Defenders of Daybreak, The Early Years.

[Sialia]

Ah yes. Throw Dilly to the monster and flee.

Clever, brave Tao. Who never successfully saved versus fear based attacks.

While this may have seemed like a great plan at the time, it bears mentioning that the finger that got permanently severed the last time Tao tried that maneuver was the ring finger of Dilly's left hand, which she later had some use for. Pity she was unable to locate it in her hour of need.

Ironic, don't you think?

In any case, for those of you just tuning in, Dylrath didn't show up until much, much later. I played Cadrienne in these early games, and was not present for every episode as I was living in NYC at the time and only got to Boston occasionally.

Bandeeto gets all the credit for these first few stories.

I'm holding off on delivering my anecdotes until Bandeeto reaches a part of the chronology where I was a more active participant. Apart from gossipping about the parts of the current story that I do recall.

I was there when the Tasloi attacked, and I did give them back their spear, but I swear I thought they had accidentally dropped it. They were pretty stoned on faerydragon breath at the time. I didn't think they were going to be able to put an attack run together in that condition, but I guess they took one look at how green we were and made about the same call on us.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Well, they say January is the cruelest month.

Actually, KC,

I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
5 Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

 

[KidCthulhu]

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
5 Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.


Doh. I misquote. But if you live in Boston, you may beg to differ.

I'm loving this thread. It's so very "young indiana jones". I guess when you become this popular, suddenly everyone wants to hear about your adolescent foibles and follies.

BTW, the bunny slippers are a long running party joke which Bandeeto isn't going to mention unless he has to. His adventuring name, Arcade Deltarion, was chosen as a tribute to a famous mage of the past, Arcadine Incantrix. *cough-fanboy-cough* Nolin had heard a story that Arcadine had a rabbit familiar. Knowing that Arcade wanted to copy his hero in ALL things, we thought he'd appreciate a rabbit (or two) of his own. Adventuring is dangerous for small woodland creatures, so we thought the slippers would be safer for all concerned.

At one point Nolin and Tom-Tom contracted with a merchant to make a gross of the damn things. Arcade is still finding them occasionally. I know I hid two pair in his tower the last time I was there. And I gave his child a pair as a birth present.

 

[Sito Rotavele]

Like the maneuver that involves throwing Dilly to the monster and fleeing - my personal favorite.

Maneuver #5, as I recall. #4 was "Tao charging through the party." The tough part was that we called it whther she was charging or fleeing.

 

[Bandeeto]

I should point out that the Maneuver list was absolutely essential in saving our hides several times. It permitted us to surprise our enemies on more than one occasion, and provided teamwork that made up for the abysmal failure by several party members to follow the attack plans.

The definitive list as of the time Arcade left the Defenders:

Maneuver 1: Darkness spell
Maneuver 2: Blinding effect
Maneuver 3: Drop to the ground
Maneuver 4: Tao about to charge
Maneuver 5: Feed Dilly to the monster and flee (unofficial)
Maneuver 6: Someone about to crash the door
Maneuver 7: Cover the ears (sound-based attack)
Maneuver 8: Nolin about to try something strange
Maneuver 0: Point blank explosion about to go off (take cover)

 

[Bandeeto]

Arcade’s Journal – Winter’s Glade

It is well that Tom-Tom looked before he leaped. The octagonal cavern at the bottom of the shaft was covered with icy stalagmites. We made it down without many mishaps. I shall have to practice descending a rope. Side still aches....

...never cared for spiders before, less so now. Being knocked unconscious is most unpleasant. Thank goodness for clerics....

...apparently Nolin hates giant rats more than I hate giant spiders. He went nearly insane trying to get away. Suspect a traumatic encounter in his past. Grundo continues to prove his worth in combat. It was Maddoc’s turn to be wounded nearly unto death, as several rats tried to burrow into his chest.

Just as we finished with the rats we passed back through the archway and were attacked by 5 goblins with polearms in the corridor. They definitely were not there (!) a few minutes before. I managed to take one down with a dagger, but when they charged things got messy. Tom-Tom took a single shot to the belly, dropping him. I had already been badly wounded by the rats, and Nolin and Maddoc were both out of commission. Needing a distraction, I managed to wrest away a pole arm and slipped by them on the wall while Cadrienne saw to Tom-Tom.

I then had to flee down the corridor with a slavering goblin in hot pursuit. Ran for the octagonal cavern and managed to slide to the ground horizontally across the room entrance just as the goblin arrived. As planned, he tripped and landed hard on a stalagmite, impaled. Luck is with me.

By the time I got back to the party Grundo had gone berserk and finished the other 3 goblins. The dead goblins seem to vanish. Are they illusions?

It’s a good thing we have so many tinderboxes (took some dandies from the tasloi), as we really needed a fire and some rest....

 

[Bandeeto]

Picture the scene.

