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The Runic Storyhour: An Oriental Adventure in The Dream
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<blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 1361" data-attributes="member: 67"><p><em>DM note: the following section of the campaign log has been edited extensively. I have tried to remain consistent with the author’s writing style (which is, as you probably have noticed, pretty much stream of consciousness).</em></p><p></p><p>Session 1, part 2:</p><p></p><p>There is little time (we have lost a day already) and we gather what food we can along the way as we head north across the landscape through rolling hills, groves of trees, and endless rice fields. There is no road and the going is slow. With the drifting of the landscape, we are not even sure if we will find the town again when we are finished with this adventure. Usually, however, a town does not drift so far in such a short amount of time; the landscape is like a (usually) calm body of water, and the towns, like driftwood. Already, I have reservations about this adventure. The nobleman rides ahead of us on his beautiful horse, dropping back to watch us on occasion. We walk.</p><p></p><p>Our nobleman describes the encampment as having sparse trees so that we must move under the cover of darkness toward the four clay mounds upon which the nightmare enemies crouch, watching over the camp. These guards, the noble tells us, will let out piercing screams if they detect us. Bakemono have the intelligence of clever dogs, but the senses of such animals, as well. Inside their encampment there are several mud huts, one larger and set apart from the rest. Inside the large hut, we presume, is the thing which Grinning Tiger Rules has lost and is most precious to him. He draws a plan of attack in the dirt with his wakazashi.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: "He uses his <strong>wakazashi</strong> for that!?!" the player of Swift Serpent Strikes asked. "My mouth hangs open!" To which I replied: "He apparently thinks nothing of it." Most mysterious…</em></p><p></p><p>How can we get past the mounds to reach the central hut? The bakemono will attack in packs of five, the noble warns us. We try to divert him from entering the hut but he is insistent about retrieving his item himself. We try to develop a less straightforward attack against the camp (there are a score and a half of the nightmare animals in the camp), but Grinning Tiger Rules’ command is iron. We must charge the field with great honor. Our only victory was to convince the noble to let us take out the guard at one corner, before we enter the camp. It is agreed that the halfling will use his magic flaming finger to strike down the creature on the first mound.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Fighting Man Dances, the halfling, tells the noble, "I will use my Finger of Blazing Flame: I will not miss!" He didn’t either, as it would turn out, since that spell was a magic missile!</em></p><p></p><p>It is near dusk and we are two miles distant with light enough to see a great mass of elephants passing southward on the western horizon. A gathering of elephants so large can mean one thing only. War it is then, and yet the nobleman shows no concern for it; we are off to hunt creatures, not men, and he will not be diverted. Again, we are assailed by doubt. Is this nothing but a ruse?</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: the players still assumed that the encampment was a human camp, not a camp of bakemono. The author’s character, Ocean Sleeps Deeply, made a successful spot check and saw that the creature on the watch-mound shrouded in the shadow of night was, in fact, a bakemono, but she did not tell the rest of the group for some reason.</em></p><p></p><p>I come to know they are, in fact, the creatures we dread. As the halfling creeps forward to strike the sentry, we hear the piercing scream.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: the sentry was well within range of the magic missile spell, but the halfling wanted a better look, he was still not sure what his foe was.</em></p><p></p><p>Immediately the short one reacts. A blinding stream of light flies from his little halfling finger to the torso of the shadowy shape on the mound. The air is filled with sparks as the Dream reacts to the magic being cast. The halfling's first strike is a good hit, and the sentry falls, but our victory is small, as we have been forced by the nobleman to enter from the front instead of making a clandestine attack, as we discussed. Two packs of bakemono come running to rend us. The halfling casts a spell of protection on himself, and, in the resulting reality shift, flowers fall from the sky around him. Chameleon causes another alarm-scream to erupt behind one of the packs with his own magic, and three of their number are diverted. More flashes in the sky in all directions accompany the casting of his little spell. Grinning Tiger Rules charges ahead on his mount, and we fight the bakemono for our lives as best we can. We take the mound, but there are more of the bestial creatures now and they keep coming. Three more packs are upon us (including the bakemono who were diverted by Chameleon, and the halfling is down, shredded by the claws of a whole pack, and bleeding himself into death. The first of the Bakemono we dropped finally looses his life-spirit, and the Dream reacts so violently that we are almost all thrown from the ground. It is as if the ground has become an ocean in a storm. Only Swift has lost his footing, however. Another bakemono is slaughtered while it stands, and a great wind engulfs the entire camp. When another bakemono bleeds his spirit out, twelve spikes of stone shoot into the sky around the body, forming a circle fifty feet high. Chameleon is pacing across the battlefield, going from one pack of bakemono to another. He has engaged the furthest pack with the noble, and sees what the rest of us do not, though he does not hesitate to yell it out: "By the Dreamer! This big one’s got a KATANA!"