Campaign writeup (2 updates September 7th)
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
2nd July
It would appear our time in Seaquen is fast coming to an end, bags are packed and other preparations are sorted, ready to be collected with a few hours notice, we are in short ready to travel, but it would appear that Seaquen isn’t ready to let us go.
A celebration feast in our honour has been arranged in one of the most prestigious taverns of the region, like most buildings its suffered at the hands of the storm, its famed dining hall is now al fresco as most of its roof has been torn away revealing the sparkling nights sky. The meal itself is lavish and decadent (and thus very above some party members usual tastes and standards) with fancy elven seafood dishes spiced with odd flowers, this trend continues through even to the wines, spirits and ales that accompany the meal. Kain in particular picks around his plate eager to avoid any more “elven snack foods” like he found in Gate Pass’ Battle College (potpourri).
With Brick mysteriously absent Til’Jan takes his place singing of our deeds and exploits, the room quietly listens to her reading from Bricks notes on our epic battle with Lee Sidoneth (and as such actual events may differ from those that really occurred) and a rousing applause ripples across the room filled with all of the areas key celebrities.
Eventually the room clears as people start to leave, we are left alone with the top ranked faculty of the lyceum, a rather drunk Dougan Rambousen stumbles up to us eager to tell us of his recent discovery involving the box we gave him weeks ago. He believes it to be a “Diano’um Mark 4” he says this with almost spiritual reverence but the effect is lost on us as we stare at him confused (as one should at drunk dwarves telling you of magic boxes!) and eventually explains the diano’ums were made ages ago by the dwarfs as a sort of chronicling device to store their history, linking the minds of dwarves.
However the early versions tended to make people insane, with the mark four they believed they had cracked this “tiny” problem and discovered that it in fact had the power to charm people. It wasn’t long before one of these devices was taken by a disillusioned dwarf who gathered an army of kobolds and attacked the Diamond Heart Clan (who lived in caves under what is now Gate Pass), this ended with everyone dieing when the dwarves flooded the caves with methane and ignited it, turning the whole area into a single diamond chasm that weeps blood. The Mark Four’s were supposedly destroyed, however given that this one was dug up from beneath Gate Pass it would seem this is not the case.
He wises to experiment with it tomorrow on the apes kept in the menagerie, believing that the artefact can be used for the war effort and would like us to observe his success!
So the next day we head to his lab but he isn’t there, an assistant in flame covered robes is waiting for us and guides us to the menagerie, on the way he frequently teleports a few feet appearing slightly on fire. We question his sanity and he replies “I’ll not cage my magic anymore; a little pain is worth it to be free”. Eventually we reach the monkey house and Rambousen holds the box and seems to have attached another device to it with bright copper wires, little lights flash on and off as he toys with it. In a large caged enclosure lots of monkeys and a couple of very large hulking apes.
He first turns the box towards the monkeys getting one to stand on its head and then the rest to waltz; he seems practically giddy with his own success “the charm could last for up to a week!” he explains before turning it upon the apes making them dance as well, caught up in his own success the dwarf starts to sway and step along with the monkeys, but obviously steps too far as one of the big apes suddenly reaches through the bars, grabs him and slams him forwards into the enclosures
bars, the box flies inside and he collapses to the floor. One of the monkeys grabs the device and starts to bash at the boxes controls… an eerie sensation begins to flutter through our minds.
* With no desire to become monkey slaves Kain and Cricket rush to the enclosure, the rogue quickly pops the lock and the barbarian dashes inside “Don’t hurt them!” wails Lembit as he summons a flock of guardian eagles (with corks upon their talons!), steering the primates into the centre of the enclosure and then floods the room with disorientating rays of colour.
* However the shamans’ best intentions don’t extend to the rest of us, certainly not after the monkeys start flinging their own poop at us and climbing atop people to bash and claw at their face. Even Urien’s resolve crumbles when one cheeky monkey smears its filth ridden fingers true the eye slits of his helm an blinds the paladin… “My eyes, my eyes” he screams wandering around with a monkey clanging away at his plate armour.
* Even Lembit ends up with a monkey clambered over him, he attempts to remove it by using a thunderous wave of force to fling it away but his spell backfires and he only succeeds on blasting himself into the corner of the reserve, but the time he composes himself most of the monkeys lay dead or dieing. He reclaims the box and turns it off, shame and disappointment on his face as he gazes over the rest of us (barring silas who managed to remain outside of the “splatter” zone) caked in blood (quite a lot of it our own!) and filth from the butchered primates.
Rambousen is equally horrified and disappointed when finally roused at the carnage that we have caused, however he foolishly begins by stating that it must be the influence of Brick that stops us from being bloodthirsty killers and quickly gets into a shouting match with Cricket who firmly believes the mage and his experiments are to blame! Dougan snatches the box and retreats from the scowling Barbarian.
After cleaning up as best we can we return to the Royale to change (and possibly oversee the burning of any clothes too “monkey covered” to ever be serviceable again). In the afternoon we are approached by Torrent who requests our aid on the morrow, she wishes to rebuild Lora’Beks tent, it’s seen as a spiritual centre of the refugee camp and one of her juniors is going to be raised up and will need a place with which to guide the others and begin plans for the temple. We happily agree to anything that will keep us as far away from the lyceum as possible and delay our departure by another day.
Its during our little house building pet project that we meet another associate of Torrent, the Ranger Erol, he believes that he Vortberd’s network of spies have finally tracked down the secret headquarters of the White Wyrms (the Ragesian Terrorists) in the old steam tunnels under the city, some of the buildings destroyed in the storms revealed hidden basement levels that lead into them. Vortberd has made plans for his militia to raid the place and would like us to join him, which we naturally agree to.
* We find one of the entrances into the cave network as described above in one of the basements of a now destroyed home, Kain and Cricket scout forward, they spy from the top of the ladder leading in to the caves the regularly movement of a patrol, when the light is dimmest they usher everyone over and we manage to make it into the steam caves without alerting them to our presence. A situation that lasts less than a few seconds, spying the light returning Urien takes charge loudly announcing where people should stand to best ambush them!
* Naturally the patrol then stops patrolling and instead merely guards the corridor, the paladin bravely stomps around the corner first taking the first volley of arrows on his heavy armour and shield, Kain and Cricket slip passed him eager to bring their own particular blend of mayhem and the patrol quickly finds themselves in pieces with the rogue picking over the spoils.
* However its at this point that he looks up and spies down one of the many tunnels another larger group of soldiers staring back at him, there are a few silent words and gestures, the handing over of money (it would appear that a bet was lost) and they raise their bows, it would appear our fight is not quite over.
* This group is backed up by two Ragesian Storm Mages who take great delights in throwing lightning at us, however as we take their bodyguards apart they wisely retreat running in separate directions and soon the entire base seemed to be alerted as the many tunnels fill with sounds of running feet and then battle as Vortberds Militia make themselves known.
* Following one of mages we find an empty chamber with a trap door (which he has retreated into) Cricket flings the door open and gets a nasty surprise as a beam of pure darkness seems to flood from the opening, basking the room in heavy shadow, a magical bolt of energy from the wizard hits him in the chest, and the sounds of heavy feet on a ladder can be heard getting closer, he feels the swish of air moving near him and thanks the moon goddess for his luck as something seems to glide from the shaft of blackness, a living shadow slips out into the room (and later identified as a Ragesian Shadow Knight) and floods the room in an air of menace.
* Lembit summons the spirit of an ancient warlord, it lurks near the shadow knight its deep voice bellowing orders to the two Half-Orcs, at its order the barbarian unleashes a flurry of terrible blows upon the shadow knight, slamming him to the floor in his fury! Unable to move the wreath of shadow drops revealing a hulking brute in night black iron armour, now at the rogues’ mercy, Kain plunges his dagger deep between the thick metal plates, leaving him a bloody ruin.
With their leader (well we hope it was the leader) dead the rest of the wyrms attempt a fighting retreat but are cut down or captured by Vortberds finest. We pick over the body of the shadow knight finally able to catch our breath and bind our many, many wounds.
It would appear our time in Seaquen is fast coming to an end, bags are packed and other preparations are sorted, ready to be collected with a few hours notice, we are in short ready to travel, but it would appear that Seaquen isn’t ready to let us go.
A celebration feast in our honour has been arranged in one of the most prestigious taverns of the region, like most buildings its suffered at the hands of the storm, its famed dining hall is now al fresco as most of its roof has been torn away revealing the sparkling nights sky. The meal itself is lavish and decadent (and thus very above some party members usual tastes and standards) with fancy elven seafood dishes spiced with odd flowers, this trend continues through even to the wines, spirits and ales that accompany the meal. Kain in particular picks around his plate eager to avoid any more “elven snack foods” like he found in Gate Pass’ Battle College (potpourri).
With Brick mysteriously absent Til’Jan takes his place singing of our deeds and exploits, the room quietly listens to her reading from Bricks notes on our epic battle with Lee Sidoneth (and as such actual events may differ from those that really occurred) and a rousing applause ripples across the room filled with all of the areas key celebrities.
Eventually the room clears as people start to leave, we are left alone with the top ranked faculty of the lyceum, a rather drunk Dougan Rambousen stumbles up to us eager to tell us of his recent discovery involving the box we gave him weeks ago. He believes it to be a “Diano’um Mark 4” he says this with almost spiritual reverence but the effect is lost on us as we stare at him confused (as one should at drunk dwarves telling you of magic boxes!) and eventually explains the diano’ums were made ages ago by the dwarfs as a sort of chronicling device to store their history, linking the minds of dwarves.
However the early versions tended to make people insane, with the mark four they believed they had cracked this “tiny” problem and discovered that it in fact had the power to charm people. It wasn’t long before one of these devices was taken by a disillusioned dwarf who gathered an army of kobolds and attacked the Diamond Heart Clan (who lived in caves under what is now Gate Pass), this ended with everyone dieing when the dwarves flooded the caves with methane and ignited it, turning the whole area into a single diamond chasm that weeps blood. The Mark Four’s were supposedly destroyed, however given that this one was dug up from beneath Gate Pass it would seem this is not the case.
He wises to experiment with it tomorrow on the apes kept in the menagerie, believing that the artefact can be used for the war effort and would like us to observe his success!
So the next day we head to his lab but he isn’t there, an assistant in flame covered robes is waiting for us and guides us to the menagerie, on the way he frequently teleports a few feet appearing slightly on fire. We question his sanity and he replies “I’ll not cage my magic anymore; a little pain is worth it to be free”. Eventually we reach the monkey house and Rambousen holds the box and seems to have attached another device to it with bright copper wires, little lights flash on and off as he toys with it. In a large caged enclosure lots of monkeys and a couple of very large hulking apes.
He first turns the box towards the monkeys getting one to stand on its head and then the rest to waltz; he seems practically giddy with his own success “the charm could last for up to a week!” he explains before turning it upon the apes making them dance as well, caught up in his own success the dwarf starts to sway and step along with the monkeys, but obviously steps too far as one of the big apes suddenly reaches through the bars, grabs him and slams him forwards into the enclosures
bars, the box flies inside and he collapses to the floor. One of the monkeys grabs the device and starts to bash at the boxes controls… an eerie sensation begins to flutter through our minds.
* With no desire to become monkey slaves Kain and Cricket rush to the enclosure, the rogue quickly pops the lock and the barbarian dashes inside “Don’t hurt them!” wails Lembit as he summons a flock of guardian eagles (with corks upon their talons!), steering the primates into the centre of the enclosure and then floods the room with disorientating rays of colour.
* However the shamans’ best intentions don’t extend to the rest of us, certainly not after the monkeys start flinging their own poop at us and climbing atop people to bash and claw at their face. Even Urien’s resolve crumbles when one cheeky monkey smears its filth ridden fingers true the eye slits of his helm an blinds the paladin… “My eyes, my eyes” he screams wandering around with a monkey clanging away at his plate armour.
