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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8141344" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 22: Striking While The Iron Is Hot</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>13 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 44) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>Before Nicolana, the Keeper of Secrets, left, Joybell gave her the letter from Jorlas to his wife to deliver -- Martra deserves to know that her husband loved her and was thinking of her right to the end of his life. (We did keep the others though.)</p><p></p><p>Then Nicolana left, inviting us to partake of her food and the safety of the hut for the night.</p><p></p><p>Mo really really wanted us to leave and get as far away as possible before making camp. Joybell, who was friends with a pixie near the Wold as a child, had heard tales (from Wren, the pixie, as well as from people in the Wold community) about people feasting and dancing with various fey and losing months when they thought they were gone for only an hour or two. So she concurred heartily with Mo about leaving and getting out of Nicolana’s immediate place of influence before we stopped to rest.</p><p></p><p>She did write a thank you note for the kind offer of shelter and food explaining that we were grateful but had to be going, etc. etc. (basically throwing lots of words into it to make it sound more polite). Then we left.</p><p></p><p>We traveled about an hour back toward Rodzun before it started getting dark. We made camp in one of Fiona’s little tiny huts with an alarm spell. Before we fell asleep we discussed what we wanted to do next -- including whether or not to go after the Masks.</p><p></p><p>We had a considerable amount of discussion, with everyone airing their thoughts.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Now that we have this information, we may need to get stronger before we go.</p><p>Mo: I want to finish what we started.</p><p>Taman, after some discussion: Let’s go find their hide-out and cut off the head.</p><p>Fiona: I’m leaning toward going too. The sooner we deal with this the sooner we won’t have to anymore.</p><p>Orryk: I think we won’t all be coming back. But I’ll go if that’s what the party decides.</p><p></p><p>We put it to a vote and everyone but Orryk voted to go after the Masks -- by the time it got to his turn to vote, Orryk just abstained. And grumbled a bit about not wanting to watch any of us die.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: If we’re going to do this, we should go get Gurn from the halflings in Tall Orchard. We’re practically right there and we could really use the extra muscle.</p><p>Mo: We should be very prepared to run away.</p><p>Everyone Else: Yeah!</p><p>Joybell, to Orryk: If more than one person dies, I’ll use the revivify on you first.</p><p>Orryk: I won’t be the one who dies. I can meld into the earth, shape myself a cavern and stay for as long as necessary.</p><p>Joybell: Well, okay then…</p><p></p><p>We decided also to have a sort of standard watch order -- to use unless there was some reason to do something different. It is: Joybell and Orryk on first watch (Gnome Shift), Mo on second watch, and Taman and Fiona on Third watch.</p><p></p><p>With our watches and our hut and so on, the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>14 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 45)</p><p></p><p>First thing in the morning, at Orryk’s request, Fiona used a sending spell to talk to the new mayor of Tall Orchard. She asked how their recovery was doing and if they could spare Gurn for a small time. They said that Gurn was still helping them with clearing the trashed part of town, and he was going to be used to help with the harvest in a week or two.</p><p></p><p>Well, then.</p><p></p><p>We went on our way, walking back to Rodzun and talking about tactics as we walked. We were especially talking about the fact that Joybell is going to need some coaching, because she’s really not much use at range (and none at all beyond 30’). But standing toe to toe by herself is not always going to be the best strategy.</p><p></p><p>We passed through Rodzun and went on to Lunn, where we stayed at the Flying Turtle, though Mo thought it might be a little too soon, or a little tacky or something. Joybell thought it was a bittersweet reminder of our fallen friend. (Also we’d stayed here before.) Mo performed at the inn, doing a couple of sets of standard tunes but performing them Really Well! He earned some money in tips and it was a great show.</p><p></p><p>Joybell went around the bar and asked a couple of people from Pelsoreen if they knew of a Turnik Steeltear but none of them had heard of him.</p><p></p><p>In one of our rooms at the inn, we made our usual preparations (making the tiny hut inside the room) and the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>15 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 46)</p><p></p><p>We headed out in the morning on the road to Tummeleen and the Sterling Scythe. We traveled without incident throughout the day.</p><p></p><p>When we got to town, Fiona cast a fly spell on Joybell so she could practice fly-by combat. Orryk stood mostly still, reading a book and dodging as needed while Joybell giggled and swooped down and tried to touch him and then pull up out of combat range.</p><p></p><p>After that we had dinner, went to our rooms, and with precautions, rested. The night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>16 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 47)</p><p></p><p>We left the Sterling Scythe in the morning and proceeded to travel to Pelsoreen. Once again Fiona cast fly on Joybell, so she could practice flying for in combat -- and get past the giggle and squee reaction.</p><p></p><p>As we were walking, we decided to stay somewhere other than at the Iron Steed. They’d been good to us there -- but people were clearly associating us with that inn (people had come to find us there when the Masks were attacking the Cracked Shield) and we wanted to try and remain unnoticed if possible.</p><p></p><p>When we got there, the causeway was up and we were able to cross immediately.</p><p></p><p>As we entered the city, we observed that Mr. Ed and Secretariat, the horses formerly known as Horse 1 and Horse 2, had survived yet another multi-day journey from the city.</p><p></p><p>Taman looked around and didn’t notice that we’d picked up a tail when we entered the city. We wondered how long that would last.</p><p></p><p>We found a nondescript inn with copper placards from both Dallington’s and the Blink Toad on the wall outside. The inn was sort of seedy and run-down looking -- and called the Soaring Kirin. We paid 5sp (one per person) for the party to stay for the night. Mo paid the innkeeper a little extra not to report to any of the corporations that we were there.</p><p></p><p>Innkeeper: I can keep it quiet for a couple of days. But don’t let them [he pointed to where the placards were] follow you back here. Just don’t let that happen.</p><p></p><p>Mo agreed to that and said we were only planning on staying a very short time.</p><p></p><p>Up in our room, Mo made his junior birdman mask and cast clairvoyance to look into the burned out husk of the House of Masks. It looked like C&C had perhaps started clearing out some of the rubble and taken down the pieces of roof that remained after the fire. They were clearly still finishing the demolition and rubble removal part of the process and hadn’t gotten to rebuilding at all.