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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5800839" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>Bjön's Pathfinder Diary</p><p></p><p>7th of Neth</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It has not been easy for me hiding the truth from the captain and crew. Of course they were all sincerely sorry, and went on about how it is a miracle that even one of us was back, and how it was a blessing that the cultists were all gone for good. I kept to myself for fear of letting something slip, and as the crew took my demeanor for the mourning of friends, they left me mostly alone. </p><p></p><p>The way back to the shore is as tricky as the crew had feared. The early winter weather will force us to come close to the shore much earlier than I had hoped. My plan, with which the captain originally agreed, was to make to the west and then come to the shore just inside Molthune waters. The crew has no qualms with that country, as they often trade there, too. Now, the plan is to get to the coastal waters within Druma, right at the peak of the peninsula peaking into the Lake. This is not at all good. It is where the others plan to reach coastal waters as well, following the coast even more closely than we plan to and then go south towards Detmer. </p><p></p><p>I pray to Desna that we do not accidentally come across their boat. It is not possible to hide a kobold doing most of the sailing, and the crew would recognize Kronk immediately. But maybe my main worry should be that they make it to the shore at all. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Teltz ducked under yet another swing and was very grateful for the wand of mage armor he had managed to use just before the fight had begun. If not for that, he would have probably already been incapacitated. Looking back, he should have probably just used one of the other, more offensive wand, but to hurt someone who was not free in their will was not something he managed easily. Foolish, considering what might be at stake if he died. </p><p></p><p>His rapier landed a hit and cut a deep gash in one of the foe's tighs.Both of the fighters had some gashes already, but none of them were deep and unfortunately, not of them really bled enough to cause them to become weaker. </p><p></p><p>The bard's backside stung from a kick of those nail studded boots of theirs and for a moment, he considered his life long bad luck with this part of his body. He stopped himself and tried to focus once more. No, he would not start with memories right now, lest his whole life would just run by and he would be dead. </p><p></p><p>Once more the bard tried to avoid a blow, letting himself fall backward. He could feel the swoosh of air where the cudgel had barely missed his left shoulder. He lost his grip on the rapier, and the weapon clattered to the ground, landing next to his discarded sunrod. All light sources were strewn over the room, and the impression of the two attackers being illuminated from the ground was an eerie one. </p><p></p><p>With a course, Teltz rolled over. His backside ached even more after the fall, and something had pressed itself hard against one of his back pockets. Instinctively, he reached behind to remove the offending item, barely aware that this might be the last thing to do in his life. He retrieved a small vial with something liquid. For the briefest moment he stared at it, trying to remember how it got there. Then he remembered. </p><p></p><p>A hurled dagger tore a gash in his shirt, surprisingly missing his arm. Teltz quickly did something he would normally never do, throwing his only remaining weapon at the attacker who had just barely missed him. He missed as well, but the others stopped for a moment. Just when they wanted to move again, he aimed again and threw again. His foes stared in confusion; no doubt they were well aware of how many weapons he had had. When something shattered at their feet, they seemed to be even more confused, which was just what Teltz had hoped for. </p><p></p><p>To confuse them even more because he needed to win another moment, he asked the most silly thing he could think of. "May I please have my dagger back?" </p><p></p><p>One only grunted, the other laughed and shook his head. But as they wanted to advance again, both were unable to move. Teltz jumped for his rapier and the sunrods and couldn't help but grin widely. 'Magical glue,' he thought. 'Gotta love the stuff.' He had to hurry though, lest the two of them figured out they only had to get out of their boots to free themselves. </p><p></p><p>A growl from the secret door made him freeze for a moment. Two large hyenas definitely not from this world stood there, staring at him with glowing red eyes. Summons, no doubt, which unfortunately meant there was another vampire here, possibly the original who had spawned the others. What was even worse than those summons were the group of archers with short bows showing up behind them, flanking a woman vampire clad in a ridiculously revealing black dress and high heeled shoes. "Sure thing," Teltz muttered. "First thing any woman does when being set free after 60 years is to buy a dress and new footwear." </p><p></p><p>The vampire hissed, and as much as he could guess, she was about to make some sort of speech, or maybe try to dominate him. As he had little else, Teltz hauled two of the sunrods at the 'ancient evil' as a distraction and grabbed the alchemist's fire, firmly pushing out of his mind any warning about flames in close, and especially closed, quarters while retreating towards the room with the statues. As he felt the door behind him, he saw the hyenas charge. "Sorry, guys," he muttered. Summons or not, it was not their fault they were here. The flask landed between them and burst into flames. He had not aimed as well as he had hoped, so one of the creatures made it through, but Teltz was already out of the room banging the door shut. The vampire screeched for her dominated entourage to fire, but the arrows just bounced off the door.