Tales of Victor Bane

[Fenros]

Greetings.

I've never done a storyhour before, but after sitting on the sidelines reading others, I thought it would be fun to try.

I'll be writing about a 3e Campaign I ran when the new edition rules had just come out.

Now, with this being my first time doing a Story Hour I'm a little unsure as to how people translate their gaming sessions to posts. Do I embellish? Do I re-do and finesse things to make them more entertaining to read?

Anyways, I thought for this first time I would just give sort of a general telling of events in our game exactly as they happened unedited. I do this because I believe the actions of my friend who plays Victor (and his relations to the other party members and NPCs) are funny in their purest form. Exactly as they happened at the gaming table. His 'Paladin' just gets more silly, weird, and crazy as the campaign goes. Thus why this Story Hour is named after him.

My friend spoke more loudly and more often than anyone else at the table. Often times cutting them off from speaking altogether. Eventually, when the party met NPCs, they just stayed quiet and let Victor speak. Anything they would say would get interrupted by him anyways. This may sound odd but none of the other players were angered by this at all. They just enjoyed his antics and let him continue them. They just let Victor drive and they just sat back in the passengers seats along for the ride.

In most games I've been in, this was a very bad thing. So I tried to encourage the other players to be more active with their characters and not let Victor take center stage all the time. But as often as I tried to set that up, they wouldn't go for it. So, I talked to everyone about it. I asked them if they were happy with the 'screentime' their characters were getting, etc, etc. They all thought everything was going fine. They all looked at me like, 'yeah we're all having fun, can't you tell?'

I guess I couldn't. What would normally irk any other gaming group didn't bother this one at all. Truly odd.


Anyways, hope you enjoy hearing about Victor, his friends, and their adventures.



The Setting : (to tell you the truth, you can skip this part and jump ahead to the start of the story if you want. I did nothing particularly creative with this world. It was done up pretty generic. The reason was because we had just gotten 3e and wanted to jump in right away! But didn't want to use Greyhawk of FR for some reason. So I made one up for the guys. We figured we can pour our creativity in the stories rather than the setting where they took place. Or something like that. Anyways, we all wanted to start immediately and that didn't make time for coming up with some cool innovative world. )


Homebrewed world that was just simply known as 'The World'. We never named it in the same fashion as 'Greyhawk' or 'Forgotten Realms'. It was just 'The World'.


There were three Human Kingdoms in the middle. A rough set of mountainous terrain borders the west. They are known as the Black Mountains. These mountains act as a natural border between Human lands and what is called The Beast Lands. Where hordes of Orcs, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Gnolls, and Ogres live. A second line of Mountains, that runs east of the Black Mountains, are called the Greycloud Mountains. They line some of the Northern parts of the western kingdom of the humans. Here in these mountains live the Dwarves.

To the east, the continent curved north a bit into the cold wastelands that reached to the Dreadmist Mountains. The land just before the mountains were inhabited by many barbarian tribes of mostly human. Beyond the mountains were just colder and colder plains of ice. Rumor had it that there were a network of underground areas there, where Dark Elves lurked.

South of the middle human kingdoms were areas where most Gnomes resided, and south of them were areas where Haflings tended to make there homes. Then the land ends with the ocean.

Across the ocean and to the southeast, about a few week's worth of sailing, lies the smaller Elven lands. The majority of this land is inhabited by three Elven kingdoms. However, a small western portion is left alone. It is there that Wild Elves live. Regular Elves don't get along too well with Wild Elves. They pretty much leave each other alone.

Further south across the ocean, south of the Elven lands, is a large island that the Elves try to protect. They let no foriegner sail close enough to explore it. There is speculation among Human wizards that it was once a place where Elven wizards used to study their magic.

Dieties are the same as the ones in the Player's Handbook.

The Player Characters :

-Victor Bane: Human/Paladin of Pelor
-Atalos: Human/Diplomat (Rogue)
-Golorn the Enchanter: Dwarf/Transmutator
-Kindar: Half-Elf/Ranger
-Rashino: Elf/Ranger
-Pelbek: Elf/Cleric of Corellon Larethian
-Ajanen: Gnome/Druid
-Krog: Half-Orc/Barbarian
-Evanstil: Elf/Monk

All starting at 1st Level.

