The World of Telvar

The party that had just defeated and occupied the Fire Giant Citadel had already been trying to track down the evil dwarven prince named Obmi when he and his Fire Giant compatriots had laid the torch to Hoch-Och. So, this tale actually begins BEFORE the attack on Hoch Och.

But, really, we should say ATTACKS.

To explain:
The Phaulkonian Church in Hoch-Och was blown up on Lanthalassa-Té, the Church’s high holy days, killing many innocent worshippers.

Then, three months later, Fire Giants came down out of the mountains and burned down a quarter of the town before they were chased off. This resulted in ~100,000 gp in damage and more deaths.

Ouch.

Before that had happened, though, Cassian and Mordrick had already decided to start looking for Obmi, whose cloning lab at the Citadel had been destroyed. Obmi had been defeated twice before as well. [So we began by logging in ~1.5 years of surveillance, sage research, as well as previously-logged training.]

Since Buck had been captured by the Ghoul King (lich) and was out of sync, he couldn't catch up until early 2197. The entire party arrived in Hoch Och just shortly after the 2nd giant attack on the city. A few days later, Buck bounded into town, or what was left of it.

Buck, to show his devotion and his great sadness at having missed the attack, then got a huge full-body falcon tattoo and became, well, something of a fanatic.

[As an aside, the former Fire Giant citadel—current name unknown—appears to be adequately protected. Warwick has retired there, Cassian has hired a charismatic preacher to convert the Northerners that have moved in to the area (and those that lived around it anyway) and Warwick is trying his hardest to turn it into a Phaulkonian city-state. Mel was going to retire there, but Cassian put him back into the party for this adventure, because the party lacked melee strength, even with Buck.]

As part of the surveillance for Obmi’s activity, Mordrick, the Lordly High Chiseler of the Dwarven Kingdom, ended up assigning his low-level thieves (from his thieves’ guild) to surveillance duty.

He and Cassian had discussed and decided upon a few people to look out for, people with whom Obmi would need to do business in order to make a new cloning lab, something we knew he would undoubtedly be doing again. (Obmi is obsessed with immortality.)

Among these targets were precision glassblowers. So, he assigned ~20 thieves to watch precision glassblowers, purveyors of high quality sand, etc. The party also decided to have an "obvious" surveillance of people involved in the "disguise item" trade so that Obmi would think that was our "real" surveillance plan if he discovered it. The goal was to even be somewhat "ham-handed" so that it WOULD be discovered.

Our research of people capable of helping with the construction of cloning lab gear concluded that there were 4 possible precision glassblowers in the area. 2 glassblowers in the near Realm (Wunka), 2 in nearby Cromwell, and none in Shabrund that would work with Obmi without also giving info to Mordrick. We found it likely that Obmi might try to kidnap a glassblower to take elsewhere.... or purchase equipment from them.

In addition to this surveillance, we also did research on historical locations of cloning labs or places associated with research into immortality, in the Near Realm, Shabrund, and Cromwell. It was thought that Obmi might decide to visit and/or co-opt such a location. In the process we determined that the set found at the Citadel was pretty definitely a set that had disappeared, workers and all, during the Realmish civil war. Most of the other sets were pretty certainly destroyed, or seemed unlikely for candidates various reasons. 3 sets of note were found:

1. One set belonged to the Seer of Saib (Saib is a squalid city Alegra passed through on her way to Hochland)

2. An immortal Archmage on a mountaintop along the coast, closer to White Mountain dwarves, may or may not have a cloning lab, or other ability to have become immortal.

3. The Horn of Iggwilv was thought to have a cloning lab. However, the Horn of Iggwilv seemed dangerous even for Obmi… [Joel: “Obmi should, uh, go into the room with the three orangutans or the blue crystals. I'm sure it would work out.”] …which left the other two.

We tried researching both other options extensively. We had a gut feeling it was #2 based on our research. #1 we had almost no info on.... he's a paranoid political figure with a great deal of power in the middle of a hugely populated slum, which seemed the wrong place for Obmi.

Eventually, we started getting letters about a glassblower from one of our spies, which confirmed our initial guess.

