Category: Wizard Mountain

[Last update: 12 May 2009]
The Front Line and Other Warriors:
Halacar 7th level halfling fighter, 80 hp (Joel)
Brother to the late Hhune, the diminuitive halfling’s ability to survive impacts is unsurpassed (including, at one point, a vampire’s blood drain). At two feet, eight inches tall, his ability to kill his opponent is less impressive. In his first attack with his short bow, Halacar broke his arrow, tripped, and fell into Brigling, taking them both off the cliff. Halacar undergoes frustrating dry spells in melee combat as well, where he wields a nasty falchion. Halacar’s demeanor is eternally cheerful and completely unfazeable even by the sardonic Standish. His inner heart though, has a hidden chill to it. Halacar is loyal to his friends, but he has absolutely no scruples when it comes to dealing with his enemies. Halacar somehow has still failed to acquire a magical falchion, and sports a 1-1 record in the Arena. Don’t ask him.
Standish 7th level half-orc fighter, 74 hp (Katherine)
Standish is a brute of a man, crude with words, and insufferably and outlandishly eloquent in the naming of his dogs. He is also the party’s most devastating fighter, able to tear through lines of enemies in moments. Standing more than twice the size of his primary fighting partner, Standish wields a devastating magical bastard sword with a particular hatred for reptiles, as well as a giantslaying weapon used to great effect against a cloud giant. He is always accompanied by two dogs, his durable war dog Cromwell, and an revolving door of guard dogs (including Winston,
Weatherby, Hampton, Hinton, Percy, and the like). Standish is one of only three surviving original party members.

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Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level human fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 6th level dwarven cleric, 41 hp, played by Joel
Brigling, 7th level halfling thief, 39 hp, played by Katherine
Campbell, 3rd level half-orc fighter, 30 hp, played by Rhonda
Tiberius K. Ollivander, 2nd level half- elven cleric/2nd level magic user, 10 hp, played by Alan
[Events of May 9, 2009, in Charlotte.]
The Wizard Mountain Party (Cornell/Charlotte edition) had not been played since New Years 2002-3, so needless to say, we were a bit rusty… as were our weapons…
A brief recap of the history of the Wizard Mountain campaign:
50 years ago, the town of Wizard Mountain was a smaller city surrounding a mountain fortress. Ruling the fortress was a powerful wizard who banned all but the most talented and powerful from being within his realm, which he blockaded with high walls. The wizard would occasionally burst into town and kill citizens simply to thin out the herd.
Eventually he angered forces outside of town. Adventuring parties attempted to penetrate into the mountain and defeat the wizard, but none returned. Finally, decades ago a party known as the Coral Star attempted to fight their way into the mountain to take it over from the wizard. On the last trip they seemingly succeeded, as the attacks stopped, although the party did not return.
In the chaos of one of these attacks, a dragon named Zog escaped from the markets, where dragons were frequently bought and sold, and took up shelter in the mountains, where it frequently preys on adventurers seeking fortune from the mountain.
Tribes of hobgoblins, goblins, and gnolls swarmed over areas of the mountains, establishing kingdoms within. The gnolls were known for wielding powerful firearms that could devastate even platemail armored adventurers.
Years later, the town of Wizard Mountain has become a giant city of a million souls, and a bustling market and trade in goods and wares. The adventuring party, The Larry Consortium (do not ask about Larry), is assembled from a ragtag group of wealth-seekers who choose to brave the mountains to gain profit, and perhaps to discover something of the fate of the Coral Star…

