Sagiro's Story Hour Returns (new thread started on 5/18/08)

[Piratecat]

I still haven't figured out what the crullers mean, although I'm sure Dranko will tell me.

Ernie doesn't date much, does he?

 

[KidCthulhu]

We played yesterday. The run went like this:

Get butts kicked
Deadly surprise peril
Get butts kicked
Condescending servants and house guards

oy. That Sagiro is a bad, bad man.

 

[Piratecat]

KidCthulhu is being purposefully vague, but here are a few highlights of the evening:

- Dranko running full out, most of his body obscured by the null shadows' taint, pursued by shadowy shapes that he just can't lose

- Greywolf, Kibi, Eddings and Skorg make a very unwanted side trip

- Aravis sending his familiar Pewter in to fight a null shaodw, and making the horrible discovery that Pewter is an inherently magical cat....

- Ernie gets job offers from the only cook he's met who doesn't gossip

- Morningstar practices the fine art of throwing her weight around

- Surrounded by fourteen enemy and virtually defenseless, the Company becomes convinced that we're all going to die; Aravis, unable to climb a rope and being attacked by five null shadows a round, comes within inches of proving us correct.

It was quite a game!

 

[Sagiro]

Thanks for the bumps! I've been doing other things when I clearly should have been working on the Story Hour. I just wrote up the first section of the last run; there's more, but that will have to come later. -Sagiro

Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 138a

Wednesday, July 17

The Company heads back to the Moonspell. Morningstar desperately needs sleep, but before she hits the sack, she sends a sending to Grey Wolf back in the Greenhouse, giving him a brief recap, and asking him to see if he can learn anything about a "Divination Sink." Grey Wolf reports back that things have been quiet in the Greenhouse, and that his studies continue apace.

A few minutes after the Sending, there is a knock on Grey Wolf’s door. Skorg is there with a big grin on his face. "Lunchtime!" he says brightly. Grey Wolf can detect an unpleasant odor coming from the kitchen. Skorg rouses Kibi as well. "Come on! You wizardy types need to eat sometime, to keep up your strength."

In the dining room the table is set with plates containing some sort of black oozy substance. A questionable smell wafts from the plates. Eddings is already seated, trying not to look disgusted. "Black lizard pie!" announces Skorg proudly. "I made it from scratch myself. I had the Icebox deliver a brace of fresh black lizards, and used some of Ernie’s spices to give the pie extra flavor."

"I suggest the spices," Eddings offers helpfully. "Lots of spices."

Kibi and Grey Wolf sit, their noses wrinkling uncontrollably. Skorg starts wolfing down forkfuls of pie. Eddings pushes his food around with his fork without enthusiasm.

And then the Greenhouse vanishes. Grey Wolf feels a lurching in his stomach, and the constant feeling of churning semi-nausea is replaced by a different sort of discomfort. Now it feels like a deep vibration, like a buzzer is going off in his innards. After a second of disorientation, the four of them look around and see that they are in deep, deep trouble.

It is night. They are outdoors, on a vast plain, in the midst of an army. All around them are tents, campfires, and the sounds of an army camp at night. They can hear grunts, clanks, voices, horses, the crackling of torches. The air is filled with the aromas of sweat, urine and gruel that follow large armies wherever they go.

They are all still in their chairs, forks in hand. Eddings looks around slowly. "I, uh, don't suppose this is something you have done on purpose?" he whispers.

None of them move. Fortunately they have appeared in a small pocket of empty space, out of the direct light of any fires, and a good 40 feet from the nearest tent. But they are clearly in the midst of the camp, and not at its edge, and there are several patrols of soldiers with torches. One of these is moving in their general direction. Kibi and Grey Wolf are unarmed, and have none of their magical items. But both of the wizards wear their component pouches as a matter of course, and their heads are full of spells that have gone unused for the last few days.

