Like Father, Like Son: Kid Charlemagne's Story Hour , PT III

[Kid Charlemagne]

Actually, I have to give the Game Master credit with setting up an cool area for the fight to take place in. Interesting combat layouts/obstacles/architecture, etc. give players (and NPCs!) more opportunities to do creative stuff during a battle. Brennen wouldn't have even thought about trying to clear that 8-foot monstrous gorilla-thing if he wasn't on a platform five-feet higher than it to start with!

I spend a lot of my "development" time visualizing the areas the party will travel and fight in. I think that having an interesting environment really adds to the game... It's something that I really work on, so it's nice to see the players agree!

Except Gavin, of course, 'cause he still wants to ride his horse everywhere he goes. Maybe Gavin should just knee-cap Jovah, and then they'd have to ride horses...

 

[Jovah]

Actually-my favorite was Kid C's impression of the cultists after the Snowball Swarm wiped out a big patch of them.

"AHHHHHH!!!"

That and "You said there was no way they could get by the Ghour Demon"

snicker

 

[Jovah]

Gavin gure is a whiner

"I never get to ride my horse."
"I want my cut of the magic goodies- I have gotten the shaft so far."
"I want the ring."
"Brennen gets to kill everything."

"I have a low charisma."

 

[Gavin]

You wound me, sir.

What's the point of risking your life if you don't get to piss and moan about it?

Gavin did get a really cool magic item from the shadow dragon's hoard, but guess what: It's on his horse's feet!. Sigh.

And remember, no matter how Gavin complains, he still gets the job done.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

We play this Sunday, so there will be an update soon after! The party is hiding in the sewers, and hoping to identify some of the magic they got off the golden-eyed man and Kentfield's bodyguard...

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Ulfang, June 3rd, AE 420

Jalea takes the party to a section of sewer to hide out until morning. They have the dead body of Kentfield’s bodyguard, and the drugged, unconscious body of the 15 year old boy who was the intended sacrifice, so they’re a little leery of trying to make it past the night watch with them in tow.

They camp in an older section of the sewers not directly connected to the modern system. It is reached by crawling through a corken down section of wall, then descending a slope covered with broken rocks and bricks that make it difficult for someone to sneak up on them. It also has an access tunnel to the river, opening just under the docks. They set up watches and try to get some rest.

During the second watch, Aris hears a noise coming from the direction of the main sewers. He sneaks up to take a look, and sees a group of a half-dozen cloaked people traversing the sewers near the entrance to the party’s hidey-hole. Some of them are bearing torches, and they appear to be looking for something or someone.

“Great,” the bladesinger thinks to himself.

He informs the next watch, which is manned by Reana and Jalea. Shortly into their shift, Reana hears a noise, and Jalea goes to check it out. Another group of people is checking out this section of sewer, this time they number almost a dozen. The elven scout slips back down the accessway without a sound, and starts waking people up. Jovah wakes up, and sees a large number of leather-clad, cloaked figures coming down the slope.

One of them slips on a rock, and a clattering noise is heard.

“Shhh!” another cloaked figure whispers urgently.

One of the first rogues tosses a torch into the room, right by Brennen. Reana is waiting around the corner from the entrance, and she steps up to the front rank of rogues, and starts swinging. She drops two of them easily, and Jalea drops another with a bow shot. The rest, not expecting this level of resistance, and not terribly confident, run like the dickens.

“That was a pretty sorry bunch of thieves,” Jalea says.

“Sorry or not,” Jovah says, “They’ll be back with more. They might have just been sent to find us, since we know Kentfield has Guild ties.”

“So what do we do now?” Brennen asks.

Jovah thinks for a moment.

“I say we go out the river access tunnel, find a seedy hotel so we can get our spells back, and then go back to the Gold Dragon Inn to do some identifying. We stick the bodyguard’s body in the grate, and come back later to do a speak with dead on him.”

“Wait a minute,” Gavin says. “I’m not swimming anywhere!”

“We’ll get a rowboat if we have to,” Jovah says. “Sheesh.”

The plan works out pretty well. They draw some stares from the early morning fishermen as they climb up out of the river by the docks, but Jalea finds a suitable inn to bunk in, and they are undisturbed for the next several hours. By an hour or so before noon, they are back in the Gold Dragon Inn, with Jovah using suggestions to convince the hotel staff to do the party’s laundry.

“Mission for the Marquis,” he says, handing over a pile of muddy, sewage and blood stained clothes to the incredulous maid.

Jalea goes out on the town to try and see if he can learn more about the man named “Quinn” that cast the evard’s black tentacles at (presumably) Kentfield’s command. Meanwhile, Corwin and Aris prepare identify spells, and spend the next eight hours prepping the items to be identified. When they are ready, they go through them all, Aris starting, then Corwin going second.

