Cyronax
Explorer
Session II (Part 4)
Covered in mud and with nerves as tense as his wound crossbow, Li Hai made his along the trail straining his ears and his eyes for any sign of his enemies.
Li Hai’s pet toad helped him a little. It too didn’t have the greatest night vision, but it saw much more than Li Hai ever could.
Moving in and out of the high marsh reeds to either side of the trail, Li Hai started to hear the
sound of people up ahead. He heard several low voices, probably male and human, as well as the occasional crackle or pop of a campfire. If there had been a cloud of smoke from the fire, it was probably obscured by the haze that hung over the swamp.
After another fifty feet or so, Li Hai, finally rounded a corner along the trail, and could make a break in the reeds not far off. Beyond that, Li Hai thought he could make out another rickety bridge in the moonlight, and finally after that, he saw a small island that was wreathed in high reeds. The trail continued on to the island, and Li Hai could barely make out the cozy glow of a small fire. He thought he could see several figures sitting around it, but it was still too far to know for certain.
Li Hai decided to go back and inform his companions on what he’d seen, so that they could plot their next move. As he made his way back, he discreetly put the toad back into an inner pocket in his tunic.
Li Hai returned to the party, told them what he’d seen, and they immediately fell into a long debate. Li Hai made sure to keep an eye on the trail, so that they weren’t caught unawares.
During the course of their debate, several ideas were tossed around, but Gareth seemed to be set on a highly risky plan of his own. Gareth proposed that he don the tattered, bloody disguise of a Clover caravan guard, burst into the camp, and tell the men that a party of well armed mercenaries, led by a Clover Trade bounty hunter had waylaid his watch-post at the Floodgate. He then would attempt to lead or direct a contingent of guards to leave the camp, so as to divide their forces. The rest of the party he explained would hide among the reeds along the side of the path. Li Hai could cover Gareth with his crossbow in case trouble started, and after the forces were divided, the party could then attack which ever group they thought they could best handle.
The noble confidently stated that his performance would be made all the more genuine by the fact that no patrols had returned to the camp since the party had entered the swamp.
Kelec agreed that Gareth was probably right about the fact that no guards had come back to report about the party’s presence, but the dwarf was not willing to risk his life on that assumption. As cautious as always, Kelec told the group that even though he had been well trained at tracking and wilderness skills, he still might have missed something.
“Plus,” Li Hai added, “There might actually be more than one way into the swamp. We really can’t know for sure. This is a big place, and it looks like these people know the lay of the land pretty well. That old wolf could be wrong Kelec.”
Kelec said, “Bah…I doubt that……..Thornfur was certain that the “gateway into the swamp” was the only way into this whole sh*t-infested hell hole. I’m willing to trust his knowledge about that. His pack has been here longer than almost everyone.”
Gareth smiled broadly and said, “That gives my plan a good boost. Think about it….we’ve already killed six of their men. We already know that at least one patrol had passed out of the swamp while we were recuperating from the Floodgate battle. I think I place more faith in your tracking skills than you do Master Kelec. I don’t think you would have missed signs of a recent patrol returning to that camp up ahead.”
The dwarf just shrugged.
“Hmmmm..okay Kelec, how many people do you think have actually been living in this swamp? Based on the signs along the trail I mean,” asked Li Hai.
Kelec furrowed his brow, and thought the question over for a few moments before replying that he didn’t think anymore than fifteen to twenty. Both Li Hai and Gareth tried to get a more definite approximation from the dwarf, but Kelec couldn’t be sure. The dwarf told the party that in all likelihood, his estimation was wrong anyway. In the end, Kelec concluded that Gareth’s plan might work.
Li Hai disagreed. He thought the bluff was too risky. He thought it might be better to just wait until they send out another patrol and then waylay them safely away from the main camp.
Gareth immediately countered that. He believed that any further delays of contact with the already defeated guards would put the entire camp on edge and make them think something was wrong. He also reminded Li Hai that a patrol of unknown strength was already away from camp. Thus, they would have fewer guards now then they would later. In the end, Gareth had managed to convince Kelec to go along with his plan. Gorbag followed Gareth’s lead by default as always.
Li Hai just said, “Fine but just remember who thought of this stupid idea when it blows up in your face.”
Gareth flashed the doubting Halthyte a defiant grin.
-------------------
The camp wasn’t much to look at, but had a cozy, rustic feeling despite the oppressive and fetid swamp air. As Gareth stumbled towards the camp, now dressed in a bloody, torn Clover tabard and clutching a fake wound on his torso, no one seemed notice him at first.
