More Charisma Than a Roomful of Nymphs (finished, link to full SH in last post)

Surprises

Three Follies and the last three Wheels were now arrayed against two giants -- one right in front of them, the other ten paces off by the shore. Cupric moved his ghost sound to the listing ship, and the unharmed giant spun about and began clambering aboard, following the low whistle. What happened next took the Follies completely by surprise.

Appearing to have come to some sort of decision, the leader of the Wheels narrowed his eyes and stabbed Talishmere through a gap in his armor.

One of the half-orc Wheels swung at Cupric, who avoided the blow while casting another hideous laughter on the guard-killing giant -- this time meeting with success. As Tal drew back, startled, a third guard darted around behind him and slippd his blade between Tal's ribs. Almost simultaneously, De'lea cried out, "We're on your side!" and Cupric shouted, "Stop attacking my friends! We're trying to help you!"

As this was going on, the Pikemen began pouring out of the alley just North of the melee.

As they emerged, the lured giant stomped aboard the ship -- which promptly capsized from his weight. He fell to the deck, causing it to list even more, and became caught up in the rigging. As the ship heeled over completely, its slick, barnacled underbelly glistening in the sunlight, the giant slipped off the deck and slid into the Arkhen with barely a splash. Without further ado, he began noisily drowning.

As De'lea shouted once more for the Wheels to stop attacking them, the final laughing giant was taken down by water blasts from Jaehn (lurking in the Copper Cup) and magical needles from Tuggle (still hidden in the storehouse).

Clutching his face where Tuggle's final missiles struck, the giant sank to his knees and began to topple -- and at the same time, one of the Wheels took another stab at Tal, catching him in the throat. Blood welling out over his armor, Tal crumpled to the ground.

At this, De'lea stopped trying dissuade the Wheels and began wading into them -- and in the same instant, the melee was joined by several of Baric's Pikemen.

Staying well back, the Pikemen jabbed at the Wheels with their long spears as De'lea chopped at them with her sword. Cupric took this opportunity to crouch and force a flask of healing elixir down Tal's throat. When they both rose to rejoin the battle around them, they were thoroughly surprised when a few more Pikemen arrived -- and begin thrusting their pikes at them.

While things began to get really confusing in front of the Copper Cup, Vicktor was crouched behind a stack of masts further up the docks. All of a sudden, he heard the shrill whistle again and was able to pinpoint its source: on a small barge moored about ten feet offshore, lurking under a canopy that covered the aft portion of the boat, was a shadowed figure holding a large brass whistle.

In a heartbeat, Vicktor was up and running across the cobbles. By the time he reached the edge of the dock, his run had become a full-out charge, and he leaped out over the water and into the barge -- where he tackled the whistler.

As Vicktor's ropy arms closed around him like an iron vise, the whistler's hands wound up crushed against his chest and he uttered a short girlish scream -- which was cut off abruptly as Vicktor increased the pressure, and said, "Well, he can't whistle anymore!"

The barge continued to sway as Vicktor grappled the figure -- clearly an orc of some sort -- and refused to let him draw breath. As the orc tried to speak, Vicktor whispered to it, "Sleep...sleep..." and its eyes began to close as it succumbed to the crushing strength of the Beast of Saerloon.

Once he was certain the orc was out cold, Vicktor examined him a bit more closely. He was dressed in drab greys and browns, and his only possession of note appeared to be his whistle. Pocketing this, Vicktor hauled the small barge in to shore and hoisted himself back up onto the docks. Still able to hear some of the noise from the ongoing battle, he headed back towards the Cup at a brisk pace.

Back in front of the Cup, everything was still happening at a breakneck pace. A few of the Pikemen had hung back, not sure what to make of what they saw: the trampled halfling and his wailing companion, the expiring giant -- and his dead and drowning fellows -- and the quick-and-dirty melee between the Follies, the Wheels and the other Pikemen.

Wasting no time, De'lea grappled one of the Pikemen who was trying to impale Tal yet again, and Tal felled one of the Wheels flanking him. Meanwhile, Artemis had recovered enough of his strength to head back into the fray, and skirted the line of buildings as he approached the fighters.

