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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
In Hextor's Name (Completed 22 Oct 2004)
- Thread starter Capellan
- Start date
From the Journal of Gnorric
The trip to Lizardfolk caves is going uneventfully, so I am catching up on some reading whenever we stop for a rest. I’m also getting to know my companions a little better.
Will seems to be a bit of a quandary to me. He obviously has a great deal of martial and scouting skill and knowledge, so is more than capable of independent thought, but seems quite happy to follow orders from Kull. It’s almost like he has become so used to taking orders that he can’t function without them. Apart from that, he seems like quite an amiable fellow. He has these amazing boots that allow him to leap great distances; it was quite unnerving to watch at first. Kull would order him to scout ahead and he would just jump away in the blink of an eye! As for my ideas, he thinks them strange, but is happy for me to have them as long as I keep my “unnatural” work away from his mother. I believe I can have him and his mother using automated workers before the year is out however! It only makes sense after all.
Speaking of automations, we have Kull. I appreciate the support he has given me with the town council, and his faith in my abilities on this particular venture. However, his social skills are negligible, if they exist at all. I initially thought the way he treated the townsfolk during the newt attack abrupt but fair considering the circumstances. What I have come to realise after two days travel, is that it appears that he treats everyone like this. I attempted to talk of my work to him and he simply declared, “The use of undead is for the weak”. Even though I have no plans of using them in a violent way, he still seemed indifferent to my ideas. Attempts to talk to him of anything other than facts relating to our mission resulted in grunts or outright ignorance. Begin to talk of religion however, and he’ll espouse the virtues of Hextor till he is blue in the face. I thought we may have found some common ground due to my interests in the teachings of Wee Jas, but he dismissed her as “weak” and “female”. All in all, a most exasperating fellow.
Aramil is a very quiet fellow and spends most of his time with his crocodile. That sort of thing can’t be healthy really. When I talked to him of my ideas, he smiled at me and looked over my left shoulder.
It appears the only people I can talk to are Will and my Wee Bat. Wee Bat is enjoying the swamp; there are lots of interesting bugs and things for him to eat. I sometimes wish he would keep his enjoyment to himself however.
_________
Well, we have seen the Lizardfolk. They seem quite nice, abet a little creepy with all their hissing and so forth. Kull asked them if they knew of the newts, and they knew exactly where they were, some ancient abandoned watchtower called Kraal. Kull seemed pretty annoyed that the Lizardfolk didn’t share this knowledge with us, but took it well considering. The Lizardfolk have given us an amulet to identify us as friends in case we encounter their patrols. We are staying in their caves tonight and heading out in the morning. All this moisture is ruining my books. I must think of a better way of keeping them dry.
_________
We arrived at Kraal in the mid-afternoon and Will used his impressive boots to jump over a rotted wall to let us in through the front door. Quite brave of him really, there could have been anything on the other side.
Kull ordered Will to take a quick look around and I cast a shield of force about myself, just in case. Will returned letting us know that he found one room that was empty, and another that was full of spider webs. Kull decided to press on to other part of the tower, as these didn’t seem like much of a threat.
We came to a room where we found a delegation of Lizardfolk, Kull seemed to know them and got quite irate with them. It appears they were there to see what the newts’ intentions were in the area. Eventually, they agreed to stay where they were till we returned. They offered no help however, which caused Kull to start muttering about “weak lizards” and “Hextors wrath”.
We continued on and were jumped by a group of newts in what appeared to be an old office or some such. Will looked very impressive leaping about and tumbling all over the place. Kull and Aramil with his crocodile were slightly more direct in their approach. I’m afraid I didn’t fair very well. I attempted to sleep them as I did the others back in Saltmarsh, but they resisted the effects. I tried shooting one with my crossbow, but with the others in the way, I missed him. More newts arrived from behind us and I tried to entangle them in a magical web, but they were too close and I was unable to release the spell before being cut down where I stood. It was most painful and unpleasant.
The trip to Lizardfolk caves is going uneventfully, so I am catching up on some reading whenever we stop for a rest. I’m also getting to know my companions a little better.