</p><p></p><p>After that, we discussed what we wanted to do the next day. The Mountainway causeway would be up in the evening, so we’d have the whole day to spend in town before we could leave.</p><p></p><p>Mo, taking off the Gloves of Ogre Strength: I’m not sure these gloves are really my wheelhouse. I’m just like other goliaths now. I’m not liking it. They’re fun. But they’re not me.</p><p></p><p>He handed the gloves to Orryk to stow in the bag of holding. He also gave back the longsword to put in the bag.</p><p></p><p>We made our usual precautions in one of the three rooms we’d taken at the inn, and the night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>17 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 48)</p><p></p><p>In the morning we talked about what we wanted to do with our day. Orryk requested that we go see Allona, the magic item merchant.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: I’m going with you to fight the continent-wide guild of assassins that’s going to kill one of us…</p><p></p><p>We agreed to do that.</p><p></p><p>Joybell wanted to go see what Burnocka the alchemist had made out of the gorgon sinus matter we brought back.</p><p></p><p>We also talked about finding out more about Turnik Steeltear. We had the thought that we could talk to some people in the dwarven neighborhood in town. A bit of investigation revealed that there really aren’t many dwarves in Pelsoreen, but what population of dwarves there is is in the Stonetree neighborhood -- conveniently the same neighborhood that Burnocka and Allona are in.</p><p></p><p>On the way there, Orryk sold the animal figurines from the House of Masks, the gold bracelets from the myrriq, and the longswords and longbows from the second batch of Masks and we each got 310 gp.</p><p></p><p>Just before we got to Burnocka’s Joybell asked Mo to take charge of the conversation. Because we gave him the gorgon snot that he’s making things out of that he can sell and she just couldn’t see how we were getting any recompense for that.</p><p></p><p>Mo agreed to do that, and Joybell stayed toward the back of the group, near Fiona, when we went inside.</p><p></p><p>Burnocka told us that he’d made oil of petrification prevention out of it and he’d been surprised at what an excellent raw material the gorgon sinus matter had been for making that product. Mo asked if he thought it would prevent being turned to ice.</p><p></p><p>Burnocka: No...this is all about preventing the actual stone transformation. It won’t prevent any other sort of transformation, even if the effect is similar in some ways.</p><p></p><p>Fair enough.</p><p></p><p>Mo then started to dickering about us bringing Burnocka the gorgon snot and not getting any recompense for it except that Burnocka would sell us the oils for 100 gp each. Burnocka said that the price he quoted us included that consideration. Mo started hammering on about the danger involved in fighting the gorgon.</p><p></p><p>Joybell was nodding in the background and Orryk pointed out that he was surprised at her for supporting Mo in his somewhat deceptive and high pressure negotiating tactics. Joybell, who hadn’t thought of it that way until Orryk said something, was suddenly ashamed and sorry that she’d asked Mo to take the lead in the conversation.</p><p></p><p>Burnocka: You brought the sinus matter. I had to provide the ingredients to turn it into something useful.</p><p>Joybell, now thoroughly shamed: Oh! That’s right!!</p><p></p><p>Then she shrunk into herself. Fiona led her outside.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Next spell I learn is silence.</p><p></p><p>With a bit more discussion, Burnocka agreed to sell us three of the oils at 75 gp each, because he’d made six of them (because the materials were so good). He could make up the rest of the money, and a good profit, selling the rest for more. Mo bought one for himself and one for Joybell to pay him back for, figuring that she owed him. (Note: I believe that someone else, Taman maybe, bought the third, but I’m not sure.)</p><p></p><p>Mo: Do you sell anything recreational?</p><p>Burnocka: I think you’ll be better off among the herbalists for something like that.</p><p></p><p>When the party went outside, Mo handed one of the bottles of oil to Joybell.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Joybell, I bought you one. I could only get him down to 100 gold. You can pay me back.</p><p>Joybell: Okay <<hands over the gold>> He’ll make enough and be okay with us buying them for that?</p><p>Orryk, smiling for the first time in days: 100 is what we paid the temple.</p><p>Taman just laughed.</p><p></p><p>We started to walk toward Allona’s shop and along the way Mo kept his eyes open for a dwarf bar. He finally spotted a sign for the Platinum Beard -- clearly we’d found the right place.</p><p></p><p>Mo (to the party): Can someone get Joybell out of here?</p><p></p><p>He then went on speaking to the innkeeper in dwarvish. Joybell, a little miffed, sat at a table with an ale, people-watching.</p><p></p><p>Mo explained to the innkeeper that we were looking for someone who’d inherited a share in a mine and asked if he’d heard of someone named Steeltear. The innkeeper hadn’t heard of anyone with that name in the city at any time. He also observed that it’s an odd name for a dwarf.</p><p></p><p>Mo then mentioned that the person we were looking for’s first name was Turnik.</p><p></p><p>Innkeeper: I do remember a fella named that, really young. He was called Turnik Stoneshield. He was pretty weird -- he didn’t drink much, though he’d buy a round for the bar time to time. I haven’t seen him since the winter.</p><p></p><p>(Reminder -- the campaign began at the summer solstice festival. It is now approximately the equivalent of mid-August.)</p><p></p><p>Mo asked if he could be staying somewhere else. The innkeeper said that there are only a few inns in Pelsoreen that catered to a dwarven clientele. He didn’t know where Turnik Stoneshield had been staying, but wherever it was, it was months ago.</p><p></p><p>Mo: What kind of dwarf was he?</p><p>Innkeeper: Nothing else really stood out to me.</p><p></p><p>Mo, coming back to the group and relaying what he’d learned: I got a lot of information, but it doesn’t really help us.</p><p></p><p>While we were sitting and drinking our ales and eating some lunch, Taman remembered the Oil of Etherealness that we’d found in the lumberyard in Embernook (after fighting the zombies and ghouls and all there). We agreed that it would be great and really helpful for scouting when we get to where we’re going. (We weren’t talking about going to where the Masks are forged while in the city.)</p><p></p><p>Mo, to Orryk: Does that make you feel better?</p><p>Orryk: No.</p><p></p><p>After our lunch and beer, we headed off to Allona’s magic item shop.</p><p></p><p>Mo, dropping the gloves of ogre strength on the counter: We’re looking to sell these. If I’m this strong people will ask me to do work. Maybe we can get something that will help us not die.</p><p></p><p>Allona offered us 400 gp for the gloves. As a trade she said she had some greater healing potions (which Joybell can make with a week of downtime).</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Maybe something that would stop someone from bleeding out if they’re knocked unconscious.</p><p></p><p>Allona said she had an idea of an item that would fit that description, but she didn’t have one in stock. Perhaps if we came back at another time she might have gotten one in stock. Mo put the gloves back into the bag of holding.