Thinking fast, Tuggle fired off a recent occupant, targeting the spot where the Wheels' leader was trying to kill Cupric and Tal. Learning that the man's name was Garilly, Tuggle took a deep breath and belted out, "Garilly! Cease fighting now!" from his hiding place.

Garilly's brow furrowed as he considered this -- and also took in the fact that his squad was down to himself and one other Wheel.

With one last swing at Tal, he turned and bolted from the scene, running full-tilt towards the closest inland street. His cohort did the same, not even bothering to get in a last lick as he fled. Seeing this, the shell-shocked Pikemen came out of their reverie: two charged in towards the Follies, spears at the ready, and another wheeled about and stabbed at Artemis as he came within range.

Not having any of that, Artemis ducked under the pike-thrust and slipped his rapier into the guard's throat, killing him instantly.

At the same time, Jaehn -- who emerged from the Cup as the Follies and Pikemen were routing the last of the Wheels -- saw two Pikemen bearing down on him. Magically disguised as a drunken vagrant, Jaehn staggered back towards the nearest wall, trying to get out of their way. Both stabbed at him as he stumbled by, and the leader's pike pierced him so deeply that he almost passed out on the spot.

Yanking himself off the spear and running back into the Cup, he rallied and used a well-placed color spray to daze both of the Pikemen. Struck blind and rendered unconscious by its wondrous display, they collapsed to the ground, their pikes striking the cobbles with a harsh clatter.

Aparently unconcerned about the danger to his compatriot, one of the advancing Pikemen tried to skewer De'lea while she was grappling another member of his squad, and he narrowly missed them both. Seeing that things were going poorly, the last Pikeman to emerge from the alley dropped his spear and started running down one of the long piers that jutted out into the Arkhen.

The remaining two active Pikemen were quickly cut down by the Follies, and when De'lea let go of the one she was grappling he took off like a shot, bolting for the river's edge and leaping in without hesitation.

At the same time, Vicktor returned from his little excursion to find Tal and Tuggle trying to rally the Follies -- and nearly all of their various opponents dead or fleeing at high speed. As Vicktor assessed the situation, a Wheel that no one had noticed before darted out of the Copper Cup with a long dagger in his hand.

Taking note of the two fleeing Pikemen, Cupric (who had cautiously avoided engaging any of the guards up to that point) took careful aim at the one who was already in the water and let fly with an arrow.

It arced out over the water and found its mark, and the guard thrashed noisily for a moment before sinking under the surface. Seeing the second Pikeman leap from the end of the dock, Cupric considered shooting him as well -- and decided against it.

In the confusion, none of the Follies -- most of whom were heading for the alleys that Tal and Tuggle were waving them towards -- attacked the Wheel that emerged from the Cup as he set upon the first of the dazed Pikemen.

He drew his blade across the man's throat, and then stabbed him under the collarbone for good measure. Moving on to the second man, he slit his throat in one smooth motion -- and then tore aside his armor and carved a large "G" into his chest.

As the Follies scattered -- Vicktor to the north, Cupric and Artemis to the west, and Tuggle, De'lea and Tal to the northwest -- Tuggle shouted for them all to meet up back at Farry's Port. Hoping that everyone had heard him, he took off himself -- and after the last Wheel carved his mark into the second Pikeman that he had dispatched, he too fled the carnage with all haste.

From the moment the first giant emerged to the moment the Follies left the docks, only sixty seconds had passed.

We had a lot of fun with the dockside battle, and at that point it was the largest and most chaotic 3.x combat I'd ever run -- that battlemap is pretty darned huge.

One of the players (who would prefer to remain anonymous) did some great cartoons of things that happened in the battle, which I've attached to this post. Enjoy!

Edit: Going from right to left, they are: Artemis, Tuggle, Vicktor and Jaehn. The sketch of Vicktor is my personal favorite.

And... I've caught up. Phew.

Great stuff again Haiiro, really enjoying it so far..

You've got a knack for setting the scene and that works beautifully, that roof fight, for example. Also, well, up until those giants maraudered out of the ship, I was given the impression of a very grounded world view - or maybe its me and my bleary-eyed romanticism of the lower levels - because of the bees, and monkeys and bears.

Actually, i don't know what i'm getting at here.

Put more wildlife in? And illithids.

Next point... nice to see adventurers running away a bit. And brownie points for mowing up the half-orcs like that - Evil Dead came to mind.

