Muddled Pasts - Pathfinder 3.5
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jydog1
Explorer
Session #7 - September 6, 2010 - Next Time He Can Go Hug a Porcupine
Notes: Doing this early this week as I'm doing the unthinkable and taking Thursday and Friday off. The madness! Full group, good session. We worked very well as a team in combat and made what was probably a very very difficult fight into one that went our way, although there was a little luck involved. Given the incredible small sized loot we keep getting by fighting goblins Trixie wants to stay here forever. By the end of the session pretty much everyone had made it to 3rd level, which will call for some very difficult choices for Grezz. I almost have to take Mage Armor as my spell, or otherwise train in light armor with my level feat and hope to find something good enough to not have an arcane casting penalty. I get Burning Hands from my bloodline but while Color Spray was a huge help today soon the effectiveness is going to wane. But no doubt, it was a big help today. More notes later.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Orreck appeared to be fairly straightforward and seemed honest. Once we determined he was a greedy fellow it wasn't too hard to talk him into swinging a sword for our side for a cut of the loot. He agreed to help us deal with the goblins, but wanted nothing to do with Nuallia. I figured we might be able to work on that, but in any case he was an incredible trove of info about the base. Lots of goblins, including Ripnugget the Chief, up above. His former right hand man - err, goblin - was a druid named Gogmert who got sort of pushed aside when Rippy and Nuallia joined up. Gogmert was over with the Licktoads, supposedly organizing the tribes as they arrived but possibly making a play for Rippy's position as well. I'm sure we're going to have to deal with him at some point as well. Gogmert is also sowing dissention about 'longshanks' being here at all, another motive for Orreck to get gone.
As for our fair looney, Orreck said she keeps to this level and some basement he hadn't been in. There was also a chapel with guardian demon beats or something along those lines. At that point we were joined by Londis, who had been battling his Varguile Kiss and seasickness in the boat. He immediately came in and started wiggling his fingers, which got Orreck all upset - he's not a big fan of magic. Things got a little testy for a bit. Then we had a big group discussion about whether to go after Nuallia - my choice - or Ripnugget. I was outvoted , so the goblin was first on our agenda. After much discussion, finally we crept upstairs. And by we I mean Trixie, who went up first like a little ghost. The silence and grace she moves with is astounding. Plus it's usually the only time she's not breaking my nuts.
Long story short, we locked/trapped the other doors as best we could upstairs. One was a large set leading outdoors, and it was pretty obvious this was a human-built fort that had been claimed by the little buggers. Poised outside the doors to the chief's throne room we could hear laughing goblins and the sound of combat inside, so we kicked in the doors and took to battle.
The inside was a large room with high ceilings. Tables were scattered hither and yon, and in the center a cleared area had been made for . . . combat. I note it like that because some goblins were fighting against what appeared to be Sandport guards but were clearly, at least to me, illusory in nature. This was confirmed when I saw a dogslicer cut through the torso of a 'foe' without leaving a mark. A second later I was able to spot the source - a female goblin decked out like the one Trixie had outclassed back at the festival. It had a pipe and looked at us with alarm. So did the goblins, including a few hulking ones sitting up by the throne.
That was occupied by a very large goblin who looked at us, yelled something guttural, and pulled an alarm bell. And we were off.
I was slow to react, as usual, but managed to get into the room before the goblins could really do much. The others waded into combat, but I saw the goblin caster make some gestures and drop an absolutely awful illusion of a wall or a curtain or something in front of her. Even my Scarnetti pal Zelran could have done better back in school, and he was terrible with illusions. Now he was terrible with, you know, having a head.
I rushed forward, avoiding flailing weapons, and unleashed an illusory effect of my own, spraying a rainbow from my fingers. The caster started to point at me and mumble something, but then her huge goblin eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped like a stone. So did one of the ones fighting Tofa, but another shook like a dog and stayed up. That one spun and chopped at me with a halberd, but the blow bounced off my ribs with a flare of magic - thank you, Mage Armor scroll.
Then a building hit me.
At least it felt like a building. I saw a blur of motion and had time to realize the chief had mounted a lizard of some sort and was apparently launching from up on the wall. I don't even know what his weapon was - he hit me hard and I was out immediately, with the vague notion that this was very, very bad . . .
Then I snapped to with a start to find Trixie over me, hand on my chest and . . . was that a look of concern on her face?
"Saved your ass again, Grezz. Don't you forget it." Then she was gone.
So possibly not concern.
I scrambled up, grabbed my longspear, and stuck it through the caster several times. End of her story. The chief gave us fits riding what turned out to be a gecko by staying up on the walls, but finally arrows and an elemental ray or two brought him down. The gecko proved to be Trixie-sized, and while the others mopped up the unfortunate goblin reserves who'd showed up she started cooing to it in Goblin, hopping on it, and riding it around the room. She looked at me triumphantly and said, "I shall name her Shotzie." She then rode it up a wall. "Isn't she a pretty blue?"
I paused from hacking off Ripnugget's head with his fancy sword. "How do you know it's a she?"
Telbaine wandered over and said, "Well, there's a spot you can insert a finger into and -"
I waved a bloody hand. "Forget it. I'll take her word for it." Standing up, I held up my gory prize and grinned. "Let's go scare some goblins."
---
Not surprisingly, the few more who'd responded fled the island screaming at the sight of their chief's head, and once on the other side cut down one side of the bridge, making it fairly useless for the time being. Shalue amused herself by picked off a good dozen of them with her longbow before we ran Ripnugget's head up the flagpole. She grinned at me and winked. "Good, good. This is very good. Fun."
We went back down and joined the others in methodically checking room by room. Orreck found the chief's chamber behind his chair and Trixie somehow discovered and figured out how to press three seemingly random stones in a wall to find his treasure trove. The chest inside was trapped - I had keys from around his neck and a mage hand spell, and one giant scythe chopping into nobody later we had some very nice things. I won't go into details but a good amount of money, enough to make Orreck crack a grin. Tofa rolled her eyes and started muttering when we found the armory, where all the swords bought from Dos Korvute had been mutilated into dogslicers, which would have made an eye pop out of his misshapen head. A few stray pickle-throwing goblins later, we opened the door to the courtyard and saw a pack of those goblin giant rat things, the ones with nasty mange. Before we could slam the door back shut Telbaine ran out there and started talking to them, trying to soothe them or something. I have no idea what the nutjob was trying to do and neither did the goblinthings, that looked at him and clearly thought, 'Ummm! Yummy elf!', and proceeded to nosh on him, almost knocking him out before we could waste spells and whatnot to save him. Trixie was near one of the things when it died and got the same nasty mange Telbaine did, and didn't appreciate my attempt at humor. Some females just don't appreciate jokes about social diseases, I guess.
Women. Who can figure them out?
---
We decided, Telbaine's folly and the effects aside, to press on to get Nuallia, as this was probably our best chance. We figured we could make a deal with the mercenary wizard Orreck told us about to stay uninvolved and set off to check out the chapel, where supposedly two horrible beasties resided within.
Two horrible beasties did reside within, and although we funneled them into a murder column weapons didn't seem to hurt them as much as they should have - but elemental rays did just fine. It wasn't a pretty fight but the damage was much less than it could have been, and that was with Orreck watching from the side. He'd agreed to stick along for more loot, but wouldn't fight the demon dogs. He warned that there was a third one somewhere, probably with Nuallia.
Ye gods I don't even know this bitch and I can't wait to kill her (although Orreck says she's gorgeous and we know she likes half-elves. And that's she's single. heh.) This Lamashtu is also becoming a problem in that is she's actually active at some point she's going to get annoyed at us wrecking all her little minions. At the expense of poor language, I feel compelled to say she can lick my left nut if she doesn't like it.
more notes: The caster missed her save on the color spray by 1 - the poor GM groaned as she would have been a major pain in the ass. The halberdier that missed did so only by one, so thank you Mage Armor scroll. The chief had a charging feat that ignored AoE and gave him damage bonuses, and took me from 8 hits to -7 with a single shot. The loot was pretty good - the masterwork chain shirt for Tofa makes her much more mobile. The goblin bard's pipe is also magical, but I boned the detect magic roll so will have to hold on until I can take 20 on it to identify it. As mentioned above I have no idea what to do with my feat/spell - still only first level, so expanded arcana doesn't seem like a great idea unless I defer it to 4th level and get myself an additional 2nd level spell. Dodge? Additional traits? Armor training? Weapon training? Whatever is a poor sorcerer to do?
Oh, and since my HP roll was so tragic last time, I had my wife roll for me this time. She also got a 2, so I have a whopping 10 hits at 3rd level. Toughness? Tofa laughed at me, as she now has a whopping 40 hits. Holy cripes.
Oh, who am I kidding, I'll take mage armor. I have to. if I use my gloves to cast it the spell will last for 5 hours, and that ain't shabby.
in case you missed it, Telbaine the elven druid tried to make friends with goblin dogs without having the ability to speak goblin. The player's willingness to have his character stick to his persona is both fun and frustrating as in this case he and Trixie suffer dex penalities as we go after Nuallia.
So we're healed up, have a few potions and a wand of CLW with 4 charges left as well. I'm at about 50% magic plus new spells like burning hands and probably mage armor; Trixie has 5 rounds of performance left and a gecko; the druid is pretty much running on empty and his fox is hiding on the boat; the inquisitor has been saving his judgment eagerly and got masterwork manacles as a back-up pair; Tofa is in great shape and more more mobile, and I see her as the deciding factor in the upcoming fight if she can rage close to Nuallia. Sound slike that scene from The Blues Brothers - we've got a sorcerer with half his spells, a barbarian ready to fight, it's a long walk down a flight of stairs to the basement, it's light out, and a bloody bit of nastiness is waiting for us.
Hit it.
Notes: Doing this early this week as I'm doing the unthinkable and taking Thursday and Friday off. The madness! Full group, good session. We worked very well as a team in combat and made what was probably a very very difficult fight into one that went our way, although there was a little luck involved. Given the incredible small sized loot we keep getting by fighting goblins Trixie wants to stay here forever. By the end of the session pretty much everyone had made it to 3rd level, which will call for some very difficult choices for Grezz. I almost have to take Mage Armor as my spell, or otherwise train in light armor with my level feat and hope to find something good enough to not have an arcane casting penalty. I get Burning Hands from my bloodline but while Color Spray was a huge help today soon the effectiveness is going to wane. But no doubt, it was a big help today. More notes later.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Orreck appeared to be fairly straightforward and seemed honest. Once we determined he was a greedy fellow it wasn't too hard to talk him into swinging a sword for our side for a cut of the loot. He agreed to help us deal with the goblins, but wanted nothing to do with Nuallia. I figured we might be able to work on that, but in any case he was an incredible trove of info about the base. Lots of goblins, including Ripnugget the Chief, up above. His former right hand man - err, goblin - was a druid named Gogmert who got sort of pushed aside when Rippy and Nuallia joined up. Gogmert was over with the Licktoads, supposedly organizing the tribes as they arrived but possibly making a play for Rippy's position as well. I'm sure we're going to have to deal with him at some point as well. Gogmert is also sowing dissention about 'longshanks' being here at all, another motive for Orreck to get gone.
As for our fair looney, Orreck said she keeps to this level and some basement he hadn't been in. There was also a chapel with guardian demon beats or something along those lines. At that point we were joined by Londis, who had been battling his Varguile Kiss and seasickness in the boat. He immediately came in and started wiggling his fingers, which got Orreck all upset - he's not a big fan of magic. Things got a little testy for a bit. Then we had a big group discussion about whether to go after Nuallia - my choice - or Ripnugget. I was outvoted , so the goblin was first on our agenda. After much discussion, finally we crept upstairs. And by we I mean Trixie, who went up first like a little ghost. The silence and grace she moves with is astounding. Plus it's usually the only time she's not breaking my nuts.
Long story short, we locked/trapped the other doors as best we could upstairs. One was a large set leading outdoors, and it was pretty obvious this was a human-built fort that had been claimed by the little buggers. Poised outside the doors to the chief's throne room we could hear laughing goblins and the sound of combat inside, so we kicked in the doors and took to battle.
The inside was a large room with high ceilings. Tables were scattered hither and yon, and in the center a cleared area had been made for . . . combat. I note it like that because some goblins were fighting against what appeared to be Sandport guards but were clearly, at least to me, illusory in nature. This was confirmed when I saw a dogslicer cut through the torso of a 'foe' without leaving a mark. A second later I was able to spot the source - a female goblin decked out like the one Trixie had outclassed back at the festival. It had a pipe and looked at us with alarm. So did the goblins, including a few hulking ones sitting up by the throne.
That was occupied by a very large goblin who looked at us, yelled something guttural, and pulled an alarm bell. And we were off.
I was slow to react, as usual, but managed to get into the room before the goblins could really do much. The others waded into combat, but I saw the goblin caster make some gestures and drop an absolutely awful illusion of a wall or a curtain or something in front of her. Even my Scarnetti pal Zelran could have done better back in school, and he was terrible with illusions. Now he was terrible with, you know, having a head.
I rushed forward, avoiding flailing weapons, and unleashed an illusory effect of my own, spraying a rainbow from my fingers. The caster started to point at me and mumble something, but then her huge goblin eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped like a stone. So did one of the ones fighting Tofa, but another shook like a dog and stayed up. That one spun and chopped at me with a halberd, but the blow bounced off my ribs with a flare of magic - thank you, Mage Armor scroll.
Then a building hit me.
At least it felt like a building. I saw a blur of motion and had time to realize the chief had mounted a lizard of some sort and was apparently launching from up on the wall. I don't even know what his weapon was - he hit me hard and I was out immediately, with the vague notion that this was very, very bad . . .
Then I snapped to with a start to find Trixie over me, hand on my chest and . . . was that a look of concern on her face?
"Saved your ass again, Grezz. Don't you forget it." Then she was gone.
So possibly not concern.
I scrambled up, grabbed my longspear, and stuck it through the caster several times. End of her story. The chief gave us fits riding what turned out to be a gecko by staying up on the walls, but finally arrows and an elemental ray or two brought him down. The gecko proved to be Trixie-sized, and while the others mopped up the unfortunate goblin reserves who'd showed up she started cooing to it in Goblin, hopping on it, and riding it around the room. She looked at me triumphantly and said, "I shall name her Shotzie." She then rode it up a wall. "Isn't she a pretty blue?"
I paused from hacking off Ripnugget's head with his fancy sword. "How do you know it's a she?"
Telbaine wandered over and said, "Well, there's a spot you can insert a finger into and -"
I waved a bloody hand. "Forget it. I'll take her word for it." Standing up, I held up my gory prize and grinned. "Let's go scare some goblins."
---
Not surprisingly, the few more who'd responded fled the island screaming at the sight of their chief's head, and once on the other side cut down one side of the bridge, making it fairly useless for the time being. Shalue amused herself by picked off a good dozen of them with her longbow before we ran Ripnugget's head up the flagpole. She grinned at me and winked. "Good, good. This is very good. Fun."
