The World of Telvar

[The Word-formatted Summary is found here.]

"It had never previously been understood why the Northerner word for 'unavoidable danger' literally translated as 'blue fire mountain.'" - Loren Kenither, BoS

""More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before.

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past."

--William Shakespeare, King Richard II

Events of 5 November 2005 in Charlotte, N.C. / 10-11 June 2192 B.Y.
in far western Cromwell, a place known as the Salt Sea Region

[the same day as the events of the Eighth Telvar Open]

[NOTE: Some of the diverse summaries of these events contain contradictory information, and skewed perspectives based on the experiences of the characters involved. Some of these have been noted specifically, but otherwise the unique

perspectives of each group have been maintained. The truth

of each situation probably lies somewhere in the middle.]

We begin as:

A corrupt and evil kingdom of slave lords collapses...

A city built on the edge of a large salty sea is in chaos...

And Cromwellian forces enter the region to restore order and crush the slavers...

The ruins of an ancient Kraken temple molder...

A haunted forest in the shadow of an extinct volcano slumbers...

And a librarian at Cromwell's famed Academy heads off on an unusual vacation...

But meanwhile:

A holy Paladin of Nevron receives a vision of great importance...

One of the High Priests of Aurora hears a rumor of a city in dire straits...

And the government of Cromwell realizes that there are several “irregularities” in the librarian's preparations for his vacation, resulting in an Academy Team known as Death from Above being dispatched in pursuit...

Events begin to fall into place in the city, forest, and surrounding lands, as…

The city of Towlmere devolves into chaos and mayhem…

The servants of Aurora and Nevron converge on the area…

The Academy Team finds the trail of the errant librarian and is in hot pursuit…

As the librarian completes his work on a strange device at the top of an ancient pyramid in the midst of the haunted forest…

And an ancient evil awakens...

Continue reading "The Ninth Telvar Open Tournament: Faces from the Past" »

Posted by Joel Green at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

The Ninth Telvar Open Tournament: Faces from the Past

5 November 2005 in Charlotte, N.C. / 10 June 2192 B.Y. in far
western Cromwell, in a place known as the Salt Sea Region

[the same day as the events of the Eighth Telvar Open]

We begin as:

A corrupt and evil kingdom of slave lords collapses...

A city built on the edge of a large salty sea is in chaos...

A haunted forest in the shadow of a extinct volcano slumbers...

The ruins of an ancient Kraken temple moulder...

And Cromwellian forces enter the region to restore order and crush the
slavers...

But:

A librarian at Cromwell's famed Academy heads off on an unusual vacation...

A holy Paladin of Nevron receives a vision of great importance...

One of the High Priests of Aurora hears a rumor....

And a team of auditors working for the government of Cromwell realizes
that the Librarian's preparations for his vacation violated some of
the policies of the Academy, resulting in an Academy Team known as
Death from Above being dispatched in pursuit...

And we begin:

As the Librarian completes work on a strange device at the top of an
ancient pyramid on the edge of the haunted forest...

And an ancient evil awakens...

[The Ninth Telvar Open Summary is finished! You can read it here!]

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Well, I must admit that a mischievous streak hit the collection of people
at the game. While a devastating fight between the evil Borglyn and the
forces of good made good copy, the reality was a bit different

Party Roster:

Konrad, 10th level paladin, 94 hp, played by Rodger
Tanique, 7th level fighter, 71 hp, played by Kathryn Klawiter
Ceydric, 8th level cavalier, 65 hp, played by Joel Green
Warwick, 7th level ranger, 60 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Klogwort, greater orc, 54 hp, played by Rhonda Jones
Xavier, 8th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Ludo, 9th level thief, 43 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Eli, 9th level mage, 39 hp, played by Zack Hubert
Tarplin, 8th level druid/ 5th level mage, 29 hp, played by Alan Jones
Fred, 7th level monk, played by David Chappell
Risha, 7th level cleric, 23 hp, played by Kyle MacLea

Our party, composed of members from the Duchy of Estwurl in the Southern
Waste and Dunadorian knights, from the Cromwellian Academy Teams, from the
disbanded Stone Soules, and from other sources familiar to the other stalwart
adventurers, gathered in Dunthrane City in 2187. (There was some interesting
updating done on many of the characters.)

