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Chronicles of Mesion: Considering Hiatus; Comments Needed.
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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 3119159" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>The Gate of Madness: Few Moments are More Appropriate for Cursing in Orcish</strong></p><p></p><p>The next morning, the party, refreshed and eager to finish their mission and finally escape the Gate of Madness before it warped them too much, began their raid on the orcs as soon as possible. The only exception was Chitka, who decided he would travel with the party when they leave the Gate and planned on spending his last day saying his goodbyes to the myconids that were so helpful to him. They realized as soon as they entered the first room, however, that everything they heard about the unusual nature of the land the orcs were forced into was absolutely true. Three orcs guarded the first room of the orc territory, but something had warped them physically. Their bodies were normal, but it was as if they were somehow leaking, to put simply. The skin, armor, and the very color of the orcs were seemingly leaking out of the unfortunate creatures, leaving others parts of their bodies literally empty of anything but a simple outline.</p><p></p><p> As soon as the incomplete orcs saw the party, they moaned, “We must destroy the intruders! Then, they may allow us back into the tribe!” They attacked as one, but despite their grotesque forms, the orcs were no match for the heroes. They tried to attack the party with blobs of their own oozing color, but nothing connected with the party. Meanwhile, though the party’s attacks occasionally struck the transparent gaps in the orcs, seemingly doing nothing to them, they were able to wear them down with only a few attacks.</p><p></p><p> As the party searched the remains of the orcs, they discovered that each carried a blindfold, and that there was an additional pile of them on the door leading out of the room. “This is…ominous,” Lorren commented when he saw the items. “I wonder what it exactly the orcs were so worried about seeing?”</p><p></p><p> “Personally, I’d rather not find out,” Luke replied. In response, Anastacia quickly snatched the one out of Ik’s hands before she instinctively tested it, much to the changeling’s disappointment.</p><p></p><p> “Fine, then,” Enrique grumbled. “I guess I, as usual, will have to find out.” He carefully opened the door leading from the gatehouse to the official orc territory. Once there, he noticed a cavern opening to the west, though he couldn’t see anything inside it from where he was standing, and a wooden bridge over a pit. As soon as he glanced over the pit, he had at least once guess as to what the orcs were so scared of. He turned as pale as a sheet and half ran, half crawled back to the party. “Man, I hate those things!” he stammered when he returned to the party.</p><p></p><p> Nervously, the rest of the party approached the pit, and each soon saw what Enrique was so afraid of. The entire bottom of the pit was covered with hideous, vicious maggots the size of small dogs! Oddly, they seemed extremely passive. They seemed to be sleeping on odd, opaque cocoons, and the sound of snoring could be faintly heard.</p><p></p><p> Elvis shrugged. “Hell, we could just shoot them from here, if they scare you that much.” He drew his bow, but he was stopped by Lorren, who was watching the monsters intensely.</p><p></p><p> “Don’t,” Lorren simply replied. “These are no ordinary insects, or even giant ones. They appear to be demons of some sort. Who knows what sort of powers they may have if they became aggressive?”</p><p></p><p> The point realized, the party decided to try to cross the bridge as carefully as possible. Enrique was initially reluctant to go first, until he realized that if the maggot demons somehow woke up, he’d be the only one to get across the bridge in time. As he crossed the bridge, though, he soon learned the real reason the orcs carried blindfolds. From the cavern, a trio of undead monstrosities took notice of Enrique. At first, they appeared to be nothing but slightly mummified zombies, but as the first neared Enrique, he could see into the creature’s eyes. They looked into his very soul, and he could feel his sanity rapidly draining from him. </p><p></p><p> As the bizarre undead drew near, Luke realized he would be needed to keep the strange creatures at bay. He drew as close as he could, braving their sanity-draining eyes as best he could, and gathered his faith to channel the raw power of Ehlonna through him. One of the strange creatures was immediately reduced to ash, and the other two were driven back, letting Elvis, Grim, and the others destroy them from a distance. With them defeated, the party could slowly and carefully cross the bridge. The demon maggots were awakened by the combat, but fortunately, they didn’t seem able or sufficiently motivated to climb out of the pit and directly attack the party.