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(Cydra) The Year 271 Campaign (Low Magic experiment)
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3451757" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p><strong>The Story of Athach</strong></p><p></p><p>The weird mutant giant yawns and stretches its three arms. Our heroes hurriedly drop back and begin whispering amongst themselves. Some feel that Kyle should attempt to sneak up and kill it; others feel that that would be a great way for Kyle to get himself killed. (Well, Kyle feels that, even if nobody else does.)</p><p></p><p>“Bah,” Otis Optimus snorts, ending the argument, “I shall kill from here- with my mystical powers!” And with that, the wizard stands up, glares at the sleeping mutated giant, and casts <em>fireball</em>.</p><p></p><p>The group is a good hundred yards from the giant; most of our heroes simply gape as a small red bead streaks out with amazing speed, leaving a trail of smoke twisting behind it in the air, and explodes right over the giant. Orange and yellow flames burst down, scorching the already-shattered crater. </p><p></p><p>Otis cackles with glee.</p><p></p><p>The giant roars in anger and wakes up.</p><p></p><p>Its shaggy hair burns off in an instant. Its skin reddens and blisters, and in places it even briefly ignites. The rough hide it wears blackens and gives off smoke. It survives the blast, however, and appears nothing if not enraged. It lurches to its feet, glares- with two hideous faces- at our heroes, and picks up a big chunk of rock.</p><p></p><p>“We mutht dethtroy it!” Lord Cedric declares, and begins moving forward as quickly as he can on Thunderpuss, his brawny mare. However, the broken terrain impedes him, and he is soon frowning as he realizes that he won’t be charging anywhere soon. <em>This whole landscape is blasted,</em> he thinks grimly. <em>There is no intact footing, we have seen no living folk- only the dead. There are no children singing here.</em></p><p></p><p>“My lord!” cries Sir Fwaigo, aghast, as Cedric moves forward. He spurs his own mount to follow as quickly as possible. The others follow suit; they have no real choice. 100 yards is too great a distance for them to close easily, and to their dismay, the giant is able to throw his rock into their midst, missing Sir Colder by only a couple of feet. The giant mutant begins moving to meet them, pulling up another rock and throwing it as he comes. This one strikes Fwaigo’s horse, which whinnies in pain and distress as the chunk of rubble smashes into it. “Forward, horse!” he cries.</p><p></p><p>“Come, beatht!” Lord Cedric taunts as he starts circling off to the side. The giant throws another rock, this one at him, but the knight ducks it. “Yeth, that’th it! Wathte your prethiouth rockth on me!” </p><p></p><p>The giant keeps advancing, but suddenly it finds itself stepping into an area of <em>spike stones</em> that Dahlia has created! It grunts and keeps moving forward, clearly even more angry than before. </p><p></p><p>“Come, thtupid thing!” Cedric taunts again. “Meet my thword, and we will kill you!”</p><p></p><p>A bolt of lightning suddenly strikes down from the heavens, momentarily transfixing it. Dahlia has <em>called lightning.</em> The giant roars again; it seems to be weakening, and then a volley of <em>magic missiles</em> strikes it from Otis. It groans, brandishing its weapon- an uprooted tree with a tangle of roots and brambles- and swatting Lord Cedric with it! The Lord Whitewater reels from the impact, but maintains his position in the saddle. Grinning, he moves in and stabs the giant mutant. “Have at thee!” he cries.</p><p></p><p>The others are starting to get in on things, too. Sheriff Jorgen charges into the foe with his lance, piercing it rather severely. Me is pelting it with sling bullets. Bolt after bolt of lightning is striking the creature. Finally, it drops its weapon and falls to its knees, clearly surrendering.