A refresher for those who were there and supplement to Jay’s notes for those who were not. It’s incomplete, but alas, the original Grand Summary was eaten by my laptop months ago.
Party Roster:
Balinor, 9th level Northerner fighter, 86 hp, played by Joel
Amortician (Morty), human bard (7th fighter/5th thief), 74 hp, played by Jay Bates
Tarplin, 8th level druid/5th level mage, 30 hp, played by Alan Jones
Bodkin Goldsummit, 4th level dwarven fighter, 36 hp, played by Katherine
Tarplin, 8th level druid/5th level half-elf mage, 30 hp, played Alan
Robynne, 5th level woodsman, played by Rhonda
Leo, 3rd level Nevronian cleric, played by David Bjorlin
Morhion Gendahar, 2nd level Northerner Nevronian cleric, 18 hp, henchman of Balinor (although played by Rodger Henson!)
When we last left the party, they had completed a series of missions on Lendore Isle, and then split the party into two groups. Randy Novotny, Nevronian cleric, led one of them. The other was a triumvirate of Balinor Buckhannah of the Restenford Defenders, Amortician the bard, and Tarplin the druid (for whom magery was simply a hobby) known as the Band. The motivation for this was to allow each group to tackle changes appropriate to its level and streamline the groups.
After trading for some interesting magical longswords named Leveler and Kazaam, Morty woke up one morning to find a note attached by a loop of string on his finger that said something like, “There is always a better deal. –Xothan Enterprises.” When Morty pulled the note off, a magical tattoo of a band of string appeared on his finger. Dispel Magic failed to remove it. There seemed little to be done for the moment, but it makes us nervous…
After investigating adventuring possibilities for the Band, the party gained some reconnaissance on the bugbear tribe. The bugbears were fortified in a cave with witchdoctors with animal friends guarding the entrances, making any stealth operation quite tricky. This still intrigued the party but we decided to put off storming them in favor of attempting to solve an ancient and infrequently deadly mystery. The Defenders could remember a small group of ogres attacking Restenford in 2180, their leader declaring himself to be King of the World. The group was slaughtered easily, but died fanatically, convinced of their right to rule and slay all who opposed them. Later in the same year, a bugbear and a worg named Sput tried to kill farmers outside of town, claiming that THEY were kings of the world. Sput ended up skinned as a helmet on Quentin’s head, but nonetheless, it was disturbing. Furthermore other towns nearby had undergone similar attacks; Barnacus, Garroten, and Trun. It became apparent looking at the map that the center of this problem seemed to be in the vicinity of Rog, the corrupt mining town that is little more than a front for bandit groups such as the Blue and Gray in the north. Clearly any investigation done in Rog would be dicey at best. Still, it seemed that research was in order, and so we checked records in the towns that were attacked. We found some very interesting trends.
Continue reading “Balinor/Morty/Tarplin Summary #1: The King of the World: Regicide”