pizzaboy's Richard Huish D&Ders (Forgotten Realms)

[pizzaboy_15]

Well after a long time waiting we finally have a group. We have gone from three people to four and have finally done a small adventure. Yay! Now here it is:

The party consists of currently:
Nym Moondown, a CN Half moon elf Ranger 2
Vaakku, a CN Human Necromancer 2
“Dr.” Harlene (Harley) Quinzel (Harlequin was the joke that Big Salty John (BSJ) came up with and found it amusing to name his character that due to her ever so slight insanity), a CN Gnome War Mage 1/ Barbarian 1
I decided to put them through ‘The Colour of Ambition’ campaign in the back of the FR campaign setting.

Well the party met in the middle of Thay due to prospect of money. Each joined the same caravan to Aglorand where they are then going to re-supply to head to Waterdeep. The many reasons they could have been there are only left to my players when and if they read this. Anyway they followed this caravan with the promise of a large amount of gold. During the trip they fought goblins and the occasional orc leading them (hence the level 2 characters). As the caravan crossed the borders they saw a small Red wizard enclave, which seemed to be trading items. Well they pulled into a town called Runemeck, not far from Amruthar. The caravan owner gave them the gold they each had earned up to this point, which was quickly spent on ale, scrolls and women. Over the next few days the party just rested enjoyed the towns prosperity allowing them the time to rest up totally.

On the morning of 13th Mirtul 1372, the owner of the caravan of which the party was transporting, confronts them. The owner, a man by the name of Kerrin, seemed incredibly annoyed.
“Look can I ask you guys for a favour?” he asked in a deep booming voice.
“Depends.” The rather snide wizard replied.
“Well this guy called Talf owes me money. He lost to me two nights ago at a game of dice and was supposed to pay me last night but he never showed up. The b*stard was going to meet outside my room, he never showed up. I want you to find him and get me my money, please.” Kerrin sort of demanded.
“Sure we’ll do that for you, after we’ve packed up. Good day sir.” Replied the elegant Nym and with that he left still in the flurry he came with. After looking around town for several hours asking most of the locals about Talf only to find out that another was missing, Elonn and that both were last seen at the local tavern, the Filthy Goblin. The taverns name was actually quite misleading due to the tavern being actually very clean, serving good ales and food with very comfortable beds which had no lice in.

Anyway after the day was spent searching all that was left was to ask in the Tavern itself. Deciding in her own alleged ‘doctorie’ wisdom Harley decided to speak with the bartender. A nice chap, had previously worked as part of the town guard but then after he had gathered enough gold he retired to being the humble barkeep. After some time of talking but not too long, told her that he saw the two leaving the tavern with a short lady with very long black hair in a long grey cloak. Thanking the bartender, she went strolled over to the rest of the party whom had found a drunk who was claiming to have seen the missing two and the long haired woman. Feeling like it might help the matter Harley then turned back and bought an ale for the obviously overly drunk man.
“So what did you see?” Nym started trying not to interrogate the poor man.
“Uh, well, uh, I heard her laugh which, uh, woke me up and…”He stuttered in his drunkenness. As Harley put down the ale he took a deep draught.
“And?” Vaakku asked again.
“They headed down the road the, uh, caravan, uh, came from.” And on that the party rushed outside. Nym peered at the floor noticing through the muck and other footprints, a set belonging to a female and two males, which the trio quickly chased after having to stop a few times where the trail nearly went cold. Before long Nym noticed a wagon drawn by two horses met with the trio and how the wagon moved on with only the woman’s footprints leaving the scene with no sign of the two males. Realising the possible trouble the two were in the party rushed down the road. After about an hour the party could make out a campfire at which they ran even faster to reach the campfire. Upon reaching the camp site Vaakku realised that it was a Thayan slaver and a guard due to Vaakku being native to Thay.
“Welcome. Would you like to share our fire?” came the trader.
“Gladly.” Vaakku replied thankfully. “So where are you going”
Vaakku was obviously trying to avoid conflict.
“Well me and Chand here are off to Amruthar to sell off those slaves you see behind me” the trader said rather cheerily.
“May I go speak with them?” Asked Harley quite abruptly.
“Yeah sure, but be careful. Two of ‘em are convicts sold to me to prevent ‘em from being killed.”
With that Harley went over to the four bound bodies beside the cart that the group had been following. She instantly noticed the difference, as the two prisoners had had their clothes removed and were just left in white underwear. However there were another two men, fully clothed, bound beside them. It seemed as if they were both local due to the style of dress.
“Erm, is either one of you Talf or Elonn?” She whispered. One of the bodies moved, then sat up and finally opening his mouth to reply.
“Yes, I’m Elonn. Please help me!” he whispered. Harley looked at the bound man in front of her and saw in his eyes an expression she knew only too well. Fear. Harley nodded. Picked up a pebble and sat down with the rest of the group, taking out her scalpel and starting to carve out a crudely drawn fist on it.
“So what’s the story about the two of them that are clothed over there?” asked Nym using his sharpened vision while Harley was away.
“Well, they were brought to me last night by a woman in a long grey cloak and with long black hair. They seemed a little too happy at the time to join my other ‘produce’, sort of desperately in love.” The slaver commented. Harley now getting impatient, started to size up the slaver, succeeding and following up the obvious fact she had made an impact on him with:
“Look, these two are not slaves. They belong free, where they live.” Harley seemed quite threatening for a gnome at least, must have been the scalpel, thought Vaakku.
“I can’t, I’d lose money.” Came the slaver seeming very desperate.
“Then can’t you just wait a day? We’ll bring back you back your money tomorrow.” Nym said trying to avoid conflict.
“Ok. You have up until tomorrow. If not I keep the two men and carry on to Thay.” The slaver said to finalise the arrangement hoping not to anger the seemingly emotional gnome.
“Thank you.” Vaakku said as the group backed away into the night.