We ALSO got a purchase order from a hat of disguise vendor that was interesting... Obmi had pretty obviously bought a hat of disguise with the form "Vaprack" (ogre-troll hybrid) and given the name Kruzzhole Steamhand, which seemed like a nod to Mordrick Ironhand (we presumed that he had noted our surveillance), but we took note anyway. Interesting that the place we were interested in had a lot of Ogres, worshippers of Vaprack...

Getting back to the precision glassblower, our spy noticed that his assigned charge, a glassblower, did not come back from a family vacation as he was supposed to. Another spy had been tailing him on the vacation and sent in reports. Apparently, he was sitting by the river when an old fisherman came up and looked to be asking directions. When he got near he tapped the glassblower on the shoulder and immediately the glassblower began following him and they wandered off. At some point, the old fisherman turned into a "fat dwarf" but the glassblower was unperturbed.

They headed in the direction of the White Mountain dwarves at first. At some point, Obmi and the glassblower turned towards the mountain that we had earlier associated with an Archmage. So, then we knew his destination with a fair degree of certainty.

The Mountain: Thalask, 12000 ft.
Thalask: Brutal sub-zero cold, 50 mph winds, terrible weather, called "cradle of the gods" by locals. The weather got worse after the archmage's arrival, it's been terrible for centuries. Tornadoes, snow, wind, even stray hurricanes find their way there. [Must be either 8th/9th level spell effects, druidic magic gone astray, or ceremonial/rite type effects.]

A married pair of great giants lived there ~200 years ago. So, a Realmish reserve party arrived to clear them. They were successful. The village at the base of Thalask, Tharakill, hosted a party for the victorious adventurers.

The archmage from the party decided to stay. He thought the party's festive event for the townspeople and adventuring party was wasteful. He had been obsessed with longevity and seemed to think the mountain was the key to living forever or at least a very long time. After the party, he departed up the mountain. He took no gear or supplies and has not been seen for 200 years, since that very day. We confirmed this with the old blacksmith dwarf in town, named Heltus, who had arrived as a boy and was there for all of the past 200 years.

Obmi and the glassblower arrived in Tharakill and left towards the mountain. Our spy, Grandin Firefeet, 2nd level thief, stayed in Tharakill. We departed to meet him there.

The mountain area was called the Sleeper's Teeth.

The Archmage was known to be neither evil nor good, and the druid of the area was concerned about the unnatural weather but otherwise thought he was fine.

Before we had left for Tharakill, Buck had bought the best magical bastard sword he could find. It was only +0/+2 versus magical creatures and it shed light. [Sucky roll, but he took what he could get.]

Before leaving, Cassian also cast a Divination on Thalask:

"The mountain is a weak spot between the prime, fire, earth, and astral planes. By the wishes of the powers of chaotic neutral, no more information will be revealed without cause."

Lastly, the party borrowed Frostwolf Coats from Alegra and we also borrowed Lupent's hat of disguise.

Other relevant equipment: Cassian had her (crazy powerful) ring of (unlimited) invisibility. Mordrick had a ring of chameleon (not as good, but pretty nice!)

We arrived in Tharakill and questioned Heltus, the blacksmith dwarf. We found out there was a barbarian, Koth, who takes people up on the mountain or to find Zrodar the Zero, a great giant who wanders the area.

We then talked to Koth and there was much amusing dialogue between Koth and Buck. We found out some things about the archmage, such as:

The archmage killed one of the great giants himself, with.... a meteor swarm.
He wore jet black with silver hawks inlaid on his clothing.
Supposedly, the archmage destroyed a village 7 miles south, but we thought this was a myth.
Also, there were rumors of a fire demon on the mountain, but Koth had never seen it.
Apparently, given the archmage’s interest in longevity there was some indication he could have cloning facilities, but since no one had seen him in 200 years it was unclear.

We assumed that Obmi had come to bargain with the Archmage using some piece of knowledge he had about immortality (since money presumably was not important to the mage).

Koth was nice but arrogant, and had a weird changeable accent and features that weren't any obvious race of humans. He would only say he came from "far away." He also wore a beanie. He would take us up on the mountain for a fee, but wanted to charge us for a training course and it would be extra (1000 gp) if we wanted him to enter the mage's lair with us. Buck (Andy) decided to challenge him to a drinking contest to see if he could reduce/eliminate the fee. He lost the contest, but just barely. Then, they arm-wrestled, and after a quick loss, they repeated it, and Buck ended up winning. The only way Koth would reduce his fee, though, was for Buck to beat him in real wrestling, which Buck had no skill in.... but he agreed anyway! In a long and dramatic wrestling battle in the middle of the bar room floor, Buck eventually managed to win! There was a moment when they were simultaneously knocked out on the floor, but Buck awoke first and managed to take proper advantage, eventually knocking out Koth! [Took us about 1.5 hours to resolve the bar scene, I think.]

