NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7908194" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 8: OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE FIELDSPC Roster:Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 3             Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3             Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 3             Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 3             Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 3Game Session Date: 22 January 2020- - -The wagon was loaded up with trade goods - mostly exotic-looking silks - and the sunborn drow of Greenvale gave the group directions to the human kingdom of Kravyrn, recommending they camp at the crumbling tower then head east to get to the narrowest part of the river.  They even provided two hefty wooden boards, 5 feet wide and twice that long, to help the horse and wagon cross the river.  Kravyrn, they were told, was northeast from the point of the river crossing.The directions, it turned out, were spot on; the group had no difficulties in finding their way to the river, which had carved a deep gorge in the rock face of the ground, its waters a mere few inches from the top of the hardened stone on either side of it.  As the group of five slaves approached, Cramer driving the wagon and Marlo riding behind him among the trade goods, with the dwarves walking to the right and Jhasspok on the left flank, they could see the river varied from 5 to 10 feet wide; the makeshift bridge they carried with them would span the waterway just fine.  However, Jhasspok saw a fallen tree already crossing the span of the river, and while he knew the wagon couldn't cross over the log the lizardfolk felt it was worth checking out.  A pile of rocks stood just to the right of the makeshift bridge on the far side, just before a slight hill.  For a moment he saw some sort of canine muzzle peek from behind the rocks, but whatever it was it ducked back out of view and Jhasspok gave it no further thought; this crazy, topside world was filled with all sorts of unusual creatures but so far most of them (the singing, winged fish in the trees; the butterflies whose flight patterns seemed completely drunken; the ridiculous-looking "bunnies" with obnoxiously long ears and tails that looked like no tail Jhasspok had ever seen before) were completely harmless.Racing forward and stepping onto the impromptu bridge, Jhasspok looked over the edge into the clear water, judging it to be likely about 20 feet deep.  He saw his reflection in the water, but then it flinched and grew larger and belatedly Jhasspok realized it wasn't his reflection at all but another lizardfolk swimming in the river, surfacing to come check him out.This new lizardfolk reached the surface and allowed only his eyes to protrude out of the water, a stance Jhasspok himself had used often when fishing.  Then it raised its whole head out and began speaking softly and sibilantly in a language Jhasspok recognized as Draconic.Oddly enough, Jhasspok did not speak Draconic, despite it being the traditional language of his people.  But Jhasspok was not a traditional member of his race; his egg, laid on the surface world, had been taken during a surface raid by the drow and he hatched into slavery in the Underdark, where he was the only member of his race in all of the Overreach.  Like every member of his race, he came into the world with an instinctive understanding of the basics of the Draconic language but he'd never had this core knowledge nurtured and it had mostly dried up from disuse.  Ironically, Marlo spoke Draconic fluently, it being a popular language in which to discuss arcane matters; to Jhasspok, it was mostly gibberish, although he found he could occasionally pick up the likely meaning of a word here and there.  And he did pick up a specific name, given its similarity to his own: at one point, this other lizardfolk - the only other member of his own race he'd ever seen - had mentioned someone named Jhossepok, whoever he might be.The two lizardfolk stood transfixed, one staring down from an overturned tree at the other, mostly submerged in a river.  Neither saw the canine head peer over the pile of rocks again - but Khari did and recognized it at once for what it was.  "Gnoll!" he cried out.  "Ambush!"Cramer reacted by pulling back on the horse's reins to bring the wagon to a halt and casting a spiritual weapon spell which, the gnome being a cleric of Fharlanghn - God of Travelers - took on the shape of a quarterstaff.  It materialized just above the gnoll's head and swung down at the beast, who saw it out of the corner of his eye at the last possible moment and ducked in time to avoid being walloped.Utred, however, had headed over to the wagon upon seeing the river and fetched the planks of wood that would form the bridge over the swiftly-flowing river.  