Wow, that's nine friggin players! It did just start off as six, but as more friends heard that there was a new and improved edition of D&D out, they got excited and asked to join up. Snowball effect.

Next Post: The first adventure

 

[Fenros]

First Adventure – “From The Woods Come The Undead” Part 1:

(Hope you find it entertaining . . . )

The small elven town of Valindrea was where Kindar, Rashino, Pelbek, and Evanstil had grown up. All but Evanstil had remained near home most of their lives. Taking their place as local Rangers in the case of Kindar and Rashino, a Cleric of Corellon Larethian with Pelbek. Evanstil had left home many years ago and had traveled north across the ocean, to the human lands, to study at the Elemental Gardens. There he learned to be a Monk with a preference for the Flying Cloud Stance in his fighting style. When his basic teachings had ended he returned home to Valindrea to visit family and friends.

Speaking of family, Kindar's half brother Victor Bane had just arrived in Valindrea with a dwarven companion named Golorn the Enchanter and a human diplomat named Atalos. Victor had just finished his training as a Paladin of Pelor in the human city of Selora (a human middle kingdom) and was traveling to Valindrea to visit his human mother. Victor’s father (also a Paladin of Pelor) had died when he was young and his mother Ellen remarried an elf some years later. Kindar was born in the early years of this new marriage. Victor’s elven stepfather raised him along with Kindar in Valindrea until he was about thirteen. Then he had left home to go back to the human lands to follow in his original father’s footsteps. Atalos was a diplomat he became friends with in Selora. Golorn the Enchanter was a strange dwarf he and Atalos had met while traveling south. Golorn wanted to visit the elves because it is they, above all other races, that knew most of magic. Since Victor and Atalos were headed in the same direction as Golorn, they became traveling companions and then friends.

Victor, Atalos, and Golorn stride into Valindrea and see Evanstil the monk walking on the main road leading out of town. Victor recognizes Evanstil right away and they strike up a conversation in the road. Evanstil says he’s glad to see Victor again and relates a little of where he had been too. Golorn and Atalos are introduced. Golorn starts to talk to Evanstil about whether or not he’s into magic and other such things, but Victor interrupts and suggests they all continue on to his mother’s house. The four of them proceed into town further.

Valindrea is a town built between large evergreen trees. The houses are constructed around the bases of these enormous trees. The architectural styles of the elves here lend to curvy homes made of wood finished in various natural hues. The curves of the homes compliment the curves of the terrain around the base of the trees.

Halfway to Ellen’s home the four run into Kindar and Pelbek. Kindar recognizes his brother right away and gives him heartfelt greetings and hugs. Pelbek says a brief greeting as well. Before Kindar can ask Victor about his travels, Victor begins to tease him. “Were you off playing in the woods again? Dancing in flowery fields? Sipping dandelion wine?” Kindar brushes aside the comments and proudly declares that he is now a part of the local rangers. Victor heavily rolls his eyes and insist he continue on to his mother’s house without anymore more delays.

Victor, Atalos, Golorn, Evanstil, Kindar, and Pelbek make their way to Ellen’s home. Upon reaching her house, Victor knocks on the door and his mother answers. She is pleasantly surprised and so very glad to see her son again after so many years. After prying her mom from hugging him for the twentieth time, Victor makes his way inside. His mom invites all his friends to enter as well. Ellen insists everyone stay for dinner to celebrate Victor’s return home. Victor remarks that he hopes he can eat her famous boar meat pie. Ellen tells him that, had she known of his approaching arrival, she would’ve tried to prepare his favorite meal. Unfortunately, she had not and all she has available for the night is a spiced veggie stew. Everyone says that the stew is more than fine while Victor is a bit disappointed.

Then Victor’s elven stepfather Orindall enters the house, gives his stepson his warmest greetings, and meets everyone else as well.