The disguised noble had crossed the plank bridge rather loudly, and was now leaning weakly against a four foot high stone barricade that was built immediately to the left of the bridge on the new island. The stonework might have been built to serve as a fortification had anyone bothered to guard the bridge and the approach to the island.
As he mustered his will to continue further, Gareth saw that the island he was on was probably around forty or fifty feet in diameter, it was surrounded by the now familiar tall reeds, but had been hollowed out for the most part leaving a “courtyard” in which a camp for many people had been set up.
He noticed that off to his right lay a small, weedy vegetable garden, and on the side of the island opposite of the bridge, was a wooden shack that had been assembled on a set of stilts. It hovered a foot over the waterline of the swamp, and had a small stone chimney that served as one of its stilt legs. The shack was composed of mismatched pieces of scrap lumber. The windows and a few of the larger cracks of the house were covered by cheesecloth, probably to protect its inhabitants from swamp bugs. The shack also had a porch that partially surrounded the hovel and it looked to be littered with firewood. Gareth could see mud-covered picks and shovels leaning next to the stairs that led up to the shack.
Gareth finally composed himself, noted that he only saw five figures, all men equipped in a similar fashion as the other guards camped around a small campfire. Three of the men were asleep, and the other two seemed to be nodding off anyway.
“Okay here it goes….,” Gareth whispered to himself, and then he moaned in a faked rough, tired voice, “Help…wake up!! Wake up, we were attacked at the Floodgate!”
The two guards wheeled around in surprise, hands going to their weapons reflexively. They relaxed a bit when they saw a “fellow guardsmen,” and came over to him.
It took less than two minutes, and Gareth’s sudden arrival had roused the entire camp. The three sleeping men had been awakened, while two other people had emerged from the shack. The first to emerge was a small, but attractive young Mytherian woman, probably in her late twenties, who had a beautiful mane of amber hair and deep green eyes. She seemed remarkably out of place and Gareth could thought she’d look better gliding across the Baron’s banquet hall in Archaven instead of their current swampy location.
He tried not to make eye contact with her, and instead passed his gaze to the second inhabitant of the shack, a short stocky man dressed in dirty rags. The man, who was probably a Mytherian-Halthyte mutt, had a pug-like face, beady almond shaped eyes, and scarred and angry features. His left eye was missing, and the twisted man didn’t even bother to cover the hollow socket with a patch or some other effect. The noble would have discounted the man for worthless pauper had it not been for the look of bitter genius that burned in the man’s one good eye.
Gareth felt a nervous lump rising in his throat. He only hoped that the mud and other filth that he had covered his face in would be enough to give him a chance at impersonating one of their own.
“Hey are you listening to me?”
“Uh….what?” Gareth stammered. He realized that he had been blindly staring at the stooped man and the woman even as the five guards around him were throwing questions at him.
“So how many guards were they? Did you recognize the bounty hunter?” The guard repeated.
“Oh…there were about ten plus the leader I think,” Gareth answered roughly. For good measure he winced from some imagined pain in his side.
“Are they very far off?” One of the guards asked.
By this time the woman and the strange man had made it across the island, and were now silently observing the questioning.
Gareth was in the middle of making up some false details about his flight from the Floodgate when the one-eyed man rasped, “Only you survived? What happened to the rest? Did you meet up with Khelsor’s patrol?”
“Uh yes, they said he would go investigate the ….uh…incident.” Gareth lied.
The ugly leader just looked deeply into Gareth’s eyes, and then said with a broad smile on his face, “So General, its fortunate that you alone survived. You should be rewarded.”
Gareth only said, “Uh……..thank you sir……I appreciate..uh….I.”
The twisted man’s eyes narrowed angrily, and he shouted, “Porlow, Fredrick take him!! You three,” he said, pointing at the other three guards, “Guard the bridge! Janne follow me! He’s not one of us! He’s baiting us for an attack or a trap of some sort!”
And with that Gareth was quickly subdued by the two guards and dragged after the leader and the woman Janne towards the shack on stilts.
--------------------
Li Hai and Kelec both cursed Gareth’s inept performance as soon as they saw the noble’s physical reaction to the appearance of the woman and the leader. Safe among the concealing reeds of the adjacent swamp island Kelec commanded Li Hai not to act until they were sure that Gareth had failed. The second that the dwarf heard the leader shout the orders to capture the Mytherian noble, he knew they were all in trouble.
