Piratecat's Updated Story Hour! (update 4/03 and 4/06)

[Piratecat]

The Defenders stand in triumphant silence around the smoking bodies of almost 400 ghouls. Someone whistles softly, a rising tone of impressed admiration. The fire elementals crackle merrily as they try to get through the acid fog, and vile humours drip from Velendo and Malachite’s armor. Everyone takes a big sigh of relief.

The moment is broken by the sound of applause from behind them. Everyone spins, expecting the worse and raising their weapons. Instead of evil (Mara checks) undead (Malachite checks), they see a group of people standing at the base of the hill, looking up at them excitedly. There’s a dwarven woman, several bodyguards, some clerks and a servant or two. The dwarf is wearing cloth of gold decorated with lace and silk, jeweled chains adorning her slight beard, and she’s leading the applause by clapping her silk-gloved hands.

“Get out of here!” snarls Nolin, his voice carrying. “You’re in terrible danger!”

The female dwarf answers, her voice a rich contralto. “There was no one in town to accept our goods, and we saw the light from our boat. We heard the fight, too! What happened here?” She holds a silk cloth up to her nose; apparently, her sense of smell is enough to tell her that the Defenders were slaughtering some sort of foul monster instead of hapless townsfolk.

“Ghouls,” the Defenders answer, “hundreds of them, and it isn’t safe yet. Please return to your boat.” The dwarven woman twitches her handkerchief in dismissal, and TomTom’s keen ears hear her whispering to a clerk beside her “…ones I was telling you about, that the Council…”

TomTom sighs. When the Defenders quickly decide that they need to head underground to assure that the problem is dealt with, he volunteers to stay up on top, to watch the civilians and keep his eyes out for any more tunnels appearing. Tao sinks briefly into a clairvoyance thanks to her magical helm. “There’s more down there,” she reports, “with more tiny glowing eyeballs. And they’re retreating!”

A little more than a minute has passed since the beginning of the combat, and everyone is still mass hasted. Most of the Defenders gather around the huge oak tree that Mara created, and Nolin is the first person to crawl down the tunnel it has grown up through. He is preceded by Agar’s prying eyes spell (serving as an advance scout to seek out fleeing undead), and he's followed by his fellow adventurers.

At the bottom of the necropede-carved tunnel, Nolin crawls around the huge roots of the magical oak tree into a largish cavern. He has darkvision up, but he’s still surprised when what he thought was a boulder in front of him rises up to a height of almost ten feet. Startled, Nolin stares at it, and his gaze takes in the half-rotted eyeballs in its insectoid face. Wait! Are those eyeballs? Because there are smaller eyeballs farther in… but those big eyes must be eyes, they’re leaking fluids… but those little eyes could be eyes, too…. Four eyes, more and more and more….

Confused, Nolin doesn’t snap out of his daze until the ghoulish umber hulk grabs him around the neck with one massive claw and tries to peel his face off with half-rotted mandibles. Nolin screams a warning as blood streams down his face, but his muscles don’t freeze up from the intense cold seeping through his bones.

The Defenders rush down the narrow opening, and Malachite’s descent is aided by his githyanki-crafted boots of skating. Moving at high speed as he reaches the tunnel’s bottom, he cannons into the monster and hits it with his sunsword Aleax one, two, three times. Aleax shouts in exultation – it’s the first time that Malachite has ever used him against undead - and glows with the heat of the sun as the blade shears through tendons and rotting flesh. Malachite skids to a stop, the beetle-like monster in three pieces in front of him, and gives Nolin a steely look as the bard fully snaps out of the confusion effect.

Moving as quickly as they can, the Defenders advance across the cavern and into another burrowed tunnel dug by the necropede from the earth itself. They move in three horizontal battle lines through the 15 ft. wide tunnel, the two paladins and Tao in the lead, the spellcasters and rogues taking up the middle. Raevynn is in dire bear form, taking up the rear. “Watch out,” warns Malachite. “There's another undead within 60 feet. I can sense it.” Everyone slows, weapons out.

Tao is the first one to see it: another ten foot tall insectoid monstrosity, moving from an alcove into the middle of the tunnel ahead. Its two huge claws swing forward… but instead of attacking the Defenders, it rips at the walls and ceiling. Tao reacts first. “It’s trying to collapse the tunnel on our heads!” She charges forward, even as clods of dirt begin to fall from the weakened tunnel ceiling.

To be continued….

[Piratecat]

Hasted, she charges the monster with both swords drawn. It isn’t hard to hit, as its shell-like carapace is cracked and flaking, and Tao’s swords seek out the weak patches in its natural armor. Within seconds she hits it a full five times, and with a hideous croak it collapses backwards. Chunks of dirt shower down on Tao’s head, but the ceiling doesn’t seem like it’s going to collapse just yet. Tao must have destroyed the thing in time.

She looks back at Malachite. “You cut that other one in pieces in just three swings!” she accuses. “I had to hit this thing five times, and even then I just barely….”

“Come on,” says Malachite brusquely, and pushes past her with Mara beside him. The rest of the Defenders follow, and the dire bear shrugs at Tao as if to say What are you going to do?

