Category: Stone Soules

Well, I guess that it’s Snag’s turn to write an adventure description. The title of this one will just have to be:
DEN OF TROLLS, PART 1: The Great Battle
(As recounted by Snaggle-Tooth the Hobgoblin.)
We all knew that the stone soules were running low on funds. We had little cash left and several party members ready for training. Furthermore, the Barony is still far from self-sufficient, and in a month or two we would be unable to meet payroll, even if we spent nothing on training. So the Stone Soules met in our war room to plan our next expedition.
There were many suggestions of where to go and what to do, but it was Gerald’s pointing out that Trolls are known to collect treasure that finally won us over. There was a great deal of discussion of how exactly to attack the trolls. We considered simply pouring some of the vitrioli into the cave — the little para-elementals seek out living creatures and then explode in a burst of acid and fire — making them the bane of trolls.
But we decided that there wasn’t any need to go to such lengths — we were certainly capable of taking out a trolls by more conventional methods. We decided that both Eli and Dahri would attack using lightning: Eli thought that if the trolls could be caught in the narrow canyon approaching their cave then he would be able to manipulate his “pool-ball” lightning bolt so as to hit all of them; hopefully multiple times. Dahri’s druidic spell required the presence of clouds from which to summon the lightning, but the weather is frequently rainy in these parts (sometimes, when it rains for days, I *almost* envy the naked races their lack of fur), so we were confident this would at worst cause a slight delay. We loaded up M.U.L.E. (that’s Mighty Ugly Lugging Engine, my pack mule) with some 30 pints of oil, and set off.

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Good and bad is pretty much the general concept here. This is LONG.
Okay, by the time we all got settled in last night (about 7:30) we didn’t really know what we wanted to do besides train some party members.
Because of all the magic supplies and texts Eli recovered he had enough to be trained to his next level (as was seven other party members). Eli had been promised training and a spell when he was capable of learning it so he was at the top of the list in order and actually expense. There were several people that were very easy to train; Tesla was trained by Ceydric and Quick by Theo for the two cheapest and Ludo and Canstin ranked second and third respectively (I don’t list Alegra because we need to train other people to second and third before anyone to Alegra’s much higher level). In turns out, to avoid bankrupting the barony, that we only had money to train Eli and the two easy people so Alegra and Eli set off for Teft and Poseidinus respectively. They traveled in the same caravan, accompanied by 20 guards and a merchant, through the wonderful weather of winter in Petethal. The party back at Middle had its own excitement but I will talk about the uneventful caravan trip first.

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The city is recorded as the City of the Lightning’s Call in records and is discussed very briefly as a northern city of great wealth and physical ease. The city was a sort of strange separatist place and seemed to discourage contact with the outside world.
The object that is designed to fall apart looks like a grenade. They have been used with green slime in the past.
Most of th ebooks are valueless, three are magical research texts, the only books of interest are Gertov’s Guide to Setient Thought (45 volumes, similar to Blackmov’s, approx value 3,000 gp): a definitive psychology text.
The bookshelves that retard flame are a standard magic item of great value to scholars and wizards. Worth 2,000-5,000 gp each depending on the buyer.

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[The adventure this past weekend went as follows (beginning Oct. 24th 2172)]
We travelled back to the transporter in Tan-El (The Greate Olde City as we now know it), specifically in the “Tan-El Constable Dispatch.” We moved through the section of wall upwards until we reached the bedroom of what we conjecture must be Brogarra, the most snake-like of the ‘Spawn. Over some time we discovered that both Silence and Dispel Magic would _sometimes_ stop the bell, though it would restart when one broke the plane of the doorway. There was a construct of hooks below and around the bell though that suggested there was some item of slightly greater than magnet-size that would in all likelihood stop the bell until reactivated. Through some experimentation (and some damage to Snag and others, unfortunately) we located the item on the bookshelf that would release the bell but the invisible creature tried to recover it. Luckily, Eli’s clever use of a spell [the contraband Forget] sent it back into the room and we quickly left the city with it.
When we returned we could take anything we wanted from the room with no hastle, since all the other traps had been removed. We loaded the fire-retardant bookshelves, warm/clean cushions, perpetually clean rug, and books (“Subconscious repurcutions of pyromancy,” “Improve yourself through cloning,” and “Gertov’s Psychology” to name a few) and headed out. The Sphinx, annoying guy that he is, (as we expected) stopped us on the way out. He wanted one of the bookshelves “and he wasn’t leaving without it.” Eventually, I bargained him into giving us about 1750 g.p. in information and about 1000 g.p.