He was then paraded through town, dumped in the livestock pen, and then washed with drinks. He returned to the bar, and they drank together awhile. It was clear though that the townsfolk loved Koth, and over time "Buck beat Koth" morphed into "Koth let Buck win".... such was his love within the town. And, of course, such was Koth’s persistent re-telling of the story from that angle.

Anyway, he agreed to take us up without fee or training course. We left two days later after Buck recovered.

Cassian did do an astrology reading around this time on an "auspicious date" but got pretty weak results.

"The sign of the scythe (Death) eclipses the crown (Obmi) and the cornucopia (Wealth) moves away from the crown. Your lucky number is 4, color is black, date is this month."

Didn't get a good date, but definitely some verification we were on to Obmi.

We ascended the mountain and it took us one day to do it. The mountain was littered with caves above and below the snow line, about 70 major ones. We arrived at the top late in the day.

There was a 25 foot diameter spire on top with a huge black skull for a door but no other markings, windows, or doors. We searched for secret doors but found none on the tower.

We mulled it over quite awhile, then finally decided on "True Seeing."

Oh, before that, an augury...

"In a wise man's town, the tallest building always has a lightning rod." (This will become obvious after the fact, like all good auguries.)

Hmmph. So, yes, True Seeing.

And we then spotted the trap on the door (magical) and the secret door NOT on the tower, several feet away, also trapped.

We decided to go that direction instead, disabled the trap, and headed in. There was a ladder leading down, we headed down single file, the only way we could. It was a warm and comfortable 70 degrees inside.

Downstairs, a beautiful room ~60’ x 60’, carpeted and nice.

There were beautiful paintings on the walls of other planes. Buck touched one, but nothing happened.

It was at that moment that a beautiful woman standing in the room turned towards us…

…And asked Buck not to do that... the painting was from a rare painter. [Probably worth 100000+ GP.]

Cassian noticed with her True Seeing that the beautiful woman standing in the room was not actually a woman at all, but appeared to be made of snow. [Snow golem?] Cassian also spotted a secret door to one side.

The woman asked us why we were there.

We responded that we were looking for someone, a dwarf. She said, he's obviously not here. We assured her that we were not here to kill the archmage. She then said that she doubted our honesty. We asked her if she could let him know we were there. She assured us then that Azirax probably already knew we were there.

A moment later, she invited us to sit and have wine [an extremely valuable vintage]. We partook.

The secret door opened and another snow golem appeared, this one in male form. [Note, only Cassian could see the door open, the rest only saw him appear.] He resembled the Archmage from our previous description, and we presumed that the mage did not know we were aware he was only made of snow.

We found out the woman's name was Floramel during the discussion.

We basically asserted that we were looking for an evil dwarf who had come to the mountain looking to work with Azirax and that he should not be given any aid. We only wanted to confront the dwarf elsewhere.

The Azirax golem told us that he must be a "great enemy of yours" for us to have gone to this much trouble. He then told us that Obmi did come here some time ago.

He fought with some of Azirax's guardians and when Azirax spoke with Obmi, Obmi made some offers to the archmage that he didn't really believe. He ended up basically telling Obmi to get lost and he did. He clearly did not have a high opinion of Obmi or his tactics.

We chatted awhile longer, but then Azirax got impatient and just asked us to leave. "You've drunk some of my 'rather nice' wine and gotten mud on my rugs which will cause me some effort to fix. I suggest you leave NOW."

We actually parleyed a moment longer, and then left.

We took shelter somewhat lower on the mountain in a cave and did a Divination on the part of the mountain below the cave complex at the top.

[The 25' diameter spire with the Skull Door was really just an elaborate trap... which Obmi apparently fell into. Inside was a snow golem holding a huge explosive. A fake trapdoor which led nowhere... No entrance to the complex proper. Glad we didn't do that!]