Tao shrugs back and pushes her way back to the front of the battle formation. She stops for a second to stare at Agar; he had summoned two celestial bears. Unfortunately, he’s an alienist, and so the bears both have spider-like tentacles instead of legs and eyes on stalks. Agar is riding one of them. “This is Proudclaw,” he says happily, patting the bear he’s riding upon its wriggling head, “and this is Mightyfang.“ Tao and Raevynn trade another horrified glance as the tentacled bears scuttle forward.

The tunnel winds slightly to avoid rock outcroppings, and then takes a sharp dip downwards. The group is highly aware of the tons of earth above their head that could collapse at any time. There is no light, as the heroes are relying on a mass darkvision spell, and noise seems amplified down here below the earth. Ahead of them down the sharp incline, Nolin can hear Them waiting. There’s no breathing, just the sound of scores of mouths salivating at the scent of living flesh, the faint scrape of talons on stone, the scattered moan of hunger or giggle of delight. “Heads up, guys,” he warns. “There they are.” Mara raises her mace Lightbinder and calls forth a daylight spell; in the hundred or so foot radius of pure light, she can see the first line of ghouls far down the tunnel. It looks like they’re mostly deep gnomes, rotting bald heads and powerful stubby legs, bone javelins clutched in greasy claws. Behind the four rows of twenty ghouls, another group squats, tower shields raised to provide full cover for whatever is behind them. Forked tongues dart in and out of bloodless mouths, licking sores, as the gnomes almost mewl in anticipation of the fresh food in front of them... but they hold their formation.

From somewhere in the darkness, something streaks towards the group, and the air is suddenly alive with razor-sharp jabbing bones. As the energy passes, most of the Defenders are bleeding badly. “What was that?” Tao asks. No one knows. Agar sends his two bears forward to attack, eager that they act as a distraction while they soften up the foe.

Nolin pulls forth the “Shara Ball,” a magic item created by Shara that contains a little piece of her soul and her power. “What we need,” declares Nolin as he shakes the ball to activate it, “is some fire power.” Then he gazes down into the ball. “Hello, Shara! We’re battling hordes of undead, and we’re in need of your assistance. Can you please aid us?”

A tiny image of Shara appears inside the ball. Her voice sounds tinny as she answers tartly. “Of course I will. Hold me up. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt, Nolin.” There is just a calculated trace of amused sarcasm in her voice. Your sister wouldn’t forgive me if I did, thinks the magic item to itself, and as Nolin holds the ball upwards a chain lightning streaks out of it to decimate the front line of foes. The thunder is deafening in the narrow tunnel, and the smell of ozone overpowers the reek of rotting flesh. The ball goes dark, its energy spent.

Velendo casts true seeing and then summons a Huge fire elemental named Conflagratis. The elemental ignites into life and gladly crackles across the rock and dirt towards the ghouls and the two tentacular celestial bears. It leaves a trail of dying fire in its wake, and the flame from its body casts hellish illumination upon the undead. It strikes an undead, incinerating it. Insects rise up and buzz away from the burning body, disturbed from their home in the undead flesh.

Malachite unleashes another positive energy burst. Instead of the wide-spread damage from before, however, the emerald green light causes only three of the six visible ghouls explode. The other three remain upright, smoking, and the creatures behind the line of shields seem uninjured.

“There must be something special about those shields!” offers Velendo, and then the shield bearers make a remarkable maneuver. Someone behind them yells “Now!” in a croaking, hideous dwarvish voice. As one, the shield bearers pull aside, revealing the faint glimpse of more creatures behind them. A massive bone ballistae bolt streaks forward, slamming into Conflagratis and ripping a rent in his flaming body. At the same time, a dull gray line of energy shoots forward from the darkness, exploding into an ice-cold ball of shrieking spirits that seem to rip life energy away from the Defenders caught in the blast. Then the shieldbearers close up ranks, closing off the view and reestablishing full cover.

“Split up! We’re in fireball formation!” Mara cries.

“Split up where?” Nolin answers. “It’s a 15 foot wide tunnel. Let’s hope they don’t have a lightning bolt.”

Malachite is taking it in stride, but Velendo and Nolin are goggling at the ghouls' tactics. "Can stupid undead DO that?" Nolin asks to no one in particular. No one answers him, as the answer seems obvious: these don't seem to be mindless undead.

Raevynn has shifted into dire bat form, and flies forward near the ceiling. She’s at a high enough angle to be able to “see” over the shields with her blindsight. She realizes that there’s some eighty more undead back there, along with a ghoulish flying dwarf and some sort of horrible bone construct that looks like a ballista with legs. Raevynn flies back towards the Defenders, a plan forming in her head.

Velendo is injured, but quickly realizes that he needs to remove the shield wall. Flying, he swoops close. His intent is to turn undead at a high enough angle to affect the ghouls holding the shields, thus destroying the formation, and then fly 90 feet backwards to safety. The first half of his plan works beautifully. He moves into position, summons his faith, and turns. The ghouls are blasted from existence, and their shields – made from some hardened mushroom fiber – clatter to the ground.

Velendo didn’t anticipate that eighty ghouls would be readying their actions, poised to throw their bone javelins at the first enemy that revealed itself.