* Even Lembit ends up with a monkey clambered over him, he attempts to remove it by using a thunderous wave of force to fling it away but his spell backfires and he only succeeds on blasting himself into the corner of the reserve, but the time he composes himself most of the monkeys lay dead or dieing. He reclaims the box and turns it off, shame and disappointment on his face as he gazes over the rest of us (barring silas who managed to remain outside of the “splatter” zone) caked in blood (quite a lot of it our own!) and filth from the butchered primates.
Rambousen is equally horrified and disappointed when finally roused at the carnage that we have caused, however he foolishly begins by stating that it must be the influence of Brick that stops us from being bloodthirsty killers and quickly gets into a shouting match with Cricket who firmly believes the mage and his experiments are to blame! Dougan snatches the box and retreats from the scowling Barbarian.
After cleaning up as best we can we return to the Royale to change (and possibly oversee the burning of any clothes too “monkey covered” to ever be serviceable again). In the afternoon we are approached by Torrent who requests our aid on the morrow, she wishes to rebuild Lora’Beks tent, it’s seen as a spiritual centre of the refugee camp and one of her juniors is going to be raised up and will need a place with which to guide the others and begin plans for the temple. We happily agree to anything that will keep us as far away from the lyceum as possible and delay our departure by another day.
Its during our little house building pet project that we meet another associate of Torrent, the Ranger Erol, he believes that he Vortberd’s network of spies have finally tracked down the secret headquarters of the White Wyrms (the Ragesian Terrorists) in the old steam tunnels under the city, some of the buildings destroyed in the storms revealed hidden basement levels that lead into them. Vortberd has made plans for his militia to raid the place and would like us to join him, which we naturally agree to.
* We find one of the entrances into the cave network as described above in one of the basements of a now destroyed home, Kain and Cricket scout forward, they spy from the top of the ladder leading in to the caves the regularly movement of a patrol, when the light is dimmest they usher everyone over and we manage to make it into the steam caves without alerting them to our presence. A situation that lasts less than a few seconds, spying the light returning Urien takes charge loudly announcing where people should stand to best ambush them!
* Naturally the patrol then stops patrolling and instead merely guards the corridor, the paladin bravely stomps around the corner first taking the first volley of arrows on his heavy armour and shield, Kain and Cricket slip passed him eager to bring their own particular blend of mayhem and the patrol quickly finds themselves in pieces with the rogue picking over the spoils.
* However its at this point that he looks up and spies down one of the many tunnels another larger group of soldiers staring back at him, there are a few silent words and gestures, the handing over of money (it would appear that a bet was lost) and they raise their bows, it would appear our fight is not quite over.
* This group is backed up by two Ragesian Storm Mages who take great delights in throwing lightning at us, however as we take their bodyguards apart they wisely retreat running in separate directions and soon the entire base seemed to be alerted as the many tunnels fill with sounds of running feet and then battle as Vortberds Militia make themselves known.
* Following one of mages we find an empty chamber with a trap door (which he has retreated into) Cricket flings the door open and gets a nasty surprise as a beam of pure darkness seems to flood from the opening, basking the room in heavy shadow, a magical bolt of energy from the wizard hits him in the chest, and the sounds of heavy feet on a ladder can be heard getting closer, he feels the swish of air moving near him and thanks the moon goddess for his luck as something seems to glide from the shaft of blackness, a living shadow slips out into the room (and later identified as a Ragesian Shadow Knight) and floods the room in an air of menace.
* Lembit summons the spirit of an ancient warlord, it lurks near the shadow knight its deep voice bellowing orders to the two Half-Orcs, at its order the barbarian unleashes a flurry of terrible blows upon the shadow knight, slamming him to the floor in his fury! Unable to move the wreath of shadow drops revealing a hulking brute in night black iron armour, now at the rogues’ mercy, Kain plunges his dagger deep between the thick metal plates, leaving him a bloody ruin.
With their leader (well we hope it was the leader) dead the rest of the wyrms attempt a fighting retreat but are cut down or captured by Vortberds finest. We pick over the body of the shadow knight finally able to catch our breath and bind our many, many wounds.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
9th July
We return to our tale in the Steam Tunnels beneath seaquen, the white wyrms finally broken, routed and many of their lesser soldiers captured (the more important fought to the bitter end). We’re congratulated by the soldiers that joined us and both Torrent and Erol managed to come through the fight with nary a scratch, however the way they check each other over to make sure the other is unarmed suggests there is more than just business between the two of them.
That evening we are invited to another celebration meal this time at Hemingways, an exclusive gentleman’s club (not that kind!); however it really is just drinking along with Vortberd and his lackeys clapping each other on the back for a battle they didn’t fight in. If it’s not some official claiming it was his information that was key in finding the Ragesians its Torrent or Erol complaining they’ve been given different assignments. He is being sent to Ostalin while her mission takes her into the Shalhalesti lands. The other thing we find out (many times as everyone seems to know but us) that we have a meeting with Simian in the near future; he has a special assignment for us.
Given that, we’re not very surprised with a gangly youth shows up the next morning with an invitation to the Lyceum, gathering our things we head towards the huge academy. At the entrance hall we are put in the care of a fair haired and nervous young chap by the name of Jenere Breman (and are reassured that even despite his inability to make eye contact and stutter is a true up and comer with a bright future!). We bimble our way through the place, some taking the opportunity to confuse and unnerve the boy more than he already is until we finally reach the Headmasters Study, after a quick once over from the soldiers and mages that now guard the masters door we’re let inside.
Simians study has gone through a slight transformation since we last came here, more like a war conference room than an academic study. The headmaster and his head of war Kia’nan sit on large couches, across from them in Katrina and an unknown half-elf dandy who is quickly introduced as Balan Bastom, Sequens diplomatic envoy. We learn the shocking news that an army some forty thousand strong will soon be marching our way as soon as the winter passes melt, since we haven’t a hope in hell of stopping such a force, we will need the aid of the other kingdoms of Dassen, so we are to accompany to Bresk, Capital of Dassen where he shall put forward our case to try and get assistance against the Ragesians. Simian is keen to impress that Balan can “offer them anything they like but we sure as hell aren’t going to start paying taxes!” and he ensures that he will do all within his power to get King Steppengard to ignore Empress Leska “Treaty of Non-Agression” and join us in our fight.
We plan to leave the next morning and use sleds once we are across the sled and travel along the frozen river, a much speedier method than forging our way through the snow packed roads. As a final “gift” we are given a Scroll of Sending, with which we can contact Simian in an emergency, its highly implied it should only be used to warn of terrible news, and as such its entrusted to Lembit rather then it end up the target a saucy limerick or any other some concocted fable of lies by our bardic companion.
With a bulging purse of monies we go with Balan on a shopping trip, buying winter clothes, tents, blankets and any other odd fancy that Kain and Ruby can convince the envoy to purchase. During the shopping trip the now tiefling and half-elf get close, with Ruby suggesting there will be plenty of room in his/her tent, while the envoy doesn’t agree to sharing, he does hint that regular visits may occur… the rest of us sigh and stay quiet.
We are tracked down on our little shopping venture by the nervous student Jenere Breman, he has had an odd premonition about his father Jinice and wishes us to deliver a letter, Lembit feels a bout
of compassion for the lad, and when we find out the boys father is the Proxy to Lord Gallow, he is even more intrigued and spends the afternoon with the boy, inquiring about his studies so he has more information to tell the boys father when they meet (either that or he was grooming him… we can’t be sure…)
With Torrent leaving our little band, we try and track down the rest of our group and discover that Til’Jan has left to join the wayfarers in her search for Etan’Eefi. However we find the paladin relatively where we left him, and gathering all our possessions we travel through the swamp and soon find ourselves at the village across the other side. As we get close we are prepared to once again be bombarded with many methods and schemes to remove us of all our gold but instead they seem to be having a town meeting. It would seem people have been vanishing into the swamp, and recently they’ve been finding ripped and shredded bloody clothes along with lots of talk of some beast from the swamp!
With their permission Lembit examines the clothes and believes it to be the work of some feral swamp troll, a dangerous beast indeed. Eta’ranth offers to stay behind and protect the people from the beast, we wish him luck and go and see a man about a sled. Two sleds in fact and his four horses “Dee, Doc, Dolly, & Daisy”, there is some haggling about the price but seeing as the money is coming out of Balans’ purse we aren’t that caring, its an expensive price but the animals look to be worth every penny for the treacherous snowy journey ahead of us!
And it proves to be that in spades, by the end of the first day most of us are shivering our whatnots off, Kain attempts to shelter under three sheepskin blankets and still manages to freeze, by the time the sun sets and we make camp it would see we are drastically off course and not really sure where we are… hoping that it will all look better in the morning. The only consolation to this predicament is that Balan is so tired from travelling he declines the bards strange offer to join him in the Igloo He/She has constructed.
The next day we manage to find ourway back to the river and follow it, determined to not drift off course again, however its still exceptionally cold and even in our “winter gear” (which I’m sure is defective) some of us are starting to get sick. Up ahead we hear a commotion and spy a bunch of people streaming over the snowy embankements keen to reach the river and we quickly spy why when two “young” purple worms smash through the snow behind them, the remains of one peasant dangles from the toothy maw of one worm. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/excerpts_20101105b.jpg
Our horses panic and quickly our sleighs come to a halt, any plans we may have (briefly) entertained on just riding on by while the worms ate the peasants scuppered. Kain’s first out of the sleigh, skidding gracefully over the ice to lob his fine dagger at the closest worm to distract it; he’s urged to do so again by the shamans’ totem… yup that certainly did the job. The now angry worms’ massive head turns in our direction and churns through the snow while the other chomps a few of the peasants as they dash away.
The fight is joined by Cricket and his mighty fullblade and Ruby and her trusty bow (but is unsteady on the ice and misses her shot trying to avoid falling over), however this distracts the worm long enough for Kain to climb atop it, swinging one leg over its finned back and stab away with his dagger… he finds a particularly sensitive spot (with a critical hit) and the beasts howl grabs the attention of the other one, crushing a few peasants as at slithers over and plucks the unfortunate rogue off of its mates back, there is an ominous gulp and Kain vanishes into the belly of the beast with a rather unmanly “eeeek”.
Ruby shoots the first worm with a special arrow (dubbed the Arrow of Ill Omen) that lives up to its name, its magic tells the poor fate of the worm as it guides Crickets next blow into cutting the thing in half, its boiling blood melts the nearby snow. Across the way the second worm moves awkwardly and then burps out a noxious cloud, somewhere inside Kain is still fighting for his live and making the worms’ day as awkward as possible!
Lembit echoes this idea and sprays its face with dazzling streams of colours; however it doesn’t stop it from grabbing Cricket and swallowing him… however the worm quickly regrets this decision as the pair work together to cut their way out and emerge covered in sticky bile and blood but warm… deliciously warm!
Ruby and Balam talk to the peasants and discover they are refugees from Ragesia (mostly made up of merchants) who had to come over the mountains, shuffled on by Lord Reego (much like we were on our journey to Seaquen), these beasts destroyed their camp, ate quite a few of them and pursued them. Normally they wouldn’t leave the snow of the mountains but the harsh winter has expanded their range quite considerably. As they all look famished the shaman points out which parts of the worm are edible (very few) eventually putting them onto the beasts’ livers which is actually enough to feed the survivors, we wish them luck in their ordeal and venture on along the frozen river.
By the end of the day it’s clear that we are quite behind schedule, our four day journey is going to take much longer than that, thankfully the third day passes without incident but we still aren’t making good time. Our spirits brighten a bit as we passed the few landmarks we can make out, half way there and only a day and a bit behind schedule, however disaster strikes as the second Sleigh with Balan, Ruby and Lembit suddenly catches something and flips over sending them all flying. The envoy lands with a sickening crunch and blood stains the snow near his head, he isn’t dead by severely injured and both Ruby and Lembit examine and look after him while Kain and Cricket chase down the horses.
Kain manages to craft a lasso and rounds up his two with a certain amount of flair, Cricket simply grabs the dangling reins of the other two, however at first they overpower him and he is dragged through the snow while trying to slow them down, but his ire flairs and drags the pair to a halt when he finally gets a good footing and drags the pair back to the sleighs to the encouraging barks of Dag. The barbarian is put to building a good fire while the others repair the sleigh and take care of our injured envoy.