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Wizard Mountain Summary: The Lightning Waveguide
Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level human fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 6th level dwarven cleric, 41 hp, played by Joel
Brigling, 7th level halfling thief, 39 hp, played by Katherine
Isacar, 3rd level dwarven fighter, 36 hp, played by Alex
Flechette, 3rd level halfling fighter, 28 hp, played by Aaron
Megan, 4th level human mage, 15 hp, played by Alex
Filo, 1st level half-elven cleric/3rd level mage, 15 hp, played by Aaron
Milo, 1st level half-elven cleric/3rd level mage, 14 hp, played by Aaron
Sevrid, 3rd level illusionist, 10 hp, played by Alex
The Larry Consortium reassembled to continue the depopulation of Wizard Mountain.
Joining us were old timers Halacar, Standish, Browork, Brigling, Flechette and Megan, and newcomers Milo and Sevrid. We decided to tackle our very first enemy in the history of the Consortium—the goblin fortress. We had approached it on our first trek into the mountain, and been driven back by hurled rocks.
This time we had a plan. And it worked just well enough to hang us.
The party advanced forward toward the cliff face, and as we reached the point where we could spot the cliff, a trap deployed from the ceiling, dropping boulders on the front of the party. Fortunately Halacar and Standish were hardly injured by the impact, and the attack continued. Sevrid stepped forward and dropped a Wall of Fog that hid the combatants from view of the goblins—and vice versa. In fact, we were unaware of our surroundings. But knowing that the cliff face was up ahead, and with Standish and Halacar Spider Climbed by Milo, the party charged.
The two fighters and the thief began shimmying up the cliff face and heard shouts from above. Boulders were rolled down the cliff, covering it in rocks, but only Brigling was dislodged, taking minimal damage, and began climbing back up. The rest of the party heard a drawbridge being lowered… and all the boulders from the cliff rolled down the center of the room, nearly crushing the party. Fortunately we evaded the worst of the rocks (Milo and Sevrid were missed entirely). The fighters crested the top and heard goblins running, but couldn’t figure out where they were going due to strange echoes. The remainder of the party clambered up the cliff, and we advanced into what turned out to be a corridor, stepping on some pressure plate that set off a ringing noise, incessantly.
We could hear some shouting up ahead, and we advanced—and then a Lightning Bolt came screaming down the corridor, bouncing perfectly off the walls, and striking the party. Milo and Sevrid were killed, and Brigling had to be saved by a Death’s Door. When a second bolt came at us, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and turned and ran away, dragging our wounded and discarding our pride on the floor of the corridor.
Having failed to kill even a single goblin, and down two party members, we decided that the goblins should be left alone for awhile.

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The title of the summary may be longer than the story, but here goes.
Halacar, 6th level fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 6th level cleric, 41 hp, played by Joel
Brigling, 7th level thief, 39 hp, played by Katherine
Rhisa, 1st level fighter, 3rd level mage, 22 hp, played by Dean
Tolangardht, 3rd level cleric/mage, 9 hp, played by Jay
Rhisa, a new mage with bow specializiation, joined the party!
The party decided to do a quick strike on the hook horror kingdom/lair.
Instead of just walking into the chimney room, we decided to approach from above. We found a set of stairs that led up, and we followed it, spotting a hole that looked down to the corridor where we had begun our first attack.
We saw a few figures scampering past down the hole, but then they heard us moving about. We found another ramp that began to lead down, and heard sounds of hook horrors coming from behind us to cut off our escape. We turned around to face them, when another hook horror appeared from behind the party. The battle was begun!
Browork covered the back, scratching the hook horror there and evading all hits, but the rest of the party focused on clearing our path to the exit. Standish tore ghastly wounds in the first hook horror and brought it down while Halacar missed lots and Tolangardht and Brigling showered them with acid. Rhisa and Tolangardht also threw Magic Missiles.
The second hook horror started ripping on Standish, and Halacar proved surprisingly effective this time. Tolangardht landed Aids on the front line fighters, and the slaughter continued. That hook horror went down, then a third in short order, and the front was clear! The last hook horror fighting Browork turned to run, but Halacar and Standish turned and clocked it, dropping it in combination with the ranged fire from the acid!
For the moment, we were clear of enemies, and took that moment to retreat (primarly due to real world time constraints).
We got back in time for a Crusher fight. Crusher took on a gibberling, a weird chaotic creature with a longsword. Crusher was given a shield, studded leather, and a short sword. The gibberling stepped in and nearly took down Crusher on the first blow, but then it missed and Crusher struck back, stabbing it twice in rapid succession, and dropping it!
XP ranged from 700 to 1200.
Joel/Halacar/Browork

Party Roster:
Standish (Katherine)
Brigling (Katherine)
Schreck (David Bjorlin)
Tolangardh (Jay)
We paid a sage to research for a total of 8 days to figure out what
was draining the life’s blood out of sleeping characters near the
mushroom forest (which was missing from Edwin’s notes in some strange
fashion). It is an invisible cave slug that sneaks up and
drinks all of your plasma. You can protect your campsite with a
circle of expensive salt. We bought an emegency can in case the party
MUST camp in the cave..
We decided to go looking for “new” trouble. After MUCH debate, we
went to the toll house. We found cookies, but they were sent back to
the originating server. No. Wait. That’s not right.
We went to the toll house/booth/death trap. The road up the face of
the Mtn hugs the cliff and drops off sharply on the right side. The
house straddles the road. As we approached we could see that there
were a number of arrow slits in the house on the right portion and
across the span.