</p><p></p><p>Orryk asked about magic items that would let him summon an elemental creature once a day. Allona said that items like that were very expensive -- thousands and thousands of gold pieces.</p><p></p><p>We thanked her for her time and left.</p><p></p><p>We walked back to the Soaring Kirin, where the horses and cart were parked. We talked about whether we wanted to take the cart and the horses with us to the where the Masks are forged. We decided that since this is going to be a scouting mission, at least to begin with, we didn’t want a cart and horses making us more obvious. And making it harder for us to hide from the Masks that we expected to run into on the road.</p><p></p><p>So we collected Mr. Ed and Secretariat and sold them, along with the cart, back to the livery where we’d bought them.</p><p></p><p>We then found a place to hang out near the Mountainway causeway until it came up an hour before sunset, and we crossed to the other side. As with the Ovverway causeway, there are a small number of carriage inns and caravanserai there.</p><p></p><p>After we crossed we took rooms at one of the inns. Joybell asked the innkeeper if he’d seen any big people in white masks recently.</p><p></p><p>Innkeeper: Yeah. They showed up just before the causeway came up.</p><p>Joybell: Like they slept on the road or maybe traveled overnight?</p><p>Innkeeper: Maybe.</p><p></p><p>Joybell asked about what we could expect along this road. We were told that there were towns every half day of travel for a couple of days, like going along the coast from Ovverway, after that there was a town every day for a few days. After that there were still towns and villages, but they were more sporadic.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Cool! We’re going about ten days.</p><p>Mo: Oh, don’t…</p><p>Orryk: Too late.</p><p></p><p>We made our usual precautions in the inn and rested for the night -- preparing to head out early in the morning.</p><p></p><p>The night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>18 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 49)</p><p></p><p>We left in the morning early and headed out. Taman was scouting about 500 feet ahead and off the side of the road (within the range of the Cape of the Mountebank) of the party. There was forest on either side of the road.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, on Scooby, stayed toward the edge of the road, so she could get into the woods quickly if Taman got word to Mo (using the sending stones) that there was something on the road ahead.</p><p></p><p>The day passed without incident, except that we passed through the village of Bordeen and spent the night in a town called Eltlin. There were two inns -- the Six Drakes and the Golden Plough.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Oh! Dragons are good!</p><p></p><p>But we decided to stay at the Golden Plough on the grounds that the food was likely to be good. Mo played a standard set -- good but not as great as he had in Tummeleen a few days earlier.He did get some tips from the audience.</p><p></p><p>We made precautions and rested without any problems.</p><p></p><p></p><p>19 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 50)</p><p></p><p>At breakfast, Joybell asked the innkeeper if he’d seen big guys in Masks. He said he’d seen some a couple of weeks earlier, but not since. They’d stopped in for breakfast (oatmeal and gruel) and black coffee.</p><p></p><p>Innkeeper: Those guys were creepy!</p><p>Joybell: I know, right?!</p><p></p><p>Then we headed out on the road, with Taman scouting as he had the day before -- 500 feet ahead of us and off the side of the road.</p><p></p><p>He spotted some ogres (3 ogres) on the road, way ahead of us. They were trundling along the road, apparently because it’s easier to travel on the road than through the forest. One of them was holding a humanoid leg in his hand and chewing on it as he walked along.</p><p></p><p>Taman came back to report all of this to us We moved off the road to hide in the forest. Taman, Fiona and Mo were hiding on one side, Joybell and Orryk on the other.</p><p></p><p>Well Joybell tried to hide, but her armor glinted in the sun and she clanked and rattled. (She got a 4 on her stealth check.) She’d only moved a few feet away from the road on the grounds that she wasn’t likely to hide well anyway, and it might as well be easy for her to get back to the road when she was spotted.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast mage armor on herself and the noise of the that caught one ogre’s attention. The other two spotted Joybell and headed across the road toward her.</p><p></p><p>Taman shot at the one heading toward Fiona and got a good hit. Fiona cast firebolt on the same one (Ogre1) and did a great deal of fire damage. That ogre lumbered toward Fiona, but was unable to attack. The other two ogres (Ogre 2 & Ogre 3) went toward Joybell and Fiona but were also unable to reach them and attack.</p><p></p><p>Orryk stepped out onto the road and hit Ogre 3 twice with two shortbow shots. Nice! Joyell also moved out onto the road (having never been entirely committed to getting into the woods anyway) on Scooby, then rode him as far as she could before dismounting and closing on the one Orryk had just shot, hitting it with her short sword and doing a lot of damage.</p><p></p><p>It screamed in surprise and pain.</p><p></p><p>Ogre 3: Sharp Little, die!</p><p></p><p>Joybell may take SharpLittle as a nickname…</p><p></p><p>Mo cast hypnotic pattern on the two on Joybell and the one that no one had hit thus far (Ogre 2) was stunned. The more damaged of them managed to avoid getting entranced by the pretty lights. Then Mo inspired Taman.</p><p></p><p>Taman moved up on Ogre 1 and attacked with his rapier for some nice damage. Ogre 1 also started to scream. But Taman didn’t get called Sharp Little. Fiona fired a firebolt at Ogre 1 again and again got a hit, but didn’t do as much damage this time, unfortunately. Then she moved back next to Mo.</p><p></p><p>Ogre 1 took a mighty swing with his tree-trunk/great club at Taman but missed. Ogre 3 moved around his hypnotically stunned comrade to attack Joybell, but missed. Ogre 2 looked at the pretty lights.</p><p></p><p>Orryk ran up next to Joybell and started throwing daggers from his belt of many daggers at Ogre 3 -- doing a flurry of blows and a rather terrifying amount of damage. Joybell took a swing at the same one and hit with both of her attacks.</p><p></p><p>Mo moved out into the middle of the road, then cast blindness on the two ogres that weren’t staring at the pretty lights (Ogres 1 and 3) -- blinding both of them. Nice!!</p><p></p><p>Taman took advantage of that to drop Ogre 1. Fiona dropped a fireball spell so it caught the two remaining ogres. Ogre 2, stunned by the hypnotic pattern, failed his save and died to the fireball, coming un-stunned just long enough to notice the fireball. Ogre 3 saved but died anyway.</p><p></p><p>We looted the bodies, but found very little -- 190sp and 70gp. The ogres were carrying sacks but everything else was rubbish and junk. And some nasty meat for road snacks.</p><p></p><p>We continued on our way. A short distance later, Taman spotted where the ogres had emerged from the forest and started traveling on the road. We never saw anything like a destroyed wagon or caravan or any place where the source of the humanoid leg one was eating on came from.</p><p></p><p>About 45 minutes after the combat we got to the mid-day town and stopped at one of the inns for lunch.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to the barkeep: We just killed three ogres on the road. Is that normal around here?