Nolin is in the far corner trembling from shock, horrified by the recent presence of so many rats.

Grundo is methodically getting drunk on Gutshaker.

Maddoc is on the floor with a gaping wound in his chest, gasping for air, being ministered to by Tagkris who is humming a paean to his Goddess, asking Her not to take this warrior to Her breast...just yet.

The rats, like the spiders before them, have disappeared in death, leaving the party mystified.

Tom-Tom, Cadrienne and Arcade turn back through the archway to return to the bivouac in the shattered armory, planning to light a fire. Arcade has 1 hp, and has already used both of his spells while fighting the rats.

As they enter the corridor they come face-to-face with a snarling group of five goblins, polearms extended at the ready. They seem to have appeared out of thin air. Arcade flings a dagger into the throat of the nearest goblin, which drops to the floor spitting blood and vanishes. The 1st level party has never heard of Monster Summoning, and decides that these creatures must be illusions.

Disbelieving fails, as a goblin thrusts a polearm into Tom-Tom’s gut and drops him to -2 hp. Cadrienne turns to work on Tom-Tom, leaving Arcade to face the four remaining goblins.

Arcade briefly considers fleeing, but realizes Cadrienne and Tom-Tom would be impaled in seconds. He grabs the polearm of the goblin closest to the wall, takes it from his grasp (with a 1 on a 2nd Ed. STR check) and slips past them against the wall, sprinting down the corridor.

Chaos ensues as the goblins become entangled trying to turn with their polearms in the narrow hallway. The disarmed goblin gives chase, claws and teeth bared.

The other goblins finally get their weapons pointed towards Arcade as Grundo, spiked helmet lowered and bellowing a dwarven battlecry, crashes into them from the other direction. The goblins succumb...messily.

I hadn't enjoyed a combat so much in years of gaming. You can't believe how pleased I was that the stalagmite trick worked.

 

[Pillars of Hercules]

Woohoo

Arcade, you are a credit to mages everywhere! Way to use that high INT to beat the foe even without spells. What a tale!

Love the manuevers as well.

 

[Bandeeto]

Arcade’s Journal – Winter’s Glade Continued

...found master bedroom and library. Also found what must have been the laboratory. Sadly, everything is destroyed, as if in a fit of rage. Were attacked again by goblins, but this time I Slept all of them and Grundo dispatched them. Again the bodies disappeared. After some thought, I believe that they must be summoned creatures....

...Cadrienne seems disturbed by the need to slay the goblins. No one else seems to share her objections. I confess, her desire to spare evil creatures bent on our destruction has me baffled....

...we found the main chamber, darkened, with rows of columns marching down either side. Although we approached with some stealth, it was to no avail. The columns blazed with light, revealing a huge room with a dais at the far end. A horribly gaunt elf dressed in black stepped towards us, plainly Sollers Vestius in the flesh. He laughed, told us that we would fall as had the others before us, and that the Lady’s Tree would never find root again. He brandished a wand and invoked the power of Imbindarla, dropping a curtain of darkness.

We attacked, but he seemed invulnerable. Color Spray affected him not at all, and my thrown dagger simply bounced from his chest. He summoned a group of kobolds who engaged the fighters, and was using the wand again when it suddenly exploded (most mysteriously) leaving one shimmering blue wall behind him.

Nolin attempted to distract the mage by taunting him with songs about spring, and doing a Morris dance. Vestius struck Nolin, and hurled him at Grundo, who caught him and handed the wounded bard over to Cadrienne. Grundo began to froth at the mouth once again, and struck the mage thunderous blows with warhammer and axe, causing no visible damage. Heeding the poem that we had found, I fled the room seeking a large icicle. Tom-Tom became Vestius’ next target, and was hurled against a column with some force.

Calling on his berserker strength, Grundo struck again, this time knocking the mage back through the magical blue wall. As he passed through it, Vestius had not even time to scream as he fell to the ground, turned to stone. I returned with the icicle and stabbed it into Vestius’ tainted heart. It slid easily through the stone, and began to shimmer with a golden light. With this, the mage began to melt away before our eyes.

The pillars and roof of the chamber started to collapse and we fled. Almost immediately, the air lost its chill....

[Ed. It was many months before the party realized that Tom-Tom the rogue was a psionicist. Unbeknownst to us, he had used Soften on Vestius’ wand. Arcade spent a significant amount of time trying to calculate the odds of a wand backfiring.

Being undead, and cursed to boot, Vestius could only be hit by plussed weapons (we had none) or an icicle in the right spot!]

 

[madriel]

Gee, somebody who actually remembered a Clue! Wow. And Arcade had the sense to let the rest of the party keep the bad guy busy and just go looking for the thing you needed to defeat him. Nice to see an intelligent mage played that way. Not every party has the sense to split up when they need to. Including mine.