With him settled we attempt to discover the source of the accident and find a leather hoop jutting from the ice, a bit of digging reveals a body and more digging reveals two more. A trio of Guards from Lady Dean (whose realm we are currently in), two have crossbow bolts in their backs, but one looks like he was hung. Lembit surmises that they purposefully buried in the ice rather than being left, however we don’t offer them the same courtesy, “Leave em’ for the wolves, they need a good meal in this winter” says Cricket and dumps them in a bush “circle of life” agrees Lembit with a Sage nod.
Two more shivering days go passed before we spy anymore signs of civilisation (and I use that term loosely), the path of the river comes along side that of the Kings Road, we spy a little barricade manned by men in the Kings Livery (confirming we are finally in the right kingdom at least) and a small convoy of Halfling merchants have been stopped, the guards are busy rifling the wagons and throwing things out into the snow. We decide to halt and approach the guards perhaps they have a speedier way of getting our sick charge to a healer.
Ruby and Lembit go up, leaving the rest at the sleighs, as they clamber up the snowy bank it appears the guards have found a stowaway as one of the drags a woman from a concealed crawlspace by her hair. The guard captain stomps forwards, shouting at the Halfling something about trying to smuggle assassin in, his hand is already upon his sword when Ruby and Lembit tries to interject “um... excuse me” they begin, catching the guards attention for a brief second but not enough to halt his plan of action, the blade comes free of its scabbard and the woman’s head bounces into the snow. There is a click as the captains guards unleash their crossbows into the Halflings, muttering about traitorous scum.
The captain busy wiping the blood from his sword then hails them “you wanted something?” he growls “um… erm… “They begin to back away “never mind… we made a mistake” and they hurry back to the sleighs and we spur the horses into a gallop and soon their shouts for us to stop are too quiet to hear anymore.
It’s another day before we reach Bresk and we’re sure that some of us have hypothermia, if not a little frostbite and are overwhelmed by the thoughts of taverns hospitality when the Kings Castle finally comes into view… a large line of peasants stuck outside it. We push our way to the front of the line using our diplomatic papers (or rather Balam’s papers) to shuffle along without talking to them (in hindsight a mistake) expecting to breeze in through any checks. However this is not the case, the injured Envoy and Ruby make it through easy enough on the papers, Kain manages to slip passed the guards checks with a cheeky “I’m with them, guard, must have a guard”, caught off guard by his smile the guard waves him through leaving Lembit and Cricket on the wrong side of the gate.
“I’m his official lore master” spouts the shaman, patting the huge satchel of books at his side “I keep all his records, diplomat like him needs all his records”, the guard clearly looks annoyed but waves him through and looks at Cricket “and you?” “Oh aye, I’m with them too, me Dag too” “as?” “Well… “ the barbarian looks a little flustered, clearly out of his depth “odd job man, things need doing, you come to me” “right…” says the guard clearly unconvinced “well for instance, someone says to me, Cricket… we need to get into the castle, keep that man there safe” he points a finger at the injured envoy “and I’ll say, sure enough boss” and he tosses a purse of coins at the guards quite blatantly “now can I come in?” the captain peels the purse open and looks at the coins inside “sure enough, mark him on the list, odd job man” he says with a greedy smile “that I am brother, that I am” replies the barbarian patting him on the shoulder as he steps into the castle, leaving the rabble of peasants behind.
We head for the Golden Griffon Inn; an establishment that Balam had told us about in the long cold nights, this in has suites permanently reserved for Seaquens Ambassador. We’re quickly settled into rooms, the Inns owners own son turns out to be a priest and healer and quickly sets about taking care of the envoy and soon has the man revived, however he is more than a little distraught about the turn of events, our delayed journey has meant that his audience with the King is tomorrow afternoon giving him (and thus us) very little time to prepare his arguments, he was hoping to have a few days here to get the lay of the land from a political sense so he knew who to suck up to. The healer recommends he gets as much rest as possible so the leg work falls upon us.
And so begins a busy night and morning of wheeling, dealing, shadowing, listening, bribing, threatening, researching and more than a little convincing and we find out the following:
* The most obvious and easily found out piece of news is that the king has recently held the royal funerals for his entire family (wife & 18 children!) who were all assassinated at the same time. The elder children were at a party that was raided and all within were butchered without a trace of evidence, his wife and younger children were poisoned at the same time
at a banquet, the king himself only avoided the food because he was caught in a verbal argument about someone complaining about the Ragesian Ambassador.
* In response to this his chief advisor (a gnome by the name of Nina Glibhammer) has set up the Talon a branch of secret police that seem to be intent on bullying and bashing a confession out of any and all, so far without any success.
Regarding the actual Lords, Dukes and Ladies that rule the kingdoms that make up the group kingdom of Dassen (that King Steppingard rules over):
1. Duke Gallow – His domain rests upon Ragesia’s Border so has been fighting them for ages, doesn’t want to let them in.
2. Lady Timor – Sorceress so is naturally scared about the Scourge wishes to study at the lyceum but unable to due to her responsibilities as a ruler.
3. Lord Dashkoban (only Dwarf ruler) – Doesn’t like Steppingard but has no ideals to rule everyone either, content with his own little kingdom. A keen archivist and lover of fine spirits.
4. Lady Dean – Loyal to the king, wishes to retain the status quo, none aggressive and a lover of trade.
5. Lord Iz – a Keen Military man (doesn’t mean spoiling for a fight, he just likes having an army and training them)
6. Lady Namin – Incredibly vain & wishes to be the next Queen (essentially a Cougar)
7. Lord Megadon – Long standing rivalry with Seaquen over fishing. The waters they both fish from are rife with sahuagin (fish people), but the magically protected boats of Seaquen mean they come off far better than Megadons.
8. Lord Reego – absolutely hates Seaquen for reasons unknown, but very vocal about his hate and wishes it was wiped from the map. However country is is ridiculously poor and so a huge bribe might sway him.
Balan is impressed by the amount of dirt we managed to dig up and quickly starts sorting it into a series of speeches and arguments directed at different lords (or their proxy’s), both Lembit and Ruby act as sounding boards for his ideas. Kain and Cricket entertain themselves in more mundane ways.
By lunchtime we find ourselves in the castle, but it is still late afternoon before we get through all the red tape and meetings and are ushered into the throne, it would appear some kind of trial is taking place near the thrones. The King sits in one looking quite haggared, the other is empty save for a black shroud draped over it. Only Lady Namin is in personal attendance, the rest are represented by their proxys all except Gallows and we quickly find out why.
Jinice appears to be the one on trial, stooped in front of the steps to the throne, covered in enough manacles to restrain two men while a gnome hops around him jabbing her with a short cane as she demands answers and does her best to verbally beat a confession out of the exhausted looking bureaucrat. Across from us we see the Ragesian Envoy in his flame red robes watches with a twisted grin on his face, behind him stands a hulk of a man in bearskins and a huge bear skull mask, where fur doesn’t cover him scar tissue does.
Finally the Gnome seems to admit defeat (for this round) and panders to the king that maybe torturing “a necessary evil m’lord” will loosen his tongue but it appears that whatever grief stricken mood he has descended into he remains reasonable and instead sends him back to prison, to continue being under arrest for possible treason.
Quickly Balan is called up for his audience, Nina quickly interprets the kings order by speaking loudly “The might of Dassen will now hear the offerings of the lowly orphan state that dare be called Independent” and then laughs tauntingly when the wounded envoy steps up. He barely manages to
get out an introduction before he clutches his head and keels over, the gnome is quick to respond with comments like “speak up oh speaker, we can’t hear you” and no one but us seems to offer any aid to the man. Ruby is forced to speak up before the moment of audience is ended! However we noticed that as soon as ruby starts addressing the other lords Nina is quick to sit next to him whispering away, its very clear he isn’t paying anyone else attention but him. http://images.wikia.com/lotr/images/2/2c/GRIMA_~1.jpg
* Using the notes that they had worked on first she tackles Lady Timor and Lord Dashkobans Proxys. Timors is swayed by talk of magical assistance and tutoring. Recalling great moments in history where the Lyceum has aided the dwarves is enough to convince Dashkobans’ proxy.
* Lord Iz is the next focus of our arguments, praising his armed forces and that bolstered by the support of the Lyceums battle mages they will be a proud force for any nation! Lady Deans is only swayed by the lyceums offering to aid with negotiations of trade between her and the elves.
* Megadon is swayed by an agreement on sharing the secrets of alchemy used to treat Seaquens’ fishing boats to dissuade the fish men. While an abundance of flattery sways Lady Namin, only Reego is ignored, already decided to be a lost cause his proxy just sits and scowls.
Short of breath and heavily parched the Bard finally stops talking, bows long and low to the King. He draws himself from his throne and addresses his people, ignoring the bard he points to Kain and puts him on the spot “who have you lost to this war?” he demands, flustered the rogue can’t answer, the king tells the story of his loss, his family and swears that no more will die and “None shall aid that next of serpents” referring to seaquen, he gives us three days grace within the city and if we don’t leave by then we shall be arrested, he sits down heavily in his chair, the audience it would seem is over. The gnome stares at us happily as we carry Balan from the room.
Outside the man seems to immediately perk up, unable to explain what came over him within the throne room. Two messengers from Timor and the dwarves pop out after us urging us stay within the city in the hopes the king may soften as his grief passes, but if not we should visit Gallow in the north. Timors messenger starts telling us about the Talon and the their lack of success at finding the assassins but hushes and retreats as the doors to the throne room open and the Ragesian Ambassador steps out, inquisitor behind.
He introduces himself as Seramis (and after a bit of prodding we find out his bodyguard is called Torax, who Lembit helpfully shares later is known for killing a dragon and a collection of werewolves… pleasant chap, I’m sure he’s fun at parties). There are various taunts and subtle insults thrown back and forth before finally the pair wanders off quite calmly.
Back at the Golden Griffon we settle in for the night, we have a message from a gangly looking youth who we identify as one of the Kings Troubadours (and Lembit is certain there is some magical compulsion upon the man) who warns us that our lives are in danger, we should leave! And then runs away as fast as he can. Believing the warning to be a bit of a double bluff, and we’ll be arrested for trying to flee the city we stay at the inn and make a few preparations for the visitors we assume are coming. Kain spends a good few hours wiring up the windows with trip wires with little jingly bells and we have plans to use Balans chimes of awakening to create a sort’ve panic switch for whoever is on watch. We leave the interior doors of our suites open so the watcher can easily see the whole floor and settle down for the night, weapons close and armour on!
However for all the rogues hard work it appears that coin pays for better, I guess we should take it as a sign of flattery that whoever has sprung for a professional rather than a bunch of thugs with a lock pick. The first Lembit is aware of an intruder is turning around to spy someone clad in black stood over Ruby (alone in her own room as no one wished to bunk with her!). She notices and flings a shuriken at him (which makes him go ouch!) but the damage is done, the magical chime rings in his hand and all our eyes flick open!
He sends streams of dazzling colours towards the assassin (who he now notices is female) but she ducks back behind the door frame so all he manages is a pretty magic show. Kain is next, darting forward trying to stab her but again she proves too wily, deflecting the attack into the doorframe, she kicks him in the groin and chops his neck knocking him unconscious and then darts back, flipping into the air and plants a nasty looking elbow into the prone bard!
Lembit draws upon the long lost mystical arts and the bards room erupts in blood that splatters out coating the fallen rogue and stunned barbarian… however the assassin it would seem grabbed the Bards blanket and held it up to protect herself, she drops it to the floor, her outfit still pristine in its blackness. The tables turn slightly when Cricket manages to knock her over, someone wakes the rogue up and the pair manages to force her into a corner. However she is far from out of tricks, pulls a handful of powder from somewhere and blows it into the barbarians’ face, he just smiles, not impressed, she turns her hand over and blows again leaving him coughing and spluttering.