</p><p></p><p>The halfling is down and we can't help him; he is cut off from us by the bakemono. The noble’s horse goes down, its life fading quickly from the field, but the nobleman leaps free. He fights only with the wakazashi, but he is lethal. Lethal or not, he is alone and surrounded by a pack of Bakemono, and one is clearly a warrior of sorts. Intelligent Chameleon Survives engages the pack that brought low the halfling as we rush to revive him. He alters his appearance to do so, making himself look like the big bakemono with the katana with his magic. There is so much dying that one more reality shift is hardly noticed. He screams at the pack and points away; all but one are fooled and run off to attack a nonexistent enemy elsewhere. Although quick-witted, the Chameleon is not lucky, and the remaining bakemono decimates his body with two vicious swipes from its claws. Now Chameleon is dying, too.</p><p></p><p>Why didn't we see it coming? We are clear on this now: The bakemono will destroy us. We flee the field. The two remaining of our party sweep up our fallen companions and retreat, leaving the noble in the midst of the battle. The bakemono do not follow us when we have left their territory. As we carry the halfling and Chameleon away from the encampment of nightmares, we sense several reality shifts behind us. Whether these are reactions to the deaths of several bakemono left bleeding on the field, or the death of more bakemono fighting the noble, or perhaps (and likely?) the death of that man as well, we do not know. We are no longer in that story.</p><p></p><p><em>--Ocean Deeply Sleeps</em></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>DM note: notable moments—the halfling charges an enemy (with Mage Armor, he has AC 20) and completely misses. "What do you expect?" we ask the player, "You’re a halfling!" Later, the halfling gets a critical hit on a bakemono, for 4 damage! There’s halflings for ya!</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The fall of Chameleon truly was unfortunate. His ruse worked on all but one of the bakemono in a pack that included the three who were fooled with his first ghost sound. That bakemono rolled very high damage on both successful hits with its claws, and instantly, the Chameleon, who had been most conspicuous on the field of battle, was out of the fight.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>First Chameleon, and then Ocean, took the mound of the original sentry with the intention of performing a coup de grace on the sentry as well as keeping the high ground. Unfortunately, neither had time to pull off a full attack action, as I kept the bakemono coming.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Ocean was a valiant fighter, as well as a rogue, but chose only a set of throwing knives as weapons--go figure. After this fight, I think she’ll get a naganata, like Swift uses.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Swift knew what Ocean and Chameleon have both discovered: weapons with reach are fun. (Okay, Chameleon had a whip, but, that's hardly a weapon. His spells were really his weapon. Oh, and that crossbow was nice.)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>They all found out that my earlier warning was not a joke: I <strong>am</strong> a rat-bastard DM. Although, it’s not my fault that none of the party could cast divine spells…hehe. It is too bad that they took so long in the first part of the battle that reinforcements came. If they had encountered the bakemono warlord in the middle of the camp, it would have been fun; there were mud-pits concealed in the darkness, and the warlord had improved bull rush…</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rune, post: 1361, member: 67"] [i]DM note: the following section of the campaign log has been edited extensively. I have tried to remain consistent with the author’s writing style (which is, as you probably have noticed, pretty much stream of consciousness).[/i] Session 1, part 2: There is little time (we have lost a day already) and we gather what food we can along the way as we head north across the landscape through rolling hills, groves of trees, and endless rice fields. There is no road and the going is slow. With the drifting of the landscape, we are not even sure if we will find the town again when we are finished with this adventure. Usually, however, a town does not drift so far in such a short amount of time; the landscape is like a (usually) calm body of water, and the towns, like driftwood. Already, I have reservations about this adventure. The nobleman rides ahead of us on his beautiful horse, dropping back to watch us on occasion. We walk. Our nobleman describes the encampment as having sparse trees so that we must move under the cover of darkness toward the four clay mounds upon which the nightmare enemies crouch, watching over the camp. These guards, the noble tells us, will let out piercing screams if they detect us. Bakemono have the intelligence of clever dogs, but the senses of such animals, as well. Inside their encampment there are several mud huts, one larger and set apart from the rest. Inside the large hut, we presume, is the thing which Grinning Tiger Rules has lost and is most precious to him. He draws a plan of attack in the dirt with his wakazashi. [i]DM note: "He uses his [b]wakazashi[/b] for that!?!" the player of Swift Serpent Strikes asked. "My mouth hangs open!" To which I replied: "He apparently thinks nothing of it." Most mysterious…[/i] How can we get past the mounds to reach the central hut? The bakemono will attack in packs of five, the noble warns us. We try to divert him from entering the hut but he is insistent about retrieving his item himself. We try to develop a less straightforward attack against the camp (there are a score and a half of the nightmare animals in the camp), but Grinning Tiger Rules’ command is iron. We must charge the field with great honor. Our only victory was to convince the noble to let us take out the guard at one corner, before we enter the camp. It is agreed that the halfling will use his magic flaming finger to strike down the creature on the first mound. [i]DM note: Fighting Man Dances, the halfling, tells the noble, "I will use my Finger of Blazing Flame: I will not miss!" He didn’t either, as it would turn out, since that spell was a magic missile![/i] It is near dusk and we are two miles distant with light enough to see a great mass of elephants passing southward on the western horizon. A gathering of elephants so large can mean one thing only. War it is then, and yet the nobleman shows no concern for it; we are off to hunt creatures, not men, and he will not be diverted. Again, we are assailed by doubt. Is this nothing but a ruse? [i]DM note: the players still assumed that the encampment was a human camp, not a camp of bakemono. The author’s character, Ocean Sleeps Deeply, made a successful spot check and saw that the creature on the watch-mound shrouded in the shadow of night was, in fact, a bakemono, but she did not tell the rest of the group for some reason.