Category: Defenders

Felix, 2nd level fighter, 24 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric of Nevron, 12 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Colin, 1st level thief/mage, 5 hp, played by Sean
A bit of indecisiveness and total lack of concentration– what does that leave you with? A disturbingly unproductive game session (at least until the last part).
The party has been having difficulty figuring out what to do to bridge the gap until we can tackle the gnolls, which isn’t too far off, but just slightly out of easy reach.
We decided that perhaps bandits had moved back into the fortress up in the wilderness, and headed out there.
The trip up was uneventful. The fortress itself was still trashed– having no floor and a basement filled with rainwater. So we decided to camp that night on the hill. Our luck then shot downward rapidly.

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Felix, 2nd level fighter, 24 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric of Nevron, 12 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 6 hp, played by Sean
We discussed many plans, and eventually settled on the conservative plan:
1. Take down a sentry
2. Take down the search party, hopefully dramatically reducing the number of people remaining
3. Storm the area in the middle of the night.
Part 3) was certainly a desperate option. Hopefully, instead of holing up they would attack us, which would allow us to meet them on our terms outside.
As planned, we landed at 2 AM with eight marines and the major in tow, though Quentin was still at Carse for the duration of the isle adventure.
We marched up the beach and into the copse of trees a few hundred feet up the hill. We set up camp and waited until morning.
When morning arrived, Morgan took up a forward scouting post. He warned us when the first sentry came… and we sprinted out of the bushes at the scout!
Seeing three crazed lunatics, one beginning a spell, the cleric/scout surrendered. We bound and gagged him, and hauled him off to camp. A few hours later, another cleric scout emerged, who fell similarly quickly (none of this even involved a spell!).
Then Morgan got bopped on the head by a seashell from his hidden location. He discovered a scroll tube in the bushes. Upon opening it, it made a decently loud bang, easily heard within a hundred feet. Inside was a message:
Bayleaf was offering to leave the island for 500 gp. Yes!
Morgan took our response back, and Bayleaf (who has unbelievable stealth abilities, probably a combination of being a wizard and an elf) agreed to meet us on the beach when the boat arrived.

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Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Felix, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Alex
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Sean
Tyveris, 1st level cleric of Nevron, 10 hp, played by Joel
The party spent a soggy and miserable winter in Restenford. Money was spent, Gaston learned why not to gamble (he blew it off in a hurry), Tyveris drank quite a few cheap drinks, Felix swung his weapon around randomly, Morgan slept in every day, and Quentin worked for the druids.
We set out on March 19th and arrived at Abbey Isle on March 30th. We landed at the point on the beach, and Tyveris tried a _Detect Evil_ in the hopes of spotting the skeletons on the beach. It clearly failed. I do have reason to believe that the 9 we killed earlier have actually stayed dead though.
We decided that charging up the middle would be our only option. So we charged… and had about six of the strangest combats. We were barely scratched– Tyveris took 2 damage, Quentin took 2, Drew took 4. We used one cure spell. We killed about 50 skeletons.
We also managed to break virtually every weapon. Felix’s short sword went flying out of his hand– but the shredded grip remained in his hand. Gaston threw his bastard sword blade quite a distance. He also sent his replacement hammer sailing toward Tyveris, then damaged it. He finally blew up a “serviceable” scimitar scooped up from a skeleton. Quentin damaged his scimitar as well. What fun.
We proceeded up past the beach. Quentin’s bird reported a person observing us from a few hundred feet ahead, and sneaking away from us. Since they knew we were coming, we decided to go with the peaceful solution.

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Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by Jack
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Felix, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Alex
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Sean
Tyveris, 1st level cleric of Nevron, 10 hp, played by Joel
When we last left, our party had just accepted a mission to investigate the isle and remove the living inhabitants by whatever means necessary. We planned a bribe of transport away with money thrown in for extra encouragement.
The party set sail in October. We consisted of the ranger Drew and druid Quentin, original party members. Also, there was the elven fighter Morgan, the handsome half-orc fighter Felix, the northerner fighter Gaston, and his cousin the Nevronian cleric Tyveris.
We arrived uneventfully. We were transported at high tide in a longboat to the only accessible point, a small beach a few hundred feet wide. This was the beach where the attacks on the major’s men had occurred previously, though not immediately upon landing. We suited up and decided on a course. We marched very slowly, hoping that only the fighters in the front would be subjected to immediate attack.
Unfortunately, we badly guessed their attack form. As we traveled about 30 feet up the edge of the beach, suddenly there were multiple sand spouts and we were set upon by 12 skeletons equipped with short swords, scimitars, and long swords. They appeared everywhere inside and outside our formation, and struck while we stood there surprised.

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Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Felix, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Alex
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Sean
Tyveris, 1st level cleric of Nevron, 10 hp, played by Joel
After waiting for about a month for Quentin and Drew to finish their service to the druids, the remaining four members of the party, Drew, Quentin, Felix, and Morgan set off for Benct with hopes of recruiting new party members. The found a caravan and set off.
About two days out (halfway in between Benct and Restenford), a scraggly man approached the caravan. He claimed to have to friends hiding in a tree about fifteen minutes away with a bear trying to kill them. The guards refused to go, and the party suspected it might be a trap. Going with their instincts that the man seemed to be telling the truth, the party followed him.
He led them up through the forest, to where a bear was indeed slashing at a tree, though no one was visible in it. Drew suggested that Quentin approach with the levitation belt in case of danger to himself and try to calm the bear down. As he was halfway through doing that, four crossbow bolts whipped out from four directions, one hitting Drew and the other Quentin.
Deja vu.