</p><p></p><p>Taking a few steps backwards in haste, Teltz bumped into the statue of the old dwarf standing closest to the door. Immediately, he heard the grind of stone on stone as the statue began to move. "Uh-oh," Teltz groaned. "I have a bad feeling about this." </p><p></p><p>As he turned and tried to get past the dwarf construct, he heard the door open again. The statue reached out for him as all the others in the room began to move. His mind raced once more. Vampires, constructs, old Pathfinder lodge, Hall of Recognition... so the statues must be of Pathfinders. Pathfinder lodge would mean a Pathfinder could pass, most likely. They would recognize one how? The symbol, maybe. Yes, that was probably it! </p><p></p><p>Teltz fumbled for the journal he had found with Lennie's uncle. It had the Pathfinder symbol right in front of it. "Pathfinder," he shouted and waved the book right in front of the stone dwarf's face. "I'm the good guy, see? That is the bad one!" He pointed at the vampire now entering the room from under the door in gaseous form and rematerialized. </p><p></p><p>It worked. First the dwarf, then all the other statues turned to face the new arrival. Teltz didn't linger; he knew enough about vampires to realize she would keep summoning or just follow him as a gas. The sound of battle erupted behind him, but it would take only moments for the evil girl to notice she could not do much about the constructs. As he was almost at the door to the entrance hall, he heard the rough bark of new summons. From the howling, the constructs took care of that problem, at least. </p><p></p><p>As he limped though the double doors and started to close them, he saw his current #1of women he didn't want to date going gaseous again and groaned. As the doors closed with a screech, he more stumbled then walked to the door to the wine cellar and had trouble remembering the knocking sequence. He had lost the sunrod just inside the Hall of recognition, but he could see the slip of light shining out from under the door, so the blood sucking chick would be there any moment. </p><p></p><p>As the door was opened, he basically fell into the cellar, knocking the innkeeper's daughter over and into the room. "Close," he gasped. "Quick." </p><p></p><p>"Why? What's wrong?" The girl, who had taken the time to sort through the wine, was beginning to panic because Teltz himself was panicking. She took long to get up and off him. </p><p></p><p>"Don't ask! Close the...."</p><p></p><p>But it was too late. Materializing within the opening was the form of the eerily beautiful but cruel looking creature who would want their blood in a moment.Her fangs blinked in the dimming light of the lantern the girl had brought. "You cannot escape me," she hissed. The girl fainted. </p><p></p><p>"You know," Teltz said while getting up and catching his breath, " you really need to work on your opening lines. That was so cliche." </p><p></p><p>Indignation flashed over the woman's face. "It worked on her," she said drily. "And I will work on you now."</p><p></p><p>Teltz' mind was tired of trying to think of new possibilities. His pouch was half torn off, and he was not sure if he could find the fire producing wand in his cloak even if he would have the time to try. Walking backwards again, he stumbled against one of the shelves. "Are you at least going to tell me your name? You do have a name, no? Not just a number, like, spawn 104 or something?"</p><p></p><p>She didn't even acknowledge his attempt at confusing her. "I am Taylin Harkus," she said and came closer. "The name will be nothing to you but if you really need to know, I can spend a little courtesy."</p><p></p><p>"Wine?" Teltz said, grabbing one of the bottles and holding it out towards her. "Almost like blood and a lot more romantic."</p><p></p><p>For a moment, she frowned. "You are somewhat funny, maybe I'll turn you into a spawn as well." Another step closer, she now opened her fangs and made ready to bite. One of her slender hands reached out for his face. Teltz, still holding out the wine bottle, had no way to recoil any further. Maybe he should ask for a last gulp from the bottle...</p><p></p><p>Then he read it. 