Lembit steps into the room to lend his primal energies to the fight, using his totem to guide and direct the rogue into shanking her, she jinks around his blade and once again sets her sights upon the barbarian, using a collection of grips, clinches and jabs to pressure points she knocks cricket out, stomping on his prone both with ruthless efficiency until Lembit steps in again blasting her with his second colour spray, suddenly finding himself potentially in harms way he summons a freakish gust of primal wind that spirits him back out of the blood caked room. However he had managed to awaken the barbarian who climbs groggily to his feet barely able to hold his blade up. However perhaps sensing her own mortality or deciding her mission has been foiled she decides to cut and run, eventually getting out of the window and leaps from the balcony across to a nearby building and escapes into the night.
Ruby attempts to follow using her new “icky” abilities to slither down the Inn to the floor intent on pursuit but halts when she spies two full detachments of city guards and Talon officers running towards the building shout “STOP ASSASSINS!” while pointing towards the blood covered bardette…
We return to our tale in the Steam Tunnels beneath seaquen, the white wyrms finally broken, routed and many of their lesser soldiers captured (the more important fought to the bitter end). We’re congratulated by the soldiers that joined us and both Torrent and Erol managed to come through the fight with nary a scratch, however the way they check each other over to make sure the other is unarmed suggests there is more than just business between the two of them.
That evening we are invited to another celebration meal this time at Hemingways, an exclusive gentleman’s club (not that kind!); however it really is just drinking along with Vortberd and his lackeys clapping each other on the back for a battle they didn’t fight in. If it’s not some official claiming it was his information that was key in finding the Ragesians its Torrent or Erol complaining they’ve been given different assignments. He is being sent to Ostalin while her mission takes her into the Shalhalesti lands. The other thing we find out (many times as everyone seems to know but us) that we have a meeting with Simian in the near future; he has a special assignment for us.
Given that, we’re not very surprised with a gangly youth shows up the next morning with an invitation to the Lyceum, gathering our things we head towards the huge academy. At the entrance hall we are put in the care of a fair haired and nervous young chap by the name of Jenere Breman (and are reassured that even despite his inability to make eye contact and stutter is a true up and comer with a bright future!). We bimble our way through the place, some taking the opportunity to confuse and unnerve the boy more than he already is until we finally reach the Headmasters Study, after a quick once over from the soldiers and mages that now guard the masters door we’re let inside.
Simians study has gone through a slight transformation since we last came here, more like a war conference room than an academic study. The headmaster and his head of war Kia’nan sit on large couches, across from them in Katrina and an unknown half-elf dandy who is quickly introduced as Balan Bastom, Sequens diplomatic envoy. We learn the shocking news that an army some forty thousand strong will soon be marching our way as soon as the winter passes melt, since we haven’t a hope in hell of stopping such a force, we will need the aid of the other kingdoms of Dassen, so we are to accompany to Bresk, Capital of Dassen where he shall put forward our case to try and get assistance against the Ragesians. Simian is keen to impress that Balan can “offer them anything they like but we sure as hell aren’t going to start paying taxes!” and he ensures that he will do all within his power to get King Steppengard to ignore Empress Leska “Treaty of Non-Agression” and join us in our fight.
We plan to leave the next morning and use sleds once we are across the sled and travel along the frozen river, a much speedier method than forging our way through the snow packed roads. As a final “gift” we are given a Scroll of Sending, with which we can contact Simian in an emergency, its highly implied it should only be used to warn of terrible news, and as such its entrusted to Lembit rather then it end up the target a saucy limerick or any other some concocted fable of lies by our bardic companion.
With a bulging purse of monies we go with Balan on a shopping trip, buying winter clothes, tents, blankets and any other odd fancy that Kain and Ruby can convince the envoy to purchase. During the shopping trip the now tiefling and half-elf get close, with Ruby suggesting there will be plenty of room in his/her tent, while the envoy doesn’t agree to sharing, he does hint that regular visits may occur… the rest of us sigh and stay quiet.
We are tracked down on our little shopping venture by the nervous student Jenere Breman, he has had an odd premonition about his father Jinice and wishes us to deliver a letter, Lembit feels a bout
of compassion for the lad, and when we find out the boys father is the Proxy to Lord Gallow, he is even more intrigued and spends the afternoon with the boy, inquiring about his studies so he has more information to tell the boys father when they meet (either that or he was grooming him… we can’t be sure…)
With Torrent leaving our little band, we try and track down the rest of our group and discover that Til’Jan has left to join the wayfarers in her search for Etan’Eefi. However we find the paladin relatively where we left him, and gathering all our possessions we travel through the swamp and soon find ourselves at the village across the other side. As we get close we are prepared to once again be bombarded with many methods and schemes to remove us of all our gold but instead they seem to be having a town meeting. It would seem people have been vanishing into the swamp, and recently they’ve been finding ripped and shredded bloody clothes along with lots of talk of some beast from the swamp!
With their permission Lembit examines the clothes and believes it to be the work of some feral swamp troll, a dangerous beast indeed. Eta’ranth offers to stay behind and protect the people from the beast, we wish him luck and go and see a man about a sled. Two sleds in fact and his four horses “Dee, Doc, Dolly, & Daisy”, there is some haggling about the price but seeing as the money is coming out of Balans’ purse we aren’t that caring, its an expensive price but the animals look to be worth every penny for the treacherous snowy journey ahead of us!
And it proves to be that in spades, by the end of the first day most of us are shivering our whatnots off, Kain attempts to shelter under three sheepskin blankets and still manages to freeze, by the time the sun sets and we make camp it would see we are drastically off course and not really sure where we are… hoping that it will all look better in the morning. The only consolation to this predicament is that Balan is so tired from travelling he declines the bards strange offer to join him in the Igloo He/She has constructed.
The next day we manage to find ourway back to the river and follow it, determined to not drift off course again, however its still exceptionally cold and even in our “winter gear” (which I’m sure is defective) some of us are starting to get sick. Up ahead we hear a commotion and spy a bunch of people streaming over the snowy embankements keen to reach the river and we quickly spy why when two “young” purple worms smash through the snow behind them, the remains of one peasant dangles from the toothy maw of one worm. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/excerpts_20101105b.jpg
Our horses panic and quickly our sleighs come to a halt, any plans we may have (briefly) entertained on just riding on by while the worms ate the peasants scuppered. Kain’s first out of the sleigh, skidding gracefully over the ice to lob his fine dagger at the closest worm to distract it; he’s urged to do so again by the shamans’ totem… yup that certainly did the job. The now angry worms’ massive head turns in our direction and churns through the snow while the other chomps a few of the peasants as they dash away.
The fight is joined by Cricket and his mighty fullblade and Ruby and her trusty bow (but is unsteady on the ice and misses her shot trying to avoid falling over), however this distracts the worm long enough for Kain to climb atop it, swinging one leg over its finned back and stab away with his dagger… he finds a particularly sensitive spot (with a critical hit) and the beasts howl grabs the attention of the other one, crushing a few peasants as at slithers over and plucks the unfortunate rogue off of its mates back, there is an ominous gulp and Kain vanishes into the belly of the beast with a rather unmanly “eeeek”.
Ruby shoots the first worm with a special arrow (dubbed the Arrow of Ill Omen) that lives up to its name, its magic tells the poor fate of the worm as it guides Crickets next blow into cutting the thing in half, its boiling blood melts the nearby snow. Across the way the second worm moves awkwardly and then burps out a noxious cloud, somewhere inside Kain is still fighting for his live and making the worms’ day as awkward as possible!
Lembit echoes this idea and sprays its face with dazzling streams of colours; however it doesn’t stop it from grabbing Cricket and swallowing him… however the worm quickly regrets this decision as the pair work together to cut their way out and emerge covered in sticky bile and blood but warm… deliciously warm!
Ruby and Balam talk to the peasants and discover they are refugees from Ragesia (mostly made up of merchants) who had to come over the mountains, shuffled on by Lord Reego (much like we were on our journey to Seaquen), these beasts destroyed their camp, ate quite a few of them and pursued them. Normally they wouldn’t leave the snow of the mountains but the harsh winter has expanded their range quite considerably. As they all look famished the shaman points out which parts of the worm are edible (very few) eventually putting them onto the beasts’ livers which is actually enough to feed the survivors, we wish them luck in their ordeal and venture on along the frozen river.
By the end of the day it’s clear that we are quite behind schedule, our four day journey is going to take much longer than that, thankfully the third day passes without incident but we still aren’t making good time. Our spirits brighten a bit as we passed the few landmarks we can make out, half way there and only a day and a bit behind schedule, however disaster strikes as the second Sleigh with Balan, Ruby and Lembit suddenly catches something and flips over sending them all flying. The envoy lands with a sickening crunch and blood stains the snow near his head, he isn’t dead by severely injured and both Ruby and Lembit examine and look after him while Kain and Cricket chase down the horses.
Kain manages to craft a lasso and rounds up his two with a certain amount of flair, Cricket simply grabs the dangling reins of the other two, however at first they overpower him and he is dragged through the snow while trying to slow them down, but his ire flairs and drags the pair to a halt when he finally gets a good footing and drags the pair back to the sleighs to the encouraging barks of Dag. The barbarian is put to building a good fire while the others repair the sleigh and take care of our injured envoy.
With him settled we attempt to discover the source of the accident and find a leather hoop jutting from the ice, a bit of digging reveals a body and more digging reveals two more. A trio of Guards from Lady Dean (whose realm we are currently in), two have crossbow bolts in their backs, but one looks like he was hung. Lembit surmises that they purposefully buried in the ice rather than being left, however we don’t offer them the same courtesy, “Leave em’ for the wolves, they need a good meal in this winter” says Cricket and dumps them in a bush “circle of life” agrees Lembit with a Sage nod.
Two more shivering days go passed before we spy anymore signs of civilisation (and I use that term loosely), the path of the river comes along side that of the Kings Road, we spy a little barricade manned by men in the Kings Livery (confirming we are finally in the right kingdom at least) and a small convoy of Halfling merchants have been stopped, the guards are busy rifling the wagons and throwing things out into the snow. We decide to halt and approach the guards perhaps they have a speedier way of getting our sick charge to a healer.
Ruby and Lembit go up, leaving the rest at the sleighs, as they clamber up the snowy bank it appears the guards have found a stowaway as one of the drags a woman from a concealed crawlspace by her hair. The guard captain stomps forwards, shouting at the Halfling something about trying to smuggle assassin in, his hand is already upon his sword when Ruby and Lembit tries to interject “um... excuse me” they begin, catching the guards attention for a brief second but not enough to halt his plan of action, the blade comes free of its scabbard and the woman’s head bounces into the snow. There is a click as the captains guards unleash their crossbows into the Halflings, muttering about traitorous scum.
The captain busy wiping the blood from his sword then hails them “you wanted something?” he growls “um… erm… “They begin to back away “never mind… we made a mistake” and they hurry back to the sleighs and we spur the horses into a gallop and soon their shouts for us to stop are too quiet to hear anymore.
It’s another day before we reach Bresk and we’re sure that some of us have hypothermia, if not a little frostbite and are overwhelmed by the thoughts of taverns hospitality when the Kings Castle finally comes into view… a large line of peasants stuck outside it. We push our way to the front of the line using our diplomatic papers (or rather Balam’s papers) to shuffle along without talking to them (in hindsight a mistake) expecting to breeze in through any checks. However this is not the case, the injured Envoy and Ruby make it through easy enough on the papers, Kain manages to slip passed the guards checks with a cheeky “I’m with them, guard, must have a guard”, caught off guard by his smile the guard waves him through leaving Lembit and Cricket on the wrong side of the gate.
“I’m his official lore master” spouts the shaman, patting the huge satchel of books at his side “I keep all his records, diplomat like him needs all his records”, the guard clearly looks annoyed but waves him through and looks at Cricket “and you?” “Oh aye, I’m with them too, me Dag too” “as?” “Well… “ the barbarian looks a little flustered, clearly out of his depth “odd job man, things need doing, you come to me” “right…” says the guard clearly unconvinced “well for instance, someone says to me, Cricket… we need to get into the castle, keep that man there safe” he points a finger at the injured envoy “and I’ll say, sure enough boss” and he tosses a purse of coins at the guards quite blatantly “now can I come in?” the captain peels the purse open and looks at the coins inside “sure enough, mark him on the list, odd job man” he says with a greedy smile “that I am brother, that I am” replies the barbarian patting him on the shoulder as he steps into the castle, leaving the rabble of peasants behind.