</p><p>Barkeep, looking us over and seeing us all unhurt: You killed three ogres??</p><p>Joybell: Yeah. Not more than 45 minutes from here.</p><p></p><p>The barkeep said that ogres weren’t unheard of in this area, but they weren’t common either. He also gave us lunch for free because we’d killed three ogres without, apparently, breaking a sweat.</p><p></p><p>After lunch, we continued on the road to the town Iksoren. We never saw anything like an attacked caravan or wagon on that stretch of the road either.</p><p></p><p>We also never saw any Masks on the road -- which is really weird. They were about two days overdue for what we were expecting at this point.</p><p></p><p>We spent the night in the town Iksoren and it passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>20 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 51)</p><p></p><p>At breakfast at the inn, Joybell once again asked about the Masks. The innkeeper gave us the same answer we’d been getting elsewhere -- he hadn’t seen any for a couple of weeks. They stopped in for breakfast of black coffee and plain gruel, but hadn’t stayed in the inn overnight.</p><p></p><p>As we walked and continued not to see any more Masks We talked some about what that might mean, but didn’t come to any conclusions (on account of not having a lot of information).</p><p></p><p>We proceeded in the same fashion, with Taman scouting ahead about 500 feet.</p><p></p><p>Shortly before lunch, Taman spotted 2 trolls moving through the woods near the road. As he watched he got a sense of their tactics -- they were close enough to the road to jump out in ambush at travellers on the road.</p><p></p><p>He returned to the party to let us know we had them incoming.</p><p></p><p>Joybell stayed on the far side of the road from where Taman had seen the trolls, on Scooby, seeing little point in trying to hide. Orryk, Fiona and Mo were in the woods near her. Taman hid in the woods on the other (troll-ridden) side.</p><p></p><p>Orryk sensed they had spotted the whole party -- or at least Fiona and Taman seemed to have been spotted, and Joybell was obviously right there to be seen. He stepped out of the woods and took two shots at the first troll and hit with both of his arrows.</p><p></p><p>Joybell took a look at the situation and realized that she wouldn’t be able to get to them even if she jumped off Scooby when he’d gone as far as he could and ran the rest of the way.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: They’re too far away.</p><p>Orryk: Then let them come to us. Don’t rush ahead where we can’t support you.</p><p>Joybell: But….<<sighs>> right.</p><p></p><p>The trolls moved fast and got closer to the party but couldn’t attack.</p><p></p><p>Taman took a shot at the first troll (the same one Orryk had shot), then ran across the road to join the rest of the party.</p><p></p><p>Joybell moved up a few feet and dismounted from Scooby, then threw a couple of javelins at them, one of which hit.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast scorching ray and fired three bolts of fire out into space…</p><p></p><p>Mo used five charges off the wand of magic missiles and did a lot of damage (27 points) to the one nearest to Joybell (Troll 1).</p><p></p><p>Orryk grumbled as he went past Joybell to take a shot at Troll 1, then settled into his defensive stance.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Why are you grumbling?! I did what you said!</p><p></p><p>Then she realized he was grumbling about one of us getting killed on this trip...the same grumble we’d been hearing for days.</p><p></p><p>The troll attacked Orryk, but missed because of his defensive maneuvers. The other troll (2) moved and dashed and got right up to where Fiona, Taman and Mo were standing in the road well behind Orryk and Joybell. Thankfully, it was unable to attack.</p><p></p><p>Taman attacked the troll that was suddenly right in front of him with his rapier, doing some damage.</p><p></p><p>Joybell was terribly torn -- Orryk had moved up so she wouldn’t be out in front of the party without support and she didn’t want to leave him on his own. But there was a troll going after the more vulnerable friends in the back. She finally settled on going to help Mo, Fiona and Taman.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: I’m sorry, Orryk!</p><p>Orryk: <<silence>></p><p></p><p>She attacked Troll 2 and got two hits for 17 points of damage.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast fly on herself and got to a safe height. Mo moved around to a better position and cast haste on Joybell (whee!) and then inspired Taman.</p><p></p><p>Orryk attacked Troll 1 for a good hit, but his attempt at a stunning strike didn’t work. His other attack missed. Then he went back into his defensive stance.</p><p></p><p>Troll 1 on Orryk attacked with a bite and a swing from each of its big hands. The bite hit for a lot of piercing damage, but the claws both missed. The other troll, flanked by Taman and Joybell, turned to attack the paladin. It hit with both its bite and one of the claws, doing quite a lot of damage to her.</p><p></p><p>Taman then attacked it and did quite a bit more damage than that to it. Because of the haste Mo cast on her, Joybell got to attack three times. Unfortunately she only hit once, and that because Mo had also inspired her at some point. Fiona cast scorching ray, sending two bolts of fire to Troll 2 (on Joybell and Taman) and one to Troll 1 (on Orryk). The bolt on Troll 1 hit a critical spot and did a lot of damage, but troll 2 had been beaten on some and did not look well at all.</p><p></p><p>Mo tried to blind both of them, but only succeeded in blinding the one on Joybell and Taman. Which was a huge help. Then he inspired Orryk.</p><p></p><p>Orryk used his new gloves to do a necrotic touch attack against Troll 1 -- getting a good hit and regaining 4 points of damage with his first punch. Unfortunately the second punch missed. Then he went back into his patient defense.</p><p></p><p>Because of Fiona’s firebolt, the trolls’ regenerative ability had been shut down for the moment, which was good. The one on Joybell and Taman attacked the paladin again (which was good for us but maybe not its best decision) -- it missed with one claw and would have hit with the other, except Mo perfectly timed the perfect insult and distracted it from hitting at all. Then, still flustered and still blinded, it missed with its bite. Then it shook off the blindness.</p><p></p><p>The one on Orryk hit with its bite but missed with both of its claws.</p><p></p><p>Taman got a good hit with his rapier on Troll 2, dropping it, but we could see its wounds closing.</p><p></p><p>Joybell figured that Fiona could get some fire onto the troll to keep in down for good (and was unable to do so herself) so she jumped on Scooby and rode over to Orryk and Troll 1. She got three attacks, because of the haste from Mo, that all hit. It dropped. At that point both of them just needed some fire to stay dead.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, seeing her action call, cast a searing ray, sending bolts of fire to each of them. She hovered directly over the one on Taman and shot it with one of the bolts, unfortunately missing. The one on Orryk and Joybell she missed with her first shot, wildly, but hit with her second -- dropping Troll 1 for real.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast sleep on Troll 2, putting it into a nice nap -- which allowed us to kill it at our leisure. Fiona did so with an acid splash spell.</p><p></p><p>We searched the bodies for treasure and found 30 electrum pieces (6 each) and 1400 copper.