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Adventures in the Eastern Provinces
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5181182" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>Bradford frowns as he walks with our heroes. His farm is lost- he knows that leaving it behind will end with his fields burnt by the Double Javelins- but he is free! </p><p></p><p>His frown turns to a grin. He made the right decision when he decided to support the new governors. For his trouble, he has been made Imperial Foreman- but far more importantly, <em>they came for him when there was trouble.</em> Loyalty, never before felt for the “government” (what government?), burns hot in his chest. <em>As long as I live, my lord and my lady, I am your man.</em></p><p></p><p>That night he is awoken from a sound sleep by a horrible yipping, barking noise. Fear paralyzes him for a moment. Then the sound of fighting reaches him.</p><p></p><p>Struggling to his feet in the darkness, he can see a group of tall, hyena-headed humanoids slashing and clubbing all around them. A lump crawls up his throat. His friends- his lord and lady and their companions- are they being slaughtered??</p><p></p><p>Then hot blood splashes him as a gnoll's head, severed from the rest of the gnoll by a mighty blow from Kane, flies past him, bouncing into the darkness, and Bradford grips his courage in both hands. As they came through for him- and far more directly, far more immediately, than he could have ever expected- he will come through for them. </p><p></p><p>Bradford stoops down and gropes in the darkness until he finds a rock about the size of an orange. He waits until the smaller silhouettes around one of the gnolls are out of the way- and he throws. </p><p></p><p><strong>CRACK!</strong></p><p></p><p>The gnoll staggers. Bradford hears Shifty cry out, “What the hell? Was that <em>Bradford??</em>”</p><p></p><p>“Go Bradford!” cheers Shar, before unleashing a <em>daunting light</em> that sears the gnoll. It staggers, off-balance, and Shifty slides the tip of his <em>subtle shortsword</em> into the back of its knee. The gnoll falls with a howl.</p><p></p><p>Amazed at his success- the only rocks that he's thrown before were to skip them across Fan's Pond- Bradford pulls another rock. Then cocks an eye as Kane hurls his battle axe into a gnoll's chest.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>“Can you believe it?” exclaims Cavemouth. The goliath claps Bradford on the back. “He's practically a fighter himself!”</p><p></p><p>“I don't know about that,” the foreman demurs, clearly embarrassed.</p><p></p><p>“You were a great help,” Shifty beams at him, shaking his hand. “But next time, maybe we can make sure that you have a weapon to use.”</p><p></p><p>“...next time?”*</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>As our heroes continue their journey towards the ruined city of Thrushton, they find some interesting tracks. </p><p></p><p>“These are from some kind of bird,” Cavemouth says as he studies them, squatting on his haunches. “A <em>big</em> bird.”</p><p></p><p>“As big as the one that Bishop Ulric was riding?”</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth nods. Karl says, “I think it's possible that this is him. He may have seen signs of the trouble in Woodcut and decided to avoid it.”</p><p></p><p>“It's probably the wiser course of action,” nods Shifty. “All right. Let's follow him. Maybe the Count D'Aara can provide us with some troops to take back Woodcut with.”</p><p></p><p>The trail heads towards Thrushton's ruins, meaning that following it doesn't slow our heroes' progress towards the remains of the city. As they approach the outlying rubble, Karl points at the sky. “Look at that!” he exclaims. In the sky is some sort of large winged creature. The wizard squints at it. “It looks kind of leonine,” he mutters. </p><p></p><p>“What do you think it is?” asks Cavemouth. “You're our monster expert.”</p><p></p><p>“It's hard to tell at this distance,” the wizard responds. “It could be any number of things- a griffon, a manticore, a sphinx... in any case, we probably want to avoid it for now.”</p><p></p><p>“It has a spiky tail,” Shar says, peering at the flying figure with her keen elven eyes.</p><p></p><p>“It's probably a manticore, then,” Karl nods. And he repeats, “We probably want to avoid it.”</p><p></p><p>The party tries to stay near cover as they move further into Thrushton. Soon enough the manticore swoops down on something elsewhere in the ruins and is out of sight. It does not reappear any time soon, but our heroes keep a nervous eye on the sky.</p><p></p><p>With their attention distracted from the ground, they are easily ambushed.