Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Family Matters - Forgotten Realms Waterdeep Campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Isida Kep'Tukari" data-source="post: 6147956" data-attributes="member: 4441"><p><strong>Session 17</strong></p><p></p><p>When we last left our intrepid heroes, they were trudging through the corridors beyond the portal in the Blade, armed with a mental map as to where the dark creepers, and their dread leader the dark stalker, had taken Garden. Pressing forward, the passage, according to the directions, was about to end in a large cavern that had in it an old, old fortress. It was partially natural, partially worked stone, atop a small plateau. There was only the faintest of natural light, from phosphorescent fungus, and the group was a little hesitant to show their own sources of light, but what else could they do if they went around stumbling through the gloom? With silence, if not stealth, they crept closer.</p><p></p><p>Inside the hideout, Garden had been left alone as the dark creepers readied themselves. He tried to wriggle enough to reach the concealed bone knives in the sides of his boots. He was sure he would have been able to get them eventually, but as he shifted the homacle, Sticks, arrived near him with its usual metallic clicking.</p><p></p><p>“Tableside assistance?” it asked. Figuring what did he have to lose, Garden said yes. “U-ten-sil?” Yes again, and Sticks took the knife near Garden’s fingers and began to cut him loose.</p><p></p><p>Out in the chamber, the rest of the party (plus Brother Darvin from the Temple of Lathander, and the octopus wizard Rich and his water familiar) had realized it was far too quiet in there, and set out to get Garden out before anything else could happen!</p><p></p><p>Several members of the party tried to ascent the short but steep slope up to an opening into the old fortress, with Evelyn and Steven and Charissa making it (Evelyn can climb in heels, oh yes she can), and William unfortunately doing a face-plant into the gravel. The noise apparently alerted some of the scouts, and knives began to rain down on the party from above.</p><p></p><p>Inside, Garden asked Sticks if there was any alcohol about, any flammable spirits.</p><p></p><p>“Fire-water,” Sticks affirmed, and pressed a glass flask into his hand. Popping the cork to check the contents, Garden nearly became drunk on the fumes alone. Yes, this would do the trick nicely. And did Sticks happen to have a firestarter?</p><p></p><p>“Twisted firestarter,” Sticks said, and put the twist-and-strike contraption in Garden’s other hand. Garden improvised a wick from a torn scrap of his hem, lit the thing and tossed it where he last remembered seeing the dark stalking sitting!</p><p></p><p>Outside, Steven fired an arrow up at one of the dark creeper snipers, catching him in the hand and making him tumble to the floor, to die in a burst of light. With the fortress now lit up from the inside, and the group backlit outside, more knives began to be thrown from the dark creepers who’d concealed themselves behind crates and barrels and sacks.</p><p></p><p>Rich summoned an earth elemental, and Darvin summoned one of air to go inside the fortress – elementals could see even in the dark, and if the dark creepers put out the lights again, at least they could try to rescue him or hamper the creepers.</p><p></p><p>Right then, the lights outside the fortress did go out, as the two darkmantles who had spent the last few moments working their way along the ceiling dropped on Shandri and Darvin. What followed was a both dangerous and comedic episode where both clerics struggled to free themselves from what were essentially attack umbrellas with tentacles, occasionally getting free just long enough to utter a cry of triumph, before the darkmantles wrapped them up again. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the dark stalker had not been sitting in this throne so much as perching just above it. He leapt at Garden, stabbing him with his dagger, while Charissa shot at him from the doorway. Garden returned the favor, striking deep as the battle raged on. Steven was not having much luck in trying to beat the darkmantles off the clerics, and William took several wounds from daggers. He did ask Shandri for help, but as she was rather wrapped up at the time, she uttered several muffled words that probably didn’t bear repeating. (Though she did heal him once the darkmantle had finally be wrested off and dashed upon the ground to be stomped on. But she was grumpy about it.)</p><p></p><p>With several dark creepers dying, many more fled into the dim cavern, and even the dark stalker quit the field. Garden tried to put a dagger in his back but missed. Once the party was reunited with much back-slapping and sarcasm, they realized there were many exits from this place, and the creepers had taken most of them.</p><p></p><p>However, in their haste, they had only taken the smallest and most portable of their ill-gotten gains. Lighting more torches, the group realized there was a small warehouse’s worth of goods in their hideout. Crated and disassembled furniture and vehicles, along with a small amount of coin (and an ungodly amount of copper), a couple of wands, and a goodly amount of various trade goods (sacks of wheat, boxes of tools, nails). They agreed to split what they’d found with Darvin and Rich (at least to some extent… Darvin was more forgiving, but Rich was definitely more mercenary. Garden did give him an octopus ring he found though.)</p><p></p><p>Evelyn declared herself greatly hungered (she had been awake for two days at this time), and Sticks, ever-eager to serve, made her a fresh darkmantle steak. It was actually surprisingly good! He also kept trying to offer everyone mushrooms, but nearly everyone declined. Also, when Charissa heard Garden calling Sticks a "homacle," she face-palmed and painfully corrected, "Homunculus."</p><p></p><p>The group discovered there was one larger passageway out of the caverns, which led to a secret entrance to a dockside warehouse. Perhaps the goods would have been disassembled further to transport them elsewhere, but for right now, the group had a place to temporarily put what they’d found. Evelyn recognized one of the carriages they’d found from a description she’d heard at a party, and the group realized they could get a handsome finder’s fee for most of this stuff, as well as getting in good standing with the Merchant’s Guild, if they alerted them and tried to find the owners of the stolen things.