“Fire!” Kelec told the Halthyte even as he grabbed Gorbag’s meaty hand and led the orc on to the trail. Kelec had his throwing axe readied, while Gorbag wielded his bastard sword as always.
Even as Kelec dragged the orc out of their hiding place, he shouted, “Gorbag get ready for a fight!!”
Li Hai didn’t immediately fire, even though he knew Kelec and Gorbag needed some help against the three bowmen who were deployed behind the stone wall on the other side of the bridge. Instead, the Halthyte took aim on the ugly leader. He then started muttering to himself, all the while focusing on the man’s back, which was outlined in the dim light of the island’s campfire.
Kelec wisely got behind Gorbag as they began their charge across the bridge (7).
By the time he had crossed the bridge, the orc was hit at point blank range by two of the archers. The third guard actually dropped his unfired bow and was already drawing his longsword by the time Gorbag had finished crossed the bridge.
The other two archers also dropped their bows, but it was too late. Gorbag was already upon them, and the orc killed one and badly wounded the other with but one mighty swing of his blade.
The third archer took off as fast as he could towards the safety of the shack.
Gareth meanwhile, was roughly dragged by the other two guards towards the shack. Even as he struggled to draw his long sword and fight back, the guard named Porlow soundly punched Gareth across the face, and the other one, Fredrick, had slashed Gareth’s stomach with his drawn longsword.
Gareth went limp in their arms, and they continued to carry his bleeding, prone form towards the shack. The archer who had fled Gorbag, raced passed these two encumbered guards.
Kelec, coming out from behind his orcish shield, left the wounded guard to Gorbag, and set his sights for the two guards holding Gareth. He hurled his axe at Porlow, but missed badly. The dwarf cursed, and knew that Gareth was either dead or close to it. He hoped he could take the guards before they made it to the shack.
Li Hai finally got a bead on the stumpy leader and fired expertly at his fleeing form. The Halthyte watched with great satisfaction as he saw the ugly man nearly fall over from the force of the bolt.
Janne, the comely Mytherian woman, seeing her master wounded, immediately helped him to his feet, and supported him all the way to the shack. They had climbed up the steps and made it into the shack before Li Hai could reload his crossbow for another shot.
The wounded guard facing Gorbag missed the fast orc, and a look of imminent defeat came to his face, even as he was turned into a storm of blood and flying severed limbs. Gorbag stood in this storm’s eye, with a calm humdrum expression on his face.
The last archer, the one who had run from Gorbag previously, also reached the door, and forced it open, only to slam it behind him as soon as he’d gone in.
Kelec shouted a few more potent curses at the two remaining guards, and yanked his club off his belt. He dared not charge them, and instead stopped about ten feet away from them, hoping that they’d drop Gareth and engage him instead.
Li Hai meanwhile decided against wasting anymore time, raised his crossbow, quickly took aim at the guard Fredrick and fired.
The Halthyte missed, and as he was reloading for another shot, he emerged from the cover of the reeds and began to carefully cross the bridge to help his friends.
The two guards were able to out run the dwarf, and made it to the shack with Gareth’s unconscious, bleeding form held between them.
Even as the door to the shack was slammed shut, Kelec shouted, “Gorbag! Li Hai!,” Kelec called, “Get the f**k over here! (8)”
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Endnotes:
(7) – Despite the fact that Kelec, Gorbag, and Li Hai all had high hit point totals for 1st level characters (11, 12, 11 respectively), all of the players took advantage of the orc’s malleable will and often used the orc as a human(oid) shield in combat.
(8) – When I ran these sessions Kelec’s player, who posts as Sathorae on these boards, didn’t actually say curses as much as I might have made him out to, but the other players and I generally assumed that whatever Sathorae had Kelec say was also surely peppered with a few foul insults and curses. We didn’t require Sathorae to vocalize all of the curse words, partly because it wasn’t in his real world nature and also because it would have been really distracting. This was all part of trying to realistically play and also react to a dwarf who had a Charisma equal to a dretch tanar’ri (p.10 of the PH). It was sometimes hard for me as the DM to remember how unlikable Kelec would come across to everyone but animals NPCs.
The interesting part of all this, was that Kelec’s foul mouth and sub-par hygiene was off set by the fact that he was hands down the smartest character in the party throughout much of the campaign. Though he would never be looked upon as the party leader as Gareth sometimes would, his opinion was generally regarded as the tiebreaker in many of the many intra-party arguments.
