Banewarrens d20 (Angelsboi's party)

[diaglo]

That's not a knife

Alya vanished from sight and sound again. Fiddle sharpened his blades and loaded his crossbows. Everyone else prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.

A silence fell around the party and then was dispelled.

"Looks like D'nD is a duergar," Alya appeared. "He and several of his pack lizards are just ahead. I didn't see any other handlers. But knowing the gray dwarves there are probably at least a couple more hiding invisibly."

"How do you want to approach this?" Darian asked.

"I say we hail to the camp and approach unthreateningly," Fiddle suggested. "We need a guide. Does anyone speak Dwarf? or Underdark?"

"I might be able to communicate," Alya hinted.

Alya led the way. The party on his heels.

" Ooi ooi me boyo, 'Ello in da Camp," Alya hailed.

" 'Ouse dat?" the dwarf replied. "Comz 'ere so eyz can cya."

Fiddle smiled and interrupted the conversation. "Fiddle Skipstone, Dragonhunter with the rest of the Stormslayers."

"Somebody shut him up before he ruins it for us," Darian muttered. "And Alya knock off the accent."

Alya ignored the Priest and winked at Fiddle. "Leave this to me."

Two more duergar materialized when the party was in view of the camp. They had crossbows trained on the gnome and the druid. Alya discovered the caravans problems and offered a solution.

The largest and best of the pack lizards had come up lame. Arendel with Darian and Calrom's help would see to the beast in exchange for some information.

D'nD was agreeable. He also asked about Fiddle's Dragon stories. He knew of a Dragon which needed taking care of... Part dragon, part basilisk,... all trouble...

 

[diaglo]

next update after July 11th maybe

here too i'm leaving the meeting and interaction with D'nD to biorph

he did an outstanding job of staying in character and keeping the party's interests in focus... even thru the distractions of distant players/ and the PCs who weren't involved....


we are possibly meeting again July 3, 4, 10, or 11th. schedules are in conflict... so we are working on it.

 

[diaglo]

looks like the next session will be Aug 15.

 

[the Jester]

So is this presently up to date?

Good stuff- keep it up!

 

[diaglo]

So is this presently up to date?

well Fiddle's part is up to date.

but both biorph and JoeBlank have more information if they wish to add.

Fiddle is like 900xp shy of 10th. drooling over my next power up.

probably Ranger 6... +1 BAB, +1 to all Saves, +1 spell, +1 attack with ITWF, improved animal companion

 

[diaglo]

Lizard train to a Land Down Under

D'nd was more than agreeable. He and his cousins, Grishelm and Eric, accepted the party as extra guards. The 20 lizards in the train started off the next morning on the way to the trading outpost of Szith Morcane. D'nd warned the party to work on their disguises. They stuck out and would likely be slain outright. Arendel and a reluctant Calrom donned two of headbands Arendel had received from his order. They were soon drow. Alya tried one too. But not enough elven blood remained to complete the transformation. Sully likewise changed form with magic. He and Alya were a matched set of kobolds. That left only Fiddle and Darian. Fiddle rummaged around in his things. He went for the short, thin duergar look. He failed miserably. And everyone told him so. So he took another stab at it. This time he went for the deeper gnome disguise. Smurf nibblin' cookies. In the dimlight and if you squinted he was almost passable.

"La, la, la..." Fiddle started to sing.

Darian cupped his hand over the hin's mouth. He tried for the human slave of the kobold routine... The glowing light on his forehead had to be doused. All of the lights went out. Fiddle held onto a lizard for guidance.

D'nd and the train set off. A short trek later they passed a side tunnel. The train avoided it. But D'nd and the others talked about what might be in that direction. Fiddle concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other without stubbing his toes. They kept going.

"Shhhh," D'nd whispered in common. "We are approaching a guard post. The drow here aren't too friendly. But they are expecting me and me kin."

The first lizard approached a hole in the floor of the tunnel. And there was a loud PPPPPlllllooooppp from behind followed by a chirp from Alya. Fiddle fired his two handcrossbows at the sound. He hit the roof of the tunnel.

Eric grumbled something in duergar. And then there was light. Arendel and the Bear were visible along with a writhing mass of stone on the floor. Something had fallen from the ceiling in an attempt to smother Alya. The thing had failed. The Bear made it pay. It raked claws and maw over the body of the mass.

Someone called out in elven... Fiddle guessed drow ahead. Calrom replied. The creature floated out of the light. Eric gave chase. The party quickly reloaded and resumed their positions.

D'nd beckoned everyone to follow his lead. Down the lizard train went into the hole. The Lurker thing never did come back.