</p><p></p><p>Never one to pass up a good opportunity to 1. Have other people do the heavy hauling and 2. Get favors in useful places, they went to talk to the Merchant’s Guild. Quickly. Very quickly. Before the dark creepers came back with reinforcements…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Isida Kep'Tukari, post: 6147956, member: 4441"] [b]Session 17[/b] When we last left our intrepid heroes, they were trudging through the corridors beyond the portal in the Blade, armed with a mental map as to where the dark creepers, and their dread leader the dark stalker, had taken Garden. Pressing forward, the passage, according to the directions, was about to end in a large cavern that had in it an old, old fortress. It was partially natural, partially worked stone, atop a small plateau. There was only the faintest of natural light, from phosphorescent fungus, and the group was a little hesitant to show their own sources of light, but what else could they do if they went around stumbling through the gloom? With silence, if not stealth, they crept closer. Inside the hideout, Garden had been left alone as the dark creepers readied themselves. He tried to wriggle enough to reach the concealed bone knives in the sides of his boots. He was sure he would have been able to get them eventually, but as he shifted the homacle, Sticks, arrived near him with its usual metallic clicking. “Tableside assistance?” it asked. Figuring what did he have to lose, Garden said yes. “U-ten-sil?” Yes again, and Sticks took the knife near Garden’s fingers and began to cut him loose. Out in the chamber, the rest of the party (plus Brother Darvin from the Temple of Lathander, and the octopus wizard Rich and his water familiar) had realized it was far too quiet in there, and set out to get Garden out before anything else could happen! Several members of the party tried to ascent the short but steep slope up to an opening into the old fortress, with Evelyn and Steven and Charissa making it (Evelyn can climb in heels, oh yes she can), and William unfortunately doing a face-plant into the gravel. The noise apparently alerted some of the scouts, and knives began to rain down on the party from above. Inside, Garden asked Sticks if there was any alcohol about, any flammable spirits. “Fire-water,” Sticks affirmed, and pressed a glass flask into his hand. Popping the cork to check the contents, Garden nearly became drunk on the fumes alone. Yes, this would do the trick nicely. And did Sticks happen to have a firestarter? “Twisted firestarter,” Sticks said, and put the twist-and-strike contraption in Garden’s other hand. Garden improvised a wick from a torn scrap of his hem, lit the thing and tossed it where he last remembered seeing the dark stalking sitting! Outside, Steven fired an arrow up at one of the dark creeper snipers, catching him in the hand and making him tumble to the floor, to die in a burst of light. With the fortress now lit up from the inside, and the group backlit outside, more knives began to be thrown from the dark creepers who’d concealed themselves behind crates and barrels and sacks. Rich summoned an earth elemental, and Darvin summoned one of air to go inside the fortress – elementals could see even in the dark, and if the dark creepers put out the lights again, at least they could try to rescue him or hamper the creepers. Right then, the lights outside the fortress did go out, as the two darkmantles who had spent the last few moments working their way along the ceiling dropped on Shandri and Darvin. What followed was a both dangerous and comedic episode where both clerics struggled to free themselves from what were essentially attack umbrellas with tentacles, occasionally getting free just long enough to utter a cry of triumph, before the darkmantles wrapped them up again. Meanwhile, the dark stalker had not been sitting in this throne so much as perching just above it. He leapt at Garden, stabbing him with his dagger, while Charissa shot at him from the doorway. Garden returned the favor, striking deep as the battle raged on. Steven was not having much luck in trying to beat the darkmantles off the clerics, and William took several wounds from daggers. He did ask Shandri for help, but as she was rather wrapped up at the time, she uttered several muffled words that probably didn’t bear repeating. (Though she did heal him once the darkmantle had finally be wrested off and dashed upon the ground to be stomped on. But she was grumpy about it.) With several dark creepers dying, many more fled into the dim cavern, and even the dark stalker quit the field. Garden tried to put a dagger in his back but missed. Once the party was reunited with much back-slapping and sarcasm, they realized there were many exits from this place, and the creepers had taken most of them. However, in their haste, they had only taken the smallest and most portable of their ill-gotten gains. Lighting more torches, the group realized there was a small warehouse’s worth of goods in their hideout. Crated and disassembled furniture and vehicles, along with a small amount of coin (and an ungodly amount of copper), a couple of wands, and a goodly amount of various trade goods (sacks of wheat, boxes of tools, nails). They agreed to split what they’d found with Darvin and Rich (at least to some extent… Darvin was more forgiving, but Rich was definitely more mercenary. Garden did give him an octopus ring he found though.) Evelyn declared herself greatly hungered (she had been awake for two days at this time), and Sticks, ever-eager to serve, made her a fresh darkmantle steak. It was actually surprisingly good! He also kept trying to offer everyone mushrooms, but nearly everyone declined. Also, when Charissa heard Garden calling Sticks a "homacle," she face-palmed and painfully corrected, "Homunculus." The group discovered there was one larger passageway out of the caverns, which led to a secret entrance to a dockside warehouse. Perhaps the goods would have been disassembled further to transport them elsewhere, but for right now, the group had a place to temporarily put what they’d found. Evelyn recognized one of the carriages they’d found from a description she’d heard at a party, and the group realized they could get a handsome finder’s fee for most of this stuff, as well as getting in good standing with the Merchant’s Guild, if they alerted them and tried to find the owners of the stolen things. Never one to pass up a good opportunity to 1. Have other people do the heavy hauling and 2. Get favors in useful places, they went to talk to the Merchant’s Guild. Quickly. Very quickly. Before the dark creepers came back with reinforcements… [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Family Matters - Forgotten Realms Waterdeep Campaign
Top