Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
They came in search of Paradise (A Story of Erth) - Updated 23rd April
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="robberbaron" data-source="post: 1853645" data-attributes="member: 14771"><p>The sun rose and Seigfried knelt to pray to Forseti, being pleasantly surprised when he was granted a spell.</p><p>Li Kung was surprised. “He looks like he is praying. Does he have a god?”</p><p>“Dunno,” said Helga, “I like him but I’m not THAT interested.”</p><p></p><p>They discussed what magic Gracientus should pray for, forgetting that he prayed at sunset, not sunrise, so he had only the spells left from the previous day. They also considered what they knew of lycanthropes – only that it is a disease which is passed on through the creature’s bite. They thought they could remember something about belladonna helping, but that it was also highly poisonous.</p><p>Li Kung looked jealously at Seigfried and Cord’s fullblades and wondered if he could find a larger glaive, a fullglaive, perhaps. It would seem that all his ascetic training had not remove the potential for weapon envy.</p><p>He also thought about taking belladonna as a preventive measure against the Hark’s bite, but decided that it would be pretty good to be a wererat monk – they are fast and resistant to normal weapons. Hmm.</p><p></p><p>In the early morning, they untied Philp and set off to get the correct head for their bounty, after Li Kung asked him when he was next expected to report to the Hark.</p><p>“Later today, by which time I will be long gone and he will, hopefully, be dead”</p><p></p><p>On their way to the north of the harbour, they dropped a note into the watchhouse, explaining where they were going, how to get in and asking for backup around midday.</p><p>Finding the warehouse easily, they saw that the dock was pretty quiet here where few ships berthed, especially compared to the bustle of the more southerly wharves, and did not think anyone was paying particular attention to them. In fact the workers around were making quite sure that they weren’t paying attention to them. </p><p></p><p>Helga quickly picked the lock on the warehouse door, then looked for, but didn’t find, any traps.</p><p>She then opened the door, revealing a small store, completely empty.</p><p>Gaelle had a nose around for tracks, finding a very faint human trail going to the right of the door then disappearing. Li Kung looked around for spyholes in the warehouse walls, finding none, while Helga easily discovered the well-hidden trapdoor and its disguised catch.</p><p>Opening the trapdoor, they could see a ladder leading down through a wooden shaft which opened out on to the rock of the harbour wall. When they moved down it they realised that the decrepit looking ladder was actually very well cared for.</p><p>Li Kung scrambled down the rock face, looking for the Cant sign which would mark the Hark’s lair.</p><p>Finding it, he secured himself to the wall and prepared to kick anyone or anything coming out of the entrance. The entrance looked like a crack in the rock face but closer examination showed that there was a thin spur of rock set some 4’ out from the face.</p><p></p><p>Gaelle crept and Li Kung clumped into the passage, Gaelle pausing at the threshold to listen but only hearing Li Kung’s breathing. The rest of the party followed up, forming a single file in the hidden passage, and then shuffled around each other until their order was satisfactory.</p><p></p><p>Gaelle padded down the passage towards the deep blackness of the lair, hearing faint squeaking of small rats before moving back and gesturing for Seigfried and the others to follow. Moving back to the front, Gaelle uncovered her lantern, scattering several small rats, and waved Seigfried forward with Li Kung also moving past her in to the first chamber. They were making quite a lot of noise, but the lantern light would probably have given away their presence before their footsteps did.</p><p>Realising this, they charged into the next room, where they expected some goblins. When the rest had passed, Helga began laying combustible material in the passage behind them and setting it alight.</p><p></p><p>The goblins, having seen their light, but only having heard Seigfried’s clumsy approach, lobbed javelins at him as he came out of the passage. Two small sharp sticks nicked his flesh, the rest rattling harmlessly against his armour and the wall.</p><p></p><p>The goblins then grabbed their little maces and charged in, four of them being chopped up by Li Kung before they even finished their battle-cry, “Aaargh…!”</p><p></p><p>Six seconds later the goblins were dead, Cord was running up the ladder to the upper level and Helga was wondering where they had all gone.</p><p></p><p>Cord’s lantern illuminated part of a large cavern and he stepped purposefully towards it. Suddenly, a fusillade of darts whistled out of the darkness, sticking in his side. After his next step a second whistling cloud of darts were also sticking in him. Li Kung tumbled nimbly over the two traps but Gaelle, trying to emulate the monk, hit one of the pressure pads and received her own clump of darts in the cheek.</p><p>Seigfried, without room for a run up, attempted to standing jump the 10’ of trapped passage, just clearing the second pad thanks to his newly liberated masterwork armour.