</p><p></p><p> The heroes, however, weren’t so lucky when they entered the next room. This appeared to be another guardroom, and while the orcs in this room at least looked normal, before they or the party could respond, strange vents suddenly burst out of the floor. A number of strange, eyeless insects shot up through the holes, where they immediately began to take note of their surroundings. The orcs froze in place, desperately trying to avoid attracting their attention, but one orc was unlucky and too close. The insect sensed it and, in a strange retaliatory measure, released a strange burst of energy around it. In just an instant, the orcs vanished into thin air!</p><p></p><p> Most of the party took the cue from the orcs and stayed clear of the bugs. Grim, unfortunately, was still raised a barbarian. He charged the nearest bug, intent on destroying it before it could send any of his friends away (not to mention possibly endangering the egg.) In a way, he succeeded; the bug instead sent him away! Fortunately, it, along with the first bug, died instantly after using its power. This left the field mostly empty for the six remaining heroes, who destroyed the last bug using missile attacks before closing and destroying the remaining orcs.</p><p></p><p> Grim, meanwhile, was having a much stranger adventure. He found himself on a floating island of land surrounding by more floating islands and seemingly endless storms. Next to him was the orc who was sent “away” earlier. Unprepared for this situation, he was doing little but uttering orcish curses to himself. Some beings, when trapped in an unknown situation with an enemy, would seek a truce until the greater environmental threat could be resolved. Grim was not such a being. After quickly killing the orc, he investigated the island and found a strange glowing rune. Lacking other options, he stepped into the rune and found himself on another one of the islands. He continued to use the teleporting runes to reach other islands, stopping occasionally to destroy more of the sanity-draining undead, and while they affected his mind as well, he found that slaying the creatures was more than sufficiently therapeutic to recover from the effect! At the last island, he found a larger and more unusual rune, which he used to transport back to the party!</p><p></p><p> After the party expressed relief at Grim’s safety and visa versa, it was time to move on. After all, the orcs were surely aware of the party by now, so if they don’t hurry, they’ll be able to mobilize an offensive that could make all their efforts worthless, at best! They quickly dashed into one of the doors in the room, hoping it would get them closer to the orc chief.</p><p></p><p>Their hunch soon seemed correct, as the next room was clearly set up to be a defensive checkpoint. Only three orcs guarded the room, but they were better armed and armored than the ones the party encountered to date, suggesting that these were elite troops. As soon as Enrique and Grim entered the room, they were bombarded with spears that the orcs threw while behind cover, prompting them to wisely withdraw. However, the party couldn’t wait forever, so they eventually and carefully entered the room. Anastacia, the first to enter, received the focus of the next volley of spears. Two of them managed to penetrate her armor, but she endured the pain as she led the charge on the first orc. No sooner did she and the rest of the party reach him, however, than he suddenly emitted a deafening roar as he began to froth at the mouth. Grim knew this combat “style” implicitly, because it was little different than his own temperament when the fury of battle becomes too great. He realized these orcs were very dangerous.</p><p></p><p>“Anastacia, look out!” he yelled, but he was too late. As soon as the party defeated the first orc, she charged at the second, who became enraged just like his partner. Anastacia was cut down in one blow, prompting her enraged (in both senses of the word) allies to finish the final two orcs with enough time to bring their comrade back from death’s door. </p><p></p><p>The orcs defeated, the party looted as normal and began to search the room for clues to learn which door led to the orc chief. Enrique had an idea, at least, after listening to one of the doors. He quickly gestured to the party, indicated that they should listen as well.</p><p></p><p>“It sounds like…rain,” Ik suggested. </p><p></p><p>“But that’s impossible,” Luke countered. “We’re deep underground. We can’t find a way outside here.”</p><p></p><p>Elvis look apathethic. “Well, maybe it’s a waterfall or something,” he commented. “Either way, it sounds like something we should check out.”</p><p></p><p>After what happened last time, the party charged in as one, hoping they could take the element of surprise or at least stop the enemy from ganging up on one of them. It turned out that what they heard was indeed a waterfall. Water poured over every wall of the cavern, constantly dampening the rocky pathway the party found themselves. The ground they were on was quite a distance from the outer walls of the cavern, and with the damp floors, there was a real risk of falling off the side. As the party carefully glanced over the edge, they could see fog or even clouds obscuring their vision, but the sound of thunder and dark shapes that resemble massive birds further dissuaded the party from going near the edge!