'Blessed Wine Church of Iomedae, Harvest Festival.' His eyes went wide. Harkus mistook that as a sign of fear. Only when the bottle landed with full force on her head did she notice the smile or triumph in the bard's face. Her hand dropped from his face as the wine ran down on her, hissing and burning. She stared at the drops landing on her hands, not comprehending what was going on. Teltz grabbed another bottle which turned out to be the same label and repeated the process. When he reached behind himself for the 3rd time, an unworldly screech came out of the undead's mouth. She was not down yet, of course, and reached for him once more. Teltz ducked to the side and out of her grasp, looking for what he knew every wine cellar should have. He found several of the handy items. </p><p></p><p>To open a barrel, each cellar of an inn (and usually the tap room, too) held small wooden hammers and small wooden stakes. Teltz quickly grabbed one of each and then allowed her to get a hold on him again. When she tried to find him through her melting facial features, he put the hammer and stake to work. "It seems I got right to your heart, after all," he shouted as he drove the wood home. </p><p></p><p>The body of the undead went rigid, and then she dropped with a loud thud. Teltz' hand went to his rapier, but he had lost it somewhere. Knowing the domination over the others back in there must now be broken, he took went back to the anteroom to retrieve his weapon. No one seemed to follow him anymore, although there was still the sound of walking constructs. </p><p></p><p>A rapier, as he found out, was a bad weapon to decapitate a vampire. Or anyone, probably. He had to resort to stepping on the torso and tearing at the half melted head to get the job done finally. Just has he held the head in his right hand by the equally half gone hair,. The girl woke up again, looked at the scene and fainted again. "Just my luck," he muttered as he emptied another bottle of holy wine over the woman's head. He was not so sure his former actions would count towards permanently removing the evil from this world. "I know one thing for sure, I won't have a blind date with any ancient evil anymore if I can avoid it." But he would have to send someone for the remaining vampires in their cells.</p><p></p><p>---------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p>This scenario is quite different in the original, not only because of the changed location. There were so many logical oversights in it I wonder it was published at all. </p><p></p><p>Originally, there were supposed to be dominated street fighters in the rooms north and south to the entrance hall - while there were no trails going there, nor was there any explanation how anyone, the uncle included, could have passed the hall with the constructs if they would attack anyone trying to move past. It might have made sense with the pathfinder symbol as excuse if only for the uncle, but not with the fighters. The player came up with the idea that it must be the symbol so of course I went with that idea as it was creative. </p><p></p><p>There were other rooms behind the secret door leading to an abandoned prison of the city guard. Why a vampire would store so many guard all over her secret hideout (especially on the side she could not seriously expect an attack from) and thus risking someone breaking the dominate and discovering her is beyond me as well. </p><p></p><p>But the way it turned out was just fun, at the time of him sending the statues against her and then with the holy wine - which I placed there mainly to rescue the PC (and to hint at opening another bottle for the game) - everyone was laughing hysterically. The others, who were also playing at the other side of the table, were so fascinated by the situation they didn't get far until Teltz was done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5800839, member: 53286"] Bjön's Pathfinder Diary 7th of Neth It has not been easy for me hiding the truth from the captain and crew. Of course they were all sincerely sorry, and went on about how it is a miracle that even one of us was back, and how it was a blessing that the cultists were all gone for good. I kept to myself for fear of letting something slip, and as the crew took my demeanor for the mourning of friends, they left me mostly alone. The way back to the shore is as tricky as the crew had feared. The early winter weather will force us to come close to the shore much earlier than I had hoped. My plan, with which the captain originally agreed, was to make to the west and then come to the shore just inside Molthune waters. The crew has no qualms with that country, as they often trade there, too. Now, the plan is to get to the coastal waters within Druma, right at the peak of the peninsula peaking into the Lake. This is not at all good. It is where the others plan to reach coastal waters as well, following the coast even more closely than we plan to and then go south towards Detmer. I pray to Desna that we do not accidentally come across their boat. It is not possible to hide a kobold doing most of the sailing, and the crew would recognize Kronk immediately. But maybe my main worry should be that they make it to the shore at all. Teltz ducked under yet another swing and was very grateful for the wand of mage armor he had managed to use just before the fight had begun. If not for that, he would have probably already been incapacitated. Looking back, he should have probably just used one of the other, more offensive wand, but to hurt someone who was not free in their will was not something he managed easily. Foolish, considering what might be at stake if he died. His rapier landed a hit and cut a deep gash in one of the foe's tighs.Both of the fighters had some gashes already, but none of them were deep and unfortunately, not of them really bled enough to cause them to become weaker. The bard's backside stung from a kick of those nail studded boots of theirs and for a moment, he considered his life long bad luck with this part of his body. He stopped himself and tried to focus once more. No, he would not start with memories right now, lest his whole life would just run by and he would be dead. Once more the bard tried to avoid a blow, letting himself