We went back down and joined the others in methodically checking room by room. Orreck found the chief's chamber behind his chair and Trixie somehow discovered and figured out how to press three seemingly random stones in a wall to find his treasure trove. The chest inside was trapped - I had keys from around his neck and a mage hand spell, and one giant scythe chopping into nobody later we had some very nice things. I won't go into details but a good amount of money, enough to make Orreck crack a grin. Tofa rolled her eyes and started muttering when we found the armory, where all the swords bought from Dos Korvute had been mutilated into dogslicers, which would have made an eye pop out of his misshapen head. A few stray pickle-throwing goblins later, we opened the door to the courtyard and saw a pack of those goblin giant rat things, the ones with nasty mange. Before we could slam the door back shut Telbaine ran out there and started talking to them, trying to soothe them or something. I have no idea what the nutjob was trying to do and neither did the goblinthings, that looked at him and clearly thought, 'Ummm! Yummy elf!', and proceeded to nosh on him, almost knocking him out before we could waste spells and whatnot to save him. Trixie was near one of the things when it died and got the same nasty mange Telbaine did, and didn't appreciate my attempt at humor. Some females just don't appreciate jokes about social diseases, I guess.
Women. Who can figure them out?
---
We decided, Telbaine's folly and the effects aside, to press on to get Nuallia, as this was probably our best chance. We figured we could make a deal with the mercenary wizard Orreck told us about to stay uninvolved and set off to check out the chapel, where supposedly two horrible beasties resided within.
Two horrible beasties did reside within, and although we funneled them into a murder column weapons didn't seem to hurt them as much as they should have - but elemental rays did just fine. It wasn't a pretty fight but the damage was much less than it could have been, and that was with Orreck watching from the side. He'd agreed to stick along for more loot, but wouldn't fight the demon dogs. He warned that there was a third one somewhere, probably with Nuallia.
Ye gods I don't even know this bitch and I can't wait to kill her (although Orreck says she's gorgeous and we know she likes half-elves. And that's she's single. heh.) This Lamashtu is also becoming a problem in that is she's actually active at some point she's going to get annoyed at us wrecking all her little minions. At the expense of poor language, I feel compelled to say she can lick my left nut if she doesn't like it.
more notes: The caster missed her save on the color spray by 1 - the poor GM groaned as she would have been a major pain in the ass. The halberdier that missed did so only by one, so thank you Mage Armor scroll. The chief had a charging feat that ignored AoE and gave him damage bonuses, and took me from 8 hits to -7 with a single shot. The loot was pretty good - the masterwork chain shirt for Tofa makes her much more mobile. The goblin bard's pipe is also magical, but I boned the detect magic roll so will have to hold on until I can take 20 on it to identify it. As mentioned above I have no idea what to do with my feat/spell - still only first level, so expanded arcana doesn't seem like a great idea unless I defer it to 4th level and get myself an additional 2nd level spell. Dodge? Additional traits? Armor training? Weapon training? Whatever is a poor sorcerer to do?
Oh, and since my HP roll was so tragic last time, I had my wife roll for me this time. She also got a 2, so I have a whopping 10 hits at 3rd level. Toughness? Tofa laughed at me, as she now has a whopping 40 hits. Holy cripes.
Oh, who am I kidding, I'll take mage armor. I have to. if I use my gloves to cast it the spell will last for 5 hours, and that ain't shabby.
in case you missed it, Telbaine the elven druid tried to make friends with goblin dogs without having the ability to speak goblin. The player's willingness to have his character stick to his persona is both fun and frustrating as in this case he and Trixie suffer dex penalities as we go after Nuallia.
So we're healed up, have a few potions and a wand of CLW with 4 charges left as well. I'm at about 50% magic plus new spells like burning hands and probably mage armor; Trixie has 5 rounds of performance left and a gecko; the druid is pretty much running on empty and his fox is hiding on the boat; the inquisitor has been saving his judgment eagerly and got masterwork manacles as a back-up pair; Tofa is in great shape and more more mobile, and I see her as the deciding factor in the upcoming fight if she can rage close to Nuallia. Sound slike that scene from The Blues Brothers - we've got a sorcerer with half his spells, a barbarian ready to fight, it's a long walk down a flight of stairs to the basement, it's light out, and a bloody bit of nastiness is waiting for us.
Hit it.
Last edited:
jydog1
Explorer
Thread Hijack!
(grabs thread while nobody's looking)
Posting for anyone who might be interested - Sagiro, Blackjack, myself, the esteemed Piratecat and other ENWorlders are all staff for something called Otherworld, a weekend adventure event happening Columbus Day weekend. It's a combination of a murder mystery weekend, an Outward Bound weekend, a broadway play, and a really cool story that's all about you. It's not a LARP - no experience, no PvP - and those people who have the best time are those who aren't sure they'd like it at all - check out this testimonial: http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/bl...ftalker/?p=156
It is a terrifically good time and filling up quickly - we're so confident you'll have a good time we offer double your money back if you don't. Seriously.
The day called. It needs saving. Otherworld
(we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread)
(grabs thread while nobody's looking)
Posting for anyone who might be interested - Sagiro, Blackjack, myself, the esteemed Piratecat and other ENWorlders are all staff for something called Otherworld, a weekend adventure event happening Columbus Day weekend. It's a combination of a murder mystery weekend, an Outward Bound weekend, a broadway play, and a really cool story that's all about you. It's not a LARP - no experience, no PvP - and those people who have the best time are those who aren't sure they'd like it at all - check out this testimonial: http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/bl...ftalker/?p=156
It is a terrifically good time and filling up quickly - we're so confident you'll have a good time we offer double your money back if you don't. Seriously.
The day called. It needs saving. Otherworld
(we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread)
jydog1
Explorer
Session #8 - Home to Earth's Embrace
Notes: everyone there. As we started the Gm stood up, produced a pair of gloves, and said, "Now that you're all 3rd level, these come off."
He was NOT kidding.
FYI: Sidron Runes are the seven sided runes that contain the virtues/vices/schools of magic as the runes within.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
I poked at one of the dead dog-like creatures with my longspear as Orik wandered over. "You weren't much of a help in that fight."
He shrugged. "We didn't have a deal about me fighting horrible demon beasts. And we aren't going to have a deal about me fighting Nuallia, so maybe you can just tell me how I'm getting off the island in case she kills you."
Tofa looked up from cleaing blood off her blade. "Do you not want the glory of killing her, yes? Is that not worth the fight?"
Orik laughed. "Not really, no. I want nothing to do with the bitch. I just want to get out of here. Unless you want to make it worth my while with extra shares of the loot."
Londis and Tofa immediately began protesting. He watched them with a bemused smile and said, "We could just all go now, and you could come back. Without me, of course." While all this was going on, Telbaine was looking at him with puppy dog eyes. It was odd.
"Well, we're not done yet, so you're going to have to wait. Might be better off with us," I said, my mind working furiously. He was a brute force in combat and we needed him, and convincing him to come along was going to be tough. Even more worrisome was the idea he might wander around and find the boat - he seemed like a decent guy, but I'd spent my life dealing with mercenaries and they value two things - their money and themselves. So I lied.
"Here's the meat of the matter, Orik - unless you can levitate, like I can, you're not getting off the same way we got on. I don't imagine swimming is an option in that armor of yours, either. So it behooves you to see I don't die."
He mulled that for a second, then waved his hand and started walking away. "Nah. I can always make it across the remains of the bridge if need be. I'll just go wait for you in my room."
"We'll be able to find you by the trail of yellow you're leaving, coward!" shouted Londis.
"Yeah, yeah, somehow I'll have to live with my shame." He kept walking.
"If Nuallia survives she'll be pissed," I offered.
He hesitated, then answered, "I'll just say you knocked me out." Moving again, he was almost out of sight. I fired my last arrow.
"Be a damn shame if I have to tell the Sheriff of Sandport about your role in the deaths of his townspeople, including nobles with pissed off families."
That made him come to a complete stop, and after a moment of being still he came back in our direction, a wry smile on his face. "I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up."
My turn to shrug. "I know what it's like to have an entire noble family looking to wipe me out for vengeance. I wouldn't recommend it, myself."
He looked at me for a while. "Two shares."
I'll spare this journal the negotiating between Orik and the rest of us, but we ended up with him getting a share and a half. Now we just had to survive to collect it.
---
We'd hoped to deal with Lyrie, the mercenary spellcaster, but we chased a couple of goblins into an ambush in her quarters and she had clearly decided to stay loyal. She knew the same color spray spell I do, and used it quite well. My celestial dog was no match for her, but finally Londis was able to corner her and take her down. She had a load of scrolls and whatnot, including a cloak of resistance and something else I didn't have time to really look into, so I just threw it on. In her chilling journals we discovered that she had truly embraced the evil of her mistress and was happily participating in the human sacrifices and torturing of a dwarf in order to try to free some demon named Malfeshnikor, one of Lamasthu's Chosen, from down below. The dwarf was proving successful where the ordinary humans hadn't. His name was Firendrin and his journal was pretty interesting, especially the parts about his not-Owl owl that was currently in a cage here and had been feared by the late Lyrie. Telbaine tried to bond with it and was somewhat successful. Tofa locked gazes with it and described falling into a empty void. I offered some goblin meat (refused), then opened the cage and said, 'Hey, we're looking to help Firendrin. Know where he is?"
The owl-thing, named Kina by Firendrin (or maybe by Kina, as according to his journal it communicates with him), hopped down and walked across the floor, leaving a set of smoking footprints behind it. It stopped at a blank wall and started hooting, and to find the incredibly well-hidden keyhole took Trixie all of about 2 seconds. It was trapped as well, and while I figured the correct key, which we had found elsewhere, would bypass that, I didn't believe it so much that I didn't use mage hand.
A set of stairs took us down to a room with a couple of sarcophagi and big doors one either end. Behind one set ritualistic chanting could be heard. With a quick whispered discussion of a plan of attack and the furtive casting of spells, we kicked the doors open and headed in.
A quick note - while I am a student of magic, I don't purport to really understand it. Does anyone? Shortly after the fight with the Ripnugget and his caster I felt different, as if I were a little more adept with my spells. In fact, two spells I'd studied by never mastered suddenly seemed quite doable. One was the very force armor I'd read off a scroll before that fight, and another was one that allowed me to spray fire from my hands, much like the color spray one did. I also felt as if I could shoot lightning from my fingers instead if I wished. I do like my green lightning. As for now I activated the force armor, leaving me with a single spell in me and a single elemental ray at my disposal. Good thing Lyrie had had a wand of magic missiles, eh? That, along with the one of shocking grasp we'd gotten before, have me some options.
The doors swung open wide to reveal several things:
1) 4 goblin cultists chanting in an almost straight line in front of us. They had wickedly sharp looking knives and turned to us with snarls.
2) a dwarf tied to some altar off to the left. Even from here he looked unhappy.
3) standing in a glowing circle of runes was a woman who was no doubt Nuallia. She was disturbingly attractive, even with one of her hands deformed into a glowing claw surrounded by a sidron rune. Her breastplate left her horribly scarred abdomen exposed, and she had a large bastard sword lying on her shoulder. Did I mention that despite being obviously a bad person she was really attractive?
"So," she said with a sneer in her voice, "the heroes finally arrive, just as I'd planned."
"Hey," I shouted back, "your boyfriend died like a little bitch."
"And so shall you!" she growled. "Kill them!"
Somehow I was the first to react, and my thought was to clear a path for others to get through and get Nuallia. I ran forward and let my new spell fly - lightning flavored, of course. One cultist more or less exploded on the spot, while the other two I managed to get screamed as their flesh popped and sizzled. And so the fight was on.
Telbaine rushed past me and charged Nuallia, the owl-thing that had been perched on his shoulder flying off toward the bound dwarf. This was a poor idea. His glaive seemed to be deflected by her runes - her counterstrike encountered no such issues. In one horrible moment her clawed hand blasted him with a spell that knocked him down, then glowed a nasty black as she clawed him mercilessly. Orik rushed by to try to help and Tofa smashed the unhurt goblin in the face, but then the room was filled with the baying of yet another of those yith dogs (we'd studied the book Trixie had from the quasit's room and now were fairly knowledgeable about the horrid things). It made my eyes water but I stood my ground as the goblins slashed at me. I couldn't tell you about the others in the heat of battle. I activated the shocking grasp wand but the yith eluded my swipe, which allowed me to see what happened to Telbaine.
Nuallia reached down with that claw still glowing black and did something I'd read about but never had the misfortune to witness until now - a death touch. The sidron rune from her claw settled on his chest as a black ray shot from her finger. His body glowed red and black, convulsing mightily until it arched a final time and fell with an ominous limpness.
Then
got weird.
Above the body, a golden glow appeared and coalesced into an elderly female elven face, drawn in sadness. Behind me I heard Shalue gasp, "Ancient Elldari!"
Sadly shaking back and forth, she said in a voice that was not a voice - honestly, I don't know if it was out loud or in our heads - "The last of the Guardians has failed. You must be the new Guardians and save this country." With that vines began to snake out of the stone floor and either encase Telbaine or actually become one with him - I couldn't really see well enough to say. His glaive suddenly exploded with a flash, and I heard Nuallia cry out. I felt as if something had been thrown over me that would protect me somewhat, and I slapped at the yith again. This time I managed to hit it, and it howled in outsider pain as electricity coursed through it. It turned from where it had been battling with Londis - in mid air, did I forget to mention it was flying? - and bit me. It was a savage strike but whatever we'd gotten from the now gone glow absorbed the brunt of it, leaving me with a nasty gash and nothing else. I even managed to stumble out of its attempt to trip me.
Now off to the side of the beast, I turned to Nuallia - who had her hands full with Orik, but appeared to be giving as good as she got with some purplish glow about her - and loosed my final elemental ray. As it hit her I suddenly flashed on one of my classes - she was a Aysimyr, and thus had natural resistance to certain things - such as lightning. My spell looked pretty, but did nothing. I didn't have much time to think about it as the last standing cultist almost hamstrung with a vicious strike, but my armor held and it soon had bigger problems in the form of an arrow sticking out of the back of its head, courtesy of Shalue. Trixie came bounding in on her gecko, beating out a rhythm that filled me with good feelings before throwing a silver dagger at the yith.
It hit and the beast roared in pain before spinning and charging into Orik from behind, sending him sprawling. Before we could help him he made a poor choice and tried to stand up - the yith bit him again and Nuallia hit him hard with her bastard sword. He went back down with a thump and stayed there.
But neither of them looked too mighty themselves at this point. I fired the wand of magic missile at her and while it didn't stagger her, the purple glow around her blinked out. Londis had been harrying her along with Tofa when he wasn't dropping his weapons and one of them - not sure which - took her down. Tofa was raging and had her spooky ravens around her, and the yith was down as well too, leaving us panting but happy to be alive . . . oh, right.
Shalue said a few words over Telbaine's body as we stood there before adding, "We should bury him by the ocean, over by Sandport." I nodded absently, thinking about the logistics of getting his body back in the boat. We'd figure it out. Telbaine was always a little odd and made some . . . interesting decisions, but I was sad to see him die. Stupid bitch Nuallia. I wandered over to Orik, who was beyond help. I know he probably wasn't a saint - the fact he charged right through Nuallia's runes that were designed to keep those untainted by evil out is a bit of a giveway, and also very interesting as Londis did as well - but he did warn those kids and being greedy is not a trait he had all to himself. I have no idea where his soul was supposed to go but I asked Shelyn to help it on the journey, if she wished. At least he gave his life for something that mattered, I suppose.
The dwarf talks. A lot. More on him in a bit. In the other room off the crypt we came in through we found the mechanism keeping the demon imprisoned, along with other things. We have Nuallia's journals and if she couldn't get it out, it's unlikely we could, even if we wanted to. But did she get it close enough so that it can finish the job itself? We're discussing right now what to do - investigate more, or just seal the place up and destroy the special key that got us in here. Either way, I'm out of everything spellwise beyond my cantrips, and feel I couldn't threaten a large kitten at this point. So what do we do?