[/i] I come to know they are, in fact, the creatures we dread. As the halfling creeps forward to strike the sentry, we hear the piercing scream. [i]DM note: the sentry was well within range of the magic missile spell, but the halfling wanted a better look, he was still not sure what his foe was.[/i] Immediately the short one reacts. A blinding stream of light flies from his little halfling finger to the torso of the shadowy shape on the mound. The air is filled with sparks as the Dream reacts to the magic being cast. The halfling's first strike is a good hit, and the sentry falls, but our victory is small, as we have been forced by the nobleman to enter from the front instead of making a clandestine attack, as we discussed. Two packs of bakemono come running to rend us. The halfling casts a spell of protection on himself, and, in the resulting reality shift, flowers fall from the sky around him. Chameleon causes another alarm-scream to erupt behind one of the packs with his own magic, and three of their number are diverted. More flashes in the sky in all directions accompany the casting of his little spell. Grinning Tiger Rules charges ahead on his mount, and we fight the bakemono for our lives as best we can. We take the mound, but there are more of the bestial creatures now and they keep coming. Three more packs are upon us (including the bakemono who were diverted by Chameleon, and the halfling is down, shredded by the claws of a whole pack, and bleeding himself into death. The first of the Bakemono we dropped finally looses his life-spirit, and the Dream reacts so violently that we are almost all thrown from the ground. It is as if the ground has become an ocean in a storm. Only Swift has lost his footing, however. Another bakemono is slaughtered while it stands, and a great wind engulfs the entire camp. When another bakemono bleeds his spirit out, twelve spikes of stone shoot into the sky around the body, forming a circle fifty feet high. Chameleon is pacing across the battlefield, going from one pack of bakemono to another. He has engaged the furthest pack with the noble, and sees what the rest of us do not, though he does not hesitate to yell it out: "By the Dreamer! This big one’s got a KATANA!" The halfling is down and we can't help him; he is cut off from us by the bakemono. The noble’s horse goes down, its life fading quickly from the field, but the nobleman leaps free. He fights only with the wakazashi, but he is lethal. Lethal or not, he is alone and surrounded by a pack of Bakemono, and one is clearly a warrior of sorts. Intelligent Chameleon Survives engages the pack that brought low the halfling as we rush to revive him. He alters his appearance to do so, making himself look like the big bakemono with the katana with his magic. There is so much dying that one more reality shift is hardly noticed. He screams at the pack and points away; all but one are fooled and run off to attack a nonexistent enemy elsewhere. Although quick-witted, the Chameleon is not lucky, and the remaining bakemono decimates his body with two vicious swipes from its claws. Now Chameleon is dying, too. Why didn't we see it coming? We are clear on this now: The bakemono will destroy us. We flee the field. The two remaining of our party sweep up our fallen companions and retreat, leaving the noble in the midst of the battle. The bakemono do not follow us when we have left their territory. As we carry the halfling and Chameleon away from the encampment of nightmares, we sense several reality shifts behind us. Whether these are reactions to the deaths of several bakemono left bleeding on the field, or the death of more bakemono fighting the noble, or perhaps (and likely?) the death of that man as well, we do not know. We are no longer in that story. [i]--Ocean Deeply Sleeps[/i] [i]DM note: notable moments—the halfling charges an enemy (with Mage Armor, he has AC 20) and completely misses. "What do you expect?" we ask the player, "You’re a halfling!" Later, the halfling gets a critical hit on a bakemono, for 4 damage! There’s halflings for ya! The fall of Chameleon truly was unfortunate. His ruse worked on all but one of the bakemono in a pack that included the three who were fooled with his first ghost sound. That bakemono rolled very high damage on both successful hits with its claws, and instantly, the Chameleon, who had been most conspicuous on the field of battle, was out of the fight. First Chameleon, and then Ocean, took the mound of the original sentry with the intention of performing a coup de grace on the sentry as well as keeping the high ground. Unfortunately, neither had time to pull off a full attack action, as I kept the bakemono coming. Ocean was a valiant fighter, as well as a rogue, but chose only a set of throwing knives as weapons--go figure. After this fight, I think she’ll get a naganata, like Swift uses. Swift knew what Ocean and Chameleon have both discovered: weapons with reach are fun. (Okay, Chameleon had a whip, but, that's hardly a weapon. His spells were really his weapon. Oh, and that crossbow was nice.) They all found out that my earlier warning was not a joke: I [b]am[/b] a rat-bastard DM. Although, it’s not my fault that none of the party could cast divine spells…hehe. It is too bad that they took so long in the first part of the battle that reinforcements came. If they had encountered the bakemono warlord in the middle of the camp, it would have been fun; there were mud-pits concealed in the darkness, and the warlord had improved bull rush…[/i] [/QUOTE]
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