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The Boundary Lands: On the Edge of Civilization (Updated 5/9/11)
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<blockquote data-quote="hayek" data-source="post: 5417619" data-attributes="member: 53760"><p><strong>Chapter 1 - Lord Dread (s. 2)</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>1.2 A Dreadful Meeting</strong></p><p> </p><p>The party gathers their spoils from the slain kobolds and proceeds uneventfully to Lord Dread’s keep. A few days later, as the day turns to evening, they break through a treeline onto the rim of a shallow valley where Lord Dread’s keep teeters on the edge of a cliff. A light fog rolls through the valley, obscuring the ground around the keep.</p><p> </p><p><img src="http://theboundarylands.fileave.com/LordDreadCastle_Upload.JPG" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p> </p><p><em>Welcoming Party</em></p><p> </p><p>As the party enters the valley, they come across numerous tombstones scattered about the valley floor. The fog begins to thicken until the party has trouble seeing more than a few feet in any direction. The party hears strange whispers and movement around them. The Zaza and Fargrim pick out at least three humanoid shapes moving towards them from opposite directions. The Zaza calls out that they simply wish to pass through to the keep and a voice asks that they “speak the phrase”. The party has no answer to that request and the creatures emerge from the fog to attack – two skeletal warriors, a zombie, and a wraith. The Zaza moves to engage one of the skeletons and the wraith on one side of the battlefield while Fargrim takes on the other skeleton and the zombie. The wraith proves an intimidating foe as its shadowy touch quickly weakens The Zaza while its ghostly form shrugs off most attacks that strike it. With the skeleton striking her as well, The Zaza is quickly bloodied; though, drawing on her own Divine Mettle, she is able to at least remove the effects of the wraith’s weakening touch.</p><p> </p><p>On the other side of the battlefield, Fargrim delivers a devastating blow that crushes one of the skeletal warriors in one fell swoop. Erik and Invicto pour various amounts of arcane fire onto the wraith, enough to attract its attention their way. Erik is severely injured and weakened, but quickly shrugs it off thanks to Fargrim’s always inspiring leadership. Erik moves out of the wraith’s reach as Invicto takes down the zombie with a devastating critical hit from his Eldritch Blast. The Zaza catches her second wind and delivers some strong blows to the remaining skeletal warrior. With two opponents down, the rout is on. The party focuses fire to take down the wraith and then makes short work of the skeleton.</p><p> </p><p><em>Lord Dread’s Proposition</em></p><p> </p><p>The party then proceeds to the main doors of Lord Dread’s keep. They find no guards outside of the keep and Fargrim decides to simply knock on the doors with his warhammer. They slowly open and a cadre of undead warriors awaits the party, though they do not appear hostile. They lead the party into the keep where Erik promptly steals a torch from a wall. Fortunately, their undead escort does not seem to care. Fargrim is unimpressed with the rough stone work the keep is comprised of.</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, the party is led to the throne room within the keep, a grand hall with even more undead creatures milling about. Haphazardly throughout the throne room are dark obsidian columns with bodies in various states of decay frozen in them, their faces contorted in pain. The bodies are mostly goblinoids, though the party sees a few humans trapped in the obsidian, including a young boy. A huge black knight in spiked plate armor stands behind Lord Dread’s throne. The throne itself is made entirely of black ebony skulls. Lord Dread wears a skull mask over his face, and black robes are draped over a dark suit of chainmail.</p><p> </p><p>Lord Dread welcomes the party and apologizes for them having to deal with his guardians. He explains that those who do business with him usually know the passphrase to move safely through the valley surrounding his keep. Fargrim is quite impressed with Lord Dread, and the numerous dead goblinoids around his throne room, and proceeds to actually bow before the imposing dark lord. The rest of the party remains standing and eyes Fargrim dubiously. Lord Dread thanks Fargrim for his flattery and asks that they get down to what business the party has arriving at his doorstep.