The World of Telvar

~Dramatis Personae~

~The Weather Front~
Rebar, 9th level Cloud Giant fighter, Talon of Phaulkon, 91 hp, played by Rachel Smith
Brenard, 6th level Cloud Giant fighter, Talon of Phaulkon, 78 hp, NPC
Warwick, 8th level Ranger, Talon of Phaulkon, 68 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Rangorn, 6th level half-Elven woodsman, Warder of Phaulkon, 56 hp, played by Joel
Green
Cassian, 8th level half-Elven Phaulkonian cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Bogomel, 5th level fighter, henchman of Cassian, Warder of Phaulkon, 47 hp, played by
Katherine Plante
Buck, 5th level fighter, 44 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Alegra, 9th level Phaulkonian cleric, 40 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Drew, 5th level Ranger, 40 hp, Warder of Phaulkon, played by Michael Chermside
Star, 6th level Phaulkonian cleric, 37 hp, played by Michael Chermside
Aria, 5th level Phaulkonian cleric, henchman of Alegra, 31 hp, played by Rachel Smith
Sean, 3rd level Ranger, henchman of Alegra, 29 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Lanoi, 3rd level Phaulkonian cleric, henchman of Warwick, 19 hp, played by Mark
Wagoner
Gramaliustranstalus, bard, NPC, with input from David Chappell

~with assistance from~
Sir Konrad, 10th level paladin, 94 hp, NPC, with input from Rodger Henson
Sir Ceydric, 8th level cavalier, 65 hp, NPC, with input from Zack Hubert
Xavier, 8th level Auroran cleric, 45 hp, NPC, with input from Jack McKechnie
Eli, 9th level Elven mage, 39 hp, NPC, with input from Zack Hubert
Claude, 5th level Dwarven fighter, henchman of Eli, NPC
Snaggletooth, 6th? level Hobgoblin fighter, played by Michael Chermside
Leon, 2nd level ranger/ giant eagle, 28 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
The "wise old bird," giant owl, friend of Rebar, NPC
Tristan, 4th level druid, henchman of Warwick, played by Mark Wagoner
Binkley, cleric of Kor, NPC
Alegra's "Seasons," her 12 elite 1st-level guards, played by Kyle MacLea
Alegra's followers (staff for the Fane); Alegra's golden eagle, Guile; and Cassian's owl

[ Here is a summary of the Fane of the Winds adventure, written by Alegra Falconer,
from her perspective. If you're looking for the bardic historical document, you'll find it
elsewhere, written by Gramaliustranstalus. If you're looking for the most complete
presentation of the heart and mind of the primary Questers and the Phaulkonian Church,
you need look no further. This note is scribed on specially prepared parchment to
facilitate its preservation over time. -M ]

Continue reading "Alegra's Final Summary: The Fane of the Winds" »

Posted by Joel Green at 06:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (2)

WARNING: The following piece contains information about the enemies of the Defenders, and it should be noted that all assumptions of motivation and action not observed by the Defenders is my own flight of fancy. This story is highly conspiratorial.

September 30, 2185 in the Bards’ Reckoning

Our safety is assured; the troublesome Restenford Defenders have broken up.

I saw the explosions and fanfare and know that it is true, and from my observations of them over the past 12 years, I can presume that the worst will not come to pass. Their talk of attacks on the Great Temple of our Lady, and all of their bravado has come to naught as simple old age has driven them apart. This is indeed good news, and now we can continue our plans unhampered by their presence in the Sea of Pastures.

It has been ages since my initial confrontation with them, and I feel safe in the assurance that they do not know of me directly. This is fortunate, since as you know our cell suffered terrible losses in the Lantern Temple disaster, and this has left us with a shortage of observers. This is problematic, as the group has now split into several sections, one to Shabrundian lands, another to Petethal, and a third to parts unknown.

Continue reading "Revisionist Defenders History?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

HISTORY OF THE DEFENDERS IN BRIEF

The Adventures are Divided:

I. Bandits and Early Flailing About on Lendore
II. Abbey Isle
III. The Mystery of Captain Nbod
IV. Return to Abbey Isle
V. Burrow Worms
VI. Hafney Hill and the Seapoint Lightning
VII. The Fall of Garroten
VIII. Treasure in the Sarkian Wilderness
IX. Ruins in the Northern Swamp
X. Goblin Island
XI. Trek in Petethal, Lord of Pondscum
XII. Orc Island
XIII. Fifteen Ogres and a Fire Giant
XIV. Dancing Fairy Creature
XV. Revenge of Traywick
XVI. Mini Missions
XVII. Castle of Diamond
XVIII. The Hand of Hindus and the Queen of Grottoes
XIX. The Grandfather Attack
XX. Under the Abbey
XXI. The Second Clearing of Hafney Hill
XXII. Bone Hill
XXIII. Demons in Trun
XXIV. Mini Missions II
XXV. Felix, King of the Dwarves
XXVI. The Raid of the Orc Island
XXVII. Raiders of the Lost Orc
XXVIII. Killing the Wisp, Routing the Gnolls, Getting Trashed
XXIX. Revenge of the Grey Philosopher
XXX. The Horn of Iguilve

Continue reading "The Almost Complete Defenders History-In-Brief" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

(Formatting is imperfect, but oh well...)

Adventures:

1) Formation in Teft. Travel from Barnacus to Restenford.
Games 1-2

Party Roster:

Darellon-- W1, 20 hp
Drew-- R1, 15 hp
Grison-- F1, 11 hp
Soldan-- C1, 9 hp
Quentin-- D1, 6 hp
Annwvyn-- T1, 4 hp

Avg HP: 10.83
Avg Lv: 1
Classes: 3/2/1

Near-Death Encounters: Giant Spider
Collapses: (3) An x2, Qu
Deaths: 0
XP: 400

Notes: First collapse and wound. Hired as deputies. Party already hates Lord Mayor of Garroten.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure Capsules and Statistics" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just some nuggets o' wisdom from the Defenders and their players.

Continue reading "Defenders Quotations" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

*Note: has been spelled Restinford by virtually everyone but me, but I press on.

Location: Around the Restin River on the legendary isle of Lendore, Restenford is the fourth largest town in the Keystone Kingdom. It is about a five day journey from Barnacus.

Background: Although the Keystone Kingdom is ruled from Barnacus (the capital and by the far the largest city on Lendore), the towns are relatively independent. This is due in part to the dangerous roads on this frontier island. Life is harsh and short, but the rewards are large for merchants and adventurers alike. Farmers prosper utilizing the fantastic soil (although the burrow worms that provide this ecological miracle are quite dangerous) and bandits and tribal Khargish humans roam the northern half of the island. The Kingdom was founded about 500 years ago after the pirate inhabitants were driven out. In theory, the ruling family of Barnacus is an exiled royal line from the Realm. The current leader is Duke Haermond IV.

Restenford is a growing town with a population of about 600 in 2182, having doubled from its 2172 size. This is due in part to the increased security in the region provided by the Restenford Defenders, a group of adventurers/deputies who have eliminated virtually all bandit presence in the area. The western end of Restenford is dominated by a wooden palisade which was used to protect against raids by the gnolls before their elimination. The side east of the Restin River is not protected by walls.

A rivalry over the eastern lands continues to this day, against the resistance of the Duke of Kroten (Benct, a larger town to the east).

Important People/Organizations/Structures:

Baronial Keep—The town is ruled by Baron Grellus, a former fighter wielding a flaming bastard sword. His wife is a Nevronian cleric. The tax collector/evaluator is Relkin. The guard captain is Gelpus. Guards include Colemac, Halco, Brillman, Narahn, Marcus, Carlton, and Gaston. The sentry level guards are virtually incomprehensible, speaking with some sort of colloquial accent (as do some of the commoners).

Peltar’s Tower—The abode of the powerful wizard Peltar, known for his tremendous library of spells. His apprentices include Gristla. He is quite fond of pancakes.

Almax—High Druid of Lendore Isle. He has worked closely to insure Quentin Browne takes his place upon reaching sufficient stature. His son is Amos.

Phaulkonian Church—A walled compound, this church is led by Philip (following the tragic death of the previous Abbot in 2175).

House of the Restenford Defenders—Currently in its THIRD incarnation (the first was blown up, the second was destroyed in a storm). Narahn and Gaston reside there on a permanent basis, and the Defenders use it when in town. Refer to the design of the original homestead.

Other notable townspeople: Falco and Gap (of Falco’s Tavern), Felix the Mercenary.

Posted by Joel Green at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Profiles of the Defenders (or at least, those who I've adventured with! If you want something written here, please send it to me and I'll post it!)

Continue reading "Defenders: Party Member Profiles (updated for 2006)" »

Posted by Joel Green at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Summon Potted Plant
Level 1

This spell creates a plant, in a pot if preferred. The caster can choose the type of plant merely by selecting the appropriate seed. The material components for this spell are seeds, soil, sunlight, and water. The casting time is 6 months- 1year.

The reverse of this spell, Destroy Potted Plant, allows the caster to destroy a plant, in a pot if preferred. There are two versions of this spell. The material components for the month casting time version are: lack of sunlight, lack of soil, lack of water. The short form, 6 segments, requires as a component a knife. The knife is not consumed in the casting.

Other related spells include: Summon Potted Plants, 10’ Radius, Detect Potted Plant, Locate Potted Plant, and Power Weed, Kill.

Call Lightning (Reflexive)
Level 1

This spell summons a bolt of lightning centered on the caster during a storm. The material component is an iron rod, which is waved vigorously during casting. There is no saving throw allowed.

Power Word, Dig
Cantrip

This allows the caster to dig a large hole, sized as desired. The material component is a large shovel, which is used by the caster.

Power Word, Die
Level 2

The material components are a weapon and an unconscious opponent. The casting time is six segments.

Command
Level 1

The material component is a loaded hand crossbow, which is pointed at the target while the command is stated. The target may make a check versus wisdom, success indicating that he obeys the command.

Strength
Cantrip

The material component is a set of barbells and some motivation. Casting Time: Life.

Speak to Animals
Cantrip

This allows the caster to make stupid noises at animals. Comprehension is not conferred by this spell.