They have a quick, whispered debate about what to do. If they cast spells, they’ll be heard. If the try to sneak away, they’ll probably be spotted. If they stay where they are, they’ll be found by the roving guards in under 30 seconds. Skorg whispers, "oh god, we’re going to die, we’re going to die, we’re going to…" but he is shut up by the others. Finally they decide they have to risk spells if they are going to escape. Kibi and Grey Wolf start casting spells – haste, fly and invisibility. Nearby guards immediately hear the sounds of spell-casting, and move quickly to investigate, barking in an unfamiliar tongue. Just as they get close enough to see those of the four who aren’t yet invisible, Kibi and Grey Wolf fly straight up. Eddings is clinging to Kibi’s back, while Skorg clutches Grey Wolf. The guards shout, point upward, and that section of the camp erupts with activity. Arrows whistle upwards, but none of them find their mark, and soon they aren’t making up as high as the flying wizards. Eddings is taking all of this in stride, but Skorg is terrified, squirming and clutching at Grey Wolf in an effort not to fall. "I’m scared of heights!" he whimpers. "Then don’t look down," Grey Wolf advises. Of course, Skorg instinctively looks down and becomes even more terrified. Kibi thinks that it’s a good thing it’s not him carrying Skorg, or there would likely be a "terrible accident" involving a plummeting orc.

As they hang there in the air, pondering what to do next, three magic missiles come streaking out of the night sky below them and strike true… upon Eddings! (Kibi is invisible, but Eddings is not.) Eddings lets out a groan of pain, and they realize that a flying wizard must be pursuing them. They fly away at top speed; Kibi, hasted, tries to cast fly on Eddings as well, but it proves too hard for him to cast with someone holding on to him for dear life. Another set of magic missiles shoots out of the darkness, again striking Eddings. The butler goes unconscious, and Kibi just manages to grab hold of him before he falls down into the army camp. Grey Wolf finally spots their attacker, tells Skorg to hold on, and manages to Concentrate well enough to launch a lightning bolt at the enemy mage. The stroke of electricity strikes true, and its target falls out of the sky, trailing a line of smoke.

"We’ve got to get heal Eddings!" Kibi cries. "Or he’s going to die!"

And then the army disappears, and it’s late morning, and they are flying out over the bay above Tal Hae. The buzzing in Grey Wolf’s gut is replaced by the more familiar churning. They fly down to the nearest dock, and Grey Wolf manages to stop Eddings’ bleeding before the butler dies. The magic missiles have left horrible open wounds upon his skin, and his breathing is still shallow, his face pale. They fly him slowly over the city to the temple of Yondalla, where the clerics there tend to his wounds. Soon he walking out under his own power, and the four of them go back to the Greenhouse, which is now out four very nice dining room chairs.

…to be continued…

 

[Sagiro]

Here's the rest from our most recent session! Our next game is this coming Sunday.


Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 138b

Back in the Moonspell, the party has just heard that all is quiet at the Greenhouse, so Morningstar goes to sleep. Aravis decides to try using the Crosser’s Maze again, to observe the city of Kallor from an "outside perspective." His mind slides easily back into the Maze, and he spends a few seconds observing the two Primes: Abernia, on which they dwell, and Volpos, on which Naradawk’s army waits for the merging. Energies are flying fast and furious between the two, though the center of these is not precisely at Kallor. Through some hard calculations and intense concentration, Aravis is able to swivel his viewpoints around and then zoom it in toward Abernia, zeroing in on the city of Kallor. It becomes more and more difficult as his perspective gets closer, but he is able to bring his point of observation to a point high above the city walls. Although there is nothing explicitly strange-looking about any of the city, he finds that one general section of the city is difficult to look at through the Maze. Uncomfortable to look at. It’s the northern section of the city – around the Silent Quarter. Aravis tries to focus closer, but his mind tires, and he loses his grip on the Maze. His consciousness returns to his body, and he tells the others what he has seen.

Some of the Company then decide that they really want to know what a Divination Sink is, and badly. There are two repositories of knowledge in Charagan that stand above all others in scope: The Vault in Hae Charagan, capital of the Kingdom, and the Sages’ Consortium in Hae Kalkas. Aravis has never been to Hae Charagan, but the party was in Hae Kalkas fairly recently, so that’s where Aravis decides to teleport. But since the only place with which he really became familiar was his room in the inn where they stayed, that’s where he decides to go, taking Dranko and Ernie along. Fortunately, the room is empty (it being late morning), though made up for new guests. Not wanting to be discovered, Aravis looks out the window and dimension doors the three of them to a discreet alleyway across the street. From there they walk quickly to the Sages’ Consortium.

