Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Karma Kollapse" data-source="post: 7202221" data-attributes="member: 6693505">GMs Note: Vash's player finally managed to attend a session in Adventure #2! Also we got a new player for a few seesions who is playing Murdoch; unfortunately other commitments meant he couldn't stay with us for very long. Also, for the life of me I can never remember the correct spelling of his character's name, and nor can Richard, who I'm sure spells it different everytime.---Adventure #2 - The Dying Skyseer"Cloudwood Confusion"As Regan, Maisie, Tobal and Gideon extracted themselves from the old abbeys sewage system, Vash and Murdoch were settling down to a pleasant nights sleep.  The half-orc dandy Murdoch had been seconded to the team and had spent the day with Vash trying to track down the people that had provided the Maid with the invisibility potion she had used during the Danoran Embassy heist.  Charismatic for a half-Orc,  Murdoch always cut a dashing figure in tight waistcoat and flowery cuffs and was eager for results.   Suspicion of illegal potion supply fell on an boutique run by a pair of gnomes in Parity Lake.  It transpired that they had supplied said potion, but denied any wrong-doing, pleading that the relevant authorisation documents were presented when the potion was made and sold. Unfortunately any useful audit trail covering the transaction had become fully obscured in the bureaucratic nightmare of the Gnomes cluttered shop.  Exasperated, Murdoch promised to send 'others' to try and find evidence.  On return to RHC HQ he assembled a sizeable squad of the biggest, clumsiest and ham-fisted group of RHC constables he could find and despatched them to the Gnomes establishment.  It is likely that the level of clutter and chaos in the shop rose substantially after their visit.The other party members returned to RHC HQ with the Doctor and the documents he had been given by the Maid as she lay dying on the rails outside the Danoran Embassy.  After about four hours sleep they were called to a meeting with Chief Inspector Delft  where they with bleary eyes and a faint tang of old sewage hanging in the air, explained all that had befallen them over the last 48 hours.  Delft suggested that it may be worth their while to pay a visit to Nevard  Secombe, the dying Skyseer, who was on his sick bed at the top of a mountain in the Cloudwood.  Relishing the opportunity to get out of the city and into some decent woodland, maybe touching base with some other Druids in the process, Tobal confidently led the party into the forest and up the mountain. Their journey was interrupted by shouts and gunshots from ahead up the path to the mountaintop. Two individuals could be seen crouched behind a wagon, which was perched dangerously on a bend in the path, who were trading bullets and crossbow bolts with a group of assailants hidden in the trees around them.  Regan, in a deluded attempt to scare off the unseen bandits, ran shouting up the path firing both pistols randomly into the air.  Tobals eyes brightened at the opportunity to cast an Entangle spell without having to rely on the pot-plant he carried to make it function in grimy city streets of dust and stone.  He may have got a little carried away, for the resulting mass of writhing vines and creepers that swelled up to engulf the hidden bandits also blocked access to the wagon further up the path.  An attempt by Gideon to bludgeon his way through revealed his impotency in the face of Mother Nature unleashed. Regan attempted to scale a steep slope to gain the upper path and fell unceremoniously back in a tangle of limbs. Murdoch met a similar fate to Gideon as he tried to sneak around behind the bandits.   He no doubt considered how fortunate it was he had 'dressed-down' into clothes which did not have their general appearance significantly impacted on being scoured by sharp thorns and plastered in crushed leaf residue.Two things then occurred. First, both Tobal and Regan clearly heard a female scream from the wagon and the words 'What are you doing? We are trying to save her!!' shouted by one of the foliage blighted bandits.  Vash also recognised the two pistoliers sheltering by the wagon as hooligans in the employ of Lorcan Kell.  The pistolliers confirmed their unpleasantness by attempting to push the wagon, complete with screaming woman, off the edge of the cliff.   Maisie reacted quickly, using the Earth Sigil to create a block of stone under the wagon which frustrated the ruffians attempt to send it crashing to destruction below.   Vash used the Air Sigil to levitate himself neatly into the wagon, where he grabbed the now dumbstruck woman and hauled her to safety.Tobal, his glow of pride in the impressive entanglement he had created dulled slightly by the collateral damage it had inflicted, bounced on the back of Knuck up the path and collided with the pistolliers by the wagon in a feather bristling storm of retribution.   One of Kells men went down, the other, in line with Vashs' request to 'take prisoners' fell to the floor in a bloody heap minus his right leg.  It had been sheared off by a perfectly placed (or extremely lucky) Magic Missile bolt unleashed by Vash himself, who hadn't specified whether the prisoners were to be alive or dead when they were taken.   The hidden bandits emerged from the trees, picking an assortment of tangly plant life from their clothes,  and weapons were lowered by all those that remained standing.  Regan handcuffed the wrist of one of Kells unconscious men to the remaining leg of the other and threw them both in the wagon.   Maisie and Regan, after writing a brief note explaining the consequences of messing with the RHC which they put in the jacket pocket of one of their victims, set about attempting to push the wagon off the cliff with the two barely breathing pistolliers heaped inside it. Vash stopped them, pointing out that their actions were both 'Not very RHC' and threatened to enrage Lorcan Kell and trigger an explosion of gangland vengeance in Parity Lake.   The deadlock in this particular debate was eventually broken by Knuck, who stepped forward and with a firm beak thrust pushed the wagon over the cliff.  Regan attempted for the first time ever  to pat Knuck on the head, but got an unfriendly snarl in response from the Axe Beak.  Tobal smiled at everyone, shrugged and raised his hands palm upwards in a gesture of resignation.  There was not much point trying to argue, reason with or castigate a five foot high carnivorous bird with a beak capable of breaking open coconuts with a gentle tap and the mentality of a five foot high carnivorous bird.The party continued, escorted by the Bandits to ward off any further trouble, to the mountain top. They found Nevard Secombe there, looking pale and ill in bed and attended by a number of Druids.It transpired that the enfeebled Skyseer needed to bolster his life force to enable him to get a clear vision of what the future held for Risur.  This necessarily involved the use of some fairly dark magic and the blood of a child, though Regan was sure they said the blood of a chicken. This plan was objected to in principle by Gideon and Vash.  The others decided to duck any personal morality issues for 'the greater good' and agreed to take part in the ritual if it meant they could learn something useful….. even if a few innocent chickens had to die in the process.The only thing that remained was to get permission to go up Cauldron hill,  a place it seemed only frequented by those of a decidedly demonic nature or mad, sociopathic Witches.   Why anyone would deny access to Cauldron Hill was a bit of a mystery, unless it was officially considered a suicide attempt in which case a certain archaic piece of legislation stood in its way.   Regardless the Mayor of the District was duly consulted and the party, with Skyseer in tow,  were warned of the dangers they faced. The stakes were raised for those that had agreed to the Dark Magic ritual, as it seemed they would need all their strength to confront the unpleasantness ahead.While the rest of the party considered and debated the life, soul and potentially world threatening issues they were confronted with, Tobal went off to talk to a horse.It belonged to an annoying Courier, who had taken it upon himself to smugly brief the party on what was likely to happen to them.  Nobody knew who he was or why he felt the need to interfere, but only Tobal was wound-up to the extent that he felt some action was necessary.  His effort  to communicate (as Druids do) with the beast in an attempt to get him to ensure his rider met some sort of unfortunate accident, was a failure. When he asked the horse to fake a stumble and throw its rider, the horse only answered  'Neigh'.With Tobals Druidic Animal Friendship credentials in tatters and a fair bit of inter-personal disgruntlement shrouding them,  the troubled party set off for a date with destiny on Cauldron Hill.</blockquote>

Verification