Heading back up the road, the moon was full, the party reached the area where the transaction between the longhaired woman and the slaver took place. Nym again found the woman’s tracks and followed them through a small copse to a peak of a hill with the Red wizard enclave, which was duly noticed as one by Vaakku. Here they set up camp, each unravelling their bedrolls and falling quickly asleep under the stars. Vaakku, waking up at the crack of dawn prepared his spells, expecting possible ‘barbaric tendencies’ if things did not go quite to plan, while Nym went out hunting for their breakfast as Harley slept in.

Once each of them were sufficiently ready they headed to the Red wizard enclave. Entry was easy they just nodded at the guard as they entered the enclave. By the looks of things the guard was used to adventurers turning up fully armed. Which really didn’t bother the party too much. They continued up to where there was a wizard setting up the stock for the day, there was a guard patrolling around the enclave and one watching for any unfortunate shoplifters. Nevertheless the party carried on.

“How may I help you sir?” said the novice of a wizard as the group approached.
“Uh, there’s no way to put this nicely but…” Harley started only to be nudged by both Vaakku and Nym that was then the wizard apprentice replied:
“No easy way to say what?”
“Well you might as well finish.” Nym glared at Harley. Harley got the message.
“Oh yes. What potions do you have?”
“No! That wasn’t it! Do you think I am stupid?” the wizard replied.
“Fine. Okay, right, there has been a pair of men who were sold to a slaver by a ‘long haired woman’ who was tracked back to here.” At this the wizard held out his hand as if to stop Harley in her tracks as he disappeared into the back of the enclave. Moments later he returned. Followed by one bald female wizard in red robes and a tattoo visible from where the robes didn’t quite cross her chest completely. She was accompanied by two other bald wizards, one male and one female both in red robes a lot like the first but Vaakku could make out that they were both apprentices preparing to become red wizards. Three armed guards in turn accompanied them. Nym feeling uneasy grasped the hilts of his swords.
“Why must you come here to accuse one of my wizards of selling free people to slavers? My wizards have been briefed that we are just here to sell goods and ease peoples minds!” the tattooed woman yelled. “Sorry, excuse my manners. My name is Hinnar, to my left is Muxos and to my right Kizzaf, my apprentices. Now back to business. I try to keep the peace with the village but…” Hinnar exclaimed.
“We have tracked footprints to here. How can you be sure that someone didn’t steal the potions?” Nym asked politely.
“No one has ever stolen from here and that’s the way it will always be.” Hinnar jumped in. “I trust all of my people.”
“But is it possible for you be wrong in your trust?” Harley jumped in. “Besides the two who were captured were quite obviously charmed.”
“So why do you assume it was one of my wizards?” Hinnar replied.
“Because you’re the only wizards in the area apart from this man beside me,” Harley proclaimed pointing to Vaakku, “But in all the time I’ve known him he’s never been able to transform the way he looks, in fact I don’t think he’s even powerful enough to cast that sort of magic yet.”
“Fine.” Hinnar accepted defeat. During the small silence that ensued Kizzaf moved hurriedly past the party and removed a scroll from her sleeve reading it aloud. Two zombies burst from the floor and slowly made their way to the un-expecting group.

Nym quickly drew his swords, charged forwards and struck one of the two zombies causing a mighty great gash across it’s upper torso. Kizzaf started to hurry out of range so that she could make an escape before the guard could stop her. Realising this Vaakku cast one of his Sleep spells for the day putting Kizzaf asleep. Hinnar seeing that Kizzaf was asleep she turned her attention to the two zombies, who were failing to strike the agile Nym, she cast Magic Missile and striking each of the zombies in turn. Muxos following suit cast Magic Missile felling the first Zombie. Each of the four guards charged and hacked the last zombie into body parts.