</p><p></p><p>But they had other concerns. This room was also inhabited. Four orcs, again armed with primitive spears or javelins, were guarding the path, and a fifth was resting on an ornately carved stone throne. The gaudy nature of the throne, along with general appearance and equipment, suggested that they found their target.</p><p></p><p>While the orc chief watched, studying his enemies, the party quickly closed on the lesser orcs guards. They also thought to hide behind cover while attacking from a distance, but they clearly were not of the same caliber as the warriors guarding the checkpoint. One fell screaming down the falls after being struck with one arrow, and the others fell just as quickly.</p><p></p><p>When the party reached the chief, however, things proved to be slightly more difficult. Like the orcs at the checkpoint, he quickly worked himself into a battle fury, making him almost unstoppable to the inexperienced warriors. Nonetheless, it was seven against one, and even with the party’s clumsy attempts to knock him out instead of killing him, they soon overcame the chieftain.</p><p></p><p>The orc awoke later in the fungal jungle, where he, along with all the treasures the party found and even the giant snail shell, was strewn about the ground. As the orc came to, he saw his captures surrounding him. Grim, being the most logical translator, explained the party’s intentions. “We want the name of the man from Effervo Vesica. The one who hired you to attack Fra Dane.”</p><p></p><p>The orc chief shrugged as best he could. “I have no idea what those names mean.”</p><p></p><p>“Fine, then, let’s try another approach,” Grim replied. “This one apparently caused a bit of trouble when he approached you. He had black armor that looked like it was alive.”</p><p></p><p>As soon as he said that last part, the orc responded. His eyes went wide, as if remembering something terrifying, and he uttered just one word, “Malordonus.”</p><p></p><p>OOC Notes: I noticed a problem when working on this dungeon. Notably, when the party is free to explore in any direction they chose, it’s hard to estimate the level the party will be at for any given challenge. I actually upped the level of the orc barbarians before the adventure, but there were still some slight balance issues later on, particularly against the undead and the orc chief. This also has made me consider some changes for the turning rules; they work mostly well, but it’s a bit too easy to turn them.</p><p></p><p>Most of the unusual monsters in this adventure are adaptations from the Eternal Darkness video game. Readers of my last Story Hour might remember I used these before, but the party was much higher level and couldn’t really be challenged by the lower levels ones. This campaign “might” change that. As for the demonic maggots, my source on that one is one of my ideas, but the details will have to stay regrettably classified for now. Next time, the adventure will FINALLY leave the Gate of Madness, and a new, even more twisted adventure will begin!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 3119159, member: 9626"] [b]The Gate of Madness: Few Moments are More Appropriate for Cursing in Orcish[/b] The next morning, the party, refreshed and eager to finish their mission and finally escape the Gate of Madness before it warped them too much, began their raid on the orcs as soon as possible. The only exception was Chitka, who decided he would travel with the party when they leave the Gate and planned on spending his last day saying his goodbyes to the myconids that were so helpful to him. They realized as soon as they entered the first room, however, that everything they heard about the unusual nature of the land the orcs were forced into was absolutely true. Three orcs guarded the first room of the orc territory, but something had warped them physically. Their bodies were normal, but it was as if they were somehow leaking, to put simply. The skin, armor, and the very color of the orcs were seemingly leaking out of the unfortunate creatures, leaving others parts of their bodies literally empty of anything but a simple outline. As soon as the incomplete orcs saw the party, they moaned, “We must destroy the intruders! Then, they may allow us back into the tribe!” They attacked as one, but despite their grotesque forms, the orcs were no match for the heroes. They tried to attack the party with blobs of their own oozing color, but nothing connected with the party. Meanwhile, though the party’s attacks occasionally struck the transparent gaps in the orcs, seemingly doing nothing to them, they were able to wear them down with only a few attacks. As the party searched the remains of the orcs, they discovered that each carried a blindfold, and that there was an additional pile of them on the door leading out of the room. “This is…ominous,” Lorren commented when he saw the items. “I wonder what it exactly the orcs were so worried about seeing?” “Personally, I’d rather not find out,” Luke replied. In response, Anastacia quickly snatched the one out of Ik’s hands before she instinctively tested it, much to the changeling’s disappointment. “Fine, then,” Enrique grumbled. “I guess I, as usual, will have to find out.” He carefully opened the door leading from the gatehouse to the official orc territory. Once there, he noticed a cavern opening to the west, though he couldn’t see anything inside