die_kluge's story hour - The Lost Continent

Over the next several days, having no where to go, the party takes it easy on the beach, outside the tomb. Nytor and Rath, insistent that they *cleanse* it of evil, purge the first room of all the skeleton bones that keep reanimating. It doesn't take them long to figure out that the room itself has an Animate Dead effect in the room. So, short of destroying the room, that's unavoidable. But, with some time, they cart out every last bone in the room outside. Nytor then takes the time to both remove the Unhallow in that room, and Hallow it.

Bax and Rath also take this opportunity to investigate the library further. Using a Preserve* spell, they acquire a few books from the library, but the process is tedious. Most of the books Bax pull out are boring, lizardfolk genealogy books. He does manage to find a book on outer planar magic, and a book on vermin, which is slightly interesting. A few notable spells are also recovered.

The rest of the party more or less takes it easy during this time, and they spend some time going back into the dungeon and pulling out all the loot from the treasure vault, and moving it up to the first room. This way, they reason, if they ever do need any of it, they can simply get it from the first room, versus having to trek through the entire dungeon to get to it.

After about 8 days of some much needed rest and relaxation, Nytor casts a divination at the request of the party to determine where they should head next. "Move into the heart" is the reply.

So, having fully rested, the party makes their way into the dense forests inland.

After a days' travel, the party comes upon some stone ruins. What once might have been here is undetermined as several large pieces of worked stone lay scattered about. What is left, is a set of stairs that lead into an under-chamber of sorts.

Moving into the dark chamber, the party sees a floor covered in bones, and stinking of death and decay. Suddenly, a tremendous beast of at least a dozen fiery red heads emerges from the shadows and approaches them fiercely.

Mournax and Ivo charge at it, cutting deep into the creatures abdomen. The creature responds with all its heads in turn, biting ferociously at Mournax and Ivo, tearing large chunks of meat from their flesh. Bax opens with a barrage of arrows, and Rath responds with spells of his own. Nytor brings about the blessings of his god, and Dzintra throws her dagger at the creature. Mournax and Ivo respond again, delivering full attacks with all their strength to deliver a deathblow to the foul beast.

"By the Gods that creature was strong!", Mournax shouts, taking a knee on the floor, "I could use some healing cleric, if you are able." Ivo responds as well, "Aye, and pass a little over to me as well." Nytor nods, and heals Mournax and Ivo.

The party, shaken, but alive, scrounges the room and finds nothing of interest but bones and mildew. Arriving back outside, Rath spies some curious writing on the remains of a stone pillar.

"Nytor, can you translate this with magic?"
"Certainly", Nytor says, casting a Comprehend languages.
Studying the writing, Rath reads out loud.

Once, all was at peace, and our people were free to live among the land, and we treated the land with respect, and the land in turn gave us back what we put in it. With Elbard gone, all is lost, and the land has become chaotic. It fights us, and we fight back, but the land is winning. The skies have been dark for ages now, and the air hard to breathe. The rain of dust signals the end. We move on to greener pastures, seeking hope. Elbard calls to us still.

Bax takes care to write the information down on paper.

(Game #5 - December 20th) (we had a long break due to conflicts)

As the party stood in the clearing, reading the strange message on the stone pillar, they wondered where to go next. Just as the question was being asked, they could faintly hear the sounds of a bell tolling just down the valley. "What the!?", Mournax exclaims, wondering what it could be. "I will go investigate the noise", Dzintra says. "Wait", states Rath, "let me imbue you with the power of flight in case you run into trouble."

Dzintra flies away, down the valley to follow the noise. Getting into a clearing, she spies several large, ugly green, humanoid creatures. There are about a dozen of them, and they seem to have surrounded small froglike creatures. These creatures have huddled together amidst the remains of the walls of a stone structure. One still intact structure is a small bell tower with a bronze bell at the top. Dzintra can faintly see the bell, still swinging from the last ring.

Flying back, she reports this to the rest. "There are strange frogs, and giant-looking things surrounding them." "Perhaps these frogs are in trouble!", Rath points out. "Bah!", Mournax cries, "they are just frogs! This is not our fight." "Nevertheless, I think we should investigate."

Moving quickly down the trail, the party can just make out these creatures, which Rath indicates are Trolls, descending on the helpless frogs. Bax then points out that a few of the frogs, which are about the size of a medium-sized dog, actually wield daggers. "Those aren't your ordinary frogs."