</p><p></p><p>Our heroes accept the surrender, although they are wary. The creature is a dumb brute; our heroes cannot communicate with it. The closest thing to a shared language they have is Dwarven, and the giant does not speak Dwarven. A few bits of structure sound familiar to those in the party that speak the Dwarven tongue; a few words are shared. But, all in all, our heroes must communicate with the giant- whose name they take to be either Aflek or Athach or something like that- through gestures. Lord Cedric makes a generous gesture almost immediately, casting <em>cure light wounds</em> on Athach. </p><p></p><p>“My lord, what are you doing?” exclaims Sir Fwaigo. “We can’t trust this thing!”</p><p></p><p>“Bah,” Cedric responds, “if it cautheth any problemth, we can thlay it eathily! The thmall amount of healing that I jutht gave it would be inthignificant. Bethideth, it hath thurrendered. It ith not going to attempt any thennanigans.”</p><p></p><p>Athach leads the party first into the crater; but as Kyle (who is in the lead, searching for traps, as the party proceeds) heads in, he immediately recoils, shaken. “Something’s <em>wrong</em> in there. There is some kind of weird energy or something.” He shakes his head. “We shouldn’t go in there.”</p><p></p><p>The group pantomimes to the giant, and a moment later the three-armed freak shuffles out of the crater. It then guides them to its cave- which Dahlia had previously seen from the air- and our heroes search it. Unfortunately, there is nothing of value or real interest inside; just old bones. Nonetheless, Sir Colder says, “Well, I’d say that encountering this guy is a good sign.”</p><p></p><p>“Huh?” asks Me.</p><p></p><p>“What do you mean?” Sir Jorgen elaborates.</p><p></p><p>“Well,” Colder answers, “he has to eat something, right? In fact, judging from the bones, he has to eat quite a bit.”</p><p></p><p>“So,” the sheriff realizes, “there must be something for him to eat.”</p><p></p><p>Sir Colder nods. </p><p></p><p>The party puts their heads together, debating whether or not to rest for the... well, in this marooned-skied land of madness, there is neither day nor night. But they discuss resting. In the end, despite worries about the loyalty of Athach, the party decides to rest. They set heavy guards, and soon most of them are asleep. Athach seems to nap; perhaps he, too, is worried about being murdered in his sleep.</p><p></p><p>Too soon, all the watches have passed. Smoked pteranodon meat makes for a tough, stringy breakfast; and then the party presses on. </p><p></p><p><em>We must catch Harth,</em> most of them think.</p><p></p><p><em>Me crush traitor,</em> thinks Sir Percival.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>Our heroes approach an area with dark clouds rumbling overhead. Lightning flashes with unnerving frequency. Several times, a bolt of electricity arcs down nearby. Then Kyle is subjected to a literal bolt from the blue, as a lightning bolt zarks down from the sky. He leaps aside, narrowly evading it. “Crikey!” he exclaims.</p><p></p><p>As they traverse the wasted land in what they are coming to know as the Age of Madness, our heroes are subject to several more random bolts. Another one nearly cooks Kyle, but he dodges it again. Lord Cedric is not so fortunate; a bolt transfixes him for a moment, and he shrieks in pain. It is not lethal, though it might have been to a lesser man; afterward, Dahlia and Cedric tend his burns. His hair is virtually floating with static electricity.</p><p></p><p>As the party climbs out of a jagged crater, they spot what appears to be a wagon about a hundred yards off. It is turned on its side and appears badly damaged. It appears as though the beasts that pulled it have been slain, though at this distance it is hard to be sure.</p><p></p><p>“Maybe there’s a person,” Sir Jorgen says hopefully.</p><p></p><p>The party approaches and examines the scene. Kyle and Jorgen note strange damage to the wood- some sections appear almost melted- and etched bits of metal. Pieces of the horses that once drew the wagon are also melted away. A corpse, apparently of the driver, is within the wagon- or at least most of his corpse is; his legs are missing. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, just as our heroes are getting into a serious search of the wagon, Goer notices the ground beneath him heaving just an instant before a terrible mutant bug erupts from underneath him, biting him across the shoulders! The creature’s mandibles drip acid, and Goer cries out as the thing inflicts a terrific wound on him.