask for some help.

We took the magic items with us and left by the window. Now, we still to survive the stork people, and we were in truly sad shape. Balinor and Felix were at less than half strength, as were Quentin, Donald, and Morgan. Narahn was actually fine, thanks to the ointment. Alduin, Cassian and Kodo were very weak. Haladir was still a stain on the ground.

We hope.

We trekked back down the causeway, when we got very unlucky. The stork people had found us. One of them suddenly emerged from the side, and pecked Morgan viciously, who stabbed back. Donald’s Sleep spell failed, Narahn missed it with an arrow, and it vanished back into the reeds. Morgan was in such sad shape he was given 1/3 of the extra-healing potion. Hoping to prevent another such strike, Quentin threw an Entangle over the reeds on either side of the pathway, in front of the party.

We continued forward with no other options.

We took refuge on the high ground about mid afternoon. Hoping we would survive long enough, we shifted there.

Incredibly, we were still alive at the end of the shift. We healed up some, and shifted again. This time, on the middle shift, Balinor heard a light clang from behind him. He whipped around, and swung at the air, scoring a direct hit on the breeze. Frustrated, he tensed up for a bit. The shift ended without incident. At the end, Balinor noticed that a huge gash had almost, but not quite, penetrated his armor.

We were healed up to decent shape now. The weaker party members were back to full health, roughly, and Balinor and Felix were around 2/3 strength. We decided to march out.

Suddenly, Cassian’s bird warned us of a beetle descending on us from above. It latched onto Narahn and tried to kill him, but it was killed by the fighters before it had the chance.

Later in the day, a huge ugly hulking thing with rubbery hide ran at the front of the party. It grabbed Felix powerfully and grappled him, causing huge damage. Donald yelled out, “Troll!” and Alduin lit a torch. Balinor, Kodo, and Morgan ran at the creature. The troll continued to try to eat the struggling Felix, who stabbed it twice. Balinor hit it every time for huge damage, but noted that his hammers were not very effective as they bounced off the rubbery hide.

Cassian cast the first Prayer in the Defenders history, and averted a huge disaster as about 6 critical fumbles were then averted. Quentin threw a Faerie Fire on the troll, making it even easier to hit. Realizing it had problems, the creature threw Felix at Kodo and ran away. Taking aim, Narahn took the troll down as it fled!

Realizing it wouldn’t stay dead, Balinor, Kodo, Morgan, and Alduin charged. Balinor was in front, and so the creature suddenly reared back up and grabbed Balinor, doing massive damage to him as well. Morgan cut it, Balinor bashed it, Kodo stabbed, and Alduin flamed it. After quite a while, we were finally satisfied that the creature was dead.

Felix was saved in time, though he had fallen fairly far unconscious in the food fest.

We shifted again, and healed Felix.

Quentin’s birds returned, and told us that it had learned of a better route to take. Half a day later we were on dry ground at the edge of the swamp. Then we were at the Argo Forest.

The trees complained of headaches and were generally whiney, and warned us not to be noisy, but we went through successfully. The trip back to Restenford was remarkably uneventful.

We had gained about 1250 gp in gems, and the plaque was sold for 500 gp to Augman. It was a keystone for the building, commemorating the architect.

XP ranged from 800 for Alduin, Narahn, and Kodo, to 2500 for Cassian and Quentin. For the first time since the Defenders’ first adventure, no levels were gained at the conclusion of the adventure. However, that is not a complaint—those totals were good work for two games! (Actually one of our best adventures on an XP/ per session total).

The magic items were identified in Barnacus:

Three tokens: Token of Door, Token of Boulder (maybe we can trade it to Ludo), and a really cool Token of Armor.

The Door token allows you to create a door in a wall. The famous Boulder token creates a huge rock when hurled from a sling. The Token of Armor, creates a permanent suit of armor (of any type—full plate included) PERMANENTLY. It is useful just for the sheer value of creating the armor, and as an instant protection—you are immediately suited up. It can also be used to create protective clothing, for weather and such. It could probably be sold for more than 4000 gp, but we want to keep it if we can.

The shield is cool—it is a Shield of the Stallion. It is a large shield with no additional AC bonuses, but it adds +1 strength, or + 25% to an 18/xx character!