The hail of sharpened javelins rains down upon Velendo, and even his armor and powerful shield can’t fully protect him. With eight weapons sticking out from his body, he drops and bounces off of the cold dark earth, blood fountaining up from his body.

Squealing with delight and unrestrained hunger, the army of ghouls surges forward.

To be continued…

[Piratecat]

Originally posted by Velenne
What else do they need to do in Eversink?

• Finagle their way out of slavery (half the group are technically slaves for the next five years, as a sentence for a crime.)
  
• Find out whether or not Tao legally owns the city's massive prison and the island it stands on, as per a deed she inherited; and if she does, whether she gets to (or has to) keep it, and whether she owes back taxes on it, and whether the city owes her rent for it, and whether she's responsible for the prisoners, and whether or not this can be leveraged into obtaining freedom for people enslaved to the High Council of Eversink.
  
• Dispose of a minor relic they hold from the church of Korok, God of Luck.
  
• Collect the small army of 30 dwarves that is marching towards Eversink.
  
• Deal with training; everyone went up a level, but Nolin (for instance) needs 9 weeks of down time to achieve this. Uh oh....
  
• Deal with fallout, if any, from the destruction of the Dockside Royals.
  
• Make sure that the baby-shields were returned to their mothers, or at least to good homes.
  
• Make sure that the evil weapon-breaking trident was destroyed.
  
• Find out if Lord Griggan is still trapped in a demi-plane, sealed off by a forbiddance spell and totally without food.
  
• Get ambushed and eaten by Brinedeath, the massive black dragon.
  
• Pick up any magical items they're having commissioned.
  
• Find out whether Mara intends to keep her ties to the Church of Aeos.

I'm probably missing a few things, but that's the heart of it!

[Piratecat]

Get ambushed and eaten by Brinedeath, the massive black dragon.

Whoops! How'd that dragon thing get in there? Sorry, ignore that, it's a complete mistake. Not relevant at all. Seriously.

I do training time as taking one half your level in weeks. They're looking for a magical way around this; they know Hagiok the lich has invented potions that cut the time to several days, while your mind replays and absorbs everything that has happened to you. They're hoping that Lord Ioun can create something similar. Velendo is also considering rigging a Calphas' Comfortable Castle up as a training facility to allow them to train on the road.

The Shara Ball didn't cast control undead because Nolin asked for blasting (and because I didn't think of it!). There's always next time!

The dwarves are led by a dwarven fighter named Splinder, a former follower of Tao's back in the 2e days. He was given a tremendous amount of treasure from the dracolich's hoard, with which he left to pay the dowry on the girl he wanted to marry. In exchange, he offered to raise as many dwarves as he could into a small army for taking on undead. Denied entry to the Kingdom of Gaunt (which has a dim view on mercenary forces ever since one tried to conquer the capitol), they've set off to find the Defenders the long way.

[KidCthulhu]

Originally posted by Piratecat

• Get ambushed and eaten by Brinedeath, the massive black dragon.

Hold on just a moment there, bucky! (Checks Palm Pilot) I don't remember scheduling a claw/claw/bite. I'm not showing any appointments for a Mr. Brinedeath. And I don't care how many hit dice you have, if you don't have an appointment, you don't see the Defenders!

Remind me to post the 47a/410-c form "Requisition for Enemy Engagement - Evil" for the Defenders. This is the form our enemies have to fill out if they want us to spend some of our valuable time kicking their a**.

[Piratecat]

Velendo, lying unconscious on the rough ground 40 feet in front of anyone else, is in terrible danger. If the quantity of blood pouring out of him is any guide, Velendo is seconds from death, and any more damage will surely kill him. Malachite moves towards him, but he’s afraid that he may not be in time.

He ducks as two fireballs and two lightning bolts flash out from the hasted Nolin and Agar, battering both the flying dwarven wizard and the huge skeletal construct with red-hot flames and crackling arcs of iridescent electricity. The fireballs also blast away dozens of ghoulish troops and leave cracked flesh and sooty corpses behind. Ozone, and the odor of spoiled, burned meat, fills the smoky air.

The wizard still hangs in the air, skin smoking. He barks an order to the scores of ghoulish troops that remain, and they begin to surge forward. Too far back for the others to easily see, Raevynn watches through her dire bat form’s blindsight as the undead siege engine plucks a massive bony projectile from its own body and begins ratcheting back its tremendous bone ballistae. She tries to shout a warning, but is still wildshaped.

Tao focuses on the wizard, prays, and points. Her first searing light ever streaks from her finger. The brilliant beam of light sizzles down the tunnel and strikes the flying dwarf square in the belly. Already weakened badly from the fireballs and lightning bolts, his wispy beard and his stomach all disappear in an incinerating flash. Decomposed innards spray the ghouls beneath him, and he drops.

Several squads of deep gnome and dwarvish ghouls rush forward, but only ten or so are able to get past the huge fire elemental and tentacled bears. The ghouls are clearly focused on Velendo and the smell of his blood; the Defenders, however, are waiting for them. Malachite reaches the cleric in time and spins Aleax in his gauntleted hands. The holy sword lays on hilt, its healing energy flooding through the elderly cleric’s frame. Not a moment too soon, either; the front line of gnomish ghouls leaps upon Velendo’s body, burying him with their maggot-riddled flesh as their mouths begin to rip and tear. Mara, standing next to Malachite, turns undead; a handful of the ghouls are blasted into steam, but not nearly enough. Velendo tries his best to fly away from the clutching and clinging undead, but they’re too strong for him. “Bugger this,” he thinks, and casts mass heal.

