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Story Hour
"Azarr Kul's Ambition" - homebrew adaptation of Slaughtergarde & RHoD (Gaia's Dream)
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<blockquote data-quote="Stormtower" data-source="post: 3529767" data-attributes="member: 43631"><p>Though the damp, miserable sleet storm continues throughout the afternoon and evening, the party manages to build a sheltered camp off the road to Riverbend in a quiet grove of ash and oak. Klar and Jack erect a shelter with oiled canvas and watched are posted, but nothing disturbs the group’s rest except the relentless freezing rain.</p><p> </p><p>Faerisa 14: The sleet storm breaks in the early morning hours, and by sunrise the party is enjoying the return of the sun as they eat a warm camp breakfast. They resume their march, with Klar pushing everyone to move as fast as possible towards Riverbend. The day is clear and cold, with only the occasional wispy clouds blowing across the deep blue sky. </p><p> </p><p>The forced march continues, and everyone is able to keep up the faster pace throughout the day. In the late afternoon, the party comes over a hill and glimpses the outer watchtowers of Riverbend. A fallen log acts as a bridge across a nearby riverbed, which slopes 10 feet down into a partially frozen stream. Hills bracket the party on either side of the log. Suddenly, Dvalin’s keen eyes pick up the glint of an arrowhead off in the trees past the log bridge. He calls a halt, and the party moves into battle formation.</p><p> </p><p>The arrow streaks towards the group, and a deep orcish voice calls out “Attack! Take the half-orc!” Two orcs with reach weapons (a glaive and a guisarme, respectively) emerge from hiding while a third orc hangs back, firing arrows with his composite longbow. The polearm wielders hold the bridge against the party’s front line combatants, but Jack and Klar eventually break through their whirling thicket of blades with Dvalin’s help on the flank. The orc ranger back in the trees sends his wolf companion forward to assist, but the animal is quickly wounded and retreats. As the two polearm-wielding orcs fall to Jack and Dvalin, Klar angrily pursues the fleeing ranger into the forest, cutting down his wolf for good measure. Unfortunately for the big half-orc, his prey eludes him in the trees, and Klar rejoins the party soon afterward.</p><p> </p><p>After gathering the valuables off their fallen foes, the group continues on towards Riverbend. Less than an hour later, they have arrived in town. Riverbend is a small community of about 450 citizens, and its low buildings are primarily constructed of thick pine lumber and packed clay. A ring of six watch towers surrounds the outer edges of the town, but no wall protects it. The adventurers spend a bit of coin purchasing alchemically silvered weapons from the local weaponsmith, Kyra, who is a retired adventurer and the local representative of Bahamut’s Luminous Order. They re-supply their mundane gear at Jorge’s General Goods, and spend the night at the Red Raven Inn. Jack makes the acquaintance of the local farrior, a dwarf named Udrin, who agrees to make a cloak for Jack out of the wolf pelt that the party claimed earlier (from the orc ranger’s dead wolf companion).</p><p> </p><p>Rumors of wererat rogues from the Stiletto Crew are running rampant in Riverbend. Apparently, the rogues use a river barge to ferry contraband equipment to parties of drow along the east bank near the edge of the nearby Oakwood. The party decides to head into the Oakwood, which also holds their primary objective: the Surrinak family’s hunting lodge.</p><p> </p><p>Faerisa 15: After a pleasant breakfast of eggs, cheese and toasted bread at the Red Raven, the party heads east across the river towards the Oakwood. Klar finds evidence of a recent barge landing, but oddly there are no tracks nearby. Eventually, the party surmises that an allied druid must be hiding the Stiletto Crew’s tracks (and possibly those of the drow) with divine magic. Armed with this knowledge, they move from the edge of the Oakwood into its heart. The day is clear, and golden light streams in through the canopy of trees which is still thinned by the frosts of winter. A gentle breeze subtly hints of warmer weather to come. By evening the light is fading into dusk, and the party comes to a halt some miles west of the elvish settlement Shul Sennek. </p><p></p><p>That night, their rest is disturbed by a marauding owlbear, which crashes through the trees towards their camp hoping for a tasty meal. The party scrambles to action and forms a defensive line against the fierce magical beast, which hoots and screams disturbingly as it charges in and tears at their flesh with sharp claws and beak. Despite several of their numbers being unarmored, the group puts down the owlbear, which dies with a gurgling hoot as Dvalin slices deeply into its throat with his dwarven waraxe. After disposing of the carcass, the party rests for the remainder of the night and is not disturbed again.