Will seems to be a bit of a quandary to me. He obviously has a great deal of martial and scouting skill and knowledge, so is more than capable of independent thought, but seems quite happy to follow orders from Kull. It’s almost like he has become so used to taking orders that he can’t function without them. Apart from that, he seems like quite an amiable fellow. He has these amazing boots that allow him to leap great distances; it was quite unnerving to watch at first. Kull would order him to scout ahead and he would just jump away in the blink of an eye! As for my ideas, he thinks them strange, but is happy for me to have them as long as I keep my “unnatural” work away from his mother. I believe I can have him and his mother using automated workers before the year is out however! It only makes sense after all.
Speaking of automations, we have Kull. I appreciate the support he has given me with the town council, and his faith in my abilities on this particular venture. However, his social skills are negligible, if they exist at all. I initially thought the way he treated the townsfolk during the newt attack abrupt but fair considering the circumstances. What I have come to realise after two days travel, is that it appears that he treats everyone like this. I attempted to talk of my work to him and he simply declared, “The use of undead is for the weak”. Even though I have no plans of using them in a violent way, he still seemed indifferent to my ideas. Attempts to talk to him of anything other than facts relating to our mission resulted in grunts or outright ignorance. Begin to talk of religion however, and he’ll espouse the virtues of Hextor till he is blue in the face. I thought we may have found some common ground due to my interests in the teachings of Wee Jas, but he dismissed her as “weak” and “female”. All in all, a most exasperating fellow.
Aramil is a very quiet fellow and spends most of his time with his crocodile. That sort of thing can’t be healthy really. When I talked to him of my ideas, he smiled at me and looked over my left shoulder.
It appears the only people I can talk to are Will and my Wee Bat. Wee Bat is enjoying the swamp; there are lots of interesting bugs and things for him to eat. I sometimes wish he would keep his enjoyment to himself however.
_________
Well, we have seen the Lizardfolk. They seem quite nice, abet a little creepy with all their hissing and so forth. Kull asked them if they knew of the newts, and they knew exactly where they were, some ancient abandoned watchtower called Kraal. Kull seemed pretty annoyed that the Lizardfolk didn’t share this knowledge with us, but took it well considering. The Lizardfolk have given us an amulet to identify us as friends in case we encounter their patrols. We are staying in their caves tonight and heading out in the morning. All this moisture is ruining my books. I must think of a better way of keeping them dry.
_________
We arrived at Kraal in the mid-afternoon and Will used his impressive boots to jump over a rotted wall to let us in through the front door. Quite brave of him really, there could have been anything on the other side.
Kull ordered Will to take a quick look around and I cast a shield of force about myself, just in case. Will returned letting us know that he found one room that was empty, and another that was full of spider webs. Kull decided to press on to other part of the tower, as these didn’t seem like much of a threat.
We came to a room where we found a delegation of Lizardfolk, Kull seemed to know them and got quite irate with them. It appears they were there to see what the newts’ intentions were in the area. Eventually, they agreed to stay where they were till we returned. They offered no help however, which caused Kull to start muttering about “weak lizards” and “Hextors wrath”.
We continued on and were jumped by a group of newts in what appeared to be an old office or some such. Will looked very impressive leaping about and tumbling all over the place. Kull and Aramil with his crocodile were slightly more direct in their approach. I’m afraid I didn’t fair very well. I attempted to sleep them as I did the others back in Saltmarsh, but they resisted the effects. I tried shooting one with my crossbow, but with the others in the way, I missed him. More newts arrived from behind us and I tried to entangle them in a magical web, but they were too close and I was unable to release the spell before being cut down where I stood. It was most painful and unpleasant.
Capellan
Explorer
Kull's 7th Report - Part 2
The journey to the lizardfolk stronghold was uneventful. They were able to confirm the location of the Newts' fort. They did not offer assistance in retrieving the lost villagers, but I was provided with a symbol of the clan, so that lizardfolk patrols would know we were friends, if we encountered them. Even this limited assistance proved to have an ulterior motive: one of the first things we encountered in the Newts' lair was a diplomatic envoy from the lizardfolk, come to negotiate peaceful relations.