Notes - yep, death comes to our game. Telbaine's player ran his druid into combat one time too many, it seems, and he got hit so hard by the spell she'd been holding in her claw that the ensuing attack killed him easily. He decided to let the character die, which provided us with the handy Glowing Face of Help that blinded Nuallia for a single round (I immediately thought of Valeria showing up in shiny armor to save Conan and say, 'So, you wanna live forever?') and gave us 8 temps. It was an extremely dicey battle to say the least, and a TPK wasn't out of the question, especially when Trixie and Tofa failed their saves against the baying Yith and were out of the fight fleeing for two rounds. Telbaine's player then took over Orik for the combat and tried to stand up between Nuallia and the Yith, getting absolutely crushed by both of them. So he had two characters die on him, but as Tofa noted he saved us a share and a half. Telbaine's player is probably going to take over the dwarf and make him a PC, he's a witch so we'd be trading out a support role for another support role, which is fine. Trixie's performance skill was incredibly helpful, that +1 to so many things is always a big help. Several attacks and saves made it by that bonus. Firendrin's not-owl almost sucked Tofa into some void with a gaze, so that'll be interesting to have around. We have just stupid amounts of loot right now and once we get back to town Grezz will be spending heaps of time identifying things (like Nuallia's groovy looking amulet, which I got both schools of to start). Now we have to decide whether to make sure the demon's restrained, try to kill said demon, or just get out and lock the place up. Sucks someone had to lose a character, but it's a risky game. If Grezz had bit it I would have been rolling up an alchemist is about 5 seconds. Who WOULDN'T want to be essentially a mad bomber?
Notes: everyone there. As we started the Gm stood up, produced a pair of gloves, and said, "Now that you're all 3rd level, these come off."
He was NOT kidding.
FYI: Sidron Runes are the seven sided runes that contain the virtues/vices/schools of magic as the runes within.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
I poked at one of the dead dog-like creatures with my longspear as Orik wandered over. "You weren't much of a help in that fight."
He shrugged. "We didn't have a deal about me fighting horrible demon beasts. And we aren't going to have a deal about me fighting Nuallia, so maybe you can just tell me how I'm getting off the island in case she kills you."
Tofa looked up from cleaing blood off her blade. "Do you not want the glory of killing her, yes? Is that not worth the fight?"
Orik laughed. "Not really, no. I want nothing to do with the bitch. I just want to get out of here. Unless you want to make it worth my while with extra shares of the loot."
Londis and Tofa immediately began protesting. He watched them with a bemused smile and said, "We could just all go now, and you could come back. Without me, of course." While all this was going on, Telbaine was looking at him with puppy dog eyes. It was odd.
"Well, we're not done yet, so you're going to have to wait. Might be better off with us," I said, my mind working furiously. He was a brute force in combat and we needed him, and convincing him to come along was going to be tough. Even more worrisome was the idea he might wander around and find the boat - he seemed like a decent guy, but I'd spent my life dealing with mercenaries and they value two things - their money and themselves. So I lied.
"Here's the meat of the matter, Orik - unless you can levitate, like I can, you're not getting off the same way we got on. I don't imagine swimming is an option in that armor of yours, either. So it behooves you to see I don't die."
He mulled that for a second, then waved his hand and started walking away. "Nah. I can always make it across the remains of the bridge if need be. I'll just go wait for you in my room."
"We'll be able to find you by the trail of yellow you're leaving, coward!" shouted Londis.
"Yeah, yeah, somehow I'll have to live with my shame." He kept walking.
"If Nuallia survives she'll be pissed," I offered.
He hesitated, then answered, "I'll just say you knocked me out." Moving again, he was almost out of sight. I fired my last arrow.
"Be a damn shame if I have to tell the Sheriff of Sandport about your role in the deaths of his townspeople, including nobles with pissed off families."
That made him come to a complete stop, and after a moment of being still he came back in our direction, a wry smile on his face. "I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up."
My turn to shrug. "I know what it's like to have an entire noble family looking to wipe me out for vengeance. I wouldn't recommend it, myself."
He looked at me for a while. "Two shares."
I'll spare this journal the negotiating between Orik and the rest of us, but we ended up with him getting a share and a half. Now we just had to survive to collect it.
---
We'd hoped to deal with Lyrie, the mercenary spellcaster, but we chased a couple of goblins into an ambush in her quarters and she had clearly decided to stay loyal. She knew the same color spray spell I do, and used it quite well. My celestial dog was no match for her, but finally Londis was able to corner her and take her down. She had a load of scrolls and whatnot, including a cloak of resistance and something else I didn't have time to really look into, so I just threw it on. In her chilling journals we discovered that she had truly embraced the evil of her mistress and was happily participating in the human sacrifices and torturing of a dwarf in order to try to free some demon named Malfeshnikor, one of Lamasthu's Chosen, from down below. The dwarf was proving successful where the ordinary humans hadn't. His name was Firendrin and his journal was pretty interesting, especially the parts about his not-Owl owl that was currently in a cage here and had been feared by the late Lyrie. Telbaine tried to bond with it and was somewhat successful. Tofa locked gazes with it and described falling into a empty void. I offered some goblin meat (refused), then opened the cage and said, 'Hey, we're looking to help Firendrin. Know where he is?"
The owl-thing, named Kina by Firendrin (or maybe by Kina, as according to his journal it communicates with him), hopped down and walked across the floor, leaving a set of smoking footprints behind it. It stopped at a blank wall and started hooting, and to find the incredibly well-hidden keyhole took Trixie all of about 2 seconds. It was trapped as well, and while I figured the correct key, which we had found elsewhere, would bypass that, I didn't believe it so much that I didn't use mage hand.
A set of stairs took us down to a room with a couple of sarcophagi and big doors one either end. Behind one set ritualistic chanting could be heard. With a quick whispered discussion of a plan of attack and the furtive casting of spells, we kicked the doors open and headed in.
A quick note - while I am a student of magic, I don't purport to really understand it. Does anyone? Shortly after the fight with the Ripnugget and his caster I felt different, as if I were a little more adept with my spells. In fact, two spells I'd studied by never mastered suddenly seemed quite doable. One was the very force armor I'd read off a scroll before that fight, and another was one that allowed me to spray fire from my hands, much like the color spray one did. I also felt as if I could shoot lightning from my fingers instead if I wished. I do like my green lightning. As for now I activated the force armor, leaving me with a single spell in me and a single elemental ray at my disposal. Good thing Lyrie had had a wand of magic missiles, eh? That, along with the one of shocking grasp we'd gotten before, have me some options.
The doors swung open wide to reveal several things:
1) 4 goblin cultists chanting in an almost straight line in front of us. They had wickedly sharp looking knives and turned to us with snarls.
2) a dwarf tied to some altar off to the left. Even from here he looked unhappy.
3) standing in a glowing circle of runes was a woman who was no doubt Nuallia. She was disturbingly attractive, even with one of her hands deformed into a glowing claw surrounded by a sidron rune. Her breastplate left her horribly scarred abdomen exposed, and she had a large bastard sword lying on her shoulder. Did I mention that despite being obviously a bad person she was really attractive?
"So," she said with a sneer in her voice, "the heroes finally arrive, just as I'd planned."
"Hey," I shouted back, "your boyfriend died like a little bitch."
"And so shall you!" she growled. "Kill them!"
Somehow I was the first to react, and my thought was to clear a path for others to get through and get Nuallia. I ran forward and let my new spell fly - lightning flavored, of course. One cultist more or less exploded on the spot, while the other two I managed to get screamed as their flesh popped and sizzled. And so the fight was on.
Telbaine rushed past me and charged Nuallia, the owl-thing that had been perched on his shoulder flying off toward the bound dwarf. This was a poor idea. His glaive seemed to be deflected by her runes - her counterstrike encountered no such issues. In one horrible moment her clawed hand blasted him with a spell that knocked him down, then glowed a nasty black as she clawed him mercilessly. Orik rushed by to try to help and Tofa smashed the unhurt goblin in the face, but then the room was filled with the baying of yet another of those yith dogs (we'd studied the book Trixie had from the quasit's room and now were fairly knowledgeable about the horrid things). It made my eyes water but I stood my ground as the goblins slashed at me. I couldn't tell you about the others in the heat of battle. I activated the shocking grasp wand but the yith eluded my swipe, which allowed me to see what happened to Telbaine.
Nuallia reached down with that claw still glowing black and did something I'd read about but never had the misfortune to witness until now - a death touch. The sidron rune from her claw settled on his chest as a black ray shot from her finger. His body glowed red and black, convulsing mightily until it arched a final time and fell with an ominous limpness.
Then
got weird.Above the body, a golden glow appeared and coalesced into an elderly female elven face, drawn in sadness. Behind me I heard Shalue gasp, "Ancient Elldari!"
Sadly shaking back and forth, she said in a voice that was not a voice - honestly, I don't know if it was out loud or in our heads - "The last of the Guardians has failed. You must be the new Guardians and save this country." With that vines began to snake out of the stone floor and either encase Telbaine or actually become one with him - I couldn't really see well enough to say. His glaive suddenly exploded with a flash, and I heard Nuallia cry out. I felt as if something had been thrown over me that would protect me somewhat, and I slapped at the yith again. This time I managed to hit it, and it howled in outsider pain as electricity coursed through it. It turned from where it had been battling with Londis - in mid air, did I forget to mention it was flying? - and bit me. It was a savage strike but whatever we'd gotten from the now gone glow absorbed the brunt of it, leaving me with a nasty gash and nothing else. I even managed to stumble out of its attempt to trip me.
Now off to the side of the beast, I turned to Nuallia - who had her hands full with Orik, but appeared to be giving as good as she got with some purplish glow about her - and loosed my final elemental ray. As it hit her I suddenly flashed on one of my classes - she was a Aysimyr, and thus had natural resistance to certain things - such as lightning. My spell looked pretty, but did nothing. I didn't have much time to think about it as the last standing cultist almost hamstrung with a vicious strike, but my armor held and it soon had bigger problems in the form of an arrow sticking out of the back of its head, courtesy of Shalue. Trixie came bounding in on her gecko, beating out a rhythm that filled me with good feelings before throwing a silver dagger at the yith.
It hit and the beast roared in pain before spinning and charging into Orik from behind, sending him sprawling. Before we could help him he made a poor choice and tried to stand up - the yith bit him again and Nuallia hit him hard with her bastard sword. He went back down with a thump and stayed there.
But neither of them looked too mighty themselves at this point. I fired the wand of magic missile at her and while it didn't stagger her, the purple glow around her blinked out. Londis had been harrying her along with Tofa when he wasn't dropping his weapons and one of them - not sure which - took her down. Tofa was raging and had her spooky ravens around her, and the yith was down as well too, leaving us panting but happy to be alive . . . oh, right.
Shalue said a few words over Telbaine's body as we stood there before adding, "We should bury him by the ocean, over by Sandport." I nodded absently, thinking about the logistics of getting his body back in the boat. We'd figure it out. Telbaine was always a little odd and made some . . . interesting decisions, but I was sad to see him die. Stupid bitch Nuallia. I wandered over to Orik, who was beyond help. I know he probably wasn't a saint - the fact he charged right through Nuallia's runes that were designed to keep those untainted by evil out is a bit of a giveway, and also very interesting as Londis did as well - but he did warn those kids and being greedy is not a trait he had all to himself. I have no idea where his soul was supposed to go but I asked Shelyn to help it on the journey, if she wished. At least he gave his life for something that mattered, I suppose.
The dwarf talks. A lot. More on him in a bit. In the other room off the crypt we came in through we found the mechanism keeping the demon imprisoned, along with other things. We have Nuallia's journals and if she couldn't get it out, it's unlikely we could, even if we wanted to. But did she get it close enough so that it can finish the job itself? We're discussing right now what to do - investigate more, or just seal the place up and destroy the special key that got us in here. Either way, I'm out of everything spellwise beyond my cantrips, and feel I couldn't threaten a large kitten at this point. So what do we do?
Notes - yep, death comes to our game. Telbaine's player ran his druid into combat one time too many, it seems, and he got hit so hard by the spell she'd been holding in her claw that the ensuing attack killed him easily. He decided to let the character die, which provided us with the handy Glowing Face of Help that blinded Nuallia for a single round (I immediately thought of Valeria showing up in shiny armor to save Conan and say, 'So, you wanna live forever?') and gave us 8 temps. It was an extremely dicey battle to say the least, and a TPK wasn't out of the question, especially when Trixie and Tofa failed their saves against the baying Yith and were out of the fight fleeing for two rounds. Telbaine's player then took over Orik for the combat and tried to stand up between Nuallia and the Yith, getting absolutely crushed by both of them. So he had two characters die on him, but as Tofa noted he saved us a share and a half. Telbaine's player is probably going to take over the dwarf and make him a PC, he's a witch so we'd be trading out a support role for another support role, which is fine. Trixie's performance skill was incredibly helpful, that +1 to so many things is always a big help. Several attacks and saves made it by that bonus. Firendrin's not-owl almost sucked Tofa into some void with a gaze, so that'll be interesting to have around. We have just stupid amounts of loot right now and once we get back to town Grezz will be spending heaps of time identifying things (like Nuallia's groovy looking amulet, which I got both schools of to start). Now we have to decide whether to make sure the demon's restrained, try to kill said demon, or just get out and lock the place up. Sucks someone had to lose a character, but it's a risky game. If Grezz had bit it I would have been rolling up an alchemist is about 5 seconds. Who WOULDN'T want to be essentially a mad bomber?
Last edited:
jydog1
Explorer
Session #9 - Sept 20, 2010 - Enough with the Monologuing!
Notes: it seems that Telbaine's antics were less questionable and more suicidal, as the player wasn't enjoying the character anymore and had been working with the GM to make a new one, which just happened to be the dwarf witch we saved last session. So, the party is now at 3rd level and consists of:
Tofa, female human barbarian
Trixie, female halfling bard, and her wondergecko Shotzie
Londis, male human inquisitor
Firendrin, male dwarf witch
Grezzalik, male half-elf sorcerer
Shalue, female elf ranger (NPC)
This session had us making a brutal rookie mistake, a great distraction idea, the value of the versatility of a well-constructed bard showing its importance, and the party working together very well. Oh, and the overwhelming greed.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Decisions, decisions. We stood in a chamber, trying to figure out our next move. Down one hallway was a partially submerged room absolutely brimming with treasure. In front of us was a golden barrier that had stymied Nuallia in her attempt to free Malfeshnekor. It looked like giant gold coins stacked up with writing along their edges - writing I could read, as it was Thassilonian.
"Give to the Glory of Xin." I frowned. "That's got to be the Xin who developed the Sihidron, and created the Seven Nations, and so on." I gave a low whistle. "This is over 9000 years old. And obviously an illusion." It didn't take much to confirm that the gilding covered a solid stone column. "But if Nuallia couldn't get through after all the time she spent researching, I'm not sure how we will."
Trixie cruised over on her gecko and glanced at the would-be portal. After about three seconds she pointed and said, "There's a slot there. Oh, and another one over there." (OOC: a DC26 check)
The rest of us crowded around and looked fruitlessly. With a sigh she rode over and stuck her finger in one - even then it was tough to see. "How did you see that?", I asked incredulously.