“I’m sorry. I was fooled. For this I shall exchange Kizzaf for the two who are missing and pay the slaver for the other. If I give you the money will you take her with two of my guards. Once that’s done come back and I will give you a reward.” Hinnar said in a truly apologetic tone.
“Yes we will.” Nym stepped up heroically. After a rather short journey the party returned with the two captive men.

“Welcome back.” Hinnar greeted, “Here you go for your troubles.”
Hinnar gave the party a bag full of potions.
“Thank you.” Vaakku said as he took the bag, “I hope your business goes well.”

And with the that the party left for the town and their caravan.

DM's Comments

Well this was a good session for the newbies in my group. I was especially proud of Vaakku's player since he realised that the zombies were the secondary targets and that if Kizzaf was disabled then it would leave the rest of Hinnar's group free to attack the zombies. But all in all Nym's player did very well for her first game and she felt quite nervous so again I'm very proud of her tracking abilities and the fact she got a critical on the first zombie in combat. Harley's character as the veteran of the group (BSJ) did quite well playing the almost psychotic gnome mage. They did well. Next week we will have four players and are hoping to start 'The Twilight Tomb' campaign. Well done to my group!

 

[shadow_master]

Newbies!

 

[pizzaboy_15]

Reply to Shadow Master

Thank you for your feed back. But yeah three of my group.
Nym, Vaakku and Rondel (She starts in the next session, which is coming soon!) are all first time players. Harley's player is the veteran of the group and has more experience than me, only just though, but he helps focus the group and keep them on track as such...

 

[pizzaboy_15]

Session Two

From the last time the party now consists of…
Nym Moondown CN Half-elf Ranger 3
Harley Quinzel CG Gnome War mage 2/ Barbarian 1
Vaakku Gospell CN Human Necromancer 3
Rondel CN Half-elf woman Rogue 3

With the new addition having not made it to the last session was lucky enough to make it to this one where I then forgot the campaign booklet and in my infinite wisdom I ran a simple game where they slowly moved through the Umber Marshes to run into an ambush but you’ll read about that yourselves.

As the morning light rose, the party dragged themselves out of bed for the coming morning. Vaakku prepped his spells as the Nym and Harley both had an early breakfast with the other caravan workers. The morning was crisp and free of mist and fog. Nym could gather that the sun was going to make the day rather hot and that it would be a lazy day. After breakfast Vaakku headed off to the Red Wizard enclave to order some supplies while Nym and Harley headed off to the tavern for the day as they saw nothing else to do.

At the Red Wizard enclave, Vaakku walked in with a cheerful wave from the Guard remembering the short wizard with long black hair from the previous day where he helped to save the day. He waltzed over to the counter and waved at the apprentice to get the young wizards attention.
“May I help you sir?” The young wizard asked. The young wizard had clearly not noticed Vaakku the day before.
“Yeah, what scrolls do you have?” Vaakku asked as the young wizard scrambled behind the set out stalls to reveal a long piece of parchment with what Vaakku could read in Draconic to be the list of the enclave’s wares. It took Vaakku a few moments and then looked up at the apprentice.
“Can I get anything ordered in?” Vaakku asked in a polite tone.
“Certainly sir what can I get for you?” the young man replied.
“Err, a Scroll of Invisibility and a Scroll of Summon Monster II.”
“That’ll take two days to get the items delivered.” With that Vaakku left while leaving the appropriate gold on the table.

In the tavern however sat around the table, Nym and Harley were sat with tankards of Ale on the table. They both looked up as a sleek young half-elf woman walked in. They noticed instantly that she was a little sneaky as Harley put it.
“I’ll go speak to her.” Nym said starting to get up, that was until the little gnome woman sat next to him stopped him from getting up.
“Why’s that?” She asked in a knowing voice.
“She looks like she could be of help during the course of our journey. I’ll go and invite her to join us.” He smirked and went to get up again only to be shunted down by the surprisingly strong little gnome beside him.
“No I’ll speak to her. I’ll do better to speak to the poor girl than you will, after all lover-boy, I won’t start ogling her unlike the rest of the tavern.” Harley said finally and left leaving Nym to observe the rest of the ogling tavern. As Harley approached she heard a sigh from the beautiful half-elf.
“Hey there.” Harley said to the young woman “Can I buy you a drink, just between us girls?”
“Sure I don’t see why not.” Rondel replied. Over time it seemed and the night grew darker and darker the Harley being the resourceful little gnome that she was able to persuade Rondel to join them on the adventure. This was much to both Vaakku’s and Nym’s joy.
Two days passed with the group doing nothing but drinking and in the case of Vaakku copying out scrolls into his spell book. On the end of the second day Vaakku then travelled to the Red wizards enclave to pick up his scrolls hurriedly returned to the caravans camp to get some rest.

