Defenders Summary #69: It’s Good to Be Back
Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
Other magic items I forgot to mention: we picked up 9 +2 arrows for Morgan and Cassian, and a Shield of Healing (20 charges) for Nakumanu.
We picked up lots of oil and other items in preparation for our raid of the orcish island. Dunstill and Illic realized that since we had experience with this sort of situation before, we were ideal for the job. In fact, the ruins on the southern part of the island were of the same civilization as the ones on Orc Isle. There are rumors of drow elves having been in these islands—perhaps these are their ruins.
The plan is for the party to trash the island as much as possible while the high shamans are away. Dunstill and Illic will be trying to mess up the meeting of the high shamans.
Some stats about the island—there are about 5,000 orcs on the island clustered in three coastal villages in the center of the island. There is also a palace in the middle of the villages. There are haunted ruins (see above) and a dormant volcano and orcish burial ground on the south end. On the north end is an active volcano and another set of ruins, as well as a prison slave camp.
We also made a number of scrolls and spent some of our newfound wealth (ok, so we blew more scrolls than we made). Then it was up to The Dice to get the ship safely to the orc island. Well, after seven uneventful weeks, we had a single week with angry jellyfish and a storm, and then another week with two storms and a non-encounter.
In September 2182, we landed on the south end of the island. We were faced with a pair of huge stone doors and went up the stairs along the cliff instead. We reached a valley with a number of ruined buildings. We discovered a weird building shaped like a spike with a large double door. We ignored it for the moment and continued along, circling the valley.
The “valley” was walled by lava flows presumably from the now dormant volcano. We searched several buildings uneventfully, when a giant lizard jumped us from behind. The creature grabbed Nakumanu in its jaws and tried to kill him. Nakumanu used the Shield to get rid of his wounds and allow Bogomel and Morgan to stab the creature while Felix and Balinor lumbered toward it. Kain tried to talk the animal out of attacking but the dumb thing wouldn’t listen to reason and tried to run off with Nakumanu. Cassian tried to pull Nakumanu out, but he slipped away.
But Chiaro saved him.
No, that was not a typo.
Our hardy illusionist let loose with a Light spell that blinded the creature, slowing its escape as it crashed into foliage and branches. This allowed Felix, Balinor, and Morgan to wail on the creature, which ignored Balinor’s fumbling but went down under a hail of sword swings.
The party moved on to exploring other ruins. We eventually found a building with a single hole in the entrance. There were bones scattered everywhere, and Kain’s wolf smelled something directly ahead.
Hoping to spot the creature, we moved forward. Of course, disaster resulted. Something happened, and everyone but Morgan, Cassian, and Donald collapsed into an unnatural slumber as a huge creature with snakes coming out of it charged at us. Donald identified it as a island mutant creature that was extremely poisonous. Cassian dropped a Slow Poison on Morgan, and it was discovered quickly that the others could not be awoken easily. Morgan turned to face the creature, and wailed on it with Thunderstruck (doing 26 damage and three wounds!). Donald pulled out the scroll of Magic Missile x3 and started unloading massive damage. Morgan continued to trash the creature and it went down after about 100 points of damage were dealt to it!
Morgan had been barely scratched, but it became clear that he would die horribly if the poison wasn’t neutralized, so we spell shifted.
In the next building over we found a group of centipedes piled all over each other in a circle. Albee chatted with them and they swarmed “next door” to eat the dead creature after we told them about it. This caused Morgan to jump with a shriek of “Bugs!” but no harm was done.
We discovered an entirely gold helmet apparently given to the winner of a jousting tournament in Dunador. We also found a potion, 5 gems, and some money.
We healed up and finished our exploration, encountering another pair of giant lizards that we were forced to kill. Highlights included Balinor getting stepped on and Felix and Morgan trashing the things once again, along with Bogomel.
In the interior of the valley, we found a building with a covered section, and discovered a weird human or half-orc or something being in tattered robes just sitting there. Disturbed, we tried to chat with it, and it was generally incoherent, spouting answers that seemed unrelated to our questions, mentioning such juicy tidbits as “oranges are square” to “the bugsies in your hair (to Felix).” It said it had been here forever, and said that the bugsies would take us. Felix used Peacemaker to determine that the creature was chaotic evil.
We were totally unsure what to do, so we put off the decision.
We decided to check out the spike building. The door was revealed as magical, wizard locked apparently. Cassian and Kain were unable to dispel it, but Donald was successful and the door opened, revealing the architecture style “from the lower planes” that the party was familiar with from Orc Isle. Deciding that we didn’t want to get trapped yet, we put a rock in front of the door and waited to see if it would close. It did, after several minutes of wrestling with the boulder.
That is where we left off. The exploration will continue!
Joel/Balinor