The Consortium is running with a dearth of personnel; many of the sages have gone to help the war effort on the peninsula, as advisors, healers and scribes. But their old friend Richter is there, looking cheerful and busy. "Ah, friends!" he says. "Come back for more questions about the flora of our fine kingdom?" There is little sign of the insanity that the party unwittingly brought on him, by asking him too many questions about the Sharshun and other Masked topics. Ernie and Dranko greet him warmly.

The sage who is most expert in Divination magic is not there, and much to Dranko’s dismay, the Consortium clerk refuses to give out his name. So Dranko says, "I’ve got a letter from the King’s Advisor that this is a matter of kingdom security. I didn’t think we’d need it, but it’s back in my inn room." And he leaves. In the meantime, Aravis and Ernie meet with another sage named Farning, but he has little of value to offer. A few minutes later Dranko comes back, bearing a letter, cleverly forged (and using his magical Forgery Kit found in Zhamir), from Yale, advisor to King Crunard IV. The clerk looks at it suspiciously, but there’s the royal seal and everything. So he gives them the name of the Divination expert: Elijah Sand. Soon thereafter they teleport back to Kallor, and Dranko quickly composes a note of apology, to send to Yale as a "preemptive strike" should she discover the forgery on her own.

When Morningstar wakes up later in the afternoon, she has indistinct memories of a dream. All she remembers is that, in the dream, she had a feeling of urgency, that she should go to Amber’s Illuminated Temple in Tal Hae in Ava Dormo, the night after the following day. Curious, she goes into trance right then, and dreams her way directly to Tal Hae and the Illuminated Temple. There, on the plains of Ava Dormo outside the temple, is June, one of Morningstar’s protégés. June has always been hot-tempered and eager, but her energies have been well-directed by Previa into training the growing dream-army. Here in Tal Hae, she has over fifty Ellish priestesses doing combat training exercises. And though Ava Dormo is not typically a brightly-lit place (not as dark as Kallor, mind – more like a cloudy day near sunset), there are light sources shining all around the perimeter of the training field. The fifty soldiers are showing few signs of discomfort in the bright lights.

June sees Morningstar watching and runs over. She is eager to impress Morningstar with her troops’ progress, and orders them into a snappy succession of drills and maneuvers. The soldiers themselves are clearly impressed that Morningstar herself has come for an inspection, and do their best to demonstrate their prowess. It all embarrasses Morningstar; they clearly think of her like a General, but she herself feels more like a mascot. But while June does make a good impression, she has no ideas or information about Morningstar’s recent dream.

Morningstar returns to her body in Kallor, and then goes into Ava Dormo locally, hoping to see some sign of the Black Circle there. (In Hae Charagan, Mokad’s base of operations was shielded in Dream by a strong magical ward, visible as an opaque black shroud.) But here, except for the Temple of Ell itself, the Ava Dormo version is still empty, having been wiped clean of buildings (along with the rest of the Dreaming) some months back. And there is no sign of the Black Circle where any part of the city would have been, including the Silent Quarter.

The party has another meeting to discuss their next move. They decide that some personal investigation of the Silent Quarter is in order, so they march over to the constabulary to get the go-ahead from Cobb. He agrees to write them a letter giving them the authority to armed into the Silent Quarter, on official business of city security. But while some of the party goes in under those pretenses, showing the note to the guards at the gate into the walled Quarter, others follow after in peasant garb. They have learned from Cobb that there is a tavern near to the gate called the The Quiet Man pub, where the servant-types generally gather in the evenings before curfew. Kay, Dranko, Ernie go to the crowded Quiet Man posing as servants themselves, and strike up as many conversations as they can, hoping to learn about anything unusual going on in that part of the city. They try to steer the conversation toward any recent influxes of "new money," nobles or merchants, who have come into the city recently. Ernie talks to the cook, figuring she’ll have her finger on the pulse of the area, but instead she shanghais the halfling into a long discussion on cookery, culminating in an offer of employment. Dranko and Kay have more luck, and Aravis, hanging around outside, listens in via a Rary’s telepathic bond cast by Morningstar on him and Dranko. Dranko asks particularly about any newcomers with an unusual number of scars, and while he doesn’t get any affirmatives, Kay gets some information about a newcomer who "must have been an old campaigner, the way he looked." Aravis puts the pieces together, as possible evidence of a Scarbearer recently arrived.