(Sahrak remained with his traveling circus so that it would remain intact
and his henchmen wouldn't desert him, and realizes that his adventuring
career, at least for the moment, is over.)

The party then performed a Divination, Astrology, and Commune. The
Divination resulted in knowledge of a moderate force of Lawful Evil, and
a slumbering but very powerful supernatural force of Neutral Evil. There
was "subjective" treasure. The influence of the nine dark moons,
representing unstable or unknown magic, was undeniable. Our lucky number
was 5 and our unlucky number 162. The color gray was important.

Continue reading "*Stone Soules Reunion* Or At Least, That's What Might Have Happened" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"There are games which are so awesome you simply have to share.
And then there are games like this one."

Giants, Ogres, and So Much More!

Party Roster:

Konrad, 10th level paladin, 94 hp, played by Rodger Henson
Tanique, 7th level fighter, 71 hp, played by Kathryn Klawiter
Ceydric, 8th level cavalier, 65 hp, played by Joel Green
Warwick, 7th level ranger, 60 hp, played by Mark Wagoner
Klogwort, greater orc, 54 hp, played by Rhonda Jones
Xavier, 8th level cleric, 45 hp, played by Jack McKechnie
Ludo, 9th level thief, 43 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Eli, 9th level mage, 39 hp, played by Zack Hubert
Tarplin, 8th level druid/ 5th level mage, 29 hp, played by Alan Jones
Fred, 7th level monk, played by David Chappell
Risha, 7th level cleric, 23 hp, played by Kyle MacLea
Sahrak, 5th level illusionist/ 6th level thief, 21 hp, NPC

Our party, composed of members from the Duchy of Estwurl in the Southern
Waste and Dunadorian knights, from the Cromwellian Academy Teams, from the
disbanded Stone Soules, and from other sources familiar to the other stalwart
adventurers, gathered in Dunthrane City in 2187. (There was some interesting
updating done on many of the characters.)

The party then performed a Divination, Astrology, and Commune. The
Divination resulted in knowledge of a moderate force of Lawful Evil, and
a slumbering but very powerful supernatural force of Neutral Evil. There
was "subjective" treasure. The Astrology revealed the sign of the
Wanderer heading toward the sign of the Cornucopia, but was intersected
by the sign of the Four Brothers before the Four Brothers entered the
sign of the Void. The influence of the nine dark moons, representing
unstable or unknown magic, was undeniable.

Continue reading "*Stone Soules Reunion* The Game that Was Not" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What we did:

Argue.

We then attacked the Sacral. It was affected by fire, magic missles,
LIMMs, spiritual hammers, dust devils and Alegra's crossbow bolts. (not
goblins though) Because of its slow movement rate, we were able to
outmaneuver it and eventually disperse it.

Alegra exorcised it while Xavier and Star chanted. It reformed during the
Exoricism and attacked Canstin and Alegra. It missed Alegra, and Canstin
made his saving throw. Konrad, Ceydric, Aria, and Canstin were able to
quickly inflict enough damage to destroy it. Alegra finished the exorcism.

We received alot of treasure from the Sacral's pile of bones over which
it formed and from the gatehouse.

Total: Jewelry 8,000
Gems 11,250
Coins ~1,000
-------
20,114

Konrad and Memphis got ~2,500 gp and a wand of magic missles.

The stone soules got a token of 'door'

We threw a huge party to thank Konrad and wish them farewell.

Posted by Joel Green at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In brief: Versus the Philosopher

We entered the area with some _Dust Devils_ (2 from support group, 1 from
Alegra) and advanced. 9 thoughts attacked per wave. Some got through on
each wave, and they all went for Konrad in the center who had Gram's
sun-coin and his own Prot. from Evil. Konrad took damage from the thoughts
like everyone else. Eventually, we were closer to the main gate and decided
it would be better to advance and go through than retreat (i.e. it was closer).