Divination:

"Chaotic neutral forces of Zgodar allow you to see what is happening here. Forces of LE and CE hide under the [non-detection] mantle of Zgodar. Their treasure is meaningful, their power significant." Zgodar = godling

[Actually just noticed the great giant in the area is Zrodar, and the godling is Zgodar. Wondering if I missed an obvious connection or if I just wrote down something wrong. Hmph.]

The next day, on August 7th, 2197, we decided we needed to do a Commune to determine if Obmi had stayed on the mountain, or had run, and various subsidiary questions given either answer. These were our results:

1. Is Obmi on or in this mountain? YES.
2. Is he generally recognizable as himself? NO.
3. Is Obmi the largest contributor to the force of LE? YES.
4. Does he have allies of significance with him? YES.
5. Is the CE force likely to aid Obmi? YES.
6. Is the entrance to Obmi’s location on the eastern half of the mountain? NO.
7. Northern half? NO.
8. Above the snow line? NO.
9. Should we immediately move to locate Obmi and engage him? NO.
10. Are we prepared for a combat encounter with Obmi and his companions? UNANSWERABLE.

[We may have asked too many questions here, because I thought there was also a question that narrowed the location to a partial wedge within the quartile of the mountain we had identified.]

On August 8th, Cassian talked to Buzzards, Ravens (Lorek), and Hawks. The hawks agreed to take a message to the local druid. The ravens identified 3 caves with bipedal creatures in them. Over the next two days, we had Lorek take us to these 3 caves one by one, and we surveilled them.

August 9th:

Cave #1. 2 white people, probably frost giants.
Cave #2. Ogres with a small “fortress” built into the mountain, smoke coming out of the chimney at night. Ogre totems.

At this fortress, we talked to Owls, including Osler. One of the owls had been talked to by a weird one-eyed Ogre inside, who seemed “wrong.” There was some confusion in conversation in which it appeared he may have been charmed/dominated and intended to take information to the Ogres. In the end, we captured him and… wait for it… tied up the owl and took him with us.
[Random quotation: “Don’t come any closer, or the owl gets hurt.”]

August 10th:

Cave #3. A large cave with trapped ogre totems and a perimeter around the cave. There were 2 ogres per picket, with 8 at the entrance, 6-7 orc flunkies making spears. Through owl questioning, we determined there was an escape route which we examined. Mordrick and Cassian could easily pass their lines, so a number of spells were used to examine the cave. It did not appear an ogre mage was involved. Locate object determined there were no Thieves Tools within the cave, although an old set was found in the garbage pile out front.

Returned to the “fortress” and Mordrick scouted it at night. A really well-equipped ogre (large sword, shield, chain mail/plates) came out and collected fire wood. When he returned inside it was clear there was a barring mechanism on the door. Also, there were arrow-slit like windows on the wooden-walled fortress. Mordrick observed that it had recently been shored up pretty significantly, but in a very subtle way. The fire-wood replenishment happened every two hours and it seemed vastly more than would be necessary for warmth. We suspected a forge.

August 11th:

Cassian scanned the building with Locate Object to look for Thieves’ Tools… but the spell failed. The presence of spell-blocking power made us highly suspicious.

Koth disguised our camp well, we continued to reconnoiter.

Astrology calculations were completed on the 12th.

“The crown and the hearth are central and the traveler is in motion. Your most fortuitous date is August 16th. Your lucky number is 3. Color is red [red-black…fire-giant red].”

August 14th. Ogres come into the clearing, an arrow is fired from the house/fortress. Ogre is spoken to/from building – threatening. 2nd arrow fired. The ogres from outside leave. Mordrick sneaks up and examines the arrow and it is clearly hand-made and huge, much larger
than a human long arrow. Later, Cassian confirms it is fletched with owl feathers.

Cassian decides to scan the area with detect magic/evil/find traps and also locate object through the chimney. She finds thieves tools within the building and finds a glyph on the door. LE and CE are both present. There is also a mechanical trap within the chimney.

Mordrick sneaks into the fortress at night (using Cassian’s invisibility ring AND his own ring of chameleon for extra backup) during the firewood exchange. He observes: One really big ogre with no armor (hill giant sized). One with a weird black eye patch with a white eye drawn on it. He appears “wrong” somehow and the others are clearly afraid of him. The other two are nearly impossible to tell apart, only one has a shield and the other does not. There are four bunks, this appears to be everyone.