ANYWAY.

Cheers for a good story so far, and check out my story hour sometime.

Spider Jerusalem

The Follies Regroup

With two exceptions, the Follies made their way back to Farry's Port by the most direct route possible.

Jaehn took a path that brought him close to Dracon Row, and collected Drake without slowing down. Drake communicated to him that he had seen nothing out of the ordinary while they were gone.

Vicktor made a stop of an altogether different nature: he returned to the barge that he had left only moments ago, stuffed its unconscious passenger into a large burlap sack, and then headed for Farry's Port with the orc tossed over one shoulder. With none of the Follies drenched in blood -- spattered, or red to the ankles, yes, but not drenched -- and Vicktor sticking to side streets with his cargo, everyone managed to make it back to Farry's Port without incident.

Arriving separately and in pairs, the Follies immediately headed upstairs, and all of them gathered in the larger of their two rooms. Vicktor got there last, and everyone was surprised to see that he had brought a prisoner.

Once the orc was out of the bag, some Follies searched him -- finding only a coin purse containing twenty of Sembia's pentagonal gold coins, called Princes -- while the others examined the whistle. It looked nearly identical to the one carried by the dogsbloods they had encountered the night before, with the only real difference being that it was built to produce a different tone.

Having had some time to get their minds around what just happened on the docks, the Follies began sharing stories and discussing the events of the past few hours -- and in particular, the wild and confusing minute-long melee in front of the Copper Cup.

The Follies were mostly in agreement that the first giant was out of control, and the two whistlers were trying to get the other giants to help them keep him in check. They were more divided on other topics, some seeing coincidences -- the two attacks roughly coinciding with the two times they saw the shimmering man, for example -- and others speculating about conspiracies.

Whether or not Gurrom's Wheels and Baric's Pikemen were involved in some sort of guard war was also a topic of discussion -- but everyone agreed that whether or not they themselves had been involved before, they certainly were now.

When Vicktor pointed out that their prisoner wasn't going to stay asleep forever, talk turned to what to do with the orc.

Having sensed his evil, De'lea favored turning their prisoner over to the authorities, while Tal preferred the idea of bringing him to justice in the nearest temple of Torm. The others disagreed in one form or another -- but one thing everyone agreed on was that they didn't want the orc to wake up and get a good look at them all.

After blindfolding him, Cupric cast a ghost sound to mask their location as well, making the room sound like the inside of a barn (complete with whickering animals, chirping birds and so forth). Tuggle followed up by using a recent occupant to learn the prisoner's name: Valic Zell.

With the sounds of Selgaunt outside their window -- and the sounds of a pastoral farmhouse in their room -- the Follies settled in to wait for Valic to wake up.

Before heading into Valic's interrogation, a little aside...

At the time, the dockside battle was easily the largest and most chaotic combat I'd run in 3e -- big map, lots of combatants and other variables, and it took awhile: 3 hours of real time for 60 seconds of game time.

I tried to capture some of the intensity that cramming so much activity into so little time must (I imagine) really produce in combat. The monsters and NPCs reacted quickly, often to an incomplete picture of what was going on -- their slice of the Dockside Pie -- and they didn't always make good decisions. Not sure how much that comes across in the post, but that was the goal.

To give you an idea of what the map looked like, here it is towards the end of the battle, and then at the beginning. I'm a huge fan of Fiery Dragon's counters, and we got to use a crapload of them in this battle. After using them for a year, I've come to view them as pretty much indispensible.

As far as the pictures go: Do you enjoy them, or do they just clutter up the thread?

The "Promise of Darkness" (Session 3)

Interrogating Valic Zell

Realizing that Cupric's ghost sound would expire long before Valic was likely to wake up naturally, the Follies returned to discussing what to do with their prisoner.

"I can make him talk," Talishmere intoned darkly. A perceptive observer might have watched for his hand to twitch towards the hilt of his greatsword, but the twitch never came. Tal meant this in his bones.

"I can make him fall in love with me," replied Tuggle.

"I don't want to see the results of that," Tal shot back, giving the orc a light kick in the ribs for emphasis.

After a bit more banter, the Follies had formulated their plan. With Valic still bound, blindfolded and gagged, they would ask him a list of questions -- starting with those that could be answered with a nod or shake of his head. Since they didn't know whether or not he spoke Common, Artemis would get things started in Orcish.