The ghouls are hanging on him, pinning his arms and legs as they try to chew souvenirs off of his body, but the crystal belt that TomTom constructed for him keeps Velendo’s mind exquisitely focused. He shrugs off the distraction, finishes the spell, and the wounds of everyone nearby close completely as Calphas’ blessing pours forth. The ghouls nearby aren’t so lucky; the positive energy blasts most of the remaining flesh from their bones, leaving them horribly injured. They’re quickly destroyed by the other Defenders, but there are still close to a hundred undead surging forward in a rotting wave that threatens to overrun the Defenders’ front line.

And then Raevynn acts.

Switching back to elven form, she casts one of her most powerful spells: a fire storm, using her knowledge of metamagic to switch the fire for acid. She can feel the energy swirling around her, drawing from some unknown plane as she transmutes the fire into acid, filling the tunnel’s smoky air with telltale shimmers before snapping into life. And just like that, the area just beyond Velendo and Mara becomes a maelstrom of acid-choked death, stretching hundreds of feet back down the necropede’s tunnel!

When the storm of acid passes, the skeletal construct is just a half-broken pitted hulk, and there is little left of the ghoulish army other than acid-eaten teeth, bits of fingernail, and the powder of bone. Even the tiny flying orbs seem to have been destroyed. It took two minutes from start to finish, but the Defenders have managed to finish off every single ghoul in the invading force. All of them, returned to the earth.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” offers Agar.

“Hah!” shouts Velendo. He gazes skyward, hands spread, as if daring Calphas to comment as well.

Later that night, the townspeople are back in their beds. Observers are posted, but the menace seems to have been destroyed. Oddly enough, the people watching the graveyard claim to have seen the ghostly forms of hundreds of people, drifting up towards the sky, but no one is sure whether to believe them or not. The heroes might have been able to tell… but after a feast, they’re sleeping the well-deserved sleep of the just.

[KidCthulhu]

Originally posted by Piratecat
The ghouls are hanging on him, pinning his arms and legs as they try to chew souvenirs off of his body

I can see Pappa Ghoul now, returning home to his clamouring ghoul children. "What did you bring us from the surface?"

Smiling, he hands them each one of Velendo's ears.

"My parents went to the surface world, and all got was this lousy gobbet."

[Piratecat]

Originally posted by Ancalagon
You see, our party is undeground (kinda stuck) and we too are fighting ghouls. we killed about 30-40 in one battle (level 6, 7 PCs).

That's really good! Remember, it's easier to kill low-HD undead when you're 15th level... even when they have turn resistance and a competent commander.

The really delightful thing about this session was when Raevynn's player thought of the acid storm. I look over from dealing with Velendo (who was at -7 hit points) and Blackjack and Raevynn are shaking with laughter, chortling and rubbing their hands together. "What's up?" I ask. "Nothing!" they answer together. Apparently, they were figuring out the area of effect for the spell, and had just figured out that in the 15' wide tunnel it reached from the middle of the battlemap, off the long end of the table, all the way to Raevynn's shirt. Filling all the space. Doing 15d6 to everything in the area. Everything. They wouldn't tell me yet... safer that way, I suppose!

*sniff* Man, that was a cool skeletal siege engine, too. Sigh.

KidCthulhu wishes me to point out that the only other way they could have gotten this effect was to kill Nolin. With the phoenix sharing his soul, he erupts into a 19d6 fire storm the round or so after he gets killed. Standard party procedure is that if Nolin dies, everyone runs.

[Piratecat]

Originally posted by Negative Zero
Speaking of which, how did Nolin end up with a phoenix inside him?

He was wearing a unique item called a phoenix cloak when he was killed by inch-tall goblins. Finalist, "most embarrassing death ever."

Mind you, he was only 2" tall at the time. In the adventure Chadrathar's Bane, the whole group was shrunk to the height of two inches. Arcade had been captured by the goblins living on the ceiling beams, who were about to sacrifice another prisoner. Nolin swooped in to save Arcade, fumbled and stabbed himself with his frostbrand dagger, and (since he was considered a flame-using creature when wearing that cloak) really hurt himself badly. Arcade got away with the captured girl, but the goblins closed on Nolin and cut him down. They threw his body off the rafter, and it fell a tremendous sidtance to the floor.

And then, while the party stared in horror, it exploded in a huge gout of flame. When the fire cleared, Nolin was standing there again, naked, his hair on fire and carrying the soul of the phoenix that had been bound into the cloak.

[KidCthulhu]

I don't know if Pkitty intended it. I do remember asking hopefully "Hey, a cloak of the phoenix. Don't suppose I blow up and get born again."

And the goblin thing wasn't comic at the time. It was brave and foolhardy, the stuff of legends. Nolin gave his life to save Arcade. It only became goofy when we thought about it later. "Killed by 1" tall goblins? Maybe I won't write a stirring ballad about that."