When firewood is brought in, it is taken to the only other door in the back wall. The door opens and an ogre-troll hybrid [e.g., he looks like Vaprack] appears, looking scary. Firewood is brought in and then the door is closed. This is exactly the reported disguise that Kruzzhole Steamhand had ordered… during the spy operation we had intentionally tried to bungle—whoops!—so this is certainly Obmi. Presumably the glassblower is inside as well.

1500 g.p. divination: “The forces of Kador [LE dwarven god of revenge/mischief, Obmi] masquerade as the forces of Vaprack. The forces of Vaprack [greater ogres] aspire to great triumph over the forces of Vaprack. Forces in the area are very dangerous but not completely impossible. Treasure is meaningful and of significance. The forces of Chelsean [glassblower] are insignificant in the area. The chance of unnerving a diety are small but not zero.”

We quickly created a plan:

Mordrick would slip into the building during a firewood exchange and hide himself while invisible and chameleoned. He would carefully undo the latch on one of the windows, allowing it to be pushed open slightly. He would then set up near the door to Obmi’s lair after the firewood exchange. Willis would be outside along with Cassian and the rest of the party, ready to attack. Willis would Knock through the gap in the window on the door to Obmi’s lair. Mordrick would then quietly slip through into the lair and push the door shut. Then, Cassian would launch a Fireball through the gap in the window from her Belt. The party would then force their way inside (the door would be unbarred because one Ogre would still be outside at this point, which Koth would attempt to rapidly destroy as Buck and the rest of the party advanced to take the other three. Mordrick would be left to deal with Obmi until the party could break past the ogres… his goal would be to get a killing or near-killing blow with a backstab.

This was the plan until the early morning of our “auspicious day.”

At about 1:30am on the morning of the 16th, 3 ogres (eye patch, no armor, and one of the other two) departed, along with a 4’ tall metal dwarven golem, marching into the woods. Shortly thereafter, the remaining ogre came out to get firewood as usual. We rapidly decided to alter plans….

[This summary of activities is necessarily Mordrick-centric, since I didn’t note what everyone else was doing in every segment. Unfortunately, I don’t remember more details here.]

Mordrick sneaked into the fortress and found it empty. He unlatched the window as planned, but came out to tell the party the others were definitely gone. Under cover of Silence from Cassian, the party quickly ambushed and murdered the ogre outside [76 points of damage in 1 segment from invisible Buck, Koth, Lilly, Mel, and Zephyr.] Mordrick had moved into position outside of Obmi’s door and did not participate in the attack.

The ogre was dragged into the building under Silence and Koth spent a little time camouflaging and watching for the returning ogres. Willis Knocked the door to Obmi, but it did not move. Mordrick thought it was unlocked, but just closed. Buck listened at the door for Mordrick’s initial attack as Mordrick quietly slipped into Obmi’s room.

Inside was a large room with weird wobbly tiles on the floor (better to deter thieves—of less than 12th level!). There was a glassblowing setup on one side, and a forge manned by 2 metal dwarves nearby. There was a small platform with a bookshelf across the room, and there was Obmi working at a desk, sitting on a stool, writing in a book [copying a Runic IV cloning library] with 1 metal dwarf nearby. Mordrick successfully sneaked across the tiles, to the platform. He was now directly behind Obmi and only 3 steps separated them. He moved up the steps…. Failed to notice the trap on the second one and tripped it, giving Obmi a second’s notice to get off the stool. Obmi was still surprised, however, and there was enough time for Mordrick to get in his backstab [he took the backstab and the wounding feat, so he’s pretty good at this as a 12th level thief with +3 magical shortsword of speed and +2 dagger!].

Slash/stab.

62 points of damage, a 4-times wound and a single wound. The disposable illusionary armor Obmi was wearing collapsed, as well as a Stoneskin.

Though now visible, Mordrick was still Chameleoned, making him harder to hit. Mordrick still could attack every 1 1/3 segments with both weapons, so he was able to get in another attack before Obmi was fully on his feet. Rolled nearly minimal damage… 21 points. 1 1/3 segments later, Mordrick fumbled and (barely) hit, for 10 points of damage, just enough (due to Cassian’s Prayer) to collapse his SECOND Stoneskin. At the same time, Obmi whapped Mordrick with his Battleaxe for about 20 points of damage and a wound.