Continue reading "MAGIC SPELLS OF POWER—THE BALINOR CHRONICLES:" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Final Party Roster:

Balinor, 8th level fighter, 76 hp, played by Joel
Felix, 8th level fighter, 75 hp, played by Alex
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Bogomel, 5th level fighter, 47 hp, henchman
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Alduin, 9th level thief, 45 hp, played by Vic
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC (played by Edwin)
Albee, 7th level monk, 42 hp, NPC (played by Edwin)
Morgan, 8th level fighter, 39 hp, played by Alan
Nakumanu, 5th level fighter, 32 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

Former Defenders, Retired:

Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack
Perry, 6th level thief, 17 hp, played by Sean
Narahn, 3rd level fighter, 16 hp, played by Dave
Gaston, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Sean
Phoenix, 1st level cleric, 7 hp, played by Jeff
Colin, 1st level mage/thief, 2 hp, played by Sean

Former Defenders, Deceased:

Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by Kyle
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Joel
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Celeste, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Sean
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron
Annwvyn, 1st level thief, 4 hp, played by Alan

With a Supporting Cast And Thanks to:

Baron Grellus, Peltar, Almax, and Philip of Restenford (and Peltar’s apprentices)
Duke Haermond of Barnacus
The Petethalian Navy
The Seapoint Lightning
The Flaming Fist
The Hand of Fate
Dunstill and Illic
Wicker of Poseidonus
Alarius of Wunka

And many others…

And thanks to Kyle, largely unnoticed behind the scenes of the Defenders, offering helpful suggestions and advice… and numerous other players and observers for their advice, suggestions, and general cheering and sympathy.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #91: Resolution—We’ve Got HOW Many Magic Items?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Balinor, 8th level fighter, 76 hp, played by Joel
Felix, 8th level fighter, 75 hp, played by Alex
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Bogomel, 5th level fighter, 47 hp, henchman
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Alduin, 9th level thief, 45 hp, played by Vic
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Albee, 7th level monk, 42 hp, NPC
Morgan, 8th level fighter, 39 hp, played by Alan
Nakumanu, 5th level fighter, 32 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

As you can see from above, if you’ve kept tabs on our constitution scores you’ll realize that we all rolled really badly for our next levels, with the exceptions of Alduin and Albee.

Nonetheless, it is a great pleasure to receive those levels!

(Felix, Balinor, Morgan, Bogomel, and Nakumanu rolled, on d10s, respectively: 2,2,1,2,1)

Thank you.

Still, seven people trained, and scattered about Cromwell and Shabrund to do it too.

Albee, Balinor, and Morgan trained in Cromwell proper (the northern part, anyway). While Morgan got respect and paid only 90 gp/day, Balinor was charged 100 gp/day AND thrown out as soon as he was finished AND forced to SCRUB THE FLOORS! An 8th level fighter scrubbing the floors?!

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #90: The Oldest Trick in the Book" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic (Al this game)
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

The party was continuing to fill out the dungeon map, having just defeated an umber hulk. We realized, as Kain suggested (I think), that the umber hulk hide could be made into a suit of awe-inspiring armor—AC 3/ AT 3 for a minor enchantment, with the major caveat that it cannot be repaired once damaged. We still felt this was worth it and took the body with us.

We continued to explore the cave and actually completed our way around the octagonal central room, mapping out all the doors. Still, there remained a few places to go; the giant beetle room and beyond, the weird crystal room, and a few other new passages.

We settled on continuing our exploration of new places before we returned to old ones. This led us to an interesting location.

We came upon a room with a giant mushroom “farm” with foot-tall mushrooms arranged neatly in rows, with numerous exits, some wide and some small.

We quickly discovered that most of the wide exits led back to places we were familiar with, but as we proceeded down the last one we reached unfamiliar territory. We found a larger room and continued through into a final chamber.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #89: The God of the Troglodytes" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp (50), played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp (52), played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We last left our party wandering the dungeon full of demons and weird zombie-eque basilisks. We camped by the dead basilisk and pondered further exploration.

I can’t go into the mapping details, but suffice it to say we’ve been slowly constructing a map of lots of short corridors that dead end circling around an octagonal room with eight doors with poems on them. These doors were the ones solved by Ranore’s party long ago, and the treasure from there has been removed. However, his party apparently explored little else in the dungeon after finding the big treasure, so we’re mapping out the rest of it.

The first place we ran into trouble was in one of the numerous mushroom forest rooms. There were these shrieking sounds emanating from, as it turned out, natural mushrooms in the room. However, the shrieking bothered us so much that we cast a Silence spell near the front of the party to shield some members. This worked out badly when half the party failed to notice the back half being eaten by two shambling mounds.

Balinor and Nakumanu vanished instantly into the moss and plant growth of the creatures. Cassian backed off and began casting, while Bogomel stood with his spear, stabbing the one with Balinor in it. Kain threw up a Flame Blade, but before he could use it, Donald launched a Fireball at the things. The flames had no noticeable effect.

Bogomel discovered in his stabbing that there was some central core that could actually be killed, but that the outside of the creature was immune to everything. Only long weapons could reach inside to hit it though, which put the party at a disadvantage.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #88: Morgan’s Nightmare" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic (Dave this game)
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We last left our party having explored most of the upper level of the
Horn of Iguilve cavern. We decided to have Quentin cast Commune with
Nature on the lake to identify passages and trouble spots, including
predators. We discovered that the lake was full of elemental earth silt,
contained a nasty and very large snapping turtle, and that there several
streams leading out.

The snapping turtle was avoided with Locate Animal spells (being
invisible it would have snuck up on our intrepid explorer/fishbait and
killed him otherwise), and we found about 10,000 silver pieces. Whoopee.

Well, after exhaustive search, we had found little in the lake. We
checked out one of the streams, but something weird happened. The first
party members down the stream were overcome and fled from it, while some
of the others were able to remain but itched wildly and found the water
hideously unpleasant (they were Waterwalking).

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #87: Bargaining with the Demon" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We last left our party flailing about the Horn of Iguilve, shoveling bat guano and stirge guano and just about every other disgusting thing you can imagine.

We checked out the remaining passageways before looking at the lake, but nothing was found. The dwarf we had defeated had a number of magical items including a magical cloak, which is probably where his wings came from. He possessed several weakly magical evil books, which turned out to be his journals, though we still have no idea why they are magical or evil. The journal revealed that the dwarf had been exiled from his community and wandered for awhile before ending up here, passing by a large monster that breathed fire. He also had a powerful magical non-evil tome, and two Auguries revealed little on whether Quentin should read it—the first failed and the second went something like: The flashing fish moves swiftly through the rapids unless he is a carp. What the heck?

We also found a repeating light crossbow (half speed)! Balinor is using this. The first six bolts are poisoned, and the current agreement is to fire them in this dungeon and get rid of them afterward if any remain.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #86: So Where’s the REAL Treasure?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 (50) hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 (52) hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We had last left our party staggering around the Horn of Iguilve. The mashing continues!

The party continued to explore the dungeon, and I’ll hit the highlights. First up, in a second mushroom forest, we noticed a crack in the wall with a mummy like being in it, not moving. We had no time to absorb this, as the much of the green slimy stuff on the ceiling suddenly fell on Morgan, Felix, and Chiaro!

Complete catastrophe nearly resulted. Chiaro’s right arm began to melt off, as did Felix and Morgan’s heads. Quentin sprayed water all over Chiaro’s arm, but this only strengthened whatever it was. Soap from Balinor had an even worse effect as the soap began to change into the things, which attempting to climb the wall again (slowly). The creatures were identified as a green slime, which was only hurt by fire. Casting Flame Blade, Quentin and Kain surgically removed the creatures from Chiaro’s arm and the heads of our hapless fighters. Donald then roasted them all with a Fireball.

In the end, both Morgan and Felix lost their helmets. Worse yet, Chiaro’s arm was rendered completely deadened, unable to hold any weight. He can still do spellcasting, but picking anything up is a complete mess for him. Hopefully this can be fixed, but we won’t find out how until we return to civilization.

Meanwhile, Morgan’s elven chain was slightly damaged as well. A temporary fix was made with the unbreakable magic string we have, but eventually this will cause problems. Yet another thing we have to have repaired!

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #85: Morgan—Not So Squirmy?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We set off from the site of the devastation of the hobgoblin tribe, whose souls had been lost to the demon, as well as their money and magic items.

That’s a great opening line.

One thing not mentioned last time: prior to the expedition many members of the Defenders got suspicious of Spittle the crow, who continuously turned up evil on all scans. We ESPed him while saying things, and found out that he understands significantly more than it would appear, including at least dozens of words in Common.

We didn’t know what to make of this, and we still didn’t the when we encountered the dwarven party marching down the slopes. They were a huge expedition of about a hundred dwarves in banded mail, including five different standard bearers. We hailed them and asked about dangers up ahead. They laid down the usual “don’t release any demons” warning and told us of a large tribe of a few hundred noblink in the valley that would extort food and money. We told them that a hobgoblin tribe had planned an ambush for them, and they were dead now.

They began to march past, and then suddenly called a halt. A wizened and ancient dwarf wearing a skull cap helmet came forward and asked us sharp questions in dwarven, which were translated to Human by another dwarf (although several members of the party speak dwarven, this just didn’t seem a good time to point that out). He asked about the elves, the orc, what we were doing, etc. Kain explained that we were trying to "help him." The dwarf said sadly, "We tried that with the spiders, and it didn't work."

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #84: Go to Exotic Places, Meet New and Interesting Monsters, and Kill Them" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 12 hp, played by Aaron

We last left our party choosing a mission. Chiaro had just trained to 6th level, gaining a huge 3 hp to stand at 12, and picked up Hypnotic Pattern to give him an actual offensive 2nd level spell.

The party had also gone bankrupt, currently in debt to Cassian a total of 4000 gp, with about 1500 gp in cash.

We decided to attempt a mission in the Tegefed Mountains in Northern Cromwell/ Western Latt (near Groorg’s fortress). We have a poem about the Horn of Iguil, and notes from Kaal Na Ka’s journals, of a strange dungeon with demons and vampires and virtually anything imaginable. There is also great treasure about. The most detail we have are notes of a CERTAIN party that ventured there in the 2140s and defeated a vampire in stasis by using every single protection item they had…. They decided to leave the area after a really bad encounter with two major demons.

Sounds like fun!

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #83: See the World, They Said" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 7th level fighter, 70 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 8th level cleric, 51 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 7th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 9th level druid, 44 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 8th level mage, 43 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 4th level fighter, 41 hp, henchman
Alduin, 8th level thief, 39 hp, played by Vic
Morgan, 7th level fighter, 38 hp, played by Alan
Albee, 6th level monk, 37 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 6th level illusionist, 10+ hp, played by Aaron

A very cool and productive game session!

The party had several goals for the final adventures of the party. We would like to gain Morgan the ability to rise in level, as he is less than 10,000 XP from 8th level, which he cannot train to. There were two ways to accomplish this: actually raising his level (or just his level limit), or raising his strength.

We also wanted a Potion of Treasure Finding to find the remaining treasure of the defeated will’o’wisp, which was clearly hidden somewhere in that area.