 

[diaglo]

bizarre Bazaar

As Fiddle climbed down the rope into the chasm below he had the distinct feeling he was not going to like this. He felt like a gnat caught in a web. A very large web. This web spanned the Chasm. Phosphorescent fungi lit the web in places. His feet touched more solid ground. Two drow sentries in white tabards over chain mail and their commander in puffy tunic and breeches, an obvious spellcaster , stood to one side to let the lizards pass. The lizards went on without stopping. Well almost Calrom held one by its harness. A large black spider hopped at the commander's feet. D'nd had an eye on the thing. Fiddle's eyes locked on something else.

A hideous creature stood watch behind the commander. Though it had the overall shape and stature of an elf, no shred of skin or hair was visible on its body-- just gleaming muscles slowly oozing blood. Its eyes watched without blinking, and its fists constantly clenched and unclenched as if it couldn't wait to tear something apart.

The rest of the party arrived. Sully, Darian and the Bear floated down with the aid of magic. Arendel and Alya had to climb. The drow exchanged words with D'nd and Calrom. Fiddle swore he would soon have the gist of the drow language. He almost understood what they were saying. But still he remained quiet. No use getting the group into trouble when they needed to talk to the dark elves. Information was key.

The puffy pants elf barked an order and D'nd nodded. The party was allowed to continue to the Bazaar.

Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah. We are off to the Bazaar. Boy, Fiddle missed his days traveling with his family and their small caravan. He loved the Bazaar. He just hoped this one was like the ones above ground.

Three duergar besides D'nd's group, 3 fishmen carrrying a blue light stick, 2 more drow in white tabards, and a mindflayer occupied the bazaar. The mind flayer had a human thrall, a big brute of a man bare skinned with multiple scars. Alya went to the mind flayer and began conversing in draconic. Sully likewise broke out into trade. Fiddle stood near the lizards. Arendel and Calrom went to the side with the drow. Darian became the interest of the mind flayer. Actually much interest was being paid to Darian. So Fiddle ducked to the side to watch for trouble. Arendel returned.

Fiddle waved to Sully. He was busy with the mind flayer now. Sully called him over to his side. Fiddle traded a couple rings both of which were trophies and of sentimental value to the mind flayer in exchange for a ring Fiddle had seen Alya wear. One he knew was very strong in magic. It would be worth the trade, but still it hurt. The diamond Vladaam signet ring was a hard fought trophy. So too was the ring of minor protective magic from the other mind flayer. Fiddle giggled to himself about that one. He did still have the other mind flayer ring vs. electricity.

It was then Fiddle saw Calrom come passed. Unarmed and escorted up a side web strand.

"He's got the bag with all our food and stuff," Fiddle remembered. "Rats...."

Fiddle faded into the caravan shadows and then gave chase.

 

[howandwhy99]

Not quite what I intended...

Calrom stared across into the eight pairs of colorless dark elf eyes; each gleamed in anticipation of killing him.

"How do I get myself into these things?", he pondered.

--

It seemed only minutes ago the pale dwarf had been drawling on endlessly about hunting some draconic beast deep in the abyss below as they travelled the underdark. An eight-legged dracosquip or something or another. Calrom hadn't been interested. His heart only knew one kind of beast; and the elves of Szith Morcane would soon come into view.

He was not fond of having to wear the necklace of true elf form either. Still, he recognized its uses, even if it did spur more rumors among his "comrades"-in-arms. "Let them talk", he had thought to himself. "Elven blood has been purged from this body. I have the cuts to prove it."

But then they were attacked just as they reached the outpost entrance. Another treachery devised by the rulers of Szirth Morcane, no doubt. The guards had called out, but Calrom calmly responded in his best drow-dripping elven, "Hold. It will just be a minute. We are under attack." They would not get the best of him.

After the battle he had his first scare of the day: a skinless elf stood in the corner of the entrance cave. It seethed with anger. Calrom leaned over and whispered, "I see someone's already gotten to you".

Once the team had reached the central bizarre everyone had spread out. It was unwise tactically seeing as every other being here was each a viler form of evil than the next. As the only dark elf in the party, Arendel was being uniquely quiet. Seeing as he currently passed as an elf, Calrom had decided to join the drow guards and ask about purchasing some of the local dress and information.

This is when things started to go wrong.

They had laughed at him. They had cursed Calrom and said that he had spent too much time with the uplanders. Then, they walked away in mid-conversation. That was too much. So Calrom did the best thing possible. He pulled out the royal elf medallion of Szith Morcane the team had scavenged from the corpses of the elves from the crypt in Daggerdale. The response was immediate.

One of the guards dropped to his knees and started praising Calrom as some prince who had finally returned to reclaim Szith Morcane. The second quickly ran off apparently to tell the others of the joyous news of their prince's arrival.