The party members in the tavern decide to leave; Dranko in particular wants to do some more scouting in the neighborhood. Flicker watches as they depart, and a minute later sees another man, a local servant-type, walk out and look in the direction the party was headed. Then the stranger follows in that direction, and so Flicker follows him. The man tails the party for a few short blocks before stopping at the door to another local tavern – "The Storied Hall." (This one is quite posh, though closed for the evening.) He quickly unlocks (or picks open?) the door, and slips inside. Flicker runs forward to warn Morningstar and the others, and then runs back to hide in the shadows and wait for the man. A few minutes later the man emerges, and heads nonchalantly back toward Flicker’s hiding place. But before Flicker has a chance to do anything, he sees the rest of the party (down at the end of the street) suddenly break into a run, away from him!

Dranko has been prowling the rooftops of the Silent Quarter, heading generally northward. He is occasionally communicating via the telepathic bond, when suddenly it shuts off completely! Startled, he waits for a moment, and then takes a few steps back. The link reestablishes itself. Dranko reports what just happened. "I think I found the Divination Sink," he says. He does some more experimenting, stepping back and forth across some invisible line, and slowly sidling along the roof, testing the boundary where the telepathic bond becomes disabled. He goes far enough to realize that the curve is quite wide, but not enough to determine the full extent, when he feels a sudden sensation of dread. Alarmed, he descends from the rooftop, preparing to return to the others – and that’s when four Null Shadows attack.

He calls for his non-magical mace from his magical bag at his belt, and it leaps into his hand. He takes some wild swings as the black creatures swarm him, landing stinging blows that leave burning black smudges on his face. It is not long before he realizes that the creatures will overpower him, so he runs as fast as he can, thinking loudly for help over the telepathic bond. As they did when Morningstar was attacked, the party regroups and moves to intercept. This time they are better prepared, and knowing not to waste time with magic, they quickly dispatch the four black monsters.

Flicker catches up to the combat in time for its tail end, and then informs them about the trailing servant and the Storied Hall. There is a brief interlude wherein the party investigates, thinking the tavern might be a Black Circle base of operations. But some thought captures reveal that the man is just a petty criminal, interested in the party only because they sure were asking a lot of strange questions, and interested in the Storied Hall because he often filches coppers from the money box there.

Not wanting to split up again now that they know Null Shadows are on the prowl in the area, the Company goes as a group deeper into the Silent Quarter, toward where Dranko discovered the boundary that cut off the telepathic bond. They move slowly along, with Dranko moving back and forth, and they eventually get enough of the curve established to realize that this boundary must be extremely large – maybe a quarter mile in diameter. They are in a park, away from any buildings, when the Null Shadows emerge from the shadows of the trees around them. All of the party is filled with an ill-feeling of dismay, but to Aravis it is nearly sickening, a mixture of fear and disgust that rolls off of the creatures in vile waves of evil magic.

There are many more of them than they’ve encountered thus far; over a dozen, though it’s hard to count them in the twilight. Worse, they are a deeper shade of black than those previously fought, and slightly larger. Everyone draws non-magical weapons. The creatures move in, and launch a vicious attack. Aravis immediately accesses the Maze hoping to learn something to help them fight these monsters. But the Null Shadows go straight for Aravis, pummeling him, delivering gruesome damage, and breaking his concentration, knocking him from the Maze. Worse, he feels that one of his most potent prepared spells – a stoneskin – has been stripped from his mind by the horrid touch of his attackers. Pewter launches himself at one of the creatures, hoping to damage it with his claws, but being an inherently magical creature he passes right through it, and takes burning damage just by coming in contact with the black vaporous body. There follows some furious melee fighting, with Flicker looking for opportunities with his sling. Aravis casts rope trick and tries to climb up to safety, but his hands, sweaty with fear, slip off the ropes, and many of the Null Shadows pounce. Aravis is left covered with black smears, nearly unconscious. One more round of attacks will surely finish him. He commands Pewter to flee while he can into the rope trick.

The others continue to batter at the monsters, but they are also taking a beating. All of the spell-casting members of the party feel spells being forced from their heads when the creatures strike them. Aravis realizes that he has no choice left; he takes from his pocket a small jeweled pin shaped like a sheaf of wheat, given to him by the Spire in case of this sort of emergency. The Crosser’s Maze is too valuable to risk; Aravis breaks the pin, activating the refuge spell. He vanishes, taken straight to the temple of Pikon in Tal Hae. He calls for clerics, and soon is getting healed up. But he is out of teleports, and cannot return to help his comrades.

