Forest of Doom - IC Thread

[S'mon]

Game Blog: S'mon's Forest of Doom Game Blog
OOC Thread: D&D 3rd Edition Forest of Doom pbp


You have decided to start your adventuring lives by
traversing Allansia in search of Dragons, Maidens in
distress or hordes of rampaging Orcs and Goblins.
However, since leaving Chalice a couple of days ago
your journey has been quite uneventful. The scenery
here to the west of the Moonstone Hills is beautiful.
Vast open lands of lush green grass and pictorial
rivers set against the backdrop of hills never ceases
to take your breath away. A few miles to the north
lies the vast arboreal expanse known as Darkwood
Forest. Its southern borders can be plainly seen from
your position, and at last the open plains are beginning
to be broken up by clumps of trees and bushes.
Night is drawing in and this looks as good-a-place
as any to camp for the night.
After a good meal by the campfire it is time to set up
watch for the night. You are deciding who will take
first watch when you hear a twig snap beneath a
clumsy foot just outside your camp perimeter.
Grabbing your weapons you take up your positions
in case of an attack. From the direction of the twig
snapping, a low moaning noise followed by the thud
of a body dropping to the ground is heard. Slowly
you walk over to the bushes from where the noise
was heard and pull back the branches cautiously.
Lying on the ground grimacing in pain is a Dwarven
Warrior clad in a Chainmail suit and open faced helmet.
Kneeling down next to him you can see two
Crossbow bolts protrude from his armour-clad torso.
Although the Dwarf is heavy, you manage to move
him close to your fire and stir it's dying embers back
to life. The warrior lies there for a while moaning
and groaning. He then sits bolt upright, eyes staring
fixedly ahead and shouts,

"I'll get them! I'll get them! Don't you fear, Gillibran, Bigleg is coming to bring
you the Hammer. Oh yes, indeed I am. Oh yes…". He
slumps back down. With half closed eyes he stares at
you and whispers," Help us. Take …the Hammer to
Gillibran. Only… the …Hammer will unite our people
against the ……Hilltrolls. We were on our…
way to Darkwood Forest to search for the…
Hammer. Ambushed…… - others killed. The map in my
pouch will take you to the home ……of
……Yaztromo, the Master Mage of these parts. He
…has great magics for …sale… to protect you
against the…… creatures …of Darkwood. Take my
gold. …I beg ……you to find the Hammer ……and
take it….. to Gillibran ……my Lord of Stonebridge.
……You will be well rewarded."

He opens his mouth to speak again but all that comes out is his
dying breath. Opening his pouch you find the map he
was talking about and if your position is correct,
Yaztromo's Tower isn't too far away. Bigleg's money
pouch, which he asked you take and help the
Dwarves, contains 150gp...

 

[Sekhmet]

"This dwarf has entrusted us with his dying wish, and I intend to honor it. We'll make for this wizard, Yaztromo's tower in the morning, so long as there are no objections."
"Get some rest. We'll be off in the morning. I'll take the first watch, whichever of you wants the second, let me know before you sleep."

---

I'll set my shield and longsword against my pack, which I'll place near the edge of the camp, my greatsword will be strapped to my back. I'll stand within ten feet of the pack, moving it around the camp with me when I need to switch positions to get a better view of a specific side of the camp.

I'll use Detect Evil :: d20srd.org situated in the direction the dwarf came from while I address the party, and each third round (so long as nothing is detected) I'll switch to face the next duration in a clockwise pattern.

During my watch, my primary concern is the safety of my living party members, but I'll also prepare the dwarven corpse as best as I can without all of the necessary materials to give him a proper death rite.

 

[S'mon]

Lirael the gorgeous Sorceress kneels over the dead dwarf, the night wind cool on her bare shoulders, her dark hair waving in the breeze. She unfurls the map Bigleg spoke of, and frowns - it's practically blank (see here).

She looks up at her new adventuring companions: her half-elven cousin Keena and one-time suitor Eric Harper amongst them, the two Roguish youths Kip and Jonath, and Paaq the baker's son. They had departed together from the Lion Inn at Chalice just two days before, and this, it seemed, was their first test of Adventure.

Lirael:
"Anyone want this? It could be used to help map the forest, I guess..."

She shrugs uncertainly.

Lirael:
"What do we do now? I've heard of Yaztromo, he's said to be a great Wizard - do we go to his tower? And the Dwarf's gold - should we split it amongst us?"

GM OOC: If you split the money that's 25gp each.

(tag all PCs)

 

[S'mon]

GM: Thanks Sekhmet. Always include your PC name in the first line of your post, please. I believe this is Eric Harper the Paladin. I recommend using third-person present tense when describing character actions. I'll take it that Eric can tell that Bigleg was beyond the help of the Paladin's healing powers.

Eric Harper:

"This dwarf has entrusted us with his dying wish, and I intend to honor it. We'll make for this wizard, Yaztromo's tower in the morning, so long as there are no objections."
"Get some rest. We'll be off in the morning. I'll take the first watch, whichever of you wants the second, let me know before you sleep."