She shrugged. "Pretty obvious, if you ask me. About the right size for a coin."
Tofa struck in a copper piece, which disappeared. Nothing happened. "It probably needs to be gold," I suggested, at which point there was a lot of looking down and away. With a grumble I dug out a pair of gold pieces and, with Trixie's guidance, slid one in each slot.
::click:: GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND The illusion vanished and the column spun down into the ground, revealing an antichamber with 3 sets of doors. It looked like it hadn't been disturbed in eons. We peered in cautiously and saw nothing moving. "Okay, what now?"
The group decision was to pull back and rest, which was a good idea as I had zero spells left and others were just as drained. We lugged some loot out, moved the bodies of Telbaine and Orik (which began a wicked debate between us, with myself and Shalue feeling he deserved a burial of some sort and the others disagreeing. This would continue for some time), and checked on the goblins.
Actually, there were no goblins to check, as they seemed to have left the other side of the bridge. As we'd hoped, the death of Ripnugget and Nuallia had been enough to send them back to being their normally squabblesome selves. The town did seem to be saved.
Well, maybe. We did have this demon. While we rested Trixie translated the demonomicon for us and we realized we were looking at a barghest, possibly a greater one since they seem to gain power via sacrifices. As far as we knew, Nuallia had fed enough to the thing so that it could break free by itself. I was still for locking the door and destroying the special key, but the others wanted to take care of it and Shalue was quietly insistent. I didn't put up too much of a fight - deep down I knew we had to take it out.
The need to do this was reinforced as I breezed through Nuallia's journals (OOC: natural 20 on the knowledge check). I managed to figure out what Nuallia's amulet did (OOC: another nat 20 in the spellcraft check) and quickly put it on - in addition to resistances it allowed me to graft additional protection on myself, once every twenty four hours or so (OOC: temps!). yes indeed, I put it on. I managed to figure out what just abou everything we found was, with a little aid from Londis. The pipes the goblin bard had could also summon spiders. Trixie was horrified.
I also tried to get to know our new companion a bit, despite his somewhat ungrateful attitude. He'd managed to make some clothes out of what they'd found upstairs in the living quarters and we'd given him back his equipment, less one thing. With a sad noise I peeled the cloak off my back and handed it to him. I waited, but when it was obvious no thanks was forthcoming I said, "So, that's a pretty interesting cloak. I know it has some resistances built in, but there's something else I couldn't figure out. Can I ask what it is?"
He just stared at me, that spooky owl on his shoulder. "Why should I tell you?"
"I'm just curious, is all. Magic interests me."
Now I got a glare. "Well, I'm not telling you. Why should I?"
I cocked my head. "You do remember us rescuing you from being tortured, right? Just a few hours ago?"
"Oh, and you read my journal. You had no right."
"What? We didn't even know it was your journal at the time. And without it we wouldn't have known the owl was yours, and might not have found you."
His response was none at all, and after several seconds of being ignored I rolled my eyes and walked away. The sooner we could dump him off in Sandport, the better.
So, before us stood a big nasty scary demon, and so we set off to vanquish evil!
But first, we had to go loot the other room. Seriously.
Londis and Tofa are obsessed with wealth. OBSESSED. The room was pretty much flooded but we figured that with my mage hand I could pull stuff up. So we headed down there, Londis running point to protect me if need be. there was a giant helm, possibly gold, that was somehow moving around. I was figuring it was on top of a giant crab or something, which would be fine because we'd figure that out and could be on our way to fight, you know, the demon. Anyway, Londis got a few steps down the corridor when two portcullises dropped, trapping him, and a pair of statues started flailing away at him with polearms (OOC: yes. I've been gaming for 30 years and Londis' player is hardcore and WE FORGOT TO CHECK FOR TRAPS ON THE CORRIDOR TO THE TREASURE ROOM. My shame knows no bounds). He grunted as one connected and tried to break their weapons. This didn't look good.
Then Trixie rode up on Shotzie, took a brief glance, then urged the gecko to take her to a sconce, which she twisted. The statues returned to a guard postion and the portcullises rose back into the ceiling. She gave the area another quick glance and then turned the sconce in a different direction, eliciting a set of clicks.
"Okay, I've turned off that trap and the one up by the other set of statues too." She paused, then looked at Londis. "By the way, after about 20 seconds the floor would have opened up into a pit of some sort. Probably spiked or something, I can check if you want."
"No, that's okay." Londis zapped himself with our curing wand. "Thank you," he mumbled in a brusque tone.
"No problem," she answered, then turned to look at me. "What? Why are you staring at me?"
I hadn't realized I'd been doing so, but . . . "By Shelyn's Grace, that was incredible."
"Yeah, well, whatever. Hey, that giant helmet is moving."
Indeed it was. In fact I was wrong as the helmet was not being carried by something beneath it as much as it was being worn by a giant hermit crab. Londis pulled out a bow and started to plink away at it, but Tofa and Trixie raised an objection and the crab just pulled inside the shell - err, helmet. Then Londis suddenly looked at me and gave what passes for his grin before rushing out of the room. The rest of us just kind of looked at one another until he came back with one of the goblin caster bodies, which he then tossed into one of the corners. The crab thought this was a fine, fine idea and set to eating. It was making pretty short work of the goblin so Londis got the others and Nuallia's headless body as well, allowing us to take EVERYTHING. Along with a load of coins and gems we found an amulet that made one's skin tough like treebark that Londis was only too glad to don.
Then, finally, we got down to business. The three sets of doors had different features - one set was plain, one had reliefs of soldiers on guard and a book, and one a depressed sihidron rune and no handles. We went with the plain doors first, which opened to an examination room of some kind. We found surgical tools, abnormal skeletons, and a odd-looking sihidron rune that we figured to be a key of some sort. The room behind the book and glaive-soldiers had a throne with a faded illusion giving a speech in Thasselonian. He had gems in his forehead and a fancy glaive behind him, and I was able to get bits and pieces of his speech as it cut in and out: "time is upon, witness . . . Alonzist's petty (something) is but a bit of flash . . . take my final (something) graves . ." I wish it had been more audible.
So, one door left, radiating magic, and with no handles but a spot that looked made for the key we'd just found. We cast spells on ourselves, took a deep breath, then inserted said key. The doors slid sideways, out of sight, and a loud chuckle filled the air. Before us was a large room with a pit of fire in the center.
So, foolish mortals, you have succeed freeing me after Nuallia had failed!
Wonderful. I looked to the damage sponges in front of me, who were just standing in the doorway. Time to go, gang!
After 9000 years of being held in this infernal prison, I shall now be free to wreak my vengeance! And you fools shall be the first I slay!
More laughter. I'd had about enough of this. I had my mage armor going, layers of protection from what used to be Nuallia's and was now my amulet, and I'd be damned if I was going to listen to this . . . whatever sit out of sight and blather on. Screw it.
So, now, we shall . . .
"Oh, just shut up, will you? Right, right, we're dead, you're all mighty, good for you." While I was talking my hands did their dance and summoned a glowing dog in the center of the room. Firendren sent his owl streaking in as well, and that while that wasn't enough to make Malfeshnekor shut the hell up, if did make him step out for the fight.
He was big. Huge, even, and I felt a sense of dread settle over me. Still, there was no choice but to fight, so we waded in. From Trixie's book we knew its strengths and weaknesses, but that only made things a little easier. The bard's song rang out, counteracting some of the gloom, and Firendrin rushed forward and sprayed fire from his fingers, singing the beast.
Malfeshnekor was something half-wolf, half something crouching on all fours. It scrabbled at Londis but didn't harm him, but hit Tofa. She howled and slipped into that crazy-ass white-of-the-eyes berserker thing she does with the ravens. I sprayed fire as well, cranked up by my gloves, but the demon dodged some of it. I should have changed it to lightning. A heat of the battle mistake. With us spreading out and surrounding him Malfeshnekor had plenty of targets, and Tofa got clocked again.
Wands are wonderful, expensive items that hard to come by and should be treasured, but there wasn't a better time for one to be used. I slid the shocking grasp one into my hand and powered it up, but the demon dodged my attack.
Fools! To fight me is futile. I would offer you painless deaths, but that will not happen. It clawed and snapped at Londis, he swung back with his morningstar. Both missed. I shall drink deeply of your souls even as I rend your bodies! Ahhh!
That last bit came after I finally smacked him with my charged up hand and sent the lightning arching through his body. He responded by pounding me with a claw, peeling away several layers of my amulet's protection but not getting through all the way. It hit Tofa again and she dropped back, badly hurt, but still having done damage to the demon herself. Londis howled in frustration as he missed again. Trixie fired off her spell that causes the subject to collapse in laughter, but Malfeshnekor merely shook and rumbled, I do not find you funny.
Figuring 'why not?', I charged the wand and smacked him again. This time I nailed him but good, and he howled with outrage and the smell of burned hair filled the room. Now we were all hitting, and it tried to clear a path to escape. No dice. My replacement dog wasn't landing any blows but the glowing mutt was helping to keep it corralled.
No! NO!!! After 9000 years I want my freedom!
I stepped back, leveled my arm, and said, "Then you shoulda left town before we showed up." I cut loose with an elemental bolt, just like I did with Zerlan Scarnetti.
The results were strikingly similar. Malfeshnekor's head exploded and the demon dropped, vanquished. Nobody on our side was dead - with healing being administered Tofa was looking her usual hale self - and the bad guy was done. I gave a deep sigh of relief.
"Hey." It was Trixie. "Is that a secret compartment over there, under the molding?"
Of course it was.
- - -
I sat back in the Rusty Dragon with a pint of Gavrin's special summer ale, watching as the revelry swarmed all around. We'd come back to town and while there was much lament of Telbaine's falling (especially among the sailors) we were hailed as the saviors of Sandport. We'd been given a hefty reward, been told we were going to have statues made of us, and given lifetime lodgings at this inn by a grateful Amieko. We'd buried the druid today, along with whatever secrets he hadn't shared with us, such as what the hell we were now Guardians of. Naffir Voss was heading over to talk, which was fine. He was a good guy. I managed to keep the others from heaving Orik's body overboard on the way back with some help from Shalue (who was here with her fiance, a half-elf named Bertran), and would bury him somewhere Londis couldn't dig him up from tomorrow. Trixie and Tofa were going down to see Foxglove on the morrow, supposedly so Trixie could wring his neck for being married.
And me? Well, right now I wasn't sure. I needed to speak with the town sage, who was back. I needed to talk to Naffir and see what goodies he had, now that I was flush with cash- did I mention that Trixie did indeed spot a compartment the demon hadn't found in 9000 years of captivity (OOC: DC27 - trixie is amazing) and we found a ring of force shield that I'd love to have, but we'll see. Firendrin made mewling noises when I identified it (OOC: DC31 for the 9th level caster - I rolled a natural 20, had a spellcraft of +10, and made it with a +2 assist from Londis)? I hope he has access to potions or something that can permanently make me quicker, or smarter, or whatever. As for the dwarf it seems we might not be done with him yet, and one can only hope his attitude improves somewhat. After all, we only saved his life. I need to try to make some things with my alchemical kit. I need to do some spell research, I need to go through the journals with more attention, I need to possibly confront Titus Scarnetti and see if he's really going to come after me, I need to try to find my mother and, possibly, my father as well.
But for now I need to relax, have a drink, talk with friends, and enjoy the fact that I'm still alive.
First I have to duck Vin Vinder's daughter, though.
more notes: after having looked at a greater barghest in the Bestiary I have to assume that Mal either wasn't a full one, couldn't get off some of his spells because we kept clocking him, or was slightly reined in by the GM. It was a tough fight, but the majority of spells didn't come out. We have finished a major arc but the GM is swamped at work so it'll be a bit before we sort everything out. Foxy is not married but instead had commissioned a female artist to . . . paint a giant mural of a semi-nude Trixie on his bedroom ceiling. The naive Trixie was impressed and rewarded him - Tofa laughed herself to tears (The women playing these two were hysterical during this bit). And I cannot tell you how lucky I was to take the Varisian tattoo trait (we made it a trait because it seemed silly to have it as a feat) and thus feel compelled to take Thasselonian as a language - it was invaluable during these mods. We have a side job for Scarnetti we might or might not do but we have a skip session coming up on the 11th and we might be Trixie-less for the 4th as well, so we'll see. I also felt bad about interrupting the GM while he was monologuing, but Grezz doesn't like bullies. He kept going anyway
Notes: it seems that Telbaine's antics were less questionable and more suicidal, as the player wasn't enjoying the character anymore and had been working with the GM to make a new one, which just happened to be the dwarf witch we saved last session. So, the party is now at 3rd level and consists of:
Tofa, female human barbarian
Trixie, female halfling bard, and her wondergecko Shotzie
Londis, male human inquisitor
Firendrin, male dwarf witch
Grezzalik, male half-elf sorcerer
Shalue, female elf ranger (NPC)
This session had us making a brutal rookie mistake, a great distraction idea, the value of the versatility of a well-constructed bard showing its importance, and the party working together very well. Oh, and the overwhelming greed.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Decisions, decisions. We stood in a chamber, trying to figure out our next move. Down one hallway was a partially submerged room absolutely brimming with treasure. In front of us was a golden barrier that had stymied Nuallia in her attempt to free Malfeshnekor. It looked like giant gold coins stacked up with writing along their edges - writing I could read, as it was Thassilonian.
"Give to the Glory of Xin." I frowned. "That's got to be the Xin who developed the Sihidron, and created the Seven Nations, and so on." I gave a low whistle. "This is over 9000 years old. And obviously an illusion." It didn't take much to confirm that the gilding covered a solid stone column. "But if Nuallia couldn't get through after all the time she spent researching, I'm not sure how we will."
Trixie cruised over on her gecko and glanced at the would-be portal. After about three seconds she pointed and said, "There's a slot there. Oh, and another one over there." (OOC: a DC26 check)
The rest of us crowded around and looked fruitlessly. With a sigh she rode over and stuck her finger in one - even then it was tough to see. "How did you see that?", I asked incredulously.
She shrugged. "Pretty obvious, if you ask me. About the right size for a coin."
Tofa struck in a copper piece, which disappeared. Nothing happened. "It probably needs to be gold," I suggested, at which point there was a lot of looking down and away. With a grumble I dug out a pair of gold pieces and, with Trixie's guidance, slid one in each slot.
::click:: GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND The illusion vanished and the column spun down into the ground, revealing an antichamber with 3 sets of doors. It looked like it hadn't been disturbed in eons. We peered in cautiously and saw nothing moving. "Okay, what now?"
The group decision was to pull back and rest, which was a good idea as I had zero spells left and others were just as drained. We lugged some loot out, moved the bodies of Telbaine and Orik (which began a wicked debate between us, with myself and Shalue feeling he deserved a burial of some sort and the others disagreeing. This would continue for some time), and checked on the goblins.
Actually, there were no goblins to check, as they seemed to have left the other side of the bridge. As we'd hoped, the death of Ripnugget and Nuallia had been enough to send them back to being their normally squabblesome selves. The town did seem to be saved.
Well, maybe. We did have this demon. While we rested Trixie translated the demonomicon for us and we realized we were looking at a barghest, possibly a greater one since they seem to gain power via sacrifices. As far as we knew, Nuallia had fed enough to the thing so that it could break free by itself. I was still for locking the door and destroying the special key, but the others wanted to take care of it and Shalue was quietly insistent. I didn't put up too much of a fight - deep down I knew we had to take it out.
