Party Roster:
Amortician, 7th level fighter/5th level thief (bard-in-training), played by Jay
Rupert Howitzer, human ranger, played by David B.
Randy Novotny, human Nevronian cleric, played by David
Elliott, dwarven fighter/thief (4th/4th), played by Katherine
Chelios, human woodsman, played by Katherine
Brenda Mor, half-elven thief/mage, played by Jay
Adventures with Morty circa 2161…
The party was attacked in the woods and nearly wiped out in a gallant battle that ended with Morty clubbing the attacker to death…
Jay can fill in details.
Author: Joel
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Morty Summary
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Wizard Mountain Summary #15: A Brief Interlude of Death and Destruction
The title of the summary may be longer than the story, but here goes.
Halacar, 6th level fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 6th level cleric, 41 hp, played by Joel
Brigling, 7th level thief, 39 hp, played by Katherine
Rhisa, 1st level fighter, 3rd level mage, 22 hp, played by Dean
Tolangardht, 3rd level cleric/mage, 9 hp, played by Jay
Rhisa, a new mage with bow specializiation, joined the party!
The party decided to do a quick strike on the hook horror kingdom/lair.
Instead of just walking into the chimney room, we decided to approach from above. We found a set of stairs that led up, and we followed it, spotting a hole that looked down to the corridor where we had begun our first attack.
We saw a few figures scampering past down the hole, but then they heard us moving about. We found another ramp that began to lead down, and heard sounds of hook horrors coming from behind us to cut off our escape. We turned around to face them, when another hook horror appeared from behind the party. The battle was begun!
Browork covered the back, scratching the hook horror there and evading all hits, but the rest of the party focused on clearing our path to the exit. Standish tore ghastly wounds in the first hook horror and brought it down while Halacar missed lots and Tolangardht and Brigling showered them with acid. Rhisa and Tolangardht also threw Magic Missiles.
The second hook horror started ripping on Standish, and Halacar proved surprisingly effective this time. Tolangardht landed Aids on the front line fighters, and the slaughter continued. That hook horror went down, then a third in short order, and the front was clear! The last hook horror fighting Browork turned to run, but Halacar and Standish turned and clocked it, dropping it in combination with the ranged fire from the acid!
For the moment, we were clear of enemies, and took that moment to retreat (primarly due to real world time constraints).
We got back in time for a Crusher fight. Crusher took on a gibberling, a weird chaotic creature with a longsword. Crusher was given a shield, studded leather, and a short sword. The gibberling stepped in and nearly took down Crusher on the first blow, but then it missed and Crusher struck back, stabbing it twice in rapid succession, and dropping it!
XP ranged from 700 to 1200.
Joel/Halacar/Browork -
Summary #4: Crazy/Ugly
Party Roster:
Balinor, 9th level human fighter, 86 hp, played by Joel
Albee, 7th level human monk, 42 hp, NPC
Anselm, 6th level human cleric, 30 hp, NPC
Bodkin, 1st level dwarven fighter, 12 hp, played by Katherine
Morhion, 1st level human cleric, 10 hp, henchman of Balinor
(with advice from Mark Wagoner!)
Continuing to seek ways to alleviate his 1750 gp debt to Duke Haermond, Balinor’s Party, now named “The Killer B’s,” set out to Skull Mountain once again.
Albee trained in Tracking, and Balinor hoped to utilize this skill. Hopefully a hidden entrance to the dark dwarven compound under the Mountain could be found, Balinor speculated. We set out once again. Dodging a giant snake and slaying half a dozen diseased rats, and killing a trapdoor spider (netting a whopping 18 electrum pieces) the party arrived once again at the ominous rock structure known as Skull Mountain.
We noted a number of footprints tracking all over the mouth of the cave, and after first satisfying ourselves that the other entrances were untouched, we began tracking one of the prints. We followed them for the better part of a day before we heard movement ahead.
A human, standing about 60 feet away from Balinor, ordered us to drop our weapons and money and surrender. Balinor put his hammers away and tried to take the gold to the human, but the bandit was less than stupid and ordered Balinor to put it on the ground.
At this point, Balinor ordered THEM to surrender, which didn’t work very well. The bandits, who called themselves the Spectacular Six (although only five were visible… hmm), were not being taken in by Balinor’s threats. So with a sigh, Balinor barked, “Get em Albee!” and whipped out his crossbow. The bandits shot helplessly at Balinor a few times and then vanished into the bushes before the fighter could return fire. -
Warwick/Cassian Summary: Storming the Fire Giant Citadel, Part 2
Summary stub from the bowels of the memory of Kyle and myself: (the resurrected summary is here.)