</p><p></p><p>First a pair of giant black centipedes crawl from a pile of rotting wood and attack. Each is the size of a full-grown man's leg. As our heroes focus their attention on this new threat, forming lines to defend the less melee-inclined of their number, the <em>true</em> ambush springs: a pair of bandits, apparently thinking our heroes to be easy money, attack from the flanks. </p><p></p><p>Once again Bradford proves his worth, firing the short bow our heroes gave him and giving a good account of himself. Even when one of the bandits runs him through, Shar manages to save his life with an almost immediate <em>healing word.</em></p><p></p><p>Kane hews the giant centipedes in half, and soon the party has dispatched one of the bandits and taken the other prisoner. </p><p></p><p>“Are there more of you?” demands Shifty.</p><p></p><p>The party's captive groans her answer out. “There are, elsewhere in the ruins. About a dozen altogether. And there are other groups of bandits, too.”</p><p></p><p>“What else is in here?” asks Cavemouth. </p><p></p><p>“I don't know... all kinds of monsters, I guess...”</p><p></p><p>“Where are the other bandit groups?” </p><p></p><p>“I don't know about the other ones, just ours...”</p><p></p><p>“You're going to talk,” the goliath sneers, glowering at the elf. He slaps her. She gasps.</p><p></p><p>“I'm telling you all I know,” she answers, shaken. “Ask me anything, just let me go!”</p><p></p><p>“We'll see about that,” Shifty declares. “You've engaged in banditry. No doubt you have robbed and perhaps killed many people here.”</p><p></p><p>“Not many as such,” she prevaricates.</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth knocks her to the ground, and the prisoner cries out. Bradford shifts his feet uncomfortably. </p><p></p><p>And then things get <em>really</em> ugly, as Cavemouth shows his true colors.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The elf curls up in a ball after it's over. Everyone is staring at Cavemouth. In the heat of the moment, the sheriff had ignored Shifty's commands to stop, but nobody had actually interfered. Still... </p><p></p><p>“You're a terrible sheriff,” snaps the gnome angrily. “She already told us what she knew. What were you hoping to accomplish?”</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth shrugs. “I don't know... I didn't really believe her.”</p><p></p><p>“You idiot,” growls Shifty, staring up at Cavemouth's half-glazed eyes. He turns to the elf, who is crying softly. “Go,” he barks. “Get out of here. Find a real living, one that doesn't prey on other people. If we find you doing this again, we'll kill you.”</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth says, “Wait a second, we should-”</p><p></p><p>“Shut. Up. Go, girl.”</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth shuts up and the elf pulls herself up on shaky legs. As quickly as she is able, she staggers away. </p><p></p><p>Shifty glares at Cavemouth again.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The tracks of Bishop Ulric's terror bird lead into an old warehouse in the ruin. Even a cursory search quickly turns up a teleport circle and no signs of any tracks leaving the area. </p><p></p><p>“Well, it looks like we know what happened to him, if not where he went,” Karl comments.</p><p></p><p>“Sorcery,” says Kane direly.</p><p></p><p>“Yep, sorcery,” agrees Shar. “He must have used a teleportation ritual to flee, probably back towards the coast or wherever it is that the Count D'Aara is.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, we can't follow him, so let's do what we're here for in the first place,” suggests Shifty. Which, of course, is looking for loot. This task amounts to searching through ruined buildings in the hopes of finding something of worth or interest. Unfortunately, this is not a quick process, as the majority of the ruined buildings are empty or have already been looted of anything of real value.</p><p></p><p>However, after a few hours, the party finds a large building that is still reasonably intact, and when they venture downstairs into the basement they find a group of small humanoids wrapped in black rags. Karl immediately recognizes them as dark creepers, but before he can as much as announce that they are probably hostile, the clash has already begun. The dark creepers have a pet beetle that spits masses of sticky goo, entangling several of our heroes for a good part of the fight. But Karl is perfectly able to fire off <em>scorching bursts</em> from the bank ranks, catching two or more of the bad guys at a time, while Shar and Bradford fire arrows and Shifty, Cavemouth and Kane close to melee and use impressive teamwork to slice down the enemies quickly and efficiently.</p><p></p><p>After the fight is over, our heroes find that a crude staircase has been dug out of the floor, heading yet further into the ground. “This looks better than anything we've seen so far,” Shifty says with a satisfied nod. </p><p></p><p>The party descends. After about 20', they come into a central chamber with three passages heading out of it. One has the look of a new excavation, perhaps some kind of mine. Another ends in a door swollen shut by moisture. The final one leads into a chamber with several tables and stools- and another pair of dark creepers. </p><p></p><p>But this time, when our heroes rush to the attack, things don't go so well. </p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Death of a pc!