We head for the Golden Griffon Inn; an establishment that Balam had told us about in the long cold nights, this in has suites permanently reserved for Seaquens Ambassador. We’re quickly settled into rooms, the Inns owners own son turns out to be a priest and healer and quickly sets about taking care of the envoy and soon has the man revived, however he is more than a little distraught about the turn of events, our delayed journey has meant that his audience with the King is tomorrow afternoon giving him (and thus us) very little time to prepare his arguments, he was hoping to have a few days here to get the lay of the land from a political sense so he knew who to suck up to. The healer recommends he gets as much rest as possible so the leg work falls upon us.
And so begins a busy night and morning of wheeling, dealing, shadowing, listening, bribing, threatening, researching and more than a little convincing and we find out the following:
* The most obvious and easily found out piece of news is that the king has recently held the royal funerals for his entire family (wife & 18 children!) who were all assassinated at the same time. The elder children were at a party that was raided and all within were butchered without a trace of evidence, his wife and younger children were poisoned at the same time
at a banquet, the king himself only avoided the food because he was caught in a verbal argument about someone complaining about the Ragesian Ambassador.
* In response to this his chief advisor (a gnome by the name of Nina Glibhammer) has set up the Talon a branch of secret police that seem to be intent on bullying and bashing a confession out of any and all, so far without any success.
Regarding the actual Lords, Dukes and Ladies that rule the kingdoms that make up the group kingdom of Dassen (that King Steppingard rules over):
1. Duke Gallow – His domain rests upon Ragesia’s Border so has been fighting them for ages, doesn’t want to let them in.
2. Lady Timor – Sorceress so is naturally scared about the Scourge wishes to study at the lyceum but unable to due to her responsibilities as a ruler.
3. Lord Dashkoban (only Dwarf ruler) – Doesn’t like Steppingard but has no ideals to rule everyone either, content with his own little kingdom. A keen archivist and lover of fine spirits.
4. Lady Dean – Loyal to the king, wishes to retain the status quo, none aggressive and a lover of trade.
5. Lord Iz – a Keen Military man (doesn’t mean spoiling for a fight, he just likes having an army and training them)
6. Lady Namin – Incredibly vain & wishes to be the next Queen (essentially a Cougar)
7. Lord Megadon – Long standing rivalry with Seaquen over fishing. The waters they both fish from are rife with sahuagin (fish people), but the magically protected boats of Seaquen mean they come off far better than Megadons.
8. Lord Reego – absolutely hates Seaquen for reasons unknown, but very vocal about his hate and wishes it was wiped from the map. However country is is ridiculously poor and so a huge bribe might sway him.
Balan is impressed by the amount of dirt we managed to dig up and quickly starts sorting it into a series of speeches and arguments directed at different lords (or their proxy’s), both Lembit and Ruby act as sounding boards for his ideas. Kain and Cricket entertain themselves in more mundane ways.
By lunchtime we find ourselves in the castle, but it is still late afternoon before we get through all the red tape and meetings and are ushered into the throne, it would appear some kind of trial is taking place near the thrones. The King sits in one looking quite haggared, the other is empty save for a black shroud draped over it. Only Lady Namin is in personal attendance, the rest are represented by their proxys all except Gallows and we quickly find out why.
Jinice appears to be the one on trial, stooped in front of the steps to the throne, covered in enough manacles to restrain two men while a gnome hops around him jabbing her with a short cane as she demands answers and does her best to verbally beat a confession out of the exhausted looking bureaucrat. Across from us we see the Ragesian Envoy in his flame red robes watches with a twisted grin on his face, behind him stands a hulk of a man in bearskins and a huge bear skull mask, where fur doesn’t cover him scar tissue does.
Finally the Gnome seems to admit defeat (for this round) and panders to the king that maybe torturing “a necessary evil m’lord” will loosen his tongue but it appears that whatever grief stricken mood he has descended into he remains reasonable and instead sends him back to prison, to continue being under arrest for possible treason.
Quickly Balan is called up for his audience, Nina quickly interprets the kings order by speaking loudly “The might of Dassen will now hear the offerings of the lowly orphan state that dare be called Independent” and then laughs tauntingly when the wounded envoy steps up. He barely manages to
get out an introduction before he clutches his head and keels over, the gnome is quick to respond with comments like “speak up oh speaker, we can’t hear you” and no one but us seems to offer any aid to the man. Ruby is forced to speak up before the moment of audience is ended! However we noticed that as soon as ruby starts addressing the other lords Nina is quick to sit next to him whispering away, its very clear he isn’t paying anyone else attention but him. http://images.wikia.com/lotr/images/2/2c/GRIMA_~1.jpg
* Using the notes that they had worked on first she tackles Lady Timor and Lord Dashkobans Proxys. Timors is swayed by talk of magical assistance and tutoring. Recalling great moments in history where the Lyceum has aided the dwarves is enough to convince Dashkobans’ proxy.
* Lord Iz is the next focus of our arguments, praising his armed forces and that bolstered by the support of the Lyceums battle mages they will be a proud force for any nation! Lady Deans is only swayed by the lyceums offering to aid with negotiations of trade between her and the elves.
* Megadon is swayed by an agreement on sharing the secrets of alchemy used to treat Seaquens’ fishing boats to dissuade the fish men. While an abundance of flattery sways Lady Namin, only Reego is ignored, already decided to be a lost cause his proxy just sits and scowls.
Short of breath and heavily parched the Bard finally stops talking, bows long and low to the King. He draws himself from his throne and addresses his people, ignoring the bard he points to Kain and puts him on the spot “who have you lost to this war?” he demands, flustered the rogue can’t answer, the king tells the story of his loss, his family and swears that no more will die and “None shall aid that next of serpents” referring to seaquen, he gives us three days grace within the city and if we don’t leave by then we shall be arrested, he sits down heavily in his chair, the audience it would seem is over. The gnome stares at us happily as we carry Balan from the room.
Outside the man seems to immediately perk up, unable to explain what came over him within the throne room. Two messengers from Timor and the dwarves pop out after us urging us stay within the city in the hopes the king may soften as his grief passes, but if not we should visit Gallow in the north. Timors messenger starts telling us about the Talon and the their lack of success at finding the assassins but hushes and retreats as the doors to the throne room open and the Ragesian Ambassador steps out, inquisitor behind.
He introduces himself as Seramis (and after a bit of prodding we find out his bodyguard is called Torax, who Lembit helpfully shares later is known for killing a dragon and a collection of werewolves… pleasant chap, I’m sure he’s fun at parties). There are various taunts and subtle insults thrown back and forth before finally the pair wanders off quite calmly.
Back at the Golden Griffon we settle in for the night, we have a message from a gangly looking youth who we identify as one of the Kings Troubadours (and Lembit is certain there is some magical compulsion upon the man) who warns us that our lives are in danger, we should leave! And then runs away as fast as he can. Believing the warning to be a bit of a double bluff, and we’ll be arrested for trying to flee the city we stay at the inn and make a few preparations for the visitors we assume are coming. Kain spends a good few hours wiring up the windows with trip wires with little jingly bells and we have plans to use Balans chimes of awakening to create a sort’ve panic switch for whoever is on watch. We leave the interior doors of our suites open so the watcher can easily see the whole floor and settle down for the night, weapons close and armour on!
However for all the rogues hard work it appears that coin pays for better, I guess we should take it as a sign of flattery that whoever has sprung for a professional rather than a bunch of thugs with a lock pick. The first Lembit is aware of an intruder is turning around to spy someone clad in black stood over Ruby (alone in her own room as no one wished to bunk with her!). She notices and flings a shuriken at him (which makes him go ouch!) but the damage is done, the magical chime rings in his hand and all our eyes flick open!
He sends streams of dazzling colours towards the assassin (who he now notices is female) but she ducks back behind the door frame so all he manages is a pretty magic show. Kain is next, darting forward trying to stab her but again she proves too wily, deflecting the attack into the doorframe, she kicks him in the groin and chops his neck knocking him unconscious and then darts back, flipping into the air and plants a nasty looking elbow into the prone bard!
Lembit draws upon the long lost mystical arts and the bards room erupts in blood that splatters out coating the fallen rogue and stunned barbarian… however the assassin it would seem grabbed the Bards blanket and held it up to protect herself, she drops it to the floor, her outfit still pristine in its blackness. The tables turn slightly when Cricket manages to knock her over, someone wakes the rogue up and the pair manages to force her into a corner. However she is far from out of tricks, pulls a handful of powder from somewhere and blows it into the barbarians’ face, he just smiles, not impressed, she turns her hand over and blows again leaving him coughing and spluttering.
Lembit steps into the room to lend his primal energies to the fight, using his totem to guide and direct the rogue into shanking her, she jinks around his blade and once again sets her sights upon the barbarian, using a collection of grips, clinches and jabs to pressure points she knocks cricket out, stomping on his prone both with ruthless efficiency until Lembit steps in again blasting her with his second colour spray, suddenly finding himself potentially in harms way he summons a freakish gust of primal wind that spirits him back out of the blood caked room. However he had managed to awaken the barbarian who climbs groggily to his feet barely able to hold his blade up. However perhaps sensing her own mortality or deciding her mission has been foiled she decides to cut and run, eventually getting out of the window and leaps from the balcony across to a nearby building and escapes into the night.
Ruby attempts to follow using her new “icky” abilities to slither down the Inn to the floor intent on pursuit but halts when she spies two full detachments of city guards and Talon officers running towards the building shout “STOP ASSASSINS!” while pointing towards the blood covered bardette…
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The continuing tale of Brick aka Ruby the bard
Becoming a Biomancer
After arriving back at the inn, after our rather unsuccessful attempt to woo the king of Dassen we receive a rather ominous threat from one of the Troubadours. He had obviously been ensorcelled in some manner and informs us to flee the city or we will be killed. As our diplomat associate seems too ill to travel we decide to stay the night at the inn. Feeling quite tired after her busy day of playing the diplomat, Ruby settles down in one of the large chairs in her suite, with notebook in hand she continues writing her memoirs. “You never know” she thinks to herself “they could prove very valuable in the future”, with her journal up to date she places the book on the desk and decides to have a look out of the window. However when she attempts to stand she finds that her arm is stuck to the side of the chair!
A feeling of vertigo threatens to overcome her and almost blinded by the bright light from window, she stumbles, until she finds herself a handheld mirror, bringing the silver surface up so she can look at her face. Her pupils contract and dilate; they seem to be taking the slit like pupil of a cat! She slumps to the floor, her brain trying to process these new changes, her hands naturally clasp and cradle her tails in comfort, and an icky sound from her lap suddenly grasps her new eyes attention. Looking down at her tentacle tail shows that a the stubby flesh at the end has unfurled to reveal a snapping mouth, which darts out and takes a chunk out of the desk she is sat next to. Another feeling of vertigo swallows her senses, a strange tingle from the side of her head and reaching up she can feel her ears changing shape. Another examination in the mirror she sees her ears now resemble those of a bat! As the new way of hearing suddenly assaults her senses she grabs a nearby bin and wretches until the world stops spinning. Closing the curtains to her room tightly she plunges the room into darkness, even with her new eyes she is amazed at the detail she can see in the dark and all the new sounds she had never noticed before and she begins to calm down!
Taking charge she opens the curtains and begins to examine her face in the mirror, trying to decide the best way to accentuate her few features, thoughts of what color make up to try ripple through her mind when suddenly the pores of her skin seem to open up and erupt in slimy pus that melts her features like wax. She screams and scrabbles into one corner. The door is flung open and Cricket stands in the door, scans the room for an intruder, spies no one by the bard in the corner weeping into her arms “What’s the matter, fella?” he asks. She looks up expecting him to react to her ruined face but he just looks puzzled, quickly settling her nerves she replies “Oh nothing, I thought I saw a mouse". The Half-Orc shakes his head with disgust “Yer’ a grown man, you can handle a mouse!” he growl and stomps out of the room, closing the door behind him. Another glance in the hand to reassure herself “no puss, all good” she thinks.