it from where he was standing, and a wooden bridge over a pit. As soon as he glanced over the pit, he had at least once guess as to what the orcs were so scared of. He turned as pale as a sheet and half ran, half crawled back to the party. “Man, I hate those things!” he stammered when he returned to the party. Nervously, the rest of the party approached the pit, and each soon saw what Enrique was so afraid of. The entire bottom of the pit was covered with hideous, vicious maggots the size of small dogs! Oddly, they seemed extremely passive. They seemed to be sleeping on odd, opaque cocoons, and the sound of snoring could be faintly heard. Elvis shrugged. “Hell, we could just shoot them from here, if they scare you that much.” He drew his bow, but he was stopped by Lorren, who was watching the monsters intensely. “Don’t,” Lorren simply replied. “These are no ordinary insects, or even giant ones. They appear to be demons of some sort. Who knows what sort of powers they may have if they became aggressive?” The point realized, the party decided to try to cross the bridge as carefully as possible. Enrique was initially reluctant to go first, until he realized that if the maggot demons somehow woke up, he’d be the only one to get across the bridge in time. As he crossed the bridge, though, he soon learned the real reason the orcs carried blindfolds. From the cavern, a trio of undead monstrosities took notice of Enrique. At first, they appeared to be nothing but slightly mummified zombies, but as the first neared Enrique, he could see into the creature’s eyes. They looked into his very soul, and he could feel his sanity rapidly draining from him. As the bizarre undead drew near, Luke realized he would be needed to keep the strange creatures at bay. He drew as close as he could, braving their sanity-draining eyes as best he could, and gathered his faith to channel the raw power of Ehlonna through him. One of the strange creatures was immediately reduced to ash, and the other two were driven back, letting Elvis, Grim, and the others destroy them from a distance. With them defeated, the party could slowly and carefully cross the bridge. The demon maggots were awakened by the combat, but fortunately, they didn’t seem able or sufficiently motivated to climb out of the pit and directly attack the party. The heroes, however, weren’t so lucky when they entered the next room. This appeared to be another guardroom, and while the orcs in this room at least looked normal, before they or the party could respond, strange vents suddenly burst out of the floor. A number of strange, eyeless insects shot up through the holes, where they immediately began to take note of their surroundings. The orcs froze in place, desperately trying to avoid attracting their attention, but one orc was unlucky and too close. The insect sensed it and, in a strange retaliatory measure, released a strange burst of energy around it. In just an instant, the orcs vanished into thin air! Most of the party took the cue from the orcs and stayed clear of the bugs. Grim, unfortunately, was still raised a barbarian. He charged the nearest bug, intent on destroying it before it could send any of his friends away (not to mention possibly endangering the egg.) In a way, he succeeded; the bug instead sent him away! Fortunately, it, along with the first bug, died instantly after using its power. This left the field mostly empty for the six remaining heroes, who destroyed the last bug using missile attacks before closing and destroying the remaining orcs. Grim, meanwhile, was having a much stranger adventure. He found himself on a floating island of land surrounding by more floating islands and seemingly endless storms. Next to him was the orc who was sent “away” earlier. Unprepared for this situation, he was doing little but uttering orcish curses to himself. Some beings, when trapped in an unknown situation with an enemy, would seek a truce until the greater environmental threat could be resolved. Grim was not such a being. After quickly killing the orc, he investigated the island and found a strange glowing rune. Lacking other options, he stepped into the rune and found himself on another one of the islands. He continued to use the teleporting runes to reach other islands, stopping occasionally to destroy more of the sanity-draining undead, and while they affected his mind as well, he found that slaying the creatures was more than sufficiently therapeutic to recover from the effect! At the last island, he found a larger and more unusual rune, which he used to transport back to the party! After the party expressed relief at Grim’s safety and visa versa, it was time to move on. After all, the orcs were surely aware of the party by now, so if they don’t hurry, they’ll be able to mobilize an offensive that could make all their efforts worthless, at best! They quickly dashed into one of the doors in the room, hoping it would get them closer to the orc chief. Their hunch soon seemed correct, as the next room was clearly set up to be a defensive checkpoint. Only three orcs guarded the room, but they were better armed and armored than the ones the party encountered to date, suggesting that these were elite troops. As soon as Enrique and Grim entered the room, they were bombarded with