Of Sound Mind the Halfling Way

[the Jester]

The Materialistic Monk

7/26/369 O.L.G., 11:30 a.m., skirting the edge of Sriti’s Jungle

When our heroes first meet Brickneck Hot-Metal, he is towing a wagon load of crap behind him. Among other things, firewood, torches, rope, a great length of chain, a spyglass- pretty much everything but a kitchen sink is in there. Watching the dwarf struggle towards them through the high grass, our heroes stop, amused. When he gets within hailing distance he greets them, and one of those conversations begins. You know the ones I mean- the ones that introduce new pcs.

“Hello, fellow travelers!” cries the dwarf. He makes a strange, low humming noise very loudly. “NNNNH! I am Brickneck, Brickneck Hot-Metal. May I offer you a drink from one of my ale casks?”

“You travel heavily, friend,” comments Federico wryly. “We will help lighten your load by drinking your ale.”

“Perhaps it’s time we cooked a proper meal,” suggests Naomi. “It’s nearly lunchtime.”

“Why thank you, friends!” the dwarf cries. “NNNNH!”

Somehow the luncheon turns into traveling together, and Brickneck joins our heroes.

***

Consult a map of Dyshim.

Dhali’s Fists, a range of mountains, bisect the isle along its north-south axis. To the west there are thick jungles over much of the isle, but several towns in coastal or plains areas. South of Sritivara- and thus, on the way if the party skirts around the southern edge of Sriti’s Jungle- is the town of Dovishtal, and near it is Fort Kintax, wherefrom the Strogassian forces had reigned with terror as their weapon. Ezeekiel fears that there might be political prisoners still trapped there, waiting to be freed.

Thus, Dovishtal and Fort Kintax are our heroes’ next stop.

***

7/30/369 O.L.G., Noon, Dovishtal

The sun is bright and hot when our heroes reach the small town of Dovishtal. It is almost exclusively human, with nearly all of the buildings fashioned of mud plastered into primitive-looking huts. It sits in the shadows of Dhali’s Fists. It is a dour, unfriendly place.

Upon entering Dovishtal, our heroes are interviewed by Mringling, the village’s head guard. He wants to know who they are, where they’re going, what they’re doing, etc. Cooperative visitors are allowed in to Dovishtal although they are charged 1 sp to enter. Leaving also costs a silver piece, or 2 sp for a citizen of the town. Lodging for visitors is available from the single stone hostel in the town square; a room (it turns out) costs 5 sp/night, and the food (poor) is another 3 sp/meal. Cheap, strong beer is the upside of the hostel’s hospitality: a mug costs only 1 cp, and the proprietor, Grimglad, offers ‘all-you-can-drink for an hour’ specials for 1 sp (or 1 gp for a dwarf).

Grimglad is a dwarf, and when Brickneck catches sight of him he works his way through the drinkers to speak to him, and it turns out that they are cousins. They have a long involved conversation in dwarven about some kind of forge or something, none of our heroes really catch the entire thing. Then there is a bit of animated arguing. When Brickneck returns to the party’s table, he looks a little miffed. After some cajoling, our heroes manage to get the dwarf to open up a little. It turns out that he and Grimglad are the last Hot-Metals (to the best of his knowledge). Their ancestral forge is lost, and if it could be found again it could lead to great wealth, honor and glory. And Grimglad has found it- but it was dangerous, killing his other companions at the time.

”Until the clan has an heir,” Brickneck grumbles, “he won’t tell me where it is. He says one of us needs to married first before either of us go some place like that.”

“Jawbreaker was married once,” comments Beau.

“Well, I don’t want to be,” snaps Brickneck.

***

Rain settles in, warm and windy, making traveling impractical; so our heroes merely wait it out at the inn. Brickneck has a little trouble finding somewhere to park his wagon, attempting to find a free ride and being rebuffed at every turn by his cousin. Finally Beau gets fed up, lights it on fire with a scorching ray and hands over enough coin to recompense Brickneck. He can’t save much, but the dwarf manages to pull his long, heavy chain out, and he makes arrangements for storing it with Grimglad, who once again rebuffs all attempts at getting a freebie. (“Store yer chain for you? Sure, let’s call it 1 sp/day with a 10 gp deposit. Cousin.”)

Then it’s to Fort Kintax, where our heroes meet a nicer group of dwarves, rather than the Imperial Strogassian troops they had expected. “We moved in here and took over,” the leader of the dwarves states, “but they were already gone. They hadn’t had any reinforcements in nine, ten months probably; they could see which way the wind was blowing.”

The dwarven leader is named Derknin, and when Ezeekiel asks him about potential political prisoners he makes a face.

“We think they left a lot of the prisoners locked up to starve when they left. They weren’t... very humane.” He sighs. “You may find political prisoners down there, but I don’t know that any of them would be alive.”