Intent upon his task, he hadn't noticed the gnoll, nor had he heard his fellow dwarf's warning.  Hefting the planks upon one burly shoulder, he continued his tuneless whistling and set about setting up the bridge for the horse and wagon to cross.Marlo leaped down from the wagon and rushed over behind Jhasspok.  She saw the other lizardfolk in the water, heard his sibilant speech, and translated what he was saying to Jhasspok.  "He says his name is Khassek, you look an awful lot like the great chief Jhossepok, and he invites you to dine with him and his gnoll buddies upon the soft-skins.  Hey!"  Belatedly, she realized she was one of the "soft-skins" being offered up as a meal!  But by then Khassek had pulled himself up onto the bank and stabbed at the small human sorcerer with his masterwork shortspear.  Marlo stepped aside just in time to avoid being pierced by the spear's tip.As one, the gnoll force showed themselves, some popping up from behind the pile of stones and others rising from their prone positions at the far side of the small hill just beyond.  Three carried bows and shot at Cramer (none hit), while one raced up to Jhasspok on the log to slash at him with his battleaxe.  Jhasspok wheeled to face the approaching enemy, ducking beneath the blade and slashing at the gnoll with his own masterwork short sword, likewise missing - but then clamping his reptilian jaws onto the hyena-man's arm.  The gnoll howled in pain.Khari had his warhammer out and ran up behind Khassek, flanking him with Marlo, who had likewise turned to face her attacker.  The dwarf got in a decent hit with the full force of his muscles behind the swing and Marlo let loose with a pair of magic missiles, which struck the lizardfolk unerringly in the chest.  He let out a hiss of pain.Cramer followed up his spiritual weapon spell - which struck once more at its original target and missed again - with a sound burst spell, centered in the cluster of gnolls and hitting all of them.  None looked particularly hurt by the sudden blast of noise, although one of the archers was momentarily stunned into immobility.The sounds of the combat unfolding all around him muffled by the roar of the rushing river and his own whistling, and the view blocked by the rough boards he hoisted on his shoulder, Utred carefully set himself to the task of placing the planks across the span of the river, thereby creating a bridge by which the horse-drawn wagon of trade goods could easily cross.  The fact he was also creating an easy way for the gnolls to reach their prey was completely lost on the dwarven barbarian.Khassek barked orders to the gnolls in their own language and advanced again on Marlo, this time biting her on the shoulder.  Hearing her cry of pain, Jhasspok whirled around from his position on the back of the tree-trunk bridge and stabbed his sword into the other reptile's side; Khassek might be a member of his own race but Marlo was a fellow slave and a friend.  Khari tried bopping the reptile with his hammer again but missed.Two more arrows went whizzing by Cramer's head, then one of the axe-wielding gnolls went racing across the bridge Utred had so nicely provided and swung at the dwarf with his battleaxe, only narrowly missing when the barbarian stood back up from his plank-placing and saw the danger fast approaching.  The gnoll facing Jhasspok jumped the river span, crossing with ease - but Jhasspok's sword cut him down in mid-leap and he fell, unconscious, into the river to be swept away and likely drown.Cramer leaped down from the wagon and ran over to Utred, who was just now realizing the entire group was in a pitched battle for their very lives.  The gnome cast a shield of faith spell on himself as he scampered over to the dwarven barbarian, who pulled his own greataxe from his back and hefted it in a familiar, two-handed grip.  Cramer knew well what came next: with a roar of anger, Utred brought the axe down upon the gnoll standing before him - the gnoll who suddenly found himself wishing he'd stayed on his side of the river.Marlo pulled herself free from Khassek's teeth and took a few steps backwards, giving herself enough room to cast another magic missile spell at the lizardfolk.  He was wearying mightily and feeling quite a bit of pain; nonetheless, he snapped at the human again and when Jhasspok's sword came swiping down at him again he fell to the ground and lay still.  Jhasspok thought that odd for a moment, for he could have sworn his blade had missed Khassek - as indeed it had - but he swung his attention back to the tree trunk bridge before him as another gnoll approached and he suddenly had other, more pressing things to worry about.  