The gate was to our right and a tower structure to our left. From the tower
a black cloud began to creep towards us. This killed the _Dust Devil_
Alegra had with her (draining it of a HD, before it died). The wall of
black cloud slowly approached us from behind. Zombie Bugbears appeared in
front of us. Weird telescope things sprayed lightning at us. A (later
identified as a) humanoid (with a staff) fired magic missiles into us (from
the staff). As it came closer, the wall was filled with skeletons, many
many of them. This matches the description of a Sacrawl (sp). Then it
basically became a race to escape. Lightning was thrown around blasted
zombies. Alegra _Called Lightning_ and dis damage to the wall of black
cloud, but the skeletons simply reformed 2 segments later, slowing it down
(it was moving 3" anyway). We then hit the gate, opened it with the Chime
and escaped. The Sacrawl (and its haze) attempted to follow us out of the
city but stopped not far from it. (weird ghoul-like more intelligent undead
followed at this point)

Continue reading "Summary XXVIII: The Attack on the Grey Philosopher" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Divination of the Zone of the GP: (2000 + 2000 from Konrad's diamond +
Ring of Alignment Shielding)

The Forces of XXXXXX are prevalent in the area
The strength of the forces are only strong, but inspiringly resilient.
There is vast immobile irrecoverable treasure in the area.
Moderate wealth is also in the area.

XXXXXX is the name of the/an infernal power who's name should not be
invoked. We went to get the name researched from Beck, and Eli invoked the
name the second time. It summoned a weird abyssling-like creature with
weird abilities (Eli, Sahrak, Yorlik, Xavier, Claude went to End for this).
Yorlik was eaten. Eli escaped with a dimension door. Beck saved Xavier in
the end. Eli, before leaving, dropped some vitrioli which nearly killed the
first creature, sending it back to its plane, and ultimately killing the
second, which did not make it back. A third, small, fanged, winged,
cat-like being appeared and touched Eli. Eli then had many black traceries
all over his skin. This turned out to be "Tainting," that is, Eli could be
_Turned_ by good clerics, detected as a point of Evil (Malignant), and could
not in fact be affected by clerical healing magics (since clerics can't
touch him). An _Atonement_ would be necessary to help him.

When they arrived back in Middle, Eli was _Dispel Magic_ed/Remove Curse_d.
This temporarily (for 10 days) removed the Taint, which then allowed us to
attack the GP.

Kyle

Posted by Joel Green at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello, all!

Konrad & co. arrived with some fanfare, we killed the WOTW (see Zack's note below),
and prepared for the GOO attack. We prepared the party by dividing it into teams Alpha,
Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot and Tango. Echo was dissolved since its
mission was not entirely clear. Tango's mission was to stay at the Transporter.

A,B,C checked out the courtyard and Theo and Konrad killed the 2 giant
poisonous snakes there before they could react.

We then executed the Plan, and entered the building, sleeping and killing
the guardian snakes in the Entranceway and burning the contact poison off
the handle (that Ludo discovered).

We opened the door to the GOO's quarters and entered its room, Ceydric and
Faranyn, with team A ready to fly in. It retreated out of a back door, past
a glyph, throwing lightning bolts. Xavier dispelled the glyph and the wall
of ice that sprung up. We chased it around corners and up stairs, getting
an occasional shot at it with arrows and by Konrad and Theo. It went over
another glyph and the rest of B piled up behind while A went forward. It
failed to open a door and they wailed it; Faranyn crashed over the glyph and
was Blinded. It ducked through a secret door and kept being hit by Konrad
and Theo.

Continue reading "Summary XXVI: The Final Steps in the Inevitable Defeat of the Great Old Ones (or Great Ones)" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Divination on the Castle:
Creatures there are vastly powerful.
Very rich treasure in the area
The forces of chaotic evil are present and the chance of disturbing them are
high
The forces of lawful evil and vastly dominant, but dormant, the chance of disturbing is moderate to high under the special circumstances
---
Two days after back in town - in the war room -
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL IN YOUR SLEEP IF YOU DO NOT RETURN MY TREASURE"
Just some cud to chew on.
E-
---

Continue reading "Summary XXV: Castle Bah Nareth, the Great Ones, and other menaces" »

Posted by Joel Green at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After much arguing and debating we finished the castle attack plans. Ludo
had discovered that the Duke was gone but would soon be returning with more
troops about the time the Councilors passed on through. Due to this
concern, we decided a quick attack staged as soon as possible was best.