Next Time:Our heroes enter the prison at Ft. Kintax!

 

[the Jester]

Into the Dungeons of Fort Kintax

8/6/369 O.L.G., 11 a.m., Fort Kintax

Derknan, leader of the dwarves now in control of Fort Kintax, offers our heroes 400 gp each to remove the stinking corpses in the dungeons below the fort. Since our heroes want to see if there are any surviving political prisoners, they agree readily enough to the task. But when they open the doors to the dungeon they are greeted with such a ripe stench of decay that their stomachs pucker. Wrapping cloth over their faces, our heroes enter and find a rat-infested, horrible place. Our heroes descend the stairs, a narrow set of rickety steps that drops almost 100’ before ending in a chamber. The room holds a desk, which turns out to have been the overseer’s. He is long gone, but his desk is full of papers detailing the prisoners (most held for insurrection-related crimes; most were elves and dwarves; there was even a powerful elven druid held prisoner). A search of the desk turns up a key buried in all the papers.

Fortunately, this key opens the door to the cell block. The stench is horrifying, and thousands of fat, filthy rats with no fear of halflings at all glare at them and them move forward in a huge swarm. Worse yet, as the combat breaks out, a voice cries out from within one of the cells. “Please! Help me!”

Just as our heroes fend off the rats, dispersing the last of the swarms, something else emerges from one of the cells. It looks horrific- skeletal, subtly inhuman in nature, with great shackles floating in the air around it. It laughs harshly at Hortense’s startled face when her attempt to turn it fails. Beau’s disrupt undead is ineffective as well. Then the creature claws Zeke, and one of its shackles latches on to him!

Jawbreaker roars. “FOR DOGTOOTH!!” he cries, and lands an incredible blow to the monster’s sternum, shattering it and killing the thing.*

Carefully our heroes extract Ezeekiel’s arm from the shackle. “I am not cool with that!” the freedom fighter says. “He was trying to oppress me!”

Now that the immediate danger is over, our heroes move to the cell with the voice in it. They peer inside and see a dirty little dwarven woman. “Please, let me out!” she begs.

”How are you still alive down here?” exclaims Federico.

“I kept some of the food they gave me aside in case they ever stopped giving me food,” she replies. “But still, I’m starving! Oh please, won’t you let me free? Something terrible has happened- everyone else is dead!”

“Why were you in there?”

”They- the soldiers imprisoned me.” She sounds somewhat offended. “I don’t even know exactly why- just that I don’t agree with Bleak.”

“We’ll free you,” Ezeekiel calls out.

In moments they have done so, and she hurries away towards the dwarves above.

***

8/9/369 O.L.G., 1 p.m.

After hauling the corpses from the cell block out of the dungeon and away from the fort, our heroes proceed back down into the stinking dungeon. They have not fully explored it, but they have seen no other signs of living prisoners.

In fact, the next chamber they investigate is a grisly scene. Obviously a torture chamber, the room was doubtless host to unspeakable torments inflicted upon the innocent and guilty alike. Several items of various degrees of inhumanity are in here, including a rack, pincers, a brazier of coals (presently cold), several tables, a wheel, shackles and a variety of cutting instruments. A number of corpses in here attest to the cruelty of the Strogassians, including a gruesomely rotten corpse on one of the tables that has been almost completely flayed. It appears as though all of the victims had been tortured, but several were still alive and were simply left to starve when the Strogassians left. A tray in a corner of the room has a golden tooth, a ring, and a jeweled pin upon it.

Beau moves to pick up the tooth, ring and pin even as Hortense starts closing the staring eyes of the corpses. And suddenly, gruesomely, the skin from the flayed may, which is laid out on a table nearby, flutters to life! Our heroes cry out in dismay, and then gasp in horror as the spilled blood in the gutters beneath some of the instruments swirls up into a cloud of blood motes! Worse yet, a ghostly, spectral figure seems to sprout from the corpse, leaping up and fairly crackling wth negative energy; and the very shadow of the body wrenches free and moves to attack as well.

Next Time: Trouble in the torture chamber!

*This was a crit. That’s right; this particular monster’s not undead. (It was a shackledeath from the CC2.)

 

[the Jester]

The first sign that things are bad comes when Brickneck fumbles and breaks the keg of ale he carts around on his back. Foamy liquid immediately starts spraying out, much to his dismay, soaking him in ale and beginning the formation of a slick of beer on the floor of the torture chamber. There’s a moment of general confusion as the combatants shake themselves out, get their weapons ready and move into position; then, with a magic missile from Beau, things get serious.

Jawbreaker swings his magic sword at the husk of skin that dangles in the air in front of him. He hits it, slashing a great gash in it, and a palpable malevolence oozes from it. He grunts as it lashes down, attempting to wrap itself around him and sucking at his skin! He hacks viciously at it again, slicing it in two, and it collapses inertly on the floor.