The next day the caravan packed up and headed out. The day passed slowly and nothing much happened until they found themselves surrounded by a thick fog, yet nevertheless the caravan carried on.
“We’re in the Umber Marshes we should be out by tomorrow. There’s nothing much to worry about” said one of the caravan drivers. Yeah, right thought Vaakku knowing that Umber Marshes were not always a safe place to be.

As dusk drew overhead Rondel and Nym noticed some voices talking about “jumping the caravan on the way through”. Reacting quickly Nym gathered Vaakku and Harley who was watching the back of the caravan as Rondel moved to the front and stopped the caravan. The party rushed towards the front of the caravan with Vaakku sitting in the second cart while the rest moved to the front cart. The caravan drivers quickly and decisively moved to the back rather hurriedly.

Vaakku started by casting Detect magic. He soon discovered that there was no magic among in the direct vicinity of the caravan or in the fog at all. Nym and Rondel hear the movement of creatures too close for Nym’s comfort. With that Rondel moved forward and as one of the opponents outline was shown in the fog she fired at the outline with her hand crossbow only to hear the clatter of the bolt as it hits the floor. Nym followed the female half-elf into the fog making out the same shadow he drew both of his swords, preparing for a fight. Harley ran up trying to follow her bigger allies but as she spotted the large looming shadow she stopped and cast Lesser Orb of Acid, which flew into the fog and moments later there was a half bestial scream.

Vaakku noticed four little figures, no larger than Harley, in the fog. Gathering that these could be what the others were fighting against, he cast Sleep seeing the four each fall to the ground with a thump followed by a horrific snoring sound. Harley notices a long object move towards her in the air just narrowly stepping to the side and being grazed by the javelin. Nym saw in the thick fog a little green figure charge in his direction carrying a morning star and try to hit him on the head, however Nym’s quick footwork made it easy for him to dodge the incoming attack. This was followed by the large figure that Harley hit with her magic bounding into her. She noticed the figure as an orc, which rapidly swung a falchion down aiming for her head, but Harley nimbly stepped to the side. Rondel stepped in behind the orc and with amazing precision, placed the point of her rapier between the ribs of the orc before it could lift its blade. Nym followed suit and slashed at his aggressor’s head with his longsword, which it narrowly dodged only for it to duck straight into Nym’s short sword. Nym forced free his short sword and let the dead goblin fall to the ground. Harley noticing the goblin that threw a javelin at her, feeling the sudden embodiment of power Harley used her ability to Suddenly Empower her Lesser Orb of Cold gravely wounding the unfortunate goblin.

Vaakku quickly picking up his quarterstaff quickly ran over to the sleeping goblins with one of the empty sacks in his cart. The last goblin left standing swung it’s morning star at Rondel missing the nimble rogue. The rogue replied by using the tip of her rapier to slit the little goblins throat. Nym moved forwards and decapitated one of the sleeping goblins getting splattered by blood. Harley taking good opportunity to kill off more goblins, grabbed one of the sleeping goblins dragging it next to another one then following it up by casting Hail of Stone with a slightly crazed look in her eye killing both of them.

Vaakku taking a crazed moment to try and put the final goblin into the bag but it proved to difficult to do so. Rondel moved gracefully up to the goblin as Vaakku put the goblin back down to try again to put into the bag only for her to effortlessly put the rapier through the ribs of the goblin, much to the disappointment of Vaakku.

Harley quickly looted the bodies and then helped everybody to get back on the road and continue the journey. They had a long way to go and things only were to get harder…

DM's Comments

Well this went alright for a session. I did forget the campaign book for the Twilight Tomb so I ran this little battle. Nym's and Vaakku's players are getting more involved and are more confident in what they do. For Rondel's player it was the first time she'd played. She had read the PHB but of course the playing of the game is completely different to reading the books. But apart from my bad organisation this was a useful week, yet again letting the characters get used to the combat and political aspects of the game. I don't quite know what went through Vaakku's head as he tried to put the goblin in the sack. I think it could be from a game he sort of saw the characters play where one had two goblins that he had kept in the sack. When they came out they did wonderful and horrible things. But it was quickly doused by Rondel's character.

We do know that Rondel is Elrond with the El moved to the back of the name. You'll have to forgive it.

 

[pizzaboy_15]

Session Three

Okay session three. The characters haven’t levelled so I’m not going to repeat the little party bit I’ve done at the beginnings. This time I was better prepared and we were in the usual abode. Enjoy.