</p><p></p><p>Our heroes react quickly, with Otis using one of the strange rods to fire a blast of flame at the beast. The monster squeals, then bites Jorgen as he moves in to attack. Jorgen, too, screams, for the monster inflicts a huge amount of damage on him.</p><p></p><p>“Rragh!” Athach attacks. </p><p></p><p>Which is to say, he attacks <em>Jorgen.</em></p><p></p><p>His club smashes down, but the sheriff rolls to the side, crying out, “Athach, no!”</p><p></p><p>A crack of lightning! The mutated bug squeals again. </p><p></p><p>Me glares at Athach and growls. He goes into a rage, angered at the thought of <em>traitor!</em> But the bug is in the way. </p><p></p><p><em>Whissk.</em> His greatsword clears his baldric, gripped in both hands, and with a roar Me attacks, swinging the blade through the creature’s body and cutting it basically in half.</p><p></p><p>Athach tries to run, but Dahlia strikes him with another lightning bolt. This time, the giant staggers. Otis and Kyle fire the rods that the party found again and again, hitting the giant with one blast of flame after another, and finally Athach collapses. </p><p></p><p>Dahlia keeps zapping it for a while just to be sure. “That thing was not natural,” she exclaims. “Two heads? Three arms?” She shakes her head, directing another bolt from her <em>call lightning</em>.</p><p></p><p>As the party prepares to move on, Otis nods to Kyle. “You did well in that battle,” he acknowledges. “Let me see your spell book.” He raises Kyle’s grade to a D- and allows him to keep the rod. “We might as well use it up,” the wizard says, “before the environment does.”</p><p></p><p>Our heroes search the wagon. The driver (who was a human) wore fine clothes (Kyle estimates that they’re worth about 5 gp; Colder takes them). He has a purse with some coins in it (85 gp, 20 sp). Moreover, the wagon’s contents are intact. Most of this stuff is rather mystifying to the party- specifically, several boxes of strange, flat metal rectangles measuring about 1/8” thick, 10” wide and 30” long. The metal is a strange, light green alloy that Goer (a journeyman smith) does not recognize. There are four such boxes (measuring 32”x42”x42”), each containing over a thousand treads. Of more interest to our heroes is a lead-lined box that holds what appear to be 20 potions.</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Our heroes spot a village!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 3451757, member: 1210"] [b]The Story of Athach[/b] The weird mutant giant yawns and stretches its three arms. Our heroes hurriedly drop back and begin whispering amongst themselves. Some feel that Kyle should attempt to sneak up and kill it; others feel that that would be a great way for Kyle to get himself killed. (Well, Kyle feels that, even if nobody else does.) “Bah,” Otis Optimus snorts, ending the argument, “I shall kill from here- with my mystical powers!” And with that, the wizard stands up, glares at the sleeping mutated giant, and casts [i]fireball[/i]. The group is a good hundred yards from the giant; most of our heroes simply gape as a small red bead streaks out with amazing speed, leaving a trail of smoke twisting behind it in the air, and explodes right over the giant. Orange and yellow flames burst down, scorching the already-shattered crater. Otis cackles with glee. The giant roars in anger and wakes up. Its shaggy hair burns off in an instant. Its skin reddens and blisters, and in places it even briefly ignites. The rough hide it wears blackens and gives off smoke. It survives the blast, however, and appears nothing if not enraged. It lurches to its feet, glares- with two hideous faces- at our heroes, and picks up a big chunk of rock. “We mutht dethtroy it!” Lord Cedric declares, and begins moving forward as quickly as he can on Thunderpuss, his brawny mare. However, the broken terrain impedes him, and he is soon frowning as he realizes that he won’t be charging anywhere soon. [i]This whole landscape is blasted,[/i] he thinks grimly. [i]There is no intact footing, we have seen no living folk- only the dead. There are no children singing here.