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(Cydra) The Year 271 Campaign (Low Magic experiment)
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3439601" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>There is a moment of dizziness and disorientation as our heroes, one by one, splash into warm, salty, green water, apparently about 15’ deep. Struggling to surface, they see a small island ahead (about 25’ away) with sand and two palm trees. To the left and behind them, coral several feet high grows on the bottom of the small sea. Once again, the party must remind themselves that the place is indoors- here, a strong light, almost like sunlight, fills the area.</p><p></p><p>“Perhapth we thould check out the island,” Lord Cedric suggests.</p><p></p><p>The others agree, and begin stroking towards the sandy beach. Before they can reach it, however, Kyle cries, “Look!” He gestures with one hand as he struggles to draw out his dagger.</p><p></p><p>A dark form is moving quickly through the water towards our heroes- a <em>big</em> dark form.</p><p></p><p>“It’s some kind of fish!” Sir Colder cries. Otis treads water and fires a <em>magic missile</em> at the thing, peppering it with small darts of force. </p><p></p><p>“Hold on, I’ve got it,” Dahlia declares. She gestures and mutters, and suddenly the level of the water in a large area around our heroes drops precipitously! In only seconds, it recedes to a depth of only about 2’, and the great fish is unable to swim. Its massive bulk flops and twists, but it is out of its element now, and our heroes wisely back out of its reach.</p><p></p><p>“What is it?” wonders Kyle, even as Cedric hurls daggers and epithets at it. The party pours on the missile fire.</p><p></p><p>Dahlia tells him, “It’s an ancient type of fish. I’ve heard about them before- the weird ladies in Whitewater told me about it. They had some pictures of the bones of these things. It is called a dinicthys.” </p><p></p><p>“Who cares?” Goer japes. “Just help us kill it!”</p><p></p><p>Sir Colder is getting cocky. He gets too close, and the fish’s great mouth clamps down on his elbow! It starts trying to suck him into its mouth; the messenger gives out a shriek and struggles madly against it. “Help!” he yells. “I think it’s trying to eat me!”</p><p></p><p>“Worry not, Thir Colder!” Lord Cedric cries. “We will thave you!” With that, he leaps forward, swinging his heavy flail. The spiked ball slams into one of the dish plate eyes of the dinicthys, and clear gel squirts out. Then Sir Percival- Me- charges in, rumbling and gnashing his teeth and frothing at the mouth, and he smites the fish in the head, penetrating its brain and killing it!</p><p></p><p>The party wrenches Sir Colder free of the fish’s death grip. “Whew!” he breathes a sigh of relief. “Thanks! That was a close one...”</p><p></p><p>“Indeed,” Lord Cedric says emotionally, and gives him a crushing bear hug that goes on for an uncomfortable length of time. “Ah, my friendth, it ith quite a thing to be thtuck here, ith it not? We mutht find our foeth and dethtroy them! Brotherth in armth, together againtht all oddth! I am honored to be in the company of thuch fine men... fine men indeed!”</p><p></p><p>“<em>I</em> am a lady,” sniffs Dahlia.</p><p></p><p>Otis is standing near one of the edges of the <em>control water</em> effect as our heroes converse. Suddenly, he cries out and begins moving away from it. “I think we should withdraw!” he calls.</p><p></p><p>“What?” Kyle asks. He backs up against the edge of the water near him. Suddenly, he cries out! Something in the water bites him! Whirling free, he sees- some kind of ray! Then his eyes widen as he realizes that there are more- and one of them emerges most of the way from the water in order to viciously bite his thigh, then withdraw back into the green water. “There are some kind of rays in the water!” he calls out a warning, backing off and wincing as his leg bleeds. </p><p></p><p>Otis and Kyle each launch a volley of <em>magic missiles</em> at rays near the interface. Each slays the one that he targets. Meanwhile, Cedric lays his hands upon Kyle’s wounded thigh and caresses it while whispering sweet words of Clymorian, his god. The wound closes, but it creeps Kyle out a little bit. </p><p></p><p>“They look to be retreating,” calls Lord Cedric. “Quickly! After them!!”