[Bandeeto]

KidC wrote:

And the goblin thing wasn't comic at the time. It was brave and foolhardy, the stuff of legends. Nolin gave his life to save Arcade. It only became goofy when we thought about it later. "Killed by 1" tall goblins? Maybe I won't write a stirring ballad about that."

Here follows a brief thread-hijack by the "Defenders of Daybreak, the Early Years" thread:

Bear in mind that the Defenders had accomplished mighty deeds before this point in history. We had slain demons, devils and a mind-flayer, killed a dragon, defeated an archmage, and crushed a superdoppelganger plot. Understandably, we had gotten a bit cocky.

We were, I believe, on the trail of a cult formed by a Helm of the Hive. Nolin's brother Eritain (unbeknownst to us) had been possessed by the helm, and was forming a group-mind army to serve as slaves.

Nothing had gone well on the trip so far. We had been on a really unpleasant slog through swamps, plains, and generally nasty terrritory for days. Arcade kept getting little psychic summonings to join the cult. [P'Cat kept passing me little paper notes that would say things like "We are One," and "Join Us!" Very irritating, and distracting. ]

Then to top things off, we had to stop at a bleak and abandoned waystation to get out of a massive rainstorm. We spent the night on the floor, and woke in the morning to find ourselves shrunk to minute size. We were appalled to find that Velendo had lost his access to his god (no healing spells). Luckily we had a few potions, and we began to explore a bit.

Suddenly, from the ceiling, a goblin war party on very long ropes dropped down to attack us. We finished them in moments, but we decided to investigate. Arcade cast fly. Nolin's cloak permitted him to glide, and Arcade towed him and a psionically- lightened Tom-Tom up to the ceiling beams. While the other two stayed put, Arcade turned invisible and went to look for the goblins.

He discovered an entire tribe of the tiny humanoids, and saw a cage with a human maiden being prepared for sacrifice.

The early paragraphs are, of course, a weak attempt to excuse Arcade's somewhat rash behavior at this point. It seemed a very straightforward rescue. He quickly notified the party at a distance that there was trouble. (He used his Clasp of Crown Eternal. These were magic items gifted to the party by the King of Gaunt that permitted us to send warning signals to others wearing the clasps.)

He then took out the cage guards (with 'missiles I think), knocked the lock, cast a fireball into the goblin camp which was supposed to deter pursuit, scooped up the maiden, and flew off.

Unfortunately, with the weight of the maiden (Arcade STR: 11), Arcade was unable to gain much height or speed. In the meanwhile, the entire village had grabbed weapons and streamed after him. Slowly, they started to close.

The cavalry arrived in the form of Nolin. Gliding with his cloak of the phoenix, Nolin launched a spell that took out several of the goblins, and moved in to finish off the lead group. Had he been able to dispatch them we might have gotten away, and then been able to return later to finish the job with no hostage to worry about.

Nolin drew his frostbrand jambiya and swung, slew one goblin, and then with his second stroke fumbled. As a flame-using creature (with his cloak), he was horribly wounded. Things went from bad to worse, as a couple of goblins rolled criticals. Nolin slumped onto the beam, unconscious. The goblins closed, and slit his throat.

An ignominious death for the bard of the Defenders, at the hands of inch-high goblins.

The first that the rest of the party knew of the disaster was Nolin's body falling the hundreds of inches to the floor and landing in their midst, dead. His body was smoldering. The Defenders leaped for cover as a huge gout of flame erupted from the corpse. Blearily, Nolin rose from his own ashes and stood, his hair burning merrily.

The "rebirth in flame" bonded the souls of Nolin and the phoenix. The cloak disappeared, and ever afterwards Nolin's hair was perpetually on fire. Over the years, Nolin learned to commune with the phoenix, and tap its powers of flame and flight.

So, after all, it came out OK.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

[Piratecat]

There was one hilarious game, the very first playtest game we played after we converted the Defenders to 3e, where the Defenders went to a carnival! Nolin decided to be mischevious and spread the rumor that Velendo, living saint, walked through the crowd. Velendo, disgusted, stalked away... and as soon as he was out of sight of Nolin, started using his influence to get people to light cigars off of the head of Nolin Benholm, bard to the crowned heads of Spira. For the entire adventure, Nolin had to deal with people trying to light their smokes off of his scalp. It was great.

I don't think Velendo ever fessed up, either.

[Blackjack]

A recent face-to-face discussion with someone who reads this thread made me realize that not all the proper nouns in the campaign have self-evident pronunciations. Hence, a quick (and incomplete) list:

Velendo - veh-LENN-doh
Mara - MARR-ah (not "MARE-ah")
Nolin - NOLL-inn (not "NOH-linn")
TomTom - TOMM-TOMM (duh)
Tao - TAY-oh (not "TAH-oh")
Malachite - MAL-ah-kite (not "MAL-ah-chite")
Raevynn - RAY-vinn
Agar - AY-garr (not "AH-garr" or "ah-GARR")
PirateCat - RAT-BASS-tarrd (not "PIE-rat-cat")
Shara - SHARR-ah (not "SHARE-ah")
Dylrath - DILL-rath
Aleax - AY-lee-ax

[Piratecat]

The heroes do their best to sleep late, but it isn’t easy; dozens of people are bustling around the outside of the inn, trying to get a glimpse of them. Finally they rise and have breakfast. The innkeeper has been kind enough to forbid anyone else entry, but their meal is still interrupted by curious people. Tomtom tells them that the dwarven woman that they met last night was Tursa Coskeep, granddaughter of Lord Coskeep, head of the beer and wine brewing House in Eversink. She wasn’t hurt, at least, so no harm done.