[/i] “My lord!” cries Sir Fwaigo, aghast, as Cedric moves forward. He spurs his own mount to follow as quickly as possible. The others follow suit; they have no real choice. 100 yards is too great a distance for them to close easily, and to their dismay, the giant is able to throw his rock into their midst, missing Sir Colder by only a couple of feet. The giant mutant begins moving to meet them, pulling up another rock and throwing it as he comes. This one strikes Fwaigo’s horse, which whinnies in pain and distress as the chunk of rubble smashes into it. “Forward, horse!” he cries. “Come, beatht!” Lord Cedric taunts as he starts circling off to the side. The giant throws another rock, this one at him, but the knight ducks it. “Yeth, that’th it! Wathte your prethiouth rockth on me!” The giant keeps advancing, but suddenly it finds itself stepping into an area of [i]spike stones[/i] that Dahlia has created! It grunts and keeps moving forward, clearly even more angry than before. “Come, thtupid thing!” Cedric taunts again. “Meet my thword, and we will kill you!” A bolt of lightning suddenly strikes down from the heavens, momentarily transfixing it. Dahlia has [i]called lightning.[/i] The giant roars again; it seems to be weakening, and then a volley of [i]magic missiles[/i] strikes it from Otis. It groans, brandishing its weapon- an uprooted tree with a tangle of roots and brambles- and swatting Lord Cedric with it! The Lord Whitewater reels from the impact, but maintains his position in the saddle. Grinning, he moves in and stabs the giant mutant. “Have at thee!” he cries. The others are starting to get in on things, too. Sheriff Jorgen charges into the foe with his lance, piercing it rather severely. Me is pelting it with sling bullets. Bolt after bolt of lightning is striking the creature. Finally, it drops its weapon and falls to its knees, clearly surrendering. Our heroes accept the surrender, although they are wary. The creature is a dumb brute; our heroes cannot communicate with it. The closest thing to a shared language they have is Dwarven, and the giant does not speak Dwarven. A few bits of structure sound familiar to those in the party that speak the Dwarven tongue; a few words are shared. But, all in all, our heroes must communicate with the giant- whose name they take to be either Aflek or Athach or something like that- through gestures. Lord Cedric makes a generous gesture almost immediately, casting [i]cure light wounds[/i] on Athach. “My lord, what are you doing?” exclaims Sir Fwaigo. “We can’t trust this thing!” “Bah,” Cedric responds, “if it cautheth any problemth, we can thlay it eathily! The thmall amount of healing that I jutht gave it would be inthignificant. Bethideth, it hath thurrendered. It ith not going to attempt any thennanigans.” Athach leads the party first into the crater; but as Kyle (who is in the lead, searching for traps, as the party proceeds) heads in, he immediately recoils, shaken. “Something’s [i]wrong[/i] in there. There is some kind of weird energy or something.” He shakes his head. “We shouldn’t go in there.” The group pantomimes to the giant, and a moment later the three-armed freak shuffles out of the crater. It then guides them to its cave- which Dahlia had previously seen from the air- and our heroes search it. Unfortunately, there is nothing of value or real interest inside; just old bones. Nonetheless, Sir Colder says, “Well, I’d say that encountering this guy is a good sign.” “Huh?” asks Me. “What do you mean?” Sir Jorgen elaborates. “Well,” Colder answers, “he has to eat something, right? In fact, judging from the bones, he has to eat quite a bit.” “So,” the sheriff realizes, “there must be something for him to eat.” Sir Colder nods. The party puts their heads together, debating whether or not to rest for the... well, in this marooned-skied land of madness, there is neither day nor night. But they discuss resting. In the end, despite worries about the loyalty of Athach, the party decides to rest. They set heavy guards, and soon most of them are asleep. Athach seems to nap; perhaps he, too, is worried about being murdered in his sleep. Too soon, all the watches have passed. Smoked pteranodon meat