Ezeekiel, meanwhile, attempts to turn the undead, to no effect, and then is immediately beset by the shadow. He desperately swings and stabs his sword at the monster, hurting it, but its merest touch weakens and drains him. Finally, Zeke channels again and this time he turns it; the shadow flees.

The cloud of blood swirls onto Naomi, sucking her blood out through her skin! She cries out in terrible pain, then staggers as the ghost-like figure slashes a claw across her head, tearing one of her ears off!* She tumbles away, trying to avoid having her soul claimed by these unfortunate undead, and shakes her head to clear it. She nearly lost it entirely! The side of her head throbs redly, and there is a small ocean of blood soaking her shirt and cloak.

While Jawbreaker and Ezeekiel rush in to strike at the blood cloud, Beau keeps blasting it with scorching rays. Brickneck finally manages to stop staggering around and get a good blow or two in on the bad guys, and in another few seconds the battle is done. Our heroes are wounded, drained and weakened; there is no question but that it is time to rest. They exit the dungeon and most of them rest in the fort above. While their companions are doing so, however, Hortense, with the aid of Sandy and Federico, consecrates the torture chamber in an attempt to lay to rest the restless spirits of its victims.

***

8/11/369 O.L.G., Noon, the torture chamber

Within one of the iron maidens is a secret door. Warily, our heroes follow the narrow passage beyond it, and before long, it joins a natural cave that extends farther than they can see. The group descends for nearly an hour before the cave opens wide before them. The sound of water dripping from the ceiling and falling into some kind of pool is audible from the back part of the cave, beyond their ability to see. Suddenly a spotlight, blindingly bright, shoots out of the darkness at our heroes. Then another, and another... and half the party can’t see!

“Ahhh! Jawbreaker blind again!” the Chief cries.

Little feet pitter forward, and suddenly more than half a dozen monsters are upon the party, biting and trying to overcome them. Beams of intense light still come from some of the monsters’ eyes. Whatever the bizarre little things are, they seem quite dangerous!

Dangerous, but with a metaphorical glass jaw; for most of them cannot withstand more than one or two blows from Jawbreaker or Ezeekiel. Soon the menace is ended, and though several of our heroes have their vision dazzled for a few moments, it passes quickly.

Our heroes continue their descent. “I wonder if this was just an escape passage for the Strogassians, or what?” Zeke muses. Hortense stares at him adoringly. “Maybe there are more prisoners down here somewhere,” he continues obliviously.

“If there are, we should rescue them,” Federico remarks. The group murmurs assent.

They march for several more hours before a rasping sound greets them from further down the passage. They recognize the sound from a previous encounter beneath the pit of the healing springs: it’s a giant slug! Quickly, the party readies themselves, and despite a short cliff that presents a little logistical problem they manage to engage and destroy it; and then it’s dire escargot for dinner, as Federico says.

Next Time: Watch out for what might be construed as politically incorrect, insensitive npcs in the Underdark!

*Again, I don’t recall which, but I do recall that it is on the same side as her missing eye. It isn’t pretty, folk!

 

[the Jester]

Deeper into the Underdark

Deeper into the Underdark our heroes go, until they start to hear a loud CRACK! ahead in the distance. Irregular, not always exactly the same, but coming over and over again nonetheless; and as our heroes move cautiously forward, they begin to discern that it is the sound of rock impacting upon rock. Very nervously, our heroes move forward yet further, closing on the sounds. As the distance narrows, Federico offers to creep ahead and take a quick look; and when he returns he reports that it is a giant making the noise by hurling rocks at one another! It seems an aimless game, yet our heroes are reluctant to take it at face value. So they move forward with all due caution.

The giant is male, hairless, unarmed (as near as our heroes can tell). His skin is slate-grey, and he is much, much bigger then even the tallest human. As our heroes come close enough to get a good look at him, they are surprised to find that he is weeping, with his head in his hands.

”Hey, don’t cry!” exclaims Federico. “Here, Mr. Giant, look at me!” And the kobold begins japing and jawing, making goofy faces, juggling stones and going into slapstick antics. The giant looks up, drooling a little, and after just a moment he seems to forget his cares, laughing uproariously and slapping his knees.

Soon communication is established between the giant and our heroes, though it is all translated through Naomi and Achtung and their knowledge of Undercommon; no one in the party speaks his native tongue, Giant, and he rapidly demonstrates that he’s not exactly the brightest. With the kind of sensitivity he typically shows, Sandy finally asks Hortense, “Hey, is this guy a ‘tard?”

She huffs, a little offended. “Well, he does seem a little slow...”

Indeed, when asked what he’s doing and where he lives, the giant (who reveals that his name is Granite) gets confused, eventually leading our heroes to believe that he is lost, he’s not supposed to be out alone, and his people live in a hidden cave. Our heroes, largely of good heart, talk it over and decide to help him find his way home. “Maybe his parents will reward us,” suggests Federico.