</p><p></p><p>Faerisa 16: After a quick breakfast and a short march through the oak, ash and pine forest of the inner Oakwood, the adventurers find themselves within sight of Shul Sennek. Like all elvish settlements, the landscape around Shul Sennek has been twisted by the energies of the Convergence. Trees bear unnatural twists and spikes, and some of the arboreal platforms that the elves use for shelter and living space have still not been sung back into working order by the tree-singers. Despite the significant damage to their bodies and their community, the elves of Shul Sennek are welcoming and amiable to the party’s goal of rooting out the drow and wererats at the Surrinak hunting lodge. An elf sentinel named Findar, who has long golden hair and an extremely sharp pointed chin, shows them to a platform where they may rest for the night. Glowing runes placed on wooden pillars by elven magewrights keep the open air platform warm throughout the night. </p><p></p><p>Findar tells Altaer that a powerful brass dragon once inhabited the region now known as the Slaughterscar, and that he might have a tale to tell of that dragon’s role in the Battle of Slaughtergarde should Altaer return successfully from the Surrinak lodge. Jack draws a unique spiraling pattern on a piece of parchment and gifts it to Findar, who remarks that Jack’s work looks much like the mysterious dreambrands which have been appearing on the skin of certain individuals since the Convergence.</p><p></p><p>The party sleeps peacefully through the night on the elvish platform under the boughs of ancient oaks, and the elvish sentinels guard their sleep. A cool breeze drifts through the trees all night, rustling tree branches and whispering into the adventurers’ dreams.</p><p></p><p>Faerisa 17: The good weather continues to hold, so the party’s hike south out of Shul Sennek through the heart of the Oakwood is not hampered by poor conditions. Aside from the quiet voice of the breeze in the tree branches and the sounds of wildlife all remains quiet, yet there is a sense of foreboding and hidden darkness as the party heads south towards the Surrinak lodge. By early afternoon they have arrived at the lodge grounds, which are nothing more than a small clearing in which rests a squat, wide stone building bearing the Surrinak family crest on its wooden door. The shutters of the building are closed, but not locked; nor is the front door locked. Dvalin leads the party on a thorough search of the deserted rooms of the lodge, and soon enough the hearthstone spoken of on the dark emissaries’ map is located. It slides aside as Dvalin manipulates it, revealing a 10’ wide set of stairs heading down into the darkness. </p><p> </p><p>The stairs continue down for more than 60 feet, and the party activates their sunrods and lanterns as the blackness envelops them. The stairs open up into a larger room, but three Surrinak house guards – male drow warriors – have prepared an ambush below, having detected the group’s bright lights on the stairs. The dark elves fire their longbows into the party’s ranks, yelling dark prayers to their goddess Irindix. The adventurers move into their orderly battle formation and engage the drow, but the sounds of battle alert more nearby foes to the incursion.</p><p> </p><p>A pair of doors to the south slams open, and three blind, grey-skinned grimlocks rush into the battle to reinforce the staggering Surrinak guards. They are followed by a short, horned and red-skinned little creature armed with a razor sharp spear. This odd fellow seems to emit an aura of silence; he is a witchknife, a member of a race of mystical warriors known for their mercenary tendencies. A pitched battle ensues, with the party steadily advancing on the witchknife and the grimlocks as the drow are cut down before them. More reinforcements arrive from the rear, as a drow lancer mounted on a riding lizard charges down the north corridor and skewers Ayotunde in the back. Dvalin moves up to engage the rider and reinforce Altaer and Ayo in the rear rank, but two more Surrinak drow arrive at the southern front. Altaer fires a burst of color spray into the eyes of the drow rider and his mount; while only the lizard is blinded and stunned from the blast the sorcerer’s spell gives the three adventurers an advantage against the now-dismounted rider.</p><p> </p><p>One of these house guards heads away down an eastern corridor, calling out an alert in Undercommon. He draws two quaggoth slaves into battle – the massive albino-furred felines brandish greatclubs, swinging with abandon. Jack moves down the southeast corridor to intercept the quaggoth and the drow warrior, followed quickly by Cyndele. Klar moves south to engage the crafty witchknife, who retreated and healed himself with a potion. The raging half-orc cuts deeply into his foe, dealing him a mortal blow that nearly severs its head.</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile, a small dark shape slips out of the shadows, tumbling past Jack and trying to bury its dagger in his vitals – another dark creeper! The fighter’s breastplate deflects the stab, and the creeper soon falls to Jack’s sweeping scythe and Cyndele’s rapier. The quaggoth slaves fly into a frenzy, but Dvalin, Altaer and Ayotunde manage to take down the drow rider and his mount, and they arrive to reinforce the rest of the party. Shortly thereafter, the quaggoths are put out of their misery, and the exhausted party begins searching for a safe place to rest.</p><p> </p><p>They follow the dead quaggoths’ trail back to a small rock quarry, where Dvalin finds a sheltered shelf of rock nearly 10 feet deep in which to hide the group for the night. Though strange sounds of chanting, shuffling and tapping haunt the group throughout their slumber and watch shifts, nothing disturbs their rest, and they are able to recover from their running battle at the outer entrance of the Slaughtergarde Temple.