[ Extra DM Commentary/Notes:My friend playing Victor never had established any details of his elven stepfather. So I told him whatever blanks there were, I’d just fill them in myself if that was cool with him. He seemed fine with this. Since he hadn’t given him a name, I did so. I just called him Orindall, some name off the top of my head. He didn’t seem to mind the name I’d given his stepfather and said nothing. However, he did eventually intercede and say that his surname should definitely be ‘Boneblower’. Everyone at the table was like, “What?!?” Trying to keep a straight face, my friend tried to justify the name by saying that his stepfather’s profession was making flutes made of bones. Then he started cracking up. I told him, “No, I’m not going to call Victor’s stepfather ‘ Orindall Boneblower’.” Through out the rest of the campaign, whenever Orindall is brought up, he insists again that he be called ‘Boneblower’. Then I would say ‘No’ again. I didn’t want to name some NPC that name just to satisfy his sense of humor using silly homosexual innuendoes. Or whatever .]

Dinner is over, and as Ellen cleans up, everyone starts to make idle chit chat. Talking of where they have gone, what they did overseas, and so on. As the evening winds down and a few start lighting up pipes, Orindall begins to ask Kindar how his day went. Kindar remarks that he, while on his usual patrol through the woods, had found areas where the underbrush was disturbed as if by something very large. There he found large prints in the ground, like that of a bear, but much much larger. He reported this to the lead ranger in Valindrea and the consensus was that it was to be investigated more on the following day. Such creatures were not native to the local area. Evandil then asks for more details to what was seen. Kindar doesn’t say much more other than he followed the large bear tracks for a while and then they seemed to vanish. Victor isn’t too sure the local rangers will be able to handle the situation and suggests the group investigate it themselves.

The next day arrives and the party sets out to investigate the area where Kindar saw the large tracks. As they head out of town they meet Rashino. Rashino joins the party in their investigation.

[Extra DM Commentary/Notes: An old friend finds out that a bunch of us are playing D&D and wishes to join. I say, “Okay”. I’ve DM ed seven before. Should be okay right? ]

Victor says, “Pshaw…..more elves….” and rolls his eyes. Evanstil starts to think that Victor may hate elves.

They travel for most of the morning and by noon arrive at the spot Kindar was at on the previous day. Various members of the group suggest that Kindar attempt to re-establish the trail of the mysterious creature. Kindar flounders around in the area for a while but finally manages to indeed….find more tracks. Victor makes some comments on how Kindar makes a poor ranger. The creature’s tracks lead the party to some human ones. They figure that perhaps the creature was chasing the human. They follow the trail some more and then come upon a dead human male body lying at the bottom of a cliff. They deduce that the creature must have cornered the human at the edge of the cliff, and that the human accidentally, in fright, fell off the cliff to his death or the creature ran into him and the impact pushed him off the cliff.

Atalos, using his climbing gear, climbs down the cliff to investigate the body. Evanstil decides to go down too. Then Rashino also decides to climb down as well. Atalos searches through the contents of the human’s backpack. He finds two scroll cases, an empty dagger scabbard [uh….do daggers have scabbards? Or are they put away in something that’s called something else? I dunno what to call them ], and some gold pieces.

Atalos pockets the gold pieces and declares that he intends to give them to the man’s next of kin….should they ever be found. Evanstil protests and strongly suggests that he be the one to carry the coins. Basically eluding that Atalos maybe a thief.

[Extra DM Commentary/Notes:The player who plays Evanstil knows that the player playing Atalos is playing a rogue and thus where his character’s suspicions come from. Although in the game, Atalos has been introduced to all as a human diplomat. ]

Atalos, Evanstil, and Rashino climb back up and rejoin the rest of the party. Evanstil reports to Victor that Atalos has pocketed some gold from the dead body. Atalos repeats his plan to give the coin to the man’s next of kin and if they cannot be found he’ll put the gold in a ‘widows & orphans ‘ fund. Coins from the ‘windows & orphans’ fund will be given to widows and orphans when they run into them. Everyone but Atalos and Victor roll their eyes and start to express their disbelief in Atalos’ intentions. However , before anyone can say anything, Victor loudly sticks up for Atalos and decrees that his plan is sound and that he completely trusts him. Everyone else drops the subject and goes along. Evanstil wonders how Atalos will find the dead man’s next of kin if no one knows what his name was.

Atalos examines the scroll cases. One has a map in it. The map has markings on it written in the human common language. The map is of the areas southwest of Valindrea. An obvious destination mark is over an area that is a day’s travel (on foot) southwest of their current position. Kindar, Rashino, and Pelbek comment on the fact that the mark on the map is well within the middle of a portion of the forest that the elves consider sacred. This sacred area has always been left alone for as long as anyone can remember. Its a local custom, no one is to travel there. It’s simply to honor an ancient generation of elves that used to live in that area. To let their spirits rest undisturbed in their original forest. The second scroll case contains a piece of parchment that had been stuffed in there hastily. The parchment is completely blank.