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Leave the copper.</p><p></p><p>We all went up to seventh level.</p><p></p><p>Treasure:</p><p>310gp each from selling some treasure from earlier (stone figurines from the House of Masks and gold bracelets from the myrriq’s hoard)</p><p>190sp and 70gp (38sp and 14gp each)</p><p>30 electrum pieces (6 each) and 1400 copper (280 copper each, if we take it)</p><p>Mr. Ed, Secretariat and the cart were sold for 57 gp and 5 sp. (None of us could remember whether Mo had paid for the horses and cart on his own or if they’d been party purchases. So I’m not sure whether that should go back to him or be divided).</p><p></p><p>Party Kitty Update:</p><p>Since the last Party Kitty Update we paid for 2 nights of lodging at the Iron Steed in Pelsoreen (at 6 gp/night), one night of lodging at the Flying Kirin n Pelsoreen(at 5 sp/night) and 7 nights of travel on the road (four to and from the Keeper of Secrets and three since crossing the causeway after leaving Pelsoreen) (at 3 gp/night, because Mo sings us a discount). Also, crossing the Mountainway causeway cost the party 6sp. So taking out 12 gp, 5 sp for lodging in Pelsoreen, 21 gp for lodging on the road, and 6sp for the causeway what’s left is: 3 sp, and 14 cp. At this point we basically have no Party Kitty.</p><p></p><p>Joybell paid for everyone’s lodging listed above that wasn’t covered by the previous balance (see notes for session 19).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8141344, member: 7016699"] Session 22: Striking While The Iron Is Hot Dramatis Personae: Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) GM - Everyone Else 13 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 44) (immediately after) Before Nicolana, the Keeper of Secrets, left, Joybell gave her the letter from Jorlas to his wife to deliver -- Martra deserves to know that her husband loved her and was thinking of her right to the end of his life. (We did keep the others though.) Then Nicolana left, inviting us to partake of her food and the safety of the hut for the night. Mo really really wanted us to leave and get as far away as possible before making camp. Joybell, who was friends with a pixie near the Wold as a child, had heard tales (from Wren, the pixie, as well as from people in the Wold community) about people feasting and dancing with various fey and losing months when they thought they were gone for only an hour or two. So she concurred heartily with Mo about leaving and getting out of Nicolana’s immediate place of influence before we stopped to rest. She did write a thank you note for the kind offer of shelter and food explaining that we were grateful but had to be going, etc. etc. (basically throwing lots of words into it to make it sound more polite). Then we left. We traveled about an hour back toward Rodzun before it started getting dark. We made camp in one of Fiona’s little tiny huts with an alarm spell. Before we fell asleep we discussed what we wanted to do next -- including whether or not to go after the Masks. We had a considerable amount of discussion, with everyone airing their thoughts. Taman: Now that we have this information, we may need to get stronger before we go. Mo: I want to finish what we started. Taman, after some discussion: Let’s go find their hide-out and cut off the head. Fiona: I’m leaning toward going too. The sooner we deal with this the sooner we won’t have to anymore. Orryk: I think we won’t all be coming back. But I’ll go if that’s what the party decides. We put it to a vote and everyone but Orryk voted to go after the Masks -- by the time it got to his turn to vote, Orryk just abstained. And grumbled a bit about not wanting to watch any of us die. Orryk: If we’re going to do this, we should go get Gurn from the halflings in Tall Orchard. We’re practically right there and we could really use the extra muscle. Mo: We should be very prepared to run away. Everyone Else: Yeah! Joybell, to Orryk: If more than one person dies, I’ll use the revivify on you first. Orryk: I won’t be the one who dies. I can meld into the earth, shape myself a cavern and stay for as long as necessary. Joybell: Well, okay then… We decided also to have a sort of standard watch order -- to use unless there was some reason to do something different. It is: Joybell and Orryk on first watch (Gnome Shift), Mo on second watch, and Taman and Fiona on Third watch. With our watches and our hut and so on, the night passed without incident. 14 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 45) First thing in the morning, at Orryk’s request, Fiona used a sending spell to talk to the new mayor of Tall Orchard. She asked how their recovery was doing and if they could spare Gurn for a small time. They said that Gurn was still helping them with clearing the trashed part of town, and he was going to be used to help with the harvest in a week or two. Well, then. We went on our way, walking back to Rodzun and talking about tactics as we walked. We were especially talking about the fact that Joybell is going to need some coaching, because she’s really not much use at range (and none at all beyond 30’). But standing toe to toe by herself is not always going to be the best strategy. We passed through Rodzun and went on to Lunn, where we stayed at the Flying Turtle, though Mo thought it might be a little too soon, or a little tacky or something. Joybell thought it was a bittersweet reminder of our fallen friend. (Also we’d stayed here before.) Mo performed at the inn, doing a couple of sets of standard tunes but performing them Really Well! He earned some money in tips and it was a great show. Joybell went around the bar and asked a couple of people from Pelsoreen if they knew of a Turnik Steeltear but none of them had heard of him. In one of our rooms at the inn, we made our usual preparations (making the tiny hut inside the room) and the night passed without incident. 15 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 46) We headed out in the morning on the road to Tummeleen and the Sterling Scythe. We traveled without incident throughout the day. When we got to town, Fiona cast a fly spell on Joybell so she could practice fly-by combat. Orryk stood mostly still, reading a book and dodging as needed while Joybell giggled and swooped down and tried to touch him and then pull up out of combat range. After that we had dinner, went to our rooms, and with precautions, rested. The night passed. 