</p><p></p><p>The party surges into the water in pursuit of their foes, and more of the devil rays glide through the water at them. The party is out of their element, but able to breathe, thanks to the <em>water breathing</em> spell that Dahlia cast upon them before they left the fire level. This prevents any unfortunate breathing incidents; however, it is no help when one of the rays starts casting spells, chilling the metal that Me carries, then healing the injured rays. The battle leads over the coral growths that our heroes saw previously, until finally most of the rays have been defeated and the caster is wounded. It attempts to flee, but Otis shoots it with a <em>ray of frost,</em> and this proves to be enough to knock it unconscious.</p><p></p><p>Taking stock of their health and resources, our heroes decide to investigate a little and then retire to the apparent safety of the island. Swimming further over the coral, they spot a large metallic hatch with a wheel-like device projecting from its center. The wheel is neither rusted nor corroded. </p><p></p><p>“Let’s open it,” Otis suggests.</p><p></p><p>“I’m still pretty wounded from that fish bite,” Sir Colder cautions. </p><p></p><p>“And several of us were wounded by the devil rays, too,” Sir Jorgen points out. </p><p></p><p>“Bah, we can handle any problemth that we uncover,” Lord Cedric snorts overconfidently.</p><p></p><p>Otis nods and attempts to turn the wheel, but to no avail. </p><p></p><p>“Oh, here, Otith- let me help you!” Lord Cedric throws his arms around the hatch from behind Otis, encircling the wizard in his embrace. He groans as he slowly tugs it open, revealing a shaft that heads upward. Goer swims forward in the shaft to scout it out, and after about five feet he feels a strange stomach-turning sensation. His head breaks water. The shaft continues upward, but there are rungs set into the wall, allowing for a relatively easy climb.</p><p></p><p>Quickly, Goer swims back to his friends. “I definitely think we should rest before we go to a whole new level of this tower,” Sir Jorgen opines, and the party agrees. While they talk, Kyle pulls out a bottle of peach brandy- they’re still underwater, mind you- and opens it. He tries to breathe it in, but it doesn’t really work; it just makes him cough a little. Ah well, you never know until you try.</p><p></p><p>The party swims away from the hatch. “At least we know where to go next,” remarks Sir Jorgen. Soon they reach the isle. It is about 40’ or 50’ in length and 20’-30’ in width. Two palm trees, about 15’ tall, are on the isle; near the shorter one is a large boulder. A few shrubs and some tall grass dot the small island as well. All in all, it is enough room to rest comfortably, but not enough room to be very interesting.</p><p></p><p>Their opinion changes when they search the isle. They uncover the remains of a small fire pit, probably about two months old. Moreover, there is a spot just off the island that has been used as a refuse dump. A few things seem to indicate that Sir Harth’s group passed through here, such as an old, torn, tattered tunic bearing his heraldry. There are also the remains of a couple of rays. <em>They ate them,</em> Sheriff Jorgen realizes.</p><p></p><p>“We’re on the right track,” he says grimly.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Our heroes settle into comfortable places on the little isle, eating some of their rations. Their food will not last forever, they already realize. If the entire land is as devastated as what they have seen so far, it will be hard work finding more.</p><p></p><p>“We should take some of that fish,” suggests Goer.</p><p></p><p>“It won’t really keep,” Kyle points out.</p><p></p><p>“True,” Sir Fwaigo (“Goer”) sighs. “What I really wish we had is some venison.”</p><p></p><p>Soon enough, our heroes’ musings on food are interrupted. A clicking, clacking sound starts coming from the far side of the isle, emerging from the sea, as crabs begin skittering up on the isle. </p><p></p><p>Quite a few crabs, and big ones. Over half a dozen emerge, none smaller than 3’ in diameter and several closer to 6’.</p><p></p><p>“Well, there’s our food right there,” Otis announces, and casts a <em>fireball</em> into their midst. Three of them cook in their shells. The others scream crabby screams and scuttle forward, snapping their claws. The party mostly parries their blows, but Jorgen gates clawed by one of the little ones, which grabs onto his leg and won’t let go. The sheriff cries out, grabbing the claw in both hands and prying it open. The party struggles with the crustacean threat, suffering several decent wounds, before they finish the crabs off. Even Kyle performs strikingly well in melee, using a rapier for nearly the first time!</p><p></p><p>The party’s planned rest is deferred for a crab feed.