She begins to prepare for bed, but her tail seems agitated, causing her hips to sway back and forth as it sweeps from side to side like preying snake. Investigating herself she smiles “so there was a mouse after all” she grins, a snap of her fingers and she launches a low powered eyebite at it, stunning the small creature and fading from its view, she gently reaches out and picks up the little creature, it thrashes and wriggles in alarm. Her tentacle tail whips and snaps as the jaws unfurl at the end, slime dripping from the gaping maw. She tosses the mouse into the air, she turns letting the tail react on instinct as it catches the vermin and a loud snap of the jaws leaves no trace of the mouse. Having finished the tiny morsel the jaws retract and the tentacle, ripples more folds of flesh unfurl from its sides revealing suckers like that of an octopus. Experimenting she finds that she can use the tentacle and the suckers on her arms and legs as very effective climbing aids, she clambers up to the rafters in the ceiling she falls asleep.
In the adjoining suite her companions are slightly alarmed at the strange sounds coming from her room but the Barbarian simply states “He’s dealing with a few issues, best leave him to it if you ask me”, no one else seems willing to try the door. A few hours later Lembit is standing first watch, and checks on the room, he gentle opens the door to see that all of the furniture has been knocked
over and there is a slimy substance coating the walls and the floor. His gaze is drawn to the slimy trails that lead into the rafters, a large pod or cocoon pulses strangely.
Stumbling back in disgust he takes a closer look at the pod. The sides seem to peel back revealing Ruby’s naked form. She is covered head to toe in a greenish slime. She gets up and wipes off the slime and puts on a dressing gown. She looks up at Lembit and says “You’re not going to believe the dreams I just had". With that she walks towards the bathroom, looking back towards Lembit she says "I think I might need someone to scrub my back!” and licks her lips seductively as she saunters into the bathroom leaving Lembit feeling as though someone had dipped his lower half in a vat of ice.
The others, still quite eager to know what is going on come into the room and see Lembit standing there with a disturbed look on his face. "What happened" they ask, "I'm not really sure but I’m sure she will explain herself when she gets out of the bath" he replies.
Becoming a Biomancer
After arriving back at the inn, after our rather unsuccessful attempt to woo the king of Dassen we receive a rather ominous threat from one of the Troubadours. He had obviously been ensorcelled in some manner and informs us to flee the city or we will be killed. As our diplomat associate seems too ill to travel we decide to stay the night at the inn. Feeling quite tired after her busy day of playing the diplomat, Ruby settles down in one of the large chairs in her suite, with notebook in hand she continues writing her memoirs. “You never know” she thinks to herself “they could prove very valuable in the future”, with her journal up to date she places the book on the desk and decides to have a look out of the window. However when she attempts to stand she finds that her arm is stuck to the side of the chair!
A feeling of vertigo threatens to overcome her and almost blinded by the bright light from window, she stumbles, until she finds herself a handheld mirror, bringing the silver surface up so she can look at her face. Her pupils contract and dilate; they seem to be taking the slit like pupil of a cat! She slumps to the floor, her brain trying to process these new changes, her hands naturally clasp and cradle her tails in comfort, and an icky sound from her lap suddenly grasps her new eyes attention. Looking down at her tentacle tail shows that a the stubby flesh at the end has unfurled to reveal a snapping mouth, which darts out and takes a chunk out of the desk she is sat next to. Another feeling of vertigo swallows her senses, a strange tingle from the side of her head and reaching up she can feel her ears changing shape. Another examination in the mirror she sees her ears now resemble those of a bat! As the new way of hearing suddenly assaults her senses she grabs a nearby bin and wretches until the world stops spinning. Closing the curtains to her room tightly she plunges the room into darkness, even with her new eyes she is amazed at the detail she can see in the dark and all the new sounds she had never noticed before and she begins to calm down!
Taking charge she opens the curtains and begins to examine her face in the mirror, trying to decide the best way to accentuate her few features, thoughts of what color make up to try ripple through her mind when suddenly the pores of her skin seem to open up and erupt in slimy pus that melts her features like wax. She screams and scrabbles into one corner. The door is flung open and Cricket stands in the door, scans the room for an intruder, spies no one by the bard in the corner weeping into her arms “What’s the matter, fella?” he asks. She looks up expecting him to react to her ruined face but he just looks puzzled, quickly settling her nerves she replies “Oh nothing, I thought I saw a mouse". The Half-Orc shakes his head with disgust “Yer’ a grown man, you can handle a mouse!” he growl and stomps out of the room, closing the door behind him. Another glance in the hand to reassure herself “no puss, all good” she thinks.
She begins to prepare for bed, but her tail seems agitated, causing her hips to sway back and forth as it sweeps from side to side like preying snake. Investigating herself she smiles “so there was a mouse after all” she grins, a snap of her fingers and she launches a low powered eyebite at it, stunning the small creature and fading from its view, she gently reaches out and picks up the little creature, it thrashes and wriggles in alarm. Her tentacle tail whips and snaps as the jaws unfurl at the end, slime dripping from the gaping maw. She tosses the mouse into the air, she turns letting the tail react on instinct as it catches the vermin and a loud snap of the jaws leaves no trace of the mouse. Having finished the tiny morsel the jaws retract and the tentacle, ripples more folds of flesh unfurl from its sides revealing suckers like that of an octopus. Experimenting she finds that she can use the tentacle and the suckers on her arms and legs as very effective climbing aids, she clambers up to the rafters in the ceiling she falls asleep.
In the adjoining suite her companions are slightly alarmed at the strange sounds coming from her room but the Barbarian simply states “He’s dealing with a few issues, best leave him to it if you ask me”, no one else seems willing to try the door. A few hours later Lembit is standing first watch, and checks on the room, he gentle opens the door to see that all of the furniture has been knocked
over and there is a slimy substance coating the walls and the floor. His gaze is drawn to the slimy trails that lead into the rafters, a large pod or cocoon pulses strangely.
Stumbling back in disgust he takes a closer look at the pod. The sides seem to peel back revealing Ruby’s naked form. She is covered head to toe in a greenish slime. She gets up and wipes off the slime and puts on a dressing gown. She looks up at Lembit and says “You’re not going to believe the dreams I just had". With that she walks towards the bathroom, looking back towards Lembit she says "I think I might need someone to scrub my back!” and licks her lips seductively as she saunters into the bathroom leaving Lembit feeling as though someone had dipped his lower half in a vat of ice.
The others, still quite eager to know what is going on come into the room and see Lembit standing there with a disturbed look on his face. "What happened" they ask, "I'm not really sure but I’m sure she will explain herself when she gets out of the bath" he replies.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
16th July
We return to the Golden Griffon Inn… having foiled the assassin’s plan, she makes good her escape flittering through a window and leaping an astonishing distance across the street and scrabbles over the rooftops and out of sight. Kain stops on the balcony judging the distance between the balcony and the nearest roof and quickly dismissing it while Ruby slithers over the balcony to the ground intent to give chase but stops as her new eyes and ears pick out two groups of men running towards the hotel, the cry if “Surrender, Assassins!” breaks the silence, with a gulp the blood splattered rogue back peddles up the wall and over the side. Inside our hotel suite everyone is busy cramming their possessions into sacks and bags and we decide a hasty retreat through the pubs back exit is in order.
Sticking to the alleyways we manage to make it through most of the city as we travel to one of the side gates hoping to slip through before they’re shut and locked. Up ahead we spy a large patrol wandering about “We’ve heard reports of people breaking curfew” barks their commander “keep your eyes peeled lads!” We attempt to circumvent them by going over some of the lower level houses in the area, but are sadly spotted and so begins a rambling battle around the houses as we try to reach the gates.
Highlights:
* Lembit using his selection of weird totem animals to summon a giant frog atop another building to distract the guards, however they are pulled back into line by their commander reassuring them in boisterous tone that “there’s no such thing as giant frogs soldier!”
* The commanders order to “get up on those roof’s and shoot em down!” is soon ignored after a cry of “its bloody slippery up ‘ere sarge” follow by one of them falling off and breaking his leg.
* Ruby receives a severe beating by a prelate summoning a celestial hammer that happily sits in the air bashing her over the head, until she too gets off of the roofs.
* Silas surprised everyone, most noticeably one of the guards as he phases like a ghost through several buildings to appear behind someone and smites them with hellish fury!
By the time we get close to the gates another patrol is closing fast on the area and they appear to have a Sphinx with them, Silas and Ruby manage to escape through the main gates leaving Cricket, Kain and Lembit still a few streets away. The Sphinx manages to give Cricket quite a mauling before he manages to stagger away and run through the gates as fast as his legs will take him. Kain and Lembit however decide they won’t make it passed that many guards and duck into a nearby tavern locking the little side door behind them.
A few moments of waiting and a few distractions caused by Lembits Impish familiar Blarney (knocking over bins and enraging sleeping mules in their stables) causes enough of a commotion that the pair can escape, blitzing passed the few remaining guardsmen. A “pssst!” draws their attention to their comrades hiding in a ditch not too far from the gates. With our escape complete we now are at a slight loss with what to do, especially as we’re barely yards from the city walls and have no immediate transportation. However fate smiles and Lembit spies a light flashing at regular intervals, we slip over to investigate and find a cloaked man near a copse of trees with a collection of horses “you must leave at once, head for Gallows land, he’ll be able to help!” we waste no time mounting up and fleeing as signal horns start coming from the city walls.
With seventy miles to go until we reach Gallows land we have a bit of a trek ahead of us and its not long before we spy a patrol following, slowly gaining ground as our horses begin to tire.
Thanks to some quick thinking from Ruby we do manage to lose them in one of the regions denser forest, finding a small hollow to spend the night in away from prying eyes. However the patrol didn’t
give up that easy and once again manages to make it onto our trail as we gallop for Gallows land, and with one of the border forts in sight the patrol behind takes the whip to their horses and our hopes of reaching it without a fight are dashed.
Highlights:
* Lembit scores the first significant action in the fight using his newly found blood magic to rain down a blood pulse, covering fought of the knights in sticky cursed blood which causes them to come to a halt rather than release the curse of the blood!
* However their back up choice involved shooting at him with heavy crossbows which hurt… a lot!
* Ruby scores a second cheer for our side, her Jinxed arrow sails through the air hitting one of the knights, causing him to fall off of his horse when he fumbles his crossbow shot.
* Kain and Cricket prepare to receive the now much stunted cavalry charge while Silas rains fiery death upon the sphinx that tailed the patrol, bringing it crashing to the ground with the Chains of Levistus!
A group of knights do ride out from Gallows Fort, but by the time they reach us we have the matter well in hand; they manage to pepper the last rider with bolts from their crossbows as he tries to ride away. We meet the commander of the knights a dwarf who riders in full human sized plate mail as a distraction, he calls for a small ladder and one of his subordinates helps him dismount. When we tell him of our plight he agrees to escort us personally to Gallows Fend, capital and seat of Lord Gallow.
On our journey the dwarf entertains us with many tales of the battles he’s fought in to keep the Ragesians from this land, like his lord he has no interest in “rolling over and letting those buzzard just waltz in here!” and seems to be eagerly looking forward to them coming over the border (which is a little shocking seeing as it will be some forty thousand of them!)
We close this week’s tale with us just spying the city come fortress of Gallows Fend in the distance, nestled between the mountains.
We return to the Golden Griffon Inn… having foiled the assassin’s plan, she makes good her escape flittering through a window and leaping an astonishing distance across the street and scrabbles over the rooftops and out of sight. Kain stops on the balcony judging the distance between the balcony and the nearest roof and quickly dismissing it while Ruby slithers over the balcony to the ground intent to give chase but stops as her new eyes and ears pick out two groups of men running towards the hotel, the cry if “Surrender, Assassins!” breaks the silence, with a gulp the blood splattered rogue back peddles up the wall and over the side. Inside our hotel suite everyone is busy cramming their possessions into sacks and bags and we decide a hasty retreat through the pubs back exit is in order.