We split into two parties to accomplish this. Morgan, Alduin, and Donald went to Carse, while Felix and Nakumanu went to Koralgesh. Cassian and Bogomel went to Teft to train, Kain went to Teft to work with the Silban church, Chiaro went to Koralgesh to drill and train, Quentin trained in Restenford, Balinor remained in Restenford, and Albee went to Barnacus to train.

We went broke making our training costs plus treasure finding potion costs, and the Baron lent us 10,000 gp to tide us over until the will’o’wisp’s treasure was recovered.

In Koralgesh, Felix fumbled around but found absolutely no offers. Morgan was (surprise) much luckier.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #82: The Resolution of a Few Problems" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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

(Note: I would NEVER write a false summary on April Fools Day. Have no fear.)

The party had just been dropped back in time though a time warp/simulation or whatever, perhaps inside the grey philosopher’s twisted mind. We had woken to find ourselves in the ancient Khargish city. Our first contact was made with the high priest of the Korian church, an older man named Matar (which, I noted, means “to kill” in Spanish).

After we at least partially convinced that we were weird and probably not entirely insane, Matar agreed to meet with us daily in a park in town, where all the trees had been cut down. It seems that the situation in the city was roughly this:

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #81: The Big Bang Theory" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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

Quote for the day: "I'm a druid. I'm practically a tree." --Quentin

We last left our bloodthirsty party in the swamp having deftly evaded fanged bullfrogs or some such things. We were located in the section of high ground (see Summary #33-34) where we last spoke with the stork people (they were a ghostly and ominous voice on the wind). We spoke to a buzzard (picture a Warner Brothers buzzard) who directed us to their nest, hidden somewhere in the reeds. We began to travel, and Chiaro used a Detect Invisibility. Chiaro at one point spotted a thing in the bushes, but it vanished from sight in moments.

Then the very bad thing that we expected to happen, happened. Balinor felt three sharp beaks stab him through his plate mail (inflicting 67 damage and four wounds) and he fell to the ground gasping for help. Chiaro, not wanting to die by drawing attention to himself, began casting a Phantasmal Force to indicate where the invisible creatures were. Meanwhile, Quentin and Kain began healing spells and prayers while Donald cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability, shielding himself and Cassian. Cassian began to drink the Potion of Avian Control. Felix ordered the fighters into a line and organized a defense. It appeared that the storkpeople were planning to kill Quentin as things currently stood.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #80: If You Can't Solve it, Kill it" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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).

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #79: Well, We Eventually Made it There" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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!]

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #78: Gee, It’s a Good Thing Chiaro Didn’t Make it Back for This" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
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 party began by resolving some logistical issues. Quentin had reached the court of the High Druid and had given him the Kraken warning item. The Druid believed that the right choice had been made and that the party should not inform anyone of the item’s existence.

The party sharply disagreed in this issue, with the most adamant being Kain and Felix, although they also had sharply contrasting viewpoints with each other. Without going into the details it was generally agreed by all but Felix and Quentin that the very highest levels of the good churches should be informed (highest religiously, not politically). However, there is still disagreement about this, specifically about HOW to do it.

Leaving that aside, we resolved other issues. Chiaro trained and learned Wraithform, and there was a distinct slurping noise as Chiaro paid 4200 gp for Spectral Force. His training didn’t finish until after this game’s adventure, though. Also of note, in this year of 2183, the high illusionist of Koralgesh, Remtran (sp), died, and Lambu (sp) became the high illusionist. Chiaro is Lambu’s student, and as such was given a Philter of Persuasiveness from Remtran’s stuff.

Kain also trained and selected crow form upon attaining 7th level as a cleric of Silban. Kain returned in time to make the adventure that followed.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #77: The Defenders’ Traveling Circus" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #76: Hit ‘Em When They’re Down" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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

This may have been our most disturbing game ever.

When we last left the party, we had explored the overwhelming majority of the lower compound under the lighthouse on the orcish island. We had been sent to the island by Dunstill and Illic to clear out the treasure and keep everything out of orcish hands. Well, we did that, and had some of the more bizarre experiences in our adventuring career in the process.

The first of the remaining rooms that we checked out was the one with the high magic balance with a beating heart on one side and a flame on the other. Behind them were two sarcophagi, one evil and one good. The scale was lawful neutral. The ceiling of the room consisted of stars marking the location as at least approximately here, though something seemed “wrong.” There were cricket sounds in the room.

We were unwilling to fool with the scale, but Balinor and Felix did try to pry open the good sarcophagus in the hope of gaining information. All efforts failed. We have since assumed that the sarcophagi are directly tied to the scale by some powerful magic.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #75: Wheel of Death" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #74: Thank You For Not Killing Us" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #73: Miss us?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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!?

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #72: Butt-kicking for Goodness!" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #71: Be Vewy Vewy Quiet, We’ah Huntin’ Vampiahs" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #70: Balinor Makes a New Friend, and the Defenders Actually Have a Plan" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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

Other magic items I forgot to mention: we picked up 9 +2 arrows for Morgan and Cassian, and a Shield of Healing (20 charges) for Nakumanu.

We picked up lots of oil and other items in preparation for our raid of the orcish island. Dunstill and Illic realized that since we had experience with this sort of situation before, we were ideal for the job. In fact, the ruins on the southern part of the island were of the same civilization as the ones on Orc Isle. There are rumors of drow elves having been in these islands—perhaps these are their ruins.

The plan is for the party to trash the island as much as possible while the high shamans are away. Dunstill and Illic will be trying to mess up the meeting of the high shamans.

Some stats about the island—there are about 5,000 orcs on the island clustered in three coastal villages in the center of the island. There is also a palace in the middle of the villages. There are haunted ruins (see above) and a dormant volcano and orcish burial ground on the south end. On the north end is an active volcano and another set of ruins, as well as a prison slave camp.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #69: It’s Good to Be Back" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron

Reign of Felix the Dwarven King: April 2182- June 2182. I will explain.

This confusing chain of events begins with the Defenders returning triumphantly from the Sentry, having conquered one of the mysteries of Lendore Isle. The party returned to Restenford and had stuff identified in Barnacus. Felix, Morgan, and Albee dispersed to train. We picked up a number of minor magical items, including thread with incredible tensile strength, several spellbooks, a longsword+1, 9 first flight arrows +2 and dwarf sized platemail +1. Donald gained Write and used it to put several spells in his books and also learned Polymorph Other, Dimension Door, and Wall of Ice. After selling off some magical daggers, crossbow bolts, and pawning our puzzle box temporarily to Peltar, the party managed to pull out of debt with literally no money and a 3500 gp loan.

Augman, the Sage in Barnacus, was unable to identify the hammer and crown that the undead dwarf was bearing, so we sent them via Turney’s Journeys (a delivery company) to Zalk for eventual identification. For those who don’t know, Zalk is the premiere identification sage in the New World, and he resides at the School of Wizardry in Dunador.

Felix spoke briefly with the Nevronian Church to check on the implications of the kingship to his soul. The Church was not sure what would happen.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #68: Ambassadorial Emissary, My Fat Ass!" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 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
Donald, 6th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman (Aaron this game)
Albee, 4th level monk, 27 hp, NPC
Chiaro, 4th level illusionist, 8 hp, played by Aaron

The party had just finished the rainy season of 2181-2 and hoped to begin adventuring once again. Near the end of the season we received a letter from our old friend Keldarin from the Caxathoros adventure, basically a hi, how do you do letter. So we sent one back about how we killed another one of those demons.

We discovered that on New Years Day a crazed hill giant claiming to be the ruler of the world had attacked Benct. Well, it is no longer coincidence.

Chiaro left for Koralgesh to train to 4th level. Sadly he gained 2 hp—we were disappointed, and wanted him to roll either a 1 to keep the streak going or a 4 to break it in style. So Chiaro has 8 hp. And he acquired Mirror Image, from an illusionist named Jay.

Meanwhile, on Lendore, the Defenders had traded the morning star+1 for 2300 gp, and the bastard sword+1 with extra coolness for a retractable spear +1 for Albee.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #67: The Return of the King" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 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
Donald, 7th level mage, 37 hp, NPC
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Nakumanu, 4th level fighter, 30 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 3rd level illusionist, 6 hp, played by Aaron

When we last left our valiant party, it had split up. Donald was stuck training with Wicker on the mainland, and the rest of the party was in rainy Restenford. Donald learned the spells Minor Globe, Charm Monster, and Polymorph Self over the winter.

Meanwhile, in November 2181, the party was asked by the Baron to take on a mission. A group of bandits were harassing Garroten, and had slain a patrol, and needed to be taken out. They called themselves “The Fabulous” and were led by a woman in banded mail.

We disguised ourselves as a caravan traveling from Restenford to Garroten. Signs such as “Sale on Fist-Sized Diamonds” or “Year End Blowout on Platinum” were considered, but dismissed. Cassian rode as the caravan drover, with Albee, Morgan, and Bogomel on top, while Balinor, Felix, Nakumanu, and Chiaro rode inside.

While this would normally be easy, our options were rather limited since we were lacking the party wizard, the party’s main source of area of effect spells. We were essentially limited to Entangle and Hold Person.

Nothing happened, and we arrived in Garroten, where we discovered that a group had been attacked only half a day ahead of us the day before. We set back out, and then turned around at the halfway point.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #66: Bow to the Emperor, and His Dog, Sput" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 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, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Bogomel, 3rd level fighter, 31 hp, henchman
Albee, 4th level monk, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 3rd level illusionist, 6 hp, played by Aaron

A few logistics from last time: Quentin’s cloak+2 was given to Donald, his Ring of Toad Control was put on Chiaro, and his Belt of Many Pouches went to Kain.

The party had just decided to accept an 8 year old mission from the Nevronian Church in Benct to deal with demon-worshippers in Trun, a small village to the north of Benct (on Lendore).

A Divination performed in 2170 had revealed weak to moderate monsters, significant treasure, and great chances of drawing the wrath of the forces of chaotic evil. Demon-worship clergy is significant here.

Now we had no way of knowing if the situation had gotten worse, but hey, why not give it a try anyway? We thanked Father Filner at the Church and set off for Trun in early October 2181.

We traveled through the wilderness, and for some reason there were NO random encounters (thank you, thank you very much). We dodged Trun and traveled through farmland, passing by a hill called the Sentry, from which no one has returned. We made a mental note to go there later.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #65: New Party Members, Same Old Result" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is not a very exciting summary, but it was necessary to resolve things smoothly so that we can continue adventuring.

The Restenford Defenders have changed significantly in composition. Following the mission to Bone Hill and the pickup of the dim-witted fighter Bogomel, several party members decided that it was time for a break. Alduin decided to remain in Restenford and wrestle with the elusive puzzle box. Quentin’s plans are unknown to the party. Kodo will remain in the Baron’s service as a tracker and scout (a very durable one).