I made it clear to the envoy that I would consider any such agreement a hostile act, unless and until all the kidnapped women were returned, unharmed. The envoy responded to this with evasive remarks: it seems the lizardfolk are fickle allies. I shall remember that. When I left him, I bade him remain in his chambers until we returned: if I saw him elsewhere in the fort, I would treat him as an enemy.
But I have got ahead of myself: the Newts' had made their home in an abandoned fort, half-sunk in the swamp. I led the approach, and we reached the doors without being detected - very poor security and discipline on the part of our enemies. Much of the fort's roof was missing, and this provided a means to gain entry and unlock the doors.
Once inside, we quickly encountered the envoy, then moved on to search the other rooms of the fort. In one of these, we encountered three of the Newts. These were quickly overcome, but the noise of the battle attracted several more of the creatures, including one of larger build, and carrying superior equipment. Recognising that this must be their chief, or at least a war-leader, I immediately met him in battle, while leaving his minions for the others to defeat. He proved a strong warrior, though an overly aggressive one. He struck hard, but left himself open to counter-attacks, and after an exchange of blows I struck him down, shattering his jaw in the process.
With their leader fallen, the remaining Newts in the battle were quickly destroyed. My forces - including myself - had taken heavy injuries in the fight, but none had fallen except Gnorric, though death seems less interested in him than he in it: the wizard still clung to life. His performance in the battle had been disappointing, to say the least: he had cast only one spell, and even that had had no effect. After healing him, I warned him that he would need to perform better, if he wished to survive against skilled opponents.
Once all our injuries had been attended to, I continued the exploration of the keep. Much of the lower level was under several feet (or more) of water, while another section was sealed behind an ancient iron door. I left these areas untouched for the moment, concentrating on those rooms which we could all easily explore. These proved empty of either enemies or the village women.
With the accessible areas of the lower level dealt with, I led the way up to the battlements. Halfway up the spiral stairs, I could hear the sounds of battle from above. Not wanting to stumble into the middle of the fight, I sent Shepherdson ahead to scout. He did so efficiently, and quickly returned to advise that a number of the Newts were involved in a fight with some strange, tentacled caterpillars, each nearly five feet long, which appeared to be able to paralyse their enemies.
Knowing that, whichever side won the battle, the other would be weaker for fighting it, I held the others back, waiting for the fight to come to an end. Once the noises of combat ceased, I climbed up to view the results. The strange caterpillar-creatures had won the battle, and now appeared to be slowly consuming the paralysed - and still-living - Newts. Such would have been a just fate for them, but I did not wish to take the risk that any of them might escape, and therefore ordered the use of missile weapons to ensure their deaths.
This done, I left the carrion-eating creatures to their meal, and returned to the lower level. There was nowhere on the battlements to hide the women, which meant that they must be within one of the areas that I had not explored. There were four of these: the area behind the iron door, and three rooms which had been wholly or partly flooded.
One of these three flooded areas proved to be filled with enormous leeches, over a foot in length. Knowing that any prisoners left amidst such creatures would soon have been nothing but empty husks, I saw no reason to press on into the area, and instead focussed on the other two: a large chamber so deeply submerged that it had thick clumps of reeds growing within it, and a long corridor down which I could hear a bass rumble, sounding like the croaking of toads, but magnified many times over. The druid redundantly identified these noises as the calls of giant toads - even had I not been able to deduce this for myself, I was able to see far enough into the darkness to make out the creatures' shapes.
Plainly, if we wished to venture further down this corridor, the creatures would need to be destroyed.
The journey to the lizardfolk stronghold was uneventful. They were able to confirm the location of the Newts' fort. They did not offer assistance in retrieving the lost villagers, but I was provided with a symbol of the clan, so that lizardfolk patrols would know we were friends, if we encountered them. Even this limited assistance proved to have an ulterior motive: one of the first things we encountered in the Newts' lair was a diplomatic envoy from the lizardfolk, come to negotiate peaceful relations.