Each party member takes turns examining the parchment. Holding it up against the sun, smelling it, so on and so forth. In the end all they can tell about it is that it’s blank.

Kindar looks around. He sees that by the tracks of the creature, that it paused at the edge of the cliff and then took off southwest. The party believes the creature must’ve come from that ‘sacred area’ of the forest.

The party heads southwest.

As night falls, Kindar loses the trail of the creature in the dark. Victor admonishes Kindar for being a lousy ranger. Kindar asks why Victor must always have such a low opinion of him. Victor tells him because he IS a lousy ranger. He lost the trail!

The party makes camp for the night. They set up watches and take turns sleeping. Not to far into the night an eerie mist from the south flows over the party like a slow tidal wave. Then those on the third watch hear some noises off in the distance. Rashino’s keen ears catch the sounds of something clacking together. He wakes everyone up. They all listen for the noises. Many of the party members start to believe that what they’re hearing are the sounds of many skeletons moving in the mist. No one questions anyone else on whether or not they have ever heard skeletons moving before.

They wait, with their weapons out. Getting ready to fight at any second as the sounds draw closer and closer. Then suddenly, skeletons do come out of the mist and into view. But they’re not human skeletons. They’re the skeletons of undead wolves running toward them.

To be continued . . . .

 

[Fenros]

First Adventure – “From The Woods Come The Undead” Part 2:


Eight skeletal wolves rush into the camp and start attacking.

[Extra DM Commentary/Notes: This is my very first combat using the new 3e system so I didn’t want to go overboard and make an extremely deadly fight be the Players’ first. I thought eight skeletal wolves should be a fair fight. I guess it sort of was .]

Golorn retreats behind some trees as the others meet the wolves in combat. Victor swings his morning star back and forth crushing one skeletal wolf after another. Rashino also lays down a path of destruction. Atalos, with a little difficulty, manages to destroy a wolf with his rapier. However, Kindar seems to be having trouble connecting with any of his foes and when he does, there are mere glancing blows. Evanstil manages to hit absolutely nothing. Golorn doesn’t hit anything with his crossbow either. He now discovers that it is very difficult to hit a foe when a friend is in melee combat with it. Seeing actual undead must’ve unsettled Pelbek a bit because, for a moment, he forgot that he could use the divinity of his diety to turn the undead away. By the time he remembers, all of them are destroyed. Most by Victor and Rashino.

Victor teases Rashino about his ineffectual contribution to the battle.

Even though the party had destroyed a batch of skeletal wolves, those with more keener ears hear others in the far distance moving about. Evanstil and Kindar recommend the party turn back to Valindrea to warn the town and discuss possible solutions with the town elders. Victor has a particular hatred for the undead and is anxious destroy them as quickly as possible. He tells the party that Evanstil and Kindar’s plan would waste time and that they should continue south into the mist, toward the source of the undead. Everyone but Evanstil and Kindar seemed fine with that plan and so they started hiking south. Except for Kindar, who turned and started hiking back to Valindrea.

[ Extra DM Commentary/Notes: Kindar’s player couldn’t make it to the next couple of sessions after the battle with the wolves so we said he just simply went back to Valindrea. ]


Not having a full night’s rest however, the party starts to tire easily. The increasingly difficult terrain beneath the trees wasn’t helping either. So they stop for a break some hours later. The party builds a campfire and huddle around it for warmth.

Rashino smells something foul in the wind and heads away from camp to follow the scent. Not far from the fire, he stumbles upon a dead body. Another human. This one was a man dressed in leathers. But most of his armor is torn to bits by large claws. Rashino thinks that perhaps they are marks from a large bear. Rashino returns to camp and reports this to the others. As he does so, a pack of skeletal wolves jump into the camp and begin attacking everyone!

Victor yells, “Hey, who was on watch?!?!”