First we resolved some magic items questions. Kodo will receive (as requested) the Smokeshield+1, studded leather+2, handaxe+1, and we threw in the ½ potion of climbing. The party retrieves from his person the Bag of Holding 600/2000, the Horn of Valhalla, and the Ring of Health.

Alduin receives the Manual of Stealthy Pilfering, the Ring of Concealment+2, the Potion of Invisibility, and the Ring of Jumping. The party retrieves from him the dagger+3, Potion of Polymorph, and Boots of Elvenkind.

Quentin’s status is uncertain. We would really like one or two of his six or seven items. Particular requests: one of the three defensive items (cloak+2, ring+1, bracers 7/7) or the spear+1 for Bogomel, who is a specialist. We’ll try to contact Jeremy.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #64: A Ninety Degree Turn" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Vote for your favorite Defenders moments! Everyone who reads the summaries can vote!

Continue reading "The Restenford Defenders Golden Adventurer Awards" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
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 (Jeremy this game)
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan (Joel this game)
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic (Kyle this game)

The Defenders returned in August 2181 to Restenford with some ideas for a new quest. We had a number of items to sell or trade, and didn’t want to start a major trip to Carse before the rainy season, so something on Lendore Isle appealed to us. Finally it was recalled that the Dead Wood was still a unfinished quest.

Back at the start of the party in 2172, the Lord Mayor of Garroten told us that we could explore the ruins in the Dead Wood, a forest between Garroten and Restenford. This was on our way during our island tour, so we agreed. Inside we found locusts, a giant spider that nearly killed us, and a skeleton. The area was consecrated evil ground. We fled and traveled to Restenford, where we learned more about the area and dropped the quest.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #63: Would you believe that nothing died on either side?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
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 (Joel for the summer)
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman

Continuing on last game’s discoveries, the party decided to do some recon before taking out the “clergy of the Lord of Lies.” Quentin flew back to Restenford and consulted with the Baron and the churches there. The Lord of Lies is a devil of godlike power, though he has no real formal clergy. Nothing was really known about the situation, though no one believed it could be bad to wipe it out.

So equipped to kill, we approached Hafney Hill once again. Entering Invisible from the trapdoor in the tower where Quentin had blasted halflings long ago, we found that no new signs of life were evident. Nevertheless, we pressed on to the trapdoor, and Kain Dispelled the trap on it, caught by Cassian’s Find Traps.

The party filed down into the small cistern to the door 15 feet below, and Felix opened the door as an Obscurement was dropped in the area by Kain. There were some bells and a crash of something, and the party moved in as quickly as possible. It was clear that there were objects of unholy origin spread throughout the room. Felix and Morgan burst out of the cloud and found a roast rabbit dinner lying spilled on the floor. Across the corridor was a draped curtain.

Pausing for Cassian to cast a Silence stone, Felix and Morgan led a charge toward the curtain and the ominous chanting behind it. As the fighters approached the curtain, disaster struck.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #62: The Big, the Stupid, and the Nasty" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
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
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Alan
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave

When we last left the party, they had just regrouped in Restenford at the beginning of June, 2181. Cassian had just gained 7th level and so we were interested in clearing the talking evil skull room below the Phaulkonian Church in Restenford, and in testing our mettle against the giant skeleton (B.A.S.T.A.R.D.—Big Ass Skeleton Thingy And Really Dangerous) in our old favorite location, Hafney Hill.

First, Narahn made a cameo appearance after an update. Narahn, a halfling bow specialist who had been with the party from 2175-6, had been patrolling around Restenford, working for the Baron. He and his patrol had encountered quite a few nasty creatures, including groups of ogres and spiders. He had gained 3rd level (and 5 hp) in the intervening period.

We decided to tackle the weird skull room. With Protection from Evil on all party members, we approached the shaft with the skulls and cast Augury on Dispelling them. The result was that the effect was superficial—indeed, all we did was remove the “alarm system” for the crypt. However, Cassian’s hawk was able to discover a small room about 60 feet down the shaft. Lowering ropes and using mountaineering equipment, we descended into the room. The entire room was magical, and contained a sarcophagus as well as all sorts of skull decorations on the walls and various assorted furniture.

An Augury on Dispelling the room: “Only a fool takes the boards down as the eye passes.” In this case the “eye” almost certainly referred to the eye of a storm. Our conclusion was that the Dispel would have no immediate effect but trigger disaster soon after.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #61: The Plan, as Usual, Goes to Putty" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Quentin, 8th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic (Rob this game)
Chiaro, 3rd level illusionist, 6 hp, played by Aaron

The split party-vision screen continues…

Morgan stayed in the Library through the rainy season of 2180-1. Chiaro trained to 3rd level, gaining a whopping 1 hp to bring him to the, uh, total of, um… 6 hp.

Chiaro also managed to gain Detect Magic, which is a 2nd level spell that pales in comparison to the magic-user one, and is slightly weaker than the cleric/druid version.

In Teft, in a bizarre move, Kain decided to offer the Church of Hindus 350 gp to find out why they hated the Defenders so much. Despite the fact that everyone thought this was a bad move, Kodo had no choice, although he only gave Kain 50 gp. It turned out that the shady character demanded 20 gp to avoid reneging on the “deal.” Kodo paid, and they left the bar.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #60: To Everyone’s Surprise, Nothing Goes Wrong" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kain, 6th level cleric, 43 hp, played by Jeff
Quentin, 7th level druid, 37 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic (Alan this game)
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Chiaro, 2nd level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

When we last left the party, it had fragmented for a downtime that would last the rainy season of 2180-1. Chiaro and Morgan spent the winter uneventfully in Koralgesh, Morgan reading books in the Log Library, and Chiaro training to 3rd level.

In Teft, Kain trained to 6th level, and Kodo traded for a magical handaxe. Weird things began to happen in February 2181…

Kodo was walking along in Teft at night to get his usual bar, when someone tried to knock him out with a sap. Kodo was bruised but conscious and he whirled around. Spotting a cloaked figure, he tried to overbear it, and went right through the insubstantial thing.

Kodo heard footsteps in the alley and some weird noises, and retreated into the moonlit street.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #59: Split Screen Action" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic (Alan this game)
Chiaro, 2nd level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

The party had just defeated a group of goblins in the fortress near the Grandfather, and needed desperately to escape…

Detect Magic helped pick out magical items, and Sleeping and Held people were finished off. The head of the heavily armored shaman was taken back for “questioning.” The evil but non-magical statuette was left behind.

The shortsword goblin’s head would not be cut off, due to a weird adamantite magical neckbrace thing. Even after we took it off, the creature could not be decapitated.

A peek out the arrow slit revealed that there were about 100 goblins on the far walls, with a near cluster of goblins encircling the tower only a few feet away. Not to worry, we came up with a plan.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #58: Mission Impossible, the Escape" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic (Alan this adventure)
Chiaro, 2nd level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

Part One

The party had settled back into Koralgesh to wait for a new mission to appear. In the meantime, Morgan poked around the Log Library looking for neat stuff and possibly information about the map we found in the temple of the QoG. He didn’t find any relevant information, but he did find another weird wacky map “for later.”

In addition, we looked through Kaal Na Ka’s journal and found mention of some interesting places. Several of them were in Cromwell, including the famous-enough-to-appear-in-the-Gaz Cave of Echoes with the oracle, and the garden nearby. Also there was mention of the Gateway in the southernmost tip of Cromwell were the Jotuns and Yatols meet. There were also several islands in the Archipelago and nearby that were neat, although the pig wizard had slain the inhabitants and pillaged an evil temple on one of them.

Despite these many options, we waited two weeks and got our mission:

Alduin was sitting in the naval office when a 60 year old weatherbeaten human came in and began to settle accounts there. He noted that the workers treated him with great deference and respect, and when he asked if Halt (Holt?) and his party was in for a mission, Alduin took the cue and said, “We’re in.”

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #57: The Restenford Lackeys?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic
Chiaro, 1st level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

The party had just suffered heavy damage and casualties in defeating the tribute gatherer, the demon squid. The high priestess of the temple lay dead at Morgan’s feet, as well as all of her closest followers.

In order to save the dead Felix, Kodo, and the Northerner from the Flaming Fist, we had to send the fastest ship, the Koralgesh ship, back to Koralgesh at top speed. This might allow the ship to reach Koralgesh in 12 days, which was not good enough, and so Cassian went along in order to use her Raise Winds abilities to speed the trip along, substantially increasing the risk.

The Flaming Fist was a party in shambles. The fighter/mage had been taken down by the Valhalla warriors in a blown attempt to summon aid and had been incapacitated. The fighter and leader, Roderick, was also incapacitated. Sharilla the half-elf thief and the wizard Belarus were up and about, but badly injured. The Northerner fighter was dead down by the glyphs that had killed him, the ranger was drowned in the bay with the undead sharks, and the Felcon cleric had been fried by a Flamestrike (there never was a Nevronian cleric) and was unraisable. We knew that there had to be a Raise Dead scroll around, so we sent Kodo and the Northerner’s bodies on the Koralgeshian ship and then hoped to continue the adventure with Morgan, Balinor, Quentin, Kain, Alduin, Chiaro, a hopefully revived Felix, the wizard Belarus, and the thief Sharilla.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #56: A Resolution?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic
Chiaro, 1st level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

With support from the Flaming Fist

We last left the party having saved the Flaming Fist’s thief and preparing to move through the large door into the ambush room. The other door, which had not been recently used, had a mysterious blue panel on it, that turned red after someone went inside.

There was much apprehension, though it was later discovered that the room was a latrine.

Anyway, the party moved through the wreckage of the main room and used the secret door through which the QoG priests had rushed the unfortunate Flaming Fist. We had expectations of rescuing four more of them—the cleric of Felcon, the fighter/mage, Roderick the fighter and party leader, and the mage.

A quick Good vs. Evil scan on the thief revealed that she was Neutral.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #55: Defenders 13, Queen of Grottos 2" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic
Chiaro, 1st level illusionist, 5 hp, played by Aaron

Well, the game started out mundane enough. We were planning to take on a sphinx that had been harassing travelers on the Long Road from Drake to Petethal. We set out in January 2180 and headed through various Petethalian towns.

Halfway to Jebel, we found an abandoned cart with six horses attached to it, by the side of the road in the height of the rainy season. Tracking revealed that around 25 men had left suddenly, fairly recently.

We examined the contents of the cart, which was heavily loaded with wood. They turned out to be… illegal loggers!

