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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NCSUCodeMonkey" data-source="post: 576916" data-attributes="member: 2047">Prelude: A Trek in the Dark -- Session INote: Sadly, Melkor missed this section, so if you're wondering where he is, you'll have to wait until next session. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Meree has decided to be the group chronicler, but she is doing so in a very interesting fashion. She is taking a "Pictoral History" of the group. This is so charming that I felt it had to be captured in the Story Hour.<a href="http://fr.mattkendall.net/phpBB/album_view.php?id=10" target="_blank">Meree's Pictoral History for Prelude Session 1</a>So the story begins in a tavern, like so many fantasy tales of bold adventure, and it even involves a shadowy figure, but with a twist.  For the first several minutes of play, I let the players settle into their new shoes, having small roleplaying encounters with eachother and the other patrons of the bar.  Antonius requested a ballad from the bard, while Thorongil went over to have a drink with several of the older, more inebriated patrons, and everyone generally floated around the inn.After several minutes, things began to get interesting.  Antonius was leaned back, enjoying his tear jerking ballad, when he caught a hint of smoke on the air.  Since there was no fireplace in the tavern's main room, he got a bit suspicious and stood up, looking around curiously.  It was at about that precise moment that all heck broke loose.In the corner of the tavern room, between the wall and the bar, a previously unremarkable igure leapt from his stool and drove a knife into the unconscious farmer passed out on the bar beside him, shouting "FOUL BETRAYERS!"  The death gasp of the farmer was immediately followed by a brilliant flash of green light.  The flash of light washed over the entire inn room and seemed to be accompanied by the muted screams of hundreds of souls.  As if this wasn't enough, the simple robes fell away from the figure and revealed a gargoyled wrapped tightly in strips of cloth!  In retaliation, the barkeep stumbled backwards away from the carnage, reaching under the bar for something.This was basically a surprise round, with those who made the wisdom check to detect the smoke gaining actions within the round. It was also great  fun to do the attack by the gargoyle.  Nobody was expecting it and I just casually stood up and slammed my fist down on the table screaming "FOUL BETRAYERS!" as loud as I could.  Butts left seats, let me tell you. :-DThe party catapulted into immediate action, of course they weren't acting as a party yet, but the general threat seemed to make it a good idea to fight or flee.  In proper first level wizard style, Meree magic missiles the gargoyle and dives under a table, hugging her mouse familiar.  Antonius, Devan, Thorongil, Redival make their way over towards the gargoyle, but he makes it airborne before they can get too close, although Devan does manage to wound him in the wing.  Eon decided that there was not any promise of treasure in this situation, and headed for the door, with all of the other patrons.  The gargoyle rammed through the roof of the tavern, and it quickly became apparent that the roof was on fire.  He then spun around and rebuked the farmer who, to everyone's surprise, had risen as a zombie, and commanded him to "Kill them all."  The bartender finishes getting his crossbow from under the counter, nails the gargoyle, and heads for the back.The ensuing rounds were generally chaotic. The gargoyle flew away immediately, heavily wounded.  Each round, a five-foot ring of roof collapsed onto the tavern room below, setting people on fire and killing patrons.  Poor Devan burned for about 3 rounds before Antonius' aid and frenzied "Stop, Drop, and Roll" tactics managed to snuff the flames.  The zombie was dispatched after a failed turn attempt and some poor attack rolls.  Meanwhile Eon discovered that the tavern door was blocked from the outside, and began trying to help the bouncer to burst the door open.  When the entire situation was looking incredibly bleak, there was a burst of thunder and water flooded into the common room from the hole in the roof.  The effect was two fold, it immediately snuffed the fire, but made everyone really cold.BTW, anybody who's looking for yet another great Druid spell: CLOUDBURST ROCKS!Everyone began to sort through the dead and wounded dispensing healing where they could, and the obstruction was removed from the outside as the town guard finally showed up.  Pretty good response time actually, about 6 rounds.  What followed was perhaps some of the funniest things that I've ever seen as a player or DM.  The party began to introduce themselves in ones and twos as they came into non-combat contact.  Meanwhile, Thorongil goes looking for the barkeep.  When he opens door after door and doesn't find him, he becomes increasingly annoyed.  The crowning moment was Thorongil tromping around the barkeep's personal quarters going:Thorongil: "Uhm...hello? Mr. Barkeep, are you back here?"  I open the door.Me: It's lockedThorongil: Ok, I hack at the door until it breaks open.  CRASH!!  "I don't want to hurt you, I just want to make sure you're OK."Oh man was it classic, especially since he never found the barkeep or discovered how he had left. The only exit they ever discovered was the front door.Anyway, the PCs with intelligences above 8 were re-grouping above ground, trying to figure out what had just happened.  They witnessed an interrogation going on a few feet away in the snow, and several PCs walked over to get a closer look.  Standing in a small group were four figures, questioning a kneeling man.  The leader of the inquisition seemed to be a middle aged cleric, which a quick knowledge religion check revealed to be a servant of Lathlander, accompanied by a lesser member of his order.  