The gnoll swung his axe at Jhasspok, who deflected it off his turtle-shell shield, and then the lizardfolk stabbed the hairy beast-man in the gut with his sword.  The gnoll fell off the tree-trunk bridge and into the river, to be washed away downstream with Jhasspok's first victim.Seeing no enemies in the immediate vicinity - for he'd also assumed Jhasspok had brought down the other lizardfolk who'd been chewing on Marlo - Khari headed over to help Utred fight off his foe.  But Cramer got there first, slaying the gnoll with a well-placed strike of his mace.  Utred wasted no time, racing across his own bridge to charge the gnoll archers on the slight hill.Marlo pulled her arcane blade from her belt and held it at Khassek's throat, for she had seen perfectly well that Jhasspok's blade had missed the reptile's head despite the follow-on acting job to the contrary.  "Not...necessary," the lizardfolk hissed in Draconic.  "Toss aside your weapon!" Marlo commanded in the same language and Khassek complied at once, rolling his shortspear away out of immediate reach.Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok converged upon the remaining gnoll archers, catching up to Utred who was already bringing his greataxe to bear.  The gnolls didn't last long under their combined attacks.  Then, while Marlo kept Khassek covered, the others went to check out the gnoll campsite, which consisted of a pair of leather tents.  Inside they found considerable loot: two circlets and a chest of coins.  (Marlo would later, through the use of a detect magic spell, learn one of the circlets was magical in nature; subsequent experimentation would determine it to be a circlet of persuasion.)But then the questioning of their prisoner began.  As Khassek spoke only Draconic (besides a smattering of Gnoll he'd picked up) and Marlo was the only one of the slaves who spoke that language, she was the one doing the questioning (and translating for the benefit of the other slaves).  She learned the following: that Khassek had been a loyal warrior to the great chief Jhossepok, leader of the Lakewood tribe of lizardfolk.  Jhossepok's mate had laid two eggs, although one of them had been destroyed under suspicious circumstances.  Upon Jhossepok's death, the surviving son Jhesspak took over the tribe and eventually exiled Khassek.  He was astonished to find out Jhasspok shared the name of the chief's unhatched (and supposedly destroyed) son."Wait," Cramer interrupted at this point.  "If the egg was destroyed and never hatched, how do you know what the unborn lizardfolk's name would have been?"  At this, both Jhasspok and Khassek gave the gnome questioning glances.  "All in the tribe know the coming name of the hatchling inside each egg, upon its being laid," Khassek explained.  "Is it not the same with your people?"  Marlo explained it was not and then Jhasspok pointed out that upon being hatched, he instinctively knew not only the basics of the Draconic language but also his own name.  In fact, he had trouble believing anybody could be born not already knowing their own name."Do you understand what happened here?" Marlo prompted the lizardfolk slave.  "This Jhossepok lost an egg that would have hatched a lizardfolk named Jhasspok.  Your egg was taken by the drow and you hatched in the Underdark.""Yes," agreed Jhasspok, not understanding in the least.  "So there would have been another lizardfolk out there, somewhere, with the same name as me.""No, not another lizardfolk, Jhasspok," began Marlo.  "You are--""Never mind," interrupted Utred.  "We've wasted enough time on this.  Jhasspok: if we allow this Khassek to live, would you like him to take you to this tribe of lizardfolk so you could meet up with others of your kind?"Jhasspok's scaly brow-ridges crinkled in confusion.  "Why would I--?" he began, thinking, You are others of my kind: slaves.  To Jhasspok, he was a slave to the drow primarily and a lizardfolk as a distinct second."So, do we let this guy live?" Cramer asked, pointing to Khassek, confident the reptile wouldn't understand what he was saying.  "We could give him to Jhasspok as a personal servant or something.""What do you think, Jhasspok?" Marlo asked.  "Should we let him live?"  Jhasspok just shrugged.  Why not?  "And would you want him to travel with us?  With you?"  Jhasspok just shrugged again; it made little difference to him.  "What does he want?" he asked Marlo.  The sorcerer put the question to Khassek and was told he had no desire to travel with soft-skins but was perfectly happy with being given the gnolls to eat, their alliance having been one of mere convenience."Let's go," suggested Khari.  