The World of Telvar

On the first week, as Alduin was nailing up a sign, a man showed interest. He offered Morgan a Belt of Hill Giant Strength! That’s strength 19, permanently!

We had several items to trade, but clearly we were going to have to give up something valuable to us to complete the trade, and over the mild objections of Donald (and Cassian—but not the rest of the party), Morgan traded the Horn of Valhalla for the Belt.

So now Morgan’s level limit is at least 9 (it may be higher), and he is transformed into a super-strong fighter! The Defenders now deal ridiculous melee damage:

Morgan: 1d8/1d12 +12 every 2.5 segments
Balinor: 2d4+2/2d4 +15 every 2 segments
Felix: 1d6/1d8 +14 every 1.5 segments
Bogomel: 1d6/1d8 +9 every 4 segments

That’s a total average damage between the four of about 33 per segment!

In addition, either Cassian or Alduin or Morgan (I can’t remember which) got a good deal on a Treasure Finding Potion for only 4800 gp. Felix did not accidentally purchase a second potion before he found out.

Cassian trained to 8th level, gaining 6 hp to stand at 51. Quentin trained under Almax to gain 9th level and 7 hp, bringing his total to 44. He flew to the Druidic Court to undergo the ceremony to receive fifth level spells, and is now the most powerful spellcaster in party history! Bogomel trained to 4th level, gaining 10 hp to stand 41. Chiaro trained, but has not been rolled yet. Albee trained to 6th, gaining 6 hp to stand at a ridiculous total of 37 (which is just as good as Donald’s hp). For example, the maximum possible hp for any 6th level monk is 42.

Obviously, our XP was excellent, ranging from 4000 for the henchman, 9000 for Albee to about 13000 for everyone else!

The only debacle over the winter occurred when Duke Haermond wanted to reward the Defenders for giving him the Staff of Kings. The Duke’s messenger was met by the only resident of the house, Balinor. The unfortunate conversation that followed involved the messenger waiting in the rain for an hour, and becoming so angry that he deliberately miscommunicated Balinor’s blunt statement about money problems such that the Duke thought we were having a minor cash flow problem and ignored it. This is actually better because the party really had other ideas for the favor anyway… like if we build a town (see below).

The party gathered back in town to uniformly smack Balinor upside the head, and then set out to get the will’o’wisp’s treasure. Felix used the potion and we found that the treasure was under an oak tree. With Quentin helping and lots of Cure Light spells we managed not to kill the tree and dig out a large metal chamber (bronze) with a neat jarlike opening device. Alduin disarmed the trap on it (wonder what it was?) and we went inside. We found two dead bodies with two strange objects on one of them. We found a cannister with a weird knob. We also found a strange lead box.

There were also 30 leather sacks of gold and platinum.

We took the money (which amounted to 15,000 gp) and the items and were moving the bodies (which were non-magical, as was everything else in the room) on top to bury them, when one of the bodies got up and started walking toward Barnacus.

Um.

Uh.

We tried to follow it, which was difficult but possible. Kain cast Hold Person at the creature and it turned to follow Kain, who backed away for about a half hour. The creature picked up a rock, and Kain ducked behind a tree. The thing put the rock back down, and started walking toward Barnacus again.

While Kain and Quentin followed it in crow form (various attempts to slow it had little effect, including Entangle), Cassian slept to get Speak with Dead spells.

Kain tried a Dispel Magic, and the creature turned around and pointed at him. Kain felt a chill pass through him and the thing turned around again (Kain saved).

Cassian ran without her armor and with an escort, and finally with a Fly spell managed to close the distance gap in the middle of the night (not the best time to be wandering Lendore Isle unarmored). Much of the remainder of the party headed back to Restenford with the money and stuff.

Cassian cast Speak with Dead, and the creature stopped and she spoke with it. It appeared to be some sort of spirit that wanted vengeance on another person that betrayed him. The target was named Yearnt and probably was in Barnacus. The thing nearly grew angry when Cassian inadvertently asked what its secret was, but further communication attempts failed (the spell only occasionally works on undead, but it’s actually a conversation). We decided to warn Duke Haermond and let him deal with it while Kain Quentin tracked it in turns.

They reached the outskirts of Barnacus and Kain freaked out some farmers by yelling (while still a crow) for them to get out of the way. Kain was surprised not to see the usual group of 20 cavaliers and paladins standing at the wall waiting for the thing, so he flew into Barnacus proper. After speaking with a confused guard on the wall, Kain observed the revenant reach the pauper’s grave area where a number of horsemen stood, not looking particularly worried. The creature reached a grave, and then fell down in a heap.

Turns out Yearnt had been dead for four hundred years. Oops.

The bronze chamber was some sort of scry-proof room, but it was too embedded to dig out easily. We showed the Baron where it was and left it at that.

The cannister turned out to be some sort of flamethrower! It was refillable but only with a liquid that required scales from a fire salamander…. We gave the item up to the Baron as we owed him one anyway. We also repaid our debt to him with the money and finished our donations.

The box was much weirder. Inside was a diorama of a small town. But six of the little building were magical tokens of that building! There was a fortress, a jetty, a merchant ship, a town hall structure, a lighthouse, and a stone tower!

This awe-inspiring set was locked away in the Baron’s chest for now, but clearly this town-founding stuff is beckoning!

Next we need to decide on a final quest. We’ve been looking at the maps, and though I’m sure there will be much e-mail discussion, we’ve been more in favor of certain ones, basically narrowing down the choices to a place north of Carse and Ventris Isle, a place in the Tegefed Mountains on the Latt-Drake-Cromwell border (right near Tharizdun, for those who know that reference), and one other in Southern Cromwell where the Yatols and another mountain chain meet—I think that’s the center of the frost giants or where you enter the Southern Wilderness or something.

Joel/Balinor