The Crucible of Chauntea: Session 6
Session 6: Wherein Wai Dinn and Lannet drag the unconscious and dead back to Fairhill. A service is held for Sir Bic. Wai Dinn recites some of his poetry at Sir Bic’s funeral.
A Ode to Sir Bic
By Wai Dinn
A soul who saw the beauty and light
Who relished each day, which stole past the night
Missioned to slay all that taints the land
It had a high price, his death by their hand
Yesterday evening fates path was laid
Whilst saving his friends, Bic’s debt was paid
Your body will rest in hallowed ground
Your friends cry they miss you but don’t make a sound
He also recites a few more of his verses..
Bree
By Wai Dinn
A funny little man
With iron in his hand
His beard true and straight
Goodly heart on stoutish gait
Celene
By Wai Dinn
Celene whistles
Christine dances
And Brittney steals the show
Who she gonna be tommorow
I just don’t frickin know
He finished with a impressive verse regarding himself..
…and the ball starts rolling…
by Wai Dinn
Wai Dinn… waiting
Patience wearing thin
Holy need
Vanquish greed
Destroy the evil seed
Wai Dinn stand fast
This evil will never last
Holy light
Righteous might
Quested to bravely fight
Wai Dinn so afraid
The blood pours off your blade
Don’t run
Evils done
Bury your friend in the sun
Wai Dinn… waiting
Patience wearing thin
Holy need
Vanquish greed
Destroy the evil seed
The blacksmith is pleased with the return of his daughter and rewards us by giving Tim a breastplate, it has been engraved with the following : Remember always… Bill Oddie & Graham Garden. Bree announces to the party that he wishes to take a break for a while. Tim also feels the need for a few days of prayer… and drink. Besides Darlia would be missing him.. Wai Dinn and Celene bid farewll to Tim and Bree, promising to meet up later. They proceed to the local hero hire… the pub. They meet a likely candidate, the interestingly named dwarf Xog. (Xog dwarf fighter 2, cleric 1). He is a incredibly thick set fellow, he looks immovable. Another person expresses interest in joining the party. The man is a frail human who looks a lot older than he probably is. The mans conversation is interrupted by his coughing a wheezing, and his muttering to his self. He is a practitioner of magic, specifically illusions.
"I came from Crimmor" he states.
“Crimmor, that’s a horrible place” says Celine.
“oh, not to your liking?” replies Havelock.
“I quite liked it”. Celene sings and welcomes both the new adventurers
Current party
Wai Dinn 1st lvl Human Paladin
Celene 3rd lvl Gnome Bard
Havelock 2nd lvl human Illusionist
Xog 2nd Dwarf 2nd lvl fighter/1st lvl cleric
We inquire as to recent rumors.. we hear the following
· Winter wolves to the north
· Hired merchants attacked by gnolls in stirge wood
· Ratmen in woods
We decide to head to the woods to search for the Ratmen. They are apparently located fairly near to the Orc Keep we cleared earlier. We ride. On the journey Wai Dinn talks of Sir Bic with affection. Havelock mutters
“Paladins, bah!”.. A heated discussion follows, Wai Dinn points his finger aggressively at the mage
“When do you ever hear Bards singing about wizards, never!. But they sing the praises of the paladin that cuts down the dragon”. Havelock hisses back
“no, because we use guile and strategy, we would get and take its horde before it knew we were there”. “That” states Wai
“is just petty thievery”.
We make camp in the woods that night. We are attacked by pesky stirges. Havelock attempts
color spray on a stirge but it resists. Swooping out of the sky, a stirge attatches itself to Celene. Wai has trouble striking the fast bat-like creatures and one attaches itself to him, draining him of some of his oriental blood. We manage to kill them fairly easily, Xog striking down the last one. Wai Dinn picks up one of the dead stirges, pulls off a wing, and takes a bite out of it… it tastes like chicken!!.
We manage to get to the keep by nightfall. Nothing seems to have changed, so Wai opens the door in the tower with the key and we camp down in the courtyard. Over supper, Wai and Celene tell Havelock and Xog about what was here in the keep first time they came here. Havelock seems to have interest in the black candle the party found. Wai Dinn, suspicious of Havelock now, and his motives, casts
detect evil on the wizard.. It indicates he is indeed of evil persuasion. Wai draws his katana and steps toward the mage.
“I will tolerate no evil” Havelock stumbles back clutching his chest in a coughing fit. Between coughs he exclaims
“calm down, its just a difference of opinion, a matter of perspective”. Xog speaks up
“leave him be, we will show him the error of his ways”. Wai sheathes his weapon. Havelock sits down wheezing.
Celene sings a little ditty and casts
presdigitation, cleaning up the camp area for us. In the morning we wake to the sound of Celene singing “Morning has Broken”, Havelock mutters under his breath.
