the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

Again our heroes press the attack against the foul creature, but to add insult to injury it doesn’t even bother to fight back. Trajan manages to land a critical hit, but the result is a mere scratch. Once again it releases a cloud of spores which start to burrow into Anne-Marie, although all the previous spores are sloughing off Trajan, unable to find root because of the holiness Asura has embedded in his soul. Anne-Marie is not so fortunate, and still weak from the earlier poisoning by Henwen, she is starting to succumb.

“I think you are going to have to watch your little friend die” gloats Cuckoo. “I’m getting tired of this little dance though. Toodle-oo!” And with that, he vanishes, in a puff of sulphurous smoke, leaving smoking footprints.

Anne-Marie collapses on the ground, nearly covered by the horrible fungus tendrils sprouting all over her body. Trajan kneels beside her and thrusts his hands into the morass of tendrils. “Asura, by your name heal this woman! Remove this foul infection I beseech you!”.

The healing power of Asura flows though his arms and into Anne-Maries limp body, and the tendrils dry up and blow away. A glow continues to surround Trajan’s hands and Asura’s power brings Anne-Marie back from the edge of consciousness. The demon had just been toying with them and has now travelled to cause mischief elsewhere. Anne-Marie looks at Saithnars impotent frost rapier with a measure of disgust. “I thought YOU were supposed to be magic” she grumbles.

They move a little way deeper into the forest and camp for the night, to pray and prepare their assault on the village tomorrow.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Incidentally, I don't know what the author of this module was thinking of, putting a blooming vrock into the module! as a CR13 creature it would probably wipe out most 7th level parties. In retrospect an Erinyes would have been much more appropriate. The Vrock has 20/+2 damage resistance for starters!

I basically had to play up the idea that it was just toying with them and got bored, otherwise there would have been a stupid TPK and a lot annoyed players.

Mind you, having read through the next "adventure path" module, the Heart of Nightfang Spire, I can't see the current party surviving it, so there will have to be several other adventures before they could hope to tackle that and live.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Next morning, at first light, K’tan concentrates, extending his power over all his companions, and everyone becomes invisible. They creep towards the village, passing through the boundary stones. Trajan, Anne-Marie and Arilyn move down the left side of the buildings, but K’tan got his left and right muddled up and ends up (invisibly) separated from his companions on the right side of the main street. It is clear that they are expected, as there are two ranks of villagers in front of the tower, clutching scythes and pitchforks.

Anne-Marie, still under the compulsion from the suggestion imbedded the previous day, quietly sneaks up to the front rank of peasants - and then unleashes a deadly whirlwind attack, cutting down three of them quickly. More peasants run up to surround her as she becomes visible, and two more are felled by her deadly reflexes as they try to get behind her. Their peasant weapons swing wildly, but against Anne-Maries graceful speed and uncanny intuition they are helpless.

As the swordsmistress wades further into the crowd of peasants, she catches a sight out of the corner of her eye as Tully steps up to flank her - and lands two vicious blows with her keen bastard sword, cutting deep into her thigh and stabbing in at her kidneys. Anne-Marie makes one strike in return and then steps back away from the bodyguard - only to be caught in a cone of frigid air beaming down from the top of the tower! She throws herself to one side, twisting her body and evading the force of the icy blast which freezes the grass and a few of the peasant warriors.

“Dyson must be up there”, Arilyn mutters. “Trajan, the winds will carry you there”. She taps him lightly on the shoulder, releasing the spell prepared earlier that day, and Trajan feels the familiar feeling of weightlessness, and he glides quickly up to the top of the tower where Dyson must be - but can’t see anyone up there.

Hovering invisibly, he suddenly feels a tap on his side, followed by searing pain as vitality flows out of him and into… nothing? He swings at where his attacker should be, but does not connect with anything invisible. Suddenly he is struck again, and once more his health is draining away - in desperation he throws himself back off the rooftop, and over the parapet...

 

[Plane Sailing]

K’tan shouts with alarm as Tully runs towards him and attacks him viciously, thankfully K'tans savant training has given him the health to survive two of the blows. Tully’s attention is distracted as the wounded Trajan swoops down behind her and strikes a mighty critical hit upon her.

