Author: Joel

Defenders Summary #91: Resolution—We’ve Got HOW Many Magic Items?

The official retirement party was held on September 8, 2185, when the Defenders took out the case of fireworks we acquired during our battle with the ogre mage at Hafney Hill, and fired them off in a huge celebration!
This was the official end of the recorded history of the Defenders.

Final Party Roster:
Balinor, 8th level fighter, 76 hp, played by Joel
Felix, 8th level fighter, 75 hp, played by Alex
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Bogomel, 5th level fighter, 47 hp, henchman
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Alduin, 9th level thief, 45 hp, played by Vic
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC (played by Edwin)
Albee, 7th level monk, 42 hp, NPC (played by Edwin)
Morgan, 8th level fighter, 39 hp, played by Alan
Nakumanu, 5th level fighter, 32 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
Former Defenders, Retired:
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack
Perry, 6th level thief, 17 hp, played by Sean
Narahn, 3rd level fighter, 16 hp, played by Dave
Gaston, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Sean
Phoenix, 1st level cleric, 7 hp, played by Jeff
Colin, 1st level mage/thief, 2 hp, played by Sean
Former Defenders, Deceased:
Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by Kyle
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Joel
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Celeste, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Sean
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron
Annwvyn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan
With a Supporting Cast And Thanks to:
Baron Grellus, Peltar, Almax, and Philip of Restenford (and Peltar’s apprentices)
Duke Haermond of Barnacus
The Petethalian Navy
The Seapoint Lightning
The Flaming Fist
The Hand of Fate
Dunstill and Illic
Wicker of Poseidonus
Alarius of Wunka
And many others…
And thanks to Kyle, largely unnoticed behind the scenes of the Defenders, offering helpful suggestions and advice… and numerous other players and observers for their advice, suggestions, and general cheering and sympathy.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #91: Resolution—We’ve Got HOW Many Magic Items?”

Defenders Summary #90: The Oldest Trick in the Book

Yes, it was our worst nightmare, and the Defenders recognized it instantly.
A beholder had come out of the hole.

Party Roster:
Balinor, 8th level fighter, 76 hp, played by Joel
Felix, 8th level fighter, 75 hp, played by Alex
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Bogomel, 5th level fighter, 47 hp, henchman
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Alduin, 9th level thief, 45 hp, played by Vic
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Albee, 7th level monk, 42 hp, NPC
Morgan, 8th level fighter, 39 hp, played by Alan
Nakumanu, 5th level fighter, 32 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
As you can see from above, if you’ve kept tabs on our constitution scores you’ll realize that we all rolled really badly for our next levels, with the exceptions of Alduin and Albee.
Nonetheless, it is a great pleasure to receive those levels!
(Felix, Balinor, Morgan, Bogomel, and Nakumanu rolled, on d10s, respectively: 2,2,1,2,1)
Thank you.
Still, seven people trained, and scattered about Cromwell and Shabrund to do it too.
Albee, Balinor, and Morgan trained in Cromwell proper (the northern part, anyway). While Morgan got respect and paid only 90 gp/day, Balinor was charged 100 gp/day AND thrown out as soon as he was finished AND forced to SCRUB THE FLOORS! An 8th level fighter scrubbing the floors?!

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #90: The Oldest Trick in the Book”

Defenders Summary #89: The God of the Troglodytes

There were perhaps 30 troglodytes outside, conducting a ceremony of some sort, all eyes trained on the wall, which Alduin discovered was somehow the wrong side of a secret door. Several were chanting, and there were incense candles in front of the door.
This could not be good.

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic (Al this game)
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
The party was continuing to fill out the dungeon map, having just defeated an umber hulk. We realized, as Kain suggested (I think), that the umber hulk hide could be made into a suit of awe-inspiring armor—AC 3/ AT 3 for a minor enchantment, with the major caveat that it cannot be repaired once damaged. We still felt this was worth it and took the body with us.
We continued to explore the cave and actually completed our way around the octagonal central room, mapping out all the doors. Still, there remained a few places to go; the giant beetle room and beyond, the weird crystal room, and a few other new passages.
We settled on continuing our exploration of new places before we returned to old ones. This led us to an interesting location.
We came upon a room with a giant mushroom “farm” with foot-tall mushrooms arranged neatly in rows, with numerous exits, some wide and some small.
We quickly discovered that most of the wide exits led back to places we were familiar with, but as we proceeded down the last one we reached unfamiliar territory. We found a larger room and continued through into a final chamber.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #89: The God of the Troglodytes”

Defenders Summary #88: Morgan’s Nightmare

Alduin was grabbed by a creature and hoisted into the air, screaming in panic. He could do nothing as the creature continued to pound him. Donald launched a Fireball, spraying the upper section of the room with fire, roaring over Quentin.