This time there are ten wolves! Victor and Rashino again do the majority of the damage to the undead in the first few moments. Pelbek, anxious to deliver the words of Corellon Larethian holds up his holy symbol upon the remaining undead. They turn away and run off into the woods. Everyone pats Pelbek on the back for a job well done.

The party continues to rest up some more. Then as early morning starts to come and the eerie mist disappears, they move south. Sometime in midmorning they come upon a large open area beneath the trees. An odd growing of the surrounding tree branches have extended out to join with one another and weave a ceiling of sorts over this clearing. The clearing is roughly about 300’ x 300’ and littered with the bones of various animals. In the center of the clearing is a low structure of stone. Various twelve foot tall statues of different animals surround the outside edge of the structure. Most of the statues are not intact. On the north face of the structure are a set of huge wooden double doors. One of these enormous wooden doors lies broken in front of the entrance. The party moves closer to examine the area by the entrance. Evanstil is nervous that the surrounding field of undead could animate and come to life at any second. Golorn says that he doesn’t believe that would happen. He believes that they only come to life at night.

The party examines the area in front of the doorway. They see many bodies of recently slain animals. Not undead skeletons that were bashed apart, but actual animals that were, until recently, alive and of flesh. There are bodies of large wolves, huge boars, bears, badgers, stags, etc. Just inside the doorway they find a few dead bodies of human men. They look as if they were torn apart by the animals.

Atalos gave a theory that perhaps these men were tomb robbers and that by disturbing this temple they had angered some forest spirit. The animals must’ve come together under the influence of this spirit and attacked the men in retribution. The men must’ve tried to defend themselves by retreating back into the temple and closing the doors. Eventually, the animals must’ve broken down one of the doors and overran the men.

Most of the elves in the group feel a little angered that such men had come to their lands to make such a mess. Victor doesn’t really feel any sentimental attachment to the old temple and just wants to stop the undead.

The party breaks up into small groups and search around the field of bones. They find at the edge of the field, four clearly marked paths that head away from the temple in different directions. They gather together again and report to each other as to what they had found. Victor suggests that enter inside the temple to investigate.

Stepping over the dead bodies at the double doors, they enter.

To be continued . . .

 

[Fenros]

First Adventure – “From The Woods Come The Undead” Part 3:

The party enters into the mysterious structure. The main hall has another set of double doors at the far end and two side chambers half way from the front entrance. The party searches the chamber on the right and find nothing in it. They search the left chamber and Atalos notices that there is a secret door in one of the walls. On closer examination, he notices also an area in the decorative wall where a key can be inserted to open the secret door. He also tells the group that without the proper key, a trap may spring should anyone try to pick the lock.

The party asks if Atalos can disarm the trap. Evantil eyes him suspiciously. Atalos says he can try. He explains that he had once watched locksmiths in his city of Selora work on such mechanical devices. Evantil sarcastically says, “Oh…of course.”

Atalos attempts to disarm the trap. Evantil asks where he got the tools. Atalos said he got the picks from one of the dead human bodies out front. Atalos fails to disarm the trap and it starts to activate. A large block from the ceiling starts to descend but it gets stuck. Everyone breathes a sigh a relief. Golorn asks Atalos if he can maybe try to disarm the trap again. Atalos expresses that tampering with it again would be a very bad idea. Various party members convince him to try again anyways. Anything that is guarded by such a trap must indeed be worth a lot. Evantil remarks that they are here to stop the undead and not to ransack what might be an ancient elven temple. The party thinks about it for a moment. Then they ask Atalos to try again.

Atalos fails to disarm the trap but at least had found a way to keep the ceiling block from falling any further. But he says that if were to attempt picking the lock again, he would have to release the mechanism he jammed that is keeping the block from falling. Victor and Rashino discuss whether or not their combined strength can hold up the block. They decide that they wouldn’t be able to and the party moves on.

Everyone goes back to the main hall to go through the double doors at the far end. They enter a huge room that is intricately carved with a forest theme. Even the pillars on the side are carved to represent tree trunks that go up to the ceiling. Victor says, “They sure went to a lot of trouble to make the inside look like the outside.”