We weren’t sure what Felix thinks of this item—Alex, send a reply, we haven’t yet paid salvage tax and have to decide based on what you think about that item—Felix is the only candidate, really. It would bring Felix’s strength to 18/00 while he is using it. If Kodo wants to switch to a one-handed fighting style, then it might be worth it for him as well.

The ring is just ridiculous. It is a Ring of Toad Control. Hey baby, hey baby, hey baby… I can just hear it now. It allows anyone to summon 10 HD worth of toads, a ranger to summon 15 HD, and a druid to summon 20 HD. These can be toads of any size, which would mean 160 normal toads for Quentin.

Another thought about the ring is that the Baron wants it, for the same reason Quentin does—to give to Almax as a gift or something—perhaps to defray Quentin’s eventual training cost.

Well, it was a phenomenally successful adventure, but we came out at least even, and only lost Haladir!

This is the final game for summer. In the fall, Katherine, Dave, and Aaron will not be with us, so Cassian and Narahn will retire or move on to other adventuring. They have decisions to make there.

Jeremy has a friend who may be joining us, and we will desperately need a cleric in the fall. Rob has some interest in playing a cleric, so it may be that Kodo retires and Jeremy’s friend plays the woodsman or ranger that he wants to play.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the adventures of the Defenders! Stay tuned for more disaster as the school year begins….

A quick accounting of the party members, past and present:

The initial party consisted of:

Annwvyn, elven thief, crossbow user, 4 hp, played by Alan
Grison, dwarven fighter, spear specialist, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, human cleric of Silban, spear user, 9 hp, played by Alex
Darellon, human woodsman, falchion specialist, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, human ranger, longbow specialist, 15 hp, played by Jack
Quentin, half-elf druid, scimitar user, 6 hp, played by Jeremy.

In the third game, Annwvyn was killed by a fungus beetle. Morgan joined the party along with Ethan, a human woodman harpoon specialist played by the visiting Kyle MacLea. Ethan was killed by a ballista bolt the next game, Grison was killed by a bandit wielding a flail, and Soldan was shot to death by bandit archers.

The next game, a Phaulkonian cleric named Celeste joined the party, played by Sean, along with Felix, a legionnaire style fighter wielding the short sword, played by Alex. Celeste was killed that game by a boulder throw from an ogre, while Darellon was killed in combat with them.

The next game, Gaston the Northerner fighter, wielding a bastard sword, joined the party (played by Sean). He was joined by his cousin Tyveris, a Nevronian cleric wielding the hammer, played by Joel. Gaston retired several games later due to extreme permanent damage, and was replaced briefly by a mage/thief named Colin. Colin retired due to permanent damage as well.

Next was Perry, a halfling thief, played by Sean. After the Brinea adventure, when everyone was killed, Tyveris was not Raised successfully. He was replaced by Cassian, a half-elven Phaulkonian cleric played by Katherine, and Balinor, a human fighter wielding twin hammers, played by Joel.

A little while later, Donald Collins joined the party, an NPC mage, sent by Colin. The party stabilized briefly. This period could be termed the “Golden Team” of Defenders. Then Drew and Perry retired, and were replaced by Kodo, Balinor’s woodsman brother played by Rob, Narahn, a halfling bow specialist played by Dave, Alduin, an elven thief played by Vic, and Lynore, a half-elven thief played by Aaron. Lynore was unfortunately killed in the following adventure, and was eventually briefly replaced by the hapless Haladir, a halfling thief played by Aaron. Haladir was killed in our most recent adventure.

Currently this is how we stand:

Active party members:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel Green
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob Greene
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan Turnquist
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy Schichor
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic (?)

Departing members:

Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave (?)

Retired members:

Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Perry, 6th level thief, 17 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 6 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Colin, 1st level thief/mage, 2 hp, played by Sean Guarino

Obituaries:

Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel Green
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Joel Green
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron Schweinsberg
Celeste, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron Schweinsberg
Annwyvn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan Turnquist

Thanks to Edwin for consistently providing us with frighteningly difficult adventures time and time again, and for not pulling any punches.

And for putting up with all that arguing!

Hope everyone had a good time, and the Defenders will return with a slightly different composition come September!

Joel/Balinor/Tyveris/Darellon