Author: Joel

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

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Nakumanu, 2nd level fighter, 14 hp, henchman of Felix
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff
The party had just been left wandering confusedly about the tunnels. We had just defeated three pairs of crystal golems. Sadly, the hoped for exit was not beyond the door, and we continued wandering around. We discovered a rubble filled room, with a weird natural tunnel coming out of it. We had some hopes that it might lead out, but of course, this being our favorite compound, things just got even more bizarre.
We went down the tunnel, Balinor in the lead due to some nice healing on him. Suddenly, Alduin noticed a rumbling sound. It became much louder. We turned to run…
And a huge worm came whipping up the tunnel, opened its mouth and swallowed Balinor whole. Felix, Kodo, Morgan, and Nakumanu turned to fight the creature. Morgan yelled “Thunderstruck” and pounded it, and the fighters began ripping at it. The creature was enraged with Morgan and tried to kill him. Take a wild guess what happened.
Nakumanu discovered while swinging the magic falchion that it was +3 vs. regenerating creatures, which the worm was.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Nakumanu, 2nd level fighter, 14 hp, henchman of Felix
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff
Our party had just trashed a trio of bad guys, an elven fighter/mage or thief/mage, a human cleric of the Queen of Grottos, and a human warrior.
We became un_Slowed_ and did some exploring. We still had an hour and a half of buffer time for the orc forces to swing around the mountain and cut us off. We intended to leave within a half hour or so to be completely safe (since neither the orcs nor the Defenders were crazy enough to wander around the Trail of the Dead at night).
The rooms coming off the weird lit room were quarters for the trio. In one was an insulting and highly intelligent, and bloodthirsty crow. It appeared to be the pet of the mage. Talking to it revealed that all three had been charmed by the fat guy (Piggy). He was apparently a powerful wizard of some sort. The fact that the elf had been charmed was rather disturbing, given elven resistance to charm effects.
The cleric’s room was glyphed, which Felix set off, and was paralyzed. He recovered a few minutes later.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff
Special Thanks to Chester, Quentin’s bobcat, and Lenore and Morris, Quentin’s crows
When we last left the Defender saga, the party was planning to take out some orcs. A shaman and 8 of his servants were in a room through which we intended to go. First, we decided to finish exploring, and we moved through the dark room with the pits—in one was 3 Kara-kara, but they were blue instead of green, and were cowering, starving in the corner. In the other were some bones.
Ignoring them, we noted two exits. One, we suspected led back into the shaman room. The other led somewhere close to the ceremony. To confirm, we opened up the first door a crack. Unfortunately, the perceptive shaman noticed the movement, and motioned for us, who he thought were servants (the door wasn’t fully opened yet), to come in.
Oh well. Donald began a Sleep spell, while Balinor, Kain, and Quentin rushed around to block their escape from the other side. Morgan continued to slowly open the door.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff
Welcome to the Island of the Kara-kara! See… tangled jungles filled with Morgan loving bugs! See… lightning give Morgan a special greeting! See… an orcish party! See…
The Defenders do the island!
When we last left, the Defenders were plotting an ambush against an unexpected obstacle—actual guards. Donald threw a nasty sleep spell, catching all but one of the 6 orcs, and everyone fired their missile weapons while Felix ran madly at them. Of course, all six were grunts and the one we all shot fell over from damage. We quickly dispatched the rest, dropped the bodies in the swamp for decomposition purposes, and moved on.
We reached the village at about noon, and discovered that we had a big problem. The drums were quite loud and being played by large numbers of orcs at the temple near the other edge of the town. The temple was in a cave dug into the volcano, supposedly dormant for hundreds of years. However, there were still about a hundred guards ringing the village, making it impossible for us to sneak inside without the aid of invisibility effects, which we don’t have. So we decided instead that, being adventurers, why not walk down the Forbidden Path, also known as the Trail of the Dead, presumably where the shadows had come from? This seemed perfectly logical, and we walked down the path, cheerfully ignoring the many statues with upraised hands in a “Halt!” position.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff
After much discussion and reconsideration, it was finally decided that it would be best to wait a year to kill the “green slime bag.” Research by the sage in Teft indicated that the creature is only there during the rainy season, and would likely reform the next year if killed. Furthermore, in order to reach it in time we would not be able to train Kodo or Alduin beforehand. In addition, a lot more information could be gleaned if we spoke with the sage in Koralgesh. All of this convinced us to put the mission off until next year, though it has not been abandoned.
Instead, Alduin drilled for his next level, and trained to 4th level, gaining 2 hp to stand at 15. Our thieves are incapable of rolling good hp, including Perry, who managed to get 17 hp at 6th level. (And Alduin has a con bonus!)
Kodo picked up the boating proficiency, and it was definitely relevant for the next step. We decided to take up the orc island mission, since we had managed to go broke while wandering around, having failed to find a single piece of treasure.
We met with Rollo Bergman, the head of a local shipping company. He and the at least partially elven captain, Malmir, related this story:

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Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic (Alex this game)
Kain, 1st level cleric of Silban, 6 hp, played by Jeff
The party was last left having trashed a goblin fortress and scooping up treasure. We claimed the scimitar +1 and a healing potion along with 5000 gp as our cut, and sailed on our old friend, the Eagle 13, to Restenford. After some arguing, it was decided that the X in Petethal had the most votes and we would head there. Since the winter was fast closing, it seemed like a good idea to get to the mainland quickly and have Quentin write his intended Cure Serious Wounds scroll in Depwood. Having realized that, we decided that Drew could come along and visit his family as well, and travel safely with us.
It should be noted that the Mouse of Cats is a really handy item, now that Quentin has a bobcat, named Chester! Anyone can talk to it at any time!
Phoenix decided to return to the church of Silban in Teft, and we accompanied him there. As repayment for his help, we offered to pay for his training, which would come within a few months, since he had narrowly missed 2nd level. In addition, it should be noted that XP for the goblin fortress ranged from 1200 for Kodo and Alduin to 2500 for Donald and Quentin. No one leveled, though Kodo and Alduin were both within 250 XP of the next level.
Balinor’s plate mail was so badly damaged (from being hit by at least a half-dozen ballista bolts) that we took it to the fine armorer in Barnacus (who had sneered at our pathetic Teft suits of chain mail when we were 1st level) and he repaired it, barely in time to make a fast passenger galley out to Teft. We arrived in Teft on November 28, 2176.
Kain joined the party in Petethal, after we had seen off Phoenix. Kain is another half-elven Silban cleric—apparently the church hasn’t given up on us yet! We hoped that Kain, the 6th cleric of the Defenders, would do better than his predecessors.

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Departing Members:
Cassian, 5th level Phaulkonian cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave
Party Roster:
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Phoenix, 1st level Silban cleric, 7 hp, played by Jeff
We last left the Restenford Defenders recovering in Restenford after a harrowing experience with a grey philosopher in ancient Khargish ruins. The party healed up, and Cassian and Narahn retired.
Narahn leaves with his quality short bow, and Cassian takes with her the Ring of Featherfalling, Chain Mail+2, and Small Shield+2. The scrolls of Cure Serious Wounds, and Neutralize/Slow Poison were handed over to the care of our newest member Phoenix. Phoenix, the 5th cleric to join the Defenders, is a cleric of Silban, Mother Earth, whose followers share many of the druidic beliefs, but without the hostility toward sentient life. The first cleric of the Defenders was a cleric of Silban as well, which means we have now come full circle: Silban, Phaulkon, Nevron, Phaulkon, Silban.
The party finances at the end of the last game were generally low in cash, but very rich in permanent magic items. To make ends meet without selling the party needed a mission to provide treasure.

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Stumbling vaguely away….
Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (Aaron this game)
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave
A quick taking of stock:
1) An abysmal swamp with a thick evil fog, and nice wafting evil breeze.
2) Ravenous stork people who are abominations to Phaulkon.
3) A fleet of ghost ships in the harbor.
4) A ruined city with undead everywhere, and “loosely aligned.”
5) Godzilla assassin lizards. (Not to be confused with teenage mutant ninja turtles)
6) Three words: Consecrated. Evil. Ground.
“I’ll take Hideous Undead Monsters for $400, Alex.”
“The answer: This undead monster sulks in gloomy buildings in evil cities, pondering its final decision in life.”
“What is… a barrow wight?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s not correct.”
“What is… a grey philosopher?”
“Yes!”

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