The need to do this was reinforced as I breezed through Nuallia's journals (OOC: natural 20 on the knowledge check). I managed to figure out what Nuallia's amulet did (OOC: another nat 20 in the spellcraft check) and quickly put it on - in addition to resistances it allowed me to graft additional protection on myself, once every twenty four hours or so (OOC: temps!). yes indeed, I put it on. I managed to figure out what just abou everything we found was, with a little aid from Londis. The pipes the goblin bard had could also summon spiders. Trixie was horrified.
I also tried to get to know our new companion a bit, despite his somewhat ungrateful attitude. He'd managed to make some clothes out of what they'd found upstairs in the living quarters and we'd given him back his equipment, less one thing. With a sad noise I peeled the cloak off my back and handed it to him. I waited, but when it was obvious no thanks was forthcoming I said, "So, that's a pretty interesting cloak. I know it has some resistances built in, but there's something else I couldn't figure out. Can I ask what it is?"
He just stared at me, that spooky owl on his shoulder. "Why should I tell you?"
"I'm just curious, is all. Magic interests me."
Now I got a glare. "Well, I'm not telling you. Why should I?"
I cocked my head. "You do remember us rescuing you from being tortured, right? Just a few hours ago?"
"Oh, and you read my journal. You had no right."
"What? We didn't even know it was your journal at the time. And without it we wouldn't have known the owl was yours, and might not have found you."
His response was none at all, and after several seconds of being ignored I rolled my eyes and walked away. The sooner we could dump him off in Sandport, the better.
So, before us stood a big nasty scary demon, and so we set off to vanquish evil!
But first, we had to go loot the other room. Seriously.
Londis and Tofa are obsessed with wealth. OBSESSED. The room was pretty much flooded but we figured that with my mage hand I could pull stuff up. So we headed down there, Londis running point to protect me if need be. there was a giant helm, possibly gold, that was somehow moving around. I was figuring it was on top of a giant crab or something, which would be fine because we'd figure that out and could be on our way to fight, you know, the demon. Anyway, Londis got a few steps down the corridor when two portcullises dropped, trapping him, and a pair of statues started flailing away at him with polearms (OOC: yes. I've been gaming for 30 years and Londis' player is hardcore and WE FORGOT TO CHECK FOR TRAPS ON THE CORRIDOR TO THE TREASURE ROOM. My shame knows no bounds). He grunted as one connected and tried to break their weapons. This didn't look good.
Then Trixie rode up on Shotzie, took a brief glance, then urged the gecko to take her to a sconce, which she twisted. The statues returned to a guard postion and the portcullises rose back into the ceiling. She gave the area another quick glance and then turned the sconce in a different direction, eliciting a set of clicks.
"Okay, I've turned off that trap and the one up by the other set of statues too." She paused, then looked at Londis. "By the way, after about 20 seconds the floor would have opened up into a pit of some sort. Probably spiked or something, I can check if you want."
"No, that's okay." Londis zapped himself with our curing wand. "Thank you," he mumbled in a brusque tone.
"No problem," she answered, then turned to look at me. "What? Why are you staring at me?"
I hadn't realized I'd been doing so, but . . . "By Shelyn's Grace, that was incredible."
"Yeah, well, whatever. Hey, that giant helmet is moving."
Indeed it was. In fact I was wrong as the helmet was not being carried by something beneath it as much as it was being worn by a giant hermit crab. Londis pulled out a bow and started to plink away at it, but Tofa and Trixie raised an objection and the crab just pulled inside the shell - err, helmet. Then Londis suddenly looked at me and gave what passes for his grin before rushing out of the room. The rest of us just kind of looked at one another until he came back with one of the goblin caster bodies, which he then tossed into one of the corners. The crab thought this was a fine, fine idea and set to eating. It was making pretty short work of the goblin so Londis got the others and Nuallia's headless body as well, allowing us to take EVERYTHING. Along with a load of coins and gems we found an amulet that made one's skin tough like treebark that Londis was only too glad to don.
Then, finally, we got down to business. The three sets of doors had different features - one set was plain, one had reliefs of soldiers on guard and a book, and one a depressed sihidron rune and no handles. We went with the plain doors first, which opened to an examination room of some kind. We found surgical tools, abnormal skeletons, and a odd-looking sihidron rune that we figured to be a key of some sort. The room behind the book and glaive-soldiers had a throne with a faded illusion giving a speech in Thasselonian. He had gems in his forehead and a fancy glaive behind him, and I was able to get bits and pieces of his speech as it cut in and out: "time is upon, witness . . . Alonzist's petty (something) is but a bit of flash . . . take my final (something) graves . ." I wish it had been more audible.
So, one door left, radiating magic, and with no handles but a spot that looked made for the key we'd just found. We cast spells on ourselves, took a deep breath, then inserted said key. The doors slid sideways, out of sight, and a loud chuckle filled the air. Before us was a large room with a pit of fire in the center.
So, foolish mortals, you have succeed freeing me after Nuallia had failed!
Wonderful. I looked to the damage sponges in front of me, who were just standing in the doorway. Time to go, gang!
After 9000 years of being held in this infernal prison, I shall now be free to wreak my vengeance! And you fools shall be the first I slay!
More laughter. I'd had about enough of this. I had my mage armor going, layers of protection from what used to be Nuallia's and was now my amulet, and I'd be damned if I was going to listen to this . . . whatever sit out of sight and blather on. Screw it.
So, now, we shall . . .
"Oh, just shut up, will you? Right, right, we're dead, you're all mighty, good for you." While I was talking my hands did their dance and summoned a glowing dog in the center of the room. Firendren sent his owl streaking in as well, and that while that wasn't enough to make Malfeshnekor shut the hell up, if did make him step out for the fight.
He was big. Huge, even, and I felt a sense of dread settle over me. Still, there was no choice but to fight, so we waded in. From Trixie's book we knew its strengths and weaknesses, but that only made things a little easier. The bard's song rang out, counteracting some of the gloom, and Firendrin rushed forward and sprayed fire from his fingers, singing the beast.
Malfeshnekor was something half-wolf, half something crouching on all fours. It scrabbled at Londis but didn't harm him, but hit Tofa. She howled and slipped into that crazy-ass white-of-the-eyes berserker thing she does with the ravens. I sprayed fire as well, cranked up by my gloves, but the demon dodged some of it. I should have changed it to lightning. A heat of the battle mistake. With us spreading out and surrounding him Malfeshnekor had plenty of targets, and Tofa got clocked again.
Wands are wonderful, expensive items that hard to come by and should be treasured, but there wasn't a better time for one to be used. I slid the shocking grasp one into my hand and powered it up, but the demon dodged my attack.
Fools! To fight me is futile. I would offer you painless deaths, but that will not happen. It clawed and snapped at Londis, he swung back with his morningstar. Both missed. I shall drink deeply of your souls even as I rend your bodies! Ahhh!
That last bit came after I finally smacked him with my charged up hand and sent the lightning arching through his body. He responded by pounding me with a claw, peeling away several layers of my amulet's protection but not getting through all the way. It hit Tofa again and she dropped back, badly hurt, but still having done damage to the demon herself. Londis howled in frustration as he missed again. Trixie fired off her spell that causes the subject to collapse in laughter, but Malfeshnekor merely shook and rumbled, I do not find you funny.
Figuring 'why not?', I charged the wand and smacked him again. This time I nailed him but good, and he howled with outrage and the smell of burned hair filled the room. Now we were all hitting, and it tried to clear a path to escape. No dice. My replacement dog wasn't landing any blows but the glowing mutt was helping to keep it corralled.
No! NO!!! After 9000 years I want my freedom!
I stepped back, leveled my arm, and said, "Then you shoulda left town before we showed up." I cut loose with an elemental bolt, just like I did with Zerlan Scarnetti.
The results were strikingly similar. Malfeshnekor's head exploded and the demon dropped, vanquished. Nobody on our side was dead - with healing being administered Tofa was looking her usual hale self - and the bad guy was done. I gave a deep sigh of relief.
"Hey." It was Trixie. "Is that a secret compartment over there, under the molding?"
Of course it was.
- - -
I sat back in the Rusty Dragon with a pint of Gavrin's special summer ale, watching as the revelry swarmed all around. We'd come back to town and while there was much lament of Telbaine's falling (especially among the sailors) we were hailed as the saviors of Sandport. We'd been given a hefty reward, been told we were going to have statues made of us, and given lifetime lodgings at this inn by a grateful Amieko. We'd buried the druid today, along with whatever secrets he hadn't shared with us, such as what the hell we were now Guardians of. Naffir Voss was heading over to talk, which was fine. He was a good guy. I managed to keep the others from heaving Orik's body overboard on the way back with some help from Shalue (who was here with her fiance, a half-elf named Bertran), and would bury him somewhere Londis couldn't dig him up from tomorrow. Trixie and Tofa were going down to see Foxglove on the morrow, supposedly so Trixie could wring his neck for being married.
And me? Well, right now I wasn't sure. I needed to speak with the town sage, who was back. I needed to talk to Naffir and see what goodies he had, now that I was flush with cash- did I mention that Trixie did indeed spot a compartment the demon hadn't found in 9000 years of captivity (OOC: DC27 - trixie is amazing) and we found a ring of force shield that I'd love to have, but we'll see. Firendrin made mewling noises when I identified it (OOC: DC31 for the 9th level caster - I rolled a natural 20, had a spellcraft of +10, and made it with a +2 assist from Londis)? I hope he has access to potions or something that can permanently make me quicker, or smarter, or whatever. As for the dwarf it seems we might not be done with him yet, and one can only hope his attitude improves somewhat. After all, we only saved his life. I need to try to make some things with my alchemical kit. I need to do some spell research, I need to go through the journals with more attention, I need to possibly confront Titus Scarnetti and see if he's really going to come after me, I need to try to find my mother and, possibly, my father as well.
But for now I need to relax, have a drink, talk with friends, and enjoy the fact that I'm still alive.
First I have to duck Vin Vinder's daughter, though.
more notes: after having looked at a greater barghest in the Bestiary I have to assume that Mal either wasn't a full one, couldn't get off some of his spells because we kept clocking him, or was slightly reined in by the GM. It was a tough fight, but the majority of spells didn't come out. We have finished a major arc but the GM is swamped at work so it'll be a bit before we sort everything out. Foxy is not married but instead had commissioned a female artist to . . . paint a giant mural of a semi-nude Trixie on his bedroom ceiling. The naive Trixie was impressed and rewarded him - Tofa laughed herself to tears (The women playing these two were hysterical during this bit). And I cannot tell you how lucky I was to take the Varisian tattoo trait (we made it a trait because it seemed silly to have it as a feat) and thus feel compelled to take Thasselonian as a language - it was invaluable during these mods. We have a side job for Scarnetti we might or might not do but we have a skip session coming up on the 11th and we might be Trixie-less for the 4th as well, so we'll see. I also felt bad about interrupting the GM while he was monologuing, but Grezz doesn't like bullies. He kept going anyway
Last edited:
jydog1
Explorer
Session #10 - Sept 27, 2010 - Tranquil Garden For Some, Maybe
notes: Interesting session, to say the least, as we had some player friction and, if not for GM intervention, two characters attacking one another. It seemed to be worked out, as frustrations were vented and apologies offered. Perhaps there was a little too much role playing going on, as one character was like the playground bully who'd palmed his Ritalin. The GM handled it as well as anyone could have and tensions seemed better by night's end. Tough work saving the world! I took a few storytelling liberties at certain points to make out of game stuff fit in the gaming world.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Who needs fingertips, anyway?
So after all the celebrations we hung around in town for a while getting caught up on things. Tofa and Trixie took a trip down to see Foxglove and discovered he not only wasn't married, he had a mural of a semi-naked Trixie painted on the ceiling over his bed. Trixie was flattered; Tofa and I almost laughed ourselves unconscious when she came back and told me. Speaking of unconscious, I went drinking with her a couple of nights down at the wharf bars and generally paid for it the next morning. I also managed to get Orik into the ground in a location Londis doesn't know about. A couple of silvers buys you very enthusiastic diggers.
I spent some time working with my alchemist's kit, attempting to make vials of acid. Like I said, who needs fingertips? After a screw up of three I managed to produce a handful of vials, so it wasn't all bad. I spent some time with the town sage, who wasn't particularly knowledgeable about Thassalonian things but pointed out a few locations of interest.
Oh, and we never did get around to doing the Scarnetti job. Right around when Trixie came back we got a letter from him saying he was 'very disappointed' in us as the lodge was burned down with no loss of life or some other crap that I didn't care about at all. He told them to keep the money, which also meant nothing to me since I didn't accept any. Titus can feel free to go sit and spin on a scimitar.
We sold a bunch of stuff, parceled the rest out. A good chunk of the money went to getting cloaks with resistances built in for Trixie and Londis. We grabbed another wand of light healing and I spent some of my own money (I have no idea how much I have, it's just scattered here and there) on some interesting creations of Naffir's. he calls them 'grenades' and the test one he showed me was quite impressive, so I picked a few up for myself.
After a couple of weeks we got a letter from Amieko, asking if we were interested in a job that would be mutually beneficial. Knowing the value of having her for a patron I was extremely interested, and the others were as well for more, uhm, hard currency reasons.
We met in her mansion along with Ethram Valdemars, of THAT shipbuilding family. They'd lost a joint venture ship loaded with glass ingots and wanted up to accompany the salvage ship to get them back. I will mercifully spare you the negotiations that took place which no doubt made us seem less like the heroes of Sandpoint and more like the Mercenaries of Money, but Tofa, hungover to the rafters, managed to make a decent deal go through. Armed with breathing potions, a freedom of movement potion, and the name of the only survivor, we headed up to Windsong Abbey to see the fortunate fellow.
A word - at this time Firendrin has more or less become part of our company, if you want to call us that. While he still hasn't thanked us for saving him he's been much less of . . . oh, what's the scholarly term I'm looking for? Damn, I never was very good in my wizardly classes. Let's just say he was being irascible at first but as time when on he was easier to get along with.
Well, not completely. He and Londis didn't get along at all. There was fault on both sides - by the time we headed out Londis had been getting even judgier than usual, if that's possible, and a bit of a bully as well. Hopefully the trip would calm everyone down. We purchased trained mounts (Trixie had concerns about the safety of Shotzie in our destination of Riddleport and opted for a pony instead) and set off, reaching the Abbey without incident.
Windsong Abbey is known for many things. Built on Thasselonian ruins - which i was VERY excited to get a gander at - it was known as a place for peace and diplomacy, and often used for negotiations. The monks were followers of When, the Eternally Surprised, and in addition for always seeming to be in the right place at the right time to record important events they were rumored to be precogs as well. We made our way up the mountain and were welcomed inside, meeting with a bigwig named Rempo. He asked us to be very gentle with the recovering Ebeneezer, and I told him we would.
Alas, I was wrong.
Ebeneezer proved to be partially deaf, recovering slowly but surely, and very fond of the whiskey Tofa offered him. His tale, condensed, was simple - they were sailing around the northerm edge of the Hook of the Serpent's Horns, going past Bloodsomething Isle in the archipelago that runs through that area. he was below deck when the ship listed, then ran aground on a reef. Coming up on deck he found utter chaos among his shipmates and officers bellowing to abandon ship, so he grabbed a barrel and some rope and went. He wasn't sure, but he thought some of the crew might have been fighting one another, and confusion reigned. He'd been under the captain for a few years and found no fault with him. Other than that, he didn't have anything to tell us.