16 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 47) We left the Sterling Scythe in the morning and proceeded to travel to Pelsoreen. Once again Fiona cast fly on Joybell, so she could practice flying for in combat -- and get past the giggle and squee reaction. As we were walking, we decided to stay somewhere other than at the Iron Steed. They’d been good to us there -- but people were clearly associating us with that inn (people had come to find us there when the Masks were attacking the Cracked Shield) and we wanted to try and remain unnoticed if possible. When we got there, the causeway was up and we were able to cross immediately. As we entered the city, we observed that Mr. Ed and Secretariat, the horses formerly known as Horse 1 and Horse 2, had survived yet another multi-day journey from the city. Taman looked around and didn’t notice that we’d picked up a tail when we entered the city. We wondered how long that would last. We found a nondescript inn with copper placards from both Dallington’s and the Blink Toad on the wall outside. The inn was sort of seedy and run-down looking -- and called the Soaring Kirin. We paid 5sp (one per person) for the party to stay for the night. Mo paid the innkeeper a little extra not to report to any of the corporations that we were there. Innkeeper: I can keep it quiet for a couple of days. But don’t let them [he pointed to where the placards were] follow you back here. Just don’t let that happen. Mo agreed to that and said we were only planning on staying a very short time. Up in our room, Mo made his junior birdman mask and cast clairvoyance to look into the burned out husk of the House of Masks. It looked like C&C had perhaps started clearing out some of the rubble and taken down the pieces of roof that remained after the fire. They were clearly still finishing the demolition and rubble removal part of the process and hadn’t gotten to rebuilding at all. After that, we discussed what we wanted to do the next day. The Mountainway causeway would be up in the evening, so we’d have the whole day to spend in town before we could leave. Mo, taking off the Gloves of Ogre Strength: I’m not sure these gloves are really my wheelhouse. I’m just like other goliaths now. I’m not liking it. They’re fun. But they’re not me. He handed the gloves to Orryk to stow in the bag of holding. He also gave back the longsword to put in the bag. We made our usual precautions in one of the three rooms we’d taken at the inn, and the night passed. 17 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 48) In the morning we talked about what we wanted to do with our day. Orryk requested that we go see Allona, the magic item merchant. Orryk: I’m going with you to fight the continent-wide guild of assassins that’s going to kill one of us… We agreed to do that. Joybell wanted to go see what Burnocka the alchemist had made out of the gorgon sinus matter we brought back. We also talked about finding out more about Turnik Steeltear. We had the thought that we could talk to some people in the dwarven neighborhood in town. A bit of investigation revealed that there really aren’t many dwarves in Pelsoreen, but what population of dwarves there is is in the Stonetree neighborhood -- conveniently the same neighborhood that Burnocka and Allona are in. On the way there, Orryk sold the animal figurines from the House of Masks, the gold bracelets from the myrriq, and the longswords and longbows from the second batch of Masks and we each got 310 gp. Just before we got to Burnocka’s Joybell asked Mo to take charge of the conversation. Because we gave him the gorgon snot that he’s making things out of that he can sell and she just couldn’t see how we were getting any recompense for that. Mo agreed to do that, and Joybell stayed toward the back of the group, near Fiona, when we went inside. Burnocka told us that he’d made oil of petrification prevention out of it and he’d been surprised at what an excellent raw material the gorgon sinus matter had been for making that product. Mo asked if he thought it would prevent being turned to ice. Burnocka: No...this is all about preventing the actual stone transformation. It won’t prevent any other sort of transformation, even if the effect is similar in some ways. Fair enough. Mo then started to dickering about us bringing Burnocka the gorgon snot and not getting any recompense for it except that Burnocka would sell us the oils for 100 gp each. Burnocka said that the price he quoted us included that consideration. Mo started hammering on about the danger involved in fighting the gorgon. Joybell was nodding in the background and Orryk pointed out that he was surprised at her for supporting Mo in his somewhat deceptive and high pressure negotiating tactics. Joybell, who hadn’t thought of it that way until Orryk said something, was suddenly ashamed and sorry that she’d asked Mo to take the lead in the conversation. Burnocka: You brought the sinus matter. I had to provide the ingredients to turn it into something useful. Joybell, now thoroughly shamed: Oh! That’s right!! Then she shrunk into herself. Fiona led her outside. Mo: Next spell I learn is silence. With a bit more discussion, Burnocka agreed to sell us three of the oils at 75 gp each, because he’d made six of them (because the materials were so good). He could make up the rest of the money, and a good profit, selling the rest for more. Mo bought one for himself and one for Joybell to pay him back for, figuring that she owed him. (Note: I believe that someone else, Taman maybe, bought the third, but I’m not sure.) Mo: Do you sell anything recreational? Burnocka: I think you’ll be better off among the herbalists for something like that. When the party went outside, Mo handed one of the bottles of oil to Joybell. Mo: Joybell, I bought you one. I could only get him down to 100 gold. You can pay me back. Joybell: Okay <<hands over the gold>> He’ll make enough and be okay with us buying them for that? Orryk, smiling for the first time in days: 100 is what we paid the temple. Taman just laughed. We started to walk toward Allona’s shop and along the way Mo kept his eyes open for a dwarf bar. He finally spotted a sign for the Platinum Beard -- clearly we’d found the right place. Mo (to the party): Can someone get Joybell out of here? He then went on speaking to the innkeeper in dwarvish. Joybell, a little miffed, sat at a table with an ale, people-watching. Mo explained to the innkeeper that we were looking for someone who’d inherited a share in a mine and asked if he’d heard of someone named Steeltear. The innkeeper hadn’t heard of anyone with that name in the city at any time. He also observed that it’s an odd name for a dwarf. Mo then mentioned that the person we were looking for’s first name was Turnik. Innkeeper: I do remember a fella named that, really young. He was called Turnik Stoneshield. He was pretty weird -- he didn’t drink much, though he’d buy a round for the bar time to time. I haven’t seen him since the winter. (Reminder -- the campaign began at the summer solstice festival. It is now approximately the equivalent of mid-August.) Mo asked if he could be staying somewhere else. The innkeeper said that there are only a few inns in Pelsoreen that catered to a dwarven clientele. He didn’t know where Turnik Stoneshield had been staying, but wherever it was, it was months ago. Mo: What kind of dwarf was he? Innkeeper: Nothing else really stood out to me. Mo, coming back to the group and relaying what he’d learned: I got a lot of information, but it doesn’t really help us. While we were sitting and drinking our ales and eating some lunch, Taman remembered the Oil of Etherealness that we’d found in the lumberyard in Embernook (after fighting the zombies and ghouls and all there). We agreed that it would be great and really helpful for scouting when we get to where we’re going. (We weren’t talking about going to where the Masks are forged while in the city.) Mo, to Orryk: Does that make you feel better? Orryk: No. After our lunch and beer, we headed off to Allona’s magic item shop. Mo, dropping the gloves of ogre strength on the counter: We’re looking to sell these. If I’m this strong people will ask me to do work. Maybe we can get something that will help us not die. Allona offered us 400 gp for the gloves. As a trade she said she had some greater healing potions (which Joybell can make with a week of downtime). Joybell: Maybe something that would stop someone from bleeding out if they’re knocked unconscious. Allona said she had an idea of an item that would fit that description, but she didn’t have one in stock. Perhaps if we came back at another time she might have gotten one in stock. Mo put the gloves back into the bag of