makes for a tough, stringy breakfast; and then the party presses on. [i]We must catch Harth,[/i] most of them think. [i]Me crush traitor,[/i] thinks Sir Percival. *** Our heroes approach an area with dark clouds rumbling overhead. Lightning flashes with unnerving frequency. Several times, a bolt of electricity arcs down nearby. Then Kyle is subjected to a literal bolt from the blue, as a lightning bolt zarks down from the sky. He leaps aside, narrowly evading it. “Crikey!” he exclaims. As they traverse the wasted land in what they are coming to know as the Age of Madness, our heroes are subject to several more random bolts. Another one nearly cooks Kyle, but he dodges it again. Lord Cedric is not so fortunate; a bolt transfixes him for a moment, and he shrieks in pain. It is not lethal, though it might have been to a lesser man; afterward, Dahlia and Cedric tend his burns. His hair is virtually floating with static electricity. As the party climbs out of a jagged crater, they spot what appears to be a wagon about a hundred yards off. It is turned on its side and appears badly damaged. It appears as though the beasts that pulled it have been slain, though at this distance it is hard to be sure. “Maybe there’s a person,” Sir Jorgen says hopefully. The party approaches and examines the scene. Kyle and Jorgen note strange damage to the wood- some sections appear almost melted- and etched bits of metal. Pieces of the horses that once drew the wagon are also melted away. A corpse, apparently of the driver, is within the wagon- or at least most of his corpse is; his legs are missing. Unfortunately, just as our heroes are getting into a serious search of the wagon, Goer notices the ground beneath him heaving just an instant before a terrible mutant bug erupts from underneath him, biting him across the shoulders! The creature’s mandibles drip acid, and Goer cries out as the thing inflicts a terrific wound on him. Our heroes react quickly, with Otis using one of the strange rods to fire a blast of flame at the beast. The monster squeals, then bites Jorgen as he moves in to attack. Jorgen, too, screams, for the monster inflicts a huge amount of damage on him. “Rragh!” Athach attacks. Which is to say, he attacks [i]Jorgen.[/i] His club smashes down, but the sheriff rolls to the side, crying out, “Athach, no!” A crack of lightning! The mutated bug squeals again. Me glares at Athach and growls. He goes into a rage, angered at the thought of [i]traitor![/i] But the bug is in the way. [i]Whissk.[/i] His greatsword clears his baldric, gripped in both hands, and with a roar Me attacks, swinging the blade through the creature’s body and cutting it basically in half. Athach tries to run, but Dahlia strikes him with another lightning bolt. This time, the giant staggers. Otis and Kyle fire the rods that the party found again and again, hitting the giant with one blast of flame after another, and finally Athach collapses. Dahlia keeps zapping it for a while just to be sure. “That thing was not natural,” she exclaims. “Two heads? Three arms?” She shakes her head, directing another bolt from her [i]call lightning[/i]. As the party prepares to move on, Otis nods to Kyle. “You did well in that battle,” he acknowledges. “Let me see your spell book.” He raises Kyle’s grade to a D- and allows him to keep the rod. “We might as well use it up,” the wizard says, “before the environment does.” Our heroes search the wagon. The driver (who was a human) wore fine clothes (Kyle estimates that they’re worth about 5 gp; Colder takes them). He has a purse with some coins in it (85 gp, 20 sp). Moreover, the wagon’s contents are intact. Most of this stuff is rather mystifying to the party- specifically, several boxes of strange, flat metal rectangles measuring about 1/8” thick, 10” wide and 30” long. The metal is a strange, light green alloy that Goer (a journeyman smith) does not recognize. There are four such boxes (measuring 32”x42”x42”), each containing over a thousand treads. Of more interest to our heroes is a lead-lined box that holds what appear to be 20 potions. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes spot a village! [/QUOTE]
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