</p><p> </p><p>The party tells Lord Dread that they have been sent by Court Wizard Davos to gather information on the Arinfax Colossus, which was supposedly recently slain. Dread does not recognize the wizard Davos, but assures the party he could gather some information on the Arinfax Colossus from his library, and by speaking with some of his long dead associates. The party inquire as to what he would want in return for this information, and Lord Dread offers the party a proposition:</p><p> </p><p>“A historical artifact was recently stolen from me by a tribe of goblins. The goblins have returned to their dwelling, which is roughly a week’s travel from my lands. I could use assistance in retrieving the relic. The Goblinoid races tolerate my existence, but they would turn aggressive if I, or my agents, roamed from my home here. So, I cannot chase this tribe to its home to retrieve my property. If you could retrieve this artifact for me, I would be happy to provide you with the information you seek.”</p><p> </p><p>The party asks for some time to debate this proposition. The Zaza and Erik are a little unsettled at the thought of working with the enigmatic Lord Dread, though Fargrim insists he would be a unique ally. In the end, Erik concedes that they must obtain the information that Davos sent them for, and the party agrees to take on Lord Dread’s task. However, they believe this artifact might be worth more to Lord Dread than he lets on, so The Zaza steps forth to negotiate the terms of their deal. Thanks to her incredibly adept silver tongue (and aided by the legendary pink die of 20’s) she manages to convince Lord Dread to add 200 gold pieces to their payment terms upon delivery of the item, and furthermore, to provide the party with 200 gold pieces worth of potions and alchemical items to aid them in their journey. Lord Dread sends away one of his undead servants who returns shortly with 2 Potions of Healing, 1 Potion of Clarity, and 1 Gravespawn Potion.</p><p> </p><p>Lord Dread then gives the party more information on what it is they are seeking – a small, black stone statuette of a man lying prone with his chest raised. The figure has the symbol of a crow’s head carved into its chest and back. Erik, a learned student of various religions, recognizes the symbol as that of the Raven Queen, the goddess of death and winter who dwells in the Shadowfell and sends the souls of all creatures to the afterlife upon their passing. Moreover, Erik recalls seeing the actual statuette Lord Dread has described as one of the trappings often found in temples built to the Raven Queen. The statuette is sometimes used in various rituals and celebrations, though he recalls such statues being purely decorative and holding no special magical properties.</p><p> </p><p><img src="http://theboundarylands.fileave.com/RavenQueenSymbol.JPG" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p> </p><p>Asking Lord Dread about the significance of such a common piece of religious paraphernalia, Dread informs the party that the piece in question is of unique academic value, as it is a rare, old carving that was used in some Goblinoid temples. This makes the piece particularly interesting to a few select scholars, though Lord Dread assures the party any common merchant they approach with the item would find little value in it. The Zaza’s keen insights tell her that Lord Dread is not lying about the resale value of the piece, but that he is hiding something about the piece’s true value. The Zaza is further suspicious of Dread’s answers when the party asks him about how the piece fell into the goblin tribe’s hands.</p><p> </p><p>Dread instructs the party to head northwest for a couple of days until they reach a river, and to follow that river northwest for several more days until they reach a rocky plain leading up to a mountain range. Though he doesn’t know the exact location of the Bone Hand Goblin tribe, he knows they dwell somewhere in the rocky plains, likely in one of the numerous caves dotting the area. Before parting he tells the party the passphrase to bypass his keep’s guardians in the future, “Caratus Sinor”. Erik recognizes the arcane phrase as roughly translating to “Your master commands peace.”</p><p> </p><p><em>On the Trail</em></p><p> </p><p>The party follows Lord Dread’s instructions and arrive in the area of rocky plains several days later. At this point, the party is running low on food and water, having been in the wilds of the Torin Plains for upwards of two weeks now. On top of that, the area of rocky plains they have reached offers little in the way of wild game or creeks or rivers. The party’s skills are challenged as they attempt to survive in the rugged environment while trying to locate some tracks that might indicate where a large tribe of goblins might have travelled through the area. The party expects that if they do not locate the goblin tribe soon, their physical reserves may begin to dwindle.