I'll use Detect Evil :: d20srd.org situated in the direction the dwarf came from while I address the party, and each third round (so long as nothing is detected) I'll switch to face the next duration in a clockwise pattern.

GM: Eric detects no Evil within range of his powers.

Lirael looks up, nods at Eric's words.

Lirael:
"Second watch sounds good to me."

She scans the darkness a little nervously. The night is overcast and gloomy, no stars can be seen shining overhead, just a little diffuse moonlight.

GM: With some effort you can bury the dead dwarf. With 6 of you, you can each take a 90 minute watch, get reasonable sleep over 9 hours: 1.5 on watch, 7.5 sleeping; and be up at dawn next day.

 

[Cor Azer]

Paaq scratches at the stirrings of his beard, stirrings that have yet to ever form a full beard, and looks quizzically at the map. "I guess... I guess up is north? I'm not too familiar with directions outside Chalice. I know Stonebridge is... " Paaq waves his hand in a vague, that-a-way direction, "out there."

Remembering the dwarf, Paaq furrows his brow. "Anybody know what the dwarves do to honor their dead? I mean, this guy was obviously doing something from his people, he should get more than just a burial." Not for the last time, Paaq sighed. "I shoulda brought some beer with me. I coulda given him a toast."

The baker's son plops down unceremoniously on a less-than-completely hard patch of ground not far from the firepit. His pack is sloughed lazily beside him. "I'll take last watch, then, if nobody minds. Maybe I'll try to fry up the last bit of bacon to break our fast before we get going. Unless," Paaq looks around to catch everyone's response, "Unless anyone here isn't a bacon fan? I make a mean fried tater too..." Paaq chuckles, "No seriously, it's pretty bad. It'd be mean to serve it to any of you."

He twines his fingers and rests his head upon his linked palms, and settles back into his claimed nook. "Night all. Onwards adventure!"

 

[Artur Hawkwing]

Kip sits quietly at the fire, trying to wind down his mind from the second day. Sure he had expected things to start slowly, but traveling with this group had already proven to be almost enough to numb his mind. Sure, it was good to not be alone, but at the same time, if he were forced to ram his pillow into his ear one more time in an attempt to drown out the insane snoring of the Baker's child and the Sorceress, he might be tempted to use one of his daggers to hack off his own ears. With a sigh he stretches and regathers himself, eyes toward the flame. His quiet internal reflection is interrupted by the arrival of the dying Dwarf. His eyebrow quirks a the mention, and presence, of the money. He extends a hand toward Lirael.

Here, let me have a look. Maybe I can figure it out.

Kip takes the map, not one to over look a mystery before at least giving it a cursory glance, and gives it a good look over, though he listens to see if the others will split the Gold. He smiles slightly at the discussion of watches. The first watch the last night had been down right boring.

I'll take third, or sit up with second, whichever.

 

[AlphaSheWolf]

Keena ignored the remark of the map. She found it hard to understand why city people needed a map. All one had to do was note their surroundings and things could easily be located. Such as following tracks. She knew come morning she would be scouting the tracks of the dwarf to locate where he came from. Looking over at her cousin, she suggested, "We should divide the gold evenly between all of us if the others agree. I will take third watch as well as return brother dwarf to the stone."

Without explaining what she meant, Keena moved the body of the dwarf outside of the campsite and began to gather rocks to create a cairn to bury the dwarf.

 

[Sekhmet]

Eric sighs inwardly at Kip's sudden interest at the mention of gold. It was not his place to perform minor personality tweaks in others, even the ones that so clearly lead a person astray from what was right.

Eric: "Divide that gold by five, I do not need it. Keena, do you know anything about this forest? What manner of creatures make their homes within, or if it has any properties we should be wary of?"

 

[AlphaSheWolf]

Keena stopped her collecting of rocks to reply to Eric's question.

"I grew up in Darkwoods. If you wish to join me in returning the dwarf to the stone, I will attempt to tell you what I know."

Uses Knowledge--Geography +1 & Knowledge--Nature +1

 

[Artur Hawkwing]

OOC: To use the dice roller, write your post first, then after posting it, you will be able to go back and see 'add dice roll' in the button cluster on the right of your posting. Click that and you will get a column of dice. Normally you just put a 1 in the white blank next to the d20 and then go to the outline box below and make sure the radio button for '+' is marked, which is the normal default, then type your mod amount into the box to the right of that (example a 1 for your knowledge-nature). There is a box at the top that usually you just note what the roll is for (skill or attack, that sort of thing...in this example you could put Knowledge-Nature) Once you have that set you can other post the roll (Roll button at the bottom) or click "Save and add another roll" which is handy doing damage rolls on attacks, but you can do the same thing as the first roll, only note Knowledge - Geography for your skill. When you have everything done, click roll. It will bring you, after a short pause to do the graphics into your post, back to your post where you can see the numbers roll and make any adjustments to your posting for fluff as necessary. Once the die rolls are rolled you can't modify them, so it's a secure and quick way to try it. Also, if you want do comment OOC, you can enclose it in [ ooc ][ /ooc ] tags to get it into a box like this. Just don't include the extra spaces in the tags.