holding. Orryk asked about magic items that would let him summon an elemental creature once a day. Allona said that items like that were very expensive -- thousands and thousands of gold pieces. We thanked her for her time and left. We walked back to the Soaring Kirin, where the horses and cart were parked. We talked about whether we wanted to take the cart and the horses with us to the where the Masks are forged. We decided that since this is going to be a scouting mission, at least to begin with, we didn’t want a cart and horses making us more obvious. And making it harder for us to hide from the Masks that we expected to run into on the road. So we collected Mr. Ed and Secretariat and sold them, along with the cart, back to the livery where we’d bought them. We then found a place to hang out near the Mountainway causeway until it came up an hour before sunset, and we crossed to the other side. As with the Ovverway causeway, there are a small number of carriage inns and caravanserai there. After we crossed we took rooms at one of the inns. Joybell asked the innkeeper if he’d seen any big people in white masks recently. Innkeeper: Yeah. They showed up just before the causeway came up. Joybell: Like they slept on the road or maybe traveled overnight? Innkeeper: Maybe. Joybell asked about what we could expect along this road. We were told that there were towns every half day of travel for a couple of days, like going along the coast from Ovverway, after that there was a town every day for a few days. After that there were still towns and villages, but they were more sporadic. Joybell: Cool! We’re going about ten days. Mo: Oh, don’t… Orryk: Too late. We made our usual precautions in the inn and rested for the night -- preparing to head out early in the morning. The night passed without incident. 18 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 49) We left in the morning early and headed out. Taman was scouting about 500 feet ahead and off the side of the road (within the range of the Cape of the Mountebank) of the party. There was forest on either side of the road. Joybell, on Scooby, stayed toward the edge of the road, so she could get into the woods quickly if Taman got word to Mo (using the sending stones) that there was something on the road ahead. The day passed without incident, except that we passed through the village of Bordeen and spent the night in a town called Eltlin. There were two inns -- the Six Drakes and the Golden Plough. Joybell: Oh! Dragons are good! But we decided to stay at the Golden Plough on the grounds that the food was likely to be good. Mo played a standard set -- good but not as great as he had in Tummeleen a few days earlier.He did get some tips from the audience. We made precautions and rested without any problems. 19 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 50) At breakfast, Joybell asked the innkeeper if he’d seen big guys in Masks. He said he’d seen some a couple of weeks earlier, but not since. They’d stopped in for breakfast (oatmeal and gruel) and black coffee. Innkeeper: Those guys were creepy! Joybell: I know, right?! Then we headed out on the road, with Taman scouting as he had the day before -- 500 feet ahead of us and off the side of the road. He spotted some ogres (3 ogres) on the road, way ahead of us. They were trundling along the road, apparently because it’s easier to travel on the road than through the forest. One of them was holding a humanoid leg in his hand and chewing on it as he walked along. Taman came back to report all of this to us We moved off the road to hide in the forest. Taman, Fiona and Mo were hiding on one side, Joybell and Orryk on the other. Well Joybell tried to hide, but her armor glinted in the sun and she clanked and rattled. (She got a 4 on her stealth check.) She’d only moved a few feet away from the road on the grounds that she wasn’t likely to hide well anyway, and it might as well be easy for her to get back to the road when she was spotted. Fiona cast mage armor on herself and the noise of the that caught one ogre’s attention. The other two spotted Joybell and headed across the road toward her. Taman shot at the one heading toward Fiona and got a good hit. Fiona cast firebolt on the same one (Ogre1) and did a great deal of fire damage. That ogre lumbered toward Fiona, but was unable to attack. The other two ogres (Ogre 2 & Ogre 3) went toward Joybell and Fiona but were also unable to reach them and attack. Orryk stepped out onto the road and hit Ogre 3 twice with two shortbow shots. Nice! Joyell also moved out onto the road (having never been entirely committed to getting into the woods anyway) on Scooby, then rode him as far as she could before dismounting and closing on the one Orryk had just shot, hitting it with her short sword and doing a lot of damage. It screamed in surprise and pain. Ogre 3: Sharp Little, die! Joybell may take SharpLittle as a nickname… Mo cast hypnotic pattern on the two on Joybell and the one that no one had hit thus far (Ogre 2) was stunned. The more damaged of them managed to avoid getting entranced by the pretty lights. Then Mo inspired Taman. Taman moved up on Ogre 1 and attacked with his rapier for some nice damage. Ogre 1 also started to scream. But Taman didn’t get called Sharp Little. Fiona fired a firebolt at Ogre 1 again and again got a hit, but didn’t do as much damage this time, unfortunately. Then she moved back next to Mo. Ogre 1 took a mighty swing with his tree-trunk/great club at Taman but missed. Ogre 3 moved around his hypnotically stunned comrade to attack Joybell, but missed. Ogre 2 looked at the pretty lights. Orryk ran up next to Joybell and started throwing daggers from his belt of many daggers at Ogre 3 -- doing a flurry of blows and a rather terrifying amount of damage. Joybell took a swing at the same one and hit with both of her attacks. Mo moved out into the middle of the road, then cast blindness on the two ogres that weren’t staring at the pretty lights (Ogres 1 and 3) -- blinding both of them. Nice!! Taman took advantage of that to drop Ogre 1. Fiona dropped a fireball spell so it caught the two remaining ogres. Ogre 2, stunned by the hypnotic pattern, failed his save and died to the fireball, coming un-stunned just long enough to notice the fireball. Ogre 3 saved but died anyway. We looted the bodies, but found very little -- 190sp and 70gp. The ogres were carrying sacks but everything else was rubbish and junk. And some nasty meat for road snacks. We continued on our way. A short distance later, Taman spotted where the ogres had emerged from the forest and started traveling on the road. We never saw anything like a destroyed wagon or caravan or any place where the source of the humanoid leg one was eating on came from. About 45 minutes after the combat we got to the mid-day town and stopped at one of the inns for lunch. Joybell, to the barkeep: We just killed three ogres on the road. Is that normal around here? Barkeep, looking us over and seeing us all unhurt: You killed three ogres?? Joybell: Yeah. Not more than 45 minutes from here. The barkeep said that ogres weren’t unheard of in this area, but they weren’t common either. He also gave us lunch for free because we’d killed three ogres without, apparently, breaking a sweat. After lunch, we continued on the road to the town Iksoren. We never saw anything like an attacked caravan or wagon on that stretch of the road either. We also never saw any Masks on the road -- which is really weird. They were about two days overdue for what we were expecting at this point. We spent the night in the town Iksoren and it passed without incident. 