</p><p> </p><p>The Zaza’s keen eyes help her locate some likely trails that might have been left by a large group of humanoids. She puts her head together with Erik – The Zaza draws on her knowledge of the natural world to narrow down which signs of passage would actually have been left by a tribe of goblins, and Erik draws on his natural insights into the movement of the tracks to determine which set are likely the goblins moving directly towards their home. Bowing out of the more cerebral work, Fargrim draws on his natural reserves of dwarven endurance to keep the party moving and to gather water, food, and firewood at the end of the day when The Zaza and Erik are too drained to lift a helping hand. Invicto simply kicks his feet up and enjoys the scenery during this whole process. With virtually no setbacks, the party finds themselves quickly on the trail of the Bone Hand goblin tribe, and the rigors of the environment do not take a toll upon the party.</p><p> </p><p>After following the goblins’ trail for a day or so, the party sees buzzards circling the sky ahead of them, and they shortly come across the remnants of a gruesome battle scene. Roughly twenty goblins are dead, along with a few large hunting cats the goblins travelled with. Amongst the numerous dead goblins, the party finds five gray-skinned humanoids, who apparently were on the other side of the fight. Drawing on his knowledge of arcane studies, Erik recognizes the humanoids as Shadar-Kai, a race that dwells in the Shadowfell, serves the Raven Queen, and worships death along with the dark goddess.</p><p> </p><p>The party supposes the Shadar-Kai are interested in the artifact they are retrieving for Lord Dread, and spend some time theorizing what they would do if the Shadar-Kai came calling on them when they had the artifact in hand on their way to return it to Lord Dread. Despite his earlier admiration for Dread, Fargrim suggests they ingratiate themselves to the Shadar-Kai. Erik and The Zaza are dubious about allying with the Shadar-Kai in any way, though they are dubious about allying with Lord Dread as well. They figure it’s a bad situation either way and they will cross that bridge when, and if, it comes later. In preparation of getting on the good side of any Shadar-Kai they may meet, Fargrim gives the slain Shadar-Kai a proper burial before moving on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hayek, post: 5417619, member: 53760"] [b]Chapter 1 - Lord Dread (s. 2)[/b] [B]1.2 A Dreadful Meeting[/B] The party gathers their spoils from the slain kobolds and proceeds uneventfully to Lord Dread’s keep. A few days later, as the day turns to evening, they break through a treeline onto the rim of a shallow valley where Lord Dread’s keep teeters on the edge of a cliff. A light fog rolls through the valley, obscuring the ground around the keep. [IMG]http://theboundarylands.fileave.com/LordDreadCastle_Upload.JPG[/IMG] [I]Welcoming Party[/I] As the party enters the valley, they come across numerous tombstones scattered about the valley floor. The fog begins to thicken until the party has trouble seeing more than a few feet in any direction. The party hears strange whispers and movement around them. The Zaza and Fargrim pick out at least three humanoid shapes moving towards them from opposite directions. The Zaza calls out that they simply wish to pass through to the keep and a voice asks that they “speak the phrase”. The party has no answer to that request and the creatures emerge from the fog to attack – two skeletal warriors, a zombie, and a wraith. The Zaza moves to engage one of the skeletons and the wraith on one side of the battlefield while Fargrim takes on the other skeleton and the zombie. The wraith proves an intimidating foe as its shadowy touch quickly weakens The Zaza while its ghostly form shrugs off most attacks that strike it. With the skeleton striking her as well, The Zaza is quickly bloodied; though, drawing on her own Divine Mettle, she is able to at least remove the effects of the wraith’s weakening touch. On the other side of the battlefield, Fargrim delivers a devastating blow that crushes one of the skeletal warriors in one fell swoop. Erik and Invicto pour various amounts of arcane fire onto the wraith, enough to attract its attention their way. Erik is severely injured and weakened, but quickly shrugs it off thanks to