Sticking to the alleyways we manage to make it through most of the city as we travel to one of the side gates hoping to slip through before they’re shut and locked. Up ahead we spy a large patrol wandering about “We’ve heard reports of people breaking curfew” barks their commander “keep your eyes peeled lads!” We attempt to circumvent them by going over some of the lower level houses in the area, but are sadly spotted and so begins a rambling battle around the houses as we try to reach the gates.
Highlights:
* Lembit using his selection of weird totem animals to summon a giant frog atop another building to distract the guards, however they are pulled back into line by their commander reassuring them in boisterous tone that “there’s no such thing as giant frogs soldier!”
* The commanders order to “get up on those roof’s and shoot em down!” is soon ignored after a cry of “its bloody slippery up ‘ere sarge” follow by one of them falling off and breaking his leg.
* Ruby receives a severe beating by a prelate summoning a celestial hammer that happily sits in the air bashing her over the head, until she too gets off of the roofs.
* Silas surprised everyone, most noticeably one of the guards as he phases like a ghost through several buildings to appear behind someone and smites them with hellish fury!
By the time we get close to the gates another patrol is closing fast on the area and they appear to have a Sphinx with them, Silas and Ruby manage to escape through the main gates leaving Cricket, Kain and Lembit still a few streets away. The Sphinx manages to give Cricket quite a mauling before he manages to stagger away and run through the gates as fast as his legs will take him. Kain and Lembit however decide they won’t make it passed that many guards and duck into a nearby tavern locking the little side door behind them.
A few moments of waiting and a few distractions caused by Lembits Impish familiar Blarney (knocking over bins and enraging sleeping mules in their stables) causes enough of a commotion that the pair can escape, blitzing passed the few remaining guardsmen. A “pssst!” draws their attention to their comrades hiding in a ditch not too far from the gates. With our escape complete we now are at a slight loss with what to do, especially as we’re barely yards from the city walls and have no immediate transportation. However fate smiles and Lembit spies a light flashing at regular intervals, we slip over to investigate and find a cloaked man near a copse of trees with a collection of horses “you must leave at once, head for Gallows land, he’ll be able to help!” we waste no time mounting up and fleeing as signal horns start coming from the city walls.
With seventy miles to go until we reach Gallows land we have a bit of a trek ahead of us and its not long before we spy a patrol following, slowly gaining ground as our horses begin to tire.
Thanks to some quick thinking from Ruby we do manage to lose them in one of the regions denser forest, finding a small hollow to spend the night in away from prying eyes. However the patrol didn’t
give up that easy and once again manages to make it onto our trail as we gallop for Gallows land, and with one of the border forts in sight the patrol behind takes the whip to their horses and our hopes of reaching it without a fight are dashed.
Highlights:
* Lembit scores the first significant action in the fight using his newly found blood magic to rain down a blood pulse, covering fought of the knights in sticky cursed blood which causes them to come to a halt rather than release the curse of the blood!
* However their back up choice involved shooting at him with heavy crossbows which hurt… a lot!
* Ruby scores a second cheer for our side, her Jinxed arrow sails through the air hitting one of the knights, causing him to fall off of his horse when he fumbles his crossbow shot.
* Kain and Cricket prepare to receive the now much stunted cavalry charge while Silas rains fiery death upon the sphinx that tailed the patrol, bringing it crashing to the ground with the Chains of Levistus!
A group of knights do ride out from Gallows Fort, but by the time they reach us we have the matter well in hand; they manage to pepper the last rider with bolts from their crossbows as he tries to ride away. We meet the commander of the knights a dwarf who riders in full human sized plate mail as a distraction, he calls for a small ladder and one of his subordinates helps him dismount. When we tell him of our plight he agrees to escort us personally to Gallows Fend, capital and seat of Lord Gallow.
On our journey the dwarf entertains us with many tales of the battles he’s fought in to keep the Ragesians from this land, like his lord he has no interest in “rolling over and letting those buzzard just waltz in here!” and seems to be eagerly looking forward to them coming over the border (which is a little shocking seeing as it will be some forty thousand of them!)
We close this week’s tale with us just spying the city come fortress of Gallows Fend in the distance, nestled between the mountains.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The continuing adventures of Brick aka Ruby the bard
Being a Biomancer
Growing Wings
It is the start of a new day and Ruby uses her magic to break town the campsite she created the previous night. This is when she feels an itch running across her shoulder blades and down her back. Reaching to scratch the itch she notices two bony growths start to sprout from between her shoulders. As the day goes on these growths become bigger and she is unable to hide these changes any longer. Lembit is the first to notice the changes, "Well you did say that there were more interesting changes to come".He gets a little tape measure from one of his pockets and starts to measure the wing span. "What do they feel like, I mean can you actually use them" She flexes her muscles where she thinks the wings should start and unfurl them. It appears the wings are like big bat wings. These are similer in size to the wings of some of the powerful Dragonborn warriors. Though try as hard as she can to use them to gain any altitude the arms within the wings don't seem to be responding to her thoughts, it seems they are purely cosmetic additions. After a while she manages to keep them open and glide a few metres its quite obvious to herself that this is never going to be a new mode of transportation, but is quite satisfied with the new additions. The rest of the group look on this spectacle with bemusement, watching Ruby run around trying to fly on her new wings unsuccessfully.
Meanwhile back at the not so secret undetground volcano lab back in Seaquen things are not going entirely to plan. While Ruby was in such a hurry to get packed for the journey to Bresk she has neglected to do anything with the scum that was already being changed in the tank. Some quite interesting changes have taken place. Its head seems to have grown larger and developed more brain mass as this can be seen pulsing through the skin.
Being a Biomancer
Growing Wings
It is the start of a new day and Ruby uses her magic to break town the campsite she created the previous night. This is when she feels an itch running across her shoulder blades and down her back. Reaching to scratch the itch she notices two bony growths start to sprout from between her shoulders. As the day goes on these growths become bigger and she is unable to hide these changes any longer. Lembit is the first to notice the changes, "Well you did say that there were more interesting changes to come".He gets a little tape measure from one of his pockets and starts to measure the wing span. "What do they feel like, I mean can you actually use them" She flexes her muscles where she thinks the wings should start and unfurl them. It appears the wings are like big bat wings. These are similer in size to the wings of some of the powerful Dragonborn warriors. Though try as hard as she can to use them to gain any altitude the arms within the wings don't seem to be responding to her thoughts, it seems they are purely cosmetic additions. After a while she manages to keep them open and glide a few metres its quite obvious to herself that this is never going to be a new mode of transportation, but is quite satisfied with the new additions. The rest of the group look on this spectacle with bemusement, watching Ruby run around trying to fly on her new wings unsuccessfully.
Meanwhile back at the not so secret undetground volcano lab back in Seaquen things are not going entirely to plan. While Ruby was in such a hurry to get packed for the journey to Bresk she has neglected to do anything with the scum that was already being changed in the tank. Some quite interesting changes have taken place. Its head seems to have grown larger and developed more brain mass as this can be seen pulsing through the skin.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Continuing on towards Gallows Fend in the company of the group of knights we ride our horses towards the fort. When we arrive at the fort we can see it sitting atop of a 100 foot cliff with a winding path leading to the front gate. On either side there are cliffs that rise for another 100 feet either side of the castle. A river runs around the back making this a very defendable position. We are met by Duke Gallow who assigns us quarters and a servant. He explains that we can't stay in the fort as it is overcrowded already and says we are to stay outside the grounds. He says he will summon us tommorrow morning for a meeting in the war room. We decide that it is probably best to have an early night as it seems there is a limited night life as the locals don't seem to drink that much.
The next day we ard woken from our slumbers by our servant at the crack of dawn. He informs us that Duke Gallow has summoned us for an information exchange. We have a quick breakfast and head up to the castle where we are directed to the war room. Inside this room there is a scale map of the terrain with little models representing the different factions. On walkways surrounding the map there are men with long poles moving the figures around as they receive information of there movements. Standing at the back of the room there are a group of clerics. They are concentrating very hard. One of them opens his eyes and walks over to one of the men with the poles and whispers something in his ear. The other man nods and uses his pole to move some of the figures around. The cleric goes back to his group and begins concentrating again. Across the top of the map there is a walkway where Duke Gallow stands. He is holding one of the long poles and gesticulates with it wildly while trying to explain the situation he is in. He explains that the king is making a terrible mistake, his fortress has stood up to a great many attacks and they need to concentrate on the forming Ragesian army. He points aggresivly to the corner of the map where a group of servants are starting to lay out the Ragesian army. There are a lot of figures and an entire cupboard stands full at the rear of the room. It has a sign on it that reads Ragesian Contingent. He continues by saying that he can't act directly against the King himself but he needs some allies to help him, Lord Megadon and Lady Timor (not to sure about this please correct if wrong). There is a fort that they have lost contact with and he needs us to go and bring back any of the soldiers there if they are still alive and if not take some Ragesian prisoners (again not to sure please correct). He asks us to ride to this fort as a smaller group of travellers will be noticed less than if he sent out a small contigent of his own men. We agree to this and saddle up our warhorses and ride as fast as we can to our destination.
The way is a hard ride as it is snowing and there are large snow drifts all around. Kain takes control of the group of us by explaining the best ways to avoid frost bite and gives us tips on how to endure the cold. During our hard ride Urien points out what he thinks is a better route but unfortunatly leads us into a huge snow drift. We have to dig deep to endure the cold and some of us are starting to show the early signs of frost bite. As our ride progresses we pass by several forts where we are able to have a little rest before riding out again. When we arrive at the fortress it is a similer layout to the castle at Gallows Fend. With a windy path leading up to the main gate there is difficult terrain all around. Trying to sneak in a little closer on foot we are quickly spotted by the sounds of Uriens plate armour and huge sheild. A voice calls down and shouts in giant "halt, who goes there". Thinking quickly Ruby shouts back in giant "we are friends, we have come from Bresk with information from the spy network". Her voice falters a little and she turn to her companions and whispers, "I don't think they believed me, we have to do something quick. Urien takes the lead and moves quickly along the path followed by Ruby. Kain and Lembit try to scrabble through the difficult terrrain while Silus moves quickly up the path ( I forget what Nick did here, please amend). Then we see two half orcs on the top of the fortress produce crossbows and begin to pepper us with shots. Some of these shots found their targets and hit quite hard. Looking up towards the fortress we can see a pair of green wing tips which we assume belongs to a Wyvern. Kain gets to the top of the hill first and engages in melee closly followed by Urien and Lembit. As this is happening the thing that we thought was a Wyvern takes to the skys mounted by a half orc knight begins to attack us. Ruby takes aim with her bow and launches an arrow at the Wyvern sticking it into its flesh. The mount roars in pain, more from irritation and the rider narrows his eyes and goads his mount into attack her. The creature charges forwards with it legs outstretched ready for a grab. Ruby has just enough time to think that this must be what a mouse feels like when it is attacked by an owl. She is scopped up and tosses back down the hill and lands in the snow prone. Seeing this happen Silus launches a spell at the Wyvern doing hidious amounts of damage killing it. The rider manages to avoid being squashed by his mount and rolls away from its prostrate body. The fight continues with Urien using the magic in his boots to walk up the wall where he begins to attack the half orcs on the roof. Kain follows by climbing up the battlements. The rest of the group pepper the enemies that they could see with ranged attacks.
We all managed to get to the top of the tower where we were able to catch our breath for a few minutes. There are two locked trapdoors in the roof. Kain walks over to one of them,checking it for traps he confirms that it is locked. He produces a set of lockpicks from his pocket he begins to try to pick the lock. He fails miserably and turns round to look at us. With a shrug a reaches into his pocket for his magical skeleton key and inserts it into the lock. A second later the door opens and we can see some steps leading down into the building.