We travel east in our attempt to locate these ratmen. That night whilst we camp we hear wolves howling. Expecting a attack we don our armor and get ready. We are rushed by 7 wolves, and 3 larger wolves (worgs!). Celene starts blowing her pipe. Havelock summons a celestial scorpion. Celene successfully
Flares a worg, and Wai slices at and kills one of the wolves. Havelock casts
mage armor on himself. The wolves all miss with there attacks and we respond by Celene hitting a wolf with her sword, Xog slays a wolf, Wai hits and the summoned scorpion stings one of the wolves poisoning it. Celene gets hit hard and is knocked down. Xog casts
cure on the fallen gnome and stabilizes her on –3hp. Wai Dinn kills another wolf, and the scorpion manages to sting the wolf again. Havelock is bitten, the frail human falls to the floor unconscious. Wai Dinn is also bitten, the worg tears his flesh and he is reduced to –5hp.
As if by magic, Lannet appears. Xog calls upon the power of his god and
cures Wai, who gets up and retuns to the fray.. The summoned scorpion manages another sting on the wolf and Lannet strikes at a worg. The scorpion is bitten to death by wolves, and the bleeding Havelock is killed by a bite from one of the wolves as he lies on the floor. Wai also is downed again by a wolf (-3). Lannet slays one of the worgs. Xog attempts to
cure but fizzles his spell! Lannet and Xog are the only heroes left standing. Lannet fighting 2 worgs, Xog fighting 3 wolves. Another of the wolves nibbles on a fallen Wai and kills him!. Lannet kills a worg, but the other worg bites him back hard. Xog’s dwarven waraxe misses with his next attack. Lannet again strikes with his dagger and Xog gets his eye in and slays one of the wolves. Lannet and Xog fight valiantly, taking a lot of hits. Lannet criticals a worg and sneak attacks and Xog hits hard. Soon the wolves are slain.
Lannet pours the blue potion down Celenes neck. Her eyes flutter open. Wai and Havelock lie dead, and Lannet and Xog are badly wounded. Celene plays a mournful tune and they retreat back to Fairhill, Celene suggesting they leave Havelock in a ditch cos she
“didn’t like him that much”. Xog says Wai and Havelock should be returned to Fairhill for a proper burial.
The journey back to Fairhill is uneventful (thank god), and back in town the party seek out Tim-Brooke-Taylor (who’s in the pub) and ask him to rejoin the party. He agrees. Lannet also states he will join the party for a while. Celene feels that she has learnt much recently and decides to train in her skills. We decide to break for a while to facilitate this. We also read Wai’s will and testament. We honor this by contacting his tribe (the lion clan), who, in time, send a delegation to retrieve the paladins body and take it back to his homeland. Havelocks funeral is a quiet affair, Celene refusing to attend.
After the ceremony the mourners depart. As the first dirt from the shovel hits the lid of the (cheap) coffin a Raven flys down out of the sky. It perches on a gravestone and begins to speak.. The gravedigger drops his shovel, he cant understand the language but the bird is defiantly talking!.. He runs to get one of the town clerics, they maybe will understand the strange language.
The cleric approaches the Raven as it begins to speak. “Yes, yes this animal is a wizards familiar”, “it speaks in the old tongue of Chandathan” the cleric says to the gravedigger. “It appears that its saying that his master is in the coffin still alive!” “Quick, help me open this up” . Inside, unconscious, bearly breathing is a skinny haggered looking human. Adorned in foul black robes. “Lets get him inside” says the cleric.
After our restbite we return to the woods to find the elusive ratmen colony. We find a strange tree that has a hole in its base leading underground we believe. Celene showes us some new dance moves and some new crazy melodies she has learnt, her performance bolsters us. Lannet bravely approaches the tree first. Before he is to near he attempts to fire a arrow at the tree, before he does however, the tree bashes him with a branch. Tim, from a distance away uses his sling to good effect and hits the tree creature. Celene tries to cast the
Tasha’s laughter spell on the tree, but it doesn’t work. Xog uses his bow from a distance, as does Lanett. Out of the hole at the base of the tree emerge two ratmen. Celene is unlucky again as one of the ratmen save against her
Daze spell. Tim misses a ratman with his sling but Xog crits with his bow and kills one of the vermin. His friend returns fire at Xog. Lannet continues to arrow the tree and we watch as the single ratman retreats out of sight into the hole, we hear him shouting for reinforcements. Two ratmen then emerge from the hole, they look
blurred, and indeed it does seem to be a
blur spell in effect as Lannet misses with his arrow. (do these creatures utilize magic we wonder). Tim summons a celestial bee, Celene summons a celestial badger and Xog summons a celestial dog. We send our pets in to attack. Celene fires of a
daze on one of the ratmen, it works. Suddenly out of the hole shoots
magic missiles, they slay the celestial bee. Lannet again fails to strike a ratman with his arrows due to the
blur. But Tim manages to hit with his sling stone. Celenes celestial badger bites at one of the ratmen as she shoots at the tree. The celestial dog misses a ratman, and the badger gets hit, it squeals and goes into a rage, but is struck down quickly by the tree. Xog’s dog is also killed by a ratman. Lannet hits the tree, but Tim gets the killing blow with his sling.