Defenders Adventure #47: Powerful Enemies, Powerful Friends
Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Gaston, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Joel
Just as the party began to descend down the limestone stairs, there was a rumbling noise as ten feet of rock caved in the room behind us. Someone knew we were here, and they wanted us to go forward….
Prior to the game, some backlogging was done. Gaston, a fighter who retired from the Defenders back in 2173, had been acting as a dog trainer and guard for the Baron of Restenford. Though his five years had been relatively uneventful, in 2176 he was nearly killed by a giant spider after being paralyzed by its web. Though he survived, in a fashion typical for Gaston, he took permanent damage—1 comeliness point.
Later that year, Gaston trained to 2nd level, gaining 6 hp to stand at 12, and learned Lasso. He decided to join the party on this mission of revenge against those who blew up our house. He is currently with the party on the stairs.
Cassian, meanwhile, had traveled to Teft and performed services of healing as a cleric of Phaulkon. The highlight of her two years there was the destruction of a very intelligent evil sword. In late 2178, Cassian decided to return to Restenford.
…Back on the stairs, the Defenders realized that they were cut off, but instead examined their surroundings. After a moment, a voice came from down the stairs, echoing off the walls.
“Are you coming down, Morgan?”
It wasn’t hard to guess who that was. Traywick, Morgan’s arch-nemesis, had returned for Thunderstruck.
We talked at great length with Traywick, who through an elaborate funnel system could hear anything that wasn’t whispered directly into someone’s ear. He told us to get off the stairs before he collapsed them. Sure enough, when we stepped off the stairs, they disappeared under a pile of rubble.
A quick flashback-- Traywick had led the bandits in the Sarkian mountains in an attempt to find the dwarven treasure. We had come in and slain most of his men. We nearly defeated Traywick, but Balinor and Morgan couldn’t prevent him from escaping via Gaseous Form potion. He found his cache of items in the woods and began to rebuild again.
It was clear that Traywick had been plotting something for a LONG time, and spent a lot of money. He said as much—he spent around 15,000 gp on the compound alone, not to mention the explosives. “And while I have a limitless supply of money, I really HATE asking Dad for it!”
Apparently, Traywick was the son of a wealthy man, and spoiled beyond belief.
His conditions for our survival were this: Morgan would step around the corner, where he would die in a most grisly fashion. Traywick would take Thunderstruck, and we would eventually be able to escape.
We debated and discussed. Traywick knew quite a bit about us, but was apparently unaware of our legendary indecisiveness and became impatient. A metal door slammed shut in the distance, and sleep gas seeped through the funnels, and though we closed them off, the room became quite diffuse with the gas. Clearly quite a bit of money had been spent to make this a really effective gas. Just one more indication of Traywick’s contacts.
Traywick said that if we didn’t cooperate, losses would be total. Clearly there were a number of other men up there with him, but he was running the show for the moment.
The sleep gas took out Balinor, Nakumanu, Donald, Gaston, and Felix. Quentin and Kain cast Slow Poisons on each other to avoid being woosy. The elves were unaffected.
Traywick warned us about anyone else going in front. This was personal with Morgan, but he couldn’t take any responsibility for what happened to the rest of us.
We weren’t quite as worried about Morgan as Traywick thought. Morgan had the jawbone on him, so most things that killed him would only do so temporarily and he wouldn’t need Resurrection or Reincarnate spells to bring him back. However, losing Thunderstruck or Morgan was unacceptable.
Felix was Slow Poisoned, and he, Morgan, and Quentin moved towards the closed metal door. It was quite thin actually, though metal. Just enough to hold in the poison gas, we realized.
Shrugging, Felix rammed into the door with all his considerable might, and it shattered. He got a quick glimpse of a creature in the center of the room. It had two glowing eyes, a rodent-like head, and wings.
A death ray from the creature’s eyes hit Felix in the shoulder, instantly making his left arm useless, but not killing him. The beam shot through Felix and hit Morgan as well, who survived the hit.
That’s right. We’re the Defenders. You name it, we find it.
The word “laserbat” came to mind.
Realizing that the laserbat was recharging, Felix charged valiantly at it, but failed to notice the second laserbat directly above him. This one shot him in the head, and he died instantly.
Morgan hurled his Continual Light stone into the room, and the party ran back around the corridor. Traywick scolded us, saying that Felix had a pretty large hole in him. Now it was so messy. He pointed out that if we ever messed with him again, he’d spend even more money make our lives miserable.
We had an argument with Traywick about the light stone, explaining that we couldn’t go into the room unless he dropped some Darkness to cancel out the light. Traywick suggested Quentin Dispel the stone instead. Ultimately we had to give in.
Sadly, the Dispel was unsuccessful. Erg. Quentin suddenly realized he was being scryed upon..
Black smoke suddenly drifted through the funnels. The party was showered in ash, and then was a tortured scream—from above. A voice floated down.
“Quentin?” It was Almax. “Are you alright? Peltar and I got most of the people up here, but one got away with a Gaseous Form potion.”
We told Almax to make sure they nabbed the Gaseous man. We killed the laserbats since Peltar had Slept them. We hoisted up all the unconscious people and the corpse of Felix in the basket Traywick had intended Morgan to put Thunderstruck in. Fortunately, Traywick was captured and “convinced” that he was safe.
Peltar had Teleported himself and Almax in after he had scryed on us and found us in trouble. Or something like that anyway.
We returned safely to Restenford, then traveled to Barnacus to have Felix Raised (though we tried to convince Harper in Garroten to do it first). Felix suffered a horrible scar on his face (2 comeliness points). Morgan got away unscathed.
Traywick turned out to be the son of a powerful merchant responsible for 3% of Restenford’s shipping and 5% of Benct’s shipping. Traywick had learned about us from our many enemies in scenic Benct. Since the Baron felt it was unwise to hang him, Traywick was instead released—in front of the Trenhurst.
Gaston returned to live at our newly constructed house, finished a few weeks before the rainy season began. We discovered that bandits were actually being brazen enough to dig tunnels on the far side of Bald Hill, barely away from the outskirts of the northern end of Restenford. The party decided to take them out.
Cassian may be rejoining the party—her status will be determined next week.
Well, at least Traywick got his.
Joel/Balinor/Gaston