They took the horse and wagon over their makeshift bridge, Utred put the wooden planks back on board the wagon, and the group headed northeast, leaving a contented Khassek taking bites out of dead gnoll flesh.- - -After making camp for the night, the group set off again the next morning.  Around mid-morning the first village in the kingdom of Kravyrn became visible in the distance, but this was mostly because of the smoke rising ominously from several points.  "That's from more than even a bonfire," observed Utred.  "Burning buildings, likely.  Prob'ly raiders of some type."The dwarf's prediction was proven true some time thereafter when the five slaves and their horse-drawn wagon intersected the path of another wagon coming back from their successful raid.  This wagon, however, was not drawn by a horse or pony but a creature Utred called a worg, a horse-sized wolf.  On its back sat a goblin; riding on the wagon were three goblin archers; helping push the wagon were two more goblins; and by the side of the wagon strode two more goblins, the one in the back wearing an elaborate headdress of feathers and jingling beads on leather cords.Once again Cramer pulled back on his reins, bringing the horse to a halt - he didn't want their only mode of transportation hurt in any ensuing combat.  The little gnome leaped down from the wagon and scooped up a handful of pebbles from the ground, casting a magic stone spell upon them.  He then strode slowly toward the goblins, wanting to close the distance between them but wary in case any of them decided to charge.  He dropped the first stone into his sling as the goblin wagon likewise stopped moving, the green-skinned humanoids looking suspiciously at this new group of arrivals and weighing their likely combat capabilities.  The two goblins from the back of the wagon ran around the sides to check this new group out.Marlo cast a mage armor spell upon herself, adding slightly to the protection already afforded by the ironsilk armor she wore beneath her robes.  Khari and Utred both advanced, taking up defensive positions and ready to strike out at any goblins opting to advance.  But the first goblin to attack was the sorcerer in the headdress, sending a magic missile spell to hit each dwarf with one missile.  One of the goblin warriors thought he could take advantage of the spell's distraction to run up to Utred and cut him down but he was quickly disabused of that notion when the barbarian's greataxe pretty much cut him into two.  A second goblin warrior advanced more cautiously, while the one at the side of the wagon approached the worg, readying his blade to cut the lupine beast from the harness allowing it to pull the wagon of riches.  The worg's rider was bent over, cutting away at the harness with his own blade.All three archers suddenly stood and, having apparently precoordinated their attacks, shot an arrow at Utred.  The barbarian howled in pain but let the pain fuel his rage; he saw red and was ready for a violent counterattack.Jhasspok sped forward, leaping effortlessly over a bush as he charged the worg.  At the last moment, he sent his short sword swinging not at the worg or its rider but rather the warrior trying to cut it free.  The lizardfolk's blade cut a slit of blood across the goblin's midsection, but to its credit it did not fall - not yet, anyway.Cramer, following yesterday's tactics against the gnolls, cast a sound burst spell centered on the goblin formation, once again barely dealing any actual damage but this time stunning quite a few of them - including, as it turned out, the one spellcaster among them.Marlo rushed forward in the wagon and took up the reins abandoned by Cramer.  She then sent a magic missile spell streaking into the chest of the goblin chief, astride the worg.  It, too, seemed to do minimal damage - either that, or these goblins were tougher than the sorceress had been led to believe!Khari charged the worg, realizing once it got freed from the harness it would be a major foe, capable of dishing out quite a bit of punishment with its sharp teeth - the beasts were fast, too, with the intelligence and cunning of any battle-hardened dwarf.  His hammer hit the side of the beast's head, causing it to howl in pain before it bit the offending fighter in the arm.  Utred charged forward as well but he delivered his blow against the worg's rider, the chief of this raiding party.  The warrior off to the side was forced to stop his efforts to free the worg and he attacked Jhasspok, his blade cutting into the lizardfolk's scales.  And the three archers in the wagon repositioned themselves but were apparently intent upon bringing Utred down first, for he continued to be their sole target.  Two more arrows hit the barbarian but he hardly seemed to notice.Jhasspok slew the goblin warrior he'd been fighting and moved forward toward the spellcaster; he'd learned that enemies who could cast spells could cause a lot of trouble!  