</p><p>Gracientus was not so lucky. He landed square in the middle of the trap, straddling both pads, getting badly punctured before staggering out into the cavern.</p><p>Helga, just arriving at the top of the ladder, would have run straight into the trap, had she not heard their shouted warning. Her tumble was at least as impressive as Li Kung’s.</p><p></p><p>Three passages led off the cavern and Gaelle moved to the furthest one to look for tracks, finding hobgoblin spoor less than thirty minutes old. They could all hear movement in the passages so they prepared to run in, thinking to surprise the hobgoblins with their bravery. The hobgoblins, however, charged out to meet them.</p><p></p><p>Seigfried moved into the central passage and cut the first hobgoblin in two. Li Kung moved to the furthest passage and engaged the hobgoblins there. Cord followed the monk and carved his first opponent with contemptuous ease.</p><p>Gracientus took the opportunity to Bless his companions as Gaelle stuck an arrow in one of their foes.</p><p></p><p>Then the hobgoblins charged in, taking wounds from Helga’s longspear and getting chopped up by Li Kung’s glaive and Cord’s fullblade. </p><p></p><p>Seigfried caught a spurt of hot, caustic hobgoblin blood in his eyes, obscuring his vision and causing him to swing more wildly than normal. Li Kung, in his haste to kill more enemies but miss Cord, dragged his glaive across the wall putting a nasty looking notch in the blade and cracking the shaft.</p><p>Cord cut only air then stepped back to allow more of the hobgoblins out.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblins advanced, one more falling to Li Kung’s battered glaive before getting into sword range and taking a piece out of Cord. Gaelle continued to take step back and kill hobgoblins with her arrows. Seigfried stepped back and wiped his eyes while he had no opponents.</p><p></p><p>As the last of the hobgoblins in the cavern fell, a blazing ball of flame blossomed among the party, singeing Gracientus into unconsciousness and lightly toasting everyone else except a smug Li Kung.</p><p></p><p>Seigfried stepped up to the remaining hobgoblins in the passage in front of him and Li Kung ran into the passage where he thought the Hark must be. Guessing correctly, he rushed up and carved a thin score in the hide of the beast before him.</p><p>Seven feet tall, heavily muscled, covered in wiry hair and with a large snout full of pointy teeth, the Hark was as horrible as he had been described.</p><p>Cord moved past Li Kung, putting himself in front of the Hark, receiving a claw across the chest and a bite to the shoulder for his bravery. </p><p></p><p>Gaelle, not being able to get a bead on the Hark, shot past Seigfried, taking out his foe and freeing the Germanian warrior to run around behind the Hark.</p><p>Helga, meanwhile, managed to bandage enough of Gracientus’ suppurating wounds to keep him from dying.</p><p></p><p>Li Kung dropped his glaive and attempted to tumble past Cord and around the Hark, bouncing off Cord’s back and falling flat on his backside with a claw slash across his cheek. He then sprang nimbly to his feet hoping no-one had seen him.</p><p></p><p>The Hark stepped away from Cord and unleashed a fan of flame from his fingertips, lightly singeing Cord who was wondering whether or not to fall over. Gaelle ran clear past Seigfried, but could not get a shot at the Hark. Helga also moved in as Seigfried stepped behind the Hark and stuffed his silvered longsword deep into the wererat’s side. Li Kung moved past Cord and tried to grapple the Hark, unable to get a good grip on his blood-slicked hide. Cord, unable now to get to the Hark, walked back out of the passage, picked up Gracientus and moved him out of the cavern, just in case there were anymore painful surprises.</p><p></p><p>The Hark, unhappy with the burning wound from the silver sword turned his attention on Seigfried but was unable to make contact. Gaelle again attempted to shoot past Seigfried, but her arrow was deflected away by the floor. Helga, however, scored a hit by firing a magic missile into the beast.</p><p>Seigfried, calling upon the holy power of Forseti, again stuck his silver sword into the Hark, just managing to remove it before Li Kung’s next unsuccessful grapple.</p><p></p><p>A spark of inspiration: Li Kung shouted “Helga, use the bloody wand!”</p><p>“I haven’t got the wand!”</p><p>“He doesn’t know that!”</p><p></p><p>The Hark continued to flail at Seigfried, managing to slash him across the thigh and bite his arm, as Gaelle’s next arrow missed him by less than the last and another magic missile hit his back.</p><p></p><p>The paladin, nearly out of blood, called upon his god for healing lest he fall over and dishonour himself. Just in time, as both the Hark’s claws slashed Seigfried’s body and those nasty jaws took a chunk out of his neck.</p><p>Li Kung failed to grab the Hark, again, and stepped away, hoping that Cord would move back in front of him. Gaelle’s next arrow careened along the passage, missing everyone in it, before nearly taking the returning Cord’s eye out.</p><p></p><p>The now goth-pale Seigfried swung wildly and Li Kung picked up his glaive and waved it at the Hark.</p><p>Seeing his opening, and wanting to get where Gaelle’s arrows couldn’t possibly hit him (in front of her), Cord moved past Li Kung and stuffed his sword through the Hark’s heart.