Back in Kallor, the battle is tense, and seems like it could go either way. The Null Shadows focus their attacks on spell-casters when possible – Ernie is nearly killed, but Flicker is essentially ignored. But finally the Company turns the corner and finishes off the last few Null Shadows, without suffering any casualties. They are covered with black wounds. A minute later a voice sounds from a few yards away: "Halt! Declare yourselves, and put down your weapons!"

Soon the party realizes that there are six guardsmen around them, brandishing weapons. They are not dressed in the uniforms of city guardsmen, but are more likely the personal guardsmen of a wealthy nobleman or merchant of the Silent Quarter. The guards demand to know why the party is making such a racket, and heavily armed, and out after curfew. Morningstar explains that they were attacked, but the guard is nasty and rude, showing no sympathy. He continues to demand that the party drop their weapons. Which they don’t. Eventually the standoff is broken when they show him their letter from Captain Cobb. The guard looks it over, and unhappily concedes that he shouldn’t arrest them on the spot. But he vows to go straight to Cobb, clearly expecting to learn that the party isn’t legit. If he catches them after that, he’ll be less merciful next time. As he leaves, Morningstar casts detect thoughts, suspecting that this guard might be a Black Circle agent. He’s not. He’s just a puffed-up, obnoxious guard of a wealthy household, who likes being a bully. He’s also thinking to himself, "what a bunch of liars! They claim they were just in a fight, but then where are the bodies of their attackers?"

Morningstar is thinking to herself: "Jerk."

She casts sendings back to the Temple of Ell, tersely explaining what happened, and requesting an escort to bring them back from the Silent Quarter. They wait huddled in Aravis’ rope trick. Pewter meows pitifully, and when Kay casts speak with animals," the cat is beside himself with worry over Aravis. Eventually a group of twenty-four Ellish soldiers comes into the park; the Company descends from the pocket dimension and follows the group out of the Silent Quarter and back to the temple. And now they have the best information so far; given the curve of the boundary that was cutting off the telepathic bond, they can make a pretty good guess as to where its center lies…

…to be continued…

 

[Zaruthustran]

Awesome

Oh good grief. This story is almost TOO good.

 

[Kosh]

To start: Excellent Story Hour!... I absolutely love it!...

Now, onto business...

Did you create the Null Shadows?... They were a real surprise... I'd love to use them in my game, and tell fellow DMs (evil or not) about them... Are the stats available to the public?...

I understand that you probably don't want to give anything away to your players, so I wouldn't ask you to post them here... But if you could e-mail them or post them elsewhere (this would require a pinky swear by your players to not view the page)...

If this is too much bother, I'll accept that and write them up myself with just the idea in mind... Though I've never been good at writing monster stats... So yeah, if it's not too much trouble, I would really appriciate it...

Again: Great game!...

 

[Tuerny]

bah, thats no fair.
My PCs are nowhere near where they will be powerful enough to fight a Null Shadow.

 

[KidCthulhu]

bah, thats no fair.
My PCs are nowhere near where they will be powerful enough to fight a Null Shadow.

Actually, Null Shadow's would make a very interesting enemy to follow a group of adventurers through a campaign. One or two of them would make a nice challenge for a low level group. And they have features that will cause them to be trouble for groups up to the level of the Company and higher.

Think about this. Their attacks are always touch attacks. When you are low level, this isn't a big deal, as your AC isn't great to start with. But as you get buff and armored, this becomes a great way to make players feel very vulnerable.

They don't have lots of hit pionts, and their ac isn't high. They can be hit and damaged by low level groups with normal weapons. But as your party gets higher level, Null Shadows would be a refreshing way to remind them that Fireball doesn't solve everything.

I like them (from a design standpoint. As a player I loathe and despise them.). They're a great recurring enemy. Vary the number encountered, and the type and you've got a challenge every time.

 

[Sagiro]

Yikes! Since the interest is so high, I decided it would be easier to just post a web-page with the stats.

You players of mine who are here: please do not look at this page. I trust you.

Here's the link to the Null Shadows.

Enjoy!

-Sagiro