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp (50), played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp (52), played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our party wandering the dungeon full of demons and weird zombie-eque basilisks. We camped by the dead basilisk and pondered further exploration.
I can’t go into the mapping details, but suffice it to say we’ve been slowly constructing a map of lots of short corridors that dead end circling around an octagonal room with eight doors with poems on them. These doors were the ones solved by Ranore’s party long ago, and the treasure from there has been removed. However, his party apparently explored little else in the dungeon after finding the big treasure, so we’re mapping out the rest of it.
The first place we ran into trouble was in one of the numerous mushroom forest rooms. There were these shrieking sounds emanating from, as it turned out, natural mushrooms in the room. However, the shrieking bothered us so much that we cast a Silence spell near the front of the party to shield some members. This worked out badly when half the party failed to notice the back half being eaten by two shambling mounds.
Balinor and Nakumanu vanished instantly into the moss and plant growth of the creatures. Cassian backed off and began casting, while Bogomel stood with his spear, stabbing the one with Balinor in it. Kain threw up a Flame Blade, but before he could use it, Donald launched a Fireball at the things. The flames had no noticeable effect.
Bogomel discovered in his stabbing that there was some central core that could actually be killed, but that the outside of the creature was immune to everything. Only long weapons could reach inside to hit it though, which put the party at a disadvantage.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #88: Morgan’s Nightmare”

Wizard Mountain #6: Orcs and Stuff

Roster:
Halacar, 4th level halfling fighter, played by Joel
Browork, 4th level dwarven cleric, played by Joel
Standish, 4th level half-orc fighter, played by Katherine
Brigling, 4th level halfling thief, played by Katherine
Megan, 3rd level mage, played by Alex
Nass, 3rd level illusionist, played by Alex
Jefe, 3rd level woodsman, played by Jeff
Katrina, 3rd level cleric, played by Jeff
Another raid of death for the unsubtle adventurers!
Although the minor encounters were lost to time (I believe we fought some
rats, but it’s just gone from my memory now), there was a major battle
fought against a tribe of about 30 orcs.
Fortunately, the orcs had no spell support. For a while, the front-line
fighters were able to face off against many opponents. Nass dropped a
Wall of Fog which heavily obscured all vision in the room. Browork
created a Silence stone, hurled it somewhere, and it had no actual impact
on the battle except to block our hearing of the reinforcements coming
through the non-visible back door.
We fought bravely, but soon the fighters could not hold back the throng,
and we degenerated into several individual battles. Brigling was
effective by sneaking around the mist and backstabbing. Megan Slept a few
orcs and deftly avoided being surrounded, as did Nass.
Jefe was less fortunate, and was eventually buried under a pile of orcs,
though he slew many. Katrina found herself surrounded and fell down for
lack of a better action, though she Commanded a lieutenant.
Browork engaged in melee with four orcs, dropped a command on the leader,
and fell with one hit point remaining.
The orcs believed him dead, and moved away. Promptly Browork stood up and
began a hold Person, his final offensive spell. Halacar and Standish
continued to trash the orcs, particularly Standish. Still, the fighters
were wearing down.
The chief and his two bodyguards charged Browork. His Hold went off, and
the chief and one bodyguard froze in place! The other attacked, missed,
and was taken out by timely aid from Brigling, Standish, and Halacar.
The orcs were defeated, and the treasure was significant, though
unremarkable (at least not enough to stay in my memory).
In any event, the only actual casualty was poor Jefe, a veteran of several
previous battles and the last of the Two Amigos (El Guapo and Jefe).
Perhaps some of this can be further reconstructed from Edwin’s adventure
record.
Joel/Halacar/Browork

Wizard Mountain #5: Mystery Adventure with Sean and Jack

Can’t remember what happened here….We didn’t know where this went, and there isn’t much to it anyway. Call it a random memory, or perhaps a dream….
This adventure occurs with the presence of characters played by Jack and Sean.
Sean plays a woodsman named Ronilab which had recently had a debt partially forgiven.
Highlights included Sean’s woodsman Ronilab getting poisoned by a spider,
his monk getting killed by a blow to the head from his own hammer(bleeding to death before the hapless thief Flit could get help…) and, uh…
That’s it for now. If you remember more, please chime in. It’s a bit hard to fill in the details as the cobwebs invade our mental spaces….
Joel and Kyle

Defenders Summary #87: Bargaining with the Demon

The first thing of note happened when we walked around a corner and
spotted a greater demon statue. It was holding some sort of chest.
Felix and Donald entered the room, and it animated and spilled the chest
onto the floor, dozens of magic items landing all over the place.

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic (Dave this game)
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our party having explored most of the upper level of the
Horn of Iguilve cavern. We decided to have Quentin cast Commune with
Nature on the lake to identify passages and trouble spots, including
predators. We discovered that the lake was full of elemental earth silt,
contained a nasty and very large snapping turtle, and that there several
streams leading out.
The snapping turtle was avoided with Locate Animal spells (being
invisible it would have snuck up on our intrepid explorer/fishbait and
killed him otherwise), and we found about 10,000 silver pieces. Whoopee.
Well, after exhaustive search, we had found little in the lake. We
checked out one of the streams, but something weird happened. The first
party members down the stream were overcome and fled from it, while some
of the others were able to remain but itched wildly and found the water
hideously unpleasant (they were Waterwalking).