Party Roster:
Lupent, 20th (?) level dwarf fighter, NPC
Cassian, 9th level half-elf cleric of Phaulkon, played by Katherine
Warwick, 9th level human ranger, Warder of Phaulkon, played by Mark
Mordrick, 9th/12th level dwarf fighter/thief, NPC (played by Joel this time)
Marriat, 10th level ranger, NPC
Brenard, 6th level cloud-giant fighter, Warder of Phaulkon, NPC
And a Realmish shocktrooper eventually taken out of the sack…
A low level dwarven fighter with a potion of Superheroism…
The second portion of the fire giant adventure using the Amulet of Fate. The royalty were eliminated, and there was a particularly interesting fight with a fire elemental that couldn’t get through the Potion of Fire Immunity placed on Cassian. Great treasure was recovered (although it was estimated that the expenditure of items roughly equalled the profits) and the Citadel was cleansed of fire giants. A number of captives were freed, including a neutral stone giant, although some of the captives were slain by the party. Mordrick was highly effective the with the Dust of Disappearance, backstabbing priests and battle-armored fire giants for up to 100 damage, killing many of them in a single attack!
I have some memory of the captive being taken out of the sack and helping us in the fights.
At the conclusion of the adventure, the aged Marriat wandered out of town and died in the wilderness, having used up and passed on the Amulet of Fate.
Joel -
Warwick/Cassian Summary: “The Only Good Fire Giant …” (Fire Giant Citadel Part One)
Prologue: 5-21-2184, near Hoch Och, Cromwell.
After tracking the missing Windsock for 5 months, Warwick and a band of
mighty heroes confront a powerful being known only as “the peddler”. This
disguised rakshasa had been wreaking great evil for centuries, and was
barely driven away from Cromwell but not killed. Recovered from the
peddler’s wares were the Windsock and a number of other legendary artifacts.
The most bizarre of these artifacts was the Amulet of the Fates, which
allowed the possessor to control the course of the short-term past and
future. The aged Ranger Marriat received the Amulet in return for his
contribution to the quest, and with this magic he began to plan a mortal
blow against the Fire Giants … -
BLADES: Vote for Raybur
*menacing music*
Sputnik SAYS he’s for free access to weapons, but he didn’t vote for a
bill that would allow dwarven children to swing live battleaxes in school.
Can we REALLY trust Sputnik with our childrens’ combat training?
*pleasant piano music*
Raybur Sidebottom is hard-working in the community at large to foster a
better atmosphere of cheerful competition.
(Picture of Raybur shaking hands with bearded women and shaking his sword
threateningly at an orc)
Raybur is FOR free drink.
Sputnik just wants to CONTROL the alcohol flow for “moderation.”
Raybur is a fine upstanding member of two communities, cleric and warrior
alike.
Sputnik SAYS he likes elves, but then he DOESN’T like walrusmen. Who does
Sputnik REALLY like?
Raybur Sidebottom, working toward a free New Teft. For tomorrow.
For the children.
*paid for by sponsors of Raybur* -
Summary #3: Death Fires a Flaming Crossbow
Balinor, 9th level fighter, 86 hp, played by Joel
Albee, 7th level monk, 42 hp, NPC
Anselm, 6th level cleric, 30 hp, NPC
Bodkin Goldsummit, 1st level dwarf fighter, 12 hp, played by Katherine
Morhion, 1st level cleric, 10 hp, henchman, played by Joel
In an effort to relieve his debt, Balinor organized a party for a hopefully profitable expedition to the overly dramatically named Skull Mountain.
This is a skull shaped trio of caves set into a rock face about two days north of Barnacus on Lendore Isle. The top of the skull connects to the back of a large descending hill. Adventurers going to this location have been closemouthed–some have come out with considerable treasure, some have come back empty, and some have not come back.
In an effort to design a slightly more balanced party, Balinor tried to interest some Nevronian help in the expedition. He came up with a fairly strong party…
Albee was at least a moderate friend of Balinor’s during his tenure with the Defenders, who helped catapult him to name-level as a monk. Still, Albee was disappointed as he felt that the party was not directed strongly at eradicating evil foes of Nevron. He wields a magic Extend-o-Spear to good effect, and is extremely durable for a monk.