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #54: Following Vaguely Behind Disaster" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Kodo, 5th level woodsman, 59 hp, played by Rob
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 6th level cleric, 37 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Kain, 5th level cleric, 34 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 6th level mage, 33 hp, NPC
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Alduin, 6th level thief, 26 hp, played by Vic
??, 1st level illusionist, 5 hp, played byAaron

There wasn’t much “adventuring” this game, but we did create Aaron’s character and run a brief trip to the X in Petethal.

Aaron is returning hopefully with better luck than before, and he has once again created a party member that should nicely fill a niche. He is playing a human illusionist from Koralgesh, who trained under Lambu. He is middle-aged and about 6 feet tall. The character is as yet unnamed, though certain elements have decided on the interim name, “Sunshine Happypants.” I claim no responsibility.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #53: Indecision and a New Friend" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And so the Defenders began a big downtime.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #52: The Sword" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

Allies:

Keldarin, 4th level fighter, 23 hp
Tucares, caravan guard and fighter
A policewoman from the Universitus (non-classed)
Tensil, student mage (at least 4th level)

We had finally settled on a plan to take out the castle. First, we would uncharm two more guard in the hopes of getting allies. Then we would move around the castle, searching the library and bedroom of Alarius first, in the hopes of catching Irinia unawares by having Keldarin lure her out with a false story about a threat from the ground.

We began with the Dispel Magic, and freed Tucares the caravan guard from being charmed. In addition, the “woodsman” in light armor began sobbing uncontrollably, so we left him alone.

We cast the Augury: Would it be beneficial for us to try to kill Irinia first?

The answer was something like: All other plans would fail.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #51: The Power of the Backstab" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

The party was busy interrogating Black Eagle, the man we had beaten up upon entering the room. We were unable to get much information out of him, and we decided to wait until either Detect Charm could be cast by Kain (spellshifting) or another person entered the room.

After about a half hour, a man in banded mail, shield, and carrying a scimitar entered the room. He was yanked in by Kodo and Cassian shut the door behind him. He was smashed handily by Felix and Morgan (for stun damage) and he fell down (though barely). This was done with stun damage so that he would be relatively uninjured.

We spoke with him, and this guy seemed to be a complete idiot. He was telling us quite a bit until it FINALLY dawned on him that we were asking him sensitive questions about the mistress, and he shut up. He took awhile even to notice that we had stuffed the other prisoner under the bed. We learned that the mistress of beauty was named Irinia and lived in the castle. The guy was also a zealot/ charmed pansy, but he served for motivations other than outright love. He was worried about the others who weren’t charmed, including the most disturbing of all: the “wizard” who could shapeshift, Caxathros. He had little idea what was going on.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #50: A Crowded Room" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Rooster, NPC

The party was bored.

This is very dangerous.

Winter rolled on—endless rain, dreary days… and then one February day, Morgan was strolling along the beach, and happened to find a gold ring with diamonds in the sand. Impressed, he kept it. Days later, pirates were captured by Gelpus and the guard, waterlogged and begging for mercy. They had mutinied against their captain, then gotten caught and trashed against the rocks near Restenford. They were sent off to Barnacus. The pirate leaders, all wanted men, were dead.

Kain spoke with some fish, and Cassian and Felix used Waterwalk to investigate the wrecked ship, and found a treasure chest with 1300 gp in it!

Life settled back down, and Quentin finished training the animals to guard the house in case it blows up again. Ah, carefree are the Defenders.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #49: Chicken 1, Castle Diamond 0" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

Count down to 2179 with the Defenders! See the fabulous New Years’ celebration in Restenford! See the ball drop during lanthalasa-te!

Subtitled: “My Winter Vacation” by Balinor Buckannah

Bless Nevron. Or something like that. I never followed that stuff too well.

Winter on Lendore Isle sucks. It rains a lot, and my armor rusts. I hate winter.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #48: Restenford Defenders’ Lendore Vacation" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic
Gaston, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Joel

Just as the party began to descend down the limestone stairs, there was a rumbling noise as ten feet of rock caved in the room behind us. Someone knew we were here, and they wanted us to go forward….

Prior to the game, some backlogging was done. Gaston, a fighter who retired from the Defenders back in 2173, had been acting as a dog trainer and guard for the Baron of Restenford. Though his five years had been relatively uneventful, in 2176 he was nearly killed by a giant spider after being paralyzed by its web. Though he survived, in a fashion typical for Gaston, he took permanent damage—1 comeliness point.

Later that year, Gaston trained to 2nd level, gaining 6 hp to stand at 12, and learned Lasso. He decided to join the party on this mission of revenge against those who blew up our house. He is currently with the party on the stairs.

Cassian, meanwhile, had traveled to Teft and performed services of healing as a cleric of Phaulkon. The highlight of her two years there was the destruction of a very intelligent evil sword. In late 2178, Cassian decided to return to Restenford.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #47: Powerful Enemies, Powerful Friends" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

We last left off with the party in Carse for some trading. First we identified the double dose potion (from the fire giant) as extra-healing! We made an attempt to trade Kodo’s plate mail+1 for studded leather +2 or similar, but instead we got two weird offers:

Druidic armor (some high plus)
+3 cloak—only problem with this was that it was bright neon red

No deals were made. Some more looking around Herman’s Odds and Ends, and Rosarita’s Potions, etc. was done.

We then took the next ship out of Carse back Restenford, intending to relax and maybe trash some bandits.

Astoundingly, there were no sea encounters! Woo-hoo!

We landed ashore in Restenford, and headed over to our house, only to find that it wasn’t there.

This struck as a bit odd. We were quite sure we had a roof and interior walls and such, but all we saw was a foundation and a burned out shell.

The Baron explained to us that the house and shed had exploded.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #46: Troubles at Home" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan (c/o Joel)
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

The Defenders had just reached the edge of the evil feeling forest where the satyr-like creature lived. We intended to pretend to negotiation, encircle it, and attack.

Preparations were fairly simple. Goodberries were passed around, Quentin took Hold Plant and Dispel Magic, Donald took Dispel Magic, and Kain prepared to take down fellow party members if they got charmed by the creature.

It was simple to find the tree that it occupied. Quentin called out the creature’s name, and it appeared. It looked like a little creature with very extreme hair, several feet long in all directions. The creature carried a club and stood about two feet tall.

It laughed almost nervously and sat on the rock. When Quentin tried to negotiate, it denied having ever signed treaties. The rest of the party advanced on it, and it looked around, almost unconcerned, and giggling occasionally. With a shrug, we initiated the attack.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #45: When Hippies Go Terribly Wrong" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC (played by Katherine this game)
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

The party began, as is its wont, by arguing about a plan. Having come up with one, we executed with a style and grace previously unheard of in party history. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it actually worked!

First, Alduin was made invisible by Invisibility, 10’ Radius (a spell that is at least as good as Invisibility, with other benefits as well) and he moved through the camp. Dodging ogres working on the palisade, he reached the doorway to the great hall, which was covered by two skins that parted in the middle. He looked inside, but could see little except for a roaring fire and a couple of curtains hiding the back corner of the building from view. There were tools for building lying around.

The next night we followed the five ogres after they left camp, an invisible Alduin following closely with animals for communication with the main group. When the ogres stopped to bang an opossum against a tree repeatedly, the party caught up, and when the ogres noticed us coming they yelled, “What are THOSE things?”

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #44: Defenders 7, Ogres 0" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 6th level fighter, 59 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 6th level fighter, 56 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 4th level woodsman, 47 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 6th level fighter, 35 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 7th level druid, 31 hp, played by Jeremy
Kain, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Jeff
Donald, 5th level mage, 27 hp, NPC
Nakumanu, 3rd level fighter, 25 hp, henchman
Alduin, 5th level thief, 19 hp, played by Vic

Our party had just decided to visit the Archdruid of the New World in hopes of recharging the Rod of Thorns and performing druidic quests. We set off on a trip east on the mainland to areas we had never been before.

Kain trained his new crow, Spittle (taken from the elf mage on the orc island) to do surveillance for us. The crow is quite intelligent (int 3) and can count to 8, as well as mimic a number of phrases like “Ya scurvy bastards! I’ll have alla ya keel-hauled!” or some other more graphic ones. The bird repeats things sad in anger quite well, so every so often we’ll hear “Where are my boots, Morgan!?” or numerous other phrases. The crow heckles Quentin’s crows, is extremely ugly to them, and loves to eat eyeballs. One of its tricks is to the attack the eyeballs of a target. A pirate crow, indeed.

Taking a barge down the Laine River through the city-states north of western Dunador (in three rolls I did manage some sort of sea encounter, thank you, you’re too kind… but nothing came of it). We landed in Kelburn, were scoffed at, and moved on after restocking rations and having the local cartographer draw us a map of how to get to the Wild Wood Inn. By this time we had learned to move the conversation along after the inevitable, “Oh! You don’t want to go THERE!”

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #43: Some Traveling Music" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, this was mostly a downtime, but I’ll hit the highlights.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #42: A Peaceful Interlude" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Nakumanu, 2nd level fighter, 14 hp, henchman of Felix
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff

The party had just been left wandering confusedly about the tunnels. We had just defeated three pairs of crystal golems. Sadly, the hoped for exit was not beyond the door, and we continued wandering around. We discovered a rubble filled room, with a weird natural tunnel coming out of it. We had some hopes that it might lead out, but of course, this being our favorite compound, things just got even more bizarre.

We went down the tunnel, Balinor in the lead due to some nice healing on him. Suddenly, Alduin noticed a rumbling sound. It became much louder. We turned to run…

And a huge worm came whipping up the tunnel, opened its mouth and swallowed Balinor whole. Felix, Kodo, Morgan, and Nakumanu turned to fight the creature. Morgan yelled “Thunderstruck” and pounded it, and the fighters began ripping at it. The creature was enraged with Morgan and tried to kill him. Take a wild guess what happened.

Nakumanu discovered while swinging the magic falchion that it was +3 vs. regenerating creatures, which the worm was.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #41: The Island of Dr. Piggy Moreau" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Nakumanu, 2nd level fighter, 14 hp, henchman of Felix
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff

Our party had just trashed a trio of bad guys, an elven fighter/mage or thief/mage, a human cleric of the Queen of Grottos, and a human warrior.

We became un_Slowed_ and did some exploring. We still had an hour and a half of buffer time for the orc forces to swing around the mountain and cut us off. We intended to leave within a half hour or so to be completely safe (since neither the orcs nor the Defenders were crazy enough to wander around the Trail of the Dead at night).

The rooms coming off the weird lit room were quarters for the trio. In one was an insulting and highly intelligent, and bloodthirsty crow. It appeared to be the pet of the mage. Talking to it revealed that all three had been charmed by the fat guy (Piggy). He was apparently a powerful wizard of some sort. The fact that the elf had been charmed was rather disturbing, given elven resistance to charm effects.

