Defenders of Daybreak, The Early Years.

[Sialia]

Stavros, now there was a memorable NPC.

 

[Welverin]

Ok, Bandeeto's post left out the really good nasty sharp pointy DM bit (naturally, since he was writting from Arcade's point of view).

We found the scroll, and Piratecat handed it to Bandeeto--a handwritten note on a parchmenty paper stock. Bandeeto read it, and then looked at it carefully, and noticed a peculiar sigil scribed on the reverse.

"What's this?" he said.

"Here, hand it back to me," Piratecat said, as if he needed to examine the mark again to see what Bandeeto was pointing at.

And then he rolled some dice, which we expected, and lit the scroll on fire, which we did not.

"You take X points of damage from the explosive runes," he said."And your eyebrows are vaporized." Well, more or less, that's what he said.

We still have what's left of the original note, scorchmarks and all.

It really was a thing of beauty.

So basically what you're saying is if the DM hands you a piece of paper with funky symbols on it DO NOT ask what it is.

Hey love--where'd your dwarfy swears thread move to?

I'm not who you asked, but I do know where they are, which would be the bottom of page one of Story Hour.

 

[Piratecat]

A local farmer of my acquaintance approached and begged us to help with a terrible problem. He claims that a horde of demon rabbits have been ravaging his fields.... horrendous fight. We encountered a group of giant, Blinking, unicorn-horned rabbits. They apparently were being directed by a giant flying rabbit that could destroy objects using only its mind as a weapon. Alix attempted to leap over the head of one of the rabbits and was practically impaled.

This was great fun. The adventures for months had all been doom and gloom, dead heroes and evil nasties. As she said, KidCthulhu had been asking for an adventure involving cute little fluffy bunnies that like to give away treasure. At just about this time, the 2e Fiend Folio add-on to the Monstrous Compendium was published. While leafing through it ("Stwinger? What the @#$% is a 'stwinger'?"), I came across al'miraj. Back in 1e they were a vicious rabbit with a unicorn horn. In 2e, they gave certain members psionics. "Hmmmm," I thought. "This might be fun."

The group was aghast. They had no idea what they were facing.

My favorite memory was Alix's player declaring that he was going to vault over one of the rabbits. "Okay," I said. "Roll your tumble."

Crit failure.

Alix didn't walk right for a week.

 

[Piratecat]

who the hell was Rendic? I am drawing a blank? I know I should remember him but I don't.

Rendic was the fellow actually from TMOSAT's valley that Alix "recruited" (ie sort of kidnapped) to be his lackey and apprentice. Rendic was notable because he didn't show Alix much respect, and would get furious when the group didn't show him much respect either. He ended up being quite competent, as witnessed by his attempt to take on mind flayers single-handed when you tried to seize the flickering needle from the mindflayers on the plane of shadow. He was there for T'Cri, he was there for the fight at Tovag Baragu, and after Alix died he quietly took over every single asset and building that Alix had owned.

He hasn't been heard from in ages. Someone scried for him once, and drew a blank; it's possible that T'Cri tracked him down and administered the Three Deaths while the rest of the Defenders were still vacationing in Sigil.

 

[Piratecat]

...returned to the Flaxen Manticore to find our headquarters being rifled by an incompetent group of thieves, headed by one Tephis Birdhouse. It appears that they were given a map to our headquarters by one “Arcade Deepleaf”, and then Charmed into going to ransack it!

Ahhh, Tephis. The first of the Defenders' "fan boys", he was a rabid hanger-on and adventurer wannabe who started his very own "Defenders of Daybreak - Kindric branch" without official approval. Very sincere, very star-struck, not a lot of common sense.

This was a typical sort of ploy by Fallane Deepleaf (aka Eritain Quicklimb, Nolin's half-brother.) Once they took a letter he had tauntingly wrote them, had it divined, and found out the true name of the man who had written it. Nolin then wrote a scathingly insulting song about the man and let it loose to every bard he could find. A few weeks later, a humble clerk came and complained; Fallane had hired him to write the letter, and now his good name was being impugned up and down the country! Heh heh.

The Sunken Dell follow-up to Elzid's Tower was a fun adventure hook I added in myself. It's also where Velendo first arrived!

 

[KidCthulhu]

Ahhh, Tephis. The first of the Defenders' "fan boys", he was a rabid hanger-on and adventurer wannabe who started his very own "Defenders of Daybreak - Kindric branch" without official approval. Very sincere, very star-struck, not a lot of common sense.

We took him along on one adventure with us. Something involving Wyverns. He got picked up by a wyvern and taken for a very short, very memorable flight. When we found him, he'd been sick all over himself, and had decided that the adventuring life wasn't for him.