I made it clear to the envoy that I would consider any such agreement a hostile act, unless and until all the kidnapped women were returned, unharmed. The envoy responded to this with evasive remarks: it seems the lizardfolk are fickle allies. I shall remember that. When I left him, I bade him remain in his chambers until we returned: if I saw him elsewhere in the fort, I would treat him as an enemy.
But I have got ahead of myself: the Newts' had made their home in an abandoned fort, half-sunk in the swamp. I led the approach, and we reached the doors without being detected - very poor security and discipline on the part of our enemies. Much of the fort's roof was missing, and this provided a means to gain entry and unlock the doors.
Once inside, we quickly encountered the envoy, then moved on to search the other rooms of the fort. In one of these, we encountered three of the Newts. These were quickly overcome, but the noise of the battle attracted several more of the creatures, including one of larger build, and carrying superior equipment. Recognising that this must be their chief, or at least a war-leader, I immediately met him in battle, while leaving his minions for the others to defeat. He proved a strong warrior, though an overly aggressive one. He struck hard, but left himself open to counter-attacks, and after an exchange of blows I struck him down, shattering his jaw in the process.
With their leader fallen, the remaining Newts in the battle were quickly destroyed. My forces - including myself - had taken heavy injuries in the fight, but none had fallen except Gnorric, though death seems less interested in him than he in it: the wizard still clung to life. His performance in the battle had been disappointing, to say the least: he had cast only one spell, and even that had had no effect. After healing him, I warned him that he would need to perform better, if he wished to survive against skilled opponents.
Once all our injuries had been attended to, I continued the exploration of the keep. Much of the lower level was under several feet (or more) of water, while another section was sealed behind an ancient iron door. I left these areas untouched for the moment, concentrating on those rooms which we could all easily explore. These proved empty of either enemies or the village women.
With the accessible areas of the lower level dealt with, I led the way up to the battlements. Halfway up the spiral stairs, I could hear the sounds of battle from above. Not wanting to stumble into the middle of the fight, I sent Shepherdson ahead to scout. He did so efficiently, and quickly returned to advise that a number of the Newts were involved in a fight with some strange, tentacled caterpillars, each nearly five feet long, which appeared to be able to paralyse their enemies.
Knowing that, whichever side won the battle, the other would be weaker for fighting it, I held the others back, waiting for the fight to come to an end. Once the noises of combat ceased, I climbed up to view the results. The strange caterpillar-creatures had won the battle, and now appeared to be slowly consuming the paralysed - and still-living - Newts. Such would have been a just fate for them, but I did not wish to take the risk that any of them might escape, and therefore ordered the use of missile weapons to ensure their deaths.
This done, I left the carrion-eating creatures to their meal, and returned to the lower level. There was nowhere on the battlements to hide the women, which meant that they must be within one of the areas that I had not explored. There were four of these: the area behind the iron door, and three rooms which had been wholly or partly flooded.
One of these three flooded areas proved to be filled with enormous leeches, over a foot in length. Knowing that any prisoners left amidst such creatures would soon have been nothing but empty husks, I saw no reason to press on into the area, and instead focussed on the other two: a large chamber so deeply submerged that it had thick clumps of reeds growing within it, and a long corridor down which I could hear a bass rumble, sounding like the croaking of toads, but magnified many times over. The druid redundantly identified these noises as the calls of giant toads - even had I not been able to deduce this for myself, I was able to see far enough into the darkness to make out the creatures' shapes.
Plainly, if we wished to venture further down this corridor, the creatures would need to be destroyed.
Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
Hextor certainly doesn't look so bad when presented with such...reasonableness. Remind me to steal this character concept sometime. 
From the Journal of Gnorric
I awoke to Kull treating my wounds, ordering the others to search to room and swearing at Wee Bat to get out of the way, the little fellow seemed quite distressed, bless him. Will found some women’s clothing that appeared to be of the type that the missing women were wearing when they were abducted. Will became quite agitated and emotional about the discovery. He appears to feel very strongly about his little town. I found it rather touching. Kull seemed not to care either way.