Rath detects evil, and quickly determines that the trolls are evil creatures. Spying the trolls from amidst some bushes, the PCs watch as an aggressive troll closes in on the frogs, and with two sweeping claw attacks, guts two separate frogs, killing them instantly. "Those frogs aren't going to last long at this rate", Bax notes. Acting noble, Rath springs into action, and evokes a wall of force, which separates a group of trolls on the far side from reaching the frogs. With uncanny sight, Mournax spies a particular troll in this group wielding a spear, and wearing some hide armors. "That one must be the leader", he says.

The trolls on the far side bump into the invisible wall, and puzzle out their newfound situation with curiosity. Two trolls near the party move to engage. Mournax waits patiently for one to get near, and then hurls his throwing axe at the beast. Nytor casts righteous might to equal the size of the trolls and moves in next to Ivo who has also moved out into the clearing.

Rath then casts yet another wall of force, adjoining perpendicular to the first one. This cuts off even more trolls from reaching the frogs. Mournax makes his way around this side, engaging trolls. Bax covers him with arrows from behind. Meanwhile, Rath lays down several concussive blasts of force burst, knocking out three trolls.

The leader troll and two others finally make their way around the second wall of force, where Nytor, Ivo and Mournax engage them, dispatching them without difficulty. Another troll, however, figures out that he can jump over the second wall by standing on a rock wall, and lands amidst the frogs where he quickly eviscerates a few frogs near him with his deadly claws.

The party is surprised, however, when one particular frog, possibly a leader, pulls out a large gold talisman, holds it high, utters a phrase foreign to them, which causes a blast of light to fall from the sky, burning the troll rather severely. Bax and Rath follow up this blast with attacks of their own, and that final troll falls.

All trolls vanquished, the leader frog emerges from the group hesitantly to meet his protectors.

Bullywugs?

I've enjoyed bullywugs ever since that old D&D cartoon in the eighties.

Is that what these are and how much do the characters know about
the monsters outside the Bastion?

Lefferts

great adventure,i like the style of the first 'dungeon'

the margins are off the screen,maybe you should use a doc. rather than an htm
it's quite difficult to see what's happening when this happens


if anybody has a word about my story feel free to post it

thanks

Lefferts said:

I've enjoyed bullywugs ever since that old D&D cartoon in the eighties.

Is that what these are and how much do the characters know about
the monsters outside the Bastion?

Lefferts

Click to expand...

No, they are Gripplis, which are in the Tome of Horrors. Essentially just big tree frogs.

And they haven't really encountered much in the way of monsters yet. But, I figured that trolls are common enough that they would have at least heard of them. Other things I've made them roll either outer planar checks, or intelligence checks to see if they know anything. Beyond that, I just try to keep the monsters weird, so that even the players don't know what they are. That's the best solution!

Felikeries said:

great adventure,i like the style of the first 'dungeon'

the margins are off the screen,maybe you should use a doc. rather than an htm
it's quite difficult to see what's happening when this happens


if anybody has a word about my story feel free to post it

Click to expand...

Thanks. The margins got off because of one of the dungeon maps I uploaded. I should resize it. But, we're on page 4 now, so it doesn't really matter anymore.

The leader emerges from within the group of frogs. The others move out of their way to allow the diminuative creature come forward to approach the party of strangers in their midst - their saviours. Approaching the party, the leader frog bows gracefully and speaks, "CROACK! CrOaaack aack ccroACK brr RIBBET! CroaBET!"

"Um, Nytor...", Rath says, cautiously, "we're gonna need a tongues spell."
"Yes, I believe you're right."
Nytor prepares an empty slot with the spell, praying to his god, to the curious eyes of the frog men, and casts it on the Rath."