Fargrim’s always inspiring leadership. Erik moves out of the wraith’s reach as Invicto takes down the zombie with a devastating critical hit from his Eldritch Blast. The Zaza catches her second wind and delivers some strong blows to the remaining skeletal warrior. With two opponents down, the rout is on. The party focuses fire to take down the wraith and then makes short work of the skeleton. [I]Lord Dread’s Proposition[/I] The party then proceeds to the main doors of Lord Dread’s keep. They find no guards outside of the keep and Fargrim decides to simply knock on the doors with his warhammer. They slowly open and a cadre of undead warriors awaits the party, though they do not appear hostile. They lead the party into the keep where Erik promptly steals a torch from a wall. Fortunately, their undead escort does not seem to care. Fargrim is unimpressed with the rough stone work the keep is comprised of. Eventually, the party is led to the throne room within the keep, a grand hall with even more undead creatures milling about. Haphazardly throughout the throne room are dark obsidian columns with bodies in various states of decay frozen in them, their faces contorted in pain. The bodies are mostly goblinoids, though the party sees a few humans trapped in the obsidian, including a young boy. A huge black knight in spiked plate armor stands behind Lord Dread’s throne. The throne itself is made entirely of black ebony skulls. Lord Dread wears a skull mask over his face, and black robes are draped over a dark suit of chainmail. Lord Dread welcomes the party and apologizes for them having to deal with his guardians. He explains that those who do business with him usually know the passphrase to move safely through the valley surrounding his keep. Fargrim is quite impressed with Lord Dread, and the numerous dead goblinoids around his throne room, and proceeds to actually bow before the imposing dark lord. The rest of the party remains standing and eyes Fargrim dubiously. Lord Dread thanks Fargrim for his flattery and asks that they get down to what business the party has arriving at his doorstep. The party tells Lord Dread that they have been sent by Court Wizard Davos to gather information on the Arinfax Colossus, which was supposedly recently slain. Dread does not recognize the wizard Davos, but assures the party he could gather some information on the Arinfax Colossus from his library, and by speaking with some of his long dead associates. The party inquire as to what he would want in return for this information, and Lord Dread offers the party a proposition: “A historical artifact was recently stolen from me by a tribe of goblins. The goblins have returned to their dwelling, which is roughly a week’s travel from my lands. I could use assistance in retrieving the relic. The Goblinoid races tolerate my existence, but they would turn aggressive if I, or my agents, roamed from my home here. So, I cannot chase this tribe to its home to retrieve my property. If you could retrieve this artifact for me, I would be happy to provide you with the information you seek.” The party asks for some time to debate this proposition. The Zaza and Erik are a little unsettled at the thought of working with the enigmatic Lord Dread, though Fargrim insists he would be a unique ally. In the end, Erik concedes that they must obtain the information that Davos sent them for, and the party agrees to take on Lord Dread’s task. However, they believe this artifact might be worth more to Lord Dread than he lets on, so The Zaza steps forth to negotiate the terms of their deal. Thanks to her incredibly adept silver tongue (and aided by the legendary pink die of 20’s) she manages to convince Lord Dread to add 200 gold pieces to their payment terms upon delivery of the item, and furthermore, to provide the party with 200 gold pieces worth of potions and alchemical items to aid them in their journey. Lord Dread sends away one of his undead servants who returns shortly with 2 Potions of Healing, 1 Potion of Clarity, and 1 Gravespawn Potion. Lord Dread then gives the party more information on what it is they are seeking – a small, black stone statuette of a man lying prone with his chest raised. The figure has the symbol of a crow’s head carved into its chest and back. Erik, a learned student of various religions, recognizes the symbol as that of the Raven Queen, the goddess of death and winter who dwells in the Shadowfell and sends the souls of all creatures to the afterlife upon their passing. Moreover, Erik recalls seeing the actual statuette Lord Dread has described as one of the trappings often found in temples