The cleric’s room was glyphed, which Felix set off, and was paralyzed. He recovered a few minutes later.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #40: Interior Decorator from the Lower Planes" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff

Special Thanks to Chester, Quentin’s bobcat, and Lenore and Morris, Quentin’s crows

When we last left the Defender saga, the party was planning to take out some orcs. A shaman and 8 of his servants were in a room through which we intended to go. First, we decided to finish exploring, and we moved through the dark room with the pits—in one was 3 Kara-kara, but they were blue instead of green, and were cowering, starving in the corner. In the other were some bones.

Ignoring them, we noted two exits. One, we suspected led back into the shaman room. The other led somewhere close to the ceremony. To confirm, we opened up the first door a crack. Unfortunately, the perceptive shaman noticed the movement, and motioned for us, who he thought were servants (the door wasn’t fully opened yet), to come in.

Oh well. Donald began a Sleep spell, while Balinor, Kain, and Quentin rushed around to block their escape from the other side. Morgan continued to slowly open the door.

Continue reading "Defenders Adventure #39: Feline Loyalty" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff

Welcome to the Island of the Kara-kara! See… tangled jungles filled with Morgan loving bugs! See… lightning give Morgan a special greeting! See… an orcish party! See…

The Defenders do the island!

When we last left, the Defenders were plotting an ambush against an unexpected obstacle—actual guards. Donald threw a nasty sleep spell, catching all but one of the 6 orcs, and everyone fired their missile weapons while Felix ran madly at them. Of course, all six were grunts and the one we all shot fell over from damage. We quickly dispatched the rest, dropped the bodies in the swamp for decomposition purposes, and moved on.

We reached the village at about noon, and discovered that we had a big problem. The drums were quite loud and being played by large numbers of orcs at the temple near the other edge of the town. The temple was in a cave dug into the volcano, supposedly dormant for hundreds of years. However, there were still about a hundred guards ringing the village, making it impossible for us to sneak inside without the aid of invisibility effects, which we don’t have. So we decided instead that, being adventurers, why not walk down the Forbidden Path, also known as the Trail of the Dead, presumably where the shadows had come from? This seemed perfectly logical, and we walked down the path, cheerfully ignoring the many statues with upraised hands in a “Halt!” position.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #38: Impudently Walking Down the Forbidden Path" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 3rd level woodsman, 36 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 4th level thief, 15 hp, played by Vic
Kain, 1st level cleric, 6 hp, played by Jeff

After much discussion and reconsideration, it was finally decided that it would be best to wait a year to kill the “green slime bag.” Research by the sage in Teft indicated that the creature is only there during the rainy season, and would likely reform the next year if killed. Furthermore, in order to reach it in time we would not be able to train Kodo or Alduin beforehand. In addition, a lot more information could be gleaned if we spoke with the sage in Koralgesh. All of this convinced us to put the mission off until next year, though it has not been abandoned.

Instead, Alduin drilled for his next level, and trained to 4th level, gaining 2 hp to stand at 15. Our thieves are incapable of rolling good hp, including Perry, who managed to get 17 hp at 6th level. (And Alduin has a con bonus!)

Kodo picked up the boating proficiency, and it was definitely relevant for the next step. We decided to take up the orc island mission, since we had managed to go broke while wandering around, having failed to find a single piece of treasure.

We met with Rollo Bergman, the head of a local shipping company. He and the at least partially elven captain, Malmir, related this story:

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #37: A Change of Plans" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic (Alex this game)
Kain, 1st level cleric of Silban, 6 hp, played by Jeff

The party was last left having trashed a goblin fortress and scooping up treasure. We claimed the scimitar +1 and a healing potion along with 5000 gp as our cut, and sailed on our old friend, the Eagle 13, to Restenford. After some arguing, it was decided that the X in Petethal had the most votes and we would head there. Since the winter was fast closing, it seemed like a good idea to get to the mainland quickly and have Quentin write his intended Cure Serious Wounds scroll in Depwood. Having realized that, we decided that Drew could come along and visit his family as well, and travel safely with us.

It should be noted that the Mouse of Cats is a really handy item, now that Quentin has a bobcat, named Chester! Anyone can talk to it at any time!

Phoenix decided to return to the church of Silban in Teft, and we accompanied him there. As repayment for his help, we offered to pay for his training, which would come within a few months, since he had narrowly missed 2nd level. In addition, it should be noted that XP for the goblin fortress ranged from 1200 for Kodo and Alduin to 2500 for Donald and Quentin. No one leveled, though Kodo and Alduin were both within 250 XP of the next level.

Balinor’s plate mail was so badly damaged (from being hit by at least a half-dozen ballista bolts) that we took it to the fine armorer in Barnacus (who had sneered at our pathetic Teft suits of chain mail when we were 1st level) and he repaired it, barely in time to make a fast passenger galley out to Teft. We arrived in Teft on November 28, 2176.

Kain joined the party in Petethal, after we had seen off Phoenix. Kain is another half-elven Silban cleric—apparently the church hasn’t given up on us yet! We hoped that Kain, the 6th cleric of the Defenders, would do better than his predecessors.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #36: The Lord of Scum" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Departing Members:

Cassian, 5th level Phaulkonian cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave

Party Roster:

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Phoenix, 1st level Silban cleric, 7 hp, played by Jeff

We last left the Restenford Defenders recovering in Restenford after a harrowing experience with a grey philosopher in ancient Khargish ruins. The party healed up, and Cassian and Narahn retired.

Narahn leaves with his quality short bow, and Cassian takes with her the Ring of Featherfalling, Chain Mail+2, and Small Shield+2. The scrolls of Cure Serious Wounds, and Neutralize/Slow Poison were handed over to the care of our newest member Phoenix. Phoenix, the 5th cleric to join the Defenders, is a cleric of Silban, Mother Earth, whose followers share many of the druidic beliefs, but without the hostility toward sentient life. The first cleric of the Defenders was a cleric of Silban as well, which means we have now come full circle: Silban, Phaulkon, Nevron, Phaulkon, Silban.

The party finances at the end of the last game were generally low in cash, but very rich in permanent magic items. To make ends meet without selling the party needed a mission to provide treasure.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #35: The Impenetrable Fog" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Stumbling vaguely away….

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (Aaron this game)
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave

A quick taking of stock:

1) An abysmal swamp with a thick evil fog, and nice wafting evil breeze.
2) Ravenous stork people who are abominations to Phaulkon.
3) A fleet of ghost ships in the harbor.
4) A ruined city with undead everywhere, and “loosely aligned.”
5) Godzilla assassin lizards. (Not to be confused with teenage mutant ninja turtles)
6) Three words: Consecrated. Evil. Ground.

“I’ll take Hideous Undead Monsters for $400, Alex.”
“The answer: This undead monster sulks in gloomy buildings in evil cities, pondering its final decision in life.”
“What is… a barrow wight?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s not correct.”
“What is… a grey philosopher?”
“Yes!”

Continue reading "Defenders ADVENTURE LOG #34: A Mind is a Wonderful Thing to Waste" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (Joel, and later Aaron during this game)
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron

Our intrepid adventurers had last been planning an expedition to the Khargish ruins located in the swamp, from which no one had ever successfully returned. There were rumors that the crown of the Khargish nation lay somewhere in those ruins, presumably along with vast treasure. However, there were reports of lightning fast stabbings and entrails being left on the ground suddenly. Despite this, the bold Defenders set off north along the Restin River to reach our goal.

On the first night, we spotted a glowing thing about 600 feet away, coming somewhat toward us. We woke everyone up and took cover in the bushes, and could hear voices and metallic clanks. At one point a light flashed right above us, like a searchlight, and then suddenly the light turned and ran in the opposite direction. We decided not to deal with it.

On the next day, Quentin helped us avoid some skunks.

On the third night out, two volts jumped Morgan. This was quite bad, considering that the sword Thunderstruck is a lightning rod. Suddenly two tentacle things leeched out and starting zapping Morgan, who was on watch with Quentin and Kodo. A yell alerted some party members, and Cassian was woken up by Alduin. Kodo hacked at one of them, and Quentin whipped up a Flame Blade and helped to kill one of them. Unfortunately, Morgan went down right after, and then Kodo finished off the other one.

Morgan was saved by a timely Death’s Door, and recovered nicely. We continued on, until accidentally bumping into an outpost of Rog, the town in the mountains. Explaining that we had gone too far, we backtracked and forded the river to the west. As soon as we crossed the bank, Kodo thought he saw something scramble away. Cassian’s hawk reported that there were large humanoids roaming around.

Continue reading "Defenders ADVENTURE LOG #33: Trek into the Swamp" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Subtitled: Where the *@#! did they find this stuff?

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (Jeremy this time)
Balinor, 5th level fighter, 50 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Kodo, 2nd level woodsman, 30 hp, played by Rob
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Donald, 4th level mage, 21 hp, NPC
Alduin, 3rd level thief, 13 hp, played by Vic
Narahn, 2nd level fighter, 11 hp, played by Dave
Haladir, 1st level thief, 5 hp, played by Aaron

This was another transition adventure, since it turned out early on that things were cooler than we had imagined.

We had arrived on Lendore Isle, and trained Kodo, Narahn, and Balinor. At the beginning of 2176, we picked up the new Gazetteer, with its nice color maps!

Incidentally, I would like to give the old Gaz to the Seapoint Lightning if we come back form this adventure.

In March, Donald and Alduin went to the mainland to train. Donald trained to 4th level and gained 5 hp to stand at 21, while Alduin trained to 2nd and 3rd level and gained 7 hp to stand at 13.

While they were gone, Relkin the steward of Restenford came by the house. He dropped a box on the table and said that we would know what it was. Apparently the Baron had opened the "genie bottle" after determining stuff about it, and it released a creature that was guarding some stuff and was grateful to be out. Since we had recovered it, the Baron gave us 25% of it.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #32: Selections from the Proverbial Telvar DM's Guide" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Aaron
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, played by Donald
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic

The party was last left standing in front of a weird door with symbols on it. Some numerology and other things were attempted, and in the end Morgan, then Quentin, and finally Cassian put the pieces together and discovered that the indented symbols represented negative numbers, and the protruding symbols were positive, and the moon was zero. Summing this to the top symbol (2), this solved the problem of having an 8 digit code instead of 7 since 2 was the starting position, and took the 3-dimensionality into account. In any case, it worked, and instead of being blasted, Felix was shocked to discover that the two symbols on the top, a moon and a sun, were glowing.

Felix touched the sun. That's when the wraith thing came out of the door.

Felix fell over immediately, shivering with cold and convulsing. Balinor swung Maiden Basher at it, and hit, but THE WEAPON WENT THROUGH IT.