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Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level half-orc fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Brigling, 6th level halfling thief, 36 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 5th level dwarf cleric, 36 hp, played by Joel
Duran, 4th level human woodsman, 29 hp, played by Kyle
Rex, 3rd level human cleric/1st level fighter, 24 hp, played by Kyle
Skrag, 3rd level half-orc cleric, 22 hp, playec by Kyle
Neb, 3rd level human thief/1st level fighter, 18 hp, played by Alex
Megan, 4th level human mage, 15 hp, played by Alex
Zero, 4th level human fighter, 15 hp, played by Kyle
Nass, 4th level human illusionist, 8 hp, played by Alex
(And the delirious hallucination that was Taitsu AKA “Tightsuit,”
a curious amalgamation of Megan and Nass)
[Events of 12/27 to 12/29/01, from Manhattan]
Some new additions to the party were apparent. Megan and Nass returned from
their long hiatus to form the magical backbone of the party. Duran,
woodsman of the “faux-French” accent returned to throw more daggers, and the
slightly deranged Zero also came along, he of the voluntary blinder helmet
and Ring of Blinking. Zero has just trained to 4th level, gaining the
predicted 1 hit point, to stand at the pathetic total of 15 hp.
We set out to hunt down the assassin goblinoid that had plagued the party
in the as-yet-unpublished Summary #12 (involving Katherine, Jay, and
others?). We searched around the area where this goblin thing left its
“trashbags” of bones and found nothing until we entered a room with a few
rotted tapestries and no apparent exits. The thing burst out from behind
one tapestry, slit Megan’s throat, and dashed back. Standish leaped to the
fray, sprinting ahead with Cromwell and Percy and Halacar chugging it
behind. Browork tended to Megan. Duran buried a dagger in the thing’s
back. It was a goblinesque thing, but very nasty.
The thing leapt out from behind a corner, but Standish was not caught by
surprise, and clobbered the creature. It turned to run, but Cromwell
leapt and bit it nastily, and it collapsed.

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Adventures with an assassin goblinoid creature. Katherine may at some point elaborate on this adventure.

Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level half-orc fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Brigling, 6th level halfling thief, 36 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 5th level dwarf cleric, 36 hp, played by Joel
Schreck, 3rd level half-orc fighter, played by David Bjorlin
Klash, 1st/3rd level human fighter/cleric, 18 hp (?), played by Mark
Tolangardh, 3rd/3rd level elven mage/cleric, 9 hp, played by Jay
A summary #10 may be scribed by Katherine, as she, Jay, and David Bjorlin were the players for that one. A mace+4 was retrieved in that adventure, and Crusher the Goblin won another arena battle against a hobgoblin.
(Pardon my inaccuracies in advance—I’ll edit this with any corrections people want me to make)
The Larry Consortium Official Treasury continues to bounce up and down wildly. This disturbing flux of funds caused the party to seek out additional treasure once again.
We decided that with the increase in our melee power, we would finally attempt to eliminate the two groups of hook horrors that we had encountered.
We set out for the first group, in a gaping hole dungeon in the side of the mountain. We decided to make sure that the old nearby ettin lair was still clear, which proved quite wise…
The party for the first expedition was Standish, Brigling, Halacar, and Browork. We were suddenly beset by some sort of mutated troll being. It leapt at the front of the party and dealt out incredible punishment to Standish, who stood his ground but collapsed with stunning quickness, and was pulled to the side and restored by Browork. Halacar attacked with uncharacteristic ferocity and greatly injured the creature. Cromwell the war dog got into the action as well. But the most spectacular moments were when Brigling managed to sneak up behind the creature and bury his magical sword in its back TWICE. Although Halacar sustained a beating, Brigling brought the creature down, and we anxiously poured acid on it. It stayed dead.

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A summary #10 may be scribed by Katherine, as she, Jay, and David Bjorlin
were the players for that one. A mace +4 was retrieved in that adventure,
and Crusher the Goblin won another arena battle against a hobgoblin.

Party Roster:
Halacar, 5th level halfling fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 5th level half-orc fighter, 55 hp, played by Katherine
Brigling, 6th level halfling thief, 36 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 5th level dwarf cleric, 36 hp, played by Joel
James, 3rd level human paladin, 31 hp, played by Zack
Flechette, 3rd level halfling fighter, 28 hp, played by Aaron
Duran, 3rd level human woodsman, 21 hp, played by Kyle
Harry, 3rd level half-elf cleric, 18 hp, played by Chris Allen
Zero, 3rd level human fighter, 14 hp, played by Kyle
Jim, 3rd level human mage, 12 hp, played by Sean
And the Pickup Party of Dread, the Larry Consortium, springs back into action�
Joining the traditional four members were some one time friends Jim, Zero, and Duran, along with new invitees James, Flechette, and Harry (short for something I can’t quite recall). James is a powerful paladin wielding the scimitar. Flechette is a durable and dangerous halfling bow specialist who uses the short composite bow. Heri is our friendly neighborhood cleric.
We tromped back into the cave with the hydra and dead gnome in it (among other things). Exploring additional passages we came upon a large “warehouse” room. It was immensely large, and we simply followed one of the walls to another archway. As we were about to pass the archway, Halacar felt something land on his head.
He put his hand on his helmet, and he felt goo. And his hand was stuck.
Then his helmet started rising in the air. He was being reeled toward the ceiling!

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