fall backward. He could feel the swoosh of air where the cudgel had barely missed his left shoulder. He lost his grip on the rapier, and the weapon clattered to the ground, landing next to his discarded sunrod. All light sources were strewn over the room, and the impression of the two attackers being illuminated from the ground was an eerie one. With a course, Teltz rolled over. His backside ached even more after the fall, and something had pressed itself hard against one of his back pockets. Instinctively, he reached behind to remove the offending item, barely aware that this might be the last thing to do in his life. He retrieved a small vial with something liquid. For the briefest moment he stared at it, trying to remember how it got there. Then he remembered. A hurled dagger tore a gash in his shirt, surprisingly missing his arm. Teltz quickly did something he would normally never do, throwing his only remaining weapon at the attacker who had just barely missed him. He missed as well, but the others stopped for a moment. Just when they wanted to move again, he aimed again and threw again. His foes stared in confusion; no doubt they were well aware of how many weapons he had had. When something shattered at their feet, they seemed to be even more confused, which was just what Teltz had hoped for. To confuse them even more because he needed to win another moment, he asked the most silly thing he could think of. "May I please have my dagger back?" One only grunted, the other laughed and shook his head. But as they wanted to advance again, both were unable to move. Teltz jumped for his rapier and the sunrods and couldn't help but grin widely. 'Magical glue,' he thought. 'Gotta love the stuff.' He had to hurry though, lest the two of them figured out they only had to get out of their boots to free themselves. A growl from the secret door made him freeze for a moment. Two large hyenas definitely not from this world stood there, staring at him with glowing red eyes. Summons, no doubt, which unfortunately meant there was another vampire here, possibly the original who had spawned the others. What was even worse than those summons were the group of archers with short bows showing up behind them, flanking a woman vampire clad in a ridiculously revealing black dress and high heeled shoes. "Sure thing," Teltz muttered. "First thing any woman does when being set free after 60 years is to buy a dress and new footwear." The vampire hissed, and as much as he could guess, she was about to make some sort of speech, or maybe try to dominate him. As he had little else, Teltz hauled two of the sunrods at the 'ancient evil' as a distraction and grabbed the alchemist's fire, firmly pushing out of his mind any warning about flames in close, and especially closed, quarters while retreating towards the room with the statues. As he felt the door behind him, he saw the hyenas charge. "Sorry, guys," he muttered. Summons or not, it was not their fault they were here. The flask landed between them and burst into flames. He had not aimed as well as he had hoped, so one of the creatures made it through, but Teltz was already out of the room banging the door shut. The vampire screeched for her dominated entourage to fire, but the arrows just bounced off the door. Taking a few steps backwards in haste, Teltz bumped into the statue of the old dwarf standing closest to the door. Immediately, he heard the grind of stone on stone as the statue began to move. "Uh-oh," Teltz groaned. "I have a bad feeling about this." As he turned and tried to get past the dwarf construct, he heard the door open again. The statue reached out for him as all the others in the room began to move. His mind raced once more. Vampires, constructs, old Pathfinder lodge, Hall of Recognition... so the statues must be of Pathfinders. Pathfinder lodge would mean a Pathfinder could pass, most likely. They would recognize one how? The symbol, maybe. Yes, that was probably it! Teltz fumbled for the journal he had found with Lennie's uncle. It had the Pathfinder symbol right in front of it. "Pathfinder," he shouted and waved the book right in front of the stone dwarf's face. "I'm the good guy, see? That is the bad one!" He pointed at the vampire now entering the room from under the door in gaseous form and rematerialized. It worked. First the dwarf, then all the other statues turned to face the new arrival. Teltz didn't linger; he knew enough about vampires to realize she would keep summoning or just follow him as a gas. The sound of battle erupted behind him, but it would take only moments for the evil girl to notice she could not do much about the constructs. As he was almost at the door to the entrance hall, he heard the rough bark of new summons. From the howling, the constructs took care of that problem, at least. As he limped though the double doors and started to close them, he saw his current #1of women he didn't want to date going gaseous again and groaned. As the doors closed with a screech, he more stumbled then walked to the door to the wine cellar and had trouble remembering the knocking sequence. He had lost the sunrod just inside the Hall of recognition, but he could see the slip of light shining out from under the door, so the blood sucking chick would be there any moment. As the door was opened, he basically fell into the cellar, knocking the innkeeper's daughter over and into the room. "Close," he gasped. "Quick." "Why? What's wrong?" The girl, who had taken the time to sort through the