</p><p></p><p></p><p>*You might be thinking to yourself, “Hey, is this Bradford guy a new pc?” No, but he has turned into a fairly important npc and sometimes traveling companion for our heroes. At first I just assumed that he was dead meat and treated him as a minion, but eventually I upgraded him to a level 1 skirmisher. And then he started leveling up. I thought about using companion character rules, but his combat style demanded a more unique treatment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 5181182, member: 1210"] Bradford frowns as he walks with our heroes. His farm is lost- he knows that leaving it behind will end with his fields burnt by the Double Javelins- but he is free! His frown turns to a grin. He made the right decision when he decided to support the new governors. For his trouble, he has been made Imperial Foreman- but far more importantly, [i]they came for him when there was trouble.[/i] Loyalty, never before felt for the “government” (what government?), burns hot in his chest. [i]As long as I live, my lord and my lady, I am your man.[/i] That night he is awoken from a sound sleep by a horrible yipping, barking noise. Fear paralyzes him for a moment. Then the sound of fighting reaches him. Struggling to his feet in the darkness, he can see a group of tall, hyena-headed humanoids slashing and clubbing all around them. A lump crawls up his throat. His friends- his lord and lady and their companions- are they being slaughtered?? Then hot blood splashes him as a gnoll's head, severed from the rest of the gnoll by a mighty blow from Kane, flies past him, bouncing into the darkness, and Bradford grips his courage in both hands. As they came through for him- and far more directly, far more immediately, than he could have ever expected- he will come through for them. Bradford stoops down and gropes in the darkness until he finds a rock about the size of an orange. He waits until the smaller silhouettes around one of the gnolls are out of the way- and he throws. [b]CRACK![/B] The gnoll staggers. Bradford hears Shifty cry out, “What the hell? Was that [i]Bradford??[/i]” “Go Bradford!” cheers Shar, before unleashing a [i]daunting light[/i] that sears the gnoll. It staggers, off-balance, and Shifty slides the tip of his [i]subtle shortsword[/i] into the back of its knee. The gnoll falls with a howl. Amazed at his success- the only rocks that he's thrown before were to skip them across Fan's Pond- Bradford pulls another rock. Then cocks an eye as Kane hurls his battle axe into a gnoll's chest. *** “Can you believe it?” exclaims Cavemouth. The goliath claps Bradford on the back. “He's practically a fighter himself!” “I don't know about that,” the foreman demurs, clearly embarrassed. “You were a great help,” Shifty beams at him, shaking his hand. “But next time, maybe we can make sure that you have a weapon to use.” “...next time?”* *** As our heroes continue their journey towards the ruined city of Thrushton, they find some interesting tracks. “These are from some kind of bird,” Cavemouth says as he studies them, squatting on his haunches. “A [i]big[/i] bird.” “As big as the one that Bishop Ulric was riding?” Cavemouth nods. Karl says, “I think it's possible that this is him. He may have seen signs of the trouble in Woodcut and decided to avoid it.” “It's probably the wiser course of action,” nods Shifty. “All right. Let's follow him. Maybe the Count D'Aara can provide us with some troops to take back Woodcut with.” The trail heads towards Thrushton's ruins, meaning that following it doesn't slow our heroes' progress towards the remains of the city. As they approach the outlying rubble, Karl points at the sky. “Look at that!” he exclaims. In the sky is some sort of large winged creature. The wizard squints at it. “It looks kind of leonine,” he mutters. “What do you think it is?” asks Cavemouth. “You're our monster expert.” “It's hard to tell at this distance,” the wizard responds. “It could be any number of things- a griffon, a manticore, a sphinx... in any case, we probably want to avoid it for now.” “It has a spiky tail,” Shar says, peering at the flying figure with her keen elven eyes. “It's probably a manticore, then,” Karl nods. And he repeats, “We probably want to avoid it.” The party tries to stay near cover as they move further into Thrushton. Soon enough the manticore swoops down on something elsewhere in the ruins and is out of sight. It does not reappear any time soon, but our heroes keep a nervous eye on the sky. With their attention distracted from the ground, they are easily ambushed. First a pair of giant black centipedes crawl from a pile of rotting wood and attack. Each is the size of a full-grown man's leg. As our heroes focus their attention on this new threat, forming lines to defend the less melee-inclined of their number, the [i]true[/i] ambush springs: a pair of bandits, apparently thinking our heroes to be easy money, attack from the flanks. Once again Bradford proves his worth, firing the short bow our heroes gave him and giving a good account of himself. Even when one of the bandits runs him through, Shar manages to save his life with an almost immediate [i]healing word.