The group splits up. Raevynn and Mara stay in Eversink, Mara to speak calmingly to the locals and Raevynn to resanctify the graveyard. No one thinks to somehow fill in the tunnels, and Mara gets asked almost two dozen times what the town is supposed to do. Mara stalls them, expecting that someone with an earth elemental or two will be back to help. In fact, Arcade shows back up later that day, and uses move earth to solve the problem. The hill becomes lower, but the huge hole is closed up, and a new wall of stone blocks access to the narrow tunnel around the oak tree. Arcade assures Mara that if the Defenders want to reenter the Underdark via this method, he can easily reopen it.

Nolin, Agar and TomTom head to the huge trade port of Oursk, where they find the temple of Korok, God of Chance. His temple is filled with people gambling, a holy casino where visitors can find redemption through risk. Amused, the Defenders play a few dice games in order to purify themselves, and are brought to see the excitable High Priest. He leaps up when they enter, greeting them. Once they’re seated and given refreshments, Nolin starts to speak. “We have something that….” He’s interrupted by the cleric, who holds up his hand to stop him.

“No no no! Not yet!” he exclaims. “You'll jinx my luck. My horoscope today said, ‘Today will be filled with unexpected surprises. Do not be greedy, and your gifts will be returned four-fold.’ This must be what it was referring to. Here… roll this die.” He hands everyone a die. Agar rolls a 1, and both Nolin and TomTom roll 2s.

“Now draw that many chits from this bag.” He holds open a pouch. Everyone draws a numbered chit, and the high priest sends a lackey out with the numbers. “They’re cubbies in our vaults, you see. If you’re going to give me something – something big, I can feel it in my bones! – then you should have the chance to make an exchange. You may receive a dusty bone, or a magical catapult… there are a lot of things down there.”

The lackey returns and distributes items. There is a bone rabbit figurine that rattles, a roll of old leather, a beautifully filigreed rod, a set of goggles, and a small spyglass. The items aren’t all undead-bane weapons of disruption, but the Defenders accept them gratefully, and pass over the Chancestone of Korok. This dangerous luck-related item is no longer their responsibility, and everyone heaves a sigh of relief. Nolin also gives a magical rod of misplacing to the ecstatic cleric, and in return he gives Nolin a coin of the cat, an apparently non-magical coin that always lands the way that the person flipping it chooses.

Back in Eversink, everyone meets up. Tao is just back from visiting her family, and Nolin has been busy identifying the new items. “I’m going to do the commune” announces Velendo. Everyone troops into a Calphas’ Comfortable Castle, and just to be safe Agar looks about with zone of revelation, a spell that allows him to peer into nearby planes.

He sees someone.

In the temple they just departed, there is a hideous creature crawling on the floor. He is unnaturally gaunt, the skin of his face pulled taut against his cheekbones, and his eyes are afire with madness. Huge open sores pock his face and arms, and Agar is fascinated to see signs of creatures – slugs, maybe – moving under the man’s skin. It looks like the man was observing them, clawing at them ineffectually from his alternate plane of existence. Then, without fanfare, he vanishes.

Agar describes the sight to the other Defenders. Possibilities are considered… a manifestation of Yorrine, the God of Disease? The ghost of Alix? Hagiok the lich? One of the White Kingdom? But the man seemed to Agar to be alive, albeit in terrible pain and possibly insane.

And then someone describes Lord Griggan to Agar.

To be continued. . . .

[Piratecat]

Badly disturbed, Velendo heads into the inner temple and lowers himself to his knees in front of the altar. Praying, he casts commune and speaks to Calphas. The rest of the group waits quietly behind him.

Casting the spell, he feels his God's presence fill the room, solid and reassuring as a pillar of faith.

1. "Is there magic at work that prevents or obscures Divinations targeted at any Aeosian historical figures?"

• (after a long pause, and a shaking of the walls around him): I BELIEVE SO

2. "Could my casting of a Miracle get rid of the effects of the magic preventing or obscuring Divinations targeting Aeosian historical figures?"

• (again, after a long pause): YES, BUT YOU RISK A HOLY WAR.

3. "Is an alliance of Necromancers and Ghouls using the ghoulish advance in the Underdark as a distraction to draw forces away from those who would bolster the Aeosian and Ioun's forces?"

• NO.

4. "Is an alliance of Necromancers and Ghouls using the Necromancers as a distraction to draw forces away from those who would stop the advance of the Ghoulish forces of the Underdark?"

• YES.

5. "If the Orb of the Necromancers is destroyed, will that destroy all undead for thousands of miles?"

• YES, BUT ONLY ON THE SURFACE.

6. "Will we have a better chance of breaking the spine of the White Kingdom by assisting the aboveground assault on the Necromancers, as opposed to by our planned quest into the Underdark?"