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>After resting- and this time, they are undisturbed- our heroes ascend the shaft. At the top, they find themselves emerging into a large room. It is well-lit, with a domed ceiling 50’ high at the apex. The chamber itself is over 100’ in diameter. Three desiccated corpses lying on the floor.</p><p></p><p>“Well, well,” says Kyle. </p><p></p><p>Cautiously, with an eye for traps, our heroes examine the scene. The Sheriff muses aloud, “I hope those corpses don’t jump up and get us.” </p><p></p><p>Kyle suggests, “Yeah, maybe they’re vampires!”</p><p></p><p>Jorgen gulps and grips his spear tighter.</p><p></p><p>Then the corpses shamble up to attack. </p><p></p><p>Jorgen screams like a little girl and slams his spear forward into one of the corpses. “VAMPIRES!” he shrieks. The animate corpse makes a low grunt as he strikes it. Then a volley of <em>magic missiles</em> from Otis shoots out and takes it down.</p><p></p><p>The party slays the other two in a flurry of blows, and then Jorgen wipes his brow. “Must not have been vampires,” he says with relief. “That was a close one!”</p><p></p><p>“Well, we’re at the top,” Kyle states. “There must be something here.” </p><p></p><p>“Or else Sir Harth <em>took</em> something from here,” Otis hypothesizes.</p><p></p><p>The party checks the area, as well as the bodies. There are no exits that they can find other than the shaft that leads to the water level, below. The center of the room holds a small raised dais, atop with lays a cushion. Kyle examines it closely and pronounces that something rested on the cushion for a long time- but it is gone now.</p><p></p><p>“Harth,” Sir Jorgen nods.</p><p></p><p>“Harth traitor! Crush traitor!” Me snarls. </p><p></p><p>“He must have gotten what he was after, and now he’s trying to get home,” Kyle suggests. “I mean, think about it: he must think he has a way home, right?”</p><p></p><p>“Good point,” says Goer. “How are we getting home, if not for him?”</p><p></p><p>The question hangs in the air.</p><p></p><p>One of the bodies still has a ppurse (holding 41 cp, 15 sp, 1 gp), a wavy-bladed dagger, a suit of leather armor, robes like those worn by Sir Harth’s cultists, and a crude map of the area around the Ghost Tower. Better still, the corpse has three full water skins and 7 days rations.</p><p></p><p>“A map,” Cedric breathes. His pulse quickens.</p><p></p><p>“Show map to Me,” Me demands.</p><p></p><p>The party passes the map around. Off to the ‘north’ of the map is marked a cave with the notation “(safe from sky?) water!”. The map’s markings indicate it is a two day journey to the cave. One day to the east is what seems to be a wood noted “elfs”. Arrows pointing off the edge of the map are marked “capitol (Litel?) smoke?”.</p><p></p><p>“My friends, we have a clue,” says Sir Colder.</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Our heroes leave the Ghost Tower behind them!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 3439601, member: 1210"] There is a moment of dizziness and disorientation as our heroes, one by one, splash into warm, salty, green water, apparently about 15’ deep. Struggling to surface, they see a small island ahead (about 25’ away) with sand and two palm trees. To the left and behind them, coral several feet high grows on the bottom of the small sea. Once again, the party must remind themselves that the place is indoors- here, a strong light, almost like sunlight, fills the area. “Perhapth we thould check out the island,” Lord Cedric suggests. The others agree, and begin stroking towards the sandy beach. Before they can reach it, however, Kyle cries, “Look!” He gestures with one hand as he struggles to draw out his dagger. A dark form is moving quickly through the water towards our heroes- a [i]big[/i] dark form. “It’s some kind of fish!” Sir Colder cries. Otis treads water and fires a [i]magic missile[/i] at the thing, peppering it with small darts of force. “Hold on, I’ve got it,” Dahlia declares. She gestures and mutters, and suddenly the level of the water in a large area around our heroes drops precipitously! In only seconds, it recedes to a depth of only about 2’, and the great fish is unable to swim. Its massive bulk flops and twists, but it is out of its element now, and our heroes wisely back out of its reach. “What is it?” wonders Kyle, even as Cedric hurls daggers and epithets at it. The party pours on the missile fire. Dahlia tells him, “It’s an ancient type of fish. I’ve heard about them before- the weird ladies in Whitewater told me about it. They had some pictures of the bones of these things. It is called a dinicthys.” “Who cares?” Goer japes. “Just help us kill it!” Sir Colder is getting cocky. He gets too close, and the fish’s great mouth clamps down on his