Month: April 2000

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic (Dave this game)
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our party having explored most of the upper level of the
Horn of Iguilve cavern. We decided to have Quentin cast Commune with
Nature on the lake to identify passages and trouble spots, including
predators. We discovered that the lake was full of elemental earth silt,
contained a nasty and very large snapping turtle, and that there several
streams leading out.
The snapping turtle was avoided with Locate Animal spells (being
invisible it would have snuck up on our intrepid explorer/fishbait and
killed him otherwise), and we found about 10,000 silver pieces. Whoopee.
Well, after exhaustive search, we had found little in the lake. We
checked out one of the streams, but something weird happened. The first
party members down the stream were overcome and fled from it, while some
of the others were able to remain but itched wildly and found the water
hideously unpleasant (they were Waterwalking).

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #87: Bargaining with the Demon”

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our party flailing about the Horn of Iguilve, shoveling bat guano and stirge guano and just about every other disgusting thing you can imagine.
We checked out the remaining passageways before looking at the lake, but nothing was found. The dwarf we had defeated had a number of magical items including a magical cloak, which is probably where his wings came from. He possessed several weakly magical evil books, which turned out to be his journals, though we still have no idea why they are magical or evil. The journal revealed that the dwarf had been exiled from his community and wandered for awhile before ending up here, passing by a large monster that breathed fire. He also had a powerful magical non-evil tome, and two Auguries revealed little on whether Quentin should read it—the first failed and the second went something like: The flashing fish moves swiftly through the rapids unless he is a carp. What the heck?
We also found a repeating light crossbow (half speed)! Balinor is using this. The first six bolts are poisoned, and the current agreement is to fire them in this dungeon and get rid of them afterward if any remain.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #86: So Where’s the REAL Treasure?”

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We had last left our party staggering around the Horn of Iguilve. The mashing continues!
The party continued to explore the dungeon, and I’ll hit the highlights. First up, in a second mushroom forest, we noticed a crack in the wall with a mummy like being in it, not moving. We had no time to absorb this, as the much of the green slimy stuff on the ceiling suddenly fell on Morgan, Felix, and Chiaro!
Complete catastrophe nearly resulted. Chiaro’s right arm began to melt off, as did Felix and Morgan’s heads. Quentin sprayed water all over Chiaro’s arm, but this only strengthened whatever it was. Soap from Balinor had an even worse effect as the soap began to change into the things, which attempting to climb the wall again (slowly). The creatures were identified as a green slime, which was only hurt by fire. Casting Flame Blade, Quentin and Kain surgically removed the creatures from Chiaro’s arm and the heads of our hapless fighters. Donald then roasted them all with a Fireball.
In the end, both Morgan and Felix lost their helmets. Worse yet, Chiaro’s arm was rendered completely deadened, unable to hold any weight. He can still do spellcasting, but picking anything up is a complete mess for him. Hopefully this can be fixed, but we won’t find out how until we return to civilization.
Meanwhile, Morgan’s elven chain was slightly damaged as well. A temporary fix was made with the unbreakable magic string we have, but eventually this will cause problems. Yet another thing we have to have repaired!

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #85: Morgan—Not So Squirmy?”

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We set off from the site of the devastation of the hobgoblin tribe, whose souls had been lost to the demon, as well as their money and magic items.
That’s a great opening line.
One thing not mentioned last time: prior to the expedition many members of the Defenders got suspicious of Spittle the crow, who continuously turned up evil on all scans. We ESPed him while saying things, and found out that he understands significantly more than it would appear, including at least dozens of words in Common.
We didn’t know what to make of this, and we still didn’t the when we encountered the dwarven party marching down the slopes. They were a huge expedition of about a hundred dwarves in banded mail, including five different standard bearers. We hailed them and asked about dangers up ahead. They laid down the usual “don’t release any demons” warning and told us of a large tribe of a few hundred noblink in the valley that would extort food and money. We told them that a hobgoblin tribe had planned an ambush for them, and they were dead now.
They began to march past, and then suddenly called a halt. A wizened and ancient dwarf wearing a skull cap helmet came forward and asked us sharp questions in dwarven, which were translated to Human by another dwarf (although several members of the party speak dwarven, this just didn’t seem a good time to point that out). He asked about the elves, the orc, what we were doing, etc. Kain explained that we were trying to “help him.” The dwarf said sadly, “We tried that with the spiders, and it didn’t work.”

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #84: Go to Exotic Places, Meet New and Interesting Monsters, and Kill Them”