Covered in mud and with nerves as tense as his wound crossbow, Li Hai made his along the trail straining his ears and his eyes for any sign of his enemies.
Li Hai’s pet toad helped him a little. It too didn’t have the greatest night vision, but it saw much more than Li Hai ever could.
Moving in and out of the high marsh reeds to either side of the trail, Li Hai started to hear the
sound of people up ahead. He heard several low voices, probably male and human, as well as the occasional crackle or pop of a campfire. If there had been a cloud of smoke from the fire, it was probably obscured by the haze that hung over the swamp.
After another fifty feet or so, Li Hai, finally rounded a corner along the trail, and could make a break in the reeds not far off. Beyond that, Li Hai thought he could make out another rickety bridge in the moonlight, and finally after that, he saw a small island that was wreathed in high reeds. The trail continued on to the island, and Li Hai could barely make out the cozy glow of a small fire. He thought he could see several figures sitting around it, but it was still too far to know for certain.
Li Hai decided to go back and inform his companions on what he’d seen, so that they could plot their next move. As he made his way back, he discreetly put the toad back into an inner pocket in his tunic.
Li Hai returned to the party, told them what he’d seen, and they immediately fell into a long debate. Li Hai made sure to keep an eye on the trail, so that they weren’t caught unawares.
During the course of their debate, several ideas were tossed around, but Gareth seemed to be set on a highly risky plan of his own. Gareth proposed that he don the tattered, bloody disguise of a Clover caravan guard, burst into the camp, and tell the men that a party of well armed mercenaries, led by a Clover Trade bounty hunter had waylaid his watch-post at the Floodgate. He then would attempt to lead or direct a contingent of guards to leave the camp, so as to divide their forces. The rest of the party he explained would hide among the reeds along the side of the path. Li Hai could cover Gareth with his crossbow in case trouble started, and after the forces were divided, the party could then attack which ever group they thought they could best handle.
The noble confidently stated that his performance would be made all the more genuine by the fact that no patrols had returned to the camp since the party had entered the swamp.
Kelec agreed that Gareth was probably right about the fact that no guards had come back to report about the party’s presence, but the dwarf was not willing to risk his life on that assumption. As cautious as always, Kelec told the group that even though he had been well trained at tracking and wilderness skills, he still might have missed something.
“Plus,” Li Hai added, “There might actually be more than one way into the swamp. We really can’t know for sure. This is a big place, and it looks like these people know the lay of the land pretty well. That old wolf could be wrong Kelec.”
Kelec said, “Bah…I doubt that……..Thornfur was certain that the “gateway into the swamp” was the only way into this whole sh*t-infested hell hole. I’m willing to trust his knowledge about that. His pack has been here longer than almost everyone.”
Gareth smiled broadly and said, “That gives my plan a good boost. Think about it….we’ve already killed six of their men. We already know that at least one patrol had passed out of the swamp while we were recuperating from the Floodgate battle. I think I place more faith in your tracking skills than you do Master Kelec. I don’t think you would have missed signs of a recent patrol returning to that camp up ahead.”
The dwarf just shrugged.
“Hmmmm..okay Kelec, how many people do you think have actually been living in this swamp? Based on the signs along the trail I mean,” asked Li Hai.
Kelec furrowed his brow, and thought the question over for a few moments before replying that he didn’t think anymore than fifteen to twenty. Both Li Hai and Gareth tried to get a more definite approximation from the dwarf, but Kelec couldn’t be sure. The dwarf told the party that in all likelihood, his estimation was wrong anyway. In the end, Kelec concluded that Gareth’s plan might work.
Li Hai disagreed. He thought the bluff was too risky. He thought it might be better to just wait until they send out another patrol and then waylay them safely away from the main camp.
Gareth immediately countered that. He believed that any further delays of contact with the already defeated guards would put the entire camp on edge and make them think something was wrong. He also reminded Li Hai that a patrol of unknown strength was already away from camp. Thus, they would have fewer guards now then they would later. In the end, Gareth had managed to convince Kelec to go along with his plan. Gorbag followed Gareth’s lead by default as always.
Li Hai just said, “Fine but just remember who thought of this stupid idea when it blows up in your face.”
Gareth flashed the doubting Halthyte a defiant grin.
-------------------
The camp wasn’t much to look at, but had a cozy, rustic feeling despite the oppressive and fetid swamp air. As Gareth stumbled towards the camp, now dressed in a bloody, torn Clover tabard and clutching a fake wound on his torso, no one seemed notice him at first.