Staggered by the blow, Tully tumbles away from them and then just seems to vanish in the long morning shadows.

Anne-Marie starts to move towards where Tully was last scene, but a cloud of purple smoke announces the arrival of a fiendish dire gorilla. It’s long arms reach out as she tries to duck past it, and just snag on the back of her tunic. With a roar it reels her in and starts to rend and bite...

K’tan launches a concussion at the dire gorilla, and Trajan charges it, both determined to distract it from Anne-Marie - they succeed, but it is a badly bleeding form which is dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Meanwhile, Arilyn has a premonition, and casts her other fly spell, carried aloft by a swirl of winds and to better keep an eye on the top of the tower Dmnote: just in time - she had been spotted by Tully, who was making her way across to hurt her badly
On the tower top, Dyson makes a calculation. He doesn’t want to risk catching the wounded Tully in a fireball at the other wizard, so he launches his empowered fireball at Trajan and the fallen Anne-Marie. Trajan saves, but is still badly burnt. Anne-Marie didn’t stand a chance.

The door at the base of the tower suddenly opens and closes as the wounded Tully slips out of the shadows and into the security of the building.

The company calls a retreat; Arilyn and K’tan are virtually out of arcane power, Trajan is sorely wounded and Anne-Marie has been killed. They run for cover and out of the stone circle surrounding Ossington, regrouping in the woods outside.

What can they do next?

Unbeknownst to them, Dyson has also scarpered at this point, after the hidden Tully rejoined him. He is virtually out of spells, he knows that Henwen and Cuckoo are out of the equation and his plans here have been ruined. He gathers some of his most valuable possessions and then Dimension Doors with Tully out into the surrounding forest, the opposite way to the heroes. He will have to start a new plan for fiendish dominance, but at least he got away this time

Incidentally, Dyson was up on the top of the tower, improved invisible, hasted, with see invisible running. He used a 10th level wand of vampiric touch to attack Trajan with (touch attack, does 5d6 damage and heals him/gives him temporary hp for the same amount) and the two hits he scored nearly doubled his hit points.

It was a really tough fight, and I was sorry to see Anne-Marie fall


next: Closure.

 

[Schmoe]

It's always tough to see PC's fall. Ironic, really. We try our darndest to kill 'em off, then feel bad when they die. Ah, the bittersweet joys of DM'ing.

Good updates!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks for the compliment, Schmoe!

Fortunately Anne-Maries player was OK with the logic of the situation, and didn't feel "got at" in any way - always a worry for sensitive souls like myself

Good death scenes are hard to come by though, and being fireballed while in a stabilised condition isn't easy... but slightly better than being mobbed by peasants

 

[Plane Sailing]

Apologies for the tackiness in bumping my own storyhour, but I had to go back 20 days to find it!

Still, in the next exciting segment you will meet high elf lords, a returning villan with a grudge which leaves them puzzled, a nasty encounter with an Asuran inquisition police team and a [deleted] which proves to be [deleted]

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

Gathering together in the woods, and keeping an eye out for potential pursuers, the company are not surprised when there is a rustling of new leaves and a couple of figures step into view. They are as tall as men, lithe and graceful. Both carry bows, but arrows are not nocked. The female, with long reddish hair speaks.

“Men, you have done us a service beyond measure. Our Lady wishes to thank you herself”.

Then a golden aura is visible between the trees, and a woman clothed in white and glowing with unearthly beauty and presence gracefully steps into view. As she surveys them they see tears on her cheeks, and such is the personal magnetism radiating from her that each of them feels a similar pang in their own heart.

“Elves” gasps K’tan. “Nobody has seen Elves in hundreds of years!”

“It is true” says the Lady, with gentle regret in her voice. “We have not walked amongst men since the fall of Radeem. Our paths have taken us to different routes, different roots… We still seek the way home, even after these many long years. Do you know the way home?”

Trajan glances across at K’tan, slightly puzzled. “No, my Lady” he replies.

