Author: Joel

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Rooster, NPC
The party was bored.
This is very dangerous.
Winter rolled on—endless rain, dreary days… and then one February day, Morgan was strolling along the beach, and happened to find a gold ring with diamonds in the sand. Impressed, he kept it. Days later, pirates were captured by Gelpus and the guard, waterlogged and begging for mercy. They had mutinied against their captain, then gotten caught and trashed against the rocks near Restenford. They were sent off to Barnacus. The pirate leaders, all wanted men, were dead.
Kain spoke with some fish, and Cassian and Felix used Waterwalk to investigate the wrecked ship, and found a treasure chest with 1300 gp in it!
Life settled back down, and Quentin finished training the animals to guard the house in case it blows up again. Ah, carefree are the Defenders.

Continue reading “Defenders Adventure #49: Chicken 1, Castle Diamond 0”

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Count down to 2179 with the Defenders! See the fabulous New Years’ celebration in Restenford! See the ball drop during lanthalasa-te!
Subtitled: “My Winter Vacation” by Balinor Buckannah
Bless Nevron. Or something like that. I never followed that stuff too well.
Winter on Lendore Isle sucks. It rains a lot, and my armor rusts. I hate winter.

Continue reading “Defenders Adventure #48: Restenford Defenders’ Lendore Vacation”

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Gaston, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Joel
Just as the party began to descend down the limestone stairs, there was a rumbling noise as ten feet of rock caved in the room behind us. Someone knew we were here, and they wanted us to go forward….
Prior to the game, some backlogging was done. Gaston, a fighter who retired from the Defenders back in 2173, had been acting as a dog trainer and guard for the Baron of Restenford. Though his five years had been relatively uneventful, in 2176 he was nearly killed by a giant spider after being paralyzed by its web. Though he survived, in a fashion typical for Gaston, he took permanent damage—1 comeliness point.
Later that year, Gaston trained to 2nd level, gaining 6 hp to stand at 12, and learned Lasso. He decided to join the party on this mission of revenge against those who blew up our house. He is currently with the party on the stairs.
Cassian, meanwhile, had traveled to Teft and performed services of healing as a cleric of Phaulkon. The highlight of her two years there was the destruction of a very intelligent evil sword. In late 2178, Cassian decided to return to Restenford.

Continue reading “Defenders Adventure #47: Powerful Enemies, Powerful Friends”

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
We last left off with the party in Carse for some trading. First we identified the double dose potion (from the fire giant) as extra-healing! We made an attempt to trade Kodo’s plate mail+1 for studded leather +2 or similar, but instead we got two weird offers:
Druidic armor (some high plus)
+3 cloak—only problem with this was that it was bright neon red
No deals were made. Some more looking around Herman’s Odds and Ends, and Rosarita’s Potions, etc. was done.
We then took the next ship out of Carse back Restenford, intending to relax and maybe trash some bandits.
Astoundingly, there were no sea encounters! Woo-hoo!
We landed ashore in Restenford, and headed over to our house, only to find that it wasn’t there.
This struck as a bit odd. We were quite sure we had a roof and interior walls and such, but all we saw was a foundation and a burned out shell.
The Baron explained to us that the house and shed had exploded.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #46: Troubles at Home”

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan (c/o Joel)
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
The Defenders had just reached the edge of the evil feeling forest where the satyr-like creature lived. We intended to pretend to negotiation, encircle it, and attack.
Preparations were fairly simple. Goodberries were passed around, Quentin took Hold Plant and Dispel Magic, Donald took Dispel Magic, and Kain prepared to take down fellow party members if they got charmed by the creature.
It was simple to find the tree that it occupied. Quentin called out the creature’s name, and it appeared. It looked like a little creature with very extreme hair, several feet long in all directions. The creature carried a club and stood about two feet tall.
It laughed almost nervously and sat on the rock. When Quentin tried to negotiate, it denied having ever signed treaties. The rest of the party advanced on it, and it looked around, almost unconcerned, and giggling occasionally. With a shrug, we initiated the attack.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #45: When Hippies Go Terribly Wrong”

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC (played by Katherine this game)
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
The party began, as is its wont, by arguing about a plan. Having come up with one, we executed with a style and grace previously unheard of in party history. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it actually worked!
First, Alduin was made invisible by Invisibility, 10’ Radius (a spell that is at least as good as Invisibility, with other benefits as well) and he moved through the camp. Dodging ogres working on the palisade, he reached the doorway to the great hall, which was covered by two skins that parted in the middle. He looked inside, but could see little except for a roaring fire and a couple of curtains hiding the back corner of the building from view. There were tools for building lying around.
The next night we followed the five ogres after they left camp, an invisible Alduin following closely with animals for communication with the main group. When the ogres stopped to bang an opossum against a tree repeatedly, the party caught up, and when the ogres noticed us coming they yelled, “What are THOSE things?”

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #44: Defenders 7, Ogres 0”

Party Roster:
Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Our party had just decided to visit the Archdruid of the New World in hopes of recharging the Rod of Thorns and performing druidic quests. We set off on a trip east on the mainland to areas we had never been before.
Kain trained his new crow, Spittle (taken from the elf mage on the orc island) to do surveillance for us. The crow is quite intelligent (int 3) and can count to 8, as well as mimic a number of phrases like “Ya scurvy bastards! I’ll have alla ya keel-hauled!” or some other more graphic ones. The bird repeats things sad in anger quite well, so every so often we’ll hear “Where are my boots, Morgan!?” or numerous other phrases. The crow heckles Quentin’s crows, is extremely ugly to them, and loves to eat eyeballs. One of its tricks is to the attack the eyeballs of a target. A pirate crow, indeed.
Taking a barge down the Laine River through the city-states north of western Dunador (in three rolls I did manage some sort of sea encounter, thank you, you’re too kind… but nothing came of it). We landed in Kelburn, were scoffed at, and moved on after restocking rations and having the local cartographer draw us a map of how to get to the Wild Wood Inn. By this time we had learned to move the conversation along after the inevitable, “Oh! You don’t want to go THERE!”

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #43: Some Traveling Music”

Well, this was mostly a downtime, but I’ll hit the highlights.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #42: A Peaceful Interlude”