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Our wonderous heroes last left off sorting treasure and arguing with fire giants, so needless to say, there was lots of clean up we had to do. We dispelled another huge batch of snakes because we couldn’t transport them like snakes (they would die and radically turn back into humans causing a big problem). So Alegra cast another large-scale dispel magic. The effects of this one were a mixed bag according to some, but I count it as a drastic failure. About a segment or two after Alegra’s spell went off, we saw a flash of blue light and smelled some sort of gaslike odor, screams of lots of people, and the fire giants on the lower floor yelling at us. At first we thought we set off some sort of magical trap, but when we went down it became obvious what had happened.

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We were last in Middle, and I visited the Church there as we pulled in. Over the next day and the next in transit, I healed everyone with the help of Aria and some from Dari. We purchased a magic bastard sword in exchange for a +1 Mace and some cash from the Baron at End. We also gathered some basic supplies and Eli learned the Change cantrip from Elowier’s old spell book. We then departed to Base Camp. There was a Giant Toad there which swallowed Ludo, but because of his Ring of Free Action he could try to get out fairly easily. While trying, he killed it instantly and climbed out. It seems that chance to kill something from inside it are fairly large. So we decided to move Base Camp based on the number of attacks we’ve had here lately. The following day, we set out for the city, ready to check out the traps.
When we activated the teleporter, Canstin was knocked down by a Fire Giant that came through and clocked him. While we fought it, Eli slipped briefly into the portal invisibly and observed an evil priest (snake worshipper) with a shadowy lantern that produced Shadows and gave them power. Snag stuck his face in the portal. When he stepped back next to the portal, he suddenly went through the portal. Snag was enslaved by the evil priest and went with the priest when he retreated from the Korian item.

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Part I:
We went to the GOC after training Cassana, Ludo, Dari (in both classes) and Canstin. Alegra and Tesla are close to further levels.
We found that the beihir was gone and decided to investigate the teleporter portals we had discovered once upon a time. These teleporter portals were not similar to the one-shot teleporter at the theater battle. These were double-sided portals with a pedestal before them that you had to insert a magnet in to start them (there are a large number of magnets in the GOC).
We went through the one we had found and chopped lots of bugbears to pieces. Ceydric got suggested to attack Snag a couple of times but made most of his saves. The remaining demonspawn (Silla) was doing this. Alegra “hold person”ed her and we chopped our way to her. She’s dead now. She was “Viola.” Anyway, we were in this room we did not know where with two double doors in front of us and everything around us dead but for one captured bugbear. Gerald is guarding the door of the room with the portal in it. He and only a couple of others are there right now. (We did not know where the teleporter took us, but we did end up somewhere.)

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Take on adventure: Approx. 40,000 gold pieces. Scroll of Protection from Petrification; a magic mace +1, lots of jewelry, statuettes, and gems; a good viola; and some weird, putrid musical compositions.
The viola had contact poison and a needle, and snake trap on it. We investigated back at Middle. We did check thoroughly for traps and removed the poison needle, and then unlocked it. Apparently there was something inside that sticks-to-snakes’ed a twig inside when it opened. The snake killed Snag in about ten seconds (he was bitten by a cobra inside the viola case) but for Slow Poison and Neutralize Poison spells later. When we killed the snake, it turned into a twig.

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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.

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