Cassian's turning attempt had no effect. Then it hit Cassian, and she crumpled as well.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #31: There's Always Room for Jello" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Aaron
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played Jeremy (Joel this game)
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic

When we last left the fairly beleaguered party, they had just trashed 25 men at no loss to the party. Upon scouting ahead, it was discovered that there were at least 7 more people remaining, apparently evacuating the area. Deciding that we couldn't risk a direct confrontation without loss, we held back about 6 hours for healing. We killed all the people in the Web and those asleep. An item search revealed:

1. Thunderstruck, the long sword wielded by Morgan's opponent
2. Bracers
3. Small shield
4. Potion

and a non-magical quality bastard sword and a quality scimitar, and some weird bluish lockpicks. Quentin replaced his scimitar with the good one, Balinor is holding the bastard sword and put the potion in his potion box, Cassian took the shield, Alduin is carrying the bracers, and Morgan has wrapped up and is carrying the long sword, Thunderstruck.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #30: Knock on Stone" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex (various people this time)
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine (Joel for this game)
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic

The party was last left staring at a rutted track leading up the path we suspected was on our "treasure map." We headed up the trail for about 20 minutes before tripping a trip wire and setting off a bell in the distance. After nothing immediate happened, we scouted out the area and discovered pipe with running water leading up the hill under the ground a few feet. The trip wire went through this, and was untraceable.

I may have forgotten to mention this in the last summary, but there was a an eagle and hawk that had nearly killed Cassian's bird during the trip up here. We thought that was weird at the time.

At this point, the "eagle" swooped out of the sky and ripped Quoth, one of Quentin's crows, to pieces (Quentin�s Note: Dammit!). We got a decent look at it, and Donald identified it as a hobgoblin warbird, a trained killer.

Shaken, we retreated back to the bottom, then set up a camp. We sent Lynore and Narahn to remain hidden near the trip wire to see who came, and sent Alduin to scout farther up.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #29: A Well is a Well (oh hell, oh hell...)" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not a particularly exciting game session, but progress was made.

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Joel (for the summer)
Balinor Buckannah, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 5th level cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy
Kodo Buckannah, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
Donald, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, NPC
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
Narahn, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
Alduin, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Vic

First we set out from Port o'Carse, and traveled along the road to Tulan. Setting out south from the town, we traveled along the south side of the mountains, running through a series of encounters.

First, we saw some hobgoblins with weird paint on them, nodded and went separate ways.

Later, Quentin talked down two giant weasels planning to attack Morgan.

Then, we encountered some weird spectral figure, politely claiming to be a caretaker of the land, and asking for some shiny objects to help replenish it. We paid 30 gp.

After that, we ran into what seemed like an amazing 40 plus bugbear ambush. The leader demanded that we put down our weapons and pay 50 gp for passage. He specifically demanded that we put the money in a sack and lay it on the ground in front of us. Despite heated and enraged protests from Balinor, the party realized it was badly outnumbered and gave in.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #28: Traveling Through Forest Without Bandits" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 5th level fighter, 53 hp, played by Alex Hubbard (this time by Kyle
MacLea)
Balinor, 4th level fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel Green (committee this session)
Morgan, 5th level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alan Turnquist
Quentin, 6th level druid, 25 hp, played by Jeremy Schichor
Cassian, 5th level Phaulkonian cleric, 31 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Donald Collins, 3rd level mage, 16 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)

Departing Members:
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Perry, 6th level thief, 17 hp, played by Sean Guarino

New Members:
Kodo, 1st level woodsman, 24 hp, played by Rob
(ugly Northerner, uses two hand axes, knows Balinor)
Narahn, Hairfoot, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Dave
(hairfoot halfling, uses short bow, from Lendore Isle)
Alduin, 1st level elven thief, 6 hp, played by Vic
Lynore, 1st level thief, 7 hp, played by Aaron
(half-elf, very charismatic and handsome)

Another not-so-exciting adventure for the Restinford Defenders. I like to think about it as "Transition." You can think of it as you will.

When we last left our happy party, Drew and Perry were arranging to leave the party and enter the employ of the Baron and Kor-Al-Gesh respectively. Drew has become a Phaulkonian, interested in participating in Holy Quests, and, knowing Perry, he is interested in Korian Holy Quests as well. However, not everything had been completely resolved in terms of party share, treasure division, etc. It has been recommended that Perry's bracers and invis. potion go to Drew and Perry can take the Tuning Fork and Dagger +1/+3 vs. demi-humans. This has not yet been agreed upon, the chief complaint being lack of stuff going to Drew, a charter party member.

The party has decided to investigate some of the Baron's treasure maps. He had five available, and the party would have to pay 25% salvage tax at point of entry, and then the Baron would get 50% of whatever the party brought back. The five options were:

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #27: New Directions and Faces" »

Posted by Joel Green at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan. 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean
Donald, 1st level mage, 7 hp, played by Edwin (NPC)

Well, it's not an exciting session, but it gives a sense of closure on the year's gaming!

At the beginning of the real world year, we were a party of composition fairly similar to the current one-- the druid Quentin, the ranger Drew, the woodsman Darellon, the fighter Grison, the cleric Soldan, and the thief Annwvyn.

We met and sailed off from Teft on March 15, 2172.

Our fighting started early with a bandit encounter a mere 30 minutes outside of Barnacus. In the chaos of the early encounters, the party, still unnamed, developed a style that went down in infamy on the log-- "Stumbling vaguely away from disaster."

The initial plan was to tour the main cities of Lendore and look for stuff to do, since we weren't heavily directed. After a stop-off in Garroten (where the party first met a bunch of the people who were executed), we attempted to tackle the Dead Wood (where the mad wizard Telvar once reigned). This was suggested by the Lord Mayor. We failed miserably and barely escaped with our lives, and Quentin and Drew still bore grudges against her years later.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #26: the Fun Details" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex Hubbard
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee (Kyle this game)
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel Green
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan Turnquist
Cassian, 4th level cleric of Phaulkon, 27 hp, played by Katherine Plante
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy Schichor
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean Guarino
Donald Collins, 1st level mage, 7 hp, NPC

The Restenford group: (all NPCs)

Gristla, 4th level mage (Peltar's student)
Colemac, mid-level fighter
Halco, human woodsman
Prellis, half-elf fighter

Also joining us:

Martin, high level ranger, successor to Probar, freedom fighter

We had last left our sneaky party near the room with the dragon head and magic doors in it.

We decided that we not yet checked out the entire castle and crossed to the other side of the gatehouse, hoping to eliminate everyone in the keep, then take the walls and finally the blockhouse, which presumably contains a number of barracked soldiers.

Unfortunately, one man spotted us opening a trap door leading down and managed to get off a yell before Colemac shot him to pieces with a really cool crossbow-- blue bolts and auto-recharge.

In addition, we stuffed all the warning bells so that they would be hard to ring. The yell apparently did not actually attract any notice, which was quite fortunate, since a guard dog wandered by at the moment.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #25: The Reckoning" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's the party that just loves assassins... The Restenford Defenders!

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee (under Jack's suggestions)
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean
Donald, 1st level mage, 7 hp, NPC

Joining us were:

Martin, disgustingly high level ranger or woodsman, friend of Almax
Gristla, 4th level mage, student of Peltar
Colemac, mid-level fighter, guard of Restenford
Halco, half-elf woodsman
Prellis, human fighter

Quentin sent his birds to check out this "lovely adventuring spot" Bazmar kept hinting at (on the other side of the lake), but there was not in fact an ambush or anything there.

We began with a long but surprisingly relevant discussion about various plans, and pretty much settled on the GUTS plan.

GUTS (Guys Under Tactical Surveilance-- I made it up, so blame me) involved several stages. Morgan was turned invisible in the afternoon, and Perry spoke with Captain Bazmar while Gristla (Peltar's student) cast ESP and listened to Bazmar's surface thoughts.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #24: Where's the Baron?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by Jack
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean
Donald, 1st level mage, 7 hp, NPC

A quick reminder: the three framed people were:

Abram, innkeeper of the "House of Abram."
Balmoro, powerful bard who runs a theatre in Garroten.
Harper, crazy high priest of Osprem, god of water travel.

The Baron was kidnapped/murdered on the night of February 24th. We set off for Garroten on the 25th, and arrived on the 26th in the evening. We begin with the events of the morning of the 27th of February.

February 27th-- Having concluded a rather neutral meeting with Balmoro the bard, our unhappy-go-lucky party set up an appointment to meet with Harper, high priest of Osprem (LN god of water travel). He is supposed to be insane, but we knew we had to talk to him at some point and clear this mess up.

First we received a communication from Almax the druid through Martin, the local druid in Garroten. For those who don't know, we are capable of sending reasonable length messages once per day at noon, and receiving the previous day's response at about the same time.

Almax is convinced that the Anarchists were not involved in the plot.

We informed them that we would be seeking a Commune spell from Harper, which was really our only chance if the Baron was dead and time was running out. Barnacus was simply too far away to make it there and back in time.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #23: Seafood Dinner" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Party Roster:

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 4th level cleric, 27 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 5th level druid, 20 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean
Donald, 1st level mage, 7 hp, NPC

We had last left the Defenders enjoying the spoils of a successful mission
to Hafney Hill. Treasure division was settled as follows (if Mark or Kyle
have strong objections please voice them and I suspect we can probably
change some stuff):

Since it was fairly obvious (Mark, if you disagree please tell us) that
Hecht and Kerr would not settle down in Restenford, that left Auburn to
form a party, and since that was an uncertain proposition, we thought it
was best just to give the Lightning a share and let them decide on their own.

We made this deal: The Baron would give us approximately 11000 gp as an
"allowance" of 3000 gp per year for three years, plus the extra in the
fourth year. We withdrew our first years' allowance and gave it to the
Lightning. So the split is as follows:

Lightning receive 3000 gp, Captain's Jacket. The Defenders cover the cost
of the Identifies on the three items, and the salvage tax. We're certainly
willing to help you trade the Captain's Jacket, either with the Phaulkonian
Church (who is probably quite interested) or the Petethalian navy. The
split of that treasure is up to Kerr, Auburn, and Hecht (who still have to
train).

Continue reading "Defenders Log #22: Political Treachery" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Following the death of the second wraith and reuniting of the party in the halflings' bedroom, we decided to search for secret doors, and none were found. The next day, when Balinor had regained his level, we decided to explore the wraith corridor.

Noting that the seals had been broken on the door, we entered with Perry leading, searching for traps, and Felix and Balinor close behind.