At the opposite end of the room there is a section in the wall that looks like a hidden door that slides up and down to reveal another room beyond. The secret door is partially open. About a few feet off the ground. The party crawls through to the room on the other side. There they see a statue of a large two headed bear. At the base of the statue is some unreadable writing and an area where something the shape of a heart and the size of a hand used to once sit in the stone. By the statue lies another dead human body. This one however was not torn apart by animals, but has a knife in its back. Near the body, there’s a spot in the floor where the old layer of dust has been disturbed. The disturbed area is in the form of a perfect circle.

Atalos searches through the backpack of the dead man on the floor. He finds some silver and a little gold. He puts it in the ‘widows and orphans’ fund. He also finds a small notebook of sorts in the backpack. In the book he sees notes that have been written concerning the same language the party notices on the base of the bear statue. Flipping through more of the book Atalos sees it has enough notes to translate the writing.

Going to the base of the bear statue, Atalos decrypts the old writing. Atalos tells the party that the writing indicates the thing that should be sitting in the empty socket is the Heart of Nalvaya. By some magical means, the Heart is the center link to the temple’s influence over the surrounding animal life both live and undead he thinks. It also says that each of the temple’s worshipped spirits are linked to the Heart. Golorn deduces that a band of humans must’ve broken into the temple, removed the heart, and attempted to leave the forest with it. Obviously most of them failed to escape the vengeful animals. Evanstil remarks that at least one human had gotten really far. Meaning the first body they found at the bottom of a cliff. Some one asks, “Yeah, how did he get that far?”

Atalos looks at the ground. At the perfect circle free of dust. Atalos says that its quite possible that the man they found at the bottom of the cliff had stabbed the one with the notebook and then teleported away using a spellscroll with that ability. That was what the empty piece of paper was in the scrollcase found. He obviously had no reservations about abandoning his fellow party members to escape. But he didn’t have the Heart of Nalvaya on his body when it was found. Then who does have it?

Victor declares that the party must find the Heart. The man found at the bottom of the cliff must’ve handed the Heart off to someone else before he died or somebody found the body first before the party did and took it. In either case, they must try to track it down. The party exits the temple.

As the party begins to cross the field of bones they see two figures walking on one of the four paths. They seem to be moving toward them. The party gets ready for combat.

Walking toward them are Krog the half-orc barbarian and Ajanen the gnome druid. They greet the main party. Victor asks who they are and what they are doing here. Krog says that he was a part of the group that was trying to steal the Heart of Nalvaya. Evantil takes great offense to his presence and a fight almost breaks out. Krog just nonchalantly says that he doesn’t mean any offense, its just that he was hired to go with these people as extra muscle. He didn’t know what stealing the Heart would do. When the animals attacked the group he held out with them as long as he could. After the front door of the temple had broken down he and another man ran for the woods. Krog explains that he went into hiding and for the past few nights has been trying to escape the animals unsuccessfully. Ajanen then explains his story. He tells the party that he had traveled across the ocean to visit the wild elves. After doing so he planned to visit the other elves. In his travels east he came across an odd sight. A large two headed bear. He tried to follow it but lost it. Before he knew it, he was deep in the sacred forest surrounded by undead wolves by night. There he met up with Krog, who was also trying to stay alive. Both of them teamed up to avoid the perils of the woods until they could figure out how to escape.

[ Extra DM Commentary/Notes: My friend who plays Victor tells me that two more friends of ours want to join up and play D&D too. The group was already huge, but I couldn’t turn them down because simply they were my good friends too. So they were admitted into the game at this point. Eight players? Might be a stretch, but I can handle it right? Just gotta be more on the ball. Right? ]

Victor comments that he finds it odd that both Krog and Ajanen haven’t been able to escape the Nalvayan woods. They say it was because everytime they attempt to leave, no matter how early they set out, it becomes night before they can escape the woods and that’s when they get overwhelmed by skeletal animals.

Victor declares that with him and their total combined numbers they should easily be able to battle their way out of the woods. And with that, the party heads north and away from the temple.

[Extra DM Commentary/Notes:Yes, the party decided not to investigate the other four paths that led away from the temple ]

To be continued . . .

 

[Fenros]

Oh... and feel free to make any comments. I'd like to hear what you all think so far.

 

[Fenros]

First Adventure – “From The Woods Come The Undead” Part 4:


The party begins their hike north to escape the Nalvayan woods. Even though they know that they cannot travel fast enough to escape the woods before nightfall, they are unafraid. They had fought the skeletal wolves before and had won easily each time. Why should they fear to face them a third time?

