Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 5496080" data-attributes="member: 5675">Had a couple of weeks without enough players for what turned out to be a rather fight-heavy session, but we now return you to your regularly scheduled update!---------------12th March* We find ourselves approaching a farm (very much on the decline given the quality of the soil so near to the indomitable fire forest), surrounded by cliffs and hills blocking a clear view to the farm house, atop one of the hills is a what originally seems to be a scarecrow but is quickly revealed to the a corpse nailed to a cross, its wrists slit.* A bulky figure appears near the corpse, a look out who screams “People coming!!” and then legs it down and behind the hills back towards the farmhouse, alerted we approach cautiously.* The fight kicks off with a surprising sniper style shot from a goblin hiding atop the stables who manages to nail Kane (our Half-Orc Rogue) with a poisoned arrow before slinking back out of sight, the faint giggle the only trace of where he may have gone. This cat and mouse game goes on for several rounds before ending in Kane’s favour.* The rest of us slowly move up using the hills for cover but eventually we reach the open ground of the farm, spying the inquisitor (funky face mask and long clawed hand) standing amidst a large collection of bones near the farmhouse side door and some Orcish bodyguards lurk nearby.* Cricket gets up front first, and it’s when he’s involved with the bigger of the two Orcs that the inquisitor reveals the Ace up its sleeve, a black shadow streaks from the side of the house and plants two nasty looking poisoned daggers into the barbarian's back, leaving cricket bleeding on the floor. The shadow reveals itself to be a former comrade, the turncoat assassin Durzon Blint.* The second ace is played as the skeletons (predictably) rise to form a skeletal entourage for the Inquisitor who moves up, stabbing Brick (the bard) rather feeling with his claw.* Cricket receives some healing but being in a tricky spot pretends to be dead or dieing, an act that convinces the Orc next to him and the two goblin snipers on the farmhouse roof, only the assassin isn’t convinced but slinks away to engage the bard, between him and the inquisitor’s claw “You will be taken to the Prison of Torment” he assures us.. Brick is quickly put on the floor blooding from several nasty wounds.* A bit of focus fire and an enraged Cricket sees the undead assassin set back to the grave, the tides of the fight start to turn in our favour, until only the two goblin snipers atop the farmhouse remain, one vanishes but the other is spotted by Cricket (who climbed up) vanishing down the chimney with a smug grin across its face. It meets an unpleasant end hampered by Kane’s daggers (waiting at the bottom of the chimney) as a brick is torn from the stack and hurled down by Cricket, caving the goblins skull in.* Kane makes himself useful flitting from room to room, corpse to corpse and finds a smattering of gold and the inquisitors chain armour (which goes to Brick, +2 Summoned Armour).o He also finds a scroll on the corpse of the inquisitor giving him explicit instructions to find and kill Hadin so that he cannot reinforce the city (gatepass).* Inside the farmhouse we find another body, this time of a young woman (the farm owner’s daughter) who had only recently been tortured and killed (an event we perhaps could’ve prevented if not for our disastrous detour at the hands of the dwarves). Cricket digs graves for the Old Man as his daughter, spying the grave of the old mans wife the two are reunited in death, their daughter beside, another family torn apart by the Ragesians.* Lembit examines the paintings that adorn the walls of the farmhouse, the name of the painter (Haddyn) causing him to recall a story involving the artist and his brother who once lived in Gatepass. A nefarious story of betrayal and deceit. A tale of two brothers, one using his magic to ruin the reputation of the other, causing him to flee the city along with his wife and young daughter. He gathers up the paintings (worth an estimated 1,000 gold pieces) but realises they are unlikely to survive a trip through the fire forest. He buries them hoping to reclaim them at another time.* Torrent suggests that we rest hear until the morning, we can spare a little time before we enter the forest but once we do we must move swiftly and with purpose. She takes a small bottle from her knapsack (which jingles with the promise of more such bottles) and explains the properties of the “cooling draughts” that she has procured for the journey. They will not make us immune to the flames within the Indomitable Fire Forest, but will allow us to survive the exposure to the heat, we will still need to pick a safe path but won’t be roasted alive (she does using her best reassuring voice!).* That evening the shamanic “wizard” retreats to one of the side rooms, taking out a crumpled piece of paper and recites the lines upon it “blarney, blarney, blarney”. There is a pop as the fireplace crackles into life and the roaring fire baths a battered armchair in flickering light and red hand stretches over the rest, its body hidden from view by the huge back rest. It gracefully holds an extended cigarette holder, flicking the ash towards the fire. Lembit gives a cautious hello, this is not the impish rogue he is accustomed to, “My dear” replies the voice,(a voice not unlike noel coward) “I understand you’re seeking a familiar, my card” he flicks his wrist and card filled with flowing runes appears in the shamans hand, one word sits above the others in blood red ink “Olivier”.