The corridor had all sorts of niches with skulls and stuff in the walls. After about 60' we descended down a spiral staircase into a room with 4 other exits. Perry could faintly hear a creaking noise, and the sounds of running water. We noted the demonic sigil on the floor and decided to peek down the passages. The first one on the near right had a line of skulls, each with glowing red points for eyes which seemed to be staring at us, and vanishing off down the corridor.

This was vaguely disturbing.

The next corridor had another staircase leading down.

The far left corridor had a well decorated archway and another stairs across the room. We approached the altar, and Auburn was able to read the runes (written in Demon!). It welcomed all properly fearful demon worshippers to the lesser temple, and warned of death for all those who did not fear them properly. Perry listened, and we could hear the faint sounds of screams from down the corridor.

VERY alarming.

Continue reading "Defenders Summary #21: Hafney Hill Part 2-- What the &*@#! do they have under there?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adventure #4: Hecht & co. and the Restinford Defenders vs. the Evil Halflings of Hafney Hill
(from the chronicles of the Restinford Defenders)

Character Roster:

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp, played by committee
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 3rd level cleric of Phaulkon, 25 hp, played by Katherine
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 4th level druid, 16 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 5th level thief, 16 hp, played by Sean

AND RETURNING ONCE AGAIN:

Hecht, cleric of the halfling god Brandebaris, played by Mark
Auburn, 1st level cleric of the halfling god Sheila /1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Kyle
Kerr, 1st level druid, 7 hp, played by Mark

The party checked around the lair of the burrow worms for a few days just to make sure there were no more worms left. We entered the lair with Felix in the lead, and discovered a room of dead husks. There was also a gem and 2 vials of Nevronian holy water.

We dragged four husks back to Restenford, paid one in salvage tax(?!), and commissioned the always friendly armorer to turn them into great helms (?!). Felix, Balinor, and Drew are decked out in the bug head helmets (pincers still intact) when FAR away from civilization, such as it is on Lendore.

Perry trained to 5th level, and gained 3 hp to stand at 16 hp.

A letter and a mage arrived in Restenford while Perry trained, named Donald Collins. Colin, the elven mage/thief whose disastrous adventure had nearly destroyed his hearing, had found someone for us.

Continue reading "Defenders ADVENTURE LOG #20: Return of the Halflings" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 3rd level ranger, 25 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 4th level druid, 16 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 4th level thief, 13 hp, played by Sean
Balinor, 1st level fighter, 10 hp, played by Joel
Cassian, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Katherine

When we last left the jubilant party, they had just found loads of money and treasure and completed Abbey Isle! We then trained and picked up proficiencies, which took about two months.

Balinor and Cassian both gained 3rd level, and Drew got 4th! Perry is about 500 XP from 5th level, and Quentin is about 1500 XP from 5th level. The others are NOWHERE near.

Balinor and Perry picked up Sprinting, and Morgan learned longbow. Then the hp rolls came-- they were totally absurd.

Cassian had 9 hp at 1st level, and rolled an 8 and a 6 on 2d8, +2 from con, to total 25 hp at 3rd level! Drew rolled an 8 on a d8 as well, (+1 from con), and rose from 25 to 34 hp. Balinor rolled a 10 on a d10 (+4 from con) and rose from 19 to 33 hp!

So the current party state is:
Felix, 4th level fighter, 42 hp
Drew, 4th level ranger, 34 hp
Balinor, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp
Cassian, 3rd level cleric, 25 hp
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp
Quentin, 4th level druid, 16 hp
Perry, 4th level thief, 13 hp

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #19: Creepies and Crawlies and Kittens (oh my!)" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 44 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 3rd level ranger, 25 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Balinor, 2nd level fighter, 19 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 4th level druid, 16 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 4th level thief, 13 hp, played by Sean
Cassian, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Katherine

Our party was moving at about a slug's pace due to the total paranoia atmosphere created by the friendly traps. We had to take out the minotaur golem, and the plan was to lure it under the crushing trap and have Perry release it.

Although it took Felix awhile to get the golem to follow him, the plan worked perfectly-- except that we didn't know the golem was immune to the traps, and the crushing stone failed to collapse on it. So it was back to old-fashioned combat; except of course, that only Balinor could harm it.

Thankfully Felix, Drew, and Morgan were able to distract the minotaur enough for Balinor to pummel it for over 50 points of damage, when it finally shattered. In addition, the fighters were bolstered by constant Cure Light Wounds spells from Quentin and Cassian.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #18: Don't They Have Anything Better to do?" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 4th level fighter, 44 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 3rd level ranger, 25 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 4th level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Balinor, 2nd level fighter, 19 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 4th level druid, 16 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 4th level thief, 13 hp, played by Sean
Cassian, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Katherine

Virtually all movement during this session was done at about .2".

The mist did not detect as evil, so, excuses gone, we headed down the corridor. After a brief amount of checking, we were abruptly attacked by five skeletons and five zombies!

After an impressive first swing doing 22 points of damage to a skeleton, who promptly fell apart, Balinor found himself frustrated and held at bay. Felix and Morgan blew apart the rest, with a little help from Perry. We pulled the bodies outside-- they were robed and had odd masks on. Turning by the cleric Cassian did in fact work-- the one remaining one fled, only to be chopped apart by Felix. Visibility here, by the way, is a whopping 3 feet with the Continual Light items. Furthermore, we showed that the aura emitted by the entire mist effectively prevented Detect Magic from working.

Drawing upon folklore, Cassian suggested that the skeletons might be of a special variety, since they were wearing death masks of the islands north of Lendore. The fiery red eye sockets still glowed in death, and detected as magical. That is, until Balinor smashed them into little bits with his magical hammer. His regular hammer Bessie got two kills, and he switched to Rip to give it a fair chance.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #17: Underground Terror" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 2nd level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 9 hp, played by Alan
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

When we last left our DECEASED party, they had just been raised, minus Tyveris. He was an honored member of the party, which has affectionately referred to him as "The Voice of Nevron" for his uncanny success with Command spells.

Summary of treasure:

We gained these magic items:

1. Bag of Holding
2. Compass
3. Hand Axe+1
4. Ioun Stone of Sustenance
5. Knowledge Fork
6. Healing Potion
7. Speed Potion

and quite a bit of money. The party's cash flow, in and out, was truly immense, for us anyway.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #16: Aftermath/ Treasure Division" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Felix, 2nd level fighter, 24 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee (mainly Alan this time)
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 9 hp, played by Alan
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

The word for tonight was: absurd.

The party was dead on so many occasions, it's sickening to think about it. Keep in mind while reading this: our party consists of five 2nd level characters (no mage), and one 1st level thief. Just to put things in perspective before your eyes pop out reading this.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #15: In Over Our Heads" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

When we last left our not-particularly beleaguered party, it had just finished an initial interrogation of Captain Nbod's first mate, Zune.

We cast the _Detect Lie_ spell as planned. Hoo boy-- the spell has probably never gotten better mileage than this.

I'll just start listing his corrected (true statements) lies. Invert these to regain his original lying statements:

1. Cares about the ghost (not in a loving way)
2. Sees why he should tell us about the ghost
3. Thinks it is not obvious how to make the ghost visible, but still failed to volunteer information to us.
4. Doesn't particularly care about giving his friends away.
5. He was the only one ever in the room.
6. He has not cast a spell through the gate.
7. He can't tell how far it is through the gate-- for casting spells, at least.
8. Good idea to hang him.
9. His friends have zero ability to track us down.
10. It would be wise for him to say more about them if he wants to live.
11. The dagger has to do with his religion (duh)
12. He cares greatly what we think about him.
13. His friends are not a problem.
14. The dagger is important to his religious status.
15. Adventurers are quite important in his reliigous hierarachy.
16. Other members of his group would love to have the dagger.
17. He knows very few clerics of any power.
18. That is unfortunate for him.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #14: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Water" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

Watch as the party attempts to keel over from high stress!

When we last left our immobile party, it was in the room at the inn with Father Filner from the Nevronian Church. We had just found a supposedly non-magical but clearly intelligent dagger. We put it back.

Our next and last idea was to discreetly drill a hole in the ceiling and look through it for several nights.

Several interesting things were noted:

At fairly random times during the night every couple of days, the chest, tub, and wardrobe would all glow green. This, we concluded was the appearance of them activating.

A couple of nights into our observations, our "ghost" entered the room from the wardrobe immediately following a green glow from it. He moved around the room for a few moments, then sprinted back to the wardrobe, and we believe that it had begun to close and he reopened it, then clambered in and left.

That was neat.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #13: The Next Level of Paranoia" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

A REALLY COOL GAME SESSION!

I'll hit the general highlights:

The party continued its exploration of possibilities. Finding no response forthcoming from the room for several days. Eventually we decided to get a little more adventurous and tried to prop open the chest. It stayed that way for two nights, until the second night when something happened.

Four armed men, yelling about how they would kill those adventurers, entered the bar. They threatened us with 250 gp damages. Tyveris stood up and said something to the effect that they should be worried about the ghost as a permanent problem rather than blaming us. They tried to drag him away-- but then he pointed out that he was a deputy of Restenford.

The man punched him with a brass knuckle, hard enough to stun him. Then he left. Tyveris felt a vague sense of satisfaction through the dizziness, though.

It turns out that the ghost had appeared on the docks and chased three men unloading something into the water. By some accounts he threw them in, others he just pushed. It was definitely the same ghost in appearance.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #12: Things to Do in Benct When You're Dead, Part II" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean

The party has decided to give the room our best shot. We tried a number of the suggested plans. There were no secret doors, but in fact there IS a secret panel in the chest, which opens with a normal lockpicking skill. In the secret panel, oddly enough, is a 35' rope ladder, attached at one end to the top of the chest! There are many theories about why that would possibly be in the chest, ranging from an escape out the window of the room to a rope ladder leading down through a dimensional portal in the bottom of the chest. We still have no idea which is correct.

The first night we left rocks in various places on the room to see if anything changed during the night. The results were dramatic: the stones were found in an X shape in the center of the room the next morning. Furthermore, when Sean's new halfling thief, Perry, put his head on the stones to detect noise, a bolt of lightning shot out of the floor (like a ward). Fortunately, Tyveris quickly threw a Cure Light Wounds in time to bring him back to full health, and prevent instant death.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #11: The Impossible Happens-- Nobody Dies!" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #10: Stupidity and Weird, Gooey Things" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #9: A Plan is Implemented, For Once" »

Posted by Joel Green at 02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #8: The Party of Doom parties on" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #7: Adventures of the Party of Doom" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #6: Damn Assasins" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #5: The Bandit Strikes Back (The Disaster at Last)" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #4: The Masters of Disaster meet Disaster!" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #3: The Fun Continues" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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?

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #2: Garroten" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Defenders Log Entry #1: The Beginning" »

Posted by Joel Green at 01:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)