</p><p></p><p>Seigfried offered thanks to Forseti for their victory while Li Kung applied his potion of healing to Gracientus, bringing him wide awake and nearly fully restored. </p><p>Cord was healed and Gaelle struck the Hark’s head off as Seigfried went to reclaim his unfeasibly large weapon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="robberbaron, post: 1853645, member: 14771"] The sun rose and Seigfried knelt to pray to Forseti, being pleasantly surprised when he was granted a spell. Li Kung was surprised. “He looks like he is praying. Does he have a god?” “Dunno,” said Helga, “I like him but I’m not THAT interested.” They discussed what magic Gracientus should pray for, forgetting that he prayed at sunset, not sunrise, so he had only the spells left from the previous day. They also considered what they knew of lycanthropes – only that it is a disease which is passed on through the creature’s bite. They thought they could remember something about belladonna helping, but that it was also highly poisonous. Li Kung looked jealously at Seigfried and Cord’s fullblades and wondered if he could find a larger glaive, a fullglaive, perhaps. It would seem that all his ascetic training had not remove the potential for weapon envy. He also thought about taking belladonna as a preventive measure against the Hark’s bite, but decided that it would be pretty good to be a wererat monk – they are fast and resistant to normal weapons. Hmm. In the early morning, they untied Philp and set off to get the correct head for their bounty, after Li Kung asked him when he was next expected to report to the Hark. “Later today, by which time I will be long gone and he will, hopefully, be dead” On their way to the north of the harbour, they dropped a note into the watchhouse, explaining where they were going, how to get in and asking for backup around midday. Finding the warehouse easily, they saw that the dock was pretty quiet here where few ships berthed, especially compared to the bustle of the more southerly wharves, and did not think anyone was paying particular attention to them. In fact the workers around were making quite sure that they weren’t paying attention to them. Helga quickly picked the lock on the warehouse door, then looked for, but didn’t find, any traps. She then opened the door, revealing a small store, completely empty. Gaelle had a nose around for tracks, finding a very faint human trail going to the right of the door then disappearing. Li Kung looked around for spyholes in the warehouse walls, finding none, while Helga easily discovered the well-hidden trapdoor and its disguised catch. Opening the trapdoor, they could see a ladder leading down through a wooden shaft which opened out on to the rock of the harbour wall. When they moved down it they realised that the decrepit looking ladder was actually very well cared for. Li Kung scrambled down the rock face, looking for the Cant sign which would mark the Hark’s lair. Finding it, he secured himself to the wall and prepared to kick anyone or anything coming out of the entrance. The entrance looked like a crack in the rock face but closer examination showed that there was a thin spur of rock set some 4’ out from the face. Gaelle crept and Li Kung clumped into the passage, Gaelle pausing at the threshold to listen but only hearing Li Kung’s breathing. The rest of the party followed up, forming a single file in the hidden passage, and then shuffled around each other until their order was satisfactory. Gaelle padded down the passage towards the deep blackness of the lair, hearing faint squeaking of small rats before moving back and gesturing for Seigfried and the others to follow. Moving back to the front, Gaelle uncovered her lantern, scattering several small rats, and waved Seigfried forward with Li Kung also moving past her in to the first chamber. They were making quite a lot of noise, but the lantern light would probably have given away their presence before their footsteps did. Realising this, they charged into the next room, where they expected some goblins. When the rest had passed, Helga began laying combustible material in the passage behind them and setting it alight. The goblins, having seen their light, but only having heard Seigfried’s clumsy approach, lobbed javelins at him as he came out of the passage. Two small sharp sticks nicked his flesh, the rest rattling harmlessly against his armour and the wall. The goblins then grabbed their little maces and charged in, four of them being chopped up by Li Kung before they even finished their battle-cry, “Aaargh…!” Six seconds later the goblins were dead, Cord was running up the ladder to the upper level and Helga was wondering where they had all gone. Cord’s lantern illuminated part of a large cavern and he stepped purposefully towards it. Suddenly, a fusillade of darts whistled out of the darkness, sticking in his side. After his next step a second whistling cloud of darts were also sticking in him. Li Kung tumbled nimbly over the two traps but Gaelle, trying to emulate the monk, hit one of the pressure pads and received her own clump of darts in the cheek. Seigfried, without room for a run up, attempted to standing jump the 10’ of trapped passage, just clearing the second pad thanks to his newly liberated masterwork armour. Gracientus was not so lucky. He landed square in the middle of the trap, straddling both pads, getting badly