Once I was back on my feet with Kulls help I went to examine the bodies of the dead newts, however Kull informed me that we should continue on, I never did get a chance to go back and take a look. We found a part of the tower base that appeared to be an old jail. Kull decided that it would be too noisy to try and get in, so we would return later.
We then came to a large room that was mostly underwater, with tall reeds at one end. It appeared that Kulls helmet allowed him to breath underwater, so he went and took a look under the water along with Aramils crocodile, and returned to let us know that there was nothing interesting there.
We continued on to the other side of the tower and heard some rather unsettling croaking, unsettling because they sounded quite deep and foreboding. We also found some stairs going up and could hear the faint sounds of battle. Kull ordered Will up the stairs to see what was going on, and once again, Will took off without hesitation. He’s a very brave fellow.
Will returned to inform us that three newts were under attack by four giant centipedes with tentacles about their mouths. I had read about these Carrion Crawlers in my research, and I informed Kull of their abilities. We both agreed that we should let the crawlers do their work, as it was unlikely the newts could survive such an attack due to the crawlers’ ability to paralyse their victims. We waited for the sounds of battle to die down, and Will went back upstairs and fired arrows into the paralysed newts to ensure they did not get back up while the crawlers feasted upon their bodies. Once again, another wasted chance to examine the newt bodies.
We returned to the corridor where we heard the croaking and discovered three huge toads! They had exceptionally long tongues that they attempted to grab us with, but failed at the first attempt. Kull then did something that was rather impressive; he summoned a huge ugly ape with red fur and eyes of fire! A most impressive display, I must see if I can discover how this is done as it looked very impressive.
The fight that ensued was quite violent and noisy. The poor ape was almost chewed in half by one enormous toad. The others seemed to have the situation under control, so I stood back and let them do what they do best until the threat was disposed of. Once the battled was finished, the ape disappeared with a shimmer, which was a pity because I wanted to take a look at it.
The corridor continued on to what appeared to be a deep swirling pool. Kull moved ahead into the deeper water to investigate and was attacked by what appeared to be a wave of water!
Aramil seemed to understand the threat immediately and cast some sort of druidic spell on his crocodile that caused his teeth to become quite bright and scary looking. A pretty clever trick I thought. The crocodile then proceeded the bite the wave, which looked rather strange, but it actually seemed to hurt it. I thought that water wouldn’t like to be frozen, so I cast a freezing cantrip at it, that seemed to upset it as well, because it then rose up and washed over us all, except for Will, who rather nimbly jumped over it. The water was very cold and froze me to my core, I was still able to cast spells though and quickly zapped it with a bolt of magical energy. The others then quickly finished it off, with the wave slowly dissipating into nothing. All in all, a rather disturbing encounter. Who would have thought that water could get angry?
At the end of the hall, we discovered a perfect ball of crystal. I attempted to use some of my rudimentary scrying skills to scry myself with no effect. So it appears that it was not a scrying ball, we put it away to investigate later.
Will was becoming quite concerned, as the tower appeared to be empty and we still hadn’t discovered the whereabouts of the abducted women, so we quickly proceeded back to the corridor we first encountered on entering the complex. This also ended in a deep pool of water. Kull proceeded to investigate the deeper water, when we noticed that there were grey tongues of flesh attaching themselves to us. We quickly retreated and found that they were merely leeches. I was hoping that with their grey bodies they may have been some unheard of undead beings, but they were only leeches. I collected the ones I had scraped off my legs for Wee Bat to eat later.
We returned to the large room that was mostly underwater, as it was the only place left that we had not searched thoroughly. Will was getting quite distraught and immediately swam out to a large column that was sticking out of the water to get a better view of the reeds. Kull forged through the water as before and I could dimly make out his form through the murky water. He appeared to bend over and pick up something shiny, like a small ring. It was then that a huge crocodile, at least 30ft long attempted to swallow him.
I awoke to Kull treating my wounds, ordering the others to search to room and swearing at Wee Bat to get out of the way, the little fellow seemed quite distressed, bless him. Will found some women’s clothing that appeared to be of the type that the missing women were wearing when they were abducted. Will became quite agitated and emotional about the discovery. He appears to feel very strongly about his little town. I found it rather touching. Kull seemed not to care either way.