elbow! It starts trying to suck him into its mouth; the messenger gives out a shriek and struggles madly against it. “Help!” he yells. “I think it’s trying to eat me!” “Worry not, Thir Colder!” Lord Cedric cries. “We will thave you!” With that, he leaps forward, swinging his heavy flail. The spiked ball slams into one of the dish plate eyes of the dinicthys, and clear gel squirts out. Then Sir Percival- Me- charges in, rumbling and gnashing his teeth and frothing at the mouth, and he smites the fish in the head, penetrating its brain and killing it! The party wrenches Sir Colder free of the fish’s death grip. “Whew!” he breathes a sigh of relief. “Thanks! That was a close one...” “Indeed,” Lord Cedric says emotionally, and gives him a crushing bear hug that goes on for an uncomfortable length of time. “Ah, my friendth, it ith quite a thing to be thtuck here, ith it not? We mutht find our foeth and dethtroy them! Brotherth in armth, together againtht all oddth! I am honored to be in the company of thuch fine men... fine men indeed!” “[i]I[/i] am a lady,” sniffs Dahlia. Otis is standing near one of the edges of the [i]control water[/i] effect as our heroes converse. Suddenly, he cries out and begins moving away from it. “I think we should withdraw!” he calls. “What?” Kyle asks. He backs up against the edge of the water near him. Suddenly, he cries out! Something in the water bites him! Whirling free, he sees- some kind of ray! Then his eyes widen as he realizes that there are more- and one of them emerges most of the way from the water in order to viciously bite his thigh, then withdraw back into the green water. “There are some kind of rays in the water!” he calls out a warning, backing off and wincing as his leg bleeds. Otis and Kyle each launch a volley of [i]magic missiles[/i] at rays near the interface. Each slays the one that he targets. Meanwhile, Cedric lays his hands upon Kyle’s wounded thigh and caresses it while whispering sweet words of Clymorian, his god. The wound closes, but it creeps Kyle out a little bit. “They look to be retreating,” calls Lord Cedric. “Quickly! After them!!” The party surges into the water in pursuit of their foes, and more of the devil rays glide through the water at them. The party is out of their element, but able to breathe, thanks to the [i]water breathing[/i] spell that Dahlia cast upon them before they left the fire level. This prevents any unfortunate breathing incidents; however, it is no help when one of the rays starts casting spells, chilling the metal that Me carries, then healing the injured rays. The battle leads over the coral growths that our heroes saw previously, until finally most of the rays have been defeated and the caster is wounded. It attempts to flee, but Otis shoots it with a [i]ray of frost,[/i] and this proves to be enough to knock it unconscious. Taking stock of their health and resources, our heroes decide to investigate a little and then retire to the apparent safety of the island. Swimming further over the coral, they spot a large metallic hatch with a wheel-like device projecting from its center. The wheel is neither rusted nor corroded. “Let’s open it,” Otis suggests. “I’m still pretty wounded from that fish bite,” Sir Colder cautions. “And several of us were wounded by the devil rays, too,” Sir Jorgen points out. “Bah, we can handle any problemth that we uncover,” Lord Cedric snorts overconfidently. Otis nods and attempts to turn the wheel, but to no avail. “Oh, here, Otith- let me help you!” Lord Cedric throws his arms around the hatch from behind Otis, encircling the wizard in his embrace. He groans as he slowly tugs it open, revealing a shaft that heads upward. Goer swims forward in the shaft to scout it out, and after about five feet he feels a strange stomach-turning sensation. His head breaks water. The shaft continues upward, but there are rungs set into the wall, allowing for a relatively easy climb. Quickly, Goer swims back to his friends. “I definitely think we should rest before we go to a whole new level of this tower,” Sir Jorgen opines, and the party agrees. While they talk, Kyle pulls out a bottle of peach brandy- they’re still underwater, mind you- and opens it. He tries to breathe it in, but it doesn’t really work; it just makes him cough a little. Ah well, you never know until you try. The party swims away from the hatch. “At least we know where to go next,” remarks Sir Jorgen. Soon they reach the isle. It is about 40’ or 50’ in length and 20’-30’ in width. Two palm trees, about 15’ tall, are on the isle; near the shorter one is a large boulder. A few shrubs and some tall grass dot the small island as