Except when he returned there were several more guards with him. Their words seemed to fly by in an instant. They named him a dark elf prince whom had returned foolishly to his lost seat of power. At least, that was as much as Calrom had taken in at the time before he started denying up and down and instead tried to claim that he held the prince captive and the medallion was his proof. Regardless, he had soon dropped his bow and rapier and was forced back into the main caverns of the bizarre.

Pointedly not looking at his teammates, Calrom haughtily strutted by as best he could attempting to play the part of the this "lost prince". He had quite the urge to give a false-subtle wink to Arendel as he stood in the rear, but somehow he had held back. Under guard he climbed the outpost's clift-web towards a new opening.

In what looked like the guard's headquarters, there were four more dark elves and another skinless elf in the corner. This brought the total to eight. Eight pairs of eyes staring with vengeful hatred. Eight mouths twitching with shameless glee.

--

"Strip", one demanded.

Looking around Calrom counted again: four fighters, three potential mages, all male, and who knows what hell that one's from. He took the only course he saw left open to him.

With as much show as possible, Calrom removed the necklace of True Elf Form, and ran in the least occupied direction as possible: deeper into the tunnels.

Amazingly the distraction worked. He quickly dodged around a corner and tried to sink into the wall. His mind wracked as he tucked his hand into his bag of holding. "What exactly do I have in here again?"

 

[diaglo]

18 showing... HIT ME...

Fiddle found the route Calrom had taken. He followed as fast as he could.

Corsa

Fiddle moved faster. He pulled out his light coin too.

"Fiddle," Sully's voice said from nearby. "I've cast a spell so we can all communicate. Tell us what you see. Arendel is right behind you."


Ahead of Fiddle was an opening in the side of the wall. The web strand was almost vertical there. He hurried ahead after he heard the sound of an alarm.

"What has Calrom done now?" Fiddle thought

He cleared the web and faced a stirred up hornet's nest. A spellcaster and at least 6 drow guards plus one of the skinless things.

"HIT ME," Fiddle screamed.

The air around and in front of Fiddle flashed and sparkled. Sully had cast a ball of lightning. The drow writhed in pain, but only two of them dropped. Fiddle rushed forward.

Foudre

The spellcaster arched his own bolt of lightning at Fiddle. He missed. Fiddle stuck his hand out and made a crude gesture. He raked Lightning Strike and Hole Punch on the drow's hide. It was like striking the wall. Arendel closed in behind Fiddle to help. He was in Dire Ape form. The remaining drow went down a passageway and vanished from sight. The skinless thing looked at Fiddle and sneered. Fiddle froze.

Arendel and the skinless thing exchanged blows. Acid ate at the druids fur. Darian, the Bear, and Sully were suddenly there too. Alya's voice cared upto the chamber but nothing else.

 

[diaglo]

Spell resistance what's that

Fiddle huddled in a little ball. He didn't want to look at the skinless thing. He noticed one drow turn opposite his fellows probably to get help. Darian called on Lathander. The pieces of the skinless creature melted in the light of the Morning Lord. Action continued. Calrom flew overhead of the party and out the way they had just come.

"Really Big Spider," Calrom yelled back. "Really, really big spider. Behind you Sully."

Sully launched more and more balls of lightning into the drow. They fell left, right and center. The Bear ravaged the spellcasting drow while Arendel assisted. Alya was still nowhere in sight. In fact, his voice and singing were more distant and then stopped all together. Calrom flew back to the party and slightly ahead.

Fiddle regained his composure and followed Calrom. As his light shone into the hallway he found the lost drow and his help.

"Another army approaches," Fiddle screamed. "HIT ME."

Foudre

Sully obliged. The hallway cackled with electrical charges. The drow cursed and writhed in pain. They came on though. Balls of ice pummeled Fiddle and Calrom. The half-elf went down. Fiddle held his ground.

Darian, Arendel, and the Bear fought briefly with the spider before it fled. They then turned and waited for the ice to stop.

A pause in the action as the last ice crystal hit. Fiddle counted 2 females, 1 spellcaster, and 2 more male guard.

One male drow succeeded in running behind Fiddle. He felt the taste of Hole Punch for that act of foolhardiness. The females closed on Fiddle. One scored a gash on the hin's forearm. The other male was cut down by a beam of light from Darian. No, not just from Darian. But also from a ball of light near him. Fiddle swung Lightning Strike and killed the male at his back. He reversed his weapon and brought Hole Punch into the fray. One and two and blood hit the ground. A few minor cuts to add to the electrical shock this elf maid had endured. The Bear barrelled into the combat. He bowled over the two females. Two more guards and another spellcaster attacked from the front entrance. Things were getting out of hand. Arendel tried some magic. Redd yelped and ran into the chamber. It fizzled and died around the drow, but the Ice storm had pelt poor Redd. So there was truth about their ability to resist magic. Sully fired off another Ball of Lightning at the new threat.