spears that the orcs threw while behind cover, prompting them to wisely withdraw. However, the party couldn’t wait forever, so they eventually and carefully entered the room. Anastacia, the first to enter, received the focus of the next volley of spears. Two of them managed to penetrate her armor, but she endured the pain as she led the charge on the first orc. No sooner did she and the rest of the party reach him, however, than he suddenly emitted a deafening roar as he began to froth at the mouth. Grim knew this combat “style” implicitly, because it was little different than his own temperament when the fury of battle becomes too great. He realized these orcs were very dangerous. “Anastacia, look out!” he yelled, but he was too late. As soon as the party defeated the first orc, she charged at the second, who became enraged just like his partner. Anastacia was cut down in one blow, prompting her enraged (in both senses of the word) allies to finish the final two orcs with enough time to bring their comrade back from death’s door. The orcs defeated, the party looted as normal and began to search the room for clues to learn which door led to the orc chief. Enrique had an idea, at least, after listening to one of the doors. He quickly gestured to the party, indicated that they should listen as well. “It sounds like…rain,” Ik suggested. “But that’s impossible,” Luke countered. “We’re deep underground. We can’t find a way outside here.” Elvis look apathethic. “Well, maybe it’s a waterfall or something,” he commented. “Either way, it sounds like something we should check out.” After what happened last time, the party charged in as one, hoping they could take the element of surprise or at least stop the enemy from ganging up on one of them. It turned out that what they heard was indeed a waterfall. Water poured over every wall of the cavern, constantly dampening the rocky pathway the party found themselves. The ground they were on was quite a distance from the outer walls of the cavern, and with the damp floors, there was a real risk of falling off the side. As the party carefully glanced over the edge, they could see fog or even clouds obscuring their vision, but the sound of thunder and dark shapes that resemble massive birds further dissuaded the party from going near the edge! But they had other concerns. This room was also inhabited. Four orcs, again armed with primitive spears or javelins, were guarding the path, and a fifth was resting on an ornately carved stone throne. The gaudy nature of the throne, along with general appearance and equipment, suggested that they found their target. While the orc chief watched, studying his enemies, the party quickly closed on the lesser orcs guards. They also thought to hide behind cover while attacking from a distance, but they clearly were not of the same caliber as the warriors guarding the checkpoint. One fell screaming down the falls after being struck with one arrow, and the others fell just as quickly. When the party reached the chief, however, things proved to be slightly more difficult. Like the orcs at the checkpoint, he quickly worked himself into a battle fury, making him almost unstoppable to the inexperienced warriors. Nonetheless, it was seven against one, and even with the party’s clumsy attempts to knock him out instead of killing him, they soon overcame the chieftain. The orc awoke later in the fungal jungle, where he, along with all the treasures the party found and even the giant snail shell, was strewn about the ground. As the orc came to, he saw his captures surrounding him. Grim, being the most logical translator, explained the party’s intentions. “We want the name of the man from Effervo Vesica. The one who hired you to attack Fra Dane.” The orc chief shrugged as best he could. “I have no idea what those names mean.” “Fine, then, let’s try another approach,” Grim replied. “This one apparently caused a bit of trouble when he approached you. He had black armor that looked like it was alive.” As soon as he said that last part, the orc responded. His eyes went wide, as if remembering something terrifying, and he uttered just one word, “Malordonus.” OOC Notes: I noticed a problem when working on this dungeon. Notably, when the party is free to explore in any direction they chose, it’s hard to estimate the level the party will be at for any given challenge. I actually upped the level of the orc barbarians before the adventure, but there were still some slight balance issues later on, particularly against the undead and the orc chief. This also has made me consider some changes for the turning rules; they work mostly well, but it’s a bit too easy to turn them. Most of the unusual monsters in this adventure are adaptations from the Eternal Darkness video game. Readers of my last Story Hour might remember I used these before, but the party was much higher level and couldn’t really be challenged by the lower levels ones. This campaign “might” change that. As for the demonic maggots, my source on that one is one of my ideas, but the details will have to stay regrettably classified for now. Next time, the adventure will FINALLY leave the Gate of Madness, and a new, even more twisted adventure will begin! [/QUOTE]
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