Defenders Log Entry #32: Selections from the Proverbial Telvar DM's Guide
Subtitled: Where the *@#! did they find this stuff?
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (Jeremy this time)
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron
This was another transition adventure, since it turned out early on that things were cooler than we had imagined.
We had arrived on Lendore Isle, and trained Kodo, Narahn, and Balinor. At the beginning of 2176, we picked up the new Gazetteer, with its nice color maps!
Incidentally, I would like to give the old Gaz to the Seapoint Lightning if we come back form this adventure.
In March, Donald and Alduin went to the mainland to train. Donald trained to 4th level and gained 5 hp to stand at 21, while Alduin trained to 2nd and 3rd level and gained 7 hp to stand at 13.
While they were gone, Relkin the steward of Restenford came by the house. He dropped a box on the table and said that we would know what it was. Apparently the Baron had opened the "genie bottle" after determining stuff about it, and it released a creature that was guarding some stuff and was grateful to be out. Since we had recovered it, the Baron gave us 25% of it.
In the box was:
150 coin weights of mithril
60 coin weights of adamantite
Woo hoo!
We decided to trade the mithril for cool stuff, and put the adamantite away for storage, so that eventually we could turn it into a +5 weapon! There's enough there to make up to a scimitar, though not a hammer.
Most of the rest of the game session was taken up trading and making selections in Carse and Tulan. We picked up a +1/0 short bow for Narahn and Alduin from Warner in Barnacus, and a pair of +1 quality handaxes for Kodo and a +1 quality hammer for Balinor. The handaxes and hammer had special handles making them difficult to drop.
The mithril was in 10 bars of 15 cw each. We were essentially looking for a high plus weapon, armor, or a bunch of nice items. The key was that we wanted stuff that could not be easily gotten any other way.
What we got was a survey of the strange and bizarre of Telvar.
At one point, a prospective buyer in Carse referred us to a strange black door in the market, called Xothan Enterprises. Morgan got shlorped in and I think everyone knows the rest. There was a weird cloaked figure that read Morgan's mind as he was unable to move, and asked him what he wanted for the adamantite. Morgan couldn't think of anything, and Xothan said, "In a universe of infinite possibilities, one must be prepared." And Morgan was hurled out of the door onto the street, though about a half hour had passed outside.
Balinor noted with extreme concern that Xothan was not listed in the Gazetteer. The party decided not to do one of the three deals. The fact that Xothan knows about the adamantite is worrisome at best.
Well, we continued to sift through buyers, rejecting stuff and generally trying to haggle.
We rejected items like:
A weird band for 5 bars, that clearly gave the wearer a constitution of huge proportions, if one is buff already, and allowed regeneration of some sort. Awesome. The drawbacks were huge. It was called a band of torment-it made the user truly miserable, less able to concentrate, enjoy life, sleep, etc. Apparently there was a darker side as well, that may have involved a thirst for killing, though that was speculation. We decided against it.
There was splint mail+1 for 3 bars, 3 healing potions for 1 bar, a cloak of flying for 2 bars, magical ring mail for 3 bars, battleaxe+2 for 3 bars, Wrap of Holding for 2 bars, and Ioun Stone of +1 level for all of the bars we still had, cloak of protection +1 for 1 bar, the Rod of Paradise for 4 bars, and maybe a few others.
The trades we made:
1) 500 gp (in gems), 250 gp box, and Continual Light spell on his dagger for Mouse of Cats
The story here is that we ran into a kind of pathetic, browbeaten wizard that even Donald pitied. Donald declared him a loser, but offered to trade him Magic Mouth if the party REALLY wanted to, but we decided against it. The Mouse of Cats is strange little item for Quentin, that allows the person to speak with all cats and catlike things, unlimited, no charges.
2) 3 bars and 250 gp gem for Horn of Valhalla -esque item
Summons a number (half-a-dozen) weird warriors from the Outer Planes who kick butt and take names. Then they leave, though there is a cold chill, and a sense of evil. There is a small chance of breaking it if is used too often (like more than once a month). In addition, the danger to the user is dependent on how warrior-like they are. A wizard would be slain, a thief almost certainly, a cleric and druid could PROBABLY use it safely, and a warrior should blow it if possible. In addition, the more skilled a warrior, the better-the item has been given to Felix. Current second choice is Balinor.
3) 4 bars and 250 gp gem for plate mail+1 (after some nice haggling by Felix down from 5 bars)
The plate mail is on Balinor, while the ring +1 went to Kodo.
NOTE: All the items were identified by a sage afterwards, in fact, before closing the deals.
Back on Lendore, Quentin had picked up a bobcat, and a crow. The crow, named Lenore, is a genius (intelligence 2) and can count to 5 and learn double the number of tricks, etc.
With two bars remaining, we headed back to Lendore and rejoined Quentin. We were virtually out of money though. The Baron has repaid his debt to us, though we still 1000 gp in Barnacus credit. We sold two of the three ivory scroll tubes for 1000 gp each before we started, and so had only one left.
We decided it was time to adventure again!
Astrologies revealed that the result of an expedition to Skull Mountain or the Khargish ruins were uncertain, and so not immediately deadly. We decided on the Khargish ruins in the end since the astrology seemed to indicate wealth and/or death.
We went to Barnacus and spoke with Augman (5 days research out of credit). We learned much about the location and how not get lost going there.
The capital of the Khargish civilization was once located to the east of the Trenhurst forest, at the north end of the island. About 10000 Kharg once lived there. They left suddenly due to "bad omens." About 1500 years ago, the capital sank into the swamp.
The druidic records from that time indicated that the druids felt ok about that section of the island, due to the fact that it was under control of "the old ones."
The Phaulkonians also have a record (Katherine, do you remember what it said)?
Augman told us about one party that had ventured near there. Apparently they were not a green party, but also not heroes, so I'm guessing substantially less powerful than us. In any case, they were looking for ruins, and wandering around near the edge of the swamp. They had heard about the ruins but were looking for other ones. They didn't find any, and wandered deeper into the swamp.
They were having little difficulty with the creatures (lizards, etc.), and could actually see the ruins only about a mile northwest of their location, and suddenly the rear guard reported a snapping sound. Abruptly the party turned around to find that one of their people was dead, about 30 knife wounds in him, in about 15 seconds. He didn't even get a chance to cry out. They were weirded out and disgusted, and turned around and left.
Note that this trip requires traveling through bandit infested forest, though not bandit kingdoms, which is good. The swamp will require some preparation, but there isn't much to worry about other than the bizarre stabbing monster.
Is it a trap? Who knows. Furthermore, Cassian's birds attempted to learn about the swamp through the grapevine of animals. The result was weird-"bad birds." The Phaulkonians don't know what to make of it.
An ominous journey. We set off next game!
Joel/Balinor