Victor relates to Ajanen and Krog the winning battles against the skeletal wolves. Ajanen tells the party that he and Krog have seen more than just a mere group of eight or ten wolves. He tells them that they’ve seen sometimes over thirty to fourty together. Sometimes there are more than just wolves. Animated skeletons of larger animals stalk the night alongside the wolves too. Krog remarks that Victor and his friends must’ve gotten off light by only encountering the few that they did.

Victor just thinks Krog isn’t good enough to fight his way clear. However, Evanstil is now more nervous about traveling through the woods again now that he has heard of the things Ajanen and Krog have seen. Victor tells Evanstil to not act so much like a coward and just go on.

Golorn the Enchanter asks Krog if he could tell him more about his former employers. Any clues could help the party decide best on how to track down the thieves. Krog tells the story of how he was hired. He had met a man named Zinlan in Palizar, the nearest port city across the ocean from the elven lands. Zinlan supplied some gold up front and the promise of a lot more upon completion of the mission. Not too many details were provided for Krog and the others going, except that it involved sneaking through evlen territory to steal something. Krog also mentions that upon arriving on the elven shores, the group met up with several men wearing fancy blue cloaks. Zinlan was seen conversing with one of these men from a distance. Krog assumes that the man might be Zinlan’s own boss. But he wasn’t too sure. Regardless, they set off into the woods without them.

Golorn asks Krog where he thinks this man in the blue cloak might be now. Krog thinks for a moment and says its possible that he’s at the port city of Thomsdin. It’s a place where most humans trading with the elves sail to from Palizar. It is directly across the ocean from Palizar and on elven lands. However, most of its population is human. Although the town is guarded by elves. There, humans trade cargo with the elves and then sail back to Palizar. When Zinlan and his band of hirelings first landed it was at a point not too far west of Thomsdin.

Atalos says that if the man in blue is indeed Zinlan’s boss and if it is he who may now possess the Heart of Nalvaya, then he IS probably at Thomsdin looking to get a ride on the next ship bound for Palizar.

They continue their journey north. Night falls fast, but the party decides to not make any camps or take any breaks. They intend to force march themselves through the night until they clear the Nalvayan woods.

Toward midnight, they grow very weary. Everyone except Victor, Krog, and Rashino begin to slow their pace. Golorn says that it might not be a bad idea to rest at least ten minutes or something. Victor insists they continue without delay. He says to the party, “The sooner we get out of these cursed woods, the sooner we can chase after the thieves, and the sooner we don’t have to worry about the undead.”

The party grumbles.

Atalos speaks up, “ Y’know, we’re not even sure the undead are confined to just their territory. Maybe in the beginning they were, when the temple first got disturbed, but how long till they start roaming further?” Everyone thinks about this for a bit. Evanstil then says, “Before we chase after the man in the blue cloak we have to warn the people in Valindrea.”

Victor groans, “Why do we have to do that? They can take care of themselves. We can’t afford to waste time by making a detour.”

Rashino says, “But dude, your mom’s there.” Victor pauses. Then he asks how far of a detour it would be to go to Valindrea. Rashino tells him that it’s practically on the way to Thomsdin and that they really need to stop and get horses anyway if they’re going to stand any chance of catching the man with the blue cloak before he leaves. Victor says, “Alright then, lets do it.”

The party continues on some more. The urgency of having to do all they still needed to do has made them forget their fatique.

Sometime after midnight, Evanstil and Rashino start hearing the approach of skeletons. They seem to be moving to intercept them. Moving fast!

Evanstil suggest they pick up their pace and try to outrun them. Victor says that the group should stop to confront them. “These undead must be destroyed.”

Evanstil tells Victor, “From the noise they’re making I can tell that there may be way too many for us to handle this time.”

“Bah,” Victor responds. Evanstil then looks to Golorn. The stereotype of most novice wizards choosing flight before fight makes Evanstil think Golorn will side with him on the decision to flee. Evanstil asks, “Golorn, you agree with me right?”

Golorn throws off his pack, readies his crossbow and with a smile says, “Bah, this is D&D man, we gotta fight stuff.”