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Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Felix, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Alex
Morgan, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Alan
Celeste, 1st level cleric of Phaulkon, 6 hp, played by Sean
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
To begin, we made our little purchases and set off north once again, a fully banded mail party with the exception of Quentin.
In the afternoon of the second day, we spotted a trio of armed people. Darellon, wearing the badge, hailed them, but they didn’t respond. Ignoring them, we continued.
Two nights out, we set up camp again. During the second watch, Darellon and Morgan were the only ones awake when a fight for our survival began.
Before we could react, four huge creatures bounded from the sides at the helpless party. Morgan was able to tell with infravision that the humanoids were about 9 feet tall and had a violet-bluish skin tint. (Yes, I know– ogre magi? Oh dear…)
Darellon and Morgan yelled an alert and then stood back to back, each taking one of the (now to be called) ogres. As the others attempted to wake up, the two unengaged ones fell upon the defenseless risers. As Celeste tried to rise, she was clubbed down, and played dead for a moment. Drew was smashed repeatedly and beaten the ground moments before he could stand.

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Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by committee
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex
Morgan, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
The party quickly paid salvage tax on the items we found, including giving up the magic ring, stored its remaining items in the castle, and set out to catch the bandits. We approached the cairn cautiously and discovered that two different groups, one of 6 and one of 7 had passed by it and dug up the bodies, despite the _Ceremony_ cast by Soldan. We followed the fading old tracks of the six that we routed two days earlier.
Tracing this for two days, we reached an area which had clearly hosted a battle between the bandits and something else– perhaps insectoid, such as the beetles. We followed the single trail leading north from it.
We traveled for a few hours before running into a far better ambush than before. 11 men, many with longbows, one a crossbow, and some flail users. Darellon turned to run and the party backpedaled away from the ridge with some of the longbowmen on it. The thought was to escape the range of the bowmen and fight a more even battle. It didn’t work out that way…
As we got out of short range, a _Hold Person_ spell hit Darellon and Ethan, who froze instantly, while Quentin escaped its effect. Things suddenly looked incredibly bad. And they were.

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Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by Kyle
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex
Morgan, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
Annwvyn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan
Setting off from Bald Hill, the party traveled north for one day and set up camp.
That evening we had an unsuccessful discussion with a bunny rabbit.
During the third watch, Drew’s, the party was attacked by stealthy and difficult to spot fungus beetles. They dragged Anwvyn away before we even knew what was happening. Quickly we followed the beetle through the glass, Grison and Darellon trailing along with Drew. The clerics were slower to follow and missed most of what happened.
We saw Anwvyn trapped under the beetle, who was about 6 feet long. Anwvyn was clearly unconscious, if not dead for all we knew. When Grison approached, the beetle reacted, spraying acid all over Grison and dropping him paralyzed to the ground. The sonic boom that followed deafened Darellon temporarily. At this point we were unsure what to do, given the difficulty Drew was having in shooting the beetle. So we circled away from it, only to discover another one.

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Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric of Silban, 9 hp, played by Alex
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
Annwvyn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan
We were ushered in by a lady-in-waiting to see the Lord Mayor of Garroten. She offered us two broad options for service:
1. Destroy the bandit groups to the southeast.
2. Clear the ruined area that used to be the settlement between Garroten and Restenford.
We were told it was inhabited by “undead.” We decided that the bandit stuff would have too many repercussions for the moment, so we headed up toward the ruins. CAUTIOUSLY. The plan was to assess the danger carefully– basically we can only handle smaller numbers of skeletons and zombies. Anything above that was too much.
We then learned that the previous party that had adventured there had killed a wraith. Uggh. Maybe there weren’t anymore?

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Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric of Silban, 9 hp, played by Alex
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
Annwvyn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan
In the Stone Soules tradition, we met in the Blue Star Inn at Teft, on March 15, 2172. One interesting thing to note: Derek of the Knife was there. The next day we set off for Lendore Isle. After a six day boat ride, we arrived in the harbor of Barnacus.
We spent most of the first day touring Barnacus, exploring the various markets and shops, practically covering the entire part of the city on the western bank of the river. A few interesting shops, including for global Telvar interest, Warner’s Bows. Warner had a cheap little number with a mere 16,000 gp on display.
Although Barnacus was colorful, it became clear that getting worthwhile information would be too expensive to comprehend, or far too unreliable (read: setup).
So we headed out the east gate, planning to head two days east to Garroten. We left town a half-hour before the gates closed.
Now, this being Lendore Isle, one expects a few random encounters out in the wilderness. But I figured, hey, we’re on a public road, on the civilized southern part of the island. Maybe we’d run into something a day or two out into the wilderness, but we would just have a little travelling lull between towns.
Wrongo.

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