The disguised noble had crossed the plank bridge rather loudly, and was now leaning weakly against a four foot high stone barricade that was built immediately to the left of the bridge on the new island. The stonework might have been built to serve as a fortification had anyone bothered to guard the bridge and the approach to the island.
As he mustered his will to continue further, Gareth saw that the island he was on was probably around forty or fifty feet in diameter, it was surrounded by the now familiar tall reeds, but had been hollowed out for the most part leaving a “courtyard” in which a camp for many people had been set up.
He noticed that off to his right lay a small, weedy vegetable garden, and on the side of the island opposite of the bridge, was a wooden shack that had been assembled on a set of stilts. It hovered a foot over the waterline of the swamp, and had a small stone chimney that served as one of its stilt legs. The shack was composed of mismatched pieces of scrap lumber. The windows and a few of the larger cracks of the house were covered by cheesecloth, probably to protect its inhabitants from swamp bugs. The shack also had a porch that partially surrounded the hovel and it looked to be littered with firewood. Gareth could see mud-covered picks and shovels leaning next to the stairs that led up to the shack.
Gareth finally composed himself, noted that he only saw five figures, all men equipped in a similar fashion as the other guards camped around a small campfire. Three of the men were asleep, and the other two seemed to be nodding off anyway.
“Okay here it goes….,” Gareth whispered to himself, and then he moaned in a faked rough, tired voice, “Help…wake up!! Wake up, we were attacked at the Floodgate!”
The two guards wheeled around in surprise, hands going to their weapons reflexively. They relaxed a bit when they saw a “fellow guardsmen,” and came over to him.
It took less than two minutes, and Gareth’s sudden arrival had roused the entire camp. The three sleeping men had been awakened, while two other people had emerged from the shack. The first to emerge was a small, but attractive young Mytherian woman, probably in her late twenties, who had a beautiful mane of amber hair and deep green eyes. She seemed remarkably out of place and Gareth could thought she’d look better gliding across the Baron’s banquet hall in Archaven instead of their current swampy location.
He tried not to make eye contact with her, and instead passed his gaze to the second inhabitant of the shack, a short stocky man dressed in dirty rags. The man, who was probably a Mytherian-Halthyte mutt, had a pug-like face, beady almond shaped eyes, and scarred and angry features. His left eye was missing, and the twisted man didn’t even bother to cover the hollow socket with a patch or some other effect. The noble would have discounted the man for worthless pauper had it not been for the look of bitter genius that burned in the man’s one good eye.
Gareth felt a nervous lump rising in his throat. He only hoped that the mud and other filth that he had covered his face in would be enough to give him a chance at impersonating one of their own.
“Hey are you listening to me?”
“Uh….what?” Gareth stammered. He realized that he had been blindly staring at the stooped man and the woman even as the five guards around him were throwing questions at him.
“So how many guards were they? Did you recognize the bounty hunter?” The guard repeated.
“Oh…there were about ten plus the leader I think,” Gareth answered roughly. For good measure he winced from some imagined pain in his side.
“Are they very far off?” One of the guards asked.
By this time the woman and the strange man had made it across the island, and were now silently observing the questioning.
Gareth was in the middle of making up some false details about his flight from the Floodgate when the one-eyed man rasped, “Only you survived? What happened to the rest? Did you meet up with Khelsor’s patrol?”
“Uh yes, they said he would go investigate the ….uh…incident.” Gareth lied.
The ugly leader just looked deeply into Gareth’s eyes, and then said with a broad smile on his face, “So General, its fortunate that you alone survived. You should be rewarded.”
Gareth only said, “Uh……..thank you sir……I appreciate..uh….I.”
The twisted man’s eyes narrowed angrily, and he shouted, “Porlow, Fredrick take him!! You three,” he said, pointing at the other three guards, “Guard the bridge! Janne follow me! He’s not one of us! He’s baiting us for an attack or a trap of some sort!”
And with that Gareth was quickly subdued by the two guards and dragged after the leader and the woman Janne towards the shack on stilts.
--------------------
Li Hai and Kelec both cursed Gareth’s inept performance as soon as they saw the noble’s physical reaction to the appearance of the woman and the leader. Safe among the concealing reeds of the adjacent swamp island Kelec commanded Li Hai not to act until they were sure that Gareth had failed. The second that the dwarf heard the leader shout the orders to capture the Mytherian noble, he knew they were all in trouble.