Londis didn't believe him. In a surprising, stunning move he knocked him to the floor and began screaming in his face, demanding the truth. I massaged my forehead. This, we didn't need.
Sure enough, Rempo came in and lost his, as much as a monk does, anyway. He demanded we leave, and I seethed at the lost opportunity. On our way out, though, we were intercepted by a monk with a odd belt who bade us to follow him. he stopped at a gate and said, "Inside is the Garden of 5 Surprises. Master Pho awaits you inside."
The inside was one of the stranger places I'd seen and, indeed, quite surprising. My first surprise was when the bridge I walked on proved to be counterbalanced and dumped me in a stream. I also inspected a inspect that seemed to be made of sticks and yodeled. Londis was looking at some orchids and they tried to jab him, and that's when all bedlam broke loose.
Londis dodged the spines, but whirled on Firendrin and pulled out his morningstar. "Did you just cast a spell on me?", he demanded.
Firendrin didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. It was pretty obvious, and an enraged Londis took a swing at him. The spiked head flashed down and . . . stopped an inch from Firendrin's head. A bald man in robes with a long beard was standing there, his hand holding the shaft of the mace, having stopped the attack completely. A small grin appeared on his face. "It seems today I am the one to be surprised, as this is usually a more serene place. Welcome to the Garden of Five Surprises. I am Master Pho." He looked at Londis and released his weapon. "Welcome."
"That plant attacked me!"
"I know! Was it not surprising?"
Londis' mouth opened and closed a few times. "And, he cast a spell on me!"
"Indeed. A minor cantrip, more mischevious in nature than harmful, but ill-advised nonetheless. The two of you should settle your differences sooner rather than later." He walked toward me. "You are wet."
I nodded. "I am. One of your surprises."
"Indeed. I must have the garden constantly evolving, to keep the acolytes well-prepared. But now you all must look at this with me." He wandered off, as if he knew we'd follow him. Which we did.
"Look," he said, gesturing at a pyramid of small stones. "Do you see the problem?" We just stared. "Do you not see that the top stone is out of place?"
I had to peer very closely to see that indeed, it was a little off. "Okay, sure."
"Well, the world's Chi is off, as evidenced by the stone. I must try to restore the balance." He paused, looked thoughtful. "I think that you all are somehow involved, and if it would be okay I would like to accompany you."
I blinked. "But you don't know where we're going."
He gave that serene smile again. "That doesn't matter."
I thought about him stopping Londis' attack with his bare hands, and knew my vote was going to be yes.
---
We'd seen a giant on the way to Windsong but decided not to get involved. As we came to a ferry at a river the choice of combat or not was not ours to make. It was a fairly obvious trap, given away by the glint of armor under the the robes of the 'ferryman.' He turned out to be a hobgoblin, and there was a hobgoblin caster in the woods who unleashed an owlbear on us and did not care for my celestial doggie after it tore him to shreds. I got to meet the owlbear up close and personal - ick - but in the end we took them down along with a few goblin crossbow snipers as well. Pho was impressive, to say the least, but all worked well together. Before we killed the muscle we learned that they'd been hired by a human in Riddleport - so who knew we were coming and had enough time to get a message there ahead of us? Titus, maybe, or perhaps more of these Lamashtru loons?
I reckon we'll find out soon enough. Now, to riddleport and the Barnacle, our salvage ship. Have I mentioned I'm not a strong swimmer?
more notes: rolled 20 after 20 while we were in town. Can you guess what my rolls were like in combat? yes you can!
notes: Interesting session, to say the least, as we had some player friction and, if not for GM intervention, two characters attacking one another. It seemed to be worked out, as frustrations were vented and apologies offered. Perhaps there was a little too much role playing going on, as one character was like the playground bully who'd palmed his Ritalin. The GM handled it as well as anyone could have and tensions seemed better by night's end. Tough work saving the world! I took a few storytelling liberties at certain points to make out of game stuff fit in the gaming world.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Who needs fingertips, anyway?
So after all the celebrations we hung around in town for a while getting caught up on things. Tofa and Trixie took a trip down to see Foxglove and discovered he not only wasn't married, he had a mural of a semi-naked Trixie painted on the ceiling over his bed. Trixie was flattered; Tofa and I almost laughed ourselves unconscious when she came back and told me. Speaking of unconscious, I went drinking with her a couple of nights down at the wharf bars and generally paid for it the next morning. I also managed to get Orik into the ground in a location Londis doesn't know about. A couple of silvers buys you very enthusiastic diggers.
I spent some time working with my alchemist's kit, attempting to make vials of acid. Like I said, who needs fingertips? After a screw up of three I managed to produce a handful of vials, so it wasn't all bad. I spent some time with the town sage, who wasn't particularly knowledgeable about Thassalonian things but pointed out a few locations of interest.
Oh, and we never did get around to doing the Scarnetti job. Right around when Trixie came back we got a letter from him saying he was 'very disappointed' in us as the lodge was burned down with no loss of life or some other crap that I didn't care about at all. He told them to keep the money, which also meant nothing to me since I didn't accept any. Titus can feel free to go sit and spin on a scimitar.
We sold a bunch of stuff, parceled the rest out. A good chunk of the money went to getting cloaks with resistances built in for Trixie and Londis. We grabbed another wand of light healing and I spent some of my own money (I have no idea how much I have, it's just scattered here and there) on some interesting creations of Naffir's. he calls them 'grenades' and the test one he showed me was quite impressive, so I picked a few up for myself.
After a couple of weeks we got a letter from Amieko, asking if we were interested in a job that would be mutually beneficial. Knowing the value of having her for a patron I was extremely interested, and the others were as well for more, uhm, hard currency reasons.
We met in her mansion along with Ethram Valdemars, of THAT shipbuilding family. They'd lost a joint venture ship loaded with glass ingots and wanted up to accompany the salvage ship to get them back. I will mercifully spare you the negotiations that took place which no doubt made us seem less like the heroes of Sandpoint and more like the Mercenaries of Money, but Tofa, hungover to the rafters, managed to make a decent deal go through. Armed with breathing potions, a freedom of movement potion, and the name of the only survivor, we headed up to Windsong Abbey to see the fortunate fellow.
A word - at this time Firendrin has more or less become part of our company, if you want to call us that. While he still hasn't thanked us for saving him he's been much less of . . . oh, what's the scholarly term I'm looking for? Damn, I never was very good in my wizardly classes. Let's just say he was being irascible at first but as time when on he was easier to get along with.
Well, not completely. He and Londis didn't get along at all. There was fault on both sides - by the time we headed out Londis had been getting even judgier than usual, if that's possible, and a bit of a bully as well. Hopefully the trip would calm everyone down. We purchased trained mounts (Trixie had concerns about the safety of Shotzie in our destination of Riddleport and opted for a pony instead) and set off, reaching the Abbey without incident.
Windsong Abbey is known for many things. Built on Thasselonian ruins - which i was VERY excited to get a gander at - it was known as a place for peace and diplomacy, and often used for negotiations. The monks were followers of When, the Eternally Surprised, and in addition for always seeming to be in the right place at the right time to record important events they were rumored to be precogs as well. We made our way up the mountain and were welcomed inside, meeting with a bigwig named Rempo. He asked us to be very gentle with the recovering Ebeneezer, and I told him we would.
Alas, I was wrong.
Ebeneezer proved to be partially deaf, recovering slowly but surely, and very fond of the whiskey Tofa offered him. His tale, condensed, was simple - they were sailing around the northerm edge of the Hook of the Serpent's Horns, going past Bloodsomething Isle in the archipelago that runs through that area. he was below deck when the ship listed, then ran aground on a reef. Coming up on deck he found utter chaos among his shipmates and officers bellowing to abandon ship, so he grabbed a barrel and some rope and went. He wasn't sure, but he thought some of the crew might have been fighting one another, and confusion reigned. He'd been under the captain for a few years and found no fault with him. Other than that, he didn't have anything to tell us.
Londis didn't believe him. In a surprising, stunning move he knocked him to the floor and began screaming in his face, demanding the truth. I massaged my forehead. This, we didn't need.
Sure enough, Rempo came in and lost his
, as much as a monk does, anyway. He demanded we leave, and I seethed at the lost opportunity. On our way out, though, we were intercepted by a monk with a odd belt who bade us to follow him. he stopped at a gate and said, "Inside is the Garden of 5 Surprises. Master Pho awaits you inside."The inside was one of the stranger places I'd seen and, indeed, quite surprising. My first surprise was when the bridge I walked on proved to be counterbalanced and dumped me in a stream. I also inspected a inspect that seemed to be made of sticks and yodeled. Londis was looking at some orchids and they tried to jab him, and that's when all bedlam broke loose.
Londis dodged the spines, but whirled on Firendrin and pulled out his morningstar. "Did you just cast a spell on me?", he demanded.
Firendrin didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. It was pretty obvious, and an enraged Londis took a swing at him. The spiked head flashed down and . . . stopped an inch from Firendrin's head. A bald man in robes with a long beard was standing there, his hand holding the shaft of the mace, having stopped the attack completely. A small grin appeared on his face. "It seems today I am the one to be surprised, as this is usually a more serene place. Welcome to the Garden of Five Surprises. I am Master Pho." He looked at Londis and released his weapon. "Welcome."
"That plant attacked me!"
"I know! Was it not surprising?"
Londis' mouth opened and closed a few times. "And, he cast a spell on me!"
"Indeed. A minor cantrip, more mischevious in nature than harmful, but ill-advised nonetheless. The two of you should settle your differences sooner rather than later." He walked toward me. "You are wet."
I nodded. "I am. One of your surprises."
"Indeed. I must have the garden constantly evolving, to keep the acolytes well-prepared. But now you all must look at this with me." He wandered off, as if he knew we'd follow him. Which we did.
"Look," he said, gesturing at a pyramid of small stones. "Do you see the problem?" We just stared. "Do you not see that the top stone is out of place?"
I had to peer very closely to see that indeed, it was a little off. "Okay, sure."
"Well, the world's Chi is off, as evidenced by the stone. I must try to restore the balance." He paused, looked thoughtful. "I think that you all are somehow involved, and if it would be okay I would like to accompany you."
I blinked. "But you don't know where we're going."
He gave that serene smile again. "That doesn't matter."
I thought about him stopping Londis' attack with his bare hands, and knew my vote was going to be yes.
---
We'd seen a giant on the way to Windsong but decided not to get involved. As we came to a ferry at a river the choice of combat or not was not ours to make. It was a fairly obvious trap, given away by the glint of armor under the the robes of the 'ferryman.' He turned out to be a hobgoblin, and there was a hobgoblin caster in the woods who unleashed an owlbear on us and did not care for my celestial doggie after it tore him to shreds. I got to meet the owlbear up close and personal - ick - but in the end we took them down along with a few goblin crossbow snipers as well. Pho was impressive, to say the least, but all worked well together. Before we killed the muscle we learned that they'd been hired by a human in Riddleport - so who knew we were coming and had enough time to get a message there ahead of us? Titus, maybe, or perhaps more of these Lamashtru loons?
I reckon we'll find out soon enough. Now, to riddleport and the Barnacle, our salvage ship. Have I mentioned I'm not a strong swimmer?
more notes: rolled 20 after 20 while we were in town. Can you guess what my rolls were like in combat? yes you can!
jydog1
Explorer
Session #11 - October 4, 2010 - But I Don't Wear Hats!
notes: bloody good session with a little something for everyone, including an absolutely hairy shipboard battle that didn't leave us too beat up physically, but had on on the edge mentally. Different characters using skills they normally don't and wild conditions made for a great time. Kudos to the DM for a great job prepping (right down to notes about what we were thinking based on a saving throw made or not). I may interrupt the flow of the narrative with more OOC comments than usual just because I feel some stuff needs to be told.
edit: oh hell, I almost forgot to mention the scale model of the boat we used, made by the GM, with a crane and bridge and so on. All kinds of awesome. If my wife posts the picture somewhere I'll post it here or at least link to it.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Riddleport stinks.
Maybe I've been spoiled by the relative cleanliness of Sandport but Riddleport just seems like a squalid, nasty place. Of course that's probably because it is a squalid, nasty place, home to countless pirates and so on. It's also where Trixie's from, so I'm keeping my opinions to myself. She's much like a nest of hornets - you're much better off if you don't annoy her with pokes.
We found our ship, the Barnacle, and met with the captain, Bert or Bort or something like that - I'll just call him the Captain. He planned on shipping out tomorrow morning on the tide at 7am, so we headed up to a casino Trixie was very excited to got to, the Dragon's Hoard (on the way we saw the Cyphergate, a huge stone arch that spans the river and is covered with Thassilonian runes. The only thing I recognized was the sihedron at the keystone, but that wasn't uncommon - there was a whole tower full of folks trying to figure out the runes). The place was over the top tacky, but also loaded with every delight imaginable. Owned by the local crime overlord (and thus the head honcho of Riddleport), it was almost too much. Almost. We hung together for a while before drifting off to our own interests. Once I felt that none of my friends were around I made my way over to the parlor dedicated to Calixtra and found myself a gorgeous woman, an elf with honey brown hair and a kind smile. It had been a while, and I just wanted to relax with a woman that I didn't have to worry was working for the Scarnetti's, who could show me a good time, and wanted nothing more from me than her payment. Plus I didn't want to hear about it from Trixie and Tofa.
Things worked out well, for once.
---
Four days out, and I was starting to get my sea legs. I had only needed to take one of the anti-nausea potions so far, due to foul weather and high seas. My mending cantrip was coming in extremely handy, as was mage hand. Tofa looked absolutely at home, and she took great delight drinking me under the table on the 2nd night with a couple of the crew.
'Three degrees to port, you dogs! Tie down that mizzenmast, do ye' want that coming loose?'
That was the first mate, a huge half-orc. I had no idea what he was talking about, but the crew did. I got to know them as we headed down toward the southern edge of the Arcadian Archipelago, looking for the Serpent's Horns. The crew was so varied and interesting that I feel I have to list them here, if only to preserve their uniqueness for others to read:
- Gennet Baudrin, the runaway bride, still wearing the remnants of her wedding dress. There might be something between her and the Captain in a 'grunty noises coming from his cabin' way.
- Sing Song Sone, who sings constantly. I haven't heard a repeat yet, but that doesn't mean he couldn't stop for a while.
- Cruel Kate, the Helmsman. helmsperson. Whatever. She yells such foul things at everyone I don't know if she's serious. And yes, I'm aware at this point that i am a landlubber.
- Zaruis, a gnomish troubadour, who might be a little miffed at Trixie after hearing her sing absentmindedly the other day. His voice does not compare.
- Big Dill, which kinda says it all.
- The Bletcho Brothers, who work in the rigging like spiders in a web. Incredible.
- Blind Jake, who also works up there, with two eye patches on. Because he's blind. That's why they call him Blind Jake.
- Ferin Thorne, the wizard with a bilge rat for a familiar. I've been around wizards and I think Ferin here was probably not the valedictorian of his class. He doesn't seem too interested in talking shop.
- Labella Lure, the lookout, who apparently lives in the crow's nest. Trains seagulls as well. Not sure what she trains them to do, and I'm not climbing up to ask.
- Voris Auld, the dwarven navigator. Pretty good with scrimshaw. He and Firendrin seem to get along well, when Firendrin isn't heaving over the side of the rail.