"Greetings. I am Rath, and these are my companions."
"You are strangers to us", the leader says, "but me and my people thank you from the bottom of our hearts for saving us from those nasty beasts."
"Tell me, Rath asks, it does not seem safe for you out here, what are you doing?"
The frog pauses, and looks to his peers, and then turns back to Rath, "Ours is an unfortunate tale. We are Gripplis, I am Yogli. Our village is not far from here. About a week ago, our village was attacked in the night by strange creatures. Our village elders said that these were creatures of chaos, and they came for our most valuable treasure - this talisman", he says, holding up the talisman - a large circular object with golden entertwining leaves, and a symbol of a stag in the center. "Our elders bade me to leave, to take the medallion from the village so that it would be safe. Only... only a few days after we fled, this pack of trolls caught our scent, and have been chasing us for days. We fled here, not knowing where else to go. They have been picking us off for several days now, and our numbers dwindle."
Rath rubs his chin curiously, "these creatures of chaos as you call them. What did they look like?"
"They were ravenous and huge, they bore mannerisms not unlike our own, but they had huge teeth and claws, and there were red ones, and blue ones, and ..."
"Slaad!", Rath says, with a grimace, interrupting the grippli leader.
"You have heard of them, then?", Yogli asks.
"Well, I have studied them, but I have never encountered one.", Rath states.
"Perhaps, perhaps...", Yogli asks, hesitantly, not wanting to seem pushy.
"Yes", Rath inquires.
"Perhaps you could travel back to our village with us. You could help our village if they are still under attack? You handled those trolls very effectively."
"Yes, we would be glad to help your people", Rath states.

"The bell.", Mournax says, "ask him about the bell."
"Oh yes", Rath says, "what is this bell?"
"Oh, we do not know. It has been here for as long as my people can remember. It rings whenever danger is near. We feel safe near it.", Yogli says.
Rath, relays the information back to the group. Bax casts a detect magic. "I'm getting some decent Divination off this thing."
"Let's take it with us", Mournax suggests, "I could carry it. It's not that large."
"How far away is your village", Rath asks, while Mournax and Ivo tear down the bell from its tower.
"Maybe 3 or 4 days away - not far. I will show you...", Yogli says, trailing off.
"Yes?", Rath asks.
"You are familiar to us now. Now I remember. Your kind was here before - many moons before. Others - like you, have come!", Yogli says.
"Really?!", Rath asks, "when did they come?"
"Long time ago, maybe 20 years or more.", Yogli responds.
"Oh... interesting. That must have been Gorian and his crew.", Rath responds.
"They left a letter for you. I can give it to you, when we reach my village! Come!"

The PCs travel through the forest, being led by the Grippli leader Yogli. They travel north/northeast for about 3 days. Mournax and Ivo take turns carrying the bell, and while it isn't terribly heavy, carrying it for a long period gets to be quite tiring.

The party arrives at the Grippli village - a smattering of mud huts near some large trees, and a few huts fashioned into the lower branches of the trees. These densely packed huts occupy an area not more than a few acres.

The Gripplis hop quickly into the village, followed closely by the PCs who follow behind at a steady jog to keep up with them. Then, the gripplis stop, and stare in horror at the site that awaits them.

A massacre - the village is smashed and tattered, and bodies of gripplis lie everywhere. Quickly moving through the village, the gripplis emerge from hut after hut with tears streaming down their faces. Several of the remaining gripplis stop in the street, kneel and cry.

The party moves into the village and assesses the situation. "Rath, look at this", Bax says, pointing to the remains of a grippli near him, "that hole in his stomach, look here", he says, pointing to the curious nature of the hole, "it was created from the *inside* out." "Slaad", Rath said looking around at the other gripplis, "look, more bodies over here that suffered a similar fate."

"Yogli", Rath asks seriously, "how many were in your village". Yogli, now wiping away his tears courageously replies, "more than 250, close to 300 maybe. My group was 30 strong, and now we're down to about 20."

"Great", Rath says sarcastically to Bax, "we've got more than 250 Slaad running around this place now. This land has become infested with Slaad."

"Yogli", Rath asks, "this talisman, you said these creatures were after the talisman."
Yogli, anticipating where Rath is going with this, holds the talisman out to Rath. "My people found this east of here in a canyon, despite grave peril. We do not know the extent of its powers, but my people have always held it in high regard. But, we are not longer safe so long as it exists with us. It would be safer in your position. I want you to have it."
Rath takes the talisman, and thanks Yogli, "tell me more about how you acquired it."
"There isn't much to say. It was found in a nasty place called the canyon of spiders. How they managed to get it out of there is unknown, and several died in the process, and it's been in our village long before I was born. There may be more items like it in the canyon."

Dzintra cuts in, "I hate to interrupt, but I hear something in the bushes - "

Just then, 4 red slaad move from out behind the thick foliage and descend into the center of town.