well. All in all, it is enough room to rest comfortably, but not enough room to be very interesting. Their opinion changes when they search the isle. They uncover the remains of a small fire pit, probably about two months old. Moreover, there is a spot just off the island that has been used as a refuse dump. A few things seem to indicate that Sir Harth’s group passed through here, such as an old, torn, tattered tunic bearing his heraldry. There are also the remains of a couple of rays. [i]They ate them,[/i] Sheriff Jorgen realizes. “We’re on the right track,” he says grimly. *** Our heroes settle into comfortable places on the little isle, eating some of their rations. Their food will not last forever, they already realize. If the entire land is as devastated as what they have seen so far, it will be hard work finding more. “We should take some of that fish,” suggests Goer. “It won’t really keep,” Kyle points out. “True,” Sir Fwaigo (“Goer”) sighs. “What I really wish we had is some venison.” Soon enough, our heroes’ musings on food are interrupted. A clicking, clacking sound starts coming from the far side of the isle, emerging from the sea, as crabs begin skittering up on the isle. Quite a few crabs, and big ones. Over half a dozen emerge, none smaller than 3’ in diameter and several closer to 6’. “Well, there’s our food right there,” Otis announces, and casts a [i]fireball[/i] into their midst. Three of them cook in their shells. The others scream crabby screams and scuttle forward, snapping their claws. The party mostly parries their blows, but Jorgen gates clawed by one of the little ones, which grabs onto his leg and won’t let go. The sheriff cries out, grabbing the claw in both hands and prying it open. The party struggles with the crustacean threat, suffering several decent wounds, before they finish the crabs off. Even Kyle performs strikingly well in melee, using a rapier for nearly the first time! The party’s planned rest is deferred for a crab feed. *** After resting- and this time, they are undisturbed- our heroes ascend the shaft. At the top, they find themselves emerging into a large room. It is well-lit, with a domed ceiling 50’ high at the apex. The chamber itself is over 100’ in diameter. Three desiccated corpses lying on the floor. “Well, well,” says Kyle. Cautiously, with an eye for traps, our heroes examine the scene. The Sheriff muses aloud, “I hope those corpses don’t jump up and get us.” Kyle suggests, “Yeah, maybe they’re vampires!” Jorgen gulps and grips his spear tighter. Then the corpses shamble up to attack. Jorgen screams like a little girl and slams his spear forward into one of the corpses. “VAMPIRES!” he shrieks. The animate corpse makes a low grunt as he strikes it. Then a volley of [i]magic missiles[/i] from Otis shoots out and takes it down. The party slays the other two in a flurry of blows, and then Jorgen wipes his brow. “Must not have been vampires,” he says with relief. “That was a close one!” “Well, we’re at the top,” Kyle states. “There must be something here.” “Or else Sir Harth [i]took[/i] something from here,” Otis hypothesizes. The party checks the area, as well as the bodies. There are no exits that they can find other than the shaft that leads to the water level, below. The center of the room holds a small raised dais, atop with lays a cushion. Kyle examines it closely and pronounces that something rested on the cushion for a long time- but it is gone now. “Harth,” Sir Jorgen nods. “Harth traitor! Crush traitor!” Me snarls. “He must have gotten what he was after, and now he’s trying to get home,” Kyle suggests. “I mean, think about it: he must think he has a way home, right?” “Good point,” says Goer. “How are we getting home, if not for him?” The question hangs in the air. One of the bodies still has a ppurse (holding 41 cp, 15 sp, 1 gp), a wavy-bladed dagger, a suit of leather armor, robes like those worn by Sir Harth’s cultists, and a crude map of the area around the Ghost Tower. Better still, the corpse has three full water skins and 7 days rations. “A map,” Cedric breathes. His pulse quickens. “Show map to Me,” Me demands. The party passes the map around. Off to the ‘north’ of the map is marked a cave with the notation “(safe from sky?) water!”. The map’s markings indicate it is a two day journey to the cave. One day to the east is what seems to be a wood noted “elfs”. Arrows pointing off the edge of the map are marked “capitol (Litel?) smoke?”. “My friends, we have a clue,” says Sir Colder. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes leave the Ghost Tower behind them! [/QUOTE]
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