- and Old Bonesy, a skeleton with an oft-refilled jack of grog. He died on watch and they left him there for good luck. Must have been a fun few weeks when he first went.
We also went past the Hollow Mountain, which looked a lot like the face we saw on a statue under Sandport. I think it's of Alaznist, some sort of traitor or separatist back in the old days. I drooled at the thought of checking it out. Trixie just rolled her eyes. All in all, this wasn't going too badly. The Barnacle - I suppose I should say something about the ship - was a low-slung salvage ship with a massive crane in the center. It was well-maintained and I had no doubts that some of the things they salvaged had been put in that condition by that very ship. Still, we were just hired employees, doing a job, and a pretty easy one so far.
Then came day 5, and all hell broke loose.
Labella spotted land and shouted. The Captain was at the till and swung in that direction. I was on deck mending ropes, a task that earned me a lot of favor with the crew that no longer had to reweave them. Standing up, I dusted myself off and tried not to grimace as spray came over the gunnel and got me in the face. Wiping with my hand, I had just opened the door to the cabin to tell the others when a strange sensation washed over me:
You are good-looking, but you'd look better in a hat. the captain has a nice hat!! Go take his hat and steer the ship onto those rocks over there so you can show your new hat to the pretty naked woman on the beach.
For a second that almost sounded reasonable, aided by the alluring song coming from somewhere. And indeed there was a naked woman out there, singing, on the rocks.
ON THE ROCKS WE WERE TURNING TOWARD!
I shook off the last of whatever had been cast at me and turned to tell the crew that . . . the crew was going berserk (OOC: a siren's song, and while I don't know what the DC was to save I know the men were at a -10 to our rolls. MINUS 10. Why, this sounds like a job for . . .natural 20! I believe Firedrin had the same or else something very high - Londis and Pho failed. Trixie and Tofa made it. The female crew members were also unaffected). Some were fighting one another, some were cowering, some were just running around. This wasn't good. I could see things in the water that looked ominous, so I thanked my professors for being thorough in their teaching and summoned a dolphin, which sped off on the attack. Up at the wheel the captain, first mate and someone else were battling over control of the ship. I sprinted up the stairs as Tofa shot out of the cabin, looked around, and ran for the bow. I wasn't too sure which one was craziest of the three, but as Trixie's voice suddenly rang out in opposition to whatever the hell was out there I decided it didn't matter. Firendrin splashed the three with a little fire before my color spray dropped the first mate and the other guy - but the captain was obviously bewitched and brought us further around toward destruction.
Bloody hell.
Master Pho appeared at my side, and I breathed a small sign of relief until he waved his arms and filled the sails with more wind. Double bloody hell! I heard a crackling behind me and turned to see a pair of electrical elementals land on the deck. My tattoos started to tingle and I started to get that way-too-good feeling in my bones. "C'mon!", I screamed at the nearest one, gesturing broadly as I activated my amulet. "C'mon, you want to fight something, come fight me!"
I don't know if it was my tone or my waving, but one made a beeline for me, zapping away. It hurt some from the sheer force, but the lightning was more of a caress than anything else. I grinned as I triggered my gloves before pointing my palms at it and bathing it in fire. Most of it steamed away to almost nothing as the ship lurched and I managed to keep my feet, barely. Moments later it vanished with a pop, force expended on my protection and lightning just another lover's touch. Trixie fired off a joke so ribald I didn't really get it, but the Captain collapsed in gales of laughter, relinquishing the wheel.
Meanwhile quick-thinking Tofa had dropped the main anchor. Londis came up to the bridge with an even more deranged-than-usual look in his eye and set about trying to kill the Captain. Trixie and Gennet wrestled with the wheel for a few seconds before Firendrin suddenly became much larger. He grabbed control and was rewarded by being smacked by some sort of ray from another elemental in the sea, one that appeared to be water. My weak bond to the dolphin snapped - it had hit something before the spell expired - and I summoned another one. Then the anchor caught and I tumbled off the bridge to the deck below, landing next to the drag anchor astern. The captain was right on top of it, still laughing and still mumbling about a beautiful woman. A conch shell was now being blown in addition to the song coming from an ever increasing fog cloud, and Trixie did something that seemed to counter it, somehow. My dolphin blinked out of existence abruptly, and I dropped another one as I crawled for the anchor stays. A few moments later I got it loose and it played out, spinning the captain like a top in the process. The ship ground to a halt on either the bottom or a reef - not good, but also not the sound of smashing timbers and whatnot. I scrambled to my feet and raced across the ship, trying to get a shot at what had to be a siren. I drew near Voris, who looked in a bad way, before the singing and the conch abruptly cut off, managing to see the former naked woman dissolve into foam, washing away. Pho, his head now clear, look at the dwarf before shaking his head. We would not get through this unscathed.
---
I was on the beach of the island we'd run aground on. We were taking shifts gathering logs so the Barnacle could be floated off at high tide. Firendrin was smoking his pipe when a wild boar sort of trotted up to him, then away. Weird. He followed, as did I, to discover a whole mess of boars, goats, and so on, all seemingly quite domesticated. Hell, they could almost talk.
Then I saw one with an eyepatch. Either someone here had a sense of humor, or we'd just found some missing sailors. As night fell we saw light coming from the lonely mountain on the island, and after much debate (outvoting the reluctant Firendrin, mostly) we agreed we had to see what was up there and try to restore these sailors, if possible. It should be noted their squeals certainly sounded like 'Help me,' and that when Tofa commented on how she'd like to make some bacon the one closest took off squealing into the brush.
Rested and recharged, we headed out. Our attempts to be quiet failed miserably, and suddenly we were face to face with a very large cyclops and some sort of poisonous drake. It looked like things were going to get very ugly. Then Firendrin smiled, waved, and said something cheerfully in a language I didn't know. The cyclops stopped, surprised, and answered back. The two of them began talking and and turned to ask Trixie to see if she knew what they were saying - and she was gone. As was Tofa. What the . . . ?
Firedrin smiled and said, "He's going to take us to those in charge, up the mountain."
"Really?"
"Really."
So we went, although the women did a lousy job of following us and were discovered. The cyclops would have turned them into paste if Firedrin hadn't rushed forward and said, "THERE you are, where have you been?"
The cave we were escorted to bore the soot and grease of eons of inhabitants. There was a huge cauldron emblazoned with lurid carnal acts, some of which my elven friend had practiced on me back in Riddleport. Around it stood three women - one young, one middle aged, and one ancient - and I heard the name Circe mentioned, along with one us being named as 'handsome,' and some mention of us killing their siren.
At least they haven't offered me a hat yet.
notes: bloody good session with a little something for everyone, including an absolutely hairy shipboard battle that didn't leave us too beat up physically, but had on on the edge mentally. Different characters using skills they normally don't and wild conditions made for a great time. Kudos to the DM for a great job prepping (right down to notes about what we were thinking based on a saving throw made or not). I may interrupt the flow of the narrative with more OOC comments than usual just because I feel some stuff needs to be told.
edit: oh hell, I almost forgot to mention the scale model of the boat we used, made by the GM, with a crane and bridge and so on. All kinds of awesome. If my wife posts the picture somewhere I'll post it here or at least link to it.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
Riddleport stinks.
Maybe I've been spoiled by the relative cleanliness of Sandport but Riddleport just seems like a squalid, nasty place. Of course that's probably because it is a squalid, nasty place, home to countless pirates and so on. It's also where Trixie's from, so I'm keeping my opinions to myself. She's much like a nest of hornets - you're much better off if you don't annoy her with pokes.
We found our ship, the Barnacle, and met with the captain, Bert or Bort or something like that - I'll just call him the Captain. He planned on shipping out tomorrow morning on the tide at 7am, so we headed up to a casino Trixie was very excited to got to, the Dragon's Hoard (on the way we saw the Cyphergate, a huge stone arch that spans the river and is covered with Thassilonian runes. The only thing I recognized was the sihedron at the keystone, but that wasn't uncommon - there was a whole tower full of folks trying to figure out the runes). The place was over the top tacky, but also loaded with every delight imaginable. Owned by the local crime overlord (and thus the head honcho of Riddleport), it was almost too much. Almost. We hung together for a while before drifting off to our own interests. Once I felt that none of my friends were around I made my way over to the parlor dedicated to Calixtra and found myself a gorgeous woman, an elf with honey brown hair and a kind smile. It had been a while, and I just wanted to relax with a woman that I didn't have to worry was working for the Scarnetti's, who could show me a good time, and wanted nothing more from me than her payment. Plus I didn't want to hear about it from Trixie and Tofa.
Things worked out well, for once.
---
Four days out, and I was starting to get my sea legs. I had only needed to take one of the anti-nausea potions so far, due to foul weather and high seas. My mending cantrip was coming in extremely handy, as was mage hand. Tofa looked absolutely at home, and she took great delight drinking me under the table on the 2nd night with a couple of the crew.
'Three degrees to port, you dogs! Tie down that mizzenmast, do ye' want that coming loose?'
That was the first mate, a huge half-orc. I had no idea what he was talking about, but the crew did. I got to know them as we headed down toward the southern edge of the Arcadian Archipelago, looking for the Serpent's Horns. The crew was so varied and interesting that I feel I have to list them here, if only to preserve their uniqueness for others to read:
- Gennet Baudrin, the runaway bride, still wearing the remnants of her wedding dress. There might be something between her and the Captain in a 'grunty noises coming from his cabin' way.
- Sing Song Sone, who sings constantly. I haven't heard a repeat yet, but that doesn't mean he couldn't stop for a while.
- Cruel Kate, the Helmsman. helmsperson. Whatever. She yells such foul things at everyone I don't know if she's serious. And yes, I'm aware at this point that i am a landlubber.
- Zaruis, a gnomish troubadour, who might be a little miffed at Trixie after hearing her sing absentmindedly the other day. His voice does not compare.
- Big Dill, which kinda says it all.
- The Bletcho Brothers, who work in the rigging like spiders in a web. Incredible.
- Blind Jake, who also works up there, with two eye patches on. Because he's blind. That's why they call him Blind Jake.
- Ferin Thorne, the wizard with a bilge rat for a familiar. I've been around wizards and I think Ferin here was probably not the valedictorian of his class. He doesn't seem too interested in talking shop.
- Labella Lure, the lookout, who apparently lives in the crow's nest. Trains seagulls as well. Not sure what she trains them to do, and I'm not climbing up to ask.
- Voris Auld, the dwarven navigator. Pretty good with scrimshaw. He and Firendrin seem to get along well, when Firendrin isn't heaving over the side of the rail.
- and Old Bonesy, a skeleton with an oft-refilled jack of grog. He died on watch and they left him there for good luck. Must have been a fun few weeks when he first went.
We also went past the Hollow Mountain, which looked a lot like the face we saw on a statue under Sandport. I think it's of Alaznist, some sort of traitor or separatist back in the old days. I drooled at the thought of checking it out. Trixie just rolled her eyes. All in all, this wasn't going too badly. The Barnacle - I suppose I should say something about the ship - was a low-slung salvage ship with a massive crane in the center. It was well-maintained and I had no doubts that some of the things they salvaged had been put in that condition by that very ship. Still, we were just hired employees, doing a job, and a pretty easy one so far.
Then came day 5, and all hell broke loose.
Labella spotted land and shouted. The Captain was at the till and swung in that direction. I was on deck mending ropes, a task that earned me a lot of favor with the crew that no longer had to reweave them. Standing up, I dusted myself off and tried not to grimace as spray came over the gunnel and got me in the face. Wiping with my hand, I had just opened the door to the cabin to tell the others when a strange sensation washed over me:
You are good-looking, but you'd look better in a hat. the captain has a nice hat!! Go take his hat and steer the ship onto those rocks over there so you can show your new hat to the pretty naked woman on the beach.
For a second that almost sounded reasonable, aided by the alluring song coming from somewhere. And indeed there was a naked woman out there, singing, on the rocks.
ON THE ROCKS WE WERE TURNING TOWARD!
I shook off the last of whatever had been cast at me and turned to tell the crew that . . . the crew was going berserk (OOC: a siren's song, and while I don't know what the DC was to save I know the men were at a -10 to our rolls. MINUS 10. Why, this sounds like a job for . . .natural 20! I believe Firedrin had the same or else something very high - Londis and Pho failed. Trixie and Tofa made it. The female crew members were also unaffected). Some were fighting one another, some were cowering, some were just running around. This wasn't good. I could see things in the water that looked ominous, so I thanked my professors for being thorough in their teaching and summoned a dolphin, which sped off on the attack. Up at the wheel the captain, first mate and someone else were battling over control of the ship. I sprinted up the stairs as Tofa shot out of the cabin, looked around, and ran for the bow. I wasn't too sure which one was craziest of the three, but as Trixie's voice suddenly rang out in opposition to whatever the hell was out there I decided it didn't matter. Firendrin splashed the three with a little fire before my color spray dropped the first mate and the other guy - but the captain was obviously bewitched and brought us further around toward destruction.
Bloody hell.
Master Pho appeared at my side, and I breathed a small sign of relief until he waved his arms and filled the sails with more wind. Double bloody hell! I heard a crackling behind me and turned to see a pair of electrical elementals land on the deck. My tattoos started to tingle and I started to get that way-too-good feeling in my bones. "C'mon!", I screamed at the nearest one, gesturing broadly as I activated my amulet. "C'mon, you want to fight something, come fight me!"
I don't know if it was my tone or my waving, but one made a beeline for me, zapping away. It hurt some from the sheer force, but the lightning was more of a caress than anything else. I grinned as I triggered my gloves before pointing my palms at it and bathing it in fire. Most of it steamed away to almost nothing as the ship lurched and I managed to keep my feet, barely. Moments later it vanished with a pop, force expended on my protection and lightning just another lover's touch. Trixie fired off a joke so ribald I didn't really get it, but the Captain collapsed in gales of laughter, relinquishing the wheel.
Meanwhile quick-thinking Tofa had dropped the main anchor. Londis came up to the bridge with an even more deranged-than-usual look in his eye and set about trying to kill the Captain. Trixie and Gennet wrestled with the wheel for a few seconds before Firendrin suddenly became much larger. He grabbed control and was rewarded by being smacked by some sort of ray from another elemental in the sea, one that appeared to be water. My weak bond to the dolphin snapped - it had hit something before the spell expired - and I summoned another one. Then the anchor caught and I tumbled off the bridge to the deck below, landing next to the drag anchor astern. The captain was right on top of it, still laughing and still mumbling about a beautiful woman. A conch shell was now being blown in addition to the song coming from an ever increasing fog cloud, and Trixie did something that seemed to counter it, somehow. My dolphin blinked out of existence abruptly, and I dropped another one as I crawled for the anchor stays. A few moments later I got it loose and it played out, spinning the captain like a top in the process. The ship ground to a halt on either the bottom or a reef - not good, but also not the sound of smashing timbers and whatnot. I scrambled to my feet and raced across the ship, trying to get a shot at what had to be a siren. I drew near Voris, who looked in a bad way, before the singing and the conch abruptly cut off, managing to see the former naked woman dissolve into foam, washing away. Pho, his head now clear, look at the dwarf before shaking his head. We would not get through this unscathed.
---
I was on the beach of the island we'd run aground on. We were taking shifts gathering logs so the Barnacle could be floated off at high tide. Firendrin was smoking his pipe when a wild boar sort of trotted up to him, then away. Weird. He followed, as did I, to discover a whole mess of boars, goats, and so on, all seemingly quite domesticated. Hell, they could almost talk.