Here’s what they have:

• The Bodyguard’s shield is +3, his longsword is +2, his battle axe is +2, and he also had a Ring of Sustenance and a Ring of Shocking Grasp.
• The golden-eyed man’s bracers are Bracers of Armor +4 and his rapier is +2 (they already know it to be shocking).
• The Bard/Assassin’s items are a +1 Ring of Protection and Bracers of Armor +2

Much discussion ensues about how to divy the things up. Brennen takes the Bracers of Armor +4 longsword +2[/i], Corwin takes the Bracers of Armor +4 and the Ring of Sustenance, Aris takes the Ring of Shocking Grasp, Gavin gets the shield +3, and Reana takes the Ring of Protection +1.

“Maybe Jalea could use the rapier?” Brennen asks

“By the way, where is Jalea?”

 

[Lazybones]

Don't mind me, routine page 2 patrol...

**BUMP**

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Ulfang, June 3rd, AE 420

Rewind several hours…

Jalea heads out from the Gold Dragon Inn on a mission to find out as much as he can about the wizard named Quinn. Jalea is fairly certain that this is the same “twitchy” wizard he has seen accompanying Kentfield, and who was staying at the Kentfield country manor.

He decides to start by checking some of his old thief-ly haunts, hoping that no one will recognize him. He goes to the first place on his list, a dockside dive on the west side of town. He asks around for Quinn, indicating that the wizard had intended to hire him for a job, but gets no reaction. No one here has heard of the man. Jalea notices that the place is fairly deserted for early afternoon. Ordinarily the place should be filling up with guild members looking to make connections, find jobs, or just hang out.

The second place he picks, another dive a little further up the west side, doesn’t seem any busier. The bartender just looks at Jalea blankly when the name “Quinn” is mentioned, and shrugs wordlessly.

Then Jalea hears a noise behind him. The bartender’s eyes go up, looking at something. They widen in fear, and then the bartender faints dead away, behind the bar. Jalea looks to a mirror behind the bar to see what is in the room behind him that could cause such a reaction.

Standing about fifteen feet behind the elf is an immense spider-creature. It has four eyes, and eight legs. It’s front four legs have knife-like appendages for claws, looking like huge butcher’s cleavers. The thing appears more golem than spider, and there is no physical way for it to have entered the room via the door.

Atop the spider-thing is a rider in a saddle. The rider is a woman, with long, red hair. She carries a lance, held out to her side because the roof is too low for her to hold it straight up. She also carries a greatsword slung across her back. She swings the point of the lance towards Jalea…

…And that’s all Jalea needs to see, from his point of view. He dives over the bar, as the lance comes sweeping down, smashing glasses and bottles into little pieces. The elf tumbles into the backroom of the bar, and starts looking for the backdoor. Just as he sees it, the door splinters inward, and a trio of thugs rushes into the room, led by Tuck, the half-orc assassin from the Gregarious Gargoyle.

Jalea leaves by the window, instead.

He somersaults into the alley behind the bar, and checks behind him. He notices a crow fly out of the window he exited by, and land on a barrel nearby. He unleashes two arrows into it, but they bounce off harmlessly.

“Aw, hell,” he thinks to himself. He runs for it, heading for the nearest big marketplace, hoping to lose his pursuers in the hustle and bustle.

He makes it to a dockside market, and by hiding here and there, he manages to size up his pursuers, and, he think, lose them. There are seven of them in addition to the spider and its rider. He sneaks into a building, and makes his way to the rooftops, where he begins making his way towards Kentfield’s neighborhood. Jalea is adept at this sort of thing, and the building s in Ulfang tend to be close together, so he is able to avoid the crowds below. There is no sign of his pursuers…

…Until he leaps onto a building, and feels the sweep of a claw, just missing his neck. Suddenly, the spider and rider are there on the roof with him, just becoming visible! Jalea stumbles to the side, and falls off the rooftop, three stories up, but with his Ring of Feather Falling, he lands safely.

Five or six blocks down, he hears a noise, and he looks to that direction. He sees a carriage being driven hard through the streets, with pedestrians either diving out of the way or being run over. It appears that the other seven pursuers are on board, trying to keep up with the Spider-thing. Jalea looks back up to see where it is, and sees it FLY off the roof, and hover there.

“Oh, man, that is so not a good thing…” the elf mutters to himself.

A grey beam shoots out of one of the spider-thing’s four eyes, and everything goes black.

 

[Gavin]

Great. Spiders. Gavin @#%^# hate spiders. Especially really big, mechanical ones with meat cleavers for arms and frickin laser beams on their heads.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Ulfang, June 3rd, AE 420

No one has seen Jalea since he left to do some information gathering earlier this afternoon. It’s now about nine o’clock, and the team is concerned. They decide to split up in order to try and track down Jalea as well as recover Kentfield’s bodyguard and use speak with dead on him. Corwin and Gavin stay in the Inn in case Jalea comes back while the rest of the group is out. Aris and Reana will look for Jalea.