• NO.

7. "Is it truly the will of Aeos that the Scriptures be changed to allow for the change in His church's attitude toward undead?"

• YES.

8. "Are the armies of Aeos and Ioun being led, wittingly or unwittingly, into a trap?"

• NO.

9. "Would the holy war you mentioned be between the churches of Aeos and Calphas?"

• MOST PROBABLY.

10. "Is the Divination-blocking magic the product of Aeosian casters?"

• NO.

11. "Is the Divination-blocking magic the product of undead forces?"

• YES.

12. "Do we currently have the means to break the Maradine family curse?"

• I DON'T KNOW.

[KidCthulhu]

Originally posted by DocMoriartty
You know the Aeos clerics I would think would the same answers to a Commune as Valendo got. So as long as they are not intentionally being dense they should know that there is magic blocking the divination of Sir Ghoulex.

Well, it's kind of an Emperor's New Clothes situation. The inital divinations were all thwarted by the magic covering Aleax, which is to say they confirmed him to be good, not evil. The church certainly cast Commune, but if they mentioned Aleax by name, their results were skewed by the interference. Having gotten a few positive results, the clerics of Aos weren't going to go against their god's will, and were therefore less willing to probe and ask tricky questions.

We only got this information because we asked really tricky questions. The clerics of Aos asked different questions, and so they got different answers. And having bought into the situation, they're not going to thank us for showing up wearing our "Ghouleax is an evil abomination, ask me how I know" buttons.

As for the re-writing of the book, I must admit that Nolin is curious, but not very. I mean, it's Aos' will, so it's not my problem. We're already into Aosian church politics as deep as we ever wanted to be.

[KidCthulhu]

Originally posted by Krellic
Probably me just rambling while I'm desperately waiting for the next installment. Is PC really so convoluted?

He is indeed full of nooks and crannies to catch the butter of evil. But I think that idea might be a bit much, even for him. He has wheels within wheels, but usually not wheels within wheels within wheels.

[Piratecat]

Following the Commune, the Defenders discuss plans. What to do about Griggan? Leave him for now, they agree, and deal with him within the week. What’s the best way of training? They desperately need to train, but they can’t afford the nineteen weeks it will take for Nolin to do so… and even Velendo needs almost that much time. Velendo is thinking of designing a Calphas’ Comfortable Castle that is filled with training gear: practice dummies, alchemy labs, crystal meditation rooms, music rooms, and so forth. He’s not positive it would work, however, as every time the spell was recast any unique items would have to be brought into the new Castle. The group is pondering this when Agar speaks up. “I know a place that might help. How do you feel about planar travel?”

“We like it,” Nolin says. “Why?”

Agar’s eyes shine. “I know a place,” he says, “known as the Citadel of Kodali’s Retreat. It’s named after a warlord who transported his entire army there. It’s in a place where time moves faster.”

Agar picks up a paperweight and gestures with it. “If I tied a string to this and swung it around, the paperweight would be moving much faster than the string at the top. My hand would just be moving a little bit to make a circle, but this paperweight would have considerably farther to travel in the same amount of time.” Agar absentmindedly slaps an invisible bug on his neck. “Kodali’s Retreat is like the paperweight… it’s at the end of the infinite planes, near the places where the multiverse grows thin. Time there moves about….” He considers for a moment, puffing on his pipe. “About 160, 170 times faster than it does here. An hour on the Prime is equal to about a week in the Citadel. You could train and be home within a day!” His cherubic face grows serious. “There’s probably other creatures and people there, of course, but it’s unlikely that they’ll try to fight us. When I was there before, I saw signs that creatures who come to fight go… elsewhere.” He shivers, flicks an invisible ant off of his sleeve, then smiles. “A legend lore, a plane shift, and we’re there!”

First, though, Velendo does a sending to Splinder. Splinder is a former follower of Tao’s, a dwarf who is leading a company of dwarven warriors to meet the Defenders and descend into the Underdark. Casting the spell, Velendo asks him where they are.

“We’re a little busy right now fighting river trolls,” the answer comes back, “but we should make it to Eversink within four days.”

Concerned, Nolin swings an ornately carved mirror towards him and casts greater scrying. He sees three squads of dwarves in a defensive position, using tactics and long spears to hold back eight drooling, scuttling trolls. No one has been killed – except for one of the trolls – but a number of the dwarves look hurt. “Grab your gear, everyone!” exclaims Nolin. “We’re going in to help!”

To be continued….

[Martin]

PC is a DM. It is a DM's job to perplex and torment the heroic players. A DM must concoct and develop schemes and monsters and tactics and strategies against the wiles of the player characters who try to restore a level of buttery goodness to the world the DM presents to them. A DM is evil, and thus hates the self-righteous paladin characters. A DM is neutral, appreciating the hard work, but offput by the extremist personality and religious beliefs of a paladin. A DM is good, inspiring and loving the rapturous joy that is the paladin. Yes, a DM is all of these things; this is the nature of a DM.