punctured before staggering out into the cavern. Helga, just arriving at the top of the ladder, would have run straight into the trap, had she not heard their shouted warning. Her tumble was at least as impressive as Li Kung’s. Three passages led off the cavern and Gaelle moved to the furthest one to look for tracks, finding hobgoblin spoor less than thirty minutes old. They could all hear movement in the passages so they prepared to run in, thinking to surprise the hobgoblins with their bravery. The hobgoblins, however, charged out to meet them. Seigfried moved into the central passage and cut the first hobgoblin in two. Li Kung moved to the furthest passage and engaged the hobgoblins there. Cord followed the monk and carved his first opponent with contemptuous ease. Gracientus took the opportunity to Bless his companions as Gaelle stuck an arrow in one of their foes. Then the hobgoblins charged in, taking wounds from Helga’s longspear and getting chopped up by Li Kung’s glaive and Cord’s fullblade. Seigfried caught a spurt of hot, caustic hobgoblin blood in his eyes, obscuring his vision and causing him to swing more wildly than normal. Li Kung, in his haste to kill more enemies but miss Cord, dragged his glaive across the wall putting a nasty looking notch in the blade and cracking the shaft. Cord cut only air then stepped back to allow more of the hobgoblins out. The hobgoblins advanced, one more falling to Li Kung’s battered glaive before getting into sword range and taking a piece out of Cord. Gaelle continued to take step back and kill hobgoblins with her arrows. Seigfried stepped back and wiped his eyes while he had no opponents. As the last of the hobgoblins in the cavern fell, a blazing ball of flame blossomed among the party, singeing Gracientus into unconsciousness and lightly toasting everyone else except a smug Li Kung. Seigfried stepped up to the remaining hobgoblins in the passage in front of him and Li Kung ran into the passage where he thought the Hark must be. Guessing correctly, he rushed up and carved a thin score in the hide of the beast before him. Seven feet tall, heavily muscled, covered in wiry hair and with a large snout full of pointy teeth, the Hark was as horrible as he had been described. Cord moved past Li Kung, putting himself in front of the Hark, receiving a claw across the chest and a bite to the shoulder for his bravery. Gaelle, not being able to get a bead on the Hark, shot past Seigfried, taking out his foe and freeing the Germanian warrior to run around behind the Hark. Helga, meanwhile, managed to bandage enough of Gracientus’ suppurating wounds to keep him from dying. Li Kung dropped his glaive and attempted to tumble past Cord and around the Hark, bouncing off Cord’s back and falling flat on his backside with a claw slash across his cheek. He then sprang nimbly to his feet hoping no-one had seen him. The Hark stepped away from Cord and unleashed a fan of flame from his fingertips, lightly singeing Cord who was wondering whether or not to fall over. Gaelle ran clear past Seigfried, but could not get a shot at the Hark. Helga also moved in as Seigfried stepped behind the Hark and stuffed his silvered longsword deep into the wererat’s side. Li Kung moved past Cord and tried to grapple the Hark, unable to get a good grip on his blood-slicked hide. Cord, unable now to get to the Hark, walked back out of the passage, picked up Gracientus and moved him out of the cavern, just in case there were anymore painful surprises. The Hark, unhappy with the burning wound from the silver sword turned his attention on Seigfried but was unable to make contact. Gaelle again attempted to shoot past Seigfried, but her arrow was deflected away by the floor. Helga, however, scored a hit by firing a magic missile into the beast. Seigfried, calling upon the holy power of Forseti, again stuck his silver sword into the Hark, just managing to remove it before Li Kung’s next unsuccessful grapple. A spark of inspiration: Li Kung shouted “Helga, use the bloody wand!” “I haven’t got the wand!” “He doesn’t know that!” The Hark continued to flail at Seigfried, managing to slash him across the thigh and bite his arm, as Gaelle’s next arrow missed him by less than the last and another magic missile hit his back. The paladin, nearly out of blood, called upon his god for healing lest he fall over and dishonour himself. Just in time, as both the Hark’s claws slashed Seigfried’s body and those nasty jaws took a chunk out of his neck. Li Kung failed to grab the Hark, again, and stepped away, hoping that Cord would move back in front of him. Gaelle’s next arrow careened along the passage, missing everyone in it, before nearly taking the returning Cord’s eye out. The now goth-pale Seigfried swung wildly and Li Kung picked up his glaive and waved it at the Hark. Seeing his opening, and wanting to get where Gaelle’s arrows couldn’t possibly hit him (in front of her), Cord moved past Li Kung and stuffed his sword through the Hark’s heart. Seigfried offered thanks to Forseti for their victory while Li Kung applied his potion of healing to Gracientus, bringing him wide awake and nearly fully restored. Cord was healed and Gaelle struck the Hark’s head off as Seigfried went to reclaim his unfeasibly large weapon. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
They came in search of Paradise (A Story of Erth) - Updated 23rd April
Top