The second day passed very quickly as the caravan passed through the Umber Marshes. The air was sweet for to the nostrils of Nym who had missed the forested air. The caravan passed into Aglarond with no problems whatsoever much to the relief of the workers and the weary group. After an easy half a ten-day the caravan entered the Yuirwood then after another five days they encountered a much-needed village, hoping to get supplies by the evening. The whole group noticed that the village was obviously half-elven as the caravan pulled in to the village.

Tired and in need of sustenance the party dawdled into the local tavern, the ‘Golden Hind’, and ordered food, ale and a room. The taverns locals did not seem to worry about the gnome and even the Thayan human sat at the table in the corner of the room. The two half-elves easily fitted in, even Nym who had sun elf blood was accepted in the tavern. The tavern was rather typical as taverns go, antlers and other forms of trophies from various hunts. The air of the tavern was very much jolly and the half-elves seemed to be celebrating something, from what Harley and Rondel could gather they were cheering about one of the local teens killing a great stag on his first hunt, with them cheering in elven and common cheers of praise and about the coming of manhood. This was greatly disapproved of by Vaakku who was planning on a nice night in with an early start. Harley, just by chance while gazing at her scalpel, noticed that beyond the blade there was a man opposite sitting, sobbing for no foreseeable reason. Taking initiative she went over to find out what was the matter, not caring at the possibility of it not being her business. Noting that there were several tankards she waved at Nym, who had noticed Harley over by the half-elf, who noticed the sign to be in Harley’s words ‘quick, get an ale’.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but may I help at all?” She asked with the kindest face she could muster. She only received babble in return, making out something about a daughter and someone missing, which to Harley putting two and two together realized that the half-elf had lost his daughter. She turned back to look at Nym who by now was at the bar buying a drink for the unfortunate half-elf only to hold up two fingers as if saying ‘we need two tankards, stat!’
“Err, excuse me again, but is your daughter missing?” Harley asked politely with a caring look. At this the man seemed to snap straight back to reality with a large bang.
“You know my daughter?” He had a crazed look in his eye that Harley knew as the kind of sadness one could not easily come to terms with, but she couldn’t quite remember how she knew this, “Do you know where she is?”
The man leaped up and grabbed the jester’s garb of the little gnome. Luckily for him Nym turned up before Harley took things the wrong way.
“Hey, here you go.” Nym put the drinks on the table, helping the obviously drunk half-elf to his feet. As Nym put him on the seat he grabbed the tankard and took a long swig.
“I’m sorry, please forgive me. But my daughter has been missing for three days now and I don’t know whether I’ll ever see her again.” The man said to the two sympathetic figures in front of him.
“We understand. Where did she go missing?” Harley asked.
“That I don’t know. The local huntsman managed to track her footprints but after a while night fell and her footprints disappeared.”
“Disappeared you say…” Nym pondered.
“Do you know how or why or if anyone hates you in particularly?” Harley nuzzled. He looked her in the eyes with sincerity.
“I am a local noble. I guess I would have several enemies that I would not know of.” He replied. As he said this Nym noticed the expensive clothes, as did Harley.
“So someone could of kidnapped her for ransom?” Harley thought aloud. With that she got a sharp knee to the side from Nym, “However, if you do, tell us and we’ll go get the people who have done this. Until then I swear that we’ll continue searching until we find her.”
“Well done. We don’t even know if she’s still alive.” Nym whispered into Harley’s ear as he bent down so he could reach it. With this Harley clambered onto the table looking very determined and important.
“Hey everybody!” The little gnome yelled out. None of the tavern responded apart from Rondel and Vaakku who stopped their conversation immediately. Noting this Harley picked up a clay mug and slammed it on the floor, the smashing sound caught everyone’s attention.
“RIGHT! Who knows this man here?” Harley roared, shocking the whole tavern that that much aggression and that much noise came from something as small as that. Three raised their hands steadily up into the air as if fearful. Harley wriggled her finger as if to command them to come closer. They obeyed and the gnome jumped off of the table and searched in her side pouch and dropped a couple of gold pieces on the table.
“Look after him, keep him happy until we return. Now!” Harley threatened.

With that Harley and Nym walked back to the group with in thing in mind. Finding the daughter was first on Harley’s to-do list and Nym was the only one at this point to be able to help. Quickly informing the other two about the whole event, Harley rushed off dragging Nym with her. Rondel and Vaakku looked at each other and quickly followed into the darkness. Harley removed her ever-burning torch from her bag and spoke the command word. Warm light bathed her and the surroundings as the group moved into the forest, Nym desperately trying to find any humanoid footprints. The moon started to rise, the forest started to feel alive. Rustles put everyone but Nym on edge, whom was used to this sort of thing. As the moon rose the harder tracks were to spot even with the torch, more rustles and the deeper they went into the forest. When the moon was overhead, Nym decided that he could do no more and following the way he led the group in back to the tavern to get some rest. The group needed it, after having a long day’s travel to get to the destination Vaakku needed to have a rest as he was the least physically able of the group, Rondel wasn’t looking too good either.