By now, Buck (with Heroism) had heard the initial attack and charged into the room followed by Cassian, Mel, Zephyr, Willis, and Lilly.

Just a partial segment later, before the fighters could close, Cassian blasted Obmi with a fierce Lightning Strike (the new “elemental strike” version of Flame Strike) for 38 points of damage. Willis followed this up with a 10 point magic missile, enough to drop Obmi’s THIRD Stoneskin.

Though Obmi had opted to draw his Battleaxe, he did not use it again… instead he hit a mechanical switch in his helmet.

The metal dwarf on the platform also clocked Mordrick for 9 points, no wound.

Meanwhile, Mel and Buck managed to do damage to Obmi as well—Mel with a fierce spear-thrust, and Buck for 11 points and a single-wound. “Take that, defiler!”

More strikes fell for another 76 points of damage, a double and a quadruple wound. At the end of that segment, Obmi’s gear collapsed just as he vanished. Uh oh.

Mordrick, Buck, Mel, and Lilly, then destroyed the 3 golems.

Zephyr captured the glassblower and unshackled him from the forge. He then tied up the glassblower.

The battle appeared to be over…. But where was Obmi?

Cassian cast True Seeing… and appeared to have an answer.

Obmi’s form was apparently Gaseous, but had remained in the same place where his gear was. The Defenders and the Stone Soules once each saw this as well… it appeared he may have died in gaseous form.
We collected his form in a barrel and waited. As we consolidated our power, healed Mordrick, checked for traps, etc., and as predicted about 30 minutes later, Obmi’s dead form collapsed in the barrel.
Cassian, Mordrick, and Buck, relished their revenge.

And then Mordrick quickly beheaded the evil Obmi.

The party briefly interrogated the glassblower, determined that he was probably kidnapped, but didn't want to risk fully trusting him yet. They kept him tied him up and left him in the relative safety of the forge room (along with the other, bound prisoner, the owl).

After dealing with the glassblower, the party decided to ambush the ogres upon their return. This was a good move! We decided to target the Eye Patch Ogre first, on the testimony of the owl, and the fact that the other Ogres appeared to fear him.

About 1.5 hours later, the party was camouflaged (thanks, Koth!) outside and ready for the attack as the 3 ogres returned to the clearing marching their golem. They headed just as we expected them to, right towards the door.

And Cassian blasted them with a Called Lightning (44 points) at the same time as her henchman Willis incinerated them with a Fireball from the Belt (25 points). The smallest ogre was killed instantly but the Big Ogre (no armor) appeared to have evaded the Fireball entirely.

Mordrick then emerged behind the ogres for a quick backstab on the Eye Patch Ogre. 58 points, a double wound and a quadruple wound. He died instantly.

Mordrick gets his by the iron dwarf at the same time as the Phaulkonian heroes arrive to do battle with the Big Ogre. Lilly hits with throwing dagger. Buck hits the Big Ogre with his magical bastard sword for 20 points and a double wound… while simultaneously getting clocked by the Big Ogre with a magical bastard sword for 16 points and 6 points of cold damage. Buck: “I’m going to enjoy using that bastard sword myself!” Mel also got in some vicious strikes upon the Big Ogre!

Zephyr hits for 14 points while Koth hits for 14 with his broad sword and 12 with his axe. The Big Ogre collapses at the end of the segment.

A few moments later, the iron dwarf is destroyed.

The battle is over and the loot is all ours.

Commune: Is Obmi really dead? YES.

Ah, satisfaction.

Treasure and who got what:

Obmi (his 5th set of equipment in the campaign world)

Leather armor of reduced weight (100 cn) CASH
Quality Hammer +1/+1 CASH
Thieves Tools +3% CASH
35 x 100 gp gems CASH (Cassian)
39 gp CASH
Hammer +1/+4 vs fighters TAX
Battle Axe +1 TAX
Ring of Prot +2 Mordrick
Ring of Acid Resistance TAX
Cloak of Cold Immunity, 5 1hr charges TAX
Hat of disguise Vaprack form Mordrick
2 use of Oil of Impact +7 Mordrick
1 potion of Extra Healing Cassian
1 potion of Healing Buck
3 magic bandages Buck, Cassian, Mordrick
3/8 potion of Invisibility Buck
1 use of Dust of Disappearance Mordrick