Anselm was the highest level available adventuring cleric from the church of Nevron in Barnacus, run by Archbishop Aware. Anselm is fairly fragile, but quite good at avoiding damage, and a powerful cleric. He and Albee are promised 50% of the treasure from the mission (after salvage tax).
Bodkin Goldsummit is a neophyte dwarven spear specialist who heard about Balinor’s great fighting prowess and sought the warrior out. He hums absently whenever the party stops to rest or search, and seems fairly paranoid, an excellent survival trait for any green adventurer who hooks up with Balinor. He is an avid and experienced gambler AND teamster (a good-natured Jimmy Hoffa?). -
Wizard Mountain Summary #14: Bugs, Boredom, and a Bugbear
Party Roster:
Standish (Katherine)
Brigling (Katherine)
Schreck (David Bjorlin)
Tolangardh (Jay)
We paid a sage to research for a total of 8 days to figure out what
was draining the life’s blood out of sleeping characters near the
mushroom forest (which was missing from Edwin’s notes in some strange
fashion). It is an invisible cave slug that sneaks up and
drinks all of your plasma. You can protect your campsite with a
circle of expensive salt. We bought an emegency can in case the party
MUST camp in the cave..
We decided to go looking for “new” trouble. After MUCH debate, we
went to the toll house. We found cookies, but they were sent back to
the originating server. No. Wait. That’s not right.
We went to the toll house/booth/death trap. The road up the face of
the Mtn hugs the cliff and drops off sharply on the right side. The
house straddles the road. As we approached we could see that there
were a number of arrow slits in the house on the right portion and
across the span. -
Summary #2: Divide and Be Conquered Anyway
Balinor, 8th level fighter, 76 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 6th level woodsman, 67 hp, played by Katherine
Reinhold, 4th level barbarian, 66 hp, played by Joel
Morhion, 1st level cleric, 10 hp, played by Katherine
When we last left our fighter-heavy party, it had to figure out a way to deal with three frost giants, 4 winter wolves (worg-like beings), AND a crazy high level barbarian shaman who was convinced that he was a frost giant and that these were his children.
The conclusion was that the use of the hereditary circlet, which grants frost giant strength by making you pretend to be a frost giant, had driven the shaman mad due to the unusually long duration of his life at that lofty position. The giants were an incredible threat to the village, which couldn’t even hold them off in a direction assault WITH the party’s help, much less without them.
Balinor was left with a quandary–how do you defeat an enemy that is stronger than you? Separate them.
We discovered that a herd of animals near the village had been raided by one of the giants, who carried off several of the animals. A plan germinated… -
Wizard Mountain Summary #13: Sudden Death
Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level half-orc fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Brigling, 6th level halfling thief, 36 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 5th level dwarf cleric, 36 hp, played by Joel
Duran, 4th level human woodsman, 29 hp, played by Kyle
Rex, 3rd level human cleric/1st level fighter, 24 hp, played by Kyle
Skrag, 3rd level half-orc cleric, 22 hp, playec by Kyle
Neb, 3rd level human thief/1st level fighter, 18 hp, played by Alex
Megan, 4th level human mage, 15 hp, played by Alex
Zero, 4th level human fighter, 15 hp, played by Kyle
Nass, 4th level human illusionist, 8 hp, played by Alex
(And the delirious hallucination that was Taitsu AKA “Tightsuit,”
a curious amalgamation of Megan and Nass)
[Events of 12/27 to 12/29/01, from Manhattan]
Some new additions to the party were apparent. Megan and Nass returned from
their long hiatus to form the magical backbone of the party. Duran,
woodsman of the “faux-French” accent returned to throw more daggers, and the
slightly deranged Zero also came along, he of the voluntary blinder helmet
and Ring of Blinking. Zero has just trained to 4th level, gaining the
predicted 1 hit point, to stand at the pathetic total of 15 hp.
We set out to hunt down the assassin goblinoid that had plagued the party
in the as-yet-unpublished Summary #12 (involving Katherine, Jay, and
others?). We searched around the area where this goblin thing left its
“trashbags” of bones and found nothing until we entered a room with a few
rotted tapestries and no apparent exits. The thing burst out from behind
one tapestry, slit Megan’s throat, and dashed back. Standish leaped to the
fray, sprinting ahead with Cromwell and Percy and Halacar chugging it
behind. Browork tended to Megan. Duran buried a dagger in the thing’s
back. It was a goblinesque thing, but very nasty.
The thing leapt out from behind a corner, but Standish was not caught by
surprise, and clobbered the creature. It turned to run, but Cromwell
leapt and bit it nastily, and it collapsed.