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #87: Bargaining with the Demon”

Defenders Summary #86: So Where’s the REAL Treasure?

Down the other corridor, we came to a place appearing idyllic in nature. There were fine rugs and pillows and bowls of fruit and the works. There was also someone there. He claimed to welcome us to “The Garden of a Thousand Earthly Delights.”

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our party flailing about the Horn of Iguilve, shoveling bat guano and stirge guano and just about every other disgusting thing you can imagine.
We checked out the remaining passageways before looking at the lake, but nothing was found. The dwarf we had defeated had a number of magical items including a magical cloak, which is probably where his wings came from. He possessed several weakly magical evil books, which turned out to be his journals, though we still have no idea why they are magical or evil. The journal revealed that the dwarf had been exiled from his community and wandered for awhile before ending up here, passing by a large monster that breathed fire. He also had a powerful magical non-evil tome, and two Auguries revealed little on whether Quentin should read it—the first failed and the second went something like: The flashing fish moves swiftly through the rapids unless he is a carp. What the heck?
We also found a repeating light crossbow (half speed)! Balinor is using this. The first six bolts are poisoned, and the current agreement is to fire them in this dungeon and get rid of them afterward if any remain.

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #86: So Where’s the REAL Treasure?”

Defenders Summary #85: Morgan—Not So Squirmy?

The fireball detonated only a few feet in front of the party, bouncing on something. The explosion did amazingly pitiful damage (only 17 out of a possible 48) and mercifully Chiaro saved and was still standing. We discovered that were Forcelike walls in front and in back of us, and a weird gas cloud was descending on us.
Cassian recalled an old tale about a weird evil dwarf that was served by puffball mushrooms that put people to sleep….

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We had last left our party staggering around the Horn of Iguilve. The mashing continues!
The party continued to explore the dungeon, and I’ll hit the highlights. First up, in a second mushroom forest, we noticed a crack in the wall with a mummy like being in it, not moving. We had no time to absorb this, as the much of the green slimy stuff on the ceiling suddenly fell on Morgan, Felix, and Chiaro!
Complete catastrophe nearly resulted. Chiaro’s right arm began to melt off, as did Felix and Morgan’s heads. Quentin sprayed water all over Chiaro’s arm, but this only strengthened whatever it was. Soap from Balinor had an even worse effect as the soap began to change into the things, which attempting to climb the wall again (slowly). The creatures were identified as a green slime, which was only hurt by fire. Casting Flame Blade, Quentin and Kain surgically removed the creatures from Chiaro’s arm and the heads of our hapless fighters. Donald then roasted them all with a Fireball.
In the end, both Morgan and Felix lost their helmets. Worse yet, Chiaro’s arm was rendered completely deadened, unable to hold any weight. He can still do spellcasting, but picking anything up is a complete mess for him. Hopefully this can be fixed, but we won’t find out how until we return to civilization.
Meanwhile, Morgan’s elven chain was slightly damaged as well. A temporary fix was made with the unbreakable magic string we have, but eventually this will cause problems. Yet another thing we have to have repaired!

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #85: Morgan—Not So Squirmy?”

Defenders Summary #84: Go to Exotic Places, Meet New and Interesting Monsters, and Kill Them

One corridor had a number of voices screaming in many languages. We picked out dwarven, yelling, “Shut off the light! You morons!”

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron
We set off from the site of the devastation of the hobgoblin tribe, whose souls had been lost to the demon, as well as their money and magic items.
That’s a great opening line.
One thing not mentioned last time: prior to the expedition many members of the Defenders got suspicious of Spittle the crow, who continuously turned up evil on all scans. We ESPed him while saying things, and found out that he understands significantly more than it would appear, including at least dozens of words in Common.
We didn’t know what to make of this, and we still didn’t the when we encountered the dwarven party marching down the slopes. They were a huge expedition of about a hundred dwarves in banded mail, including five different standard bearers. We hailed them and asked about dangers up ahead. They laid down the usual “don’t release any demons” warning and told us of a large tribe of a few hundred noblink in the valley that would extort food and money. We told them that a hobgoblin tribe had planned an ambush for them, and they were dead now.
They began to march past, and then suddenly called a halt. A wizened and ancient dwarf wearing a skull cap helmet came forward and asked us sharp questions in dwarven, which were translated to Human by another dwarf (although several members of the party speak dwarven, this just didn’t seem a good time to point that out). He asked about the elves, the orc, what we were doing, etc. Kain explained that we were trying to “help him.” The dwarf said sadly, “We tried that with the spiders, and it didn’t work.”

Continue reading “Defenders Summary #84: Go to Exotic Places, Meet New and Interesting Monsters, and Kill Them”

PAGE TOP