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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9426100" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Back to "Unknown Lands"-This week, we were missing our Cleric thanks to GenCon.  Two players were late- one slightly late, one 45 minutes late.  Annoying, but at least they showed up, right?The party had acquired a side quest to go fetch some rare herbs from a centaur-infested forest.  The apothecary normally could get them herself, but the centaurs had become inexplicably hostile to the townsfolk, but nobody really seemed to know why.Armed with some keys that could activate the mysterious portal that had brought them to this world, they first opened a portal to the City of Waterdeep, allowing their NPC ally, Tregar Bittertooth, to go home.  The Changeling thought it would be fun to interfere with this process, souring the Dwarf's already sour disposition.  He dipped in short order, with no kind words for the party.A few seconds after he left, however, the portal re-opened in a flash of light, depositing Two-Six, a Warforged Cleric of Kelemvor, apparently sent by "her" God to aid the party.  Having taken a vow to preserve all life, they learned she would refuse to harm any creature that wasn't a Construct, Fiend, or Undead (but was extra effective against those types of foes), but she would happily provide healing, easing the burden on the Druid.The other keys provided some rations (it is a multiple-use item, conjuring one day's rations every day- not terribly useful), +1 studded leather, a +1 crossbow, and a legendary weapon, The Wonder Blade![ATTACH=full]375457[/ATTACH]Seemingly made from glowing blue crystal with gold inlay, this +2 dagger has seven charges, recovering 1d6+1 charges daily.  As an action, it could produce a random magical effect, similar to a Wand of Wonder.But it also performed this feature automatically without expending charges any time a natural "20" or "1" was scored.  The Fighter weighed the pros and cons the weapon versus his short sword, and in the end, was enticed by it's chaotic properties (much to the horror of his allies).At this point, a trio of centaur warriors appeared and demanded the party follow them to their village.  Their, they were met by the chief, Heeerhah, who explained the reasons for their aggression-Bandits had attacked their village and during the fray, a smaller group had plundered their treasure.  One of the attackers had warned the centaurs to stay away from the town of Sturnheim, leading them to believe the humans of the town were in league with the bandits.The party protested that this was a lie, but the chief couldn't be certain they were trustworthy, but offered them a chance to prove their honor in a trial by combat against their champion, Neerhah.Neerhah was a massive ripped centaur, but was perfectly happy to take on the Fighter in a wrestling match.  Unfortunately, Neerhah was too strong to defeat.  Fortunately, he was impressed enough to make the battle a draw, but only after wowing the mares with his might!Having gained some measure of trust, the party explained what was going on, but the chief was still worried about the bandits.  The party offered to deal with said bandits, in exchange for access to the "sacred" herbs.  They left accompanied by the chief's daughter, Halee, who proved to be a Wizard (an unusual profession for her kind, to be sure).The actual location of the bandit camp was unknown, but the party had a fairly good idea where to start looking.  On the way back to Sturnheim, they discovered evidence of a vicious flying predator.  Having already dealt with a Wyvern, they managed to sneak up to the lair of a Manticore.They caught the creature napping and successfully snuck up on it, leaving it surprised- which proved to be a mistake.  Despite being a CR 8, it was stunned before it could make it's first action on the second round, and at the top of the third round, it only had 30 hit points left, with three PC's going before it.  I declared a TKO and let them have the win.Lucky jerks.  The spoils of war included a Wand of Fear, a magic item called the Choker of Eloquence (imbuing anyone wearing it with at least 3 intelligence and the ability to speak and understand Common- by attuning to it, you could gain the ability to speak three additional languages of your choice, and read all of these languages).  Obviously, this item was intended for animal companions or the like, but surprisingly, the party quickly asked if they could use it, having recently found a magical book that could increase Constitution by 1 point- but it was written completely in Dwarvish!And finally, another oddity, the Helm of Levitation.  Once per rest it allows the wearer to use Feather Fall.  With attunement, it granted 10 rounds of 20 foot fly speed (recharged with a rest) but only up or down, not horizontally!  For now, the Druid put it on for the Feather Fall (he belongs to a flying race, and figured it could save him if he ever got knocked prone in mid-air, something they did to the Wyvern they'd fought).A few days to the west, in the hills, they managed to track the bandits to their camp, where they found 15 bandits, their leader, a female Half-Elf, and the former Captain of the Militia, Valdar, who they have a grudge against.I called it there, giving me two weeks to attempt to create a tough encounter that won't turn into a four-hour meat grinder, lol.</blockquote>

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