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormtower, post: 3529767, member: 43631"] Though the damp, miserable sleet storm continues throughout the afternoon and evening, the party manages to build a sheltered camp off the road to Riverbend in a quiet grove of ash and oak. Klar and Jack erect a shelter with oiled canvas and watched are posted, but nothing disturbs the group’s rest except the relentless freezing rain. Faerisa 14: The sleet storm breaks in the early morning hours, and by sunrise the party is enjoying the return of the sun as they eat a warm camp breakfast. They resume their march, with Klar pushing everyone to move as fast as possible towards Riverbend. The day is clear and cold, with only the occasional wispy clouds blowing across the deep blue sky. The forced march continues, and everyone is able to keep up the faster pace throughout the day. In the late afternoon, the party comes over a hill and glimpses the outer watchtowers of Riverbend. A fallen log acts as a bridge across a nearby riverbed, which slopes 10 feet down into a partially frozen stream. Hills bracket the party on either side of the log. Suddenly, Dvalin’s keen eyes pick up the glint of an arrowhead off in the trees past the log bridge. He calls a halt, and the party moves into battle formation. The arrow streaks towards the group, and a deep orcish voice calls out “Attack! Take the half-orc!” Two orcs with reach weapons (a glaive and a guisarme, respectively) emerge from hiding while a third orc hangs back, firing arrows with his composite longbow. The polearm wielders hold the bridge against the party’s front line combatants, but Jack and Klar eventually break through their whirling thicket of blades with Dvalin’s help on the flank. The orc ranger back in the trees sends his wolf companion forward to assist, but the animal is quickly wounded and retreats. As the two polearm-wielding orcs fall to Jack and Dvalin, Klar angrily pursues the fleeing ranger into the forest, cutting down his wolf for good measure. Unfortunately for the big half-orc, his prey eludes him in the trees, and Klar rejoins the party soon afterward. After gathering the valuables off their fallen foes, the group continues on towards Riverbend. Less than an hour later, they have arrived in town. Riverbend is a small community of about 450 citizens, and its low buildings are primarily constructed of thick pine lumber and packed clay. A ring of six watch towers surrounds the outer edges of the town, but no wall protects it. The adventurers spend a bit of coin purchasing alchemically silvered weapons from the local weaponsmith, Kyra, who is a retired adventurer and the local representative of Bahamut’s Luminous Order. They re-supply their mundane gear at Jorge’s General Goods, and spend the night at the Red Raven Inn. Jack makes the acquaintance of the local farrior, a dwarf named Udrin, who agrees to make a cloak for Jack out of the wolf pelt that the party claimed earlier (from the orc ranger’s dead wolf companion). Rumors of wererat rogues from the Stiletto Crew are running rampant in Riverbend. Apparently, the rogues use a river barge to ferry contraband equipment to parties of drow along the east bank near the edge of the nearby Oakwood. The party decides to head into the Oakwood, which also holds their primary objective: the Surrinak family’s hunting lodge. Faerisa 15: After a pleasant breakfast of eggs, cheese and toasted bread at the Red Raven, the party heads east across the river towards the Oakwood. Klar finds evidence of a recent barge landing, but oddly there are no tracks nearby. Eventually, the party surmises that an allied druid must be hiding the Stiletto Crew’s tracks (and possibly those of the drow) with divine magic. Armed with this knowledge, they move from the edge of the Oakwood into its heart. The day is clear, and golden light streams in through the canopy of trees which is still thinned by the frosts of winter. A gentle breeze subtly hints of warmer weather to come. By evening the light is fading into dusk, and the party comes to a halt some miles west of the elvish settlement Shul Sennek. That night, their rest is disturbed by a marauding owlbear, which crashes through the trees towards their camp hoping for a tasty meal. The party scrambles to action and forms a defensive line against the fierce magical beast, which hoots and screams disturbingly as it charges in and tears at their flesh with sharp claws and beak. Despite several of their numbers being unarmored, the group puts down the owlbear, which dies with a gurgling hoot as Dvalin slices deeply into its throat with his dwarven waraxe. After disposing of the carcass, the party rests for the remainder of the night and is not disturbed again. Faerisa 16: After a quick breakfast and a short march through the oak, ash and pine forest of the inner Oakwood, the adventurers find themselves within sight of Shul Sennek. Like all elvish settlements, the landscape around Shul Sennek has been twisted by the energies of the Convergence. Trees bear unnatural twists and spikes, and some of the arboreal platforms that the elves use for shelter and living space have still not been sung back into working order by the tree-singers. Despite the significant damage to their bodies and their community, the