She continues, in a dreamy voice “If you should find the way home, be sure to come and find us. We have a deep, deep longing inside us…” her voice fades away, then returns strongly.

“Our gratitude is yours for removing this evil from the land, and laying the ghost of Caleddin, my Love to rest - if any deserved peace, he did. Please take my people and show them where you buried his body. I will look to your fallen comrade, the child who lies burned and scarred amongst you. Go now, and return in the morning.”

Somewhat hesitant, Trajan, Arilyn and K’tan back away from the Elven lady, and set off with the two “normal” elves (if any elves could be considered “normal”!). They lead them to the red horse hill, and show them the site where they had buried the ghostly horseman’s body. Surprisingly the low mound of earth is now covered in brilliant flowers amongst verdant grass. One in particular catches Trajan’s eye - a flower with seven sparkling petals. He motions to one of the Elves and asks “what is this flower? I don’t recognise it”.

“Ah,” replies the Elf. “That is the ‘Star of Remembrance’. A flower from our home, many, many years ago. It is said that they bloom whenever an Elf Lord falls, and Caleddin our Lord was great amongst us.”

“May I take one, as a remembrance?” asks Trajan. “Certainly” replies the Elf, so Trajan carefully plucks one of the flowers and stores it away.

The next morning they are led back to a clearing near the village. The Lady has departed, but sitting around a fire with three other beautiful elves is Anne-Marie. The burns from the fireball are mostly gone, although her hair is considerably shorter now, and will take many weeks to grow back to its old length. She seems in good spirits, although her memory of the last few days are very hazy and patchy.

The company rejoice that she is alive again, and thank the elves.
A bargain is struck - the company will repopulate the village with the people whom they rescued from the fiends tower, and the elves will protect them from woodland dangers for the next year and secretly help them to become established.

Dala and Lysander meet them at the edge of the village. The force cage which had been holding them dissolved during the night and they had been cautiously examining the carnage around the village. The good news is that there has been no sign of Dyson or Tully since the fight. The bad news is that shortly after imprisoning them, Dyson had boasted that he was already sending out pairs of villagers to start infiltrating human settlements in neighbouring kingdoms, and his plans would still succeed…

Trajan and the others travel back down to the edge of the woods and meet Sean the Borderlander and the villagers which he has been keeping an eye on. The villagers are informed of the situation and travel up to Ossington. Everyone helps in the clear-up job. Trajan finds a stonemason amongst the villagers, and takes him round to the standing stones. Pointing at the evil runes which had contributed to Dyson’s plans, he takes out the “Star of Remembrance”.

“I want you to obliterate the runes, and carve an image of this flower on each of the stones. Can you do that?”

The burly mason nods, and starts to work straightaway at his task.

Sean is keen to start tracking down escaped fiendish villagers, but before he goes Trajan and Anne-Marie ask him to help them with a local task.

They’ve got to clear out that wizards tower first.

 

[Plane Sailing]

-- interlude --

Lysander decides to leave them.

He has been doing some heart-searching as they have been moving South and helping out numerous villagers. He can’t help thinking about the refugee camp outside Knightsbridge. Many of the families there - his own kinsmen - barely survived the last winter. Their prospects don’t look great for this summer either, unless someone can help. And Lysander believes he can.

He remembers back a year ago (can it be only a year?) when he crossed the barrier range and as a younger and less experienced man helped defend a village against goblin barbarians... barbarians which had destroyed another, nearby village.

He is going to go back to Knightsbridge, and persuade the Baron to allow him to settle the refugees in the village which was destroyed by goblins last Summer. He will become the head man and spiritual leader of the village. It will be difficult to start a village from scratch, but he knows that despite the reputation Singharese have for softness, it is the softness of the wheat which springs back up again after the storm has passed.

And who knows what the final harvest might bring?

-- end interlude --

 

[Krellic]

Good stuff. It's nice to see this adventure, which looked like one of the weakest of the Adventure Path series actually working, and working quite well but you embellish wonderfully.

Dyson sounds like he'll make your players a good on-going villain, just what every RBDM needs!