Gear
Partial cloning library (20K) CASH
Alchemist recipes (15K) CASH
Tome of Iron Man Creation (7.5K) SOLD TO ELI (8K)
Precision Glassblowing Equipment (4.5K) SOLD TO GLASSBLOWER (5K)
Alchemical Equip (mobile) (2K) CASH
3 chests of 4000 dwarvish gp CASH (Chests to Cassian)
quality bastard sword +1 CASH
165 misc gp equipment CASH
250 gp reward (Azaki (Eye Patch)’s head; Big Ogre—“Lord Ergs”—has a 2000 gp reward we missed out on… Burly Hair and Half Jack were also ~200 gp each, also didn’t claim—doh!)

Ogres (all on Lord Ergs except the Eye Patch)

Bracers AC4/AT10 60 cn TAX
Ring +2/+4 on saves Cassian
Bastard Sword +2/+6 cold damage “Twice bitten, once shy” Buck
Eye Patch (enigmatic—required expensive ID at Academy) More later
Ring of Dexterity Cassian—traded for Greater Circlet of Radiance (5d12 damage 1/wk)

Eye Patch: “An Eye for Opportunity” “Eye Patch of Ambitious Visions”
Become pre-cognitive by burning XP in return for VERY accurate visions of the future. See paths forward that lead to ambitious goals, but also has a slightly malevolent bent. (“You could gain advancement by arranging the death of that official.”) In addition, it could allow the wearer to see, for example, exactly which way to dodge a blow, exactly how to hit his opponent to take advantage of their greatest weakness, exactly when to duck a lightning bolt, etc. It also appears to really set you on a path to be not just any bad guy, but a bad guy of truly terrible importance. Buck kind of wanted this, but Cassian thought that any of the party could be corrupted by the inherent “wrongness” of the eye patch. She was convinced that there was something more wrong with the patch than could be appreciated even after the significant research effort. It had some “seriously bad mojo.” Buck could only agree with this logic, and we eventually gave it to the Academy in return for a 5000 gp reward.

Total cash was ~67500 gp. Koth took a full share of gold, no magic items, rest of gold used to reimburse Mordrick and Cassian and a little to Buck and then divided.

Tying up loose ends: the glassblower was brought back to civilization, his story was verified, and he was released. The influence over the owl appears to have been broken when the eye-patch ogre was killed, and we released it, as well.

XP

Koth 6808 (2500 story award for defeating ogres and learning more about the mountain)
Zephyr 1134
Mel 1189
Lilly 1519
Willis 1602
Buck 10789
Mordrick 6243 F/ 12298 T
Cassian 18489

Mordrick gained 13th level thief. Gaining 2 HP to stand at 89. (Minimum, plus failed 90% chance to re-roll!), Mordrick was done training in June 2198. He is off to his own adventures unless he and the Phaulkonians have common goals again.

Cassian gained 10th level cleric, gaining 3 HP to stand at 58 (67 with her amulet). Cassian was done training on October 15, 2198. The Phaulkonians are ready for new adventures.
Success!

Side Comments:
What’s next?…. Retrieving the Iron Rod of Parn from Bob the Anarchist Cleric?? (or actually, his successor! Kyle is keen, but Cassian is cautious. We will wait and see!)

BTW, I believe, but am not sure, that the Ring was a Ring of 16 Dex. Now, I can't really remember though. There were restrictions that didn't make it too useful for any of us.

Oil of impact does 7 points of "impact" damage in addition to weapon damage when you strike with any compatible weapon.

Apparently, the eye patch made you "wrong" because you were able to see the future, which is something that I think just looks "wrong" to the Universe. As far as we can tell, it didn't provide any useful information unless you actively decided to use it. Since we ambushed them and went for him right away because of his "wrongness"--he never got to activate the item. If he had, we're pretty sure bad things would have happened.

The ogres appear to have just been mercenaries working with Obmi because he was giving them something they wanted.... this appeared to be the use of his iron dwarves for perhaps conquering the neighboring Ogres... although with the Eye Patch, greater goals can also be considered likely!

I definitely thought about the Ring of Acid Resistance for Rangorn. If there was any way it could have worked.... As it is, Rangorn is years in the past. Which is a good thing! It's 2198! And the party is free to find other adventures. First party to 2200??

--Kyle (Mordrick, et al. this time around)