Then I saw one with an eyepatch. Either someone here had a sense of humor, or we'd just found some missing sailors. As night fell we saw light coming from the lonely mountain on the island, and after much debate (outvoting the reluctant Firendrin, mostly) we agreed we had to see what was up there and try to restore these sailors, if possible. It should be noted their squeals certainly sounded like 'Help me,' and that when Tofa commented on how she'd like to make some bacon the one closest took off squealing into the brush.
Rested and recharged, we headed out. Our attempts to be quiet failed miserably, and suddenly we were face to face with a very large cyclops and some sort of poisonous drake. It looked like things were going to get very ugly. Then Firendrin smiled, waved, and said something cheerfully in a language I didn't know. The cyclops stopped, surprised, and answered back. The two of them began talking and and turned to ask Trixie to see if she knew what they were saying - and she was gone. As was Tofa. What the . . . ?
Firedrin smiled and said, "He's going to take us to those in charge, up the mountain."
"Really?"
"Really."
So we went, although the women did a lousy job of following us and were discovered. The cyclops would have turned them into paste if Firedrin hadn't rushed forward and said, "THERE you are, where have you been?"
The cave we were escorted to bore the soot and grease of eons of inhabitants. There was a huge cauldron emblazoned with lurid carnal acts, some of which my elven friend had practiced on me back in Riddleport. Around it stood three women - one young, one middle aged, and one ancient - and I heard the name Circe mentioned, along with one us being named as 'handsome,' and some mention of us killing their siren.
At least they haven't offered me a hat yet.
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jydog1
Explorer
Session #11, bonus
during the fight with the siren, we were each given a note based on whether we passed or failed. All the 'fails' were footnoted with 'You are convinced that this is a good idea. Act accordingly.' I'll also note whether each character passed or failed the initial check (Trixie either used countersong or ghost sound to give them a second chance)
TRIXIE- (Saved)
success- Ow! there's a high pitched buzzing in your ears. And what's wrong with the crew? they;re fighting one another!! Except for the women, they look as confused as you. And . . . what the hell? There's a naked woman on the rocks about 50 yards off the starboard bow. And she's singing!
failure - You can hear a woman singing. Her song is more beautiful and contains more emotion than your voice could even hope to master. It's too much to bear. Go and jump overboard, and swim away from the singing as fast as you can.
LONDIS- (failed)
Success - Damn, that naked bitch on the rocks almost stole your mind with that alluring song. Looks like all the men on board have fallen to her corruption. They are fighting one another now. The 1st mate has the wheel, and he's turning the ship toward the rocks . . .
Failure - Damn all these sinners! A bunch of thieves, the whole lot of them! They should be judged! Sink the ship and send them all to their final judgement!
FIRENDRIN - (saved)
success- What the hell is that naked green skinned woman doing over on those rocks? You wish she'd just shut up, her song is hurting your ears. Looks like the humans have lost their minds, all the men are battling for the wheel, and the ship is beginning to list toward the rocks!
failure - Look at that rocky deserted island. must be a pirate hotspot. I bet it's loaded with treasure. Go steer the boat onto that rocky beach so you can go look for treasure!
GREZZALIK - (Saved)
success - Damn, that song is alluring. Almost lost yourself in it. There's a naked woman on those rocks, singing to you. The crew has gone mad, and the men are fighting one another. the captain has turned the ship for the woman and the rocks . ..
failure - You are good looking! You would look even better in a hat! The captain has a nice hat! Go take his hat and steer the ship onto the rocks so you show your new hat to the pretty, naked woman on the beach.
TOFA - (saved)
missing!?!?!?
PHO (failed)
missing!?!??
during the fight with the siren, we were each given a note based on whether we passed or failed. All the 'fails' were footnoted with 'You are convinced that this is a good idea. Act accordingly.' I'll also note whether each character passed or failed the initial check (Trixie either used countersong or ghost sound to give them a second chance)
TRIXIE- (Saved)
success- Ow! there's a high pitched buzzing in your ears. And what's wrong with the crew? they;re fighting one another!! Except for the women, they look as confused as you. And . . . what the hell? There's a naked woman on the rocks about 50 yards off the starboard bow. And she's singing!
failure - You can hear a woman singing. Her song is more beautiful and contains more emotion than your voice could even hope to master. It's too much to bear. Go and jump overboard, and swim away from the singing as fast as you can.
LONDIS- (failed)
Success - Damn, that naked bitch on the rocks almost stole your mind with that alluring song. Looks like all the men on board have fallen to her corruption. They are fighting one another now. The 1st mate has the wheel, and he's turning the ship toward the rocks . . .
Failure - Damn all these sinners! A bunch of thieves, the whole lot of them! They should be judged! Sink the ship and send them all to their final judgement!
FIRENDRIN - (saved)
success- What the hell is that naked green skinned woman doing over on those rocks? You wish she'd just shut up, her song is hurting your ears. Looks like the humans have lost their minds, all the men are battling for the wheel, and the ship is beginning to list toward the rocks!
failure - Look at that rocky deserted island. must be a pirate hotspot. I bet it's loaded with treasure. Go steer the boat onto that rocky beach so you can go look for treasure!
GREZZALIK - (Saved)
success - Damn, that song is alluring. Almost lost yourself in it. There's a naked woman on those rocks, singing to you. The crew has gone mad, and the men are fighting one another. the captain has turned the ship for the woman and the rocks . ..
failure - You are good looking! You would look even better in a hat! The captain has a nice hat! Go take his hat and steer the ship onto the rocks so you show your new hat to the pretty, naked woman on the beach.
TOFA - (saved)
missing!?!?!?
PHO (failed)
missing!?!??
jydog1
Explorer
Session #12, PART 1- October 18, 2010 - Just don't let her babysit
notes: back after a week off. We made 4th level in the meantime, which meant difficult decisions for me, like dex, intelligence, or charisma? I finally settled on the latter. Gotta keep those DCs up. As for spells I took resistance for a cantrip and for a second level spell - finally - I took create pit. It just seemed too cool not to. And, as it turns out, it is pretty cool.
I'm also going to start listing the night's dinner, as this has become somewhat of a social thing too. This time was GM-made Chili, along with grille-roasted corn, corn bread, and whoopie pies for dessert.
The party worked very well together in the fight and were also allowed to flex their individual personas while we met with the, uhm, Kindly Ladies. Speaking of . . .
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
The woman in the middle wore a blindfold and held up an orb. A serpent of some sort was wrapped around her neck. She gestured at me and said, "Oooo, he is a handsome one, isn't he?"
The younger one looked like a gorgeous but spoiled brat. "They killed my daughter!", she spat.
I stepped forward, trying to ignore the glowering hellhound at her feet. "And for that we apologize, we had no desire to offend three such beautiful ladies as yourselves. Your daughter attacked us and we had no choice but to defend ourselves. Had we know who she was we could have sought other means, but she gave us no chance."
She sneered and said, "Hmpph."
The matronly one smiled and said, "Oh, Circe, that's reasonable. And he seems so well-mannered." She licked her lips. "Among other things."
The crone spoke up. "Medea, why do you think they're here?" As she spoke she continued the stir the pot, the contents of which burbled and blorped. A heavy mist seemed to hang right above it.
When there was no immediate answer I said, "Well, kindly ones, we came her on a salvage mission and of course we knew we should come and ask permission of those who rule over this domain. Your cyclops out there brought us to you." I paused. "So, we were hired to recover something, and we'd like your permission to do so."
The Crone studied me. "What is it you seek?"
"A boat went down, and we -"
"You." Medea pointed her orb at Londis. "You came here for gold. Your very soul is tarnished silver, such is your desire for it. Such greed at a young age!"
Londis huffed. "Yes, well, gold is fine, but also punishing those that deserve justice."
"Speaking of," said Trixie, "about the sailors that are pigs. We'd like to save some of them too, please."
"Why?" snarled Circe. "They were filthy, loathsome creatures, and they deserved to be punished!"
"Yes," agreed Londis, perhaps finding a kindred soul, "the wicked deserve to be punished."
"I still think I should turn all of you into pigs," she grumbled.
"So," said Medea, "You wish to salvage something from a sunken ship, and save a few of the pitiful dregs from our food supply." I'm fairly sure all of us shuddered a bit. "Perhaps we can make a deal, then, as we have something we would ask of you."
Awesome. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of this. "Sure, I guess. What exactly is it you need?"
She smiled coyly. "Well, handsome, we wish a crown." At prodding from us she continued. "It's known as the Crown of Njall Bloodaxe." I heard Tofa catch her breath. "It was lost 4 or 5 generations ago, and now he has become a thorn in our side."
I frowned. "So he's not alive, then?"
"Nor dead, either. He walks the line between both beneath the waves."
Tofa cleared her throat. "Does he have Breakbone?"
"Is that the silly sword with the glowing blue runes? Yes, he's always got that. He doesn't come up here, though. He doesn't have any power on our land."
"So we have to go find him?"
An enigmatic smile. "Of course. And his crew, of course. And his followers." She waved a hand dismissively.
Wonderful. We clustered together while Tofa, Londis, Firendrin and Trixie pooled information about this Njall. After a bit, we faced the ladies again.
"All caught up?" asked Medea. "Here's our offer. Recover the crown and you can salvage whatever you want and each rescue . . . three of the pigs, who will be returned to their original disgusting forms."
"Still think we should just make them pigs as well."
"Stop, Circe. So, a deal? Or shall I address you each individually? You, dwarf." The three women began to swirl their hands through the smoke, and Firendrin's eyes widened. "Would you like to meet this one?"
For a second I thought he was going to say yes, but abruptly he shook his head and muttered, "If it wants to meet me, it will find a way. I would be willing to trade my role in the crown recovery for some knowledge, though."
Medea nodded, turned to Londis. 'You, greedy one. How about this?"
Londis shook his head slowly. "I will give you the ship's captain and a steady supply of those deserving of your judgment for that, but I will take sailors' lives for the job."
"Ah, a side deal. How wonderful." Her gaze fell on Trixie. "How about you, little one?" Something formed in the smoke that I couldn't see, but clearly Trixie could. "I'll do the job in exchange for having the ability to escape those who pursue me."
That earned a raised eyebrow. "So be it." Suddenly she was looking at me, her eyes smoldering. A vision became crystal clear in the haze, that of an elf dancing with a woman. The borders of the image were twisted and ugly, almost menacing. The elf I had never seen before. The woman was breathtaking beautiful.
The woman was my mother.
"I'll do the job for the sailors," I said. "I'd make a side deal for this. What's your offer?"
to be continued later this week, as I ran out of time today . . .
notes: back after a week off. We made 4th level in the meantime, which meant difficult decisions for me, like dex, intelligence, or charisma? I finally settled on the latter. Gotta keep those DCs up. As for spells I took resistance for a cantrip and for a second level spell - finally - I took create pit. It just seemed too cool not to. And, as it turns out, it is pretty cool.
I'm also going to start listing the night's dinner, as this has become somewhat of a social thing too. This time was GM-made Chili, along with grille-roasted corn, corn bread, and whoopie pies for dessert.
The party worked very well together in the fight and were also allowed to flex their individual personas while we met with the, uhm, Kindly Ladies. Speaking of . . .
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
The woman in the middle wore a blindfold and held up an orb. A serpent of some sort was wrapped around her neck. She gestured at me and said, "Oooo, he is a handsome one, isn't he?"
The younger one looked like a gorgeous but spoiled brat. "They killed my daughter!", she spat.
I stepped forward, trying to ignore the glowering hellhound at her feet. "And for that we apologize, we had no desire to offend three such beautiful ladies as yourselves. Your daughter attacked us and we had no choice but to defend ourselves. Had we know who she was we could have sought other means, but she gave us no chance."
She sneered and said, "Hmpph."
The matronly one smiled and said, "Oh, Circe, that's reasonable. And he seems so well-mannered." She licked her lips. "Among other things."
The crone spoke up. "Medea, why do you think they're here?" As she spoke she continued the stir the pot, the contents of which burbled and blorped. A heavy mist seemed to hang right above it.
When there was no immediate answer I said, "Well, kindly ones, we came her on a salvage mission and of course we knew we should come and ask permission of those who rule over this domain. Your cyclops out there brought us to you." I paused. "So, we were hired to recover something, and we'd like your permission to do so."
The Crone studied me. "What is it you seek?"
"A boat went down, and we -"
"You." Medea pointed her orb at Londis. "You came here for gold. Your very soul is tarnished silver, such is your desire for it. Such greed at a young age!"
Londis huffed. "Yes, well, gold is fine, but also punishing those that deserve justice."
"Speaking of," said Trixie, "about the sailors that are pigs. We'd like to save some of them too, please."
"Why?" snarled Circe. "They were filthy, loathsome creatures, and they deserved to be punished!"
"Yes," agreed Londis, perhaps finding a kindred soul, "the wicked deserve to be punished."
"I still think I should turn all of you into pigs," she grumbled.
"So," said Medea, "You wish to salvage something from a sunken ship, and save a few of the pitiful dregs from our food supply." I'm fairly sure all of us shuddered a bit. "Perhaps we can make a deal, then, as we have something we would ask of you."
Awesome. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of this. "Sure, I guess. What exactly is it you need?"
She smiled coyly. "Well, handsome, we wish a crown." At prodding from us she continued. "It's known as the Crown of Njall Bloodaxe." I heard Tofa catch her breath. "It was lost 4 or 5 generations ago, and now he has become a thorn in our side."
I frowned. "So he's not alive, then?"
"Nor dead, either. He walks the line between both beneath the waves."
Tofa cleared her throat. "Does he have Breakbone?"
"Is that the silly sword with the glowing blue runes? Yes, he's always got that. He doesn't come up here, though. He doesn't have any power on our land."
"So we have to go find him?"
An enigmatic smile. "Of course. And his crew, of course. And his followers." She waved a hand dismissively.
Wonderful. We clustered together while Tofa, Londis, Firendrin and Trixie pooled information about this Njall. After a bit, we faced the ladies again.
"All caught up?" asked Medea. "Here's our offer. Recover the crown and you can salvage whatever you want and each rescue . . . three of the pigs, who will be returned to their original disgusting forms."
"Still think we should just make them pigs as well."
"Stop, Circe. So, a deal? Or shall I address you each individually? You, dwarf." The three women began to swirl their hands through the smoke, and Firendrin's eyes widened. "Would you like to meet this one?"
For a second I thought he was going to say yes, but abruptly he shook his head and muttered, "If it wants to meet me, it will find a way. I would be willing to trade my role in the crown recovery for some knowledge, though."
Medea nodded, turned to Londis. 'You, greedy one. How about this?"
Londis shook his head slowly. "I will give you the ship's captain and a steady supply of those deserving of your judgment for that, but I will take sailors' lives for the job."
"Ah, a side deal. How wonderful." Her gaze fell on Trixie. "How about you, little one?" Something formed in the smoke that I couldn't see, but clearly Trixie could. "I'll do the job in exchange for having the ability to escape those who pursue me."
That earned a raised eyebrow. "So be it." Suddenly she was looking at me, her eyes smoldering. A vision became crystal clear in the haze, that of an elf dancing with a woman. The borders of the image were twisted and ugly, almost menacing. The elf I had never seen before. The woman was breathtaking beautiful.
The woman was my mother.
"I'll do the job for the sailors," I said. "I'd make a side deal for this. What's your offer?"
to be continued later this week, as I ran out of time today . . .
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