built to the Raven Queen. The statuette is sometimes used in various rituals and celebrations, though he recalls such statues being purely decorative and holding no special magical properties. [IMG]http://theboundarylands.fileave.com/RavenQueenSymbol.JPG[/IMG] Asking Lord Dread about the significance of such a common piece of religious paraphernalia, Dread informs the party that the piece in question is of unique academic value, as it is a rare, old carving that was used in some Goblinoid temples. This makes the piece particularly interesting to a few select scholars, though Lord Dread assures the party any common merchant they approach with the item would find little value in it. The Zaza’s keen insights tell her that Lord Dread is not lying about the resale value of the piece, but that he is hiding something about the piece’s true value. The Zaza is further suspicious of Dread’s answers when the party asks him about how the piece fell into the goblin tribe’s hands. Dread instructs the party to head northwest for a couple of days until they reach a river, and to follow that river northwest for several more days until they reach a rocky plain leading up to a mountain range. Though he doesn’t know the exact location of the Bone Hand Goblin tribe, he knows they dwell somewhere in the rocky plains, likely in one of the numerous caves dotting the area. Before parting he tells the party the passphrase to bypass his keep’s guardians in the future, “Caratus Sinor”. Erik recognizes the arcane phrase as roughly translating to “Your master commands peace.” [I]On the Trail[/I] The party follows Lord Dread’s instructions and arrive in the area of rocky plains several days later. At this point, the party is running low on food and water, having been in the wilds of the Torin Plains for upwards of two weeks now. On top of that, the area of rocky plains they have reached offers little in the way of wild game or creeks or rivers. The party’s skills are challenged as they attempt to survive in the rugged environment while trying to locate some tracks that might indicate where a large tribe of goblins might have travelled through the area. The party expects that if they do not locate the goblin tribe soon, their physical reserves may begin to dwindle. The Zaza’s keen eyes help her locate some likely trails that might have been left by a large group of humanoids. She puts her head together with Erik – The Zaza draws on her knowledge of the natural world to narrow down which signs of passage would actually have been left by a tribe of goblins, and Erik draws on his natural insights into the movement of the tracks to determine which set are likely the goblins moving directly towards their home. Bowing out of the more cerebral work, Fargrim draws on his natural reserves of dwarven endurance to keep the party moving and to gather water, food, and firewood at the end of the day when The Zaza and Erik are too drained to lift a helping hand. Invicto simply kicks his feet up and enjoys the scenery during this whole process. With virtually no setbacks, the party finds themselves quickly on the trail of the Bone Hand goblin tribe, and the rigors of the environment do not take a toll upon the party. After following the goblins’ trail for a day or so, the party sees buzzards circling the sky ahead of them, and they shortly come across the remnants of a gruesome battle scene. Roughly twenty goblins are dead, along with a few large hunting cats the goblins travelled with. Amongst the numerous dead goblins, the party finds five gray-skinned humanoids, who apparently were on the other side of the fight. Drawing on his knowledge of arcane studies, Erik recognizes the humanoids as Shadar-Kai, a race that dwells in the Shadowfell, serves the Raven Queen, and worships death along with the dark goddess. The party supposes the Shadar-Kai are interested in the artifact they are retrieving for Lord Dread, and spend some time theorizing what they would do if the Shadar-Kai came calling on them when they had the artifact in hand on their way to return it to Lord Dread. Despite his earlier admiration for Dread, Fargrim suggests they ingratiate themselves to the Shadar-Kai. Erik and The Zaza are dubious about allying with the Shadar-Kai in any way, though they are dubious about allying with Lord Dread as well. They figure it’s a bad situation either way and they will cross that bridge when, and if, it comes later. In preparation of getting on the good side of any Shadar-Kai they may meet, Fargrim gives the slain Shadar-Kai a proper burial before moving on. [/QUOTE]
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