Author: kyle

Around July 2172 – Preparations
It seems that tomorrow in the midst of the snow strom we’re about to have here, will be probably a deciding point in the history of the Stone Soules. We will in all probability go and attack the Demonspawn while trying to protect Middle. We could conceivably all die, or kill them all and reap great rewards, or some shade in between.
Alegra has been talking with all the party members before the coming battle. Faranyn and Ceydric are scrambling to get preparations made ready to secure Middle.
The Big Battle
We had just arrived back in Middle at the end of the last adventure, July 3, 2172. It was pouring rain and very stormy. We then planned for the defense of Middle. We sent Elowier on a fast invisible horse along with money from the killed demonspawn to hire some mercenaries in End for temporary defense. We also sent mail to the Squid, the patrol leader of End, in case he noticed anything unusual in his patrol sweeps. We also mailed Farrah, the Nevronian cleric in End, that she might send some clerical aid to Middle in case of attack (temporaily, as the church still isn’t built yet). We verified Alegra’s identity by having her cast a spell in front of the Phaulkonian clergyman here in Middle (verified that she is Phaulkonian). We then gathered a lamp to light the meditation candle (so that Alegra can get Call Lightning) in, because of the rain. We headed off to base camp on the ridge, with which to attack presumably the day the rain just stopped (so they would go to the Barnaire Theatre (open air)) [Faranyn and his entourage stayed to look after Middle in Ceydric’s absence — note that Ceydric’s men-at-arms guarded the horses at base camp and everyone else went on to the city when the time came] We used Alegra’s weather sense abilities along with some spells of hers to predict when the weather would stop but there would still be clouds to call down the lightning.. During this time Eli turned people invisible (he had a lot of time, because the weather lasted another day and would break the following day, when we would attack).
We were then all invisible except Ludo and Dari, the thieves and we headed for the city.

Continue reading “Stone Soules Summary: Demonspawn Battle at the Barnaire Theatre”

Middle-of-the-Road (Middle) – town within the Barony of End tied strongly to the Dunadorian Central Government by virtue of its leadership. It is located off the North Trade Track on the way to the End-of-the-Road. A keep is under construction, with the main fortress being currently the tower of the Soulestone. Middle is magic friendly and open to many good and neutral religions, unlike much of Dunador. It is within easy distance to adventuring sites. It has a Blue Star Inn. [note: we hope to make into a barony with End becoming a Duchy someday; we’ll see.] Population: unknown.
>I have a few questions about things in the log:
>what is a “hide-behind”?
We don’t really know, just that they are small grey creatures with lots of teeth that are invisible when alive but appear when dead, that can only be seen in mirrors when alive. They like to try strangle you and/or plug you with poison daggers. We have an antidote to their poison.
> what’s the status of End in relation to Dunador?
It is a part of Dunador that does not pay taxes at the moment, that won’t until at least Trent does, I believe.

Continue reading “Stone Soules Summary: Middle-of-the-Road and Miscellaneous Questions Answered Regarding Earlier Adventures”

Gerald is happy to get Alegra back safely and was worried about her. Especially after ensuring her identity, he simultaneously warns her to be more careful and congratulates her wisdom in surviving.
Gerald suggests various preparations in case the demon-worshippers attack us and/or Middle. First, realize that everyone (practically) hates demons. Second, don’t scare the populace of Middle. Third, don’t make people angry at us by making them think we incited the demon-worshippers to anger.
On the first point, the various churches in Middle (you have mentioned several) should be willing to help out. Decide whether or not to enlist their help. Just keep the second and third points in mind.
On personal preparation, we should consider magics available:
Alegra can prepare Glyphs of Warding on small items to give us of us as well as place around strategic points. She may be able to cast Divination to learn more info. Depending on what the demonspawn are, if she can Abjure them it’s nice. If she can Implore (reversed Abjure) a servant of Phaulkon to help fight the demonspawn, it would be of great use and conceivably relevant to the angel (or whatever).
Dari can probably cast useful third-level spells of strategic use: Plant Growth, Snare, and Stone Shape have permanent effects. If she is 6th level, Hallucinatory Forest also has a nice strategic use, especially if combined with Plant Growth. Protection from Lightning would be great against the beithir.
Gerald can help set traps if you want to do that, and Ludo might be able to as well. (Though Gerald’s probably better at the kind of outdoor traps I have in mind.)
The “everyone” that hates demons includes other adventurers. There’s a friendly group at Koralgesh, and we could tell them we are friends of Gram. King Ranore and Duke Konrad are a bit far off, but they might send someone to help out. Other opportunities abound, though we might not need (or want) any help at all.
David

Mind you, this attack took place on July, 3 2172.
We explored the city and learned that the beihir can leave it. We explored a few buildings of interest and saw some bugbears who had snakeskins for totems. They appeared to be enemies of the snake worshippers. We found a tunnel marked with the name “Tunnel” into the mountain in Runic II or III. Beithir sized. It had huge guardian stone golems.
We then planned to send in two groups from our base camp on the ridge (with everyone except the cavaliers there). The first would scout around the tunnel since we knew it was out of town currently, and the second would look around at night to see where there were lights (specifically in a library we were interested in). Both teams were to be invisible. The first team was Alegra and Elowier the mage-steward and Dari. The looked at the demonspawn a bit, but not too much interesting there. Dari fell off the wall here and turned visible. She left the city and we went around to the other side. We watched to see who came out of the “enemy” bugbear tower – this was before we knew it was bugbears. We then left and went to look at the tunnel.
Nothing was there, but Alegra shined her a continual light bead into the tunnel while Elowier stood at the gate to the courtyard where the tunnel was. Light kept reflecting back, like 1 flash then wait then two flashes then three etc. Finally this freaked out Alegra enough to leave. She went to where Elowier was supposed to be and said, “Okay, let’s go.” Then Elowier says, “Okay.” Then another voice, says, “No, Dari’s back in the tunnel.” We realize that this person is speaking with Alegra’s voice.

Continue reading “Stone Soules Summary: Ruins Exploration”

The Anarchists
They intercepted a cargo shipment to the Barony that Ceydric went and followed them. They just dumped the stuff in a ditch and tried on purpose to have us receive a message on one of the people we killed there. It was garbage about the Duke of Andevar wanting the “royalist upstarts destroyed” or somesuch. That was what ultimately caused the Dunadorian Central Government to send us a small unit of troops headed by Al.
Zalk the Sage
He’s a sage at the School of Wizardry, foremost in Magic Item research who took a box we had brought him and figured out the combination so that none of the 100+ magic traps would destroy us or it. It had Tuggutian currency (paper) inside.
Great Old City
Looks like we found the remains of a group from S.M.A.R.T. in the desert monster’s lair. But the Jack of Clubs we just have a log in code…the one from S.M.A.R.T. blew up when we tried to open it (4-40 points damage).

Continue reading “Stone Soules Summary: The Founding of Middle-of-the-Road and Early Adventures”