But when push comes to shove, you know that the DM is creating his evil creations, laughing maniacally with glee as he envisions the torments that he puts them through and schemes of ways to wipe that smug grin off of those blessed paladins. Oh sure, they think they're better than everyone else, don't they. Oh, he'll show them. Yes, he'll show them and their little intelligent sword Aleax too.

(By the way, my money is on this: The sword has been magicked with the abilities of paladins or picks up the personalities of the paladins who have wielded it at the point of their deaths. Ghouleax is, as far as he himself can tell, the real deal, however he was indeed raised by the White Kingdom with certain information leaked to him in order to throw the church of Aeos into turmoil and off of the proper trail. The soul that was rejoined to the undead body is the sainted soul of Aleax, regardless of how it came to be, and thus cannot be damnable by Aeos. This is the reason for the change in the scripture. This also explains the source of the potential holy war between the two churches, as the Calphites will see the Saint as an abomination that must be destroyed regardless of soul, whereas the Aeosians will fight to protect him.

Then again, I could simply be talking out my ass. After all, I only started reading this thing after PC got 70k odd page views. <grin> )

[Piratecat]

Warm blood dripping into his eyes, Splinder the Dwarven Captain grimaces. His thirty troops are arrayed in a half-square around him, each front rank equipped with shield and oil, each back rank equipped with sharp-bladed long spears. “Keep yer guard up, boys! They’ll break before long… they’re hungry. Try to kill the one in armor first.”

“Tell us somethin’ we don’t know, Captain,” spits Rogon bitterly. He has claw marks across his throat, as he was “lucky” enough to be the first one attacked by the nine aquatic trolls. He shifts his spear slightly and glares at the trollish leader, the monster with wormlike hair dangling from its rusted helm, patched-together metal armor, and a look in its eyes that says it knows it’s already won.

“Discipline, Rogon,” growls Splinder with a hiint of anger. “First rank: ready oil. Torchbearers, be ready to light. Rea….” The splintering of light from behind him catches him off guard. Spinning his head, he sees the heroes that he first met thousands of miles away, in the middle of a desert, next to a mountain that ate anyone living who tried to climb it. With them is a handful of people he doesn’t recognize. “’bout time!” he tells Tao by way of greeting. Tao smiles… and the mass haste goes off.

The trolls don’t stand a chance.

The flame strikes hammer down from the skies as fireballs roll outwards. Searing lights rip through regenerating flesh, and magical weapons slice through green and warty skin. The beasts howl in pain and counterattack, but the dwarves have their strategies straight; they use their shield wall and long spears to keep most of the beasts at bay as the Defenders take them apart piece by piece.

The troll leader, a loathsome and hunched male with rusted armor and sharpened claws, gives the most challenge. He fights fiercely, spittle flying as he throws himself at the Defenders in an insane rage, but he’s clearly outclassed. Thirty seconds after the Defender’s arrival, troll corpses are being cooked with oil and fire, and the dwarves’ wounds are being treated by clerics.

“Efficient,” notes Splinder. “You’ve been practicing.”

Velendo surveys the well disciplined dwarves. “You have too,” he says jealously. “I wish we had a fragment of your tactics.”

Splinder slaps him familiarly on the small of the back. “We’ll teach you,” he offers, and they sit down to discuss strategy.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> <><>

The Defenders send the dwarves on to Eversink, and make a whirlwind trip back to their home country of Gaunt. Nolin says goodbye, for what seems like the fifteenth time, to his daughter. “I may not be coming back,” he explains, as the ten year girl eyes him skeptically. “Uh huh,” says Tasha. “You always say that. Aunt Cadrienne says it’s just to get attention, and Aunt Kiri agrees.” As he hugs his daughter and his aging mother, Nolin makes a mental note to have a word with his old adventuring companions.

Meanwhile, TomTom and Agar have gone to see the King to deliver the blackmail materials that they found and to offer a report on the current political situation. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by their least favorite chamberlain. “Thousands of gold pieces on clothing alone!” he screams at them, his thin voice rising like a fishwife's. “And hundreds of thousands for bail. And the entire reputation of our country soiled, and.. and… that woman possibly marrying the Prince, and you killing the most important person in the city, and….” His face goes red with rage as he turns apoplectic, and Agar and TomTom finally have a chance to get a word in edgewise about their mission and report.

Finally back in Eversink, Velendo raises the subject that no one wants to talk about. “We’ve got to do something about Griggan,” he states flatly. “He’s miserable in there, and we’ve left him to suffer.”

Malachite and Mara look surprised. “What’s this? I knew nothing of this.”

The party members who did know of Griggan’s unfortunate fate look around a little guiltily. “Well, he’s stuck in a demi-plane, and we have to get him out. He’s been there three or four months with nothing to eat, so he’s probably pretty hungry.”

“And crazy,” adds Agar.

“And crazy,” admits Velendo. “We have to help him. But after we do, how can we stop him from poisoning the city against us, or using all the information he’s learned against his political foes, or sabotaging Shara’s bid for his house, or…?”

“Or doing something awful to his wife, Lady Brea,” adds Nolin. “She’s carrying a half-elven baby. My half-brother, thanks to my no good philandering can’t-keep-it-in-his-pants father. Griggan knows, and he’ll certainly have it killed.”

“Huh.” Everyone thinks. And then a plan is hatched.

To be continued!