Also present was a slender woman, obviously a druid, with her hand resting on the neck of a very large elk, and a man in armor who was forcing the prisoner to the ground by twisting his arm behind his back.  Thorongil walked up at the last minute and they caught the tail end of the questioning.The prisoner was Ranark Landhouse, a bounty hunter from the south who was on the trail of a murder who seemed to be able to assume the identity of any humanoid.  Every person he had killed so far had risen again as a zombie, and witness often said they also saw a green flash of light before discovering the body.  The PCs volunteered that that definitely seemed to match what they had seen, and Meree added that the creature seemed to be a Kir-Lann, an embittered race of deity-hating gargoyles.  Keled asked why Ranark had to endanger everyone in the inn to capture his quarry.  Ranark replied that he did not know what his mark looked like, but he knew he was in the inn.  He thought that torching the inn would get the job done.  At that point a thoroughly disgusted Keled broke the bounty hunter's arm and threw him face down in the snow.As the description of the dagger came to light, Borstad, the cleric of Lathlander, look worried, but kept silent.  However, his acolyte spoke, asking Borstad what they would do if the dagger's was "Jerimar's Dagge--," and that's as far as he got before Borstad backhanded him.  Borstad sharply warned his young companion to not "speak that name, lest he bring evil here."  From the ground, the acolyte whined, "But master, if that thing manages to slay an innocent with that blade..."It quickly became apparent that between the calamity at the inn and the threat of troll and/or giant raids, the town could not afford to spare any guards or clerics to chase down the gargoyle, even on the hunch that he might be carrying an evil dagger.  It was at this point, when all seemed lost, that Antonious stepped forward and said, "I will go, if others will accompany me."  And lo, the random group of characters became a party at last.The plan was set and arrangements were made.  The party would be deputized as guardsmen, and paid wages to track the gargoyle northwards until reinforcements could be sent form the hold.  They would receive a small bonus on the completion of their task, and would then be free of all duties and responsibilities to Olostin's Hold.  Devan took a look at the trail, obviously worried about finding the tracks of a flying creature, but the gargoyle was seriously wounded, and seemed to be bleeding slowly and crashing every several hundred yards.  The trail was readable as long as the drought held.At this point I was getting a bit nervous.  The previous group I had DMed for would have spent much longer making decisions and haggling over the small points.  This is where a fresh blood really put things in to perspective.  They clobbered the Flaming Flagon encounter and I was quickly running out of prepared adventure.  They still amaze me with the speed that they grab the initiative and accomplish tasks.Being so far north, I had shortened the length of the days to add an additional tactical difficulty and for environmental effect.  The day is currently from about 10am-3pm and the temperature drops to the point of requiring hourly fortitude checks during the 5 coldest hours of the night.The following morning the party set out, hours before the sun broke the horizon.  During their first day of travel they are attacked by dire rats in the morning and Eon gets a nasty wound on his ankle from the rat's diseased bite.  He continues to limp along on it, but he can tell that something is out of the ordinary with the wound.  Redival looked at it the next time the stopped and made an excellent healing check, packing the wound tightly with soothing herbs.  They passed the rest of the day without incident, and Thorongil and Devan found a sheltered place for the night.  As they were settling down to camp, they were molested by twig blights.  They easily dispatched them and then used their remains as kindling.  In the middle of the night, during Devan's watch, Devan spotted movement in camp and was horrified to find tiny little gremlin-like things digging through Antonious' pack.  She raised the alarm and began attacking the gremlins and their dire rat accomplices.  All the intruders were slain or driven away, but not before they made off with a few of the party's rations.  And so ended the party's first day.The party decided to sleep in the next morning, slightly winded from the previous day's activities and so that they could begin travel in the daylight.  Around noon, the trail ran cold.  Devan cast about for several hundred yards before throwing her hands up in defeat.  There were no more blood splatters or crash landings, the gargoyle had vanished.  The party formed into a search pattern and began to comb the area.  They quickly found something interesting.  All of the dead trees in the area were marked by pieces of brown ribbon.  Thorongil, Devan, and Meree recognized this as the markings of wood scouts, to let future cutters know what was safe to remove from the high forest.  They also discovered three zombies, all of whom had claw cuts across their chest and dagger wounds on their necks.  They put the zombies down and, following a general hunch, began to trace the ribbons, which seemed to be in a fairly straight path.Although it was slow going, they finally tracked the ribbons back to the woodcutter's home.  The home was a small group of domed buildings, connected by curved hallways, that seemed very capable of supporting the weight of snow and ice.  The entire structure was made out of wood.  As the party crested the final rise and the house came into view, they heard a high pitched scream come from the homestead.  It sounded like the scream of a child.Everyone paused for a second, and then Redival remembered the words of the Lathlander acolyte, "But master, if that thing manages to slay an innocent with that blade...""Oh no," she breathed, and broke into a dead run.</blockquote>

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