elves of Shul Sennek are welcoming and amiable to the party’s goal of rooting out the drow and wererats at the Surrinak hunting lodge. An elf sentinel named Findar, who has long golden hair and an extremely sharp pointed chin, shows them to a platform where they may rest for the night. Glowing runes placed on wooden pillars by elven magewrights keep the open air platform warm throughout the night. Findar tells Altaer that a powerful brass dragon once inhabited the region now known as the Slaughterscar, and that he might have a tale to tell of that dragon’s role in the Battle of Slaughtergarde should Altaer return successfully from the Surrinak lodge. Jack draws a unique spiraling pattern on a piece of parchment and gifts it to Findar, who remarks that Jack’s work looks much like the mysterious dreambrands which have been appearing on the skin of certain individuals since the Convergence. The party sleeps peacefully through the night on the elvish platform under the boughs of ancient oaks, and the elvish sentinels guard their sleep. A cool breeze drifts through the trees all night, rustling tree branches and whispering into the adventurers’ dreams. Faerisa 17: The good weather continues to hold, so the party’s hike south out of Shul Sennek through the heart of the Oakwood is not hampered by poor conditions. Aside from the quiet voice of the breeze in the tree branches and the sounds of wildlife all remains quiet, yet there is a sense of foreboding and hidden darkness as the party heads south towards the Surrinak lodge. By early afternoon they have arrived at the lodge grounds, which are nothing more than a small clearing in which rests a squat, wide stone building bearing the Surrinak family crest on its wooden door. The shutters of the building are closed, but not locked; nor is the front door locked. Dvalin leads the party on a thorough search of the deserted rooms of the lodge, and soon enough the hearthstone spoken of on the dark emissaries’ map is located. It slides aside as Dvalin manipulates it, revealing a 10’ wide set of stairs heading down into the darkness. The stairs continue down for more than 60 feet, and the party activates their sunrods and lanterns as the blackness envelops them. The stairs open up into a larger room, but three Surrinak house guards – male drow warriors – have prepared an ambush below, having detected the group’s bright lights on the stairs. The dark elves fire their longbows into the party’s ranks, yelling dark prayers to their goddess Irindix. The adventurers move into their orderly battle formation and engage the drow, but the sounds of battle alert more nearby foes to the incursion. A pair of doors to the south slams open, and three blind, grey-skinned grimlocks rush into the battle to reinforce the staggering Surrinak guards. They are followed by a short, horned and red-skinned little creature armed with a razor sharp spear. This odd fellow seems to emit an aura of silence; he is a witchknife, a member of a race of mystical warriors known for their mercenary tendencies. A pitched battle ensues, with the party steadily advancing on the witchknife and the grimlocks as the drow are cut down before them. More reinforcements arrive from the rear, as a drow lancer mounted on a riding lizard charges down the north corridor and skewers Ayotunde in the back. Dvalin moves up to engage the rider and reinforce Altaer and Ayo in the rear rank, but two more Surrinak drow arrive at the southern front. Altaer fires a burst of color spray into the eyes of the drow rider and his mount; while only the lizard is blinded and stunned from the blast the sorcerer’s spell gives the three adventurers an advantage against the now-dismounted rider. One of these house guards heads away down an eastern corridor, calling out an alert in Undercommon. He draws two quaggoth slaves into battle – the massive albino-furred felines brandish greatclubs, swinging with abandon. Jack moves down the southeast corridor to intercept the quaggoth and the drow warrior, followed quickly by Cyndele. Klar moves south to engage the crafty witchknife, who retreated and healed himself with a potion. The raging half-orc cuts deeply into his foe, dealing him a mortal blow that nearly severs its head. Meanwhile, a small dark shape slips out of the shadows, tumbling past Jack and trying to bury its dagger in his vitals – another dark creeper! The fighter’s breastplate deflects the stab, and the creeper soon falls to Jack’s sweeping scythe and Cyndele’s rapier. The quaggoth slaves fly into a frenzy, but Dvalin, Altaer and Ayotunde manage to take down the drow rider and his mount, and they arrive to reinforce the rest of the party. Shortly thereafter, the quaggoths are put out of their misery, and the exhausted party begins searching for a safe place to rest. They follow the dead quaggoths’ trail back to a small rock quarry, where Dvalin finds a sheltered shelf of rock nearly 10 feet deep in which to hide the group for the night. Though strange sounds of chanting, shuffling and tapping haunt the group throughout their slumber and watch shifts, nothing disturbs their rest, and they are able to recover from their running battle at the outer entrance of the Slaughtergarde Temple. [/QUOTE]
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"Azarr Kul's Ambition" - homebrew adaptation of Slaughtergarde & RHoD (Gaia's Dream)
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