Then, Faranyn was contacted magically by a member of the Democratic Front
who made it plain that he did not like Faranyn as a Royalist, but that we
had mutual enemies in the Duke. He assured Faranyn that the "Duke would not
be going anywhere any time soon." He claimed that the Duke was beside him
and could not do anything to stop our plans. He then proceded to tell him
to make sure the mission was done "right." He urged us to get every piece
of evidence we could.

Continue reading "Stone Soules Summary XV: Griffon Castle Is Taken" »

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"A griffin is a cross between a lion and an eagle:

...Later that afternoon we found a castle with a griffin on top and
attacked it.

We fought long and hard and eventually we won and captured the Duke and
rescued the Prince.

Lowar cast Knock on the Gate and reduce was cast at the Porculus to create
a door through it."

These are essentially a part of a logbook that we received from Holland.
Our scouting has revealed that Griffin castle is similiar to what was
described except we see no Griffin. There is a Gate and porculus.

Continue reading "Stone Soules Summary XIV: Griffon Castle and other Mysteries" »

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well,

here' some further information you might all consider interesting. During
our party's New Years Party in Middle, an assassination attempt was made.
It was foiled chiefly by the use of the magic Bell near the War Room in the
Tower. When a "riot" broke out during the party, we suspected a trap and
fled into the War Room while a patrol took care of the riot. Shortly after
arriving in the War Room, a loud crash was heard outside. Upon opening the
door, Faranyn glimpsed the remains of someone apparently killed by the Bell
creature. Later, we discovered that this was the assassin's plan:

Continue reading "Stone Soules Summary XIII: Who Said 13 Was an Unlucky Number?" »

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Folks, I don't know how to tell you this but I've been waiting for this
sort of information for a long time. A couple of years ago, a group of
characters, under the leadership of a character of mine, entered Sark
determining to infiltrate it and send intelligence back to Koralgesh and
the Sarkian royal faction. At the time we were seeking the aid of some
bigger players and half of our party went to Andevar to see his aid.

Needless to say, the half that went to Sark were ambushed and the entire
operation flushed down the toilet.

Seems that the World Empire had been informed that a party of massive force
was approaching Runk(sp?) intending to destroy everything.

I have, for some time now, thought the informant was a member of the
Sarkian royal faction as we discussed our plans with them before we left
Koralgesh. Now I believe otherwise.

-Sean Paus

Continue reading "Stone Soules Summary XIIb: Comments from the Gallery" »

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, well, well.

The situation was bad enough as it was with the Nevronian cleric, etc.
The political situation was sticky and confusing and we weren't sure WHAT
was going on. Now, get this...

It seems that Ser, the Steward of Middle, was sent express mail before we
arrived back in Middle giving him a 100 g.p. gem, and offering him a sum
100 times that if he poisoned the entire party. He had merely to meet an
agent for the poison. [question to Edwin: where was the meeting place?]
Luckily for us, he refused to meet anyone.

As if this weren't bad enough, it appears that the Duke of Andevar is one
of the co-conspirators of Earl Belzar, and the letters came from the
office of the Chief Steward of Andevar, with the Duke's signatures. The
letters indicate a definite exchange of illegal weapons (a 10,000 g.p.
fine) but do not specify parties involved. If it could be proven that the
Duke was aiming to send weapons to the Central Government Fire Giants with
the hope of destabilizing the End frontier of Dunador, it would be
treason. And the penalties are best case banishment, worse case death.

As such, we are in, as they say, over our heads. Though it is unlikely
that the Duke of Andevar will admit that the party we killed were his
agents, if it were to come out the wrong way, the party might be tried for
their murders. If so, Ceydric or Faranyn could be the Champion and choose
trail by combat, but if the Duke of Andevar pressed the issue, he would
have to fight Kirkroy, the Champion of Andevar, who on a recent Dunthrane
Day, even beat the great Norall during the tournament (Norall is an even
worse case scenario if Hollend becamse involved). And if we were found
guilty, execution for most of us, and burning at the stake for Alegra,
would be a most unhappy end to our adventuring careers.

Reason #1 why Dunadorian politics is bad: Dying is always an option.
Reason #2: if you are a non-Nevronian cleric (read: unwashed cultist) it
is even more likely.

Kyle/Alegra

Posted by Kyle MacLea at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)