* Before the shaman can reply there is a spluttering cough from the fire “sneaking into me business are ye, sassin’ up my friend deh” comes a much familiar brogue, one tiny hand reaching inside his waist coat and pulling out a burnished bronze knuckle duster “why don’t yous’ an me having a lil talk” and the imp leaps from the fire into the chair which starts rocking back and forth, the arena of an epic battle that ends with a little red imp in a smoking jacket being tossed into the fireplace, “an let that be a lesson to ya!”.* Lembit wastes no time in offering blarney employment, the deal sealed and shaken over a bag of slightly battered duck eggs.* In the morning our journey continues, hoping to push as close to the forest as we can tolerate before taking the potions (which only last 12 hours each), and quickly progress is halted by Dag, crickets scruffy little companion. Knowing the beast will not be able to make it through the forest the barbarian is forced to turn him loose. Removing his own holy symbol to Sehanine (the moon goddess) he tucks it around the frayed bit of leather that serves as a collar and fishes out a hunk of meat from his pack for Dag. He says a prayer for the dog and then continues silently onwards behind everyone else as they neck their potions. The barbarian continues to cast glancing looks back (where Dag waits and watches) until finally the heat haze makes it impossible to see (may mother moon watch over you laddie).The Indomitable Fire Forest* We follow the natural trail through the forest (becoming aware that our trip while dangerous is not insurmountable and it would seem that albeit rarely, people do make this trip) and notice that the “fire” of the forest seems to wax and wane around us as if we are in a bubble, 30 yards or so in front of us we can see a roaring inferno that has quietened (in scale) to something traversable by the time we reach it, behind us the flames raise back up, “Most unnatural” decides Lembit and then regales us with the story of the fire forest, how it was once a lush wondrous Elven nation, until about forty years ago. The rumours were they were on the verge of some great ritual which would give them great power; the forest set alight and didn’t go out. Almost all elves that live in Gatepass are themselves refuges from the forest or the descendants thereof.* Barely a quarter of a mile along the path we are greeted by the sight of three burnt bodies, Kane quick to loot as ever starts rifling through the burnt strips of cloth that remain of their clothes when he lets forth a rather girlish shriek, one of the men is still alive. The burnt ruin of a (what we could be a man but its impossible to tell) hand feeling grips his wrist, seared flesh and bone visible on the mans wrist where a golden bracelet has melted through the heat. “Release me”… he asks barely a whisper, clearly in impossible agony.* Eyes turn to brick, the noble bard and healer who doesn’t believe anything can be done to ease the mans suffering and does the only thing he feels he can, bashes the blokes brains out…* Kane continues his search (finding a level 5 item which goes to Lembit).* We continue on, managing to make (to our best estimates) two miles into the forest when there is a bizarre shriek from above and a fiery goblin falls from the sky, quickly pursued by two large “Imdomitable Fire Bats”, he scampers behind Lembit (too busy saying things like “oh my, an Elemental Goblin you don’t see these every day…” to object to being used as a human shield) and quickly a Ruckus ensues.* We discover that the fire bats refuse to die in the standard sense of the word, reigniting and coming back to life a few moments after they have been killed, very much a phoenix rising from the ashes (but chopping them into pieces does delay this effect, long enough for us to saunter away). With the two birds down and out, the goblin flees back into the roaring inferno, vanishing as quickly as it arrived.* With another delay out of the way we push on, getting a few more miles into the forest before the path reaches a chasm (60ft deep) with a stone bridge crossing it (that’s obviously seen better days as half of it is missing). Peering over the edge we see the remains of a charred wagon and a few bodies. It would appear a previous group’s travel through the forest did not end well.* Loot hungry as ever Kane swings himself over the side of the bridge and begins to clamber down the side of the chasm and only halts when a quiet screech causes him to look back up, in the shadowy recess under the bridge hundreds of tiny eyes stares back at him… “BATS!” is all he manages to say before a swarm of tiny fiery bats encase him and start nibbling, a second group swoops up and out to swarm the rest of us on the bridge.* With the Bats defeated, kane continues his thoughts of plunder (and we’re glad he did) finding a cache of 24 cooling draughts and an assortment of treasure (kept nice and chilled from being with the potions). Resulting in a new Full Blade for Cricket, some Iron Armbands for Kane and a new necklace for Lembit (allowing him to replace the flowery gift of Erdan Menash with something more butch…)* We make it safely (for once) across the ruined stone bridge and take a little rest break, barely four miles into the huge forest... Indomitable indeed.</blockquote>

Verification