Category: Defenders

Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 5th level illusionist, 9 hp, played by Aaron
The high point: Treasure division and money collection.
The low point: Too numerous to count.
Perhaps you recall the Tharizdun game prior to the big one? You may remember that the word for that game was… “frustration…”
The Defenders regrouped in Restenford after having been nearly annihilated by the Queen of Grottoes party. The prisoners were interrogated and eventually the two agents of the Queen of Grottoes were executed. The halfling fighter was impressed into the Garroten army, and the gnome was sent back to the Church of Dionysus with a full pardon and a request that they maybe keep an eye on the “doofus” and avoid this mistake in the future (indicating that he was very lucky to be alive).
Several other QoG agents were rounded up in Poseidonus, Barnacus, and a few other places. The Church has been decimated. Still, the only Church of any size is now the High Church (which is underwater).

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 5th level illusionist, 9 hp, played by Aaron
When we last left the Defenders, they had just defeated one old enemy, the will’o’wisp. Almost immediately, the means arrived to defeat another. The Baron had ordered a one-shot item that removed all scents from the user for about 24 hours. It could be used on up to 8 people.
This gave us the opportunity to destroy the gnolls.
Our interest in the Khargish ruins had once again attracted our most successful thief, Alduin, back to the party. Alduin had gained 7th level and then read the Manual of Stealthy Pilfering in the meantime, gaining 8th level and a total of 39 hp.
[Out of character: The triumphant return of Vic!]

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
The party was bored, and that meant we had to kill something.
We settled for kidnapping an orcish “priest” or so we hoped. After waiting for a few days, our crack strike team of Morgan, Kain, and Donald spotted a large group burying two orcs that had been executed in front of the gravesite earlier in the day. Kain and Donald were hiding, and Morgan was invisible as he snuck up on the orcs. He spotted a holy symbol on the leader orc, and gave the ok by turning visible. The orcs turned and promptly all but the leader fell asleep, thanks to Donald. Before Morgan could have any fun (he had a Silence spell with him to ruin any screams or warnings), Kain Held the leader, and the battle was over without beginning. We Levitated the orcs and dragged them back to the party.
On the second Charm Monster we managed to “persuade” the orc that we were hired by the orcs to ferret out a traitor in the temple complex. We then discovered that we had badly underestimated the power of the complex. It apparently contains the high priests of all four major orcish religions and would likely have servants of the deities, even though many of the high level priests had been slaughtered by Dunstill and Illic at the harbor during the previous mission.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
(Chiaro was reinserted into the adventure.)
The party had discovered an open space behind a lava flow past the cursed bone statue. First we Stoneshaped through the hole, and found a second lava flow, broke through that, and then found ourselves in a long corridor. We quickly discovered a large complex.
Strangely, in the corridor there was a jet of poisonous gas coming out of the wall, which everyone in the front saved against. We avoided it for the moment.
We found a number of rooms, including one that detected as entirely magical. There was a high magic book in a corner, a statue in another corner, several “drill bits” (large twisty bits of metal) hanging from the ceiling, near a black section of the ceiling. The drill bits were also highly magical. The floor was made up of connected lizard things. There were also two high magic frescoes on the wall, both of a sandy beach. In one it was day, the other night.
There were also three rooms with doors with runes of “names” on them. One was cracked open while the other two were sealed shut. We checked out the open one and found a number of niches with bones in them. After a brief argument, Felix picked up three gems from the bones. Nothing detected as magical or evil or anything.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
The Defenders reorganized slightly and rejoined in Barnacus in January 2183. Quentin, the original party druid, decided to rejoin the party once again, while the fatigued Chiaro took a well needed rest. Balinor found himself with a new intolerance for bad weather.
It didn’t take long for something to go wrong on Lendore Isle. On the section of road between Restenford and Garroten that travels through the Dead Wood (our old favorite place, with the undead infestation) was being taken over by a group of giant spiders. Evil and intelligent giant spiders. We were supposed to get rid of them one way or the other.
The party traveled to the site of the attack and promptly stuff went wrong. Albee, Felix and Morgan got tangled in the web spread across the road, while another web dropped from overhead on Balinor and Nakumanu, snuffing out Nakumanu’s torch.
Two spiders the size of a large sofa descended on the middle of the party, one successfully biting Donald and the other being held back by Bogomel’s spear. Balinor slammed the one on Donald, while Felix tried to cut his way out and have Morgan light a torch. Nakumanu lit a torch and brought the web around him and Balinor up in flames, injuring both of them. A third spider descended from above and grabbed the hapless Albee and began hoisting him up.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
The party was spellshifting in preparation for launching the Plan. Morgan and Albee searched for secret doors and found one in one of the walls of the lower part of the complex!
The party decided to investigate it after an Augury revealed that “A narrow chance of great loss overshadows an otherwise good venture.” We intended to be cautious, but we’re risk takers, so hey.
We walked in and found a long corridor that branched. In one direction, the corridor had collapsed in rubble. In the other direction was an archway. Through the archway we found a room covered in spider webs and containing strange desiccated wood poles in it. The party looked but saw nothing inside through the webs and muck, so we decided to check with infravision, which was also fruitless. Chiaro then cast Detect Invisibility.
Crouched in the corner of the room was a five foot tall humanoid with angular features and scraggly hair. He was clutching something in one hand and the other was empty.
A drow elf!?

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
We last left our valiant Defenders of Good healing wounds and scouting the orcs.
In accordance with our plan, we agreed to blow day 4 and 5 on exploration of the ruins, pending results of course. Among other things, we really wanted to kill that vampire once and for all.
First we checked out the weird spire (which stood about 100 feet up, by the way). We entered through the main door using the Passwall cloak from Orc Isle and found ourselves in a room with four statues of something like steam, lightning, and some other elements. The reason I don’t remember is that this was probably a riddle of some sort, but we never figured it out. Light flickered on and off in the room like a strobe, a phenomenon we had also seen on Orc Isle.
On the floor and ceiling (15 feet up) was an asterisk symbol about 10 feet in diameter, which we eventually hypothesized would unfurl into a spiral staircase, presumably upon solving the puzzle of the statues. Oh well.
There being no exits, we poked around and discovered that the asterisk in the ceiling was some sort of illusion and it was possible to climb up to another floor. We threw a grappling hook up and climbed. Up there we discovered a whole new room with about a thousand weird glowing bricks of all colors stacked in the corner. There was also a staircase leading up and a door with a single rune on it that Kain identified through Runic Literacy as an abbreviation for something. Great.

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Party Roster:
Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Albee, 5th level monk, 31 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron
We had just left the party standing near the weird spire reminiscent of Orc Isle. We had also checked and discovered that the weird grimy old guy who kept spouting nonsense when we talked to him was Chaotic Evil. We were unsure of what to do, so we left him alone, despite the wolf smelling an noticeable rotting from his direction.
Hey, it could have just been dirt or something. We didn’t entirely take this on faith—we did leave holy water vials all over the place when we camped for the night in the dead mutant creature’s cave. It was supposed to be HAUNTED ruins after all.
Well, if there is a new undead for the Defenders to meet, they find it.
Right on schedule, things went sour. Balinor, Kain, and Nakumanu were on watch when the creature snuck up invisibly behind Balinor and ran his bamboo pole through the hapless fighter. This inflicted grave damage, three wounds, and double level-drained Balinor.

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