Once I was back on my feet with Kulls help I went to examine the bodies of the dead newts, however Kull informed me that we should continue on, I never did get a chance to go back and take a look. We found a part of the tower base that appeared to be an old jail. Kull decided that it would be too noisy to try and get in, so we would return later.
We then came to a large room that was mostly underwater, with tall reeds at one end. It appeared that Kulls helmet allowed him to breath underwater, so he went and took a look under the water along with Aramils crocodile, and returned to let us know that there was nothing interesting there.
We continued on to the other side of the tower and heard some rather unsettling croaking, unsettling because they sounded quite deep and foreboding. We also found some stairs going up and could hear the faint sounds of battle. Kull ordered Will up the stairs to see what was going on, and once again, Will took off without hesitation. He’s a very brave fellow.
Will returned to inform us that three newts were under attack by four giant centipedes with tentacles about their mouths. I had read about these Carrion Crawlers in my research, and I informed Kull of their abilities. We both agreed that we should let the crawlers do their work, as it was unlikely the newts could survive such an attack due to the crawlers’ ability to paralyse their victims. We waited for the sounds of battle to die down, and Will went back upstairs and fired arrows into the paralysed newts to ensure they did not get back up while the crawlers feasted upon their bodies. Once again, another wasted chance to examine the newt bodies.
We returned to the corridor where we heard the croaking and discovered three huge toads! They had exceptionally long tongues that they attempted to grab us with, but failed at the first attempt. Kull then did something that was rather impressive; he summoned a huge ugly ape with red fur and eyes of fire! A most impressive display, I must see if I can discover how this is done as it looked very impressive.
The fight that ensued was quite violent and noisy. The poor ape was almost chewed in half by one enormous toad. The others seemed to have the situation under control, so I stood back and let them do what they do best until the threat was disposed of. Once the battled was finished, the ape disappeared with a shimmer, which was a pity because I wanted to take a look at it.
The corridor continued on to what appeared to be a deep swirling pool. Kull moved ahead into the deeper water to investigate and was attacked by what appeared to be a wave of water!
Aramil seemed to understand the threat immediately and cast some sort of druidic spell on his crocodile that caused his teeth to become quite bright and scary looking. A pretty clever trick I thought. The crocodile then proceeded the bite the wave, which looked rather strange, but it actually seemed to hurt it. I thought that water wouldn’t like to be frozen, so I cast a freezing cantrip at it, that seemed to upset it as well, because it then rose up and washed over us all, except for Will, who rather nimbly jumped over it. The water was very cold and froze me to my core, I was still able to cast spells though and quickly zapped it with a bolt of magical energy. The others then quickly finished it off, with the wave slowly dissipating into nothing. All in all, a rather disturbing encounter. Who would have thought that water could get angry?
At the end of the hall, we discovered a perfect ball of crystal. I attempted to use some of my rudimentary scrying skills to scry myself with no effect. So it appears that it was not a scrying ball, we put it away to investigate later.
Will was becoming quite concerned, as the tower appeared to be empty and we still hadn’t discovered the whereabouts of the abducted women, so we quickly proceeded back to the corridor we first encountered on entering the complex. This also ended in a deep pool of water. Kull proceeded to investigate the deeper water, when we noticed that there were grey tongues of flesh attaching themselves to us. We quickly retreated and found that they were merely leeches. I was hoping that with their grey bodies they may have been some unheard of undead beings, but they were only leeches. I collected the ones I had scraped off my legs for Wee Bat to eat later.
We returned to the large room that was mostly underwater, as it was the only place left that we had not searched thoroughly. Will was getting quite distraught and immediately swam out to a large column that was sticking out of the water to get a better view of the reeds. Kull forged through the water as before and I could dimly make out his form through the murky water. He appeared to bend over and pick up something shiny, like a small ring. It was then that a huge crocodile, at least 30ft long attempted to swallow him.
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Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
You finish on exciting moment just to tease us, don't you? 
