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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RatPunk" data-source="post: 416536" data-attributes="member: 1246">Chapter 4 - Ratik, Part 1At the beginning of this session we switched DMs as Hugh's player took over the game. I came in as Knuptar the Ranger and began keeping the official game journal. Another player joined the group at this time in the form of Pyro, a big hulking fighter. And now, without further ado:---From the Journal of Knuptar---So there I was, relaxing in some nameless tavern in Dyvers, when this fighter-type walked in and sat down next to me. The place was completely empty and he picked the stool next to mine. Terrific. So much for an afternoon of quiet reflection. After a couple of drinks, we started to chat. The guy’s name was Pyro. Where he was from or why he was there, I don’t know, but he seemed like an ok sort of guy. We traded war stories and the like and bought each other a couple of rounds. This had gone on for about an hour or so, when I declared that I was too drunk to even fire my bow straight. Pyro said I seemed sober enough to him. I told him he was full of crap! “I wouldn’t even be able to hit that dartboard across the room,” I said. To which he replied “Wanna bet?”Now, far be it for me to pass up an opportunity to make some easy money, so I said, “Yeah, I’ll bet you that I am too drunk to hit that dartboard”. He said, “You’re on.” So I notched an arrow to my bow and took aim. I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right! I hit the stinking dartboard dead center, right in the bull’s eye!About this time, a group of hardy looking adventurers made up almost entirely of short people (2 dwarves, an elf (with a wolf), a gnome and a halfling) walked in. They didn’t even make it to a table before the room started filling with mist and I began to get a bit dizzy. As the room started to disappear around us, I grabbed my mug of ale off the bar and finished it off. I had a feeling that I would need a good, stiff drink when whatever was happening finished happening…Turned out, I was right! When things got clear again, we were standing on a road in the middle of what appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be nowhere. By we, I mean me, Pyro and the short adventuring group. Anyway, in front of us stood a guy with a scroll in his hand. He looked quite confused at first, but then yelled, “Kill him!” and pointed behind us. Naturally, we all turned around. Standing behind us several yards away was another guy, who looked equally confused and just a tad scared. Even though the suggestion to kill this guy sounded intriguing, I personally didn’t feel like it at the moment. Unfortunately, some of my newfound comrades did. The gnome whipped out a crossbow and let fly with a bolt that nailed the guy right in the chest. Then the two dwarves started running towards him, waving their axes over their heads as they went. They looked none too comfortable wielding their axes in this manner. Pyro and I, however, decided that the first guy was a big dick, so I let loose with an arrow in his direction. I may not have been drunk enough to miss a dart board, but I was definitely drunk enough to miss this guy. The arrow whistling over his head shook him up a bit, though. He dropped the scroll and disappeared in a puff of smoke.I ran over to where he’d been standing and picked up the scroll. Other than some gibberish written across the top, it was completely blank. I checked around, but didn’t find any tracks, so I turned to see what was going on with the other guy. I’ll be damned if he wasn’t lying on the ground unconscious and bleeding, with everyone else standing around looking at him. Everyone except for the gnome. He was going through the guy’s stuff.Since the situation appeared to be under control, I went into the woods a little way to see if I could spot any sign of the disappearing guy. I did find a few tracks, but they led to a rather large tree. I climbed up a bit, and took a look around, but there was nothing to be seen, and the possibility of being ambushed entered my mind, so I climbed down and went back to the others.When I returned, they were all standing around looking confused. They weren’t sure why they had attacked the guy lying on the ground. It had just sounded like a good idea at the time. As it turned out, one of the dwarves (Ostler by name) was a cleric, so he healed the guy enough to bring him around. He sat up, but he was understandably more than a bit nervous about being surrounded by the very people who had just tried to kill him. Under considerable questioning, with more than a little skepticism and hostility, he told us his story. His name, he said, was Corian. The guy who wanted him dead was Vortigern. The whole ruckus was over an amulet that belonged to some wizard named Eralion. It turned out that several years ago, this Eralion discovered a method of becoming a lich by making a deal of some sort with Orcus. Recently, Corian had found a letter from Eralion that explained the whole deal and included the amulet, which was the key to Eralion’s secret crypt. Corian had learned that Eralion hadn’t been powerful enough to actually become a lich, so he was headed to Eralion’s place to check it out. Vortigern had somehow learned of this and was trying to kill Corian so he could take the amulet and get Eralion’s stuff for himself.Or something like that.This was all well and good, but was he telling the truth? With no way to tell for sure, we agreed to accompany him to the nearby village of Fairhill, which had been his destination anyway. The gnome, Jebeddo, refused to return any of Corian’s stuff to him until he had proven himself reliable. This sounded reasonable to everyone but Corian, but nobody cared what he thought at that point, so we packed up and headed for Fairhill. Corian did tell us that we were now in Ratik. Only a couple of thousand miles from where we had started.Well, it turned out that “nearby” village meant three days travel on foot. The end of the first day found us on the road, deep in the middle of the forest. It was decided that we should find a suitable campsite somewhere off the road, which we quickly did, and I rustled up some rabbits and the like for supper. The forest seemed to be plentiful with wildlife.Around the campfire, we sat and talked. Pyro and I filled the group in on who we were and they made introductions as well. They had gone to the tavern in Dyvers to wait on a friend, a paladin named Hugh. Now they had no idea how (or if) they were going to hook up with him again. Perhaps they could find some answers once we reached Fairhill.With supper out of the way it was time to set the watch schedule and get some sleep. Since I opted to take the last watch, I settled down in a nice warm spot near the fire and dropped quickly off to a light sleep.Sometime after midnight, I was awakened by a noise in the distance. I sat up and grabbed my swords, but waited to hear it again. I didn’t have to wait long. It sounded like a baby crying in the distance. Jeb, who had been on watch, had obviously heard it too. He noticed that I was awake and indicated that he was going to head off in the direction of the sound. I grabbed my bow and followed after him.We crept quietly through the foliage for a short distance until we saw the source of the noise. Ahead was a creature that looked something like a deer, but it had a badger-like head. I had heard tales of such creatures when I lived in the Vesve. It was a leucrotta. And it had spotted us.It charged. Jeb and I brought our bows to bear and started shooting. We wounded it, but not enough to dissuade it from its attack. I dropped my bow and drew my swords. The beast was much more agile than I had suspected and it had little trouble dodging many of our blows. But not all. We were slowly wearing it down.Then we noticed the second leucrotta. And it was bigger.Now we were in trouble. I had already thrown down my bow and Jeb’s shots wouldn’t be enough to slow the bigger creature down. It took a couple of steps toward us and made a noise. The smaller creature turned away from us and ran back to its parent. Jeb and I took a step back and lowered our weapons. The larger leucrotta looked at us menacingly for another second or two, then they both disappeared into the woods. Jeb and I sighed in relief and returned to camp.</blockquote>

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