The party returned to the tavern where the barkeep had stayed open for them.
“I didn’t think you were coming.” He said as they came through the door, totally exhausted.
“Do you have any rooms left?” Vaakku asked panting.
“Sure.” The barkeep said smiling. Passing the key over to the group as they went in to rest. They woke up the next morning the group came down to have some breakfast. It was just like Nym’s mother used to cook, traditional elven food.
“So, is there anything you would happen to know about that mans daughter?” Harley asked.
“Well, I only got all of my information from the local huntsman but lately there have been dark creatures lurking in the woods, around the many stone rings in the forest.” The barkeep replied.
“Do you know what they are?” Vaakku asked.
“Not really, but according to the huntsman the Duskwalker, of our bedtime stories to make sure they fall asleep, has returned. The only problem we’ve really got is that there are no high mages around to stop him if he ever wanders back into our realm.”
“What is this fairy tale?” Rondel asked in a polite tone.
“It’s just a story that we tell to our children.” The barkeep seemed slightly reluctant to tell them, as if they had insulted him in some way. Nevertheless he continued, “Those stone rings I presume you’d seen all around this wood as you were passing through the forest, they were built by our ancestors, the star elves, along time ago when their civilization was flourishing throughout these woods, well before the fall of the humans. These stone circles used to act as portals between our realms and others and as quick transport across this forest and most of Faérun.”
“Thank you for all of your help.” Harley said as she left the bar and started to leave. Nym grabbed her by the arm to stop her from going so soon.
“Anything else you can help us with?” He asked.
“Yeah, I heard from the huntsman that the creatures come from what we believe to be a cursed ring. Apparently the girl went there.” He finally replied with a smile.
“Thank you friend.” Rondel and Nym replied.

The group hurried out of town into the forest. Harley lighting her ever burning torch so they could see the trail in the next to none existent light. Nym moving quickly, picked up a trail that resembled a female humanoid as the group rushed through the forest wasting little time. Night quickly fell and yet the party kept going until the moon was overhead again, where they stopped and Vaakku quickly went to sleep as Harley, Nym and Rondel took watches. They rose again when Rondel noticed the sunlight barely get through the trees. They carried on until nightfall where they made camp with the same watch except this time finishing up with Nym finishing up so they could get up at dawn to carry on. When dawn beckoned and Vaakku had finished preparing his spells the group moved on. Before long they reached the stone circle.

Upon examining the large monolithic stones, which made several arches, taking this to be magical, and since magic was his forte, Vaakku cast Detect Magic in the ring where he noted a very faint aura of Transmutation. Harley moved into the stone circle and started to listen out for any apparent dangers. Nym and Rondel followed suit outside the stone ring. It wasn’t before long that Vaakku disappeared, hastily followed by Harley. Rondel and Nym both panicked until Nym worked out that it was because they had stood in the circle for a period of time. So dragging Rondel with him, he stood in the circle until they disappeared.

When the group reappeared they found themselves on a little island amongst a ruined stone circle in the middle of a turbulent sea. There was a slight wind that blew through each person’s hair and on his or her skin. In front of them stood four large towers that seemed made of crystal or an opaque glass. An opaque bridge linked each of these as was the rocky island they were on and the closest tower. Over the bridge was a large skeleton of what looked like a sea serpent wrapped around it looking, unmoving, with blank eyes and a menacing demeanour towards the island.

Not really caring about the skeleton Harley moved forwards, the rest waiting until Vaakku told them that there was no magic coming from it the rest follow. They kept moving along the bridge until they reached the first tower where they encountered what appeared to be an open archway only leading into a large opaque wall. Vaakku couldn’t notice any magic coming from the arch so Nym and Harley started looking for a way to get in. After about ten minutes of looking Nym found out how to get in by pushing an outlined bit of the arch so that the piece would move in allowing Nym a hold to open the door.

Upon entering the room they were greeted by the smell of carrion, which was quickly linked with the rotting corpses scattered across the floor, all of them seemed picked clean. The bodies consisted of fallen zombies, shattered pieces of old bone and dead armoured orcs. At the far end of the room there was a statue, made of cloudy crystal, of an elven woman in long flowing robes with a pleasant expression on her face and her arms outstretched with her palms facing upwards as if greeting. Harley, taking out her manacles, moved up to attempt to the tall statue. Upon reaching halfway across the room the statue said in ancient elven, “Welcome to Tir’in’tiral. Be at peace and take refreshment.” only Nym and Rondel understood but with some difficulty due to the time difference. There were two doors in this room one on the left wall the other, an open door along the right hand wall. Vaakku moved over to the to the door noticing the inhabitant and beckoned the group.
“What’s the matter?” Harley asked as she entered the door way, then she saw the Owlbear in the corner as it awoke from it’s slumber.