Sir Brennen and Jovah head down towards the east side docks (along the Norden River) to look for a rowboat they can rent. The plan is to rent the rowboat, paddle up to the grate where the bodyguard’s body is stashed, grab the body, paddle somewhere incongruous, and use speak with dead. Then they will dump the body.

The Sword of Kelanen and the Luckbringer of Bes arrive at the docks and find them quite deserted. It’s very late, and there are only a few people out and about, mostly several blocks down near a waterfront tavern. Jovah hears a noise behind him, and turns to see a cloaked figure about thirty feet behind him and Brennen, and a half-orc fighter-type looking straight at him. The half-orc realizes he’s been spotted, and immediately starts whistling a tune, and looking off in the distance as if nothing is happening. Not very convincingly, I might add.

Jovah taps Brennen on the arm, and he turns as well. The cloaked figure curses under his breath, and begins casting a spell, at which point the half-orc pulls his great axe from his belt. Brennen draws his swords, and Jovah casts chaos ward.

The cloaked wizard fires off two bolts of flame at the pair, one at Brennen, and the other at Jovah. Both are seriously singed, and are seriously surprised when he follows this up by doing it again, and then retreating!

Brennen, Jovah, meet 3rd Edition Haste. 3rd Edition Haste, meet Brennen and Jovah.

Brennen charges the half orc, but can’t quite reach him before the wizard zaps him with a ray of enfeeblement. Jovah casts fly, and moves around to where he can get a swing in on the wizard. The wizard is surprised, but laughs at the gnome when his mace glances off his stoneskinned ribs.

“This isn’t going well, Brennen!” Jovah yells out.

And it’s getting worse. From the shadows comes Tuck, the half orc assassin. He manouevers behind Brennen, and sneak attacks him. The Sword is taking hits right and left, but is able to get in a couple big hits on the first half orc, who staggers back from the fight. Brennen slips out of the way, and gets his back up against the wall in order to prevent any more sneak attacks, and faces down Tuck.

The wizard calls out for the first half orc, and the burly fighter starts heading towards him to help him out. He sees Jovah dueling with his master, and standing right on the edge of the docks, and makes a huge tactical blunder. He decides to try and bull rush the gnome off the dock.

The half-orc had only 4 HP left, but the gnome was too inviting a target, and his intelligence was too low. Attack of Opportunity be damned!

Jovah sidesteps the half orc, and whacks him with his heavy mace. The half orc falls into the river, unconscious. The wizard, having seen enough, decides to beat feet towards the alleyway.

Tuck’s expression goes from confident to concerned, as he stumbles over his own feet, and loses his grip on his cutlass. Brennen faces the half orc down, but can’t finish him off; the Swords of Kelanen’s code of conduct precludes attacking an unarmed opponent!

“Surrender!” he tells the assassin.

Tuck is relatively unhurt, and dares the attack of opportunity from the weakened Brennen. He grabs his cutlass and makes a run for it, running down the same alley as the wizard. Brennen draws blood, from the attack of opportunity, and from his readied action.

Jovah flies up to the roof over the alley, and sees Tuck running away.

“Tuck!” he yells. “Hit the ground!” The Ring is proving damned useful.

Tuck hits the ground as if a bomb were about to go off. The wizard, running further down the alley, turns and dispels the charm, but Brennen gets another chance to cut the half orc down to size. Then Tuck takes a step back, and casts a spell, obscuring mist.

“He’s casting a spell?” Brennen yells out to Jovah.

The mist allows Tuck to charge off unseen. The wizard decides to run for it, figuring on his haste to help him make his getaway. Unfortunately, Jovah can fly, and the gnome tracks him down quickly, finally dispelling the haste. He’s been rendered useless in his last two fights, and isn’t about to let this guy get away.

The wizard looks at the three foot tall gnome, and then remembers he has stoneskin.

“Alright, little buddy, come and get it,” he says and whips a dagger at the gnome.

The priest of Bes smiles, casts divine power, and pulls his heavy mace back out. He then closes on the wizard, and proceeds to beat the snot out of him until his stoneskins are all gone!

“Alright!” the wizard yells out, dropping his daggers. “I surrender!”

At about this point, Brennen catches up with them.

The wizard smiles at them.

“Here’s the deal,” he says. “You can sit here and try to interrogate me, or turn me in, or you can maybe save some of your friends. The Inn is being hit right now; the girl and the elf will be hit pretty soon. Your choice: Me or them.”

Brennen is fuming, and grabs the wizard by the collar. He punches him hard, and the wizard crumples, unconscious. The Sword and the priest turns to head back to the Inn, and then Brennen turns back and looks at the wizard again. He goes over to him, and pulls him back up to his feet.

“You’re not a very good faker,” he says, and slugs him again. The possum-playing wizard goes out like a light, this time for real.