Cramer, still advancing cautiously, cast a spiritual weapon spell and caused the floating quarterstaff to stab down at the goblin chief's head.  Sadly, it missed; Cramer decided he should probably devote a bit of practice to that particular spell, as his current success rate, over two castings, was still 0%.Marlo cast another magic missile spell, this time at the worg since everyone else seemed to thinking bringing it down before it got loose was a top priority.  Khari swung at the beast with his warhammer again, clonking the worg upside the head while Utred's axe blade hit the goblin chief, causing him to roll with the blow from the worg's back onto the ground beside it.  But Utred wasn't finished; he allowed his greataxe to continue its swath of destruction by swinging it into an approaching goblin warrior, killing him in an instant.Another goblin stepped up to attack Utred, thinking to distract the dwarf while the goblin chief sprang back to his feet and attacked Utred from surprise.  Neither ploy worked; Utred avoided both blows with equal ease.  But the worg sank his fangs into Khari's arm again, preventing the dwarven fighter from bringing his hammer into play with his full range of motion and thus without his full power.More arrows were shot down from atop the wagon at Utred; he brushed them aside as if swatting flies.  Jhasspok's blade dropped the goblin sorcerer, then Cramer redirected the thus-far-ineffectual spiritual weapon to attack the worg while he rushed up beside Khari and healed him with one of his scrolls.  Khari managed to yank his arm free from the worg's mouth and brought his warhammer crashing down upon the beast's skull, finishing it off at last.  Then he trotted away from the wagon, taking a moment to regroup and rethink his attack strategies.Marlo decided to change her own tactics and hit the goblin chief with a ray of enfeeblement, draining some of the strength from the goblin raiders' leader.  He swayed under the effects of the spell and Utred brought his mighty greataxe down upon the chief, dropping him to his knees and then staggering him further with another blow as the goblin tried to regain his footing.  Utred saw the rage in the chief's eyes and thought he recognized the signs of a barbarian willing himself to greater feats of strength through the applied application of focused anger.  The dwarven barbarian was ready to take the life from his foe but Cramer stole the opportunity from him, striking the goblin chief in the forehead with his first magic stone, slaying him instantly.  It was Utred who roared in rage at the chief's death; he'd wanted to take the leader down!With an impressive leap, Jhasspok launched himself up onto the top of the wagon, scattering the goblin archers but stabbing one before he could get away.  The other two leaped off the wagon and sprinted away, seeing this battle as a lost cause.  These being the last goblin combatants on the field of battle, what followed was a comical chase as Jhasspok and Utred sprinted after them and Cramer once again stole a kill from the dwarven barbarian with another well-placed magic stone from his sling.  But the last goblin didn't get far before being brought down and then the group decided to check out the wagon full of stolen goods and see what, if anything, might be stripped from the goblins for their own use.A detect magic spell cast by Marlo revealed the goblin chief wore a magic ring, while the sorcerer - still breathing, as it turned out, but unconscious and bleeding heavily; Cramer applied the minimal amount of healing to seal up his wounds but still keep him out - had four magic scrolls and a flesh-bound tome sealed in a silver chain.  Cramer fetched some rope and bound the goblin sorcerer for later interrogation while Marlo cast a read magic spell and checked out the scrolls and tome.The scrolls contained the spells cure moderate wounds, protection from evil, cat's grace, and bless water, likely loot from the burning village.  The tome at first appeared to be blank, although a closer inspection revealed a series of raised bumps across the surface of the pages; some sort of secret writing, perhaps?  Of more obvious note was the cover of the book, which looked to have been burned by the chains, although Marlo had touched the chains in opening the book and they had caused her no harm at all.  More disturbingly, however, was the fact the burn scars on the flesh-bound tome seemed to be...healing themselves.<Astounding!