Vaakku started off by casting Summon Monster II, summoning a Lemure, which slashed at the Owlbear causing it a light flesh wound. Rondel moved through the door and fired her hand crossbow at the Owlbear with the bolt hanging out of it’s shoulder. The Owlbear then moved closer to the devil and swung at it twice with it’s claws, causing it to dodge the first claw but moved straight into the second claw, neatly slashing through the devil causing it to return to it’s home plane, much to the disgust of Vaakku. Nym taking the opportune moment moved in and gave the Owlbear a hard slash across the chest. Harley realising the magnitude of the situation, a really big mutant thing ripping apart everybody, cast a Suddenly Empowered and Maximised Hail of Stone greatly hurting it.

Vaakku, annoyed at the loss of the reinforcements, cast Ray of Enfeeblement on the Owlbear sapping it’s great strength. Rondel moved up to strike the Owlbear but as she tried to strike out with her rapier striking for the arm but only hitting the feathers as it slashed at Nym striking through armour and causing a very deep wound almost knocking him down. As Nym got up he span around striking the Owlbear with both of his swords, hard across the chest. Harley drew her great axe and charged the Owlbear striking it hard and getting the axe lodged in its side.

Vaakku cast Magic Missile on the Owlbear, each missile hitting the Owlbear in the face causing it and unfortunate end. As the creature fell Harley wrenched out her axe.

DM's Comments

Well a good start to the Twilight Tomb. Vaakku's player was good at taking the magical initiative in this game casting Detect Magic was quite useful for the group in discovering how the portal worked. Harley's player again played the little, nearly psychotic, gnome well. Also doing well at trying to help the party get involved. Nym's player had some good rolls in her track and could remember the way back also. She, yes Nym's player is a girl, was unfortunate to take a critical hit from the Owlbear reducing her to seven hit points. Rondel's player seems either to be shy or is playing the silent rogue. All in all the group is coming together and with a new arrival in the group in session 4 (written up on tuesday hopefully) that makes the group five!

 

[pizzaboy_15]

Session four (as promised)

Well this week we had another new addition to the group. So the party consists of:
Nym CN Half-elf Ranger 3
Rondel CN Half-elf Rogue 3
Harley CG Gnome War Mage 2/ Barbarian 1
Vaakku CN Human Necromancer 3
Tyrae Vermillion CG Sun Elf Bard 3

Back to the story:

After the fight, Nym feeling slightly drowsy after the injury sustained from the Owlbear, the party decided to rest. Harley rapidly closed the door and they rapped Nym up in the Owlbear so that he could go to sleep and rest up hopefully to a good degree. Harley took the first watch and Rondel took the second as Vaakku and whichever one of the two was on their break to sleep amongst the fallen Owlbear. This continued until Nym awoke where the rest were he drank one of the party potions to help his healing.

When the party were all ready they headed out into the main hall where all of the rotting dead lay. Harley leading the group through the door, they entered a room that seemed to have seats that seemed to flow into a comfortable curve that were long enough to lie down comfortably upon. This was when Harley noticed a door to the right of them and within the room they were not alone.

Rondel taking initiative moved up and attacked the closest opponent, which happened to be a Hobgoblin Zombie, not managing to pierce the studded leather armour. Nym moved into the corner of the small room and attacked the Skeleton also in the corner and narrowly missed the spine of the skeleton. The nearest skeleton to Nym struck out but Nym easily dodged the skeletons sword. The skeleton in the far corner charged Harley yet missed the little barbarian. Vaakku noting the two undead furthest away he cast Control Undead and gets the zombie that Rondel tried to attack. Harley moved out of danger and cast a Suddenly Maximised Hail of Stone destroying the skeleton that had been attacked by Nym and the other one that was moving towards Nym. The Zombie under the control of Vaakku attacks the remaining Skeleton and misses it with the sword it was holding. The other zombie swung at Harley with it’s longsword but again missed the hardy little gnome.