Calling forth the least of Torm's blessings, Talishmere used a cure minor wounds to bring Valic out of unconsciousness. Once Artemis had established that Valic did indeed speak Common -- and conveyed to him that he shouldn't try to cause any trouble -- Cupric started in with their questions.

Drawing on his vocal training, he altered his voice (sounding like a cross between a pompous priest and a drill sergeant) and fired them off in rapid succession: Were you hired by the guards? Were you controlling the giants on the docks? Do you work with dogsbloods and ogres?

In response to each question, Valic shook his head or shrugged, as if confused.

Rightly suspicious, the Follies changed tactics: Cupric looped one of Jaehn's mandolin strings loosely around Valic's neck, and asked Tal (referring to him as "Jurvius") to come forward. Tal placed a dagger at Valic's throat, at which the orc flinched back.

Cupric said, "It seems that some of your answers can't be conveyed with a simple yes or no. We are going to remove your gag, but if you scream or call out, we will be forced to harm you. Do you understand?" After a moment's hesitation, Valic nodded his assent.

Once Artemis had given him some water, Valic proceeded to answer Cupric's questions somewhat more clearly -- at first. When asked why he was blowing his whistle during the dockside battle, however, he replied, "I like to whistle."

At this, Vicktor moved Tal aside and crouched behind the orc. Almost languidly, he gently placed his hands on Valic's shoulders and chest.

"My friend, I remember your pretty whistle, whistle..."

At this, Valic squeaked, sat bolt upright, and blurted out, "I'm sorry I lied!"

Vicktor smiled, glad that the orc remembered him so well. From that point forward, Valic was completely forthcoming -- and visibly relieved as soon as Cupric called Vicktor off (using the name "Jamis").

Valic's Story

As he told it, Valic was a handler and trainer of giants that had been fitted with "the iron spines." The spines made them calm or angry, and allowed the giants to be controlled with the right kind of whistle. He considered this to be a an art, although he allowed that it wasn't a perfect method of controlling the creatures.

He revealed that he worked for a woman named Lassiter, though he had never seen her. The moment he blurted out her name, he appeared to regret it. With fear in his voice, he described Lassiter as riding on a barge that was completely shrouded in cloth -- and told the Follies that she "speaks inside his head." For the past three years, Lassiter had been bringing him and his fellow handlers giants and ogres to train.

He and these two others -- Asdruc, who he described with some trepidation as "the dwarf with no face,&#34 and Leleeria Yane, an orc ranger of some sort -- trained the giants for weeks or months at a time. Once their training was complete, one of two things happened: either Lassiter returned to take them away (perhaps bringing new creatures with her), or she instructed Valic and the others to deliver them to a client. In this particular case, their client was Gurrom Lek -- a High City merchant prince in Selgaunt, whose guard faction is known as Gurrom's Wheels.

In the last year, Valic, Asdruc and Leleeria had delivered giants to Gurrom six times. This time, Gurrom was supposed to meet them just after dark -- and Valic cringed as he told the Follies how angry Gurrom would be now that the giants had escaped. When they told him that the giants were all killed and Gurrom already knew about it, Valic became even more fearful.

When asked who else bought his giants, Valic told the Follies that he had only had one other customer: a dark-skinned halfling in Saerloon. This halfling was always clad in chainmail, but apart from that Valic couldn't remember any other details -- and he never knew his name.

Eager to please his captors, Valic told them that he also had a meeting with Asdruc that night. Whenever they arrived in Selgaunt, Asdruc disappeared into the city -- and returned with "his pets." Their meeting was to take place in their usual spot: a trio of piers called the Lamb's Feet, popular with small barges because they were close to Davisson Bridge. From there, the three handlers were to return to their base camp via the River Arkhen.

Keep the pictures in you fool!

Why would you not? Though the cluttering up the thread thing is entirely subjective. I liked the big dock fight. Nice idea with the giant-tuning-stick-whistle malarkey. Is that ripped from somewhere?

Once again, nice description. And now I'm getting a much better handle on the characters. So great. Keep it up.

ps. nice interrogation scene.
pps. Illithids?

Spider - wishing he was in a neverending Knightmare