Tephis is Dylrath's big brother, and we will see more of him (and his, er, lovely wife anon.

 

[Bandeeto]

Mention of the Connor Hallowhorn (Fallane Deepleaf) fiasco coming up next post.

Wyvern adventure coming soon.

First I have to post the latest in the series of P'Cat's attempts to turn cute fuzzy things into horrible threat (eg. Frolic the faerie dragon, the al'miraj....) I refer of course to the episode I like to call... "Brownie Poker." Coming soon as well.

 

[Sialia]

after Alix died he quietly took over every single asset and buildingthat Alix had owned.

The orphanage, too? Dang.

What about the royal grant of the governorship of Celay Terzdun?

It's never occurred to me before, but perhaps Rendic's ability to wander around more or less completely unnoticed by the Defenders was a sort of special ability of its own.

I mean, yeah sure, he was there at all those things you listed, but I can't remember him being there, and I was also Alix's apprentice.

Probably if he was in a postion to scoop up Alix's assets, so was I and I never thought of it which is really unusual for me to miss an angle like that. Alix would have been so disappointed in me.

Got to look in on old pal Rendic one of these days. If I can just remember to get around to it . . .

 

[Bandeeto]

Arcade’s Journal – Sunken Dell Finale

...next day Knock’d the door but found it obstructed from the outside. We expected trouble, and prepared accordingly. The staff consented to transport some of us into the outer chamber, but insisted on hearing a story beforehand!

Alix and I were transported in a green blaze to the outer room, where we found four ogres and an orc with a bow. It seems they had come to rescue Stavros. Things were touch-and-go for a while. Alix managed to tumble into position and move the bar obstructing the door. The party streamed out. I saw an ogre starting to drink a potion, and cast Shatter upon the bottle, spilling the contents down the ogre’s vest. (Luckily, as we suspect that it was a potion of Ice Dragon Breath.) I also managed to cut one ogre off with a moving wall, and attempted to dodge between another’s legs. Unfortunately the dodge maneuver failed, earning me a hefty swipe from a club and knocking me unconscious. Alix and Tao worked well as a team, felling ogres with precision and rescuing me from a deadly club strike.

Sadly, Grundo did not perform as well. He was so disgusted with his performance in the battle that he departed the complex when no one was looking, leaving his pack behind.

While I was still incapacitated and Grundo was absent, the metallic construct attacked again. This time the deactivation words failed to affect it in the slightest. Glimmer tried to oppose it, and nearly died. It was then that Velendo showed his strength. He prayed to his god, and glowing with a seemingly impenetrable aura, stepped between the guardian and Glimmer. The construct continued its assault, crumpling itself against Velendo. Tao hewed at it from behind for some time before it finally stopped moving....

...healed me. Debate ensued over the fate of Stavros. At first I was adamant, with the support of Glimmer, that he be turned over to the authorities for the reward, while the others wished to simply kill him. However, after a discussion with Stavros himself it became clear that he was not as evil as he appeared, but rather had been robbed of any opportunity to pursue a different path by a hostile society.

Taking a gamble, we offered him a position as bouncer at the Flaxen Manticore. We will have to pay off his bounty, and place a 5,000 gp deposit in trust with the authorities for his good behavior. He was tremendously grateful to be given a chance at a normal life, and agreed to help us get our horses back. We used the Gauntlet of Shrinking to reduce the cart and stone horse, moved it to the surface, and restored it to proper size. We then loaded the cart and took everything else with us....

...at Stavros’ direction we proceeded southwest and found a cave. Stavros sent the orcs living within on a wild goose chase, and we recovered our belongings. Sadly, there has been no sign of Grundo....

...returned to Rampart at last. We formally (and happily) accepted Tao and Velendo as new members of the Defenders. Sorry to lose Grundo, though. We installed Stavros in his new position as bouncer. Bought a few things and prepared to train. We entertained one Natalia Ballard of Lindilyn at the Manticore. We suspect that she may be a bounty hunter for Alix’s father, but she did not provoke any action....

...Nolin took Tephis Birdhouse’s map (the one obtained from “Deepleaf”) to the temple of Morphat and paid for a Divination of the author’s name. He came up with Connor Hallowhorn. Nolin then wrote a very nasty (and catchy) song lampooning Hallowhorn, and started performing it....

 

[Piratecat]

It was then that Velendo showed his strength. He prayed to his god, and glowing with a seemingly impenetrable aura, stepped between the guardian and Glimmer. The construct continued its assault, crumpling itself against Velendo. Tao hewed at it from behind for some time before it finally stopped moving....

What spell was that, do you remember?