“Fire!” Kelec told the Halthyte even as he grabbed Gorbag’s meaty hand and led the orc on to the trail. Kelec had his throwing axe readied, while Gorbag wielded his bastard sword as always.
Even as Kelec dragged the orc out of their hiding place, he shouted, “Gorbag get ready for a fight!!”
Li Hai didn’t immediately fire, even though he knew Kelec and Gorbag needed some help against the three bowmen who were deployed behind the stone wall on the other side of the bridge. Instead, the Halthyte took aim on the ugly leader. He then started muttering to himself, all the while focusing on the man’s back, which was outlined in the dim light of the island’s campfire.
Kelec wisely got behind Gorbag as they began their charge across the bridge (7).
By the time he had crossed the bridge, the orc was hit at point blank range by two of the archers. The third guard actually dropped his unfired bow and was already drawing his longsword by the time Gorbag had finished crossed the bridge.
The other two archers also dropped their bows, but it was too late. Gorbag was already upon them, and the orc killed one and badly wounded the other with but one mighty swing of his blade.
The third archer took off as fast as he could towards the safety of the shack.
Gareth meanwhile, was roughly dragged by the other two guards towards the shack. Even as he struggled to draw his long sword and fight back, the guard named Porlow soundly punched Gareth across the face, and the other one, Fredrick, had slashed Gareth’s stomach with his drawn longsword.
Gareth went limp in their arms, and they continued to carry his bleeding, prone form towards the shack. The archer who had fled Gorbag, raced passed these two encumbered guards.
Kelec, coming out from behind his orcish shield, left the wounded guard to Gorbag, and set his sights for the two guards holding Gareth. He hurled his axe at Porlow, but missed badly. The dwarf cursed, and knew that Gareth was either dead or close to it. He hoped he could take the guards before they made it to the shack.
Li Hai finally got a bead on the stumpy leader and fired expertly at his fleeing form. The Halthyte watched with great satisfaction as he saw the ugly man nearly fall over from the force of the bolt.
Janne, the comely Mytherian woman, seeing her master wounded, immediately helped him to his feet, and supported him all the way to the shack. They had climbed up the steps and made it into the shack before Li Hai could reload his crossbow for another shot.
The wounded guard facing Gorbag missed the fast orc, and a look of imminent defeat came to his face, even as he was turned into a storm of blood and flying severed limbs. Gorbag stood in this storm’s eye, with a calm humdrum expression on his face.
The last archer, the one who had run from Gorbag previously, also reached the door, and forced it open, only to slam it behind him as soon as he’d gone in.
Kelec shouted a few more potent curses at the two remaining guards, and yanked his club off his belt. He dared not charge them, and instead stopped about ten feet away from them, hoping that they’d drop Gareth and engage him instead.
Li Hai meanwhile decided against wasting anymore time, raised his crossbow, quickly took aim at the guard Fredrick and fired.
The Halthyte missed, and as he was reloading for another shot, he emerged from the cover of the reeds and began to carefully cross the bridge to help his friends.
The two guards were able to out run the dwarf, and made it to the shack with Gareth’s unconscious, bleeding form held between them.
Even as the door to the shack was slammed shut, Kelec shouted, “Gorbag! Li Hai!,” Kelec called, “Get the f**k over here! (8)”
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Endnotes:
(7) – Despite the fact that Kelec, Gorbag, and Li Hai all had high hit point totals for 1st level characters (11, 12, 11 respectively), all of the players took advantage of the orc’s malleable will and often used the orc as a human(oid) shield in combat.
(8) – When I ran these sessions Kelec’s player, who posts as Sathorae on these boards, didn’t actually say curses as much as I might have made him out to, but the other players and I generally assumed that whatever Sathorae had Kelec say was also surely peppered with a few foul insults and curses. We didn’t require Sathorae to vocalize all of the curse words, partly because it wasn’t in his real world nature and also because it would have been really distracting. This was all part of trying to realistically play and also react to a dwarf who had a Charisma equal to a dretch tanar’ri (p.10 of the PH). It was sometimes hard for me as the DM to remember how unlikable Kelec would come across to everyone but animals NPCs.
The interesting part of all this, was that Kelec’s foul mouth and sub-par hygiene was off set by the fact that he was hands down the smartest character in the party throughout much of the campaign. Though he would never be looked upon as the party leader as Gareth sometimes would, his opinion was generally regarded as the tiebreaker in many of the many intra-party arguments.
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