[/i] Kane hews the giant centipedes in half, and soon the party has dispatched one of the bandits and taken the other prisoner. “Are there more of you?” demands Shifty. The party's captive groans her answer out. “There are, elsewhere in the ruins. About a dozen altogether. And there are other groups of bandits, too.” “What else is in here?” asks Cavemouth. “I don't know... all kinds of monsters, I guess...” “Where are the other bandit groups?” “I don't know about the other ones, just ours...” “You're going to talk,” the goliath sneers, glowering at the elf. He slaps her. She gasps. “I'm telling you all I know,” she answers, shaken. “Ask me anything, just let me go!” “We'll see about that,” Shifty declares. “You've engaged in banditry. No doubt you have robbed and perhaps killed many people here.” “Not many as such,” she prevaricates. Cavemouth knocks her to the ground, and the prisoner cries out. Bradford shifts his feet uncomfortably. And then things get [i]really[/i] ugly, as Cavemouth shows his true colors. *** The elf curls up in a ball after it's over. Everyone is staring at Cavemouth. In the heat of the moment, the sheriff had ignored Shifty's commands to stop, but nobody had actually interfered. Still... “You're a terrible sheriff,” snaps the gnome angrily. “She already told us what she knew. What were you hoping to accomplish?” Cavemouth shrugs. “I don't know... I didn't really believe her.” “You idiot,” growls Shifty, staring up at Cavemouth's half-glazed eyes. He turns to the elf, who is crying softly. “Go,” he barks. “Get out of here. Find a real living, one that doesn't prey on other people. If we find you doing this again, we'll kill you.” Cavemouth says, “Wait a second, we should-” “Shut. Up. Go, girl.” Cavemouth shuts up and the elf pulls herself up on shaky legs. As quickly as she is able, she staggers away. Shifty glares at Cavemouth again. *** The tracks of Bishop Ulric's terror bird lead into an old warehouse in the ruin. Even a cursory search quickly turns up a teleport circle and no signs of any tracks leaving the area. “Well, it looks like we know what happened to him, if not where he went,” Karl comments. “Sorcery,” says Kane direly. “Yep, sorcery,” agrees Shar. “He must have used a teleportation ritual to flee, probably back towards the coast or wherever it is that the Count D'Aara is.” “Well, we can't follow him, so let's do what we're here for in the first place,” suggests Shifty. Which, of course, is looking for loot. This task amounts to searching through ruined buildings in the hopes of finding something of worth or interest. Unfortunately, this is not a quick process, as the majority of the ruined buildings are empty or have already been looted of anything of real value. However, after a few hours, the party finds a large building that is still reasonably intact, and when they venture downstairs into the basement they find a group of small humanoids wrapped in black rags. Karl immediately recognizes them as dark creepers, but before he can as much as announce that they are probably hostile, the clash has already begun. The dark creepers have a pet beetle that spits masses of sticky goo, entangling several of our heroes for a good part of the fight. But Karl is perfectly able to fire off [i]scorching bursts[/i] from the bank ranks, catching two or more of the bad guys at a time, while Shar and Bradford fire arrows and Shifty, Cavemouth and Kane close to melee and use impressive teamwork to slice down the enemies quickly and efficiently. After the fight is over, our heroes find that a crude staircase has been dug out of the floor, heading yet further into the ground. “This looks better than anything we've seen so far,” Shifty says with a satisfied nod. The party descends. After about 20', they come into a central chamber with three passages heading out of it. One has the look of a new excavation, perhaps some kind of mine. Another ends in a door swollen shut by moisture. The final one leads into a chamber with several tables and stools- and another pair of dark creepers. But this time, when our heroes rush to the attack, things don't go so well. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Death of a pc! *You might be thinking to yourself, “Hey, is this Bradford guy a new pc?” No, but he has turned into a fairly important npc and sometimes traveling companion for our heroes. At first I just assumed that he was dead meat and treated him as a minion, but eventually I upgraded him to a level 1 skirmisher. And then he started leveling up. I thought about using companion character rules, but his combat style demanded a more unique treatment. [/QUOTE]
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