Evanstil’s shoulders sag with grim acceptance of his situation. The party then moves about, getting into strategic positions, and getting their weapons ready for the coming of the undead horde. They wait and slowly start to hear the sound of the skeletons growing louder and louder. Then from out of the mist, they come charging through an alley of trees. A swarm of skeletal wolves lead the assault as something larger is seen coming up from behind them.

Krog, Victor, and Evanstil are the first to meet the wolves. They start hacking away as best they can as the wolves start to gang up on each of them. They destroy many right away, but some get past them and head toward the second line of the adventurers. Further back stand Pelbek, Ajanen, and Golorn.

Before the wolves can get to them Ajanen casts a spell. The wolves suddenly get entangled in vines and weeds that magically sprout up from the ground. Golorn lets off a crossbow bolt and manages to smash a wolf apart. Pelbek steps past some of the entangled wolves and holds up his holy symbol. Saying loudly some ceremonial words, a bunch of wolves turn away from him and run away.

Rashino and Atalos come out of the shadows and start to attack the wolves entangled in Ajanen’s spell. Krog and Victor finish off the first set of wolves that initially attacked them. Then they go over and help Evanstil finish off the wolf he is still fighting with. After the three of them destroy it, the large form that was in the distance emerges through the mist and appears before them. They look up at it and see a huge skeletal sloth. Its long arms immediately swing to hit the adventurers. Victor and Evanstil manage to step to the side, but Krog doesn’t. He is hit with tremendous force and is knocked to the ground.

Meanwhile, more skeletal wolves come running out from behind the giant undead sloth. Rashino and Atalos abandon their task of finishing off the entangled wolves and run up to meet the new swarm coming in. Ajanen and Golorn are left to finish off the entangled foes while Pelbek moves forward again and attempts to turn some of the undead again. He succeeds and more skeletal wolves turn away and run back into the darkness.

The giant sloth hits Krog again and this time he is wounded severely. Krog’s legs are shaking and he looks as if to fall at any moment. Pelbek rushes in and casts a healing spell on the barbarian while Victor tries to distract it. Victor manages to get in some fantastic blows that send large chunks of skeletal bone fragments flying into the bushes. However, Evanstil keeps failing to do any damage to the sloth. He decides then to help Rashino and Atalos dispatch the remaining wolves. Atalos in particular is having trouble being effective with his rapier so Evanstil goes to attack his opponent. Doing a fancy spin with his staff he accidentally loses grip of it and the weapon goes spinning off far into the darkness between the trees. Evanstil doesn’t even hear the sound of it landing in the bushes.

Revitalized, Krog runs back into the fight and begins wailing on the giant sloth again. His attack does an impressive amount of visible damage to the thing. Yet, it still stands and still fights on. Krog yells, “How much more can this thing take?!?”

Golorn and Ajanen finish dispatching the entangled wolves and move up to help with the sloth. Golorn lets fly from his fingers a magical missile. It hits the sloth creating a tiny explosion of bone powder. The sloth ignores it and continues to beat on Victor. Pelbek looks over at him and notices that he’s on the verge of falling. So he runs over and uses the healing power of his faith to relieve Victor from some of his injuries.

Rashino looks over and sees that Victor and Krog still haven’t destroyed the sloth. He runs over to join in the fight leaving Atalos and Evanstil with two remaining wolves. Surrounded by many adventurers, the sloth begins to weaken under their many attacks. Rashino, Krog, Victory, Pelbek, Ajanen, and Golorn gather around it and swing their weapons against its skeletal frame over and over. Finally, in a fit of beserker rage, Krog lands the killing blow against its spine and the monster falls apart!

A few feet away, Atalos dispatches a wolf and turns to see if any foes remain.

Only one.

Evanstil is doing battle with the last remaining skeletal wolf. He yells, “Damnit! I will hit something tonight!” And with that he lands a mighty kick to the wolf sending it flying through the air and shattering against a tree.

Everyone gathers together in exhaustion and look about at the remains of the battle. Golorn claps his hands and says, “Good job everyone, that was a tough fight!”

Victor replies with, “Yes indeed, even I was starting worry a little……..just a little.”

Atalos looks around the battle scene, then looks at Evanstil and asks, “Hey, where’s your staff?”


To be continued . . .

 

[Fenros]

Shall I continue this story?

Or is it boring you guys?