wine, was beginning to panic because Teltz himself was panicking. She took long to get up and off him. "Don't ask! Close the...." But it was too late. Materializing within the opening was the form of the eerily beautiful but cruel looking creature who would want their blood in a moment.Her fangs blinked in the dimming light of the lantern the girl had brought. "You cannot escape me," she hissed. The girl fainted. "You know," Teltz said while getting up and catching his breath, " you really need to work on your opening lines. That was so cliche." Indignation flashed over the woman's face. "It worked on her," she said drily. "And I will work on you now." Teltz' mind was tired of trying to think of new possibilities. His pouch was half torn off, and he was not sure if he could find the fire producing wand in his cloak even if he would have the time to try. Walking backwards again, he stumbled against one of the shelves. "Are you at least going to tell me your name? You do have a name, no? Not just a number, like, spawn 104 or something?" She didn't even acknowledge his attempt at confusing her. "I am Taylin Harkus," she said and came closer. "The name will be nothing to you but if you really need to know, I can spend a little courtesy." "Wine?" Teltz said, grabbing one of the bottles and holding it out towards her. "Almost like blood and a lot more romantic." For a moment, she frowned. "You are somewhat funny, maybe I'll turn you into a spawn as well." Another step closer, she now opened her fangs and made ready to bite. One of her slender hands reached out for his face. Teltz, still holding out the wine bottle, had no way to recoil any further. Maybe he should ask for a last gulp from the bottle... Then he read it. 'Blessed Wine Church of Iomedae, Harvest Festival.' His eyes went wide. Harkus mistook that as a sign of fear. Only when the bottle landed with full force on her head did she notice the smile or triumph in the bard's face. Her hand dropped from his face as the wine ran down on her, hissing and burning. She stared at the drops landing on her hands, not comprehending what was going on. Teltz grabbed another bottle which turned out to be the same label and repeated the process. When he reached behind himself for the 3rd time, an unworldly screech came out of the undead's mouth. She was not down yet, of course, and reached for him once more. Teltz ducked to the side and out of her grasp, looking for what he knew every wine cellar should have. He found several of the handy items. To open a barrel, each cellar of an inn (and usually the tap room, too) held small wooden hammers and small wooden stakes. Teltz quickly grabbed one of each and then allowed her to get a hold on him again. When she tried to find him through her melting facial features, he put the hammer and stake to work. "It seems I got right to your heart, after all," he shouted as he drove the wood home. The body of the undead went rigid, and then she dropped with a loud thud. Teltz' hand went to his rapier, but he had lost it somewhere. Knowing the domination over the others back in there must now be broken, he took went back to the anteroom to retrieve his weapon. No one seemed to follow him anymore, although there was still the sound of walking constructs. A rapier, as he found out, was a bad weapon to decapitate a vampire. Or anyone, probably. He had to resort to stepping on the torso and tearing at the half melted head to get the job done finally. Just has he held the head in his right hand by the equally half gone hair,. The girl woke up again, looked at the scene and fainted again. "Just my luck," he muttered as he emptied another bottle of holy wine over the woman's head. He was not so sure his former actions would count towards permanently removing the evil from this world. "I know one thing for sure, I won't have a blind date with any ancient evil anymore if I can avoid it." But he would have to send someone for the remaining vampires in their cells. --------------------------------------------- This scenario is quite different in the original, not only because of the changed location. There were so many logical oversights in it I wonder it was published at all. Originally, there were supposed to be dominated street fighters in the rooms north and south to the entrance hall - while there were no trails going there, nor was there any explanation how anyone, the uncle included, could have passed the hall with the constructs if they would attack anyone trying to move past. It might have made sense with the pathfinder symbol as excuse if only for the uncle, but not with the fighters. The player came up with the idea that it must be the symbol so of course I went with that idea as it was creative. There were other rooms behind the secret door leading to an abandoned prison of the city guard. Why a vampire would store so many guard all over her secret hideout (especially on the side she could not seriously expect an attack from) and thus risking someone breaking the dominate and discovering her is beyond me as well. But the way it turned out was just fun, at the time of him sending the statues against her and then with the holy wine - which I placed there mainly to rescue the PC (and to hint at opening another bottle for the game) - everyone was laughing hysterically. The others, who were also playing at the other side of the table, were so fascinated by the situation they didn't get far until Teltz was done. [/QUOTE]
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