Beau scoffs. “Or maybe they’ll try to eat us, or kill us to prevent us from telling anyone where their hidden lair is.”

Granite is indeed mentally retarded, and he gets frustrated easily. Unfortunately, being a stone giant, when he gets angry he has the potential to collapse most of the tunnels our heroes are in. They therefore take care to ensure that he doesn’t get worked up, with Federico more than anyone else keeping Granite occupied and amused.

At one point, as they search for the stone giant lair, a terrible thought occurs to Naomi. What if the giants turned him loose because he was unfit or something? she wonders. What if they don’t want him back? The thought that returning with Granite might anger his tribe haunts her until they reach the giants.

When they reach the secret stone giant cave, Hiddenstone, puzzling out their path from what they can elicit from Granite, our heroes are worried at what reaction they will receive; but they are treated with grace and courtesy, and Granite’s parents are relieved to have him back. The giants feed our heroes a curious meal of fungi and deep dwelling creatures, and in the morning the party resumes their descent (the trip to Hiddenstone had reversed several hours of their progress).

A strange ball of fungus, easily 10’ is diameter, assails the party as they travel. It is dangerous, squirting out a cloud of spores that infest our heroes, leaving them sickened and blinded; but the party prevails, with Federico finally popping it with his wand of magic missiles. After the fungus-ball is defeated, our heroes hole up for a few days to recuperate, as several of them were badly infested by the spores.

“The Underdark is dangerous,” commendts Hortense at one point.

Beau responds, “Not as dangerous as the jungle. It killed Timothy!” Our heroes have a moment of silence for poor dead Timothy.

***

8/14/369 O.L.G., 4 p.m., Dyshim’s Underdark

A 1000-yard long, kidney-shaped cave with a clean water source (a hot spring, in fact) serves as the home to a thriving trade community. Signs posted in Undercommon at all three entrances to the place spell out the rules: all weapons to be peace bonded, all casters’ fingers to be bound likewise. No combat is permitted within the confines of the trading post cavern. Our heroes peace bond themselves and move into the trading post, which seems to have five buildings set up: a mapmaker, an armorer, a jeweler, a general store and an alchemist. A number of different, unsettling shoppers are wandering through the community.

The first thing Martini does is invest in a good map. It indicates a good number of interesting-looking sites, including kuo-toa, troglodytes, an undead city...

“Hey, look!” he exclaims, spying something very interesting indeed. “C’mere, guys, check this out!”

The others hustle over and look at where Martini’s finger is pointing.

Deep Halflings

“Oh my,” murmurs Naomi.

The party has to make their own camp; there are no accomodations set up for visitors. After buying and selling a variety of items from the various merchants of the trading post, our heroes talk about what to do next.

“We should go get paid first,” suggests Federico. “I mean, we’ve done what we said we would for the dwarves. Now we should get paid!”

“That’s a good idea, but I would like to check out these deep halflings,” says Sandy.

“Me too,” agrees most of the party.

“Get paid first.” Chief Jawbreaker nods.

“So let’s rest a night here first,” whines Federico. “One of the guys over there has the best rotting fish treats!”


Next Time: On their way out our heroes encounter a band of trouble!

 

[threshel]

Deep Halflings. Intriguing.
Still great stuff, Jester.

J

 

[the Jester]

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I'm working hard to catch up with the actual game- I am currently roughly 13 games behind in terms of catching up to the present game, 7.5 of which are halfling games, so expect a lot more updates in the near future! If you're interested, you can see my progress here, where I have the master list of story hour progress and the entire campaign. Unfortunately I no longer have notes from previous campaigns, which are actually all connected to the present-day Cydra in the greater sense.

 

[omrob]

Whee the Underdark

Federico had a great time during these games, being underground and out of the sun...

Deciding to wander around in the Underdark, and only really only going back and forth to the Trading Post...(small spoiler)

IIRC he used his Wand of Tounges to communicate with Granite...After finding the secret door, we all promised Granite that we wouldn't tell anyone we found him... and so cautiously waited at the door for someone to come.

We could only communicate with the Giants through magic, so it wasn't to enlightening or fruitful of a time, however...Federico did some great improv theater that got him a life size statue in the plaza of the Giants home...much to his glee.

He left one of his hats on it...

 

[Sandain]

Woohoo! I finally got to the end. Do you have any maps of Cydra Jester?

 

[the Jester]

Woohoo! I finally got to the end. Do you have any maps of Cydra Jester?

Yes, but not in any kind of electronic format. I've been meaning to scan some for quite a while now. When I do I'll prolly attach it in the live story hour threads.

 

[Sandain]

Awesome, it would make it alot easier to steal ideas and locations for my game if I had a map.


*thinks* Thankyou Jester a map would be great.


Doh.