Tyrae in the room, to the right of the party, hears the commotions and jumps from his hiding place and runs through the door grasping his halberd as he opened the door he quickly assessed the situation and realised that the undead were the biggest threat and swung his halberd at the zombie unfortunate enough to place itself five feet away from him which was sharply repaid with the blade of the halberd in shoulder and then lifted up out of it. Rondel, in a moment of pure, instinct moved up to the controlled zombie and skeleton it was fighting and stabbed at the ribs of a skeleton yet forgetting about the lack of vital organs between the ribs. Nym move closer to the uncontrolled zombie and swung at it yet the searing pain from his previous fight made him fall to his knees and miss. The final skeleton swung with its scimitar at Rondel who quickly ducked the attack. Vaakku realising the possibility to gain another undead to help out the parties cause, he cast his second Control Undead of the day, which quickly got the skeleton under his control. Harley realising the end of the fight was near drew her great axe and charged the final opposing zombie and struck the zombies head, that lead to the head being removed.

Tyrae looked around the room, looking at each of the members and ending on Nym, of whom he fell in love with at first sight. Harley moved up looking critically at the sun elf in front of her.
“Thank you for helping us. Now why were you helping us?” Harley asked quizzically.
“Oh, hello.” Tyrae spoke to Nym. Nym waved nervously back.
“Excuse me.” Rondel asked getting the elf’s attention, “thank you for helping us. How did you get here?”
“Oh I fell asleep in a big ring and found myself here. And being the purveyor of pretty things that I am, I came here obviously because this tower is pretty and found this shiny rock!” Tyrae pulled out a shiny crystalline rock that seemed to glow slightly, “Look I want to get out of here now can I join you guys?”
“I don’t see why not.” Vaakku said admiring his new ‘companions’.
“Me neither.” Came Rondel.
“What?” Harley seemingly objected. I’m sorry but we don’t know anything about him.”
“None of us know much about each others pasts. Just that we will fight together.” Vaakku keenly replied.
“That’s not the point!” Harley exclaimed.
“No, yes it is.” Rondel pointed out.
“Fine. Now can we loot these bodies please?” Nym pointed out, seemingly off guard. Looting the bodies Tyrae found a silver chain between the ribs of one of the skeletons that he rapidly put through her shiny stone and gave it as a wristband to Nym as they were looking for anything else. The party found nothing else that was of decent value. So they decided to head through the door that Tyrae came through. Once they entered the next room there was a beautiful crystal fountain that was designed to look as though sunlight was shining off of the flowing water. With the edges carved into seats so that people could sit and by the educated guess of Tyrae, whom had been hiding in the room, it was a set of baths for the Star elves and their guests. In the pool at the base of the fountain the water was a pinkie tinge due to the two hobgoblin bodies lying dead at the edge of the water. Noting a trail of blood leading from the pool around the two hobgoblin bodies heading to a door in the centre of the wall. Deciding that it was probably not the best idea to go in that door the group decided to go to the door to the right of it. As they passed through the door to right they quickly discovered that it was a staircase and decided to prevent themselves from being attacked from behind, Vaakku’s idea, they decided to check the other door.

As they opened the door they saw it. There sat a dead hobgoblin, from what Nym could gather it was a hobgoblin that had been horribly mutilated. The clothes and armour had been removed and the skin had been stripped back and its face was stuck in a horrified pose with all of the organs and muscle exposed. He was in a pool of blood, presumably it’s own. Once in the room Vaakku cast Detect Magic. He viewed that there were two magical objects in the room. One of which was a longsword next to the body and there was a strong necromantic aura underneath the clothes of the fallen hobgoblin. Vaakku moved towards the sword in awe of the prospect of having a magical sword was over enticing. The two undead moved with him as ‘bodyguards’. After reaching half-way across the room, the pile of clothes erupted to reveal a Forsaken Shell, which charged the zombie and missed it narrowly.

Harley started by casting Fist of Stone as she moved over to the edge of the room. Tyrae charged the Forsaken Shell using his extended reach tried to strike it from a distance however it was easily dodged by the sloughed skin heap. Vaakku moves up and picks up the sword and admires it completely oblivious to the Forsaken Shell. The skeleton struck the sloughing skin causing damage to it. The zombie followed up and dealt it a deep gash. Rondel moved up and used the point of the rapier to slash at the creature. The Forsaken Shell smashed the skeleton, which fell to bits…

DM's Comments

Well as promised the session has been put up. Now I'm up to date. But sorry for the snappy length of the session, it's just that we had a new player that we sorted out at the beginning of the session. This cut down our time but everyone played well and with the addition of Tyrae and his love of Nym things may start getting sligthly weird...

The party is doing well and are doing well while fighting the Forsaken shell. I'm not surprised that Nym's player isn't wanting to get involved in the combat as she did take a critical hit last time and this one is bigger and tougher than the owlbear. Enjoy

 

[pizzaboy_15]

Sorry for the lack of the posts recently. When My laptop is sorted out then I will post some more. We'll be on session 8 on friday (7/3/07 UK dates seventh of march 2007)

 

[Vaakku]

continue??

so when the next part coming out?? it's been quite a while since the last one.