> exclaimed a voice in Marlo's head and she nearly screamed; she'd forgotten the ring gate necklace she wore and the illithid tentacle protruding through it, which allowed the mind flayer N'zorthal to read her mind and see what all she was up to; while the sunborn drow of Greenvale had altered the slaves' tattoos to give false readings when the slaves were scried upon and this subterfuge carried over to feeding the mind flayer disinformation through its mental link with the Overreach slaves, N'zorthal had still been made aware of the tome's presence.  he declared.Marlo noted a loose page inside the book and flipped to that page to examine it: in notes scrawled along the pages borders in the Common script, she read a warning about Uboros, "the one who devours himself to become himself, who will one day end the world."Cramer slapped the bound goblin prisoner awake and began demanding answers about the book.  Globtak, for his part, was surprised to find himself still alive, although the eventual outcome of the battle hadn't really surprised him; it had been apparent early on the goblin forces were overpowered by these five humanoids.  He passed on everything he knew about the book, in broken Common."Found it in cave.  Spend many time try to read it - it frighten me.  Uboros will destroy world when reborn.  There three prophecies about how stop this from happen.  First: metal man from Hell imprison it forever.  Two: dark champions stand against worm.  If those fail, still one final hope, but it make no sense.  Not understand that part.""So what are we going to do with Globtak?" Cramer asked.  Gnomes had no love for goblins and the cleric had no issues with putting an end to the sorcerer's life right here and now.  But N'zorthal made their decision easy for them, by immediately opening the Writhing Gate by the goblin's side.  <Feed me!> demanded the mind flayer.  <Send me the goblin at once!>Khari pulled the bound goblin sorcerer to his feet and pushed him into the Writhing Gate, as glad as Cramer to see the end to another goblin.  Apparently the mind flayer wasted no time in devouring the goblin's brain, judging by the sounds of the screams emanating from the Writhing Gate - and the sensations of pleasure N'zorthal transmitted through the ring gate necklaces to the four slaves who wore them.  Marlo's face wrinkled in disgust.<Now, the tome!> demanded the illithid.  Marlo, holding the tome, thought for a moment about disobeying - she had wanted to try to decipher some of the book's secret writings for herself if she could - but she realized there was no way to disobey a direct order from the mind flayer tasked with overseeing their performance during this surface raiding mission (surely the modified tattoos couldn't mask a violation of that magnitude?), so she sadly pitched it into the Writhing Gate, which vanished almost immediately thereafter."Now what?" asked Jhasspok, having no idea what any of that had been about."Now we press on with our original mission," replied Utred.  "We put all of our goods into the stolen wagon, harness our horse onto it, and take everything back to the burning village.  We'll prob'ly make an even better impression on 'em by returning their goods what was stolen from 'em."It seemed as good a plan as any.- - -We had to skip last week's weekly session: Harry had picked up the flu from school and we'd pretty much already decided we'd only ever play a session of this campaign if all five players were able to attend.Man, did we ever roll poorly during this session!  I think pretty much everyone at the table (among the players, anyway - Logan rolled just fine) managed to strike for absolute minimum damage at least once.  And that was when we managed to hit in the first place.So, Jhasspok's prophecy has already come to pass: he had an unpleasant truth to face (he's the son of the former chief of a lizardfolk tribe which has been taken over by his brother) and had to make a decision of his own.  But that decision was super-easy: Jhasspok has no intrinsic feelings of belonging to a lizardfolk tribe; this was the first time in his entire five years of life he'd even seen another lizardfolk and it felt more creepy to him than anything else.  (It was just plain weird seeing someone so similar to himself - almost like a slightly-off doppelganger.)  I've also decided Jhasspok has no real clue he's the one born from Jhessepok's stolen egg, either.  (Nothing like a 6 Intelligence to keep you clueless!)  Logan informs me, however, that Jhasspok's prophecy hasn't been completely unfolded - apparently there's still a bit more to come.Logan also told us we're all only 510 xp from making it to 4th level, so almost undoubtedly we'll level up after the next adventure.  I can hardly wait: Jhasspok's going to be a lizardfolk 3/barbarian 1 and then we'll take it from there.  I intend to alternate between barbarian and ranger with some fighter levels thrown in as needed.</blockquote>

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