20 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 51) At breakfast at the inn, Joybell once again asked about the Masks. The innkeeper gave us the same answer we’d been getting elsewhere -- he hadn’t seen any for a couple of weeks. They stopped in for breakfast of black coffee and plain gruel, but hadn’t stayed in the inn overnight. As we walked and continued not to see any more Masks We talked some about what that might mean, but didn’t come to any conclusions (on account of not having a lot of information). We proceeded in the same fashion, with Taman scouting ahead about 500 feet. Shortly before lunch, Taman spotted 2 trolls moving through the woods near the road. As he watched he got a sense of their tactics -- they were close enough to the road to jump out in ambush at travellers on the road. He returned to the party to let us know we had them incoming. Joybell stayed on the far side of the road from where Taman had seen the trolls, on Scooby, seeing little point in trying to hide. Orryk, Fiona and Mo were in the woods near her. Taman hid in the woods on the other (troll-ridden) side. Orryk sensed they had spotted the whole party -- or at least Fiona and Taman seemed to have been spotted, and Joybell was obviously right there to be seen. He stepped out of the woods and took two shots at the first troll and hit with both of his arrows. Joybell took a look at the situation and realized that she wouldn’t be able to get to them even if she jumped off Scooby when he’d gone as far as he could and ran the rest of the way. Joybell: They’re too far away. Orryk: Then let them come to us. Don’t rush ahead where we can’t support you. Joybell: But….<<sighs>> right. The trolls moved fast and got closer to the party but couldn’t attack. Taman took a shot at the first troll (the same one Orryk had shot), then ran across the road to join the rest of the party. Joybell moved up a few feet and dismounted from Scooby, then threw a couple of javelins at them, one of which hit. Fiona cast scorching ray and fired three bolts of fire out into space… Mo used five charges off the wand of magic missiles and did a lot of damage (27 points) to the one nearest to Joybell (Troll 1). Orryk grumbled as he went past Joybell to take a shot at Troll 1, then settled into his defensive stance. Joybell: Why are you grumbling?! I did what you said! Then she realized he was grumbling about one of us getting killed on this trip...the same grumble we’d been hearing for days. The troll attacked Orryk, but missed because of his defensive maneuvers. The other troll (2) moved and dashed and got right up to where Fiona, Taman and Mo were standing in the road well behind Orryk and Joybell. Thankfully, it was unable to attack. Taman attacked the troll that was suddenly right in front of him with his rapier, doing some damage. Joybell was terribly torn -- Orryk had moved up so she wouldn’t be out in front of the party without support and she didn’t want to leave him on his own. But there was a troll going after the more vulnerable friends in the back. She finally settled on going to help Mo, Fiona and Taman. Joybell: I’m sorry, Orryk! Orryk: <<silence>> She attacked Troll 2 and got two hits for 17 points of damage. Fiona cast fly on herself and got to a safe height. Mo moved around to a better position and cast haste on Joybell (whee!) and then inspired Taman. Orryk attacked Troll 1 for a good hit, but his attempt at a stunning strike didn’t work. His other attack missed. Then he went back into his defensive stance. Troll 1 on Orryk attacked with a bite and a swing from each of its big hands. The bite hit for a lot of piercing damage, but the claws both missed. The other troll, flanked by Taman and Joybell, turned to attack the paladin. It hit with both its bite and one of the claws, doing quite a lot of damage to her. Taman then attacked it and did quite a bit more damage than that to it. Because of the haste Mo cast on her, Joybell got to attack three times. Unfortunately she only hit once, and that because Mo had also inspired her at some point. Fiona cast scorching ray, sending two bolts of fire to Troll 2 (on Joybell and Taman) and one to Troll 1 (on Orryk). The bolt on Troll 1 hit a critical spot and did a lot of damage, but troll 2 had been beaten on some and did not look well at all. Mo tried to blind both of them, but only succeeded in blinding the one on Joybell and Taman. Which was a huge help. Then he inspired Orryk. Orryk used his new gloves to do a necrotic touch attack against Troll 1 -- getting a good hit and regaining 4 points of damage with his first punch. Unfortunately the second punch missed. Then he went back into his patient defense. Because of Fiona’s firebolt, the trolls’ regenerative ability had been shut down for the moment, which was good. The one on Joybell and Taman attacked the paladin again (which was good for us but maybe not its best decision) -- it missed with one claw and would have hit with the other, except Mo perfectly timed the perfect insult and distracted it from hitting at all. Then, still flustered and still blinded, it missed with its bite. Then it shook off the blindness. The one on Orryk hit with its bite but missed with both of its claws. Taman got a good hit with his rapier on Troll 2, dropping it, but we could see its wounds closing. Joybell figured that Fiona could get some fire onto the troll to keep in down for good (and was unable to do so herself) so she jumped on Scooby and rode over to Orryk and Troll 1. She got three attacks, because of the haste from Mo, that all hit. It dropped. At that point both of them just needed some fire to stay dead. Fiona, seeing her action call, cast a searing ray, sending bolts of fire to each of them. She hovered directly over the one on Taman and shot it with one of the bolts, unfortunately missing. The one on Orryk and Joybell she missed with her first shot, wildly, but hit with her second -- dropping Troll 1 for real. Mo cast sleep on Troll 2, putting it into a nice nap -- which allowed us to kill it at our leisure. Fiona did so with an acid splash spell. We searched the bodies for treasure and found 30 electrum pieces (6 each) and 1400 copper. Orryk: Leave the copper. We all went up to seventh level. Treasure: 310gp each from selling some treasure from earlier (stone figurines from the House of Masks and gold bracelets from the myrriq’s hoard) 190sp and 70gp (38sp and 14gp each) 30 electrum pieces (6 each) and 1400 copper (280 copper each, if we take it) Mr. Ed, Secretariat and the cart were sold for 57 gp and 5 sp. (None of us could remember whether Mo had paid for the horses and cart on his own or if they’d been party purchases. So I’m not sure whether that should go back to him or be divided). Party Kitty Update: Since the last Party Kitty Update we paid for 2 nights of lodging at the Iron Steed in Pelsoreen (at 6 gp/night), one night of lodging at the Flying Kirin n Pelsoreen(at 5 sp/night) and 7 nights of travel on the road (four to and from the Keeper of Secrets and three since crossing the causeway after leaving Pelsoreen) (at 3 gp/night, because Mo sings us a discount). Also, crossing the Mountainway causeway cost the party 6sp. So taking out 12 gp, 5 sp for lodging in Pelsoreen, 21 gp for lodging on the road, and 6sp for the causeway what’s left is: 3 sp, and 14 cp. At this point we basically have no Party Kitty. Joybell paid for everyone’s lodging listed above that wasn’t covered by the previous balance (see notes for session 19). [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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