We file down the stairs and Kain opens the door as quietly as he can. On the other side we are met with three half orc soldiers and an inquisitor. Kain and Urien charge in and engage in melee while Ruby, Lembit and Silus hang back to attack with ranged spells. A group of half orc soldiers led by a larger leader burst in from one of the side rooms and ran out throught the other door and over the roof in an attempt to flank us. Seeing a chance to use some blood magic, Lembit legs it back up the stairs and covers the group of half orcs in a blood pulse. When they realise that they cannot continue their charge without sustaining massive damage they stand still and curse in giant. Running back down the stairs laughing to himself, He gets ready to engage the enemy. Ruby runs up to the door locking it from the inside. The other half orcs shout up saying that the door has been locked. We manage to defeat the fighters but the inquisitor and one of the leaders manage to escape through the door leading to the roof. Lembit chases after him and sees them escaping over the wall on a rope. Ruby runs up up the stairs and aims at the rope with her bow. Kain runs up the stairs and is able to cut the rope with his dagger. We hear a shreik as they fall to the ground. With shouts of "take them alive", Kain scrambles over the wall and attacks the half orc leader in melee and knocks him out. Ruby continues to take pot shots at the inquisitor and somehow manages to knock her unconscious. We exit the tower to inspect our hostages, but when it comes to the inquisitor we lift her mask from her face to find that it has been melted off and she is dead. We still have two prisoners, so we remove any dangerous things from them and tie them together for interrogation when we reach Gallows Fend. Ruby volunteers to start any interrogation early as she still has the inquisitor torture implements from the fight in the underground crypt. Her suggestion is quickly knocked back by Urien the paladin. Searching through the bodies gives us a hude reward in gold. Ripping the claws from the inquisitor gives us a +2 spiked gauntlet and the half orc that was riding the Wyvern was carrying a +1 battle axe. Ruby packs these items into the growing treasure sack and finds a superior crossbow hidden under some rags which turns out to be a shrieking crossbow. Tails twitching with excitement she heads outside to test out her new toy.
The next day we ard woken from our slumbers by our servant at the crack of dawn. He informs us that Duke Gallow has summoned us for an information exchange. We have a quick breakfast and head up to the castle where we are directed to the war room. Inside this room there is a scale map of the terrain with little models representing the different factions. On walkways surrounding the map there are men with long poles moving the figures around as they receive information of there movements. Standing at the back of the room there are a group of clerics. They are concentrating very hard. One of them opens his eyes and walks over to one of the men with the poles and whispers something in his ear. The other man nods and uses his pole to move some of the figures around. The cleric goes back to his group and begins concentrating again. Across the top of the map there is a walkway where Duke Gallow stands. He is holding one of the long poles and gesticulates with it wildly while trying to explain the situation he is in. He explains that the king is making a terrible mistake, his fortress has stood up to a great many attacks and they need to concentrate on the forming Ragesian army. He points aggresivly to the corner of the map where a group of servants are starting to lay out the Ragesian army. There are a lot of figures and an entire cupboard stands full at the rear of the room. It has a sign on it that reads Ragesian Contingent. He continues by saying that he can't act directly against the King himself but he needs some allies to help him, Lord Megadon and Lady Timor (not to sure about this please correct if wrong). There is a fort that they have lost contact with and he needs us to go and bring back any of the soldiers there if they are still alive and if not take some Ragesian prisoners (again not to sure please correct). He asks us to ride to this fort as a smaller group of travellers will be noticed less than if he sent out a small contigent of his own men. We agree to this and saddle up our warhorses and ride as fast as we can to our destination.
The way is a hard ride as it is snowing and there are large snow drifts all around. Kain takes control of the group of us by explaining the best ways to avoid frost bite and gives us tips on how to endure the cold. During our hard ride Urien points out what he thinks is a better route but unfortunatly leads us into a huge snow drift. We have to dig deep to endure the cold and some of us are starting to show the early signs of frost bite. As our ride progresses we pass by several forts where we are able to have a little rest before riding out again. When we arrive at the fortress it is a similer layout to the castle at Gallows Fend. With a windy path leading up to the main gate there is difficult terrain all around. Trying to sneak in a little closer on foot we are quickly spotted by the sounds of Uriens plate armour and huge sheild. A voice calls down and shouts in giant "halt, who goes there". Thinking quickly Ruby shouts back in giant "we are friends, we have come from Bresk with information from the spy network". Her voice falters a little and she turn to her companions and whispers, "I don't think they believed me, we have to do something quick. Urien takes the lead and moves quickly along the path followed by Ruby. Kain and Lembit try to scrabble through the difficult terrrain while Silus moves quickly up the path ( I forget what Nick did here, please amend). Then we see two half orcs on the top of the fortress produce crossbows and begin to pepper us with shots. Some of these shots found their targets and hit quite hard. Looking up towards the fortress we can see a pair of green wing tips which we assume belongs to a Wyvern. Kain gets to the top of the hill first and engages in melee closly followed by Urien and Lembit. As this is happening the thing that we thought was a Wyvern takes to the skys mounted by a half orc knight begins to attack us. Ruby takes aim with her bow and launches an arrow at the Wyvern sticking it into its flesh. The mount roars in pain, more from irritation and the rider narrows his eyes and goads his mount into attack her. The creature charges forwards with it legs outstretched ready for a grab. Ruby has just enough time to think that this must be what a mouse feels like when it is attacked by an owl. She is scopped up and tosses back down the hill and lands in the snow prone. Seeing this happen Silus launches a spell at the Wyvern doing hidious amounts of damage killing it. The rider manages to avoid being squashed by his mount and rolls away from its prostrate body. The fight continues with Urien using the magic in his boots to walk up the wall where he begins to attack the half orcs on the roof. Kain follows by climbing up the battlements. The rest of the group pepper the enemies that they could see with ranged attacks.
We all managed to get to the top of the tower where we were able to catch our breath for a few minutes. There are two locked trapdoors in the roof. Kain walks over to one of them,checking it for traps he confirms that it is locked. He produces a set of lockpicks from his pocket he begins to try to pick the lock. He fails miserably and turns round to look at us. With a shrug a reaches into his pocket for his magical skeleton key and inserts it into the lock. A second later the door opens and we can see some steps leading down into the building.
We file down the stairs and Kain opens the door as quietly as he can. On the other side we are met with three half orc soldiers and an inquisitor. Kain and Urien charge in and engage in melee while Ruby, Lembit and Silus hang back to attack with ranged spells. A group of half orc soldiers led by a larger leader burst in from one of the side rooms and ran out throught the other door and over the roof in an attempt to flank us. Seeing a chance to use some blood magic, Lembit legs it back up the stairs and covers the group of half orcs in a blood pulse. When they realise that they cannot continue their charge without sustaining massive damage they stand still and curse in giant. Running back down the stairs laughing to himself, He gets ready to engage the enemy. Ruby runs up to the door locking it from the inside. The other half orcs shout up saying that the door has been locked. We manage to defeat the fighters but the inquisitor and one of the leaders manage to escape through the door leading to the roof. Lembit chases after him and sees them escaping over the wall on a rope. Ruby runs up up the stairs and aims at the rope with her bow. Kain runs up the stairs and is able to cut the rope with his dagger. We hear a shreik as they fall to the ground. With shouts of "take them alive", Kain scrambles over the wall and attacks the half orc leader in melee and knocks him out. Ruby continues to take pot shots at the inquisitor and somehow manages to knock her unconscious. We exit the tower to inspect our hostages, but when it comes to the inquisitor we lift her mask from her face to find that it has been melted off and she is dead. We still have two prisoners, so we remove any dangerous things from them and tie them together for interrogation when we reach Gallows Fend. Ruby volunteers to start any interrogation early as she still has the inquisitor torture implements from the fight in the underground crypt. Her suggestion is quickly knocked back by Urien the paladin. Searching through the bodies gives us a hude reward in gold. Ripping the claws from the inquisitor gives us a +2 spiked gauntlet and the half orc that was riding the Wyvern was carrying a +1 battle axe. Ruby packs these items into the growing treasure sack and finds a superior crossbow hidden under some rags which turns out to be a shrieking crossbow. Tails twitching with excitement she heads outside to test out her new toy.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Credit to Paul (plays Ruby the bard) for this week's update, as our usual chronicler was away...
And another quick update from Paul about what's been happening to Ruby this week!
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The continuing tails of Brick aka Ruby the bard
Growing new body parts
Ruby is sitting on watch looking at herself in the mirror as she is wont to do. When a strange feeling overcomes her. She is finding it quite difficult to breathe. Her neck is really starting to itch and she can feel new tissue growing. " oh no, not again" she thinks. Grabbing the mirror she looks to see what is happening to herself. New tissue is forming on her neck which seems to resemble gills. "great" she thinks. "I might have to cover those up". As her body seems to realise that it already has a functioning set of lungs it stops in mid transformation. The gills remain but she can still breath air from her surroundings.
Meanwhile in the not so secret underground lab interesting changes are happening to the scum in the vat. It has continued to develope its cranium, the brain is visibly pulsing beneath the skin. Its eyes have grown in size and the creatures ears have shrunk to tiny nubs on the side of its skull. The green goo that it is suspended in continues to bubble, there is a small electrical flash on one of the control panels near to the tank. The creature looks over at this movement and continues to observe.
And another quick update from Paul about what's been happening to Ruby this week!
----
The continuing tails of Brick aka Ruby the bard
Growing new body parts
Ruby is sitting on watch looking at herself in the mirror as she is wont to do. When a strange feeling overcomes her. She is finding it quite difficult to breathe. Her neck is really starting to itch and she can feel new tissue growing. " oh no, not again" she thinks. Grabbing the mirror she looks to see what is happening to herself. New tissue is forming on her neck which seems to resemble gills. "great" she thinks. "I might have to cover those up". As her body seems to realise that it already has a functioning set of lungs it stops in mid transformation. The gills remain but she can still breath air from her surroundings.
Meanwhile in the not so secret underground lab interesting changes are happening to the scum in the vat. It has continued to develope its cranium, the brain is visibly pulsing beneath the skin. Its eyes have grown in size and the creatures ears have shrunk to tiny nubs on the side of its skull. The green goo that it is suspended in continues to bubble, there is a small electrical flash on one of the control panels near to the tank. The creature looks over at this movement and continues to observe.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The continuing adventures of Brick aka Ruby the bard
After fighting for most of the morning Ruby is preparing for the next stage of the battle when she feels a her body convulse with pain. Becoming quite familiar with these sensations she realises that her body is going through another change. Wretching she falls to her knees, she feels the palms of her hands beginning to itch. She gently removes her gloves and looks at her hands. Two eyes have appeared in her hands, they have the appearance of reptile eyes and blink seperately at her. Feeling a little queasy with this new sensory input she sits down in front of the fire to admire her new eyes.
Meanwhile in a not too secret hideaway things are taking an interesting turn. The scum in the tank has continued to change. Two small growths have stated growing from the base of its spine. It almost seems that it is trying to mimic its creator. There is a noise coming from the corner of the room and the door to the lab is slowly opened. A would be thief has stumbled on more than he bargained for. He sees the scum bubbling away in the tank and gasps in shock. The creature spins around and locks gazes with the would be thief. The veins in its head visibly throb and the man walks over to one of the benches and sits down. His gaze is blank, the scum grins and continues to observe.
After fighting for most of the morning Ruby is preparing for the next stage of the battle when she feels a her body convulse with pain. Becoming quite familiar with these sensations she realises that her body is going through another change. Wretching she falls to her knees, she feels the palms of her hands beginning to itch. She gently removes her gloves and looks at her hands. Two eyes have appeared in her hands, they have the appearance of reptile eyes and blink seperately at her. Feeling a little queasy with this new sensory input she sits down in front of the fire to admire her new eyes.
Meanwhile in a not too secret hideaway things are taking an interesting turn. The scum in the tank has continued to change. Two small growths have stated growing from the base of its spine. It almost seems that it is trying to mimic its creator. There is a noise coming from the corner of the room and the door to the lab is slowly opened. A would be thief has stumbled on more than he bargained for. He sees the scum bubbling away in the tank and gasps in shock. The creature spins around and locks gazes with the would be thief. The veins in its head visibly throb and the man walks over to one of the benches and sits down. His gaze is blank, the scum grins and continues to observe.
